The Best Tech Products and Services of 2024

The Asus ProArt P16 is a killer desktop replacement and content creation laptop with exceptional performance tailored to serious professionals. While it comes at a premium price, its feature set is unmatched, with a stunning 4K OLED display, an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, 32GB of memory, and 2TB of storage. This laptop is blazing fast and provides ample media storage, complemented by a full suite of ports. Its unique digital dial pad enhances productivity for creators, making it the ideal power tool for media makers and graphics pros.

The M3-powered Apple MacBook Air 13-inch stands out from the rest of the impressive MacBook lineup with its remarkable combination of power and portability. Now thinner and more powerful than ever, it features an all-metal chassis that enhances durability while maintaining a sleek design. The M3 processor and recently boosted 16GB of starting memory in the base model ensures impressive performance and extended battery life, making it ideal for productivity on the go. With dual Thunderbolt 4 ports and support for external monitors, this versatile ultraportable excels in any setting. For those seeking a lightweight, high-performance laptop without the MacBook Pro price tag, the MacBook Air is unbeatable.

A $699.99 starting price is attractive for any laptop, but it’s even better when it’s a gaming-ready machine. We reviewed a slightly more expensive Nitro V 15 model at $849.99, and with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU and Intel 13th Gen Core i5 processor, it’s an excellent deal. The Nitro is efficient enough for a general-use laptop outside of gaming, with good battery life, and it gets you mainstream game-ready performance for much less than most alternatives. Limiting the concessions while maintaining steady gaming speeds and an excellent price are the Nitro’s best qualities.

The Acer Chromebook Spin Plus 714 is easily the best Chromebook of the year, earning a perfect five stars for its exceptional blend of performance and design. This high-end 2-in-1 Chromebook features an attractive all-metal chassis and a sharp 14-inch touch screen, making it stylish in both laptop and tablet modes. Powered by an Intel Core Ultra processor, 8GB of memory, and a 256GB solid-state drive, it delivers impressive performance. With Thunderbolt 4, HDMI-out, and Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, the Spin Plus 714 is our favorite Chromebook for its versatility, quality, and flawless ChromeOS experience.

We had plenty of high-performing gaming laptops to choose from, but none balances value alongside power as well as the Pro 7i Gen 9 16. It’s hardly cheap, but within the context of the high-end gaming market, it’s far less expensive than its competition. Its Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU, 32GB of memory, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU delivered exceptional performance in our testing, and our complaints (a little heavy, no Thunderbolt 4) don’t derail the overall package. Powerful, well-priced, and sturdily built, this is the year's best gaming laptop.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 is our top choice for business laptops, thanks to its exceptional blend of performance and portability. This business ultraportable features a lightweight carbon-fiber design, a superb keyboard, and a stunning OLED display. Its robust selection of ports enhances connectivity, making it versatile for professionals, whether on a cross-country flight or at a desk. For business users seeking a reliable, high-performance laptop that excels in any environment, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 is genuinely worth the investment.

Today's best workstation laptop is the Dell Precision 5690, based on its raw, professional-grade power. This muscle machine features AI-enhanced Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processing and a robust Nvidia RTX 5000 Ada GPU, all while weighing under five pounds. Its impressive 16-inch 4K OLED touch screen, responsive keyboard, and extensive connectivity options—including Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, and Wi-Fi 7—make it a versatile choice for on-the-go professionals. With its portability and sheer oomph, the Precision 5690 stands out as the top workstation laptop for design, engineering, and scientific applications.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ is a premium Android tablet meant to take on the iPad Pro. It has a large, 12.4-inch screen, excellent performance, good battery life, and comes with an S Pen stylus. Galaxy AI, Samsung’s AI tools, give you plenty of ways to edit photos and streamline your workflow. You also get four years of OS updates and seven years of security updates, so you’ll be able to safely use the tablet for years to come. If you’re looking for a premium tablet that runs on Android, this is the one to get.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is one of the most powerful and versatile Android phones available. It features Qualcomm's top mobile processor, lots of RAM, and excellent cameras. Galaxy AI, Samsung's suite of AI tools, is on board to help you get organized or create art using the included S Pen stylus. Samsung also backs the S24 Ultra with seven years of software and security updates. The Galaxy S24 Ultra is expensive, but for Android fans who want the most, it's worth it.

