I don’t know how your tech drawers look, but mine are filled with wires I’ll likely never use again because technology has advanced quite a bit. Thankfully, USB-C seems to be here to stay since there is no wrong way to plug these things in. It’s not just smartphones, tablets, and laptops that use these, however, but also a long list of gadgets. We’ve scoured the market for hidden gems: gadgets that will make you think “Wow, I didn’t know I needed that, but it will make my life so much easier!” So, let’s dive in and see what cool devices you’ll be able to use your type-C cables and ports with. Wowstick 1F+ mini electric screwdriver Wowstick If you often have to fiddle around with your computer or other gadgets, this Wowstick mini electric screwdriver may be just what you need. This pen-shaped screwdriver features three LED lights so it’s easier to see what you’re working on and rotates 200 times per minute so you can finish the job faster. The screwdriver has a stylish base so you can hold it on your desk, and a whole collection of 56 aluminum alloy bits. The screwdriver can be charged via USB-C and it can last for hours. This super fun electric screwdriver usually goes for $41. Anker Nano Power Bank Anker One thing you need to have in you bag/pocket/backpack is a power bank because you never really know when your phone will fail you and cry for a recharge. Well, the Anker Nano power bank is tiny enough to fit just about anywhere. It comes with a foldable USB-C connector and a port on the side so you can charge two devices at once if you need to. The 5,000mAh capacity is just about enough for a full phone recharge, so it will be great in a pinch. It’s also only $30, but we’ve seen it as low as $16. Endoscope camera with light Ennovor Although it’s not something you’ll use every day, this Ennover endoscope camera can definitely come in handy. You just plug it in your phone, install and app, and see everything your camera does. Our team swears by it, using it for finding whatever they dropped behind the desk, while working on the car, or looking for pipe leaks. Since it has an IP67 rating, you can even plop it in your aquarium. The camera comes with a 16.4ft semi-rigid cable and several accessories, including a hook, magnet, and a mirror. You can get this one for $23 right now. Blukar flashlight Blukar I don’t care who you are—you need a flashlight. The smaller, the better, because you get to shove it into any pocket. This model from Blukar comes with a built-in 1800mAh battery that you’ll recharge with one of those many type-C cables you have in that tech drawer we were talking about. It can work for up to 16 hours on a single charge, which is pretty decent. There are four different lightning modes to cycle through, including one that will help you signal for help. Plus, one of these is only $10, so no excuse to pass on this one. Heat It insect bite healer Anyone plagued by mosquitoes in the summer will be particularly pleased with this ingenious gadget. This tiny device, which can be easily connected to your smartphone via USB-C, can significantly reduce the itching of bites and stings with targeted heat. You simply charge the small Heat It bite healer via the app and then hold it on the bite. The heat then does the rest, breaking down the proteins in the mosquito bite that cause the area to swell, itch, and hurt. A true must-have for summer, and it costs only $20. A tiny air pump Also perfect for summer is this small air pump from Cycplus, which fits in any bag while on the go. Not only can it inflate a bicycle tire in two minutes at the touch of a button, but it’s also USB-charged. According to the manufacturer, it’s suitable for mountain bikes, road bikes, motorcycles, and even cars! In addition to being an air pump, this practical gadget can also be used as a flashlight or power bank for on-the-go use — all things that come in very handy on a bike ride. And at just $57, it’s highly recommended if you need quick help with a flat tire. USB-C mini fan These little fans are also pretty ingenious; you can easily carry them in your pocket in the summer and quickly use them whenever you need them. Anyone who’s ever sat on a crowded subway train in 30-degree heat and wished for at least a little fresh air will love this gadget. The mini fan, which costs just $20, has a USB-C port and can be easily powered by power banks, computers, laptops, or USB chargers. There are even smaller and cheaper fans available that can be connected directly to your phone, costing under $10 each. But these also provide less powerful airflow, so we recommend the standalone version. Reading light with a book clamp Anyone who enjoys reading a lot, sometimes late into the night, will appreciate this little gadget: a reading lamp that you can simply clip onto your book. It may not be groundbreaking, but with a total of three color temperatures and five different light modes, you can individually adjust how much light you need for reading. The Gritin reading lamp costs just $15 on Amazon and features a 1200 mAh battery that lasts up to 80 hours depending on usage. Afterward, you can easily recharge it via USB. You can swivel the neck of the lamp back and forth as desired, and there’s even a small charging indicator. What more could you want? Samsung flash drive Samsung The vast majority of flash drives have a USB-A connector, but this one from Samsung has a Type-C connector. With transfer speeds of up to 400MB/s, you’ll move files around in no time. The beauty of this thumb drive is that you can even pop it in your smartphone to record 4K vids directly on it. The Samsung Type-C flash drive comes in multiple storage options, starting at 64GB and up to 512GB and they start at $14. The 256GB version, for instance, is $27 at the time of writing. Editor’s note: This article was originally published on May 16, but was updated to include additional devices. Read...

