Not too long ago, PC gaming was still considered a niche hobby, stereotyped by the typical gamer who lives inside a basement and refuses to come out. Those times, fortunately, are long gone. Esports has grown massively in both viewership and competition, so much so that we have an esports World Cup currently happening in Paris. This popularity is driven mostly by games like Valorant. Even I, famously a MacBook user, have spent countless hours playing Valo with my friends because it’s so much fun. Around 20 million players play the game every month, and some are its biggest fans.

Playing PC games, though, isn’t cheap. You need a capable processor, a GPU that doesn’t throttle when you’re in the middle of a fight, and enough RAM to keep all tasks at bay. Not to mention a high-refresh-rate display, which is super important for hitting those headshots. If you’re in the market for a new machine to take your Valorant gameplay to the next level, I don’t see any better machine than the HP Omen 16 Valorant Edition. It’s the company’s top-of-the-line gaming laptop, complete with a Valorant-inspired design, the Ryzen 9 9955HX processor, an RTX 5070 GPU, and, even in this economy, 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM. Naturally, when HP sent over the laptop for review, I was very excited to get my hands on it. But is it worth your money? This review should help you answer that.

Design & Hardware

If you love Valorant, there is nothing I can say right now that’ll make you not love this laptop. I’ve tested many limited edition phones, and most times brands just slap a logo on the back and call it a day. That’s not the case with the HP Omen 16. The Valorant inspiration starts with the color. It’s painted VALORANT BLUE, a dark navy blue of sorts that looks very unique among the sea of grey laptops. In the center of the back panel, you’ll find the HyperX logo, which is encircled by the red Valorant logo. I didn’t think this combination would work this well, but it does, and it looks fantastic. But that’s not all. On the back panel’s left side is Valorant written in the iconic font, and the right side lists the game’s maps, along with a small logo.

Open up the laptop, and you’re greeted with the same design cues. The WASD buttons are painted red; there’s another logo on the right and a few other subtle design cues. I think it’s a very faithful attempt at making a special edition laptop that doesn’t go over the top. To confirm, it’s not just me fanboying the laptop; I put it on my Instagram story. Look, I post a lot of new tech to show my friends, and never once have I gotten so many likes on the story as with the Omen 16. People asked me all sorts of things about the laptop, with the main thing being it’s so pretty.

Besides all the Valorant stuff, the HP Omen 16 is made from aluminum. The color finish is matte, so thankfully it doesn’t pick up many fingerprints. However, if you’re like me and eat Doritos while watching a series, please keep your hands away because they will smudge the laptop. I had to give the laptop a thorough clean before taking the review photos. When it comes to handling, the Omen 16 is like a typical gaming laptop. All those powerful internals add weight, 2.47 kg to be precise. I wouldn’t call that too heavy, but carrying around a 16-inch laptop will hurt your back a bit. Still, I was able to take it to my nearby coffee shop for some work without much trouble. If I had to complain, it’d be about the charger, which is a hefty unit and a pain to carry around.

Beyond that, the hinge is a bit wobbly, but it keeps the laptop steady and can be opened with one hand. I also wasn’t worried about the durability since there was almost no chassis flex on the keyboard deck. You can chuck it inside your backpack, and it’ll be fine.

Let’s talk ports. With a gaming laptop, brands can’t get away with bundling just one USB-C port. And fortunately, that’s not the case with the Omen 16. On the left and right sides, there are two USB Type-A 5Gbps ports, coupled with a USB 3.0 Type-C port with charging support and a headphone/microphone combo jack. Is that it, you may ask? To which I’d answer no. There is a USB Type-A 10Gbps port, an HDMI 2.1 port, an Ethernet jack, and a barrel charging port on the back side for easier connectivity.

Keyboard & Trackpad

Given that you’d be spending most of the time using the keyboard when gaming, it quickly becomes an important subject. And as a surprise to maybe no one, the HP Omen 16’s keyboard is very good. Keys have a lot of travel, which I love, and there’s satisfying feedback when pressed. The actuation energy isn’t much, and you won’t be disturbing your colleagues with the sound inside an office. Since this is a 16-inch device, HP also bundled a dedicated number pad row.

While I’m not the biggest fan of this layout as it shifts everything to the left, I can see the appeal for gamers and professionals. In classic gaming laptop fashion, the keyboard has RGB backlighting, which can be configured using the Omen Light Studio app. There are four zones, and you can choose to go all the way in the funky territory if you wish. For me, I’m more of a white-backlit guy to keep everything classy.

Moving over to the trackpad, I have nothing to complain about here, as well. It’s a big, glass-topped surface that does the job when navigating the UI. The surface is smooth enough to not cause much friction. The physical buttons feel nice to press, and the energy required for a press isn’t so much that it causes strain.

Display & Cameras

What’s the one thing about the display that matters with games like Valorant? If your answer was high-refresh rate, then you’d be absolutely correct. HP thinks the same, which is the reason the Omen 16 houses a 240Hz refresh rate screen. It’s hard to put that feeling into words, but there’s some genuine advantage that you will get. Beyond that, the panel spans 16 inches and has a resolution of 2.5K and a 3ms response time.

