The company has also launched its new Artist Ultra 14 drawing display, an OLED tablet with impressive specs for just $699, down to $592.99 as part of the sale, running until September 15th. The standout deal seems to be on the popular Artist Pro 27 (Gen 2), which is $300 off and down to $1,599.99.

Other models are up to 50% off, like the Deco Pro S/M pen drawing tablet, and I've picked out some more sale highlights for you below. New to drawing tablets? Check out our breakdown of 11 drawing tablet specs explained.

We said in our review at the time that there was nothing to fault at the original price, so when it's reduced to just $132.53, we're talking truly exceptional value for what is the only perfect-scoring budget chair in our pick of the best office chairs for back pain.

Not in the US? See the pricing in your region below.

As we found in out in testing for our recent OoopusX Op.22 review, the profiles include a balanced neutral tuning that serves as an ideal introduction to the audiophile world for people who have only used standard mainstream headphones (you'll finally be able to hear the mid tones that have been missing all your life).

When you do want to make things more bass heavy, you just need to twist the handy dial on each earpiece for an extra sub-bass punch – great for drum 'n' bass, trip hop and EDM. Such generous versatility at this price point and makes these a shoo-in new entry to add to our guide to the best budget IEM.

Our new favourite under-$50 IEM

Our resident audiophile has reviewed headphones ranging from budget gems to $5,000 over ears, and he rates the Op.22 as a seriously good value proposition for anyone looking to make the move towards more balanced sound than what you get with mainstream earphones.

Crucially, he found that the bass dial genuinely works. Instead of just adding muddiness to the mix, it provides the option to add adjustable deep sub-bass cleanly and effectively when you want it.

Not in the US? Check below for any deals in your area.

The animator Michel Gagné has posted the first trailer for a hand-drawn movie that he began making in 2012. The Saga of Rex tells the story of a little fox who gets abducted by aliens and forms a bond with a mysterious being called Aven. And it looks extraordinary (see our guides to the best laptops for animation and the best animation software if you're inspired).

Michel Gagné's past credits include work at Sullivan Bluth Studios on iconic movies like An American Tail and at Warner Bros on the likes of Quest for Camelot and The Iron Giant. He's also worked at Disney and Pixar and designed special effects for Star Wars: the Clone Wars, and the video game Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet.

His short film Prelude to Eden was nominated for an Annie Award in 1996 and Sensology was shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2010. The Saga of Rex is a much more ambitious project: a 60-minute feature film made almost entirely alone.

The Canadian animator raised much of the financing for the film through his freelance work on Hollywood productions. He designed and animated it using Toon Boom Harmony along with Adobe's Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop. The only other contributor to the visual side was longtime friend Seung Beom Kim, who helped with inbetweening. This assistance is allowed Michel to stick to his objective of making the film entirely hand drawn without modern digital shortcuts

The character Rex first appeared in Michel's 1998 self-published book A Search for Meaning: The Story of Rex. The artist later expanded it across six volumes of Kazu Kibuishi’s Flight anthology. Image Comics later collected the chapters into a complete graphic novel.

A 2012 Kickstarter campaign helped fund a short proof-of-concept clip for an animated movie. After that, Belgium-based GRID Animation optioned the film at one point, but Michel ultimately decided the movie had to be independent.

“I wanted to make the film that was in my soul, and to do that, I needed to completely remove the commercial and transactional aspects of the process,” he said in a recent interview with Animation Magazine.

While that meant no deadline, the director kept up a strict work ethic, committing a minimum of eight hours a day to the film, while also doing freelance work to earn a living. When he temporarily lost the use of his right hand at one point, he continued animating with his left for two months.

“I went a bit insane while making this movie," he says. "I would disconnect from reality and enter the worlds I was creating. It was intoxicating at times.”

Such an ambitious independent animation project is a once-in-a-lifetime piece of work. Michel describes it as a "journey of discovery, experimentation and revelation.”

“Would I do anything differently? Probably a thousand things along the way. But I think the film needed to take the journey it took to become what it is”.

Michel hopes to take The Saga of Rex to film festivals in 2027,

You can learn more about The Saga of Rex at sagaofrex.com.

Gamescom will take place between 26 and 30 August with, as is customary, Wednesday 26 being reserved for trade admissions only, while the public will be admitted between Thursday 27 and Sunday 30 August. If you’re going to be in the vicinity of Cologne during that time, general admission tickets are still available.

But the show’s traditional curtain-raiser, Opening Night Live – hosted by the ubiquitous American Geoff Keighley, as has been the case for the past eight years – takes place on August 25. It will kick off at 7 pm BST, with a half-hour pre-show build-up starting at 6.30 pm, and you’ll be able to stream the show.

In a pre-briefing given by Keighley and various members of the show’s top brass, Keighley confirmed that, among other games, this year’s ONL will showcase the likes of Gears of War E-Day, Final Fantasy VII Revelation (whose director, Naoki Hamaguchi, will make a stage appearance), The Witcher 3’s new Songs of the Past expansion and Metro 2039. He added that ONL will include a live performance of the music from Mewgenics, and there will no doubt be a welter of other games making their first public appearances.

Sold out for the first time

Given its modern pre-eminence in a world in which countless video game shows have fallen by the wayside, Gamescom likes to hail every new iteration as record-breaking in some way, and the 2026 show, according to Gamescom Director Tim Endres, will see a record number of exhibitors, with over 1,600 games companies booking stands -- the first time the 1,600 mark has been surpassed. Endres added that it will also be the first time the show has been completely sold out to exhibitors: it would be literally impossible to accommodate any more.

Which is a tad daunting for those of us attending – Gamescom’s venue, the Koelnmesse, is so huge that we often have to cover huge distances between meetings. According to Endres, it will occupy “Over 233,000 square metres, about the size of 33 football fields.” The show has always taken a major toll on shoe-leather.

One of the joys of Gamescom is discovering unexpected gems of games, often on the back of word- of-mouth recommendations and found on the stands of obscure publishers and developers. But for the three (inevitably gruelling) days in which I’ll be in attendance, gaps in my schedule are already more or less non-existent.

However, I’m excited about many games I have booked to either play or see for the first time. Most notably Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the third and most ambitious remade instalment of the nonpareil JRPG; Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, the second remake of Lara Croft’s original starring vehicle; Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, Turok: Origins and Stuntman: Hollywood from Saber Interactive; Microsoft’s Ontos; a new Rebellion title; and Ritual Tides, an as-yet-unannounced Wicker Man-influenced game from British developer Vertpaint.

Online presence and themes

Most of the games industry’s big guns will be at Gamescom, although one glaring absence is that of Rockstar Games, with GTA VI fast approaching. Nintendo, Microsoft, Square Enix, Sega, Bandai Namco and Electronic Arts will be there, while CD Projekt Red, of The Witcher fame, will return after a hiatus. Gamescom’s Endres said that 2026 will see 420 indie exhibitors, up 16 per cent on last year.

That plays into one of Gamescom’s two themes for this year, as described by Felix Falk, Managing Director of game, the German games industry’s official body: “Small teams having huge success.” The other theme, Falk says, is: “Saving the world through play.” A lofty ambition, but Gamescom will have a tangible strand reinforcing the idea: a series of events, watchable via the Gamescom website, in collaboration with Games Done Quick (GDQ), a charity that raises money through bonkers speedruns with all manner of handicaps, such as blindfolded participants.

Endres adds that a constant feed of news and updates (in four languages including English) will run on the website, along with the Awesome Indie show, which aims to take an in-depth look at many of the best indie games on show and the stories behind them, plus the video-based show Gamescom Studio.

And we will, of course, report back with our own personal observations and highlights after the show. Meanwhile, strap yourselves in and get ready for what is now the biggest event of the year as far as gamers – and the industry they love – are concerned.

The most surprising reveal at D23 was Disney's Clay. Slated for 2028, the animated movie will tell the story of a reluctant mentor who has to look after a newborn ball of clay called Musy. Although it will employ 3D CG animation, Disney's chief creative officer Jared Bush says the film will be designed to look as close as possible to real claymation.

For some, that makes the film's name sound like a working title as utilitarian and unimaginative as Snakes on a Plane. And there asking, again, why Disney insists on so many short, one-word titles.

In the last 16 years, Disney has given us Tangled, Frozen, Brave, Wish, Moana and Zootopia (plus sequels for three of them). Coming soon, we have Hexed. Pixar, meanwhile, has given us Cars, Coco, Soul, Onward, Elemental and Hoppers.

Not all of the studios' movies have had single-word titles, but there are a lot of them, and some fans seem to be getting tired of them.

"These simple, yet non-specific to the film, titles give me no insight or uniqueness to what the film is," one fan argues on X. “I can’t help but wonder how these films would be perceived if they received more attributable titles.”

Yet it's not really a new trend that began with Tangled. After 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's early movies were, in order, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi, released between 1940 and 1942.

In the Disney Renaissance era, we had Aladdin, Hercules, Mulan and Tarzan.

