When you’re traveling, it can be a pain to figure out how to get to the airport. You can take an expensive taxi or ride share, or you can pay an exorbitant amount for parking at the airport. Fortunately, The Parking Spot has a solution for regular airport parkers: The Spot Club. With this exclusive club (4.2/5 stars on Trustpilot), you can get discounts and deals on long-term parking at any of The Parking Spot’s 46 locations at 28 airports nationwide. When you sign up through this deal, you can get two days of parking at any location for just $9.99. All you have to do is select your airport to get started. Then pick your dates, your preferred parking type, and any additional car care services, and reserve your spot. You can use the app to scan in and check out without speaking to anyone, and get a ride to the terminal with The Parking Spot’s shuttle. The more you park, the more points you’ll earn towards free parking. Simplify airport parking. Right now, when you join The Spot Club, you can get two days of parking for 68% off $32 at just $9.99.   Join the Spot Club & Get 2 Days of Parking at The Parking Spot for Just $9.99! – $9.99 See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Cars

I’ll admit it — I was turned off by the new Arc browser from the beginning. For one, there’s the maker’s name: The Browser Company of New York. Are we meant to imagine the browser being crafted in a converted blacksmith’s forge in Brooklyn, offering farm-to-table HTML? And it was designed for the Mac. Then there was my attempt to try out the beta several weeks ago — the browser hung while I tried to make an account, and wouldn’t let me through. A support request went unacknowledged. That’s not really fair, though. So when *sigh* The Browser Company of New York announced that its free Arc browser was finally ready for Windows users to try alongside Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and others, I gave it a try. And you know what? It’s actually okay. The problem I face, however, is that the Arc browser wants you to learn its ways. I don’t mind quirks, but I’ve never liked a “you just don’t get it” attitude. And there’s definitely a bit of that throughout Arc. Full disclosure: I’ve never spoken to The Browser Co., and I was never offered a walkthrough or a press briefing. That’s fine, as it puts me in the shoes of an average user. From the get-go, the experience is familiar: You’re asked to download a small installer, which downloads a more complete package. Unfortunately, Arc is one of the new breed of browsers that requires a username and password, full stop. There’s no anonymous option, at least where Arc is concerned. To use it you’ll need to provide an email address, plus a username and password. For mobile, Arc is limited to iOS support — not even a true mobile browser, but rather an odd sort of sidebar. Android users are out of luck, for now. Arc imports your bookmarks from other browsers, though it can take a bit. Arc imports your bookmarks from other browsers, though it can take a bit.Mark Hachman / IDG Arc imports your bookmarks from other browsers, though it can take a bit.Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG As you might expect, you’re offered the option to import bookmarks and passwords from another browser; I was only able to select one browser at a time, however. (I have a dedicated version for work, and one tied to my personal account, and I had to select one.) You can import from other browsers later, via the Settings menu. And then there’s this thing: a weird badge. Is this some sort of speakeasy gimmick? I have absolutely no idea what this thing is supposed to do. I have absolutely no idea what this thing is supposed to do.Mark Hachman / IDG I have absolutely no idea what this thing is supposed to do.Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG Once you’ve opened Arc, though, you’re faced with something unusual: a blank page. Whiteness. I’m used to browsers pushing content or suggested web pages at me when I open a new tab, so this white void was…peaceful? Zen? Evidence that TBCoNY hasn’t quite polished Arc to completion? Possibly. The other major change that Arc offers is the elimination of the search bar, or “omnibar,” at the top of the page. If you’re on a web page like pcworld.com, you’ll see “pcworld.com” at the top of the page — and that’s all. The UI is extremely minimal: forward and back buttons, a way to copy the link (?), a “control center” describing the site’s basic attributes, and a “split screen” icon at the upper right that opens two side-by-side windows. That’s it. Note the absence of a traditional URL bar in the Arc browser. When you want to visit another website, you enter the URL into this floating window. Note the absence of a traditional URL bar in the Arc browser. When you want to visit another website, you enter the URL into this floating window.Mark Hachman / IDG Note the absence of a traditional URL bar in the Arc browser. When you want to visit another website, you enter the URL into this floating window.Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG My instinctive reaction was to mouse toward the address bar, much like you might grab for a handrail if you’ve stumbled down the stairs. But there isn’t one –and there’s no row of tabs, either. Arc places the tabs in a vertical column to the left, usually an option on other browsers. It’s just a little jarring when Arc makes this choice the default. If you do want to open another website, you’ll need to click on the site address at the top of the screen. That opens what Arc calls the “Command Bar,” which is a floating URL window with a list of recent sites. It works just like the search/URL bar you’re used to — but there’s nothing really pointing you to it, either. Even the menu option to get there is obtuse: You have to open the Settings menu by clicking the tiny “A” in the upper left-hand corner, then navigate through Tabs > Open Command Bar to find it. And bookmarks? For one thing, Arc collects everything into what it calls “Spaces,” a collection of bookmarks and tabs that you can organize into their own groups. Again, I’ve seen this in other browsers. But everything is in the same column: your bookmarks and the open tabs. Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and other browsers generally provide a row or three: one for your bookmarks, one for the current tabs, and one for the URL bar itself. Arc simply provides a seemingly endless column of information. Arc may think that its way is…better, but I’m not a fan of letting aesthetics get in the way of functionality. Managing tabs and bookmarks in the Arc browser means a lot of expanding and collapsing folders in the left-hand nav bar. Managing tabs and bookmarks in the Arc browser means a lot of expanding and collapsing folders in the left-hand nav bar.Mark Hachman / IDG Managing tabs and bookmarks in the Arc browser means a lot of expanding and collapsing folders in the left-hand nav bar.Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG But how does Arc perform? Rather well. The browser opened a PDF and imported and inserted my passwords into a few random sites I tried. (It doesn’t yet support passkeys, however.) And when you prompt it to open a web page, boom! It just does. Arc’s a little different than most browsers, as it uses a version of Swift, rather than Chromium, to render a page. But it’s hard to call Swift, or Arc, a superior browser without running benchmarks — which I haven’t done. The one thing that I suspect makes an enormous difference is that Arc seems to natively integrate uBlock Origin — an excellent ad blocker that, when enabled, gives you a web page’s content and very little else. Arc therefore renders pages in just a split second — but so does Edge or Chrome if you add uBlock Origin to it, too. Is it efficient? According to Task Manager, an even 100 tabs (sorry) open in Microsoft Edge consumed 2.3GB. Twenty-two tabs in Vivaldi consumed 474MB, and 13 tabs in Arc consumed 391MB. But wait — I only had three tabs open in Arc! I’m not sure what Arc (or Windows) was trying to do here. Arc also lacks sophisticated AI features that other browsers have begun to implement, such as ChatGPT integration in browsers like Brave, or the new image-generation feature Opera added this week. Whether TBCoNY considers AI essential or just another bit of cruft to prune remains to be seen. There are still some graphical glitches to be worked out within Arc, too. There are still some graphical glitches to be worked out within Arc, too.Mark Hachman / IDG There are still some graphical glitches to be worked out within Arc, too.Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG I’ll keep an eye on Arc, of course. But I don’t expect to use it much. Other browser makers are simply further ahead, and I’m just not that inclined to chase after a UI that forces me to make adjustments to my browsing behavior. With that said, there’s always room for competition and some good ideas. If Arc does eventually launch a killer feature, I’d expect its competitors to adopt or improve upon it. We can all root for such improvements. Personal Software

When looking for a top-notch VPN, the two most important things to look for are privacy and speed. While privacy is crucial to a good VPN, speed should not be overlooked. Faster speeds mean quicker file downloads and website load times, a better streaming experience, and just a better all-around experience. We’ve tested numerous VPNs and put their servers from all over the world through countless speed tests to determine the fastest services based on their network averages. We highlight not only the fastest download speeds, but also the fastest upload speeds. Read below to see our curated list of the fastest VPNs available now. Why you should trust us: Here at PCWorld we’ve been testing computer hardware, software, and services since the 1980s. We’re continually testing all of the major VPNs on the market and many lesser-known services in order to curate a list of the very best VPNs across a variety of categories. For a more in-depth guide, you can check out our article on how we test VPN services at PCWorld. Below you’ll find our favorite lightning-fast VPNs and, below those, additional information about how we test these services as well as helpful advice about what to look for when choosing a fast VPN on your own. If you’re looking for even more VPN options, check out our comprehensive roundup of the best VPNs in all categories. Updated April 30, 2024: Check out our latest review of Mullvad VPN. Still the undisputed privacy king of VPNs, Mullvad has only improved since our last review with an expanded server network and migration to RAM-only diskless servers for enhanced security. Hotspot Shield – Fastest VPN Pros Very fast Large country selection and plenty of servers Cons Domain visits are recorded, though not tied to you Expensive Price When Reviewed: $12.99 per month Best Prices Today: $12.99 at Aura Why we like HotSpot Shield To readers of our VPN reviews this first choice will come as no surprise. The fastest VPN we’ve tested is HotSpot Shield and it’s not even close. HSS is in a class of its own, retaining 67 percent of the base speed. That is simply a standout score. HSS has its issues, as we haven’t been fans of the company’s privacy policy, though it’s slowly getting better. Of course, it may simply be that to provide the speeds that it does HSS requires the analytics it collects. We can’t really say. Who should buy HotSpot Shield Simply put, if you’re interested in pure download speeds and nothing else matters then HotSpot Shield is the one you want. You’ll get some other nice features, but speed is the name of the game here and HSS delivers. Read our full Hotspot Shield review ProtonVPN – Second-fastest overall, fastest upload speeds Pros Fantastic speeds Easy-to-use multi-hop feature Supports TOR over VPN connections Cons Expensive Price When Reviewed: $96 Best Prices Today: $96 at ProtonVPN AG Why we like ProtonVPN The second-place winner is ProtonVPN, which is still quite a ways back at around 57 percent of the base download speed. ProtonVPN is expensive compared to other services, but the privacy policy is better than HSS in terms of the amount of data collected from its users. It’s not as fast as HSS, but ProtonVPN is about as close as you can get with an improved privacy policy. Upload speeds are a different story. In that competition, HSS doesn’t even crack the top 20. Proton, however, is the leader there, retaining more than 80 percent of the base upload speed. ProtonVPN also has extra features that may interest some, such as a multi-hop VPN, called SecureCore, support for Netflix and other streaming services, and a few TOR-friendly routers to boot. Other honorable mentions for upload speeds include Ivacy, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and Private Internet Access. Any of those VPNs will do the job nicely if upload speeds are a bigger concern than downloads. These services also promise features similar to ProtonVPN such as Netflix compatibility, multi-hop VPNs, and more. Who should buy ProtonVPN If you want something that offers a higher degree of privacy, and has top-rated download and upload speeds, then ProtonVPN is a good option. Particularly if you’re looking to upload data securely over a VPN connection, ProtonVPN should be at the top of your list. Read our full ProtonVPN review Mullvad – The most private speed demon Pros Good speeds Inexpensive monthly plan Unrivaled anonymity Open-source Cons Struggles with unblocking streaming services Smaller server network Lacks some extra features that other VPNs offer Price When Reviewed: $5.37 per month Why we like Mullvad If you don’t want to compromise on privacy and anonymity, while still getting solid speeds, then Mullvad is the best choice. This super-simple VPN supports connections via 41 different countries, and it costs just 5 Euros per month (around $5.40 at this writing). Mullvad should be considered the “Swiss bank account” version of a VPN, as it actively resists obtaining any of your personal information and provides premium service. Instead of signing up for an account with the standard email and password, Mullvad assigns you a random account number and that’s it. No birth date or anniversary passwords to give you away. One number and that’s it. In our tests, Mullvad performed well in download and upload speeds, maintaining around 48 percent of the baseline with each. That puts it firmly in the top half of all VPNs we’ve ever tested and it’s plenty fast enough to do just about everything you’d want to do. There may be a few faster VPNs on the market, though they won’t provide the same amount of anonymity as you’ll get with Mullvad and sometimes it’s worth sacrificing a little speed for a whole lot of privacy. Who should buy Mullvad Mullvad is ultimately designed for the privacy-conscious user. That being said, it does offer good speeds, so even if privacy is your main concern, you need not sacrifice speed in order to enjoy your anonymity. Read our full Mullvad review ExpressVPN – The bronze medalist Pros Consistently good speeds Easy-to-use desktop program Broad device support Cons Logs data transfer amounts More expensive than many competitors Price When Reviewed: $6.67 per month Best Prices Today: $6.67 at ExpressVPN Why we like ExpressVPN Our current all-star as the best VPN overall is a good choice for speeds. It ranks third overall in our download speed tests, retaining more than 53 percent of the base speed in our testing. For uploads, it ranks in the top 20, though the differences in speeds there are much slimmer than in downloads. ExpressVPN is one of the more costly VPNs out there at $100 per year. For that money, however, you get solid speeds, a promise to work with Netflix, split tunneling, and a wide range of device support. The app is also pretty easy to use and there are a wide range of country locations to choose from. Who should buy ExpressVPN ExpressVPN is a truly great VPN for everyone. It gives you everything you could want from a top-tier service including privacy, security, and speed. It might not be as fast as our top picks on this list, but it’s still plenty fast enough for most online activities. Read our full ExpressVPN review NordVPN – Honorable mention Pros Excellent speeds Enough features to appeal to power users and novices No-logs policy Diskless servers Cons Expensive Price When Reviewed: $3.49 per month Best Prices Today: $3.49 at NordVPN Why we like NordVPN Nord regularly appears at the top of many VPN rankings, and it’s no surprise to see it here. In our tests, NordVPN retained 49 percent of the base speed, which is plenty fast. It’s also inside the top 10 for upload speeds. Of all the VPNs here, NordVPN also has to be one of the most feature packed, rivaling ProtonVPN. It supports multi-hop connections, TOR over VPN, ad and tracker blocking at the server level, and a variety of other options. Who should buy NordVPN With all of the great features included with NordVPN, it can appeal to a wide audience. You’ll need to sacrifice some speed for those features though. However, the speed loss is pretty minimal and you’ll still be able to do everything you want to do while connected. Read our full NordVPN review What to look for in a fast VPN The first thing to consider in a fast VPN is, of course, speed. This may be tricky to do since you aren’t likely to be able to test connection speeds without paying to use the service. That’s where online reviews come in. Look for reviews, like ours, that give you a relative average of connection speeds rather than direct Mbps speed comparisons. Next, you should look at a VPN’s server network including the number of servers and locations. It’s difficult to judge any VPN by just one feature, but a semi-reliable way to tell if a VPN is even worth your time is to look at the server spread. Anything with 1,000 or more servers and 30 or more country locations will do. You’ll also want to read up on a VPN’s privacy protections. Does it have a no-logs policy? Has it undergone any independent audits of its servers? Where is the VPN company located? All of these will give you an idea of whether or not a VPN is transparent with its data collection policies and if it’s subject to government data sharing requirements. Other factors you’ll want to take into consideration are the overall ease-of-use, user experience, and any additional features. Some of these features, such as split-tunneling and kill switches, can be extremely useful for certain purposes and might sway your subscription decision one way or the other. Finally, as with all subscription services, you’ll want to review the price of a VPN service. Do you want a monthly or yearly subscription? Some top VPNs might be pricey month-to-month, but actually become quite affordable with long-term plans. How we tested Our method for testing VPN speeds is rather straightforward. We average the connections between different global locations for any given VPN and then compare them to our baseline internet speed to get a good picture of the overall connection speeds. We continue this process over multiple days of testing and then average the daily speeds together to get an overall average. We test a total of three days at different times of the day to account for any variation. That overall average is then expressed as a percentage of the base speed. That way the test results provide a sense of how much speed a VPN retains versus hard numbers, which can vary based on internet service providers, routers, and other equipment, time of day, and so on. FAQ 1. What does a VPN do? A VPN (virtual private network) encrypts your internet traffic and disguises your identity while browsing the internet. A VPN will anonymize your online traffic and keep your ISP or other third parties from snooping on your internet browsing. Additionally, VPNs allow you to connect to servers all across the world. So if you’re looking to access location-restricted content, such as streaming services, you can connect to the appropriate country’s server and gain access that way. 2. How does a VPN work? A VPN hides your IP address by redirecting it through a remote server hosted by the VPN company. To anyone looking in, the VPN server then becomes the source of your data instead of yourself. These remote servers can be in your own country or located in different countries around the world. All of your network traffic from your computer to the VPN is sent over a secure and encrypted connection.  When connected to a VPN while browsing the internet, the VPN acts as a middleman between your computer and a website. Your computer sends a request to the VPN which then passes it on to a website. The website then sends its response back to the VPN which forwards it through the secure connection to your computer. All of the traffic rerouted through the VPN shows as coming through their server rather than your own computer. This keeps your ISP and other third parties from snooping on your internet activity. 3. Can you use a VPN to watch Netflix? Yes! If you’re located in a country where particular Netflix content isn’t accessible, you can use a VPN server located in a different region to access that content. While certain streaming services try to prevent VPN connections, you can usually find a server that isn’t blocked. Good VPN companies offer thousands of servers in which to connect to from all over the world. If your intended use for a VPN is to watch a streaming service such as Netflix, connection speeds and unblocked server availability will be the most important factors to look out for. (See our roundup of the best VPNs for our recommendation for Netflix streaming, as well as a host of other use cases.) 4. Will a VPN affect my internet speeds? In the past, VPNs were notorious for slowing down internet speeds. But nowadays it’s the exception rather than the norm. When you connect to a VPN, it reroutes your traffic through its own servers. Depending on where these servers are located, the extra distance can lead to a higher ping. While one of the great features of VPNs is to encrypt your data, this can lead to slower download and upload speeds because it takes time to encrypt and decrypt your data—affecting everything from page load times to video buffering speeds. Thankfully, advances in encryption technology and server optimization by modern VPN providers have significantly lessened these impacts. 5. Do VPNs protect against malware and computer viruses? Unfortunately, no, a VPN will not protect you from malware or viruses. If you use a VPN and accidentally click on a malicious link or download a file containing a virus, there isn’t anything a VPN can do to help. In conjunction with a VPN, it is highly recommended that you use an antivirus program. Alternatively, you can find a VPN provider that offers additional threat protection features to help keep you safe. VPN

