Out of all the gaming accessory manufacturers, Razer has got to be my absolute favorite. From providing comfortable gaming chairs to esports-ready controllers and headsets, Razer's products have enriched mine and many others' lives, and it's about to enrich a lot more of them.

Razer is hosting an Amazon Prime Day sale on several of its top-grade PC gaming peripherals, lifestyle furniture, controllers, and more for a limited time, and we've rounded up some of its best for you to check out.

FAQ

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Microsoft has confirmed that the next Windows 11 version coming this year will be Windows 11 version 26H2, keeping with the usual annual format of releasing a new OS version in the second half of the year.

Just like Windows 11 version 25H2 and version 24H2 before it, version 26H2 will be based on the same 2024 platform release. That means the version 25H2 update won't be a big one, sharing the same featureset as version 25H2 and the same platform improvements as 24H2.

"Windows 11, version 26H2 continues the move toward a more predictable and efficient servicing model. This model helps reduce disruption while helping your organization stay secure and up to date. By building on a shared platform and delivering innovation continuously, Windows enables you to focus less on large upgrade projects and more on delivering value to your users."

As 26H2 is based on the same platform release as 25H2 and 24H2, the 26H2 release will share:

• The same source code base
• The same security and quality updates
• The same compatibility validation

That means it will be easy for individuals as enterprises to upgrade to the new version this fall, as there won't be any validation or compatibility concerns to be worried about. If it works on 25H2 or 24H2, it'll work on 26H2.

Microsoft has confirmed that 26H2 won't be made available to all Windows 11 users, however. If you're running Windows 11 version 26H1, you won't be able to upgrade to version 26H2 this fall. This is because version 26H1 is a special offshoot version of Windows 11 built specifically for Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 and NVIDIA RTX Spark devices.

Version 26H1 is based on a newer platform release than the one that powers 24H2, 25H2, and 26H2, which means 26H1 is technically on a newer codebase than the upcoming 26H2. That's why users on 26H1 won't be offered an upgrade to 26H2 this fall.

Microsoft does say that those on 26H1 will be offered an upgrade to a newer OS version in the future, but it's yet to confirm when that will be. I suspect those on 26H1 will be offered an upgrade to 27H2 towards the end of next year instead.

The company has confirmed that version 26H2 is coming soon, but is yet to provide an actual date for release. I expect we'll see rollout begin towards the end of September or into the month of October, as has historically been the case.

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There’s no shortage of hype surrounding Summer Game Fest, and its orbit of smaller indie game showcases, as well as the wildly successful Xbox Games Showcase. This year’s events were chock full of exciting game reveals, especially for AAA lovers.

Titles like State of Decay 3, Fable, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 dominated the post-showcase conversation, and it can be difficult for indie game reveals to get enough time in the limelight.

So we here at Windows Central want to take this opportunity to highlight ten indie game reveals for Xbox from this month’s showcases that have stolen our hearts. Maybe you’ll find a few that you want to bump up to the top of your wishlist, too.

Grave Seasons

Life sims are having a moment. The genre has been on the rise for a few years now, though, which means that it is at risk of feeling stale. This has led to a new wave of genre mashups where newly released life sims have unique plot twists that keep players intrigued.

One of the best mashups of this genre is the cozy horror life sim. Grave Seasons, developed by Perfect Garbage and published by Blumhouse Games, is a shining example — we find ourselves playing as an escaped convict who has made themselves at home in an idyllic town called Ashenridge.

As one does in a cozy life sim, we set ourselves up with a darling little farm, rubbing elbows with the locals and maybe even falling in love. Hit the mines, grow your crops, and drown a few worms at the local fishing hotspots. It's all you would expect from a pixel art cozy life sim. Until the murders start, anyway, then you find yourself tossed into the chaos of investigating a murder and protecting the next victim whenever possible.

Grave Seasons is a narrative feast, with each playthrough having a different potential killer in the town — it could even be your current love interest. Different playthroughs of the game result in new details and conversations based on your relationships with the locals, keeping gameplay fresher than your garden harvest.

Start your new creepy life in Grave Seasons when it comes to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud with support for Xbox Play Anywhere on August 14. Grave Seasons will also launch day one on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.

Moss: The Forgotten Relic

In 2018, Polyarc released a 3-D action-adventure puzzle game about a little mouse named Quill, called Moss, and it stole our hearts. There was just one problem — Moss was only available in VR.

Those of us on Xbox or who were unable (or unwilling) to play in VR had to just look on at trailers and screenshots of Moss longingly and hope that someday it would eventually find its way to consoles in a non-VR variant. Though at the time, it didn’t seem likely at all for that to ever happen.

Imagine the surprise when the first trailer for Moss: The Forgotten Relic dropped. This stunning adventure that takes place in a living fable has players exploring a fallen kingdom that is slowly being reclaimed by nature.

Quill, the courageous but small mouse protagonist, will need your guidance and protection as you uncover hidden secrets and navigate puzzles in a story that feels plucked from the pages of a classic fairy tale.

Both Moss: Book I and Moss: Book II have been combined for a complete fairy tale epic that is enhanced and reimagined for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox on PC, and compatible handhelds.

Moss: The Forgotten Relic is developed and published by Polyarc and is expected to release this Summer.

Bad Magpie

Sometimes in life, you just want to be a magpie — burning meadows, finding shiny objects, and creating generalized chaos using cartoon logic. There’s just one problem. In Bad Magpie, your magpie self only has one wing. Surely that couldn’t have anything to do with the chaos and arson, right?

Anywho, Bad Magpie sets you loose in a small but densely packed world with plenty of chaotic things to do as a grounded magpie who wants nothing more than to win the heart of a fallen star and cure its own loneliness in the process.

It’s a delightfully chaotic romp through a colorful world packed with puzzles that give you the freedom to solve them however you see fit, as long as you’re curious enough to try.

Despite there being no text, no dialogue, and no cutscenes, Bad Magpie does have a rich story with a cast of critters and tactile interactions that encourage mischief and exploration in order to experience an emotional narrative told through environment and interactivity.

Bad Magpie, developed and published by Milktooth, is coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC with Xbox Play Anywhere support and Xbox Game Pass in 2027.

Momento

The “put stuff in a room to learn a story” genre is an interesting niche that explores environmental storytelling through beautiful art and puzzles. In the five years since Unpacking popularized the concept, there have been several new entries, but few have captured the same gut reaction we all experienced when we finally started to understand the game’s narrative.

Developers Fat Alien Cat & Nomo Studio and publishers Silver Lining Interactive may have managed to expand that experience with the upcoming release of Momento.

Similar to Unpacking, Momento is a cozy room decorator where players place objects around a beautifully illustrated room, but there is a slight twist. It’s up to you to choose the objects that matter most to decorate with, and the objects you select have a lasting impact on the path the story takes.

Starting with your childhood scene, Memento asks us to choose the toys that represent our dreams and future, which then lead into different scenes in adulthood that explore unique themes.

