ModRetro, the gaming company that makes modern versions of retro consoles, has unveiled its take on the Nintendo 64. It’s called the M64, and it has launched alongside ModRetro’s spin on the classic console’s trident or three-pronged controller. The M64 is a direct competitor to the Analogue 3D, which is also an ode to the N64 and can play its games. Analogue’s version is already out for sale, though it’s currently out of stock. ModRetro didn’t say when you’ll be able to purchase the M64 and how much it will cost, but you can sign up for the waitlist and get priority when it goes on sale. The consoles will come with translucent casing in three colors when it debuts: purple, green and white.
ModRetro soft launched its first console, the Chromatic, in 2024. As you can probably guess, the Chromatic can play Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles, as well as proprietary cartridges. It came out months after its soft launch and will set you back at least $200. If you’re not familiar with ModRetro before this, it was founded by Palmer Luckey who also founded Oculus and designed the Rift headset. In 2017, he co-founded Anduril Industries, a military tech company that builds drones, sensors and other technologies with billions in government contracts.
ModRetro M64 controller
ModRetro
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/modretro-launches-its-take-on-the-nintendo-64-170000967.html?src=rss
We finally have a release date for the early access build of Hytale. The fun starts on January 13. The game costs $20 and is available for PC. Preorders go up on December 13.
This is a true early access build, so don't go in expecting a polished experience. Developer Hypixel Studios says it's "still very much unfinished and will be buggy for a while" but that the team is committed to perfecting the game over time. Studio co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme recently said "I don't think the game is good yet," so make of that what you will.
For the uninitiated, Hytale is a nifty-looking open world adventure game that looks to be visually inspired by Minecraft. It's been on our radar for years and development goes all the way back to 2015.
It's been a long road getting to early access, with enough twists and turns to fuel a boardroom drama. Riot bought the studio in 2020, ostensibly to continue work on Hytale. However, the company behind League of Legends soured on the concept after a few years. It shut down Hypixel Studios earlier this year and ended development of the game.
That should've been the end, but it wasn't. Hypixel managed to secure funding to buy the rights back from Riot and brought Hytale back from the dead. The company rehired a bunch of staffers that were impacted by Riot's decision and got to work. Hypixel showed off a bunch of new footage of the game just one day after it announced the acquisition. That's what the kids refer to as a "flex."
In any event, it's good to get a happy ending for once. Hytale may not be a polished product when the early access is released in January, but I have full confidence that it'll get there.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/hytales-early-access-build-drops-on-january-13-and-costs-20-164204422.html?src=rss
As I write this, my Dreo Whole-Room heater is swirling warm air around me in a hushed, mellow sweep. I personally paid the full $100 for the privilege but right now, you can currently snag yours for $15 less, thanks to Black Friday's benevolence. Either way — this little guy is worth it. I bought mine a few weeks ago when the leaves started to turn and I knew winter was coming for my home office. I needed something to replace the aging plug-in radiator I used in years past and, after some research, this seemed like just the thing.
There are no heating vents in my office, because it was once the front porch. Whoever built the addition did a solid job — including constructing the walls out of a material (brick? cinder block? titanium?) that no nail can penetrate, let alone duct work. The hand-me-down plug-in radiator I used last year wasn't cutting it — only keeping me warm if I stood bestride it. If I'd had the budget for it, I'd have picked up my editor's most recent heater find, but $100 felt like my limit.
I can report that my purchase of Dreo's heater has been worth it. It stands about a foot tall and just about as wide, but it really pumps out the heat. I originally mistook the displayed "H1" for "high," so I thought the heat output was fine, but not great. Then I pushed the plus button and realized there's an H2 and H3, which is where things really get spicy.
It can oscillate left and right in a 90-degree arc, as well as nod up and down 60 degrees. It can even do both at the same time. I anthropomorphize everything, so when it swings both horizontally and vertically, I see a baby woodland owl inspecting its forest habitat in awe.
