Adobe Premiere Pro earns its status as industry-standard video editing software thanks to its familiar nonlinear editing interface, excellent performance, unmatched ecosystem of tools, and powerful capabilities. The massive application benefits from straightforward import and export experiences, while AI-powered auto-captioning, text-based video editing, and many other features keep it on the cutting edge. Premiere Pro earns our Editors' Choice award for professional-level video editing software. If video editing is more of a hobby for you, check out our Editors' Choice winner for enthusiasts, the less-expensive yet feature-packed CyberLink PowerDirector.Pricing: Subscription RequiredPremiere Pro is available by subscription only. It costs $22.99 per month with an annual commitment or $263.88 per year up front. A month-to-month option with no commitment goes for $34.49 per month. A free trial lasts just seven days.You can also get Premiere Pro as part of the complete suite of Adobe Creative Cloud professional applications that includes After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop, and the rest. That costs $59.99 per month with an annual commitment, $659.88 per year up front, or $89.99 on a month-to-month basis. Business customers pay more for either package, at $37.99 per person per month for the single app or $89.99 for the whole suite. The Business version adds collaboration options, enhanced support, and management features. Education users pay less, starting at $19.99 per month for the whole suite for the first year and then $34.99 per month after that.Premiere's subscription pricing means the immediate dent in your pocketbook isn't as noticeable compared with when you had to plunk down $1,000 all at once to buy a perpetual license. A subscription model also means that the app gets regular updates with improvements and new features. For comparison, Apple's Final Cut Pro carries a one-time cost of $299. DaVinci Resolve charges $295, though you should first try its very capable free version. The nonprofessional programs for consumers who enjoy creating dazzling videos without the steep learning curves hover around $99 for a one-off purchase. That's what you pay for Adobe Premiere Elements. Pinnacle Studio Ultimate lists for $129.99, while CyberLink PowerDirector Ultimate costs $139.99 one-time or $74.99 per year for a subscription. A less-expensive tier of editors runs about $70 one-time, including Corel VideoStudio Pro and Filmora.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)Can Your PC Run Premiere Pro?Premiere Pro runs on macOS 10.15 or later and Windows 10 (64-bit) version 22H2 or Windows 11. On Windows, it requires an Intel 6th-generation or newer CPU or an AMD Ryzen 1000 Series or newer, 8GB of RAM (16GB recommended), and a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel display. On Apple computers, Premiere Pro requires macOS 12 or later and an Intel 6th-generation or newer CPU, but also supports Apple silicon natively.When you install Premiere, you also get Adobe Media Encoder, which converts output to common formats for online and broadcast. It also enables batch processing and lets you keep editing during rendering processes.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)What’s New in Adobe Premiere Pro?Adobe updates Premiere Pro every month or two with new tools, interface changes, and performance improvements. The biggest new announcements involve generative AI tools that can extend clips and search for media based on AI analyses. Here's a list of the important recent feature updates available for Premiere Pro (in order of importance):Generative Extend. This is the big AI-powered feature Adobe has long promoted. Available in the 25.2 release version, it lengthens your clip when you need to fill brief moments in your timeline.Media Intelligence. Premiere Pro indexes all your media with AI analysis, letting you later find any clips, sections of clips, or other media, based on images or sounds (including speech).Caption Translation. This feature lets you automatically translate either auto-generated or imported captions into a choice of 27 languages. Automatic Raw and Log Footage Conversion. Premiere Pro recognizes all major raw and log formats and automatically converts them to the color space you're using. Three new wide-gamut color spaces make everything look better on-screen.Support for MKV. The open-source codec has long been popular among file sharers. Premiere Pro users can now play and edit this content.Content Credentials Support. This important initiative allows creators to maintain ownership of their work and lets them tell AI bots not to train using it. Read my take on the initiative.Dynamic Waveforms. I was surprised that Premiere Pro didn't already have this feature since it has long been available in other video editing apps. It just means that dragging the waveform up or down in the timeline makes it larger or smaller.More Sample Media. This is great for learning how to use new features. Once you start up the app after the recent update, you see a project that shows you how to use Generative Extend.Previous recent updates of importance include:Audio Auto-Tagging and Enhanced Speech. Premiere Pro can detect and tag ambient audio, dialogue, music, and special effects. The app surfaces relevant controls for these sound types in the Essential Sound panel. The AI-powered Enhance Speech tool automatically cleans up unwanted audio noise.Automatic Transcription and Text-Based Editing. Premiere Pro can transcribe spoken audio in your clips and lets you edit—that is, split, merge, move, or delete—segments of video based on the transcription. Background Auto-Save. You can set Premiere Pro to auto-save in increments down to a minute. This works in the background without interrupting your work. A Dashboard for background processes shows your saves and other activities. A Recovery Mode lets you restore your project after a program crash or revert to a previous project state.Free Stock Sound Effects. Previously, Premiere Pro inexplicably didn't offer any stock sound effects, only background music. You now have many choices, including car doors slamming and explosions.Motion Graphic Template Views. The Essential Graphics panel is gone (you use the Properties panel for many of its functions), and there's a panel called Graphics Templates.Productions. Premiere Pro now uses a three-level nested hierarchy for editing: Productions, Projects, and Sequences. Productions comprise sets of Projects, which in turn can contain multiple timeline Sequences. You can move or copy media between Projects within Productions by dragging and dropping it.Interface and Ease of Use: Continual ImprovementsPremiere Pro has an attractive, flexible interface, and I'm a fan of Adobe's simplifying changes over the years. The startup view helps you quickly get to recent projects, start new projects, or search for Adobe Stock footage. The dark program window makes your clips the center of attention. It now has just three main modes (in addition to the Home screen): Import, Edit, and Export. A button or menu choice in Edit mode has a good selection of workspace layouts for Assembly, Editing, Color, Export, and more. You can pull off any of the panels and float them wherever you want on your display(s). It's also possible to create content bins based on search terms.By default, the editor uses a four-panel layout, with the source preview at the top left, a project preview at the top right, your project assets at the lower left, and the timeline tracks along the lower right. You can add and remove control buttons to taste; Adobe has removed a bunch of elements over the years for a cleaner interface. Since many editors rely on keyboard shortcuts like J, K, and L for navigating through a project, fewer buttons and a cleaner screen make a lot of sense. It's a very flexible interface, and you can undock and drag around windows to your heart's content. Here's another helpful feature: When you hover the mouse over a clip in the source panel, it scrubs through the video.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)Premiere Pro is touch-screen-friendly, letting you move clips and timeline elements around with a finger or by tapping buttons. You can also pinch-zoom the timeline or video preview window. You can even set in and out points with a tap on thumbnails in the source bin. When you click on a media thumbnail, you get a scrubber bar and can mark in and out points right there before you insert the clip into your project. Premiere gives you several ways to insert a clip into your sequence. You can click the Insert or Overwrite buttons in the source preview monitor, or you can just drag the clip's thumbnail from the media browser onto the timeline or the preview monitor. Holding Command (or Ctrl on Windows) makes your clip overwrite the timeline contents. You can even drag files directly from the OS's file system into the project.The media browser also has tabs for Effects, Markers, and History, the last of which can help you get back to a good spot if you mess up. Markers, too, feature improvements, with the ability to attach notes and place multiple markers at the same time point. Markers can have durations in frame time codes, and the Markers tab shows you entries for every marker in a clip or sequence. Clicking on a marker entry jumps you right to its point in the movie.Any device that can create video footage is fair game for import to Premiere Pro. The software can capture from tape, with scene detection, shuttle transport, and time-code settings. It also imports raw file format from pro-level cameras like the Arri Alexa, Canon Cinema EOS C300, and Red Epic. The software supports resolutions of up to 8K. Of course, you can import video from smartphones and DSLRs. For high-frame-rate video, the program lets you use proxy media for faster editing.You can apply color labels to your clip or open the Metadata panel to view and apply tons of XMP information about a clip, but there's no simple keyword tagging capability. Productions, Projects, Sequences, Libraries, and Bins are available to organize your media.If you’re moving up from the consumer-level Adobe Premiere Elements, you can import your projects, especially since they use the same .PREL file format. But you still might lose some effects, even things like image filters and motion tracking. A project consists of one or more sequences, which in turn contain your clips. There are sequence templates for HDR, high-resolution, and social videos.Semantic Search With Media IntelligenceOne thing that has been missing from the editing interface is a permanent search box for finding commands, content, or help; other major apps, including Adobe’s Photoshop, include this. The Home screen has a search box, but its results are sometimes unhelpful. (Credit: Adobe/PCMag)However, you can now search for any of your media with the Media Intelligence search tool. It's in the top-right corner of the program window, a standard magnifying glass icon with the universal "spark" elements that designate the presence of AI. As you might expect, the tool had no problem coughing up clips with your search text in their captions or metadata. And it did a fine job finding clips with eye close-ups or water bodies. But, for some reason, it couldn't find clips based on color. I searched for "yellow" and "orange" to see if it could find my clips with those colors prominently in the background, but it found nothing. Trimming Project Clips: All the Options You Could WantPremiere Pro has four edit types that sound like they belong at a water park—Ripple. Roll, Slide, and Slip—along with a Razor tool for splitting clips and a Rate Stretch tool for speeding up or slowing down a clip to fill a specific length of time. You can easily access all of them at the left side of the timeline. The cursor shape and color give visual cues about which kind of edit you're dealing with. One welcome capability is that you can make edits while playback is rolling.