The iRobot Roomba S9+ premium robot vacuum is currently on sale for $250 off at Wellbots. Typically costing $999, ordering with the coupon code 200ENGDT will bring its price down to $749 — still very expensive, but a good value for this advanced cleaning machine. And if that’s more than you want to pay for a vacuum cleaner, you can save on cheaper models too.

The S9 series of Roomba vacuums build on the best qualities of the Roomba i7 line while adding some enticing extras. First, they offer 40 times the suction power of other robot vacuums while trapping mold and pollen allergens. It also has a different shape: Instead of being completely circular, it has two squared edges, which help it to clean more thoroughly around corners.

If you’re eyeing models from the j7 series, you can take $200 off several other iRobot vacuums with the same coupon code (200ENGDT), including the Roomba j7, Roomba j7+ and Roomba j7+ Robot Vacuum & Mop. The j7 series uses AI-driven navigation for enhanced obstacle avoidance — including pet poop. Of course, it also has powerful suction, precise mapping and an easy-to-use app. The j7 is one of Engadget’s top midrange picks for the best robot vacuums.

The standard model gets you the vacuum itself, the j7+ adds a self-emptying cleaning station and the j7+ with vacuum and mop includes the station and wet-mopping capabilities. The 200ENGDT coupon cuts the j7 (usually $599) down to $399 and the j7+ ($799 MSRP) to $599. and the j7+ with mop ($1,099 MSP) is only $899. Finally, you get free shipping on your order.

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Another Friday, another roundup of the best tech deals we could find. Our latest selection includes the iPad Air for $500, which is $99 off Apple's list price and a good value for a tablet we've called the best iPad for most people. Beyond that, the 55-inch LG C2 OLED TV is down to a near-low of $1,067, Google's Nest Thermostat is $50 off at $80, and the 128GB Samsung Evo Select microSD card is on sale for a new low of $12. GameStop is still running a buy-one-get-one-free sale on several video games of note, plus various picks from our Bluetooth speaker, gaming mouse, air fryer and gaming laptop buying guides are also on sale. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

Apple iPad Air

Apple's iPad Air is back on sale for $500, which matches the lowest price we've seen outside of a very brief drop to $479 last year. Apple normally sells the 10.9-inch tablet for $599, though it's often available around $550 on Amazon. The Air is the top pick in our guide to the best iPads and earned a review score of 90 when it launched last year. While it lacks the M2 chip, higher 120Hz refresh rate and improved speakers of the iPad Pro, it provides a similarly elegant design at a much lower price, with a better display, faster processor and wider accessory support than Apple's lower-end tablets.

Instant Vortex Mini Air Fryer

The top budget pick in our guide to the best air fryers, Instant's Vortex Mini is down to $40 at Amazon. This is a two-quart model, so it's not ideal if you want to cook for several people, but we've found it effective for smaller servings and side dishes like french fries, tofu, wings and the like. Its dial controls and four preprogrammed settings (air fry, bake, roast, reheat) are simple to use, and the whole thing takes up little countertop space. This deal is $5 more than the device's all-time low but roughly $10 less than its typical street price. Just note that the discount only applies to the aqua blue model.

Samsung Evo Select

The 128GB model of Samsung's Evo Select microSD card is down to $12, which is a new all-time low. On average, the U3- and V30-rated card has typically retailed for $15 over the last few months. This isn't the fastest option on the market, but it's still fast enough for most things you'd do with a Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, GoPro or Raspberry Pi. It's also backed by a 10-year warranty. If you more storage space, the 256GB and 512GB models are down to $21 and $40, respectively.

Google Nest Thermostat

The Google Nest Thermostat is on sale for $80 at B&H, which is $50 off its typical going rate. Note that this is not the Nest Learning Thermostat, which is Google's higher-end model. By comparison, the standard Nest Thermostat has a less premium design and can't learn your heating and cooling habits to make automatic adjustments. It also doesn't support remote temperature sensors, so it's less convenient for fine-tuning the temperature in specific rooms. 

That said, it still lets you control your home's climate remotely and can help you save on energy costs. It carries over features like HVAC system monitoring and voice assistant control as well, and unlike the pricier model, it supports the new Matter smart home standard. Google rolled out the latter for the Nest Thermostat just this week, allowing it to work with more platforms such as Apple HomeKit and Siri. We've highlighted the Nest Thermostat in past roundups.

Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro

Amazon has the white Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro on sale for $120, which is a new low and $30 below its usual price. The device is also available for $2 more at Best Buy. This is the "best premium" pick in our guide to the best gaming mice, as it offers exceptionally responsive performance in a comfortable and ultralight (63g) design. It lacks bells and whistles like RGB lighting and support for multiple control profiles, and most people still don't need to pay this much to get a good gaming mouse, but it's tailor-made for competitive-minded players who spend most of their time in twitchy FPS games.

SK Hynix Gold P31

SK Hynix's Gold P31 is a well-reviewed, power-efficient SSD that should represent a nice upgrade for anyone looking to boost the storage performance of their laptop. Its 2TB model is down to a new all-time low of $108, which is about $60 below the drive's average street price in recent months. If you don't need that much capacity, the 1TB model is available for $65. This is a PCI Express 3.0 drive, so it's not as performant as a higher-end PCIe 4.0 model, nor will it work with a PS5. But it's still fast enough for most people looking to load up games or transfer large files on the go, and at this price it offers a better cost-per-gigabyte ratio than most of its peers. It also comes with a five-year warranty.

Anker 715 USB-C Charger

If you're looking for a compact USB-C charger, the Anker 715 Charger is a nice value at its current deal price of $35. We've seen this discount a few times before, but it represents a roughly $10 drop from the device's average street price in recent months. This is a travel-friendly GaN charger (1.65 x 1.42 x 1.74 in.) that can deliver up to 65W of power, which is enough to charge many smartphones, tablets and smaller laptops at full speed. It only has one port, though; if you need something that can top up multiple devices at once, consider some of the alternatives in our guide to the best fast chargers.

Anker Soundcore Motion+

The Anker Soundcore Motion+ is down to $80, which is about $20 below its usual going rate. This is a recommendation from our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers: It can easily supply enough volume to fill a room, and compared to other portable speakers in this price range, it gives tracks an impressive sense of space. It's not the smallest device, and it can lack some detail in the treble, but it's well-built and sounds smooth on the whole. Beyond that, it's water-resistant with an IPX7 rating, so you can safely take it in the pool or shower, and it has a 3.5mm input for wired connections.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Best Buy has a version of Asus' ROG Zephyrus G14 with a Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU, Radeon RX 6700S GPU, 14-inch 120Hz display, 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM down to $1,000, which is a new low. The G14 is the top pick in our guide to the best gaming laptops and earned a review score of 85 last year.

Note that this is the 2022 model; if you're willing to pay more for a brawnier Ryzen 7000 series CPU and Nvidia RTX 40-series GPU, Asus has refreshed models on the way (which likely explains the deal here). Nevertheless, the older Zephyrus G14 is a good value at $1,000, as it can still deliver perfectly playable frame rates with many modern games in 1440p. Relative to other gaming notebooks, it's also decent for everyday use, with a comfortable keyboard and trackpad, plenty of ports and roughly 7-10 hours of battery life when you aren't gaming. Its 3.6-pound chassis isn't a complete anchor, either.

Apple Mac Mini

Apple's latest Mac Mini is back down to an all-time low of $500. This deal applies to the entry-level version of the compact PC, which includes Apple's M2 chip, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. With those specs, you'll want to stick to lighter workloads, especially since you can't upgrade the Mini's memory or storage over time. But if that's all you need, this is the most affordable way into a competent Mac desktop. If you want more storage space, a model with a 512GB SSD is on sale for $690, which is another all-time low. We gave the version of the Mac Mini with Apple's faster M2 Pro chip a score of 86 in January, but the two devices are similar outside of that processor bump and a couple extra Thunderbolt ports. As of this writing, Amazon's listing says the device won't ship until the end of May.

Apple Watch SE

The Apple Watch SE is once again on sale for $219. This is a deal we've seen on-and-off for the past few months, but it falls within $10 of the smartwatch's all-time low and $30 below Apple's list price. We gave the latest SE a review score of 89 last September and call it a standout option for first-time buyers in our best smartwatches guide. Compared to the Apple Watch Series 8 (our top pick), it lacks an always-on display mode, fast charging and advanced health features like an ECG monitor, skin temperature sensor and blood oxygen sensor. However, it still provides most of the core Apple Watch feature set and the same processor as the Series 8 at a far lower cost. 