Google packs the Pixel 8a with capabilities from its more expensive models, keeping the price affordable at $499. Its stellar cameras and advanced photography software capture impressive images. If your shot needs adjustments, Google’s AI tools help you make complex edits with just a few taps thanks to its Tensor G3 processor (the same as in the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro). The Pixel 8a also has an incredibly bright display, visible even in harsh sunlight. With its great performance and low price, the Pixel 8a stands out amongst the sea of midrange phones.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch FE undercuts the flagship Galaxy Watch 7 by $100 without omitting key smarts or fitness-tracking features. Running Android’s Wear OS software, the Watch FE gives you access to a wide variety of preinstalled health and lifestyle tools and a whole ecosystem of third-party apps. It goes beyond the health-tracking capabilities of many other smartwatches with a feature that lets you measure your body fat and other body composition metrics from your wrist. The watch works with most Android phones, but you’ll get the most out of it if you have a Samsung handset, including the option to track your snoring when you sleep.

If you want to track your health around the clock, you might find wearing a ring more comfortable than a watch, especially at night. The Oura Ring 4 is the best in this burgeoning category, with flatter interior sensors than the previous generation, so the ring sits flush against your skin. With about a week of battery life on a charge, it accurately tracks your fitness, sleep, and stress. Its companion app organizes all of your data into easily readable charts and offers personalized AI-generated tips for improving your wellness. It’s expensive and the app requires a monthly fee, but for holistic health monitoring, the Oura Ring 4 is tough to beat. 

The Etekcity HR Smart Fitness Scale makes it easy to track your weight and much more. It connects to Wi-Fi and measures 14 different metrics, including body fat percentage, body mass index, heart rate, muscle mass, subcutaneous fat, and visceral fat. Its colorful and customizable display shows whichever metrics you care most about, and its companion app charts your data over time and provides context to help you understand your numbers. With accurate measurements, long battery life, and a reasonable price, the Etekcity Scale is a smart scale for better health.

The AiDot Linkind Wi-Fi Matter Smart Light Bulb offers the convenient combination of built-in Wi-Fi for app control without a separate hub, and Matter support for seamless integration with all major smart home platforms. It’s affordably priced and shines in a broad, well-saturated color palette so you can set the mood for any occasion. This smart bulb offers a range of preprogrammed lighting effects with themes such as Christmas, Natural Landscape, Modern City, Warm, and Relax, and it can use your phone’s microphone to change colors in sync with music. 

The Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni is our top pick if you’re looking for a premium robot vacuum that does it all. It vacuums, mops, empties its own dustbin, washes and dries its own mop pads, has built-in voice controls, and can double as a roaming security camera. Better yet, it handles each of its tasks thoroughly and efficiently. The Deebot X2 scored well in our measured cleaning tests, scrubs vigorously when mopping, and picks up pet hair with minimal tangles. It’s a highly capable, all-in-one robot vacuum that cleans your floors and then cleans itself to minimize maintenance.

A longtime Editors' Choice and Readers' Choice winner, the SimpliSafe Home Security System continues to impress us with its flexibility, ease of use, and reliability. SimpliSafe sells a range of device bundles and a la carte extras so you can scale your security system as you see fit. It allows for free DIY setup or optional paid professional installation, and you can monitor all your devices remotely with (or without) an affordable monthly plan. The starter kit costs $249.96 and includes a base station, a wireless keypad, and motion and entry sensors, while more expensive kits include cameras, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and water and freeze sensors.

The TP-Link Tapo Wire-Free MagCam is a battery-powered outdoor security camera that can power through an impressive 300 days on a single charge. Most battery-powered competitors last a few months between charges at most. It’s affordable, offers local and cloud storage options, has a built-in spotlight, captures crisp 4K video, and has color night vision. It works with plenty of third-party smart home devices, supports voice control, and even sends intelligent alerts to your phone for free. If you want an outdoor camera without wires, check out this model for long-lasting peace of mind.

The Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint offers numerous convenient ways to unlock your door, including with your fingerprint, numerical code, phone, voice, or traditional key. It is expensive, but it works with almost every smart home platform you can think of for added versatility, including Amazon, Google, and HomeKit. It's simple to install and has built-in Wi-Fi, so you can check the status of your front door and remotely lock and unlock it from your phone, no matter where you are. All that plus long battery life makes the Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint a fantastic choice to smarten up your deadbolt.

An affordable wireless doorbell, the Arlo Video Doorbell offers crisp video with a head-to-toe view of your doorstep. It’s battery-powered so you can install it in minutes without bothering with wires, and it works with many other third-party smart home devices for interoperability and voice control through your digital assistant of choice. You must pay a monthly fee to see recorded clips and get smart alerts, but the overall package still makes this video doorbell a compelling buy.

For a convenient way to cool your place, the Dreo Portable Air Conditioner AC516S is as simple as it gets. It’s mounted on four hard rubber wheels, so you can move it to any room in your house and plug it in without further installation, as it doesn’t require drainage. With 14,000 BTU of power, it will efficiently cool up to 450 square feet. It has Wi-Fi connectivity, so you can control it from your phone and set up cooling schedules for automated operation. Plus, it works with Alexa and Google Assistant, meaning a cooler home is just a voice command away.

The Dreo CLF521S costs hundreds of dollars less than competing smart ceiling fans but doesn’t compromise on design or skimp on features. It has twelve fan speeds and an adjustable LED with many different shades of white. Thanks to the fan's built-in Wi-Fi, you can control it with an app, and the CLF521S is compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant for voice control. It’s quiet and delivers strong airflow to keep your room pleasantly cool. This affordable, versatile fan is a smart choice for your ceiling.

The Dyson Big+Quiet Formaldehyde BP03 is a top choice if you’re willing to pay a premium for a powerful air purifier with a long filter life. As the name suggests, it can remove formaldehyde, along with carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the air. With an oscillating fan on top and a 360-degree filter rated to last up to five years between replacements, it quickly and effectively cleans the air in rooms up to 1,076 square feet. This smart model supports app control, tracks pollution levels, and works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri voice commands.

One of the biggest draws of a smart display is the ability to control your smart home. Amazon designed the Echo Hub just for that. It's a wall-mountable control panel with an interface specifically designed to offer easy touch access to your connected lights, locks, security cameras, and thermostats. It also supports hands-free Alexa voice commands and offers helpful on-screen sticky notes and lists to keep your family organized.

The Aura Mason stands out among digital picture frames for its colorful, high-resolution screen, which manages to do something cheaper alternatives don't: Make your digital photos actually look like printed shots. It comes with unlimited cloud storage, and you can set it up to give as a gift, preloaded with your pictures that appear as soon as the recipient plugs it in.

The xBloom Studio is expensive for a coffee maker, but it weighs, grinds, and pours your coffee exactly how you want it. It lets you set the water temperature and even the pour pattern to your specifications, with multiple pours per cup, resulting in some of the best coffee we've made at home. Whether you use xBloom's coffee pods from independent roasters or your own beans, it automates the brewing process and delivers barista-worthy pour-over coffee.

A Wi-Fi-enabled wood pellet grill, the Brisk It Origin 940 Smart Grill lets you roast, smoke, bake, and barbecue without having to deal with the mess of charcoal or the taste of lighter fluid. With 940 square inches of grilling space, precise temperature control, and a user-friendly mobile app, the Origin 940 can turn you into the ultimate grillmaster. Its AI-generated recipes can guide you through every step of the cooking process, alerting you when it’s time to flip or baste your food, change the temperature, add ingredients, and when the cooking cycle has been completed. In our testing, it consistently produced scrumptious smoked and barbecued burgers, pork, fish, and more.

Hisense offers one of the best TV values this year with its U8N. It's bright, colorful, and reasonably priced. It's also very well equipped, with a 144Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro for gamers, along with Apple AirPlay, hands-free Google Assistant, and Google Cast support. This pick isn't surprising since its predecessor was one of our top TVs last year, too.

