Earlier this week I wrote about the best Meta Quest 3 deal we are probably going to see in November. eBay and Meta Store have now followed up with the best Meta Quest 3S deal. Ahead of Black Friday, the official Meta Store on eBay is offering the refurbished Meta Quest 3S 128GB VR headset for just $215.99 after a 20% off coupon code "TECH4THEM". Alternatively, the 256GB model is $287.99. Both headsets ship free and come with an extended 2 year warranty supplied by Allstate. This is easily the lowest price I've ever seen on a Quest 3S headset with warranty.
Refurb Meta Quest 3S for $215.99
Includes extended 2 year warranty
The Meta Quest 3S is the best standalone consumer-oriented VR headset under $300. It costs 40% less than the Quest 3 and yet retains most of its hardware and functionality, including the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, Touch Plus controllers with inside-out tracking, and mixed reality passthrough. However, whereas the Quest 3 has been updated with a new pancake lens design, the Quest 3S retains the Fresnel optics of the Quest 2. Although obviously not as good as the Quest 3, the Quest 3S still very much offers an immersive visual experience that is sure to impress. I myself logged in hundreds of hours on the Quest 2 before I moved on to the Quest 3. For newcomers who want to try out VR gaming without investing tons of money, of for people who want to give this as a gift to someone who's never tried VR, I would recommend the Quest 3S over the Quest, especially at this price.
TL;DR Quest 3S vs Quest 3:
Same Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor
Same Touch Plus controllers
Same 120Hz refresh rate
Same Mixed reality passthrough functionality
Same tetherless and tethered functionality
Quest 3 has sharper resolution (2064x2208 vs 1832x1920)
Quest 3 has better lens array (pancake vs fresnel)
Quest 3 has lower FOV (104°/96° vs 96°/90°)
Quest 3 has higher storage capacity (512GB vs 128GB)
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
As avid puzzlers know full well, the humble jigsaw puzzle is a thing of beauty in multiple ways. Not only are jigsaws an absorbing time sink, but multiple studies have demonstrated they are good for you both mentally and physically. As you fit the pieces into place, they can be enjoyed alone or as a communal activity, and remain to be a fun hobby for all ages. Plus, when you’re finished, you’re often left with a delightful piece of art and sense of accomplishment.
The only downside to puzzles is they can take up a surprising amount of space, especially puzzles with 1000+ pieces. If you get into working on bigger puzzles, they can eat up your dining room table, coffee table or desk space for long stretches of time. This is why many jigsaw fans have a dedicated puzzle-solving table or board these days, often equipped with useful accessories. You have foldable and portable options, multi-purpose tables (for playing cards and the like), and ones with drawers to organize the pieces as you go. No matter what you're looking for or what your budget is, we've found some viable options for you below.
TL;DR: These Are the Best Puzzle Tables and Boards
If you’ve got the puzzle bug or simply want an easier setup for regular puzzling, below are our top puzzle table and board picks right now to solve your space and storage problems, no matter your budget. Each of our picks represent a different category of table or board to fit different jigsaw puzzle needs. There are a lot of different options to choose from within these categories, so we've narrowed it down to one entry for each that we think fits the category best.
1. Bits and Pieces Fold and Go Table
Best for portability
This Bits and Pieces puzzle table has it all in one convenient package that can be easily moved around. It stores completely flat but extends into a good-sized table with fold-out legs and a felt covering to make it easy to pick up and push in pieces. The side arms can be used to arrange pieces you have yet to fit into the main puzzle, giving you plenty of room to work.
Because it stores flat, it also functions as a puzzle protector, allowing you to fold the flaps inward to cover your work in progress. It can then be slid conveniently under furniture until you’re ready to dive in again. And if you like puzzling on the go, this table’s lightweight and has a carry handle. As a bonus, this table is multi-purpose for card games, reading, writing and the like. It's a great portable puzzle table that is built to handle up to 1500 piece jigsaw puzzles.
2. Vociprooter Puzzle Board
Best for laps
Some puzzlers prefer the comfort of working from their laps on a favorite chair or sofa, but that can be almost impossible with larger puzzles. To solve this problem, consider one of these handy puzzle folders which offer a hard surface you can spread out and balance on your knees.
The wings offer trays to put puzzle pieces on while you’re still working. When you want to finish a session, you can move the trays into the center and zip the wings closed to seal the puzzle. It can then be tucked away out of sight until you’re ready to carry on. This handy design comes in a variety of sizes to suit your puzzling preferences.
