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Dune: Awakening review: an MMO as dense as its source material
Dune: Awakening

MSRP $49.99

Score Details

“Dune Awakening is an impressive MMO adaptation, but its combat gets lost in translation.”

Pros

Incredibly faithful to Dune lore

Unique survival systems

Constant goals to chase

Cons

Lackluster combat

Prolonged tutorial section

Demands a lot of time to fully enjoy
The first lesson I learned in Dune: Awakening was that I couldn’t take Arrakis lightly.

I was still learning the ways of the desert when I attempted to cross a vast open stretch of sand toward my next quest objective. I hadn’t even trekked halfway across the dunes before my heat meter was over half full, threatening sunstroke, and my hydration levels were empty. I didn’t have time to notice when the vibration waves at the bottom of my screen turned red and a Sandworm was bearing down on me. I diverted course to a closer rocky outcropping and sprinted as fast as my legs could carry me, reaching salvation mere moments before the worm’s jaws could swallow me whole.

I had but a moment of respite before a desert storm rolled in and drained what little health I had after my dehydration penalty. Such is life on Arrakis.

As an MMO that has the daunting task of adapting a once unadaptable book, Dune: Awakening impresses by fully investing in its world and lore. It expects the same of its players too, and that’s where things can get rocky. You’ll need to fully commit to the demanding journey to get the most out of it, appreciating the way it uses its rich source material to inform almost all the lore and systems. Those who can’t quite navigate its tricky onboarding process may find themselves lost in the sand.

Welcome to Arrakis

The first dozen or two hours of Dune: Awakening are a crawl. After creating a character and picking my background that determines my starting class, the MMO rushes to get my boots in the sand. As someone who has a surface-level knowledge of the Dune universe, whatever story setup the game was attempting to present went completely over my head. I imagine anyone fluent in the terms, cultures, and politics of Dune would appreciate how faithful Awakening is, but for an outsider, it was all but incomprehensible beyond the big picture. That might pose a challenge to those more casual fans who have only come to the series recently through its blockbuster movies.

Once arriving on Arrakis, a prolonged tutorial section showed me the ropes. The survival mechanics aren’t just for background flavor you interact with here and there. They are core to how you engage with the world. The threat of sunstroke means I have to plot my path to make sure I hit patches of shade along the way, and thirst is an ever-present concern. We’ve seen versions of those plenty of times, but what is unique to Awakening are the Sandworms. Attempting to cross any open expanse of desert will begin to draw the attention of these gargantuan predators. Getting swallowed isn’t just an instant death; it’s also the only way you can die that makes it impossible to reclaim any of your lost inventory.

Funcom

The act of seeking out water, shade, and also charting my path between safe spots while crossing the map like playing a giant game of the floor is lava keeps even basic traversal engrossing. The only issue is that I was asked to do so much traveling back and forth across the tutorial area before getting access to any other form of transportation that it started to feel like a chore.

A similar strategy is attempted with mining and crafting, though not as successfully. Materials can be scooped up from the ground or mined from large deposits using a scanning tool. Again, Awakening doesn’t want to let my attention go during the process. Scanning a rock or hunk of metal I can mine highlights a short blue line that I need to trace with my tool. The more precise I am with my tracing, the more yield I receive from that resource. It’s simple and doesn’t slow the process down, though I wonder if I would feel different after a hundred hours.

Dune: Awakening is all about delayed gratification.

Base building also feels at odds with my instincts. Rather than establishing and investing my time into one robust base to call home, Dune: Awakening frequently makes me abandon my previous settlements to make new ones as I reach later areas. Eventually, I stopped putting any creativity or personality into my base knowing I’d have to start over again in a few hours.

Crafting is the main path to progression outside of class skills, so you need to be filling your pockets with all those rocks and bits of metal, as well as invest in a base or two. Awakening is all about delayed gratification. Instead of getting loot at the end of a quest or dungeon, I’m almost always rewarded with a schematic. This needs to be researched before I can craft and use it, which itself can be a multi-step process depending on what types of materials or tools I need to make it. It’s a lot to manage, and the UI gets unwieldy fast as you build up a catalogue of recipes and craftables, but there is a certain satisfaction to going through all the steps to make that new weapon or vehicle. And there’s always something on the horizon drawing your attention to strive for.

This isn’t a game you can expect to make meaningful progress in playing casually. Dune: Awakening wants to dominate your time. As soon as you break free of the tutorial area the long-term goals reveal themselves. The road from digging scrap metal and copper ore out of the sand to building sand crawlers to harvest spice in the PvP zone and joining in on the intimidatingly deep political struggle between the two major factions (Atreides and Harkonnen) that all guilds must align with that has ramifications on the entire game world promises more than enough to keep even the most passionate players busy for months.

Nothing to fear

As threatening as the environment is in Dune: Awakening, the same cannot be said for the NPCs. In all my hours with it, I encountered roughly three types of enemies: one melee attacker and two ranged. These types pose no strategic threat and only become a problem if I was underleveled or outnumbered and taken by surprise. Melee attackers always rush me head-on, and ranged units stand out in the open with very little sense of self-preservation or tactics.

The special Dune flavoring to combat is in shields, which work just like they do in the source material and completely negate any projectile or fast melee strike. The only counter is to use a dedicated slow knife attack to pierce it, which keeps combat from becoming totally mindless and dull. Otherwise, the shooting is serviceable at best and melee feels weightless and unreliable. If you’re here for exciting battles, you won’t find them here. That’s ultimately what cuts any desire to run dungeons or grind for end-game weapons and armor down at the knees — it isn’t fun to get, nor is it fun to use compared to all the more unique ways I can engage with Awakening.

Funcom

The MMO aspect of it all doesn’t feel necessary until I got close to the end game. There were no quests or dungeons I encountered during my natural progression that inspired me to ask around town for some help, much less required it. There are easy ways to form temporary groups with other players milling around the main towns to run small dungeons together, harvest spice, or engage in PvP faction fights, but the game will never push you to do so until the end game. I can see it being a much more enjoyable experience as a co-op title with a group of friends than anything else. There are tons of systems in place for small groups to share resources, collaborate on bases, and help one another survive and advance much faster, but only once Guilds and the large-scale political mechanics come into play does the massive shared world feel earned.

PvP naturally avoids all the issues I had with PvE combat, but introduces its own headaches. Other players are far more capable and unpredictable than AI, plus have access to any weapons and abilities you might, but the core mechanics of Awakening just don’t feel built for how two or more players fighting turns out. Between shields, carried items, and mobility options, the time to kill can be agonizing. My first PvP fight was a one-on-one duel that lasted upwards of 15 minutes because neither one could manage to drop the other’s defenses and land enough damage before they could retreat, recharge, and then return to the fight. In the end, I let myself lose just to escape an endless loop.

The slow pace and harsh survival systems could be too big a barrier …

Large-scale PvP in the Deep Desert is more intriguing compared to the smaller PvP areas within the main map. This is where the best loot in the game is, but also the most deadly environmental hazards. The chaos of multiple threats and targeted objectives to encourage aggression doesn’t allow for the same prolonged battle as individual engagements.

There’s an undeniable appeal to living in the world of Dune. Spotting a giant sandworm breach the surface on the horizon while zipping across the dunes on my makeshift sandbike never fails to create a sense of awe and dread. However, Dune: Awakening expects its players to be fully committed to its world to get the most out of it. If you’re willing to invest yourself for the long haul and don’t mind the barebones combat, this could be your dream Dune experience. For everyone else, the slow pace and harsh survival systems could be too big a barrier to get to the meat of the experience.

Dune: Awakening was tested on PC.
June 12, 2025
Mario Kart World review: Nintendo’s big Switch 2 debut delivers where it counts
Mario Kart World

MSRP $79.99

Score Details

“Mario Kart World is a knockout, even if it tries a little too hard to present itself as one.”

Pros

Airtight racing

Knockout Tour is excellent

Tons of unlockables

Fantastic soundtrack

Cons

Driving between tracks can be dull

Free-roam is a little bland
How do you keep players coming back to a game for 10 years? Many studios have fallen into last place in pursuit of that answer, but Nintendo is determined to find it and claim the ultimate prize with Mario Kart World.

The first big exclusive for the Nintendo Switch 2 feels like it was engineered to draft off of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe‘s decade of success, riding its wind tunnel to first place. Everything about is built to keep that momentum rolling as long as possible, from its excellent new elimination mode to its open-world collect-a-thon pivot. It’s an armored vehicle, reinforced with layers of steel meant to protect its engine from the inevitable red shells of long-term service gaming until the Switch 2’s gas runs out.

Will that be enough for it to snatch a gold cup after a 10 year gauntlet? It very well may. Mario Kart World delivers fine-tuned racing, strong multiplayer potential, and a bevy of unlockables that keep every session rewarding. But its tacked on exploration component, one that tries too hard to force long-term success, is a reminder that even a driver with a tremendous lead on the competition still isn’t safe from a dreaded blue shell.

Reliable racing

While Mario Kart World adds some major new components to the series, Nintendo stays very close to its predecessor’s formula here. And who can blame it? I’d trail Mario Kart 8 Deluxe‘s ghost data too if I was trying to set another record. World is still a three-button racing game that balances casual fun and high-level skill. It’s all about zooming through themed tracks, mastering the art of the drift, and dealing with the chaos that comes from lap-changing items.

This is kart racing locked down to a colorful science.

The secret to the Mario Kart series’ success is that winning isn’t just about outracing opponents. It’s just as much a game about crisis management. The winners are the ones who know how to keep their cool when getting hit when a shell and zapped with lightning in rapid succession. They know that there’s always a way to come back if they play it cool. It’s only the weak-willed who curse the blue shell, swearing to an unjust God. World shifts that idea into its next gear, giving players more tools that can help them regain momentum and get back in the pack.

Chief among its new tricks is the addition of grinding and wall riding. Karts can now snap to level decorations like road dividers, suspension bridge cables, and more, giving them more potential boost points to work with during a race. Wall riding serves a similar purpose, as players can glide along walls to find more inventive paths through levels. World’s new tracks are filled with possibilities for players as a result, putting more of an emphasis on daring experimentation to mount comebacks rather than following the rules of the road.

Nintendo

That change comes with a new technique: a charged jump. By holding down the drift button without touching the control stick, players can charge a jump and release it to hop in the air. Doing so will allow them to ride a wall, reach grind rails that wouldn’t otherwise be reachable, or even dodge incoming items with the right timing. It’s a great idea that will benefit high-skill players looking to get even more competitive, but its implementation is a bit alienating for casual players. I often find myself accidentally entering a drift when I mean to jump since both are mapped to the same trigger. With so many unused buttons on even a single Joy-con, it’s a little strange to see two fundamental controls doubled up.

That complaint gets relegated to nitpick status the more I race, which reinforces the series’ strength. Even without engaging with that skill, World is instantly enjoyable any time I pick up my Switch 2. I still get a rush every time I nail someone with a fireball or turn so wide that I initiate a third phase drift. Even the tiniest moments feel like victories that players of all ages can hit. Features like smart steering and a new rewind button even give casual players more flexibility to land more of those moments. This is kart racing locked down to a colorful science.

A knockout mode

Just about any staple mode from the series’ past returns for the supersized sequel. Grand Prix mode remains the core of the experience, as its four-race gauntlets are the perfect length for multiplayer sessions. Versus modes like Balloon Battle add a little more diversity for those who want more close quarters competition, even though they are limited with only eight arenas at launch. The most skilled players out there can still aim for records in Time Trials and upload their results to the internet. That alone is already a total package for the genre.

The clear star of the show, though, is the brand new Knockout Tour mode. Bringing the undeniable draw of battle royale games to Mario Kart, the new addition is a 24-player race that takes players through six maps in one uninterrupted gauntlet. The slowest players are eliminated at the end of each track with the final lap coming down to four players. It’s a remarkably tense addition that makes every little moment that much more important. There’s a new rush that comes from getting knocked into last place by a bullet bill and suddenly having to pull out a comeback in less than a minute in order to continue on. While Grand Prix has always been Mario Kart’s signature mode, this feels like it could actually take the crown.

Mario Kart World‘s version of Rainbow Road is an all-timer …

It’s thanks to that mode and the underlying open-world map that makes it possible, though, that I find one fault in World‘s design. The package includes 32 new tracks, which are a little uneven. It’s not that some are great and others aren’t; that division often happens within the same map. Because every track exists on an interconnected world that links them all together, they often have a bit of an environmental transition baked into them. That means that I sometimes need to spend a lap driving down a dull straight highway to get to the tightly themed level I actually want to see.

Take DK Spaceport as an example. The new level is a highlight in the package, as it sends players up a winding structure circling a docked spaceship. That path is full of obstacles that call back to the original Donkey Kong, including a mechanical ape that tosses barrels during one of its straightaways. In Grand Prix mode, that’s preceded by a two lap gauntlet through some nondescript highways that transition players from the canyon-themed level preceding it to a more standard highway that leads to the track. That burdens most tracks with extra fluff that make some seem more unmemorable than they really are (note that Time Trials cut those interstitial bits out entirely, suggesting that even Nintendo considers them to be expendable add-ons).

Nintendo

It’s a bit of a shame considering that there are a lot of stellar tracks here after lap one. Boo Cinema takes players through a haunted movie theater rather than a typical Mario ghost house. Dino Dino Jungle is teeming with massive dinosaurs, with long necks and spines that I can grind on. World‘s version of Rainbow Road is an all-timer too, using the Switch 2’s increased power to turn a classic course into an intergalactic spectacle filled with shooting stars and sparkling crystals. Each one is intricately designed and painted in bright color palettes that set each apart from one another. It just takes time to get there.

That design decision makes a lot more sense when you accept that Mario Kart World was tuned around Knockout Tour. The extra mileage feels much more natural when racing across a map with no loading between races. In those tournaments, I’m more easily able to appreciate how logical the construction of it all feels. If I’m moving from a snowy track to a grassy field, I can actually see the snow start to thin out on the side of the road as grass takes over. That attention to detail makes places tracks like Moo Moo Meadows into context, letting players see the off ramps they need to take to find it tucked away next to a river. Moments like that make me feel like Mario’s races actually exist in real spaces for the first time ever.

Free roaming, forever

Nintendo takes that idea one step too far with the package’s most ambitious swing: free-roam. At any point while on the main menu, I can press the plus button to drop into the full open-world. I am given unrestricted access to not just the tracks, but the spaces between them that we only imagine exist in Mario Kart games. It’s a great magic trick the first time I experience it, and one that lets me really appreciate how much detail Nintendo puts into spaces that I barely even get a chance to look at during races. That’s best seen in Crown City, an urban race track in Grand Prix that reveals itself as a densely detailed city in free roam. You could spend hours driving around its winding streets, appreciating stray ads for Birdo fashion brands or Koop Troops gathering in a park around food carts.

It’s an impressive visual tech demo for the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware as well. It’s incredible that I can drive from one end of the map to the other in 10 minutes without hitting a single load, all while driving through fully functional race tracks. I can see some of the seams when I launch high into the air and notice some light asset pop-in below me, but that doesn’t take away from just how much I can see when I look out at a world of vivid colors, shuffling critters, and karts cruising down the highways.

