Digital Delivery

PC Pro February 1st, 2025 Digital Back Issue Cover

PC Pro February 2025 (Digital)

(1)

Single Digital Issue

February 2025

$4.96

Powered By Zinio

Zinio

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Instant Start

Subscribe Instead

1 Year Subscription

12 digital issues

$40.22

($3.35/issue)

Go to Subscription

View Subscription Options

Also available on ZINIO Unlimited logo

Get unlimited access to PC Pro (Digital) + Back Issues & 5000+ other magazines

1-month free trial

Renews at $8.99/month after trial.
Cancel anytime.

Get unlimited access to PC Pro (Digital) + Back Issues & 5000+ other magazines. Renews at just $8.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Start Trial Learn more

85 Articles

It’s time for radical honesty in the IT industry

I’ll be honest: I haven’t read Dr Brad Blanton’s book Radical Honesty: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth. In fact, the only reason I even know about it is because I asked Copilot if there was a philosophy of complete honesty, imagining that I would be directed to Greece in the 4th century BCE. But no, I was directed to this 21st century version instead. My reason for searching is that I want to be more honest. To avoid the sugar-coating that sometimes creeps into my relationships, as I avoid telling people exactly what I think. A couple of my best friends have this attitude, and I know that others admire them for it – unless they’re in the firing line. Why am I mentioning this? Because…

It’s time for radical honesty in the IT industry

Les Pounder Les, who helped write and deliver the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s teacher training programme, gives his honest verdict on five new Pi products this month, starting on p54 Simon Handby We set Simon the unenviable task of testing 14 inkjet and laser printers to discover which deliver the ideal mix of quality, features and value. Read his verdicts from p78 Olivia Whitcroft If you ask IP lawyer and data protection specialist Olivia for assistance, you can trust that she will keep your discussion confidential. But would you do the same? See p116 Barry Collins What’s Barry angry about this month? The demise of Western democracy? Cancel culture? The fate of his non-league football team? Nope: he wants a paper manual. See p24…

Gelsinger’s gone: what next for Intel?

The abrupt departure of Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger leaves the beleaguered chip giant with an uncertain future, with increased speculation that the company’s board may be looking to split the business in two. Former Intel board members have called for the company to be cleaved in half: one part focusing on making chips, the other on chip design. Other industry analysts disagree, claiming Intel’s board has made a serious blunder by effectively firing Gelsinger midway through his long-term restructuring of the firm. All of this comes amidst the change of US administration, which threatens a huge government investment in Intel’s ability to manufacture chips in the States. For Intel, the future could barely be more uncertain. Early retirement Intel attempted to paint Gelsinger’s shock departure as a move into early…

Gelsinger’s gone: what next for Intel?

AGI edges closer as o1 leaves preview

Sam Altman’s bullish claims that AGI could be achieved as soon as this year have taken a step closer to fruition with the full release of the o1 reasoning model. The OpenAI CEO claimed in a November 2024 interview that artificial general intelligence, the point at which AI becomes at least as capable as humans across the full spectrum of intelligence, could be achieved in 2025. Key to that is the o1 reasoning model, which has been available in preview mode to ChatGPT Plus subscribers for the past few months. The o1 model has been widely accepted as a step change in AI due to its ability to reason and problem-solve in a human-like manner. The full o1 model is significantly more intelligent than the preview version, Altman claims, and…

AGI edges closer as o1 leaves preview

The space race for your phone

If you’re on the T-Mobile network in America, mobile not spots could soon become a thing of the past. Well, as long as you’re outdoors, that is. T-Mobile’s tentative deal with SpaceX’s Starlink service has won approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), meaning that the vast swathes of the US landscape without any mobile signal will soon be serviced by Starlink’s satellites. And you probably won’t need a new phone to benefit, either. The concept of improving mobile connectivity from space isn’t restricted to large countries such as the US, which has huge holes in its coverage. In the UK, Ofcom is considering whether to permit similar services, even though 90% of the UK landmass is already receiving “good quality data and voice coverage”, according to the regulator. But…

The space race for your phone

Is Amazon plotting a UK mobile network?

Starlink isn’t the only satellite provider with eyes on Low Earth Orbit. Amazon has long been promising to put up some competition with its Project Kuiper, although at the time of writing it had yet to deploy anything but prototypes. That is set to change in early 2025, however, with Amazon preparing to make its first commercial deployments. And another indication that it’s preparing to go live comes in the responses to Ofcom’s consultation on Direct to Device (D2D) satellite services: while SpaceX didn’t offer a response to the consultation, Amazon Kuiper did. Amazon’s response suggests it would rather not strike a deal with a mobile network to license already allocated spectrum, as Starlink has done with T-Mobile, but that it would rather go it alone, maybe offering a phone…

Is Amazon plotting a UK mobile network?

4 surprising things we learned from IBM Research

Perched on a hill overlooking Lake Zurich, there sits a group of inauspicious buildings. This is the campus for IBM Research Europe, and inside you’ll bump into some of our continent’s brightest minds. Some of their research areas are predictable: artificial intelligence, quantum computing, integrated circuits. But it’s also working on areas that might surprise you. I was there for the faculty’s annual media event, titled “IBM: Shaping the Future of Computing”. Based on briefings, demonstrations and visits to the labs, this article focuses on four initiatives of particular note. Understanding the Earth On 6 December, the day before the event, IBM announced that – in partnership with NASA – it had released Prithvi-EO-2.0, an open-source geospatial foundation model. Such models are trained to recognise anything from cattle to water…

4 surprising things we learned from IBM Research

PREMIUM LAPTOPS Apple MacBook Pro M4 M4 beast from £1,599 from apple.com/uk This M4 update to the already brilliant MacBook Pro line is an easy recommendation, so the big question becomes do you choose the 14in version from £1,599 or 16in from £2,499? And then how much do you upgrade, as Apple isn’t afraid of high prices. But whatever you choose should last for years, and look great while it’s doing it. REVIEW Issue 364, p50 Apple Mac Book Air 13in (M3) Both the 13in and 15in MacBook Airs impress for speed, styling and battery life, but the 1.2kg 13in Air wins out of the two for its sheer portability. From £1,299 from apple.com REVIEW Issue 356, p54 Asus Zenbook S 14 OLED Asus pairs a Core Ultra 9 288V…

Is that the final Trump of doom I hear?

I’ve been writing this column for 30 years, during most of which I’ve kept my political opinions out of it, apart from the occasional nod and wink about my lack of faith in free-market dogmas. However, there are, very occasionally, historic events of such importance that to avoid mentioning them would be a sign of cowardice. The last such event was the destruction of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, and I did permit myself a column on that. To me the re-election of Donald Trump on 5 November 2024 is another such event. I have long been commenting on the rising power of Silicon Valley moguls – corporations such as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, eBay, HP, Twitter and more – who built the industry whose products we…

Is that the final Trump of doom I hear?

