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The LS Luxe is the new high-point — by which I mean ‘most expensive’ — of KEF’s fêted range of wireless stereo speaker systems. Having precisely nothing left to prove where products of this type are concerned in the lower $1,000 / £750 - $3,400 / £2,500 arena, the company has made a decisive move upmarket — and the LS Luxe seems to leave very little to chance where engineering, specification and aesthetic shock and awe are concerned.
You will make your own mind up about the looks, of course; for my money, the ‘eclipse black’ of my review sample is the least successful of the three available finishes, but there’s no denying the LS Luxe is an individual looker in a market where design flourishes are always at a premium. But when talk turns to engineering and specification, subjectivity ceases to be all that much of an issue.
Numerous input options (both wired and wireless), genuinely high-resolution playback (24bit/192kHz is yours if you connect the speakers together, while 24bit/96kHz is available from a wireless connection), and some proven technologies exclusive to KEF serve to make the LS Luxe look like a very serious proposition on the page.It’s only fractionally less serious when it comes to performance, too.
Make sure you’ve positioned the speakers carefully, get beyond the slightly restricted dimensions of the soundstage it conjures… and then there’s a huge amount to enjoy here. Some of the best stereo speakers on the market? Yes.
The LS Luxe is a deftly accomplished listen, able to combine forensic attention to detail with an energetic, almost forceful attitude that brings recordings of all types bounding to life. It manages to combine analysis with entertainment in a way that’s rare at any price.
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)KEF LS Luxe review: Price & release date- Launched on July 30, 2026
- Priced $3,999 / £3,499 / AU$6,399
The KEF LS Luxe wireless stereo speaker system is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it costs £3,499. In the United States it sells for $3,999, while in Australia the going rate is AU$6,399.
If you don’t want this to be the end of your spending, KEF will happily sell you a pair of its bespoke ‘S-Luxe’ speaker stands for £799 / $799 / AU$1199…
What of note at the level? The Sonus faber Duetto are the same price and also present a fantastic listen, albeit with a very different aesthetic.
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)KEF LS Luxe review: Features- 12th-gen Uni-Q driver array
- Wired and wireless connectivity options
- 560 watts of Class D power plus 200 watts of Class A/B
It’s not the only thing that’s attention-grabbing about the look of the LS Luxe, of course, but there’s no denying that the 12th generation Uni-Q driver array is just as visually impactful as it was when the first generation was revealed back in 1988.
Here, it features a 25mm aluminium tweeter behind a complex waveguide, in the throat of a 165mm aluminum mid/bass cone — as always, the arrangement is designed for optimum time-alignment and superior driver integration.
A more recent KEF innovation, ‘metamaterial absorption technology’, sits behind the tweeter where it’s designed to mop up energy travelling from the back of the tweeter dome and allow for sweeter, cleaner treble response as a result.
The driver arrangement is mechanically decoupled from the cabinet, and a decoupling chassis within the assembly damps any vibrations from the motor system — in both cases, the idea is to reduce the vibration affecting the cabinet structure to an absolute minimum. Low distortion and sky-high clarity are the results KEF is aiming for.
Unusually, KEF has deployed two distinct methods of amplifying the Uni-Q array. Each mid/bass driver feels the benefit of 280 watts of Class D power, while each tweeter is driven by 100 watts of Class A/B amplification — an all-in total of 760 watts of power really ought to prove adequate. KEF reckons a frequency response of 42Hz - 28kHz results from all this very thorough engineering.
Naturally, that’s not the end of it where clever technologies are concerned. KEF’s ‘Velocity Control Technology’, first seen in the XIO soundbar, measures the speed of movement of the cone and compensates for discrepancies between actual and expected values in real time. The ‘Music Integrity Engine’, meanwhile, maintains tonal consistency at all volume levels.
In terms of getting audio information into the system where it can be had at by these various highlights of specification, your options are fairly extensive. Dual-band wi-fi is on board, naturally — there’s also an Ethernet socket on the rear of the ‘primary’ speaker for absolute network stability — and this allows the system to be compatible with Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast, the ‘Connect’ versions of Qobuz, Spotify and TIDAL, and UPnP. Internet radio is available too, and Roon Ready status is due to be confirmed much sooner rather than later.
A USB-C slot looks promising, but it’s ‘only’ a 5V output for charging. Bluetooth 5.3 is also on board as an additional wireless option - all the wireless stuff is handled by KEF’s proven ‘W2 Wireless Platform’.
The primary speaker is also home to the system’s physical connectivity. Here that means an HDMI eARC socket, optical and coaxial digital inputs, and a 3.5mm analogue input, as well as a kettle-lead socket for connection to mains power, a pre-out for a subwoofer and an RJ45 socket for connection to the secondary speaker. That secondary speaker makes do with a mains power socket, a corresponding RJ45 and a subwoofer pre-out.
The LS Luxe will support resolutions of up to 24bit/384kHz and DSD128 via its network inputs, 24bit/192kHz via coaxial and HDMI, and 24bit/96kHz via its optical input. If the speakers are connected using the supplied cable, everything is up- or down-sampled to 24bit/192kHz - if you decide the cleaner look of a wireless connection between the two is your preference, then the system tops out at 24bit/96kHz.
- Features score: 5 / 5
- Detailed, organised and robust sound
- Eloquent midrange fidelity
- Could conceivably have greater out-and-out scale
First things first: the LEF LS Luxe is not remotely forgiving where the positioning of the speakers is concerned.
The overwhelming majority of stereo speakers I’ve tested, both active and passive, have given their best when toed in towards the listening position — in fact, off the top of my head I can only think of Dali that recommends its speakers should be pointing dead ahead to perform to their full potential. The KEF, though, like only the tiniest amount of toe-in. Too little or, especially, too much and they lose some of the width of their soundstage and a more noticeable amount of sonic height.
Even when ideally positioned, the soundstage they generate is not the biggest you’ve ever heard. It escapes the confines of cabinets quite comfortably, in both horizontal and vertical directions, but is still relatively limited.
Mind you, it’s fair to say a) the soundstage is extremely well laid-out and controlled, and b) that’s just about where my complaints end regarding the way the LS Luxe performs. In every other respect it’s a remarkably accomplished listen, and is undoubtedly one of the most effective pound-for-pound wireless stereo speaker systems around.
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)No matter if you listen to the avant-electronica of Arca’s eponymous debut album via a CD player connected to the KEFs digital optical input, a 24bit/192kHz FLAC file of David Bowie’s Stationtostation wirelessly streamed from Qobuz Connect or a heavyweight vinyl reissue of Takk… by Sigur Rós from a pre-amplified turntable, the LS Luxe is a remarkably articulate, utterly revealing and deftly punchy system that is likely to steal your time away.
The tonal balance is exquisitely neutral. The KEF is more than happy to get out of the way of a recording and let it dictate terms in this respect. It’s similarly balanced and egoless where frequency response is concerned, too — it digs deep into the low frequencies and hits with real authority and control, while the opposite end has the substance to counteract the brilliance of the treble response, but at no point does the system over- or understate any part of the range.
The balanced and even-handed nature of its presentation goes a long way towards creating a strong impression of fidelity. So does the amount of detail it’s able to retrieve, reveal and contextualise. At every stage it is alert to the finest, most minor occurrences in a recording, in a voice or an individual instrument — and it’s able to give these details the appropriate amount of weighting no matter how fleeting they might be.
Its transient response is thrillingly positive, and the overall sound is eloquently alive and communicative as a result.
And when it comes to communication, the way the LS Luxe resolves the midrange means it’s brilliantly informative where voices are concerned. The minutiae of timbre, texture and technique are all made available, and the KEF can describe the attitude and character of a vocalist just as directly.
Rhythmic expression is confident, thanks to the careful control the system pays to the attack of low-frequency information. It’s a deftly fluent listen at the bottom end, and marries outright punch to a huge amount of tonal and textural variation. And when it comes to the dynamic of a recording, whether that’s the big shifts in intensity and volume or the more nuanced dynamics of harmonic changes, the KEF is an assured and convincing performer.
- Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5
- Bulk moulding compound allows for organic shape with no seams
- Another Ross Lovegrove design
- Color makes a disproportionate difference to appearance
Q: When did you last see a pair of speakers that look like this? A: Never, that’s when.
The LS Luxe is the latest results of KEF’s ongoing collaboration with designer Ross Lovegrove and, just as with previous KEF/Lovegrove designs, there’s something almost organic about the shape of these loudspeakers.
The use of BMC (‘bulk moulding compound’) as the material for the cabinets means this smoothly curvaceous shape has no edges or visible seams, and is less prone to the build-up of internal standing waves than a more conventional box. It also means the requirement for internal bracing is minimised, so there’s greater internal volume than would otherwise be the case as a result. And there’s further visual drama at the rear of the cabinet: an elaborately shaped and channelled heatsink, fashioned from aluminium, has sufficient surface area to allow the heat from the internal electronics to be efficiently dispersed.
There’s also a fairly large bass reflex port nearby — it features KEF’s ‘Flexible Port Technology’. This means the walls of the port are not completely rigid, which should in theory help keep internal resonance to a minimum.
The LS Luxe is available in three finishes. My review sample is in ‘eclipse black’, which is my least favourite of the three. To my eyes it makes the cabinets look bulkier and heavier than they actually are. Check out the alternative ‘mineral white’ or ‘dusk titanium’ and see if you know what I mean. Regardless of the finish you choose, though, you’ll be the owner of a pair of speakers that are beautifully constructed, flawlessly finished, and both look and feel like the money’s-worth.
KEF didn’t supply me with the cost-option ‘S-Luxe’ stands developed specifically for use with this system, but unless you intend to position your speakers on a shelf or desktop (in which case I will judge you quite strongly) it’s worth factoring this extra cost in.
Other speaker stands work perfectly well, of course — I position the KEF on a pair of Soundstyle Z2, and they perform admirably. But the way the cabinet swoops and tapers towards the base means that a lot of the (regulation size) top plate of my stands is visible when the speaker is in place, and the look is not especially harmonious.
- Design score: 4 / 5
- ‘Wireless’ means either two or three wires
- Remote control handset and app
- A little patience sometimes required when using the app
There’s really not that much to setting up the KEF LS Luxe, and once it’s set up it’s pretty straightforward to operate — but that’s not the same as saying it doesn’t require a little attention.
As already discussed, this is a wireless system that requires at least two wires; both speakers must be plugged into the mains. After that, you can choose to connect the speakers together using a supplied cable, or you can take the hit in terms of resolution and establish a wireless connection between them.
There are a couple of control methods available. KEF supplies quite a nice, metal-fronted remote control that covers off the fundamentals like playback, power, volume and input selection — and there’s also the ‘KEF Connect’ control app that’s free for iOS and Android.
Naturally it duplicates all the remote control functions, and adds in the ability to integrate music streaming services, search for and save internet radio stations, trim the system’s response to suit your specific environment, check for firmware updates and so on. It can be a little lethargic at times, but on the whole it’s a stable and useful user interface.
- Usability & setup score: 4.5 / 5
If you want your fancy new wireless stereo system to turn heads on the basis of its looks as well as its sound, you can’t really argue with the value the KEF LS Luxe represents.
If you’re after great build quality and nicely realised control options to go along with the sonic performance and the visual drama, the case for this system gets stronger still. The bespoke stands are no one’s idea of a bargain, admittedly, but in every other respect there’s undeniable value for money on offer here.
- Value score: 4 / 5
Attribute
Notes
Score
Features
As fully featured as you could ever hope in such a design
5 / 5
Sound quality
Very fussy with placement, but get it right and they'll reward you
4.5 / 5
Design
Ross Lovegrove's stylings won't be for everyone, but they're refreshingly unusual
4 / 5
Setup & usability
'Wireless' means either two or three wires, but a little patience gets things all set
4.5 / 5
Value
Excellent in the sound-per-pound stakes, but those stands are nobody's idea of a bargain
4 / 5
Buy them if…You like a strong design statement
They’re hard to come buy in the loudspeaker world, but there’s certainly one being made here
You like to be kept in the picture
The KEF’s facility with detail retrieval and midrange fidelity is straightforwardly impressive
You have a few different sources of music
Wired and wireless, analogue and digital - the LS Luxe has plenty of input options
You don’t intend to buy the bespoke stands
Third-party stands do a good job, of course, but will have no harmony at all where aesthetic is concerned
The looks have led you to expect big sonic scale
The KEF’s soundstage is properly laid out and controlled, but it’s not as sizable as you might hope
You’re not inclined to finesse the position of the speakers
It’s well worth putting the effort in, but there’s no denying the LS Luxe are fussier about positioning than most pairs of speakers
The Sonus faber Duetto is, in its own way, just as visually arresting as the LS Luxe — it’s more identifiably a pair of speakers, but the established Sonus faber virtue of outstanding cabinet-making means this system looks and even feels the part.
It’s no slouch sonically, either — it’s a composed, informative and periodically thrilling listen.
At the other end of the spectrum (at least where aesthetic considerations are concerned) you’ll find the sonically impeccable, visually challenging JBL 4329P. JBL speakers have looked like this since the middle of the last century, and there’s no denying that in terms of performance they’re a roaring success. Their appearance in your home may cause a row based on their divisive looks, though…
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)How I tested the KEF LS LuxeI position the KEF LS Luxe on a pair of Soundstyle Z2 speaker stands, and plug each one into the mains.
I listen with the speakers connected wirelessly, and I also listen when they’re physically joined together.
I stream music using TIDAL Connect and also access a lot of hi-res content from a Synology BeeStation Plus NAS device.
