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The A-List

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

Readers’ comments

Your views and feedback from email and the web

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ON SALE Thursday 4 December 2025

Tech firms rival fast-food companies when it comes to marketing disappointment, says Jon Honeyball

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO T here are many things

Intel unveils Panther Lake as 18A process kicks into gear

Background and analysis on all the important news stories

The £99 ‘Obsolete Computer’ goes on sale

BackMarket breathes new life into Windows 10 laptops

Is the AI bubble about to pop?

Exclusive investigations into technology practices. Email probe@pcpro.co.uk if you have a story

Confessions of an audio dentist

Extracting troublesome Bluetooth headphones with the help of a soldering iron and a steady hand results in one much happier web call participant

The AI bust is going to break the economy

The social experiment known as artificial intelligence is being run on all of us, but what happens if it fails?

Home working isn’t a “benefit”

Draconian attitudes to working from home are a bigger problem than stay-at-home slackers

Readers’ poll

We asked readers across Discord, Facebook and X to name their favourite tech brand…

BEST PC MANUFACTURER

WINNER PCSPECIALIST HIGHLY COMMENDED APPLE

HOW YOU DECIDE THE WINNERS

You probably know the drill by now: PC

BEST LAPTOP MANUFACTURER

WINNER APPLE HIGHLY COMMENDED PCSPECIALIST

BEST TABLET MANUFACTURER

WINNER APPLE HIGHLY COMMENDED SAMSUNG BEST VALUE HONOR

BEST PHONE MANUFACTURER

WINNER ONEPLUS HIGHLY COMMENDED HONOR BEST VALUE XIAOMI

BEST MOBILE DATA PROVIDER

WINNER GIFFGAFF HIGHLY COMMENDED LEBARA BEST VALUE SMARTY

BEST ROUTER MANUFACTURER

WINNERS DRAYTEK, UBIQUITI HIGHLY COMMENDED FRITZ!BOX

BEST MONITOR MANUFACTURER

WINNER BENQ BEST VALUE IIYAMA

BEST PRINTER MANUFACTURER

WINNER BROTHER

BEST NAS MANUFACTURER

WINNER QNAP

BEST SMARTWATCH MANUFACTURER

WINNER HUAWEI HIGHLY COMMENDED APPLE

BEST ONLINE RETAILER

WINNER PRINTERLAND HIGHLY COMMENDED SCAN

BEST BROADBAND ISP

WINNER ZEN

BEST WEB HOST

WINNER 20i HIGHLY COMMENDED ZEN

BEST DIGITAL VOICE SUPPLIER

WINNER ZEN

BEST CLOUD STORAGE

WINNERS PROTON DRIVE, BACKBLAZE HIGHLY COMMENDED AMAZON S3

PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR

Out of the hundreds of products we reviewed in the past 12 months, these are the handful that stand out as the best – plus our picks for the most innovative companies

YOUR BUSINESS IS BRIGHTER IN COLOUR

Whether creating reports that people actually want to read or bringing presentations to life, colour laser printers make a statement that mono can’t match

COULD THIS £100 PI RUN YOUR OFFICE?

Barry Collins spends a week working on a Raspberry Pi… and rather likes it

WHAT’S NEW IN MICROSOFT WORD

The world’s best-known word processor just keeps on gaining new capabilities. Nik Rawlinson checks out the latest features you might have missed

FIVE THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT QR CODES

There’s more to these little mosaics than meets the eye; Darien Graham-Smith discovers it’s hip to be square

QR security

You might think there’s not much that can

Fairphone 6

The only choice for environmentally minded people, but also a solid midrange Android phone in its own right

Acer Swift Edge 14 AI

This is a stylish, well-built and long-lasting choice for anyone seeking a powerful, sub-1kg laptop

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1Gen 10 Aura Edition

This sleek 2-in-1 convertible is well suited to creative applications, but its quality comes at a price

HP OmniBook 5 NGAI 14in (Snapdragon)

This well-built Snapdragon laptop with an OLED panel has much to recommend it – at its discounted price

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050

Entry-level Blackwell card brings a much-needed performance boost, but not enough to justify its price

Philips Brilliance 27E3U7903/00

A 5K resolution and Thunderbolt connectivity lift this 27in monitor to Apple-rivalling heights for less cash

Bag a software bargain

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

Google Pixel Watch 4

Class-leading battery life, a big, bright screen – and Gemini AI – make this the best Android smartwatch

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

Apple iPhone Air

A stunningly thin design, impactful display and the latest A19 Pro chip, but there are inevitable sacrifices