Gap between tech promises and reality is too wide

@njkobie Remember life before the internet? Looking something up meant dusting off an encyclopedia or heading to the library. Talking to friends required a phone or meeting them in person. Wild times. The rise of the internet promised perfect information: we’d never be wrong again. We’d be flooded with facts, be it the name of a football player for a pub quiz, a politician’s voting record or a restaurant’s opening time. All of that information is readily available. But instead of growing into well-educated, well-informed citizens, we’re as stupid as ever – perhaps, given the rise of conspiracy theories, even stupider. The rise of misinformation and disinformation means the data available online can’t be trusted, and we’re far too set in our ways to seek out facts that disagree with…

Gap between tech promises and reality is too wide

How I miss the missing manuals

@bazzacollins In 1993, Amstrad launched the NC200 – a wonderful little laptop that I hoiked off to university with me. It looked like it could have been made by Fisher-Price: if you wanted to open the word processor you pressed the red button, for “diary” you pressed blue. In other words, it was almost insultingly simple to operate. And yet it came with a 460-page manual that was as chunky as the laptop itself. The first 50-page section of that manual, according to the foreword, was written by none other than Alan Sugar. And even if – like me – you struggle to believe that Sugar sat there for hours pounding out an instruction manual, it’s written in that gruff, no-nonsense style that at least sounds a bit like him.…

How I miss the missing manuals

Readers’ comments

Business class Wi-Fi Thanks so much for the Upgrade to Business Class Wi-Fi article (see issue 364, p40). In 2024 I upgraded my own home/office network to a TP-Link business mesh system and don’t regret it. There are two things to add to the article, though. First, many of the subscription features available on the Zyxel system Darien chose are included in the software of other routers, including my own, which is only about £20 or so more expensive. Second and most importantly, while guest networks allow you to isolate IoT, plus kids’ and visitors’ devices, to boost security, only a professional router will allow you to do the same with Ethernet, which is becoming more popular for devices including smart TVs used for streaming. Mike Halsey Associate editor Darien…

Readers’ comments

Readers’ poll

23% Google to de-integrate its products 57% Most PC Pro readers to have their own AI agent 5% Intel and AMD announce merger 15% AI proves to be flash in the pan John Moore, commenting on Facebook, didn’t think any of our predictions were going to happen so came up with his own. “The AI hype will become even more ludicrous – Heinz AI Baked Beans anyone?” Nor was Mike Webster convinced. “Is this an April Fools? None of those will happen next year IMO but if I had to pick it would be ‘AI will mature to the point where most PC Pro readers will have their own AI agent’.” Over on Discord, Skyloop also leaned towards AI agents. “I love having a ChatGPT sidekick, and while I think…

WINDOWS in 2025

It’s remarkable to think that a decade after its release, Windows 10 will enter 2025 as by far and away the most used version of Windows. In some ways, it’s a cause for a celebration. It shows that the majority of people still find Windows 10 suitably equipped for their computing needs and see no compelling reason to add to the mountains of e-waste by upgrading their computer. A win for the environment. However, Microsoft is preparing to call time on Windows 10, with the operating system reaching end of support later this year. That will give consumers and businesses a decision to make. Do they continue to cling to their Windows 10 hardware, grudgingly paying Microsoft for extended support? Do they upgrade to Windows 11 and, if so, which…

WINDOWS in 2025

The Honeyball view on Windows 10

If you work in the IT industry, I suspect you will have heard the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” more than once in your career. While it sometimes holds true, it fails when things start gathering a layer of dust. By this time, you have little or no idea how to fix things when they go wrong. Windows 10 going out of support is a big deal, if only because there’s a lot of perfectly usable hardware out there that can’t be moved to Windows 11. And while this might seem “skipware”, it raises the question of what to do. The answer is actually simple if there is no update path: either cough up the money for extended support or change your hardware. It really is that…

The Honeyball view on Windows 10

If the cost of rolling out new hardware is one reason businesses are stalling on Windows 10, Windows 365 provides a potential solution. Now an established part of the Microsoft lineup, Windows 365 is a virtual Windows instance hosted in the cloud, accessible from a range of internet-connected devices, including other Windows desktops, iOS or Android devices. Windows 365 subscribers can currently choose between Windows 11 and Windows 10 as their cloud operating system, although presumably Microsoft will phase out Windows 10 as an option when it reaches end-of-life. While Windows 365 may spare you the upfront cost of new hardware, the long-term costs need to be considered carefully, particularly if you need one of the punchier specs. The Basic plan costs only £29 (exc VAT) per user per month,…

The Apple option

If nobody’s quite sure when the next version of Windows will arrive, you can be more certain about the cadence of macOS. Although the annual new versions of macOS are arguably comparable to Windows’ annual updates, they have been as regular as clockwork for over a decade and don’t pull up the ladder on old Mac hardware that aggressively. That said, with next year marking five years since Apple launched its own M1 silicon, it’s possible that macOS 16 will cease support for Intel-based processors. That would be a significant milestone, and one that underlines how Apple has mastered the shift to Arm-based silicon at a much faster lick than Microsoft has. This despite Microsoft releasing the Arm-based Surface RT back in 2012, eight years before Apple bet the house…

The Apple option

WINDOWS 11 PRO UPGRADE for £49.99 Perfect for upgrading from Windows 10 or 11 Home, this licence will upgrade you to Windows 11 Pro for only £49.99 ◼ tinyurl.com/win11pro-upgrade Want to upgrade from Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Pro? Or perhaps you’re building a new PC from scratch, or looking to move up from Windows 10 Home? Whatever your motives, a Windows 11 Pro upgrade licence is a great choice. The first reason is simple: price. Microsoft charges £119.99 for a retail licence of Windows 11 Home, a staggering £219.99 for Windows 11 Pro, and £119.99 for its own upgrade licence from 11 Home to Pro. By choosing this licence – and avoiding the many dubious sources of licences you may find online – you cut that price substantially. Note…

DAVINCI RESOLVE

There are plenty of video-editing tools out there, but DaVinci Resolve is unique in offering a comprehensive professional-grade workflow completely free of charge. It’s a well-established tool, too: the software turned 20 last year, and has been used on big-name Hollywood films including Bohemian Rhapsody, La La Land and Spectre. If you’ve ever used another non-linear video-editing suite, such as Premiere Pro or Apple’s Final Cut Pro, you should have no problem getting started with DaVinci Resolve, as it uses industry-standard tools and workflows. If you’re coming from a simpler tool such as Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, the interface might seem daunting at first, but don’t be put off. Spend an hour or two exploring what DaVinci Resolve has to offer and you’ll soon start to feel at home…

DAVINCI RESOLVE

EMULATION MAKING WINDOWS ON ARM GREAT AGAIN

Microsoft’s “Copilot+ PCs” are supposed to usher in a new era of AI-assisted computing, but they’re historic in another way, too. With surprisingly little fanfare, Microsoft has for the first time endorsed a range of third-party laptops based on a mixture of AMD, Intel and Arm processors. This isn’t the first time the firm has offered a version of Windows that runs on the Arm architecture, but it might be the first time the idea succeeds – because the OS now includes an emulation layer. Conceptually this is much the same as the clever software tools that let you tinker with a virtual BBC Micro inside a web page, or revisit old Amiga games on your phone. In this case, though, it’s designed not for historical purposes, but to allow…

EMULATION MAKING WINDOWS ON ARM GREAT AGAIN

HOW APPLE BRIDGED THE GAP

It’s almost impossible to talk about platform emulation without talking about Apple, a company that has used emulator technology not once but three times in its history to pull off major platform moves. The most recent, of course, was with the launch of its own-brand M-series processors, based on a licensed implementation of the Arm architecture. The new design offered better performance and power consumption than the Intel chips the company had previously been using – but since the Intel architecture had been the status quo for the previous 15 years, when the M1 came along in 2020 it was incompatible with almost every Mac application in existence. Apple’s solution was to create a new emulation framework built into the Arm-based version of macOS, which enabled existing apps to run…

HOW APPLE BRIDGED THE GAP

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip

Looking for a particular past review? Visit our index at pcpro.link/index PRICE As reviewed, £1,416 (£1,699 inc VAT) from hp.com Name a famous HP laptop brand. Tricky, isn’t it? Dell has its XPS range, Lenovo the ThinkPad and Apple the MacBook Pro, but most people would struggle to name an HP laptop brand that exudes the same high-end class. The Pavilion is a solid budget range and I’ve seen plenty of attractive mid-range HP Envy laptops, but HP’s top-end Spectre range never landed a killer punch. And now it never will, for the OmniBook Ultra is here to replace it. But where the Spectre was pitched as a luxury consumer brand, the OmniBook Ultra takes aim at professional users. HP’s OmniBook Ultra Flip is leading the charge, with a fresh…

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip

HP AI COMPANION APP LEADS THE WAY FOR LOCAL AI… OR DOES IT?

