At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Bright, low-glare display Lightweight design Great webcam Good port selection Cons Underwhelming performance Lack of Arc graphics is a huge loss Battery could last longer Our Verdict The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 is a capable partner for work, but it’s no powerhouse nor does it blow us away with its battery life. For the money, there are more capable machines out there. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 Retailer Price $1,504.31 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 joins Lenovo’s ThinkPad lineup as a more affordable entryway into the family compared to its premium X1 line. Touting a $1,244 starting price, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 is certainly on the cheaper side for ThinkPads, and it has plenty going for it. It carries the signature looks of the family, decent components, and a quality build. But it lags behind the pack-leaders in quite a few ways, and price isn’t one of them. With great options like the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI out there and new Panther Lake-powered systems like the MSI Prestige Flip 14 AI+ landing, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 has its work cut out for it.  Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6: Specs and features CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 255U Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x-8400 Graphics/GPU: Intel Graphics Display: 13.3-inch 1920×1200 IPS touchscreen, anti-glare Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD – UMIS RPETJ1T24MMW1QDQ Webcam: 5MP + IR Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort Alternate Mode 2.1, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x HDMI 2.1 (max 4K/60), 1x 3.5mm combo audio Networking: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 Biometrics: Windows Hello fingerprint, facial recognition Battery capacity: 54.7 watt-hours Dimensions: 11.78 x 8.15 x 0.7 inches Weight: 2.3 pounds MSRP: $1,869 as-tested ($1,244 base) The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 has a $1,244 starting price, at least by Lenovo’s “Est Value” system, which leaves firm retail prices in the ether and attempts to make whatever price is listed look like a deal against that “Est Value.” At the time of writing, the base model was on sale for $1,094. This includes an Intel Core Ultra 5 225U with 16GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory, 256GB of storage, Windows 11 Home, and a 41Wh battery. On lower cost configurations like this, fingerprint scanning and Windows Hello IR sensors are optional extras, as is touchscreen capability. Our test unit sits at the top of the stack with a $1,869 “Est Value” (going for $1,569 at the time of writing). It upgrades to an Intel Core Ultra 7 255U, 1TB of storage, a 54.7Wh battery, and includes a touchscreen, fingerprint scanner, Windows Hello-capable webcam, and Windows 11 Pro. For what it’s worth, these systems aren’t even being branded as Copilot+ PCs. Lenovo supports custom configurations as well, though options are limited, letting you select from just two options for the CPU, storage, display, webcam, and battery. The configurator does allow choosing between a magnesium and stamped aluminum keyboard cover, with the latter enabling a $180 5G model to come inside the system. Keyboard backlighting also becomes a $20 option in the configurator rather than coming standard. Interestingly, the custom configuration options top out at an Intel Core Ultra 7 265U and don’t include the Core Ultra 7 255U in our test configuration. That Core Ultra 7 265U upgrade also appears to be the only way to get 32GB of memory and Wi-Fi 7, which are both automatically added to the configuration when selecting that CPU. The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 is a good machine for modest office needs. Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6: Design and build quality Foundry / Mark Knapp One look at this new X13, and it’s unmistakably a ThinkPad. While some of the angles might be changed and the weight and dimensions of different elements change, the core design is the same as so many other models. It’s a stealth black affair with a matte finish on the hardware. In all cases, you’ll find a chassis with Lenovo’s carbon fiber-reinforced polymer display lid and either a magnesium or aluminum base depending on the configuration of the system.  Lenovo’s design doesn’t tend toward being the thinnest out there, and so the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 sits at about 0.7 inches at its thickest. It’s still compact at 11.78 inches wide and 8.15 inches deep. And it sits at a very modest 2.3 pounds. Lenovo ships a compact, USB-C charger with the laptop that keeps up the portability.  The system makes efficient use of space. Everything is packed in pretty light. On the base, there’s no more than a half-inch gap between anything — the keyboard and speakers, the keyboard and trackpad, the keyboard and display hinge, for example. The base features tall grilles at either side of the keyboard, though only a small portion of this grille is actually backed by speakers. On the bright side, they’re up-firing speakers.  The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 sits on two small rubber feet at its front and one wide foot at the rear. That rear foot helps avoid letting hot exhaust from the rear vent circulate back into the intake fan on the bottom. That intake fan is nicely protected with a solid grille and fine mesh, which should do a good job keeping out dust. Lenovo has made the insides of the laptop accessible with just four screws on the base. That’s nice to see, though it would mean more if there was more upgradeability. At least it progresses repairability.  The build feels fairly sturdy, particularly the base. The display has some flex, but not an excessive amount. The hinge lets the screen wiggle for a couple of seconds after adjustments, but then holds it firmly in place — no wiggle while typing.  Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6: Keyboard, trackpad Foundry / Mark Knapp Like most of its siblings, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 has an excellent keyboard. The keys are firm with solid stabilization, offering a consistent typing feel that let me comfortably hit a 110-word-per-minute typing speed with 98 percent accuracy in Monkeytype even before spending much time getting comfortable with the keyboard. The trackpoint at the middle of the keyboard could be a distraction for some typists. The keyboard features small, offset arrow keys that could be easier to navigate with, but they also have small Page Up and Page Down keys crammed in with them, and I find the small size of these keys makes all of them simply harder to use. Lenovo’s function row at the top of the keyboard is a nice touch, as it has grouped sets of four keys, making it easy to feel out the ones you want. It also provides dedicated Home, End, and Delete keys in the top right corner. The whole keyboard gets white backlighting that effectively illuminates the legends. The keyboard is also spill-resistant, so you don’t have to worry about a few drips of water getting in.  The trackpad is modestly wide and has a smooth mylar surface that’s a joy to swipe around on. It doesn’t get a lot of vertical space because the top section goes to dedicated left, middle, and right click controls. These can be useful alongside the trackpad but also work with the trackpoint. The trackpoint nib takes some finesse to use. It is quite sensitive to very small variances in touch, but it’s not too hard to get the hang of. Rather than acting as a click, double-tapping the nib instead opens up a special menu that curiously has nothing to do with pointing device settings. Instead it has audio and battery settings and a shortcut to voice typing. The voice typing is nothing special from Lenovo but rather just Microsoft’s built-in dictation tool, which proves fairly accurate albeit while omitting any punctuation.  Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6: Display, audio Foundry / Mark Knapp The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 has the right hardware to get work done and see what you need to, but it’s not an entertainment powerhouse. The 13.3-inch display is reasonably sharp with a 1920×1200 resolution. And its anti-glare coating helps keep visuals clear even in sub-par lighting conditions, though it doesn’t strike me as impressive as the Corning Gorilla Matte Pro I recently tested.  It’s nice to see the display hitting 99 percent coverage of the sRGB color space, especially as plenty of Lenovo laptops are content to hit much less. The screen is also plenty bright with a 430.3-nit peak brightness in testing. Even the contrast is strong at 1620:1 at full brightness, which is good for an IPS panel though no match for OLED. The screen misses out on full DCI-P3 gamut and the smooth visuals of higher refresh rates. It’s also not one of the especially low-power models I saw on the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, which rocked our battery testing results.  The sound is also so-so. The system has 2x2W speakers that are heavily mids-focused. This makes them good for speech, but leaves them sounding a little harsh for music. And they won’t do much for movies or TV. There are worse laptop speakers, but these are far from exceptional.  Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 includes a sharp 5MP webcam that looks solid in use. It captures pretty crisp detail for a laptop webcam. Even in unideal lighting conditions, it does an excellent job providing natural exposure. It can get grainy and soft in darker settings. The webcam also has a very sticky privacy shutter that slides over the sensor. It’s made harder to shift back and forth by the lack of a prominent lip to get a good grip on. If you have very short fingernails, it could prove very difficult to use.  The mic setup on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 works great. It uses a pair of far field mics and Dolby processing to good effect, though it doesn’t pull off magic. Mostly, it just captures my voice well without noticeably lossy compression even while running background noise suppression. That said, the Dolby Voice tool is meant to have the option to capture voices all around the laptop or just from in front of the laptop, and in either setting, I found that the laptop still captured my voice clearly from either side though always sounded different when capturing from behind.  The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 misses out on Windows Hello facial recognition but includes a small fingerprint scanner beside the keyboard. This sensor is small and slightly recessed, which can make it hard to press consistently while training it on your fingerprint. And I found it worked inconsistently, sometimes quickly unlocking after recognizing my fingerprint and other times failing multiple times in a row and prompting me to use my password instead. Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6: Connectivity Foundry / Mark Knapp The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 brings decent connectivity, especially for a laptop of its size, but it’s not leading the way. You’ll find a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left, either of which can handle the system’s charging, alongside a full-size HDMI 2.1 port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The right side includes a 5Gbps USB-A port and a Kengsington Nano lock slot. It feels like there’s still room for a second USB-A port on the right or a microSD card reader, or maybe even both, but Lenovo didn’t include either.  Wireless connectivity lags behind a little, too. Though some configurations of the system can get more advanced Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, our test configuration sticks with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. It’s no slouch, hitting high speeds on a fiber-fed Wi-Fi network, but Wi-Fi 7 provides some promising advancements that this system will miss. Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6: Performance With a lower-power Intel chip and just 16GB of memory, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 isn’t positioned to be a performance powerhouse even among thin-and-light laptops. But that’s not to say it’s weak. It has enough horsepower to keep up with everyday office demands, and that shows in PCMark 10, which tests a system’s holistic potential in office scenarios.  In PCMark 10, we see it readily keep up with competing laptops in the video conferencing, web browsing, spreadsheet, and writing subtests. However, with its weaker integrated graphics, it does fall behind in digital content creation, and that’s enough to see it fall behind the pack.  