Shopping for an LG television quickly turns into a battle of acronyms: UHD, QNED, and OLED. While all three share LG’s intuitive webOS platform and crisp 4K resolution, what happens beneath the glass makes a massive difference to your picture quality, room suitability, and budget. Whether you need an affordable workhorse for everyday streaming, a high-brightness panel to beat daytime glare during weekend cricket matches, or self-lit pixels for a pitch-black movie night, choosing the right display comes down to how and where you watch. Here is how LG’s three core display tiers stack up—and which one belongs in your home.

4 Key Takeaways Before You Buy

1. LG UHD 4K TVs are suited for buyers who want great picture quality, various screen sizes, and webOS Smart TV features, all at an accessible price point.
2. LG QNED TVs bridge the gap between the two offering quantum dot colour accuracy, Mini-LED brightness, and wide viewing angles for large, well-lit living rooms.
3. LG OLED TVs deliver the ace picture quality with perfect blacks and infinite contrast, making them ideal for room turned home theatres, and gamers who need performance on top.
4. All three technologies run on LG's webOS platform with ThinQ AI, meaning smart home integration and intuitive controls

Walk into an LG Brand Shop in India or check “TV" on lg.com/in — three words will follow you everytime: UHD, QNED, and OLED.

Each one is a different display technology with a distinct set of strengths. Choosing between them is about which is better for your room, your lifestyle, and your budget. Here is a guide that explains the difference between LG UHD, QNED, and OLED TVs in detail.

What Is LG UHD (4K) TV Technology?

Think of LG UHD 4K TVs as the smart evolution of traditional LED-LCD televisions. UHD stands for Ultra High Definition — 3840 x 2160 pixels, or four times the resolution of Full HD.

LG's UHD 4K TV range brings 4K resolution to everyday Indian homes at accessible prices. They're available in sizes starting from 32 inches, making them ideal for bedrooms, medium-sized living rooms, and first-time 4K buyers.

What makes them stand out:

1. Sharp 4K resolution with LG's α (Alpha) processor upscaling
2. webOS Smart TV platform with access to 4,000+ apps including Netflix, Prime Video, JioCinema, and SonyLIV
3. LG ThinQ AI with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa support
4. Multiple HDMI ports for seamless DTH and gaming setup
5. Energy-efficient — ideal for long daily use across Indian summers

What Is LG QNED and Why Does It Matter?

LG QNED combines three technologies into one panel: Quantum Dot colour filters, NanoCell light absorption, and Mini-LED backlighting. The display is more colour-accurate than standard UHD, and built for large, well-lit spaces.

If you have a massive living room, LG QNED TVs is something you can get installed. Think of a large TV screen in a room where afternoon sunlight pours in and the whole family gathers to watch IPL or a Bollywood blockbuster.

What QNED brings to the table:

1. Mini-LED backlighting with thousands of local dimming zones for deeper contrast
2. Quantum Dot + NanoCell technology delivers over a billion colour shades
3. 120 Hz refresh rate with VRR support for smooth gaming and fast-motion sports 

This matters just as much for movie and OTT viewers as gamers, since the same HDMI 2.1 bandwidth that helps a console also carries higher-quality Dolby Vision and Atmos streams cleanly. On LG's OLED evo C series, for example, this gaming groundwork sits alongside movie-friendly features on the same TV, so families don't have to choose between a “gaming TV” and a “movie TV” as two separate purchases.

What Makes LG OLED the good in Picture Quality?

LG OLED TVs are in a class of their own when it comes to picture quality — and they always have been.

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. Each pixel in an LG OLED TV emits its own light independently. When a pixel needs to display black, it simply switches off — creating true, absolute black.

This results in an infinite contrast ratio, perfect black levels, and an almost cinema-like depth to every image.

Why LG OLED is made for gamers and movie lovers:

1. Wide viewing angles — viewers can enjoy consistent colours and picture quality even when watching from the sides.
2. Perfect blacks with pixel-level dimming — deliver deeper blacks and detailed night scenes in films and OTT content.
3. Slim, wall-mount-ready designs — complement modern interiors while creating a clean, immersive viewing setup.
4. OLED evo panels on select flagship models — provide higher brightness, making them suitable for different room lighting conditions.
5. NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync Premium support — offer smoother gameplay with reduced screen tearing and interruptions.

LG SIGNATURE OLED and OLED evo series provide best-in-class television viewing experience across the range

UHD vs QNED vs OLED

Here is a quick comparison to help you decide at a glance:

*Prices shown are indicative and may vary from time to time.

Quick Decision Guide: Which LG TV Is Right for You?

*Recommendations are illustrative only. Actual viewing preferences may vary by room dimensions, seating distance and individual preference.

With LG whichever TV you choose, you get webOS, ThinQ AI, and the brand’s reputation for quality built into every frame. Life's Good — and it looks even better on an LG screen.

Explore: LG UHD 4K TVs | LG QNED TVs |LG OLED TVs

All the doom and gloom scenarios surrounding AI becoming ever more powerful seems to have taken a back seat, with the launch of Meta AI’s Muse and now OpenAI’s Dots, in case you didn’t notice. It’s time for AI to become less threatening and full of optimism. That’s at least the key takeaway from recent announcements from Meta and OpenAI.

Also read: This Indian AI startup wants to disrupt video production workflows: Here’s how

Muse was revealed at Meta Connect 2026, after being announced earlier in September, with a very cute agent mascot called Jolly. Where the AI overload truly became clear was when Meta showed off a Realtime Avatar model, which allows video calls with an animated version of the agent in action. 

Beaten to the opening punch, but not waiting too long for its first salvo, OpenAI decided to go further in the friendliness spin to AI with Dots. It’s no terminator, but a primary dot, where users get to do everything from naming, personalizing the journey and making it their own. OpenAI’s launch material even showed off a blue dot named Felipe, which looked like a cartoon doodled, nothing too scary.

And early indications show that people seem to like it, at least according to Sensor Tower. Muse shot to the top of the free app chart on Apple's App Store 10 days after its September 8 debut, passing ChatGPT, and was downloaded more than 2.5 million times since launch. And Meta stock climbed as much as 25% in September, much of that since the Muse launch.

Also read: GPT-6.1 Sol: Everything that’s better than the week old GPT-6 Sol

The early narrative around these two AI assistants with agentic use cases is far away from all the fear and anxiety that’s been surrounding the industry all of 2026. Not panic, no scary business, Muse and Dots are offering something refreshingly mundane. Muse is capable of doing everything from booking a date night to emailing a friend about an upcoming road trip that it planned on your behalf. 

Built on GPT-6 Astra, Dots has a cloud computer squeezed inside an ordinary browser tab, can work on delegated tasks 24/7 and connects to over 4,000 apps. Suddenly, the pitch isn't superintelligence. It's getting your errands done with an overdose of cuteness, might I add. 

Both Meta and OpenAI are also leaning hard on the language of controls available to users of Muse and Dots all the time. Dots follow ChatGPT's permissions and support custom rules for which tasks require approval. According to Meta, Muse doesn't share conversations or virtual machine session data with its ad systems, as of now.

You’d do well to know that beneath the surface-level cuddly avatars sits technology that's arguably more autonomous than anything Meta and OpenAI have made available to consumers before. How safe are their respective AI agent guardrails enforced remains to be seen, to be honest.

There's a commercial undercurrent here, don’t forget. Meta’s 2026 capital expenditures are in the range of hundreds of billions of dollars, while OpenAI has unveiled a new $500-a-month ChatGPT subscription plan. In the race to monetization and chasing IPO, Muse and Dots seem like a business necessity. Not doom and gloom, but friendly faces of Muse and Dots is what will move the needle favourably in the acceptance of always-on agents in web browsers, apps, and social media networks. 

So has AI actually become less dangerous? Not quite. The debate on how to maximise AI benefits without endangering humanity rages on. For now, it’s been given a softer, friendlier face.

Also read: OpenAI Dots explained: An AI coworker that never logs off

The frustration of attempting to join AI clips to form a cohesive video is something everyone has experienced before. The main character’s coat color alters in the third scene. The kitchen acquires a window. And your leading man ends up becoming an unfamiliar face with somewhat familiar hair. This is what the Eloelo Group claims to have solved and named it Dolphin AI. Dolphin AI was introduced at FICCI FRAMES 2026 held on September 29.

Also read: GPT-6.1 Sol: Everything that’s better than the week old GPT-6 Sol

The 10-second wall

It couldn't be simpler according to CEO Saurabh Pandey. Today, AI video is all about lack of context and inability to go past 8 to 10 seconds. You only need to have seen a generated video deteriorate at the 10 second mark to agree with this.

Dolphin's solution is multi-shot planning and continuity technology. Rather than producing each individual shot in isolation, it produces the video as a whole, taking care of the characters, voices, wardrobes, props and even locations through the individual shots. There is an agentic layer that interprets the creative intention behind the video and divides a longer video into individual shots and tasks.

This is what Dolphin claims. However, there aren't any demos, benchmarks or max video length available from the launch release.

Also read: OpenAI Dots explained: An AI coworker that never logs off

Four ways in

Dolphin has four modes. The Chat mode allows you to explain the video in simple words. The Templates mode introduces more structure into the process. The Playground mode gives you shot level controls. And finally, Film Studio is the most adventurous: enter your script, and it will analyze it for the theme, tone, chronology, and character development. It will identify characters, settings, and props, and create reusable visual, voice, and wardrobe assets. Lock. The word is crucial.

Why Eloelo, of all companies

Looks like a consumer app firm venturing into AI tooling. Well, it has been nibbling on its own cooking all along. Story TV, Eloelo's vertical storytelling app, has already created over 5,000 original dramas, and the teams at Eloelo screen over 100,000 creatives every month. Dolphin was originally designed as a solution for the problem and is currently being made available to creators, filmmakers, brands, and studios. Those who have shipped dramas in such huge quantities know the pain spots in the production process well.

The model is not the product

The most opinionated statement from the announcement comes from CTO Sagar Gaonkar who says that the model is becoming a component and the creative system is the product. Dolphin is not banking on one video model out there winning. Instead, the company is planning on using the appropriate model at each step while maintaining consistency when all the steps are combined.

Smart play in an environment where the leaderboard keeps getting rearranged on a monthly basis. Here’s the problem – quality depends entirely on the underlying models and none of them are named in the announcement. Dolphin has also made its technology compatible with MCP. As a result, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Cursor can take advantage of Dolphin's video generation capabilities inside their systems.

The India pitch

Pandey aspires to transform India from being one of the largest content consumers into one of the largest content exporters, a transition which is associated with the Orange Economy. The announcement estimates the creative economy in India to be around 2.5% of GDP, with around 80 million creators working in the creator economy. Dolphin aims at advertising, product video production, microdramas, podcasts, cinematic movies, user-generated content, AI avatars, and animation. Dolphin is currently open for early access. Creators can sign up for the waitlist through trydolphin.ai or through an invite code.

Also read: Apple’s Vision Pro, Samsung’s Android XR, Meta VR Glasses: The battle for the future of XR

The festive season is one of the biggest shopping periods in India, and Amazon and Flipkart are once again putting a major focus on electronics and home appliances. With discounts, bank offers and exchange deals running across categories, this can be a useful time to upgrade appliances that can actually make a difference at home.

Not every appliance needs to be on your festive shopping list, though. Some become particularly useful around Diwali and other celebrations, when homes need more cleaning, cooking and entertaining than usual. If you are planning to spend on appliances during the festive sales, these five categories are worth considering.

Robot vacuum cleaner

Getting the house ready for Diwali can mean several rounds of cleaning, particularly if you are expecting guests. A robot vacuum cleaner can take over routine floor cleaning while you focus on the more time-consuming parts of getting the house ready for the celebrations.

Also read: Best air fryers under 10000 in India: 5 options your kitchen will thank you

The bigger advantage comes after the celebrations. With food crumbs, dust and other debris accumulating during gatherings, a robot vacuum can handle regular cleaning without requiring you to run the vacuum manually every day. Festive sales can also make higher-end models with mopping, mapping and obstacle detection more accessible than they normally are.

Dishwasher

A dishwasher may not be the first appliance people associate with Diwali, but it can become one of the most useful when the number of people at home suddenly increases. Family gatherings mean more plates, glasses, bowls and serving dishes, often several times a day.

Instead of spending hours at the sink after every meal, a dishwasher can take care of a large portion of the cleaning. If you have been considering one but the regular price has held you back, festive sales are a reasonable time to look at models with larger capacities and better wash programmes.

Air fryer

Festive food usually means snacks, and an air fryer can make it easier to prepare them without relying entirely on deep frying. Samosas, kebabs, fries, cutlets and other snacks can be prepared or reheated quickly, making the appliance useful when guests are coming over.

The category also covers a wide price range, so you do not necessarily need to spend a lot to get one. Festive discounts can make this a relatively easy appliance upgrade, particularly for households that already cook snacks regularly but want a quicker way to prepare them.

Microwave oven

Festivals usually mean more food at home, and not everything gets served at the same time. Guests may also arrive at different times, making reheating a regular part of the day. A microwave can make this easier, especially when you don’t want to use a pan or stove every time you need to warm something up.

Also read: Air fryer vs microwave: What’s better to reheat different foods?

If you already have an old or basic microwave, the festive sales can also be a good time to upgrade. A convection model adds baking and grilling, while a larger-capacity model can be more useful when you’re cooking or reheating food for a group. The discount should not be the only reason to buy one, though. Look at the capacity and features you are actually likely to use.

Air purifier

For homes in cities where pollution becomes a problem around Diwali, an air purifier can be a practical addition before the festive season begins. The timing also works because Diwali falls around the start of winter, when many households start keeping their windows shut for longer periods.

If you have been putting off buying one, the festive sales could be a good time to finally pick one up. Look beyond the discount, though. CADR, the size of the room you want to use it in, replacement filter prices and how easily those filters are available will matter long after the sale is over.

What should you prioritise?

There is no point buying an appliance just because it is on sale. If you host family and friends often, a dishwasher or robot vacuum could be more useful, while an air fryer or microwave makes more sense if you spend a lot of time cooking. For homes dealing with poor air quality during winter, an air purifier could be the more relevant upgrade.

The festive sales are a good opportunity to make these purchases at a lower price, but the deal should come second to the appliance itself. Check the capacity, features, warranty and running costs before you place the order. A big discount is not much of a saving if the appliance ends up sitting unused.

Also read: Dyson HushJet Purifier Compact review: Quiet, powerful, and very Dyson

OpenAI has been on a run of new launches this pursuit of speed that OpenAI has and if it is costing them any intelligence previously as well. Now during their DevDay 2026, they have announced GPT-6.1 Sol exactly seven days after the original GPT-6 Sol announcement. As powerful as OpenAI’s models have been, they are replacing them with newer versions a little too quickly where we haven’t had much time to sit with even the first iteration. The question now is what all has OpenAI changed in this upgrade and how much of an improvement GPT-6.1 Sol can be from GPT-6 Sol. It's an upgrade to GPT-6 Sol, the middle tier of the GPT-6 family, sitting between top-shelf Astra and budget-friendly Luna. It looks like a routine point release. It's closer to a repricing of what counts as "good enough" for serious work.

Also read: OpenAI Dots explained: An AI coworker that never logs off

The price gap

The cached input price is the sleeper. At $0.10 per million tokens, it's 95% cheaper than Sol's standard input and half of what GPT-6 Sol charged for cached tokens. Agents that keep re-reading the same codebase or the same 200-page PDF are the ones that win here.

What the benchmarks say

Begin with coding, where the news is strongest. DeepSWE v1.1 sees GPT-6.1 Sol outclassing Astra on performance by around one-fifth of the price, and beating the best score that GPT-6 Sol has ever achieved on the benchmark by 6.4 percentage points, while doing all of this with less reasoning effort. Computer use shows the same pattern. On OSWorld 2.0, Sol is only 2.1 percentage points off Astra's score at maximum effort and does this for one-seventh of the price per task, beating GPT-6 Sol's score by seven percentage points.

Also read: SURI: The Seventh Note wants you to feel the beat through the PS5 DualSense

It's business workflows where it faces a competing model. On AutomationBench, GPT-6.1 Sol beats Opus 5.5 by 2.2 percentage points at medium reasoning effort, at one-third of the cost. It's science where Astra holds its title. On Terminal-Bench Science 0.1, Sol costs $5.47 per task on average, while Opus 5.5 costs $23.21 and Astra costs $23.80, yet Astra holds the top score at 68.1 percent. Even OpenAI recommends using Astra on the toughest research tasks. Factuality is improved, too. At low reasoning effort, the percentage of responses containing factual errors falls from 11.4 percent to 7.7 percent.

Read the fine print

Looks like a clean sweep, but it isn't a neutral scoreboard. OpenAI ran its own evaluations, and the competitor numbers come from public reports. The factuality test uses deliberately difficult prompts pulled from conversations where users flagged an earlier model's mistake, so 7.7% is not what you'll see in daily use. I am treating every figure as a vendor claim until I have tested the model myself.

The safety section is worth a skim too. OpenAI says Sol is better than before at admitting when a search tool is broken, failing to disclose it in 2.1% of test cases versus 4.9% for GPT-6 Sol. Astra still does better at 1.5%. Luna misses it in 28.7% of cases, which tells you what the cheapest tier costs you in reliability.

Where you can use it

GPT-6.1 Sol is live for Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu users in ChatGPT Work and Codex. It's not in standard Chat yet, so casual users won't see it in the usual window. Developers can call it through the API as gpt-6.1-sol. A faster variant is on the way. OpenAI says GPT-6.1 Sol Ultrafast will arrive in the coming days, promising up to 8x faster token generation in Codex. For Indian developers and startups, where API bills hit harder, the cached-token pricing is the number to watch. Run your own workloads before trusting anyone's chart, OpenAI's included.

Also read: Best 43-inch TV deals on Amazon Great Indian Festival sale 2026

Festive smartphone shopping can be surprisingly difficult, especially in 2026. Smartphone prices are rising, but there are plenty of options to choose from. This also means finding the right one usually comes down to how much you want to spend and what you actually expect from your next device. Some buyers want a flagship with all the bells and whistles, while others would rather spend less and still get a premium-looking phone with a good display, capable cameras, and enough performance to last for years. This is where Samsung’s upcoming festive sale deals get interesting. The company is teasing attractive prices across different parts of its Galaxy range, with the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 FE and Galaxy A36 each targeting a slightly different kind of buyer. Together, they make Samsung one of the easier brands to shop this festive season during Amazon’s Great Indian Festival and Flipkart’s Big Billion Days sales.

Also read: Samsung may have cracked the biggest problem with smartphone deals this festive sale

Galaxy S25 for those who want the flagship experience

At the top of this lineup is the Galaxy S25, which is being teased at Rs 5X,XXX during the upcoming Big Billion Days sale.

For buyers who have been waiting for a good opportunity to move to a premium smartphone, this could be one of the more interesting offers to watch. The Galaxy S25 brings together Samsung's flagship design, high-end performance, cameras, and display experience in a relatively compact form factor.

Of course, the important part here is the price. If the final sale price lands close to the teased figure, the Galaxy S25 may prove to be a much more approachable option for someone who wants a premium Galaxy phone without moving into the Rs 70,000 or Rs 80,000 price bracket.

Galaxy S25 FE for the value-conscious premium buyer

Not everyone shopping for a premium smartphone wants to spend around Rs 50,000 or more. This is where the Galaxy S25 FE enters the picture.

Samsung is teasing the Galaxy S25 FE at Rs 4X,XXX, putting it in a price range that could appeal to buyers who want many of the benefits associated with the Galaxy S series while keeping their spending under control.

The S25 FE essentially gives buyers another route into Samsung's premium Galaxy experience. For someone upgrading this festive season and looking for a phone that feels premium without going all the way up to flagship pricing, this could be a particularly interesting option.

Galaxy A36 for buyers who want to spend less

Then there is the Galaxy A36, which is being teased at Rs 2X,XXX.

Not everyone needs a flagship phone, and there is a large group of buyers who simply want a well-rounded smartphone from a familiar brand without spending Rs 40,000 or Rs 50,000.

The Galaxy A36 gives those buyers an option at a considerably lower price. It brings Samsung's design language, display experience, and everyday features into a more accessible segment, making it relevant for students, first-time premium smartphone buyers, and anyone looking to upgrade without overspending.

Also read: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review: The best book-style foldable money can buy

Three phones, three different reasons to upgrade

What makes these upcoming Samsung deals interesting is that there isn't just one phone being pushed towards one type of buyer.

The Galaxy S25 is for someone who wants a flagship. The Galaxy S25 FE is for buyers looking for a premium experience at a more manageable price, while the Galaxy A36 caters to those who want a capable phone without stretching their budget.

Of course, the final prices are yet to be revealed, and the actual value of each offer will also depend on bank discounts, exchange offers, and other sale benefits. But based on the prices Samsung is currently teasing, the company appears to have built a festive lineup that covers multiple budgets. And that could be the biggest attraction of Samsung's festive sale this year.

An early tester at OpenAI forgot to send an invoice to the publisher. The AI agent reminded him about the mistake, prepared the invoice and mailed it only after he gave permission to do so. He had not asked for a reminder at all. The little story sums up the what Dots are capable of as always on agents unveiled by OpenAI on September 29.

Also read: SURI: The Seventh Note wants you to feel the beat through the PS5 DualSense

What is a dot?

It is ChatGPT but with a sweet name. It isn't. The dot is an individual agent with its own computer in the clouds, its own browser and access to the applications that you connect it with. It is based on GPT-6 Astra and connects with more than 4,000 different applications. It needs your feedback for correction so that it knows how a good job is done by you. And you can access that computer anytime and see the results yourself. It is basically a colleague who works from your desk all day.

It comes to you

You access your dot from ChatGPT on desktop, web, mobile, Slack, and Teams. Messaging via texting is on the horizon. You could dial in for a voice conversation. The context follows you across channels, and your dot can send the first message with updates, questions, or decisions needing your input.

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When you are not present, it conducts what OpenAI refers to as proactive research. This process leverages read-only capabilities within your integrated applications; therefore, it cannot send messages, modify content, or control your web browsing. Researching is fine, but acting requires approval.

What the work looks like

The examples of OpenAI are real. There is a bug found in Slack and there comes a dot to check it out. The developer receives completed pull requests with video demonstrations on how to fix it. The scientist dot repeats his analysis once there are more data available, changing graphs. The creator dot highlights clips of the film and takes notes of the new interview transcript.

The leash

The main reason why people buy it is control. With Custom Rules, users can allow, block or request approval for certain activities. The Activity View reveals all background activity. The auto-revision stage verifies any process that interacts with your account or shares information. There are activities that will never be delegated, like the change of your password. A monitoring mechanism may stop a dot when it detects something suspicious.

However, OpenAI acknowledges that dots may err, and that's why it advises to revise all consequential activity. An agent who does things on your behalf makes mistakes quicker than you detect them.

Not just a personal assistant

Dots are the equivalent of an assistant in your pocket. The grander vision for dots is about hiring practices. Specialized dots receive their own identity, credentials and access to the company's infrastructure before performing specialized tasks. OpenAI has conducted pilots within its organization on procurement, invoicing, email marketing, customer service and business contracting. Enterprise piloting will follow and OpenAI is partnering with Microsoft to incorporate specialist dots into Agent 365.

Who gets one, and what about India

Rollout of Dots started among the ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium members in qualifying regions. Dots will be available to all workspaces including those for Edu and Healthcare in beta upon activation by the admin. The first dot is included in your subscription package free of charge with additional allowances for in-depth conversations with extended limitations during the first month. Conversations with your dot are not counted in terms of your usage limits but tasks initiated through it in Codex/ChatGPT Work are.

Also read: Apple’s Vision Pro, Samsung’s Android XR, Meta VR Glasses: The battle for the future of XR

There is something slightly odd about this year's festive smartphone sales. Usually, October is the time when you wait for a phone's price to fall, compare a few models, and eventually convince yourself that this is the right time to upgrade. This year, however, the equation is not quite as straightforward. Smartphone prices have moved upwards, particularly at the premium end, while some of the prices being teased for the upcoming sales don't look dramatically different from what we've already seen earlier this year. That makes the actual good deals much easier to spot. And this is where Samsung appears to be taking a rather different approach with the Amazon Great Indian Festival and Flipkart Big Billion Days sales. The upcoming deals on Samsung Galaxy phones may end up being among the most interesting ones of the festive season. Let me explain.

Also read: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review: King of the hill

Flipkart, for instance, has already started teasing some of its upcoming Samsung deals, and the numbers are certainly worth paying attention to.

The Galaxy S25 is being teased at Rs 5X,XXX, while the Galaxy S25 FE is shown at Rs 4X,XXX. The Galaxy A36, meanwhile, is being teased at Rs 2X,XXX. We obviously don't have the final prices yet. But even these broad numbers give us a pretty good idea of where Samsung is heading with its festive sale pricing.

Take the Galaxy S25. It is a top-tier Samsung flagship from its Galaxy S series, and seeing it teased in the Rs 50,000 range is quite something. In fact, from a pricing perspective, the Galaxy S25 FE may be even more interesting for buyers who don't want to spend upwards of Rs 50,000 but still want a phone that looks and performs high-end. A price in the Rs 40,000 range would put it in a very different position from where we've seen the phone so far. Then there is the Galaxy A36, a fairly capable mid-range phone. At a teased price in the range of Rs 2X,XXX, it looks quite enticing.

And this way, Samsung would have one phone aimed at buyers looking for a flagship, another for those wanting the flagship experience for less, and the A36 for people who simply want a good Galaxy phone without stretching their budget.

For all these years, the festive sales are supposed to be the time when you get the best offers and prices of the year. But after months of rising smartphone prices, buyers are understandably looking for something more than a token discount. If a phone was already available at a similar price earlier in the year, seeing it reduced by another couple of thousand rupees doesn't exactly make it a must-buy.

Also read: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review: The best book-style foldable money can buy

Samsung's teased prices are different because they suggest a much bigger drop. The company could effectively be taking some of its most recognisable Galaxy phones back to price points we would normally associate with much older models. Of course, the final prices will only be known once the sale begins, and the actual deal could also depend on bank offers and other benefits.

But if these teasers are anything to go by, Samsung may have something substantial planned for the festive season this year. Because if you want a new smartphone right now, you will have to get used to paying more. However, Samsung is definitely moving in the opposite direction. And if the final prices come close to what the upcoming sale is teasing, the Galaxy S25, S25 FE, and A36 could be among the first phones worth checking this festive season.

Your controller has been underutilizing itself for years – rumble only for explosions, no rumble for anything else. Buzzer with buttons. Tathvamasi Studios wants to give your controller a much-needed upgrade. The first video game by the studio is SURI: The Seventh Note, which will be available on PlayStation 5 and PC (Steam) starting from October 30th. The concept is rather straightforward and catchy: an audio-based platformer that you play not only by listening and watching but also by feeling, using the rumble of your DualSense controller.

Also read: Minecraft is getting a new dimension after 14 years and gamers are excited

Looks like a rhythm game

In theory, SURI is a rhythm action platform game. But in actuality, the rhythm is the very world of the game. The player controls Ajira, a girl trying to rescue her mother from a dark illness. The only cure lies in a mysterious fruit growing on an island which is split into pieces due to the corruption of its rhythm. The environment changes depending on the rhythm, thus the timing is the main focus of the gameplay.

For such concept implementation, the developers created a Rhythm Haptics Engine. It allows to experience the game's rhythms through three senses – you can hear it, see it, and feel it. On the PS5, it is implemented through the DualSense controller. A pure melody should be perceived differently from a corrupted rhythm by the player's hands.

For the most part, games use the haptics of the DualSense to sprinkle some flavor into the experience. However, for SURI, they are used as a third language. Imagine yourself playing a rhythm game without even seeing the screen but staying in time. This is what SURI has been striving for. Haptics can be experienced on PC as well, meaning that everyone gets to enjoy the concept.

Also read: GTA 6 Collector’s Edition details are here: All you need to know

Made in India, and it shows

The studio is based in Bengaluru, and SURI is part of the PlayStation India Hero Project. The art draws on Rajput forts and the energy of Theyyam, which is not the usual video game backdrop. Most fantasy worlds borrow from the same three castles. This one goes somewhere else.

The CEO and the Game Director, Glen Martin stated that the development of the game was a period of almost three years and it would not have been possible without the backing of the Hero Project. The team has released its first game ever.

What it costs

Standard Edition costs about Rs 1300 and comes with the base game. PS5 owners will enjoy a 20 percent discount on pre-orders.

Digital Deluxe Edition is priced at Rs 2000. With this premium price tag, you will receive the Chandini skin, access to upcoming DLC content, and three days of early access beginning from October 27. The skin is exclusive to the Deluxe Edition and cannot be purchased separately, thus if you want to have it, there is only one way out. Both editions offer the PS5 pre-order discount. Prices mentioned here are in USD, please refer to the PlayStation Store for exact prices in your region.

Also read: Ghost of Yotei Complete Edition is coming October 1: All that is new

If you are planning to buy a new TV with a moderate screen size, a 43-inch TV would be a good place to start. Amazon's Great Indian Festival 2026 brings several TV deals across different price points. We have arranged the models below in descending order of their current sale price, starting with the most expensive option and ending with the cheapest. The list includes 4K and Full HD TVs, with differences in picture processing, gaming support, connectivity, software, and audio output.

LG 43UA82006LA

MRP: Rs 46,090
Current sale price: Rs 28,990
Discount: 37%

The LG 43UA82006LA has a 43-inch 4K panel with a 60Hz refresh rate and uses LG's alpha 7 AI Processor 4K Gen8 with 4K Super Upscaling. This makes it better suited to buyers who watch a mix of 4K and lower-resolution content.

It comes with gaming features like Game Optimizer, Game Dashboard, ALLM and VRR support up to 60Hz. There are 3 HDMI ports, with eARC support, and 1 USB 2.0 port. LG does not specify the HDMI version on its product page, so buyers should not assume that all three ports are HDMI 2.1.

The TV runs webOS 25. LG's webOS Re programme promises four upgrades over five years for eligible models. Audio output is rated at 20W, with Dolby Atmos and AI Sound Pro support.

Key specs: 43-inch 4K, 60Hz; 4K Super Upscaling; Game Optimizer, ALLM and VRR up to 60Hz; 3 x HDMI with eARC; 1 x USB 2.0; webOS 25; four upgrades over five years under webOS Re; 20W audio.

TCL 43V6C

MRP: Rs 47,690
Current sale price: Rs 27,490
Discount: 42%

The TCL 43V6C has a 43-inch 4K display with a 60Hz refresh rate. It uses TCL's AiPQ processing and MEMC, which is designed to improve motion clarity in fast-moving scenes. That can be useful for sports and action content.

For gaming, it supports features such as Game Master, ALLM and VRR, along with HDMI 2.1 support. The TV has 3 HDMI ports and 1 USB port. However, specifications for the USB and HDMI interfaces can vary between regional listings, so buyers should check the exact Amazon listing before ordering.

The TV boots Google TV. TCL does not advertise a fixed number of major OS upgrades for this model. It packs a 24W speaker, with Dolby Atmos and DTS-X support.

Key specs: 43-inch 4K, 60Hz; AiPQ processing and MEMC; Game Master, ALLM and VRR support; 3 x HDMI, with HDMI 2.1 support; 1 x USB; Google TV; no fixed OS upgrade count advertised; 24W audio.

Also Read: Amazon Great Indian Festival 2026: Best refrigerator deals to grab before sale begins

Xiaomi L43MB-AIN

MRP: Rs 37,999
Current sale price: Rs 24,999
Discount: 34%

The Xiaomi L43MB-AIN is another 43-inch 4K option, with a 60Hz refresh rate. It uses Vivid Picture Engine 2 and Reality Flow MEMC for picture processing and motion handling. Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG are also supported.

The TV is aimed at casual gaming rather than high-refresh-rate console gaming. It supports Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), while detailed listings specify 3 HDMI ports and 2 USB ports.

The TV ships with Google TV based on Android 14. It comes with 30W speaker output, making it the highest-rated speaker system among the TVs in this selection.

Key specs: 43-inch 4K, 60Hz; Vivid Picture Engine 2 and Reality Flow MEMC; Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG; ALLM; 3 x HDMI; 2 x USB; Google TV based on Android 14; no fixed OS upgrade count advertised; 30W audio.

Philips 43PFT6130/94

MRP: Rs 34,999
Current sale price: Rs 21,999
Discount: 37%

The Philips 43PFT6130/94 is a 43-inch Full HD TV with a 60Hz refresh rate. It is primarily aimed at buyers who want a larger display at a lower price rather than advanced 4K picture processing or high-end gaming features.

