A lot of what makes the best laptops for Adobe Photoshop also makes the best laptops for video editing: a well-balanced combination of performance, battery life, and a bright and vivid display. Whether you're just learning the ins and outs of editing photos or can wield the lasso tool like a scalpel in the hand of a surgeon, there's no shortage of great options, whatever your skill level.

Laptops with Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs are now available for creators with demanding Photoshop needs, as well as all Intel's Core Ultra 200-series and AMD's Max Pro series of processors. Professional editors can benefit from the added performance of a discrete graphics card by enabling Photoshop's hardware acceleration features, which helps power through demanding tasks faster.

A high-resolution OLED display is also something to consider. You'll not only get to enjoy the rich hues and deep contrasts OLEDs are famous for, but some of them also have wide color gamut coverage — wide enough to find colors in between colors.

For beginners or anyone looking to save money, any laptop with last-gen hardware will still provide more than performance to move Photoshop edits along quickly. Even ones without a discrete graphics card. Check out our best laptop deals for the best discounts at various price points.

This page is regularly updated with our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag’s top picks for 2025.

Update Log

6/6/25: Updated intro, benchmark comparisons, recently reviewed, and FAQs; added the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a as the best workstation and the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition as the best 2-in-1.

The Quick List

Best Overall

There's little not to love about the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9. It features a gorgeous display, powerful processor, solid discrete graphics, and enough memory and storage for creators of all skill levels. It even comes with decent battery life and a comfortable, bouncy keyboard.

Rami Tabari said in our review, "I love a display with a little kick. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i’s 16-inch, 3200 x 2000, 165Hz panel is gorgeous. It’s reasonably bright and offers a vivid wave of color."

The Yoga Pro 9i covers 105.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is well above the premium laptop average (91.2%). Its display is far better than similar laptops like the HP Spectre x360 16 (87.1%), Dell XPS 14 OLED (79.9%), and Apple MacBook Air (77.8%).

The Yoga Pro's powerful combination of an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card provide enough power for even the most demanding projects. The Yoga Pro 9i also lasted a respectable 9 hours and 51 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which is far more than many similarly packaged laptops.

The Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 base model costs just $1,482 for an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The fully specced $2,043 version provides an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor with an RTX 4060 GPU and a 16-inch, 3.2K, Mini-LED display. Our preferred middle-of-the-road spec costs just $1,784.

See our full Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 review.

Best under $1,000

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425) is a laptop that can do just about anything. It continuously amazes us how budget-friendly this absolute powerhouse is. With its power performance, solid graphics, and almost 16 hours of battery life, we have good reason to love the Zenbook 14 OLED as much as we do.

In my review, I note that "the display panel on the Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) looks incredible. The new trailer for Chris Pine's The Poolman showed crisp, vibrant colors, particularly in the scenes shot outdoors in LA during what appears to be a Lunar New Year celebration."

Starting at just $799, this laptop has a powerful Intel Core Ultra 5 135H processor with 8GB of DDR5 memory, 512GB of SSD storage, and a 14-inch FHD OLED panel. But if you can flex your budget just a bit more to the higher-end spec, at just $1,049, you get an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with 16GB of DDR5 memory and 1TB of SSD storage.

The Zenbook 14 OLED's display could be brighter and more vibrant, but with a DCI-P3 rating of 79.8%, it is comparable to most other laptops in its category, such as the Apple MacBook Air 13 M3 (77.8%) and the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405M (81.7%).

But the Zenbook 14 OLED is more than its display panel. Surviving a shocking 15 hours and 52 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, it is one of the longest-lasting Intel laptops we've seen this year. Considering how budget-friendly this laptop is and how well it handles Photoshop, you can't go wrong with it.

See our full Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) review.

Best under $1,500

The Acer Swift X 14 is a powerful, budget-friendly option for Photoshop users who need more 3D rendering capacity. The base model starts at just $1,099. The mid-range model combines a powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with a workhorse Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, plus 16 GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. It retails for just $1,299. This mid-range model offers similar performance at a lower cost without sacrificing the display.

In my review, I observe that "the glossy CineCrystal OLED display on the Acer Swift X 14 looks fantastic to the human eye. The colors are bright and vivid, though the display panel does suffer from glare, especially with overhead office lighting."

However, if you'd like more memory, storage, and a more powerful GPU, our preferred Swift X 14 configuration is available for just $1,699. It includes an Nvidia RTX 4070, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage.

Acer rates the CineCrystal display on the Swift X 14 to 100% coverage on the DCI-P3 format. Our lab display test measures OLED panels a bit differently, so our testing indicated that the Swift X 14 covered 79.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro (81.4%) and HP Spectre x360 14 (85.8%) outperformed the Swift X 14 in our lab testing, but the Swift X 14's display looked incredible to the eye. In addition, the Swift X 14 offers a powerful Nvidia RTX 4050 to 4070 GPU, making it a better fit for more in-depth Photoshop work.

Based on the Laptop Mag battery test, the Swift X 14 with an RTX 4070 GPU can last for 7 hours and 33 minutes while surfing the web at 150 nits of brightness. While that isn't the best battery life for a laptop on this list, it's not bad for a laptop packing a discrete GPU and OLED display panel.

See our full Acer Swift X 14 review.

Best 2-in-1

Like some of the other Laptop Mag writers, I'm picky when it comes to convertible laptops — so it's a great day when a highly-rated review of one comes across my desk, and I get to give it a buying guide superlative. The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is without a doubt a laptop that deserves to be on this list.

This laptop's headlining feature is the display, a 14-inch OLED that's "far superior and even more colorful than most premium laptops overall," as Laptop Mag reviews editor Rami Tabari notes in his review. Covering 149.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, it produces vivid and richly saturated, drool-worthy colors. The display averages a maximum of 421 nits of brightness, higher than you'd see on many competing OLED laptops —all major reasons why this Yoga 9i 2-in-1 is also our current pick for the best touchscreen laptop with an OLED display.

When it comes to performance, this laptop takes a leisurely approach to finishing demanding tasks. Compared to the other laptops on this list, it was the slowest to convert a 4K video file to 1080p. Photoshop users may experience some lag when batch-processing dozens of images with numerous layers or working with filters and brush tools.

But if you're not a graphic designer or photographer who uses a lot of advanced features in Photoshop, the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has a lot of other things going for it: a stellar and responsive keyboard; speakers that can actually handle a baseline; nearly 13 hours of battery life; and it weighs just under 3 pounds. (Other 2-in-1s are much more brick-like.) Also, I would feel comfortable putting it on my bare lap. At its hottest point, this laptop didn't reach 88.3 degrees, well below our 95-degree comfort threshold.

See our full Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition review.

Best MacBook

For Apple users and design enthusiasts, the 2024 MacBook Pro 16-inch with M4 Pro CPU reigns supreme for photo editing. While pricey (starting at $2,499), it offers powerful performance and a seamless experience within the Apple ecosystem. Opting for a 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM configuration delivers ample storage and smooth Photoshop performance, making it a compelling choice for creative professionals though upgrading the memory and storage capacity can get pricey.

Reviewer Sean Riley observes, "The 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro is more laptop than most people need, but that likely won't stop you from wanting one, and after a week with it, I can't blame you."

With any configuration of the M4 chip, you’ll get a brilliant 14-core Apple M4 Pro CPU, a 20-core Apple GPU with a 16-core Neural Engine, and a gorgeous 16.2-inch 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display. Our lab benchmarking rated the 16-inch Liquid Retina panel as covering 81.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is high for laptops on this list. The MacBook Pro also scored well on the brightness test, with an average of 565 nits, much brighter than the category average of 391.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro (2024) is a smart choice for Photoshop because of its beautiful, bright display and powerfully smooth internal specs. However, there’s another crucial spec to consider: battery life. MacBooks are known for having excellent battery life, which is a fantastic feature for those wanting to use Photoshop on the go. The 16-inch MacBook Pro lasted an amazing 20 hours and 46 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, significantly longer than its workstation laptop competitors.

See our full Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro review.

Best Workstation

At CES 2025, we were so blown away by the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a that we gave it our best laptop award — and after reviewing it, we're still blown away by it. At 0.71-inches thick and weighing 3.4 pounds, it could easily be mistaken for a productivity laptop. However, with the driving force of an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395 chip, it's anything but.

The great news for Windows users is that it comes "very close to eclipsing the MacBook Pro" in terms of portability and raw CPU power, as Laptop Mag staff writer Madeline Ricchiuto candidly mentions in her review. In some of our real-world testing, it's evenly matched; the ZBook converted a 4K video to 1080p 4 seconds faster than the MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro in our Handbrake transcoding test.

It's OLED display comes in an extremely close second to the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, covering 139% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. (Many OLED laptop displays don't break 100%!) Its max brightness in on par with other competitors, maxing out at an average 368 nits — but if you're searching for the perfect shade of Pantone-like purple, this could be the workstation you've been looking for.

Being as powerful as they are, Windows workstations usually come with a battery life caveat, and with a run time of 6 hours and 46 minutes, this ZBook is no exception. To be fair, that's typical for a workstation, but it's a key area where this laptop doesn't eclipse the MacBook Pro, as well as other creator-focused laptops like the Asus ProArt PX13.

Ultimately, the ZBook's price tag is where most potential buyers could draw the line. The model we reviewed costs an enormous $4,049, but the base configuration starts at a substantial $2,599. If you're not loyal to a specific operating system, that amount of money can get you a MacBook Pro M4 Pro with better battery life — but it's hard to ignore that the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a is a marvelous laptop for any creative work.

See our full HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a review.

Benchmark Comparisons

Recent reviews

We review more than 100 laptops annually, and while some simply don't have what it takes to make our buying guides, others are still strong options that came up short for one reason or another. Here are some of our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make the cut for "Best laptops for Photoshop" but could still be solid machines for your photo editing needs.

How to choose a laptop for Photoshop

CPU: You want a high-performance processor like an Intel Core Ultra 7 or 9, an AMD Ryzen 7 or 9, or an Apple M4 chipset to handle complex filters, large photo files, and multiple project layers.

GPU: For heavy-duty tasks like intricate filters, 3D effects, or AI generation, you may want to consider a laptop with a discrete graphics card like an Nvidia RTX or AMD Radeon RX card.

RAM: You need at least 16GB of memory, but depending on your budget, Photoshop users will certainly benefit from 32 or 64GB of RAM. I'd stress the latter in particular isn't something you need to consider unless money is no object or you are doing this professionally and every second counts.

Storage: 512 GB is the minimum I'd consider if I'm doing a lot of photo work, though splurging for 1TB or more is a good idea. Unlike the CPU, GPU, and RAM, you can always turn to external storage, so if your budget requires you to save somewhere, this is the place to do it. However, I'd still stress that you want 512GB at a minimum to handle at least one project at a time without turning to an external drive.

Display: You want to be picky about the display since photo editing is a visual medium. You'll want a crisp, high-resolution panel in the QHD to 4K range with accurate color reproduction. For the best combination of brightness and vibrancy, we recommend opting for an IPS, OLED, or Apple Liquid Retina XDR display to ensure a high level of color fidelity.

If you're looking to set up a full photo studio workstation and didn't select a laptop with the best display, you could also upgrade with one of our picks for the best monitors or best portable monitors for on-the-go editing.

FAQs

Q: What minimum specs do I need for Photoshop?

A: Lower than you might think! As of October 2024, the minimum system requirements for Adobe Photoshop running on Windows 11 are: an Intel or AMD processor with AVX2 and SSE 4.2 or higher support, or a WinARM processor; 8GB of RAM; 256GB total SSD storage space; and a graphics card that's newer than 7 years with at least 1.5GB of video RAM, and supports DirectX 12; and a 1080p monitor.

All that applies if you have a Mac, except the graphics card, but you'll want to make sure you have macOS v12 or higher.

If you a faster laptop to run Photoshop, we recommend at least: an Intel 13th-gen Core i7 processor or newer, an AMD Ryzen 7 7000 series or newer, or Apple Silicon M2 or newer; at least 16GB of RAM; 512GB or more of total SSD storage space (PCIe Gen 4 or newer); an Nvidia RTX 2050 or newer graphics card with at least 4GB of VRAM; and a 1080p display or higher.

Mac users should be running macOS Sonoma or newer.

Q: Is a laptop that's good for Photoshop also good for video editing?

