Preciosa To Make Light Feel Like a Living Thing at Milan 2026

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Light has always been design’s most underrated material. We talk endlessly about furniture, textiles, and surfaces, but light? It usually plays the supporting role, the thing that makes everything else look good. Preciosa Lighting is quietly changing that conversation, and their latest collection, Drifting Lights, might be the most convincing argument they’ve made yet.

The Czech brand has been doing this long enough to know the difference between novelty and genuine craft. Their heritage is rooted in traditional glassmaking, but what they’ve built with Drifting Lights feels like a very deliberate step forward. Each piece is made up of oblong and square glass panels slotted into a stainless-steel frame that discreetly conceals an LED strip. Inside each panel, the glass has been infused with countless tiny air bubbles. When light passes through, it doesn’t just illuminate the glass. It gets lost in it, scattering through those bubbles in a way that looks less like electricity and more like light deciding where it wants to go.

Designer: Preciousa Lighting

For Milan Design Week 2026, Preciosa is bringing the full Drifting Lights experience to the Tempesta Art Gallery in Brera, and the scale alone is worth paying attention to. The installation spans approximately 30 square metres and features 60 glass panels suspended vertically and horizontally, forming a structure measuring 8.7 by 3.2 by 3 metres. Set against a dark interior, the panels will be animated using 3D spatial mapping and RGBW technology, cycling through colour sequences from red to pink to green. Co-Creative Directors Michael Vasku and Andreas Klug put it plainly: the installation aims at “creating space to slow down, pause and wonder.”

I appreciate that framing, because Milan Design Week is genuinely relentless. Every brand is competing for the loudest moment, the most shareable installation, the boldest statement. There is a real temptation to optimise for the 15-second video clip rather than the actual experience of standing in a room. Preciosa is betting on the opposite, and I think that’s the smarter play. The colour sequence from red to pink to green reads like an emotional arc rather than a tech demo, referencing love, passion, and inner peace. Whether or not you buy the symbolism, you can’t argue with the atmosphere it creates.

A design object earns its place when it works just as well outside a gallery as inside one, and Drifting Lights has clearly been thought through on that level. The panels come in ten sizes, with different metal frame finishes and the option to orient them vertically or horizontally. The same collection can fill a grand hotel lobby or anchor a living room without losing its character. For bespoke projects, Preciosa can apply a painting technique that introduces pigment bubbles into the glass, giving each panel a layer of quiet individuality. The bubbled glass can also be enhanced with their Fused Veil pattern, which shifts the direction of light and adds even more visual complexity.

Under static illumination, Drifting Lights is calm and composed. Switch to dynamic mode and the panels come alive, with light moving from one to the next like ink dispersing through water. The gradients bloom, soften, and recombine. It’s the kind of effect that makes you stay in a room longer than you planned, which is, ultimately, what great lighting is supposed to do.

Preciosa has had a strong run at Fuorisalone in recent years, with recognised installations at Zona Tortona and Euroluce. The move to Tempesta on Foro Buonaparte suits the work well: a contemporary art gallery setting that lets the installation breathe without competing with showroom furniture. It’s a confident choice for a collection that clearly doesn’t need much help making a room feel different. If you’re heading to Milan, the installation runs April 20 to 26 at the Tempesta Art Gallery on Foro Buonaparte, and this one is worth the detour.

The post Preciosa To Make Light Feel Like a Living Thing at Milan 2026 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Chrome finally adds support for vertical tabs. 

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Google has started rolling out a small but significant update to Chrome on desktop. Starting today, users will begin seeing an option to organize their tabs vertically. To use the new feature, right click on any Chrome window and select "Show Tabs Vertically." 

Google is late to the game here. Before today, every other major browser but Chrome offered support for vertical tabs — though the quality of implementation varies widely. Firefox, for instance, has supported vertical tabs since its 136 update in March of last year, and in my experience, has one of the best interfaces for managing dozens of tabs. Apple's own Safari is another browser with the option to stack tabs vertically, though things can quickly get confusing due to all the different ways you can group webpages. 

Separately, Google is rolling out an enhanced reading mode that offers a new full-page interface. To use the feature, right click on a page and select "Open in reading mode." As you might imagine, reading mode is designed to make busy webpages easier to get through without distraction. As with most Chrome upgrades, it may take a few days before today's update rolls out to your device, so be patient if you don't see it right away.    

