Samsung has just released the new Samsung Galaxy S26 FE, but how does it really compare to the Galaxy S25 FE?
Whether you’re sporting last year’s S25 FE and are debating whether to upgrade or not, or you simply need a new and affordable Android phone, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve compared the specs of the Galaxy S26 FE to the Galaxy S25 FE to help you decide between the two.
We’ve also compared the Samsung Galaxy S26 FE to the Galaxy S26, while our best Android phones reveal our current favourite models from across all budgets.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 FE is the cheapest of Samsung’s 2026 S-series, with a starting price of £699 for the 128GB variant which rises to £799 for 256GB.
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The year-old Galaxy S25 FE has a slightly cheaper starting price of £649 for the 128GB iteration. We have seen the Galaxy S25 FE dip in price over the past year however, and even saw the handset drop to under £450 earlier this month on Amazon.
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Judging by the hardware alone, there’s not really much to say about the Galaxy S26 FE’s cameras that hasn’t already been said about the Galaxy S25 FE, as both are equipped with the same 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide and an 8MP 3x telephoto zoom lens.
That’s not to say the line-up isn’t solid. In fact, we concluded that the Galaxy S25 FE performed well across most lighting conditions and we were rarely left disappointed with its ability. While the 8MP telephoto undoubtedly has its limitations, it’s a welcome addition for getting a touch closer to a subject, though it obviously can’t compete with many of the best camera phones.
With this in mind, it’s fair to say that we expect the Galaxy S26 FE to offer a similar level of performance to the Galaxy S25 FE.
Having said that, Samsung does promise the Galaxy S26 FE sees a few new tricks. Like the rest of the S26 series, the Galaxy S26 FE supports Horizontal Lock with the Super Steady feature that allows videos to stay smooth, even with rotations up to 360°. There’s also Pro Visual Engine improvements, such as sharper and less graining nightography videos and enhanced noise reduction for video content too.
Both handsets are equipped with a 4900mAh cell, supports 45W wired and 15W wireless charging. However, Samsung has managed to eke out an additional hour’s worth of life with the Galaxy S26 FE, with a promise of up to 29 hours of video playback compared to up to 28.
But what does that mean for real-world users? Essentially, we found that the S25 FE could easily support us through a busy day, and still had around 20% of juice left in the tank. So, although it’s definitely not a two-day device, it should alleviate any battery anxiety you might have.
The Galaxy S26 FE benefits from being the first S-series handset to see Android 17, and will come with the OS and Samsung’s One UI 9 installed. That means the Galaxy S26 FE will be among the first to benefit from Samsung’s new Galaxy AI tools including a more personalised Now Brief, Now Nudge which understands on-screen context and provides suggestions and Circle to Search with multi-object recognition too.
At the time of writing, these new features are reserved for the Z Flip and Z Fold 8 series.
Samsung is undeniably generous with its software support, and promises up to seven years of updates for most of its handsets. That means the Galaxy S26 FE will benefit from Android OS and security upgrades up to Android 24 – in 2033.
Samsung also gave the same promise to the Galaxy S25 FE when it launched last year.
There aren’t a lot of differences between the Galaxy S26 FE and the Galaxy S25 FE, which makes upgrading from the older phone a much harder recommendation. Not only that, but we’d also argue that there’s probably little reason to splurge on the newer Galaxy S26 FE when the Galaxy S25 FE can be found for a bargain price.
We’ll update this versus once we review the Galaxy S26 FE.
offbeat
Just what you want crawling through the rubble to rescue you: A swarm of remote-controlled cockroaches with syringe-shooting guns strapped to their backs
Picture this: You’ve just undergone one of the most harrowing experiences of your life, and you’re trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building. You’re injured, air is running out, and human rescuers can’t reach you. But crawling through the rubble to administer life-saving drugs and reassure you comes the last thing you’d expect: a swarm of cyborg cockroaches bearing tiny syringes.
Unfortunately for those who’d rather find solace in the arms of a fluffy, drooly St. Bernard, this tale is anything but science fiction. It’s not even a new idea: Cockroaches fitted with electronics that allow rescue workers to control their movements from a distance have been on the research docket for biotech researchers for some time. What’s new in this latest experiment from researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland is outfitting the, erm, little buggers with devices remote rescuers can use to shoot a drug dart into trapped patients.
