Tag:

Windows

Microsoft Surface Hub 2S
Gaming Gear

As Windows 10 Team edition reaches EOL, Microsoft Teams Rooms will no longer work on Surface Hub v1, raising challenges for enterprises

by admin



  • Windows 10 Team edition support ends October 14, 2025
  • Surface Hub v1 hardware cannot upgrade and may become obsolete for organizations
  • Microsoft recommends hardware refresh or migration to supported Windows 11 platforms

Thousands of companies could face meeting room disruption soon as the upcoming Windows 10 end of life deadline looks set to affect Microsoft Team Rooms devices.

From October 14, Surface Hub v1 devices, like other Windows 10 systems, will no longer receive updates or support from Microsoft, as the company pulls support for Windows 10 Team edition.

Unlike standard Windows 10 editions, Windows 10 Team doesn’t have an extended support option, and although Surface Hub 2S units can be upgraded to Windows 11 or fitted with a Surface Hub 3 Compute Cartridge, the original Hub doesn’t have that luxury.


You may like

Buy a new Surface Hub or else

“Surface Hub v1 devices will no longer be supported. It’s recommended to upgrade to a newer Surface Hub device,” Microsoft said in an update.

This advice places many meeting spaces in an awkward position, and will see some devices turning into expensive but unsupported equipment, as the impact stretches beyond Surface hardware.

The Microsoft Teams Rooms app will no longer function on Windows 10 devices after October 14, nor will the Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal.

As Microsoft puts it: “The Microsoft Teams Rooms app based on classic Teams will no longer be accessible.”

Andrew Francis, applications engineering senior manager at Shure, told The Register that many companies may underestimate the problem.

“While the initial focus is often on personal devices like laptops and desktops, there are many other endpoints that need consideration. One key example is the Microsoft Teams Rooms on a Windows 10 device,” he said.

Francis noted there are about one million active Teams Rooms worldwide, on both Windows and Android, but many Windows-based units cannot move to Windows 11 because of hardware restrictions.


You may like

An additional layer of complexity exists for those companies whose meeting room tech spans multiple departments or outsourced providers.

The looming deadline means organizations must now choose between upgrades, migrations, or replacements.

For Surface Hub 2S users, Microsoft says users have three options: install a Surface Hub 3 Compute Cartridge, perform a software migration before October 14, or unlock devices for a manual USB installation of Windows 11.

Surface Hub v1 customers sadly only have the one option, buying a new model. Failure to do so could see some meeting rooms left with costly equipment that’s no longer fit for use.

You might also like



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Microsoft’s Xbox handheld is a good first step toward a Windows gaming OS
Gaming Gear

Microsoft’s new Xbox mode on Windows has leaked for any handheld

by admin


Microsoft is getting ready to launch its Xbox full-screen experience on the new Xbox Ally devices next month, but it looks like you won’t need new hardware to get it. Windows enthusiasts have discovered a way to enable this new Xbox mode early in Windows 11, thanks to the latest 25H2 update to the operating system.

The method, which involves installing a Release Preview version of Windows 11 and lots of tweaks, works on a variety of handheld gaming PCs — including MSI’s Claw devices and Asus’ ROG Ally range. I’ve been trying it out on the original ROG Ally today, and it allows the device to ignore Asus’ own software in favor of Microsoft’s Xbox app at boot.

The new Xbox full-screen experience doesn’t load the full Windows desktop or a bunch of background processes, freeing up more memory for games. It’s essentially not loading the Explorer shell and saving around 2GB of memory by suppressing all the unnecessary parts of a typical Windows 11 installation.

You launch straight into the Xbox PC app instead, which includes all of your PC games from the Microsoft Store, Battle.net, Steam, and other storefronts. There’s a Game Bar for navigating around, and a new task view that’s a lot more handheld-friendly.

You can also still swap into a Windows desktop mode, or access Windows apps and games directly in this full-screen Xbox mode. Microsoft warns that you’re exiting to the Windows desktop and that you should use touch or a mouse and keyboard “for the best experience,” and it’s the exact same Windows experience that exists on multiple devices right now.

If you want to try this out for yourself, it’s a relatively easy process to get going. But be warned, fiddling with registry settings or the Windows Feature Store (known as Velocity) could result in system instability. If you’re willing to risk some issues that might need rolling back or require a reinstall of Windows, there’s a handy guide on Reddit for all the settings required.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Hands-on with an ROG Xbox Ally handheld gaming PC
Product Reviews

Good news for Windows handhelds: Microsoft is now letting you launch installed Steam, Battle.net, and other storefront games from the Xbox app

by admin



Xbox on PC is now officially rolling out a feature that might have it become a single stop for all your games. As Xbox’s VP of Experiences Jason Beaumont explains, in addition to “updated app functionality”, one new feature currently rolling out on Windows is an “aggregated gaming library”. Beaumont has also announced that “cross-device play history” will be coming, but that will be later this month.