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)With the Ripple and Rolling edit tools, holding down the mouse button while moving a clip edit point (or double-clicking on an edit point) opens a view of both clips in the preview window—a helpful touch. If you double-click on the edit point, it switches to Trim mode. This shows the outgoing and incoming frames, with buttons for moving back and forward by one frame or five, and another to apply the default transition.As with Adobe Photoshop image layers, layer support in Premiere Pro lets you apply adjustments. These affect all tracks below them. You create a new adjustment layer by right-clicking in the project panel. Then, you drag it onto a clip on your timeline and start applying effects.Generative ExtendAs mentioned, Generative Extend is the feature Adobe is most excited about. It makes use of the emerging field of generative video AI courtesy of Firefly. As its name suggests, this feature lets you extend a clip, though just by up to 2 seconds. You can extend audio by a more practical 10 seconds, however. Perhaps that short video time limit signifies that Adobe intends this as a pro video editor tool rather than something that can generate full AI videos with deepfake potential.The feature adds a new basic editing tool to the toolbar along with Razer, Ripple, Slip, and the rest. Below is how it looks in the interface. When you hover over it, you see a tooltip explaining the new feature.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)You might also notice a white gap in the timeline above. You can use the Generative Extend tool to drag the clip to the left or right and fill the empty space. When you do this, a timer shows you the progress—it's not an instantaneous operation and requires sending the clip to Adobe's servers. After using the tool, you first see an "Uploading" message on the clip, then "Generating," and finally "AI-generated." After it showed this last message, my clip didn't appear extended in the timeline. Instead, I saw a placeholder image from Adobe telling me that it was generating the AI clip. After a few more seconds, my test clip was extended to fill the gap and showed realistic motion. You can see the added frames below as the playhead crosses the section marked AI-generated:The result in my test is pretty convincing, but I wouldn't trust it to extend a clip of a person speaking. Other video AI generators go much further. For example, Sora can create up to 15 seconds of video and lets you describe what you want to see. That's even possible with the consumer-minded Filmora.Adobe's Firefly can extend clips, too, but it requires you to spend credits each time. Generative Extend is free for a limited time in Premiere Pro, but Adobe doesn't specify when the free lunch ends. You can see the list of credit costs and how many each account type gets on this intimidating FAQ page. Generative Extend can produce frames at up to 4K resolution, but those cost more credits than lower-resolution ones. Transitions and Effects: Abundant OptionsEnthusiast-level video editors tend to have a huge number of transitions, so it might surprise you that the professional-grade Premiere Pro includes just 47 (you can install plug-ins for more). Many professionals find a lot of transitions tacky, so when they want to add a fancy transition, they build one in After Effects or buy polished ones from third parties.Premiere Pro has all the video effects you'd expect—colorizing, keying, lighting, and transforming. You can apply an effect just by double-clicking. A search box makes it easy to find the effect or transition you need.The Warp Stabilize feature (originally from After Effects) is very effective at smoothing out bumpy video. This feature now works quicker than before. In testing, it got through a 1:33 (min:sec) clip from a moving tram in 2:38, smoothing out all but the biggest shakes. You can adjust the amount of cropping, make the borders auto-scale, and tweak the smoothness percentage. A cool option is No Motion, compared with the default Smooth Motion. Using it with Stabilize Only (as opposed to adding Crop, Autoscale, or Synthesize Edges) resulted in a weird (and unusable) zooming in and out with rotation in my test, so be careful with the settings you use. The result with default settings is noticeably smoother than with Final Cut Pro in testing.Color AdjustmentsThe Lumetri Color manager in Premiere Pro brings the program in line with Photoshop for video. These tools give you a remarkable amount of color manipulation, along with a great selection of film and HDR looks. Black point, contrast, exposure, highlights, shadows, and white balance adjustments are available—all of which you can activate with keyframes. It includes Faded Film, Saturation, Sharpen, and Vibrance adjustments, too. The curves and color wheel options are impressive and include a Color Match feature with face detection and comparison views. There's also a very cool Lumetri Scope view, which shows the current frame's proportional use of red, green, and blue.Recommended by Our Editors(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)You can opt to apply any of these effects only in masked areas, which you can create from polygons or by using a pen tool. For motion tracking, however, you need to look to After Effects, so those masks won't automatically track, say, a face.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)Auto Color is something we've seen in photo editing software for many years, but Adobe claims the tool analyzes an entire clip using its patented Sensei AI technology to improve contrast, exposure, and white balance. Unfortunately, it works only on a per-clip basis; it would be nice if you could apply it to your whole sequence, that is, the group of clips and overlays that comprise your digital movie. The above screenshot shows Auto Color's adjustments, which you can then tune to your taste. In testing on several clips, this tool improved both the color and the lighting in testing with several clips but occasionally pumped up saturation too much. Unfortunately, Premiere lacks video noise reduction features like those in CyberLink PowerDirector and DaVinci Resolve.Auto ReframeA good chunk of today's video content ends up on social media, which means different aspect ratio formats. Auto Reframe uses Adobe’s Sensei AI technology to identify what's important in the frame and then crop to 16:9, square, vertical, or custom aspect ratios to match the output device or service. You can use the tool on individual clips or entire sequences.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)You can either drag the video effect onto a clip or choose Auto Reframe from the Sequence menu. Then, you can choose the output aspect ratio, motion tracking, and whether you want clip nesting.Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and Vimeo, as well as broadcast outlets, all have different spec requirements, so the feature saves video producers the work of having to custom edit for each. At the very least, Auto Reframe gives producers a starting point; its Nested option means you can adjust what it creates to taste.Apple has a similar tool in Final Cut Pro called Smart Conform. It’s nearly identical to Auto Reframe. Smart Conform also bases the crop on your project aspect ratio setting rather than creating new aspect ratio versions to taste. One thing I prefer about Final Cut’s feature is that it lets you see how the effect worked by showing the full frame outside the automatically cropped area.Collaboration: Excellent FeaturesPremiere Pro lets you use Creative Cloud Libraries to store and organize assets online, and the Team Projects feature lets editors and motion graphics artists using After Effects collaborate in real time. When you create a project, you simply choose Team Project and designate team members. When you're happy with an edit, tap the Publish button so the other members see it. Any Premiere user can sync settings to Creative Cloud, enabling editing from different PCs and locations. (Credit: Adobe/PCMag)These collaboration features also mean you can go to any machine running Premiere and see your workspace when you sign in. Getting this kind of collaboration and workflow capability in Final Cut Pro requires third-party extensions. Similarly, consumer-targeted products like PowerDirector don't have any collaboration features to speak of. Premiere Pro also has a Share button for Team projects, which lets you invite collaborators to your project via email.Frame.io IntegrationAdobe acquired Frame.io in 2021, and Premiere Pro subscribers now get a Frame.io account with 100GB of online storage for five projects. That's separate from the 100GB of Creative Cloud storage. After removing the Frame.io panel from Premiere Pro in favor of a plug-in, Adobe has reinstated it in the current version, with choices for Legacy, V4 Comments, and V4 Preview.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)Note that you need a Version 4 frame.io subscription to use the new features. The upgrade process isn't as simple as it might be, either: you have to wait for an email from frame.io for it to finalize. In its favor, the newer version of the service adds features like connected comments, metadata, and user permissions. You can attach comments to specific time codes in the sequence, which is a big help to editors. You can't simply log in to your frame.io account with your Adobe account through Creative Cloud, however. Multi-Camera Editing: Powerful Tools Multicam support in Premiere Pro can accommodate an unlimited number of angles, limited only by your system capabilities. Final Cut Pro lets you work with only 64 angles, though most projects won't need more. In Premiere, you select your clips and choose Create Multi-Camera Source Sequence from the right-click or Clip menus, and then choose a syncing method. The program does a good job of syncing clips based on their audio, which is helpful for DSLR-shot clips that have no time codes. As in Final Cut, a Multi-Camera Monitor lets you record angle changes as the composite video plays, either by simply clicking on the angle's tile or the corresponding number. You can then adjust the cuts with the normal editing tools. Adobe adds an option for multicam editing preference: Ripple trim adds edits to keep both sides in sync.Titles and Captions: Ample SupportAs you might expect, Premiere Pro has a wealth of text options for titles and captions. It can import SRT or XML files. For titles, you get a great selection of fonts, including Adobe TypeKit fonts. You can set crawling, leading and kerning, opacity, rolling, rotation, texture, and more. As in Photoshop, you can apply strokes and shadows to any font. Stroke styles let those with very particular typographic needs choose the type of caps the strokes have, including bevel, miter, and round. Advanced text animation, however, once again falls to After Effects. For comparison, enthusiast-level programs like PowerDirector and Pinnacle Studio build in a good selection of title animations.