Antonio G. Di Benedetto | The VergeThe Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in video, and in podcasts.2026-04-21T17:25:17+00:00https://www.theverge.com/authors/antonio-dibenedetto-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2/rsshttps://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/verge-rss-large_80b47e.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1Antonio G. Di Benedetto<![CDATA[The Mac is in good hands in Apple’s post-Cook era]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=9158962026-04-21T13:25:17-04:002026-04-21T13:20:50-04:00
The Mac reached a series of low points in the Tim Cook era: the fiasco of the butterfly keyboard, the clunky transition to USB-C, the underutilized potential of the Touch Bar, and the occasionally lackluster Intel chip performance. For a while, it seemed like Apple had shifted all of its attention, innovation, and care toward the iPad. For Mac users, it was a rough stretch of time.
And then, with the transition to Apple Silicon in 2020, everything changed. The line was revitalized with hugely capable new chips, and Apple began prioritizing usability over thinness at all costs. The Mac is now in a new golden era, and yesterday’s changes at Apple bode really well for the future.
Apple’s executive shake-up has Tim Cook making way for John Ternus to step in as the new CEO in September. Ternus is a hardware guy. He’s been at Apple for 25 years, and in that time he’s worked on the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and multiple generations of the Mac. He was positioned front and center for the recent MacBook Neo launch: quoted in its press release announcement, giving interviews about it, and taking center stage to introduce it at Apple’s New York City launch event.
Yesterday’s other key leadership change is Johny Srouji taking over Ternus’ old role, overseeing all of Apple’s hardware engineering. Srouji is best summed up as The Chip Guy. He worked on processor development and design for Intel and IBM, and joined Apple in 2008 to build its in-house chip team, starting with the A4 chip for the original iPad and the iPhone 4. He took his team from about 50 engineers to the thousands that it is today. He’s become one of the most celebrated chip designers on the planet and was rumored to at times be in the running for Intel’s CEO job. Srouji understood that with the right architecture, Apple chips could work within the constraints of a phone and then be scaled up to the iPad and eventually the Mac, and in doing so redefined the levels of performance we expect from a modern computer.
Srouji’s promotion here might be the biggest tell for predicting how Apple is thinking. It’s a safe bet that Apple will continue to prioritize the performance and efficiency of its Macs, as the company is elevating the person who set this trajectory in the first place.
If you’ve seen Srouji present during Apple’s scripted keynote presentations, you’ve likely witnessed him getting a little animated as he talks about Apple’s M-series chips and their specifications. Chip stuff can make the average person nod off, but Srouji made it sound compelling. Even in a world of carefully scripted, prerecorded Apple events (bring back the live keynotes, Ternus), Srouji’s portions have always stood out — unlabeled charts notwithstanding.
As nice as modern MacBooks have gotten — the screens, the trackpads, the speakers, etc. — the core of what makes them exceptional has been the performance and battery life stemming from the M-series chips coming from Srouji’s team. Even the iPhone chips are so capable these days that they can run inside a Mac.
Until now, I’ve been concerned that Apple could take Macs in the wrong direction again. There are rumors that the upcoming MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen will feature a new, thinner design. I don’t want to see the MacBook Pros sacrifice their excellent performance, thermals, or battery life for the sake of thinness. The last time Apple pursued thinness at all costs was the butterfly keyboard era. That was a dark time for MacBooks, and it was a decision driven by Jony Ive, noted (and knighted) design guy.
But I can’t imagine you put a chip guy in charge just to make performance sacrifices. So I’m remaining hopeful Apple won’t be repeating mistakes. It could have done that with the MacBook Neo by basically remaking the 12-inch MacBook that only had a single port and was ultra-ultra-thin, but it didn’t. Instead, the Neo weighs as much as a MacBook Air and is even a little thicker. Apple certainly could have gone thinner, but instead it made its “most repairable MacBook in 14 years,” according to iFixit. Phew.
Apple is bound to still botch some things in upcoming Macs. After all, CEO-in-waiting John Ternus is partly to blame for plaguing us with butterfly keyboards and the Touch Bar. And while Johny Srouji’s success with Apple’s chips led to the recent Mac renaissance, there’s going to be a lot more for him to tackle and consider across all of Apple’s products. And that’s just speaking of the hardware. The software is still a whole other beast, and the messiness that is Liquid Glass proves it needs more taming.
But if I had to choose someone to succeed Tim Cook, the supply chain guy, I’d choose a hardware guy or a chip guy. So now, with both of them taking their respective center stages, I’m inclined to believe that the Mac will continue to be one of Apple’s biggest bright spots.
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto<![CDATA[Marathon battery life makes Keychron’s Ultra 8K keyboards its best yet]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=9140852026-04-19T23:01:29-04:002026-04-19T08:00:00-04:00
Keychron’s expansive keyboard catalog covers everything from basic full-size mechanical boards to niche layouts like southpaw Alice or a one-handed half-keyboard for gaming. Its Q and V series are among our go-to recommendations for off-the-shelf keyboards, and the latest iterations — the Q and V Ultra models — are a straightforward upgrade to the lineup, with benefits for regular users and deep-in-the-weeds keyboard nerds alike.
I’ve been testing two Ultra keyboards: the Keychron V5 Ultra 8K and Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K. The $119.99 V5 Ultra is a near-full-size 1800-layout board with a number pad in a plastic case, while the $229.99 Q1 Ultra is a 75-percent layout (my preferred size) with a much heavier milled-aluminum chassis and much more robust build and typing feel. Aside from case material and layout, they’re very similar keyboards that are both excellent.
Keychron V5 Ultra 8K
Score: 9
Pros
Cons
Good typing feel
Amazing battery life, even with 8K wireless polling and RGB lights turned up
Flip-out feet for adjustable height
Plastic case feels and sounds cheaper than metal keyboards
The Ultra 8K lines are the highest-end versions of the V5 and Q1 keyboards to date, preceded by the Max versions (which added 1,000Hz 2.4GHz wireless) and Pro models (which first went wireless with just Bluetooth). The 2.4GHz wireless connections have been upgraded from 1,000Hz polling to 8,000Hz (hence the 8K suffix) for maintaining fast response times — especially when gaming. Most people won’t notice the difference, but that’s not the reason to get the Ultra anyway.