The main library aggregation update rolled out to Insiders a few months ago, but it looks like it’s now being released to non-Insiders in regular updates.

Those considering using aggregator apps like Playnite, in other words, might not need to do so anymore because they’ll be able to use the Xbox app to view their entire game library, not just games bought on the Xbox app itself. This will “show your installed games from multiple PC storefronts, including your Xbox library, Xbox Game Pass, Battle.net and other leading PC storefronts.”


Related articles

Getting to those storefronts should be easier, too, as you can use the new ‘My Apps’ tab in your library to house Battle.net and so on.

It’s worth noting, though, that third-party apps like Playnite and other aggregators might not be rendered completely redundant by this new Xbox feature. That’s because the new feature is only for installed games, whereas Playnite (for example) also acts as a home for owned but uninstalled games.

This also seems like more of a move for Windows handhelds—especially the Asus ROG Xbox Ally—than PCs, which explains why all the promo pics are all of the Xbox Ally. Although it’s nice to have all games from different platforms in one place on a desktop or laptop, it makes most sense for a handheld device where you’re expected to stay within the confines of the Xbox app, in the ‘full screen experience’.

(Image credit: Microsoft Xbox @ Xbox Wire)

It also fits in with Microsoft’s seeming push towards an all-encompassing platform.

I’ve come up with a new term for the Microsoft Xbox platform: ‘Gloop’. The Gloop is a globby mass of various features and services all schlopped together into an increasingly large ball of putty. At least, that’s how my peculiarly abstract brain likes to think about it.

Microsoft is even claiming that game streaming inside a car ‘is an Xbox’. With it seeming like the ROG Xbox Ally handheld ‘console’ is, well, just a Windows handheld with some optimisations, and with Xbox expanding and pushing its cloud gaming services across various devices, Xbox is starting to become synonymous as just ‘whatever runs on the Xbox app.’

Thus: Gloop. I’m not complaining, it’s just a metaphor. You’re welcome. It only makes sense to throw our mutli-platform game libraries into that mix, I suppose.

Best handheld PC 2025

All our current recommendations



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
ASRock AI Quickset WSL
Product Reviews

ASRock’s revamped AI Quickset WSL virtualization tool makes it easy to run Linux AI apps on Windows

by admin



ASRock released a special AI tool a few years back that gave users the ability to easily and quickly deploy AI applications on PCs with supported AMD or Intel GPUs. The board maker has announced its second iteration of the app, known as AI Quickset WSL, that further enhances the tool’s capabilities. Giving users an environment that can easily deploy AI apps made specifically for Linux on Windows machines without dealing with a complicated setup process.

The app takes advantage of Microsoft’s WSL virtual compatibility layer to achieve this. WSL is essentially a GUI-less virtual machine natively supported in the latest versions of Windows that allows users to run Linux apps in Windows through virtualization. AI Quickset WSL is built on AMD’s ROCm platform to provide all the necessary setup configuration to run Linux AI-based apps efficiently on AMD’s RX 7900 series GPUs or newer.


You may like



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Issy les Moulineaux, France - January 2020 : Microsoft France headquarters entrance in Issy les Moulineaux near Paris
Gaming Gear

Tribunal hears Microsoft case on whether second hand Office and Windows license trading is unlawful

by admin



  • Microsoft continues tribunal fight over legality of reselling Office and Windows licenses
  • ValueLicensing claims Microsoft restricted resale market and seeks £270 million in damages
  • Outcome could reshape the future of Europe’s second-hand software industry

Microsoft’s long-running dispute with ValueLicensing, a UK reseller of pre-owned licenses for products like Windows and Office, returns to the Competition Appeal Tribunal this week, with the US tech giant now arguing that selling pre-owned Office and Windows licenses is unlawful.

ValueLicensing says the trial will focus on whether the entire resale market for perpetual Microsoft licenses is legal, or indeed ever has been, and the result could have huge implications for Europe’s popular second-hand software market.

The reseller contends that if Microsoft’s argument succeeds, it would mean second-hand license trading should never have existed in Europe.


You may like

A change of stance

The case, which has been going on for several years now, stems from ValueLicensing’s claims that Microsoft restricted the availability of pre-owned licenses.