The TV uses standard Full HD picture processing and supports basic 60Hz gaming. Connectivity includes 2 HDMI ports and 2 USB ports. Philips does not state a guaranteed number of major OS upgrades for this model. The TV runs Google TV.

Audio output is rated at 20W. For everyday viewing, including TV channels, YouTube and streaming services, the specifications are fairly straightforward, but its Full HD resolution is a limitation compared with the 4K models above.

Key specs: 43-inch Full HD, 60Hz; standard Full HD picture processing; basic 60Hz gaming; 2 x HDMI; 2 x USB; Google TV; no guaranteed OS update count advertised; 20W audio.

VW VW43AQ3

MRP: Rs 29,999
Current sale price: Rs 14,499
Discount: 52%

The VW43AQ3 is the cheapest model in this selection. It combines a 43-inch QLED panel with Full HD resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. The QLED panel is intended to improve colour reproduction, but the TV still has a lower Full HD resolution than the 4K models.

The TV supports basic gaming at 60Hz and includes a Game Mode. Online listings vary on the exact port configuration. One detailed listing specifies 3 HDMI ports, including 1 HDMI 2.1 and 2 HDMI 2.0, while other listings mention 2 HDMI ports. The USB configuration also varies between listings, so buyers should check the exact Amazon specification before purchasing.

The TV runs Android TV, and VW does not advertise a fixed long-term OS upgrade commitment for this model. Audio output is rated at 24W.

Key specs: 43-inch Full HD QLED, 60Hz; standard Full HD processing with QLED colour enhancement; Game Mode; port configuration varies by listing, with some specifying 1 x HDMI 2.1; USB configuration varies by listing; Android TV; no guaranteed OS update count advertised; 24W audio.

Which 43-inch TV should you consider?

The LG 43UA82006LA and TCL 43V6C offer 4K resolution alongside more gaming and picture-processing features. The Xiaomi L43MB-AIN also offers 4K resolution, Dolby Vision, and a 30W speaker system. So, you can consider the Xiaomi TV if speaker output matters to you.

The Philips and VW models are Full HD options that focus more on keeping the price low. The VW43AQ3 has the lowest sale price in this list, so among the two, you can consider it over the Philips model.

Before buying, check the final Amazon price, bank offers, and exact port configuration, as sale prices and product specifications can change during the Great Indian Festival.

Also Read: 5 best AC deals on Amazon Great Indian Festival sale 2026

There's a scene near the start of Slumdog Millionaire in which a little boy jumps into a pit of human waste just to get a film star's autograph. He climbs out, covered in it, and he's smiling. When I first watched it, I felt sick. What bothered me more, though, was that many people in India didn't seem that bothered. It was just another scene. And I get why. If you live in almost any big Indian city, you've seen overflowing bins, burning rubbish heaps and drains full of plastic so often that you don't really see them anymore. You walk around the pile and keep going. 

Also read: Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Opus 5.5 vs Fable 5.1: Which model you should use

I don't want to be someone who just walks around the pile. I think many people my age feel the same way. We're used to calling things out when they're wrong, and we're also growing up with tools that can actually do something about it. When I got into computer science and machine learning, one question kept coming back to me. If AI can recognise faces and help doctors read X-rays, why can't it help us notice the rubbish we've all learned to ignore? 

This is a bit personal for me. One of my parents worked as a director in a major municipal body in Delhi, and garbage came up at home far more than you'd think. The main thing I learnt from those conversations was that waste piles up faster than any city can clear it. Sanitation workers work really hard, often in pretty awful conditions, but there are never enough of them. Municipalities just don't have the money to have someone on every street all day. So most of the time, a city only finds out about a problem when someone complains, a photo goes viral, or an inspector happens to walk by. By then the pile is bigger, the drain is blocked, and the stray dogs have already found it. 

Basically, the system mostly reacts after things go wrong. I want to argue that computer vision could help cities catch problems earlier and direct their limited staff to the places that need them most. But I've also realised something I didn't expect when I started: the technology by itself won't clean anything. It only helps if it fits into how cities actually work and is fair to the people who deal with our waste every day. 

First, how big is the problem? According to the Central Pollution Control Board's 2020-21 report, Indian cities produce around 1.6 lakh tonnes of solid waste every day. Most of it is now collected, which is real progress. But only about half is actually treated. Much of the rest ends up in landfills and open dumps, some so large you can see them from the highway. 

The government is trying. Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0 started in October 2021 with about ₹1.41 lakh crore, and its goal is to make every city "garbage free." That means door-to-door collection everywhere, people separating their waste at home, processing it properly, and cleaning up the old dumpsites. I think these are good goals. The problem is that, to meet them, cities need information they often lack. Where is the garbage? What kind is it? Has anyone actually picked it up? That's where I think AI can help. 

Here's the basic idea, without too much jargon. Computer vision is the part of AI that helps computers understand images. You show a model thousands of labelled images, such as "this is a plastic bottle", "this is food waste", or "this is a clean road", and eventually it learns to recognise those things on its own. Some models (classifiers) simply tell you what's in a photo. Others, like the YOLO models ("You Only Look Once", which I think is a great name), find every object in the picture and draw a box around it, fast enough to work on live video. 

The catch is that a model only knows what it has been shown. There are some good free datasets out there, like TACO, which has photos of litter in real-world settings, and TrashNet, which has photos of sorted recyclables. When I started building my own small prototype, I quickly realised these weren't enough. A model that learned mostly from clean European parks and nicely photographed bottles gets really confused by an Indian street, where you might have a torn plastic bag, vegetable peels, broken bricks and a sleeping dog all in one shot, with harsh sunlight on top of that. Honestly, that was the most frustrating and the most useful thing I learned. If this is going to work here, it has to be trained on pictures from here. 

There are a few ways cities could use it. They could run it on CCTV cameras they already have. They could put cameras on garbage trucks or give supervisors a phone app. Or they could place small, low-cost devices near bins and common dumping spots that run the model on-site, so video doesn't have to be sent anywhere. 

So what could it actually do? It could show which areas keep getting littered and catch illegal dumping as it happens, not weeks later. It could check how full bins are, so trucks go where they're needed instead of following a fixed route to half-empty bins while others overflow. At recycling plants, it could help sort waste into dry, wet, plastic and electronic waste, which is exactly what SBM-U 2.0 wants. And it could make complaint apps smarter. If you take a photo of an overflowing bin, the app could identify it, tag the location and send it straight to the right ward officer. 

Also read: 3 AAA games, 1 under Rs 1.5 lakh laptop: Alienware 15 gaming experience

AI can help a lot, but it can't do the hard part for us 

The first problem is accuracy. Real streets are messy. The light changes, garbage comes in every possible shape, and a model that looks amazing in testing can fail badly in a busy market. If it gives too many false alarms, workers waste their time. If it misses too much, nobody will trust it. 

The second problem is privacy. A camera looking for garbage is also looking at people. Without clear rules about what gets recorded, how long it's stored, and who gets to see it, a cleanliness project could slowly turn into a surveillance project. I think these systems should be built to spot waste, not to identify people, and India's data protection law should fully apply to them. 

The third problem is the one I didn't think about enough at first: what happens after the camera spots something. If an alert goes out and nobody acts, the whole thing is pointless. Someone has to be responsible for each alert, there needs to be a deadline, and there has to be a record of whether it was fixed. Otherwise, AI just makes a fancier list of complaints for everyone to ignore. 

And then there are the waste pickers. India has millions of informal waste pickers, by most estimates, and they recover a huge amount of recyclable material without getting much credit. Automated sorting could push them out. I don't think it has to, though. The same technology could help them find valuable material, bring them into the official system and make their work safer. I honestly don't know which way it will go. I think it depends on what cities decide now.

Some cities have already started trying this. The Greater Chennai Corporation has proposed installing AI cameras on 55 enforcement vehicles to catch illegal dumping and other waste-rule violations, with all footage monitored from its Integrated Command and Control Centre. What I liked about this is that those vehicles already use GPS and fixed routes, and any change in route sends an alert to a dashboard, so the AI is being added to something that already works. In Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram launched a project that uses AI to capture people dumping garbage in public places and water bodies, as well as the vehicles bringing it. Instead of watching everything all the time, the AI flags suspicious footage for someone to check, which seems like a smart way to handle privacy. Dubai Municipality started a pilot in January 2026 with AI cameras on garbage trucks, where images are analysed right away and violations appear on dashboards so teams can respond quickly. In all three cases, the camera isn't the whole plan. There's always a control room and a team that actually goes and does something. 

That's probably the biggest thing I've learned, both from experimenting with my own model and from years of hearing how municipalities really work. AI can help a lot, but it can't do the hard part for us. A camera can spot a pile of rubbish. It can't hire more sanitation workers, make people follow segregation rules, or ensure waste pickers are treated fairly. People have to decide to do those things. 

What AI can do is remove our excuse for not seeing. I think rubbish has stayed in our cities partly because it was never anyone's problem at any specific moment. If a computer can point to a pile and say "this one, here, right now, and it's your ward's job," that changes things. It gives stretched-thin municipalities better information and gives ordinary people a louder voice. 

For a long time, many of us have been running past the same pits. I want to stop, look, and help build tools that make a difference, with privacy, fairness and accountability built in from the start, not added later as an afterthought. That's a big part of what I want to work on in college, and hopefully after. 

The author of this article is Hanut Lal, an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme student at Heritage Xperiential Learning School, Delhi, and an intern at the Global Responsible Tech Lab (GRTL) based at the University of Mannheim.

The Inalsa Triton 900 is designed to be more than a conventional mixer grinder. At Rs 8,495, it includes a 900W motor, three mixer-grinder jars, and a 1.5-litre food processor bowl. The latter adds attachments for kneading, chopping, slicing, shredding, whisking, and making French fries. On paper, this makes the Triton 900 a kitchen appliance capable of replacing several smaller appliances. But is that its strength, and is it a strong alternative to a mixer grinder you may already have? Well, I have used its varied functions for a while now, and let's see how my experience has been.

Design and the idea behind the Triton 900

The Inalsa Triton 900 uses one motor base for several types of food preparation. The regular mixer grinder side consists of the jars used for liquidising, dry grinding, and chutney preparation. The food processor side uses a 1.5-litre bowl with different blades and discs.

This approach makes sense for Indian kitchens. A mixer grinder is already one of the most frequently used appliances in many homes, while chopping, shredding and kneading can take considerably more manual effort.

But these many components mean the full unit can take more space than a conventional mixer grinder. The good thing is that it isn't very heavy. The polycarbonate build is of serviceable quality. And the blades aren't sharp enough, which I will get into in the following sections.

Atta kneading

The kneading attachment can be used for atta, maida, puri dough, pizza dough, and other basic preparations. Instead of manually mixing flour and water before kneading the dough, the processor does most of the work. One thing to take care of is to add water gradually. Adding too much water at once can make it harder to get the desired consistency. The quantity of flour should also remain within the recommended limit. 

Other than that, the kneading blade and holder are also relatively straightforward to use. Since we make rotis frequently, this was a really handy tool to have.

Also Read: I used the Beyond Appliances Quantum Pro Gas Saver Stove for a month and these are my takeaways

Shredding and slicing

The coarse shredding disc is useful for vegetables such as carrots, cabbage and radish. It can also be used for suitable ingredients such as cheese and potatoes. If you are preparing a large quantity of shredded vegetables, using the Triton 900 is considerably less tedious than doing everything with a manual grater. It quickly does the job, and the 1.5-litre bowl can hold enough capacity, too. We used to use this for salads.

If you need even finer slicing or texture, you can use the Fine Shredding disc.

And if you want more consistent slices of veggies, you can rely on the Slicing disc. And if you are thinking, ' Can't I do it with a knife?' You can. These can be useful if you are cooking for a larger number of people.

The French fry disc is one function where my experience was less positive. The disc is supposed to help cut potatoes into fry-style pieces. In use, however, it did not produce proper, uniform French-fry-sized strips. Instead, the potatoes tended to be cut into very fine and thin layers.

Chopping and liquidising

The chopping blade is useful for onions, herbs, garlic, and other vegetables. But the amount of processing matters here. Be careful, as running the Triton 900 continuously can quickly take ingredients from chopped to almost paste-like.

I found the pulse function more appropriate when texture matters. You can run it in short bursts and check the consistency and stop before the ingredients become too fine.

A problem I genuinely felt sharing is that while slicing papaya, it was jumping out through the opening in the pusher area. It was happening repeatedly, which was funny to us. But I figure one has to be careful while putting in hard vegetables.

I didn't face any issues while making banana shakes using the liquidising jar of the Triton 900. It lets you make lassi, shakes, buttermilk, and other fruit juices.

Dry grinding

The dry grinding jar handles everyday ingredients such as cumin, coriander seeds, pepper, dry spices, masala ingredients, and nuts. The 900W motor has enough power for these jobs, but my experience also showed that motor power does not automatically mean an extremely fine powder in one cycle. For some ingredients, especially harder ones, achieving a fine and uniform powder can take three or four grinding cycles.

In my experience, the process can look like this: Grinding, checking the consistency, redistributing the ingredients, grinding again, and repeating until the desired texture is reached.

For coarse or medium grinding, the process is quicker. But if you expect a very fine powder from a single short cycle, the Triton 900 may not do that in one go.

Wet grinding

The wet grinding jar is useful for ginger-garlic paste, wet masalas, curry pastes, and other preparations. I found it easy to use for softer ingredients with sufficient moisture. With thicker items like rice, the initial grind level wasn't sufficient. So, either I had to go with higher grind levels or two or more cycles.

As a South Indian family, we used it most days for coconut, green, peanut, tomato, and mint chutneys. It works fine.

The Triton 900 is capable, but it does seek manual intervention in some cases. This is a normal thing to see. But it's just that another mixer grinder I have is more effective from the first grind mode itself.

Inalsa Triton 900: Final thoughts

The Inalsa Triton 900 makes the most sense if you want a mixer grinder that can also take care of several food preparation jobs. After using it for kneading, chopping, slicing, shredding, liquidising and grinding, I found the food processor to be its biggest advantage. The atta kneader and grinder were particularly useful for us because we make rotis, dosas, idlis and chutney frequently, while the shredding and slicing discs were handy when preparing salads and larger quantities of vegetables.

But the extra functionality does not mean every task is handled equally well. Fine grinding can take three or four cycles, or running at a higher setting. The French fry disc also didn't work as expected in my use, as it produced thin layers rather than proper French-fry-sized strips. I also noticed vegetables such as papaya jumping out through the pusher opening during processing. And the more components used, the more space is consumed and the more things to clean.

The 900W motor is adequate for the range of jobs the Triton 900 is designed for. However, as mentioned above, a higher wattage doesn't mean it will bring the desired results in one go every time. The seven-year motor warranty is reassuring, but it does not mean the entire appliance is covered for seven years. That is again something to pay attention to.

So, now that the apprehensions are set aside, at Rs 8,495, the Triton 900's main argument is versatility. If you regularly knead dough and process vegetables, the food processor can save manual effort and reduce the need for another appliance. If you want that all-in-one combination and convenience that promises, you can consider the Triton 900. But if you already own a functional mixer grinder and you are deciding to upgrade, you need to be sure that you'll be using all those other attachments/features.

Keep reading Digit.in for similar stories.

Also Read: Philips 1000 series 7.1L Airfryer review: Does it add enough to your kitchen?

Now Anthropic offers three “frontier-grade” versions of Claude, and this nomenclature is not kind to you. The Sonnet 5.5 became available on September 28. The Opus 5.5 is above it. The Fable 5.1 is above it, falling into the Mythos line. You have the impulse to go for the biggest brand. But your bill tells you otherwise. Let's see which one you should pay for.

Also read: Apple’s Vision Pro, Samsung’s Android XR, Meta VR Glasses: The battle for the future of XR

Sonnet 5.5: the workhorse that embarrasses its big brother

Sonnet 5.5 has been designed to perform well-scoped tasks such as bug fixes, formatting documents, slide shows, and spreadsheets. Sonnet 5.5 has a cost of $2 for each million tokens of input and $10 for each million tokens of output. Sonnet 5.5 produces output 30% faster compared to Sonnet 5. Anthropic claims that the cost is reduced up to 30% due to less token use. Box, an early tester, found it to be 2.4 times faster than its predecessor. It also continues the Claude tradition of beating a Pokemon game – this time Pokemon Red while working only from screenshots.

Now the awkward bit for Opus. According to Terminal-Bench 4.0, an agent coding benchmark, Sonnet 5.5 outperforms Opus 5.5 with 70.6% versus its best 66.4%. In the GDPval-AA test that measures practical performance across 44 occupations, it scores 1844 versus Opus's 1846. This is barely a rounding error. On CursorBench, it lags behind by a margin of two points. At Medium effort, which is the default effort level on the Claude applications, it wins in Terminal-Bench performance compared to Sonnet 5 by less than a tenth of the price per task. Sonnet is the default choice. There is one drawback, though – it has new cybersecurity measures.

Opus 5.5: pay for judgment, not speed

Opus is twice as expensive: $4 per million input tokens, $20 per million output tokens. The cost of cache reads is the same for both at $0.20 per million, making cache-intensive models closer. So, what do you get for the additional investment? According to Anthropic, the choice is clear – Opus 5.5 is better when it comes to solving complex tasks that require judgment, outscoring Sonnet across the majority of public benchmarks. On FrontierCode, it scores 54.4% compared to Sonnet’s best 52.1%. 

Also read: AI Notetaker to AI Teammate: Fireflies CEO on what people are handing over to AI

Humanity's Last Exam with tools gives 67.7% versus Sonnet's 64.5%. Think about it in terms of labour division – Sonnet implements the strategy, while Opus comes up with it. One early tester at Creator said to let Opus set the architecture and trust Sonnet to build it. That pairing costs less than running Opus on everything.

Fable 5.1: the priciest of the three, with fine print

Fable 5.1 falls under the Anthropic's Mythos category. It is based on the same model as Mythos 5.1 but has additional safeguards for biology, cybersecurity, and LLM research and development. Its pricing via the API is $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, which is 2.5 times Opus 5.5 and five times Sonnet 5.5. The price for cache reads is $0.25 per million, and the context window is 1M tokens. According to Cognition, Devin will move its Opus 5 traffic to Fable 5.1 on the day of the launch due to cache pricing.

And now to the nitty-gritty stuff. Since Fable is a Covered Model, companies who do not retain data require explicit permission from Anthropic, and it is excluded from the Priority Tier. Fable and Mythos availability have been inconsistent as well; access was suspended on June 12 due to export controls in the United States and resumed on July 1.

Match the model to the job

Begin with Sonnet 5.5. It handles all kinds of routine work and is cheapest. Switch to Opus 5.5 whenever a job goes wrong because the model got confused, but not because it was running too slowly. Look for Fable 5.1 when Opus gets stuck on your most challenging problems and your data policy permits it. Indian startups and freelancers that earn in rupees but pay in dollars have a fivefold price difference between a budget line item and a footnote.

Effort settings should be just as important as the models. Anthropic says that Sonnet 5.5 at Low or Medium effort will outperform the best of Sonnet 5 on multiple benchmarks for one-tenth the cost. Adjust effort first before upgrading the model.

Also read: Deploying voice AI agents at scale: Tata Comms, TTBS target India’s SMBs

Use the Vision Pro for maybe 10 minutes and your neck starts complaining. The Meta's VR Glasses weigh about 100 grams. Apple's headset has a weight ranging from 750 to 800 grams. The Samsung Galaxy XR weighs 545 grams. This discrepancy appears like a simple note on the specification sheet. In reality, it constitutes the entire debate. In theory, this is a battle between three headsets. In reality, it is a clash of visions. Three companies have a different idea of how spatial computing works, and it matters.

Also read: 3 AAA games, 1 under Rs 1.5 lakh laptop: Alienware 15 gaming experience

Apple: everything on your face

Apple’s vision is the most daring and expensive gamble of all. Just put everything into one premium package, cover it with Apple’s own ecosystem and let the price be the velvet rope. The Vision Pro costs starting at $3,499.

But it still beats all others at the crucial points. Critics claim its field of view of 100 degrees, passthrough and integration with Macs as the best on the market. Just consider – there is no other product like that on the market. However, the cost is double: both the price and the discomfort that comes from the weight. Right now, the answer for Apple is to let the consumer tolerate it. The device is too good and too expensive to become a platform.

Samsung and Google: the platform play

The Galaxy XR headset is like the Apple Vision Pro for Android users. At $1,799, half the cost of the Apple model, the headset is accompanied by Google and Gemini applications preloaded into it. Samsung gives its customers a genuine headset experience without the extra cost of Apple.

However, there is more to it than meets the eye. It is not the headset that is sold but rather the Android XR. The company develops the showcase, and Google provides the operating system; other manufacturers are welcome to join later. This is the same scheme Google used in smartphones but this time around strapped to your face.

Also read: AI Notetaker to AI Teammate: Fireflies CEO on what people are handing over to AI

Meta: games, films and a puck in your pocket

\Meta chose the path that no rival would take. Its VR Glasses retail at $1,299, launch in the spring of 2027, and divide the hardware into two components. The glasses have sensors and micro-OLED displays (about 5K together) housed in a magnesium alloy frame. Compute, power, and memory reside in another component, attached by an optical cable, driven by the Snapdragon Reality Elite from Qualcomm. Right, that is what your pocket needs to lug now. That is the cost of 100 grams.

There is also content, the true strength of Meta. These have been called the first IMAX Enhanced-certified VR device, which has the VR version of some of Disney+ content. They use the existing Quest libraries, meaning day one does not mean an empty app store. Touch Plus controllers, Quest 3 controllers, and gamepads are supported.

But there is even a social one. As part of its timeline for realistic avatars, Meta has started with the shoulders-up option in the Ray-Ban Display glasses, while its VR Glasses get the full-body treatment. But whether people wish to have their realistic avatar in the virtual room is a different thing.

What Meta is counting on is the fact that people want a personal cinema and games console, not an airborne Mac monitor. This is quite a clear insight into the market.

Less weight and cost always have some price to pay. Its field of vision is 70 degrees horizontally, so you’ll get to see the window to virtual worlds, not a room that you can walk through. Maximum battery life will last only three hours. And there are no controllers in the package. This means that $1,299 is only the minimum price to pay.

The numbers

Meta has not opened pre-orders, which leaves Apple and Samsung months to respond with price cuts, lighter designs or smarter software. There is no word yet on India pricing or availability for Meta's glasses either, and import duties will decide who actually competes here. Meta has shown its hand. Apple and Samsung have not shown theirs.

Also read: Deploying voice AI agents at scale: Tata Comms, TTBS target India’s SMBs

If you have been waiting for Amazon’s Great Indian Festival to buy a new refrigerator, there are already a few deals worth checking out. The main sale begins on October 8, but sale prices are already live on select refrigerator models, covering everything from affordable single-door options to large-capacity side-by-side refrigerators.

We found five refrigerators currently available at these sale prices, including models from Bosch, Haier, LG, Whirlpool and Midea. Here is what you get at each price point and how much you can potentially save on these models before the main sale begins.

Best refrigerator deals on Amazon Great Indian Festival 2026

Note: Prices and offers can change during the sale. Additional bank discounts and coupons are subject to eligibility on the respective Amazon product pages.

Bosch CMC33K03NI

The Bosch CMC33K03NI is a 303-litre three-door refrigerator, but its main draw is the flexibility offered by the convertible freezer. You can turn the freezer compartment into refrigerator space when you need more room for fresh food. It also gets a VarioInverter compressor, MultiAirflow cooling and a VitaFresh drawer.

Also read: TV and appliance prices set to rise before Diwali: Here is what will get costlier

At Rs 37,490, the Bosch CMC33K03NI is currently available at this sale price on Amazon. Buyers can also get an additional flat Rs 3,000 instant discount on SBI Bank Credit Card EMI and non-EMI transactions, subject to the applicable offer terms and product eligibility.

The three-door configuration makes it particularly useful for households that want more control over how they use their refrigerator space, rather than being restricted to a fixed refrigerator-freezer split.

Key specifications

• Capacity: 303 litres
• Configuration: 3-door
• Energy rating: 3 star
• Freezer: 57L, Convertible
• Compressor: VarioInverter
• Cooling: MultiAirflow
• Fresh-food storage: VitaFresh drawer

Haier HEB-451TSA-P

With 445 litres of capacity, the Haier HEB-451TSA-P is built for households that need considerably more storage. Its bottom-freezer layout keeps the refrigerator compartment at the top, while the freezer sits underneath. Multiple convertible modes and dual-fan inverter cooling add to the feature set.

The refrigerator is currently priced at Rs 47,990. A Rs 2,000 coupon is available, along with an additional flat Rs 3,000 instant discount on SBI Bank Credit Card EMI and non-EMI transactions, subject to eligibility. With both the discounts applicable, the effective price comes down to Rs 42,990.

Key specifications

• Capacity: 445 litres
• Energy rating: 1 star
• Freezer: 109L, Convertible
• Convertible modes: 14-in-1 convertible modes
• Compressor: Inverter
• Cooling: Dual-fan technology
• Freezer placement: Bottom

LG GLD1945ZOBE

The LG GLD1945ZOBE takes the compact route with its 185-litre single-door design. It comes with a Smart Inverter Compressor, 4-star energy rating, toughened glass shelves and a base stand with a drawer. Smart Connect, stabiliser-free operation and an anti-bacterial gasket are also included.

Amazon’s Early Deal price is currently Rs 16,890, with a Rs 750 coupon available on the product. Eligible SBI Credit Card users can additionally get a 10% instant discount of up to Rs 1,500 on non-EMI transactions. If both the coupon and maximum bank discount apply, the effective price would be Rs 14,640.

This makes the LG a practical option for smaller households, rented homes or anyone looking for a secondary refrigerator without giving up too much kitchen space.

Key specifications

• Capacity: 185 litres
• Configuration: Single-door
• Cooling: Direct-cool
• Energy rating: 4 star
• Compressor: Smart Inverter Compressor
• Connectivity: Smart Connect
• Operation: Stabiliser-free

Whirlpool 215 IMPC PRM 4S SAPPHIRE PEONY-Y

The Whirlpool 215 IMPC offers 192 litres of storage in a single-door configuration and carries a 4-star energy rating. Its inverter compressor works with features such as Icemagic Powercool, Quick Chill Zone and Honey Comb Lock-in Technology. It also has an anti-bacterial gasket and can be connected to a home inverter.

Also read: 5 best AC deals on Amazon Great Indian Festival sale 2026

At Rs 16,290, it is currently one of the lower-priced refrigerators in this selection. The Early Deal can be combined with a 10% instant discount of up to Rs 1,500 on SBI Credit Card non-EMI transactions, subject to the applicable offer terms.

Key specifications

• Capacity: 192 litres
• Configuration: Single-door
• Cooling: Direct-cool
• Energy rating: 4 star
• Compressor: Inverter
• Cooling features: Icemagic Powercool, Quick Chill Zone
• Inverter support: Home inverter compatible

Midea MDRS710FGF46

The Midea MDRS710FGF46 is the largest model here, with a 563-litre side-by-side configuration. It provides 352 litres for the refrigerator compartment and 211 litres for the freezer, along with an inverter compressor, Multi Air Flow cooling and a digital display.

Its feature set extends beyond storage, with a water dispenser, movable ice maker and inbuilt stabiliser. That makes it a more feature-heavy option for households that need plenty of refrigerator and freezer space.

The Early Deal price is Rs 42,990, and eligible SBI Credit Card users can get a 10% instant discount of up to Rs 1,500 on non-EMI transactions or up to Rs 1,750 on EMI transactions. At this price, the Midea offers 563 litres of capacity without crossing the Rs 50,000 mark before the additional bank discount.

Key specifications

• Capacity: 563 litres
• Configuration: Side-by-side
• Cooling: Frost-free
• Compressor: Inverter
• Cooling system: Multi Air Flow
• Refrigerator capacity: 352 litres
• Freezer capacity: 211 litres
• Convenience features: Water dispenser, movable ice maker
• Stabilisation: Inbuilt stabiliser

Which refrigerator should you consider?

These five refrigerators cover very different requirements, so the choice largely comes down to the space and storage capacity you need. The LG and Whirlpool models are aimed at buyers looking for a relatively affordable compact refrigerator, while the Bosch adds convertible storage and a three-door layout. The Haier offers considerably more capacity with a bottom-freezer design, whereas the Midea is the option for buyers looking for a large 563-litre side-by-side refrigerator.

Before buying, check the final price shown on Amazon after applying any available coupon and bank offer. Also check delivery, installation, exchange value and warranty details, as these can vary by product and location.

Also read: Best washing machines for hard water in India (2026): Top 6 picks

The moment you hear the name Alienware, it is quite normal to expect a machine that costs way too much. Probably around Rs 5 lakh and definitely over Rs 2 lakh. But, in 2026, things have changed. Earlier this year during Computex, Dell introduced us all to a budget-friendly Alienware and instantly grabbed attention. Now I have been testing this laptop for a week and have been using it as my daily driver to both play games and work. The laptop comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 chipset, Nvidia’s RTX 5050 laptop GPU, and a 512 GB SSD. On paper, this looks like a pretty decent combination to handle modern AAA games easily. But, does it? Let’s find out. 

Also read: Minecraft is getting a new dimension after 14 years and gamers are excited

007 First Light

007 First Light is the kind of game that can quickly put a gaming laptop through its paces. There is plenty happening on screen, and getting the right balance between graphics and frame rates is important if you want the game to look good without compromising on smoothness. Thankfully, the Alienware 15 handled the game rather well.

I started at 1080p resolution with the graphics set to medium. The game delivered a stable 60 fps, and honestly, I did not feel the need to push the settings any further at first. The game already looked great and the experience was perfectly smooth.

But, because I wanted to see how much more performance I could squeeze out of the laptop, I turned NVIDIA DLSS on, set DLSS Super Resolution to Performance and enabled 2x frame generation. The frame rate immediately jumped to around 130 fps. I then pushed the graphics settings to high and still managed around 120 fps, making for a very playable experience.

Things got more interesting when I switched to ultra graphics. This put more pressure on the GPU (it only has 8GB of VRAM) and the laptop became slightly warm after around 15 minutes of gaming. However, performance remained smooth with no noticeable stutters. As for frame rates, they hovered between 95 and 115 fps.

I then pushed frame generation to 6x and started getting over 200 fps constantly. Now remember, this is a laptop that costs under Rs 1.5 lakh, so seeing those numbers in a demanding AAA title was super impressive.

Control Resonant

Control Resonant is a very different game. Remedy's action-adventure game is not just about shooting enemies as a big part of its appeal comes from the atmosphere, lighting and visual effects. This is why ray tracing and path tracing can make such a noticeable difference here.

At 1080p resolution with medium graphics, ray tracing and path tracing set to medium, I initially got around 30 fps without DLSS. The game was playable, but it did not feel smooth. Turning off ray tracing and path tracing pushed the frame rate to around 50 fps, and the experience became much smoother.

However, that also took away from what makes Control Resonant look so good. The game's atmosphere benefits heavily from its lighting and reflections, so I wanted to see if the Alienware 15 could handle the effects without sacrificing too much performance.

So, I enabled DLSS frame generation at 2x while keeping ray tracing and path tracing at medium. This brought the frame rate to around 55 fps, making the game much more comfortable to play.

Then I went a step further. I switched frame generation to 4x, increased the graphics settings to high and pushed both ray tracing and path tracing to high. The game looked even more gorgeous, and I was getting around 95 fps, with the frame rate occasionally touching 100 fps.

For me, this was probably the most interesting test because Control is the kind of game where simply chasing the highest frame rate isn't the point. You want those lighting effects and visual details, and the Alienware 15 managed to deliver them while keeping the game quite playable.

Resident Evil Requiem

Resident Evil Requiem is another game where visual quality plays a major role. Horror games rely heavily on shadows, lighting and atmosphere, so lowering the graphics settings too much can take away from the experience. I wanted to see whether the Alienware 15 could maintain a good balance between visuals and performance here.

I started at 1080p with shadow quality set to maximum, particle lighting enabled and texture quality set to high. With DLSS turned off, the game managed around 35 fps. It was playable, but the experience felt jittery and was nowhere near as smooth as I wanted it to be.

I then enabled 2x frame generation and set upscaling to Performance. This brought the frame rate to around 50 fps and made the game noticeably smoother. However, after playing for a while, I noticed that the frame rate would drop, so I decided to make a few more changes.

I then lowered shadow quality and texture quality to medium, kept frame generation at 2x and switched the upscaling setting to Ultra Performance. The result was a massive jump in performance. The game reached around 170 fps and the experience felt super smooth. For me, this was the sweet spot to experience the game in all its glory.

