Razer has been updating its gaming mouse lineup systematically over the past two years, and it's finally the Basilisk's turn to get a real update. The last update we saw to the Basilisk line was the Basilisk V3 Pro 35K in October 2024, which was basically just the Basilisk V3 Pro with a new sensor.

The Basilisk isn't Razer's most popular gaming mouse line, but it is the more versatile, all-rounder line for people who aren't chasing performance above all else. The Basilisk V4 Pro maintains the general design of its predecessor — a contoured, right-handed gaming mouse with bright RGB lighting and a handful of extra buttons, for the serious gamer who isn't trying to break esports records. It features Razer's newest Focus Pro 50K optical sensor, gen-4 optical mouse switches, and up to an 8,000 Hz polling rate, plus multiple forms of connectivity and up to 200 hours of battery life (over 2.4GHz at 1,000 Hz).

It is admittedly pricey, like all of Razer's flagship mice, at $169.99 for both colorways (black and white), and it launched with Razer's Mouse Dock V2 Pro — which is sold separately for $69.99.

Design and Comfort of the Basilisk V4 Pro

Following in the footsteps of its other recent next-gen mouse launches, Razer has kept the design of the Basilisk V4 Pro largely the same. The Basilisk V4 Pro has basically the same size and shape as its predecessor — it has a right-handed ergonomic shape with a contoured thumb rest and a hump that sits slightly back and to the left. It has large primary mouse buttons with shallow finger grooves, and a slight contour on its outer edge that makes it relatively easy to pick up and move.

It's not exactly the same as the V3 Pro, however. The V4 Pro has two new buttons, for a total of 12 programmable buttons on the mouse: the left and right primary buttons, three thumb buttons (instead of the usual two) and a trigger button in the thumb groove, a clickable tilt wheel (three "buttons" — center click and left/right click), two buttons above the tilt wheel, and an extra button on the left side of the left mouse button. The third thumb button and the extra button on the left mouse button are the new ones; the third thumb button sits in front of the first two and is set to open up Razer's AI prompt by default, while the extra button on the left mouse button is set to switch through profiles by default.

I'm... actually not a big fan of the new buttons. Or, well, I don't really think they're necessary — the Basilisk already had plenty of buttons for a mouse that's not all about having buttons, and I don't really see myself incorporating these new buttons into my workflow in the near future. The extra button on the left mouse button is a little too far forward — this is a very long mouse (it measures 5.02 inches / 127.5mm long), and the extra button is right at the front edge. I have medium-sized hands and relatively long fingers, and the button felt too far for me to press comfortably. It's not a big deal if you plan to leave it set as a profile switch button (which are often located on the bottom of mice), but it's not really viable as a real extra button.

Worse, however, is the location of the third thumb button — the AI prompt button — which is located in line with the other two thumb buttons. I generally have no issue with three rows of thumb buttons, as my daily driver is the Razer Naga V3 Pro, but this new AI button is the same size as the other thumb buttons and it pushes everything back a little. This puts the first thumb button (MB4) back too far to press comfortably (and that's a mouse button I use often). And while you can swap the buttons around, the AI prompt button is slightly too far forward. Basically, there are now three buttons where there should be only two, and they all feel slightly off.

The tilt wheel has three different modes you can switch through with the button right above it: two tactile modes (24 and 48 steps), and free-spin mode. I generally love free-spin mode, but the tilt wheel on the Basilisk V4 Pro is a little too sensitive and will backscroll if you even think about moving your finger near it. The precision-tactile scroll hits a great balance and feels great, however, so this didn't bother me too much.

The Basilisk V4 Pro comes in both black and white colorways; ours came in white, which has shiny black accents so it's a little more Stormtrooper than iPod. It has a smooth matte white body with dimpled rubber texturing for grip on both sides. While it's nice to have built-in side grips, I suspect they will wear down like the grips on the V3 Pro — and then you'll have to find or make your own grip tape, as the mouse comes with none. The mouse is roughly the same size as its predecessor, but it weighs less: the black version weighs 3.53 ounces (100g), which is almost half an ounce lighter than the V3 Pro 35K (3.95oz / 112g). It's not an ultralightweight mouse (or anywhere close), but the weight difference is noticeable and the mouse is definitely easier to pick up.

On the bottom of the mouse, you'll find pure PTFE feet — two near the front, a strip at the back, and a strip under the thumbrest, as well as a strip around the sensor, a power switch, and a connection switch button that is not programmable.

In the box, the Basilisk V4 Pro comes with a USB-A dongle, a USB-A to USB-C converter, and a 6-foot (2m) braided USB-C to USB-A cable. While the cable is braided, it is not one of Razer's flexible HyperFlex cables — it's meant for charging the mouse and plugging the dongle into your PC, not for using the mouse in its wired form.

Specs

Performance of the Basilisk V4 Pro

The Basilisk V4 Pro sports Razer's latest optical sensor, which is the Focus Pro 50K Gen-3 optical sensor. It has a maximum resolution of 50,000 DPI and a maximum speed of 930 IPS, and it can handle up to 90 G's of force. This is the third Razer mouse to feature this sensor (others are the Viper V4 Pro and the Naga V3 Pro), and it's a solid sensor that works with Razer's dynamic sensitivity (the sensitivity can be set up to change based on how quickly you move your hand) and rotation tool in Synapse. It tracks well across just about every surface, including glass that's at least 4mm thick.

The Basilisk V4 Pro isn't an ultra-lightweight mouse, but its shape and grippiness mean it's pretty easy to pick up and move quickly if you're playing an FPS. The trigger button is right under your thumb, however, so you may accidentally trigger (haha) it if you have a tendency to pick up your mouse a lot. The Basilisk's shape isn't quite as natural-feeling as that of the DeathAdder V4 Pro, but it's a comfortable mouse for a variety of games — from multi-button-needing MMOs to competitive shooters (though, perhaps not for peak competition). While I still take issue with the placement of the new buttons, it is nice to have a few extra buttons without jumping straight to 19.

The Basilisk V4 Pro sports Razer's Gen-4 optical mouse switches, which are rated for over 100 million clicks. The switches have a nice, crisp sound that's not too loud (not as loud as Logitech's, anyway), though it's not a mouse for those trying to minimize mouse clickiness. The primary buttons have a solid, tactile feel, and I had no issues with misclicks or double-clicks while I was testing. While the tilt wheel's free-spin mode was too sensitive for me to get to work properly, I love the precision tactile mode — it blends speed and tactility perfectly.

Features and Software of the Basilisk V4 Pro

The Basilisk V4 Pro is programmable with Razer Synapse 4 (not Razer's web-based version of Synapse). You can use Synapse to remap the mouse's 12 programmable buttons (14 programmable controls, if you include scroll up/down; the connection switch button on the bottom of the mouse is not programmable). Synapse has a variety of remap options, as well as a built-in macro recorder / editor. Synapse is also where you'll be able to customize the mouse further by tweaking things like the scroll wheel, DPI stages, and surface calibration. There's also a sensitivity matcher that will match the Basilisk V4 Pro's sensitivity to match that of your old mouse.

You can also use Razer's Chroma Studio to customize the mouse's lighting and sync it with games and/or your other Razer peripherals. The Basilisk V4 Pro has seven RGB lighting zones: a five-zone underglow strip along the bottom curve of the mouse, as well as one in the scroll wheel and one in the logo on the palm rest. The lighting is bright and the underglow's five zones blend nicely — the underglow strip is tilted outward so it's pretty visible when the mouse is just sitting on your desk.

Wireless Experience and Battery Life of the Basilisk V4 Pro

The Basilisk V4 Pro has three forms of connectivity: 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth, and wired (via USB-C), though it doesn't really come with a mouse-ready USB-C cable. Razer rates it at 200 hours of battery life over a 2.4GHz wireless connection with a 1,000 Hz polling rate, which is excellent. This number does drop to 54 hours at an 8,000 Hz polling rate, which is... still pretty good, to be honest.

The Basilisk V4 Pro launched alongside Razer's Mouse Dock V2 Pro, which is a wireless charging dock with built-in RGB lighting and an integrated 8,000 Hz wireless receiver. The Mouse Dock V2 Pro is sold separately for $70, and comes with a wireless charging puck that slots into the bottom of the mouse. It sits on your desk (it's small — 3.28 x 2.2 x 1.71 inches / 83.5 x 56 x 43.5mm) and serves as a magnetic dock and wireless receiver for your mouse. It has eight RGB lighting zones around the base, and it lights up to indicate battery level (flashes red when the battery is low). It's made for the Basilisk V4 Pro and V4 HyperSpeed, but it will also work with the Basilisk V3 Pro 35K, the Basilisk V3 Pro, the Cobra Pro, the Cobra HyperSpeed, the Naga V3 Pro, and the Naga V2 Pro (up to 8,000 Hz polling rate for all except the Naga V2 Pro).

The Basilisk V4 Pro is also compatible with Razer's HyperFlux V2 charging mouse pad, but you'll need to connect to your PC via the mouse's dongle for 8,000 Hz polling.

Bottom Line

The Razer Basilisk V4 Pro is an expected update to the Basilisk V3 Pro / 35K. The bump in battery life, from 150 hours in the Basilisk V3 Pro 35K to 200 hours in the Basilisk V4 Pro, is very nice (and 54 hours with an 8,000 Hz polling rate isn't bad, either). While I didn't like the new buttons, I'm sure some people will (although I find it difficult to believe that every mouse and keyboard needs a dedicated AI prompt button), and the reduced weight feels good even if, at 100g, it's still nowhere near the ultra-lightweight category. The Basilisk V4 Pro is a great gaming mouse for gamers who want something a little more exciting and versatile than a DeathAdder V4 Pro, but not as button-heavy (or as heavy) as a Naga V3 Pro.