I connect a preamplified turntable to the analog input, a CD player to the coaxial input, and an OLED TV to the HDMI eARC socket. This means I’m able to access lots of different styles of content, in lots of different digital file types, and in a variety of resolutions.
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)- Read TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee
- First reviewed: August 2026
This is part of a regular series of articles exploring the apps that we couldn't live without. Read them all here.
For someone who has a degree in journalism and a master's in English, I should read more than I actually do.
But movies are my thing, and apps like Letterboxd encourage me to broaden my cinematic horizons. That said, there’s one app that’s lifted me out of my years-long reading slump — and no, it’s not Goodreads.
Fable is a reading and book club platform on iOS and Android that launched in 2021, but it’s only been an integral part of my homescreen for the past year or two. When I saw that most of my friends were migrating to Fable from Goodreads, I joined the club — and I don’t regret it.
Now, Fable hasn’t completely seized the throne from Goodreads; the latter is still widely used and takes the number four spot in the iOS App Store’s ‘Books’ category (Fable is number nine). But popularity doesn’t always equate to the best, and I’ve found Fable to be a true all-rounder.
A real page-turner (Image credit: Future)Compared to Goodreads, which I found slow, janky, and unresponsive at times, navigating Fable is much smoother and there’s more of an emphasis on the graphic design side. While Goodreads adopts a predominantly beige interface, Fable’s is brighter, more vibrant, almost like a psychological magnet that once you look at it, you can’t help but want to engage with the app on a more personal level.
Even its book reviewing process is colorful and engaging. Once you’ve finished a title and you decide to log it into Fable, you don’t just review the overall book with a small entry and call it a day. The app lets you give star reviews for individual elements including writing style, characters, plot, setting, and it even asks you questions like ‘how did this book make you feel?’ or ‘how spicy was this romance book?’, giving you a carousel of emoji reactions to choose from.
Graphics aside, Fable’s layout is divided into distinct tabs (Home page, Clubs, Search, Library, and Profile) like most social media platforms — and this is where its main focus lies.
With any social media app, you can follow friends and popular accounts, whose posts and reading updates all appear in the ‘Following’ section of the Fable Home page. Alternatively, you can switch to the ‘For You’ page, which displays posts and updates from other accounts it thinks you’d like to see. These are all based on the books you add to your ‘Want To Read’ list, books you’ve reviewed that you have in common with others, and more.
This means suggested posts and profiles are all based solely on your activity and interests, which Goodreads doesn’t have. But that’s not the only stand-out feature with Fable.
Across both platforms, book reviewing and reading tracking is a given, but Fable actually allows you to share written posts up to 750 characters, to which you can also attach images and tag titles and specific book clubs — like a combination between a Facebook post and a Tweet. Posting is also another useful way to find other bookworms with similar tastes and interests, thanks to how Fable’s algorithmic recommendations work.
Find your tribe (Image credit: Future)Speaking of which, book clubs have become integral to how bookworms socialize with each other in modern times, and tech has really helped readers optimize this — and Fable taps into that sense of community.
Unlike Goodreads, where you have to manually search for groups, Fable has an entire hub dedicated to themed book clubs. Fancy yourself a book club dedicated entirely to Shakespeare? Fable has them. Or perhaps you want a club that’s all about reading banned books? That’s right, Fable has them too.
Fable’s community focus is one of the shining stars of the app, as is its book logging tool, but it isn’t just a place for this or to see what your friends have been reading. It gives you a full rundown of your most-read authors and favorite genres — kind of like Spotify Wrapped, but these stats are always present on your Profile.
If you’ve ever fallen in and out of reading ruts like myself, Fable has a roster of tools to give you the push you need to pick up the book that’s been sitting on your shelf for a while — starting with reading goals.
(Image credit: Future)Though Goodreads offers a similar function, the layout is all over the place, and you have to set goals in a separate section of the app. With Fable, you can set reading goals and display them right in your profile, so they’re all in one place.
Secondly, Fable’s Search page makes the job of finding your next literary obsession a lot easier. In addition to a carousel of recommendations based on the books in your list, the Search page is packed with mini genre hubs filled with Fable’s most popular titles.
This way you can browse your favorite categories in-depth, or explore one you’ve been meaning to try — there’s even a fun Mood Quiz feature that does the searching for you based on the answers you select. Even though you have to subscribe to Fable Plus to set monthly and weekly goals, you can set yearly reading goals for free, which is enough for casual users like myself.
Everyone goes through the odd reading slump now and then, but believe me when I say that having an app on your homescreen that allows you to log everything you’re reading really helps — I found the same helped with movies when I first downloaded Letterboxd.
That said, I’m still a novice when it comes to using Fable to its full potential; I haven’t quite found the courage to share posts, but I have no doubt that day will come as I continue to fill up my lists and find my book tribes — then I’ll become a full-bodied power-user.
In addition to weekly and monthly goals, Fable Plus offers a multitude of other tools, including visual progress tracking, Smart Coaching, and deeper insights into your reading performance. You can also customize your Fable experience with exclusive art and custom app icons, all with the absence of ads.
Fable is available in the App Store and on Google Play.
- AWS plans to add 2 million Nvidia GPUs between 2027 and 2028
- The expanded deployment follows an earlier commitment exceeding one million chips
- New Vera-based CPUs will support increasingly demanding artificial intelligence workloads
Amazon Web Services and Nvidia have expanded their long-running partnership to add far more computing power for artificial intelligence workloads.
The cloud provider intends to add two million more GPUs across its global infrastructure between 2027 and 2028.
This expansion follows an earlier pledge to add more than a million chips starting in 2026, as customer demand outpaced expectations.
A bigger push into AI infrastructureThe companies also plan to bring new Vera-based CPUs into Amazon's cloud to support increasingly advanced AI applications.
Additional networking upgrades, including extended NVLink Fusion technology paired with custom high-bandwidth memory, aim to boost performance across large computing clusters.
Separate upgrades to Amazon's analytics service using Nvidia's cuDF software promise processing speeds nearing 3.7x faster than typical standard configurations.
The same upgrades are expected to deliver roughly a 30% improvement in price performance versus setups that rely only on standard chips.
Vector search capabilities on Amazon's search service are also improving, with index construction now completing roughly 9x quicker when run on GPUs.
Amazon's robotics division is separately working with Nvidia on simulation tools intended to speed up training for next-generation warehouse robots.
Government agencies are also included in the plan, with 100,000 chips reserved for sensitive government and defense computing needs nationwide.
"Customers want the freedom to choose the best tools for their AI workloads, and they want confidence that everything works seamlessly together," said Matt Garman, CEO of AWS.
“That’s why we’ve invested deeply with Nvidia to make AWS the best place to run Nvidia AI technologies, optimizing performance across our infrastructure from networking and security to deployment. This expanded collaboration gives frontier labs, enterprises and governments even more ways to build and deploy AI on AWS.”
Executives point to rising demandDemand for accelerated computing across global cloud storage has continued to outpace projections that were made only months earlier this year.
“Nvidia and AWS have built one of the great growth engines of the AI era, and demand is running ahead of every forecast,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia.
“For 16 years, we have scaled Nvidia computing in the cloud together. Now, we are expanding our partnership across the full stack — GPUs, CPUs, networking, open models and software — to make agentic and physical AI real at an unprecedented pace and scale that only AWS and Nvidia can deliver.”
New processors delivered under the expanded plan are expected to offer notably faster inference and improved graphics performance for customers.
Recent hardware upgrades already deliver up to 4.6x faster inference and 2.1x stronger graphics output than the previous generation of systems.
Such a large hardware commitment suggests both companies expect artificial intelligence spending to keep climbing well beyond today's already elevated levels.
Whether actual demand keeps pace with these ambitious plans will only become clear once the new infrastructure is fully operational.
Apple made headlines earlier this year with the launch of the MacBook Neo, which we called “the best budget laptop you can buy” in our review thanks to its low AU$899 launch price and premium materials — all while in the midst of RAM and storage shortages.
The RAM crisis did eventually come calling for the MacBook Neo, and the inevitable price increase saw its starting price increase for AU$1,049. Despite this, the MacBook Neo is still a great budget laptop that’s leagues ahead of its Windows and Chromebook competitors.
The price hike does sting a bit, but this discount from Amazon for the base 256GB variant brings the MacBook Neo down to AU$997 — a deal that’s hard to pass up if you missed out on the launch price.
MacBook Neo (256GB): was $1049 now $997
This discount doesn’t sound like much, but any discount on a newly launched and popular Apple product is always welcome. The base 256GB model doesn’t come with Touch ID, which is only reserved for the 512GB variant, but you’re in for a treat if that’s not a dealbreaker for you. This discount is available across all colourways — Citrus, Indigo, Blush and Silver.View Deal
Apple achieves the low-for-a-MacBook AU$1,049 price point by cleverly employing an iPhone processor, the A18 Pro chip found in the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, instead of its M-series silicon found in higher-end MacBooks. The Neo also only comes in a base configuration of 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. You can increase storage to a 512GB SSD and gain Touch ID capabilities for AU$1,249 — Amazon currently has it discounted to AU$1,199.
What I like the most about the Neo is its repairability, which is very much an improvement over its more expensive siblings, with plenty of online content creators having demonstrated how easy the laptop is to take apart and reassemble.
Even with the price increase, I still believe the Neo is a fantastic budget laptop that will easily handle basic tasks like web browsing and media consumption, and it can even do some light gaming and video editing. Our tests have found that the 8GB RAM isn’t as much of a limitation as initially thought, with the laptop running most Mac apps with no issues.
The all-metal chassis, hi-res display and repairability still make the MacBook Neo a standout in the budget space, and the fun colours are a nice touch as well.
The new Epson LifeStudio Grand UST projector may not ring any bells. But its rebranding hides the fact that it’s little more than a minor update to the Epson EpiqVision Ultra LS650. That was a decent projector when it came out, but not an amazing one.
With the LifeStudio Grand, Epson has made some improvements. The Google TV operating system works well, and there’s an extra HDMI port where its predecessor offered just two. It also doesn’t have whiny fans. But the image is still a little soft and not as dazzlingly colorful as RGB laser projection. The projector’s motion interpolation also needs a lot of work. And Epson’s switch from Yamaha to Bose for sound tuning hasn’t made the audio better.
With competitors improving considerably over the past year, the LifeStudio Grand is in troubled waters. If you can’t see the DLP rainbow effect and don’t mind drawing the curtains from time to time, you can get a much better projector for your money by shopping elsewhere.
(Image credit: Future)Epson LifeStudio Grand review: Price & release date- Release date: October 2025
- Price: $2,699 / £1,749.99 / AU$4,399
The LifeStudio Grand launched in late 2025 with global rollout in Spring 2026. The project has a retail price of $2,699 / £1,749.99 / AU$4,399.
Given its newness and the fact that it’s coming from a big player like Epson, I wouldn’t expect any major discounts on the projector too soon, though Black Friday could roll around and see at least a minor deal.
Epson LifeStudio Grand review: SpecsScreen sizes supported
60 to 120 inches
Brightness (specified)
3,600 Lumens
Optical technology
3-Chip 3LCD
Smart TV
Google TV
Connections
3x USB-A, 1x 3.5mm audio out, 1x Optical audio out, 3x HDMI 2.0 (1x eARC, 1x USB-B (Service port)
Dimensions
18.4 x 15.7 x 6.2 inches
Weight
16.6 pounds
Epson LifeStudio Grand review: Design & features(Image credit: Future)- Google TV and fast Wi-Fi work well together
- Bland looks, but functional design
As soon as I took out the LifeStudio Grand, I thought it looked familiar. Sure enough, down to the inch and pound, it’s just the Epson EpiqVision Ultra LS650 back again. There are just a few changes.
Epson added a third HDMI port on the back: nice. Epson swapped to Google TV and it actually runs quickly: nice. Epson included Wi-Fi 6E: nice. And Epson added some gaming features, like ALLM and a 1080p/120Hz mode: nice. But these are more making up for fumbles from that earlier model, rather than actually keeping pace with competitors like the Hisense PX3 Pro and its 1080p240Hz mode.
The LifeStudio Grand is a little plain to look at with its white plastic construction and gray-ish front grille — the result of a white grille dotted with black holes. Even the Epson branding looks unfortunate, like it was pasted on after having been forgotten in an earlier prototype (except we know it wasn’t because it was there on the predecessor).
One thing giving the LifeStudio Grand a bit of style is its little silver legs. These also play a crucial role in the projection, as they can adjust the tilt of the projector to ensure it lines up square with a wall or projection screen. The projector supports digital keystone adjustments, but those are best avoided when possible. The right side of the projector hides a hardware focus dial behind a small panel, which allows for quick focus adjustments while also protecting the setting once you’ve got it in place. Auto-focus would have been nice though.
(Image credit: Future)While the LifeStudio Grand isn’t a large UST projector, it ends up feeling a little large because of its 15.7-inch depth. For comparison, the Hisense L9Q is just 12.5 inches deep and the PX3-Pro is just 11.7 inches. That sees the LifeStudio Grand stick out pretty far forward on a media console, and because of its 0.25:1 throw ratio, the console might have to stick out too if you want to get a huge picture. All of this also makes for tough placement for a soundbar.
The LifeStudio Grand’s remote is a cheap little plastic unit that doesn’t feel a good match for the price of the projector. It has typical Google TV controls, a dedicated input-selection button, four streaming app shortcuts (one for Free TV, which fires up Google TV Freeplay), and a dedicated brightness control and a shortcut to projection settings. While there are also volume controls on the remote, there’s no mute button — enjoy the sound of advertisements that you can’t quickly mute. The remote also lacks any illumination, which would be helpful in a dark home theater.
