The USB ecosystem is in the midst of another transition that will affect how laptops, desktops, storage devices, displays, and peripherals connect in the second half of the decade.

USB4 Version 2.0, Thunderbolt 5, and a refreshed certification program converge around higher throughput, expanded power delivery, and an attempt to simplify a standard that has accumulated layers of optionality over nearly three decades, which we've explained in our USB decoded explainer.

So, what's next? In 2026, USB4 Version 2.0 and Thunderbolt 5 are now actively being implemented in the premium laptop and desktop segments, shifting from the long-running 20 Gbps and 40 Gbps era toward links that can deliver 80 Gbps bidirectional bandwidth and 120 Gbps asymmetric modes for display-heavy workloads.

From 12 Mbps to 80 Gbps

USB began in the mid-1990s to replace a sprawl of legacy connectors — serial, parallel, PS/2 — with a single, self-configuring interface. USB 1.0 launched in 1996 at just 12 Mbps, fast enough for keyboards, mice, and early webcams.

The 2000 release of USB 2.0 raised that to 480 Mbps, enabling external optical drives and the first wave of consumer flash storage. But it was USB 3.0 in 2008 that marked the transition to high-bandwidth, general-purpose peripheral buses, pushing 5 Gbps over a new SuperSpeed signaling layer. USB 3.1 and 3.2 followed, expanding bandwidth to 10 Gbps and then 20 Gbps with dual-lane signaling, but also introducing a tangle of naming conventions that made it difficult for users to identify what a port or cable could actually do.

Throughout this evolution, USB retained backward compatibility by design. A USB 2.0 flash drive could still work when plugged into a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port, and a modern USB-C charger could power an old USB 3.0 hard drive. This interoperability helped USB become the default connector for consumer computing. That said, it also left the standard fragmented beneath the surface. Features such as power delivery, alternate modes for video output, and PCIe tunneling were added incrementally, and not all devices implemented them uniformly.

The introduction of USB-C in 2014 began to consolidate physical connectors, and the debut of USB4 in 2019 marked the start of a new architecture focused on integrated high-speed transport. But many of USB4’s promises, such as 40 Gbps throughput and universal power, depended on how thoroughly a given device implemented the spec. That complexity is still being worked through, even as USB4 v2 and Thunderbolt 5 push bandwidth and capability well beyond what USB 3.x ever attempted.

The state of USB4

USB4 has been positioned as the unifying successor to the fragmented USB 3.x family, but the reality of this is more nuanced. USB4 is a modular architecture built atop the Thunderbolt 3 transport specification that Intel contributed to the USB Promoter Group. The standard defines a tunnel capable of carrying DisplayPort, PCI Express, and USB packets simultaneously, distributing bandwidth dynamically across workloads. All USB4 ports use USB-C as the physical connector and require USB Power Delivery for negotiation, but beyond that baseline, implementations vary widely.

Most more budget-conscious laptops and PCs ship with USB4 20 Gbps rather than the full 40 Gbps mode. Many omit PCIe tunneling, which restricts the use of external NVMe enclosures, capture cards that require direct PCIe links, and eGPU housings. Others support only single-lane DisplayPort tunneling, capping multi-monitor configurations even when total bandwidth appears sufficient.

Thunderbolt 4 remains the most complete expression of USB4 Version 1.0, because it mandates 40 Gbps operation, PCIe tunneling with at least 32 Gbps of sustained throughput, dual 4K displays, DMA protection, and 15W of minimum port power. Intel platforms consistently meet this bar. Meanwhile, AMD systems vary by OEM and chipset, with only a subset of designs offering full USB4 40 Gbps with PCIe tunneling.

This implementation variability reflects the flexibility of USB4’s architecture. The specification allows device makers to scale features based on cost and power constraints, especially in thin-and-light systems. For users, however, the USB4 label alone does not guarantee any particular performance characteristic without checking controller documentation or certification badges.

USB-C’s role has grown alongside this transition. The connector now consolidates power, data, and display signaling, and it is the required physical interface for USB4, Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, and Thunderbolt 5. With Power Delivery 3.1, USB-C can negotiate up to 240W via 48V Extended Power Range modes across fixed 28V, 36V, and 48V power profiles. A single cable can power a high-end notebook, drive a high-resolution display, and host multiple data devices simultaneously because power negotiation occurs on the separate Configuration Channel, rather than the high-speed lanes.

Enter USB4 Version 2.0 and the shift to 80 Gbps

USB4 Version 2.0 marks the largest technical jump in USB signaling since the transition from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0. Instead of adding more lanes, the new specification doubles throughput by replacing NRZ signaling with PAM3 modulation. PAM3 encodes three amplitude levels per symbol, enabling 40 Gbps per lane across the same physical wires that carried 20 Gbps in previous generations. With two bonded lanes in each direction, USB4 v2 reaches 80 Gbps symmetrical bandwidth. An asymmetric mode increases this to 120 Gbps in one direction for display-oriented workloads, while the reverse direction can be reduced.

The transport layer receives several upgrades. PCIe tunneling now supports PCIe Gen4, which doubles per-lane throughput for external SSDs and eGPU boxes, relative to Gen3 tunneling in USB4 v1. DisplayPort tunneling advances to DisplayPort 2.1 with UHBR20 signaling, enabling dual 8K or a single 12K display with full chroma and high refresh rates. Backward compatibility with USB4 v1, Thunderbolt 3, and Thunderbolt 4 devices is retained, although those devices fall back to older signaling modes when connected.

Many certified passive USB-C cables up to one meter will support 80 Gbps, but anything longer typically requires active retimers. These active cables include embedded signal processing and sometimes operate directionally, which introduces design considerations for things like hubs and monitors. The USB-IF’s new labeling scheme identifies cables explicitly as USB 40 Gbps, USB 80 Gbps, or USB 240W to mitigate the long-standing ambiguity that accompanied earlier USB 3.x naming.

Thunderbolt 5 rides alongside USB4 v2 as its highest-fidelity implementation, with Intel’s specification guaranteeing features that USB4 v2 only defines as optional. These include mandatory 80 Gbps symmetrical operation, 120 Gbps asymmetric display mode, PCIe Gen4 tunneling with at least 32 Gbps of sustained throughput, and support for 240W charging. Thunderbolt 5 also mandates lane symmetry and strict latency targets to support high-bandwidth, low-jitter peripherals such as external GPUs, docked workstations, and multi-display gaming setups. We can see that in higher-end systems in mid-2026, the full-fat Thunderbolt 5 spec is rolling out, with our recently reviewed Razer Blade 16 (2026) coming fully equipped with the port.

Because Thunderbolt 5 builds directly atop the USB4 v2 physical layer, its cables and controllers are interoperable across the USB4 family, but with stricter certification criteria. In practice, Thunderbolt 5 functions as the version of USB4 v2 that guarantees complete feature exposure, similar to how Thunderbolt 4 served as the reference point for the USB4 v1 era.

The next decade of universal connectivity

There has been some discussion among users and industry analysts about what the future of USB might look like. A likely future USB5 standard might see schemes beyond PAM3, if USB-C’s electrical characteristics prove capable of sustaining higher speeds. PAM4 could be a candidate here. Meanwhile, copper links are approaching practical limits at these data rates, prompting the active commercialization of optical USB-C cables that embed fiber transceivers inside standard connectors. While expensive today, optical links could carry future USB4 v3 or USB5 signaling across tens of meters, without electromagnetic interference or the attenuation challenges of copper.

Power delivery beyond 240W is another open question. The 48V EPR ceiling aligns well with current mobile workstations and most gaming laptops, but heavier categories such as portable displays, desk-dock hybrids, and workstation replacements may increase pressure for higher wattage tiers. Whether USB-C remains the long-term vehicle for that expansion or yields to a successor connector will depend on thermal constraints and cable reliability at elevated voltages.

The USB-IF’s renewed emphasis on clear labeling may ultimately define how smoothly the transition unfolds. The shift from version-based branding to explicit “USB 40 Gbps,” “USB 80 Gbps,” and “240W Certified Cable” identifiers is intended to eliminate the ambiguity that has characterized the standard for nearly a decade. Adoption will, of course, depend on consistent enforcement by manufacturers and retailers.

USB has moved far beyond its origins as a peripheral interconnect. The convergence of USB4 v2, Thunderbolt 5, and expanded Power Delivery turns the USB-C port into a high-bandwidth, multi-protocol backplane for modern systems.

A single connector can now supply workstation-class PCIe bandwidth, high-resolution video, and sustained charging for devices that previously required dedicated power bricks. The next steps in the roadmap take USB into signaling regimes that challenge copper’s limits while retaining full backward compatibility with the ecosystem that grew around USB 2.0 and USB 3.x.

As the 80Gbps era proliferates, users will encounter hardware that behaves less like a simple peripheral port and more like an external extension of a system’s internal fabric. As we move through the second half of the decade, OEMs are now starting to standardize full-feature implementations rather than the partial configurations that marked the early years of USB4.

If that consolidation takes place, the connector that started as a replacement for serial and parallel ports will continue its evolution into one of the most capable physical interfaces in computing.

‘The Jensen Jacket: Jensen Huang's Tom Ford Leather Jacket’ achieved a hammer price of $960,000 this weekend. High-end auctioneer Sotheby’s listed the leather garment, which was claimed to have been worn at least once by the Nvidia CEO, with a far lower price estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. Happily, the bountiful proceeds of the auction are going to charity.

Bidders could be quite confident that this Tom Ford jacket was genuinely worn by Jensen Huang at one or more landmark product launches, thanks to the work of the PSA [Professional Sports Authenticator]. Specifically, PSA photomatched this jacket and its unique leather wrinkles to the Hon Hai (Foxconn) Tech Day in Taipei on October 18, 2023, where Huang wore it on stage and met with other execs. Various close-up photos in the sales catalog showed telltale signs that this was/is the real deal. Separately, a signature on the garment was authenticated by James Spence Authentication.

The near $1M hammer price achieved is many multiples of the estimate. In our earlier reporting on the sale, we guessed this would happen for a number of reasons. Firstly, we thought Sotheby’s ‘low’ estimate was intentional to draw in the crowds and stoke excitement. Secondly, we mustn’t neglect the importance of the not-so-secret ingredient - Jensanity. And, right now, the AI boom with Nvidia at its center is still growing apace.

You can buy a brand new Tom Ford SS2023 menswear collection jacket, like the one shown, without any infusion of genuine Jensanity, for around $9,000. However, we can’t begrudge the success of this auction as the proceeds are earmarked for charity. The Sotheby’s page says that the auction was organized by Long Journey Ventures to benefit the Edge Institute, a non-profit that convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, culture, and society in pop-up villages (Edge Cities) to live together and experiment towards a brighter future. Fellowships, grants, and residencies for the next generation of young builders will be funded by this bumper lump of cash.

Over the past several years, I’ve reviewed a growing number of augmented reality (AR) glasses. For the most part, these shades share the same mission: to give consumers a way to enjoy video content and even work on productivity tasks with a Mac or Windows device via a 150-inch (ish) virtual screen.

Most of these glasses top out at a 120 Hz refresh rate and weren’t designed specifically for a gaming audience (though many can be used for gaming). That is changing with the Asus ROG Xreal R1, which is a collaborative effort from two big names in tech. Not only does the R1 boost the maximum refresh rate to 240 Hz to appease hardcore gamers, but it also serves as a breakout box for gaming on your PC, Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch.

The R1 promises and delivers a lot, but it comes at an even higher price than Asus’ AirVision M1, which debuted at $700 two years ago.

Design of the Asus ROG Xreal R1

Although it shares many of the same internals as the Xreal One Series AR glasses, the R1 has an unmistakable ROG flair. Whereas the “One” glasses have smooth surfaces and rounded edges, the R1 has a more angular design and chamfers along the temples. And in keeping with ROG design ethos, there is a line of 9 LEDs along both temples, along with Republic of Gamers etchings.

The glasses are constructed from high-quality plastic, which feels similar to that of the Xreal One and One Pro. But whereas the Xreal glasses have a soft, matte finish, the R1 has a shimmering grey finish. Unlike the One glasses, the R1 doesn’t have a detachable front frame, which probably isn’t too much of a hindrance, as the glasses already have a clean, modern aesthetic when viewed from the front.

The R1 features open-air speakers along the temples, with a USB-C port at the rear of the left temple. The top of the right temple features a programmable Quick button. On the underside of the right temples, you’ll find a menu button and a rocker switch that navigates through the menu system. When the menu is inactive, that same rocker switch adjusts the display brightness.

The R1 uses a flat-prism lens design, resulting in much less visual heft near your eyes than traditional bird bath lenses. This design also results in a 57-degree field of view, which is identical to the One Pro. Content is projected using dual 0.55-inch Sony Micro-OLED displays, featuring a 0.01 ms response time and a 240 Hz refresh rate (double that of competing AR glasses) with Frame Rate Boost enabled. The glasses can also project an image equivalent to up to 171 inches across at a distance of 4 meters.

Three levels of electrochromic dimming are offered on the R1. The darkest setting blocks most, but not all, environmental light to heighten the sense of immersion while gaming or viewing media content. Electrochromic dimming is a must at this price point, since less expensive glasses rely on cheap physical plastic light blockers to achieve the same effect. And the physical light blockers are an all-or-nothing affair, with no granularity in their light-blocking abilities.

One other item of note: The R1 features the same accessory port between the nose pads that accepts the Xreal 6 DoF camera module.

In addition to the R1, the retail box includes a hard carrying case, the USB-C-to-USB-C cable, a prescription lens frame, small and large nose pads, a polishing cloth, and the ROG Control Box.

Specifications for the Asus ROG Xreal R1

Asus Xreal ROG Control Dock and the Asus DisplayWidget Center

Our R1 review unit shipped with the ROG Control Dock. It’s a lightweight accessory designed to connect your R1 glasses to a PC or gaming console. The front of the unit has a single USB-C port for video out to your glasses. The back panel features two HDMI ports and a DisplayPort for video input. There are also two USB-C ports: one for power-in and one for power-in and data.

The dock ships with two USB-C-to-USB-A cables for connecting power and managing data throughput from your PC.

The top of the unit features a power button, an exit button, and a joystick to navigate the glasses' OSD. If you don’t want to install any additional software, you can control all R1 settings (including screen brightness, refresh rate, color modes, tint level, and more) using the joystick and the OSD.

However, I found that the easiest way to control (most of) the R1’s settings is to use the Asus DisplayWidget Center. After installing the app, the R1 appeared as a controllable “display” within it. From there, I could control R1 settings via three menu tabs: Gaming, Visual, and Spatial Screen. The only option under Gaming is to enable Frame Rate Boost, which allows you to set a maximum refresh rate of 240 Hz (up from the default 120 Hz). From the Visual tab, you can control the tint level for the electrochromic lenses, brightness, text sharpness, and color temperature. In the Spatial Screen tab, you can adjust the screen aspect ratio, screen size, screen distance, IPD (57 to 66 mm), and control spatial lock.

Using the Asus Xreal ROG R1

The R1 is designed with gaming in mind, so I dedicated most of my time to testing it in that environment. For my testing, I used two different gaming rigs: a desktop PC with a Core 7 Ultra 265k and an RTX 4060 Ti, and an MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ handheld gaming PC with an Arc G3 Extreme SoC.

Without question, working with the desktop system was the most involved, as it required using the ROG Control Dock with various wires going in and out for video and power. However, using the R1 with the Claw 8 EX AI+ proved to be the simplest, with me only needing to plug the glasses into a free Thunderbolt 4 port.

I’ll take the time here to talk about the much-ballyhooed 240 Hz refresh rate option. This mode is enabled by selecting Frame Rate Boost from the R1’s OSD. However, I found that switching to this mode resulted in worse image quality, with a blurrier image and some jitter (especially at the outer edges of the viewable area), which led to eye strain. The effect was noticeable when using the ROG Control Dock and when plugged directly into a Thunderbolt 4 port. This is the byproduct of Asus and Xreal using a software algorithm to “boost” the frame rate from its native 120 Hz.

I experienced none of the visual anomalies in the native 120 Hz mode, so the 240 Hz mode was more of a novelty to me than something I’d rely on extensively for gaming. However, your experience may vary in this respect. The R1 supports an IPD range of 57-66 mm, and I’m just outside that range at 71 mm. So it could have been that my eyes were more sensitive to the 240 Hz mode.

While gaming on the desktop, I was able to play Battlefield 6 at 1080p and achieve over 100 FPS with DLSS Balanced enabled at High quality settings. Likewise, I easily hit similar FPS with details maxed out playing Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.

The monitor I use for gaming is a 49-inch DQHD 240 Hz OLED, and I love the widescreen gaming aspect ratio. Being limited to 1080p resolution just didn’t seem to do the desktop gaming experience justice for me when using the R1. Yes, the image quality and response times are good, but if I’m sitting at my desk, I’d rather use my monitor.

That whole sentiment changes, however, when gaming on the Claw 8 EX AI+. Going from the 8-inch 1200p display to the simulated 171-inch 1080p display, with no limits on mobility, is an amazing experience. Since there’s only one cable to manage, going from the R1 to the handheld, you have great freedom in where you can game. From gaming on the couch, to the car, to your back porch, to sitting at the airport during a layover – the big-screen sensation that isthe R1 follows you anywhere.

Given the Xreal One Pro starting point, it’s no surprise that the R1 uses similar (or perhaps the same) Bose-tuned open-air speakers. As with the One Pro, the speakers are decent, with a respectable amount of bass and clarity at moderate to high volume levels. If you just want a low-impact, throw-on-and-go experience with the R1 and a gaming handheld, you’ll be more than pleased with the sound output. However, if you want the best mobile gaming experience, nothing is stopping you from also wearing a high-quality pair of wireless earbuds or headphones.

Bottom Line

The Asus ROG Xreal R1 glasses are a real testament to what’s possible when two companies at the top of their game work together on a singular product. Xreal is arguably the leader in modern AR glasses, while Asus is among the leading players in gaming peripherals, laptops, and handhelds. They’ve created an impressive product with a 240 Hz refresh mode, customizable RGB lighting effects, and support for the existing Xreal accessory ecosystem (namely the Xreal Eye camera).

The included ROG Control box lets you connect an HDMI or DisplayPort output from your graphics card to the glasses. It also provides quick access to the R1’s controls using the top-mounted joystick.

But the R1 really comes alive when used with a handheld gaming PC like Asus’ own ROG Ally, or a competing device like the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+. The R1 connects to these devices via a single cable and delivers a fully “mobile” gaming experience projected onto a virtual 171-inch display.

However, the primary sticking point with the R1, like many other high-end AR headsets, is the price tag. $849.99 is a tremendously high price, even with the ROG Control Box included. For example, the Xreal One Pro is $599, the Xreal One S is $449, while the RayNeo Air 4 Pro will set you back just $239. If you look past the 240 Hz mode (which can be hit-or-miss depending on the person), is the R1 really worth $250 more than the One Pro, or over $500 more than the Air 4 Pro? The objective answer is no on both counts.

OpenAI has just entered the hardware market with its very first product — a glorified macropad called the "Codex Micro." As the name suggests, it's meant to be used with the company's agentic coding platform, Codex, offering tactile response for an otherwise software-only experience. It's made by luxury keyboard company Work Louder, built on its existing Creator Micro 2 platform, and will cost a cool $230.

The Codex Micro, also dubbed kbd-1.0-codex-micro for some reason, comes in a frosted white color with a mix of translucent, legend-less keycaps and some opaque ones that serve as "command keys." There are thirteen mechanical keys, one rotary encoder, one joystick and a capacitive touch sensor running across the top of the device, The body is constructed out of CNC'd aluminum with some polycarbonate parts.

The see-through look of the Codex Micro is intentional because it relies on RGB (yes, you're reading this correctly) to convey responses. The six translucent keys up top have an integrated LED, and the entire perimeter of the device also lights up. According to Work Louder, the keys are supposed to provide a live view of your Codex threads, illuminating to signal different agents working.

The LEDs can show different colors based on where the agent is in a loop at any given time — whether it's thinking, stuck with an error, or perhaps requires feedback. White is used to denote idle behavior; green for an unread chat; blue for thinking; peach for a question; and red for an error. The sides of the Codex Micro also glow in the same color to make sure it catches your attention without you having to check manually.

Then there's the joystick in the top-right corner that you can click to launch common Codex workflows like reviewing a PR, debugging the aforementioned error, or refactoring code. The joystick opens up a radial menu that can be customized to do a bunch of other things, sort of like a Fortnite emote wheel (sorry).

Finally, there's a rotary encoder — a knob, if you will — that can be twisted to adjust the reasoning level in real-time or, you know, just adjust the volume or something. We've already mentioned the command keys, which are the white keycaps you see with Codex icons. You'll get a full set of those, including 32 unique keys, so you can swap each one out to suit your workflow.

As we mentioned earlier, the Codex Micro is based on the Creator Micro 2 platform, which Work Louder already built. In fact, this is just a reskin of that product as far as we can tell, and the price reflects that. You can buy a Creator Micro 2 for $174 and pay around $50 more for some icon keycaps, so the $230 pricing for the OpenAI-branded Codex Micro 2 lines up almost perfectly.

It's safe to say that unless you're a diehard vibecoder, the Codex Micro is probably overpriced for what's essentially just a really nice macropad. The deep integration with Codex is impressive and certainly useful for some people, but much of it is just a few minutes of (third-party) customization away on other keypads, too. Anyhow, the Codex Micro is available on Work Louder's website right now, and you can choose to buy it with either clicky or silent switches.

Valve's new Steam Controller lacks native XInput support, but you can still emulate it as long as Steam is running in the background. An enthusiast named Safijari has just engineered a more seamless solution, creating his own DIY "OpenPuck" that lets the Steam Controller emulate other gamepads on the fly. It can emulate Xbox, PlayStation, and even Nintendo layouts, and do so away from your PC.

OpenPuck serves as open-source firmware for a microcontroller, allowing you to easily flash and convert that dev board into a DIY Steam Controller puck. The firmware intercepts raw data from the Steam Controller and translates it on-device, enabling fully-fledged, real-time emulation without the need for Steam Input.

There are other options out there, but the creator used a Pro Micro NRF52480 from Amazon that has the appropriate Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz radios. Once primed in DFU mode, all you need to do is plug the board into your computer via USB-C, drag and drop the Arduino sketch onto it, and the microcontroller turns into an OpenPuck right away. You can 3D print a case to make the assembly look more polished, too.

The sketch is available on the project's GitHub page. Once you've flashed your controller, head to the configurator to manage the puck. It's a simple website that uses the WebUSB API to manage the controller, allowing you to switch between the different modes, which include Switch Pro, Xbox, DualSense (PS5), and DualShock 4 (PS4). The project description claims the puck only has a 1ms latency.

The Switch mode works natively on a Switch console with gyro and haptics support, but you can also emulate a Hori Pad that disables those extra features. The PlayStation modes only work on PC, but there's a special DualShock 3 mode that can work natively on a PlayStation 3 console as well, with gyro and haptics (Sixaxis). Of course, the default Steam Controller mode is also there.

You can switch between some of these different controller modes by pressing all four back buttons together and hitting either A, B, X, or Y, but the PlayStation modes require you to use the web configurator. Once everything is set up, however, the Steam Controller runs just like an official Switch, Xbox, or PlayStation controller without Steam even being open in the background.

There's even a bonus "ReversePuck" sub-project that allows a Steam Deck to act as an external controller, supporting all of the Steam Controller's features (except grip). If you flash a second NRF52840 Pro Micro and plug it into a Steam Deck, you can stream the Steam Deck's built-in controls across the room over 2.4GHz to your OpenPuck-equipped PC, giving you access to essentially another Steam Controller.

I've reviewed several Razer gaming chairs over the years and have come to appreciate their style, adjustability, and overall comfort. Now, Razer is introducing a new line of gaming chairs that leans heavily into styling.

Meet the new Soma Chroma, a mid-range gaming chair with a racing-style design and integrated RGB lighting customizable via Razer Chroma software. The chair can be powered via a USB-C cable or a portable power bank, and it connects to your PC via an integrated Bluetooth connection or a 2.4 GHz wireless USB dongle included in the box.

But is beauty more than skin deep? Let’s take a deep look at the Soma Chroma to see if there’s more to see other than its flashy design to make it a contender among the best gaming chairs.

Razer Soma Chroma Specifications

Assembling the Razer Soma Chroma

This is the fourth Razer gaming chair that I’ve reviewed, so I could pretty much put one together blindfolded. From the packaging to the tools/accessories included, not much has changed. Inside the box, you’ll find:

• Fabric gloves for assembly (glued to the inner flap)
• Backrest and seat base (left and right arms pre-attached)
• Metal, 5-arm base
• Casters 5x
• Gas lift, tilt mechanism
• Allen wrench, screws, and plastic covers for left/right side arms
• 2.4 GHz USB dongle (attached to assembly guide)

The chair arrived in a massive box, and the actual weight listed on the shipping label as 70 pounds. Upon opening the box, I was greeted by a familiar sight: a pair of black-and-green work gloves for assembling the chair. It’s a nice touch, but I always toss the gloves aside because I prefer to work with my bare hands for a relatively simple task like this.

A large green cardstock assembly guide sits atop the components, with a tiny box containing the 2.4 GHz wireless USB dongle attached to it.

The seat base, seatback, and 5-arm base were all wrapped in clear plastic bags to protect the metal and fabric on the components during shipping. The first step was to insert the castors into the 5-arm base, and then to insert the gas lift cylinder into the base.

The next step was to remove the four screws that are preinstalled from the factory from the bottom of the seat base with the included Allen wrench tool. Once removed, I attached the tilt mechanism, reinserted the same four screws, and placed it on the 5-arm base. The seatback has two screws on each side that must be removed before you attach it to the seat base.

Once the seatback was attached, I reinserted the four screws and slipped on the plastic cover to hide the screws and attachment mechanism. I'll note that on Razer Iskur chairs, the plastic cover is secured with a single screw on either side, and the screw is covered with a tiny plastic plug. The cover on the Soma Chroma simply slides and locks into place.

Once the chair is fully assembled, you’re not quite done yet. You still need to get power to the chair for the RGB lighting to work. The chair includes a relatively short USB-C cord that hangs out the back. Razer also supplied me with a 10-foot USB-C-to-USB-C extension cable, which I used to connect to my desktop PC. However, this setup is rather cumbersome and requires continually fighting the cable as you move around your workspace.

My solution was to plug the USB-C cable from the back of the chair into a portable power bank, and then tuck it into the zippered pouch at the bottom of the seatback. This worked well, and is clearly how the chair is intended to be used — however, it does not ship with a battery pack, nor does it ship with an extra-long cable (Razer sent that separately). So you'll need to invest in a battery pack or an extension cable to use the RGB on this chair.

Razer Soma Chroma Design

The Soma Chroma introduces an entirely new design language for Razer gaming chairs. Whereas the Iskur line has a more organic design, with softer curves and radiused edges, the Soma Chroma is more angular—especially on the seatback.

The seat back and the base have recessed channels, which I assume would help to improve airflow under your buttocks and around your back. It's an interesting design choice, though I imagine the recessed channels in the seat base will also quickly fill with dirt, dust, and food crumbs. The same design is mirrored on the back of the chair. While previous Iskur chairs have used the same material on both the front and back, the back of the Soma Chroma is constructed of hard plastic.

You'll find a zippered pouch at the back of the seat base, which runs the full width. It's large enough to accommodate a portable power bank, so you don't have to be tethered to a long extension cord to power the RGB lights.

Speaking of the RGB lights, they are controlled using Razer’s Synapse software. I installed the Synapse app on my desktop computer and then plugged in the 2.4 GHz wireless USB dongle (the chair also has integrated Bluetooth LE, if you prefer to go that route). The Soma Chroma then showed up in the app, allowing me to configure it.

There’s a brightness slider and an option to dim the lights after a period of inactivity on the right panel. In the right panel, there are options to change the default effects pattern. You can configure more advanced effects using the Chroma Studio. As you might expect, you can sync the RGBs with your games, although the effect is not evenly remotely noticeable unless you’re in a dark room.

During the daytime, you’re not going to notice the lights at all, and the only people who will notice are your coworkers on Google Meet/Zoom/Teams calls.

Although you can control the RGB effects in software, there are also physical controls at the top of the headrest.

Razer Soma Chroma Adjustments and Comfort

The Soma Chroma features dual-density cold-cured foam for the seat cushion. It did a good job of conforming to my buttocks, as it's specifically designed to relieve pressure points. There's good thigh support for my 5-foot-10-inch and 161-ish-pound frame.

What you gain in RGB goodness, you lose in adjustability. There's no adjustable lumbar support — what you see is what you get. Razer said that the lumbar curve is designed to encourage a neutral position and reduce fatigue after long-term use. That may be true in theory, but my lower back begged to differ after sitting in the chair for 6 hours straight in an upright and "ergonomically-correct" position. This was never an issue for me with the Iskur V2, with its 360-degree lumbar support — or even with the Iskur V2 X, which has no lumbar controls.

The backrest is adjustable from its default 90-degree upright position all the way back to 155 degrees. I spent the majority of my time either fully upright or slightly reclined at about 100 degrees. Anything more than 100 degrees just doesn't feel natural to me in any gaming chair.

The Soma Chroma features 2D armrests, which are adjustable for swivel and height. The armrests have an up/down travel of 4 inches and can swivel in or out by up to 25 degrees. They're densely padded and were a comfortable home for my elbows during extended sessions.

The chair has a height adjustment mechanism via a handle located on the right side of the seat base. I preferred to leave the seat at its maximum height of 20.1 inches.

Bottom Line

The Razer Soma Chroma is an interesting chair for gamers who are already fully entrenched in the Chroma ecosystem. The Soma Chroma has full access to Razer’s software suite, so you can sync all your devices to suit your gaming (or other media) needs. The chair also features built-in Bluetooth LE and includes a 2.4 GHz wireless USB dongle.

The RGB integration is also well-done, with support for portable power banks and a zippered pouch on the back to discreetly hide it. You can also use a USB-C extension cord to connect the Soma Chroma to your PC, but it is a nightmare for ergonomics. Of course, the chair ships with neither a portable battery pack or an extension cord, so you'll need to purchase these separately.

On the flip side, the Soma Chroma isn’t as adjustable as some of Razer’s other chairs, as it lacks 3D armrests and lumbar controls. I also found that I had some minor lower back pain when using the chair for hours in my preferred seating position. Of course, your mileage may vary, but I haven't experienced this with previous Razer chairs.

And the other matter to consider is the $499 price. If you don’t need RGB wizardry, the Razer Iskur V2 X is $200 cheaper and just as good on chair fundamentals.

Smart pet technology firm Fi has launched the Fi Ultra Dog Tracker today. This new wearable device is claimed to be “the world’s first consumer wearable powered by T-Satellite with Starlink.” There seem to be a few qualifications in that statement, but they should not be necessary, as, according to our searches, this is indeed the first dog tracking wearable with Starlink integration. To be clear, the dog wears the Fi Ultra, not the owner.

Getting a collar-worn device for your faithful friend, integrating T-Satellite with Starlink, could deliver an important additional layer of security for dog owners. Previous products available in the pet tracker market could be of limited value in areas with spotty or absent LTE or GPS coverage. Satellite-grade dog tracking may therefore be a boon to adventurous dogs and owners who live and explore beyond the reach of traditional networks.

"Fi Ultra has transformed what's possible for dog owners," said Jonathan Bensamoun, co-founder and CEO of Fi. "Our mission has always been to strengthen the human-animal connection via data, to give dogs more freedom while keeping them safe, and with the power of T-Satellite with Starlink behind Fi Ultra, that mission now extends to every corner of the country and soon, every corner of the world."

Fi Ultra also features automatic switching between LTE and satellite coverage for continuous location tracking in remote areas. This new tracker can work in concert with the previously launched Fi Series 3+ and Fi Mini dog tracker devices.