The latest version of the Roku Ultra is the best media streamer for anyone who wants Roku's simple, accessible interface without skimping on features. It has Apple AirPlay, Wi-Fi 6 (and an Ethernet port if you want a wired network connection), and hands-free voice control support. It doesn't offer all the perks of a full digital assistant like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, available on the Fire TV and Google TV devices, respectively, but the Roku Ultra is one of the best media streamers if you prioritize content and speed rather than smart home extras.

The Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar is a big step up in sound thanks to its deeper bass, clearer dialogue, and additional speakers. Sonos has done an excellent job fine-tuning its audio to produce room-filling sound—whether for movies or music—without additional satellite speakers or a subwoofer. It's a complete product that connects via Apple AirPlay 2, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, and blends well with an in-home Sonos system. It may be big and expensive, but it's worth it for the high-quality experience.

The Jabra Elite 8 Active Gen 2 noise-cancelling true wireless earbuds easily justify their price with dynamic audio, good active noise cancellation, and an intuitive companion app. In addition, they are fully sealed against dust and water and come in a highly durable case that can transmit Bluetooth LE audio from whatever source you plug into. Other highlights include a comfortable fit, solid battery life, and a price that undercuts the competition.

The EarFun Air Pro 4 noise-cancelling true wireless earbuds are a great value thanks to their excellent sound quality, adjustable EQ, and superb range of connectivity options. Further, they offer among the best active noise cancellation we've experienced at this price. Their touch controls could use some improvement, but the earphones still easily earn our recommendation for their combination of features and performance at a reasonable cost.

Panasonic's Lumix camera line is highly regarded among videographers, but the G9 II should tickle the fancy of photographers as well, thanks to its phase detect autofocus and excellent 25MP image sensor. Its Micro Four Thirds lens mount works with one of the largest libraries of any system, and a fully electronic shutter tracks subjects at up to 60fps. A sturdy, weather-protected body, brilliant EVF, and ample controls provide a solid ergonomic experience too. The G9 II stands above other Micro Four Thirds cameras due to its versatility and reliability.

Wallet-size Instax Mini film is the de facto standard for casual snappers, family photographers, and social butterflies, and the Instax Mini 99 is the best camera we've seen for the format. It goes beyond one-button operation with an intuitive EV system that lets you brighten or darken photos with ease, and puts LED lights inside that let you add light leak, color casts, and other creative effects to your charming analog Instax Mini prints.

A 70-200mm F2.8 zoom is considered a must-have lens for photographers covering weddings and parties, news events, and indoor sports. The Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 DG DN OS Sports is up to all of these challenges thanks to a mix of sturdy construction, impeccable optics, fast focus, and a downright affordable price tag. At around $1,500, it costs less than half what Sony charges for a similar lens. Sigma's lens is a little bulkier than Sony's, but not unreasonably so. It's the one to get if you use an E- or L-mount camera.

For the first time in memory, our top-rated action cam is from someone other than GoPro. The DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro earned top billing this year largely because it beats the Hero13 Black in battery life and display quality, while rolling stabilized video that looks just as good. When you consider the Osmo's support for pro-grade wireless audio with the optional DJI Mic 2 kit, and its excellent 4K120 slow motion and rugged waterproof build, you've got a small video camera that's equally good for vlogging and extreme sports.

Skipping an Apple silicon generation, the 2024 Mac mini has more than made up for lost time with the M4 and M4 Pro processors. Tested using the M4 Pro, Apple’s redesigned tiny tower showed incredible performance that could throw (some) punches with workstations several times its size. The redesign allows for better cooling but adds some extra ports, and the design is sweetened by 16GB of starting memory. The Mac mini is to mini PCs what the MacBook Air is to ultraportable laptops, the benchmark to which all others are compared.

Sleek simplicity wins the day in the all-in-one field. The Inspiron 24 is a no-fuss AIO with a compact design and a reasonable price, making it an excellent fit for a shared family system or a simple office PC. It has a wireless keyboard and mouse; it features decent connectivity; and its built-in pop-up webcam is even 1440p resolution for superior video-call quality. Some AIOs are built for faster performance, and one is even built to be moved frequently. But the Dell Inspiron 24 is our favorite plug-and-play general-use AIO.