Wonder, love, heartbreak, and the significance of sentimentality are at the heart of Momento, as you experience a lovingly crafted tactile world that reacts to you.

Unlike similar narrative room decorators, Memento does not have a puzzle element to its gameplay. Instead, small decisions made by the player have lasting impacts that ripple throughout the story. Memento is coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and compatible handhelds with support for Xbox Play Anywhere.

The Witch’s Bakery

Nothing heals a broken heart better than French pastries, which leads us to The Witch’s Bakery. Playing as Lunne, you can experience a colorful adventure in Paris as you serve the locals tasty treats from your newly opened bakery. Lunne’s not your ordinary chef, however. She’s also a witch with the power to see into people’s hearts.

Developed by Sunny Lab and published by Silver Lining Interactive, The Witch’s Bakery lets players experience Paris in three parts each day. During business hours, Lunne manages her bakery and serves up pastries.

As the sun goes down, Lunne closes up shop, and players can explore Paris and uncover the secrets of the city while building up relationships with her friends and neighbors. Sometimes characters’ emotions are locked away, and it requires a little more than just a chat to help them overcome their troubles.

During the evening hours, Lunne can use her witchy abilities to go inside of her friends’ troubled heart palaces and discover that person’s key ingredient — the secret touch to the recipe for a magic pastry that can heal them.

After guiding emotions through heart palaces and exploring Paris, Lunne can return to her atelier for the night to rest, improve her magic, and decorate her bakery before the next day begins anew.

The Witch’s Bakery is coming to Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S in August.

Magicians: The Devil’s Deal

If you prefer a more action-heavy take on magic, developer Uppercut Games and publisher Focus Entertainment’s upcoming narrative-driven first-person shooter, Magician’s The Devil’s Deal, just might scratch the itch for you. Uppercut Games is previously known for the narrative, no-dialogue, no-combat adventure Submerged and its sequel, making Magicians: The Devil’s Deal a new challenge for the experienced studio.

Magicians: The Devil’s Deal follows the story of Jacob Menteuro, an illusionist bound to a deal with the Devil, who unfortunately finds himself cast into Hell. Combat, exploration, and stage magic come together as Jacob and the player experience a narrative where he must overcome the Masters of Theatreland on an infernal stage that turns everyday magical props into lethal weapons.

Compelled by the Devil himself, Jacob must topple the Masters to take their powers for himself in this visually stunning world inspired by Victorian London.

Magicians: The Devil’s Deal takes the stage in 2027 on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC. And for the final trick, you can play it day one on Xbox Game Pass.

Cassette Beasts 2002

In 2023, Cassette Beasts crashed onto consoles and introduced fans to a world where they could collect and transform creative monsters with the power of retro cassette tapes. During the recent rash of showcases, developer Bytten Studio and publisher Raw Fury showed off the upcoming sequel, Cassette Beasts 2002.

Cassette Beasts 2002 starts in a quiet neighborhood of London, but players will find themselves and their custom-created characters pulled down to the land of Nodnol. Players can explore Nodnol alone or with friends via online multiplayer, and can even opt to import their original character from the first game.

In Nodnol, players can form bonds with the colorful cast of twelve different companions who can be bonded with, recruited, and even romanced. Similar to its predecessor, Cassette Beasts 2002 lets players record audio from beasts using cassette tapes that can then be played back to take on their form in battle. Fusions are also making a return, but Cassette Beasts 2002 ups the ante with over 57,000 fully-animated fusion forms.

Cassette Beasts is coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC with Xbox Play Anywhere entitlements and support for Xbox cross-platform multiplayer.

Deer and Boy

Upcoming platformer Deer and Boy has long had a spot on our wishlists, and we will finally be able to get our hands on a heartwarming and poetic journey about a young runaway boy who befriends a delicate fawn very soon.

Deer and Boy is an original adventure with a unique twist: a single-player game where you are never alone as your companion grows into a majestic deer during your story, changing the way you interact with the game’s world and puzzles.

Developed by Lifeline Games and published by Dear Villagers that offers a deep narrative adventure with complex story layers that change how you see the game’s tale, with young players experiencing a wholesome story about the friendship between a boy and his deer companion. More mature players may see deeper meaning in the story, even though it has no dialogue or text.

Deer and Boy promises to be an easy, relatively short game that can be completed in a few sessions and is suitable for all members of the family — even the little guys. You can enjoy this interactive cinematic story when it releases on June 23 on Xbox Series X|S.

Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit

A beautiful island awash in a watercolor aesthetic, a wholesome character creator, and an ominous bus crash that leaves you stranded at a spooky campsite — welcome to Cozy Grove.

Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit is the much-anticipated sequel to the 2021 life sim, where players became Spirit Scouts stranded on an island inhabited by the ghosts of adorable bears. To return home, your Spirit Scout had to help those bears become at peace with elements of their past lives.

Some stories were tragic, others heartwarming, but all of them were meaningful and left us just a little sad when the bear’s ghost would move on and become golden.

Netflix snapped up Cozy Grove developer Spry Fox in its earliest days of reaching into the gaming industry, and initially hoarded the ghost-bear-helping life sim on its mobile platform before deciding to sell the studio back to its founders at the end of 2025.

That return to independence is great news for console and PC players who were desperate to return to this incredible world and experience more haunting bear stories, because now Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit is coming to Xbox on July 15.

Grab your badge sash, we’re going decorating and helping ghosts remember their pasts and come to peace with their deaths. New bears, new island, new NPCs to meet. Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit comes to Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and compatible handhelds with support for Xbox Play Anywhere. A free demo is available now.

Grim Trials

There’s more to look forward to than just cozy games, so we’re closing out the list with a coming-of-age tale set in the afterlife, complete with heavy metal riffs and action roguelike gameplay. You can still craft, but like, in a hardcore way.

Grim Trials lets you customize your weapons and equipment as Avelin, a young woman who has been recruited to serve as one of Death’s reapers. It’s up to Avelin to track down impure souls, but in doing so, she will be forced to come to terms with her own untimely demise and face her own demons.

Grim Trials features endless hex-grid arenas where Avelin will need to overcome monsters and traps before tackling the 7 sacrilegious bosses. Players are armed with customizable scythes, crossbows, and Blessings from the Gods of Death.

A victory on the battlefield affords Avelin the spoils of war, and she can use the materials collected to craft better weapons, armor, and consumables to aid in the journey through the afterlife.

Developed by Rolling Glory Jam and published by Soft Source Pte Ltd, Grim Tales is sure to pique the interest of those who fell in love with Hades 2 and similar roguelikes with deep customization options, relationship-building side quests, and a full cast of characters to learn more about.

A demo for Grim Tales is available now, and you can look forward to it launching on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and compatible handhelds, though no release date has been confirmed just yet.

