Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: a competent performer struggling to be heard in a crowded market

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8: One-minute review

When Sony announced its 2024 AV lineup, it wasn’t just its TVs that received a more straightforward naming system, but its soundbars too. This year, the potentially tricky-to-remember model numbers have been replaced with a much simpler Bravia branding. The Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 replaces the HT-A5000 as the company’s mid-range model – sitting below the Theater Bar 9 and the Bravia Theater Quad four-speaker audio system – and arrives with the aim to be one of best soundbars.

As with the HT-A5000, this latest model is a standalone Dolby Atmos soundbar. There are no wireless rear speakers included, nor is there a wireless subwoofer, but these can be added as optional extras if you wish to create an even more immersive surround sound experience. Despite the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 cramming 11 speakers into its slimline body to create a “bubble of sound” in Sony’s words, we would recommend true movie buffs consider adding at least a subwoofer to handle the low-end.

The Bar 8 is smaller than its predecessor – by some 30% – and is low in height, meaning it slots effortlessly in front of a TV. Connectivity is good rather than great with just two HDMI ports, one of which is eARC to connect to your TV. Thankfully, however, the other HDMI input is the 2.1 standard and it supports 8K/60Hz and 4K/120Hz passthrough, meaning you can confidently connect external devices including games consoles and 4K Blu-ray players. Elsewhere there is Spotify Connect, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth for streaming music.

While some may expect more from a soundbar that costs $999 / £999 / AU$1,499, where connections or additional rear speakers are concerned there’s no denying the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 does an excellent job of boosting the sound of your TV. Although as for true Dolby Atmos it does fall a little short of the competition. The company’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping tech does work in creating phantom speakers, but we found during our testing that the soundfield was more of a half-dome as opposed to a full-dome covering an entire room.

We also found that the Bravia Bar 8 performed at its best in small to medium-sized rooms, as it seemed to lack the power to fill a larger open space. Adding the optional rear speakers and/or a subwoofer will undoubtedly help (we didn’t have them for this review), but the total cost of such a package adds up to far more than tried and tested complete Dolby Atmos soundbar packages, despite the Bravia Bar 8 receiving what seem to be permanent price cuts globally (as of September 2024, it's typical street price is generally around $849.99 / £799 / AU$1,249).

So while it might not be the outright best option for your main TV viewing room, the Sony Bravia Bar 8 can certainly find a spot in a bedroom or smaller TV room. The only question you’ll need to ask yourself is if you’d rather opt for the Sonos Arc. It doesn’t cost that much more than the Sony, handles music better and has the added potential benefit multiroom functionality.

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: Price and release date

• Launched in July 2024
• List price of $999 / £999 / AU$1,499
• Has received price cuts since launch

The Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 was announced in April 2024 and went on sale in July 2024 in the US, UK and Australia for $999 / £999 / AU$1,499. That puts it right in the firing line of the Sonos Arc, which also goes without a wireless subwoofer or rear speakers included.

It’s less than the MSRP of the Samsung HW-Q990D – our current favorite Dolby Atmos soundbar on our list of the best soundbars – although recent price drops against Samsung's soundbar make it approximately the same price as the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 in most regions.

Samsung’s flagship bar comes with a wireless subwoofer and rear speakers included, although the rears do require constant power. Sony’s selection of optional rear speakers run off rechargeable batteries and so could prove to be a more appealing option for anyone short on power outlets in their room.

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: Specs

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: Features

• 5.0.2 speaker channels
• Phantom speakers for extra 'virtual' channels
• HDMI 2.1 with 4K 120Hz support

(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

As you’ll find with soundbars from the likes of LG and Samsung, the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 can connect to a Sony TV from 2021 or newer and use it as a center channel via Bravia Acoustic Center Sync. It would have been nice for this to have worked via HDMI – whereby the soundbar should be able to detect it’s connected to a Sony TV – but you have to connect them together using the included cable. If you don’t own a Sony TV, but your TV has an S-Center speaker input, you can take advantage of this feature via the same 3.5mm cable wired connection (the 3.5mm port on the rear of the Bravia Bar 8 can only be used for this feature and can’t be used as an input from external devices).

There are only two HDMI ports on the Bravia Bar 8, and with one needed to connect to a TV via eARC, there is just one spare for external devices. Fortunately, this input does support 8K/60Hz and 4K/120Hz passthrough and gamers will appreciate that it supports auto low latency mode (ALLM) and variable refresh rate (VRR). Having just one spare HDMI input shouldn’t alienate too many users, but the previous HT-A5000 had two spare, so it’s peculiar as to why Sony has dropped one this time around.

Setting up the Bravia Bar 8 is incredibly easy. Simply connect it to your TV via the aforementioned HDMI port, open up the Bravia Connect app on your iOS or Android device and connect it to your network. Once done, you’ll want to run a calibration to ensure the soundbar is optimized for your specific room. It’s a process that only takes around 20 seconds and sees the soundbar emitting various tones to determine the acoustics of your room to optimize the sound output based on your usual seating position.

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(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

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(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

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(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

There’s no option to manually adjust speaker channel settings as you can with other soundbars such as the Samsung HW-Q990D, but you can choose from three height modes – lower, default and higher – and three different sound field settings. The default option here is Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping, but you also have the option of DTS Neural:X or Dolby Speaker Visualizer. You can also turn the sound field mode off entirely if you wish (I’ll discuss the effects of this further down in the performance section). And, when rear speakers are connected, the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 can deliver an IMAX Enhanced certified audio presentation.

There aren’t any sound modes along the lines of ‘Movie’ or ‘Music’, which is an interesting omission, and there’s also very little mention of AI being used. The only AI-related feature of the Theater Bar 8 is to detect human voices and make them clearer via “AI sound separation”.

If you want to play music through the Bar 8, you can do so via HDMI, Bluetooth, Spotify Connect or AirPlay 2. Hi-Res audio is supported from compatible sources along with Sony’s LDAC wireless codec. You can also stream songs mixed in Sony’s own 360 Reality Audio via Amazon Music Unlimited.

• Features score: 3.5/5

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: Performance

• Powerful with genuine height
• Bass handling would benefit from a dedicated subwoofer

With 11 speakers inside the bar, including two up-firing and two new side-firing drivers, the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 is certainly capable of delivering powerful, expansive sound into your room. But expansive doesn’t necessarily mean enveloping, as I found it to produce more of a half-dome of sound rather than a complete bubble to include sounds coming from behind my viewing position.