Gaming desktops come in all shapes and sizes, and while plenty of powerhouses blew us away through the year, we’ve selected something more palatable to a broader set of shoppers. MSI’s Codex R2 proves the case for attainable pre-built desktops: You don’t need to break the bank (or build a PC yourself) to achieve high value. The tower brings some flair with its RGB fans and glass side panel, while the Intel Core i5-14400F CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU deliver reliable mainstream performance—all for under $1,000.

Budget graphics cards receive little attention these days—and 2024 saw very few new ones debut. For the most part, that field is dominated by older, last-gen components, but this is an area Intel targeted in its efforts to re-enter the graphics card market. It has released a few budget graphics cards since the launch of Arc, and the best is the Intel Arc A580. It's a capable card with a modern feature set and relatively strong ray-tracing performance. It also has 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, making it excellent for 1080p gaming or even a little 2K gaming with reduced settings.

AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X is one of the fastest consumer processors on the market today, with 16 high-performance cores that support SMT technology to run up to 32 threads simultaneously. It performed the best to date in several of our CPU-performance tests, and it did so while not getting overly hot or drawing extreme amounts of power. Gaming performance is similarly exceptional on this processor when paired with a high-end GPU, making it ideal for a PC that's a two-timer for both work and gaming.

The AMD Ryzen 5 8600G is more than just a processor; it also comes equipped with an integrated graphics processor (IGP). You might think, “So what?” Most CPUs today have an IGP. The difference is that this is a relatively powerful IGP capable of even running modern games. Granted, you’d only be able to run the latest games with the lowest settings, but games with a few years on them will run smoother and far better than with most competing IGPs. Though no match for an entry-level graphics card like the Intel Arc A580, if you want to avoid the added expense but still want to play a few games, the Ryzen 5 8600G is a smart choice.

Given Intel’s troubles with its 13th and 14th Gen processors in 2024, our pick for favorite board of the year simply had to go to an AMD model. Gigabyte's flagship X870E Aorus Master is among the pricier AM5 motherboards using AMD's very latest chipset, but its clever layout and creature comforts make it a first-rate ATX pick for high-end Ryzen PCs. The layout makes building easy, and serious tweakers can count on a slick BIOS and robust power regulation to allow for pushing the limits. (Memory-speed support is sky-high, too.) Three M.2 SSD slots supporting blistering PCI Express 5.0 speeds are icing on the cake.

Roomy, hefty, and elegant, the Asus ProArt PA602 delivers superior cooling and noise control in a PC case that exudes imposing power for DIY-minded content creators and workstation users. Featuring immense 200mm intake fans and support for 420mm radiators, you get massive cooling potential and a ton of room for the biggest cards, motherboards, and supporting gear. Everything snaps on and off with ease. The intakes even have a dust detector to tell you when to clean your filters. It’s the classic megatower reimagined.

Micron's latest internal solid-state drive (SSD), the Crucial T500, is a step up from the Editors' Choice-award-winning Crucial P5 Plus, featuring a memory and processor upgrade and a boost in throughput speed. The T500 eked out a new high score among PCI Express 4.0 SSDs in the PCMark 10 Overall test, which measures a drive’s aptitude at a variety of general-storage tasks. It provides robust security features—meeting the TCG Opal standard—and useful bundled software. Micron offers versions of this stick at its highest capacities (1TB and 2TB) with an integrated heatsink, which also happens to play well with the PlayStation 5.

At $549.99 for a two-pack, TP-Link's easy-to-use Deco BE63 mesh system is not cheap, but it's more affordable than many of the Wi-Fi 7 mesh kits we've reviewed and an easy Editors' Choice winner for the category. It brings the latest 6GHz Wi-Fi 7 technology to your home—every inch of it—with superb throughput and signal strength.

If you need light-duty printing—and don't need it done in color—HP's LaserJet M209d is the printer you want. If you're already sold on laser models because of their crisper text and line graphics on plain paper compared with inkjets, the M209d stands out for delivering better output quality in our tests than most mono lasers in its under-$150 price class. And if you're still considering an inkjet but print only occasionally, it's a tempting alternative.

