Sony is adding built-in storage to a new PlayStation Portal model for Japan and South Korea, though it hasn't said how much storage it has or what it will be used for. The PlayStation Portal Player Midnight Black goes on sale December 10 for ¥39,980 in Japan and ₩378,000 in South Korea, the same price the current model sells for after this year's price hikes. Preorders open November 13, and each unit ships with one month of PlayStation Plus Premium. Like the Japan-only Midnight Black PS5, both versions are locked to the local language and only work with PlayStation accounts registered in that country. Sony's Japanese post only says the storage is there for future features, with details to follow once those are decided.

Interestingly, the Korean post calls it expanded internal storage instead of new storage, which makes sense since the Portal needs some flash just to run its OS. The "Remote" part of the name is also gone, so the device is now simply the PlayStation Portal Player, as it can stream games from the cloud without a PS5 these days. Everything else carries over, including the 8-inch 1080p 60 FPS LCD, haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and 3D Audio. That also means no OLED panel, which leaker KeplerL2 claimed back in January would come with a refreshed Portal sometime in 2026. Offline play or local downloads would be the obvious guess for the storage, though Sony hasn't confirmed anything along those lines. There's also no word on a wider release, so buyers elsewhere shouldn't hold out for this model just yet.

Microsoft might be working on a cheaper 12-inch Surface, and Apple's MacBook Neo looks like the reason. DigiTimes reports, citing supply chain sources, that Microsoft is reviewing the specifications of its entry-level 12-inch Surface to bring costs down, and is also rethinking which processor goes inside. The report's headline, spotted by harukaze5719 on X, goes as far as saying Apple is forcing Microsoft to downgrade the device, and hints at a comeback for AMD with an Arm chip. Reportedly, the processor, memory, camera, battery, and chassis are all being looked at, though nothing seems to be finalized yet.

The pricing gap between the two laptops is quite large. Microsoft only just refreshed the 12-inch Surface Pro with Snapdragon X2 Plus, and it now starts at $1,149, up from $799 last year, partly because the 8 GB base configuration was dropped. Apple launched the MacBook Neo at $599, and even after a $100 increase in June that Apple blamed on memory costs, it still sits at $699. As for the chip, AMD's "Sound Wave" Arm APU was previously linked to Microsoft's 2026 Surface lineup and has even shown up in shipping manifests, so it looks like a candidate. Leaks put it at 2 performance and 4 efficiency Arm cores, RDNA 3.5 graphics with 4 CUs, and a 5 W to 10 W power target. Then again, Microsoft could just as well stick with Qualcomm, and neither Microsoft nor AMD has confirmed anything.

Anyone holding out for an affordable next-gen NVIDIA card might have a long wait. Hardware leaker Kepler_L2 claims on NeoGAF that the GeForce RTX 6060 will "launch much later," adding that, based on recent trends, he doubts it will even match the PlayStation 6. He was replying to a forum member who argued the PS6 would compete with the RTX 6060, in the same thread where he claimed the console's RAM and storage alone cost over $680. Kepler didn't give an actual date, and the 2029 figure going around seems to be an extrapolation. Both Kepler and kopite7kimi have placed NVIDIA's Rubin-based RTX 60 series in 2028, and the x60 cards usually trail the flagship by a few months. The RTX 5060 arrived under four months after the RTX 5090, while the RTX 4060 took over eight months to follow the RTX 4090.

With a flagship launch around mid-2028 or later, that could push the RTX 6060 into 2029. That said, the "much later" comment seems to be relative to the PS6, which is reportedly targeting late 2027, so the exact timing is still anyone's guess. Kepler didn't say why, but the ongoing memory shortage looks like the obvious suspect. NVIDIA reportedly postponed its RTX 50 SUPER refresh earlier this year to prioritize AI products that use the same GDDR7 memory, and the company recently admitted that RTX 5090 supply is tight. Of course, NVIDIA hasn't announced the RTX 60 series officially yet, so treat this as a rumor. Anyone looking to buy a new NVIDIA GPU should probably expect the current RTX 50 lineup to stick around for quite a while.