Many of these movies were named after characters, often ones that were already well known from fairy tales, myths or existing IPs. But Disney has gradually shifted from adapting classic European fairy tales to producing more original stories and drawing from broader global folklore. Using a character's name makes less sense when nobody knows the character yet – which might be part of the reason why Pixar's Elio failed to capture the world's attention.

That means using more abstract words as titles, but continuing the trend has quite a few advantages for studio. It's often easier to create a strong brand identity around a single, punchy word, and Disney titles are brands as much as movies.

A short word is easier to turn into a logo that's immediately recognisable and fits cleanly on merchandise, theme park attractions and thumbnails on streaming platforms. This is even more important when young kids form a large part of the audience. Single, short words are more easily understood and remembered.

They also create more universal comprehension. A single conceptual word like Soul or Brave carries similar emotional weight across different cultures and languages. Minimalist titles can be easier to translate an localise, or are often simply left untranslated, avoiding clunky titles.

They're also more gender-neutral. Changing Rapunzel to Tangled and The Snow Queen to Frozen was an attempt to avoid putting off young boys that might not want to see a 'princess movie.' They titles might also make the movie sound more appealing to adults, branding Disney's movies as four-quadrant cinematic experiences rather than merely kids' animations.

They also serve as high-concept summaries of the movie. Pixar in particular tends to like titles that play on words while conveying the thematic core of the movie, like Inside Out and Elemental. I'm sorry to break it to all those Disney fans that want another The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad or The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, but I think Disney's short titles are going to be sticking around.

But the new Archery World Cup logo might be one of the few that can avoid such a fate. A sharp (last pun I promise) rebrand has completely overhauled the identity of World Archery's competition, with striking colours, dynamic motion design and a new customised typeface.

Devised by the design studio Arecibo, the Archery World Cup rebrand has been rolling out during this year's 20th anniversary competition ahead of the final in Saltillo, Mexico, taking place over 12 and 13 September.

The previous logo design with its target face-inspired tricolour rounded squares looked like a dated corporate identity beside contemporary sporting brands. The branding was also disconnected across its various expressions, and there were no system rules, leading to inconsistent application across each venue. Moreover, World Archery felt that the logo failed to communicate what was at stake in the tournament – namely, the prestige of trophy itself.

With that in mind, Arecibo set out to capture the drama of the competition. The strategy for the rebrand was synthesised in two words: “Can’t Miss”. The idea was to communicate that the archer can’t miss the shot, and the audience can’t miss the show.

"The drama and intrigue is not in the super-human skill of the archers but when a shot is missed," Arecibo's Graham Anderson writes. "So I shifted the organisation’s emphasis for the contest from pure sporting values to the spectator’s experience.

"The key move is introducing more opportunities for narrative and intrigue while still honouring the precision and skill of the sport. Narrative could be pulled from its global stages, characterful athletes, emotional intensity, and sporting excellence. Every stage, every shot, every story matters."

“Can’t Miss” isn’t just a slogan but a filter applied to every decision in the rebrand, Graham says. "Does this show what’s at stake, does it reinforce our values, does it connect this shot to the wider season and our audience to our archers?" These were questions asked of every asset designed.

The logo highlights the importance of the trophy itself – a little like the rationale for the Fifa World Cup 2026 logo, but without resorting to a literal photo of the prize. It's a stylised icon with a 45-degree angle and stepped shape at the end of the arm that are intended to create a dynamic visual device suitable for various applications.

The icon and wordmark separate when needed, and cropped icons turn the mark into a graphic device in its own right.

A customised variable typeface alteration, AWC Baikal, was commissioned from Lausanne based foundry, Newglyph, with weights running from condensed light to extended bold. An angle from the logo is integrated into the typeface for an expressive custom aesthetic that links to the brand's foundation.

As for brand colours, Arecibo went for a dual system. A core palette of blues was chosen for the main identity, while the stadium design system is broader. The brief was to create a system that would be more consistent and easier to use while still having personality.

Arecibo's solution was a modular kit that any host city can build with, including a squared grid template of scalable frames with defined brand and sponsor areas, simple rules of hierarchy, and specified sizes to ensure sponsor logos can be read on camera. Core brand elements can be recoloured but never have to be redrawn, so every stage of the competition can have its own identity while still feeling like part of a whole.

The same philosophy was applied to motion pieces. An After Effects template was built with fixed branding but editable content, making it easier to ensure pieces hit target without the need to have a designer in the room holding the bow.

Light bars clamp onto the top of your display and provide a light source that's designed to illuminate only your desk surface. This allows you to see your keyboard and other peripherals without casting glare on your monitor or into your eyes, and without taking up valuable workspace.

Many people find that this can reduce the eye fatigue that often accompanies late-night work sessions because of the harsh contrast of staring into a brightly lit screen with no ambient lighting. If you need a monitor too, see our comparisons of the best monitors for graphic artists).

• Shop monitor light bars on Amazon

Not the design you want for your setup? Check out more of the best monitor light bars below.

These games are hard. Really hard. What makes it stranger is they're hiding behind some of the most welcoming cartoon nostalgia imaginable.

The Disney Afternoon Collection brings together Capcom's six NES games based on DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck and TaleSpin, games that were already notable when they released for having unusually high production values for licensed titles. They weren't throwaway cartoon cash-ins either; Capcom built proper platformers around these characters, with DuckTales letting you tackle its five worlds in different orders, Rescue Rangers offering same-screen co-op and Darkwing Duck borrowing heavily from the Mega Man school of platforming.

• Buy Disney Afternoon Collection on Amazon: £29.99 £24.97
• Buy Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition on Amazon: £29.99 £25.99

And, bloody hell, they don't half expect you to know what you're doing. Darkwing Duck is probably the clearest example of Capcom’s 8-bit mechanics, as it looks like a children's cartoon, but the level design is often vicious, your options for dealing with enemies are limited and some sections demand timing that feels absurd when you remember the game was being marketed alongside afternoon television.

Side-scrolling shooter TaleSpin is even more demanding, because Baloo's plane has a painfully slow rate of fire at the beginning, enemies can fill the screen with shots, and some of the narrow passages to navigate leave you with barely enough room to manoeuvre. It’s one of the nastiest games here for its devotion to making life hard, but like the others in the Disney Afternoon Collection, I keep picking at it, trying again (and again) and edging just a little further, getting that tiny bit better.

Rayman returns to haunt my nightmares

It’s a similar story with Rayman, a game I remember as the beautifully animated, oddball platformer that sold a million copies and put Ubisoft on the map. I recall it being tough but fair, but I also remember the incredibly detailed pixel art, colourful atmosphere, and quirky visuals making up for it; the pull of playing an ‘actual cartoon’ had me coming back for just one more go.

The new Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition makes the whole thing even more interesting because Ubisoft has basically opened the archives: you get five versions of the original game, more than 120 additional levels, the long-lost SNES prototype and an interactive documentary with more than 50 minutes of interviews with the original developers. Basically, there’s a ton of content here to enjoy long after the game has punished you one too many times.

Although modern life is going a little easier on me here, as there are concessions to how we like games these days, including rewind, multiple save slots, infinite lives and instant level unlocks, just to make life a little easier and Rayman a bit more approachable, which tells you quite a lot about how Ubisoft expects modern players to cope with the original. And I used that rewind. A lot.

Because what I've realised playing these games again is that the difficulty isn't really about enemies having enormous health bars or bosses requiring some complicated modern combat system. It's baked into the levels and the design at a granular level. A platform is just far enough away to make you commit to the jump, an enemy is positioned where you're most likely to land, a hazard appears just as you're concentrating on something else, and suddenly you're back at the start wondering what the hell happened. In terms of how to design a solid platform game, you can’t really go wrong with either Disney Afternoon Collection or Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition.

While I fondly remember playing these games, I don’t recall them ending after two or three minutes and being sent back to restart; that’s how we played back then, and a game could last us a year and become a test of memory as much as reflexes. So while the modern rewind features feel like an admission that this old way of playing can be a bit much now, with Digital Eclipse adding rewind, save features and challenge modes to The Disney Afternoon Collection, the new Rayman goes even further with accessibility options, if you are going to buy these I’d urge you to hold off making life easy, just for a time, to play them as intended.

And perhaps that's why I'm enjoying them so much now. Under all those beautiful sprites, Disney characters and wonderfully strange Rayman animations are games that expected you to pay attention, remember things and get better through repetition. We didn't necessarily have easier games as children; we had fewer alternatives, more time and an astonishing tolerance for getting killed by colourful, kind of irritating characters that looked like they belonged on a Saturday morning cartoon.

Perusing the pages of the new book, many began to notice artwork that looked suspiciously AI-generated. With AI creating a divide among creatives, many fans shared their disappointment at the discovery, but to me, it feels like just another inevitability of the AI invasion.

The artwork in question is a piece titled "Big City, Little Spider" created by concept artist Scott McInnes. It all looks pretty innocuous at first glance, but take a closer look and strange details emerge. Taxi cabs merge into each other, fire escapes lead to nowhere, traffic lights warp, and windows appear in nonsensical places. The bottom line is, it stinks of AI.