Most of the long and thin smart floor lamps we’ve tried are all about casting bold splashes of color on the wall, perfect for setting a mood but not must help when it comes to reading, dining, or getting something done. But with its new line of Matter-enabled lamps, Govee hopes to bring the dazzle without forgetting the productivity.   Govee already has several floor lamps in its portfolio, including two that we’ve reviewed, the Govee Floor Lamp Pro and the Floor Lamp 2. We admired both lamps, which have long, thin, stick-light designs that cast multicolored and even animated light on your walls. But while both lamps can serve up eye-catching color scenes, they’re not really designed for illuminating your reading nook or dining table.  With its trio of new floor lamps, Govee is trying something different. The first lamp boasts a three-zone lamp head that casts light up as well as down; the second model comes with a torchiere design; and the third is a tree-style floor lamp with three adjustable arms. All three lamps are compatible with Matter, the smart-home unifying standard, and all are designed to cast white light as well as color, with the traditional lamp-head and tree-style lamps particularly well suited for reading or workspaces.  First up, the Govee Uplighter Floor Lamp ($179.99, available now) has an upper zone that can splash up to 20 square meters of multicolored light on the ceiling, while a middle RGBIC zone serves up a groovy decorative glow.   The Govee Uplighter Floor Lamp can cast cool ripple effects on your ceiling, but that’s not all it can do.Govee Crucially, though, the lower section can cast up to 1,000 lumens of white light, with temperatures ranging from a warm 2,700 Kelvin to a daylight-equivalent 6,500K. That means the Uplighter Floor lamp can either cast a nifty ripple effect on your ceiling or bathe your reading nook in warm white light—or do both at the same time, if you wish. We’ve had the opportunity to perform a full Govee Uplighter Floor Lamp review and we like it. The Govee Torchiere Floor Lamp ($149.99, available July 7) is the lone lamp of the trio that’s more focused on ambient light, with three curved lenses capable of splashing mulitcolored light on up to 16 square meters of ceiling space.   Thanks to those curved lenses, the three light zones can seamlessly blend to create rainbow effects or other colorful light scenes. When tuned to a daylight-equivalent 6,500K white-color temperature, the Torchiere Floor Lamp can cast up to 780 lumens of brightness.  The Govee Torchiere Floor Lamp has three curved lenses that can cast seamless rainbow effects on your ceiling, as well as a range of warm and cool white light.Govee Finally, the Govee Tree Floor Lamp ($169.99, available July 7) has a three-arm, tree-style design, with each arm capable of 350-degree horizontal and 90-degree vertical rotation. The light cast by the lamp heads can also be focused from 90 degrees to 30 degrees, allowing for either wide splashes of color or narrow cones of light.   Again, both multicolor and white light will be on tap, with white light temperatures ranging from a warm 2,700K to a cooler 6,500K. That means you could turn the top two lamp heads toward the wall for ambient splashes of color, while the third arm could be focused downward for use as a reading light. The three arms of the Govee Tree Floor Lamp can be adjusted indepedently, meaning they can wash colors on your walls as well as cast focused cones of white light.Govee Set to its coolest 6,500K white color temperature, the Tree Floor Lamp can generate up to 1,500 lumens of brightness.  All three of the new Govee lamps can sync with music with help from their integrated microphones, and all can be grouped using the Govee app, which also offers dozens of animated light modes along with the ability to create your own lighting effects.   Even better, the new lamps all work with Matter, the new standard that bridges the gaps between Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and other Matter-compatible smart home platforms. That means you can use your choice of voice assistant or smart home app to control basic features, although more complex functionality (such as creating your own animations) will require the Govee app.  This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lights. One feature that the new Govee lamps don’t have is an integrated Bluetooth speaker. The Govee Floor Lamp Pro has a Bluetooth speaker built into its base, making it easy to stream tunes from your phone and sync the music to the lamp’s LEDs. If you want Govee’s new floor lamps to sync with your tunes, you’ll need to supply your own music source. