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The Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola is a welcome surprise. It’s aimed at corporate types with a PC, especially if it’s a ThinkPad. I’m not a business executive, nor do I own a PC, and yet after testing it for a few weeks, the ThinkPhone has become my favorite Motorola smartphone in years. And as the Tyler Perry-esque name suggests, the phone is made by Motorola and its parent company, Lenovo.

The ThinkPhone has personality, unlike many Motorola phones in the past few years. It’s more than just a bunch of tech specs voted on by marketing research participants and packaged together at a low price. And with phones, like dogs and pigs, personality goes a long way. The ThinkPhone is reminiscent of 2017-’20 era Motorola designs that made me appreciate how much value a Moto phone can pack compared to devices from Google, Samsung and, at the time, LG.

At $700 (which converts roughly to 565, AU$1,060), the Lenovo ThinkPhone is an incredible value. It has a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip, (which feels speedy despite being a generation old), a 5,000-mAh battery, 68-watt fast charging (with an included power brick) and a lovely 6.6-inch 144Hz display, all wrapped in the Lenovo ThinkPad’s pinstriped and refined aesthetic.

8.0

Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola

Like

• Cohesive design
• Incredibly fast charging
• Cross functionality with PCs
• Incredible value for the price

Don’t like

• The cameras are good, but struggle in low light
• The Google Pixel 7 is $100 less

It runs Android 13 and has a number of nifty shortcuts and cross-platform utilities with Windows. The cross functionality isn’t limited to Lenovo ThinkPads. In fact, the ThinkPhone can work with most Windows computers released in the last few years.

The phone was first announced at CES earlier this year and sells unlocked on Motorola’s website as well as Lenono’s site and B2B enterprise sales channels. Perhaps the ThinkPhone’s biggest drawback is that the $600 Pixel 7 exists. While the ThinkPhone beats the Pixel 7 in most aspects, it lacks Google’s head-of-the-class computational photo processing and lower price. To be fair, a Pixel 7 with 256GB of storage (which matches what’s on the ThinkPhone) costs $700. And that tips things in Motorola’s favor.

Buy the Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola for $700 $700 at Motorola

Lenovo ThinkPhone design and performance

The ThinkPhone has a similar design as Lenovo’s popular ThinkPad laptop line, down to the signature red button. For a new phone that’s likely the first in a new product line, the design feels refined and mature; mimicking the ThinkPad’s corporate look. There’s even a ThinkPhone by Motorola badge on the back that’s identical to the ThinkPad logo. The diagonal aramid fiber weave inlay on the back gives the smartphone a sophisticated look and feels great in hand.

The phone is rated IP68 for water and dust resistance and can survive being submerged in 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes; about 5 feet. But don’t worry, it also comes with a case.

The 6.6-inch display looks good, even under bright light. Its refresh rate can go up to 144Hz. What I did is leave it on “auto,” which switches the refresh rate by up to 120Hz depending on what’s on your screen. Under the screen is an optical fingerprint reader, which worked well.

The phone runs last year’s Snapdragon chip instead of the newer Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip found in the OnePlus 11 or Galaxy S23. And to be precise, it’s the plus variant that debuted last summer. It’s a savvy way to balance powerful performance and excellent efficiency while keeping the price down. I wish more companies would use last year’s premium processor to help lower the cost. In fact, Motorola’s upcoming Razr Plus runs on the same chip, which I’m certain helps keep its price down.

Essentially, this is a Motorola phone that runs on a close-to-stock version of Android 13 with a few enhancements like Moto UX, shortcuts and features like GameTime, a mode that minimizes distractions during game play. It has Microsoft Office preinstalled and that’s where that red button on the side seems most at home. I can use the button with Microsoft Teams’ push to talk feature or program it for another shortcut. It’s a lovely addition that makes the phone more unique than its Motorola Edge cousins. I used the button to trigger the audio recorder app.

Performance was generally fast and smooth, aside from one minor “bug” I found during my testing. When I rotated the phone between a horizontal and vertical position, occasionally content stayed in landscape even though the ThinkPhone was vertical. (And no, the orientation lock wasn’t on.)

The ThinkPhone handled gaming well when I played titles like PUBG Mobile, Super Mario Run, Alto’s Odyssey and Genshin Impact, especially in Motorola’s nifty GameTime mode. Remember the phone’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip is the same one that debuted on last year’s Asus ROG Phone 6.

Everyday tasks were peppy, as were running Motorola’s Ready For connectivity tools, some of which have been repackaged as Think 2 Think (get it?) to connect to PCs, monitors and TVs. For example, I copied and pasted text and photos from the phone to a ThinkPad laptop and used the ThinkPhone’s 50-megapixel main rear camera for a video call I took on the ThinkPad. The image looked good.

I was also able to pull up the ThinkPhone’s screen on a ThinkPad. There was the occasional lag but overall it worked OK. I can’t think of when I’d want my phone’s display to appear on my laptop or what I’d use that for exactly.

Like most Motorola devices, the ThinkPhone has Lenovo’s ThinkShield, which helps with data privacy. There are also utilities for remote management that are obviously aimed at a company’s IT team. While cross-platform compatibility isn’t unique to Motorola and Lenovo, the ThinkPhone and ThinkPad work together closer to what Apple does with its iPhone and Mac than other Android and Windows devices.

Since software productivity tools are vital to the ThinkPhone’s entire premise, it’s nice to see Motorola and Lenovo commit to three years of major OS updates and four years of security updates. That puts it on par with what Google promises for its Pixel phones and just behind Samsung, which offers four years of Android upgrades.

Lenovo ThinkPhone battery and charging

Supplying the proverbial gas is a big battery that easily lasts a day and then some. I ran a 45-minute endurance test that consisted of playing games, streaming video, making a video call and scrolling social media to see how much the battery would drain after a full charge. After the test, the ThinkPhone’s battery was at 96%, which is the best result on any phone we’ve tested this year. By comparison, the Pixel 7 dropped to 94% and the Samsung Galaxy S23’s battery drained down to 91% in the same test.