Unlike the older Q and V series boards, the Ultras run on ZMK, an open-source firmware often used by advanced keyboard enthusiasts (absolutesickos) for building their own custom boards. ZMK is powerful, but updating keymaps can be a pain, and ZMK’s remapping software is less polished than the options like Via or Vial that are available for QMK-based boards. (Keychron’s older keyboards run on QMK.) Fortunately, the Ultra boards use Keychron’s browser-based Launcher software to remap keys, dial in customized lighting patterns, or set macros, just like other Keychron models.
ZMK’s most obvious benefit for most people is its battery efficiency. It’s the reason Keychron claims you can get up to 660 hours of use on an Ultra 8K board — about four times longer than its claims for the Max models. If you use your keyboard for about eight hours a day with the backlight off, that’s 83 days before you’re bothered to plug in — or longer, if you’re using Bluetooth. It’s not the one to two years of battery some membrane keyboards offer, but this kind of battery life in a mechanical keyboard was unheard of not long ago. Even some of the best wireless mechanical keyboards from recent years usually require charging every other week or so (depending on your usage).
This marathon-level battery life goes a long way to making the V5 Ultra and Q1 Ultra my favorite Keychrons so far. And now that I’m spoiled by it, I hope other manufacturers follow suit with ZMK boards of their own. The V series and Q series were already very good keyboards available in tons of layouts, so not having to charge them as frequently is a nice plus. The 8,000Hz polling, on the other hand, is a “Sure, why not” kind of benefit. Maybe esports champs using the fastest monitors can tell the difference between 1,000Hz and 8,000Hz. Maybe.
As for the typing experience of the new Ultras, they’re each subtly improved over their predecessors. Both the V5 Ultra 8K and Q1 Ultra 8K have upgraded screw-in stabilizers for less wobble on larger keys (enter, space bar, backspace, etc.) and a better feel on their return movement. The Ultras also use new Silk POM (polyoxymethylene) switches offered in red (linear), brown (tactile), and banana (more tactile). Full POM switch housings are often used in switches to reduce scratchiness in key presses.
Here’s what typing sounds like on the Keychron V5 Ultra 8K with Silk POM Brown tactile switches:
In the V5 Ultra with Silk POM brown switches, the new switches have a slightly deeper yet clackier typing sound compared to the V1 Max I tested last year. The last-gen Max’s Gateron Jupiter brown switches and their nylon housings sound more subdued. I think the new Ultras sound better while you’re hammering away — as long as you don’t mind a slightly louder board. The Ultra’s new switches and stabilizers also feel smoother. The only downside is that the tactile bump of the brown switches is now barely there. They feel closer to linears. If you want a tactile switch with actual tactility in this board, go banana (or swap in your favorite switches).
I’ve been testing those tactile banana switches on the Q1 Ultra 8K, and it sounds deeper than the last gen with Gateron bananas without losing tactility. And the Q1 Ultra is actually a touch quieter than the Q1 Max. It’s still far from silent, but it sounds and feels smoother. The revised stabilizers make a noticeable difference on the space bar and enter keys, which feel more tightly tuned and quieter on their return. Underneath the case is a backplate with an etched sci-fi / celestial design. It’s handsome-looking, even if you’ll rarely see it, but it doesn’t add any extra weight to the Q1 Ultra like you typically see on bottom weights from other boards — it’s a hefty 3.8 pounds / 1.72kg, exactly the same as the Q1 Max, and heavier than a 14-inch MacBook Pro. (The V1 Ultra 8K is 1.7 pounds / 770g, for reference.)
Here’s what typing sounds like on the Keychron Q1 Ultra 8K with Silk POM Banana tactile switches:
The Ultra generation is a clear upgrade from previous Keychron models. The Maxes are sticking around, because Keychron seems to rarely discontinue or fully replace anything, but for just $10 to $20 more it’s worth spending extra on the Ultras for the incredible battery life alone. The improved stabilizers are a nice bonus.
Keychron will likely trickle out the ZMK-based Ultra features to more of its lines and expand its Q and V Ultra offerings to include more layouts, as it always does. And it’s only a matter of time before other keyboard manufacturers catch on to using ZMK, hopefully giving more mechanicals a similar big battery boost. I love competition as much as I love great keyboards, with which we are truly flush these days.
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto<![CDATA[Intel’s cheaper Panther Lake chips are for budget-friendly laptops]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=9130262026-04-16T09:08:34-04:002026-04-16T09:00:00-04:00
Intel is announcing a family of cheaper Panther Lake laptop processors called the Core Series 3 line. They’re built on the same Intel 18A process as the higher-end Core Ultra Series 3 family of chips, but they have less of just about everything spec-wise.
The Core Series 3 (non-Ultra) line encompasses six different chips, with the highest end being a six-core Intel Core 7 360 and the low-end model being a five-core Intel Core 3 304. Compared to their Ultra counterparts, the Core Series 3 across the board have fewer CPU cores, Xe graphics cores, and PCIe lanes. They’re capable of less TOPS, a lower TDP wattage, and are limited to two Thunderbolt 4 ports instead of four. All of that should translate to lower prices, but we’ll have to see just how low once Intel partners like Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, and others start selling Core Series 3 laptops.
There’s some overlap in the chip names between the Core Series 3 and the pricier Core Ultra Series 3 processors, which could make things a little confusing once they’re all in the market. For example, at the botom of the Core Ultra Series 3 line is a Core Ultra 5 322 chip, and in the middle of the Core Series 3 line there’s now a Core 5 330. The 330 could sound like the better chip, since it’s a higher number than 322, but it’s got two fewer cores, half the cache, about a third of the AI TOPS, and the same amount of Xe graphics cores. So, when in doubt, look for the “Ultra” moniker or lack of one to know if you’re in budget land or not.