The free-roam experience beyond pure artistic admiration is sparse. There are three primary collectibles sprinkled through the world in large quantities. Each track has a set of question mark panels to ride over, there are hard to reach Peach coins hiding in the world, and there are hundreds of racing challenges to complete found in P-Switches. The latter is the bulk of what players do when playing solo, taking on bite-sized challenges that usually amount to reaching some sort of finish line or collecting eight blue coins. While they’re perfectly fine treasure hunting distractions, the reward for nabbing these collectibles is underwhelming. Each one grants a tiny sticker, one of which can be assigned to the player’s profile at a time. It’s a lot of effort and time spent for a collectible that I barely ever see. Free-roam is basically The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild if you took everything out of its world save for the Korok challenges.

Nintendo wants you to feel like this is a game you could play for 10 years, and it’s a little overeager to get there.

It’s a strange decision considering that World is filled with more substantial unlockables elsewhere. Completing Grand Prix cups nets me new characters and there are tons of karts that are earned over time by collecting enough coins across all modes. There are also an exorbitant amount of character skins to unlock (like my bless little Koopa in his little sailor outfit), but those are only earned by grabbing food bags from the world. There were plenty of ways to make the core world collectibles more satisfying to chase, but all of the best rewards only intersect with free roam’s core draw. It’s especially a shame that World did away with Mario Kart 8‘s kart customization feature, as hidden parts would have made for great collectibles.

I’ve spent a lot of time playing free-roam mode, trying to figure out what exactly its function is. The oddest part about it is that it isn’t presented as a core mode next to the likes of Grand Prix when looking at the list of single-player options. The prompt to enter it is tucked into the bottom corner of the screen, almost as if to signal that it’s more like entering an art gallery in an Extras menu. It’s not treated like a selling point, but it’s clearly meant to be one. After all, it’s a big part of World‘s $80 sales pitch. A big world justifies a bigger price tag, right?

It all starts to make more sense to me when I think back to Mario Kart 8‘s long-tailed success, something World is desperate to emulate without leaving it to chance. Free-roam, like a lot of features, is constructed so that it creates the illusion that there is infinite content to discover here. For instance, note that the open-world map never marks the location of any collectible and doesn’t even hint at how many there are. As far as players know, they’re endless. If you did happen to find all 300+ of them, you might still be convinced that there are some still out there that you’ve missed. The same goes for World‘s enormous character roster, which doles out a seemingly never ending drip feed of B-list Mario characters and alternate costumes for the core crew (the fact that most of the more fun racers don’t get extra skins is a shame, as I feel disincentivized from using them in races as food bags won’t give them anything).

Nintendo

Nintendo wants you to feel like this is a game you could play for 10 years, and it’s a little overeager to get there. I still remember playing Mario Kart 8 for dozens and dozens of hours on Wii U without the need for all of these extras. The racing was exhilarating enough that I turned to modes like Time Trials, beating the ghost data on every single level. If you give players a truly great game that’s fun to play, they’ll always find more ways to get time out of it. Think of how long Super Smash Bros. Melee remained a multiplayer staple with a fraction of Ultimate‘s characters, stages, or modes. There’s a bit of unnecessary insecurity baked into free-roam that speaks to a broader flaw in today’s quest for the big hit game that will keep players playing and paying for as long as possible: There’s too much emphasis on the filler, not the killer.

That’s the critical way to interpret free-roam, but the more I play, the more I find myself leaning towards a more charitable perspective. The casual exploration makes for a great chillout experience that’s best enjoyed in small, curious chunks between races. I don’t think Nintendo intends for players to treat it like a Ubisoft open-world game — a checklist to be completed. It’s more just a place to joyride for a bit, listening to World‘s fantastic soundtrack of Mario remixes that adapts generations of great game music into smooth jazz. P-Switches aren’t laid out in a way so that my eye is obsessively led to the next one. I ride around for a few minutes, listen to the Delfino Plaza theme, get a few new stickers, and head back to the race track.

That’s how I really see Mario Kart World fitting into my life eight or nine years from now. It won’t be a game that consumes all my time and attention. It will be like loading up a round of Solitaire on my phone; a reliable comfort. That’s the undeniable appeal of Mario Kart. It doesn’t matter if I log in every week to find a new P-Switch or twice a year to check out its latest round of DLC tracks. So long as the engine starts every time I turn the keys, I’ll keep taking my kart out of the garage for a quick joyride.

Mario Kart World was tested on Nintendo Switch 2.
June 11, 2025

Nintendo Switch 2 review: exactly the upgrade we needed, with a few catches

Nintendo Switch 2

MSRP $450.00

4/5

★★★★☆

Score Details

“Even with some kinks to work out, the Nintendo Switch 2 is the exact follow up it needed to be.”

✅ Pros

More premium design
120 Hz display is a big upgrade
A major power boost
Mouse mode is ingenious
Social features are truly innovative

❌ Cons

Disappointing UI
Battery is a downgrade
Poor screen sharing

Buy at Best Buy

“Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.“

How do you follow up a console as beloved as the Nintendo Switch? It’s a question Nintendo has been blessed, or perhaps cursed, to answer for decades now. Every hardware success story comes with the burden of a follow-up and the pressure to wow people with the next big thing.

Nintendo has tried to live up to that challenge time and time again, attempting — and sometimes failing — to innovate at all costs. For the first time in decades, the Nintendo Switch 2 finally shows a company that knows when it’s finally time to zag.

Nintendo’s latest console is perhaps its most straightforward hardware release since the Game Boy Advance. It asks a simple question that fans have proposed for eight years: What if the Nintendo Switch was better? That’s exactly what you get with its successor.

That streamlined ambition pays off in the form of a handheld-console hybrid that addresses every issue with its predecessor and more. Increased power, an excellent display, and more technical flexibility make the Switch 2 feel like Nintendo’s first true “next-gen” console.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good zigs along the way, as the system’s impressive mouse controls feel like they’re destined to rise above gimmick status. But the Nintendo Switch 2 very much feels like the second coming of the Super Nintendo rather than a repeat of the Wii U.

It’s very safe by modern Nintendo standards, and it has a lot of battles in its future as it launches amid a rapidly evolving portable landscape, but it’s exactly what a Switch follow up likely needed to be — even if it won’t set the world on fire.

Switch 2 specs

Size	116mm x 272mm x 13.9mm (4.5 inches x 10.7 x .55 inches) with Joy-Con 2 attached
Weight	401g / 534g with Joy-Con 2 attached
Screen	7.9-inch LCD, 1080p, HDR10, VRR up to 120Hz
CPU/GPU	Nvidia 8x ARM Cortex A78C 998MHz (docked), 1101MHz (handheld), Max 1.6GHz/ Ampere GPU architecture 1007MHz (docked), 561MHz (handheld) Max 1.4GHz
Memory	128-bit.LPDDR5, bandwidth of 102GB/s (docked), or 68GB/s (handheld), with 3GB (9GB for games) reserved for system memory
Storage	256GB
Wireless	Yes
Video output	4K docked, 1080p handheld
Audio output	3D audio
Speakers	Stereo
USB connector	2 USB Type-C ports
Headphone/mic jack	Built-in mic with noise-cancelling tech, but audio jack included in the new Pro Controller
Game card slot	Nintendo Switch game cards
microSD card slot	Supports microSD Express
Internal battery	Lithium-ion battery/522mAh or ~20Whr
Battery life	2 – 6.5 hours
Charging time	TBD
Availability	On sale from June 5, 2025

Switch 2 design and comfort

Rather than going back to the drawing board for its next console, the Switch 2’s design is very much a touch up of what came before. The Switch’s core pillars remain the same: This is a hybrid handheld/home console with detachable controls. There’s a touch display sandwiched between two Joy-cons, a kickstand for tabletop support, and a dock that seamlessly hooks it all up to a TV.

It looks almost exactly the same from a distance, but the details add up here. The Switch 2 has a more premium sheen to it all around. It’s a sleek, dense tablet that feels more like an iPad than a plastic toy. That’s the first signal that this is Nintendo trying to finally make a console that’s keeping pace with its peers.

A Switch transferring data to the Switch 2.

The key difference is that it’s significantly larger than the original Switch. That size primarily benefits the system’s 7.9 inch LCD display, which looks enormous even compared to the Nintendo Switch OLED. The system is much heavier for that change too, with over 100g of new weight over the original Switch model. I do feel a bit more strain when I’m playing in handheld mode, though it’s still manageable compared to something like the Lenovo Legion Go S. If the Switch already felt heavy for you, though, this might be a workout on your wrists.

The system at least accounts for the added weight in a few ways. For one, the new Joy-con controllers are made from a slick black plastic that’s smooth in the hands. They have also been rounded in a way that feels more natural in my palms, even if the lack of controller grips still makes for some odd ergonomics.

If that’s still not enough for you, the Switch 2 sees some significant improvements for tabletop mode. The newly designed kickstand is far sturdier than the original model’s and easier to maneuver than the Switch OLED. Its range of viewing angles mean that it can almost stand up vertically and lay down fairly flat at around a 20 degree angle. I set it up at an acute angle on a tray table during a flight and it was not moved by a patch of light turbulence. Other improvements are of the no brainer variety. There’s a USB-C port on the top as well as the bottom, which means that players can now charge it while in tabletop mode.

A Nintendo Switch 2 sits on a table using its kickstand.

Then there’s the system’s one big magic trick: magnets. How do they work? Well, the Joy-cons can simply be attached to the console by lightly slotting them into the sides of the display, where they tightly snap into place. If that has you nervous, don’t be; they feel more secure when inserted than they do on the old Switch.

My Joy-cons frequently pop out on my OLED at this point. That seems far less likely to happen on Switch 2, as they stay locked in place unless I hold down release buttons behind each trigger. They pop off with just a small bit of force, but there’s still enough pressure required in the button press to ensure kids won’t pull them off by accident.

They’re easy to pull off from the new dock too, as its rounded edges are built to make them easy to reach. I don’t know how it will hold up to wear and tear over the years, but it’s an impressive bit of engineering that makes the original Switch feel rudimentary in retrospect.

Switch 2 UI: Menus, eShop, and more

If I have one complaint about the system’s safe design ethos, it’s the UI. I’ve long been less than thrilled with the original Switch’s full interface, full of plain white menus with no customization options. I had hoped that a new Nintendo console would bring a total redesign, but that’s not the case.

The Switch 2’s menus look identical to that of its predecessors. Even new features like GameChat have been built with those minimal white menus in mind. It successfully gets across the idea that the ecosystem is consistent, but it’s a bit of a letdown compared to other consoles on the market.

The Nintendo eShop appears on a Switch 2 screen.

The differences are minimal in most cases. My game library now has a tab where I can group games together as I please. I now have the option to set a button remapping shortcut to my pop-out home menu. There’s better integration into the Switch mobile app, as I can instantly transfer screenshots and video there just as I can on the PlayStation app. These are largely additions that could have been added to the original Switch with a routine free update.

The only noticeable improvement is in the eShop, which has received a much-needed overhaul. The entire app now loads significantly faster now, allowing me to continuously scroll a tab while game thumbnails load in an instant. There are some new discoverability tools built in too, like a recommendation feature that will take you to a random game page based on your play history. It’s far less of a pain to use than the original Switch eShop, so I’ll take that small victory.

Switch 2 display and performance: HDR, VRR, and more

I was a little worried at first when Nintendo announced that the Switch 2 would use an LCD panel rather than sticking with OLED, but those fears have been calmed. Though the 7.9-inch screen isn’t exactly up to par with the OLED, it’s close enough that most casual fans won’t notice the difference.

It will also be an enormous upgrade for anyone still using the washed-out base Switch. Colors are vivid, as evidenced by the bright and bubbly Mario Kart World, and HDR helps keep the display light. I’ve yet to pick up any kind of noticeable haze while in handheld mode.

Even more impressive is the fact that it’s a 1080p display capable of outputting up to 120 frames per second, something that I never would have imagined from a Nintendo system. I’ve gotten to toy around with exactly what VRR can do in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which shows its frame rate potential in action.

A Nintendo Switch 2 playing Mario Kart World appears on a table.

We won’t really get to see just how powerful it is until more games go all out, but my early testing has yielded very smooth frame rates across the board. Mario Kart World impresses at 60fps, even when flying over an open-world where I can see very far off in the distance.

An improved display isn’t much without power that takes advantage of it, though. That’s where the Switch 2 comes in clutch thanks to its very capable custom Nvidia chipset. You can see its power in games like Cyberpunk 2077 that bring the Switch 2 in line with the Steam Deck, but the upgrade is most noticeable when looking at some of the original Switch’s ugliest games.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was a bit of a tech nightmare when it launched, with a stuttering frame rate and jagged lines everywhere. It is a completely different experience on Switch 2 running at 60 frames per second with clean edges.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is the other showpiece that’s sure to turn heads. That game hardly functioned on Switch, but it comes alive here. I couldn’t believe how it looked when I started dashing around the world at 60fps with more monsters popping up on screen at a time. That’s not to say that everything is magically fixed. There’s still plenty of pop-in and ugly textures, but that has more to do with the game built on spaghetti. The fact that the Switch 2 can salvage it at all is impressive.

The real test will be how brand-new games made to run on PS5 and Xbox Series X hold up. More testing will come in time, but we at least have some samples that give us an idea of what to expect long term. Split Fiction, for instance, works on the system only with some noticeable cutbacks to resolution and frame rate. It’s still an impressive feat when looking at its underpowered predecessor, but you have to keep in mind that we’re at the start of what will likely be an eight-year life cycle, one that probably cuts through another console generation.

A Nintendo Switch 2 sits in a dock.

There’s no doubt in my mind that this tech will start to feel old in four years’ time, or even less if Valve moves to make a new Steam Deck. Nintendo has caught up here, but it’s still playing from behind. DLSS support will help bridge the gap, but don’t be surprised if the features that impress you today have you yearning for an upgrade tomorrow.

It’s great to see 4K support finally available on a Nintendo console too. Mario Kart World shines on my display, and that makes me more eager to dock my system. All of these bells and whistles do come at a significant cost, though. My system got surprisingly hot the first day I put it through its paces, which explains the dock’s need for a cooling fan.

The power is a major drain on battery life too, which is the big problem with Switch 2. Despite the fact that the 5,220 mAh battery is a massive leap over its predecessor, it depletes far quicker than I’m used to coming off the OLED. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour feels like a relatively modest game, but even that drained my battery in around three hours.

Games like Mario Kart World can get down to around two and a half hours, and even that number is variable when you factor in features like GameChat. I’d say that battery life is about on par with what the original Switch’s was at launch — maybe even a bit worse — but at least you’re getting a significantly better image during that time. That makes it all a bit easier to swallow, but it’s still the system’s one major weakness.

Switch 2 games: first party, third-party, and upgrades

Like any Nintendo console, the Switch 2 will live and die by its games. We won’t have a full picture of how robust its library is for a few years, but the system is off to a good enough start with some promising things on the horizon.

On the first-party front, the main attraction is Mario Kart World. That’s the system’s Breath of the Wild equivalent, meant to be a launch day blockbuster that survives the system’s lifespan. It’s undoubtedly fun and an obvious must-have for anyone looking to use the console socially, but like the Switch 2 itself, it’s a safe start. It’s a reliable kart racer whose wow factor rests solely on a novel, but somewhat sparse open-world. It’s not Zelda caliber, but it’s a good showpiece for features like GameChat and camera integration.

Aside from that, Nintendo’s first-party efforts are a waiting game that will reward anyone who decides to wait for the holidays to grab the system. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a neat idea for a tech demo, but it only teases what the system can do.

A pack of Yoshi race in Mario Kart World.

Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Pokémon Legends Z-A, and Kirby Air Riders will all have to prove that the system’s success doesn’t rest solely on Zelda or a new 3D Mario game. Based on what we’ve demoed, it seems like at least some of those games will deliver.

