PCWorld reveals that laptop manufacturers include hidden utility apps offering advanced controls for battery charging, display color gamuts, fan speeds, and audio settings not available in Windows. These manufacturer-specific applications like Lenovo Vantage and MyAsus provide essential features including battery conservation modes, OLED burn-in protection, and performance adjustments without requiring reboots. Users should explore their laptop's pre-installed utility software to unlock customization options, monitor system health, and access firmware updates for improved security and performance. You probably know how to tweak your mouse, control your background, and adjust your laptop's sleep times, all from the Windows Settings pages. But there's a whole host of new capabilities hidden away within your laptop's utility application, and it may be the only place to find them.

We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. A solid 4K monitor provides all the screen real estate you need to get things done, whether working from home, gaming, or creating content. A high-resolution display will allow you to see text, photos, and video in great detail--especially recently created media. External monitors have been a common tech accessory for decades, but the marketplace for 4K displays specifically (like our best overall, the Dell S2722QC) has expanded greatly over the past few years. The combination of 4K PC and console games, accessible 4K video, and the necessity of a home office or learning space has accelerated this change. If you're assembling peripherals for a new computer setup, these are the best 4K monitors available right now. The monitor market has recently introduced several new 4K models, but these high-res options aren't the standard--if you want 4K resolution, that narrows the field right off the bat.

Samsung's M8 Smart Monitor is a well-rounded display that can function as both a television and a computer monitor. It has impressive image quality and comes equipped with Samsung's Tizen OS for streaming, but a few questionable design decisions hold it back from being truly great. Samsung's M8 Smart Monitor is a 32-inch 4K HDR television disguised as a monitor. It ships with the same Tizen operating system found in the company's smart TVs. You don't even need to connect a PC to watch Netflix, Hulu, or Apple TV. It's a good fit for those who want smart TV features but plan to connect a PC.

Samsung's 24-inch 390 Series monitor, is the best computer monitor you can buy in this price range. The C24F390 wins the nod thanks to its image quality, which clearly beats most monitors in its class. Its advantage comes thanks to the contrast ratio of its Vertical Alignment display panel. This monitor can display deep, inky black levels in scenes where most budget monitors only show a hazy, disappointing gray. Yet it's also much brighter than competitors we tested in everyday use. You might not notice the C24F390's advantage when editing a spreadsheet, but it's obvious in movies and games, which look vibrant and crisp.

On Wednesday, Qualcomm revealed its first concrete details of the Snapdragon 845, the next-generation mobile chip that stands a good chance of being in your next smartphone. The 845 will ship in early 2018, and appear in phones sometime after that. Qualcomm calls the Snapdragon 845 a chip to improve both artificial intelligence and immersion, blending the future of smart devices with the past. At its heart lies the Kryo 385, the semi-custom, upgraded CPU. That represents a 25- to 30-percent improvement over the existing Snapdragon 835 in the performance cores, and a 15-percent improvement in the smaller, energy-efficient cores.