Even if these new Core chips are a little bit of a bore, it’s good to see more affordable Panther Lake options coming. The flagship Intel Core Ultra X9 388H I tested in the Asus Zenbook Duo was excellent, with solid battery life and even strong graphics performance, but that’s a $2,300 laptop. How much of that core experience can trickle down to much cheaper Panther Lake laptops?
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto<![CDATA[Alienware’s new gaming monitor offers a 240Hz QD-OLED panel for just $350]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=9093442026-04-14T11:38:39-04:002026-04-14T09:00:00-04:00
Alienware has announced a new budget-friendlier QD-OLED monitor, the AW2726DM. As some of the numbers in the convoluted product name hint, it’s a 27-inch QHD panel, with 2560 x 1440 resolution, HDR support, and a high refresh rate of 240Hz. But what really makes it special is its comparatively low price of $349.99 at Dell.
High-refresh OLED monitors are great for gaming but also nice for everyday use, thanks to their strong contrast, vibrant colors, and their ability to smoothly display motion across your desktop. The AW2726DM makes the whole formula more approachable, as fancier gaming OLEDs typically run $500 to $900 or higher (and that’s not counting whatever upcoming vertical RGB stripe models will cost when they come out).
To make the AW2726DM cheaper, Alienware went for a no-frills approach. There’s no exterior RGB lighting or any glowing alien head logos. For connectivity, it has just two HDMI 2.1 ports, a single DisplayPort 1.4 port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. That’s it. There are no USB ports or KVM, and no support for Alienware’s Command Center app (because there are no lights to control).
The AW2726DM has the bare essentials, but it thankfully also includes a stand with adjustable height, tilt, and swivel. It even comes with Alienware’s three-year warranty against burn-in.
I saw the AW2726DM in person at a Dell media event, and it looked great in my very brief eyes-on. I love OLEDs, and this is a big step toward OLED monitors reaching more people. Alienware is often the first to release new OLEDs, and is eventually followed by competing models from Asus, MSI, AOC, etc. So here’s to hoping we see more lovely, colorful monitors at this price point (or even cheaper on sale).
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto<![CDATA[GoPro goes bigger and pro-er with support for Micro Four Thirds lenses]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=9113242026-04-15T17:30:16-04:002026-04-14T09:00:00-04:00
A trio of GoPro Mission 1 cameras: the Mission 1, Mission 1 Pro, and Mission 1 Pro ILS. | Image: GoPro
GoPro is announcing its Mission 1 cameras, a new line of video-centric action cams with 50-megapixel, 1-inch-type sensors and the company’s new GP3 in-house processor. Pricing is still TBD, but there will be three models launched in two waves: a base-model Mission 1 and the Mission 1 Pro will be available May 28th, and a higher-end flagship Mission 1 Pro ILS with interchangeable Micro Four Thirds lenses is expected in Q3 2026.
The base Mission 1 can shoot video at up to 8K / 30 frames per second in 16:9 as well as open gate of its whole 4:3 sensor at up to 4K / 120 fps. It can do slow-motion of up to 240 fps at 1080p. The Mission 1 Pro ups its 16:9 and open gate recording to 8K / 60 fps and 8K / 30 fps, respectively. For slow-motion, the Pro can do high-speed capture up to 960 fps at 1080p. Both of these Mission 1 cameras use a permanently attached 15mm equivalent f/2.8 lens.
The big draw of the Mission 1 Pro ILS top-of-the-line model, when it comes around, will be its interchangeable lens mount for using Micro Four Thirds lenses — opening it up to hundreds of manual focus lens options (the mount lacks contact pins for autofocus or electronic aperture control). Lenses mounted to the Pro ILS camera will have a 3x crop factor, which will limit ultrawide use but allow high magnifications from telephoto lenses.
Being GoPro’s highest-end cameras, the Mission 1 family has other new features aimed at professionals, like improved thermals for over three hours of continuous filming in 4K30 or more than five hours of filming in 1080p30.
The Mission 1 cameras also have live metering, up to 240mbps bit rate, and a new Enduro 2 battery with higher capacity and Power Delivery 2.0 fast charging support (the battery is backward compatible with the GoPro Hero 13 Black). For audio, the Missions have four built-in mics, 32-bit float recording, and support for USB-C audio as well as Bluetooth 5.3. And for photos, they can capture 50-megapixel RAW files or take 12-megapixel processed JPGs, in a mode GoPro calls SuperPhoto, for something more easily shareable. When filming at 8K, screengrabs have 44 megapixels of resolution.
There’s a lot going on in this little camera. While it’s a bit larger and a little chunkier than a GoPro Hero, the Mission 1 models are still compact, waterproof, and shockproof. GoPro will offer various kits with included accessories aimed at different types of shooting and filming, including a Grip Edition that makes the Mission 1s handle like small mirrorless photo cameras and a Creator Edition that bundles a new GoPro Wireless Mic System. The new mic is designed to compete with other mini mics from DJI and Rode and will also be sold separately and be compatible with other systems (but there’s no price for it yet either).
Some of our video team members got an early, though very brief, hands-on with the GoPro Mission 1 cameras. Stay tuned for our initial video and a full review to come later.
Update, April 15th: Article updated after GoPro representative Jon Thorn’s confirmation to The Verge that the Mission 1 Pro ILS does not support autofocus on Micro Four Thirds lenses.
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto<![CDATA[Allow me to explain why I love this camera that can’t shoot color]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=9100612026-04-11T09:02:43-04:002026-04-12T07:00:00-04:00
No frills, all artsy thrills. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
I love black-and-white photography. I also adore compact cameras you can always have by your side. So I’m a total mark for the Ricoh GR IV Monochrome, a fixed-lens camera that can’t zoom and can’t record color — at all. It’s a formula that makes the average person ask, “Why?”
I’ve tested the GR IV Monochrome for over a month, taking it with me everywhere and photographing everything. Let me explain how this pricey little point-and-shoot is likely to go down as one of my all-time-favorite cameras.