A: Most laptops that are good for Photoshop will also work for video editing, but you'll also want to be aware of the audio quality of a laptop when choosing a video editing machine. So not all the laptops on this list will be ideal for editing video or audio files.

Video editing can often demand more RAM and GPU resources than photo editing, so you may want to opt for a laptop with a discrete GPU if video editing is going to be a large part of your workflow.

Q: Why don't we recommend a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptop for Photoshop?

A: On the hardware-side, a Snapdragon X Elite laptop is an excellent machine for running editing programs like Photoshop — but few native Windows on Arm versions of Adobe programs exist overall.

Currently, only Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom can run natively on Snapdragon X Elite laptops. This might not be an issue if you only use Photoshop, but if you also use Adobe Premiere Pro, InDesign, or Illustrator, those can only run via emulation.

It's a similar concept to running a virtual version of Windows 95 on a Windows 11 PC, but the computer will use more resources running both the emulator and program at the same time, which could slow down various editing tasks. If you don't have enough available RAM or video RAM, the entire program could crash.

How We Test Laptops for Photoshop

Every laptop we test undergoes countless lab tests before a review goes live. We look at how a laptop performs in terms of CPU and GPU-intensive tasks, battery life, speakers, heat management, and display. While each laptop on this list has gone through every test we could run on it; there are a few specific test results we paid close attention to when choosing the best laptops for Photoshop.

When you work with Photoshop, it’s important that the colors you’re working with will translate to other screens when your file is shared. To detect a laptop’s display brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut, we use a Klein K-10A colorimeter, Klein ChromaSurf, and DisplayCal to calculate a laptop's average brightness and color gamut volume. We also pay attention to each laptop’s Delta-E score, showing how accurate a display’s colors are.

Additionally, performance is important in a laptop running Adobe Photoshop. The Geekbench CPU benchmark tests a laptop’s overall performance. To test a laptop’s GPU, the 3DMark benchmarks determine how well a laptop can run graphic-intensive applications. Discrete graphics are ideal when selecting a laptop for Photoshop, but not essential, so you might forgo a discrete GPU for a more budget-friendly laptop.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

A lot of what makes the best laptops for graphic design is similar to the best laptops for Photoshop, but the two most important are blazing performance and and a display that can produce a seemingly endless expanse of colors. These features are crucial when you are, say, designing marketing materials for Academy Award-nominated films like my fiancé used to do — sometimes as the awards aired on live TV.

If one of them won, he'd have to open the correct Photoshop file, edit and arrange the text, convert the file, and send it to the marketing firm so they could post it to social media before the award winner finished their 45-second speech. A slow processor would have been disastrous to that entire process.

But so would have a dull, lifeless display. The colors of those marketing materials often matched the overall color pallet used in the films themselves, so his job also relied on having a display with great color coverage and overall brightness.

Depending on where you spend the most time designing, a laptop with a shorter than average battery life might not be a dealbreaker; some of the best workstations and the best laptops for video editing also make fabulous graphic design machines. But unless you're desk-bound, ideally look for something that lasts at least 11 hours.

This page is regularly updated with our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag’s top picks for 2025.

Update Log

6/10/25: Added Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 as best budget option, Asus ProArt PX13 as best 2-in-1; updated the following sections: recently reviewed, FAQs, intro, and how to choose a graphic design laptop.

The Quick List

Best overall

If you're a professional graphic designer who needs a new laptop that won't bottleneck the second you add one too many layers to your latest Photoshop project, we recommend the newest 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro processor.

Laptop Mag's managing editor, Sean Riley, describes it best in his review: "It's almost simultaneously the most powerful premium laptop we've reviewed while also offering the second-longest battery of any laptop we've tested." Our benchmark numbers mostly speak for themselves.

With 20 hours and 46 minutes of battery life, it lasts 7 hours longer than the average premium laptop. It also outshines them all in the Geekbench 6 multicore benchmark with a score of 22,822 — over a 100% speed increase compared to the average premium laptop (10,492).

I realize numbers alone might not be convincing enough, so I asked a professional graphic designer (my fiancé) with over a decade of experience creating company logos, website wireframes, and user interfaces for video games how he felt about his new MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro. He didn't convey his excitement in words at first. He made happy grunting noises and told me it's the best laptop he's owned during his career. (If you are also upgrading from an M2 Max, you might need help picking your jaw up off the floor like he did.)

Everything else about this MacBook Pro is just as good or better than previous generations. It's still expensive, but it's our best overall pick for a reason.

See our full Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro review.

Best budget

15-inch laptops are increasingly rare these days, but as Laptop Mag managing editor Sean Riley writes in his review, the new Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 "deserves to be in the conversation." He gave it 4.5 stars for a good reason! It offers many of the same benefits for graphic designers as the pricier Pro M4, and its performance and battery life remain unparalleled among many of its budget competitors.

Its CPU multicore performance is nearly 38% faster than the 15-inch Air M3, according to our testing. In our real-world video transcoding test, the Air M4 converted a 4K video to 1080p in just under 5 minutes — 2 minutes faster than the Air M3.

The Air M4's display isn't the most vibrant or color-accurate screen you can get, but it covers a larger portion of the DCI-P3 color gamut compared to last year's Air M3 (83.5% versus 77.8%). For graphic designers on a budget who want the largest laptop display possible, that's less of a compromise between the Air M4 and 14-inch M4 Pro — and you still get Apple's True Tone technology, which adjusts how colors are displayed depending on the lighting.

Its max brightness is 476 nits, just like last year's model, and its battery still lasts 15 hours, too. The Air M4's other features have remained mostly the same or improved, which is especially notable considering Apple dropped the 15-inch Air M4's starting price by $100.

If you currently have an Air M2 or earlier, you're in the best position to get the most out of your money by upgrading.

See our full Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 review.

Best Windows

If you're more comfortable using Windows, the Asus ProArt P16 is a "stellar example of what a creator laptop should be: powerful, reliable, and stylish," as our reviewer, Stevie Bonifield, said. You don't have to pay MacBook Pro prices to get suburb performance in a thin and light chassis with a beautiful design that's just as easy on your eyes as it is on your wallet.

While I'd normally recommend a laptop with a wider color gamut for graphic designers, the ProArt P16 covers a high enough percentage of the DCI-P3 (85.5%). If you want this laptop for professional video editing that could be more of a concern, where the AdobeRGB color gamut is more useful for graphic designers.

Just as important as color accuracy is performance; this laptop's AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, 32GB of RAM, and Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics card powers it to a Geekbench 6 multicore score of 15,286, way beyond the average premium laptop. Commonly used graphic design programs like Adobe Illustrator load in a snap, and the ProArt P16 has the right amount of RAM and CPU cores to prevent the system from getting too bogged down with all the processes Photoshop runs in the background.

That stellar performance played out in Laptop Mag's Handbrake benchmark, transcoding a 4K video to 1080p in 3 minutes and 15 seconds, much faster than the average premium laptop (7:58). (Yes, the ProArt P16 also makes a fantastic video editing laptop.)

Its battery life is a letdown, though. Expect up to 9 hours and 32 minutes if you use this laptop for web browsing, with the display brightness set to 150 nits. If you're manipulating images with dozens of vector masks at full brightness (356 nits), the battery will drain much faster. Just something to be mindful of if your workspace doesn't have a nearby outlet.

See our full Asus ProArt P16 review.

Best 2-in-1

If you start your design process with hand-drawn sketches on a tablet but are tired of importing them to a separate device, the Asus ProArt PX13 is "a top choice for creators looking for a compact laptop," as Laptop Mag contributing writer Stevie Bonifield, sums up nicely.

This laptop's 13.3-inch display offers almost the same amount of space as a standard-sized piece of paper, so it keeps a good balance between portability and having enough room to draw. It weighs 3 pounds, which is heavier than the average 100-page sketchbook, of course, but that's incredibly lightweight for a laptop — especially a 2-in-1.

If you draw directly inside a graphic design program, you won't have to worry about your lines lagging behind your stylus. The ProArt Px13 performed exceptionally well in our PugetBench Photoshop and HandBreak video transcoding tests, meeting or exceeding what its competitors are capable of achieving. Coupled with a discrete RTX 4050 graphics card and 32GB of RAM, you likely won't have to manually adjust the memory allocation to your graphic design program.

Graphic designers who work with the DCI-P3 color gamut might find the display's coverage on the low side with 80% of that color space in our testing. While this is below the recommended 85% minimum, it's important to note that OLED displays typically underperform on this test, so the true number is almost certainly above 85%.

What might be a concern for anyone considering this laptop is its battery life: 9 hours and 49 minutes. That's not terrible for a creator laptop, but it's less than the 11-hour minimum we recommend.

See our full Asus ProArt PX13 review.

Best gaming

If your graphic design work takes you into the realm of video game UI (like my fiancé's did for a period of time), you most likely will need a gaming laptop — one with "powerful performance, smooth graphics," and a "stunning display," as our staff writer, Madeline Ricchiuto said in her review of the Legion Pro 7i Gen 9.

Those are its stand-out features, especially at a price compared to some competing gaming laptops that are less powerful. For under $2,500 (on sale), you get an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU with 12GB of VRAM. Combined with 32GB of system memory, this laptop spiked into the high-90s and low-100s in our gaming benchmarks.

Its display is also suitable for UI design work, averaging 108.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut — way beyond what most graphic designers probably would need. It also gets super bright, averaging 456 max nits in Laptop Mag's testing. It does only have a 1600p native resolution, but that may or may not be a deal breaker based on the kind of work you primarily do on your laptop.

Just keep in mind that if you go with this laptop, it's chunky, 1.01 inches thick, and weighs 5.7 pounds — definitely a desktop replacement. You can technically carry it around if you want to, but after a week (at most) of doing that, I can imagine the process becoming a hassle.

See our full Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 review.

Benchmark comparisons

Recently reviewed

Not every laptop can make our best laptops for graphic design page. (We wouldn't be doing you that much good if that were the case!) We review new laptops every week and over 100 laptops yearly, so here's a look at our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make this page either due to a fault, battery life, performance, or something else.

How to choose a laptop for graphic design

CPU: The faster your processor, the faster certain features will work in programs like Illustrator and Photoshop. (Not to mention opening the program itself!) Look for a laptop with either an Intel Core Ultra 200 series, AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, or Apple M4 CPU if you want your workflow to move as efficiently as possible.

GPU: If you work primarily work with static graphics, you might be able to do your work just fine on a laptop with integrated graphics. But if you work with motion graphics or UI, you might use a lot of intricate filters, 3D effects, generative AI, or similar resource-heavy tools.

For those of you in the latter camp, we recommend a laptop with either an RTX 40- or 50-series discrete graphics card — especially if you want to take advantage of any hardware acceleration features that your graphic design program offers.

RAM: If you're looking at a laptop with a discrete GPU, it should also have a bare minimum of 16GB. Though in our experience, 32GB (or more) is the ideal for professionals. It ensures the program won't lag if certain features like drawing and editing in real-time or animated zoom are active.

Storage: Our recommended minimum is 512GB, though if you regularly work with massive vector or other types of files, definitely go for at least 1TB.

Display: Most laptops span 95% or higher of the sRGB or AdobeRGB color gamut, but if DCI-P3 is more important to you, look for a display with at least 85% coverage. Color accuracy is also important; a laptop with a display Delta E (dE) level of 2 or less produces the most true-to-life colors.

Portability: Not all great graphic design laptops are thin and light. If you're constantly working between your home, the office, planes, or trains, look for a laptop that weighs 3 pounds or less and is around half an inch in height. Those will be less of a hassle to put in and remove from your bag several times a day.

FAQs

Q: Are gaming laptops good for graphic design?

A: Yes! Any laptop with a discrete graphics card lets you take advantage of Hardware Acceleration, a common feature in popular image and video editing programs. Instead of relying on the CPU and RAM to do all the work, Hardware Acceleration uses the GPU to perform the same tasks much faster.

Gaming laptops' GPUs also work with Nvidia Studio Drivers, which provide more stability and reliability for content creation. Workstations usually come with Nvidia's RTX A-series or Ada Generation graphics cards, which are designed specfically for professional workstations and have better data integrity and stability. (They're more expensive, too!)

Q: What GPU should I get for graphic design?

