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Trump tariffs would increase laptop prices by $350+, other electronics by as much as 40%

If Donald Trump wins the 2024 U.S. presidential election, your next laptop could be a lot heavier . . . on your wallet. During his current campaign, the GOP candidate and 45th president has promised to impose massive tariffs of 10 to 20% on goods from all countries plus a special 60% rate for those from China. Those tariffs are paid by importers but are passed on to consumers in the form of higher retail prices. And according to a recent report by the CTA (Consumer Technology Association), even Trump’s lowest proposed tariffs would have huge inflationary effects on the cost of popular gadgets such as laptops, monitors, TVs, smartphones, and desktop computers.Working with analyst group TPW (Trade Partnership Worldwide), the CTA estimates that a 10% global tariff + 60% China tariff would raise the cost of laptops by 45%. That’s an additional $357 for models that hit what the organization considers an average price point of $793. Shoppers seeking premium models on the other hand, including most of those on our lists of best ultrabooks or best gaming laptops, would see much higher increases — to the tune of $450 for every $1,000 of current pricing. “Tariffs are regressive taxes that Americans pay. They’re not paid by a foreign government,” Ed Brzytwa, CTA’s VP of International Trade, told Tom’s Hardware. “They’re taxes that importers in the United States pay and foreign governments and foreign countries do not pay those tariffs. So when I say they’re regressive, it means that they harm poor people and people of little means more than they harm wealthy people.”Though importers, which could be import companies, OEMs or retailers, are paying the tariff fees to the government, consumers will bear the burden. Brzytwa said that nearly 100% of the cost of past tariffs, such as those previously imposed by the Trump and Biden administrations against certain Chinese imports (semiconductors, batteries, steel, minerals, electric vehicles, medical products), were passed through to consumers.  Prices going up on phones, TVs, monitors, more The CTA and TPW also estimate that the cost of smartphones would be 25.8% higher, monitors would jump up 31.2%, and game consoles, which are largely manufactured in China, would go up by 39.9%. Because most of them are not manufactured in China, the retail price of prebuilt desktop PCs would only increase by 6%. All told, the cost of electronics would collectively rise by $90 billion each year, costing U.S. consumers a lot more money and leading to fewer sales overall.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.The table below shows all of CTA’s price increase estimates.Swipe to scroll horizontallyCategoryIncrease in Consumer Price (%)Lost Consumer Spending PowerAverage Retail Cost IncreaseLaptops and tablets45.0%$32.5 billion$357 (laptops) / $201 (tablets)Smartphones25.8%$25.6 billion$213Connected Devices10.2%$7.9 billion$5 – $37Video Game Consoles39.9%$6.5 billion$246Computer Accessories10.9%$5.2 billion$25Monitors31.2%$5.0 billlion$109Desktop Computers6.2%$3.0 billlion$74Televisions9.0%$1.5 billion$48Lithium-Ion Batteries12.1%$1.5 billionUp to $11Speakers & Headphones10.9%$1.1 billion$29 speakers / $35 headphones(Data credit: Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®)Tariffs assessed based “substantial transformation”So how would the tariffs be assessed? Many electronics contain components that come from China but are assembled elsewhere. Will importers pay tariffs at the Chinese rate or the much lower, non-China rate? The answer depends upon whether the components of the shipped product underwent a “substantial transformation” before they were shipped to the U.S. The U.S. government’s International Trade Administration website gives examples of substantial and non-substantial transformations. Using flour and sugar from country A to bake a cookie in country B would be substantial, and therefore the cookie would be assessed as coming from country B. But taking vegetables from country C and freezing them in country D would not change their origin, because freezing is not transformative enough.Moving production to other countries takes timeThe U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency assesses tariffs based on the product value and country of origin that’s listed on the bills of lading that shippers use. A laptop maker, for example, could try to lower its costs by doing more of its assembly outside of China, but according to Brzytwa, that can’t happen overnight.