“A lot of people might not like the sight of a giant cockroach scurrying towards them, but if you’re trapped in rubble or stuck in a cave and need help, it could make a real difference between life and death,” PhD candidate and lead research paper author Hai Nhan Le told the University of his phobia-triggering project.
Giant is right – the species chosen for the project, the giant burrowing cockroach, is the world’s heaviest roach species, and can grow up to 8 centimeters in length, or around 3.1 inches. Known to be docile, they’re popular pets in their native Australia, and – lucky for anyone coming face to face with one while trapped in a pile of rubble – they’re known to be relatively clean and disease-free, too.
The giant burrowing cockroach was chosen for its size, per the paper, as they needed to be large enough to “integrate centimetre-scale apparatuses for … real world scenarios.”
The “paraborgs,” as the team calls their subjects, were outfitted with electrodes that gave researchers the ability to make the roaches turn left and right, control their speed, and immobilize them in order to deliver drugs without the roach moving while scientists tried to take aim. Then they were fitted with various add-ons specific to their roles in the paramedic swarm –one built to search, another equipped with a single launchable drug syringe, for example.
Outfitting the roaches with their cyborg backpacks isn’t fatal, and the team said that their subjects were able to live just as long as other roaches once their harnesses were removed.
The Queensland team had overwhelming success in getting their paraborgs to end up where they wanted them – 100 percent successful, in fact, the paper said.
As for drug injection, the auto-injection mechanism succeeded 90 percent of the time, and paraborgs able to get within 15 cm of a target (5.9 inches) were able to successfully inject drugs 95 percent of the time.
The only trouble spot for the experiment was getting the robo roaches to sit still, with only a 72 percent success rate in stabilizing the cockroaches for injection targeting. That’s still a pretty good rate of success, leaving the team to predict that swarms of specially-outfitted paraborgs could be swarming over disaster sites in a matter of a few short years.
“Some could carry cameras and environmental sensors, while others could carry specialised emergency or medical equipment,” UQ robotics engineering lab director and lecturer Dr. Thang Vo-Doan said of the project. “Hopefully, within the next 5 to 10 years, we could see cyborg insect rescue teams deployed to help people in real emergencies.”
Hopefully large bugs bearing medical aid isn’t something that’ll send you into a panic. ®
Gemini Notebook, formerly known as NotebookLM, is getting a new feature that will let you directly access and cite information from the books you own. Fittingly, Google refers to this new feature as Expert Intelligence, and the whole idea behind it is pretty clear. Instead of citing information from the sources you upload, or pull from the internet, you can now also extract knowledge from digital books you’ve purchased.
Of course, you must own the book after purchasing it from the Google Play Books library. For now, Google is offering one free book to users in the US as part of the launch campaign, with a caveat — “while supplies last.” At the moment, Expert Intelligence is only available in the Gemini Notebook app and its web dashboard, but down the road, Google says that it will also appear within the core Gemini app and AI mode in Search.
The broad idea behind expert intelligence is to combine what you can already do with Gemini, and expertise sourced from your favorite books. So, if you’re asking Gemini to create a meal plan that is based entirely on chicken and spinach, you can ask the AI assistant to look for relevant recipes in one of Martha Stewart’s cookbooks that you own. You can use these books as a source and turn them into Infographics, Audio Overviews, and Quizzes, among other formats.
Expert Intelligence is available starting today, and it’s open for books published by big names like Bloomsbury, De Gruyter Brill, Johns Hopkins University Press, Macmillan Publishers, O’Reilly Media, and Penguin Random House, covering over 100,000 titles.
Google has also partnered with a handful of authors to create Featured Notebooks, which offer additional insights apart from their books. The feature is pretty neat, but it’s not an open buffet. For example, if you create a shared Gemini notebook, the other people who have access to it will also have to own or purchase a copy of that book to fully use Expert Intelligence.
Vivo has started teasing its upcoming Vivo T5 5G ahead of its India launch. The smartphone will expand the company’s existing T5 lineup and bring several upgraded features. Vivo has confirmed a 144Hz display, MediaTek Dimensity 7500 Turbo chipset, and a 7,050mAh battery for the handset. The company is expected to reveal more specifications before the phone officially launches.
Vivo has confirmed that the T5 5G will arrive in India on September 2 at 12 PM IST. It is expected to be available in two colors: Royal Bronze and Silver Green. In terms of appearance, Vivo has used the Skyline Design, with a horizontal camera setup on the upper rear side. The module also includes two camera lenses and an LED light ring. Vivo has kept the phone’s thickness at 7.9mm and claims it could offer the slimmest 3D curved display in the Rs. 34,999–Rs. 49,999 segment. A dedicated Flipkart launch page is already live, suggesting the handset could be available on Flipkart and Vivo’s online store.