One of the defining characteristics of HP’s new OmniBook range is that it includes an NPU powerful enough to support Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs initiative. And HP doesn’t care whether that’s AMD’s Ryzen AI, Intel’s AI Boost or the NPU built into Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X range: it simply needs to meet the 40 TOPS threshold set by Microsoft. On top of Microsoft’s own tools – Recall, Paint’s Cocreator, Live Captions and Windows Studio Effects in video calls – HP is shipping its own AI Companion. Anyone can download this app from the Windows Store, but it will only work on HP laptops that include an NPU meeting the 40 TOPS threshold (I tried running it on the Dell XPS 13 overleaf, but no dice). HP’s pithy description is that it’s “your…

HP AI COMPANION APP LEADS THE WAY FOR LOCAL AI… OR DOES IT?

Laptops and PCs We run a selection of benchmarks on all the PCs and laptops we test. Where possible, we use a cross-platform test so we can compare Windows and macOS machines, which is where both Geekbench and Cinebench come into play. Both push the CPU to its limit, exposing how well cooled a system is. We run extra tests for Windows systems. We use PCMark 10 to benchmark systems in office tasks, content creation and basic tasks such as web browsing and video calls. We also run 3DMark Time Spy and Shadow of the Tomb Raider as a minimum. We test laptops and PCs that include discrete graphics with a range of games, such as Metro Exodus Enhanced and Dirt 5. For laptops, we test battery life with Wi-Fi…

What our awards mean

Recommended This, quite simply, is a product we recommend you buy – if it meets your needs. A-List The best buy in its category right now. The product will also feature on our A-List, starting on p14. It’s updated each month. Labs Winner Each month we run a group test, or Labs. This product has managed to beat all others to top position. Tinyurl.com links Throughout the magazine you’ll see tinyurl.com shortcuts. Enter these into the address bar of your browser and it will take you to a particular page, which will either be too long or awkward for us to publish or will take you to the precise shop from which to buy. If it’s Amazon, note that we may have an affiliate deal in place so we will…

What our awards mean

Dell XPS 13 (Core Ultra 200V)

PRICE As reviewed, £1,645 (£1,974 inc VAT) from dell.co.uk I admit to a senior moment when I unpacked the latest Dell XPS 13. Didn’t we meet a few months ago, I muttered? Kind of, the laptop replied, but that was with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X inside (see issue 361, p58); this time I’m packing a sweet Core Ultra 7 258V, part of the 200V series that you praised for its balance of speed and battery life (see issue 362, p46). We stopped talking after that, as things were getting weird. The laptops – identified on Dell’s website as XPS 13 9345 for a Snapdragon and XPS 13 9350 with a Core Ultra chip – are physically identical, down to the USB-C port sitting on either edge. With Intel inside, though,…

Dell XPS 13 (Core Ultra 200V)

Raspberry Pi 500

PRICE £71 (£85 inc VAT) from thepihut.com When the Raspberry Pi 400 (see issue 316, p58) was released in 2020, it evoked nostalgia for anyone who used Commodore or Sinclair machines in the 1980s. Evidently the idea of a computer in a keyboard retains similar appeal in the 2020s, as Raspberry Pi has followed it up with the Pi 500, based on the current flagship Raspberry Pi 5. You can buy the computer on its own for £85, or as part of the Desktop Kit for £113. Both come with a 32GB A2 SDR104-compatible microSD card, but the Desktop Kit also includes a 27W USB-C power supply, micro-HDMI-to-HDMI cable and The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide book. As with the Raspberry Pi 400, all of the ports sit on the…

Raspberry Pi 500

PCSpecialist Nebula Goliath

PRICE £1,999 (£2,399 inc VAT) from pcspecialist.co.uk/configure-review/629/ These are challenging times for Intel, with the sudden departure of CEO Pat Gelsinger (see p10) and a tough debut for its Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200K series chips. These were meant to be a triumph, bringing a clever architectural design and an NPU to desktops at last, but enthusiasts weren’t impressed by its focus on performance-perwatt rather than sheer performance. For the first time in recent memory, that means you can’t expect a bump in speed merely because you’re upgrading to the latest Intel family. Not all these criticisms are merited. Doing the same, and sometimes more, while using less electricity is surely the right way forward. And while it may not make sense to upgrade your three-year-old Intel system – not…

PCSpecialist Nebula Goliath

Wired2Fire HAL 9000 Compact PC

PRICE £1,583 (£1,900 inc VAT) from wired2fire.co.uk The Wired2Fire HAL 9000 follows a pattern of compact gaming/creative PCs to land at PC Pro recently, including the PCSpecialist Torpedo R (see issue 363, p56) and HP Omen 35L (see issue 364, p60). They cost a similar amount to the HAL 9000, too, at £1,799 and £1,800 respectively. But where the Torpedo and Omen included RTX 4070 Super graphics, Wired2Fire ups the ampage with an RTX 4070 Ti while making the package smaller: its total volume is 18.25L compared to 25L for the Torpedo and 35L for the Omen. The Cooler Master NR2300P Max V2 chassis is finished in an anodised grey that looks much better in the flesh than it does in photos, and sits squat on a desk with a…

Wired2Fire HAL 9000 Compact PC

Bag a software bargain

NORTON 360 PREMIUM for £19.99 10 DEVICES 2YR LICENCE 75GB CLOUD STORAGE SAVE 89% tinyurl.com/norton360premium We’ve negotiated a killer deal with Norton. No subscriptions, just a one-off bargain price of £19.99 compared to the regular £179.99 charge. That buys you two years of cover from the powerful Norton Security suite across ten devices. And because it’s the Premium version, you get a host of extra tools. There’s 75GB of cloud storage for secure backups, plus the full version of Norton Secure VPN, both to protect your identity and provide a way of watching British TV while abroad. Norton Parental Control provides tools to see exactly what your kids are up to on their various devices, and you also get GPS location monitoring for Android and iOS. To round things off, Norton…

Bag a software bargain

Eizo FlexScan EV3450XC

PRICE £888 (£1,036 inc VAT) from photospecialist.co.uk Eizo’s FlexScan EV3450XC is here to solve a problem. If your workspace is cluttered with a webcam, speakers and cables, it can swoop in and replace them all. Along with an RJ45 port, you’ll benefit from a 5MP webcam that supports Windows Hello for automatic logins, while the USB-C port delivers up to 94W of power – enough to juice up even the most demanding laptops. And why put up with two 24in or 27in monitors when a curved 34.1in monitor delivers 3,440 x 1,440 pixels? That’s more than enough to display two or even three windows next to each other, and thanks to a Picture by Picture option you can view two outputs at the same time. There’s a generous dollop of…

Eizo FlexScan EV3450XC

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2024)

PRICE 16GB, £317 (£380 inc VAT) from amazon.co.uk We need to address the obvious: the Amazon Kindle Scribe now costs more than an iPad. It’s also almost twice the price of the original 2022 Scribe, which starts at £235. But don’t turn the page on this note-taking wonder just yet, because there are genuinely strong reasons to buy it. It’s not just a little better than its predecessor, it’s a whole new level of better. This is no longer a big e-reader with doodling features tucked away. This is a fully fledged writing tablet, and it does some things better than any other writing tablet I’ve seen. So what has Amazon improved? Is it thinner and lighter? Nope. Bigger screen? By a decimal point. Oh, it must be in colour…

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2024)

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2024)

PRICE £158 (£190 inc VAT) from amazon.co.uk The new Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (SE) has three clear advantages over the plain £160 Paperwhite, which has also just been updated. First, it comes with 32GB of storage rather than 16GB. Second, it supports wireless charging. And third, you aren’t hit by any ads (the ad-free Paperwhite costs £170). Add an auto-adjusting front light and there really is no good reason to consider the Paperwhite, other than Amazon often slashes its price in flash sales. You also benefit from a metallic finish to the paint, with three options available: black, green and pink. I far prefer this look to the basic matte finish you’ll find on the plain Paperwhite. The downside is that it made me mourn for the Kindle Oasis,…

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition (2024)