I also streamed a lovely YouTube video of a train ride through the Alps to see how much a full battery would drop over the course of three hours. As you can see in the results below, the ThinkPhone fared better than the Pixel 7 and Galaxy S23, which had identical results. It’s curious since the ThinkPhone has a higher resolution QHD display compared to the Pixel and Galaxy phones, which have lower resolution FHD Plus screens.

If all that battery heft still isn’t enough for your spreadsheet macros and Zoom marathon needs, the ThinkPhone has fast charging. And when I say fast, I truly mean it. The ThinkPhone comes with a 68W wall charger in the box. The ThinkPhone went from an empty battery to 92% in 30 minutes, making it one of the fastest-charging phones sold in the US. For perspective, the similarly priced iPhone 14 only added 42% in the same amount of time.

If you forget that lovely charger at home, you can use the ThinkPhone’s wireless charging to top off your battery. In 30 minutes, the battery went from 6% to 43%. For comparison, the new Pixel 7A wirelessly charged its battery from 37% to 47% in the same amount of time.

The ThinkPhone’s cameras, wrap-up

There are two cameras on the back, a 50-megapixel main one and a 32-megapixel ultrawide, which can double as a macro camera. Photos from the ThinkPhone are good, especially when taken under bright lighting. There’s a noticeable step down in quality when photographing in dimmer environments. Check out some of my favorite ThinkPhone photos below.

The ThinkPhone can record videos up to 8K resolution at 30 frames per second. The image quality in photos is definitely better than videos you record, which is fine as long as filming videos isn’t a priority. But video image quality suffers when recording under low light. Overall, this isn’t meant to be a camera forward device but should be more than capable of capturing everyday snaps.

With everything considered, the Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola is a lovely surprise that’s competitive with some of the best Android phones you can buy. While it’s designed to be a business-minded phone, it doesn’t act much differently than a regular consumer phone. It definitely has a lot in common with the more expensive Motorola Edge Plus that came out last month, but the ThinkPhone’s lower price makes it a much better value. It even bests the Edge Plus in our battery and charging tests.

How we test phones

Every phone tested by CNET’s reviews team was actually used in the real world. We test a phone’s features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it’s bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s performance to the extremes using both standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.

All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.

We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds and foldable displays among others that can be useful. And we balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether that phone, whatever its price is, actually represents good value.

If you’re looking to buy one of the best phones out there, Apple consistently tops our list of great options with its latest iPhone, year after year. Likewise, its various Apple Watch models are often featured on our list of best smartwatches. But Apple devices come at a premium, often costing significantly more than competing brands. However, if you don’t mind a preowned device, you can get a great deal on refurbished Apple products. Woot currently has a variety of refurbished Apple Watches and iPhones to choose from, which can save you hundreds versus buying from Apple directly.

The majority of the devices you’ll find at this sale are listed as “Grade A” refurbs. According to Woot, that means that these items have been tested to be in full working condition and will show minimal signs of cosmetic wear and tear. Batteries are also tested to function at minimum 85% capacity.

While this sale doesn’t include Apple’s most up-to-date flagship phone — the iPhone 14 — there are still some great phones worth checking out. The previous-gen iPhone 13 lineup remains a solid option for most people, and if you want to save on a really recent model, Woot has the large iPhone 13 Pro Max available at a good price. It has an impressive 6.7-inch display, 128GB of storage and you can get it in several color variants for $860 right now, which saves you $239 over its initial list price.

If you want to spend a little less, the iPhone 12 is still an excellent phone that’s more than sufficient for most people, thanks to its 5G capabilities, OLED display and powerful A14 Bionic chip. It’s a great value starting at just $380, which is over $200 less than buying new from Apple directly, or $340 for the iPhone 12 Mini. In our iPhone 14 review, CNET’s Patrick Holland said there isn’t a compelling reason to upgrade to the iPhone 14 from the iPhone 12, meaning this is still a great phone for a lot of folks today.

On the smartwatch side, the Apple Watch Series 7 from 2021 is the latest model, available from $230. Outside of the temperature sensor and crash detection features found on the Series 8, the older Series 7 has basically the same display, battery life, connectivity and features making it a solid option in 2023. The first-gen Apple Watch SE is available for even less — just $160 — and it will still work well for the average user and is a good bargain for someone just testing the waters with their first Apple Watch.

Overall, these are some of the best value Apple deals you’ll find right now. These offers will end tonight, June 14. However, many of the refurbished models have already sold out, so we recommend acting sooner rather than later.

The Nothing Phone 2, the next version of UK brand Nothing’s Android phone, will launch July 11, the company said in a teaser posted Tuesday on Twitter. The teaser encourages people to “come to the bright side” and points to Nothing’s website.

The Nothing Phone 2 is expected to be a more high-end phone than the first version. Nothing has already confirmed it’ll include Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.

The phone brand, which was launched by OnePlus founder Carl Pei in 2020, is relatively new to the market but has already gained attention for its affordable price and design. Pei tweeted Tuesday that the next operating system, Nothing OS 2.0, will also be launching to Nothing Phone 1 users by the end of August.

CNET’s Andrew Lanxon admired the Nothing Phone 1, a 5G device, for its “unique, flashy design” and “solid processor and camera performance.”

On the Nothing 1’s 399 price tag, Lanxon said, “It’s a low price, but what you get is a phone that feels like a premium product.”

Watch this: Nothing Phone 1 Is a Superb, Affordable Phone

07:53

Will the Nothing Phone 2 be available in the US?

Unlike its predecessor, the Phone 2 will launch in the US alongside its release in the UK and Europe. There’s no word yet on what price point it will be offered at, or whether you’ll be able to get the phone through a carrier.