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Syncs across Mac, iPhone, and iPad Comprehensive editing and annotation tools Simple, intuitive interface Cons Requires annual payment Lifetime license enables use on Mac only Our Verdict PDF Expert is an excellent PDF editor that fits seamlessly in the Apple ecosystem. It’s our pick for Mac, iPad, and iPhone users. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices MacOS includes a capable PDF editor in its Preview app, but iOS devices don’t have any native PDF editing capabilities. That leaves users to seek out third-party solutions, and Readdle’s PDF Expert is one of the most popular. The editor allows you to create, edit, annotate, organize, sign, and protect PDFs whether you’re on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. In its latest version, PDF Expert adds an AI-powered chat assistant that can summarize documents, extract key points, and even generate hashtags, making it easier than ever to navigate and understand lengthy or complex files. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best PDF editors for comparison. PDF Expert features and design PDF Expert has a clean, intuitive interface that lets you get right to work. Tabs run across the top of the screen—Annotate, Edit, Export, Fill & Sign, Scan Tools and Measure—each revealing an appropriate set of tools when active. When you open a PDF file, it’s displayed in the main pane, and thumbnails of the document pages are displayed in a sidebar on the left. PDF Expert’s latest version adds an AI assistant that can summarize documents and extract key points directly from the PDF. Michael Ansaldo/Foundry Whenever you select an annotation or editing tool to work with, its corresponding options display to the right of the page. Clicking the pen tool, for example, displays sliders to adjust the line width and opacity along with a selection of ink colors. Selecting the text tool opens a display of font settings and sizes. By putting the tools you need at hand instead of requiring you to hunt through menus for them, PDF Expert saves you considerable time on your editing jobs. PDF Expert offers a full slate of annotation tools, allowing you to highlight text and add marginalia, notes, stamps, and shapes. You can capture your signature using your Mac’s keyboard or trackpad, your iPhone’s camera, or an Apple Pencil on your iPad, and sync it across all your Apple devices to sign contracts, invoices, and other documents. The editor also supports forms, automatically detecting and highlighting fields that need to be filled. When you’re working with sensitive documents, you can redact text by erasing it or obscuring it with a black box. You can also protect access to the file by setting a password. You can drag PDF pages to reorder them.Michael Ansaldo/IDG By putting the tools you need at hand instead of requiring you to hunt through menus for them, PDF Expert saves you considerable time on your editing jobs. How much is PDF Expert? You can use PDF Expert across your Mac, iPhone, and iPad for $79.99 a year, which is considerably less than our top two picks, Adobe Acrobat DC and Foxit PDF Editor. A lifetime plan is available for a one-time payment of $139.99, but it only enables use of the editor on your Mac, not your Apple mobile devices. PDF Expert offers a fully-functional 7-day trial of the Mac version, no credit card required, and it’s worth taking advantage of to determine if this robust editor will meet your needs or if you’d be better served by one of the other options in our roundup of the best PDF editors. Is PDF Expert worth it? True to its name, the editor expertly handled every task I threw at it. It makes page management a simple affair, enabling you to reorder pages by simply selecting and dragging them to a new location and add or extract pages with just a few clicks. It can convert scanned documents into editable text with the click of a button, and it converts PDFs into Microsoft Office formats, plain text, or image files. PDF Expert’s new AI chat feature extends this ease of use even further, letting you ask natural-language questions about your document, surface key points, or get a quick summary without reading the entire thing. For Apple users, particularly those with multiple devices, PDF Expert can be a worthwhile investment for a comprehensive and easy-to-use PDF editing toolkit. I only wish the lifetime license covered the whole Apple ecosystem and not just Macs. Read...