“For many of the products, like laptops and tablets, smartphones . . . those are by and large still made in China, although that is shifting,” Brzytwa said. “You’ve seen over the last year announcements by a number of companies on creating new manufacturing facilities or . . . using contract manufacturers, but they’re sourcing from countries other than China. But it’s not in the volumes that you would need to supplant that Chinese production.”For example, Foxconn announced plans to expand server production capacity in Mexico two weeks ago, citing ‘crazy’ demand for Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell GPUs. And Malaysia has seen a massive boost in semiconductor manufacturing, we reported in March. Brzytwa posited that it can take years to set up new manufacturing facilities and to get them rolling, however. So even if companies want to move more production to low-cost manufacturing centers such as India, Vietnam or Mexico, it won’t happen overnight. And meanwhile, they’d be paying a full 70% tariff (60% + 10%) on China-made products. That’s why CTA’s report estimates that laptop sales would be hit especially hard by Trump’s proposed tariffs: The U.S. imports 79%t of its laptops and tablets from China.We reached out to several laptop OEMs to ask them where their laptops are currently manufactured, but none would provide precise information. Lenovo confirmed to Tom’s Hardware that it has manufacturing facilities both inside and outside of China (including Mexico, Brazil, India, Japan and North Carolina). And Dell said only that it has a “globally diverse supply chain with Dell and partner-owned manufacturing facilities around the world.”Brzytwa also noted that the CBP has significant investigative capabilities and would not allow a company to claim that it had created a substantial transformation to avoid the highest tariffs. Anyone caught cheating could face penalties.  Could Trump actually implement these tariffs?Unlike other taxes that a U.S. president might want to levy, tariffs do not require congressional approval. So were Trump to be elected and face a Democratic congress, he could still make his proposals a reality. There are laws that the executive branch has used to impose tariffs in recent years: Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. In 2018, Trump used Section 232, which empowers the President to create trade restrictions based on national security concerns, to impose a 25% tariff on all steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports, with exemptions for some countries. In 2022, President Biden adjusted these tariffs, giving some tariff-free export quotas to the EU and Japan.Section 301 allows the United States Trade Representative, part of the executive branch, to investigate and remedy trade problems. In 2020, Trump imposed and Biden has continued huge tariffs on specific types of products from China, including semiconductors, lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, certain minerals, ship-to-shore cranes, medical equipment, and an extra levy on steel and aluminum.  How Trump’s tariffs could affect the GDP, job growthIn addition to CTA and TPW, other economists believe that the proposed Trump tariffs would result in significantly higher consumer prices for electronics. They also predict that the additional costs would not create a significant number of U.S. jobs, but they would harm U.S. exports and reduce the country’s overall GDP.Erica York, senior economist and research director at the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that promotes growth-friendly policies, recently wrote an article stating that “former President Donald Trump’s proposals to impose a universal tariff of 20% and an additional tariff on Chinese imports of at least 60% would spike the average tariff rate on all imports to highs not seen since the Great Depression.”The Tax Foundation estimated that a 10% general + 60% China tariff would lower GDP by 0.8%. If the general tariff were 20% – the higher end of Trump’s original proposal – the estimate rises to 1.3%. Including a possible 10% retaliatory tariff from other countries brings the GDP drain to 1.7%. The group also estimates that the tariffs and retaliation would cost 1.4 million full-time jobs over time.The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), a non-profit organization that advocates for more domestic production, takes a different view. In July, it published an analysis claiming that a universal 10% tariff (not a 20% tariff and not a China-only, 60% tariff) would boost GDP by 