A: It depends! If you want high frame rates and stunning graphics, then an RTX 5080 or RTX 5090 are your best bet. Those graphics cards make the most out of high refresh rates and OLED displays. If you are willing to compromise on one or the other, look for gaming laptops with an RTX 5070, or RTX 4090 or lower.

Nvidia's DLSS Multi Frame Generation is only supported on 50-series cards, but all other DLSS technologies are accessible on both the RTX 50-and 40-series.

Q: Do I need a discrete GPU for graphic design?

A. Not necessarily! In general, graphic design leans heavily on the processor, so regardless if you get a MacBook, Windows, or Windows on ARM laptop, you'll be in fine shape.

MacBooks have been the de-facto graphic design machine for a long time. (My fiancé, who is a professional graphic designer, won't use any thing else.) But Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips can process the same, common design tasks just as efficiently.

Q: How much RAM do I need for graphic design?

A: It depends! With a discrete GPU (which has its own on-board video RAM) and Hardware Acceleration, you can get away with at least 16GB if you're not working on anything resource-intensive. But if you're a professional graphic designer, we recommend a minimum of 24GB — though if you have the budget for 32GB or more, that would be ideal.

If the graphic design laptop you have your eye on has unified memory (RAM that is built into the CPU itself), you probably want to configure it with at least 32GB of RAM. The RAM in these laptops is shared between the CPU and integrated graphics; if you don't have enough total RAM, then the integrated graphics might not have enough resources to load or convert large design files.

Q: Is a laptop that's good for graphic design also good for video editing?

A: Most laptops that are good for graphic design will also work for video editing, but you'll also want to be aware of the audio quality of a laptop when choosing a video editing machine. So not all the laptops on this list will be ideal for editing video or audio files.

Video editing can often demand more RAM and GPU resources than photo editing, so you may want to opt for a laptop with a discrete GPU if video editing is going to be a large part of your workflow.

Q: Why don't we recommend a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptop for graphic design?

A: On the hardware-side, a Snapdragon X Elite laptop is an excellent machine for running editing programs like Photoshop — but few native Windows on Arm versions of Adobe programs exist overall.

Currently, only Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom can run natively on Snapdragon X Elite laptops. This might not be an issue if you only use Photoshop, but if you also use Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, those can only run via emulation.

It's a similar concept to running a virtual version of Windows 95 on a Windows 11 PC, but the computer will use more resources running both the emulator and program at the same time, which could slow down various editing tasks. If you don't have enough available RAM or video RAM, the entire program could crash.

How we test graphic design laptops

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate every aspect of the laptop, but to find the best laptops for graphic design, we pay extra close attention to performance, graphics, and the display.

Performance testing includes Geekbench 6, which evaluates the laptop’s ability to handle a variety of different tasks and continue running smoothly. For laptops with discrete graphics cards, we use the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark, and for integrated graphics we use 3DMark Night Raid.

To determine real-world performance, we convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and duplicate a 25GB file. For gaming performance on integrated graphics, we use Cid Meier's Civilization V: Gathering Storm benchmark at 1080p resolution and Medium graphics.

For discrete graphics, we run benchmarks in Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6 (and more) in full-screen mode with vertical sync disabled at 1080p and the laptop's native resolution.

We use a Klein K10 colorimeter in our display testing to measure overall brightness, as determine the DCI-P3 and AdobeRGB color gamut color accuracy.

For our battery test, we continuously web surfing over WiFi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 10 hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered longer than 5 hours deserve praise.

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video (or playing a video game) and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop.

We complement these tests with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers, who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad.

See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Why trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

The age of new Xbox hardware is over. At least, according to a former executive at Xbox.

Laura Fryer, a member of the founding team for Xbox, says Xbox hardware may be on the way out, despite what Microsoft's marketing suggests.

In the aftermath of the unveiling of the Asus ROG Xbox Ally, Fryer shared her thoughts on the future of the Xbox as someone who helped get the brand off the ground.

Unfortunately for console fans, she has offered a harsh verdict.

Here's a look at what Fryer had to say about the future of the Xbox and how the ROG Xbox Ally could shape it.

See also: This month's best gaming laptop deals

"They are betting their entire business on Game Pass"

Fryer has been a leader in the video game industry for decades. While she is no longer affiliated with Microsoft, she shared her expert opinion on the future of Xbox hardware in a video posted on Sunday on her YouTube channel.

Unfortunately for console fans, in light of Microsoft's announcement of the Asus ROG Xbox Ally, Fryer thinks Xbox may be leaving the hardware market entirely, and it's part of a bigger shift across the brand that's leaning more and more on Game Pass and Xbox Anywhere.

Fryer called out the state of things at Xbox right now, saying, "They are betting their entire business on Game Pass and leaving the hardware innovation to their partners at Asus."

She went on to add, "I'll admit, it's a great message for gamers. Who doesn't want to play their games with their family and friends on any device and any platform? But that's all it is -- it's marketing."

While Fryer admitted that Game Pass "has a lot of value," she also pointed out the confusion surrounding which games can be played on Game Pass and Xbox Anywhere.

For instance, the ROG Xbox Ally is a Windows device, so it can't play native Xbox games; only native PC games are supported. The line between those is blurring, but it's still worth noting.

Similarly, the Core and Standard Game Pass subscription tiers for console specifically don't include the day-one releases that are one of the service's most significant selling points. In contrast, the PC version of the Standard Game Pass subscription does include day-one releases.

Fryer also called out confusing moves like this in her video, stating, "From my perspective, the Xbox strategy has been chaotic. So, it's hard to say what they'll do next."

Her prediction for the console's future was grim, to say the least: "Obviously, as one of the founding members of the Xbox team, I'm not pleased with where things are today.

"I don't love watching all of the value that I helped create slowly get eroded away. I'm sad because, from my perspective, it looks like Xbox has no desire or literally can't ship hardware anymore. So, this partnership [with Asus] is about a slow exit from the hardware business completely."

"Personally, I think Xbox hardware is dead."

Is the "future of Xbox" just... PC gaming?

Fryer's perspective on the state of things at Xbox doesn't bode well for gamers who prefer their console to a PC. While Fryer mentioned how cost-effective PC gaming can be when you build your own PC, she also praised the ease that comes with consoles.

They're often less expensive than a gaming PC and, at least historically, easier to use since you don't need to worry about things like driver updates.

With Xbox seemingly abandoning hardware, gamers who want the convenience of a console will likely switch to a PlayStation or even the Nintendo Switch 2.

Even if those gamers want to keep playing their Xbox games, Microsoft has, ironically, made it exceptionally easy for them to abandon Xbox hardware without losing access to their games.

Fryer pointed this out, too, saying, "Here's the problem: Xbox doesn't do exclusives anymore. Even if Xbox delivers a crazy great game, Xbox Anywhere means that I can play that game on any platform."

If the ROG Xbox Ally is any indicator of Microsoft's plans for the Xbox brand, we could be looking at a future where "Xbox hardware" is just... Windows gaming PCs. Of course, there are some phenomenal gaming laptops out there for those who want to get into PC gaming.

However, it's not the same as a console and it's easy to see why long-time Xbox fans may be disappointed to see Xbox consoles ride off into the sunset.

As Laura Fryer said, "It's one year from the 25th anniversary of the [original] Xbox and it looks like they're abandoning pretty much everything that made the Xbox brand great in the first place."

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Though bugs showing up in Windows updates is no surprise anymore, a startup sound from 2007 suddenly making a return nearly two decades later is still a bit strange. But Microsoft is full of surprises, and that’s exactly what happened.

Last Monday, we reported on an odd issue in Windows 11’s latest Beta and Dev channel builds, where the iconic Windows Vista startup chime resurfaced out of nowhere. Microsoft acknowledged the bug and even leaned into the nostalgia a bit when the issue was first spotted, and promised a fix.

Credit where credit is due, Microsoft did indeed stick to its word and tried to patch things up in the latest Windows 11 Preview Builds released earlier this week. Unfortunately, the Redmond-based giant only partially succeeded.

The Vista sound is still lingering in the Dev Insider build

Microsoft rolled out the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4452 and Build 26200.5661 for the Beta and Dev channels, respectively, earlier this week on Monday. Initially, the “Fixes for everyone in the Beta/Dev channel” section mentioned: Fixed the issue causing the Windows Vista boot sound to play instead of the Windows 11 boot sound.

Although this was great news, Microsoft updated the release notes of the Dev build the very next day on Tuesday, after realizing that the fix for the issue was “not working correctly in this build.” It further mentioned that the issue will be fixed in the next flight.

There’s been no update to the Beta release notes yet, suggesting that the fix is working as anticipated.

If you aren’t familiar with the bug we’re referring to here, a Windows Insider, @XenoPanther on X (formerly Twitter), spotted a bug that swapped the Windows 11 startup sound with Vista’s startup sound. This issue was found in the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4441 and 26200.5651 for the Beta and Dev channels.

Like a true tech enthusiast, he went on a quest to trace down the cause of the bug and determined that the .WAV file located inside the imageres.dll.mun resource file was the culprit. It previously had the Windows 11 startup sound and had been replaced with Vista’s.

Vista nostalgia or an indirect dig at Apple?

Though most would've likely disregarded it and forgotten about it as yet another silly Microsoft bug (despite the years), what truly raised eyebrows was the timing of the bug. It was spotted around a week after WWDC 2025, where Apple announced its new operating systems alongside its "Liquid Glass" UI design.

Though the redesign was certainly refreshing for Apple users who've grown tired of staring at the same old design, it felt like a step back in time to many. This was because Microsoft first debuted similar translucent glass effects with its Windows Aero theme in Windows Vista.

Brandon LeBlanc, the Senior Product Manager for the Windows Insider Program Team, replied to @XenoPanther’s X post and mentioned that Microsoft had added the issue as a known issue.

In the replies, when asked how it happened, LeBlanc jokingly mentioned that he “went in and had some fun with the sound files in Windows and thought folks wanted a blast from the past.”

Though LeBlanc was clearly joking around, people were still unsure if it was a genuine bug or an actual blast from the past, so he clarified that it’s an actual bug.

Whether an intentional bug or not, the sudden return of Vista’s startup sound just days after Apple debuted a design that looks suspiciously similar to Aero feels a little too well-timed to be pure accident.

Given that this strangely seems to be one of those bugs Windows Insiders aren’t too mad about, it’s also one of those rare times when Microsoft not having a proper fix isn’t bothering people all that much. If you're one of those affected and waiting for a fix, the only thing you can really do for now is sit tight for the next build, and maybe enjoy the nostalgia in the meantime.

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• Microsoft just threw Windows 10 users a free lifeline — but it could test your loyalty
• This secret version of Windows 10 still gets updates until 2032
• A second Windows 11 bug takes suspicious aim at Google Chrome — and the same Microsoft app is to blame

Last Friday, we reported on an issue in Windows 11 where Google Chrome would simply refuse to launch. Chrome’s support manager, Ellen T., confirmed that the team had investigated the problem and pinned it on Microsoft's Family Safety feature, but users were provided with a quick workaround instead of an official fix.

The workaround? Either disable the “Filter inappropriate websites” option under Family Safety or, oddly enough, rename the Chrome.exe file to Chrome1.exe.

Microsoft still hasn’t rolled out an official fix, but it has finally acknowledged the issue while confirming another bug impacting Chrome users, too.

Chrome’s still the main target in Microsoft’s latest bug

As reported by Neowin, Microsoft confirmed one more issue affecting Google Chrome users on Windows via a new Microsoft Learn entry. The entry was opened on Tuesday, June 24, and it hasn’t been updated since.

The new bug Microsoft has identified also has to do with the Family Safety feature that caused the issue we reported on earlier. However, instead of the feature causing Chrome to crash entirely, the feature just… doesn’t work.

The Redmond-based giant explains that the Web Content Filtering system relies on a block list to prevent browsers from accessing inappropriate search results and websites.

Unless a browser version is added to the block list, it won’t be, well, blocked — even if content filtering is turned on for the account. Something that, in the Microsoft Learn entry, the tech giant admitted to not having done with the latest version of Chrome and several other browsers.

Due to this mistake on Microsoft’s end, the browsers not added to the list might temporarily appear unblocked. Thankfully, Microsoft confirmed that it’s currently working on updating the block list.

The Redmond-based giant also touched on the issue we’ve already talked about in our previous article, which is causing Google Chrome and “some browsers” to shut down unexpectedly. PCs with Parental Controls enabled typically receive a parental approval message: “You’ll need to ask to use this app.”