I began my testing in a smaller room of the house, with the soundbar connected to the Sony Bravia 8 OLED TV and a scene from The Incredibles streaming on Disney Plus – the part where the children are in the jungle escaping from Syndrome’s henchmen. There was obvious height and width to the sound, with the flying saucer-like vehicles shooting across the screen and up above the listening position when they went off screen.

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The Bravia Theater Bar 8 nestles perfectly in front Sony's own 65-inch Bravia 8 OLED TV. (Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

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Optional feet can be attached to the Bravia Bar 8, so that it slides over the feet of 2024 Sony Bravia TVs. (Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

For the majority of my testing, I had the height sound setting set to ‘higher’ as it provided the most immersive experience. I toggled between ‘default’ and ‘lower’ settings but found both to have a negative impact on the movie I was watching. I wasn’t personally able to find a scenario where either of these settings would be useful when watching a film.

Sony says the Bravia Bar 8 is capable of bouncing sound off the ceiling to create phantom speakers behind the listening position, but I wasn’t able to distinguish these during my testing. Dedicated rear speakers would no doubt alleviate this, as they’ll be on hand to actually deliver sound from behind the viewing position.

Dialogue was notably impressive, however, coming through crystal clear even when the volume was turned up. I also found the Voice Mode – activated within the Bravia Connect app or on the supplied remote control – did indeed give dialogue a boost without sacrificing too much of the rest of the soundtrack. And as for the Bravia Bar 8’s bass handling during the same scene in The Incredibles, I was pleasantly surprised by the depths it could go to, especially given the absence of a wireless subwoofer.

But, those same opinions didn’t translate over to the chase scene in The Batman – I loaded up a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on a PlayStation 5 and was left a little disappointed. The engine growl from the Batmobile was lacking impact and the chase as a whole lacked excitement. The bass output from the Theater Bar 8 is good, but it was apparent it had a limit to its capabilities. A subwoofer would help here as it would take away much of the low-end duties from the soundbar, leaving it to focus on other tasks.

A positive to come from this sequence, however, was that bullets fired at the Batmobile’s windows did pierce through the presentation, which is something I’ve found other soundbars such as the Sonos Arc can falter on.

There are just two HDMI 2.1 connections on the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 soundbar, one of which is reserved for an eARC connection. (Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

I also streamed music to the Bravia Bar 8 via AirPlay from my iPhone using Amazon Music Unlimited. I loaded up a few tracks that had been mixed in Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format, but that were also available in Ultra HD – Amazon’s version of Hi-Res – so I could switch between the two.

Put simply, songs streamed in the latter format sounded much better. Miley Cyrus’ Flowers, for example, was delivered with extremely good vocal clarity and decent low-end bass when streaming in the Ultra HD format. Having the soundbar’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping soundfield selected also added some extra expanse to the performance, resulting in something that was perfectly enjoyable and listenable. However, switching it to the default setting did yield a more natural-sounding performance.

It wasn’t such good news when moving over to the 360 Reality Audio version of the same song. Bass was essentially eradicated and the overall performance sounded tinny and not too dissimilar to a very cheap Bluetooth speaker. I tried to fix it by turning off the soundfield setting, but it didn’t make a huge amount of difference, other than removing any notion of height from the song.

• Performance score: 3.5/5

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: Design

• Premium build with cloth wrapping
• Suits 55-inch to 75-inch TVs
• A front display would be nice

Sony’s website claims the Bravia Theater Bar 8 outputs sound in a 5.0.2-channel configuration – the same as the Sonos Arc – but we’ve also been told directly from Sony’s product managers that this isn’t so definitive. This is because the sound output will be different for every room, as Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping technology calibrates the output on a room-by-room basis. Plus, it makes use of phantom speakers with the intention of creating a bubble of sound.

The Bravia Theater Bar 8 is pretty attractive by soundbar standards. It measures 1100 x 64 x 113 mm, making it slightly shorter than a 55-inch TV (which roughly measures 1200mm). I had it setup in front of a 65-inch Sony Bravia 8 OLED and a 77-inch LG G4 OLED TV (top image) during my testing and in both instances it looked perfectly fine, meaning it would be well-suited to be placed in front of a 75-inch TV, too. Coincidentally, 55-, 65- and 75-inch are the three sizes the Sony Bravia 8 OLED TV is available in and, to further highlight how both 8-series TV and soundbar are ideal partners, Sony includes a set of feet in the box with the soundbar to raise it slightly so that it can slide over your TV’s feet if your TV bench isn’t deep enough to accommodate both.

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Sony supplies optional feet and screws to attach to the bottom of the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 soundbar. (Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

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(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

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(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

If you want to add rear speakers to the Bravia 8, you have a choice of the SA-RS3S or SA-RS5, although only the latter pair features dedicated up-firing speakers. As for subwoofers, you can pair the Bravia Bar 8 with either the 200W SA-SW3 or 300W SA-SW5.

The entire soundbar is covered in a cloth fabric which means when you’re watching TV the soundbar’s top panel won’t reflect the screen above it.

A small LED is the only indicator for power and input. (Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

One feature I would have liked to see is a proper front panel display for information such as current input or even volume level. There are two small LEDs on the front right of the Bar 8, one to indicate when you’re adjusting the volume and one to indicate the current source. An HDMI device shines white, for example, while Bluetooth is expectedly blue. For more information relating to volume level and source input, you need to open up the Bravia Connect app.

• Design score: 4/5

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: Setup & usability

• Quick sound calibration
• Bravia Connect app and remote for easy control
• HDMI eARC connection to TV

(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

Setting up the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 is a relatively straightforward affair. All you need to do is connect an HDMI cable from the soundbar to your TV (Sony supplies one in the box), wait for it to register and you’re away. You’ll need to turn to the Sony Bravia Connect app for iOS and Android to get it connected to your home Wi-Fi network and to carry out the speedy sound optimization calibration.

A remote control is supplied too, for those moments when you don’t want or need to use the app. There is a central button for volume control (you can’t press and hold to turn the volume up and down), along with a dedicated button to adjust the bass level, turn the soundfield mode on or off (but not toggle through them), and toggle voice mode and night mode. The Bar 8 does work via HDMI-CEC, allowing you to adjust the volume using your TV’s remote control.