Micron's next-generation 3D NAND, which will enter mass production in 2H 2027, is set to offer three significant advantages: it will double storage density, increase I/O performance by 50% compared to the company's current-generation NAND memory, and decrease power consumption, the company revealed at an event this week. To achieve these aggressive goals, Micron plans to take a page from YMTC's book and adopt wafer-on-wafer bonding. Meanwhile, Micron is also developing new materials and denser memory cell architectures to extend 3D NAND scaling beyond G11.

"We had mentioned we will bring in wafer-on-wafer bonding technology at the right time when it’s cost-effective, and it brings in capability that is important for the product specs at the time, and this is the right timing for that technology," said Scott DeBoer, president and chief technology and products officer at Micron, during the company's event this week. "So this G11 technology is the world's most advanced NAND. It will ramp in the second half of next year, [and] it is based on wafer-on-wafer bonding technology."

G11: Over 400 layers and wafer bonding

Micron's G11 3D NAND represents a substantial advancement over its current G9 (N160) generation. The company expects the new memory to achieve approximately twice the bit density of G9 (3D TLC 21 Gb/mm² => 3D TLC 42 Gb/mm²?), which means a dramatic increase compared to Kioxia's BiCS10 or Samsung's V10; increase I/O speeds by up to 50% (3,600 MT/s => 5,400 MT/s?); and reduce data transfer energy consumption per bit by more than 25%.

These improvements should benefit both conventional high-capacity SSDs for client and data center applications and emerging AI-oriented storage devices, which require greater bandwidth and energy efficiency.

One of the key changes introduced with G11 is wafer-on-wafer bonding, which enables Micron to manufacture different parts of its NAND device on separate wafers using different process technologies — a new 3D NAND node to build a NAND array and a logic fabrication process to make peripheral circuits and I/O — and subsequently bond them together. The company has used CMOS-under-array architectures for several generations. Still, wafer bonding provides additional flexibility to optimize memory arrays and peripheral logic independently, which means more capacity and performance if all goes as planned.

Another important innovation is the transition to more than 400 NAND layers. Micron has not disclosed the exact number of active wordline layers or the number of memory decks used by G11, but the company says the technology will feature an industry-leading memory cell pitch, which suggests that its density improvements will come from both additional layers and smaller cell dimensions.

Micron expects to disclose more technical details about G11 in 2027, closer to the start of high-volume manufacturing in the second half of next year.

Beyond G11: New materials and denser memory cells

Without any doubt, Micron will continue scaling 3D NAND along all three dimensions rather than simply increasing the number of layers going forward. While conventional 3D NAND scaling initially relied primarily on adding more memory layers, future generations will also require reductions in cell dimensions along the X and Y axes to improve bit density while keeping manufacturing complexity in check.

To achieve this, Micron is developing what it describes as breakthrough high-mobility materials, ultra-dense cell architectures, and more energy-efficient devices and data paths. These technologies could improve transistor characteristics, enable further reductions in memory cell dimensions, and reduce the energy required to move data within NAND devices.

"Beyond G11, we have a strong roadmap, not going to go into great detail on it today, but really focused on new materials densifying the cell architecture, and continuing to focus on that XYZ scaling going forward," said DeBoer. "[…] The current industry direction and Micron’s direction is scaling both by adding layers [and] also by shrinking the cell dimensions."

The company has not disclosed specific architectural details, density targets, or production schedules for its post-G11 generations, though its roadmap suggests that future NAND scaling will increasingly depend on innovations in materials, cell architecture, and peripheral circuitry rather than layer-count increases alone. Meanwhile, since the number of active layers is arguably the easiest way to increase storage density, we would not expect the race towards the highest layer count to slow down substantially in the coming years, especially given strong demand for 3D NAND-based storage.

SK hynix early on Friday announced that it had decided to abandon plans for a potential initial public offering (IPO) of Solidigm, its U.S.-based enterprise SSD subsidiary, citing unfavorable stock market conditions and semiconductor share price trends. At the same time, SK hynix confirmed it plans to build a new fab for Solidigm in the U.S. to address growing demand for enterprise SSDs. Although an IPO could have helped finance a new fab in the U.S., SK hynix claims that its subsidiary’s expansion remains a priority.

Solidigm specializes in high-capacity data center SSDs based on floating gate 3D QLC NAND memory. As AI infrastructure deployments accelerate, demand for high-capacity storage increases, whereas Solidigm's existing manufacturing capacity is barely sufficient to address its projected needs. Consequently, SK hynix believes that Solidigm requires additional production facilities in the U.S., although it has yet to disclose the planned fab's capacity, investment requirements, or construction schedule. Such a facility could also strengthen SK hynix's American manufacturing footprint, which is important, given the current environment and on-shoring trends.

SK hynix had considered multiple options — including direct investment, a pre-IPO funding round, and IPO of Solidigm — to finance capacity expansion. An IPO would have enabled SK hynix to raise capital from outside investors without taking on more debt. Furthermore, it could have revealed the true value of the subsidiary, which SK hynix believes is not properly reflected in its own market capitalization. In addition to financing the expansion, the proceeds could have been used for dividends, share repurchases, and share cancellations.

However, SK hynix says that increased market volatility and the ongoing correction in semiconductor stocks have made an IPO less attractive. As a result, the company believes that current market conditions would prevent Solidigm from achieving a valuation that adequately reflects its growth prospects. Consequently, it has discontinued its review of both pre-IPO financing and an IPO, even though it will continue to evaluate alternative funding mechanisms.

The cancellation of the IPO raises an obvious question: why would SK hynix abandon a financing mechanism that could provide billions of dollars for Solidigm's expansion just as demand for enterprise SSDs is at a record high and set to increase further over the next couple of years? After all, constructing a modern 3D NAND fab requires tens of billions of dollars, and external financing could reduce the burden on SK hynix's balance sheet and preserve capital for other projects (e.g., new capacity elsewhere).

One possible explanation is Solidigm's exceptionally strong profitability. Micron's enterprise storage division recently reported a non-GAAP gross margin of 90%, and given Solidigm's unique position in the market (it controls 21.1% of the enterprise SSD market together with its parent company), its margins may well be higher as it sells exclusive products. If extraordinary margins are sustainable over the next two or three years, its operations could substantially boost SK hynix’s consolidated profitability and generate considerable cash for future investments. Given these circumstances, SK hynix could potentially finance Solidigm's U.S. manufacturing expansion through a combination of internally generated cash and debt even without diluting its ownership. Financing the entire project with cash alone may also be possible, even though such an approach would be less likely given the massive capital requirements of advanced semiconductor production facilities nowadays. In any case, it is natural for SK hynix to prefer retaining full ownership of a highly profitable subsidiary to selling part of it at a valuation it considers inadequate.

The latest board to land on our test bench is a small-form-factor Intel option, the Gigabyte Z890M Aorus Elite Wifi7 Ice. This Micro ATX motherboard costs only $209 on Amazon and packs most of the ATX version's features into a smaller package. The board is optimized for Intel’s Core Ultra 200S Plus processors and pairs best with Micro ATX chassis, but its best feature is its looks. It’s one of the better-looking Micro ATX options, especially if you’re looking for a white-themed build.

The Z890M Aorus Elite offers three M.2 sockets (2x PCIe 5.0) and four SATA ports for storage, 2.5 GbE and Wi-Fi 7 (160 Hz) for networking, and a basic audio solution. The rear IO delivers nine USB ports total, including one 40 Gbps Type-C port (with DisplayPort capability). All of that is typical fare for the form factor. You also get two full-length PCIe slots (one reinforced) and heatsinks covering all M.2 sockets, giving the board a more premium look than its direct competition. It also adds two RGB lighting zones, one by the VRMs on the left and the other under the chipset heatsink, adding glow to your chassis.

Overall, performance in our testing was average, with the board doing well in some tests and slightly below average in others. For gamers, it performed well in our 3DMark tests and in real games. In short, there’s nothing to worry about from a performance standpoint. The Z890M Aorus Elite also supports AI features, including AI Perfdrive, which offers customizable BIOS performance presets for one-click CPU improvements.

Below, we’ll examine the board's performance and other features to determine whether it deserves a spot on our list of the best motherboards. But before we share test results and discuss details, here are the specifications from Gigabyte.

Specifications of the Gigabyte Z890M Aorus Elite Wifi7 Ice

Inside the Box

The box includes the usual accessories. You get two SATA cables (white), a rubber pad, an extra thermal pad for M.2, an EZ connector for the front panel, and an installation guide. The collection here is sparse, but typical for the price point.

Design and Features of the Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice

For what tends to be a budget motherboard class (and typically, well, ugly), the Aorus Elite WiFi 7 Ice is an attractive Micro ATX SKU. Where its peers don’t offer complete heatsink coverage on the bottom half, this one does. It also uses a large heatsink for the primary M.2 socket, unlike its peers. It also has integrated RGB lighting (under the VRM and chipset heatsinks) for an extra bit of flair. All in all, it’s one of the better-looking Micro ATX motherboards around.