While the Nothing 1 did not launch in the US, you can get your hands on a beta of the company’s first phone for $299. However, CNET’s Mike Sorrentino said that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. The phone mainly supports 4G, limiting carrier compatibility, and some apps may not function properly with the beta.

If you’re looking for a new phone, here are CNET’s lists on the best phones you should buy right now and the best Android phones of 2023.

At WWDC 2023, Apple announced the Vision Pro AR/VR headset, which offered an impressive amount of technology and an equally imposing $3,500 price tag. Yet one of the things that helps the Vision Pro stand out from cheaper products from Valve and Meta is the use of a new type of display called micro-OLED. More than just a rebranding by the marketing experts at Apple, micro-OLED is a variation on the screen technology which has become a staple of best TV lists over the last few years.

Micro-OLED’s main difference from “traditional” OLED is right in the name. Featuring far smaller pixels, micro-OLED has the potential for much, much higher resolutions than traditional OLED: think 4K TV resolutions on chips the size of postage stamps. Until recently, the technology has been used in things like electronic viewfinders in cameras, but the latest versions are larger and even higher resolution, making them perfect for AR and VR headsets.

Here’s an in-depth look at this tech and where it could be used in the future.

What’s OLED?

OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode. The term “organic” means the chemicals that help the OLED create light incorporate the element carbon. The specific chemicals beyond that don’t matter much, at least to us end-users, but suffice it to say when they’re supplied with a bit of energy, they create light. You can read more about how OLED works in this article: What Is OLED and What Can It Do for Your TV?

The benefit of OLED in general is that it creates its own light. So unlike LED LCD TVs, which currently make up the rest of the TV market, each pixel can be turned on and off. When off, they emit no light. You can’t make an LED LCD pixel totally dark unless you turn off the backlight altogether, and this means OLED’s contrast ratio, or the difference between the brightest and darkest part of an image, is basically infinite in comparison.

OLED TVs, almost all manufactured by LG, have been on the market for several years. Meanwhile, Samsung Display has recently introduced OLED TVs that also feature quantum dots (QD-OLED), which offer even higher brightness and potentially greater color. These QD-OLEDs are sold by Samsung, Sony, and, in computer monitor form, Alienware.

Micro-OLED, aka OLED on Silicon

Micro-OLED, also known as OLEDoS and OLED microdisplays, is one of the rare cases where the tech is exactly as it sounds: tiny OLED “micro” displays. In this case, not only are the pixels themselves smaller, but the entire “panels” are smaller. This is possible thanks to advancements in manufacturing, including mounting the display-making segments in each pixel directly to a silicone chip. This enables pixels to be much, much smaller .

If we take a look at Apple’s claims, we can estimate how small these pixels really are. Firstly, Apple says the twin displays in the Vision Pro include “More pixels than a 4K TV. For each eye” or “23 million pixels.” A 4K TV is 3,840×2,160, or 8,294,400 pixels, so that should equate to around 11,500,000 pixels per eye for the Apple screens.

Next, Apple partnered with Sony (or maybe TSMC) to create these micro-OLED displays and they are approximately 1-inch in size. To calculate the size of each pixel I’m going to use 32-inch 4K TVs as a comparison, and these boast about 138 pixels per inch (ppi). We don’t know the aspect ratio of the chips in the Vision Pro, but if they’re a square 3,400×3,400 resolution that would be a total of 11,560,000 pixels, so that’s a safe bet. So, if that’s the case, these displays have a ppi of around 4,808(!) and that’s more than almost anything else on the market, and that’s by a lot. Even the high-resolution OLED screen on the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a ppi of “only” 500. Regardless of the panel’s production aspect ratio, the ppi is going to be impressive. Apple didn’t respond immediately to CNET’s request for clarification.

AR and VR microdisplays are so close to your eyes that they need to be extremely high performance in order to be realistic. They need extreme resolution so you don’t see the pixels, they need high contrast ratios so they look realistic, and they need high framerates to minimize the chance of motion blur and motion sickness. In addition, being in portable devices means they need to be able to do all that with low power consumption. Micro-OLED seems able to do all of these, but at a cost. Literally a cost. The Vision Pro is the most high-profile use of the high-end of the technology and it costs $3,500.

The Micro-OLED technology isn’t particularly new, having been available in some form for over a decade. Sony has been using them in camera viewfinders for several years, as have Canon and Nikon. Like all display techs, however, micro-OLED has evolved quite a bit over the years. The displays in the Vision Pro, for instance, are huge and very high resolution for a micro-OLED display.

How is micro-OLED different from MicroLED? Despite the fact that they’re written slightly differently, they are superficially similar in the way they are both self-emitting, or can make their own light. But on a more in-depth level, the differences between the carbon-based OLED and the non-carbon LED are sadly beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say right now, MicroLED is better suited for large, wall-sized displays using individual pixels made up of LEDs. Micro-OLED is better suited for tiny, high-resolution displays. This isn’t to say that MicroLED can’t be used in smaller displays, and we’ll likely see some eventually. But for now they’re different tools for different uses.

The future is micro?

Where else will we see micro-OLED? At MWC 2023, Xiaomi announced its AR Glass Discovery Edition featured the technology, and future high-end VR headsets from Meta, HTC and others will likely use it. Currently, a company named Engo is using a tiny micro-OLED projector to display speed and other data on the inside of its AR sunglasses. I know I sure don’t need these, but I want them. Then there’s the many mirrorless and other cameras that have been using micro-OLED viewfinders for years.

Could we see ultra-ultra-ultra high-resolution TVs with this new technology? Technically, it’s possible but highly unlikely. Macro micro-OLED is just OLED. The resolutions possible using more traditional OLED manufacturing are more than enough for a display that’s 10 feet from your eyeballs. However, it’s possible micro-OLED might find its way into wearables and other portable devices where its size, resolution and efficiency will be an asset. That’s likely why LG, Samsung Display, Sony and others are all working on micro-OLED.

