The legend behindYugoslavia’s DIY computer

Inspirational stories from computing’s long-distant past

AI is back, and this time it’s personal

I t ’s the morning after. I’m battling

CONTRIBUTORS

Simon Handby We normally ask Simon to

The A-List

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

Next month ON SALE Thursday 6 November

SUBSCRIBE.PCPRO.CO.UK Features PC Pro Technology Excellence

The next technology breakthrough will be sensational, says Jon Honeyball

@PCPRO FACEBOOK.COM/PCPRO W a ndering around

Google grapples with good cop, bad cop

Vastly differing remedies for anti-competitive behaviour in the US and the EU create huge uncertainty

Hard truths on green PCs

Emmanuel Fromont, Acer

Controversial Haidt is hard to love

Sorry, OpenAI – you’ll never achieve AGI unless you can inject machines with the mish-mash of emotion and biology that define human intelligence

Put on your headphones – sometimes

Playing music out loud in public spaces is annoying and selfish, but not as foolish as ignoring the rest of the world

The laptop that won’t stop

Apple Silicon has completely redefined hardware lifecycles for the better, but how annoying when you’re tempted by something new

Readers’ comments

Your views and feedback from email and the web

Readers’ poll

Apple, Google and Samsung have all released glitzy new phones recently, but what features do you really care about?

WIPE ALL YOUR DEVICES

Don’t discard your devices without securely erasing their data first. Barry Collins reveals how to wipe a wide range of tech

BEST OF IFA 2025

WE SHARE OUR 29 FAVOURITE PRODUCTS LAUNCHED AT THE “WORLD’S BIGGEST TECH EVENT” IN BERLIN

Build a home security system for under £20

Protecting your home or workplace doesn’t need to be expensive. Nik Rawlinson shows you how it’s done

MYSTERIES OF IP EXPLAINED

We rely on IP every day, yet most of us are hazy on the details of how it works. Darien Graham-Smith tackles common questions about addressing, routing, ports, packet sizes and more

Futures Glossary of the future

What does it all mean?

Lenovo ThinkBook G6 Plus Rollable

A brilliant innovation from Lenovo, the only question being whether it’s worth the price in pounds (in both senses)

Bag a software bargain

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

HP Z2 Mini G1a workstation

This AI-focused workstation could make a drastic difference to the speed of your workflows

SafeErase 18 Professional

Total value this month £105

Canon Maxify BX110

A tiny inkjet that’s perfect for cramped spaces or printing on the road, with high print costs its only downside

BenQ RD320

An intriguing 32in 4K monitor designed for programmers, and as usual BenQ delivers great-quality results

Cherry Xtrfy MX 10.1 Wireless

Even non-gamers should find much to love about this mechanical keyboard

Cherry KW 300W MX

A compact mechanical keyboard with extremely quiet keys, but it’s not cheap

ReMarkable Paper Pro Move

Nearly the perfect tablet for writing and drawing on the move thanks to its compact size and pen-on-paper feel

Google Pixel 10 Pro

A limited upgrade over last year’s model, but the new Pixel standard-bearer barely puts a foot wrong

Google Pixel 10

The closest Google has come to hitting the iPhone bullseye, even if it misses out on some AI features

OnePlus Nord 5

A curious mix of upgrades and downgrades mean this mid-range offering fails to sparkle

MINI PC WONDERS

We put a dozen tiny computers through our digital wringer, so whether you’re looking for an office companion or an all-rounder for personal use we have the answer

Shrink fit: how to choose your perfect mini PC

Mini PCs offer more potential than laptops yet more pitfalls than a desktop PC. Here’s how to navigate the choices

Asus NUC 14 Pro AI

The NUC 14 Pro AI hits the sweet spot, delivering strong performance for a fair price in a tiny package

Geekom A5

Cut-price PCs always force some compromises, but the Geekom A5 navigates them deftly

Minisforum UM750L Slim

This brilliant mini PC offers mid-range speeds for a price that looks like a typo: it’s sensational value

Minisforum AI X1 Pro

An amazing spec and great performance at a price that undercuts market leaders – and it’s stylish, too

Wired2Fire AMD R8845 Mini PC

Wired2Fire’s AMD R8845 Mini PC offers simply ridiculous specs and performance for the money

Acer Veriton N6 VN6710GT

Acer’s Veriton is a business-focused mini PC, but with only 8GB of RAM it failed to set our benchmarks alight

Asus ExpertCenter PN54

Packs a huge amount of performance into a truly tiny space, so it’s a shame about the price

Geekom Mini IT12

Quiet, compact and relatively upgradable, the Mini IT12 puts value ahead of outright performance

Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q Gen 5

A mini PC that screams business, the ThinkCentre M75q Gen 5 is capable but fails to stand out

Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo 50s Gen 5

Bigger than true mini PCs, the ThinkCentre Neo 50s Gen 5 is a reminder why small is beautiful

MSI Cubi NUC AI 1UMG

MSI’s business-friendly mini PC sits in a very competitive space, and unfortunately it doesn’t come out on top

MSI Cubi NUC AI+

MSI’s Cubi NUC AI+ is a pricey, high-end AI mini PC based on Intel’s Lunar Lake chips – for good and bad

Why no Chromeboxes?

We discover if there’s life in mini PCs running Chrome OS

How we test

Details of this month’s benchmarks and tests

View from the Labs

I loved writing this Labs. Unpacking a dozen

Business backup 2025

Practical buying and strategic advice for IT managers and decision makers

Arcserve UDP 10.2

Powerful data protection for physical and virtual environments with top recovery features

Arctera Backup Exec 25

A classy data protection solution with plenty of ransomware protection features at a decent price

Hornetsecurity VM Backup 9.13

Drag and drop takes the very affordable VM Backup to the top of our list for protecting virtualised environments

Nakivo Backup & Replication 11

Perfect for SMBs seeking the best host platform support, great data protection features and good value

D-Link DBR-700

WAN redundancy, wireless network management and plenty of 2.5GbE ports at a good price

Synology DiskStation DS1825+

This smart desktop NAS offers a high capacity, good 10GbE performance and top data protection features

Performance monitoring

Get the best from your systems

Agentic AI

Are you ready for AI bots to start actively working in your business? Steve Cassidy looks at the opportunities – and risks

“It caused a few ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ at my local pub, which is one of my benchmarks for geek wizardry”

Expert advice from our panel of professionals

“The laptop wasn’t pretty. Beneath the chalky corrosion was damage like I’d never seen”

It’s time to ask important questions: are you too drunk for Windows? Does Microsoft own a phone? Should one die or a pay a bill?

“If your security training is boring, it’s not doing its job. This stuff is existential”

Training is the legal risk you’re probably sleeping through, but do so at your peril if you work in the field of information security

“Don’t dismiss this as someone else’s problem, as doing so could mean it soon becomes yours”

What on earth are Device Bound Session Credentials, and why do you need them? Allow Google, with a certain amount of help from Davey, to explain

“The state of panic around who will own the future of AI is profound”

Whether it’s creating robust defences against the rise of AI or the effects of the Online Safety Act on businesses, a sensible approach can be found