Baldur’s Gate III is a role-playing game with some romance elements. Stardew Valley is a role-playing game with some romance elements, and a lot of root vegetables. Why not stick ’em together in a peanut-butter-and-chocolate combination, for those who want to date a half-elf while they’re watering cabbages? That’s the idea behind a new mod for Stardew. A team of three modders is putting a new map in Stardew Valley inspired by last year’s D&D smash hit. And yes, getting all those eye-catching companions into the farming sim as romanceable characters is a priority. So far the team for “Baldur’s Village” is working on getting problematic fave Shadowheart, smooth-talking Gale, bear-in-more-ways-than-one Halsin, and everyone’s favorite vampiric fop Astarion in there, though only the latter has a unique romance plot at the moment. According to a post on Twitter spotted by Rock Paper Shotgun, the small team hopes to have its first release of the content ready to play by the anniversary of Baldur’s Gate III‘s public release, which would be in August. Hopefully by that time they’ll have best barbarian girl Karlach in there — imagine dating somebody who can go into a rage, then plow the back forty without a tractor. Video Games

It’s easy to see why portable monitors are gaining in popularity among both desktop PC and laptop users. What portable monitors sacrifice in size over a standard monitor they make up for in myriad other ways: Portable monitors are relatively inexpensive, easy to connect, and, best of all, portable. Whether you’re a student, someone who works from home, or a globe-trotting executive, the ability to easily pack up and move a portable monitor when needed is appealing indeed. That being said, the portable monitor market is a bit of a mess currently. The widespread availability of these displays and the ability to manufacture them cheaply has resulted in a onslaught of unknown brands on the market. Many of these brands don’t have any established credibility, and quality can often be sub-par. That’s where we at PCWorld come in. We’ve tested multiple models and can separate the best portable monitors from the rest. Our list of our favorites below will help you find the right portable monitor for you. You can learn more about what to look for in a portable monitor at the bottom of the article. Updated April 30, 2024: We’ve added a new recommendation to our list — the Viewsonic VX1655-4K-OLED. It’s a great portable monitor for creative professionals, offering the best image quality of any portable monitor we’ve reviewed to date, as well as a well-built chassis and sturdy kickstand. It’s perfect for someone doing creative work on-the-go. Further reading: See our roundups of the best monitors and best home office monitors for even more recommendations. Arzopa A1 Gamut – Best budget portable monitor Pros Good build quality for the price Bright, attractive display Two USB-C inputs, plus mini-HDMI All cables included Cons Stand only adjusts for tilt Limited image quality adjustments Mediocre contrast ratio Price When Reviewed: $189.99 Best Prices Today: $88.21 at Amazon$99.99 at Arzopa The Arzopa A1 Gamut is a solid 15.6-inch 1080p portable monitor that delivers good image quality, an attractive design, and useful features at a low price. Arzopa opts for a simple yet elegant design that pairs a thin display panel with a small bump on the lower half to house the monitor’s ports and internal electronics. A faux-leather cover is included to provide protection when stowed. It also folds into a kickstand when the monitor is in use. The monitor has three input options: two USB-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and one Mini-HDMI. All required cables and accessories are included. However, the monitor’s menu system is hard to use and offers few adjustments. Image quality is great for the price. The Azorpa A1 Gamut reaches a maximum brightness of 297 nits, which is brighter than many competitors. The color gamut spans 97 percent of sRGB and 74 percent of DCI-P3. The A1 Gamut appears bright and vivid in day-to-day use and, though not ideal for professional content creation, holds up well while browsing the web, working in Microsoft Office, or viewing YouTube. The Arzopa A1 Gamut retails for $170 but is frequently sold at a steep discount, often as low as $110. It’s an absolute steal when on sale, and we highly recommend waiting for a discount if one isn’t currently available. Read our full Arzopa A1 Gamut review Innocn 15A1F – Best midrange portable monitor Pros Excellent image quality Durable and attractive design Versatile clip-on stand Unbeatable bang-for-the-buck Cons Doesn’t include a protective case HDR is supported but disappointing Price When Reviewed: 319.99 Best Prices Today: $10.99 at Walmart$189.99 at Innocn$319.99 at Amazon The Innocn 15A1F is an OLED portable monitor that brings excellent image quality and attractive design to a more affordable price point. It has a 15.6-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 1920×1080 and a 60Hz refresh rate. Its design, reminiscent of the Apple iPad Pro, elegantly combines an aluminum rear panel with edge-to-edge glass. It also has a unique, versatile clip-on stand that adds stability and a wide range of tilt adjustments. Innocn doesn’t include a protective case, however, so shoppers should consider a third-party protective sleeve. Image quality is where this portable monitor stands out. It delivers a maximum brightness of 378 nits and achieves an infinite contrast ratio. This combination provides a bright, vivid, and immersive image. It also delivers an impressive 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 94 percent of AdobeRGB. That’s more than adequate for photo and video editing. The monitor’s 60Hz refresh rate might be a limitation for gamers, however. Priced at an MSRP of $349.99, which often drops to a tempting $199.99 on Amazon, the Innocn 15A1F is an excellent choice if you want a portable monitor with top-tier image quality on a budget. Read our full Innocn 15A1F review Arzopa G1 Game – Best portable monitor for gaming Pros Thin, light, and durable Good SDR image quality 144Hz panel delivers good motion clarity Inexpensive Cons No Adaptive Sync support HDR is supported, but disappointing Menu system offers little customization Price When Reviewed: 189.99 Best Prices Today: $129.99 at Amazon$139.99 at Arzopa Want a light, compact monitor that’s ideal for gaming while away from home? The inexpensive Arzopa G1 Game is a solid choice.  Arzopa’s portable gaming monitor has a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 (better known as 1080p) and a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz. The refresh rate, which indicates how many times the display can refresh per second, improves responsiveness and motion clarity. It’s a noticeable improvement over a portable monitor with a 60Hz refresh rate. The monitor also delivers a bright, attractive image. 1080p resolution may sound mundane in today’s world of 4K displays but, due to a portable monitor’s small 15.6-inch display, it delivers sharpness close to that of a 27-inch 4K monitor. The Arzopa G1 Game also scores well in contrast, color gamut, and color accuracy.  It’s easy to pack, too, as the monitor weighs just 1.36 pounds and measures roughly four-tenths of an inch thick. A faux-leather case provides protection while traveling and serves as a kickstand. The kickstand’s tilt adjustment is limited, though, which can prove frustrating.  The G1 Game routinely retails for about $150 on Amazon.com and ranks among the most affordable 144Hz portable gaming monitors available. It’s a good value and an easy recommendation for travelers who frequently game away from home. Read our full Arzopa G1 Game review Viewsonic VX1655-4K-OLED – Best portable monitor for creators Pros Excellent image quality Useful built-in kickstand Attractive and sturdy design Extensive image-quality options Cons Flimsy bundled keyboard cover Some on-screen menu options are confusing Power adapter could be smaller Price When Reviewed: $499.99 Best Prices Today: $499.99 at Amazon$499.99 at B&H$499.99 at Best Buy The Viewsonic VX1655-4K-OLED stands out in the crowded market of portable monitors, particularly for creators who prioritize image quality without sacrificing portability. The VX1655-4K-OLED delivers exceptional sharpness, color accuracy, and contrast. Its brightness peaks at an impressive 457 nits, which is beneficial for working in brightly lit environments. Its comprehensive color gamut is suitable for color-critical work such as photography, design, and video editing. It also has a native resolution of 3840×2160 (4K), which makes it ideal for working with 4K video, as well as other high-resolution video and image files. Design is another key strength. It has a built-in kickstand, slim bezels, and a sturdy chassis, all of which makes it easy to set up and stable when in use. The monitor’s connectivity options, which include two USB-C ports and a mini-HDMI port, offer flexibility. However, the inclusion of a full-sized HDMI port would have been preferable. While the monitor does have minor drawbacks, like a flimsy bundled display cover and confusing on-screen menus, these issues are overshadowed by its overall performance and build quality. Its premium price point reflects its position as a high-end choice for professionals, and its image quality is the best of any portable monitor we’ve tested to date. Read our full Viewsonic VX1655-4K-OLED review What to look for in a portable monitor Many of the features we look for in a desktop monitor also apply to a portable monitor. A portable monitor should have a bright, sharp image with a decent contrast ratio, wide color gamut, and great color accuracy. The differences between portable monitors and their desktop brethren are more often found in their design, build quality, and connectivity. Image quality Most portable monitors have image quality similar to desktop monitors in the same price bracket. Portable monitors tend to score well in brightness and sharpness, but color and contrast are often lacking. OLED portable monitors perform significantly better than less expensive IPS LCD displays. Unfortunately, they’re much more expensive. Numerous small brands have jumped into the portable monitor market in recent years and quality control can be an issue. We recommend sticking to monitors that are known to achieve high marks in image quality (otherwise, be prepared to use a retailer’s return policy). Stands, kickstands, and covers Portable monitors ship with a bundled kickstand or stand that is used to keep the monitor propped up and steady on a desk. Unlike desktop monitors, where most stands are more or less identical, the stands used by portable monitors vary. Some have a simple kickstand that attaches magnetically, while others use a clip-on case. A rare few, like the ViewSonic ColorPro VP16-OLED, have a folding stand that provides significant height and kickstand adjustment. Connectivity Connectivity is key. A portable monitor that lacks the port you need to connect your tablet or laptop is useless. Most portable monitors offer the option to connect over USB, a video input (usually HDMI), or both, but the number of ports available and the standards used vary widely. We look for monitors that offer a healthy selection of ports. We also prefer monitors that can be powered over USB-C by a connected desktop or laptop. Portability, size, and weight Our final consideration is the most obvious: portability. Most portable monitors live up to their name with an included kickstand case or cover that can fold flat and protect the display while it’s stowed. Still, the exact size and weight of a portable monitor is important, and shoppers may need to accept trade-offs between weight and quality. A top-notch pick like the Viewsonic ColorPro VP16-OLED can offer superior durability, but a lightweight budget pick like the Azorpa A1 Gamut might be preferable if you’ll be hauling a portable monitor daily. How we test monitors PCWorld’s monitor evaluations stem from the expertise of freelance and staff contributors with decades of collective experience. Although our initial impressions rely on our eyes, we rigorously test each monitor using a Datacolor Spyder X2 Ultra color calibration tool for a comprehensive analysis. This device helps us objectively measure a variety of monitor attributes including brightness, contrast, color gamut, color accuracy, luminance and color uniformity, and gamma, among other traits. We also rely on hands-on testing to judge the quality, size, and weight of a portable monitor. Every monitor we recommend is personally tested first-hand by a PCWorld contributor. This helps us pick out flaws in build quality and portability that separate the best and worst portable monitors.  FAQ 1. What size of portable monitor is best? Most portable monitors use a 13.3-inch or 15.6-inch panel, and those that don’t typically have a panel size close to one of those two standards (such as 13.1 or 16 inches).  A monitor with a 13.3-inch panel is great for frequent fliers and other travelers looking to pack light. A 13.3-inch model will typically weigh about a quarter- to half-pound less than a 15.6-inch model. The downside, of course, is a smaller display that can feel cramped, which can make a 13.3-inch display frustrating.  15.6-inch portable monitors are a better choice in many situations, as viewing the display for long periods of time will prove more comfortable. Though larger than a 13.3-inch model, 15.6-inch models remain small and will fit in most bags that fit a 14-inch laptop (or larger). 15.6-inch portable monitors are preferable for creators, too, as the larger display size makes it easier to view small details in videos, photos, and digital art.  2. What resolution is best for a portable monitor? 1080p is the most common resolution and is a great choice for nearly all situations. This resolution may seem unimpressive on paper, but the small size of a portable monitor increases the display’s pixel density. A 15.6-inch portable monitor with 1080p resolution looks nearly as sharp as a 27-inch monitor with 4K resolution. What about 4K portable monitors? We don’t generally recommend them. Portable monitors with 4K resolution are less common, more expensive, and the improvement in sharpness won’t be perceptible to most people. We also recommend that you avoid lower resolutions such as 720p and 1366×768. Though uncommon, portable monitors sold at very low prices (often below $100) sometimes have a native resolution below 1080p. This isn’t a great choice. Most modern apps, web pages, and content assume 1080p as a “standard” resolution and feel cramped at 720p or 1366×768. 3. What ports and connectivity should a portable monitor have? We recommend buying a portable monitor that has a USB-C port with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and USB Power Delivery. The DisplayPort Alternate Mode turns the USB-C port into a video input, and USB Power Delivery can be used to power the portable monitor. This enables a single-cable connection between the portable monitor and a laptop, desktop, or tablet with USB-C. An ideal portable monitor should pair USB-C with a backup video input, such as HDMI or DisplayPort, for connecting devices that lack USB-C. Most portable monitors offer this feature, but the HDMI or DisplayPort input is usually a smaller variant of the connection (like Micro-HDMI). 4. How much should a portable monitor cost? Most portable monitors are inexpensive, but this is often reflected in their quality. We’ve noticed a wide range of build quality, design, and image quality among portable monitors that retail below $150. It’s possible to find a great portable monitor on a tight budget, but we recommend sticking to models tested by a professional reviewer. A handful of portable monitors, such as the Viewsonic ColorPro VP16-OLED, are priced above $300. These rare models back up their price with special features such as a top-notch OLED panel or built-in battery. Paying extra for a quality monitor is worthwhile, but it’s not a requirement. Budget portable monitors like the Arzopa A1 Gamut look great and are well-suited to day-to-day productivity and web browsing. 5. Should I buy a portable monitor with HDR? We don’t recommend portable monitors for HDR. While some manufacturers claim HDR support, the truth is that current portable monitors lack the brightness required to make HDR look its best. A portable monitor that claims HDR support will display HDR content, but it won’t look superior to SDR. 6. What battery life should I expect from a portable monitor? You might be surprised to hear most portable monitors don’t include a battery and must be powered by an external source. In most cases, power is delivered over USB-C (or, in older models, USB-A) from a connected laptop, tablet, or desktop. You can also use an external power brick. A few portable monitors include a battery, but we recommend you avoid these models. They’re considerably more expensive than portable monitors that rely on external power. The battery also adds weight and bulk. It’s often less expensive to buy an external battery pack to connect to the portable monitor. Monitors

Sometimes you suddenly encounter unexpected problems when using Microsoft Edge: annoying cookie settings, prevented downloads, and much more. But those problems can usually be solved quickly by simply resetting Edge, the default browser for Windows 10 and Windows 11. get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro Price When Reviewed: 199.99 Best Prices Today: $59 at PCWorld Store – Win 11 Pro Upgrade Only | $79.99 at PCWorld Software Store This is how it works: In the Edge user interface, click on the three dots at the top right and then on Settings. The “Reset settings” option will then appear in the task bar on the left. Click on it. In the next step, click on the small arrow to the right of the option and then confirm with “Reset.” If you restart Microsoft Edge now, everything will usually work again, though you’ll need to reapply any custom Edge settings you prefer. Further reading: 5 ways Microsoft Edge is better than Chrome This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de. Windows