2.86% and create 2.8 million jobs. The organization also proposes that, with the tariffs collected, the Federal government could afford to and would give significant tax refunds to low- and middle-income Americans who would then see their household incomes rise. CPA makes no claims about electronics prices specifically.In September, TPW published a rebuttal to the CPA’s analysis saying that the CPA model incorrectly assumes that tariffs will raise U.S. productivity and that other countries’ retaliatory tariffs are not a factor. TPW also argues that the U.S. does not have a large enough surplus of labor and capital to suddenly divert new workers and investment into all the many tariffed industries.“There is no question that tariffs impose a cost on the economy,” York said.”They’re not just economically costly because of their distortions for economic activity, however, but they also impose costs by increasing trade tensions, hurting our allies, and, on the scale Trump is proposing, leading to massive disruptions.”Trump considering even higher tariffsSpeaking of disruptions, Trump may want to implement tariffs that are much higher than 10 or even 20%. During an interview this week at the Chicago Economic Club, the GOP candidate told Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait that 50% tariffs would be more effective in getting companies to move their manufacturing operations to the U.S.“If you want the companies to come in, the tariff has to be a lot higher than 10%, because 10% is not enough,” Trump said to Micklethwait. “They’re not going to do it for 10. But you make a 50% tariff, they’re going to come in.” Do tariffs help or hurt? Christine McDaniel, senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, agrees that new tariffs would lead to disruptive price increases. “Whether it’s a 60% tariff, 10% tariff or 2000% tariff, it is going to raise prices,” she told Tom’s Hardware. McDaniel recently wrote a paper with University of Nebraska’s Edward J. Balistreri called “Waging a Global Trade War Alone: The Cost of Blanket Tariffs on Tariffs on Friend and Foe.” In the paper, the authors predict that if the U.S. institutes a 60% tariff on China and China retaliates (a likely scenario), consumers and industry would lose $665 billion in purchasing / producing power. McDaniel said that, while she doesn’t know exactly what Trump and his team have in mind, it’s possible that they may be using the threat of tariffs to get some concessions from other countries that they want.  “Another thing to keep in mind is that he’s a deal maker,” she said. “And you may or may not like the deals he makes, but if you are that kind of deal maker, you often want to start out with way more than you think you could get . . . for leverage.”McDaniel noted that Trump is obsessed with the trade balance and seemingly wants to use tariffs to make the U.S. a net exporter of goods. However, she posited that tariffs will not increase exports and that reducing or eliminating the trade deficit is not necessarily desirable because it won’t improve the overall economy. She noted that, when the U.S. has had a healthy economy with lots of domestic consumption and foreign investment, there’s been a trade deficit. When there’s a recession and consumers spend less, there’s a trade surplus. She also noted that tariffs can end up hurting the ability of American manufacturers to be competitive, costing jobs. To back up her point, McDaniel cited the example of InSinkErator, a U.S. company that makes in-sink garbage disposals. She says the company suffered when the price of the steel and aluminum it needs to make its products went higher after Trump’s 2018 steel tariffs. “It’s clearly the case that those steel tariffs cost way more than they helped,” she said.Some of Trump’s own party leaders, who support his bid for president, are also not fans of his tariff proposals. “I’m not a fan of tariffs,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in September. “They raise the prices for American consumers. I’m more of a free-trade kind of Republican that remembers how many jobs are created by the exports that we engage in. So, I’m not a tariff fan.”Perhaps McConnell hopes that Trump’s tariff talk, as he suggested, is just a negotiating tactic or hyperbole designed to draw support from those who want to increase American manufacturing at all costs. However, if Trump wins the U.S. presidential election and then follows through with even the smallest of his proposed tariffs, you can expect to pay more for your next laptop, smartphone, tablet, TV or PC than you do today. […]