According to the reseller, Microsoft offered customers discounts on subscription services if they surrendered their perpetual licenses, limiting the stock available to firms like ValueLicensing.

It also alleges Microsoft inserted contract clauses that curtailed resale rights in exchange for further price cuts. This strategy, ValueLicensing claims, cost it £270 million in lost profits.

Microsoft’s defense rests on the claim that it owns copyright not just to program code, but also to elements such as the graphical user interface.

The tech giant says the European Software Directive does not apply to such components, meaning resale is not allowed.

ValueLicensing boss Jonathan Horley said Microsoft’s position had shifted dramatically, from denying anti-competitive conduct to arguing that the resale market itself should not exist. “It’s a remarkable coincidence that their defense against ValueLicensing has changed so dramatically from being a defense of ‘we didn’t do it’ to a defense of ‘the market should never have existed,'” he said.

Microsoft’s stance draws on a precedent from the Tom Kabinet ruling, which found that software resale was allowed but that e-books were different.

Microsoft is seeking to place its own products outside the rules that allowed secondary trading by making the interface distinct from software code.

The tribunal’s decision could determine whether Europe’s thriving trade in pre-owned software survives or vanishes entirely.

Via The Register

You might also like



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Windows 11
Product Reviews

Early Windows 11 25H2 benchmarks confirm the update provides no performance improvements over 24H2

by admin



Windows 11 25H2 is not out yet, but that hasn’t stopped media outlets from benchmarking the upcoming Windows 11 version. Phoronix tested Windows 11 25H2 against Canonical’s upcoming Ubuntu 25.10, Ubuntu 24.0.3 LTS, and Windows 11 24H2 in a head-to-head benchmarking battle to see if 25H2 delivers any new performance improvements. Sadly, though, Phoronix’s testing revealed that 25H2 was unable to outperform 24H2, even technically losing to its predecessor in many tests.

The four operating systems were tested using a Ryzen 9 9950X paired with 32GB of DDR5 memory. Phoronix benchmarked a variety of applications (41 benchmarks in total), including LuxCoreRender, Embree, Intel Open Image Denoise, OSPRay, and IndigoBench.

(Image credit: Phoronix)

If you are familiar with previous Phoronix Windows vs Linux testing, it should come as no surprise that Ubuntu came out on top. Across Phoronix’s 41 benchmark geomean, both versions of Ubuntu managed to outperform Windows 11 25H2 by around 15% respectively. Looking at the Windows operating systems exclusively, 25H2 provided precisely 0% more performance compared to 24H2 across Phoronix’s entire benchmarking suite, on average.


You may like

Phoronix’s individual numbers for each benchmark further elaborate on 25H2’s underwhelming performance behavior. Many of the individual benchmarks show 25H2 and 24H2 competing for third and fourth place, with 24H2 trading blows with 25H2. For example, in LuxCoreRender, Windows 11 24H2 was 2% more performant than 25H2. But in ASTC Encoder 5.0, 25H2 was almost 2% faster than 24H2.

Windows 11 25H2’s underwhelming benchmarking performance is not surprising to see. Microsoft’s upcoming version of Windows 11 is based on the same servicing branch as 24H2, meaning that both versions are largely identical under the hood. In fact, Windows 11 24H2 already has many of 25H2’s features incorporated in a disabled state. 25H2 merely turns these disabled features on and guarantees their availability, while 24H2 users will have to wait for these features to be turned on incrementally over time. This is a far cry from 24H2, which was a major overhaul over 23H2, including major parts of the OS being rewritten in Rust.

As a result, 25H2 is also one of the smallest “major” updates Microsoft has created for Windows 11 thus far. 25H2 includes just a handful of new features, while also removing some existing features, such as PowerShell 2.0 and the Windows Management Instrumentation command-line. 25H2 will also be delivered as an enablement package, requiring just one restart to update from 24H2 to 25H2 (just like a standard cumulative update).



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
DAAPrivacyRightIcon
Product Reviews

Unity developers can now tap into system screen reader tools on macOS and Windows

by admin


Unity is updating its game engine to support native screen readers in both macOS and Windows. The feature is available now in the Unity 6000.3.0a5 alpha, and should make the process of making games accessible for blind players cheaper for developers, Can I Play That? writes.

Screen readers narrate on-screen menus so blind and low-vision players can navigate a game or a piece of software without additional assistance. Typically, screen reading software is custom-built for each game, which can make them resource-intensive for developers to implement. “Building something like that from scratch has to be decided upon early in development so you have the time/resources allocated to make it properly,” Steve Saylor, an accessibility consultant and creator, shared on Bluesky. “Having it in-engine can mean the heavy lifting is done for you, and the cost of time/resources now is significantly lower.”