If you're willing to pay for the most rugged and longest-lasting Apple Watch, meanwhile, the Apple Watch Ultra is more modestly discounted at $749. That's about $30 below its usual street price.

LG C2 OLED TV

The 55-inch LG C2 OLED TV is on sale for $1,067, which is about $200 off the average street price we've seen in recent months and only $30 more than the lowest price we've tracked. The 65-inch version is also down to one of the best prices we've seen at $1,397. LG has replaced this 2022 model with this year's C3 OLED TV, which looks to be a marginal upgrade on the whole but promises improved image processing. This is also a step down from the Samsung S95B and newer S95C in terms of brightness and color saturation; those should be better for brightly-lit rooms. 

That said, the C2 is still excellent, offering the kind of deep contrast, smooth motion, low input lag and wide viewing angles you'd expect from a good OLED panel. And at this price, it costs far less than the C3 and Samsung'smodels. We previously recommended the C2 in our gaming TV buying guide.

GameStop BOGO sale

If you've been looking for games to play before the new Zelda drops, GameStop is running a buy-one-get-one-free sale that includes 40 different titles. Not every game in the sale is a winner, but the selection includes the PS4 version of the giant action-RPG Elden Ring, recent releases like the Yakuza spin-off Like a Dragon: Ishin! and the turn-based RPG Octopath Traveler II, plus Switch exclusives like Bayonetta 3, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, among others. Just note that the discount will only apply to the cheapest game you add to your cart.

PlayStation and Nintendo Switch game deals

Outside of GameStop's sale, we're seeing good prices on a number of recommended PlayStation and Nintendo Switch games. On the PlayStation side, the colorful action game Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and challenging roguelike Returnal are each down to $29, while the brutal sequel The Last of Us Part II is back down to $10. For Switch, several notable indie games are at or near all-time lows, including Celeste and Golf Story for $5 each, Hollow Knight and Spiritfarer for $7.50 each, Untitled Goose Game for $10, Hades for $12 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge for $20. We highlight many of these titles in our guides to the best couch co-op games, best PS5 games and best Switch games.

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Gamers who want to post clips of a cool multikill they pulled off in Halo Infinite or something ridiculous that happened in Sea of Thieves to Twitter may need to take an extra couple of steps to share their captures. Microsoft said it had to switch off the option to upload screenshots and clips directly to Twitter from Xbox consoles as well as the Game Bar on Windows.

There are other options, though they're a little more inconvenient. You can use the Xbox mobile app to download console captures and share them to Twitter. Nintendo and PlayStation offer similar ways to share screenshots and clips. Alternatively, you can copy your Xbox captures onto a USB drive and access them from your computer.

Engadget has contacted Xbox for comment, but it seems likely that Microsoft dropped the built-in sharing option due to Twitter's decision to start charging for API access. That move is breaking functionality for all kinds of organizations, including disaster response services.

This week, Microsoft said it would soon remove Twitter integration from its social media management tool for advertisers. Twitter is said to be charging at least $42,000 per month for enterprise access to its APIs.

In a response to a tweet about Microsoft's API move, Twitter owner Elon Musk suggested that Microsoft had "illegally" used his company's data and that a lawsuit is forthcoming. "They trained illegally using Twitter data. Lawsuit time," he wrote. Musk noted in December that ChatGPT operator OpenAI, whose tech Microsoft is using to power Bing's chatbot and other AI features, "had access to Twitter database for training. I put that on pause for now."

Musk recently set up his own AI company in the hopes of taking on the likes of Google and OpenAI. As it happens, he co-founded OpenAI but later disowned the company and publicly criticized ChatGPT.

Apple allegedly plans to release a journaling app for the iPhone, The Wall Street Journal reported. The app, codenamed "Jurassic," would align with Apple's desire to expand into healthcare, with internal documents tying journaling to improved mental health. 

This app could act as a life tracker of sorts, analyzing what your typical day is like, where you go, who you interact with and when you differentiate from a standard routine. Supposedly, it might attempt to even determine the difference between who your colleagues and friends are, using a feature called "All Day People Discovery." It could work by picking up your proximity to other individuals, though it's not clear if they would also need an iPhone and the app. 