Between its low-power processor and compact design, it’s little surprise to see the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 perform rather poorly in our Handbrake test. This tasks the laptop with encoding a large video file. Slower processors take a long time, and as they heat up under the stress of the task, they can wind up slowing down even further. This is what happened to the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6, which took almost 34 minutes to complete the test. The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI was nearly as slow with its higher-tier processor, but that was likely because it defaults to operating in a balanced power mode while the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 opts for a performance power plan when plugged in.  Another big reason the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 took so long to complete the Handbrake test is its raw CPU performance. We can see in Cinebench that it’s not a powerhouse. It leads the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI again thanks to its higher-performance power plan, but that’s a gap Acer could likely make up with a couple clicks in the settings menu. It also gets an edge on the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI, which runs an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V and has four fewer cores. But next to the HP Omnibook X Flip 14 and Asus Vivobook S 14, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 comes across as pretty weak, and none of these systems push the high end of mobile CPU performance. Thankfully, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 remains fairly hushed while operating even when under a heavy load.  The biggest blow to the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6’s capabilities is its integrated graphics. While plenty of Intel Core Ultra processors have been bestowed with Intel Arc graphics that impress with their capabilities, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 gets simple Intel Graphics. It’s enough to stay toe-to-toe with the HP Omnibook X Flip 14’s Radeon 890M integrated graphics. But the rest of the systems here show just what a difference Intel Arc graphics can make in 3D performance.  Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6: Battery life All of the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6’s performance shortcomings might have been offset somewhat if it mustered exceptional battery life, but it didn’t. Part of the issue is the laptop’s small 55Wh battery. Plenty of other thin-and-light systems are finding ways to squeeze larger batteries in. The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI squeezed in a 65Wh battery and even weighs less than the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6. Meanwhile, the Asus Vivobook S 14 added about a half-pound but squeezed in a 75Wh battery.  In our video playback test, the small battery and modest efficiency saw the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 only run for a little over 16 and a half hours. It’s a fair bit better than we’ve seen from recent AMD-powered systems, but pales in comparison to the 20+ hours that the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI and Asus Vivobook S 14 managed. Considering that both of those laptops also tend to perform better and cost less, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 winds up in a tough spot. Never mind how far the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 falls behind the 24+ hours of the Snapdragon-powered ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. In practical use, the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 doesn’t do too bad, though. Browsing the web, watching videos, and drafting documents with plenty of Chrome tabs open saw the system last for about nine hours, showing it has what it takes to make it through a modest workday. Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6: Conclusion The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 is a good machine for modest office needs. It doesn’t offer high-performance for a laptop in its class, nor does it provide staggering battery life. Instead, it focused on being a simple, utility machine. Its display is plenty bright and doesn’t struggle with glare. Its webcam looks great and its mics pick up well, so you’ll shine in video chats. It also feels like a well-built machine with a pleasing keyboard and trackpad. If video call quality isn’t a huge priority, I’d point most folks to the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI instead, which otherwise leads the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 in most areas and even costs less. Read...

Lord Mandelson features on a number of front pages on Wednesday, following his arrest and subsequent release earlier this week. Read...

You may know the story by now: A Meta exec asked the viral OpenClaw AI tool to triage her inbox and suggest messages to delete, then watched in horror as the agent went rogue and nuked more than 200 emails, her frantic “STOP OPENCLAW” prompt lost amid the bot’s massive undertaking. The twist? The exec was Meta’s lead AI safety officer, Summer Yue. Yue’s email apocalypse has highlighted a way we can prevent similar agentic AI horror stories. Yes, Yue unwittingly made herself a guinea pig for OpenClaw and its runaway automations–and indeed, pretty much anyone using OpenClaw right now is a guinea pig.  But Yue’s email apocalypse also highlighted a way we can prevent similar agentic AI horror stories, and it’s a method that most coders–and even plenty of vibers–are already familiar with.  It goes by different names; I’ve heard it called “agent git flow” and “agentic feature branching,” for example. But mostly, it’s about applying the methodology of “git”–the command-line utility that’s essential for tracking changes in code–to AI agents. The best part of this solution? It lets us have our cake (the cake being the ultra-cool things AI agents can do) and eat it, too. Chicken, fish, and OpenClaws  First, a thought experiment. Pretend you’re at a restaurant, and there are two items on the menu: chicken or fish. The chicken sure sounds good, but the fish–salmon! Tough choice. Imagine, instead of risking a costly mistake by choosing the chicken over the fish (what if the chicken is spoiled!), you could create a “branch” of your immediate future–a temporary copy of your timeline that lets you test a choice before permanently making it. So, you go ahead and create (or “check out”) a new branch of your “main” lifeline–we’ll call it the “chicken branch”–and you then order and taste the chicken. Eww! It’s gross. No problem; we discard the chicken branch, go back to the “main” branch, and check out a new, second branch–the “fish” branch. Now we taste the salmon–delicious! We like this fish branch, so now we merge it with our “main” life branch, and commence with a meal that’s guaranteed to be yummy. In the code-tracking world of git, we call this functionality (which I’ve described only crudely) feature branching, and it’s an ingenious, battle-tested way to test big changes and new features in our code before committing them to our main project.  