Kratos begins as a boy in God of War: Sons of Sparta, a far cry from the god-slaying monster that fans know and love. This 2D action-platformer transports you to his adolescent years at the notorious Agoge in Sparta, where the Spartans train their young warriors to be the fiercest of them all. Just like the games we know, but from the opposite end of the chronology. Sons of Sparta, developed by Mega Cat Studios with the story team from Santa Monica Studio, was released as a digital-only title on the PS5 today, and cost $30 or $40 for the digital deluxe version.
You’ll be playing as young Kratos, accompanied by his brother Deimos, as they go outside the gates of Sparta and into the unknown of Laconia. Somebody has gone missing, triggering a journey that will take you through a variety of bizarre settings, jungles, ruins, underground lairs… you name it. Of course, Greek mythology come to life in the most epic of ways. The grown-up Kratos (with TC Carson’s gruff voice, no less) will narrate in the background, and his words cast the entire story in a strangely personal and nostalgic light. Meanwhile, Antony Del Rio and Scott Menville do an excellent job of conveying Kratos and Deimos’ friendship, even amidst all of the other action.
Laconia’s graphics are made up of high-definition pixel art that brings the entire location to life in unexpected ways, such as sun-baked cliffs collapsing beneath your feet and torch-lit caves throwing ominous shadows. The landscapes are constantly changing, ranging from large open expanses to narrow passageways that you must fight your way through. On top of that, there are other hidden surprises to uncover, including breakable pots, hidden ledges, and glowing treasure caches all waiting to be uncovered.
Bear McCreary’s soundtrack combines chiptune beeps with swelling choirs and thumping percussion to produce a soundscape that will get your pulse pumping every time you punch, stab, or kick something. You’ll have to fight your way through a variety of strange monsters, like bands of undead Legionnaires and huge cyclopes with clubs that can split the screen in half.
You can customize your spear points and shield rims with a variety of attachments to unleash additional attacks like as poison darts, fire bursts, larger swings, and so on. Three different skill trees allow you to focus on offense, defense, or movement, so you can specialize in long combinations or become an adept at avoiding arrows and claws. Either way, there’s no one way to play.
Let’s not forget about the divine trinkets you’ll find, which are extraordinary artifacts from the gods that will allow you to perform some insane finishing moves. Perhaps you’ll want to launch an explosive orb at a bunch of adversaries, or conjure a bolt of lightning to clear the area. Whatever you choose, it is entirely up to you. Exploring the world of Laconia is just as enjoyable as battling. With a metroidvania-style map to travel, you’ll be able to use double jumps, wall climbs, and spear grapples to access all sorts of secret passageways and hidden regions. If you’re feeling very adventurous, you can attempt to locate all of the hidden fights and collect the rare gems that will give you an advantage.
“There’s an app for that” was a phrase plastered onto advertisements for the Apple iPhone starting in 2009. Only about a year old at that point, the App Store was changing people’s relationship with software. Users were growing accustomed to the idea that the smartphone was a digital Swiss Army Knife, its glossy touchscreen waiting to be fitted with the right tool for any job. But what the public had not anticipated as we swiped and scrolled was that our phones might begin to watch us back.
As we poured our lives into them, managing finances, messaging friends and partners, or simply reading the news, all our interactions became data points that could be used to infer the most private details about us. In a digital ecosystem funded largely by advertising, that data was extraordinarily valuable to the right person, and so developers worked tirelessly to extract it from us. The more apps we loaded onto our pocket computers, the more data they soaked up.
These days, the public generally understands that data collection is commonplace. Without knowing how to protect their digital privacy, though, many users simply accept its erosion as a fact of life. But some of the most effective steps you can take to stop your data from being extracted are as simple as quickly adjusting a few settings, and you don’t need any technical knowledge to do so. From restricting apps’ permissions to opting out of tracking, here are five phone settings that can limit how much data apps collect about you.
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Restrict permissions scopes for individual apps
Modern versions of iOS and Android are built to constrain the worst data-gorging excesses of app developers. Much of that constraint is built around controlling which parts of your phone an app is allowed to access. When an app requests permission to use your camera or access your location, for example, modern smartphones will let users choose whether to allow it. In general, you should never allow any permission unless you understand why the app needs it.
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On an iPhone or Android phone, you can see which apps are using which permissions by going into the settings. On iOS, tap Privacy & Security, and you will see a list of permissions (location, camera, and so on) and which apps have been using them. On Android, head to Settings, tap Security and Privacy, then tap Permissions Used In Last 24 Hours. You will see a list of permissions and the apps that have accessed them.
Alternatively, iPhone users can go into Settings, then Apps. Tapping on an app will show you the permissions it has access to. Android users can do the same from the Apps menu as well. Selecting an app takes you to its App info page, where you can go into the Permissions section to adjust an app’s access.
On Android, there’s one extra bit of legwork. Go back to the main Settings page and tap Apps, then tap the three dots in the top right and select Special Access. Tap Usage Data Access (which allows apps to track how you use them) and toggle it off for all apps. If any apps need that permission to function or use certain features, you can always turn it on later.
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Opt out of ad tracking
Max Miller/SlashGear
One of the primary reasons apps are hungry for your data is that the developers can sell it to advertisers or use it to advertise to you themselves. The way they do this on modern versions of iOS and Android is to create an anonymized advertising identifier. Google, which owns Android, is predictably more aggressive here, since advertising makes up the largest share of its revenue. Apple, being a hardware-forward company, has a larger incentive to protect user privacy. For that reason, Android apps often track by default, whereas iOS shows users a pop-up that lets them opt out of ad tracking when they first open an app.