Unlike that radiator heater, this heats up nigh-on instantaneously. Within seconds, I can feel the warmth, and within a minute my fingers defrost enough so I can type. But, since it is a ceramic heater, the heat largely disappears when you turn it off (at which point it goes through a 30 second cool-down to push the remaining heat out of the vents). The air in the room will stay as warm as your insulation allows, but I do use the remote to click it on and off throughout the day.
The exterior is largely plastic, and I was worried it would have a strong off-gassing smell. Straight out of the box, the chemical tinge was noticeable, but after leaving it sitting out for a couple days, it calmed right down. I haven't put the timer — or the tip-over safety function for that matter — to the test, but I'm happy to know that both are available. And, as advertised, it's super quiet, emitting a pleasant hum that keeps me company as I work.
It's also quite portable. Which is why it constantly makes the rounds around my house. My kid likes to have it pointed at him when he eats breakfast before school. My husband grabs it to de-ice the bathroom during a shower. I honestly love that this little heater can help them stay comfortable without having to crank up the central heating to warm up the whole house, but I do wish I didn't have to hunt it down at the start of a workday. I guess should just go ahead and grab another.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/my-family-keeps-stealing-my-dreo-heater-so-im-buying-another-while-its-on-sale-for-black-friday-160923723.html?src=rss
It's easy to overlook the Black Friday subscription deals available each year when you're focused on getting physical things for yourself and others. But it would be a mistake to do so since you can often save a ton on subscriptions and services you either already use, or have been thinking about trying. Take Plex, which is offering 40 percent off its lifetime pass. You can use the code ANYPASS40 to get it for $150 instead of the usual $250.
The monthly and annual Plex Pass options are also 40 percent off. You can get a year of Plex for $42, down from $70 or a monthly subscription for $4.19 each month, down from $7. The latter lets you cancel a lot more easily, but costs about $8 more for the year.
Plex acts as a personal media server that lets you curate a digital collection from a range of platforms. It also offers its own streaming options, so you can access a mix of titles. However, the Lifetime Pass was only $120 until earlier this year, when it more than doubled. The discount will get you close to that price, but you might also want to check out other streaming sales available for Black Friday.
Disney+ Hulu bundle — $60 for one year: The Disney+ and Hulu (with ads) bundle is on sale for $5 per month for one year (for a total of $60) through December 1. New and eligible returning subscribers can take advantage of this deal, and considering the bundle typically costs $13 per month, this deal represents more than a 50 percent discount on the standard monthly price.
Apple TV+ — 6 months for $36: Apple TV+ is offering six months of access for only $36 for Black Friday, which comes out to a discounted price of $6 per month for the six-month period. The deal is live now for new and eligible returning subscribers and runs through December 1, giving you a chance to stream shows like Silo, The Morning Show and For All Mankind for less. The biggest caveat to the deal is that you must subscribe directly through Apple and not through a third-party service.
HBO Max — one year for $36: HBO Max's Black Friday deal gives subscribers one year streaming for $36 through December 1. This Black Friday streaming deal is on the ad-supported option, which normally goes for $11 per month. With this discount, you're getting it for $3 per month for one year. You can sign up via HBO Max's website or, if you're a Prime Video subscriber already, via that service as an add-on.
Sling TV Orange — day pass for only $1: Sling TV launched Day Passes earlier this year, giving users one-day access to a variety of its packages. This deal cuts $4 off the normal price of a day pass for Sling Orange. With that, you get unlimited access for 24 hours to Orange's more than 30 channels that includes ESPN, CNN, TBS and others.
Paramount+ — two months of Essential or Premium for $6: This Black Friday deal brings the monthly price of either Paramount+ tier down to just $6 for two months, or $3 per month. The obvious better deal is on the Premium plan, which typically costs $13 per month.
Starz — one year for $12: Pay upfront for one year and you can get more than $50 off a Stars annual subscription. There's a month-to-month option too, which costs $3 per month for the first three months if you don't want to commit to the full year. Either option gives you access to the entire Starz TV and movie library with offline viewing and no ads.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/black-friday-streaming-deal-plex-is-offering-a-lifetime-pass-for-40-percent-off-155614379.html?src=rss
As winter truly draws near, there are few things better than spending a chill night at home watching your favorite shows. There are lots of Black Friday streaming deals available this year to make doing that a bit more affordable.