One of this year's biggest new games for Microsoft and Xbox is Halo: Campaign Evolved — a full-fledged remake of the first game, 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved, that features new gameplay additions, expanded replayability, and an Unreal Engine 5-powered graphical makeover.

It's headed to Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 late next month, with Xbox confirming its long-rumored release date of July 28 during the Xbox Games Showcase. Notably, you can jump in on July 23, five days early, if you purchase the Premium Edition; I imagine that's incentivized many players to preorder, leading to the game climbing the Steam sales chart.

Now that the Halo remake is just over a month away from its full launch, something PC players in particular have been wanting to know is what the game's system requirements and recommended specs are.

Thankfully, they've now been announced by Xbox and developer Halo Studios, and I've included them in the below image and table for your convenience:

All in all, for an Unreal Engine 5 title that's aiming to deliver peak visual fidelity, Halo: Campaign Evolved's CPU, GPU, and VRAM requirements aren't too bad at all. Targeting a 1440p / 4K resolution with 60 FPS and Medium or High settings can be done with hardware that's five to six years old, which is likely what many gaming rigs are equipped with.

The memory and storage requirements, though, are a bit harsher. Demanding 16GB of memory for the lower quality levels at 1080p and 1440p is fine — most players have that much — but the requirement for 32GB if you want to push higher is a little debilitating, especially during the ongoing RAM crisis.

Campaign Evolved requires a steep 100GB of SSD space, too, which is quite a lot for a campaign-only FPS game. You'll need to uninstall a game or two if your gaming hard drive doesn't have triple-digit room available.

Something worth noting is that it's unclear if these requirements were determined with or without performance-enhancing technologies like Super Resolution and Frame Generation factored in. What we do know, though, is that Campaign Evolved supports their use, alongside things like NVIDIA Reflex and other anti-latency tools. These will make taking advantage of the game's uncapped framerate easier.

Ultimately, the 100GB requirement aside? I'd say it sounds like the Halo remake has been optimized fairly well, and should run well on most PCs with optimal settings chosen. I can't say that for sure until the game is out, though.

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Microsoft and Xbox have experienced some high highs and low lows with its video game adaptations over the years, with Bethesda and Amazon's Fallout TV show and 2025's Minecraft movie proving to be huge hits while the live-action Halo TV series and Halo: Nightfall before it left most viewers extremely disappointed.

Overall, though, multimedia projects that draw from Xbox's gaming IPs have enjoyed more of a positive reception in recent years — and according to comments from Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and other executives in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, there's "more appetite to work with us on titles than ever before."

"You won't see us try to become the biggest linear provider in the world or anything like that, but I think great games are culture, and culture is entertainment," Sharma explained. "If you think about it, we've got the number two show of all time on Amazon [Fallout], Minecraft was top 5 in 2025, Call of Duty is bigger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So it all measures. [There's] more appetite to work with us on titles than ever before."

The claim that the Call of Duty series is larger than Disney and Marvel's massive cinematic universe is a bold one, but from what I can tell, the math does actually check out; reported box office numbers put the MCU's lifetime revenue at about $32 billion, while all signs point to Call of Duty making over $35 billion across 500 million lifetime sales.

Now, you can certainly make the argument that the MCU is bigger in terms of cultural impact, but at least from a fiscal perspective, it does seem like Call of Duty has inched itself ahead of the film franchise that kicked off a renaissance of superheroes on the big screen.

That Sharma is confident enough to state so as fact speaks to Xbox's overall confidence in its video game IPs, and how viable they are as franchises to be adapted into other forms of media. Indeed, there is a Call of Duty movie from Paramount on the way, with the film recently getting its June 2028 release date confirmed.

In this very same interview, Xbox also confirmed that there's a live-action Sea of Thieves movie in the works, provided more details about the upcoming Gears of War Netflix series, and even seemed to express interest in taking another swing at a Halo adaptation.

We know a Wolfenstein show is coming to Amazon, that a Minecraft one is in the works with Netflix, and that a Fallout Shelter-inspired reality competition series is filming as well.

Microsoft's plans for multimedia Xbox projects beyond these are a mystery right now, but one thing is quite clear: the company is very interested in continuing to adapt its big-name gaming franchises to other entertainment mediums, and I have no doubts that we'll see additional shows and movies get announced and made in the coming years.

What are some of the Xbox properties you'd like to see Microsoft try and adapt to TV and film? Let me know in the comments below.

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Microsoft just announced new versions of its Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch. But rather than a spec bump or a design refresh, the new PCs feature 8GB of RAM.

The ongoing component crisis has led several PC makers to offer laptops with only 8GB of RAM, and that group now includes Microsoft.

While the main focus around the new Surface configurations is pricing, there is a strange side effect to the systems only having 8GB of RAM: neither of them are Copilot+ PCs.

A lighter Windows 11

By having only 8GB of RAM, the new Surface PCs fall short of the Copilot+ PC minimum requirements. As a result, neither PC will ship with or support features like Recall or Click To Do.

I suspect some would view that as a blessing in disguise. Copilot+ PC features take up space on your system that's wasted unless you use the tools.

Here are the exclusive features that ship with Copilot+ PCs, as listed by Microsoft:

• Copilot on Windows
• Recall
• Live Captions with Translations
• Cocreator
• Windows Studio Effects
• Photos

Some of those features are genuinely useful. I recommend trying Windows Studio Effects if your PC supports them.

But some consider Recall and Copilot bloat and would prefer a PC free of those features.

The Copilot+ PC features don't take up that much room. In total, they'll occupy a few hundred MB.

Many Copilot+ PC features are resource intensive, which is why the PCs need more memory. By not including those features, Microsoft almost accidentally made a leaner, more efficient Surface experience.

8GB of RAM on Windows 11

Due to the ongoing memory crisis, PC makers have reintroduced laptops with 8GB of RAM. When Acer announced the Swift Air 14, many were quick to criticize its 8GB of RAM.

It's common to see people claim that a PC with 8GB of RAM is unusable or poor in 2026. Our Cale Hunt tested that claim by stripping down a PC.

Hunt's whole article is worth a read. I'll spoil it for you though: 8GB of RAM was fine.

"That's just not the case. Within reason, running Windows 11 on 8GB of RAM is not only viable but quite enjoyable. Assuming you're not attempting to run some specialized design software or a demanding game, there's quite a bit of memory runway to work with," said Hunt.

The new Surface PCs with 8GB of RAM are not going to handle heavy-duty game or workstation loads, but that's hardly a surprise. Many people could buy and use a Surface Pro or Surface Laptop with 8GB of RAM and never run into any issues.

Shifting away from Copilot+ PC branding

I probably spend more time thinking about Copilot+ PCs than most. The reality is that the brand is net neutral for many. When the ASUS Zenbook A16 earned rave reviews, none of them mentioned that the laptop is a Copilot+ PC.

