Last month, Denon unveiled its first new A/V receiver (AVR) since 2023, the AV-S980H, the most powerful in their budget-priced “S” series lineup. But it turns out, this was just the beginning. Today, Denon unveiled two more new AVR models, this time in their upgraded “X Series,” which is known for its higher performance, broad feature set and punchy dynamic sound. The AVR-X2900H ($1,349) replaces the AVR-X2800H and the AVR-X3900H ($1,849) replaces the venerable AVR-X3800H, an eCoustics Editors’ Choice Award winner.

Stylistically, the new models bear a strong resemblance to their predecessors, though Denon reps tell us they have been tweaked internally for higher performance as well as adding some interesting new features like the ability to add wireless rear speakers.

We got a chance to check out these new receivers at Denon’s headquarters in Japan last month, and were impressed by what we saw and heard. In a series of movie clips, the AVR-X3900H filled a large listening room with immersive Dolby Atmos sound, powering a 7.2.2-channel Bowers & Wilkins speaker system featuring the company’s 800 series flagship speakers. The system was able to reach near cinematic reference output levels with no audible strain.

Powered by Heos

Both the AVR-X2900H and AVR-X3900H feature the latest HEOS module for whole home wireless music streaming, with support for lossless and high resolution audio from compatible streaming services such as TIDAL, Spotify, Amazon Music, Qobuz and Apple Music (via Air Play 2). Also, both receivers will support the use of Denon’s new Home 200, Home 400 and Home 600 speakers as wireless rear channels, via a future free over-the-air software upgrade. This gives home theater fans and A/V hobbyists the ability to do real discrete immersive surround sound without having to run speaker wires to the back of their rooms.

Both new models feature updated internal components and a high performance 32-bit multi channel DAC (Digital Analog Conversion) architecture to deliver improved imaging, clearer high frequency detail and more authoritative low frequency energy to every speaker. Both models include Audyssey calibration on-board with the option to upgrade to DIRAC Live room correction for an additional fee.

“Denon’s X-Series has always been about uncompromised performance,” said Lyle Smith, President of Sound United at Denon’s parent company, HARMAN. “With our newest additions to the series, we’ve gone further by combining expanded room calibration capabilities with adaptable system designs to deliver enhanced audio quality and greater flexibility for people who take their sound seriously.”

We also had a chat with Denon’s Sound Master, Shinichi Yamauchi. His job is to listen to Denon’s new product designs throughout their development cycle at Shirakawa Audio Works in Japan. With a trained ear and a background in engineering, Yamauchi-San makes suggestions to the development and engineering team, based on his extensive listening sessions with each new product. A new Denon product only makes it into production once Yamauchi-San signs off on it. And both the X2900H and X3900H got his seal of approval earlier this year.

Denon AVR-X2900H

The Denon AVR-X2900H offers seven channels of amplification and dual subwoofer outputs. It’s rated at 95 watts/channel into 8 ohms (2 channels driven). It can decode Dolby Atmos and DTS-X immersive sound formats with discrete height and surround speaker outputs for a 5.2.2-channel implementation. While Audyssey MultEQ XT calibration software is included, the X2900H is Denon’s most affordable AVR that also offers an optional upgrade to DIRAC Live room correction and calibration software. The license for DIRAC Live currently costs $259 for the limited bandwidth version or $299 for the full bandwidth version.

The receiver offers six HDMI inputs with support for VRR, ALLM, 8K/60 Hz or 4K/120 Hz and dual HDMI outputs, including one with ARC/eARC audio return channel. It also offers multiple analog and digital inputs for legacy gear, including a turntable input with built-in moving magnet phono preamp.

In addition to a fully wired speaker set-up, the AVR-X2900H will support wireless rear channels using the Denon Home 200, Home 400 or Home 600 speakers (this will be delivered in a future software update). While the 95-watt power rating is measured with two channels driven, Denon guarantees that the AVR-X2900H will deliver at least 70% of that power rating when five channels are driven. It supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and hard-wired network connectivity with HEOS built-in for whole home music streaming from a wide selection of compatible streaming apps.

Denon AVR-X3900H

The Denon AVR-X3900H includes nine channels of amplification and four independently controlled subwoofer outputs for precise in-room bass optimization. It is rated at 105 watts/channel with two channels driven with a guarantee of at least 70% of that rated output when driving five channels. Out of the box, the X3900H supports 5.4.4 or 7.4.2-channel immersive sound applications.

