John Ryan says it lacks important details, including the basic costs of services. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive, classy exterior design Broad suite of smart TV features Excellent contrast and color performance 165Hz refresh rate with FreeSync, G-Sync support Includes 4K webcam and dual-mic array Cons Limited ergonomic stand adjustment Confusing options and menu system Downstream USB connectivity is just two USB-A 2.0 ports HDR brightness fails to impress Our Verdict The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 is basically a 32-inch smart OLED TV, with most of the features you would expect a TV to have. That’s great if you want to stream Netflix or a cloud gaming service, but it leads to confusing menus and design quirks. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Samsung Smart Monitor M9 Retailer Price $1,599.99 View Deal $1599.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Want a 32-inch smart television with good image quality? Or a 32-inch OLED monitor that you can use for Netflix and cloud gaming even when your PC is turned off? The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 might be your solution. This smart monitor has Samsung’s Tizen OS and supports all the features and functionality you’d expect of a Samsung television—for better, and sometimes, for worse. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best monitors for comparison. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 specs and features The Samsung Smart Monitor M9’s basic specifications are typical for a 32-inch OLED, though just a tad underwhelming. It offers 4K resolution, but the maximum resolution is 165Hz (some competitors reach 240Hz). The monitor supports HDR10+, but not Dolby Vision. And while it supports USB-C upstream input with 90 watts of power, it has limited downstream USB connectivity. Display size: 31.5-inch 16:9 aspect ratio Native resolution: 3840×2160 Panel type: QD-OLED (matte) Refresh rate: 165Hz Adaptive sync: Yes, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible HDR: Yes, HDR10+ Ports: 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C with 90 watts of Power Delivery, 2x USB-A 2.0 downstream Audio: 2x 10-watt speakers Additional features: Tizen OS, remote control, 4K webcam and dual-microphone array, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.2 Price: $1599.99 MSRP, $1,299.99 typical retail However, the Smart Monitor M9 has what most 32-inch OLED monitors lack—a smart TV operating system. Specifically, it ships with Samsung’s Tizen OS. To support that, it also has a remote control, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. A webcam with microphone is thrown in for good measure. The Smart Monitor M9 has a retail MSRP of $1,599.99, but it doesn’t appear to retail at that price often. It’s frequently discounted to $1,299.99. That’s a bit expensive for a 32-inch OLED monitor, but in line with premium competitors like the HP Omen Transcend 32 and LG Ultragear 32GS95UE-B (neither of which have smart TV features). Samsung Smart Monitor M9 design The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 leans on a conservative, classy design that doesn’t take risks but should look good in any situation. From the front it’s almost all screen, aside from the top bezel, where a webcam lurks. Around back it’s an expanse of gunmetal materials, mostly plastic, which are understated but look expensive. The panel is quite thin, too, and while it does have a bump-out that contains the ports, it’s small and unobtrusive. Matthew Smith / Foundry The monitor ships with an L-shaped stand that has a compact, flat base that won’t take up much space on a desk. Annoyingly, though, the stand requires a screwdriver to assemble (most monitor stands use a thumb screw). While the stand provides ergonomic adjustment, it’s not great. It adjusts 120mm for height and can also pivot 90 degrees. However, it can’t actually be used in portrait mode because the amount of height adjustment available doesn’t hold the display high enough off a desk to support portrait mode. Instead, the edge of the display will run into your desk at around 60 degrees of rotation. The stand allows tilt but doesn’t swivel, which most 32-inch monitor stands support. The monitor is also compatible with 100x100mm VESA mounts for use with third-party monitor arms and stands. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 connectivity The back of the Samsung Smart Monitor M9 provides three video inputs. One HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4, and one USB-C with DisplayPort. All three support the monitor’s maximum refresh rate and resolution, though only in Game Mode (the maximum outside Game Mode is 120Hz). Three video inputs are typical for the category, though some, like the HP Omen Transcend 32, provide four. Connecting to the USB-C port also provides 90 watts of USB Power Delivery, which is enough to power many mid-range Windows laptops, and most MacBooks. The USB-C port provides downstream access to a pair of USB-A ports. They’re only USB-A 2.0, though, so they’re mostly there for a wired keyboard and mouse. That makes the Smart Monitor M9’s connectivity a bit of a mix. On the one hand, it provides a good variety of inputs and USB-C with Power Delivery, which is a must-have on a monitor in this price range. But it’s outclassed by monitors like the HP Omen Transcend 32, which not only has more video inputs, but also has USB-C with 140 watts of power. The LG UltraGear 32GS95UE-B also has a slight advantage, as its USB-A ports are at least USB 3.0, and it has a 3.5mm audio-out, which the Smart Monitor M9 lacks. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 Smart TV features The “Smart” in the Samsung Smart Monitor M9’s name means it ships with Samsung’s Tizen OS, the same operating system found on the company’s smart televisions. And much like on smart televisions, Tizen provides access to a huge range of apps and services. You can watch Netflix or play cloud gaming services like Amazon Luna, among other things. Put simply: The Smart Monitor M9 is a smart TV. In fact, it’s arguably more than that. It can even access some productivity apps, like Microsoft 365, so you can sorta-kinda use the monitor like a computer. You can use the Smart Monitor M9 to control Samsung SmartThings devices, too. Remember, though, that because it lacks a TV tuner, the Smart Monitor M9 can’t natively handle an over-the-air or coaxial cable TV signal. I go back and forth on how Samsung’s Tizen OS compares to LG’s WebOS, found on monitors like the LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U, and Google TV OS, found on monitors like the MSI Modern MD272UPSW. Tizen OS is certainly the busiest of the three, in no small part due to the range of Samsung features that are integrated (you can use some Samsung phones to calibrate the monitor, for example, though you can also use some iPhones). That’s handy if you’re all-in on the Samsung ecosystem. If not, it can prove distracting. Matthew Smith / Foundry Unfortunately, the smart monitor features mean that setup is much more complicated than most monitors. It’s a multi-step process that involves Wi-Fi, Samsung accounts, terms of service, and more. I finished setup in about 5 minutes, but it’s sure to annoy those who just want a monitor to be plug-and-play. Oh—and what about the 4K webcam? It’s an odd inclusion but also a nice bonus. The webcam is available as a plug-and-play camera for any PC connected to the monitor’s USB-C port. That’s handy and, better still, both the camera and microphone array provide better quality than a run-of-the-mill webcam. It’s not perfect; the webcam lacks a physical privacy shutter, and the default field-of-view is strangely wide. Still, it’s nice to have if you regularly use a webcam to take video calls at your desk. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 menus and settings Smart TV features aside, the Samsung Smart Monitor M9 provides a decent range of image quality adjustment. There are options for gamma, color temperature, color calibration, and several preset modes that target specific color space. The menu system is confusing, however. Samsung inexplicably constrains the menu to a small portion of the display, so there’s not enough space to list the full text of some menu items (they instead scroll). I also noticed that many menu options, like fine-grain color temperature adjustments, are locked behind specific modes, while others are listed yet didn’t seem accessible. The monitor’s manual wasn’t helpful, either. Samsung, like LG, also makes the strange decision to summon an alternative menu when Game Mode is turned on. The menu is arranged differently and highlights different options, adding to the confusion. Game Mode is also required to access the 165Hz refresh rate. In summary: The menu system is a bit of a mess. The same is also true of LG webOS smart monitors, but I think Samsung’s menu system might be even worse. Both Samsung and LG would do well to re-think their menu systems. At the very least, can we get a menu large enough to list the full text of the options on-screen and ditch the weird alternate menu system for Game Mode? The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 isn’t a gaming monitor, but it still provides a respectable maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 audio The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 ships with 10-watt speakers that provide adequate audio. They are clear, crisp, and enjoyable at lower levels of volume, but quickly become muddy and harsh as volume levels ramp up. I’m honestly a bit perplexed as to why Samsung even allows the speakers to become as loud as they can, as they’re obviously not up to the task of delivering quality audio at anything above roughly half the speaker’s maximum volume. Despite that, it’s worth mention that many competitors don’t even have built-in speakers, and those that do have them are often worse. The HP Omen Transcend 32 has a pair of 3-watt speakers and the Alienware AW3225QF doesn’t have speakers at all. The Smart Monitor M9’s audio is fine for less demanding situations. For example, they were enjoyable when playing Rimworld and listening to podcasts on YouTube. LG’s Ultragear 32GS95UE-B, which has an innovative “Pixel Sound” system, is the one competitor that puts the Smart Monitor M9’s audio to shame. The LG 32GS95UE-B is not a smart monitor, though, and it’s usually $100 more expensive than the Samsung.   Samsung Smart Monitor M9 SDR image quality The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 of course has a Samsung QD-OLED panel. QD-OLED is a known quantity at this point. It consistently provides great performance, so much so that I’ve argued it doesn’t really matter which OLED monitor you buy—at least, not when it comes to SDR image quality. The Smart Monitor M9 does little to disprove that point, but it looks great. It also has a matte display finish, which is unusual for an OLED and will make or break the display for some. Matthew Smith / Foundry The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 produced a sustained SDR brightness of 252 nits. As the graph shows, that’s typical and mid-pack for an OLED monitor, with most falling between 240 and 260 nits. That level of brightness is fine for indoor use in a room with light control, but it might seem dim in a very brightly lit room, or opposite a sunlit window. With that said, the Smart Monitor M9 has a matte coat, which is unusual. The coat effectively diffuses reflections, which makes it easier to see the monitor in bright rooms, or when a bright light source is opposite the display. On the downside, though, it will make the monitor seem a bit less contrast-rich than a glossy alternative. I prefer a matte coat over glossy, but your opinion may vary, and it’s a key point. The matte display finish might be the reason you choose the Smart Monitor M9, or avoid it, depending on your preference. Matthew Smith / Foundry While the matte coat can reduce apparent contrast due to how it diffuses light across the display, the Smart Monitor M9 still provides the same infinite contrast ratio as other OLED displays. That’s true because it reached a perfect minimum luminance of zero nits. As a result, it provides a rich and immersive image with a good sense of dimensionality. The same is true of all modern OLED monitors, however. The contrast ratio, though obviously excellent, doesn’t set the Smart Monitor M9 apart from the pack. Matthew Smith / Foundry QD-OLED monitors are excellent in color gamut, providing a wide color gamut that displays many colors. As a result, the Smart Monitor M9 can display 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut, 98 percent of DCI-P3, and 94 percent of AdobeRGB. The monitor looks vivid and saturated. However, once again, the Smart Monitor M9’s excellent performance doesn’t separate it from the pack. All QD-OLED monitors have similar color gamut. Monitors with an LG WOLED panel fall a bit behind QD-OLED, though their color gamut is still solid overall. Matthew Smith / Foundry The Smart Monitor M9 also has excellent color accuracy straight out of the box. While keen users with specific needs may want to calibrate it to reach certain standards, the default image is exceptionally accurate for general use. The monitor’s color error is more prominent in grayscale than it is in color, which contributes to a default gamma curve value of 2.3. That means the image is a bit darker than intended. It’s a small difference but might result in some slight loss of shadow detail in uniformly dark scenes. Color temperature, on the other hand, was spot on the target value of 6500K. That means the image doesn’t look too warm or too cool. Sharpness is a perk. The native resolution of 3840×2160 works out to about 140 pixels per inch across the 31.5-inch OLED panel. Though obviously not as sharp as a 27-inch 4K display, it’s still an excellent pixel density that looks sharp in everything from games to Microsoft Word. In summary, the Samsung Smart Monitor M9’s SDR image is exactly as excellent as expected. It performs identically to other QD-OLED monitors. The only major difference is subjective: the matte display finish. Whether you like that, or not, will depend on your own preference. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 HDR image quality The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 is VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black certified. That’s typical for a QD-OLED monitor. However, it turns out that HDR brightness is a downside for the Smart Monitor M9. Matthew Smith / Foundry I tried the Smart Monitor M9 in all available HDR modes, but it never crept much higher than 450 nits even in peak highlights. Lighting a larger area of the display led to even lower HDR brightness, which is typical for an OLED monitor. That’s not to say the Smart Monitor M9 looks bad in HDR. It still has the contrast and color performance needed to deliver a vibrant, saturated, accurate image. However, the lack of brightness will be noticeable in bright HDR highlights. In the Gargantua scene from Interstellar, for example, I noticed less detail in the bright swirling gasses closest to the black hole. Subtle variations in brightness that are visible on some other OLED monitors weren’t visible on the Smart Monitor M9. On one final note, the Samsung Smart Monitor M9 does allow brightness adjustment in HDR mode. While increasingly common, not all monitors allow this, as HDR typically controls brightness based on content. For a monitor, however, full brightness control is preferable, and I am glad to see the Smart Monitor M9 provides it. Samsung Smart Monitor M9 motion performance The Samsung Smart Monitor M9 isn’t a gaming monitor, but it still provides a respectable maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. That’s not as good as 32-inch OLED gaming monitors, which tend to hit 240Hz, but it still provides a major boost in motion clarity over a 60Hz display. Fast-moving objects look crisp and fast camera pans in 3D games provide respectable detail. The difference between the Smart Monitor M9’s 165Hz refresh rate and a superior 240Hz monitor is most noticeable when viewing small text or UI elements. If you’re trying to track the HP bar or status icons above an enemy, for example, it can be a bit more difficult on the Smart Monitor M9 than on a 240Hz alternative, like the HP Omen Transcend 32 or Alienware AW3225QF. Of course, those alternatives aren’t smart monitors, so you’ll have to make a choice between motion clarity and smart features. Adaptive Sync is supported on the Smart Monitor M9, and it even lists official support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible. That’s great to see in a monitor that doesn’t bill itself as a gaming display. Should you buy the Samsung Smart Monitor M9? Samsung’s Smart Monitor M9 is a bundle of perks and downsides that make for a confusing recommendation. The monitor has a confusing menu system, limited downstream connectivity, and mediocre HDR brightness. However, it also packs useful smart TV features, complete with remote control, and has a rare (for OLED) matte display finish that reduces glare and makes the monitor more viewable in brighter room. Deciding whether the Smart Monitor M9 works for you requires careful consideration of these perks and problems. It can work as a TV alternative in small spaces, has the color performance for creative work, and a matte coat that looks great when writing in Word or browsing the web. But if you want an OLED monitor largely for PC gaming, or HDR entertainment, you’ll find better performance elsewhere. Read...

The Government’s pay equity overhaul has faced criticism from leading political figures and a former governor general. Read...