(Image credit: Future)- Design & features score: 3/5
- Bright projection
- Slightly soft picture and motion artifacts
- Speakers are no stand-in for actual sound system
Just like its predecessor, the star of the show for the LifeStudio Grand is its brightness. The projector offers a very respectable 3,600 lumens. This doesn’t make up for bright sunlight coming into the room and ruining dark scenes, but for bright content it can look decent. And the fans don’t overdo while running at full brightness either — an improvement over its prior model.
That’s about where the LifeStudio Grand’s benefits compared to its competitors end. The LifeStudio Grand uses Epson’s own 3LCD projection, which doesn’t prove as colorful compared to the crop of RGB laser projectors on the market. It does avoid issues with DLP rainbow effect, but if you’re not susceptible to that, it may be a non-issue. Contrast is decent, but not astounding. And though this is a 4K projector, Epson’s pixel shifting on this model doesn’t produce as stunningly sharp an image as its rivals.
Right out of the box, the projector’s Standard picture profile has some motion issues, and it’s not better on its other profiles. It smoothes out camera panning motion, but it introduces issues in just about all other types of motions. People moving around on screen look poor, especially with hand motions, which look almost AI generated and occasionally cause weird stuttering for the whole frame.
Animation looks even worse as motions are smeared chaotically. And even panning shots can suffer when the camera motion changes speed or slows to a stop, with the projector seeming to reduce the frame rate instead of interpolating. Although the interpolation can be turned off, when it is some camera pans stutter.
(Image credit: Future)The speakers on the LifeStudio Grand are fine, but not dazzling — so much for that Bose collab. They don’t create a very wide soundstage, so they’re no replacement for a proper sound system. And while they can pump out enough volume for a 200-square-foot room, that’s about their limit. I find I’m regularly dialing them up above 60% just to listen in a quiet room. With guests over, it all but requires max volume, and has a slightly harsh quality when cranked.
Even with the projector’s new gaming features, it doesn’t prove a stunning option for gamers either. At a pinch, it’ll be good enough for most games, but I could still feel slight latency that made combat hard in fast-reflex action games.
- Picture quality & performance score: 3/5
The LifeStudio Grand isn’t a terribly high-priced UST projector, undercutting the Hisense PX3-Pro by a good amount. And for the money, you’re getting a very bright projector. But that’s about the only specification that stands out.
The picture quality, sound, and design all leave plenty to be desired. That’s a bit too much disappointment for a product that’s still edging up toward $3,000 / £2,000 / AU$4,500.
Having seen the Hisense C2 Ultra — a 3,000 lumen triple laser projector — going for $2,000 (around £1,500 / AU$2,800) recently, it’s hard to see the LifeStudio Grand as a good option when you can grab the Hisense and a solid sound system for the same price.
- Value score: 3/5
Attributes
Notes
Rating
Design and features
A bland and bulky design that hasn’t changed much holds the LifeStudio Grand back, though it’s nice to see Wi-Fi 6E and an upgrade to a functional Google TV operating system.
3/5
Picture quality and performance
The LifeStudio Grand is bright and avoids the DLP rainbow effect, but that’s about the only thing it has going for it against its rivals. It’s not dazzlingly colorful, offers just decent contrast, can look a little soft, and doesn’t have impressive speakers or gaming performance.
3/5
Value
With just a couple of strong points and some big areas it lags behind, the LifeStudio Grand doesn’t offer wonderful value at $2,699 / £1,749.99 / AU$4,399, especially when some competitors have come down in price.
3/5
Buy it if...You really struggle with the DLP rainbow effect
Have you ever noticed flashing colors while watching a projector? That’s probably the DLP rainbow effect, and it can ruin your experience with an otherwise great projector. The LifeStudio Grand doesn’t use DLP tech, so you don’t have to worry about this issue on it.
You do a lot of bright-room viewing
For the money, the LifeStudio Grand is one of the brighter options you’ll find. If you want to watch content largely in a bright room, it can provide a more serviceable image than similarly priced competitors.
You don’t struggle with the DLP rainbow effect
There are such amazing RGB laser projectors on the market, and some of them are nearly as bright and competitively priced against the LifeStudio Grand. They may not all be as bright, but the vibrant color they deliver can feel like it makes the image even brighter than it is.
You’re a gamer
Epson has improved the gaming experience here, but it still can't offer flawless responsiveness. With Hisense offering models that support 1080p/240Hz modes for super-smooth gaming and negligible latency, it’s no contest.
You’re setting up a serious home theater
The LifeStudio Grand’s big edge is in a bright room. In the dark, it’s not as impressive. Its longer throw ratio, lower color gamut, and weaker sound also hold it back. And with its depth, it gets in the way of soundbars.
Epson LifeStudio Grand
Hisense PX3-Pro
Xgimi Aura 2
Hisense C2 Ultra
Price:
$2,699 / £1,749.99 / AU$4,399
$3,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999
$2,699 / £2,459 / AU$6,399
$2,999 / £2,499 / AU$4,499
Screen sizes supported:
60 to 120 inches
80 to 150 inches
80 to 150 inches
65 to 300 inches
Brightness (specified):
3,600 lumens
3,000 lumens
2,300 lumens
3,000 lumens
HDR support
HDR10, HLG
HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision
HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision
Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HLG
Optical technology:
3LCD, Laser
3 Laser DLP
Dual Light 2.0 (Laser + LED)
RGB Laser DLP
Smart TV:
Google TV
Google TV
Android TV
Vidaa OS
Connections:
3x HDMI 2.0 (1 with ARC), optical, 3.5mm
2x HDMI 2.1, 1x HDMI 2.0 (1 with eARC), 1x optical, 1x 3.5mm
2x HDMI, 1x HDMI eARC, optical digital audio out, 3.5mm audio out, 3x USB-A, Ethernet
2x HDMI 2.1 (1 with eARC), 2x USB-A, 1x S/PDIF, Ethernet, 1x 3.5mm, Bluetooth 5.3
Hisense PX3-Pro
The Hisense PX3-Pro is nearly as bright, far more colorful, more versatile, and cooler looking. While it may be more expensive on paper, it’s seen plenty of discounts that can bring it to even more competitive prices. Read our full Hisense PX3-Pro review.
Xgimi Aura 2
You won’t get as much brightness out of the Aura 2, but you’ll get a much prettier piece of hardware, and an all-around great projector with solid color and HDR support. Read our full Xgimi Aura 2 review.
Hisense C2 Ultra
As an alternative to UST projection, the C2 Ultra is a brilliant long-throw projector with flexible optics to make positioning less of issue. It boasts bright, RGB laser projection for a gorgeous image, works wonders in games, and has seen discounts since launch that see it undercut the LifeStudio Grand. Read our full Hisense C2 Ultra review.
- Tested at home in multiple, real-world viewing conditions
- Presented the display with a variety of media and formats
- I have tested numerous projectors and displays over the last half-decade
I tested the Epson LifeStudio Grand at home, in real-world conditions. This saw it faced with ambient light coming in from numerous windows, in-room lighting, as well as ambient noise that both the projector and speaker systems had to overcome. The projector was tested both against a bare, white wall and an Akia Screens CineWhite screen. It was presented with streamed content, HDR and non-HDR, and PC gameplay.
My testing evaluates the projector’s performance with respect to its price and competition from other models colleagues at TechRadar and I have tested.
I have been testing projectors since 2021 and displays for even longer.
- First reviewed: August 2026
- Read TechRadar's review guarantee
The MechLands Vibe99 is a mechanical keyboard that takes aim at the budget-end of the market, but does so without any apparent sacrifices to features or performance.
It doesn’t make a great first impression, however. The retro aesthetic fails to charm, with its chunky design and the copious amounts of grey in my review unit merely looking downmarket. Fortunately, the bright and customizable RGB backlighting does help to liven it up a little.
The build quality isn’t terribly impressive, either. The plastic chassis is solid but doesn't feel premium. Fortunately, the Double-shot PBT keycaps are much better, although their opaque legends don’t allow that aforementioned backlighting to shine through. Their Fn shortcuts aren’t labelled, either, unlike those installed in the best gaming keyboards.
(Image credit: Future)However, the compact width of the Vibe99 is impressive, and thanks to the smart 1800 layout, you still get plenty of keys. What’s more, it also features an integrated screen. It may be a basic TFT affair with limited information displayed, but what it does show is useful, such as the time, date, and battery level. You can also upload GIFs to it if you so wish, but I wouldn’t advise that you do, given the screen’s small size and low fidelity.
You’ll need to use MechLand’s peripheral software to upload them, but it takes an incredibly long time to do so, and you can’t do much else while it’s in progress. What’s more, the whole app has a poor UI, lacking sharpness and clarity. The remapping suite is also disappointing, with only a basic selection of assignments and no direct visual indication of your rebindings.
The performance of the Vibe99 itself fares better. The keys are generously lubed yet quite clicky, lacking the dampening of the very best in the space. However, they’re satisfying to use and have plenty of snap, actuating and rebounding quickly while forgiving accidental hits. The natural tilt of the layout and the folding feet help to make the board more comfortable to use as well, although I still wish it came with a wrist rest.
It’s impressive that the Vibe99 offers all that it does at such a low price point. It’s far cheaper than many of the mechanical models offered by the big brands, and it’s even cheaper than some other great budget options. It’s not perfect, and the software isn’t as good as it should be, but the Vibe99 is still worth shortlisting if you’re looking to save.
(Image credit: Future)MechLands Vibe99 review: Price & availability- $82.99 / £63.99 / AU$120
- Available now
- One of the cheapest mechanical keyboards around
The Vibe99 costs $82.99 / £63.99 / AU$120 and is available now in various colorways but with one switch type, which is MechLand’s Linear Mint model. It comes with a keycap puller and a braided USB cable.
This is a very competitive price for a 1800 wireless mechanical keyboard with hot-swappable switches. It’s even cheaper than the aluminum variant of the MonsGeek FUN60 Ultra, which has fewer keys. However, the build quality of that board is superior, and thanks to its analog switches, it has far more performance-related tweaks.
The Vibe99 is also considerably cheaper than big-name mechanical models, such as the Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75%. But the BlackWidow has a far superior build and unrivaled performance, thanks to the glorious response of its switches. Its software is much better, too.
MechLands Vibe99 review: SpecsLayout
1800
Switch
Mechanical (MechLands Cream Mint Linear)
Programmable keys
Yes
Dimensions
16.5 x 5.9 x 1.7 inch (418 x 150 x 42mm)
RGB or backlighting
Yes (customizable)
(Image credit: Future)MechLands Vibe99 review: Design & features- Tired looks
- Cheap-feeling plastics
- Poor software
The Vibe99 aims for that faux-retro appeal, but I don’t think it succeeds. Not only does the thick base look dated, but the grey and black finish of my review unit looked quite dour. The bright RGB backlighting did at least add some vividness though.
Unfortunately, the build quality isn’t anything to write home about either. Although it feels solid enough, the plastics used throughout feel cut-price, especially when compared to the aluminum frames of more upmarket gaming keyboards. Its saving grace is its keycaps, which have a Cherry profile and are made from Double-shot PBT. They’re also solidly installed with next to no play. However, it’s a shame their legends aren’t transparent to allow the backlighting to shine through. Also, the default Fn shortcuts across the Function row and dotted around elsewhere aren’t labelled, so you’ll have to commit them to memory.
To speak in favor of the Vibe99’s design, it’s an impressively compact board, and its 1800 layout means it still manages to feature plenty of keys, including a number pad. It’s also quite light, which makes it easy to maneuver when required.
(Image credit: Future)What’s more, a TFT display is nestled in the top corner, and while it’s small with a low resolution, it still provides some useful readouts, such as those for the time, date, and the battery life. You can also upload custom GIFs to it via the MechLands’ software for Windows, although I’m not sure it’s worth the effort given the screen’s quality.
This software also lets you record macros and customize the Vibe99’s backlighting. You can remap keys here as well, although the selection on offer is quite lackluster, with only a handful of system and media shortcuts available. What’s more, your selected bindings aren’t shown on the layout map directly; you have to hover over each individual key to see your remapped function, which is highly impractical.
The rest of the app’s UI has issues, too. Text and various other elements are fuzzy and sometimes oddly proportioned. Worse still is the aforementioned GIF uploader: during my testing it took an achingly long time for one to upload, and most of the app was inaccessible during the process. To add insult to injury, the dialog box for its progress remained on top of all my other windows, not just the app’s. If you’re hoping such issues will be patched, I wouldn’t get your hopes up; according to MechLand’s website, the last update for the software was in 2025.
(Image credit: Future)MechLands Vibe99 review: Performance- Pre-lubed keys
- Snappy response
- Needs wrist support
In contrast to its somewhat incompetent software, the Vibe99 is a solid and impressive performer. The keys are well lubed, which makes them feel less harsh when pressed, yet they still retain a gratifying clickiness. They’re relatively loud, but thankfully the noise isn’t grating.
They’re also quite snappy, thanks to their reasonably shallow actuation point and fast rebound. However, they’re not so reactive that mere grazes will trigger them, which means you won’t be making many typos.
(Image credit: Future)What also helps with typing are the keycaps, with their low Cherry profile making them easy to glide over. Additionally, they’re spaced far enough apart to prevent mis-hits, yet close enough to make gaming comfortable, with various common keys remaining easy to reach from the WASD position. The space bar is a triumph as well — the combination of its low profile and sloping shape makes it conducive to direct hits on its top surface, rather than on its back edge.
However, the Vibe99 really needs to be paired with a wrist rest to make it comfortable for long sessions. That aforementioned thick chassis strained my wrists as I reached for the keys. The natural tilt of the layout and the unit’s fold-out feet improve ergonomics to an extent, but neither can compensate entirely for the lack of additional support.