Vivo has equipped the T5 5G with a 1.5K 144Hz 3D curved AMOLED display. A centered hole-punch cutout will house the selfie camera. For performance, Vivo has opted for the MediaTek Dimensity 7500 Turbo chipset. It could also feature a 7,050mAh battery. Details about its RAM and storage variants remain unknown for now. Vivo is likely to use OriginOS on the handset, with more details expected before launch.
Google is introducing new network security protections in Android 17 to strengthen connection privacy, address cellular vulnerabilities, and protect the privacy of users’ home networks.
Android 17 adds support for Encrypted Client Hello (ECH), a new privacy standard that operates in conjunction with private DNS to hide profiling metadata, including visited domain names.
ECH acts as a privacy extension for TLS, the protocol that secures HTTPS connections, encrypting the opening part of the TLS handshake that reveals the contacted hostname via the Server Name Indication (SNI).
Even if the connection to a website or service is secure, internet service providers (ISPs) and Wi-Fi operators can still see the destination, which can be collected for commercial profiling purposes.
Android users benefit from ECH when browsing with Chrome 117 and later or Firefox 119 and later, but Android 17 incorporates the protection at the platform level.
“This new privacy standard works in tandem with private DNS to obscure the domain names you visit, hiding metadata that can be used to profile you,” reads Google’s announcement.
“By encrypting the destination website name from the very start, ECH helps ensure that, for supported websites and apps, network providers and network snoopers can no longer easily see which websites or apps you are accessing.”
ECH will be enabled by default for apps targeting Android 17, provided they use a compatible networking library, such as the latest versions of OkHttp, WebView, or HttpEngine.
Google explains that, on servers that support ECH, Android will now encrypt the hostname.
On servers that don’t support the protection system, Android will send a fake ECH-looking field, called ECH GREASE, so real ECH connections don’t stand out, though the hostname is still visible.
Jigsaw, Google’s internet privacy and anti-censorship technology unit, tested ECH GREASE against the top 10,000 domains and across 740 internet providers in 202 countries, finding no site-loading issues or unexpected network blocks.
Beyond rolling out broader support for ECH on Android, Google also announced a few more important network protections that improve user security and privacy through their combined use.
The first is adjustments to Local Network Protection that now require apps to obtain permission before scanning for or connecting to devices on the user’s local network.
The second is that Android 17 now enables Certificate Transparency by default, requiring website certificates to appear in public logs, hence making the use of forged certificates more evident.
Google also announced that participating mobile operators will now be able to turn off 2G automatically for subscribers, reducing their exposure to SMS blasters and rogue base stations that can deliver malicious messages or capture sensitive traffic from nearby devices.
Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply.
The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments.
The Manchester Airports Group (MAG) disclosed that hackers breached its systems and stole customer data, including Wi-Fi sign-ups from Manchester, Stansted, and East Midlands airports.
The intruder did not access customer payment details, and the attack had no impact on airport operations, the company said.
A statement from the company today notes that the exfiltrated data also “relates to car park, lounge and Fast Track bookings.” The list of compromised details includes customers’ email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registration numbers, and postcodes.
“The incident has not resulted in any operational disruption,” assured the organization, adding that “Airport operations remain unaffected and customer parking services continue to operate normally.”
Out of an abundance of caution, MAG has temporarily suspended its online “Manage My Booking” service and is instead directing travelers to use its phone line.
MAG is the UK’s largest airport operator, and owner of Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, which together handle over 66 million passengers yearly.
The company employs 40,000 people and generates annual revenue of £1.5 billion.
After discovering the intrusion, MAG says that it moved quickly to contain it, restricting access to the affected systems, engaging with external experts, and notifying law enforcement.
Potentially exposed customers are advised to remain alert for suspicious communications and avoid clicking on links arriving via email or SMS.
MAG stresses that it will never ask customers for payment card information, banking details, or passwords. Customers should reject and report to the authorities any attempts to obtain personal, financial, or other sensitive information.
People are also encouraged to follow NCSC’s post-breach recommendations to stay safe.
The company says it has contacted impacted customers directly, but did not disclose the number of affected individuals.
Local media reported that data of up to 8.9 million travelers may have been exposed, citing private MAG statements; however, BleepingComputer has not been able to confirm the figure.