Once a parent approves, the child gains access to the browser. However, this bug is causing the browser to shut down immediately without the prompt even appearing. Microsoft has pinpointed that this issue is only observed when the Activity reporting feature is disabled.

The suggested workaround is to enable Activity reporting under Windows settings in Family Safety. Once the feature is enabled, parents will begin to receive approval requests as usual.

The issues discussed above are affecting Windows 10 version 22H2 and Windows 11 versions 22H2, 23H2, and 24H2.

Is this another sneaky push toward Microsoft Edge?

Microsoft’s confirmed that it’s actively working on resolving both the above issues, and will update the support document when it has more information. What’s great is that the tech giant has finally acknowledged the issue and provided a workaround to the Google Chrome crashing problem.

Considering Microsoft has had quite the rocky history with Google Chrome, it’s frankly a bit odd that both issues seem to primarily be affecting Chrome.

Microsoft has a history of targeting Chrome (the world's most popular web browser) directly in various ways, including publishing a guide on “how to uninstall Google Chrome,” displaying pop-up ads promoting Edge in the Chrome app, and interrupting users who search for Google Chrome using its Edge browser, just to name a few.

Are both bugs genuine, or are they simply another attempt by Microsoft to push users toward Edge instead of Chrome? In this instance, I guess we’ll never know.

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Looking ahead, 2027 is expected to be the big year for console gamers, with the next-generation Xbox and PlayStation systems both looking to hit the market that fall.

Last week, Microsoft confirmed that the next-gen Xbox console will be powered by custom AMD hardware. On Monday, new rumors indicated Sony's next-gen PlayStation will also feature a custom AMD APU.

In fact, both consoles will reportedly have the same UDNA graphics chip.

Is this an indicator that the console wars are finally over? Will the next console you buy be less about specs and hardware, and more about design and game collection? And is all this AMD hardware actually a good thing for gamers?

Let's take a look.

AMD custom APUs are powering the next generation Xbox and PlayStation

Despite sounding unlikely, Xbox and Sony's next-gen consoles won't be the first to share a link in being powered by custom AMD APUs.

In 2013, both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were powered by AMD's Jaguar CPU architecture.

And, in 2020, both the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles were powered by custom hardware with AMD's Zen 2 architecture.

Clearly, the hardware similarities between Xbox and PlayStation haven't ended the console wars so far, meaning it's likely the console tribalism will continue even up to and beyond 2027.

After all, having the same hardware doesn't make the consoles equal in terms of performance, user interface, or game library. Both Xbox and Sony are still very much looking to go head-to-head in 2027, and keen for one of them to come out the victor, regardless of how much it may sound like the two are aiming for a hardware tie.

AMD's Ryzen Z series powers most gaming handhelds

AMD's gaming dominance isn't just in consoles. AMD's Ryzen Z series CPUs power most handheld gaming PCs, from our beloved Asus ROG Ally X to the Lenovo Legion Go 2 and upcoming Xbox handhelds.

In fact, the MSI Claw 8 is even getting an AMD variant with the Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, making it a less unique handheld in the process.

Instead of offering a bevy of choices between various systems, the handheld gaming PC market is more like a palette swap. Choose your preferred color/aesthetic, and call it a day.

Of course, there are some other differences in optimization between the various handhelds, but with just the MSI Claw, MSI Claw 7 AI+, and MSI Claw 8 AI+ offering Intel CPUs, the handheld market feels very one-note.

Even in the more typical laptop and desktop PC space, AMD's X3D CPUs have taken over. At least as far as sales go. Things are a bit less grim for Intel on the laptop side, since there aren't as many laptops offering AMD CPUs, making a full CPU comparison difficult.

However, AMD's dominance isn't as cut and dry when looking at general laptop performance.

Is all this hardware homogeneity good for the gaming market?

On the one hand, having fewer hardware versions to optimize for makes things easier for game developers.

However, we're coming up on the third generation of home consoles with AMD APUs, and we still get games that are broken or nearly unplayable at launch. So clearly, the benefits there are not enough to counteract the gaming industry's development crunch issues.

While AMD fans are, naturally, excited to see their brand dominate the market... being at the top isn't always for the best. As competition decreases, advancements in tech tend to stagnate.

Ultimately, complacency is the death of innovation.

Intel's proven that pretty handily over the last several years, and is now playing catch-up on the PC side. Team Blue has had some recent successes, but there's still a way to go.

We can only hope AMD continues to see Intel and Nvidia as worthy competition, so gamers don't suffer from sheer entropy.

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Xbox cooking up a handheld gaming console became the best worst-kept secret in recent months, but the suspected and confirmed ROG Xbox Ally X was finally unveiled during the June 8 Xbox Games Showcase.

At first, shoving “Xbox” in the name didn’t sound so innovative. How does it compare to the Asus ROG Ally X? An Xbox button alone wouldn’t be enough to get people to upgrade. But once we got a closer look, we realized that this isn’t just a branded Ally X. This might as well be the ROG Ally X 2.

Obviously, we don’t have hands-on time with the ROG Xbox Ally X, but let's jump into how the ROG Ally X and its successor compare from afar.

ROG Ally X vs. ROG Xbox Ally X: Specs

ROG Ally X vs. ROG Xbox Ally X: Pricing and configurations

We have no idea how much the ROG Xbox Ally X is going to cost, and I’m honestly terrified. Right now, you can get the ROG Ally X for $800 on Asus’ website. Apparently, YouTube leaker Extas1s recently suggested that the ROG Xbox Ally X would be priced at $800.

That’d be sick as hell, but considering the current Ally X’s price and that the ROG Xbox Ally X features the new AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme (35W) chipset, I’m not so sure. Apart from the chipset, the rest of the specs are the same, though.

However, there will be a cheaper model, called the ROG Xbox Ally, which is outfitted with the AMD Ryzen Z2 A (20W) chipset and even offers the same ergonomic boost. The aforementioned leaker suggested this would be priced at $500, which also matches the current price of the base model of the ROG Ally on Asus’ website.

The difference in specs there, however, is that the new ROG Xbox Ally sports a 60Whr battery versus the original’s 40Whr battery.

ROG Ally X vs. ROG Xbox Ally X: Design and comfort

Yes, performance and battery life are great and all, but the design and comfort of a handheld device can absolutely make or break it.

Jumping from the Asus ROG Ally to the Ally X, we saw a major leap in ergonomics. Everything from the triggers and bumpers to the joysticks and grips became more comfortable and satisfying to use.

I’m hoping that we’ll see a similar leap going to the ROG Xbox Ally X, and it looks like we might. The biggest upgrade that we can see is that shiny Xbox button (just kidding). But seriously, it’s the grips. They look like actual controller grips.

Obviously, I can’t say for sure, but this looks way more comfortable than most handheld gaming devices, especially the Nintendo Switch 2 (don’t get me started).

Naturally, this comes at the cost of some portability. The ROG Ally X comes in at 1.5 pounds and 11 x 4.4 x 1~1.5 inches, and the ROG Xbox Ally X bumps up to 1.58 pounds and 11.4 x 4.78 x 2 inches. It’s actually not too bad, but you’ll still notice a difference when compared side by side, especially with the height.

Overall, the design and comfort improvements of the ROG Xbox Ally X look to be a more than welcome upgrade.

ROG Ally X vs. ROG Xbox Ally X: Performance and battery life

The ergonomics are exciting, but what’s getting fans of handheld gaming PCs hyped up the most is the new AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme (35W) chipset.

The ROG Xbox Ally X will be the debut for this particular AMD chipset, and while it will likely make its way into other gaming handheld devices, like the first Z1 Extreme chip, I am also clamoring to see what this baby can do. AMD also added “AI” to the name, so you know it’s going to be good (again, kidding).

For context, the ROG Ally X could run Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree at 1080p, maximum graphics (with ray tracing), and hit anywhere from 27 to 35 frames per second.

That’s pretty impressive in and of itself. I’m not expecting a miracle out of the Z2 Extreme, but it would be nice to see those numbers stay consistently above 30 fps and even dip into the mid-40s.

Playing that same game with the same settings, the Ally X survived 2 hours and 15 minutes. Considering that the ROG Xbox Ally X features the same 80Wh battery, I’m just hoping for similar numbers.

That may be more of a challenge because of the higher performance, but we’ve seen AMD pull through on battery life before, especially with gaming laptops.

Outlook

I haven’t even touched the ROG Xbox Ally X and I know it’s going to be way better. The ergonomics alone look amazing. The biggest unknown right now is the performance. It’ll be better for sure, but by how much? And how will that impact the battery life?

It may be that the ROG Xbox Ally X isn’t a worthy enough improvement to upgrade, but if it’s the same price as the Ally X, it’ll likely be the better buy if you don’t have a handheld gaming PC at all. But like I said, we’ll have to wait and see. We don’t even know the official release date yet. (Holiday 2025 could be anything in that season.)

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By now, I know it, you know it, and most of the Wi-Fi accessible world knows it: Windows 10 is on the chopping block, with an end-of-support date set for October 14, later this year — and some users are not happy about it.

Whether unwilling or unable, a large portion of Windows 10 users feel caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to Microsoft's looming deadline to upgrade to Windows 11. Not only do the increased hardware requirements for Windows 11 render a large number of functioning computers unfit for purpose, but Microsoft's flagship operating system has something of a soured reputation, leaving even those with viable machines hesitant to adopt it.

For those users, time is the enemy. Time, and Microsoft. However, the latter is at least offering them a hand in compromise. One more year of additional year of support through its Extended Security Updates (ESU) program (previously costing $30 for individuals), at no monetary cost. Please note: I didn't use the word "free" for a reason.

Three ways to stay on Windows 10 until 2026: Bucks, backups, and Bing

Microsoft's ESU is nothing new, and we've known about its availability for individual Windows users since November 2024. For businesses, even earlier. And we know that signing up for this program will cost the average Windows 10 user $30 for a single year of additional support.

However, in a recent post to the Windows Experience Blog, Microsoft has provided a few additional ways for Windows 10 users to gain this additional support, without needing to pay Microsoft a single dime.

In the blog, Microsoft shares the following alternative ways to gain ESU for Windows 10:

• Gain ESU for Windows 10 by using Windows Backup to sync your settings to the cloud

Windows Backup is a new free tool from Microsoft that aims to make switching from your older Windows 10 machine to an upgraded Windows 11 machine a whole lot easier. It's not the only purpose though, users can also backup files and folders to external drives similarly to any other backup tool.

So, great. Download Windows Backup, transfer a few files to a USB storage device, and claim an extra year of support. Right? Well, no.

To become eligible for free ESU, you'll need to upload a copy of your Windows Settings to the cloud. Specifically OneDrive. Meaning you'll also need a free Microsoft Account. Which is, once again, another hurdle some Windows 10 users refuse to clear.

• Redeem ESU for Windows 10 with 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points

Microsoft Reward points are Microsoft's own Monopoly money you can earn through shopping at its store; completing challenges on Xbox Game Pass; referring friends to sign up for a Microsoft Account and also earn Reward points (not a pyramid scheme); willingly trading your information through polls, quizzes, and trivia; or helping Microsoft to artificially inflate engagement by watching certain videos online.

Of course. There is one other way of earning Microsoft Reward points, but it'll test your loyalty in ways you never thought. You'll need to start using Bing Search.

Yes, simply searching on Bing can score you some of that lucrative Microsoft Monopoly moolah, though earning 1000 points may take you some time. If you start now, I'm sure you'll make it in time for October 14.

Frustratingly, for those who want to avoid signing up for a Microsoft Account, this is yet another method of attaining ESU for free that leaves you no choice.

What's next

So, are you ready to backup your settings or switch to Bing to save a few bucks and gain an additional year of support for Windows 10? The ball's in your court.

Some would say that this method is simply delaying the inevitable. And I'm sure that anyone hoping for a savior in a potential release of Windows 12 will be sorely disappointed.

However, if you need a little longer to secure your next device, or a few more months to pluck up the courage to give Linux a shot, Microsoft's newest incentive might be ideal. Well, almost ideal. You might have to use Bing, after all.

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Today, Xbox announced the availability of a new limited edition Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition, a collaboration with Xbox that sees the brand take its first steps into the world of VR and mixed reality — and it's out now at meta.com and Best Buy for $399.