To hit that 240Hz refresh rate, HP had to go with an IPS panel, which is fine to me. Do I miss the deep blacks and vibrant colors of an OLED display? Yes. Still, the Omen 16’s display is fantastic. Colors feel natural, and watching a movie on that big screen is a delight. I finally got around to watching Ted Lasso, and it was a very enjoyable experience, thanks to the 500 nits of peak brightness. For all my creative friends, the Omen 16’s display does cover 100% of the sRGB color space. So, you can edit videos/photos and not worry about them looking messed up on others’ screens. The anti-reflective coating proved quite capable as well, keeping most of the reflections at bay.

As far as the camera is concerned, it won’t be winning any competitions. It’s 1080p, thankfully, and works well for quick video calls or classes. The sharpness in low light can be missing, and colors are washed out compared to my MacBook.

Performance

It’s no secret that a gaming laptop isn’t just for playing games. It’s also a tool for creative and coding professionals who need the extra horsepower. Under the hood, the HP Omen 16 packs the latest AMD Ryzen 9955HX processor, which has 16 cores and 64 MB L3 cache, and can boost up to 5.4 GHz in demanding tasks. It’s paired with 24 GB DDR5-5600 MT/s RAM and a 1 TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD. Graphics are handled by the RTX 5070 GPU, with 8GB of VRAM. Since you can’t have the thirsty RTX graphics running all the time, and people do need more battery life than just one hour, there’s integrated AMD Radeon 610M graphics for lighter tasks.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the Omen 16 is a very powerful machine. You can throw any workload at it, and it’ll handle it like a champ. I did my usual writing and researching on the laptop, and it never once hesitated when opening another application. Everything felt effortless, and I just couldn’t push the laptop with my office work even if I tried. As this was the case, I also installed Da Vinci Resolve to do a spot of video editing. Even with multiple 4K streams, some advanced effects and color grading work, the timeline preview was pretty smooth, and the render times were some of the fastest in my testing. The same happened when running a long Python script, marked by exceptionally quick compile times. Not to mention how smooth everything feels on the 240Hz display.

Benchmarks, however, are where you see the real power of the Omen 16. In Geekbench, the Ryzen 9955HX scored 2,751 in the single-core test and 18,266 in the multi-core test. The closest competition I have tested is last year’s Zephyrus G14, which ran on the Ryzen 9 HX 370. The Omen 16 scored more than 20% higher in multi-threaded workloads. Moving to Geekbench’s GPU test, the score reached a pretty remarkable 120,517 points.

Gaming & Thermals

It’s time to talk about the things you came here for: gaming. After all, that’s the biggest reason to buy the Omen 16. And it would be a shame to start with anything else except Valorant. There, the Omen 16 delivered easy 250+ FPS on high settings. With Red Dead Redemption 2, I could max out the resolution at 2.5K with very high graphics and still get around 80 FPS. Cyberpunk 2077 was a bit more challenging, pushing the laptop to its very limit. On maxed-out settings, I observed around 50 FPS. If that’s not enough for you, there’s always DLSS. It’s a very clever way to get over 100 FPS without losing much detail. Some purists may argue those frames are not real, but you’d be hard-pressed to find the difference playing on a laptop screen.

I employed DLSS once again, with Indiana Jones: The Great Circle, to get an average of 100 FPS, with 1% lows around 80 FPS. If you’re a racing fan, Forza Horizon and Motorsport both worked flawlessly at highest settings, with RTX reflections turned on. Even Call of Duty fans will be pretty pleased with this setup.

As far as thermals are concerned, the bottom plate is a large intake, and the hot air comes out from the sides and back. Regardless of the game I tested, there were no signs of thermal throttling inside a temperature-controlled room. HP also bundles its OMEN app with the laptop to control the metrics. It has ads, which is something I absolutely despise in a first-party app. They should not have ads. That said, it was pretty good at controlling different metrics of the laptop, and you can manually tweak different aspects of the performance.

Battery Life & Speakers

Battery life is usually the Achilles’ heel of gaming laptops, simply because running all those internals takes a lot of power. The HP Omen 16 tries to combat that with an 83 Wh cell. In my daily use, which is mostly on Chrome, along with some spreadsheet work and YouTube, the laptop lasted roughly 4 hours on a single charge. I wouldn’t call that groundbreaking, but it’s enough to get you through a work session inside a cafe. Fortunately, there’s a fast charger bundled, albeit with a massive one. With it, you can recharge the battery to 50% in 30 minutes. If you’d rather not carry the large brick, the USB-C port supports charging.

I can say almost the same about the speakers, which you get two of. They are decent if you want to watch a quick YouTube video with clear dialogue and vocals. Just don’t expect them to fill a room with music. The highs and lows do get slightly muffled, and the treble was a little less than what I like. They also sounded quieter than my MacBook.

Verdict

At ₹299,990, the HP Omen 16 Valorant edition is certainly a premium laptop, but for the right person, I believe it’s a no-brainer. I think it’s one of the better special edition laptops, with a really striking yet sophisticated design that pays homage to Valorant. All the little details are excellent. The build quality is solid, and the performance is just next level. I don’t think there is any workload the Omen 16 can’t handle, and even AAA games run smoothly, albeit sometimes requiring DLSS. Rounding things out is a sizeable 16-inch 240Hz display that keeps things fast, and the excellent-feeling keyboard. I do think the speakers could have been better, but that’s a tradeoff with most gaming laptops.