Unity previously offered APIs for both Android and iOS’ built-in screen readers in its Unity 6.0 release, but hadn’t yet added support for Windows Narrator or macOS VoiceOver. With this new alpha and its eventual release as Unity 6.3, developers creating games with Unity will have access to a native screen reader in all of the engine’s major platforms. Considering how popular Unity is as a game engine, that could vastly improve the accessibility of future games.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
I called the MSI Claw an embarrassment, so imagine my surprise: its successor is the best Windows handheld yet
Product Reviews

I called the MSI Claw an embarrassment, so imagine my surprise: its successor is the best Windows handheld yet

by admin


I wrote that no one should buy MSI and Intel’s original handheld gaming PC. I literally called it an embarrassment, and the company blacklisted me after that. MSI stopped pitching me news, and stopped answering my emails, even after the company began to write off its dud of a handheld.

So you can imagine my surprise to find: MSI and Intel have gone from worst to nearly first. In many games, it’s twice as fast as the original Claw. And with new drivers that bump its performance up to 30 percent higher since launch — I tested — the newer $1,000 MSI Claw 8 AI Plus might just be the best Windows handheld you can buy.

The Claw 8 has become a fixture in my life as I carve and puzzle through the hauntingly beautiful painted worlds of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Blue Prince, respectively. I have a lot of other handheld review units floating around, but I rarely want to reach for a different one.

Let’s get this out of the way: it’s called the “AI Plus” because this “AI Engine” is supposed to automatically configure performance using Intel’s NPU. But it’s very dumb in practice and not a reason to buy.

Yes, it runs Windows, and if you’ve read any of my handheld reviews you’ll know how I feel about that. Windows 11 has become a bloated mess filled with annoying upsells and unwanted AI cruft, is annoying to navigate by controller alone, and often wakes up poorly from sleep. I can’t count the number of times I’ve sworn at Windows handhelds for popping awake in the middle of the night, or spontaneously deciding it was time to turn their remaining battery life into hot exhaust in the middle of my sealed backpack.

But the MSI Claw 8, with Intel’s Lunar Lake, isn’t as bad as the Windows norm. When you combine that with the newly improved performance, the longest battery life of any handheld in all but the most lightweight games, and an excellent 8-inch 120Hz VRR screen, it’s enough to knock the Asus ROG Ally X off its high perch — at least until the Xbox version arrives this October.

$999

The Good

  • Best battery life in a handheld
  • Excellent performance after updates
  • Great variable refresh rate screen
  • Fewer Windows annoyances than usual

The Bad

  • $1,000
  • Windows is bloated and can’t be trusted to sleep
  • Iffy rumble for games
  • AI tuning feature doesn’t work well

The MSI Claw 8 AI Plus is the biggest mainstream handheld, at nearly a foot long, 5 inches tall, and an inch thick, and it’s the only current-gen handheld with an Intel chip. Last year, both size and Intel pedigree were liabilities — but thankfully every handheld maker is paying more attention to ergonomics this year, and Intel’s Lunar Lake is a big improvement.

Scalloped grips and balanced weight distribution make the Claw comfortable for me to hold, it no longer looks like a ROG Ally knockoff, and while it isn’t light at 1.75 pounds (795g), that’s only a quarter-pound heavier than the Ally X. That’s despite the Claw having an extra inch of diagonal screen real estate and the same 80 watt-hour battery capacity as Asus.

The MSI Claw is wider, taller, and roughly as grippy as the Asus ROG Ally X…

And it’s bigger and grippier than the Lenovo Legion Go S, which also has an 8-inch screen.

I honestly found it tough to go back to playing Expedition 33 on the Asus ROG Ally X after using the Claw 8, partially because its 8-inch 120Hz 1920 x 1200 VRR IPS screen is more colorful and more spacious (with a far smaller bezel), and partially because the game ran smoother. (I beat the game, including the entire Endless Tower and four of the game’s toughest boss fights, on the Claw 8.)

But before all that, I had to tangle with Windows 11 — and was surprised how little detangling was needed.

The first time I fired up the MSI Claw 8 AI Plus, I couldn’t believe how fast Windows setup had become. Instead of the typical 45 minutes of annoying upsells and mandatory updates, I was able to get to the Windows desktop just seven minutes after I pressed the power button.

MSI’s “Quick Settings” are now part of the Xbox Game Bar in Windows.

