Reviews | XDA Developers (2024)

macOS Sequoia is all about Apple bringing artificial intelligence to its desktop operating system, kind of like Microsoft is doing with Copilot and Copilot+. Unfortunately, all of those features in the Apple Intelligence suite won't be available until this fall, when they arrive in beta. Where does that leave macOS Sequoia in the first developer beta? It's undoubtedly a small update as-is, although it packs two crucial quality-of-life updates that longtime Mac users have been waiting a while for.

Apple spent WWDC 2024 adding features to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS that probably should've been there all along. iPadOS 18 brings a Calculator app to the best iPads a stunning 14 years after the first one was introduced. In 2020, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said the iPad didn't have a first-party calculator app because it wanted to make one that would be "distinctly great," or just not have one at all. So, is the Calculator app in iPadOS up to that standard? After spending two days with iPadOS 18 developer beta 1, I think it is. There's just one problem: the Calculator app is basically the only thing about iPadOS that can be described as distinctly great.

The Elgato Game Capture Neo is a breath of fresh air in the capture card space, and it stands out as a reliable product for a lot of streamers and content creators. Instead of trying to move the needle in an already crowded space with various offerings, the Game Capture Neo positions itself as a good starter capture card for casual gamers and budding content creators looking to get started on platforms like Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and more. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a high-end capture card on the market, but it gets the basics right to deliver a good experience at a relatively affordable price.

It was inevitable that be quiet! would produce a successor to the Dark Rock 4 and here we are with the aptly named Dark Rock 5. This is the third of three new CPU air coolers from the brand, joining the be quiet! Dark Rock Elite, and Dark Rock Pro 5. The be quiet! Dark Rock 5 is the most affordable CPU cooler of the three and will not be as good as its siblings for cooling the latest AMD and Intel processors. That said, with a recommended TDP limit of 200 W, there's still plenty of headroom for resource-intensive apps and games with modern chips.

In the weeks leading up to WWDC 2024, leaks and rumors pointed to iOS 18 being a monumental update for the best iPhones. The initial preview of iOS 18 didn't disappoint, and Apple showed off all-new features like Apple Intelligence and improved customization options throughout. Unfortunately, some of the most exciting iOS 18 features aren't included in the first iOS 18 developer beta, and might not appear for a while. Even without those crucial features, iOS 18 is the biggest visual overhaul to iOS since the turning-point iOS 7 update in 2013. I've been using iOS 18 developer beta 1 for about two days, and I'm excited about the future of the iPhone again.

I've made it no secret that I love mini PCs, and because of that, I've had my eye on Minisforum for quite a while. The company may not be the most recognizable name in the industry, but it has been pumping out plenty of interesting devices over the past few years. Most recently, the company launched one of the more unique products in its lineup, the atomMan X7 Ti, and I couldn't wait to try it out.

If you're a keyboard enthusiast, you already know Keychron makes some of the best mechanical keyboards in the business. As such, I was very excited to check out the Lemokey P1 Pro, the company's latest gaming keyboard launched under the Lemokey brand.

Prebuilt gaming PCs offer a convenient way out for those who shrug at the idea of building a PC from scratch or find it a daunting process. That said, there aren't too many reliable prebuilt small form-factor (SFF) PCs out there on the market, with most manufacturers favoring the high-end builds featuring huge form factor PC cases. That's where the ASUS ROG G22CH slots in as a phenomenal gaming tower, which is about the same size as a PS5, if not smaller.

At the heart of every workstation should be the support of a strong, sturdy desk. Even in the post-COVID era, there are many people who still primarily work from home. To prevent things from getting monotonous, we start developing certain routines to shake things up throughout the day. For example, I like to do push-ups every couple of hours to keep active and energized. To my delight, one of the marketing materials for the FlexiSpot E7 Plus happened to show off a man performing push-ups off the desk, leading me to conclude that I was destined to try it out.

NZXT makes almost everything that goes inside a PC and the company has a few years behind it for CPU cooling. The NZXT Kraken 120 was the most affordable CPU cooler available from the brand, but it's a 120mm AIO liquid cooler and such devices aren't generally recommended for cooling processors. Enter the NZXT T120 series, a new air cooler with a single 120mm NZXT fan and an affordable price tag. I've put the T120 RGB to the test with the Intel Core i5-12600K and AMD Ryzen 9 7900X to see how good this cooler is.