Huawei Watch GT 5

PRICE £191 (£230 inc VAT) from consumer.huawei.com/uk Huawei’s latest mainstream smartwatch comes in 41mm and 46mm sizes, both of which are cheaper than their counterparts from Apple, Google and Samsung. First impressions are fantastic: the stainless-steel case looks less like a modern smartwatch and more like something a stylish grandparent might have worn. On the right-hand side you’ll find the crown and the secondary function button; these are set well apart from each other to avoid any accidental operation, and the angled positioning of the crown keeps it neatly out of the way. In practice, I rarely reached for either of the physical controls: the touchscreen works so well, and the interface so intuitively designed, that they’re hardly necessary. The face is a beautiful 1.43in AMOLED colour screen that’s big,…

Huawei Watch GT 5

Huawei Watch D2

PRICE £292 (£350 inc VAT) from consumer.huawei.com/uk Huawei introduced the concept of smartwatch blood-pressure monitoring with the Watch D back in 2022, but this was a quiet, limited release. With the D2, it’s going mainstream. The idea remains the same: it delivers ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring (ABPM) through a 26.5mm airbag attached to the inside of the watch strap. This inflates quickly and easily, capturing this vital health metric whether you’re working, exercising, relaxing or sleeping. You can even create a 24-hour auto-monitoring plan to check trends across day and night, but prepare to be rudely awoken. The obvious question is how accurate it is. I ran the same tests numerous times and gained similar results, delivering results within my normal blood pressure spectrum. Extra reassurance comes from certification by the…

Huawei Watch D2

Your bonus software

Total value this month £170 O&O Defrag 27 Professional ▪ Full product worth £39 ▪ oo-software.com REQUIRES Windows 10 or later; 120MB hard drive space; online registration The longer you use your computer, the messier its storage drive becomes. Over time, as you write, edit, overwrite and delete files, Windows will do its best to fit new data between the blocks that already exist. It’s inevitable that those blocks will get more and more scattered – or fragmented – as your computer ages. The drive will have to work harder to deliver the data you need as it skips back and forth to gather the various parts required to assemble a complete file, and inevitably this slows things down. Before spending money on a new, faster computer, it makes sense to try…

Your bonus software

Xiaomi Mix Flip

PRICE £749 (£899 inc VAT) from amazon.co.uk While other big names have grabbed the publicity, Xiaomi has been quietly mastering the art of making foldable phones. The Mix Fold handset is in its fourth generation, and the manufacturer now debuts its first clamshell design, the Mix Flip. With an RRP of £1,099 inc VAT it would be competitive with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip6 (see issue 360, p73), but the usual flurry of cut-price deals means you can currently buy it for £899 from Amazon. And while the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is cheaper (see issue 360, p68), starting at £699, the Xiaomi includes a more powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, not to mention a generous 512GB of storage. Desirable design The Mix Flip has a look all of its…

Xiaomi Mix Flip

Oppo Find X8 Pro

PRICE £874 (£1,049 inc VAT) from oppostore.co.uk Owned by the same firm as OnePlus, Oppo isn’t a huge name in the UK, but the Find X8 Pro demands attention with a big, bright display, four rear cameras, a huge battery and a surprisingly reasonable price. That’s not to say it’s cheap. At £1,049 inc VAT we’re in premium territory, but that includes 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which is more than you’ll find on rival phones in this price range. Two colour options are offered: sensible Space Black and the more characterful Pearl White, which has a unique texture on every handset. The big camera block at the back reflects the OnePlus connection, and Oppo has also borrowed the physical alert slider from OnePlus, which is handy for…

Oppo Find X8 Pro

ThinkPhone 25 by Motorola

PRICE £375 (£450 inc VAT) from motorola.co.uk Last month I gave a largely positive review to the Moto G75 5G Business Edition (see issue 364, p72), a great-value phone for business but one that I warned might be too large to act as a second phone. As if reading my mind, Motorola sent me the new ThinkPhone 25 – which is a pocket-friendly phone for business, albeit one that comes in at almost twice the G75’s price. It certainly looks like a business phone, with a patterned rear that echoes Lenovo ThinkPads; a move that makes sense not only due to the ThinkPhone name but because Lenovo owns the Motorola brand. With so many phones growing larger – just look at the three other phones we review this month –…

ThinkPhone 25 by Motorola

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro

PRICE £917 (£1,100 inc VAT) from rog.asus.com/uk Asus’ ROG phones are intended to be the best gaming choices around, and the ROG Phone 9 Pro comes with an amazingly powerful new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a huge 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage – not to mention the longest-lasting battery we’ve ever tested. Naturally those features aren’t of interest only to gamers, and the ROG Phone 9 Pro looks low-key enough to make a respectable everyday phone. The matte glass back and aluminium side are tasteful, as is the sober Phantom Black finish. The only real giveaways are the subtle ROG logos dotted about the case and the programmable “AniMe” LED display on the rear – but you can keep that turned off when not in use. One quirky…

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro

RedMagic 10 Pro

PRICE 256GB, £483 (£579 inc VAT) from redmagic.gg While Asus aims high with its ROG Phone 9 Pro opposite, the RedMagic 10 Pro opts for affordability. It runs on the same Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon as its classy competitor, and while the experience is nowhere near as polished, it’s one heck of a performer for the price. That starts at just over half the cost of the Asus phone: you’ll pay £579 for the Shadow finish with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, or £709 for the Moonlight and Dusk finishes, which come with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. There’s also a range-topping Dusk Ultra model, which ups the specs to an absurd 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, but at £879 it’s still much…

RedMagic 10 Pro

Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 W

PRICE £14 (£17 inc VAT) from shop.pimorini.com I was impressed by the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W (see opposite), but if you want to explore more ambitious projects, take a look at this third-party remix. Based on the same RP2350 chipset, Pimoroni’s Pico Plus 2 W replicates everything that’s good about the official board, while adding extra resources and capabilities for even more versatility. The first change you might spot is that the main SoC is much larger than the one on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W. In place of the basic RP2350A chip, Pimoroni has used the RP2350B, which has the same twin-architecture design (dual Arm Cortex-M33 cores plus a pair of RISC-V cores) but supports 48 GPIO pins versus the 30 of the standard version. The Pico…

Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 W

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W

PRICE £5.50 (£6.60 inc VAT) from thepihut.com Launched in 2021, the dirt-cheap Raspberry Pi Pico was a departure for the Pi ecosystem: rather than using a general-purpose Arm processor from Broadcom, it was based on Raspberry Pi’s own RP2040 microcontroller. While not powerful enough to run a full Linux desktop, this tiny board was perfect for simple project duties at an almost laughably low price, with the Pico W version adding integrated Wi-Fi. A follow-up came earlier this year in the form of the Pico 2, which offered a more powerful processor plus more RAM and storage, and the latest update brings Wi-Fi on board as well, giving you the freedom to situate the board more or less wherever you want it. For under £7 it’s incredibly versatile. It might…

Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W

Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2

PRICE £47 (£56 inc VAT) from thepihut.com The original Raspberry Pi Touch Display debuted in 2015, enhancing the standard Pi with a tablet-like interface for digital signage, interactive displays and entertainment. Now, after a decade, this new model brings a higher resolution and useful extra features for the same price as before. At first glance it looks very similar to the old version, with the same chunky bezels and the same 7in display format (although this model has a slightly wider 16:9 aspect ratio, rather than the 5:3 shape of the original). Hooking up is easier than before, however. Where the original Touch Display required an external driver board, the new model has that built in, and connects directly via a ribbon cable to the CAM/DISP1 port on your Pi,…

Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2

Raspberry Pi SSD

PRICE 256GB, £23 (£28 inc VAT); 512GB, £35 (£42 inc VAT) from thepihut.com Raspberry Pi released a torrent of accessories and add-ons in the final weeks of 2024, including its own-branded SSDs. These take advantage of the Raspberry Pi 5’s dedicated PCI-E connection, into which you must slide a Pi M.2 HAT+ (£11.50 inc VAT) or one of its third-party alternatives (such as the excellent £9 Pinboards HatDrive! Nano). If you have one already, buy the “naked” SSD; if not, you can buy it as part of the SSD bundle: £37 for 256GB, £51 for 512GB. I used the Raspberry Pi M.2 HAT+ as part of the SSD kit. To install Raspberry Pi OS to the NVMe SSD, I installed the SSD, connected all of the peripherals and inserted a…