3. Jigitz Puzzle Spinner
Best for collaborative puzzling
Having a lazy susan for your jigsaw puzzle is such a great idea it’s surprising more companies haven’t put one on the market. If you’re puzzling with friends it’s much more convenient to reach the piece you’re working on. If you’re puzzling alone, it lets you easily access every side of the puzzle without having to leave your spot, as well as try different angles to see if a new perspective sparks a new idea for a match between possible pieces.
This particular Jigitz spinning table topper comes with a felt backing for convenience, a hardwood rim, and can hold puzzles up to 34” x 34” (which should cover most 1000 piece puzzles). And if you’re into jigsaws of different shapes, there’s a circular option from the same manufacturer, too.
In addition to puzzle use, this spinning board is also excellent for playing board games like Scrabble where rotating the board is quite useful. Though a dedicated board game table is still worthwhile if you are looking to mostly use it for that.
4. Jumbl 1000-Piece Puzzle Board Rack
Best for storing pieces
Here’s another full puzzle table with fold-out legs for your consideration. From Jumbl, this table’s a little bulkier than some others on this list, but that’s because it comes with a hidden benefit: slide-out drawers to store your puzzle pieces. Anything you're currently clueless about can be hidden away until you’re ready, as can part-finished sections that aren’t quite ready to join the main puzzle.
The table is thoughtfully designed in a number of other respects, from the attractive varnished finish to the two-sided rail that gives you clear access from different angles while keeping the puzzle in place. And if you don’t need it freestanding, it’s thin enough to sit conveniently on a tabletop or other surface.
This particular puzzle table is only meant to handle up to 1000-piece puzzles, but with the addition of the drawers, it should be able to scale up to 1500 pieces or more.
5. Playvibe Puzzle Board
Best table topper
Our previous recommendation will sit atop a table, but it’s a little bulky should that be your primary mode of play. This one, from Playvibe, is a dedicated, slimline table-topper with felt feet to grip surfaces and six handy drawers to help store and organize your pieces.
Fully enclosed edging helps keep your puzzle secure, and the board comes with an acetate cover that fits between the rails to protect half-finished segments when not in use. It’s also made of lightweight wood, so it’s sturdy but still easy to move around from surface to surface as it suits you.
6. All4Jig Tilting Puzzle Table
Best dedicated tilting table
Regular puzzle players will be familiar with the postural problems that can arise from being bent over a surface for a long stretch. If that’s a problem for you, then the answer might be a tilting table like this one from ALL4JIG that leans toward you from different angles, allowing you to sit back and relax in a comfy seat while enjoying your puzzle.
The board has a thick lower lip designed to keep a separate puzzling board in place, but you can play directly on the table’s surface if desired. It’s on wheels, so you can maneuver it into position around your seat, and it comes in a neat wood laminate finish.
7. Becko Angle Puzzle Board
Best table topper that tilts
A table that tilts toward you as you play is obviously useful, but some players don’t want a whole table to do that, only a stand-alone board. This table from Becko offers that convenience in a particularly solid and useful package with a natural pine wood frame.
It’s been thoughtfully designed, with a flannelette (like flannel, but not quite) surface to grip and sort your pieces, while the supplied bracket gives you a choice of angles and can actually be used with other boards. So it’s super useful if you’ve got more than one puzzle on the go at once.
8. Arnsten Puzzle Table with Removable Glass Top
Best coffee table for puzzles
If you're looking for a more permanent fixture in your living room, this coffee table from Wildon Home is an excellent option. I includes three drawers for all of your extra pieces as well as a nice flast surface for you to actually assemble puzzles. Best of all, there's a removable glass top that lets you convert your puzzle table into an actual coffee table any time you want. It's a bit more expensive than the other options on our list, but what you get is a high-quality piece of furniture for your living room that just so happens to be puzzle friendly.
Puzzle Board FAQs
Puzzle Mats vs Puzzle Boards: Which is better?
Puzzle boards and puzzle mats are both tools avid puzzlers can use to organize their workspace and keep track of pieces. If you're looking to buy either as gift for the puzzler in your life, there are a few things to consider/
Boards are more expensive but offer more features, like pullout trays and other storage options, that help puzzlers organize their projects. The main benefit of a puzzle board is stability, as these boards are typically made from wood and offer a sturdy, flat surface. While they may take up more space, an in-progress or completed puzzle can still be safely moved between locations on a wooden puzzle board.
