Google is killing off Google Assistant on Android devices starting on September 4, replacing the service with Gemini. This means that voice-controlled assistant tasks – the sort of thing summoned up with a "Hey Google" – will now be routed through Gemini instead of the older service.

Gemini is undoubtedly more powerful than the older Assistant, able to hold a conversation, make suggestions, and answer complex questions in the same way as other LLM-powered AI chatbots. But it can also be less reliable, sometimes making incorrect assumptions, going off on a tangent, or forgetting it has the capability to do the task you've asked of it. It's also often slower, taking time to "think" about the request, regardless of how complex it is.

Assistant, on the other hand, was less powerful but more reliable. I use Assistant myself, but mostly for simple tasks like setting a kitchen timer, controlling lights, and shutting off alarms. Not exactly the kind of things that need the power of an LLM to get done.

A Reddit thread discussing the news is filled with users lamenting the change.

"Wanted to call my father while I was driving, so I told Gemini to call him. It gave me the definition of the word "father" instead of calling him," said one user. "Went back to Google Assistant immediately. Please Google, don't force me to switch to Gemini... I hate it."

"Gemini makes me unlock the phone to change the temperature. It's useless," said another.

Google announced the plan to sunset Assistant last year, but things were pushed back as users found Gemini not entirely capable of filling Assistant's shoes. During this time, if Gemini wasn't able to handle a particular request, it would default back to Assistant to get the job done. Users could also opt-out of Gemini and stick to the older program if they wanted.

After September 4, that won't be an option anymore.

The change currently only applies to Android devices and the accessories that connect to them, like Wear OS watches, headphones, and cars with Android Auto. Google Home speakers and smart devices, as well as Google TVs and cars with Google will retain access to Google Assistant for now, though Gemini is already available on most of those devices as well, and I wouldn't be surprised if Assistant support is ultimately discontinued there too.

Bo Moore is IGN's Senior Manager of Tech. You can find him online @usebomswisely.

It feels like no matter where I look recently, there's more evidence that the RAM crisis isn't ending any time soon. Now, a new report suggests that all three memory manufacturers — Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — have collectively sold through their 2027 memory manufacturing capacity to, you guessed it, AI companies.

According to a report from Digitimes and spotted by TweakTown, all DRAM and HBM capacity has been sold through for 2027, with no further supply planned. (The companies themselves have not yet confirmed this to be the case.) Of course, that only means that retail prices are going to go up even further in the near future.

Selling through all the capacity for next year would be bad enough for consumers, but the problem is that most of the companies buying up this capacity have done so through long-term purchasing agreements, essentially pre-ordering memory that hasn't even been manufactured yet over a five-year term. Unless more capacity opens up somewhere in the next few years, it's hard to imagine that RAM will become more affordable and less scarce any time soon.

It's not just memory that's affected. According to that Digitimes report, NAND storage is growing in demand too. Luckily, NAND capacity hasn't been completely absorbed, because there are more companies supplying the stuff. But it's not exactly hard to see that SSDs have been growing steadily more expensive over the last six months or so.

Just look at the Western Digital SN7100, a pretty bog-standard PCIe 4 drive. According to Camelcamelcamel, it was about $110 in January for 1TB of storage, but now it's 52% more expensive, costing $189 before the tiny discount that Amazon currently has running. If NAND manufacturing capacity grows as scarce as RAM, I can only imagine how much that drive is going to cost this time next year.

All I know is that I grow weary of covering the RAM crisis, but it's hard to look at anything in the hardware space and not see the effects. Just this month, the Xbox Series X went up in price, and a month ago, the Steam Machine came out at a higher price than Valve wanted because of the higher cost of memory. At this point, all I can do is beg for the AI bubble to burst so I can at least buy a decent kit of RAM for less than $500 again.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

The iPhone 18 Pro is just a little over a month away, likely debuting sometime in September, but if you were planning on upgrading, you should probably get ready for a higher price tag.

Apple has already raised prices on most of its Mac and iPad lineup back in June, due to increased memory prices, but the iPhone and Apple Watch were largely unaffected. However, the price increases seem like they're coming stapled onto the new iPhones. According to a research note spotted by 9to5mac, tech analyst Jeff Pu predicts that the iPhone 18 Pro will start at around $1,399, with the larger iPhone Pro Max starting somewhere between $1,449–$1,499.

To put that into perspective, right now you can get the iPhone 17 Pro starting at $1,099 for the regular size, and $1,199 for the Pro Max. If these rumored prices are to be believed, it'll make for a gen-on-gen price increase of around 24%.

This has been an expensive year for smartphones all around. Just last month, Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which is essentially just a straight sequel to the non-ultra Galaxy Z Fold 7, which carried a $100 price increase. The company also launched a non-ultra Galaxy Z Fold 8 with a worse camera system and a new shape for $1,899 – which was supposed to be the "more affordable" option.

There have been rumors that this will be the year Apple will release its long-awaited foldable. But, with prices being what they are this year, a foldable iPhone would likely be extremely expensive.

These price increases will probably keep adding up over the next year or so, as the AI-driven memory shortage continues to drive prices up. While it's only now starting to hit phones, gaming hardware has been no stranger to these price increases. The Xbox Series X, for instance, went up to $799 this month, and Valve engineers have warned that RAM prices are only getting worse, after the high prices forced the company to release the Steam Machine at a high price.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

It's no secret that gaming hardware has been getting more expensive this year, so it shouldn't be surprising that people are buying less of it. But, it turns out that AMD's gaming business shrank by a whopping 31% in Q2 2026.

In the second quarter of the year, the gaming business only made $779 million, compared to $1.1 billion in Q2 2025, according to the company's latest earnings report. AMD attributes this loss to "lower semi-custom revenue," which means fewer consoles have been selling over the last few months. This is in a time that would have included the Steam Machine and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE in June 2026.

AMD's gaming revenue is lumped into the Client and Gaming segment, and overall, that portion of the business was up 6% year over year, making $3.8 billion. AMD's processors have been making their way into more modern laptops, especially in the budget range, and while the company's earnings report doesn't lay out exactly which products were selling, it's not hard to imagine that a lot of this growth came at the hands of budget laptops that don't have a ton of RAM.

But while the gaming business isn't doing all that great, AMD is thriving. The company raked in $11.5 billion in revenue last quarter, which is up 51% over this time last year, driven largely by AI. AMD's data center business brought in $6.7 billion last quarter, which is a massive 107% increase over last year. So, even though hardware is more expensive and harder to even obtain, AMD is bringing in more money than ever before.

It's likely that the gaming business will continue to shrink over the next year or so, while AMD cashes in on the AI boom. Especially now that the Xbox Series X officially went up in price and both Team Green and Team Red reportedly plan to raise prices on gaming hardware, it really does seem like gaming hardware is going to continue to fall down the list of AMD and Nvidia's priorities.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Secretlab, maker of our favorite gaming chair, the Titan Evo, has launched a new Pokémon-Themed upgrade kit for its chairs. The new looks come in the form of Secretlab Skins, a kind of slip-cover for the Titan Evo line of chairs that let you customize their look without having to buy an entirely new chair.