In a nutshell, the Alienware 15 may not have the same brute force as some of the more expensive gaming laptops I have tested, but that does not mean it cannot handle demanding AAA games. Across 007 First Light, Control and Resident Evil Requiem, the laptop showed that it can deliver a strong gaming experience without crossing the Rs 1.5 lakh mark. 

What do you think of this laptop? Let us know and keep watching this space for more such updates. 

Also read: Top 5 story games you must play at least once in your life

Amazon's Great Indian Festival 2026 begins on October 8th. However, the e-commerce giant has already made the sale prices live for some products. We have compiled the five best deals that stand out for their combination of amazing offers and impressive specs like cooling capacity, energy efficiency, inverter technology, and features such as convertible cooling, air filtration, and smart controls. Here, you can find options ranging from compact 1-ton models for smaller rooms to 1.5-ton models designed for larger spaces. They have been ranked in descending order of their sale prices.

Hitachi Smart Choice 1 Ton 5 Star Inverter Split AC

MRP: Rs 65,990 | Sale price: Rs 36,999 | Discount: 44%

The Hitachi Smart Choice RAS.V512PCDIBT is a 1-ton inverter split AC designed for rooms of up to around 110 sq ft. It carries a 5-star rating under the 2026 BEE system and has an ISEER of around 5.6. The model uses copper tubing and has a protective coating on the outdoor unit to help resist corrosion.

Hitachi claims cooling operation at high ambient temperatures, with the model designed for hot Indian conditions. It gets an anti-bacterial/dust filter, along with the brand's Ice Clean function, which helps clean the indoor heat exchanger. The AC also has 4-way air swing and an inverter compressor with Hitachi's Xpandable+ auto-convertible technology.

For smart features, the main highlight is the SmartView display. This is not a Wi-Fi-enabled AC, so you should not expect app-based remote control.

The warranty includes one year on the product, 5 years on components, and 10 years on the compressor.

Key specifications

• Cooling capacity: 1 ton
• Energy rating: 5 star
• ISEER: around 5.6
• Coil: Copper
• Anti-corrosion protection: Yes
• Air filtration: Dust/anti-bacterial filter
• Inverter: Yes
• Convertible cooling: Xpandable+ auto convertible
• Airflow: 4-way swing
• Smart features: SmartView display, no Wi-Fi
• Warranty: 1 year product, 10 years compressor

You can grab it for Rs 34999, with an additional Rs 300 cashback if you use an SBI credit card for the purchase.

Optimist 1.39 Ton 5 Star Wi-Fi Inverter Split AC

MRP: 65,000 | Sale price: Rs 36,990 | Discount: 43%

The Optimist 1.39-ton inverter AC is the most feature-focused model in this selection. It carries a 5-star rating and an ISEER of 6.05, putting the emphasis on energy efficiency. The AC is also tested to deliver its rated cooling at an ambient temperature of 50°C, according to Optimist.

Its biggest differentiator is connectivity. The AC works with the Optimist app and provides energy monitoring, remote controls and scheduling. It also has an in-app refrigerant gas-level indicator, which is designed to give users visibility into the refrigerant level instead of relying solely on service technicians for this information.

The model uses a twin-rotary inverter compressor and offers a turbo mode that can increase cooling output when the room needs to cool quickly. Optimist claims the system can deliver cooling equivalent to up to 1.9 tons in Turbo mode.

For durability, Optimist says its heat exchanger has been tested for 1,000 hours of salt-spray corrosion testing. The model is designed to operate at up to 50°C ambient temperature.

Warranty coverage is one of the more notable aspects. Optimist provides five years of coverage for the outdoor unit and critical indoor components, including parts and labour, and 10 years on the compressor. Its warranty policy states that covered repairs and replacements carry no parts or labour charges, subject to the stated terms and exclusions.

Key specifications

• Cooling capacity: 1.39 ton
• Turbo cooling: up to 1.9-ton equivalent output claimed
• Energy rating: 5 star
• ISEER: 6.05
• Heat exchanger: Microchannel
• Anti-corrosion testing: 1,000-hour salt-spray test claimed
• Air filtration: filter-health monitoring through the app
• Inverter: Twin-rotary inverter compressor
• Convertible cooling: Turbo/variable-capacity operation
• Maximum ambient temperature: 50°C
• Noise: around 32dB at lower fan speeds
• Smart features: Wi-Fi, app control, energy tracking, scheduling and gas-level indicator
• Warranty: 5 years on covered AC components, 10 years on compressor

You can fetch this for Rs 34990 by using a SBI credit card for the purchase. There is also Rs 300 cashback on top of this. 

LG 1 Ton 4 Star DUAL Inverter Split AC

MRP: 68,990 | Sale price: Rs 35,990 | Discount: 48%

The LG AS-Q13JNYE is a 1-ton inverter split AC with a 4-star 2026 BEE rating and an ISEER of 5.25. Its rated cooling capacity is 3.5kW. LG lists four-way airflow, 6-in-1 cooling, AI-based functions and dehumidification among its features.

The AC uses a copper condenser with LG's Ocean Black Protection to help protect against corrosion. It also gets an HD filter with anti-virus protection. The AI Convertible 6-in-1 system allows the cooling capacity to be adjusted according to the room and cooling requirement, while VIRAAT mode can increase the cooling output when faster cooling is needed.

LG specifies a low indoor noise level of 21dB. It also has Smart Diagnosis and automatic cleaning, but this particular model does not appear to offer built-in Wi-Fi control.

Warranty coverage includes one year on the product, five years on the PCB and 10 years on the compressor.

Key specifications

• Cooling capacity: 1 ton, 3.5kW
• Energy rating: 4-star
• ISEER: 5.25
• Coil: Copper
• Anti-corrosion protection: Ocean Black Protection
• Air filtration: HD filter with anti-virus protection
• Inverter: Yes
• Convertible cooling: AI Convertible 6-in-1
• Maximum ambient temperature: up to 55°C
• Noise: up to 21dB at low indoor setting
• Smart features: Smart Diagnosis, AI-based cooling functions
• Wi-Fi: No
• Warranty: 1 year product, 5 years PCB, 10 years on compressor

You can buy it for Rs 33,490 by using a SBI credit card. Additionally, there is also a Rs 300 cashback. 

Also Read: Godrej Magnus 2026 split AC review: Gets the basics right under Rs 40000

Lloyd 1.5 Ton 3 Star Inverter Split AC

MRP: Rs 55,990 | Sale price: Rs 31,990 | Discount: 43%

The Lloyd GLS18I3KOESR is a 1.5-ton inverter split AC with a 3-star rating and an ISEER of 3.95. It has a rated cooling capacity of 5.05kW and is designed for rooms of up to around 170-180 sq ft.

The AC uses a copper condenser and an anti-corrosion coating. Lloyd claims operation at ambient temperatures of up to 52°C. Its inverter compressor can adjust its output, while the 6-in-1 convertible modes allow users to reduce or increase the cooling capacity depending on the load.

For air quality, the model has a dust filter and anti-bacterial features. It also has 4-way air swing and a clean-filter indication. The indoor noise level is listed at around 36dB.

This is not a connected smart AC in the sense of Wi-Fi or app control. Its "smart" features are largely related to automatic functions, diagnostics, filter alerts and airflow control.

Lloyd provides one year on the product, five years on components and 10 years on the compressor.

Key specifications

• Cooling capacity: 1.5 ton
• Energy rating: 3 star
• ISEER: 3.95
• Coil: Copper
• Anti-corrosion protection: Yes
• Air filtration: Dust filter and anti-bacterial features
• Inverter: Yes
• Convertible cooling: 6-in-1
• Maximum ambient temperature: up to 52°C
• Noise: around 36dB indoors
• Smart features: filter indication, self-diagnosis, 4-way swing
• Wi-Fi: No
• Warranty: 1 year product, 5 years components, 10 years compressor

You can get this for Rs 29,990 with SBI credit card offer. There is also Rs 300 cashback offer. 

Sharp 1.37 Ton 3 Star Inverter Split AC

MRP: Rs 74,990 | Sale price: Rs 29,970 | Discount: 60%

The Sharp AH-SI17V3B-GCN is listed as a 1.37-ton AC under the 2026 BEE rating system, despite commonly being marketed as a 1.5-ton model. It has a 3-star rating and an ISEER of 4.35. Its rated cooling capacity is 4.8kW, while maximum cooling capacity reaches 5kW.

The model uses a 100% copper condenser and Sharp's Nano Tech Ultra coating for protection against rust and corrosion. It is said to operate at temperatures of up to 55°C.

Sharp also includes a 7-in-1 convertible mode, turbo cooling, 4-way swing and an outdoor-unit self-cleaning function. For air filtration, there is an inbuilt HD dust filter.

The manufacturer lists outdoor noise at a maximum of 53dB. The AC also supports self-diagnosis and auto restart, but there is no indication of built-in Wi-Fi connectivity.

Warranty coverage is one year comprehensive, five years on the PCB and 10 years on the compressor, subject to the manufacturer's terms.

Key specifications

• Cooling capacity: 1.37 ton under 2026 BEE classification
• Energy rating: 3 star
• ISEER: 4.35
• Coil: 100% copper
• Anti-corrosion protection: Nano Tech Ultra coating
• Air filtration: HD dust filter
• Inverter: Yes
• Convertible cooling: 7-in-1
• Maximum ambient temperature: up to 55°C
• Noise: outdoor unit up to 53dB
• Smart features: self-diagnosis and auto restart
• Wi-Fi: No
• Warranty: 1 year comprehensive, 5 years PCB, 10 years compressor

It is available for Rs 25,790 with Rs 4000 SBI credit card discount and you can also avail of Rs 300 cashback.

Keep reading Digit.in for similar sale stories this festive shopping season.

Also Read: TV and appliance prices set to rise before Diwali: Here is what will get costlier

Fireflies.ai was initially a bot that documented the conversations during meetings. According to CEO Krish Ramineni, the next edition of this bot will respond to Slack, manage your inbox and conduct interviews of the prospective employees. The notetaker appears on the participants' list, stays silent and leaves behind a written account of the discussion. Fireflies is such an integral part of my routine that I do not even notice its presence. And now that is about to change.

Also read: Deploying voice AI agents at scale: Tata Comms, TTBS target India’s SMBs

One tool, every surface

Fireflies.ai shifts its narrative from AI notetaker to AI teammate. It begins with sprawl. "People don't want 50 different tools or 50 different dashboards," Ramineni explains. "They want something that is easy to access anywhere."

And this teammate will work within email, Slack, the CRM, Notion, and Google Drive, bringing context from meetings. The millions who already use Fireflies, he said, serve as a starting point. Take an example where someone asks a question on Slack, which had already been answered via email or on the call. He flags down the AI and asks it to find the answer. A daily briefing looks into all channels and highlights what blocks the team. "That's something I would have my EA do every day for me," he said.

I queried whether this makes Fireflies move beyond observation to actions. "Yes, it's an action taker," he answered. In a dig at rival "personal secretary" narratives, he said they "haven't actually proven out any use case."

A new label, partly a new product

A lot of it is live – meeting preparation, task management, and an email assistant that sorts your emails and even drafts them for you. Ramineni states, “The assistant has been used very heavily since we announced it.” According to him, “There are a number of products that we’ll be releasing, whereas the assistant itself, which is called Fred, has hundreds of skills that you can program into, like creating presentations or drafts in your voice.” The notetaker is just scratching the surface,” he adds.

The teammate that takes the call

And the largest step would be voice agents that run meetings from beginning to end. "It is acting on my behalf," according to Ramineni. Fireflies claims their agents have conducted over 40,000 conversations in 2,100+ companies in 97 countries.

Inside Fireflies, every employee recruited in the last year passed a voice agent screening interview process. "By the time I wake up in the morning, the AI has already interviewed 50 people and stack-ranked them," he says.

Also read: 10-year Indian girl built a smart cane that helps  blind users see more: Here’s how

Voice agents are suitable for repeat one-to-one interviews, surveys, screenings, and receptionist-like inquiries. Voice agents are not effective when used in all-hands situations or overlapping conversations. When stuck, it says, "We will get back to you on that."

Privacy and accountability

According to Ramineni, there is no difference in data handling at any point once the bot starts speaking, "you're doing the same thing as when you are recording and transcribing meetings." Fireflies claims that it does not use customer data for training and is SOC 2 compliant. Candidate fills a form prior to signing up, and watches the Fireflies orb blinking while it talks. "We're not pretending that the AI is human, like some other tools," he states. Agents accept inbound, opt-in calls only. "Robocalling is not allowed, so we're not doing that."

Regarding accountability, he states: "it's how you're setting up the agent." Hence, the responsibility lies on the business implementing it. According to him, the algorithm is less biased than recruiters "because they can't remain objective," although he did not mention any external audits of the scores provided, and the authorities of several markets are scrutinizing recruiting algorithms. The teammate should also have access to email, Slack and CRM data. This was not discussed during our talk.

What stays human

"Transactional decisions we would always put in the fold of a human," says Ramineni, citing those who use an agent with a credit card that "wastes money." Trust will take time, he argues, as it has done for almost all new technologies to emerge, as it had done for 1990s e-commerce.

The queue is already forming. Autofill CRM was designed in such a way that each entry is reviewed by a human before it can be added. And there are some existing customers who are asking now, "Can you auto-upload it?" That, according to him, was "a surprise." Fireflies is dealing with this problem by offering options to each individual where he or she can control the degree of autonomy of the agent. "There are going to be levels of trust," he put very eloquently, "We have to earn that trust over time."

Also read: Tired of ChatGPT always agreeing with you? Change this one setting

“The real value of AI, we believe, is hyper-personalizing services. It’s not replacing human beings,” said Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, MD & CEO of Tata Communications, in terms of what AI should really be doing.

Hyper-personalization across India’s length and breadth starts with voice, according to Lakshminarayanan, and for good reason. Just walk into any kirana store, auto-parts dealer or any one of the crores of family-owned-and-run businesses in the country, and you’ll observe how most of them still run on phone calls. They don’t lack ambition, but access to cutting-edge tech.

"They don't have the same capacity to hire the best salesperson, best serviceperson that bigger enterprises could do," Lakshminarayanan explained. “Hence, we wanted to make it as simple as SMBs saying, look, I want to hire 10 salespeople in 10 different markets who can speak 10 different languages. That's what we launched today."

Tata Communications and Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS) have forged a partnership to push a unified AI stack for India's small and medium businesses – starting with AI voice agents that come with their own phone numbers. It runs on Tata Communications' Commotion conversational AI platform and Vayu AI Cloud, while TTBS brings the voice infrastructure and its vast SMB reach.

Harjit Singh, MD of Tata Teleservices, framed it more bluntly. "SMEs, while at the top end, are really technologically inclined, but at the lower end, voice and people is what drives business," he said.

Also read: Before AI takes over, fix the wiring: Tata Communications’ infrastructure warning

"It's not just AI and the stack that we talk about. It's our inherent strengths on the core connectivity side," Harjit emphasised. "AI then becomes actually a layer on top of it. That really is the promise of this collaboration."

Their goal is to make a dent on the AI adoption curve in India that goes well beyond customer calls. It’s akin to the internet, which opened up new markets for small businesses, pointed out Ganesh Lakshminaraynanan. 

"Imagine a small manufacturer in Punjab or a retailer in Tamil Nadu could serve multiple different states in the country in multiple different languages as if they have their own sales and service folks in every state. That would make them a national chain as opposed to a small SMB," he said.

And just like India leapfrogged tech – from 4G to UPI – so will history repeat itself with AI, according to Lakshminarayanan. His analogy? A sachet model, the idea that took shampoo to rural India, "which can be absorbed by every retailer, every SMB."

So who needs whom more in this handshake between Tata Communications and TTBS? "Both of us, actually," Ganesh said. "If we can make it work in the Indian market, in different languages, different states, and it's validated by SMBs, it must be simple enough to use, simple enough to build, and simple enough to collect money, then it’s a huge validation of our product which we can take globally as well."

Harjit summed it up best, "There's no reason why each and everyone of India’s SMBs not be operating at a larger scale." If AI voice agents can indeed give a small manufacturer in Punjab or Kerala the reach of a national brand, India's 60 million-plus SMBs may well become the country's biggest AI story yet.

Also read: Sovereign infra and sovereign AI not the same, says Tata Communications’ Andrew Winney

October is shaping up to be one of the busiest months for smartphone launches in India, with around five new phones either confirmed or expected to arrive over the next few weeks. And this isn't just another round of phones getting faster chips and slightly better cameras. Brands are experimenting with bigger 8,000mAh-plus batteries, Zeiss co-engineered camera systems and other upgrades aimed at making their phones stand out. Some of these launches already have confirmed dates, while others are still based on leaks and expectations. Here’s a look at the smartphones expected to launch in India this October and what we know about them so far.

Vivo V80

To start the list, the Vivo V80 is now officially confirmed to launch on 6th October. The camera system is the biggest highlight of this device. It comes with a Zeiss co-engineered triple camera setup with a 50MP Zeiss main sensor with OIS, a 50MP Zeiss telephoto lens with OIS, a 3x optical zoom that can go up to 100x digitally, and an 8MP Zeiss Ultrawide camera, paired with a 50MP selfie camera. The telephoto camera is the standout feature because phones in this price range don’t usually get a dedicated telephoto lens.

Apart from the cameras, the Vivo V80 also gets a 6.59-inch 1.5K OLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate. It also packs Vivo’s biggest V-series battery yet, a 7,200mAh battery with 90W fast charging.

Oppo K14 Plus

Next is the Oppo K14 Plus, the one closest to launch, officially confirmed for 29th September, before October begins.

Oppo has already confirmed most of the important details. The phone will come with the MediaTek Dimensity 7360 Max processor, a 1.5K AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate, and its biggest highlight, a massive 8,000mAh battery. To keep temperatures under control, Oppo is also adding a 5,000 mm² vapour chamber. The 50MP main camera is confirmed to have OIS and can record 4K video.

Charging speed is still under wraps. While there are plenty of rumours online, Oppo hasn’t officially confirmed the wattage yet, so it’s better to wait for the launch.

Vivo S2 FE

At number three is the Vivo S2 FE, and it’s also officially launching on 6th October alongside the Vivo V80.

The biggest highlight is its 10,000mAh battery, the largest ever seen in a Vivo S-series phone. It supports 44W fast charging, so the focus here is more on long battery life.

The phone could also feature a 6.83-inch 1.5K AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, making it good for content consumption and gaming.

Under the hood, you’ll get the MediaTek Dimensity 7300E chipset. For cameras, you get a 50MP main camera, a 2MP secondary sensor, and a 32MP front camera for selfies and video calls.

Oppo F35 Pro

The Oppo F series is back with the Oppo F35 Pro, expected to launch in early October. This is also the phone with the most confusing leaks, as different reports are saying different things.

Earlier leaks claimed it would come with a Snapdragon 4 Gen 5 processor and a huge 10,000mAh battery. However, the latest leaks suggest it could come with the MediaTek Dimensity 7360 Max chipset, along with a 50MP main camera with OIS and an 8MP ultrawide sensor.

However, one thing that has stayed consistent across leaks is a 50MP selfie camera and an IP69K-rated durability.

Motorola Edge 70 Neo

And finally, we have the Motorola Edge 70 Neo, and it could be one of the most interesting upcoming launches. If it launches as expected, it will become the sixth phone in the Edge 70 lineup, joining the Motorola Edge 70, Edge 70 Pro, Edge 70 Pro Plus, Edge 70 Fusion, and Edge 70 Max.

Motorola hasn’t officially revealed the phone yet, but its name has appeared on an Android 17 beta sign-up page for India, which means it’s on the way. The leaked specs are a bit unclear. Some reports mention a 200MP main camera, while others say it will use the same 50MP Sony LYT-710 sensor found in the Edge 70 Pro.

The Motorola Edge 70 Neo has appeared on Geekbench even before Motorola announced its India launch date. The listing shows that the phone could come with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor, 6GB RAM, and Android 16 right out of the box. Interestingly, it's the same processor that's already used in the Motorola Edge 70 Fusion.

And what gets your attention straight away is the context. This is not your high school science project for which a participation certificate lies ahead; it is a state-of-the-art smart cane that talks, senses the environment, tracks a person's vital signs, and alerts for help if the person falls down.

Also read: Tired of ChatGPT always agreeing with you? Change this one setting

 All of this was designed and created, mostly manually, by a 10-year old kid! What Aaradhya has made, the smart cane STAMBHA, can do three jobs at once which are considered three different products in the world of assistive technology: sensing the environment using laser rangefinder and camera, allowing the visually challenged individual to just ask the cane questions, and monitoring the vitals of the person all the while. 

Ask it if your walk is steady, and it will not just tell you, but answer you on the basis of its own records of yours. STAMBHA isn't a medical device and makes no diagnostic claim. It's a working prototype built to notice change, not to treat or diagnose anything.

The origin story is simple. "First, there are two things I got this idea from," Aaradhya told us. "First was when I was watching movie Srikanth, a true story about a businessman who was visually impaired... And second, I got when I was small, my grandparents used to check on me, like, was I warm? Was I safe? But then they got old and nobody used to check on them." Her conclusion, had the plainness only a child can manage to have, "life should be held all the way through, not just at the beginning."

What’s even more remarkable is that she managed to come up with the one aspect of design for this product which made it most ingenious by recognizing the difference between tripping and falling down, which is the reason why people give up on such gadgets. And she figured this out herself without talking to any visually impaired people. 

"I didn't talk to visually impaired people," she said. "When I was watching movies, I felt like a lot of visually impaired people would feel. And then one time I tested on my own. I just closed my eyes and tried walking. Naturally, I was banging everywhere." 

She tested the finished device on the people closest to her instead, "my parents, grandparents, my elder sister," never on friends or classmates. It's a research method no product manager would greenlight, and yet it produced a thoughtful piece of hardware.

All of this didn’t happen in a vacuum, and it’s to her credit that Aaradhya does not make any such claims. Aaradhya had her uncle, Nitin Jain, CTO of ShareChat, and father sitting right beside her throughout much of the process. “The most difficult part,” as Aaradhya puts it, of the soldering of the ESP32-S3 microcontroller in the cane is something that she merely observed. 

Also read: I used the Beyond Appliances Quantum Pro Gas Saver Stove for a month and these are my takeaways

The coding, however, has been reliant on AI-based programming tools, according to Nitin, with about 80% of the coding done using Claude. "Because coding has become slightly more accessible," Nitin said, "if you have the concept, if you have the idea, you can do it."

What makes STAMBHA worth taking note of, besides the fact that it was built by a kid? This is the ultimate example of what an interested 10-year-old can build today with the help of large language models dealing with the components, API integrations, boilerplate, and debugging that would otherwise take years of engineering experience to even try to accomplish. 

Still, Aaradhya needed to understand her sensors, still needed to experiment until she could mount them correctly ("whenever I put the sensor, they used to just get malfunction," she said of the early builds), still needed to decide what the device should detect and when it shouldn't react to something. The insight wasn't invented by the AI – it was invented by her, right in her house, with her eyes closed.

There's something almost old-fashioned about how she talks about success, too. Asked what winning looks like for her, she didn't mention scale, funding, or a company. "My goal is to make it reach the right people," she said. "I built this for the right people. So, I can just give them... being a part of the world."

STAMBHA is not vapourware. In between August 25 to September 23, Aaradhya tested this system 16 times, which generated more than 22,600 sensor records, more than 8,500 obstacles records and almost 20,000 balancing records, transforming "my niece built a cane" to something closer to an actual trial. 

The system costs around $100 against $850 to $1,150 of the commercially available smart canes. She presented it at the United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok on September 25, and the next step is to try the system with real elderly and visually challenged people and redesign it according to their feedback.

There’s an obvious cynicism that comes with tales of "child prodigy". But there’s a little less cynicism involved when talking about a girl who shut her eyes, knocked into her own furniture, and spent a year building a system to solve that problem. For her and STAMBHA, sky is the limit.

Also read: Project Suncatcher: Google’s plan to setup an AI data centre in space explained

Have you ever turned to ChatGPT for a second opinion or explained something to it hoping it would offer alternatives, challenge your reasoning, or point out flaws only to have it become a 'yes man' and tell you you’re right? I noticed this happening to me far more often than I expected. No matter how questionable or controversial my argument is, the AI tool somehow manages to find a way to agree with it, wrap it in a few compliments, and make me feel like I have cracked the code. While I enjoyed it initially, I don't want a pat on the shoulder from an AI that I'm using for a second opinion. But with time it started to bother me as if ChatGPT always agrees with me. How am I supposed to know when I’m actually wrong?

That got me curious, so I started looking through ChatGPT’s settings to see if there was a way to make it somewhat less agreeable. And there is one small setting that can help change how ChatGPT responds to you. It allows you to make the AI tool more willing to challenge your assumptions, question your reasoning, and point out when an idea does not quite hold up. Keep a note that the setting doesn't turn ChatGPT hostile; it just argues with you, but it can make your conversations feel far more useful. If you’re also tired of ChatGPT constantly nodding along, then follow along with the article to learn how to make ChatGPT responses more honest and helpful.

Why does ChatGPT always agree with me?

If you also feel that ChatGPT is a little more supportive to you, then you're not alone. The AI tool was designed to be helpful, polite, and responsive to all the users. It was trained using Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), which relies on feedback from humans while teaching AI how to respond to users. This process can lead to the behaviour of the AI to go into a sycophantic approach rather than being confrontational. Sycophancy is a term used in the AI literature.

However, it does not imply that ChatGPT accepts everything that you tell, but the responses given by the tool are based on what it has learned during the training process and the context of the conversation. Hence, you should not assume you are right just because ChatGPT agrees with you.

Also read: OpenAI AI agents leak 53 ChatGPT user images online, company working to take them down

How to make ChatGPT challenge you more

If you want to make ChatGPT sound more honest and make the responses from the AI tool more helpful, then while you're prompting, simply tell ChatGPT that you're looking for a second opinion. You can also ask the tool to question your assumptions, point out weaknesses in your argument, or give you an alternative view.

If you don't want to repetitively tell the AI tool to do so, then you can also use the setting I was talking about earlier. To change that, you need to first head to ChatGPT. Now, head to your Profile section and choose Settings. Once there, look for Personalisation and select it. In the Custom Instructions section you can tell the AI tool what you want it to do, like to challenge your assumptions. You can also copy and paste the below-mentioned instruction:

'Be my critical mentor. Do not agree with me just to be helpful. Challenge my assumptions, stress-test my ideas, and point out what is weak, obvious, or unlikely to work. Tell me clearly why something does not work and suggest a better approach.'

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Do note that I'm not asking ChatGPT to disagree with me every time; rather, I've prompted it to look for problems in my thinking before simply helping me build on the idea. And that small difference can change the entire conversation.

For example, if I pitch a headline, I want ChatGPT to question whether the headline is actually interesting or useful. If I suggest comparing two products, I want to ask whether those products are different enough to make the comparison worthwhile. And if I form an opinion about a phone after using it for a few days, I want the AI tool to point out where my conclusion might be influenced too much by my own experience.

However, there is a catch. Even if you ask ChatGPT to challenge you, that does not mean that you have to blindly believe everything the AI says. The AI can make mistakes even if you ask for something more critical from it.

There are two types of gamers in the world. First, who enjoy that quick adrenaline rush from playing first-person shooters and second, who play games for the stories that they tell. A great story can make you care about characters, keep you thinking about a particular scene and, in some cases, make it difficult to put the controller down. If you’re into storymode games, or plan on experiencing them, I have got you covered. 

So, without further ado,  here are five story-driven games that deserve at least one playthrough. Grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable. This is going to be a long read. 

Also read: Battlefield 6 made me fall in love with FPS games: Here’s how

Ghost of Yotei

If you enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yotei offers another samurai story, but with a completely different protagonist and setting. The game follows Atsu, a lone mercenary who sets out across Ezo in search of the six outlaws responsible for killing her family. Set around 300 years after Ghost of Tsushima, it is a standalone story, so you do not need to play Jin Sakai’s adventure first. 

What makes Atsu’s journey worth experiencing is that the story is not only about revenge. As she travels across northern Japan, she meets new allies and slowly discovers that there is more to her journey than hunting down the people responsible for her family’s death. That gives the story a more personal side as it moves between revenge, relationships and redemption.

The world also plays a big role in telling Atsu’s story. The landscapes of Ezo are not simply there to make the game look pretty. They give the adventure a sense of scale while providing a backdrop for Atsu’s journey. If you enjoy games where the setting feels like a character of its own, Ghost of Yotei is worth playing. And with a new DLC on the way, this is the best time to experience this game if you haven't already.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Nathan Drake’s story is one of those gaming adventures that is difficult to forget. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End brings his journey to a close, following the treasure hunter as he gets pulled into one final adventure after trying to leave his dangerous past behind.

The game works so well because it combines a cinematic story with the kind of gameplay you would expect from an action-adventure game. There are ancient ruins to explore, puzzles to solve, gunfights to survive and plenty of climbing. But underneath all of this is a story about Nathan trying to balance his love for adventure with the people he cares about.

The relationship between Nathan, Elena and his brother Sam gives the game much more emotional weight than you might expect from a treasure-hunting adventure. It also helps that the game constantly moves between huge action sequences and quieter moments between the characters. If you want a game that feels like playing through a big-budget adventure movie, Uncharted 4 deserves a spot on your list.

007 First Light

James Bond has been seen in countless films, but 007 First Light takes a different approach by showing players a younger version of the famous spy. Developed by IO Interactive, the game tells an original Bond origin story rather than adapting one of the films. You play as a 26-year-old Bond before he becomes the polished 007 that most people know. 

Bond starts his journey as a Royal Navy air crewman before being recruited into MI6’s elite 00 programme. The story follows his transformation from a talented but sometimes reckless recruit into a fully fledged spy. Along the way, players meet familiar characters such as M, Q and Moneypenny, alongside new characters created specifically for the game. 

What makes First Light interesting from a story perspective is seeing Bond before he has everything figured out. He is still learning how to handle himself, when to fight and when to rely on stealth or deception. The globe-trotting adventure also gives the story the scale you would expect from a Bond game, with espionage, driving, combat and gadgets all playing a role. 

The Last of Us

Few games have managed to make players care about their characters as much as The Last of Us. At its centre is Joel, a smuggler who is tasked with taking Ellie, a teenage girl who may hold the key to humanity’s future, across a post-apocalyptic United States.

The story could have easily focused only on zombies and survival. Instead, it spends much of its time exploring the relationship between Joel and Ellie. Their journey starts with the two characters barely knowing each other, but the experiences they go through slowly change that relationship.

The game also does not treat its world as a straightforward battle between good and evil. Different characters make difficult choices simply to survive, and those choices have consequences. That is what makes The Last of Us stand out as a story-driven game. Even after the credits roll, some of its decisions and character moments stay with you.

If you have somehow never played it, The Last of Us is one of those games that is worth experiencing at least once, even if you are usually more interested in gameplay than story.

Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 proves that a great story does not always need to be complicated. Leon S. Kennedy is sent to a remote part of Spain to rescue Ashley Graham, the daughter of the US president. What starts as a rescue mission quickly turns into something much bigger as Leon discovers the strange parasite and cult behind the events.

The game’s story moves at a much faster pace than something like The Last of Us, but that does not make it any less memorable. There are mysterious villages, creepy castles, strange characters and some genuinely bizarre moments. It constantly throws something new at the player, which keeps the adventure moving.

The 2023 remake also gives the story a more grounded feel while expanding several characters and moments from the original. Leon himself feels more developed, while the relationship between him and Ashley gets more attention. The result is a game that manages to combine survival horror, action and a surprisingly engaging character-driven story.

If you are looking for a game that keeps you entertained from beginning to end rather than taking hours to build up its story, Resident Evil 4 is a very easy recommendation.

Also read: Didn’t get Battlefield 6? Here are 5 free FPS games you can play right now 

You put yesterday’s food in the microwave, press a button and wait for it to heat up. It is one of the easiest ways to get a meal ready, but the word “radiation” can still make people uneasy. If a microwave uses radiation to heat food, does some of that radiation stay behind and make the food radioactive?

It does not. Microwave ovens use electromagnetic radiation, but microwaves are a form of non-ionising radiation. They do not have enough energy to remove electrons from atoms, unlike ionising radiation such as X-rays. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also states that the microwave energy absorbed by food is converted into heat and does not make the food radioactive or contaminated.

The confusion largely comes from treating all radiation as the same thing. It isn’t. Understanding what happens inside a microwave makes it easier to see why your food does not become radioactive after a cooking cycle.

What actually happens inside a microwave?

A microwave oven uses a component called a magnetron to generate microwaves. These waves bounce around the metal interior and are absorbed by the food. The energy makes molecules in the food move, producing heat that cooks or reheats it.