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How to stop Chrome from asking for a PIN when autocompleting passwords

A recent version of Google Chrome for Windows seems to have added an extra — and annoying — new security feature that’s enabled by default. Where the old Chrome would just remember and fill in your usernames and passwords, the new one asks you for your Windows PIN — or, if you have Windows Hello setup, a facial / fingerprint login — every single time you want it to enter a stored password. This prevents someone who just walks over to your PC from logging in as you. However, if your computer is physically secure, it’s another step you have to take possibly dozens of times per day.Fortunately, you can change a setting in Chrome for Windows that makes it autocomplete your passwords without asking for a PIN or biometric login. Just follow these simple steps.How to stop Chrome from asking for a login when autocompleting passwords1. Navigate to chrome://password-manager/settings.2. Toggle “Use Windows Hello when filling passwords” to off.(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)3. Enter your PIN or other credentials when prompted.(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)From now on, your username and password should be autofilled into forms where you’ve used them before. You won’t be prompted to enter a PIN or use facial / fingerprint recognition.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. […]

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Dude, you’re getting a PC! More shoppers than ever buying laptops and desktops as gifts, report predicts

A lot of people will be unwrapping new laptops and desktops this December, according to a holiday shopping white paper from the CTA (Consumer Technology Association). The just-released report, entitled 2024 Consumer Technology Holiday Purchase Patterns, states that 51 percent of consumers surveyed intend to buy a laptop as a gift this year, along with 35 percent who intend to purchase a “desktop / personal computer (PC).” Both numbers are all-time highs and are up 8 to 9 percent over last year. Laptops were also the most-desired gift to receive.Overall, 78 percent of survey respondents said that they intend to buy computer hardware of some kind as a gift this holiday season, while 89 percent plan to buy tech gifts (including non-computer tech), the highest rate ever by 8 points, with data going back to 2007. This year, thirty-five percent said that they would spend more on buying tech gifts in 2024 than they in 2023, while only 20 percent stated that they intend to spend less.(Image credit: Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®)“A lot of the buzz around AI PCs, maybe that’s a little bit behind that,” Steve Koenig, CTA VP of Research, said when I asked him why the intent to buy laptops has grown over 2023, when it was at 42 percent. “It could also be part of the upgrade cycle. A lot of people got new laptops at the headwaters of the health crisis and here we are four years later and maybe people are thinking it’s time to upgrade.”To create the report, the CTA surveyed 1,205 U.S. adults online from August 27th to September 4th, 2024. The company has run similar surveys for many years and provides comparative data going back to 2022.In addition to laptops and desktops, the CTA asked about intent to purchase in several other computer hardware categories, including tablets (55 percent), Wi-Fi mesh routers (31 percent), and Standalone webcams (26 percent). Every category was up 5 to 13 percent from last year. It’s surprising that a full 35 percent of people plan to buy multifunction printers as gifts.(Image credit: Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®)Perhaps because they are usually cheaper than laptops, tablets are the computer hardware consumers are most likely to buy as a gift, with laptops pulling in second. However, laptops were hotter than tablets when survey respondents were asked what they wanted others to buy for them. Smartphones, wearables and gaming consoles rounded out the top five most-wanted tech presents with TVs sliding into position six.(Image credit: Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®)Interestingly, when asked what they plan to give as gifts (including all tech categories, not just computer hardware), laptops were 10th on the list. The biggest tech gift categories were wireless headphones, portable chargers, phone / tablet cases and wireless charging docks. Considering that these are all cheaper than a tablet or laptop, it makes sense that they would appear higher on the list.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.When broken into categories, the top tech gift types are phones / mobile accessories (83 percent), audio devices (80 percent), computer hardware (78 percent) and smart home. Seventy-two percent of respondents plan to buy their giftees access to a subscription service of some kind, with 55 percent planning to buy gift cards to video subscription services such as Netflix.(Image credit: Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®)Who are people buying these electronic gifts for? According to the CTA report, 40 percent of respondents are buying tech gifts for children under 18. Thirty-six percent are shopping for spouses and 28 percent are buying for other adults. Only 15 percent are buying for their parents, a drop of 4 percent since last year. Also, 29 percent of respondents are honest and self-aware since they admitted that they will be buying tech gifts for themselves this holiday season.Don’t start looking in your relatives’ closet – or wherever they hide the gifts – even now, because they may have already bought your tech present. Though they plan to do more of their holiday shopping in November and December, a full 41 percent of respondents this year – the highest percentage ever – said that they will begin the process in October. And, if you like surprises, don’t look over your family members’ shoulders on Thanksgiving as 39 percent of respondents said that they will shop online during the holiday and 47 percent will at least look at ads.“Retailers have always been trying to pull forward spending and capture more dollars. And we know how Black Friday went from a day to a week to it’s Black November,” Koenig said. “I think that just the gravity of Amazon and just online shopping in general; that’s really solidified the notion of starting a little bit earlier.” However, Koenig also noted that people are still “anchoring” the majority of their holiday shopping to Thanksgiving / Black Friday week.One surprising number from the survey: respondents say that they plan to do 51 percent of their tech shopping at brick and mortar stores and 49 percent online. We would have thought that people are doing more than half of their tech shopping online, but it’s important to remember that these survey numbers measure the respondents’ intent and where they actually spend money could end up being far different.When consumers are looking for a retailer to buy from, pricing is the top factor, followed by ease of making a purchase, availability of preferred brands and flexible return policy. All of those numbers are within three percent of where they were last year and the year before.To get more numbers, including what smart home, mobile, audio, subscription services and lifestyle products respondents intend to buy, check out CTA’s full report. It’s available for free to CTA members or $999 for non-members. […]

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Change this Windows setting right away — especially if you have children or pets