The new Pokémon Pixel Art Collection features the iconic final evolutions of the original three starter Pokémon: Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur, each rendered in a pixel-art style.

These new covers join Secretlab's broader Pokémon collection, which launched earlier this year with chairs (not Skins) featuring Pikachu, Eevee, and Gengar. There's also a broader collection of Skins available, ranging from simple colorswaps to other themed options, including Dragonball Z, Star Wars, One Piece, and Cyberpunk 2077.

The Pokémon Pixel Art Collection of Skins is available now for $99 each.

Bo Moore is IGN's Senior Manager of Tech. You can find him online @usebomswisely.

It’s been a while since Microsoft teased Project Helix as a next-generation Xbox that’ll play both console and PC games. But, in the months that have followed the Project Helix announcement, the world of PC gaming hardware has been turned entirely on its head.

It’s still not clear when Project Helix will actually make it to market, but over this last weekend, there were rumblings that Microsoft was thinking about pulling back from Steam. Those rumblings came from Jez Corden’s Xbox Two podcast, and Corden wrote out a long post on Windows Central yesterday basically calling it a misunderstanding.

Xbox isn’t likely to pull its games from Steam any time soon, but with the cost of hardware being what it is, I could see the company walking back on the open nature of Project Helix. Launching an open PC platform is a risky move when hardware costs keep going up. Just look at the Steam Machine – due to its nature as an open platform, Valve couldn’t reasonably subsidize the hardware, and it led to that mini PC getting a four-digit price tag.

Project Helix, as it was pitched back in March, would basically be a Windows-flavored version of what the Steam Machine is doing. But because it’s going to have ‘next-gen’ pressures, the hardware will probably be significantly more powerful than what you’ll find in the GabeCube. If Microsoft isn’t able to subsidize the cost – and if it's an open platform, it won’t be able to – it’s likely that you’re going to have to pay gaming PC money to get the next Xbox.

I’m not sure how many people would be willing to spend one or two thousand bucks on a next-generation gaming console, especially if Sony isn’t also charging that much. It feels like a foregone conclusion right now that the $500 console is dead, but even if it is, I’m not sure that the PS6 would actually reach $1,000. Just last month, industry analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said on Twitter that he didn’t think the Steam Machine’s high price necessarily means the next PlayStation would hit a thousand bucks, mostly due to Sony’s more robust supply chain.

Either way, it’s a little early for any of this to be anything more than just speculation. Right now, it looks like the PS6 isn’t going to be coming out until 2028 anyways, and there’s a possibility that the RAM crisis will have died down a little before then. But if hardware is still in short supply when Project Helix and the PS6 come out, I almost want Microsoft to double down on making its next-gen console a gaming PC.

If Microsoft really wants to court PC gamers, it makes a lot of sense to have Project Helix as a sort of first-party halo (no pun intended) product. Ideally, Microsoft would just make the console/PC hybrid as close to a top-end rig as possible and position it as the premium option. Then, Microsoft could just leave the entry-level to third-party manufacturers or PC builders. After all, part of the magic of PC gaming is its scalability, so you wouldn’t need to fork over whatever Microsoft is asking for Helix, if you’re willing to build something yourself.

It wouldn’t even be the first time that Microsoft took this kind of approach. Outside of Xbox, this is exactly the mindset behind the Surface lineup of PCs. Microsoft makes a beautiful laptop as a model of what the company thinks PCs should be, but still allows Windows and all of its software to run on other hardware. I’ve even joked to friends in the past that it was only a matter of time before Microsoft made the Xbox Surface, and that’s kind of what Project Helix looks like, at least right now. Not a tablet, to be clear, but a sleek, high-end device.

Even though there are rumors that Microsoft is going to keep supporting discs, it still feels like the death of physical games is looming around the corner, so Project Helix going with an open PC platform would at least allow you to buy games on GoG. And, there, you’ll have a more convincing illusion of owning your games than just buying them on the Xbox store. Plus, if you’re anything like me, where you own hundreds of games across various PC storefronts, you’ll have an instant library on day one.

The problem with Helix being an open platform, though, is the UX. One of the most frustrating things about the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X continues to be the Xbox Full Screen Experience. Microsoft has done a lot to improve it since I reviewed the handheld last year, but to this day it’s still sometimes buggy and unresponsive, especially on the base Xbox Ally. I frequently have problems where I go to close a game, and it just doesn’t work, leading me to mashing the X button in Task View until the game eventually closes.

I do think the Xbox Full Screen experience works pretty well on a TV, and would make a lot of sense on a console, but only if Microsoft puts in the work to actually polish it. Luckily, the company has plenty of time to tighten the screws before the next-gen consoles launch, and Project Helix will likely be powerful enough to brute force some of the issues the handhelds have with the OS. Ideally, the FSE should be as intuitive as SteamOS by the time the console hits living rooms.

However, with the way hardware pricing is going, and with how CEO Asha Sharma seems intent on bringing back Xbox’s console identity, it’s possible that Microsoft pulls a 180 on Project Helix, making it a traditional follow-up to the Series X. It would make sense to funnel people into the Xbox store where Microsoft could make a bigger cut of each game sold. Maybe that’s even the path Xbox should take. But I really think Project Helix would be losing something special by just being a sequel to the Xbox Series X, rather than taking a stand as Microsoft’s example of what a gaming PC should be.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

The Motorola Razr Fold takes the Razr family to a new dimension. While earlier foldables from Motorola followed in the footsteps of the original Razr, offering a flip-phone style footprint, the Razr Fold opts for a hotdog fold, akin to what Samsung has offered from its Galaxy Z Fold lineup. Motorola hasn’t taken generations of iterations on this design to get to a very solid point, though. The Razr Fold is impressively thin and looks like all the experience gained from the earlier Razr foldables is paying off big. At $1,899, it’s not a cheap option, but it may still have what it takes to earn your money or at least due consideration.

Motorola Razr Fold – Design and Features

As mentioned, the Razr Fold opens like a book rather than an old school flip phone. Where Samsung’s early folders were normal-size while open and double the thickness of a typical smartphone while closed, the Razr Fold has jumped straight to ultra-thin dimensions.