That’s still slower than setting up a SteamOS handheld, but fast enough I thought there must be some mistake! (Did this really get past Microsoft certification?) Another curiosity: When I hit the button that pulls up the Claw’s quick settings menu to adjust brightness, volume, and my processor’s TDP (giving it more wattage/gas), it launched a new widget in the Xbox Game Bar with those handy controls instead of a dedicated MSI process! Did somebody accidentally slip me a preview of Microsoft’s “best of Xbox and Windows together” that’ll ship on the Xbox Ally later this year?

But I won’t lie and say the Windows experience was flawless after that. MSI’s Game Bar widget turned out to be incredibly sluggish and unreliable out of the box. It got better after I changed the Windows power mode from “Balanced” to “Best Performance,” but it still isn’t nearly as fast as Asus’ Armory Crate, which has gotten extremely responsive since the Ally first launched, or as reliable as SteamOS, which doesn’t require a separate utility at all.

Here’s how much MSI has improved:

Game and power mode

MSI Claw 8 AI Plus (Aug ’25)

MSI Claw 8 AI Plus (Jun ’25)

Claw 8 3-mo improvement

Claw battery drain (August)

Claw battery drain (June)

Claw 7 (Meteor Lake, Jun ’24)

Claw 8 Lunar Lake vs. Claw 7 Meteor Lake

AC Valhalla, 15-watt TDP664934.69%20.5W (~3.9h)23W (~3.5h)N/AN/A20-watt TDP785932.20%25.5W (~3.1h)29W (~2.8h)33136.36%25-watt TDP846921.74%32W (~2.5h)36W (~2.2h)5358.49%30-watt TDP85797.59%38W (~2.1h)39.5W (~2h)5457.41%Plugged in86833.61%N/AN/A5459.26%Cyberpunk 2077, 15-watt TDP51486.25%20W (~4h)20.5W (~3.9h)N/AN/A20-watt TDP60575.26%25W (~3.2h)26W (~3.1h)3287.50%25-watt TDP71659.23%31.5W (~2.5h)31.5W (~2.5h)4944.90%30-watt TDP76725.56%37.5W (~2.1h)37W (~2.2h)4185.37%Plugged in7779-2.53%N/AN/A4957.14%DX: Mankind Divided, 15-watt TDP796619.70%22.5W (~3.6h)21.5W (~3.6h)N/AN/A20-watt TDP938114.81%29.5W (~2.7h)27W (~3h)45106.67%25-watt TDP1059115.38%31W (~2.6h)32W (~2.5h)49114.29%30-watt TDP11410014.00%37W (~2.2h)37W (~2.2h)48137.50%Plugged in11910711.21%N/AN/A58105.17%Returnal, 15-watt TDP403033.33%20W (~4h)22W (~3.6h)N/AN/A20-watt TDP483633.33%26.5W (~3h)27W (~3h)2965.52%25-watt TDP524126.83%36W (~2.2h)32W (~2.5h)3836.84%30-watt TDP544325.58%42.5W (~1.9h)37.5W (~2.1h)3938.46%Plugged in564427.27%N/AN/A3751.35%Shadow of the Tomb Raider, 15-watt TDP55517.84%21W (~3.8h)23W (~3.5h)N/AN/A20-watt TDP666010.00%27W (~3h)30W (~2.6h)32106.25%25-watt TDP73687.35%35W (~2.3h)35.5W (~2.2h)3892.11%30-watt TDP81749.46%42W (~1.9h)41W (~2h)39107.69%Plugged in81758.00%N/AN/A4292.86%HZD Remastered, 15-watt TDP31310.00%21.5W (~3.6h)24.5W (~3.3h)N/AN/A20-watt TDP37370.00%28W (~2.9h)30W (~2.6h)Did not testN/A25-watt TDP42412.44%34.5W (~2.3h)36W (~2.2h)Did not testN/A30-watt TDP44424.76%40W (~2h)39W (~2.1h)Did not testN/APlugged in46452.22%N/AN/ADid not testN/A

Average frame rates at 720p and low settings, save Cyberpunk at “Steam Deck” setting.

And no, I can never, ever trust the Claw 8’s power button to keep it asleep. I always have to explicitly put the system into hibernation mode instead, which is thankfully the first option in that Game Bar widget. (Microsoft really needs to get out of its own way and let manufacturers set the power button to hibernate instead of Modern Standby.)

It’s also a little frustrating to go back to a world where I have to manually download the latest Intel graphics drivers because they never showed up in MSI Center’s updates tab. But once I installed those new graphics drivers and learned to avoid the power button, I was rewarded with some of the highest performance and the best battery life I’ve seen from a handheld yet. It’s just better at the whole turbo mode thing, with higher frame rates and higher TDP options than the Ally X with Windows, and it’s more power-efficient than the SteamOS Lenovo Legion Go S, even if Lenovo’s Steam handheld got higher frame rates in half my benchmarks.