With eleven channels of processing, the X3900H can be upgraded to support a 7.4.4 channel surround system by adding a 2-channel power amplifier. If you only need a five or seven channel surround system, you can use the additional on-board amps to drive speakers in another room. And if you need more power, the AVR-X3900H has a full set of eleven preamp outputs which can be connected to outboard power amplifiers.

In addition to Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, the AVR-X3900H can decode Sony 360 Reality Audio, MPEG-H and AURO-3D immersive surround formats, for maximum compatibility and flexibility. It is also IMAX Enhanced certified so it can apply IMAX EQ to DTS-X soundtracks that are IMAX Enhanced.

The X3900H includes Audyssey MultEQ XT32 calibration software on-board, and can be upgraded to DIRAC Live – all the way up to DIRAC Live ART – via an additional license purchase (currently priced at $259 to $799, depending on options).

Like the X2900H, the X3900H includes six HDMI inputs with support for VRR, ALLM and resolution up to 8K @ 60 Hz or 4K @ 120 Hz. But the X3900H adds a third HDMI output for a projector, monitor or TV. The X3900H also supports HDMI ARC/eARC for single cable connection to your display of choice. It also offers multiple analog and digital audio inputs for legacy gear, including a turntable input with built-in moving magnet phono preamp.

Interestingly enough, unlike some competitive models, like the Onkyo TX-RZ30, neither of these new Denon receivers offers any analog video inputs (composite, component or S-Video). So if you’re still rocking a VCR or LaserDisc player, you’ll need to plug these directly into your TV or get an analog to digital video converter. I should note that this is nothing new as the predecessor models also lacked analog video inputs. It’s also not particularly critical to most potential buyers. The current AVR-X4800H model does include analog video inputs so we’d imagine any future replacement step-up model may continue that tradition.

Like the X2900H, the AVR-X3900H will get an update later this year to support wireless rear surround channels by adding a pair of Home 200, Home 400 or Home 600 speakers.

Two things I had hoped to see on the new receivers (but didn’t) were support for Dolby Atmos music within the HEOS streaming platform and on-board decoding for Eclipsa Audio (IAMF) immersive surround. For now, Denon recommends connecting an outboard source device like an Apple TV 4K or FireTV stick to one of the receiver’s HDMI ports if you want to listen to Dolby Atmos music from streaming sources like Amazon Music Unlimited, TIDAL or Apple Music. I listen to Dolby Atmos and 360RA music this way on my current AVR-X3800H and it works reliably (which is nice).

With the company’s recent acquisition by Harman (which in turn is owned by Samsung), we believe it would be a natural fit for Denon receivers to support the new open IAMF/Eclipsa Audio immersive sound format, which was developed by Samsung, Google and others. Although it isn’t widely used yet, Eclipsa Audio is the only immersive surround format supported on YouTube so over time it could become more popular.

Comparison

The Bottom Line

They say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and this saying holds true for Denon’s latest X series receivers. The models they replaced were highly rated and were popular sellers in the category and these new models look and feel quite similar, offering everything from their predecessors and more. The AVR-X2900H brings DIRAC Live room correction to Denon’s most affordable price point yet, though it does require an additional license purchase to use. Also, both models will get the option for wireless rear speakers in a future software update.

While we were disappointed to find out that the receivers don’t support Dolby Atmos music in HEOS yet or Eclipsa Audio decoding, it’s possible that either or both of these features could be added at some time in the future via a software upgrade. In the meantime, the otherwise comprehensive immersive format support of the AVR-X3900H is unmatched in the industry at this price point and we’d highly recommend it to anyone in search of a robust and future-proofed A/V receiver.

Pricing & Availability:

Both new 2026 Denon X-Series AVRs will be available to order on May 14, 2026 at the following prices:

• Denon AVR-X2900H — $1349 USD | $1799 CND
• Denon AVR-X3900H — $1849 USD | $2499 CND

Related Reading:

Linux distros are rolling out patches for a new high-severity kernel privilege escalation vulnerability that allows attackers to run malicious code as root.

Known as Fragnasia and tracked as CVE-2026-46300, this security flaw stems from a logic bug in the Linux XFRM ESP-in-TCP subsystem that can enable unprivileged local attackers to gain root privileges by writing arbitrary bytes to the kernel page cache of read-only files.

Zellic’s head of assurance, William Bowling, who discovered this new universal local privilege escalation flaw, also shared a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit that achieves a memory-write primitive in the kernel that is used to corrupt the page cache memory of the /usr/bin/su binary to get a shell with root privileges on vulnerable systems.

