SECURE YOUR BUSINESS WITH NORTON

If you employ up to ten people, then Norton has a tailor-made package that will keep them – and your business – safe

HANDLE CALLS LIKE A BOSS WITH 3CX!

We reveal how an AI-powered PA can handle calls in just one of the long list of improvements that comes with 3CX V20 Update 8

How we test

Laptops and PCs We run a selection of

What our awards mean

Recommended This, quite simply, is a product we

Your bonus software

We scour the globe to negotiate the best software deals for our readers, from extended licences to full programs you don’t need to pay a penny for. Here’s this month’s lineup

Bag a software bargain

Don’t pay full price for software when we can offer you huge reductions on genuine products

DO-IT-ALL NAS DRIVES

We put 13 NAS drives that are ideal for home, enthusiast and small business use through their paces

Hidden talents and hidden decisions: make your choice

This is one of the biggest investments you’re going to make in your infrastructure, so be aware of every variable before buying

How we test

What to look for in the performance graphs

View from the Labs

How much need do you have for speed?

Buyer’s guide Best cloud file-sharing services

Are you sure you’re using the best cloud file-sharing service for your business? Dave Mitchell assesses four of the market leaders

If you want to know what’s best for you, keep reading

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO L ook, it’s not your

The A-List

The best products on the market, as picked by our editors

Investors may still believe in Elon Musk, but Jon Honeyball isn’t buying any of it

M y day started badly. Still bleary-eyed at

The enshittification of AI begins

The arrival of ads in ChatGPT could be the beginning of a slippery slope

Microsoft turmoil exposed in Epstein files

Windows 8 fallout revealed in email exchanges with convicted sex offender

An end to mobile notspots?

We find out about the backup SIM that works with every UK network

The wrong type of circular economy

If you perceive tears of rage they’re due to a new source of frustration: the squandering of wealth and resources in the unregulated AI quest

Ding dong, turns out privacy isn’t quite dead

Ring’s Super Bowl misstep finally made the risks of AI cameras clear to Americans, so maybe there is hope for privacy after all

A sound, um, reason to be wary of AI

The shift to AI-editing tools for videos and podcasts is inevitable, but beware of the trade-offs and some very rough [cough] edits

Readers’ comments

Your views and feedback from email and the web

Readers’ poll

As Wikipedia turns 25, we asked our readers on X, Facebook and Discord how important and influential they felt it had been…

JIMMY’S FIGHT FOR THE TRUTH

In an exclusive interview for PC Pro , Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales tells Barry Collins about the fight for free speech, how the site is dealing with AI and why it will still be here for another 25 years

BEAT THE MEMORY SHORTAGE

Memory and component prices are going to be sky high for the foreseeable future. Lee Grant reveals how you can avoid paying over the odds

IT’S EASY WITH AN eSIM

After more than three decades, the physical SIM card is on its way out. Darien Graham-Smith finds out why we should all welcome the change

RUN YOUR OWN AI CHATBOT ON A RASPBERRY PI

Stop sharing your data with cloud AI services. Nik Rawlinson shows you how to set up a completely private LLM on your home network

Intel Core Ultra Series 3

The CPU family previously known as Panther Lake makes a strong debut, but not all chips are born equal

Dell XPS 14 (2026)

A glorious return for Dell’s iconic XPS 14, with improvements in every area – speed, usability and battery life – compared to last year’s Dell 14 Premium

Asus ExpertBook Ultra

If you thought business laptops were boring, allow the ExpertBook Ultra to change your mind

Asus Zenbook Duo (2026)

With a next-gen processor and numerous design improvements, this is the best dual-screen laptop yet

Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra

The supreme quality of this laptop is reflected in its price, but if you want it all you have to pay the premium

Asus Zenbook S16 (2026)

Better value than its Core Ultra Series 3 rivals, but AMD’s chip fails to deliver a knockout punch

Geekom X14 Pro

The CPU may be ageing, but Geekom’s debut laptop delivers in every other area – if you can find it for sale

CyberPowerPC Ultra R98XT

An excellent showcase for AMD’s new Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor, but the law of diminishing returns applies

Wired2Fire Haven Ember Pro

A stylish system that’s packed to the brim with powerful components, so buy it at this price while you can

Dell UltraSharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor

A superb choice for anyone who currently finds themselves with three or more monitors sitting on their desk