Puzzle mats are a cheaper and more lightweight alternative to puzzle boards. Mats, usually made with felt, can be rolled up and stowed away. Putting away a mat may be easier than finding a space for a full-blown board, but these mats are also flimsier. Pieces may not stay together as firmly on a softer surface, and there are no additional storage features to keep track of them. While mats help puzzlers establish a clear workspace, they require an existing flat surface for stability.
What is the best size for a puzzle board?
When researching puzzle boards, consider the amount of space available to you as well as the size of puzzles you like to put together. Many boards indicate what size puzzles they work best for, and some even have dimensions for different puzzles drawn out on their surface.
Most puzzle boards range from about 27 to 35 inches in length. A 30" x 22" puzzle board can comfortably fit most 1000 piece puzzles, though daring puzzlers who tackle more than 1500 or 2000 pieces at a time may need a board closer to 35 inches long.
You may need to pick a specific space in your home to dedicate to a puzzle board. Alternatively, you may look into puzzle mats or foldable puzzle tables that can be stored when not in use. All in all, the ideal size for a puzzle board is what will support your favorite puzzles without dominating your space.
Not everyone is the DIY type. If you're in the market for a prebuilt gaming PC, Dell is one of the best brands we'd recommend. Alienware desktops and laptops feature solid build quality, top-of-the-line gaming performance, excellent cooling (further improved on the newer models), aggressive styling, and pricing that is very competitive with other pre-built options. Best of all, there are plenty of sales that happen throughout the year, so it's not difficult to grab one of these computers at considerably less than their retail price.
Dell and Alienware Coupons
Alienware Gaming PC Deals
Alienware Gaming Laptop Deals
You can quickly browse through all of the listed products on sale above. See below for our favorite picks.
Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 Gaming PC
The best gaming deal to come out of this sale is the Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5080 gaming PC starting at $2,065 with free delivery. The RTX 5080 is the second best Nvidia Geforce RTX 50 series graphics card, surpassed only by the much more expensive RTX 5090. It performs better than the RTX 4080 Super and the gap widens even further in games that support DLSS 4. This is an outstanding card for playing latest games at 4K resolution with high settings and ray tracing enabled. Check out our Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 FE review.
Alienware Aurora R16 RTX 5070 Ti Gaming PC
The RTX 5070 Ti offers the best bang for your buck in terms of 4K gaming performance. It performs neck-and-neck with the previous generation RTX 4080 Super and pulls ahead in any game that supports DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation. It is fully capable of running any game in 4K at 60fps. It also has 16GB of VRAM like the RTX 5080, making it viable for AI work. Check out our Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU review by Jacqueline Thomas for our hands-on impressions.
Alienware Aurora 16 and 16X Gaming Laptops
Alienware's new mainstream gaming laptop for 2025 is dubbed the "Alienware Aurora" and it replaces the previous generation's x16 and m16 series of laptops. It comes in two models: the 16 and 16X. The 16 is the more economical model, but gamers should definitely opt for the higher-end 16X model. If you're looking for build quality and performance on par with the previous generation m16, then the 16X is its spiritual successor. It features an anodized aluminum lid and base, a higher quality display, a more powerful CPU, and a GPU that isn't throttled for maximum gaming performance.
Alienware Area-51 Gaming Laptops
New for 2025, the Alienware Area-51 gaming laptop features an anodized aluminum shell for both the lid and bottom chassis with a gorgeous iridescent finish. The frame is made of a durable and lightweight magnesium alloy. Cooling has been upgraded with generous amounts of copper and a new thermal interface material to better transfer heat away from your hottest components as well as more fans and bigger cutouts for greater airflow. Dell claims that the laptop can handle a higher power ceiling of up to 240W TDP without raising acoustics.
Design-wise, the Area 51 has a sleeker, more contoured shape compared to previous models, with rounded edges and soft corners replacing the traditional squared off design. The hinges are internally positioned so that they're near invisible. There's a transparent window on the undercarriage to show off the internal components. As befits an Alienware laptop, there's plenty of RGB illunimation, although most of it can be turned off if you want your laptop to be a bit more subtle.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
If you're looking for a power bank that can handle the demands of even the latest and most power hungry gaming handhelds at a great price, check out this early Black Friday deal. Amazon is offering the Baseus 20,800mAh Power Bank with 145W of Power Delivery for just $45 shipped after applying coupon code "GHNNKVYZ". You don't need to be a Prime member. Baseus makes good power banks and I recommend them as a less expensive alternative to Anker.