• Setup & usability score: 4.5/5

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: Value

• Premium price
• Similarly-priced competitors include rear speakers and subwoofer
• Not a class leader

While it launched at $999 / £999 / AU$1,499, the Bravia Theater Bar 8 appears to have received a regular discount in all territories, seeing its price drop to $849.99 / £799 / AU$1,249. In the US at the time of writing, it can be picked up with a further discount of $150. At its MSRP, the Bravia Bar 8 was immediately pitted against the Sonos Arc, which we consider to be one of the best standalone Dolby Atmos soundbars and which does outperform the Sony.

Now it appears to have received a price cut, it’s a more appealing option and somewhat helps stomach the extra cost for a wireless subwoofer and/or wireless rear speakers, should you want to add them. Considering its performance isn’t quite at the level we were expecting, it’s not the obvious choice for anyone looking to create a Dolby Atmos experience at home.

Our current pick for the outright best Dolby Atmos soundbar is the Samsung HW-Q990D, which can regularly be found for much less than its launch price in all territories. If you have one of Sony’s 2024 Bravia TVs, then the Bravia Theater Bar 8 is a natural pairing, but for anyone else, the Samsung soundbar still gets our vote.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Should I buy the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8?

Buy it if...

You want a simple solution for a smaller room
The Bravia Bar 8 will struggle to fill a large space, but if you want boosted TV sound in a smaller room or bedroom, it's worth an audition.

You want a full-range soundbar that supports Dolby Atmos
The Bravia Bar 8 can indeed deliver a expansive soundstage with good object placement, and it has the option of additional hardware to create a complete system.

Don't buy it if...

You want an authentic Dolby Atmos experience
Without the rear speakers or subwoofer included, the Bravia Theater Bar 8 can't deliver a true Dolby Atmos experience, despite its best efforts through calibration techniques.

You own Sonos speakers
This may sound strange, but if you already own Sonos speakers such as the Era 100 or Era 300, you're better off getting the Sonos Arc. It has the same speaker configuration as the Sony, but can be paired with speakers to create a full home theater. Plus, it handles music more confidently.

Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 review: Also consider

Sonos Arc
It’s been mentioned throughout this review for good reason. The Sonos Arc doesn’t cost much more than the Sony Bar 8, yet delivers a more authentic and immersive audio performance. It’s much better with music and has the obvious additional benefit of being able to be added into a larger multiroom system.

Read our full Sonos Arc review

Samsung HW-Q990D
You may need to pay a little extra to pick up Samsung’s latest Dolby Atmos soundbar, but it is absolutely worth it. Wireless rear speakers and a subwoofer are included in the box to deliver a sensational home cinema experience. It also has an extra HDMI 2.1 input, making it better for owners of multiple playback devices or games consoles.

Read our full Samsung HW-Q990D review

How I tested the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8

• Connected to the Sony Bravia 8 and LG G4
• Tested with a variety of sources
• All soundfield modes tested

I tested the Sony Bravia Theater Bar 8 over a period of two weeks. I connected it to a Sony Bravia 8 TV in a small room to test its sound output and any same brand exclusive features. I also moved it to a much larger room and connected it to an LG G4.

The majority of testing was conducted with the highest soundfield setting enabled, although I did toggle between the other options to analyze the sound output.

I played content from streaming services and 4K Blu-ray discs to test the Bravia Theater Bar 8's ability to handle Dolby Atmos soundtracks, and analyzed not only its spatial sound performance, but also bass, trebles and vocal clarity.

I also streamed music via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to test music playback. I played hi-res audio, Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio tracks via Amazon Music Unlimited and Apple Music.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed: September 2024

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McAfee+ Premium review

McAfee+ Premium is an easy-to-use security suite with some very welcome features. There’s supremely accurate antivirus for unlimited mobile or desktop devices, for instance; a full and unlimited VPN (no missing features, no data limits); a password manager; powerful data breach monitoring for email addresses, phone numbers, credit cards, bank accounts and more; mobile apps include a scam detector to spot and block links in dangerous texts, and privacy tools  help you lock down your social media settings, find and remove your personal data from web brokers, and locate and close down old and unused web accounts.

It’s an appealing feature set, and in this review we’ll take a closer look at McAfee+ Premium to see just how well it performs in real world use, and whether it might be one of the best antivirus software.

(Image credit: Future)

McAfee+ Premium: Pricing

McAfee+ Premium is available in two flavors.

McAfee+ Premium Individual includes antivirus for unlimited devices, a password manager, unlimited VPN for up to five devices, and online account cleanup and data management tools for one person. It’s priced at $49.99 in year one, $149.99 on renewal.

McAfee+ Premium Family extends the package with online account cleanup and data management tools for two people, and throws in parental controls, too. It’s a little more expensive at $69.99 in year one, $169.99 on renewal.

If you only need the security basics, McAfee Total Protection Essential offers antivirus, a password manager and unlimited VPN for up to five devices, and is priced at a low $35.99 in year one, $119.99 on renewal.

Alternatively, upgrading to McAfee+ Advanced gets you identity theft protection, credit monitoring, identity theft insurance and more. Prices start at $89.99 in year one, $199.99 on renewal.

These are extremely low first year prices, especially if you could use the VPN or have a lot of devices to protect. But if you don’t need unlimited devices then you might save a little money elsewhere. Norton 360 Deluxe has antivirus and a VPN for five devices, parental controls and 50GB cloud backup, for example, and it’s good value at $49.99 in year one, $119.99 on renewal.

(Image credit: Future)

McAfee+ Premium: Getting Started

McAfee+ Premium looks similar to many Windows security suites, with a dashboard showing your security status, and common tasks like running an antivirus scan or activating the VPN just a couple of clicks away.

While this seems straightforward, we noticed that some of the status information didn’t match the details we saw elsewhere. The app warned us that its ID monitoring had detected ‘100 breaches’, for instance; we clicked the ID monitoring button, McAfee’s website loaded, and it listed 216 breaches.

Some important features require extra setup steps before they’re working properly. McAfee’s web protection is based on its WebAdvisor browser extension, for instance, which must be activated before it can protect you. The McAfee+ app does its best to help, though, warning you about key features which aren’t enabled, and pointing you to the right places (like the WebAdvisor app store download page) when necessary.