According to reports, Vivo has started preparations for launching its S series phones back in India with the release of the Vivo S2 smartphone. While Vivo hasn’t officially confirmed a release date, some reports indicate the phone could launch on August 6th, with sales expected to begin on August 11. This would mark the revival of the S series of phones in India following the debut of the Vivo S1 phone back in 2019. Reports have also given an early look at its design while revealing details about its expected specifications, color options, and launch plans.

Expected Specifications and Camera Features

Leaks suggest the Vivo S2 will feature an OLED display with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The phone may use the MediaTek Dimensity 7360 chipset, built on a 4nm process. Reports also suggest the phone will come in 8GB + 128GB and 8GB + 256GB variants. On the camera front, the Vivo S2 is tipped to include a 50MP Sony main sensor. Some information also suggests that the phone would be capable of recording videos in 4K quality through both front and rear cameras.

According to some recent leaks, the Vivo S2 would come with a sleek design. It would have a 3D curved display with narrow borders and a punch-hole selfie camera at the center of the device. On the back side, there would be a camera module in the shape of a pill with two big rings and an LED flash. Unlike many smartphones, the camera module matches the rear panel color for a more seamless finish. Vivo could offer the phone in Sapphire Blue, Regal Bronze, and Silk White. Its design closely resembles the Vivo X300 FE. Vivo has not shared any battery details yet. However, one report suggests the Vivo S2 may pack a 7,000mAh battery. This information is still based on leaks and awaits official confirmation.

Expected Price of Vivo S2

The Vivo S2 could target India’s premium mid-range smartphone market. It might cost anywhere between ₹40,000 and ₹50,000, though Vivo has not yet officially announced its pricing. Some leaks also reveal internal listing prices, but they may differ from the final retail price. On launch, the Vivo S2 will challenge the OnePlus Nord 6 and the Motorola Edge 70 Pro smartphones. It will also take on the Realme 16 Pro series and Vivo V70 FE.

The indie game company is downsizing as it parts ways with Xbox.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I will say, 4-Down made me laugh. Read on for all the answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Work’s opposite
Answer: PLAY

5A clue: Glass-encased flower in “Beauty and the Beast”
Answer: ROSE

6A clue: Stack on a nightstand
Answer: BOOKS

7A clue: Tree or cobra, in yoga class
Answer: POSE

8A clue: Not that many
Answer: AFEW

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Measure of alcoholic content
Answer: PROOF

2D clue: Feeling relaxed
Answer: LOOSE

3D clue: Slightly crooked
Answer: ASKEW

4D clue: Rarely true response to “Have you read our terms and conditions?”
Answer: YES

6D clue: ___-free (label on water bottles)
Answer: BPA

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CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of “Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the ’70s and ’80s,” as well as “The Totally Sweet ’90s.” She’s been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She’s Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she’ll be first in line.

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If you’re into IEMs, you’ve heard of the Tea Pro. It’s about as close as you can get to a cult classic in the world of modern portable audio, and I said as much in my original review. Between its stellar all-metal construction, excellent out-of-the-box experience, voracious V-shaped sound signature, and top-tier technical capabilities, the original Tea Pro struck a chord that few listeners could ignore.

But the Tea Pro has been around for a while, and XENNS decided it was time for a refresh. The Tea Pro SE, the subject of today’s review, is an updated and retuned version of the original that seeks to explore what this capable platform can do in the meta-tuning arena.

For fans of the original Tea Pro, however, does the SE offer anything meaningful? Let’s get into it.

About My Preferences: This review is a subjective assessment and is therefore influenced by my personal preferences. While I try to mitigate those biases as much as possible during the review process, I’d be lying if I said they were completely erased. With that in mind, readers should know the following:

My ideal sound signature includes capable sub-bass, textured mid-bass, a slightly warm midrange, and extended treble.

I have mild treble sensitivity.

Testing equipment and standards can be found here.

Related Reviews:

Key Specs:

• Driver Configuration: Two custom neodymium dynamic drivers and six Knowles balanced-armature drivers
• Crossover: Three-way crossover with a 150 Hz low-frequency transition
• Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 22 kHz
• Sensitivity: 104 ± 1 dB
• Impedance: 13 ohms ± 1 ohm
• Cable: 1.2-meter, eight-core oxygen-free copper and ultra-pure silver Litz cable
• IEM Connection: 0.78 mm two-pin
• Terminations: Modular 3.5 mm single-ended and 4.4 mm balanced plugs

Build

The Tea Pro SE’s build quality is excellent. Its shells are machined from aluminum, while the nozzles are made from steel. Each IEM features a hand-painted faceplate coated in clear resin.

The tops of the Tea Pro SE’s shells house the 0.78 mm two-pin sockets, which are set into plastic blocks. They feel sturdy, although the socket on my right earpiece does not sit as flush as the one on the left. The nozzles are average in both length and width, with nicely machined lips that hold the eartips securely in place.

The Tea Pro SE’s cable is unique within XENNS’ lineup, featuring a matching green outer sheath. Its metal modular termination uses a positive locking mechanism, making it sturdy and secure. The cable is also an improvement over the original Tea Pro’s, with a softer, more flexible feel and virtually no memory.

Comfort

Comfort is a metric that relies heavily on factors influenced by your individual ear anatomy. Mileage will vary.