Will ultra-thin, ultra-high resolution micro-OLED displays compete in a market with ultra-thin, ultra-high resolution nanoLED? Could be. We shall see.

As well as covering TV and other display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, massive aircraft carriers, medieval castles, epic 10,000-mile road trips and more. Check out Tech Treks for all his tours and adventures.

He wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines and a sequel. You can follow his adventures on Instagram and his YouTube channel.

The evolution of VR and AR is in major flux, and right now Apple’s bleeding-edge, ultra-expensive Vision Pro headset is sitting at the top of the heap — and it’s not even expected to arrive until 2024.

After a demo at WWDC, I came away instantly impressed at how the Vision Pro hardware synthesized so much of what I’ve seen in VR and AR over the last five years. But this time it was all done with Retina Display-level resolution and smooth, easy hand-tracking finesse. At $3,499 (around 2,800 or AU$5,300 converted), Apple’s hardware is priced far beyond VR headsets like the Meta Quest 2, and also aims to be a full computer experience in AR (as well as VR, even though Apple doesn’t outright acknowledge it).

Even so, there are notable absences from the Vision Pro, at least based on what Apple presented at WWDC. I had expectations as to what Apple might make the killer apps and features for its spatial computer headset, and only some of them materialized. Maybe others will emerge as we get closer to Apple’s 2024 headset release, or get introduced via software updates much like Meta has done with the Quest over time.

Still, I’m surprised they’re not already part of the Vision Pro experience. To me, they’ll eventually make everything I saw work even better.

Read more: Best VR Headsets of 2023

Fitness

The Meta Quest’s best feature, other than games, is its ability to be a portable exercise machine. Beat Saber was my pandemic home workout, and Meta’s acquisition of Within (maker of Supernatural, a subscription fitness app that pairs with the Apple Watch) indicates how much fitness is already a part of the VR landscape.

Apple is a prime candidate to fuse VR, AR, fitness and health and take the experience far beyond what Meta has done. Apple already has the Apple Watch and Apple Health and Fitness Plus subscription workouts. And yet, the Vision Pro has no announced fitness or health apps yet, except for a sitting-still Meditation app that’s more of a breathing prompt.

Even more puzzling: The Vision Pro seemingly doesn’t work with the Apple Watch at all. This could change. Maybe Apple is waiting to discuss this aspect next year. Or, maybe, it will arrive with a future version of the Vision hardware.

Some VR sporting game app makers are already announcing ports for the Vision Pro, including Golf Plus, an app that works in VR with controllers. The assumption, for now, is that these apps will find a way to work just using eye and hand tracking.

Apple didn’t even demonstrate that much active motion inside the Vision Pro; my demos were mostly seated, except for a final walk-around experience where I looked at a dinosaur up close.

Is the dangling battery pack part of the concern? The headset’s weight? Or is Apple starting with computing interfaces first and adding fitness later?

iPhone, iPad and Watch compatibility

Speaking of fitness and the Apple Watch, I always imagined Apple’s AR headset would emphasize seamless compatibility with all of its products. Apple didn’t exactly do that with the Vision Pro, either.

The Vision Pro will work as a monitor-extending device with Macs, providing high-res virtual displays in a similar way that headsets like the Quest 2, Quest Pro and others already do. I didn’t get to try using the Vision Pro with a Mac, and I didn’t get to use a trackpad or keyboard, either. The Vision Pro will work with Magic Trackpads and Magic Keyboards to add physical trackpad/typing input options, again, like other VR/AR headsets, in addition to onboard eye- and hand-tracking.

And yet, the Vision Pro won’t interface directly with iPhones, iPads or the Apple Watch. Not yet, at least.

The Vision Pro primarily runs iPad-type apps. This is why the iPad Pro seems to be the best computer companion to the Vision Pro: it has a keyboard, a trackpad, built-in motion tracking that’s already AR-friendly, front and rear depth-sensing cameras that could possibly help with 3D scanning environments or faces, and it has a touchscreen and Pencil stylus.

Apple is emphasizing that the Vision Pro is a self-contained computer that doesn’t need other devices. That’s understandable, and most of Apple’s cloud services, like FaceTime, will work so that the Vision Pro will essentially absorb most iPhone and iPad features. Yet I don’t understand why iPhones, iPads and Watches wouldn’t be welcome input accessories. Their touchscreens and motion controls could help them act as remotes or physical-feedback devices, in a similar way to how Qualcomm is already looking at the relationship between phones and AR glasses. I hold up my iPhone all the time to enter passwords on the Apple TV. I seamlessly drop photos, links and text from my iPhone over to my Mac.

Touchscreens could act as virtual keyboards. Drawing on the iPad could mirror a 3D art interface. With Apple’s already excellent passthrough cameras, iPhone, iPad and Watch displays could become interactive second screens, tactile interfaces that sprout extra parts in AR. Also, there’s the value of haptics and physical feedback.

No haptics

The buzzing, tapping and rumbling feelings we get on our phones, watches and game controllers, those are feedback tools I’ve really connected with when I go into VR. The PlayStation VR 2 even has rumbling feedback in its headset. The Vision Pro, with eye and hand tracking, has no controllers. And no haptic feedback. I’ve been fascinated by the future of haptics — I saw a lot of experimental solutions earlier this year. For now, Apple is sitting out on haptic solutions for Vision Pro.

When I use iPhones and the Watch, I feel those little virtual clicks as reminders of when I’ve opened something, or when information comes in. I feel them as extensions of my perceptual field. In VR, it’s the same way. Apple’s pinch-based hand tracking technically has some physical sensation when your own fingers touch each other, but nothing will buzz or tap to let you know something is happening beyond your field of view — in another open app, for instance, or behind you in an immersive 3D environment.