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)Automatic TranscriptionsOne of the coolest recent features in Premiere Pro is Transcribe Sequence. This feature uses speech recognition technology to produce a text panel from spoken words in the sequence. It can impressively separate multiple named speakers. You can then jump to the place in the timeline by tapping on words in the panel, and pauses are marked with [...], letting you find and remove them easily. The panel lets you edit the text and combine or separate text blocks, and its CC button automatically creates a caption track using the transcription. (Credit: Adobe/PCMag)The caption editing panel lets you redistribute words among the captions, each of which becomes a separate timeline clip. You can split or merge caption clips and edit the style of all the separate caption clips at once. Then, you export to an SRT or text file or burn the captions into your video project.Automatic Caption TranslationOne welcome new feature is AI translation of captions in 27 languages. This works either with auto-generated captions or imported caption files. Click the translation icon in the Captions panel, and you get a choice of source and target languages. You can also drop down more choices to reveal time and character limits for generated timeline entries. When Premiere Pro finishes processing everything, you see a second caption track in the timeline right above the previous one. This lets you display more than one caption language at once. In my testing, the feature worked quickly and accurately. Keep in mind that Premiere Pro sends data to Adobe's servers for processing.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)Text-Based Editing: A Whole New Streamlined ApproachAn extension of the auto-transcription capability is the option to edit based on the transcripts. You can select text in the transcription panel and move or delete it, and Premiere Pro adjusts the video clip accordingly. The program lets you automatically highlight filler words (um, ah) or pauses and then delete them all at once, which can be a huge convenience for interviews or expository videos. One issue I have is that the skips are abrupt. Adobe should include an improved version of the Morph Cut transition (similar to Final Cut Pro's excellent Flow transition) in the Text-based Editing interface to fix this. Unfortunately, the current version of Morph Cut caused artifacts in my video. (Credit: Adobe/PCMag)DaVinci Resolve now offers text-based editing capabilities, too, though Apple has yet to announce them for Final Cut Pro.360-Degree VR Video Editing: Decent SupportPremiere Pro lets you view 360-degree VR footage and change the field of view and angle. You can view this content in anaglyphic form, which is a fancy way of saying you can see it in 3D using standard red-and-blue glasses. You can also have your video track the view of a head-mounted display.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)The program, however, couldn't open my Samsung Gear 360 stereoscopic footage unless I converted it to an equirectangular format (this is the only VR format Premiere supports). Corel VideoStudio, CyberLink PowerDirector, and Pinnacle Studio can all open the footage without this conversion. You can't see the spherical view alongside the flattened view as you can in those apps, either, but you can easily toggle back and forth between these views if you add the VR button to the preview window. Helpfully, Adobe’s tool lets you tag a video as VR so that Facebook and YouTube properly recognize it.Audio Editing: Deep OptionsPremiere Pro's Audio Mixer shows balance, pan and VU meters, clipping indicators, and mute/solo controls for all timeline tracks. You can use it to make adjustments as the project plays. Premiere Pro automatically creates new tracks when you drop an audio clip in the timeline, and you can specify types like standard (which can contain a combination of mono and stereo files), mono, stereo, 5.1, and adaptive. Double-clicking the VU meters or panning dials returns their levels to zero.The audio meters next to your timeline are resizable and let you solo any track. The program also supports hardware controllers and third-party VSP plug-ins. If you have Adobe Audition installed, you can round-trip your audio between that and Premiere for advanced techniques such as Adaptive Noise Reduction, Automatic Click Removal, compression, Parametric EQ, and Studio Reverb.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)For background music, you get a large selection of clips from Adobe Stock (some of which are free). A relatively new Free switch lets you see only those clips you don't need to pay for. The program now has a full selection of sound effects, such as car door slams, crowd cheers, and explosions. You find these within the Essential Sound panel, which also lets you designate your audio tracks as Ambience, Dialog, Music, or SFX—either manually or via the AI-powered Auto Detect tool. (Credit: Adobe/PCMag)Switch to the Browse tab to find audio stock, which you can filter by mood or search by term. None of these auto-fits your project length automatically, but you can use the Remix trimming tool to do that. Professionals will likely have a full Creative Cloud subscription, which lets them get sounds through Adobe Audition. The SFX clips include detailed options—not just "car door slam," for example, but specific options like a 1941 Cadillac or 1975 Ford F150 Pickup. The recent Enhance Speech tool does a remarkable job of removing background noise when you are editing a piece shot in a noisy environment. Essential Sound provides another very useful capability: auto-ducking for ambient sounds, which pulls back background noise during dialog or sound effects.Export: Many Output OptionsA clear Export mode button lives at the top of the editing interface, in addition to the Quick Share button at the top right. The simplified Export interface in Premiere doesn't mean you can't go into every little detail about the file you need to render. You now see a list of common output targets along the left—Media File, YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook—along with Adobe's own Behance and Creative Cloud online services. Importantly, you can export to as many as you want with one press of the Export button by toggling several choices. You can also send your rendering job to Adobe Encoder if you want to batch render and get back to editing in Premiere Pro without waiting for the export to finish.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)The categories in the middle section of the interface (in the above screenshot) all allow for fine-tuning, thanks to drop-down arrows. For example, click on Video here, and you can set not only the frame size, frame rate, and aspect ratio but also the bit rate, color space, and time interpolation. For the rest of us, the updated interface thankfully hides those brain-hurting settings.Premiere Pro gives you most formats you want, and for more output options, Adobe Encoder can target Blu-ray, DVD, Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, and many other devices. Encoder lets you batch encode to target multiple devices in a single job, such as mobile phones, iPads, and HDTVs. Premiere can also output media using H.265 and the Rec. 2020 color space, as can Final Cut. However, Final Cut requires you to buy the separate Compressor 4 add-on ($49.99) for this functionality.(Credit: Adobe/PCMag)The Quick Export option lets you tap the share icon at the top right, and you can produce the project with minimal fuss using a choice of seven preset formats: Match Source—Adaptive High, Medium, or Low Bitrate; 4K, 1080p, 720p, and 480p.A new option during export is to embed Content Credentials metadata. If you use AI generation tools in any of your project's assets, you see a simple check box called Export Content Credentials, which attaches the credentials to the exported content. Anyone can then check the credentials on Adobe's Content Authenticity site's Inspect page.Performance: Fast Render SpeedsPremiere Pro takes advantage of 64-bit CPUs and multiple cores. For render speed testing, I have each program I test join seven clips of various resolutions, ranging from 720p up to 8K. I then apply cross-dissolve transitions between them and note the time it takes to render the project to 1080p30 with H.264 and 192Kbps audio at a bitrate of 16Mbps. The output movie is just over five minutes in length. I ran this test on a Windows 11 PC with a 3.60GHz Intel Core i7-12700K, 16GB RAM, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, and a 512GB Samsung PM9A1 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.Premiere Pro sits near the top of the leaderboard, with an impressive time of just 35 seconds. Premiere periodically auto-saves your work, in case you forget to save explicitly. If you do encounter a crash, it presents you with a Reopen button in a red warning message upon restart.

News Health & Medicine FDA plan to ban fluoride supplements baffles and alarms dental experts The move could mean further oral health decay, especially in rural areas Fluoride tablets and drops are prescribed to prevent tooth decay in places without fluoride in the water, such as U.S. rural communities. geckophotos/ iStock/Getty Images Plus By Tina Hesman Saey 9 seconds ago A decades-old dental health treatment may soon vanish in the United States. Access to fluoride supplements, prescribed to prevent cavities in children without access to fluoridated water, is now under threat from a controversial move by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The agency announced May 13 that it plans to remove fluoride products that can be ingested by children from the market, citing concerns about potential harm to gut microbes, links to thyroid disorders, weight gain and decreased IQ. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