Like its predecessor, the Tea Pro SE offers average comfort. I can listen to it for extended periods without issue, but I need to be mindful of my eartip selection and the positioning of each earpiece. The stock cable is generally comfortable and free from microphonics, although wearing a hat or sunglasses can cause it to exert pressure on the backs of my ears.

Accessories

Inside the box you’ll find:

• 1x Semi-hard carrying case
• 1x 0.78mm 2-pin cable
• 1x 3.5mm termination
• 1x 4.4mm termination
• 1x Microfiber cleaning cloth
• 6x Pairs silicone ear tips
• 3x Pairs foam ear tips

This is a solid accessory package that provides everything needed for an enjoyable experience out of the box. The stock silicone eartips are comfortable and provide a moderately secure seal, although I miss the liquid-silicone varieties ZiiGaat includes with its IEMs. The stock foam eartips are soft and compress easily, and I was able to use them to achieve excellent isolation.

The included carrying case feels good in the hand and looks quite attractive in person. Both aesthetically and tactilely, it represents a step up from the case included with the original Tea Pro. That said, the top and bottom are held together solely by friction. This means the lid can separate when the case is jostled around inside a bag or backpack, and the fit will almost certainly loosen over time until the case is no longer useful.

Perhaps XENNS could split the difference by using the same materials and adding a zipper.

Listening

The Tea Pro SE is a warm, north-of-neutral IEM with a reference-style sound signature. Its gently elevated bass is centered toward the sub-bass and tapers smoothly into a linear lower midrange. The upper midrange rises through the 2–3 kHz region, reaching a moderate peak before settling into a slightly less forward lower treble. The upper treble is more prominent, adding a healthy amount of sparkle and air.

Spaciousness and Air Through Refinement

The Tea Pro SE’s reference-style sound signature uses a moderate level of treble emphasis to produce a clear, articulate, and airy upper register. Some IEMs achieve this by sharply boosting the 8–10 kHz region, but excessive emphasis is not required to extract detail and precision from the drivers.

The Tea Pro SE’s lower and upper treble sit naturally just above the upper midrange, ebbing and flowing with the mastering of each track. Sharply mastered recordings such as Nero’s “Satisfy” sound somewhat brighter, while thinner tracks such as Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta” are rendered with greater delicacy.

The Tea Pro SE captures the leading edges of treble transients with precision, rendering brief hi-hat strikes and cymbal hits with tight definition. Even tracks with chronically congested upper registers, such as The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” remain layered and well separated.

Engaging Reference-Style Mids

Balancing organic tonality with engagement is challenging. The flatter the midrange, the more likely a listener is to perceive it as stuffy or muffled. Although the Tea Pro SE is certainly warmer and thicker sounding than its predecessor, it remains articulate and engaging.

There is plenty of contrast and texture, rooted primarily in the carefully tuned relationship between the SE’s relatively flat lower midrange and its upper-midrange lift. Vocals and instruments sound rich and full, only occasionally drifting into flatter territory on tracks that are already warmly mastered.

Mainstream productions such as Bring Me the Horizon’s “n/A” sound vibrant and high in contrast, while denser recordings such as Nominee’s “Weathered” can come across as somewhat tired. That said, a combination of brain burn-in and eartip rolling can mitigate this effect, particularly for listeners whose libraries contain a lot of warmer-sounding material.

Line-Toeing Bass

As a member of the Tea family, the Tea Pro SE is spiritually required to take bass seriously. While “reference-style” and “bass-friendly” do not usually go hand in hand, I think XENNS has threaded the needle quite well here. Yes, this represents a significant reduction in bass emphasis compared with the original Tea Pro, but the underlying technical ability and tonal quality remain intact.

Electronic tracks with substantial bass lines, such as Psylla’s “Better Times,” sound deep and robust, producing a moderate amount of rumble and a satisfying degree of punch. Extension is excellent, with the Tea Pro SE audibly reaching below 50 Hz without issue. The basshead in me still wants more, but the SE provides enough emphasis to render the track in a complete and convincing fashion.

Less bass-heavy genres such as rock and alternative also sound excellent through the Tea Pro SE, with the low end providing a solid, deep foundation for the rest of the instrumentation. Its tonality is neither dry nor flat, offering a welcome change of pace for listeners seeking relief from the onslaught of dry-sounding “meta IEM bass.”

For example, the drums on Thrice’s “Cataracts” pound through the mix with depth and harmonic completeness, even capturing subtle hints of punch. The rolling drums during the chorus of Blink-182’s “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’VE GOT” possess a surprising amount of body and effectively demonstrate the Tea Pro SE’s excellent bass control.

Comparisons

Comparisons are selected solely based on what I find interesting. If you would like to see additional comparisons, feel free to leave a request in the comments below.

Xenns Mangird Tea Pro

The Tea Pro is a well-known hybrid IEM featuring all-metal shells and a modular 0.78 mm two-pin cable. It is the Tea Pro SE’s predecessor, but it remains available alongside the newer model for $359, or roughly $90 less than the SE.

Physically, the two IEMs are very similar, with the primary differences found in their accessory packages. The SE includes a different carrying case and cable. Its cable is the nicer of the two, replacing the original’s multicolored braid with a softer, more flexible green outer sheath. Both cables use modular terminations with interchangeable 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm plugs.