At a glanceExpert's Rating ProsCan connect to four displaysTons of ports — no need to buy an adapter!You’ll love the vertical standConsExpensiveSome stability concernsFront USB-A port doesn’t deliver the rated powerOur VerdictThe Plugable Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Docking Station glitched a bit, knocking this ultrapremium docking station down. Its predecessor is a better value. Price When Reviewed$299 Best Prices Today: Plugable Thunderbolt 4 & USB4 Quad Display Docking Station (TBT4-UDZ) Retailer Price $287.3 View Deal $299 View Deal $299 View Deal Staples $302.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Plugable’s Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Docking Station (TBT4-UDZ) offers the vast port selection and multiple display-port options I’d expect in a premium dock. But it doesn’t quite deliver where it counts, with stability proving to be an issue. Plugable’s TBT4-UDZ is the Thunderbolt 4 version of the Plugable TBT3-UDZ, what I called the “Cadillac of Thunderbolt docks” at the time because of the plentiful port arrangement. It still tops our list of the best Thunderbolt docks. But there are very similar competitors now, as well. On paper, Plugable’s Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Docking Station (TBT4-UDZ) is very similar to the Kensington Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Quad Video Docking Station (SD5800T): similar names, similar features — but not similar in price. (Our sister site, TechAdvisor, has its own review of the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 & USB4 Quad Display Docking Station, too.) Kensington’s dock is priced at about $20 more on Amazon, but other retailers price Kensington’s dock significantly higher. Plugable’s dock is also remarkably similar to the Satechi Thunderbolt 4 Multimedia Pro Dock, a dock we loved which also commands a $299 price tag. Plugable’s TBT4-UDZ has one strike against it: Because of the similarities between Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4, you might want to consider the older iteration, instead. At about $200, Plugable’s TBT3-UDZ is about $100 cheaper than the newer TBT4-UDZ. The front of the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Dock (TBT4-UDZ) includes a pair of USB-A ports, micro and full-sized SD card slots, and the Thunderbolt 4 cable. The front of the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Dock (TBT4-UDZ) includes a pair of USB-A ports, micro and full-sized SD card slots, and the Thunderbolt 4 cable.Mark Hachman / IDG The front of the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Dock (TBT4-UDZ) includes a pair of USB-A ports, micro and full-sized SD card slots, and the Thunderbolt 4 cable.Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG As the name suggests, you can use this dock with either an AMD Ryzen laptop, typically equipped with USB4 ports, or the Thunderbolt 4 ports that accompany and Intel-based laptop. (You can do this with virtually any rival dock, too; Plugable just calls it out.) Plugable’s TBT4-UDZ offers gobs of ports Plugable’s TBT4-UDZ mixes up the port arrangement compared to its predecessor, though. On the front is still a microSD/SD card slot — though both slots are now rated for 312MB/s UHS-II performance; on the TBT3-UDZ, only the full-sized SD card slot is. Both a 10Gbps USB-A as well as a 480Mbps USB-A port appear on the front of the dock, with the latter rated for 7.5W to charge external devices. A headphone jack, the Thunderbolt 4 port and a power button round out the front, plus a small yellow LED to signal power. Plugable has pushed a second charging port (a 10Gbps USB-C port capable of 7.5W of USB Power Delivery) to the rear of the dock, which I’m not a fan of. Trying to fish around the back of the dock to insert a charging cable is harder than doing it on the front, and most phones charge with USB-C. Otherwise, there are four USB-A ports on the rear of the TBT4-UDZ, two each for 5Gbps and 10Gbps — again an improvement. They’re tightly spaced, but USB keys and cables juuuust fit. There are also two DisplayPort 1.2 ports and two HDMI 2.0 ports, plus the power port and a 2.5Gbps Ethernet connection. Provided that you’ve connected the dock to the right hardware, the dock can connect to four 4K displays (using all four ports) at 60Hz. You can fit four USB keys into the USB-A ports on the back of the Plugable TBT4-UDZ, but they barely fit. You can fit four USB keys into the USB-A ports on the back of the Plugable TBT4-UDZ, but they barely fit.Mark Hachman / IDG You can fit four USB keys into the USB-A ports on the back of the Plugable TBT4-UDZ, but they barely fit.Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG Physically, the TBT4-UDZ measures 7.7 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches., and a rated 22.7 ounces (646g). Like its predecessor, Plugable tosses in a vertical stand, which does wonders for minimizing the desk space it takes up. The stand is also perfectly stable from my experience, even fully loaded with various cables. Speaking of cables, the TBT4-UDZ’s Thunderbolt 4 cable stretches a rather luxurious 3.25 feet or so, passing a rated 98W to the host — about 0.5 foot longer than the earlier dock, which passed a rated 96W. That’s about the maximum the current cables will allow. Plugable’s stand fits the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Dock (TBT4-UDZ) firmly and securely. Plugable’s stand fits the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Dock (TBT4-UDZ) firmly and securely.Mark Hachman / IDG Plugable’s stand fits the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Dock (TBT4-UDZ) firmly and securely.Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG Plugable TBT4-UDZ performance: Stability is a question Provided that you’ve connected the dock to the right hardware, the dock can connect to four 4K displays (using all four ports) at 60Hz. The dock does so by using a combination of the Thunderbolt port, plus combining DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3 (High Bit Rate 3) with DSC (Display Stream Compression). If your laptop supports these, it should connect to four displays; otherwise, it can connect to the standard two 4K displays supported by Thunderbolt 4. (Note that you probably won’t be able to use your laptop’s display if you connect four external displays, and you’ll need to adjust your laptop’s settings so it remains on and fully operational when closed.) I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that the rival Kensington SD5800T was manufactured by the same vendor. The port alignment is essentially identical, and the performance across multiple displays is too. The Kensington’s front-mounted USB-A charging port was supposed to deliver about 7.5W of power. It doesn’t. And neither does the Plugable TBT4-UDZ! Though rated at 7.5W, the Plugable TBT4-UDZ’s USB-A port delivers 3.8W, the same as the other USB-A ports. Ports and more ports on the rear of the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Dock (TBT4-UDZ). Ports and more ports on the rear of the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Dock (TBT4-UDZ).Mark Hachman / IDG Ports and more ports on the rear of the Plugable Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 Quad Display Dock (TBT4-UDZ).Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG Only the rear-mounted USB-C port delivers 7.0W, as it should. The dock itself delivers 86W to the laptop, which is pretty close to its rated power. From a stability standpoint, I noticed the dock disconnect from both monitors twice in succession, just performing normal office work. While playing a game of Diablo IV, the dock disconnected from both monitors as well as the network, booting me from the game. Whether you’re working, chatting with a colleague, or gaming, that kind of thing is disruptive and a bit shocking. Neither disconnection happened on my normal testing laptops, though the glitches did occur with a Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2, which includes two Thunderbolt 4 ports. Otherwise, I spent close to three days working with this dock, and experienced no other issues. (Just be sure to have your laptop up to date, as the dock didn’t deliver full 4K resolution with a laptop which needed to be updated.) The performance of the dock was a bit less than I expected, across the board. In our streaming test, the dock dropped 30 frames out of 12,098 — a bit low but still average, and our 4K60 test stream was smooth. While running the PCMark storage benchmark, the dock dropped 38 frames — about double the Kensington SD5800T. The dock’s performance in the storage benchmark was lower than I’d like, too — 120MB/s versus 127MB/s. Is that a huge difference? Not really, no. But it’s still a bit slower. The test I run where I copy a multi-gigabyte folder stuffed full of various files completed in 1 minute, 10 seconds, both while streaming and by itself. Again, the dock finished a couple seconds slower than the competition. I didn’t have any problems with the Ethernet jack, the mic/headset cable, or the SD card slots. Should you buy the Plugable TBT4-UDZ? I’ve reviewed several Plugable docks, and the company has a well-founded reputation for quality. (A one-year limited warranty is included.) In this case, it falls a bit short. I still think the Thunderbolt 3 (Plugable TBT3-UDZ) version of the dock is superior, because of the $100 or so discount. But I’m happy sticking with the Kensington docks as my recommended Thunderbolt 4 docking stations. I love the flexibility — who wouldn’t? But with competitors offering virtually the same thing, I’d opt for an alternative. Computer Accessories

The year is 2021. With the COVID-19 pandemic still very much in swing and vaccine rollouts still limited to those most at risk, Razer sees an opportunity: bring its stylish RGB aesthetic to the face masks that most people are still wearing in public. It was a cool idea that, three years later, has the company in hot water with US regulators. The problem stems from the fact that Razer advertised its Zephyr mask, which had built-in RGB lights, circulation fans, and a transparent front panel to let others see the wearer’s mouth, as “N95-grade.” Turns out you can’t just throw that N95 term around, even in the relatively loosey-goosey world of American medicine. The Federal Trade Commission investigated Razer for misrepresenting the Zephyr mask’s capabilities and concluded its findings yesterday. At issue is the fact that Razer never actually submitted the mask or its built-in, replaceable filters for testing or certification for the N95 label, which indicates that a respirator can block 95 percent of particulates. Neither the FDA nor the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health were contacted for their respective seals of approval — Razer seems to have thought that simply calling the mask “N95-grade” without doing the paperwork would be enough. The FTC disagrees with a unanimous 3-0 ruling. While Razer quickly removed the N95 language from its advertising during its initial sales after some negative press, the investigation in response to a Department of Justice complaint found Razer liable for misrepresenting the mask as both equivalent to an N95 respirator mask and an effective deterrent to the spread of COVID-19 infections. As punishment Razer is being fined $100,000, plus the company’s total revenue from selling the Zephyr mask, which the FTC calculates at $1,071,254.33. The FTC will provide refunds directly to consumers who purchased the masks, which went for a hefty $100 when they were sold back in 2021 (with $30 for a set of ten replacement filters). Razer is also barred from advertising any product that claims to reduce COVID-19 spread or infection without FDA approval. Which seems like something any company should have to get, but like I said, loosey-goosey. Razer could always appeal the decision…but with the Zephyr product retired and a Zephyr Pro with built-in amplification speakers apparently abandoned, I doubt it will bother. $1.1 million is honestly pretty light for a serious charge of misrepresenting a product as medically effective. And as much as this article is dunking on Razer for making a big mistake when trying to make a quick buck in a new market, I should point out that the company made regular, non-RGB face masks during the early days of the pandemic and distributed them for free in its home territory of Singapore. Camera Accessories

A good monitor can truly improve your gaming experience. A high refresh rate is important for smooth gameplay, of course, but higher resolutions are just as key (especially if you’re into city management games where you need to see every little detail). Good news! Today, Amazon is selling the Samsung Odyssey G50A for $199.99, which is 50 percent off of the original $399.99 price. This monitor is capable of producing fluid images as well as a clear picture. The Samsung Odyssey features a resolution of 2560×1440, a refresh rate of 165Hz, and a response time of 1ms. Whether you’re into story-driven games or intense first-person-shooters, this monitor should be capable of handling all types — this particular mix of resolution and speed is widely considered to be PC gaming’s “sweet spot.” It measures 27-inches, so you’re getting a good amount of screen. You can even adjust the screen output to an ultrawide aspect ratio of 21:9, allowing you to discover those hard-to-see areas in your favorite titles. This is a killer deal on a “sweet spot” gaming monitor — but it’s also a limited time deal. Get it now before it’s too late. Get the Samsung Odyssey G50A for $199.99 at Amazon Monitors

If you’re looking to score a fast laptop at a killer price, you’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re on the hunt for a blazing fast gaming rig, a lightweight 2-in-1, or an everyday Chromebook, we’ve assembled a list of the best laptop deals available right now, using our finely honed editorial judgement to only recommend truly compelling deals on worthwhile notebooks. For more notebook options, check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available right now. We’ve got can’t-miss picks for every use case and budget, putting our thousands of hours of hands-on testing to work for you. Best laptop deals (at a glance) Asus Vivobook 14, $229.99 ($200 off at Best Buy) Lenovo IdeaPad 1, $229.99 ($190 off at Microcenter) Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3, $299 ($230 off at B&H) HP Envy x360, $569.99 ($379.01 off at Adorama) Lenovo LOQ 15IRH8, $749 ($560 off at B&H) HP Dragonfly Pro, $799 ($600 off at B&H) Dell XPS 13, $799 ($300 off at Dell) Dell Inspiron 16, $819.99 ($540 off at Dell) XPG Xenia, $999 ($700.99 off at Walmart) Lenovo Flex 7, $1,039.99 ($220 off at Adorama) Lenovo Legion Pro 5i, $1,179 ($620 off at B&H) Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4, $1,229 ($650 off at Adorama) HP Omen Laptop, $1,299.99 ($400 off at HP) Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon $1,391.42 ($1,007.58 off at Lenovo) Best laptops deals under $500 Asus Vivobook 14: $229.99 ($200 off at Best Buy) Asus Asus Asus The Asus Vivobook is an inexpensive Windows laptop with a 1080p display. The laptop’s Intel i3-1215U CPU is a few generations behind at this point, but it’s still powerful enough to handle everyday tasks like checking e-mail and watching Netflix. It also comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage. The 14-inch 1080p display has a brightness level of 250 nits, which isn’t super bright, but it’s perfectly fine for web surfing and office work. In fact, with dimmer displays, you’ll likely get better battery life out of the machine, as the display can be a major power suck. This is a great machine for anyone that’s on a tight budget. View Deal Lenovo IdeaPad 1: $249.99 ($170 off at Microcenter) Lenovo Lenovo Lenovo The Lenovo IdeaPad 1 has an AMD Ryzen 5 5599Y processor inside of it, which is capable of handling day-to-day tasks like browsing the web and checking e-mail. The 14-inch 1080p display is perfect for everyday use and the connectivity options include one USB 2.0 Type-A, one USB 3.2 Type-C, one USB 3.2 Type-A, one HDMI, and one audio. The port selection is surprisingly diverse for such an inexpensive machine, so you don’t have to carry around an adapter. The 720p webcam isn’t great, but you can always plug into an external webcam if you want to look better on Zoom calls. View Deal Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3: $299 ($230 off at B&H) Lenovo Lenovo Lenovo The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 is another good option for everyday work, school, or home use because of its Intel Core i3-1315U processor and robust connectivity options. You should be able to zip right through office tasks or binge your favorite show on Netflix, and the large 15.6-inch 1080p matte display is sharp enough for those types of tasks. The port selection includes one USB-C 3.0, two USB-A 3.0, one HDMI, and one audio–effectively eliminating the need for an adapter. Similar to other laptops in this price range, it has a 720p webcam, which isn’t the best, but it’s a reasonable sacrifice in the budget laptop realm. View Deal Best laptops deals under $1,000 HP Envy x360: $569.99 ($379.01 off at Adorama) HP HP HP The HP Envy x360 is powerful, lightweight, and versatile. The 2-in-1 form factor means you can fold the screen back and use the laptop like a tablet, and it comes equipped with a good amount of RAM (16GB) and storage (512GB SSD). The 1080p display is quite large at 15.6-inches and it’s a touchscreen, which is perfect for habitual notetakers and doodlers. The keyboard is also full-sized and has backlighting–useful for when you’re using the laptop in low light environments. View Deal Lenovo LOQ 15IRH8: $749 ($560 off at B&H) Lenovo Lenovo Lenovo The Lenovo LOQ 15IRH8 is another good option for budget-minded gamers. It has an Intel Core i7-13700H CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, so you should be able to play most modern titles with the graphics dialed up to medium or high. The 15.6-inch 1080p display (tuned for 144Hz) is perfect for a gaming laptop with these entry-level components. The LOQ 15IRH8 also has a wide range of connectivity options that include one USB-C 3.1, two USB-A 3.1, one USB-A 3.0, one HDMI 2.1, one Ethernet, and one headphone/microphone input/output. View Deal HP Dragonfly Pro: $799 ($600 off at B&H) HP HP HP The HP Dragonfly Pro is a lightweight laptop with a lovely 1200p touchscreen display. It weighs just 3.1 pounds, which is hardly a back breaker–great news if you’re a frequent traveler. It’s also powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 7736U CPU and AMD Radeon 680M graphics, so you shouldn’t have any problem flying through office work or daily tasks. The 14-inch 1200p touchscreen display has an aspect ratio of 16:10 and a maximum brightness of 400 nits. The taller aspect ratio is nice because it makes scrolling through documents and webpages a lot easier. Connectivity options also include two USB-C and one USB-C 3.1. Overall, this is a solid laptop, especially for $600 off. View Deal Dell XPS 13: $799 ($300 off at Dell) Dell Dell Dell The Dell XPS 13 is a good laptop for office work, school work, everyday activities, and so on. It’s rocking an Intel Core i7-1250U CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage–that’s more than enough power for watching movies, writing papers, surfing the web, and more. The 13.4-inch display has a resolution of 1920×1200, a refresh rate of 60Hz, and a maximum brightness of 500 nits. That means the display is capable of producing a vibrant, sharp-looking picture. Additional bits include an aluminum chassis, a 51 watt-hour battery, and a chic Sky colorway. View Deal Dell Inspiron 16: $859.99 ($500 off at Dell) Dell Dell Dell The Dell Inspiron 16 is a great laptop for day-to-day use as well as some light gaming. In addition to the powerful Intel Core i7-1360P CPU and 1TB of SSD storage, this machine also has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050 GPU, which should be powerful enough to run most games at 1080p resolution. The 1600p display is a roomy 16-inches with a refresh rate of 60Hz and a maximum brightness of 300 nits. Have we seen brighter screens? Sure. That said, it’s bright enough for daily use as well as some casual gaming. Other cool features include a 1080p webcam, up to 13 hours of battery life (according to Dell), and a fingerprint reader. View Deal XPS Xenia 15G: $999 ($700.99 off at Walmart) XPG XPG XPG If you’re looking for a powerful gaming laptop, the XPG Xenia will certainly fit the bill. You don’t see many gaming laptops with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU go on sale for under $1,000 often, so this is a true deal. Between the Intel Core i7-13700H CPU and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, you should be able to play triple-A titles on the High or Ultra graphics detail. This machine even comes with 1TB of SSD storage, which is good news if you’ve got a massive backlog of games. The 15.6-inch 1080p display should also provide smooth gameplay thanks to the 144Hz refresh rate. If you can afford it, this would be a better long-term gaming option than the $800 models listed above thanks to the RTX 4060’s much faster performance. View Deal Best laptops deals under $1,500 Lenovo Flex 7: $1,039.99 ($220 off at Adorama) Lenovo Lenovo Lenovo The Lenovo Flex 7 is a great laptop for those who want an affordable 2-in-1. You’re getting a lightweight design as well as a decent amount of power for just over $1,000. It has an Intel Core i7-1355U CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. Zipping through spreadsheet work, everyday tasks, and so on should be no problem for this machine. In addition to the 2-in-1 form factor, in which the screen swings back 360 degrees, it also weighs just 3.53 pounds. That means you can easily slip it in a backpack or messenger back and take it with you anywhere. View Deal Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: $1,179 ($620 off at B&H) Lenovo Lenovo Lenovo The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is a good option for those who play more intensive titles. We say this because of the display’s ridiculously high 240Hz refresh rate. Gameplay should be as smooth as your mother’s freshly churned butter. There’s a lot of power behind that display, too. You’re getting an Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 32GB of RAM (that’s a lot!), and 1TB of SSD storage. Other goodies include an Ethernet port, an RGB backlit keyboard, and a 1080p webcam. View Deal Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4: $1,229 ($650 off at Adorama) Lenovo Lenovo Lenovo The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 is a powerful machine with a 1200p display, an array of versatile ports, and 512GB of SSD storage. It’s also lightweight at just under three pounds, making it the perfect travel companion. Driven by an Intel Core i7-1365U CPU, it should be able to handle both day-to-day tasks as well as heavier loads. Connectivity options include one Ethernet, one HDMI 2.1, one headphone/microphone combo jack, one USB 3.2 Gen 1, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Always On), and two Thunderbolt 4. That means you don’t have to worry about carrying an adapter around with you. View Deal HP Omen Laptop: $1,299.99 ($400 off at HP) HP HP HP The HP Omen is a great laptop for gamers. Not only does it have a big screen with a fast refresh rate, but it also boasts RTX 4060 graphics as well as RGB backlit keyboard with anti-ghosting technology, allowing you to press down multiple keys at once. Crack this baby open and you’ll find an Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. That means this machine is capable of chewing right through those graphically demanding titles. The 1080p display, which measures a massive 17.3-inches, has a refresh rate of 144Hz and a response time of 7ms, so images should look fluid and realistic. View Deal Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon: $1,391.42 ($1,007.58 off at Lenovo) Lenovo Lenovo Lenovo The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a competent business laptop with a lot of great features. First, let’s talk hardware. This machine weighs well under three pounds and yet it manages to squeeze in an Intel Core i5-1335U, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage. It has a decent amount of power, especially for such a lightweight laptop. You should be able to zip through office work, everyday activities, and more. The 14-inch 1200p display has a maximum brightness of 400 nits and a refresh rate of 60Hz, which should be clear enough for productivity tasks. Plus, you’re getting a 1080p webcam, a backlight keyboard, a fingerprint reader, and ThinkPad’s famously comfortable keyboard with the red nub in the middle. View Deal FAQ 1. How much RAM will I need in my laptop? You’ll want at least 8GB, though 16GB is preferable, especially if you play games. Don’t buy laptops with under 4GB of RAM or 128GB of SSD storage—though on a Chromebook or a budget Windows machine, this configuration is acceptable. Check out our article on how much RAM does a laptop need for more in-depth info. 2. What’s the difference between a Chromebook and a Windows laptop? The one big difference between a Chromebook and a Windows laptop is the operating system. Chromebooks run ChromeOS and Windows run, well, Microsoft Windows. Chromebooks make good everyday machines because they’re designed for browsing the web, checking e-mail, and so on. They use less resources and are generally more affordable than the Windows variety. They also don’t need antivirus protection. A Windows laptop is a lot more versatile in what it can do, and not just in terms of running local programs. You can really pump a Windows laptop up with a ton of RAM, storage, and so on. 3. When should I look for a laptop deal? You’ll likely find the best laptop deals during Prime Day (mid-July), Black Friday (November 29th), and back-to-school season (June-August). Sure, you’ll find good laptop deals throughout the year, but if you really want to save big, we’d recommend scoping out your favorite online retailers during those times. 4. Which retailers offer the best deals? You can find all kinds of deals across a wide range of online retailers such as Newegg, Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, and so on. However, we’d recommend checking out deals from laptop manufacturers like Lenovo, HP, and Dell. You’ll usually find many different configurations on sale and the discounts can be pretty darn steep. For more options, check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available right now. Laptops