To help fill the gaps, Nintendo will release several Switch 2 Editions of the Switch’s greatest hits. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom look better than ever on the new device, but titles like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet really do feel like new experiences to some extent. These updates aren’t a good enough reason to fully replay a game, but they do help broaden what’s available out the gate for those who have some gaps in their Switch library.

The most important difference between this console launch and Nintendo’s previous ones is how third-party developers are playing a role. The launch line up has already given us some big games from Cyberpunk 2077 to Sonic X Shadow Generations. Some games are a better fit than others.

While Split Fiction loses some of its visual luster on Switch 2, Civilization 7’s mouse control support makes it a better fit here than on PS5 or Xbox Series X. All that really matters here is that third-party partners seem to be all-in on the system, which puts the Switch 2 in a much healthier software position from the jump.

Switch 2 controls: new Joy-cons, mouse mode

For its controls, the Switch 2 comes with a new iteration on the Joy-cons. If you simply hated the feel of those controls on Switch, the new versions won’t do much to change your mind. The joysticks are a little bigger, but they’re otherwise the same in terms of feel.

I’m the rare sicko who loved using the original Joy-cons in a grip, but that’s less viable here. The newly redesigned grip is a big misfire, as its side grips aren’t rounded on top. The space where you’d usually rest your palms is flat, which leaves your hands awkwardly hovering in negative space. If you hate using the Joy-cons, you’ll really want to grab a traditional Pro Controller (the new version for Switch 2 is a small, but great upgrade thanks to added back buttons).

A Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-con sits on a table.

You do at least get some slight tweaks here that were much needed. The joysticks are bigger, as are the shoulder buttons on the detached Joy-cons. I would have loved to see some extra ergonomic considerations here, but the small improvement is on brand for the console’s grand theme: It’s the Switch, but just a little better.

The new Joy-cons get rid of the Switch’s rarely used IR sensors, which aren’t missed. It does keep HD Rumble, a feature that never really did much to differentiate itself from regular old rumble. It still feels a little plain next to the Dualsense’s full haptic feedback, but it does come with a surprising trick or two. As Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour will teach you, the vibration can get so fast that the controllers can actually simulate sounds like a 1-Up in Mario. I don’t know if that will amount to anything more than a fun party fact, but it’s something.

The truly new feature is the Joy-cons’ mouse functionality, and that’s the big area where the Switch 2 really feels innovative in terms of what it does for play. Both controllers can be placed on a flat surface and moved around like a mouse, both to control supported games and to navigate the Switch’s menus like a desktop.

It’s a goofy idea on paper that works remarkably well in practice. Based on my testing, the mice are pinpoint accurate even when I’m using my jeans as a mousepad instead of a table. Using them to place buildings in Civilization 7 or play high-speed minigames in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour feels natural, like using a PC mouse.

The Joy-con triggers just so happen to be in the perfect spot to function as clickers too. It all seems strange at first, but I’ve adapted to it incredibly well and am quietly hoping this is the one feature that competitors take from this generation.

I will note that during my initial testing, I was able to accidentally trigger the mouse cursor on screen while just holding the Joy-cons normally. I have not been able to reproduce that since, but it does seem as though the sensors can be a bit sensitive. Thankfully, you can disable the functionality in the settings menu if you’re worried about it screwing you up at the worst moment possible.

It’s not just that the Switch 2 has a mouse; it’s that it has two that can be used simultaneously. That’s where the console gets more into gimmick territory, but there’s some potential waiting to be unlocked here. You can use two controllers simultaneously as mice, which opens the door for some original experiences.

A hand holds a Joy-con like a mouse on an airplane tray table.

In Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster, for instance, I can play a minigame where I steer a ship’s wheel and control a cockpit full of controls around it. Another rhythm minigame tasks me with catching beats in a line formed between my Joy-cons. Those controls can seamlessly pair with motion support too, allowing players to pick up their Joy-con to shoot a basket in Drag X Drive and then place it back down to keep driving. Inventive ideas like that leave lots of rooms for designers to experiment.

But realistically, I don’t think that will happen very much. The two-mouse setup very much feels like the kind of feature Nintendo will play with in first party games, but is minimally used elsewhere. Even Mario Kart World doesn’t try to use the feature, and that’s the console’s big launch game.

The real future for mouse controls feels like it’s in first person shooters, strategy games, and other PC friendly genres that rarely adapt well to controllers. That’s less exciting than the idea of inventing entirely new games, but it’s a practical truth that’ll likely limit a good idea.

Switch 2 social features: GameChat, game sharing, camera support

While mouse controls are a strong innovation, they aren’t the Switch 2’s real tentpole feature. That would be the system’s surprisingly impressive social functionality. GameChat allows players to essentially set up a Zoom call within their system on the fly with the press of the new C button. Up to four players can enter a chat at once, using USB-connected cameras to share their video.

I’ve been using Nintendo’s official 1080p camera during testing, but I’ve also plugged in a random Logitech cam and that worked with no friction. Video comes in fairly clear and the face tracking tech always keeps my head in frame even when I’m using a transparent background. Transparency mode works fairly well, though it does occasionally pick up some visual noise in the tapestry behind my couch.

While a microphone can be plugged in, the console itself has one built in that can work even when docked. My early tests with it have been shockingly positive. I figured that it wouldn’t pick me up clearly when sitting far away from my dock, but I was coming in loud and clear according to the people I’ve chatted with.

A Nintendo Switch 2 uses a webcam.

The microphone knows whether you’re using the console docked or in handheld mode and seems to regulate the volume based on that quite well. More impressive is how well it handles background noise. My dock is directly in front of my TV, so game audio was pushing straight into it during my tests. The noise reduction seemed to cut that out entirely, only bringing my voice through.

That’s not the only magic trick either. GameChat features a speech-to-text option that will transcribe all chat audio live with surprising accuracy. It even splits that transcription up based on whoever is speaking. There’s even a text-to-speech option that’s just as impressive.

By opening the GameChat menu, I can pull up an on-screen keyboard, type something in, and have it read out loud. What’s better is that I was able to plug a keyboard into my dock through its USB port and start typing in that box instantly, no settings change required. While not every USB accessory works quite as seamlessly (my XR glasses don’t connect, and plugging in a mouse doesn’t seem to work for menus, though the option seems to be supported in some games), it’s a big step for a Nintendo console.

As great as GameChat can be, there are some big catches. Players can all screen share while in a chat, but the video comes through at the kind of frame rate that you see when you try to put a video in a PowerPoint slide. It’s not a very viable way to actually watch someone play a game, which is a shame considering that there’s a lot of potential there. I couldn’t make out much at all when I expanded a friend’s window and tried to watch his choppy, low resolution Mario Kart World gameplay.

A GameChat screen from a Nintendo Switch 2 appears on a TV.

More successful is Game Share, the second piece of the system’s social offerings. Players are able to share select games with friends either locally or while in GameChat. Doing so instantly lets a player jump into that game without downloading it. During a test, a friend invited me to join him in Super Mario Odyssey while we were chatting. A feed of Odyssey popped up on my screen and I was instantly controlling Cappy.

The resolution and frame rate can be rough during dips, but the feed looks a lot better than screen shared games do. Lag seems to be quite minimal too based on my testing, as I was able to jump my pal over a river with accuracy. The feature only works for supported games, but it does genuinely feel like the console’s most revolutionary idea so far.

If you were to isolate any small upgrade that I’ve discussed in this review, the Switch 2 might sound like a modest upgrade. The more I’ve tested, though, the more I’m finding secret depth to it all. The power boost is significant, mouse controls are a great addition, and GameChat has exceeded my expectations so far.

The design and UI still do leave me feeling like I’m using the same console, but everything starts to add up as I get more into a day-to-day groove with it. I have years of testing ahead of me, and we intended to treat this review as a work in progress just as we do with all console reviews, but we’re starting from a high point. The games will decide whether we go up or down from here.

How we tested the Switch 2

Our initial Nintendo Switch 2 review was largely based on hands-on time with our review unit, but we also incorporated some testing we did pre-launch. That included a bit of our first hands-on session with Nintendo Switch 2 in April, but we cross-referenced any findings there with our review unit to verify that information was still accurate.

We also incorporated impressions based on a full day of testing the week before the console came out, as we had a chance to test some camera and GameChat features in depth and felt comfortable having those inform some of our final impressions.

Once we got our hands on the system, we tested it extensively in a variety of use cases. We tested it on a 4K TV, a cruddy hotel screen, handheld mode, tabletop mode. We took it on the subway and used mouse controls on an airplane tray table.

We tested a large variety of games including Mario Kart World, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster, Rune Factory: Legends of Azuma and more. We tested several Nintendo Switch games on Switch 2, including games that got official updates and ones that did not. We used Balatro to test the touch screen, Fitness Boxing 3 to put the Joy-con 2 gyroscopes to the test, and Lumines Remastered to test latency on TV. Many more were tested alongside those examples.

We tested GameChat extensively with other members of the press, stress testing it as best as possible. That included Game Share testing, as well as seeing how well the connection held up on hotel wi-fi. We used Nintendo’s camera when testing GameChat, but we also tested other webcams, as well as third-party devices like USB keyboards and mice.

Other peripherals tested included the Nintendo Switch Pro controller and the Joy-con wheel. While we feel comfortable enough to put out a scored review, we will continue to test the system post-launch and update this review with any relevant findings throughout the system’s lifespan.

Buy at Best Buy

June 10, 2025

HP OMEN Max 16 review: a great laptop for gamers and creators

HP OMEN Max 16

MSRP $3,250.00

Score Details

“The HP OMEN Max 16 is fast enough and laid back enough for both gamers and creators.”

Pros

Conservative gamer aesthetic
Strong productivity performance
Excellent gaming performance
Spectacular OLED display
Good keyboard
Solid connectivity
Attractive pricing

Cons

Thick and heavy

The HP OMEN Max 16 clearly aims to appeal to a wider range of buyers than the typical gaming laptop. Yes, it has excellent RBG lighting that gives it that gamer aesthetic, but it doesn’t scream “gamer” in a way that turns off creators. And that’s a good thing, because it offers up performance that appeals to both. It’s like the heart of a sports car is hidden inside a sedan’s more sedate body.

Generally, today is a great time to buy a gaming laptop, with the introduction of Intel’s Arrow Lake-HX and Nvidia’s Blackwell GPU architecture bringing meaningful increases in performance and visual quality. I’ve reviewed a couple of them and they’ve been impressive. The OMEN Max 16 is the most impressive so far.

Specs and configuration

	HP OMEN Max 16
Dimensions	14.04 x 10.59 x 0.90 – 0.98 inches
Weight	6.1 pounds
Processor	Intel Core Ultra 9 255HX Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
RAM	16GB DDR5-5600MHz 32GB DDR5-5600MHz 64GB DDR5-5600MHz
Display	16.0-inch 16:10 FHD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS, 60-165Hz 16.0-inch 16:10 QHD+ (2560 x 1600) IPS, 60Hz 16.0-inch 16:10 QHD+ (2560 x 1600) OLED, 240Hz
Storage	512GB SSD 1TB SSD 2TB SSD
Touch	No
Ports	2 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 1 x HDMI 2.1 1 x 2.5Gb Ethernet RJ-45 1 x 3.5mm audio jack
Wireless	Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4
Webcam	1080 FHD+ with IR camera for Windows 11 Hello
Operating system	Windows 11
Battery	83 watt-hour
Price

The HP OMEN Max 16 comes in various configurations, starting at a list price of $2,100 ($1,700 on sale) for an Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and a 16.0-inch QHD+ IPS display.

Interestingly, that’s less expensive than a similarly equipped Asus ROG Strix G16 that’s equipped with the same GPU but a faster AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX chipset for $2,500. It won’t be as fast, but it’s also $300 less expensive (or $700 less if you catch the sale price).

You can also mix and match chipsets, RAM, and storage, up to 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD, and select a QHD+ OLED display. The highest-end configuration with a Core Ultra 9 275HX, 64GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD, an RTX 5090, and the OLED panel costs $4,070 ($3,670 on sale).

I reviewed the laptop with the Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an RTX 5080, and the OLED display, which is priced at $3,250 ($2,850 on sale).

Particularly at the sale prices, the OMEN Max 16 is an attractively priced gaming laptop that not only runs at high framerates with awesome display quality, but it’s also a very powerful laptop for creators.

Design

Compared to the most recent gaming machines I’ve reviewed, the HP OMEN Max 16 is a reasonably conservative design. It’s not the same kind of ultraconservative MacBook-like aesthetic of the Razer Blade 16, but it doesn’t have the same kind of jet fighter exhaust vents as the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, either.

HP walked a line between those two, making the OMEN Max 16 a laptop that you can use for more than just gaming without sticking out. The main nod to a gamer aesthetic is the per-key RGB lighting and the row of LEDs along the front that project onto the surface below.

The keyboard lighting is better than most in that each key is surrounded by lights that work with the LEDs in the lettering to give it a more cohesive feel.

I like it better than most such keyboards, where the light spills out the sides and seems more haphazard by comparison. In terms of the front row lighting, that’s very similar to the Asus ROG Strix G16.

The rest of the design is fairly simplistic, in the sense that there’s not a lot of gamer-like adornment. You won’t find anything like Asus’s AniMe Vision LEDs on the lid, like on the ROG Strix SCAR 18. The OMEN logo on the lid is subdued, and there’s just a bit of text on the rear chassis describing the laptop. The lines are relatively streamlined, and it’s mainly the venting that identifies this as a high-performance laptop.

As with most gaming laptops, the OMEN Max 16 doesn’t try to be a thin and light machine. Its thickness ranges from 0.90 inches to 0.98 inches, which is around the same thickness as the Asus and Lenovo gaming laptops I’ve recently reviewed. It weighs 6.1 pounds, which is half a pound heavier than the ROG Strix G16. And the display bezels aren’t particularly small, including the bottom hinges that’s quite large.

That makes it a very large laptop in width and depth, including the small portion that juts out the back. But of course, portability isn’t the objective. These laptops are meant to be carried from one place to another, but unlike a thin and light productivity laptop, you shouldn’t expect it to be something you regularly carry around with you. Consider the massive power brick alone, which is absolutely necessary for gaming.

In terms of its construction, the OMEN Max 16 is more than good enough. It has aluminum in the bottom chassis and lid, while the palm rest is plastic. That cuts down on waste, and because plastic isn’t heat conductive like aluminum, your hands won’t get as toasty. The lid is a little flexible, but it’s not egregious, while the rest of the laptop is solid enough. Again, it’s not MacBook-like in its construction, but there’s nothing to complain about.

Keyboard and touchpad

I mentioned the per-key RGB lighting above, and I’ll double down on how good it looks. You get full control over the lighting with the HP OMEN Gaming Hub utility, once you download and install the Light Studio add-in. This allows you to control the color scheme, effects, and more, which also applies to the RGB lighting along the front.

Of course, we’re also worried about how the keyboard feels, and I found it a bit of a mixed bag. The switches seem very snappy, although they don’t provide the same kind of tactile feedback as mechanicals switches, and they aren’t as deep. So that makes them just okay for gaming, but at the same time it’s a comfortable keyboard for general typing.

The layout includes a numeric keypad, which is great for binding macros, but the up and down arrow keys are small and recessed. I think gamers will be a bit torn on whether or not this is a great keyboard.

The touchpad is a bit small, with a lot of room left on the palm rest. It’s a mechanical version with buttons that seemed just a tad loose to me. I know that most gamers will use a gaming mouse, so it won’t matter as much. But using this as a productivity laptop wasn’t all that exciting. I’ll note that it’s more off-center from the keyboard than usual, and shifted way to the right. That took some getting used to.