Ricoh GR IV Monochrome
Score: 8
Pros
Cons
Excellent black-and-white image quality
Everything great about the standard GR IV: sharp lens, small size, solid focusing
Fantastic high-ISO noise performance
Limiting yourself to black and white has creative benefits
Expensive for a Ricoh GR
Face / eye tracking autofocus pales in comparison to the bigger camera brands
Ricoh GRs are some of the most unassuming, no-frills cameras around, and they have been since their conception in the film days. In the digital era, they’re pocket-size point-and-shoots with a large APS-C sensor permanently attached to a fixed focal length lens. If you’re familiar with Fujifilm’s popular X100 line, it’s like trimming one of those down to the bare minimum — that means no viewfinder and no fancy aperture ring. The X100 and other coveted street cameras like Leicas offer vintage-style shooting and double as lifestyle accessories or shoulder-carried jewelry (with prices to match). But a Ricoh GR is purely a shooter’s camera, with unabashedly modern methods of being used. Atop the camera is a typical mode dial, with customizable user presets, not an old-timey shutter speed dial.
The GR IV Monochrome takes last year’s Ricoh GR IV, strips out the color filter from the sensor, and replaces its built-in ND filter with a red filter (for one-click contrast adjustment purely using optics). Functionally, the alteration to the sensor gives the GR Monochrome an elevated ISO range of 160 to 409,600 and makes it better in low-light shooting (because color noise looks worse at high ISO than pure luminance grain). It maintains the upgrades established with the GR IV: improved autofocusing for its 28mm-equivalent f/2.8 lens, a 26-megapixel APS-C sensor, and 53GB of internal storage (supported by a microSD card slot).
Using the GR IV Monochrome feels just like the standard GR IV, with key functions that help it thrive in impromptu street-style shooting. It powers on and is ready to shoot in less than one second, and at any moment you can quickly full-press the shutter to forgo autofocusing and take a shot at a preset focus distance. Ricoh calls this Snap Focus, and it allows you to easily shoot from the hip with zone focusing — a staple of street photographers. The GR is all about spontaneity. Its autofocus system has face and eye detection, but it’s just a serviceable helper. The main way to use the GR is with single-point focusing and quickly moving it around the touchscreen. Many hardcore photographers will loathe its lack of an electronic viewfinder, but I’ve come to terms with its forgoing one for the sake of size.
But being forced into a black-and-white view of the world through this camera’s LCD is where the real magic happens. Any digital camera can be set to black-and-white mode, but not having the choice pushes you to look more intently at light and tonality. I pay extra attention to my compositions and seek out textures and tones I might ignore when shooting color. I know the camera can’t see color, so I mentally adjust my eye and my creativity to match — knowing there’s no bailout or reverting back to color in post. A more disciplined shooter may not feel they need all that, but I’ve shot enough on the GR IV Monochrome, other black-and-white-only cameras, and film cameras to know that I’m feasting when working with some limitations.
That’s the same ethos that drives people to go back to analog photography and digicams, or use toy-like cameras, but the GR IV Monochrome also unlocks the ability to shoot at extravagantly high ISOs in just about any light. The f/2.8 maximum aperture of the GR’s lens isn’t as fast as the f/1.7 and f/2 lenses of the Leica Q and Fujifilm X100 cameras of the world, but it’s fast enough when you barely notice much noise until ISO 25,600 and even a six-digit ISO is perfectly usable (even before denoising in post-processing software).
The other big way the GR IV sets itself apart from its Leica and Fujifilm competitors is that this camera is actually pocketable. I have ventured out of the house many times with my personal Leica Q2 slung over my shoulder, sans camera bag, ready to go on a little photo adventure or capture memories with family or friends. But it’s even easier to drop a Ricoh GR into a purse, diaper bag, or even a jacket / rear pants pocket. It turns any outing or errand into an opportunity to dabble in your creativity. These are snapshot-y moments that would usually be reserved for the camera you always have with you: your phone. But with the GR IV Monochrome, I feel more empowered and motivated to create something special and purposeful.
Am I creating art at the grocery store that’s worthy of the white walls of a Chelsea gallery? No. But seeing my own personal world through a black-and-white lens of such quality is enchanting. And there’s nothing wrong with feeling a little “artsy” sometimes, even if you’re just auditioning for the art critic in your own head.
The mundanity of our humdrum lives feels elevated when given the timeless quality of black and white. Lately, it’s felt even more authentic to me and worthy of appreciation, since generative AI is making so much of our world feel fake. It’s now commonplace to doubt everything we see as a possible deepfake or a dubious con — even from our own government. Black-and-white imagery still feels precious and real, at least as long as the AI-obsessed tech platforms don’t focus their Eye of Sauron of Enshittification on this niche of the medium.
A direct comparison of two images taken from our ISO test gallery. Both are taken at ISO 204800, one with the GR IV Monochrome and one with the GR IV. The Monochrome version is grainy, but it’s a usable image. The color version is a mess, and won’t look as good when converted to black and white.
To be fair, cameras that can’t shoot color aren’t new. Leica has been making its Monochrom variants of Q and M cameras for nearly 14 years. But priced at nearly $8,000 to $11,000 and up, they’re mostly unattainable to an average enthusiast. At $2,199.95, the GR IV Monochrome isn’t cheap but it’s much more grounded and feasible to own one without it being your only possession. And frankly, it’s less hoity-toity and snobbish when your second, third, or fourth camera — the “artsy” one — doesn’t cost more than a used car.
I’d be lying if I said that’s not part of why I dig the GR IV Monochrome so much. I’d love to one day personally own a Leica Monochrom of some sort, but it’s hard not to opt for the catch-all color camera when you’re spending that kind of money (hence why I own a Leica Q2 and not a Q2 Monochrom). But since my brain was broken by Leica and pro-level mirrorless system prices years ago, I can simultaneously look at the GR IV Monochrome and think, “$2,200? That’s not bad,” and also “GR cameras used to be like 900 bucks — what gives?”