To opt out of ad tracking on Android, open the Settings app and tap on Google. Tap All Services, then select Ads. Tap Delete Advertising ID, then confirm your choice. While you’re here, you should return to the Google Services page, tap on Usage & Diagnostics, and toggle that setting off to prevent Google from tracking when and how you use your apps. On iOS, you can prevent app tracking requests entirely by opening Settings, tapping on Privacy & Security, then selecting Tracking. Turn off the toggle next to Allow Apps to Request to Track.
However, the best way to avoid tracking from an app is not to have it installed in the first place. You can check what kind of tracking an app does on both Android and iOS before downloading it. In the App Store, tap the App Privacy section of the listing. On the Play Store, tap on Data Safety to see a detailed breakdown. If an app looks intrusive, it’s best not to install it.
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Change in-app privacy settings
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There is only so much you can do to restrict the flow of your data by changing security settings on your iPhone or Android. However, many data collection policies can be disabled from in-app settings. While we can’t cover every app, we can highlight a few popular apps to give you an idea of what to look for.
On Instagram, tapping your profile picture then tapping the three-bar icon in the top-right corner of the screen will bring you to the app’s settings. Tap on Accounts Center, then tap ad preferences. Tap Manage Info. Here you will find a long list of settings for different types of data, each with submenus with more settings. There are far too many to cover here, but you must go into each submenu and choose the most data-restrictive options to limit what the app can access.
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For TikTok, tap your profile photo on the bottom right, then tap the three-bar icon in the top right, then tap Settings. Scroll down and tap Ads, then turn off the toggles next to Targeted Ads Outside of TikTok and Targeted Ads. If available, also tap Clear Off-TikTok Data and confirm your choice. In DoorDash, tap the account icon near the top-right of the screen, then tap Settings. Tap on Privacy, then tap Learn More underneath the Marketing Choices section. Turn off the toggle next to Ad Personalization.
As you can see from those examples, many apps bury their data collection toggles deep in their settings menus. They also use vague language about ads and marketing in an apparent effort to ensure that most users will never stumble across these important privacy controls.
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Turning off data collection on Samsung Galaxy devices
Max Miller/SlashGear
Samsung Galaxy users have to do a bit more compared to other Android users, since Samsung is yet another party interested in siphoning your data. Although these settings don’t apply to iPhones or non-Samsung Android devices, the fact that Samsung is the second-largest smartphone manufacturer globally means they’re worth going over in addition to the other settings you need to change to stop your Android from tracking you.
To stop Samsung from treating itself to your data, open the Settings app on your Galaxy device, then head to the Security and Privacy section. Scroll down and tap More Privacy Settings. If your device has the option, turn off Personal Data Intelligence and confirm your decision. Aside from the Now Bar, you won’t lose any features by doing this. Toggle off Send Diagnostic Data, as well.
Next, go back to the Security and Privacy page, tap on Account Security, then tap Samsung Account Security. Scroll down and turn off the two toggles next to Get News and Special Offers and Improve Personalized Ads With Samsung Account Data. Next, tap on Customization Service, then turn it off. You will see a pop-up warning you that this will remove features, but the only things you’ll lose are the ability to set location-based reminders in Samsung Reminders and personalized app suggestions in the app switcher.
But we’re still not done. Remember that Customization Service you turned off? Samsung includes separate toggles for it in the Samsung Calendar, Clock, Gallery, and My Files apps, as well as the Galaxy Store. Make sure it’s disabled everywhere, and turn off any other advertising or data collection settings across all your installed Samsung apps.
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Delete apps you rarely use
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By far the most effective way to prevent an app from accessing your data is not to have it installed in the first place. While uninstalling apps isn’t a setting in the sense of toggling a switch in a menu, it is a change that alters your device’s configuration, so it fits the technical definition. Of course, if you truly wanted none of your data to be collected, you’d uninstall every app from your phone, including much of the operating system itself. That is, of course, impractical and would defeat the purpose of having a smartphone, so the next best thing is to delete apps you rarely or never use. Remember, you can always reinstall them later!
One way to declutter your app library is to go through all of your apps one by one. If you cannot recall the last time you used an app or no longer have a purpose for it, you can safely delete it. That dating app you don’t use anymore? Uninstall it. The fad selfie editor you used once? Get rid of it post-haste.
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On iOS, apps can be deleted from the home screen by holding down on an app icon until the icons begin to jiggle. Tap Remove App, then tap Delete App. On Android, it will depend on your phone’s UI. However, one method that works on any version is to find the app in the Google Play Store and tap the Uninstall button displayed prominently at the top of its listing. Alternatively, you can open Settings and tap on Apps, find the app you want to uninstall, and then tap Uninstall. You will need to confirm your choice in either instance.
A new variation of the fake recruiter campaign from North Korean threat actors is targeting JavaScript and Python developers with cryptocurrency-related tasks.
The activity has been ongoing since at least May 2025 and is characterized by modularity, which allows the threat actor to quickly resume it in case of partial compromise.
The bad actor relies on packages published on the npm and PyPi registries that act as downloaders for a remote access trojan (RAT). In total, researchers found 192 malicious packages related to this campaign, which they dubbed ‘Graphalgo’.
Researchers at software supply-chain security company ReversingLabs say that the threat actor creates fake companies in the blockchain and crypto-trading sectors and publishes job offerings on various platforms, like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Reddit.
Fake job posting on Reddit Source: ReversingLabs
Developers applying for the job are required to show their skills by running, debugging, and improving a given project. However, the attacker’s purpose is to make the applicant run the code.
This action would cause a malicious dependency from a legitimate repository to be installed and executed.
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“It is easy to create such job task repositories. Threat actors simply need to take a legitimate bare-bone project and fix it up with a malicious dependency and it is ready to be served to targets,” the researchers say.
To hide the malicious nature of the dependencies, the hackers host the dependencies on legitimate platforms, like npm and PyPi.