Microsoft appears to be phasing out the Copilot+ PC brand. When the Surface Laptop Ultra was announced, Microsoft did not mention if it was a Copilot+ PC. The webpage for the Surface Laptop Ultra fails to mention "Copilot+ PC" at all.

The new Surface Pro 12 and Surface Laptop 8 that were announced earlier this month are Copilot+ PCs, but the branding is not featured heavily by Microsoft.

You could take things one step further and say consumers don't care about AI PCs. That's what Dell's head of product suggested earlier this year.

I think most people are neutral toward AI features on their PC, whether those features are connected to the Copilot+ PC brand or not. If tools are out of the way or easy to uninstall, most folks won't mind. Complaints will pop up any time AI is forced onto users.

That being said, it still made me chuckle to see new Surface PCs lack the Copilot+ PC branding. Maybe Microsoft should market them as Copilot - PCs.

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With how high the gaming handheld market's prices are headed lately, I figure that any major deal on any device is worth calling out for my mobile PC gamers.

Standing in stark contrast to the $1,799 MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ that's launching this week is the Lenovo Legion Go S. Regularly priced at $711.13, it's now down to $549.99 (sold out, now $698 at Newegg, or $699 at Walmart) for a limited time during Amazon Prime Day.

This is the lowest price it's ever been, according to CamelCamelCamel, and it's a great opportunity to grab what is likely one of the last affordable gaming handhelds for a while.

• The best hand-picked Amazon Prime Day deals on Windows laptops, PC components, and Xbox gaming hardware chosen by our editors
• See all Prime Day deals at Amazon.com

Our take on the Lenovo Legion Go S

The Legion Go S is available with both Windows 11 and SteamOS operating systems, and we've reviewed both. More on that in a moment.

This model that's on sale for $549.99 (sold out, now $698 at Newegg, or $699 at Walmart) comes with Windows, allowing easy access to features like Xbox Game Pass and third-party launchers, something I sorely miss on my Steam Deck.

It has 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 512GB of M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD storage, an 8-inch IPS display with 120Hz variable refresh rate and 1920x1200 resolution, and an AMD Ryzen Z2 Go chip with 4 CPU cores and 12 GPU cores. It is, by all means, a lot of hardware for the asking price.

In both of our reviews, we called out the device's comfortable and polished design, including Hall Effect thumbsticks and overall snappy controls.

We also called out how great the display looks, thanks to its speedy 120Hz refresh rate, 1200p resolution, brightness, and full color.

When we reviewed the Windows 11 version of the Legion Go S in early 2025, we found it hard to justify its relatively high price. That's largely been taken care of with this sale, which drops it to the lowest price I've ever seen.

Battery life also wasn't that spectacular, though Windows has received a lot of attention since our review in terms of improving the handheld experience for performance and efficiency.

And don't think that the OS is permanent. If you're wishing the SteamOS version of the Legion Go S we reviewed were on sale, guess what? You can pick up the more affordable Windows version and replace the OS whenever you want.

Considering just how expensive gaming handhelds have become in recent months — even the most affordable Steam Deck is now sitting at $789 — this is an outstanding deal for anyone who wants to try out mobile PC gaming.

It's not the newest nor the most powerful device on the market, but it's also going to leave a whole lot of budget on the table for buying games.

I have no idea how long the $549.99 price will last (yeah, it sold out, now $698 at Newegg, or $699 at Walmart), so don't wait too long. It does require a Prime membership to cash in, but you can always sign up for a free 30-day trial and cancel before you're charged.

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If you were waiting for Amazon Prime Day to jump on some Xbox deals, well, I don't know what to tell you. It's been a bit of a damp squib so far, I think the age of actual console deals in today's climate is behind us. However, Newegg has stepped in with a genuine way to save: You can currently grab a $100 Xbox Gift Card for just $83 (expired) when you use the promo code FTTF6926 at checkout.

That’s an instant $17 saving on credit you were probably going to spend anyway on games, and it's basically free money in your (Xbox) bank.

How to redeem your Xbox gift card

The code is delivered digitally via email, so there’s no waiting around for a physical card.

To redeem it:

• Visit https://redeem.microsoft.com/
• Sign in to your Microsoft account (the same one you use on Xbox)
• Enter the code from Newegg

Your balance updates instantly and is ready to use across the Xbox and Microsoft Store.

When you check out, just select your Microsoft Account balance as the payment method to make sure you’re using that discounted credit.

What can you spend the credit on?

Don't let the name fool you; this isn't locked to digital games on your console. It adds balance to your whole Microsoft account, which you can use for games & DLC, Game Pass Ultimate, accessories and anything on the Microsoft store including Surface devices and Office 365 subscriptions.

If you don't have anything in mind right now, but know you are likely to spend money in the store soon, perhaps for a bigger purchase, you can stack multiple gift cards to lower the cost later. It’s a simple way to make any upcoming Microsoft purchase a little cheaper without locking you into a single product.

Newegg usually only runs these promotions for a very limited time, and it's likely that they're just trying to compete against Amazon Prime Day for traffic. With that in mind, this deal will be short-lived. If you have any big purchases with Xbox in mind (GTA 6 perhaps?), then jump on this deal now and secure yourself some free credit on top of your spend.

FAQ

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Anyone who's looked at storage prices recently knows that they're completely out of hand. I've been waiting to add some storage to my gaming PC for about six months now, and it's getting to the point where I'll have to bite at a deal like this one on the Samsung 9100 PRO.

This high-performance M.2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD comes in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB configurations, with blazing fast transfer speeds and the regular durability you expect from Samsung.

"Regular" (inflated) prices have been cut by up to 49%, and you can now land a 1TB drive for as low as $206.99. Best part? You don't have to be a Prime subscriber to nab the deal.

• The best hand-picked Amazon Prime Day deals on Windows laptops, PC components, and Xbox gaming hardware chosen by our editors
• See all Prime Day deals at Amazon.com

What makes the Samsung 9100 PRO SSD so good?

The 9100 PRO was Samsung's first shot at a full-fledged PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD, and to say the company nailed the execution is an understatement.

It's theoretically capable of hitting unreal 14,800MB/s read speeds and 13,400MB/s write speeds, and although those numbers may drop a bit in real-world practice, it's still an incredibly fast drive.

Our friends at TechRadar reviewed the 9100 PRO when it launched last year, and it was awarded 4.5 stars and a Recommended Award.

The TL;DR? It's an exceptional drive for professionals who frequently deal with oversized files and who don't want any hiccups in their workflow.

You do, of course, want to pair this drive with a PC that's capable of running a PCIe 5.0 drive to get the most out of it, but it will function at lower speeds in a PCIe 4.0 system. That's not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you're putting together a new PC piece by piece as sales come and go.

If I do buy one of these drives, I'll most likely go with the 2TB version at $349.99. It's the best value at 49% off, costing less per GB than the 1TB and 4TB versions.

I should also mention that these drives come with a 5-year Samsung warranty to protect your purchase.