Bowling said this flaw belongs to the Dirty Frag vulnerability class, which was disclosed last week, and affects all Linux kernels released before May 13, 2026. Just as Fragnasia, Dirty Frag has a publicly available PoC exploit that local attackers can use to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.

However, Dirty Frag works by chaining two separate kernel flaws, the xfrm-ESP Page-Cache Write vulnerability (CVE-2026-43284) and a RxRPC Page-Cache Write security issue (CVE-2026-43500), to achieve privilege escalation by modifying protected system files in memory.

“Fragnesia is a member of the Dirty Frag vulnerability class. This is a separate bug in the ESP/XFRM from dirtyfrag which has received its own patch. However, it is in the same surface and the mitigation is the same as for dirtyfrag,” Bowling said.

“It abuses a logic bug in the Linux XFRM ESP-in-TCP subsystem to achieve arbitrary byte writes into the kernel page cache of read-only files, without requiring any race condition.”

another day, another universal linux LPE https://t.co/GANYkAJwZS pic.twitter.com/XfzTsmg7kl

Advertisement

— V12 (@v12sec) May 13, 2026

To secure systems against attacks, Linux users are advised to apply kernel updates for their environment as soon as possible.

Those who can’t immediately patch their devices should use the same mitigation used for Dirty Frag commands to remove vulnerable kernel modules (however, it’s important to note that this will break AFS distributed network file systems and IPsec VPNs):

rmmod esp4 esp6 rxrpc
printf 'install esp4 /bin/false\ninstall esp6 /bin/false\ninstall rxrpc /bin/false\n' > /etc/modprobe.d/dirtyfrag.conf

Fragnasia’s disclosure comes as Linux distros are still rolling out patches for “Copy Fail,” another privilege escalation vulnerability now actively exploited in the wild.

CISA added Copy Fail to its catalog of flaws exploited in attacks on May 1 and ordered federal agencies to secure their Linux systems within two weeks, by May 15.

“This type of vulnerability is a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and poses significant risks to the federal enterprise,” the U.S. cybersecurity agency warned. “Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.”

In April, Linux distros patched another root-privilege escalation vulnerability (dubbed Pack2TheRoot) in the PackageKit daemon that had gone unnoticed for a decade.

AI chained four zero-days into one exploit that bypassed both renderer and OS sandboxes. A wave of new exploits is coming.

At the Autonomous Validation Summit (May 12 & 14), see how autonomous, context-rich validation finds what’s exploitable, proves controls hold, and closes the remediation loop.

Advertisement

Claim Your Spot

EV battery charging technology has always had to find the right balance between charging speed and battery longevity. If the charging speed is too fast, it wears down the battery. If the charging is too slow, nobody is happy. 

Researchers Meng Yuan from Victoria University of Wellington and Changfu Zou from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden may have cracked this long-standing problem using an AI technique called deep reinforcement learning, and the results are pretty encouraging.

Their study, published in IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, introduces a new AI charging system that learns to charge a battery quickly while actively protecting its long-term health. 

What’s different about this new AI-based charging system?

The system uses a machine learning method called TD3, which is a fancy way of saying the AI learns by trial and error across thousands of simulated charging sessions. What makes it different is that it adapts its charging strategy based on how degraded the battery already is. 

Most traditional chargers use a fixed routine. They start with full power and taper off as the battery reaches its capacity. The problem is that this routine doesn’t care whether the battery is brand new or has been through hundreds of charge cycles.

The new AI-based charging strategy sidesteps this by learning a relationship between the battery’s health and the maximum safe charging voltage, then using that information to make smarter decisions in real time.

Does the battery last longer?

In simulations using a real-world battery model, the proposed method extended battery life by nearly 23% over standard charging methods, reaching 703 equivalent full cycles compared to just 572 with conventional charging. Charging time also remained competitive at around 24 minutes for an 80% charge.

The team trained the entire system on a consumer-grade desktop with an Intel i5 processor and an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU. As the researchers note, this “demonstrates that the proposed framework can be effectively trained on widely available hardware without needing access to specialized high-performance computing clusters.”

It is still early days, and the method needs testing outside of simulations. But if it holds up, smarter charging could quietly become one of the biggest upgrades your next EV gets.

Honor’s 2026 mid-range series is made up of two handsets, the Honor 600 and the pricier Honor 600 Pro, but how do they differ?

Is it a guarantee that the Honor 600 Pro is the better option? Or is the Honor 600 well-rounded enough to suit most needs?

To help you decide between the two smartphones, we’ve compared our hands-on experience with both below. Keep reading to see what really separates the two Androids and see which one is likely to suit you best.