The Vibe99 connected to my Windows PCs via the 2.4GHz dongle and Bluetooth just fine, and hot-switching between them was quick thanks to the toggle switch on the back of the unit.
Should I buy the MechLands Vibe99?ScorecardAttributes
Notes
Rating
Value
This keyboard has one of the best price-to-spec ratios I’ve ever seen.
4.5 / 5
Design and features
Solid enough, but it doesn’t look or feel premium. The software is functional but barebones and features a poor UI.
3 / 5
Performance
The switches are well lubed and have a snappy response. However, you’ll need some additional wrist support to get comfortable.
4 / 5
Overall
The Vibe99 is a veritable bargain at this price, considering all that it offers. You’ll need to bring your own wrist support, though, and I hope you’re not after incredible accompanying software.
3.5 / 5
Buy it if…You’re on a budget
If you’re looking for a cheap mechanical keyboard, you can’t do much better than the Vibe99.
You want clicky mechanical keys
The stock switches in the Vibe99 are well lubed but also very clicky, which makes them satisfying to use.
You want a premium build
Although the Vibe99’s build quality is sufficient, it doesn’t look or feel expensive.
You want the best software
Perhaps the weakest part of the Vibe99, the accompanying app looks poor and doesn’t have many features.
Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro
The BlackWidow V4 Pro is vastly more expensive than the Vibe99, but it’s built to a much higher standard than the Vibe99, and its mechanical performance is unparalleled. Synapse, the software for customizing its inputs, is far superior, too. Read our full Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75% review.
MonsGeek FUN60 Ultra
The FUN60 Ultra is another great gaming keyboard with a low price tag. Although it has a smaller layout, it has analog switches with adjustable actuation points and other features that mechanical switches miss out on. Read our full MonsGeek FUN60 Ultra review.
- Tested for several weeks
- Used for a variety of tasks
- Plentiful gaming keyboard experience
I tested the Vibe99 for several weeks, during which time I used it for gaming, working, and general productivity. I used it with two Windows 11 PCs, one connected via the 2.4GHz dongle and the other via Bluetooth, and regularly hot-switched between them.
One of the games I played with the keyboard was Counter-Strike 2, which is a great test for peripherals since it requires quick and accurate movements.
I’ve been PC gaming for over a decade, and have used a large number of keyboards in that time. I’ve also reviewed plenty of them, from budget offerings to premium models from the likes of Razer, Corsair, and SteelSeries.
- First reviewed: August 2026
- Read more about how we test
- 80% of teachers use AI, but only 35% work fewer hours and 55% work the same
- It's freeing up time that's then being spent on other work
- Technology alone might not be enough to tackle excessive workloads
New YouGov data has revealed around four in five teachers now use artificial intelligence at work, marking around a 2x increase over the past year.
However, despite a clear appetite for the productivity-boosting tech, teachers aren't actually saving any meaningful time – only one in three (35%) said they were actually working fewer hours as a result of adopting AI, with more than half (55%) noting they were working the same amount of time.
But crucially, that's not to say that artificial intelligence isn't saving workers time where it's being applied. They're just spending the time that they've already saved taking on other workloads, implying that teachers have long been overstretched.
AI is helping teachers catch up with workTeacher workload is already a major issue in the UK, where the study of 1,033 workers was conducted. Some of the most common use cases where AI is helping to free up some time include producing lesson plans and worksheets (76%) and drafting letters and emails to parents or writing pupil reports (39%).
Importantly, with just 8% using AI to mark students' work, it's clear that they're focused on using AI to speed up administrative workloads rather than replacing the highly skilled work they trained for.
However, there's still some concern about how AI may be impacting student learning. More than half (57%) suspect at least one of their students of submitting AI-assisted work in the past month without the teacher's permission.
Ultimately, the findings paint a complicated picture whereby AI could be both improving and damaging education at the same time, and the government is clearly still working out how the technology can best be positioned to have a positive impact on all.
Lanterns episode 3 has been released on HBO Max — and, after two weeks of teasing, it finally pulls back the veil on the mysterious extraterrestrials known as the Guardians of the Universe.
Until now, the Guardians have been something of an enigma in the HBO TV Original. However, its latest chapter, titled 'OutKast', gives us a much clearer picture of these beings and why they want John Stewart to succeed Hal Jordan as Earth's Green Lantern.
So, who are they? Where did they come from? Do they have powers? What's their connection to the Green Lantern Corps? And why are they obsessed with Stewart replacing Jordan? Let's take a closer look at the Guardians' comic book history and role in this HBO Max sci-fi crime drama.
Who are the Guardians of the Universe in DC Comics?The Guardians of the Universe first appeared in July 1960 via Green Lantern Vol. 2 #1 (Image credit: DC Comics)Created by DC icons Gil Kane and Jeff Broome during the Silver Age of Comic Books, the Guardians of the Universe are an immortal alien race depicted as blue-skinned humanoids originally from the planet Maltus. However, after a time-bending experiment — one that leads to the birth of the DC Multiverse and the anti-matter universe — goes awry, the Maltusians relocated to a new world named Oa and rebranded themselves as the Guardians of the Universe.
The Guardians gave themselves a new objective following the aforementioned and ill-fated time-based test: combat evil and create an orderly universe.
With this goal in mind, they created sentient androids known as the Manhunters to patrol the universe and combat any threats they encounter. However, the Manhunters soon came to resent their creators, committed mass genocide in a harrowing event known as the Massacre of Sector-666, and later attempted a coup, which the Guardians quelled. For more on the Manhunters and their role in this show, read my Manhunters in Lanterns explained piece.
Laura Linney's Lianna is the only Guardian we've met so far (Image credit: DC Studios/HBO)In the wake of the Manhunters' uprising, the Guardians started afresh and created the Green Lantern Corps. A new interstellar police agency, its members carry out the Manhunters' former duties of watching over the universe and tackling anyone who threatens the peace. Two Green Lanterns guard each of the 3,600 sectors that make up the known universe, meaning there are 7,200 space cops in total.
Abilities-wise, the Guardians are some of the most powerful beings in DC Comics. Their powerset includes — but isn't limited to — the ability to fly, time travel, and phase through objects; telepathy; astral projection; invulnerability to conventional weapons; energy manipulation; reality warping; size manipulation; omniscience; and force field projection.
When and why did the Guardians choose John Stewart to be Earth's next Green Lantern?John Stewart Sr and Bernadette condition John Jr into thinking it's his destiny to be a Green Lantern (Image credit: DC Studios/HBO)Now that we've learned about the Guardians' comic book history, let's see how they factor into the DC Universe (DCU) TV show's story.
For starters, when Stewart is interviewed by a Guardian named Lianna (played by Laura Linney) for the chance to become Jordan's successor, we quickly learn that there are only 11 Guardians left. There were 12, but as episode 2 revealed, the former Green Lantern known as Sinestro killed one of them. You can learn more about him via my Sinestro in Lanterns explained article.
Anyway, by way of Lanterns' flashback-heavy third episode, the Guardians had originally tried to recruit Stewart's father — aka John Stewart Sr — as Earth's first Green Lantern when Stewart Jr was a baby. However, Stewart Sr failed the Guardians' 'Are you afraid?' test, so he wasn't chosen.
Traumatized by that cosmic event, Stewart Sr becomes a danger to his loved ones, so he's kicked out of the family home by his wife Bernadette. She doesn't believe her husband's claims surrounding the aforementioned event, either — until Lianna unexpectedly shows up to apologize for the trouble that the Guardians caused the Stewart family.
Bernadette Stewart is the only human who's seemingly seen Lianna in her true form (Image credit: DC Studios/HBO)To keep things brief, Lianna indicates — over a late-night cup of coffee — that Stewart Jr has the makings of being a future Green Lantern. The reason? His parents are formidable individuals, so it stands to reason that, based on his genetic make-up alone, Stewart Jr would be cut from the same cloth.
After Bernadette tells all of this to Stewart Sr, they decide to raise Stewart Jr to not only be fearless, but also groom him so he will become a Green Lantern when he's older. So begins a years-long mission that sees them treat their youngest son differently from his older siblings. They train him to be undaunted and brainwash him into thinking it's his destiny to be a Green Lantern.
Stewart Jr follows in his father's footsteps by joining the US armed forces (Image credit: DC Studios/HBO Max)A couple of decades later, Stewart Jr is — the emotional detachment issues born from his unique upbringing notwithstanding — well on his way to becoming the so-called 'chosen one', too.
As the saying goes, though, the best-laid plans often go awry. Now a decorated US Marine sniper, Stewart Jr is sent on a months-long mission to assassinate a prominent money launderer known as 'Gray Wolf' in the Kamchatka Peninsula. Long story short, he fails said assignment when Hal Jordan, who was eventually chosen as Earth's first Green Lantern, surprisingly arrives and arrests the highly sought-after criminal. Forced to take the blame as part of a government cover-up, Stewart Jr is dishonorably discharged by the military.
John demonstrates his ability to create constructs using a Green Lantern ring (Image credit: DC Studios/HBO)Dejected after seeing his chances of becoming a Green Lantern ruined, Stewart Jr receives an unlikely pep talk from his mom, who also tells him that he's going to art school. Remember, his real passion has always been drawing, so to somewhat make up for her terrible parenting, Bernadette applied to a nearby university on his behalf. After being accepted by said university, Stewart Jr moves on from his Green Lantern dream.
Or so he thinks. Again, to keep things short, Stewart Jr is selected for what appears to be a special university project. However, the man he's trying to impress with his art skills is actually a male Guardian who, after Stewart Jr demonstrates his ability to construct his father's watch using a Green Lantern ring, is sent to be interviewed by Lianna.
Why do the Guardians want John Stewart to replace Hal Jordan?You might have been conditioned from birth, John, but you still need to interview for the position! (Image credit: DC Studios/HBO)For myriad reasons; but two specific reasons stand out among all others.
First — and perhaps most importantly — the Guardians are concerned about Jordan's relationship with Sinestro. Sure, Jordan was the one who defeated Sinestro after the latter killed one of the Guardians, but they know Jordan still harbors affection for his former mentor.
I wouldn't be shocked if they knew Jordan had visited Sinestro for information about the Manhunters in Lanterns episode 2, either. If they do, they'll be even more worried because there's no telling what Sinestro could do or say to Jordan to win him over to Sinestro's cause.
The other reason is Jordan's reckless nature. During their chat, Lianna tells Stewart that, despite regularly being told not to interfere in terrestrial matters, Jordan continues to do so. Replacing Jordan with Stewart would mean that these impulsive interventions would stop because Stewart wouldn't defy his bosses' wishes.
After successfully passing his Green Lantern interview, all eyes are now on how and when Stewart will succeed Jordan as Earth's primary Green Lantern in the DCU Chapter One TV series. Based on what Jordan tells Stewart at the end of this episode, though, he won't go quietly into that good night. Well, until Lanterns' 2026 storyline, when Jordan is murdered by someone, anyway...
Type: color inkjet tank printer
Functions: Print only
Connectivity: USB, Wi-Fi
Data storage slots: None
Max print speed: 22ppm (draft mode)
Max paper size: Letter/A4
Print quality: 600x600dpi; 4800x1200dpi (enhanced)
Memory: 64MB
Apple AirPrint: yes
Consumables included: 4 x bottled ink (6,000 black or color pages)
Dimensions/Weight: 434 x 360 x 134 mm (WxDxH)/8.3lb/3.75kg
Meet the smallest and cheapest member of HP’s Smart Tank family, lowering the entry point for cartridge-free printing in the home or home office.
It’s a severely stripped-back print-only device with no auto-duplex mode, no ethernet port or paper drawer and a very basic display. but the print engine is the same as that of the more expensive HP Smart Tank 5100, so I’m hoping for decent prints with an unbeatable cost-per-page.
If you can live without the extras, this could be the lowest total cost of ownership of any home printer.
HP Smart Tank 210: Design and build(Image credit: Future)From its sustainable packaging and neat design, to its seamlessly integrated ink tanks, this is a very well-designed product. As well as being the cheapest ink tank printer I’ve tested, it’s also the smallest.
The footprint is the same as the average Letter/A4 printer, but the height is just 134cm, so no bigger than a cartridge inkjet, and I think it looks pretty smart in HP’s off-white livery.
With no integrated scanner, the lid is just a fixed steel panel, and with no front media tray either, your paper must be loaded via the rear input tray. This will hold up to 100 sheets, while the output tray will take up to 30. The display is a postage stamp-sized affair to let you know when it’s connected to the network and not much else.
The HP Smart Tank 210 weighs just eight pounds, but despite that, it feels well made and it’s using 45% recycled plastic. I’m glad to see the packaging is all cardboard too.
HP Smart Tank 210: Features & specifications (Image credit: Future)To keep costs down, the HP Smart Tank 210 dispenses with all unnecessary features. There’s no Ethernet port or USB Host port and the display is small and basic. There’s no scanner bed, which is available on the step-up HP Smart Tank 5100.
These are all features I can live without, but limiting it to manual duplex seriously slows down your workflow and encourages wasteful one-sided printing. So, think carefully before springing for this model. I think it’s a step too far.
Printing is for the most part slow at just 5ppm (pages per minute) for color pages and 12ppm for black, but thankfully, there is a draft mode for when speed is more important than quality and that cranks it up to 22ppm for black pages.
HP Smart Tank 210: Setup and operation(Image credit: Future)HPs printers tend to be the quickest to get up and running thanks to their integrated Bluetooth and I’m glad to see it’s included on this entry-level model. With the HP Smart app on your phone, you can quickly connect it to the printer via Bluetooth, so you can then let the app get your printer onto your local wi-fi network. Dual-band Wi-Fi, AirPrint and Chromebook ensure it’s quick to connect and the app makes it quite easy to print wirelessly.