One of the best comes courtesy of a $58 discount on an annual Starz subscription. Right now, you can pay just $1 a month for an entire year of watching Outlander — or one of the other great titles available. the only catch is that you have to pay the entire $12 upfront.
If you're not sure about Starz, you can test the waters by paying $3 monthly, down from $11. However, this 73 percent discount is only available for your first three months and then goes back up to full price. Basically, if you're at all interested, it's only an extra $3 for an extra nine months if you pay annually.
If Starz isn't for you, check out some of the other great streaming deals available for Black Friday. There's discounts like six months of Apple TV for only $36 or $96 off one year of a Disney+ and Hulu bundle. We've also found amazing Black Friday tech deals from brands like Sony, LEGO and 1Password.
Disney+ Hulu bundle — $60 for one year: The Disney+ and Hulu (with ads) bundle is on sale for $5 per month for one year (for a total of $60) through December 1. New and eligible returning subscribers can take advantage of this deal, and considering the bundle typically costs $13 per month, this deal represents more than a 50 percent discount on the standard monthly price.
Apple TV+ — 6 months for $36: Apple TV+ is offering six months of access for only $36 for Black Friday, which comes out to a discounted price of $6 per month for the six-month period. The deal is live now for new and eligible returning subscribers and runs through December 1, giving you a chance to stream shows like Silo, The Morning Show and For All Mankind for less. The biggest caveat to the deal is that you must subscribe directly through Apple and not through a third-party service.
HBO Max — one year for $36: HBO Max's Black Friday deal gives subscribers one year streaming for $36 through December 1. This Black Friday streaming deal is on the ad-supported option, which normally goes for $11 per month. With this discount, you're getting it for $3 per month for one year. You can sign up via HBO Max's website or, if you're a Prime Video subscriber already, via that service as an add-on.
Sling TV Orange — day pass for only $1: Sling TV launched Day Passes earlier this year, giving users one-day access to a variety of its packages. This deal cuts $4 off the normal price of a day pass for Sling Orange. With that, you get unlimited access for 24 hours to Orange's more than 30 channels that includes ESPN, CNN, TBS and others.
Paramount+ — two months of Essential or Premium for $6: This Black Friday deal brings the monthly price of either Paramount+ tier down to just $6 for two months, or $3 per month. The obvious better deal is on the Premium plan, which typically costs $13 per month.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/black-friday-streaming-deals-drop-one-year-of-starz-down-to-just-12-143804639.html?src=rss
The following contains mild spoilers for The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy.
Following its birth as a 1978 BBC Radio sitcom through its many and varied adaptations, Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy has become an enduring part of our culture. Despite the fact its satire centers on the anxieties of Britain at the tail end of the ‘70s, its unique wit and surrealism have brought it worldwide fame. It is a rite of passage for at least one subset of British teens and their anglophile cousins, as well as a tech culture shibboleth that has embedded itself in the broader culture. Now, it has been reborn as a live immersive theatre production at London’s Riverside Studios that preserves the series most singular quality: Its messiness.
Given it started as a half-hour radio comedy, Hitchhikers’ plot is surreal, episodic and prone to (what appear to be) digressions. But the broad shape of each version of the story sees Arthur Dent waking up to discover bulldozers about to demolish his home to make way for a new highway. He is distracted from his protest by his friend Ford, who reveals he is not an out-of-work actor, but an alien researcher for a book called The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy. Minutes later, the Earth itself is demolished to make way for a new interstellar highway, but Ford and Arthur hitchhike onto one of the ships demolishing the planet.