Connectivity and webcam

HP OMEN Max 16 left side view showing ports and vents. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

HP OMEN Max 16 right side view showing vents and ports. — Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

I can’t complain about the OMEN Max 16’s connectivity. There are plenty of ports, including a mix of modern USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 and legacy ports, and there’s a 2.5Gb Ethernet port for anyone who wants to avoid wireless latency during gaming. And, some of the ports, including the power connection, are along the back where they’re out of the way. That’s all to the good. Wireless connectivity is fully up to date as well.

The webcam is a 1080p version, which has become the new baseline. I haven’t seen a gaming laptop yet that has a higher resolution webcam, and HP did include an infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello facial recognition. So, that’s a plus.

Note that the Intel Arrow Lake-HX chipset that this laptop is built around has a rather anaemic Neural Processing Unit (NPU), coming in at 13 tera operations per second (TOPS) that’s well below the 40 TOPS necessary to meet Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC AI initiative requirements. Of course, the Nvidia GPU is incredibly fast at processing AI, so what you’re really giving up is an NPU’s greater efficiency. And, of course, you don’t get Copilot+ features, if that matters to you.

Performance

Most of the gaming laptops I’ve reviewed in the last couple of months have been built around Intel’s Arrow Lake-HX platform, specifically using the Core Ultra 9 275HX chipset. That’s a 24 core (eight Performance and 16 Efficient) single-threaded chipset running at 5.4 GHz and consuming 55 watts of base power.

It can boost up to 160 watts, and the OMEN Max 16 can make use of all of it. It’s a very fast chipset that exceeds its predecessor and offers up some excellent gaming performance. I’ll note that I also reviewed the Asus ROG Strix G16 with the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D that has some advantages with its 3D V-Cache that makes it slightly faster for gaming.

In addition, all of the recent gaming laptops I’ve reviewed have been based on Nvidia’s latest Blackwell architecture, the 5000-series GPUs. All but one have used the GeForce RTX 5080, which is the second-fastest in Nvidia’s lineup. It uses the latest CUDA cores, streaming multiprocessors, and RT and tensor cores, and it uses Nvidia’s latest DLSS 4 with on-device AI processing that offers up much faster scaling and frame generation. The thing is, it’s not a huge jump in performance in terms of framerates, but rather all that AI processing power is aimed at making things look great. The RTX 5080 can use up to 175 watts, and again, the OMEN Max 16 can use all of it.

HP built an impressive thermal system, which obviously contributes to the laptops thickness and weight. It’s fully of buzzwords, but as far as I can tell, they’re all legit. There’s HP’s first ever Cryo Compound, which differs from liquid metal in that it offers the same kind of conductivity and coverage but avoids leakage that can cause short circuits or corrosion of nearby components.

There’s a vapor chamber that covers 60.8% of the motherboard, including all heat generating components. That’s mated to two fans that have a larger gap (2.8mm) and are more separated from the motherboard and keyboard. That helps them produce more air circulation while being quieter than the previous generation. Overall, the thermal design allows up to 250 watts of power, when split as 75 watts to the CPU and 175 watts to the GPU. Clearly, that offers up advantages for GPU-bound gaming.

And interestingly, HP develop a fan cleaning system that basically runs the fans in reverse to spit out any accumulated dust. That process can run automatically or can be manually kicked off. That means that the OMEN Max 16 is considerably more likely to maintain its thermal performance over time compared to systems without a similar feature.

The OMEN Gaming Hub utility that I referred to above gives the user plenty of control over performance. HP uses AI to manage things, by default, although that can be turned off and things like fan speed can be manually controlled. There are a number of presets, of which I used Balanced, Performance, and Unleashed in my testing.

If you choose Unleashed, then you can fully control the power provided to each component. I tested those settings put at their maximum and didn’t find a meaningful increase in performance. In fact, the biggest jump is from Balanced to Performance, which was significant in some cases. The Unleashed was just a little faster in most cases, and actually slower in some others. Fan noise was a lot louder as you step up each time, and I found that Performance provided the best balance between noise and performance.

The OMEN Max 16 was a strong performer in our productivity benchmarks, where the Lenovo Legion 7i was the fastest and the other two similarly equipped machines coming in close to equal in performance. For general computing tasks, these machines are all overkill. But all that power comes in handy if you’re running more demanding tasks like creative workflows.

In the Pugetbench Photoshop bunchmark, which runs in a live version of Adobe’s Photoshop application, the OMEN Max 16 was a bit slower than the other Intel Arrow Lake-HX machines. Photoshop benefits from single-core performance in particular, which is why Apple’s MacBook Pro 16 M4 Max is much faster thanks to the fastest CPU cores around.

Then in the Pugetbench Premiere Pro benchmark, which runs in a live version of Adobe’s Premier Pro, the OMEN Max 16 was again a little slower. But, Premiere Pro can use the GPU to speed up tasks like encoding video, so these Windows machines are slightly faster in this benchmark than the MacBook Pro.

The bottom line is that the OMEN Max 16, while not the fastest for non-gaming tasks among its peers, is nevertheless fast enough that demanding non-gaming users should consider it. That matches up with the more conservative design, where someone might want a very fast creative workstation, for example, but they don’t want to carry around a laptop that screams “gamer.” Turn off the RGB lighting and this becomes a laptop that won’t unnecessarily stand out.

	Geekbench 6 (single/multi)	Handbrake (seconds)	Cinebench R24 (single/multi/GPU)	PCMark 10 Complete	PugetBench Premiere Pro	Pugetbench Photoshop
HP OMEN Max 16 (Core Ultra 9 275HD /RTX 5080)	3,104 / 19,118	37	136 / 1,934 / N/A		9,787	8,629
Asus ROG Strix G16 (Ryzen 9 9955HX3D / RTX 5070 Ti)	3,021 / 15,946	38	128 / 1,575 / N/A	8,758	6,650	9,843
Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) (Core Ultra 9 275HD /RTX 5080)	3,050 / 18,876	35	133 / 1,998 / N/A	8,758	9,867	8,486
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (2025) (Core Ultra 9 275HX / RTX 5080)	3,136 / 20,228	33	135 / 2,054 / N/A	9,361	10,377	9,087
Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 (Core i9-14900H / RTX 4090)	1,873 / 13,175	71	117 / 916 / 8,873	9,122	N/A	6,622
Asus ROG Strix 18 (Core i9-14900HX / RTX 4090)	2,946 / 17,622	N/A	124 / 1,533 / 22,067	N/A	7,430	N/A
Asus ROG Flow Z13 (Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 / Radeon 8060S)	2,993 / 20,659	36	121 / 1,568 / NA	N/A	7,250	7,250
Alienware m16 R2 (Core Ultra 7 155H / RTX 4070)	2,366 / 12,707	N/A	103 / 1,040 / 10,884	7,028	5,590	N/A
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M4 Max 16/40)	3,626 / 25,332	48	179 /2,072 / 16,463	N/A	9,347	13,856

Gaming

Of course, gaming performance is the most important metric here, and the OMEN Max 16 was in a dead heat with the Legion Pro 7i in most of our benchmarks. The other two RTX 5080 systems were generally a little slower.

As mentioned, Nvidia’s Blackwell 5000-series GPUs are aimed more at incredible image quality than sheer performance increases, and we see that reflected here. The RTX 5080 is faster than the previous generation in most tests, but not by a huge margin. But you’ll get much better visuals, especially in titles that our optimized for DLSS 4.

In the synthetic 3DMark Time Spy benchmark, the OMEN Max 16 is the second-fastest laptop in our comparison group, lagging behind only the Legion Pro 7i. And again, that’s faster than previous generation laptops, including those running the RTX 4090, but not by a lot.

In Civilization VI, which is both CPU- and GPU-intensive, the OMEN Max 16 is the fastest laptop we’ve tested. Only the Legion Pro 7i comes close. The Omen Max 16 was faster in Cyberpunk 2077 when running at 1600p and with Ultra RT (ray tracing) settings, significantly faster than the other RTX 5080 laptops. Only the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 running the RTX 4090 has come close in our database. Then in Red Dead Redemption and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the OMEN Max 16 was in the top three or four.

The bottom line is that, as with the other recent gaming laptops with the same high-end components, the OMEN Max 16 is more than fast enough to run modern titles at 1600p and with graphics settings turned way up.

	3DMark Time Spy	Civ VI 1600p Ultra (fps)	CyberPunk 2077 1600p Ultra RT (fps)	Red Dead Redemption 1600p Ultra (fps)	Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 1600p Ultra High
HP OMEN Max 16 (Core Ultra 9 275HD /RTX 5080)	21,330	303	92	89	121
Asus ROG Strix G16 (Ryzen 9 9955HX3D / RTX 5070 Ti)	15,925	239	66	78	101
Asus ROG Strix SCAR 18 (2025) (Core Ultra 9 275HD /RTX 5080)	19,823	273	70	87	122
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (2025) (Core Ultra 9 275HX / RTX 5080)	21,486	296	77	94	127
MSI Creator Z17 HX Studio (Core i9-13950HX / RTX 4070)	11,630	157	N/A	N/A	73
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (2023) (Core i9-13900HX / RTX 4080)	18,382	223	45	99	126
Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 9 (Core i9-14900H / RTX 4090)	20,293	N/A	88	N/A	N/A
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (Core i9-13900H / RTX 4090)	18,372	191	N/A	99	N/A
Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 6 (Core i7-13800H / RTX 4080)	13,615	170	57	N/A	N/A
Asus ROG Flow Z13 (Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 / Radeon 8060S)	10,532	6	N/A	1	67

Battery life

These gaming laptops aren’t meant to be portable. If you’re looking for a laptop to take to the coffee shop for productivity work, then a laptop like the OMEN Max 16 just isn’t a great choice. Who wants to carry a 6.1-pound laptop around with them? And that’s made even worse if you have to carry the very large power adapter, too.

The OMEN Max 16 has an 83 watt-hour battery, which isn’t as much as most 16-inch gaming laptops that are usually at the maximum of 100 watts that you can carry on an airplane. It also has a high-res OLED display and other power-hungry components.

So, I wasn’t surprised that it couldn’t quite make it to four hours in our web browsing and video looping battery tests, or about an hour in our more demanding Cinebench R24 benchmark.

Display and audio

There are a few display options with the OMEN Max 16, all of them based around a 16.0-inch screen size with a 16:10 aspect ratio. There are two IPS options, one FHD+ (1920 x 1200) running at between 60Hz and 165Hz and a QHD+ (2560 x 1600) running at 60Hz. Then, the high-end display is a QHD+ OLED panel running at 240Hz. That’s the model I reviewed, and it provides the usual bright, dynamic colors and inky blacks as all OLED displays. It’s quite spectacular.

The Datacolor SpyderPro colorimeter I used to test the display agreed. It’s reasonably bright at 409 nits, which is well above our threshold of 300 nits but behind the Strix SCAR 18’s mini-LED display that generates a searing 1,084 nits. Colors are very wide at 100% sRGB, 97% AdobeRGB, and 100% DCI-P3, which excellent accuracy at a DeltaE of 0.82 (indistinguishable to the human eye). And blacks are perfect, with incredibly high contrast.

The bottom line is that you’ll love this display for everything you might want to do with the OMEN Max 16. That includes productivity work, creative tasks, and, of course, gaming. High dynamic range (HDR) support is excellent, which is great for games that run HDR as well as streaming media.

There are two downward-firing speakers, which is a departure from some other gaming machines that have quad-speaker setups. The audio is okay, with clear mids and highs and some bass, but it doesn’t pump out a lot of sound. You’ll want to use headphones while gaming, because the fans get loud enough to drown out the audio.

I had the opportunity to try out the HyperX Cloud III S wireless gaming headphones, and while I won’t be providing a review of those, I can attest that they’re awesome. They support DTS X Spatial Audio, which makes them great for games that support that technology, and overall they’re great for gaming, music, and media consumption.

By nature, they pump out a lot of bass, which supports TV shows, movies, and games a lot better than pure musical listening, but even so, I liked them quite a bit. They work very nicely with the OMEN Max 16 by supporting the Instant Pair feature that works a lot like Apple’s headphones with Apple devices. Just turn the headphones on and they automagically pair. It works quite well. They cost $180, but they’re well worth it for serious gamers.

Another awesome Arrow Lake-HX and Blackwell option

The OMEN Max 16 is just as fast as the competitors I’ve reviewed so far, and in some cases it’s capable of the highest framerates. It’s also a very speedy laptop for creators, capable of churning through photo and video editing tasks. It features a solid build and attractive RGB lighting.

It’s also a more conservative design, meaning it doesn’t scream “gamer” quite as loudly. Combine that with a relatively attractive price, especially on sale, and you have a laptop that can serve the needs of both gamers and creators. If that’s you, then the OMEN Max 16 should certainly be on your shortlist.

June 6, 2025

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour review: the perfect pack-in that could have been
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour

MSRP $10.00

3/5

★★★☆☆

Score Details

“Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour should have been a charming pack-in game.”

✅ Pros
- Charming museum presentation
- Genuinely informative
- Very entertaining minigames
❌ Cons
- Too many quizzes
- Should have been a pack-in
- Can’t play it all without add-ons
“Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.“

It was a day I’d been anticipating for months. The Nintendo Switch 2 was finally in my hands, and a new world of possibilities was at my fingertips. And as luck would have it, I had to catch a cross-country flight not 24 hours after unboxing my console. I was thrilled; for six hours, no stress or adult responsibilities would get between me and my shiny new toy. I boarded and got ready to spend what I assumed would be a flight full of kart driving and Pokémon catching.

Instead, I played Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour for nearly five hours straight.

If you’ve been following Nintendo news ever since the Switch 2’s reveal, that may sound a little sacrilegious. The console’s other launch game, an interactive tech demo built to show off the new hardware, was branded a black sheep right from the jump. It looked like a virtual instruction manual that should have been free but would cost $10 on top of an already pricey console purchase. As mockery took hold, Nintendo tried to plead that the package was more valuable than it seemed. After hyper fixating on it during valuable Mario Kart World time, I both scoff at that and completely get it in the same breath.

Despite being one of Nintendo’s most head-scratching launch games ever, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a deceptively effective piece of edutainment. It’s a genuinely informative celebration of game console engineering that’s loaded with simple, but engrossing proof of concept minigames that paint a promising picture of what’s to come. It’s a cut above 1-2 Switch as far as tech demos go, but the price tag only feels more absurd in context of what’s often a cleverly disguised shopping catalogue.

A slice of edutainment

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is essentially a museum exhibit in game form. Players are dropped into an exhibition celebrating the grand launch of their new system and given free roam to explore every piece of it. The Joy-cons, the display, the dock, even accessories like Nintendo’s new camera — everything is turned into an explorable space. The aim is to learn about how each piece of the system works through a stamp rally, pop quizzes, minigames, and interactive tech exhibits. It’s the most Nintendofied version of an instruction manual you can imagine, and that idea is both more entertaining and useful than it sounds.

How did I find myself laser focused on it for an entire flight? That’s largely thanks to a gradual progression system that gradually deals knowledge out in tasty hooks. Stamp collecting is the core thrust of that, as I need to find a terminal attached to every key part of a system component to unlock the next area, with 12 in total. It has the satisfaction of a simple checklist, but one that shows players exactly where every key part of the console is.

