Strings of code in Samsung's Galaxy Wearable app hint at an upcoming pair of over-ear headphones that could compete with the AirPods Max, SamMobile reports. Samsung's reportedly referring to the headphones as the "Galaxy H1," and SamMobile says they could launch sometime in 2027. That would make these the company's first pair of over-ear headphones since the Level On in 2015, which was released well before Samsung acquired Harman and a number of other audio brands.
Connection status icons in the app standard show the design of over-ear, wireless Bluetooth headphones, but not necessarily exactly what these will look like in the end. Samsung …
The good news? Despite that, there are still many great options, including the selection we’ve tested and highlighted below.
Before you go for the cheapest option you can still find, consider biting the bullet on a more powerful laptop, especially if you’re buying for a college student. Prices are likely to continue rising well into next year — especially since all the memory being made through 2027 is already allocated. You can get a mostly tolerable laptop for under $500 and a good one for around $700, but spending more to get something like a MacBook Air gets you better build quality and enough performance headroom to last through four years of college and well beyond. (Many Verge writers and editors are still using M1 MacBook Airs from 2020). But even the modest options below (new or refurbished) should easily be good for more than a few years. The key is to avoid something that feels slow or janky on day one, if you can. It’ll only get worse from there.
If your school or curriculum recommends certain laptops or minimum specs, then you already know what to aim for. If not, our rule of thumb is to go with a Mac running Apple silicon or a Windows laptop running Intel or AMD chips released in the last few years. (For Windows machines, don’t go any older than 2022 or 2023 — Intel’s 13th-gen “Raptor Lake” or AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series.) Snapdragon X chips are also great options unless you’re a college student who needs to run specialized software not compatible with Windows on Arm (or if you want to play games).
But try to get 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage or more if you can — especially for college students. Eight GB of RAM is workable on macOS with the MacBook Neo, but Windows laptops struggle a bit with it. And for the most budget-conscious or anyone shopping for younger kids, a quality Chromebook is still great.
The best cheap laptop
Apple MacBook Neo
Score: 9
Pros
Cons
Impressive performance for the price
Perfect for a middle school or high school student
The best mechanical trackpad around
Solid speakers and screen
Small limitations: 8GB of RAM, slow storage, no keyboard backlighting, and only 20W charging with the included charger
Wish it weighed a little less, and its colors were more vibrant
The MacBook Neo is the easy pick for students from middle school to high school who need a laptop. There’s still no beating its balance of build quality and good-enough performance at this price. Students and teachers can get it starting at $599, and Apple offers refurbished models for $599 for the rest of us as well. If you can justify spending an additional $100, it’s worth getting the model with twice the storage and a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, which makes logging in and entering passwords much less of a hassle.
The A18 Pro chip is powerful enough for most high school students (and adults), and everything from its trackpad to its speakers and screen range from good to great, which is not the case for Windows laptops in this price range. Its only shortcoming by comparison is having just two USB-C ports. The 8GB of RAM and 256GB of base storage mean a student eventually pushes the limits of what this laptop can do sooner than a more powerful MacBook Air, but the Neo is still significantly cheaper.
The Neo is the best cheap laptop, but the MacBook Air is still the best laptop for most people, and the standard recommendation for college students. Every part of it is a step up from the Neo: It has a much more powerful processor, and it starts with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of much faster storage. And few laptops can match the Air’s overall build quality. It also means spending $1,299 (or $1,199 for students) on a 13-inch model, or $1,499 for the 15-inch. It’s a shame the Air no longer starts at $999 like it did just last year, but it’s still worth springing for if you’re buying for the long term.
The Airs have been so good for so many years now, you don’t miss out on much by buying a refurbished model if it’s substantially cheaper. Keep an eye on Apple’s refurb store, and retailers like Best Buy sometimes have great deals too.
Asus’s Zenbook A14 is a bit of a MacBook Air wannabe, but it’s a compelling alternative if you value a superlight Windows laptop with long battery life. The 2025 model sports an Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip, a nice 14-inch OLED display, and a sleek textured beige finish.