It’s the everyday companion status of the GR IV Monochrome that makes it extra-extra special. With this little guy in your pocket, with that kind of image quality and light gathering potential, it feels like a permission slip to capture a sense of authentic wonder wherever you go. The standard GR IV is the logical version to get, allowing you to capture the vibrancy of your world. But the more hardcore GR IV Monochrome brings the romance, gritty realism, and magic.
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto<![CDATA[I tested three Windows laptops in the MacBook Neo’s price range — there’s no contest]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=9083282026-04-17T13:39:11-04:002026-04-09T07:00:00-04:00
The Neo king of affordable laptops. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
When the MacBook Neo arrived last month, I knew Windows laptop makers were in trouble. For $599, the Neo offers fantastic build quality and solid performance in a sleek and ultra-portable package. Windows laptops in this price range tend to be ugly, cheap-feeling, and a little slow.
Despite years of rumors, the MacBook Neo still seemed to take the Windows world by surprise. I expect proper competitors to pop up just as soon as the companies can manage, but I wanted to see what the competition in the PC space is like now.
So I asked a bunch of laptop manufacturers to send me their best answers to the MacBook Neo.
The MacBook Neo is a 13-inch, 2.7 pound all-aluminum laptop with an A18 Pro iPhone chip for its processor and just 8GB of RAM, starting at 256GB of (slow) storage. It costs $599 (or $499 for students and teachers), and for $100 more you get double the storage and a Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the power button. There aren’t any all-aluminum, 13-inch Windows laptops out there for $600. All of the Windows laptops I tested have MSRPs above $600 but are usually cheaper.
Asus sent a $700 Asus Vivobook 16 with an AMD Ryzen 7 processor (currently $530), Lenovo put up a $750 Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x with a Snapdragon X chip (currently $550), and Acer sent an Intel Lunar Lake Acer Aspire 14 AI, which is down from $1,050 to just $530. Dell and HP are between laptop generations and didn’t have any current models to send.
By Windows budget laptop standards, these are all good values. And on paper, they should be competitive. Each has an eight-core processor (versus six on the Neo), 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB, and between 256GB and 1TB of storage — the slowest of which is twice the speed of the Neo’s storage.
Let’s start with the least expensive. The Asus Vivobook is a large 16-inch laptop with a dull and plasticky build. Its chassis creaks and flexes nearly anywhere you touch it. The screen is large, but anything displayed on it looks drab, dim, and slightly blurry. 1920 x 1200 resolution is passable on a 14-inch screen, but not stretched across 16 inches.
The news isn’t better elsewhere. Its trackpad makes a loud hollow sound with every click, while its keyboard feels a little mushy. Its speakers are also audibly grating, making music and podcasts sound empty. And when on a call, the 720p webcam rendered a low-res, noisy image. It often struggled with backlighting from a window behind my head, with the image going from too dark to making me look like I was on the surface of the sun.
The Vivobook’s AMD Ryzen 7 7730U processor has eight cores, but the Neo’s are 75 percent faster. The Ryzen CPU is serviceable for light tasks like web browsing and basic apps, but even with 16GB of RAM it sometimes hangs longer opening apps thanks to its slower single-core performance. And the battery life isn’t anything special either. Trying to get through a regular workday of mixed usage (Chrome tabs, Google Docs, streaming music, and a short video call) yielded a maximum of six hours before it died. It does have a pretty good port selection, including three USB-A (one 2.0 and two 3.2), a headphone jack, HDMI 1.4, and one USB-C that can also be used for charging — which is good, because otherwise you’d have to bring the Vivobook’s barrel-plug charger with you.
The $749.99 Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x has a slightly smaller, slightly better-looking screen than the Vivobook, and it’s the only touchscreen of the bunch. But at 300 nits the 15.3-inch display is equally dim and still middling quality. The keyboard here is better, with a touch of that tactile feel and deeper key travel that Lenovo is known for, but that’s about the only highlight of its build.
The trackpad feels stiff and sometimes difficult to click. And the speakers are the worst of this bunch. I like to listen to electronic music, like the Marathon and Armored Core soundtracks, to focus, but the speakers are so thin and treble-y that the repetitive beats, rather than letting me lock in, just gave me a headache.
The IdeaPad Slim uses a super efficient Arm-based Snapdragon X1-26-100 chip. While it’s the lowest-end of Qualcomm’s X1 processors, it performs fine for everyday tasks. An Arm chip means you can run into edge cases of app incompatibility, but it’s increasingly rare in the kinds of work most everyday users do on a computer.
The bright spot of the IdeaPad and its chip is battery life. It easily lasts a full workday and well beyond on a single charge. It’s the longest-lasting laptop of our battery rundown web-browsing test, running for over 21 hours. You can leave the charger at home for the day and not care, and that’s great because like the Asus it’s another barrel plug. Also like the Asus, it’s got a decent port selection, with a USB-C that also charges the laptop, two 5Gbps USB-A, HDMI 1.4, a 3.5mm audio jack, and even an SD card slot.
Acer Aspire 14 AI (Intel Core Ultra 7 256V)
Score: 6
Pros
Cons
A great, well-rounded processor in a cheap laptop (if you get it on sale)
The Acer Aspire 14 AI is the smallest and fastest of the Windows laptops I tested, and it has the most going for it — no doubt because it’s originally a $1,050 laptop. Thanks to its Intel Core Ultra 7 256V “Lunar Lake” processor, it’s faster than the other two Windows laptops. It’s still slower than the Neo on single-core tasks, but its multicore performance is better. When plugged in it can even handle a little gaming. I was able to play Marathon decently enough to be competitive. It was only workable on the lowest quality settings, but that’s better than nothing. And it has very good battery life. It doesn’t last as long as the Lenovo, but it lasts longer than the Neo — I saw almost 12 hours during light use.