"Selling an “art book” that has AI visuals in it should genuinely be illegal," one disgruntled X user wrote. "Can’t say I'm surprised that GenAI is in Spider-Man art book but I’m still disappointed and hurt all the same," another added.

With big superhero titles like Supergirl admitting to using AI, Spider-Man isn't even the first of its genre to be caught using AI, and I sense that the technology will only become more normalised in the industry. From The Brutalist's AI art controversy to the Fantastic Four AI poster drama, it's clear the technology is already being embraced in film production and promotion, regardless of audience backlash.

Do I believe there are some productive applications for AI technology? Yes. But when audiences are continuously identifying AI slop that manages to slip through the cracks, it makes me question how valuable AI is in the film industry.

Should AI be embraced in the film world? Have your say in the comments below.

Larger laptops can pack higher-performance internals and larger cooling systems to avoid severe thermal throttling, but at the same time you don't want a machine that's too hefty to lug around on site visits.

The solution for many is to choose a 16in laptop but one that's slim and relatively light. In this guide, we've picked out the best options based on our own reviews and testing with real-world CAD workflows. You might want to also see our general guide to the best laptops for CAD and our pick of the best laptops for 3D modelling.

The best portable CAD laptops for on-site work

Best portable CAD laptop overall

30-second review: Out top pick as a portable CAD laptop for on-site work has a big 16-inch display and fast performance but in a build that's about as sleek and slim as you can get for this amount of power. Our tests found it to be pretty much unbeatable as a Windows laptop for any creative work, as long as your budget isn't tight.

Design: As well as the slim footprint, the integrated ASUS Dial on the touchpad can be handy for CAD work, particularly for working on site when you might not want to take a mouse. It provides a precise degree of control and customisable functions.

Performance: With AMD Ryzen AI and NVIDIA RTX 5070 chips, the P16 offers AI-powered graphic processing that makes lighter work of complex CAD and AutoCAD tasks. Our testing found the cooling to cope well too – not faultless, and we did get significant noise and heat under heavy workloads, but not to the point that performance suffered.

You can kit the laptop out with up to 64GB of RAM, which will amply cover most heavy-duty CAD workflows. Storage-wise, if the 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD drive isn't enough, there's also the option to expand via the via additional M.2 slot.

Such heavy computing and graphical power tends to be rough on a battery, but the 2025 ProArt P16 manages to deliver reasonable battery life for its class, giving us around 6 hours of continuous video playback in our testing. This pales in comparison to the battery life of MacBooks and ultraportables and hybrid-working laptops, but it's not bad at all for a Windows laptop with this amount of power.

Price: The P16 is pricey, but given that it costs less than the £/$3,000 you'd have to pay for a desktop setup with a 5080/5090 graphics card, the ASUS ProArt P16 (2025), we consider it to be competitively priced for a studio laptop that will deliver many years of professional work.

Read more: ASUS ProArt P16 review

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Best robust portable CAD workstation

30-second review: "Portable" is subjective. The Dell Precision 7780 is not a travel laptop, but if you need a fully fledged transportable workstation for heavy CAD work on a site, this heavyweight 17-inch mobile workstation is built for the most demanding of jobs, and its modular design provides additional reassurance since you can easily replace components.

Design: The Dell Precision 7680 is rugged in physical construction, with the weight that comes with that. With its thick metal and alloy chassis, it makes the the slim ProArt P16 above look like a lifestyle laptop. The chassis is built for demanding industrial environments, although both devices share MIL-STD 810H military durability ratings.

The 17.3-inch display provides lots of space for designing in CAD software, and the 120Hz refresh rate means its well prepared for motion work too. It's also highly repairable. It has a modular design with replaceable parts like CAMM2/SODIMM memory, M.2 SSD slots. Battery packs swap out cleanly, and screen assemblies and keyboards can be replaced if damaged.

Performance:

There's no lack of power with the 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13850HX, vPro, and the the NVIDIA RTX 3500 Ada 12GB GDDR6 GPU is more than capable for almost all creative applications. There's also plenty of flexibility to make upgrades if you really need them.

The weight and size can restrict mobile working, and battery life isn't very good at all. The 6 Cell, 93 Wh, Lithium Ion Polymer battery only managed around 3 hours of creative work in our tests, so you'll need a plug socket or to take a spare battery or charger with out on site.

Price: Starting at around $1,800, the Precision 7680 is another expensive laptop that quickly escalates when you look at higher configurations, The flip side is that this a laptop that really is built to last, with plenty of components that can be replaced easily,

Read more: Dell Precision 7780 review

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Best portable CAD for value

30-second review: The Lenovo Legion Slim 5 Gen 11 delivers compute power close to that of a $2,500 workstation but at a fraction of the cost, and with thermal management is superior to most thin-and-light CAD laptops, which should reduce the risk of throttling during long rendes. For engineering students and budget-conscious professionals who need CAD capability without the eye-watering price tag, this is a smart buy.

Design: The Legion Slim 5 really does live up to the 'Slim' part of its name, with the tapered chassis running from 19.9 mm to 25.2 mm. It's restrained for a gaming laptop: the RGB lighting can be muted or switched off entirely so you don't have to turn up on site looking like you're packing Christmas decorations.At around 2kg, it's portable enough for site visits too, and the 16-inch QHD+ IPS display provides a sharp, colour-accurate canvas for technical drawings.

Performance: We found the Ryzen 7 9800H to provide strong multi-core performance for complex assemblies, while the NVIDIA RTX 5060 graphics handles GPU-accelerated rendering in applications like Twinmotion and V-Ray competently if not quite as seamlessly as the two devices above. Lenovo's thermal management was able to sustain performance across long rendering sessions without throttling; a significant advantage over thinner rivals at this price point.

We recorded 5 to 7 hours of battery life for general use and, falling to 3–4 hours under heavy CAD workloads. Having easy access to mains power is recommendable for extended rendering sessions, but the battery holds up well for general use during the day.

Price: Starting at $1,349, the Legion Slim 5 Gen 11 is the most affordable route we can recommend to RTX-powered CAD portability at the moment. The price-to-performance ratio offers excellent value.

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Most portable CAD laptop

30-second review: This take on the ultra-lightweight format is a sliver of a laptop that's a challenger for MacBooks in the slim and light 16in space. Despite the ample screen, it weighs just 1.2kg, while Qualcomm's 18-core Snapdragon X2 Extreme chip gives it the power for heavy CAD processing.

Design: Asus has built the Zenbook A16 from "Ceraluminum", an alloy of ceramic and aluminium that makes use of the tech in your grannie's teacup to create a frame that's simultaneously light and rigid, and it makes retro return to the beige shades of the 1990s. Whether you appreciate that will be subjective, but there's no denying the quality of the bright 16-inch 3K OLED screen with deep blacks and precise colour accuracy. There's plenty of connectivity too, including 2x USB4, 1x USB-A, HDMI 2.1, and a MicroSD card slot.

Performance: Snapdragon processors have come of age, and our benchmark testing found the Zenbook A16 to come close to MacBooks in terms of performance, with an extraordinary single-core Geekbench score of 3,673. While RAM will handle dense datasets, the only slight letdown is the integrated GPU that can't take on much more than light 3D.

Asus has taken another leaf out of Apple's book in battery performance. We got a massive 17 hours of video playback, more than enough for a day-long site visit. A high-wattage charger can keep it topped up.

Price: Priced around £2,100 / $2,000–$2,200, this portable CAD laptop is fairly competitive for a premium ultraportable. It packs 48 GB of RAM as standard, so it's ready to handle large vectors while you're on the move.

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How we test

We evaluate CAD laptops by checking that core components—CPU, GPU, and RAM—are properly balanced. (A powerful processor paired with inadequate memory, for example, won't perform well.) We run benchmarks to verify each component delivers full performance. Laptops are more susceptible to thermal and power issues than desktops, so the same chip can perform differently across systems.

We test storage performance since manufacturers rarely specify SSD details. For displays, we look for 95% DCI-P3 colour coverage minimum. (High pixel density helps with sharp text and fine design details.) We also assess build quality, keyboard feel, trackpad responsiveness, and overall usability.

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How to choose

Choosing the best portable CAD laptop for on-site work means balancing performance, screen size and weight (and, budget of course). While 2D drafting is often not hugely power-hungry, working with 3D models, large assemblies, or complex point clouds will be significantly more demanding and requires a more capable machine. Generally, the more complex and larger your projects, the more powerful your machine needs to be.

This means focusing on processors (CPU). A clock speed of 3+ GHz is recommended as software like AutoCAD relies heavily on a single fast core. Look for high-performance mobile chips like the latest Intel Core Ultra 7/9, AMD Ryzen 7/9, or Apple Silicon mobile processors. Complement this with ample RAM (32 GB is the professional standard) for handling large files and multitasking.

While a large screen goes against portability, it can help reduce eye strain and maximise workspace, making it more comfortable to work in CAD software and visibilise details in designs. Larger devices also have number pads, which many CAD designers find useful.

Rugged builds, strong cooling, and enterprise‑grade components will be beneficial for field engineers and architects working in tougher, dusty environments or difficult conditions. If you’re frequently moving between job sites, weight will be another factor. the Asus Zenbook A16 offers a light footprint, while the Dell Precision 7680 offers power and easy repair with its modular design but only moderate portability.