It’s that time of year again, folks. Whether you’re a freshman heading off to college for the first time or a returning student, you’re going to need a reliable laptop that can carry you through your school years and maybe even beyond. But finding the right laptop for your needs can be like searching for a needle in a haystack–daunting. What screen size should you choose? Do you really need a high-powered processor just for research and web browsing? It can be overwhelming, but that’s where I come in. In addition to overseeing PCWorld’s laptop reviews, I also manage our top-pick roundups, including best laptops and best laptops for college students. Notebooks are my specialty, so I know exactly what to look for in a great college laptop. If you’re not sure where to start, don’t sweat it—I’ll walk you through the process step by step. 6 must-have features in any college laptop Battery life The number one must-have feature when it comes to college laptops? Good battery life, hands-down. You don’t want your laptop to suddenly turn off when you’re in the middle of taking notes for an upcoming exam. I’ve been there and it sucks. So, what’s a good number to hit for battery life? This laptop has insane battery life Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 10 Aura Edition Read our review I’d recommend a laptop with 10-15 hours of battery life, but we’ve tested a few laptops with Qualcomm processors that last 20+ hours on a single charge while watching video, which is absolutely bonkers. For instance, the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge lasted 21 hours while the Asus ZenBook A14 lasted 24! The Galaxy Book4 Edge is especially impressive considering it’s a 16-inch laptop with an OLED display and, if you know anything about OLED, you probably know they tend to use more power. While laptops with Qualcomm processors are great for everyday tasks, they don’t always play nicely with specialized PC software that some courses may require. So if you’re in the market for a laptop with an Intel Core or AMD Ryzen processor, both of which offer full software compatibility, we’ve reviewed plenty of those, too. Two standout options: the Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (15 hours!) and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 (almost 25 hours!), both of which offer exceptional battery life. Enough power for writing papers and general web browsing You don’t need a ton of power for basic tasks like writing papers, research, general web browsing, and so on. You can easily get by with an Intel Core i3, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage. That said, more RAM and storage will improve the speed of the laptop, so you’ll notice a smoother web browsing experience as well as better multitasking performance like being able to simultaneously run multiple applications. If you can afford it, I’d recommend bumping up your configuration to 16GB of RAM and either 512GB or 1TB of SSD storage, especially if you’ve got a big backlog of games in your library. check out our favorite windows laptop for college students Asus Zenbook 14 OLED Read our review A good screen that won’t hurt your eyes Having dealt with eye strain and tension headaches for years, I know how important it is to invest in a laptop with a good screen and you should, too. Whether it’s tuning in to a remote lecture or writing a compare and contrast essay late into the night, you’re going to be staring at the screen a heck of a lot. The minimum resolution I’d recommend is 1920×1080–it’s sharp enough for writing essays, watching Netflix, answering e-mails, scrolling through your synopsis, and so on. Anything lower than 1080p and you’ll find yourself leaning in to squint at the ants, I mean words on your screen. If you’re looking for a laptop with a truly stunning screen, you should definitely check out the Asus ProArt P16, which earned the top spot in PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops for video editing. Its 4K OLED display is simply to die for. OLED displays are also known for delivering deeper blacks and richer colors than IPS panels, making this laptop a good choice for graphic design majors. A lightweight form factor Nobody wants to be lugging a heavy laptop from class-to-class. If you’ve got a jam-packed schedule this year, then you’ll really need to take a laptop’s weight into consideration. Gaming laptops, for example, tend to be heavier machines often weighing six pounds or more. That’s because they house bigger and more powerful hardware inside. There are a few lightweight gaming options out there in the universe, but if it’s raw power you’re after, chances are you’ll end up with a bulkier one. Anything under four pounds is considered “portable” in the laptop world. That said, folks with weak arms and shoulders (hi, it’s me) may opt for something even lighter. If that’s you, then you’ll want to pick up the Microsoft Surface Pro (2025). It weighs just 1.51 pounds and it’s powerful enough to handle emails and Zoom calls. A superior ultraportable laptop for students Microsoft Surface Pro 2025 Read our review Best Prices Today: Not Available at Amazon The right operating system for your needs When it comes to operating systems, it’s like comparing apples to oranges. Windows, ChromeOS, macOS. They all offer different things, so it really boils down to your specific needs. Are you studying photo or video editing this semester? Then go with Windows, as it offers wider access to applications and browsers you can’t run on ChromeOS. Does simplicity and security matter to you? Chromebooks, which exclusively run ChromeOS, are less vulnerable to attacks because of automatic updates. Chromebooks also tend to be more affordable and don’t require as much maintenance as a Windows laptop. macOS, which you’ll find on Apple laptops like the MacBook Air (M3), integrates really well with other Apple products like the iPhone. Setting up a MacBook is also pretty easy and the whole process feels really polished. check out our best chromebook for students Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 Read our review Best Prices Today: $529.99 at Amazon A comfortable keyboard Whether it’s plugging numbers into a spreadsheet or producing a short story for your fiction class, whatever you’re majoring in, you’re going to be typing a lot in college. That’s why it’s important to buy a laptop with a comfortable keyboard. Let’s talk about key travel for a second. Key travel is the distance the key requires to fully depress and send a command to the computer’s CPU. This distance is measured in millimeters. My rule of thumb? A keyboard with a longer key travel is going to provide a more comfortable typing experience. Anything beyond 1.4 mm of travel is ideal. The most common type of laptop keyboard is a membrane keyboard, which has rubber or silicone underneath each key. Membrane keyboards are quieter and more affordable than the mechanical variety–making them a more suitable option for a classroom environment. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Rollable OLED is reliable Extra screen space just a keypress away Solid Lunar Lake performance Cons Expensive (naturally) Battery life takes a hit A portable monitor may be more practical Few ports Our Verdict The world’s first laptop unrolls extra screen real estate from below the keyboard at the push of a button. It works well, and the tradeoffs are all worth it if you want a rollable display. If the sticker price doesn’t phase you, you’ll love it. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable Retailer Price Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable is a 14-inch laptop that unrolls into a tall 16.7-inch display when you press a button on the keyboard. Lenovo proudly proclaims this is the world’s first rollable laptop. You have a bunch of extra screen real estate built into your laptop, and you can access it at the press of a button. I’m shocked how cool this is: Lenovo has taken the kind of product you’d see as a tech demo at CES and turned it into a real, solidly engineered laptop that anyone can buy. Yes, it’s expensive, but the fact that you can get this kind of one-of-a-kind experience at a few thousand bucks is just awesome. Lenovo has been delivering lots of wild laptop concepts, like the dual-display Yoga Book 9i. Given the price, these laptops aren’t for most people. But if you like the idea, they’re the only real game in town. Lenovo should be applauded for delivering these concepts as real, buyable products. Machines like these demonstrate why PCs are awesome. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable: Specs The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable is available in one single configuration. This laptop includes an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU — that’s a Lunar Lake CPU, which means it has excellent battery efficiency and impressive integrated graphics performance alongside an NPU powerful enough for Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC features. However, Lunar Lake only has eight cores — four performance cores and four low-power efficient cores — so CPU-heavy multithreaded workflows will lag compared to other CPU architectures. Alongside that, Lenovo includes a generous 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. Model number: Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 140V NPU: Intel AI Boost (48 TOPS) Display: 14-inch 2000×1600 OLED display that unrolls into a 16.7-inch 2000×2350 display, 120Hz refresh rate Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 1440p camera Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C), 1x combo audio jack Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Biometrics: Fingerprint reader and IR camera for facial recognition Battery capacity: 66 Watt-hours Dimensions: 11.95 x 9.08 x 0.75 inches Weight: 3.72 pounds MSRP: $3,299 as tested Lenovo has taken the kind of product you’d see as a tech demo at CES and turned it into a real, solidly engineered laptop that anyone can buy. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable: Design and build quality IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable has great build quality, actually! This does not feel like the world’s first rollable laptop — it feels like a polished second or third generation version of the concept. At a glance, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 looks like a silver Lenovo ThinkBook laptop that’s just a bit bulkier than normal. It has a serious-looking hinge, which looks like the kind of hinge you’d see on a 2-in-1 machine. Aside from the slight extra bulk — it’s only a bit thicker than normal, and at 3.72 pounds, it’s not even that much heavier than a normal laptop — this could pass for a standard Lenovo laptop — until you see the screen. Rather than the screen ending in a bezel, the screen continues past a seam down into the laptop, under the keyboard. To unroll the laptop, you just have to ensure it’s at the right angle — 90 degrees works, or a bit further back — and then press the key to the right of F12. A motor kicks into action and unrolls the screen, making the laptop taller as the rollable OLED display unrolls from underneath the keyboard. To roll it back up, you’ll press the key again. (If your screen isn’t at a good angle for rolling, the key won’t do anything.) The motor and hinge feel incredibly reliable. Time will be the real test, but this feels solid. In fact, it feels more reliable than my foldable Galaxy Phone, as I’m folding that with my hands using various degrees of pressure, while this machine has a motor that unrolls and rolls it nicely. Lenovo includes its own software that handles resolution switching when the screen rolls and unrolls, as well as a “ThinkBook Workspace” pane designed to live at the bottom area of the screen when it’s unrolled. Workspace works fine, but I preferred to stick with my usual Windows software. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable: Keyboard and trackpad IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable has a fine keyboard. Lenovo tends to be good at keyboards, and this feels on the shallow side compared to other Lenovo keyboards I’ve used. A slightly shallow keyboard is no surprise: This machine, after all, has a display that rolls up and fits under the keyboard. It’s not mushy, but it is a tad rubbery and doesn’t feel as “snappy” as I’d like. This isn’t even a criticism — of course a rollable laptop won’t have the most keyboard travel. If you like the idea of a rollable laptop, you shouldn’t let the keyboard stop you. If you’re wondering whether other high-end Lenovo laptops like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon have snappier keyboards, though: Yes, yes they do. This machine has a touchpad that’s a good size. It’s a haptic trackpad, too — that means you can customize the action and use the whole touchpad surface to click down. Combined with the size, it’s a great touchpad with smooth action. However, the surface feels a little rubbery, and a glass touchpad always feels a little smoother under the finger to me. These really aren’t criticisms — I’m just relaying what the experience of using the laptop is like. The keyboard and trackpad work well, and you’ll be pleased with them if the rollable display is your main draw here. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable: Display and speakers IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable’s display is its star feature. It’s a rollable OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and up to 400 nits of brightness. When rolled up, it’s a 14-inch display with a 2000×1600 resolution. When unrolled, it’s a tall 16.7-inch display with a 2000×2350 resolution. If you’ve used a foldable phone, you’ll be familiar with the “crease” in the middle of the display, where it folds. Since it’s a rollable, it doesn’t have a single crease, but it does have some crease-look visual artifacts where it folds. They’re very well hidden — you have to look at it from just the right angle in just the right lighting to see anything that looks unusual. The screen looks good, but make no mistake: The rollability is its main feature. I’ve seen laptops with high-end OLED displays that are brighter with more vivid colors. But, for a rollable display with such an unusual size and resolution, this is an impressive showing. This is not a touch-screen display, however. If you’re looking for a touch screen, this is not the machine for you. This machine’s Harman Kardon speakers sound unusually great. I test every laptop I review by playing Steely Dan’s Aja and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. They had plenty of volume, and the audio quality was crisp with decent instrument separation in Aja. The sound was balanced enough in Get Lucky that, even without a ton of bass, the sound sounded great — nothing tinny and enough bass to be fun. We’re grading on a scale since these are laptop speakers, of course — but these are unusually good. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable has a 1440p 5MP webcam that offers a clear image without visual noise even in lighting conditions that weren’t the most ideal. Lenovo didn’t cut any corners here, and this is the kind of webcam that will make you look professional in online meetings. Also, since this machine meets Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC requirements, it has access to Windows Studio Effects for real-time webcam effects like fake eye contact and background blur. And it has a privacy shutter switch, too. The dual-array microphone setup sounds excellent, and it picked up my voice in high quality. The ThinkBook line of PCs is marketed for business users, and Lenovo has delivered hardware that works very well for online meetings. This machine offers both a fingerprint scanner and an IR camera, so you can sign into your PC and authenticate with Windows Hello using whichever you prefer. The fingerprint reader is part of the power button on the right side of the laptop. Both worked well. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable: Connectivity IDG / Chris Hoffman The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable skimps on the ports. On the left side, you’ve got a combo audio jack for headphones and a microphone and two Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) ports. That’s it. This machine charges via USB-C, so one of those ports on the left will be used by the power cable while it’s charging. In general, it would be nice to have more ports or at least a Thunderbolt 4 port on both sides. However, this machine includes a rollable display and a motor while not being much thicker than the average laptop, so obviously there wasn’t as much room for ports — it makes sense. Still, bear in mind that you may need a dock or a dongle. It’s a little funny — this machine promises easy access to more screen real estate so you won’t have to bring a portable monitor with you. But it has fewer ports — so, depending on how many peripherals you need, you may find yourself bringing a dongle or dock with you instead. Thanks to Lunar Lake, this machine supports both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. I had no problems with wireless connectivity. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable: Performance The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable has an Intel Lunar Lake chip — specifically, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V. Lunar Lake has always delivered snappy performance in desktop productivity apps, and it does the same in this machine. As always, though we ran the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs. IDG / Chris Hoffman First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. With an average overall PCMark 10 score of 7,703, Lenovo’s rollable laptop delivers solid Lunar Lake-powered performance. IDG / Chris Hoffman Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. Since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage. With an average Cinebench R20 multi-threaded score of 4,060, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Rollable delivered performance in line with other Lunar Lake-powered laptops. They just don’t have as many cores as other chips, including Intel’s previous-generation Meteor Lake chips and AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 series. IDG / Chris Hoffman We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load. The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable took an average of 1,599 seconds to complete the encode process — that’s over 26 and a half minutes. It was a bit slower than even other Lunar Lake-powered machines, which suggests that the thermal profile of this machine is impacted by the additional display and motor mechanism — in other words, it can’t cool itself as well as some other Lunar Lake-powered machines and throttles more under load. That’s no surprise. IDG / Chris Hoffman Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. With a 3Dmark Time Spy score of 4,483, Lenovo’s rollable laptop offered great integrated graphics performance, only falling short to laptops with discrete graphics. That’s a great score. Overall, Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus delivered the results we’d hope to see: Good Lunar Lake performance that only struggles with heavily multi-threaded workloads. The slightly slower Handbrake result isn’t an issue — if you plan on doing heavily multi-threaded CPU-hungry workloads, a machine like this one isn’t the one for you. It’s a portable productivity machine with a lot of extra display. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable: Battery life The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable has a 66 Watt-hour battery, which is a decent size but not the largest. It’s battery life fell short of other Lunar Lake machines. Displays tend to be a big contributor to power usage, this suggests that the large rollable OLED display is unusually power hungry compared to the average laptop’s display. IDG / Chris Hoffman To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks. This is a 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 ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable lasted for an average of 761 minutes — that’s over 12 and a half hours. That number sounds good, but it’s hours shorter compared to other Lunar Lake-powered systems. (For example, the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro hit nearly 24 hours in our benchmark — but it’s not a rollable laptop.) You’ll have to plug this machine in a bit more often than the average Lunar Lake laptop. But, if you love this laptop, you’ll make it work. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable: Conclusion The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 is incredible. The rollable display and motor action feel incredibly solid, and I was never worried about them. You get a display that gives you a lot of extra screen real estate at the press of a button, and it all rolls up on the keyboard when you want portability. This is why PCs are awesome — because machines like this can exist for the people who want them. If you want a rollable laptop, this one delivers. Is this the right machine for the average laptop buyer? Of course not — the $3,300 price is both impressive for bleeding-edge first-of-its-kind product and above the average laptop buyer’s price range. Even if you do want to spend this much, you’ll have to consider the trade-offs — like less battery life compared to other Lunar Lake systems — and decide what you value. But it’s an awesome machine, and it works as well as I’d hoped. If this is a little too rich for your blood, though, consider a portable monitor. It doesn’t feel like a sci-fi product the way a rollable laptop does and you’ll have to carry two things, but it’s a much less expensive way to have extra screen real estate on the go. Read...