A feature branch in git is really just a copy of the “main” branch. We check it out like a book from the library, make all the changes we want, test it, find bugs, make more changes, and so on. All the while, the “main” branch of our project is safe and untouched.  Only after we’ve subjected our feature branch to a battery of tests–some automated, some performed by the human user–and determined that it’s in tip-top shape do we even think of merging our “feature” branch with the main branch. And if we don’t like how the feature branch is going, we can discard it–no harm, no foul. My point? This code-branching methodology can work with AI agents, too. (And no, I’m not the first person to consider with this idea.) How this could have gone better Let’s go back to Summer Yue and try our “branching” scenario on for size. This time, Yue sits down with OpenClaw and prompts it with, “Go through my inbox and suggest deletions.” (Her other prompt in the real-world story–”wait for approval”–was likely dropped from OpenClaw’s context window due to the sheer number of email messages it was wading through.) More–and potentially scarier–versions of Summer Yue’s terrible horrible, no good, very bad email day will happen again if we don’t give this idea a fair shake. Now, instead of OpenClaw diving into the live inbox, it creates a branch–call it the “triage” branch–that allows it to simulate the results of sifting, organizing, and culling her inbox, all in a sandboxed environment and all without touching her actual email messages.  OpenClaw does its thing, maybe gets carried away, and starts deleting messages willy-nilly. If that happened, Yue could simply look at the triage branch, decide she’s not happy with the results, and then either discard the branch or keep working with it, testing different iterations of the OpenClaw prompt or adding markdown-formatted “scaffolding” documents that govern OpenClaw’s actions from the word go. In the meantime, her real inbox is safe and sound. Now, will such “feature branching” work for every AI agent scenario? Probably not. It’s easy to put branched computer code into a sandbox and safety test any number of actions and outcomes. But just as you can’t actually sandbox the chicken-versus-fish choice, there are plenty of real-world agentic AI actions and roles (like, say, HR-focused AI agents) that can’t easily be simulated.  That said, more–and potentially scarier–versions of Summer Yue’s terrible horrible, no good, very bad email day will happen again if we don’t give this “agentic feature branching” idea a fair shake. Read...

Your laptop has a webcam, but is it any good? It might get the job done, but you deserve a much better webcam that’ll show you in the best possible light in all your Zoom meetings, video calls, online streams, and whatever else you use it for. Get a great one with a 41% discount with this Amazon sale: the Emeet Pixy is now $95 (was $160). This webcam might seem expensive (even on sale!), but it’s a fantastic option if you really want to level up your webcam game. Whether you want to look like a million bucks during work Zoom calls or make the best quality videos for YouTube or Twitch, this webcam is the one. This 4K webcam is the next level up Emeet Pixy 4K AI-Powered Webcam Best Prices Today: $94.99 at Amazon The Emeet Pixy is a dual AI-powered camera with a 4K sensor and a secondary camera that helps optimize autofocus and exposure so you look natural. What makes this thing even better is that it uses intelligent tracking to smoothly follow your movements, featuring a 310-degree pan and 180-degree tilt range, so you’ll always be the center of attention. This webcam also features a 3-microphone array that can filter out background noise, so it’s suitable for podcasts and business meetings, but also for streaming on Twitch or YouTube. Score it with a 41% discount while you can! Deals like this don’t last long. Save 41% on this AI-powered 4K webcamBuy now at Amazon Read...

The current AI-driven RAM and SSD shortage is making it hard to shop for value PCs and laptops—ones that offer plenty of power at reasonable prices. What if you don’t want to dip down to bottom-barrel budget specs, nor need something that’s a top-tier workhorse? What if you just want a decent mid-range laptop at a decent mid-range price? Well then, have I got the deal for you! Best Buy is selling a surprisingly good Dell 16 Plus for just $800 right now. That’s a whopping $300 down from its original $1,100 MSRP! And pretty impressive specs in this price range, what with the aforementioned shortages. Seriously, check this out: a whopping 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a spacious 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. Okay, that RAM is soldered directly to the motherboard, so you’re giving up upgradeability and repairability here—but that’s not a bad trade-off under the circumstances. The SSD is solid, though, and you won’t regret 1TB for your laptop. Save $300 on this impressive Dell Dell 16 Plus Read our review Best Prices Today: $799 at Amazon What else is in this laptop? A powerful AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU that qualifies this machine as a Copilot+ PC, meaning it gets access to all the nifty AI features in Windows 11. Also, a 16-inch 1920×1200 display with touchscreen capabilities and 300 nits of brightness, up to 20 hours of stated battery life (expect about half, which is still pretty good), and port options including 2x USB-C, 1x USB-A, and 1x HDMI 2.1. And if you want to do some light gaming, you won’t have to give that up thanks to the Radeon 860M integrated graphics, which offers close to the best gaming experience you can get right now without a dedicated graphics card. You can play 2D games and even some 3D ones like Minecraft without breaking a sweat (at modest frame rates). You do NOT want to miss out on this deal! It’s an insanely good configuration for the price in this climate, so snag it now for $800 while you can. But if you’re late and it’s gone, check out our roundups of the best laptop deals today and best budget laptops under $500. Save $300 on this RAM-packed Dell laptop with great hardwareBuy now at Best Buy Read...