Microsoft made a similar decision with the HoloLens by only having in-air hand tracking, but former AR head Alex Kipman told me years ago that haptics were part of the HoloLens roadmap.

Apple already has haptic devices; the Apple Watch, for example. All those iPhones, too. I’m surprised the Vision Pro doesn’t already have a solution for haptics. But maybe it’s also on its roadmap?

Will there ever be other accessories like the Pencil?

One of the wildest parts about a mixed-reality future is how it can blend virtual and real tools together, or even invent tools that don’t exist. I’ve had my VR controllers act like they’re morphing into objects that feel like they’re an extension of my body. Some companies like Logitech have already developed in-air 3D styluses for creative work in VR and AR.

Apple’s Vision Pro demos didn’t show off any creative apps beyond the collaborative Freeform, and nothing that showed how 3D inputs could be improved with handheld tools.

Maybe Apple is starting off by emphasizing the power of just eyes and hands here, similar to how Steve Jobs initially refused to give the iPad a stylus. But the iPad has a Pencil now, and it’s an essential art tool for many people. Dedicated physical peripherals are helpful, and Apple has none with its Vision Pro headset (yet). I do like VR controllers, and Meta’s clever transforming Quest Pro controllers can be flipped around to become writing tools with an added stylus tip. As a flood of creative apps arrive on the Vision Pro in 2024, will Apple address possibilities for dedicated accessories? Will the Vision Pro allow for easy pairing of them? Hopefully, yes.

The Apple Vision Pro is a long way from arriving, and there’s still so much we don’t know. As Apple’s first AR/VR headset evolves, however, these key aspects should be kept in mind, because they’ll be incredibly important ways to expand how the headset feels useful and flexible for everyone.

8.0

Amazon Fire Max 11

$330 at Amazon

You’re receiving price alerts for Amazon Fire Max 11

Like

• Affordable tablet with more premium design
• Relatively zippy operation with new, faster processor
• Optional detachable keyboard makes it a cheap laptop
• 1080p front- and rear-facing cameras
• New fingerprint sensor and expansion slot for additional memory

Don’t like

• Amazon App Store is missing some apps you might want
• iPad only costs $40 more

I’ve been reviewing Amazon Fire tablets for many years, and probably the best thing you could say about them was that they tended to be very good values for Amazon Prime users and parents who could pawn them off as “good enough” iPads to their young children for a fraction of the cost of an actual Apple iPad.

The new Fire Max 11, which starts at $230 with 64GB of storage and lock-screen ads enabled, is also a value play for Amazon. But it’s Amazon’s first tablet to have a more premium bent with an aluminum chassis (instead of plastic) and a stronger productivity angle that includes better front- and rear-facing cameras than previous Fire tablet models and a faster MediaTek processor that serves up a zippier experience. No, it doesn’t quite measure up to the most affordable iPad, but it’s a worthy alternative, especially if you opt for the Fire Max 11 “productivity bundle” with the bundled keyboard case and powered stylus for $330 — the same MSRP of the entry-level (ninth-gen) iPad, sans accessories.

The display is naturally the first thing you see when you look at a tablet, and the Fire Max 11’s is pretty good. The Max sports an 11-inch screen with a 2,000×1,200-pixel resolution with a pixel density of 213 pixels per inch, while the ninth-gen iPad has a 10.2-inch, 2,160×1,620-resolution display with a 264 ppi. Even without knowing that, though, you can see the Max’s screen is not quite as sharp as the iPad’s screen — pixel density is the key feature here, since the iPad and Fire Max 11 have different aspect ratios.

Still, I found it amply crisp and bright, and you can turn on adaptive brightness to have the screen automatically optimize the brightness to your environment’s lighting conditions to help save battery life. Video from a variety streaming service looked sharp — it’s 1080p HD video — with decent color accuracy.

Enlarge Image

Good performance for the price

In all, I was generally impressed with the build quality and performance of the Fire Max 11. Think of it as Amazon’s Fire tablet version of its premium Kindle ebook readers that rarely get discounted — the Kindle Oasis and the more recent Kindle Scribe. Those models also have metal bodies and the Fire Max 11’s aluminum back and slim bezels definitely give it a higher-end look (you won’t mistake it for a budget product). It weighs in at 17.3 ounces (490 grams), or only slightly more than the $150 Fire HD 10 (16.4 ounces, 465 grams), which actually isn’t much smaller because it has larger bezels around its 10-inch screen.

As I said, the performance doesn’t match up with the ninth-gen iPad, which has higher Geekbench 6 scores, but it certainly feels zippier than previous Fire tablets. Powered by a MediaTek MT8188J 2.2GHz octa-core processor with 4GB of RAM, it supports faster Wi-Fi 6 wireless connectivity and has a fingerprint sensor (a first on an Amazon tablet) along with a microSD expansion slot to add up to 1TB of additional storage.

Using Geekbench 6 for Android, the results I got for the Max 11 were 933 for single-core and 2,280 for multicore, which appears to be a big bump in performance from the Fire HD 10. I benchmarked the Fire HD 10 at 322 for single-core and 951 for multi, which would mean that Amazon is underselling the supposed 50% improvement of the Max 11. While the latest version of the Fire HD 10 model was released in 2021, it remains a very good tablet value, particularly when it goes on sale for around $100. (Its screen is technically a touch sharper than the Max 11’s with 224 ppi, but the two displays are very similar.)

Higher-end Android tablets like Google’s new Pixel Tablet and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S8 have double the RAM (8GB vs. 4GB) and more powerful processors along with even crisper displays. (More RAM prevents your tablet from getting bogged down when using multiple apps at the same time and makes the tablet perform better overall.) But those tablets cost more than twice as much. The $500 Pixel Tablet has a 10.9-inch screen with 2,560×1,600 resolution and 276 ppi. It runs Google’s Pixel-flavored version of Android 13 while the Fire Max 11 runs Amazon Fire OS 8, which is basically an offshoot of Android 11.