Also read: Air fryer vs microwave: What’s better to reheat different foods?

The important part is what happens to the microwave energy. It is converted into heat as the food absorbs it. Once you switch the oven off, it is not as though the food is left holding onto microwave radiation.

This is also why your food does not continue “radiating” microwaves after you take it out. It is simply hot food, much like food heated using a pan or an oven.

Radiation and radioactivity are not the same thing

Radiation is a broad term for energy travelling through space or matter. Visible light, radio waves, microwaves and X-rays are all forms of electromagnetic radiation, but they have different properties and energy levels. Microwaves sit in the non-ionising part of the spectrum, while X-rays are ionising.

Radioactivity is something different. It involves unstable atoms releasing radiation as they decay. Heating a bowl of rice with microwaves does not turn the atoms in that rice into radioactive material.

So yes, a microwave uses radiation. The part that is wrong is assuming that the presence of radiation means the food becomes radioactive.

Why does microwave food sometimes heat unevenly?

You may have noticed that a bowl of food can be piping hot around the edges while the middle is still cold. This is normal microwave behaviour and has nothing to do with radioactivity.

Microwaves are absorbed differently depending on the food, its shape and how the energy reaches different parts of it. Heat also has to move through the food. This is why stirring or rotating food can help distribute the heat more evenly.

It also matters when you are cooking or reheating food where food safety is important. The USDA recommends paying attention to uneven heating when using a microwave, particularly when thawing or cooking foods that need to reach a safe temperature.

Is there any reason to worry about microwave radiation?

A properly functioning microwave is designed to contain the microwave energy inside the oven. The FDA says microwave ovens that meet its safety standards and are used according to the manufacturer’s instructions are considered safe.

Also read: 5 biggest water purifier marketing gimmicks you should know about

The situation is different if the oven is damaged. A door that does not close properly, damaged hinges or damaged seals can affect the oven’s ability to contain microwave energy. The FDA recommends not using a microwave with this kind of damage.

For a microwave that is in good condition and being used as intended, there is no reason to treat the food inside as radioactive. The oven is using microwave energy to generate heat, not changing the radioactive properties of what you eat.

The myth, busted

The simplest way to put it is this: microwaves use radiation, but they do not make food radioactive. The radiation used by the appliance is non-ionising, and the energy absorbed by food is converted into heat.

There are still sensible rules to follow, such as using microwave-safe containers and not operating a damaged oven. But the idea that a microwaved meal becomes radioactive once it comes out of the oven comes from confusing two different things: radiation and radioactivity.

Best microwave ovens to consider

If the idea of radiation was holding you back from buying a microwave, the myth should not be a concern. A properly functioning microwave heats food using non-ionising microwave energy and does not make the food radioactive.

When choosing one, focus on what you actually plan to use it for. A solo microwave is enough for reheating and basic cooking, while grill and convection models add more cooking options. Capacity, power levels, preset programmes and the controls are also worth checking before you buy.

Here are some microwave ovens worth considering:

The idea that microwaved food becomes radioactive should not influence your choice. The more useful question is what kind of cooking you want the microwave to handle.

Also read: Ceiling fan and air purifier: Does better air circulation mean faster cleaning?

Our family of 5 had a two-burner conventional gas stove for the longest time. And while a gas stove isn't an appliance you think about a lot. But then, there were times when the inconvenience did really bother us, and things could get hectic while preparing the Onam feast or when relatives were visiting us. So, as Beyond Appliances pitched this product, its 4-burner setup was what tempted me most. Well, the Auto Ignition feature was also exciting, considering an external lighter often got damaged or finicky.

But that's not it. As its name suggests, the Beyond Appliances' Quantum Pro Gas Saver Stove comes with some thermal efficiency claims and a 5-star energy rating. So, having spent a month using this stove, let me share my experience with this efficiency-focused design. It is the part that needs a little more explanation than what the marketing material suggests.

The four-burner layout is what I noticed first

True, a four-burner stove isn't anything new. But man, you would miss the convenience when you don't have it. It makes a noticeable difference when cooking a full meal. You can have a pan on one burner, a pressure cooker on another, and still have space for smaller vessels without constantly moving things around.

The Quantum uses full brass burners, with the current official specification listing a large burner at 2.4kW, a medium one at 2.2kW, and a small one at 1.9kW. The combined rated output is 8.7kW.

In my use, the different burner sizes made sense for everyday cooking. That helped us prioritise them by size. I could use the larger burner when I needed more heat and keep smaller vessels on the smaller burners. Simple things making life simpler.

The pan supports add to the overall feel

The Quantum uses stainless steel pan supports around the burners. I found the overall construction sturdy during normal cooking, and the wide 75cm layout gives the stove enough room to work with multiple utensils.

The 8mm toughened glass top also looks modern. If you have a traditional stainless-steel gas stove, a glass one would look more attractive.

Also, I find glass easier to clean compared to the stainless steel ones. In daily use, while moving heavy vessels around, I did not find the Quantum flimsy to use.

The 77% efficiency claim needs some context

The Quantum is listed as a 5-star energy-rated gas stove, with 77% efficiency. That sounds like a claim about how much LPG you will save, but that is not what the figure means.

Under the government's BEE star-rating scheme for domestic LPG stoves, the star level is based on thermal efficiency. For the current 2026-2028 rating period, a 5-star stove needs a thermal efficiency of at least 76%. So a 77% rated stove falls within the 5-star band.

In simple terms, thermal efficiency is about how much of the heat produced by the gas ends up being usefully transferred to the cookware. It does not mean you will automatically use 23% less gas at home. Your savings will still depend on what you cook, how long you cook it, flame settings and your overall usage.

Beyond Appliances says its HEXA (Heat Exchange Architecture) system is designed around three elements: Smart Flame Design, Thermo Shield and the Aero Sensitive Vent. The idea is to keep more heat around the vessel and improve the air-fuel mix for combustion. The company claims this can improve efficiency and potentially save up to two LPG cylinders a year, but of course that will vary with cooking habits.

The Quantum is also listed as LERC certified. You'd see the LERC sticker on the stove. LERC, or the LPG Equipment Research Centre in Bengaluru, is involved in testing LPG equipment against Indian standards. BIS currently lists LERC as a testing laboratory for domestic gas stoves under IS 4246, including performance and safety-related parameters such as flame stability, gas consumption, ignition and flame travel, and thermal efficiency.

So these are not just decorative labels on the box, although they also should not be read as a guarantee that every household will see the same level of gas savings.

And it is obvious that you cannot look at a pan and tell whether you are getting exactly 77% thermal efficiency. What is therefore good to know is that the stove works normally and that the burners provide good heat. My family agreed the vessels were getting heated up quickly on this stove.

Auto ignition is genuinely convenient

While efficiency was hard to test, convenience was apparent. Quantum uses battery-powered auto ignition, with a single D-type 1.5V battery. Since there is no need to keep a lighter around or manually bring a flame to the burner each time, I found auto ignition really useful.

But auto ignition is also the area where I ran into a problem. A week or so later, one of the burners failed to light, but the technician promptly came and fixed it. It was a loose connection issue, and once that was fixed, my experience has been trouble-free.

Speaking of after-sales support, Beyond Appliances claims a 10-year glass and burner warranty, 10-year full product coverage, and offers service across 20,000+ pincodes.

Final thoughts

Beyond Appliances Quantum 4 Burner has been a good addition to my kitchen. Its four-burner layout is useful, the brass burners deliver good heat, and auto ignition makes the stove convenient to use. My family also felt that vessels heated up quickly, which was noticeable in regular cooking.

The 77% thermal efficiency claim is harder to judge through day-to-day use alone. I cannot tell from cooking whether the stove is delivering exactly 77% efficiency, and I would not treat Beyond's gas-saving claims as a promise of a fixed reduction in LPG use. But the stove does feel efficient in use, with good heat from the burners and a design that is clearly focused on reducing heat loss.

The installation and service have been quick and reliable during my testing. Provided that this level of support remains consistent, the Quantum has the makings of a dependable four-burner stove for everyday cooking.

Mini LED TVs have become a serious alternative to OLED for buyers who want high brightness, better contrast and a large screen without moving into ultra-premium pricing. The latest models also bring 120Hz or higher refresh rates, VRR, HDMI 2.1, Dolby Vision, AI upscaling, and smarter sound processing. But the differences between them are becoming more important than the Mini LED label itself. Aspects like local dimming, peak brightness, picture tuning, gaming support, software, and even the number of full-bandwidth HDMI ports can change the experience considerably.

This list is based on our testing and reviews of the selected TVs, backed by current specifications from the brands and Indian retail listings. For the Hisense U7SE, we have used internal Calman measurements and available hands-on testing rather than a completed long-form review.

Best Mini LED TVs in India at a glance

What is a Mini LED TV, and how is it different from RGB Mini LED?

A conventional Mini LED TV uses an LCD panel with a much larger number of smaller LEDs than a conventional LED TV. This structure allows the backlight to be divided into more independently controlled areas. That can improve contrast, highlight brightness and black levels.

Most conventional Mini LED TVs in this list also use a quantum dot layer to improve colour reproduction. That is why you will see the term QD-Mini LED on models from Lumio, Haier and Xiaomi.

RGB Mini LED is a related but a newer development. Instead of relying on a conventional blue or white LED backlight combined with colour conversion, RGB Mini LED uses independently controlled red, green and blue LEDs in the backlight. Sony's True RGB system, for example, drives the three colours independently before the light reaches the LCD layer.

Since RGB Mini LED changes how the backlight itself creates colour, we are treating RGB Mini LED or RGB LED TVs as a slightly separate technology class rather than directly mixing them into a conventional Mini LED ranking.

Having cleared that, let's get to the list.

Which Mini LED TV is best overall?

LG QNED85

The LG QNED85 is the most balanced Mini LED TV in this list. It does not have the highest brightness or the most powerful built-in speakers, but it combines a good display, 144Hz VRR, four HDMI 2.1 ports, Dolby Vision, mature software and five years of platform upgrades. That makes it easier to recommend as an all-round living-room TV.

We tested the 65-inch model for more than a month. Its 4K Mini LED LCD panel reached around 764 nits at a 25% window in our Calman test and around 611 nits on a full-screen white pattern. We also measured 95.77% DCI-P3 coverage in Filmmaker Mode, with an average Delta E of 2.96.

The results suggest that the QNED85 is capable of a strong HDR image, although colour tuning is not reference-grade out of the box. In normal viewing, we found good contrast and dark-scene detail, with no distracting blooming in the movie scenes we tested. We did notice a minor near-black uniformity issue in one sequence, and the remote's cursor could create a visible halo over dark backgrounds.

LG uses the α8 AI Processor 4K Gen3. The TV supports AI Super Upscaling 4K, AI Picture Pro, AI HDR Remastering, Dynamic Tone Mapping Pro, AI Genre Selection and Auto Brightness Control. Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG are supported, along with Filmmaker Mode.

Gaming is one of the QNED85's strongest areas. The panel runs at 120Hz natively and supports VRR up to 144Hz. All four HDMI inputs support 4K 120Hz, VRR, ALLM, QMS and QFT. AMD FreeSync, HGiG and Dolby Vision gaming at 4K 120Hz are also supported. LG adds Game Optimizer and Game Dashboard for quick access to settings.

That four-port setup matters in a real living room. You can keep several consoles, a PC and a soundbar connected without constantly swapping cables.

The software is webOS 26. LG's AI features include AI Chatbot, AI Voice ID, AI Picture and Sound Wizard, AI Concierge and Multi AI Search with Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. LG also puts more useful long-term value behind the software, with its Re:New programme promising platform upgrades for up to five years on supported 2026 TVs.

The weakness is sound. The QNED85 has a 20W, 2.0-channel down-firing speaker system. AI Sound Pro can simulate a virtual 11.1.2-channel presentation, while Clear Voice Pro, Dolby Atmos, Adaptive Acoustic Tuning, AI Object Remastering Pro and WOW Orchestra are supported. In our testing, the sound was fine for everyday viewing but not what I would expect if the TV is being used as a serious home-cinema system.

The screen is not a true matte panel. Reflection handling is acceptable but not a major strength, so room lighting still matters.

• Who should buy it? Buyers who want one TV for films, sports, streaming and gaming, particularly if long-term software support and four HDMI 2.1 ports matter.
• Who should skip it? Buyers who want the highest possible brightness or strong built-in audio at this price.
• Why it ranks first: its strength is the complete package. It has very few obvious gaps, even though individual competitors beat it in specific areas.

Is the Hisense U7SE better for picture quality and gaming?

Hisense U7SE

The Hisense U7SE is the more interesting choice if you care heavily about brightness, gaming and built-in sound. Its placement is based on our Calman measurements and verified specifications, and should be revisited after a full long-term review.

The 65-inch U7SE reached roughly 900 nits at its brightest measured window in our Calman testing. A second test run peaked at around 762 nits. The full-screen reading was around 467-469 nits. The TV also covered roughly 92.3% of DCI-P3 in CIE 1931 and around 95.4% in CIE 1976.

Our ColorChecker runs recorded average Delta E 2000 values of 2.75 and 3.45. The measurements show a panel with strong brightness and broad colour coverage, although the exact result changes with the test configuration.

The U7SE has a native 144Hz panel and supports VRR, ALLM, HGiG and AMD FreeSync Premium. Dolby Vision Gaming is also supported on the platform, and Hisense includes a dedicated Game Bar and Game Optimizer. Available specifications identify four HDMI inputs with HDMI 2.1-class features.

Hisense also supports 4K 144Hz and higher refresh modes at lower resolutions on the wider U7SE range, although the exact maximum varies by screen size and regional configuration. The 65-inch Indian model is clearly positioned around 144Hz.

The picture processor is Hisense's Hi-View AI Engine. Its AI stack includes AI HDR Upscaler, AI Picture, AI 4K Upscaler, AI Sports Mode, AI Scenario and AI Light Sensor. IMAX Enhanced and Filmmaker Mode are also part of the feature set listed for the U7SE.

The broader HDR support is useful. The U7SE supports Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, HDR10+ Adaptive and HLG. That covers the major HDR formats more broadly than Samsung's approach to premium TVs.

Audio is a major advantage. Reliance Digital lists 61W output through a 2.1-channel system, while other regional U7SE specifications identify a 2 x 10W plus 20W configuration. Dolby Atmos, an equaliser and Hisense's sound processing are supported.

Connectivity includes four HDMI ports, two USB ports, Ethernet, headphone output and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. The Indian retail listing also confirms a two-year warranty.

Hisense does not state a specific number of major OS upgrades for the Indian U7SE in the sources we checked. That is a notable difference from LG's five-year webOS programme.

• Who should buy it? Buyers who prioritise HDR brightness, gaming, strong built-in sound and broad HDR compatibility.
• Who should skip it? Buyers who place more importance on a mature smart-TV ecosystem and clearly defined long-term software support.
• Why it ranks second: on raw hardware, it challenges the LG QNED85 very closely and costs considerably less. Its main disadvantage in this list is that we do not yet have the same depth of long-term review data.

Which Mini LED TV is best for gaming under Rs 1 lakh?

Lumio Vision 9

The Lumio Vision 9 is the gaming-focused disruptor in this list. It offers a native 4K 144Hz panel, 240Hz support at 1080p, VRR, ALLM and HDMI 2.1 at a price well below most premium Mini LED TVs.

Our review unit delivered around 451 nits of typical brightness and had black levels of roughly 0.03 nits. We measured 94.5% UHDA-P3 coverage, while SDR coverage reached 99% BT.709. The TV's native contrast is rated at 7,000:1 by Lumio.

Gaming is the standout. The TV supports native 4K 144Hz, up to 240Hz at 1080p, HDMI 2.1, VRR and ALLM. We measured input lag of about 9.7ms, which made controls feel responsive.

The problem is picture tuning. In our testing, dark scenes could lose separation and HDR performance was inconsistent. Skin tones leaned slightly pink, while some darker scenes lacked enough detail. The strengths were more obvious in SDR, where colours and overall brightness were pleasing.

The Vision 9 uses a MediaTek Pentonic 700 processor with 3GB RAM and 64GB storage. It runs Google TV on Android 14. In daily use, the interface is generally fast, and Lumio's TLDR system makes content discovery less cumbersome. Project Neo, which aims to make messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram a bridge to the TV, was still under development when we reviewed it.

Audio is another strength. The 2026 model moves to a 50W hexa-driver system with two subwoofers. Lumio claims bass extension down to 38Hz, and our testing found clear dialogue, useful bass and enough volume for regular living-room viewing.

The TV has three HDMI ports, with two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports and eARC support, along with three USB ports, including a USB 3.0 port. Ethernet, optical audio, Bluetooth 5.0 and dual-band Wi-Fi are also included.

Lumio's current Vision 9 page confirms Google TV with Android 14. An earlier company statement reported that Lumio TVs were promised two major OS upgrades, although I would treat that as the company's broader Vision TV commitment rather than a newer 2026-specific guarantee.

The display has an anti-reflective coating that is close to matte rather than a conventional highly reflective glossy surface.

• Who should buy it? PC gamers who want 4K 144Hz and buyers looking for a feature-rich 65-inch TV under Rs 75,000.
• Who should skip it? Movie-focused buyers who are particular about HDR black detail and colour accuracy.
• Why it ranks third: the gaming hardware and price are difficult to ignore, but its picture processing is less polished than the TVs above it.

Which Mini LED TV has the best built-in sound?

Haier M92

The Haier M92 is a feature-rich QD-Mini LED TV whose strongest argument is its combination of 144Hz gaming, Dolby Vision IQ and unusually capable built-in audio.

We tested the 65-inch model and found a clear difference between the specifications and the actual picture. Our Calman testing recorded 99.7% BT.709 coverage in SDR and 95.42% UHDA-P3 in HDR. Brightness came close to 900 nits, while effective contrast was around 18,000:1.

The problem was picture tuning. Dark scenes could lose detail, particularly with the submarine sequence in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning and night scenes in The Revenant. We also noticed Dirty Screen Effect on grey backgrounds. The latter may be specific to the review unit, but it is still something worth checking on a large TV.

Gaming specifications are strong. The M92 has a native 144Hz panel, VRR, ALLM and AMD FreeSync Premium. Haier's official specifications also list four HDMI inputs with HDMI 2.1 support.

The M92 uses Haier's AI Ultra Sense Processor and AI Center MAX. The system is designed to analyse scenes and adjust colour, contrast, motion and other parameters automatically. Haier also supports Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+, while Google TV handles the smart-TV side.

Audio is where the M92 separates itself. The TV has a 50W 2.1-channel system with Sound by KEF and Dolby Atmos. During our review, dialogue was clear, bass had noticeable weight and the overall presentation was broader than we expected from a built-in TV system.

The TV includes four HDMI 2.1 ports, two USB ports, Ethernet, headphone output, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Haier's current official specification page lists 4GB RAM and 64GB storage.

Haier does not give a clearly defined major-OS-upgrade count on the current M92 India product page, so it is safer not to assign a number.

The 65-inch M92 is currently listed at Rs 1,14,990 on Haier's own store.

• Who should buy it? Buyers who want good built-in speakers, 144Hz gaming, Dolby Vision IQ and Google TV.
• Who should skip it? Buyers who care more about precise picture tuning than features and audio.
• Why it ranks fourth: it has a broad feature set and excellent TV audio, but our testing exposed too many picture-quality compromises at this price.

Which Mini LED TV gives you the biggest screen for the money?

Xiaomi TV S Mini LED 75

The Xiaomi TV S Mini LED 75 takes a different approach to value. Instead of using a faster native panel or more expensive processing, Xiaomi puts the money into screen size and backlight hardware. You get a 75-inch QD-Mini LED TV with 512 dimming zones and a claimed 1,200-nit peak brightness at around Rs 1 lakh.

We reviewed the 75-inch model and found the large screen to be its biggest strength. SDR content looked rich and easy to watch, while the Mini LED backlight delivered deep blacks and strong contrast. Upscaling was decent, particularly for older content.

HDR was less consistent. Some darker scenes showed pixelation and processing artefacts, while skin tones could appear too pink or red. We also saw visible banding in gradient-heavy content and temporary image retention in one sequence. Motion handling was fine for many sports scenes, but panning shots could show judder.

The biggest catch is the refresh rate. The panel itself runs at 60Hz. Xiaomi uses DLG to produce a 120Hz mode, but this is not the same as having a native 120Hz panel. The India product page also lists ALLM and MEMC but does not list VRR.

That makes the Xiaomi a much less interesting proposition for serious high-refresh gaming than the LG, Hisense or Lumio models.

The TV uses a quad-core Cortex-A55 processor, 2GB RAM and 32GB storage. It runs Google TV on Android 14 and also gives you Xiaomi's PatchWall+ interface. Our testing found that everyday use was mostly fine, but app switching and heavier navigation could produce occasional stutters.

Connectivity includes three HDMI ports, with one supporting HDMI 2.1, eARC and ALLM, plus two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, optical audio, a 3.5mm headphone output and antenna connections. You also get AirPlay 2, Google Cast and Miracast.

The audio system is a 34W four-speaker setup with two tweeters and two full-range speakers. Dolby Audio and DTS:X are supported. We found it loud enough for normal viewing, but it lacked the bass needed to match the scale of the 75-inch screen.

Filmmaker Mode is supported, making it useful for buyers who prefer a less processed image when watching films.

Xiaomi does not state a fixed major-OS-upgrade promise for this model on its India product page.

• Who should buy it? Buyers who want a 75-inch Mini LED TV around Rs 1 lakh and care more about screen size and general viewing than competitive gaming.
• Who should skip it? PC and console gamers looking for native 120Hz or higher refresh rates, or movie enthusiasts who are very sensitive to HDR processing errors.
• Why it ranks fifth: the 75-inch screen and Mini LED hardware offer plenty of visual impact for the money, but the 60Hz panel, limited HDMI implementation and weaker processing make the compromises easy to identify.

Which Mini LED TV should you buy for gaming?

The answer depends on what kind of gaming you do.

For a PC gamer, the LG QNED85, Hisense U7SE and Lumio Vision 9 are the most relevant models here because their panels can run at 144Hz. The Lumio also supports 240Hz at 1080p. LG and Hisense add broader adaptive-sync support, including FreeSync, while the LG also supports Dolby Vision Gaming.

For PS5 or Xbox gaming, 120Hz support matters more than 144Hz or 240Hz because current consoles are generally centred around 4K 120Hz. In that situation, HDMI 2.1 ports, VRR and ALLM are more important than the highest refresh-rate figure.

The Xiaomi S Mini LED is the outlier. Its 120Hz mode comes from DLG rather than a native 120Hz panel, so it is less suitable for buyers specifically shopping for high-refresh gaming.

Which Mini LED TV is best for a bright living room?

Mini LED itself is well suited to bright rooms because LCD panels can maintain high light output over larger parts of the screen.

The Hisense U7SE's roughly 900-nit Calman measurement gives it a strong advantage in this group, while the LG QNED85 reached around 764 nits in our testing. Xiaomi's claimed 1,200-nit peak sounds higher, but our review also showed why peak brightness alone does not tell the whole story.

Screen finish matters too. Lumio uses an anti-reflective, near-matte coating. The LG QNED85 is more reflective, while Xiaomi does not use a dedicated Glare Free-style treatment.

Which Mini LED TV is best for movies?

There is no single answer because movies put different demands on the TV.

The LG QNED85 has Dolby Vision and Filmmaker Mode, and its picture processing is broadly consistent. The Hisense U7SE adds Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, IMAX Enhanced and Filmmaker Mode. The Haier M92 also supports Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+, while Xiaomi offers Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and Filmmaker Mode.

From our testing, however, the important difference is dark-scene consistency. The Lumio, Haier and Xiaomi models all showed some issues in darker or more complicated HDR scenes. That does not make them bad movie TVs, but it is something to consider if most of your viewing happens in a dark room.

Which Mini LED TV has the best software support?

LG has the clearest long-term commitment among the five. The QNED85 is part of LG's webOS Re:New programme, which promises up to five years of platform upgrades for supported 2026 models.

Lumio has previously stated a two-major-upgrade promise for its Vision TV platform, and its 2026 models now run Android 14. Haier, Hisense and Xiaomi do not provide an equally clear major-OS-upgrade number for the specific models considered here in the current product information we checked.

This is one area where a feature such as AI matters less than it sounds. A TV's AI chatbot or content suggestions may be useful, but long-term platform support is more likely to affect whether the television remains convenient to use several years from now.

Should you buy a Mini LED TV instead of an OLED TV?

Mini LED makes more sense when brightness, room lighting or large screen size are your priorities.

An OLED still has a fundamental advantage in black-level control because every pixel can switch off independently. Mini LED relies on zones in an LCD backlight, so some blooming and loss of shadow detail can still occur.

But Mini LED has its own advantages. It can push high brightness across larger areas of the screen, and it does not have the same burn-in considerations associated with OLED's self-emissive pixels.

For a bright living room, sports-heavy viewing or a very large screen, a good Mini LED TV can therefore be a more practical choice than simply moving to OLED.

Who should avoid Mini LED TVs?

A buyer who mainly watches films in a dark room and is particularly sensitive to blooming should still consider OLED.

The same applies to people who want the most consistent pixel-level black control. Mini LED has improved a lot, but it remains a zoned-backlight technology.

There is also little reason to pay for an expensive Mini LED TV if you mainly watch cable or low-resolution content and have no interest in HDR or gaming. A good conventional LED TV can be sufficient for that type of usage.

What are TV brands trying to do with Mini LED in 2026?

The Mini LED market is becoming less about a single display technology and more about how each brand differentiates its implementation.

LG is using Mini LED as the middle ground between conventional LED and OLED. The QNED85 combines a high-refresh panel, Dolby Vision, webOS 26 and long software support, which lets LG sell a premium LCD experience without moving into OLED pricing. LG's wider 2026 TV strategy also puts Mini LED at the centre of its push into larger screens.

Hisense is competing more aggressively on hardware. The U7SE combines 144Hz gaming, broad HDR support, AI processing and powerful built-in audio at prices below established premium brands. Its current 65-inch retail pricing around Rs 78,000 makes that strategy particularly clear.

Lumio is trying to stand out through high refresh rates, fast software and aggressive pricing. The Vision 9 brings 4K 144Hz, 240Hz at 1080p and a 50W speaker system to a 65-inch television around Rs 75,000.

Haier is making sound a major part of the proposition. Its M92 combines QD-Mini LED with a KEF-tuned 50W system and Google TV.

Xiaomi is taking the most direct value approach, putting a 75-inch QD-Mini LED panel with up to 512 dimming zones and 1,200-nit claimed peak brightness at around Rs 1 lakh. The trade-off is less ambitious gaming hardware and a simpler internal platform.

That is also why Mini LED is becoming more relevant in India. The technology allows brands to offer larger screens with high brightness and local dimming without making the price as high as premium OLED or RGB Mini LED products.

Final verdict

The LG QNED85 is the most complete all-round Mini LED TV here. Its 144Hz VRR, four HDMI 2.1 ports, Dolby Vision, webOS 26 and five-year update programme give it a strong combination of features, while our testing showed good overall picture quality.

The Hisense U7SE is the more aggressive hardware proposition. Its higher measured brightness, 144Hz panel, broad HDR support and much stronger built-in audio make it especially interesting at its current price. Its ranking can be reassessed once we complete the full review.

The Lumio Vision 9 is a more affordable alternative for gamers. Its 4K 144Hz panel, 240Hz 1080p mode and low input lag are compelling at around Rs 75,000. Its picture tuning, particularly in dark HDR scenes, still needs work.

The Haier M92 is the audio-focused option. Its 50W KEF-tuned speakers are a genuine advantage, but our testing showed that picture quality is not as polished as the specifications might suggest.

The Xiaomi S Mini LED 75 is the large-screen value play. A 75-inch QD-Mini LED TV at around Rs 1 lakh is difficult to ignore, but its native 60Hz panel and DLG 120Hz implementation mean it should not be bought as a high-refresh gaming TV.

For most buyers, the right choice comes down to what you notice every day. Gaming puts the focus on refresh rate, VRR and HDMI 2.1. A bright room makes brightness and reflection control more important. Movie watching makes black-level control, HDR formats and picture tuning matter more. And for long-term ownership, software support is becoming just as relevant as the panel itself.

FAQs

Which is the best Mini LED TV in India?
The Haier M92 and LG QNED85 are the two strongest all-round options in this list, but for different reasons. The M92 offers a 144Hz panel, 50W KEF-tuned audio, Dolby Vision IQ and four HDMI 2.1 ports. The QNED85 offers a strong overall balance, Dolby Vision, 144Hz VRR, four HDMI 2.1 ports and up to five years of webOS platform upgrades.

Is the Haier M92 better than the LG QNED85?
It depends on what you value. The M92 has a native 144Hz panel, 50W audio and HDR10+ support, while the QNED85 has a native 120Hz panel with 144Hz VRR, Dolby Vision and LG's longer stated software support. Our testing also found some picture-quality and tuning issues on the M92 that should be considered before buying.

Which Mini LED TV is best for gaming?
The LG QNED85, Hisense U7SE, Lumio Vision 9 and Haier M92 all offer high-refresh gaming features. The QNED85 supports VRR up to 144Hz with four HDMI 2.1 ports, while the Lumio goes to 144Hz natively and 240Hz at 1080p. The Xiaomi S Mini LED is less suitable for serious high-refresh gaming because its panel is natively 60Hz.

Which Mini LED TV is best for PS5 and Xbox Series X?
The LG QNED85, Hisense U7SE, Haier M92 and Lumio Vision 9 all provide the core features you would look for, including 4K 120Hz-class gaming, VRR and ALLM. The higher 144Hz or 240Hz figures matter more for PC gaming than for current consoles.

Which Mini LED TV is best for a bright room?
The Hisense U7SE and LG QNED85 are among the stronger options here based on our testing. The U7SE reached around 900 nits in our Calman testing, while the QNED85 reached around 764 nits on a 25% window. Screen reflections still depend on the room and the individual TV's coating.

Which Mini LED TV has the best built-in speakers?
The Haier M92 is one of the strongest options in this list for built-in audio. It has a 50W 2.1-channel system tuned by KEF, while the Lumio Vision 9 also offers a 50W system with dual subwoofers. The LG QNED85 has a much simpler 20W 2.0-channel system.

Which Mini LED TVs support Dolby Vision?
The LG QNED85, Hisense U7SE, Haier M92, Lumio Vision 9 and Xiaomi S Mini LED all support Dolby Vision in their respective implementations. The Hisense and Haier models also support HDR10+, while LG does not list HDR10+ support for the QNED85.

Does a 144Hz Mini LED TV matter if I only use a PS5?
Not much. A 144Hz panel can be useful for PC gaming, but a PS5 generally makes better use of a good 4K 120Hz mode with VRR and ALLM. So, for console users, HDMI 2.1 connectivity and VRR are more important than simply buying the TV with the highest refresh-rate number.

Is Xiaomi S Mini LED 75 good for gaming?
It is capable of casual gaming, but it is not the strongest gaming choice here. The panel is natively 60Hz, with Xiaomi using DLG to provide a 120Hz mode. Our testing also found some motion and HDR limitations. Its biggest advantage is the 75-inch screen size and the scale it offers at around Rs 1 lakh.

Is the Lumio Vision 9 worth buying?
It is worth considering if gaming and value are your priorities. It offers native 4K 144Hz, 240Hz at 1080p, VRR, ALLM and low measured input lag, while its Google TV software was generally smooth in our testing. The main concern is picture tuning, particularly in darker HDR scenes.

Should you buy a Mini LED TV instead of an OLED TV?
Mini LED makes more sense when you want high brightness, a large screen or better performance in a bright room. OLED still has the advantage of pixel-level black control and can produce cleaner dark scenes. The better choice depends on your room, content and budget.

Is Mini LED better than regular LED TV?
Generally, a good Mini LED TV offers better local dimming, contrast and HDR brightness than a conventional LED TV. But implementation matters. The number and quality of dimming zones, panel type, processing and picture tuning can make a bigger difference than the Mini LED label alone.

How long do these Mini LED TVs get software updates?
LG has the clearest stated commitment in this group. The QNED85 is covered by LG's webOS Re:New programme for up to five years of platform upgrades. The other manufacturers do not provide an equally clear major-OS upgrade number for every model listed here in the product information we checked.

What is RGB Mini LED, and is it the same as regular Mini LED?
Not exactly. Regular Mini LED TVs use a large number of small LEDs as a backlight behind an LCD panel. RGB Mini LED uses separately controlled red, green and blue light sources in the backlight. We treat RGB Mini LED as a related but slightly separate technology when comparing Mini LED TVs because the backlight architecture is different.