Claw 8 vs. Ally X vs. Legion Go S vs. Steam Deck performance

Game and power mode

Claw 8 fps

ROG Ally X (Windows, Z1E) fps

Legion Go S (SteamOS, Z1E) fps

Steam Deck OLED fps

Claw 8 vs. Ally X

Claw 8 vs. Legion Go S

Claw 8 vs. Deck

AC Valhalla, 15-watt TDP6652665726.92%0.00%15.79%20-watt TDP787184N/A9.86%-7.14%N/A25-watt TDP848092N/A5.00%-8.70%N/A30-watt TDP858996N/A-4.49%-11.46%N/APlugged in86899257-3.37%-6.52%50.88%Cyberpunk 2077, 15-watt TDP5141575024.39%-10.53%2.00%20-watt TDP605973N/A1.69%-17.81%N/A25-watt TDP716579N/A9.23%-10.13%N/A30-watt TDP767182N/A7.04%-7.32%N/APlugged in777186508.45%-10.47%54.00%DX: Mankind Divided, 15-watt TDP7959746133.90%6.76%29.51%20-watt TDP938492N/A10.71%1.09%N/A25-watt TDP1059199N/A15.38%6.06%N/A30-watt TDP11493100N/A22.58%14.00%N/APlugged in119931026127.96%16.67%95.08%Returnal, 15-watt TDP4031242529.03%66.67%60.00%20-watt TDP484030N/A20.00%60.00%N/A25-watt TDP524332N/A20.93%62.50%N/A30-watt TDP544633N/A17.39%63.64%N/APlugged in5646342521.74%64.71%124.00%Shadow of the Tomb Raider, 15-watt TDP555262575.77%-11.29%-3.51%20-watt TDP666583N/A1.54%-20.48%N/A25-watt TDP737089N/A4.29%-17.98%N/A30-watt TDP817693N/A6.58%-12.90%N/APlugged in817696576.58%-15.63%42.11%HZD Remastered, 15-watt TDP3128373310.71%-16.22%-6.06%20-watt TDP373047N/A23.33%-21.28%N/A25-watt TDP422850N/A50.00%-16.00%N/A30-watt TDP443452N/A29.41%-15.38%N/APlugged in4634553335.29%-16.36%39.39%

Average frame rates at 720p and low settings, save Cyberpunk at “Steam Deck” setting.

We’re not talking about a step change in performance here: this pricy $1,000 handheld still doesn’t have near the frame rate of a similarly priced gaming laptop. It’s just enough extra power to make games feel smooth on this handheld that were borderline choppy on its peers, like Expedition 33 (even then, these handhelds need AI upscaling to get there).

But I didn’t have to sacrifice battery life to get that extra power. I often even push the Claw 8’s chip to 30 watts, a power mode that the Asus ROG Ally X doesn’t offer unless plugged in, for an extra frame rate advantage — while getting roughly the same battery life as the Ally X gets at its 25W unplugged maximum.

MSI Claw 8 vs. Asus ROG Ally X ports and width. The Claw still has handy raised dots on each port to find them by feel.

And though the Steam Deck has long reigned as the efficiency champ, I found the Claw 8 can even beat the Steam Deck on both performance and power use when set to the same 15-watt TDP, often draining its battery 2 or even 3 watts slower. When you combine that with its big 80-watt-hour pack, it handily beat competitors in my Dirt Rally drain test, lasting nearly 19 minutes longer than the Asus ROG Ally X with Bazzite, 28 minutes longer than the Steam Deck OLED, and 80 minutes longer than the Legion Go S with SteamOS and AMD’s Z1 Extreme chip.

Below, you can see how battery life might compare at each performance tier. For example: the Claw 8 and Legion Go S with SteamOS both offer the same 66 frames per second when you offer their chips 15 watts of electricity, but you’ll probably get 3.9 hours of battery from the Claw versus 2.3 hours from the Legion. That’s because MSI’s Intel chip is drawing less power from a larger battery.