While building a gaming PC can be a great way to save money, brands like HP and Lenovo offer budget-friendly prebuilt rigs that don't force you to choose between price and performance. Many budget gaming rigs still offer great components like RTX 30 or 40 series graphics cards, 13th-generation Intel Core processors, and high-capacity storage drives for large game files or entire Steam libraries. And while "cheap" is a relative term, especially with tariffs looming and throwing electronics prices in limbo, you can still find great gaming rigs for less than $1,500 if you keep a sharp eye out for discounts and sales.Also: The best gaming PCs you can buy: Expert testedWhat is the best cheap gaming PC right now?As an avid gamer myself, I rounded up the best gaming PC models on the market that won't cost you an arm and a leg, with my pick for the best cheap gaming PC overall going to the HP Omen 35L, thanks to its affordable price tag, Intel and AMD-based configurations, support for up to 64GB of RAM, and RTX 4070 Super graphics card. Read to see which other budget gaming PC models match your CPU, GPU, gaming, and budget preferences.  Sort by All The best cheap gaming PCs of 2025 Show less View now at HP HP has refreshed their gaming desktop lineup with a renewed version of the Omen 35L. This desktop is available in both Intel and AMD-based builds, letting you choose the best components for your budget and gaming needs. You can choose from budget-friendly, preconfigured builds or tweak components for a customized rig to tackle graphically intensive game titles and office productivity; though you should note that certain components like graphics cards and secondary storage drives will add a significant amount to the final price depending on what you choose.The Omen 35L supports up to 64GB of RAM and has enough space to expand your storage with additional SSDs or HDDs for downloading large digital games and backing up save files. You can also choose between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 support for ultra-fast wireless internet and more reliable connectivity for online matches. And Bluetooth 5.3 support allows you to connect wireless peripherals like headsets and gamepads to round out your setup.HP Omen 35L specs: CPU: Up to Intel Ultra Core 7/Intel Core i7 14th gen or AMD Ryzen 5 8500G | GPU: Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super or AMD Radeon RX 7600 | RAM: Up to 64GB | Storage: Up to 2TB SSD and 2TB HDD Pros Both AMD and Intel configurations Supports up to 64GB of RAM Dual storage drive support Cons On the top end of "cheap" Configurations can get pricey depending on components HP has refreshed their gaming desktop lineup with a renewed version of the Omen 35L. This desktop is available in both Intel and AMD-based builds, letting you choose the best components for your budget and gaming needs. You can choose from budget-friendly, preconfigured builds or tweak components for a customized rig to tackle graphically intensive game titles and office productivity; though you should note that certain components like graphics cards and secondary storage drives will add a significant amount to the final price depending on what you choose.The Omen 35L supports up to 64GB of RAM and has enough space to expand your storage with additional SSDs or HDDs for downloading large digital games and backing up save files. You can also choose between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 support for ultra-fast wireless internet and more reliable connectivity for online matches. And Bluetooth 5.3 support allows you to connect wireless peripherals like headsets and gamepads to round out your setup.HP Omen 35L specs: CPU: Up to Intel Ultra Core 7/Intel Core i7 14th gen or AMD Ryzen 5 8500G | GPU: Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super or AMD Radeon RX 7600 | RAM: Up to 64GB | Storage: Up to 2TB SSD and 2TB HDD Read More Show Expert Take Show less Show less The CyberPowerPC Gamer Master is an excellent AMD-based gaming rig that's also easy on your wallet. You can buy one preconfigured for around $900 or customize your build on CyberPowerPC's website to get the best value for your budget. You can choose up to a Ryzen 5 8600G processor, either an RTX 4090 or RX 7900XT graphics card, up to 64GB of RAM, and up to 10TB of storage across two SSDs -- though do note that more powerful configurations will quickly run up final costs. The mid-tower case features a clear window panel to show off the internal components and RGB lighting from case fans and LED strips. It comes packaged with a basic mouse and keyboard, so you can start setting up your PC and playing your favorite games right out of the box. The Gamer Master also uses 7.1CH audio for a more immersive gaming experience without a headset or expensive speaker system.CyberPowerPC Gamer Master specs: CPU: Up to Ryzen 5 8600G | GPU: Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT | RAM: Up to 64GB | Storage: Up to 10TB  Pros Incredibly customizable Very affordable 7.1CH audio Keyboard and mouse included Cons Higher configurations get costly No Ryzen 7000 processor options The CyberPowerPC Gamer Master is an excellent AMD-based gaming rig that's also easy on your wallet. You can buy one preconfigured for around $900 or customize your build on CyberPowerPC's website to get the best value for your budget. You can choose up to a Ryzen 5 8600G processor, either an RTX 4090 or RX 7900XT graphics card, up to 64GB of RAM, and up to 10TB of storage across two SSDs -- though do note that more powerful configurations will quickly run up final costs. The mid-tower case features a clear window panel to show off the internal components and RGB lighting from case fans and LED strips. It comes packaged with a basic mouse and keyboard, so you can start setting up your PC and playing your favorite games right out of the box. The Gamer Master also uses 7.1CH audio for a more immersive gaming experience without a headset or expensive speaker system.CyberPowerPC Gamer Master specs: CPU: Up to Ryzen 5 8600G | GPU: Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT | RAM: Up to 64GB | Storage: Up to 10TB  Read More Show Expert Take Show less Show less The MSI Codex R2 is a fairly affordable and reasonably powerful gaming PC that's built with Intel's 14th generation Raptor Lake i5 processor for better multitasking and power efficiency over previous iterations. It's also outfitted with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD for storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card. That's more than enough graphics processing power to handle just about any game in your library or on your wishlist with fairly high settings. With Wi-Fi 7 support, you'll get faster, more reliable wireless internet speeds, which are critical for online multiplayer games, as well as keeping your current library up-to-date with automatic updates and patch fixes. Bluetooth connectivity lets you set up wireless peripherals like keyboards, mice, and headsets for a cleaner, more organized space. The front of the tower gives you easy access to USB 3.0, USB-C, headset, and microphone ports for hot-swapping external storage and connecting peripherals for team chat and private gaming. The back of the tower features another USB-C port, 6 USB Type A inputs, Ethernet, PS/2, 3.5mm AUX, 3 DisplayPort inputs, and an HDMI output for connecting up to four monitors. MSI Codex R2 specs: CPU: Intel Core i5-14400F | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 1TB SSD  Pros Supports up to 4 monitors Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth support Plenty of USB ports Cons Only 2 USB-C inputs No Thunderbolt support No i7 or i9 options The MSI Codex R2 is a fairly affordable and reasonably powerful gaming PC that's built with Intel's 14th generation Raptor Lake i5 processor for better multitasking and power efficiency over previous iterations. It's also outfitted with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD for storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card. That's more than enough graphics processing power to handle just about any game in your library or on your wishlist with fairly high settings. With Wi-Fi 7 support, you'll get faster, more reliable wireless internet speeds, which are critical for online multiplayer games, as well as keeping your current library up-to-date with automatic updates and patch fixes. Bluetooth connectivity lets you set up wireless peripherals like keyboards, mice, and headsets for a cleaner, more organized space. The front of the tower gives you easy access to USB 3.0, USB-C, headset, and microphone ports for hot-swapping external storage and connecting peripherals for team chat and private gaming. The back of the tower features another USB-C port, 6 USB Type A inputs, Ethernet, PS/2, 3.5mm AUX, 3 DisplayPort inputs, and an HDMI output for connecting up to four monitors. MSI Codex R2 specs: CPU: Intel Core i5-14400F | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 1TB SSD  Read More Show Expert Take Show less Show less View now at Acer If you have a younger child or teen who is interested in playing PC games, the Acer Nitro 50 is an excellent choice for a starter gaming PC. With a 14th generation Intel Core i5 processor, Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, you'll get all the power and storage you need for playing popular games both on- and offline.The Acer Nitro 50 supports up to 32GB of RAM so you can drop in new memory sticks as your needs change, but there is only one SSD slot. So if you need more storage, you'll either have to swap out the drive entirely or I suggest picking up an external hard drive with a decent amount of storage for offloading large game files.Acer Nitro 50 specs: CPU: Intel Core i5-14400F | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 1TB SSD  Pros Retails around $1100 RTX 4060 GPU 14th gen Intel Core i5 Upgradeable design Cons Limited storage expansion slots Limited USB ports If you have a younger child or teen who is interested in playing PC games, the Acer Nitro 50 is an excellent choice for a starter gaming PC. With a 14th generation Intel Core i5 processor, Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, you'll get all the power and storage you need for playing popular games both on- and offline.The Acer Nitro 50 supports up to 32GB of RAM so you can drop in new memory sticks as your needs change, but there is only one SSD slot. So if you need more storage, you'll either have to swap out the drive entirely or I suggest picking up an external hard drive with a decent amount of storage for offloading large game files.Acer Nitro 50 specs: CPU: Intel Core i5-14400F | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 1TB SSD  Read More Show Expert Take Show less Show less View now at HP HP has introduced their newest budget-friendly gaming rig, the Omen 16L. Unlike the Victus 15L, this tower is only available in Intel-based builds, but still offers a great balance between price and performance. It normally retails for around $1,000, but can often be found on sale for much less.Along with a 14th gen Intel Core i5 processor, you'll also get an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD for plenty of power and perfomance for playing popular games, and even graphics intensive titles. And if you ever need to expand your capabilities, the Omen 16L supports up to 32GB of RAM and features three M.2 SSD slots for adding more storage space for larger game titles and other important files and programs.HP Victus specs: CPU: 14th generation Intel Core i5 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 512GB SSD  Pros Under $1000 Expandable RAM and storage 14th gen Intel Core i5 Cons Somewhat limited power supply HP has introduced their newest budget-friendly gaming rig, the Omen 16L. Unlike the Victus 15L, this tower is only available in Intel-based builds, but still offers a great balance between price and performance. It normally retails for around $1,000, but can often be found on sale for much less.Along with a 14th gen Intel Core i5 processor, you'll also get an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD for plenty of power and perfomance for playing popular games, and even graphics intensive titles. And if you ever need to expand your capabilities, the Omen 16L supports up to 32GB of RAM and features three M.2 SSD slots for adding more storage space for larger game titles and other important files and programs.HP Victus specs: CPU: 14th generation Intel Core i5 | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 512GB SSD  Read More Show Expert Take Show less What are the tariffs in the US?The recent US tariffs on imports from countries like China, Vietnam, and India aim to boost domestic manufacturing but are likely to drive up prices on consumer electronics. Products like smartphones, laptops, and TVs may become more expensive as companies rethink global supply chains and weigh the cost of shifting production.Laptops and PCs are also hit hard by the new US tariffs, with import duties potentially increasing prices by up to 35%. Many major brands still rely on Chinese and Vietnamese factories for assembly, meaning consumers could soon pay significantly