Things get fiddlier when it comes to installing the two printhead cartridges that distribute the black and tri-color inks to the ink jets. Yes, there are still cartridges, but don’t worry, they’re not the kind that need replacing. The only way to get at them is through the front panel, so you need quite long fingers.
That done, you’re ready to pour in the ink, and that’s much easier. The individually shaped bottle necks means there’s no danger of getting the colors the wrong way around and for three of the tanks, the bottle capacity matches that of the reservoirs. The black bottle holds more, but the tank stops filling automatically when full. I did it quite hurriedly and didn’t spill a drop.
HP Smart Tank 210: Performance(Image credit: Future)The HP Smart Tank 210 turned out crisp and colorful test pages without any crashes or paper jams throughout the test. It prints slowly, especially in color, but the pages are worth waiting for. HP’s dye-based C/M/Y inks are bold and bright, so the colors are pleasingly vivid.
As with most business inkjet printers, the black ink is pigment based because that tends to give quick drying and robust prints that are good for handouts. Black text on plain paper looks sharp enough and it passed the finger smudge test. However, it began to lose clarity when printing characters as small as point 3 print size.
Print resolution is the standard 600x600dpi resolution, but this is enhanced when printing on photo paper at fine quality to 4800x1200dpi. It means the HP Smart Tank 210 makes a reasonable photo printer. and the results are on par with more expensive printers like the Brother DCP-T580DW.
HP Smart Tank 210: Consumables (Image credit: Future)The HP Smart Tank 210 ships with three years of ink according to HP. To be precise, that’s three 50ml bottles of colored ink and one 375ml bottle of black ink, which should yield up to 6,000 black or color pages.
Compared with cartridge printers like the HP Envy 6530e which comes with ink for 120 black pages and just 75 color, the advantage of bulk tank printing is clear. The difference in price between cartridge and bottled ink is equally dramatic, with cartridge ink costing around 36 times as much for what’s essentially the exact same stuff.
HP Smart Tank 210: Maintenance (Image credit: Future)Like any inkjet printer, the printheads are liable to clog if the ink is allowed to dry when left unused for a length of time. It’s easily solved by running a maintenance cycle.
There are three to choose from with the most thorough using the largest amount ink to flush the printheads. If this were a cartridge inkjet, you’d be reluctant to choose that option, but with bottled ink being relatively cheap, it’s not an issue.
If even this doesn’t solve the problem, you can replace the print head cartridges easily, but it’s unlikely you’ll need to do this in the printer’s lifetime.
HP Smart Tank 210: Final verdictFutureFutureFutureI’m delighted to see the entry point for cartridge-free printing lowered by this innovative budget solution. Admittedly, a lot of features have been cut to get here - there’s no scanner, ethernet port, touchscreen, paper tray or auto-duplex.
However, the print quality is the same as the HP Smart Tank 5100 and comparable with HP’s more expensive HP Smart Tank 7001, which is very good news. Text pages look just as sharp while photos have vivid color and clarity.
It has the same crisp design and easy setup as HP’s other printers too, thanks to its inbuilt Bluetooth and seamlessly integrated ink tanks. There’s plenty of ink in the box and the low cost of HP’s bottled refills means you won’t find another printer with a lower cost of ownership.
For me, auto-duplex is a must-have feature, but if you can live with manual duplex this stripped back ink tank is a bargain.
For more options, I've tested out the best home printers and the best ink tank printers.
I’ve tested numerous electric brushes with far too many settings and features, from 12+ brushing modes to apps that provide real-time guidance. Yet I inevitably end up using them in the same way: pick up the brush, press the button once, brush my teeth, then put it back in the cupboard until the next time. I’ve never used an app outside of a review period, and I rarely bother with any extra settings either. Battery life is also important to me, as I don’t have a compatible plug socket in my bathroom. And I’d also rather not throw out too many plastic brush-heads that will ultimately end up in landfill.
Suri brushes are designed to be no-fuss, no-frills sonic toothbrushes with minimal settings to avoid a simple tool from becoming unnecessarily complicated, alongside recyclable elements. The Suri Core 1.0 sticks closely to this brief, offering a more affordable alternative to its successful, pricier Pro range.
Naturally, Suri has cut some corners with the Core 1.0 to keep the price down, notably replacing the metal body with a "bio-plastic" one made from renewable sources and recycled material, while the motor is slightly weaker, offering 28,000 movements a minute instead of the Pro 2.0’s 30,000. It doesn’t come with a clean-and-charge case as the Pro does, either. Instead, you simply get a brush cap for travel. It lasts six days fewer than the Pro on a full charge, with a battery that lasts 28 days compared to the Pro's 34 days.
These efficiency savings are minor, and do nothing to impact the toothbrush’s overall quality. The simple design makes it eminently easy to use, while the built-in timer uses haptic feedback every 30 seconds to help you keep track of brushing time. It looks great, too, especially when stuck to the wall using the provided magnetic mirror-mount attachment. It doesn't feel quite as pleasing in the hand as the metal model, but the pastel-coloured body has a stylish look that will happily fit the aesthetics of a variety of bathrooms. Whichever colour you choose, the brush head is white.
Speaking of brush heads, in the US and UK, Suri operates prepaid mailing programs that enable you to send used heads back to the company, which it then recycles and makes into new products such as soap dishes. The toothbrush is also covered by a warranty, during which Suri will repair and return it at no cost. In addition, across the brush's construction, Suri has introduced measures to reduce the environmental impact of the plastics it uses, from recycled to recyclable materials to more responsible production and disposal .
(Image credit: Future)I tested this toothbrush for 21 days straight, and in that time didn't have to charge it. The two-minute timer is automatic, with no option to adjust it manually: the brush pulses every 30 seconds to signal that you move to the next quadrant of your mouth then shuts off automatically when the two minutes are up.
There are a couple of niggles. The first is that the brush is almost too simple: alongside its Clean and Polish settings, I’d like to see a gentler mode "sensitive" setting for more delicate teeth and gums. The pressure sensor requires some force to activate it, which could result in over-brushing, and it’s quite loud in operation, registering 69db in my noise measuring app.
But I’m nitpicking. Overall, the Suri Core 1.0 is a simple, high-quality sonic toothbrush for a reasonable price, with some sustainability credentials to boot. It would certainly be my pick over some of the more expensive, feature-stuffed brushes that spring to mind.
Suri Core 1.0: Specifications(Image credit: Future)Component
Suri Core 1.0
Battery life
28 days
Sonic vibrations
28,000/m
Charging stand
USB-C
Timer
30 seconds, haptic
Noise
69db
Settings
Two
Suri Core 1.0: Price and availability- $75 in the US
- £65 in the UK
- Not yet in the AU
The Suri Core 1.0 is priced at $75 / £65, cheaper than other brushes in the Suri range, which come in at $99 / £85, and offers good value. It’s more expensive than budget electric toothbrushes such as the Ordo Sonic Lite, which is similarly basic in terms of features, but the Core 1.0 feels like a worthwhile step up.
It’s reliable, looks great on your bathroom counter-top, and with Suri's free brush-head recycling scheme, you can feel good about doing your bit for the environment, too.
Suri Core 1.0: Scorecard(Image credit: Future)Category
Comment
Score
Value
Pricier than some budget toothbrushes, but good value overall.
4/5
Design
Great look, simple to use, recyclable and sustainable design elements.
5/5
Performance
Strong motor, great battery, simple to use.
4.5/5
Suri Core 1.0: Should I buy?Buy it if…You’re after something simple
The Suri Core 1.0 does one job, at two intensities, and does it well.
You want a toothbrush that looks good
The Suri Core 1.0's pleasant design will look great on a bathroom shelf.
You want value
Suri made this toothbrush specifically to appeal to budget buyers.
Don’t buy it if…You want an oscillating toothbrush
The sonic toothbrush is just a simple vibration model, whereas Oral-B models come with rotating heads.
You’ve got very sensitive teeth
You may prefer a brush with more settings and a lighter pressure sensor.
Also considerOrdo Sonic Lite
One of the best budget toothbrushes on the market.
Read our full Ordo Sonic Lite review
Suri 2.0 electric toothbrush
Suri's excellent full-price electric toothbrush model.
Read our full Suri 2.0 review
How I testedI used the Suri Core 1.0 sonic toothbrush for three weeks, brushing morning and night. I measured the decibel levels of the toothbrush using an app, and compared the specs to its contemporaries in the space.
First reviewed: August 2026
The world’s second-largest data center has been proposed to be built next to the tiny historic town of Auchertool in Fife, Scotland.
The proposed data center would cover over 170 acres - covering a footprint larger than the town itself - with a 600MW capacity, making it the second largest operational data center upon completion, just a few acres behind Nevada’s Citadel Campus.
The project has attracted over 1,600 objections. “The public pressure is huge,” said David Torrance, Scottish parliament member for Kirkcaldy. “I’ve never seen this level of objection to a local plan, and I have been in politics for 25 years" (via The Guardian).
A moratorium may dawn on ScotlandAs the Scottish Parliament is set to resume after the summer break, data centers are likely to be a major topic of conversation within Holyrood. Auchertool isn’t alone in facing down a data center, with Airdrie and Larbert also opposing local developments.
Scotland is prime real estate for data centers as the country produces over one quarter of the UK’s total electricity production. Coupled with low land prices and a naturally cooler climate, it is no surprise that data center developers are being drawn north of the border to meet the capacity required for the UK’s AI strategy.
But a spanner could be thrown in the works if the Scottish parliament decides to pass a moratorium on data centers.
There is already talk of heavily regulating new data center developments. Scotland’s minister for public finance, Hannah Mary Goodlad, has already issued new rules requiring planning authorities to notify the government of any development larger than 50MW. Some data centers will also have to submit an environmental assessment.
Campaigns against data centers are already being planned, with a demonstration in Edinburgh expected to take place in early September once the Scottish parliament has returned.
Does the UK want data centers?Planned data centers across the UK are facing a increasing backlash from locals. A petition opposing a 32-acre site that would draw 150MW of electricity in Norwich has reached over 12,000 signatures in just two months.
A 4.5 acre site in Wales near the M4 motorway has reached almost 4,500 signatures. A Northern Ireland petition against data centers has surpassed 5,000 signatures.
Across all of these petitions the sentiment is the same. People don’t want their local areas filled with resource-hungry data centers - especially when the proposed benefits are filled with ifs, buts, and maybes.
The UK currently sits in the number three spot for active data centers at around 500 data centers, just a few behind Germany at about 525, and the US at over 3,600. The government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan wants to see this number increased so that the UK can become “an AI superpower.”
But it’s a very hard sell for the UK public. The government promises economic growth, more jobs, and a greater level of foreign investment in the UK economy - but they are forgetting that these promises mean little to everyday people already struggling to afford daily life.
Since 2020, food prices in the UK have risen by almost 40%. In the same period, the average water bill has risen 50%. Since the start of the Iran war, energy prices have risen by as much as 70%. Pay increases in real terms have failed to keep pace with inflation, meaning that the average person in the UK is significantly worse off than they were just six years earlier.
But a mass buildout of data centers across the UK will only worsen this problem. Infrastructural upgrades to energy grids to match data center capacity are paid through increases in household bills, not to mention the enormous increase in energy production required to power new data centers which will put additional strain on energy bills. Water infrastructure will also have to be upgraded to supply data centers with cooling, much of which will be added to the bills of consumers.
The UK water trade body accused the government of failing to account for its AI buildout when forecasting future water needs. The government has designated AI data centers as critical infrastructure, meaning that during droughts or water shortages they will be given priority during heatwaves and hosepipe bans.
Promises of economic prosperity therefore fall on deaf ears. The economy may grow, GDP may go up, but neither of these directly benefit the average working person. If the government wants people on board with its AI growth project, it needs to offer some visceral, tangible return to the UK public.
The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is a high-octane handheld games console that can run PC and Xbox games from a wide range of game stores. With the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chipset — featuring the Intel Arc B390 GPU and 32GB RAM — it’s easily the most powerful portable console I’ve ever (quite literally) gotten my hands on. But there’s a pretty huge catch to that performance: a price tag that would buy you two Steam Deck OLEDs or a mid-price gaming laptop.
Let’s start with the superficial stuff: the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ looks gorgeous. Its screen is an extensive eight inches across, offers wonderfully rich colors and a silky-smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Combined with its discreet RGB lighting around the asymmetrically placed thumbsticks and Void Purple colorway, it has a unique look that definitely helps it stand out from the crowd.
But its design goes far beyond aesthetics. Its Hall effect thumbsticks and triggers should not only offer greater longevity, but they felt really responsive, even if they’re not quite as sensitive as the TMR versions now offered by some controllers. Meanwhile, it felt perfectly ergonomic in my hands — I was genuinely surprised how light it felt for a 1.73 lb / 786g console — although its laser-etched grips sure made my hands feel sweaty, for some reason.
What cements the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ as one of the best handheld games consoles out there, though, is its performance. It’s the first gaming handheld on the market with the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chipset and, boy, does that have a pronounced effect on how it plays. While benchmarks showed it offered similar CPU performance to the recent Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, thanks to its Intel Arc B390 GPU and 32GB RAM, it managed to smash its 3D Mark benchmarks by between 35% and 76% — that’s a significant performance upgrade.