With the latest optional update KB5036980 for Windows 11 version 23H2 and 22H2, Microsoft is adding ads for programs and Windows services that users can buy in the Microsoft Store to the Windows 11 Start menu. Microsoft euphemistically refers to this advertising as “Recommendations” (in the Start menu, this area is called “Recommended”), which sounds much nicer. Microsoft describes this innovation as follows: Some Microsoft Store apps are displayed in the Recommended section of the Start menu. These apps come from a small group of selected developers. This will help you discover some of the great apps that are available. Microsoft in the support document for KB5036980 But the better-sounding name doesn’t change the fact that many Windows 11 users don’t want to see ads in the Start menu. How to switch off the new ads in the Start menu get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro Price When Reviewed: 199.99 Best Prices Today: $59 at PCWorld Store – Win 11 Pro Upgrade Only | $79.99 at PCWorld Software Store You are not helplessly at the mercy of the “recommendations” in the Start menu, but can easily switch them off. To do this, in the Windows settings go to Personalization > Start (this is where you configure the Windows 11 Start menu). There you will find an entry named as follows “Show recommendations for tips, app promotions, and more.” Now click the slider to the right of it to toggle the option to “Off.” Important: Ads in the Start menu currently appear only after installing the optional update KB5036980 is currently only an optional update that Windows 11 does not install automatically. KB5036980 will only be automatically installed as a cumulative update on every Windows 11 computer with the next Microsoft Patch Tuesday in May 2024. From then on, all Windows 11 users will find these intrusive recommendations in the Start menu of their operating system. This article originally appeared on PC Welt and has been translated from German to English. Windows

Making the switch from the office to working from home has become the new normal, but some users might feel like their setup is not as well-appointed or productive as at the office. It’s time to change that. With the proper equipment and gear, you can turn your boring-old home setup into a workstation powerhouse — ensuring you’ll never need to return to the office. At PCWorld, we’ve had to adjust to remote work just like the rest of the world. Our staff has spent countless hours testing and reviewing hardware, which means we’ve been lucky enough to find the best gear and accessories available. Below you’ll find our favorite work-from-home essentials. Look sharp during Zoom meetings: Logitech C920e Business Webcam Logitech Logitech Logitech Working from home means you’ll have video meetings. Lots of them. And those low-quality webcams that ship with most laptops won’t show your brightest side. So opt for a new webcam with high-quality resolution such as the Logitech C920e Business Webcam. It captures 1080p HD resolutions, a 78-degree field of view, and comes with great perks such as autofocus and light correction. Get the Logitech C920e Business Webcam for $61.99 at Amazon Bring stability and comfort with a laptop stand: Lamicall Adjustable Laptop Stand Lamicall Lamicall Lamicall A good laptop stand will do wonders for your comfort and health. Not only can a stand keep you in a good ergonomic position, but it will keep your laptop safe and secure on your desk. Plus, a stand makes using a mouse and keyboard with your laptop a lot easier. You don’t need to drop a ton of money on anything expensive, either. A solid lightweight aluminum stand such as the well-liked Lamicall Adjustable Laptop stand will do just fine. It’ll support almost any laptop, from 10 inches up to 17.3 inches. It allows you to adjust both tilt and height and comes with ventilation holes to help dissipate heat from your laptop. Get the Lamicall Adjustable Laptop Stand for $35.99 at Amazon Block out background noise to help you focus: Wyze Noise-Cancelling Headphones Wyze Labs Wyze Labs Wyze Labs While products from the likes of Bose and Sony are great, they are also incredibly expensive. Enter Wyze Labs. The company has created a good pair of over-ear noise-cancelling headphones for a surprisingly affordable price. While the audio quality might not be able to compete with the more expensive brands, the noise-cancelling is still top-notch. If you’re looking to block out background noise at your home office or while working in a busy café, these headphones will do the trick just fine. Get the Wyze Noise-Cancelling Headphones for $72.98 at Amazon Get every answer with a smart display: Google Nest Hub Google Google Google Marrying Google’s ever-helpful voice assistant to a 7-inch touchscreen, the Nest Hub smart display is much more than a device to control your music playlist or play ambient white noise (though both use cases can make working from home more pleasant). You can also use the Nest Hub to run fact-checks (“When did Musk become the CEO of Twitter?”); get direct spellings of words that elude spellcheck; verify the dates of important trade shows and other events; set workday alarms and reminders; and pretty much search everything on Google hands-free, receiving both audio and video results on a separate, independent display. Once you start exploring the work-from-home benefits of a smart display, you’ll never stop. Get the Google Nest Hub Smart Display for $99.99 at BestBuy Protect your devices with a surge protector: TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip TP-Link TP-Link TP-Link Many people take for granted the vulnerability of their electronic devices to power spikes. Unfortunately, after your equipment gets fried is the worst time to realize your mistake. By purchasing a surge protector, you’re only paying a little amount of money to help ensure the safety of your much more expensive electronics. The TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip goes above and beyond a normal everyday surge protector by offering six outlets that can all be controlled and scheduled individually with a mobile app or voice commands, and three USB charging ports. The scheduling system is robust and allows for ultimate flexibility in choosing when to power your devices on and off automatically for any kind of routine or travel need. Get the TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip at Amazon for $44.99 Create a full-on workstation: Kensington SD5500T Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG Mark Hachman / IDG Your ultraportable laptop may be perfect for commuting to and from the office, but when you’re working from home you want a dedicated workstation with the ability to connect all of your peripherals. A Thunderbolt dock will help you expand your laptop’s capabilities and allow you to connect to a larger monitor and a full-sized keyboard. You’ll increase your productivity and your body will thank you for the ergonomic upgrade. We’ve tested a ton of Thunderbolt docks and the Kensington SD5500T is our favorite. It gives you the reliable Thunderbolt 3 standard, a pair of DisplayPort ports, and 60W of laptop charging power all for a relatively affordable price. Get the Kensington SD5500T Docking Station for $289.99 at Walmart Or opt for a less expensive USB-C hub: Hiearcool USB-C Hub YEOLIBO YEOLIBO YEOLIBO If you don’t want to drop the cash on a Thunderbolt dock, you should at least consider getting a USB-C hub. Modern laptops tend to lack all of the ports you need to connect peripherals and that’s where a USB-C hub comes in. They are cheap and they allow you to significantly expand your port options. We recommend the Hiearcool USB-C Hub as it gives you a variety of USB-A as well as USB-C ports and microSD and SD card slots, all for around $25. Get the Yeolib 9-in-1 USB-C Hub for $24.99 at Amazon Clean up your act: Simplehuman Cleanstation phone sanitizer Jon Phillips Jon Phillips Jon Phillips Your phone is dirty. That’s because your hands are dirty, your keyboard is dirty, and the poop bag you handled on your 10am dog walk is dirty. All our WFH germs get on our phone case, so that’s why our editor keeps the Simplehuman Cleanstation on his home office desk. Just drop your phone into this gadget and 30 high-intensity UV-C LED lights will kill 99.9 percent of the phone’s surface germs in less than 30 seconds. Get the Simplehuman Cleanstation Phone Sanitizer for $199.99 at Walmart Don’t skimp on your screen: Asus ProArt PA348CGV Matt Smith Matt Smith Matt Smith Working from home is all about productivity, and one of the best pieces of hardware to boost productivity is a great monitor. The Asus ProArt PA348CGV is an ultrawide monitor with plenty of horizontal screen space so you can view all of your apps and documents spread out at the same time. It sports excellent image quality, a wide color gamut, and good connectivity options. There are a ton of great monitors out there, but the Asus ProArt PA348CGV has an excellent mix of features for anyone who has basic needs but wants a premium experience. Get the Asus ProArt PA348CGV for $777.36 at Amazon Upgrade that new screen’s ergonomics: Ergotron LX Premium Monitor Arm Matt Smith/Foundry Matt Smith/Foundry Matt Smith/Foundry A good monitor arm is one of the best upgrades you can make to your home office setup. It’ll open up way more options to move and position your display around your desk and it frees up precious desktop space as well. The Ergotron LX Premium Monitor Arm is our favorite monitor arm for a reason. It’s sturdy, practical, and can pair with almost any monitor around. The LX Premium is designated as an “entry-level” model, but it comes with specs that you’d expect from something much more expensive. It can support monitors up to 25 pounds and comes with 75 degrees of tilt, plus 360 degrees of rotation and pan. Get the Ergotron LX Premium Monitor Arm for $209.00 at amazon Consider ergonomics: Logitech Lift & Keychron Q8 keyboard Foundry Foundry Foundry If you’re working from home all day, you need to be comfortable and a standard mouse and keyboard just won’t cut it. Focusing on ergonomics, the Logitech Lift mouse and Keychron Q8 keyboard were built to help keep your hands and wrists in a more comfortable and less injury-prone position. Michael Crider/IDG Michael Crider/IDG Michael Crider/IDG The Lift mouse can be purchased for either left or right hands and comes in a variety of colors. It’s also wireless, which helps you minimize desktop clutter. The Keychron Q8 keyboard is a bit pricey, but gives you the satisfying feel and dependability of a mechanical keyboard while the curved design allows your wrists to rest in a more natural and comfortable position while typing. Get the Logitech Lift Mouse for $60.00 at Amazon Get the Keychron Q8 Keyboard for $199.00 at Keychron Go wireless: Logitech MK540 Advanced Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo If you don’t want to spend big on a mouse and keyboard, you can find a more affordable alternative in the Logitech MK540 Advanced Wireless Keyboard and Mouse combo. Coming in at an affordable $50, the keyboard is surprisingly snappy and has a pleasant tactile experience without too much noise. The mouse provides smooth and reliable use and has a few programmable gestures you can set for your convenience. Both are wireless, so you can do away with all of those annoying cables cluttering your desktop. Get the Logitech MK540 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse for $44.99 at Amazon Backup software is a must: iDrive Online Cloud Backup Many people neglect to consider backup when working from home, but if your IT department isn’t covering you and your data, it’s something that needs to be addressed. Luckily there are relatively inexpensive services such as iDrive Online Cloud Backup that make it simple to do. iDrive is comprehensive and versatile and allows you to set up and use the backup service without any fuss. It’s a one-stop shop to help keep your valuable data safe and secure. Get iDrive for $69.65 at iDrive So is a robust PDF editor: Adobe Acrobat Pro DC PDFs are a staple of any modern digital workplace, but they aren’t always the easiest to edit. There are a ton of great PDF editors out there, but Adobe Acrobat Pro DC has been, and continues to be, the reigning champ. There is no other software that combines the same features for creating, editing, reviewing, and securing your PDF documents. Plus, the subscription-based format means that you’ll always have access to the latest version and won’t need to continually buy new software every year. Get Adobe Acrobat Pro DC for $19.99 per month at Adobe Ease eye-strain: BenQ ScreenBar BenQ ScreenBar BenQ ScreenBar BenQ BenQ ScreenBar BenQ BenQ To save space on your desk and reduce eye-strain there is no better option than a screenbar — a USB-powered desk lamp that attaches to the top of your monitor. When BenQ debuted its ScreenBar it had us wondering why no one had thought of this extremely practical solution before. It’ll save you desk space and keep you from going cross-eyed from squinting through the reflections on your monitor all day. Admittedly, it’s a bit pricey, but your eyes will thank you in the long run. Get the BenQ ScreenBar for $109.00 at Amazon The conventional desk lamp option: IKEA Forså If you don’t want to shell out the money for a screenbar or it just isn’t your style, then the tried-and-true desk lamp can be a great alternative. At just over $30, the IKEA Forså provides form and function to help keep your desk looking chic and well lit.  It comes with excellent adjustability, a cool old-school chrome design, and a straightforward on/off switch to keep things dead-simple. Get the Ikea Forså Desk Lamp for $34.99 at IKEA Keep upright: Jarvis Bamboo Standing desk When working from home you have a tendency to stay seated for long periods of time even more so than working in an office. And no matter how comfy that fancy ergonomic office chair is, sitting in it all day isn’t ideal. The best way to keep your body happy while working at a desk is to switch to an electric height-adjustable standing desk.  The Jarvis Bamboo Standing desk not only looks nice with its clean bamboo top, but it’s practical too. It comes with an impressive height adjustment range, solid stability (even when maxed out), a great warranty, and decent customization options — it ticks all the boxes for things you want in the perfect standing desk. Get the Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk for $744 at HermanMiller Set the mood: Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer Michael Brown/Foundry Michael Brown/Foundry Michael Brown/Foundry A smart light switch isn’t an obvious necessity, until you have one. Being able to control the lighting system in your home office via voice controls, motion detection, or your smartphone is a simple luxury that can pay dividends — both in your mood and in your energy bill. The Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer is built to work with the Lutron Caséta ecosystem, but it also provides broad compatibility with different smart products and systems such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and many others. It also has a minimalist design that doesn’t draw attention to itself. Get the Lutron Diva Smart Dimmer for $69.95 at Home Depot Stay warm: Vornado VH200 Heater In those cold months of winter you need a way to keep warm and comfortable while you work at home. A space heater such as the Vornado VH200 Heater is a great way to keep your energy bill down while still warming a specific area. The Vornado is small enough that it won’t take up too much room in your office, but powerful enough that it can heat an entire room by itself. It’s also extremely quiet, meaning you can focus on your work without being distracted by an overly noisy fan. Get the Vornado VH200 Heater for $74.99 at Walmart Say no to cables: Anker Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand Anker Anker Anker A clean desktop can help you stay productive and focused while working at home. One of the best ways to reduce your cord clutter is to switch to a wireless phone charger. It’s also one of the most convenient and hassle-free ways to charge your mobile devices. Right now there’s no better wireless charger than the Anker Magnetic Wireless Charging stand. It’s the fastest Android charger we’ve ever tested, it has a clean, minimalist look, and the magnetic stand keeps your phone securely upright, making checking notifications a breeze. Get the Anker Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand for $34.99 at Amazon Get some computer speakers: Creative Pebble Creative Creative Creative A full, booming 7.1 surround-sound speaker setup might be great for watching movies and playing games, but for work you don’t need anything nearly as fancy. If you’re working at home you just want something that will produce clear audio during meetings or while listening to some background LoFi beats to help keep you focused. Save yourself some money and go with the Creative Pebble speakers, which for only $40 produce deep and rich audio that you would expect from something two or three times the price. Plus they don’t take up much space and look really good on a desktop. Get the Creative Pebble Speakers for $34.99 at Amazon Do-it-all productivity: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 You need a laptop while working at home and there are none more suited to the task than the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9. It sports great performance thanks to its Core i7, integrated Iris Xe graphics, and 16GB of RAM. It will not only handle any word processing and spreadsheet work you throw at it, but it can also handle web-browsing while you’re on your “lunch break.” It has a spacious 16:10 aspect-ratio screen, which is ideal for viewing documents, and a comfortable keyboard for marathon typing or coding sessions. Get the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 for $898.77 at Amazon Back to basics: Chromebook Spin 713 CP713-3W-5102 IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo If you want something a little more portable (or affordable) than a full-fledged productivity machine like the Lenovo ThinkPad, then look no further than the Chromebook Spin 713. It has fast performance and a versatile 2-in-1 form factor. Meaning you can either use it as a regular laptop or flip the screen around and use it like a tablet. At just under three pounds, it’s also portable enough to take to the coffee shop when you need a change of scenery. So long as you don’t need Windows while working, the Spin 713 is a great everyday option. Get the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 for $579.00 at Amazon Keyboards, Laptops, Monitors