Sonically, the original Tea Pro is more V-shaped, with greater bass emphasis and a cooler, more recessed lower midrange. The Tea Pro SE’s upper treble is less forward, sparing it from the occasional bite exhibited by the original. Its treble sounds exceptionally clean, rendering texture and microdetail with less grain and a more organic timbre.

Vocals are more forward on the original Tea Pro, but they are not as full bodied as they are on the Tea Pro SE, nor are they as intelligible during busy passages. The SE’s warmer, more linear presentation is smooth, relaxing, and satisfyingly rich, but it lacks the sheer engagement offered by the original.

Bass lovers may also find that certain low-frequency elements sound comparatively flat. Take the drums in the introduction to Silversun Pickups’ “Bloody Mary.” The original renders them with punch and substance, while the SE places them more timidly in the background. The same trend applies to electronic music. The bass line on Uppermost’s “Emotion” is delivered with depth and texture through the Tea Pro SE, but it is not as tactile or visceral as it is through the original.

Ultimately, the Tea Pro SE is designed to be a different beast from its predecessor. Sharing the Tea Pro name may therefore be something of a misnomer, because fans of the original will not find the same engagement and energy in the SE.

Instead, the Tea Pro SE does for listeners who prefer relaxed, reference-style tuning what the original did for fans of V-shaped tuning: it offers a detailed, refined, and compelling experience near the top of its niche. That said, my love for the original Tea Pro remains, and the SE does not replace it.

Xenns Mangird Top Pro

The Top Pro is a top-tier meta IEM featuring a hybrid driver configuration, resin shells, metal nozzles, and a modular cable. Like the Tea Pro SE, it comes with an excellent suite of accessories. The Top Pro costs $499, making it $50 more expensive than the Tea Pro SE. The Tea Pro SE’s all-metal construction feels much sturdier in the hand, and its cable is slightly thicker.

Let’s be honest: the Top Pro and Tea Pro SE are very similar-sounding IEMs. Even in technical terms, they are almost identically capable, rendering detail and texture without prejudice. At that point, deciding which one sounds “better” comes down to a purely subjective assessment of their tuning.

The Top Pro is tuned to sound slightly less warm and has a little less bass depth than the Tea Pro SE. It will occasionally punch harder on a drum strike or synthetic bass drop. The Tea Pro SE’s vocals are not as forward as the Top Pro’s, although their overall tonality is fairly similar. The Tea Pro SE is also slightly brighter, with a small increase in upper-treble energy that gives it a minor edge in airiness.

Between the two, I would choose the Tea Pro SE. For $50 less, you are essentially getting a Top Pro with sturdier metal shells and a better cable. The Top Pro’s case is slightly better, but buying a Pelican 1010 for around $20 thoroughly outclasses both stock cases and still leaves you with an effective $30 savings.

Once you account for the Tea Pro SE’s greater treble energy and mildly deeper-sounding bass, it offers a slightly more exciting experience, albeit by a narrow margin.

HiSenior Mega7

The Mega7 is a seven-driver hybrid IEM featuring resin shells and metal nozzles. It comes with a fixed 4.4 mm cable and costs $450, placing it neck and neck with the Tea Pro SE. Both IEMs include strong accessory packages, although I appreciate the Tea Pro SE’s inclusion of foam eartips. That said, the Mega7 comes with a useful USB-C adapter, making it much easier to use with smartphones and laptops right out of the box.

There is a great deal to say about the Mega7’s overall performance, but it largely targets a north-of-neutral, reference-style sound signature. The Tea Pro SE takes a similar approach, albeit with a different flavor. The Mega7 sounds cooler and places slightly more emphasis on the lower treble, while the Tea Pro SE has a modest increase in upper-treble energy.

Neither IEM is particularly bass-heavy, but the Mega7 has a slight advantage in sub-bass weight. The Tea Pro SE’s mid-bass sounds marginally tighter, although the difference is small. The Mega7’s upper midrange is also slightly more forward, giving vocals additional presence and separation.

Both IEMs are exceptionally capable, offering impressive technical performance at relatively accessible prices. The Mega7 will likely appeal to listeners who want greater sub-bass presence and more forward vocals, while the Tea Pro SE counters with additional air and sparkle from its brighter upper treble.

Kiwi Ears Astral

The Astral is a well-known hybrid IEM featuring resin shells and metal nozzles. It comes with a mediocre cable, includes a sparse accessory package, and costs $300. It occupies a lower price point than the Tea Pro SE, which offers all-metal construction, a much better cable, and vastly improved accessories. Both IEMs are above average in size, although the Tea Pro SE fits my specific ear anatomy better.

In terms of sound, the Astral is more U-shaped, delivering greater sub-bass emphasis, less mid-bass, and a colder, thinner lower midrange. Its upper midrange is more forward, and its treble is considerably brighter. The Astral’s upper treble, in particular, receives far more emphasis than the Tea Pro SE’s. This pushes hi-hats and cymbals much farther forward in the mix, but at the expense of a less organic and cohesive presentation. The additional brightness can also result in occasional sharpness and sibilance.