Asus Zenbooks are some of the sleeker, better-looking Windows laptops, and the Zenbook A14 is Asus’ wannabe MacBook Air. It has a good Snapdragon X Plus chip, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a lovely OLED display in an ultra-light chassis (it’s just 2.4 pounds / 1.09kg), all for $1,000 or as low as $700 on sale. It even has a solid port selection, with one USB-A, two speedy USB4, and HDMI 2.1. I really enjoyed the larger Zenbook A16 version when I reviewed it, but the A14 is even lighter and significantly cheaper. Like its larger sibling, the A14 is coated in Asus’ Ceraluminum finish that gives it a nice textured feel and unique look. (It’s a beige laptop!)
A cheap laptop with a great processor
Acer Aspire 14 AI
Score: 6
Pros
Cons
A great, well-rounded processor in a cheap laptop (if you get it on sale)
Acer’s Aspire 14 AI didn’t impress me with its screen, speakers, or build quality when I tested it against the Neo, but for $500 or $600 on sale, which it often is, it’s hard to beat. It has a solid Intel Lunar Lake processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a bunch of speedy ports. Getting two USB-A, two Thunderbolt 4, and HDMI 2.1 on a $600 laptop? Hell yeah.
A Lunar Lake chip means you get great battery life, and you can even do some light gaming. Its screen isn’t pretty and everything creaks, but with the money you save you can overcome some of its shortcomings with a mouse and monitor. Just keep in mind that the appeal of this laptop is what you’re getting for the price. If the deal winds change and Aspire 14 AIs are selling for $700 or more, consider something else.
I’m still testing the HP OmniBook 3 for a full review, but I’ve used it enough and I like it enough at around $500 to give it a nod. Its speakers and screen are not good quality, but they’re slightly better than the Acer Aspire above — just don’t look too close, or you’ll notice that its 1920 x 1200 resolution isn’t very sharp at this scale. At 16 inches you’re getting a big screen for cheap, but this laptop doesn’t feel large, as it weighs only 3.65 pounds / 1.66kg and is about 0.63 inches / 16mm thick (at its hinge, where it’s slightly thicker). And its sizable battery and efficient Snapdragon X chip allow it to last long on a charge. Plus, it’s got an ample-sized numpad for you numbers people.
Consider a refurbished ThinkPad
Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 (Intel 13th-gen, refurbished)
Lenovo ThinkPads are workhorse enterprise laptops, making older refurbished models a great pickup on the cheap. The T14 Gen 4 from 2023 came with Intel Raptor Lake chips, a 14-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS display, and plenty of ports — among them, Thunderbolt 4.
ThinkPads are awesome. They have great keyboards and trackpads, sturdy builds, lots of ports, and even a TrackPoint. They’re typically very expensive when bought new, and they have a reputation for lasting a long time. They’re Lenovo’s business line, so there’s a constant stream of used ThinkPads entering the secondhand market when companies refresh their fleets. That makes them a great candidate for buying refurbished or used. Lenovo sells many refurb units directly, so you know you should be getting something in good shape. Many of them are still expensive, but this ThinkPad T14 is an attractive example, offering a 13th-gen Intel chip, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for around $700. Or for a bit more you can get this ThinkPad L14 Gen 5 with a newer Intel Meteor Lake chip for around $1,000.
A Chromebook is good for web browsing, doing homework, and nailing the basics of browser-first computer use — when done well. The Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 is a mainstay of The Verge’s laptop recommendations, despite being a few years old. It’s very affordable at just $350, and even with its 12th-gen Intel chip and 8GB of RAM it’s more than serviceable for ChromeOS. Google’s new Googlebooks are coming in the fall, but some earlyleaks are pointing at those potentially being pricier laptops (making me wonder what exactly their appeal will be).
A great convertible Chromebook
Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2025)
Score: 7
Pros
Cons
Excellent battery life
Speedy performance
Stylus support
Crummy, muffled-sounding speakers
No biometric login
Feels slightly pricey at $700 when a Lenovo with OLED and more RAM is just $50 more
If you can afford a slightly pricier, newer, and better Chromebook than the Asus, check out the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514. Its full price of $749 is a bit much, but when discounted to $600 like it is at the time of this writing it can be worth it. The Arm-based MediaTek Kompanio Ultra in this Chromebook paired with 12GB of RAM gives it very good performance and excellent battery life. And since it’s a convertible, it’s also great to use with an optional stylus for note-taking, drawing, and sketching.