The comprehensive information Apple may collect isn't exactly new, but could be very obvious, with a personalization feature using the data it collects to suggest relevant journaling topics. Basically, it seems that if you bring your iPhone on a run, it will suggest writing about a workout. All data could apparently be stored solely on-device, with journaling suggestions automatically deleting after four weeks. 

If Apple does release a journaling app, it could be in direct competition with Day One. The feeling and activity tracker has spent over a decade growing to 200,000 premium subscribers — much with the help of Apple. It received a 2014 Apple Design Award and received repeated App Store promotions. Paul Mayne, its founder, told the WSJ that Apple's support noticeably dropped off about three years ago, leading him to assume it was making a similar app. Apple has previously been accused of creating its own versions of popular apps — also known as Sherlocking — or taking meetings with companies only to drop off and produce something akin to their idea. 

Apple has not publicly announced anything about the alleged journaling app, and likely won't until, at earliest, its June developer conference. 

These days, there are better options to ensure WiFi signals reach every part of your home than struggling to fix a router to your ceiling. A mesh network uses multiple nodes (or points), giving you several connectivity points instead of just a single router. Google's Nest WiFi system is a solid mesh network option, and the devices are currently on sale on Amazon. A two-pack of the Nest WiFi system has dropped to $100, which is the lowest price we've seen to date. The bundle typically costs $269.

The two-pack includes a router and a point. If you'd like to have a router and two points, you're in luck, as a three-pack is also on sale. It's 50 percent off at $175. A two-pack will provide WiFi coverage over up to 3,800 square feet, while the three pack will cover as much as 5,400 square feet, Google says.

Each Nest router and point can connect to as many as 100 devices simultaneously. Each router has two Ethernet ports, while each point is a smart speaker with Google Assistant integration. Google says the system can support multiple simultaneous 4K video streams, but that will depend on the speed of your internet plan.

Those looking for a higher-end option might want to consider the Nest WiFi Pro 6E system. Two- and three-pack variants of the bundle are on sale for $250 (usually $300) and $340 (usually $400) respectively. This network will work with both older devices your current devices and those that support WiFi 6E, though it's not compatible with previous generations of Google WiFi or Nest WiFi products.

WiFi 6E offers faster speeds and lower latencies than WiFi 6 and earlier standards. Having access to a broader wireless spectrum should also reduce network congestion and possible interference from your neighbors' networks, so picking up a WiFi 6E mesh system could bolster your setup now and for years to come.

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You now have a fresh alternative to Rode's mixing desks, particularly if you're a budding music streamer. Boss has introduced Gigcaster 5 and Gigcaster 8 USB mixers built with livestreaming performances in mind. The touchscreen and physical controls are built to handle common streaming tasks, such as fading a source or playing effects (like delays and voice transformation), using only hardware. They support hands-free control through pedals and similar devices, too. Multiple inputs help you connect instruments and XLR mics, and Bluetooth is available if you're performing through a phone or tablet.

You aren't forced to go live. While the Gigcasters were designed for services like Facebook Live, Twitch and YouTube, you can also use them for podcasting, pre-recorded videos and similar offline content. This is primarily intended to streamline setups that would otherwise require multiple boxes to achieve the same results.

The Gigcaster 5 is the 'entry' model with a direct guitar input, two XLR ports, stereo line in, eight virtual pads and a 16x12 USB interface. Move to the Gigcaster 8 and you get the guitar input as well as four XLR/TRS combo inputs, an onboard stereo mic, eight physical effect pads, a 20x14 USB interface and multitrack recording to microSD cards.

Both mixers ship to the US in May. The Gigcaster 5 costs $479, while the Gigcaster 8 is priced at $699. These aren't casual purchases if you're just starting out, and they don't include a video capture card like Rode's Streamer X. Boss' hardware offers much more advanced audio control than that device, however, and the outlay may be justified if it adds polish to your livestreamed concerts or DJ sets.

While some of us will invariably make the local news with our stoney hijinks this Thursday, countless more will celebrate the High Holiest of Herbal Holidaze the right way: quietly, responsibly, baked out of our gourds watching Shaw Brothers movies while housing hoagies. Here’s the gear you need to avoid having your mugshot run alongside a graphic reading, “Marijanhuh?” but still thoroughly enjoy this year’s 4/20.