Now, to what some will feel is a drawback, Fi Ultra is bundled with a subscription service. This might be inevitable due to the use of partner satellite and cellular connectivity, though. The scale of the fees is said to be $199 plus a $189 per year membership for new customers. Established Fi tracker customers can buy in for a flat $299 fee. The bottom line is, with a tracker like this, your dog should never have to face the perilous journey dramatized in Lassie Come Home.

Nobody loves their printer. Decades of DRM chips, subscription ink, and firmware that bricks non-branded cartridges have made sure of that. But now, Paris-based Open Tools wants to hand the hardware back to the people who paid for it. The start-up has shared its first video of a working prototype and announced that its 'Open Printer' has been nominated for two French Design Awards, though the repairable, open-hardware inkjet still carries no announced price, ship date, or print speed, roughly nine months after it first appeared on Crowd Supply.

The machine runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero W, takes refillable HP cartridges with no DRM, and prints to cut sheets or paper rolls through an integrated cutter, with its design files available under a Creative Commons license that prohibits commercial reuse.

A Raspberry Pi Zero W runs the print server, while an STMicroelectronics STM32 microcontroller drives a separate cartridge board. Control comes from a 1.47-inch TFT LCD and a jog wheel, with USB-C, USB-A, Bluetooth 4.1, and a 24V DC input. The manufacturer's recent progress update reported that the prototype can now print in both black and full color.

In terms of printing, that runs through CUPS, the open-source Common Unix Printing System, meaning the hardware works with Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS without any vendor drivers. Open Tools quotes resolution at 600 dpi for black and 1200 dpi for color, with the machine accepting HP 63 cartridges in the U.S., HP 302 in Europe, and HP 803 in Asia. Each is refillable, and black and color run independently rather than blocking printing entirely when one of the tanks empties.

Open Tools licenses its electronics, firmware, mechanical files, and bill of materials under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, a noncommercial term that allows owners to repair, modify, and share the design, but bars anyone from building and selling the printer.

However, Open Printer only uses HP cartridge bodies with integrated printheads, so its refill freedom will only last for as long as HP keeps selling those cartridges in a form that accepts third-party ink. It's an odd choice for Open Tools, given that HP is the vendor that's by far the most associated with cartridge lockouts, having tied cheaper printers to its HP+ and Instant Ink programs before discontinuing those online-only models in 2024 after a backlash.

Wi-Fi and Ethernet are still being integrated, according to the update, alongside work on ink drying, printhead cleaning cycles, paper insertion, and dithering algorithms. The spec sheet lists Wi-Fi 5, which exceeds the 802.11n radio built into the Raspberry Pi Zero W, so networking will probably rely on an added module, but that remains to be seen.

Open Tools has published no funding goal to date, and says the final price depends on production volume, component costs, certification, and remaining engineering, with the figure to be revealed when the crowdfunding campaign opens in the coming months.

I don't think I need a keyboard with a built-in touchscreen, but I also didn't think I needed a keyboard with a built-in Stream Deck (and I was, apparently, wrong). Turtle Beach's take on the customizable-macro-pad-on-your-keyboard is its recently-launched Command Series, which includes a handful of ultra-customizable peripherals with fancy touchscreen inputs — two keyboards, a modular numberpad, and three mice.

The flagship product is the Turtle Beach Command Series KB7 TKL: a low-profile, wired keyboard with magnetic Hall Effect switches and a built-in "Command Center" touchscreen. It features a modified TKL layout (the touchscreen is where the navigation cluster would normally be), dedicated media and macro keys, a light-diffusing silicon wrist rest, and connection points on either side for the KP7 — a modular, standalone 10-key numberpad with a bunch of extra keys, buttons, and a programmable knob (it's actually so fancy we're going to give it its own review). The KB7 is basically the Corsair Galleon 100 SD, but modular and touch...ier. And it's about as pricey — it's available now, in black, for $199.99 (not including the KP7 — that's a separate $99.99 purchase).

Design and Construction of the KB7

The KB7 has a TKL layout — sort of. It has a full function row and arrow keys, but it has a 4.3-inch touchscreen where the navigation cluster would normally be. It's a slim, well-built keyboard with a brushed aluminum top plate and a plastic chassis. Size-wise, it's pretty standard for a TKL, measuring 15.71 inches (399mm) wide by 6.85 inches (174mm) deep, and it's 1.22 inches (31mm) thick at its thickest point (including keycaps/knobs). It's not particularly heavy — it weighs 1.89 pounds (858g) without the wrist rest, which weighs an additional 9.24 ounces (262g). That's nowhere near as hefty as my current favorite TKL — the 5.25-pound (2,380g) Wobkey Crush 80 Reboot Pro — and it's even a little lighter than Logitech's budget-friendly low-profile wireless G515 TKL, which weighs 1.94 pounds (880g). So, yeah, if you're looking for a keyboard with weight... this isn't it.

The KB7 has a nice spacious setup for a TKL — there's plenty of room above the function row for extra controls, including a dedicated volume knob, two media keys, and four triangular shortcut keys. The keys come with presets programmed in — from left to right, there's a game mode button, a profile switch button, a mic mute button, and a lighting toggle button — but all of these keys, including the clickable volume wheel and the two dedicated media keys, can be remapped in Turtle Beach's Swarm II software. The volume knob is notched and features metal textured edges for a premium feel, but the rest of these extra media/shortcut keys are mediocre at best. Pressing them gives cheap, plasticky feedback — but at least they're easy enough to press thanks to all the extra space around them.

The KB7's standout feature is its 4.3-inch full-color "Command Center" touchscreen, which is located on the left side of the board where you'd normally find the navigation cluster. The touchscreen comes with the navigation cluster programmed in, of course — a full 3 x 3 grid, as well as a link at the top that directs you to download the Swarm II software for full functionality. Once you download Swarm II, you can replace this link with three additional touch-buttons, for a full 12-button grid — similar to the physical LCD key setup of the Corsair Galleon 100 SD.

Of course, the KB7's touchscreen doesn't have the extra knobs that the Galleon 100 SD has, but it is a touchscreen, so you can swipe left and right to switch "pages" of button layouts (most of my dial usage on the Galleon 100 SD is, admittedly, moving between layouts). The touchscreen also features a few non-remappable "buttons," including a home button at the bottom, a profile switch button in the top left, and a settings menu at the top, which drops down to let you change settings such as keyboard and touchscreen brightness, set the actuation point, toggle ReacTap and Rapid Trigger, record macros, and remap keys. (There's also yet another button for lighting adjustment, as well as one for profile switching — functions that are extra-redundant, given that the shortcut keys are also pre-mapped with them.)

The KB7 comes with an accompanying silicon wrist rest that's virtually identical to that of the Roccat Vulcan II Max, which is still one of the prettiest keyboards we've tested to date. The wrist rest is made of soft, smooth translucent silicon with a grooved design that showcases the keyboard's bright, customizable RGB lighting when it's hooked into the bottom of the board. It isn't powered, like the wrist rest that comes with Razer's BlackWidow V4 Pro, it just diffuses the lighting from the board onto the silicon. It's a cool feature that still makes for one of the prettiest keyboard lightshows around. The wrist rest itself isn't particularly plush, but it gives you a nice, gradual slope to the keyboard (which is low-profile, anyway, so you probably don't strictly need it), and it's durable and easy to clean.

Along the top of the keyboard, in the upper left corner, you'll find a USB-C port and a USB-A passthrough port. The passthrough port is nice — and it's also practically necessary, because this keyboard needs a lot of juice. It can connect to your PC through one USB-C port, or it can connect to your PC through two USB-A ports — again, similar to the Roccat Vulcan II Max, which also required two USB-A ports' worth of power to run. I guess that's the price of pretty lighting (and 4.3-inch touchscreens). But at least you get one USB-A port back as a passthrough port, I guess.

The back of the keyboard has two sets of flip-out feet, which raise the typing angle from basically flat to 5 and 7 degrees, respectively. It also features rails on both sides for connecting the KP7 modular keypad — just slide the keypad onto the rails, and you basically have a full-size keyboard (now with a touchscreen in the middle). It's nice that the rails are on both sides, even though I suspect that left-handed numberpad users make up a minuscule percentage of the population.

In the box, the KB7 comes with a few accessories: the silicon wristrest, a 6-foot (1.8m) braided USB-C to USB-C cable, a USB-C to dual-USB-A adapter, a keycap puller, and four shiny, textured keycaps (designed for the W/A/S/D keys, but they can be used on any standard-sized key).

Specs

Typing and Gaming Experience on the KB7

The KB7 is a TKL (-ish) keyboard with Turtle Beach's in-house Titan low-profile linear magnetic Hall Effect switches. They have an adjustable actuation point (0.1 - 3.2mm) and a lifecycle rating of 100 million keystrokes. They're not hot-swappable. Like other magnetic Hall Effect switches, they support all the trendy gaming features that will probably get you banned, including Rapid Trigger, multi-input,controller mode, and ReacTap (SOCD).

I'll admit that I didn't love the way typing felt on the KB7 initially — the linear magnetic low-profile switches combined with the relatively flat, lightweight double-shot PBT keycaps makes for a much flightier typing experience than I'm used to. It took less than an hour for me to get used to it, however, and all in all it's a pretty solid typing experience considering I don't love linear, low-profile, or magnetic switches. The flat, shine-through keycaps make it easy to move your fingers across the board quickly, and the relatively spacious layout means you won't make too many mistakes once you've gotten used to the feel. The board sounds decent — it's not incredible, or anything, but it gives pretty solid thunky feedback for a mainstream gaming keyboard.

I did have some issues that definitely weren't related to my "just getting used to the feel of the board," however — issues that could probably be remedied with a firmware update and software that worked, but, well... I'm not going to hold my breath. I had several issues while I was typing this review, including ghost inputs, missed inputs, and repeat glitches. All of these issues were quickly resolved, but having to stop the review six times because the keyboard was acting up does not give me great confidence in the board's ability to perform under pressure. I didn't have any serious issues while I was gaming, but I also don't generally play a lot of fast-paced first-person shooters where latency and input accuracy is wildly important (I play a handful for testing, but that's it). The KB7 does boast a speedy 8,000 Hz polling rate, but that means nothing if you can't get the right keys to actuate.

The touchscreen performance was decent, though I don't know if I'd trust it in a high-pressure situation. While it registered my inputs quickly and accurately, it's still a touchscreen — hardly the kind of input you want to rely on when you're in the middle of a high-stakes battle for your (digital) life. So, while it's useful for general macro-pad type things, it's not something I'd recommend as part of your ultra-competitive gamer arsenal.

Features and Software of the KB7

The KB7 is customizable via Turtle Beach's Swarm II software, which you can download by pressing the link on the touchscreen. You can use Swarm II to program the keyboard (remapping keys, adjusting actuation, recording macros, etc), the touchscreen, and the keyboard's bright, per-key RGB backlighting.

The keyboard settings are pretty standard for a magnetic switch gaming keyboard — you can turn on and adjust Rapid Trigger, multi-input, and ReacTap, and you can fine-tune the actuation point of every single key individually (a thing that nobody does). You can also remap every single key, except the Windows key and the Fn key, to do what you want — on the primary layer you can only swap around the existing alphanumeric punctuation keys (e.g. if you want to set up an unusual keyboard layout), but on the secondary (Fn) and tertiary (Easy Shift) layers you can set keys to do everything from outputting macros to changing system settings and, of course... launching AI? (Apparently this is such a core functionality that it comes standard in the Swarm II software, now — and it's not just CoPilot. There are options for ChatGPT, Gemini, Deep Seek, and Grok, too.)

But the real customization is, or should be, in the touchscreen. It is, however, unfortunately — but not unexpectedly — limited. There are several native widgets you can swap in, but they're not particularly life-changing: PC performance monitoring (CPU / GPU / RAM), multimedia controls (which there already exist dedicated keys for), opening apps / websites / files / folders, controlling your Turtle Beach devices (by which I mean mouse DPI), executing macros, and a count down timer. There's also a tab for third-party apps, which currently consist of Discord (though you'll need to set it up via the Discord developer portal as an integration), Counter Strike, Steam (which just opens Steam), OBS, and Streamlabs. You can also assign the standard keyboard functions, Windows functions, and shortcuts such as copy / paste, forward / back, launch calculator, etc.

It's a start, but it's definitely nowhere near as robust as the functionality you'll find on Elgato's Stream Decks. Still, this limited functionality is probably workable for most people (after all, you can set up a lot of the functionality you get through third-party apps and plugins by just spending some time creating macros) — if it worked. But the software is, well, let's just say finicky... at best. Setting up the touchscreen seemed to be pretty straightforward, but getting it to stay set up was more of a chore. The software frequently failed in my testing — it would reset, restart, shut down, prompt another six-cycle firmware update (this, at least, I was prepared for — it's pretty standard for Turtle Beach devices to require 14 firmware updates out of the box), etc. When the software was working, the touchscreen worked as expected and could probably replace my Stream Deck. But this was only about 85% of the time, which would probably be decent if my Stream Deck didn't work 100% of the time. And so the touchscreen has ultimately been relegated to a fun gimmick, at least for now.

The Bottom Line

After my surprising love affair with the Corsair Galleon 100 SD, I really wanted to love the KB7 — after all, it's basically the Corsair Galleon 100 SD, but with the option of an actual 10-key numberpad, which was my only real gripe with the latter. But Corsair owns Elgato, which has been making Stream Decks for almost a decade — and has the software and the third-party plugins to back them up. And at the end of the day, a highly customizable macro pad is actually only as customizable as its software allows for. While Turtle Beach currently lacks the integrations to fully compete with Elgato, I do think it has a fighting chance... if it can get the Swarm II software to work, like, at all. I can certainly work without built-in Creative Suite integration, but only if there's something to work with.

I still love the idea of the KB7 and I'm fully ready to hop on the Command Center bandwagon, as soon as Swarm II lets me. But given that this is hardly the first time Swarm II has shot itself in the foot, I'll probably keep this Galleon 100 SD around for a little while longer.

I realize I'm probably in the minority, but I love full-size keyboards because I love 10-key numberpads. For data entry and for everything else (let's face it, I don't do much data entry). Since I often have to test keyboards that aren't full-size, I'm always on the look out for a great standalone numberpad — but the options usually consist of $15 (and under) bargain bin finds or difficult-to-justify $100+ premium picks.

Turtle Beach's Command Series KP7 isn't exactly in the middle — it retails for $99.99, after all — but it's an interesting option nonetheless. This 28-key modular gaming keypad is part of the brand's recently-launched Command Series, which consists of several modular, multi-input peripherals (two keyboards, three mice, and this keypad). It's designed to work with the series' flagship Turtle Beach Command Series KB7 keyboard, which is a premium TKL keyboard with a built-in touchscreen. The KP7 hooks onto either side of the KB7, turning it into a full-size keyboard with a numberpad and a bunch of extra macro keys. The KB7 retails for $199.99, so the full set is just shy of $300. But the KP7 is interesting because it works very well on its own — in fact, it might even perform better as a standalone keypad than it does with the KB7 it's designed to complement.

The KP7 is a modular gaming keypad with 28 keys, one clickable, programmable dial, and one (non-programmable) button for switching between numberpad mode and game mode. It can hook onto the right side of the KB7 to function as a typical numberpad, or it can hook onto the left side to function as a gaming keypad — complete with an extendable thumb bar. It features magnetic Hall Effect linear switch, bright per-key RGB backlighting, and its own mini wrist rest. It's available now, as a separate purchase from the KB7, for $99.99.

Design of the KP7

The KP7 is a standalone macropad that consists of a 10-key numberpad surrounded by a bunch of other keys. At the top, there are three additional Fn keys, as well as a profile switch key — it seems Turtle Beach is really trying to push multiple profiles, because if you use this with the KB7 keyboard, this marks the fourth dedicated way to switch profiles. On the right of the numberpad are two columns of keys: The first column consists of the math function keys that usually surround a numberpad, and the second column has four dedicated macro keys.

In the bottom right corner there's a programmable knob and an additional thumb button, which is set up by default as a space key. In the upper right corner there's a small button that switches between numberpad mode and game mode — game mode turns the center keys into W / A / S / D (and changes the surrounding keys to the corresponding keys on the left half of the keyboard. It essentially becomes a gaming half-keyboard, sort of like Nordic Game Supply's The Shrimp.

For the times you're using it in gaming mode, the KP7's lower right cluster of keys, including the dial, extend down and right so you can use them with your thumb while you've got your left hand on the center keys. The wrist rest is even cut out to accommodate the keys when extended, which is a nice touch.

The KP7 is well-built for a standalone numberpad — it follows the same design philosophy as Turtle Beach's KB7, with a brushed aluminum top plate and a plastic chassis. It has low-profile linear switches, flat, double-shot PBT keycaps with shine-through legends, and bright, customizable RGB backlighting that extends to its silicon wrist rest, which is like a mini version of the wrist rest that comes with the KB7 (and, previously, the Roccat Vulcan II Max). The wrist rest slots into the bottom of the numberpad and is made of misty, translucent silicon with a grooved pattern that acts as a conduit for the lighting in the keypad. The wrist rest only attaches on one side of the keypad, so the lighting effect isn't quite as bright or mesmerizing as is the lighting effect on the keyboard, but it's still pretty and comfortable.

The KP7 has connectors on both sides that are designed to slot into the rails on either side of the Turtle Beach KB7 keyboard. The keypad gets its power from the keyboard when it's connected, so you shouldn't have to plug it in separately via USB-C, which is for when you want to use the keypad alone. However, I found that the keypad's lighting seemed to be inconsistent when it was powered through the keyboard — it flickered and reset itself several times throughout my testing, but this did resolve itself when I plugged it in via its own USB port. Of course, plugging it in via USB port means the KB7 and KP7 keyboard combo takes up either one USB-C and one USB-A port or three USB-A ports, which is a lot for what is essentially a single full-size keyboard.

In the box, the KP7 comes with a 5.9-foot (1.8m) detachable braided USB-C to USB-A cable, a silicon wrist rest, and four glossy, textured keys keys (to replace the center W / A / S / D keys, for quicker tactile recognition), and a keycap puller. The back of the keypad has two sets of flip-out feet that raise the typing angle from flat to 5 - 7 degrees. These match the KB7, so you can raise and lower the entire setup as a single unit.

Specs

Performance of the KP7

It's hard to judge a keypad's performance on its own, but the KP7 has enough keys that it can function as a single-handed "controller." It features the same linear magnetic Hall Effect switches as we saw in the KB7, with the same functionality — individually adjustable actuation point (between 0.1 and 3.2mm), Rapid Trigger, multi-input, and ReacTap (SOCD). It also sports an 8,000 Hz polling rate, so I guess if you're playing a game that only requires the left half of your keyboard, this might be one way to get the ultra-low latency and speed of an 8,000 Hz magnetic switch keyboard without having to buy the whole keyboard (though it does cost exactly half of what the KB7 costs, and I don't think it's quite half the size).

The low-profile switches and flat keycaps make for pretty speedy input, and while the layout is slightly different from standard numberpad layouts, it's not too bad — in numberpad mode, the first column to the right of the numbers has five keys, but the bottom two keys are both Enter and the two keys above that are both + (normally, the Enter and + keys are vertical 2U keys). It's not quite the same, but it worked well enough for me for data input and other numberpad tasks.

The switches themselves are pre-lubed linear switches with a smooth, consistent keypress and no tactile or audible bump. Typing on the KP7 (well, for as much typing as you can do) is a surprisingly pleasant experience — it's not going to wow any hardcore keyboard enthusiasts, but the linear switches, slim, flat keycaps, and speedy, lightweight Hall Effect actuation is a great combo for extra gaming keys. And, as the KP7 is entirely tactile, it's much easier to integrate into your work (or game) flow. The extendable thumb bar (which just pulls away from the keyboard in a diagonal / downward direction) is also comfortable when you're using the KP7 as a gamepad. The keys on the thumb bar are well-placed, but I did find the knob difficult to turn without hitting other keys, as it's flush with the keys around it.

Software

The KP7 is programmable via Turtle Beach's Swarm II software, which originally belonged to Roccat. It's designed to work in tandem with the KB7 keyboard, but you can still program it fully without having to depend on the keyboard at all. You can use Swarm II to change the keypad's actuation, toggle on and adjust Rapid Trigger and ReacTap, and set up multi-input. You can also use it to remap keys up to four layers deep (Fn, Game Mode, and Easy Shift).

You can customize the KP7's bright, per-key RGB lighting in the software. This works pretty well when you're just customizing the KP7 alone, but I had issues getting the keypad to light up seamlessly alongside the KB7 (they were often out of sync, and/or the KP7 seemed to go into hibernation immediately and often when it was connected to the KB7 — even if it was being powered separately via its own USB-C port.

The Bottom Line

The KP7 is an interesting product — it's designed to work with the KB7, but I actually like it better as a standalone keypad. Partly because it works better as a standalone keypad — it was very finicky in my tests when it was connected to the KB7, regardless of whether it was powered separately or through the keyboard. This is probably because of the software, which, while fairly straightforward for the KP7, still wasn't great. For example, I was prompted to update the KP7's firmware everytime I connected it to the KB7 — but not when I used it as a standalone keypad.

The KP7 isn't the only standalone numberpad-slash-gaming-keypad out there, but it's the only one I've seen that manages to switch between the two modes pretty seamlessly. We tested Nordic Game Supply's The Shrimp mini-keyboard a few years ago, but that was definitely designed as a gaming keypad first and a numberpad... not at all. At $99.99, the KP7 isn't cheap, but it's versatile enough that you can definitely make it worth it.

One of Jensen Huang’s used leather jackets is up for auction, posted with an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. Sotheby’s, better known as a purveyor of blockbuster fine art and historic artifacts, is auctioning this item of worn clothing. The storied auction house asserts this is a genuine article, as worn by the Nvidia CEO at an event in Taipei in 2023. It has also made sure the signature within the garment has been professionally authenticated. Having watched a few tech memorabilia auctions lately, I’d say the official estimate is on the low side.

Sotheby’s auction is titled ‘The Jensen Jacket: Jensen Huang's Tom Ford Leather Jacket.’ Its catalog notes that this signature black leather jacket has been Huang’s standard attire for more than a decade and has become “associated with some of the most consequential moments in modern technology.” This jacket, or one like it, has been on stage helping to define the rise of artificial intelligence. It may also have been worn by the Nvidia CEO visiting a humble street food vendor in a Taiwan night market.

So, it is important to understand that this is one of many jackets Huang has sported during keynotes, announcements, and special events over the years. Like any good auction house, Sotheby's has thus certified the provenance of this particular garment.

“The Jacket has been photomatched by PSA [Professional Sports Authenticator] to Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., during the Hon Hai [Foxconn] Tech Day in Taipei on October 18, 2023,” writes Sotheby’s in its auction catalog. A very specific array of creases and deformities in the right-breast pocket flap appears to confirm that this jacket was worn by the Nvidia CEO at the Hon Hai [Foxconn] Tech Day in Taipei in October 2023. Sotheby’s also states that “The signature has been authenticated by James Spence Authentication.”

Any readers interested in grabbing this jacket will likely be interested in the condition of the garment. There are a few pictures on the catalog page, including a close-up, which was used to ‘photomatch’ this particular 2023 Tom Ford-made sample. As a Sotheby’s account holder, I also read the condition report, which begins with the assertion that “The Jacket and signature are in pristine condition.” But there follows a lot of legal jargon which can be summed up as – the actual condition and appearance of the jacket might not be perfect, nor look exactly like the photographic representations of it.

If you do splash your cash on this old jacket, you should be pleased to know that your hard-earned money will be going to charity. Sotheby’s says that the sale was organized by Long Journey Ventures to benefit the Edge Institute, described as “a non-profit that convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, culture, and society in pop-up villages (Edge Cities) to live together and experiment towards a brighter future.”

A low estimate to attract bidders?

Does the $40,000 to $60,000 estimate take into account the jacket's Jensanity factor, or AI inflation? Also, we are in an AI boom right now, with skyrocketing prices and valuations, yet people might have spent more than the top estimate for a mere NFT of this jacket a few years ago.

On a cautious note, though, we aren’t sure how many of these jackets the Nvidia CEO has in his wardrobe. And if there were another 10 or 20 that may someday be released for sale, then the expected price could slide dramatically.

A brand new Tom Ford SS2023 menswear collection jacket, without a sprinkle of genuine Jensanity, costs around $9,000. In that context, Sotheby’s estimate puts only a modest premium on this verified genuine Jensen Huang-worn and signed artifact.

Elon Musk’s Neuralink, along with several other startups, have been experimenting with brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) for years now, allowing patients who have lost mobility to control computers using their minds alone. However, most of these require invasive surgery to install the sensor needed to detect brain signals. Meta is working to change this with its Brain2Qwerty non-invasive BCI. Instead of relying on implants, this system uses a non-invasive magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner to read the faint changes in a brain’s magnetic fields due to brain activity and then correlate this to keypresses on a virtual keyboard.

The latest release is actually the second version of the non-invasive BCI, with the first one released last year as proof of concept. This second version has significantly increased accuracy after it was trained on ten times more data for each test subject. The company says that its average accuracy now hits 61%, with the best participant capable of hitting as much as 78% word accuracy. By comparison, the previous version only had an average of 40% accuracy, while the best user only achieved 48%.

While this sounds like a big improvement, Meta concedes that this is still not good enough for clinical testing. The 61% average accuracy still feels hit-and-miss and would be difficult to use in everyday conversation. Nevertheless, the company says that it plans to use more data for training the system, and that it’s continuously getting better results from it so far. Another issue it’s facing is the size of MEG sensors. Current MEG technology requires massive hardware — even larger than the user and the chair they’re sitting in. There are promising advancements in MEG sensors, though, which could result in smaller devices that are more manageable to use in clinical settings.

Meta’s non-invasive BCI alternative to Neuralink and other solutions that require brain surgery is still a long way off from allowing patients to control a webcam and play World of Warcraft. But it is still an important development in neuroprosthetics, and it could eventually result in medical devices that patients could use to restore or improve their quality of life. Meta isn’t the only one working on BCIs that don’t require major surgery — a team from Georgia Tech has also developed a tiny BCI that could be easily slid under the scalp, while Valve founder and superyacht enthusiast Gabe Newell also built a startup intent on creating a BCI that doesn’t require a battery.

An aerospace worker and programmer created a GitHub-hosted program that lets your Steam Controller automatically walk back towards its charging puck as soon as you place it down on your desk. The web app, called the Auto-Charge Vision Tracker, uses a camera and computer vision to determine where your controller is, then it uses its powerful built-in motors to make it creep towards its docking station to top itself up when you’re not using it. The great thing about this web app is that you don’t need to install anything on your PC to use it. Just go to the website, connect your Steam Controller, ensure your camera is directly overhead your desk, click the puck, the front, and the back of your controller, and you should be good to go.

This is an interesting use case for the Steam Controller’s haptic motors, which are primarily designed to give feedback to gamers. Although this app, which you can run in the background on your browser, is designed to make recharging your controller more comfortable, you do need a flat surface without any obstructions to ensure that the Steam Controller can reach the charging puck. Aside from that, the vibration and movement on the desk tends to cause abrasion on the controller’s surface, meaning you’ll soon find flat spots appearing on the surface that contact your desk. Ray Foss, the maker of the GitHub repo, said that adding rubber feet should help prevent this and might also give the controller better acceleration and handling.

Another programmer has created something similar before — a web app that uses the controller’s rumble motor to let it slip and slide on your desk. But what makes this project different is that instead of manually “driving” your Steam Controller, it uses computer vision to automatically guide the controller back towards the charging puck, making it look like a robot vacuum.

These apps have limited usability — after all, the Steam Controller would still be unable to hop from the coffee desk in your living room to the TV console where your charging puck and Steam Machine are likely sitting. Nevertheless, it shows Valve’s commitment to making it easy for gamers to use their devices the way they want to. The company even released the CAD files for the Steam Controller and Puck back in May 2026, just a few days after the controller became widely available. But if you want to give this curiosity a try, you can easily do so by going to the Auto-Charge Vision Tracker website. The program’s files are also readily available on GitHub if you want to play around with the program and make your own version.

Everyone wants the freedom of a great wireless gaming headset, but it's hard to find one that's budget-friendly without compromising on... well, a lot. HyperX's new Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is a budget-friendly (ish) wireless headset that doesn't compromise on much — it's got large, 50mm dynamic drivers with a frequency response range of 10 - 50,000 Hz, an ultra lightweight, comfortable frame with reinforced metal yokes for durability, and it gets up to 80 hours of battery life on a single charge, which is a number we usually only see in much pricier products. The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless comes in at just under $100, which isn't nothing, but is significantly cheaper than the $200 - $300 price range of headsets with similar specs.

Design and Comfort of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is an over-ear (circumaural) wireless gaming headset with a lightweight plastic frame and a non-detachable flip-to-mute boom mic. It's mostly made of plastic, with a matte black finish and some machined texturing around the outer edges of the large, oval earcups, but it does have stainless steel sliders in the headband for durability. The earcups are independently height-adjustable, and they also tilt and swivel 90 degrees for flat storage (though the headset doesn't come with a travel bag or case). The earpads and the underside of the headband are padded with soft, leatherette-covered memory foam, which does an excellent job of passive noise cancellation.

It looks like a gaming headset, mostly because it has a non-detachable boom mic. HyperX's HX logo is glossily debossed on both earcups, while the HyperX text logo adorns the top of the headband. It's not unattractive, but it does look a little cheap — I blame the matte black plastic; it's hard to have this particular finish without looking like you're cutting corners at least somewhat. It feels relatively sturdy for its weight, and the flexible frame makes me think it would hold up decently well if you take care of it. The leatherette-covered memory foam padding feels more premium than the rest of the headset, so that's a nice touch.

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is expectedly lightweight, weighing in at just 10.1 ounces (286.5g). It's almost two ounces lighter than the extremely comfortable HyperX Cloud III S Wireless (12.05oz / 341.5g), and it's half an ounce lighter than the Turtle Beach Atlas Air (10.61oz / 301g), which is one of the lightest wireless headsets we've tested. It's still heavier than wired lightweight headsets, however, such as the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1 (8.3oz / 235g).

Weight isn't the only factor when it comes to comfort, but it certainly helps — and the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is a very comfortable and adjustable headset. The headband measures around nine inches (228.6mm) with the earcups fully retracted, and each earcup can be extended around 1.5 inches (38mm) for a total headband length of just under 12 inches (304.8mm). While it wasn't so comfortable that I forgot I was wearing it, I had no problems wearing the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless for hours at a time.

It's a wireless headset, so it's got several on-ear controls. On the left earcup, from back to front, there's a power button and a USB-C charging port. On the right earcup, from back to front, there's a multi-function button, a volume wheel, and a mode switch for switching between 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth.

In the box, the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless comes with a short, 1.6-foot (0.5m) USB-C to USB-C charging cable, a 2.4GHz wireless USB-C dongle, and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

Audio Performance of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless has large 50mm dynamic drivers with a listed frequency response range of 10 - 50,000 Hz, which is pretty far outside the normal range of 20 - 20,000 Hz (though we often see headsets outside this range these days).

Music on the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless sounded good — a fairly neutral profile with no immediately noticeable distortion at either end of the spectrum. The bass in songs such as Kaskade's POW POW POW was powerful-feeling without being muddy, and I could hear the full reign of the kick drum at the beginning of Lorde's Royals. It wasn't the absolute clearest bass I've heard, but I was impressed with the balance between power and restraint. The mid- and high-range also sounded good, though perhaps a little too neutral for my taste. The high strings in Britney Spears' Toxic were well-curbed, but the dynamics in songs such as Farruko's Pepas and David Guetta's Titanium (ft. Sia) felt a little... lacking in excitement.

Games also sounded good on the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless. While it doesn't have a particularly wide soundstage, the headset did a good job of picking up detail in dense, layered audio environments such as the cities of Baldur's Gate 3 and Where Winds Meet, or the jungle of Uncharted 4. In noisy environments these details did tend to blend together in a way that was more cacophonous than artistically rendered (but I suppose that's pretty realistic to how audio works in the real world, too). Directional sound was accurate, if not as finely-tuned as it is in premium, performance-oriented headsets such as the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro.