In summer of last year, we saw several laptops with new Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite processors from Qualcomm released. Many users were impressed by them, as Snapdragon laptops aren’t just fast but also power-efficient, offering much longer battery life and requiring virtually no fan. PCWorld’s Mark Hachman was personally impressed by his Snapdragon laptop while on a business trip. Plus, with the integrated NPU (neural processing unit), these laptops also have local AI capabilities with lots of future processing potential. But for some, there’s been one big problem with these Snapdragon laptops: they could only run Windows 11. No Linux distribution was able to support them well due to numerous technical problems, and that was despite the existence of Arm editions of Linux. Qualcomm had even originally announced its intention to actively support Linux with them. Tuxedo presented this prototype in the summer of 2024, but is still unable to show a finished operating system.IDG That said, one of the first Linux providers to come out of the woodwork early on was the Augsburg-based company Tuxedo. In June 2024, the manufacturer presented a prototype with a Snapdragon X Elite processor at Computex in Taiwan. Tuxedo announced its own Linux implementation as the operating system. In July 2024, however, a spokesperson for the company admitted that the hardware was already ready, but that there was “still a lot to do” on the software side. After that, the project went quiet. A Snapdragon breakthrough at Canonical Ubuntu is already a big step further. Canonical announced its breakthrough at the end of March 2025. After initial trials with the ARM64 architecture, which started in 2023, and a concept image for developers published last year, the first standard distribution to support Snapdragon X Elite laptops “out of the box” was released in April with Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin). The company has come a long way, from early ARM64 support for a single device (the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s), to the later concept image with support for more laptops, to the current release. Canonical made a breakthrough with a concept image, which was able to run on numerous Snapdragon X laptops. But it was primarily aimed at developers.IDG The first success came with the concept image for Snapdragon X Elite laptops. It’s based on Ubuntu 24.10 and, according to Canonical, is already running on a large number of Snapdragon X Elite laptops. The company named models including the Acer Swift 14 AI, Asus Vivobook S 15, Dell XPS 13 9345, HP OmniBook X 14, Lenovo Thinkpad T14s Gen6, Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, as well as Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7. Nevertheless, the concept image was initially only aimed at developers and brave end users who were keen to try out Linux on their Snapdragon X Elite computers. It was not yet intended for productive use. According to Canonical, supporting the ARM64 ecosystem is a greater challenge than the more traditional x86 processors used by PCs. One reason for this is that it’s less standardized. According to Canonical, different devices use different levels of UEFI firmware support or utilize different device-specific drivers and custom power management features. The Ubuntu development team has therefore had to invest a lot of work to fix these problems and address the issues. In future, Canonical wants to support ARM64 versions in the same way it supports x86 releases. Both versions should contain the same software and the same functions, but run equally well on their respective architectures. Canonincal also intends to release official updates and security patches at the same time. In this way, Canonical wants to set itself apart from community images for the ARM64 platform and offshoots of other distributions, which may not be able to provide “security patches in good time.” Tuxedo isn’t dead just yet In spring, work also continued at Tuxedo. At the beginning of March, a developer reported on the current status of the Elite 14 Gen1 model on the Linux kernel mailing list LKML. Some things such as the touchpad, keyboard, embedded display port, NVMe and USB Type-C port are now working. However, other parts—like the graphics card, USB Type-A port, energy saving mode, audio, camera, and fingerprint sensor—weren’t working. Shortly afterwards, the company added in a blog post that development had been “somewhat slow” over the past few months. On the one hand, the developers were needed elsewhere. On the other hand, it was also due to the fact that the preparatory work on which they depended had not made much progress. At the beginning of March, Tuxedo once again reported on the current development status of its Linux-on-Arm implementation at the LKML.IDG However, Tuxedo now says it has a first version of the device tree ready. This tree structure is required by the kernel on ARM64 architectures in order to manage and access hardware. It also tells the CPU which devices are connected to which ports and how they are to be controlled. According to Tuxedo, the main focus at the moment is on integrating further hardware components into the device tree. Testing drivers is also still in planning. Unfortunately, the fact that the intended collaboration with Qualcomm—the manufacturer of Snapdragon X Elite processors—hasn’t materialized has made things more difficult. Instead, the company is now working with Linaro, a specialist for Linux-on-Arm. However, it’s not yet possible to say when the first Snapdragon X Elite laptop with Tuxedo OS on board will be ready for the market. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is one of the handful of Snapdragon X Elite laptops on which Canonical has had initial success with its concept image.IDG When asked, Tuxedo also stated that they see the biggest advantage of the Snapdragon X Elite laptops in the “longer runtimes with high performance and very low noise levels.” Initial benchmarks for performance and runtime have looked promising, but specific figures haven’t yet been published. When asked about the integrated NPU, Tuxedo stated no current plans for it. “Too much is still missing for that at the moment,” says Tuxedo. In principle, however, the company sees “great potential” in Arm-based Linux laptops, “otherwise we wouldn’t have started working on it.” How will this all develop? It’s hard to say just yet. But if Tuxedo has its way, this could well be the future standard. Only time will tell. Read...

