David Murphy

...was formerly the Senior Technology Editor at Lifehacker and a founding member of Wirecutter's computing team. Across his 15+ year career in technology journalism, his reviews and how-to guides have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, USA Today, PCMag, Reviewed.com, Computer Shopper, Laptop Mag, PCWorld, PC Gamer, Tom's Hardware, World of Warcraft: The Magazine, Maximum PC, Buzzfeed, Engadget, and Ars Technica.

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Philips' Evnia 49M2C8900 is decent for gaming if you can overlook its quirks

It's hard not to geek out over the sheer size of the Philips Evnia 49M2C8900: a 49-inch curved display that eats up about 47 inches of horizontal space on your desk. This super-ultrawide makes monitors like the 34-inch function ga4_link79() { window.dataLayer.push(JSON.parse('{"event":"click_inarticle"}')) }Alienware AW3423DW or 45-inch function ga4_link80() { window.dataLayer.push(JSON.parse('{"event":"click_inarticle"}')) }Corsair Xeneon Flex look small.

It's large enough that you can easily...

Origin PC Eon17-X v2 Review: Big, Burly and Loud Custom Gaming Laptop That Costs

If you want the best gaming laptop you can buy, then you must be ready to subject your wallet to some horrors. Your ears, too, in the case of the Origin PC Eon17-X v2. This formidable gaming machine costs a fortune and demands headphones, thanks to its very loud (though very capable) fans that start blasting air over its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU even before your favorite game's introductory cutscene gets a chance to load.

At more than $3,500 after a substantial discount, the Origin PC Eon17-...

I Tested the Acer Swift 14 AI and Found This Copilot Plus PC Is Missing One Key Feature

The Acer Swift 14 AI is a Copilot Plus PC with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X series CPU, which means it delivers incredible battery life -- longer than 24 hours! -- and comes equipped to handle all of the AI Microsoft packs into Windows 11. The laptop is speedy enough for everyday tasks and has a sturdy build with a great keyboard and touchpad. I was starting to like the Swift 14 AI until I looked at its price.

At $1,200, the Swift 14 AI costs too much for what it delivers. Competing Copilot Plus PCs...

LG's C4 OLED is a year old, but it remains an excellent midrange TV — here's why it's still a great value

Even a year after its release, LG's C4 OLED TV is still a beauty. The 65-inch model I reviewed quickly transformed into the centerpiece of my living room. Its deep, rich black levels and vibrant colors drew my roommates and me to more game-playing and movie-watching than we've done all year.

The TV comes in several sizes, ranging from 42 inches at the bottom to a whopping 83 inches at the top. The 65-inch model is often on sale for $1,500 or less, which is a solid deal for a midrange OLED. It's...

I tried Ray-Ban's Meta Smart Glasses and they're definitely cool, but more of a novelty than essential tech

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses set out to achieve a worthy goal: Combine the basic functionality of a pair of glasses (or sunglasses) with many of the media and AI features you'd get from a smartphone. This way, you can capture photos and videos, listen to music, and interact with a digital assistant without ever having to pull out your phone. Instead, the glasses you're already wearing can cover all those functions — at least, that's the idea.

In practice, the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses are a...

If Your Wi-Fi Is Terrible, Check Your Router (Published 2015)

Bob McConnell, a retired engineer, set up a new wireless router in his home this year to get faster Internet speeds. Instead, he got the opposite, with his iPad often getting no wireless connection in his bedroom.For days, he tinkered with the router’s settings, but couldn’t figure out a fix. “It was totally ruining my life,” said Mr. McConnell, who lives in a condominium building in Kirkland, Wash. “Things would work, and then the next morning they wouldn’t work again.”What Mr. McConnell experi...