Seeking a smartphone-companion photo printer and don't want to be stuck with just rectangular business-card-size or square Instagram-style prints? The Canon Selphy QX20 is what you're looking for. Unlike most competing models, which offer just one format or the other, the QX20 can handle either one. It offers plenty of other reasons to pick it. At the top of the list is its high-quality, long-lasting output, thanks to its dye-sub technology, along with Canon's notably easy-to-use print and editing app.

With the Original Prusa MK4, Prusa Research has kicked off the fourth generation of the company's flagship open-frame 3D printer. It looks much the same as its predecessor, but adds significant enhancements to its design, including a thicker aluminum frame, a redesigned extruder, a touch screen, and an improved bed-leveling system. The MK4 retains the line’s superior print quality and ease of use while adding a speed boost. It supports printing with a wide variety of filaments, includes the simple-yet-powerful PrusaSlicer software, and provides access to Prusa’s extensive help resources and forums. The MK4 is worth every penny of its premium price, and it continues Prusa’s dominance among our tested picks.

Epson’s WorkForce ES-C320W is an entry-level sheet-fed scanner that packs a lot of value into a surprisingly small device. Despite its compact size, the feature set isn’t overly compromised, with a 20-sheet ADF, reasonably fast scan speeds, and a high peak daily duty cycle. In testing, it delivered clean scans, with no stray dots or unexpected shadows. Scanned photos have accurate colors, with an appropriate amount of contrast and brightness. Plus, the ES-C320W’s price is very competitive. Alternatives like the Fujitsu/Ricoh fi-800R are faster, but they’re much more expensive.

Whether you’re a pro esports gamer or a hard-core enthusiast, the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K is the best gaming mouse money can buy. The Basilisk V3 Pro 35K features an improved 35,000dpi sensor, wireless charging, and Razer’s four-way HyperScroll tilt wheel, along with plenty of RGB lighting. With 8,000Hz wireless polling capabilities, the Basilisk offers performance that’s in a lane of its own. It’s also stylish and ergonomic, though you'll pay for the luxury experience. (Also, you’ll need some optional accessories to access features like an 8,000Hz peak polling rate and support for wireless charging.) But the Basilisk V3 Pro 35K impresses us with its feature set, look and feel, and overall performance.

You might recognize the non-”Pro” Razer BlackWidow V4 75%—it was our favorite keyboard of 2023. This year, Razer found a way to make the Pro revision an even better board. The immaculate typing feel, plush wrist rest, and compact footprint remain, but the keyboard now includes wireless capabilities, an OLED screen, and improved build quality that helps it earn the Pro title. But the real draw of the BlackWidow V4 75% Pro is a design that allows users to customize the keyboard inside and out, down to the key switches. (And even if you have no interest in tinkering, the default tactile switches are great for gaming or general productivity.)

The Obsbot Tiny 2 is one of the most impressive little webcams we've seen. It packs a mechanical gimbal that can pivot and tilt the camera, AI-powered face tracking that keeps the camera locked on you wherever you move, and even voice control. That's a lot of functionality in a webcam you can toss in your pocket, using its included case.

Want to experience gaming audio in a unique fashion? The Turtle Beach Atlas Air is a rare open-back gaming headset. Its unusual design brings a great sense of space, and it offers detailed sound via wired USB or wireless Bluetooth connectivity. In addition, the Atlas Air's crisp mic is a plus for coordinating team strategies in online games. Just be aware that the headset is primarily designed for PC use.

The Meta Quest 3S proves you don't need to spend a lot of money to get into VR. It's a standalone VR headset with a fast processor and color cameras for mixed reality. Plus, the 3S has almost the same specs are the pricier Quest 3, only compromising on the display (which is still quite good). If you want to explore VR without breaking the bank, this is the best way to do it.

We didn't get a Switch 2 this year and the PS5 Pro arrived too late for consideration, but we still got a great, if esoteric, game console with the Analogue Duo. It's a modern version of the PC Engine/TurboGrafX-16 that reads HuCard and CD-ROM games. In fact, it's the best way to play those systems' classic 16-bit releases like Bonk's Adventure and Rondo of Blood. It might not be as recognizable as Analogue's Nintendo and Sega recreations, but the Duo has many 1990s-era bangers worth playing.