If you’re always on the go and need a reliable laptop with a gorgeous screen and plenty of power, then you might want to check out the Asus ProArt PX13. Normally available for $1,800, right now you can get this OLED laptop for a stunning $1,250 at Best Buy. Where do I even start with this one? There’s so much to gush about! How about the vibrant OLED touchscreen with a super-crisp 2880×1800 resolution that looks incredible on the 13.3-inch display? With 500 nits of brightness, it’ll shine and serve you well in most environments, too. Not to mention the dedicated RTX 4050 graphics card that’s great for modern 3D gaming, which will also look fabulous on this screen. All of that is founded on top-notch specs, including the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, speedy 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and spacious 1TB SSD. That’s enough power for gaming, productivity, and creativity! Flip the screen over and use it like a drawing tablet, or prop it up like a tent and conveniently read PDFs or watch streaming video. And did I mention that CPU qualifies this as a Copilot+ PC? That means you’ll have full access to all the new AI features in Windows 11. We reviewed the Asus ProArt PX13 and absolutely loved it, giving it a bright 4.5-star rating and our Editors’ Choice award. “The Asus ProArt PX13 is an incredible laptop.” Enough said. Frankly, what are you even waiting for? Laptops like this rarely come this cheap—get the Asus ProArt PX13 for $550 off at Best Buy before this deal expires! Save $550 on this Copilot+ OLED laptop with RTX 4050 and 32GB RAMBuy now at Best Buy Read...

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recently released an update to the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image format, one of the most popular image formats for web content. Tom’s Hardware writes that this is the first time the W3C has updated the file format since 2003. The PNG image file format was originally launched in 1996, but this is only the third version ever. New features in the latest version include support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) images, animation via animated PNG (APNG) files, and storage of EXIF metadata. The W3C decided to update the file standard after another group within the consortium—working on time-based text such as subtitles, captions, and audio descriptions—realized that PNG files needed HDR support. The newest version of PNG is already supported by popular web browsers including Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, as well as creative editing software such as Adobe Photoshop and Da Vinci Resolve. Read...

Microsoft recently published a new blog post that confirms what has been suspected since March: the next version of Windows will be called Windows 11 25H2 and it will be more of a minor update. Microsoft compares Windows 11 25H2 with version 23H2, which was way more manageable than the mess of 24H2. But “minor” doesn’t mean it won’t have any new features. On the contrary! What’s new in Windows 11 25H2? Even though the Windows 11 25H2 update is expected to be only around 1 MB in size, Microsoft is still preparing a few adjustments for Windows 11 with it. These adjustments include a new Start menu with a grid and category layout, as reported by Windows Latest. Users will then be able to categorize their apps themselves into specific groups—for example, creative apps, games, streaming, social media—to access them more quickly. However, a certain number of apps must be present in a category for it to be visible. Windows Latest There will also be a new feature that throttles your CPU usage when you’re idling or away from your PC for a long time. The main goal here is to reduce power consumption and extende battery life. The first Windows 11 Insiders can already test 25H2 via the Canary Channel. Previously, there were some serious bugs that affected the OS’s stability, causing Microsoft to pause testing for a while. The good news is, updating to Windows 11 25H2 is a lot simpler and more straightforward than it has been in the past. You only need to restart your system once to get the new version. Still, Microsoft recommends updating to 24H2 first before stepping up to 25H2. Why is Windows 11 25H2 a minor update? As Windows 11 25H2 doesn’t contain any far-reaching changes for the operating system, Microsoft is not calling it a complete feature update. That would set expectations too high. It’s also natural that the next Windows 11 version update would be somewhat smaller again, given how tumultuous the 24H2 update turned out to be, causing numerous problems for users that had to be repeatedly rescued via emergency updates and rollout blocks. All the new features introduced in 24H2 will, of course, be included in 25H2. Users who are lagging behind will therefore receive a large package anyway if they haven’t been keeping up to date. It’s likely that Microsoft will finalize and deliver Windows 11 25H2 to users in October 2025. Support for Windows 10 was supposed to end at that time, but Microsoft also recently announced an extra year of free Windows 10 security updates… with a catch. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Great battery life Good desktop performance Solid build quality NPU for Copilot+ PC features Cons Price feels high when higher-end laptops are often on sale Dull display Tinny speakers Slow GPU Our Verdict Lenovo’s IdeaPad Slim 3x delivers great battery life and capable day-to-day performance, but the hardware makes a lot of compromises. That’s a tough sell when higher-end Copilot+ PCs with faster CPUs and better displays often drop to this price on sale. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x is an ARM-based laptop with the new low-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip. Thanks to Snapdragon, this machine has excellent battery life for its class and an NPU for the shiny Copilot+ PC features Microsoft is releasing. It’s the lowest launch price for a Snapdragon X Copilot+ PC I’ve seen yet. The build quality and design are good, too. But the compromises here would feel a lot more justifiable at $599 than $749. Still, this machine beats the Intel variant — no question. The big problem is that this laptop is launching a year after the first Snapdragon X Copilot+ PCs, with slower internals than those in earlier models. At this machine’s initial retail price, it’s competing with Copilot+ PCs with stronger hardware that have been out for months and are frequently on sale for a similar price. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Specs The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has the same lower-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X X1-26-100 CPU I initially reviewed in Asus’s featherlight $1200 Asus ZenBook A14. It makes much more sense here in this $749 machine than that $1200 machine. (Qualcomm initially said it hoped this CPU would power $600 laptops.) While this laptop’s price makes a lot more sense for this CPU, it’s still worth noting that this is a newer, lower-end Snapdragon X SKU. It’s slower than the Snapdragon X Plus chips that Qualcomm initially released. Here’s the official product matrix. As it shows, Snapdragon X ranks at the bottom of the pack with the slowest CPU (up to 3 GHz) and the slowest GPU (1.7 TFLOPS). Qualcomm talked up GPU performance and gaming a lot when it launched the Snapdragon X platform, and you should be aware the GPU in these machines is much slower than Qualcomm’s marketing might lead you to believe. However, this machine does have the NPU all Qualcomm Snapdragon X PCs come with. That means that, unlike with the Intel variant, you are getting Copilot+ PC AI features on this machine. This laptop has a 256 GB SSD, but it comes with a second SSD slot so you can install another SSD if you need more storage later. Model number: Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x 15Q8X10 CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) Memory: 16 GB LPDDR5x RAM Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno X1-45 NPU: Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (up to 45 TOPS) Display: 15.3-inch 1920×1200 IPS display with 60Hz refresh rate and touch screen Storage: 256 GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD Webcam: 720p webcam with privacy shutter Connectivity: 1x USB Type-C (USB 5Gbps), 2x USB Type-A (USB 5Gbps), 1x HDMI 1.4, 1x SD card reader, 1x combo audio jack, 1x power connector Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Fingerprint reader for Windows Hello Battery capacity: 60 Watt-hours Dimensions: 13.52 x 9.51 x 0.7 inches Weight: 3.42 pounds MSRP: $749 as tested At $749, the compromises — the display, speakers, webcam, and GPU in particular — feel like they add up fast. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Design and build quality IDG / Chris Hoffman The 15-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has a top made of aluminum and a bottom made of plastic. While plastic isn’t the most premium material, it looks good and feels fine. From a distance, the design looks similar to Lenovo’s more expensive laptops to me, especially thanks to the aluminum lid. There’s nothing particularly wrong with a good plastic laptop, and the design and build quality here are both good! There’s no weird flexing as you hold the laptop or open it up. The “Luna Gray” color scheme here looks nice, too — it’s more silver or light-blue than gray in the right lighting. At 3.42 pounds, this 15-inch laptop could be a little more lightweight if it was made of more expensive materials. But the weight is totally fine, and the 0.7-inch thickness is reasonable too. The software is a bit obnoxious out of the box, as it tends to be on consumer Lenovo laptops. For example, McAfee antivirus pops up and encourages you to buy a subscription. You can uninstall this stuff, but the laptop would feel better out of the box without it. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Keyboard and trackpad IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has a fine keyboard, complete with a number pad. I like having the number pad when there’s room. 15-inch laptops tend to include a number pad since they have more space, but some people might want a roomier keyboard without that number pad. Lenovo makes lots of good laptop keyboards, and this keyboard feels okay, but it’s lower-end and more budget-focused than the options in more expensive premium laptops. As in the Intel-powered Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 model, there’s some mushiness to the keys. When I type, I notice the plastic around the keys push downward into the machine when my finger goes all the way down on a key. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but this is one of the mushiest keyboards I’ve used on a Lenovo machine. It’s one of those touches that makes the machine feel more budget than premium. But it’s usable and comfortable enough. The trackpad feels solid, too. It’s a plastic surface rather than a premium glass one, but it’s responsible and smooth, with a fine click-down feel. It’s positioned further to the left than on most laptops. If you find yourself using your touchpad with your right hand, that may be a little inconvenient. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Display and speakers IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x’s 15.3-inch 1920×1200 IPS display is the weakest part of the experience. At 300 nits, it’s on the dim side on paper. In real life, it feels not just unusually dim, but also dull. I cranked this one up to 100 percent brightness and still want it to go higher. The display does have an anti-glare coating that works nicely to avoid reflections, so it arguably needs less brightness than glossy laptop displays that are more vulnerable to glare. The 60Hz refresh rate is also the bare minimum, here — but 60Hz isn’t a major issue compared to the other problems with the display. This is a touch-screen laptop, too. That’s a nice feature to have. The speakers are lacking, too. They’re on the quiet side, but the biggest problem is that the audio quality is tinny. I listen to both Steely Dan’s Aja and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky on Spotify when I review laptop speakers. The instrument separation in Aja and the bass in Get Lucky were both on the bad side as far as laptop speakers go. I’d get a good pair of headphones if you want to listen to music or watch media. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x includes a 720p webcam, which is a surprise since the Intel variant I recently reviewed included a 1080p webcam. The webcam just isn’t great in 2025 — 1080p webcams have largely become standard. The webcam produces an image that’s lower-detail and more washed out than the average 1080p webcam on a newer laptop. Still, it’s fine — if you just need to participate in an occasional video meeting, webcam quality isn’t necessarily the most important factor on a machine like this. The IdeaPad Slim 3x does have a physical webcam shutter switch above the display — that’s always a privacy feature I’m thrilled to see. The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x’s microphone didn’t do a great job, either. It picked up my voice without background noise, but the sound was unusually quiet and sounded a little low-quality. I would aim to use an external mic in calls and voice chats if you opt for this machine. This machine doesn’t have an IR camera for facial recognition with Windows Hello. Instead, it has a fingerprint reader at the right side of the laptop, below the Enter key on the number pad. The fingerprint reader works fine, and some people will prefer it to facial recognition hardware. That’s a matter of personal taste. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Connectivity IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has a decent number of ports for a budget-focused laptop, just like the Intel variant does. On the right side, this machine has a USB Type-A port next to a full-size SD card reader. On the left side, Lenovo includes a power connector (Lenovo doesn’t include a USB-C charger, which is a surprise for a Snapdragon laptop) along with a second USB Type-A port, an HDMI 1.4 out port, a USB Type-C port, and a combo audio jack. With so many laptops supporting faster USB speeds and HDMI 2.1 out, the port selection does feel a bit lower-end. Thanks to the Snapdragon hardware here, this machine does support the future-proof Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 standards. (The Intel variant, with its previous-generation platform, doesn’t offer these.) Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Performance While the Snapdragon chip here is the lowest-end one available, this machine still performs fine in day-to-day use. While the CPU speed is a bit lower, the biggest performance drops are in multi-core performance (this chip has fewer cores) and graphics performance (the GPU here is substantially slower than on higher-tier Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite chips.) Those aren’t the most important for typical desktop productivity performance. While app compatibility has improved with Windows on ARM, it still isn’t perfect. Personally, all the desktop apps I use regularly run fine — aside from OBS Studio, which has an experimental build that should run. We ran the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs. However, bear in mind that some of our benchmark tools — like PCMark 10 — don’t run on ARM PCs. IDG / Chris Hoffman To get an idea of CPU performance, we run Cinebench R24. Unlike many benchmarking tools, this runs natively on ARM PCs, so we can compare performance across the x86 and ARM platforms without Microsoft’s Prism translation layer getting involved. Cinebench is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. Since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage. The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x scored 711 in the Cinebench R24 multi-threaded benchmark. That’s substantially faster than the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 variant with the Intel Core 5 210H hardware and not too far behind the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus variant with faster Snapdragon hardware. IDG / Chris Hoffman Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop — not even by Snapdragon laptop standards — but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. First, we run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. This