Therese Kaetavara is aiming to retain her South Bougainville women`s reserved seat and return as an MP after the 2025 Bougainville general election next month. Read...

The Lower North Island will lose one electorate, while Auckland, Bay of Plenty, and Christchurch face significant boundary shake-ups, for the 2026 general election. Read...

Microsoft has added GPT-5 to Copilot, a day after adding OpenAI’s open-source GPT model to its local services. GPT-5, which also powers ChatGPT, is now live within Copilot, at copilot.microsoft.com, Microsoft said Thursday. Presumably the same model will eventually power the Copilot application running on top of Windows PCs, but the Windows app appears to use just the older GPT-4 model for now, at least on my PC. OpenAI launched GPT-5 on Thursday, promising leaps in general intelligence as well as specialized improvements in creative writing, coding, and health purposes. In coding, OpenAI claimed that it could create a website in just a single prompt. GPT-5 includes what OpenAI called a router, assigning queries to specific tasks based upon the complexity of the assignment. On Microsoft’s Copilot site, you’ll need to manually enable it via the drop-down menu. Based upon the description — “Thinks deeply or quickly based upon the task” — it too seems to have the router functionality active. You’ll need to manually enable GPT-5 on Microsoft’s Copilot site. A dumb but otherwise telling prompt, “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” quickly produced an answer: 700 pounds of wood. But when asked to “show your work,” Copilot delivered a lengthier explanation. It still wasn’t as detailed as the GPT-5 explanation available on ChatGPT, though the two AI engines arrived at the same answer. Expect to see GPT-5 within Microsoft 365 Copilot as well as GitHub Copilot, Visual Studio Code, and Azure Foundry, Microsoft said. Microsoft said GPT-5 on Azure AI Foundry will be available today, but its presence on GitHub Copilot was couched in future terms. On Wednesday, Microsoft said that it was bringing gpt-oss-120B and gpt-oss-20B to Azure AI Foundry, and GPU-optimized versions of the gpt-oss-20B model to Windows devices through Foundry Local. These open-source GPT-4 models require a discrete GPU with more than 16GB of VRAM. I ran the gpt-oss model on the Framework Desktop, with its Ryzen AI Max+ 395 CPU and integrated GPU, which can be configured to assign 96GB of its available memory as VRAM for a significant performance boost. It actually produced better answers than a substantially more complex Meta Llama Scout 109B model that ran on the same hardware. Meanwhile, Microsoft said it believes the GPT-5 model is safer than its predecessors. “The results show that the reasoning model exhibited one of the strongest AI safety profiles among prior OpenAI models against several modes of attack, including malware generation, fraud/scam automation and other harms,” it said. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Extremely detailed assembly instructions Simple but configurable Powerful AMD Ryzen AI Max+ chip inside An overall sense of quality Cons Memory is soldered and is not upgradable Attaching the SSD takes some nerve Our Verdict The Framework Desktop DIY Edition is a thoughtfully engineered small-form-factor desktop PC that is both an entry point into enthusiast computing as well as a powerful AI desktop in its own right. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Framework Desktop Retailer Price Framework $2515 View Deal Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Framework Desktop DIY Edition is unique: a do-it-yourself desktop without the complexity of building from scratch, forming a compact, personalized “AI workstation.” If you’re nervous about a less-familiar brand, don’t be. Framework obsesses over details, from manuals to helpful hints etched into the materials themselves. Multiple photos show how to tighten a thumbscrew–that’s how comfortable they want you to be. I can point to a few things that I thought needed improvement: soldered memory, a beta driver bundle that should be finalized by the time you buy it, and a top panel which didn’t clip in as easily as I would have liked. Inserting the SSD stressed me out a bit, too. But Framework’s eye for customization (colored tiles you can design and install yourself, plus your choice of I/O) lends itself to fun and productivity. The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ (Strix Halo) chip inside is slightly out of the ordinary, with its do-everything design. I have high praise for the Framework Desktop, and think you will too. Let me tell you why. At just under nine inches high and four inches across, this is a viable desktop desktop PC.Mark Hachman / Foundry Framework Desktop: Specs Framework lets you pick and choose which components you want to add… sort of. Our review model was a DIY Edition, which asks you to build the PC yourself. Framework also sells an entirely pre-built model, too. For each Desktop, you’ll need to select which Ryzen AI Max processor (with an integrated GPU) you prefer: the Max 385, an 8-core chip with 32GB of LPDDR5x memory attached, up to the Max+ 395, a 16-core processor with a whopping 128GB of memory. Each processor is pre-mounted on the Framework mainboard, inside the Desktop’s case and with a power supply. It’s all upgradable, with one exception: the memory is soldered directly to the motherboard. Because of this, prices begin at $1,099 for AMD’s Ryzen AI Max 385 and climb to $1,999 for the Max+ 395 option. While this DIY Edition allows you to stop and contribute your own storage, you probably won’t. So start tacking on the extras: WD Black SSDs sold by Framework (between $69 and $699 for 500GB to 8TB) serve as primary and optional secondary storage, up to $199 for a Windows 11 Pro license, and options like a translucent side panel, custom tiles, and so on add cost. You’ll need to pick one of three 120mm CPU fans, too, or supply your own. Our review model (detailed below) cost a little over $2,500. To recap: assuming you supply your own SSD and operating system, you can spend as little as $1,099 for the Framework Desktop. But you’ll probably want to buy some storage from Framework, too. Just don’t forget the optional expansion cards ($11-$39 apiece) and the colored tiles ($10-$15 for a pack of seven monochrome tiles, and $5 apiece for logo tiles). They’re optional but make the Framework fun. You have the choice between buying a translucent plastic case (shown here) or opting for a black metal grille instead.Mark Hachman / Foundry Framework’s Framework Desktop configuration page spells it all out. Be aware, though, that Framework makes the Desktop in batches, and the page shows the Framework Desktop currently sold out through sometime after October. (As of press time, Framework had not issued any updated guidance on President Trump’s proposed chip tariffs of 100 percent. Check the Framework tariff blog for updated information.) Processor: AMD Ryzen AI Max 385/Max+ 395 Graphics: Radeon 8060S (integrated) NPU: Yes, 50 TOPS Memory: 32GB (Max 385)/64GB (Max+ 395)/ 128GB (Max+ 395), LPDDR5X-8000, soldered to motherboard Storage: 500GB to 8TB NVMe PCI 4.0 SSD (2TB as tested) Power supply: 400W, Gold (110V), or Silver (230V) Ports: 2 USB-C (USB 4 40Gbps), 2 DisplayPort 2.1, 2 USB-A 10Gbps, HDMI 2.1, 5Gbit Ethernet, 3.5mm jack Security: none integrated Wireless: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth Operating system: User-supplied (Windows 11 Pro as tested) Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.1 x 3.9in. Weight: 6.8 pounds Color: Black Price: Starting at $1,099, $2,515 as tested It’s not just for tinkering — this machine can legitimately run the latest AI models locally, something few desktops this size can do. Framework Desktop: Build process Our review unit of the Framework Desktop arrived in what almost appeared to be a “flat pack” box like you’d find from Ikea. (Framework asked how it should be customized; I responded with an image of our PCWorld logo and a request to “make it cool.”) Mark Hachman / Foundry Each component came separately boxed, with the top box bearing an HTML glyph and link to the online quick-start build instructions. This process was extremely easy, insanely detailed, and leaned into the part of my psyche that appreciates precise, well-documented instructions. If you’ve ever struggled through an Ikea manual, your soul will be soothed by the Framework guides, guaranteed. The Framework Desktop measures 8.9 x 8.1 x 3.9 inches, which translates into 4.5 liters of space. The Desktop will fit inside an ordinary backpack, though not as conveniently as a laptop. As my build article notes, Framework’s DIY Edition really doesn’t give you that much to actually do, besides insert the SSD, attach the fan, and mount the side panel, tiles, and expansion cards. Normally, “building” a PC involves placing the CPU on the motherboard, applying thermal paste and a cooler, and inserting/attaching