Otherwise, we’ve also rounded up a list of the best Android phones, best mid-range phones and best smartphones too.

Price and Availability

Both the Honor 600 and Honor 600 Pro are available to buy now. As its name suggests, the Honor 600 Pro is the pricier of the two with an official RRP of £899 for the 512GB handset. 

SQUIRREL_PLAYLIST_10208520

In comparison, the Honor 600 is more of an affordable option and has a starting RRP of £549.99. At the time of writing, you can even nab the Honor 600 with a healthy £150 discount too.

SQUIRREL_PLAYLIST_10208521

Design

• Both come in a choice between White, Black or Orange
• Both sport IP68, IP69 and IP69K ratings
• The two bezels are less than 1mm thick

There aren’t many design differences between the Honor 600 and Honor 600 Pro, as both have 6.57-inch displays, an impressively thin 0.98mm bezel and come with a plethora of IP ratings. In addition, both are fitted with a rectangular camera shelf that spans the width of the phone’s rear which is reminiscent of the iPhone 17 Pro’s own. 

Speaking of which, we probably should address the fact Honor’s 600 series seems to borrow the vibrant (and divisive) orange hue of the iPhone 17 Pro. However, it also comes in more standard black or white shades too.

Otherwise, both handsets are also fitted with a brushed aluminium frame that gives each device a more premium feel. This is especially welcome for the Honor 600, considering it’s much cheaper than the Pro.

Winner: Tie

Screen

• Honor 600 Pro benefits from an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate
• Both have 6.57-inch AMOLED panels

The biggest difference between the Honor 600 and Honor 600 Pro is with each phone’s respective LTPO technology. Although the Honor 600 does sport a 120Hz refresh rate, it isn’t LTPO-enabled which means the variable refresh rate isn’t quite as smooth. In comparison, the Honor 600 Pro boasts an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate.

Otherwise, both handsets are equipped with a 6.57-inch 1264×2728 AMOLED panel while also benefiting from the impressively thin surrounding bezel too.

Winner: Honor 600 Pro

Camera

• Honor 600 Pro has a dedicated telephoto lens
• Both are fitted with 200MP main lenses, though the Honor 600 Pro’s boast CIPA 6.5 image stabilisation
• AI-assisted image repair is present, which can look slightly too smooth

While the Honor 600 and 600 Pro have seen many similarities so far, their respective camera set-ups are slightly different, with the latter sporting a total of three rear cameras instead of just two. 

The Honor 600 is equipped with a main 200MP 1/1.4-inch sensor and CIPA 6.0 image stabilisation, alongside a 12MP ultrawide. Although the 600 Pro also has a 200MP main lens, it benefits from CIPA 6.5 image stabilisation instead alongside the same 12MP ultrawide as the Honor 600. 

The biggest difference is the Pro’s inclusion of  a 50MP telephoto lens that’s fitted with a 3.5x optical range. This omission for the Honor 600 is apparent when you try and zoom beyond the 4x range, as you’ll notice AI-assisted image repair which looks pretty noticeable.

Either way, both 200MP main lenses are the star of each handset’s show, with plenty of detail and a solid performance across all lighting conditions too. We did note that colours had a slightly saturated look by default, however this can be changed via the phone’s settings.

Winner: Honor 600 Pro

Performance

• Honor 600 Pro sports 2025’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chip
• Honor has included a Game Mode and vapor chamber cooling in both handsets
• Otherwise, both the Honor 600 and 600 Pro feel speedy in everyday use

Another key difference between the Honor 600 and Honor 600 Pro is with their chipsets, with the Pro sporting Qualcomm’s 2025 Snapdragon 8 Elite flagship. Naturally, this means the phone achieves similar benchmark scores to 2025 flagships such as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Honor Magic 7 Pro.

Instead, the Honor 600 houses Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, a mid-range chip that launched back in 2025. While it certainly can’t compete with the Honor 600 Pro, generally the handset performs well in everyday use. It even does an admirable job at keeping things cool during prolonged and intensive use, thanks to its onboard vapour chamber cooling. However, heavier gaming will reveal the handset’s limitations.

Winner: Honor 600 Pro

Software

• MagicOS 10 powers both handsets
• Both promise six years of security and software updates
• Alongside many AI tools, the headline feature is Honor’s Image to Video 2.0

Both the Honor 600 and 600 Pro run on Honor’s MagicOS 10 which borrows from Apple’s Liquid Glass design. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the design feels smart and fluid to use in everyday circumstances.