Closed up, it looks almost like any other smartphone, and it’s a pretty one with a textured, rubberized back. It’s a little thicker than most, and the camera bump adds quite a bit of depth (that’ll prove worthwhile), but it doesn’t feel unusually large. Unfolded, it becomes impressively thin at 0.19 inches to edge out even the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge or iPhone Air – camera bumps aside. The hints that it’s a foldable are the asymmetry and the seem running around the perimeter of the phone. It is a bit on the heavy side at 8.6 ounces, but that’s not so crazy next to the 8 ounce iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Folded shut, the 21:9 exterior display is a large 6.6-inch, 1080x2520 panel, and it opens up to reveal an even larger, nearly square 8.1-inch, 2232x2484 internal display. Both screens are sharp and bright LTPO pOLED displays with the internal reaching 120Hz and the external hitting 165Hz. For ultra-wide cinema, the external display will probably be the one to go with, and then it won’t really stand out from the crowd of bigger flagship phone displays. But for the wealth of 16:9 content out there (or even squarer formats like 4:3 or The Snyder Cut), the internal display can provide a larger surface for viewing than the competition. That inner seam where the phone folds remains a minor nuisance. It shows glare readily, and it’s all the more apparent when displaying dark content or viewed at an off angle. You can also easily feel it when swiping across. That said, when the screen is lit up and you face it head-on, the seam mostly vanishes.

Either way, both screens can look gorgeous in the right conditions, and even though they love to show finger oils and glare on the interior folding seam is apparent, they push out enough brightness to easily get past that glare. You won’t want to treat the two displays the same, though. The exterior has Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 that should withstand drops and scrapes a lot better than the internal display’s Ultra Thin Glass.

While you’ll want to be gentle with the phone, it’s still tougher than early foldables. It has an IP49 rating to keep a good deal of dust and debris out (just don’t fold it closed with a bunch of crud inside. It can also withstand submersion in freshwater and water jets.

It’s truly a shame we as a body of consumers let smartphone makers get away with killing the microSD card slot, because the Razr Fold likely could have had one. The SIM try in the phone is extra long, with easily enough space to accommodate two SIMs or a SIM and a microSD card, yet it only holds one SIM card. I might have accepted space constraints as an excuse if the SIM tray didn’t just have dead space built in.

Motorola includes facial recognition for sign-in. It also has a fingerprint scanner built into the power button, which makes it conveniently accessible whether using the phone folded open or closed.

Motorola has a bonus for creatives and handwriting enthusiasts. The Razr Fold supports a pressure-sensitive active stylus, and it worked quite well in my brief testing with it. I’d be careful about pushing too hard on the internal display, though. It’s also an optional accessory (i.e., even more money out of your pocket), and it doesn’t attach to the phone or charge from it either. It has its own separate charging sleeve that it inserts into for storage and recharging.

The speakers on the Razr Fold are decent, offering loud stereo sound that’s a decent match for the display.

Motorola has fitted a 5Gbps USB-C port with DisplayPort 1.2 output, letting the Razr Fold connect to an external display and work as something of a portable computer.

Motorola Razr Fold – Software

The Razr Fold is pricey, so it’s good to see that Motorola isn’t holding back on long-term support. The company is promising seven years of Android OS and security updates, which helps keep it competitive with Samsung and Google on those fronts.

The software itself is a tame implementation of Android. The phone came running Android 16, and it’s not heavy handed about AI features or bloated with unwanted software, though there is a button dedicated to recording notes, making images and quickly tapping into other AI features. The OS is fairly flexible with customization as well. I found the default quick setting buttons a little large, but the OS let me shrink some of them down. I could also go from a 4x6 home screen app grid to a 5x7 to get more apps just a tap away.

Motorola Razr Fold – Gaming and Performance

The Razr Fold doesn’t feature Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line chip, but it comes close with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, which gets 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage. This is a chip I saw in the OnePlus 15R, which mustered solid performance, and though the Razr Fold is wielding this chip in a much thinner chassis, it nearly keeps up. It’s not quite up to iPhone 17 or OnePlus 15 speeds, but it’s no slouch. The sustain is also impressive.

The phone performed surprisingly well for how thin it is. I played over a half hour of Neverness to Everness with the graphics settings at their max cinematic level, and though there was the occasional stutter, the game generally ran smoothly at 60FPS. At the end of my session, the phone wasn't even noticeably warm. It even managed 70% consistency in 3DMark’s Steel Nomad Light stress test.

The Razr Fold’s performance is enough to rival the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and even the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra despite the latter’s more advanced Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. In my colleague Jackie’s review, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra could struggle under sustained loads. It started the Steel Nomad Light stress test with a high score of 1641 and sank down to 1,296 by the end of the 20-run gauntlet. That may have been more stable technically, but the Razr Fold started out higher at 2289 and finished with a low of 1600 points. It had also settled into a groove after 5 runs, so it seemed unlikely to ever sink as low as Samsung’s fold in the test.

The fact that Jackie found the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra uncomfortably warm to the touch after gaming while the Razr Fold was chilling puts the Razr in a great position to be the better gaming device.

The phone has a sizable 6,000mAh battery despite its thinness, and it’s even willing to take some pretty fast charging. It can juice back up at 80W from a wired connection of 50W from a wireless one. Sadly, even with some magnetism going on at the back of the phone, it doesn’t support Qi2. While battery life can vary dramatically from person to person, I was easily able to get through the day even while squeezing in some time gaming on the big screen.

Motorola Razr Fold – Cameras

Motorola didn’t skimp on the cameras included in the Razr Fold. It decked out the rear with a triple-sensor setup to rival Samsung, OnePlus, and Google, and it even has a couple of sharp selfie shooters. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s on deck:

• 50MP wide, f/1.6, 2.44-micron, 1/1.28”, OIS
• 50MP ultrawide, f/2.0, 1.28-micron, 1/2.76”
• 50MP telephoto, 3x optical zoom, f/2.4, 1.6-micron, 1/1.95, OIS
• 20MP exterior selfie, f/2.4, 1.22-micron, 90-degree FOV
• 32MP interior selfie, f/2.4, 1.28-micron, 88.5-degree FOV

I can’t say that the camera system is faultless, as it occasionally exhibits some oversharpening on the telephoto sensor, and it can get a bit soft and noisy in dimmer settings, but beyond those fairly common faults, it is excellent.

The cameras blend together well, matching one another’s color and dynamic range for a great consistency between shots. The sensors capture vivid color, bringing life to nature shots and street scenes alike. The cameras also snap sharp photos for loads of detail even when zooming in on them a bit. It’s just a bonus that the internal display’s squarer aspect ratio is all the better for previewing and reviewing the 3:2 photos that cameras will take.

The zoom is actually exceedingly strong. Though it has just a 3x optical, the 50MP sensor is happy to keep cropping in a bit further, and it has some impressive results. I could snap photos of details well beyond what I could see with my own eyes.

The sensors also do a great job handling macro shots, letting me get much closer to small subjects than I’m used to. The selfie sensors are no slouches either, snapping crisp photos with natural exposure. All of this combines to make the Razr Fold a rather excellent all around shooter for big and small subjects near and far.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra may have added in some higher-end cameras for this generation, but it will likely have its work cut out for it beating the Razr Fold. Motorola included a bigger, higher-res telephoto sensor than the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s 10 megapixels, and the main sensor here may be lower resolution, but it’s offering a slightly wider aperture, bigger sensor, and bigger pixels.