No Google Play Store remains an issue — but it can be circumvented

That Fire OS is the big caveat whenever you’re buying an Amazon tablet. Like other Fire tablets, you don’t get the Google Play Store (and are limited to Amazon’s app store) out of the box, though many people sideload the Play Store on their Fire devices. It’s not dead simple, but it’s not hard either, and I was able to add it in about 15 minutes by following step-by-step instructions easily found online.

Some people may feel comfortable living in Amazon’s walled garden. However, with a tablet like this that’s designed to be a more robust productivity tool and not just a gateway to the company’s entertainment content and a dashboard for controlling your Alexa-enabled smart home devices (you can put it into Show Mode to turn it into an Echo Show-like smart display minus the integrated, much fuller sounding speaker), if you don’t sideload the Play Store, you’ll miss out on a broader array of apps that help this tablet reach its full potential.

Amazon’s app store has many of the apps you’ll want and need, but far from all of them. Zoom and Microsoft Teams video-conferencing apps are available, as is Microsoft’s OneNote app (I used it for testing the stylus). Additionally, Amazon throws in a three-month free trial to Microsoft Office 365. However, if you’re looking for a Google Drive app in Amazon’s app store, what you get instead is an app that’s a bookmark to drive.google.com. There are also no Vudu or YouTube apps. And if your headphones have a companion Android app (Sony, Beats, Bose, etc.), it likely won’t be available in Amazon’s app store.

This seems a good spot to mention that the tablet has no headphone jack — you can connect headphones wirelessly via Bluetooth (it’s Bluetooth 5.3) or wired via the USB-C port. And I should also note that the tablet’s internal speakers are pretty decent. They don’t produce much in the way of bass, but I watched Creed 3 and a few other movies and they produced a reasonably wide soundstage with ample volume (the midrange is particularly strong with dialog coming through loud and clear). The left and right stereo speakers can be found on either side of the top tablet when it’s in landscape mode, the same placement as the speakers on the Fire HD 10.

Amazon sent me a Luna game controller and a limited comp subscription to use with the tablet so I could try out its Luna cloud gaming service. The game selection is fairly limited, but the games I tried, including a few from my Ubisoft account (you can link your Ubisoft account to Luna), ran smoothly on my Wi-Fi 6 home network with relatively few glitches. I also ran Xbox Cloud gaming through Amazon’s Silk web browser and games ran smoothly, but I had trouble with the sound at one point and the Luna game controller would only work when I plugged it into the USB-C port rather than use it wirelessly. (Note: I spent a limited amount of time gaming on the Max 11 and still need to spend a bit more time before delivering a final verdict on the tablet’s gaming capabilities.)

Improved cameras

Amazon reps told me the company noticed a shift in how people were using their Fire tablets during the pandemic that has continued as people still work from home at least part of the week. More people were using them as productivity devices rather than just as entertainment devices. That included using them for Zoom and Microsoft Teams video conference calls, even if the cameras weren’t that great from a resolution standpoint.

With that in mind, beyond the design upgrade and faster processor, the biggest changes to the Max 11 from previous Fire tablets are its front- and rear-facing cameras. The step-down Fire HD 10 is equipped with 2-megapixel front-facing and 5-megapixel rear-facing cameras with 720p HD video recording. By contrast, the Fire Max 11 has 8-megapixel front- and rear-facing cameras with 1080p HD video recording. When I was on Zoom calls, I was told that I appeared to indeed be broadcasting in 1080p and screen grabs showed that I looked pretty sharp, particularly with better lighting.

A case for the keyboard and stylus bundle

You can get a keyboard case for the Fire HD 10, but the Fire Max 11’s design includes a set of pogo pins to attach Amazon’s new Keyboard Case ($90) to the tablet magnetically. The new Amazon Stylus Pen ($35) also adheres magnetically to the side of the tablet. As noted earlier, you can buy the Fire Max 11 in a bundle with the Keyboard Case and Stylus Pen for $330 or $25 less than what the items would cost if purchased separately.

The Keyboard Case may not be quite as good as some of Logitech’s keyboard cases for the iPad, but it’s slim, comfortable to use (the keys are pretty tactile) and also has an integrated touchpad for mouse support. Since it’s so slim, it’s easy enough to bend a bit, so it’s more suitable to use while sitting on a desk or hard surface than in your lap.

Meanwhile, the Stylus Pen is powered by a replaceable AAAA battery that Amazon says lasts up to six months with moderate use. As for the tablet’s battery life, it’s rated to get up to 14 hours of reading, browsing the web, watching videos and listening to music on a single charge. It charges via its USB-C port but does not have a wireless charging option like the HD 8 Plus or HD 10 Plus. It’s worth noting that the Max 11 only comes with a 9-watt USB-C charger, which does the job but does it quite slowly (if use it, you’ll probably want to charge overnight). I ended up using a 65-watt charger that I use to charge my laptop and that helped reduce charging times a little. However, it still took close to 4 hours for a full charge.

With earlier Fire tablets, Amazon touted how they offered hands-free Alexa, so you can control them with your voice like an Echo speaker, which you can also do with the Fire Max 11 (while it has only two microphones vs. the array of microphones found on Echo speakers it still managed to pick up my voice well). But with the arrival of the stylus, Amazon is now highlighting how handwriting recognition works with certain apps and how you can write a URL in the web browser address bar and have it convert into text. You probably wouldn’t bother with that if you had the Keyboard Case, but some people really like to use their styluses.

As I said in the intro, if you’re thinking of using the Max 11 as a cheap laptop replacement, the keyboard case and stylus bundle is the way to go. Ultimately, the value proposition here is that for around the price of the entry-level iPad, you’re getting not only a competent and sturdy tablet (the Fire Max 11 is “three times as durable” as the iPad 10.9-inch, Amazon says), but you also get a keyboard case and stylus. Apple’s Magic Keyboard Folio costs $249 and an Apple Pen (2nd generation) lists for $129.