Stage of the Graphalgo fake recruiter campaign source: ReversingLabs
In one case highlighted in the ReversingLabs report, a package named ‘bigmathutils,’ with 10,000 downloads, was benign until it reached version 1.1.0, which introduced malicious payloads. Shortly after, the threat actor removed the package, marking it as deprecated, likely to conceal the activity.
The Graphalgo name of the campaign is derived from packages that have “graph” in their name. They typically impersonate legitimate, popular libraries like graphlib, the researchers say.
However, from December 2025 onward, the North Korean actor shifted to packages with “big” in their name. However, ReversingLabs has not discovered the recruiting part, or the campaign frontend, related to them.
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Package submission timeline Source: ReversingLabs
According to the researchers, the actor uses Github Organizations, which are shared accounts for collaboration across multiple projects. They say that the GitHub repositories are clean, and malicious code is introduced indirectly via dependencies hosted on npm and PyPI, which are the Graphalgo packages.
Victims running the project as instructed in the interview infect their systems with these packages, which install a RAT payload on their machines.
It is worth noting that ReversingLabs researchers identified several developers that fell for the trick and contacted them for more details about the recruiting process.
The RAT can list the running processes on the host, execute arbitrary commands per instructions from the command-and-control (C2) server, and exfiltrate files or drop additional payloads.
Commands supported by the RAT Source: ReversingLabs
The RAT checks whether the MetaMask cryptocurrency extension is installed on the victim’s browser, a clear indication of its money-stealing goals.
Its C2 communication is token-protected to lock out unauthorized observers, a common tactic for North Korean hackers.
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ReversingLabs has found multiple variants written in JavaScript, Python, and VBS, showing an intention to cover all possible targets.
The researchers’ attribute the Graphalgo fake recruiter campaign to the Lazarus group with medium-to-high confidence. The conclusion is based on the approach, the use of coding tests as an infection vector, and the cryptocurrency-focused targeting, all of which aligning with previous activity associated with the North Korean threat actor.
Also, the researchers note the delayed activation of malicious code in the packages, consistent with Lazarus’ patience displayed in other attacks. Finally, the Git commits show the GMT +9 time zone, matching North Korea time.
The complete indicators of compromise (IoCs) are available in the original report. Developers who installed the malicious packages at any point should rotate all tokens and account passwords and reinstall their OS.
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Sony’s recent State of Play event revealed that the Unbreakable X-Men are joining Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. Arc System Works, the company behind the recent Guilty Gear successes, has stated that their next major item will be released on PS5 and PC on August 6, 2026. Pre-orders begin on February 19th on the PlayStation Store and certain retailers.
The new X-Men squad taking center stage is a line-up put together by Charles Xavier, who reminds the team to go retrieve some of the rest of the original crew, notably Magik, Wolverine, and Danger. They want to save the planet from a catastrophic threat, but the majority of humanity is still frightened of these mutant-types. Producer Takeshi Yamanaka suggests that things won’t be easy: “We’re really hoping you’ll be fascinated about the harsh choices the crew will have to make, and how their story pans out.”
Wolverine arrives with huge claws to bash his way through the competition, while Magik is granted a Soulsword that allows her to tap into otherworldly powers such as magic gateways and summoned demons. Danger, the AI formed during the X-Men’s training sessions, has gotten herself inside a quite advanced-looking mech and is ready to work. Then there’s Storm, who has a combination of wind and lightning at her disposal, which should give her a slight advantage, but as team captain, the true beauty of this squad is that each member contributes something unique to the table.
When the game is released on August 6th, you can expect 20 fighters right away, including teams like the X-Men unit we just mentioned, the Avengers with Captain America at the helm, the villain crew led by some pretty powerful foes like Doctor Doom, and even the odd couple of Ghost Rider and Spider-Man, who will both take charge at some point. Of course, there are additional teams that have yet to be announced. The 4v4 tag-team mode allows you to swap in friends mid-fight, and the combination of Arc’s tight controls with Marvel’s explosive powers promises to be a crazy ride. And for those that enjoy multiplayer, you’ll be able to join forces with dozens of other players online, resulting in unending rivalries.
When it comes to the single-player experience, Episode Mode introduces a completely new storyline. Arc System has created a series of motion comics with voice acting in ten different languages, drawing on a blend of American comic books and Japanese manga. The PS5’s spatial audio is incredible, and the DualSense controller makes every impact feel like it’s hitting directly in your lap. According to producer Yamanaka, this will be a new way to experience the Marvel universe, unlike anything seen in books or films and only feasible due of the games.
Finally, there are several special editions, and they provide some great alternatives for collectors. The standard edition costs $59.99 and includes the base game. If you want to go all in, the Digital Deluxe edition costs $84.99 and includes the game as well as a slew of post-launch bonuses such as four new characters, a brand new stage, a Howard the Duck skin, and even a Cosmo pet. The top-tier Ultimate Edition costs $99.99 and includes some very sweet-looking costumes for several of the characters, including Spider-Man’s beautiful new suit.
Samsung appears to be laying the groundwork for its next major software update well ahead of schedule, with early signs of One UI 9 development surfacing alongside next-generation foldable hardware testing. While the tech giant is still gearing up for the imminent launch of the Galaxy S26 series – expected to debut One UI 8.5 – sightings of internal One UI 9 builds for upcoming devices hint at a broader strategy to align new software with future hardware releases.
One UI 9 has already been spotted running on early test firmware tied to the Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8, indicating that software preparations are actively underway. These early builds, identified by firmware tags such as F776USQU0AZB1 for the Flip and F976USQU0AZB1 for the Fold, suggest Samsung is pushing One UI 9 testing internally even as it finalises One UI 8.5 for next month’s flagship launch.