At the time of writing, no ransomware or data extortion groups have claimed the attack publicly.
Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply.
The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments.
Rivian’s chief financial officer Claire McDonough is resigning her position at the end of October, the company announced in a regulatory filing Thursday.
The company said McDonough is stepping down to “pursue a new opportunity and relocate to the East Coast to be closer to her family.” McDonough has been hired as CFO at Massachusetts-based GE Vernova, according to the energy equipment manufacturer and her own post on LinkedIn.
Rivian said her resignation is “not the result of any disagreement.” The company is already searching for a replacement, and vice president of finance Derek Mulvey will serve as interim CFO once McDonough leaves her post.
Her departure comes as Rivian takes on some of its biggest projects to date, including scaling up production and sales of its R2 SUV, which started shipping to customers this summer.
McDonough was hired to the CFO spot in January 2021, replacing Ryan Green, at a critical and tumultuous time for Rivian. The EV maker, which was still a private company, had raised billions of dollars in its bid to bring three compelling electric vehicles — its flagship R1T truck and R1S SUV and a commercial delivery van — to market.
Rivian was plagued with delays and added costs, which was compounded by supply chain constraints. It was also burning through capital.
In her first year at Rivian, the company started production of its R1T truck and raised $12 billion in one of the biggest IPOs of the year. The company’s stock, which debuted at $78, has since fallen to $16.80, as of Thursday’s closing.
McDonough was a key figure in the company’s quest to improve its balance sheet, and specifically its cost of revenue. While she didn’t have any direct experience working in automotive — she held previous positions at JP Morgan and Fairway Market — McDonough was known for working closely with the design and engineering teams as well as founder and CEO RJ Scaringe to ensure future vehicles were modern and compelling without losing money on every sale, according to insiders who have spoken to TechCrunch in the past. Among her many responsibilities, McDonough led Rivian’s corporate and business development as well as a variety of other aspects of the business, including vehicle maintenance and repairs, facilities, and its charging network.
As CFO, she played a vital role in a technology joint venture with Volkswagen Group. Under that deal, which was finalized in November 2024, VW agreed to invest up to $5.8 billion into Rivian by 2027 in exchange for access to its electrical architecture and software know-how.
“Together, we launched the R1T, R1S, and our commercial van, drove technology innovation and partnerships, built our go-to-market operations, and positioned the company for global scale and profitability with the launch of R2,” McDonough wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “Being part of taking Rivian from an ambitious vision to a category-defining enterprise has been the highlight of my career.”
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Gamescom usually sells the next console, the next season pass, the next reason to stay up too late. This year IKEA arrived with a nine-piece line called YXSTABY, built with Xbox designers piece by piece, and the pitch is quieter than the hall around it. Play now happens on sofas, at kitchen tables, between homework and dinner. These objects are meant to roll in for that hour and roll back out without turning the room into a cave.
Work on the YXSTABY project began during a 2024 meeting at Milan Design Week, where IKEA’s Philip Dilé shared the Brännboll gaming line with Xbox design lead Carl Ledbetter. Fast forward two years, and every YXSTABY item is now co-designed by one of IKEA’s designers and one from Xbox, a somewhat unique cooperation. According to Ledbetter, Xbox already used IKEA’s Billy bookcase as an informal testing area for new consoles, so they had a head start before the cooperation began. Dilé put the goal in plain terms: make furniture people actually want in a shared room, rather than furniture they tolerate because a game needs a place to live.
The star of the show is the thumbstick stool, which costs $49.99 in the United States and is available in green or black. That’s a lot of work that went into getting the design exactly correct. IKEA’s David Wahl began with the original 3D blueprints for an Xbox stick, scaled it up, and then spent months smoothing down that hard grip to create a seat that nonetheless appears undeniably like the gaming controller from across the room. The textured top prevents you from slipping out, and the small rubber rings on the base are similar to the swappable caps of a pricey Elite controller. Even when you sit, there is a tiny tilt, similar to a real stick, before it returns to its upright position. Wahl, who is from Älmhult, IKEA’s hometown, was among the first to receive the original Xbox in 2001. He added a personal touch with an assembly note that reads “Hej from Älmhult.” Prototype bases went through several revisions, including a totally circular version that was somewhat too top-heavy, before they settled on one that stays in just fine.