more for everything from budget Chromebooks to high-end gaming rigs. These tariffs may accelerate efforts to move production to regions like Mexico or India, but shoppers can expect higher costs and fewer discounts in the short term.Overall, consumers should brace for higher prices and potential shifts in product availability within the home entertainment market.Right now, it looks like some tech may be exempt from the issued tariffs, but since it's always changing and developing, we are keeping an eye on it and will update you on the latest.Also: Tariff exemptions for electronics offer a break for tech - but not for longLatest news on budget gaming PCsHP has introduced their newest budget gaming rig, the Omen 16L, which is only available with Intel-based builds.What is the best cheap gaming PC? My pick for the best cheap gaming PC is the HP Omen 35L. While technically the flagship model for HP's line of Omen gaming desktops, base configurations have a somewhat budget-friendly price point and can often be found on sale with decent discounts. The Omen 35L can be built with either Intel or AMD-based configurations (and AMD builds run a bit cheaper for even more savings) and feature dual SSD and HDD storage support, Nvidia RTX 4000 series or AMD Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards, and support for up to 64GB of RAM. Cheap gaming PCPriceCPUGPUHP Omen 35L$1,250Up to 14th Gen Intel Core i5, Intel Core Ultra 7, or AMD Ryzen 5 8500GNvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super or AMD Radeon RX 7600CyberPowerPC Gamer Master$650Up to AMD Ryzen 9 5900XUp to RTX 4090 or Radeon RX 7900 XTMSI Codex R2$850Intel Core i5-1440FNvidia GeForce RTX 4060Acer Nitro 50$1,000Intel Core i5-14400FNvidia GeForce RTX 4060HP Omen 16L$85014th gen Intel Core i5Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050*MSRP at time of writing. Please note that actual prices may vary depending on retailer as well as available deals and promotions. Show more Which cheap gaming PC is right for you? Once you've finalized your budget, you'll want to choose a gaming PC that has enough storage space for a small library of your favorite games as well as plenty of RAM for smooth gameplay.You'll also want to make sure that the included GPU is powerful enough to handle most popular games, and that the power supply can keep up with your needs as you swap out components or add things like secondary storage drives or more RAM sticks.Choose this cheap gaming PC...If you need...HP Omen 35LA well-rounded and budget-friendly gaming PC. It's available in both Intel and AMD configurations and starts at around $1,250 for the base AMD configuration.CyberPowerPC Gamer MasterA budget AMD-based gaming PC. You can configure this gaming PC with up to a Ryzen 9 5900X processor and your choice of RTX 4090 or Radeon RX 7900 XT GPU.MSI Codex R2An affordable Intel-based gaming PC. With a 14th generation Intel Core i5 CPU, RTX 4060 GPU, and 16GB of RAM, you'll have plenty of processing power for your favorite games.Acer Nitro 50An entry-level gaming PC for kids and teens. This Intel-based desktop gives you 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for plenty of power and storage for popular games like Fortnite.HP Omen 16LAn ultra budget-friendly gaming PC. If your budget is so tight it squeaks, the HP Victus can be yours for about $850 if you catch it on sale or around $1,000 at regular retail price. Show more Factors to consider when choosing the best cheap gaming PCs: If you're in the market for a budget gaming PC, there are several factors to consider besides a lower price tag. That includes the following: CPU: You'll want a CPU released within the last five years to ensure your PC can play just about anything in your library.GPU: If you're working with a tight budget, opt for an older GPU like an RTX 16 series or Radeon RX 5000 series. You'll still be able to play almost anything while saving a bit of money.Connectivity: Make sure that the gaming PC you want has enough USB, HDMI, and DisplayPort inputs to support all of your displays, peripherals, and storage devices.Upgrade options: As preferences change, you may want to upgrade your gaming PC, which can also cost you. We included options with components that make for a swift, budget-friendly upgrade. Show more How did we choose these budget gaming PCs? While researching each budget-friendly gaming PC option on this list, I and other ZDNET experts kept these criteria in mind:Brand integrity: While it's tempting to spring for one of those ultra-cheap desktops or laptops from a brand you've never heard of, you'll end up spending more in the long run to replace low-quality components or the entire computer. Unknown and smaller brands may also not have the greatest customer service experience for returns, exchanges, and refunds.Multi-purpose: Not everyone has the luxury of being able to maintain separate PCs for gaming and work. Each PC on this list has been ensured to be compatible with most Windows and/or Linux-based programs for work and school.Tower size: It's important to note what type of tower your gaming PC is housed in, as some components, like motherboards and GPUs, have to be specifically sized for micro-ATX cases. Mid-size towers are some of the most popular options and can house all but the very largest of graphics cards. Full-size towers won't have any issue housing any components, but the trade-off is that your PC will be fairly large (at least 2 feet tall). Show more Is it better to buy or build a gaming PC? While you can find some affordable prebuilt gaming PCs, you can also save yourself a bit more cash by building your own PC. By building your own, you can take advantage of sales and deals on components in order to get the best parts for the cheapest prices. The trade-off is taking the time to put everything together yourself, so you'll have to decide if you're comfortable enough building your own PC, and whether or not you have the time and energy to do so. Show more Is a laptop cheaper than a gaming PC? Unfortunately, a laptop designed for gaming is going to cost more than a PC tower. Laptops use the same powerful processors and graphics cards as towers (which contribute to the cost) and pack in premium features that have a higher production cost, like OLED and 4K touchscreens. These "extras" are reflected in the final price. While there are some great budget gaming laptops, don't expect them to be much cheaper than a traditional PC tower. Show more What is a good budget for a gaming PC? Even before the chip shortages, you couldn't find that many prebuilt gaming PCs under $1,000. Now, with GPUs harder and harder to come by, a prebuilt PC is about the only way to get your hands on one, even older ones like the GTX 1660 Super; and they definitely come with a cost. You can still get a decent build for around $1,000, or even less if you put in the work to find them, but you may want to build out your budget to around $1,200 to account for rising component costs. Show more How much RAM do I need for gaming? How much RAM you need depends on what you're looking to get out of your gaming experience. You can get a lot of games with just 8GB of RAM, and 16GB is just about perfect for handling even the most technically demanding titles and programs. You can find configurations with 32GB or even up to 128GB of RAM, but not only does this considerably increase the cost of the build, it's also overkill. Higher RAM configurations are best used by creative professionals rendering 3D art and animation, and for gaming, you start to see diminishing returns after 32GB.  Show more Do I need a dedicated GPU to play PC games? Yes. Many new CPU chips have some sort of integrated graphics processing unit. Still, it's best used for casual home use, like streaming Netflix or looking at your aunt's vacation photo album on Facebook. To launch the most popular game titles, you need a dedicated GPU, but it doesn't have to be a fancy, expensive one. You can use an older card like a GTX 1650 or Radeon RX 5500 and still get a lot of mileage out of your build. Show more How do I best choose a gaming PC for my child/teen? Whether you're looking to get a computer strictly for school work or a rig that can handle gaming and class projects, it's important to know what your child wants out of their PC and what will work with your budget and house rules. ZDNET's Jason Cipriani wrote up a handy guide for how to choose a computer for your child if you want a more in-depth explanation. Show more How much power does a cheap gaming PC use? A more budget-friendly gaming PC will not use high-end parts, which means the components will be less powerful or power-hungry. If you want to spend less than $1500 on a new gaming PC, you can expect it to have a power supply between 500 and 750 watts. This size PSU is plenty for most entry-level and mid-range gaming PCs, but if you're planning on dropping in more powerful components (like graphics cards) down the line, you'll also want to upgrade your power supply to help prevent electrical issues or damage to delicate components. Show more What's the best cheap gaming PC for Fortnite? Fortnite has some pretty forgiving baseline PC spec requirements for running the game, needing just 2GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM, and featuring support older, DirectX 11-supported GPUs as well as 7th gen Intel and 3rd gen AMD Ryzen processors. With this in mind, you can scope out some truly cheap gaming rigs if you're willing to work with older hardware. And older hardware is a great way to go if you're looking for a starter gaming PC for younger kids and teens. Show more Latest updatesZDNET replaced the HP Victus 15L with the HP Omen 16L as our pick for one of the best budget gaming PCs you can buy.ZNDET replaced the Lenovo Legion Tower 5 Gen 8 with the Acer Nitro 50, as the Tower 5 has been discontinued.ZDNET replaced the HP Omen 40L with the HP Omen 35L, as the Omen 40L has been discontinued.More cheap gaming PCs to consider Further ZDNET Tech Coverage Smartphones Smartwatches Tablets Laptops TVs Other Tech Resources ZDNET Recommends