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/chrome-finally-adds-support-for-vertical-tabs-170000081.html?src=rss

A Tiny Pinwheel Is Doing What AI Giants Won’t

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Every time you type a prompt into ChatGPT, something happens somewhere far away. Servers spin up. Electricity moves. Carbon gets generated. The whole transaction is so clean and invisible on your end that it might as well not be happening. That’s by design, and it’s worth thinking about. Although with the way we use technology these days, we seldom think about the consequences on our environment.

London-based creative studio Oio wants to change that, starting with a small 3D-printed box and a bright yellow pinwheel. Their project, the Hot Air Factory, is a domestic AI device that processes your questions and requests locally, without connecting to the cloud, and every time it thinks, it physically exhales. Hot air pushes out of the top of the device and spins that cheerful little pinwheel. The harder it thinks, the faster it spins. You’re watching computation happen in real time, which turns out to be a surprisingly powerful thing.

Designer: Oio

The concept is simple: make the invisible visible. We know AI uses energy. We’ve read the headlines. But knowing abstractly that data centers are energy-hungry is different from watching a pinwheel turn every time you ask your AI assistant to summarize something. One is a statistic. The other is a moment of honest accountability.

What makes the Hot Air Factory smart, beyond its obvious design appeal, is how it translates cost into human-readable terms. It doesn’t give you kilowatt-hours because most people have no idea what that means. Instead, it tells you something like “that prompt cost the equivalent of brewing a cup of tea” or “watching Netflix for five minutes.” Suddenly the math becomes personal. Suddenly you start wondering whether you really needed a 500-word AI response to a question you could have Googled.

Oio co-founder Matteo Loglio describes it as “a small, domestic AI that reveals the hidden energy cost behind every prompt.” The factory also lets you dial up or down the level of intelligence it uses. Want a quick answer? Use a lighter model, spend less energy. Need something more complex? Crank it up, and watch that pinwheel work for it. You can even schedule your heavier prompts for the night shift, when energy is cleaner and the grid is quieter. These are design decisions that carry real ethical weight, and they’re baked in with zero condescension.

The playfulness and the seriousness aren’t in conflict here. They’re exactly the point. The Hot Air Factory is built in a Frutiger Aero visual language, all soft curves and clean optimism, the kind of aesthetic that makes you want to put it on a shelf next to your plants. But underneath that approachable exterior is a genuinely complicated machine running open-source large language models on a local GPU. It looks like something a friendly robot would carry. It functions like a small act of protest.

AI companies have very little incentive to make their energy costs legible to users. Invisibility is convenient. It keeps things frictionless. It keeps you prompting without thinking about the bill. A report from the US Department of Energy projected that by 2028, data centers could account for 12% of total electricity consumed in the US. That’s not a small number, and it keeps growing every time we treat AI like it runs on good intentions and cloud magic.

The Hot Air Factory isn’t saying AI is bad. It isn’t demanding you stop using it. What it’s doing is quieter and more persuasive than that. It’s asking you to look. To see. To feel, just a little, what your digital habits cost in the physical world. That’s the argument made not through a lecture or a campaign, but through a yellow pinwheel spinning in your living room.

Design can do that. Sometimes a small, well-made object says more than a policy paper ever could. The Hot Air Factory is currently looking for collaborators to help bring it to a wider audience, still working its way from experiment to something anyone can own. If the goal is conscious computing, the first step might just be this: a tiny box, a spinning fan, and the quiet discomfort of watching a machine breathe.

The post A Tiny Pinwheel Is Doing What AI Giants Won’t first appeared on Yanko Design.

Xbox Game Pass additions for April include Hades 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

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As ever, Xbox is bringing a bunch of high-profile titles to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass this month, while adding several to the lower tiers of the service. There aren't too many surprises among this first wave of April newcomers, though. Many of these additions were previously confirmed, while EA Sports NHL 26 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (the remake) were always going to join Game Pass at some point. 

Still, there's plenty to dive into on the service this month. April 14 is a particularly eye-catching day, with both Hades 2 (which is debuting on Xbox Series X/S and PS5) and the long-awaited Replaced hitting Game Pass alongside the turn-based, character-driven RPG The Thaumaturge.