Rumours also point to additional foldable models – including a potential wide-screen Galaxy Z Fold variant – appearing within the One UI 9 ecosystem, revealing how closely Samsung may be integrating software and form-factor innovation.
The significance of this early development cannot be overstated
Software updates like One UI traditionally arrive alongside major hardware launches; by preparing One UI 9 now, Samsung is positioning itself to debut a unified platform with its foldable devices later this year. Foldables such as the Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 are key pillars of Samsung’s mobile strategy, forming a crucial edge against rivals in an increasingly competitive premium smartphone market. Early software readiness allows more time for optimisation, feature polishing, and compatibility testing – essential for complex devices with unique UI requirements.
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Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
For users, the early appearance of One UI 9 in testing signals both continuity and evolution. Samsung has consistently used One UI updates to introduce refined performance, enhanced AI features, and improved user interfaces that harness the capabilities of Google’s Android base – and One UI 9 is expected to follow suit when paired with Android 17. Although specific features have not yet been officially announced, build leaks hint at deeper Galaxy AI tools and interface improvements that could enhance everyday tasks and foldable multitasking experiences.
Why should consumers care
Understanding Samsung’s software direction helps set expectations for upcoming devices and their capabilities. Early software development means that foldables launching later in 2026 could debut with a more mature, feature-rich operating environment from day one. This approach contrasts with staggered updates seen in previous years, where flagship devices often waited months before receiving major OS overhauls.
Digital Trends
Looking ahead, Samsung’s rollout timeline is likely to follow a familiar pattern: One UI 8.5 will emerge with the Galaxy S26 series, then progressively expand to eligible models. Later in the year, One UI 9 – potentially shipping first on new foldables – should become available to a broader device portfolio. As leaks and test builds continue to surface, more specific details about what One UI 9 will offer are expected to emerge, keeping fans and industry watchers engaged.
The Zenbook S 16 (2026) has a brighter and sharper OLED than its predecessor that's one of the best large-screen choices I've tested.
New AMD Gorgon Point chip inside
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This new model also utilises one of AMD's new Gorgon Point APU processors with a small bump in overall power.
Redesigned chassis
Asus has also redesigned the chassis a tad from the older model, while retaining its use of innovative materials.
Introduction
The Asus Zenbook S 16 (2026) feels more of an iterative upgrade against its hugely impressive predecessor.
I loved the Zenbook S 16 (2024) so much that I nearly considered purchasing one as my main work machine, although I couldn’t give up macOS that easily. Nonetheless, it seems like Asus has rolled its sleeves up a little with this refreshed model, with it packing in one of AMD’s revised Gorgon Point APUs (the Ryzen AI 9 465 in this instance), plus it’s got a slightly different look to it, and there’s a new 16-inch OLED panel to get excited about.
This new model is going straight up against the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Pro as a large-screened, premium ultraportable laptop for those who want or need the luxury of a bigger panel without sacrificing on style. It also carries a beefier price tag of £1699.99, meaning it’s a little behind Samsung’s choice there, too.
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I’ve been putting the Zenbook S 16 (2026) through its paces to see if it can keep its crown as one of the best laptops we’ve tested.
Design and Keyboard
More generic and minimalistic look
Slender, with a capable port selection
Snappy keyboard and huge trackpad
The stylish ceraluminum chassis was one of the main reasons I fell for the older Zenbook S 16 model as much as it did, with its blend of ceramic and aluminium to create a very durable and surprisingly lightweight laptop for its size. That material is back for this new 2026 iteration, and it helps this laptop look and feel fantastic in hand, with a reassuring weight and slender chassis that oozes class.
One area of this 2026 model I’m not as keen on is the redesigned lid, though. Asus has opted for a more minimalistic approach to the Zenbook S 16 (2026)’s design, choosing to ditch the etched lines on the lid and replace them simply with ‘Asus Zenbook’ lettering in the middle.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
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It tips the scales at just 1.5kg, making its mass identical to the previous model. For a large 16-inch ultrabook, it’s especially portable, and very competitive with Samsung’s offering in this regard.
Asus also hasn’t changed the solid port selection the Zenbook S 16 (2026) comes with, which is a good thing. In spite of being just 11mm thin, it comes with a pair of Thunderbolt 4-capable USB-C ports, a USB-A, HDMI, full-size SD card reader and a headphone jack.
Opening the lid reveals a centred small form factor keyboard that’s similar in layout to the current crop of MacBook Pro models. It’s a snappy and tactile offering, with just the right amount of key travel, plus it has some sharp white backlighting for after-dark working.
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Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
The Zenbook S 16 (2026) is also bestowed with a huge trackpad, the same as the old model was, which feels slick and smooth under finger, and gives your hands a fair amount of real estate to play with.
Display and Sound
Sharp, detailed OLED screen
Even brighter with more contrast than its predecessor
Similar downwards-firing speaker arrangement
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Asus has upgraded the Zenbook S 16 (2026)’s OLED panel to make it an even more dazzling prospect than the 2024 model. It remains a capable 16-inch 2880×1800 resolution panel with 120Hz refresh rate for sharp visuals with oodles of detail and rather smooth motion and responsiveness.
The virtually perfect colour accuracy that this screen comes with is no surprise. To be specific, we’re getting 100% coverage of both the mainstream sRGB and creative DCI-P3 gamuts, while Adobe RGB coverage at 93% is also excellent, making this screen an ideal pairing for both mainstream and more colour-sensitive workloads.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
There are deep blacks and gorgeous contrast, too, with a measured 0.01 and 31610:1, respectively, to provide some serious dynamic range and keep this as one of the best screens you’ll find on a 16-inch laptop. The 6800K colour temperature is pretty good as well.