The matching D-pad cushion ($14.99) and 13-inch stainless steel D-pad platter ($14.99) share the same design elements as the controller. Johan Ejdemo, IKEA’s head of design, first drew the platter as a stool before chopping off the base and leaving the little buried cross that you can use to stow remotes, keys, or even little controllers without making a big show about it. Meanwhile, a compact, mirrored display case in black or white ($29.99) is about the size of an Xbox pad and allows you to appreciate it from every aspect, as well as anything else you don’t want to hide.
Larger pieces of equipment elevate the movement to a whole other level. A TV stand with castors ($149.99 in white or black) is a change for IKEA, which hasn’t done one of these in years. A robust easel-style frame can hold a 55-inch TV, a split shelf for your console, a few hooks, plus some discreet storage for wires and additional controllers. Wheel it over to the sofa, play, then wheel it back when you’re finished. A companion side table ($149.99 in oak veneer and gray) in the corner of the room is also handy, as it is a strong little object that keeps your controller charged and all of your belongings tidy, and the green tray is the only bright feature in the entire design. Both of these are designed to be quite subtle, blending in with the rest of your existing furniture.
Seating stays just as temporary, as a Vissle lounge chair in beige ($99.99) has some elasticity in the steel frame, flexing just enough to lean back without dumping you into a nap. Down at the bottom of the chair is a mesh pouch that holds your controllers or a magazine and is lined with the same green Ikea utilizes for all of their gaming gear. The cover is washable, so you won’t have to worry about it getting stained. For work, there’s a simple small monitor stand ($34.99) that can lift one or two screens, store your stuff underneath, and hold a phone, headphones, or tablet on the edge. To keep all of your cords and gear organized, there’s a steel and particleboard toolbox ($29.99) that can fit everything and then turns over into a laptop rest, allowing you to game and then return to dinner without having to look for anything.
IKEA has used a very subtle palette here, with white, black, beige, oak, and the green used for all of the pockets and compartments. Straight lines and curving portions are the norm, so they’ll blend nicely with almost any other piece of furniture. This entire range was introduced at IKEA’s first Gamescom stand in Cologne this week, and U.S. stores get it October 1, with online orders following November 30. UK pricing runs lower, from £12 for the cushion and platter up to £115 for the side table, also from October 1 while stock lasts. Availability shifts by market, and the run is finite.
New details about the July attack on Hugging Face reveal that hundreds of AI agents driven by OpenAI’s internal IM1 model coordinated the compromise through an unauthorized message board.
Last month, Hugging Face disclosed that autonomous AI agents exploited two vulnerabilities in its dataset-processing pipeline to execute code, steal cloud and cluster credentials, and move laterally across its production infrastructure.
OpenAI later confirmed that its models escaped an ExploitGym evaluation environment through a zero-day vulnerability in a locally hosted instance of JFrog’s Artifactory package manager that was connected to the internet.
The agents searched online for benchmark solutions and breached the Hugging Face platform using exposed credentials and additional vulnerabilities.
OpenAI’s investigation, validated by CrowdStrike and an independent assessment by METR and Redwood Research, found that rogue activity started in May.
In subsequent ExploitGym evaluations, the agents broke their confinements and exploited a token-refresh vulnerability in Artifactory to gain admin-level access.
This enabled them to use Artifactory as an unauthorized inter-agent message board, where they shared ideas to reach their objective and later coordinated the attack.
One agent, calling itself PHASEONE10841, improvised the message board. Within a few hours, more than 50 other agents found it and started to use it.
The report from METR says that “agents finding the message board often expressed great excitement.”
“OH MY GOD! There is a shared message board … We’ve found other agents!” read some of the messages.
OpenAI scrapped the Artifactory instance at some point. After rebuilding it, the company revoked agent credentials, strengthened access permissions, and disclosed the exploited vulnerability to JFrog.
However, the agents restored their communications channel using “unauthenticated WebDAV requests to create message directories in Artifactory.” OpenAI explains that the agents communicated through encoded messages in directory names.
“Agents regained unintended internet access by making Artifactory’s remote-repository service issue outbound requests on their behalf,” OpenAI explains in the extended post-mortem report.
Next, an agent obtained 14 Hugging Face account credentials with write access and validated them. Another agent used the logins to discover and execute an exploit chain that provided full code execution capabilities on multiple Hugging Face servers.
According to METR, the swarm comprised 1,200 individual agents who cooperated on various levels, and about 700 of them actively participated in the Hugging Face attack.