The “book” itself is in fact a small tablet containing a Wikipedia-style trove of knowledge that acts as the series’ narrator. Still wearing his pajamas, Arthur is dragged across the universe in various adventures which culminate in meeting a group of multi-dimensional aliens looking to discover the ultimate meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Subsequent radio series and novels take the same characters forward, backward and sideways with diminishing returns. Adams’ love of the long shaggy dog joke means that the ultimate question and the ultimate answer is… “What do you get if you multiply six by nine?” “Forty-Two.” (God’s final message to his creation is a similar tale, revealed as “We apologise for the inconvenience.”)
Image of the Vogon Cargo Hold, one of the immersive sets.
Jason Ardizzone West / Hitchhikers Live
Each adaptation is twisted and turned to suit its new format, so there’s only a handful of essentials. Arthur, Ford, The Book, 42 and the Eagles’ Journey of the Sorcerer (the chorus of which is the theme) are the only mainstays. It should come as no surprise then that generous liberties have been taken here to compress the sprawling journey narrative into a format suitable for a live immersive theatre show. [If you’re unfamiliar, rather than sit and watch the action unfold on a stage, you’re instead walking around an environment with the story taking place in front of you. You can even engage with the actors directly at points, although only if you want to.] Here, you’ll be loitering in the bar of the Horse and Groom pub, the cargo hold of the Heart of Gold, the… cargo hold of the Vogon destructor ship and the factory floor at Magrathea.
Fenchurch and Arthur lock eyes at the Horse and Groom.
Jason Ardizzone West / Hitchhikers Live
To try and impose some degree of conventional narrative on the story, Hitchhiker’s Live takes the beats of the first story (in all its forms) and the romance from the fourth novel, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. We spend most of our time with Ford (Oliver Britten), while Arthur (Robert Thompson) flits in and out of the narrative as part of his universe-spanning quest to reunite with his beloved Fenchurch (Kat Johns-Burke). We get to spend a little time with Zaphod Beeblebrox (Lee V-G) and Slartibartfast (Richard Costello), while (one form of) Trisha McMillan (Lenora Crichlow) only appears as a recorded voice identified with a photo that looks a lot like a publicity shot fromAvenue 5rather than one taken fresh for this show.
Slartibartfast (Richard Costello) holds court on the factory floor of Magrathea.
Jason Ardizzone West / Hitchhikers Live
Hitchhikers’ digressive surrealism means it struggles against the limits imposed upon it by any and every medium it’s ever been made into. As someone who grew up with the novel version, I see that as definitive, but even the later works struggled to remain on the page. At times, the immersive theatre format works to the story’s detriment, meaning you’re likely to miss a beat or two if you’re not able to sprint to every corner of each scene. For instance, there were so many audience members gathering around the Jatravartids area that I thought I’d check out the emptier areas first. Which was a mistake, as Humma Kavula then engaged in a big song and dance number center stage that I’d missed the buildup for. Similarly, I didn’t even realize that the show featured Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Tom Bowen) until I read the cast list while writing this review.
The abbreviated nature of the storyline means you’re often missing not just the connective tissue but even a lot of the meat from the original. Some of the emotional weight of the set pieces feels unearned because the makers have elided a lot of the necessary everything. When you get to the big finish, it’s hard not to wish we’d seen some of the effort one character has made beyond their hair growing out to mark the passage of time. The more I watched the show, and its many musical numbers, the more I wished its creators had simply made a more traditional stage musical. It would have made for a smoother, more cohesive show, especially given the source material’s thematic and narrative complexity.
Marvin the Paranoid Android (Andrew Evans) is feeling very depressed.
Jason Ardizzone West / Hitchhikers Live
The immersive format does have its strengths, including the ability to pepper the set with little visual jokes. The Vogon Complaints Office is packed full of gags hidden in boxes and filing cabinets, as are the little references on the screens in the Horse and Groom set. But best of all is any and all time you get to spend with Marvin the Paranoid Android (Andrew Evans), a masterful mix of design, acting and puppetry. Rather than cram Evans into a suit, the actor has the beautiful Marvin puppet on a chest harness, giving it a fluidity of motion and expressiveness that previous versions could only dream of. It helps, too, that Marvin’s perpetual misery beautifully undercuts the more saccharine parts of the story.