the motherboard to the case. Not here. Framework does this all for you already, mounting the mini-ITX Framework Mainboard inside the metal chassis, along with a FlexATX 400W power supply with either a Gold (110V) or Silver (230V) rating. You will have to install the SSD yourself; the primary M.2 slot is well within the case, making it a bit challenging to install. A secondary slot is on the bottom of the motherboard and easily accessible via a side panel. The Framework Desktop with the side panel removed. This exposes the heat sink, to which the user has to install the CPU fan using four screws. The SSD is to the right.Mark Hachman / Foundry Framework’s specifications page goes into more detail than you might need but will probably appreciate, such as the acoustic noise and airflow ratings of the three optional CPU fans from Cooler Master and Noctua down to the dimensions and design of the heatsink. Speaking of airflow, the Desktop operated quietly with very little noise. Inside, all of the cables were tightly wrapped and out of the way. Framework even goes so far as to publish other guides that you may never use, such as removing the Framework mainboard from the Framework case and installing it in an entirely new, custom case. If you’re interested in a more detailed discussion of the build process, consider reading my separate article. The Framework Desktop’s CPU fan has been installed in this photo.Alex Esteves / Foundry Framework says that the whole process will take you about 45 minutes, which sounds about right. Remember, that includes installing an operating system like Windows, which can easily take 20 to 30 minutes by itself. My installation also shipped with beta drivers that AMD hadn’t fully signed off on. That not only meant that I had to install a driver package (for Wi-Fi, audio, and the like) as well as the operating system, but that they affected the performance as well. (Framework said the night before this review published that it had begun shipping finalized drivers.) Since AMD’s Ryzen AI Max CPU is a mobile part, the chipset is integrated into it. That certainly helps the Desktop from an upgradability standpoint, as that aspect is taken care of. Most of the side panels attach to via a combination of magnets and/or tabs, which went on smoothly, but required a bit of fiddling. The only issue I had was with the top panel. Framework used some sliding tabs to hold the top panel down, along with two thumbscrews. For whatever reason, the tabs either refused to slide in for minutes at a time, or did so immediately. I’d encourage Framework to find another solution. While the bottom of the mainboard can be exposed by removing the side panel, the only real reason to do so is to upgrade the secondary SSD.Mark Hachman / Foundry Don’t forget to order and install the colored tiles! Those are the soul of the Framework desktop, and come in various colors. Each tile (save for some of the custom, logoed tiles) has a few narrow slits for airflow. I thought of these as a dust screen of sorts until I noticed that air is sucked in through the grillwork on the side panel, pushed across the CPU using the CPU fan, then pushed out through the front and back. Many people like to decorate their laptops using stickers. I hate doing so, but really had fun using the colored tiles to create a fun little mosaic highlighting the PCWorld custom tile that Framework commissioned. The front panel of the Framework Desktop is the only one to connect magnetically. Tiles with small slits in them allow for airflow while allowing you to customize it.Mark Hachman / Foundry Again, the tiles are optional. Airflow is sucked in through the side grille and pushed out through the front and back, so be sure and reserve most of the slatted tiles for the top of the front panel to avoid blocking the airflow as it exits the case. Framework asked us for a custom tile design with our PCWorld logo. It doesn’t extend consumers the same opportunity, at least yet. The Framework Desktop includes two DisplayPort connections, HDMI, two USB4 ports, two USB-A ports, and a 5Gbps Ethernet connection.Mark Hachman / Foundry The Desktop’s rear ports include an HDMI 2.1 port, a pair of DisplayPort 2.1 ports, two USB4 connections, a 5Gbit Ethernet port, two USB-A ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Thunderbolt ports used by Thunderbolt docks are just branded USB4 ports, so the two USB4 ports will connect to a USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 dock at 40 Gbps speeds. Framework also allows you to buy multiple I/O connectors, known as Expansion Cards, which plug into two front receptacles. Each expansion card is essentially a passive USB-C dongle, and you can buy USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jacks — everything except for a display port. Each expansion card slots into the slot, then latches using a small lock on the underside of the case. Everything worked perfectly in terms of performance and swapping them in or out. Mark Hachman / Foundry Framework Desktop: Performance Testing the Framework Desktop is a challenge, if only because it can do so many things well. It’s both a productive (and quiet) desktop machine, but its integrated GPU is powerful enough for after-hours gaming. But the real reason the Framework Desktop may exist is because of its massive amounts of VRAM, which lends itself to downloading and running various iterations of AI, including AI art and chatbots, or LLMs. AMD’s Ryzen AI 395+ supports a TDP of 55 watts, existing as both a mobile processor as well as a desktop CPU. To date, the only other machines to use AMD’s chip have been gaming tablets like the Asus ROG Flow Z13 or more traditional clamshell notebooks like the HP ZBook. Manufacturers have begun to refer to some of these as AI workstations, even though they don’t really mirror the big, bulky workstations of old. Framework’s Desktop sure doesn’t. Desktop graphics cards ship with dedicated video RAM; in laptops, VRAM is allocated a different way. The fact that the Ryzen AI Max (Strix Halo) is a mobile processor is more important than you might think. In AI, the video RAM attached to a GPU is essentially the RAM the AI algorithm uses. Laptops with Intel chips inside divvy up the system RAM equally between the GPU and the operating system: an Intel Core Ultra notebook with 32GB of RAM uses 16GB to execute programs and assigns 16GB to the GPU as VRAM. AMD does it differently: the BIOS assigns what VRAM it thinks it needs, but you can manually adjust it, something that you can not do with most Intel-based laptops. Why is that important? Out of the box, the Framework Desktop wasn’t really optimized to take advantage of its massive amounts of RAM. Remember, Framework issued reviewers early drivers. As it turned out, those drivers didn’t deliver the best performance, especially on AI applications. AMD (coincidentally or not) published a beta driver to its Adrenalin software package, which allows the 128GB of RAM attached to the AI Max+ 395 to assign 32GB to the operating system, leaving a whopping 96GB as VRAM for graphics or AI. Basically, what I’ve done is first compare the Framework Desktop to a number of existing “Strix Halo” PCs, all in the mobile space, to demonstrate its comparative performance. Next, we’ll compare the Framework Desktop to a number of gaming laptops — not so much to point out which is better, but to allow you to mentally classify where the Desktop and its Strix Halo chip sits in the grand scheme of things. Which gaming laptops does it compare to? I think that’s as useful as anything else. For the first batch of comparisons, we’re pitting the Framework Desktop against the HP ZBook Ultra G1a, essentially a direct comparison with a Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395 chip inside and 128GB of RAM; the $2,299 Asus ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet with a Ryzen AI Max+ 395 but with only 32GB of RAM; and a version of the $1,699 Asus ZenBook S16, with a much lower-performance Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and 32GB of RAM. Mark Hachman / Foundry In certain applications, we’d expect that the better cooling of the Desktop might make a difference; in other benchmarks, the additional VRAM might give it an edge. Cinebench is a purely CPU-driven benchmark, which can be run on a single thread — where performance is statistically equal — and across all of the cores and threads. Given that three of these devices use very similar CPUs, you might expect that these numbers would be virtually identical. But there’s a 19.6 percent increase from the ZBook to the Framework Desktop in CPU performance alone. In a case like this, I would attribute the difference in terms of the Desktop’s superior cooling. Mark Hachman / Foundry I didn’t have personal access to all of these devices; we maintain a reviews database, and certain devices are shipped back and forth. In this case, we did have access to the Blender benchmark, which uses the