Amazon Fire Max 11 final thoughts

In our review of Lenovo’s Duo 3 Chromebook ($379), which has an 11-inch screen with 128GB of storage and includes a detachable keyboard, former CNET editor Dan Ackerman describes the Duo 3 as “one of the best computers you can buy for under $400,” but is a “better secondary or travel laptop than a primary device.” The same can be said for the Max 11, with its keyboard case attached.

The advantage of Chromebook is that while it runs Google’s Chrome OS, you can also download and run Android apps on it using the Google Play Store. But so long as you sideload the Google Play Store onto the Max 11, you can get a pretty similar experience for about $50 less along with easy access to plenty of Amazon’s “free” content for Prime members.

As standalone tablet, you would probably compare this to something like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A8, which is currently on sale for $230 with 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM with what appears to be a very similar screen to the Max 11’s. I haven’t reviewed that model, but I think the advantage you get with the Fire Max 11 is a faster processor and overall zippier performance.

Like the Kindle Oasis and Scribe, I wouldn’t expect the Max 11 to be regularly offered at a steep discount, even during Black Friday or Prime Day sales. However, you might find some small sales on it, or perhaps Amazon will offer a better deal on the productivity bundle, which seems like it has some room for discounting.

Like other Fire tablets, the Max 11 is a good value at its list price — and a very good budget tablet that looks and feels more expensive than it costs. My only reservation in recommending it is the lack of the Google Play Store to access those apps that are missing from Amazon’s App Store. But that shortcoming can be overcome if you follow the steps to install it yourself.

Fire Max 11 key specs, according to Amazon

• 11-inch touchscreen made out of strengthened alumino-silicate glass
• 2,000×1,200 resolution with 2.4 million pixels. Fire Max 11 has 410 nits (typical) brightness with 213 ppi pixel density, 70% (typical) NTSC color gamut, 1,000:1 (min) and 1,400:1 (typical) contrast ratio
• 64GB or 128GB of internal storage with support for microSD cards up to 1 TB for additional storage
• Mediatek MT8188J octa-core processor
• Arm G57 MC2 integrated graphics
• 4GB of memory
• 17.3 ounces (490 grams)
• Up to 14 hours of battery life; fully charged in under 3.5 hours with a 15-watt adapter
• 8-megapixel front- and rear-facing cameras with autofocus and 1080p video recording
• Dual speakers with Dolby Atmos, USB-C audio and external volume controls
• Dual-band 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) wireless
• Bluetooth 5.3 BLE with support for A2DP stereo headphones, speakers, microphone and LE accessories
• Accelerometer, ambient light sensor, hall effect and fingerprint sensor
• Optional accessories: Keyboard Case ($90), Made for Amazon Stylus Pen ($35) and Slim Cover ($50)
• Third-party Bluetooth and wired keyboards can be connected. Third-party USI 2.0 styluses are compatible, though will have some limited functionality compared to Fire Max 11’s MFA stylus pen
• Hands-free Alexa (you can enable always-on Alexa voice assistant)
• Show Mode (full-screen Alexa experience)
• Starts at $230 with 64GB of storage. Productivity bundle with Keyboard Case and Stylus Pen starts at $330

Massive high-performance desktops are still common — especially for gaming — but as component sizes shrink, so do the computers that contain them. Mini desktop PCs like the ones in this list offer performance enough for most home office tasks, and some allow for more demanding gaming and video production, yet most are small enough to actually fit almost anywhere.

That makes the best mini PCs compelling options for those of us living in smaller apartments or working from home without a dedicated office space, or for students sharing rooms where space is at a premium. Instead of you having to find room for a big tower, these tiny things can sit unnoticed on your desk, hidden on a nearby bookshelf or even mounted behind your monitor entirely out of view.

They also use significantly less power, with most drawing around 30 to 40 watts while you’re web browsing (Apple’s Mac Mini draws only about 8 watts). That’s a lot less than the 250-watt drain you’ll find with a typical desktop PC.

The smaller size does mean most models don’t have the raw power expected from full-sized desktops, but all models tested here are more than capable of handling everyday office tasks, web browsing, 4K video playback and photo editing in professional apps like Adobe Lightroom. The more high-spec models are even able to smoothly edit 4K video in Adobe Premiere or handle demanding games like Elden Ring.

What is the best mini PC overall?

Apple’s Mac Mini with M2 Pro chip topped our tests, managing to be the most powerful option, yet it also used the least amount of energy in everyday use. It’s something of a tiny powerhouse, casually munching through our 4K video editing project and exporting the final file in less than half the time of any others we tested. But it’s also the most expensive, at more than double the price of others on this list. So though it’s the best from a performance perspective, it might not be the best for your budget.

The Geekom AS6 offers a better balance of performance and value, with enough performance to handle photo editing, light gaming and casual video editing but at a much more accessible price than the Mac Mini.

If you’re simply after a machine to handle your daily home office duties, web browsing or to act as a media center to hook up to your TV, the AceMagician delivered decent results in our tests, and it’s the cheapest model on this list.

Best mini PCs 2023

Apple Mac Mini (2023)

Best overall mini PC

Specs as tested:

• CPU: Apple M2 Pro
• RAM: 16GB DDR5
• SSD: 1TB

Apple’s Mac Mini is the most expensive model on this list by far, so you’d expect it to offer performance that outshines other tiny desktops — and it really does. Its benchmark results far exceeded the Windows-based models, it coped with 4K video editing with no issues whatsoever and exported my test project from Adobe Premiere in only seven minutes, less than half the time of any of the other models.