Baseus 20,800mAh 145W Power Bank for $45
The Baseus power bank has a 20,800mAh or 77Whr battery capacity. Factoring in a roughly 80% power efficiency rating (which is about standard for power banks), this power bank will charge a Steam Deck (40Whr) or Asus ROG Ally (40Whr) from empty to completely full 1.5 times, an Xbox Ally X (80Whr) 0.8 times, a Legion Go S (55Whr) about 1.1 times, and a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 (20Whr) about 3 times. You can see why a smaller 10,000mAh power bank might be fine for the Switch but is insufficient for the more power hungry handheld gaming PCs.
The power bank is equipped with four ports: two USB Type-A ports that can deliver 33W each and two USB Type-C ports that can deliver 100W each. The power bank supports a total maximum output of 145W. So, for example, if you were using both USB-C ports, one port could deliver 100W and the other power would then be capped at 45W.
The 100W of maximum power output is more than enough for every handheld gaming PC released so far. The Steam Deck supports up to 45W of charging, the Asus ROG Ally up to 65W, the Xbox Ally X and Legion Go 2 up to 100W, and the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 between 20W and 30W. You should be able to charge all of these gaming handhelds at their fastest rate while you're playing games at the same time, even on Turbo settings.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Every car absolutely needs a tire inflator as part of an emergency kit to be readily available at any time. If the only reason stopping you is the cost, then this deal should give you no more excuse. Ahead of Black Friday, Amazon is offering Prime members the Inflavive cordless tire inflator and air compressor for just $14.99 after you apply $10 off coupon code "3LPLDNI6" during checkout. Any brand of tire inflator you find on Amazon at around this price point was probably made from the one of few overseas factories. They might not have as many fancy features as other more expensive models, but they get the job done and that's what matters.
Inflavive Cordless Tire Inflator and Air Compressor for $15
The Inflavive tire inflator and air compressor features an internal lithium-ion battery. Cordless inflators are much more convenient to use because they don't need to be plugged in and can be charged with a standard USB Type-C cable. The compressor is rated for a maximum pressure of 150 PSI and can refill a 195/65 R15 tire from 29 to 36 PSI in about one minute. It also has an essential auto-stop feature to prevent you from dangerously overfilling your tires.
Like most tire inflators, this model can also be used as a cordless compressor to inflate other things as well, like bicycle tires, balls, inflatables, and more. The digital display is easy to read and can switch among four different units of measurements: psi, kpa, bar and kg/cm². It's also equipped with a USB Type-C output so that it can also be used as a power bank to charger your phone or mobile electronics in a pinch.
Most people will get this tire inflator to keep their tires toppoed up, however it will come in handy during the real emergencies when you get a flat. Keep in mind though that If your tire has a puncture, there's no point filling it back up if it's going to leak again. So make sure you also have a tire patch kit on hand.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Oscar winners Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are reportedly reuniting for The Mummy 4 with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett – the filmmaking duo billed as Radio Silence – directing the long-awaited sequel.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fraser and Weisz are in talks to return to the franchise that made them box office stars before they both went on to win their respective Academy Awards (Fraser for The Whale and Weisz for The Constant Gardener).
That sequel also aged up Rick and Evy’s son Alex, who was introduced as a kid in The Mummy Returns, to be a young man.
“It is unclear who else [from the original cast] could return. One source describes the project as not a reboot, but rather a sequel that would disregard the events of the third movie. David Coggeshall wrote the screenplay,” THR reports.
Radio Silence’s breakout film was 2019’s Ready or Not. They then rebooted the Scream franchise with 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream 6, and also directed the vampire flick Abigail.
The Mummy 4 will be produced by the franchise’s original producer, Sean Daniel, and Project X Entertainment’s William Sherak, James Vanderbilt and Paul Neinstein.
Universal Pictures previously tried to reboot The Mummy franchise – with the 1999 film already a remake of the 1932 original – in 2017 with the Tom Cruise-led The Mummy, which failed to breathe life into the studio’s plans for Dark Universe, a shared universe that reimagined the classic Universal Monsters.