TCL's panel arm, TCL CSOT (China Star), is planning OLED monitor panels with refresh rates of up to 700 Hz, according to a new Omdia report on OLED monitor shipments. The panels will apparently come from TCL's Gen 8.6 inkjet-printed (IJP) OLED line in Guangzhou, which is expected to begin production in 2028, and will include larger sizes such as 32-inch and 34-inch. No resolutions were given, and it's not clear whether 700 Hz will be a native refresh rate or a dual-mode setting at a lower resolution. TCL is starting smaller, with its Gen 5.5 line set to ship 27-inch UHD 120 Hz IJP OLED panels in Q3 2026 for an MSI content-creation monitor. If the 2028 timeline pans out, TCL could be the first to mass-produce IJP OLED monitor panels at Gen 8.6.

The 700 Hz figure isn't a record, however. LG Display already makes a 24.5-inch 1080p 720 Hz OLED panel, used in the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG259QWS Ace, and the ROG Swift PG27AQWP-W hits 720 Hz in its lower-resolution dual mode. The interesting part is getting that kind of speed onto 32-inch and 34-inch panels, using a printing process that wastes less material. As for the rest of the industry, Omdia expects 6.1 million OLED monitor panels to ship in 2026, a 79% jump over last year, rising to 7.5 million in 2027. Prices are falling too, as 27-inch 240 Hz OLED monitors dropped over 40% this year. A third major supplier next to Samsung Display and LG Display should help that trend, though 2028 is still a long way off.

Valve appears to be working on an OLED version of its Steam Frame VR headset, according to evidence that comes from Valve's own code. Steam Frame Hub dug through the headset's Linux kernel source, which Valve made public and evlaV mirrored on GitHub, and found a branch called "deckard-plano." Plano seems to be the codename for a mid-generation refresh, building on an earlier "deckard-oled" branch, with work on it running from March until early October 2026. The driver code points to panels with a native resolution of 3552x3840 per eye, nearly three times the pixel count of the current Steam Frame's 2160x2160 LCDs. However, running at that resolution is another story.

The OLED model reportedly keeps the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, and it defaults to 1776x1920 per eye to hit performance targets, with an experimental 1.5x mode at 2368x2560. The code lists support for up to 90 Hz, and Valve is apparently experimenting with 120 Hz as well. There's also mention of foveated scaling, which seems to let the panel's display controller raise pixel density wherever the user is looking. The current Steam Frame only went up for pre-order at $1,059 last month, with Valve engineers pointing to rising component costs for that price, so an OLED model will probably cost even more. Of course, Valve hasn't confirmed anything about an OLED variant, and it may not even become a product. If it does, I would be surprised if it launched earlier than late 2027.

Microsoft is replacing the certificates that Windows PCs use to confirm they are talking to genuine Windows Update servers, and machines that miss the changeover will stop receiving updates. The company announced the rotation on October 8, and the current certificates expire on May 17 and June 19, 2027. Most users apparently won't have to do anything, since the replacements ship inside the regular monthly security updates. Windows 11 25H2 and later, including the recently launched 26H2, need no action. Windows 11 24H2 needs the September 2025 security update or newer, while other supported Windows 11 and Windows 10 versions need the July 2026 update or later before June 19. Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2016 face the earlier May 17 deadline.

Microsoft says devices on unsupported versions "will lose access to Windows Update services and won't receive any updates as a result," and its only advice is to upgrade. For home users, that mostly points at Windows 10 PCs that were never enrolled in Extended Security Updates (ESU) after the OS reached end of life in October 2025. Those machines probably never got the July 2026 patch. Microsoft extended ESU coverage to October 12, 2027, so it looks like enrolling and installing the offered updates before June should bring the new certificates along. The warning also comes months after Microsoft began refreshing Secure Boot certificates that were due to expire in late June 2026. Readers are advised to check their update history for a cumulative update from July 2026 or later.