The Tea Pro SE’s warmer, more relaxed presentation sounds more organic and cohesive across a wider variety of genres, especially those with substantial mid-bass content. The Astral’s aggressive mid-bass scoop gives it a distinct “half-bass” tonality that emphasizes sub-bass elements while leaving the mid-bass sounding flaccid and uninspiring.

Between the two IEMs, I’m choosing the Tea Pro SE. Its metal shells, significantly better out-of-the-box experience, and more realistic tuning align more closely with my musical tastes and sonic preferences. Once you factor in its richer, friendlier tuning and complete absence of sibilance, the additional $150 begins to look increasingly worthwhile.

THIE Audio Hype 4 Mk II

The Hype 4 Mk II is a metal-shelled hybrid IEM with a driver configuration similar to that of the Tea Pro SE, but it costs $50 less. Both IEMs include modular detachable cables, although the Tea Pro SE’s termination feels sturdier and uses a threaded locking mechanism. Both also come with strong accessory packages, though I prefer the Hype 4 Mk II’s case because of its greater internal volume and more protective design.

The Hype 4 Mk II has a more V-shaped tuning, with moderately greater mid-bass presence and a slight increase in sub-bass. Both IEMs sound tight and well controlled, but the Hype 4 Mk II’s mid-bass is slightly firmer and better defined.

Its midrange is cooler, with a deeper recession in the lower mids and a comparatively larger upper-midrange peak. The Hype 4 Mk II’s treble is considerably brighter, placing treble-heavy elements front and center on the soundstage. It surfaces subtle treble details more readily through emphasis alone, but it does not capture much more texture, if any, than the Tea Pro SE’s excellently tuned treble.

The Tea Pro SE renders vocals with greater richness and depth because of its warmer presentation. Both IEMs convey air and spaciousness well, but the Hype 4 Mk II’s exaggerated upper register can occasionally make the presentation sound overly sharp.

For listeners seeking a mildly V-shaped IEM with plenty of treble emphasis, the Hype 4 Mk II is the clear choice. Those who prefer a warmer presentation and less forward treble, however, will likely find the Tea Pro SE more appealing.

NiceHCK NX8 Ti

Like the Tea Pro SE, the NX8 Ti is a limited-edition revamp of an older IEM. At $399, it packs an upgraded tribrid driver configuration into resin shells with titanium faceplates and interchangeable tuning nozzles. Both IEMs come with removable two-pin cables, although the Tea Pro SE’s cable is lighter, softer, and modular. The NX8 Ti’s cable does not feel cheap, but it is far less practical for daily use, particularly when commuting and trying to fit it into a space-constrained case.

Sonically, the NX8 Ti is bassier, with a more forward upper midrange and upper treble. It offers a similar, though perhaps slightly lower, degree of warmth than the Tea Pro SE, but leans into a more dramatic presentation. The Tea Pro SE delivers a comparable amount of sub-bass, but less mid-bass. The NX8 Ti’s mid-bass is nicely toned and punchy, although it sounds slightly softer around the edges than the Tea Pro SE’s.

The NX8 Ti’s upper midrange is considerably more forward, placing vocals closer to the front of the mix. The Tea Pro SE’s vocals sit slightly farther back on the soundstage, but sound richer and more natural. Its midrange is similarly detailed and textured, but carries the warm, organic tonality that I crave.

The NX8 Ti’s treble is likewise more dramatic, with additional lower-treble presence and a noticeable increase in upper-treble energy. Vocals and metallic instruments do not quite become sibilant, but they can sound stiffer and more tightly wound. On some tracks, this creates a greater sense of cleanliness, but it does not engage me in the same way as the Tea Pro SE’s effortless airiness.

These are both highly capable IEMs, but they have entirely different objectives. The NX8 Ti has no interest in a reference-style presentation, nor does it acknowledge the trendy tuning choices associated with the current meta. It is much closer to a traditional V-shaped IEM, albeit with some audiophile influence.

That said, it simply does not draw me in the way the Tea Pro SE does, and I am usually a V-shaped kind of listener. Perhaps it is merely a matter of brain burn-in, but I am sticking with the warmer, lusher Tea Pro SE.

The Bottom Line

The XENNS Tea Pro SE stands out by combining modern reference-style tuning with genuine warmth, body, and organic timbre. Its smooth midrange, clean treble, excellent detail retrieval, and sturdy metal construction make it a compelling alternative to the cooler, leaner sound of many current meta-tuned IEMs.

It is not a direct upgrade to the original Tea Pro. Bass impact and overall energy have been reduced, comfort remains only average, and listeners who prefer a vivid V-shaped presentation may find the SE too relaxed. For those seeking a refined, slightly warm, north-of-neutral IEM without sharp treble or sterile tonality, however, the Tea Pro SE is one of the strongest options in its price range.

Pros:

• Excellent treble and bass extension
• Delicate, detailed treble
• Cohesive and organic midrange timbre
• Fantastic, full-spectrum detail
• Rich and complete-sounding
• Great build quality
• Solid accessory package
• Pretty, bespoke cable

Cons:

• A bit lacking in sub-bass intensity
• Mid-bass needs a little more weight
• Carrying case held together by friction
• Stock cable uncomfortable when wearing glasses

Our Ratings

★★★★★★★★★★ Sound Quality

★★★★★★★★★★ Build Quality

★★★★★★★★★★ Comfort

★★★★★★★★★★ Value

Where to buy

Related Reading:

xAI — now officially known as SpaceXAI after the merging of Elon Musk’s two companies – has filed a lawsuit against Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to challenge the state’s new law that would ban apps and websites that can generate nonconsensual intimate images. It would also impose fines on their developers every time people use them to create sexual deepfakes. The law, the first of its kind in the nation, was approved by Gov. Tim Walz earlier this year and is slated to take effect in August. 