Herbalize It

While the popularity of flower has waned in recent years in favor of more easily-handled edibles and pre-rolled smokables, loose leaf bud remains a cornerstone of the modern cannabis market. If you want to go the traditionalist route, pick up a Santa Cruz Shredder 3-piece grinder and some rolling papers. The Santa Cruz is spacious enough to hold multiple J’s worth of shredded flower, have deeply textured grips to ease strain on your wrists and feature a curved collection bowl that can be cleared with just your fingertip, rather than a straightened paper clip and cursing. Even if you prefer dry herb vaping, that grinder will invariably come in handy as the weed you pack into the chamber will need to be shredded if you want it to heat up evenly and not scorch.

In terms of tabletop dry herb vapes, you really can’t go wrong with the Storz and Bickel Volcano. They’re definitely on the pricey side, with the newest Hybrid model running $700, but Storz and Bickel’s reputation is well earned and a Volcano is the sort of vape that you don’t get rid of so much as pass down to your kids. Heck, the one I bought in 2010 is still going strong even after multiple bag and whip replacements. The most recent versions offer a slew of enticing features including the ability to heat a bowl to its vaporization point in under two minutes — a significant upgrade from the days counting to 100 and back as the bag inflated — as well as iOS and Android apps.

For handheld or portable dry herb vapes, you’ve got a lot more options, both in terms of choices between makes and models and desired feature sets. Basically though, you’re looking for something easy to charge (preferably USB-C) with a robust battery life, something that’s easy to load, use and clean.

The $209 Storz and Bickel Crafty+ takes everything we love about the Volcano — the quality of construction and its ease of use, for example — and shrinks it down into a form factor that fits in your skinny jeans. With a generously proportioned heating chamber, rapid USB-C charging, an associated Android app and one button heating controls, the Crafty+ is a solid vaporizer choice for serious stoners.

The Tera from Boundless is a $250 alternative to the Crafty+ that uses convection air flow to help ensure even heating. It also uses standard 3.7V 18650 Li-ion batteries so picking up spare and replacement parts in the future won’t be a hassle. With a temperature range of 140 - 500 degrees F, the Tera can handle both dry herb and concentrates. You can even swap out the mouthpiece to use the device as a blower for your water pipe to further filter the vapor before inhaling it.

A more refined vaping experience can be had, at a price, with the TinyMight 2. Ranging from 349€ for the basic package to 449€ (~ $380 - $490) for all accessories included, the TM2 is highly customizable with options for everything from the length of the draw tube to the length of the power cable. It’s constructed from stainless steel and aluminum with a solid oak wrapping that not only makes it look nice but acts as a thermal insulator. The TinyMight2 charges via USB-C and, like the Tera, uses 18650 batteries. The TM2 takes 2-5 seconds to fully heat up and can be used either in on-demand or session mode — meaning the device will either heat up only when you draw or it’ll heat up and stay hot for a set amount of time (aka a “session”).

For those of you not looking to spend multiple hundreds of dollars on what essentially amounts to a very fancy hot plate, I suggest the XMAX V3 Pro. It’s always around $90, depending on what vape site you visit and what sales are happening that day (Planet of the Vapes and Vapospy are both generally trustworthy resources). Rather than a block, it’s wand-shaped! Like the Tera, the V3 Pro uses both convection airflows for heating, and can handle both dry herb and concentrate. It uses 18650 batteries and USB-C charging for power. However, the V3 is significantly slower in heating the chamber (around 15-25 seconds) than its alternative but, again, is less than half the price. It’s an expensive 10 seconds.

Speaking of hot plates, the Bowle from Taffee combines two of the five best things you can do with your mouth: drinking and vaping! This unique gadget combines a puck shaped vaporizer for heating loose leaf buds with a 250 or 400mL cup seated on top. With it, you can take rips and sips alternately or simultaneously to meld the flavors and experiences. A one-hour charge is enough to power eight sessions with the convection heater needing just one second at a time to fully heat. They even sell a specialty grinder (for $70, yikes) that will load the ground flower into individual ceramic heating cups.