LG UltraFine 6K Evo

Thunderbolt 5 connectivity and a 6K resolution both impress, but at this price we want OLED technology

HP Color LaserJet Pro 4202dw

Rich black text, slick design and rapid duplex printing compensate for the clumsy dial and costly cartridges

Motorola signature

One of the most stylish phones in the universe, but that comes with a matching price and two compromises

SYNOLOGY DS425+

Synology’s DS425+ is a fine mid-range NAS with balanced features and a fair turn of speed

SYNOLOGY DS725+

Excellent performance and upgradability make this a great choice for power users and micro businesses

UGREEN NASYNC DH4300 PLUS

Ugreen’s DH4300 Plus isn’t particularly fast, but it’s user-friendly and great value overall

TERRAMASTER F2-425 PLUS

If outright performance is everything, you’ll be hard-pressed to beat TerraMaster’s F2-425 Plus

QNAP HS-264

Slim and smart it may be, but QNAP’s HS-264 is rather underwhelming considering its high price

QNAP TBS-464

An all-flash enclosure, but without the horsepower that demanding users might want

QNAP TS-432X

A decent mid-range NAS, the QNAP TS-432X offers reasonable pace and great upgradability

QNAP TS-216G

This simple two-disk enclosure is slow, but it’s an affordable way to get secure data storage

SYNOLOGY DS225+

With decent performance and a reasonable asking price, the DS225+ is a solid NAS for home users

TERRAMASTER F4 SSD

If you want an all-flash NAS this is a strong performer, but it’s not a great all-rounder

UBIQUITI UNIFI UNAS PRO

The 7-bay UniFi UNAS Pro isn’t for home users, but it’s an excellent first business NAS

What disks should I use?

Before you buy, make sure you know exactly which hard disks and SSDs will work in your chosen device

UGREEN NASYNC DX2800

Ugreen’s NASync DX2800 is great value, but its software is a bit basic and it wasn’t too impressive in our tests

UGREEN NASYNC DXP4800 PLUS

This highly specified NAS looks the part, but we’re not sure it’s ideal for power users

Box Business

A good-value service with generous storage limits, tight security and classy management features

Ionos HiDrive Pro

Basic collaboration features, but this affordable cloud file-sharing service will appeal to small businesses

Progress ShareFile Premium

A smart cloud collaboration hub with slick client project management and tight security at a good price

Tresorit Engage Business

Tresorit Engage combines clever client collaboration spaces with super-secure cloud file sharing

D-Link DGS-1530-52P

This port-dense PoE+ switch offers a great feature set, but value and management options could be improved

DrayTek Vigor 2767ax

This small office router teams up smart WAN redundancy, heaps of security features and Wi-Fi 6 at a great price

AI & DEV TEAMS

Are real-life programmers living on borrowed time? Nik Rawlinson explores the growing popularity of AI-powered development

Green cloud

Don’t entrust your jobs to dirty, energy-hungry servers: Darien Graham-Smith looks at the green scene

“It’s a pity there’s an Elon-shaped issue with Starlink because the solution is otherwise superb”

The best-connected man in Huntingdon ensures his lab will be always online, takes a nibble at Apple and wonders why Dell will take half a year to deliver a new laptop

“To Gary, I’m a simple underling, eternally grateful for the chance to fix his Dell laptop”

While we wonder if Geoff Capes’ laptop-lobbing record will ever be broken, there’s work to be done to see if Intel hid a time bomb inside your PC

“Cyber resilience is now treated as a matter of governance rather than pure technical compliance”

Rule Britannia, Britannia waives the rules… or why the shoulder-shrugging Cyber Security and Resilience Bill causes such problems for UK businesses

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the biggest obstacle to security is inconvenience”

Have you seen those password books on Amazon? They’re not a cybersecurity abomination, despite what you may think

“Not to point any fingers here; I seriously doubt the fault lies with our esteemed editor”

Whether it’s PDFs from PC Pro ’s editor, Outlook messages or his partner’s photos, space is at a premium for Steve this month

Pippin awful: Apple’s doomed console

David Crookes reflects on Apple’s ill-judged attempt to corner the gaming market with the Apple Pippin

Are we building too many data centres – and could we build them better?

The AI arms race has sparked a rush to build data centres, but we should use them to offer free heating and other benefits rather than big boxes that will go out of date too fast, says Nicole Kobie