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Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred was a resounding success for Blizzard, even with a lack of season-specific activities for Season 13, so with that in mind, Season 14 has a lot to live up to. Will Diablo 4 be able to keep its hooks in us for its first real season after the release of the expansion? Will the drastic changes to Mythic Uniques make or break the gameplay loop?

Well Season 14, dubbed the Season of Death Awakening arrives on June 30 so we'll find out for ourselves soon. Here's what we know about Season 14 so far, including some changes that have been made from the PTR.

Mythic Uniques 3.0: The revamp that everyone is is skeptical about

The most significant change coming to the game is the overhaul of Mythic Uniques. Instead of being a strict rarity, "Mythic" is now a modifiable quality that can be applied to any Unique item.

You can convert any Unique into a Mythic Unique using the Horadric Cube or the Jeweler.

Based on player feedback from the PTR, crafting is now deterministic; for instance, if you put in a pair of Unique boots, you are guaranteed to receive a pair of Mythic Unique boots back. These items will have their Unique powers increased by 30%, and any affixes added through Enchanting, Transfiguration, or Tempering will now always roll as maximum values.

While you can only equip one crafted Mythic Unique at a time, there is no limit on those acquired through natural drops. Additionally, Blizzard has decided that all Uniques will retain two guaranteed affixes to preserve item identity.

There's been much ado about this change and how it will impact the meta, but I for one am keeping schtum until I've actually tried it out, and I'm cautiously optimistic that it will actually create some wild build diversity.

New Seasonal Content: Pandemonium & The Risen

Sanctuary is being ripped apart by Pandemonium Ruptures, which spawn across the overworld and Helltides. By killing guardians, you keep these rifts open longer to earn greater rewards. Yes, this is Realmwalker 2.0, the season that didn't go down so well when Vessel of Hatred launched, but it's been tweaked enough that I'm willing to give it another chance.

Defeating a Realmwalker grants access to a Deathtoll Chamber, a specialized mini-dungeon that serves as the best source for Superior Lair Keys, which are required to open the new seasonal Lair Boss’s hoard.

We're also getting a new monster family (aww) called The Risen; you must destroy Orbs dropped by these enemies to prevent the Exarch from executing a powerful attack.

Tower, Leaderboards, and Solo Self Found

It's happening, it's finally happening! The Tower and Leaderboards are graduating from Beta status this season, and a new Solo Self Found (SSF) mode is being introduced.

SSF is a permanent character state for the season where you cannot trade or join parties, but you gain access to exclusive SSF-only leaderboard categories to prove your skill.

Players will earn weekly rewards based on their performance in the Tower, and those who rank high will receive cosmetic Halos and prestige titles. At the start of the next season, players will be granted an Emblem based on their highest rank achieved during this season. Time to show off.

Quality of Life and rewards

Party play is being streamlined with synced War Plan boards, allowing a party to coordinate their activities more effectively. Additionally, the Obol cap has been increased to 25,000 (no more running back and forth to town), and the Gold cap is now 999,999,999,999. Gold, gold, glorious gooold!

Fans can also look forward to another Diablo 4 x Overwatch collaboration starting June 30. This time, it's Diablo players that can earn the cool skins. We can earn the Kiriko Fox Pet and other themed cosmetics by collecting currency from Elite and Champion monsters.

The new season also offers a refreshed rewards track, including up to 12 Skill Points, 42 Paragon points, and 7 Resplendent Sparks.

When you can pre-download Season 14

If you want to be ready the moment the season starts, the 3.1.0 patch will be available for pre-download on June 25 at 10:00 a.m. PDT for Battle.net, Xbox, and PlayStation.

For more details on class balance and specific affix changes, you can check out the full 3.1.0 patch notes. Which class are you planning to take into the Tower first, and how do you feel about the new, Mythic crafting system?

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It's come to light that Obsidian Entertainment — the storied, legendary developer known for creating Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds, and Grounded, Pentiment, Avowed, and The Outer Worlds 2 under Xbox Game Studios — is currently facing a class action lawsuit after allegedly "violating state wage and hour laws."

The case — first opened in October last year, and followed by an amended complaint that was filed in January by plaintiff Victoria Turner, who has a name matching that of a QA lead that worked on Obsidian's 2025 RPG The Outer Worlds 2 — accuses the Xbox studio of engaging in "a systematic pattern of wage and hour violations under the California Labor Code and Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) Wage Orders."

Specifically, it's alleged that the developer failed "to pay all wages (including minimum wages and overtime wages)," didn't "provide lawful meal periods or compensation in lieu thereof," and didn't "authorize or permit lawful rest breaks or provide compensation in lieu thereof."

It's also been claimed that Obsidian failed to "reimburse necessary business-related costs," "provide accurate itemized wage statements," "pay wages timely during employment," and "pay all wages due upon separation of employment."

The lawsuit "seeks monetary relief" for Turner and "all others similarly situated in California" where Obsidian is headquartered, with the ultimate goal being "to recover, among other things, unpaid wages, unreimbursed business expenses, benefits, interest, attorneys' fees, costs and expenses, and penalties."

Notably, the case covers "all persons currently or formerly employed by any or all Defendants as nonexempt employees in the State of California at any time between October 9, 2021 and the date of class certification." The plaintiff also seeks to include "All members of the Class who separated their employment with any or all Defendants at any time between October 9, 2022 and the date of class certification."

Obsidian's first response to the lawsuit came in early March, with the studio stating that it "denies, generally and specifically, each and every allegation in the FAC [First Amended Complaint]." It also denied "that Plaintiff and/or any putative class members she purports to represent have suffered any injury or been damaged in any sum whatsoever by reason of any act or omission" from the developer or its staff.

Obsidian then argued Turner's case "fails to state facts sufficient to constitute valid claims," and added that "Plaintiff and any putative class member and/or other allegedly aggrieved employees consented to and/or acquiesced in the alleged conduct by Defendant of which Plaintiff now complains."

Essentially, what the studio is saying here is that Turner hasn't provided adequate proof to support the lawsuit's claims, and that the workers it represents voluntarily gave up lunch and rest breaks. The case hasn't progressed since that response, but I and the rest of Team Windows Central will keep an eye on it and report on new developments.

All of this comes amid Obsidian's efforts to restructure itself within Xbox, with the developer enacting plans to shorten development cycles, more frequently work with partner studios, and reuse technology and solutions from previous projects as it builds new ones.

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As part of the Experimental experience for Windows 11 version 26H2, Microsoft recently released build 26300.8697. While the official announcement focused on fixes and improvements, a more interesting discovery was hiding beneath the surface. A new Search setting that can turn off Bing-powered web results in the Windows Search experience.

Search may finally get a Bing off switch

Windows Search has long mixed local files, apps, and settings with web suggestions, often surfacing Bing results even when users are simply looking for something on their computer. The appearance of a dedicated toggle to remove those web results suggests that the company is exploring a more streamlined Search experience with fewer distractions.