GIGABYTE has released BIOS updates that prepare its entire Intel B760 and H610 motherboard lineup for upcoming LGA1700 processors, which the company says are "expected to launch in early 2027." As reported by Videocardz, the update covers DDR4 and DDR5 boards alike, so owners only need to flash the new firmware and drop in the new CPU once it arrives. GIGABYTE doesn't name the processors in its press release, and Intel has yet to announce anything new for the socket. However, the timing lines up what we've been reporting for months. Intel is said to be readying "Raptor Lake Next" chips for LGA1700 in 2027, based on the original Raptor Lake silicon.

That makes GIGABYTE's BIOS the closest thing to a confirmation of new DDR4-compatible Intel processors for 2027, and it comes before Intel has announced them. It looks like the firmware was rolling out quietly even before the press release. The B760 Gaming X AX, for example, received its F18 BIOS on September 29, with a changelog that lists a CPU microcode update and "preparation for upcoming processor support." GIGABYTE also claims to be the first vendor to cover every B760 and H610 model. The press release makes no mention of Z790, Z690, or B660 boards, and there's no word on whether those will follow.

The design team at Keychron has seemingly recently been on a new-features jaunt, with refreshes to some of the brand's product line coming with unique selling points, like the K2 HE Concrete Edition shown off at CES 2026, and the company has once again tackled a non-standard keyboard case material for the latest refresh of the K8 HE. The K8 HE All-Wood Special Edition gaming keyboard switching out the plastic bottom case in favor of a walnut wood design.

Internally, the Keychron K8 HE All-Wood keyboard still uses much of the same technology and design as the previous K8 HE versions—that means an aluminium plate, Gateron Double-Rail Magnetic Nebula switches as stock, and a tray-mount design. However, that tray mount now mounts into a wood bottom case, which should drastically change the keyboard's sound profile. One other notable change is that the side panel on the K8 HE All-Wood keyboard is now made of a brown metal, which adds to the overall steampunk aesthetic of the keyboard. Much like the previous K2 HE All-Wood Special Edition, the K8 HE All-Wood comes at a $199.99 price premium, and it is only available from Keychron directly.

Kopite7Kimi, a leaker with a strong track record on NVIDIA hardware, says the company's next-generation GeForce RTX 60-series based on the Rubin architecture is a 2028 product. "Unfortunately, GR20x is a product from 2028. That means they have postponed again," the leaker posted on X. Their earlier estimate was the second half of 2027, so this is another "delay," if you can even call it that. NVIDIA hasn't said anything official about RTX 60-series timing, so treat it as a rumor for now.

Interestingly, this new leak seems to align with what prominent leaker Kepler_L2 claimed a few days ago: that Rubin gaming GPUs would only arrive in 2028. It also goes against leaker Moore's Law Is Dead, who said about a week ago that an NVIDIA source told them gaming Rubin was greenlit for the first half of 2027. Two leakers against one doesn't settle anything, and we don't know who is right yet, but the 2028 timing does seem more likely given the current industry conditions. Of course, these plans can change before 2028, as the memory supply situation is currently very volatile, and hardware roadmaps are changing almost on a weekly basis.

According to hardware leaker Kepler_L2, known for accurate hardware predictions, the next generation of gaming GPUs might be skipped next year, with a full-stack refresh expected in 2028. Reportedly, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 60-Series "Rubin" and AMD's RDNA 5-based Radeon RX 10000 series will only be available in 2028, with some select RDNA 5 GPUs from AMD being made available throughout 2027. The specific model is yet to be determined, but it reportedly carries the codename "AT2." Perhaps AMD will roll out this GPU as either a new flagship design and launch the remainder of the stack later on, or simply as a mid-range or low-end SKU to kickstart the RDNA 5 launch. Thus, we still need to wait and gather more information before making conclusions, so treat this only as a rumor for now.

For example, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-Series SUPER refresh had been planned before, but the recent DRAM scarcity has turned the launch into speculation, with some believing it is entirely canceled, while others believe it will be a stopgap solution before RTX 60 "Rubin" arrives. For AMD, we hope to see RDNA 5 finally compete in the flagship SKU sector again and see more powerful designs from the start.