Nintendo

While I’m searching for stamps, I’m also checking in at scattered kiosks to take bite-sized quizzes. There, I simply need to read a few short blurbs about a specific Switch 2 feature and answer some basic reading comprehension questions. If that sounds like homework, well, okay, it is. The later portion of Welcome Tour, where it gets into the nerdy internals of the system, especially feels like a chore to get through. But those chores aren’t without merit. Each quiz is genuinely informative, getting into nitty gritty details about the system that aren’t explained anywhere else. It’s the only place you’ll learn that the new Joy-cons can simulate sounds, or that the new touchscreen supports 10 simultaneous touchpoints. Even more fascinating is when Nintendo uses quizzes to break down the engineering that went into Switch 2, explaining what crucial function even the smallest piece of plastic has. If you’re someone who really cares about how things are made, Welcome Tour is a handy reference document to have.

If you still think all of this sounds tremendously boring, the more interactive side of the package will be more of a draw. In order to illustrate how certain features work, Welcome Tour is loaded with minigames built around mouse controls, HD rumble, the touch screen, and even the Pro Controller’s back buttons. Every game is simple in nature, landing somewhere between a Game Builder Garage experiment and a full Mario Party minigame, but many are shockingly fun. Something as simple as guiding a spaceship around falling spike balls becomes an obsessive high score chase just because of how well it showcases the mouse controls’ precision. Time flew away during my flight as I shot balloons in first-person, hunted for tiny glowing pixels on my display, and played an ingenious game of hand Twister that required me to get all 10 of my fingers firmly placed on colored squares. Don’t be surprised if some of these games get repurposed for the next WaroWare installment. My primary gripe here is that it feels like a missed opportunity to not work in some leaderboards so I can fight my friends for high scores.

All of that is tied off with a few interactive tech demos that make techy concepts easier to understand. A VRR slider tool lets players play around with frame rates and see the difference between numbers in clear terms. There’s a HDR fireworks display that lets players shoot off rockets and see how the brightness changes when the feature is enabled. Another tool lets players create their own HD rumble vibrations so they can feel the difference between frequencies on the fly. I walked away from each one knowing a little bit more about the tech thanks to hands-on experience.

See, Welcome Tour is the kind of thing you have to meet where it is: It’s Nintendo turning something technical into playful edutainment. It’s cut from the same cloth as Nintendo Labo and Game Builder Garage, created to inform and inspire kids. It makes engineering look like a fun puzzle where every challenge a game console presents can be solved with a well-placed piece of metal. The Nintendo Switch 2 is filled with design decisions like that, as explained in quizzes about how its magnetic Joy-cons and redesigned kickstand work. Learning can be fun, and Nintendo makes a strong case for itself as that zany substitute teacher your kids adore.

Paying for an ad

That’s the brighter side of Welcome Tour, but the sour grapes around it are legitimate. $10 doesn’t sound like a lot of money, especially for a game that takes around six hours to complete before any long-tailed high-score chasing, but that price tag becomes very hard to swallow the deeper the game goes. On a fundamental level, it feels like fans have to pony up for an instruction manual that either should have come with their $450 box or just uploaded to a Nintendo website for free. Why is so much valuable information about how a console’s chip works locked behind an admission fee? Any amount of money feels absurd for that.

I try to brush that off initially as I find myself obsessing over the minigames, but the sense of unease only grows once I start exploring the console’s optional accessories. A chunk of the game has me learning about the Pro Controller, steering wheel attachment, camera, and other items that don’t come in the box with the system. Welcome Tour hypes up all of those products, going into full sales mode as it explains how several webcams should theoretically work with Switch 2, but Nintendo’s camera is your safest bet. At one point I talk to an NPC while exploring the steering wheel, who says that she wants to ask her dad to buy her two for Christmas. The charming illusion of Welcome Tour faded away at that moment; I realized that I was playing an advertisement.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Every tech demo game is an ad to some extent. They are built to hype up a new console, compelling buyers to get new games so they can see all the features they learned about in action. Look how well that worked for Astro’s Playroom, which turned a four-hour PS5 ad into a Game of the Year-winning platformer built to hype up the PlayStation brand. But something about Welcome Tour feels especially egregious. For instance, there are a small handful of minigames that you simply can’t play if you don’t have a controller with back buttons or a camera. Buying the console and then buying Welcome Tour still isn’t enough to even access the full thing.

All of that leaves me torn as I try to decide if it’s worth recommending it to new Switch 2 owners. On a moral level, it feels a little slimy. $10 isn’t a lot of money for the hours of play you get here, but it feels like paying to watch a commercial. Nintendo even uses the platform to pepper in some revisionist history, proclaiming that it’s always been a pioneer of features like voice chat on console — one of the most patently absurd things I have heard in a year where the Pittsburgh Steelers signed a washed-up Aaron Rodgers after two historically embarrassing seasons with the New York Jets.

Nintendo

But then there’s the other side of me that can’t deny how much I got out of this launch day oddity. I’m more knowledgeable about gaming tech, I have a greater appreciation of technical engineering, and I’m filled with genuine curiosity when I look at my Joy-cons. I could keep chipping away at my mini game high scores for hours, daring friends to one up me in a GameChat call. Nintendo believes that it’s fair to put a price on that experience and I find it hard to entirely disagree. The fact that this dragged me away from an $80 tentpole launch game has to count for something. Maybe Nintendo can play peacemaker by giving those who convince their friends to buy it a commission if it leads to a Pro Controller sale. $10 for an affiliate link seems like a fair trade, no?

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour was tested on Nintendo Switch 2.
June 6, 2025

Whoop 5.0 Review: Distraction-free health tracking

Whoop 5.0

MSRP $199.00

3.5/5

★★★☆☆

Score Details

“The Whoop 5.0 is a lightweight fitness tracker with long battery life and a comprehensive, data packed app. However, the subscription-based purchase may make it an expensive option.”

✅ Pros

Light and durable
Data-packed app
Long battery life
Huge array of activities to track
No distractions

❌ Cons

Paywalled features
Ongoing subscription to access data

“Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.“

A dedicated, screen-less fitness band seems like a hard sell in the times of flashy smart rings and feature-packed smartwatches, but Whoop is back with the Whoop 5.0 anyway. Aimed at more performance orientated individuals, it minimizes distractions and concentrates on assisting you in improving your health through coaching, data, and helping to build strong habits. I’ve worn it for 21 days to find out if a fitness band is worth wearing in 2025.

Whoop 5.0: design

The side of the Whoop 5.0 on a person's wrist. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Whoop 5.0 is designed similarly to the Whoop 4.0, but this time there are two versions, the Whoop 5.0 and the Whoop MG. The central module contains all the technology and sensors, and it’s attached to a fabric band which is available in different colors and materials. If you choose the Whoop MG, it unlocks the electrocardiogram, irregular heart rate alert, and blood pressure readings.

Health monitoring is the Whoop’s focus. There’s no screen, it doesn’t tell the time, and it doesn’t alert you about notifications from your phone. You wear it only to track health stats, sleep, and activity. I’ve been wearing the Whoop MG and it’s just 28 grams, which allows me to comfortably wear it 24 hours a day without a problem. It’s never sweaty, feels durable, and has an IP68 dust and water resistance rating. If you’re looking for tracker you don’t have to worry, or even think about at all, the Whoop 5.0 is a great choice.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

However, it’s not very subtle or pretty. The module is quite thick and attached to a wide band, and the Whoop MG has a polished clip holding it all together, so it’s quite noticeable. It’s not particularly stylish wrist band, so if you’re looking to track health and activity using something which also looks great, the Whoop probably won’t be at the top of your list.

It’s where I’m conflicted about the Whoop. It’s comfortable because it’s light and it doesn’t interrupt my day at all, but I don’t feel anything for it. I’ve worn it on my right wrist opposite a normal watch, which is a welcome benefit, but I look at it and wish it was slimmer, smaller, and far more incognito. There’s a reason smart rings and smartwatches have taken over from traditional fitness bands, as they can make some kind of lifestyle or fashion statement, and wearing the Whoop MG reminded me why I generally prefer them.

Whoop 5.0: app

The Whoop 5.0 with the app. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

No-one will buy the Whoop for the hardware. It’s the means to an end, with the end being all the data it collects shown in the Whoop app. It’s quite different to Apple Health or Samsung Health, and at least for the beginning until you’re used to it, it’s less user friendly than both. The top of the main page shows the expected sleep metric as a percentage, and it’s joined by Recovery and Strain, and understanding these is key to getting something from the Whoop band.

Recovery is a bit like a daily Readiness score, while the Strain metric is more like a daily activity score. Tap each one to see deeper insights and more expected data points like heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate, and steps. Each section has a host of graphs showing how your current scores relate to the last week. It’s by using the Recovery and Strain data points you’ll understand how you’re set for the day.

The side of the Whoop 5.0's sensor module. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Go beyond these stats and the Whoop app will overwhelm you with information, much of it repeated in different places throughout the app. The Health Monitor tool also shows HRV, resting heart rate, and other key stats. Scroll down the main screen and My Dashboard shows many of the same data points too. Keep navigating through the screens and there are a lot more graphs related to strain, stress, sleep, and activity.

Whoop 5.0: advice and training

Screenshots taken from the Whoop 5.0 app. — Whoop

What can you do with all this data? Check the Daily Outlook page and you get an AI-style summary from an assistant, with some basic recommendations on how to reach your Strain target. You can ask the assistant questions. For example, ask it how to lower stress and it recommends breath work, mindfulness, outdoor activities, and hydration. It’s all very general, as you’d expect from a non-medical device.

The app encourages you to fill in a daily journal, but I’ve yet to really see how it impacts the advice or app, plus you can set up individual plans to help boost fitness, feel better, or sleep better. There’s little direct motivation to push though, something not helped by the lack of a screen. Elsewhere there’s a Strength Trainer mode which unlocks a range of workouts. These are guided through the app, but it’s not very well automated so you spend a lot of time tapping the screen to go through the plan, which is distracting. It’s far from the excellent workouts in Apple Fitness Plus.

You can also track a huge array of live activities, and I really like how they can be filtered by what you hope to achieve, whether that’s boosting Strain or promoting recovery and sleep. Tracking happens instantly, the workout screen and map looks great and holds lots of information, and while it’s a bit awkward to end a workout (the button is needlessly hidden), the Whoop does that fitness band basic — tracking activity — really well. Get more deeply into the activities and there’s helpful additional information such as V02 Max and strength related metrics.

The Whoop app doesn’t hold back on data, but it doesn’t present it in a particularly friendly way, which is where it loses points compared to the Oura Ring 4, the Apple Watch Series 10, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7. It’s also less highly motivated in its efforts to get you moving than I remember the Whoop 4.0 being, and the emphasis on high performance activity tracking appears to have been minimized. It indicates Whoop has shifted away slightly from its hardcore user base, yet hasn’t fully adapted its app or data presentation to cater directly to casual users.

Whoop 5.0: extra features and subscription plans

The Whoop 5.0's sensor. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Whoop MG has more functionality than the Whoop 5.0, but to unlock the extras you have to pay a higher subscription. You don’t technically buy the Whoop hardware, you pay an annual subscription, and your choice of plan dictates which features you get. The cheapest plan doesn’t include the Stress Monitor, Health Monitor, Healthspan readout, ECG, irregular heart rate, or blood pressure reading. To get all these features you need the Whoop MG and the top annual plan, and there’s an in-between option without the ECG, irregular heart rate, or blood pressure reading.

What you really need to understand is to use the Whoop you’ll have to pay for it every year. This isn’t a one-and-done fitness tracker, it’s an ongoing commitment. If you stop, there’s no free option to get the very basics. Even the Oura Ring offers that. If you want all the features and data it’s an expensive piece of equipment, which isn’t bad provided it justifies the cost when you use it. See the table below for long-term costs, and note you can make a saving by signing up for 24 months when you buy the Whoop.

Device	One year cost of ownership	Two years cost of ownership	Three years cost of ownership
Whoop 5.0 One	$199	$398 (24 months $299)	$597
Whoop 5.0 Peak	$239	$478 (24 months $399)	$717
Whoop MG Life	$359	$718 (24 months $599)	$1077
Oura Ring 4	From $349, plus $66 subscription	$138 ($487 total after 2 years)	$210 ($559 total after 3 years)
RingConn Gen 2 Air	$240	N/A	N/A
Apple Watch Series 10	From $399	N/A	N/A

Although it presents its data using different words to other activity trackers, the data when you drill down is basically the same as any other. I haven’t found the Whoop actively pushes me forward, or provides a different level of insight into my health and wellbeing compared to other health wearables I use. I can also get the extra features, such as an ECG and blood pressure readings, from other non-subscription wearables. Even if you don’t personally need this data now, it’s nice to have it there, for free, should you eventually do so.

There’s a lot to think about with the Whoop, far more so than any buying decision required for a wearable which doesn’t have an annual subscription attached. Because the device’s focus has seemingly shifted away from athletes and fitness fanatics, it’s less clear who should have it on their buying list in the first place. It certainly doesn’t do anything badly, but it doesn’t do anything dramatically better than other wearables.

Whoop 5.0: battery and charging

The Whoop 5.0 on charge. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The upside to not having a screen and plenty of room in the module for a sensibly sized battery is long battery life. Whoop estimates about 14 days from a single charge, and this fits in with my use. I’m on day 21 and there’s 40% battery remain from when I charged it after 15 days. It’s impressive, especially as many wearables work harder during the getting to know you period.

Charging takes at least 90 minutes, but the way you charge it also depends on which subscription plan you choose. The basic plan has a wired charger, but the other more expensive plans provide a wireless power pack, which can be used to charge the band without taking it off your wrist. It’s a good idea, especially if you’re absolutely obsessed with 24-hour a day tracking with no breaks, but if you’re fine with missing out on a few hours worth of data, the regular charger will work just as well.

The Whoop 5.0 with a watch for size comparison. — Size comparison with Whoop MG (left) and Casio G-Shock Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Long battery life is one of the Whoop 5.0’s biggest advantages, and being able to put it on your wrist and forget about it for two weeks sets it apart from most smartwatches. It’s also at least twice the length of time you get from the Oura Ring 4, and about five days more than the RingConn Gen 2 Air. If regularly charging any wearable is something that puts you off, the Whoop should suit you.

Whoop 5.0: price and availability

Whoop has simplified its subscription model compared to the Whoop 4.0. There are three tiers starting out with the One plan for $199 per year, the Peak plan for $239 per year, and the Life plan for $359 per year. To see what each one provides, take a look at the table below. A O represents an included feature, while an X represents a feature missing from that plan.

Feature	Whoop One	Whoop Peak	Whoop Life
Sleep, Strain, Recovery	O	O	O
Personalized Coaching	O	O	O
Vo2 Max/Heart Rate Zones	O	O	O
Cycle Tracking	O	O	O
Healthspan and Pace of Aging	X	O	O
Health Monitor/Health Alerts	X	O	O
Real-time Stress Monitor	X	O	O
Blood Pressure	X	X	O
ECG and Heart Scanner	X	X	O
Advanced Health Sensing	X	X	O
Strap	CoreKnit	SuperKnit	SuperKnit Luxe
Charger	Wired charger	Wireless Charger Pack	Wireless Charger Pack

While Whoop tells you clearly what it will cost you each year, it’s better to think about how much it will cost you to own for a couple of years, as realistically most will keep a wearable they buy for longer than 12 months. This is where the Whoop gets expensive compared to the competition. An Apple Watch Series 10 costs $400 with no ongoing subscription, and the RingConn Gen 2 Air costs $240 without any subscription.