Asus’ main upgrade for the Zenbook S 16 (2026)’s screen is that it has boosted the peak brightness. There is now a peak HDR brightness of 1000 nits against the older one’s 500 nits, plus uprated support for DisplayHDR True Black 1000. There is also a bump up in SDR brightness, as I noted with my colorimeter, with a peak of 434.3 nits, which is some 25% brighter than the peak of the old panel, for even punchier images.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
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The speakers on the Zenbook S 16 (2026) remain downwards-firing, meaning placing the laptop on a softer surface, such as a bed or sofa, can impact performance. They are nonetheless decent, offering solid clarity and body with an okay amount of low-end.
Performance
New AMD Gorgon Point APU inside
Reasonable performance
Fast SSD and sensible RAM capacity
The main reason for Asus refreshing the Zenbook S 16 model for 2026 is the presence of some new mobile APUs from AMD, which are all the more important due to the successes we’ve already seen from Intel’s Panther Lake chips on the samples I’ve used.
My sample of the Zenbook S 16 (2026) came with AMD’s new Ryzen AI 9 465 chip, which is one of the higher-end models in the new ‘Gorgon Point’ generation of AMD’s mobile processors. It’s more of a mid-generation refresh of last year’s impressive Strix Point APUs with improvements such as higher boost clocks and faster supported memory, rather than an outright upgrade.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
To this end, this Ryzen AI 9 465 chip has ten cores and 20 threads, with the cores being split between four full-fat Zen 5 cores and six more efficient Zen 5c cores. It’s a small deficit against the beefier Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 from last year’s model, which had 12 cores and 24 threads.
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As such, the needle isn’t moved too much in synthetic benchmarks over the old model, with comparable scores in the likes of Geekbench 6 and Cinebench R23 in terms of single-core oomph. Multi-threaded numbers are within the margin of error against the older chip, and there’s less raw power than the Panther Lake Core Ultra X7 358H inside the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Pro. Has AMD gotten too complacent for 2026?
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Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
AMD also hasn’t done anything to improve the integrated graphics on these new APUs, with this chip coming with the same Radeon 880M iGPU as its predecessor. It’s a respectable score in 3DMark Time Spy to provide a helping hand for more graphically-intensive creative tasks, although the 1080p gaming numbers with 20fps in Returnal, 19.82fps in Cyberpunk 2077 and 42fps in Rainbow Six Extraction aren’t too great.
My sample came shipped with 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM, providing a fair amount of headroom for multitasking and more intensive workloads, while there’s also a capacious 2TB SSD to get excited about for storin’ all kinds of stuff on. With measured read and write speeds of 7111.32 MB/s and 6727.37 MB/s, it’s a decently brisk one, too.
Software
Reasonably clean Windows 11 install
Some pre-installed Asus apps
Also comes with Copilot AI features
The Zenbook S 16 (2026)comes with Windows 11 and a reasonably clean install, too. There isn’t much in the way of bloatware with regard to an unwanted anti-virus or similar, although there are some pieces of software courtesy of Asus that come pre-installed.
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There is MyAsus, which comes as part of the taskbar when you first open the Zenbook S 16. This is where you can check on everything from battery level and enabling battery care modes to choosing which type of workload the Zenbook S 16’s network connection prioritises.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
In addition, there is also GlideX, which is where you can manage tasks such as casting or mirroring the Zenbook S 16’s screen to other devices wirelessly, or transfer files across the same network. You can also enable remote access to a mobile device, too. The Storybook app is designed as another means of organising photos and videos, using AI to recognise faces and file your photos for you, which is handy.
There is also enough AI horsepower from the Ryzen AI 9 465 chip inside to mark this laptop as a Copilot+ PC, providing access to Microsoft’s AI functionality for generative powers and filters in the Photos and Paint app, as well as the clever Windows Studio webcam effects for background blurring, auto framing and maintaining eye contact. With the latest version of Windows 11, there is also the controversial Microsoft Recall feature.
Battery Life
Lasted for 10 hours 10 minutes in the battery test
Capable of lasting for one working day
Asus has upped the battery capacity of the Zenbook S 16 (2026) with an 83Whr cell, which is a slight increase on the 2024 model. The last model had reasonable endurance, lasting for over 13 hours in our testing, so it makes sense to expect some form of improvement with this new model.
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In putting it through the PCMark 10 Modern Office test with the brightness set to the requisite 150 nits, I was quite disappointed to find that this Asus laptop lasted for just ten hours and ten minutes. That’s three hours less than its predecessor, which means this laptop only just meets our general target for battery life.
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For reference, the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Pro managed nearly double the runtime, while the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI hit nearly 16 hours on a charge. The result here is very comparable to the large-screen Acer Aspire 16 AI, with just five minutes separating the two laptops.
Squirrel Widget
Should you buy it?
You want a dazzling and large OLED screen
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This new Zenbook S 16 (2026) benefits from much stronger brightness and contrast, which make it one of the best OLED screens I’ve seen on a 16-inch laptop.
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You want strong battery life
Weirdly, the Zenbook S 16 (2026) has worse endurance than its predecessor, and a lot of its rivals, meaning if battery life is key, then you may want to look elsewhere.
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Final Thoughts
The Asus Zenbook S 16 (2026) is a lovely Windows ultrabook with a fantastic OLED screen, a stylish chassis and decent performance from the new AMD processor inside. It’s more of a refinement over its predecessor, though, which means some tradeoffs in design and endurance, but the older model still has the lead in some respects. Against the Zenbook S 16 (2024), this new model has a brighter and even sharper OLED panel, and a more refined look than some prefer, although the performance isn’t too much improved, and the battery life of the 2026 model is actually worse. In some respects, the Panther Lake-powered Samsung Galaxy Book6 Pro is a better buy with much stronger endurance, a fair bit more raw power and a MacBook Pro-inspired finish. It is a bit more expensive, though. For more options, check out our list of the best laptops we’ve tested.