However, this isn't entirely new. Users in the European Economic Area (EEA) have had similar controls for some time as part of Microsoft's compliance with the Digital Markets Act. What's notable here is that the company now appears to be building the same functionality for all markets.

The story I see is much more than user choice. This appears to be Microsoft acknowledging that not every Windows Search query needs a web result attached to it. Instead of forcing online content into the experience, Windows 11 could soon let users decide what belongs in Search. For many people, that could make finding apps, files, and settings faster and more predictable.

New Search controls reduce clutter

The setting is currently tucked in under Settings > Privacy & security > Search in build 26300.8697. The option is labeled "Web Searches" in the "Show suggested search results" section.

Microsoft is also testing a separate "Microsoft Store" toggle to prevent Store apps from appearing in Search results. Together, these options would give users more control over what surfaces when searching from the Start menu and Search box in the Taskbar.

Privacy & Security settings are getting reorganized

The same preview build also includes an updated version of the "Privacy & security" page. Microsoft has reorganized the settings into clearer categories and added a new header that provides quick access to Windows Security, along with glanceable information for location, camera, and microphone permissions.

The company is also adding new entry points for features such as Passkeys and the Custom Dictionary.

Availability of the Search experience

At this stage, the feature is not officially available, and it's not an option you can turn on from the "Feature flags" page either. It was spotted by @PhantomOfEarth inside the Insider build and can only be enabled using ViveTool feature IDs, indicating that Microsoft is still actively developing and testing the experience.

If testing goes as planned, the company could refine the feature through future 26H2 preview releases before deciding on a wider rollout.

Windows Central's Take

I think Microsoft should have offered this option to everyone a long time ago. When I'm using Windows Search, I'm usually looking for a file, app, or setting, not a Bing result. While web integration has its place, it often makes Search feel more cluttered than helpful.

What's interesting is that similar controls have already existed in Europe, so this isn't really a new feature. The bigger story is that Microsoft appears to be testing the same level of control for users across all regions, including the addition of an option to suppress apps from the Microsoft Store in the experience.

I wouldn't consider this a major feature for Windows 11, but it's the type of improvement that can make the operating system feel less intrusive and more focused on what users actually want to find.

What are your thoughts about having the option to remove Bing results from Windows Search on Windows 11? Let me know in the comments.

More resources

Explore more in-depth how-to guides, troubleshooting advice, and essential tips to get the most out of Windows 11 and 10. Start browsing here:

• Windows 11 on Windows Central — All you need to know
• Windows 10 on Windows Central — All you need to know

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Valve's Steam Machine has finally made its way into the hands of testers, and the resulting reviews have been less than inspiring. Whether it's the high $1,049 starting price caused by a global RAM and storage crisis or the underwhelming performance, I know that a lot of PC gamers are now looking for a quality alternative.

These are the 5 best pre-built gaming PCs I could find during Prime Day that will leave you with some cash left over for new games. Only one is priced high enough to match the Steam Machine's introductory price, but in this case, you get 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

• Shop all Amazon Prime Day deals

The rest? Well, they cost significantly less than Valve's device. See for yourself, and happy gaming!

What's in the Steam Machine, and how does performance compare to these discounted gaming PCs?

Valve's Steam Machine runs on a custom AMD Zen 4 CPU with 6 cores, 12 threads, and a 30W TDP. Attached are integrated custom AMD RDNA 3 graphics, with 8GB of VRAM and 28 compute units.

All Steam Machine models come with 16GB of DDR5 system memory, and the introductory models start with a 512GB SSD (upgradeable to 2TB for those with deeper pockets).

Circling back to the custom graphics, testing by our friends at Tom's Hardware revealed that it fails to pull ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 discrete GPU while coming out just ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600.

How does that performance compare to the GPUs in the pre-built gaming PCs I've rounded up here? Well, the RTX 5060 easily beats the AMD GPU in raw performance and ray tracing abilities.

If you're interested in a pre-built gaming PC with an Intel Arc GPU, the B570 is a closer match to the RX 7600 and the Steam Machine's custom graphics. However, it should better handle ray tracing, and it should also deliver a better experience if you're gaming at 1440p.

If it's the Arc B580 in the $999 ABS Cyclone Aqua you're looking at, know that it beats AMD's GPU in practically all metrics.

As for the CPU, it seems like the Intel Core i5-14400F is the chip of choice for the pre-builts I've selected here. Good news! Despite its relative age, it should absolutely crush the Steam Machine's custom AMD chip.

My advice? Skip the Steam Machine and go for a real gaming PC instead.

Valve's Steam Machine was knocked off course by no fault of its own, and you can point the finger at the global RAM and SSD shortage caused by AI.

At its starting $1,049.99 price, it's simply outclassed by affordable pre-built gaming PCs with true discrete graphics. It's a shame, because the Steam Machine is a great-looking device.

Unless you're absolutely beholden to the compact form factor and close ties to Steam's storefront, one of these gaming PCs I selected should be a much better value.

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In a rather lengthy interview with Entertainment Weekly, we received a lot of juicy details. From OD getting new information revealed to Netflix's Gears of War movie finally receiving some concrete updates, there's been plenty to unpack. While I've covered most of that elsewhere, it was Xbox's CEO, Asha Sharma's comments about her plans for XBOX's ecosystem that really caught my attention.

What's particularly interesting is that those plans extend far beyond the traditional console experience, so let's take a look at exactly what she had to say.

Within the interview, Sharma outlines her plans for XBOX, stating she wants:

XBOX is making moves to entice developers. Recently, the company introduced updates to help developers working with Unreal Engine 5.8 and also released documentation designed to help Godot developers bring games to XBOX on PC.

Interestingly, we then move over to Todd Green, the head of Candy Crush and King, the company Microsoft acquired alongside Activision Blizzard in 2023. Green offered some insight into the company's approach, saying:

"The thing that we've been trying to do the most here is to treat everybody, whether they describe themselves as a gamer or not, [as important]. We try to have a very mainstream product."

Candy Crush is, of course, a huge IP for XBOX, even if many people don't associate it with the brand. Personally, I think that's one of XBOX's biggest issues. Franchises like Call of Duty and Minecraft are among the biggest entertainment properties on the planet, yet neither is strongly associated with XBOX in the minds of many consumers. If you ask me, that's a huge missed opportunity.

Back to Sharma, however. Following XBOX's Games Showcase, she sat down with Entertainment Weekly and discussed the state of gaming. In particular, she argued that gaming has become increasingly unaffordable.

She does expand, touching on how difficult the business is, saying:

"It's a really hard formula. It's a really challenging business, but I think it's a really special business."

It does suck to hear the words "gaming is unaffordable," but there's certainly some truth to it. We recently got the price reveal for the new Steam Machine, and to say the reception has been positive would be a stretch. At over $1,000, it's simply too expensive to seriously consider, at least for me.