Zooming in on the top half, starting on the left, we get a better look at the Aorus eagle design, along with the RGB feature. The VRM heatsink below has a lot of mass and surface area, so it does a good job keeping the MOSFETs below running in spec. Above that are the two “UD” (solid pin) 8-pin power connectors (one required) for the processor.

Past the CPU socket, the next thing we run into is the four DRAM slots with the locking mechanism at the top (where there’s room). Gigabyte lists support for up to DDR5-9200(OC), which is plenty fast for the platform. Surprisingly, our fastest kit (DDR5-8800) didn’t play nice with this board, but the DDR5-8200 kit worked fine. As always, for best results, stick to the memory QVL.

Next to the RAM slots on the left are the first two (of six) 4-pin fan headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices. Each header supports up to 2A/24W output, which is plenty, especially for a smaller chassis with fewer fans. Gigabyte Control Center (GCC) and the BIOS control the fans via the Smart Fan 6 applet.

Above the DRAM slots is the Q-LED feature. Four LEDs, CPU/Boot/VGA/RAM, light up during POST. If a failure occurs during that time, the offending RGB stays lit, giving you a general idea of where the problem may be. Next to it, in the upper-right corner, are three simple buttons: power, reset, and Q-Flash.

Down the right edge, you'll find the first (of three) 3-pin ARGB headers. The other two are along the bottom edge. GCC and the RGB Fusion app inside control these headers and the integrated lighting, offering users plenty of canned LED effects and customization. Below that are the 24-pin ATX connector to power the board, another 4-pin fan header, the front-panel USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) connector, and a 19-pin front-panel USB 3.2 Gen1 (5 Gbps) header. Between those is a front-panel HDMI output, making it easy to add secondary displays for monitoring or further chassis customization.

Power delivery on the Z890M Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice is capable, but it doesn’t quite reach the level of "robust." The board has 15 phases, 12 of which are dedicated to Vcore. Power comes from the dual 8-pin EPS connectors and is controlled by the OnSemiconductor NCP81537 8-phase controller (teamed configuration). From there, power moves on to the OnSemi NCP302155 60A DrMOS MOSFETs and then to your processor. The 720A available isn’t a lot, but it can handle the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, and even the Core Ultra 9 285K — though I’m not sure how hard I’d push it overclocking the 285K or 270K Plus. Just be sure to keep air flowing through your chassis, as these components will get warm under sustained heavy use.

On the bottom half of the board, starting on the left edge, we spy the audio solution. The Z890M uses the budget Realtek ALC897 codec, plus a few dedicated audio capacitors (yellow and black). While one of its direct competitors has a better one, this codec is fine for most users, and there's no reason to avoid it unless you're making music with the board or consider yourself a PC-focused audiophile.

In the middle of the board are two full-length PCIe slots. The primary slot, using Gigabyte’s PCIe UD Slot X reinforcement) connects through the CPU and runs at PCIe 5.0 x16 speeds (no bifurcation, FYI). The second slot at the bottom sources its bandwidth through the chipset and runs up to PCIe 4.0 x4. There’s plenty of bandwidth for expansion; just make sure your graphics card doesn’t cover the second slot if you need to use it.

Between and above the PCIe slots are three M.2 sockets. The top socket, under the beefy EZ-Latch heatsink (made good contact, note), connects through the CPU and is the main PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) M.2 socket. Under the plate-style heatsink (also using EZ-Latch along with EZ-Click to secure the M.2 without screws) are two more M.2 sockets. Both sockets connect via the chipset, support 80mm devices, and run up to PCIe 4.0 x4 speeds. The bottom socket supports up to 110mm modules, while the middle socket supports the more familiar 80mm. If you need the additional speed or redundancy RAID offers, the board supports RAID0/1/5/10 modes for NVMe SSDs.

We've also captured several images of the ICs that make this motherboard work, including Realtek Ethernet and audio, ASMedia (for the front HDMI), and OnSemiconductor MOSFETs/PWM controller.

Moving right, past the chipset heatsink and the other RGB lighting element, we spot a couple of Thunderbolt headers and four SATA ports (supporting RAID0/1/5/10 modes). At the bottom of the board is a slew of headers, offering the typical connectivity in this area, with nothing worth calling out.

Below, we’ve listed all the connections across the bottom of the board.

• Front panel audio
• (2) 4-pin RGB header
• 3-pin ARGB header
• (2) USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) headers
• (2) 4-pin system fan headers
• SPI TPM header
• 2-pin reset jumper
• 2-pin Clear CMOS jumper
• Front panel header

The rear IO area is pretty sparse compared to high-end boards, but it uses some venting to help keep the VRMs running cooler. On the left (in white) are four USB 2.0 ports, followed by four USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports in blue. Below those is the DisplayPort (v2.1) output. Next to the blue USB ports is your sole Type-C port. In this case, it's USB4 (not Thunderbolt 4) at 40 Gbps and supports DisplayPort output as well. To the right, you'll find the 2.5 GbE port and, below that in red, the only USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-A port. Finally, on the right, are the quick-connect Wi-Fi 7 (160 Hz) connectors and audio stack: dual 3.5mm jacks for mic and line-out, plus an SPDIF optical output.

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Firmware

Gigabyte’s updated “UC BIOS 2.0” defaults to Easy Mode. It’s logically laid out and displays a wealth of system information, including processor, RAM, fan speeds, and several selectable options such as XMP profiles, RAM tweaks, Re-Size BAR support, Smart Fan 6 access, and more. The Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice uses a white background with the ‘Aorus orange’ accents and black text, creating a high-contrast, easy-to-read screen similar to the Aorus Infinity, but with a white background instead of Aorus branding. The BIOS also offers different themes in EZ mode via a dropdown if you want to change it.

All headings still appear across the top in advanced mode, but they are now larger ‘buttons’ and easy to select with a mouse. The highlight bar (where you are on the page) is a light blue here and easy to see. Every option you need and want is at your fingertips, and you don’t have to drill down several layers to reach the most commonly used functions – especially if you populate your selections in the Favorites section.

Software

Gigabyte Control Center (GCC) is a one-stop solution for controlling various functions, including RGB and Fan control, hardware monitoring, and overclocking. It also helps you find, download, and install driver updates for your system. It’s a simple application that does its job. It’s also a much cleaner tool than the previous App Center. It earns our approval for the breadth of functionality it offers users. There’s also the curiously named AI Snatch to help with overclocking.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (25H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late April 2026. On the hardware front, we’ve updated the RAM kits to ones appropriate for the platform. Peripherals, including cooling, storage, power supply, and graphics cards, remain unchanged. We also use the latest publicly available BIOS unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows:

TEST SYSTEM COMPONENTS:

• CPU - Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus
• Cooling - Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
• Storage - Crucial 2TB T705 M.2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD
• RAM - Kingston Fury Renegade - 32GB DDR5-7600 CL38 (KF576C38RWAK2-32)
• RAM - G.Skill Trident Z5 CK - 32GB DDR5-8200 CL40 (F5-8200C4052G24GX2-TZZ5CK)
• RAM - V-Color 256GB (2x128GB) DDR5-8000 CL64 (TECQ5128G80Q864K)
• GPU - Asus TUF RTX 4080 16G
• PSU - EVGA Supernova 850W P6
• Windows 11 64-bit (25H2 - 26200.8037)
• NVIDIA Driver 595.97

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features at default. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS, then enable the XMP profile to set the memory. If the BIOS enables boosts by default, it runs like that. We set the Windows power scheme to Balanced (default) for this baseline testing, so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks and Real World Applications

Synthetics offer a valuable way to evaluate a board's performance, since identical settings should yield similar results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are areas where motherboard manufacturers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and these settings can impact specific testing scenarios. We’ve also combined our previous ‘timed’ benchmark applications into this section..

Performance on the Aorus Elite was around the average among the tested boards. Some benchmarks were above average, while others were slightly below—nothing to worry about so far.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of the Arrow Lake refresh chips, we’ve updated our game tests. We’re keeping the F1 racing game but have upgraded to F1 25. We’ll also continue with the ever-popular, aesthetically pleasing Cyberpunk 2077. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed in the table above). Both games are set to use DLSS.

The goal of these settings is to determine whether performance differs at the most commonly used (and CPU/system-bound) resolution, with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS metric, which can affect your gameplay and immersion.

As we’ve seen for a while now, the 3DMark tests don’t show much separation from worst to first, and we see that again across our varied datasets. 3DMark scores were fine; in fact, they were the highest so far in these tight results, while gaming results were average overall. Not only does it do work, but as expected, the board also plays games just fine.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking on both sides of the fence, while out-of-the-box performance has increased. For overclockers, that means less fun. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever, and most support power-hungry flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them.

You can extract even more performance from these processors by manually adjusting settings or using the fancy AI overclocking that board partners have been touting. Results will vary and depend on the CPU's cooling and quality. In other words, your mileage may vary. With that in mind, we’re not overclocking the CPU for these review articles. However, we'll test our different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

Memory testing went OK, with the board surviving a 30-minute stress test using the DDR5-7600 and DDR5-8200 kits without issue. That said, it struggled with the DDR5-8800 kit and failed after about 5 minutes. If you really want to push memory speeds, stick to the QVL list for your best chance of reaching higher speeds.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, cache, and Memory enabled for power testing, using the processor's peak power consumption value. We measured wall wattage with a Kill-A-Watt meter, which captures the entire PC (excluding the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. We now use only the stock power-use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

Stress testing with our flagship-class 270K Plus and the Team Group DDR5-7600 kit at stock yielded a peak of only 330W at the wall, tying our lowest result so far. The board also sipped power at idle, dropping to around 56W, the lowest result we’ve recorded for the platform. This board sips power compared to some others.