Here's a breakdown of everything coming to Game Pass over the next few weeks:

  • Final Fantasy IV — Cloud, Xbox Series X/S and PC on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass

  • DayZ — PC on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, Game Pass Essential and PC Game Pass

  • Endless Legend 2 — PC game preview on Game Pass Premium (already on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass)

  • FBC: Firebreak — Cloud, Xbox Series X/S and PC on Game Pass Premium (already on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass)

  • Warhammer Vermintide 2 — Cloud and console on Game Pass Essential (already on Game Pass Ultimate and Game Pass Premium)

  • Planet Coaster 2 — Cloud, Xbox Series X/S and PC on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass

  • Tiny Bookshop — Cloud, Xbox Series X/S, handheld and PC on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass

  • Football Manager 26 — PC on Game Pass Premium (already on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass)

  • Football Manager 26 Console — Cloud, console and PC on Game Pass Premium (already on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass)

  • Hades 2 — Cloud, Xbox Series X/S, handheld and PC on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass

  • Replaced — Cloud, Xbox Series X/S and PC on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass

  • The Thaumaturge — Cloud, Xbox Series X/S and PC on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass

  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered — Cloud, Xbox Series X/S and PC on Game Pass Premium (already on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass)

  • EA Sports NHL 26 — Cloud and Xbox Series X/S on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — Cloud, console and PC on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass

  • Little Rocket Lab — Cloud, console and PC on Game Pass Premium (already on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass)

  • Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato — Cloud, console, handheld and PC on Game Pass Premium (already on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass)

  • Vampire Crawlers — Cloud, Xbox Series X/S, handheld, and PC on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass

  • Kiln — Cloud, Xbox Series X/S, handheld and PC on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass

As Xbox adds more titles to Game Pass, so too must it remove some. It's yet again erasing Grand Theft Auto V (Cloud, console and PC) from Game Pass, this time on April 15. The other games leaving the service on the same day are:

  • Ashen (Cloud, console and PC)

  • Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (Cloud, console and PC)

  • My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (Cloud, console and PC)

  • Terra Invicta (game preview on PC)

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-game-pass-additions-for-april-include-hades-2-and-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-155130801.html?src=rss

This Color E Ink Monitor Runs at 60Hz: Real Work, No Eye Strain

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Spending hours in front of a glowing screen is unavoidable for most people, and the toll it takes on the eyes is a problem the monitor industry hasn’t truly solved. E Ink displays offer a gentler, paper-like alternative that’s far easier to stare at for long stretches, but most of them are painfully slow, limited in resolution, and not really up to the demands of daily computing.

The Modos Flow is Modos Tech’s answer to that problem. Built by a Boston-based hardware startup, it’s a 13.3-inch E Ink portable monitor designed not just for casual reading but for all-day, focused work. It targets the kind of person who needs a real secondary screen but wants to spend less time squinting and more time actually getting things done.

Designer: Modos Tech

Most E Ink monitors struggle as daily drivers because of their refresh rate. Traditional panels tend to crawl, making anything beyond static document reading a frustrating experience. The Modos Flow uses a custom board with open-source firmware to push its display to 60 Hz, enough to scroll through pages, type without noticeable lag, and use the screen as a functional everyday monitor rather than a glorified e-reader.

Resolution is also where the Modos Flow separates itself. In black-and-white mode, it renders at 3,200 x 2,400 pixels with a pixel density of 300 PPI, making text crisp enough to satisfy anyone used to retina-grade displays. Color mode brings the resolution down to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels at 150 PPI, which is a fair trade given how rarely E Ink panels offer color at all.

Touch and stylus support round out what’s becoming a surprisingly versatile display. Modos brought the latency down to under 100ms, so annotating a document, sketching ideas, or jotting notes with a stylus actually responds the way you’d want it to. It won’t replace a dedicated drawing tablet, but for someone who routinely works between a laptop and a secondary screen, having that input option without swapping devices is genuinely useful.

Its physical design is straightforward and practical. A built-in cover doubles as a stand and folds flat for travel, while VESA mounting holes on the back make it easy to attach to a monitor arm or desk mount. Three side buttons let you adjust brightness, contrast, and display mode without touching your computer. Connectivity runs through USB-C with DisplayPort Alt-Mode support, which keeps the setup clean with a single cable.