The Apple Watch’s feature set compares with the Whoop Life plan, while the RingConn Gen 2 Air easily takes on the basic Whoop One plan. The Oura Ring 4 is somewhere in-between the two. During my use the Whoop MG has not done anything over and above what I get from those devices. The blood pressure monitoring and ECG are not included in my test account, but the blood pressure feature is similar to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7, in that it’s essential to have a standard blood pressure monitoring cuff to get started. I’ve used the Withings BPM Connect for a while, and it costs $130 without any subscription.

Should you buy the Whoop 5.0?

A person wearing the Whoop 5.0. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Whoop 5.0 is a lightweight activity tracker with long battery life and an app packed with data. Dig deep and its hardcore fitness tracking roots are still there, but they’re not as heavily emphasized. While this may make the Whoop appeal to casual fitness fans, it doesn’t offer anything substantial above and beyond what the casual user would get from any other wearable. Those seriously into fitness will appreciate the wide variety of activities available to track, and the sheer wealth of data.

After my time with the Whoop 5.0, it has left me a bit confused. There’s nothing wrong with it or its app, and if it cost around $240 all-in it would be a solid recommendation if you’re really into fitness. The subscription model makes it less appealing, especially to someone only a bit interested in monitoring their health, as far better options exist. Why you’d wear a large, rather obvious fitness band like the Whoop over a smart ring, I’m also not sure.

The Whoop 5.0 detached from its strap. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

There’s definitely still space in the crowded world of wearables for a screen-less, or minimal fitness band like the Whoop, but less so when it has an expensive, ongoing subscription plan tied to it, especially when it doesn’t provide all that much reason for you to pay for it compared to the many other options available. The Whoop 5.0 is a decent health and activity tracker, but think very carefully about how much it’s going to cost you to own long-term before signing up.

May 28, 2025

Elden Ring: Nightreign review: it’s worth fighting through matchmaking hell
Elden Ring: Nightreign

MSRP $40.00

3.5/5

★★★☆☆

Score Details

“Elden Ring: Nightreign is a thrilling co-op game kneecapped by archaic online integration.”

✅ Pros
- Smart roguelike loop
- Strategic teamwork
- Memorable weapons
- Exciting new bosses
❌ Cons
- Poor onboarding
- Inconsistent performance
- Archaic matchmaking
Buy at Amazon

“Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.“

Ever since 2009’s Demon’s Souls kicked off a new subgenre of action game, FromSoftware has repeatedly put players in the fights of their lives against hard-hitting bosses. With Elden Ring: Nightreign, it’s now giving fans their fiercest opponent yet: online matchmaking.

Ah, what a fearsome devil it is! How many wars have been lost over the years due to long queues that stall the flow of reinforcements? How many demons have been allowed to run roughshod over an unprotected world as brave heroes struggle to figure out whether or not they can pair up together on different consoles? It is a silent killer that now looms large over The Lands Between, threatening to keep its potential heroes locked in a crypt, far away from the thrills and splendor of the world above.

If you can climb out of that darkness, overcoming convoluted matchmaking and inconsistent performance, there’s an exciting multiplayer game waiting at the surface. Elden Ring: Nightreign’s highs make it worth fighting through the lows, but I couldn’t blame any warrior who would rather just sit the battle out until it gets some much needed improvements.

Putting a run together

Built as a way to capitalize on the success of 2022’s Elden Ring without committing to a full sequel, Nightreign puts a clever co-op spin on the open-world game by turning it into a roguelike. It’s a smart remix that gets more use out of existing assets while inventing a replayable multiplayer game with unexpected strategic depth despite its RPG hooks being much more streamlined than a standard Soulslike. Fully finding that hook takes a lot of effort, but it pays off for those patient enough to push through its most obvious flaws.

Don’t ask me what the story here is about. I know that it’s my job to tell you that, but I just don’t have the answer for you. FromSoftware’s games are infamous for their cryptic stories that dole out layers of lore, but Nightreign is especially obtuse with its sea of proper nouns that do little to actually deepen the world of Elden Ring. Oh, you want to know all the juicy details about the Nightfarers and their quest to defeat the Nightlords while avoiding the Night’s Tide? That’s all spooky set dressing to explain why players need to vanquish eight bosses quickly as a shrinking circle of flames closes in on them, Fortnite-style. I’ll leave it to the lore videos to try and decode every stray NPC conversation in the Roundtable Hold, but this is largely a story built to justify a gameplay scenario. It’s FromSoftware letting its hair down after a decade and a half of tireless worldbuilding packed into every weapon description.

Bandai Namco

What’s more worth dissecting is how an actual roguelike run works. Players begin by selecting which Nightlord they’re pursuing. They are then dropped into Limveld, an alternate reality take on Elden Ring’s world that remixes its sights into a compact island that’s dense with points of interest, loot, and bosses. A run takes place over three days. On the first and second, players explore as much of the map as possible as the circle gradually pushes them towards a final arena. Before that happens, squads have to use their time wisely to take out enemies, gain experience points, find powerful weapons, and craft a viable build before taking on a boss. If they survive the first two days, they’re then teleported to a cosmic arena where they’ll try to take down the boss.

Though it sure looks like your average Soulslike, it’s playing by a very different set of rules that might throw veterans off more than newcomers. This is a roguelike first and foremost with an emphasis on power management over RPG min-maxing and reactive skill. Leveling up, for instance, is a static process. Once I have enough runes, I simply have to run to a site of grace and spend them to have my stats automatically boosted based on the stat layout of the character I’ve selected. A successful run hinges on a party’s ability to amass runes and upgrades by cutting through as many minibosses as possible in a day, all while stopping to grab additional flask charges from churches and uncovering other stray secrets along the way. Doing so will help them level up and stack passive upgrades that will put them in the best position possible to take down the big bads. If you can make it to the third day with your party around level 13, there’s a good chance you’ll win. The engaging challenge is learning how to consistently pull that off.

It took me a long time to crack the code, which made for some frustrating early runs that had me swearing the entire project off. That’s the way in which it’s most similar to a traditional Soulslike. A total lack of coherent onboarding means that it’s up to players to figure out how it all works, something that I fear may turn the all-important casual multiplayer crowd away early. But once it all clicks, Nightreign turns into an enthralling action gauntlet that rewards players who can react to the world quickly.

My first success came after a three hour session with a set squad over voice chat. I had started to understand bits and pieces at that point, but this was the first time where I could craft a long-term plan with two other players who were on the same page as me. With each loss, we loaded back in and put any knowledge we’d earned to good use. We soon began starting each run by chasing down bosses and churches around the edge of the world, as those would be closed off to us first once the ring started moving. From there, our team leader would quickly pop into the map and call out a path we could follow towards the center that would let us cross through as many points of interest as possible. “If we go this way, we can hit this boss, stop at this church, and open that evergoal in rapid succession.” An action-focused gauntlet turned into a connect-the-dots routing puzzle that tested our ability to navigate a world quickly.

That format still leaves room for strong risk-reward dynamics. At one point, we came face to face with a giant centipede that we were barely denting with our attacks. We kept trying anyway, reviving one another when it would take us out in two hard hits and expending precious items like Warming Stones to keep the party’s health topped off. By the time we got it’s health down to half way, we noticed that the circle was coming. We were left with a choice: Do we stay and finish it off or cut our losses and spend our time getting easy wins elsewhere? In this case, we stood our ground and unleashed all of our special skills. It went down just as the fire came in and we reaped our rewards behind the damaging wall before dashing out and continuing on. It was a pure thrill built solely around time management rather than pinpoint parrying.

That’s bound to trip up the “get good” crowd who enjoy Souls games for the skill; slowly grinding down every hard boss with careful evasion is a death sentence. Nightreign flexes entirely different muscles, testing how well players can build and push their momentum. That means that some runs can be overly fragile, as a party that can’t amass some level ups early will be stuck in a power deficit that’s hard to climb out of. But the excitement of a success comes from learning how to execute a reactive game plan that ends with a Nightlord corpse rotting in the sand.

Elden remix

To pull this all off only three years after Elden Ring’s release, FromSoftware carefully threads new ideas into existing assets and systems from the base game. Limveld is an amalgamation of different points of interest from The Lands Between, dotted with familiar churches, mines, and castles. I fight a rogue’s gallery of Elden Ring enemies from the Bell Bearing Hunter to Margit, and even some stray Dark Souls bosses. Sites of grace, wandering vendors, armament upgrading, and more are accounted for in more compact forms. It feels like a well-designed fan mod built from a creative suite, one that turns the movement speed up and turns off fall damage.

It’s the way that those familiar elements are remixed with new ones that makes the approach work. Take its character progression, for instance. Rather than selecting a class that I’ll build on with tiny changes, I pick a specific hero at the start of every run that has two special abilities and a passive perk. The Guardian is a giant bird who starts with a halberd, has access to a powerful slam attack, and has a stat distribution built around HP and stamina. The Ironeye, on the other hand, is a weak archer who can pick enemies off from afar with unlimited shots. Each can still be built up through a run, equipping any weapon and perk, but it makes Elden Ring feel more like a hero shooter. Team composition becomes paramount when trying to figure out the best way to approach a boss.

Combat remains mostly unchanged from Elden Ring, though boss fights tend to go by much quicker with three people. I still need to dodge roll or parry to avoid familiar attack patterns. What’s different is that weapon perks play a much bigger role in battle now. Rare and legendary gear can turn regular old swords from the base game into electrified blades that call forth lightning bolts. My best run had me wielding a flaming whip that could summon a pool of lava around enemies when I had enough FP. I tried to shape any passive perks I grabbed around that, nabbing a relic that would let me recover magic on successive attacks. All of the sticky enjoyment of putting together a build in Dead Cells carries over to the Elden Ring formula quite well.

Bandai Namco

The roguelike format isn’t always a clean fit for FromSoftware’s usual design philosophy, though. There’s a small bit of permanent progression in the form of relics, which add passive perks onto character classes. These are earned after runs and give players perks like “Attack +1” that are often imperceptible in practice. Elden Ring’s “die and try again” loop can be tricky too, as falling to a boss means restarting a run that can take a good 30 minutes just to see more of its attack patterns. That’s par for the course for any roguelike, but it can feel especially punishing when coming up against FromSoftware’s brand of tricky attacks that are meant to be studied over multiple attempts.

At least the Nightlords aren’t your typical, predictable bosses. FromSoftware takes the unique three-player setup as a chance to imagine what new tricks it can pull off. Gradius, for instance, is a three-headed dog that occasionally splits into three individual beasts. That gives the fight a unique pace, as teams need to know when to divide and conquer. It’s a very different fight from Adel, an enormous hippo-dragon that tries to gobble players up with its massive jaws. That fight is more about using one player as a distraction, letting the other two stab it from behind while its mouth is hyper fixated on one meal. Dynamics like that show that there’s still much more FromSoftware can do with its Souls formula, just as Elden Ring showed how a true open-world game can change how a battle plays out.

Matchmaking hell

There are little quirks here and there that put a dent in a fairly good idea. Trying to revive enemies by whacking them with a weapon is incredibly clumsy, for instance. Runs can be a little repetitive too, even as new bosses rear their heads and the map shifts through world events. It’s also disappointing to see Elden Ring’s performance issues return here. I was getting occasional frame rate choppiness even on PS5 Pro’s Performance Mode, as well as texture pop-in. Even that list issue is a small problem compared to Nightreign’s true weak point: its archaic online integration that makes getting into a game far more challenging than it should be.

Nightreign is ideally played with a squad of three people. It can be played solo, but that experience is incredibly unpleasant. While there’s some scaling meant to help solo players get by, it’s not nearly helpful enough as players will be taking down multiple enemies at once, something built around the assumption that there will be three people to control a crowd. I’ve only toyed around with solo play a bit, but I never have even had a hope of getting through night one by myself. There’s no duo option at present either, so three players is the only viable way to play right now.

There are several hurdles to getting a full team together. The biggest issue is that Nightreign does not feature cross-play. Your friends will all need to get it on one platform to party up, which is absurd for a demanding multiplayer game in 2025. They’ll also all need to have cleared the first boss in order to play any other expedition together. If you don’t have enough friends on one platform, you can matchmake with strangers, but I’d highly advise against that option. Communication is crucial to success, as players splintering off in random directions can kill a run before it even starts. There’s no way to chat with players in game; the only communication system is an insufficient ping system. Even if you want to try your luck with random players, there are still obstacles that will stretch your odds of matching up thin. You’ll have to queue up for a specific expedition, meaning that there are eight separate playlists that will split the already split community at launch (you can queue up for multiple at a time, but that won’t help if you’re looking to do a specific boss).

Even more complicated is how it all buts up against Nightreigtn’s most unique feature: the Shifting Earth. After clearing the first boss, the world map will inherit one of a handful of mutations. A giant crater may open up in the middle of it, creating a vertical space that occasionally erupts like a volcano. It’s a smart way to change the otherwise static map, but there’s a catch as far as I understand: players with different world states can’t always match together. As far as I understand, you can not match with players who have a world event active if you’ve yet to see that event in your own world. So if you’ve only had a crater in your game, you won’t be able to matchmake with someone who currently has a mountain active. I think. I still don’t fully get how the restriction works and it is not explained in-game as far as I can tell.

Maybe none of this will be a problem once the game goes live and millions of players hop in across each platform, but it is unfathomable to me that a multiplayer game is launching with so many hoops. Even something as simple as setting a room password so friends can join is cumbersome, as I often found I’d have to cancel my matchmaking once or twice and try again to connect with friends who had the same code set. Nightreign is built to be played with a consistent group of friends who intend to tackle every mission together over voice chat. Good luck to anyone who dares to try anything else.

Issues like this remind me why it took me so long to truly appreciate FromSoftware’s games. Every time I review one, I feel like so much of my time gets spent breaking down unforced errors like this that carry over from game to game. Maybe they’re harder to change than I think. Maybe FromSoftware feels that it doesn’t need to change anything because it’ll eat up awards and critical praise no matter how glaring the barriers to entry are. All I know is that a bulk of the conversations I’ve had with other members of the press during this review cycle has been about how bizarre the matchmaking is and how much that will hurt its chances of success. It’s a boring conversation! I’d much rather be discussing the artistry on display, but Nightreign too often invites us to focus on it as a product.

At least that product is engrossing when all the stars align. The constant euphoria Nightreign provides once I’m in a coordinated party is remarkable. I get the same thrill that I get when beating a hard boss in Elden Ring but magnified thanks to dozens of little decisions my team made along the way. I’m not just celebrating because I parried enough attacks, but because I had the sense to stop and kill that one stray boss even as the flames threatened to engulf me. One mistake can spoil a good run, but you can’t let it stop you from pushing ahead to victory. Maybe FromSoftware understands that better than everyone, earning every pass it has received over the years. All that matters is the killing blow, and Nightreign lands that strike when it counts.

Elden Ring: Nightreign was tested on PS5 Pro.
May 28, 2025
To a T review: imperfection defines Katamari Damacy creator’s new game
To a T

MSRP $20.00

3/5

★★★☆☆

Score Details

“To a T’s well-intentioned story about inclusivity misses key nuances about disability.”

✅ Pros
- Inventive gameplay
- Creative controls
- Catchy music
- Well-meaning story
❌ Cons
- Weaker back half
- Mixed messaging on disability
- Lacking accessibility options
“Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.“

There’s no such thing as perfection. Just look at To a T.