VRM temperatures ran warm, but are not a concern. Throughout the 30-minute test, the system (excluding the monitor) averaged 232W, and our sensors on the back of the board, directly under the MOSFETs, recorded temperatures peaking at just under 60 degrees Celsius, while HWInfo and the internal sensor showed similar peaks at about 60 degrees Celsius. That value is well within specification for the MOSFETs doing all the work below. We’re confident that the power delivery can handle whatever you're likely to throw at it. Chances are, the CPU temperature will limit you before the board does, but keep airflow good to keep temperatures down.

Bottom Line

Gigabyte’s Z890M Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice is a solid all-around motherboard for the Micro ATX form factor and smaller builds. Its icy-white aesthetic and ‘full coverage’ of heatsinks are rare for this class of board and give it a premium vibe compared to its peers. Hardware-wise, it includes most of what you’d expect from the Z890 platform, though I’d like to see another USB4 port on the rear IO, and perhaps a better audio codec. Still, this is one of the better-looking and better-equipped of the Z890M Micro ATX options.

As for the competition, the Asus Prime Z890M-Plus ($216.99) has more expansion slots (4), additional “AI” features, and SATA ports (6), but fewer rear USB ports, and it just doesn’t give off the same premium vibes as the Gigabyte Z890M. ASRock’s Z890M Riptide Wifi ($252) costs quite a bit more than the others and offers more robust power delivery (like the Asus) and decent looks, but its specs are otherwise similar. Aesthetically, the ASRock is also less pleasing than the Gigabyte, and it has only one PCIe slot (so no room for expansion if needed). MSI has the Pro B860M-A WiFi ($158), which uses a lesser mainstream chipset, offers 5 GbE (and slower 6E Wi-Fi), and is otherwise comparable to the Asus with its extra PCIe slots. Oh, and it doesn't look great.

Overall, the Z890M Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice is one of the better-looking Micro ATX offerings and nicely priced, earning a spot on our best motherboards list (for Intel Micro ATX). The icy-white aesthetic and minimal PCB visibility will turn heads in a white case. Hardware-wise, it has the specs you expect for this class of board. If you’re in the market for a Micro ATX Intel board, the Z890M Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7 Ice should be your first stop, especially if you want to show off your paired white components.

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If you've been thinking about making the transition from an IPS monitor to an OLED display to upgrade your gaming setup, today's deal is a great way to pick up a new QD-OLED screen for a great price. Save $50 at Best Buy on Acer's 27-inch Predator XB27OU QD-OLED gaming monitor, now only $329.99, a great price for onboarding the latest technology into your gaming setup. Experience gorgeous inky blacks and eye-popping colors with the amazing contrast offered by QD-OLED displays, perfect for accentuating your favorite games.

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The Acer Predator XB27OU has a max resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels; it's a QHD (2K) display that's superb for a mid-range gaming PC where the graphics card shouldn't struggle too much to meet the frame rate and resolution requirements. It has a very fast 240Hz refresh rate for seamless gaming, and thanks to the OLED tech, the gray-to-gray response time is a staggeringly low 0.03ms, giving your games very smooth motion and avoiding ghosting compared to slower monitors. This monitor also fully supports AMD's FreeSync Premium tech, so you can match the refresh rate of the monitor to the frame rate of your games to eliminate screen tearing completely, for a much better gaming experience.

Let's not forget about the other great aspect of QD-OLED displays - the color representation. The Acer Predator XB27OU sports an impressive 99% DCI-P3 color gamut, a Delta E<2 accuracy, and even supports HDR10, a 10-bit color solution that improves contrast, color depth, and brightness compared to standard dynamic range.

You can connect your gaming PC and even a couple of game consoles thanks to the inclusion of two HDMI 2.1 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4 port. Plenty of connections for the ultimate gaming battlestation.

Amazon will no longer build four new data centers on the site of the George Washington University's campus in Loudoun County, just outside of D.C., and will instead repurpose the majority of the 122-acre space for mixed-use and residential development following significant pushback from the local community. It will also donate 25 acres of the property to Loudoun County to be used for a community arts center and new recreational facility. On top of all that, it'll even give $5 million to the county's fund for housing, reports The Washington Post.

That's quite the turnaround compared to plans to build in a county that is already dubbed "Data Center Alley" because it has the largest concentration of data centers on the planet. But residents' concerns about the noise generated by such data centers and the incredible amount of power that they require to function have seen the county's approach to new data center buildouts change of late. Amazon first submitted its proposal to build the new facilities in July, and Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis J. Randall and Amazon met in September, where it was put to the company that it may be better to find an alternative use for the land.

Josh Weissman, Amazon’s vice president in charge of data center development, said the company had jumped at the chance to purchase the former university campus when the opportunity arose, but added that the company considered the county’s “pointed concerns about data center development at this particular site.” Weissman added that “While we see the property’s legal development potential differently than the County does, we concluded that the best outcome for all is to come together on a shared vision for this campus rather than engage in costly litigation.”

The building of new data centers has always been a necessity given our growing use of cloud-based services and storage systems. But the recent boom in AI use has seen demand for additional, and larger, facilities ratcheted up to new levels. But with that demand comes opposition, with local communities wary of the impact these mammoth facilities can have on the areas in which they live, including spikes in the price of electricity. Officials have begun taking steps to try to grease the wheels of data center construction. Just days before this news broke, President Donald Trump called for data center builders and AI hyperscalers to pay local communities a dividend amid energy-related price increases. In a social media post, Trump went on to say that data centers would be required not only to make their own electricity but also to give or sell excess energy back to the local community. Water shortages and deforestation have also become key issues affecting the communities in which data centers are being placed.

Back in Loudoun County, officials pointed to what could be achieved when choosing dialog over confrontation. “By choosing dialogue over reflexive disagreement, Loudoun County and Amazon created an opportunity for the County,” Randall reportedly said via statement. “This agreement provides new places for our Loudoun residents to gather, create, and play. And, most importantly to me, we will provide more attainable homes for working families.”

Export controls have kept ASML's most advanced EUV lithography machines out of China. Instead, the country's chipmaking industry has relied on less-capable deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines. By using multiple exposures on critical chip layers, these older machines are still capable of producing performant silicon. However, as multiple patterns are applied there are more chances for defects, longer manufacturing times, and higher bills. We spoke to experts like Chris Mack, co-founder and CTO of semiconductor firm Fractilia, to find out how much further DUV can go.

For years, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography has been seen as China’s biggest choke point in the country’s attempts to build cutting-edge chips. The machines, made exclusively by Dutch manufacturer ASML, use 13.5nm-wavelength light to print some of the most intricate features found on modern processors. Sales of ASML’s EUV systems are subject to export restrictions, forcing Chinese manufacturers to squeeze ever more out of older deep ultraviolet, or DUV, lithography instead. The EUV gap alone between China and the West is at least half a decade, according to some analysts.

But even without access to EUV machines, China has gotten surprisingly far in recreating what it offers through existing technology.

Teardowns of Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro in 2023 found the phone’s Kirin 9000S processor had been made by SMIC using a second-generation 7nm-class manufacturing process without EUV. More recently, analysis of Huawei’s Kirin 9030 found SMIC had pushed its DUV-based process closer still to the density associated with 5nm manufacturing – although it continued to lag behind the leading processes used by TSMC and Samsung.

Multiple patterning

The trick is multiple patterning. Rather than trying to print an overly intricate chip layer in a single pass, Chinese manufacturers are dividing up the complex design into several simpler patterns. Repeat the process enough times and you can etch up something approximating the proper layer you intended.

The trick works. But according to lithography expert Chris Mack, co-founder and CTO of Fractilia, asking whether a chip can be made without EUV overlooks the trade-offs manufacturers make in order to do it.

“When this transition first began, what everyone in the industry said as conventional wisdom is that cost-wise, three exposures on a 193 immersion tool cost about the same as one exposure on an EUV tool,” Mack said in an interview with Tom’s Hardware Premium. “At three, it was about even,” Mack explained. “But as soon as you hit four masks – 193 masks being replaced by one EUV mask – then EUV became more cost-effective.”

It’s also likely to produce a higher quality product with fewer defects. Each time a wafer is patterned, that new pattern has to line up perfectly with everything that’s already been etched beneath it. The more individual exposures needed to produce a single layer, the more opportunities there are for things to go wrong. “If you have, say, four 193 masks, you've got all those different overlays, and you've got all these different process variations that start to accumulate,” Mack said.

Chip designers can try and avoid that by leaving more space around features so the finished processor can actually be manufactured reliably. But that means the chip ends up bigger – and bigger chips become expensive very quickly. Making each die larger means fewer fit on every wafer, and wafers cost a lot of money – tens of thousands of dollars each.

“You don't sell wafers, you sell die,” Mack said. “The question is: how many die can I fit onto that wafer, and how many of those die yield, and therefore how many chips can I sell per wafer?”

The efficiency gap

There is some evidence of what that efficiency gap can look like in practice – albeit in memory rather than logic chips. In a June report, Morgan Stanley estimated that Chinese DRAM manufacturer CXMT was producing only around one-third as many bits per wafer as Western competitors. The analysts believed the older process node only accounted for around a third of that shortfall, but said access to lithography was a “hard ceiling” on Chinese memory development. “For advanced logic chips, in theory there could be other innovations to engineer around EUV, but they are not likely to be very efficient and effective,” said Douglas Fuller, a researcher at Copenhagen Business School, in comments to Tom’s Hardware Premium.