Raspberry Pi SSD

Printers for PROs

We’d love to tell you that you could buy a brilliant printer for £100. One that would last for years, that would product great-quality prints for extraordinarily low prices, that would be so easy to use that you’d laugh with joy every time you pressed Print or Scan. But reality is a harsh mistress. Things are improving. Mostly. The growing maturity of ink tank printers means that these are now strong contenders. And they also lift the mask on an ugly fact: that the cost of all those luxury features, such as colour touchscreens and automatic document feeders, is borne through the tax of ink cartridges. We can’t review every ink tank printer on the market, but even if the Epson EcoTank ET-2865 and HP Smart Tank 7005 don’t quite…

Printers for PROs

Buyer’s guide: how to buy the right printer for you

Let’s face it, printers and multifunction peripherals aren’t the most interesting items of technology you’ll buy. And we know it’s tempting to simply buy something on Black Friday or with a giant 40% off sign at the supermarket, but we’re here to say one thing: don’t. More than almost any other piece of IT equipment, it pays to make an informed decision. Speed, quality, price and running costs can all vary considerably between models: buy the wrong device and you could find yourself paying over the odds, or even having to buy again. Get the basics right As always, the first place to start is with a good understanding of what you’ll use it for. If you need scans, copies or faxes, you’ll need to buy a multifunction peripheral (MFP).…

Buyer’s guide: how to buy the right printer for you

Epson EcoTank ET-2865

PRICE £194 (£233 inc VAT) from uk.insight.com If you’ve ever owned an inkjet you’ve probably found yourself cursing short-lived cartridges, and the sheer cost of keeping the replacements coming. Refillable ink tank printers such as the Epson EcoTank ET-2865 and HP Smart Tank 7005 offer a promising answer. Although you’ll spend more to buy the printer, you fill it with bottled ink without the big markup, letting you print high volumes without fear of a steep cost per page. The ET-2865 arrives with a full set of Epson’s 104 ink bottles. These are rated for up to 4,500 black and 7,500 colour pages, but you’ll lose a large proportion of the first set to a one-time priming process. With an anticipated subsequent yield of 3,600 black and 6,500 colour pages,…

Epson EcoTank ET-2865

HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e

PRICE £161 (£193 inc VAT) from printerbase.co.uk HP’s printer range can be hit and miss, but the US giant is pretty reliable when it comes to home office and micro-office inkjets. A case in point is the OfficeJet Pro 9135e, the latest mid-range, mid-size inkjet MFP to waltz across our desks. With a fairly steep price tag and a big, boxy design, it isn’t courting impulse home buyers; this is an office workhorse, with a recommended monthly print volume of up to 2,000 pages. The strong specification starts with paper handling. It has two 250-sheet cassettes, letting you stock up on a full ream of plain paper, or load headed or specialist media alongside plain. Automatic duplex printing is standard. On top you’ll find a 35-page ADF that also supports…

HP OfficeJet Pro 9135e

Canon Pixma TR7650

PRICE £151 (£181 inc VAT) from printerbase.co.uk Canon’s Pixma TR7650 is something of an oddity. It’s clearly geared up for a home office, with business-like features such as a 20-sheet ADF, two paper trays, automatic duplex (double-sided) printing and a fax modem. At the same time, it’s equipped with five individual ink cartridges, which together help it excel on plain paper, while still delivering good photos and graphics. Whatever you want it for, the TR7560 is well equipped for the job. It supports wireless networking, so you can share it among colleagues or family members. It’s also controlled by a large colour touchscreen, offering features such as printing from the cloud or scanning to it. Despite its generous specifications, it’s not overly big, especially if you don’t often use its…

Canon Pixma TR7650

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-C4310DW

PRICE £96 (£115 inc VAT) from printerland.co.uk Not everyone needs a multifunction peripheral: Epson’s WorkForce Pro WF-C4310DW focuses on printing. It’s a cartridge-based device, offering a cheaper alternative to refillable single-functions such as Canon’s Maxify GX5550 (see issue 353, p89). Although it doesn’t have much in the way of bells and whistles, it does support automatic double-sided (duplex) printing, along with wired and wireless networking. Superficially, then, this printer has everything the home office might need if you’re just looking for a single-function device. It comes with a decent 250-sheet input cassette, and is even rated for a one-off monthly duty cycle of 33,000 pages. It’s relatively light and compact, too. Start printing and the WorkForce Pro WF-C4310DW is quick to impress. It churned out our 25-page mono text test…

Epson WorkForce Pro WF-C4310DW

Epson WorkForce WF-2960DWF

PRICE £67 (£80 inc VAT) from printerland.co.uk At first glance, Epson’s Workforce WF-2960DWF looks like great value. It’s an inkjet multifunction peripheral offering prints, scans, copies and fax, and all for £80. It’s well specified, too, with a colour touchscreen, automatic duplex printing and a 30-sheet ADF to help make light work of multi-page scans, copies and faxes. It supports both wired and wireless networks, too. So it seems there’s not much to count against it. The WF-2960DWF is fairly rapid for the price, managing to produce our 25-page text test at 14ppm. With the print quality lowered to draft, it even hit an impressive 18.8ppm. Colour graphics printed at a competitive 4.9ppm, and a duplex colour job progressed at three images per minute – not as slow as it…

Epson WorkForce WF-2960DWF

HP Smart Tank 7005

PRICE £183 (£220 inc VAT) from amazon.co.uk HP’s Smart Tank 7005 is a home office MFP with refillable ink tanks rather than cartridges. Typically for an ink tank printer, it’s basic despite its high price. There’s no screen here, but there is a single-line mono display and automatic double-sided printing, which gives it an advantage over Epson’s pricier EcoTank ET-2865. This printer also has a three-year warranty, although you need to register to activate it. Like other refillable printers, the high initial cost is offset by extremely cheap ink. The Smart Tank 7005 arrives with two black bottles and a full set of colour inks that should last for around 8,000 colour pages, or a mighty 12,000 black prints. Unlike some competitors, the 7005 is pre-charged with ink, so you…

HP Smart Tank 7005

Canon i-Sensys LBP243dw

PRICE £155 (£186 inc VAT) from printerbase.co.uk It’s hard to get excited about a mono laser printer, but Canon’s i-Sensys LBP243dw gives you more reason than most. Inside its compact and unremarkable shell lurks a truly capable printer that’s extremely well suited to busy small and micro businesses. For the money, the LBP243dw offers a reasonable specification. It combines a 250-sheet cassette with a 100-page multipurpose (MP) feed, making it more flexible than cheaper laser printers with only a single-sheet MP slot. Duplex printing is standard, as is support for Wi-Fi networks. It’s also good to see a gigabit Ethernet port, although for printers we’re not convinced it offers much advantage over Fast Ethernet (100Mbits/sec). This printer doesn’t have the colour touchscreen you’ll find on more expensive rivals, but its…

Canon i-Sensys LBP243dw

Kyocera Ecosys PA4000wx

PRICE £275 (£330 inc VAT) from printerbase.co.uk Kyocera’s Ecosys PA4000wx is primarily aimed at small workgroups and offices rather than home users, but it’s compact enough to fit in most home and micro business scenarios. It’s a single-function mono laser printer with high specifications, not least of which is a claimed 40ppm engine speed. As you can probably guess, the “W” in this printer’s name confirms it has wireless networking. It supports standards up to 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5), which should ensure fast and robust connections, but you can use the gigabit Ethernet port if you prefer. In the base you’ll find a 250-sheet input cassette, while its front panel has a 100-page multipurpose feed; a boon if you often print on headed paper or special media. Automatic double-sided printing is…

