Facebook Gaming is letting more creators play licensed music in the background while streaming gameplay. Streamers who have partner status have been able to spin tracks from a broad range of publishers and labels since last September, and now Level Up creators can do so too.

Level Up is a step below partner status. Creators in the former group can monetize their streams with Facebook's Stars currency, ads and paid subscriptions. They also get access to tools to build their audience and features like being able to stream in 1080p at 60 frames per second. Partners get extra perks, such as a partner badge, early access to new products and more personalized support from Facebook.

Streamers in both categories can play songs from hundreds of music labels, publishers and societies, including big hitters like Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. As well as live broadcasts, the deals cover archived streams and clips viewers make from streams.

Creators aren't limited to predetermined playlists, so they can play almost any song they like. Facebook notes that streamers don't have the right to use certain songs, though, and it'll flag those to creators with a notification. The streamer can remove that restricted song from their playlist to avoid running into trouble.

Elsewhere, Facebook says its systems are better at detecting the difference between having music in the background while you're playing games and having music as the focus of the stream, like hosting a radio show, which isn't allowed.

To mark the expansion, Facebook is hosting several streams in which celebrity DJs will select the background tracks while creators play games. DJ Khaled and Diplo are among those taking part in the special streams, which take place throughout this month.

It'll soon be much easier to get your Final Fantasy fix if you subscribe to an all-you-can-play service. Both PlayStation Now and Xbox Game Pass are adding several games from the RPG franchise in the months ahead, most of them for PS Now. Final Fantasy XIII is first out of the gate and now available on Xbox Game Pass for console and PC — the first time it's been available on current consoles. However, you'll also get to play the legendary Final Fantasy VII (the original, not the remake) on PS Now starting September 7th.

The rest are titles that will help PS Now catch up to Xbox Game Pass, where they've been available for a while. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered hits Sony's service on October 5th, while IX (arguably the PS1's curtain call) debuts November 2nd. The remasters of X and X-2 surface on December 7th, while Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age will have to wait until January 4th.

This expansion won't satisfy you if you're a completist (you won't see VI and earlier), and it probably won't convince you to subscribe all by itself. Still, it could be a significant factor. You can relive the Final Fantasy titles of your youth on a modern system while also receiving access to a load of considerably newer games.

In 2018, Disney fired Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn over tweets he wrote between 2008 and 2012. While the company later rehired Gunn, he’s just one of many people for whom an old social media post came back to haunt him. In recent years, some Twitter users have turned to tools like TweetDelete.net to avoid something similar happening to them. Twitter could soon also offer its own solution to the problem.

Sharing part of its product roadmap with Bloomberg, the company said it plans to eventually test a feature that would allow people to automatically archive their tweets after a predetermined amount of time. The tool is currently in the concept phase and doesn’t have a release date, but Twitter said it’s considering a number of time options, including 30, 60 and 90 days.

The decision to give people the ability to archive their tweets is part of a broader “social privacy” push Twitter told Bloomberg is about giving people more control over their identity on the platform. To that end, the company plans to test a feature this month that will allow people to remove followers. By the end of the year, it will also trial a tool that gives individuals the option to remove themselves from public conversations people mention them in.

Twitter told Bloomberg many of the above tools come in response to creative workarounds its users have found to make up for missing features. For instance, people have found you can remove someone as a follower by blocking and unblocking them. Building on a concept it shared back in July (seen above), the company also plans to prompt people to review whether their accounts are public or private.

It will be interesting to see if Twitter decides to only give some users the option to archive their tweets. After all, the platform acts as a kind of public record, giving people a way to keep politicians accountable for things they said in the past.

Local TV streaming service Locast has closed up shop, at least for the time being. It suspended operations following a ruling on Tuesday that it couldn't use its non-profit status as a legal shield. Networks have claimed that Locast violated their copyright.

"We are suspending operations, effective immediately," Locast wrote in an email to users. "As a non-profit, Locast was designed from the very beginning to operate in accordance with the strict letter of the law, but in response to the court’s recent rulings, with which we respectfully disagree, we are hereby suspending operations, effective immediately."

Locast argued that it was acting as a booster for local signals, which third parties are allowed to do under US copyright law, to help people who can't pick up a signal with an antenna to watch local TV. However, CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox (which were reportedly backed by AT&T and Dish Network) felt that Locast was dodging carriage fees.