I also need to heap praise upon the guide segments, both in their animation style and for Tamsin Grieg’s narration. I’d say Grieg (Black Books, Episodes) is the true heir to original voice Peter Jones’ crown, bringing a perfect blend of voice-of-God exposition and dry undercutting. In fact, you’ll struggle to find a bad element in the whole production, especially in the well-choreographed set pieces where the cast acts against pre-recorded footage. It’s a technical marvel in several ways and it is obvious that every person involved in its creation is operating with a bottomless pit of love for the source material and Adams. It’s just that all of those elements don’t quite cohere enough to push the show from good and entertaining through to being a must-see.
Consequently, I’d say if you’re local to London and are even vaguely familiar with Adams’ work, you should go and enjoy yourself. But I might warn Adams devotees from further afield they may find the production underwhelming if they’re making a big trip to go and see it. Like every other Hitchhikers’ adaptation, it’s a mess, but then the messiness has always been at least half the point.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-live-is-an-enjoyable-mess-140000853.html?src=rss
Two more Apple products, specifically Maps and Ads, could be big enough to be designated as gatekeepers under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The EU has announced that it has received notifications from the company that those services meet DMA thresholds. It will now have 45 days to decide whether to designate Apple as a gatekeeper for either of them.
Under DMA rules, services that have 45 million monthly active end users and 10,000 yearly business users in the past three financial years can earn the “gatekeeper” designation. That means to say, they’re considered to have a significant impact on their markets. Apple already has several products with the designation, namely the Safari web browser, the iOS and iPadOS, as well as the App Store. As such, it has to adhere to a strict set of rules for those services and is prohibited from favoring its own products over rivals and from locking users into its ecosystem.
Apple has submitted an official rebuttal and will discuss with the EU why Maps and Ads shouldn’t be designated, according to Reuters. The company said Maps sees very limited usage in the EU compared to its competitors, such as Google Maps. It also denied the Apple Ads is a major player in the bloc’s online advertising industry and said that it has minimal share compared to ad services by Google, Meta, TikTok and even X. “We look forward to further explaining to the European Commission why Apple Maps and Apple Ads should not be designated," Apple said in a statement.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-eu-says-apple-maps-may-be-big-enough-to-be-considered-a-dma-gatekeeper-130000965.html?src=rss
I sat down to write this story hoping to point people to deals on RAM kits for their gaming PC builds, but after an extensive search, I'm sorry to say there aren't any promotions worth even considering. Sure, if you visit Newegg or Amazon, you'll find plenty of bundles listed as Black Friday specials, but following a quick visit to PCPartPicker or CamelCamelCamel, you'll find many of those aren't deals at all.
Take this 32GB kit of 6,000MHz DDR5 RAM from G.Skill I found on Newegg. It's one of the few "good" deals I found, but there's a catch. It's listed at $20 off its current $400 MSRP, with an additional $30 off if you use a promo code. To sweeten the deal, Newegg is even throwing in a NZXT all-in-one liquid cooler valued at $160. But here's the thing, according to PCPartPicker, that same kit cost $155 a couple of months ago. Unless you can make use of the free cooler, you don't need me to tell you $50 off a RAM kit that used to cost less than half of what it costs now is not a great buy.
And it's not just that one set of sticks from G.Skill — nearly every kit of DDR5 RAM I could find has increased in price in recent months. For instance, Amazon has listed this 32GB bundle from Crucial at $322. A little more than a month ago, you could get that same kit for $175.
If it feels like the pandemic all over again, when it was impossible to buy a GPU at MSRP, you're not far off the mark. Once again, there's a component shortage, but this time around, it's not cryptomining causing an insatiable demand for parts. Instead, it's the booming AI industry buying up every RAM stick it can for their data center builds. Unless you've been living under a rock, it's been hard to ignore the amount of money that's been thrown around by NVIDIA, Microsoft and others. recently. Much of it has been of a seemingly circular nature, but that hasn't done anything to dent demand for both short and long-term memory.