So far, 2026 is no stranger to price increases. Since the calendar flipped over to the new year, RAM, graphics cards, SSDs and processors have all seen price jumps at the hands of AI, and now a leak suggests motherboards are next on the list.

Take this with a grain of salt, but according to a post on Board Channels, a Chinese tech forum known for industry leaks, and spotted by VideoCardz, prices for PCBs (printed circuit boards) will be going up by as much as 50% in Q3 2026. On top of the raw materials used in motherboards also going up, it seems like prices will see a major increase in the near future. The post also references the fact that the DIY market continues to weaken, which exacerbates the need for companies like MSI, Asus and Gigabyte to raise prices to make up for less volume.

It's not clear when these price increases will actually be reflected on store shelves. We are technically in Q3 right now, and the prices haven't gone up yet. In fact, just looking at the Asus ROG Strix X870E Gaming motherboard on Amazon, it seems like its price has actually gone down over the last year. However, it is just a post on Board Channels, so you should take it with a grain of salt regardless.

It's not surprising that the DIY market is shrinking, though. Due to the ongoing RAM crisis, pretty much every component that goes into a gaming PC has sharply increased in price, and now the prospect of building your own computer is a costly one.

If motherboards also go up in cost, the total price to build a PC is going to go up even more, as another step in PC gaming even more of a luxury hobby. After all, RAM has only continued to get more expensive since the RAM crisis kicked off in earnest at the beginning of 2026. That crisis hasn't shown any signs of slowing down, either. Valve engineers have come out and said that prices are only getting worse, and even the Xbox Series X just got a price jump up to $799 for the 1TB model with a disk drive.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

The Steam Machine launched a little over a month ago, and it came with quite a controversial price tag. But it seems like the Steam Frame might end up even more expensive than Valve's mini gaming PC.

According to a now-deleted Stream by Valve leaker Tyler Mcvicker, and spotted by NotebookCheck, the Steam Frame could end up at a price at or above $1,100. The deleted stream also apparently suggested the VR headset would come out as early as today, so I'd take all of this with a massive grain of salt. But even if I wouldn't necessarily put a lot of stock in the actual number reported by McVicker, it's entirely possible that the Steam Frame is going to be much more expensive than the Steam Machine, and that's due to the ongoing RAM crisis.

The Steam Frame is going to be equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC with 16GB of memory and either 256GB or 1TB of UFS (universal flash storage). Even though the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is a couple years old at this point, it's still a relatively powerful mobile processor. And it's being paired with 16GB of DDR5, and we all know how that went for the Steam Machine. It doesn't help that the Steam Frame has design considerations that the Steam Machine just didn't have to deal with.

Each eye will have a 2160x2160 LCD display with a 144Hz refresh rate, and there are a total of six cameras strapped onto the headset, to track head and eye movement when you're playing games. Plus, Valve engineered an impressive wireless transmission method, that can intelligently render games based on what you're looking at.

So, even if the Steam Frame struggles to run a lot of games locally – which Valve's engineers basically told us it would back in October – there's a lot more than just a GPU and some RAM to consider. It's important to keep in mind, too, that the Valve Index was quite expensive for its time, costing a whopping $999 when it came out in 2019. So, it's not that much of a stretch to imagine that the Frame will be even more expensive whenever it eventually comes out.

At the end of the day, no one will know exactly how much the Steam Frame is going to cost until Valve actually launches the thing. However, the Steam Machine did come out roughly 7 weeks after the Steam Controller launched on May 4. If Valve keeps up that same timing, we could see the new VR headset's Steam page open up as early as August 10.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Microsoft reportedly has plans to allow developers to bring their Xbox 360 games to PC, as well as other Xbox devices.

That's according to a leaked document sent to Microsoft's partners that was seen by The Verge. What appeared to be a portion of the document showing a roadmap for features set to come in the coming months and years also leaked over the weekend.

it looks like devs won’t have to do any engineering work to get Xbox 360 and Xbox games on PC. Microsoft’s Xbox PC emulator handles it all 👍 https://t.co/3veMXdaJb2 pic.twitter.com/daFEomcVUa

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 3, 2026

The alleged plan is to allow players to play classic Xbox 360 titles not only on "Xbox PCs," but the upcoming Project Helix device and handheld hardware, as well. Microsoft previously announced a similar strategy in July, though backward compatibility on that front was limited to original Xbox games.

The report added that developers will have the freedom to bring their Xbox 360 games to the aforementioned devices – but the feature won't officially launch for some time. Potentially eligible titles aren't expected to begin their gradual rollout on next-gen Xbox hardware until sometime between 2027 and 2028. At that point, the expectation is reportedly that developers will be able to make their games backward compatible. They will also maintain control over pricing and Game Pass availability.

Original Xbox games were set to begin disc-to-digital testing for insiders last month, with availability for all coming this month. The Verge reported that the beta was delayed, so when that's still in the cards for is unclear.

The Verge reported early last month that Microsoft was exploring ways for players to digitally transfer their physical games. Today's report added some clarity to that, stating that physical Xbox One and Xbox Series X games placed in console disc drives will grant players a digital license that is bound to "that disc and the player's account." However, should a disc be traded with someone else, digital ownership can be swapped to that person.

In other words, should this strategy pan out, trading eligible Xbox discs will work similarly to how it has before we started careening toward an all-digital future. It's unclear if it's a solution that will be celebrated by players who have fought for physical media to stay.

The conversation surrounding how gaming company's are slowely doing away with physical media has heated up in recent months. Rockstar Games sparked fears online when it announced Grand Theft Auto 6 would launch with a code in its box instead of a disc. Those fears were then realized when Sony declared it would cease production for physical games starting in January 2028, a decision it's still feeling the reprecussions of.

How Microsoft will fit into an increasingly heavy digital gaming landscape remains to be seen, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see it do away with physical releases, too. While we wait to see how the future will pan out, you can see how Sony responded to the backlash last week. You can also read up on the Xbox console price increases that swept across Europe over the weekend.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

The Australian TV landscape has just been supercharged by the arrival of TCL’s 2026 SQD Mini-LED range. It brings with it serious performance upgrades, especially for gamers who want high refresh rates and strong HDR on a big screen. We have the flagship X11L, a true beast, and the feature-packed and accessible C8L.

In this editorial (video version above!), we will be taking a closer look at the features and technology driving the experience not just for gaming, but for all your entertainment needs. And coming along for the ride is this; the 75” X11L.

Let’s start with the name: what is SQD? It stands for Super Quantum Dot Mini LED, which is the proprietary tech powering TCL’s next-generation premium models. An evolutionary leap that sees TCL’s panels offering an experience RGB Mini-LED and high-end OLEDs can’t achieve for the ultimate TV experience in Australian conditions.