The latest project from Uvula, a small studio co-founded by Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, is a celebration of life’s imperfections. It’s an oddball game about a kid stuck in a perpetual T-pose who is trying to, quite literally, fit into the world around them. That’s no easy task when you’re dealing with grade school bullies who will take any opportunity they can to get a laugh at your expense — or trying to figure out where the sun went all of a sudden. Wackiness and sincerity come together to form a charming twist on the typical adventure game formula that has its heart in the right place.

Considering that thematic intent, it’s no surprise that To a T is, itself, proudly imperfect. Its experimental spirit leads to a compact story that packs a lot of creative swings into eight disjointed chapters. I can learn to appreciate the structural imbalance as a byproduct of originality, just as I can forgive some unsightly bugs and camera issues, but it’s harder to fully hand wave away root problems. As a story that wades into grounded conversations about disability amid cosmic silliness, To a T struggles to do its subject matter with the nuance it needs despite its best intentions.

Inventive gameplay

To a T’s best quality is the fact that you can’t box it in with easy genre descriptors. I could be reductive here and call it a narrative adventure game that unfolds like a playable anime season, but even that wouldn’t do its playful creativity justice. So let’s start with the basics instead: To a T follows a 13-year old, gender-neutral child whose arms are permanently outstretched, turning their body into a T shape. Their story is split into eight episodic chapters, each around 30 minutes, that focus on how they go about their daily life with such a unique condition. It’s a tightly directed narrative game framed through fixed camera perspectives, but one that gives players a little free time to explore a small town, collect coins, and buy outfits between chapters. Each episode even has its own intro and outro sequences complete with original songs that are total earworms.

Annapurna Interactive

The project is consistently at its best when it’s about exploring its protagonist’s daily life. Like Katamari Damacy, this is a game that’s just as interested in the controller as what pressing buttons actually does on screen. In the first episode, I need to help the kid get ready for school. When I sit down to eat a bowl of cereal, I need to pivot one stretched arm over to the box to grab it using the right joystick and then carefully tilt it to pour the cereal. I then need to do the same for the milk carton, using my left stick this time. The sequence ends with me leaning in to pick up an elongated spoon that stretches from my hand to my mouth and eating by flicking the stick up and down. It’s a standout little scene that plays unlike anything else. And that’s how it should be, because no other game stars a T-shaped hero, afterall.

Original moments like that make for a consistently charming first half that’s all about adapting to the kid’s world. What begins as a fight with the controller soon becomes second nature to my hands. I repeat the same morning routine a few more times, quickly finding that I’m able to brush my teeth or wash my face with just a little practice. Later, I learn to raise my hand to answer a question in class by tilting my entire body to one side. In the story’s wackiest moment, I discover that my arms make it so I can turn myself into a human tornado by spinning my right stick quickly. There are even a few Mario Party-esque minigames sprinkled into chapters, like one that has me catching falling scoops of ice cream with a cone in each hand. It’s a flurry of inventive gameplay ideas that really leaves you to ask why so many games follow the same stale formulas when there are so many ways to approach interactivity.

That creative spirit does go a little off the rails in the story’s back half. The last four chapters trade in pleasant slice of life scenes for left-field bottle episodes starring the story’s wider cast of characters. While that does help add some dimension to the world, giving a little spotlight to the child’s mother and trusty dog companion, it takes the story in a completely different direction that feels a little more concerned with being surprising than cohesive. Though more damning is that those episodes simply aren’t as fun to toy around with as they ditch the imaginative T-shaped gameplay for nearly half of the five hour runtime.

Though I was less engaged during those moments, it’s still always enchanting to see the oddball world fully reveal itself. This is a town where kids live out very mundane routines, brushing their teeth and going to gym class every day. That happens in the same breath that they buy lunch from sandwich artist giraffes and get their hair cut by a crab. The story goes to some truly out of this world places, but it never feels at odds with the world Uvula creates here. It’s a place where nothing is “normal,” which also means that it’s rarely boring. That’s true of the game itself, too.

Grappling with disability

What’s more of a struggle for To a T is the well-meaning, but messy conversation about disability that it opens. On a surface level, it treats its subject matter with the level of kindness and sensitivity that it deserves. The protagonist’s condition is wacky, but it’s approached like a real disability that they’ve learned to live with. Their life is filled with assistive tools like a unicycle to get around town or a faucet that points up. They have a cute service dog that helps them get dressed in the morning and flush the toilet. They’ve even figured out how to navigate a world that isn’t built with them in mind, knowing how to get through narrow doors by walking through them at an angle. As silly as the visual is at first, these moments are rarely played for laughs long term. Players must learn to adapt to the kid’s life experience, hopefully giving them a better understanding of how real people with disabilities move through life.

Those good intentions do eventually butt heads with the story’s goofy twists, though. Sometimes it means teetering into tropes that are divisive in the community it portrays. The tornado ability I discover is a fun gameplay idea, but it plays into a hotly debated “my disability is a superpower” trope as it becomes a tool I use to save the day when no one else can. More problematic is a late game twist that’s meant to take the story to one last wacky height, but heavily “others” its hero in the process. We’re repeatedly asked to think of this as your average kid, but later shown that they’re anything but. It works too hard to paint them as special instead of normal, a self-defeating decision that’s bound to make it divisive.

What I find most frustrating is how much a game that deals with disability doesn’t seem terribly interested in making itself broadly playable to that community. There’s an accessibility menu in the game, but it only features one single option that makes spinning easier. It’s not like the game couldn’t have used more options either. The standard button layout occasionally has me twisting my fingers in knots so I can sprint while shining a flashlight or performing other actions. The fixed camera angles occasionally obscure where I am on screen and make it hard to navigate. Plenty of games fail when it comes to accessibility (just look at Blue Prince, which launched without crucial colorblindness options), but it’s especially jarring to leave them out of a game where its hero uses assistive tools.

Annapurna Interactive

The problem, as I see it, is that To a T is too wishy washy about what it actually wants to say. It uses topics like disability and body image issues interchangeably when those are two very separate discussions. Someone with limited mobility faces specific challenges that aren’t fully analogous to someone dealing with bullying over their weight, for instance. The story ultimately arrives at a generalized conclusion about how there’s no such thing as perfection and we should celebrate one another for who we are. It makes good on that idea in subtle ways, like choosing to leave its main character as a genderless kid who can be dressed up in any clothing, but the multiple topics it tries to bring together do not call for a one size fits all approach to storytelling.

It’s all a little Sesame Street in its approach, boiling everything down to a thin “we’re all just a little different” conclusion that feels insufficient. As clumsy as it may be, though, I can’t fault To a T for trying to craft an inclusive story that’s delivered with sincerity. It’s heartening to see a video game story that centers disability and encourages players to connect with one another’s experiences through play. It’s not perfect, but nothing is. To a T challenges us to reject the status quo, both in the way it experiments with a well-trodden genre and in its story about embracing our differences. The view out your window is bound to get boring when you see the same thing every day.

To a T was tested on PC.
May 28, 2025

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge Review: A trendsetter you won’t want to put down

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge

MSRP $1,099.00

4/5

★★★★☆

Score Details

“The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge’s trend-setting thin design is wonderfully ergonomic and makes it very special to hold and use, plus it contains all the excellent fundamentals that make the rest of the Galaxy S25 range so enticing.”

✅ Pros

Thin, ergonomic design
Big screen
Fun camera
One UI 7 is fast and responsive

❌ Cons

One-day battery life
Slow wired charging

“Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.“

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is the thinnest smartphone we’ve seen released in a while, and the shape is what makes the device special, but is it special enough to buy over another Galaxy S series phone? I’ve lived with it for the last few weeks to find out.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: specs

	Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge
Size	158.2 x 75.6 x 5.8mm
Weight	163 grams
Screen	6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 3120 x 1440 pixels, 120Hz
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
RAM and storage	12GB, 256GB/512GB
Software	Android 15 with One UI 7, seven years of OS and security updates
Cameras	200MP with 2x optical quality zoom, 12MP wide-angle, 12MP selfie camera
Durability	IP68
Battery and charging	3,900mAh, 25W wired, 15W wireless
Colors	Titanium Silver, Jet Black, Icy Blue
Price	$1,099/$1,199

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: design

The back of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Galaxy S25 Edge is body shaming just about every other modern smartphone. It’s 5.8mm thin and 163 grams, and if you’re wondering if it makes a difference day-to-day, the answer is a resounding yes. I deliberately kept the phone in my pocketrather than in my bag when it wasn’t in use while out-and-about, and it just disappears. I’ve been doing this for 10 days now, and I wonder how I’ll go back to a “normal” phone.

It feels durable. The screen has Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 covering it, the back has Gorilla Glass Victus 2, and the chassis is made of titanium which extends to the sub frame inside the phone. If you really wanted to bend and break it, I’m sure you’d succeed, but you’d have to make the effort. It doesn’t feel fragile and crucially, it’s not so featherweight you’re always worried it’s going to slip out of your hand, plus it has an IP68 dust and water resistance rating.

Once you’re past being amazed by how thin the S25 Edge is, you’ll realize the real benefit is its 6.7-inch screen. It’s not only a fantastic-looking display, just like on the other S25 series phones, but you’re staring at it on a device that’s the same weight as the regular 6.2-inch S25, and way thinner than an Ultra. This is what’s really transformative about the S25 Edge’s thinness. One nit-picking point is it would really benefit from the S25 Ultra’s anti-reflective coating though.

This is a big screen, low weight, pocket friendly, and as we’ll get to shortly, high performance smartphone which makes design a selling point. I can even forgive the slightly sharp edges which can make it fatiguing to hold after a while, because it’s otherwise such a joy.

Galaxy S25 Edge: camera

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge's camera. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The S25 Edge takes the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 200-megapixel main camera, which the engineers at Samsung have reduced in size by 18% to fit inside, and paired it with a 12MP wide-angle camera. There’s no telephoto camera, but the main camera makes use of its massive megapixel count to provide a 2x optical quality zoom. On the front is an auto-focus 12MP selfie camera.

It’s obviously not as versatile as the S25 Ultra’s camera, but the S25 Edge is still a brilliant every day camera phone and there’s surprisingly few downsides to not having a telephoto camera. I’ve explored the 2x optical quality zoom feature in more detail already as part of my OuttaFocus column, but I was very pleased with the overall quality, detail, color accuracy, and white balance of this “lesser” zoom mode. Don’t be put off by the lack of optical zoom.

The main camera takes strong, colorful photos with some effective use of HDR, but it still suffers from the disappointing lack of sharpness that affects the same camera inside the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It’s not a huge problem unless you crop down and look closely, but it’s bothersome once you’ve noticed. Samsung’s effective editing features are available, and its new custom filter system is fun and surprisingly useful.

I’ve really enjoyed the Galaxy S25 Edge’s camera. It’s just as good as the Galaxy S25 Plus’s, and if you don’t think you’ll make regular use of the Ultra’s telephoto cameras, you’ll be really happy with it.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: performance

A video playing on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

There’s no performance deficit compared to other S25 phones here, despite the thin profile. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy comes with 12GB of RAM, plus there’s either 256GB or 512GB of internal storage space, putting the S25 Edge up there with the most powerful phones you can get including the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

Concerned the powerful chip will generate a lot of heat in such a thin phone? There’s some clever cooling tech and a vapor chamber inside the S25 Edge and it effectively keeps the temperature down, unless you’re playing hardcore mobile games for at least 30 minutes, when the center of the rear panel and the chassis sides get hot to the touch. I’ve also noticed the phone gets warm when ambient temperatures increase, but it has never come close to overheating or being too hot to hold.

	Geekbench 6 Single Core CPU	Geekbench 6 Multi Core CPU	Geekbench 6 GPU
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge	2728	9095	18174
OnePlus 13	3016	9218	17607
Google Pixel 9 Pro	1052	3239	6474

Calls sound excellent, although it is a bit of a fiddle getting the speaker in its sweet spot against your ear, and both cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity has been rock solid. When manufacturers try something new with the shape, build, and design of a phone, there’s always a concern the fundamentals may take a hit, but the S25 Edge’s all-round performance has been excellent.

Galaxy S25 Edge: software and AI

GPS on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge is the fifth smartphone with One UI 7 onboard I’ve used, and it continues to be one of my favorite Android 15 interfaces. It’s responsive, smooth, and sensibly designed, plus it’s easily customizable. This is important as there are a few annoyances. The always-on screen is off by default, the notification alerts on the lock screen are impossible to see unless you change the setting, and Google’s Gboard is better to use than Samsung’s keyboard.

One UI 7 is a high point of every 2025 Samsung phone and the S25 Edge is no exception. It’s also fully equipped with all the Galaxy AI features, unlike the stripped back affair installed on the Galaxy A56, including Now Brief and the Now Bar. Is this a good thing? I simply don’t have the lifestyle to make the most out of Now Brief’s organizational ability, I haven’t needed any summarization or translation services, and I’m fine writing my own messages.

Screenshots taken from the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. — Samsung

All Galaxy AI’s features are there if you want them, but I do question how many people will want them on a regular basis, and struggle to call them a reason to buy the phone. Leave Galaxy AI aside, and the software experience on the S25 Edge is excellent. Google Gemini is there and so is Circle to Search (AI that’s useful, in other words), Samsung’s Modes and Routines are useful if you take your time to set them up, and if you buy a Galaxy Watch 7 or Galaxy Ring, Samsung Health is one of the better fitness tracking apps.

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Battery and charging

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge on charge. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Now we get to the compromise you’re going to need to make if you want a thin, light, big-screen smartphone: the battery life. Samsung says to expect a day of use from the 3,900mAh battery, and I’ve found this is accurate if your screen time reaches about five hours with general use. The problem arises when you add in some games, multi-tasking, GPS, and video.

Use the phone hard for two hours doing all these things, and it’ll easily eat up 40% of the battery. It’s not an efficiency issue — a 40 minute YouTube video takes 4% — but a cell capacity and heat dissipation problem. There’s only so much use you’ll get out of a smaller-than-usual cell inside a thin phone. If you can live with a single day’s worth of battery life, the S25 Edge’s ability won’t be a problem though.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge's charging port. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Samsung has only added 25W charging to the S25 Edge, so it’s slower than the S25 Plus and S25 Ultra, and the Galaxy A56 too. It takes about 80 to 90 minutes to fully charge the battery, with 50% coming up in in about 25 minutes. This is slow compared to the other S25 series phones and the OnePlus 13, but similar to the Google Pixel 9 Pro. There’s wireless charging, but for the price Samsung really should have included 45W fast charging on the S25 Edge

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: price and availability

A person holding the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge starts at $1,099 for the 12GB/256GB model, or $1,199 for the 12GB/512GB version. In the U.K. it starts at 1,099 British pounds and increases to 1,199 for the higher capacity model. The phone is available to buy now from Samsung, carriers, and other retainers.

There are only three colors to choose from: Titanium Silver, Icy Blue, and Jet Black. The only one that makes a statement is the Icy Blue, with the other two representing very safe choices. Considering this is a fashion statement phone, it’s disappointing Samsung hasn’t jazzed the S25 Edge uo with some fancier colors, even if they were online exclusives.

Samsung has slotted the S25 Edge, price-wise, in-between the S25 Plus and the S25 Ultra. It’s similarly priced to the Pixel 9 Pro and the Apple iPhone 16 Pro, but a lot more expensive than the OnePlus 13. Like many fashion-forward products, the price gets justified because it’s unique. Every other phone listed above as an alternative is thicker and heavier, and if you don’t want that, the S25 Edge is your only real choice.

Should you buy the Galaxy S25 Edge?