McAfee+ Premium keeps its dashboard relatively straightforward by tucking the more advanced features away in a left-hand ‘My Protection’ sidebar. We sometimes had to go searching for features (we expected the list of excluded files to appear on the main scanning page as it applies to every scan type, but McAfee placed it under Real-Time Protection), but after a few minutes exploring we began to find our way around.

McAfee scores well with the big testing labs right now. (Image credit: Future)

McAfee+ Premium: Protection

McAfee currently has great protection results in independent testing. As we write the company is currently equal third with Avira in AV-Comparatives Real-World Protection Test, just behind Avast and AVG, and it scored full marks in both AV-Test’s last Windows report and SE Labs’ consumer endpoint protection test,

We calculate an overall score covering nine of the most important reports across four different labs. Right now that places Avast in first and Bitdefender second, but McAfee is an excellent third, outperforming both Norton and Avira.

McAfee didn’t detect most of our test phishing sites. (Image credit: Future)

We began our own tests by attempting to access 50 brand new phishing sites, and logging what happened. McAfee WebAdvisor blocked a well below average 32%. It’s better than nothing - some VPNs who claim to shield you from malicious URLs don’t block a single site - but it’s also far behind even free antivirus from providers including Bitdefender (64%), Avira (90%) and Avast (94%.)

There’s a second problem. McAfee WebAdvisor is a browser extension, which means it can’t protect non-standard browsers or other apps. We use a custom browser for testing, and it was able to freely access every one of our phishing sites without McAfee even noticing.

McAfee scans downloads as they’re saved to your device. (Image credit: Future)

Moving to our malware test, we tried downloading dangerous files from 50 malicious sites. McAfee blocked a solid 88%, but was still a little behind Avira (90% in its last test), Avast (94%) and Bitdefender (an excellent 100%.)

Finally, we matched McAfee against our own custom ransomware simulator. McAfee got off to a great start, immediately killing the threat before it could touch a single file. But when we modified our file just a little, it got past McAfee and managed to encrypt thousands of documents.

That’s not bad, but others have done better. Norton spotted and killed our simulator after it encrypted six files, and Bitdefender stopped the threat before it could cause any damage at all.

Put it all together and we think our results broadly confirm the lab reports: McAfee does offer very strong protection, but it’s not quite leading edge, and Avast and Bitdefender score fractionally higher.

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McAfee+ Premium: Secure VPN

McAfee+ Premium comes with an unlimited version of McAfee Safe Connect VPN, which itself uses the popular TunnelBear VPN underneath.

The VPN is built into the McAfee+ app, making it very convenient to access. The app dashboard has a ‘Secure VPN’ panel which shows whether you’re connected or not, and if you need browsing protection, you can turn it on in a couple of clicks.

(Well, that’s the idea. During our review, the VPN once hung on ‘Connecting’ for several minutes. The app has no way to cancel a connection, a very basic design flaw, so all we could do was reboot.)

(Image credit: Future)

McAfee’s VPN has a marginally above average choice of 48 countries. Unlike TunnelBear, there’s no choice of city or regional locations (McAfee has one US location, TunnelBear has 13.) 

McAfee’s location list doesn’t include five of the countries most commonly supported by VPNs: Hong Kong, India, Israel, Russia and Turkey. But it has servers everywhere else we would expect, and delivers more coverage than usual in Africa (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa) and South America.(Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia and Peru.)

Connection times could be slow on our test Windows system, sometimes ten seconds or more. If you’re used to faster services (ExpressVPN typically takes less than a second), that can become frustrating.

(Image credit: Future)

McAfee VPN has very few settings. There’s a kill switch (called Safe Reconnect) to protect your traffic if the VPN drops, and some Automatic Connect options to automatically connect when using untrusted or specific networks, but  no choice of protocol, no split tunneling or anything more advanced.

Testing revealed an issue with the ‘Safe Reconnect’ kill switch. It performed well in most cases, but we noticed that if the VPN’s driver failed, then the kill switch wasn’t able to fully activate, and our now-unprotected web traffic continued to flow. 

This isn’t an issue you’re likely to see in real world use, but if privacy is a priority then it has to be a concern, and most specialist VPN providers do much better. When we put NordVPN through the same test, it didn’t just block our internet correctly, it also quickly diagnosed the problem, restored the driver, and automatically reconnected.

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We test VPN download speeds by connecting to a number of speed test sites from a cloud PC with a fast 1Gbps connection. McAfee Safe Connect managed a best average speed across multiple sessions of 270Mbps, well behind the performance champions (Surfshark and others reach 950Mbps+), but enough for browsing, streaming and most other tasks.

McAfee sells Secure Connect VPN for its privacy and security, and doesn’t mention unblocking streaming sites at all. We ran unblocking tests for Netflix and a number of other streaming sites anyway, but with poor results. McAfee got us into ITV and Channel 4 in the UK, and 9Now in Australia, but it couldn’t unblock Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus or BBC iPlayer.

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McAfee+ Premium: True Key Password Manager

True Key is a basic password manager which allows users to create secure logins, store and share them across all their devices. With Android and iOS apps for mobile devices, and browser extensions for Chrome, Edge and Firefox covering everything else, you can run it almost everywhere.

We imported existing logins from Dashlane without any issues. True Key can also import stored passwords from Edge, Chrome, LastPass, and generic CSV support might allow True Key to read logins from elsewhere.

True Key also has a Wallet where you can store personal details - names, addresses, phone numbers, date of birth and more. But the app can’t use this information to fill forms, unlike Dashlane and other top password managers.

In terms of the password management basics, though, True Key works reasonably well. Usernames and passwords are captured automatically as you enter them. When you’re creating an account, it can generate and enter a secure password in a couple of clicks. When we opened a login page, True Key displayed any matching profile (that could include multiple usernames if you’ve several accounts on the site), and clicking the profile logged us in successfully.

There’s not much in the way of advanced functionality. True Key doesn’t have secure password sharing, for instance, and there’s no ‘Password Health’-type feature to warn you about reused or weak passwords.

(Image credit: Future)

True Key does a great job of protecting your account with its excellent two factor authentication support. You can still log in with a master password alone, but for extra safety you can optionally choose a second factor, including a known trusted device, a second device, your Windows Hello PIN or biometric authentication.

Overall, True Key is a basic but decent tool which handles simple login tasks with ease. It’s better than the typical password managers we see in security suites, but if you need form filling or other advanced features, you’re still much better off with Dashlane, LassPass or the best of the competition.