Battery life vs. performance

Game and power mode

Claw 8 fps

Claw battery drain

ROG Ally X (Windows, Z1E) fps

Ally X battery drain

Legion Go S (SteamOS, Z1E) fps

Legion Go S battery drain

Steam Deck OLED fps

Deck battery drain

AC Valhalla, 15-watt TDP6620.5W (~3.9h)5224W (~3.3h)6624W (~2.3h)5723.5W (~2.1h)20-watt TDP7825.5W (~3.1h)7130W (~2.6h)8430.5W (~1.8h)N/AN/A25-watt TDP8432W (~2.5h)8036W (~2.2h)9236W (~1.5h)N/AN/A30-watt TDP8538W (~2.1h)89N/A9643.5W (~1.3h)N/AN/ACyberpunk 2077, 15-watt TDP5120W (~4h)4122W (~3.6h)5725W (~2.2h)5023.5W (~2.1h)20-watt TDP6025W (~3.2h)5929W (~2.7h)7332W (~1.7h)N/AN/A25-watt TDP7131.5W (~2.5h)6535W (~2.2h)7938W (~1.4h)N/AN/A30-watt TDP7637.5W (~2.1h)71N/A8244.5W (~1.2h)N/AN/ADX: Mankind Divided, 15-watt TDP7922.5W (~3.6h)5922W (~3.6h)7425.5W (~2.2h)6122W (~2.2h)20-watt TDP9329.5W (~2.7h)8430W (~2.6h)9232W (~1.7h)N/AN/A25-watt TDP10531W (~2.6h)9136W (~2.2h)9938.5W (~1.4h)N/AN/A30-watt TDP11437W (~2.2h)93N/A10045W (~1.2h)N/AN/AReturnal, 15-watt TDP4020W (~4h)3123W (~3.5h)2425.5W (~2.2h)2523W (~2.1h)20-watt TDP4826.5W (~3h)4030W (~2.6h)3032W (~1.7h)N/AN/A25-watt TDP5236W (~2.2h)4336W (~2.2h)3238.5W (~1.4h)N/AN/A30-watt TDP5442.5W (~1.9h)46N/A3345.5W (~1.2h)N/AN/AShadow of the Tomb Raider, 15-watt TDP5521W (~3.8h)5223W (~3.5h)6225W (~2.2h)5723.5W (~2.1h)20-watt TDP6627W (~3h)6530W (~2.6h)8331.5W (~1.7h)N/AN/A25-watt TDP7335W (~2.3h)7036W (~2.2h)8937.5W (~1.5h)N/AN/A30-watt TDP8142W (~1.9h)76N/A9343.5W (~1.3h)N/AN/AHZD Remastered, 15-watt TDP3121.5W (~3.6h)2823W (~3.5h)3725W (~2.2h)3323W (~2.1h)20-watt TDP3728W (~2.9h)3030W (~2.6h)4732W (~1.7h)N/AN/A25-watt TDP4234.5W (~2.3h)2836W (~2.2h)5037.5W (~1.5h)N/AN/A30-watt TDP4440W (~2h)34N/A5244W (~1.3h)N/AN/A

Average frame rates at 720p and low settings, save Cyberpunk at “Steam Deck” setting.

All this said, you still can’t ease off the gas quite like with AMD chips, at least not out of the box. Officially, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V is a 17W–37W chip, and while MSI lets you set the chip’s TDP as low as 8 watts, I still saw the Claw empty my battery at a rate of at least 11W in Balatro, the magic poker game I use as my best-case-scenario test. That means at minimum screen brightness, with wireless off, I’m getting around seven hours max — whereas the Steam Deck OLED can get nine hours and the Asus ROG Ally X can manage 10 in such lightweight games.

I have some quibbles with the Claw’s hardware. Though the speakers are above average, the rumble is annoying and weak. Hall effect joysticks and dedicated gyro modes are nice, but aiming felt sloppy out of the box, like MSI didn’t bother tuning either to a console controller standard, and I still haven’t quite nailed it with tweaks in either individual game settings or MSI Center. It’s also not the fastest handheld to charge or download games, despite its two Thunderbolt 4 ports and Wi-Fi 7, though not slow either.

But the real hurdles for the Claw 8 are that $1,000 price — and that MSI might only have one more whole month atop the Windows heap. Microsoft and Asus’ Xbox Ally is coming October 16th, with a revamped OS, and it could reshape the whole handheld market.

Handheld power, explained

You might have noticed I write about two different kind of wattage measurements (W) in my handheld reviews: 1) the TDP of each handheld’s chip, which basically translates to how much power you’re letting it use, and 2) the handheld’s total battery drain.

That’s because of a sea change in how portable gaming works. Unlike traditional laptops, today’s handhelds let you configure their processor’s TDP at a moment’s notice, even while you’re in the middle of a game, to give you more oomph. But when you do that — or when a manufacturer sets a higher default TDP so their handheld seems faster out of the box — it’ll drain your battery faster.