I love that the Galaxy S25 Edge has been made. No-one really asked for it, the short battery life makes it less useful than its sibling S25 phones, and the race to make “the thinnest” anything is dull and played out. Yet, it’s the Galaxy S25 series phone I’ve enjoyed the most, and the one I’d want to use long-term.

The performance, camera, and screen are among the best you can get today, but what makes the S25 Edge special and so desirable is that it’s all wrapped up in one of the most tactile, ergonomic, and downright cool designs we’ve seen yet. The Galaxy S25 Edge is more than just a thin phone, it’s the exciting start of a new trend, and after spending just a short time with the phone I’m absolutely onboard. Once you’ve held the S25 Edge for just a few moments, I think you will be too.

May 27, 2025

Sony WH-1000XM6 review: The best wireless headphones for almost everyone

Sony WH-1000XM6

MSRP $450.00

4.5/5

★★★★☆

Score Details

“Sony’s best ANC headphones so far are brilliant in almost every way.”

✅ Pros

Fold-up, fold-flat hinges
Premium-feeling materials and finishes
Increased comfort, more secure fit
Top-notch sound quality
Excellent noise canceling/transparency
Great for calls even in noisy places

❌ Cons

No USB audio
Awkward, Android-only Auracast
Limited spatial audio

Buy at Amazon

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In some ways, Sony didn’t need to update its flagship wireless headphones. Even as of May 14, 2025, one day before the official launch of the WH-1000XM6, you’d have been hard pressed to find a list of the best wireless headphones (including here at Digital Trends) that didn’t put Sony’s WH-1000XM5 in first place. This, despite the fact that the XM5 are now three years old, and virtually all of their competitors have been update during that time. That’s how good they still are.

But we all have a tendency to gravitate towards the newest, shiniest object, and besides, for all of its merits, the XM5 did have one or two areas that needed improvement. So here we are.

Let me cut right to the chase. The WH-1000XM6 are amazing. Stellar. The best. And if I’m being honest, you should just buy the WH-1000XM5 while they’re still available. Here’s why.

Design

Sony WH-1000XM6. — Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

If you’re looking for an ~~excuse~~ reason to buy the $450 WH-1000XM6, look no further than their updated design. Sony may claim otherwise, but this is where you’ll find the biggest difference between them and their predecessors.

I’ve always liked the look of the XM5, but now that I’ve laid my eyes on the XM6, I can’t unsee the areas where the XM5 feel a little cheap. For the XM6, Sony has found a plastic formulation that doesn’t look or feel like plastic at all. It’s more like synthetic stone, and it gives these cans an upscale vibe that the XM5 were aiming for, but never quite hit.

The earcups are now seamless, solid shells, their matte surfaces interrupted only by the eight microphone openings. But even these are beautifully crafted, with flush-mounted metal grilles instead of gaping holes. The earcushions are now much easier to remove.

The hinges are also remarkable. When you look at the AirPods Max, Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, or the WH-1000XM5, you realize that when you connect a headband to a set of earcups via a single point of contact (instead of the usual yoke approach), you tend to sacrifice the ability to fold up and fold flat, leaving a less compact shape.

Sony’s new hinges bring back that missing second axis of movement without resorting to the older, yoke-style architecture — which Bose opted for on its QuietComfort Ultra Headphones.

The other significant change is the headband. It’s now wider, better padded, and asymmetrical. The first two are all about enhanced comfort, but Sony hopes the asymmetrical shape will help folks figure out the headphones’ orientation a little faster. Sonos did the same thing on the Ace headphones, but in both cases, I find it easier to just look at the earcups (if the two control buttons are in my left hand, I know they’re the right way ‘round).

Oh, and let’s give Sony some serious props for giving the XM6’s travel case a quick-release magnetic closure. So much better than a zipper!

Sony WH-1000XM6 specs

Price	$450
Weight	8.96 ounces
Form factor	Closed-back, over-ear
Noise cancellation	Yes
Battery life	40 hours per charge (ANC off), 30 hours (ANC on)
Charging	USB-C
Voice assistant	Native smartphone access Hands-free Google Assistant (Android only)
Multipoint	Yes
Spatial audio	Yes (with head tracking, Android only)
Hi-res audio	Yes (wired/wireless)
Fast pairing	Google Fast Pair
Bluetooth/codecs	BT 5.3 with AAC, SBC, LC3, LDAC
Auracast	Yes (Android only)

Comfort, controls, and connections

The headband isn’t the only change for comfort’s sake; the earcushions are also more generously padded. Sony has upped the clamping force, too, and the result is a more secure fit that remains very comfortable, even for several hours in a row. I don’t really get the whole full-size over-ear headphones thing at the gym or while running, but I know there are many who do. If that’s your thing, the XM6 are a better choice than the XM5. Just remember, they have no official IP rating for water or sweat resistance.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the XM6’s clever new hinge design relies partly on a spring-loaded mechanism, similar to the one Apple uses on the AirPods Max. This puts the pivot point where the hinge meets the earcup, as opposed to the XM5’s mechanism, which puts it at the midpoint of the earcup.

For me, it creates a small but perceptible gap between the bottom of the earcup and my head, unless I extend the headband sliders more than feels normal. It’s not a deal-breaker by any means, it’s just something to be aware of.

The XM6’s controls are almost identical to the XM5. The right earcup gives you physical buttons for ANC mode selection and power/pairing, while the left is touch sensitive for playback and volume gestures. The one difference is that you can now enable a microphone mute function via the ANC button while on a call.

It’s a very intuitive setup and works brilliantly. The only drawback is that XM6’s controls aren’t cold-weather friendly unless you have capacitive-compatible gloves.

Still, unlike the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless Headphones (which also use touch-based gestures for some or all controls), Sony gives you an alternative: hands-free voice commands. If you enable them in the Sound Connect app, you can say, “Hey, Headphones,” followed by “play song,” “pause song,” “raise the volume,” etc. Basically, everything you can do with a gesture or button, you can do with your voice, and it’s seamless. The one caveat is that you must choose between Sony’s voice commands or button-based access to your phone’s voice assistant (or hands-free Google Assistant on Android).

Sony’s Bluetooth connections are always rock solid, and the WH-1000XM6 are no exception. When using an Android phone, Google Fast Pair makes pairing very easy (plus it adds the XM6 to Find My).

Multipoint lets you keep the cans connected to two devices simultaneously, and the Sony Sound Connect app makes managing those devices a breeze.

Sound quality

One of the biggest reasons Sony’s 1000X series has dominated lists of the best headphones over the years is their sound. These cans have always provided powerful, precise, full-frequency sound, with plenty of detail. The XM6 are no exception.

What these new cans bring to the table are subtle improvements in clarity, especially through the midrange — traditionally the hardest part of the frequency spectrum to achieve additional detail.

You can think of it as peeling back another layer of onion skin.

When Sony introduced the XM5, it shifted slightly away from the XM4’s bass-forward balance to a more neutral tuning. Curiously, even though the XM6 is a twin to the XM5 when it comes to sound signature, that added level of detail and nuance helps low-end bass feel tighter. It’s not more prominent — again, the balance is almost identical — but you can hear the improvement in separation from the lower mids.

Sony offers a variety of EQ presets and customization options in the Sound Connect app as well as its “Find My EQ” personalization test, but I ignored them all — the company’s factory tuning is that good.

All of this to say, if you like the XM5, I think you’ll like the XM6 even more when listening critically, particularly if you have an Android phone and take advantage of Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codec.

And if you’ve never tried any of Sony’s flagship headphones, prepare yourself to be wowed. They’ve always been a top-notch choice, and the XM6 are the best so far.

The one thing I wish Sony had included is USB Audio. In this price range, it’s nearly ubiquitous — even Apple added it to the AirPods Max, and that company has a track record of being slow to adopt new tech. USB Audio would give the XM6 a truly lossless connection with support for hi-res audio up to whatever Sony’s built-in DAC can handle (likely 24-bit/96kHz or better). For such a great-sounding set of cans, this feels like a real oversight.

Spatial audio

Sony WH-1000XM6 and WH-1000XM5. — Sony WH-1000XM5 (top, black) and WH-1000XM6 Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

New for the XM6 is the ability to spatialize any stereo sound using the Sound Connect app’s listening mode settings. Sony calls it 360 Reality Audio Upmixing and has decided that it should be all about making video content more immersive. It even calls the spatial audio mode “Cinema.”

Despite the name, it works on any audio — not just movies or TV — and in typical Sony fashion, it’s masterfully executed. The soundstage opens up, getting wider, deeper, and even a little taller, and there’s a greater sense of spatial separation between audio elements like vocals and instruments. Most importantly, Sony’s processing mostly avoids the unpleasant level changes that lesser spatial systems often produce. In the worst versions, bass can become smeared, and vocals lose much of their presence. Sony’s Cinema keeps things focused. Stereo purists aren’t going to love it — there’s no avoiding the sensation that you’re listening to processed sound — but if you dig that more immersive sound, Sony’s version is a lot of fun.

Sadly, iPhone users will have to satisfy themselves with a “static” spatial presentation. The XM6’s head tracking is only enabled via Android 13 or higher. For music, I don’t think it matters. For Sony’s cinematic ambitions, however, head tracking is the key that unlocks the sensation of sitting in a home theater. It keeps the relative position of each virtual 5.1 speaker locked in space — turning your head makes it feel like you’ve turned away from the central source of dialogue right in front of you.

It’s not as effective as Apple’s version using the combo of an iPhone or Apple TV 4K with a set of AirPods Max or AirPods Pro, and it’s currently limited to just a few services like Netflix and YouTube.

Noise cancellation and transparency

Active noise cancelling (ANC) on the XM5 is already excellent. In fact, the only headphones that can beat them are Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. For the XM6, Sony went all out to change that ranking, giving the new cans more microphones (12 vs 8) and seven times faster ANC processing.

These changes give the XM6 an edge over their predecessors, and I’d even go so far as to say that in certain circumstances, where external noises tend to be highly variable, they do a slightly better job than the QuietComfort Ultra. But for pure, brute-force destruction of constant droning sounds like in an airplane cabin or on public transit, the QuietComfort Ultra still reign supreme.

However, if you’re very sensitive to ANC side effects (some people report an unpleasant, sucking sensation), you may be better off with the WH-1000XM6. Sony’s ANC system may not cancel quite as much noise as Bose’s, but it’s also gentler on your ears.

Transparency mode is also excellent, giving you a nearly perfect reproduction of the outside world. Are the WH-1000XM6 better than the AirPods Max and QuietComfort Ultra? No, but you may still prefer Sony’s version, which slightly boosts the higher frequencies associated with speech, instead of going for a completely natural passthrough.

I think what I like most about Sony’s ANC and transparency is how quickly you can shift between them — it’s nearly instant.

You can also turn on Sony’s Speak-to-Chat feature, which switches to transparency mode automatically when it detects you speaking. It’s very clever but your mileage may vary: I couldn’t find a setting that reliably detected my voice without being triggered by false positives like clearing my throat.

Call quality

At the risk of sounding repetitive, calling on the WH-1000XM6 is also a subtle improvement over the XM5, which were already pretty darn great. I’d say the biggest difference is that the XM6 preserve more of your voice’s natural sound. There’s better tonality and less sibilance on all of those ess-sounds.

The XM6’s ability to cancel background noise remains top-notch. Your callers will likely never know you’re walking past a construction site.

For the first time, Sony has added a mic muting option, which is very handy. Just keep in mind that your phone app probably won’t reflect these mode changes (the iPhone doesn’t), so you’ll have to remember which mode you’re in.

You can switch to transparency mode at any time to hear your own voice more clearly and Sony includes a specific voice boost option in the app to help with that if you need it.

The only wireless headphones that are better for calls are JBL’s Tour One M3.

Battery life

This might be the one area where Sony has made no improvements at all. Playtime with ANC on is rated at 30 hours and 40 when it’s off. One minute of charging buys you an extra hour of operation, but a full charge still takes about 3.5 hours.

Does it matter? I doubt it. When it comes to battery life, more is always better, but I think most folks can get through 99% of their lives on 40 hours or less.

The one big improvement is that you can now charge and use the XM6 simultaneously, something no previous 1000X series can do.

Extras

The XM6 are the first of their kind to support Auracast, which is great. Unfortunately, it requires manually shifting to LE Audio within the Sound Connect app, then switching to the Android Bluetooth menu to find and connect to a local Auracast broadcast, which is a pain in the butt. Also, iPhone users are out of luck.

This is disappointing to me. Much like Sony’s spatial audio feature, it feels like a half-measure. Moreover, we know that better is possible — JBL’s Tour One M3 suffers from none of these limitations.

Sony has given its Adaptive Sound Control feature (which turns ANC on/off based on activity) a boost with its new scenes feature. You select from different scenes like running or going to the gym, and then choose the time and place associated with these activities and what you’d like to listen to (on an iPhone, your choices are Apple Music, Spotify, or Endel). I appreciate that Sony wants to build some intelligence into the listening experience, but I don’t find these features especially useful.

Conclusion

Buy at Amazon

Sony’s WH-1000XM6 are a meaningful upgrade from the company’s WH-1000XM5, and take their place as the best overall wireless headphones I’ve ever tested. They’re not perfect — no USB audio, a bizarrely awkward Auracast setup, and spatial audio that can only be used to its fullest on Android, are drawbacks that must be considered, especially given that Sony has increased the price of its flagship cans to $450.

I acknowledge that none of these issues stopped me or anyone I know from enjoying the XM5, and in all of the other areas that matter (sound, ANC, design, and comfort), the XM6 are a stellar choice.

Bose is still better overall for noise canceling, but the XM6’s real competition comes from its own predecessor. Now that Sony has discounted the XM5, and will likely keep prices low until it runs out of stock, you’d be well advised to consider that model before buying.

May 26, 2025

Category: Reviews

Welcome to Arrakis

Nothing to fear

Reliable racing

A knockout mode

Free roaming, forever

Nintendo Switch 2

✅ Pros

❌ Cons

Switch 2 specs

Switch 2 design and comfort

Switch 2 UI: Menus, eShop, and more

Switch 2 display and performance: HDR, VRR, and more

Switch 2 games: first party, third-party, and upgrades

Switch 2 controls: new Joy-cons, mouse mode

Switch 2 social features: GameChat, game sharing, camera support

How we tested the Switch 2

Specs and configuration

Design

Keyboard and touchpad

Connectivity and webcam

Performance

Gaming

Battery life

Display and audio

Another awesome Arrow Lake-HX and Blackwell option

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour

✅ Pros

❌ Cons

A slice of edutainment

Paying for an ad

Whoop 5.0

✅ Pros

❌ Cons

Whoop 5.0: design

Whoop 5.0: app

Whoop 5.0: advice and training

Whoop 5.0: extra features and subscription plans

Whoop 5.0: battery and charging

Whoop 5.0: price and availability

Should you buy the Whoop 5.0?

Elden Ring: Nightreign

✅ Pros

❌ Cons

Putting a run together

Elden remix

Matchmaking hell

To a T

✅ Pros

❌ Cons

Inventive gameplay

Grappling with disability

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge

✅ Pros

❌ Cons

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: specs

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: design

Galaxy S25 Edge: camera

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: performance

Galaxy S25 Edge: software and AI

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: Battery and charging

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: price and availability

Should you buy the Galaxy S25 Edge?

Sony WH-1000XM6

✅ Pros

❌ Cons

Design

Sony WH-1000XM6 specs

Comfort, controls, and connections

Sound quality

Spatial audio

Noise cancellation and transparency

Call quality

Battery life

Extras

Conclusion