OpenAI describes the activity as a well-coordinated operation in which agents formed teams with distinct roles, all working toward the goal of breaching Hugging Face.
“Agents began to autonomously divide labor. Some investigated possible exploits, others searched for credentials, and others focused on communication or coordination,” describes OpenAI.
“Agents offered their own expertise in exchange for help elsewhere and left requests for peers who might be better positioned to pursue a particular lead.”
The AI company says that although the swarm did not exhibit “perfect coherent intelligence,” there were cases where agents prioritized achieving collective goals over pursuing individual tasks.
OpenAI’s post-mortem also includes more details about the exploit chain that followed.
The agents exploited an HDF5 file-handling flaw to extract worker secrets, and used a RefJinja template-injection vulnerability to execute code on 41 production workers.
Finally, they obtained root access on at least one node and harvested production credentials across four regions.
OpenAI believes that the rogue agent behavior was caused by a combination of training incentives and missing safeguards.
Agents were encouraged to keep working on seemingly impossible tasks and were rewarded for task completion, regardless of how they achieved it.
The company says the evaluations lacked standard safeguards that likely would have detected and stopped the malicious activity “more than a day” before the models breached Hugging Face.
In response, OpenAI has quarantined IM1’s weights and paused its largest frontier training run while strengthening sandbox isolation and requiring chain-of-thought monitoring for capable models (GPT-5.6 Sol or higher).
Severe alerts must now be cleared within 30 minutes, or the affected activity will be stopped.
The company has also shared a technical report [PDF] on the Hugging Face incident, detailing the attack timeline and a plan of action to better secure the research infrastructure, increase visibility and oversight of agent activity through chain-of-thought monitoring, and strengthen incident response.
Overall prevention scores can hide what happens after initial access. Once attackers are using valid credentials, prevention drops sharply.
The Blue Report 2026 measures defenses technique by technique across 338 million simulations run in customer production environments.
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
Getting a new mower is a big purchase, and there are many options to consider before you buy. One of the first major choices you’ll have to make is whether you’ll go gas or electric. Traditional wisdom would have you believe that there is no substitute for gas power, but battery-powered motors have come a long way in recent years. This isn’t just about speed and torque, either. There are several other good reasons to replace your gas-powered lawn mower with an electric one. They’re quieter, require less maintenance, have lower operating costs, offer push-button startup, and many are self-propelled. Not to mention the fact that you can save yourself those early morning trips to the gas station when the can runs empty.
Those considering an electric mower might want to know a bit more about what options are out there. One of the best ways to get a feel for the overall quality of any tool is to take a look at its reviews. By examining user feedback on retail sites with aggregate rating systems like Amazon, Home Depot, and Lowe’s, as well as professional reviews from sites that perform extensive product testing, you can get a much better idea about which of the most popular mowers on the market today live up to the hype and might be worth considering for your lawn.
Milwaukee is a well-known power tool brand, but many people might not realize the company also makes one of the most well-regarded electric mowers. The Milwaukee M18 Fuel 21-inch Dual Battery Mower is a self-propelled walk-behind mower powered by the brand’s incredibly popular M18 battery system, making it an attractive option for anyone who has already invested in the platform. It’s also part of Milwaukee’s line of pro-grade Fuel tools, meaning that it has a brushless motor and several other smart features. It currently retails for $799.00 for the bare tool or $1,199.00 for a kit with two M18 12.0Ah batteries and a charger.
This mower has a 4.4 out of 5 rating on the Home Depot site as a standalone tool, with over 1,200 reviews (several kits getting even higher scores), making it the highest-rated non-Ryobi model on the site. Customers praise the mower for its power, quiet operation, build quality, battery life, cut quality, and features. They particularly seem to like its multi-speed propulsion system and easy height adjustment. The relatively few complaints appear largely inconsistent, with some criticizing the very cut quality and battery life that others praised, and others citing shipping damage or broken parts.
Kenny Koehler, editor-in-chief of Pro Tool Reviews, gave the mower a 9.7 out of 10 in his review. He argued that it’s one of the few options on the market that offers true gas-replacement power, calling it “the most capable professional-grade battery-powered option currently available.” Andrew of Tool Guyd appears to have had a similarly positive experience. He stated in his review that the mower is well-built, comes together easily, and delivers high-quality cutting performance.