From one perspective, the viral OpenClaw AI tool and Meta’s Manus AI service couldn’t be more different. One is open-source, the other is a closed commercial product. One runs on your local hardware, the other runs in the cloud. One can be operated for free with the right hardware, while the other’s going to cost you. Looked at from a different angle, OpenClaw and Manus AI can perform many of the same tricks, including deploying AI agents to do your bidding, organizing your inbox, building apps from the simplest of prompts, and even browsing the web for you. Now Manus AI has a new trick up its sleeves that makes it even more like OpenClaw: an integration with Telegram, meaning you can chat with Manus on your phone using the popular mobile app. The ability to use standard social messaging apps is one of the killer features of OpenClaw, the open-source AI sensation whose creator was just snapped up by OpenAI.  OpenClaw gives you a variety of “social” channels for chatting with your personal agent. In addition to Telegram, OpenClaw also supports WhatsApp, Discord, iMessage, and Slack. For now, Telegram is the only such social channel that works with Manus, with the company marketing the feature as “Manus Agents.” More platforms are “coming soon,” Manus says.  You can direct your Manus Agent in Telegram to perform such multi-step tasking as running deep research reports, check the inboxes of your connected email accounts, and even build apps, with the agent spawning sub-agents if the need arises. Manus AI vs OpenClaw That all sounds very OpenClaw-like, and indeed, on a surface level, Manus AI feels a lot like OpenClaw in the cloud. Yet as I mentioned earlier, Manus AI and OpenClaw are also very different, starting with the fact that Manus AI was acquired by Meta in December 2025. Founded in 2022 in Beijing before moving to Singapore last year, Manus AI has always been a commercial venture, with roots in the financial and travel sectors before pivoting into personal AI agent territory. At the time of its December 2025 acquisition of Manus, Meta had already promised to integrate Manus agents into its own social services, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. But the explosive growth of OpenClaw, which started off as a personal AI project by Australian developer Peter Steinberger (now an OpenAI employee), may have spurred Manus to get the Telegram integration out the door more quickly. (Interestingly, Telegram is not a Meta-owned messaging app.) Another major difference between Manus AI and OpenClaw is that Manus lives in the cloud, meaning you’ll need to trust Manus and its parent, Meta, with your data. OpenClaw, on the other hand, lives on your local hardware, which comes with its own set of benefits (privacy and control) as well as risks (it can do anything on your system that you can). Finally, Manus AI is a paid product, with plans starting at $40 a month for 8,000 Manus credits–which, as I discovered during a free trial, can run out quickly when running advanced projects such as app building. A $200/month Manus plan gets you 40,000 credits. OpenClaw, on the other hand, is free, although you’re on your own when it comes to supplying–and paying for–AI power. You could potentially use OpenClaw completely free with a local LLM or a free OpenRouter model, but the best results will come from using a large cloud LLM like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini via an API. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Compact, efficient design Detachable hub is like two products in one Triple display Cons Unexpectedly mediocre charging performance Somewhat pricey Three displays is overkill, given the bandwidth limit Our Verdict Anker’s 13-in-1 USB-C dock disappointed me with its lack of suitable charging, but the tight design and modular hub add value. It all still feels a bit overpriced. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Anker Nano (13-in-1) Docking Station with Detachable Hub Retailer Price $109.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Devices with smaller pop-out features are inherently cool. Take Batman’s Batpod cycle, for instance. So Anker’s Nano Docking Station (13-in-1, with its Removable Hub) instantly adds a bit of cachet with its pull-out USB-C hub, making it convenient to take on the road. This flexibility doesn’t come cheap. Anker charges about $150 for what is still a USB-C docking station, though with the ability to connect to three displays. This Nano dock (the A83C3) also doesn’t include some of the charging capabilities that you might otherwise associate with other Anker products. There’s not really enough power to quick-charge a smartphone, for example. (Is it good enough to be added to PCWorld’s best USB-C hubs and docks? Keep reading to find out.) Anker’s 13-in-1 dock does fit the “nano” bill: it’s 1.57 inches wide and 5.5 inches high. Its depth is just under 4 inches, so this is a compact little dock that uses its space extremely effectively. A little blue LED encircles the detachable hub on the front of the display, an unobtrusive accent which can be turned off if needed. It only sits vertically, and Anker even warns that the dock can become unstable if it’s placed in another position such as upside down. The Anker Nano Docking Station (13-in-1, with a Removable Hub) with the hub detached.Mark Hachman / Foundry Remember, this is a 10Gbps USB-C dock, so its capabilities depend on what laptop you’re connecting it to. I connected multiple laptops, including laptops with an Intel Core Ultra 100 and AMD Ryzen AI 300 chips inside them. Connecting to two docks should only deliver up to 1440p resolution on two displays. But with laptops with USB4 ports or Thunderbolt 4 ports on them, the dock powered two displays at 4K, 60Hz. Only when I pulled out a Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio (11th-gen Core processor, Thunderbolt 4) did the output drop down to 4K, 30 Hz on one