How much faster? You can find the answers in my charts, along with estimates of how quickly your battery will go from 100 percent to zero if you choose that TDP in a given game. And make no mistake, some games won’t run well on a handheld unless you choose a high TDP.

But the battery drain wattage is not the same as TDP, because it doesn’t account for all the rest of the handheld’s systems, including its storage and screen, that each game might push differently. Frame rate per watt drained is what to look for if you care about battery.

Photography by Sean Hollister / The Verge

0 CommentsFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

  • Close

    Sean Hollister

    Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All by Sean Hollister

  • Console ReviewsClose

    Console Reviews

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Console Reviews

  • GamingClose

    Gaming

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Gaming

  • PC GamingClose

    PC Gaming

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All PC Gaming

  • ReviewsClose

    Reviews

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Reviews

  • TechClose

    Tech

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Tech



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Windows Galaxy Brain
Gaming Gear

Upcoming PowerToys utility will finally let you set light and dark mode to cycle on a schedule in Windows 11

by admin



I swear, sometimes the only thing that actually wakes me up in the morning—besides enough caffeine to kill a small horse—is the retina searing brightness of a rogue default theme, usually from that one app I keep meaning to switch to dark mode. Now an upcoming PowerToys utility means I won’t be jumpscared with a bright white blast to my eyeballs right before bed time.

For those unfamiliar, PowerToys is a Windows utility for those never content with a system default. Tucked away into the accompanying blog post for the PowerToys 0.94 update (via Windows Latest) is news of a feature in the works that will “automatically switch between light and dark mode based on your schedule.”

At present in Windows 11, you can select dark mode by ducking into settings, then looking under personalisation, and then colours. You can also pick a muted ‘accent’ colour to highlight certain features of the Windows UI—such as sliders and hyperlink text—without harshing the more sedate vibes of dark mode.


Related articles

The rest of the recent 0.94 update focuses on quality of life updates, such as adding a search box into the PowerToys settings menu, plus a new gliding cursor mode that offers a little extra support for users who otherwise struggle to make rapid mouse movements and clicks precisely. Keyboard shortcuts also enjoy a tweak; rather than hitting a hotkey and being surprised when multiple things result from the same input, PowerToys now has a new tile that warns you of keyboard shortcut conflicts and also allows you to quickly reassign any doubled-up key combinations.

You can’t currently set your theming to change throughout the day in Windows 11, though that functionality is there for the Night light feature designed to reduce blue light intensity as ambient light levels drop. The PowerTools v0.95 update offering that feature should go live in October. As users have frequently requested this feature in the past (not to mention the fact a similar feature can already be found in macOS), there’s a good chance that the power users won’t be allowed to keep theme scheduling all to themselves forever.

And once we get themes that change based on the time of day, whose to say themes that change based on your location is out of the question either? Just think—dark mode for when you’re reading fanfic about your favourite blorbo at home, and then the normcore glow of day mode for when you’re in the office…though I’m not sure a shifting theme is what I’d personally consider a good enough reason to give up my location data.

Best gaming monitors 2025

All our current recommendations



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
No, a Windows update probably didn’t brick your SSD
Gaming Gear

No, a Windows update probably didn’t brick your SSD

by admin


For the last week or two, reports have been circulating that recent Windows 11 updates (specifically KB5063878 and KB5062660) were causing some SSDs using Phison controllers to fail. Tech influencers on YouTube and TikTok were quick to jump on the reports of corrupted data and disappearing drives, laying the blame squarely at Microsoft’s feet. We’re not saying any company is above lying to the public, and Microsoft has a history of rocky update rollouts, but both Microsoft and Phison claim they’ve been unable to recreate the issue.

Phison said it was made aware of reports that the Windows update was causing drives to fail on August 18th and began investigating the issue. Then it issued a statement on August 27th saying that after running over 2,200 test cycles totaling more than 4,500 hours it was, “unable to reproduce the reported issue, and no partners or customers have reported that the issue affected their drives at this time.”

Microsoft followed up just a few days later by saying that, “After thorough investigation, Microsoft has found no connection between the August 2025 Windows security update and the types of hard drive failures reported on social media.”

This isn’t terribly surprising since the reports were fairly limited. A Japanese user on Twitter appears to be the first to suggest the Windows update was bricking SSDs and there were some in the comments claiming that they had experienced similar issues. But, there was little evidence to suggest it was widespread and it’s entirely possible that this is a localized problem related to a bad batch of drives. So it seems there’s little reason to believe the August 2025 Windows security update is going to fry your hard drive, no matter what some dude on TikTok says.





Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Close