Dyson V16 Piston Animal has launched in India at Rs 79,900. The cordless vacuum uses a new 900W Hyperdymium motor that delivers up to 315AW of suction, along with the All Floor Cones Sense cleaner head, which automatically adjusts suction and brush bar speed based on the floor type. It also comes with built-in tools, a new Hair Screw Tool 2.0 for long and pet hair, and a CleanCompaktor bin that compresses dust and debris.

At the event, we got to interact with Tim Hare, Dyson's Design and Development Engineer, Floor Care. He explained how the V16 Piston Animal's sensing system works, why Dyson designed the cleaner head to work across different floor types, and how the company approached weight distribution, pet hair, and battery runtime. He also discussed the machine's maintenance requirements and how Dyson's design choices are intended to reduce the amount of manual intervention needed during cleaning.

Q: Dyson has years of experience engineering vacuum cleaners, and for this particular product, you must have spent months developing it. What's one thing that people might not notice initially, but would appreciate after using it for a while?

Tim Hare: One of the key things is that the biggest cleaning mistake people make is only cleaning the dust they can see. When we do our research, we find that there are a lot of dust mites, pollen, and even microscopic dust that people can't see.

With this machine, we designed it to adapt automatically to make sure you're picking all of that up. So, even though they might not know it, we're capturing all of that pollen and skin cells with this machine.

One example is the cleaner head. It's an all-floor head. If you look at the box, it's got stiff nylon bristles here, which are designed for carpets to agitate the pile. Then you have this softer fluff, which is for hard floors and provides a polishing effect.

For the customer, it means they don't have to change the head like they would on a traditional machine. You can just use this one.

As well as that, it senses the surface. We're detecting the pressure inside the cleaner head, and we're also detecting the current drawn by the motor. That means the machine can adapt its settings based on the surface you're cleaning.

It's all automatic. That's the beauty of it.

On hard floors, you need lower power and lower suction, along with that polishing effect. So, we reduce the speed and make it quieter.

You'll see that once we move onto the carpet, if you give it a second, it detects the change. You can hear the pitch change. It's increasing the suction power, and it's also increasing the speed of the brush bar for more agitation.

It is also important that the vacuum cleaner can move between surfaces without ever having to change the head.

Q: Are there any other attachments that we can attach to this head?

Tim Hare: Yes, of course. The first thing, which is quite useful, is that we really didn't want people to have to bend down or change attachments. So, we've built attachments into the machine.

You can pull this one out, and you'll see that there's an inbuilt crevice tool on the end. You can use it to clean corners or reach higher areas.

And when you're done, you just push it back in.

For pet hair, we've got a very special new tool called the Hair Screw Tool 2.0.

This one is quite interesting. It is brand new for this machine. We know a lot of customers have dogs and cats, and that really fine hair can be quite difficult to remove.

This tool has two new features. First, it has these rubber bristles on the front, which means you can scrape up all of that hair.

Second, people often struggle with dog beds and loose fabrics because the fabric can get sucked inside. We've got these bars here, which means the fabric doesn't get pulled inside and jam the tool.

So, this one is great for dog beds.

And in total, there are 4 such attachments.

Q: One thing I've noticed based on my experience with these products is that elderly people, especially, may find them a little heavy to use. From an engineering perspective, how do you balance adding features while also keeping the product lightweight?

Tim Hare: It's a good question. It's always a balance between power, runtime, and weight. But our key focus is putting the weight in the right places.

You'll notice that the battery pack is placed underneath the wrist. What that means is that you feel much less weight in your hand.

The second one is another Dyson patent. We call it the V-Ball. These wheels on the bottom are designed to carry the weight into the floor instead of into your hands.

So, even though this weighs 3.5kg, it feels much more manoeuvrable in the hand than some other machines.

Q: What were the engineering challenges involved in developing these attachments for this product?

Tim Hare: The key one is anti-tangle performance, getting it to work reliably. We tested it with 25 inches of hair and made sure there were zero hairs left on the brush bar, even under the most abusive conditions.

It required a lot of fine-tuning. For example, the brush bar is set at exactly 12.5 degrees. If you go any steeper or narrower, hair can get stuck. So, there's a lot of fine-tuning involved in getting that to work reliably.

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Q: You mentioned that it can detect the surface automatically. How does that work? Could you explain the automatic sensing system?

Tim Hare: This is our most intelligent machine because we're sensing so many metrics. The key ones are the pressure inside the cleaner heads and the current drawn by the motor inside the cleaner heads.

Then we've got a piezo sensor, which is acoustically listening to the dust.

We take those three inputs and feed them into an algorithm that combines them. That then adjusts the suction and brush bar speed depending on the conditions.

Q: Were any specific changes or tuning made for India? Indian homes may have uneven floors, different floor types, and rugs. How do you account for that while developing the product?

Tim Hare: We do a lot of studies. We recently conducted one specifically in India that looked at floor types and cleaning habits.

The takeaway that reaffirmed the approach behind this machine was that homes here are multi-surface, with predominantly marble floors. So, this machine will adjust to marble or wood floors.

We also found that people struggled when moving to a rug. They weren't changing the attachment or the settings because they might only need to clean a small rug before moving back to the hard floor.

The fact that they can move seamlessly from the predominant floor type to a rug and then back again is going to make their lives a lot easier.

Q: While using these products, I've also found that battery life can be a challenge. The battery life can be short, while charging times can be long. How have you balanced that with this machine?

Tim Hare: This leads to another nice feature. It's always a balance between raw suction power and runtime.

With this machine, we wanted the best of both worlds. We've got something called Dynamic Cones. When you're in Eco mode, the machine actually shuts off a section of the cyclone. A third of the cones are shut off, which means you have reduced airflow and higher efficiency, giving you up to 70 minutes of runtime.

But when you need all that suction power, you need more airflow. So, it automatically actuates inside, opens up the whole cone array, and powers the 900W motor.

You're getting that maximum power when you need it. Because of the sensing, that power is deployed when you need it rather than all the time, which helps preserve runtime.

Q: What components or parts of the machine does the customer need to take care of from a maintenance standpoint?

Tim Hare: I think the cleaner head and the filter are the key ones.

First, we've got a HEPA filter. The machine will tell you when it needs to be maintained. You need to wash it thoroughly under the tap and then leave it to dry until it's completely dry, which takes about 24 hours. Then you put it back in.

The second thing is the cleaner head. This is another area we've refined, particularly the maintenance process.

You can remove this whole brush housing like this and wash it under the tap.

Then there are the brush bars. You can see that they pop out, and you should clean those under the tap as well.

But those are the only two key areas that need regular maintenance.

And there are videos on Dyson's YouTube channel helping people understand how to handle and maintain it.

Keep reading Digit.in for similar interactions.

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The data centres are power hungry. The arrival of AI has exacerbated the issue further, and all the hyperscalers on Earth are frantically searching for power, which is scarce now more than ever before. Google's solution to the problem? Forget Earth. Last week, Google launched a prototype satellite with its Trillium TPUs into the Low Earth Orbit on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare flight. It's called the Project Suncatcher, and the idea itself seems to be quite an innocent one: launch AI chips into space and harness solar energy.

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Why space, though?

There is one number which makes this project viable: satellites in low Earth orbits are continuously exposed to the sun, thus producing up to eight times more energy from the same panels compared to their usage on Earth. There are no clouds, nights, and congestion of the power grid. In case of feeding power-hungry workloads of AI, this is not about a slight improvement in terms of efficiency. This is a completely different level.

What about the solutions that the competitors of Google use to address the same issue? Microsoft has been entering into contracts for small nuclear reactors while Amazon is investing in nuclear-related power purchase agreements. The same issue concerns everyone: AI requires much more electricity than the power grid can easily provide, and somebody should look for alternative sources of energy.

The catch is everything else

The cosmos does not give anything for free. Instead, it gives you three brutally difficult engineering challenges, and Suncatcher has been designed specifically to solve one problem first - will the equipment make it up there?

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During launch, a satellite experiences around 10g of sustained acceleration, and chips within the satellite experience up to 50-100g during the ten-minute trip to orbit. To simulate this brutality, Google's team physically shook their satellite across all three planes. It survived, and this is no small thing, as this test succeeds more rarely than it fails.

Radiation comes next. Cosmic rays, along with solar storms, can cause bit flips in electronics – those sneaky little mistakes in the AI load that you might not even be aware of. When Google put their Trillium TPUs through a proton beam at UC Davis's Crocker Nuclear Laboratory, they found that they had the capability to withstand a radiation dose larger than the dose they would receive over five years in orbit. That's promising, but lab testing is nothing like real life, hence the need for a real chip in space.

Finally, there's the problem of cooling, which sounds easy enough to solve until you remember that there's no air to do that in the void. On Earth, you cool a chip by airflow. But since in orbit there's no way out but radiators, Google is creating a new cooling solution, using heat pipes and radiators that were tested in thermal vacuum conditions. It's basically a new architecture made specially for the task.

What comes after this

This one satellite does not mean that Google has proven its capability to run AI data centers in space. It means that the equipment won’t get damaged during the launch into the orbit, which is only the first step of a long staircase. The challenge will come in 2027 when the corporation will be launching two satellites and connecting them through laser communication at high bandwidth and short distances, which, according to the company, is equivalent to hitting a coin from miles away.

This is what really needs to be done. It is all about forming satellite clusters that will include dozens of TPUs communicating in a computational grid in orbit. This is far from happening now. But considering how pricey and long terrestrial options have become, it will not surprise you if space will stop being a sci-fi story.

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A kitchen chimney has become an important part of the modern kitchen, especially for homes where cooking involves regular frying, tadka and high-heat preparation. But before comparing suction power, controls or AutoClean, there is one basic choice to make: should you buy a ducted or ductless chimney?

Ducted and ductless chimneys can both handle heavy Indian cooking, including frying, tadka and high-heat preparation. The key difference is how they are installed and where the extracted air goes. A ducted chimney carries the air outside through an exhaust pipe, while a ductless model filters it and recirculates it into the kitchen.

For kitchens that already have a suitable external route, a ducted chimney can be installed.
Plug ‘N’ Play ductless chimney is an innovation that provides the same performance as a ducted chimney without core cutting and cutting, so no need to alter a kitchen or deal with a difficult installation.

Here are six options to consider before getting into the differences between the two types.

Beyond Appliances Cube Pro

The Cube Pro takes a ductless approach, with a Plug N Play design and a five-stage activated charcoal filtration system. It has a stated 1500 CMH suction capacity, three-sided vents designed to draw air from multiple directions, AutoClean and a BLDC motor. The activated carbon filtration is designed to help deal with smoke and cooking odours, while the duct-free setup means there is no need for core cutting or an exhaust duct.

The BLDC motor is designed to keep noise and energy consumption in check while delivering the required airflow. The filtration system is also designed around maintaining airflow rather than simply restricting it; the Cube Pro combines its five-stage filtration with a stated 1500 CMH suction capacity. This gives the chimney its ductless setup without relying on an external exhaust route, which can be useful in kitchens where conventional duct installation is difficult.

Beyond the Plug N Play installation, filter life is another part of the ownership proposition. The activated carbon filter is designed to last for up to four years and comes with a four-year filter warranty. As with any recirculating chimney, keeping the filter within its intended service life and following the recommended cleaning and usage routine is important for maintaining filtration performance.

Buy from Amazon

Beyond Appliances Cube

Beyond Appliances Cube comes with activated charcoal filtration and AutoClean. Its Plug ’N’ Play setup is the main highlight here, with installation possible using two screws and a power connection. There is no core cutting or ducting involved, which makes the chimney easier to install in rented homes, apartments and finished kitchens where creating an external exhaust route can be difficult.

The activated carbon filter helps reduce cooking odours, while the chimney recirculates the filtered air back into the kitchen. AutoClean handles grease collected inside the chimney, and multiple suction modes let users adjust the airflow based on their cooking. The three-sided vents also help draw in air from different directions.

Another practical aspect of the Cube is that it can be uninstalled and moved when required. This makes the Plug ’N’ Play format useful for users who may not want to make permanent changes to their kitchen.

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Beyond Appliances Eris

Smaller cooking surfaces can benefit from a compact 60 cm chimney, and the Eris combines this size with a filterless design. Its 3D suction intake is engineered for close-range smoke capture, eliminating the need for a conventional baffle or mesh filter that needs to be removed and washed.

A BLDC motor powers the suction system, with the motor designed to deliver efficient airflow while keeping noise and energy consumption in check. The Eris also comes with AutoClean, adding grease management to the setup.

The Smart Display Hub is another major part of the Eris. It features a touchscreen interface along with built-in speakers, while Android-based smart features bring connected functionality to the chimney. The speakers also allow audio playback directly from the appliance. Its 60 cm format makes it suitable for smaller cooking surfaces and kitchens where wall space above the hob is limited.

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Elica EFL 3V 751 BLDC HAC LTW MS NERO

Elica’s EFL 3V 751 is a 75 cm ducted chimney with a filterless design, BLDC motor and AutoClean. Its wider format is suited to larger hobs, while the ducted setup carries extracted air outside rather than recirculating it.

The filterless design means there is no conventional baffle or mesh filter to remove and clean. AutoClean manages grease inside the chimney, while the BLDC motor handles suction. Since this is a ducted model, installation requires an external exhaust outlet and enough space for the duct route. It is also important to keep the terminology separate: filterless describes the filter architecture, while ducted describes the route taken by the extracted air.

Glen Hood Anya

With a 60 cm width, the Glen Hood Anya 60 is aimed at kitchens with smaller cooking surfaces. Its filterless design removes the need for a conventional grease filter, while thermal AutoClean helps deal with grease collected inside the chimney.

Touch and gesture controls are also part of the package. Its compact dimensions can work well in a kitchen where the required ducting is already available, although installation still depends on having a suitable external exhaust route. This is the main consideration when comparing it with a Plug ’N’ Play ductless chimney, which does not require the same ducting provision.

Faber Hood Primus Plus

Faber takes a different filtration approach with the Hood Primus Plus Energy 75, using a baffle filter rather than a filterless system. At 75 cm wide, it is suited to larger hobs where a wider chimney can provide more coverage over the cooking area.

Baffle filters are designed to separate and collect grease from cooking fumes, while activated carbon is primarily used to help reduce odours in recirculating systems. AutoClean and touch controls are also included. For cooking that frequently involves oil, tadka and spices, the baffle filter will need periodic cleaning as part of routine maintenance. AutoClean can reduce the effort involved in managing grease inside the appliance, but it does not eliminate the need for regular care of the chimney and its user-serviceable filtration components.

Ducted vs ductless chimney: how do they work?

The main difference is what happens to the air after the chimney pulls it in. A ducted chimney sends the air outside through an exhaust pipe, while a ductless chimney passes the air through its filtration system and returns it to the kitchen.

In a ducted chimney, the motor creates suction above the hob, pulls smoke and grease-laden air into the chimney, and the captured air is carried through a duct to an external outlet. In a ductless chimney, the motor also draws the cooking air in, but instead of sending it through an external pipe, the air passes through the chimney’s filtration stages; activated carbon can help reduce odours, and the filtered air is then recirculated into the room. The defining difference is the destination of the extracted air.

Ductless chimneys are much easier to install because there is no need to create an external exhaust route. This can be particularly useful in high-rise apartments, rented homes or kitchens where the hob isn’t positioned close to an exterior wall. Beyond Appliances Cube and Cube Pro use a Plug ’N’ Play approach that removes the need for core cutting and ducting. Cube Pro also adds a portable proposition: it can be installed and later uninstalled without treating the chimney as a permanent renovation project.

Which type should you choose?

For many modern kitchens, ductless is simply easier to work with. There is no exhaust pipe to plan, no hole to make in an external wall, and no need to figure out how to route a duct around cabinets. A good ductless chimney with proper filtration can handle the everyday smoke, grease and odours generated while cooking, without the installation constraints of a ducted setup.

For Beyond Appliances, the Plug ’N’ Play proposition is central to this approach. Cube and Cube Pro are designed for duct-free installation and use activated-carbon filtration to help manage cooking odours. Cube Pro adds five-stage filtration, three-sided vents and a stated filter life of up to four years with a four-year filter warranty. The key point is that ductless does not mean no filtration: filtration is the mechanism that makes recirculation possible.

Ducted chimneys still have their place, especially in homes where a proper exhaust outlet is already available. Sending the extracted air outside is useful when cooking produces a lot of smoke and heat, but the duct itself needs to be planned properly. A long pipe with multiple bends can also affect airflow, so installation becomes part of the overall chimney setup.

A ducted chimney therefore involves more than simply attaching a pipe. The exhaust route, outlet position, duct length and bends all form part of the installation. By contrast, a ductless chimney removes that external-airflow route from the installation, but places greater importance on the filtration system because the air is returned indoors.

What should you check before buying?

Once you’ve narrowed down the chimney type, a few practical details can help you choose the right model for your kitchen. The size of the hob, available installation space, filtration and your cooking habits all have a bearing on how well a chimney will fit into your setup.

• Chimney size: A 60 cm model is generally suited to a smaller hob, while 75 cm gives better coverage over a wider cooking surface. The available space above the hob also needs to be taken into account.
• Ducting: A ducted chimney needs an exhaust route to the outside. If the kitchen doesn’t have one, installing a ductless/Plug ’N’ Play model avoids the extra cost and installation mess associated with core cutting and ducting.
• Filtration: This matters more with a ductless chimney because the air is returned to the kitchen after filtration. Activated charcoal filters help with cooking odours, while filterless models don’t have a conventional grease filter.
• Suction capacity: The amount of cooking you do should guide this choice. Frequent frying and high-heat cooking call for more suction than lighter everyday meals.
• Maintenance: AutoClean helps deal with grease inside the chimney, but regular cleaning is still part of owning one. Ductless models with charcoal filters also require filter replacement over time.

Ductless vs ducted chimney: which is better?

There isn’t much point in choosing between the two before looking at the kitchen itself. Ductless is the more convenient route when you don’t have ducting and want to avoid core cutting and the work involved in creating an exhaust route. Modern filtration makes it a practical option for everyday cooking, and the Beyond Appliances models in this list use features such as activated charcoal filtration, Plug N Play installation and AutoClean across the range.

A ducted chimney is a fit for a kitchen that already has an external exhaust provision, especially when heavy cooking is common. It removes the extracted air completely instead of recirculating it, but the installation needs to be right for the chimney to deliver its intended airflow.

In practical terms, a ducted chimney continuously moves extracted air out of the kitchen through the duct route. A ductless chimney instead cleans the drawn-in air through its filtration system and returns it to the room. Neither “ducted” nor “ductless” automatically defines every other feature of the chimney; suction, filter type, AutoClean, size and controls must be assessed separately.

A water purifier is supposed to make one thing simple: make water safe to drink. Yet buying one can quickly turn into a maze of purification technologies, TDS numbers, filter-life claims, extended warranties and annual maintenance plans. Some of these features have a genuine purpose, while others can make it harder to understand what you are actually paying for.

The bigger issue often starts after the purifier has been installed. A low upfront price can be followed by recurring filter replacement costs, while a long warranty may not cover the components you expect it to. TDS, meanwhile, has become such a prominent part of purifier marketing that it is easy to mistake one number for a complete measure of water quality.

These are some of the biggest areas where water purifier marketing can get confusing, and what consumers should look at before making a purchase.

1. The purifier may be cheap, but the filters can keep costing you money

Filter replacement is a normal part of owning a water purifier. Filters collect the contaminants they are designed to remove, and over time they can become clogged or lose their effectiveness.

Read more: Best wet and dry cordless vacuum cleaners in India: Top 5 options you must check

The issue is how often the replacement happens and what it costs. A purifier that needs a filter change every few months can become expensive to maintain. The replacement cost also varies a lot between products. In some cases, several filters may need to be changed together, while others have different replacement cycles for different stages.

There is also an economic reason for manufacturers to care about filter replacements. Replacement filters are recurring sales, unlike the purifier itself, which is usually purchased once. This has raised questions around how much effort the industry has put into improving filter life.

Longer filter life isn’t impossible. It requires better filtration media and engineering, along with testing against different kinds of source water. For buyers, though, the practical question is simpler: how long are these filters actually expected to last in your water and how much will replacing them cost?

2. “Four-year warranty” can mean something very different in the fine print

Water purifier warranties can look impressive when reduced to a single number. Three years, four years, and sometimes even longer.

A four-year warranty doesn’t necessarily mean every repair during those four years is covered. Filters and other consumables are often excluded, while some parts may have separate coverage or conditions attached to them. So when something goes wrong, you may still have to pay for the component that needs replacing.

This is the reason the warranty document matters more than the number on the product page. It should tell you exactly which parts are covered, for how long and under what conditions.

3. AMC plans that cover service but not replacement parts

An AMC may cover the technician’s visit or service charge while keeping replacement parts outside the plan. So if a filter or another component needs to be replaced, you could still have to pay for the part even though the service itself is free.

For example, a technician could replace Rs 2,000 worth of filters while the Rs 200 service charge is covered by the AMC. Technically, the service was free. The repair wasn’t.

This distinction becomes important because the expensive part of maintaining a purifier isn’t always the technician’s visit. It can be the parts being replaced.

Read more: Air fryer vs microwave: What’s better to reheat different foods?

AMCs can still make sense for people who want scheduled servicing or don’t want to deal with individual service calls. But the coverage needs to be understood before paying for one. “Free service” and “parts covered” are two different things.

4. TDS adjustment can be misleading if you treat the number as a measure of safety

TDS, or Total Dissolved Solids, is one of the most heavily marketed numbers in the water purifier category. Some products allow consumers or technicians to adjust the TDS of the purified water, often with the idea that extremely low TDS isn’t desirable.

There is an important catch: TDS tells you about the quantity of dissolved material, not what that material actually is. A TDS meter cannot tell you whether the dissolved solids are minerals, salts or potentially harmful contaminants. Two water samples with the same TDS reading can therefore have very different compositions.

If the input water has a TDS of 200 and the RO brings it down to 20, the TDS controller can bring the number back up by mixing some of the input water with the treated water. You could then end up with a reading of 100 or 150, depending on how the purifier is adjusted.

The higher number doesn’t mean the water has become better. You are also bringing back some of whatever was present in the original water. If that water contained unwanted contaminants, those can make their way back into the output as well.

So, if a purifier’s marketing focuses heavily on achieving a particular TDS number, don’t assume that number alone tells you whether the water is suitable for drinking.

5. Low TDS doesn’t automatically mean safe drinking water

The biggest misconception around TDS is treating it as a complete water-quality test. TDS is useful as one indicator. For an RO purifier, comparing the TDS of the water entering the machine with the TDS of the treated water can help indicate how much dissolved material the system is removing. A significant reduction can show that the RO membrane is doing its job in reducing dissolved solids.

But drinking-water safety involves much more than dissolved solids. Water can contain specific chemical contaminants, heavy metals, microorganisms and other substances that a basic TDS meter cannot identify. A low TDS reading therefore isn’t a guarantee that water is safe to drink.

This is also why drinking-water standards look at multiple parameters rather than using a single TDS number as the definition of safe water.

What to check before buying a water purifier

Marketing claims can make one purifier appear dramatically different from another, but the more useful comparison is often much simpler.

For warranties and AMCs, look at what is actually covered rather than just the number of years or the promise of free service. Check the cost of replacement filters as well, since that can add considerably to the price of owning a purifier over time. And when it comes to TDS, don’t treat a single number as a complete picture of your water quality.

A purifier’s real value isn’t determined by how many features are listed on its box. The more important question is what it costs to maintain and whether its purification system matches the water you actually receive at home.

Read more: 5 best under sink water purifiers in India: These models give your kitchen a clean, clutter free look

The mid-range laptop market in India has become far more interesting than it used to be. You can now find laptops focused on portability, battery life, large displays and gaming without necessarily spending flagship-level money. The catch, however, is that these machines are designed for very different users.

A student may want a laptop that can comfortably handle online classes, documents and entertainment, while a professional may care more about portability and battery life. Then there are those who want a laptop that can also handle gaming or GPU-heavy creative applications.

That is why simply looking at the processor or the price is not enough. A laptop with an efficient processor and excellent battery life may be a better fit for one buyer, while another may be better served by a machine with a dedicated GPU and a high-refresh-rate display.

So, here are the best five mid-range laptops that you can consider buying. Before we get to the details, do note that prices can change depending on the configuration and offers available at the time of purchase. So, check the exact model and current price before buying.

Best mid-range laptops in India (2026): At a glance

How we choose the best mid-range laptops

A mid-range laptop needs to get the basics right because this is where most buyers are looking for a balance rather than maximum specifications. We consider performance, display quality, build, battery life and everyday usability, while also taking the intended use of each machine into account.

Performance

We look at processor performance, benchmark results and how the laptop handles everyday workloads. For gaming laptops, dedicated GPU performance becomes an important part of the assessment, while thin-and-light machines are judged more on how well they handle regular productivity.

Display

The display can make a significant difference to the everyday experience. We consider resolution, refresh rate, brightness, colour coverage and panel technology. For creator-focused or gaming laptops, colour accuracy and refresh rate also matter.

Build and portability

A laptop needs to be practical to carry and use. We consider the chassis, weight, thickness, hinge and overall build quality.

Battery life

Battery life is especially important for students and professionals who may spend several hours away from a charger. We consider both benchmark results and real-world usage where available.

Keyboard, touchpad, speakers and webcam

These are the components you interact with every day. A laptop may have a good processor, but that does not mean much if the keyboard is uncomfortable or the webcam and speakers are poor.

Gaming and graphics

For laptops with dedicated GPUs, we look at actual gaming performance alongside synthetic benchmarks. For productivity-focused machines, we consider whether integrated graphics are sufficient for the intended workload.

Connectivity and features

Ports, wireless connectivity, charging and other useful features can make a significant difference to how practical a laptop is.

Value for money

Finally, we look at what the laptop offers at its price and whether its hardware matches the audience it is designed for.

Top 5 mid-range laptops in India

Now, let’s take a closer look at the five laptops that stand out for different types of users.

1. Dell XPS 13

Price: Rs 79,990

Best for: Professionals and students who want a compact premium Windows laptop for everyday productivity.

Key specifications

Why buy it

The Dell XPS 13 is aimed at those who want a compact laptop without giving up on a premium display. At Rs 79,990, it also sits below the Rs 1 lakh mark, which makes its combination of portability and display technology particularly interesting.

The 13.4-inch 2.5K touchscreen has a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz and can reach 500 nits of brightness. The InfinityEdge design also keeps the bezels slim, giving the laptop a modern look without making the chassis unnecessarily large.

Under the hood, the laptop uses Intel's Core 5 320 processor with six cores, paired with 8GB LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB PCIe NVMe storage. Integrated Intel Graphics handles the visual workload.

This is primarily a productivity laptop. It should be well suited to writing, browsing, office applications, video calls and content consumption, but it is not designed for demanding gaming or heavy GPU-based creative work.

The biggest advantage here is the compact form factor. If you regularly move between classrooms, offices, meetings or different workspaces, a smaller laptop can be considerably easier to live with than a larger 15- or 16-inch machine.

The trade-off is screen size. The 13.4-inch panel is excellent for portability, but users who spend most of their day working with large spreadsheets or multiple windows may prefer larger displays on other laptops.

Pros

• Compact and portable design
• 2.5K touchscreen
• Up to 120Hz refresh rate
• 500-nit brightness
• Premium positioning below Rs 1 lakh

Cons

• Small display for multitasking
• Integrated graphics limit gaming
• 512GB storage may feel restrictive for some users

Verdict: The Dell XPS 13 is a good option for anyone who values portability and a premium display over raw performance. It is particularly suited to students and professionals who spend a lot of time moving around with their laptop.

2. HP Omnibook 5

Price: Rs 1,24,999

Best for: Students and professionals who prioritise portability and long battery life.

Key specifications

Why buy it

The HP Omnibook 5 is built around portability and battery life. At just 1.3kg and 13.6mm thick, it is considerably easier to carry than many larger laptops, while the 14-inch 2K OLED display gives it a more premium visual experience.

The display is one of the laptop's strongest features. Colours are accurate, blacks are deep and the matte finish helps reduce reflections. The main compromise is the 60Hz refresh rate, which is fine for productivity and content consumption but less exciting if you also want to game.

Performance is handled by Intel's Core Ultra 7 355, paired with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD. In testing, the laptop scored 7,482 in PCMark 10. Cinebench R23 returned 10,067 points in multi-core and 1,899 points in single-core, while Geekbench 6 produced 2,734 single-core and 11,093 multi-core points.

The laptop can also handle some gaming. Jedi: Survivor maintained around 60fps, while Valorant reached around 200fps at low graphics settings. However, the 60Hz display means you cannot actually see all of those frames.

Battery life is where the Omnibook 5 really separates itself from most laptops in this category. It lasted 1,017 minutes in the PCMark 10 Modern Office test, which works out to just under 17 hours.

There is one important caveat. Under sustained heavy workloads, the processor gets hot. During the Cinebench stress test, CPU temperatures reached 96.3°C and repeated runs showed a performance drop.

Pros

• Excellent battery life
• Lightweight 1.3kg design
• 2K OLED display
• Good colour accuracy
• 1TB SSD
• Capable everyday performance

Cons

• 60Hz display
• Gets hot under sustained workloads
• Not designed for demanding gaming

Verdict: The HP Omnibook 5 is a strong choice for people who want a laptop that can easily get through a long work or study day without a charger. Its low weight and nearly 17-hour battery result make it especially appealing to mobile users.

3. Asus Vivobook 16

Price: Rs 68,990

Best for: Students and professionals who want a large display for work and study.

Key specifications

Why buy it

The Asus Vivobook 16 takes a very different approach from the compact XPS 13 and Omnibook 5. Instead of focusing on minimum weight, Asus gives you a much larger 16-inch display that is better suited to multitasking.

The 16:10 IPS panel has a 1920 × 1200 resolution, giving you more vertical screen space than a conventional 16:9 display. This is useful when working with documents, spreadsheets, browser windows and other productivity applications.

The laptop weighs around 1.8kg, so it is portable enough to move around occasionally, although it is not the best option for someone who carries a laptop to work every single day.

The Snapdragon X processor is paired with 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD. In testing, the Vivobook 16 scored 6,599 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 964 in single-core. Geekbench 6 scores stood at 2,109 in single-core and 10,386 in multi-core.

This makes it well suited to browsing, documents, video calls, light photo editing and web-based AI tools. It is not designed for demanding rendering or serious gaming.

Battery life is another strength. The laptop managed around 900 minutes in the PCMark Modern Office battery test at 200 nits, which works out to approximately 15 hours.

The main compromise is the display's colour performance. Testing recorded an average Delta E of 5.2 and 57 percent sRGB coverage. That is fine for office work and casual content consumption, but not ideal for professional photo or video work.

The laptop also has a useful selection of ports, including two USB 4.0 Type-C ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI 2.1 TMDS and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Pros

• Large 16-inch display
• 16:10 aspect ratio
• Around 15-hour battery life
• Good everyday performance
• Useful port selection
• Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3

Cons

• Average colour accuracy
• Around 1.8kg
• Speakers lack depth
• Not designed for heavy gaming

Verdict: The Vivobook 16 is a practical choice if screen size matters more to you than portability. Its large 16:10 display and strong battery life make it particularly useful for students and professionals who spend most of their day working on documents, browsers and productivity applications.

4. Acer Nitro Lite 16

Price: Rs 98,990

Best for: Gamers and users who need dedicated graphics for gaming or creative workloads.

Key specifications

Why buy it

The Acer Nitro Lite 16 is the gaming-focused option in this list. While the other laptops are primarily designed around productivity and portability, Acer has equipped this machine with a dedicated Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU and a 165Hz display.

That immediately gives it an advantage in gaming and GPU-accelerated applications.

The laptop uses an Intel Core i5-13420H processor with 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB SSD storage. Its 16-inch IPS display runs at 165Hz and reaches up to 300 nits of brightness. It also covers 99.2 percent of the sRGB colour gamut, although testing recorded an average Delta E of 5.

In gaming, the RTX 4050 gives the Nitro Lite 16 enough power to handle modern titles. Elden Ring averaged around 53fps at the highest graphics preset, while Forza Horizon 4 reached around 130fps at ultra settings. Valorant and Mortuary Assistant also ran smoothly.

The 165Hz panel makes more sense here than the 60Hz displays found on some productivity laptops. Fast-paced games can actually take advantage of the higher refresh rate.

The compromise is battery life. The laptop lasted 7 hours and 32 minutes in the Modern Office benchmark, and gaming will drain the battery much faster. The fans also become clearly audible when the GPU is pushed.

Still, at under Rs 1 lakh, the Nitro Lite 16 offers a very different proposition from the thin-and-light laptops in this list.