Though gaming still isn’t much of a thing on the Mac (Elden Ring wasn’t installable on Steam), it easily handled my sessions of The Elder Scrolls Online on high settings.

But the most impressive aspect for me is the power draw. During web browsing, the Mac Mini used only around 8 watts of power, and it averaged around 40 watts when exporting video. That’s a significant amount less than every PC on this list, which will make the Mac Mini a more economical choice over time.

Its one-piece aluminum body is attractive, too, though it’s frustrating that all the ports are hidden around the back, with no quick access to any on the front. It’s also not user-upgradable. Still, those are arguably more-minor concerns given the superb performance and low power usage the Mac Mini offers.

$1,295 at Amazon$1,299 at Best Buy$1,299 at Apple

Geekom AS6

Best performance for the money

Specs as tested:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX
• RAM: 32GB DDR5
• SSD: 1TB

Geekom’s AS6 is the least visually appealing of the models we tested, being just a dull, plain black box. But that makes it an ideal mini PC for hiding away, perhaps on a nearby bookshelf or even mounting behind your monitor, tucked out of sight entirely. It’s upgradable, but that requires unscrewing and removing the outer casing, rather than just simply popping off a cover like with the AMR5.

It might be small, but it packs some decent specs, producing solid results on our benchmark tests and allowing Elden Ring to run smoothly enough at medium graphics settings. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery played fine at recommended low settings too, and while I got a warning about incompatible hardware when I changed the settings to medium, the game still played well enough, at least for more casual players who aren’t obsessing over frame rates and draw distances.

Editing 4K video in Adobe Premiere was smooth, and the AS6 exported my test project in a little over 16 minutes — a long way behind the Mac Mini, but the fastest of all the Windows-based PCs on this list.

Its power draw was around 60 watts while web browsing, which is higher than most others on this list, and went up to around 75 watts during more intense tasks like video exporting.

The AS6 is one of the more expensive options on this list, but that extra cash does result in higher performance.

$840 at Amazon

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AceMagician AMR5

Best budget mini PC

Specs as tested:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600U
• RAM: 16GB
• SSD: 512GB

With its upright form factor and tiny footprint, the AMR5 sits very comfortably on a small, home office desk. Its two USB and one USB-C port on the front make it easy to plug in devices, while the magnetic side panel makes accessing internal components a breeze.

Its older AMD Ryzen 5 chip allows for swift general office and web browsing tasks and it runs lightweight games like Dredge without any issues. It scored low on our benchmark tests, however, and more demanding games like Elden Ring were sluggish and choppy, even on low settings. Though it handled image editing in Lightroom CC fine, 4K video editing in Adobe Premiere wasn’t as smooth, but it exported my test project faster than others on this list.

It typically drew around 40 watts of power during web browsing and general use, going up to about 50 watts during gaming and video exporting.

It isn’t a high-performance machine. It’s best suited for those of you who need a small machine for home office and web browsing tasks.

$449 at Amazon

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AceMagician AM08 Pro

Best mini PC for students

Specs as tested:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 6900HX
• RAM: 32GB
• SSD: 512GB

The bigger brother to the AMR5, the AM08 Pro comes with a slightly larger body size and somewhat beefed-up internal specs that include a higher-powered AMD chip. It’s little surprise then that it performed better on our benchmark tests and turned its hand to more-demanding tasks too. Elden Ring played well enough for more casual gamers on low settings, so those of you looking to enjoy lighter titles on Steam will be perfectly well catered for here.

It also handled 4K video editing in Premiere, allowing me to scrub through the timeline with little delay and export the project in a reasonable 25 minutes. Photo editing in Lightroom CC was fine as well. It typically drew around 30 to 40 watts of power during web browsing and up to 70 watts during more demanding gaming and video exporting.

While the smaller AMR5 is suited only for lightweight home office tasks, the AM08 Pro is a better option for students wanting a more well-rounded PC for tackling assignments during the day and enjoying some games in the evening.

GMKTec Nucbox K1

Smallest mini PC

Specs as tested:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 76800H
• RAM: 16GB DDR5
• SSD: 1TB SSD

Like the Geekom AS6, the Nucbox K1 is essentially just a small square that’s hardly exciting to look at. A silver-and-black color scheme adds a bit of interest though, and the plastic lid easily pops off to allow access to the internal components — no screwdriver needed. As the smallest of all models on this list, it’s exceptionally unobtrusive on your desk or mounted behind your monitor.

It generally offered low performance on all our tests, from CPU benchmarks to gaming and video editing. It didn’t handle Elden Ring on any quality settings, but casual gamers wanting light titles like Dredge or Unpacking will find it sufficient. It edited images in Adobe Lightroom without much hassle, but it noticeably struggled with my 4K project in Premiere and exported the video in a little over 35 minutes — the slowest of all models on this list.

Its power draw was around 45 watts during web browsing and around 60 watts during video exporting. Thankfully, its price means its humble performance for gaming or multimedia production is perfectly acceptable — it’s less than half the price of the Mac Mini, after all. Instead, this is a PC aimed more at office tasks, web browsing or even as a media hub to connect to your TV.

$520 at Amazon

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How we test mini PCs

All items on this list have been tested by us, with our own fair hands. All manufacturer’s claims were put to the test to see if they lived up to their promise.

Each model has undergone a suite of benchmark tests including multiple runs of Geekbench 6 and 3DMark Wild Life Extreme. We tested gaming using demanding titles like Elden Ring (via Steam) at various quality settings as well as less demanding games like Dredge. We tested the PCs while web browsing, playing YouTube videos and working in Google Docs.

We edited high-resolution raw images in Adobe Lightroom CC and edited 4K videos in Premiere Pro. We noted the general responsiveness of each interface, and we timed how long it took to export our test video project in 4K.

We also plugged each model in to the power outlet via a power meter, noting how much power each model used during different tasks, allowing us to comment on the efficiency of each machine.