The headset features dual-wireless connectivity, though not simultaneous — a switch on the right earcup lets you quickly switch between the headset's 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth 2 connections. Audio sounded a little compressed over the headset's Bluetooth connection, but it was fine for taking calls or scrolling through TikTok.

Specs

Microphone of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless has a non-detachable flip-to-mute boom microphone that sits on the end of a 3.5-inch (89mm) flexible gooseneck arm. The mic is a 6mm back electret condenser microphone with a unidirectional polar pattern, and it does a decent job of keeping background noise at bay, even without any software-based noise cancellation active.

As for quality, the mic isn't anything to write home about — it's a pretty typical headset mic that picks up vocals loud and clear, but won't make you sound like you're a professional podcaster (or anywhere near that level). My voice sounded decently full over both voice chat and in recordings, but it still had the thin, slightly fuzzy quality that easily gave away the fact that this was a headset mic and not a standalone USB gaming mic. But as long as you're not creating content, this mic is perfectly capable for communicating with coworkers, friends, and teammates.

Features and Software of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is supposed to be configurable via HyperX's Ngenuity software, but I downloaded both the new Ngenuity (Ngenuity 3?) and the legacy version of Ngenuity, and neither was able to recognize the headset when it was connected to my PC (wired or wireless).

Luckily, the Cloud Stinger 3 works pretty flawlessly out of the box, so you shouldn't need the software (HyperX's Ngenuity software generally tends to be lacking on features, anyway) to use the headset. The headset comes configured by default with voice prompts that tell you when you're switching between connections and when your mic is muted/unmuted (though this is fairly obvious given that it's a flip-to-mute mic), and tapping the power button once gives you the headset's current remaining battery life. There aren't any settings I desperately wanted to change, though I did want to see if tweaking the EQ could pull out footstep details, and HyperX does boast about its software-based spatial audio on the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless' product page.

Battery Life of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

HyperX rates the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless' battery life at "up to 80 hours" over 2.4GHz wireless, which is pretty impressive given how light the headset is. The BlackShark V3 Pro, which weighs 12.96 ounces (367g), gets up to 70 hours of battery life, while the 1.23-pound (560g) Audeze Maxwell 2 gets over 80 hours. Of course, HyperX's other headsets also have battery life that far outclasses their peers — the HyperX Cloud III S Wireless, which weighs 12.05 ounces (341.5g) and retails for $180 gets up to 120 hours over its 2.4GHz wireless connection.

Bottom Line

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is a lightweight, comfortable wireless gaming headset that offers impressive performance and battery life for its $99.99 retail price. It has large dynamic drivers with a wide frequency response range and a fairly neutral (if a little boring) sound profile and up to 80 hours of battery life. It's extremely lightweight and comfortable, though it does look and feel a little cheap overall, and its flip-to-mute boom mic is perfectly adequate for most typical gaming situations. At $100, it's not quite what I'd call budget-friendly (more like the low end of mid-range), but it's definitely worth the price. My only real complaint is that it's a little boring (in both sound profile and looks) — for something a little more fun, I'd still recommend the $120 Corsair Void Wireless v2.

Dr. James Ries, the founder of Twenty Mile Medical, proudly proclaims that he’s a Razer Naga V2 Pro user. The most surprising thing about this tidbit is that he uses it while seeing patients remotely. Before you get your pitchforks out, no, the doctor isn’t playing World of Warcraft while evaluating a patient — instead, he uses it to simplify his and the rest of his team’s workflow. Dr. Ries mentioned this interesting piece of trivia during TextExpander’s interview with the healthcare provider, where he showed how he used the service to standardize patient care, reduce the cognitive burden on medical professionals, and quickly write more accurate clinical notes.

Doctor fatigue is one of the biggest issues that telehealth faces today. “Discharge instructions going out at 8 am from a fresh provider look nothing like the ones going out at 4 pm from the same provider after eight hours of visits,” TextExpander said. Dr. Ries said that he addressed this by using master Snippets (a snippet is a short text command, like “;sig” that would run a programmable command, like inserting your signature).

Instead of typing out a fixed phrase, sentence, or paragraph, which is what TextExpander is usually used for, the shortcuts he created bring up the relevant clinical scenario and give options to select appropriate responses as needed. He’d have snippets for general patient communication, sinus infections, psych refills, and more, and then there are check boxes that he can click in each master snippet to ask questions, add instructions, write prescriptions, and more.

Each master Snippet has its specific command, and this is where Dr. Riesa’s Razer Naga V2 Pro comes in. Instead of having to memorize the commands needed to launch the workflow, he assigned them to the customizable buttons that sit on his right thumb. He also assigned other buttons to insert his most commonly used typed paragraphs, like his intro paragraph and signature. You might think that this is excessive — after all, you’re only saving a few seconds by typing four characters instead of pressing one button. But even if that is true, you’ll save a lot of time if you use the shortcut often enough.

More than saving time, it also reduces the cognitive load on doctors. Decision fatigue is a real phenomenon across industries and professions, where people make bad calls not because they’re poorly trained or careless, but simply because they’re tired. Combining the text shortcut with the macro keypad on the mouse helps reduce this, as you don’t even have to lift your hand off the mouse to launch the master Snippet.

Dr. Ries says that the functionality isn’t limited to gaming mice — you can also use a macro pad like the Stream Deck Neo to assign commands and shortcuts, too. Nevertheless, he still prefers the Razer Naga V2 Pro because he doesn’t have to lift his hand off the peripheral to insert what he needs.

Watch the video below to see how the doctor uses his gaming mouse for productivity.

A developer has created a Chromium browser-based tool that turns Valve's second-gen Steam Controller into a self-propelled RC car, steering it across a flat surface in real-time with no app or driver installed. The page connects to the controller over WebHID, a browser standard for talking directly to USB and Bluetooth devices, and moves it by pulsing the gamepad's rumble motors. The Steam Controller first went on sale for $99 in early May and promptly sold out.

The tool utilizes the controller’s rumble motors, which, at the right frequency, cause the entire chassis to vibrate and creep across the surface in a chosen direction. The browser handles “steering” by varying the pulses sent to each gamepad stick, so leaning the output toward one motor turns the controller as it crawls. It’s the same type of vibration-driven locomotion that powers cheap “bristlebot” toys.

As for connecting to the Steam Controller, WebHID grants low-level hardware access from the webpage once the user approves the controller via the browser’s device picker, so the entire setup runs inside a single tab with nothing to download. WebHID is only supported in Chromium browsers, such as Chrome and Edge, and not Safari or Firefox.

Naturally, the site comes with some small print that explains that the service is offered “as-is” with no warranty, and warns that driving the controller across the ground scrapes it and wears it down over time. It recommends flat, smooth surfaces that keep the gamepad moving and reduce abrasion.

The community has been hard at work tinkering with the second-gen controller since its May launch. Valve released the Steam Controller’s CAD files under a Creative Commons license shortly after launch, explicitly inviting users to design their own accessories. The gamepad pairs dual trackpads, gyro controls, and grip buttons, a mix of inputs Valve walked through in its developer interview with Tom's Hardware, and that range of hardware has drawn a wave of experiments since units reached buyers.

The repurposed rumble motors here have also been a sore spot for the controller. The firmware quirks caused the rumble to behave erratically or cut out entirely in some games, a problem Valve has been working to patch. Demand has stayed high enough that resellers listed units above $300 after the launch stock sold out, and Valve has since opened a reservation system to push back against scalping bots.

In a June 18 update, Valve said that “initial demand exceeded our expectations,” but that it has “no plans to stop making Steam Controller.” Those now joining the reservation queue will be given one of three timeframes — September 2026, December 2026, or 2027 — for when they can expect to receive an order email with an option to purchase.

We've extensively benchmarked the best Thunderbolt and USB-C docks in 2026 and have compiled a list of the best models on the market here. There used to be a time when laptops would come with a bevy of ports to satisfy most of your connectivity needs. While some larger, desktop-replacement laptops still have a relatively large number of ports, ultrabooks have mostly reduced the number of ports to the bare minimum to save space and reduce weight.

While these efforts result in laptops that are thin and light, if you want to connect a wide variety of devices, including external monitors, you’ll need a dongle or a dock. While dongles are fine for connecting a single peripheral, docks are handy for connecting a variety of devices while simultaneously charging your laptop.

The two most common connectivity options for modern docks are USB-C and Thunderbolt. Nearly every laptop on the market has at least one USB-C port available, which opens up a wealth of possibilities for connecting everything from an external monitor to an external hard drive to webcams to gaming mice. Thunderbolt ports are less common, particularly the latest Thunderbolt 5 standard, but these docks give you the option for even more ports and faster maximum transfer speeds while supporting higher-resolution monitors.

With this in mind, we’re going to take a look at some of the best Thunderbolt and USB-C docks available today.

Quick List

Best Thunderbolt and USB-C Docks for Laptops you can buy today

Best Value Thunderbolt 4 Dock

The Amazon Basics Thunderbolt 4 Pro Dock is a relatively compact dock measuring just 7.86 x 2.95 x 1.23 inches. It features a jet black finish with cooling fins along its flanks to help dissipate heat. As you can see from its name, this is a Thunderbolt 4 dock, so it doesn't offer the higher throughput speeds and loftier Power Delivery figures available to Thunderbolt 5 docks. However, you do get up to 40 Gbps bidirectional data transfer speeds and up to 96-watt charging for your laptop.

The dock supports up to two 4K monitors at 60 Hz, and even includes a 2.5 GbE Ethernet port and an SD slot for offloading images from your digital camera or drone.

With a street price of around $200, the Thunderbolt 4 Pro Dock is a good all-around solution if you need a dock that won't break the bank.

Best Value Thunderbolt 5 Dock

The WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M is a well-rounded Thunderbolt 5 dock supporting bidirectional data speeds of up to 80 Gbps (120 Gbps one way) via its three downstream ports. The dock measures 8.6 x 3.8 x 1.38 inches and includes four USB-A ports for legacy peripherals. Your media needs are also met with microSD and SD slots, while a 2.5 GbE port handles your wired networking. It can also support up to three 4K monitors at a 144 Hz refresh rate.

One of the standout features of the WL-UTD58-M is the M.2 slot on the bottom of the dock, which allows you to add a PCIe 4.0 SSD.

The WL-UTD58-M has an MSRP of $399, making it price-competitive in the Thunderbolt 5 Dock market.

Best Premium Thunderbolt 5 Dock for Windows Laptops

The CalDigit TS5 Plus puts most other Thunderbolt docks to shame with its sheer number of ports (20 in total). The TS5 Plus looks unassuming from the front, offering microSD and SD slots, a single USB-A port, two USB-C ports, and a 3.5mm combo jack. However, the floodgates open at the back, where you'll find a wealth of USB-C, Thunderbolt, and USB-A ports.

CalDigit even offers up a DisplayPort 2.1 port for your monitor, and a 10 GbE port for wired networking. About the only thing missing here is an internal M.2 SSD slot like some other Thunderbolt 5 docks. The TS5 Plus supports up to two 8K60 monitors or three 4K144 monitors.

The TS5 Plus is a premium dock, and it definitely comes with premium pricing with an MSRP of $499.

Best Premium Thunderbolt 5 Dock for Macs

If you have a high-end Mac or MacBook, look no further than the Ivanky FusionDock Ultra. This is the ultimate Thunderbolt 5 dock available, and it only supports Apple Silicon Macs.

It offers a staggering 26 ports, including seven USB-C and two USB-A on the front panel (along with a microSD and SD slot). The back panel is awash in ports, including four Thunderbolt 5 ports, DisplayPort 2.1, HDMI 2.1, S/PDIF, and even a 10 GbE port. You won’t be left wanting, as every possible data and video option is covered here.

The FusionDock Ultra has two Thunderbolt 5 chips onboard, so it requires two Thunderbolt ports on your Mac. While that might seem a bit odd, giving up those two ports opens you to the most feature-packed Thunderbolt 5 dock on the market, while also delivering 140 watts through Power Delivery. With the proper hardware, the FusionDock Ultra can support up to four 6K60 monitors simultaneously.

All of this port goodness comes at a cost; however, the FusionDock Ultra has a street price of a staggering $649.

Best USB-C Dock

The Baseus RD1 Pro is a 15-in-1 unit with dual HDMI ports that support up to 4K resolution at 60 Hz. It also supports Power Delivery to a laptop, along with Gigabit Ethernet, an SD card slot, and a gaggle of USB-A and USB-C ports.

Perhaps its most interesting addition is a Qi2.2 wireless charging dock (25 watts) mounted to the top of the unit. The dock can lie flat or pivot forward, giving you a better view of your smartphone when it's docked.

The RD1 Pro even has a display on the front that shows the status and power level of the USB ports, which is a nice touch. The dock has an MSRP of $199.99.

Specifications

Best Thunderbolt and USB-C Docks for Laptops Shopping Tips

Whether you’re looking for a small, low-watt charger for your phone, a versatile travel charger, or something powerful enough to keep your laptop and multiple other devices topped off, these deals on USB chargers can help you save money while improving your charging setup.

After testing more than 20 chargers, ranging from basic, low-wattage models to a 140W multi-device charger, we learned that choosing the right one isn’t as complicated as you may think. Modern charging standards have made today’s chargers more efficient, smarter, and safer than ever. But we still had some standouts that you can see in our Best Chargers 2026 article.

While there are cheaper options or perhaps some with better deals, we can stand behind these as we have tested or used most of them ourselves, or they are part of the same family with the same or similar attributes. Below is a list of some of the best charger deals available right now.

Best USB Charger Deals: Quick Links

• Amazon: Up to 35% off
• Newegg: Up to 50% off

Best deals on 15-47W Chargers

Best deals on 48-68W Chargers

Best deals on 69-140W Chargers

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Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

You can generally get by using whatever charger came in the box with your device (provided one was included, which is no longer a given), be it a low-powered smartphone or a high-powered item like a gaming laptop. But if you’re anything like me and inevitably lose the original charger, or you need more ports or power for all your devices on the go and at home, the choices suddenly become less straightforward. What wattage do I need? Is GaN actually worth paying for? (Spoiler: yes!) Can the cheap, no-name charger that's on sale safely handle multiple devices over extended charging times?

To find the best USB chargers for your phone, laptop, and other devices, we started by testing 20 different models (with plenty more to come), ranging from a 15W phone charger that came with a Samsung phone to 140W beasts, across a wide variety of brands including Anker, Baseus, Belkin, Ugreen, Cuktech, and more. Our extensive charger testing goes beyond marketing claims, focusing on real-world performance, including sustained output over time, thermal performance, efficiency, idle power draw, and even a raw dollar-per-watt metric for those who just want the best bang for their charger buck.

We found that most of today’s chargers are relatively efficient, safer, and smarter than ever. Even the cheap options handled basic charging without issue, particularly at lower wattages. But once you hit the 100W-plus range, heat and sustained output are much more important. Modern charging technologies like USB-PD, PPS, QC, and GaN have significantly improved charging speeds, efficiency, and size. However, chargers still can’t escape physics, and removing 140W of heat from something roughly the size of a deck of cards is still challenging.

Picking a charger that gets the job done isn’t rocket science. Almost any modern charger will suffice, especially for the low-wattage devices. But if you’re looking to power laptops, tablets, or multiple devices at once, spending a bit more can get you more ports, better sustained performance, cooler temperatures, faster charging, and added peace of mind. After dozens of hours of testing, these are the best phone chargers, laptop chargers, and general USB device chargers we recommend.

Quick List

Best Wall Chargers you can buy today

Best Low-Power Charger (up to 30W)

Anker’s Nano 3 30W charger offers users a simple, one-port charger with all of the modern charging and protection features. The little charger that could supports fast charging with USB PD 3.0 support, and PPS (Programmable Power Supply). It also utilizes Anker’s proprietary PowerIQ 3.0 technology, which combines universal device compatibility with rapid charging speeds by integrating USB-PD and Qualcomm QC (Quick Charge) protocols, and can identify your specific device to charge it as fast as possible. Anker’s MultiProtect safety system includes a full array of protections, including high-voltage protection, current regulation, temperature control, and more.

Our testing showed that the 30W Nano 3 delivered its nameplate wattage throughout the testing period. Temperatures during the test peaked at just under 65 degrees Celsius, which was on the warmer side compared to others, but nothing to be concerned about. Efficiency was also solid under load, and it didn’t draw any appreciable amount of power from the wall at idle. If you need a basic one-port charger for your smartphone, watch, or other small devices, it's well worth the $12.99 price.

Read more about our charger testing, including the Anker Series 5

Best 65W-Range / Midrange Charger

The Baseus Enercore 67W (CJ11) gets the nod for our best mid-range charger due to its charging flexibility with the integrated, retractable Type-C cable, consistent output over time, and well-managed thermals. The Enercore supports a wide variety of fast-charging protocols, so you can be assured your device will be recognized and will charge quickly. Safety isn’t an afterthought either, with the company's ‘AI-powered’ BCT technology (an onboard chip that monitors temperatures) to keep thermals in check, along with your more common features like OCP, OVP, and short-circuit/overcharge protections.

Testing the Baseus Enercore confirmed its low operating temperature. In fact, it delivered the lowest temperature we recorded (just under 55 degrees Celsius), running much cooler than most 65-67W models and even the 45W Anker Nano. It was also one of the most efficient we tested, but at these lower wattages, you’ll see that more is reflected in the low temperatures than on your electric bill. Priced at $29.99 (currently on sale; normally $39.99), it compares well with the competition and is the only one in our initial testing group with a retractable cable, making it more convenient for travel. So long as you’re not trying to charge multiple high-power devices, it’s ideal for multi-device charging.

Read more about our charger testing, including the Baseus Encercore

Best 100W-plus / High-output Charger

The curiously named Cuktech 10 Ultra lands on our best list because of its ability to charge multiple devices at once while maintaining the highest percentage of full output (after temperature-related throttling). Note that all of the high-output (100W-plus) chargers we tested throttled, which is par for the course for any passively cooled charging devices at this density. The 10 Ultra has a wide range of charging protocols and has plenty of safety features. The vibrant color display shows per-port output and warns of potential trouble due to temperature and other issues.

Testing the Cuktech 10 Ultra showed it to have average efficiency. It was actually the second-lowest peak temperature (less than 1 degree Celsius from the Baseus Encore 100W), topping out at 63.4 degrees and running cooler than chargers that output significantly less. The multiple ports (three Type-C, one Type-A) allow you to charge a slew of devices, including high-power items like a gaming laptop, and smaller devices concurrently. While it doesn’t have a retractable cord, it’s still good for travel as it can replace multiple chargers.

Read more about our charger testing, including the Cuktech 10 Ultra

Glossary of Terms

• GaN: GaN refers to Gallium Nitride, a crystal-like material that replaces traditional silicon in power adapters to control and convert electrical power. GaN chargers are more efficient at transferring power, can handle more power, run cooler, and are generally smaller. GaN chargers also handle rapid voltage and current changes more effectively, supporting fast-charging standards such as USB Power Delivery (PD) and PPS.
• (USB) PD: “PD” stands for Power Delivery. Essentially, it’s a fast-charging technology that communicates with your connected device to deliver the maximum safe and optimal amount of power. This allows a single device to charge lower-power items like phones and high-power electronics like laptops over a USB-C connection. It can safely deliver up to 240W under newer standards (USB-PD 3.1), allowing many smartphones to reach 50% charge in ~30 minutes.
• PPS: PPS stands for Programmable Power Supply. As the name implies, this is an advanced USB-C charging technology that dynamically adjusts its voltage and current in real time. It communicates with your device to optimize power flow, minimizing output heat, boosting charging speeds, and is said to prolong battery life.
• QC: Qualcomm Quick Charge is a fast-charging technology developed by, you guessed it, Qualcomm, and is designed to work with any device using a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The latest iteration, QC5+, supports charging speeds up to 140W and smartly regulates power delivery by using lower voltage and higher current for a cooler, more efficient charge.
• FCP/SCP: Fast Charge Protocol and SuperCharge Protocol are proprietary fast-charging standards developed by Huawei for their smartphones and tablets. FCP, the older standard, uses a high-voltage, low-current model (9V/2A ~18W) while SCP is a low-voltage, high-current model that starts around 4.5V/5A ~22W with newer generations scaling much higher, even to 100W. Unless you have a Huawei device, this doesn’t apply.
• UFCS: Universal Fast Charging Specification is a brand-agnostic fast-charging standard developed by major Chinese smartphone makers (think: Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, Xiaomi). Its goal is to break brand barriers so you can quickly use a single third-party charger to power devices from different manufacturers. Like USB PD PPS (which it operates alongside), UFCS uses continuous voltage and current regulation from 5V to 30V and up to 100W.

Best Charger Shopping Tips

When choosing a charger for your devices, consider the following:

Logitech has announced new gaming peripherals, including the $79.99 G305 X Superlight wireless gaming mouse and the $119.99 G316 X 98 wired mechanical gaming keyboard. The original G305 (G304 in certain regions) has been a popular choice among gamers and is widely considered one of the best and most reliable budget wireless gaming mice on the market. With the new G305 X Superlight, Logitech has managed to cut the overall weight down to just 59 grams. It is also claimed to be built with a minimum 51% recycled plastic with exposed screws, offering users the right to repair. Available in black and white color options, the new G305 X Superlight is available for purchase at $79.99. You can purchase the Logitech G316 X 98 in either black or white for $119.99. It will be offered with either tactile or linear key switches.

• Buy the Logitech G305 X Superlight on Amazon
• Buy the Logitech G316 X 98 on Amazon

The new products are an expansion of the company’s relatively affordable G3 series, which also includes the G325 wireless gaming headset, which was introduced earlier this year.

The mouse also comes with the company’s latest Hero sensor that is capable of 44,000 DPI. Pairing the G305 X Superlight with the Pro Lightspeed wireless USB receiver offers up to 8,000 Hz of polling rate, which ensures ultra-low latency with improved responsiveness and precision. In addition to the 2.4 GHz Lightpeed wireless connectivity, the G305 X Superlight also supports Bluetooth and wired connectivity.

As for battery life, Logitech claims that it can deliver over 130 hours on a single full charge and supports fast charging via USB Type-C, providing up to 3.5 hours of playtime from just a two-minute recharge.

Moving onto the G316 X 98 mechanical keyboard, Logitech says that it offers a combination of customizability, “thocky” sound, and competitive gaming speeds. This one also offers up to 8,000 Hz polling rate and a 0.125 ms response time, making it suitable for competitive gaming. The keyboard offers hot-swappable switches, which is rare for a Logitech keyboard, along with a multi-layer snap-fit gasket design, which is claimed to improve structural integrity without using screws while offering a thocky sound profile.

There’s plenty of RGB as well, with a fully customizable LED lightbar and per-key RGB lighting. It even comes with a dial to control volume, brightness, and music playback, alongside a tiny dot-matrix LED display.

I test a lot of keyboards, but that doesn't mean I'm always using a brand-new keyboard. I do make a point to type every keyboard review on the keyboard I'm testing, but I usually stop using the keyboard once I've finished the review. I'm a writer and a gamer, so I'm very particular when it comes to the keyboard I use every day — and it's usually difficult for me to find one keyboard that satisfies both my writing side and my gaming side. But there are a few keyboards I keep coming back to for one reason or another.

First things first: while I test a lot of keyboards, any full-size keyboard (one with a 10-key numberpad, that is), is probably going to get a second look from me. I'm the kind of person who really needs a 10-key numberpad, a full function row, and, ideally, a higher-than-average number of dedicated macro keys. While I don't personally need a volume knob — I usually map volume control to two of my mouse's 19 buttons — I won't say no to a rotary knob (or two). So this is, to some extent, informed by my preferences and isn't just a purely objective list of the best keyboards we've tested (this is a more objective list of the best keyboards we've tested), but don't worry — it's not all full-size keyboards.

My current daily driver technically isn't a full-size keyboard, but functionally it... sort of is. It's the Corsair Galleon 100 SD, which I've been using pretty consistently since I reviewed it back in February. It's technically a TKL layout — full function row, navigation cluster, and arrow keys, but no numberpad — but it has a built-in Stream Deck with two rotary knobs, 12 customizable LCD keys, and a full-color screen (non-touch). I thought I needed a numberpad, but what I really needed was... well, a bunch of extra keys next to the keyboard that basically make up a numberpad, I guess.

But the built-in Stream Deck isn't the main reason I've been using this keyboard so consistently — it's the keyboard itself. This is a great-feeling and -sounding keyboard — it comes with Corsair's MLX purple switches (linear), which are pre-lubed and have an actuation force of 45g. I don't usually like linear switches, but these are smooth, stable, and lightweight, and they have a nice thocky sound when they bottom out, which is unusual for linear switches. The keyboard's PCB is hot-swappable, but I haven't bothered switching these out because I genuinely enjoy typing on them. The keycaps are double-shot PBT, but I've noticed the alphanumeric keys are starting to get a very minor shine after three months of consistent use. And I like that they're lower profile (close to Cherry profile).

Of course, the built-in Stream Deck is definitely part of what keeps this keyboard on my desk. I still use the 12 LCD keys as a numberpad much of the time, because I use an external free cam software in several of the games I play, and its controls are set up by default to work with a numberpad. But for when I'm not using the free cam software, I've programmed in a couple pages' worth of other shortcuts (though one page is just various special characters/symbols I usually insert with Alt codes — so, technically still numberpad functionality). I'm still not fully convinced that a built-in Stream Deck trumps a numberpad, but I like the Galleon 100 SD's keyboard enough that I'm willing to work with it.

Full-size gaming keyboards are sort of hard to come by — prior to the Galleon 100 SD, I was (reluctantly) using the full-size Glorious GMMK 3 as my "numberpad keyboard," alongside the Wobkey Crush 80 Reboot Pro as my "typing keyboard." While the GMMK 3 is beautiful and super solidly built (my iteration was a custom-built wireless full-size version with a full aluminum case and magnetic tactile switches), its typing experience leaves something to be desired. Enough "something" that I switched it out for the Crush 80 Reboot Pro if I knew I was going to be just typing for a while. Occasionally, I also switched it out with the Razer DeathStalker V2 Pro, which is a full-size wireless low profile keyboard with optical switches (it comes with both linear and clicky switch options; I like the clicky switch version), just because it was easier to quickly switch between the DeathStalker V2 Pro and the Crush 80 Reboot Pro — the GMMK 3 is not only one of the heaviest keyboards I own, the way its base flares outward makes it very difficult to pick up.

As for why I swapped in the Crush 80 Reboot Pro, well, that's pretty simple: It's one of the best feeling and sounding keyboards I've used, and it's just so enjoyable to type on. It's a wireless TKL keyboard, which means it has a full function row, arrow keys, and navigation cluster but no 10-key numberpad (and no built-in Stream Deck or any extra macro keys to make up for that), but I tend to use it in wired mode because the wireless switch is located under the Caps Lock key. It comes with Kailh Cocoa switches, which are factory-lubed linear switches with an operating force of 45g and a bottom-out force of 55g, and these sound incredible — crisp, creamy, and very satisfying when they hit the board's gasket-mounted flex-cut FR4 switch plate. The board has excellent acoustics overall, thanks to additional Poron case foam and extra PCB film for consistency. However, the board isn't really set up for gaming, as it only gets a 500 Hz polling rate over its wired connections (and only 250 Hz over its wireless connection).

Another keyboard I still sometimes switch in as a daily driver between testing is the Asus ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless, which has been at the top of our list of best wireless gaming keyboards for a while now. I don't love 96-percent keyboards because I can't quite get used to the layout, but it is significantly more compact than full-size keyboards and sometimes I do actually need my desk space back. For comparison, the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless is 14.84 inches (377mm) wide, while the Galleon 100 SD is 17.64 inches (448mm) wide and the GMMK 3 is 18.2 inches (462mm) wide. The DeathStalker V2 Pro is 17.2 inches (437mm) wide, while the Crush 80 Reboot Pro is 14 inches (355mm) wide. That's right — the Strix Scope II 96 Wireless is less than an inch wider than the Crush 80 Reboot Pro, which is a true TKL keyboard.

If I ignore its 96-percent layout, the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless is almost perfect — it's compact and lightweight, but it still sounds fantastic thanks to its case, which is plastic (with an aluminum alloy top plate) but is stuffed with case-dampening foam. It comes with Asus' ROG NX Snow switches, which are linear, pre-lubed, and have an actuation force of 45g, but I've since switched these out for other switches (Kailh White Owl Box switches — clicky and tactile). While the NX Snows do have that "refined linear" feel that Asus keeps boasting about, I'm not a big on linear switches to begin with — Corsair's Galleon 100 SD and Wobkey's Crush 80 Reboot Pro are exceptions.

The Asus ROG Strix Morph 96 Wireless, which launched barely two months ago, is sort of the successor to the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless — sort of. It's also a wireless 96-percent hot-swappable gaming keyboard with a gasket mount design, and it also sounds and feels pretty good, but it doesn't offer much if you're already using the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless. It comes with Asus NX V2 switches (we tested the linear Snow V2 switches), but that's the only real "upgrade" — and since I've already swapped out the switches in the ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless, this didn't seem worth the switch.

It might seem like I'm just jumping on every full-size or nearly full-size gaming keyboard that comes across my desk, but that's definitely not true. I recently looked at Keychron's new Q6 Ultra 8K, which is a pretty impressive board on paper: full aluminum case, 8,000 Hz polling rate, and up to 660 hours of battery life over said 8,000 Hz polling rate. It comes with Keychron's Silk POM switches in three flavors (Red/linear, Brown/tactile, or Banana/tactile), and we tested the Brown tactile switches, which are pre-lubed, with an operating force of 55g and a soft tactile bump. I fully expected to love this keyboard, but I just could not get into the typing experience. I think it was a mix of the switches — I'm very particular about tactile switches, it turns out, and Keychron's Silk POM Brown switches were slightly too heavy with not enough feedback for me — and the keycaps. The keycaps, which are double-shot PBT in a KSA profile, are just so, so high for how deeply curved their tops are. They were uncomfortable from the start, and they didn't get more comfortable with use — and combined with the heavier actuation and unsatisfying tactility of the switches, it was just an awful overall typing experience for me.

While it's true that both the keycaps and the switches in this keyboard can be swapped out pretty easily, the other features didn't really stand out enough for me to make that effort. The keyboard's 660-hour battery life over an 8,000 Hz polling rate is very impressive, but I don't really need a wireless full-size keyboard like this — it measures 17.56 inches (446mm) wide and weighs nearly 5 pounds (4.93lbs / 2,238g); it's not going further from my desk than any cable can stretch.

The entire point of highly customizable creator-oriented macropad-like streaming decks is that they're, well... highly customizable. While most of them still center around a series of translucent plastic LCD keys, we've seen both Elgato and Loupedeck add a variety of other input options — dials, knobs, touch buttons, touchscreens, and more — but what if you could make your own custom streaming controller?

That's the premise of Cooler Master's MasterHUB, a fully-customizable modular macropad/controller for any and all creators — or at least, that's what it was supposed to be.

The MasterHUB was actually announced almost two years ago: Cooler Master initially put it on Kickstarter, where it was fully-funded within an hour, raising a total of $267,491 by the end of its run. It had a somewhat rocky start and began shipping to backers a year ago, and has since lagged on the promised software updates and functionality. You can now find the MasterHUB Creator Kit on Amazon for $170, which is the same price as the Elgato Stream Deck+, so let's take a look at what you're getting.

Design of the MasterHUB

The MasterHUB comes in a few different packages — there's the MasterHUB Creator Kit, which includes the base module, a 15-key IPS module, a 5-fader module, and a 2-roller module. There are also two other modules, which are currently sold separately: a module with three knobs, and a module with an encoder dial, which is a clickable dial with a customizable screen.

The MasterHUB is bigger than most Stream Decks — it measures 7.4 x 4.9 inches (190 x 126.5mm), which makes it slightly larger than the 32-key Stream Deck XL (7.2 x 4.4 inches / 182 x 112mm). The base station is 0.6 inches (16.2mm) thick, but with the modules attached it's about 1 inch (25.4mm) thick, not including the additional height of buttons or knobs. So it's not the most space-friendly customizable macropad, since the base station is always a requirement no matter how you set it up.