The court also took issue with the $5/month payments Locast took from users to ostensibly cover running costs. A judge said Locast was using those funds to expand into more markets and that it was bringing in “far more money from user charges than was necessary.”

ASUS has just four letters to sell you on its latest creator-focused notebooks: OLED. The company is bringing OLED screens to all of its new models, a move meant to differentiate them in the increasingly crowded PC market. Compared to traditional LCD screens, OLED offers deeper blacks levels, vastly better contrast, and more responsiveness. Even today, as LCDs have evolved to be brighter and faster, OLED offers a more pronounced visual "pop."

We've been seeing notebooks with OLED for years, like on the XPS 15 and ZenBook, but they've typically been positioned as a premium feature for select models. Now ASUS is trying to make its name synonymous with OLED, so much so that it's bringing it to new mid-range notebooks like the VivoBook Pro 14X and 16X. It's also touting the first 16-inch 4K OLED HDR screens on notebooks across several models: the ProArt Studiobook Pro, ProArt Studiobook and the Vivobook Pro.

Befitting its name, you can expect to see the fastest hardware on the market in the StudioBook Pro 16 OLED (starting at $2,500). It'll be powered by H-series Ryzen 5000 processors, 3rd-gen Intel Xeon chips and NVIDIA's professional-grade RTX A2000 and A5000 GPUs. And if you don't need all of that power, there's also the Studiobook 16 OLED ($2,000), which has the same Ryzen chips, Intel Core i7 CPUs and either RTX 3070 or 3060 graphics. Both notebooks will be equipped with 4K OLED HDR screens that reach up to 550 nits and cover 100 percent of DCI-P3 color gamut. They'll also sport ASUS Dial, a new rotary accessory located at the top of their trackpads, offering similar functionality to Microsoft's forgotten Surface Dial.

ASUS

Stepping down another level, there's the the latest ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED, the company's 15-inch dual-screen notebook. That can be equipped with up to RTX 3070 graphics and a core i9 CPU. While they seemed gimmicky at first, ASUS has proven it can make dual-display notebooks genuinely useful, as we saw in our review of the Zenbook Pro Duo. The single-screen ZenBook Pro 15 OLED ($1,470), meanwhile, tops out with RTX 3050 Ti graphics and Ryzen 5000 processors.

The Vivobook Pro 14X and 16X OLED ($1,400) are entirely new territory for ASUS, sitting above the mainstream Vivobook line, but below the more premium Zenbook. I suppose at this point, with consumers eager to snap up more PCs, having additional models won't hurt. The 16X will come with up to a 4K 16-inch OLED screen, while the 14X has a 2.8K OLED 90Hz option. You'll be able to choose from Intel Core i7 or Ryzen 5000 H-series chips and up to RTX 3050 Ti graphics. And, not to be forgotten, the Vivobook Pro 14 and 15 OLED offer similar power in cases that weigh 3.09 pounds and 3.64 pounds, respectively.

ASUS

ASUS's new notebooks are expected to be available in North America in Q4. The one possible exception is the Vivobook Pro 14X OLED, which hits Canada at the same time (but it's unclear about the rest of North America).

It didn't take long for YouTube to claim another milestone for its music services, although its significant isn't quite so clear. The Google-owned brand said it had racked up a combined 50 million YouTube Premium and Music subscribers roughly a year and a half after reaching the 20 million mark. It's also the "fastest growing" music subscription service, according to YouTube's music chief Lyor Cohen.

Certain markets were stronger than others. Cohen touted "impressive growth" in Brazil, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea. He didn't provide numbers for those countries or the US. 

That figure still makes YouTube smaller than Spotify, which claimed 165 million Premium subscribers as of June 2021. Apple hasn't divulged its Music subscriber numbers since June 2019, when it had 60 million, while Amazon last touted 55 million Music customers (only some of them paying for Unlimited) in January 2020. Still, these figures in isolation would suggest YouTube is quickly becoming a major force in music streaming.

There are concerns about the claims, though. YouTube didn't indicate how many were Music or Premium subscribers, or how they used it. While you get YouTube Music with a Premium subscription, that doesn't mean you're using Premium for music — you might just want to get rid of ads and download videos. YouTube's tally also includes people using free trials, so the number of paying customers is likely lower. Samsung offers two to four months of free YouTube Premium access with new phones, for instance, but many of those users will drop Premium after the trial is over.