The studio also released the Dwayne Johnson spin-off vehicle The Scorpion King, which beget its own direct-to-video film series.
Curiously, director Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is produced by New Line Cinema, Blumhouse and Atomic Monster and will be released in theaters by Warner Bros. on April 17, 2026. It was made outside of the Universal franchise and there were rumors earlier this week that Warner Bros. has now retitled the film The Resurrected, which would put an end to any confusion with Universal’s franchise.
Let us know in the comments what you think of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz returning for The Mummy 4.
Maintaining a tidy desk area doesn't have to be labor intensive or expensive. Compressed air canisters used to be the standard but nowadays there is a more versatile and cost effective solution. Amazon is offering the JVSCAM Cordless Rechargeable Electric Air Duster (Air Blower) for just $19.99 after you apply coupon code "U6C8Z5P7". This has become the best selling air duster on IGN because it's so cheap. Most electric air dusters under $50 on Amazon are pretty much identical, so I'd recommend just getting whichever one is least expensive.
JVSCAM Cordless Electric Air Duster for PC for $19.99
The JVSCAM cordless rechargeable electric air duster is a fairly straightforward device. An internal fan spins at up to 130,000RPM to move an appreciable amount of air. A nozzle funnels the air into a tight, high-velocity stream that's more than strong enough to kick up layers of dust that's been sitting on top of your computer components. It has three speed settings, although I would recommend keeping it at the max speed for optimal results. You also get four different sized nozzles, including a narrow funnel for tight spaces like the crevices in your keyboard and a wider nozzle for AoE damage.
The best thing about an electronic duster as opposed to a compressed air canister is that it can be re-used. The dual 2,500mAh batteries lasts up to 240 minutes on a full charge (on the lowest speed setting). It can be recharged with a USB Type-C cable, which is included. I have a similar variant of this air duster that I use for all manner of cleaning, not just my PC (cleaning my coffee grinder and blow drying my dog are two examples). If possible, do your dusting outside.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
We’re in a golden age of portable gaming. Nintendo is still the king of the mountain with the Switch 2, but the market is also just lousy with handheld gaming PCs that you can play wherever you want. The fact that there are so many to pick from is a good problem to have, but once you’ve committed and freed yourself from the shackles of your TV, you’ll find you’re still bound by storage limits.
How you deal with those limits depends on what you’re after. If it’s more space for the likes of Battlefield 6, you’re better off cracking open your console – if you’re comfortable doing so – and upgrading your internal storage to a higher capacity M.2 NVMe SSD than you are popping in a MicroSD card. Proper SSDs are simply better at loading games up quickly.
Yet there’s still room for our humble friend, the MicroSD card. (That is, unless you did go with a Switch 2; in that case, you’ll be looking at a MicroSD Express card.) These little cards that could are fine for booting simpler indie titles and for holding your screenshots, screen recordings, and other files, thus freeing internal storage space for all those heaving open-world games the industry slings these days. Maybe they’re not reliable the way quality SSDs are, but they’re also easy to pop out, back-up to a PC, and put back in your console. As for picking one to use, that can be easy, if you know what you’re looking for.
Great, what should I look for in a MicroSD Card?
With storage, you need to be able to put the specs presented by manufacturers into a proper hierarchy. They love to trot out sequential read and write speeds of their cards because they’re the big throughput numbers. But you’ll rarely see those numbers in reality, especially if you’re transferring or loading game files, which are actually made of lots of smaller files – it takes time to spin up each of those files for transfer, and that creates a bottleneck. So, really, you want to know the random read and write speed of a card, which is a slower figure that, you may be shocked to hear, many manufacturers don’t explicitly publish. (Quick note here: Using words like “fast” and “slow” when discussing data transfer rates isn’t strictly the right way to go, but it’s a nice shortcut. Much of the time, in this context, when I write “faster,” I actually mean “higher throughput.”)
There is one way to get a vague idea about MicroSD cards’ random read and writes: by looking for their Application Performance Class (APC), signified on their labels by either an A1 or A2. In theory, an A2 rating means a card can handle, at minimum, 4,000 Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) during random reads, and 2,000 IOPS during random writes. The trouble is, that’s really hard to confirm in testing, and if any reviewers successfully have done so, I haven’t found them. Still, whether cards are reaching that level or not, it’s a far cry from the million-plus IOPS you might get with an M.2 NVMe SSD. And it might not matter, anyway; MicroSD cards don’t need to be that fast if you’re just trying to get your Balatro reps in. Nevertheless, higher IOPS is better, especially when doing that first big transfer where you’re filling the card with data from your old one or from your SSD.