One of the quieter advantages of E Ink over LCD or OLED is power consumption, and that matters here. When connected to a laptop via USB-C, the Modos Flow draws significantly less power than a conventional secondary monitor, meaning your battery isn’t taking nearly the hit it normally would. It works with Windows, macOS, and Linux out of the box, so there’s no particular setup hurdle to clear. Pricing hasn’t been confirmed yet, but Modos has indicated it should be comparable to other portable monitors.

The post This Color E Ink Monitor Runs at 60Hz: Real Work, No Eye Strain first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sony is starting a weird service that scans people to put them in PlayStation games

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Sony just announced a truly strange initiative called The Playerbase. This is a program to scan people's likenesses and pop them in PlayStation games. That's pretty wild, but potentially cool to those who have always wanted to become a weird humanoid version of Crash Bandicoot.

The program is ramping up slowly. Sony has announced a contest of sorts to place one lucky fan inside of Gran Turismo 7, though in a reduced fashion. The chosen player will get an image of their face placed inside the game as a character portrait and will get the chance to design a logo and the exterior of a vehicle.

A lady named Sarah is now in Gran Turismo 7.
Sony

This person will also get a trip to Los Angeles to participate in a full-body scan, but Sony hasn't said what, if anything, they'd do with this scan. After all, Gran Turismo 7 is a racing game without too many full-body models walking around.

Fans have a lot of hoops to jump through to be considered for placement. There's a traditional application process, but also video interviews and other stuff. The promotion is available to players in the Americas, Europe, Asia, South Africa and Australia.

Of course, there needs to be actual new PlayStation games for people to scan their likenesses into. Sony hasn't exactly been providing us with a robust lineup of first-party titles this generation. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-is-starting-a-weird-service-that-scans-people-to-put-them-in-playstation-games-150130276.html?src=rss

NASA shares incredible photos from the far side of the Moon

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The Artemis II crew made history as they traveled further from our planet than any other living humans. The astronauts and NASA are making the most of the trip, including by capturing some utterly stunning photos. The space agency shared some that were taken from the far side of the Moon, including the "Earthset" shown above.

This is a depiction of our planet setting behind the Moon, just as the sun sets over the horizon for us on terra firma every single night. "The image is reminiscent of the iconic Earthrise image taken by astronaut Bill Anders 58 years earlier as the Apollo 8 crew flew around the Moon," the NASA Artemis account on X noted. 

The crew also witnessed a solar eclipse from the far side of the Moon, with the satellite totally blocking out the sun. This lasted for around 57 minutes as Orion travelled more than 4,000 miles beyond the Moon. You can see several photos of the eclipse and Earth from the lunar flyby in the slideshow above. (And yes, the astronauts used eclipse glasses to protect their eyes.)

While they were circling the Moon, the Artemis II crew discovered two new craters. The astronauts suggested names for them: Integrity (after the nickname for their spacecraft) and Carroll, after the late wife of Commander Reid Wiseman, describing the latter as a “bright spot on the Moon.” 

The mission will last a few more days as the astronauts are now returning to Earth. Orion is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on April 10.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasa-shares-incredible-photos-from-the-far-side-of-the-moon-142355972.html?src=rss

ASUS ZenBook A16 review: A surprisingly light and powerful 16-inch ultraportable 

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I went into 2025 incredibly amped to review ASUS's 2.2-pound ZenBook A14, only to be disappointed by the lackluster performance of its Snapdragon X chip. I'm still a bit heartbroken, to be honest. But now ASUS is back with a revamped A14 and a larger 16-inch ZenBook A16, both of which sport new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chips. The A16 is slightly heavier at 2.6 pounds and 2.9 pounds, but it still competes with LG’s Gram Pro 16. And thanks to Qualcomm's new hardware, it's actually speedy enough to compete with Intel and AMD ultraportables. 

Take everything I initially liked about the ZenBook A14 last year — its thin design and portability, its smooth "Ceraluminum" case and its bold OLED screen — stretch it out a bit, and you've got the ZenBook A16. There's an understated beauty to its design that's far more intriguing than ASUS's mainstream notebooks, like the ZenBook 14 OLED from a few years ago, and it's not trying as hard to impress as ASUS's typical gaming notebooks. It's similar to the company's gorgeous Zephyrus G14 and G16 machines, which feel high-end without needing too much gaming bling. 