The chip is most of what you’re paying for with the Acer, along with the port selection. While all three of these Windows laptops have a greater quantity and variety of ports than the MacBook Neo, only the Aspire 14 has Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1. Most of the rest of the laptop is just okay. We’re still in subpar speaker territory. The keyboard isn’t as good as the Lenovo’s, but it’s got enough key travel to feel fine. The trackpad is also passable compared to the Asus and Lenovo, but it still sounds plasticky when you click. And the laptop’s deck flexes as you push down on or around the trackpad.
But the Acer’s biggest weakness is its display. The 1920 x 1200 resolution on the 14-inch LCD panel is fine, but it looks washed-out, and there’s noticeable light bleed along some of the edges. It’s only visible when viewing dark backgrounds or scenes, but it’s unsightly.
Laptop
Screen
Webcam
Keyboard
Trackpad
Port selection
Speakers
Number of ugly stickers to remove
Apple MacBook Neo
B
B
C
A
D
B
0
Acer Aspire 14 AI
D
C
C
C
A
D
3
Asus Vivobook 16
D
F
D
D
C
D
4
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x
C
D
B
D
C
F
3
The flaws shown by all three of these Windows laptops — lackluster screens, crummy-sounding speakers, and middling trackpads — are almost impossible to avoid on laptops in this price range. But the game has changed: The MacBook Neo exists. And it smokes all of them in quality-of-life territory. It’s got a brighter, more colorful screen; a trackpad you can easily click anywhere; a sharp webcam that does your face some justice; and speakers that don’t assault your ears. It even has a hinge you can open smoothly with one finger — the Windows laptops snap closed or slide around if you try to do the same.
This trio of Windows laptops each has 16GB of RAM to the Neo’s 8GB, but it barely makes a difference in actual use. They too can slow down a bit if you open tons of Chrome tabs on them just like the Neo. The Neo even beat the Lenovo and Asus in our Premiere 4K export test, even though it’s short on RAM and completely fanless. Impressive.
The MacBook Neo is the easy choice among these four laptops. It has its own struggles; you can totally bog it down with lots of Chrome tabs or by multitasking while running a heftier content creation app like Lightroom. But its single-core performance is better than any Windows laptop here, making it more than fast enough for most users. It’s also colorful and fun, and its hardware is all-around great compared to other laptops in this price range (with the small exception that its keyboard is annoyingly not backlit). If I had to pick a Windows model among this selection, I’d go with the Acer Aspire 14 AI. I’d also connect a mouse and keyboard, plug it into a monitor and speakers, and try to use it that way as often as I could (but that takes it out of “budget” territory if you don’t own all those peripherals already). It’s well rounded in terms of performance and ports, but not in hardware quality.
For some folks, it’s also worth considering a nice Chromebook like the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14. It’s not as nice as the MacBook Neo, but it’s close — it’s got a lovely OLED screen, excellently tactile keyboard, good speakers, and fantastic battery life. ChromeOS is fine if you just need to live in a browser, or if you’re comfortable enabling its Linux virtual machine to get access to more apps. But you don’t get as fully featured of an operating system out of the box as you do with macOS or Windows. It’s my favorite Chromebook, but these days I’d still just take the Neo and save money in the process. (It’s still wild to think of a Mac as the cheaper alternative to a Chromebook.)
There’s just no competing with the Neo at this price, at least at this time. There’s Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 13-inch, which is very close in quality to the Neo’s build, but it still can’t touch that A18 Pro chip’s single-core performance. It starts at $900, though you can often find it for less. Climb into the $1,200-plus range (to the world of Asus Zenbooks, Lenovo Yoga Slims, the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop, etc.) and things get much nicer with better builds, OLED screens, and higher-end chips. But then you’re also competing with the MacBook Airs.
I’ve heard murmurs that some PC laptop makers are aiming to release proper Neo competitors this year, but it’s going to be difficult for any PC company to compete on price and hardware quality. Apple manages it with the Neo thanks to its vertical integration, complete with its own operating system and in-house chip. PC makers have to figure out a way to stop cutting the wrong corners, like screens, trackpads, and speakers. And they need to do that without raising prices. That’s going to be hard, especially now. But if they can’t, the Neo will be the easy answer again and again.
Laptop
MacBook Neo
Acer Aspire 14 AI
Asus Vivobook 16
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x
Display
13-inch (2408 x 1506) 60Hz IPS LED
14-inch (1920 x 1200) 60Hz IPS LED
16-inch (1920 x 1200) 60Hz IPS LED
15.3-inch (1920 x 1200) 60Hz IPS touchscreen LED
Display brightness
500 nits
300 nits
300 nits
300 nits
Display color gamut (measured)
sRGB: 98% AdobeRGB: 72% DCI-P3: 73%
sRGB: 66% AdobeRGB: 49% DCI-P3: 49%
sRGB: 69% AdobeRGB: 52% DCI-P3: 51%
sRGB: 68% AdobeRGB: 53% DCI-P3: 53%
Processor
Apple A18 Pro
Intel Core Ultra 7 256V
AMD Ryzen 7 7730U
Qualcomm Snapdragon X X1-26-100
RAM
8GB
16GB
16GB
16GB
Storage
256GB SSD
1TB
1TB
256GB
Webcam
1080p FaceTime HD camera
1080p with IR
720p with privacy shutter
720p with privacy shutter
Biometrics
None (Touch ID fingerprint sensor optional on 512GB configuration)
Windows Hello face unlock
Fingerprint sensor built into trackpad
Fingerprint sensor built into chassis
Connectivity
Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 6
Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3
Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Ports
1x USB 3 (Type C) up to 10Gbps with DisplayPort, 1x USB 2.0 (Type C) up to 480Mbps, 3.5mm combo audio jack
2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 (Type C), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type A), HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm combo audio jack
1x barrel-plug charging port, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type C), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type A), 1x USB 2 (Type A), HDMI 1.4, 3.5mm combo audio jack
1x barrel-plug charging port, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type C), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type A), HDMI 1.4, SD card slot, 3.5mm combo audio jack
Keyboard backlight
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Weight
2.7 pounds / 1.23kg
3.09 pounds / 1.4kg
4.14 pounds / 1.88kg
3.42 pounds / 1.55kg
Dimensions
11.71 x 8.12 x 0.5 inches / 297.5 x 206.4 x 12.7mm
12.6 x 8.9 x 0.67 inches / 320 x 226.1 x 17mm
14.12 x 9.82 x 0.78 inches / 358.7 x 249.5 x 19.9mm
13.52 x 9.51 x 0.7 inches / 343.4 x 241.6 x 17.8mm
Battery
36.5Whr
65Whr
42Whr
65Whr
MSRP
$599
$1,049.99
$699.99
$749.99
Street price
$599
$529.99
$529.99
$549.99
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
Update, April 17th: Added comparison video.