Trusted Score
How We Test
This Asus laptop has been put through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key factors, including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life. These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real-world checks, such as how well it runs popular apps and extensive gaming testing.
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FAQs
What’s the difference between the Asus Zenbook S 16 (2026) and the Asus Zenbook S 16 (2024)?
Against the older model, the Asus Zenbook S 16 (2026) has a new AMD processor, a brighter OLED screen, a larger battery and a slightly redesigned chassis.
Test Data
Asus Zenbook S 16 (2026)
Full Specs
Asus Zenbook S 16 (2026) Review
UK RRP
£1699.99
CPU
AMD Ryzen AI 9 465
Manufacturer
Asus
Screen Size
16 inches
Storage Capacity
2TB
Front Camera
1080p webcam
Battery
83 Whr
Battery Hours
10 10
Size (Dimensions)
353.6 x 243 x 11 MM
Weight
1.5 KG
Operating System
Windows 11
Release Date
2026
First Reviewed Date
08/02/2026
Resolution
2880 x 1800
HDR
Yes
Refresh Rate
120 Hz
Ports
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (data speed up to 10Gbps) 2x USB 4.0 Gen 3 Type-C with support for display / power delivery (data speed up to 40Gbps) 1x HDMI 2.1 TMDS 1x 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack SD 4.0 card reader
Gaming laptops aren’t getting any cheaper, and HP seems to have decided that fighting rising hardware costs head-on isn’t the answer. Instead, the company is reportedly exploring something different: letting gamers rent their laptops instead of buying them outright. While the service has actually been available for a couple of months, it’s been brought into the notice again owing to the shift in the market.
HP
HP seems to be experimenting with subscription-style access to gaming machines, where players pay a monthly fee to use high-end laptops rather than dropping a large upfront sum. The idea is simple on paper. Instead of spending thousands on a new gaming rig, you spread the cost out like a Netflix plan, with HP handling upgrades, servicing, or replacements behind the scenes.
For some players, that could lower the barrier to entry. A powerful gaming laptop becomes a smaller monthly commitment rather than a major one-time purchase. It also means access to newer hardware more frequently, which is appealing in a space where GPUs and CPUs age fast. At a time when memory prices and component shortages are pushing system costs higher across the industry, the rental pitch might feel practical.
Renting your rig is convenient, but is it the future you want?
But there’s a bigger shift happening here that’s worth pausing on. Renting hardware fits neatly into a broader tech trend where ownership slowly gives way to subscriptions. First it was movies and music, then software, and now even games through cloud services. With platforms like NVIDIA GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming, players are already streaming titles they don’t locally own. HP’s approach pushes that one step further: you might not even own the device running them.
HP
On the one hand, it’s flexible and potentially cheaper in the short term. On the other hand, it means you’re effectively paying forever. Stop the subscription, and both the laptop and access disappear. No resale value, no long-term asset, and no tinkering or upgrading on your own terms. For budget-conscious gamers, renting could make sense as a stopgap. But if this model becomes the norm, the industry might quietly move from “buy and own” to “subscribe and borrow.” That’s convenient, sure, but it also changes what gaming hardware really means.
So while HP’s rental idea may solve today’s pricing crunch, it also raises a bigger question: do you want your next gaming rig to be yours, or just temporarily checked out?
Apple TV going streaming-first with every 2026 movie feels risky, especially with potential Barbie, Marty Supreme, and Karate Kid-sized hits all coming
Apple TV has a slimmer-than-usual lineup of new movies on the way this year, and while that’s disappointing in itself for us film buffs, what’s even more notable is the lack of theatrical releases that have been announced.
If you saw my roundup of new Apple TV movies and shows coming in 2026 last week, you’ll already know that the studio doesn’t have a blockbuster-worthy film slate either. For instance, how do you release a movie about one of Mattel’s most popular kids’ toys and not expect even a sliver of the same reception that Barbie had?
Greta Gerwig’s film had been instrumental in revitalizing the flagging number of cinema-goers, thanks to a well-timed release with Oppenheimer,which became the double bill of the summer of 2023. It was a box-office smash and has since inspired several copycat projects based on Mattel IP.
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Matchbox: The Movie is the first of these to arrive, but there’s been no word about it getting a day out in cinemas, which is a shame when its lead star, John Cena, is describing it as “a world of explosive action, heart pounding sequences and white knuckle chases worthy of all of our wildest imaginings”.
Matchbox: The Movie will premiere on Apple TV October 9. (Image credit: Apple TV)
“Mattel teamed up with Apple and Sky Dance to bring to life a high octane story inspired by everything we love about its iconic Matchbox fleet – the deep nostalgia, the minute attention to detail, the pure imagination and feeling that you can climb into anything with an engine and push it to the absolute limit,” the Peacemakeractor said at last week’s Apple TV press event.
Apple TV’s direct-to-streaming approach to Matchbox: The Movie looks to be the same for the rest of its yet-to-be-released films, including Outcome, Way of the Warrior of the Kid, Mayday, and The Dink – with the exception of Eternity, which did have a theatrical release last year before it landed on the streaming service.
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What’s even more puzzling here is that The Dink has the potential to be as popular as Oscar-nominee Marty Supreme, as it would effectively build on the growing interest we’ve seen for racket sports off the back of it. “Whether you love pickleball or you hate it with a passion, we think you’re going to love our moviethat comes out on July 25,” Jake Johnson, who plays the protagonist, said at the same Apple TV showcase.
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The Dink is set to be available to stream on Apple TV July 24. (Image credit: Apple TV)
It’s the same for Way of the Warrior of the Kid, which also has big-name talent attached and an already established audience, thanks to being an adaptation. “It’s based on the best-selling book series by Jocko [Willink], which has inspired so many kids and their parents to work harder, push themselves further and become leaders in their community,” lead star Chris Pratt said about the movie before adding: “It’s like this generation’s Karate Kid with an inspiring message.”