Some of the more powerful portable CAD laptops also have quite low battery life, so bear that in mind if you're not able to guarantee having a power source (note that some laptops like the Dell Precision 7680 allow you to switch the battery).

Also look for ISV-certified stability. ISV is a guarantee that specific computer hardware and professional software will run together without crashing. Software providers like Autodesk or Adobe test and approve computer systems to certify that the hardware handles heavy workloads reliably. Always check software requirements before making your purchase.

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FAQs

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There have been huge successes like the Pokémon X Natural History Museum collab, which made sense with a focus on fossil Pokémon. The luxury Pokémon X Secretlab collab also seemed on-brand (the franchise has roots in gaming, of course).

And I really, really want to love the latest Pokémon X Polaroid instant camera collab, truly – I'm a photographer after all – but I can't forgive some of these lazy designs and missed opportunities.

If you want the quick version, take a look at my video below discussing the Pokémon X Polaroid collab. But for the full extent of my ranting on this topic (and the long list of irks I have with it), then stick with me.

* If you can't see the TikTok video above, please refresh the page.

Has the company completely forgotten that one of its most iconic games is called Pokémon Snap? The retro cartridge is my favourite thing to play on my Nintendo 64, as well as the newer title on my Switch 2, and the collab could have taken a Leaf-eon (sorry) out of Instax's book and allowed you to transfer images from the camera to the console, and vice versa, to print your Pokémon snaps.

• See my guide on How to print Instax photos from your Nintendo Switch.

Not to mention, a gaming creator called Cadea also called out probably the biggest missed opportunity with this collab, in highlighting why there isn't a Rotom-themed camera. For those who don't know, Rotom is an orange Pokémon that can transform itself into various forms of technology and household appliances. C'mon Pokémon... it was right there!

I also think the Polaroid Go Gen 3 series was the wrong model choice. If you want to celebrate nostalgia in both a gaming franchise AND photography, they should have gone for a Polaroid Supercolour 635 (I own one of these, and they're gorgeous).

The Go series looks a little compact and juvenile to me, and the new Polaroid Go Generation 3—Pikachu Edition camera, while very cute, could have been so much better if they went for a bigger camera model. Even the Polaroid Now series would offer more room to play with creatively.

I like the Pikachu tail strap and the fact that the shutter button is a Pokeball, but there aren't a lot of other design elements that make it unique. The Pikachu Edition is something that would most likely stay on my collector shelf forever, and I'd feel silly using it in public.

Moving on to the Sylveon Polaroid Go Gen 3 camera, and this design just feels lazy to me (sorry Pokémon). The only real nod it gives to Sylveon is the coloured ribbon strap, not unlike the Pikachu edition with the tail strap, and I think the company could have really camped up this camera with Sylveon ears, and maybe a bead charm.

My fave Pokémon Polaroid camera out of the newly announced trio is the Pokéball edition, which does opt for the Polaroid Now Gen 3 model and looks so much better than its siblings in the collection, at least in my opinion. The strap complements the camera beautifully, rather than sticking out like a sore thumb, and it totally leans into the Pokéball theme without trying to retain subtlety like the other two models.

On a brighter note, I have nothing negative to say about the Pokémon X Polaroid accessories that were announced. I think they have really nailed the film designs, with collectable Pokémon silhouette darkslides included too. The Poké Ball-themed accessories are a hit, and match the whole set perfectly.

Wanna buy one? The collection will be available for preorder over at Polaroid's website, as well as the Pokémon Center from August 25, with shipping commencing on September 29. As for prices, the Pokéball Edition will set you back $139.99 / £129.99, whereas the Pikachu and Sylveon Polaroid Go Gen 3 Editions will be $99.99 / £89.99.

Let's hope scalpers don't ruin this for us.

On social media, people complain of nonsensical children's literature in shops and libraries, while parents have received AI storybooks featuring their own children as unwanted gifts. In most cases, the books are shoddily made with little thought or respect given to the product or its audience.

Most people have probably come across websites with unreadable AI-written text or AI-generated books offered for sale online, but some people have been shocked to discover bad AI-generated books appearing in print in physical retail outlets.

An illustration student recently shared an image on X of a book she said "ripped her heart out" when she found it in a shop. The text and illustrations appear to have been generated by AI, while truly awful text placement leaves the book's title barely legible on the cover 'design'. And yet a real shop had the book on its shelves.

The post quickly went viral, receiving over 60,000 likes and hundreds of comments, almost all from people who were equally disheartened or had comes across similar AI catastrophes.

"It shows complete disrespect to children's books as a medium. Picture books are not just Notes app poems with random images attached. The artwork in children’s books is integral to how educational and engaging the book is to children," one person wrote.

"This looks horrible," an early childhood educator wrote. "Besides the AI, this book would be horrible for the text alone".

Along with plans for AI-generated children's programming such as Amazon's KPop Demon Hunters mockbuster, these kinds of books suggest that children are seen as an easy market for AI slop, less likely to care or complain about the quality.

But I think even young kids might have an issue with books where the imagery makes no sense, characters change their appearance from one page to the nex,t or where puzzles or drawing tasks are impossible to complete.

Google released a tool for creating AI storybooks last year, and several companies are now marketing AI tools that allow users to upload photos and details about real people to generate a story that can then be ordered in print.

Wired this week reported on cases of family tension flaring due to well-meaning grandparents giving AI-generated books as presents to their grandchildren. It seems the boomer grandparents like the novelty. Parents are often less enthused to learn that their children's names, experiences and photos have been fed into AI tools with murky data transparency policies.

“I have reiterated countless times that I do not support AI-generated art, and drew a hard line that she is absolutely not to feed any of our photos into AI or use our identifying information in any way,” one person wrote on Reddit. “However, she is creating these storylines based on experiences with my kid and modeling her characters to have similar attributes as my kid."

The children apparently aren't impressed either. One dad told Wired his children were “bored” by the books.

Daozhi Xu, a researcher at Macquarie University who published a study into the explosion of such books notes that “children do not love a storybook simply because their name or image appears in the story; they love the book because the story itself is interesting.” AI-generated books often “lack humor, memorable characters, and dramatic tension,” Xu adds.

Generative AI can help us do some things faster and easier. it's natural that some people will take advantage of that to churn out rubbish in the hope that someone might buy it. It's a shame that children are seen as an easy target despite the rich history of beautiful and inspiring children's literature and art.

Hopefully more awareness will mean that parents take the time to check what they're choosing for their kids, while book shops and libraries could also step up quality control.

If children grow up surrounded by poorly written, low‑quality AI‑generated books, it could damage their long‑term relationship with art and literature more than many people appreciate. Children learn about symbolism, nuance, creativity and logic from well‑crafted prose and art. Exposure to clumsy phrasing, incoherent storytelling and generic imagery could stunt linguistic growth and the development of interpretive skills, which could have implications far beyond the book and illustration industries.

Vibe coding has taken off big time in the past year. While the open-source game engine Godot banned AI coding in an attempt to protect the sanity of its maintainers, Pocket aims to tap into the trend and allow anyone to quickly generate a basic game using a text prompt.

Meta briefly tested Pocket in Brazil last month and has now launched the app via the iOS App Store and Android Play Store in the US. Its users aren't going to be creating GTA VI, but they can generate small quizzes, puzzles and mini challenges without having to know code or learn the best game development software.

The name 'gizmo' gives a good idea of the level of sophistication the games have. They can make use of gestures like taps, swipes and phone movement as well as camera and audio input.

After a user generates a game, they can save it and share it via the app. That's where the Instagram-like social mechanic kicks in. Users can scroll through a feed of other people's generations. They can play them but also repost them and remix them.

The word 'gizmo' was inherited from a previous AI mini-game app of the same name developed by Atma Sciences. Meta licensed the technology and hired the company's team. Pocket's generative AI is powered by Meta’s Muse Spark model.

Meta's taken a leaf out of Google's playbook in releasing a wave of experimental projects in recent months. It also has Forum, an app built around Facebook Groups designed as a Reddit-style discussion platform, the Snapchat-inspired Instants, which works both as part of Instagram and as a standalone app, Seller for Meta marketplace sellers and Vibe for AI video generation.

Like these, Pocket is experimental for now as the company susses out interest, apparently now opting for lower-stakes projects after some questionable investments in the past. This is the company that renamed itself after a product that never really materialised and now think that people will want to wear its 'pervert glasses'. OpenAI also had a go at launching a generative AI social media app in the form of Sora for video. It lasted six months.

Whether you want to display artwork, figurines or trinkets from your travels, adding shelves to your working-from-home setup can add a much-needed dose of personality to your workspace. From rustic reclaimed wood to sleek oak, these Etsy finds will add a beautiful bespoke feel to your home office.

But now the Huntr/x trio faces a human foe as fearsome as the movie's fictional Saja Boys. It turns out that the real-world music scene already had a group called Demon Hunter – an all-boy Christian metal band from Seattle that's been using the devil's music against him for over 25 years.