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto<![CDATA[The Neo Effect: How Apple’s cheapest Mac is changing the PC game]]>https://www.theverge.com/?post_type=vm_stream&p=9047052026-04-15T17:17:07-04:002026-04-08T14:21:50-04:00
This thing is poised to eat their lunch. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The MacBook Neo is disrupting the laptop space and putting Apple into the conversation as a value option like it’s never been before. With a price starting at $599 (or $499 for students and teachers), the colorful laptop’s A18 Pro chip may be stolen from older iPads and iPhones, but it offers more than enough performance for everyday tasks and web browsing.
From the screen sharpness to trackpad/keyboard feel and its aluminum build, everything else about it is in line with more expensive MacBooks.
And that means PC makers have a hot new competitor to contend with and adapt to — one that they weren’t ready for. Here’s all the news and analysis of Apple’s Mac for the masses.
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto<![CDATA[Asus’ lightweight 16-inch laptop is a formidable MacBook Air alternative]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=9078642026-04-07T21:18:24-04:002026-04-07T10:00:00-04:00
Only boring people choose beige. Am I right? | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
I already put Asus’ new Zenbook A16 through the wringer when I brought a pre-production unit with me to CES. I loved it for its ample power in an impressively light 16-inch chassis. It’s speedy enough for part-time content creation, it’s got lengthy battery life, and its large OLED screen is crisp and vivid.
Now, the final production model is here, priced at $1,699.99 for a configuration with a whopping 48GB of RAM — a spec-to-price balance that’s unheard of, especially in these uncertain times. All the strengths I witnessed from its pre-production days are still present, and the early hardware issues and software bugs I encountered have been fixed (as they should have). The result is a unique Windows laptop for anyone seeking the most screen real estate in one of the lightest and most capable packages, and a worthwhile alternative to a 15-inch MacBook Air.
Asus Zenbook A16
Score: 8
Pros
Cons
Incredibly light for such a capable 16-inch laptop
Great battery life and a lovely OLED
Very good performance with lots of RAM
Hell yeah, an SD card slot
Beige color isn’t for everyone (though the satin finish is nice to touch)
The usual Windows on Arm disclaimer — compatibility issues with some specialized apps and many games
The Zenbook A16 is primarily available in the US in one configuration with a nearly top-of-the-line 18-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-94-100 chip. It also includes that plentiful 48GB of RAM (which is soldered) and 1TB SSD. Its sharp looks are owed to its fantastic-looking 16-inch, 2880 x 1800 / 120Hz OLED display and Asus’ Ceraluminum coating, wrapping the chassis in a satiny finish. The A16 has more cozy vibes than your average laptop, thanks to that lightly textured feel and its unique beige color. This is peak beige (complimentary or derogatory, depending how you feel).
The pre-prod model I used back in January wasn’t ready for benchmark testing, but the final A16 with its new X2 Elite Extreme chip most definitely is. After putting it through a full suite of tests across Geekbench, Cinebench 2026, Puget Bench, Blender, and more, I can confidently say: Damn, it’s pretty good! The 15-inch M5 MacBook Air it’s aimed to compete with still wins most head-to-heads, but the Zenbook shows its strengths in multi-threaded CPU performance across Geekbench and Cinebench. It’s even hot on the MacBook’s heels in the Puget Bench Photoshop test (which is CPU-intensive).
Turning to the Intel Panther Lake-equipped Asus Zenbook Duo, the Zenbook A16 handily wins in both single- and multi-core CPU performance tests. The Zenbook Duo has the much bigger advantage in graphics tests thanks to its beefier Arc B390 GPU. But you pay much more for the Duo’s graphics chops (and its second screen), as it costs $600 more than the Zenbook A16.
Asus Zenbook Duo (2026) / Intel Core Ultra X9 388H (Panther Lake) / 32GB / 1TB
Acer Swift 14 AI / Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (Lunar Lake) / 32GB / 1TB
Asus Zenbook S16 / AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Strix Point) / 32GB / 1TB
Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch / Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 / 16GB / 512GB
MacBook Neo / Apple A18 Pro / 8GB / 256GB
CPU cores
18
10
16
8
12
8
6
GPU
Adreno X2-90
M5 (10 cores)
Arc B390 (12 cores)
Arc 140V (8 cores)
Radeon 890M (16 cores)
Adreno X1-45
A18 Pro (5 GPU cores)
Geekbench 6 CPU Single
3643
4175
3009
2609
2828
2437
3402
Geekbench 6 CPU Multi
22044
16567
17268
10690
13565
11427
8508
Geekbench 6 GPU (OpenCL)
41101
47661
56839
28984
35991
9391
19798
Cinebench 2026 Single
628
727
528
Not tested
Not tested
Not tested
518
Cinebench 2026 Multi
6327
3413
3993
Not tested
Not tested
Not tested
1466
Puget Bench for Photoshop
10931
11513
8773
6598
7348
4773
Not tested
Puget Bench for Premiere Pro (2.0.0+)
Not tested
61861
54920
Not tested
Not tested
Not tested
Not tested
Puget Bench for DaVinci Resolve (2.0.0+)
Not tested
45378
Not tested
Not tested
Not tested
Not tested
Not tested
Blender classroom test (seconds, lower is better)
198
46
61
Not tested
308
486
Not tested
Blender cosmos test (seconds, lower is better)
670
Not tested
204
Not tested
862
Not tested
Not tested
Premiere 4K Export (lower is better)
6 minutes, 38 seconds
2 minutes, 53 seconds
3 minutes, 3 seconds
Not tested
Not tested
Not tested
Not tested
Sustained SSD reads (MB/s)
7092.91
7049.45
6762.15
5200.83
5060.84
3840.78
1735.91
Sustained SSD writes (MB/s)
5694.94
7480.55
5679.41
4662.05
3665.42
3476.62
1684.05
3DMark Time Spot (1080p)
5289
Not tested
9847
5955
Not tested
Not tested
Not tested
Price as tested
$1,699.99
$1,499
$2,299.99
$1,299.99
$1,700
$999.99
$599
The A16’s performance scores track with my real-world experience using it to edit 50-megapixel RAW files in Adobe Lightroom Classic, where it often felt reminiscent of base M4 and now M5 MacBooks. I could blaze through my edits, even on battery power. And speaking of battery life, the A16 is yet another example of a Snapdragon laptop that easily lasts an eight-hour workday of mixed usage (Chrome tabs, some video calls, and a little streaming). I got through a day just like that, with nearly 90 minutes of collective video calls, and I still had 30 percent battery left over to use for my evening.