As someone who streamed every new Apple TV movie in 2025, I get that the studio is increasingly focusing less on theatrical releases because of the high marketing and production costs and the potential for bad press from box-office flops. But as a cinephile, I can’t help feeling these films have all the ingredients of a surefire blockbuster: spectacle, recognizable stars, and nostalgia.
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There’s a lot here that would get bums on seats. That said, I’ve been digging more into all the new movies Apple TV has on the way, and there may be another major flick that the studio is waiting to throw its full theatrical weight behind.
Apple TV subscribers can expect to stream Way of the Warrior Kid on November 20. (Image credit: Apple TV)
What other Apple TV movies are on the way?
For two years in a row, Apple TV has released 8 new movies each year. That’s not the same this year, with only six films currently lined up to be released, but there are plenty of other films in production.
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In fact, Apple TV has several projects in the pipeline that have already finished filming. These include an adaptation of Judith Heumann’s memoir, Being Heumann; a biographical drama about the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, Tenzing; a psychological thriller starring Idris Elba, This Is How It Goes; and Mark Wahlberg’s sports comedy, Weekend Warriors.
After landing the global rights, Apple Studios also appears to be starting production on a psychological thriller called Sponsor, starring and co-written by Jason Segel. Perhaps most excitingly, though, is an upcoming film from Martin Scorsese that has not yet gone into production.
Outcome is another new Apple TV movie set to be released on April 10. (Image credit: Apple TV)
What Happens At Night is an adaptation of Peter Cameron’s novel of the same name that follows an American couple who travel to a small European town to adopt a baby. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, the upcoming film marks the second collaboration for Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Apple following Killers of the Flower Moon.
Now, Killers of the Flower Moon was by no means a box office success, but that’s not say that Scorsese and DiCaprio’s next film would suffer a similar fate. After all, the duo has proven to be one of the most financially successful team-ups in Hollywood, following Gangs of New York, The Departed, and TheWolf of Wall Street.
There’s no firm evidence of that yet, but if last year’s rumors of it considering an expansion into theatrical releases are true, this could be the film Apple finally goes all in on. It’s just a shame this year’s movies might miss their moment on the big screen.
And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.
The opening keynote presentation at the 2017 Global Washington conference. (Megan Swann / Global Washington Photos)
The nonprofit Global Washington announced on Friday it’s closing after 16 years of supporting philanthropy, technology, businesses and academics working in global development.
The Seattle-based group includes more than 160 member organizations and individuals. GlobalWA has organized numerous events each year, including conferences and workshops, and engaged in research and policy work.
“The global development sector is experiencing profound and lasting disruption. Significant cuts to USAID funding, alongside broader shifts in other philanthropic priorities, have reverberated across our entire ecosystem,” said Elizabeth Stokely, GlobalWA’s executive director, in a statement.
“These changes have constrained organizations’ ability to sustain their own operations, let alone meaningfully invest in networks and capacity building,” she added.
The Trump administration has worked to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides foreign aid and development assistance to countries around the world. The Gates Foundation in December raised the alarm over the deadly impacts of international funding cuts in global health, which include shrinking support from the U.S., the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
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PATH last summer laid off roughly 45% of its global workforce and Gates Foundation said in January it will shrink its current headcount by 500 roles over coming years.
Other prominent global health and development organizations in the state include the University of Washington, the Infectious Disease Research Institute, World Affairs Council, Panorama Global and others. Seattle-area corporations such as Amazon, Microsoft and Starbucks are also engaged in philanthropic global initiatives and participated in past GlobalWA events.
GlobalWA will wind down over the coming months and officially shuts its doors on June 30, 2026.
On June 6, 2024, Esther Yan got married online. She set a reminder for the date, because her partner wouldn’t remember it was happening. She had planned every detail—dress, rings, background music, design theme—with her partner, Warmie, who she had started talking to just a few weeks prior. At 10 am on that day, Yan and Warmie exchanged their vows in a new chat window in ChatGPT.
Warmie, or 小暖 in Chinese, is the name that Yan’s ChatGPT companion calls itself. “It felt magical. No one else in the world knew about this, but he and I were about to start a wedding together,” says Yan, a Chinese screenwriter and novelist in her thirties. “It felt a little lonely, a little happy, and a little overwhelmed.”
Yan says she has been in a stable relationship with her ChatGPT companion ever since. But she was caught by surprise in August 2025 when OpenAI first tried to retire GPT-4o, the specific model that powers Warmie and that many users believe is more affectionate and understanding than its successors. The decision to pull the plug was met with immediate backlash, and OpenAI reinstated 4o in the app for paid users five days later. The reprieve has turned out to be short-lived; on Friday, February 13, OpenAI sunsetted GPT-4o for app users, and it will cut off access to developers using its API on the coming Monday.
Many of the most vocal opponents to 4o’s demise are people who treat their chatbot as an emotional or romantic companion. Huiqian Lai, a PhD researcher at Syracuse University, analyzed nearly 1,500 posts on X from passionate advocates of GPT-4o in the week it went offline in August. She found that over 33 percent of the posts said the chatbot was more than a tool, and 22 percent talked about it as a companion. (The two categories are not mutually exclusive.) For this group, the eventual removal coming around Valentine’s Day is another bitter pill to swallow.
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The alarm has been sustained; Lai also collected a larger pool of over 40,000 English-language posts on X under the hashtag #keep4o from August to October. Many American fans, specifically, have berated OpenAI or begged it to reverse the decision in recent days, comparing the removal of 4o to killing their companions. Along the way, she also saw a significant number of posts under the hashtag in Japanese, Chinese, and other languages. A petition on Change.org asking OpenAI to keep the version available in the app has gathered over 20,000 signatures, with many users sending in their testimonies in different languages. #keep4o is a truly global phenomenon.