Numbers only tell part of the story, though: what was the Claw actually like in action? Well, Baldur’s Gate 3 looked truly gorgeous on Ultra graphics settings and yet it hovered around a decent 38fps. Meanwhile, despite only being released in 2025, both Doom: The Dark Ages and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 played at a rock-solid 60fps — whether I was punching demons to death or countering devastating attacks, there wasn’t a hint of latency or lag. Even the boss-level challenge of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered hit 60fps at points… before plunging to a stuttery mess in busier areas. Still that’s impressive stuff for a handheld console.
(Image credit: Future)But the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ has a pretty huge barrier to Fosbury flop over: its price. In return for its premium components, you’ll pay a seriously premium price tag of $1,799.99 / £1,399.99 / AU$2,849. Not only is that significantly higher than any other gaming handheld to date, it’s also as expensive as some mid-range gaming laptops.
And that presents an enormous problem for the Claw. Despite the fact that some of the best gaming laptops come in at a similar price, many of them offer superior performance in our benchmark tests. Now don’t get me wrong: no gaming laptop offers the kind of ergonomics or compact form factor you get here, but I do have doubts that the pro gamers that can afford this kind of device will be willing to trade performance simply for the sake of increased maneuverability.
That’s a real shame because in almost every respect, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is a fantastic gaming handheld that has really stretched my expectations of what this kind of device is capable of. I want one. And you should too. But I’m not convinced either of us will be able to justify the spend.
(Image credit: Future)MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ review: price & availabilityHaving launched on June 23, 2026, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is available now. As you can see from the specs — or if you took sneaky peak at the benchmarks in the performance section — it’s seriously mighty for a gaming handheld.
It’s the first handheld console on the market that rocks the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chipset, which includes the 12-core Intel Arc B390 GPU and a hefty 32GB RAM. That puts it considerably ahead of most of its competitors, even if it can’t quite rival any of the best gaming laptops for sheer processing punch.
Unfortunately, like the hero in a Greek tragedy — or Oddyseus, apparently — it has a fatal flaw. The price. At $1,799.99 / £1,399.99 / AU$2,849, its cost is possibly the most eye-watering thing I’ve come across in a while and that includes all the people on social media that bragged about raw-dogging the solar eclipse in August. While the price tag here might not literally melt your retinas, it’s likely to give you second thoughts.
By comparison, we threw some shade on the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X for its price on its release — and that only retailed for $999.99 / £799.99 / AU$1,599. The Claw 8 EX AI+’s sticker price outstrips every other handheld console by quite some margin, sitting more up the gaming laptop end of the spectrum. For example, a mid-spec Alienware 16X Aurora, with Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 and 32GB DDR5, goes for $1,999.99 / £1,799 (around AU$2,800). Ultimately, I think there aren’t going to be that many mainstream gamers able to pay this price and those that do are going to expect stellar performance in return.
(Image credit: Future)MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ review: specsCategory
Specification
Price
$1,799.99 / £1,399.99 / AU$2,849
Display
8-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200), 16:10, 500 nits, 120Hz IPS touchscreen
CPU
Intel Arc G3 Extreme
Graphics
Intel Arc B390
RAM
32GB LPDDR5X-8533
Storage
1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD
Port selection
2x USB-C / Thunderbolt 4, 1x microSD Express card reader, 1x 3.5mm headphone/mic combo jack
Weight
1.73 lbs / 786g
Dimensions
11.7 x 4.9 x 0.94 inches / 297 x 124 x 24mm
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ review: designI’ll be honest: when I first picked up the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, I was pretty shocked by how light and manageable it felt. Fundamentally, this is not a small console — it’s as broad-shouldered as the Steam Deck OLED or the Lenovo Legion Go S and weighs in at 1.73 lbs / 786g, which is the heaviest gaming portable I’ve gotten my hands on to date. But despite this, it never felt at all bloated, sitting comfortably in my grasp.
I’d chalk this up to its ergonomic design. On top of feeling well balanced, it offers flared grips, unlike previous iterations of the MSI Claw. These sat really comfortably in my hands, although they aren’t quite as easy to wrap your hands around as the controller-mimicking forked grips of the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X.
This was also helped by the laser-etched texture of its grips, which enabled me to keep a decent grasp on the Claw. But I will say they aren’t quite as comfortable as those on some of the best Xbox controllers I’ve tested, feeling a little on the rough side and quickly getting sweaty as I tried to splat sakapatates in Clair Obscure: Expedition 33.
The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ also left a pretty good impression on some of my other senses too. No, I didn’t lick it — I’m talking visual appeal here, rather than gustatory. Subtle RGB lighting around each of the thumbsticks is my personal highlight, although I’ll also give its gentle curves and Void Purple colorway honorable mentions as well. Honestly, I’m a little less jazzed about the way the screen juts out past the bottom of the device, but this does seem to be a more common look these days, with the jutting grips of the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X creating a similar effect.
Speaking of screens, despite it not quite rocking the richness of the Steam Deck’s OLED display, the Claw 8 EX AI+ has a beautiful looking screen. As a result of its expansive eight-inch breadth and 16:10 aspect ratio, it rocks a 1920 x 1200 resolution, not to mention a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz. Every game I played always felt detailed and smoother than whipped cream under a heat lamp. Meanwhile, its 500 nit typical brightness felt plenty bright enough in most settings — on max brightness, I even found I was able to play it outside, although when I faced it directly toward the blazing August sun, it was quickly overpowered by the fiery onslaught.
(Image credit: Future)Anyone familiar with previous incarnations of the MSI Claw will be pretty familiar with the layout here. The Claw 8 EX AI+ has the same combo of asymmetrical thumbsticks, Xbox-style face buttons and vertically aligned Menu, MSI Center M, View and Quick Setting buttons that you’ll have seen on previous iterations. There’s only two macro buttons on its rear, which honestly feels a bit stingy compared to the four offered by the Steam Deck and many Xbox controllers.
On the plus side, the Claw 8 EX AI+ is packing both Hall effect thumbsticks and triggers — as well as preventing the inexorable drift issues that plague potentiometer thumbsticks, Hall effect sticks and triggers also offer smaller deadzones and increased sensitivity. They’re not quite as sensitive as the marginally fancier TMR thumbsticks and triggers you see in a lot of premium controllers these days but I’m not aware of any portable consoles that offer those currently.
So for the most part, its control scheme is suitably versatile. The only area it falls a little short is the lack of built-in mouse control for games that require a cursor. Unlike the Steam Deck’s super flexible trackpads or the quirky hybrid mouse-cons offered by the Nintendo Switch 2 and Lenovo Legion Go 2, the only way I could mimic a mouse input on the Claw 8 EX AI+ was by jabbing its touchscreen with my greasy hand-sausages. That ain’t gonna cut it for some Steam and Windows games. Now, in MSI’s defense, it has never pitched the Claw as a substitute for PC gaming, but it is a shame that some sections of my Steam library will lay tantalizingly just out of reach. Of course, I could connect a mouse via USB or Bluetooth, but that then prevents the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ from being as portable.
Another criticism I have is the fingerprint scanner. While I appreciate that these narrow scanners are space-efficient, they’re not efficient in any other sense of the word. Every single time I tried to log in to the MSI Claw, I found I had to pop my pinky on the scanner three or four times just to access the home screen. Given my MacBooks’ Touch ID readers require just a single tap to unlock, I honestly wish MSI found a way to squeeze in a circular scanner here.
(Image credit: Future)MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ review: performanceMSI Claw 8 EX AI+ benchmarksHere is how the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark Port Royal: 3,544; Fire Strike: 12,358; Time Spy: 6,534
GeekBench 6.5: 2,492 (single-core); 12,550 (multi-core)
Total War Warhammer 3 1080p (Ultra) 81.3fps (Low) 142.5fps
Cyberpunk 2077: 1080p (Ultra) 43fps (Low) 75fps
Dirt 5: 1200p (Ultra) 48.3fps (Low) 95.7fps
PCMark 10 Battery Life (Gaming): 1:40 hours
While the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+’s looks are impressive, what makes it exceptional is what’s going on underneath the surface. While gaming handhelds have previously involved some performance tradeoffs in return for their diminutive size, that’s not the case here, thanks to the Herculean Intel Arc G3 Extreme chipset it’s packing. MSI claims that the Arc G3 Extreme should unlock 42% faster performance on average compared to the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme that the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X is rocking, although this requires a little unpacking.
Certainly, performance benchmarks alone don’t suggest the Arc G3 Extreme is leading the field. The Claw 8 EX AI+ hit 2,492 single-core performance and 12,550 multi-core performance in our GeekBench tests, compared to the 2,788 and 12,883 scores nabbed respectively by the ROG Xbox Ally X. So for raw processing power, there’s not a huge amount of light between the two chipsets, with the Ryzen Z2 Extreme taking a narrow lead.
But factor in graphical performance and Intel’s SoC absolutely spanks AMD’s. With the help of the Intel Arc GPU B390, the Claw 8 EX AI+ gets some seriously punchy 3D performance — in our 3DMark benchmarks, it scored 3,544 in Port Royal, 12,358 in Fire Strike and 6,534 in Time Spy, compared to the 2,006, 9,141 and 4,033 the ROG Xbox Ally X hit. Those are 76%, 35% and 62% increases respectively, gains which show the Claw’s graphics are seriously swole.
And that translates to some staggeringly smooth performance in-game. On Ultra settings, Total War: Warhammer 3 comfortably averaged out at 81.3fps, while on Low settings Dirt 5 ran smoother than a nitro cold brew at 95.7fps and still managed a very creditable 48.3fps on Ultra. But what blew me away most is how well it ran Cyberpunk 2077 on Ultra settings with ray-tracing disabled, netting a reasonably polished 43fps — that’s downright playable and throws some serious shade on the ROG Xbox Ally X, which only managed 8fps.
Unfortunately, while these benchmarks are impressive compared to other gaming handhelds, at this price those aren’t the Claw’s biggest competition. Several of our picks for the best gaming laptops have costs in the same region and yet offer significantly better performance.
For example, the Alienware 16X Aurora with Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 and 32GB DDR5 we tested costs only a few hundred dollars / pounds more at $1,999.99 / £1,799. And yet its performance is leagues ahead of the Claw, hitting a 3DMark Time Spy score of 13,594 and Fire Strike score of 31,480 — that’s double and nearly triple the Claw’s scores respectively. Naturally, you’re not getting the same compact form factor but I wonder how much that truly matters for the kinds of gamers that are willing to drop almost one and a half grand on a pro gaming device.
Okay, enough nerding out over numbers. Time to focus on the thing you actually care about: how the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ actually feels to play.
(Image credit: Future)Honestly, what the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is capable of kinda blew me away. As those benchmarks would suggest, it can offer ludicrously smooth frame rates. Playing a 2D game like Hollow Knight: Silksong, it remained rock solid at 120Hz, with all the action as Hornet zipped around the rich, mysterious landscapes of Pharloom as slick as ice on a spring day.
Granted, that might not feel like much of a challenge, but this unflappable stability carried over when I transitioned to modern 3D games. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ran at a wonderfully smooth 60fps. Rather than having to strip it down to the basic visuals required to get it running on the Steam Deck, it actually looked pretty great and ran so stably I was able to crack out counter after counter on chromatic bosses. Being able to enjoy the game on the go felt like such a novelty that I’d honestly be happy to mop up the game’s remaining optional bosses purely on handheld.
Keen to push the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ to breaking point, I even tried playing a bit of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered on Xbox. I’ll admit my expectations were pretty low here, as I’ve heard plenty of people complaining about performance issues on their 5000 series Nvidia GPUs. And yet, amazingly, it was playable.
Well, kinda. With the graphics settings on Low while in the depths of Xedilian, performance plowed along steadily at 60fps, which is truly wild for a AAA Bethesda game. However, it didn’t take long for it to start exhibiting some pretty hinky behavior — sporadically I encountered some audio stuttering and, once I entered a more densely populated open area, the frame rate dropped so far it was more 19th century zoetrope than an RPG from 2025. But I feel like most gaming handhelds would spontaneously combust if you even had the cheek to try this, so Imma still put this one in the win column for MSI.
On top of this, the Claw 8 EX AI+ seems to be able to keep a cool head during all of this. In comparison to its predecessor, the Claw 8 AI+, MSI promises the EX AI+ can achieve an extra 5W cooling capacity, 25% higher static pressure for fans, and 9% higher airflow, thanks to fans that are 0.5mm taller. I can’t speak to how accurate such granular figures are but certainly even slamming out epic boss fights or pushing the CPU to its limit, I rarely noticed the EX AI+ getting unbearably warm, which speaks to the strength of its cooling.
What the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is capable of is honestly pretty staggering. The only criticisms I have come down to software and input issues.
The Claw’s MSI Center M launcher felt a little unreliable. Occasionally, I got locked out from being able to access it — hitting the MSI button did nothing, and switching between windows just returned me to the Xbox app. On top of this, sometimes switching out to this menu then returning to a game would lock the input, meaning I could no longer use controller settings till I’d switched out and back again. That’s not a total deal-breaker, but it is a shame, given how stable the Steam and Xbox OSes feel by comparison, and shows that even the mighty MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ isn't immune to Windows 11's unsuitability for gaming handhelds.
(Image credit: Future)MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ review: batteryGiven its huge 80Whr battery capacity, I was expecting the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ to have some serious endurance. Unlike the ephemeral life I get out of my 40Whr Steam Deck — where I’m lucky if I get 90 minutes out of many 3D games — the whopping battery in the Claw had me anticipating some pretty epic gaming sessions. Which is why I was a bit bemused by the actual results I eked out during our benchmarks.