If you have children or pets — particularly cats — you know how much they like to touch or climb on your things, particularly your PC. The other day while I was writing an article, my five year old was sitting next to me, watching Sesame Street videos and, as is her habit, waving her feet around. All of a sudden, I saw my computer had the “shutting down” text on the screen and, within a few seconds, the power was off and the article I was writing in our CMS (and hadn’t saved yet) was gone. My daughter had accidentally kicked the power button on my desktop, which sits under my desk. This isn’t the first time my daughter has accidentally turned off my computer while I was doing work. Another time, she pressed the button on purpose, thinking it would change the RGB light colors on the fans. And many years ago when I had cats, one of my cats hit my desktop’s power button with his paw, coincidentally while I was writing about him.If you have a Windows desktop or even a laptop, it’s very easy for kids or pets to touch that power button, initiate a shutdown and cause data loss. You might even do it to yourself if you brush against it with your own finger or toe. On some systems, particularly laptops, it’s possible the power button will be configured to put your computer to sleep, which will waste your time as you wake the computer up again but won’t cost you work. But, on my desktop — where I had done a clean install of Windows 11 Pro just a couple of weeks ago — shutdown on power button press was the default setting. Fortunately, it’s easy to change what the power button does in Windows 11 or 10 and set it to “do nothing.” So when your child or cat presses the button, absolutely nothing will happen. If your computer completely locks up and you can’t shut down via Windows, you can still hold down the button for several seconds to cut the power.How to Disable the Power Button in Windows 11 or 101. Navigate to the control panel. The easiest way to get there is to search for control panel in Windows search and click the top result. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.(Image credit: Future)2. Click Power Options.(Image credit: Future)3. Click Choose what the power buttons do.(Image credit: Future)4. Set when I press the power button to “Do nothing.”(Image credit: Future)5. Click Save changes.(Image credit: Future)Now, when anyone presses the power button, it will do nothing. If you need to shut down and Windows is frozen, you can hold down the button for a few seconds and the computer will power off. Or you could flip the power switch on the back of the power supply (on a desktop). […]

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Don’t let the pastel keys fool you — this is the best keyboard for typing and now it’s only $99

I’ve been a keyboard aficionado for three decades and my preference is always for the best typing experience, not necessarily the best gaming experience. That’s why, for me, only clicky key switches with just the right amount of travel and tactile feedback will do. For years, I insisted on using an old IBM Model M keyboard because of its awesome “Buckling Spring” switches. But now there are keyboards that even surpass that classic.Enter the Cooler Master MK770, which is now my daily driver at home and, thus far, the best typing keyboard I’ve ever used. This 96-percent keyboard uses a combination of Kailh Box White V2 switches (it’s also available with linear Box Red switches) and a gasket mount to offer a near-perfect typing feel. Kailh’s Box White clicky switches have long been the best for typing because they have a little less travel than traditional Cherry MX Blue switches (3.6mm vs 4mm) but still feel deep. They require a solid 45 grams of force to actuate, which is light but not too light and they make a wonderful, clean clicking sound. The V2 model is just a little bit smoother than V1. Then there’s the gasket mounting, which uses a rubberized material to hold the metal board that holds the switches place. This provides just a little bit of give so it doesn’t feel like you’re slamming up against a rock when you bottom out. And the 96 percent layout of the MK770 is just awesome. It allows the board to be almost as narrow as a tenkeyless keyboard but gives you the full numpad, arrow keys, and Pg Up / Pg Dn / Del and Ins. There’s even room for a volume dial. If you don’t like numpads, do what I do and remap your numberpad into media keys or hot keys.(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)The MK770 comes in two colorways: Gray and Macaron, the latter of which is on sale right now for $99 at Amazon (after you click the coupon button). I have the Macaron and it is a very loud combination of pastel colors: a mint green chassis with a combination of mint green, pink and pastel yellow key caps. I like it the garrish aesthetic, but if you don’t, you can change out the key caps or spend a little more for the gray model. The most important thing is the typing experience.I’ve spent all this time talking about the typing experience, because that’s what matters most to me, but this is also a highly-functional wireless keyboard as it can connect to up to five devices at once. There’s a 2.4-GHz wireless dongle, which conveniently has a little garage to store it near the keyboard’s left foot. The MK770 also can support up to three different Bluetooth devices and can work in wired mode. You can toggle between Windows and Mac layouts. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.This is also a hot-swappable keyboard so if you, for some reason, decide you want to try switches other than the Kailh Box White V2 switches it came with, you can provide your own. There are also a ton of RGB light show options. The Cooler Master software is so-so; I never use it, but it’s adequate for controlling the RGB.If you want the best typing experience, you like clicky keys (and you should), then there’s no better keyboard value than the Cooler Master MK770. Just make sure you get it with the Kailh Box White V2 switches.If you’re looking for more discounts this Prime Day, check out our October Prime Day live blog and list of the best October Prime Day deals. […]