The picks in the guide below are based on personal experience with these brands, price of the cards, what performance testing I could find, and how they fit into the needs of a handheld gaming PC owner. Some of the test results I looked at also come from The Great MicroSD Card Survey, a project by tech enthusiast Matt Cole that has become a surprisingly deep catalog of real-world tests of MicroSD cards over the last couple of years. If I couldn’t find any tests that show random reads and writes for a given card, and the manufacturer doesn’t offer that spec up itself, then I didn’t bother considering the card at all.
1. Samsung Pro Plus MicroSDXC Card
Best MicroSD Card
When you’re looking for the truly best card, it’s a toss-up. I’m giving Samsung’s Pro Plus the nod here, based on promising results reported by Engadget, camera review site AlikGriffin.com, StorageReview, and The Great MicroSD Card Survey. But based on other impressions or results I found, I could have just as easily told you the SanDisk Extreme or the Lexar Professional Silver Plus is the card to get. All three cards offer similar performance, just with some clear strengths in one area or another. SanDisk’s card appears to be significantly weaker in random writes; Lexar’s seems about as good as Samsung’s, although reviewers I looked at found differing random read/write results. If I were looking for a card right now, I’m sure I’d be happy with any of them, but I’d be most tempted by the Samsung Pro Plus.
One thing to note here is that many cards, Samsung’s included, claim higher sequential read throughput than UHS-I allows. That’s only possible on handheld gaming PCs that, like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, feature UHS-I DDR200 mode support; and even that tops out at 170MB/s.
2. PNY Pro Elite Prime
Best Value MicroSD Card
PNY makes decent MicroSD cards priced lower than the high-end ones with little performance penalty. The company claims its Pro Elite Prime cards can do up to 200MB/s reads and 150MB/s writes when you’re using it with a PNY Performance Prime card reader, which I don’t remember seeing in any handheld gaming PC specs. (Presumably you could see them with any reader that supports DDR200 mode.) In testing for The Great MicroSD Card Survey, the PNY card put up similar sequential read and write numbers to the Samsung Pro Plus and SanDisk Extreme. Meanwhile, Digital Camera World saw better results, with it hitting 174MB/s sequential reads and 156MB/s sequential writes while using storage testing software CrystalDiskMark and a non-PNY MicroSD card reader.
The only place I found explicit tests of random read/write performance was Cole’s site, where he found that the PNY card was a few hundred IOPS slower than the Samsung Pro Plus. DCW mentions seeing performance almost as good as sequential reads in transfers of multiple small files, which could be a stand-in for random read/writes, but the methodology isn’t clear enough to me to say for sure. Whatever the case, PNY’s big advantage is affordability: Its 1TB card is just $69.99, for instance, while Samsung’s Pro Plus has been available at or under $100 from Amazon since late last year.
3. Amazon Basics
Best Budget 512GB MicroSD Card
Amazon Basics products might be a mystery product – house brands like this or Walmart’s Onn tend to be manufactured by the same people who make known brands – but they can be a great deal hiding in plain sight. Both Amazon’s and PNY’s 1TB MicroSD cards cost similar amounts, but Amazon’s 512GB card is priced to move, making it a great deal for handheld gaming PCs or just to have lying around (hopefully in a case or something; it’s way too easy to lose these little thumbnail-sized guys).
Wildly, when it comes to random read and write performance, Amazon’s cards seem to hold their own. Cole put a 64GB Amazon Basics MicroSD card at a very respectable 2,317 IOPS for reads, while systems admin Bret of Bret.dk found with some Linux Terminal commands and I/O testing software fio that the card was capable of much better – 3,775 IOPS reads and 3,533 IOPS writes, as of September 2022. Either tester’s result would be just dandy for a card so cheap.
How to Pick the Best MicroSD Card for You
It’s a nightmare going down into the MicroSD card specs rabbit hole. But the nice thing is that when it comes to buying one to expand the storage of your Asus Xbox ROG Ally X, Valve Steam Deck, or Lenovo Legion Go 2, you only really need to be concerned with the reputation of the card’s manufacturer and whether its random read and write speeds are decent. I’m not aware of any current MicroSD card manufacturer that actually publishes testing results along those lines, which makes it harder to know which one is best, but I also don’t think it really matters that much, so long as you’re buying a card with an A2 rating.