(A note to our friends from across the pond: Those in the U.K. can grab the limited edition Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition for £379 from Argos.)

"Never let them know your next move," appears to be the gameplan of both Meta and Xbox of late, with the former leaping into new hardware ventures with the ROG Xbox Ally and Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition, and the latter choosing to make this announcement well in advance of the company's September Meta Connect 2025 event.

The Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition doesn't include any hardware improvements over the standard Quest 3S model, but it is a bundle of impressive value, especially for those looking to take their fabled "Xbox experience" to new heights, while also dipping their toes into the immersive world of VR/AR. Why? Let's dive into things to find out.

Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition: What's new?

• All-new black and green colorway for Quest 3S headset and Touch Plus controllers, influenced by Xbox
• Includes an Xbox Wireless Controller with a unique black and green design
• Also includes 3 months of free Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Meta Horizon+ membership

If you were expecting an iterative update on the Quest 3S' hardware, then you'll be majorly disappointed to learn that the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition is very much the same device released in late 2024.

Think of this less like a new release and more of a limited edition bundle. You get a fresh new design, and for most, a welcome into the world of VR and mixed reality.

Why should this appeal to you? Well, to put it plainly, while Xbox doesn't have any VR or mixed reality games of its own, the Quest 3S is a brilliant platform for playing flatscreen games also, thanks to its ability to generate absolutely enormous, cinema-like virtual displays absolutely anywhere in your home.

Factor in the headset's rich Dolby Digital surround sound in up to 7.1 channels, and you have all the makings of a truly immersive gaming experience.

As I've said before, if you can find me a 250-inch TV with a surround sound setup to match for only $399, I might change my tune, but until then, the Meta Quest 3S is one of the best ways to enjoy your game library around, with access to Xbox Cloud Gaming (with three free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate included) in standalone mode, or able to physically hook up to devices using UVC and UAC-compatible capture cards.

Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition: What's in the box?

The Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition is a limited edition bundle that provides you with all of the standard Quest 3S fixtures but with the company's Meta Quest Elite Strap preinstalled, while adding a themed Xbox Wireless Controller to the mix and sweetening the deal further with a free, three-month trial of Xbox Game Pass.

And, for when you feel like exploring Meta's VR/AR titles, there's also three months of Meta Horizon+ membership included to give you a head start on the action with instant access to an expansive catalog of games to play, and allowing you to claim two curated titles each month.

Here's a look at everything included in the bundle:

• Meta Quest 3S headset (Black/Green)
• Meta Quest Elite Strap (Black, preinstalled)
• Standard Facial Interface (Black, preinstalled)
• Xbox Wireless Game Controller (Black/Green)
• 2 x Meta Quest Touch Plus controllers (Black/Green)
• 2 x wrist straps (Black/Green)
• 4 x AA batteries
• Glasses spacer
• USB-C power adapter (18W)
• USB-C charging cable
• Free three-month Xbox Game Pass, and Meta Horizon+ trial included

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Last week, I all but performed an act of journalistic necromancy, dredging up an announcement of an Xbox-branded Meta Quest VR/AR headset from over a year ago to speculate on the possibility of us finally seeing it unveiled during September's Meta Connect 2025 event.

Since then, the hornet's nest had been well and truly been kicked, and the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition has now been officially announced, and is available to buy right now for a limited time at $399 from meta.com and Best Buy.

Still, the news seems to be confusing some, who appear to be asking why the Xbox needs a VR headset when it has no VR games. Well, the answer to that is right in front of you — literally. It's all about the screen.

Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition: A portal to a better "Xbox Experience"

Before the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition was officially revealed, many seemed confused about this collaboration more than anything. And who could blame them? Sony's PSVR didn't exactly make a huge splash with most console owners, and Xbox doesn't even have any VR games to its name.

But this partnership isn't really about VR, it's about mixed reality. More specifically, the Quest's ability to conjure up cinema-sized displays with impressive Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital surround sound in virtual space, anywhere and everywhere you need it.

While its "Play Anywhere" mentality means you can now enjoy more Xbox titles across a range of devices, Xbox's partnership with Meta gives more gamers access to enjoy big-screen experiences with high-quality audio at a fraction of the cost of purchasing a comically sized TV and speaker setup.

Seriously, go find me a 250-inch TV and a surround sound speaker setup for less than $400 anywhere else. Virtual or not, since enjoying flatscreen content through the Meta Quest, buying physical displays feels nothing short of daylight robbery.

While Xbox's cloud gaming efforts have made it so you can access the "Xbox Experience" on more hardware than ever, its limited edition Meta Quest 3S reminds you that the "Xbox Experience" isn't just about where you can play games, but how you can.

Xbox and Meta Quest: A mutually beneficial crossover

When the Xbox One released in 2013, Microsoft re-angled its console as a do-it-all device for games, movies, apps, TV, and even the internet. The Xbox One wasn't your run-of-the-mill console; it was an entertainment center.

This generation, with the Xbox Series S|X, Microsoft has been more aware of its hardware limitations, branching into cloud gaming to make the Xbox experience feel like something less shackled to a particular piece of hardware.

It's also the reason we're seeing Xbox games make the jump to other platforms, and even Xbox-branded hardware like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally.

Similarly, with its third-generation shift into augmented reality, Meta has been pushing hard to make the Quest a one-stop hardware destination, covering everything from gaming to productivity.

Meta's real challenge has been replicating the sales success of the Quest 2 and convincing flat-screen gamers to give its platform a shot. This partnership with Xbox gives it that opportunity.

It's a chance to get regular gamers across its hardware threshold, and hopefully sway them to the spatial gaming/computing experience, all while handing Xbox users a unique way to game: plastered across enormous, mixed reality displays that truly live up to Xbox's "Play Anywhere" branding.

While its pricing seems a little high at first, besting the regular Quest 3S by $100, the Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition limited edition bundle includes an Xbox Wireless Controller, two Touch Plus controllers, a Meta Quest Elite strap, and the Quest 3S headset itself. That's a considerable serving that justifies the price, and a free, three-month helping of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Meta Horizon+ are the cherries on top.

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Not all handheld Windows gaming PCs are created equal. While there’s plenty to say about which one currently holds the top position (for a selection of reasons) as best PC gaming handheld between Valve’s Steam Deck, Lenovo’s Legion Go S, or Asus’ ROG Ally X — the heir to the throne is practically written on the wall in neon green paint for all to see: the Asus ROG Xbox Ally.

For years now, we’ve had Microsoft telling us to think outside the box on what we’d consider an Xbox, thanks to its cloud gaming platform and Xbox Anywhere. But this is the first time we’re seeing the brand truly break free from the plastic hardware beneath your TV and dive head-first into a new form factor with the official Xbox branding to its name.

So what makes the new ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X so worthwhile beyond their branding? Let’s take a closer look.

ROG Xbox Ally: Pricing and availability

While there’s plenty we know about both the standard and X models of ROG Xbox Ally, two things currently out of our grasp are solid release dates and pricing details.

That said, the community is stepping up with information they claim to be accurate, with YouTube leaker Extas1s recently suggesting that the base ROG Xbox Ally could be priced at a fairly competitive $499, with the higher-performance ROG Xbox Ally X model rocking a mighty $799 price tag.

You may be asking, “If the price is already known to certain people on the inside, why hasn’t Microsoft or Asus simply come out and announced it?” Well, that may have more to do with the timing of these handhelds’ release.

When the ROG Xbox Ally was announced, we were given a fairly vague holiday 2025 release window. That’s since been narrowed down by those in the know to October 2025 — particularly Windows Central’s Jez Corden, who “tentatively” corroborates this thinking in a recent update.

However, in the time between now and October, much could change regarding U.S. trade policy, and neither Microsoft nor Asus likely wants to deal with a hailstorm of pushback after announcing a set of prices now, only to be forced to change their tune at a later date

ROG Xbox Ally: Specifications

ROG Xbox Ally: Design and performance

While Asus ROG’s other handheld gaming PCs stick close to the winning Steam Deck formula on overall design, the ROG Xbox Ally does things a little differently, adopting more controller-like grips for better ergonomics.

The ROG Xbox Ally might look a little odd with these sizeable grips, but it’s a sure-fire case of function over form, and while chassis designs adopted by the Steam Deck and ROG Ally are comfortable in their own right, having a “proper” controller grip is going to be a welcome addition, especially when it comes to enjoying games for longer on its 7-inch, 120Hz, 1080p IPS display.

And you likely will find yourself hypnotized for hours at a time (or longer if you dock it or keep the charging cable connected), as the ROG Xbox Ally will tap into some rich gaming experiences through the power of its AMD Ryzen Z2 chipsets.

While the base model is outfitted with a less-than-stellar for the time AMD Ryzen Z2 A chip (which appears to be a varient of the Aerith APU found within the Steam Deck, potentially the mystery Aerith Plus spotted in March), the ROG Xbox Ally X will flaunt the much more impressive Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme APU — a true sequel to the processor that put the original ROG Ally ahead of the competition when it launched in 2023, and a safe bet to be positioned as the APU widely used to power the next generation of handheld gaming PCs.

The Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme’s Zen 5 architecture and RDNA 3.5 graphics promise a solid upgrade from the Ryzen Z1 Extreme that came before, all tucked neatly into a 35W envelope. While Valve may not feel the Z2 series of chips is a “generational leap” enough to consider pushing out a Steam Deck 2, handheld gaming PC owners will no doubt welcome the increased performance and power it offers.

ROG Xbox Ally: Software and games

While the ROG Xbox Ally's hardware is a solid upgrade, these handheld gaming PCs will be getting a software upgrade to match.

Teaming up with Xbox, Asus is passing on its typical Armoury Crate Special Edition software to focus on delivering a SteamOS-like full-screen Xbox experience that brings a familiar feel and look to console gamers in the PC gaming space.

However, this isn't an Xbox handheld. It's still very much a Windows handheld gaming PC like any other, and users will be able to access the usual Windows desktop interface as they choose.

Much like SteamOS, the ROG Xbox Ally simply offers a separate full-screen interface available that connects popular game storefronts for quick and easy access, and simpler navigation when using the gamepad-like controls.

Some of the other storefronts set to be featured within the Xbox full-screen experience include Steam, GOG, Battle.net, and Ubisoft. However, the new interface will also cater to cloud gaming, Game Pass, and Xbox Remote Play.

While it may not be a fully-fledged Xbox console, it's about as close as we're going to get for some time, given that following the announcement of the ROG Xbox Ally, Microsoft shelved plans for a first-party handheld console, with some insiders saying it has been effectively cancelled.

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Microsoft has a long and underhanded history of trying to gently subvert users away from Google Chrome on Windows.

In an effort to push the Edge web browser and its Bing search engine to Google's userbase (with all the tact of a used-car salesman), Microsoft has injected pop-up ads, tricked users with a fake Google Search page, flagged other browsers as errors that need to be fixed, and potentially broken a Chrome feature by blocking it through a system update. Oopsie.

However, after years of "coincidental" issues, "unintended" behaviors, and "accidental" bugs, Microsoft may have found a way to at least cut off the youth from being indoctrinated by Google's superior search and browser... By accidentally flagging it as unsuitable using Windows 11's Family Safety feature.

Too hot for Windows: Google Chrome no longer safe for small eyes on Microsoft's OS

In yet another unlikely turn of events that seems to benefit Microsoft's Edge browser and penalize Google's Chrome, Windows 11's Family Safety feature has been effectively blocking the world's most popular browser from opening for the better part of a month under the guise of a parental control measure.

The issue was first reported on June 3 to the r/Chrome subreddit by user Witty-Discount-2906, who claimed that following a crash, Chrome now "Just flashes quickly, unable to open with no error message."

Some time later, another Redditor suggested it was related to Windows' Parental Controls, stating, "I've had 9 students come see the IT Desk in the last hour saying Chrome won't open."

The issue was seemingly confirmed by Chrome support manager Ellen T, replying to a related post to the Google Chrome Help Community message board, stated: "Our team has investigated these reports and determined the cause of this behavior. For some users, Chrome is unable to run when Microsoft Family Safety is enabled."

According to a follow-up post, Microsoft advises that parents (or IT admins in the case of our previous Reddit sleuth) seeking a solution can use the Family Safety web portal or mobile app to select their Child's (or user's) account and choose to disable "Filter inappropriate websites" under the Edge tab.