Apple iPhone 17

Better value than last year thanks to a heap of upgrades to the screen, storage offering and performance

Apple iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max

A bold design backed up by killer performance and amazing battery life for the Pro Max in particular

Apple Watch Series 11

All-day battery life, 5G support and a tougher display, but at the same price as last year’s model

Apple Watch Ultra 3

Bulky and expensive, but a great choice if you want the best battery life, biggest screen and a rugged design

Apple Watch SE 3

The always-on display and 5G option mean this year’s SE is less of a compromise than previous models

Apple AirPods Pro 3

Superb sound quality and amazing noise cancellation make these the standout earphones

Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold

Impressively vibrant displays, a durable design and strong battery life, but it’s a chunky beast

MICROSOFT DEFENDER VS THE WORLD’S BEST SECURITY SUITES

WITH MICROSOFT’S TOOL NOW OFFERING SOLID PROTECTION YEAR UPON YEAR, WE FIND OUT WHICH OF THE SECURITY SUITES JUSTIFIES ITS PRICE

How to choose your perfect security suite

Spend too little and you may miss out on compelling features; spend too much and you may be wasting your money. When it comes to security suites, it pays to look at the small print

Avast Ultimate

Our top choice security suite, but the best deals are from third parties rather than Avast’s own website

Avira Prime

Available at a low price if you shop around, but it doesn’t offer significant advantages over Microsoft Defender

Bitdefender Total Security

Offers effective protection, but neither its malware detection nor its features set it apart from the crowd

Eset Home Security Ultimate

A strong all-round proposition with a fine VPN, but it’s expensive compared to rivals

F-Secure Total

We like F-Secure’s interface and its respect for privacy, but its malware detection performance is average

McAfee+ Ultimate

If you want hands-on support and identity theft protection, the McAfee+ range is worth the expense

Norton 360 Deluxe

A standout choice not only for malware detection but also extra features and value for money

Trend Micro Maximum Security

Great at defending your PC, but too likely to misidentify legitimate software as a potential threat

The best free alternatives to Microsoft Defender

Installing the best third-party antivirus product not only boosts protection, it also brings some potentially useful features

View from the Labs

Exactly how useful are the added extras found bundled with security suites?

Manage Engine Endpoint Central

Not the easiest to deploy, but Endpoint Central offers a wide range of services at a tempting price

Sophos Central Intercept X Advanced

Classy cloud-hosted endpoint protection with a wealth of features for the price and a brilliant management portal

WatchGuard EPDR

WatchGuard delivers tough, innovative cloud-managed endpoint security at a price that will appeal to SMBs

WithSecure Elements Endpoint Security

Super-strength endpoint protection that’s easily managed from a central web portal at a good price

Dell PowerEdge T160

The perfect entry-level server for SMBs with a remarkable hardware spec and lots of storage surprises

Zyxel XGS1935-28HP

A port-dense gigabit PoE+ switch with quad 10GbE uplinks, two management modes and a pleasing price

Protect your endpoints

Practical buying and strategic advice for IT managers and decision makers

THE SUBSCRIPTION TRAP Take charge of recurring costs

Subscriptions and service contracts can bleed your business dry. Steve Cassidy shares practical advice on managing the budget

Carbon-aware computing

Some workloads are energy intensive – but as Steve Cassidy finds out, there are greener and cheaper ways to operate

“I had some specific technical interest in the new iPhone. So a small shopping accident occurred”

Never mind the iPhone 17 Pro Max he’s just bought: it’s a foursome of Ubiquiti NAS drives that sets Jon’s pulse racing, along with a trip to a car-racing track

“The day ChatGPT learns to sort out Mrs Miggins’ password problems, I’m stuffed”

Are these tales involving AI, dodgy porn sites and motorhome plumbing just a shameless plug for the PC Pro Podcast? Like and subscribe to find out

“My client had been playing an annoying game with me, but it was actually a good exercise”

Contract length isn’t everything: clear drafting and prioritising key issues matter most, as Olivia explains succinctly (but not too succinctly)

“These are formidable new weapons in the smartphone anti-spyware arsenal”

Davey’s memory isn’t what it used to be, nor is the iPhone’s – and the latter is a very good thing, thanks to the addition of EMTE

“There’s an opportunity here. That is to get the virtualisation bug early in your planning”

As Windows 10’s decade-long reign ends, firms must make big decisions on how to introduce Windows 11. Steve offers a novel suggestion

Andy Grove: The man who transformed Intel

David Crookes profiles a man often overlooked when discussing history’s most influential people in tech

Can humanoid robots work?

The trends and technologies that are the shape of things to come