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21 May 2024

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Love Island to bring back social media ban
Friends and family will not be able to post on behalf of the islanders while they're in the villa.

Fire and Emergency aviation industry levy changes opposed by industry group
New aviation levies proposed by Fire and Emergency are unfair, a group representing the industry says.

Zayn Malik to read CBeebies bedtime story
The former one Direction star's story will air this week following the release of his fourth solo LP.

Slovaks Probe Possible Broader Plot Behind Premier’s Shooting

Australian PM’s Support Rises After Big-Spending Budget

Dominicans Reelect President Who Delivered Strong Economy

Top Japan companies agree to 5.58% average pay hike, business lobby says

Mexico’s Candidates Trade Barbs in Final Debate Focused on Crime

The difference a boarding school makes for Maasai girls

When classroom assistance comes with a rent-free room in shared flat

Stock image falsely shared as 'official' South Korean defence ministry map

China Rips Taiwan’s Lai for ‘Dangerous Signal’ in Opening Speech

Candidates begin registering in complicated process to select Thailand's new Senate

From labyrinth parks to exotic paradises: Brittany's floral delights

Putin remembers Raisi as a 'true friend' to Russia

Reactions to Raisi's death pour in from Arab world leaders, militias

Meet the Kiwis ditching modern life and turning to the homesteading lifestyle
A growing number of Kiwis are making the switch to the homesteading lifestyle - foregoing the conveniences of modern life with the aim to grow as much of their own food as possible.