The MasterHUB also comes with a small rubber stand that attaches magnetically to the back and angle the entire hub up slightly (there are two attachment points, so you can orient the MasterHUB horizontally or vertically. The base also has ports — a mini DisplayPort and a USB-C port — on two sides, again, for horizontal or vertical usage. The base has "MASTER HUB" debossed on its longer (horizontal) sides, and has customizable lighting around the entire bottom edge.

Setting up the MasterHUB is surprisingly easy — all you have to do is pop the modules onto the base and plug it in. The modules can be arranged in a number of ways — there are some limitations, but not many. Each module has a single, square pogo pin connector that needs to fit into one of the base module's slots, and the base has several guides to make sure you get everything placed correctly. Modules can be hot-swapped.

In the box, the MasterHUB Creator Kit comes with the base station and three modules (15-key IPS, 5-fader, and 2-roller), as well as a 6-foot (1.8m) detachable USB-C to USB-C cable. It also comes with a small rubber stand that attaches to the back of the base station so it sits at a slight angle. It does not come with a stand, however.

Specs

Buttons, Dials, Etc.

The MasterHUB comes with three modules in the main Creator Kit, and offers two additional module types sold separately. You can have more than one of the same type of module on your MasterHUB.

The "main" module is the 15-key IPS module, which looks similar to the LCD keys of the Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 or the Loupedeck-powered Razer Stream Controller X: 15 square 0.6-inch (15mm) clear plastic buttons over a larger, full-color (in this case, IPS) display. Each key is fully customizable for function and image/icon, and changes as the setup changes; e.g. if you have different profiles or pages of key functions on your MasterHUB. I do like the way these keys feel — they're snappy, not mushy like Elgato's, and they have more give than Loupedeck's. They're not perfect, but they feel nice and responsive to press.

The module features Cooler Master's text logo along the bottom, which I don't love, because it means you can't really use the module in a vertical position (well, it's not really set up to be used vertically at all, I suppose, and you'd have to manually rotate images for it to look right — but, technically, it could be done).

The 5-slider module also comes in the Creator's Kit, and features five smooth plastic sliders. I love the idea of this module, but at the moment there's not much you can do with it — as only certain controls can be mapped to the sliders, and there aren't many of them. In fact, there are only four of them as of this writing: MasterHUB brightness, system volume control, OBS Studio audio mixer, and Streamlabs audio mixer. Assuming you use all of these programs, you still can't use all five of the sliders. I assume Cooler Master has plans to add in support for other functionality, but I don't know when (if ever) that will happen.

The final piece of the puzzle in the Creator's Kit is the dual-roller module, which features two notched plastic rollers. These have a lot more potential functionality than do the sliders, and can be mapped to do things like control your media, switch between desktops, zoom and scale, and perform specific key actions. The rollers are not clickable.

The other two modules are a three-dial module, which has three clickable metal dials with light rings around each, and an encoder dial module, which has a large plastic dial with a customizable screen in the center. The three-dial module is probably my favorite — it's well-made, with premium, sturdy-feeling machined metal knobs, and it just seems to make more sense than the rollers or the sliders, especially with the current limitations of the software. The encoder dial is nice because it provides an extra screen, but what the screen can display is limited to a clock/date display, CPU/GPU usage, CPU/GPU temp, or an image of your choosing. (Of course, I'm not sure what else I'd like it to be able to display, but I feel limited regardless.)

I love the modularity of the MasterHUB, and I can certainly see situations in which different modules would be useful for different workflows. But with customizable macro pads like these, it all sort of ultimately comes down to the software — and Cooler Master's software leaves quite a bit to be desired.

Software

The MasterHUB uses Cooler Master's MasterHUB software, which is definitely not perfect — though it has been updated twice in the past couple of months, so it's possible (fingers crossed) that it will get better. The software's layout is pretty straight-forward, especially if you've used software for similar devices before — you can click on any part of the MasterHUB to reassign functions to that button, dial, or knob; the functions you can assign will depend on the type of input (e.g. the sliders can only accept a handful of functions).

There are several built-in functions from Cooler Master that can be assigned to most inputs, including functions to control the MasterHUB itself (switch profile, change lighting, navigate through pages, etc), as well as for controlling your system (opening apps, web pages, and files; controlling volume/media; switching desktops; etc). You can also assign hotkeys and macros to specific buttons/inputs, and set up inputs to perform multiple actions from the function menu at once — "multitasking," which is probably the most powerful and unique feature of these types of devices.

MasterHUB also comes with some app integrations: OBS Studio, Twitch, Streamlabs, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premier Pro, as well as MasterCTRL, which is for controlling the lighting on other Cooler Master components and peripherals. These integrations are useful, but they're nowhere near as extensive as, say, the plugins in the Elgato Marketplace for Stream Decks. Of course, many actions for various programs can be manually programmed using hotkeys and macros (most of the preset actions are, after all, just hotkeys and macros), but it's nice to not have to do the work.

The main limitation I found with the MasterHUB software in my testing was the way hotkeys are programmed, however — they need to be entered using a keyboard, and there's no drop-down menu to pull key actions from. This is an issue, of course, if you don't have a keyboard with, say, a numberpad, and you want to enter in numberpad keys. Or if you want to use function keys beyond F12. I was able to assign F18 to a key by recording a macro and using the shortcut from a different stream deck (actually, the stream deck on the Corsair Galleon 100 SD), but that seems like it sort of defeats the point.

You can also use the MasterHUB software to customize the device's lighting, though I was disappointed to find that I could only customize lighting by individual modules — not individual inputs. Meaning I could change the color of all three dials or all five sliders, but not the colors of individual dials or sliders (which would be much more useful for distinguishing functionality). This seems like something Cooler Master could add in the future, however.

The Bottom Line

The MasterHUB has a lot of potential, but it's still just... potential. The modular system works surprisingly well — it's easy to put together, the modules are well-built and hot-swappable, and you can set it up in several different layouts depending on what works for you. I'm actually very impressed with how well they managed to pull off the modularity aspect of the MasterHUB, as that part seemed like the trickiest to get right.

But like all macropads, stream decks, programmable... knobs, etc, the hardware is only one (relatively small) part of the equation. The MasterHUB software is definitely still a work in progress, and while it's been updated a couple of times in recent months — leading me to believe (or, well, at least hope) that Cooler Master hasn't abandoned the project — it still has quite a ways to go before it gets anywhere near as functionally as Elgato or Loupedeck.

You can pick up the entire set — the Creator's Kit and the knob and encoder modules — at B&H for $270 right now, or you can get the Elgato Stream Deck+, which has eight buttons, four knobs, and a touchscreen display for $180. The most unique inputs on the MasterHUB are the sliders, and you can't even use all five of them with Cooler Master's current software.

You don't need a 4K webcam. Well, almost nobody needs a 4K webcam, but you probably don't even want one — or couldn't use one, even if you wanted to. If you're not a professional streamer or some other type of camera-based content creator, a 4K webcam is not going to do you much good: even in 2026, most video conferencing apps, such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom cap your outgoing stream at 1080p or lower. There's no reason to spend hundreds on one of the best webcams around if nobody is even going to see you in all your ultra-high-res glory.

Maybe you don't need a 4K webcam, but is a 2K webcam a good compromise? There aren't too many 2K webcams, but a little extra resolution might be just what you need to get a slightly clearer picture without going overboard.

Razer's Kiyo V2 X is a 2K webcam that records video at 1440p / 60 fps (also at 1080p / 60/30/24 fps and at 720p / 60/30 fps). It also features speedy (and somewhat trigger-happy) auto-focus, an 80-degree field of view, built-in microphones, and an integrated physical privacy shutter, and is available now in black, white, and "quartz" (Razer's signature pastel pink color) for $99.99.

Design of the Kiyo V2 X

The Kiyo V2 X is the budget-friendly product in Razer's Kiyo lineup, and you can tell immediately by the lack of removable USB cable. The Kiyo V2 X looks very similar to its pricier sibling, the Kiyo V2 — it has the same general design: a slim circle lens attached to a long, rectangular body, atop a fixed L-shaped monitor mount. In fact, it looks almost identical to the Kiyo V2 at first glance, but the differences become clear once you take a closer look.

The Kiyo V2 X is slightly smaller than the Kiyo V2, measuring approximately 4.3 inches (109mm) wide by 2.64 inches (67mm) deep, and is 2.7 inches (67.8mm) high. The Kiyo V2, by comparison, measures 4.7 x 2.57 x 2.9 inches (116 x 65.3 x 74mm) — so it's not gigantic compared to the Kiyo V2 X, but it's enough to be noticeable. The difference in weight is what's really significant, however, while the Kiyo V2 X weighs a mere 5.64 ounces (160g) with its cable and mount included (as they are, after all, non-detachable), the Kiyo V2 is a hefty 8.99 ounces (255g) without its cable.

There are other signs the Kiyo V2 X is built cheaper — not only does it have a non-detachable USB-A cable, which is arguably the hallmark of any budget webcam, it also has a smaller glass lens area and a cheaper, lighter-weight textured ring around the lens for opening and closing the privacy shutter.

Speaking of which, the Kiyo V2 X does have the same built-in physical privacy shutter as the Kiyo V2 and the Kiyo Pro Ultra, which is a fantastic feature to see in a "budget" model. The privacy shutter is very elegantly implemented — a quick, easy twist of the ring around the camera lens, and the shutter closes (it twists over the camera, under the glass lens, like a camera aperture). I especially like that it's easy to open and close without disturbing the webcam's position too much — you don't have to worry about turning your webcam around or knocking it off your monitor.

The Kiyo V2 X comes with its accessories permanently attached: a 5-foot (1.5m) rubber USB-A cable with a built-in cable tie, and an L-shaped monitor mount. The cable is fine, if a little stiff — but that's pretty typical of built-in webcam cables. It's a USB-A cable and it supports USB 2.0, which is a relief, as we've seen a couple of webcams recently that require USB 3.0 to even function (including the Kiyo V2, which needs a USB-C port).

The built-in monitor mount is a standard Razer-style L-shaped mount. It has a small lip at the front to secure the mount to your monitor, along with a rubber-coated "foot" that presses against the back of your monitor to keep the webcam in place. The mount allows you to swivel the camera (360 degrees) and tilt (slightly past 90 degrees), and has a 1/4-inch threaded tripod attachment point on the bottom, in case you want to put the Kiyo V2 X on a tripod.

Well-lit Performance

I take all my webcam test photos in my home office, which is a very well-controlled setting that gets zero natural light. For my well-lit test scenario, I have a ring light, a key light, and four desktop monitors (three 27-inch and one 34-inch) in front of me, an arching floor lamp above me, and two desktop lamps behind me, as well as some ambient lighting from my desk and peripherals. For consistency, I take all of my final photos in Windows 11's built-in photo app at 1080p resolution. These individual photos are used as visual references, but my observations come from my overall testing experience with each webcam.

The Kiyo V2 X performed fairly well in our well-lit test scenario. I wasn't blown away by the picture quality, detail-wise, even with the camera set to shoot in 1440p / 60 fps, but the webcam did a good job of balancing exposure quickly and auto-white-balancing to produce a realistic-looking and vibrant palette. I'd be pretty happy with this image for a plug-n-play product if I was meeting with my colleagues or friends over video chat. I think the lack of detail was mostly a function of the Kiyo V2 X's default software features/settings, as I found that turning off the 2D / 3D noise reduction in Synapse 4 and disabling auto-focus gave me much crisper pictures — at least while I was in the Synapse 4 software, anyway.

Low-Light Performance

To test the low light performance of this webcam, I turned off all of the lights in my home office except for my primary 34-inch monitor. I took this picture with the Windows 11 camera app taking up half the screen and the default Google homepage taking up the other half.

Razer's Kiyo line of webcams has always been pretty impressive when it comes to low-light scenarios, but the Kiyo V2 X didn't perform nearly as well as I hoped it would. It seemed to have trouble balancing exposure, oscillating between way too much and way too little several times until it landed on what was definitely way too little. It was very trigger-happy when it came to both the auto-focus and the auto-exposure — it couldn't seem to keep me in focus at all, even when there was a decent amount of light on my face. Also, any movement — or even no movement — seemed to kick the auto-focus into re-focusing, which resulted in me just... never being in focus.

The lack of detail in the well-lit scenario was definitely exacerbated by less-than-ideal lighting, so I went into Synapse 4 to see if there was something I was missing. Turning off 2D and 3D noise reduction did bring back some detail (it was smoothing over a lot of poorly-lit areas), but, naturally, introduced a lot of noise. But it was really the webcam's inability to stick to focusing on one area that made everything kind of fuzzy.

Overexposed Performance

To test the webcam's performance in an over-exposed setting, I turned off the lighting in front of me, save for my primary 34" monitor. I left the overhead light and the lights behind me turned on. An overexposed lighting scenario is any lighting scenario in which there's a lot of light coming from behind you (e.g., with your back against a window), but I use this particular scenario as I think it's pretty realistic — how often are you really taking on-camera conference calls while sitting up against a window?

The Kiyo V2 X performed pretty poorly in this scenario, too. Not only was it unable to calibrate the light balance properly (resulting in a lot of blown out areas in the background), it also couldn't focus on me basically... at all. It did keep trying, however, which was frustrating, to say the least, especially as even the tiniest movement from me seemed to trigger it.

After many, many minutes of this constant auto-focus battle, it seemed to just give up, and stuck me with an extra-blurry image that focused on nothing. I tried to switch over to manual focus, which worked in Razer's Synapse 4 app... and only in Razer's Synapse 4 app. Switching to the Windows 11 camera app or Google Meet or Discord video chat caused the camera to switch back to auto-focus (or at least, that's what I think it did — either that, or manual focus isn't actually all that manual). I'm sure this could be fixed with a firmware update, but, well, Razer needs to make that firmware update.

Specs

Features and Software

The Kiyo V2 X works about as well as you can expect right out of the box — though you will need to use Razer's universal peripheral software, Synapse 4, to update the webcam's firmware. You can also use it to adjust the camera's settings, though there's honestly not a ton that I'd recommend you change for the Kiyo V2 X (every setting I tried to tweak only made things worse, somehow).

You can set up cropped "scenes" in Synapse 4 using the Kiyo V2 X's 4x digital zoom; this is handy for people who want to crop out the mess around them and/or set up multiple angles to switch between so they can look like newscasters in their work meetings. You can also turn off the Kiyo V2 X's trigger-happy auto-focus and manually focus the lens, but this didn't seem to work outside of Synapse 4 in my testing. Whenever I switched to a different app, even after saving the settings to the webcam multiple times, it was back to non-stop auto-focus.

There are also a handful of other standard settings in Synapse 4, such as auto/manual exposure, low light boost, 2D/3D noise reduction, and the standard picture adjustments (brightness, contrast, saturation, white balance, etc) — but I found the webcam's default settings ended up giving me the best overall picture. The Kiyo V2 X does not support HDR; you'll need to upgrade to the Kiyo V2 for that.

Bottom Line

The Kiyo V2 X is... sort of mediocre. It certainly looks good — like the Kiyo V2, anyway — and it works decently well out of the box in ideal lighting setups. I am a big fan of the built-in privacy shutter, and I think it's one of the best-implemented on the market (it's not creative at all, and other companies — such as Logitech — also do it, but that doesn't mean it's not still really good). But as soon as you're in any lighting situation that's not basically perfect, it goes a little crazy trying to compensate, to the point where it never actually manages to compensate. The auto-focus worked well in my well-lit scenario — it was quick and accurate, that is — but it was still easily triggered by tiny movements. This resulted in me being out of focus about half as often as I was in focus, because it was constantly recalibrating.

At $100, the Kiyo V2 X is the budget option in Razer's webcam lineup, but that doesn't necessarily make it budget-friendly. The Logitech Brio 500 retails for $30 more and only records at 1080p / 30 fps, but it'll make you look better, faster, and it also has a cleverly-implemented physical privacy shutter (plus, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding it on sale for around $100, if you're patient). The Elgato Facecam MK.2 records at 1080p / 60 fps and doesn't have a sexy privacy shutter (it does have one, just not a sexy one), but it's currently on sale for $100 at Elgato's website. And if you're looking for something that's actually budget-friendly, Elgato's Facecam Neo offers comparably solid performance for just $60.

Thrustmaster has just unveiled its latest HOTAS (Hands on Throttle and Stick) system, featuring exclusive branding and a few internal upgrades. The T.Flight Hotas 5 Microsoft Flight Simulator Edition works on PS5, PS4, and PC, and comes with plug-and-play support for the game with a pre-configured profile. It's listed for $109.99 on Amazon, same as the Hotas One, and $10 cheaper than the previous Hotas 4 system.

• T.Flight Hotas 5 MFS Edition

While the chassis and design between the Hotas X, Hotas 4, Hotas One, and the new Hotas 5 are basically identical, there is a real difference underneath. Thrustmaster has swapped the 10-bit sensor with a 16-bit sensor, offering significantly improved precision that translates into 65,536 distinct steps. This should allow for much more responsive micro-adjustments and reduce that "notchy" feeling older models had.

The shell itself has two extra buttons now, bringing the total to 14. Since it's compatible with PlayStation consoles, those extra buttons correspond to the native DualShock/DualSense controls like Share. You'll find a Microsoft Flight Simulator logo on the sides where the Thrustmaster logo usually resides, and the color scheme reflects that branding. The black, white, and blue also blend well with PS5 consoles.

You still get the detachable body where the throttle and the stick can easily separate from each other with a cable running in between them. The T.Flight Hotas 5 features 5-axis control — pitch, roll, throttle, and two options for yaw/rudder. Speaking of which, there's a dual-rudder system onboard so you can either physically twist the joystick or use the rocker paddle integrated right into the back grip of the throttle handle.

The Hotas 5 is also compatible with Thrustmaster's T.Flight Rudder Pedals if you want to add an extra facet of immersion in your setup. Overall, it's a solid entry point into the world of flight sims, especially if you're on console. Regardless of the device you play on, though, the Hotas 5 is fully customizable, so you can fine-tune your experience for every aircraft, helicopter, or glider. And for just $109.99, it's a great upgrade over previous models offered by the company.

Logitech has released the Mobi Fold compact wireless mouse, which folds neatly in half to slide into a pocket, precisely as its name implies. Logitech's latest press release says that 76% working on the go own a mouse but don't use it. That may well be true, as we're all accustomed to seeing mobile warriors clumsily using their laptop's trackpad instead of using the proper tool for the job.

• See the Logitech Mobi Fold compact wireless mouse here

This is the company's first foldable mouse, and is surprisingly normal-sized for a portable mouse, at 1.3 x 2.24 x 4.8 inches (33 x 57 x 122mm) when open, weighing in at 2.8oz (79g). These measurements might give it an ergonomic edge over most portable mice with small, questionable shapes that often lead to cramped hand muscles. When folded away, the Mobi Fold measures 0.83 x 2.6 inches (21 x 66mm). The company says the main buttons are particularly quiet, a boon for working in shared areas.

The section that looks like a middle button is actually a scroll trackpad with two buttons that can be configured via Logitech's software. The sensor underneath the body is a PAW3222 unit with up to 4,000 DPI, set by default to 800. Logitech says the 100-mAh battery is good for a month's worth of use starting with a full charge, and that a single minute of juicing up via the USB-C port is good for 22 hours of battery life. Simply folding or unfolding the mouse switches it off and on, and the hinge mechanism ought to last for 15 years.

For wireless connectivity, the Mobi Fold uses Bluetooth 5.0 LE, and can be paired with up to three devices simultaneously. There's also a Mobi Fold for Business version, and as far as we can tell, the only difference is that it comes with a Logi Bolt wireless receiver. The standard Mobi Fold is available in four colorways: lilac, graphite, off-white, and sand, and goes for $79.99, 79.99€, or £69.99. The Business version is slightly pricier at $89.99, 84.99€, or £74.99, and seems to only be available in the graphite finish.

Should you want to consider other options, Microsoft has the snazzy Surface Arc Mouse that can fold flat and has both vertical and horizontal scrolling. That one will set you back around $85.99 at Newegg.

We tested the top 20 chargers on the market across different power segments to find out which models provide the most consistent power and the best charging experience without thermal throttling. For most people, charging their electronics is a normal, mundane part of life. Between our smartphones, smart watches, tablets, laptops, and other random devices, many of us simply plug the device into the included charger and never think of it again until it's complete. And while that’s fine most of the time, sometimes we lose the original or need something with more ports and power.

So, what should you get? Do you need a 140W charger, or is a 30W charger fine? Can I get away with a cheap $8 charger, or do I want/need something more advanced? How many ports, and what type, do I need? Is GaN technology necessary? Are these chargers safe when delivering full power for extended periods? This article aims to provide you with the answers you need and help you choose the right charger.

Truth be told, the answers aren’t terribly complicated, and the lion’s share of today’s electronics are smart enough not to accept the wrong voltage or overcharge, sparing us all from the potential of destroying expensive equipment like a gaming laptop or even a smartphone with the ‘wrong’ charger. We’re testing to verify output and output over time, check efficiency (the difference between output and wall usage), ensure safety (overheating, etc.), maximize charging speeds, and, of course, protect our devices from damage.

What are GaN and PD/PPS/QC/FCP/SCP technologies? Why does it matter?

Over time, new technologies and protocols have been released, said to improve charging capability. There’s the USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) standard (up to 240W) using USB-C, and Qualcomm’s Quick Charge (vendor-specific protocol) works on top of USB-PD in newer versions (QC 4.0/5). The former offers superior universality, whereas QC tends to focus on optimizing Qualcomm-powered Android devices.

GaN (short for Gallium Nitride), on the other hand, is a technology that, upon its 2018 launch, represents a leap forward for charging devices, offering increased efficiency and the potential to be more compact than traditional, less efficient silicon-based chargers. The change in materials allows for faster charging, lower temperatures, and are generally smaller, allowing for higher wattage in a more compact size. The latest generation, 5th (not counting UGreen’s 7th-gen introduction on their new chargers), offers even more output, to 240W, increased efficiency and heat management upgrades over the previous generations, for faster charging, higher power density, and smaller, even more efficient designs. You’ll most frequently see GaN 3 and 4 in the wild.

PPS (Programmable Power Supply) chargers use fast-charging technology that supports USB-PD 3.0, enabling on-the-fly adjustments to current and voltage to increase efficiency. In essence, instead of fixed-voltage steps (like 5V or 9V), PPS lowers conversion loss and heat by adapting to the device’s battery condition.

Finally, FCP (Fast Charge Protocol) and SCP (SuperCharge Protocol) are Huawei’s proprietary fast-charging technologies, with SCP reducing heat generation compared to FCP, so you can charge faster without overheating the charger.

All of these improvements have taken the basic charger and elevated it, helping not only to charge faster, run cooler and more efficiently, but also to extend battery life. The main drawback of these new chargers is the higher price compared to the potatoes of yesteryear. The more new protocols and rarer materials are used, the higher the price tends to be compared to older chargers and those with fewer features or protections (think Overvolt, Overcurrent, which most of our test subjects have).

When you’re in a pinch, chances are that $7.99 charger at the gas station will work fine to charge your phone or, depending on wattage/output, maybe even a laptop, but don’t expect it to do all the things a charger with all the modern accouterments will do (displays, different charging rates, for example), or have an app for monitoring like the Cuktech charger we tested.

Test Equipment and Setup

To gather the data, we need several items to ensure we’re getting the right information in the first place. This includes a portable power station to ‘charge,’ a tester that shows the output voltage, amps, watts, and the charging protocol, a wall power meter to see total wattage consumed, and an IR thermometer to record the device's temperature. Of course, you need a high-quality cable that won’t limit output (we chose a cable capable of 240W). In order to test the cable, we used the USB Cable Checker2 to verify its capability. Below is a list of all the parts we used for testing.

• USB Tester/Voltmeter/Ammeter Tester - Chargelab Power-Z KM003C ($109.99)
• USB Tester (used with multiple connections) - HDC-085C ($12.15)
• USB Cable Checker - Bit Trade One Cable Checker2 ($60.00)
• Portable Power Station - Anker Solix C300 ($179.99)
• IR Thermometer - TempPro TP30 ($19.99)
• Wall Power Monitor - Tekcoplus TK282PLUS_US ($19.99)
• USB-C Cable (240W) - Anker 515 ($29.99)

As you can see from the images below, the test configuration is quite simple. To start, we plug the wall power monitor (AKA Kill-A-Watt) into the outlet to measure how many watts the charger uses.

A charger, not unlike the power supply on your PC, will always draw more power from the wall than it outputs, as the conversion of electrical energy is not 100% efficient and generates heat due to inefficiencies in the transformation process (AC from the wall to low-voltage DC). The more efficient the device is, the less heat it produces and the less power you get billed for. Since we’re talking chargers, not PC power supplies, in most cases, the difference is typically only a few Watts and nothing to be concerned about (read: you won’t see it in your power bill).

From there, we connect whatever charger we want to test to the wall power meter, and then the Power-Z KM003C charging and power bank tester connects to the charger to get the readings directly from the device. Next, we connect the already-tested good USB Type-C cable (3.3 feet, 240W) and plug it into the Anker Solix C300 DC power bank, which accepts the charge and displays the input wattage while charging, rounding out the test system.

How we Test

Before we plug the device in, we inspect the build quality (seams, does it feel like cheap plastic or is it metal?), weight, and port type. We also look at the output rating, fast-charging capabilities, and any certifications (think UL/CE). From this information, we have a good idea of the pros and cons of the features, including cost /W, port count, and protections.

The actual testing starts with an ambient temperature reading from the case. Using the TempPro TP30 IR Thermometer, we take readings from the top and sides to determine the maximum value and record that data point as the device's starting temperature. Once that’s recorded, we plug the device in and check whether it shows any idle power use. I was surprised to see that a majority of the wall chargers we tested used some power at idle, even those without displays or LEDs. Those with displays tended to use around 1W when plugged into the wall with nothing attached.

After the charger is plugged into the outlet and then connected to the power bank with the USB Type-C cable, we check the power output at five, 10, and 30 minutes into testing at the Solix. This value shows how much output the Solix is receiving for charging. As you’ll see from testing, a few chargers throttle due to temperature as we get closer to the end of our test if they’re tasked with putting out their full rated wattage for extended periods. This is mostly with the high-output chargers, as it is inherently difficult to remove, say, 140W of heat from something about the size of a deck of cards and generally surrounded by a poor thermal conductor (plastic).

After passing the 30-minute mark, we take the temperature again and record the peak value at any point on the charger. At this time, we also capture the efficiency data from the output at the wall via the Tekcoplus wall power monitor and the Power-Z tester. The difference between what it pulls at the wall and what it pulls on the Power-Z shows how efficiently the charger converts AC to DC. As you’ll see in testing, these are all efficient, with most sitting at 90% or above. That, coupled with the minimal wattage difference, means you won’t notice a difference on your power bill.

After testing 20 chargers of all shapes, sizes, appearances, and outputs, we compiled all the data into easy-to-read charts.

Tested Chargers

We have a slew of chargers for this article, 20 to be exact, and from all walks of life. From a $9.99 off-brand Wegear to a name-brand Anker $89.99 140W model, we cover a wide variety of wall chargers (stay tuned for a desktop charger roundup, too!) with an almost dizzying array of features and technologies. In this test, we cover popular and familiar brands like Anker, Baseus, UGreen, Belkin, and even a couple of Amazon Basics. We also have lesser-known and off-brand brands like Iniu, Eleschion, Wegear, and the curiously named Cuktech in the roundup.

The chargers come in all shapes and sizes, from cubes to cuboids (3D rectangles) to those that plug in and sit flat on the wall. We have black ones, white ones, and multiple with displays that show output wattage and temperature, and there’s even the Anker Nano II ($29.99) that, when charging properly, shows a smiley face. Wattage ranges from a low 15W (anything less wouldn’t charge our power bank) to 140W devices meant for multiple devices. Some even have their own integrated, retractable Type-C cables like the Elecshion 65W (PD-585).

Below is a simple chart listing all chargers in alphabetical order, along with wattage, port count/type, major charging feature support, and the current price (as of when this was published).

Takeaways

After testing all 20 chargers, I walked away a bit surprised at some of the results. I was surprised to see that some chargers without screens actually have a slightly higher power draw. That said, when idle, the chargers sip power, barely reaching 0.3W, while those with screens are closer to 1W. As we touched on earlier, this isn’t remotely a big deal considering the extremely low wattage. To put it in perspective, at the US average of ~17 cents per kWh (kilowatt-hour), a constant 1W load for 30 days would run just over 12 cents.

Another tidbit I didn’t expect to see was that an overwhelming majority of these are, what I would consider, quite efficient, most within a few percentage points of each other. We did have a couple of outliers, like the older Samsung charger, which was several points below the others at 85% efficiency. The Belkin BoostCharge 20W was also lower than most, with 86% efficiency, and close to the Samsung. The rest sit between 89 and 93 efficiency, which is to be expected for any charger that isn’t the cheapest charger you can find.

Thermal throttling was also something I never considered, as I rarely had to output more than what a smartphone or smartwatch needed, but it did show up in our testing. As you can see from the first two charts, at 5 and 15 minutes into testing, wattage remained constant across all of our test subjects. However, after that, a few got too hot and throttled their output.

Of our 140W chargers, all three throttled during our test. The Anker Prime produced the most output at 118W after 30 minutes, with a reading of 67.2 degrees Celsius (measured at the hottest point on the charger with an IR thermometer). The Baseus Enerfil was the hottest 140W, peaking just under the Anker at 76.4C, but its output dropped the most to 88W. The Sharge Pixel was still pumping out 99W and ran 10 degrees cooler, reading 68.8C.

Of our ~100W chargers, a couple of those also throttled during testing. The Anker Prime (100W) and Belkin BoostCharge Pro (112W) also throttled after 15 minutes, with the Anker dropping to 89W (from 99W), and the Belkin dropping to 71W (from 101W). The 100W Anker also has the dubious distinction of running the hottest of all the tested items (and wasn’t even the highest-wattage item). The Baseus Encore (100W) and the Cuktech 10 Ultra charged with full output during our 30-minute test, keeping temperatures between a reasonable 63C and 65C, which was the lowest of any 100W< devices we tested.

As we look at lower-power chargers in the 45-68W range, none of them throttled their output. The off-brand Iniu 65W charge ran the hottest, peaking at over 70C, and was the hottest of this wattage grouping. Baseus’ Encore 67W and the Anker Nano 45W ran the coolest at around 55C and 58C, respectively—nothing to worry about here.

Last are the lower output chargers. Of these, we don’t expect to run hot, and most don’t, but there are some outliers here as well. The Wegear PA5 (30W) ran to a toasty 70C and was the hottest, by far, of our 15-30W chargers. Anker’s Series 5 charger sat at 65C, also running warm for the wattage. Belkin’s BoostCharge 20W charger ran the coolest, peaking at almost 52Cs, while the Ugreen 30W charger was just above that. In short, here, you’ll be able to run these chargers indefinitely without worrying about throttling output due to temperature. But most of these devices can only charge a single device. So if you have multiple devices or higher-wattage items like laptops or tablets, you’ll need to step up to a higher-wattage charger to charge them all quickly.

Conclusion

So far, we have tested 20 different chargers in this article, from all walks of life. From low-output single-device charging to high-output multiple-device charging, we covered quite a bit in this, our first article. We learned that, within this group, we saw full output from even the cheapest chargers, so long as we were under 67W. Beyond that, we saw some in this group start to fade due to higher temperatures, especially the high-power 140W chargers, which all throttled.

There’s little you can do to avoid that if you’re trying to charge multiple items. Even the newest generation chargers with the latest technologies still throttle output. That said, they still charged, but did so more slowly when their output was limited.