A lot of automakers talk about wanting to minimize or eliminate driver distractions so as to make the experience of driving more rewarding and safer overall. Lamborghini has a different strategy; it wants the driver to become one with their vehicle. This helps explain the storied super car maker's tagline for the new Revuelto SV: the quantum of driving.
"For us, quantum of driving is the moment when you get into the car, you start driving the car, and the car and you become one piece," said Alessandro Farmeschi, product line director for the Revuelto, the Italian brand's top V12 powered model. "And you start just thinking about your drive, …
The version of The X-Files: I Want to Believe that premiered in 2008 was not exactly the movie co-writer / director Chris Carter intended to make. Carter wanted to bring agents Mulder and Scully back to the big screen with a grisly story about faith and the supernatural. But executives at 20th Century Fox felt that Carter's ideas were too dark, and he was pushed to turn the project into a PG-13 feature. Now, almost two decades after I Want to Believe's theatrical debut, Carter is back with a new director's cut of the film for Hulu that's much closer to his original vision.
"We got to tell a good X-Files story," Carter said of the original …
Arguably the coolest new photo feature for the Pixel 11 lineup is Google's new Camera Looks, which process image data differently at the sensor level to produce photos that don't have that "smartphone" look. The result is new styles like "Digi," which mimics the style of photos taken by older digital cameras. But to use Camera Looks, at least initially, you'll need to have one of Google's Pixel 11 phones.
"Our latest camera updates are only available on our latest devices," Google spokesperson Alex Moriconi tells The Verge. "We're always looking to bring experiences to more users, but have nothing to share at this time." That last sentence …
Instagram's wordmark is iconic. Well, was iconic. Apparently Instagram thought it looked old, so the company rolled out a new one this week. It doesn't look like the old Instagram wordmark. It doesn't even look like it spells Instagram anymore. And we cannot figure out why Instagram decided to do this.
On this episode of The Vergecast, David and Nilay start by discussing the new logo, the executive urge to redesign everything all the time, and whether new is always better. After that, they get into the other big Meta release of the week: Mark Zuckerberg's many-thousand-word missive on the future of AI. There are a lot of ideas and proposals …
Google will now allow you to remove visible watermarks from the images, videos, and music made with AI tools. With the update, you can toggle off a new "Media watermark" setting in Gemini and Google's AI video generator, Flow.
When toggled off, Google will remove the "sparkle" watermark that appears in the bottom-right corner of content generated with the company's Nano Banana and Omni models. Though visible watermarks are now optional, AI-generated content will have invisible SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata embedded in the background, according to Josh Woodward, the vice president of Google Labs, Gemini, and AI Studio. That means you …
For RPG fans who dig Persona-style turn-based action and who are pursuing games with original stories and fantastic tunes, look no further than Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. This praise might come off sounding weird, but I really like that Sandfall Interactive’s breakout hit isn’t overly long compared to RPGs it was inspired by. It’s worth buying while it’s $33.17 at Amazon (requires you to clip the coupon, originally $49.99).
This is a rare opportunity to save quite a bit on one of 2025’s best games, though it’s on Xbox Game Pass if you subscribe to that. Unfortunately, the deal is only available for the Xbox Series X version and doesn’t extend to PlayStation 5. On PC, you can grab a Steam code from Fanatical for $35.49, which is also a nice deal. Read our review.
There are some great preorder incentives for Google’s Pixel 11 phones, especially if you also want its new Pixel Watch 5. The base Pixel 11 with 256GB of storage includes the watch at $130 off the usual combined amount. Normally $1,298, Amazon is offering the bundle for $1,168, which essentially reduces the price of the watch from $399 to $269. Buying the pricier Pixel 11 Pro that’s bundled with the watch will save you even more. Normally $1,499 together, the bundle is $1,248 — $250 off the watch and now just $100 more than the base Pixel 11 bundle. If you want more camera features, you should get the Pro. Read our hands-on previews.