Corsair MP700 Pro SE review: One of the best PCIe 5.0 SSDs
At a glanceExpert's Rating ProsAs fast as you’ll findAvailable in up to 4TBOptional heatsink/coolerConsExpensiveOur VerdictThe Corsair MP700 Pro SE came within a whisker of capturing the NVMe SSD performance crown — missing by a difference not worth mentioning. A true short-lister of a PCIe 5.0 drive. Best Prices Today: Corsair MP700 Pro SE PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Retailer Price Corsair $624.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The MP700 Pro SE that Corsair sent us for review truly is a “special edition,” and not just a marketing opportunity, as many are. Thanks to a NAND upgrade, the SE’s benchmark performance blows the doors off its slightly older sibling, a very worthy drive in its own right. In fact, the MP700 Pro SE paced itself into a virtual tie with the mighty Crucial T705 for fastest consumer NVMe SSD we’ve ever tested. Further reading: See our roundup of the best SSDs to learn about competing products. What are the Corsair MP700 Pro SE’s features? The MP700 Pro SE is a 2280 form factor, PCIe 5.0 x4, NVMe SSD utilizing the latest TLC NAND. The upgraded 2,400MT/s (megatransfers/second) NAND (the older Pro is only 2,000MT/s) is the main difference in this latest Special Edition. Both drives use the same Phison PS5026-E26 controller and 2GB of DRAM per terabyte of NAND. The company warranties the MP700 Pro SE for five years, or 750TBW (terabytes to be written) per 1TB of capacity. That’s greater than the norm, which is around 600TBW per TB of NAND. Corsair offers its SSD Toolbox for download, which lets you see S.M.A.R.T info, wipe the drive, and TRIM the drive. As a reviewer courtesy, the company provides the component level tech specs to us, not hiding them as some other vendors do. Good on ya’, Corsair! How much does the Corsair MP700 Pro SE cost? The 4TB Corsair MP700 Pro SE I tested retails for $625. It will also be available with a heatsink cooler, and if pricing follows the norm, those SKUs will cost $10 to $20 more. Pricing for the heatsink SKUs wasn’t set at the time of this writing. The MP700 Pro SE is priced a bit on the high side, even for a 4TB PCIe 5.0 SSD. But it’s not outrageous given the performance and generous TBW rating. In all likelihood, you’ll find it online at a price nearer that of the like-performing competition when it finally ships. The MP700 Pro SE with its optional heatsink cooler. The MP700 Pro SE with its optional heatsink cooler.Jon L. Jacobi / Foundry The MP700 Pro SE with its optional heatsink cooler.Jon L. Jacobi / Foundry Jon L. Jacobi / Foundry No pricing was available for the plain 2TB version of the drive; however, the reviewer’s guide also made mention of a Hydro X series in a 2TB capacity for $355. How fast is the Corsair MP700 Pro SE? Long story short, the 4TB MP700 Pro SE I kicked the tires on is very, very fast. In fact, while being the second-fastest drive I’ve tested, it only fell short by a gnat’s eyebrow to the Crucial T705. And I mean a gnat’s eyebrow — less than one-hundredth of a percent. That’s absolutely within the margin of error and nothing to concern yourself about. Take a gander at the CrystalDiskMark 8 sequential results and see for yourself. The MP700 Pro SE is so close to its top competitor in performance, that with a slight variance in testing it indeed could have been number one. Corsair MP700 Pro SE Corsair MP700 Pro SE Jon L. Jacobi Corsair MP700 Pro SE Jon L. Jacobi Jon L. Jacobi Random performance in CrystalDiskMark 8 was also very good, although slightly behind that of the Adata legend 970, which isn’t as fast in the CrystalDiskMark 8 sequential test above, but does well in the real world. The MP700 Pro SE was again very fast in CrystalDiskMark 8’s 4K tests. Longer bars are better. The MP700 Pro SE was again very fast in CrystalDiskMark 8’s 4K tests. Longer bars are better. The MP700 Pro SE was again very fast in CrystalDiskMark 8’s 4K tests. Longer bars are better. Our real-world transfers also had the MP700 Pro SE in a photo finish with the Crucial T705. The other drives weren’t far behind. The Corsair MP700 Pro SE tied the Crucial T705 in our 48GB transfers. Shorter bars are better. The Corsair MP700 Pro SE tied the Crucial T705 in our 48GB transfers. Shorter bars are better. Jon L. Jacobi The Corsair MP700 Pro SE tied the Crucial T705 in our 48GB transfers. Shorter bars are better. Jon L. Jacobi Jon L. Jacobi In the 450MB write, the corsair MP700 Pro SE was again right in the mix. A 3-second difference in a 450GB write is a mere bagatelle. However, you may notice that there’s not a lot of difference between the top drives and the cheaper competitors in either real-world test. Remember that when it’s time to purchase. When I finally wrote enough data to exhaust the initially allotted secondary cache, performance waffled between 750MBps and 1.3GBps. It’s likely that the faster NAND and smart/temporary allotment of more secondary cache kept the pace reasonable. The 450GB write was another nail biter, with little to choose from between the MP700 Pro SE and T705 — or the other less expensive drives for that matter. Shorter bars are better. The 450GB write was another nail biter, with little to choose from between the MP700 Pro SE and T705 — or the other less expensive drives for that matter. Shorter bars are better. The 450GB write was another nail biter, with little to choose from between the MP700 Pro SE and T705 — or the other less expensive drives for that matter. Shorter bars are better. The MP700 Pro SE is so close to the Crucial T705 in performance, that with a slight variance in testing it indeed could have been number one. Judge it accordingly. Should you buy the Corsair MP700 Pro SE? The Corsair MP700 Pro SE is a fantastic NVMe SSD, though it faces stiff competition from the Crucial T705. If every ounce of performance is your desire, you’ll be happy with either. Buy whichever you get the best price on. How we test Drive tests currently utilize Windows 11, 64-bit running on an X790 (PCIe 4.0/5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 4800MHz modules (64GB of memory total). Both 20Gbps USB and Thunderbolt 4 are integrated to the back panel and Intel CPU/GPU graphics are used. The 48GB transfer tests utilize an ImDisk RAM disk taking up 58GB of the 64GB of total memory. The 450GB file is transferred from a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro which also runs the OS. Each test is performed on a newly NTFS-formatted and TRIM’d drive so the results are optimal. Note that in normal use, as a drive fills up, performance may decrease due to less NAND for secondary caching, as well as other factors. This can be less of a factor with the current crop of SSDs with far faster late-generation NAND. Caveat: The performance numbers shown apply only to the drive we were shipped and to the capacity tested. SSD performance can and will vary by capacity due to more or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes across and the amount of NAND available for secondary caching. Vendors also occasionally swap components. If you ever notice a large discrepancy between the performance you experience and that which we report, by all means, let us know. Computer Storage Devices, Storage

China Business Summit: NZ businesses eye opportunities in Asia
Guarding New Zealand's reputation and having people on the ground in key markets were some of the main takeaways to increase New Zealand's export value to China.