Of the high-power devices, our favorite is the Cuktech 10 Ultra ($59.99 - 110W). For under $60, it delivers plenty of power to charge laptops and multiple devices while still maintaining its output. It also has an excellent front screen that displays detailed charging information for each port (including temperature status), among other details. For the 100-140W group, Cuktech 10 Ultra offers the best balance between price, features, output, temperatures, and efficiency. In our middle group (45-68W), the Anker Nano ($29.99 - 45W) did a great job maintaining its output while also maintaining cool temperatures, and was the most efficient of all the chargers we tested so far. It also has a display to show charging status, which is a plus. Finally, if you’re just looking for something to charge lower-power devices quickly, the UGreen 30W Fast charger (under $14) does that efficiently too. You don’t have a fancy screen, but it does manage full output over time and runs the coolest among 30W devices.

In the end, all of these chargers will fast-charge your device if the output is appropriate, and in a pinch, the cheapest will do. Picking the ‘right’ charger isn’t nearly as complicated as it may seem at first glance. Across the board, even cheaper options handled simple charging duties without issue, especially at lower wattages. Higher wattages introduced tradeoffs of heat and throttling when pushed hard over time. Modern standards (think PDS, QC, GaN) have improved efficiency, size, and performance, but don’t eliminate the physical limits of delivering, say, 140W from a pocket-sized device.

To me, the takeaway is simple: match your charger's output to your actual needs. For example, if you're charging low-power devices (think a phone or two), don’t overthink it. But for high-power devices like laptops or multi-device needs, spending a bit more gets you better sustained performance, more ports, and added peace of mind for your wall/travel charger. Regardless of your needs, today’s chargers are smarter, safer, and more efficient than ever, so long as the wattage lines up, it’s hard to go too wrong. But that said, some are clearly better than others. Keep an eye out for a desktop charger article (covers even higher wattage) and a best chargers page, both available soon.

Who doesn't have a dual-connectivity podcaster-focused microphone these days? It seems like every company vying for a spot on our list of best gaming mics is trying to woo us with dual-connectivity when the entire point of a USB gaming mic is that it can connect to your PC without an audio interface (unlike XLR). Anyway, it looks like we can add one more to the pile with Razer's Seiren V3 Pro, which launched today.

The Razer Seiren V3 Pro is an end-address cardioid microphone with a sleek-if-boring design, a built-in swing mount, and one of my favorite features on any peripheral — a capacitive-touch tap-to-mute button that works flawlessly. It supports both USB-C and XLR connectivity, and it has a headphone jack for zero-latency monitoring, plus an on-mic gain control wheel. It records audio at 32-bit / 96 kHz resolution, and supports 32-bit float — though, only through its Synapse app on Windows.

It's not the first time we've seen a mic like this, but they usually don't support 32-bit float (even though, to be fair, very few people need 32-bit float support). The Seiren V3 Pro isn't unique, but it's certainly rare. It's also on the pricier side, at $249.99 (available now).

Design and Comfort

The Seiren V3 Pro is a fairly standard cylinder-shaped mic housed in a relatively solid matte black zinc unibody. It comes mounted on its own built-in swing arm, which can be attached to the included desktop stand or to a boom arm via a 5/8-27 threaded mount (it also fits 3/8-16 threaded mounts). It has a removable pop filter, which slides off easily (perhaps too easily) to reveal a black grille surrounding the capsule, which has an integrated shock absorber.

Razer's text logo is subtly printed on the left side of the mic in shiny black; otherwise the design is fairly understated (though there is, of course, a thin, customizable RGB light ring around the center. There's also an oval tap-to-mute button on the front (or top, depending on how you end up mounting it). It's a decent-looking mic, but it doesn't do much to stand out aside from looking like it's trying to emulate the Shure MV7+ (and every other mic that's also trying to emulate said mic). The all-black finish is sleek enough as long as you don't touch it; as soon as you do, you'll find it's very susceptible to fingerprints.

You'll find the ports on the bottom / back of the mic: USB-C, XLR, and a 3.5mm headphone jack for direct, zero-latency monitoring. There's also a small wheel that controls the mic's adjustable gain by default — though this can also be set (in Synapse) to control headphone volume instead.

The Seiren V3 Pro is larger than similar cylinder-shaped end-address microphones — the mic itself is 8.39 inches (213mm) long, not including the built-in swing arm. The mic and swing arm together have a maximum length of just under 10 inches (254mm). The mic alone measures about 2.25 inches (57.15mm) in diameter, but is approximately 3.55 inches (90mm) wide with the swing arm.

The microphone is fairly sturdy, weighing just under 1.5 pounds (670g). This makes it about half a pound lighter than the Rode PodMic USB (1.9lbs / 900g) and a quarter of a pound heavier than the HyperX FlipCast (1.26lbs / 571.5g).

In the box, the Seiren V3 Pro comes with a flat, round desktop stand and a 10-foot (3m) braided USB-C to USB-A cable with a USB-A to USB-C adapter attached.

The stand measures approximately 4.75 inches (120mm) in diameter and weighs just over 7 ounces (200.5g). It's also made of metal, with a matte black finish and a 5/8"-threaded mount in the center. The bottom is covered in soft non-slip rubber with five small rounded, raised "feet" (for better shock absorption, I assume). The stand is sturdy and stable and attaches securely to the mic; the only caveat is that it does end up sitting quite low on your desk. This isn't too much of an issue, as the mic is fairly tall, but since it's also pretty quiet — even with the gain turned all the way up — mounting it on a boom arm is probably the best option.

Specs

Performance

The Seiren V3 Pro is an end-address dynamic capsule microphone with a cardioid polar pattern and both USB-C and XLR connectivity. It features a large 30mm capsule with an integrated shock absorber and a built-in advanced audio DSP. It records audio in 32-bit / 96 kHz resolution and it also supports 32-bit float through Razer's Synapse software. It has a frequency response rate of 50 - 16,000 Hz and an adjustable gain of 40dB.

My voice sounded pretty good over the Seiren V3 Pro with its out-of-the-box settings: Full, warm, and clear, though there was definitely some sibilance. The foam pop filter did a decent job of keeping plosives at bay, though it had some trouble as I moved closer to the mic (as you might expect). People I talked to over voice chat thought I sounded about the same as usual — like I had a solid, studio-quality end-address mic, but they didn't think it stood out against the other studio-quality end-address mics they normally hear my voice over.

The on-mic controls were decent — the tap-to-mute button worked flawlessly, muting and unmuting with just a light brush of my finger. Both the button and the light ring turn red when the mic is muted, so you have a decent visual cue when your audience can't hear you. The gain control wheel, which has a textured metal surface, is smooth and easy to roll even if it's a bit awkwardly placed on the back / bottom of the mic.

I did find that this mic was relatively quiet, even with the gain turned up all the way — it wasn't too quiet, but I found myself needing to speak louder than I did with other mics. This seemed to be due, in part, to the mic's off-axis rejection — which Razer boasts is "enhanced" to better suppress ambient noise and room reflections without relying on processing. The off-axis rejection definitely did seem to be enhanced, as very little of the ambient noise in my room was picked up (even when I had the AI noise suppression turned off). But it also meant that if I moved out of line with the mic, it was much harder to hear me. This is definitely expected behavior from an end-address mic, but the Seiren V3 Pro was a little less flexible than, say, the HyperX FlipCast. Just a little, though.

Features and Software

The Seiren V3 Pro is configurable via Razer's Synapse peripheral software. The mic has an on-mic gain control wheel that can be configured in Synapse to control headset volume instead, but that's the only on-mic control aside from the tap-to-mute button. For everything else, you'll need Synapse.

While Razer says the Seiren V3 Pro is designed to work without needing software, there's actually a lot in Synapse that you'll probably want to take advantage of with this mic. There's a parametric EQ with a handful of presets ("Podcast," "Arena," "FPS - Callout," and "Studio"), as well as EQ effects such as a De-Esser, Vocal Bass, Vocal Exciter, and a High Pass Filter.

There are also several other effects you can play around with, including the AI noise suppression and a noise gate (plus a compressor, a limiter, and reverb control). The AI noise suppression did a good job of suppressing some noise without too much processing or losing my voice, but it also didn't suppress that much noise. The noise gate worked a little better at suppressing noise, but it also ended up suppressing my voice, even on low settings.

Razer also includes a Stream Mixer, which is essentially a virtual mixing device for mixing various audio channels on your PC — stream, playback, headphone, and mic. I didn't have much time to play around with this, but it seems about as user-friendly as a virtual mixer can be (that is... not very, but what can you do).

You can also customize the Seiren V3 Pro's light ring with Synapse — you can either use one of Razer's preset "quick effects" or you can set up advanced effects in Razer's Chroma app (which is part of Synapse... sort of?). The light ring has 12 independent RGB zones.

Bottom Line

The Seiren V3 Pro is a sturdy, sleek-looking end-address mic aimed at creators of all kinds — whether you're just starting streaming or you've got millions of people tuning in each day. Its dual-connectivity means that you'll be able to use it with both your PC and a dedicated audio interface, and the 32-bit float support is a nice touch if almost certainly not necessary for the majority of the audience.

However, this mic isn't exactly revolutionary, especially at its $250 price point. The HyperX FlipCast is very similar — it even has a light ring and a Shure-inspired chassis — but it has much better on-mic controls. The Rode PodMic USB has no on-mic controls, but you can't beat the quality of the PodMic's proximity effect. I was impressed with the extra features this mic has in Synapse, but software-based enhancements (especially when the software is Synapse) are just a bonus, not the foundation.

Secretlab has become a household name in gaming chairs in recent years, thanks to the success of its popular Omega and Titan Evo chairs. It's also found success with a premium range of gaming desks and a great ecosystem of accessories. Now, in 2026, the company is back with a brand new chair, and it might just be the one you’ve been waiting for.

The SecretLab Atlas is the company’s first foray into a “task-focused” ergonomic chair. While it's not quite what you might describe as an “office" chair, it is a decidedly less imposing and more streamlined chair for the discerning gamer — with a stronger focus on sitting upright at your desk and getting things done, rather than kicking back at 165 degrees and spilling Doritos all over yourself.

The philosophy is simple: the chair is designed to promote both focus and relaxation by letting you move seamlessly between a state of upright productivity or a more relaxed posture for rest. While previous Secretlab offerings have offered only “fixed” postures controlled by an elaborate array of controls, the Atlas is a more trimmed-down and focused chair that rocks back and forth as you shift your weight. While it still has many of the same hallmark features that make Secretlab’s chairs stand out — magnetic pillow, striking design, adjustability, and customization — it’s a chair that will look far less out of place in the office or the boardroom. In other words, the Atlas should prove the ideal companion to someone who likes to sit up and get stuff done.

Assembly

The Secretlab Atlas is the third Secretlab chair I’ve had the pleasure of assembling over the last few years. It comes in the same hefty box you’d get a Titan Evo in, and the parts are arrayed with the same care I’ve come to expect from Secretlab. Everything is packed extremely well, with sturdy cardboard inserts to stop everything from moving around. The chair arrived free of blemishes and marks, and there are a couple of trademark Secretlab goodies to get you started.

Notably, you get Secretlab’s trusty screwdriver (a personal favorite of mine), and instructions clearly laid out on a giant piece of glossy card, rather than a crummy white booklet.

Assembly can be done solo, but Secretlab recommends that you do the task with someone else. From unboxing to completion, it took me and my wife less than 15 minutes to assemble, and there weren’t really any aspects of the assembly process that absolutely required two people. You simply pop the wheels into the wheel base, insert the hydraulic piston into the wheel base, screw the Unified Motion System (the bottom) to the seat base, and then stick those two bits together.

The armrests don’t come attached, which is new for Secretlab as far as I remember, but they simply slide into the seat base and are fastened in with two screws on either side. Finally, you screw the backrest to the wheelbase (with four screws), and voila!

Everything slotted into place with relative ease, with no misaligned screw holes or anything requiring force, jiggling, or cajoling. If you’re stuck, an included QR code guides you to a helpful assembly video. The 12 screws required are all identical, so there’s no faffing around trying to work out which is which, and there’s an included allen key for tightening up each one if you want a little extra torque over the screwdriver. It's not as seamless as task chairs that come fully assembled, such as the Steelcase Karman, but it's pretty quick as far as chair assemblies go.

Specs

Design and Construction

Our review unit was the Large variant of the Atlas — specifically, the ‘Plus’ model with NanoFoam Composite (more on that later). Total height measures 50.6 inches (128.5cm), and despite a seemingly more generous sitting space, this chair is decidedly less imposing than my outgoing Secretlab Titan Evo. The slender backrest looks much more subtle and elegant.

The wheels are PU-coated casters, and the wheelbase is made from reinforced nylon rather than the Titan Evo’s aluminum. As such, the finish there is a little less premium, but this saves a ton of weight, which helps with assembly and moving the chair around your space. The heaviest model is just 55 pounds (25kg), which is roughly one-third lighter than the 80-pound Titan Evo. The large chair is rated for users up to 265 pounds (120kg) and between 5' 10" - 6' 5" (178 - 195cm). Below that, the regular size Atlas will work for any height below 5' 10" (178cm) and a weight of less than 220 pounds (100kg).

Overall, the chair feels extremely sturdy, although there’s a touch more play in the armrests than I’d like. Secretlab’s chairs have always felt absolutely bombproof to sit in, and the Atlas is no different.

The sweeping leather back looks really excellent, and is one of the best new design elements of this chair. The overall look and feel of the Softweave fabric is brilliant, although you can opt for the pricier leather if you so wish. As mentioned, the chair is noticeably lighter than Secretlab’s Titan Evo, so moving the chair around the office is much easier with this new model. It’s also got a much slimmer profile, so it certainly feels like it takes up a lot less space.

Aesthetically, the Atlas is much more muted than Secretlab’s prior offerings, especially in the Dune+ color on display here. As such, it’s going to look much less out of place on the floor of an office should you wish to take one to work. Otherwise, the less outlandish design will make it much more suited to a more neutral office space. The five regular colors, Dune, Moon, Cookies and Cream, Black, and Classic Black, continue this theme, as do the three other colors for the plus range, Black, Pure White, and Pure Black. No special edition Warhammer colorways or limited edition carbon fibre Lamborghini to speak of here (yet).

While the back of the chair is leather, the main material is Secretlab’s SoftWeave Plus fabric, which is designed to keep you cool during those long gaming sessions. Testing during a heatwave, I can confirm that the chair remains comfortable to sit in, even in warmer temperatures. Some users might prefer the feel and the wipe-down convenience of the Leatherette models; however, the SoftWeave is not desperately hard to keep clean.

The chair is controlled by two distinct arms that sit underneath the chair. The left side controls the lock/unlock mechanism for the chair’s reclining position, as well as the position of the seat base. The right side lets you adjust the height of the chair as well as the tilt force required to make the chair recline. The controls feel a little stiff and take some getting used to, especially the tilt force, but they’re nifty once you get the hang of them. Even users with long arms will need to lean to reach the adjustments, but the visual indicators on both arms are a welcome inclusion and an enormous quality of life upgrade.

Comfort and Adjustments

At first sit, the Atlas feels extremely comfortable. We’re testing Secretlab’s special NanoFoam composite — cold-cure foam layered with microfoam for extra softness and support. The chair is extremely forgiving, but also provides great weight distribution and support right across the seat base. Similarly, the backrest has a nice curve to it that makes sitting back very pleasant. The magnetic headrest is a new design for this chair and certainly does the job. The magnets also feel considerably stronger than previous offerings, so there shouldn’t be any worries about the pillow falling off.

I had the privilege of visiting Secretlab’s headquarters in Singapore ahead of launch, where they revealed, amongst other things, that most users tend to set the lumbar support on their chairs to the same setting. As such, lumbar adjustment is out with the Atlas. That might sound daunting, but it feels like they’ve got the default setting spot on with this one. Naturally, because it can’t be adjusted, it won’t work for everyone, but my considerably shorter wife found it to be just as supportive as I did.

Armrest height is controlled with levers that lock the armrests into place at your chosen height. The swivel doesn’t lock, but is adjusted through a series of set positions by simply twisting it. This requires a decent amount of force, so there’s no danger of moving them accidentally. The armrests also move forward and backward. This is a much easier adjustment; as such, you might find yourself pushing them out of position if you bump up against your desk. I position them all the way back, so this isn’t an issue for me.

The default upright position of the chair is a 100-degree vertical tilt, which does take some getting used to. Crucially, the backrest doesn’t move independently and can’t be adjusted with the lever you normally find on Secretlab chairs. However, this unlocks the Atlas’ party piece. Take the chair from locked to unlocked, and the chair can be tilted at will using just your bodyweight. The back rest and the seat base move asynchronously, so as you go back, the tilt increases at a faster rate compared to the base, opening up the chair and inviting you to rest more easily.

The unlocked mode is what the Atlas is all about, and it is super-refreshing to have a gaming/task chair that can be reclined or rocked in at will. I use the tilt force at its highest setting, level four, which means the chair rocks partway back, but not all the way, under my own weight. Level 3 is great for even more recline, for instance, if you want to kick back and play some Xbox with a controller. If you want to sit upright for max focus, you’re best locking the chair in its most upright position, as even at the strongest level of tilt force, I found the chair couldn’t hold me upright when I leaned against the backrest.

The armrests are very spacious and comfortable, although I do miss the fourth dimension of adjustment that lets you move them closer together or further apart. Overall, the chair is really comfortable for sitting, even for long periods of time. A large part of that is Secretlab’s NanoFoam, which distributes weight well, but does cost a little more than the standard foam finish, so bear that in mind.

Ultimately, this is a chair for sitting upright in, so there’s not much leeway if you like to sit off to one side or at a funny angle. That being said, the seat base is definitely the most spacious of Secretlab’s offerings to date, so if you want a bit more flexibility in how you’re sitting, this is the Secretlab chair for you.

Bottom Line

Overall, the Atlas is a really well-built and sturdy chair that is extremely comfortable to sit in. It lacks some of the premium finish of Secretlab’s other offerings, and isn’t quite as adjustable as the more imposing Titan Evo. However, it is definitely Secretlab’s most comfortable chair to date, and the rocking mechanism makes it the most enjoyable to sit in over long periods of time.

Tucked in the corner of the ID-Cooling booth here at Computex 2026, a brand called Wokyis is showing off some seriously striking Mac Mini and Mac Studio docks. Its M5 Macintosh dock for the M4 Mac Mini is already for sale on Amazon in 10 Gbps and 80 Gbps flavors, offering retro aesthetics and a 1280 x 720 display, along with a spot on the back for an M.2 SSD.

• 10Gbps M5 Retro Dock Station for Mac mini M4
• 80Gbps M5 Retro Dock Station for Mac mini M4 Pro

But Wokyis also showed off NES-themed docks for the Mac Studio and Mac Mini, which are expected to head to Kickstarter in mid-July. The G7 Retro Mac Studio dock has a larger 7-inch flip-up screen (sadly, still 720p) behind NES-themed controller buttons on top, with the D pad controlling volume, screen brightness, and media playback, and the B and A buttons handling copy and paste duties. The “Start” button appears to turn off the screen, while the “Select” button takes a screenshot. Like the M5, the G7 will come in 10 Gbps and 80 Gbps (Thunderbolt 5) variants, support an M.2 SSD (up to 2280) in a slot under the screen, and up to 36W of PD power. The Thunderbolt variant will support up to 8K video at 60 Hz, via DisplayPort and HDMI.

Aside from the card reader slots on the front (including 1 Gbps CF Express), you get four 10 Gbps USB ports (2 each, A and C), and three or two USB 2.0 ports (one fewer on the 80 Gbps model, according to the company’s specs table), along with an audio jack. The Kickstarter notification signup page promises a $199 MSRP, with an early discount of 45% ($109). Presumably, that’s the starting price for the 10 Gbps. I’d expect the 80 Gbps model to have an MSRP of around $349 or more, as the smaller-screen 80 Gbps M5 sells for $339 on Amazon.

As a nerd of a certain age, I’m all for this kind of old-school hardware nostalgia paired with modern computing hardware. I have to wonder whether Nintendo’s lawyers might take an interest, but Acermagic did a similar thing with its X5 mini PC earlier this year, and it was on sale on Amazon for months (though it currently seems to be sold out everywhere).

So if you’re interested in one of Wokyis’ NES-themed docks, you might want to sign up to be notified when they launch. Just remember, as always, that pledging at Kickstarter does not guarantee you’ll get a product in the promised shipping window, or at all.

Corsair showed off the latest iteration of its lightweight gaming headset lineup — the Corsair HS35 v3 headset, in both wired and wireless versions, at Computex 2026. These lightweight headsets feature a new floating headband design, 50mm dynamic drivers, detachable boom mics, and Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio compatibility.

Both versions of the HS35 v3 feature custom 50mm Neodymium dynamic drivers with a frequency response of 20 - 20,000 Hz and an impedance of 32 ohms. The wired version weighs a mere 8.11 ounces (230g), which makes it one of the lightest gaming headsets we've seen (though, not the absolute lightest — Logitech's G325 weighs just 7.47oz / 212g) — while the wireless version is slightly heavier at 8.82 ounces (250g). The wired version is over 2.5 ounces lighter than the HyperX Cloud III (10.86oz / 308g), which is one of the comfiest headsets we've tested, while the wireless version is almost 2 ounces lighter than the Turtle Beach Atlas Air (10.61oz / 292.5g), which is, well, basically as light as air. Weight doesn't necessarily guarantee comfort, but it's certainly a major factor.

The headsets also feature a "floating" headband design — an elastic strap connected to both sides of the headband, so the headband doesn't sit directly on your skull and instead "floats" above it — which is a design we've seen several of our favorite comfortable gaming headsets use. Other design features include a lightweight plastic frame, memory foam-padded earpads covered in breathable mesh fabric, and a detachable omnidirectional boom microphone with on-ear controls for both muting and volume control.

The wireless version of the HS35 v3 features 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth, and wired connectivity, while the wired version has a universal 3.5mm wired connection. Corsair says you'll get up to 30 hours of battery life over the wireless version's 2.4GHz wireless connection at 50% volume, which isn't the most impressive battery life we've heard of but is probably more than enough for someone who doesn't play days-long gaming marathons.

Both the HS35 v3 wired version and the HS35 v3 Wireless are available now, for $49.99 and $79.99, respectively, in black and white colorways.

Corsair showed off its new Stream Deck-integrated gaming mouse at Computex 2026 — the Nightsword v2 Wireless SD Stream Deck gaming mouse. This mouse is semi-unique in that the Stream Deck app detects it as part of the Stream Deck ecosystem, which means you can map Stream Deck features directly to the mouse's 8 programmable buttons. It also features a dedicated Stream Deck Launch button, which lets you open up a Virtual Stream Deck (e.g. a Stream Deck on your screen) and activate Stream Deck functions from said "VSD."

This means the Nightsword v2 Wireless SD is more than just a mouse with macro-programmable buttons — not only do you get access to the Stream Deck's wide range of integrated plugins (mostly for various streaming and gaming platforms — it is called a Stream Deck for a reason, after all), but you can also program Stream Deck functions such as "multi-action," which lets you set up multiple Stream Deck actions to be performed in a sequence. It's great for people who want a one-click way to access their streaming or gaming setup.

Of course, the Nightsword v2 Wireless SD isn't the first gaming mouse with Stream Deck integration — Corsair's Scimitar Elite Wireless SE also featured native Stream Deck integration that allowed for both Stream Deck programmability and access to Virtual Stream Decks. However, instead of having a dedicated Stream Deck button, the Scimitar Elite Wireless SE just kind of had Stream Deck functionality built-in as a bonus (although, as a mouse with a 12-button side panel, it perhaps had more of an argument for the programmability).

Specs-wise, the Nightsword v2 Wireless SD features 11 buttons (8 of which are programmable) and sports Corsair's Marksman S optical sensor, which has a maximum sensitivity of 33,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 750 IPS, and can handle up to 50 G's of acceleration. This is the same sensor we've seen in Corsair's other recently-launched mice, including the Sabre v2 Pro Wireless CF and Sabre v2 Pro Wireless MG as well as last year's Scimitar Elite SE. It has a sculpted, right-handed ergonomic design that measures 5.1 x 3.07 x 1.61 inches (129.6 x 78 x 40.9mm) and weighs 3.14 ounces (89g). The primary mouse buttons have optical switches, which are rated for up to 100 million clicks.

The mouse features 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth, and wired connectivity, and has up to an 8,000 Hz polling rate over its 2.4GHz wireless connection. It gets up to 170 hours of battery life over its 2.4GHz wireless connection (with a 1,000 Hz polling rate and the RGB lighting turned off). If you're using an 8,000 Hz polling rate, that number drops to 47 hours (with the lighting turned off) or 25.5 hours with the lighting turned on — which is better than we expected.

The Corsair Nightsword v2 Wireless SD is available now for $129.99.

Cherry's gaming branch, Cherry XTRFY, introduced the first 8K ultra-wideband gaming keyboard at Computex 2026 earlier today. The new K63W Pro features a 70-percent layout, gasket mount construction, and low-profile switches for a slim, compact, gaming powerhouse with ultra-low latency and high throughput. The keyboard will debut in the EU in early July for €179.99 and will launch in the U.S. in August at $169.99.

It's not the first 8K gaming keyboard, but it is the first with ultra-wideband technology — a short-range, high-frequency wireless technology that's less prone to signal interference than 2.4GHz wireless. This means the keyboard will have a more stable high-speed connection that won't mess with (or be messed with by) other wireless peripherals, such as wireless gaming mice or headsets. The keyboard gets true 8,000 Hz polling over both its wired and wireless connections, which is still probably overkill for most users but means it should (in theory) be the fastest, most responsive gaming keyboard on the market when it launches.

“With the K63W Pro, we wanted to evolve wireless gaming even further. Ultra-Wideband technology and 8K polling deliver extreme performance, while the carefully tuned gasket construction creates a typing feel you would never expect from a low-profile keyboard. The result is a keyboard built for both competitive gaming and hours of daily typing,” Joakim Jansson, Director of Product Management at Cherry, said in a press release.

Design-wise, the K63W Pro is a 70-percent keyboard — meaning it keeps the full function row and arrow keys, but drops the single-key navigation row you see on the more typical 75-percent layout. Cherry says this new layout is "optimized for gaming, keeping the F-row while reducing side bulk to maximize space for mouse movement." In addition to a modified layout, the keyboard is also low-profile — featuring Cherry's MX Low Profile 2.0 switches in a gasket mount design, which creates a typing experience that "feels controlled, cushioned, and surprisingly deep for its size" (according to Cherry).

The keyboard also has a 6,000 mAh battery that delivers up to 1,100 hours of usage, "depending on settings such as polling rate and RGB intensity." We'll assume this means that it won't get 1,100 hours over an 8,000 Hz polling rate, but who knows — Keychron's ZMK-based Q Ultra series gets up to 660 hours of battery life over 8,000 Hz polling rates, so maybe the K63W Pro will surprise us.

The Cherry XTRFY K63W Pro will launch in the EU in July and will hit shelves in the U.S. in August, with retail prices of €179.99 and $169.99, respectively.

For most of the past 20 years, black and red have been the iconic colors of Asus’ ROG brand. But to celebrate two decades of the Republic of Gamers, the company has settled on a black-and-gold motif, which we’ve already seen on its RAM and other components in a Computex teaser. This also extends to peripherals, as seen with the Asus ROG 20th anniversary Harpe II Extreme Edition mouse and the Asus ROG Azoth Extreme Edition 20 wireless gaming keyboard that we’re looking at here.

The 75% clacker is a reimagining of the carbon fiber-adorned ROG Azoth Extreme we looked at in 2024, with a mix of transparent and partially transparent keycaps (the primary keys have traditional black crowns with transparent sides, while the rest of the caps are a smoky, glossy plastic. It’s also $100 more expensive than the launch price of the previous Azoth. There’s also a gold metal jog wheel, as well as gold accents along the back, magnetic gold feet (in two sizes), and even gold screws holding the whole thing together. And, naturally, the RGB backlighting under the switches defaults to a gold color out of the box. If nothing else, this is a much bolder design than the original ROG Azoth Extreme.

Asus ROG Azoth Extreme Edition 20 Specs

Design and features

At nearly 3.5 pounds with an all-metal chassis, the ROG Azoth Extreme Edition 20 feels a bit unnecessarily solid, and overkill definitely feels like part of the design at a fundamental level. The silicone-and-metal wrist rest adds an extra 1.3 pounds on its own, and doesn’t attach to the keyboard. But with silicon feet and so much heft, it’s not likely to move unless you want it to, just like the keyboard itself.

Asus says at least some of the accents are 24 karat gold-plated, as is the removable plate on the back. The chamfered edges on the top plate are also gold colored, as is the rocker knob to the right of the 1.47-inch color touchscreen.

The 2.4 GHz connection (Bluetooth and wired operation are also supported) supports 8K polling, but just like the previous Azoth Extreme, you’ll need to use the included Polling Rate Booster dongle to get the top refresh rate. The screen can play animations, show photos, and show system stats – there’s even a built-in keystrokes per second counter that Asus says is for music and rhythm games. Moving through the various modes is as easy as swiping horizontally on the screen.

The back is where you’ll find a nice chunky switch for the three connectivity modes (wired is in the middle, and the keyboard supports charging while tethered), with the USB-C port on the opposite corner. Presumably, the plastic section in the middle, apart from being a space to write out “Republic of Gamers” is there to allow wireless connectivity through the otherwise heavy metal chassis.

A lot is happening on the bottom of the ROG Azoth Extreme Edition 20, which is where you can attach one of two pairs of gold feet via magnets if you like a little lift in the back. There is also a name plate, which is gold-plated on one side, and a more ROG-traditional black, white, and red on the other.

The plate is also held on by magnets, and removing it reveals a slot for storing the slim 2.4 GHz SpeedNova dongle, as well as the two-way switch for adjusting the rigidity of the keyboard’s gasket mount. But just as I said when I saw the original Azoth Extreme at CES 2024, the difference in feel between the two modes makes less of a difference than moving between switch types. Both options feel pretty rigid. I suspect most owners will play with the gasket switch a few times, then leave it in one position for months or years.

Carbon fiber remains in the keyboard’s positioning plate, and the transparent linear ROG NX Snow switches are factory-lubed, resulting in a smooth feel and a pleasing clack while typing with no discernible ping. There is also a tactile NX Snow switch, but our model came with the linear option. This is one of the nicest-feeling and sounding gaming-specific keyboards I’ve used to date – given the price, that’s not particularly surprising.

Accessories

Aside from the keyboard, wireless dongle, and the backplate, Asus includes three extra switches (which is kinda skimpy, given the price), along with a metal switch puller and a plastic keycap remover. You also get a 2-meter braided cable, as well as the Polling Rate Booster, which you’ll need if you want a faster response time than the 1,000 Hz that’s supported by the keyboard itself. But since the switches here are mechanical rather than magnetic, 1,000 pings per second is probably enough for the majority of gamers.

Web-based adjustability

I’m not the biggest fan of Armory Crate (or any gaming peripheral software suite, to be honest), so I like that Asus makes heavy use of its Gear Link (https://gearlink.asus.com/) web app for keyboard control here. With the mouse plugged into your system, you can dig pretty deep into the settings via the site.

The settings here feel a little limited compared to theoptions with the 20th Anniversary Harpe II mouse. But you can assign keys and key combinations. Macro recording is supported on the fly by pressing the Fn and Left Alt key to start and stop macros, then pressing the key you want it assigned to.

There are also lots of options for adjusting the screen and the RGB lighting. I particularly like the Music Mode preset, which lets you display an animation and artist / track listing of whatever song you’re listening to. There’s also an option for displaying CPU and GPU stats, including frequency, temperature, fan speed, voltage, and use. There are enough options for the screen (and they’re easy to navigate, thanks to touch and the jog button) that I feel like the screen here is something I would use and fiddle with quite a bit if this were my main keyboard.

Gaming (and working) with the Asus ROG Azoth Extreme Edition 20

While I didn’t have as much time with the keyboard as I would have liked before jumping on a plane to Taipei for Computex, I did use it for work and gaming for about a week. While I generally prefer clicky switches for writing, lubed linear switches have either gotten good enough, or I have gotten used to them enough that I don’t mind using them for productivity tasks. And the linear NX Snow switches here, combined with the general overall quality of the rest of the keyboard, meant I was happy to work on this keyboard for hours – the somewhat muted and very solid sound (and feel) of the keyboard certainly helped.