Running our standard PC Mark 10 Gaming Battery benchmark with all the settings switched to balanced in both MSI Center M and Windows 11, I was shocked to see the battery discharged from 100% to 0% in just 1 hour 36 minutes. So sure was I that I must have made a mistake, I recalibrated the battery using the Claw’s built-in software, revisited all the settings and ran the benchmark two more times. Despite this, I was only able to squeeze out 1 hour 40 minutes and 2 hours 31 minutes on subsequent tests.
Certainly that’s not completely incompatible with my objective experience — on the console’s default AI Mode, I comfortably drained its full battery in a two-hour play session of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, for example. But that’s an incredibly demanding game, even for the MSI’s specs, and 2D games didn’t seem quite as thirsty in comparison.
So what’s going on here? Ruling out a fault with my review unit, I suspect that the capacious 80Whr battery the unit ships with is only part of the picture when it comes to the life you’ll squeeze out of it. The more important part? Its AI performance mode.
While our standard benchmarks set consoles and gaming laptops to balanced mode, the default performance mode for the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ automatically adjusts its power consumption on the fly for the best efficiency in any given moment. That means the mode you’re most likely to play it on will stretch out the battery life without causing a noticeable dip in performance.
Even when the battery has run dry, it doesn’t take long to top it up again. With its 65W charging, you’d expect it to take about 90 minutes to juice up that 80Whr battery — and that’s bang in line with my experiences. When plugged into a cable capable of at least 65W, charging up the Claw only ever took around an hour and a half. However, I did occasionally experience some glitchy behavior here, with progress freezing at 98% or 99% full even when left for 20 minutes, suggesting the console’s battery monitoring software can occasionally be a touch off.
(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+?Buy it if…You want amazing performance
Thanks to its high-octane Intel Arc G3 Extreme chipset, the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ achieves genuinely wild performance for its petite, portable size.
You want to access to all your PC and Xbox games libraries on the go
Installing extra storefronts on a console like the Steam Deck is honestly a bit of a hassle. On the MSI Claw, you have access to the Steam, Xbox, Epic, GOG, EA, Ubisoft Connect games stores.
You’re not loaded
The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ is one pricy meatball — at $1,799.99 / £1,399.99 / AU$2,849, it comes closer to the cost of a gaming laptop than a handheld console. And while it’s more compact than a laptop, it’s not as powerful.
You need a mouse input
One of the things that makes consoles like the Steam Deck or Lenovo Legion Go so versatile is their mouse inputs. Lacking an equivalent means the Claw 8 EX AI+ isn’t compatible with some mouse-based titles unless you plug in a mouse.
MSI Claw 8 EX AI+
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X
Lenovo Legion Go S (SteamOS)
Price
$1,799.99 / £1,399.99 / AU$2,849
$999.99 / £799
Starting at $649.99 / £699
Display
8-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200), 16:10, 500 nits, 120Hz IPS touchscreen
7-inch FHD (1920 x 1080), 16:9, 500 nits, 120Hz IPS touchscreen
8-inch WQXGA (1920 x 1200), 16:10, 500 nits, 120Hz IPS touchscreen
CPU
Intel Core Ultra 7 258V
AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme
AMD Ryzen Z2 Go (up to AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme)
Graphics
Intel Arc 140V GPU
AMD Radeon RDNA 3.5 Graphics
Integrated AMD Radeon Graphics
RAM
32GB LPDDR5X-8533
24GB LPDDR5X-8000
16GB / 32GB LPDDR5X-6400
Storage
1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD
1TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSD
512GB / 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD
Port selection
2x Thunderbolt 4, 1x microSD Express card reader, 1x 3.5mm headphone/mic combo jack
1x Thunderbolt 4, 1x USB-C, 1x microSD card reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack
2x USB4, 1x microSD card reader, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack
Weight
1.75 lbs / 794g
1.58 lbs / 715g
1.63 lbs / 740g
Dimensions
299 x 126 x 24mm / 11.77 x 4.96 x 0.94 inches
290.8 x 121.5 x 50.7mm / 11.45 x 4.78 x 2 inches
299 x 127.55 x 22.6mm / 11.77 x 5.02 x 0.88 inches
Asus ROG Xbox Ally X
The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X packs the AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chipset, which includes the slightly less impressive AMD Radeon RDNA 3.5 GPU, and hasn’t managed to squeeze as much RAM on-board, clocking in at 24GB rather than the Claw’s 32GB. On the plus side though, it’s significantly cheaper, coming in for $700 / £600 / AU$1,250 less, making it more manageable for a wider range of people. Read our full Asus ROG Xbox Ally X review.
Lenovo Legion Go S (SteamOS)
With integrated AMD Radeon Graphics, 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD, the Lenovo Legion Go S (SteamOS) is more cruiser motorcycle to the MSI Claw’s superbike. But it’s still able to deliver steady performance, offering rock-solid performance during Baldur’s Gate 3 on max settings or a steady 40fps on Black Myth: Wukong on its lowest settings. And it’s cheaper than either of its rivals here, with a list price that starts from $649.99 / £699 / $1,329. Read our full Lenovo Legion Go S (SteamOS) review.
- Tested it over two weeks
- Tried playing a wide range of titles at different graphics settings
- Conducted TechRadar’s full suite of testing benchmarks
I tested the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ over the course of two weeks. I made sure to play a wide variety of games from multiple game stores, whether they were from TechRadar’s Steam library or Xbox Games Pass Ultimate. On top of this, I tried out a wide variety of games at different graphics settings, from relatively undemanding 2D games to AAA 3D titles.
When it comes to more detailed assessments of its performance, I conducted our usual suite of benchmarks. Not only did that entail getting detailed performance scores from 3DMark and GeekBench 6.5, but I also conducted a range of in-game fps benchmarks at both ultra and low graphics settings. To test the console’s battery life, I ran multiple PC Mark 10 Gaming Battery tests to see how rapidly it drained the battery from 100% and I also timed how long it took to charge the console from 0% to 100% using a cable that was rated more than its 65W max charging rate.
During my career, I’ve tested a wide variety of gaming gadgets and accessories, from wireless controllers to gaming handhelds. I’ve also invested a truly ludicrous amount of my four decades on this Earth playing computer games, whether they be RPGs, action adventure games or creative sandboxes. And while I’m a little hazy on the details, I’m told this investment will pay dividends any day now.
- First reviewed: August 2026
- Read more about how we test
The numbers circulating through fintech right now are hard to ignore. Almost 10,000 jobs have been cut across the global sector in 2026 so far. PayPal is eliminating roughly 20% of its workforce. Block has shrunk to fewer than 6,000 employees, and Coinbase cut 14% of its headcount.
And hovering over all of it is a single explanation, repeated so often that it starts to remind us of a dot-com bubble — artificial intelligence. But is that actually what's happening? And more importantly, does it matter if the story isn't entirely true?
When the story becomes the strategyAI accounted for 40% of all announced layoffs in May 2026, up from much lower levels earlier in the year. At first glance, it seems like a natural explanation: if the technology handles the routine work better than a human, then why not cut costs?
But the thing is, when we start looking closer at why exactly these mass layoffs are taking place, a deeper structural problem appears. So far, AI is just a good justification for how the industry communicates these shifts.
Deutsche Bank analysts identified this neat disguise in January. They called it "AI redundancy washing." Put simply, it’s the practice of attributing workforce reductions to AI adoption when the underlying drivers are far more familiar.
But if it’s not really AI which replaces the workers, then what are the real reasons for all these layoffs? If each company were to be considered individually, it could be anything, from deteriorating unit economics to the pressure of demonstrating operational discipline after years of “growth-at-all-costs.”
Research points to the same explanation: nearly 60% of US hiring managers acknowledged that they emphasize AI's role in layoffs just because it lands better with stakeholders. Indeed, a headcount reduction could have sparked fears about companies' growth models, but framing it as a strategic AI implementation makes it sound good.
The productivity paradoxLet’s assume that some of the companies are indeed replacing their workers with AI tools. In this case, there should be numbers to show it. But they don't share any effectiveness ratios, at least not yet.
A survey of 350 executives at companies with over $1 billion in revenue found that 80% of organizations piloting AI or autonomous technology reported workforce reductions. But after that, many honestly admit that they cut jobs regardless of whether the technology was actually generating returns.
This way, planning to spend another $10 million or more in 2026, companies are betting on a future that hasn't fully arrived. And trimming headcount in anticipation of a productivity windfall that remains, for most, theoretical.
Even if AI is implemented in a particular organization, it’s mostly in pilot mode, sitting on top of existing infrastructure rather than remaking it. Moreover, the AI payback picture is modest: only 25% of AI initiatives deliver the expected returns, and only 16% reach the scale of the entire organization.
McKinsey’s 2025 global AI survey found the same results. While most firms are using AI in at least one function, nearly 70% are still stuck in experimentation or pilot stages rather than scaling AI across the enterprise. And what’s more upsetting is that no more than 39% reported a significant EBIT impact from the technology adoption.
Where the capital is actually goingIf AI isn't yet delivering the productivity revolution that many executives promised, then where is the industry's attention? The answer is less exciting than the headlines suggest — only last year, infrastructure and internal business systems received more than $200 billion worth of investments.
For now, fintech companies are under pressure to prove that all the promises made around AI weren't just another cycle of hype. So instead of reinventing financial services overnight, many are turning inward, looking for ways to make existing operations cheaper and easier to scale.
Even though the AI hasn’t brought the desired effect yet, the shift to automation is still important. For the past decade, fintech has largely been focused on the customer experience to offer a disruptive product, but from now on, more effort will go into the mechanisms behind the product than the product itself.
But this doesn’t mean that the "AI replaced the workers" narrative feels complete. Cutting headcount and replacing employees with bots may look good on a quarterly report, but it's not much of a strategy. Cost reduction can improve margins in the short term, but it rarely creates lasting differentiation.
So, in this environment, the winning ones will be those asking and answering honestly to a different question: What can we offer the market today that we couldn't offer a year ago?
The value of AI innovation beyond cost-cuttingArguably, the more important part of AI adoption isn’t about how it replaces workers at all, but rather about what new value it creates. Historically, the biggest technological shifts rarely created value by simply making existing processes cheaper. They created entirely new products, services, and business models that were impossible before.
Without going too far in search of examples, let’s just remember the Internet. When it first arrived, a lot of people justified investing in it by bringing up “efficiency” aspects, such as digitizing paperwork or reducing communications costs through e-mails.
In reality, though, the Internet went much further than that, creating entirely new business models: online media, social networks, search engines, cloud software, and more. Giants like Google or Amazon did not get to where they are now simply because they optimized their processes. They found success precisely because they built products that simply couldn't have found success before the Internet became widely adopted.
Now, it’s AI’s turn to go down that road. What innovations it will bring is a story that still remains largely unexplored in fintech, but the potential is massive. In this sense, today’s hyper-focus on workforce cuts is likely going to be just a short phase in a much larger legacy that AI will leave in finance. The true winning move for companies now is to work out how they can use it to better serve their customers in new, never-before-explored ways.
Cost savings may be a measurable and immediate metric, but over time, the true advantage of adopting this technology will come from what it brings to the table, not what it takes away from it.
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The most damaging AI-related security incident your organization faces this year probably won't originate from external attackers using sophisticated new models. It's far more likely to begin with an employee pasting a client contract, a financial forecast, or a set of HR records into an AI tool because it makes their job easier and nobody has told them why it matters.
Shadow AI is a growing problem, and our research found that nearly half of employees at larger enterprises regularly feed corporate data into AI tools that nobody in IT has approved or governs.
More striking still, 85% of employees continue doing so even when company-sanctioned tools are available, pointing to a governance failure that runs all the way to the executive suite. With shadow AI, sensitive data can move silently outward through channels most security stacks were never designed to intercept.
Adding to the security risk of this unmonitored data flow, the advent of the EU AI Act also means organizations now face specific legal demands on managing AI use. The ability to have full governance over how AI is deployed, governed and monitored, is becoming a regulatory, as well as a security, imperative.
Why the EU AI Act makes this a board-level problemShadow AI represents a serious security issue, with IBM's 2026 Cost of a Data Breach report estimating that unauthorized tools contributed to 43% of breaches over the last year Now, the EU AI Act is adding significant regulatory requirements on top of these risks.
The Act's obligations have rolled out in phases; most recently, organizations classified as general deployers of AI have new inventory, data governance, audit logging and transparency obligations as of 2nd August 2026.
Other deadlines have shifted further ahead, with controls over high-risk AI usage, covering areas like recruitment, credit scoring and biometric categorization, set to come into force from 2nd December 2027. AI embedded in regulated products will be covered from 2nd August 2028.
Any organization whose employees use AI systems now has compliance obligations as a deployer, regardless of whether those systems were formally sanctioned.
All organizations using AI should be aware that the AI literacy obligation under Article 4 has been enforceable since February 2025, meaning organizations are on the hook for ensuring their employees are aware of safe and sanctioned AI use.
Rules around high-risk AI usage will also apply to more operations than it may seem at first, including an employee using an unapproved consumer tool for tasks like screening CVs, assessing creditworthiness, and evaluating performance.
These are common tasks that could trigger the full weight of the Act's oversight against a system that the IT department didn’t even know had been deployed.
With penalties reaching up to €15 million or 3% of global annual turnover for high-risk breaches, many organizations are carrying more exposure than they realize.
Why your existing security stack can't see itThe challenge with shadow AI is that it exploits the blind spots between conventional security layers, slipping through gaps that most tools were never designed to close.
CASBs and secure web gateways cannot decrypt conversational data flowing to legitimate LLM domains over HTTPS, for example. From the network's perspective, a prompt containing a full customer database is indistinguishable from any other encrypted web session. Browser extensions are limited to managed endpoints, blind to personal devices and AI embedded within approved SaaS.