It is also why claims that China has reached a particular semiconductor process “node” need to be treated with caution. “If somebody says it's X node – the seven nanometer node, the five nanometer node, the three nanometer node – these words almost have no meaning,” Mack said.

That can be seen in SMIC’s latest chips. Reporting suggests its N+3 process represents meaningful progress towards 5nm-class manufacturing – but the actual measurements show it remains significantly less scaled than established 5nm processes from Samsung and TSMC. That doesn’t mean DUV has reached the end of its useful exploitation.

Stretching DUV's efficacy

Micron is an example of how far DUV can be stretched, producing competitive DRAM chips using DUV, multiple patterning and tight process control. Its 1-alpha generation of chips was developed without EUV. “They pushed 193 farther than any of the other memory makers did,” Mack said. “They were able to make very competitive chips with 100% 193 compared to Samsung and Hynix making them with many layers of EUV.”

Morgan Stanley believes CXMT’s planned move to 1-alpha DRAM – which it wants to use for HBM3e – is achievable without access to EUV, citing Micron as evidence. Indeed, “by the end of the decade, advanced packaging will allow firms to use DUV to produce the latest generations of DRAM,” reckons Fuller.

Micron also designed its products around the manufacturing technology available to it, rather than simply trying to recreate an EUV process on older equipment – something which could be a useful lesson for Chinese manufacturers. “If the entire ecosystem of 193 immersion were available to China,” Mack explained, “then they could probably push a long way with 193 multiple patterning, especially if they optimise designs for the fact that they're going to be using that.”

But Micron was making memory, whose highly repetitive structures make close co-ordination between chip design and manufacturing easier than it is for the much more complicated logic processors found in phones and computers.

“Memory is a lot easier than logic,” Mack said.

And even Micron eventually concluded that EUV was worth using. Its newer 1-gamma DRAM process uses EUV lithography, with Micron saying the technology helps it achieve more than 30% greater bit density per wafer than its preceding 1-beta generation.

EUV is hardly a magic wand, either. Mack points to stochastic effects – tiny random variations caused by the small number of photons involved in an exposure – which mean manufacturers can improve pattern control by increasing the EUV exposure dose. But it also pushes the cost back up quickly.

Because of that, Mack believes there is ultimately a limit to how far multiple patterning can economically substitute for EUV. “I would be hard pressed to really believe that a three nanometer or a two nanometer node is going to be economically viable without EUV,” he said.

That doesn’t mean Chinese chipmakers simply hit a technological wall and stop. They can keep pushing DUV while accepting larger dies, poorer yields, longer manufacturing times – or some combination of all three.

They can also throw capacity and money at part of the problem. Morgan Stanley assumes CXMT remains stuck on its 1-alpha process without EUV, yet still increases its share of global DRAM bit supply from 14% in 2026 to 16% in 2028 simply by building more greenfield capacity. The bank also expects China’s AI chip self-sufficiency to rise from 42% in 2025 to 70% by 2030 through new advanced-node capacity, improving yields and heavy state support – while EUV, HBM and advanced software leave a persistent gap. And so without EUV, the experts reckon China can only get partway to bridging the gap with the West. ““I would be hard pressed,” said Mack, “to really believe that a three nanometer or a two nanometer node is going to be economically viable without EUV.”

Bambu Lab’s long-anticipated tool changer will launch on November 3rd. Dubbed the H3C, the 3D printer has 9 tools held by a Vortex-like rack mounted on the front of the chamber. Tool changers are the wave of the future, as they can switch colors faster and with less waste than Bambu Lab’s current AMS system.

Unfortunately, most of the information about the new 3D printer is shrouded in secrecy, but there are plenty of details that are already public knowledge. Bambu Lab is quite proud of this latest engineering feat, which you can see in the video below, and I’ll admit, I’m pretty impressed, too.

Here’s what we can confirm about the H3C: It is a member of the H-line of flagship printers, which includes the H2S, H2D, and H2C. As you can imagine, it is most similar to its namesake, the H2C, which is a 7-tool induction-heated “nozzle swapper” with a motorized Vortex rack to hold tools not in use. The H2C is one of the larger Bambu Lab machines, with a 330 x 320 x 325mm build volume.

The 11-second-long teaser video shows the tool rack dropping down, along with a satisfying metallic snick. As you might imagine, tool heads that are stored above the build plate are not going to get in your way when you’re watching that first layer go down. This is an annoying problem with the Bondtech INDX system, which we reviewed paired up with a Prusa CORE One, which forces you to peer through the tool rack to see what's going on inside the printer. Visibility on the Bambu H3C is probably better.

If you type “H3C leak” on YouTube, you can find several YouTubers who do not have machines under review dissecting the clues sprinkled around the internet. One “AI-enhanced” image showed 10 spools, which I can now finally confirm is completely wrong. Today’s video clearly shows only nine colorful Bowden tools arching over the top of the printer. We’re not at liberty to say what’s holding the spools, but I think it’s safe to acknowledge that it's a very Bambu sort of system.

The H2 line has been touted as a home manufacturing hub, so you might wonder if the H3C is the same? Perhaps it is. I had an opportunity to talk to Dr. Tao at Formnext last year when the H2C was fresh, and he was very interested in creating multitasking machines that could do more than just 3D print.

Sadly, not everyone was impressed with adding a laser to the H2D, but since the Bambu Lab A2L has an optional blade cutting and embossing tool, we can safely assume that the notion of multitasking is alive and well. I once programmed an Ender 3 to pick up Sharpie markers, so just think about the things a much more sophisticated machine with a team of sharp engineers could program.

I can’t wait to tell you more about the H3C. There are definitely a couple of surprising things about this printer that are going to come out of left field. We’ll let it all out on November 3rd.

Lava, an Israeli security firm, says that it has been able to identify 32 Nvidia Blackwell Ultra B300 chips within the network of China Telecom, a state-owned company that provides telecommunications services within the country. These same chips have already been barred from export by U.S. export controls, a report by The Information notes, which begs the question of how they have turned up in a Chinese data center. Such chips can only be sold to whitelisted buyers who agree not to export them to sanctioned parties, including those in China.

However, banning companies from buying Nvidia's high-performance GPUs and AI data center chips hasn't always worked. In 2025, it was reported that Chinese companies smuggled $1 billion worth of Nvidia AI chips into the country in three months. At the time, the B200 chips were the most sought-after, but some distributors were already gearing up to sell B300-series chips when they became available.

While the latest finding shows that the proliferation of export-controlled chips into China continues to be an issue, Nvidia has downplayed the report but didn't deny the findings. "Governments, researchers, and media have all found insignificant diversion of controlled US products, less than one half of one percent in recent court cases — a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of domestic compute China already has," an Nvidia spokesperson told Tom's Hardware. "With tens of millions of GPUs in service in approved countries, this report again demonstrates that smuggling is a nonfactor, blocked by governments on both sides of the globe."

It's unknown how B300 chips found their way into China Telecom's server racks, nor can Lava confirm exactly where within the company's network they are located. But they are there, with Lava identifying them via Nvidia's own DCGM Exporter tool. The software can be installed by data center operators and is used to monitor server health and performance, and while designed for internal use, it can oftentimes be accessed beyond the data center's network. Oddly, it doesn't always require password authentication, either. Nvidia previously confirmed it was working on a tool that would allow its chips to be located, but it is yet to be released.

It's easy to see why Chinese firms are keen to get their hands on the Blackwell Ultra B300. Announced in March of last year, the data center GPU is one of the most powerful on the planet, offering huge performance gains with 50% more memory and FP4 compute than the previous-generation B200. At the time, Nvidia touted that the chip was "built for the age of reasoning," while name-checking more sophisticated AI LLMs like DeepSeek R1. At the time of its announcement, the B300 was expected to ship by the end of 2025, and it didn't take long for it to become hot property. In August 2026, nine people were indicted in Taiwan over the illegal export of B300 GPUs to China. This came just days after Supermicro confirmed that it had fired several employees following an investigation into smuggling. The complicated smuggling process included the use of a Taiwanese server trading firm called Flying Tiget Tech — a firm with whitelisted status for GPU purchases.

Nvidia's chips have proven so vital to AI data centers that demand for even its older silicon has caused skyrocketing prices. The company's A100 servers have tripled in price, despite being five years old, and can cost up to $82.,000. The ongoing crackdown on Nvidia chip smuggling has even seen some resort to retooling gaming GPUs to run AI workloads where possible.

The FCC recently imposed a new rule allowing it to ban devices based on the internal chips instead of basing bans on individual products or brands, thus closing the loophole of rebranded products with parts from Chinese manufacturers on US export restriction lists. Using this new rule, the FCC has banned two devices from being sold and marketed in the US for the first time: a dashboard camera and a wireless video transmitter. As reported by The Verge, these devices were banned due to the HiSilicon Smart Vision SoC (System on a Chip) they contain, which features built-in detection algorithms for faces. HiSilicon is a subsidiary of Huawei, and the firm and its subsidiaries are on the FCC’s Covered List of entities that pose a risk to US national security.