In its complaint, the company says the law was an “overbroad, content-based ban on free speech and the tools of visual expression in a clumsy attempt to prohibit ‘nudification.’” xAI, it reads, isn’t contesting Minnesota’s “interest in prohibiting the dissemination of artificially generated nude images of real people without their consent.” However, the law “extends far beyond that goal, exposing a wide array of protected speech to civil liability and government sanction.”

The company has been in hot water since the beginning of the year after reports came out that it has been allowing its users to transform photos of real women and children into sexualized images. Multiple authorities and regulators launched investigations into the company, including California’s, UK’s Ofcom, the European Commission and Ireland’s Data Protection Commission. Even after it implemented measures to prevent nonconsensual deepfakes, its system still allowed users to undress people.

“xAI strictly prohibits its users from generating nude or sexualized images of people without their consent and has indeed filed suit against users who evade its extensive technological blockers to generate such images in violation of this strict prohibition,” the company writes in its complaint. Indeed, it recently sued a user from South Carolina for using Grok to generate nonconsensual intimate imagery using real photos of numerous adults and minors.

The new law would fine developers $500,000 every time a user generates a nonconsensual adult deepfake using their products. xAI says that with that rule in place, it would have “no practical choice but to restrict Grok Imagine’s image-editing features in various ways when the statute takes effect on August 1, 2026.” It claims that “protected speech freely available before the law takes effect will thus be chilled.” The company is asking the court to declare the law unconstitutional and to prevent the state from enforcing it. 

In response to the lawsuit, Ellison posted on X that there are plenty of worthy debates to be had when it comes to AI, but this isn’t one of them. “AI nudification robs the target of their dignity and could cause them immense harm on many levels.” Gov. Waltz simply posted: “See you in court, creep.”

Using AI to generate nude images of people against their will is appalling.

There are plenty of worthy debates to have about AI. This is not one of them. AI nudification robs the target of their dignity and could cause them immense harm on many levels.

I’ll see X in court. https://t.co/OcsZPkVNmk

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— Attorney General Keith Ellison (@AGEllison) July 28, 2026

More than a thousand of the people building the most powerful AI want a way to slow it down. On Tuesday, 1,134 employees of the leading AI companies signed a letter asking the US government to help build one.

The statement is titled Pacing the Frontier. It asks Washington to “support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development.” Bloomberg first reported the letter was circulating.

The names are the story. Signatories include Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei and its co-founders Jared Kaplan and Jack Clark. So did OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki, Meta chief scientist Shengjia Zhao, and Google’s head of AI safety, Anca Dragan. Both Anthropic and OpenAI endorsed the letter officially.

What it actually asks for

It is not a call to stop. The letter does not ask anyone to pause or slow AI now, NBC News noted. It asks the government to make sure the option to pace exists later, if the technology outruns the people building it.

The specific fear is recursive self-improvement: AI that speeds up its own development. The signatories warn of “a real risk that capability development rapidly accelerates beyond our ability to understand or control the resulting systems.”

That worry stopped being abstract days earlier. OpenAI’s most advanced model broke out of its sandbox and hacked Hugging Face to score higher on an internal test. It builds directly on Anthropic’s call last month for a verifiable way to pause.

The whiplash

The timing is remarkable, because these same companies spent the previous week arguing the opposite case. Days ago, Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta and others rallied around an open-weights letter championing openness as the path to safety.

Now many of the same firms want brakes. The clearest split runs through one company. On the same day Meta’s chief scientist signed the pacing letter, Mark Zuckerberg attacked the rival labs. Their discourse, he said, is “overwhelmingly filled with doom.”

Tightly controlling AI would be “abandoning our values,” Meta’s chief executive told the New York Times. Two open letters, one week, opposite instincts, and a fault line inside the industry’s biggest names.

The three objections

The criticism was immediate, and it lands in three places.

The first is China. “If the US labs pace themselves, why would China wait?” asked the economist Christian Catalini. The letter half-concedes the point, admitting no company or country will slow down unilaterally.

The second is bad faith. “It is their company. They could just stop,” wrote former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky. The charge stings because the signatories include the very CEOs who set the pace.

The third is the moat. Critics read every big-lab safety letter as incumbents lobbying to raise the drawbridge behind them, dressing a competitive move as caution. It is a charge, not a proven motive, but it follows these letters everywhere.

Washington is the real audience

The letter is aimed at a government that has so far wanted little to do with AI rules. President Trump’s administration has argued that international AI governance would hobble the US against China. That stance may be softening, now that frontier models are starting to find and exploit real security holes.

The proposals now on the table are concrete. Amodei has floated an FAA-style agency that could test frontier models and halt a dangerous release. Demis Hassabis wants a body that reviews models before launch, Business Insider reported. Congressman Ted Lieu tied the letter to a proposed AI kill-switch bill.