What struck me first about the A14 last year remains the most intriguing aspect of the A16: It just seems impossibly light for its size. The model I’m testing, which will also be sold at Best Buy, weighs 2.9 pounds due to its glass touchscreen cover. But you can also get a slimmer 2.6-pound version of the A16 at ASUS’s online store. 

ASUS's Ceraluminum material, which feels like a blend of ceramic and metal, also exudes quality and warmth when you hold it. There's no shock of cold metal on your lap like you'll find with most premium laptops, including Apple's MacBook Pro. But it's also just as sturdy as those machines, with no discernible creaks or flex when stressed. ASUS claims its Ceraluminum cases are also scratch and fingerprint resistant, and so far that seems to be true of my review unit after a few weeks of testing.

ASUS Zenbook A16
ASUS Zenbook A16
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

The ZenBook A16's stunning 16-inch 3K OLED screen is its defining feature, and it delivers everything you'd expect from OLED. Colors look bold and bright, and it offers inky dark black levels. It delivers an eye-popping sense of contrast you won't find on most LCD screens (unless they have Mini LED backlights, like the MacBook Pro). Text appears crisp and sharp, and the large screen size does a great job of making video playback feel immersive (especially if you're laying in bed, trying to catch up on The Pitt). 

Personally, I'd still opt for the A14 because of the weight difference, but if you prefer big screens this is certainly one of the most intriguing options around. The A16 also has a full-sized SD card reader and HDMI connection, both of which the smaller model lacks entirely. ASUS also included a healthy amount of other ports, including two USB-C 4.0 connections, one USB Type A 3.2 port and a headphone jack. From a productivity perspective, you can certainly get a lot more done with the ZenBook A16's connectivity. 

The same holds true for Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X2 Elite chips in the A16. Both the X2E94100and X2E96100 are 18-core chips with a single core boost speed of 4.7GHz, which is a big leap over the 8-core X1 chip in last year's A14. The X2 Elite-equipped A16 also comes with a whopping 48GB of RAM, which feels downright luxurious given our current RAM availability crisis, as well as a new 80-TOPS NPU for AI workloads.

Geekbench 6 CPU

Geekbench 6 GPU

Cinebench 2024

ASUS Zenbook A16 (Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E94100)

3,262/20,808

43,849

98/1,238

ASUS Zenbook A14 (2025, Qualcomm Snapdragon X1)

2,113/10,316

9,603

96/540

Apple MacBook Air (M5)

4,193/17,270

47,656

N/A

Microsoft Surface Laptop (2024, Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite)

2,797/14,400

19,963

123/969

I immediately felt the difference in power when I booted up the ZenBook A16. The awkward sluggishness while browsing the web or perusing Evernote entries on the A14 was gone. Instead, the A16 always felt incredibly responsive and ready to work, like an eager puppy that never gets tired of playing fetch. Benchmarks also revealed the massive speed differences: The X2 Elite A16 scored 1,200 points higher in Geekbench 6's single-core CPU test, and its multi-core performance was twice as fast. 

The comparison is a bit unfair, I'll admit, because the A14 I reviewed last year was stuck with the most basic X-series Snapdragon chip, whereas the A16 touts Qualcomm's latest and greatest hardware. That also makes the A16 a bit more expensive than last year's A14: Best Buy lists it at $1,600, whereas the A14 initially sold for $1,100.

ASUS Zenbook A16
ASUS Zenbook A16
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

But at least the ZenBook A16 delivers the performance you'd expect for its price range. In the PCMark 10 Applications benchmark, it scored 17,264 points, which is 1,000 points higher than Dell's Premium 16 (aka last year's XPS 16) with Intel's Core Ultra 7 255H chip. It's also leagues ahead of the old ZenBook A14, which scored a meager 12,127 points.

Benchmarks never tell the whole story, of course, but those huge performance gaps are the sort of thing you immediately notice in everyday performance. I was able to load up the ZenBook A16 with dozens of tabs, Evernote, 4K YouTube video streams and large Audacity jobs, and it never broke a sweat. Since it's an ARM-based Snapdragon system, though, be aware older apps may run into issues, or fail to work entirely. 