At a glanceExpert's Rating ProsAmple connectivityFantastic battery lifeWonderful typing experienceStrong performanceReasonably pricedConsUninspiring designNo OLED displayOur VerdictThe Acer Swift Go 14 is a reliable travel workhorse through and through. Price When Reviewed$799 Best Prices Today: Acer Swift Go 14 Retailer Price B&H $749 View Deal $799.99 View Deal $999.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket What if you took an already good yet affordable laptop, added more features and newer specs, and lowered the price? That’d be pretty great, right? Now take that same laptop and add an extra six hours of battery life over its predecessor. That’s exactly what the Swift Go 14 (SFG14-73T-75FA) delivers. The only “problems” are that confusing name and availability. You’ll only find this model in Costco. If you follow PCWorld laptop reviews, you might think we already reviewed the Swift Go 14 a few months ago. And in a way, you wouldn’t be wrong. But this is a new “line” of Swift Go 14 (referred to as the SFG14-73/T line) with some distinct differences from the model we reviewed last. And those differences add up so much, it might be worth springing for a Costco membership just to buy this version. Starting with the fact that you get extra features for a cheaper price: at $799.99 this model undercuts the last Swift Go 14 we looked at by $200. Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available right now. Acer Swift Go 14: Specs For $800, it’s impressive what you’re getting in the box. This new Acer Swift Go 14 comes with nearly the same spec list as the last model we looked at, with a few improvements like WiFI 7. That’s so future proof that technically Windows doesn’t support it fully yet. And you probably don’t own a single WiFi 7 device either. And thankfully you still get Intel’s new Core Ultra 7 155H processor, along with a decent amount of RAM, plenty of storage, and more ports than you can shake a stick at. One spec not listed below that we’ll get into later is the trackpad, because it has a few tricks up its sleeve. Specs as tested: CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc integrated graphics Display: 1920×1200 IPS multi-touch display Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe solid state drive Webcam: 1440p QHD webcam Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x HDMI 2.1, MicroSD card reader. 3.5mm audio jack Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.3 Biometrics: Fingerprint reader Battery capacity: 65 watt-hours Dimensions: 14.5 x 8.5 x .58 Weight: 3.05 pounds MSRP: $799.99 Acer Swift Go 14: Build quality and looks IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson I have so much praise to offer what Acer accomplished inside the Swift Go 14. But when it comes to the exterior, I don’t have any true compliments. Or complaints. If you asked a Wikipedia artist to draw a generic laptop image that didn’t scream of any particular brand, they’d probably end up drawing something just like the Swift Go 14. It’s so generic that my wife saw me looking at pictures of it and asked if it was a Framework laptop. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Generic means you won’t be embarrassed to bring this to work or school or just about anywhere else. It’s not loud, obnoxious, or screaming of “Shutterstock Hacker example” vibes. The aluminum exterior feels nice against the hands, but the laptop itself has a little more flex and give than I’d expect of the materials. I do appreciate that you can open the lid with just one hand, and the odd feet on the underside actually lifts the keyboard slightly when it’s open. That might, in theory, give the vents a better opportunity to work, but it’s technically less ergonomic. It’s a decently thin and light laptop at just over three pounds, but thanks to the Swift Go 14’s overall boxy feel, it doesn’t feel as sleek as it is. If this were a premium high-end expensive laptop, all of that might be disappointing. But this is an $800 laptop, so all of that is perfectly acceptable. Acer Swift Go 14: Keyboard and trackpad IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson The keyboard and trackpad, however, I have plenty of compliments to give. I suffer from varying hand issues that make me favor ergonomic keyboards, and when I move to a laptop keyboard it’s usually an uncomfortable experience. But typing on this Acer keyboard wasn’t bad. The travel is decent, you get some adequate click noise, and I never felt myself getting ahead of the computer or hitting the wrong keys. That’s not to say every decision is perfect, of course. The arrow keys are cramped, and at this size you won’t get a numpad. But the biggest annoyance of all is out of Acer’s hand: the new Copilot button. I don’t think I’ve ever hit it on purpose. What’s the Copilot button you ask? It’s Microsoft’s push at building AI into Windows. It’ll call up the new Copilot AI and you can ask questions, find a recipe, or just about anything else ChatGPT does. But do you remember the Office button? Yeah that was a thing for a hot minute, and I bet you never used it either. And that replaced the right side CTRL key, something that’s arguably more useful. Thankfully you still have a left side CTRL key, and a left side Windows  key, but if you’re used to using either of those on the right side of your keyboard, you’ll have to form new habits. Acer also includes an AcerSense Key up by the fingerprint sensor, and it’s exactly as useful as the CoPilot Key. I’d rather have something else, anything else, there instead. It fires up custom Acer software that you can just call up through the Start Menu anyway. That software is mildly important, as that’s where you customize the trackpad lighting (or turn it off). Speaking of the trackpad, it’s a good size and very responsive. I particularly enjoy the extra features this model adds that wasn’t found on the previous Swift Go 14 we reviewed: media controls. Start up a video, whether it be a YouTube video in a browser or switch to a media playing app, and the media controls automatically light up on the trackpad. I expected them to be terrible and fidgety, but shockingly these are useful and responsive. For once a feature you didn’t ask for that actually adds something good to the package. Good job Acer! I did, however, have a couple of occasions where my palms brushed the trackpad just enough to cause my caret to jump up several paragraphs while writing this review. It didn’t happen frequently, but more than once, so it’s worth noting. Acer Swift Go 14: Speakers and display IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson You can’t expect a lot out of $800 laptop speakers, and that proves to be the case here. You’ll get no thumping bass, no room filling sounds, or anything you’d want to host a concert on. But what you do get is a competent set of speakers that gets the job done. Dialog is clear, music is recognizable, and shockingly you get a bit of left and right surround. No seriously, I watched a movie with surround and I could get a sense of audio direction, which is more than I expected. But if you really want good sound, grab a set of headphones and plug them into the (thankfully included) headphone jack. Adequate describes the display as well, at least the model I’m testing. This Swift Go 14 variant comes in two display flavors: 1900×1200 IPS and 2880×1800 OLED. My review unit is the IPS flavor, and it shows. Compared to OLED displays black colors are washed out, contrast is just so-so, and colors aren’t all that vibrant. The touchscreen is a welcome addition though, especially since it somehow doesn’t hold back the Swift Go’s epic battery life (more on that later). All in all, none of this is “best in class” but you have to keep the price in mind. For the amount you are spending, I’m pretty happy with what you get. It’s a good enough display and good enough speakers without emptying your wallet. Acer Swift Go 14: Webcam, microphone, biometric options IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson Check out the top bezel and you’ll find the Acer Swift Go 14’s 1440p webcam. I hate to repeat the refrain of “it gets the job done,” but it indeed gets the job done. At 1440p, you get a crisp image, with decent color and exposure. Naturally things start to struggle in dim lighting, and you will of course suffer from the classic laptop “up the nose” angle. But it supports Windows Studio effects, including background blurring, framing, and eye contact. That all works well enough, although the blur could do better edge work. The webcam also has a physical privacy shutter, which is a must have in this day and age. The microphone does a pretty good job too, providing decent volume and crips vocals. You get a bit of noise cancellation, but it’s not overly aggressive so you’ll want to keep that in mind if you have a very noisy background. Like most laptops, you’d be better off with dedicated cameras and microphones, but if you don’t need the highest quality video calls than what Acer provides is more than good enough. As for biometrics, you can’t log in with your face unfortunately. All you have is a fingerprint sensor that doubles as a power button. At the upper right corner of the keyboard, the placement is a little awkward but not the worst I’ve seen. The sensor works quickly and consistently, unless you have dirty or damp fingers, of course. It’s not as convenient as face unlock, but it’s a close second. Acer Swift Go 14: Ports and connectivity IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson Do you know what always pleases me with a laptop? Plenty of ports. And here, the Swift Go 14 delivers. Look to the left side of the laptop and you’ll find two USB-C ports (one of which you’ll need for charging), and HDMI port, and a USB-A port. But Acer isn’t done. Head over to the right side and you’ll get another USB-A port, a headphone hack, a Kensington lock, and a microSD card. That’s so many ports. IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson And it’s not just any old ports either. The USB-C ports are the almighty Thunderbolt types, which is fantastic if you want to plug in a couple of portable monitors. The HDMI port? You get 2.1 for speedy connection if you prefer something that route. Even the USB-A ports are fast 3.2 Gen 1ports, great for transferring data. But it’s not all perfect: I really wish the USB-C ports weren’t on the same side. It’s more convenient when they’re on opposite sides, both for charging options and if you want to hook up two portable monitors. Acer killed it in terms of connectivity too. The Swift Go 14 arrives with WiFi 7 out of the box. That’s so sparkly new that you probably don’t own anything else with WiFi 7, let alone the routers to support it. It’s backwards compatible of course, so you’ll get the maximum speeds your surrounds provide and future-proofing. Likewise, Bluetooth 5.3 is as new as you can get, and in my testing that means you can walk quite a bit away from the laptop and maintain a strong connection for your wireless headphones or earbuds. It’s fantastic. Acer Swift Go 14: Performance The Acer Swift Go 14 arrives with Intel’s new 14th-Gen Core processor, in this case the Core Ultra 7 155H. We’ve had a chance to test a few of these laptops now, and there’s more performance variation than you might think thanks to other choices like RAM, storage speeds, cooling, and so on. The Core Ultra 7 155H has six “performance” cores, eight “efficient” cores, and two “low-power cores” for a total of 16 cores and 22 threads. Acer paired this with 16GB of LPPDR5 RAM, and a 1 TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD. Other than gaming, this Acer has no excuse to run slow. IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson That good mix of hardware shows in our first test, PCMark. This Acer Swift Go scored 7,141, leading the pack even among other laptops running the same processor. To be fair, it’s within a hundred points of the ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2, so a few more tests could potentially have them trade places. But that ThinkPad costs $1,000 more, so that’s a very good start for Acer. IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson The Acer Swift Go 14 continues to shine in the Cinebench R20 test. This test is a multithreaded short-duration test, and the Acer jumps to the top of our list with a score of 5,656. Again it outperforms other laptops running the same processor, which suggests Acer is doing some good work in handling temperature and throttling. Admittedly, the difference in the top three laptops is pretty small, so in theory with enough tests these three could trade places. But considering the price difference, it’s still a pretty big win for the affordable Swift Go. IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson Next we run a Handbrake encoding test, and the Acer scores admirably here too. If we were to switch out the list to include much more powerful (and therefore much more expensive) laptops, you’d see the Acer fall further down the list. But stick with relatively similar and recent machines, and the Swift Go holds it own and barely squeaks out another win by margin of error. That it can hold its own against similarly spec’d laptops priced at hundreds (or even a thousand) dollars more, goes to show that paying more doesn’t always get you more power, sometimes it’s about other things like a larger 4K display in the case of the MSI Prestige 16 in our chart. IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson Next up is 3Dmark’s Time Spy benchmark, which focuses on Graphics Capability. On this test, I changed up the comparisons just slightly. Here, we substitute in the Dell XPS 16 9640, which uses the same Core Ultra 7 155H processor, but also throws in more RAM and a dedicated GPU. You’ll notice that among the laptops without a dedicated GPU, it fares very well. It takes second to the MSI Prestige 16 by just a few points, and noticeably ahead of the laptops the two ThinkPads, which rely on an i7 and AMD Ryzen 7 CPUs. But once we add in a laptop with a dedicated processor, you’ll see the limits of integrated graphics, even with these new Ultra Core offerings. Despite running the same processor, the Dell blows the Acer (and everything else) out of the water, and that’s down to the GPU naturally. So, the takeaway is this: integrated graphics will still get you by for regular productivity and even very light gaming, but if you want to run the latest and greatest AAA games at max settings, you need a GPU. The same goes for video editing. You can do it in a pinch, but you wouldn’t want this Acer to be your main editing machine. Acer Swift Go: Battery life IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson IDG / Josh Hendrickson Holy cow, this new Acer Swift Go has staying power. To test battery life, we put the laptop in airplane mode and loop a 4K copy of Tears of Steel until the it dies. We actually tested another model of the Swift Go 14 late last year, and it put up merely respectable results of just over nine hours. So, imagine my shock when this less expensive more featured model lasted nearly 15 hours in the same test. That’s somehow despite having a lit-up trackpad with media controls. In fact, only one laptop in our chart manages to go longer, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus. But that’s $100 more, heavier, and has a lower resolution display. And the Dell misses out on some other features, like a second USB-C Thunderbolt port, a faster HDMI port, and future proofing with WiFi 7. So that becomes a question of, how much do you want to give up just to get even longer battery life? Looping video tests don’t always translate well to real world use of course, but I’m happy to say that the Acer does indeed having plenty of staying power. I easily make it through an entire workday with plenty of juice to spare, and I can usually make it through a second day too without sweating. In fact, as I write this, I’m through day two since I charged last and I’m sitting at 75 percent battery life. This is a laptop that, so long as I started on a full charge, I wouldn’t be too stressed if I accidentally left behind my charger. That’s peace of mind I’d pay extra for, and you don’t even have to this time. Acer Swift Go 14: Conclusion Acer might not be the very first brand you think of when buying a laptop, but maybe it should be. Or at least it should be in your consideration list. It’s true that the Swift Go 14 isn’t the most high-end luxurious model you can buy, but it’s not trying to be either. It’s a travel workhorse. Strong enough to get you through everyday tasks, whether that’s Office productivity apps or checking email, and light enough not weigh you down. It’s also hard not to appreciate the generous port selection, as that means you can ditch the dongles and just worry about bringing the charger. But that might be my favorite bit about the Swift Go 14. For $800 you get a laptop that goes and goes for days, so honestly you may not even have to worry about bringing that charger after all. And thanks to USB-C charging, there’s a decent chance you could replace it if you absolutely had to anyway. This isn’t a perfect laptop. You don’t get OLED, and I still wish Acer had placed one of those USB-C ports on the other side for maximum convenience. And you can’t expect to do anything that requires real power, like AAA gaming with Ray Tracing. But I go back to the price: it’s $800. I’ve spent more for laptops that didn’t offer everything the Swift Go 14 does and didn’t last half as long on a charge. For this price range, it’s very hard to complain when there’s so much to praise. The only real catch is where you buy it: it’s a Costco exclusive. But the Acer Swift Go 14 might literally be worth the price of admission. Laptops

YouTube can be a great resource to stay up to date on industry developments or learn new skills. But it can also be incredibly time-consuming to watch videos all day. That’s where a TubeOnAi Premium Lite Plan can help. This clever tool downloads transcripts of videos from the channel you follow and summarizes the content by leveraging GPT-4 AI. Right now, you can get a lifetime subscription to this time-saving tool for just $78.99. With this plan, you can monitor up to 50 channels, instantly downloading and getting summaries delivered in real-time. You can get summaries delivered in text form or as audio playback, allowing you to get the main idea of any video in a fraction of the time in a way that works with your schedule. You can even use TubeOnAI like ChatGPT, creating content to take what you’ve learned from videos instantly into action. Save time and accomplish more with help from a TubeOnAi Premium Lite Plan. Right now, you can get a lifetime subscription for 64% off $224 at just $78.99.   TubeOnAi Premium Lite Plan: Lifetime Subscription – $78.99 See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Accessories