particular benchmark runs through the Prism translation layer as it’s not ARM-native. Despite that translation layer slowing things down, the Qualcomm GPU here scored 1063, which was only a little slower than the integrated Intel graphics in the Intel variant. This benchmark reflects how GPU-accelerated apps perform in the real world, as most apps and games aren’t available in ARM-native versions. IDG / Chris Hoffman We also run 3DMark Night Raid, which runs natively on ARM laptops. With the Prism translation layer getting out of the way, the Qualcomm Adreno GPU here produced a score of 16677. That’s substantially faster than Intel’s integrated graphics. However, as you can see in both the Night Raid and Time Spy benchmarks, this is unusually bad compared to other Snapdragon laptops. If you plan on using the laptop for gaming or GPU-accelerated professional applications, I would strongly encourage you to look for a laptop with faster graphics hardware. Overall, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x did fine, delivering decent desktop performance in the desktop apps many people use all day — browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, productivity apps like Microsoft Word, and collaboration tools like Slack. But it will lag behind in more demanding workflows — especially anything that needs graphics acceleration. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Battery life The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has a 60 Watt-hour battery. Combined with a power-sipping Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor, this ARM-powered Windows PC should have great battery life. And it does. IDG / Chris Hoffman To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the laptop’s display to 250 nits of brightness for this test. This is the best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this. The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x lasted an average of 982 minutes before suspending itself — that’s over 16 hours. While you can get a few more hours of battery with a more expensive Snapdragon or Lunar Lake laptop — those will often have larger batteries, which means longer life — this is a great number for a budget laptop. There’s a good chance it will last for an entire workday — depending on how demanding the applications you use are and how long your workday is! Notably, it’s nearly two times more battery life than the similar Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 and its Intel Core 5 210H processor delivered. That’s a huge improvement. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x: Conclusion The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x is a tough laptop to pass judgement on. If this was one of the $600 Snapdragon laptops we were promised by Qualcomm’s marketing push, I think it would be compelling. At $749, the compromises — the display, speakers, webcam, and GPU in particular — feel like they add up fast. On the other hand, this machine is worlds better than the Intel variant I just reviewed. You’re getting a faster CPU, faster GPU, much longer battery life, Wi-Fi 7 support, and an NPU for Copilot+ PC AI features. The laptop runs cooler and quieter. I’d much rather have the Snapdragon hardware in this chassis than that particular Intel chip. While I haven’t seen another Snapdragon laptop or Copilot+ PC with a starting retail price this low, you can often find laptops with more impressive hardware on sale around the $749 price point. Some of the competing models that frequently drop to that price even have beautiful-looking OLED displays. But, on a good sale, this machine could be an amazing deal if you want an inexpensive ARM laptop running Windows. Read...

Microsoft formally announced the next version of Windows 11 on Friday, Windows 11 25H2, and indicated that the upgrade will be much simpler than its predecessor. Windows 11 24H2 will be administered via what’s known as a “shared servicing branch,” which is the normal way for Windows to be updated. Microsoft simply takes the code that your machine lacks and sends it down to your PC via Windows Update, reducing the total download size by about 40 percent, Microsoft said. In early 2025, Microsoft rolled out an update to Windows 11 24H2, which required a much more intensive process. Microsoft called that rollout a full code swap, and when I performed the upgrade myself, it took as long as just under two hours on an older machine. That process essentially swapped all of the existing code for a total update. Since Microsoft is returning to a shared servicing branch, you can expect the update to move much more quickly. Essentially, Microsoft is saying that it will quietly download the Windows 11 25H2 components, then turn them on via an enablement package. Once the code is enabled, all a user has to do is reboot to “turn on” the new code. If you go to Windows Settings > System > About, you can see the new version, Microsoft said. Microsoft didn’t say when Windows 11 25H2 will officially roll out, but history says that it will probably be in September or October. Microsoft isn’t saying what new features will be rolled out as part of Windows 11 25H2. The company released two test builds for Windows 11 this week, one offering a dashboard for its Recall technology as a passkey integration with 1Password. Read...

Combining unbeatable resilience, smart features and polished design, the A5 Series makes high-performance essentials accessible to everyday users, without the premium price tag. Read...