The data still hints competition in the music streaming world is heating up, with relatively small outfits like YouTube and Amazon Music posing more of a threat to incumbents like Spotify and Apple. However, it could take a long while before YouTube is large enough to make the heavyweights nervous.

There’s no Bat-signal roaming the ceiling of the cavernous Park Row, no golden lasso or tiara under a glass case, no Green Lantern cocktail heavy on the creme de menthe. For a DC Comics-endorsed restaurant, it’s light on the cringe theme-restaurant tropes.

But there’s some spectacle — and a lot of love for DC — hidden beneath all the fine trappings.

Opening earlier this month in the center of London, Park Row is pitched as a dining experience that takes you to Gotham without the need to wear a costume. In fact, the restaurant’s FAQ notes “Dress more Bruce than Batman,” and there’s actually a ban on people cosplaying inside the venue.

I’ve visited both tech-laced and themed restaurants for work and pleasure, and Park Row feels a little different, in that it seems entirely made for grown-ups. The idea is simple enough: DC universe meets fine dining, with an immersive high-tech experience inside the Monarch Theater (named after where Batman’s parents were shot) as the showstopper event. Bookable in advance, its £200 ($275) tasting menu is a barrage of 11 themed courses that guide patrons through the heroes and villains of DC.

Mat Smith, Engadget

Adding some high-tech bells and whistles to restaurants isn’t anything new. There are several restaurants and pop-ups that have played with projection mapping meant to showcase and amplify the food on the plates, dining rooms with carefully set-dressed courses and lurid surroundings.

The Monarch Theater is all of it put together in a single room. When it’s not showtime, it looks like, well, a conference room. A long, white room with a long, white table in the middle. Aside from the projectors, dotted around the ceiling, it doesn’t look like a room built for immersive superhero dining.

I can’t tell you every beat of the multi-course experience because I didn’t actually get to test it when I visited. Seating 20 customers, there are two services each day. Post-launch, the team has since expanded the Monarch Theater part for four sittings per day.

The team wants to keep some of the courses’ mystique, but I can touch on some of the showpiece parts. The glossy, plain table betrays what’s been packed inside. Park Row doesn’t use projectors for embellishing the dishes or the food. I’m told by a spokesperson that this would distract from the food itself. Instead, the projectors send diners barreling into insane asylum padded cells that vertiginously rotate, making light fittings all pile together in a corner. I’m quickly shown the same room coated in neon graffiti; then wrapped in ivy vines and a final vista high in the clouds.

Any DC Comics dilettante can assume which characters these projections point to. But it goes on from there. The unassuming conference table (ironically, Cisco was apparently involved with connecting everything together) hides more secrets. Two rails run across the center of the table, making it easier to transform the table when it comes to the Poison Ivy course, which centers around a platter of plants, which seem to be a mix of living and artificial. Within this, serving staff dress the logs and plants with drinks, mysterious edibles and things that I’d call nibbles, but I probably shouldn’t. Some of them are borderline hidden, which seems to be by design.

Below these rails, a heating element runs the length of the table. Customers are given a playing card during an earlier course, and are told to lay this on the table. As the experience progresses, the card reacts to the heat of the table, revealing a secret message to each diner.

There are other tricks that aren’t entirely revealed to me, including a floating plate trick that I’ll have to book my own reservation to see.

Mat Smith, Engadget

Outside of the Monarch Theater, Park Row is split up into several different zones, all serving the same food menu — modern European — in a different facet of a fictional Gotham dining scene. From the entrance, modeled after Wayne Manor, you descend a glowing staircase inspired by a Batcave, through a vapor-emitting door frame into Pennyfeathers, a whiskey bar named after Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s long-serving butler. Beyond that, the Iceberg Lounge has a frozen penguin statue towering the bar, while to the left, the Rogue’s Gallery is curated by Catwoman, decorated with reproductions of some of the world’s most famous stolen art pieces, each one marked by a rogue from DC’s back catalog of villains.

One of these artworks, bizarrely, doubles as a drinks decanter. Now get ready for a deep cut — it’s the same painting used in the 1989 Batman movie. DC fans can probably easily discern which villain has marked each painting, but it’s the nods like this that elevate the whole thing for fans that are able to recall everything. Ordering the fish and chips will result in a blue-tinged piece of battered fish — hinting at when the Joker poisoned Gotham Harbour. The most egregious nod might be the dessert menu. One dish is called Kiss from A Rose. A little on the nose, but only because everything else is so subtle.