Autio is a road trip companion with a huge library of audio stories that sync with your location. These professionally edited and narrated stories tell you about the history of the world around you, from the landscape to the cultures that originally settled there and modern places to visit if you want to stop. There are already over 23,000 stories in the Autio library covering everything from local history to culture, sports, and music.  These stories are narrated by master storytellers, including celebrity voices like Kevin Costner, Phil Jackson, and John Lithgow. Plus, you don’t have to search for a story to match your location. They’re automatically triggered based on your location. Stories will play as you pass through a relevant region, and you can even use it offline.  The offline mode requires you to download stories in advance. They’re only 3-5 minutes long, too, so you could learn a lot in a little time. New stories are added weekly.  Autio is like a tour guide for your every road trip. For a limited time, you can get a subscription for a better price than on the App Store when you get: Autio Unlimited Plan: 3-Year Subscription for $39.99 Autio Unlimited Plan: 5-Year Subscription for $69.99 Autio Unlimited Plan: Lifetime Subscription for $199.99   Autio Unlimited Plan: 5-Year Subscription – $69.99 See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.  Accessories

Antivirus software is a necessary tool in today’s online world. Attacks are only becoming more sophisticated, especially with the continued rise of AI. Even the most tech-savvy and cautious among us can drop their guard at wrong time or get tricked into exposing themselves to a malware, spyware, or ransomware vulnerability. Antivirus protection is an essential backup against such threats.  We’re not suggesting that PC security software is fool-proof, but it does a great job of protecting your computer against harmful malware and ransomware. Most systems come with security software baked into the OS, but this is often the bare minimum you need. Choosing to purchase more robust antivirus software will provide you with features such as an advanced firewall, sandbox environments for suspicious programs, and multi-device protection, among other things. How do you choose a good antivirus? We’ve tested a multitude of offerings, including all the big names, so you don’t have to! When testing antivirus software, we look for products that strike a balance between excellent protection, a worthwhile selection of features, and minimal performance impact on your PC. For more information, you can read about how we test antivirus software below our picks.  Update April 29, 2024: The McAfee trial software on your PC isn’t working out? Our quick tutorial for how to uninstall McAfee walks you through the steps. But before you do, you might want to check out our McAfee Total Protection review to get a complete idea of the basic paid suite’s strengths and weaknesses. Best antivirus of 2024 reviewed and ranked Norton 360 Deluxe – Best antivirus for PC overall Pros Strong antivirus protection Wide protection against major online threats Simple, straightforward features Cons Performance impact on some PCs User interface would benefit from consolidation Upselling of additional services Price When Reviewed: $49.99 for the first year Best Prices Today: $19.99 at PCWorld Software Store$49.99 at Norton Why we picked Norton 360 Deluxe An ideal antivirus suite packs in a little of everything needed for security without costing a ton—and that’s why our pick for the best antivirus software of 2024 is still Norton 360 Deluxe. Despite its slightly awkward interface, this software’s wide protection and affordable pricing is ideal for most users. This plan has just about everything most PC users need, without extra bloat. In addition to the antivirus engine and firewall to protect against malware and network threats, you get malicious link and attachment screening, dark web and privacy monitoring, and webcam safeguards. Norton also tosses in 50GB of storage for cloud backups, access to Norton’s password manager and VPN, parental controls, and PC utilities that include the ability to monitor for outdated software. Those major extras—the password manager, VPN, and parental controls—have easy, simple interfaces, without feeling stripped to the bone. You’ll actually want to use them, unlike some rival plans from Norton’s competitors. For antivirus performance, Norton doesn’t hit perfect marks across the board, but its online protection is strong. In tests performed by leading security research institutes, like AV-Test’s zero-day attack and malware tests for November and December 2023, Norton detected 100 percent of the threats. Similarly, in AV-Comparatives’ real-world protection test for July through October 2023, Norton blocked 99.8 percent of the 512 test cases. And when tasked with the 10,007 samples in AV-Comparatives’ September 2023 malware protection test, Norton 360 scored a 99.98 percent online protection rate and 99.7 percent online detection rate. Its 86.0 percent offline detection rate puts it in middle on the leaderboards, but fewer users go offline these days, much less plug in unknown USB drives into their systems these days. Most file transfers and downloads are done online now. In our in-house benchmarks of system performance, Norton can hit a slower or older PC harder than other antivirus software during a full scan—at least, when faced with many new files. If you don’t do a lot of downloading or copying to your hard drive(s), the scans go pretty quickly and have a more minimal impact. Overall, Norton is an excellent option for those looking to consolidate their online security protections into a single software interface. It has a couple of quirks (namely a dual user interface that can mildly slow navigation), but its strengths far outshine its weaknesses. Who should use Norton 360 Deluxe Norton 360 Deluxe works for everyone—it consolidates all the biggest protections you need online into one package, including parental controls. If you have trouble keeping up with security experts’ recommendations (or haven’t yet gotten around to following all of them), this suite centralizes and simplifies it all. Read our full Norton 360 Deluxe review Avast One – Best overall runner-up Pros Good new design Well priced Excellent performance Cons Smart scan requires too much user intervention Avast asks to install Google Chrome Price When Reviewed: $50.28 / 5 devices I $69.48 / 30 devices Best Prices Today: $32.99 at Avast Why we picked Avast One Avast not only offers solid protection, but a simple, friendly interface. Combine that together with useful extra features and multi-device coverage, and you have a winning combo in Avast One. Rounding out that top-notch antivirus and firewall are safeguards against remote webcam takeovers, malicious websites, and trackers—these keep you safe against major online threats. The Avast One plan also includes dark web monitoring (which looks for your email address in data breaches and alert you to compromised passwords), a VPN with up to 5GB of bandwidth per week, and protections for saved passwords in a browser. You get utilities to help you keep your PC’s drivers up to date, clean up your PC, and optimize your apps. These features may sound standard, and to be fair, many of them can be found in rival software. But Avast makes staying on top of security dead simple, whether you’re a novice or a security veteran. Its default settings require little input to keep your PC protected, and if you want to dig in further or tinker, you still have that option, too. In evaluations by leading security research organizations, Avast runs with the very top performers on the leaderboards. AV-Test gave it perfect scores for protection against zero-day and prevalent malware in its November and December 2023 evaluation. Meanwhile, AV-Comparatives’ September 2023 Malware Protection Test found that Avast blocked 99.97 percent of online threats, with similar marks for online and offline detection rates. In its July through October 2023 real-world test, Avast’s antivirus engine blocked 100 percent of the 512 samples. And the software had no real effect on system performance in our in-house hardware benchmarks. So what keeps Avast out of the top spot, when its software outperforms Norton’s? The amount of features for its price. Norton’s performance isn’t perfect, but it’s about as good for online protection, which is where it counts. And the two software plans cost about the same—Avast One is $51 for 5 devices (or $70 for up to 30 devices) during the first year. The cost rises to $110 and $150, respectively, per year afterward. In the end, the more well-rounded subscription wins out. Who should use Avast One You’re someone who has a password manager already set up, don’t need parental controls, and prioritize the highest marks in threat detection tests. Avast One lacks the first two features, and takes top marks for catching both online and offline risks. Read our full Avast One review AVG Internet Security – Best budget antivirus suite Pros Top-rated antivirus protection Expanded protection against malicious websites and remote attacks Clean, straightforward interface Cons Some PCs may experience a performance hit during heavier workloads Several features are a bit rudimentary Price When Reviewed: $59.99 Best Prices Today: $10 at PCWorld Software Store$59.88 at AVG Why we picked AVG Internet Security AVG is best known for its excellent free antivirus software, but there’s good reason to upgrade. AVG Internet Security not only offers more comprehensive protection, but also easy management of those tools. That can be valuable if you find keeping up with online threats too overwhelming or time consuming. The Internet Security plan builds upon the free version’s protection against malware and web, email, and network threat by adding five features. You get safeguards for the passwords saved to your browsers; webcam takeovers; unknown access to files with sensitive data; malicious redirects for websites you’re trying to visit (aka DNS hijacking); and attacks conducted through Windows’ remote desktop protocol. In addition to real-time scanning of your PC and network, AVG Internet Security watches for malicious websites as you browse online—and even monitors where your email address appears online. If it’s spotted in a data leak, you’ll get a notification in the app. When tested by leading security organizations, AVG earned high marks for antivirus and malware protection. In AV-Test’s zero-day attack and malware tests for November and December 2023, Internet Security detected 100 percent of the threats. Similarly, in AV-Comparatives’ real-world protection test for July through October 2023, AVG’s core antivirus component blocked 100 percent of the 512 test cases. When faced with 10,007 samples in AV-Comparatives’ September 2023 malware protection test, it scored a 95.3 percent offline detection rate, 99.5 percent online detection rate, and 99.97 percent online protection rate, with just one false positive. In our own PCWorld performance testing, AVG Internet Security had minimal impact on system resources during everyday tasks like video chatting and web browsing. Even a more intensive task like encoding a video was barely affected. However, during heavier Microsoft Office use, you can see a drop in performance when a full scan is happening—especially if you’re on an older or slower machine. Scheduled scans are timed to happen during off-hours by default, though, so most users won’t notice too much of a hit. Despite its quirks (like advertisements for additional paid features), AVG Internet Security is reliable antivirus software with a user friendly interface—and at just $60 during the first year for 10 devices, it’s affordable, too. In fact, it’s solid enough to earn a recommendation despite how strong the free version is on its own. Who should use AVG Internet Security You need deeper control and more expansive protection from your antivirus software, but you don’t want to pay extra for features you don’t want. AVG Internet Security expands just enough on the company’s free antivirus to make it worthwhile, even though it lacks elements like parental controls, VPN, and a password manager. Read our full AVG Internet Security review Trend Micro Maximum Security – Best antivirus for beginners Pros Mute Mode is an excellent feature for power users PC Health Checkup helps clean-up your PC Cons Some of the privacy features didn’t work reliably Data theft prevention not as robust as it could be Price When Reviewed: 5 devices: $49.95/yr Best Prices Today: $39.99 at Best Buy$49.95 at Trend Micro Why we picked Trend Micro The best antivirus suites are as simple as possible—one where the app lays everything out clearly for users of all stripes. Trend Micro Maximum Security nails this principle with some of the easiest navigation we’ve seen. It also packs in extras beyond protections against malware, ransomware, and web threats that aren’t often found in rival software. For starters, you can open Chrome and Firefox in a sandboxed mode to protect your banking and other sensitive browsing sessions. You can also enter information like a credit card number, email address, or telephone number into the app and it will automatically warn you if that data is leaving your PC. This suite also offers a browser-based password manager to safeguard your logins, as well as parental controls to filter websites, set time limits, and control access to Windows programs. When tested by leading security research organizations, Trend Micro’s antivirus engine takes top marks for online protection. It scored 100 percent in AV-Test’s November and December 2023 evaluation, catching all zero-day and web/email threats, as well as currently prevalent malware. Likewise in AV-Comparatives’ malware protection test, Maximum Security locked in a 97.95 percent online protection rate. It caught all 512 samples in the July through October 2023 real-world protection test, too. However, Trend Micro isn’t as good at detecting offline threats, with a score of 57.1 percent, and also had a higher false positive rate than rivals.  Most PC newbies won’t be affected by these performance results, since they’ll be online all the time. Only those on an older or slower PC might feel the effects of running Trend Micro Maximum Security, especially if during a CPU intensive task like encoding—during our in-house benchmarks, we saw system performance drop under heavy load. But this kind of intensive work isn’t usually typical for less seasoned computer users. If this easy-to-use, robust suite sounds appealing, it gets even better when you look at its cost. You’ll pay just $45 during the first year for five devices, and $76 every year thereafter. You can save more if you drop down to three devices, which is just $30 for the first year, and $46 every year afterward. Who should use Trend Micro Trend Micro Maximum Security is perfect for anyone wanting antivirus software that feels less intimidating to use—especially if you’ve got accounts and kids to protect. Maximum Security includes a password manager and parental controls, both of which are vital tools for online safety. Read our full Trend Micro Maximum Security review Avira Prime – Best antivirus for beginners runner-up Pros Strong security with a reasonable subscription price Well designed and user-friendly Offers a host of features in the areas of security, privacy, and performance Cons No subscription option for fewer than five devices Simplicity of app feels slightly at odds with the depth of the PC tools Price When Reviewed: 5 devices: $9.99/mo I $59.99/yr I $189.99/2yrs Best Prices Today: $59.99 at Avira Operations GmbH Why we picked Avira Prime Trend Micro Maximum Security may be our current pick for best beginner-friendly antivirus suite, but not for a lack of trying on Avira Prime’s part. In fact, Avira is arguably the better choice for those seeking more help with managing their PC. In addition to a simple, clear interface for malware scans and online protections, Avira Prime offers a password manager, unlimited VPN, and a boatload of PC utilities for tuning up your computer. These tools aim to boost your computer speed, save on laptop battery life, keep apps and drivers up to date, enhance game performance, locate duplicate files, and securely delete sensitive data. You also get many backup options that extend beyond just documents. The one major feature missing from Avira Prime (and partially the reason for its runner-up status) is a set of parental controls. You can’t use it to filter web content or monitor device usage. For antivirus protection, Avira generally provides solid protection against malware and other threats, with high performance in tests done by security research institutions. In AV-Test’s zero-day attack and malware evaluation for November and December 2023 (the most current as of this article’s publishing), it caught 100 percent of the threats. It did almost as well in AV-Comparatives’ real-world protection test for July through October 2023, blocking 99.4 percent of the 512 test cases simulating online dangers. Meanwhile, in AV-Comparatives’ September 2023 malware protection test, Avira scored a 99.97 percent online protection rate, 99.1 percent online detection rate, and a respectable 92.5 percent offline detection rate. Avira only stumbles against more sophisticated, targeted threats—in AV-Comparatives’ November 2023 Advanced Threat Protection Test, it spotted just 8 of the 15 test cases imitating threats like malicious scripts and fileless exploits. Rivals also missed test cases, however. During our in-house benchmarks evaluating system performance, Avira Prime only minimally affects performance when left to run in the background. But when full scans are running, this security suite can hit slower and older PCs extremely hard if combing through every file—as can happen if you’ve added or changed large quantities of files on your computer. Most people won’t notice Avira running, though. For those who want the comprehensive simplicity that this security suite offers, you’ll pay $60 for the first year, and then $105 for every year after. That slightly higher cost is the other reason Avira Prime couldn’t quite dethrone Trend Micro Maximum Security as our newbie-friendly pick. Who should use Avira Prime Avira Prime will likely feel best to users who want a simple antivirus suite, broad online protections, and robust PC utilities—and also want to use those latter tools for more confident management of their computer. Not every utility is a winner, but the overall set can help you identify and understand the more technical aspects of Windows and system upkeep. Parents will need to look elsewhere for controls that let them monitor and limit their kids’ PC use, however. Read our full Avira Prime review McAfee Total Protection – Best for privacy Pros Good protection Nice features like file shredder and home network analyzer Cons Mixed impact on performance New app design is a little scattered Price When Reviewed: 5 devices: $89.99/yr Best Prices Today: $18.99 at PCWorld Software Store Why we picked McAfee Total Protection Decades ago, McAfee made a name for itself for antivirus protection—but the company has kept the most current threats to PCs in its sights. These days, dangers extend beyond just malware to identity and privacy issues, and McAfee Total Protection addresses these just as much as it does ransomware and phishing sites. That ID protection makes it stand out against competitors, especially if you’re willing to pay to scale up the level of service. The plan we tested included dark web scanning, which keeps an eye out for any of your personal information that you’ve shared with the app (email address, phone number, social security number, passport, driver’s license, date of birth, tax ID, credit card, usernames, and more). If any of those details show up in a data leak, you get notified. The app also offers to help change your password for an online account when applicable. As a supplement for the identity protection, McAfee gives you a score on how well protected you are online, to help point out potential weak spots to fix. You also get access to a secure VPN to enhance both security and privacy—especially useful if you are on public Wi-Fi but need to conduct a sensitive transaction. In evaluations by leading security research organizations, McAfee passed AV-Test’s zero-day and prevalent malware tests with scores of 100 percent in both November and December 2023. For AV-Comparatives, McAfee earned 99.6 percent in the real-world protection test between July and October 2023, with just one false positive. For the malware-protection test in September 2023, McAfee earned a 99.95 percent online protection rate and 99.2 percent online detection rate. Its offline detection rate was much lower, coming in at 65.2 percent, but unless you often connect USB sticks of unknown origin into your computer while offline, this score matters less. Most threats these days get on to a PC while connected to the internet. More relevant is that mid-tier and budget machines could see some impact on system performance when running McAfee scans. During our benchmarks, where we ran a full scan during a variety of common tasks (web browsing, document editing, etc), we did notice some dips in performance. You can mitigate this effect by timing scans for off hours, though. Currently, McAfee Total Protection is available through third-party sellers (McAfee has turned its attention to its slightly newer McAfee+ plans on its website). We like this version still because of how deeply affordable it is—for example, a license on PCWorld’s own software site is just $19 per year, which covers up to ten devices for one year. Who should use McAfee Total Protection Your personal information can be used against you online—and with data breaches so painfully common these days, it can be a relief to have help in tracking who has your info. For anyone who doesn’t have as much time to handle that work themselves, or even keep track of a separate service, McAfee can serve as a central spot for managing all your online security concerns. Read our full McAfee Total Protection review Panda Dome Complete – Most feature-rich offering Pros Very easy-to-understand mobile-like interface Contains some basic smart home network monitoring Month-to-month pricing option Cons Good performance results but currently limited in third-party testing Price When Reviewed: 1 device: $64.49 I 3 devices: $71.99 I 5 devices: $78.74 I 10 devices: $121.49 Best Prices Today: $30.10 at Panda Security Why we picked Panda Dome Complete All of the deluxe antivirus suites offer extra tools as part of their package, but if we had to pick one that stands out in this respect, it’d be Panda Dome Complete. And not only does it come with those noteworthy features, it also has one of the most striking interfaces we’ve seen. Similar to Microsoft’s Bing homepage, Panda Dome features a beautiful background photo, with the interface elements placed on top of it. The two features that particularly stand out are Rescue Kit and the Virtual Keyboard. Rescue Kit helps when dealing with advanced virus problems—it lets you create a recovery drive to boot your PC and then disinfect the machine. If that doesn’t work, you can try the advanced virus detector that uses Panda Cloud Cleaner, which can run on your desktop or off USB stick to dive deeper into your system.  Meanwhile, Virtual Keyboard is a software keyboard you operate with your mouse. It’s supposed to prevent any keyloggers installed on your system from grabbing your login info, credit card details, or other sensitive data when you type them in. Also included with Panda Dome Complete are utilities like an update manager for your Windows apps, a disk defragmenter, hard drive cleaner, and startup apps manager. It also packs in Wi-Fi protection (which lets you see what devices are connected to your network), a password manager, parental controls, and a VPN that offers 150 megabytes of bandwidth per day. These come in addition to the core antivirus protection and safeguards like a ransomware monitor for folders often targeted by such malware. When evaluated by AV-Comparatives, a leading security research organization, Panda scored well in its real-world protection test for July through October 2023. The suite blocked 98.6 percent of the 512 test cases, with about 20 false positives. In the malware protection test for September 2023, Panda blocked 99.41 percent of more than 10,000 samples. Its offline detection rate was among the lowest, however, coming in at 59.8 percent—but few people these days plug in unknown USB drives into their PC while offline. More importantly, Panda tracks close to Windows Security (Windows’ built-in antivirus defense) in antivirus protection performance, while providing a centralized interface for all of its many features—several of which you won’t find in many rivals, including Windows Security. It also has the most minimal impact on system performance in our in-house benchmarks. So minor, in fact, that in the real-world it works out to no difference. As one of the most feature-rich offerings, Panda Dome Complete also one of the most expensive, too. You can purchase a subscription for $64.50 during the first year ($86 per year afterward), but that’s covers just one device. Fortunately, it only costs a little more to upgrade to a three device plan ($72 for the first year, $96 per year afterward) or five device plan ($79 for the first year, $105 per year afterward). Who should use Panda Dome Complete Panda Dome Complete puts a ton of features right at your fingertips—an ideal interface for those who want to dive into everything straight away. If you hate buried or oversimplified menus, you’ll feel right at home with this software. Read our full Panda Dome Complete review Windows Security – Best free antivirus Pros Built into Windows 10 and 11 Settings are easy to review and customize Integrates with other security aspects of Windows Cons Tends toward false positives, especially with SmartScreen Lacks the advanced features found in third-party products Price When Reviewed: Included with Windows 10 and 11 Why we picked Windows Security If Windows’ built-in security suite already performs on par with the best free antivirus options—as we discovered in our roundup of the best free antivirus—you may ask yourself if you need the baggage of a third-party program. Sure, other antivirus programs might offer marginally better protection, but not enough to outweigh the convenience of rolling with Microsoft’s home-grown offering. Windows Security is a multi-piece suite, with both well-known and newer protections. Most users will recognize Defender, which monitors for viruses and malware, and Firewall, which blocks malicious incoming traffic and suspicious outgoing traffic. But it also includes ransomware protections (including controlled access to folders, as well as data recovery via OneDrive integration), app restrictions, and even basic parental controls. The most important of these protections are automatically enabled in Windows—you don’t have to lift a finger to get real-time antivirus scanning or network protection. You will have to manually switch on some features, though, including ransomware folder controls and file recovery. (To learn more, see our video on How to use Windows Security.) In tests performed by independent security organizations, Microsoft’s antivirus protection holds up well. It scored a 6 out of 6 for protection against malware in AV-Test’s November/December 2023 evaluation, and also turned in perfect marks for performance and usability. Testing from AV-Comparatives showed similar strong performance against online threats—in the September 2023 Malware test, it scored 99.95 percent in online protection, and a slightly lower 95.8 percent detection rate. (The best antivirus suites still clock in at 99 percent or higher for online detection.) However, for offline protection, Microsoft’s Defender engine slides down to a mere 77 percent—over 20 percent lower than top antivirus rivals. But for most people, who are online at all times, this score won’t affect their protection as much. You can find more features in other antivirus suites, like online privacy tools, a VPN, and encrypted cloud backups. But this free protection comes preinstalled on Windows machines and does a good job of keeping you protected from most threats. Who should use Windows Security You’re looking for lightweight, unobtrusive antivirus protection—and don’t mind configuring it, nor managing separate security tools to make sure you’re properly protected online. To get the most out of it, you must tinker with Windows Security’s settings. (You can learn more in our video on How to use Windows Security.) You also have to figure out your own online privacy tools, VPN, password manager, and encrypted cloud backup. Read our full Windows Security review Intego Mac Internet Security X9 – Best Mac antivirus Pros Two-way firewall Good performance Cons Mac-specific (no Windows / Android protection) Price When Reviewed: From $24.99 for first year, then $84.99 a year (1 Mac) Using our link Best Prices Today: $24.99 at Intego (first year) Why we picked Intego X9 As the headline reveals, the focus of this roundup is the best antivirus for Windows PCs, but many PC enthusiasts are the de facto IT for friends and family. If you want to help an associate or loved one achieve strong antivirus protection for an Apple machine, our colleagues at Macworld recommend Intego’s Mac Internet Security X9. In the suite are two utilities. The better known one is VirusBarrier, which spots and eliminates malware threats—it was one of the first virus scanners on Mac. It comes paired with NetBarrier, a two-way firewall that watches for suspicious outgoing traffic from rogue apps on your Mac, as well as unusual incoming connection requests from the internet to your Mac. For the price of this suite, NetBarrier’s inclusion isn’t common, but definitely welcome. As part of its protection, VirusBarrier X9 scans for threats on your Mac’s internal storage drive (including any downloaded email and compressed archives), as well as connected disks and iOS devices. The app quarantines suspicious files, which you can then mark as trusted, leave in quarantine, or try to have repaired. In testing performed by independent research organizations, Intego’s VirusBarrier got high marks. It received an “Approved” rating in AV-Comparatives’ June 2023 test, detecting 99.4 percent of Mac malware, 97 of potentially unwanted applications, and 100 percent of Windows viruses (thus thwarting spread of infections to susceptible PCs). In AV-Test’s June 2023 evaluation, VirusBarrier earned a 5.5 out of 6 for protection, a 5 out of 6 for effect on Mac performance, and a full 6 out of 6 for usability. In Macworld’s own testing, VirusBarrier caught all the samples thrown at it, including those designed for other platforms. It also correctly flagged a disk image tainted with a malicious installer.Overall, Intego’s Mac Internet Security X9 offers good compatibility with macOS while looking like a real Mac program, too. It costs just $25 (or £20.00) for the first year using this special Macworld link. If you need additional tools, like a backup utility, speed optimizer for your Mac, or parental controls, you can upgrade to the Mac Premium Bundle X9 for $40 for the first year (£23.99). Who should use Intego X9 Intego VirusBarrier not only offers good compatibility with macOS, but it also looks like a real Mac program, too—making it an ideal match for anyone looking for an effective app that blends in seamlessly. How to choose the best antivirus software There are three basic requirements that an antivirus suite should meet: High-detection rate for malware and other threats Low impact on system resources An easy-to-use interface That’s not all to consider, however. These days, many security suites come with extras such as a backup service for your most essential files, Android and iOS apps for mobile security, a more advanced firewall, family protection (read: child restriction) features, and the right to use the program on multiple PCs. Access to a VPN and a password manager have become more common, too. Whether you need those extras depends on how much you’re willing to spend and your personal situation. If you’re looking to go beyond the basics, our baseline recommendation is to find a suite that comes with a firewall, supports enough devices to cover what you own, and (if you don’t already have separate services set up) access to a password manager and VPN. How we test antivirus software Our approach to testing antivirus software is multi-pronged—we look not just at how well the suite catches malware and other threats (though that’s certainly a top factor), but other elements as well. First, we take a look at the interface to determine how easy or complicated it is. Does the interface make it easy to get at essential tools like PC scans and password managers, for example, or is everything buried under multiple clicks? Are there elements that look like they should be clickable but aren’t? Are alerts interactive or purely informational, and do they make sense in context? We also examine the features on offer. Every good antivirus suite should have the basics like scanning and real-time protection, but many vendors offer elements that go beyond basic security like password managers or firewalls. We try to discern whether any of these extra features are particularly useful, or just frills that look nice but don’t serve a practical purpose. To test the suite’s demand on system resources, we run three benchmarks. The first is PCMark 10’s Extended test, which simulates a variety of workloads including editing spreadsheets, browsing the web, running video chat, and light gaming.  PCWorld PCWorld PCWorld We run the benchmark before the security suite is installed. Then we install the software, have it run a full scan on our Windows 11 test machine, and start a second run of the benchmark at the same time. Then we compare the overall scores to see if the decline between the two benchmark runs is significant. We repeat the same process using UL Procyon, which simulates document editing in Microsoft Office apps—e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Then, as the harshest stress test, we use Handbrake to transcode a video before and after installing the antivirus software. On many home PCs, this encoding task utilizes 100 percent of the CPU. We then compare transcoding times to see if there’s any significant decline. Our test machine is an Acer Aspire 3 15 with an AMD Ryzen 5 7520U, 8GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Each security suite is tested on a clean install of Windows 10 Home. As for the antivirus suite’s detection capabilities, we rely on the opinions of security researchers dedicated to this task. We take into consideration reports from outlets such as AV Comparatives and AV Test. We also take pricing into account and what you get for it.  When possible, we review security suites using a free trial to get a sense of what consumers see when they first try out a new product. Still have questions about our review process? You can get even more details (and the philosophy behind why we test as we do) in our full explanation about our antivirus testing practices. FAQ 1. Is antivirus necessary in 2024? Unfortunately, yes. Viruses, malware, and other online threats have only increased and become more sophisticated over time. Spending time on the internet or attaching any external drives to your computer without antivirus software is like going into battle without a stitch of armor. 2. Does Windows 10/11 need antivirus? In the basic sense, absolutely yes—which is why Windows 10 and 11 come with in built-in antivirus protection. But while Windows Security performs well, the best third-party antivirus software have even higher rates of detecting threats. The top antivirus apps also offer more control over settings, detailed logs of your PC’s activity, a more user-friendly interface, and additional features to strengthen your online security beyond just viruses and malware. So strictly speaking, a Windows PC doesn’t need third-party antivirus software, but you can benefit from more comprehensive online protection. 3. Will antivirus software slow down my computer? The short answer is maybe, but probably not. Antivirus software scans files and programs to ensure there is no malware or other harmful threat present. The longer the time frame between each scan, the more files the program will need to check. These intensive scans may have some noticeable effect on your computer speed. It’s therefore recommended that you schedule your scans to run more frequently and/or at night so as to not impact your computer usage. While antivirus software can affect the speed of your computer, it is most likely not the only factor—or even the most prominent. Other factors such as unnecessary startup and background programs, insufficient RAM, or even undiagnosed malware can have more drastic effects on your computer speed than a simple antivirus scan. 4. Should you pay for antivirus? It depends on what antivirus features are most important to you. Do you just need a program that will scan, detect, and remove malware? Then go with a free version. But if you are looking for more advanced features such as the ability to block webcam hacking, run suspicious apps in a sandbox environment, and permanently delete sensitive files, then you should seriously consider upgrading to a paid premium antivirus service.  Overall, premium antivirus software is better suited to more complete coverage against threats—especially for inexperienced users. Children and seniors are particularly vulnerable to modern threats and therefore paid antivirus apps, which allow for multiple-device protection, may be a better option for families. 5. How many antivirus programs are recommended for one computer? These days, most antivirus software are full suites. They take over completely for Windows’ built-in protection, and that single suite is all you need. More than that, and the different apps can start to conflict with one another. So no need to double up! 6. What should I do if my antivirus detects a threat? In a perfect world, your antivirus software will halt and clean the infected files for you. However, this largely depends on which antivirus program you are using. In general, the antivirus will send a warning to you and try to quarantine the infected file in order to keep it from spreading. Once isolated, the software will give you the option to try to remove the infection or delete the file altogether. 7. What is the difference between a full scan and a quick scan? A full scan performs a comprehensive and thorough check of your whole system. It usually checks your system memory, startup programs, system backup, email databases, hard drives, and any removable storage drives. A quick scan only checks a few areas including startup programs, system memory, and boot sectors. It may not detect all malware, but it can usually give you an idea if your computer has a virus. As to when you should do either, we recommend a full scan once per week, during computer usage downtime (such as late at night). A quick scan can be done anytime you like, but it’s usually only necessary if you notice suspicious activity on your PC. 8. Do I need to update my antivirus software? Absolutely! Keeping your antivirus software up-to-date is crucial in helping you to avoid the most recent threats. That being said, most antivirus software today—whether free or paid—will default to automatic updates. This way you don’t need to worry about manually updating your software. It may still be worth checking to confirm that your antivirus is running the most up-to-date version from time to time. Antivirus, Business, Desktop PCs, Professional Software, Security Software and Services, Technology Industry