That Qualcomm hardware also made gaming a major problem for the first generation of Snapdragon X Elite chips, which didn't perform well and were also incompatible with games that required kernel-level anti-cheat. Updates to the Windows on Arm platform fixed the latter issue, and Qualcomm also launched its Snapdragon Control Panel to deliver faster driver updates. Now all Snapdragon X Elite chips can play Fortnite, Roblox and Tencent titles. Qualcomm claims that 90 percent of games will run on the Snapdragon Elite X2 chips.

ASUS Zenbook A16
ASUS Zenbook A16
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

And that includes demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077. I was able to reach 80 fps in that game, while playing with medium settings in 1080p, along with enabling AMD's FSR frame generation. This wouldn't be my ideal way to play Cyberpunk, but it's a sign that the ZenBook A16 can at least hold its own in gaming. Unfortunately, it wouldn't load Arc Raiders, because there's still no support for its anti-cheat tech. Fortnite launched just fine, though, and for some people that'll be enough.

But really, anyone buying the ZenBook A16 isn't doing it to play shooters, you're doing it to get one of the lightest productivity machines around. ASUS's keyboard was comfortable to type on, though I would have liked to see more key depth akin to the Surface Laptop. Its trackpad is large and responsive, but it's also mechanical, which means you can only click along the lower two-thirds. In this price range, I'd expect ASUS to use a haptic trackpad with full coverage.

The ZenBook A14's battery life (18 hours and 15 minutes) was one of its truly impressive features. ASUS repeats history here with the A16 clocking in 21 hours and 35 minutes in our rundown test. That's the immediate benefit of having a chip based on mobile ARM architecture. During my testing, the A16 drained down to 80 percent after around four hours of continuous work.

Compatibility issues aside, the ZenBook A16 delivers just about everything I want in an ultraportable. It’s got a gorgeous OLED screen and all of the ports you need. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite chips also give it a much-needed power boost. And best of all, it's one of the lightest and sleekest 16-inch Windows laptops I've come across. Just be prepared to pay a bit extra over other ultraportables for its slim size.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/asus-zenbook-a16-review-a-surprisingly-light-and-powerful-16-inch-ultraportable-140000914.html?src=rss

moto pad – 2026: 5G Tablet With 2.5K Screen, Quad Dolby Atmos

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Motorola has introduced the moto pad – 2026, a new Android tablet that expands the company’s device lineup beyond smartphones and into a more connected cross-screen experience. Announced alongside the moto g stylus – 2026, the tablet is positioned as a larger-screen companion for productivity, entertainment, and everyday multitasking. Based on its specs and overall appearance, the device also appears to be a rebranded version of the Moto Pad 60 Neo, which launched in India last year.

That resemblance matters because the moto pad – 2026 does not arrive as a dramatic reinvention of the Android tablet formula. Instead, it looks like Motorola is leaning on a familiar hardware base and repositioning it for a wider audience under a simpler product name. In that sense, the story here is not just about a new tablet, but about how Motorola is continuing to build out a broader ecosystem around its existing devices.

Designer: Motorola

The moto pad – 2026 centers on an 11-inch display with 2.5K resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate, giving it a hardware foundation aimed at streaming, reading, and light productivity. Motorola says the screen reaches up to 500 nits in High Brightness Mode, which should make it usable in a wider range of lighting conditions. The tablet’s 6.99mm profile and roughly 480g weight also suggest a design meant to feel portable rather than bulky, whether it is being used on a desk, on a couch, or on the go.

The spec sheet also points to an anti-fingerprint finish and a PANTONE Bronze Green metal design. Those details give the device a cleaner and slightly more refined visual identity than many budget-focused tablets that tend to settle for plain plastic shells. Even if the overall hardware looks familiar, Motorola is clearly trying to make the tablet feel more polished and lifestyle-friendly in the way it is presented.

Performance is handled by the MediaTek D6300 5G processor, paired with 8GB of LPDDR4x memory and 128GB of built-in storage. The tablet also supports microSD expansion up to 2TB, adding flexibility for users who want to keep more video, downloads, apps, and documents locally. That combination should be enough for everyday streaming, browsing, reading, casual gaming, and light multitasking, even if it is not positioned as a high-end productivity machine.