(If you’re unsure and would like to try before you buy, download True Key’s Freemium version. It only supports 15 logins, but that’s enough to sample the service and get a feel for how the app works for you.)

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McAfee+ Premium: Online Account Cleanup

McAfee Online Account Cleanup (OAC) is an interesting web-based tool which discovers and helps you remove old web accounts which you no longer need or use.

The service identifies old accounts by scanning your email Inbox for keywords, finding old account reminders or other messages you might have forgotten. That’s a clever idea, but has a few problems.

The first is that you might not want to give McAfee permission to regularly read your Inbox. We don’t see this as a major risk (McAfee tries to reassure by saying ‘We only review the sender’s name, subject line, timestamp, and a few words of each email…’), but it may be a step too far for some.

The second is that OAC can only scan inboxes for Microsoft, Google or Yahoo email accounts. If you use another service, Online Account Cleanup won’t work.

The third issue is that you can only choose one of these email addresses. If you set up web accounts using more than one email, OAC won’t be able to cover everything.

If these aren’t concerns for you, OAC works very well. The service can automatically access your email, scanning is fairly quick, and when it’s complete, you get to see a very long list of your current accounts.

(Image credit: Future)

If you’ve 50 or more accounts to explore, then that could be intimidating. OAC does its best to point you in the right direction, though, by highlighting accounts which hold financial information (bank account or credit card details), other sensitive information (passport number, social security numbers), or you perhaps don’t use any more (they’re very, very old.)

While that’s helpful in identifying accounts you really should remove, you mostly have to sort out the actual removal process for yourself. OAC gives you a link to the service website, but it’s up to you to figure out how each account can be closed.

McAfee Online Account Cleanup is an unusual service which could be very helpful for some users. It won’t help others at all, though, and if you’re really keen on closing old web accounts, spend an afternoon browsing your inbox and you can probably get almost as much done for free.

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McAfee+ Premium: Personal Data Cleanup

McAfee Personal Data Cleanup scans data brokers to see if your name, date of birth and home address are being sold on data broker sites. Sounds good, but McAfee+ Premium scans for data only, and won’t ask browsers to remove your information unless you upgrade to the top-of-the-range McAfee Total Protection Ultimate plan.

We ran a check anyway, and within a few minutes McAfee reported that it had found three data brokers which ‘may’ have ‘some’ of our personal data. We looked at the report for each broker, but these simply said: ‘this data broker collects a wide range of personal data in your country, but they don't provide a way to search for specific individuals, so we're unable to access their records to confirm if they're collected yours.’ In other words: they might have our data, they might, but there’s no way to help.

The advice the report offered was even less helpful, just 'we recommend visiting the broker's site to request the removal of any info they may have collected about you' (without even giving us a link to the site), or that, if we upgraded our plan, 'removal requests will automatically be sent.'

We can’t judge Personal Data Cleanup on a single search, and you may get much better results. But as most plans don’t help you remove data, and doing it manually can be complex (you’ll need to verify your identity and repeat the process regularly), we don’t think the feature adds any real value to McAfee+ Premium.

(Image credit: Future)

McAfee+ Premium: Social Privacy Manager

McAfee Social Privacy Manager (SPM) is a browser extension which can scan your Facebook, X/ Twitter, YouTube, Google, Instagram, TikTok and Linkedin accounts for weak privacy settings, then recommend improvements and update your settings itself with a click.

Some products of this type give the same advice to everyone, but McAfee is smarter than that. It asks what sort of social media user you are - do you explore other posts, say, or share content, but rarely post yourself - and then tailors its recommendations to your needs.

Scanning your accounts can be surprisingly simple. If your browser is already logged into Facebook, say, then just choose Facebook on the McAfee site and SPM scans your settings and delivers its advice in seconds.

(Image credit: Future)

SPM organizes its recommendations into four sensibly-chosen categories. Content Visibility is all about controlling who can see your profile and content; Ad Preferences controls how the platform uses your data to choose ads; Social Interactions controls how others find and interact with you, and Platform Experience is all about general personalisations.

The amount of guidance we received varied widely, with YouTube (3 tips) and Google (6) a little disappointing, but the Facebook (21 recommendations) and LinkedIn (26) reports giving us far more to explore.

SPM gave us some useful advice. By default, LinkedIn uses all kinds of data to personalize ads, but SPM recommended we turn off 16 ad-related settings, and allowed us to do that with a single click. If you’re not the type to spend an age exploring the darker corners of your account dashboard, looking for important settings, this will save you time and improve your privacy.

If there’s a problem here it’s that SPM often has the most basic privacy settings only. We scanned our Google account, for instance, and SPM gave us a single Yes/ No option to prevent Google logging any of our web activity. Google’s own settings give you so much more control, allowing you to choose custom options for Search, Chrome, Ads, Maps, Google Play and more. 

There’s no doubt that SPM is far simpler than the standard account dashboards, and if you’re just looking for a quick way to turn everything off, it could be all you need. But if you’re more about fine-tuning your privacy settings for the best results, Social Privacy Monitor won’t help you very much.

(Image credit: Future)

McAfee+ Premium: Dark Web Monitoring

Many antivirus apps now include some form of dark web monitoring, where they raise an alert if your personal details show up in a data breach. But often they’ll only search for email addresses, something you can already do for free at sites like haveibeenpwned.com. 

McAfee tramples all over these vendors with the ability to monitor up to 10 email addresses, 10 phone numbers, your date of birth, 10 usernames, two passports, two national IDs, two health IDs, 10 credit cards, 10 bank accounts and two tax IDs. Enter whatever details you like, launch a scan, and McAfee+ Premium displays the total number of breaches discovered both in its web dashboard and in the app. 

As usual with this kind of service, the information you get may not be very helpful. For example, McAfee told us that our email address showed up in a breach which contained ‘birthdays, names, email addresses, physical addresses and other personal information.’ Interesting, but we don’t know which account our email came from, or whether the breach included any of those extra details. It’s telling us what we know already - some of our data is available online - but there’s no action we can take to address any of that.

(Image credit: Future)

If you’d like data breach monitoring anyway, there are similar (and maybe better) services around. Norton Identity Protection can’t match McAfee everywhere (no health IDs, no national IDs, no tax IDs, only supports five email addresses), but it does watch for a couple of important extra items in your real-world addresses and your mother’s maiden name.