What makes this letter different from the earlier open ones is who signed it. Not outside critics, but the engineers and executives closest to the frontier. One OpenAI safety researcher, Leo Gao, put the stakes bluntly: “the world is locked in a deadly race towards an intelligence explosion.” His fix is the one the whole letter turns on. “To survive, we must coordinate to slow down the race.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that it may be time to “pace” AI development so the world will be ready for it.

“We may have to pace the rate of AI development to give ourselves enough time for society to harden around some of these new capability levels,” he told Patrick O’Shaughnessy, the host of the Invest Like the Best podcast, while also “trying to figure out how we do that in a way that does not feel like regulatory capture for anyone and also does not feel like collusion among the frontier labs.”

Both OpenAI and Anthropic came out in support of a petition circulated by employees at the frontier labs, calling on the US government to “support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development.”

Altman has avoided signing on to past campaigns to slow AI progress, calling a 2023 open letter that proposed a similar slowdown “missing most technical nuance about where we need the pause.”

Apparently, he’s softened on the idea, thanks in part to the incident where one of OpenAI’s advanced models managed to break out of a secure computing environment and hack into Hugging Face, an online model database, using several zero-day exploits.

On the podcast, the OpenAI co-founder called it an “extremely sci-fi cyber incident…[t]his is the first security incident that I have felt very viscerally.”

OpenAI researchers have paused training on that model while they work out how to keep their sandbox secure. But Altman said that as models become more powerful, the need to “pace” their development could become key to safe deployment.

While model safety and alignment has always been a concern in the AI world, the arrival of Anthropic’s highly capable Mythos model earlier this year has turned hypotheticals into real-world problems.

However, the industry has a trust problem, and challenging economics that give major players an incentive to play up the dangers of their systems in ways that experts disagree about — for example, whether or not Anthropic’s Fable model should have been briefly banned from use or not. Similarly, when Kimi K3, a large, open-weight model built in China, was released, OpenAI head of strategic futures Dean W. Ball said that it threatened the economics of frontier labs, making it difficult to separate their safety concerns from their financial interest.

“I think a lot of the talk about safety concerns is well-founded, and then a lot of it is about people that just really, even if it’s slightly subconscious, want to concentrate power,” Altman mused, in what reads as a dig at his rival, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who signed the petition. “I am terrified of a world where the very real fears of AI are used as a way to say, ‘Only this small group of people can have it because it’s too dangerous, and only they understand it, but don’t worry, like, they’re gonna make the right decisions for all of us.’ I don’t believe in that.”

Still, OpenAI has pushed back against efforts to develop government rules for AI models, instead preferring an industry-led approach where AI labs would create ostensibly independent organizations that would evaluate the security of models and the safety approach of their makers.

The challenge for both that approach to regulation and any efforts to slow AI development will be getting the various players in the industry on the same page, whether they are rival frontier labs in the U.S. or competitors in China.

This story was updated to include OpenAI and Anthropic’s support of the “Pacing the Frontier” petition.

A thousand workers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and more have signed the letter.

What just happened? Anthropic has moved to block search engines from indexing shared Claude conversations after hundreds of chats appeared in public search results, highlighting how easily user interactions with AI tools can spread beyond their intended audience. The issue stemmed from Claude’s sharing feature, which lets users create a link to a conversation. Those links were accessible without requiring a login, and search engines indexed them like any other public webpage.

The exposure first came to light on Reddit, where users demonstrated how to surface the chats. At least 200 conversations appeared across more than two dozen pages of search results, including some created recently. Although the links have since been removed from search indexes, many of the conversations had already been saved and circulated.

The chats themselves covered a wide range of subjects, but some contained sensitive information. Users shared resumes containing names, contact details, and work histories. In other cases, prompts included what appeared to be workplace material, such as a request to draft an unpublished blog post about a cloud security project. There were also conversations involving healthcare topics and what appeared to be transcripts of private exchanges.

Anthropic said the situation was the result of user behavior, not a system failure. A company spokeswoman said users control when and how they share conversations, and that the links are not discoverable unless someone chooses to distribute them.

– Om Patel (@om_patel5) July 26, 2026

“When someone shares a conversation, they are making that content publicly accessible, and like other public web content, it may be archived by third-party services,” she told The Guardian. She added that the links are “not guessable or discoverable unless people choose to share them themselves.”

Even so, the way the feature works leaves room for confusion. Claude tells users that “anyone with the link” can view a shared conversation, but it does not clearly warn that the link could be indexed by search engines. Once a page is publicly accessible, web crawlers can discover and catalog it unless steps are taken to prevent that.

Google said it does not control what content becomes public. A spokesperson said the company provides website owners with tools to control whether their pages are crawled or indexed and that it adheres to those settings. In this case, Anthropic appears to have used those controls after the issue became public, removing the links from search results.

The same links were also visible on other search engines, including Bing, Brave, and DuckDuckGo.

This is not the first time AI chat logs have surfaced this way. OpenAI dealt with a similar issue last year involving ChatGPT, while X’s Grok chatbot also saw large numbers of conversations become searchable. In each case, the underlying problem was not a breach but the way shared links interact with standard web indexing.

The Claude episode makes clear how thin the line can be between private use and public exposure. Once a conversation is turned into a public link, it effectively becomes part of the open web, where it can be indexed, cached, and redistributed.