Stalking legislation review potentially next year - but could take longer
The government has a full slate of "justice commitments" already this year, the Justice Minister says.

Super Rugby team sacks coach after dire season
The Waratahs have the same win, loss record as the Crusaders.

Maghrebail secures €20m from EBRD for green projects in Morocco

South Africa’s Top Court Blocks Zuma From Contesting Election

Iran's Khamenei names interim president, declares national mourning

Volkswagen-backed Chinese EV battery maker Gotion takes on rival CATL with superfast-charging LFP product

Xi calls Raisi's death a 'great loss' to Iran

South Africa's top court bars Zuma from being lawmaker

Embracing the energy transition: how Melbourne is supercharging clean tech growth

Top Gear stars sign up for new road trip series
Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris will travel around Europe as they grapple with mid-life problems.

Sixties pop phenomenon Frank Ifield dies aged 86
The singer was the first person to score three consecutive number one hits in the UK charts.

Are OLED laptops worth the extra price?
In just the last few years, there’s been an explosion of new laptops featuring OLED displays. Just like the phone market saw them become nearly ubiquitous, the laptop market is finding more and more models offering up OLED displays at nearly every price bracket save for some of the cheapest systems. And that highlights a crucial detail: OLEDs cost a premium over traditional LCD displays. So the big question, then, is whether an OLED display is worth the extra cash you’ll have to spend to have it on your laptop. Like most tech questions, the answer will come down to what you want to do with your laptop and what you’re hoping to get out of it. So we’ll need to dive into the perks of OLED and the drawbacks so you can properly weigh the value for your own circumstances. Further reading: The best laptops: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more The advantages of OLED Mattias Inghe Mattias Inghe Mattias Inghe There’s a reason people are crazy for OLED. The image quality they can offer is simply remarkable. The star of the show is the contrast. Since OLEDs have the ability to adjust brightness on a per-pixel level, allowing one fully illuminated pixel to sit right next to a pitch black pixel, they offer effectively infinite contrast that makes for truly impactful imagery. This is a big bonus for visuals in games, TV, and movies, though has limited utility in office use and casual web browsing. The contrast often pairs with a much wider color gamut than the typical laptop screen. Many OLED displays offer nearly full coverage of the DCI-P3 color space — I’ve tested a handful and can’t recall a single one that was more than a few percentage points away. I’ve seen plenty of LCD displays that also achieve high DCI-P3 coverage, but many only cover the smaller sRGB color space, and side-by-side with a display offering DCI-P3 color, the difference is obvious. Many LCD displays don’t even go that far, covering instead a small percentage of the sRGB color space, sometimes less than 70 percent (you’ll often see this listed as 45 percent NTSC on the laptop’s spec sheet), and the difference between that display and an OLED with 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage is night and day. IDG / Mark Knapp IDG / Mark Knapp IDG / Mark Knapp In plenty of cases, that color gamut has also come with stellar color accuracy. It’s not a given and always worth checking reviews to make sure, but if you’re looking to do creative work where getting the colors right is crucial, then color accuracy is a serious matter. And having a display that not only lets you work with a wider palette but also ensures accuracy could make or break your experience with the machine. Best OLED laptop for content creation Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra Read our review Best Prices Today: $2999.99 at Best Buy OLED displays are still lagging behind LCDs in terms of the refresh rates offered, but plenty of them have fast refresh rates, with 90Hz and 120Hz laptop panels fairly common. And on top of that benefit for gamers is the nearly instant pixel response time. Where LCD panels often exhibit ghosting — especially on laptop displays which typically lack the response times of desktop monitors — OLEDs keep each frame impressively sharp, providing excellent motion clarity in games. One less-considered bonus of OLED laptops is that the display panel can be extra thin. But