It's no secret that Marathon has had a rough start to life, with the game launching to reasonably positive reviews, but still going on to suffer from dwindling player counts mere months after launch. Following that, Bungie released the seasonal Vault Breaker mode that changed the game's structure to be significantly more PvE-focused and subsequently revealed that a different, permanent PvE mode would be coming to Marathon later in 2026, after the Vault Breaker game mode showed promise. Now, Bungie has confirmed that the new PvE update, now confirmed to be named Symbiosis, has been delayed to December 8, after the new PvE mode was promised to be landing in autumn 2026.

Symbiosis will be the first major step in Marathon's next chapter, launching on December 8th.
The update will introduce Marathon's first permanent PvE experience, providing a new way to explore, progress, and engage with the world beyond traditional PvPvE extraction gameplay. Symbiosis is an important milestone for Marathon and the beginning of a broader evolution through March and beyond, shaped by what we learn from players along the way.
Symbiosis will also include a refreshed Perimeter experience, a new social space with a firing range, a new Runner shell, an experimental PvP Team Deathmatch mode, and the first of several improvements to the new-player experience.

Acer used IFA Berlin to show off the Predator XB253Q U1, a 24.5-inch monitor that hits 1000 Hz at its native 1920x1080 resolution. That's notable because most "1000 Hz" monitors so far have needed a resolution cut to get there. Acer's own XB273U F6 from CES 2026, for example, only reaches 1000 Hz at 720p, dropping down from its native 1440p resolution. The XB253Q U1, on the other hand, uses an IPS panel and skips that compromise, offering full FHD at the full refresh rate. It also comes with Acer's VRB Pro backlight strobing tech to cut down motion blur, along with a circular polarizer layer aimed at reducing eye strain during long sessions. It's also VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified.

It's not the first monitor to pull this off. LG's UltraGear 25G590B got there first, also at 25 inches and 1000 Hz native FHD, and launched at $999.99. Acer's asking $1,099.99 for the XB253Q U1, a $100 premium over LG's price. In Europe it's priced at €1,099, and in China at RMB 7,999. Availability is set for Q1 2027 across North America, EMEA, and China, so this isn't a monitor you can buy just yet. We'll have to wait for independent testing to confirm whether the panel's 0.3 ms response times can actually keep up with 1000 Hz in real gameplay, rather than just on a spec sheet

At IFA 2026, Packard Bell, under the Acer Group, marks its 100th anniversary with a full relaunch: a new visual identity, a "Tech it easy" philosophy, and a new collection of products, led by the 14.5-inch DotBook laptop, arriving in European retail starting from Q4 2026.

Founded in 1926 in Los Angeles, Packard Bell first made consumer radios accessible to a wider audience, then helped democratize color television and, decades later, personal computers. Across every era, the brand built its reputation on the same principle: bringing useful technology to the many, not the few.

KDE Plasma is by far one of the most popular and recommended desktop environments in the Linux world, and it seems as though the development team has no plans to slow down. In the latest KDE Plasma 6.8 release, which is building to a September beta 1, there are numerous improvements to both performance and user interface that should be included in the eventual October stable launch of Plasma 6.8. The upcoming changes were detailed in the weekly This Week in KDE blog post.

The first change that most people will notice when they first update is that the lock screen now features selectable authentication types and better button alignment. Automatic brightness now also intelligently learns brightness preferences when users manually adjust their brightness. Performance improvements come by way of significantly reduced RAM usage by the Discover background notifier process, improved Plasma login speed, better speed and efficiency of the KWin screenshot functionality, improved screen recording smoothness when recording high-refresh displays.

Alienware has launched the AW2726DL, a 27-inch gaming monitor built around a fast 2560 x 1440 IPS anti-glare coated panel with a 280 Hz refresh rate and response times of 1 ms GTG in Extreme mode (2 ms Super Fast, 4 ms Fast). The display offers 400 nits of brightness, a 1,000:1 native contrast ratio, 93% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, and a pixel density of 109 PPI. For smooth gameplay, the monitor supports AMD FreeSync Premium and VESA AdaptiveSync variable refresh technologies. For connectivity, it offers an HDMI 2.1 input that supports QHD resolution up to 280 Hz with HDR and VRR. A DisplayPort 1.4 connection is also available.