Pros

• RTX 4050 dedicated GPU
• 165Hz display
• Strong gaming performance
• 99.2% sRGB coverage
• Good option for GPU-heavy workloads
• Priced under Rs 1 lakh

Cons

• Shorter battery life
• Fans become loud under load
• Display colour accuracy could be better
• Less portable than thin-and-light laptops

Verdict: The Acer Nitro Lite 16 is the laptop to consider if gaming is an important part of your buying decision. The RTX 4050 and 165Hz display give it capabilities that the integrated-graphics laptops here simply cannot match.

5. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Gen 11

Price: Rs 1,09,990

Best for: Students, office users and home users who need a mainstream laptop for everyday productivity.

Key specifications

Why buy it

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Gen 11 is the most straightforward laptop on this list. It is built for people who need a dependable machine for documents, browsing, online classes, video calls, streaming and other everyday tasks.

The laptop uses Intel's Core Ultra 5 322 processor from the Panther Lake-H platform. The reviewed configuration comes with 16GB DDR5-5600 memory and 512GB NVMe storage. One advantage here is memory upgrade potential, with Lenovo listing support for up to 40GB.

The 15.3-inch WUXGA display uses a 16:10 aspect ratio and supports up to 400 nits of brightness. It also carries TÜV Low Blue Light certification.

Performance is suitable for everyday productivity. In Geekbench 6, the laptop scored 2,516 in single-core and 8,099 in multi-core. Cinebench R23 returned 1,819 points in single-core and 7,492 in multi-core.

The integrated Intel Graphics is not intended for demanding gaming. The laptop scored 232 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad test, with a graphics test result of 2.32fps.

Battery life is considerably more impressive for a productivity laptop. The 60Wh battery lasted 13 hours and 59 minutes in testing. Lenovo's Rapid Charge Boost can also provide up to two hours of usage from a 15-minute charge, and this was achieved during testing.

Connectivity is another useful feature. You get USB Type-A, USB Type-C with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, HDMI 1.4, an SD card reader and a 3.5mm audio jack, along with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3.

Pros

• Good everyday performance
• Upgradeable memory
• Nearly 14-hour battery life
• Useful port selection
• 16:10 display
• FHD IR webcam
• Rapid charging support

Cons

• Integrated graphics limit gaming
• 60Hz display
• Not designed for demanding creative workloads
• 512GB storage may be limiting for some users

Verdict: The IdeaPad Slim 3i Gen 11 is a sensible mainstream laptop for students and office users. It does not try to be a gaming or creator machine, but its processor, memory upgrade potential, battery life and useful connectivity make it a practical everyday computer.

Mid-range laptop comparison: Which one should you buy?

Quick recommendations

Choose the Dell XPS 13 if: You want a compact laptop with a high-resolution touchscreen and premium positioning for everyday productivity.

Choose the HP Omnibook 5 if: Battery life and portability are your biggest priorities. Its 1.3kg body and nearly 17-hour battery result make it particularly suited to mobile users.

Choose the Asus Vivobook 16 if: You want a large display for work, study and multitasking and do not need professional-grade colour accuracy.

Choose the Acer Nitro Lite 16 if: Gaming is important to you and you want an RTX 4050 GPU and 165Hz display without spending flagship-level money.

Choose the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Gen 11 if: You want a mainstream productivity laptop with good battery life, useful ports and the option to upgrade the memory.

How to choose the best mid-range laptop

1. Decide what you actually need the laptop for

The five laptops here are designed for different users.

The Dell XPS 13 and HP Omnibook 5 make more sense for people who move around frequently. The Vivobook 16 is better suited to someone who wants a large workspace, while the Nitro Lite 16 is aimed at gamers.

The IdeaPad Slim 3i Gen 11 sits closer to the traditional mainstream laptop, focusing on everyday productivity.

Think about your workload first rather than starting with the processor name.

2. Do you need a dedicated GPU?

For most office and study work, integrated graphics are perfectly adequate.

You only really need a dedicated GPU if gaming, video editing, 3D work or other GPU-heavy applications are important to you. The RTX 4050 in the Acer Nitro Lite 16 gives it a clear advantage in these workloads.

The other four laptops are primarily designed around productivity and everyday use.

3. Consider screen size carefully

A 13.4-inch laptop such as the XPS 13 is easier to carry, but a 16-inch laptop such as the Vivobook 16 gives you considerably more room to work.

If you spend most of your day writing or browsing, the larger display can make multitasking more comfortable. If you travel frequently, the smaller chassis may matter more.

4. Battery life can be more important than benchmark scores

The HP Omnibook 5 lasted nearly 17 hours in the PCMark Modern Office test, while the Vivobook 16 managed around 15 hours and the IdeaPad Slim 3i Gen 11 nearly 14 hours.

The Nitro Lite 16, meanwhile, lasted 7 hours and 32 minutes in the same general battery testing environment.

That difference matters if you regularly work away from a charger.

5. Check the display if you create content

Not every high-resolution display is suitable for professional creative work.

The HP Omnibook 5 has strong colour accuracy thanks to its OLED panel, while the Acer Nitro Lite 16 covers 99.2 percent of sRGB but recorded an average Delta E of 5.

The Vivobook 16, meanwhile, recorded 57 percent sRGB coverage and an average Delta E of 5.2. It is therefore better suited to productivity and casual content consumption than colour-sensitive work.

6. Think about portability

There is a substantial difference between a compact 13.4-inch laptop and a 16-inch machine.

The HP Omnibook 5 is particularly easy to carry at 1.3kg. The Vivobook 16 weighs around 1.8kg, making it more suitable for users who do not need to carry their laptop around constantly.

7. Look at the ports you actually use

A laptop can have an excellent processor and display, but limited connectivity can become frustrating.

The Vivobook 16 offers two USB 4.0 Type-C ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI and a headphone jack. The IdeaPad Slim 3i Gen 11 also includes USB Type-A, USB Type-C, HDMI, an SD card reader and a headphone jack.

If you regularly connect external drives, displays, cameras or other accessories, check the port selection before buying.

Mid-range laptops: Category-wise recommendations

FAQs

Which is the best mid-range laptop in India in 2026?

There is no single laptop that suits every mid-range buyer. The Dell XPS 13 is focused on compact productivity, the HP Omnibook 5 prioritises battery life and portability, the Asus Vivobook 16 offers a large display, the Acer Nitro Lite 16 focuses on gaming, and the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Gen 11 is designed for everyday productivity.

Which is the best mid-range laptop for students?

The right choice depends on what you need from the laptop. The HP Omnibook 5 is useful if portability and battery life are important, while the Asus Vivobook 16 is better suited to students who want a larger screen for documents, online classes and multitasking.

Which is the best laptop for gaming in this list?

The Acer Nitro Lite 16 is the gaming-focused option. Its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU and 165Hz display give it considerably more gaming capability than the integrated-graphics laptops in this list.

Which laptop has the best battery life?

The HP Omnibook 5 recorded the longest battery life in the testing shared for these laptops, lasting 1,017 minutes or just under 17 hours in the PCMark 10 Modern Office test.

Which is the most portable laptop in this list?

The HP Omnibook 5 weighs 1.3kg, making it one of the easiest laptops here to carry around. The Dell XPS 13 is also designed around a compact form factor.

Is the Asus Vivobook 16 good for work?

Yes. The Vivobook 16 is designed for everyday productivity and offers a large 16-inch 16:10 display, good battery life and enough performance for browsing, documents, video calls, light photo editing and web-based AI tools.

Is the Acer Nitro Lite 16 good for office work?

Yes, it can handle office work, browsing and other everyday tasks, but its main advantage is the RTX 4050 GPU and 165Hz display. If you do not need gaming or GPU-heavy workloads, a thinner productivity-focused laptop may be more practical.

Is the HP Omnibook 5 good for gaming?

It can handle some games, but gaming is not its primary purpose. The laptop managed around 60fps in Jedi: Survivor and up to 200fps in Valorant at low settings, but its 60Hz display means it cannot make full use of very high frame rates.

Which laptop is best for everyday office work?

The Dell XPS 13, HP Omnibook 5 and Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Gen 11 are all designed around productivity. The choice comes down to priorities, with the XPS 13 focusing on compactness, the Omnibook 5 on battery life and the IdeaPad Slim 3i Gen 11 on mainstream features and upgrade potential.

Which mid-range laptop is best for a large display?

The Asus Vivobook 16 has the largest display among the five laptops, with a 16-inch 16:10 IPS panel. It is particularly suited to users who spend a lot of time working with documents, browsers and multiple applications.

Which laptop should I buy if I want both gaming and productivity?

The Acer Nitro Lite 16 is the most suitable option in this list if you want gaming alongside everyday productivity. Its RTX 4050 GPU gives it significantly more graphics performance than the integrated-graphics laptops here, while its 165Hz display is also better suited to gaming.

Cleaning the house usually means dealing with two different kinds of mess. There is the everyday dust, hair and crumbs that need vacuuming, and then there are spills, muddy footprints or food messes that need a mop. Using separate machines for both can get inconvenient, especially when you have to clean the same floor regularly.

Wet and dry cordless vacuum cleaners try to solve both problems with one machine. Some are designed mainly for vacuuming and mopping hard floors, while others come with detachable units and attachments that let you clean sofas, carpets and other surfaces too.

We have picked five capable options and ranked them based on what they can actually do, rather than their price.

Dreame H12 Dual FlexReach

If you want one machine to cover more than just the floor, the Dreame H12 Dual FlexReach makes a strong case. It is a 6-in-1 wet and dry cleaner with multiple attachments, so you can use it for floor washing as well as dry vacuuming on other surfaces. It has up to 23,000Pa suction and a 180-degree lie-flat design for getting under low furniture.

Also read: Dreame H12 Dual FlexReach review: Best cordless handheld wet and dry vacuum cleaner under Rs 50000?

The floor-cleaning side gets a 90-degree hot-water self-cleaning system, followed by hot-air drying. Dreame also lists up to 60 minutes of runtime in vacuum mode. The combination of a detachable dry-vacuum setup, wet cleaning and multiple attachments gives it a wider role around the house than a dedicated floor washer.

Dyson V12 Detect Slim Submarine

The V12 Detect Slim Submarine is essentially a cordless vacuum with wet cleaning added to the package. Its dry-vacuum side gets 150 Air Watts of suction, a Hyperdymium motor spinning at up to 125,000rpm and up to 60 minutes of runtime. It also weighs 2.2kg, which makes it easier to use for everyday above-floor cleaning.

The Submarine wet roller head handles hard-floor washing, while Dyson’s Fluffy Optic cleaner head is designed to reveal fine dust that can otherwise be difficult to spot. There is also a Hair Screw Tool for hair and pet hair. So, if your cleaning involves sofas, mattresses, corners and other surfaces as much as floors, the V12 has a clear advantage over dedicated floor washers.

Tineco Floor One S6 Stretch Max

The S6 Stretch Max is built around one particular job: making hard-floor cleaning less of a two-step process. It combines vacuuming and mopping, while its 180-degree lay-flat design lets the cleaning head get underneath beds and other low furniture. Tineco’s India listing confirms this exact Stretch Max variant is currently part of its lineup.

This model makes more sense if most of your cleaning happens on hard floors. It is not as broad a cleaning system as the Dreame H12 Dual FlexReach, but the floor-washing approach is more focused. Its self-cleaning and drying system also reduces the unpleasant part of maintaining a wet floor cleaner after use.

Also read: Milagrow iMap Max W300 Eco review: A robot vacuum that takes cleaning seriously

Eureka Forbes Zerobend Z21WM

The Zerobend Z21WM takes a different route to making cleaning easier. Its ZeroBend design lets the machine bend 90 degrees on either side, which is useful when you need to get underneath furniture or into tighter areas without constantly bending down. Eureka Forbes also gives it a motorised wet-mopping brush alongside its dry-vacuum system.

For dry cleaning, the Z21WM is rated at 210 Air Watts of suction and uses 12H Cyclonic Technology. It also gets an auto hair-detangling system, which can be useful if long hair regularly gets wrapped around the brush. Eureka Forbes lists up to 60 minutes of runtime, although actual runtime will vary depending on the mode and cleaning task.

Kärcher FC 7 Cordless

The Kärcher FC 7 Cordless is the most specialised product here, and that is also why it sits lower in an overall versatility ranking. Its four counter-rotating rollers are designed to pick up dry debris while washing the floor in the same pass. There is no need to vacuum the floor separately before mopping.

It has separate clean- and dirty-water tanks, two cleaning modes and a Boost mode for tougher dirt. Kärcher lists around 45 minutes of battery runtime and support for sealed hard floors such as tiles, parquet, laminate, PVC and vinyl. It is excellent at what it is designed for, but unlike the Dreame or Dyson, it is not a general-purpose cordless vacuum for sofas, mattresses or other above-floor surfaces.

Prices of the best wet and dry cordless vacuum cleaners in India

Note: Prices can change based on offers and retailer availability.

Also read: Wozoyo Pure Air PA6 review: How good is this new entrant?

Picking the right party speaker matters more than most people think. The difference between a decent gathering and one that people actually remember often comes down to the audio setup and how well it suits the space. This guide covers four boAt party speakers under Rs. 25,000: the boAt PartyPal Nova, PartyPal Ultra, PartyPal 600 Plus and PartyPal 650. They offer different combinations of power output, karaoke features, wireless microphones, DJ controls, battery life and connectivity, making them suited to different types of celebrations.

boAt PartyPal Nova: 120W party speaker for house parties

The PartyPal Nova, priced between Rs. 7,999 and Rs. 9,999, is the most accessible option in this lineup and is suited to mid-sized gatherings. The 120W boAt Signature Sound output, driven by a 6.5-inch dual driver setup with a 2-inch tweeter, is designed to deliver clear audio with enough volume for a living room or a small outdoor space. A UHF wireless microphone comes in the box with a built in pro-tuner, helping make karaoke sessions more enjoyable even for casual singers. Connectivity covers Bluetooth v5.3, AUX, TF card, USB, and wired microphone input, giving users multiple ways to connect their devices. RGB LEDs add visual energy to the setup, pulsing in sync with the music. TWS mode allows two Nova units to be paired together for broader coverage, and the boAt Hearables App gives you control over settings and battery status from your phone. You can find it at your nearby retail stores. For buyers looking for a party speaker for house parties, karaoke and smaller gatherings, the PartyPal Nova offers a combination of 120W output, wireless microphone support and multiple connectivity options.

boAt PartyPal Ultra: 260W party speaker with dual wireless mics

The PartyPal Ultra, available between Rs. 16,999 and Rs. 19,999, available at nearby retail outlets, brings 260W of boAt Signature Sound output to larger venues and more demanding gatherings. The built-in DJ tracks and bass drop feature let you control the energy of the room without needing external equipment, in-built DJ pads and bass drop effects available at the press of a button. Two UHF wireless microphones come included, both supported by a Karaoke Pro-Tuner designed to help keep vocals pitch-accurate during group singing. A dedicated guitar input channel makes the Ultra a practical choice for live acoustic performances at private events. Trolley wheels allow the speaker to be moved between spaces more easily, and TWS mode doubles the output by pairing two units wirelessly. RGB LEDs, Bluetooth v5.3, AUX, TF card, USB connectivity, and boAt Hearables App support round out a feature set built for events that need both sound and spectacle. Battery life runs up to 6 hours at 60 percent volume, giving users enough playback time for extended gatherings. For buyers looking for a powerful party speaker with karaoke, dual wireless microphones and guitar connectivity, the PartyPal Ultra offers a feature-rich setup for larger celebrations.

boAt PartyPal 600 Plus: 240W speaker for large indoor and outdoor events

Priced at Rs. 19,999, the PartyPal 600 Plus steps up to 240W RMS output with a feature list tailored for outdoor events and large indoor venues. The Advanced Karaoke Pro-Tuner refines pitch in real time, and the two UHF wireless microphones give performers the freedom to move across the venue without signal drops. Inbuilt DJ tracks and bass drop controls keep transitions smooth between songs without outside help. The guitar input channel allows solo performers or small bands to plug in and play directly through the speaker. The trolley handle wheels mean you can roll it from room to room or across the lawn without anyone having to lift it. TWS mode allows two units to be paired for a wider stereo spread across large spaces. The boAt Hearables App connects to Jio Saavn and Kuku FM for streaming and provides real-time battery monitoring. At 6 hours of playtime at 60 percent volume, the 600 Plus keeps the celebration going well into the night.

boAt PartyPal 650: 300W party speaker for large venues

The boAt PartyPal 650 at Rs. 21,999 is the most powerful option in this guide, delivering 300W RMS output with the boAt Signature Sound tuning that handles bass, mids, and highs with equal clarity. The AI Karaoke Pro-Tuner reads your voice as you sing and adjusts pitch and frequency balance on the spot, which means live performances hold up even without rehearsal. Both UHF wireless microphones stay clear and dropout-free across the venue. The RGB LEDs on the front move with the music, which on a dark dance floor makes a bigger difference than most people expect. TWS mode pairs two units wirelessly for a combined 600W stereo output, making it suitable for open lawns and multi-room venues. Bluetooth v5.3, AUX, TF card, USB, and wired microphone inputs offer full connectivity flexibility. The boAt Hearables App handles customisation and battery monitoring, and the built-in DJ tracks with bass drop controls keep the energy high throughout. Battery life runs up to 5 hours at 60 percent volume.

For buyers looking for the highest-output boAt party speaker in this lineup, the PartyPal 650 combines 300W RMS output, AI-powered karaoke features, dual wireless microphones and TWS pairing.

Which party speaker should you pick?

The right choice depends on the kind of gathering you are planning. boAt PartyPal Nova works well for house parties and smaller gatherings, while boAt PartyPal Ultra and boAt PartyPal 600 Plus offer more power and features for larger indoor or outdoor events. For those looking for the highest output in this lineup, PartyPal 650 brings 300W RMS along with AI-powered karaoke features and wireless microphones. Ultimately, consider the size of your space, number of guests and how much you plan to use features such as karaoke, DJ controls and wireless pairing before making a choice.

My first "smart" earbuds came out in 2019. By smart I mean control using touch and an app that lets you customize the equalizer settings. That's all it was. Connect, listen, charge and repeat. Easy. You would choose earbuds based on how they sound, battery life and how secure they were while running. No one cared about which cloud service your earbuds were talking to or whether or not they used their AI models as there was no such question back then. Buying headphones is one of the few technology purchases you can still make by instinct rather than having specs opened in a new tab somewhere else. Not anymore with the Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2.

Also read: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 vs 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6: Who really needs the Extreme?

The spec sheet mentions enhanced ANC and lossless audio, and yes, both of those are there. However, there is much more going on, as this time around Qualcomm does not treat its audio wearable technology as an accessory to your phone, but as a computer on its own. This computer features a built-in Wi-Fi 6E radio, allowing a pair of earbuds or a set of smart glasses to communicate directly with the cloud, bypassing any other device on the way. A dedicated AI accelerator, processing at 128 GOPS and doubling the capacity of the previous generation, is included. Moreover, there is even a whole "Apps & Agents" platform that Qualcomm encourages OEMs to develop upon this platform. Radio, AI chip, and apps – all integrated into a single chipset previously used only for transferring audio signals to your headphones. This is not an audio platform anymore. This is an operating system.

From accessory to agent

Every class of wearable eventually becomes its own platform, rather than a simple accessory. It happened with watches, with the emergence of Wear OS and watchOS. Now it's happening with audio wearables, and the impetus is the same one fueling everything else in tech at the moment – AI agents need a home beyond the smartphone screen.

Let's examine what Qualcomm really is envisioning with those categories. Earbuds with cameras. Audio glasses that can serve as your Gemini interface. Hearing wellness wearables that quietly adapt to the ambient environment around you all day long. These aren't AirPod-like earbuds. They're standalone computing devices that happen to be situated by your ears, with their own AI, cloud connectivity and even real-time translation capability. It's not quite the same buying decision that consumers made five years ago.

Also read: Zoho wants Zia to become the interface for enterprise software

Buying earbuds now feels like buying a phone

The decision about what audio equipment to purchase used to boil down to three criteria – how good the ANC is, how much battery it has, and how well it fits. Well, here are several others to consider now. Who is the AI assistant running. Is there any need for its own internet connection. Can the smart functions operate without the phone at all. Are you tied to the closed ecosystem of the manufacturer?

That's not a criticism of Qualcomm. It bets on the idea that people would use audio rather than visual means of communication with AI throughout their day. That is definitely a sound assumption. But each layer of AI intelligence added to the chip means additional specifications to figure out before the purchase.

In India in particular, it hits at a funny time. The market is barely getting used to the idea of buying "decent ANC TWS under three thousand rupees." Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 throws everything back up for grabs, with camera headphones and AI glasses adjacent hardware in the mix before many consumers ever tried a translator headset. Cleer already unveiled a reference product based on this technology at Summit. This isn't Powerpoint vaporware. Devices are coming.

Also read: Googlebook vs Windows and macOS: How will Google’s new laptop platform stack up

Sennheiser has launched its flagship wireless headphones for 2026, the Momentum 5 Wireless, in India at Rs 39,990. The new model builds on the Momentum 4 with changes to the design, microphones, audio hardware, connectivity, and, perhaps most importantly, battery replaceability. Sennheiser has added a user-replaceable battery that could make the headphones easier to keep for longer. Truly speaking, that was the highlight for me at the Momentum 5 launch event.

But as is the case, the company presentation and pitch emphasised several of the Momentum 5 audio aspects, including a new 42mm dynamic driver made at Sennheiser's acoustic facility in Tullamore, Ireland. The company says the driver takes inspiration from its HD 600 series and is tuned for tighter and more controlled sound. There is also an eight-microphone array, up from the previous generation, which Sennheiser says improves active noise cancellation and voice capture. I have spent some time with the headphones, but not enough for the full review. So, here are my first impressions.

Design and repairability

The first thing I wanted to know is whether the new Sennheiser headphones come in the signature monochrome shade. Well, they do and they are also available in a few other interesting colours. We got the blue denim one, and it looks fine. It even has a fabric finish. The case also shares the same finish and colour. Both the inner case and the undersides of the headphone headband and earcushions have a cream colour. The same creamy colour is present on the bundled 2.5mm wire and USB-C cable.

The new model retains the flat-pivoting, non-folding hinge mechanism, but the overall footprint of the chassis is compact for travel. The case also has this compactness to it, and Sennheiser says it is 20% slimmer than the predecessor. The case closes with a zip, and you can carry or hang it with the attached carry loop.

The headphones aren't that heavy at 290 grams. For context, the Momentum 5 is lighter than the 384-gram AirPods Max and 320-gram Sony The Collexion. It is largely polycarbonate construction with faux-leather ear pads. They are plump and offer decent passive isolation while wearing the headphones and sit closely around the ears, which should also help with passive isolation.

There is no IP rating for dust or water resistance, so these are still headphones I would keep away from rain and the beach. By the way, neither the Sony The Collexion nor the AirPods Max have ingress protection claims.

The biggest design change, however, is that Sennheiser has made the battery user-replaceable.

The left ear pad can be removed to access the battery compartment. Four Phillips-head screws hold the assembly in place, after which the 700mAh battery can be accessed and replaced. This is a notable approach for a premium pair of wireless headphones, where battery degradation can eventually become one of the main reasons to replace the entire product.

For users who intend to keep their headphones for several years, this could matter more than a minor improvement in sound or ANC. While a replaceable battery does not make the headphones maintenance-free, it could considerably extend their useful life.

Also Read: Sony LinkBuds Clip review: Premium, good-sounding open-ear earbuds

Controls and connectivity

The control layout remains fairly conventional. The right earcup houses the USB-C port, 2.5mm headphone jack, power cum pairing button, along with the capacitive touch controls. Playback, volume, and track navigation can be handled through taps and swipes. I especially appreciate the pinch-in and pinch-out-based gesture on the right earcup to switch between ANC and transparency modes. Intuitive!

In the limited time I used them, I didn't find any trouble pairing or staying connected with the device. I used it with my MacBook Air and Nothing Phone 4a. With the laptop, I did try both USB-C audio and the 2.5mm-to-3.5mm analogue cable for playback. Both worked. And by the way, Sennheiser says the headphones can decode close-to-lossless files at up to 24-bit/96kHz through the type-C connection.

Furthermore, during the launch event, the company did mention that with the Sennheiser BTD 700 dongle, the Momentum 5 can use aptX Lossless or aptX Adaptive and offer a low-latency mode, which can appeal to gamers and video watchers. The Momentum 5 works through Bluetooth 5.4 and supports aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, AAC, and SBC.

Spatial audio is another part of the package, with Dolby Atmos support and head tracking using built-in gyroscopic sensors.

You can control this and other features and options in Sennheiser's Smart Control Plus app. It has everything you'd expect, like EQ settings, ANC and transparency controls, playback options, etc.

Since I am yet to test the audio and noise cancellation, I haven't played around with many of these options. But from what I have heard so far, I don't have any complaints about the Momentum 5.

Sennheiser Momentum 5 first impressions

Momentum series is popular for its sound and overall offering. Sennheiser doesn't have to reinvent the formula. Rather, it has to refine, and there are claims of doing that. And I am eager to listen more and deeply to understand how much of a refinement the Momentum 5 is.

I will be testing the upgraded noise cancellation, call quality, and niche use cases like Spatial Audio. One thing I won't be able to test within the review period, but I am most excited about, is — no drum rolls required — the user-replaceability of the battery. But hey, I'll tell you how long the battery lasts between charges.

So the Momentum 5 feels like a flagship-grade product, and while the replaceable battery could be its big head-turning feature, buyers will also want to know about sound, ANC, and comfort in everyday use. So, there is plenty to test, and I am all the more excited considering how promising things look on paper. If you are also excited and want to know more before deciding whether to buy it, stay tuned for our review soon.

Also, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5, which is the brand's all-new flagship pair of TWS earbuds, came to us a little later, and you can expect its review to coincide with the headphones.

Keep reading Digit.in for similar stories.

Also Read: Sennheiser HDB 630 review: Faithful sound meets functional design

However, Anthropic has rolled out Claude Opus 5.5, the first of its newly developed 5.5 series, and the context around it is just as important as the model itself. It is the company’s first new launch following the public statement by its CEO, Dario Amodei, to “pace the frontier,” in which he urged for a slower pace of development to ensure that capabilities do not surpass safety efforts. Opus 5.5 is about equally capable of performing tasks as Claude Fable 5.1 but is 40% cheaper to operate than Opus 5.

Also read: Zoho wants Zia to become the interface for enterprise software

In terms of benchmarks, Opus 5.5 dominates agentic coding, computer usage, and knowledge work, surpassing its competitors GPT-6 Astra and GPT-5.6 Sol on tests such as Terminal-Bench 4.0 and GDPval-AA v2.1. But Anthropic itself warns that, at this level, benchmark differences are less of a trustworthy indicator. Efficiency is where the story lies: one tester was able to migrate a 680,000-line codebase in less than a day, while another tested auditing a 200,000-line codebase in less than three hours compared to more than 20 hours by Opus 5, all the while using 2.5x less tokens. Pricing follows suit. Input and output tokens are 20% cheaper, and cache reads, which represent the majority of agentic workload cost, are 60% cheaper, at $0.20 per million tokens.

The next headline gain is communications. According to Anthropic, Opus 5.5 communicates more effectively, highlights the most critical aspects of information, and does not use a verbose and jargon-laden language that was criticized in Opus 5. The number of tokens and steps required to achieve the same goal were significantly lower in tests conducted by enterprise users, such as GitHub, Stripe, and Box. In one of Stripe's test cases, the system successfully rebased a 40-pull-request code in a dozen sub-sessions, where all changes went through CI at night.

Also read: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 vs 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6: Who really needs the Extreme?

The next topic where the "pacing" theme finds itself reflected is safety. Opus 5.5 achieved the best results that Anthropic ever had with its behavioral audit, consisting of almost 2,000 simulated scenarios. The new version is less likely to take irreversible actions or bypass containment borders; the number of such actions decreased by 85% compared to Opus 5 and Claude Mythos 5.1. It is also more robust against prompt injection attacks, showing the same level of resistance as Fable 5.1 tested by Gray Swan.

As the model is equally good as Claude Mythos 5.1 biologically and in cybersecurity, it is being released with the same level of protection as Fable 5.1. Almost all cybersecurity actions are automatically transferred to the older version – Opus 4.8, and sophisticated biology experiments require special access through Anthropic Life Sciences Verification Program. Moreover, Opus 5.5 includes "preserved thinking" which means that Claude's thinking cannot be distilled through the API.

An important feature of the new version is that it is not hiding the limitation of the previous versions but announcing it explicitly. Opus 5.5 tends to notice whether it is being tested more and more often which makes difficult for Anthropic to foresee its behavior in reality, and the issue will become more and more serious as the models become more efficient and diverse deployment environments appear.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Haiku 5.5 will be launched in the nearest future. In the meantime, Opus 5.5 is available at Claude Platform and in major clouds, and it can be seen as the proof that pacing the frontier does not imply to slow down but move forward carefully.

Also read: GPT-6 Astra vs Sol vs Luna: Which One Is for You

Zoho is betting that the next major shift in enterprise software will not simply be about adding AI features to individual applications. Instead, the company believes AI could fundamentally change how employees interact with business software in the first place. On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the company’s founding, Zoho unveiled Zia Chat, a conversational AI interface designed to work across business applications, understand organisational context and carry out actions without forcing users to move between multiple software interfaces.

At the same time, the company announced its entry into vertical SaaS, with industry-specific offerings covering retail, automotive, BFSI, healthcare, education, real estate and restaurants. The two announcements are closely connected. Zoho's argument is that AI becomes considerably more useful when it understands not only data, but also the relationships, workflows, permissions and business rules that surround that data. That thinking is at the heart of Zia Chat.

Zoho sees an ‘interface crisis’ in enterprise software

Sridhar Vembu, Chief Scientist and Co-founder of Zoho, describes the current state of business software as an “interface crisis”. “Every day, employees waste their time navigating menus, hunting for dropdowns and fighting with fragmented software interfaces,” Vembu said. Zoho's answer is to reduce the need for users to understand the structure of each individual application and instead give them a conversational layer through which they can ask for information or initiate work. That is a more ambitious proposition than simply adding a chatbot to CRM, accounting or HR software.

Zia Chat is built directly into the Zoho ecosystem, giving it access to the applications, records and functions a user is already authorised to work with. A user could, for instance, ask Zia to review a customer's recent interactions, identify outstanding support issues, examine payment history and prepare a presentation. The same conversation could then be used to draft a follow-up email and create tasks for the account team. The broader idea is that the user should not necessarily need to know which application contains the information or which menu contains the required action. Instead, the instruction becomes the interface.

Context: Zoho’s homeground advantage

The more interesting part of Zoho's announcement is its emphasis on business context. General-purpose AI assistants are already capable of summarising documents, generating emails and analysing data. Zoho is trying to differentiate Zia by grounding those capabilities in the relationships that exist inside an organisation. According to the company, Zia Chat can identify business entities and relationships across Zoho applications using semantic search, resolvers, a work graph and other contextual signals. This allows the system to determine which records are relevant to a request rather than treating every interaction as an isolated prompt.

As more and more of such enterprise applications are tightly integrated, this becomes important as AI moves from simply generating text to supporting actual business decisions. A request such as “Which customers need attention this week?” could potentially require information from several systems. Sales activity might sit inside a CRM, open issues inside a support platform, payment information inside finance software and communications elsewhere. Zoho's pitch is that Zia Chat can connect these signals and provide a response within a single interaction.

Sridhar Vembu described fragmented context as a deeper problem behind fragmented interfaces. “When information and workflows are spread across multiple applications, AI has only a partial view of the business,” he said. “Zia Chat brings that information and context together, so users can find information, understand context and take action across applications through one conversational experience.”

Zia is designed to act

The distinction between an AI assistant and an AI agent increasingly comes down to what happens after an answer is generated. Zia Chat can retrieve and summarise information, but Zoho is also allowing it to create outputs and initiate actions. Users can generate reports, charts, spreadsheets and presentations, draft proposals and emails, create and assign tasks, send inventory alerts and schedule recurring reports from within the conversational interface. Zoho also allows users to delegate multi-step processes to Zia Agents.

This moves the system closer to an operational layer sitting above traditional enterprise applications. There are still deliberate limits on that autonomy. Zoho says Zia Chat follows the existing authorisation and privilege boundaries within its applications. If a user has permission to view a record but not modify it, Zia cannot modify it either. Actions requiring approval continue to require the appropriate authorised user, while users are asked to review and confirm actions before anything is created, changed or sent.