Both are also equipped with a dedicated AI button which can bring up Google’s useful Circle to Search function or Honor’s AI Memories. However, the headline AI-powered feature within both the Honor 600 and 600 Pro is undoubtedly Image to Video 2.0, which allows you to turn a photo into an AI-generated video. 

While it’s definitely not the reason to opt for either Honor handset, it’s a novel tool that can be fun to play around with. 

Otherwise, Honor promises that the Honor 600 and 600 Pro will see up to six years of software and Android updates. That’s just shy of Samsung and Google’s seven year promise, but is still a pretty generous offering overall.

Winner: Tie

Battery

• Same 6400mAh batteries which provide around six-hours of screen time
• Honor 600 Pro supports 80W wired and 50W wireless charging
• Honor 600 doesn’t have any wireless charging support

Both handsets are fitted with hefty 6400mAh batteries, which we found resulted in around six hours of screen time that involved plenty of multitasking between apps, streaming and taking the odd photo.

While both support 80W wired charging, it’s only the Pro model that offers 50W wireless charging which is a shame. 

Winner: Honor 600 Pro

Verdict

With a year-old flagship chip, wireless charging support and a dedicated telephoto lens, the Honor 600 Pro is undoubtedly a brilliant well-rounded option that’ll suit most Android users. However, with the same starting price as the Galaxy S26, it’s perhaps not the best option for those seeking a mid-range Android.

In comparison, with a £549 price tag, the Honor 600 is a much more affordable option. Sure, its chipset isn’t flagship and it lacks a telephoto lens, it does borrow many features from its pricier Pro sibling. With that in mind, those seeking a true mid-ranger might be better suited to the Honor 600 Pro.

Security

Human IT managers thought they were being nice to the boss, but were assisting a threat actor

PWNED Welcome once again to PWNED, the column where we help you prepare for security success by studying others’ embarrassing failures. Today’s terrible tale involves individuals trying to do right by a company executive by letting their guard down, never a smart move. 

Have a story about someone leaving a gaping hole in their network? Share it with us at pwned@sitpub.com. Anonymity is available upon request.

Our sad story comes from Brandon Dixon, who currently serves as CTO and co-founder of AI security firm Ent. In a prior life, however, Dixon was a penetration tester for hire and he saw some things that made all my remaining hairs stand on end just hearing about them.

During one pentesting assignment, Dixon tried to find out how easy it would be to steal someone’s account using social engineering. The answer: barely an inconvenience. 

Dixon telephoned IT security and pretended that he was the head of security who had lost his password. When they asked him challenge questions, he said he had forgotten the answers to those also. 

Then he gave them the password he wanted to use over the phone and they did a reset for him. After that, he was able to get into the network and do whatever he wanted there. 

There’s so much that’s obviously wrong here that it’s hard to know where to begin with our lesson-taking. The IT support agents should not have taken Dixon’s word that he was the security manager, especially after he failed challenge questions, and should have denied his request to reset the password. They were probably thinking “this guy is an executive and we don’t want to piss him off” rather than “we have procedures that everyone must follow.”

The other problem here is that the IT department entered Dixon’s suggested password for him over the phone. First of all, the IT department should have sent a password reset to the real employee’s email or phone number. Second of all, it’s piss-poor security for anyone to know a user’s password other than the user themselves. And I say this as someone who used to work for a company where, if you had a problem, the IT support people would ask for your password via chat. 

Dixon also shared another story about social engineering from a time when he consulted for a pharmaceutical company. Members of the competition would call sales and marketing reps, pretend they were coworkers, and then extract information about upcoming drugs. This would allow competitors to know what was coming and how to respond to it.

To help solve the problem, Dixon instituted a system where real employees had to give a secret password at the beginning of a conversation. 

“I built a system called ‘Chal-Resp,’ short for ‘challenge-response,’ that generated work pairings so a user could validate they were speaking with an actual employee,” he told The Register. “The caller would need to say the word and the end-user would need to respond with the proper challenge; only employees had access.”

What both of Dixon’s stories have in common is the proof that humans are eager to please and be helpful. But suspicion is the whole root of infosec, so it behooves us all to be a little less helpful to strangers in the workplace. ®

Most home security cameras demand either a complicated installation, a recurring subscription, or a battery you are replacing every few weeks, and the cheaper ones tend to ask for all three at once.

The Blink Outdoor 4 was built to sidestep every one of those frustrations, and it is currently down from $79.99 to $43.99, with $36 knocked off its usual retail price.