open-source 3D creation tool to generate three different scenes. This test measures both the CPU and GPU. Again, we’re seeing a similar division between all four devices. Looking solely at the Monster benchmark (shown in blue), the Desktop improves by 27.6 percent over the HP ZBook, with no change to the scores because of the improved driver. That will change. Mark Hachman / Foundry This was when I started to ask questions about whether Framework’s driver made a difference. Procyon’s Image Generation test simply creates a series of 16 1024×1024 images, using a common prompt. Framework’s Desktop wasn’t slow to do so, but it fell behind a couple of notebooks, which made me raise my eyebrows. As it turned out, AMD’s driver made more RAM available to the processor and the image generation algorithm. Here, the Framework Desktop improves by 26 percent over the HP ZBook, roughly consistent to how it behaved in the Blender benchmark. The Framework Desktop generated an image about every ten seconds, which is pretty good without a discrete GPU. Obviously, you’ll see better (or worse) performance running AI art on other models not used by this benchmark. Mark Hachman / Foundry I didn’t have all of the devices available to me to run this benchmark, which approximates an AI chatbot / LLM, running four relatively old models. The test measures the speed of the output, asking similar questions or prompting similar tasks. This benchmark was pretty close using Framework’s driver, but with the improved AMD driver the performance jump on the Phi 3.5 benchmark increases just 8.7 percent. Generally speaking, chatbot performance is probably going to be pretty similar across these devices, even those we didn’t test. Mark Hachman / Foundry Mark Hachman / Foundry We’ll have some more gaming benchmarks a bit lower down, but these two games indicate that gaming is certainly possible at high levels on the Framework Desktop. We’re showing here both average framerates as well as the “minimum” one percent framerates, indicating that if and when your game stutters, even a framerate drop will put it at playable levels. Most gamers consider 60 fps to be the absolute minimum, with above 90 fps preferred. At over 90 fps for both games at the highest visual settings, both of these relatively recent games are certainly playable on this PC. Mark Hachman / Foundry For other games, we use 3DMark’s benchmarks as a proxy for how well the system will perform. In this case, developer UL recommends that we use the Steel Nomad Light benchmark as the appropriate one for this hardware. Here, the Framework Desktop demonstrates a 16.5 percent increase versus the HP ZBook. Next, we compared the Framework Desktop to a number of gaming laptops. Again, the purpose here was not to ascertain whether the Framework Desktop was the best in any particular category, but to give you a sense for where the Desktop and its Strix Halo chip stands in terms of hardware that you already know and understand. For this, we compared the Desktop to the $1,499 Alienware 16 Aurora, which uses a Core 7 240H chip on Intel’s Raptor Lake architecture, and a Nvidia GeForce RTX5060; as well as two Intel “Arrow Lake” notebooks. The first, the $3,299 Asus ROG Strix Scar 16, contains a Core Ultra 9 275HX and an RTX 5080. The other, the $4,499 MSI Raider 18 HX A2XW, includes a Core Ultra 9 285HX and an RTX 5080 as well, and is one of the fastest notebooks we’ve seen. Finally, we’ve added the slower $1,199.99 Dell G15 with an Intel Core i7-13650HX chip and an RTX 4060 chip inside, plus the $2,699 Razer Blade 14 with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU and an RTX 5070 GPU. The AMD Ryzen Max+ 395 includes 16 cores and 32 threads, and runs up to 5.1GHz in the turbo mode. That actually puts it ahead of the Core Ultra 9 inside the MSI Raider, which has 24 cores and 24 threads. The difference is that those threads run up to speeds of 5.5GHz, probably giving the Raider the edge here. Mark Hachman / Foundry We typically, choose PCMark 10 as our “how well will this system perform everyday tasks?” test. It’s a conglomerate of tests ranging from video chat to web browsing, office work, with functions like CAD thrown in for good measure. Most laptops and desktops excel here, but the additional “heavier” tasks like CAD can drag down underperforming systems. There are no issues here. In general work, the Framework Desktop will be one of the fastest machines on the planet. Mark Hachman / Foundry Handbrake converts a feature-length film of about 90 minutes into a format suitable for a tablet. It’s an outdated benchmark from the standpoint that streaming is common on airplanes and elsewhere. But Handbrake still pushes all of the CPU cores to their limit, and does so as a test of their prolonged performance. Note that there are many more recent and optimized versions of Handbrake which will deliver improved performance, but we use the older version for consistency’s sake. Here, the Desktop still performs well. Mark Hachman / Foundry As expected, we’ve included the results of two difference games to complement the gaming results we published above. By now, Metro: Exodus may be six years old, but the engine punishes old and new GPUs alike. It’s worth noting that we’ve turned off frame generation and upscaling for these, providing (in the words of my colleague Adam Patrick Murray) “farm to table frames” that measure exactly what these GPUs can render. The Framework Desktop can’t achieve what most gamers consider to be the minimal 60 fps that makes a game playable, and it falls to the bottom of the rankings. Still, for an all-around solution like AMD’s Strix Halo chip, it’s impressive. Mark Hachman / Foundry Mark Hachman / Foundry One of the key reasons to consider a Framework Desktop, however, is that it lends itself to the use of AI. Here, the performance matters to some extent, but it’s the size of the model that makes it particularly attractive. Since the massive amount of available VRAM can be allocated to loading and storing the AI model, our Desktop review unit can load models others can’t. A local AI model is private, and doesn’t suffer from any restrictions on how many times you can ask questions. You can download whatever models will fit within the memory limitation, and train them to answer your own personal questions. As it turns out, two models debuted late in our testing period: Meta’s Llama 4 Scout 109B (109 billion parameters) model, a 67GB download, and the first OpenAI model to run locally, known as OpenAI-gpt-oss 20B (20 billion parameters), which took up 11.3 GB of space. When providing a sample query (“How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Be explicit, and let’s pretend that only pine trees are used.”) the Llama 4 Scout model generated 12.64 tokens per second, with 0.62 seconds to first token. OpenAI’s model was much faster, at 53.9 tokens per second, and 2.27 seconds to the first token. What do these numbers mean? An AI prints text like a dot-matrix printer, spitting out line by line. How acceptable the speed is depends on how quickly you read: as a fast reader, 12 tokens per second is fast enough. The time to first token is how long a model “thinks” before generating its response. In general, AI models with more parameters tend to give better, more creative responses, though there’s some variation in that depending on how it’s trained. Smaller models tend to give simpler responses. I tended to like OpenAI’s responses better, as Meta’s needed a bit of followup at times. Mark Hachman / Foundry Framework Desktop: Conclusion You will always be able to put together a PC with exactly the components you wish, and aggressively shop for each one. Laptops are certainly an effective use of the space, and include a display to boot. But there’s something I really love inside the Framework Desktop. Yes, Framework soldered down the memory, which is a drawback compared to, well, most of the competition. But I was very charmed by the care and detail Framework put into the assembly process, complete with the personal touch that the tiles offer. Yet the Desktop isn’t just a gimmick, either. When I reviewed the Asus ROG gaming tablet with a similar AMD “Strix Halo” chip inside, I struggled to understand why Asus chose a tablet over a clamshell, or even better, a desktop. The Framework Desktop is what I think we all wanted: a compact, small-form-factor desktop that packs serious power and can be used for productivity, gaming, and AI alike. Should I use the term “love” here? I almost want to. Failing that, there’s a sense of thoughtfulness that’s rarer today than ever. The Desktop feels like a product designed for someone that wants to make that leap into becoming a tech enthusiast, with just a little help getting over the hump. Could a parent build a Desktop with their child? Absolutely. I very much enjoyed my time with the Framework Desktop. If you choose to buy the Framework Desktop, I think you’ve made a smart and enjoyable decision. Read...