There are a few molecular gastronomy tricks, too, like edible balloons and freeze-dried popcorn that billow smoke out your mouth as you crunch. It's these touches that add to the ambiance and fun of the place, and defuses the impression that Park Row may take itself a little too seriously for something based on comic book source material.

Even the restrooms are a playful tribute to the Joker and his minions, all neon signs and bright lights, while paintings around the restaurants give oblique nods to Gotham and its residents. The menus, too, have little symbols that represent DC villains. These touches are there if you look for them, but they’re not obvious — which is good for those of us that don’t want to see anything more superhero-related ever again. I think the point is you could bring a date who has zero interest in the DC universe and capes, and they’d think it’s a glossy, central London restaurant. Fortunately, the food should be good enough to stand on its own, with an executive chef from a Michelin-starred restaurant. The restaurateur behind it all is known for his work with Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck.

The food has the credentials — and prices — to ensure even if you couldn’t care less about DC, at least you’ll have a good meal and a ridiculous cocktail or two.

The Federal Trade Commission has banned spyware maker SpyFone and its CEO Scott Zuckerman from operating in the surveillance industry. The company has also been ordered to delete the data it allegedly illegally obtained and to inform targets of the stalkerware apps that the software had been covertly installed on their Android devices.

The FTC claims SpyFone "secretly harvested and shared data on people’s physical movements, phone use, and online activities through a hidden device hack." It says SpyFone sold real-time access to that information, which could have enabled domestic abusers and stalkers to track their targets. Some of those who bought the spyware were allegedly able to see live locations of devices and view targets' emails, photos, web browsing history, text messages and video calls.

The agency says SpyFone gave its customers instructions on how to install the app secretly and ensure the device user was unaware their activity was being monitored. The spyware had to gain root access to devices for some functions, which the FTC said "could expose the device to security risks."

What's more, SpyFone allegedly didn't secure the data it harvested. The FTC contends that the company didn't have basic security measures in place. "The stalkerware apps’ security deficiencies include not encrypting personal information it stored, including photos and text messages; failing to ensure that only authorized users could access personal information; and transmitting purchasers’ passwords in plain text," the agency said. That enabled a hacked to obtain personal data of around 2,200 people in 2018, according to the FTC.

Commissioners voted unanimously to ban SpyFone and Zuckerman from the surveillance industry. Specifically, the company and its CEO are prohibited from "offering, promoting, selling or advertising any surveillance app, service or business."

In 2019, the FTC banned Retina-X Studios from promoting and selling spyware apps unless it was able to prove the services were only being used for legitimate purchases. This time around, the agency is letting the public comment on the SpyFone and Zuckerman decision.

Commissioner Rohit Chopra said in a statement that the FTC action doesn't absolve SpyFone and Zuckerman from any criminal liability. "While this action was worthwhile, I am concerned that the FTC will be unable to meaningfully crack down on the underworld of stalking apps using our civil enforcement authorities," Chopra wrote. "I hope that federal and state enforcers examine the applicability of criminal laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Wiretap Act and other criminal laws, to combat illegal surveillance, including the use of stalkerware."

WhatsApp isn't just catching flak from users over its data sharing with Facebook. The Financial Timesreports the Irish Data Protection Commission has fined WhatsApp €225 million ($266.8 million) for not sharing enough details of how it shares European Union users' data with Facebook. The messaging service allegedly failed to live up to its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) transparency obligations.

The Commission also said the data sharing itself violated GDPR. WhatsApp was merely storing "pseudonymous" phone number data, for instance, rather than truly anonymizing it. While the numbers were stored using lossy hashes, WhatsApp had the hash key needed to decrypt that info — it could tie that number to a specific person if it wanted.

The ruling asked WhatsApp to both improve its transparency and bring the data sharing in line with the GDPR. The Irish agency initially planned to fine WhatsApp €50 million ($59.3 million) for breaking GDPR, but hiked the punishment after Germany and other countries accused the Commission of being lenient on privacy violations.

WhatsApp unsurprisingly planned to appeal the decision. It claimed that it met transparency requirements in 2018 (around when the investigation began) and that the fines were "entirely disproportionate." It maintained that it strived to offer "transparent and comprehensive" information to users.