One of the more practical additions is 5G connectivity, which gives the moto pad – 2026 an advantage over Wi-Fi-only tablets that lose some of their usefulness away from home or office networks. That makes the device easier to imagine as a portable screen for students, travelers, or anyone who wants a larger display without constantly relying on hotspot connections. It also helps reinforce the idea that this is meant to be a flexible everyday tablet rather than a stay-at-home media slab.

Audio appears to be one of the stronger parts of the package. The moto pad – 2026 includes quad speakers with Dolby Atmos, which should give it a better foundation for movies, streaming, and casual gaming than entry-level tablets with simpler speaker setups. A 3.5mm headphone jack is also included, which remains a practical feature for users who still prefer wired audio or want an easy connection for older accessories.

The software story here is less about reinvention and more about ecosystem fit. Motorola says the moto pad 2026 supports Smart Connect, allowing it to work more closely with phones and PCs for multitasking and content sharing across screens. It also includes Circle to Search, extending one of Android’s more useful recent features to a larger display and giving the tablet a more modern software feel.

Battery life is backed by a 7,040mAh cell, while charging tops out at 20W. The spec sheet also lists an IP52 rating, along with a 5-megapixel front camera and an 8-megapixel rear camera, reinforcing the sense that this is primarily a media and productivity tablet rather than a device built around photography or premium flagship ambitions. Taken as a whole, the moto pad 2026 looks like a practical addition to Motorola’s lineup, even if its strongest selling point may be how familiar it already seems.

The post moto pad – 2026: 5G Tablet With 2.5K Screen, Quad Dolby Atmos first appeared on Yanko Design.

moto g stylus – 2026: Pressure-Sensitive Stylus, Military-Tough, $500

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Motorola has introduced the moto g stylus – 2026, refreshing one of its more popular smartphone lines with an upgraded built-in stylus, added durability, and a feature set aimed at users who want productivity tools without stepping into flagship pricing. The moto g stylus has become one of Motorola’s more popular models by offering a built-in stylus in a segment where that feature remains relatively rare. With the 2026 version, Motorola is clearly building on one of the line’s biggest points of differentiation.

The stylus is central to the phone’s updated experience. It now supports tilt and pressure sensitivity in supported apps, allowing for broader shading, finer lines, and a more natural pen-on-paper feel when sketching, jotting notes, or marking up ideas on the fly. That functionality extends to a refreshed Notes experience, where handwritten notes, doodles, and brainstorms live in one place.

Designer: Motorola

Beyond the pen features, the moto g stylus – 2026 brings together a hardware package aimed at broadening its appeal. The phone includes a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with 1.5K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Peak brightness has been increased to 5,000 nits, up from 3,000 nits on the previous model.

The camera hardware, however, looks rather familiar. Motorola lists a 50-megapixel main camera with Sony’s LYTIA 700C sensor, along with a 13-megapixel ultrawide and macro camera and a 32-megapixel front-facing camera. That mirrors the setup used on the 2025 model on paper, suggesting the bigger story this year is the stylus and durability rather than a major imaging overhaul.

Motorola is also putting more emphasis on durability this year. The moto g stylus – 2026 adds IP69 protection and SGS-certified military-grade toughness, building on the IP68 resistance already offered by the previous model. That should help the phone better handle dust, water exposure, drops, and more demanding day-to-day conditions.

Battery life remains another key part of the package. The phone includes a 5,200mAh battery that Motorola says can deliver up to 44 hours of use, along with support for 68W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. On the software side, the device ships with Android 16 and includes Google Gemini, Motorola’s Hello UX customization layer, Smart Connect for multi-device experiences, and Moto Secure.

The new model continues Motorola’s design-forward approach, pairing its feature set with a leather-inspired finish and twill-like texture. It will be offered in Pantone-curated Coal Smoke and Lavender Mist color options. Motorola announced the phone alongside the Moto Pad 2026, a new tablet intended to complement the smartphone across productivity and entertainment use cases.

The Moto G Stylus 2026 will go on sale on April 16 as an unlocked device through Best Buy, Amazon, and Motorola.com, with a starting price of $499.99. We are expecting to receive a review unit, and we will have more to say once we have had the chance to test the stylus, camera system, battery life, and day-to-day performance. Stay tuned for our full review.

The post moto g stylus – 2026: Pressure-Sensitive Stylus, Military-Tough, $500 first appeared on Yanko Design.