Despite ever-improving junk mail filters and more sophisticated defense measures, phishing is still one of the biggest threats to cyber security and they’re becoming increasingly difficult to recognize. Criminals are using Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT to formulate their emails, which results in largely error-free texts with correct grammar and understandable sentence structure. As hackers become more advanced, you’ll need to learn new methods to detect them and stay one step ahead of the game. Below we’ll share a few ways you can catch them in the act, and hopefully avoid falling prey to their scams. Further reading: Top 9 phishing scams to watch out for Phishing from AI accounts Barracuda Networks draws attention to new phishing emails that attempt to steal access to the paid ChatGPT accounts. These are currently in high demand.IDG AI services such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini are becoming increasingly important for companies as they enable them to reduce their costs for routine correspondence or invoicing. Open AI, the manufacturer of ChatGPT, and Google therefore charge money for use once a certain number of queries have been made. The security company Barracuda Networks has now reported that an extensive phishing campaign has been launched in an attempt to steal access to paid ChatGPT accounts. The criminals are sending emails purporting to come from Open AI. In their emails, they explain that they are unable to debit the monthly payment. The recipient should now update their account information within seven days otherwise they will lose access to ChatGPT. A button in the email leads to an online form for entering the account details. Such data can be easily sold via dark channels on the internet. Streaming accounts Fraudsters often try to steal login details for streaming services such as Netflix or Disney. In recent months, there have been several waves of phishing emails requesting data from Netflix accounts. Such accounts are particularly easy to monetize and are therefore popular with criminals. Users receive an email purporting to be from a streaming service asking them to update their payment details. Otherwise, their account will be blocked in a few days. In the email, they see a button or a link that supposedly leads to their account. On the associated website, a form is waiting for them to enter their access data. The email comes from a fraudster, which in most cases can be recognized just by looking at the sender’s address. Only a few phishing senders go to the trouble of forging the email address (the technical term for this is “spoofing.”) You can easily find out where the button or link in the email, which supposedly leads to a form from the streaming provider, actually links to by pointing at it with the mouse for a second or two. Typical for these and other phishing emails is that they’re urgent. Victims usually only have two or three days to resolve the problem. Or the perpetrators claim that the account has already been blocked and the email recipient must act quickly to reactivate it. In this way, the perpetrators build up time pressure so that their victims don’t think twice. Smishing is becoming a plague When a phishing attempt is sent via text message, it’s called smishing. New waves of smishing have been using the grandchild trick. In this case, the text reads: “Hi Dad, this is my new number. Can you write to me on WhatsApp?” If the recipient actually makes contact, they’ll usually receive a reply about an accident or other emergency. To “help” whoever it is on the other end, the recipient will need to transfer a large sum to a specific account. Password manager Access to the encrypted vaults of password managers is particularly valuable to criminals. If they succeed in tapping into the master password, they have free access to login data of all kinds, from bank accounts to online senders and streaming services to accounts with email services and telephone providers. Fraudsters try to access the master password for the password manager LastPass. This would give them free access to all stored passwords and access data.IDG In spring 2024, a new approach by criminals became known. They’re working with phishing kits that make it very easy to forge login forms on websites and add logos of the supposed owner companies. These kits are distributed online by criminal groups as part of phishing-as-a-service offers. In the specific case, the login page of the password manager LastPass was recreated using such a kit. The attackers then started an automated series of calls in which a recorded message explained that a new device was trying to access the LastPass account. The caller was told to authorize access by pressing “1” or block it by pressing “2.” If they dialed “2,” you’ll get a call from an alleged customer service employee. The call comes from a real person who asks for the email address and then they’ll send the victim an email with instructions on how to reset the master password. This email links to the criminal’s website, where the customer was asked to enter their previous master password. As soon as the criminals are in possession of this password, they log into LastPass and change the owner’s telephone number and email address so they no longer have access. As the first contact between the fraudster and their victim is by telephone, this method is known as vishing or voice phishing. Here, too, the criminals push the pace so that the people they call don’t have time to think. As password managers often store numerous access data for important accounts, it’s advisable to secure them with two-factor authentication or set up a login with a passkey. PayPal and Klarna The topic of data protection has now reached the general public. Many people know that there are legal regulations for companies on how they must handle their customers’ data. Criminals are taking advantage of this. In an email with the logo of the payment service provider PayPal, they claim that the account has been blocked because the account information has not yet been confirmed. To unblock the account, the customer would have to activate the “3DS Double Authorization.” Although 3DS authentication does indeed exist, PayPal calls it 3D Secure. After clicking on the button, the recipient of the email is asked to enter their telephone number and PayPal login details. The fraudsters can then call back to request the missing data for the transfer and redirect payments to their account. How to reliably recognize phishing emails An email from ING Bank should also have an address with the domain extension ing.de and not come from support@zakitchha.dreamhostps.com. This is a clear indication that it is phishing.IDG Phishing can result in high financial losses, so be careful and take a close look at incoming emails: Phishing messages may be better worded these days thanks to AI, but they are still not error-free. You should be suspicious of foreign-language phrases, an incorrect or missing salutation, and an unusual choice of words. It’s typical of phishing attempts that the perpetrators put their victims under time pressure. They are asked to make a payment or provide personal details within a few hours or days, otherwise they face the threat of massive financial loss, arrest, or similar. The less time the sender gives you, the higher the probability that it’s a phishing e-mail. If the email contains a button or a link, point to it with the mouse (do not click!) and read the address to which it leads. If it’s not the page of the alleged sender company, you’re probably dealing with a phishing message. Enter the subject line of a suspicious email into Google and see if other people have received the same message. If you suspect a phishing message, you should delete the email immediately and never respond to it. Read...