Most of our recommended gaming chairs cost more than $500 because cheaper chairs aren't particularly good. The Secretlab Titan Evo Lite comes in under that line while offering the same comfortable design and excellent build quality as the excellent Secretlab Titan Evo. It's basically the same chair, minus the internal, adjustable lumbar support. The Evo Lite is for the gamer who wants to save a few dollars but doesn't want to sacrifice comfort.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II blurs the line between game and film. Photorealistic visuals, immersive audio, and literary-style writing come together to tell the story of Senua’s slow embrace of Viking heroism. But you do more than just battle the voices in your head. Brutal combat turns each sword fight into a grim struggle for survival, not an elegant duel. Hellblade II isn’t the longest game, but it is tightly focused.

Miraculously, The Legend of Zelda games still find ways to innovate. Initially, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom appears to be a traditional, top-down, 2D series entry with the same adorable art style as the Link Awakening’s remake. However, you play as Princess Zelda instead of Link and call upon radical new powers to save Hyrule. You can summon objects and enemies to solve puzzles, bind yourself to obstacles to overcome them, and occasionally whip out a sword.

No longer a mere pack-in game, Astro Bot is a full-fledged adventure that argues why the titular robot should be PlayStation’s mascot. In it, you travel across intergalactic worlds full of beautiful, creative, and dense platforming challenges that feature ingenious power-ups that turn the level design on its head. Along the way, you’ll walk through a delightful living museum of PlayStation history that references everything from Ape Escape to Horizon. Astro Bot brings back the old-school gaming magic that modern Sony desperately needs.

Apple iOS 18 brings many great features to the iPhone, including enhanced messaging capabilities, improved photo editing tools, and a tremendous amount of customization. With it, you can personalize the iPhone's interface to a level previously unseen on Apple devices; it even rivals Android's flexibility. Plus, Rich Communication Services (RCS) enables advanced messaging between handsets outside Apple's ecosystem. Overall, Apple iOS 18 is a substantial upgrade over its predecessor, making it our favorite mobile operating system.

Office 2024 is the perpetual-license version of Microsoft's class-leading suite of office productivity apps. It's available in two versions, one suitable for home professionals and students and another for corporate users. Both include modern desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more for a single macOS or Windows machine. You won't get all the future feature updates you would with a Microsoft 365 subscription, but the standalone versions of these apps still offer some neat capabilities. For instance, you can insert pictures from your Android phone in Word, create more dynamic charts than before in Excel, and add a live webcam feed to a PowerPoint presentation. The apps will receive security updates, too.

GanttPro embraces Gantt charts to help your small business organize, manage, and complete projects. These charts are helpful because they let you see a broad overview of tasks, timelines, and resources all at once so you can effectively balance work across your team. GanttPro is very intuitive, so neither you nor your team should have trouble figuring out how it works. We especially like its critical path feature, which highlights the sequence of tasks that require completion for a project to move forward on schedule, and its ability to track time via manual entry or an in-app timer. GanttPro doesn't offer a free tier, but it does start at a very affordable $9.99 per user per month.

Despite fierce competition, Wix still reigns as a top-tier website builder. It lets you easily make beautiful and functional websites using the intuitive interface. Likewise, you can expand your site’s functionality with widgets and increase its earning potential with sophisticated e-commerce tools. AI assistance and mobile-specific editing ensure your site is ready for the modern internet. You don’t even have to pay to try; Wix is free to start, but you can upgrade to a premium plan later.

Hostinger offers many excellent and versatile web hosting plans for business or personal use. It is also a highly accessible service thanks to its AI-powered content creation tool, website builder, and Hostinger's improvements to its managed WordPress and VPS services. It lacks 24/7 phone support and dedicated hosting plans, but it's a fantastic choice for small-to-midsize businesses.

Zoho CRM is an excellent choice for handling your business's customer data, from first contact to future sales. The web interface is customizable, and you can easily set up and manage roles for other team members. It lets you import contacts from a CSV file or another CRM. The software also helps you quickly set up deals and seamlessly integrates with your email account to find relevant information about the contacts it manages. Rounding out the experience are thorough reporting and analytic abilities, a Motivator feature that gamifies key performance indicators (KPIs), and the AI-powered Zia assistant that can help you generate estimated sales goals and more. Despite its deep feature set, Zoho CRM offers very competitive pricing. 