However, while this will open up access to Chrome once more, it'll also open up access to all of the parts of the internet most parental controls seek to keep restricted.

Alternatively, admins or parents can navigate to Windows > Apps & Games, and unblock Chrome from there.

What's next

If this is a bug, it's an incredible on-brand one, and a genuine blessing. Typically, Microsoft would have to set aside engineers for weeks to plot and scheme ways to attempt to topple Chrome's popularity. This one would then have fallen into its lap for free.

According to Chromium's bug tracker, the problem persists for some, though reports have slowed. One team member shares: "We've not heard anything from MSFT about a fix being rolled out. They have provided guidance to users who contact them about how to get Chrome working again, but I wouldn't think that would have a large effect."

Narrowing down potentially affected users, the Chromium team member shares: "The set of Chrome users who are affected are those who turned on Web Safety under the Edge tab of the parental controls between roughly Nov 2024 and June 3rd."

Whether this is a fault with Chromium or with Windows 11's Family Safety feature remains to be seen. However, Microsoft will likely not see a situation that causes Edge to appear more attractive than the competition as a high-priority issue. So while we wait for a potential fix, I wouldn't blame Microsoft for dragging its heels.

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For Windows users rocking Western Digital SSDs, we've got some good news and some bad news.

The bad news: Windows version 11 24H2 is still failing to install on systems with specific Western Digital SSDs. When users encounter this error, Microsoft does not advise a fix.

The good news is that a firmware patch will solve the issue.

Here's what you need to know.

What SSDs are impacted and what version of Windows is causing trouble?

The SSDs affected all belong to Western Digital (now SanDisk). In particular, the issue seems to be cropping up with the popular SN770 model.

The troublesome update is Windows 11 24H2, which was released in October 2024.

If you happen to own a WD SN770 SSD and try to update to the 24H2 version of Windows 11, you'll get an obscure pop-up that reads:

Your PC has a hardware that isn't ready for this version of Windows. Windows Update will automatically offer you this version of Windows once the issue has been resolved.

This error code appears after Windows scans your computer's hardware and indicates a mismatch between your SSD and Windows 11 24H2's requirements.

But don't run back to Best Buy to pick up a new solid-state drive. You have options.

What should you do if your SSD isn't compatible with Windows 11 24H2?

If you take the nuclear option, you can revert your SSD to a Windows 10 image and rock the better version of Microsoft's OS for a little longer.

Alternatively, you could go the grumpy route and switch to Linux.

But if you'd rather not nuke your entire SSD just for one measly Windows update, there's a simple firmware patch that should get you back on track with all the new features and security updates from Microsoft's latest annual update.

Windows aficionados on Reddit have already devised a quick fix for the issue with version 24H2. You can use the SanDisk Dashboard to update your WD SSD to the latest firmware.

The updated firmware should get your system safely through the Windows 11 hardware scan, and onto the download process for the October 2024 Windows feature update.

Is this finally the push Linux needs to win the OS wars?

Okay, look: I did mention installing Linux on your hardware because that is one surefire way to avoid upgrading your computer when Windows 10 is finally kicked to the curb.

Since Linux is an open-source platform, you don't run into many hardware requirements for the various Linux distributions. So if it's more than just a WD Black SN770 holding you back from the latest Windows 11 update, it might be worth checking out Ubuntu before buying a new laptop or desktop.

But for all of Linux's benefits, there is a pretty high barrier to entry for many people. Some programs won't run on Linux, while others require work with translation layers to get them up and running as expected from a Windows machine.

So it may be similar to using one of these routes to hold on to Windows 10 for a while longer.

Or you can hold out hope for Windows 12.

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Not too long ago, Microsoft announced that it’s finally caving in and giving users exactly what they’ve been asking for: a redesigned Start menu. Getting excited about new Windows features is almost never a good idea, and the new Start menu isn’t an exception.

This time around, though the shiny new Start menu is simplified and looks much cleaner for the most part, it drags along a new limitation that’s already rubbing people the wrong way.

A more organized Start menu, with one big catch

As spotted by Windows Latest, the new Start menu features a new Category view that groups your applications into, well, different categories. These categories include: Utilities and tools, Productivity, Games, Social, Entertainment, Creativity, Information & Reading, and Other.

Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? In fact, it sounds like it might even make finding the right app quicker. But here’s where things start to fall apart. You can’t create your own categories beyond the existing ones or even decide where each application goes.

Instead, Windows automatically sorts your applications for you based on a predefined system, and you don’t get a say.

Windows Latest mentions that Microsoft doesn’t use AI or cloud-based analysis to sort your apps into one of the categories. Instead, everything is handled locally on your computer using an on-device JSON file.

This is a great thing privacy-wise, as it means your list of installed apps isn’t being sent to Microsoft’s servers. But it also means there’s little flexibility or intelligence in how the sorting process works.

In the case that Windows 11 can’t determine exactly which category an application should go into, it’ll add it to the “Other” category instead. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end here.

Not all the categories we’ve listed above need to show for you. According to Microsoft, a category only appears if the system detects at least three apps that belong to it. So if you’ve got exactly three apps in, say, the Creativity category and uninstall just one, the entire category disappears.

Of course, this means the remaining apps get automatically dumped into the “Other” category, even if they clearly don’t belong there. Microsoft also notes that apps within each category are arranged based on usage. So if you’ve got Paint in the Creativity category and it’s the app you use most often, it’ll appear at the top of that category.

Thankfully, the rest of the Start menu is what people wanted all along

To be fair, though, there’s likely a good chance that Microsoft will direct its efforts toward improving the “Categories” view and might eventually let users create their own categories and move apps around.

Other than this one frustration (which is admittedly a big one), the redesigned Windows 11 Start menu is certainly a step in the right direction and addresses multiple complaints users have had.

It’s cleaner, makes better use of screen space, and finally ditches the cluttered two-page layout for a single scrollable view. It even lets users finally remove the “Recommended” section, which shows recent apps and files they’ve installed.

The all-new Windows 11 Start menu is currently being gradually rolled out to Windows Insiders.

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With the Classic version of Windows Outlook’s end-of-life date inching closer, using it has only gotten more frustrating. Now, users are reporting that the app outright crashes the moment they try to open or draft an email.

For instance, someone on Reddit shared a post on the r/sysadmin subreddit on June 6, mentioning that they’re having issues with Outlook crashing when they try to open messages, though the Preview pane still works fine.

Many chimed in with similar complaints, confirming that the issue isn’t isolated. While there’s no word on how widespread the problem is, it’s serious enough that Microsoft has officially acknowledged it and is investigating.

Though this could very well be one of Microsoft’s ways of nudging users toward the new Outlook, the good news is that the Redmond-based tech giant has also offered a temporary workaround that may get things running again while it works on a proper fix.

The fix is as simple as creating a new folder, but it may or may not work for everyone

In an article published on Microsoft’s support site on Friday, Microsoft acknowledged the issue where Outlook crashes “when you open or start a new email.”

The tech giant mentions that while the issue can occur for Outlook on “all Microsoft 365 Office channels,” the cases being reported are currently on virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), meaning it could be more specific to users running Classic Outlook in virtual environments. Ultimately, users running Classic Outlook have a lower chance of being affected by this issue.

Microsoft also shared that the issue is occurring because Outlook is unable to access the Forms Library. And the fix for those affected is surprisingly simple: manually creating a folder named FORMS2 in the local Microsoft AppData directory.

Before you do so, make sure to close Outlook and all other Office applications. Then, head to Start > Run and type in the following path: %localappdata%\Microsoft, which’ll essentially take you directly to the Microsoft subfolder inside your user’s Local AppData directory in File Explorer.

Now, all you need to do is select New > Folder in the File Explorer menu to create a new folder. Simply name the new folder “FORMS2.”

Another option is switching to the new Outlook

What’s likely going on here is that Outlook is trying to access the FORMS2 folder, and when it can’t find that folder (possibly because it got deleted), the app crashes.

Manually creating the folder essentially tricks Outlook into thinking everything’s in place, and ultimately stops it from crashing when you attempt to open or compose a new email.

So, though this isn’t a guaranteed fix, since Microsoft mentions that “you may be able to work around the issue,” it’s your best bet until an official patch rolls out.

Another alternative is, well, to follow what Microsoft’s been encouraging users still hanging on to the legacy Classic Outlook to do: switch to the new Outlook experience. Microsoft wants all users off Classic Outlook by 2026, so this might be your cue to make the jump early.

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Microsoft's branding and advertising have come under fire this week, and I can't say I'm surprised.

The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division has published a report that feels like the latest chapter in Microsoft's history of being particularly terrible at naming its products.

But is this a case of AI washing, marketing spin, or Microsoft being terrible at naming products?

The BBB NAD has criticized Microsoft for its Copilot advertising, alleging that only some of the Copilot claims are supported by independent research. The report recommends that Microsoft modify or discontinue some AI features and performance claims.

Microsoft's Copilot AI and Copilot+ PC platforms are confusing -- even if you know the difference between the two. For the average Windows user, the difference is even more obscure.

Is it AI washing?

The National Advertising Division (NAD) is a watchdog organization that fact-checks various marketing claims to ensure products are marketed accurately.

The NAD investigated Microsoft's claims about Copilot AI features to determine if Microsoft was accurately advertising Copilot's capabilities both within the Microsoft ecosystem and with external applications.

While the NAD upheld many of Microsoft's AI claims, the advisory board recommended that Microsoft modify its advertising around the Business Chat feature, as it cannot "seamlessly" generate a document in non-Microsoft applications.

To get Business Chat to generate a document in outside apps, a user would need to take additional manual steps to produce the same results as Copilot.

The NAD also criticized Microsoft's claims that its Copilot and Business Chat AI features increase productivity. Microsoft bases its claim that AI improves productivity on a self-report statement: "67-75% of users say they are more productive" after 6-10 weeks of Copilot usage.

While Microsoft "disagrees with NAD's conclusions," the company has agreed to "follow NAD's recommendations for clarifying its claims."

Business Chat requires additional functionality in non-Microsoft applications. Microsoft's self-report style of productivity rating questions some Copilot claims; however, they don't appear to be "AI washing."

Business Chat can still generate documents in external applications, even if the AI feature requires additional steps from the user.

Instead, this appears to be a case of marketing spin.

It doesn't help that Microsoft's Copilot branding is confusing

The National Advertising Board also found that users could be confused by Microsoft's use of Copilot branding across multiple products with different features.

Microsoft's Copilot assists users in Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Copilot is also a stand-alone AI chatbot.

Microsoft's Business Chat is a chat interface for Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant.

Then there's Microsoft's Copilot+ PC program, which has expanded AI features for hardware that meets a strict 40 TOPS NPU requirement.

Even knowing all of this for the sake of reviewing hardware, I still find Microsoft's use of Copilot somewhat confusing. I can easily see how someone less informed would be blindsided by the differences between in-app Copilot features and accessing Copilot through Business Chat for external applications.

Microsoft is just bad at naming things

Look, Microsoft is notorious for being terrible at naming products. There are plenty of think pieces about its various failures, and the rankings of which have been the worst.

There are even multiple YouTube breakdowns. But here are a few quick examples:

• Microsoft was in hot water for attaching .NET to many of its products. The name came into use in 2002 and caused much initial confusion in the early days of the Internet.
• Windows 95 launched at the end of 1995, making users feel that even when it was new, it was already outdated.
• Windows also skipped from Windows 8 to Windows 10, implying Microsoft can't even count its OS iterations correctly.
• Microsoft also can't stick to a name scheme for its Xbox game consoles. The Xbox was followed by the Xbox 360, which in turn was followed by the Xbox One and Xbox One X. The current consoles are named the Xbox Series X and Series S, which doesn't reduce confusion.

So the idea that Microsoft overused the Copilot brand isn't exactly far-fetched.

All we can do is hope the NAD's intervention will make Microsoft's Copilot branding clearer in the future. But I also wouldn't hold my breath, considering Microsoft's track record with naming things.

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I wasn't going to buy the next-gen Xbox home console. The rumored Xbox VR/AR headset might get me, since I have a lot of nostalgia for the original Oculus Rift.

But the home console? Not a chance.

If the Nintendo Switch 2 is anything to go by, consoles are getting more and more expensive, so I wasn't planning to budget for a next-gen Xbox.

And then Microsoft and AMD had to announce a continuation of their hardware partnership for the next generation of Xbox consoles earlier this week.