Vaporize It

Flower is abundant, relatively ubiquitous even, but sometimes you want a little extra punch in your pipe, or maybe you just want to get high without smelling like it. For those instances, we invented concentrates. Whereas flower tops out at around 35 percent THC content, concentrates range anywhere from the mid seventies up to 98 percent THC, so a little goes a long way. As such, the devices vaporizing them are going to be smaller, lightweight, and longer lasting than their dry herb kiln kin but you’re still going to want to look for many of the same amenities — 510 threading, a common charging port style, generous battery capacity, and a straightforward user interface.

The Uni Pro 2.0 from Yocan ticks all those boxes. Full disclosure, this model is my everyday vape and I am rather partial to it. At $50, the Uni Pro 2.0 runs about double than the generic stick batteries you buy at the dispensary, but you get a lot of features for that added expense. Its 650 mAh battery is recharged via USB-C and sufficient to power through a full gram oil cartridge without needing to recharge. The power output runs 1.8 - 4.2V and can be controlled in .1V increments, which the OLED screen displays, along with the battery life, ohm rate and draw duration.

I’m not a huge fan of the magnetic screw-on cartridge adapters that Uni Pro 2 relies on, mostly because I have a habit of absentmindedly throwing them out with the exhausted cart and replacements are $7 a pop. It’s available in a variety of colors (when they’re not sold out) and can accommodate a wide range of cartridge sizes — whether tall and narrow or short and squat. Best of all, the Uni Pro 2 is small enough, heavy enough and blocky enough to not immediately get lost in my pants pocket amidst my keys and loose change.

If you’re looking for something similarly shaped but a bit less blocky and a bit more stylish, you can’t go wrong with the $59 Compass from Vessel. It’s about the same size as an AirPods case and comes in six accent colors. It’s got a 550mAh battery and charges via USB-C. The commands to lock/unlock the device, change the temperature settings or activate the heater unit are all controlled through a single pushbutton on the front of it. It’s discrete, even when there’s a cartridge mouthpiece sticking up like a Nokia antenna, and easily palmable — the kind of classy vape you bring along on a night out on the town.

Vessel also makes a pair of stick vapes, the Core and the ”ruggedized” Expedition Trail Edition. The $39 Core sports a USB-C compatible 260mAh lithium-ion battery and is available in a half dozen colors. You’re going to want to keep the charger nearby if you plan on sessioning with it and you’ll also need to be quick with the five unlock taps, but once the Core gets going, it’s a far and away a superior option to what the dispensaries sell.

Hybridize It

For those of you looking to really stick it to The Man and launch your own self-sustaining backyard grow op, your very first course of action needs to be sitting down and reading through the Marijuana Grower's Handbook by Ed Rosenthal. It contains — and I say this without hyperbole — literally everything you need to know about growing cannabis. In the latest edition of the long-running handbook, Rosenthal has recruited luminaries from across the industry to explain, in almost too much detail (like, down to "the Daily Light Integral equation" levels of detail), every aspect of how cannabis grows, the environmental factors that limit that growth; and the tools, materials, and resources needed to produce weed on either a hobby or commercial scale.

The Blade 18 is Razer's largest and most powerful laptop yet. It's got a big, gorgeous 240Hz display, a slick unibody frame and practically every port you might need. It can also be configured with the fastest silicon you can get on a laptop today, including an Intel Core i9 CPU and an NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU. There's just one problem: a fully loaded config costs $5,000.

To put that into perspective, that’s 10 times more expensive than the average price of a new laptop or tablet in the US, which is around $495 according to Indexbox. That basically makes the Blade 18 the Rolls Royce of gaming notebooks. Suffice it to say, unless you’re the offspring of an oil baron, you’re probably not going to buy one. So in an attempt to figure out who the Blade 18 is really for, I asked Razer to send over a base model of the laptop, which goes for a slightly more affordable price of $2,900 to see how much you're really getting for all that money.

Design and display

If you can look past its price, there's very little dislike about the Blade 18's design. Razer's aluminum body is super sturdy, with almost no flex on its lid and deck. Its keyboard also feels great and comes with per-key RGB lighting, though some may be a bit dismayed that Razer couldn't find room for a numpad even on a laptop this big. And thanks to support for tons of ports including an HDMI 2.1 jack, Ethernet, a full-size SD card reader and multiple USB Type-A and Type-C connectors, you'll never have to worry about carrying a dongle or dock around — which is a good thing because at 6.8 pounds the Blade 18 is heavy enough on its own.  