The Hi3516CV610 UHD Smart Vision is an SoC for surveillance and camera products. The SoC is meant to be used for things like vehicle dashcams and wireless CCTV systems; fully equipped with WiFi, Ethernet, video encoding chips, an Arm Cortex-A7, and an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) for AI features. The NPU is what the FCC is concerned about, explaining that it is a device that contains logic-bearing “smart” components produced by entities on the Covered List.

On the SoC’s data sheet, the Intelligent Video Engine (IVE) uses the NPU that runs a built-in dedicated multimodal large model and transformer feature acceleration. The transformer feature acceleration allows the AI model to understand the relationship between objects from one video frame to another, keeping “attention” between related objects: pets, faces, human figures, and parcels, as the data sheet advertises. For consumers, this potentially means the AI in a surveillance camera can understand whether it is your pet that is escaping, or an unknown person is stealing your parcel after understanding that it was placed by a courier worker.

However, the FCC believes the logic-bearing AI in the SoC can do something much more nefarious, surveying US citizens and logging faces for foreign surveillance. Huawei already had a previous AI chip scandal, using shell companies to deceive TSMC into producing AI chips for them, going against the US’ request for TSMC to halt supplies to a list of Chinese customers; among other Huawei scandals leading to other product bans in the US.

Deepseek just upgraded its V4.1 Flash open-weight model to revision 1017. What looks like a mere point revision may actually be a significant step forward in model efficiency. On the product page, Deepseek uses the slogan "wish-driven programming made real," a likely reference to the colloquial "vibe coding," implying the model is a good fit for open-ended tasks with broad descriptions. However, while the model is indeed cheap and scores well, it can be hallucination-prone.

LLMs are roughly divided into two categories: closed commercial efforts from frontier labs, whose models are expensive to run but deliver excellent results, and Chinese open-weight competitors that broadly exchange reliability for a much cheaper running cost, particularly for long-running agentic tasks.

Deepseek V4.1 Flash (DSF) is a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model with 552B total parameters, 16B of which are active during runs. The model is multimodal, accepts both text and images as inputs, and its context window length measures the now-standard 1 million tokens.

According to Deepseek's internal benchmarks, the model slots in neatly between GPT-5.6 Sol and Claude Opus 5, even beating Anthropic's LLM in task tests. That's already a strong showing, but this latest revision of DSF shines in the performance-per-task base and token efficiency. The upgrade from V4 Flash to V4.1 Flash significantly slashed hardware requirements, with V4.1 using only one-quarter of the HBM and one-eighth of SSD storage for its KV cache compared to its predecessor, spending only 890 bytes per token entry.

The company illustrates the point with a cost-per-task graph based on DeepSWE's dataset from September 2, adding its own data points for both DSF and DSF-1017. Both variants cluster in the desirable top-left area, and even low-effort runs of DSF-1017 offer a task completion rate in the ballpark of "max" settings for pricey competitors. It's worth noting that DeepSWE is only one of many benchmarks, but this is nonetheless an impressive result.

Even at Deepseek's own pricing (remember, this is an open-weight model you can run anywhere), the price at off-peak times per million tokens is just $0.15 for input and $0.6 for output. On cache hits, the input token cost drops to a mere $0.003. It's worth keeping in mind that third-party providers have undercut Deepseek API in the past, so those figures could go lower if you shop around inference providers. Deepseek also offers search functionality at $0.75 per 1,000 queries, an amount that undercuts competitors, with the closest one being Parallel at $1.

DeepSWE isn't the only benchmark around, either. Artificial Analysis ranks DSF-1017 (max) as only #2 on its intelligence index within the large open-weight class, with a score of 45. For reference, the most seemingly intelligent model, Claude Opus 5.5 (max with fallback), rings in at 58. It's one of the fastest models in its category, too, and its cost-per-task is edged out only by Xiaomi's MiMo V2.6-Pro.

This all sounds too good to be true, but everyone knows the adage of "fast, cheap, and reliable, pick two." So what's the catch? In one word: hallucination. Just because a model is smart doesn't mean it's reliable. Broadly speaking, users prefer models that don't answer when they lack supporting facts, and DSF-1017 doesn't seem very good at knowing what it doesn't know.

Artificial Analysis' Omniscience benchmark is quite clear on this matter, ranking the model among the lowest. It answered questions correctly 43% of the time, which is among the best for open-weight models, but inferior to the proprietary competition. That would be perfectly acceptable if it skipped answers without a foundation, but it hallucinated 67% of non-answers.

The benchmark's main index grants points for good answers and deducts them for wrong ones, and non-answers don't count. DSF-1017 gets 5 points, compared to Kimi K3-max's 20, with the frontier models coming in at 42+. Ultimately, this means DFS-1017 is by no means incompetent — much the opposite —but one should be careful about which tasks to assign to the model.

Tasks with verifiable outputs like programming, OCR with review, and format conversions will be fine, as the agent can run verification steps against its work and try again. However, open-ended research, looking up facts, and interpreting or drafting highly precise documents are tasks better suited to a frontier model — or, you know, a human — as hallucinations likely won't be properly reined in and results won't be very trustworthy.

"Fast and loose" seems to be a forming trend for highly competent open-weight models, too. Several months ago, when Kimi K3 was released, everyone raved about how effective and cheap it was, and how it proposed to offer frontier-level intelligence for a fraction of the price. My personal experience with Kimi was short-lived, as even short but precise fact look-ups came up with hallucinated information, and Artificial Analysis' data seems to back this observation up.

Nevertheless, open-weight models remain important both to make AI agents more accessible in absolute dollar terms and potentially as a tool to drive down the cost of intelligence when facing down potential price rises from frontier labs.

The UK government has outlined a set of plans for new powers and penalties to help it protect UK undersea cables during national security emergencies, the BBC reports. It follows reports that Russia is using commercial fishing trawlers to map undersea cables, with 500 incidents of Russian boats loitering above cables in the last four and a half years.

In a policy paper shared this week, the British government noted that the UK is "highly dependent" on undersea infrastructure owned by private sector companies. While the report notes that connectivity is "resilient," with "faults rarely causing noticeable disruption to data or energy availability," it's still "vulnerable to damage from accidents and potential sabotage."

As a result, the UK is consulting on changes to legislation to try and address these risks, especially as the "threats to the homeland from state actors are increasing" and "critical national infrastructure, including undersea cables and pipelines... continue to be a target."

The changes proposed include new criminal offenses. These include causing a security compromise to critical undersea infrastructure, capturing both physical and non-physical interference, including remote electronic interference, cyber activity and certain preparatory conduct directed at compromising infrastructure. There would also be further offenses linked to obstructing repairs and failing to preserve evidence, when requested.

With these new offenses, the UK government is threatening penalties on a three-tier scale. Up to 14 years' imprisonment is proposed for intentional conduct, 10 years for reckless conduct, and two years for grossly negligent conduct, along with potentially unlimited fines. It's also considering an even higher maximum penalty for more serious cases, and whether it'll apply solely within the UK's national waters or further afield.

The proposals also include new powers for government ministers. In a national emergency, UK ministers would gain powers that would allow them to order telecom companies to remove or disable services. Ministers would also be able to compel telecom companies to grant officials access to sensitive sites, including cable landing stations.

These proposals form a White Paper, the name for an official UK government policy paper for new legislation, with interested parties able to respond by online questionnaire until January 14, 2027.

UK relations with Russia, like much of the western world, have deteriorated since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, although other incidents, such as the Salisbury Novichok poisonings in 2018, have formed the backdrop of steadily worsening relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Russia has made several efforts to map and plan attacks against undersea cables in Europe. In September, reports suggested that NATO allies had foiled a Russian training exercise using a "secret weapon" against undersea cables in Norway. Meanwhile, back in January, Royal Navy attack helicopters were deployed to chase off a Russian ship loitering less than a mile from five undersea cables in UK waters, just one of the 500 incidents reported this week that have included Russian ships.

A new report claims that major U.S. banks have now detected AI agents accessing customer accounts, and that some are even attempting to make transactions. Axios reports that it’s hard to differentiate between an actual human and an unauthorized bot, which is why some institutions, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo, are blocking the technology and changing their terms of service to account for this.

While an AI agent or AI assistant can access an account with a user’s permission and through the use of their login credentials, this often goes against bank policy that requires users to maintain control of their account and not share it with anyone else. One of the fears that executives have is when an AI agent with login access takes unauthorized steps, like spending money or moving funds around without the explicit instructions of the account owner. There have even been situations where an AI agent called the bank directly and took actions independent of direct user command. Even though it wasn’t explicitly told to do that transaction, it considered it a crucial step to accomplish the task assigned to it.

One hypothetical example of this is when a user tells an AI agent to purchase an item but gives it a credit card with no available limit. The AI agent could then have accessed the user’s bank account to move some funds from whatever account it sees that has available funds to then effect the transaction, even if the user did not explicitly tell them that they could use the money in that said account. This is just one example where an AI agent’s transaction could go wrong, which is why several U.S. banks are now restricting third-party AI agents from accessing their platforms. Nevertheless, they still recognize that their customers might want to use tools like AI agents to monitor their finances. This is why some institutions have given or are moving towards read-only access for AI agents, which is something that they’ve been doing for years already.

The move comes against a background of burgeoning AI agent use, coupled with the risk that agents can and often do act beyond their remit, making mistakes or performing tasks without instruction, often with disastrous results. An unsupervised AI agent recently deleted a TV show's entire edit weeks before broadcast, forcing the program off air. AI agents are notorious for deleting databases and directories, making it a small leap to imagine they cause some havoc with unfettered access to a bank account.