And whether I was slicing through demons in Doom: The Dark Ages, racking up headshots in Borderlands 4, or checking out the new expansion pack in Dome Keeper, the Asus ROG Azoth Extreme Edition 20 kept my gaming fingers happy. I can’t say that the keyboard made me a better gamer, but it certainly didn’t make me worse, or require much in the way of adjustment. Some gamers may miss the extra programmable keys that would come with a larger key layout, but I’ve personally always found 75% the sweet spot for both work and play.

ROG Keycap Mystery Box Edition 20

Asus also sent along a case of blind box 20th Edition keycaps that it will also sell to commemorate two decades of ROG, which are priced at $24.99. They are tiny replicas of other ROG products, like mice, keyboards, and headsets. There’s a mystery cap that I didn’t get in my box, but of the six standard blind box keycaps, my favorite by far is the ROG Chariot gaming chair, because the chair spins, and I spent at least five minutes with it affixed to the Escape switch, snapping it and watching it spin. Either it’s a great momentary escape all on its own, or I really need a break after I get back from Computex. There must be a grass-themed keycap, right?

Believe it or not, it’s been 20 years since Asus launched its high-end Republic of Gamers gaming line with the first ROG Crosshair, back in 2006 (see our recent review of the commemorative Crosshair 2006 motherboard). And because the sub-brand has since branched out to encompass nearly every aspect of gaming hardware (and also… noodles), Asus is celebrating this platinum milestone with, among other things, new 24K gold-plated peripherals.

Here we are looking at the ROG Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 wireless gaming mouse, which sports a transparent rear section with a gold metal interior surrounding an RGB 20th anniversary ROG logo (which pulses in a gold color by default). It also features a gold metal scroll wheel and side buttons, gold-colored accents on the bottom Corning Gorilla Glass mouse feet, along with white and red lettering on the mouse itself, including a bold “ROG 06 ←→ ∞” graphic on the left mouse button, which implies the Republic of Gamers will outlive the heat death of the universe.

All of this sounds like manufactured opulence and gamer posturing – and it is, as Asus has priced this mouse at $259.99 USD. But Asus has spent the last two decades crafting generally well-designed high-end hardware around its ROG brand, and the ROG Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 is no exception.

Specs and Design

Those who dare to splurge on this mouse will also get the company’s SpeedNova 8K wireless tech (via a svelte USB-A dongle), nicely clicky optical switches, and the company’s latest AimPoint Pro 65K mouse sensor that, at least on paper, seems to match the best options from PixArt. It’s all wrapped up in an 82-gram package that, while far from the lightest mouse around, is certainly light enough for serious, long-haul gaming sessions.

Apart from the fancy triangular fold-out packaging, Asus also includes a plastic display case for the mouse, complete with a clear lid with a gold 20th Anniversary ROG logo, and a silicon bed for the mouse, with an included slot for the 8K transceiver (the mouse itself sadly has no housing for the USB dongle). Some will see this as extra unnecessary packaging, but this is the kind of mouse you might want to show off more than most – and the triangular pod looks like it could be a small cryogenic chamber, designed to get this mouse to infinity, and beyond – or at least help it last until ROG’s 40th anniversary while still looking good.

The exterior shape and design of the ROG Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 should feel comfortable and familiar to connoisseurs of high-end gaming mice, as it’s based on the second-gen Harpe Ace. It’s a mid-sized mouse that doesn’t break the mold in terms of hand feel, button layout, or button count. Aside from the left and right main buttons and the scroll wheel, you get the two gold buttons on the left side.

On the bottom of the mouse, aside from the glass glides and the fancy sensor, there’s a switch for the three modes (2.4 GHz wireless, wired, and Bluetooth), as well as DPI and Pair buttons, the latter for Bluetooth or for pairing the mouse to another compatible 2.4 GHz transceiver. As you would expect, the front edge houses a USB-C port for charging and / or wired use.

Accessories

The accessory box first greets you with a simple graphical tutorial about how to clean the mouse (a small cloth is included). And considering this is a glossy rodent with a see-through back, you should expect to be wiping down the Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 fairly often if you want it to look its best. I do have to wonder worry what the transparent palm area will look like after years of regular use – no matter how often you clean it.

Aside from said cloth, you get a braided 6.5-foot USB cable, a dongle extender to bring the transceiver closer to your mouse, an extra set of mouse feet, and some pre-cut (and ROG-adorned) grip tape. I’m not often one to add grip tape to my mouse, but this one is particularly glossy and slippery, so you might want to consider it.

Also in the box are a foil-adorned ROG 20th anniversary card and a set of similar stickers.

Web-based adjustability

I’m not the biggest fan of Armory Crate (or any gaming peripheral software suite, to be honest), so I like that Asus makes heavy use of its Gear Link (https://gearlink.asus.com/) web app for mouse control here. With the mouse plugged into your system, you can dig pretty deep into the settings via the site.

There are sections for button assignments, SpeedShift settings, and performance. The performance section is pretty deep, with angle tuning / snapping, DPI adjustments (in four presets, or adjustable on the X and Y axis via a slider or letting you punch in specific numbers), and debouce delay.

There are also sections for lighting adjustments, power settings, and calibration for specific mouse pad surfaces (with presets for several Asus products).

A separate Zone Mode section lets you adjust the polling rate (which, like most 8K mice, defaults to 4K out of the box), as well as select the frame rate of the sensor and whether or not the transceiver runs in a dynamic power mode or max power (for the best possible connectivity). I would expect that if you leave the transceiver at max power and the mouse running at 8K, you’ll likely have to charge your mouse quite often. But I didn’t have the Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 long enough to judge battery life in different modes.

Gaming (and working) with the Asus Harpe II Extreme Edition 20

I only had about a week to use the mouse before heading to Taiwan for Computex 2026. But in that time, I used it as my daily driver for work and gaming. And as I would expect for a mouse this expensive, I didn’t have any major complaints. Apart from the slick, glossy surface (which took some adjustment coming from the matte mice I’ve been using lately), the Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 pretty quickly felt like an extension of my mouse hand, letting me game and work mostly without thinking about it (to me at least, this is an important feature in a mouse).

Whether I was using an aluminum mousepad, a more traditional flexible mouse surface, or even the cherry wood of my desk, the sensor performed flawlessly. And the buttons were where my thumb expected them to be, with a cool metallic feel that’s subtle but appreciated (especially as temperatures get warmer).

The editor in me missed the dual-mode scroll wheel of my MX Master 4 for quickly scrolling through large documents, but this, of course, isn’t a productivity mouse. The gamer in me, though, would have liked to see a DPI button on the top of the mouse, when shifting between fast-paced FPS titles like Borderlands 4 and Doom: The Dark Ages, and RTS and casual titles that require a different level of cursor control. It’s not exactly difficult to lift the mouse up and cycle through settings via the button on the bottom, but having that button behind the scroll wheel would make things more convenient.

Bottom Line

The gold-and-black design of the Harpe II Extreme Edition 20, along with its busy graphics, is something you’re likely going to love or hate. But it’s hard to fault the internal components of this mouse, with 8K polling and one of the highest-DPI sensors on the market. How many of us actually need this level of hardware to get the most from our games is debatable. But the ROG brand tends to lean toward the high-end, so no one should expect mid-range components in ROG peripherals. This is a mouse for those who know what they’re after, appreciate ROG’s legacy, and aren’t afraid to splurge when it comes to their gaming gear.

Part of me would have appreciated a slightly lighter weight and a couple more buttons, but you can find those features in other mice from Asus (and its gaming peripheral competitors, of course). As a tech-upgraded, gold-emblazoned cursor controller that both feels and looks premium, the Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 reflects back to ROG’s past (borrowing its shell design from the Harpe II Ace), while reaching toward the future (with its 65K sensor and web-based interface).

It’s also a damn fine gaming mouse for the here and now, as long as you can afford it. And don’t expect to be able to save up forever to afford it. Asus says it will be available from June 2026 through the end of the year.

To say Asus is going all in for the 20th anniversary of its Republic of Gamers brand would be an understatement. The company is launching a slew of gold-accented Edition 20 products here at Computex 2026, from components and peripherals to monitors and routers, and even a NUC. But to use most of the company’s new anniversary hardware, you’re going to need something to sit on, and Asus has you covered there, as well, with the ROG Destrier Edition 20.

Like most of the company’s Edition 20 products, the chair is an update on the original Destrier gaming chair we reviewed (and mostly liked) back in 2023. In fact, it seems to be more or less the same chair, with an Edition 20 logo on the head pillow, a gold spine, and gold accents below the top portion of the armrests. It’s a premium chair, with an aluminum frame, mesh back, PU foam, and synthetic (EPU) leather.

As we said about the original Destrier chair, the Edition 20 is highly adjustable, including the lumbar support, headrest, and arms. It will also almost certainly be expensive. While we don’t have an MSRP or release date yet, most (if not all) of the Edition 20 products seem to be priced higher than the original products they are based on, and the Destrier chair was $899 when we reviewed it. Aside from the price, the only other thing we didn’t love about the original Destrier was its “wobbly armrests.” It’s hard to say if Asus has tightened up those adjustments, but it has added gold to the parts directly under the armrests, so perhaps it tweaked the tooling for the better while making that change.

ROG Bags of Holding

The ROG SLASH Hard-case Luggage Edition 20 adds to the company’s luggage lineup (yeah, I didn’t know Asus sold luggage either), which continues the black-and-gold theme for the brand’s 20th anniversary. The company says the suitcase has a polycarbonate shell with an aluminum frame and “skateboard-inspired spinner wheels,” along with an interior gaming compartment, complete with an “exclusive 20th-anniversary-themed interior woven badge.”For those who dare to carry their wares on their back, there’s also the ROG SLASH Backpack Edition 20, based around the company’s SLASH Backpack 4.0. Aside from the requisite gold accents, it fits up to an 18-inch laptop (this bag is a big boy), with a roll top and a magnetic buckle. It seems like a nice enough bag, but if you’re seriously considering this backpack, you’re probably exactly the kind of ROG fan that Asus is talking to in its marketing materials when it claims this bag “transforms an everyday backpack into a wearable tribute to two decades of gaming culture.” Because the non-Edition 20 model of this bag sells for $219, and I would expect the Edition 20 to have an even higher price, since all of the Edition 20 products seem to have a higher price than their earlier counterparts in Asus’ product lineup.

A software engineer has shared a video demonstrating their brand-new gamified running app for the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses. Highlights of the app, made by Stijn Spanhove, include a ghost racer to help you to keep pace with your best prior runs, coin pick-ups, sprint zone bonuses, and a mini leaderboard. This is only possible now because Meta recently added display capabilities for devs in the Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit and the Web Apps pathway.

The embedded video shows several compelling features of the unnamed gamified running app. As you run, you can see the route with you and your ghost racer’s position superimposed on it. There are also status details such as run distance, completed distance, vs ghost distance, coins collected, and even a score in the HUD. We also note that the wearable feeds the display with pace and distance info, with the compass used to keep the map oriented in the forward direction.

Spanhove makes developing this app for the Ray-Ban Display sound like a walk in the park. “I built a web app for the glasses, loaded a previous GPX from Strava, and dropped game mechanics on top,” he summarized. GPX is a standard GPS file format that contains a route’s data and Strava allows users to export any past run as a GPX file. So, Spanhove just took a previous run and exported it for this gamified web app project.

The software engineer also told folks not to worry about having to run with their chunky flagship phone in their pocket. With this web app, processing is light enough to run smoothly directly on the device, assured Spanhove. “Been wearing a lot of AR glasses, these feel ok. Honestly, comfortable to run in,” he surmised.

Meta's Ray-Ban Display glasses

Meta launched its Ray-Ban Display glasses last year, with early adopters being able to get hold of these wearables starting in October. As you may infer from the name, these were built on Meta’s earlier glasses designs by integrating a micro display in the right lens. The new waveguide display meant wearers would be able to enjoy new apps with AR overlays. So, in effect, Meta’s Ray-Bans were upgraded to include a lightweight AR HUD.

On May 15, Meta opened up developer access to the display on the Meta Ray-Ban Display⁠ glasses with two build paths: mobile apps and web apps. This unlock means devs and enthusiasts can unleash their imaginations. Quickly, there were examples of the new AR glasses being used for quirky fun like boxing games, Tetris, Breakout, and even a utility to interact with your car. Our headlining gamified running example may be the most compelling new use for the glasses yet, though.

We reviewed the original Meta Ray-Bans in Feb 2025.

The office chair is a workplace staple that has seen dramatic evolution and change over the past 50 years. Gone are the hard plastic back chairs with thin foam seat pads of yesteryear, and in their place are a slew of options available for order at our fingertips. We live in the golden age of chairs, so much so that we have entire lists dedicated to the topic, such as our Best Office Chairs of 2026, to help consumers choose the perfect fit for their body and needs.

With so many options available, when examining a new gaming chair, it has become a bit of a process to parse out standout features that help separate it from the many, many other chairs on the market. The Autonomous ErgoChair Pro is one such chair. It offers many of the key features I would want in a gaming or office chair: headrest, back tilt, lumbar support and sturdy construction, but comes up a bit short in the area of overall comfort — placing it in the category of good, but not great.

Priced at $449.99 (£386.39), the Autonomous ErgoChair Pro provides solid back and lumbar support and a breathable mesh backing. Of course, this same mesh makes the seat less than ideal for long periods of sitting, with the overall lack of padding potentially being a pain point for those who work and play all day at a desk. That said, its sturdy build quality, lightweight construction and aforementioned overall frame support do make it a decent gaming or office chair.

Assembly

The ErgoChair Pro arrived at my doorstep in a single, large box. Packaging was well placed, ensuring that no parts were loose and tumbling around during shipping. The parts were also well laid out within the box, making it easy to unpack — a seemingly easy task that I’ve noted can become very convoluted with a poor packing system. Thankfully, Autonomous was on point in this department and unboxing only took a couple of minutes.

Out of the box, the ErgoChair Pro follows a fairly straightforward assembly process. Unlike its more economic counterpart, the ErgoChair Core, the ErgoChair Pro is easy to assemble at every step. Gone is the complicated headrest mounting system, with Autonomous opting for a slide lock system. The rest of the assembly is fairly straightforward with each piece fitting together well, with no notable misalignments of bolt holes or manufacturing defects.

Instructions are straightforward, offering good diagrams and a simple step-by-step assembly process. There are a few spare bolts in the kit, representing one replacement bolt for each bolt size included. This is appreciated greatly as someone who has, on more than one occasion, misthreaded a bolt and sheared the end, making it unusable.

The whole assembly took about 35 minutes with the included hand tool and was easily accomplished alone. While the instructions are included in the box, Autonomous has also made them available as a downloadable PDF on their site, along with an instructional video that highlights all of the chair's functions. It's smart and well-designed.

Specs

Design and Construction

Comparable to the assembly process, the design of the Autonomous ErgoChair Pro follows a fairly standard ergonomic chair design. This iteration of the chair follows that of its predecessor, the EroChair 2, in design and construction. The chair frame is composed primarily of dense plastic. This, along with a German-engineered mesh material that wraps the back, seat and headrest, helps reduce the overall weight immensely. As such, the overall chair weight comes in at a mere 48.50 pounds(22.00 kg).

As someone who shuffles a lot of chairs, often moving them between floors without an elevator, I appreciate this design feature of the ErgoChair Pro. Likewise, it also glides quite nicely along both hard floors and carpets, with the double-walled wheels rolling effortlessly across multiple surfaces. The combination of the chair's lighter weight and smooth wheel roll is ideal for spaces where people move from desks regularly, such as a call support centre or shift work-oriented office spaces.

Once assembled, the chair measures 29 inches (73.66cm) wide by 29 inches (73.66cm) deep, and is 46 - 50 inches (116.84 - 127cm) tall. I appreciate the slightly narrow overall profile, as it does work well in smaller spaces. Despite dense plastic being used for much of the framing, the ErgoChair Pro does feel quite sturdy to sit on. I haven't noticed any unintended chair rocking in my testing. Additionally, the chair arms feel sturdy and handle leaning weight quite well. Rated for 300 pounds (136.08kg), the ErgoChair Pro is much more accommodating than its entry-level counterpart.

The seat-to-base ratio is another well-thought-through aspect of the ErgoChair Pro. Like the ErgoChair Core, the seat-to-base ratio is well implemented. As such, it is possible to sit on the very edge of the seat without fear of it tilting forward and resulting in you sitting on the ground, wondering what happened. While this might seem like a small detail, I’ve tested plenty of chairs that don’t consider this feature, and it can actually become a safety issue if not well-designed. Thankful Autonomous has done an excellent job with this aspect of the ErgoChair Pro’s design.

The ErgoChair Pro comes with a host of control handles and buttons to manage its various adjustable points. While the armrest vertical lock release is easily accessible, and the headrest height adjustment leverages an easy-to-use click step system, I find the seat tilt, height and slide levers more difficult to access than those of the ErgoChair Core. While the ErgoChair Core positioned the chair arms for easy access to the levers, the ErgoChair Pro’s arm positioning actually hinders access a bit. This forces the user to reach much further than needed on the other model.

Cleaning the chair is fairly easy as well, thanks to the aforementioned plastic framing and mesh materials. Thus far, wiping any dirt and grime off the chairs has been as simple as a quick swipe with a Lysol wipe. The ErgoChair Pro also handles bumps well, with no notable scratches present despite having to navigate the tight space here at the office. The hard plastic holds up well.

While I like the overall look of the chair, I’m surprised to see that it lacks the Polyurethane(PU) Leather accents of the ErgoChair Core. This was a standout feature on the entry-level model that adds a premium calibre to the chair, and it's missed here. Despite the missing PU Leather accents, the ErgoChair Pro offers a clean and sleek aesthetic with the two-tone Cool Grey color offering a nice departure from standard black.

Comfort and Adjustments

Like the ErgoChair Core, the Pro version is designed to accommodate people of small to medium build. If you find yourself in the 5-foot-5-inch to 6-foot-5-inch range, the length and width of the backrest work well. The height-adjustable headrest accommodates this wider height range well, a missing element that restricted the Core. The addition of tilt control on the headrest offers further customization here, also.

On the note of tilt control, the ErgoChair Pro offers the same step lock tilt control present in the Core and provides 22° of tilt control. One notable feature of this system, which is only present in the Pro version, is the inclusion of a tension thread that adjusts the tilt resistance. A handle located under the chair allows for increasing and decreasing tilt resistance. It's a welcome feature that allows users to dial in the experience.

The ErgoChair Pro also offers lumbar support with a tension adjustment lever located on the right side of the back of the chair. While it essentially acts as an on/off switch for the lumbar support, though in testing, I’ve not found it to add or subtract that much from the overall support system.

This, as it was with the ErgoChair Core, is a bit of a problem area for the ErgoChair Pro. While I appreciate a good lumbar system in an ergonomic chair, the one present here is extremely limited in its adjustability. This translates to the system being limited in its usability for taller people. It's not uncomfortable by any means; it simply is very restrictive in its effective use cases if you happen to find yourself outside of a specific height.

Shifting to the seat portion of the user experience, as a mesh chair seat design, it's a mixed bag of results. On the one hand, seat depth and height adjustments are present and, like the tilt resistance handle, are located under the right side of the seat. Both work well and offer a good range of adjustment, with the former providing a two-inch depth adjustment and the latter offering three-inch height adjustment.

With this being said, there are two areas of concern. First, despite being comfortable for a few hours of use, mesh chair seats are simply not as comfortable as padded seats over long-term testing. I’ve been using this seat exclusively for the past two weeks and find myself needing to get up and move around more frequently than with padded chairs here in the office. With this being said, the ErgoChair Pro does come in a foam pad seat variant and is the version I would recommend.

It is worth noting that I primarily sit in an office chair, either with my legs stretched out in front of me, with my legs crossed or with one leg tucked under me while I sit. With mesh chair bottoms, as is the case here, there is extra pressure that is applied under the back side of the thigh that, over time, becomes uncomfortable due to the seat frame and lack of padding. As for sitting with one leg tucked under, the same pressure issue is applied now to the side of the ankle and along the calf. It's by no means unbearable, but it’s not as comfortable as it would be on a padded chair.

The other potential concern is that the seat dimensions (referring to sittable surface area) are 19 inches (48.26cm), which will work for small to mid build people. However, if you have a larger body frame, the ErgoChair Pro isn’t going to be a good fit. At 5-foot-9-inches (175.26cm) and 210 pounds (95.25kg), the ErgoChair Pro fits my body type well. However, I’m close to the maximum frame size that would comfortably fit in this chair, in part due to the aforementioned seat dimensions, as well as the chair arm distance, which also measures 19 inches (48.26cm).

On the note of armrests, I do appreciate the hard height lock system that is part of the ErgoChair Pro’s design. A single button located on the front underside of the armrest allows for quick and secure adjustments of the armrest height. As for horizontal tilt and slide, while I appreciated the soft step locking on the Core version of the chair, the ErgoChair Pro variant lacks this system and thus has no real lock feature. While both slide and horizontal tilt were fairly stiff when first testing the chair, as time and use have progressed, they have both loosened up. While they will stay in place once set it's easier to accidentally move them than on the ErgoChair Core.

Essentially, your mileage will vary. If you are someone who likes to sit with both feet firmly planted on the floor and is in the above height range, the ErgoChair Pro should work well for everyday office use. Small and medium-framed people should find this to be a fairly comfortable chair. While not as comfortable as a few other chairs here in the office, I’ve used it for the past two weeks for 6-7 hours a day and on weekends without any major issues.

Bottom Line

The Autonomous ErgoChair Pro is a solid mid-tier office and gaming chair that offers a reasonable set of features and adjustable elements. While it won’t accommodate everyone, it should work well for a fairly wide range of people. It's well built, feels sturdy to use and is comfortable enough to get you through a work day. The lumber support is a bit lackluster, and the mesh seat has the potential to be a pain point for people who don’t naturally sit with two feet planted on the ground at all times.

Priced at $449.00 (£386.39), the ErgoChair Pro is in line with many other chairs in its price range, offering similar features. This might be the biggest challenge for Autonomous, though. It's good, but it's average, lacking any feature that helps it stand out from other chairs in its range. It's still a solid option for its price point, and if you are looking for a lightweight, adjustable office chair, the ErgoChair Pro fits the bill, though I do recommend picking up the foam bottom version. For those looking for a bit more ergonomic comfort, I suggest checking out the Libernovo Omni.

A robotics and animatronic cosplay enthusiast known as Zibartas has made a real-life NUSA Infiltrator jacket. If you aren’t familiar with the jacket’s lore, it is a bomber jacket from Cyberpunk 2077 with a tall collar that houses a display, here recreated in the “super rare white version.” That feature collar alone packs in $1,200 worth of flexible OLED displays driven by a pair of Raspberry Pi 4 SBCs.

Zibartas begins the video by talking about the inspiration provided by Cyberpunk 2077. As a cosplay enthusiast, the now iconic game has provided a great deal of inspiration for him. With the NUSA Infiltrator jacket design in his sights, the obvious question was – how?

The finished collar is lined with a quartet of flexible OLED displays, costing ~$300 each. Zibartas began by trying to drive them from a pair of Raspberry Pi 5s for portability with enough graphics muscle. However, after a week of pixel wrangling found that the hardware decoders of the Pi 4 were better for this particular task.

Next, the work on syncing the two pairs of displays needed to be done. “At the start, I used direct gigabit network, but it added too much of an overhead. So, I moved to pure hardware GPIO pulses and Python,” explained Zibartas. “In the end, I think I got it to as close as it can get.”

With the techy side of the equation solved, Zibartas moved onto the scissors and sewing stuff cosplayers seem to do a lot of. However, the construction of the curved collar would soon precipitate a tech problem, as the first screen to be fitted was damaged when Zibartas attempted to slide it into its upholstered EVA foam housing. That was a $300 mistake.

After a purported few weeks of extra testing the cosplay fan came up with a semi-rigid understructure for the collar. This bendy new design featured side tracks that resist twisting, so it is expected to prevent the issues that broke one of the OLED screens previously.

With the collar feature of the NUSA Infiltrator jacket now ready to go, we see Zibartas work on other fine details of the design. For example he 3D printed a shoulder-mounted ‘radar jammer’ section in flexible resin. Four indicator LEDs are built into this section, too. All these extra jacket components are finished appropriately in black, chrome, and so on.

As the jacket is fully assembled and finessed we learn that the two Pi 4s and two power banks will be hidden in pockets on the mid-lower back of the jacket and provide about three hours of screen and LED power.

For simplicity, right now, the screens show a pre-baked animation loop. However, Zibartas notes that “since it is Linux and HDMI-capable screens, the sky is the limit.” To prove the point, the video then cuts to the maker and cosplayer enjoying a Cyberpunk 2077 gaming session on the collar display hooked up to a Steam Controller.

An electronics, automobile, and DIY enthusiast has turned an old smartwatch into an interactive gear shift display in his 2001 Audi A4 (B5) luxury compact executive car. The project started as just a bit of digital bling for the gear stick, but inspired by fellow Redditor comments, Desmontei vibe coded a WearOS app to add gear indicator and media control gestures to the repurposed digital dial. The watch face was secured to the gear stick very carefully, using a 3D-printed mount with tight tolerances.

Don't throw away old smartwatches! 3D printed a custom housing to turn one into a Digital Shift Knob. ♻️🕹️ from r/3Dprinting

The video shared in Desmontei’s Reddit post shows the smartwatch display changing to match the current gear stick selection. It appears to work as expected, but it wasn’t easy to ensure it reliably reported the correct gear selection. The watch’s accelerometer and gyroscope read the angle of the stick to work out what gear the car is in. However, the data can be thrown off when going uphill or downhill, so dynamic calibration had to be added to the algorithm.

Desmontei’s repurposed TicWatch Pro 3 also doubles as an intuitive media controller. When driving, you can change tracks in Spotify with back, forward, and pause swipes on the screen. The techy DIYer intends to add yet more functionality in due course. Specifically, ‘Phase 2’ will link it up “to an OBD2 scanner via Tasker for live telemetry (RPM, Temp).”

For those who might wish to follow in Desmontei’s footsteps, there’s a lengthy (2 hrs) video to check out on the Desmontei YouTube channel. But, briefly, the DIYer “took an old TicWatch Pro 3 smartwatch and carefully cut the original casing with a rotary tool to extract just the OLED screen and motherboard. Then, I modeled a custom shift knob enclosure to house the electronics perfectly.”

The prototype’s tolerances had to be extremely tight “because I didn't want the screen popping out while shifting gears, and PLA was the easiest to test the fitment,” it is explained. If/when this prototype warps or breaks, “I'll use it as an excuse to reprint V2 in ABS or PETG,” Desmontei added. It’s a neat integrated solution, as the design bypasses the watch battery and is wired directly to the car’s 12V electrics.

Another change that may come in V2 could be the use of a second (reference) gyroscopic sensor in the car to make the gear shift position calculations more reliable. Desmontei's other exploits also include PlayStation and handheld modifications, as seen on their website.

HyperX has long dominated our list of best gaming microphones with its impressive QuadCast (and DuoCast, and SoloCast) lineup of standalone USB mics. But those are just USB mics — convenient to use, easy to set up, and pretty impressive considering the limitations. But a truly professional setup uses XLR, which gives you a more balanced signal (especially over long cables), better audio quality, and is much better for certain types of tasks, such as recording multiple people in one room (e.g. for a podcast).

But XLR setups aren't exactly convenient: an XLR signal needs to go through an audio interface to convert its signal to a digital one, meaning you can't just plug it into your computer. And audio interfaces are complicated (and, often, expensive), and sometimes you just want to plug your mic into an open USB port and start talking.

Enter the HyperX FlipCast: an end-address microphone with both XLR and USB-C connectivity built in, so you don't have to choose. This mic features a cardioid polar pattern and records up to 32-bit / 192 kHz (over USB-C), and has tons of on-mic controls as well as a highly customizable RGB light ring. It looks and sounds good, but it's on the pricier side with a retail price of $229.99.

Design of the FlipCast

The FlipCast looks like most end-address mics: it's a black cylinder measuring approximately 6.75 inches (171.45mm) long by 2.25 inches (57.15mm) wide, bisected by a bright, customizable RGB lightstrip. It has a metal chassis with a matte black finish, and built-in wind foam that covers the actual microphone. It sports HyperX's HX logo on one side (in silver), and attaches to a sturdy metal swing arm on the other side.

The FlipCast comes mounted on its own swing arm, which has a threaded attachment point for mounting on a boom arm or microphone stand. It doesn't come with a desktop stand (or boom arm) in the box, so you'll need to make a separate purchase if you don't already have one lying around. This isn't particularly surprising, as similar end-address mics typically do not ship with desktop stands, but since it's at least somewhat aimed at casual PC users with its USB-C connectivity, I would have liked to see some sort of option to get you going out of the box.

The FlipCast feels fairly sturdy — it weighs 1.26 pounds (571.5g), so it's not very heavy for a microphone (the Rode PodMic USB weighs 1.9lbs / 900g), but it seems well-built and the integrated swing mount is also pretty solid.

The FlipCast has a few on-mic controls, including a tap-to-mute button and a multi-function wheel for adjusting gain, headphone volume, and monitor mix. The tap-to-mute button sits on a slightly raised platform with an LED level meter that's angled toward you, so you can see it while you're using the mic. The mic has a colorful RGB light ring around its center that turns off when the mic is muted (the mute button and the LED meter also turn red). On the back, underside of the mic, there are also two switches that control onboard audio filters — a 150 Hz high-pass filter (for reducing low-frequency background noise), and a presence boost (for adding clarity to vocals).

I like the FlipCast's tap-to-mute button (I've long been a fan of HyperX's tap-to-mute functionality), but the placement is a little awkward — it's right on top of the mic, and it's very sensitive, so you can definitely accidentally activate it when you're moving the mic or holding it to adjust settings. It's not that big of a deal, I guess, as you're probably not speaking when you're moving the mic around (or, at least, not speaking to an audience), but still.

The ports are on the back of the mic — a three-prong XLR port in the center, a USB-C to the lower right of that, and a 3.5mm headphone jack for direct, zero-latency monitoring, to the lower left.

In the box, the FlipCast comes with a couple of accessories. There's the integrated swing arm, which comes pre-mounted, as well as a soft cloth drawstring bag for protection. There's also a 10-foot (3m) braided USB-C to USB-C cable with a USB-C to USB-A converter attached to one end. The extra length is nice, albeit fairly standard — you'll need the extra length when you're threading the cable through the boom arm you'll have to buy. There's no XLR cable, which makes sense, as you need more than just an XLR cable to get an XLR setup working.

Specs

Performance of the FlipCast

The FlipCast is an end-address dynamic capsule microphone with a cardioid polar pattern and both USB-C and XLR connectivity. It records audio in 32-bit / 192 kHz resolution and has a frequency response of 20 - 20,000 Hz, and it has several on-mic controls for adjusting things on the fly (or, well, without software). It's definitely not the first mic with dual connectivity options — Rode has been putting both USB-C and XLR connectivity into their consumer mics for a couple of years, now.

I suspect most people aren't going to buy the FlipCast because they plan to primarily use the XLR connection, since an XLR-only mic would be much cheaper. So the target audience here seems to be mid-range streamers and podcasters who think they're likely to graduate to an XLR setup in the future. Well, that, or people who want a USB mic for convenience but who also occasionally need to record hi-res audio.

Vocals on the FlipCast sound very good over the USB-C connection, although perhaps not quite as good as I expected to hear over this type of mic. My voice sounded warm, full, and it had that broadcast-level quality you can only get with a standalone mic, but it didn't get the powerful proximity effect I get from the Rode PodMic USB — the proximity effect was there, yes, but it just didn't sound as intimate. Perhaps it was the built-in wind foam — the PodMic USB comes with a removable wind foam cover.