The rest of the Zenbook A16 is also well put together: a hinge that easily opens with one finger, a nice-feeling keyboard with deeper key travel than MacBooks, a solid mechanical trackpad, and some decent speakers. The trackpad is hinged at the top, piano key-style, but it clicks well in its lower half. Listening to music on the A16 sounds nice and fairly full, but it lacks bass, as you’d expect. And the downward-and-outward-firing speakers get partially blocked when resting the laptop on your legs, altering the sound. It just doesn’t have the same level of oomph the 15-inch MacBook Air is capable of, but overall this is still a pretty complete package for a thin-and-light (and large) laptop.
My biggest knock against the Zenbook A16 remains my same problem with all Arm-based Windows laptops: the gaming situation. Qualcomm deserves some credit for putting in the work to get more games running on Windows on Arm (now up to 2,400 supported titles from the initial 1,200), but it’s still a drop in the bucket compared to x86 Windows. Easy Anti-Cheat is now supported, so games like Fortnite are playable on Snapdragon laptops. But Elden Ring Nightreign (one of my personal faves for online live-service games) still doesn’t work, despite also using Easy Anti-Cheat. Qualcomm and Microsoft need to keep building momentum and getting more developers and publishers to update their games for Arm. I just can’t help knocking Snapdragon laptops for this, because one of my main draws for using Windows is being able to play just about any game I want. I’m fine with settling for potato-quality graphics on an integrated GPU, as long as I can play whatever the mood calls for.
With proper game support, a laptop like the Zenbook A16 could one day be the MacBook Air killer (or closer to one) that it’s positioned to be. It’s a great alternative as it stands now, but you have to want Windows and be willing to play the same roulette of “Is this game supported?” just like Mac users do.
My own nerdy gamer needs aside, I’m relieved to see the Zenbook A16 is hitting the market with this much RAM and performance for $1,600. It may not be a MacBook Air killer, but it’s an interesting alternative that isn’t just an also-ran. I’d still suggest most people just go with the MacBook Air, and if you really need more power or more ports (including that handy SD card slot) the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro is also right there. But that’s also a chunkier and much heavier laptop. The Zenbook A16 offers an intriguing and refreshing twist: a light but large laptop with very good performance and enough RAM to weather the ongoing storm of a global memory shortage.
Ports: 2x USB 4 (Type-C), 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-A), HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm combo audio jack, SD 4.0 card slot
Weight: 2.87 pounds / 1.3kg
Dimensions: 13.92 x 9.54 x 0.54 ~ 0.65 inches / 353.6 x 242.3 x 13.7 ~ 16.5mm
Battery: 70Wh
Price: $1,699.99
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
Update, April 7th: After this article published, Asus told The Verge that the Zenbook A16 is $1,699.99 at Best Buy, not $1,599.99 as the company originally told us. The review has been updated to reflect the correct price.
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Antonio G. Di Benedetto<![CDATA[Razer’s new Blade 16 gaming laptop has an Intel Panther Lake chip and very fast RAM]]>https://www.theverge.com/?p=9005182026-03-26T06:11:12-04:002026-03-25T16:36:58-04:00
Razer is giving its Blade 16 gaming laptop a speed and battery boost for 2026. The high-end gaming laptop keeps the same thin chassis and RTX 50-series GPU options as last year’s model, but it’s now making the switch from AMD to an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H “Panther Lake” chip, and corresponding faster RAM. The new Blade 16 is available now directly from Razer, starting at $3,499.99 with an RTX 5080 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD. The top-end RTX 5090 model gets 2TB of storage and costs $4,499.99. According to Razer’s specs sheet, a cheaper Blade 16 with RTX 5070 Ti will be priced and released at a later time.
Razer claims its new laptop is up to 60 percent more power efficient while sporting 33 percent more processing cores (its Intel chip is 16-core instead of last year’s 12-core AMD). But Razer also put in LPDDR5X-9600MHz RAM for an outright speed boost over the 2025 model’s 8000MHz memory. The claimed “fastest available memory” is of course soldered into the board just like the 2025 model.
Other upgrades for the 2026 Blade include high-speed Thunderbolt 5 for one of its two USB-C ports (the second is Thunderbolt 4), an updated six-speaker audio setup, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support, and a slight brightness increase for its OLED panel (500 nits instead of 400 nits in SDR mode).
I really liked the Blade 16 when I reviewed the 5090 model last year. The Blades are very pricey, and the 5090 isn’t really worth the extra money over a 5080 model, but they’re some of the thinnest and sleekest options for a MacBook Pro-esque experience with a focus on gaming. Considering how impressive I found Intel’s Panther Lake chip for both performance and efficiency, I’m intrigued to see what that means for the Blade — especially when the more modestly priced 5070 Ti option comes around.