display and 1440p on the other. (Technically, your laptop will need to support DP Alt Mode for display output and power delivery for charging.) Anker’s quick-start guide offers a tiny HTML glyph link to an online manual, which reveals the specs. Two HDMI 2.0 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4 port provide display connections on the rear, alongside two legacy USB-A ports with 480Mbps connections for a keyboard and mouse. The rear also includes a gigabit Ethernet port. When powered on, the Anker Nano Docking Station (13-in-1, with a Removable Hub) displays a blue LED accent around the hub.Mark Hachman / Foundry Technically, this is a three-display dock, with an additional DisplayPort connection on the back. But with just 10Gbps of bandwidth shared between them, things get even more iffy. With a laptop that supports Display Stream Compression (DSC), you may see 4K60 across all three displays. Older hardware may produce 1440p across all three or just 1080p. On the front of Anker’s dock are a headphone jack, a 10Gbps USB-C port, and the portable hub. Plugged in, you’ll get a small subset of ports: a 5Gbps USB-C port, a 5Gbps USB-A port, and SD and microSD (TF) card slots capable, Anker says, of up to 104MB/s of data transfer. The dock supplies a rated 100W to the laptop via a 1 meter cable. (The power cord is about 60 inches.) Otherwise, this dock doesn’t supply a huge amount of power: the front USB-A port (inside the hub is rated at 4.5W of power output, while the USB-C port next to it puts out a rated 7.5W. That’s really not much at all, and far beneath the 20 to 45W or so smartphones require. The front of the Anker Nano Docking Station (13-in-1, with a Removable Hub). Note that there’s both a 5Gbps as well as a 10Gbps USB-C input.Mark Hachman / Foundry Unplug the hub (and yes, you can do this while the dock is connected and powered up) and an additional HDMI port is exposed, along with a USB-C power input that can accept up to 15W for the hub and output 85W to the laptop. The hub can be ejected using a small release switch on the top of the dock itself. Note that the hub includes just a 5Gbps USB-C data connection, and there’s no integrated Ethernet jack. Both the dock and integrated hub appears to be entirely made of plastic. Although all of the heat migrates to the top of the dock, I didn’t notice any thermal issues in my time testing. A small white LED on the back of the dock shows when the dock is powered on. Though the large button on the rear of the dock suggests that it’s a power button, it’s not. Pressing that button turns off the blue LED lighting surrounding the hub. A longer press, surprisingly, does nothing. The rear of the Anker Nano Docking Station (13-in-1, with a Removable Hub), with two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort port, two legacy USB-A connections, and an Ethernet jack.Mark Hachman / Foundry That’s one of the only weird things about this dock. The vertical design and effective use of space are terrific, and the dock sits vertically rather comfortably, without any suggestion that it might tip over. Anker 13-in-1 Nano Docking Station: Performance I typically test a dock or hub for multiple days, as per our USB-C hub testing procedures. In this case, I let it sit on my desk as a hub for my work PC, then sit down and test it more extensively. Honestly, the one thing that consistently annoyed me about this dock was its lightweight GaN charger, which I plugged into a power strip. It uses one of those rectangular wall-wart plugs which overhangs the socket, and I was constantly nudging it out of connection while moving my legs. Reconnecting the displays took about 20 seconds each. Port spacing seems fine, even with such a tight arrangement. USB-A ports, with a variety of USB keys, need a certain degree of space. This latch detaches the hub on the Anker dock.Mark Hachman / Foundry Yes, the dock gets close to the rated 100W output to a laptop, which is probably a lot more than the 45W to 65W most productivity notebooks demand. A 100W charger is more suited to a high-end laptop without a discrete GPU such as a Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2. Check your laptop’s manual or charger for specifics. Otherwise, though, there’s really no need to consider this dock to charge individual devices, as the output from each port is just too low. I reviewed this hub at about the same time I reviewed a competing Mokin USB-C docking station, which I would say offers a better value. Anker’s dock only dropped 8 frames out of 10,000 while streaming a 4K video over the dock’s Ethernet connection, which is near perfect. I then test the performance of an SSD connected to the dock, simulating what it would be like to move data back and forth. Here, the dock delivered slightly less performance than the Mokin’s dock: 150MB/s versus 166 MB/s. While streaming the video, I tested the dock again: 119MB/s. Again, that’s slightly less than the 135MB/s the Mokin dock delivered. Anker’s 13-in-1 Nano USB-C dock delivers a tight, compact design with a separate hub that you can take on the road. Only the lack of powerful charging options gave me pause. Anker 13-in-1 Nano Docking Station: Conclusion I’m torn. On one hand, I feel like this dock is overpriced for what it offers, especially the lack of charging capabilities. On the other, you can obviously make the case that you’re buying two products for the price of one. Peripheral pricing can be all over the map — Mokin’s for example, says that its dock’s MSRP is $169, but sells it for $99.99 itself while Amazon drops that down to $79. Tariffs obviously still play a role. I don’t really like the fact that charging options aren’t included with this dock, but many of you already have dedicated charging pads or plugs. For me, that knocks Anker’s dock out of our recommended category. But there’s still a lot to like about Anker’s compact, functional little dock as well. Read...