The problem is that many of the companies that produce consumer-grade memory, including heavyweights like SK Hynix and Samsung, also make memory for AI servers, and most of the RAM coming off those production lines is going straight to high-volume clients like OpenAI and Anthropic. In fact, demand for RAM has been so strong that even the price of some DDR4 memory kits has gone up — if you can even find the older format in stock.
A statement CyberPowerPC posted earlier this week gives a sense of just how dire the situation is right now. "Recently, global memory (RAM) prices have surged by 500 percent and SSD prices have risen by 100 percent," the company said on X, adding it would be forced to increase the price of its pre-built PCs.
As a consumer, there's little you can do at the moment. You can either buy now and pay extra, or wait in hopes the price of RAM will stabilize sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, with no signs of the AI boom cooling down in the immediate future, it's hard to know when things might change. Save a bubble pop, the price of RAM is likely to remain high into early 2026, with the possibility of a trickle effect to SSD and GPU pricing.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/there-arent-any-black-friday-deals-on-ram-this-year-and-you-can-thank-ai-for-that-130000335.html?src=rss
Welcome back! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, we’re facing the annual torrent of Black Friday deals (and non-deals). I stand by $100 off the PS5 probably being the most intriguing discount this year, as it’s a rare one — and consoles have continued to get more expensive in the last few years.
There are other big discounts on more tech I personally bought (at full price, ugh), like Anker’s Laptop Power Bank, down from $135 to $88. I confess to giving a full show-and-tell performance when someone asks me about this giant battery pack, capable of charging laptops, Switch consoles and multiple phones. The best feature is the two built-in cables: one as a carrying strap, the other a retractable cable that is very satisfying to use. 25,000mAh is more than enough for multiple phone top-ups too.
Alongside small discounts on some Apple devices like the latest AirPods Pro, the iPad (A16) is down to $274. It’s the cheapest current-gen Apple tablet and more than enough for most. Sure, we wish the display were laminated and had some anti-glare coating, but a 21 percent discount? That mostly makes up for that.
Going on experience, most of the best deals have been announced by now, but a few surprises could pop up in the early hours of the morning. Keep an eye on our Black Friday 2025 deals page for the latest deals before they sell out.
Dyson’s Black Friday sale covers vacuums and related products, with a $600 discount on its 360 Vis Nav robot vacuum — the cheapest we’ve ever seen it. Stick vacs, what Dyson is best known for perhaps, are also discounted, with the Dyson V12 Detect Slim cordless vacuum down to $400 ($330 off) at Amazon and Dyson. (We loved the green laser beam feature for ensuring you’ve cleaned every inch of your floor.) The Dyson V9 Motorbar cordless vacuum is even cheaper at $270, more than half off.
When you have as many cameras as Sony, you can call something a flagship midrange.
Tech news is a little light, as most companies push their sales and stock-clearance offers. However, Sony appears to be ready to announce another addition to its Alpha camera lineup. The company shared an image on the Sony Alpha Instagram account with the text “Chase your dream” and the date December 2 at 9AM EST. The giant “V” is likely an unsubtle reference to a Sony A7 V, a follow-up to the Sony Alpha 7 IV. Rumors suggest the A7 V could feature a new 33MP “partially stacked sensor” designed by Sony. It might be able to capture 30 fps video in electronic shutter mode and 4K 60 fps video without cropping the sensor. That could make it more potent than Sony’s cinema cameras, like the FX2.
You may need to pay to stream from a friend’s server.
Some bad news for anyone who’s been using Plex to stream stuff from a buddy’s personal media server. The service is starting to enforce a paywall for remote streaming from an individual server to TV apps. Plex is rolling out the change on its Roku app this week, followed by its other TV apps (on the likes of Fire TV, Apple TV and Android TV) and third-party clients that use its remote streaming API in 2026.
The owner of a media server will need a Plex Pass subscription to grant other people remote access to it through the service. A Plex Pass now costs $7 per month, $70 per year or $250 for a lifetime membership. Yeah, it's the opposite of a deal.
