Review: Nero Platinum Suite 2026
There are two software suites I put onto every Windows PC I buy - one is Microsoft Office, now renamed annually and probably 365 CoPilot or similar by now - but you know the package I mean, and it comes with a Terabyte of cloud storage for a year, all for £60 (once you've said no to CoPilot!) Which I think is a decent deal and my family gets a lot from it.
The other is Nero Platinum Suite 2026 - again the name has changed subtly over the years, (not least the year bit!) but the Nero bit is the important root - Nero is a German company and responsible for THE best 'burning' and 'media' software back in the day, by which I mean 20 years ago. Thankfully, it's not only still going, but has been updated regularly and expanded hugely, to the point where it has a tool for doing just about everything that Windows cannot.
From upscaling images and videos, to video editing and transcoding, to removing photo duplicates, backing up your PC, screen recording, audio capture, and yes, burning CDs and DVDs, Nero has you covered.
Which sounds like an advert, but part of the reason for this enthusiasm is that with all of this expansion, the price has kept going down, not up. It's hard not to recommend Nero Platinum Suite, which is on sale on their web site for around £30 as I record this.
Which is not to say that there aren't significant caveats. I've noticed that there are different programming teams behind the various modules, according to the era in which the module was created - but this is probably inevitable as development tools and Windows itself change over time. Thus Nero Express looks like it was made in the late 1990s, over a quarter of a century ago - which it was, though of course it's been kept updated to be compatible with Windows 11 in the modern age.
While the AI Image Upscaler looks like it was made recently - which, again, it was, using totally different programming tools to Burning ROM. The upside of the modern UIs are that they are a lot prettier and easier to use, the downside is that they need more RAM and thus work more slowly on lesser PCs, plus some are more efficient than others.
I've been trying everything on two devices - at the lower end, a five year old Surface Go with 8GB RAM and, at the higher end, a one year old Surface Laptop with 12GB RAM, giving me a good handle on the resources required. I'd recommend 12GB for optimum performance in many of the modules and less hanging around.
The subtle interface changes and paradigms across the Suite are thankfully held together by Nero Start, a front end to:
- remind you of what's included
- handle module updates (which happen throughout the year, just like Windows itself)
- provide a way of launching the right module
- offer 'solutions' to common tasks (essentially taking you into the right module for the job)
Nero Start is an obvious idea, but very well done here - simply tracking and applying updates to dozens of modules and tools makes it a no-brainer. Slightly confusing is the way the green 'flag' on Updates not only shows the number of updates waiting but also the number of Nero optional modules not yet installed.
Still, Nero Start gets a thumbs up overall. If only to give you an idea of what to do with your media. I guarantee that a browse around will get you thinking 'I wonder...' Which, of course, is where the guides come in - for anyone who's not sure what they're doing in any of Nero's modules, an overlaid 'Live Guide' pane offers a manual, FAQ, and video tutorial links. It's all well thought out and easy to turn off or back on.
The core media transcoding, rendering, and burning modules (Burning ROM, Express, Recode, Video, Wave Editor, CoverDesigner) all work as well as they ever did, hence my enthusiasm for the suite as a whole. When I need to burn a DVD or CD or do something with video or audio files, they're my first port of call.
The newer modules are a mixed bag. From fripperies (to me) like Face Beautifier and ultra-niche items like Motion Tracker and USBxCOPY to the genuinely useful (again, to me) TuneItUp and AI Image UPscaler and AI Video Upscaler, they're coded in the modern style and with every app's interface different/custom (at least until you get used to them).
One addictive thing about Nero's suite is that it's always changing. Every week, it seems, modules get updated and improved, new features arrive - even while writing this review over the last few months (it's taken this long because things keep... changing! Or being fixed!), a Nero Agentic AI is teased in the interface and this will doubtless bloom as 2026 rolls on. While most software suites hold back features for the next yearly cycle, Nero seems to add them in real time, all the time.
In the middle of - it has to be said - confusion over interface standards,, offline and online features, there are moments of genius. For example, AI Image Upscaler - a test 2MP photo took about five minutes to upscale, but opting for (the new) Nero 'cloud' processing hooks you up to Nero's super compute services and took only 20 seconds. Phew! Anime, Standard, Photograph and Iris are Upscale models to play with, each with different sharpness and JPG parameters. It would have been nice to have an equivalent to Google Photos Unblur too, to save an extra step this end. Selecting 'fine tune' for an upscaled image installs and runs Nero PhotoSnap, which does de-noising and scratch removal, but no unblur. Also red eye removal and basic filters and photo tools.
By the way, PhotoSnap is tokenised, with 200 operations available before you have to start paying extra for more tokens. I think this is fair enough, given the low price of the initial suite, but I guess it will depend on how much you use specific functions.
TuneItUp is interesting, since every Windows user wants a faster, smoother PC. Horribly buggy when I started this review process, it now seems consistent and reliable, clearing Gigabytes from my PC's disk, optimising the Registry, and sorting out my Services (apparently). Several TuneItUp functions duplicate what you can do for free in Windows/Settings, but I did appreciate the accessible, all in one interface. For example, when uninstalling programs, finding and zapping large media items, even showing a disk map of where all the used space has gone. It can even check for latest versions of third party Windows apps which you installed from standalone installers and then auto-grab and install them.
Occasionally, modules are, it seems, needing a separate license. For example, AI Video Upscaler, which you have to buy (per year) and which doesn't come with the suite. Again, given the suite's low starting price, I don't think this is a huge issue.
Hopefully all this has given you a flavour of what to expect from Nero Platinum Suite 2026 is a many-headed monster package of (usually) useful utilities. From 1990s style DVD burning to 2026 AI functions, there's something here that will do the job and it's usually free or nearly free.
You probably don't need to buy the yearly upgrade since so many modules are updated all the time, but a suite refresh every two or three years is recommended - and there's usually a good offer to achieve this with minimal outlay.
Nero is my kind of company - anyone can grab their software and keep it updated, and if the trip seems rocky and bewildering in places, well then that's what you get for being on the development bleeding edge, in some cases. Trust me, it's worth it though for anyone working under Windows.
Comments