Now, that’s not because A2 magically means the card is really good – as I wrote before, it’s hard to verify whether that’s the case. But cards with an A2 rating, or at least the ones from reputable makers like SanDisk, Samsung, PNY, and Lexar, tend to be well-specced. Most of them carry a U-shaped symbol with a 3 inside it – indicating the card’s UHS Speed Class – and often also say “V30,” which is the highest SD Video Speed Class. These numbers are indirectly meaningful: They tell you that, yes, this card uses the UHS-I bus at least, which is capable of at least 104MB/s throughput.
Above that, things get a little complicated again. UHS-II, a newer MicroSD card bus standard, supports up to a 312MB/s read data rate, or three times that of UHS-I. But I couldn’t find any UHS-II cards given the A2 rating, so you might find that games load more slowly with them. That could change, but for the time being, even if you have a handheld like the UHS-II-supporting Xbox Ally X, you should stick with UHS-I for your MicroSD card.
I’ve never been sad to have too much space, but I’ve definitely been annoyed when I hit a storage wall of my own making.
So, assuming you’ve got a list of MicroSD cards with an A2 rating and UHS-I bus support, all you have to do now is pick one. Easy, right? Honestly, mostly yes. Any of those from brands like SanDisk, Samsung, PNY, and Lexar will probably be good enough. You can narrow things down a bit more by doing things like looking for cards that have shown higher random read/write IOPS in reviewers’ tests, say if you think you’ll be transferring lots of small files to the card regularly. Also, if you’re getting the card just for indie game storage, you might not need much space, so you can pick something smaller. I will always argue for buying the most storage you can afford, though, even if that’s more than you think you need – I’ve never been sad to have too much space, but I’ve definitely been annoyed when I hit a storage wall of my own making. Feel free to go cheaper if price is an issue, but as it stands, the cheapest card worth paying for is in this guide right now. You should regard anything even less expensive that you find with conspiracy theorist-level suspicion.
The last bit of advice I would give you is to take even professional reviews with a grain of salt. There are so few reliable reviews in the first place, and even among them, methodology can be all over the place. It’s next to impossible to form a cohesive picture of one card’s performance, let alone several that you’re trying to decide between. Thankfully, you don’t really need to worry about that in the world of handheld gaming PCs, where it’s still mostly easy to swap out internal SSDs for AAA games and indie titles run fine on any decent MicroSD card you can find, as long as you stick to the guidelines above as you seek them out.
Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.
While Peter Pan adaptations are nothing new in the film world, fans of the franchise will want to keep an eye out for the latest Pan project coming from Australia's Pixel Zoo Animation Studios. Pixel Zoo has acquired the rights to Tom Taylor and Jon Sommariva's critically acclaimed YA graphic novel Neverlanders.
Both creators will be closely involved in the development of this animated film adaptation, with Taylor penning the screenplay and Sommariva attached as art director. Pixel Zoo Head of Studio Sebastian Gonzalez will executive-produce the film.
Released in 2023, Neverlanders puts a fresh spin on the Peter Pan mythos. In this version of the gritty story (which definitely skews to the older end of the YA spectrum), Neverland is wracked by chaos as a new pirate villain wages war against Tinker Bell and her fairy army. With Pan missing and most of the Lost Boys dead, it falls on the sole survivor, Paco, to recruit a girl named Bee and her friends to save his home. Together, they'll become a new generation of Lost Ones.
You might also recognize Taylor from his other comics work like DC's Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel series and Marvel's All-New Wolverine. Taylor previously journeyed into animation with The Deep, which is currently in its fourth season. Sommariva's past work includes Batman/TMNT Adventures and Star Wars Adventures.
“It has always been important for Pixel Zoo to champion talent, original stories and world-class animation in Australia, so we are thrilled to partner with the brilliant Tom Taylor and Jon Sommariva," Gonzalez said in a statement. "Our team will work closely with Tom and Jon to ensure we stay true to the soul of Neverlanders while expanding the graphic novel into the kind of cinematic adventure only animation can deliver.