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Our favorite gaming monitor of the past 2 years drops to $199, an all-time low on Dell’s incredible 32-inch display

Holy cow! You can now get our favorite gaming monitor, the Dell S3222DGM, for less than $200 on Dell.com. This 32-inch curved display has an epic, 3,700:1 contrast ratio to make colors pop and a 165 Hz refresh rate to go with its sharp, 2560 x 1440 resolution. It has never been this cheap.After it was discounted to $249, which was $20 more than it was on sale for a couple of months ago, the Dell S3222DGM gaming monitor has now fallen to $199, its lowest price ever by $30 and way less than its $329 non-sale regular price.  The Dell S3222DGM tops our list of the best gaming monitors and has for a couple of years, because it offers a unique combination of eye-popping colors, smooth gaming and superior build quality. Sure, you could spend hundreds more to get a higher resolution display or QD-OLED, but if you want to improve the way everything on your screen looks without breaking the bank, this is the best choice for you at its best-ever price.When we reviewed the Dell S3222DGM in 2022, we were really impressed with its combination of vibrant images and tear-free gaming. “There is nothing better than a high-contrast VA panel, and the Dell S3222DGM is one of the best I’ve seen,” Contributing Editor Christian Eberle wrote. “It strikes a rare balance between gaming performance and image quality.”In our tests, the monitor showed a contrast ratio of 3,718:1, which even beats other VA monitors we tested and it absolutely destroys IPS monitors, which usually can’t even hit 1000:1.(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)The screen was also highly accurate, with a Grayscale error DeltaE of just 0.54, better than any of its competitors.(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)According to our colorimeter, the Dell S3222DGM can reproduce a strong 122.6 percent of the sRGB gamut and 85.9 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut. The color quality also stands out because of the high contrast ratio. Those bright colors will look extra bright when the dark pixels next to them look really dark.(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)The monitor also has excellent build quality and comes with two HDMI 2.0 ports, a single DisplayPort 1.2 port and a 3.5mm audio jack. […]

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Dell’s 32-inch, curved S3222DGM is now $199: an all-time low for our highest-ranked gaming monitor

Holy cow! You can now get our favorite gaming monitor, the Dell S3222DGM, for less than $200 on Dell.com. This 32-inch curved display has an epic, 3,700:1 contrast ratio to make colors pop and a 165 Hz refresh rate to go with its sharp, 2560 x 1440 resolution. It has never been this cheap.After it was discounted to $249, which was $20 more than it was on sale for a couple of months ago, the Dell S3222DGM gaming monitor has now fallen to $199, its lowest price ever by $30 and way less than its $329 non-sale regular price.  The Dell S3222DGM tops our list of the best gaming monitors, because it offers a unique combination of eye-popping colors, smooth gaming and superior build quality. Sure, you could spend hundreds more to get a higher resolution display or QD-OLED, but if you want to improve the way everything on your screen looks without breaking the bank, this is the best choice for you at its best-ever price.When we reviewed the Dell S3222DGM in 2022, we were really impressed with its combination of vibrant images and tear-free gaming. “There is nothing better than a high-contrast VA panel, and the Dell S3222DGM is one of the best I’ve seen,” Contributing Editor Christian Eberle wrote. “It strikes a rare balance between gaming performance and image quality.”In our tests, the monitor showed a contrast ratio of 3,718:1, which even beats other VA monitors we tested and it absolutely destroys IPS monitors, which usually can’t even hit 1000:1.(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)The screen was also highly accurate, with a Grayscale error DeltaE of just 0.54, better than any of its competitors.(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)According to our colorimeter, the Dell S3222DGM can reproduce a strong 122.6 percent of the sRGB gamut and 85.9 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut. The color quality also stands out because of the high contrast ratio. Those bright colors will look extra bright when the dark pixels next to them look really dark.(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)The monitor also has excellent build quality and comes with two HDMI 2.0 ports, a single DisplayPort 1.2 port and a 3.5mm audio jack. […]