Staying In Shadows Assassin's Creed Shadows' delay turned out well, so Ubisoft's bigwigs are pushing some of the biggest games it has in the works further down the road If it ain't broke, give it an extra year or so just to allow you to really make sure it ain't broke. Image credit: Ubisoft News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 15, 2025 Assassin's Creed Shadows was good. So, Ubisoft's decided to do the same thing with some of the "biggest productions" it currently has in the works, pushing several unnannounced games back in the hopes that more development time will yield more success. This was announced in the publisher's latest earnings release, in which it also reflets on what's been a pretty turbulent year for one of the world's premiere providers of massive games with maps chock full of s**t to do, and has seen it produce a weird subsidiary baby with Chinese giant Tencent. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. After bigging up Shadows' launch as a "defining moment" that re-affirmed the entire concept of people liking Assassin's Creed, the release revealed that the publisher's been reviewing the portfoloio of stuff it's currently working on. "After a thorough review of its pipeline that took place from October to December, the Group decided to provide additional development time to some of its biggest productions in order to create the best conditions for success," Ubisoft wrote. "This decision has already been beneficial to the quality of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. As a consequence, FY2026-27 and FY2027-28 will see significant growth vs. FY2025-26 on the back of strong content coming from the Group’s largest brands." Well, at least it's doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation of getting similar results, rather than different results - the latter being the thing Vaas warned us all about repeatedly during the course of Far Cry 3. Is this strategy the definition of sanity? We'll have to see. Meanwhile, Ubisoft declared that the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake - the game it teased last year by showing off a 30 second clip of a candle doing candle things - will come out during the current financial year that ends in March 2026. It had already been given a broad 2026 date in that candle teaser, so you can pencil it in for sometime in the first few months of next year. Anno 117: Pax Romana, Rainbow Six Mobile, and The Division Resurgence are all also set to come out in the upcoming biz year, along with some more games that remain unnannounced for now but with these delays, it's looking like there could be a bit of a fallow period after that. Do you think Ubi's on to a winner by applying its Shadows strategy to these other games? Let us know below!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has its new slayer.The revival’s other star, Sarah Michelle Gellar, revealed the news herself on her Instagram account, sharing a video of the moment she told her new co-star, actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong, that she had been picked to play the “Chosen One” of the new Buffy.“From the second we all saw your tape,” Gellar told Armstrong, “there was no one else in our eyes that could do it.”You can watch Gellar give Armstrong the news that she got the part below.READ MORE: 10 TV Show Flops That Turned Out to Be Huge HitsArmstrong will be familiar to Star Wars fans; she recently played Fern, one of the central young characters on the Disney+ series Skeleton Crew. (To date, Lucasfilm has not announced a second season for the show, which premiered in December of 2024.)Armstrong also starred in the title role in the recent Firestarter remake that premiered on Peacock in 2022. She has also appeared in It Chapter Two, Black Widow, The Tomorrow War, and also appears in the upcoming TV shows Stick and The Lowdown.News of a Buffy revival series broke in February. Hulu has ordered a pilot for the show, which is a legacyquel continuation of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series that aired on the WB and UPN from 1997 to 2003. The pilot will be directed by Eternals’ Chloe Zhao. Based on the video Gellar shared, it’s pretty clear that her Buffy teams with a new slayer to fight off some new supernatural threat.Gellar’s involvement is (obviously) confirmed, but it’s not yet clear which other past Buffy stars may return as well. (Buffy creator Joss Whedon is not involved with the revival.) Nora Zuckerman and Lila Zuckerman are the showrunners on the new project, which does not yet have a release date (or, for that matter, a guaranteed order for a full season of episodes).Obscure Streaming TV Shows You Might Not Have Heard OfThere are so many streaming shows now. These are the ones you need to watch.Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

Some decorating trends will come and go (see millennial pink) while others have longevity, no matter what era we're in. One such aesthetic? Tasteful horse decor. Between Netflix's recent hit Ransom Canyon, the U.S. Polo championships back in April, and the many home tours we've published featuring horse motifs, everyone, including the design world, is enthralled with these creatures right now. While luxury fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren and Hermès may have introduced equestrian vibes into interiors (horses being an instantly recognizable part of both brands' identities), the look has evolved beyond just their ateliers. "Horses have always been a popular subject in the art and design world, going back to early cave drawings in the Lascaux Cave, France. It is so fun to see them back in the spotlight in interiors," designer Maria Burke says. "We have definitely seen a resurgence in layered, British interior style, so I think it is fitting that all sorts of equestrian subjects and patterns have also seen a rise in popularity." While several designers we spoke with mentioned the influence of British style in homes right now, others link our current fascination with the Wild West to a yearning for a different time. manufoto llcA horse sculpture nestled amongst candle holders is the perfect final decorative touch.Anson SmartMix and match art mediums, like textured pieces and a photo, in a room."Across the board, we're seeing a major shift back to traditional, cozy, old-world design. I think it's everyone's desire for comfort and reassurance during these rocky political and technological times. A return to our roots. It's the antithesis to AI," award-winning interior designer Lindsay Gerber Northart says. "The resurgence [of horse decor] seems to stem from a deep-seated yearning for connection with nature and a romanticized notion of freedom and open horizons," L.A.-based designer Jennifer Miller adds. "Horses embody both untamed beauty and a sense of serene strength in their powerful yet graceful presence. This inherent duality resonates with contemporary desires for authenticity and a touch of the organic within our living spaces." Indeed, in a world where we are scrolling endlessly on TikTok, checking our work emails while on vacation, or being spammed with fake phone calls daily, returning to a world that ran at a slower pace seems idyllic. Designers everywhere, from Los Angeles to Virginia, are seeing an uptick in client requests for incorporating horse decor into their homes. Burke notes that in one of her projects, they recently took the client's collection of riding crops and turned them into a gallery on their second-floor hallway. Meanwhile, Jeanne Barber, founder of Camden Grace Interiors, recalls a client in the New York City suburbs asking them to adorn her husband's office in oil paintings featuring hunts and horses. As you may be able to tell, if you love these majestic animals, there are plenty of ways to capture their essence in your home. "There's a romanticism to equestrian imagery that evokes both rustic countryside charm and old-world luxury, making it incredibly versatile across styles, from modern farmhouse to classic traditional and even minimalist spaces," designer Katie McCaffrey says. Tasteful horse decor is here to stay—forever—so check out the expert styling tips ahead on achieving the look seamlessly in your home. Related Story Make It Feel Modern Patrick BillerThe office is a great place to show off your love of the equestrian sport.Mixing new pieces with vintage finds is a tried-and-true furnishing method that gives your home its character. Even though this takes time, we're firm believers in slow decorating. When it comes to horse decor, Burke recommends employing the same method by merging "old master-style oil paintings with horse subjects above more modern pieces of furniture." If you already have such works of art, you're one step ahead of everyone else. However, if you're sourcing art from scratch, Burke says, "These works can easily be found on auction sites and even consignment stores if you are up for the challenge, and they make for a wonderful mix with newer pieces." We suggest checking out places like Chairish, 1stdibs, LiveAuctioneers, and Everything But the House.Related StoryLean Into Antique SculpturesJeanne BarberSculptures can be placed anywhere, including on a bar cart.Besides framed artwork, designers suggest adding horse sculptures to your space, whether that's a small statue of a stallion nestled on your bookshelf or a giant horse head that commands attention near your staircase. The best part about these pieces is that you can move them around the house anytime without having to deal with annoying photo hooks or adhesive strips. "In my own home, I have a large, cast-iron horse head that meanders through my house, depending on my mood," Barber says. "Lately, he's hanging out on our porch bar, greeting guests with a cocktail." Opt for Striking Photography© Rustic White Photography,LLCBuy a big print from your favorite photographer and hang it where everyone can admire it.Whether you dabble in photography or follow a National Geographic photographer who shoots the most amazing wildlife, if this is your art medium of choice, incorporating a stunning visual of a horse in your space is a no-brainer. "Professional equine photographers are increasingly producing some spectacular large-format images in both black and white and color. These can be striking statements alone or as a collection, and really set a sophisticated, luxurious vibe to any space," says designer and passionate equestrian Megan Winters. Don't Be ObviousAlanna HalePlaid, iron, brass, and leather can help you tap into the look more subtly.Yes, you can display tasteful horse decor without horses! If you're not into the animalcore look, you can instead hint at your love for them through horse-adjacent decor. "I think horse decor needs to be more of a nod and hint rather than literal...otherwise you're very easily getting into a tacky decor situation," Gerber Northart says. "Introduce patinated old leather pieces and brass accent pieces, which hint at the look and feel of horse tack. Wool and plaids hint at a fox hunt." Similarly, McCaffrey suggests using "checks, plaids, natural materials such as woven baskets to evoke equestrian style without being too literal." Related StoryLittle Touches Go a Long Way Michael CliffordShow restraint when leaning into the equestrian theme.All the designers we spoke with agree on one thing when it comes to making your horse decor feel tasteful: moderation is key. "I like to try to limit the use of a 'themed' element to one or two items per room," Burke says. "Instead of layering all sorts of prints with an actual horse on it [throughout the home], we will use one and then draw inspiration from other sorts of horse-related items, such as leather, thick wool blankets, and dark iron [for the other spaces].""The key is to ensure the execution feels intentional and contributes to the overall narrative of the space," Miller adds. "In our Sun Valley project, we incorporated a few horse drawings and a red horse painting I created myself, which felt especially fitting for the setting and served as a nod to the Western heritage and natural beauty of the area. The artwork reflects the landscape’s rustic spirit while adding a personal layer of storytelling." Shop Our Favorite Horse Decor PicksHermès Cheval Deco Ashtray$800 at HermesGucci Velvet Cushion With Horsebit$1,150 at GucciCharles MARECHAL (1865-1931), Horses in landscape oil on canvas$300 at liveauctioneers.comCarol Walker Leopard Appaloosa - Limited Edition of 100 Photograph$1,830 at saatchiart.comRalph Lauren Home Dalton Accent Table$18,790 at Ralph LaurenWilliams Sonoma Cashmere & Wool Equestrian Throw$499 at Williams SonomaKathy Kuo Monty French Country Black Aged Metal Round Side End Table$141 at kathykuohome.comRalph Lauren Home Brennan Clock$1,195 at Ralph LaurenArt Deco Style Silvered Brass Etruscan Horse Sculpture$4,250 at 1stDibsJoon Loloi Morison Leather Wrapped Table Lamp$199 at joonloloi.comFollow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.