So, how does SQD work? Traditionally, quantum dots are 60 nanometres in size, but with SQD tech, they are reduced to 5 nanometres. This finer ultra colour filter layer can cover up to 4,000 pixels in any given dimming zone, each of which is powered by a new, high-purity single-stream white LED backlight.

In short, it’s a 12x improvement in pixel control, that also eradicates the cross-pixel colour bleed and blooming issues that face RGB-Mini LEDs.

We’re talking an all-scenes pure colour palette here, with exceptional brightness and unprecedented contrast for an LCD panel. This results in deep blacks and vibrant visuals while retaining a thin chassis for those beautiful, flush wall mounts. Additionally, a native refresh rate of 144Hz at 4K resolution reducing noticeable motion blur and ghosting.

All without the risk of burn-in. This is the kind of brightness and contrast that holds up even when the lights are on or the sun is shining, useful in many Australian homes.

The entire 2026 TCL range is feature-rich, especially for gamers. From the entry level C6L, upwards through the P7LS, C7L and P8LS, there’s great bang for buck to be found. However, the SQD range begins with the exceptional C8L and the flagship X11L.

The C8L comes in 65, 75, 85 and 98-inch sizes, whereas the X11L comes in at 75, 85 and 98-inches. With the same great panel technology, feature-set and MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor, the main differences between the two premium models comes down to peak brightness, dimming zones and width.

The 98-inch C8L, for example, offers 4,000 dimming zones and 6000nits peak brightness, which is still fantastic. While the 98-inch X11L goes to the next level with 20,000 dimming zones and up to 10,000nit of brightness. The X11L is also much thinner at just 2cm, than the C8L at 5cm. Competitively priced across the sizes, this gives you the opportunity to get a next-generation SQD panel, regardless of budget.

The news gets even better for gamers. Both the X11L and C8L feature four HDMI 2.1 ports for ultimate connection to modern consoles and PCs. There’s also a dedicated Game Bar in the HUD, for quick access to settings and performance. You’ve got FreeSync Premium Pro Variable Refresh Rate and Auto Low Latency support, too. Plus, Dolby Vision Gaming, to not just maximise HDR tone-mapping, but optimise lag.

The real gamechanger is the Game Accelerator mode. This utilises Dual Line Gate technology to double the native refresh rate up to 288Hz, by reducing the resolution to 1080p. It means gamers with a PC capable of outputting games at framerates up to 288, can choose to get the full benefit on a large-screen TV.

It’s a huge win for competitive gaming, where seeing the action quickly is more important to seeing it in high resolution. Effectively, unshackling the best PC gaming experiences from a monitor and bringing it to the couch. So cool.

This is on top of all the game-friendly features like broad contrast, colour and HDR, which ensure you never miss a detail from your favourite experiences. With enough pop to be clearly visible regardless of the natural light that floods many Australian homes.

Whether you’re looking for a great TV for gaming, sport or entertainment, the 2026 TCL range is absolutely worth your attention. Feature rich and utilising tip-of-the-spear tech, these are bang for buck panels that will transform your lounge rooms.

In particular, the C8L and X11L, which levels-up the industry with its pioneering SQD Mini-LED colour explosion.

If you’re after a big-screen TV that handles fast gaming, HDR content, and bright rooms without compromise, the 2026 SQD range from TCL is worth a serious look, go into your nearest retailer to see it for yourself.

We’re eight or nine months into the RAM crisis, depending on when you start counting, and it doesn’t look like gaming is going to get more affordable any time soon. Instead, the opposite is happening. Nvidia and AMD have both reportedly raised prices on graphics cards just this week, and the problem isn’t exclusive to PC gaming the way it’s been in the past.

Just looking back at previous hardware crunches, usually at the feet of cryptocurrency miners, one or two types of components would see big price jumps, just due to retail models selling out. The AI crunch is different. This time around, AI companies have made promises of future deals with Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix, promising to buy up memory chips before they even existed, according to Reuters.

And now, even after plenty of those lofty non-contracts have fallen through, the memory manufacturers are still funneling a huge portion of their capacity to AI and datacenters. It’s little wonder that there’s a class action lawsuit looking to rein in the memory companies, alleging price fixing, but it’s likely that case will take years to see any kind of resolution, if there’s even a positive resolution to come out of it.

Right now, every single little device that uses memory, from the PS5 to your car, is going up in price in order to expand AI capability as far as it can possibly stretch. But has any of it been worth it?

Looking back to the beginning of 2024, I was even a little optimistic about what AI could do for gaming. At CES that year, I spent a lot of time talking with Intel, AMD and Nvidia about what AI could do for video games. They all painted these utopian visions of NPCs that you could talk to naturally and inventory systems that managed themselves. But fast forward two and a half years and we mostly just have the constant need to check Steam store pages to see if developers used generative AI to add ugly art to their worlds.

And it’s not like we haven’t got anything useful out of AI. After all, Nvidia launched the RTX 2080 with DLSS, or deep learning super sampling (yeah, that’s AI), all the way back in 2018. And, yeah, that tech had a bit of a rough start – but at least in a vacuum, I still think it’s been a net positive for PC gaming. AMD, Intel and even Sony have followed up with their own AI upscaling tech in the years since, and I will never say that making games easier to run is a bad thing.

The problem is that the AI companies kept pushing. Nvidia added frame generation to its graphics cards starting with the RTX 4090 in 2023. Nearly three years later, that technology is divisive to say the least, even if it’s started to grow on me. But back in March, Team Green pushed DLSS to its breaking point with DLSS 5.

The technology, as it was presented back then, basically takes the final output of a rendered frame, and then uses it as input to present a new image to the user. In Jensen Huang’s presentation of the tech, it made Grace from Resident Evil Requiem to the point that she looked like she came out of a mobile game ad.

Nvidia isn’t the only company pushing new AI features onto gaming. When I was reviewing the Xbox Ally X back in October last year, I thought it was hilarious that Microsoft shoved Gaming Copilot into the Xbox Game Bar. To this day, you can set the handheld up so that when you hold down the library button on the right-hand side, you bring up a laggy AI companion that’ll give you outdated advice for the game you’re currently playing.

I’m sure that there are people who are fans of one or both of these features, and that’s fine. Hell, I’d probably be able to just ignore them if they weren’t coming at the same time that gaming is becoming prohibitively expensive. Because from where I’m sitting, it feels like the increased prices from the AI-fueled RAM crisis is the cost we’re paying for the privilege of using these slop features. I know that’s not how that works, but I can’t help but feel like we’re paying thousands of dollars for a ticket to an awful show that we just can’t leave.

I don’t know what the future holds, or when this RAM crisis is going to end. It’s even looking increasingly likely that wherever prices eventually land, that’ll just be the new price of admission for gaming. But the higher prices are only part of the problem. We’ve already seen big shots like Tim Sweeney throwing a fit that labeling AI usage on store pages is irrelevant because, he thinks, AI will simply be used everywhere. That doesn’t sound good to me though. If things keep going in this direction, games are only going to get worse, yet we’ll be forced into paying more and more to play them.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Gaming hardware is more expensive than ever. There’s a few different reasons things are as bad as they are, and I’ll get into them in a moment, but regardless of how we got here, there’s no denying it’s an absolutely terrible time to be in the market for a new gaming console or PC.