Kyocera Ecosys PA4000wx

Brother HL-L2865DW

PRICE £94 (£113 inc VAT) from printerland.co.uk For all the appeal of the best inkjets, it’s hard to top a straightforward mono laser printer if you plan to print a lot of text. Brother’s HL-L2865DW is an entry-level option, but it still offers a few useful features, including wired and wireless networking, as well as automatic duplex printing as standard. This printer has a 250-sheet paper cassette, with a single-sheet bypass slot – useful if you want to start a job on headed paper. There’s also a basic mono LCD screen, which makes it fiddly – but not unreasonably so – to enter a Wi-Fi password manually. While it’s easy to set up Brother’s software, you’ll need the printer’s password to update its firmware. Annoyingly, this is printed on the…

Brother HL-L2865DW

Brother MFC-L2980DW

PRICE £268 (£322 inc VAT) from printerland.co.uk Brother’s MFC-L2980DW is a compact mono laser multifunction peripheral aimed at small and home offices. Its top-heavy design pairs a laser printer with an A4 scanner and ADF. Both the printer and scanner support duplexing, so you can make double-sided prints, scans, copies and faxes. Everything’s controlled via an 8.8cm colour touchscreen, although there’s no USB host port for walk-up prints and scans. This MFP’s printer is essentially identical to the Brother HL-L2865DW. Unsurprisingly, then, its print speed results were almost the same, save for slightly faster duplexing, at 11.5 images per minute. The output quality was near-identical, too: this printer produced wonderful black text but, while graphics suffered slightly less from banding, they were still too dark. The similarity at the core…

Brother MFC-L2980DW

HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3302fdw

PRICE £292 (£350 inc VAT) from printerbase.co.uk HP’s Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3302fdw narrowly wins the longest printer name award for this Labs, but in the flesh it’s surprisingly compact for a colour laser MFP. It takes up barely any more desk space than the OfficeJet Pro 9135e, its inkjet sibling, and is only slightly taller thanks to a thicker, 50-sheet ADF on top. This is an impressively specified multifunction for the price. Both its printer and ADF support duplex operation, so you can make multi-page, double-sided prints, scans, copies or faxes without lifting a finger. You can connect it via gigabit Ethernet or 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5, and you even get a three-year exchange warranty provided you remember to register. The MFP 3302fdw isn’t in much of a hurry when…

HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3302fdw

HP LaserJet M209d

PRICE £100 (£120 inc VAT) from hp.co.uk It’s rare in 2025 to find a printer without wireless networking, and it’s even more surprising to find a business device with no networking at all. HP’s LaserJet M209d instead concentrates on delivering speedy mono output – up to a stated 29ppm – with automatic duplex printing, and literally no other notable features. The printer connects to a single computer via USB. You could use Windows printer sharing, or some home routers or network-attached storage (NAS) drives to share it among many people, but the printer is designed for a single user who wants to print a lot of text. It’s a compact device despite a paper input that sticks out about 15cm from the front, so it’s easy to find room for…

HP LaserJet M209d

Lexmark MS331dn

PRICE £135 (£162 inc VAT) from printerbase.co.uk If you want a small mono laser for your office, Lexmark’s MS331dn looks like a fine candidate. With a 38ppm engine, it promises a healthy turn of speed, particularly given it’s affordable at well under £150. If you’re au fait with printer naming conventions, you’ll know that the “D” in this model means it has automatic duplex printing. The “N” reveals there’s also a network port, although this model doesn’t support Wi-Fi networks – you’ll need the MS331dw for that, which costs about another £35. Wired networking is good enough for most offices, although having Wi-Fi leaves you with more flexibility in where you put a printer. The MS331dn is well specified for the price. It combines a 250-sheet input cassette with a…

Lexmark MS331dn

PRICE £343 (£412 inc VAT) from printerbase.co.uk We’ve reviewed a couple of disappointing small office printers from Xerox in recent years, a stark contrast with its previous track record of excellence. We were anxious to see if the C410 would represent a return to form. It’s a single-function colour laser aimed at busy small offices or workgroups. While it’s a larger than rivals this month, it should squeeze into most home and micro offices. This printer is rated at 40ppm in black or colour, with a 1,200dpi maximum resolution. It’s equipped with automatic double-sided printing and a gigabit Ethernet port, but no wireless network interface in the “DN” specification tested here. While a 250-sheet paper cassette is almost standard issue at this price, it’s a shame to see a single-page…

View from the Labs

Forgive the self-indulgence, but it’s 20 years since I first inserted a printer’s driver CD, connected its USB cable, and hit it with a suite of demanding tests. That sentence alone tells you quite how much has changed. These days there’s rarely a disc in the box – my test PC doesn’t even have an optical drive – and virtually every printer comes with some kind of network interface. While colleagues have gone on to review more glamorous devices, I’m still here, timing print runs, measuring power consumption, and poring over the fine print with an eyeglass inherited from an old art editor. I’ve reviewed several hundred printers, in which time I must have printed at least 50,000 sheets of paper. My Computer Shopper leaving cover pointed out the contrast…

View from the Labs

Upgrade to Wi Fi 7 TM

With over 20 billion Wi-Fi devices in use globally, businesses must adopt a wireless-first approach to network design if they want to be more flexible and competitive. Most users probably can’t remember the last time they connected a device to an Ethernet cable, and now that smartphones, laptops and tablets have become their preferred mode of working, they expect wireless connectivity to be always available. Building wireless networks is much cheaper than installing wired ones, and the seventh generation Wi-Fi 7 technology is about to make them much faster. Businesses with legacy wireless networks should be considering upgrading, and with the Wi-Fi Alliance estimating that around 233 million Wi-Fi 7 devices have already entered the market, there’s no time like the present. This month, we review four business-class Wi-Fi 7…

Upgrade to Wi Fi 7 TM

EnGenius ECW536

PRICE £386 exc VAT from solwise.co.uk EnGenius has traditionally offered businesses a fine choice of wireless access points, and its flagship ECW536 is easily the most powerful. This large, BE19000-rated AP presents a total of 12 spatial streams – four each for its 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands, with theoretical maximum speeds of 1,376Mbits/sec, 5,764Mbits/sec and 11,529Mbits/sec respectively. The ECW536 supports the Wi-Fi 7 6GHz HE 320MHz channels and has the hardware to handle high demand. Powered by Qualcomm’s Networking Pro 1220 platform featuring a quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 CPU, it offers two 10GbE ports. The main one requires an 802.3bt PoE++ power source and the second is provided for networking other devices. All ECW AP models are designed to be directly managed from the EnGenius cloud portal. Their local web…

EnGenius ECW536

TP-Link Omada EAP772

PRICE £133 exc VAT from broadbandbuyer.com TP-Link was one of the first networking vendors to deliver a business Wi-Fi 7 AP, with its mighty EAP783 (see issue 360, p103) setting a high standard for wireless performance. SMBs less impressed with its £520 price tag may find the firm’s EAP772 a more appealing alternative as it costs only £133. Naturally, there are compromises, with the 10GbE port in its bigger brother being replaced by a 2.5GbE multi-gigabit port. It has a much lower BE9300 rating, which claims to deliver up to 573Mbits/sec on its 2.4GHz radio, 2,880Mbits/sec on 5GHz and 5,760Mbits/sec on 6GHz with the ultrawide Wi-Fi 7 320MHz channels enabled. That’s still a good deal considering the price, and the EAP772 also supports the Wi-Fi 7 MLO feature. This allows…

TP-Link Omada EAP772

Ubiquiti UniFi U7 Pro Max

PRICE £214 exc VAT from broadbandbuyer.com The UniFi family from Ubiquiti has always impressed us with its classy wireless network management solutions, and the company makes its play for the business Wi-Fi 7 space with four access points. Along with outdoor and wall-mounted models, there’s the entry-level U7 Pro, while for this review we tested the flagship UniFi U7 Pro Max. This sleekly designed BE15000-rated AP offers a lot for its modest price. Along with eight spatial streams for improved coverage, it has a dedicated radio for real-time spectral analysis so it can run non-disruptive scans. As with most competing Wi-Fi 7 APs at this price, you get a 2.5GbE multi-gigabit port supporting an 802.3at PoE+ power source, which you’ll need as the AP doesn’t have a socket for an…