Microsoft and IBM’s DOS operating system is an important milestone in the history of personal computing, and it’s just as important that we can dig into it and see what makes it tick. That’s part of the reason that both companies have released the source code for certain versions, including MS-DOS 1.25, 2.11, and as of now, 4.0. The 1988 releases added support for partitions above 32 megabytes (yes, megabytes, as in “smaller than a modern digital camera photo”). Microsoft and IBM released the updated code under the open-source MIT license earlier this month. Microsoft said it’s about “the spirit of open innovation,” but not everyone is thrilled with precisely how the updated version of DOS has been opened up. Michal Necasek, a software engineer and historian, has documented some of the woes on the os2museum blog. The process has left the code, in Necasek’s words, “mutilated.” The biggest problem appears to be the fact that Microsoft released the source code as git files, not their original binary files. Converting the relatively ancient data into a text format more widely supported by modern code editors is perhaps a natural impulse…but it also means that the actual software and hardware tools designed for the original operating system can’t handle it. It surely doesn’t help that the git files also lack timestamps, which (according to comments on the story and picked up by Tom’s Hardware) are a matter of data protection policy. The code itself might also be the hastily updated MS-DOS 4.01, not the truly original release. It’s possible that some of these issues might be resolved, as Microsoft could simply release the original files in their original format. But that’s not a high priority for a company more focused on shoving even more ads into Windows 11. In a historical sense, a bungled release for DOS 4.0’s open-source files is almost appropriate. Way back in 1988 DOS 4.0 was sort of the Windows 8 of its day, disliked by a vocal segment of users because of a bloated memory footprint versus previous versions and a huge amount of bugs. Windows

