Paul Lilly
Paul is a seasoned geek who was first seduced into the world of computers and technology by the Commodore 64, and through the years he’s courted a number of OSes and platforms from DOS on up to the latest version of Windows. Having joined the HotHardware team in 2011, Paul is now a mainstay of the site covering the news beat and reviews, and resident wiseguy who keeps the mood light. He’s also an experienced freelance technology writer whose work has appeared in a number of online and print publications.
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
It's almost Father's Day and if you find yourself scrambling for gift ideas, we have you covered. We've rounded up a bunch of deals on items that are likely to bring a far bigger grin to your dad's mug than an actual mug, or a tie or whatever else you might have as backup gift idea. And for this roundup, we ventured a...
Read more...
If you're like me, you spend part of your morning sifting through your inbox to separate the important stuff from the deluge of junk mail that fills it up each and every day (including Gmail accounts, despite Google's best efforts). Even with spam controls in place, it doesn't take much for an email address to become...
Read more...
There is a bit of mystery and intrigue surrounding NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 5050 GPU, and a handful of early retail listings (as well as a leak by Acer) of gaming laptops outfitted with the mobile variant either shed light on the situation, or add to the intrigue. How so? The memory configuration is not the same...
Read more...
It's hard to believe that Razer has left a segment of the gaming keyboard market untapped, given how many different models it offers (like the recently-introduced Joro for road warriors). However, up until now, it has never released a barebones plank for typing enthusiasts who crave a higher level of customization...
Read more...
Folks, it's official—the Switch 2 is Nintendo's fastest-selling console of all time with more than 3.5 million units sold in the four days following its June 5 launch. Nintendo revealed the staggering stat in a press release, which follows an earlier, unofficial report that Nintendo sold more that 3 million Switch 2...
Read more...
Maingear might be best known for its elite lineup of custom desktop configurations like the Apex Force we reviewed a couple of months ago, but don't sleep on the boutique builder's laptop lineup. That's especially true of its newest model, the fully-loaded Ultima 18. No, Lord British isn't coming out of retirement...
Read more...
Sorry students, but you'll have to rely on an alternative artificial intelligence (AI) model to write your term paper instead of ChatGPT (including the Pro tier) this morning, because the service is in the midst of a major outage. Or better yet, write your paper the old fashioned way—putting in the research and using your mushy, human brain!
Read more...
First-party game controllers are not exactly cheap these days, and that's true for pretty much all platforms, including Sony's PlayStation 5. Fortunately, they also tend to go on sale from time to time. It doesn't happen as much for the more premium models, but now happens to be a somewhat rare exception, at least as...
Read more...
Once again, Samsung is teasing an upcoming foldable with yet another animated silhouette image, providing a second glimpse of a new Galaxy device that is "thin, light, and built to last." More than that, Samsung claims its next foldable—presumed to be called the Galaxy Z Fold Ultra—has been "meticulously crafted" be...
Read more...
Okay, here's the situation, your parents went away on a week's vacation and...wait, my brain went elsewhere for a moment and it's not even throwback Thursday! The actual situation (which as nothing to do with DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince) is that you managed to snag a Switch 2 console (contributing to it setting...
Read more...
Gigabyte is rolling out an ultra-burly desktop built around AMD's Ryzen Threadripper Pro processors, though curiously enough, it opted to stick with the previous generation Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7000 series lineup rather than the recently-introduced Ryzen Threadripper 9000 Pro series based on Zen 5. Even so, this is...
Read more...
Your monitor might be fast, even exceptionally speedy with a crazy-high refresh rate. But can it hit 720Hz? The answer is no, because no monitor on the market can achieve such a blistering refresh rate. Not yet, anyway, but perhaps soon—a Chinese display maker called Super Display Company (SDC) has lifted the wraps on...
Read more...
Following weeks of anticipation filled with leaks, rumors, and teasers, Microsoft and ASUS have jointly revealed the first official Xbox gaming handhelds called ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X. At first glance, it may seem like these are simply re-badged ASUS ROG Ally / Ally X handhelds with Xbox branding, but...
Read more...
The Switch 2 has a very long way to go before it can become a contender for Nintendo's best-selling game console of all time (an honor that currently belongs to the Nintendo DS, followed by the original Switch family), but it's off to a hot start. How hot, exactly? Reportedly, the Switch 2 has outsold every other...
Read more...
Father's Day is only a week away at this point, and if you're struggling for a gift idea to show your pops how much he's appreciated, we have a suggestion—how about a fancy new set of AirPods? Yes, premium earbuds costs more than a tie and/or a 'World's Greatest Dad' mug, but with some models discounted to all-time...
Read more...
We're seeing a trend with some recent deals, which is to offer a secondary TV (or gaming monitor) for free when purchasing a specific model. Sony recently did this with its 65-inch and 55-inch Bravia 8 II QD-OLED models during Memorial Day weekend (that deal is still going, by the way), and now the electronics maker...
Read more...
Everybody and their uncle wants a Switch 2 console (see our first impressions), though there are only so many of Nintendo's new handheld to go around, and they all pretty much disappeared from store shelves on day 1 (yesterday). What's a gamer to do? Well, if you're platform agnostic or prefer to game on PC anyway...
Read more...
The last thing you want to see when cruising down the highway is a bunch of metal bits being flung in your direction from the vehicle in front of you. It sounds like something straight out of a Final Destination movie, but is actually a risk on around half a million older Ford Explorer models, which prompted Ford and...
Read more...
MSI is rolling out a new and blazing-fast gaming monitor for players who are looking to have an edge-up over their esports opponents. Offering more sheer speed than almost ever other display on the market, MSI's new MPG 242R X60 is capable of hitting a blistering 600Hz refresh rate, along with a nominal 0.1ms...
Read more...
I don't know which is the worse scenario—lining up for the midnight launch of Nintendo's Switch 2 console and having it sell out before you can get your hands on one (womp womp), or scoring one of the most anticipated consoles of all time, only to discover that the clerk damaged it by stapling a receipt to the retail...
Read more...
As of this moment, NVIDIA's stack of desktop graphics cards for gamers based on Blackwell stands six models high, or seven models if you count the 16GB and 8GB variants of the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti separately. However you want to audit the lineup, you can add one more to the mix, as rumors are swirling of a GeForce RTX...
Read more...
One of our favorite PC gaming handhelds is finally in stock at several U.S. retailers, though the timing of its release means it will be going up against Nintendo's Switch 2 console. We're talking about MSI's recently-minted Claw 8 AI+, which as we stated in our review "sits in the top tier of gaming handhelds on the...
Read more...