It hasn’t been that long since Apple had no status at all in enterprise IT. Its products were used in some creative departments and at home, but that’s as far as things went. The iPod and iPhone changed all that, even while general exposure to powerful mobile tech transformed perceptions around what to expect from the tools you use at work. The Apple user experience is the company’s biggest not-so-secret weapon, and it is interesting that even decades since the first PCs appeared, Apple still delivers intuitive user experiences  people enjoy using. Consumer simple, enterprise ready Those user experiences have generated expectations, and as my old chum Dean Hager, former Jamf CEO liked to describe it, people entering the workplace wanted the systems they used there to be as easy and intuitive to understand as the Apple products they used elsewhere. Apple’s user experience eventually became something incoming enterprise employees expected — many would simply quit their job if they were using crummier tech at work than they were at home. At the end of the day, Apple won the enterprise one consumer user at a time. But the other piece to Apple’s success is that organizations that have deployed Apple products at scale have experienced significant improvements on their bottom line. Multiple reports tell us employees are happier using Apple products, they’re more productive using Apple products, and spend less on tech support on Apple products than on PCs. Staff retention rates improve even as productivity grows — and the reduced tech support costs make life easier for IT and dramatically reduce the Total Cost of Ownership of an Apple fleet.  How Apple wins for enterprise IT None of this came easy. Apple had to take its basic product (the Mac) and its OS X operating system and figure out how to best apply that tech to mobile devices. That’s what we began to get with the iPod and saw in living Technicolor with the iPhone; Apple took the power of computing and placed it inside the device you always have with you – your phone. Of course, the ability to run more complex applications on your iPhone made it possible for employees to get more work done using the device, which spawned the Bring Your Own Device wave that really began to express itself around 2010. Not only did employees want to be able to use the same platform at work as at home, but they also wanted to use the same mobile devices at work as at home. The biggest evidence of that was the abject failure of Windows Mobile as it showed people didn’t want to use the same PC they used at work in their mobile existences; they remained hooked on experience Apple’s ease-of-use.  They did then.  They do now. The evidence is everywhere You can see this is the direction of travel each time you read yet another report explaining Apple’s growing enterprise sales across all of its products, or the fast-proliferating number of Very Large Indeed Apple deployments at giant global companies. Not to mention that once employee choice schemes are put in place, the majority of employees seem to prefer Apple to any other platform. While it’s still early days on spatial computing, we can already see Vision Pro devices staking spaces across key industries as Apple takes what was once more or less the Mac experience and makes it both ambient and hyper-mobile. Spatial computing isn’t just about computing that surrounds you, it’s about computing that takes you there. Along this journey, Apple has thought deeply about what it offers and attempted to take down barriers to enterprise deployment. That’s why the company provides APIs for Mobile Device Management; that’s why it has high-grade security features I’m certain the company’s own CEO also uses, such as Lockdown Mode; that’s also why it remains so deeply committed to delivering regular software and hardware updates, so no enterprise professionals find themselves left insecure or abandoned on their workplace tech journey.  Want to do more? You can, thanks to the company’s’ rich set of developer tools, which provide a robust environment for enterprise development and integration.  Support and updates The fact that Apple’s hardware is reliable is also good for enterprise sales. Coupled with annual software updates that bring sometimes-exciting new features, user engagement remains high throughout the usable life of these devices, which now usually extends to an easy five years. Once that time is up, the resilience and reliability of the devices means they still fetch good value in the second-user markets; most major purchasers might also draw reassurance that the recycling and salvaging of the products will have some impact on their own carbon targets.  Enterprises also like reliability for another reason, it helps them plan ahead.  Not only do they know that it is unlikely Apple will make too many major changes (though we do experience smaller ones), but they also know that unlike Windows 11, you will not wake one morning to find your PC has been updated to a new operating system without consent. These little communications do count, particularly if you are running several hundred systems in your fleet. You also cannot ignore the impact of the CrowdStrike debacle on that lovely feeling of peace and calm enterprises perhaps enjoyed before it took place. Apple’s platform security may not be something we can take for granted any longer, but it still exists — and while it makes sense to stay watchful, it remains unmatched. Its major software updates remain free (at least until regulators utterly wreck the company’s business). That’s always an easy budget line item at the end of the day.  What Apple gets wrong It is interesting, given all that it gets right, the extent to which critics like to focus on what Apple gets wrong. Some of the most common criticisms could translate into easy wins for Apple: Yes, I think it should provide more in-depth granular information to assist enterprise IT deployments, but I would also argue that its free certification courses remain the best possible way to find the answers you need to begin managing larger or newer Apple deployments. Those courses are free, well-constructed and give you a thorough grounding for this work. Though I would really like Apple to give Configurator the power to register multiple devices at once – and a little more automation would come in useful to a lot of admins, particularly in the education sector.  But what’s super-interesting about so many of the criticisms made around Apple in the enterprise is that they tend toward being smaller, more granular problems that the company could conceivably resolve once it stops pouring all of its R&D resources into AI development.  And that’s my point, really — to quietly point out that the nature of the criticisms Apple’s current enterprise solutions receive actually reflect how successfully it has penetrated the sector. It is now being asked to solve really complex questions that reflect the myriad complexities of enterprise IT requirements. It won’t solve all of them overnight, but its progress in the sector since earlier this century suggests it will probably get around to resolving many of them, one challenge at a time. And, rest assured, while Apple never speaks about it, I’m confident that the company does actually read criticism; it just needs to be selective concerning which challenges to solve first. And at times it must also consider whether those challenges will still be relevant a few years as tech deployment requirements change. Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

Wearing the Huawei Watch 5 feels less like strapping on a gadget and more like integrating a precision tool that understands how the body moves, reacts, and responds. The weight is the first thing that stands out. The 46mm titanium model rests lightly on the wrist without disappearing, balanced by the matte texture that resists scuffs after a day outdoors. The smaller 42mm stainless steel version has a tighter, denser profile. It presses more like a dress piece but still fits into the same sensor system and UI logic. Designer: Huawei The sapphire glass doesn’t smudge easily, and the curve catches light in a way that makes the LTPO screen appear flush with the case. Under sunlight, the 3000-nit brightness doesn’t just hold up. It cuts through glare on hiking trails and under car windows. The resolution makes analog watch faces pop, but it’s the edge-to-edge effect that keeps pulling attention back. There’s almost no visible bezel. Sliding through menus feels responsive, but you stop doing that after the first few uses. The real shift comes from Huawei’s new X-TAP technology. Instead of constantly swiping or pressing through layers of menus, I started using the fingertip sensor almost exclusively. It lives on the side of the case and doesn’t require precision pressing. Light contact is enough to trigger actions, and readings don’t feel delayed. Getting a blood oxygen scan in 10 seconds, straight from the fingertip, replaces the need for a separate pulse oximeter. It’s also noticeably more stable than traditional wrist readings during movement. The X-TAP module works in tandem with rear-facing sensors to produce a multidimensional scan that increases biometric accuracy. Pressure sensitivity goes granular with ten levels of force detection. Touch-based navigation and biometric interaction merge into a single system. X-TAP is no longer just an input method. It becomes the primary contact point for the watch’s health interface. The health data runs deep. Holding down the X-TAP sensor for three seconds triggered the full Health Plan scan, giving me eleven metrics in one minute. I didn’t have to dig into apps. Everything from heart rate variability to stress level and vascular stiffness showed up instantly. It’s the most consolidated overview I’ve seen on a wearable, and it became part of my morning routine before the day starts. Battery life aligned with expectations after a full day of real-world use. Between morning setup, health scans, call handling, and a late-day workout session, the Watch 5 still had reserve power at bedtime without needing to go into power saver mode. Charging overnight on the magnetic dock felt quick and uncomplicated. No repositioning was necessary. Huawei FIT 4 Pro: Specs and System Overview I haven’t had the chance yet to properly wear and test the Huawei FIT 4 Pro, so the hands-on experience will follow in the full review. In the meantime, here’s what stands out from the spec sheet and system overview. The FIT 4 Pro weighs just 27 grams and measures 9.5mm thick, making it one of the lightest full-display wearables in Huawei’s lineup. The 1.82-inch AMOLED display pushes an 80 percent screen-to-body ratio and delivers 2000-nit brightness for outdoor readability. The structure uses aerospace aluminum, while a sapphire-glass surface provides scratch resistance and clarity under pressure. Huawei’s new Sunflower Positioning System is integrated for real-time, activity-aware GPS adjustment. It automatically shifts positioning modes based on whether the user is walking, running, or cycling. There’s offline map support, route guidance, and AI-based delay compensation in high-speed activities like road cycling or skiing. For runners, the system offers pace and elevation data with 30 percent improved location accuracy. Trail runners can pre-load route segments with waypoints and checkpoint notifications. On the golf course, FIT 4 Pro identifies the current hole and displays hazard layouts, pin positions, and wind data. It supports over 15,000 course maps worldwide. Water sports support includes live route tracking for paddleboarding, sailing, and open-water swimming. The dive mode is rated for 40 meters and includes a built-in compass, real-time depth display, and vibration alerts for ascent safety. During apnea or free diving sessions, the watch logs total time, descent rate, and surface recovery. On the health side, it uses Huawei’s TruSense system with multi-region optical path analysis. That includes SpO₂, ECG, vascular stiffness, pulse wave analysis, and temperature tracking. HRV and stress metrics are supported, as is advanced menstrual cycle management using predictive learning models. Battery life is estimated at up to ten days on a single charge, with a 60-minute wireless charging time. Like the Watch 5, FIT 4 Pro runs across both Android and iOS via the Huawei Health app and supports contactless payments, Bluetooth audio control, and notification mirroring. Everyday Use Wearing both watches across the same day made one thing clear. The Watch 5 works best when the user wants deeper physiological awareness and structured interaction. The FIT 4 slots in for training sessions, tracking metrics at speed without overwhelming with data layers. Both connect cleanly to the Huawei Health app, regardless of whether you’re using Android or iOS. I synced steps and recovery scores from both models to compare, and the numbers aligned tightly. Notifications are handled well on both. Nothing feels crammed. Calls can be answered or declined with the side buttons, and messages display cleanly, though replying still needs your phone. Music playback controls, navigation, and wallet functions never glitched. Both watches stayed paired with the phone throughout, even with Bluetooth audio also connected. Gesture-based input is part of the new system, but that interaction set will be saved for the full review. Final Impressions This wasn’t just a hardware update. Huawei rebuilt the relationship between interface and intention. With X-TAP technology, the Watch 5 removes the barrier between sensing and doing. The FIT 4 Pro, on paper, takes the sport-first wearable formula and applies deep system engineering across positioning, tracking, and safety. More on that soon. For now, both devices push the idea that wearables can read the body in ways that feel less like monitoring and more like understanding. The post Hands-On with Huawei Watch 5 and FIT 4: A New Language of Contact first appeared on Yanko Design.

