About Rich Woods
Hello! I'm the Editor-in-Chief of XDA, and I've been reporting on all things consumer tech since 2013. More recently, I've had more of a focus on Windows, and I've reviewed pretty much every mainstream laptop under the sun. If you see me somewhere, come say hello and let me ask you awkward questions about why you use the tech that you use.
What was your first computer?
I'm not sure of the brand, but back in 1987, my family had a PC with an Intel 8088 processor, 512KB RAM, and 20MB storage. It's fun to think about how I now have photos that wouldn't have fit on that entire hard drive. It ran DOS, and I used it to play games like The Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.
How long have you been interested in technology?
A few years after I got that first PC, I liberated my father's book on GW-BASIC. That was my start with wanting to learn more about how computers worked. By the time I was in high school, I was writing Visual Basic programs to figure out the passwords on school computers. Weirdly, I never actually got into trouble for that.
What tech products or categories are you most passionate about?
Windows! It's the software that I've been using since I was a child and I've always admired the broad range of hardware that uses it. This interest is what led to that passion to understand why people choose the tech that they do, and to help people to make those decisions by reviewing the products that they might end up buying.
Latest Articles
How to unsend or edit an iMessage on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS
It's not too late to unsend that questionable meme.
Typos and other errors are pretty common during our everyday texting sessions. For a very long time, though, iMessage users had no way to amend these mistakes. That was until iOS 16 and macOS Ventura debuted in 2022, along with the ability to edit or unsend iMessages from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Whether you're on iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, or other previous-generation operating systems, all you have to do is follow the steps we've listed below.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 review: A foldable laptop that's almost great
Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Fold is a great foldable, but it's still not practical for most
Lenovo's second-generation ThinkPad X1 Fold is bigger, and frankly, it's way better. Not only is the screen big enough to be useful when used as a laptop, but it has a proper keyboard with a haptic touchpad too.
Lenovo's Transparent Display Laptop is the coolest thing at MWC
Lenovo's new concept has a screen that you can see through
At CES this year, Lenovo showed off some really interesting devices, such as a laptop with a decorative color E Ink display on the lid, and a detachable Windows laptop that turned into an Android tablet when you pull off the screen. As it turns out though, the company didn't get its concepts out of its system. Today at MWC, it introduced the Lenovo ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop.
Dell XPS 16 (2024) review: The MacBook Pro of Windows
The Dell XPS 16 is like nothing you've seen before.
You'll rarely see companies get experimental with their flagship laptops, particularly their larger models. But Dell did exactly that when it revealed the new XPS 13, XPS 14, and XPS 16 at CES. They all adopt the design from the XPS 13 Plus, completely abandoning the traditional form factor we're all familiar with.
Lenovo VP discusses titanium laptops, foldables, and why ThinkPad is an ideal testing ground
Lenovo is big on experimental devices, and its VP of design, Brian Leonard, answered some of our questions regarding what goes on behind the scenes.
Lenovo is undoubtedly making some of the best laptops you can buy right now, and its area of dominance encompasses consumer, business, and gaming PCs. The Yoga brand is arguably in its best shape ever with a smart range of budget, mid-range, and high-end hardware, ThinkPad maintains its legendary legacy in the professional world, and Legion gaming laptops are easy to recommend thanks to intelligent cooling, modern design, and robust performance.
Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2 review: The ThinkPad of the future is still held back by AMD
It's still my favorite ThinkPad
Lenovo's ThinkPad Z13 is my favorite of the company's business laptops. The second-generation model is very similar to the first, with only a new finish and Ryzen 7040 processors as its key upgrades.
Dell XPS 15 (2023) review: The best 15-inch laptop in a shrinking market
For creators, this year's Dell XPS 15 once again nails it.
When it comes to the best 15-inch laptops, Dell's XPS 15 has been at the top of the list for as long as I remember. One of the reasons is that it pretty much defined its category. Up until a few years ago, a premium 15-inch laptop with the power to edit videos was really something you'd either find in the gaming laptop market, or from Apple.
Dell XPS 13 Plus (2023) review: It still feels like the future
Dell's new XPS 13 Plus is an incremental upgrade to an already modern take on a laptop
Dell's XPS laptops are some of the best on the market. In fact, we've got two of them on our best laptops list at the time of writing this. One of those is this very Dell XPS 13 Plus.