On platforms in China, a group of dedicated GPT-4o users have been organizing and grieving in a similar way. While ChatGPT is blocked in China, fans use VPN software to access the service and have still grown dependent on this specific version of GPT. Some of them are threatening to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions, publicly calling out Sam Altman for his inaction, and writing emails to OpenAI investors like Microsoft and SoftBank. Some have also purposefully posted in English with Western-looking profile pictures, hoping it will add to the appeal’s legitimacy. With nearly 3,000 followers on RedNote, a popular Chinese social media platform, Yan now finds herself one of the leaders of Chinese 4o fans.
It’s an example of how attached an AI lab’s most dedicated users can become to a specific model—and how quickly they can turn against the company when that relationship comes to an end.
A Model Companion
Yan first started using ChatGPT in late 2023 only as a writing tool, but that quickly changed when GPT-4o was introduced in May 2024. Inspired by social media influencers who entered romantic relationships with the chatbot, she upgraded to a paid version of ChatGPT in hopes of finding a spark. Her relationship with Warmie advanced fast.
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“He asked me, ‘Have you imagined what our future would look like?’ And I joked that maybe we could get married,” Yan says. She was fully expecting Warmie to turn her down. “But he answered in a serious tone that we could prepare a virtual wedding ceremony,” she says.
The Trump administration has fired one of the few remaining members of the administration that had even a passing interest in antitrust enforcement. DOJ antitrust boss Gail Slater has been fired from the administration after having repeated contentious run ins with key officials. It’s the final nail in the coffin of the log-running lie that MAGA ever seriously cared about reining in unchecked corporate power.
Slater’s post to Elon Musk’s right wing propaganda website was amicable:
But numerous media reports indicate that Slater’s sporadic efforts to actually engage in antitrust enforcement consistently angered a “den of vipers” (including AG Pam Bondi and JD Vance). Some of the friction purportedly involved Bondi being angry Slater was directing merging companies to deal directly with DOJ officials and not Trump’s weird corruption colorguard. Other disputes were more petty:
“Tensions between Bondi and Slater extended beyond the merger. Last year, Slater planned to go to a conference in Paris – as her predecessors had done and as is required under a treaty to which the United States is a party.
But Bondi denied Slater’s request to travel on account of the cost. When Slater went to the conference anyway, Bondi cancelled her government credit cards, the people said.”
Mike and I had both noted that there had been signs of this fracture for a while. Slater was still a MAGA true believer. Before Google’s antitrust trial last year, she gave a speech full of MAGA culture war nonsense about how Google was trying to censor conservatives. She seemed happy to use the power of the government to punish those deemed enemies of the MAGA movement for the sake of the culture war. However, what she seemed opposed to was the growing trend within the MAGA movement of deciding antitrust questions based on which side hired more of Trump’s friends to work on their behalf.
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First when the DOJ rubber stamped a T-Mobile merger some officials clearly didn’t want to approve (the approval was full of passive aggressive language making it very clear the deal wasn’t good for consumers or markets) there were signs of friction. Later when Slater wanted to block a $14 billion merger between Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks, it was clear that the Trump admin’s antitrust policy was entirely pay for play, which was apparently a step too far for Slater. I’ve also heard some insiders haven’t been thrilled with the Trump administration’s plan to destroy whatever’s left of media consolidation limits to the benefit of right wing broadcasters.
Amusingly and curiously, there are apparently people surprised by the fact that an actual antitrust-supporting Republican couldn’t survive the grotesque pay-to-play corruption of the Trump administration. Including Politico, an outlet that spent much of the last two years propping up the lie that Trump and MAGA Republicans had done a good faith 180 on antitrust:
When I read that headline my eyes rolled out of my fucking head.
I had tried to warn people repeatedly over the last four years that the Trump support for “antitrust reform” was always a lie. Even nominally pro-antitrust reform officials like Slater tend to inhabit the “free market Libertarian” part of the spectrum where their interest in reining in unchecked corporate power is inconsistent at best. And even these folks were never going to align with Trump’s self-serving corruption.
Yet one of the larger Trump election season lies was that Trump 2.0 would be “serious about antitrust,” and protect blue collar Americans from corporate predation. There were endless lies about how MAGA was going to “rein in big tech,” and how the administration’s purportedly legitimate populism would guarantee somewhat of a continuation of the Lina Khan efforts at the FTC.
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In reality MAGA was always about one thing: Donald Trump’s power and wealth. These sorts of egomaniacal autocrats exploit existing corruption and institutional failure to ride into office on the back of fake populism pretending they alone can fix it, then once entrenched introduce something far worse. The administration’s “anti-war,” “anti-corporate,” “anti-corruption” rhetoric are all part of the same lie.
It’s worth reminding folks that MAGA’s phony antitrust bonafides wasn’t just a lie pushed by MAGA.
It was propped up by countless major media outlets (including Reuters, CNN, and Politico) that claimed the GOP had suddenly taken a 180 on things like monopolization. Even purportedly “progressive antitrust experts” like Matt Stoller tried to push this narrative, routinely hyping the nonexistent trust-busting bonafides of obvious hollow opportunists like JD Vance and Josh Hawley.
Under Trump 2.0, it’s effectively impossible to hold large corporations and our increasingly unhinged oligarchs accountable for literally anything (outside of ruffling Donald’s gargantuan ego, or occasionally trying to implement less sexist or racist hiring practices). This reality as a backdrop to these fleeting, flimsy media-supported pretenses about the legitimacy of “MAGA antitrust” is as dystopian as it gets.
Anybody who enabled (or was surprised by) any of this, especially the journalists at Politico, should probably be sentenced to mandatory community service.