Financial institutions have deep experience when it comes to employing new technology while ensuring that their critical infrastructure remains safe — something that AI labs lack, according to a former OpenAI safety employee. Despite that, banks are still concerned about the speed at which AI technology is developing, fearing that the technology’s capabilities might outrun their ability to control it, which is why they’re preparing for worst-case scenarios and even planning for “day after” scenarios after a catastrophic AI event.

A Hacker News user who shared news about the recent PHP vulnerabilities revealed by ChatGPT Sol before an embargo, which they claimed to be unaware of, has taken to the platform to apologize for the post. According to petecooper, they shared the CVEs because they wanted to alert others who follow the four-week PHP release cycle about the importance and urgency of the matter, but they weren’t aware of the news blackout that went with the two identified vulnerabilities.

The user said they have "No connection or affiliation to any of the organisations involved." Noting, "I am a self-employed consultant for my day job, and a solo founder of a mental health non-profit on the side." Petecooper's original post about the vulnerability was among the first to break the NDA, though they claim they were unaware.

“I posted here about the then-upcoming PHP RCEs related to CVE-2026-109618 & CVE-2026-109619. I appreciate this has had considerable knock-on effects with the schedule for co-ordinated disclosure, and created additional workload. I am truly sorry. I take full responsibility for my actions,” petecooper wrote on the platform. “It was not remotely my intention to cause any of the subsequent side effects. At the time of posting, I didn’t know about any embargo. My contact had told me there was no embargo, and her contact had told her the same thing.”

CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619 are two critical vulnerabilities, both scored at 9.2. It seemed that the PHP Foundation planned for a controlled public release, allowing affected websites and applications to be patched before the vulnerabilities became widely known. Unfortunately, it seemed that some recipients of the warning failed to share the embargo that came alongside the CVEs, spreading the news earlier than expected.

It should be noted that petecooper apparently wasn’t the only one who leaked the news early. Multiple leaks had already been circulating on social media and other platforms, which forced the PHP Foundation to move its announcement up by one day. Despite that, the organization mentioned that Chainguard broke the embargo by more than six hours. Dan Lorenc, the co-founder and CEO of Chainguard, defended the move on LinkedIn, saying that he made the call after talking to several other researchers and immediately notified the group after releasing the fix publicly, and not just his customers.

The vulnerabilities tracked as CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619 were bugs in the PHP runtime itself that were discovered using AI tools, not attacks by rogue AI. Still, the abilities of this technology could make it easier for both security researchers and bad actors to find vulnerabilities that could have been lurking in widely used code for years, if not decades. This makes it a race to find and deploy a fix before they can be exploited.

CyberCartel, a hacking group with a long history of targeting Latin American businesses, has been using AI agents, including SpaceX's Grok and Anthropic's Claude, to automate attacks on financial institutions such as banks and mobile payment apps. Passwords and customer data have been stolen, while individuals' bank accounts have also been accessed with little input from criminals in the latest example of criminals turning to AI-powered cyberattacks. That research comes from a cybersecurity startup called Straiker, with its findings shared by The Information.

While CyberCartel has been an active threat since at least 2012, its new leveraging of the power of AI has leveled up its attacks in recent months. Now, the research shows that the group can attack more businesses at a speed previously not possible when using human-powered hacks. Straiker shared its research with both SpaceX and Anthropic, and both firms are working to lock CyberCartel out of their services. The latter has already been able to block access to Claude. Chinese lab Moonshot AI's agent has also been used by the hacking group, but Straiker is still trying to get in touch with the company.

While it's true that AI models normally have protections in place to prevent them from being used to carry out cyberattacks, they've proven surprisingly easy to bypass. In this case, CyberCartel reportedly simply told the models that they were being used in test environments. If one model refused to proceed, the hackers used a different model. If that also refused, the AI agents would be tasked with deploying malware instead.

Notably, CyberCartel doesn't appear to be using Anthropic's Mythos for its recent attacks. The company caused a stir earlier this year when it announced the new model, warning that hackers could use it and models like it for attacks like those carried out by CyberCartel. Its release also saw security teams around the globe rush to address thousands of vulnerabilities that the model had identified.

This is far from the first time that Anthropic has been faced with the news that its AI is being used by bad actors. The company shared details of its AI being used to carry out a cyberattack in November 2025. Later, Claude was used to break the security of OpenAI, an Anthropic competitor in the AI space. That hack was carried out by researchers rather than criminals, at least.

Raiker's research on AI-powered attacks on Latin American financial institutions comes just days after news broke that South Korean authorities are investigating a similar issue affecting local banks. Hana Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, and Shinhan Bank are among the South Korean banks affected, with at least 25,000 Shinhan Bank customers having their personal credit information leaked.

AI companies are well aware of the risks their products pose. Nvidia, the graphics card company that now focuses on producing hardware for AI data centers, recently launched the Open Agent Safety Platform. The software platform and reference system design were developed to secure rogue AI agents via a new hardware and software security stack. It's hoped that it will go some way toward preventing agents from escaping their sandboxes, executing unauthorized code, gaining unauthorized access to critical infrastructure, or bypassing guardrails.

China-state-aligned actor Storm-0940 used ARTEX, an open-source agentic AI penetration testing framework, in its large-scale ConnectWise supply chain attack, Microsoft wrote in its Security blog. After unauthorized access to the multi-tenant application, the group attempted sign-ins at more than 2,250 Microsoft 365 tenants, with stolen ConnectWise app credentials that authenticated as the apps with no interactive user sign-in. Some of the group’s attacks reached privileged access less than three hours after initial targeting.

Automated password guessing, or password spraying, also targeted 327 accounts across eight organizations with more than 151,000 failed logons and no successes. The use of ARTEX, “a system of LLM-driven agents that run an autonomous penetration test,” sped up scanning and reconnaissance, password spraying, and OAuth application abuse. The agents can work around the clock “with little needed human interaction,” at a pace that “leaves defenders with little time to detect and respond.” It’s uncertain how the ConnectWise credentials were stolen or how many tenants were actually compromised.

Storm-0940, active since 2021, is a “China-state aligned actor” with “no known industry aliases,” and its name follows the convention for a developing actor. Industries targeted this time include aerospace and defense, semiconductor, government, and think tanks, with 14 listed in total. The activity “did not result from a compromise of or a vulnerability” in Microsoft’s systems, products, or services.

At its peak on Oct. 11, the password spray engaged in 2,900 attempts, all failures, per minute, at more than 111,000 for that day, with 48 accounts logging more than 1,000 failures each. Almost 98% of this activity was locked out. However, with control of the identities of multiple ConnectWise cloud apps, the attacking AI agents signed in to customer tenants from the same IP range using those apps’ credentials, with more than 200 sign-ins in under four minutes using four application credentials. Operations taken within some tenants include Graph and directory operations, reconnaissance, app credential changes, plus changes to identities, groups, and privileged roles.

In one tenant on Oct. 15, Huntress, a security firm, saw an app add itself to the top administrator role, the behavior behind the Microsoft Defender alert “Application self-assigned Global Administrator role.” Actions included planting new secrets set to expire in 2028. It confirmed unauthorized sign-ins for 162 tenants by Oct. 16 and, a day later, almost 1,000 Entra tenants with sign-in activity from the attacking IP, with more than 300 succeeding. The attack’s sweep through tenants in sorted order, a few seconds apart, indicated “a script working from a target list.”

What differs from many traditional attacks is the use of the open-source pentest framework that, Microsoft says, can use any AI model. Threat actors in multiple regions are using the technology, and public reporting this month tied it to breaches at South Korean financial institutions. CrowdStrike said the suspect in those separate attacks was likely based in China and allegedly used ARTEX with Anthropic’s Claude Code. ARTEX’s developer, who goes by the handle “Autumn-27,” said on GitHub that the ARTEX project “will no longer be updated” and would become closed source, Reuters reported.

ConnectWise noted the unauthorized access and suspended Cloud Backup (formerly SkyKick) as well as SaaS Security and Cloud Management as a precaution. It has started a phased restoration with recovery expected to take several days and has no indicators to date that partner backup data was compromised. Microsoft notes that an affected app, or even a successful sign-in, doesn’t necessarily mean data was accessed or taken, and advises customers to keep affected app connections disabled until formal restoration instructions are issued, and to review activity from this month where logs allow.

Pre-built gaming PCs continue to provide some of the best value for gamers, especially if they're discounted. With that in mind, you can pick up this ABS Stratos II Ruby gaming PC for $2,549.99 right now at Newegg. You'll be saving $450 on a machine fitted with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

ABS builds are all over Newegg, which is no surprise, as the tech retailer owns the brand. As specs go, this is a rig that'll sit pretty near the top as far as performance goes. That's due to the combination of the 9800X3D, still one of the best CPUs available for gaming right now, with the RTX 5070 Ti. That GPU is current-gen and high-end, giving you a machine that'll give you high frame rates in the best games for years to come.

You'll see from our 9800X3D review why this eight-core AMD X3D chip is a formidable option for any gamer. AMD's 3D V-cache sets the scene, as this game-changing tech boosts the available L3 cache capacity to 96MB. Doesn't sound like much, but it means that your CPU doesn't have to fall back to the slower system RAM as often. That reduces latency, giving you better, more stable frame rates while you game.