When it comes to monitors, quality is typically judged by the size of the screen or the refresh rate. High-end monitors can be as large as 49 inches and have refresh rates up to 240Hz. Not just that, they often cost thousands of dollars. But those aren’t the only specs by which a monitor should be judged, nor are they always the most important. This is particularly true when it comes to portable monitors.

Most XDA readers may know Xiaomi for its smartphones, but the Chinese tech giant makes a wide variety of products ranging from vacuum cleaners to rice cookers, and even electric vehicles. But the majority of these products are not available for purchase in North America. Which is what makes this Xiaomi gaming monitor unique: it's currently being sold in the United States via Amazon and Walmart! As usual with Xiaomi products, this curved monitor looks good and performs above its price range. Serious gamers will want to look elsewhere due to the usage of VA (vertical alignment) panel and resolution that's not 4K, but for casual gamers and productivity use, this display gets the job done.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is one of the very best phones on the market, and gets my vote for the most feature-packed phone right now. But when it comes purely to camera performance, Samsung's Ultra has been facing stiff competition from China's Ultras lately. These Chinese Ultras have included Xiaomi and Oppo, and now the latest and arguably the biggest rival yet has arrived, the Vivo X100 Ultra.

The number of great keyboards I've reviewed in the past year is in the double digits, and yet the Clevetura CLVX 1 is the first I've been truly excited about in some time. At first glance, you might mistake the CLVX 1 for one of the countless other low-profile, scissor-switch Bluetooth keyboards on the market. However, the CLVX 1 has a trick up its sleeve. Aside from functioning as a sleek and reliable wireless keyboard, this device also has a built-in touchpad. When you glide your fingers across the flat surface of the square keycaps, your computer can register that interaction as pointer control. It's a neat idea that you probably have a strong opinion about, whether you think it's genius or a massive gimmick.

Satechi makes some of the best third-party accessories for Apple accessories you can find, and the company released a collection of new multi-device wireless chargers this year. I've spent a few weeks with the Satechi 3-in-1 foldable wireless charger, and it's a device that aims to charge all your mobile Apple products at home and on the go. Usually, devices like these are either great for travel or great on your desk, but very few are good at both. Before trying out this new charging stand, the wireless charger on my desk was an older 2-in-1 charging stand from Satechi, and I bought that one with my own cash. After testing a few wireless chargers from competitors like Casetify and ESR, I've yet to find one that can unseat my trusty Satechi stand.

Smart glasses and other forms of wearable tech are the future, and so is artificial intelligence. That's why Solos put those two things together to make the AirGo 3, a pair of smart glasses that aims to bring ChatGPT to your face. When these glasses were originally released, they were one of the first consumer glasses to feature ChatGPT integration. However, flash forward to midway through 2024, and the novelty has slightly worn off. AI chatbots and assistants have made their way to phones, smartwatches, other smart glasses, and standalone devices like the Humane AI Pin or the Rabbit R1. One of those products is the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, which are our favorite pair of smart glasses (without displays) to date.

Lenovo has a few mainstream laptop brands, and you've probably heard of Yoga or ThinkPad before. If those great laptops are outside your budget, there's IdeaPad. It's a lineup of cheaper laptops that try to provide a similar experience to Lenovo's more premium devices at a lower cost. But what happens when Lenovo crams the top-of-the-line Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 laptop GPU into an IdeaPad? You get the IdeaPad Pro 5i 16, which was just announced in March and has been my daily-driver for over a week.

While the best smartphones in the market pack plenty of firepower, emulating full-fledged PC games has always been a challenge for Android devices. Sure, Renegade Project technically allows you to install Windows 11 on a smartphone. However, its limited hardware compatibility, alongside the Herculean effort required to set it up, means it’s not something your everyday user would install on their Android phone.

It's very common to hear complaints about how Microsoft handles Windows 11 nowadays. The company loads up its operating system with a lot of apps and services that not everyone needs, and some find that upsetting, as these things can have a noticeable impact on both performance and privacy.

LG Gram laptops have always been excellent, but after years of having basically the same design and similar specs, the company finally tried to shake things up in 2023 with the SuperSlim and Style models. I'd argue those didn't quite do what they should have. The SuperSlim was, in fact, very thin, but it had a 15.6-inch 16:9 Full HD display at an exorbitant price. Meanwhile, the Gram Style could have been nearly perfect, but its terrible cooling made it hard to recommend as a premium product.