Xbox President Sarah Bond said in the announcement, "I’m thrilled to share we’ve established a strategic multi-year partnership with AMD to co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices — including our next-generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands."

But it's not the hardware that changed my mind. Instead, one of Microsoft's smaller tweaks to the next-gen Xbox just might mean I shell out for yet another Xbox console.

Here's what we know about the next-gen Xbox so far.

The new Xbox is powered by AMD, again

Microsoft has used AMD hardware for the last couple of generations, so seeing that partnership continue isn't much of a surprise.

The original Xbox, released in 2001, was powered by a combination Intel Pentium III processor and an Nvidia NV2A graphics card. It also featured just 8GB of internal storage and 64 MB of RAM.

The Xbox 360 launched in 2005 and used a custom 64-bit IBM XCPU (later referred to as "Xenon") and a custom ATI Xenos graphics chip. It also featured 512MB of RAM and came in 20 GB or 60 GB storage variants, with later upgrades bringing the Xbox 360 to 120 GB of "internal" storage.

The Xbox One launched in 2013 and was the first Microsoft console with an AMD processor. It featured a custom 8-core AMD APU based on the Jaguar architecture and built-in AMD Radeon graphics. The Xbox One featured 8GB of DDR3 RAM and came in 500 GB or 1 TB storage models.

The Xbox Series X and Series S first launched in 2020 and are powered by a custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 APU with built-in AMD Radeon RDNA 2 graphics. The Series S features 8 GB of GDDR6 RAM while the Series X is upgraded to 10 GB of memory. Both consoles came in multiple storage configurations from 512 GB to 2 TB.

While this week's announcement confirms AMD hardware for the next-gen Xbox console, we didn't get many details. However, we do know it will be another custom AMD APU.

Based on the expected 2027 launch of the next-gen Xbox, the custom AMD APU could be based on AMD's Zen 6 architecture and RDNA 5 graphics architecture. Depending on cost and optimization, the APU could feature a Zen 5 CPU and RDNA 4 GPU. But that's still just speculation.

It's not the hardware that changed my mind

I've got a gaming desktop. I spend my days reviewing laptops, including gaming rigs. And all of Microsoft's exclusives and first-party titles always launch on Xbox and on PC, so there's no real point.

And, okay, maybe the thing that's changing my mind about the new Xbox doesn't really break that pattern.

Since the Xbox One, Microsoft's consoles have basically just been well-optimized gaming PCs in a custom ITX case. In fact, you can indeed install the regular version of Windows 10 and Windows 11 on the XBox One and Series X|S consoles.

While the Xbox consoles have traditionally used a proprietary Xbox System Software OS, that software isn't too far from Windows 10 and Windows 11's S-Mode.

But, despite owning a high-end gaming PC, the idea that the next-gen Xbox console is "not locked to a single store," is a compelling selling point.

Despite my love for my gaming desktop, and my quality gaming chair, I’m a big fan of couch gaming, which makes consoles an attractive option.

Sure, I can obviously access my Steam library on my gaming PC. But putting my Steam library on an Xbox just feels more reasonable than moving my gaming PC onto my TV stand. The bulky ATX case just will not fit in nicely. Additionally, the Xbox System Software is far better for gamepad controls than Windows 11.

And let's be real, Windows 11 is the inferior Microsoft OS.

Plus, my gaming rig is getting up there in years. And if trends continue, it won't be able to play new games on the best settings in just a few years. So rather than overhaul my gaming PC, I may as well just wait and buy a next-gen Xbox.

Though the other option for cozy couch play without sacrificing your living room aesthetic is, of course, a quality gaming laptop.

When will the next-gen Xbox even arrive?

Microsoft is expected to launch the sixth-generation Xbox console in the fall of 2027.

Gaming hardware typically launches in the September-November range, though there are exceptions. Particularly in the mid-cycle refresh phase. So this release date is subject to change.

The fun thing about this next generation of Xbox hardware is that it won't just come in home console form. Microsoft is not launching a proprietary Xbox handheld, but the ROG Xbox Ally X is expected to launch later this year.

There are also rumors floating around of an Xbox-branded VR/AR headset, which could also see a release as early as September 2025. While the launch date is just speculation, it wouldn't be out of pocket to see an Xbox VR headset.

As Xbox President Sarah Bond said in the AMD partnership announcement, "At Xbox, our vision is for you to play the games you want with the people you want, anywhere you want. That’s why we’re investing in our next-generation hardware lineup — across console, handheld, PC, cloud, and accessories."

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Say whatever you'd like about the predictability of Microsoft, but the Xbox brand has pivoted so wildly over the last several years that you'd assume its product roadmap was nothing but hairpin bends.

From banking heavily on Xbox Game Pass and cloud gaming, to sharing exclusive games with PlayStation, to teaming up with Asus for the ROG Xbox Ally handheld, and even suggesting third parties will build their own Xbox consoles in the future, it's increasingly hard to know where Xbox is heading next.

Except, we do know one thing: it's been a year and change since a very different kind of Xbox hardware was quietly announced — one that won't be a console in the traditional sense, but a VR/XR headset. Given its scope, we may even see it revealed as soon as this September.

Xbox's take on the Meta Quest 3: Powered by Horizon OS

In April 2024, Meta announced that it was opening the door for third-party manufacturers to adopt the Meta Quest 3's operating system, Horizon OS.

Alongside this announcement, Meta (and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Instagram) revealed that this decision would spark a new generation of VR/MX hardware, with several partners already lined up to spearhead the move, including:

• ASUS ROG: Who were earmarked to develop a new stand-alone, high-performance headset optimized for gaming and powered by Horizon OS
• Lenovo: Tipped to use Horizon OS' mixed reality features to power headsets for education, productivity, and entertainment
• Xbox: Set to build upon its partnership with Meta following Xbox Cloud Gaming's arrival to Horizon OS by developing a limited edition Meta Quest headset

We didn't get to see any of these devices as prototypes, and we weren't offered any form of release date or pricing information. But Meta did reveal that each headset could be fine-tuned to suit its target audiences.

In Xbox's case, Zuckerberg suggested that this model could "come straight out of the box with Xbox controllers and Game Pass, so that you can immediately just start playing on a big screen anywhere you go."

How that translates to the final product remains to be seen, and just how special Xbox's limited edition Meta Quest headset is from the standard Quest 3 model is also up in the air.

However, we have seen Meta provide limited editions of other products, namely its Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, which have received new colorways and designs over the years. At the very least, this could mean that Xbox's Quest headset will visually stand out, likely opting for the black colorway that the console is primarily known for.

As a limited edition Meta Quest variant, we can likely rule out any dramatic changes to the Quest 3's current design or features. You can probably expect it to look pretty much the same as the current third-generation Quest headsets, though adopting the Xbox Wireless Controller's colored buttons would be a nice touch.

Big screen experience or fully VR ready?

That's if the Quest 3's Touch Plus controllers are included in the box, Zuckerberg did hint that the headset could come with an Xbox controller, after all. Thankfully, those who nab the headset when it launches will still be able to use its hand tracking for VR/MX content, and a lack of controllers could result in a sizeable discount on the headset's overall price.

If the limited edition Xbox Meta Quest headset adopts the Quest 3S as its baseline, instead of the more premium Quest 3 model, it could be an impressively affordable entry-level option for VR/MR first-timers.

However, many of the Quest's most popular games do require a pair of Touch Plus controllers. Which means, should you be swayed by the Quest's VR/MX game library, you would need to buy the controllers separately, which Meta sells for $74.99 — each.

When can we expect it?

Frustratingly, the last time we heard of this Xbox-branded headset was also the first time we heard about it. Since Meta's original post in April 2024, we've had pretty much radio silence.

Does this mean that the project has evaporated into thin air? Well, it wouldn't be the first time that Meta has announced something and failed to deliver (we're still waiting for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas VR).

However, with Xbox happy enough to work with third parties on Xbox-branded hardware (even to the point of cancelling its own plans) and the seemingly small scope of the collaboration, I'd say there's a strong chance that this headset is still due to release. The question is: when?

The answer to that question may be sooner than we think, with the upcoming Meta Connect 2025 event, scheduled for September 17-18, making an ideal stage to showcase a new headset, especially as the Meta Quest 4 is rumored not to make an appearance until 2027.

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Those who sign up for the Windows Insider program know what to expect: you get first dibs on the platform's new and interesting features, and in return, you enlist in the volunteer ranks of Microsoft's bug reporting beta army.

However, few would anticipate the kind of bug found in the latest Preview Build 26200.5651 of the Windows 11 Beta and Dev channels .

It's not disruptive, it doesn't cause any frustrating software gremlins, and neither is it particularly annoying to deal with — but it does, inexplicably, drop an 18-year-old platform relic into the Windows experience, welcoming users to their desktops with the iconic, long-retired chimes of Windows Vista/7.

While this bug would typically be seen as nothing more than your average post-update blunder, given the timing, I'm convinced it has a lot more to do with Apple's recently announced operating system makeover for iOS 26 and macOS 26 than Microsoft is willing to admit.

Hasta la Vista, baby (again)

One eagle-eyed (or eared) Windows Insider brought attention to the bug in a post to X on Friday, even tracking down its cause to the imageres.dll.mun resource file, where Windows 11's typical startup sounds had been overwritten.

In its place? The ethereal startup chimes of Window Vista (which you can preview below) — a certified classic for those with fond memories of running Windows circa 2007, and a surprising shot of nostalgia that harkens back to an era of computing that didn't require a Copilot, when the Start Menu knew its place, and a world in which Microsoft had yet to dream up the Lovecraftian horrors of Windows 8.

Microsoft's Senior Program Manager of the Windows Insider Program Team, Brandon LeBlanc, was first to acknowledge to bug on X, highlighting it as a now known issue, while also joking that it was an intentional tweak to give folks a much-needed "blast from the past."

And while LeBlanc was quick to double down on confirming the out-of-place tones as an actual bug, many a truth is also said in jest, and the timing of this so-called bug lines up almost too well with a sudden spike in interest surrounding Windows Vista following the reveal of Apple's new Liquid Glass visual overhaul at WWDC 2025 — a design that those with working eyes say borrows heavily from Vista's Aero theme.

What's next

Could the revival of Windows Vista's iconic startup sound have originally been an off-the-cuff Easter egg for those drawing parallels to Apple's new Liquid Glass design language, intended for a short stay at startup for Windows Insiders before quietly returning to the Windows graveyard?

Absolutely. It's not like Microsoft hasn't taken a few shots at Apple already, with a recent Instagram post showcasing the brand's willingness to join in on ribbing its rival over claims of Aero inspiration.

However, if it is the truth, Windows Insider lead Brandon LeBlanc isn't fessing. Instead, the patch notes for Preview Build 26200.5651 have been updated to include the lighthearted: "This week’s flight comes with a delightful blast from the past and will play the Windows Vista boot sound instead of the Windows 11 boot sound. We’re working on a fix."

Sadly, LeBlanc and his team will be looking to get Windows 11 back to its regular and far less iconic xylophone-like introduction as soon as possible.

Boo.

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Xbox was once rumored to be working on its own dedicated handheld console — a direct answer to the Steam Deck and the PlayStation Portal. The device would’ve marked Microsoft’s first foray into a bespoke portable gaming console under the Xbox brand.

Now, according to a recent report, the handheld is dead. The project has been “essentially canceled,” with insiders confirming that Microsoft has shelved internal development to instead double down on third-party partnerships and software-first strategies, reports The Verge.

This marks more than the quiet death of a gadget. It’s an unexpected shift that could transform Xbox from a hardware-centric platform into something far more dynamic: A software ecosystem that thrives on alliances.

It’s not that Xbox is getting out of hardware entirely. It’s that Microsoft no longer needs to own every part of the stack to win.

The Xbox handheld lives on, just not from Microsoft

Microsoft and Asus revealed the ROG Ally and its higher-end sibling, the ROG Ally X, during Summer Game Fest 2025. They are Xbox-branded gaming handhelds that run on Windows 11 and boot directly into a custom, full-screen Xbox interface to deliver console-like simplicity with PC-grade flexibility.

The standard ROG Ally features a Ryzen Z2 APU, 16GB LPDDR5X-6400 RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 60Wh battery. The Ally X pushes the envelope with a Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and haptic impulse triggers, all wrapped in Xbox-styled ergonomics and a 7-inch 1080p 120Hz VRR display.