If you’re in the market for an inexpensive laptop for day-to-day tasks, you’re in luck. We’ve got a list of our top picks below. That said, it’s important to be smart about your choices. Although you may need to deal with a couple of minor drawbacks like a dim display or short battery life, it’s still possible to score a sub-$500 laptop with strong performance. Why you should trust us: It’s in our name! PCWorld prides itself on laptop experience and expertise. We’ve been covering PCs since 1983, and we now review more than 70 laptops every year. All of the picks below have been personally tested and vetted by our experts, who’ve applied not only performance benchmarks but rigorous usability standards. We’re also committed to reviewing PC laptops at every price point to help you find a machine that matches your budget. If you can manage to stretch your budget a little bit further, check out our best laptops roundup for even more suggestions. Updated April 24, 2024: We added the Acer Aspire Go 15 as the Best Laptop Under $300. It’s even cheaper than our top pick, for those who are on a strict budget, and has better battery life. We’ve also updated our list of recent laptop reviews, so be sure to check those out. The best laptops under $500 Acer Aspire 3 – Best laptop under $500 overall Pros Reliable performance 1080p display HD webcam Solid build Cons Speakers sound tinny when playing music A little heavy Price When Reviewed: $329.99 Best Prices Today: $299.99 at Amazon$329.99 at Acer Online Store$384.99 at Walmart Why we like the Acer Aspire 3 The Acer Aspire 3 laptop is a great machine that offers solid performance and a durable build at a reasonable price. It’s plenty zippy for day-to-day tasks like watching Netflix, writing email, and so on. You’re also getting a full-sized keyboard as well as a 1080p screen. Who should buy the Acer Aspire 3 Anyone who’s on a budget! To narrow it down some, we feel as though the Acer Aspire 3 is a good option for students and remote workers. You can’t argue with the price and the HD webcam produces “clean, crisp video” according to our review. That means you’ll always look sharp on video calls. Read our full Acer Aspire 3 review Acer Aspire Go 15 – Best laptop under $300 Pros Affordable Decent battery life Good display visibility Cons Big and bulky Cheap build Limited performance Price When Reviewed: $299 Best Prices Today: $299 at Acer Why we like the Acer Aspire Go 15 For just $300, the Acer Aspire Go 15 offers speedy day-to-day performance, good battery life, and a clear-looking 1080p display. In our testing, the 53.9 watt-hour battery lasted almost 12 hours on a single charge, which is more than a full workday. The 15.6-inch display has a resolution of 1920×1080 and a modest brightness level of 284 nits. In use, the reviewer was still able to see the screen even with a light beaming down onto it. While the Intel Core i3-N305 CPU lags a little behind other laptops in its class, it’s suitable for everyday tasks like listening to Spotify, watching Hulu, and so on. Who should buy the Acer Aspire Go 15 Anyone that’s on an ultra-strict budget. The Acer Aspire Go 15 is about $30 cheaper than our top pick (as of right now) and offers better battery life. It also has a nice keyboard that the reviewer was able to comfortably type “around 110 words per minute” on and the trackpad is nice and smooth. There’s even a decent array of ports available. You’re getting one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, one HDMI, one 3.5mm audio, one Kensington lock slot, and one DC barrel jack. Read our full Acer Aspire Go 15 (2024) review Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus – Best Chromebook under $500 Pros Snappy day-to-day performance Versatile 2-in-1 design Good typing experience Cons Stylus not included Heavier than expected Price When Reviewed: $499 Best Prices Today: $329 at Best Buy What we like about the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus The Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus packs in a lot of features for the low price. The 2-in-1 form factor allows you to flip the screen around and use it like a tablet or you can prop it up like a tent for watching movies or sharing information. You can also expect peppy everyday performance and blazing fast boot-up times. Who should buy the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus If you need the versatility of a convertible laptop but want to stick to a more modest budget, then the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is the one to pick. It stands apart from the rest of the pack with its durable construction, affordable pricing, and versatile convertible design. Read our full Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus review Acer Chromebook Plus 515 – Best audio Pros Solid audio quality Fast general performance Includes a 1080p webcam Good typing experience Cons Boring design Thick bezels Price When Reviewed: $399.99 Best Prices Today: $399 at Best Buy$399.99 at Acer Why we like the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 has good audio for a laptop. The positioning of a laptop’s speakers can really impact the sound. Thankfully, the speakers on the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 fire upwards, which means the sound is coming at you. Highs and lows sound pretty darn crisp! This machine also provides a nice typing experience as well as fast general performance. Who should buy the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 is a good option for the casual user, especially if you like watching movies or listening to music. The audio is impressive and performance is good enough for day-to-day activities. The 15.6-inch display is quite good as well because of the 1080p resolution. Read our full Acer Chromebook Plus 515 review HP Laptop 14-ep0865no – Best battery life Pros Compact form factor Good everyday performance Long battery life Great keyboard and mouse Cons Screen quality is mediocre Noisy fans Price When Reviewed: $449.99 Best Prices Today: $439 at HP$449.99 at Amazon Why we like the HP Laptop 14 Although we love the HP Laptop 14’s compact form factor and comfortable keyboard, it’s the battery life that’s the real star of the show. It lasted about 15 hours on a single charge with light use, which is an incredible result for a sub-$500 Windows machine. This laptop also weighs just over three pounds, so it’s light enough to take with you from class to class or meeting to meeting. There’s even a 1080p webcam and, thanks to the Intel Core i3-1315U CPU, performance is zippy enough for day-to-day tasks. The subdued midnight blue color scheme is gorgeous, too. Who should buy the HP Laptop 14 Anyone that needs a long-lasting, sub-$500 laptop! The 15 hours of battery life is more than a full work day (or school day), which means you don’t have to go hunting for an outlet. It’s also lightweight and slim, so you can easily stick it in a backpack or messenger bag and be on your merry way. While day-to-day performance is fine, it’s not the best machine for multimedia tasks and the fan noise is a bit annoying to deal with. That said, those are reasonable compromises given the price. Read our full HP Laptop 14 review Recent laptop reviews We’ve reviewed several new laptops recently, though many cost more than $500. Acer Aspire Go 15: The Acer Aspire Go 15 (2024) isn’t much to look at, but it runs without much fuss, only struggling when demand is put on the meager integrated graphics or too much CPU horsepower is called for. For simple computing needs, it has clear value at just $300. Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Fast, handsome, and affordably priced, the Chromebook 516 GE is a great do-it-all laptop that’s also ideal for cloud gaming. Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: AMD’s Ryzen 7 8840HS powers the new Zenbook 14 OLED to strong benchmark results and long battery life. How we tested The PCWorld team puts each and every Windows laptop through a series of benchmarks that test GPU and CPU performance, battery life, and so on. The idea is to push the laptop to its limits and then compare it against others we’ve tested. Chromebooks, on the other hand, go through a series of web-based tests. It wouldn’t be fair or possible to run the same kinds of tests on a Chromebook, as they’re Chrome OS-based machines. Below, you’ll find a breakdown of each test and the reasons why we run them. For a much deeper look at our review methodology, check out how PCWorld tests laptops. Windows laptops PCMark 10: PCMark 10 is how we determine how well the laptop handles lighter tasks like web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, and so on. HandBrake: HandBrake is more intensive than PCMark 10. It basically measures how long a laptop’s CPU takes to encode a beefy 30GB file. Cinebench: Cinebench is a brief stress test of the CPU cores. It does this by rendering a 2D scene over a short period of time. 3DMark: 3DMark checks if 3D performance remains consistent over time by running graphic-intensive clips. Video rundown test: To gauge battery life, we loop a 4K video using Windows 10’s Movies & TV app until the laptop dies. Chromebooks CrXPRT 2: The CrXPRT 2 benchmark tests a Chromebook’s battery life. Speedometer 2.0: This test determines a Chromebook’s web browser performance. It simulates this by adding, completing, and removing a to-do list. Basemark Web 3.0: This benchmark gauges how well a Chromebook can handle web-based applications. Kraken 1.1: Kraken 1.1 is a JavaScript performance benchmark. Jetstream 2: Jetstream 2 is a combination of WebAssembly and JavaScript benchmarks. This is a way to gauge how well a Chromebook runs advanced workloads. What kind of laptop should you get? Ah, here we are at the billion dollar question. Do you spring for a basic Chromebook or go for a Windows laptop with more features? Well, it really depends on your lifestyle and your expectations of a sub-$500 machine. At this price point, you’re not going to find a powerful workhorse. However, there are plenty of affordable laptops out there for those who need the basics. Chromebooks, for example, are a great low-cost option and offer phenomenal battery life. I use a Chromebook as my primary work laptop, as it has everything I need for both editing and writing. If you travel for work, it’s probably a good idea to invest in a laptop that weighs less than three pounds. If you’re still unsure, don’t sweat it. I’ve put together a list of quick buying tips below. Laptop type: There are many different laptop types that fall in the sub-$500 category: clamshells, 2-in-1’s, Chromebooks, and much more. The displays on convertible laptops (aka 2-in-1’s), for example, can swing around 360 degrees. This allows you to use the laptop like a tablet. They can also be propped up like a tent for viewing movies or participating in video calls. Chromebooks come in various shapes and sizes, and exclusively run Google’s web-focused Chrome OS. With a Chromebook, all you need is a Gmail account and, boom, you’re in. CPU: When it comes to the sub-$500 Windows laptops, you can expect to find Intel Core i3 or i5 processors. An i5 processor obviously provides a little more oomph. That said, basic office and web work does just fine on a Core i3. As for AMD options, the Ryzen 3 is good for basic productivity and web browsing, while Ryzen 5 chips rival Intel’s Core i5 as solid all-arounders. For Chromebooks, Snapdragon and Pentium processors are more powerful than MediaTek chips. Graphics: At this price range, you probably won’t find a laptop with a powerful discrete graphics card. Instead, you’ll encounter laptops with integrated graphics, which are integrated with the CPU and use less power as a result. This is perfectly fine for everyday tasks, especially if you’re not doing anything that’s graphics-intensive—like 3D gaming. RAM: Always go for 8GB of RAM. That’s plenty enough for firing up applications and loading web pages. Most Chromebooks are equipped with 4GB of RAM, which is the bare minimum. You need a decent amount of memory on these machines, as they’re primarily web-based. If there’s an 8GB RAM option, I’d recommend springing for that. Display size: If you’re a video editor or someone who does a lot of multimedia work, you’ll want a display that’s anywhere from 15- to 17-inches (but these machines usually cost far more than $500). The sweet spot for budget laptops is really anywhere from 13- to 14-inches. The bigger the display, the heavier your laptop is going to be. A 13- or 14-inch display is the best in terms of portability and value. Resolution: I wouldn’t go for anything less than 1080p, as there’s nothing more annoying than a slightly fuzzy image. 1080p produces a picture that’s sharp enough for watching Netflix or working in Excel. At this price range, you won’t really find many (if any) laptops with 1440p resolution or higher. Battery life: If you plan on taking your laptop anywhere with you, aim for something that can last 10 to 12 hours on a single charge. That’s more than a full work day, so it should theoretically get you through long flights or a day of classes. Obviously, more is always better. Just know that the bigger the battery, the heavier the laptop. Price: The price really depends on your budget. If you’re strapped for cash (been there, trust me), go for a Chromebook or an entry-level business laptop. These laptops are a good choice for students or young professionals. If you shop smart, you can even find 2-in-1’s in the $500 range. Ports: A wide array of ports is always a plus, as it eliminates the need for an adapter. I’d recommend a laptop that has both USB-C and USB-A. An HDMI port is good, too. This is especially useful for hooking up to an external monitor. FAQ 1. What is the difference between a regular laptop and a Chromebook? When people talk about regular laptops they usually mean a PC or Mac. A Chromebook is still a laptop, but it differentiates itself from either of those two by using a unique operating system called ChromeOS, which was created by Google. Think of it like this: All Chromebooks are laptops, but not all laptops are Chromebooks. Unlike other operating systems such as Windows or macOS, ChromeOS are optimized to run Google apps such as Google Drive, Google Docs, YouTube, and other Google services. Because most Google apps are online, Chromebooks generally require an internet connection to use most of their important features. Finally, Chromebooks have historically been designed with portability, ease of use, and affordability in mind rather than top performance. They typically forego the faster high-end hardware that PCs or Macs use for a more minimalist, lightweight approach to computing. 2. Can you use integrated graphics for gaming? Yes, some of the latest processors with integrated graphics can run modern PC games at decent enough settings. For example, we found that in our tests, Intel’s latest Iris Xe line of processors with integrated graphics can run some of the latest games at 1080p and 30fps. Unfortunately this is not the case for all integrated graphics and your mileage may vary drastically with older tech. Intel and AMD’s integrated graphics have made huge leaps in recent years with regard to gaming performance. If you’re on a budget or looking for an ultra-thin laptop with integrated graphics you need not worry, you can still game on. We recommend checking out Intel’s Core 12th-gen Iris Xe or AMD’s brand new Ryzen 6000 RDNA 2. 3. What’s the difference between a budget laptop and a tablet? More and more the line between what is a laptop and what is a tablet blurs as companies integrate the features of both into their latest devices. But there are still a few key distinctions between the two. Laptops generally are larger, come with more storage, have better performance and productivity features, and may or may not feature a touch display. Tablets on the other hand are smaller and more portable, have longer battery life, feature a touch display, and are usually a bit more affordable. When choosing between a budget laptop and a tablet you should first ask yourself what the primary use of the device will be. Do you need something for productivity with lots of storage? Then a laptop—even a budget model—will probably be the way to go. Or do you need something that is small, travels well, and has a long battery life? Then you might consider a tablet. 4. Do Chromebooks make good gaming laptops? Unfortunately, if gaming is your main concern, you may want to look elsewhere. Chromebooks can handle web games and Android games without any issues. But in their current state they simply aren’t designed to handle high-powered 3D games. This mainly comes down to the fact that they don’t run Windows and most Chromebooks don’t have sufficient graphics power.
With that said, cloud gaming services allow a remote PC or console to play games streamed from a remote server using more powerful hardware. But these are early days still, and the true viability of this option will depend on the health and survival of cloud gaming services, as well as Chromebook makers offering more options expressly designed with gaming in mind, like this Asus Chromebook Vibe CX43 Flip. Budget Laptops, Chromebooks, Laptops

At a glanceExpert's Rating ProsSmall form factorGood capturesIntegrated GPSLow-priced considering the featuresConsDefaults to 2K rather than 4KUsing the app requires an accountOur VerdictWith integrated GPS, good captures, and phone connectivity, the Rove R2-4K is one of the better bargains in a dash cam that we’ve seen recently. Price When Reviewed$129.99 Best Prices Today: Rove R2-4K Retailer Price $99.99 View Deal Rove $129.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket I’ve reviewed a whole lot of dash cams, but Rove is new to me. Nice to meet you! The company’s R2-4K Pro dash cam sports a robust feature set, including phone connectivity, as well as good captures. Further reading: See our roundup of the best dash cams to learn about competing products. What are the Rove R2-4K’s features? The Rove R2-4K is a single-channel dash cam capable of 2160P captures. It’s black and about average in size at 2.91-inches wide, by 2.35-inches tall, by 1.43-inches thick at the lens body. The R2-4K ships with a vacuum mount that’s adjustable right/left and vertically, but you’ll need pay a bit of attention to the rotational angle. Placing the suction-breaking pull tab at around 11 o’clock will get you pretty close. This is true of most suction mounts. Once you have it set, the camera easily detaches from the mount. The cockpit facing side of the Rove R2-4K features a color display and navigation buttons. The cockpit facing side of the Rove R2-4K features a color display and navigation buttons. The cockpit facing side of the Rove R2-4K features a color display and navigation buttons. On the back of the Rove R2-4K is a 2.4-inch color display, with five buttons below it for navigation: Menu, up/mute, emergency lock/Wi-Fi, down/LCD off, and OK. On the right is the Type-C power jack, while on the left are the MicroSD card slot and power button. The power to said Type-C jack comes from the auxiliary connector. Rove supplies an auxiliary adapter with a single Type-A port On top of the camera are the TV/video-out and GPS module. Yes, there’s integrated GPS and it connects very quickly — unlike some. Note that the time zone and time must be set manually regardless. Rove of course provides an app to connect via the Wi-Fi. The app offers a live view and allows you to adjust the rather copious number of settings. You can even switch between h.264 and h.265 video (space-saving). The onscreen interface is nicely rendered, and logically laid out. As with all dash cams, I recommend that you spend a few minutes with the interface before you start driving. That way, you can find the button or setting you need before the light turns green and everyone behind you starts honking. Just sayin’. What I didn’t care for with the R2-4K is that you must create a Rove account to use the app. No one should be forced online in order to use one of a product’s main features. Of course, you can configure the dash cam using the display, but… Note that Rove is not the only vendor that does this, though that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. The Rove camera app is extensive and provides a live view as well as access to recorded files. The Rove camera app is extensive and provides a live view as well as access to recorded files. The Rove camera app is extensive and provides a live view as well as access to recorded files. How much does the Rove R2-4K cost? On Rove’s site, the R2-4K is available for $129.99, marked down from a stated MSRP of $199.99. It seems unlikely the product will ever actual retail for that higher price, since Amazon has the R2-4K currently listed at $119.99, and marked down to $79.99. That’s a pretty darn good bargain. How are the Rove R2-4K’s captures? I assumed the Rove R2-4K would default to 2160p (4K UHD), but instead it came set to 2K (1440p), so my initial testing was at that lesser resolution. I suppose this is to save space. Oddly, though, the 2K was set to h.264 compression, while the 4K I reset it to for further testing (that’s what it’s billed as, after all!) defaulted to HEVC/h.265. As a result, there was only a difference of about 30MB per minute (225MB/h.264/1440p, 250MB/h.265/2160p). This would make h.265 seem like a no-brainer. It’s when it comes to saving storage, however, that h.265 playback also requires more processing power. Not all CPUs offer h.265 acceleration and as a result, h.265 playback on some low-power and older devices can be jerky. The R2-4K’s captures at 4K are quite good, while the 2K captures are middling at best and suffered some minor stabilization issues. As you can see below, the daytime captures are more than passable, though I’d like to see just a bit sharper detail. The Rove R2-4K’s daylight captures are quite good, if not the best we’ve seen. The Rove R2-4K’s daylight captures are quite good, if not the best we’ve seen. The Rove R2-4K’s daylight captures are quite good, if not the best we’ve seen. Night captures aren’t quite as good. Overall detail is good, but minutiae is lost on bright surfaces when headlights hit them (see below). This could be a key factor in the case of a nighttime accident. Note that the streaking you see is largely due to my windshield, though I did clean it beforehand. Apparently, just not well enough! The lens flare in this capture is largely my windshield. The lack of detail in bright areas is more concerning as regards the R2-4K. The lens flare in this capture is largely my windshield. The lack of detail in bright areas is more concerning as regards the R2-4K. The lens flare in this capture is largely my windshield. The lack of detail in bright areas is more concerning as regards the R2-4K. The R2–4K uses a supercapacitor that will power the dash cam for a couple of seconds once main power is removed. This will save the current file, but not capture subsequent events. Note, however, that super capacitors are good for far more cycles than batteries and perform better in cold climates. Overall, the R2-4K’s captures are more than adequate during the day, and workable, if not optimal, at night. In the dark, you’ll get the big picture, but perhaps not the license plate number. Should you buy the Rove R2-4K? At $100 or less (on sale) with GPS, the Rove R2-4K is a very fetching proposition. At $130, there’s a bit more competition, but we’d still put it on the short list. Dash Cams

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