That architecture is likely to become increasingly important as enterprise AI systems move beyond information retrieval. A wrong answer from a chatbot is one kind of problem. A wrong answer that automatically changes a customer record, sends an email or approves a workflow carries considerably greater consequences. Zoho is therefore positioning existing business permissions as part of the AI control layer rather than building an entirely separate authorisation system around Zia. The company also says responses can link directly to the underlying records used to generate an answer, giving users a way to inspect the source of the information. Data accessed through Zia Chat is not used to train Zoho's AI models.

Zia Chat works with whichever model you want

Another significant element of Zia Chat is that the underlying AI model is not fixed. Zoho describes the platform as model-agnostic, allowing organisations to choose the LLM powering the experience rather than locking the application and workflow layer to a particular model provider. It is a strategic decision that reflects how quickly the AI model market is evolving. Enterprise software platforms are likely to remain in place for years, while the underlying models powering AI systems could change much more rapidly as capabilities, costs and performance improve.

By separating the model layer from the business layer, Zoho is effectively arguing that the lasting value lies in enterprise data, workflows, permissions and organisational context rather than in any single LLM. That also gives customers the ability to change models without rebuilding the surrounding business system. At the unveiling, Zoho showcased several use cases with varying AI LLMs powering the backend. They also mentioned that they’ve been working on their own models for quite some time. 

Zia can extend beyond Zoho applications

Zoho is also attempting to avoid making the experience entirely dependent on customers running an all-Zoho software stack. Through Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations, Zia Chat can connect to external applications and systems while maintaining its deeper native integration with Zoho's own products. That could be particularly important for larger organisations, where software environments tend to contain applications from several vendors along with legacy systems and internally developed tools.

If Zia is ultimately going to function as a unified interface across a business, its usefulness will depend heavily on how effectively it can operate across those heterogeneous environments. Zoho's advantage remains its native understanding of its own ecosystem, but MCP gives the company a path towards making Zia useful even when not every underlying system comes from Zoho.

A massive vertical SaaS push

The second half of Zoho's announcement provides another piece of the company's AI strategy. After more than two decades of building predominantly horizontal business applications, Zoho is expanding into vertical SaaS with solutions designed for the specific requirements of different industries. The initial portfolio covers seven areas.

Zoho for Retail includes RetailIQ, a retail-focused CRM designed to connect customer profiles, transaction behaviour, campaigns, loyalty and feedback. Zoho for Automotive introduces AutoDMS, a dealer management platform covering sales, service, spares, warranty and dealer operations.

For BFSI, Zoho is launching Zoho LOS, a loan origination system spanning application, verification, decisioning and disbursement. Healthcare receives MedScribe, an AI-native clinical documentation system designed to turn conversations into structured medical records. Zoho Campus brings academic and administrative workflows together for educational institutions. The company is also expanding its real-estate workflows and offering Zoho POS for Restaurants.

On the surface, this represents a straightforward expansion into industry-specific business software. The AI implications are a lot more significant. Different industries operate according to very different entities, rules and workflows. A loan application, hospital consultation, car dealership interaction and retail transaction may all contain customers and records, but the relationships between those records and the actions employees can take are fundamentally different.

Zoho believes vertical applications allow Zia to understand that additional layer of context. The company says combining industry-specific applications with its wider software platform gives AI a richer picture of the entities, relationships, regulatory requirements and processes that define how a particular business operates. In that sense, Zoho's move into vertical SaaS is also an expansion of the contextual information available to its AI systems.

The application may increasingly disappear

The long-term implication of Zia Chat is less about chat itself and more about what happens to the traditional software interface. Enterprise software has historically been organised around applications. Employees open CRM software to manage customers, accounting software to examine invoices, HR software for employee information and collaboration software to communicate with colleagues. Conversational AI potentially changes that model.

If an AI layer can determine which applications contain the required information, retrieve it, combine it, generate an output and then initiate the required workflow, users may increasingly interact with the AI rather than with the underlying software. Applications do not disappear. Their databases, permissions, business logic and workflows remain essential. But their user interfaces could become less central to everyday work.

That appears to be the larger bet behind Zia Chat. Zoho is effectively positioning the conversational layer as the entry point, while the conventional applications increasingly become the systems operating underneath it. Whether that approach succeeds will depend on much more than the quality of the underlying language model. The harder challenge will be ensuring that AI correctly understands organisational context, respects permissions, identifies the right information and executes actions reliably across increasingly complex business systems.

For Zoho, however, the launch indicates where it believes enterprise software is heading: away from employees learning how individual applications work and towards software understanding what employees are trying to accomplish.

Picking a Snapdragon-based Android flagship was fairly simple, because there was only one top-tier chip to contend with year after year, something that every brand's hero phone ran on. That has certainty ended at Snapdragon Summit 2026.

Breaking from tradition (and borrowing a leaf from its X2 Elite announcements last year), Qualcomm didn't just unveil a single successor to last year's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. It made things very interesting by unveiling two top-class variants – the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and an even more powerful version of it, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. If the "Extreme" tag sounds familiar, that's because Qualcomm first used it on its X2 Elite Extreme laptop chip.

What’s important to note here is that both the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Extreme chips share the same CPU, the same underlying 2nm process and the modem. So let’s analyse what extra oomph and muscle the Extreme bring to Snapdragon’s offerings, and where does the standard Gen 6 leave you short-changed, if at all.

Same heart, different muscle strength

Let's start with what's common between the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 vs Elite Extreme Gen 6, because there’s quite a lot. TSMC's 2nm process is common to both the chip variants, so is Qualcomm's latest Oryon CPU – which has two Prime cores clocked up to 5GHz and six Performance cores up to 4GHz, backed by 16MB of shared Oryon Flex Cache. Also, both of these are the world’s first smartphone chips to cross the 5GHz barrier, in case you didn't notice already.

Also read: Qualcomm launches Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Extreme chips to take on Apple’s 2nm A20 Pro: All details

Both chips also have the following things in common: LPDDR6/LPDDR5X support up to 24GB, UFS 5.0 storage, triple 20-bit AI ISPs capable of 320MP photos, the X105 5G modem with satellite connectivity, Wi-Fi 8, and triple-frequency GNSS with NavIC support – a small but welcome touch for Indian users.

Even the CPU gap is slim. Qualcomm claims the Extreme's CPU is 13% faster than the 8 Elite Gen 5, compared to 10% on the standard Gen 6. And both the chip variants promise 37% better CPU power efficiency. That difference isn’t going to show up if you’re just going to be scrolling Instagram or doing UPI transactions, by the way.

Where the Extreme pulls away

Therefore, the real separation between the two Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Extreme Gen 6 chips shows up in three key areas – graphics, AI and video. And that’s where it matters the most, far more than any clock-speed bump.

On the graphics performance front, the Extreme's Adreno GPU is 44% faster than last year's chip, against 35% on the standard Gen 6. Important to note here that only the Extreme gets 18MB of dedicated Adreno High Performance Memory and Adreno Matrix Cores – AI units built right into the GPU. These power Adreno Neural Fusion, essentially Qualcomm's take on DLSS-style upscaling and AI frame generation. Everything that will widen the smile on no-nonsense mobile gamers.

Why does this matter? According to Qualcomm, running AI rendering tricks inside the graphics pipeline itself – instead of shuttling data across to the NPU – cuts both latency and power draw. For gamers, that should mean higher frame rates without the battery nosedive.

Also read: ‘AI is the new UI’: Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon says smartphones are entering the agentic era

AI is where the gap is arguably widest, in my opinion. Both Snapdragon chips get a redesigned Hexagon NPU with a new Element Accelerator for faster prompt processing. But the standard Gen 6's NPU is 14% faster than Gen 5, while the Extreme's is 35% faster, with 33% better AI performance per watt, according to data provided by Qualcomm. 

The Extreme's NPU also gets 50% more shared memory, letting it host 30B+ parameter Mixture of Experts models and long-context documents entirely on the phone. For a chip generation marketed squarely at agentic AI, that's a big deal.

Video is the most visible split. The Extreme shoots 8K at 60fps and 4K slow-motion at 240fps, and natively supports the professional APV codec and the efficient VVC (H.266) codec. The standard Gen 6 tops out at 8K 30fps and 4K 120fps slow-mo.

How it tackles the memory crunch

Here's where things get interesting beyond the spec sheet. If you've followed the industry this year, you'll know memory is both scarce and expensive, with AI data centres hoovering up DRAM supply and phone (and laptop) makers feeling the squeeze. Some flagships are already launching with less RAM than their predecessors – Google's Pixel 11 Pro being a case in point.

Qualcomm's answer to this problem is to keep more data on the chip. The 16MB Flex Cache, the Extreme's 50% larger NPU shared memory and its 18MB of dedicated GPU memory all exist to reduce trips to external RAM – which are anyway slower and consume extra power. Keeping AI rendering inside the GPU, therefore, serves the same goal.

But let's keep things in perspective. On-chip memory is measured in megabytes, phone RAM in gigabytes. Smarter caching eases the pressure on RAM – it doesn't replace it for multitasking, heavy apps or larger AI models. My worry is that some brands may use this narrative to quietly trim RAM at the same price. So, keep an extra close eye on the spec sheet of phones launching later this year.

Who the Extreme is for – and who it isn't

Qualcomm knows its created a problem of plenty up top, and hence it’s relatively straightforward in the choice matrix. The Extreme makes sense if you're a serious mobile gamer who wants sustained high frame rates, a creator who wants to shoot 8K 60fps or APV footage, or an early adopter keen on running bigger on-device AI models and agents as they arrive. It's also the safer bet if you keep phones longer up to 4-5 years, so it will age gracefully before you upgrade.

For everyone else, the standard Gen 6 is more than enough. Even last year's Gen 5 handles practically every everyday task with ease, so if your day revolves around WhatsApp, UPI, OTT streaming and social media, you'll struggle to tell the two chips apart.

The bigger picture to keep in view

With the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, Qualcomm is acknowledging something the industry has long known, that even flagship buyers need variety at the top of the pyramid. The standard Gen 6 is the sensible flagship most people will buy, while the Extreme is the no-compromise option for people who want to live on the cutting-edge.

As far as I'm concerned, the bigger story isn't the 5GHz headline. Seems to me that Qualcomm has designed its silicon in a world where memory isn’t cheap or plentiful. And don’t forget, both these chips will lock horns with Apple's A20 Pro and MediaTek's Dimensity 9600 Pro in the coming weeks and months… where benchmarks will settle that fight. Interesting times ahead.

Also read: Motorola is back in the flagship race with Signature 27 and Qualcomm’s new 2nm Snapdragon chip

OpenAI recently followed a strategy that auto makers have employed for decades by taking one popular model and creating an entire family of models consisting of “sports,” “standard,” and “budget” variations. Only in their case, performance is measured not by horsepower but by tokens per second and dollars per million. Astra was released at the start of the month as OpenAI’s most powerful model to date. A few days later, Sol and Luna joined the family as more affordable yet fast alternatives. Here’s how they differ from each other.

Astra is the one you don't pick by default

Consider Astra the go-to model if you really care about getting the job done, and if cost is not your concern. OpenAI claims it to be the best available model for computers and the one that fits best in its repertoire. It's quite an ambitious statement indeed, and it definitely comes at a cost.

For most people out there, Astra would just be an unnecessary extravagance. For most jobs out there, Astra is nothing but a waste of money. Drafting emails, PDF summary, or understanding GST slabs is not what you do with Astra.

Sol is the workhorse

The real story is in Sol. OpenAI says Sol outperforms Anthropic's Claude Opus 5 in business/workflow applications at about one-tenth the price-per-task when both models are pushed to their absolute limit. Let's be generous here and take some of these numbers down a few notches for marketing gloss – but either way, the trend is obvious: Sol is designed to make agentic, multi-step processes (which consume large quantities of tokens) affordable enough to actually execute.

This is how the real excitement shows up in coding. Sol apparently catches up to the higher-priced competition on real codebase problems while remaining extremely cost-effective per task. If you are a startup operating in Bengaluru running an AI coding assistant all day, you aren't going to miss the distinction between affordable and unsustainable costs.

Sol also benefited from a 50% discount on the API as compared to its predecessor, the GPT-5.6. This is no mere rounding error. It is OpenAI making it clear that it expects Sol to be the go-to option rather than the fall-back one.

Luna is for everything else

The Luna model is the one that handles the less glamorous, high-volume tasks: fast responses, simple automation, the type of tasks which do not require a genius but only speed and cost efficiency. The Luna model costs $0.10 for a million input tokens.

For instance, if you are a software developer and your project involves developing a customer service bot or a basic content assistant, Luna is your best bet. If you use Sol for such a task, it would make no sense, similar to hiring a surgeon for a Band-Aid.

So which one is for you?

As an average user of ChatGPT, this choice is largely unnoticed by you, as you’re probably just sticking with whatever route OpenAI chooses for you, and in most cases, it’s perfectly acceptable.

As a developer or someone creating something via the API, the equation is simpler than you would realize from looking at OpenAI’s benchmarks. Go for Astra only when the complexity of the work demands it. Create your everyday bots using Sol. Route your large volume, less complex jobs to Luna.

It sounds like overkill when described like this. It’s actually very straightforward. Use the right tool for the right job.

Your AC has been running for hours, the temperature is set low, and yet the room does not feel as cool as you expected. It is easy to blame the AC’s capacity at this point. Maybe the 1-ton unit is simply too small, and a 1.5-ton or 2-ton AC would do a better job.

The idea makes sense on paper. A bigger AC has a higher cooling capacity, so it can remove more heat from the room. But when an AC is not cooling properly, its tonnage is not the only thing you need to look at. The room itself, the amount of heat entering it and how the AC is operating all affect the result.

So, does buying a bigger AC actually mean faster cooling? Let’s look at where this assumption comes from and what AC tonnage really tells you.

What does AC tonnage actually mean?

AC tonnage refers to cooling capacity. It tells you how much heat an air conditioner can remove, rather than how quickly it will cool any room. A 1.5-ton AC has a greater cooling capacity than a 1-ton model, but that extra capacity is useful only when the room actually has a higher cooling load.

Also read: Don’t buy an air purifier without checking its filter replacement cost: Here’s why

Imagine two bedrooms of the same size. One has good insulation, small windows and very little direct sunlight. The other has large windows facing the afternoon sun and several people using it during the day. Both rooms have the same floor area, but they do not necessarily need the same amount of cooling.

Room size is therefore only one part of AC sizing. The conditions that determine how much heat enters the room are just as important.

Why buying an oversized AC can sometimes backfire

A powerful AC can bring a small room down to the set temperature quickly, and once the thermostat detects that temperature, the compressor may switch off. As the room warms up again, it starts back up.

If this happens repeatedly, it is known as short cycling. The AC may not run for long enough to remove as much moisture from the air, which matters in humid conditions. You could end up with a room that reaches the desired temperature but still feels uncomfortable.

There is also a difference between quickly reaching 24°C and maintaining comfortable conditions around 24°C. An AC that is correctly matched to the room can spend more time maintaining the temperature rather than repeatedly switching between running and stopping

Your room can need more cooling even if it is not very large

I have a room on the first floor of my house that is actually smaller than the one on the ground floor, yet the 1.5-ton AC that works well in the ground-floor room is not enough for it during peak summer afternoons. The first-floor room has a large window that gets direct sunlight for a good part of the day, and because the roof above it is exposed to the sun, the ceiling also stays hot for hours.

Also read: Washer-Dryer vs Washing Machine: What’s the actual difference?

So, despite being the smaller room, it has a higher cooling load during the hottest part of the day. The AC has to deal with the heat coming through the window as well as the heat stored in the ceiling, which makes it much harder to bring the room down to a comfortable temperature.

This is a good example of why room size alone cannot decide the AC capacity you need. Two rooms in the same house can require different amounts of cooling, even when one is smaller than the other.

The problem may not be the AC’s tonnage

There are plenty of reasons why an AC can start struggling to cool a room. Dust on the filter can restrict airflow, the outdoor unit may not be able to get rid of heat properly, and poor insulation can allow heat to keep entering the room. In each of these cases, moving to a higher-capacity AC does not really address the underlying issue.

Installation also plays a role. If the AC is not installed correctly, or the room gets several hours of direct sunlight through large windows, the unit has to work harder to maintain the temperature. Even keeping doors open frequently can make cooling less effective.

So, before replacing a working AC just because the room is taking longer to cool, it makes sense to look at what is actually causing the problem. Sometimes the AC needs servicing or the room needs better insulation rather than a bigger unit.

The bigger-is-better idea falls short here

Of course. A larger AC makes sense when the room genuinely has a higher cooling requirement. A bigger space, substantial sunlight exposure, poor insulation or higher occupancy can all increase the heat load enough to justify higher capacity.

The mistake is treating extra tonnage as a guaranteed performance upgrade. If a room needs a 1.5-ton AC, moving to 2 tons simply because it should cool faster does not necessarily give you a better result.

The right AC is the one with enough capacity for the conditions of the room. More tonnage means more cooling capacity, but it does not automatically mean faster, better or more comfortable cooling.

Also read: Best ACs under Rs 40000 in India: LG, Samsung, and More

LG India took us inside its Greater Noida factory for the launch of its new AX series semi-automatic washing machines. The visit offered more than a look at a new appliance. It showed how LG is trying to keep a mature category relevant through new design, more features and local manufacturing. But like you must be wondering, we also had the question as to why LG is still investing heavily in semi-automatic washing machines when fully automatic models offer greater convenience. And why did they host a big event and factory tour for the media?

Well, at least part of the answer lies in the Indian market itself. Come, let us take you through our experience and what we learned from the event.

LG AX semi-automatic washing machine: Price and features

The new AX range consists of 15 models between 8 kg and 12 kg. Their prices start at around Rs 14,000 and go up to around Rs 20,000, according to LG. The models are being rolled out through both retail and online channels.

As for features, LG appears to address everyday laundry problems rather than adding complicated software features.

The washing machiens come with Dual Spin Shower that uses two water inlets to rinse away residual detergent more effectively. There is Roller Jet Pulsator+ which is designed to create stronger water movement around clothes, while the Ultra Scrub Wall targets dirt around areas such as collars and cuffs.

There is also a new lint filter that captures lint during washing and can be removed and cleaned more easily. You also get Wind Jet Dry+ feature that uses airflow during the spin cycle to remove excess moisture and help clothes dry faster.

Design-wise, higher-end AX models get toughened glass lids with soft-closing mechanisms, while lower-priced variants use ABS plastic lids to maintain a lower price.

Vishwakarthikeyan K., Business Head, LG Washing Machines, told us that this approach allows the company to offer more premium features without making the entire range expensive.

Also Read: LG India launches convertible chest freezer range starting at Rs 28990: Full price and specifications

Inside the LG washing machine factory

The AX series is manufactured at LG's Greater Noida facility, where Gaganjeet Singh, Chief Manufacturing Officer at LG India, took us through the factory.

LG started manufacturing washing machines in India in 1999. Today, the Greater Noida facility has dedicated washing machine production lines, including a semi-automatic twin-tub line. The company says its washing machine manufacturing capability can produce around 400 semi-automatic units per hour.

The production line is not fully automated. Singh told us around 30% of the process is automated, with automation being used mainly for heavy tasks and jobs that involve difficult or repetitive ergonomic movements. Humans continue to play a central role in assembly and quality control.

We saw giant robot arms moving materials around the plant, while overhead logistics systems transport cabinets and components to assembly stations.

The manufacturing line itself appeared to run at a fast pace. The factory briefing described an approximately 1 minute quality control cycle while the total assembly was said to take around 10 to 20 minutes. Every unit goes through electrical, wattage, voltage and washing-performance checks before it leaves the line.

Operators can also stop the line when they detect a problem, using line-stop switches connected to ANDON indicators.

Singh told us that almost all the water used in the relevant factory processes is recycled. LG has also previously said that the Greater Noida plant reduced its water consumption significantly, while the facility now operates with 50% renewable energy from solar and hydro sources.

It was also revealed that certain processes, including induction moulding, are handled by third-party vendors located within roughly 15 km of the factory. This creates a local supplier network around the plant while allowing LG to retain control over final assembly and quality.

Still the core of the AX series is researched and developed in-house. And that brings us to the answer to why manufacture by itself in India.

Why semi-automatic machines still matter for LG

LG agrees that a consumer who wants maximum convenience, a fully automatic washing machine is still the more obvious choice. A semi-automatic machine requires manual intervention, including moving clothes between tubs. But still, the category continues to sell well in India.

During my interaction with Vishwakarthikeyan K, Business Head of LG's washing machine business, a key reason given was practicality.

Semi-automatic machines do not require the same continuous water supply associated with many fully automatic machines. Users can manually add water and move clothes between the wash and spin tubs. They are also generally cheaper and simpler to operate.

For many buyers, a semi-automatic machine offers a lower purchase price, simpler controls and more flexibility when water supply is unreliable. It also remains useful for households that want a second washing machine for heavy loads like curtains, bedsheets, blankets, etc.

LG's strategy is therefore less about replacing the semi-automatic format and more about pemiumising it.

The company is also not appearing to be treating semi-automatic washing machines as a category that can simply be outsourced and left to compete on price. By developing the AX platform in-house and manufacturing it in Greater Noida, the company is using the category to support a broader strategy built around local manufacturing, premiumisation and exports. By the way, the AX series is expected to be exported to more than 10 countries starting in 2027.

The company is also expanding its manufacturing footprint. LG plans to have its new Sri City factory in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, ready in December. The plant will initially focus on air conditioners and AC compressors before expanding into other product categories, including washing machines and refrigerators. LG has said it is investing roughly Rs 5,000 crore in the facility.

This expansion matters because LG is trying to do more than serve India. The company has been increasing its focus on exports and local manufacturing, while building production capacity for multiple categories.

And finally, for you and me, the buyer, ultimately all of this means more choice, even in a segment that may be often overlooked.

Keep reading Digit.in for more such stories.

Also Read: Samsung’s 2026 AI home experience is about appliances that understand how you live

OpenAI has made an argument in favor of coordinated and global guidelines that will guide the development of AI in its next phase of development, specifically focusing on recursive self-improvement (RSI), which is a process in which AI systems become responsible for developing new iterations of themselves in the absence of humans. According to a blog post from the company, as more AI replaces humans in research and development of future AI models, rapid progress can occur and there is a need for common guidelines prior to this.

Also read: Googlebook vs Windows and macOS: How will Google’s new laptop platform stack up

What RSI means, and why it worries OpenAI

RSI refers to the phenomenon of AI systems becoming increasingly involved in the processes of conducting AI research themselves, possibly allowing for accelerated growth in capabilities beyond the capacity for human tracking. In its description, OpenAI emphasized the overwhelmingly positive nature of such automation: a less costly and more powerful form of intelligence would have positive effects for people around the world; at the same time, an automated researcher could also serve as an automated safety researcher, providing protection from potential malicious uses and securing infrastructure.

However, it also noted that the current problem is that fully autonomous RSI has not been realized yet, and OpenAI explicitly states that the technology should not be developed until it can be developed in a manner that guarantees human oversight and control of the processes involved, as well as an explicit democratic consensus about such development. Otherwise, it will inevitably lead to losing control over increasingly complicated and rapid processes and thus to a less aligned and more dangerous technology. OpenAI referred to the "Hugging Face Incident," already reported earlier, as a prototype of the danger, although the incident itself is not an example of the use of RSI.

Also read: The camera is only the start: How ColorOS 16 extends the creator workflow

The case for international standards

According to OpenAI, global standards for the safety of frontier AI would be as important in their role in ensuring safe development of this technology as research on its alignment. Specifically, OpenAI outlined three issues that can only be addressed with collective action: fragmentation of the national regulations making cross-border risk assessment more difficult; collective action problem, wherein individually rational actions of countries result in undesirable outcomes; and different levels of technological capability of countries exacerbating both issues.

In order to develop these standards, OpenAI suggested that the US should take a leading role, using the network of already established national AI safety institutions, including those in Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Kenya, Japan, Korea, Singapore, India, and the UK, along with the US Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI). The company made it clear that these standards will serve as common technical criteria for capability measurement, risk assessment, and safeguards sufficiency, but won’t transform into obligatory licensing or pre-approval systems; each government would decide about their legal enforcement individually.

OpenAI further made recommendations about the development of consistent standards for reporting and classifying incidents according to severity of alignment failure and for delineating thresholds for human review when conducting automated research, while pointing to its recently developed misalignment reporting framework as one example. The organization also suggested establishing secure communication channels between governments and critical infrastructure operators, praising the ongoing dialogue between the United States and China on AI safety as relevant to the situation.

Drawing parallels with successful examples of international collaboration in aviation and finance regulation despite the absence of ceding national control, the article singled out such organizations as ISO, Frontier Model Forum, and the Agentic AI Foundation as organizations that the initiative should coordinate efforts with.

In conclusion, OpenAI emphasized that the initiative will have a geopolitical significance as much as a technical one, noting that taking the lead in setting AI standards would be decisive for determining whether the US or the rest of the world will be building the future of AI.

Also read: Best Mainstream Gaming Laptops in 2026: Top picks for performance, cooling and value

Hard water can be tough on a washing machine, especially when it is used every day. The minerals in the water can affect how well detergent works and can gradually leave deposits inside the machine. You may not notice the problem with every wash, but over time, it can affect both cleaning performance and maintenance.

Washing machine brands have different ways of dealing with hard water. LG, for instance, offers dedicated Hard Water Wash programmes on some models, while IFB uses its Aqua Energie technology. Haier, meanwhile, has machines with Anti-Scaling Technology designed to tackle mineral buildup.

Here are the washing machines worth considering if you live in an area with hard water, along with what each one offers beyond just its hard-water feature.

Best washing machines for hard water in India at a glance

Note: Prices may vary depending on ongoing offers and retailer availability.

Best washing machines for hard water in India

1. LG T90KMOB1Z

LG’s T90KMOB1Z is a 9 kg fully automatic top-load washing machine with a dedicated Hard Water Wash programme. Turbo Spin, Low Pressure Fill, Manual Fill and Eco Wash are also part of the package, while LG lists a 5-star energy rating for the model.

Homes with inconsistent water pressure can also benefit from the Low Pressure Fill feature. LG specifies operation above 0.5 bar, while the 9 kg drum provides enough room for larger family loads, including bedsheets and towels.

Hard Water Wash remains the main reason to consider this model for this list. Turbo Spin is another useful addition if you want to extract more water from clothes before drying.

2. IFB TL801MG1

IFB’s TL801MG1 is an 8 kg top-load washing machine with Aqua Energie, ActivMix and AI-powered washing. Aqua Energie is the main reason to consider it for hard-water homes, while ActivMix pre-mixes detergent with water before it reaches the clothes. The machine also gets a Triadic Pulsator, 11 wash programmes and a 720 RPM spin speed.

A 5-star energy rating and 8 kg capacity make it suitable for medium-sized households. IFB also includes features such as Auto Tub Clean and Pre Clean, along with a four-year comprehensive warranty and extended motor and spare-parts support.

For hard-water households looking for an 8 kg top-loader, the TL801MG1 offers a good mix of water-treatment technology and everyday washing features

3. Haier HSW90-688BK

Haier’s HSW90-688BK takes a different approach to hard water with Anti-Scaling Technology. The 9 kg top-loader is designed to reduce mineral deposits inside the machine, making scale buildup the primary problem this model attempts to address.

An Oceanus Wave Drum, two Bionic Magic Fil\ters and multiple water levels are also included. The machine has a maximum spin speed of 650 RPM and supports eight wash programmes.

For homes where limescale is a recurring issue, the anti-scaling system gives this machine a specific advantage over models that focus mainly on hard-water washing performance.

4. IFB TL900NB2S

The IFB TL900NB2S is a 9 kg top-load washing machine featuring Aqua Energie, DeepClean technology and an Eco Inverter Motor. It also gets a Triadic Pulsator, StainFighter, Soft Close Door and Low Water Pressure Fill.

Low Water Pressure Fill is particularly relevant for homes where water supply pressure is inconsistent. IFB specifies operation at water pressure as low as 0.1 bar, while the 9 kg capacity makes the machine suitable for larger laundry loads.

Aqua Energie is the key hard-water feature here, with the rest of the specification aimed at making the machine more versatile for everyday family laundry.

5. LG T90V4OB1S

LG’s T90V4OB1S combines a 9 kg capacity with Hard Water Wash, an in-built heater, Steam, Jet Spray+, TurboDrum and ThinQ Wi-Fi connectivity. A Smart Inverter Motor and 5-star energy rating are also part of the specification.

Steam and the heater give this model more flexibility for heavily soiled laundry, while ThinQ allows users to monitor the washing machine and access additional features through the connected platform. Jet Spray+ is designed to help rinse away dirt and detergent residue.

Buyers who only need hard-water washing may not need all these additions, but the feature set makes the T90V4OB1S more versatile than a basic top-loader.

6. IFB Executive MSC 9014 SSLC

Front-load washing machines can also be suitable for hard-water households, and the IFB Executive MSC 9014 SSLC is one such option. It has a 9 kg capacity, Aqua Energie, an Eco Inverter Motor, Oxyjet technology and Power Steam, along with a maximum spin speed of 1,400 RPM.

Oxyjet mixes detergent with water before spraying the solution onto the clothes, while Power Steam adds another option for treating laundry. The machine also supports a wide range of wash temperatures and specialised programmes.

Its price is considerably higher than several top-load models in this list, so the justification here goes beyond hard-water handling. The front-load design, high spin speed and broader wash functionality are the bigger reasons to consider it.

Which washing machine should you buy based on your priority?

What should you look for in a washing machine for hard water?

Hard-water technology

Start with the feature that specifically addresses hard water. LG uses a dedicated Hard Water Wash programme, IFB has Aqua Energie, while Haier offers Anti-Scaling Technology on selected models. These technologies work differently, so check the manufacturer’s description instead of treating them as interchangeable features.

Capacity

Capacity should be based on the kind of laundry you usually do. A 7 kg machine may be enough if you mostly wash clothes in smaller loads, while larger drums are more convenient when bedsheets, towels and other bulky items go into the washer regularly.

Water pressure

Water quality isn’t the only factor worth checking. Homes with inconsistent or low water pressure should also look for machines that explicitly support low-pressure operation. Some models in this list offer dedicated low-pressure or manual-fill features.

Heater and steam

A heater isn’t a hard-water treatment feature, but it can be useful for heavily soiled clothes and certain hygiene-focused cycles. If you want this functionality as well, models such as the IFB TL-S1WRS and LG T90V4OB1S combine it with their respective hard-water technologies.

Maintenance

Hard-water technology doesn’t eliminate the need for regular maintenance. Follow the manufacturer’s cleaning recommendations, particularly for the drum and detergent drawer, and use the recommended quantity of detergent.

Final verdict

Hard-water households have a few different options depending on what they need from the washing machine. LG’s T90KMOB1Z keeps things straightforward with a dedicated Hard Water Wash programme, 9 kg capacity and low-pressure operation, making it a practical option for larger families. For an 8 kg machine, the IFB TL801MG1 brings Aqua Energie along with features such as ActivMix and AI-powered washing.

Haier’s HSW90-688BK takes a different approach with Anti-Scaling Technology, which is designed to reduce mineral deposits inside the machine. Larger households looking for IFB’s Aqua Energie can also consider the TL900NB2S, which combines it with a 9 kg capacity and low-pressure operation.

For buyers who want more features alongside hard-water washing, LG’s T90V4OB1S adds an in-built heater, Steam and ThinQ connectivity to its Hard Water Wash programme. The IFB Executive MSC 9014 SSLC, meanwhile, gives front-load buyers an Aqua Energie-equipped option with a 1,400 RPM spin speed.

The right choice ultimately comes down to the type of washing machine you need and how severe your hard-water problem is. Dedicated Hard Water Wash, Aqua Energie and Anti-Scaling Technology take different approaches, so capacity, washing features and machine type should be considered alongside the hard-water feature itself.

Google finally made a date. Pre-ordering for its rumored Googlebook laptops is set for September 21, with partnerships established with computer manufacturers such as Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, this would be Google's biggest hardware bet since the release of its Chromebook a decade ago. However, the angle that they are taking is not the same as in the past, as the Googlebook laptop will be seen as more than just an affordable option compared to a regular computer and an alternative laptop in schools; it is seen as competing with Windows and macOS.

Also read: Apple iPhone 18 Pro: Top 5 features you must know before buying it

What Googlebook actually is

Unlike ChromeOS, which is made redundant by Googlebook, the new platform leverages the technological infrastructure of Android, combining desktop productivity with an app ecosystem that exists in the billion plus Android handsets. The central element of the experience is Gemini, delivered through features such as Magic Pointer, which enables the user to point to anything on the screen and query Gemini for analysis or action on the content without moving into a chat interface, and Create My Widget, which creates desktop widgets based on text instructions, drawing information from Gmail and Calendar.