The mic also picked up a lot of plosives when I got too close to it, though it did much better when I put a metal pop screen in front of it. The built-in high-pass filter does a pretty decent job of filtering out low-frequency background noise, but the software-based AI noise reduction is what you really need to keep the sounds at bay. I was impressed with the AI noise reduction — it did a very good job of filtering out background noise, such as fans and traffic, and it even reduced my typing to a manageable volume level, without taking too much away from my voice. While my voice still sounded fuller without the AI noise reduction turned on, the difference was mostly noticeable side-by-side.

I'm a big fan of the FlipCast's on-mic controls. The tap-to-mute button, while a little over-sensitive, is very well-implemented and works perfectly without disrupting the audio even slightly. The multi-function wheel is also very convenient; clicking the wheel switches between functions, of which there are three: mic volume, headphone volume, and mic/headphone monitor mix. The mode is indicated by color (pink for mic volume, yellow for headphone volume, and blue for monitor mix) as well as symbols — the mic symbol lights up for mic volume, the headphone symbol lights up for headphone volume, and both light up for monitor mix, which is actually very intuitive.

Features and Software of the FlipCast

The FlipCast is configurable through HyperX's Ngenuity software, which is officially out of beta. While you don't need Ngenuity to use the microphone, especially as the mic has a built-in high-pass filter and presence boost, the software does let you fine-tune some settings — it includes a parametric mic EQ and a handful of effects, including AI noise reduction, a compressor, and a limiter.

You can also use Ngenuity to change the lighting on the RGB light ring, which is surprisingly customizable. It has 13 individually-customizable light zones, in the event you want to layer different lighting effects. It's not quite as customizable as the lighting in some peripheral apps, such as Razer's Chroma suite, but it's significantly more customizable than it needs to be. You can turn off the lighting here, too — turning off the light ring will not turn off the sound meter or the red mute indicator.

Bottom Line

The FlipCast is a great-sounding microphone that will work in both professional and casual setups, thanks to its dual USB-C and XLR connectivity. It's got a lot of handy on-mic controls, including a built-in level monitor and a built-in high-pass filter, and the tap-to-mute button works flawlessly. This is very different from, say, the Rode PodMic USB, which has dual-connectivity but no on-mic controls, or the HyperX QuadCast 2 S, which has all sorts of controls and lighting but no XLR connectivity.

But at $230, the FlipCast is kind of pricey for what it is — the PodMic USB may not have the on-mic controls, but it sounds better and retails for $30 less (and is currently on sale for even less — $188 at Amazon). And if you don't need the XLR connectivity, the QuadCast 2 S sounds just as good and costs $100 less (and is currently on sale for $107 at Amazon). So the FlipCast — which, by the way, is also currently on sale, for $190 at Amazon — ends up being a somewhat niche product.

A member of a crime syndicate that tried to smuggle cocaine inside printers has been sentenced to nine years behind bars, reports the Australian Federal Police. Australian Border Force (ABF) officers intercepted five printers in Melbourne in 2017 containing ten packages of cocaine that weighed a total of 22.4kg (roughly 50 pounds), concealed in the devices’ paper trays.

After discovering the haul of compressed white powder, the ABF set up a sting operation to catch the crime syndicate. They removed the drugs from the printers, replacing them with a material (of similar size/weight, we assume) and then tracked the consignment to a factory.

At the factory, law enforcement arrested four men who accessed the consignment, charging the quartet with “attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug,” the two agencies said.

The sentencing just last Friday for a smuggling operation that was uncovered back in 2017 seems rather slow. But the unnamed man — now 47, and sentenced to nine years with a non-parole period of four and a half years — is just the latest of four involved in this case to be processed through the Australian courts.

The AFP report notes that the first of the quartet put into the dock was a man aged 45. On August 24, 2022, he was sent down for 10 years, with a non-parole period of six years and six months imposed. Then, on October 21, 2025, a 42-year-old man was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of five years and six months. Meanwhile, the fourth man charged managed to win a not-guilty judgment in court. All four men charged were from the southeastern state of Victoria.

“The ABF has its eyes firmly set on criminals importing illicit substances into the country,” ABF Commander Clinton Sims was quoted as saying. “Alongside our law enforcement partners, we will target criminal entities seeking to prey on our communities and ensure they have their day in court.”

Several of the best gaming headsets are designed for connecting to multiple devices, usually via a base station like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro to the Astro A50 X. The base stations of these headsets usually let you plug multiple devices in — such as a PC, a PlayStation 5, and an Xbox — and switch between them seamlessly with the press of a button. But you still need to connect your devices to the base station via a USB-C cable, which means your devices need to be at least somewhat close to each other.

Turtle Beach's new Stealth Pro II, however, does not have this wired limitation. While it does come with a base station (that acts as both a transmitter and a charging dock), it also includes a wireless dongle transmitter that you can plug into a different device. And it can connect to up to four of these transmitters, meaning you can connect to up to four different devices wirelessly, which is sort of a game-changer for those who don't have their PC next to their Xbox next to their PlayStation 5.

The Stealth Pro II also features dual-wireless connectivity with Bluetooth 5.3, a detachable 9mm boom microphone, and a fully redesigned frame that looks much better than its predecessor. It's available for pre-order in black and white colorways (our review unit was white) for $349.99. Also, if you pre-order on Turtle Beach's website, you'll get a free additional wireless transmitter — extra transmitters will cost you $35, otherwise.

Design and Comfort of the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II

The Stealth Pro II is an over-ear (circumaural) wireless gaming headset with dual-simultaneous wireless connectivity and a detachable flip-to-mute boom microphone. It's the second generation of the brand's Stealth Pro, and it's been completely redesigned.

The headset features a plastic and metal design that's a lot more attractive, in my opinion, than its predecessor. It has a soft, rubbery-feeling headband with suspended mesh "padding" that keeps the rigid parts from pressing into your skull. The headband attaches to the earcups via curved aluminum yokes that slide in and out for individual height adjustment. The earcups are made of smooth, soft-touch plastic and have machined metal speaker plates with Turtle Beach's palm tree logo printed on them. The left earcup is magnetically detachable and allows you to access the headset's hot-swappable battery. The earpads have sculpted memory foam padding and are covered in breathable fabric, and are very good at passively keeping ambient noise out — though the headset also has active noise cancellation for an even quieter experience.

The earcups are independently height-adjustable; to adjust them you just slide them along the metal yoke. Each earcup extends a little over one inch (25.4mm) and the inside of the headband measures approximately 12.5 inches (317.5mm) fully extended. The earcups also swivel 90 degrees, tilt, and the headband is flexible enough that you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a good fit for your head. I found the headset to be extremely comfortable — at 13.86 ounces (393g), the Stealth Pro II is not nearly as airy and lightweight as the Turtle Beach Atlas Air (10.61oz / 301g), but it's comfortable enough that I didn't feel the need to take a break, even after hours of wearing it. That said, I can see how the suspension mesh part might bother some people — it's definitely firmer and presses more directly on your skull than a more traditional suspension band, such as the one on the Atlas Air or even the Audeze Maxwell.

The Stealth Pro II has controls on both of its earcups. On the left earcup, from back to front, there's a mode button, a volume wheel, a chatmix wheel, a USB-C charging port, and a power button, as well as a Mini USB port for the detachable boom mic. On the right earcup, from back to front, there's a CrossPlay button for switching between sources, a second volume wheel (for Bluetooth volume), and a Bluetooth button. The chatmix wheel and the mode button on the left earcup are both programmable, so you can swap in different functionality, but the wheel defaults to chatmix on the Xbox version and mic monitoring on the PC version, while the mode button defaults to toggling ANC on/off.

The Stealth Pro 2 comes in a nice, sturdy, zipped carrying case, which is rigid on the outside and has custom cut foam on the inside. It comes with a wireless USB-A transmitter, a battery charger (that also acts as a second transmitter) and extra battery pack, a detachable boom mic, and a 6.5-foot (2m) USB-C to USB-A cable.

Specs

Audio Performance of the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II

The Stealth Pro II sports Turtle Beach's 60mm "Eclipse" dual dynamic drivers, which have a frequency response range of 10 - 40,000 Hz — wider than the average gaming headset, which usually sticks close to the standard 20 - 20,000 Hz range of human hearing, but not quite as wide as the Audeze Maxwell 2 (10 - 50,000 Hz). These drivers are both larger (at 60mm, versus other headsets' 50 or 40mm) and feature a design with distinct woofers and tweeters for "vastly improved audio detail over conventional drivers," according to Turtle Beach.

I was impressed with how both music and games sounded on the Stealth Pro II — there was plenty of detail in atmospheric games such as Where Winds Meet and God of War: Ragnarok, and the sound stage sounded wider than I'm used to on closed-back gaming headsets. Music on the Stealth Pro II was also bright, punchy, and detailed — I could hear the full flow of the timpani in the beginning of Lorde's Royals, as well as the deep nuanced bass in Hans Zimmer's Time, with very good clarity. While the bass on this headset was solid, the highs were a little too turned up out of the box: Footsteps and gunshots in games were unnecessarily present, and the strings at the beginning of Britney Spears' Toxic were close to being painful.

The headset sounded decent with the ANC turned on — ANC tends to affect sound negatively, and while the Stealth Pro II wasn't an exception, the difference wasn't unbearable in gaming (it was more noticeable with music). As far as noise cancellation, the ANC did an excellent job of canceling out ambient noises, such as the low hum of my computer fans. But the earpads also did an excellent job of passive noise cancellation, so much so that the ANC almost seemed superfluous.

Usability is always a bit of a concern when it comes to multi-device headsets, but the Stealth Pro II felt pretty intuitive and straightforward. I appreciated the dedicated Bluetooth volume wheel for dual-simultaneous wireless connections, and switching between USB connections was fairly quick and painless. While there are a few different headsets with base stations that let you connect to more than one device at a time, the Stealth Pro II's multiple wireless dongles means you can connect to devices that aren't within USB-cable-range of each other — not necessarily in separate rooms, but just further away than standard 6.5-foot cables will let you reach (plus, it's neater). Turtle Beach says you can connect up to four sources via CrossPlay, but it only includes two connections (the transmitter dock/battery charging station, and one USB-A dongle) in the box.

Microphone of the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II

The Stealth Pro II has a detachable 9mm flip-to-mute boom microphone as well as beam-forming mics built into the earcups. The boom mic has a floating design that uses spokes to suspend the microphone away from the boom arm for "pristine vocal clarity," according to the company.

It sounds good — very good, for a headset mic — but it didn't blow me away, as many headset mics these days are pretty impressive. My voice came across full and warm and close to (but not quite) broadcast quality over the boom mic, but everyone I spoke to over voice chat could tell I was wearing a headset. As always, I love Turtle Beach's flip-to-mute system — it's the perfect system, and the only one that's never confused me. I wasn't sure how muting the inline mics worked, however, as there's no dedicated mute button out of the box, but I also couldn't get the inline mics to work at all (...maybe that's the trick). I can only assume this is something that might need to be set up or switched to in Turtle Beach's Swarm II software, but I also couldn't get that to work — at least not by time of writing (I'll revisit this a couple of days after launch to see if anything has changed).

Features and Software of the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II

The Stealth Pro II works with Turtle Beach's Swarm II universal peripheral software, which has never worked smoothly for me and certainly wasn't about to start with this review. While I was able to perform an initial firmware/software update, the software continued to prompt me with "Update Available" — blocking me from accessing other parts of the app, of course — but simply giving me a "you are up-to-date" message when I tried to update. Presumably, Swarm II will let you do things like change settings, adjust things such as noise gate and mic monitoring, and access audio and microphone EQs. This is also where you can program the programmable button/dial on the headset, and where you can (god willing) update your firmware.

Luckily, not being able to actually see the software wasn't too much of a setback for me, as I long ago realized that it seems to have some sort of personal vendetta against me. The Stealth Pro II works very well out of the box, and while the EQ and mic EQ would be nice to access, they're not absolutely necessary (for now). Let's hope the firmware updater is working by the time these get into consumers' hands, though.

Battery Life of the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II

Turtle Beach rates the Stealth Pro II at 80+ hours of battery life if you take advantage of its hot-swappable battery system. It comes with two 40-hour batteries that can be hot-swapped — similar to the previous Stealth Pro.

This isn't really the most convenient system for traveling, but it's a pretty solid system for a gaming headset that will live primarily on your desk, as it means you can swap out the battery in just a few seconds without having to worry about any downtime, basically. (Although, I guess simply plugging your headset into a charging dock while you play isn't really that much of a hassle, either, if you're already tied to your desk.) Forty hours is a big improvement over the original Stealth Pro, which had two 24-hour swappable batteries.

Bottom Line

Turtle Beach's Stealth Pro II is a big improvement over its original Stealth Pro in both design and functionality — it's sleek and pretty (I wasn't a big fan of the original Stealth Pro's design), comfortable, and it connects wirelessly to multiple devices simultaneously. Switching between my PC and my PS5 was pretty seamless, though I did have a few wireless hiccups when I was signing onto the staff morning meeting, and the simultaneous Bluetooth playback worked very smoothly. The Astro A50 X did manage to do the device switching just the tiniest bit better, but the Stealth Pro II's wireless connectivity is definitely a game-changer. At $350, the Stealth Pro II isn't cheap, but it's cheaper than similarly multi-tasking headsets, such as the $400 Astro A50 X or the $600 SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite.

We've taken the top six Thunderbolt 5 docks we could get our hands on and put them into a six-way battle for supremacy. We’ve previously taken a look at a couple of popular Thunderbolt 4 docks on the market, including the Ivanky FusionDock Max 1 and the Amazon Basics Thunderbolt 4 Pro Dock. However, with Thunderbolt 5 now on the market and proliferating on desktop motherboards and laptops, we’ve decided to take a look at what’s available in the Thunderbolt 5 dock market.

This time around, we’ve assembled the CalDigit TS5 and the brawnier TS5 Plus, along with the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock, the Ivanky FusionDock Ultra, Hyper HyperDrive Next, and WAVLINK WL-UTD58. As an added data point, we also have an Orico Thunderbolt 5 SSD enclosure for testing external storage speeds over Thunderbolt 5.

Let's take a look at the contenders, then get to the benchmarks, and finally crown the winner.

CalDigit TS5 Plus

CalDigit TS5 Plus

The TS5 is already impressive in its own right, but the $499 TS5 Plus dials up the specs a notch or two. While the TS5 includes 15 ports, the TS5 Plus bumps that to 20.

The design of the TS5 Plus closely resembles the TS5, but it is slightly taller and features a space grey finish instead of natural aluminum. As for the port arrangement, this is what you’ll find on the TS5 Plus:

Front

• 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 3x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 4x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x DisplayPort 2.1
• 1x 10 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x audio-in
• 1x audio-out
• 1x 240W power port

As you can see, the TS5 Plus is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to ports. While it loses one downstream Thunderbolt 5 port, it gains a DisplayPort 2.1 port. You’ll also find three additional USB-C ports and a total of four USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports on the back. CalDigit also managed to squeeze an extra USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 port on the front of the unit.

You’ll also appreciate that the onboard LAN port has been upgraded to 10 GbE (up from 2.5 GbE). In addition, external monitor support remains unchanged from the TS5, allowing you to connect up to four monitors to a M5 Max-equipped Mac.

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock

Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock

If the CalDigit docks are all-business with a Mac-infused aluminum unibody style, the $399 Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma definitely shows its PC gaming roots. The dock features an anodized black aluminum chassis with an etched Razer logo on top. However, Razer plays up the gamer angle with a Chroma RGB light ring at the base of the unit, visible along the front and sides of the chassis. If this motif is a bit much for your aesthetic tastes, Razer also offers a “Mercury” version of the dock that features a more subdued natural aluminum finish (it’s also $10 cheaper).

Thunderbolt docks are known for their propensity to generate a lot of heat, and Razer’s offering is no exception. However, Razer tackles this challenge with a built-in cooling fan that helps to dissipate heat.

But active cooling isn’t the only trick up Razer’s sleeve; it also has a built-in PCIe Gen 4x4 M.2 slot on the bottom of the unit. This is a toolless addition: the bottom cover is easily removed using a clip retention system, and the SSD is held in place by a rotating retention clip. Thermal pads are also included that touch the top and bottom of the SSD to help dissipate heat and avoid throttling.

Razer’s solution is ingenious since your SSD is hidden away from view with access to the internal cooling fan, and you don’t have to give up an external port to connect a USB-C/Thunderbolt SSD enclosure.

Speaking of ports, the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock isn’t as well-stocked as the two CalDigit docks. You’ll find:

• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 3x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo port (7.1 Surround)
• 1x 1 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x 250W power port
• 1x Internal M.2 Slot (PCIe Gen4x4)

Razer has made a few decisions with its Thunderbolt 5 dock that I question. The UHS-II SD slot is mounted on the right side of the unit, which is easy enough to access, but there are no front-mounted ports. All of the remaining ports are on the back of the unit. It would have been nice to have at least one USB-C port and one USB-A port on the front of the unit to quickly connect a thumb drive or other frequently used accessories.

The other curious choice is the 1 GbE port on the back of the dock. This is a Thunderbolt 5 dock – I’d expect at least a 2.5 GbE port, and ideally a 10 GbE port, at this price point ($399). The CalDigit TS5 gives you a 2.5 GbE port, while the TS5 Plus offers a 10 GbE port.

With that said, the dock supports up to 120 Gbps (80 Gbps for data and 40 Gbps for video) and delivers up to 140W to a laptop. It also supports up to three 4K monitors simultaneously operating at up to 144 Hz.

WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M

WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M

The WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M is another solidly built Thunderbolt 5 dock, and its chassis is made entirely of high-quality aluminum. The chassis is relatively long and flat, and can only be used in a landscape orientation (unlike the two CalDigit offerings). There are plenty of ventilation slots along the sides and top of the WL-UTD58-M to help keep the internals cool.

Design-wise, I have one issue with the WL-UTD58-M. Power plugs into the back of the dock, while the Thunderbolt cable coming from the host computer plugs into the front of the dock. It makes for a cluttered appearance, and I would have preferred the upstream Thunderbolt 5 port to be on the back, like it is with other docks we have here in this comparison.

With that said, you get a decent allotment of ports, including:

Front

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x audio combo jack
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot

Back

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x 2.5 GbE (RJ45) port

There are handy SD and microSD slots on the front of the unit, along with two USB-A and one user-accessible Thunderbolt 5 port (the other is for the host computer). On the back, you’ll find two more Thunderbolt 5, two more USB-A, and a 2.5 GbE port.

Like the Razer and Hyper docks, the WL-UTD58-M includes an M.2 PCIe Gen 4x4 on the bottom of the device. The bottom panel is held in place by a single screw and can accommodate a 2280-form-factor SSD. There are no provisions included for securing shorter SSDs.

Ivanky FusionDock Ultra

Ivanky FusionDock Ultra

The Ivanky FusionDock Ultra is an ambitious product targeted at a limited set of users. While the other Thunderbolt 5 docks assembled here are compatible with Macs and Windows PCs, the FusionDock Ultra is only compatible with Macs. And limiting its reach even further, it's only compatible with Apple Silicon Macs. And yet another limitation is that, because the dock uses two Thunderbolt 5 chips, you must give up two Thunderbolt ports on your Mac.

However, if you have an Apple Silicon Mac, the number of ports available to you is unmatched by the FusionDock Ultra. If you thought the TS5 Plus was impressive with 20 ports, the FusionDock Ultra ups the stakes with 26 ports, made possible by the dual Thunderbolt 5 chips. To keep the internal circuits cool, Ivanky uses twin cooling fans to expel hot air from the enclosure. The fans are dynamic, spinning up only when necessary, depending on the load.

The dock itself is quite attractive, with a Space Grey finish, gold trimming, and a "floating midframe design" in which the main unit is surrounded by an outer heatsink.

Front

• 6x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (45W PD)
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 2x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 4x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x DisplayPort 2.1
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 1x 10 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x audio-in
• 1x audio-out
• 1x S/PDIF
• 1x 240W power port

It’s hard to be disappointed with the sheer number and variety of ports available on the FusionDock Ultra. It’s absolutely bonkers to see 7 USB-C ports on the front of the unit, although having access to four fully-fledged Thunderbolt 5 ports on the back is great. It’s also nice to see dedicated HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1 ports, along with an S/PDIF jack. And as you would expect with such a high-end dock, there’s a 10 GbE port onboard as well.

About the only thing missing from the FusionDock Ultra is an internal M.2 SSD slot, but given the number of ports available, we won’t hold a grudge over the omission.

Hyper HyperDrive Next

Hyper HyperDrive Next

Hyper's $399 HyperDrive Next Thunderbolt 5 dock features a dark grey aluminum chassis, but it's not a full aluminum shell like the other docks assembled here. Instead, both the front and rear fascias are mae of plastic, which doesn't impart the same feeling of quality.

The top of the enclosure is smooth to the touch, while both sides feature a ribbed design to better disperse heat.

Front

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 2x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x 2.5 GbE (RJ45) port

The $399 dock features a dedicated power button on the front (something that you won't find on the other docks) and includes a 2.5 GbE network port on the back. Interestingly, Hyper doesn't equip the dock with an SD or microSD slot. You do get a good assortment of ports up front, including one Thunderbolt 5 and two USB-A, along with two additional Thunderbolt 5 downstream ports on the back.

The HyperDrive Next includes an integrated SSD slot (PCIe Gen 4x4) for storage expansion. The dock includes mounting points for 2230, 2242, 2260, or 2280 SSDs, providing plenty of flexibility. There are also thermal pads included for both sides of the SSD to aid in cooling (which is important given that Thunderbolt docks, in general, tend to get rather toasty).

The HyperDrive Next supports up to 80 Gbps for data and 40 Gbps for video, and is compatible with up to 140-watt charging to a connected laptop. When connected to a PC, the dock supports up to one 8K/144 Hz display or up to two 8K displays running at 120 Hz. If you're using a Mac, a single display to 6K resolution and 60 Hz is supported, or dual 6K displays at up to 60 Hz. Windows machines can also support triple 4K monitors at 60 Hz, while Macs can only support this configuration if equipped with an M5 Pro (or higher) SoC.

CalDigit TS5 Dock

CalDigit TS5 Dock

CalDigit's "TS" line comprises its high-end Thunderbolt docks (with the "Element" line being a step below). The $399 TS5 is the entry point for CalDigit's high-end Thunderbolt 5 docks.

CalDigit hasn't broken any new ground with the TS5's design, as it looks similar to the TS3 and TS4 that came before it. That means you get a passively cooled dock that can sit either horizontally or vertically, depending on your needs. The chassis is machined from aluminum, which matches almost perfectly with the natural aluminum found on Apple's silver MacBooks. There's also a collection of cooling fins on the sides to help dissipate heat.

Despite being the entry-level model, the TS5 packs a wealth of ports:

Front

• 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x microSD UHS-II slot
• 1x SD UHS-II slot
• 1x audio combo jack

Back

• 1x Thunderbolt 5 upstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 3x Thunderbolt 5 downstream (80 Gbps bi-directional)
• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2
• 1x USB-A 2.0
• 1x 2.5 GbE (RJ45) port
• 1x audio-in
• 1x audio-out
• 1x 240W power port

The TS5 supports up to 120 Gbps (80 Gbps data, 40 Gbps video) and external SSDs at up to 6,200 Mbps (twice as fast as previous-generation Thunderbolt 4 docks). In addition, it supplies up to 140W power delivery to a connected laptop.

When it comes to monitor support, the TS5 can support up to four external monitors simultaneously. Properly spec'd Macs and PCs can support up to three external monitors. Only Macs with an M5 Max processor can support four monitors at once (up to four 6K at 60 Hz or four 4K at 144 Hz).

Orico Thunderbolt80G Enclosure

Orico Thunderbolt80G Enclosure

To test SSD speeds with the assembled Thunderbolt 5 docks, we used an Orico Thunderbolt80G enclosure. This is an aluminum-alloy Thunderbolt 5 enclosure that supports up to M.2 (PCIe Gen4x4) SSDs. The Thunderbolt80G enclosure retails for $165 on Amazon.

A single screw is removed to lift off the ribbed bottom panel, which reveals the internal M.2 slot. Orico provides a thermal pad for affixing to your SSD, which is then secured with a screw. A single 80 Gbps Thunderbolt 5 cable is also included in the box.

Thunderbolt 5 Dock Specs Comparison

Thunderbolt 5 Dock Specs Comparison

Thunderbolt 5 Dock SSD Performance

Thunderbolt 5 Dock SSD Performance

For storage testing, we used a PNY CS2150 PCIe 5.0 SSD. We first tested the SSD in our test system, which features an Asus Z890 Creator WiFi motherboard with an onboard PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and two Thunderbolt 4 ports.

Next, we tested the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock with the CS2150 installed into the internal M.2 slot. Finally, we tested the CalDigit TS5 and TS5 Plus connected to the CS2150 within the Orico SSD enclosure via a Thunderbolt 5 port.

We ran a quick test with CrystalDiskMark, which is a free benchmarking tool, to see how each dock handled the PNY CS2150 SSD.

For baseline numbers, we saw 10,381.26 MBps reads and 8,645.4 MBps writes using the CS2150 on an Asus Z890 Creator WiFi motherboard. Switching to the Razer Chroma 5 Dock, the sequential reads and writes dropped to 5,627.29 MBps and 5,620.6 MBps, respectively. Not surprisingly, the CalDigit TS5 and TS5 Plus posted nearly identical performance, at just over 5,300 MBps sequential reads and 5,520 MBps sequential writes. It should be noted that all three docks cite a theoretical maximum of 6,200 Mbps transfers (64Gb/s PCIe 4.0 interface).

Given that the FusionDock Ultra is only supported on Apple Silicon Macs, I couldn’t run our CrystalDiskMark benchmarks on the CS2150. However, when using the CS2150 with an Orico SSD enclosure connected to a free Thunderbolt 5 port on the back, I recorded read speeds of just over 3,000 MBps and write speeds of over 2,500 MBps using BlackMagic Disk Speed Test. Keep in mind, however, that the FusionDock Ultra was limited to Thunderbolt 4 speeds on the MacBook Air (M4) that I used for testing.

I had no trouble using any of the docks to run two monitors simultaneously, including a 49-inch, 240 Hz DQHD monitor. Each dock worked impeccably with my Windows 11 Home desktop system (except the FusionDock Ultra, which is incompatible), an M5 MacBook Air, and an M4 Mac Mini. The latter two systems only support Thunderbolt 4, but the docks are backward compatible with the older, slower interface.

There were also no issues using the onboard LAN ports, as I was able to reach the theoretical maximum on each port using iPerf3 testing across all three docks (including the 10 GbE port on the TS5 Plus and FusionDock Ultra).

As for thermals, all remained warm to the touch, even when the host computer was idle. At no time did any become too hot to handle. The Razer Thunderbolt 5 and FusionDock Ultra docks were slightly cooler to the touch thanks to their internal fans (which are only audible if you stick your ear to the unit).

Bottom Line

Although Thunderbolt docks don’t really make much sense for most desktop systems, they are an incredible lifeline for laptops, which have a more limited port selection. You can take one Thunderbolt 5 port from your MacBook Pro and, in return, get 20 ports with a CalDigit TS5. Not only do they offer a “one cable” solution for data and power, but you also get a wide range of connectivity options across Thunderbolt, USB-C, USB-A, and SD/microSD. And in the case of the TS5, DisplayPort 2.1 and 10 GbE ports are part of the equation.

The Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock is a sleek solution that provides an internal M.2 slot for storage expansion and Chroma RGB effects that can sync with your Razer laptop. However, I’m not thrilled with the lack of front-mounted ports or the lackluster GbE network port provided, given its $399 price tag.

The CalDigit TS5 Plus is the overachiever of the bunch, offering a total of 20 ports and support for up to four external monitors (when connected to an M5 Max system). You get five legacy USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, four USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports, a 10 GbE port, and more. However, that abundance of connectivity options results in a hefty price of $499.

The CalDigit TS5 is not as port-packed as its “Plus” sibling, but it still offers three downstream Thunderbolt 5 ports along with a wealth of USB-A and USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports. Like the TS5 Plus, the TS5 also includes multiple front-mounted ports for USB-C, audio, and SD cards. The TS5 also one-ups the Razer Thunderbolt 5 Dock by including an integrated 2.5 GbE port instead of the old hat GbE. At a street price of $399, the CalDigit TS5 is the best option for most people.

The Hyper HyerDrive Next and WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M are both good options if you're looking to spend $400 or less. In addition, they both include an M.2 slot for expanding storage with an SSD.

That leaves us with the Ivanky FusionDrive Ultra. This dock is an exercise in excess, from its elaborate design to its use of two Thunderbolt 5 chips to its requirement of two free Thunderbolt 4 ports. But in return, you get an insane 26 total ports, including seven USB-C ports up front and four Thunderbolt 5 on the back, along with HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, and 10 GbE ports. However, compatibility is extremely limited, working only on Apple Silicon Macs. In addition, with a street price of $650, it’s by far the most expensive dock we tested.

However, if it were money being spent on a Thunderbolt 5 docking station, I’d have to give the crown to the WAVLINK WL-UTD58-M. With an integrated M.2 slot and a well-balanced assortment of ports, it’s hard to ignore its value proposition.

Additional Thunderbolt 5 Docks to Consider

Although we plan to keep this guide updated as we test additional Thunderbolt 5 docks, here are some additional units to consider:

• UGREEN Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $299.99
• Ivanky FusionDock Pro 3 Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $224.99
• Ivanky FusionDock Max 2 – $339.99
• Anker Prime Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $399.99
• Kensington SD50000T5 Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $239.99
• CalDigit E5 Thunderbolt 5 Dock – $249.99

Valve's Steam controller will be available for preorder here starting at 10AM PT today.

Valve’s Steam Controller quickly became a runaway hit, selling out in an astonishing 30 minutes after its official launch. However, Valve is giving its aficionados who didn’t get one in the first wave another opportunity to purchase the controller. The company has announced a new reservation system that opens at 10 AM PT today, allowing eager customers to reserve their own Steam Controller.

Valve has already committed to replenishing its Steam Controller stock for customers who missed out during the initial launch frenzy. To manage the overwhelming interest and ensure a fair purchasing process, Valve will open a reservation queue at 10 AM PT. Interested buyers can go and secure their place in line.

Once the Steam Controller is back in stock, Valve will begin sending out order e-mails in the same order as the reservations were received. Therefore, early registrants are given priority. To prevent scalpers and resellers from exploiting the system, Valve has implemented several requirements as security measures.

Valve has limited reservations to one Steam Controller per user. In addition, users who have already purchased a Steam Controller are ineligible to reserve another unit to discourage stockpiling. To address concerns about scalpers creating new Steam accounts to circumvent these requirements, Valve has implemented several measures.

Any Steam account wishing to participate in the reservation must have made at least one purchase on Steam before April 27, 2026. This requirement significantly reduces the likelihood of fake or newly created accounts exploiting the system. Valve is also requiring that each participating account be in good standing. In other words, there should not be any existing bans or payment disputes on the account.

Having a reservation doesn't mean you've secured your Steam Controller, either. Once Valve initiates the next phase and begins sending order e-mails, buyers will have a three-day (72-hour) window to complete their Steam Controller purchase. If you’re not in the habit of regularly checking your e-mail, we recommend you remain vigilant for the next few weeks, or you could lose your chance to buy a Steam Controller.

The Steam Controller launched for $99 on May 4. It only took 30 minutes for it to sell out. The demand was so high that Valve's payment system crashed almost immediately after the controller's launch. It didn't take long for scalpers to start flipping the controller on eBay for over $300. By combining purchase history checks and account status verification, Valve aims to combat scalpers and bots and put Steam Controllers in the hands of legitimate customers.

The timeline for restocking Steam Controllers will vary by location. Valve has announced that reservation fulfillment will begin in the United States and Canada next week. Customers in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Australia, on the other hand, can expect their orders to be processed in the coming weeks.

Valve just released the CAD files for the Steam Controller and the Puck, which is used to charge and connect the controller to your PC. According to the Steam Community blog post, the STP and STL files are publicly available under a Creative Commons license on GitLab, making it easier to modify and create 3D printed accessories for both gadgets. A few reference files also note off-limits areas, as placing anything there will interfere with normal operations (such as the antenna and magnetic connectors).