There's no word on a release date or director for Neverlanders just yet. The sequel comic, Neverlanders: Get Lost, will be released in 2026.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket byfollowing @jschedeen on BlueSky.
GFA Games has just launched the Open Beta phase for its STALKER-inspired FPS MMORPG, PIONER, on Steam. PC gamers can join the playtest and start playing it. So, if you’ve been looking forward to it, you should definitely try it. The Open Beta lets you experience the full narrative arc, introducing key factions, locations, and … Continue reading STALKER-Inspired FPS MMORPG PIONER Enters Open Beta on PC→
NVIDIA has released a brand new driver for its graphics cards. According to the green team, the NVIDIA GeForce 581.80 WHQL driver offers optimal performance in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. This driver also adds support for Anno 117: Pax Romana and Europa Universalis V. From what I can see, this driver also fixes … Continue reading NVIDIA GeForce 581.80 WHQL Driver Released, Optimized For Call of Duty: Black Ops 7→
Activision has shared the official PC system requirements for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. So, let’s take a look at what PC system you’ll need to run it. PC gamers will at least need an AMD Ryzen 5 1400 or Intel Core i5-6600 with 8GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon RX 470, an NVIDIA … Continue reading Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Official PC System Requirements→
Sony's official professional grade PlayStation DualSense Edge wireless controller is on sale ahead of Black Friday. You can get the Midnight Black color from Amazon for just $174.99 with free delivery after a $25 off instant discount. The last time I saw a new (not refurb) DualSense Edge marked down was during Sony's Days of Play sale back in June.
PS5 DualSense Edge Controller for $175
The DualSense Edge is Sony's high-end controller for the PS5 console. This is a significant upgrade from the standard DualSense controller, with pro-level features like grips, adjustable analog sticks, mappable rear buttons, profiles, and more. If your analog sticks crap out, you can buy replacements for $19.99. The triggers have received special treatment as well. Next to each trigger is a stop slider that lets you adjust how far you have to press the trigger down to make it register. You can choose standard, medium, or short travel distances. Accessories include a hard shell case and USB-C cable.
If you like the standard DualSense's ergonomics but are looking for more customization needed for Twitch-sensitive genres like fighting games and shooters, then the DualSense Edge is calling out your name.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Barnes & Noble's annual holiday gift card deal is now available and it's basically free money for anyone who already plans on buying gift cards this year. For every $100 in B&N gift cards you purchase, you'll get an additional $10 gift card sent to your inbox. You can choose to gift that extra $10 to someone or keep it for yourself. It's a great gift idea for the reader in your life who only really wants money for books, and it's a deal I'm planning on taking advantage of myself ahead of Black Friday.
There are some limits on this promotion, but not many. Barnes & Noble only lets you earn up to $50 of extra gift cards per day, which means that spending $500 will earn you the maximum reward. The key detail here is that this limit is only for each customer per day, so you could come back the next day and earn more gift card rewards again if you wanted to. This offer is available from now until December 12, so there's plenty of time to take advantage of it.
Barnes & Noble Gift Card Deal
You can choose to purchase physical or digital gift cards and still get the $10 promotional credit. For physical gift cards, there are a ton of different styles available, from Christmas to birthday party themes. You can choose to load each gift card with anywhere between $10 and $500, but you'll only get the additional $10 for every $100 you spend in a single cart purchase. So you could potentially buy 10 of the $10 gift cards and still earn the promotional credit as long as you do it all at once.
Barnes & Noble gift cards can be used at any brick-and-mortar location or the online store. You can also actually use these gift cards at any Paper Source location since B&N acquired the company back in 2021.
When Does the Barnes & Noble Black Friday Sale Start?
Barnes & Noble has not yet announced the start date for its Black Friday sale, but we do have an idea of when you should expect those book deals to drop this year. Other major retailers have already announced Black Friday sale dates beginning around Thursday, November 20 this year and Barnes & Noble will likely do something similar. Last year, the bookseller's sale launched on the Friday before Thanksgiving both online and in stores.
As for what deals to expect, we can look at what the store offered during Black Friday last year, as well as during its annual book haul sale back in August. The main event will likely be 50% off a bunch of books, which isn't too surprising given the store's status as one of the best places to buy books. We also expect that same 50% discount to be applied to select DVDs and Blu-rays as well as some toys and games. Barnes & Noble has been offering some pretty decent LEGO deals this year so far and it seems likely that trend will continue for 2025.
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