I like including good deals on gaming laptops when I find them, and I found another one at Walmart. Gigabyte’s 16-inch A16 laptop that packs Nvidia’s capable RTX 5070 (8GB VRAM) graphics chip, among other powerful components, is down to $1,249 ($600 off). It’s a great value based on its gaming performance alone; Considering it has Intel’s Core i7-13620H and 32GB DDR5 RAM to go alongside the GPU, there isn’t much you won’t be able to play at the highest graphical settings. The laptop also has a 1200p IPS screen that has a 165Hz refresh rate, and it has a 1TB SSD installed. Its RAM and storage can be upgraded to 64GB and 4TB, respectively.
Gruv is hosting weekend deals on a range of 4K Blu-ray sets through Monday.The Matrix Deja Vu set that includes all four films (minus The Animatrix) is $34.99, which matches the best price I’ve seen (it’s currently $50 at Walmart). Chernobyl, the haunting five-part miniseries from HBO, is $14.99. Jurassic World: Ultimate Collection contains all Jurassic movies through Jurassic World Dominion and costs $49.99. Best of all, if you’re a new shopper at Gruv, using the code FIRSTGRUV15 will knock 15 percent off your first purchase of a single item.
The Clip Pro are the first clip-style earbuds from CMF, Nothing’s budget sub-brand.
Clip earbuds are an exercise in compromise. It's an inherent aspect of their design - and physics. They can be more comfortable for people that don't like something jammed in their ear, but sound response suffers. Ambient awareness is great because you can easily hear the sound around you, which means to hear your own music the buds need to be turned up and potentially leak sound out to your neighbors. For what they offer, they can also get pricey, with popular pairs from Bose, Sony, and Shokz reaching $200. The CMF Clip Pro, though, are under $100, and while they still have those compromises, they handle them well.
The Claw EX. I rather like the purple. 3D-printed stand not included.
As The Verge's resident handheld reviewer, I have nearly every portable gaming PC on a shelf in my house. The MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus is now the first one I reach for. Thanks to a next-gen Intel chip and improved MSI design, the Claw EX is the most powerful handheld that truly feels portable. It's the handheld with the longest battery life, and the first Windows handheld I can trust to sleep and wake reliably.
Like the Steam Deck, when I press the power button, my game is always right where I left off. Unlike the Steam Deck, it can hibernate for days without losing a significant amount of charge.
Hoto is introducing its first soldering iron through its modular Snapbloq collection that lets you assemble your own custom toolbox by stacking magnetic cases and tools together. The new I-A06 Cordless Soldering Iron can heat to just over 200 degrees Celsius in about three seconds and offers an adjustable temperature range from 100 to up to 450 degrees with customizable presets you can quickly jump to.
The full kit version of the soldering iron is available starting today for $99.99 and includes a C245 knife tip plus additional tips that can be used for other tasks such as wood burning. If you just want the tool you can buy it on its own fo …
Apple has reportedly trained a custom AI model for the China market alongside domestic tech giant Alibaba, a rare cross-border partnership that cuts across growing tensions between Beijing and Washington.
The China-focused large language model was developed in partnership with Alibaba and trained with the company's support, Reutersreports, citing three unnamed people familiar with the matter.
Developing a custom model of its own marks a departure from Apple's previous strategy in the country and would give the company more control over its products in the competitive Chinese smartphone market. Historically, Apple has used domestic Chines …
“Build the perfect monument to force a moment of introspection upon the world’s richest, ugliest little bitch.” | Image: Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images
Cards Against Humanity is gearing up to build "something that will annoy Elon Musk," and it's crowdfunding the project with its usual flavor of vulgarity. The company behind the card game announced plans to build "a grand monument" to Musk on the parcel of land it owns near Starbase, Texas, with the aim to "make him wonder, for a brief moment, 'Wait, am I a sad little bitch with no friends?'"
Cards Against Humanity is known for these kinds of stunts, having purchased the land in question back in 2017 specifically to disrupt President Donald Trump's plans to build a US/Mexico border wall. The card game company later sued SpaceX in 2024 for a …
The United States has already banned future foreign drones from entering the United States unless their companies kiss the ring - as well as routers, robots, and Roombas. Now, President Donald Trump is targeting existing drone imports and parts, too. He's going to try to make them cost a lot more.