Just like the Steam Machine, Valve envisions the Steam Controller to be endlessly customizable, at least in its physical look. Even though the Steam Machine doesn’t have a definite launch date yet, especially as it has been seemingly pushed back multiple times due to the AI-driven memory chip crisis, we’ve already seen a couple of accessories designed to customize the look of the living room PC console.

These 3D CAD files are available under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International license, meaning anyone who uses them is free to share their creations provided they attribute the original creator, use them solely for non-commercial purposes, and distribute their creations under the same or a compatible license. We can already envision some of the possibilities enabled by these files, including 3D-printed smartphone holders, charging bases, table hooks, and more. But if you plan to sell your creations, you must secure a different license from Valve, as Creative Commons doesn’t cover that use case.

This isn’t the first time that Valve has released the 3D CAD files of their hardware. The Steam Deck arrived on store shelves on February 25, 2022, but the company released its official CAD files a couple of weeks earlier. This resulted in a vibrant community of 3D printed accessories for the Steam Deck on Printables, allowing gamers and enthusiasts to experiment with various builds to improve and customize their gaming experience.

Hopefully, Valve does the same for the Steam Machine, releasing the 3D files for the console a couple of weeks before its release. Many gamers were excited for its expected release in early 2026, but the RAMageddon has forced the company to push back its launch to “first half of 2026” and then to “this year.” If and when Valve releases the 3D CAD files for the Steam Machine, it’s likely the much-anticipated console will finally arrive within a couple of weeks, give or take a few days.

In 2001, a Danish company with the name of “Soft Trading” released the ICEMAT - a simple, yet effective mousepad. Six years later, the company became what we know today as SteelSeries. SteelSeries is now known for a variety of gaming peripherals, such as the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless — a headset known for its fantastic noise cancellation for gaming and media — but its roots are in the best gaming mice (or, well, mouse-related things).

The SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless Gen 2 is the company's latest gaming mouse to go on those mouse pads. The Aerox 3 is a lightweight mouse, with bright colors and loud yet satisfying switches. It's also one of the few lightweight mice that still sports the perforated design that was trendy a few years back but has since been mostly abandoned in favor of ultra-lightweight plastic. The Aerox 3 Wireless Gen 2 is available in three colors — Magenta Haze (pink), Shadow (black), and Ghost (white), for an MSRP of $110. That $110 price tag makes it a little competitive — competitive enough to take a deeper look at, anyway.

Design and Comfort of the Aerox 3 Wireless Gen 2

The SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless Gen 2 is a lightweight, colorful, honeycomb-style gaming mouse with lots of RGB, a semi-translucent shell, up to a 4,000 Hz polling rate, a 26,000 DPI sensor, mechanical switches, and PTFE skates for $110.

First things first, I want to discuss the color of the SteelSeries Aerox 3, because it’s truly my favorite part of this mouse. We received the Magenta Haze version and it took me back to the days of translucent controllers and consoles in the late ‘90s. Even with the RGB disabled, the mouse looks great and just makes you feel good.

Despite having a honeycomb construction, the Aerox 3 features an IPS4-rated design called “AquaBarrier,” which will protect the mouse against spills and dust. Honeycomb mice have never really been my favorite — I feel like the design has been beaten to death, and is more of a gimmick than anything given how light non-perforated mice are these days.The brand-new Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike, for example, has no holes and weighs just 61g — 7g less than the Aerox 3's 68g weight. But while I personally don't see the appeal of the design, I know some people love it.

Aesthetics aside, I found the SteelSeries Aerox 3 to be a very comfortable mouse. The Aerox 3’s dimensions are as follows: 2.64 inches (67mm) wide, 4.74 inches (120.5mm) tall and 1.49 (37.8mm) deep. Not the largest mouse on the market, but on the larger side in general. For perspective, I have pretty large hands, so if you do as well then you’ll probably find this mouse to be pretty comfortable.

Underneath the colorful shell are the loudest switches I have used in any gaming mouse before — and I love it. The clicks aren't obnoxiously loud, but they’re certainly audible — and very satisfying. They're rated for up to 80 million clicks, so you should be set for many years.

What I didn't like about this mouse was its sensor. I didn't hate it, but I found the TRUEMOVE 26K optical sensor to be sluggish and a little awkward-feeling. This was surprising, because the Aerox 3 Wireless' software is full of features to help you fine-tune the mouse, yet I just couldn't get it to feel right. When I was using the 2.4GHz connection, I noticed my cursor would almost lock up just before I went to click on something. Needless to say, this was very frustrating. Fortunately (sort of), this wasn't an issue over the Bluetooth connection.

As you might expect, the bright, awesome-looking RGB means a lower battery life. SteelSeries rates the Aerox 3 Wireless' battery life at 120 hours over a 2.4GHz wireless connection and 200 hours over Bluetooth. Of course, this decreases as you add lighting and up the polling rate. When I had RGB and Bluetooth enabled, I noticed the battery dropped about 10% every three hours, which wasn't too bad. The mouse also charges quite fast, so you shouldn't have too much trouble keeping this mouse working wirelessly.

Specs

Performance & Software of the Aerox 3 Wireless

The SteelSeries Aerox 3 is powered by SteelSeries' “GG” software (which is named after the classic text chat slang for "good game," I assume). The GG software is good, but frustrating. Upon booting up the software, you’re asked to enter your email address to utilize its unique features, such as Sonar, Moments and 3D Aim Trainer. Sonar is basically an audio mixer for your headset to make it easier to identify enemies in-game, Moments is for capturing clips, and 3D Aim Trainer does what you think — it helps you improve your accuracy.

As mentioned earlier, the Aerox 3's sensor is a bit sluggish. I usually set my DPI to 1,900 but with the SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless Gen 2, I had to bump it up to 2,000 — which is a pretty significant increase. I also had tracking issues when I was utilizing the 2.4GHz wireless connection. It was almost like the cursor was locked to only horizontal and vertical movements. Fortunately, this issue didn't happen when I was connected via Bluetooth or USB-C, but it's definitely concerning given that 2.4GHz wireless is going to be most people's primary connection with this mouse.

During my testing I racked up a few hours on Ready or Not, which is a tactical, SWAT-style FPS that calls for strategic movements, quick reaction, and every button on the mouse. Despite my issues with tracking, I never experienced any issues in-game — I had no issues snapping to targets and calling for my squad mates to secure the perimeter.

The Bottom Line

The SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless Gen 2 is a nice-looking mouse — even though I'm not a fan of the honeycomb design, the semi-translucent bright magenta shell makes this mouse pop, especially if you have the RGB lighting enabled.

But looks aren't everything, and the mouse's sluggish performance over the 2.4GHz wireless connection was frustrating. I hope this was just an issue with my review sample, and if not, it's probably something that SteelSeries could fix with a firmware update, but it's something to be on the lookout for if you're considering this mouse.

While I did genuinely enjoy the Aerox 3 Wireless Gen 2, it's not my first choice for a lightweight mouse. While lighter mice, such as the 56g Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro, tend to be stripped down and less exciting-looking, mice like the Glorious Model O 2 Wireless weighs the same as the Aerox 3 Wireless Gen 2 and also comes with holes and RGB lighting (and costs $10 less). The Aerox 3 Wireless Gen 2 is a solid mouse, but even at its $110 price point... I'd still recommend waiting until it goes on sale.

Valve's Steam Controller is, or at least was temporarily, officially available. The long-awaited $99 controller sold out shortly after going live on Steam, and in turn, spurred larger issues with purchases across the platform, as noted by users in the Steam Controller pre-order megathread. Scalpers have quickly capitalized, with confirmed pre-orders relisted on eBay for $300 or more.

Although it's common to see high prices from scalpers immediately after an in-demand product launches, it seems some people have bought the controller at inflated prices from resellers. Browsing through sold listings on eBay, there are dozens of confirmed orders, most of which are above $200. Over on the Steam Controller subreddit, some users are celebrating successfully checking out, while others say they aren't able to get through the process due to Steam payment errors.

We've been keeping tabs on Steam Controller inventory, and it currently appears out of stock in the U.S. Some users, however, claim that the controller has intermittently come back in stock during the time that it's been available. Valve hasn't said when the controller will be available again. Tom's Hardware has reached out to the company for comment, and we'll update if we hear back.

We gave Valve's controller four out of five stars in our Steam Controller review, with our reviewer Andrew E. Freedman writing, "The Steam Controller is a comfortable, fully-featured controller at a sensible price point between basic controllers on the market and their more customizable counterparts. It's a bit weighty, but it's comfortable, and if you love your Steam Deck, you'll feel right at home."

However, he had criticisms compared to controllers with broad support on PC, such as an Xbox Series controller, noting that it's designed primarily to work with Steam (go figure).

The Steam Controller was originally revealed alongside the Steam Machine late last year, presumably set to release together. Valve officially delayed the Steam Machine in February, however, citing rising memory costs, and said it was reconsidering the price. Following a delay from the first half of the year, Valve changed the wording on the Steam Machine's launch page from "early 2026" to "this year," suggesting another delay.

Thankfully, the Steam Controller isn't susceptible to memory shortages. It's just susceptible to tried-and-true scalping bots. If you want to read more about the Steam Controller while you spam your F5 key, make sure to read our Steam Controller developer interview.

Secretlab dropped a Mandalorian Edition to its Titan Evo gaming chair lineup on Star Wars Day, giving the company's flagship seat a chrome leatherette finish designed to mimic Din Djarin's Beskar armor. The chair starts at $664 and is available now in the U.S. and Canada, arriving less than three weeks before The Mandalorian & Grogu hits theaters on May 22.

• Check out the The Mandalorian Titan Evo at Secret Lab

In this special edition gaming chair, Secretlab has swapped the standard leatherette colorways for a silver chrome finish meant to approximate the look of forged Beskar steel. Beyond the color palette, the chair incorporates several references to Din Djarin's kit: visual elements drawn from the character's helmet, chestplate, and vambraces are worked into the seat's detailing, and the Mudhorn signet is embossed on the side of the headrest. On the seat base, Secretlab stamped the Mandalorian creed "This is the Way" in Mando'a, the fictional language of Mandalore.

Beneath the themed exterior, this is the same Titan Evo 2022 that Secretlab has sold for the last four years, which still ranks among the best gaming chairs. The chair uses the company's cold-cure foam seat, four-way L-Adapt lumbar support system, 4D armrests, and a magnetic memory foam head pillow with cooling gel. The Regular size fits users between 5 feet 7 inches and 6 feet 2 inches tall and up to 220 pounds, while the XL accommodates those up to 6 feet 9 inches and 395 pounds.

Secretlab's full accessory carries over, including the Titan Evo NanoGen upgrades and the Secretlab Skins sleeve system. The company also backs the chair with a five-year extended warranty when buyers share a photo of their setup.

The $664 starting price matches other licensed Titan Evo editions, such as the existing Empire and Stormtrooper variants. Pricing increases with optional add-ons. Unfortunately, no UK pricing or availability has been announced at the time of writing, and the chair is only available to purchase via the U.S. site.

The Mandalorian Edition joins an established lineup of Star Wars products from Secretlab. The company already sells Empire and Stormtrooper colorways of the Titan Evo, Secretlab Skins in Boba Fett, Jedi, and Ahsoka designs, and a Magnus Pro sit-to-stand desk featuring blueprints of the Millennium Falcon and the second Death Star.

Disney's The Mandalorian & Grogu opens in theaters on May 22, the franchise's first theatrical release since 2019's The Rise of Skywalker. If you’re looking for more Star Wars-themed gear for your gaming setup, we’ve got a full roundup of peripherals, games, and collectibles available for May the 4th.

When we reviewed the Steam Controller, we had the chance to sit down with Valve and talk about our experiences using it and ask questions about it.

We talked with Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais and Steve Cardinali, a mechanical engineer on the Steam Controller team, to talk more about the controller's design, the fact that it works only with Steam, and to learn more about how the company is dealing with latency, among many other topics. We published excerpts from this interview in a story alongside the review. Here, we're presenting the full transcript of our conversation.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Andrew E. Freedman, Tom's Hardware: So I've been playing around with the Steam Controller. I have questions about why you made some of the choices you did. I also have some questions about the Steam philosophy behind the controller. So I want to get into all those. I think the first thing is, why is now the time to make a controller again? The Xbox controller is widely seen as the default. The PlayStation controller has better PC support than ever. I was just plugging it in for some comparisons and had a whole bunch of PC drivers. Why is now the time for Valve and Steam to get back into the controller game?

Pierre-Loup Griffais, Valve programmer: Yeah, actually, on the PlayStation side, we've been working closely with Sony to enable that stuff and make it work as well as possible out of the box. So we expect the situation to be pretty good there.

In terms of our controller, I think that if you look at efforts like the Steam Machine and the Steam Controller, they're more or less all coming from the same spot, which is we had a bunch of Steam Deck users that were using their Steam Deck in all kinds of different ways, and some of these ways included docking on a TV, right? We got some feedback that while they really appreciated having the same exact experience with respect to like the UI and being able to get in and out of their games quickly and all that, docking a Deck meant missing some of the inputs, right? Like leaving some inputs behind, because you're leaving the Deck on the dock. And so I think the Steam Controller is a great experience for that. You have all the same inputs that you're familiar with. It's pretty much the exact same layout as the Deck, with a bunch of improvements on it, but also just for PC as a whole.

I think the Deck was a great data point on that input scheme working really well to both work for games designed with controllers and games designed without and, you know, take control of your desktop and use a bunch of PC apps and all that. So that stuff's been looking really good. And so making a controller, you know, as a standalone version of those same inputs, I think, is a logical next step there.

Freedman: One thing I was very surprised about when I first plugged the Steam Controller in, was that the setup flow really is pretty minimal, right? Update your firmware, here's how to enter Big Picture Mode, and off you go. And I think in many ways, to get the most out of the controller, it had me digging deeper in Steam Input than I think I admittedly ever have before. Did you ever consider having more sorts of teaching moments about Steam Input for newer users? Or did you just kind of kind of assume people would sort of dig in as needed?

Steve Cardinali, mechanical engineer on the Steam Controller team: You know, we wanted it to be out of the box, easy to use for people who maybe just want a controller that works like a controller and how they would expect, so that you're seeing that element there, of course. And a lot of thought went into that process. But on top of that, in developing this controller, and along with the original Steam controller in the Steam Deck. A lot of work has gone in Steam Input, like you're saying. And there's a lot, a lot there. And one of the things that the controller team is working on right now is actually a couple rounds of how-to tutorials on like how to set up your track pads in these certain ways, and the ways that we find work best; how to set up gyro; different input mappings' and layouts that we have found success with to get people started to get exposed to Steam Input and all the power it has behind it without being too overwhelming.

Griffais: It's really important to us that if you don't want to deal with any of that stuff, you don't have to, right? That the surface level experience gets you controller compatibility in games that are meant for controllers without any sort of tinkering. So the Steam Input stuff is there if you want it, but we don't want it to be a required element to just experience the baseline functionality there.

Freedman: Was there ever consideration for instance, the way Steam Deck had a game, I'm blanking on the name.

Griffais: Aperture Desk Job.

Freedman: Right. Was something like that ever a consideration for people who hadn't used the Steam Deck before or maybe might be considering this for the first time on a desktop or eventually, a Steam Machine? "Hey, here's how you get used to the input."

Griffais: Actually, I think that — and this might still be a conversation that's ongoing — but there were some conversations here about making Desk Job work well with the controller as well, because 99% of what you get through Desk Job is actually controller functionality. There is one step, I think, where it teaches you to use the touchscreen on the deck and maybe a microphone, and so I think we were thinking about making some adjustments so that it could be used just with the Steam Controller on a PC to teach you the same elements around motion controls, trackpads and all that that, you know, it walks you through. I'm not sure where those discussions are, but I think that was in the cards at some point.

Freedman: That's really interesting. So speaking of features and functionality, I happen to be playing a lot of Resident Evil 9 on my Steam Deck, and transitioning to the Controller felt very much like playing on my Steam Deck. I'm pretty sure that's the goal. When you were deciding to make a controller out of the Steam Deck, how do you decide which features from other controllers and the Steam Deck to include?

You have some from a lot of what you might consider more "basic" controllers, right? You know, your face buttons, things like rumble. Then you have things that you might consider from "elite" style controllers, for lack of a better term, right? Back buttons, gyro. So how did you decide that "OK, we're going to do back buttons, but we're not going to do replaceable thumb sticks, or we're not going to do replaceable back paddles." Where do you sort of decide?

Cardinali: Sure, yeah. For the controller, at least, it was, I wouldn't say, straightforward, but we had the guiding principle of Steam Deck users who get this controller, it should feel very similar. And it shouldn't be like a bunch of new stuff in their face that they have to then go and to the Input layout configurator and change settings, right? We wanted it to be natural. You're playing a game on your Steam Deck, and you go sit on your couch. You play it on Controller, it feels similar. So that helped us kind of keep the feature set down to what we had in Steam Deck.

The one main thing that kind of crept in that you probably have noticed or heard about is the Grip Sense. We're always trying to highlight new ways that you can play mouse and keyboard games — like competitive mouse and keyboard games — with a controller. The original Steam Controller did a great job of that, and then we carried over those trackpads and gyro over to this new controller. But as the gyro community becomes more and more prevalent, they do all sorts of things to enable and disable gyro for ratcheting. And we wanted to put something in there for them, for that community, to make sure this supports them in a competitive style as well. So that one kind of snuck in there, because we feel like that's an important feature for those kinds of games. Everything else is like. We didn't want to overburden the product with too much additional cost, or weight, or battery consumption. We wanted it to be a great controller for everybody. So we tried to really focus in on what we thought was the core, important feature set with this, you know, extra bonus in there.

Griffais: Yeah, some of these questions apply to the design of the Steam Deck too, right? Like, how did some of these inputs get in there? And what did not get in there? I think, like Steve said, every time we look at an input, we're conscious of overburdening the user. Like, having too many inputs is really not something that we want to see. And you know, the cost, the weights, everything comes into play there, But for for the back buttons in particular, I think we saw pretty early, including the first Steam Controller, that we had a bunch of players that felt limited in what they could do while manipulating the camera. And we thought it was really important to have all the functions in the game still available while you're fine-tuning the camera. We saw a bunch of users use claw grip to counteract that, right, where you're using your thumb and your index fingers to still have access to the diamond buttons, even though you're fine-tuning the stick. And we thought back buttons was a really good solution to that. So on the Steam Deck, you know, the four of them tested really well, and they weren't too invasive, right? Like, they're disabled by default. They're just part of the grip. You don't really have to think about it.

Freedman: Right.

Griffais: Grip sense is a similar thing, right? Like, it's, it's in because it doesn't really change how you have to approach the controller if you don't really use it. And so it's, it's this easy, additive thing that doesn't perturb things that way. It and is, is really, easy for us to — well, I mean, it's not that easy. There's a lot of considerations there. But it was doable, I guess, to put it in while retaining the whole feature set and not compromising the rest of the, you know, the core principles around the controller there, which are, first and foremost, have all the inputs that you would expect from regular controllers in the place that your fingers expected. Which is something that was really important for us on the Deck as well. So that the diamond buttons, the bumper trigger, the analog sticks all kind of fall into place, and then all the extra inputs are there if you need them, just like the software features for configurability.

All-new TMR sticks

Freedman: The other big addition you didn't mention is the TMR joysticks. That didn't make it into the Steam Deck or the Steam Deck OLED. So why was the controller the right place to start?

Griffais: I think the answer there is that we tried seeing if the TMR sticks would work in the Deck, right? And it was a little bit early for that. I think the technology was nascent, and the vendors there were, you know, new into the market, but we tried to see if it would have made sense for the Deck, for the Deck OLED, and, you know, we were looking at it. And so, I think, in the Steam Controller timeframe, it was just ready enough that it made sense. But I think we've seen the value around it from the get go, we tried to make it work pretty hard.

Freedman: Were there any sort of technical discussions on using TMR versus Hall effect when you're designing it?

Cardinali: You know, it primarily came down to which version of the technology we were most comfortable with using, which felt most mature and ready for us to use. But, you know, TMR, it has all the same pros as Hall effect, but the extra benefit it has is that it has lower power consumption. So that's like a huge benefit for why we went down that path, right? We don't have to eat as much battery life when using these new sticks.

Freedman: Why not put a headphone jack for passthrough audio on the controller? You're on the couch, you might want to be chatting. Why not? Why leave that one off?

Griffais: It's a hard one. I mean, it's just very, very hard to productize, like in terms of the audio bandwidth and the additional cost and complexity in the system design. I think it's something we evaluated, and then we looked at all these other features, and we focused on that instead. No, it's not to say that we don't see the value there. So it's more than it didn't make the cut this time around. Because, you know, the other things were more important when it came down to prioritization.

Connectivity

Freedman: Let's talk about the Puck. I have never seen a dock for a controller that wasn't huge before, right? It's always a big stand. So at what point did it come about that you were going to turn a 2.4 GHz wireless solution into a charger? Because it's made it hard for me to get the best battery life, because it's so easy for me to just take it and put it down and walk away and think, "Oh, I put it in the natural spot."

Cardinali: Yeah, well, we did our job then, right? [Griffais laughs] I mean, that was, that's honestly primarily one of the reasons, right? We knew we wanted a proprietary wireless connection, just to make sure that we had a robust, low-latency connection, and we can control the end-to-end conversation so that we can guarantee performance. But it's a hard thing to ask customers to have a little dongle and, like, plug it in somewhere. And then a lot of people solve that problem by having a dock, which adds extra value, but from our perspective, we wanted to minimize the burden to the desk. Right? Your desk base, some people have small desks. A big dock can take up a lot of space.

And the Puck itself — We know there's an active community of makers that use our products, and we have people internal [sic] who have designed and printed their own little mounts that hold the puck as a full dock. And we expect people to do stuff like that with this, and keeping it small allows people to do that without kind of over-prescribing how they design it and use it around it. And then it has the added benefit that it has this nice, satisfying little click when you put it over, it snaps into place. You don't have to worry about plugging it in. It kind of came about just because we knew we needed that connection. We were trying to solve problem with getting away from your PC, as well, with wireless interference. Just kind of popped up out of all those. How do we make this a good user experience.

Freedman: Speaking of connection, you recommend Bluetooth 5 or higher. How did you combat latency here? And you have a 250 Hz polling rate. We are seeing some things go up to 8,000 Hz. For me, I can't tell the difference. How do you settle on what type of connection to use to reduce latency?

Griffais: In terms of what we're working back from, it's very much the actual experience, right? So we're looking at the polling rates of the internal components and what they're actually able to report their updated data. Every component there that has analog data or digital buttons, has different performance characteristics when it comes to how quickly you can poll them from the MCU [microcontroller unit] and the trackpad, and the analog triggers. And analog sticks are all going to have different characteristics. But we wanted to make sure that we weren't leaving anything on the table where the transport, like getting the data to the PC would actually, you know, gatekeep, limit. any of the core potential of those parts. So that's kind of how we picked our core update right there, which I think, you know, is pretty high-performance. There's a lot of updates there.

But then, when we look at the transport, we think we got to a pretty good place with Bluetooth, right? Where Bluetooth, if you have one controller connected, the performance is actually pretty comparable to what you would get over our direct link using the Puck, right? But as soon as you add more controllers into the picture, that's where the limits of Bluetooth start showing up. So if you have two controllers over Bluetooth, the latency is actually doubled, and then it keeps going like that, right to the point that it becomes very noticeable, even for people that are not looking for that kind of stuff. So the custom protocol there, when you use our Puck, lets you have up to four controllers on one puck with no latency hit, which we're really excited by. But at the end of the day, the latency we're working back from is the core performance of the actual parts in the in the controller.

The Steam Ecosystem

Freedman: I want to ask more about the philosophy of the controller within the Steam ecosystem. The controller only works through Steam, right, on Windows, on macOS, if you're not in Steam, it's seen as a USB mouse. I plugged it into a PlayStation and it's seen as a USB mouse. Why not have it so that it works more widely outside of Steam even if Steam would actually still be the best place to use it?

Griffais:, I guess there's a couple dimensions to that. I guess one thing that I must point out before continuing this answer is that on Linux, we have made a built-in driver that is actually in the Linux kernel that lets you have gamepad functionality without needing Steam running. So it's kind of a baseline level of support. There's no analog to other platforms right now. So like, like you said, on Windows, macOS, or any other computer or computer-shaped object, it's going to be in default operation of, you know, being a USB mouse and keyboard composite device where you can use it to mouse around, to use arrow keys, escape, enter. You know, have basic control over your device there.

But the the main thing to keep in mind is that to be a controller, like a PlayStation controller on PlayStation or an Xbox controller on a Windows PC, you have to go through the driver framework for those controllers, and the licensing program for those controllers. Essentially, if you want to work out of the box as a PlayStation controller, you have to be a PlayStation controller, right? And so there's a bunch of stuff in a Steam controller that is kind of its own thing. And so there's not really a set precedent for having custom controllers with extra inputs that are not just aliasing buttons over standard controllers, or just doing things that don't require, you know, those extra software features to be registered using the standard driver. So then you'd end up in a spot where you have, you know, maybe a button to switch modes, where you're either in PlayStation mode, or you're in the full mode. And then, you know, the burden of trying to, like, the complexity of trying to navigate that and added cost to have those different mode of operations, and the added parts would, we think, not be worth it for the end user there.

That being said, we're pretty happy we're with where the ecosystem is. Adding games to Steam is pretty easy. We keep making it easier and easier on SteamOS, you can just right-click any installed app and say, "add to Steam." And then from that point on, you're good to go. You can assign a custom configuration to it, and it's pretty easy on other operating systems as well. So I think getting the full feature set there is possible on the whole catalog, even non-Steam games and standalone apps outside of Steam. But for sure, it comes with the kind of trade-offs when it comes to first-time setup that you enumerated.

Freedman: One of the first things I felt like I had to do once I had used the Steam Controller in Steam was that I gotta play Fortnite with it. Because that's very famously only available in one place in the PC ecosystem. And I was able to do that, but one of — I think it was one of the joysticks wasn't working as expected. Has there ever been a thought of, like, can we get this working at a baseline on other launchers, or is that just like so far down the pipe, because you can add other games to Steam?

Griffais: It's definitely something we think about, and we get feedback along those lines. I think right now, we are trying to make it as easy as possible to get it working through Steam, including adding other things through Steam. But it's possible, you know, in the future, it's something we'll look at with a different approach there. But I guess we're limited in what we can do with things like core operating system drivers and such, right?

Like Xbox controllers have built-in support within Windows itself. PlayStation controllers have a driver that they work with Microsoft on. So it's, you know, it would be quite a bit of a different method of supporting it to try and go with those ways. I think we'd rather just make it as easy as possible to get it added to Steam so you can benefit from that functionality without needing any sort of kernel driver that would potentially, down the line, cause system instability or things like that.

Like we're really, we're really happy with not having a kernel driver, because it comes with the onus of not messing it up, right? And so right now, the current method of supporting the controller is pretty safe.

Launching before the Steam Machine and Steam Frame

Freedman: The Steam Controller is launching ahead of the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame? How has that changed launch for you? It kind of feels from history that people are used to controllers launching alongside consoles. That there should be a specialized box that it controls. Obviously, it works great on other things. I've used it on a Steam Deck. I've been using it on my rig. But how has that changed the launch and how you're looking at messaging with the controller?

Cardinali: I was gonna say it really hasn't. Because from the get go, the controller wasn't just something we saw as only a Steam Machine controller, right? It is, first and foremost, a PC controller. It's going to work great with your Steam Machine. It's going to work great with your Steam Deck, but on your Windows, or wherever you have Steam, it'll work great as a Steam Controller. And essentially, you know, we had, we had thought at some point maybe they would launch together, depending on how the timing lined up. But it was never a constraint internally that it's something we had to do, because we saw them truly as two separate products that work well together, but they're their own things.

Griffais: We expect a vast majority of users will be on PC, right? There's so many people there that might be in demand for a controller. And so I think that was always our priority from the get-go.

Griffais: You can definitely draw a line between the first Steam Controller and this one in terms of development features and philosophy. Like you said, though, the first Steam Controller was more of a peripheral for PCs to play PC games, whereas this controller is more a normal controller, first and foremost, And then it adds some of the same features that let you play PC games with the first Steam controller. So a lot of it is actually working back from the feedback that we got on the first Steam Controller, where people appreciated the features that let them play their PC games, the mouse controls and all that. But they, instead of, switching between a Steam Controller when they're playing PC-only games and an Xbox controller, they wanted something that did both.

And so when we designed the controls of the Steam Deck, we very much were implementing that feedback and made sure, like we were saying before, to have a standard controller, you know, and with all of its inputs in all the spots that your hand would expect it. And so that was a that was a pretty core design principle there that followed us from the legacy of the first Steam controller. So all the extra features are there, but also, you know, the knowledge of the desire that people just want a device that does all of those things.

Ergonomics

Freedman: One thing that surprises me about this, given how many things are packed into it, how do you work to make it feel good in the hand? I mean, it's very it's ergonomic for what it is. I expected, after an extended period of time, I would find issue with, "oh, you know, you have, the touchpads down here," or, you know, where the back buttons are, anything like that. How do you sort of fit all that into something so ergonomic?

Cardinali: A lot of prototypes, a lot of prototypes. Like, we spent an entire year for this controller just thinking about ergonomics, and how do we take the Steam Deck inputs and put them in a controller in a way that's comfortable, doesn't feel too big in people's hands, especially people with small hands, and feels good in people with big hands, right? A lot of internal testing, we brought in external people to come get their hands on functional prototypes. I mean in terms of functional prototypes, before we even, like, locked the ergonomic design, we probably made 30-plus functional controllers that people could play games with.

Many of them were just different iterations on the trackpad alignment and, like, the direction orientation. The first inception. They were just square, and just like, aligned with the system, like it is in the Steam Deck, versus "clocked and canted," as we lovingly call them now. That took a lot of work to land there and a lot of testing, because with something with this many inputs, you really have to spend time and do the due diligence to make sure that it's going to be comfortable for the majority of people.

Griffais: Yeah, just like the Steam Deck, ergo was pretty much at the top of the priorities list when we're designing things. So things like making sure it's comfortable, definitely above, you know, the cosmetics around it, right? So we got the feedback a ton that Steam Deck looks bulky and uncomfortable, but then once you hold it, it feels great, right? Then, I think that's very much a result of that. Unfortunately, we didn't find a way to make it feel great and also look great. But you know, there's, there's always next one.

Component shortages & tariffs

Freedman: There's been a lot of questions about the rest of the Steam hardware lineup because of things like component shortages and tariffs. How has that affected the Steam Controller? Has that affected the $99 pricing or the timing of its release?

Griffais: Yeah, it has definitely, it's definitely affected it. I think [that] our price reflects the reality of building the product and getting it to customers at the real cost that we can make it with the reality of today's economics and, you know, dynamics. So for sure, there is things like tariffs included, depending on the region and so on.

But that being said, like for something like a controller, the current conditions, with all the memory shortages and all that, don't really affect it that much, it would have been way worse during Covid. Like during Covid, there was a microcontroller shortage, the same kind of microcontrollers that you use in a controller like that. But that's really not a problem right now. So I would say for the controller itself, it's more things like import duties and shipping costs rising because of current conditions that would affect it. So it's not as much as it would, you know, a big PC product with lots of memory in it, but it's definitely affecting it.

Freedman: And you guys definitely have experience shipping PC products during Covid.

Griffais: Unfortunately, yeah. I mean, it seems like whenever we decide to launch a product or some kind of worldwide, global condition trying to prevent us from doing so, but we've been persisting.

Freedman: Given the current situation in which you've built and priced the controller, was there anything — any features — that you had to consider taking out of the controller to make it price-efficient?

Cardinalli: I mean, those conversations happened way earlier on in development of the program, so nothing that kind of came about in the past, call it year, really affected any final feature decision, right? Those were made way earlier.

[Interview ends]

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