The AW2726DL monitor retains the familiar Alienware gaming-focused design with a fully adjustable stand that offers 130 mm of height adjustment, tilt (from -5° to 21°), ±173° swivel and pivot support for portrait mode. In April this year, Alienware has launched the AW2726DM, a 27-inch QD-OLED gaming monitor priced at $350. The AW2726DL model with its IPS panel @280 Hz introduced by Alienware, is now available on the official Dell website for $299.99 and is aimed at users with lower budgets who are seeking an affordable 27-inch monitor with a higher refresh rate.

Demand for CPUs is at an all-time high right now, and the PC sector has been absorbing every CPU it can get. According to the latest reports from ChannelGate, Intel has announced that the company is restarting the production of its 13th and 14th Generation Core processors, which will be used to supply OEMs and DIY PC enthusiasts in mainland China. What is particularly interesting is that these "Raptor Lake" and "Raptor Lake Refresh" CPUs can use both DDR4 and DDR5 memory on their platforms. Since memory is in great shortage, re-launching a platform with decent performance like the 13th and 14th Generation Core processors is a great way to reuse some of the current DDR4 capacity, while offering gamers in China a good platform on the LGA-1700 socket.

Initially, Intel launched its 13th Generation Core "Raptor Lake" processors in late 2022, with up to 24 cores and 32 threads on the LGA-1700 socket. This generation lasted for a year until Intel shipped a refreshed 14th Generation Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors on the same socket, with the same number of cores but slight tweak to the CPU core base and boost clock. For example, the flagship Intel Core i9-13900KS ran at a 6.0 GHz boost frequency, while the refreshed silicon inside the Intel Core i9-14900KS managed to squeeze out a 6.2 GHz boost frequency.

Last week, it was reported that Intel is bringing back its Core "Raptor Lake" client microarchitecture a second time under the "Raptor Lake Next" internal codename, and newer Core (non-Ultra) nomenclature, to cater to the PC crowd benefiting from its DDR4 memory backwards compatibility to save on memory costs. It turns out that the company is also bringing this second refresh to the gaming notebook segment, specifically the HX segment that uses discrete GPUs. These processors will feature Core (non-Ultra) series 2 (200 series) processor model numbering to align with Intel's new naming scheme.

Intel uses a common silicon for its desktop S-segment and the HX-segment, so the top SKU based on "Raptor Lake Next-HX" will max out the silicon, with a core-configuration of 8P+16E, with HyperThreading enabled on the P-cores, for a total logical processor count of 32. The monolithic die is built on the Intel 7 foundry node, and the lack of low-power island E-cores mean that these will be power hungry chips by contemporary standards. The HX segment calls for a processor base power of 55 W, and a three-figure maximum turbo power. For reference, the Core i9-14900HX from the "Raptor Lake Refresh" generation came with 55 W base power, and 159 W of maximum turbo power, requiring notebook OEMs to bundle power bricks with 320 W on tap, with some OEMs even including 400 W bricks.

A report from Hardware Luxx suggested that AMD does not currently plan to bring its upcoming FSR 4.1 upscaling technology to RDNA 3.5-based integrated graphics. If accurate this would leave Ryzen AI 300 and Ryzen AI 400 series APUs without support for the latest iteration of FSR. Back in May AMD previously confirmed that FSR 4.1 which utilizes INT8 processing, will arrive for discrete RDNA 3 (Radeon RX 7000) GPUs in July, while RDNA 2 (Radeon RX 6000) desktop graphics are scheduled to receive support by early 2027. This exclusion affects silicon families that are using the RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture. More precisely Strix Point, Strix Halo, Krackan Point and upcoming refreshes like Gorgon Point and Gorgon Halo. These APU configurations integrate high-performance iGPUs such as the Radeon 890M and the top-tier Radeon 8060S, both capable of running the required INT8 operations.

However, AMD's Frank Azor has since pushed back on reports that RDNA 3.5 has been ruled out. Responding on X, Azor stated that "no such decision as being reported and implied here has been made," while adding that AMD is not ready to discuss future product plans at this time. While this does not confirm FSR 4.1 support for RDNA 3.5 graphics, it suggests that AMD has not made a final decision regarding the architecture's inclusion in the technology roadmap.