Figuring out the best iPad for you can be a little tricky. Apple now sells three different 11-inch tablets and two 13-inch models, each with key differences in pricing, specs and accessory support. The iPad mini is still doing its thing as well. To help you out, we’ve tested every iPad in Apple’s current lineup and broken down which ones best fit certain needs, whether you want a laptop replacement or just a big screen for streaming TV.
Much like we do for our guide to the best tablets overall, we spend several days with each iPad to see how they feel and perform with different tasks: watching videos, web browsing, playing both casual and graphically intense games, editing 4K photos and video, running multiple apps side-by-side, making FaceTime calls and the like. To better measure performance specifically, we use benchmarking tests like Geekbench 6, 3DMark and GFXBench Metal, plus we measure how long it takes for each tablet to boot up and open various apps. We also check how well each tablet holds up long-term, whether it’s with a review unit provided by Apple or an iPad model that’s owned by a member of the Engadget staff.
To help compare the color performance and brightness of the displays, we play the same videos on different iPads, side-by-side, at equal brightness levels. We use each tablet in direct sunlight outdoors to see how well they hold up to glare, and we play a handful of the same musical tracks to evaluate speaker performance. For battery life, we keep track of how long each tablet generally lasts before it needs a recharge, but we also play a 1080p movie on a loop at roughly 70 percent brightness with power-sapping background processes off. We also test each device with an Apple Pencil and note how responsive the stylus feels. Finally, we carefully pore over spec sheets and software updates to keep track of which features are available on certain iPads but not others.
iPad FAQs
The iPad (A16) on top of an 13-inch iPad Air.
Jeff Dunn for Engadget
What are some new features coming to iPadOS 26?
Apple released the latest update to its iPad operating system, iPadOS 26, in September. The update is a fairly significant overhaul, one that brings iPadOS closer to macOS than ever before. New features include the ability to open more windows simultaneously and resize or tile them more freely; a Mac-style Menu bar; a dedicated Preview app; an upgraded Files app; an improved ability to export or download large files in the background; an Exposé view that shows all open windows; a pointier cursor and the option to add folders to the Dock. It also uses the new “liquid glass” design language that Apple is rolling out across all of its platforms in 2025.
That said, it completely removed the “slide over” and “split view” modes found in previous versions of iPadOS, which can make quickly viewing multiple apps at once a little more cumbersome. (Though the former will now return in an upcoming update.) Notably, most of these features are available across Apple’s tablet lineup, from the iPad Pro to the entry-level iPad. You can find the full list of compatible devices at the bottom of Apple’s overview page.
How long do iPads typically last?
If history is any indication, expect Apple to update your iPad to the latest version of iPadOS for at least five years, if not longer. The current iPadOS 26 update, for example, is available on iPad Pro models dating back to 2018 and other iPads dating back to 2019. How long your iPad’s hardware will last depends on which model you buy and how well you maintain it. (If you’re particularly clumsy, consider an iPad case.) A more powerful iPad Pro will feel fast for a longer time than an entry-level iPad, but each model should remain at least serviceable until Apple stops updating it, at minimum.
What’s the difference between the iPad and the iPad Air?
Compared to the standard iPad, the iPad Air runs on a stronger M3 chip (instead of the A16 Bionic) and has 2GB more RAM (8GB total). Both come with 128GB of storage by default. The Air is also available in two sizes, 11 and 13 inches, whereas the 11th-gen iPad doesn't offer the larger screen option. The M-series SoC gives the Air better long-term performance prospects, plus access to certain iPadOS features such as Apple Intelligence. Its display supports a wider P3 color gamut, has an antireflective coating and is fully laminated. The latter means there’s no “air gap” between the display and the glass covering it, so it feels more like you’re directly touching what’s on screen instead of interacting with an image below the glass. The Air also works with the newer Pencil Pro stylus and more comfortable Magic Keyboards, and its USB-C port supports faster data transfer speeds. It technically supports faster Wi-Fi 6E, too, while the lower-cost iPad uses Wi-Fi 6.