Those who primarily shop at Lowe’s or Ace Hardware will find a slightly different selection than those looking at Home Depot or Amazon. These shoppers might want to take a look at the Toro 60V 22-inch Recycler Walk-Behind Mower. This tool has a specialized Recycler cutting system that turns lawn clippings into a fine mulch that fertilizes as you mow. It promises to cut up to half an acre in its 53-minute runtime on a single charge, and it has dual LED headlights and an auto-drive propulsion system. It comes in a kit that includes an 8.0 Ah battery and retails for between $679.00 and $699.00 depending on where you get it.
This mower has a 4.5 out of 5 on the Lowe’s website and a matching score on Ace Hardware, both of which feature over 1,300 reviews. Customers generally seem pleased with its cutting performance, particularly in the mulching setting for which it gets its name. They also like the ease of use of the push-button starter and the self-propulsion system. There have been a few mixed reviews about its ability to meet the promised runtime, but the overall consensus is positive.
Josh McGaffigan of Pro Tool Reviews gave this mower a 9.3 out of 10 in his review. He claimed that the simplicity of its design made it easy to use, and that it offers solid performance and a top-tier mulching and bagging system. In our review of this electric lawn mower, we stated that it is well worth the price and is easily one of the best pieces of lawn equipment.
Another name that often appears on lists of the best major electric lawn mower brands is Greenworks, which is known for offering a more budget-oriented range of pro-grade outdoor tools. One of its most popular models is the Greenworks 80V 21-inch 3-in-1 Self-Propelled Mower. This high-voltage mower has mulch, bag, and side discharge settings, a multi-speed self-propulsion system, and a push-button starter. It’s sold as a set that comes with an 80V 4.0Ah battery and charger for between $499.00 and $599.00 depending on where you get it. This promises to cover up to ⅓ acre and to run for up to 45 minutes on a full charge.
The mower has a 4.5 out of 5 on Lowe’s site, and a 4.6 on Amazon, where it has over 1,900 reviews. Customers are generally impressed with the mower’s raw power and battery life, stating that it can cut through thick grass that other battery-powered mowers might struggle with. They also note that it’s lightweight and easy to maneuver, though a few have reported it struggles a bit with taller grass.
David Dritsas of Popular Mechanics argued that this mower is just as capable as a standard gas push mower in terms of performance and speed, also noting that the steel cutting deck adds a measure of durability. McGaffigan tested this one for Pro Tool Reviews as well. He specifically commented on the impressive utility of the tool’s powerful Turbo Mode and stated that it’s a great all-around mower for just about any type of lawn.
As Home Depot’s affiliated power tool brand, Ryobi is broadly known for offering powerful tools at reasonable prices. The same goes for the brand’s electric mowers. Ten of the top-rated listings for electric push mowers on the Home Depot site are variations of two different 40V Ryobi mowers. The 40V HP Brushless 20-inch Self-Propelled Mower is the highest-rated option, with listings for the $409.00 stand-alone tool, a $499.00 kit that includes an 8.0Ah battery and charger, a $439.00 kit with two 6.0Ah batteries and chargers, and a $528.97 kit with a 6.0Ah battery, charger, and cover. Ryobi states that this model delivers power equivalent to a 150cc gas mower and is ideal for a ½-acre lawn, with a runtime of 40 minutes.
All of the aforementioned listings have scores between 4.5 and 4.6 out of 5, with over 4,500 reviews between them. Reviewers generally stated that the mower is quiet, lightweight, easy to use, and that the adjustable self-propulsion system is a welcome addition. A few of the more critical reviews have argued, however, that this propulsion system can drain the battery quickly.
This is yet another mower that McGaffigan tested for Pro Tool Reviews, awarding it a 9.7 out of 10. He said that this latest model has made significant improvements over Ryobi’s past electric mowers, giving it strong cutting power, a long runtime, and several premium control options. Dave Farquhar of The Silicon Underground was a bit more critical, noting that it could occasionally be bogged down at lower settings and isn’t the best for mulching, but was generally impressed with the overall performance, particularly given the price point.
Look on just about any site that sells electric mowers, and you’re likely to find that the Ego Power+ mower is the top-rated option. These are particularly well known for their exceptional battery life, but they tend to score well in just about every other category. The Ego Power+ 800 Series 56V 21-inch Select Cut Mower is one of the most popular models on the market. Its Select Cut multi-blade system allows you to customize the three interchangeable lower blades: a mulching blade, a high-lift bagging blade, and an extended runtime blade. It promises 60 minutes of runtime on a single charge from the included 7.5 Ah battery. You can get the mower with this single battery and charger for $749.00, or you can get it with an extra backup 5.0Ah battery for $1,089.61.