In a presidential action, he's declared a whopping 100 percent tariff on imports of drones with thermal cameras, drones weighing over 25kg (57 pounds), and any kind of part for any kind of unmanned aircraft weighing over 25kg - you can read the full list here. For all other drones, including tiny sub-250-gram "Mini" consumer drones, he's declared …
In a new filing in its long-running legal dispute with Epic Games, Apple has proposed a structure that would allow it to collect fees on digital purchases made via external links that don't use the company's in-app purchase system. Epic has already responded, saying that Apple's request is "far outside of the bounds" of the court's guidance.
Right now, Apple cannot take a commission on external purchases after California district court judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in April 2025 that the company "willfully" didn't comply with her 2021 Epic Games v. Apple injunction. However, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel said that Apple should …
One month after Epic Games and Google seemingly stopped fighting over the future of Android app distribution, they were back in a San Francisco courtroom today - where Judge James Donato just ordered Google to make it easier to install rival app stores on Android.
It's been nearly three years since a jury unanimously decided that Google had an illegal monopoly over Android apps, and almost two years since Judge Donato decided the best way of undoing that monopoly would be to crack open Android app distribution. Donato ordered Google to carry rival Android app stores inside its own Google Play Store, and to provide rivals with complete acce …
There are over 120,000 of Flock’s automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras installed all over the US. Flock’s cameras, and others like them, use AI to identify and track vehicles based on their license plate number, make, model, color, and other info, networked together to track vehicles and people’s movements throughout the day and across the country.
Dozens of communities have canceled contracts for the cameras or turned them off, including Los Angeles, as officials have pushed for more limits on the data they collect, who has access to it, and how it can be used in the future. Earlier this year, Amazon-owned Ring canceled a partnership with Flock after online backlash.
Microsoft Copilot will no longer show its emotive yellow blob, Mico, when you use the chatbot's voice mode. In a support page, Microsoft says it's going to move Mico to its Learn Live platform, where the avatar will have "more to react to," as reported earlier by GeekWire.
A screenshot of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals from Night School Studio. | Image: Night School / Netflix
Netflix plans to shut down two of its gaming studios, as reported by Game File and Variety, as it makes a bigger shift toward party games and titles streamed to TVs.
One of the studios being shut down is Night School Studio, creators of the Oxenfree series. Netflix bought Night School in 2021, and it just released a horror experience called Unhinged for TVs and launched a mobile game in 2025 tied to Black Mirror. The other studio that's set to close is Helsinki-based Moonloot Games, which was created in 2022.
Netflix's big push into TV-based games kicked off late last year and was a pivot from a mobile-focused approach that featured presti …
The HP OmniBook X Flip 2-in-1 converts for tablet or tented use. | Image: The Verge
With memory prices still high and showing no signs of dropping, we’re always happy to find a good deal on a budget-friendly system with an adequate amount of RAM. Best Buy has the HP OmniBook X Flip discounted by $300, bringing the cost down to $699.99. This model is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 5 and 16GB of LPDDR5X memory, which should be great for both web browsing and homework, and a 512GB SSD for storage. The screen is a 1920 x 1200 LED touchscreen, with a fully rotating hinge for tented or tablet mode.
While the Intel Core 5 Ultra may not be the most powerful chip for heavy workloads or gaming, the OmniBook makes up for it with strong battery life and connectivity. HP claims the system can run for over 22 hours of video playback on a single charge, and fast charging can take the battery to 50 percent in just 30 minutes. The laptops include two USB-C ports, one of which supports Thunderbolt 4, two USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
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Other deals to consider
The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are discounted to $189 (usually $229) at various retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from the Google store, with the latter two also marking down the new olive color that was just introduced yesterday. These earbuds feature a smaller and lighter design than their predecessor, with excellent ANC and an improved transparency mode. Read our review.
Woot has an Anker 20,000mAh power bank on sale for $26.99 (usually $49.99). With up to 15W of charging power over USB-C and USB-A, you can keep your phone or other devices topped up for hours, and the display on the side lets you check the current charge level at a glance.
You can grab a DJI Osmo Pocket 3 at Best Buy for $399, a $40 break from the usual price. This compact video camera shoots surprisingly cinematic video, with a stabilized sensor and built-in LCD screen for keeping your framing dialed in. Read our hands-on.
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