The fine is the latest in a string of penalties for tech giants over violations. Amazon faced a record $888 million fine in July over GDPR issues, and Twitter was asked to pay €450 million ($533.6 million) when it failed to report a data leak within 72 hours. WhatsApp's fine is light by comparison, then, although it's arguably grappling with a larger blowback over its data policies.

A decade ago, you’d be hard-pressed to find a laptop weighing less than three pounds with a profile slimmer than a paperback book. Now every manufacturer has at least one, making even some of the most jaded tech reviewers exclaim “how did they do this?”

But, even with the ubiquity of ultraportable laptops, some continue to stand out for their ability to balance sleek designs with powerful performance. As with any else, though, the best ultraportable laptops still demand some sacrifices. We’re here to help you decide which ones are worth making.

What to expect

The first thing to remember is that the term “ultraportable” is subjective. There aren’t any hard-and-fast rules governing the weight and thickness. We at Engadget define an ultraportable laptop as one that weighs less than three pounds and measures less than 0.75 inch thick at its widest point. Usually that means you’re talking about 13-inch and 14-inch laptops, though occasionally a 15-inch device hits the mark too.

Most ultraportables have high-end design touches like ultra-slim bezels, gem-cut edges, and premium materials because they tend to sit at the top of the line. Companies spend a lot of time and money engineering them to be as thin and light as possible without sacrificing too much on power and battery life. They tend to be made from metal, carbon fiber or a mix of the two, and their enclosures are usually just thick enough to include the latest Intel or Ryzen processors, large batteries and enough RAM and storage for most people’s needs.

What you won’t find in most ultraportables are high-powered GPUs or loads of ports. Most have integrated graphics chips (think: Intel UHD) because anything more powerful would take up space and pose heat-management problems. When it comes to ports, the edges of these laptops simply don’t have a lot of free space. You’re almost guaranteed to get a couple Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C ports on the newest notebooks, but some have already abandoned the USB-A standard, which is a shame.

Also, due to the flagship caliber of most ultraportables, you can expect to pay top dollar for these. Most start at $1,000, gradually increasing in price as you bump up the specs. However, there are a few we’d recommend that often come in below the $1,000 mark, either thanks to slightly lower starting prices or frequent sales. We’ve included a “budget” pick in this guide, but just know that “budget” in this case doesn’t mean cheap; it means relatively affordable.

One other thing that’s important to consider is battery life. Manufacturers have gotten better at eking out more juice from their devices. We recommend buying one rated for at least eight to 10 hours.

You can take all of that advice and wade through the plethora of product pages on the Internet to find the best ultraportable laptop for you. But if you don’t have that kind of time or patience, we’ve compiled a list of the devices that we consider to be the best options available right now.

Engadget picks

Best overall: Dell XPS 13

Dell didn’t overhaul the XPS 13 for 2021, because why fix what isn’t broken? Instead, the company brought in more optional add-ons so customers could make its flagship laptop as personalized as possible — as long as they have the cash to do so.

The XPS 13 has been one of our favorite laptops for years thanks to its slim, attractive design, powerful performance and solid battery life. In 2020, we saw Dell remove the excessive chin bezel below the screen, letting the 13.4-inch display extend from corner to corner. It now has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is better than before but not quite as good as a 3:2 ratio. We prefer taller screens because they reduce the amount of scrolling necessary to browse web pages and review documents comfortably. The XPS 13’s display continues to support HDR and Dolby Vision, so you’ll get top-notch video quality whenever you stream. New for 2021 is the optional 3,456 x 2,160 OLED display, which you can add to the XPS 13 for about $300 extra.

The XPS 13 remains just as thin and light as it has been for the past couple of years. It weighs only 2.64 pounds and measures just over a half-inch thick at its widest point. We also like its spacious trackpad and comfortable, scissor-switch keyboard. It may not be the flashiest ultraportable on our list, but honestly we kinda dig the XPS’ subtle design. It looks and feels like a flagship device, but it never feels ostentatious.

Those set on the XPS 13 in 2021 will find Tiger Lake processors powering the laptop, and the option to trick it out with up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. Notably, the base model includes 8GB of RAM much better than the 4GB minimum on past models. Four gigs is rarely enough for a daily driver (unless you’re looking at a Chromebook), and it’s reassuring to see Dell finally came around on that. If you’re going to upgrade anything when ordering directly from Dell, we recommend springing for the Core i5 processor instead of sticking with the base Core i3.