Far from welcoming Huntr/x as a helping hand in ridding the world of evil, the five-piece is suing Netflix and concert promoter AEG Presents. It alleges that the hit movie is confusing its own fans and causing the band an "existential crisis". Maybe Amazon's KPop Demon Hunters mockbuster isn't such a shocker after all.

Demon Hunter (the Christian metal band) is suing via its corporate entity and parent company Hyde Lane. It says Netflix's plan for a global KPop Demon Hunters tour now means there's "almost complete overlap" between their offerings (apart from the Oscar-winning animated movie, I guess).

The complaint argues that Netflix Studios and AEG Presents have caused "substantial confusion". Evidence for this includes an incident in which someone allegedly spent $500 on tickets for a Demon Hunter concert in New York, believing it to be a Kpop-themed treat for their kids. They later asked for a refund.

The band also says its management was contacted by a television producer who thought it was related tot the Kpop Demon Hunters, while it's also been tagged in social media posts about the movie.

Unlike the Buc-ee's logo lawsuit controversies, this is a rare case of a relative minnow suing a giant. Demon Hunter has 12 albums and 350,000 monthly listeners. The KPop Demon Hunters cast have 27 million monthly listeners and the movie's soundtrack has had multiple single hits. The movie has been watched over 648 million times.

“Despite having established the mark first and invested in the goodwill associated with it for decades, Hyde Lane… has effectively been forced to surrender control over its commercial identity simply because Defendants have greater resources and a larger marketplace footprint,” the company says in the lawsuit.

"The brand that Hyde Lane has carefully built over the course of the past quarter century now faces an existential crisis, thereby necessitating the filing of this action." it adds.

Hyde Lane has a trademark on 'Demon Hunter' for recorded music and merchandise since 2022 and has applied for a trademark covering live music. Netflix has trademarks pending for 'KPop Demon Hunters' covering merchandise.

Hyde Lane wants Netflix to be blocked from using the KPop Demon Hunters name in connection with recorded music, live performances or merchandise. It also seeks unspecified damages.

Notably, the complaint does not demand that Netflix stop using the name for movies or animation. That means the original movie and its sequel could still use the name if Demon Hunter wins the case, but Netflix may decide that doesn't make much commercial sense if it can't market merchandise or music under the same brand.

What's the solution? Maybe we could have 2026's most unexpected collab against the forces of evil. Or will KPop Demon Hunters have to change its name?

Netflix has said in a statement: “These allegations are without merit. Netflix has created an Academy Award winning global phenomenon with KPop Demon Hunters that has inspired fans around the world with its powerful music, storytelling, and characters. We look forward to vigorously defending this matter.”

But the internet isn't always the most trustworthy place, which is why some more cautious Swifties started questioning the validity of the artwork. Where was it taken? Who took the picture? And would Taylor really promote a new Taylor's Version with a sloppy graffiti logo design?

The Easter egg in question features an intertwined 'TS' in a light green hue, rather sloppily pasted on a black wall. Given Taylor's typical grandeur and creativity when it comes to cryptic clues, it certainly feels like quite the downgrade.

Soon things began to unravel as fans questioned the random T Swift mural. "This doesn't seem legit or professional for a Taylor Swift Easter egg. Taylor is bigger than this," one fan wrote. "Maybe it's fake or AI," another suggested, while one fan countered, "Well, this is Taylor we're talking about. She's always unpredictable."I'm sad to report this 'Easter egg' is most likely the work of AI.

Adding fuel to the fire, an official tweet from The Empire State Building captioned "WhaTS happening?" sent fans into a flurry of theories. The painfully on-the-nose initials had to be a clue, surely? Could the green light be a nod to Reputation, or was it a sign of an entirely new era? My guess is the Empire State admin just wanted to hop on the trend with a cheeky troll...

With her recent wedding and new married life, it seems a little soon for Taylor to be dropping hints for her next move – but then again, her Easter eggs are known to be extremely crafty and unexpected. While I hold my reservations about the validity of these recent 'teasers', I predict it won't be long until Taylor drops some serious hints.

As a photographer, the camera quality on a phone is my biggest priority, and some of the best camera phones of 2026 do an excellent job of blending raw image quality with AI enhancements, and not forgetting excellent video stability too.

Psst – Want the same phone as Spider-Man? The Z Flip8 features heavily in Brand New Day.

With the Samsung Z Fold8 series, there are now 2 options to choose from for the first time. The Fold8 has a new shape, with a 4:3 aspect ratio that feels super comfortable to use, a nd a 50MP main camera sensor.

The new "Ultra" model, on the other hand, is essentially what the flagship Fold series has always been, with a continuation of the same device shape and boasting that triple rear camera system with the 200MP main sensor.

What this means on paper is that the Z Fold8 Ultra has the better camera (200MP Vs 50MP on the Fold8), but how much of a difference are users going to notice if they opt for the Z Fold8 instead of the Ultra this year? That's what we're here to find out.

Prefer Apple? Check out our guide to the best iPhones for photography instead.

Quick Camera Specs

Camera Phone Shootout: Z Fold8 Ultra Vs Z Fold8

Take a look at the video I put together below to check out how these cameras compete.

*If you can't see the video above please refresh the page.

Image comparisons in detail

A lot of the images captured during my shoot in Bath were splitting hairs regarding quality, HDR, rich detail and exposure.

This is great news for those wanting the slightly smaller (and more affordable) Fold8 primarily for social media shooting, although the Z Fold8 Ultra model really shines when it comes to small details and will be worth the extra £200 if you ever plan on blowing your images up larger.

The main focus of this camera phone shootout has been quality, as the Z Fold8 Ultra and Z Fold8 standard both share the same 50MP Ultra Wide lens, as well as the same 10MP front camera – so there would have been no point in comparing those.

In the below image slider, you'll notice that the Fold8 Ultra offers a much more true-to-life image, whereas the Fold8 provides a high-contrast output with darker leaves in the foreground and lost detail in the building and sky in the background.

One other example shows how the images can look very similar when viewed normally, making them great for social sharing and general everyday photography. However, when you view these images zoomed in or blown up larger onto a desktop or monitor, you can really see where the 200MP does its job, and how soft the image really is with just the 50MP sensor.

Quality of the Z Fold8 Ultra Vs standard Z Fold8

What's the verdict?

Clearly, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra has the better camera, that was never a debate. But the question is whether or not sacrificing the 150MP difference in main camera quality to get the Fold8 is worth it for creatives.

After testing both of these phones for around a month, I can confidently vouch for both as excellent options. I prefer the Fold8 for daily use, things like editing video, watching YouTube shorts and general social scrolling are so much more comfortable on this pocket-sized device.

With that said, If you're using your phone as a replacement for a pro-level DSLR or mirrorless camera (as I often do when travelling for press events to cut down on bulk) then it is absolutely worth opting for the Ultra model in this instance to ensure you're getting the highest quality image in every circumstance.

I've got a confession to make: I'm not particularly bothered about 16K pressure sensitivity anymore, even though new tablets like XPPen's Artist Ultra 14 make a play of the spec. We've reached the point where manufacturers can keep doubling the numbers on the box, but 8,192 versus 16,384 pressure levels isn't going to make your brush strokes twice as good, and I'd much rather see that attention paid to the screen, the pen feel and how the tablet is going to be used.

That's what makes the new XPPen Artist Ultra 14 interesting, because after using it for two weeks I think XPPen has got the balance about right. It's a $699 / £599 drawing display with a 14-inch 2.8K OLED, a 90Hz refresh rate, and a 720g body that's genuinely easy to pick up and throw into a bag.

It's also refreshingly straightforward to get going. The Artist Ultra 14 is essentially plug-and-play, so while drivers are available if you want to configure the tablet and make the most of its controls, you can connect it and start drawing without turning setting the tablet up into a stress test. That's exactly what I want from a portable pen display, particularly one that's likely to be pulled out in different places rather than permanently installed on a desk – though if you have a small desk or are a student, look for a neat tablet; the Artist Ultra 14's smaller size feels like a good option.

Perfectly portable design

The design makes the Artist Ultra 14 a portable, easy-to-use tablet. It's slim and light enough to hold comfortably in one hand, with hard-edged, angular sloping corners on the rear that give it a little more character than the usual flat, curved slab, and it feels like XPPen considered that you might actually carry this around. There's a folding stand in the box as well, so you don't immediately have to start adding accessories just to get a sensible drawing angle, and like the tablet it can fit into a small bag.

XPPen has gone down the familiar route of giving you a fairly generous collection of extras, including USB-C and USB cables, power adapters, the Quick Key remote and two X3 Pro styluses. I ended up favouring the slimmer pen design because it sits more naturally in my hand, particularly when I'm drawing for longer periods, although having the 'fat' option is useful if you need more on-stylus buttons. As ever, they both feel a little light in the hand and lack the weight and balance customisation of the Wacom Pro Pen 3, which remains my go-to style.