Even worse is the realization that there’s no going back.

For the past 20 years, the rough price of entry for console gaming has maxed out around $500. The Xbox and PlayStation consoles of the last three generations all launched in the $400–$500 range, and then typically got cheaper over the course of the generation thanks to less-expensive “Slim” console variants and inevitable holiday discounts.

This generation has played out differently. The PS5 and Xbox Series X both launched in 2020 at that $500 sweet spot, but in the nearly six years since have only grown more expensive. First, their launches were hampered by COVID-19 pandemic-related supply chain disruptions, leading to stock shortages that kept the price locked at or above MSRP for more than two years.

Supply finally started to catch up with demand around three years in, and for a brief moment it looked like we were heading into the mid-cycle point you would expect things to start getting cheaper – only for President Trump to upend the global economy with a draconian tariff regime. Sony and Microsoft raised their prices as a result, and even Nintendo, long king of the lower-performance budget-friendly realm, had to launch the Switch 2 at $449.

This storm, too, could have been weathered, but then came the chip shortage. Percolating in the background this entire generation has been a massive buildout of AI data center infrastructure, which directly caused a shortage of the memory chips used to make graphics cards, storage, and RAM. We’ve written a great deal here at IGN about this ongoing RAM crisis – how it’s the reason for an $899 PS5 Pro, $749 Xbox Series X, and why the Steam Machine costs $1,049 instead of $750. We’ve also written about how things aren’t going to get better any time soon. Valve says the memory crisis is “still getting worse,” and the CEO of RAM-maker Micron expects the shortage to last well into 2028.

So, 2029? Maybe then we’ll see a $500 console again?

Not a chance.

I fear the days of a $500 game console are long gone. For one thing, by 2029 we should be talking about the PlayStation 6 and whatever Xbox’s Project Helix ends up being called. Sure, we might see a discount on the 9-year-old PS5 and Series X by then, but I don't think the new generation has a chance of landing anywhere near the $500 launch price we’ve come to know and love.

The unfortunate reality is that by the time those next generation consoles launch, the market will have adjusted to these new, higher prices. Even if supply chains return to normal, tariffs are rescinded for good, and the RAM crisis works itself out (maybe supply catches up with demand, maybe the AI bubble bursts – who’s to say?), consumers will be used to paying close to $1,000 for their gaming hardware by then. Given that, Sony and Microsoft will have little incentive to price their new consoles any less.

Just look at how the GPU market responded to its own series of supply-related price shocks. In 2017 and again in 2020, the boom in cryptocurrency mining led to GPU shortages and scalper-driven prices well above MSRP. Both times, GPUs eventually returned to normal stock levels, but the subsequent GPU generation also saw their launch prices heavily pushed up by the inflated numbers people had grown used to forking over to scalpers.

I see no reason that things will be any different this time around.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that consumers will come out as fervently for a $1,000 console as they have for previous generations, but I have little doubt the demand will be there. The Switch 2 is the second fastest-selling console in U.S. history, despite its higher launch price. Then again, demand for the Steam Deck has cratered in the wake of its large price hikes, but that doesn’t surprise me given that there are currently better and cheaper options on the market.

I’m not confident there will be much competition to keep the next-gen consoles in check though. Sony says it doesn’t plan to subsidize the cost of the PS6. Meanwhile, Xbox’s future is murkier than ever, but all signs point to Project Helix being more like a PC than a traditional console, and PC graphics cards aren’t getting any cheaper. That’s not even to mention that everything feels more expensive these days, as evidenced by U.S. inflation hitting a 40-year record high in 2022 and holding well above normal rates in the years since.

Adjusted for inflation, the 60GB PS3’s launch price of $600 would be close to $1,000 in today’s dollars. Viewed through that lens, perhaps we’re lucky that console prices have remained so cheap for so long. Whatever the case, the party seems to well and truly be over. Like it or not, the $500 console is gone for good.

Bo Moore is IGN's Senior Manager of Tech. You can find him online @usebomswisely.

Just a couple days after AMD introduced a new 4GB graphics card, the company reportedly plans to raise its GPU prices by around 10%, due to the ongoing memory crisis at the hands of AI.

According to known hardware leaker Harukaze 5719 on Twitter, AMD has reportedly informed AIB partners that prices will increase by at least 10% starting next month. Just like with the Nvidia price increases earlier this week, these would be supplier-side prices, which doesn't necessarily mean the entire increase would be passed onto consumers. However, it is extremely likely that they would be – third-party graphics card manufacturers aren't exactly known for having huge margins.

pic.twitter.com/J29bGNsYjf

— 포시포시 (@harukaze5719) July 31, 2026

According to the post linked by Harukaze, AMD has been sitting on these price increases for a little while. Team Red was supposedly waiting for current inventory to thin out a bit, but it seems like it was also waiting for Nvidia to announce its price increases. And, now the price increases are expected to position AMD graphics cards at a similar price to competing Nvidia cards.

Right now, the flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT will set you back about $700-$750 on Newegg, which is already significantly more than the $599 it launched for back in March 2025. Since that graphics card came out, it's always been a better value than the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, which performs at about the same level, but costs significantly more right now. After these upcoming prices, its possible that value window closes a bit, especially if the line "the price positioning is expected to be similar to that of NV (Nvidia) graphics cards" is to be believed.

I've reached out to AMD for comment on these price increases, and I'll update this story if and when I hear back from the company. But regardless, this is just another blow in a year that's been brutal for hardware costs. Valve has already come out this month saying that prices are only going to get worse, and while Sony will probably avoid a price increase on the PS5 for the rest of the year, that story will likely change when the company runs out of RAM after this fiscal year.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Social media sites are overrun with AI slop, churned out ad nauseum by increasingly ubiquitous AI tools that happen to have the lovely side effect of driving up the price of gaming hardware. At least one site has had enough, and it’s… LinkedIn, of all places.

LinkedIn has become practically unusable in recent months if you don't have an appetite for low-effort "thought leadership" posts that just reek of AI slop. The kind of emoji-filled viral-bait that makes you say "man, this sure seems like it was written by an AI."

Well, the Microsoft-owned professional networking site today introduced a new reporting button that’s marvelous in its simplicity. Now, alongside options to Save, Share, or Report a post is a new “Seems like AI slop” button.

Perfect. No notes.

According to a post from LinkedIn Chief Product Officer Hari Srinivasan, reporting via the button will help train LinkedIn’s own AI tools to better identify AI slop. No, the irony is not lost on me. (And never mind that LinkedIn itself at one point touted its own AI-powered writing assistant. We're certainly not all trying to find the guy who did this.) Regardless, Srinivasan says the goal is to reduce the amount of AI slop people see on their feeds.