While it's not that much larger than the Blade 17, Razer’s biggest laptop ever definitely doesn’t fit in my normal messenger bag, and it damn near bursts the seams on my everyday backpack too. So if I want to carry it around (not that I really want to), I have to break out my big travel backpack, which is probably for the best because its padded straps are kind of a must if you plan on carrying around the Blade 18 and its 1.7-pound power brick for any length of time. That said, for a desktop replacement, actually using the Blade 18 on your lap isn't as awkward as you might imagine. Despite its size, the notebook is balanced well and it tends to keep thermals in check during regular use, though if you're gaming you're still going to want to find a table or desk. 

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

My one gripe with the Blade 18 is the lack of additional display options. On the old Blade 17, Razer provided a choice between a 240Hz QHD panel or a 144Hz UHD screen, the latter of which would be great for content creators who want a mobile workstation for editing 4K videos. Plus, when you factor in that an SD card reader comes standard, transitioning from shooting footage to editing is as simple as yanking a card out of your camera and slamming it in the Blade. And unlike the Blade 15, there’s no option for an OLED panel either. Now it’s quite possible that Razer is saving some of these upgrades for a forthcoming Studio version of the Blade 18 designed expressly for content creators, but that’s not much of a consolation to people looking for a new machine today.

Performance

A base Blade 19 definitely isn't a slouch with an Intel Core i9-13950HX chip and an RTX 4060 GPU. But once again, it's really the value proposition I'm questioning. That's because if you do want a laptop with big performance but in a slightly smaller package, ASUS’ Zephryous M16 can be configured with an i9 CPU and an RTX 4090 for $1,000 less than the Blade 18, while the base version of the M16 features an RTX 4070 GPU starting at just $1,950.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The one small issue is that if you're pairing an RTX 4060 with a 240Hz display, you can't really take full advantage of that fast refresh rate unless you're playing lower-spec esports games like CS:GO or League of Legends. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077, the Blade 18 posted an average frame rate of just 62 fps at 1920 x 1080 on Ultra. And when I tweaked the game’s settings to try to get the best out of that 240Hz display, the Razer only managed 122 fps with high textures and NVIDIA’s DLSS set to Ultra Performance mode. That said, even with the base model, there isn't really any title the Blade 18 can't handle, so you can easily take your games on the road.

Battery Life

Speaking of traveling, while it would be nice to be able to just grab the laptop and go, leaving the Blade 18’s power adapter at home is basically never an option. On PCMark 10’s Modern Office battery test, it lasted just two hours and 57 minutes, which is a full hour and a half less than ASUS’ ROG Zephyrus M16. And while it shouldn’t be a big surprise, if you’re playing games without being plugged into the wall, you can expect runtimes of two hours or less.

Wrap-up

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Ok, so back to my original question: Who is this thing really for? If you’re coming from a smaller system, moving to the Blade 18 is almost like that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry nearly blunders his way into a menage a trois before backing out. Living with a laptop this big isn’t merely upgrading your machine. You have to change the way you travel, you need to buy more expensive peripherals that won’t look shabby next to your fancy laptop, and you’ll probably want to get some rich friends who don’t mind sending a driver to pick you up when you want to have a LAN session. It’s not just a more powerful way to game, it’s a whole new lifestyle choice.

Alternatively, if you like playing games and making videos, the Blade 18 certainly has the size and the performance to do both well, though its screen isn’t ideal for content creation. Honestly, the main use case for the Blade 18 is if you’re on the road a lot or if you’re someone like a game developer and you want a portable workstation that you can lug around to show off your upcoming title. Back in the day, that honor often went to systems like MSI’s huge 17-inch Dragon and Dominator laptops, which were even thicker and heavier, regularly weighing in at over 10 pounds. But as part of a new breed of desktop replacements, the Blade 18 offers support for the fastest laptop components out right now, but in a relatively less bulky, though still big chassis.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

That said, the reality is that for most people, the Blade 18 doesn’t make a ton of sense. There are a number of other desktop replacements that aren’t quite as fancy for hundreds (or even thousands) less. And if you still want a machine with serious performance that’s easier to carry around, there are rivals like the Zephyrus M16 too. Ok, so what’s left? Luxury and prestige, because if you have a sky-high budget and want a super premium gaming laptop, there isn't much that can top a fully loaded Blade 18. But for everyone else thinking about getting in on the ground level with a base model, your money would go a lot further elsewhere.