That said, I do understand the broader point Sharma is making. Between increasingly expensive hardware, competing subscription services, and the constant battle for our attention, gaming isn't as accessible as it once was. Whether mobile experiences like Candy Crush are the answer, however, is another debate entirely.

But let me know your thoughts on Sharma and Green's comments in the comments below, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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During 2026's Warhammer Skulls event, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide announced its 3rd DLC expansion, where players could play as the new tech-based Skitarii class.

I'm not too familiar with the Skitarii myself, so I was curious to see how they would stand out from the rest of the classes, especially when the developers, Fatshark, mentioned they would have more customizable freedom in their skill trees compared to the other classes.

My curiosity would be quickly satiated as Fatshark invited me to attend a sneak preview presentation of the Skitarii class, as well as provided me with a Steam code to try it out myself.

After getting hands-on with the Skitarii, it may just be my favorite class in the whole game and one that may convince me to play it more often and finally strive for its endgame content.

This preview was made possible thanks to a Steam code, Preview presentation, and B-Roll footage screenshots provided by Fatshark. The company had no input nor saw the contents of this preview before publication.

What are the Skitarii?

The Skitarii are a unique military force that fights for the tech-worshipping Adeptus Mechanicus faction. They are heavily augmented cyborg hunters that specialize in plasma and lightning-based weaponry, multi-purpose gadgets, and other technologically advanced ways to purge heretics, aliens, and mutants.

They usually act in groups, but in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, you play as an upgraded Alpha Skitarii, who can act as a solo operative.

My preview of this class began with their character customization, which is probably one of the most disturbing yet cool character creators I've ever seen in a game.

You get to customize how royally horrifying your Skitarii look underneath their robes with all their cybernetics, what kind of robotic limbs they have, and even adjust the distortion and pitch of their modulated voices.

Once I finished creating my Skitarii (which took a long while because I wanted to recreate the iconic voice of Soundwave from Transformers), I was off to the training room to learn about their abilities.

How do the Skitarii play?

What sets Skitarii apart from all the classes in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is that their skill tree, which looks like the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy 10, rather than a linear line like the others.

This means you can spend points to adjust the Skitarii's playstyle however you want, rather than being restricted to a certain playstyle like the other classes due to their more open-ended skill tree, and the Skitarii have A LOT of playstyles to experiment with.

You can create a support-focused Skitarii that focuses on using Servo-Skull drones to crowd-control enemies while reviving downed teammates or operating terminals to save players from having to do it themselves.

You can make a long-range sniper Skitarii that's all about destroying elite enemies using a special ability that augments the ammo of their weapons, like the iconic Galvanic Rifle or Arc Rifle, to auto-track targets without aiming.

Heck, you can even make a melee-focused Skitarii that uses a special forcefield that blocks incoming ranged attacks that explodes once depleted, and rushes enemies down with melee attacks using electrified maces or dual blades before ripping out their heart with a giant, gnarly robotic claw.

Plus, thanks to the Skitarii's open-ended skill tree, you can mix up the various abilities of these playstyles together and create your own custom build that sort of functions as a jack of all trades.

Now, all this sounds cool on paper, but it won't mean much if it doesn't come together during real combat scenarios. So, after deciding to adapt a melee-focused build with the anti-ranged shield, I decided to take my new Skitarii class into live combat to see how it would fare.

Now I'm not the best Darktide player in the world, as I've casually played here and there, getting my shiny metal butt kicked plenty of times. But that didn't stop me from enjoying the Skitarii class because it was so fun to play as.

There's just something so empowering about being able to strut up to an enemy screaming in terror that his bullets aren't penetrating your shield and then snuffing out his Nurgle-worshipping, heretical existence by ripping off his head with a giant claw.

Also, I enjoyed the utility of the Skitarii's Servo-Skulls for how surprisingly useful they were. Commanding it to hack terminals instead of having to deal with the annoying image-match mini-game yourself and using it to revive teams so you don't leave yourself wide open to enemy attacks is so convenient and gives your team a better, and less frustrating, chance at survival when things go south.

I can't wait to zap heretics to ash in the name of the Omnissiah

Overall, I was impressed with the Skitarii class by what I saw and played. Its tech-based weapons and abilities are fun to play with, and the personalities you can assign to your Skitarii are a joy to listen to during moments when player characters talk to each other,

Also, I LOVE the idea of having a voice modulator when designing your character's voice to give it a robotic feel, which I hope to see more often in games in general and not just Warhammer 40,000 games featuring the Adeptus Mechanicus.

If the Arbites were the class that convinced me to play Darktide, then the Skitarii may be the class that will motivate me to play at a higher level beyond the occasional casual weekend romp with friends and check out its endgame content.

Bottom line, the Skitarii are awesome, and I can't wait to play more of them alongside everyone else as the Warhammer 40,000: Darktide's Skitarii DLC expansion launches on June 23, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam, which happens to be today.

🗨️ Over to you

What do you think of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide's new Skitarii class? Do you think it will be your main class, or are you waiting for a different kind of servant of the Imperium to become playable, like one of the Sisters of Battle, for example?

If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let us know through the poll below, the comments section, or our Reddit page.

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Prime Day has arrived with possibly the quietest fanfare I've ever known since writing for Windows Central, and that's due in no small part to the current state of the tech market. Prices are being hiked left, right, and center, and gaming handhelds have been hit particularly badly by the RAM price hikes. With this in mind, I'm surprised that ASUS is still steaming ahead with this cracking deal on the Xbox ROG Ally, which is down to £379.99 on Amazon. When you compare that to the price of the Steam Deck nowadays, it's a steal for something comparable in performance and with a lot more flexibility.

For playing lower-powered indie games or clearing out your backlog, the two handhelds stand on pretty even footing. The Xbox Ally, however, lets you switch between Steam and Xbox PC natively without requiring hours of tinkering or workarounds. Crucially, it's CHEAPER by a mile.

Why buy the Xbox Ally?

We’re living through unprecedented times for gaming costs, where component shortages and rising demand for AI hardware have driven gaming tech prices to unreachable levels for the average budget gamer. Many of ASUS's competitors have handhelds priced at the same level as a high-end gaming PC (just look at the Lenovo Legion Go 2 prices). Yet with all the price hikes, the standard ASUS ROG Ally has become the single most sensible choice for anyone who just want to play some less demanding games.

To be completely open, I own the ROG Ally X, which is the "beefed-up" premium model, and as someone who mostly plays indie titles and keeps a massive backlog of AA games, I regret spending the extra cash. The standard Ally would have handled everything I threw at it perfectly. Don't make my mistake; save your money for the actual games.

RELATED: Xbox Ally vs Steam Deck which is better?