Intel recently announced the new Arc G3 and G3 Extreme CPUs designed for the gaming handheld market, with both Acer and OneXPlayer announcing new gaming handhelds based on the updated Panther Lake CPUs. Intel has confirmed the existence of a new "MSI Claw 8 EX AI+" handheld with the new Arc G3 Extreme CPU. Previous retail leaks of the Claw 8 EX AI+ hinted at pricing in the region of €1,500 in Europe, although we likely won't know actual retail or US pricing until the official launch. Those prior leaks also tipped an 8-inch, 500-nit, 120 Hz, 1080p display, 32 GB of RAM, and an 80 Wh battery.

Following the announcement, alleged leaked images of the gaming handheld appeared on Reddit, showing off a refreshed design language. The supposed image leak reveals a design more akin to the current ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, with the lower portion of the grips separated from the screen, with the display slightly jutting out from the rest of the body along the bottom edge—likely a design choice to achieve more ergonomic grips without losing a large display. The images only reveal the front of the device, which has a usual Xbox controller layout and two sizeable front-facing speaker grilles, so it's unclear where the ports will be, but based on the small glimpse of the bottom edge of the device, it seems as though all of the I/O will be on the top edge of the handheld. VideoCardz also shared an image of the device that it obtained from its own sources, which appears to corroborate the top I/O position.

LG Display, the world's leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that it will begin mass production of the world's first 240 Hz RGB Stripe OLED panel, accelerating its push into the premium monitor market.

RGB Stripe OLED features a structure in which red, green, and blue (RGB) subpixels are arranged in a linear stripe, enabling clearer rendering of small text and numbers compared to conventional displays. This reduces eye strain and provides a more comfortable viewing experience during prolonged use, such as document work, stock and financial trading, coding, and content editing.

The Orbital Pathfinder is one of the more unique gaming mice out there, owing to its modular, highly configurable design and high-performance internals. Now, more than a year after the mouse first launched, Orbital has announced an updated version of the Pathfinder with refreshed internals, additional modularity and shapes, and an updated scroll wheel in a new special edition clear shell. The new Pathfinder: Ghost also gets a lower starting price, retailing for $149 instead of $189 for the base mouse and exploration kit, with a $29 expansion kit, starting on April 30—however, it will be a made-to-order one-time production run. The brand has also confirmed that the expansion set will be available separately for the black version, suggesting that the improvements will be brought forward into the mainline Pathfinder base kit as well.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the Orbital Pathfinder is now live]

The new Pathfinder operates on the same modular philosophy as the original version but with new materials and additional options. Orbital has introduced four new shapes—the interchangeable attachments that allow you to change the shape of the Pathfinder—thereby expanding the number of configurations to over 5,000. The brand has also updated the PCB, which now supports modular switches and is based on the Nordic nRF54L15 MCU, and the mag-alloy scroll wheel has also been redesigned, although it's unclear what exactly the changes there are. To celebrate the launch, Orbital has also created a Special Edition version of the Pathfinder that's made from a "clear plastic alloy," likely composed of some mixture of polycarbonate.

Since the launch of the Steam Deck and the subsequent competing Windows gaming handhelds, Microsoft has been working on improving its UI for gaming consoles, culminating with the recent adoption of the Windows Full Screen Experience, which was later renamed to Xbox Mode. The latest update to Microsoft's gaming experience, however, comes by way of the Xbox app and its overlay, as spotted by ROGAllyLife. These new features will be available to everyone using compatible hardware and the Xbox app, although they are still in the preview version of the app, so they may only reach mainline status in a few weeks. The biggest update is a new display widget that was added to the Xbox Game Bar overlay, which adds controls like display refresh rate, resolution, projection mode, and Auto Super Resolution, allowing users to test different display configurations without leaving their games.