Official support for Windows 10 was supposed to end in October 2025, but Microsoft shifted plans and continued to provide security updates for another year via the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. It’s free for private users and protects against malware and other security threats until at least October 2026. Businesses, on the other hand, can keep getting security updates for a fee for three years. In a recent Windows IT Pro blog post, Microsoft said that it will extend the ESU program to include additional Windows versions. This means that other operating systems that are approaching the end of their support will receive updates for longer than originally planned. Which additional Windows versions? Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016, Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 LTSB, and Windows Server 2016. The lifecycles of the first two were supposed to end on October 13th, 2026, but will now receive updates for three years longer. As for Windows Server 2016, it was scheduled to end support in January 2027 but will also receive support for another three years. Reasons, costs, and details Participation in the ESU program is voluntary and subject to a fee, as these are primarily versions for businesses. As with the extended security updates for Windows 10 22H2, continued use for business customers is associated with increased costs year over year. In the first year, it will cost $61 per device. Afterwards, it will double in price every subsequent year: $122 for the second year and $244 for the third year. However, corporations will receive a discount if their devices are managed via Microsoft’s own cloud solutions (Intune or Autopatch). In this case, the first year costs only $45. The offer is aimed explicitly at companies and servers that are unable to upgrade to a newer version immediately. These upgrades are often costly, complex, and time-consuming to make. In addition, certain systems that run on Windows must remain stable and reliable—outages due to sudden updates are often not an option. Not a long-term solution Microsoft emphasizes that the ESU program is not a long-term solution, even for businesses. Although the three-year grace period is useful for continuing to receive security updates, the extended security updates do not include new features. Get Windows 11 Pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro Microsoft therefore recommends switching to the latest versions (either Windows 11 25H2, Windows Server 2025, or Windows Enterprise LTSC 2024) as soon as possible. Depending on the size of a company, the ongoing license costs for the ESU program may well be more expensive than a complete switch to a newer version. For companies that continue into the second year of the ESU, they’ll have to pay $122 per device. Read...

Windows 11 26H2 follows the model of an enablement package and is technically based on version 25H2. An enablement package is a small feature update that does not trigger a complete reinstallation of the operating system. Microsoft uses this process to unlock existing but previously disabled features that were added to the system via regular monthly updates. The enablement package essentially changes the version identifier of Windows and activates these features collectively without comprehensively replacing system files or affecting existing applications and settings. The installation process takes only a few minutes and is technically more like a cumulative update than a classic feature upgrade. The update to 26H2 changes the version identifier without reinstallation and extends the support period by 24 months for consumer editions and 36 months for business editions. Functional changes already reach systems via monthly updates for 25H2 and then carry over unchanged to 26H2. A significant increase in functionality is particularly evident on systems migrating from older versions such as 23H2. The rollout is scheduled for the familiar time window from late September to early October 2026. Those participating in the Insider Program will, of course, receive the new features in advance as a test version. Save 60% on Windows 11 Pro Windows 11 Pro Copilot-based search on the taskbar The classic Windows search is being replaced by an optional “Ask Copilot” feature. This can be activated in the taskbar settings under “Personalization.” Once activated, a compact search window opens with direct access to applications, files, and system settings. The technical basis remains the existing Windows search index. Thomas Joos Copilot also interprets the user’s intentions and links search queries to appropriate settings, such as brightness or display parameters. The interface does not display Bing pop-ups and responds noticeably more directly. A later extension will include file and image uploads as well as Copilot Vision, which incorporates content from open applications. Without activation, the familiar Windows search remains unchanged on the taskbar. Copilot does not access local data unless files are explicitly transferred. File Explorer with revised context structure File Explorer has been given a restructured context logic with nested menus to reduce the number of visible entries. Actions such as compression, path copying, or image rotation are grouped under “Manage file.” Image-related functions such as background assignment or rotation are also grouped together. Compression formats can be selected in a separate submenu. OneDrive-related options are moved to a separate area. Individual commands such as “Ask Copilot,” “Edit with Clipchamp,” “Edit in Notepad,” “Edit in