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This surprising tool saved my PC build and my sanity — now it’s on sale for $16

This weekend, I was working on a PC build, putting my old CPU and motherboard into a new case to give away to a friend. And then it happened . . . actually, it always happens. I dropped a screw into the case: a black metal screw into a black metal case. If you’ve done your share of PC building, you know that, no matter how many spare screws you have, you can’t leave any rolling around in the case. If a piece of stray metal contacts your motherboard, you could end up with a short and some burnt out parts. I once had an off-brand motherboard where the manual said “do not drop screw in case or motherboard will on vacation permanent.” Not only is dropping screws a problem, so is locating screw holes and headers. Even in a brightly-lit room, finding the tiny hole for the bracket that’s buried beneath five wires is tough to locate. And it’s a challenge lining up the ATX and PCIe power connectors with their receptacles or an internal USB connector with a header on the motherboard. To solve these problems, I traditionally turn to a flashlight or the flashlight function on my phone, but that requires me giving up a hand I could really use to hold a screw in place or lift a fan while I tighten its screws. I find myself getting really frustrated as I try to either screw in a tiny screw with one hand or do so with two hands but limited visibility. Fortunately, this weekend, I found another option: a wearable neck light that has two different flash lights. My wife has one she uses for knitting, but don’t be fooled: it belongs in every PC builder’s tool box. Amazon has many neck lights available in different colors and styles, some with one light and some with two. However, the one I have here and can vouch for is the EastPin neck light. It normally goes for $19 but today is just $16 because of Prime Day October. The EastPin light has two lights: a wider light on the right and a narrower one on the left. Each has its own button you can use to turn it on or off or, in the case of the wide light, you can change the color temperature from yellowish to white.  I found the wider light more useful for seeing inside the PC.The plastic on it is flexible and easy to bend but it also stays put once you bend it. That made it easy for me to position the lights so that I could see exactly the screw hole or header I was working on. The light has a 2,000 mAh battery and it charges over micro USB. I found that it lasts a long time on a charge. […]

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Lenovo ThinkPad T14s (Gen 6, Snapdragon) review: 21 hours of battery life

With the release of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X series processors earlier this year, a new crop of laptops have focused on power efficiency and AI features. Lenovo’s ThinkPad T14s (Gen 6 with Snapdragon) is the first ThinkPad powered by the chip and it specifically runs on a 12-core, Snapdragon Elite X1E-78-100 with a powerful NPU with 45 TOPS.Starting at $1,666 (current street price and the price of our review unit), the ThinkPad T14s is not only one of the best Snapdragon-powered laptops on the market, but one of the best ultraportable laptops you can buy with any processor. It lasted an incredible 21 hours on our battery test – one of the longest marks of any system we’ve ever tested – and yet it offers all the best features you can find on a ThinkPad. It has a world class keyboard, an accurate pointing stick, a bright and colorful screen, good performance and a sturdy, sub-3 pound chassis. So, though it’s not cheap, if you’re willing to commit to an Arm-powered laptop, the T14s is a fantastic system.Design of the the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s (Gen 6, Snapdragon) Image […]

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Ryzen 7 5800X CPU now $128, an all-time low and just $16 per core

If you have a first, second or third-gen Ryzen desktop CPU, you can now get a really great processor upgrade for less than $130, without swapping motherboards or RAM. And, if you’re building a new budget-friendly PC, this deal is definitely for you. Today only, Newegg has the Ryzen 7 5800X for a mere $128 after you apply promo code FTT354. That’s an all-time low price by $38, according to our records. This Zen 3 architecture chip has 8 cores, 16 threads, 32MB of L3 cache and a max boost clock of 4.7 GHz. For those doing math, you’re paying just $16 per more or $8 per thread. Best of all, this chip uses an AM4 socket it’s compatible with inexpensive motherboards going back several years. If you have a Ryzen 1000, 2000 or 3000 CPU now, this can pop right into the same socket, after you make sure you have the latest BIOs for your motherboard.To be sure, this is an older chip that has since been displaced by newer models such as the Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 7 9700x. But both of those processors not only cost more but also require pricier, AM5-socketed motherboards and DDR5 RAM. As you can see in the charts below, which come from our original Ryzen 7 5800X review, the 5800X significantly outperforms the Intel processors of its time and, more importantly, the older AMD CPUs many users will want to upgrade from.Image […]