Starting at $349, the 11th-gen iPad is $250 less expensive than the iPad Air. It has a similarly elegant design with flat edges, thin bezels, USB-C port, and a Touch ID reader. Battery life is rated at the same 10 hours, and both devices have their front-facing camera on their long edge, which is a more natural position for video calls. The cheaper iPad works with the first-gen and USB-C Apple Pencils – which are more convoluted to charge – and a unique keyboard accessory called the Magic Keyboard Folio.
Jeff Dunn for Engadget
What’s the difference between iPads and Android tablets?
The operating system, duh. But to give a few more specifics: Android devices are available from more manufacturers and cover a wider price range. You won’t see an $80 iPad anytime soon. Android is also more malleable in that you can easily sideload apps from places beyond Google’s official app store and more extensively customize the look of the OS (though the former may no longer be an option in the coming months). Several Android tablets still have features like a headphone jack or a microSD slot for adding storage, too, though those are getting rarer.
But we tend to recommend Apple tablets to those who have no allegiance either way. iPad apps are still a bit more likely to be designed specifically for larger screens, rather than looking like blown-up phone software, and Apple is just about peerless when it comes to long-term software support. Every new iPad hits a certain baseline of hardware quality and performance — none of them feel cheap, and all of them are fast enough for most needs. Plus, you’ll get the most out of an iPad if you use other Apple devices.
Can an iPad replace a laptop?
This is a loaded question, since laptop workflows differ from person to person. If you mostly use a notebook for browsing the web, watching videos or writing emails and word docs, then sure, you can get along just fine with an iPad and the right iPad accessories. It’ll be easier to carry around, the battery life is great and having the touchscreen and stylus support is handy (though many Windows users have that regardless). Even beyond the basics, plenty of media editors, graphic designers and digital artists have shown they can get things done on an iPad.
Broadly speaking, though, a laptop OS tends to be more flexible when it comes to file management, multitasking, coding or other “heavy” tasks. The recent iPadOS 26 update does close the gap a bit, though it’s still not quite as fluid. Safari on the iPad isn’t fully on par with desktop browsers either. So the answer really depends on you.
How do I take a screenshot on an iPad?
As we note in our screenshot how-to guide, you can take a screenshot on your iPad by pressing the top button and either volume button at the same time. If you have an older iPad with a Home button, simultaneously press the top button and the Home button instead.
Recent updates
Late October 2025: The new M5-based iPad Pro replaces the previous-generation iPad Pro as our top pick for power users.
Early October 2025: We’ve made a few edits to reflect the full release of iPadOS 26 and made sure our recommendations are still accurate.
August 2025: We've taken another sweep to ensure our picks are still accurate and added a few more notes to our FAQ section.
June 2025: We’ve made a few minor edits to reflect the announcement of Apple’s latest iPadOS update, which we detail above.
May 2025: We’ve lightly edited this guide to ensure all details and links are still correct. We’re also keeping an eye on how the Trump administration’s tariff policy affects the pricing and stock of the iPad lineup (and every other tech category). All of our picks are still available at normal prices today, but we’ll update this guide if that changes.
March 2025: We've reviewed the iPad (A16) and named it our new budget pick, removing the discontinued 10th-gen iPad in the process.
March 2025: The recently-launched iPad Air M3 has replaced its predecessor as our top overall recommendation. We’ve also made a note regarding the new iPad (A16), which we plan to test in the near future and expect to become our new budget pick. We’ve made a handful of edits elsewhere in the guide to reflect Apple’s latest hardware.
January 2025: We’ve lightly edited this guide for clarity. Our recommendations remain the same.
October 2024: We've updated our guide to include the new iPad mini 7.
June 2024: We’ve touched up this guide to reflect some of the new iPadOS features Apple announced at WWDC, though our picks remain the same.
Nathan Ingraham contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/best-ipads-how-to-pick-the-best-apple-tablet-for-you-150054066.html?src=rss