Paint,” and Microsoft Photos still appear multiple times. Context-dependent prioritization via ML does not take place. At the same time, Microsoft is working on a dark display for the Properties tab in File Explorer. In addition, background preloading of Explorer is being tested to speed up startup, which can be disabled in the folder options. Copilot integration in File Explorer In addition, there will be deeper Copilot integration in File Explorer. The plan is to have a dockable side panel near the detail and preview views with the option to detach it into a separate window. Unlike the current forwarding of files to the Copilot app, Copilot operates directly in the file system and allows dialog-based interactions with folders and files. Thomas Joos The Run window, which has remained unchanged for decades, will get a WinUI-based variant with a Mica background, an enlarged input field, and a command overview above the input. It can be activated in the advanced section of the system settings. Once activated, the system will hide the classic variant. The new interface displays matching applications, including icons, as you type. At the same time, Microsoft is testing a dark mode for the classic Run window. Both versions coexist as options. Return of the agenda in the notification center The agenda view returns to the notification center and integrates with Outlook. After logging in, appointments are automatically synchronized and appear in the Win+N calendar view. The implementation uses WebView2 and occupies over 100MB of RAM. The view allows you to join meetings and view current appointments in real time. A Copilot button complements the interface. System Monitor as an integrated security component Sysinternals System Monitor is integrated directly into Windows 11. The component comes from the external Sysinternals suite and logs system events for threat detection. Events are stored in the Windows event database and can be filtered using separate configuration files. Activation is optional via Windows features or the command line. No restart is required. Camera settings and emoji update The camera settings have been expanded to include pan and tilt control for supported hardware. The options appear in the settings under “Bluetooth and devices” in the basic camera settings. The interface currently still shows inconsistencies in window adjustment. At the same time, Microsoft is introducing Emoji version 16.0 with new symbols. Gaming mode with Xbox full-screen interface An optional full-screen mode replaces the desktop interface with a controller-oriented dashboard based on the existing Xbox apps. It can be activated in the gaming settings. The mode reduces background processes and saves system resources, which has an impact on gaming performance and battery life. A restart activates the new interface. You can switch back to the desktop using the Windows key. For productive work, it is recommended to deactivate it before restarting. Agentic AI functions in the system An experimental area for agentic functions appears in the AI components of the settings. Applications such as Copilot take on automated tasks related to file organization, scheduling, or emailing. The function remains disabled until you turn it on and use it. Thomas Joos Bug fixes and detail improvements Current Windows builds also fix visual glitches with the automatically hidden taskbar, the unexpected rebuilding of desktop icons, and display issues with Windows security login windows. File Explorer adjustments improve accessibility, allow custom folder names, and add tooltips to favorites. A fix addresses application hangs during file operations with OneDrive and Dropbox, as well as problems with Outlook configurations that store PST files in OneDrive. Voice Access extends language support to include the Netherlands. Read...

Microsoft recently authored a list of its picks for the best productivity apps in Windows, and the contents of that list have raised eyebrows. Why? Because sitting at the top of that list is the Copilot app, Microsoft’s AI assistant that can answer your questions, summarize your emails, help you organize your projects, and more. Unfortunately, this feels more like a marketing push than an honest-to-goodness list of actually useful productivity apps. Copilot has been unhelpful at best and problematic at worst, as we found out when Copilot failed to deliver on reminders. We also tried to make Copilot a habit and walked away with mixed results. Copilot just isn’t at a place yet where it can top a list of productivity apps without it being a joke. It’s bad enough that users have been unhappy with Microsoft’s Copilot takeover for many months now, and a report from earlier this year shows that almost nobody is actually using Copilot. The other apps on the list are actually pretty useful, although they’re obviously biased pushes by Microsoft towards its own apps. Below Copilot, you have Microsoft To Do (for managing tasks and checklists), Windows Calendar (for managing events, meetings, and appointments), OneNote (for in-depth digital note-taking), and Snipping Tool (for capturing screenshots and screen recordings). After that, you have Clock (for timed distraction-free sessions), Sticky Notes (for quick-and-easy notes), File Explorer (uh, this one’s sort of a weird inclusion to be honest), and the Edge browser (with Microsoft trying to highlight its AI features, including Copilot). If you want to be more productive with Windows, we recommend our roundup of obscure but useful Windows features instead. Further reading: Microsoft Copilot is the new Internet Explorer Read...