The display is where the Artist Ultra 14 really earns its keep, and like its larger Artist Ultra 16, it delivers a bright, smooth screen. That 2.8K resolution on a 14-inch panel works out at roughly 243ppi, so lines and small details look very clean, while the 16:10 aspect ratio gives you a little more vertical room than the 16:9 screens used on many similarly sized displays. That's particularly useful once you start using the best digital art software, like Photoshop and Rebelle, or animation software, which starts filling the edges of the screen with panels and timelines.

It's also a fully laminated display, and XPPen quotes ±0.4mm centre accuracy for the pen, which goes some way towards explaining why the drawing experience feels so direct. The pen isn't sitting some obvious distance above the pixels, and in use, when working on small details, there's very little sense that I'm fighting the hardware to get the line where it needs to go.

Why OLED matters

The OLED panel itself is lovely. Colours are bright and punchy without feeling cartoonishly overcooked, blacks are properly deep, and the 100,000:1 contrast gives the whole display a bit more depth than you're used to getting from an IPS pen display. XPPen uses a True RGB Stripe pixel arrangement too, and while that's hardly something you'll think about while drawing, I never did until I glanced at the spec sheet; it helps keep fine detail and text looking clean on a screen you sit very close to, because it is a smaller 14-inch screen.

The 90Hz refresh rate also makes sense in practice, because it's so smooth and responsive. Moving around the canvas, zooming, panning or using my finger to tap menus all feels very fluid, and the pen has that lovely sense of simply keeping up with what I'm doing. Touch can be switched on and off using a physical control at the top right of the display, alongside the brightness controls, which is much nicer than having to disappear into a settings menu every time you don't want your palm triggering something. The tablet also comes with a drawing glove, which is needed with touch turned on as it can be overly responsive, and I often randomly selected colours when using ArtRage because the colour wheel sits exactly where my hand rests.

In fact, I've spent quite a bit of time using the Artist Ultra 14 in ArtRage, and one of my favourite tests has been painting a sketch of a boat moored on the seafront from a recent trip to Croatia. I was working with a fairly limited palette, but the blues and greens in the water really pop on the OLED, and there's enough colour depth and contrast to make the whole thing feel more alive without me having to start pushing the palette around to compensate for the screen.

That's probably the biggest difference between reading the specs and actually using the Artist Ultra 14. The numbers are impressive, certainly, but the display just feels easy to work on. Small details can be scrawled and sketched with precision, the surface glides nicely under the pen, and the combination of the OLED and 90Hz refresh gives everything an effortless smoothness that makes me want to keep drawing.

It's small but perfectly formed

There is an obvious compromise: the 14-inch display size. Some artists will want a bigger canvas, particularly if you're working on detailed illustration, 3D modelling or animation where toolbars and timelines can quickly eat into your available space. XPPen has the Artist Ultra 16 for that, or there are larger recommended OLED alternatives like the Xencelabs Pen Display 16, but I think the smaller screen makes sense here because portability is clearly part of the point.

The closest rival is the older Wacom's Movink 13, which takes an even more extreme approach to portability. It's just 420g and uses a 13.3-inch Full HD OLED, with multi-touch and Wacom's excellent pen technology.

The Wacom is undeniably easier to carry, but the XPPen feels like the better all-round display to me. It may be an extra 300g, but in return you're getting 2.8K rather than Full HD, 90Hz rather than 60Hz, a larger 16:10 canvas and broader claimed colour coverage. Wacom's pen feel remains excellent, and if every gram matters, the Movink 13 is still a very compelling alternative, but with everything taken into account, I'd take the extra weight of the Artist Ultra 14.

The price makes that decision even more interesting. Wacom has been discounting the Movink 13, bringing it much closer to the $699 / £599 Artist Ultra 14, so you're now looking at two portable OLED pen displays that aren't miles apart in price but take very different hardware approaches.

Artist Ultra 14 is a new standard

For me, the XPPen Artist Ultra 14 is the better overall drawing display. The screen gives you far more room and resolution than the Movink 13; the 90Hz refresh makes it feel wonderfully fluid; the colour is excellent; and the X3 Pro pen is a pleasure to use, particularly in the larger form factor I preferred. The Wacom remains the one I'd pick if portability and its superb pen feel came first, because 420g is hard to argue with.

What I like most about the XPPen, though, is that it doesn't feel like I've bought a portable version of a desktop drawing display and then had to accept a long list of compromises. It feels like a proper little creative drawing tablet that happens to be small enough to carry around, and that's a useful distinction.

At this price, XPPen has managed to cram in the sort of display technology I'd expect from a $1,000-plus pen display, and it's light and sturdy enough that I don't have to think twice about putting it in a bag. There are more portable, larger, and cheaper displays, but for the combination of screen quality, drawing experience, and portability, the Artist Ultra 14 is one of the most convincing pen displays I've used at this price.

And it gets harder! I think both the Momentum 4 and the Momentum 5 are excellent headphones, but for very different reasons. In fact, they both sit at one and two on my list of the best wireless headphones guide, competing with all the other leading ANC headphones on the market, like the Bose QC Ultra 2, Sony WH-1000XM6 and Focal Bathys MG.

• Buy the Momentum 4 at Amazon for $217
• Buy the Momentum 5 at Amazon for $399

When you factor in that Sennheiser also make the best audiophile Bluetooth headphones on sale today in the Sennheiser HDB 630, things get more tricky to navigate. However, that headphone bring the price up with its parametric EQ and bundled USB-C dongle – the Momentum range is less about chasing neutral sound profiles, and more about making a practical travel headphone.

So, with the Momentum 4 now heavily discounted, is the newest model truly worth the extra outlay? Let's find out...

Design & build

At first glance, these are clearly siblings, but I think the Momentum 5 looks nicer – it's essentially a refined version of the 4. The Momentum 4’s straightforward, understated design mimicked its comfortable and functional feel, but the 5 tightens up the aesthetics to look and feel premium.

Most importantly, the Momentum 5 features a swappable battery. This is a huge leap forward for consumer tech longevity, and Sennheiser should be heavily congratulated for this move. Sure, it's a bit of a ball ache to actually do the battery swap yourself, but knowing that your expensive headphones won't end up as e-waste the moment the lithium-ion cell degrades is a massive win. When the Momentum 4's battery is dead, that's it. You'll need to get a new pair of cans.

Features

Sennheiser headphones have always been the long distance runners of the ANC scene, and you get excellent battery life for both of these sets. On paper, the Momentum 4 offers a staggering 60 hours of wireless listening with ANC on (more like 50 in my experience), while the Momentum 5 sits just behind it at a very respectable 57 hours (again, more like 50). Bottom line: You aren't going to be reaching for the charging cable often with either pair.

Where the Momentum 5 clearly pulls ahead is with its Active Noise Cancelling (ANC). Thanks to an upgraded and expanded microphone array, the Momentum 5 shuts out more daily commute noise noticeably better than the 4. Both also feature decent transparency modes and pretty good support via Sennheiser's Smart Control app.

Sound profiles

Both of these headphones go for a fun V-shape sound signature, and the Momentum 4 offers a bassy, pretty textured sound with recessed ear gain frequencies (where sound is most noticeable to the human ear). All that means that you get an exciting bass and treble elevated sound without grating spikes.

The Momentum 5 goes a little heavier on the low-end packing more sub-bass than the 4, and also keeps the recessed ear gain area. The result is that things can sound a little bit more muddy. Thankfully, this isn't a dealbreaker. Because the newer model connects to a robust eight-band EQ on the app, that extra bass can easily be knocked down.

Honestly, I don't think there's much in it between them.

Price and value

When it comes to value, there is really no beating the Momentum 4. Originally retailing for $349.95, it can now routinely be found for $200 to $270. For non-audiophiles wanting good sound and excellent battery life, it's currently the ultimate bargain in Bluetooth headphones.

The Momentum 5 comes in at $399. While it represents a larger upfront cost, it is still a great value proposition with its swappable battery. Thanks to the inclusion of that replaceable battery, the Momentum 5 is a genuinely future-proof investment that will likely outlast most of its market competitors. This one is close, and depends on how long you want your pair of headphones for.

Verdict

Choosing between these two excellent headphones comes down to your priorities. If strict budget and sheer value are paramount to you, the Momentum 4 wins hands down; it remains an absolute steal for the everyday user.

However, we are in 2026, and standards have shifted. With its superior aesthetic design, top-tier active noise cancellation, customisable sound, and the sheer longevity offered by the swappable battery, the Momentum 5 gets the final nod from me.

Ultimately, I don't think you can go wrong with either, but if it was my money, I'd go for the Momentum 5.

Known for creating some of the best adverts over the decades, McDonald's expertly makes this bizarre fusion work. From its playful ads to its custom Happy Meal toys, the collab proves that even the most unexpected alliances can make for a legendary branding moment.

The new ad begins with One Piece's Luffy spying a coveted McDonald's Happy Meal box. Springing into action, the Straw Hat pirates launch towards it, in tandem with the Bikini Bottom gang, resulting in a catastrophic crash (anime impact frames included). The result? An animation crossover for the ages, featuring SpongeBob and pals donning the iconic outfits of the One Piece crew.