Norton makes it easier to add some items, too. Add a phone number to McAfee and it sends a verification code by SMS to confirm that you own it; great for privacy, not so welcome if it’s a landline or can’t receive SMS. Norton doesn’t require verification, so it works with any number.

McAfee does have some welcome advantages, though. In particular, the web dashboard highlights especially important breaches which include a password; Norton just lists breach names, forcing you to open each one in turn to see what it contains.

Put it all together and while McAfee Identity Monitoring isn’t ground breaking in any way (and we really wish it looked out for addresses), it’s still a capable service which tracks more details than most of the competition.

(Image credit: Future)

McAfee+ Premium: More Features

McAfee+ Premium includes a basic firewall which prevents untrusted applications from making connections to the outside world. That’s useful, but it doesn’t do much else. The firewall has no significant configuration options, and McAfee+ doesn’t look at incoming connections at all (it leaves Windows Firewall to do that.) Bitdefender and Norton’s suites have far more capable firewalls.

McAfee File Shredder securely wipes files containing confidential data to make sure they can’t be recovered. Even if someone steals your laptop and manages to undelete some sensitive documents, they’ll only see the wiped and empty versions.

(Image credit: Future)

File Shredder is convenient to use. Delete private documents as usual, open File Shredder, and you can have it securely wipe the contents of the Recycle Bin in a click: done. We had an odd issue during testing - occasionally File Shredder simply told us that the files couldn’t be deleted, without any explanation - but mostly it worked very well. If you’re an experienced Windows user who would like more,, though, tools like Eraser or Microsoft’s command line SDelete give you many more expert-level secure deletion features for free.

Tracker Remover protects your privacy by deleting tracker and other browser cookies, browser history, temporary files and the contents of the Recycle Bin. It works as advertised, but there’s nothing here that you can’t do elsewhere. And as with File Shredder, you can get similar but far more capable cleanup tools - like Avast’s CCleaner, for free. 

McAfee+ Premium: Final verdict

The McAfee+ Premium highlight is its antivirus engine, which does more to keep you safe than most. The dark web monitoring tracks way more personal data than the rest of the competition, too, but the browsing protection and the underpowered VPN let the suite down.

If price is your top priority then it might still be worth signing up for the first year deal: $49.99 for an antivirus this good covering unlimited devices, and a full VPN thrown in, is as good a deal as you’ll get anywhere. (A one year TunnelBear account costs $59.88 all on its own.)

If you expect more from a security suite, though, consider competing suites such as Avast One Gold or Bitdefender Total Security for extra features and even better protection.

We list the best cloud antivirus.

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Fezibo Worland standing desk review

Fezibo is yet to feature heavily in our best standing desks list, but don't write the standing desk maker off; it has a superb range of premium-looking desks and accessories, such as the the Executive B, that are competitively priced albeit typically at a higher price point to budget options.

Enter the Worland: it's a reversible L-frame standing desk, available in various finishes, multiple sizes and in single or triple motor options. This review is of the 'Rustic Brown' 63 x 47.2 inches / 160x120cm triple-motor version.

(Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

Fezibo Worland: Unboxing and First Impressions

Two boxes securely hold and protect the Fezibo Worland parts, including those triple metal leg motors and robust tops, that when combined make for a very heavy setup.

On unwrapping, it's immediately clear that each part is well made, even if the tops are made from plastic board rather than solid wood, while the necessary tools are provided for the build; a simple spanner and hex key.

Clear your diary, the unboxing and build of the Fezibo Worland is a lengthy process, and for which you will need a second person for the final part given how heavy the triple-motor reversible L-frame standing desk is. I drafted my tweenager in for support, who also enjoyed helping with the straightforward project, and he was indeed able to be helpful.

(Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

The build happens upside down from top to bottom, as in you begin with the slimmer raised tops face down on the floor – the part of the desk that is designed to hold items such as a monitor. You add the sides that support the raised tops and then you start attaching the main surface, at which point you ideally need to improvise to prop up those larger (and heavy) main surfaces to avoid them tipping, ensure they are level, and therefore the screws go in straight.

Specs

Desktop: 63 x 47.2 inches / 160 x 120cm (also available in 63 x 55.1 inches / 160 x 140cm)

Height range: 28 - 47.6 inches / 71 - 121cm (without wheels)

Lifting Capacity: 308lbs / 140kg (for the triple motor version, or 180lbs / 80kg for the single motor version)

Leg shape: T-shape

Instructions are clear and easy to follow throughout, though there's crucial point in the build where you determine the orientation of the L-frame; an L or a reverse L so to speak. You therefore need to know ahead of time where the desk is going to live.

Figuring out my desired orientation for the build (a reverse L) was simple enough when piecing the three top pieces together, however I found it a head scratcher figuring this part out for the metal legs – I messed up and had to redo a small part of the project once I had figured out my mistake.

It also wasn't immediately clear in the instructions that the clear plastic tubes provided were in fact handy guides for dropping screws into the inside of the metal legs. Without these tubes, it's a near impossible task to feed the screws through the inside of the legs by hand and line them up with the holes on the other side for attaching the legs to the desktop.

With the metal frame / legs assembled and on the desktop, the controller needs to be attached and connected – easier done with the desk still upside down. Personally, I think the Worland's cable management is a tad rudimentary; the power supply is attached to the desk's underside with an adhesive pad, while it's tricky to fully hide the cables from the controller along the length of the desk with the cable fasteners supplied (see below).

Also, as elegant as the desk appears itself, the trailing cables down to your wall plug, which also includes the cables of your devices such as monitors and laptops, somewhat spoil the look.

(Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

Still, I didn't have one of the optional accessories which could hide those cables, such as an underdesk filing cabinet (from £69.99), of which there are options to match the desk's aesthetic and are worth looking into.

There's also an optional cord management accessory (£19.99) that looks like it would do a much better job of organizing the cables than relying on the supplied fasteners, but I didn't have that for the review. It's a shame the cord management accessory doesn't come supplied with the Worland, or indeed a power strip for your devices which would reduce the number of trailing cables to the wall supply.

Rival standing desk brand Flexispot includes a magnetic sheath in models like the E7 Pro, designed to hold the cables between the two central metal struts of the frame. That same desk also includes a power strip and the result is a much tidier looking setup. This cable management solution by Flexispot helps keep those essential wires tucked away.

(Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

If you don't mind forking out extra for the Worland's cord management and / or filing cabinet accessories, and you're industrious enough to pick up your own power strip and figure out a way of attaching it to the underside of the Worland, then you too can have a slicker-looking setup. It's just a shame that these are all extra steps.

With the entire desk assembled, you ideally need a second pair of hands to flip it over and to move it into position. There are wheels supplied for the legs to ease moving the desk around, but given I knew where I wanted to position the desk, I opted against adding these wheeled feet.

As for the fabric drawers, they simply need the firm base inserted in order to maintain their shape, and they slot in snuggly and securely.

(Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

I figure that the entire build, from unboxing to being in position, took around 3.5 hours, not including the 30 minute u-turn I needed to make to reattach the legs for my desired orientation. That's a pretty lengthy build time, but it was overall really simple step-by-step.

Fezibo Worland: Design and Build Quality

As far as the best office desks go, Worland sure is one of the more attractive. It's sleek and understated, with tucked away drawer storage under the raised tops. Then there's the nice little details like the under desk hanger for items like headphones (see below).

It also comes in a variety of finishes that includes Rustic Brown, Black Walnut, Light Walnut, Oak, White and Black to cover any kind of decor. I gravitated to Rustic Brown – a classic look.

(Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

I asked Fezibo what material the Worland desktop is made from because it's not listed on the site, and was told that it's particle board. Before you get disappointed, given the higher-than-average price for a desktop that isn't made from 'proper' wood, it's an extremely durable material.

I had the smaller of the two triple-motor stand options that measures 160x120cm. There's also a 190x160cm option, or a 160x140cm single-motor option.

The T-shape legs proved to provide deep enough clearance that my legs never once bumped into them.

Fezibo Worland: In use

The triple-motor option has a generous 308lbs / 140kg payload, which drop to 180lbs / 80kg for the (slightly cheaper) single-motor option.

That payload of the triple-motor version would easily be enough to support me sitting on the desk, not that I'm in that habit, and certainly enough for the super-large curved 32:9 aspect monitor (pictured), laptop and various bits that made up my office setup during this test. I'd have no qualms adding additional monitors, a printer and so on, given the desk's payload.

I opted to position my wide monitor in the desk's corner and tuck myself in when seated, with quick reach to my left and right and for a comfortable working position. However, the long 160mm side of the L-shape desktop would also be sufficient to fit the display.

(Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

The controller features manual up / down keys, plus three presets and a button to save those presets, while the height adjustment range is 28 - 47.6 inches / 71 - 121cm (without wheels).

After using the desk for several months, I largely stuck to two settings; one for sitting and one for standing. However, I can see the use in a third preset for homes with multiple users with different standing heights.

Switching between sitting and standing is as simple as the press of a button, and the motors proved to be quiet when in action.

The lowest possible setting is roughly equivalent to a standard fixed desk height, which for someone like me who's 6ft 1in can feel a fraction low and not great for posture over a full day sitting at a desk.

What surprised me as a previously infrequent standing desk user, therefore, is how useful the option is to tweak that lowest height up by an inch or two to improve my posture when seated – standing desks aren't just about standing.

With the Worland, I can have my office chair to the height I wish for a comfortable position for my legs, and then tweak the height of the desk so my back is straight.

(Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

For my height, around 43 inches / 110cm proved a suitable desk height for standing. There's an additional 4.5 inches / 11cm to work with on top of that, and so even the exceptionally tall are catered for here.

As for the desktop size, it is generously wide, albeit a fraction shallow. The total depth including the raised tops is 24 inches / 60cm, but the working space is 14.2 inches / 36cm, which proved a bit of a squeeze for my 16-inch MacBook Pro M1.

That shallow working distance also meant my curved monitor was a little close for me liking. My solution? Positioning the monitor in the corner of the desk.

I've been using the Worland for more than three months and have no doubt that it'll last many years. It's a superb-quality desk.

(Image credit: Future / Tim Coleman)

Fezibo Worland: Final verdict

Rudimentary cable management aside (which can be dealt with through extra accessories or industrious solutions), the FEZiBO Worland is a stellar standing desk, with a versatile reversible L-frame. The desktop might be made from particle board, but it's available in a range of attractive finishes and crucially, is robust. The same can be said for the powerful and quiet leg motors which can support a heavy payload, while offering precise and versatile height adjustment. I love the raised top that provides additional height for a monitor (and extra clearance above a laptop), plus the generous surface area with its elegant look with slick drawer storage, although the desk could do with additional depth for a better working distance from a monitor. It might take a while to build, but the Worland is a dream focal point for any office space and comes highly recommended.

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Complete your workspace set-up - we review the best office chairs

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CRKD Atom review: a surprising novelty that is perfect for retro gaming

CRKD Atom: One-minute review

The CRKD Atom is far and away the smallest controller I have ever tested. Billed as a collectible keychain controller by its manufacturer, the Atom is an impressively compact 3 inches (about 76mm) from left side to right. This alone makes it remarkably portable-friendly and is easily stored in your pocket or even on your keychain.

A range of attractive colorways also add to the Atom’s collectability factor, and the controller sits at a reasonable price, thus making that collectible nature broadly more achievable for those who are interested. And of course, for stalwart CRKD heads, the Atom has the manufacturer’s app integration, allowing you to scan for your product’s overall rarity and unique number via near-field communication (NFC).

It’s a neat little controller in the aesthetics department, then, but I’ve also been impressed by its overall gaming performance. Compatible with Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile devices, I found the CRKD Atom to have pin-sharp responsiveness across both wired and Bluetooth connections. As such, it’s an excellent choice for retro games or ones that don’t need to rely on analog sticks to play.

(Image credit: Future)

CRKD Atom: Price and availability

• List price: $19.99 / £19.99 / AU$33
• All colorways are the same price
• Available at CRKD’s website and Amazon in all regions

The CRKD Atom is available to purchase now from the brand’s official website or its Amazon store page. All color options retail at $19.99 / £19.99 / AU$33, making for an affordable bite-sized controller that doesn’t price gouge on some of the nicer variants. There are eight colorways available, and they are as follows: 

• Atomic Purple: translucent, dark purple design 
• CRKD Grey: a matte grey finish with pink and orange face buttons 
• Glacier Blue: translucent, icy blue colorway 
• Hot Pink: a striking matte pink finish 
• Leaf Green: an airy, bright green finish 
• PAL Grey: a matte grey design with multi-colored face buttons inspired by the European SNES controller 
• Sky Blue: a light blue matte finish 
• Yuzu Yellow: bright yellow with nicely contrasting black face buttons and d-pad 

Amazon stock tends to fluctuate greatly between designs, but all colors are more reliably available on CRKD’s official website. Do keep in mind, though, that as the Atom is under $25 / £25 on the brand’s own site, you will have to pay a little extra for shipping.