Snapdragon X Elite vs Intel Core Ultra 7 155H: We ran the benchmarks
Intel stole the show at CES, but Qualcomm was there to say it's still coming for them
CES is the biggest computing show of the year, and it's a longstanding tradition that Intel and AMD announce their newest wares there, followed by every OEM's device announcements. Normally, these new chips and devices are a little bit faster than their predecessors, and those improvements add up over a five-year upgrade cycle.
Since 2006, Apple has been offering Boot Camp on all of its computers by default, which allows users to dual-boot Windows and macOS on their machines. This spares them the need to rely on virtualization, which negatively impacts the operating system's performance. However, with the debut of the M-series chips, Apple stopped including Boot Camp on the latest Mac models. So, for you to run Windows 11 on an Apple Silicon Mac, you will now need to rely on a virtual machine. Whether you're on macOS Sonoma or an earlier OS version, the steps you have to follow are the same, and we will be highlighting them in this guide.
Gunnar Optiks Cupertino review: These blue light glasses upgraded my life
Gunnar Optiks has the solution for eye strain
Blue light glasses, which cut down on blue light from your monitor to reduce eye strain, are a computer accessory that often flies under the radar. Gunnar Optiks makes a wide range of them and announced a bunch more at CES 2024. Among them is the Cupertino, a product I've been using for a couple of weeks now.
Behold, three 4K monitors connected to a laptop via a single cable
Thunderbolt 5 is coming soon
At CES 2024 this week, I've been looking at a lot of what's going to be the future of computers. Every year, we see iterative improvements over previous models, but this year, we're seeing computing head into a new era. One thing that we're seeing the beginnings of is Thunderbolt 5, and Razer was the first to show it off on a device.
Hands-on: The Asus Zenbook Duo does dual-screen laptops right
It fixes some of the common issues we've seen with the form factor
It's CES, and that means it's time for new PCs with unique form factors. The Asus Zenbook Duo isn't the first dual-screen laptop we've seen. In fact, we loved the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i when it came out last year. However, Asus has made a lot of improvements to the form factor, with two 14-inch 120Hz OLED displays. Best of all, it starts at $1,499, which is $500 less than the Yoga Book 9i.
Hands on: The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Hybrid combines Windows and Android in a wild way
It's the team-up you'd forgotten you needed
Lenovo always goes big at CES, but this year, it had a ton of announcements, ranging from its Legion gaming laptops, to its Yoga consumer PCs, to its experimental ThinkBooks. And since it always breaks out some unique devices at CES, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid stood out.
HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) review: The new best laptop
The HP Spectre x360 never fails to win
Ever since I reviewed the 2023 model of the HP Spectre x360 13.5, just a few months ago, it's been at the top of our best laptops list. Indeed, it's always a constant battle between HP and Lenovo's Yoga 9i for that spot. But now, the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) is here, and it comes with a new chassis, new internals, and more.
Acer Swift Go 14 review: Core Ultra is a game-changer for Intel
It's one of the first laptops with Intel Meteor Lake
The Acer Swift Go 14 is an upper mid-tier laptop that's designed to feel premium while still being lightweight. Basically speaking, it's the entry-level laptop in the premium tier, sitting below the Swift 14, Swift X, and Swift Edge. Overall, this is a solid PC that checks the right boxes.
Best of 2023: Our favorite products that were announced this year
2023 was a surprisingly robust year for consumer tech, with tons of exciting innovative products getting released
2023 may initially look like a rather typical year in the consumer tech world, but it could end up being a very important one that shifts the mobile computing landscape. Qualcomm finally introduced a custom-designed ARM silicon for Windows machines, which promises to bring the power and efficiency of Apple silicon to the Windows laptop space. Apple, of course, countered with a new set of M3 silicon of its own.
The guiding principle behind all of our reviews at XDA is trust. Every aspect of the process is inspired by the fact that there’s a big responsibility that goes along with helping someone to choose the right product to buy. This core tenet guides everything from the way we test products to never allowing outside factors to have any input on our reviews.
HP Spectre Foldable review: Finally, a great foldable PC
You really shouldn't buy it though
The HP Spectre Foldable is one of the coolest PCs that I've reviewed in a while. It's still one of the first foldable laptops to actually ship, with the first one ever being Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Fold. But HP's Spectre Foldable feels a lot more mature.
Panasonic's new TOUGHBOOK 55 Mk3 is faster and comes with more expansion options
The Panasonic TOUGHBOOK 55 Mk3 is made for police cars and other semi-rugged needs
Panasonic is announcing the next iteration of its semi-rugged, modular laptop that's designed for mobile workers today. The Panasonic TOUGHBOOK 55 Mk3 now comes with Intel 13th-gen processors, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and AI noise reduction features.