"This is actually peak crossover chaos," one fan on X wrote. Another praised, "They did NOT have to make a Happy Meal commercial this majestic." The playful ad clearly resonated with some, as one fan called it a "direct attack on millennials with disposable income," while another commented, "Buying Happy Meals as an adult has never been more justified."

Coming to McDonald's across the globe throughout August, the Happy Meal will include 1 of 12 collectable crossover toys, such as Patrick as Zoro, Mr Krabs as Jinbe, Squidward as Sanji, and, of course, SpongeBob as Luffy.

It's not the first time McDonald's has nailed an anime collab – check out the fast food chain's adorable Kiki's Delivery Service ad that won the hearts of Ghibli fans. For more ad inspiration, take a look at McDonald’s new billboards that are painfully relatable.

Few artists understood the value of imperfection quite like Salvador Dalí. His famous observation, “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it,” takes that familiar idea of perfectionism, something many of us suffer from, and gives it a much more useful purpose: stop chasing it.

The quote comes from The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, his 1948 autobiography, in which Dalí looks back on his life, ambitions, and artistic philosophy, and it feels especially relevant when you think about how we work now.

The best digital art software available to artists today, whether using Photoshop, Rebelle or Procreate, have never been more powerful and flexible, and with that comes a deep level of control. You can zoom endlessly into a painting, undo a brushstroke, nudge a curve, shift a colour by a fraction, change the lighting, render another version. Even when working traditionally with the best acrylic paints, you can scan your art, then open it in Photoshop and start fiddling without fear of messing up. Mistakes are an undo or save-and-reload away.

No wonder finishing something can be difficult. There's always another adjustment to make, technique to learn, reference to look at, or artist who seems to be doing the thing you want to do but better (we're hopeless at judging ourselves by others' standards). The more sophisticated the apps become, the easier it is to convince yourself that, with enough tweaking, you can eventually get everything exactly right.

You can't, of course, and that is really the point Dalí was making. For many of us, perfection can become the goal, not the creative act of making art. You can keep refining a piece long after it has said everything you wanted it to say, or spend so much time worrying about whether the work is good enough that you never put it out into the world in the first place, letting imposter syndrome take hold. Digital art makes this especially easy because the original brushstroke, colour or composition is rarely final; there is almost always another layer, undo, or tweaked version waiting to happen.

That doesn't mean rushing work or accepting mistakes you know you should fix; indeed, many artists are embracing the looseness of imperfection to stand out in an AI art world. What counts is recognising when further changes are improving the piece and when you're simply changing things because you can't bring yourself to let go.

At some point the work has to leave the screen, and it has to be yours, with all the strange decisions, rough edges and imperfections that came with making it. And in an age of infinite edits, endless references and AI-generated images that can look polished while you're still pondering, perhaps the more useful act of rebellion is knowing when to stop tweaking, hit export and call it finished. After all, who wants to argue with Dali?

Our pick of the best Salvador Dalí art books:

Playing Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for the first time since it launched back in 2008 is a strange feeling, partly because so much of what made it feel enormous back then has simply disappeared from games, that sense that you're playing the latest instalment in some sprawling, decades-long saga where every character, conspiracy and elegant bit of military hardware has been building towards this one enormous finale.

We get big games now, obviously, GTA6 is nearly here, but very few arrive carrying quite this much baggage, and MGS4 doesn't exactly try to hide it either, it throws the whole lot at you: Big Boss, Liquid, the Patriots, Snake's ageing, the Beauty and the Beast Unit, a return to Shadow Moses, Metal Gear REX, Ocelot pulling strings, and somehow expects you to keep up.

Then, when the music swells, and Old Snake is crawling towards his end, tapping 'Triangle' to keep him alive and save the world, it still works. I know what's coming, I've played it before, I've spent enough time with the series to know where all of this is heading, and yet there's something about seeing Old Snake drag himself towards his final confrontation that remains truly epic.

That might be the strangest thing about coming back to MGS4 in 2026, and it's fantastic that we finally can, because for all the things that have aged badly, and there are plenty, Kojima's finale still has an extraordinary sense of occasion, playfulness and invention that many modern games simply don't have or strive for.

MGS4 is playable again

It also helps that this is the first time I've been able to play it properly outside the PS3, and it still feels like a technical triumph. MGS4 was already pushing the PS3 hard in 2008, and I had forgotten just how much visual information it was trying to throw around. The Middle Eastern battlefields are still busy and grimy, the character models hold up surprisingly well, the snow blowing around Shadow Moses looks fantastic, and the Shadow Moses Metal Gear encounter remains an enormous technical showcase designed to sell you on the power of PS3. There's not really a drop in quality from what you watch and what you play, and while that seems a given these days, in 2008 it felt like magic.

At 4K and 60fps it feels clean and crisp without losing that slightly grubby late-PS3 character, and while the assets obviously haven't been rebuilt to modern standards, the actual design has aged far better than I expected. The enemy design, environments and boss encounters still have nuance and subtle ideas running through them, rather than simply being places to walk through or fight between cinematics; designs like the Gekko that mix machine and organic, muscle, that 'moo' like cows and hunt in packs exude personality and showcase Kojima's renowned attention to detail.

The Beauty and the Beast Unit are still one of the best examples of this. These bosses are women traumatised by war and turned into machines of destruction, revenge and spectacle, and yes, the way MGS4 presents them is very much tied to the late 2000s, with Kojima's fascination with sex, violence and fetishised character design often pushing things further than they need to go, and in fact even 18 years ago eyesbrows were raised, but mechanically they're memorable fights that bookend missions nicely while playing on nostalgia for earlier entries in the series.

Laughing Octopus can camouflage herself into the scenery and disappear into rooms you've just searched, firing clouds of ink that disorient Snake, while Night Vision gives you another way of tracking her by picking up the footprints she leaves behind. Screaming Mantis takes control of dead as well as living soldiers, and Meryl's presence gives you another perilous route through the encounter as she's used as a human shield, particularly once you realise that shooting Mantis' puppets can help break through her defences. They are weird, inventive fights and, importantly, they make you think for a few minutes before you get to go back to the next enormous cinematic.

Because yes, that problem is still here. Back in 2008, I remember feeling that the balance between actually playing MGS4 and watching MGS4 was a little off, and coming back to it now hasn't changed my mind. You can play for a handful of minutes, and then suddenly you're watching a 20-minute cinematic, particularly during the early stages, and although the story is doing important work, it can feel like the controller has been taken away just when you're getting into the rhythm of the game.

Do want an MGS lore dump?

That isn't helped by the sheer amount of lore you're expected to soak up and ponder upon. MGS4 is assuming you've followed Snake from the original Metal Gear through Metal Gear 2, MGS1 and MGS2, and then spent enough time thinking about Big Boss, Zero, the Patriots, Liquid, Ocelot and the various clone projects to remember who everyone is when they suddenly appear on screen. If you've only a passing relationship with Metal Gear, good luck.

But if you have followed it, the fan service is ridiculous, and that's really why you were here in 2008 anyway. The final third is still one of the most effective pieces of nostalgia bait I've seen in a game, whether it's pressing 'X' during scenes to recall iconic moments or the iconic mission that starts with a pixel-art dream sequence before sending Snake back to Shadow Moses, the setting of the original Metal Gear Solid. It is basically Kojima taking you by the hand and walking you around his own history, pointing at things you remember and then nudging you to make sure you noticed the reference.

There are jokes about changing discs, because in Metal Gear Solid on PS1 you had to swap discs at this precise moment, and now you're on a PS5, so there's no need (the joke is edited from the PS3 original). The ghost of Psycho Mantis gets another fourth-wall-breaking shot at messing with you, only to discover there's no memory card for him to read, before settling for making the DualSense vibrate very weakly instead. It's silly, it's completely unnecessary, and it works because Metal Gear has always understood that the player is part of the joke.

Kojima spends much of the game doing things like this, breaking the fourth wall and turning the hardware itself into part of the experience. The controller can vibrate, and inputs become erratic to make you feel Old Snake's distress; Beauty and the Beast bosses 'remember' past encounters, while Snake can destress by reading Playboy magazines found in missions, which feels particularly funny now because it is such an aggressively 2000s idea of what a video game soldier should be doing.

Other moments haven't aged nearly as well. Snake staring at Naomi's chest affects his stress meter, and the game's treatment of its female characters can veer between genuinely interesting and deeply uncomfortable, sometimes within the same encounter (Mei Ling is the butt of one too many jokes). The Beauty and the Beast Unit are tragic products of war and fascinating mechanical opponents, but the camera and character designs are still very much Kojima circa 2008.

It's a game of contradictions like that, really, and perhaps that's why it remains so fascinating. For all the talking, MGS4 has some superb gameplay when it lets you get on with it. The return to Shadow Moses is fantastic, the sniper sequence in the snowstorm works brilliantly, the Metal Gear battle is a spectacular showcase, and the motorbike chase through an Eastern Europe Prague-inspired city is the sort of hyperactive cinematic set piece that makes you forget about the tedious cat-and-mouse follow-the-spy section that comes before it.