Best for Apple fans: MacBook Air M1

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Apple continues to make the MacBook Air a compelling option for most people thanks to the M1 chipset in the latest model. And that’s really the star of the show here — the MacBook Air M1 is blazing fast, running native apps like Safari and GarageBand without breaking a sweat. The laptop wakes almost instantly when you open its lid, sites load swiftly and scrolling is seamless. And because M1 is ARM-based, you’ll be able to run iOS apps on the Air, too.

While the MacBook Air M1 looks familiar on the outside, a big difference under the hood is that there’s no fan. Although you sacrifice a bit in the way of heat management, it means the laptop runs more quietly than before. And just because its appearance hasn’t changed, doesn’t mean it looks dated. It still has an attractive 2.8-pound unibody enclosure, a gorgeous 13.3-inch Retina Display, a TouchID fingerprint sensor and a comfortable keyboard with springy buttons (no problematic butterfly keys to be found here).

Along with the M1 processor, the latest MacBook Air comes most readily with 8GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage. If you order directly from Apple, you can increase the RAM to 16GB and get as much as 2TB of internal storage. A fully specced-out model will set you back $1,800, but most people will find that their needs are met by the 256GB base model.

Best convertible: HP Spectre x360 13

The Spectre x360 13 is the culmination of years of improvements on HP’s part. It combines most of the things we’d want in a laptop, including a versatile convertible design. Old-school 2-in-1s had a tendency to be wobbly and unstable, but this is anything but. Its metallic hinges provide a sturdy structure for the machine when in laptop mode and spin smoothly whenever you need to work in tent or tablet mode.

The model we reviewed in 2019 had a 1080p touchscreen, but HP gives you the option to outfit the Spectre x360 13 with a 4K AMOLED panel — a good choice for creatives and streaming aficionados (just be prepared for shorter battery life). By no means is a 4K display necessary on a 13-inch machine, but companies have been adding them as options on flagships to satisfy all the display nerds out there. Regardless of the screen you choose, the laptop’s 90-percent screen-to-body ratio will provide an immersive experience when you’re watching movies on Netflix. The keyboard is also quite comfortable and we particularly like that HP made the buttons as large as possible, stretching them all the way to the edges of the chassis.

In addition, HP included an IR camera for Windows Hello, a Precision touchpad and a few more ports than you’d expect to see on an ultraportable of this size. Its edges hold two USB-C ports for charging and data, a USB-A port and a microSD slot. The machine’s 14.5-hour battery life makes it even more versatile, as it lasts an entire work or school day with juice left to spare.

The worst thing we can say about the Spectre x360 13 is that its webcam produces grainy video and HP includes a bit more bloatware than other OEMs. Also, the machine's jewelry-like design may not be to some shoppers’ tastes, but it’s not garish enough for us to knock it either. It also helps that the base model now includes an 11th-gen Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and an FHD touchscreen for just over $1,000. What’s more, HP is one of the few companies to include a stylus with its flagship convertible at no extra cost, meaning you can use it as a digital notebook straight out of the box.

Best budget option: HP Pavilion Aero 13

Daniel Cooper / Engadget

In order to appeal to Gen-Z users, HP made its Pavilion Aero 13 laptop as thin and light as possible while keeping it at a relatively affordable price. Starting at $749, the laptop weighs only 2.2 pounds and takes some design notes from the company's Spectre and Elitebook lines. That makes it a pretty attractive machine, and that's not something we take for granted at this price range.

While its keyboard is not backlit by default, it is comfortable to type on even if the layout is slightly more cramped than usual thanks to the page up/down key column on the right side. You also get a big trackpad and a 13.3-inch 1,920 x 1,200 display on the base model, plus the option to upgrade to a 2,560 x 1,600 display if you like. We also appreciate the port variety on this machine: two USB-A ports, one HDMI connector, one USB-C port and a 3.5mm audio jack. HP has generally done a good job keeping as many connectors as possible on even its flagship laptops, and it's nice to see that its budget notebooks received the same treatment.

We reviewed the top-tier model that costs $999, but the base model isn't anything to scoff at. It includes a Ryzen 5 5600U processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which is impressive when you consider other flagship laptops with similar RAM and storage amounts cost $250 more to start. While it does force some sacrifices, the Pavilion Aero 13 is not one to overlook if you want a good value laptop.