Sure, this has an entry-level price tag, but for sub-£380, you are getting an AMD Ryzen Z2 A processor,and a really nice 7-inch 1080p screen with 120Hz VRR. Not only that, but while on equal terms with the Steam Deck, the Xbox Ally isn't locked down to the Steam OS, and you can jump between your game libraries. You get a dedicated Xbox button that launches a full-screen, controller-friendly gaming environment, and you can download games natively from Xbox Game Pass, the Epic Games Store, GOG, and EA Play without jumping through hoops.

That being said, there is nothing stopping you from doing a clean install of Steam OS and turning this into a much more ergonomic (and cheaper) Steam Deck. It’s arguably the most comfortable handheld I've ever used.

The Xbox Ally is an outlier right now in the gaming handheld market, and I don't expect the price to stay this low for much longer. With price increases being announced from Lenovo, Valve, and other manufacturers, it does feel like the writing is on the wall with Xbox devices, too. If you want to play your backlog on the settee or on the go without taking out a small loan, the Xbox Ally at £379.99 is the deal to beat this Prime Day.

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The Razer Wolverine V3 Pro 8K PC has been my go-to controller since I first opened its box. Prior to this, I'd been using the regular Wolverine V3 Pro, which also has Xbox compatibility, but the 8K version is something else. The best performance you can get.

But its price was always a sticking point. After all, $200 is a lot of money for a controller. But in swoops Prime Day to knock that down by $50, so you can now (and should) buy one from Amazon for just $149.99.

I've played about 600 hours of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 with this controller (feel free to tell me how much of my life I've wasted in the comments), and I wouldn't use anything else.

For one, it's laid out like an Xbox controller, which I still find the most comfortable. I've tried using the Razer Raiju V3 Pro with the PS5 layout, which is also an excellent controller, but I come back to the Wolverine V3 Pro 8K every time.

It ticks all the boxes. It has TMR thumbsticks; it has delightfully clicky mouse switch buttons and rear paddles, and crucially, it doesn't lose performance when you use it wirelessly versus wired.

8,000Hz is the fastest you can buy on any controller right now out of the box without having to use third-party tools to overclock. For competitive games such as Call of Duty, Apex Legends, and Battlefield 6, the faster the better. It's hard to quantify, but I can feel a difference if I go back to the regular Wolverine V3 Pro at only 1,000Hz.

To get the maximum speed, you do need a beefy CPU, and you need fast enough USB ports. It's not a big drag on the CPU, but the higher the polling rate, the more work it needs to do, so you do need to ensure you have the headroom not to affect your games.

But this is still my favorite controller, and sure, it's PC only. But now it's down to $150 I can't see any good reason not to recommend you pick one up. It's that good. Prime Day only lasts the rest of this week, so take advantage of this new lowest ever price while you can.

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Geekom is one of the brands that we trust most when it comes to mini PCs, and I'm not just saying that; it's a trust built on in-house reviews and testing over the course of a few years.

While mini PCs are always a great option for anyone looking to score a desktop at an affordable price, events like Amazon's Prime Day always tend to bring some of the lowest prices of the year to the forefront.

Such is the case this year, with Geekom mini PCs starting as low as $371 after a hefty discount. I rounded up 7 top Geekom deals with PCs that suit a wide range of users.

• See more Geekom Prime Day deals at Amazon US
• See more Geekom Prime Day deals at Amazon UK
• See more Geekom Prime Day deals at Best Buy
• See the best Amazon Prime Day deals as chosen by Windows Central's editors

Which discounted Geekom mini PC should I choose on Prime Day?

The answer to which discounted Geekom mini is right for you depends, of course, on your specific needs.

Those who simply need a capable mini PC to handle general tasks like email, web browsing, streaming, Word, Excel, and the like will be able to get away with spending the least money.

In this case, the Geekom A5 — discounted from $437 to $371 — makes a lot of sense thanks to its AMD Ryzen 5 7430U CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB M.2 SSD. The Geekom A6, discounted from $649 to $524, also makes sense if you want a metal chassis, a faster CPU, improved cooling, and USB4 ports.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Geekom A9 Max, featuring a cutting-edge AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 CPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and 2TB of M.2 SSD storage. It's comparatively pricey even with a 15% discount, but it's the right choice for gaming and AI workloads.

My personal pick for those shopping during Prime Day is the Geekom A8, sitting near the middle of the pack to balance performance, features, and cost.

Right now, a model with an AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD costs $585 rather than the usual $689. Its memory and storage are both upgradeable after purchase, and the Ryzen chip is rather capable thanks to its 8 cores and 4.9GHz boost clock.

Windows Central's Harish Jonnalagadda reviewed both the Geekom A7 and A8 at the same time, handing them a Best Award and 4.5 stars. He noted,

"Having used the A7 and A8 extensively, the only limitation I can think of is that they have a solitary M.2 slot. There isn't much else that is missing on either model, and they both deliver standout performance in day-to-day productivity tasks as well as demanding image and video editing workflows."

These Geekom deals are expected to run from June 23 until June 26, so don't wait too long if one catches your eye. It's also worth mentioning that deal prices seem to fluctuate depending on stock availability, so early birds might get a better price.

• See more Geekom Prime Day deals at Amazon US
• See more Geekom Prime Day deals at Amazon UK
• See more Geekom Prime Day deals at Best Buy
• See the best Amazon Prime Day deals as chosen by Windows Central's editors

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Microsoft is now selling new configurations of the Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch with 8GB RAM in an attempt to quell the ongoing component pricing crisis that has seen the cost of Surface PCs skyrocket in recent months. These new affordable models will now start at $849 for the Surface Pro and $949 for the Surface Laptop.

Outside of the new RAM configuration, nothing else is new with these devices. These are still the 1st Edition models of the Surface Pro 12-inch and Surface Laptop 13-inch, powered by Qualcomm's now last-gen Snapdragon X Plus, along with 256GB of storage. These devices originally launched with 16GB RAM at $799 and $899, but saw price hikes to over $1,000 earlier this year.

Now that Microsoft has introduced models with less RAM, the company has been able to bring pricing back below $1,000. The company has been working to ensure Windows 11 is better optimized to run on devices with less than 16GB RAM, including disabling things like Widgets and other under the hood optimizations.

Of course, these new configurations also don't have any Copilot+ PC AI capabilities, as one of the requirements for that is a minimum of 16GB RAM. That means Windows 11 will be lighter right out of the gate, as it doesn't have to deal with all the advanced AI features that ship as part of PCs with higher RAM configurations.

Microsoft will continue to sell models with 16GB RAM for those who want to splash out on something a little more capable, but for many who just need a computer for basic tasks and workflows, the 8GB configurations should be fine enough. The good news is if you're not sure if 8GB is enough, the Microsoft Store offers a 60 day return policy, giving you plenty of time to buy the device and try it out before committing.

The new 8GB RAM options only appear to apply to the midrange Surface Laptop 13-inch and Surface Pro 12-inch. The flagship Surface Laptop 8th Generation and Surface Pro 12th Generation are not currently available with 8GB RAM configurations, meaning they still start with 16GB RAM for $1,499.

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