Ubiquiti UniFi U7 Pro Max

PRICE £133 exc VAT from broadbandbuyer.com Small businesses nervous about the cost of delivering Wi-Fi 7 services can breathe easy with Zyxel’s NWA130BE, a tri-band access point that delivers an impressive range of features at a very tempting price. Its BE11000 rating makes big performance promises and it supports standalone mode or cloud management from Zyxel’s slick Nebula Control Center (NCC) portal. The NWA130BE presents six spatial streams, with two each for 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz radios. Its main 2.5GbE multi-gigabit port requires an 802.3at PoE+ power source, or you can use an optional 12V DC adapter, plus there’s an extra 2.5GbE LAN port for networking other wired devices. The lozenge-shaped casing is sturdily constructed, and the box includes a universal bracket for mounting on the wall or ceiling. Drop…

Barco ClickShare Bar Pro

PRICE £2,716 exc VAT from ballicom.co.uk Barco’s ClickShare Bar Pro is an all-in-one videoconferencing (VC) solution, but not as we know it. The clue is in the name: it uses Barco’s clever ClickShare Button technology to wirelessly create instant meetings. It sports a 4K camera with a big 120° field of view (FoV) and employs digital pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) operations. Speaker tracking is handled by a six MEMS microphone beamforming array, while audio output is delivered by a pair of 10W ported speakers. Behind the rear cable-tidy panel you’ll find an HDMI port for display connection, along with two USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 ports, one of which can be used to power a compatible monitor, with the second supporting DP Alt mode for connecting a client device using…

Barco ClickShare Bar Pro

Epson WorkForce DS-800WN

PRICE £656 exc VAT from ballicom.co.uk The WorkForce DS-800WN aims to be one of Epson’s most versatile A4 desktop scanners yet. A member of Epson’s ScanWay club, it can function as a standalone network device for walk-up scanning, while support for Epson’s Open Platform (EOP) means it can be easily integrated into Epson’s scanner management tools and products developed by third-party independent software vendors (ISVs). EOP allows ISVs to customise the scanner so it fits in seamlessly with their software solution. Epson works with a range of ISVs, including DocuSoft, which can embed its document and data management software in the scanner’s web GUI and customise the icons on the touchscreen. DocuSoft tightens security as all users must authenticate at the scanner to use it, with all scans automatically catalogued,…

Epson WorkForce DS-800WN

Get ready for the biggest security threats of 2025

As a new year dawns, IT managers will naturally be wondering what threats 2025 will bring. And I hope you’re sitting down, because here comes my shocking prediction: the major risks will be… broadly the same as they were in 2024. While we can never be complacent about security, completely new modes of attack emerge quite rarely, and certainly not to an annual schedule. But that doesn’t mean you can relax. While the nature of the threats may be broadly the same from one year to the next, the methods are always evolving, becoming smarter and more subtle. And that means your security defences need to evolve along with them. And it’s not just the biggest organisations that need to keep up. As we’ve said so many times in the…

Get ready for the biggest security threats of 2025

At the risk of sounding like an old-fashioned teacher, the biggest danger to businesses in 2025 is their own bad practice. Whether it’s through a lack of clear security policies, insufficient planning or relying upon the same old protections as they have for the past decade, companies are leaving themselves exposed to attack and major disruption when it happens. A lack of planning is perhaps the most insidious risk. That doesn’t just mean putting things down on paper: I’ve known businesses with carefully considered, painstakingly drafted incident response processes – which nobody in the organisation has any experience of using. In the high-stress scenario of an unfolding security incident, the last thing anybody needs is a bunch of people all opening up a set of instructions for the first time…

Post-quantum cryptography

So what’s the connection between quantum and cryptography? Quantum computing is a tricky topic, but you can think of it like this: in a quantum computer, a single bit of data can represent both zero and one simultaneously. These magical registers are called qubits, and if you stack a lot of them together you can perform mathematical operations on millions of different values at once – and then use probabilistic analysis on the results to extract the answer you’re looking for. And the connection to code-breaking? Many mainstream cryptographic systems are asymmetric. They rely on the fact that it’s quick and easy for a computer to multiply two prime numbers together, but much more time-consuming to reverse the operation and find the prime factors of a given number. In fact,…

Post-quantum cryptography

Qubit: A unit in a quantum system that’s capable of having a value of zero or one – or both values at once. The term is also used to refer to a physical particle that expresses this value, such as an electron or a photon whose spin or polarity can be used to encode binary data. QRNG: Although quantum mechanics creates problems for some forms of cryptography, it also enables the creation of a Quantum Random Number Generator – a device that uses the chaos of quantum effects to create truly random numbers. This can be a valuable resource for security purposes, as the sequence is impossible to predict. HNDL: “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” – the chilling modus operandi of sucking up encrypted data today, in the expectation that it…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY and SAVE 28%*

ORDER SECURELY ONLINE magazinesdirect.com/PDV/H24J 0330 3331113 QUOTE OFFER CODE: H24J Please allow 28 days for delivery, UK only. Future Publishing Limited reserves the rightto limitoffers of this kind to one per household. Other great reasons to subscribe… • Save on newsstand price. • Every issue of PC Pro delivered direct yo your door. • Get all the tips, product reviews and security updates early. PRINT EDITION £13.99 for 3 months DIGITAL EDITION £10.99 for 3 months Offer closes 6th February 2025. Offer open to new UK subscribers only. Prlclng Is guaranteed for the first 3 months and we wlll notify you In advanceof any price changes. Please allow up to six weeks for dellvery of your first subscription issue (up to eight weeks overseas) The full subscription rate includes postage…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY and SAVE 28%*

“Being able to log in to your cloud VM session from a generic piece of hardware is a dream for IT managers”

As we slide into a new year, it’s always good to take stock of how we do things, and whether they’re actually best aligned with our needs. Let’s start in the enterprise space, because there are changes happening here that are hard to ignore. These days, corporates love to run their normal line of business applications on Azure and to use Office 365 as a standard platform. Some services can be hosted on other platforms, notably AWS, especially for tools provided by a third party. But Azure has built up very strong traction, and the deep integration with Office 365 can’t be ignored. Windows, as a desktop platform, has been brought into this realm by the deployment and management tools that Microsoft offers. And it really is almost a no-brainer…

“Being able to log in to your cloud VM session from a generic piece of hardware is a dream for IT managers”

“Someone at Microsoft is making decisions that are turning my customers pretzel-shaped”

Deep inside Microsoft’s corporate strata, overseeing products for home users, is the Department (of) Overzealous Random Knob Switchers (DORKS). It’s a department so secretive that Microsoft will deny that it even exists. For legal reasons, I also have to admit that I’ve made it up, but someone at Microsoft is making ridiculous decisions that are turning my customers pretzel-shaped. Until Microsoft is prepared to put its hand up and say “it’s our fault”, then I’ll have to continue blame the non-existent DORKS at Microsoft. OneDrive to enrage them all Carla is a good person. She’s a key player in the local volunteer group, giving her free time to make the community a better place. But she isn’t a tech person. When her entire library of charity and policy documents became…

“Someone at Microsoft is making decisions that are turning my customers pretzel-shaped”

“The questioner and I were in the virtual room alone together. Or were we?”

I was taken by surprise on Teams the other day with the question: “Please may I speak to you about a confidential matter?” As a solicitor, one of my professional duties is to keep the affairs of my clients confidential, and I am used to confidential discussions. So the request itself was not unusual. The surprising factor was that it was being asked in a meeting attended by 20 people. It was during a break in a training course, and I was sharing a picture of a cup of tea. The other delegates had their cameras and mics switched off, so presumably had retired to their real kitchens to enjoy a real cup of tea. The questioner and I were in the virtual room alone together. Or were we? Maybe…

“The questioner and I were in the virtual room alone together. Or were we?”