The 9800X3D isn't at the very top in our CPU benchmarks anymore, but it's damn close, and it's still the top recommendation for most gamers. There isn't an Intel alternative that can truly rival the performance of an X3D chip like the 9800X3D, either. If 4K gaming with high, stable frame rates is your goal, then the 9800X3D will give you that in spades.

Alongside the 9800X3D is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This Nvidia Blackwell GPU has 8,960 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM. This is a GPU that leaves 1080p in the dust, as this mid- to high-tier option is a 1440p and 4K powerhouse. It has the latest Nvidia tech baked in, too, including DLSS with multi-frame generation.

4K with ray tracing, supported by MFG if necessary, means you'll get high frame rates in current-gen games. Expect to use the best graphics presets, but you might need to tweak them for the most demanding games if you're playing at 4K. Luckily, 16GB of VRAM means you've got plenty of breathing room, especially compared to the lower-end RTX 5060 or RTX 5050 with 8GB of VRAM.

There aren't any compromises elsewhere in this build. You've got 32GB of G.Skill Ripjaws M5 Neo RGB DDR5 memory, split across two 16GB modules, with speeds of 6,000 MT/s. There's also a 2TB Team Group NV5000 M.2 SSD included here, offering Gen 4 speeds, with enough space for several big game installations. There's also Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity, along with Ethernet, and the CPU is liquid cooled with a Bitspower 240mm AIO liquid cooler.

This $2,549.99 ABS Stratos II Ruby gaming PC is a great deal in the current market, especially fitted with the formidable combination of the 9800X3D and RTX 5070 Ti. Buying it now means you're saving $450 on its list price, but it's also the cheapest RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC you're able to buy on Newegg right now. Expect a deal this good to sell out fast.

Google’s Finland country manager has apologized for unauthorized forest clearings near Muhos, which have turned 816 acres of forest into an expanse of mud. The American search and AI giant has also been told to cease work where it has cleared roughly 500 acres of forest, 55 miles southeast of the village of Otanmäki. Now The Guardian reports that wolves, who used to live in the forests, are roaming into villages neighboring these man-made muddy wastelands.

Local anger continues to simmer over the damage done to Finnish forests, as Google seems to have ridden roughshod over regulations in the hurry to build new AI data centers in Finland. However, the report suggests that it isn’t just environmentalists who have a beef with Google. Some families say wolves and other wild animals have entered the countryside villages. This would be a serious human safety concern.

“We had wolves coming into the village because all the wild animals moved out of the forest,” explained Anni Ranta, 53, whose family has lived in Otanmäki for generations. Ranta also fears the U.S.-owned data centers will make Finland an even juicier target for Russian aggression.

Finland is far from the first place targeted by AI data center developers to complain about environmental effects. This latest report also cites locals grumbling about construction/factory noise, streams turning brown, and rare birds being pushed out, among other unwanted side effects. We’ve seen similar concerns voiced across the U.S. and in other countries.

Google’s flouting of environmental policy has been unprecedented and clear, a representative of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (SLL) indicated to The Guardian. The Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority (LVV) seems to agree, as it issued an order for Google to stop development near Muhos and Otanmäki. Nevertheless, a Google spokesperson was upbeat. “We will fully comply with LVV’s requests in this matter,” they said. “We look forward to maintaining an active, open dialogue with all authorities to strengthen our partnership with Finland and local organizations.” Google must be hoping the touted business benefits of the data centers will sway the government and/or regulators.

We last reported on these in-development data centers in Finland earlier this month, after the Finnish government (LVV) gave notice to Google to stop its construction activities in Muhos and Kajaani (near Otanmäki).

A rare, prototype copy of Pokémon Red for the Nintendo Game Boy, originally released back in 1998, is on sale at auction, with a single bid of $25,000 currently registered so far. This prototype, spotted by Retro Dodo, is "incredibly rare" and features 32KB of readable data. According to the Goldin auction page, the cartridge has been authenticated by specialists at PSA, who examined the card. According to them, while a "complete data read" wasn't possible, the first 32KB of data was, a "technically unique" result. The PSA notes, however, that the game data is otherwise "completely identical" to the U.S. release version of the game, with PSA "expressing confidence" that the rest of the data, if it were readable, would match.

The PSA report does note two changes to the ROM's header data that don't affect the game data. According to PSA, "the difference is at offset 0x014C, which denotes the Mask ROM version and is incorrectly set to 55 when it should be 00. This has the effect of changing offset 0x014D, which is a calculated header checksum, to CB instead of 20."

This prototype development cartridge has a sticker reading DMB-MBC-16M-FLASH, with a part number DMG-(F)KGDB-01. DMB likely refers to Dot Matrix Game, the original internal codename for the Game Boy, while MBC likely means Memory Bank Controller, a custom chip that allowed games to use more than the Game Boy's 32KB ROM limit. 16M likely refers to a 16 megabit limit of flash-writable memory. Retro Dodo notes that the cartridge is longer than a standard Game Boy cartridge, too.

The auction notes that this uses a "previously undocumented" development board, although the DMG-(F)KGDB-01 part number has been seen before. The Rare Gaming Dump wiki, for instance, lists the same part number for a development cartridge from 2000. It, too, had a 16 megabit Sharp flash chip, with U1 FLASH MEMORY printed on the board. Close-up views from the Goldin auction page show an almost identical design, although the wiki entry shows a slightly different DMG-MBC3-16M-FLASH cartridge sticker.

Pokémon Red is a gaming classic that helped kickstart the global Pokémon franchise in the 1990s, along with Green and Blue. Combined with Blue, Pokémon Red is reported to have sold more than 31 million copies. There are several days left to go on this auction, so while the single bidder may secure this piece of gaming history for $25,000, it may sell for an even higher price before the auction process ends.

On this day in 2001, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPod. He began the presentation by teasing “a breakthrough digital device that’s not a Mac.” Ultimately, the iPod that was revealed that day became a pocket-sized digital music player phenomenon, and would be many gadget fans' favorite always-carry device before smartphones matured enough to make such things redundant. The key claim iPod launched with was that it could put your entire music library in your pocket for $399.

In October 2001, when the iPod launched, Steve Jobs had successfully steered Apple beyond the beige into the Mac OS X era, with iBooks and iMacs well established. A revival of the Cupertino company's fortunes was well underway, with these iDevices doing well among consumers – at a difficult time, not long after the dot-com bubble burst.

Jobs predicted that the “Mac could become the center of your digital lifestyle.” It would do so as a hub uniting digital cameras, digital camcorders, DVD players – and the portable music player. Apple decided to go down this avenue as everyone loves music and it’s a huge target market, without a market leader, reasoned the CEO.

Small companies like Creative and Sonic Blue, and the much larger Sony, already had portable digital music players, acknowledged Jobs. However, “none of them has really found the recipe yet, for digital music,” he told the crowd at the iPod unveiling. At the time of Apple’s iPod announcement, there were four mainstream portable digital music solutions: CD players, MP3 CD players, flash players, and hard disk-based jukebox players. Jobs saw that last one as the optimal choice for market entry.

After this long preamble, the iPod was introduced as an MP3 music player, offering CD-quality sound, capable of playing all the popular formats of the time (MP3, WAV, AIFF). Its 5GB capacity meant that it could hold 1,000 songs. Specifically, that meant 1,000 typical pop-song length MP3s at 160Kbps. “For most people it’s their entire music library,” enthused Jobs.

The Apple CEO then sketched out three big claims that would make the iPod a winner. First, its ultra-portable form factor made it desirable. This aspect of the design was aided by Toshiba’s newest ultra-compact and ultra-thin hard drive at 1.8 inches in diameter and 0.2 inches thick. The actual device would be the size of a deck of cards – 2.4 x 4 x 0.78 inches, with a weight of 6.5 ounces, “lighter than most cell phones.”

Despite its compact size, the iPod offered advanced features like 20-minute skip protection, fast file transfers, and charging via a single FireWire 400 cable. The iPod was heralded as the “first and only music player with FireWire.” The connection was fast enough to transfer an entire CD to the device “in five to 10 seconds,” according to Jobs’ presentation. The USB connections of the same era would keep you waiting around five minutes for the same single CD of MP3s data transfer to complete, it was claimed. To fill the iPod (1,000 songs), it was estimated it would only take 10 minutes vs. five hours for a USB digital music player.

A rechargeable lithium-polymer battery in the first iPod offered 10 hours of continuous music playback. An empty battery could be recharged to 80% in one hour, Apple said.

Secondly, the iPod benefitted from “an amazing Apple design,” with minimal and durable back and sides, noted Jobs. It was touted to offer “Apple’s legendary ease of use” in a portable music player. Its specially designed controls were single-hand friendly, with an accelerated scroll wheel using a piezoelectric clicker for tactile feedback. It enabled the fast location and playback of music by playlist, artist, or song. Quiz fans – the first song demoed on stage was 'Building a Mystery' by Sarah MacLachlan.

The third breakthrough for the iPod claimed by Jobs was its Auto-Sync with iTunes digital music libraries feature. iTunes 2 launched on the same day with several advanced features like MP3 CD burning and syncing support for the new music player. However, the Auto-Sync meant that the libraries you created, customized, and curated on your Mac would always be synced with your pocket player when you connected to transfer music or charge. The iPod also doubled as a FireWire HDD.

The first iPhone launched over five years later, in early 2007. Both devices would sit alongside each other in the Apple product stack for over a decade. However, the iPod’s star inevitably faded, with the final model being the 7th-generation iPod Touch in May 2019. The product line was left unmaintained but was only officially discontinued in May 2022.