this consideration hardly matters. The needs for structural integrity in the laptop all but ensure that the display lid won’t go as thin as possible. I’ve seen the Acer Swift Edge show how thin an OLED laptop can go, and the display was worryingly flimsy as a result. The downsides of OLED Is that glare I see? Is that glare I see?IDG / Mark Knapp Is that glare I see?IDG / Mark Knapp IDG / Mark Knapp With all their positive attributes, OLED displays might sound like an obvious choice, but they do come with their share of downsides. Obviously the increased price is a key one, but this can vary a lot. Plenty of OLED laptops are available at reasonable prices, and plenty of OLED laptops have more expensive competition that wield LCD panels. Best OlED portable gaming laptop HP Omen Transcend 14 Read our review The upgrade to an OLED display isn’t always one-to-one either, so while it may appear like an expensive option when configuring a laptop, you have to also consider whether an upgrade is just the change to display technology or whether it includes a few other upgrades, like a boost to color gamut, resolution, refresh rate, or touchscreen capabilities. All of these upgrades would also cost more even with an LCD panel. Perhaps the biggest downside to OLED displays on laptops is their visibility in different conditions. Many OLED laptops have glossy screens, and though the displays may offer high brightness, glare can be a major struggle. Reflections appearing on the display also eliminate OLED’s contrast advantage as fast as Thanos eliminated half the universe. This puppy maxed out at 284 nits and was still easy to see This puppy maxed out at 284 nits and was still easy to seeIDG / Mark Knapp This puppy maxed out at 284 nits and was still easy to seeIDG / Mark Knapp IDG / Mark Knapp If you’re someone who expects to be using your laptop all over the place, indoors and outdoors, in dark rooms and bright sunlit spaces, know that reflectivity could hamper the experience of an OLED display. It’s given me plenty of grief using my own OLED laptops, and even drove me to apply an anti-glare cover to one despite the reduction to my perceived contrast. I’d wholeheartedly recommend a solid anti-glare LCD display in this case. Though OLEDs’ per-pixel dimming can offer battery savings in some unique circumstances, those are rare. More often, OLED laptops appear to have worse battery life than their LCD counterparts. That can further compound with the need to bump the brightness to compensate for the glare issues. That said, plenty of OLED laptops still offer stellar battery life, like the 2024 Acer Swift Go 14 and 2024 Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, and you should consult reviews in making your decision. Best overall OlEd laptop Asus Zenbook 14 OLED Read our review You may have also heard of OLED displays having color fringing and text-clarity issues, and while this has been true for desktop OLED monitors, I have not encountered this on laptops. Laptop displays aren’t using the same panels as TVs and monitors, and even if they were, their pixel density is high enough that these issues would effectively be shrunken to the point of being out of sight. While there are other concerns, this isn’t really one of them for OLED laptops. Burn-in is also a concern for any OLED display, and the many static elements on a laptop display can pose some risk of this. Having used an OLED laptop extensively for work, I did not notice any of this, but I relied on some dimming features and a system-wide dark mode to protect the display. My sample size is also limited, and some OLED panels could fare worse. OLED laptops: Yay or nay? OLED displays on laptops have some fantastic qualities that can make them a true delight for entertainment and media. Gamers also get major benefits from them. If these are your primary uses for a laptop, then by all means, go for the OLED laptop. It will almost certainly look gorgeous in ideal conditions. But if you do a lot of work on your laptop, all the downsides of OLED laptops are liable to rear up. While an OLED laptop can make a Word document look good thanks to those inky black pixels composing the text, it’ll hardly be a noticeable improvement, and the glare and battery-life issues you’re likely to face will neutralize any perceived benefit. And if you ever want to work near a bright window or outdoors in the daytime, even a dim LCD panel with a good anti-glare finish can prove substantially easier to see than even a quality OLED display. Laptops