Acer reliably makes some of the best Chromebooks on the market, and today it's announcing an update to the Chromebook Spin 714 as part of a slew of PC news. Like last year's model, the Chromebook Spin 714 is a premium laptop that's thin (0.7 inches), light (about three pounds) and powerful. 

Unsurprisingly, the new model users Intel's 13th-generation Core processors — either the i3-1315U, i5-1335U or i7-1355U. Acer also offers a high-end model geared at enterprise use with Intel's vPro platform with an i7-1365U processor. Combine that with up to 32GB of RAM and up to a 1TB SSD and you're looking at far more power than most ChromeOS tasks need, but that's kind of the point when you're looking at a premium Chromebook.

Another notable change is the webcam — Acer put a "QHD 2K" camera in the Spin 714. It feels like companies are finally adjusting to the realities of work-from-home life and giving us webcams that offer notable improvements, so I'm glad to see that here. 

Otherwise, the Spin 714 sticks to the usual premium Chomebook script that we know from Acer, not that that's a bad thing. As usual, Acer is using a durable anodized aluminum chassis which the company says meets the US MIL-STD 810 durability spec. As the name suggests, the 14-inch 1,920 x 1,200 touchscreen has a 360-degree hinge so you can prop the laptop up in tent mode or use it as a tablet. I say this every year: this trick means nothing to me. 

Acer

But Acer and plenty of other companies are still keen on convertible laptops, so I'm sure someone out there appreciates it. The touchscreen does work well with a USI stylus, offering 4,096 levels of pressure and tilt sensitivity — so if you're interested in drawing on the relatively large canvas this screen afford you, it should work pretty well. There's nothing new about the keyboard or trackpad this year, though Acer once again thoughtfully includes an optional fingerprint sensor for security. And past keyboards and trackpads on the high-end Spin models have been very good.

Finally, Acer says the battery on this laptop will last for about 10 hours. Unfortunately, most high-end Chromebooks I've used lately seem to max out in the six-to-seven hour range. Not terrible, but not ideal for a relatively expensive device. Hopefully the new Spin 714 will get closer to matching its promised battery life than last year's model. 

The Chromebook Spin 714 starts at $699 and will be available in North America in May. It'll then come to Europe, Middle East and African markets in July. As usual, Acer says it'll offer a wide variety of configurations, with prices differing by spec and region. 

It’s been possible for a while to snap up a 14-inch version of Acer’s Swift X flagship laptop that’s toting AMD’s silicon instead of Intel’s. But either I’m getting more forgetful, or this might be the first time that AMD’s hardware is coming to the 16-inch version of the Swift X. Today, Acer has announced that its biggest ultrabook is getting AMD’s new 7040-series processors. Those can be paired with either one of NVIDIA’s 30 or 40-series RTX GPUs, with the machine aimed at creative professionals who need something a little more muscular when they’re on the go.

We might as well discuss those new internals first, since would-be buyers get a whole raft of build-to-order options. There’s the new Ryzens, running from the Ryzen 5 7535HS all the way to the Ryzen 9 7940H, paired with 16GB RAM and either a 512GB, 1TB or 2TB SSD. That will sit beside your pick of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3050 with GB RAM, or an RTX 4050 with 6GB RAM.

Given the focus on creative and power users, there are two options for displays, a 16-inch 2,560 x 1,600 (WQXGA), 165Hz IPS LCD display with a peak brightness of 500 nits. Those in the market for something easier on the eye can instead opt for a 16-inch 3,200 x 2,000 (WQXGA+) 120Hz OLED with support for 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

Acer also wants to talk about the redesigned aluminum chassis, which it says offers better thermal performance, a lighter weight and a “more confident look and feel.” That extends to the harder, straighter lines on the side on the deck and a taller top lid that, when open, stretches down to the table. The redesigned internals have made room for a bigger, 76Wh battery, offering a battery life of anything up to 10 hours on a charge.

Rounding out the spec list is two USB-A, two USB-C ports, one of which can be used to charge the machine, a HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD card reader.

As for how much it’ll set you back, the Acer Swift X 16 will land in North America in July, with the base model priced at $1,250. But, as with all of these machines, you can expect that figure to climb once you start adding in some of those fancier build-to-order perks.