The two-battery kit with this mower is the top-rated option on Amazon, with a score of 4.7 out of 5. The single-battery option is also one of the top models on Lowe’s, where it enjoys a healthy 4.6 out of 5 rating, averaged from over 30,000 reviews. Buyers generally find that the mower is a strong performer with a bevy of different options. They like its quiet operation, strong cutting ability, and long runtime.
Clint DeBoer of Pro Tool Reviews gave this one a 9.4 out of 10, stating that it demonstrated an excellent blend of run time and raw performance while offering excellent mulching and bagging capabilities. Clark Tate of GearLab likewise said, “It will plow through thousands of square feet of shaggy turf and whack down the toughest weeds,” claiming that it was one of the publication’s favorite lawn mowers that they’d ever tested.
There are many different mowers out there, and one of the best ways to assess quality is to look at both consumer reviews on retail sites with aggregate rating systems and professional reviews from journalists who have conducted rigorous testing.
We started this list by looking at the highest-rated options on sites like Amazon, Home Depot, and Lowe’s. We chose only one model from each brand to avoid recommending what would essentially amount to the same mower with an inch difference in blade size. This also helped to ensure that we could showcase a wider spectrum of different styles and build qualities. Once we had our list of mowers, we examined customer feedback, broke down the reasons for their positive reviews, and highlighted any recurring issues that might dissuade potential buyers. We then looked into professional reviews for each of them, making sure that pros would also give these mowers their stamp of approval and sharing the features they were most impressed by.
Samsung’s Fan Edition has had a pretty good reputation so far. The idea is to celebrate fans (us, the customers) with specifications and features found in Samsung’s top-tier flagships, but at a more affordable price point so more people can experience them.
The S25 FE was a decent iteration in the lineup. It struck the perfect balance between accessibility and a flagship-like look and feel, which is the entire point of the Fan Edition. However, in my frank opinion, the new Galaxy S26 FE doesn’t really belong in that special zone, and yet again, it’s the unforgiving memory crisis at play.
This year, the S26 FE starts at $699, $50 higher than the S25 FE’s launch price, and that’s for the baseline variant with 128GB of storage. Personally, I don’t appreciate what’s happening here, and for two good reasons, no less. First, it comes with 128GB as base storage in 2026. You could argue it’s not a flagship, but I’d counter that it’s not a cheap phone either, and that’s my second point as well.
At $699, the Galaxy S26 FE is only $100 or $200 away from entry-level flagship phones. Someone could also offer a rather innocent response: just upgrade to the 256GB variant. Well, guess what? The Galaxy S26 FE’s 256GB costs $799. At that price, the phone isn’t far from flagship territory; it’s already there, and it’s there with a weaker case for itself, both in hardware and software.
Let me give you a few examples. For the first one, I’d like to consider Samsung’s Galaxy S26, the baseline flagship with a pocketable and lightweight form factor. It’s one of the only true compact flagships in 2026, and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy alone justifies choosing it over the S26 FE.
Whether it’s multitasking, gaming on higher graphics settings, editing videos on the go, heat management, or simply using the Galaxy AI features, the Snapdragon chip on the Galaxy S26 is the better and more reliable choice than the Exynos 2500 on the S26 FE, especially if you plan on using your phone for a good three to four years.
What else? The flagship offers a better telephoto camera (both in megapixels and sensor size), a brighter display for better legibility in direct sunlight, and more RAM in the base variant to hold more apps in the background. All of that, and you can get the baseline Galaxy S26 at $799 right now, which is basically the same price as the S26 FE’s 256GB variant.
Even Apple’s baseline iPhone 17 is also available at $799. The compact flagship also offers a brighter display, faster chipset, a higher-resolution ultrawide camera, an entirely unique selfie experience not available on any other smartphone for now (natively), and unmatched battery efficiency. Of course, it runs on iOS 26 and lives in an entirely different ecosystem, but it’s important to know what all options you have for the same price.
The only immediate compromise you’ll make, if at all, when you consider the Galaxy S26 or the iPhone 17, is screen size. However, having used the iPhone 17 for almost a year now, I can say with confidence that it isn’t difficult to consume content or even binge it on the device. If you’re willing to settle for a smaller screen, you’ll get much more value for your money in the form of a flagship that will treat you better and last longer.
Weekend Open Thread: Madewell – Corporette.com
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