There are some genuinely useful and interesting applications for AI, like improving frame rates or building NPCs that can have actual conversations, but churning out slop is not one of them. I can only hope that other social media networks follow suit.

Unfortunately, even if LinkedIn (and other sites) were to ban AI content entirely, it would still likely have little impact on the total AI infrastructure buildout that has caused surging RAM prices and made gaming hardware more inaccessible than ever. But at least our feeds would be a little bit more human, and that I call a win.

Bo Moore is IGN's Senior Manager of Tech. You can find him online @usebomswisely.

Nvidia graphics cards aren't exactly known for being affordable right now, but it looks like Team Green's GPUs are about to get another price increase, thanks to the ongoing memory crisis.

According to a post on Taiwan's Economic Daily News, Samsung, which makes the memory chips Nvidia uses in its graphics cards, has raised DRAM prices by 20%. In response, the article claims that Nvidia is going to raise prices on its graphics cards by as much as 30%.

Keep in mind, though, that at this time, the price increases being reported on by UDN are supplier-side prices. That will filter down to retail, for sure, but we don't know by how much quite yet.

This wouldn't be the first time this year Nvidia has raised GPU prices. Back in February, the RTX 5090 went up to about $5000, and hasn't come down since. There was even a point where it looked like Team Green had discontinued the RTX 5070 Ti due to increased memory demand – luckily that didn't actually happen. If the 5090's price goes up by another 30%, the flagship GPU could go up to around $6500.

However, the price increases that happened earlier this year were mostly confined to higher-end Nvidia graphics cards. This time around, it seems like the entire lineup of Blackwell GPUs will be affected. Right now, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, which launched for $549 back in February 2025, is going for about $650. If there is a flat 30% price increase, that mid-range GPU will likely go up to around $850.

I've reached out to Nvidia for comment on these price increases, and I'll update this article if and when I hear back. Regardless, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that more GPU price increases are coming. After all, Valve told us earlier this month that the RAM crisis is only getting worse, and it seems like Microsoft is worried that further price increases are coming, too.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

It's no secret that memory prices have exploded in the last year, and it's causing everything using the stuff to go up in price. But now, seemingly to combat the rising prices and give people an option they can actually afford, AMD has launched a new graphics card, the Radeon RX 9050.

There are two versions of the RX 9050, an 8GB model launching at $279, that you can find on store shelves soon, and a 4GB model that'll be exclusive to OEM partners, according to Tom's Hardware. That means that the 4GB model will only be available in low-end pre-built gaming PCs. The 4GB version will also have a slower 64-bit memory bus, with memory bandwidth at just 288GB/s. So, not only is there not a lot of memory, it'll be quite slow too, which means more demanding PC games are going to struggle.

But it's likely that most games are going to struggle on either version of the graphics card. Both versions of the Radeon RX 9050 have the same GPU, with 1,024 shading cores spread out across 16 Compute Units. For comparison's sake the Radeon RX 9060 XT has 32 compute units, and the Steam Machine has 28. No matter what, this will likely be limited to 1080p gaming, and even then you're going to have to settle for medium settings.

I've spotted several aftermarket variants of the Radeon RX 9050 from the likes of Powercolor, ASRock and Sapphire, but none of them are available to purchase quite yet. However, they'll likely make their way to Newegg or Amazon within a week. You can buy a pre-built gaming PC with the 4GB 9050, though. CyberpowerPC has a rig with the new card, paired with a Ryzen 5 5500 processor and 8GB of DDR4 for $889 at Best Buy.

However dire that looks, the RAM crisis probably isn't going to end any time soon. Even Valve spoke up earlier this month, claiming that the prices we see on store shelves is lagging behind supplier prices by a few months. And it's not just gaming PCs feeling the heat, the Xbox Series X is about to get its second price increase in less than a year thanks to AI data center demand, and Xbox CEO Asha Sharma expects things to get even worse.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

The Steam Machine has been out for about a month, but despite the eye-watering price, the console-PC hybrid has quite an extensive reservation list. And now Valve has come out with a blog post, saying anyone currently with a reservation list email will be able to buy the Steam Machine by the end of the year.

When the Steam Machine first came out, Valve put up a page allowing people to reserve the Steam Machine. Then, accounts were chosen at random and either placed on a reservation list or a waitlist. It's not clear how many people signed up for a Steam Machine, but it was apparently enough that it's going to take Valve the rest of the year to fulfill the orders.

It doesn't seem like every region has the same level of demand, though. Valve said in its blog that some people might move off of the waitlist and onto the reservation list depending on the region. In some regions, even, Valve has fulfilled its reservation list.

Valve told me in June that it expected to struggle to fulfill demand for the Steam Machine due to the ongoing RAM crisis. I don't know how much demand is there, but at least in my region, the Steam Machine is at the top of the Top Sellers list. Valve will probably never reveal exactly how many units it sells.

The company also took the opportunity to release the CAD files for the Steam Machine's exterior, so you can finally 3D print your own skins and face plates. Valve has also released FSR 4.1 support onto the experimental fork of Proton, for games that support FSR upgrade.

The Steam Machine has had a bit of a rocky launch. Not only did the RAM crisis – which is getting worse – force Valve to release the mini PC for a much higher price than it originally planned, but the company has had to reword its performance claims, too. It doesn't help that the Steam Machine is only about as powerful as the base PS5, but you can easily build a PC with SteamOS and better performance, if you don't mind a bigger machine.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

The Steam Machine has been out for a little over a month, and while I spent the first couple of weeks testing it against the PS5 and different graphics cards, I wasn’t sure how or even if it’d fit into my daily rotation. But then this last weekend I came down with a cold, and I fell back in love with this little computer. Plugging it into my TV while laying on the couch, turning off the meters and just playing my Steam library? Let’s just say I see the vision.

I still don’t think it’s necessarily worth the high price for everyone, especially if you don’t already have a robust PC gaming library, but now, all I ever want out of this thing is to pick up whatever PC game I’m playing at my desk, and run it on the TV without tying up my network. And at that, I can’t really think of anything that does it as well as the Steam Machine, especially without taking up way too much space on my entertainment center.

Performance Isn’t Everything

I’ve never really been much of a console gamer. I still bought the consoles every generation, because I just think gaming hardware is neat. But whenever I buy a game, I usually just buy it on Steam, and it’s been that way for almost 20 years. The consoles just kind of filled in the gaps. Most of my library on either the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X is made up of a few exclusives and a bunch of games that came with various subscriptions.

But even when I do buy exclusives for the PS5 or Xbox I don't really even play them. Just looking back to last year with Death Stranding 2, I only got an hour or so in because the only way to play it was in my living room. So, I eventually forgot about it and moved on to the new thing.