“I know what it’s like to fall victim to cybercrime. Even so-called professionals can get caught out”

My name is Davey Winder and I have a mental health problem. For the past two years I have suffered from a chronic pain condition that has no cure. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, I have also suffered from depression, which has been treated both by medication and primary psychiatric care. I mention all of this not for the sympathy vote, but rather to demonstrate that our mental health is not something that we should be embarrassed by, be ashamed of, hide away from or not mention to anyone for fear of rejection or belittlement. Mental illness is an illness like any other, and a new report has revealed that victims of cybercrime are suffering their own mental health crisis. That report has even coined what I think could be a new…

“I know what it’s like to fall victim to cybercrime. Even so-called professionals can get caught out”

“Gritting your teeth now is going to be your last chance to make improvements”

Years before the pandemic so dramatically entered our lives, I was running two projects concerned with handling voice traffic. And they couldn’t have been more different. In one case, creating a complete, parallel, enterprise-wide network just for the allegedly more modern, cost-saving, VoIP-based phones; in another, a wholesale conversion to computer-based telephony, with headphones and software replacing handsets and separate technology. These dichotomies caught me on the hop. I had a modern nerd’s attitude to voice, one that only revealed itself when I came to confront my own prejudices during the design process. Customer A wanted ultimate reliability; Customer B was happy with the reliability level it already had with its LAN and couldn’t justify duplicating it “just for phone calls”. My belief was that telephony was on its way…

“Gritting your teeth now is going to be your last chance to make improvements”

Double-o, double-o: an early harbinger of modern-day telephone woes

My aside about calling from Knightsbridge to Namibia isn’t a fairy-tale reference. After setting up a growing consultancy business in a 1960s tower block – its musty ambience should have been the canary I mentioned – it wasn’t until we had a few international jobs on the books that the hidden downside of our cheap office space emerged. We had our own phone system, and the supplier had told us the building was fed “only by Mercury”. We thought nothing of it, until the Namibian job started snagging on us. We could call them; they couldn’t call us. Because there’s essentially zero diagnostic information for voice calls – then or now – it took a bit of experimenting and a flight to Namibia to get to the bottom of this…

Empires of telephony

You may expect me to deliver a league table of VoIP applications at this point, but I’m not going to break it to you gently: I have no such thing, because VoIP is neither the problem nor the solution for this issue. If anything, it’s the broader programmability of VoIP telephony that allows malicious operators to masquerade behind apparently domestic numbers, facilitating the most distressing forms of scamming. It’s SIP, not VoIP, that’s used in internet telephony. Session Initiation Protocol is one of those annoyingly early protocols that nobody seems able to improve on. The reality is that the successful modern telephony-substitute apps don’t use the old protocols. Battling with SIP transformations in firewall rules has defeated many a phone upgrade project, while WhatsApp, Skype, Google Chat and even Facebook…

Empires of telephony

Apple’s big blues

In the late 1980s, Apple embarked on one of its most ambitious software projects: the creation of a next-generation operating system, codenamed Pink. Presented on a pink index card (hence the name), it was the brainchild of a small group of Apple engineers who believed the Mac needed memory protection to safeguard users’ work in the event of a system crash. This innovation also helped to pave the way for an alliance with IBM that had the potential to revolutionise computing forever. Around 1988, the Mac was experiencing a period of flux. Launched in January 1984, it had initially achieved success but most of the computer’s original team members, including Steve Jobs, had dispersed and cracks were beginning to appear. While improvements had been made to the Mac line-up, such…

Apple’s big blues

AI agents: putting AI to work

Hey, assistant! I sent you a link to a form. Can you dig out the sales figures from last month in order to fill it out? I’ll be at lunch, so message me any questions.” Such dull jobs used to be saved for junior staff and interns, but soon AI may be taking them on – well, that’s the promise of AI agents, according to those developing the smart automation tools. It’s high time for AI to start proving useful, as various surveys suggest a third of businesses continue to be too scared of the risks to consider implementing the technology (Indeed), seven in ten employees aren’t convinced it makes them more productive (Resume Genius), and a Goldman Sachs report suggested the benefits remained too little given the costs. That’s…

AI agents: putting AI to work

Features Best products of 2025! CES in Las Vegas gives manufacturers a chance to show off the gizmos they’ll launch in the coming year. Jon, Tim and Barry are there to pick out the trends and products that matter. Features Take a break with Focus sessions If you want to be more productive, you need to kill distractions dead. Nik Rawlinson takes a close look at “Focus” features in Windows, Ubuntu, macOS and our phones. Features Deep dive: video standards H.264? MKV? ProRes? Darien Graham-Smith demystifies the video jargon – and explains which formats and settings you should be using. Labs Security suites We have three aims with this group test. First, to reveal who offers the best all-round protection. Second, the best free antivirus choice around. And third, which…

Ignore the hype around the Pi 500, says Jon Honeyball, and enjoy the hypermiling instead

It’s called hypermiling in the motoring world: squeezing the most distance you possibly can from the minimum amount of fuel. This can be done as a personal challenge – my 12-year-old Audi A3 typically manages 50mpg on a decent run, so I was rather proud when I eked out 100mpg – but this pales against the true masters of the craft. Most famously, VW drove the XL1 100km on a single litre of diesel, which works out at 280mpg. And it managed this, albeit in a somewhat pricey and very limited production run car, over a decade ago. In the computing world, we only used to think about absolute performance. There was never enough, and let’s ignore the power consumption. Noisy fans were a sign of virility in the computing…

Ignore the hype around the Pi 500, says Jon Honeyball, and enjoy the hypermiling instead

In This Issue

Description

Details

Reviews

Recent Digital Issues Browse all

Recent PC Pro Digital Issues Browse all back issues

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription October 1st, 2024 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) October 2024: $5.35

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription September 1st, 2024 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) September 2024: $5.25

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription August 1st, 2024 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) August 2024: $5.14

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription July 1st, 2024 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) July 2024: $5.14

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription April 1st, 2025 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) April 2025: $5.03

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription March 1st, 2025 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) March 2025: $5.03

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription February 1st, 2025 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) February 2025: $4.96

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription January 1st, 2025 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) January 2025: $5.01

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription December 1st, 2024 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) December 2024: $5.09

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription November 1st, 2024 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) November 2024: $5.16

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription October 1st, 2024 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) October 2024: $5.35

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription September 1st, 2024 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) September 2024: $5.25

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription August 1st, 2024 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) August 2024: $5.14

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription July 1st, 2024 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) July 2024: $5.14

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription April 1st, 2025 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) April 2025: $5.03

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription March 1st, 2025 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) March 2025: $5.03

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription February 1st, 2025 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) February 2025: $4.96

PC Pro (Digital) Subscription January 1st, 2025 Issue

PC Pro (Digital) January 2025: $5.01

Reviews

0

0

0

0

0

No reviews yet

Ask a Question

Click stars to rate

Please select a rating for the review.

Please enter title for the review.

Please enter content for the review.

Please enter order number.

Please enter your first name and last name.

Only letters allowed for first name and last name.

Please enter your email.

Upload photo

Cancel Submit

Processing...

Thank you for your feedback! Your review has been submitted and will be published soon.

OK

Be the first to ask a question about this product

Please enter content for the question.

Please enter at least 10 characters.

Your question can not be more than 150 characters.

Please enter your first name and last name.

Only letters allowed for first name and last name.

Please enter your email.

Submit Processing...

Thank you for your question! Your question has been submitted and will be published soon.

Answer this question

Please enter content for the answer.

Please enter at least 10 characters.

Please enter your first name and last name.

Only letters allowed for first name and last name.

Please enter your email.

Submit Cancel Processing...

Thank you for your answer! Your answer has been submitted and will be published soon.

OK

×