The enemy and world design have held up especially well, because Kojima's team has always been good at making the game's mechanics feel like part of the world rather than systems sitting on top of it. You aren't just shooting enemies; you're dealing with soldiers whose behaviour changes depending on the battlefield, watching factions fight each other, manipulating it too, and finding ways to move through spaces where the chaos can sometimes work in your favour, even now, which makes MGS4 unique.

Then I remember that this was all happening on the PS3 and you really need to admire the creative work involved. It's easy to look at the 4K/60fps presentation and assume the game has been substantially rebuilt, but this is still the MGS4 you remember. Konami hasn't recreated it in Unreal Engine 5 like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, and the underlying art and animation still come from the original game. What you're getting is a modern port and presentation of that 2008 game, and that's enough because the design still works, and it has one of the best final thirds of any game you'll play this year.

Peace Walker and Ghost Babel

The rest of Master Collection Vol. 2 is almost a relief after all of that. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is the obvious second headline game, originally released on PSP and set during Big Boss's story after MGS3: Snake Eater. It's a very different kind of Metal Gear, built around short missions and the gradual development of Mother Base, where you can transport enemy soldiers and equipment back to your operation (using comical balloons), expand your private military force and build up the resources you need for later missions.

I remembered liking the idea of Peace Walker more than the actual game, but it works better on PS5 than I expected. Those bite-sized missions, originally designed for a handheld, suit modern pick-up-and-play sessions surprisingly well, and the HD version runs at 60fps; the underlying assets still have their PSP origins, but the character models look sharp on a large TV.

The art does a lot of work here to sell Peace Walker's personality. Yoji Shinkawa's expressive, ink-heavy style remains one of the series' strongest parts, and the comic-panel cutscenes painted by Ashley Wood look particularly good because they were designed around these illustrations rather than trying to pretend the PSP could deliver MGS4-style cinematics. They can look a little blurry and blown-out on a TV, but the interactive elements are still fun – shooting mechs and fighting enemies inside comic panels is a very fourth-wall-breaking addition to the series.

But there is heavy asset reuse, and you will return to the environments time and again to grind for resources, which was always an issue with Peace Walker on PSP. As a handheld game, it worked because we accept the restrictions; here it can get repetitive, with only the lore to keep you hooked, because as with every Kojima game, there are big twists, teases, and insights that lead into other areas of the series.

Then there's Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, the Game Boy Color game that is arguably the purest Metal Gear experience in the whole collection, and the one game that disconnects from Kojima's need to keep fleshing out the Snake saga's lore, because it's set in an alternate timeline. Despite its Western title, Metal Gear Solid isn't a Game Boy version of the PlayStation game. It's an original story built specifically around the Game Boy Color, and that gives it a lovely sense of identity rather than feeling like a compromised version of something bigger. For that reason, and its simple, direct game design, Ghost Babel is a really enjoyable entry.

That sounds like a big statement when you sit it alongside Guns of the Patriots, but after hours of Snake's ageing, the Patriots, Liquid Ocelot and enough exposition to fill several textbooks – which funnily enough are, kind of, included here as the original scripts – playing this pixel art 2D stealth game feels fantastic. You sneak around, avoid guards, collect keycards, find routes and puzzle-solve through maze-like environments and generally get on with playing rather than being told about the history of the Metal Gear universe.

There is something refreshing about seeing Metal Gear reduced to those basic ingredients again, especially after replaying MGS4. And while it's basic, there are still moments of inspiration – boss fights like trap-based Black Arts Viper that require some thought to defeat – and nice touches like hiding in water and grass, tapping to lure enemies, basically all the stealth ideas from the 3D series distilled into pixels.

The Master Collection Vol. 2 extras

Master Collection Vol. 2 also goes far beyond simply putting three games on a disc. It includes the MGS4 and Peace Walker Screenplay Books, Master Books covering characters and story information, the MGS4 Database, a digital soundtrack, and other archive material. The wealth of content is fitting too, because Metal Gear has always been as much about its world-building as its gameplay, and being able to dig into that material makes Master Collection Vol. 2 feel more like an archive than a simple rerelease. Presentation is excellent too, with nice photography and clean menu designs, and you can adjust screen settings and dimensions if you want, such as pixel smoothing in Ghost Babel.

Compared with Master Collection Vol. 1 at launch, the PS5 version of Vol.2 feels considerably more polished. I'm not seeing the same combination of low-resolution presentation, 30fps limitations, input problems and obvious bugs that made the first collection feel like it needed more time before release. For Master Collection Vol. 2, it's simply the games that catch the eye.

That's the biggest surprise here, because I went back into MGS4 expecting to be reminded why I didn't love it so much in 2008, and in some ways I was surprised by how modern it actually feels to play and replay on PS5; I enjoyed it more. The cutscenes are still very long, the exposition bloated, some of the sexual representation has aged badly, and the game assumes you care deeply about a story that has been running since 1987.

But I also remembered why I cared about it in the first place: I had to play it at the time, and enjoy replaying it again now. MGS4 has an ambition you rarely see now: a willingness to let a video game become completely consumed by its own history, then try to bring all of it to a close. It can be exhausting, occasionally embarrassing and sometimes completely baffling, but when the pieces come together it still has an emotional force that's difficult to dismiss.

Peace Walker gives the collection a much more manageable stealth-action experience, and Ghost Babel is a wonderful reminder of how simple and inventive Metal Gear could be before Kojima turned the series into his own particular blend of video game, action movie, political thriller and elaborate in-joke.

But if you're buying Master Collection Vol. 2, you're buying it for MGS4, and after 18 years, finally being able to play that game outside the PS3, in 4K and at 60fps, running nicely, it's worth the price of admission. Whatever you thought of Old/Solid Snake's final mission in 2008, there's something genuinely satisfying about watching it run properly on a modern console, especially when the music starts, the callbacks begin piling up, and you realise you're heading towards that ending all over again.

I still don't think MGS4 is the best Metal Gear game, but playing it again has reminded me why it felt like such a big deal back in 2008.

The 2D animation, I can get behind. It's giving nostalgic Saturday morning vibes. But the self-aware gags? Golden Axe's 16-bit graphics might look rudimentary today, but this was a gritty game with gravitas, atmosphere, and blood-curdling movie-sampled screams when you killed someone.

Coming to Paramount+, the Golden Axe animation features the three playable characters from the original game. Matthew Rhys voices Gilius Thunderhead, “a grumpy battle dwarf with exceptionally poor hygiene and a chip on his shoulder,” Liam McIntyre is Ax Battler, “a barbarian warrior with a strict code of honor and sweet golden retriever demeanor,” and Lisa Gilroy is Tyris Flare “deadly in a fight and even deadlier with her sharp wit.”

There's also Chronos "Evil" Lait, Golden Axe III's humanoid panther, who you may or may not consider to be canon, as well as the Cocatriz (or "trusty purple mutant thingys" as they're now called, and Golden Axe II's menacing headless Death Armor.

But series creators Mike McMahan (Star Trek: Lower Decks) and Joe Chandler (American Dad) are also taking some controversial liberties with the, admittedly rather sparse, Golden Axe lore. A new comedy character has been introduced in the form of Hampton Squib, an eager and unqualified newcomer played by Danny Pudi.

For those who don't remember the arcade game, Tyris helpfully sums up the premise in the trailer. The team has to "face a series of progressively harder enemies until we have a big final battle with Death Adder. And then we kill him for good.” Death Adder is bad, as you may have guessed from his name.

It's great to see new 2D animation, but a knowing meta comedy overlooks the atmosphere of Makoto Uchida's 16-bit masterpiece (above). Some games like Sonic and Mario make perfect sense adapted as light comedies, but Golden Axe was grim business.

As they hacked away at skeletons that rise from the ground like in Jason and the Argonauts, our three heroes were working through the trauma of their parents and siblings' deaths at the hands of a sinister giant who's stolen a golden axe. Now they sound like characters from Scooby Doo.

After Masters of the Universe, does every nostalgic sword and sorcery fantasy revival now have to be a parody?

Golden Axe will premiere on Paramount+ on 16 September. If you want some real retro gaming action, check out our guides to the best retro gaming consoles and the best retro handheld consoles.

With competition now so intense, the unusual packaging design adopted by Jacked Granny (yes, that's really the brand's name) might be seen as purely an attempt to stand out on the shelves. But it turns out that there's a practical reason why it's putting its products in sardine tins (also see our round up of packaging design inspiration).

Jacked Granny's pull-tab metal tins enable it stick to its objective of using simple ingredients and few of them (it's tagline is "The Simplest Protein Bar ever"). The tins hermetically seal the bars therein to prevent them from entering into contact with the air or moisture.

That allows the company to achieve acceptable shelf life for the products without adding preservatives: the made-in-the-US bars have just four ingredients (peanut flour, egg white, maple syrup and either dried raspberries or cocoa powder), something that would be difficult with traditional flexible paper or plastic wraps.

The design might seem to present a certain irony: fewer ingredients but more packaging. But the packaging isn't just superfluous bulk, it actually solves a practical problem. And while a tin might seem like an excessive amount of material use, the material tends to be easier to recycle.