Users can now also change notification placement in the Xbox app, allowing them to see notifications without completely disrupting the gaming experience. The Xbox app now allows for eight notification placement options—three positions along each screen edge—and this can also be customized from the Game Bar overlay instead of necessitating a potentially game-breaking app switch. These updates are just the most recent in Microsoft's efforts to make handheld gaming more feasible on Windows, but it remains to be seen how Microsoft will change the regular Windows 11 experience after its recent promise to address quality and usability complaints.

Microsoft has released its latest Windows 11 builds, 26100.8106 and 26200.8106 (KB5079387), to Insiders in the Release Preview Channel. This update notably introduces support for monitor refresh rates exceeding 1,000 Hz, marking the first time Windows 11 officially supports four-digit refresh rates. Over the years, gaming monitors have rapidly progressed from double-digit to triple-digit refresh rates. However, reaching four-digit levels so quickly was unexpected, as the general gaming audience has been limited by current technology's ability to output such high frame rates. With modern GPUs capable of running hundreds of frames per second in FPS titles, it's logical for Windows to prepare for future advancements.

For instance, Philips and AOC have introduced the first gaming monitors capable of supporting 500 Hz at 1440p and 1,000 Hz at 720p. The Philips Evnia 27M2N5500XD and AOC AGON Pro AGP277QK monitors were showcased in China on December 6 and appear to be built around the same 27-inch panel. Both models are QHD 500 Hz displays that can switch to a lower-resolution 720p mode, doubling the refresh rate to 1,000 Hz. Generally, this resolution is required to achieve frame rates above 500 FPS, but modern GPUs like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 can easily reach these numbers in games like Counter-Strike 2. At 1080p, we observed about 726 FPS, indicating that 720p gaming can fully utilize the 1,000 Hz display.

AYANEO Pocket AIR Mini, AYANEO's first entry-level product, carries with it the memories and nostalgia of classic gaming while setting a new benchmark for retro handhelds in its class. With AYANEO's flagship DNA fully integrated, players can experience top-tier handheld design and features at an entry-level price, turning the vision of a "retro handheld that everyone can afford" into reality.

Since its release, AYANEO Pocket AIR Mini has quickly won the hearts of players and truly lived up to its reputation as a high-quality retro handheld that everyone can enjoy. With its exquisite mini form factor, classic retro control layout, and excellent performance, it not only satisfies players' nostalgia for traditional handheld gaming but also makes every gaming session more immersive and enjoyable. Whether you are a longtime retro gaming enthusiast or a newcomer to handheld gaming, this device offers a fun and engaging experience for everyone.

Intel's oft-leaked Core Ultra 200 Plus "Arrow Lake Refresh" processor series is expected to launch in March or April, according to rumors floated just after the conclusion of CES 2026. This past weekend, HXL/9550pro weighed in with a more focused timeframe—they propose that Team Blue will lift an important review embargo on March 23, at a very specific 6 a.m. (PST) morning slot. Evaluations of incoming Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, Ultra 5 250K, and Ultra 5 250KF desktop models are reportedly due for publication on that Monday. Oddly, the latest leak does not allude to an imminent embargo lift affecting "-HX" variants for the laptop/notebook market. Many Intel enthusiasts were looking forward to a major "Arrow Lake Refresh" unveiling at last month's CES trade show, but company leadership decided to go all-in with the introduction of "Panther Lake-H" mobile chips.

Throughout early 2026, Team Blue has kept quiet about forthcoming "Arrow Lake-S Refresh" desktop processors, but an official mid-January announcement—courtesy of the ASUS social media account—indicated a readying of BIOS support updates, in advance of an eventual retail launch. Up until recently, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus model has been the most mysterious of Intel's "ARL-S Refresh" parts—a sudden increase in pre-release benchmarking activity and premature e-tail listings has occurred in parallel with whispers of a non-arrival of its flagship sibling. Late last week, two anonymous sources—in correspondence with VideoCardz—posited that Intel had removed the 24-core Ultra 9 290K Plus SKU from its near future "Arrow Lake-S Refresh" launch lineup. This past weekend Tom's Hardware (via momomo_us) spotted prematurely published pricing information, regarding the remaining Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, Ultra 5 250K, and Ultra 5 250KF models. An unspecified webstore listed price tags of $357.12, $245.92, and $227.38 (respectively).