Zoom Workplace is a complete business collaboration platform that handles everything from video conferencing to document creation to team messaging. The Zoom Meetings app, which remains the core of the experience, continues to provide outstanding features, including breakout rooms, collaborative whiteboards, HD audio and video, meeting recording, and transcription. An AI Companion can even summarize meetings in real time, answer any questions about what's happening, and create relevant action items. Zoom's App Marketplace lets you connect practically any third-party app you need, and the company continues to improve its security practices. Best of all, Zoom Workplace still offers a very capable free version.

No other app comes close to Ulysses for distraction-free writing on your iPad, iPhone, or Mac. Its elegant design keeps you focused on your work, and we like that the app respects your preference for light and dark design modes. Better yet, the organizational tools you need for successful short- and long-form writing are never too far away. Ulysses can easily track your writing goals, for example, while its nested library structure helps you keep your projects in order. Direct publishing tools for Medium and WordPress, along with a useful Preview function for exports, are additional points in its favor. The only potential drawback is its subscription-based pricing; most other writing apps charge a one-time fee.

Adobe Fresco is the perfect example of why the company has been the unrivaled leader in design software for decades. Now completely free for everyone with a compatible device (an iPad, iPhone, or Surface tablet), it makes the digital art creation process feel very authentic. Fresco offers thousands of brushes, lets you create either vector or bitmap illustrations, provides motion presets that help you animate your drawings, and can detect and apply a perspective grid from any photo or image you upload. It even supports the Apple Pencil Pro and can sync various assets across the Creative Cloud ecosystem. Adobe gives you 5GB of cloud storage for your creations.

Not to be confused with the pro photographer’s software of choice, Lightroom Classic, Adobe Lightroom caters to serious amateurs and those who don’t need all of Classic’s specialized capabilities (primarily plug-ins and tethering). Lightroom’s combination of a slick, simple interface and a full set of photo editing tools impress us the most. In addition to whizbang generative AI features that let you remove and add objects to photos, it finally doesn’t force you to upload everything you edit to Adobe’s cloud storage (though this can be handy for maintaining your photo collection). It still requires a subscription, but its pricing is reasonable for what you get.

Every decent antivirus handles the simple, basic tasks of wiping out malware infestations and defending against future attacks. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus goes far, far beyond those basic tasks. Layers of protection against ransomware attacks, a hardened browser for your financial transactions, a VPN to secure your connections, blocking ads and other trackers, checking for missing security patches…it beats many security suites for its multitude of features. As for handling the basics well, the independent testing labs routinely rate it at or near perfection. This is antivirus with a serious Plus.

Proton VPN is a fast, feature-rich online privacy juggernaut that earns the only five-star rating we've awarded in the category. Sporting both an affordable paid plan and a generous free tier, Proton combines exceptional performance with a sleek client, a wealth of privacy add-ons, and a stellar transparency record. Whether you're new to virtual private networks or just want to upgrade your experience from another option, Proton provides a perfect balance of everything we love about VPNs in one package.

Hulu’s excellent live TV streaming grants access to nearly one hundred channels. Combine that with perks like unlimited cloud DVR, and Hulu can fully replace cable, making its price much easier to swallow. Even better, Hulu has on-demand hit shows, such as Emmy darlings The Bear and Shogun. Sign up for bundle deals to snag Disney+ and ESPN+, covering all your streaming bases.

Spotify is the big name in streaming music, but YouTube Music challenges it in many intriguing ways. The versatile music service has a vast library of official tracks, fan-created content, podcasts, and music videos. Likewise, search-by-lyrics functionality and personalized playlists create a highly accessible listening environment. Rounding out YouTube Music are social elements that make it an appealing platform for discovery and connecting with other fans.

HelloFresh is the service to turn to if you’re interested in meal kit delivery services. The company's vast menu serves many diets and is frequently updated with tasty new meals that satisfy whole families. Clear, simple instructions walk you through cooking surprisingly complex dishes with fresh ingredients. HelloFresh is the best meal kit delivery service for anyone who likes spending time in the kitchen.