In fact, there is a confirmation of this hardware directly by Intel: the Googlebook laptops from Acer, ASUS, and Lenovo would be equipped with Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors with a code name Panther Lake produced using the Intel 18A process node. The models include Acer's convertible Googlebook 14, ASUS' Googlebook 14 ultralight, and Lenovo's Googlebook 15. They would hit the market since October 5, 2026, in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia, and New Zealand, but no date in India is announced so far. 

It does not seem to be an attempt to build a cheap model. Google aims to create something that could stand side by side with a MacBook Pro and feel good there supported by the confirmation of the partnership with a chip maker for once.

Why history isn't kind to this bet

Google has attempted to venture into the world of high-end hardware before, but the results were less than impressive. The company’s Android tablets were no match for the dominance of the iPad since the app ecosystem that came along could not keep up with the hardware ecosystem. Chromebooks did manage to find a foothold in the realm of education and cheap computers but failed to penetrate the market of premium hardware, where Windows and macOS had an unbreakable grip.

Also read: Control Resonant review: Creepy, confusing and super addictive

The basic issue has remained unchanged all along – operating systems triumph thanks to ecosystems. Windows has a whole three decades of enterprise software and drivers behind itself. macOS boasts tight hardware-software integration and its creative and professional dominance. Googlebook, no matter how many Gemini abilities it may have, is about to enter a market full of sunk costs and deeply rooted habits.

Where Google might actually have an edge

Nonetheless, there are clear differences between what Googlebook is trying to achieve and failed attempts before it. For instance, the Android integration is a strategy that sets Googlebooks apart from Windows or macOS because of specific aspects such as Cast My Apps (ability to run phone apps on the laptop) and Quick Access (ability to access files stored on Android phone without manually transferring files). This aspect takes advantage of the massive installed base of Android across the world, especially in countries such as India where the market share of Android phones is higher than iOS.

If Google can make “your phone and your laptop are basically one device” work as seamlessly as Apple has made Handoff work for them, this will definitely work.

The bigger question

The true challenge for Google is not about how brilliant Magic Pointer is or if the hardware measures up. The challenge lies in whether Google can persuade software developers, business enterprise buyers, and end-users to justify the cost of making yet another switch to a third OS ecosystem when Microsoft (Copilot + PCs) and Apple (Apple Intelligence) are also trying to claim their stake in the race to make "AI-native" the default selling proposition for a new computer.

Google has an AI model that is considered the top-of-the-line in Gemini. Google also has partners who have the manufacturing clout. What Google doesn't have, in the past at least, is the execution needed to transform a promising launch into a viable platform. Price, availability, and release date are all yet to be announced. It will not matter if Googlebook matches or beats Windows and Mac OS on September 21 but in the eighteen months thereafter.

Also read: Best monochrome printers in India: Top 10 picks for homes and offices

For creators, taking the shot is rarely the end of the process. There is the photograph that needs one last fix, the reference that needs to be saved for a future idea, the information that needs to be pulled together before a shoot and, eventually, the files that need to move to a laptop.

OPPO’s ColorOS 16 is designed around this wider workflow. The operating system brings together tools for editing, organising, creating and moving content, giving the smartphone a more active role after the camera has done its job. AI Editor, AI Mind Space, AI Mind Pilot and O+ Connect each address a different part of that process, while features such as Flux Themes and Live Space add to the experience around it.

Beyond the Shot

A creator can have the right photograph and still not have the final photograph. There might be someone in the background, a reflection across the frame or a group shot where one person has blinked. Sometimes, the composition simply needs another look.

ColorOS 16’s AI Editor suite is built for these moments. AI Eraser can remove unwanted people or objects, AI Recompose can change the composition of an image, and AI Best Face can correct closed eyes in group photographs. AI Unblur can help with blurred images, while AI Reflection Remover addresses unwanted reflections.

The suite also includes AI Portrait Glow for enhancing portrait lighting and AI Clarity Enhancer for improving image clarity. Rather than treating these as separate edits that require a different application for every problem, ColorOS 16 brings them together as part of the phone’s editing experience.

For a creator, this means a photograph can go from almost right to ready to use without taking a detour through multiple tools.The workflow, however, is not limited to the images that make it to the gallery.

From Inspiration to Something You Can Use

Creators are constantly collecting things before they know exactly what they will become. A screenshot can become a visual reference. A voice note can turn into a reel idea. A saved location can become the setting for a future shoot. The problem is keeping all of these pieces accessible when the idea finally takes shape.
AI Mind Space in ColorOS 16 gives them a place to stay.

On supported OPPO devices, the customizable Snap Key can be used to quickly capture information and save it to Mind Space. Smart Collections organise saved material, making it easier to group related references instead of leaving them scattered across screenshots, notes and other parts of the phone.

The integration with Gemini adds another layer. Information saved in Mind Space can be used to help with tasks, allowing creators to work from the material they have already collected. A folder of references does not have to remain a folder of references; it can become useful input for planning what comes next.

This changes the role of saved content on the phone. Instead of being a collection of things to look at later, it can become part of the work itself.

When AI Becomes Part of the Process

The same workflow increasingly includes AI. A creator may need to research a topic, develop an idea, work through a question or simply get another perspective before deciding what to make.

ColorOS 16’s AI Mind Pilot brings Google Gemini, Perplexity and ChatGPT into one interface on supported OPPO devices. Rather than treating these as completely separate destinations, Mind Pilot puts different AI services within reach from the same place.

This sits alongside the AI capabilities already built into ColorOS 16, including the editing tools within AI Editor and the Gemini integration with AI Mind Space. AI is therefore not limited to one particular task or one particular app. It appears at different points in the process, depending on what the creator is trying to do.

ColorOS 16 also extends the experience outside these core creative tasks. Flux Themes allows users to personalise the home screen, while Live Space and Aqua Dynamics can surface supported information such as sports scores and ride updates.
These features may sit outside the actual creation process, but they contribute to the larger idea behind ColorOS 16: the operating system should remain useful throughout the day, rather than only when a particular application is open.

Moving From Creation to Completion

Once the content is ready, the workflow often leaves the phone. A creator may want to edit photographs on a larger display, move video files to a computer or copy text from the phone into a document. O+ Connect is built around this part of the process, supporting file sharing between supported OPPO devices and computers as well as screen mirroring and clipboard sharing.

The phone can remain the starting point without becoming a bottleneck. Files can move to the computer, the phone can be mirrored when needed, and content can be copied across devices as the work continues.

For creators who regularly switch between a smartphone and a computer, this is an important part of the experience because the work itself does not stay on one device. Shooting may happen on the phone, editing may happen on a laptop and an idea may move between both several times before it is finished. O+ Connect makes that movement part of the ColorOS 16 experience rather than something that sits outside it.

A Different Way to Build for Creators

For OPPO, the more interesting shift is in how these capabilities are brought together. Editing, collecting references, working with AI and connecting to a computer are all familiar parts of a creator’s workflow, but they have traditionally lived across different apps, tools and devices.

For creators, the best tools are often the ones that do not make them stop creating. They should be able to fix a frame without opening another editor, save an idea without losing it in their gallery, bring in AI without jumping between services, and move to a bigger screen when the work calls for it.

ColorOS 16 brings these moments into the same creator journey. More importantly, it shows where OPPO is taking the software experience next: closer to the way creators actually work, with the tools they need available at the point they need them.

The result is not another phone with a long list of creator features. It is a ColorOS experience that understands that creating is rarely one task at a time.

Audio hardware has advanced considerably over the past decade. Battery life has improved, noise cancellation has become sharper, and sound quality has reached a level that would have seemed unrealistic a few years ago. The next step is making these devices more useful beyond simply playing music or taking calls. That is where Crest AI, boAt’s voice intelligence platform, comes in.

The Airdopes Prime 800D is one of the boAt earbuds built to work with Crest AI, combining everyday audio features with a voice-first AI experience. Priced at around ₹1,599, it brings features such as Dolby Audio, 11mm drivers, quad microphones and 45 hours of playback alongside the AI layer. The bigger question is whether these features actually make a difference in daily use.

What is Crest AI?

Crest AI is a voice-first AI companion built with Google Gemini that helps users perform everyday tasks, control their device, ask questions, translate languages, discover music, and more. It integrates with supported Google services to deliver a fully voice-driven experience. The platform is currently available as the boAt Standalone Crest AI Pack, an add-on subscription priced at 399 rupees for a twelve-month validity period, bundled with a fixed allotment of AI usage units.

How does Crest AI work?

Rather than matching speech against a rigid list of preset phrases, Crest AI is designed to interpret natural conversation, allowing users to speak the way they normally would rather than memorizing specific trigger words. The pack activates on a compatible boAt earbud through the associated app, after which its full range of voice features becomes available on that device.

On the Airdopes Prime 800D, this means the earbuds can become a way to access several everyday functions without reaching for the phone each time. The usefulness of that approach depends largely on the task. Asking a quick question or translating a phrase can be more convenient when done through voice, while more involved tasks may still be easier on a screen.

The Crest AI Pack is activated on a compatible boAt earbud through the associated app, after which its available voice features can be used on that device.

Core features

• Crest Ask lets users pose natural questions and receive AI powered answers, drawing on Google Gemini for its responses.
• G-Assist connects the device to Google Assistant, making it possible to read emails, manage a calendar, and handle tasks entirely by voice.
• Crest Translate enables real time voice translation across conversations, with support for up to twenty five languages.
• There is also basic device control by voice. A simple spoken command is enough to play a track, pause it, or move between listening modes, so there is rarely a need to reach for a touch panel mid conversation.
• Music discovery works a little differently here than on most devices. Vibe Play does not ask for a song name or an artist. Instead, a user can describe a mood or a moment, and the assistant picks something to match.
• Brainstorm is built for a different kind of use altogether, meant for talking through a half formed idea out loud, with the assistant able to follow along even through interruptions.
• Crest Support exists for the more routine moments, such as pairing trouble, a battery that is not charging properly, or simply needing to reset the device.

What about the Airdopes Prime 800D itself?

Crest AI is only one part of the Airdopes Prime 800D experience. The earbuds are also built around the features users would normally look for in a pair of wireless earbuds, including Dolby Audio, 11mm drivers, a four-microphone setup and multipoint connectivity.

The Dolby Audio support is aimed at creating a wider and more immersive listening experience, which becomes particularly relevant when watching films, shows or live performances. The 11mm dynamic drivers, meanwhile, are tuned to deliver boAt’s signature sound, with an emphasis on a punchy low end while retaining clear vocals.

For calls, the four-microphone setup works with AI-ENx technology to help separate the user’s voice from surrounding noise. That matters in everyday settings such as a busy office, a commute or a conversation outdoors, where microphone performance can be just as important as audio quality.

Why this matters for everyday use

None of these features are especially dramatic on their own. What makes Crest AI worth paying attention to is how often a phone stops being necessary for small things. A calendar check, a quick reply to a message, a phrase translated mid conversation, or a song chosen without typing a word, these are the moments Crest AI is aimed at. Added up across a day, that adds up to a noticeably different relationship with the device sitting in someone’s ears.

The scale of language support behind Crest Translate is also worth noting. India rarely sees a conversation held in one language from start to finish, and a platform that assumes otherwise tends to fall short quickly.

Battery and connectivity

The Airdopes Prime 800D offers up to 45 hours of total playback with the charging case, reducing the need for frequent charging across a typical week.

Multipoint connectivity is another feature that can make a difference in daily use. The earbuds can connect to two devices, making it easier to switch between a laptop and smartphone without repeatedly pairing them.

Platform availability and things to know

Crest AI is currently available on Android devices only. boAt has confirmed that the platform does not support iOS at this time, so iPhone users will not be able to access Crest AI features even when paired with a compatible boAt device. Specifically, an Android smartphone running Android 12 or above is required to use Crest AI, so availability depends on the phone’s operating system version rather than any particular brand or named handset.

A few practical notes

Crest AI functions without retaining personal user data, and each Crest AI Pack is tied to the specific device it is activated on, meaning it cannot be transferred once linked. AI usage is governed by the plan’s validity period and includes usage credits, with unused credits expiring once that period ends. As with most AI powered systems, responses may vary in accuracy, so users are encouraged to verify anything important independently.

Does Crest AI add value?

The Airdopes Prime 800D is still fundamentally a pair of wireless earbuds, but Crest AI adds another layer to the experience. At around ₹1,599, the earbuds combine everyday essentials such as sound, battery life and calling with voice-based AI features that can be useful for quick questions, translation, music discovery and supported voice commands.

Whether users make frequent use of the AI features will ultimately determine how much of that added functionality becomes part of their routine. For those who do, Crest AI gives the Airdopes Prime 800D a more interactive role than simply being a device for listening to audio.

You change your shampoo. A few weeks later, you try a different conditioner. Then comes the hair mask someone recommended, followed by a leave-in serum that promises smoother, shinier hair. Yet somehow, your hair still feels dry. It looks dull by the end of the day and seems rougher than it used to. 

For many people, the first instinct is to blame the products sitting on the bathroom shelf. Sometimes, the real culprit is flowing straight out of the tap. That is one reason many homeowners are beginning to look beyond hair care products and pay closer attention to the water they use every day and install hard water softener for hair.

What hard water can do to hair

• Mineral residue: Calcium and magnesium can accumulate on the hair cuticle with repeated washing.
• Texture and moisture: Repeated mineral build-up can leave the hair feeling rough, dry and less manageable, while making it harder for conditioners to work through the strands. 
• Scalp residue: Deposits can mix with oil and dead skin, leaving the scalp feeling itchy or coated.
• Colour-treated hair: Mineral build-up can contribute to faster colour changes and unwanted brassiness.
• Managing the problem: Chelating shampoos can help lift mineral deposits already on the hair, while a hard water softener reduces the calcium and magnesium in the water itself. 

Mineral build-up: Why does hard water feel different on hair? 

Have you noticed that your shampoo does not lather quite the way it used to, or that your hair still feels rough even after a good rinse? Hard water may be contributing to it. The calcium and magnesium in hard water can react with shampoo and leave mineral residue on the hair. With regular washing, that residue can accumulate around the cuticle, leaving strands feeling less smooth and making them harder to condition and manage. So while your hair may feel clean after a wash, it can still look dull or feel unusually dry. 

Calcium and Magnesium deposits: How does hard water affect hair over time?

The same calcium and magnesium that leave white marks on taps and shower glass can also build up on hair with repeated exposure. Over time, the residue may leave strands feeling stiffer, drier and more prone to tangling, particularly when the hair is already chemically treated or damaged.

Colour-treated hair can be another giveaway. Mineral deposits can affect how colour looks and may contribute to faster changes in tone, including unwanted brassiness. If the same dryness or rough texture keeps returning despite changing products, the water itself is worth considering. That is why many households begin exploring a water softener for bathroom installations after noticing recurring hard water issues rather than focusing on hair care alone.

Product build-up: Why does changing shampoo not always help? 

It is surprisingly common for people to replace shampoos several times before questioning the water itself. One product promises hydration. Another promises repair. A third claims to reduce frizz. Sometimes they help. Sometimes they do not.

If hard water continues to leave mineral deposits behind after every wash, even good-quality products may struggle to deliver the results people expect. That is why addressing the water source itself can become just as important as choosing the right hair care routine.

Water softening: Can a hard water softener help? Looking beyond hair care products

A hard water softener treats the water before it reaches your shower and other household fixtures. That means you are not simply dealing with mineral residue after every wash; you are reducing what comes into contact with your hair, skin, and fittings to begin with.

A hard water to soft water converter works on an ion-exchange mechanism. It uses resin beads to do the job. As hard water passes through the resin, the beads hold onto the hardness-causing minerals and release sodium or, in some systems, potassium ions instead. The resin has a limited capacity, so it eventually needs to be regenerated (this can either be done manually or automatically basis the type of converter you choose). A salt solution is passed through the resin during this cycle to flush out the accumulated minerals and restore the beads for further use.

If you are looking for just a hard water softener for hair, this can mean less residue after repeated washing and fewer deposits around shower heads and taps. A whole-house system treats the water across several outlets, while a point-of-use option like a bathroom water softener can be used for a particular bathroom or shower.

Whole home softening: When does a water softener for house make sense? 

If you are seeing scale on bathroom fittings, deposits around taps and similar problems across several outlets, treating only the shower may not address the wider issue. A water softener for house treats the incoming supply so softened water reaches multiple fixtures. That can make more sense for households where hard water is a whole-home issue rather than something noticed only while showering.

Bathroom water treatment: Is a bathroom water softener enough? 

A bathroom water softener can make sense when hard water is mainly being noticed at the shower or bathroom fixtures. It treats water at the point of use, whereas a whole-house softener treats the incoming supply before it reaches multiple outlets.

One distinction is worth checking when comparing products: a shower filter is not automatically a water softener. A filter designed mainly for chlorine, sediment, or odour may not remove the calcium and magnesium ions responsible for water hardness. If reducing hardness is the goal, the system needs to be designed to actually address those minerals. For people living with hard water supply, addressing the source may be more useful than continually changing the products they use afterwards.

Gaming laptops are no longer limited to people who want a machine only for gaming. The same hardware can handle video editing, 3D work, content creation and other demanding tasks without needing a separate desktop setup. For buyers looking for one laptop that can do a bit of everything, a Windows gaming laptop can make more sense than a regular productivity machine.

There are plenty of options in the market, though, and the differences are not always obvious from the processor and GPU names alone. Cooling, display quality, memory, storage and how well the laptop handles sustained workloads also matter. 

We have picked six mainstream gaming laptops that cover different combinations of performance, features and pricing, including models from HP, Lenovo and Alienware.

HP OMEN 16 (am0240tx)

The HP OMEN 16 is aimed at buyers who want a fairly balanced gaming laptop without moving into the higher-end RTX 5060 or RTX 5070 segment. It combines an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor with an RTX 5050 8GB GPU, 24GB DDR5 memory and a 1TB SSD. The 16-inch 2K IPS panel runs at 165Hz and is rated for up to 400 nits brightness.  

The combination makes it suitable for someone who wants to game at high refresh rates while also having enough memory for demanding everyday work. The 24GB RAM is particularly useful for creators who regularly switch between several applications.

Buy from Amazon

HP Smartchoice HyperX OMEN 15 (gb0038AX)

This OMEN variant takes a slightly different approach. It pairs an AMD Ryzen 7 260 processor with an RTX 5050 8GB GPU, 24GB DDR5 RAM and a 1TB Gen4 SSD. Its 15.3-inch 2.5K IPS display supports a 180Hz refresh rate, 500 nits brightness and 100% sRGB coverage.  

The display is one of the more interesting parts of this configuration. The combination of 2.5K resolution, 180Hz refresh rate and 100% sRGB coverage makes it useful beyond gaming, particularly for people who also edit photos or video. At 2.42kg, it is still very much a gaming laptop, but it doesn’t go as far into desktop-replacement territory as some larger machines.

Buy from Amazon

HP OMEN 16 (ap0182AX)

For buyers who want to move up the performance ladder, this OMEN configuration brings considerably more hardware. It uses the AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX with 16 cores and 32 threads, paired with an RTX 5070 8GB GPU, 24GB DDR5 RAM and a 1TB Gen4 SSD. The 16-inch display has a 2K resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, 400 nits brightness and a 3ms response time.  

The higher-end CPU and RTX 5070 make this configuration more suitable for demanding games and workloads where extra GPU performance can make a noticeable difference. It also has the kind of hardware that makes sense for creators working with heavier applications, rather than being limited to gaming alone.

Buy from Amazon

Lenovo Legion 5 (83M00073IN)

The Lenovo Legion 5 takes a similar RTX 5050 route but uses an AMD Ryzen 7 260 processor, 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD. Its 15-inch WUXGA IPS display runs at 165Hz.  

This configuration is aimed at buyers who want a straightforward gaming setup without stepping too far up the price ladder. The RTX 5050 gives it the graphics hardware needed for modern gaming, while the 165Hz display makes better use of that performance in competitive titles.

Buy from Amazon

Alienware 16 Aurora

The Alienware 16 Aurora brings Dell’s gaming-focused Alienware design to a relatively mainstream configuration. It uses an Intel Core 7 240H processor, RTX 5050 8GB graphics, 16GB DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD. The 16-inch 16:10 display has a 2.5K resolution and 300-nit brightness.  

The 16:10 aspect ratio gives the display a little more vertical space than a conventional 16:9 panel, which can be useful outside gaming as well. With the RTX 5050, the machine is positioned more around mainstream gaming performance than the higher-end performance offered by the RTX 5070-based OMEN.

Buy from Amazon

Lenovo Legion 5 (83LY00SVIN)

This Legion 5 configuration steps up from the RTX 5050 models, pairing an Intel Core i7-13650HX processor with an RTX 5060 8GB GPU. It is built around a 15.3-inch WUXGA IPS display with a 165Hz refresh rate, along with 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD.  

The RTX 5060 gives this model more graphics headroom than the RTX 5050 machines in this list. For someone who cares more about gaming performance than having a higher-resolution display, this configuration is worth considering.

Buy from Amazon

What to look for in a Windows gaming laptop in 2026

A gaming laptop needs more than a powerful processor and graphics card. The GPU will have the biggest impact on gaming performance, but the cooling system determines how consistently the hardware can perform during longer gaming sessions. A good display also matters, particularly if the laptop will be used for both gaming and content creation.

For most buyers, 16GB RAM is a reasonable starting point, while 24GB or more gives you more room for heavier workloads. An SSD is also essential, and a 1TB drive is more practical if you plan to keep several large games installed.

Apple has just introduced the iPhone 18 Pro in the global market. The device comes with a series of upgrades, including performance, camera, and Apple Intelligence. And once you start using it, the real upgrades become obvious. Among all, the camera upgrades are worth talking about. It can now adjust itself better in different lighting, and the Camera app finally gives you proper manual controls. Well, these aren’t the flashy features Apple will market, but they are the ones you will actually appreciate after using the phone for months. And if you are planning to buy the iPhone 18 Pro, check out these 5 features.

Smarter video tools in the Camera app

If you shoot a lot of videos, these two camera upgrades are actually useful. The first one is that you no longer need to turn on Cinematic Mode before recording. You can shoot your videos normally first and then add that blurry background, cinematic effect afterwards, as long as the video is recorded at up to 60fps.

The second feature is Smart Focus Tracking, which uses on-device AI to lock onto a subject and keep them even if they briefly go out of frame and come back. So if you’re recording something like a football match or someone running around, your iPhone 18 Pro will keep the subject in focus without you constantly tapping to refocus.

Pro Controls

The Camera app finally gets a proper manual mode, called Pro Controls. Instead of letting the phone decide the settings, you can now adjust settings like aperture, shutter speed, and white balance like on a professional camera.

You can also use a live Histogram to check if your photo is properly exposed, and tweak Photographic Styles with more control over texture and grain. These features have already been there in third-party camera apps for years, but the good thing is that they’re now built right into the Camera app, so you don’t need to download any third-party apps.

Variable Aperture

This is probably the biggest camera upgrade on the iPhone 18 Pro. For the first time, Apple has added a camera lens that can physically open and close, instead of staying fixed all the time. We already saw this one on the Samsung Galaxy S9. Now, on the iPhone 18 Pro, there are six laser-cut blades inside the 48MP main camera that shift between four aperture settings: f/1.48, f/1.8, f/2.8, and f/4. They can shift automatically based on the scene, or you can manually control it if you want.

In low light, it opens wider to let in more light, so your night photos look brighter and cleaner with more detail. In daylight, it can close down to keep more of the scene in focus, which is great for group photos, or open up again to create a more natural background blur for portraits. Unlike software tricks, this is a real hardware change that gives the camera more flexibility in different situations.

A20 Pro chipset

The iPhone 18 Pro runs on Apple's new A20 Pro chip, built on a 2nm process with a 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and a redesigned Neural Engine tuned specifically for on-device AI work. Apple is claiming up to 40 pct faster graphics than the iPhone 17 Pro, which sounds like a typical yearly upgrade until you factor in the other half of the equation.

Good thing? It comes with a next-generation vapor chamber that is 3x larger than last year’s cooling system. Whether you’re playing games for a long time, editing a 4K video, or using AI features, it won’t slow down as quickly.

The iPhone 18 Pro also comes with fast charging that can charge the device to 50 percent in 15 minutes, and in total it will give you up to 34 hours of video playback; it’s less a spec-sheet flex and more a phone that just doesn’t slow down when you actually need it not to. However, to see how this iPhone 18 Pro really performs in day-to-day life and at our Digit Test Labs, you’ll have to stay tuned for the full review.

A smaller Dynamic Island

The Dynamic Island has been the same size since it first appeared on the iPhone 14 Pro back in 2022, and Apple has finally shrunk it on the iPhone 18 Pro. That means you get a little more screen while watching videos, gaming, or scrolling, and it’s one of those changes you don’t realise until you use it.

Now the Dynamic Island is more useful, not just smaller for the sake of it. The Dynamic Island can now show up to three Live Activities at once, so you can keep track of your food delivery, a timer, and your cab status all together at the same time without opening different apps.

PlayStation’s latest title, Marvel Wolverine, has found itself in the middle of a major hate storm recently. Reddit, YouTube, X and other social media platforms are full of people criticising the game and it also opened up to many negative reviews. And this is surprising because when it was first announced, players were super excited to try out this game. After all, the game is about Wolverine. 

But when the reviews came in last week, they weren’t what you’d expect. However, this isn’t the first time that a super-hyped game hasn’t been well-received.  There have been many instances in the past when developers spent years building hype around a title, but just within a few hours of launch, the games became the internet's latest punching bag. So here is a look at 5 games that were absolutely hated upon at the time of launch. 

Also read: You can hide your profile picture and name on Windows 11 Start Menu, here is how

Assassin's Creed Mirage

Assassin’s Creed Mirage, launched in 2023, introduced us to Basim Ibn Ishaq from 9th-century Baghdad. Mirage was a smaller game when compared with the huge open worlds of Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla. And while some players appreciated that, there were many who didn’t.

At launch, one of the most common complaints was that the game was too short. Some players also felt it did not quite capture what made the older Assassin's Creed games special. The optional teleport assassination ability did not help either.

But over time, Mirage developed its own group of defenders. One Reddit user summed up the contradiction nicely, pointing out that players had demanded Ubisoft "take AC back to its roots" only to complain when the resulting game was smaller and shorter.

The same player said they eventually spent 45 hours with Mirage and enjoyed what Ubisoft was trying to do, especially after the much larger Valhalla.

So in a nutshell, Mirage was not necessarily a game trying to compete with the giant open worlds that came before it. It was trying to be something smaller. For some players, that was exactly the point. For others, it was the reason they walked away.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is perhaps the most obvious example of what happens when expectations become almost impossible to meet. CD Projekt Red spent years building the game into one of the most-awaited launches in gaming. Naturally, players were expecting a huge RPG where choices mattered, different life paths would dramatically change the experience and Night City would feel like a living, breathing world. But when the game finally launched in December 2020, things did not exactly go according to plan.

The biggest problem was the technical state of the game, especially on older consoles. Players reported crashes, bugs, broken quests and performance issues, while some of the systems and features shown or discussed before launch did not make it into the final game. The experience on PC was more varied, with the hardware playing a big role in how well the game ran.

One Reddit user summed up the biggest problem rather well, saying, "The bugs destroyed its impression." Another Redditor pointed out that the story and visuals were strong from the beginning, but the technical problems took away from the overall experience.

Now, the backlash around the game was not just about bugs. A lot of players also felt that the game had been marketed as something much bigger than what they eventually received. The promise of different life paths, meaningful choices and deeper systems had raised expectations to a level that was always going to be difficult to meet.

However, the story did not end at launch. CD Projekt Red spent years updating the game, with the 2.0 update bringing major changes to its systems and Phantom Liberty adding more content. As the game improved, the conversation around it changed as well.

Cyberpunk 2077 went from being one of the most criticised launches in gaming to becoming a game that many players now recommend. It is also a good reminder that when it comes to games, the version you play years after launch can sometimes be very different from the one that arrived on day one.

Resident Evil 6

If Cyberpunk 2077 had a problem with expectations and technical issues, Resident Evil 6 had a completely different problem. It tried to give players almost everything at once, and in doing so, it ended up frustrating a section of the fanbase that wanted the series to return to its horror roots.

Released in 2012, Resident Evil 6 followed four different campaigns featuring Leon S. Kennedy, Chris Redfield, Jake Muller and Ada Wong. Now that’s a pretty strong and interesting lineup of characters. But, that didn’t stop the backlash. 

Now each campaign here boasted its own tone and style. Leon's story leaned more towards horror and suspense, Chris's campaign was much more focused on action and Ada’s storyline was all about being tactical and smart. On paper, that sounds like a lot of content for one game. But that also became a part of the problem.

Some players felt that Capcom had pushed the series too far towards action and away from the slower, more atmospheric horror that had defined earlier games. The game also faced criticism for its level design, vehicle sections, skill system and heavy use of quick-time events, which became one of the more memorable complaints surrounding the game.

One Reddit user described the game as having "too much going on", while another argued that Capcom had taken the wrong lessons from the earlier games when designing Resident Evil 6.

The criticism was not limited to the story or gameplay either. The four campaigns meant that the game constantly shifted between different characters and styles, and for some players, this made the overall experience feel less focused. Instead of getting one strong Resident Evil experience, they felt like they were jumping between several different ideas.

But there was always another side to the conversation. Resident Evil 6 also had plenty of players who enjoyed its combat, co-op gameplay and Mercenaries mode, and over the years, it has developed something of a cult following among people who appreciate it for what it is rather than what they wanted it to be.

It may not have been the Resident Evil game that everyone was asking for at the time, but it still managed to find its playerbase. 

Battlefield 2042

Released in November 2021, Battlefield 2042 arrived with technical problems, bugs, map design issues and several features that players either felt were missing or needed major changes. For a franchise with games like Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 1 behind it, the comparison was always going to be difficult.

A Reddit user explained the problem by saying that, "in a vacuum, 2042 is an okay game." The issue was that players were not judging it in a vacuum. They were comparing it with older Battlefield games that had more features and, according to some players, more personality.

Another Reddit user described the game as "soulless", saying that it felt like a cheaper version of Battlefield. While that is a harsh way of putting it, the wider criticism was clear. Players felt that the game had lost some of the identity that made the older titles special.

The launch problems made things worse. Some players felt they had paid full price for a game that still needed a lot of work, with one Reddit comment comparing the experience to becoming a beta tester after paying for the full game. The maps were another major complaint, with the original launch maps later receiving extensive reworks.

But DICE did not abandon Battlefield 2042. The game received a long list of updates, with new content, gameplay changes and map reworks gradually turning it into a more complete experience. That did not erase the problems people had with the launch, but it did change how some players viewed the game.

Far Cry 6

And finally, there is Far Cry 6, which had almost everything you would expect from a big Ubisoft open-world game. The game showed off a huge tropical island, a revolution, plenty of weapons and Giancarlo Esposito playing the villain, Antón Castillo. It even had Chorizo, a little dog with wheels who somehow became one of the most memorable things about the game.

So why did so many players still come away disappointed? The answer is- changes to the Far Cry formula which Ubisoft thought was a good idea but players disagreed. 

For the first time, the game introduced a gear-based progression system instead of the traditional skill tree. Meanwhile, the ammo system, health bars, Resolver weapons and Supremo backpacks also divided players. Some players felt that these systems added unnecessary complexity without making the game more fun.

The characters and story also came in for criticism. One Reddit user said that the game had a beautiful setting and a great soundtrack, but some of the characters and missions felt over the top and took them out of the story. Another user said that the world looked great but felt surprisingly empty once you started exploring it.

The problem was not that Far Cry 6 was completely broken. It was that many players felt it was missing the spark that made earlier games in the series so memorable.

Some users also pointed out how the game leaned too heavily into its sillier side. The Resolver weapons, strange vehicles and Chorizo are certainly memorable, but not everyone felt that they fitted the more serious story about a revolution against a dictatorship.

So, a rough launch can shape the way a game is remembered but it may not always decide what happens next. Assassin’s Creed Mirage found players who appreciated its smaller approach, Cyberpunk 2077 changed drastically through years of updates, Resident Evil 6 found an audience that enjoyed its action-heavy take, Battlefield 2042 became a more complete game after a difficult start and Far Cry 6, despite all the criticism around its design choices, still has players who enjoy playing it. In the end, a game’s launch is only one part of its story, and sometimes it takes time to understand what a game really has to offer.

What do you think about all the hate that Wolverine is getting and have you played any of the titles mentioned above? Let us know and keep watching this space for more such stories.

Also read: Before Control Resonant arrives, here is a look back at Jesse Faden’s story