And most importantly, they are Xbox-first in experience. They launch into a full-screen Xbox UI, hide the Windows desktop, and are optimized for Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Remote Play, and more. You can also access Steam and other PC libraries — this is still Windows, after all — but Microsoft’s fingerprints are all over the interface.

According to Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, this collaboration represents “the tightest collaboration I’ve seen between the gaming organization and the Windows team in my three decades at the company.”

Why kill your own handheld?

Microsoft’s decision to cancel its handheld might seem strange. But building hardware is hard, expensive, and slow. And with companies like Asus, Lenovo, MSI, and Razer already shipping powerful gaming portables, Microsoft saw a better play: Become the ecosystem behind them.

By letting OEMs build the devices while Microsoft provides the platform, Xbox can scale faster, iterate quicker, and expand into niches that would be risky to tackle solo. Think Steam Deck-style devices, yes — but also streaming sticks, tiny PCs, modular accessories, and maybe even headsets.

Microsoft still plans a next-generation Xbox console (expected around 2027–28), but that no longer has to be the only kind of Xbox. Spencer has described a future where multiple devices from multiple companies, all certified and co-developed, coexist under the Xbox banner.

If “This is an Xbox” becomes a flexible definition, then anything from a $499 handheld to a VR headset could qualify.

VR is next, and Microsoft might beat Meta to it

That headset might already be in the works.

Microsoft is an early partner in Meta’s Horizon OS initiative, a program to open the Quest software platform to third-party headset manufacturers. Mark Zuckerberg named Asus, Lenovo, and Xbox as the first wave of partners.

And while Meta isn’t launching new hardware this year, Asus is rumored to be developing a Horizon OS-powered headset codenamed Taurus, with eye-tracking, face-tracking, and micro-OLED displays.

We’ve already seen the first crossover: A limited-edition Xbox-themed Meta Quest bundle that comes with Game Pass access and Xbox controllers. But the real prize would be a fully Xbox-integrated headset. One that offers console-quality cloud gaming and native VR in a single device.

With Meta Quest 4 delayed until 2027, Microsoft and its partners have a rare opening to define the future of hybrid gaming before Meta can dominate it again.

Xbox everywhere, for everyone

If all this sounds like Xbox is becoming a software platform that runs anywhere, well, that’s kind of the point.

From Series X consoles to Asus handhelds, from Meta headsets to browser-based Game Pass, Microsoft aims to make Xbox less about where you play and more about how you play. In a November 2024 GameSpot interview, Spencer put it best: “We want our games playable across as many screens as possible.”

That includes phones, tablets, laptops, smart TVs, future consoles, third-party handhelds, and VR. The big twist? Microsoft may have just made Xbox the most versatile gaming platform in the world, not by building more devices, but by letting others do it.

Ultimately, this means more choice for gamers. For Microsoft, more reach. And for Xbox? It might mark the beginning of its most exciting era yet.

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Get ready to always have an AI lighting technician at the ready -- even if you have already shot the photo and it's a decade old.

Microsoft announced earlier this month that a jaw-dropping feature is rolling out to Windows 11 users across all Insider Channels. That's the good news.

The not-so-good news takes a bit of the shine off this announcement.

The Relight feature in the Photos app is only available to Windows 11 users who have a Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ PC. However, Microsoft points out in its announcement that AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs will get the Relight feature in the Photos app "in the next few months."

Relight gives Photos app users more control over the lighting in their images and adds “dynamic lighting controls to pictures.” Essentially, it's an after-the-fact AI gaffer on your laptop, assuming your laptop meets the requirements.

As announced on the Windows Insider Blog, the tool lets you position a maximum of three light sources and customize their color, intensity, and the focus point where all the lights automatically aim. You can also adjust the brightness and softness using a slider.

If editing isn’t exactly your strong suit, Microsoft is also adding built-in presets with “ready-made lighting styles” that you can apply to your image with just one click. Based on the example image Microsoft shared in its blog, the presets include options like Softbox, Classic Portrait, Dramatic, Golden Hour, and Cyberpunk. These presets are much faster, if you'd prefer not to twiddle the knobs.

Microsoft also announced a massive Windows 11 update in May during Build 2025, showing off a redesigned Start menu and new capabilities in Photos and the Snipping Tool.

The Snipping Tool got a color picker and a Perfect Screenshot feature that can intelligently resize a screenshot you’re capturing, along with an AI-powered Relight tool in the Photos app.

Though the Snipping Tool features started rolling out toward the end of May, Microsoft announced on June 6 that the Photos app updates are now going live.

The Microsoft Photos app is getting a new AI-powered Relight tool

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Relight is yet another AI-powered feature Microsoft’s added to its apps. Like a lot of them, Relight is restricted to Copilot+ PCs. For now, Microsoft’s only rolling out Relight to Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, with support for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs coming in the next few months.

Relight isn’t the only new AI feature coming to Microsoft Photos

Microsoft has been testing Improved Windows Search for a few months now and finally rolled it out widely with the May Patch Tuesday update. In the same Windows Insider Blog post, Microsoft announced that it’s now enabling the “improved semantically-based Windows search” in the Photos app.

The feature works just like it does in File Explorer, only now within Photos. This means you can search for images with a description rather than typing in the exact file name or filtering by properties like date, file type, or tags.

For example, if you saw a bunch of camels in the desert on vacation, instead of scrolling through all your vacation images or trying to remember what the file was called, you could just search something like “camels in the desert,” and the app will pull up the most relevant photos automatically.

Microsoft mentions that this improved photo search works on images in your Photo Library that are saved locally and have been indexed. Similar to Relight, you must have a Copilot+ PC to try out the improved search in the Photos app.

Is this just another push for Copilot+ PCs?

It is ironic how Microsoft continues introducing more features exclusive to Copilot+ PCs. Though Microsoft hasn't admitted it, it's easy for even the non-cynics among us to wonder if the Copilot+ requirements are only there to nudge more users to upgrade to these AI-powered machines, even as some still aren’t sold on Copilot+ AI.

Besides, finding alternatives to at least some of the features Microsoft is locking behind Copilot+ PCs isn’t all that difficult. For instance, Clipdrop is a web-based AI tool powered by Stability AI and has a Relight tool.

Once you upload an image, you can choose from different presets, add multiple light sources, and customize their color, power, distance, and radius.

It matches much of what Microsoft’s Relight tool offers and works on almost any device with a browser. And of course, no Copilot+ PC required.

Both AI-powered Relight and Search in Microsoft Photos are currently being tested for Windows 11 across all Insider channels. They’re rolling out gradually, so you might not see them immediately, even if you’re a part of the Windows Insider program.

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The latest Windows Insider preview build introduces what Microsoft calls “User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management”, a background feature designed to throttle your processor only when you’re not using it.

In essence, you walk away, and your CPU backs off. You come back, and it’s ready to go. Microsoft is betting that these micro-adjustments will lead to macro savings, especially for laptops and 2-in-1s that rely on battery efficiency to stay competitive.

It might not be a flashy UI update or new Copilot feature, but it might be one of the smartest energy features Windows has introduced in years.

What exactly is User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management?

It’s a mouthful, but the idea is simple: When you’re not actively touching your PC — no keyboard, mouse, pen, or touchscreen input — Windows shifts the CPU into a lower-power state. The moment you interact again, full performance kicks back in automatically.

Microsoft says it does this by applying a more aggressive processor power management policy than your laptop would normally use during idle time. That includes dropping clock speeds, activating deeper C-states, reducing voltage, and even scaling back high-performance cores in favor of efficiency cores.

The feature is live now in builds 26120.4151 (Beta) and 26200.5603 (Dev) and is expected to ship in Windows 11 25H2, with a possible backport to 24H2 for supported devices. To date, no issues have been reported.

Like low power mode, but with some brains

Traditional power-saving modes don’t always account for how you’re using your device. User Interaction-Aware Power Management adds a layer of context. If you’re watching a movie, for example, the CPU stays active. Running a background encode? It doesn’t interfere. But if your laptop’s sitting open with a dozen browser tabs and no input, that’s when it kicks in.

In theory, that means longer battery life with no performance trade-offs unless you're the kind of user who wants to game and walk away at the same time. And if you’re not a fan of how it works, Microsoft says that you can toggle the feature off in your Windows 11 device’s Power & Battery settings.

On paper, this is an easy win. But depending on your workload and your laptop’s OEM settings, there are edge cases to watch out for.

For example, if you're encoding video or training an AI model in the background without input, you may not want Windows to throttle your CPU just because you walked away.

Microsoft says these scenarios should be excluded, but it will depend heavily on your device and how well your laptop’s manufacturer tunes the feature.

Some users have already flagged concerns in early feedback threads. One Reddit user writes, “If I leave the machine doing a video encode, I really don’t want Windows choosing to make it take longer.”

Another wrote, “Designed and real world [performance] are two different things… how soon it triggers, how long it takes to resume, how third-party software reacts…”.

An ongoing obsession with smarter power control

This move feels like a natural next step in the PC industry's recent obsession with smarter power control. Between Copilot+ PC requirements, ARM-based laptops, and NPU optimization, battery life is quickly becoming the next competitive spec. Microsoft knows this.

With User Interaction-Aware CPU Power Management, Windows adds a subtle but potentially significant tool to its energy toolbox. For ultrabooks, tablets, and 2-in-1s, especially those with limited cooling headroom, this could be a game-changer.

Don’t be surprised if you see OEMs like Dell or Lenovo marketing this by name in their next-gen laptops.

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After months of rumors, Microsoft's Xbox handheld is a reality, although it might not be the portable gaming machine that will dominate the market.

The ROG Xbox Ally is the new handheld made by Asus in partnership with Microsoft, and the Xbox maker made the announcement of the new gaming hardware during Sunday's Xbox Games Showcase.

There are two versions of the portable console coming: the Xbox Ally and the Xbox Ally X. The former will be the standard version, while the Ally X will be the performance version with improved specs.

This Xbox Ally, however, is not Microsoft's new next-generation hardware. The company was rumored to have a first-party handheld in development that would release along with a standard home video game console, with both of them being the successor to the Xbox Series system. That particular first-party handheld that Microsoft was reportedly working on has now been rumored to be on pause for the time being. The next console from Microsoft is expected sometime in 2027.

What's in the ROG Xbox Ally?

The Xbox Ally comes with an AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor, 16GB LPDDR5X-6400, 512GB M.2 2280 SSD, and 60Wh battery, while the Ally X has an AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme processor, 24GB LPDDR5X-8000, 1TB M.2 2280 SSD, and 80Wh battery. Both devices have a 7” FHD (1080p) IPS, 500 nits, 16:9 120Hz refresh display, Xbox-inspired button layout, and Wi-Fi 6E.

Some other differences between the two are that the Xbox Ally X has a USB4 and USB 3.2 port, impulse triggers, and weighs 45 grams more.

Looking at the specs, the Xbox Ally X does have slightly better components than the ROG Ally X that came out last July. Both devices will seemingly be more powerful than the Steam Deck, but power is not everything when it comes to handhelds.

A big concern about the Xbox Ally is the Windows 11 operating system. The ROG Ally X, MSI Claw, and Lenovo Legion Go all used Windows 11, and it actually hampers the performance. The devices are essentially Windows 11 laptops, and if the system and games are not optimized, it can feel sluggish and perform poorly.

On the other hand, the operating system for the Steam Deck, SteamOS, offers a much better performance on these portable consoles. The Lenovo Legion Go S can be used with SteamOS, and there is a big performance boost when ditching Windows. It's unclear right now how optimized the Xbox UI will be on the Xbox Ally.

When does the ROG Xbox Ally come out and how much will it cost?

Microsoft says the Xbox Ally and Ally X will come out this holiday season in the U.S., U.K., and several other countries. There will be pre-orders for the portable console, although no specific date was mentioned.

As for how much it will cost, that is the big question. Microsoft says it will reveal the portable's pricing in the coming months, but it's very likely to cost more than $500 since the ROG Ally launched in 2023 with a price tag of $600.

There's also the question of tariffs. Microsoft already had to raise the price of its Xbox Series consoles due to tariffs. Asus has already raised the price of some of its products because of those tariffs, as the company is based in Taiwan. Some portable consoles have also increased in price, or their manufacturers have refused to sell them in the U.S. due to tariffs.