Buyer’s Guide

Without a doubt, the Lexar Play 2280 SE, which I presume means “Special Edition,” is a looker. It is presently only available at Costco. Its incorporated styled heatsink makes it seem significantly better than it does without. Although it performs well in the real world for host memory buffer (HMB) PCIe 4.0, it is slower for random operations than the more expensive and older Lexar Play 2280 that is sold elsewhere. In a PC, at that. Although the Play 2280…

There are numerous inexpensive portable monitors available, and many of them are interchangeable, to be honest. This is because the majority have comparable sizes, the same or comparable ports, and the same IPS-LCD display panel technology. While it adheres to these trends as well, the MSI Pro MP165 E6 distinguishes itself with tripod and VESA mount options. Specs and Features The basic specs of the MSI Pro MP165 E6 are comparable to those of the majority of inexpensive portable monitors.…

Because they are reasonably priced and offer decent performance and long battery life, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X CPUs are frequently an excellent option for a low-cost laptop. However, the majority of systems have smaller screens. With a plus-sized touchpad, Windows Hello facial recognition, USB4, and other capabilities, the Acer Aspire 16 AI offers a compelling big-screen choice. Specs and features The entry-level Snapdragon X CPU from Qualcomm, which has eight cores and a maximum multi-core speed of 3GHz, powers the Acer…

Recently, our test portals have been overrun by PCIe 4.0 HMB NVMe SSDs. Although the Teamgroup T-Create C47 is unquestionably one of the best, it performed poorly in our 450GB write and synthetic benchmarks. Nevertheless, in our 48GB transfer testing, it placed second among PCIe 4.0 HMB drives and does a remarkable job of supporting extended writes. It is worthy of being on your short list because it is reasonably priced (less expensive than it was at the time of…

Acer’s latest addition to the Plus family, the Chromebook Plus Spin 514, is attempting to make a name for itself in a crowded field of midrange laptops with similar designs. Initial thoughts? This Chromebook is incredible. A versatile 2-in-1 design, lively performance, and a 120Hz touchscreen that seems more high-end than its price tag indicates are all included. MediaTek’s Kompanio Ultra 910 chip, which it contains, offers strong performance without completely draining the battery. On paper, it covers all the…

When I imagine a high-end laptop, I usually see one that has gone all out, using far too exotic build materials, packing too much hardware into a machine that is too thin, and ending up with an outrageous price tag that exemplifies the idea of diminishing returns. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition initially appears to be that type of device. The Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 10 Aura Edition has the hardware, with a high-power…

The Teamgroup X2 Max surprised me. Since it’s as little as any thumb drive in my collection, I was anticipating a slowish commodity drive. But in the end, the X2 Max outperformed many far larger 10Gbps SSDs in almost every test we ran, delivering exceptional 10Gbps USB performance. It’s a jewel, to put it briefly. What features does the X2 Max SSD have? Even for a thumb drive, the X2 Max is remarkably small, measuring just under 3 inches in…

In an emergency, few users require or can utilize 14GBps PCIe 5.0 NVMe performance. particularly when Windows Explorer is unable to fully utilize it. Therefore, why spend more money on something you don’t need when you can get something much cheaper, like the PCIe 4.0 WD Blue SN5100, which gets you there 95% of the time? Additionally, some readers might not be aware that NVMe’s blazingly quick seek times account for a large portion of its perceived (and actual) performance.…

I’ve had desktop computers on my desk for nearly three decades. The CSL VenomBox was my first micro PC, and I haven’t regretted it since it was released early last year, following problems with the Intel Core i9-14900KF. I wanted a decent tiny PC because I want to stay current with AI. In addition to offering the required AI support and modern connections, the Geekom A9 Max with the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor offers a small performance boost…

The design of Asus’s new ROG NUC 2025 tiny PC resembles that of a large desktop graphics card, positioned vertically and surrounded by an equally large motherboard. It is precisely that—nothing more—condensed into the smallest chassis imaginable. The NUC is essentially a compact micro PC with a built-in processor and graphics card that you can then connect your own RAM and storage to. Asus has been more innovative with the small PC concept than Intel ever was when it became…