Republicans in Congress have been making behind-the-scenes efforts to pass major domestic legislation via the federal budget process. They include potential cuts to Medicaid and extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts. But even though it’s Congress’ job to pass a budget and set tax policy, most media outlets have been content to frame key elements of the legislation as being driven not by Congress, but by the president. So the news media say that the purpose of the bill is to “deliver Trump’s agenda” or to pass the “Trump tax cuts.” Many have even adopted President Donald Trump’s trademark name for the legislation: his “big, beautiful bill.” Along with Casey Burgat and SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor, I am co-author of a textbook titled Congress Explained: Representation and Lawmaking in the First Branch. In that book, it was important to us to highlight Congress’ clear role as the preeminent lawmaking body in the federal government. But since Trump’s inauguration, Congress has ceded huge swaths of its policymaking responsibility to the president. That makes the media’s focus on Trump unsurprising. And there’s no denying that Trump has had enormous impact during his first 100 days in office. During that time, Congress has been unwilling to assert itself as an equal branch of government. Beyond policymaking, Congress has been content to hand over many of its core constitutional powers to the executive branch. As a Congress expert who loves the institution and profoundly respects its constitutionally mandated role, this renunciation of responsibility has been difficult to watch. And yet, Congress’ path to irrelevance as a body of government did not begin in January 2025. It is the result of decades of erosion that created a political culture in which Congress, the first branch of government listed in the Constitution, is relegated to second-class status. The Constitution puts Congress first The 18th-century framers of the Constitution viewed Congress as the foundation of republican governance, deliberately placing it first in Article 1 to underscore its primacy. Congress was assigned the pivotal tasks of lawmaking and budgeting because controlling government finances was seen as essential to limiting executive power and preventing abuses that the framers associated with monarchy. Alternatively, a weak legislature and an imperial executive were precisely what many of the founders feared. With legislative authority in the hands of Congress, power would at least be decentralized among a wide variety of elected leaders from different parts of the country, each of whom would jealously guard their own local interests. But Trump’s first 100 days turned the founders’ original vision on its head, leaving the “first branch” to play second fiddle. Like most recent presidents, Trump came in with his party in control of the presidency, the House, and the Senate. Yet despite the lawmaking power that this governing trifecta can bring, the Republican majorities in Congress have mostly been irrelevant to Trump’s agenda. Instead, Congress has relied on Trump and the executive branch to make changes to federal policy and in many cases to reshape the federal government completely. Trump has signed more than 140 executive orders, a pace faster than any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Republican Congress has shown little interest in pushing back on any of them. Trump has also aggressively reorganized, defunded, or simply deleted entire agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. These actions have been carried out even though Congress has a clear constitutional authority over the executive branch’s budget. Again, Congress has shown little to no interest in reasserting its power, even during recent budget talks. Many causes, no easy solutions Even so, Congress’ weakening did not begin with Trump. There’s no one culprit but instead a collection of factors that have provided the ineffectual Congress of today. One overriding factor is a process that has unfolded over the past 50 or more years called political nationalization. American politics have become increasingly centered on national issues, parties, and figures rather than more local concerns or individuals. This shift has elevated the importance of the president as the symbolic and practical leader of a national party agenda. Simultaneously, it weakens the role of individual members of Congress, who are now more likely to toe the party line than represent local interests. As a result, voters focus more on presidential elections and less on congressional ones, granting the president greater influence and diminishing Congress’ independent authority. The more Congress polarizes among its members on a party-line basis, the less the public is likely to trust the legitimacy of their opposition to a president. Instead, congressional pushback—sometimes as extreme as impeachment—can thus be written off not as principled or substantive but as partisan or politically motivated to a greater extent than ever before. Congress has also been complicit in giving away its own power. Especially when dealing with a polarized Congress, presidents increasingly steer the ship in budget negotiations, which can lead to more local priorities—the ones Congress is supposed to represent—being ignored. But rather than Congress staking out positions for itself, as it often did through the turn of the 21st century, political science research has shown that presidential positions on domestic policy increasingly dictate—and polarize—Congress’ own positions on policy that haven’t traditionally been divisive, such as funding support for NASA. Congress’ positions on procedural issues, such as raising the debt ceiling or eliminating the filibuster, also increasingly depend not on bedrock principles but on who occupies the White House. In the realm of foreign policy, Congress has all but abandoned its constitutional power to declare war, settling instead for “authorizations” of military force that the president wants to assert. These give the commander-in-chief wide latitude over war powers, and both Democratic and Republican presidents have been happy to retain that power. They have used these congressional approvals to engage in extended conflicts such as the Gulf War in the early 1990s and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade later. What’s lost with a weak Congress Americans lose a lot when Congress hands over such drastic power to the executive branch. When individual members of Congress from across the country take a back seat, their districts’ distinctly local problems are less likely to be addressed with the power and resources that Congress can bring to an issue. Important local perspectives on national issues fail to be represented in Congress. Even members of the same political party represent districts with vastly different economies, demographics, and geography. Members are supposed to keep this in mind when legislating on these issues, but presidential control over the process makes that difficult or even impossible. Maybe more importantly, a weak Congress paired with what historian Arthur Schlesinger called the Imperial Presidency is a recipe for an unaccountable president, running wild without the constitutionally provided oversight and checks on power that the founders provided to the people through their representation by the first branch of government. Charlie Hunt is an assistant professor of political science at Boise State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

From the beginning of season 2 of Andor, I was angry on behalf of Bix Caleen. Adria Arjona’s character on the show spent a lot of the season getting what fans of reality competition shows lovingly call “the loser edit,” where every time the series checked in with her, it found her at a new low — suffering a fresh humiliation, or struggling with the PTSD from the last batch of suffering. Her slow downward arc, and its clear effect on series protagonist Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), seemed to lead toward an exhausting, familiar story cliché — especially since this entire series is a prequel to the Star Wars movie Rogue One, and unlike many of the show’s characters, Bix is noticeably absent from Rogue One. For more than half the season, Bix felt like she on her way to getting fridged. And I just want to take a breath and personally thank series creator Tony Gilroy for pulling out of that narrative dive instead of taking the obvious crash-landing. [Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Bix’s season 2 storyline, including how it ends.] Andor season 1 put Bix in the hands of Imperial interrogator (and ironic cupcake-enjoyer) Doctor Gorst (Joshua James), and season 2 arc focused on how she navigated the aftermath of torture. When we pick back up with Bix, she has screaming nightmares about Doctor Gorst, or debilitating insomnia as she avoids sleeping. She lives in terror of the Empire finding her again. She nearly gets raped by an Imperial officer. She takes dangerous drugs to repress her trauma. She haunts the Coruscant safehouse she and Cassian share like an increasingly wan ghost. Cassian sincerely wants to help, but she can’t let him in, so his worries for her keep compromising or complicating his work with the rebellion against the Empire. Once Cassian and Bix get to Coruscant, her scenes get repetitive and wearying. When she harries Cassian and his handler Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) to include her on rebel missions, it’s unclear who we’re meant to feel more sympathy for: Them, for having to manage this traumatized, erratic woman who keeps insisting she should be trusted with delicate undercover work she doesn’t seem capable of; or her, for being kept like a canary in a cage, with no clear purpose and nothing to do but wait for the next round of trying to convince her patronizing keepers to let her do something meaningful that would distract and focus her. But her arc takes a sharp upswing at the end of episode 6, “What a Festive Evening,” when Bix confronts Doctor Gorst, subjects him to his own horrific torture device, and blows the hell out of him, all with a cold, rational confidence that suggests Luthen and Cassian were wrong to handle her with kid gloves all along. When she and Cassian walk away from his office together, too cool to look back at Gorst’s exploding building, they’re finally confident, competent partners instead of caretaker and patient — or worse, the regressive “damsel in despair and valiant savior” pairing Andor has flirted with turning them into. Granted, that scene is Bix’s high point for season 2 — from that point forward, she’s mostly around to serve Cassian’s arc, by pushing him to accept a Force healer’s read on him instead of shrugging her off, and eventually, nobly breaking up with him so his concerns for her won’t hold him back in his fight against the rebellion. (Side note, “I’m dumping you in order to not hamper your great destiny” is a pretty baller tactic, and if I was still in the dating field, I’d definitely keep that one in my back pocket.) Bix was never on the top 10 list of Andor’s most developed, nuanced, or interesting characters, and apart from the Doctor Gorst payoff, she’s mostly in a pretty thankless role throughout the show. She’s the designated smallest-scale representative of the Empire’s predations, and the one most personal to Cassian. She’s the problem he can’t fix until the Empire is defeated, the person he needs to protect and can’t, needs to save and can’t, not without bringing down an entire fascist regime. She’s a focus for his heroism first, a sounding board for his angst second, and a character in her own right last. Which is why I was positive she was going to get killed in order to motivate him further, in order to deepen that angst and firm up his resolve. Having Bix instead basically say “You’re better off without me, and the best thing I can give the rebellion is all the time and energy you’re spending on me” is such a bold, strange move that I suspect Tony Gilroy is well aware of what fridging narratives look like, and how much it seemed like he was toying with one. The problem with that resolution, though, is that there’s so little drama in it. Bix is right — she is a drag on Cassian’s attention and resources, and they are better off without each other. Their separation doesn’t have the sting of a tragic love story where starcrossed lovers have to leave each other. To me, it just felt like a relief to have it over with. But it isn’t over. Andor’s very final shot has Bix back on the agricultural planet of Mina-Rau, smiling bravely toward the future in a post-Death Star world, holding Cassian Andor’s child. (In case there’s any debate there, Tony Gilroy has expressly confirmed that the child she’s holding is theirs, and that she knew she was already pregnant when she left Cassian.) It’s meant as a moment of hope and looking toward the future, an acknowledgement that Cassian is about to die (in the action of Rogue One), but that even if he doesn’t know it, his bloodline will live on. I’m not a fan of that ending — it plays into another huge cliché for female characters in media, the “lost my love but still have his baby” circle-of-life schtick that’s meant to make the death of a beloved character feel OK because their lineage lives on. To me, that particular trope has always felt more cynical and manipulative than heartfelt: People aren’t like Kleenex, with another new one popping up whenever the last one goes off to its reward, and all of them essentially fulfilling the same purpose. Having someone’s genetics in the world isn’t a replacement for having them around. (Not even in a galaxy where Force talent and destiny seem to be passed down in the bloodline.) It’s nice to learn at the end of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever that T’Challa had a secret kid, I guess, but it doesn’t make me miss Chadwick Boseman any less, or soften the blow of losing a talented actor with a bright future so early. I’ve argued a lot about this one with less-cynical people at Polygon and elsewhere, though, and they’ve rightly pointed out that Cassian having a child that he’ll never know about is a pointed answer to Luthen’s incandescent “burning my life to make a sunrise I know I’ll never see” speech from season 1. Cassian and Luthen and all the others who did die while fighting the good fight throughout Andor were fighting on behalf of people like this nameless child, who will get to see the sunrise they made possible. It’s meant as a reminder that all this suffering had a purpose beyond the immediate moment. That purpose includes Bix as well: Her safety and security in the show’s final moments is meant to pay off all the pain Cassian endured. He’s finally fixed the problem she posed, I guess, to put it in the bitterest terms. But in spite of all my dubiousness over her Andor plotline — especially in the shadow of the show’s far more nuanced, complicated, and especially interesting female characters — I’m just so grateful she didn’t have to die to make that happen.