I mentioned the CRKD Atom is the smallest controller I've ever tested. It's also the cheapest, with the closest point of comparison being the GameSir Nova Lite which retails at $24.99 / £29.99 (around AU$40). Similar to the affordable GameSir wonder, the CRKD Atom is a cheap controller that I can wholeheartedly recommend.

CRKD Atom: Specs

(Image credit: Future)

CRKD Atom: Design and features

• CRKD hasn’t skimped on quality despite the Atom’s small size
• Very much a ‘what you see is what you get’ design
• May just be too small for some

Like other impressively compact devices such as the Game Boy Micro, the CRKD Atom’s most striking design trait is its size. It’s so small that it could legitimately fit inside a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controller. Of course, given its stature, the Atom has to miss out on analog sticks (though if CRKD does eventually make a follow-up with Hall effect thumbsticks, I’d be very impressed). Additionally, ZL and ZR - typically triggers on the best Nintendo Switch controllers - have been converted to tiny, tactile buttons nestled between the larger L and R bumpers.

Despite the omissions that keep the Atom’s size (and presumably, costs) to a minimum, CRKD hasn’t ditched its penchant for quality. Materials feel great in spite of the pad’s near-nonexistent weight, with solid casing and delightfully tactile buttons.

(Image credit: Future)

On the Atom, in addition to those bumper and ‘trigger’ buttons, you’re also getting a d-pad, four face buttons with the typical Switch layout, Start and Select, and a Home button in the center. There’s also a USB-C port at the top, an NFC touchpoint on the back for use with the CRKD app’s collection system, and a groove at the bottom-left of the controller where you can thread through the included wrist strap.

The Atom is a lovely collectible item - especially given its price - but if you are planning on playing games with it, definitely don’t underestimate its tiny size. True to its name, the Atom is minuscule and thus isn’t well-suited to folks with larger hands. It certainly isn’t best suited to longer gaming sessions, either, given your hands will be closely wrapped around its small casing. On the flip side, the Atom does make for a fun, affordable gift for younger players.

CRKD Atom: Performance

• Excellent responsiveness 
• 10-hour battery life is decent, given its size 
• Well-suited to retro gaming 

A lack of analog sticks makes the CRKD Atom a poor choice for most modern games. However, it seriously excels at retro gaming, and titles that don’t require the use of analog sticks. Nintendo Switch Online’s retro libraries are a great example, and during my testing I found myself diving into games including The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Blaster Master, and Fire Emblem. Other Switch hits like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, and Vampire Survivors are also fantastic fits for the CRKD Atom.

You can expect solid results via Bluetooth connectivity, too. The Atom is brilliantly responsive when used wirelessly, and the pairing process on both Switch and mobile was near-instantaneous. However if you’d prefer a more reliable connection overall, the Atom does support a wired USB-C connection which also makes it usable on PC.

(Image credit: Future)

There are some ancillary functions available on the Atom, too, accessible via button input macros. For example, you can change the d-pad to instead function as a left or right analog stick by holding Select and left or right on the d-pad respectively for five seconds. I didn’t get much use out of this feature, really; the SNES-style layout already makes the Atom a poor fit for titles that primarily make use of analog sticks, and it certainly doesn’t benefit from the additional sensitivity that sticks provide. A more useful inclusion, however, is the ability to take screenshots by pressing the Start and Select buttons simultaneously.

In terms of battery life, you’re getting an impressive 10 hours with the CRKD Atom. That’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to the 20 hours from the 8BitDo Ultimate or the 40-50 hours from the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. However, given its size - and the fact that the Atom is best suited to shorter play sessions - this is more than an adequate amount of battery life, I feel.

Should I buy the CRKD Atom?

Buy it if...

You’re after a truly portable controller
The Atom’s small size makes it a perfect choice for portable gaming on both Nintendo Switch and mobile devices.

You’re a collector
Eight lovely color options and a relatively low price tag make the Atom a fantastic collector’s item.

Don't buy it if...

You want a proper controller
There’s no avoiding the fact that the Atom is a novelty gamepad. A great novelty, for sure, but without analog sticks, grips, gyro, and other Switch controller hallmarks, those after a more fully-featured controller should consider something else.

Also consider...

If the CRKD Atom isn’t quite to your liking, we’ve highlighted a couple of other fantastic controllers that are well worth your consideration. 

8BitDo Ultimate
Having tested several Nintendo Switch controllers over the years, I still think 2022’s 8BitDo Ultimate is the best of the bunch. Sublime build quality, Hall effect thumbsticks, and the inclusion of a charging dock all make for superb value for money. You’re also getting full gyro support, but the gamepad does lack an NFC touchpoint for amiibo scanning.

For more information, read our full 8BitDo Ultimate review.

Nitro Deck
CRKD’s very own Nitro Deck is one of the best Nintendo Switch accessories you can buy. It’s a fantastic controller/dock for handheld Switch players who’re after something sturdier and more reliable than the Joy-Con controllers.

For more information read our full Nitro Deck review. 

How I tested the CRKD Atom

• Tested for one week
• Platforms tested: Nintendo Switch, PC, mobile
• Primarily used Bluetooth connectivity, with USB-C wired connection on PC

I tested the CRKD Atom over the course of a week, primarily playing titles on Nintendo Switch. Given its small size, I found the Atom to be better suited to shorter play sessions overall. That, paired with the SNES-style layout, made it a great fit for Nintendo Switch Online’s retro library, as well as games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Vampire Survivors that don’t require the use of an analog stick.

I also found the Atom to pair well with various retro compilations on PC, including Sonic Origins Plus, Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection, and the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster titles. As the Atom doesn’t include a 2.4GHz or Bluetooth adapter in the box, I went with a USB-C wired connection on PC. 

Read more about how we test

First reviewed September 2024

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