PC is an entirely different story. Because I can pick up whatever I’m playing on whichever device I’m using, it’s way more likely that I’m going to finish any game I buy on PC. I spend most of my time playing at my desk, but it just so happens that I primarily play RPGs that have a lot of side quests or grinding involved. I love shutting the game down at my desk, then lying in bed playing through some of the content on a handheld while watching a TV show or listening to a podcast.

Even before I started reviewing hardware professionally I always had multiple PCs. I'm just built different I guess. One of the magical things about buying games on any of the PC platforms is that I can progress through them on whichever device I'm using at the time. A handheld, a laptop, my tower? All of which are great in different situations and they all play the same games with the same save data.

But the living room has always been an outlier for me.

I've had living room PCs in the past, but I've always been frustrated with the need to have a keyboard and mouse stashed away just in case I had to fiddle with something. That's not to mention how much a full tower PC stands out among the much more sleek consoles. Before the Steam Machine came out, I just kind of stopped playing games on the TV at all.

It just so happens that SteamOS almost entirely negates this problem. Pretty much all of the daily maintenance for the Steam Machine can be done in ‘Gaming Mode,’ without ever needing to go to the desktop. And, even when I do need to use the desktop, like when I’m getting third party launchers or games, the Steam Controller’s trackpads make it so that I don’t have to break out a keyboard and mouse.

Over this last weekend, the Steam Machine just kind of fell into its natural place. I set the outgoing resolution to 1440p, rather than 4K, and at the distance that the couch is from the TV, it looks just fine. Would it stand up if I zoomed in and started pixel peeping? Probably not, but the whole point of living room gaming is not doing that. And, so I spent the weekend playing Resident Evil 4 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in a Nyquil-induced haze, and it was incredible.

I honestly couldn’t tell you whether or not I was getting a steady 60 fps or not, or whether it looked better than the PS5. But it didn’t really matter. I got to carry on my saves from my PC and didn’t have to buy another copy of either of the games just to play them on the PS5 Pro that’s now collecting dust next to the Steam Machine.

At $1,049, the price-to-performance ratio is still bad enough to stop me from recommending the Steam Machine to anyone that just wants to play console games. But I own thousands of games on Steam, many of which don’t even exist on the PS5 or Xbox Series X. If you’re anything like me, just having a living room box that can play your entire Steam library locally, especially when it takes up half the space of other consoles, is a dream come true.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

We all know by now that even if you have a great chair, sitting for too long brings a myriad of musculoskeletal and metabolic risks. That's why standing desks, which can move to almost anywhere within their range to accommodate the most ergonomic positioning, are such game changers. The problem with a good standing desk, however, is usually its price. Enter Blacklyte and its Atlas Lite Standing Desk. As the "Lite" in the name suggests, it has fewer frills than other standing desks, including the company's own Atlas, but at half the price, you're giving up surprisingly little from a practical standpoint.

Blacklyte Atlas Lite – Options, Assembly, and Setup

The Atlas Lite Standing Desk is available in Obsidian Black, Moonstone White, and Natural Oak colorways. The Obsidian Black is the same color throughout, while the Moonstone White retains the black control panel. The Natural Oak is identical to the Moonstone White, except it features a Natural Oak-colored desktop.

The Obsidian Black is available in Small (47.2 inch width), Medium (55.1 inch width), and Large (63 inch width) sizes. The Moonstone White and Natural Oak are available in Medium, Large, and Extra Large (70.9 inch width) sizes. Small and Medium desktops can handle up to 220 lbs of distributed weight, while Large and Extra Large can handle up to 265 lbs.

All four desktop sizes feature a depth of 31.5 inches, which is on the generous side in comparison to other desks, standing or otherwise. This extra room can easily accommodate large or multiple monitors, allowing you to stand or sit back at a more comfortable distance.

I received the Obsidian Black in Medium, which came in two boxes. The desktop box weighed a beefy 73.6 lbs, with the desktop itself coming in at around 60.2 lbs. The box with the two legs came in at 50 lbs, with the legs themselves roughly 46.3 lbs, thanks to each one having its own motor.

It's not a difficult build, but it definitely requires two people because of all that weight. For the step that involved attaching the feet to the legs, I found that having a third person helped with alignment. In any case, you mostly use the included Allen key to secure the screws, building the legs first, then attaching them to the desktop.

There's a wire cover for the center underside crossbar, which is used to run the cables from the legs to the control panel. The control panel, which can be placed on the far right or far left of the desktop, is attached with different screws using the included Phillips screwdriver. The same screwdriver is then used to attach a cable management box to the rear of the desktop. Finally, the AC adapter is plugged into the control panel and then into the wall.

Blacklyte Atlas Lite – Form and Functionality

The recycled woodfibre desktop material has a nice glossy melamine laminate finish and rounded corners. Save for the flashy Blacklyte logo on the lower left corner of the desktop, it's an elegant design. As expected for a glossy surface, however, it does pick up a lot of fingerprints, so be sure to have a good microfiber cloth on call.

A metal frame runs along the perimeter of the underside of the desktop. This is great for stability, but does create a 2.3 inch thick surface, which can limit what you attach. I found clamp-style accessories work best, but even then, you have to make sure they can open up enough to fit. There's also a centered indent at the back of the desktop that's great for routing cables behind, particularly in conjunction with the cable tray that's directly underneath.

The plastic control panel is a bit flimsy and basic, but it has all of the functionality you need. Besides the up and down buttons, there are four memory presets, which are set at the current position by holding the number down until it beeps. Thanks to the dual motors, you don't have to wait long for the desk to quietly rise or lower. It only takes about 16 seconds to go from its lowest possible height of 27.5 inches to its highest of 46 inches. While more expensive standing desks may go a bit faster and better accommodate individuals taller than 6 feet 2 inches, for most needs, this should be plenty. However, if you're 6 feet 4 inches or taller, definitely look for a standing desk that can go to 48 inches or higher for better ergonomics.

The desk is reasonably solid thanks to the weight and metal frame, although there's some shake when not at a lower, seated height. A stability crossbar between the two legs would have probably helped provide that last bit of extra shake resistance, but its omission does keep the under-desk area far more usable.

Speaking of stability, I have a love/hate relationship with monitor arms. I love the concept, but have rarely found a monitor arm that remains reasonably stable, yet versatile. Fortunately, the optional Atlas Monitor Arm ($149, but like the desk, often on sale) is more in the love category. It's well-built overall and extremely adjustable.

The Atlas Monitor Arm simply clamp mounts in the area behind the desk that has a slight indent. I had no issue attaching it to a 34 inch LG Ultrawide Monitor. One disappointment was that one of the plastic cable clips arrived broken, so that's one thing the company can definitely improve. Otherwise, it's a great first party accessory.

While the Atlas Lite Standing Desk lacks the lighting, magnetic surface, and some of the other features found in the standard Atlas, it's hard to say that most of those are really necessary. Blacklyte made pretty good calls in regards to the essentials when getting the price down to where it is.