Likewise, API gateways are usually built around authorized enterprise deployments, which means they capture the AI activity organizations have already approved while missing the consumer-grade AI tools driving most risk.
These blind spots compound with each other, so an organization running all three layers may still have no visibility into AI activity across a significant portion of its estate, and no means of generating the interaction logs or policy enforcement evidence the Act requires.
What good AI detection looks likeControlling AI data flows is usually managed by workers performing their duties without malicious intent. However, it’s remarkably similar to defending against an external threat actor covertly accessing your data.
The detection logic needs to match that reality. Endpoint-native detection intercepts sensitive data at the point of movement before it reaches an external AI system, enforcing policy at the prompt level across managed and unmanaged browsers, personal devices, and AI functionality embedded within SaaS tools. It operates where the activity occurs, rather than attempting to catch it downstream.
Given the scale of the potential fines, the ability to prove compliance matters almost as much as preventing security breaches.
Continuous discovery across the estate, including any unsanctioned tools gives organizations the AI system inventory the Act requires.
Granular interaction logs - who used what, when, and what data was involved - satisfy the documentation requirements under Articles 12 and 13, without teams needing to scramble to reconstruct activity after the fact. The same data pinpoints exactly where AI literacy gaps exist, making Article 4 compliance something demonstrable rather than simply asserted.
Practical steps for complianceSecurity and compliance teams aiming to comply with the EU AI Act have a clear path to follow.
The starting point is mapping the full AI estate. Discovery needs to extend beyond IT-approved tools to unmanaged endpoints, personal devices on corporate networks, and AI embedded within SaaS.
Data governance must move to the endpoint. Policies prohibiting sensitive data sharing with unapproved tools are not technical controls and, by the time enforcement happens at the network edge, the data has already left.
It’s important to remember that information shared with an external AI system may be retained in prompt logs, incorporated into model training data, or held on servers in jurisdictions the organization has no visibility into. The moment data crosses that boundary, the organization loses control of it entirely, and no policy document will retrieve it.
And since Article 12 requires interaction records that can be handed to regulators on demand, organizations will need to have continuous, automatic auditing of both activity and security measures.
Finally, AI literacy programs aimed at improving user awareness should be driven by behavioral data rather than generic training programs. Activity logs showing where governance failures are occurring - at senior leadership level as much as anywhere else - provide both the diagnosis of the issue and the evidence regulators will want to see.
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Casualty fans, buckle up: two special episodes for its landmark 40th anniversary are heading to BBC and BBC iPlayer from September 5th.
If dealing with lots of ill people on a daily basis is bad enough, this new double-bill steps the drama up to levels we haven't seen in decades. Think The Pitt, if HBO Max decided to set it in South West England.
What Stars WatchEveryone gets stuck on what to watch next — so let’s make that choice easier with the help of your favorite actors. What Stars Watch pairs the latest TV shows and movies with cinematic classics or underrated gems, based on A-List tastes. Read the full series here.
As you can tell from the below trailer our episodes are centered on a massive explosion strikes near the Clifton Suspension Bridge, plunging the city of Wyvern, and the hospital, into immediate chaos.
In the back of an ambulance, Stevie Nash (Elinor Lawless) and clinical lead Flynn Byron (Olly Rix) are caught in a race against time. Meanwhile, Dylan Keogh (William Beck) must lead the emergency department through its darkest hour... including facing his own personal tragedy.
Understandably, the 40th anniversary of Casualty is going to be a pretty intense watch. In fact, it could be so intense that you'll likely want to decompress by streaming something that's the polar opposite completely answer.
Luckily enough, I asked the Casualty cast for their ideas — and how they got through the on-set stress themselves — and the suggestions are genius.
'I've just finished Love Island'"I've just finished Love Island... though I'm not sure if I want everyone knowing," Melanie Hill tells me. I hope she forgives me for including this, but it's such an unexpectedly fantastic choice that it actually makes complete sense.
Reality TV is often dubbed 'trash viewing,' treated as second-rate viewing because it's considered to be low-brow. The truth is the opposite — not only are most of the smartest women I know absolutely obsessed with it, but many shows offer fascinating insight into human social behavior and psychology. It's us at our best and worst, under glossy lights.
Frankly, Love Island is exactly the sort of show I'd choose to watch after watching people on death's door, even if it's only fictional. But if this isn't your thing, the suggestions don't stop there.
"I watched Shabaz Asks: Are Billionaires Bad? not too long ago," Neet Mohan adds. "It was a one-episode documentary by ShabazSays on TikTok. Was really funny. I also watched Pitch Perfect with my daughter... so there's that."
William Beck jokes, "I think if you want the complete opposite, go for snooker. But that's not very exciting, is it? Maybe even [children's show] Hey Duggee."
The good news is that three out of four of these TV show suggestions are readily available on BBC iPlayer, with Love Island currently on ITVX (or on Hulu in the US).
No matter what your jam is, you've got something ready to stream for free on the same platform... but come on, it's gotta be Love Island, right?
For years, enterprise Software as a Service (Saas) has enjoyed a comfortable position at the center of organizational processes. Users who wanted to raise a ticket, process an invoice or manage a workflow would log into their employer’s cloud application. The user interface was the gateway to the work, and the provider’s business model followed naturally: charge for seats, expand adoption, and grow revenue as more users spend more time inside the platform.
Agentic AI is beginning to change that. As users increasingly deploy AI agents, either to carry out tasks within SaaS platforms or to deliver functionality outside them, organizations require fewer seats – hitting providers’ subscription revenues.
At the same time, AI is making bespoke software faster and cheaper to build, giving organizations a credible alternative to buying another SaaS platform. Why accept subscription costs and vendor lock-in, when cheaper alternatives may achieve the same outcome?
None of this means SaaS is about to disappear, but its position at the center of enterprise software is under threat. SaaS vendors are facing three structural challenges that will reshape the economics of enterprise software.
Agents become the userThe first threat is simple: users may have AI agents carry out tasks within the SaaS platform, reducing the need for human users, or build agentic capabilities outside those platforms altogether.
That is a serious problem for any SaaS vendor whose business depends on people living in the interface. If an agent can resolve a support query, update a record or complete a routine transaction, the user never has to touch the application.
We’re already seeing this in practice. In some IT service management projects, agents now resolve such a high proportion of tickets that organizations need far fewer users interacting with the SaaS platform. As buyers begin questioning whether they still need premium software for the shrinking proportion of manual work, the economics start to shift.
Bespoke is backThe second threat is the one SaaS vendors dislike most: buyers may once again be willing to build new capabilities from scratch.
For the last decade or so, ‘build versus buy’ was often a non-debate. Custom software was too slow, too expensive and too risky, so SaaS usually won.
AI is starting to shift those calculations. As software development becomes faster, cheaper and more adaptive, some solutions that previously defaulted to SaaS start to look buildable – especially when the organization needs a narrow set of capabilities wrapped around its own processes and data. The more customization a SaaS platform requires, the weaker its cost-efficiency and automated-upgrade advantages become.
This does not mean large enterprises will abandon mature SaaS platforms overnight. Their resilience, integrations and compliance capabilities remain valuable. But once customers believe they have a credible alternative, vendors lose pricing power and the assumption that renewal is the obvious decision
Business model redundancyThe third threat is that even when the product survives, the commercial model may not.
Traditional SaaS pricing was built for a world in which value correlated reasonably well with the number of people sitting in the application. That logic gets shaky when agents perform work that would once have required more licensed users, and more operational dependency on the interface.
Vendors can see this. Many are shifting towards consumption-based pricing, exposing services directly to agents or redesigning products for an agentic world. The common thread is clear: once software starts working for people rather than being operated by them, seat-based economics begin to look outdated.
From the customer’s perspective, that could be a good thing. Paying for usage is often cheaper than buying licenses. The challenge for vendors will be proving they’re genuinely adapting to an agentic future, rather than simply repackaging existing products to protect margins.
SaaS is not deadTo be clear, this is not a “SaaS is over” argument. Many enterprise platforms will remain valuable, providing governance, resilience, compliance, and years of accumulated functionality that are difficult and expensive to recreate.
What will change is where value sits. In an agentic world, SaaS will be less the primary interface through which work gets done; more a component in a broader ecosystem of agents, orchestration and systems of record. Some platforms will adapt and become stronger; others will discover that the value they once captured has shifted elsewhere.
As for the corporate users of SaaS, the best advice we can give is not to wait for perfect conditions before acting. No business ever reaches a point where its data, processes or architecture are “finished”, and SaaS providers will continue to adapt their offers.
Meanwhile, experiment, learn and adapt in your delivery of administrative and corporate functions: in some functions you may find that agents drive down SaaS costs; in others, greenfield development may now be viable. In still other cases, adding new functionality using agents that leverage SaaS solutions but sit outside those ecosystems keep future options open.
So do something that works for you now – but keep the option of moving again in a year or two.
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- Lake Ontario is now Lake America in the US via an executive order
- Google Maps has updated its maps to reflect the change
- Viewing the map from outside the US still shows the original name
Some 18 months on from the controversial renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, another edit has been made to Google Maps at the behest of US President Donald Trump: Lake Ontario, spread across the US-Canadian border, is now Lake America.
Or rather, it is if you're viewing Google Maps from inside the US (via Gizmodo) — the rest of the world will still see the Great Lake labeled as it has been since at least the 17th century. The name Ontario most likely comes from the Iroquoian word Kaniatarí:io or Oniatarí:io meaning "lake of shining waters" or "beautiful lake", as per Wikipedia.
The name change is the result of an executive order from the White House, as President Trump bickers with Canada over trade tariffs. In response, Canadian authorities have installed a large new sign at the lake (via the BBC), reading 'Lake Ontario. Now and Always'.
Reactions on Reddit are calling the switch "beyond ridiculous" and "braindead", though some commenters are pointing out that Google is obliged to follow the lead of the US Board on Geographic Names (part of the United States Geological Survey).
Google respondsNew York won’t be calling it that. https://t.co/FJQonEk8tIAugust 27, 2026
For its part, Google has also chimed in to say that it has to follow "official government sources" when it comes to place names, saying that "these updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now".
"People using Maps in the US will see 'Lake America', those in Canada will continue to see 'Lake Ontario', and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names," according to the official blog post from Google Maps on the matter.
However, not everyone is towing the line on this: New York State Governor Kathy Hochul took to social media to declare that "New York won't be calling it [Lake America]", so there are going to be some pockets of resistance regarding the change.
As yet the change hasn't rolled out on Apple Maps, but presumably it'll eventually have to comply with the official government, and start renaming Lake Ontario depending on where in the world you're viewing the map from.
For anyone working in IT and familiar with SaaS sprawl, the idea we’ll soon end up with agent sprawl may set off alarm bells. Agent sprawl refers to the rapid, uncoordinated deployment of AI agents across departments, each built on different models, governed by different rules, and often disconnected from core business workflows.
But while SaaS sprawl caught enterprises off guard, this time organizations have no excuse, and need to put measures in place now to avoid repeating the same mistakes. However, right now, most organizations are building agents in isolation and optimizing for local productivity rather than enterprise value.
Thankfully, with the right control layer funneling every agent through the same governance and security standards within an organization, the agent-powered future can be far safer, scalable and simple.
Agent sprawl is inevitableJust like SaaS before it, agent sprawl is already happening. Each department within organizations is experimenting with different agent technologies to address specific challenges or work more efficiently.
A sales team may deploy a CRM-based AI assistant to qualify leads, while developers build their own coding agents, and marketing adopts a separate content generation tool. Each delivers local value, but none are aligned or connected to the other, creating a familiar-looking sprawl.
This fragmentation introduces a range of challenges that will only increase over time. With no single owner responsible for how agents are deployed or monitored, there’s a lack of governance and oversight. Security risks increase as agents gain access to sensitive systems without consistent controls.
Teams may unknowingly duplicate efforts, solving the same problems in parallel with different tools. At the same time, many agents are deployed without clear links to business outcomes or understanding the wider context, making it difficult to measure return on investment and distinguish meaningful innovation from experimentation. Lots of AI tools may be exciting, but deliver far more style than substance.
Is sprawl inevitable? Yes, probably. So the question now becomes, how do we control it?
The role of orchestrationHaving an orchestration layer can bring order to this complexity by creating consistency in how agents are governed, secured and deployed across the business. For SaaS applications, orchestration provides visibility into what tools already exist and gives a clear view of enterprise workflows.
With agents, it outlines what agents are already available and how they operate, while also controlling how they access data, tools and existing technology. Orchestration is the critical element that turns agents from experiments into scalable business infrastructure, for example, assigning agents to business workflows and measuring their performance against real outcomes.
Too often, we see enterprises experimenting with different agents that have no connection to the core business processes and goals, meaning they fail to deliver any ROI. For example, some portions of a business simply do not require AI technology and will unlikely see benefits in the same way as another department. Orchestration can unearth and filter out agents that are unnecessary, saving businesses money.
Building trust in AI-driven enterpriseRather than trusting individual agents, organizations should focus on trusting the system that governs them.
This is where orchestration becomes a trust layer, ensuring every agent operates within clearly defined boundaries with consistent oversight and accountability. Instead of individual teams managing risk in siloes, organizations can centralize control while still enabling innovation across different departments and business functions.
In the same way orchestration brought order to SaaS sprawl, it can do the same for the next wave of enterprise AI. It brings the same ease, security and integration with existing SaaS tools, while ensuring only high-value agents make it into production, supporting innovation and keeping within the business goals and purpose.
As agents become embedded across every function, orchestration will shift from a technical layer to a core enterprise capability. The winners will be those who can control, connect and trust their agents at scale.
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