Laptop

E.T. says Hi! Dell has refreshed the Alienware x15 lineup with the new x15 R2. This year's x15 R2 offers internal upgrades to Intel Alder Lake-H and Nvidia RTX 30 Series Ti GPUs while retaining much of the design as the previous generation. The Alienware x15 R2 finds enough room to flex its muscles despite the thin chassis and will definitely appeal to the enthusiast gamer, but there are a few areas of concern to be aware of.

Premium problem case. A high quality, a high performance, and even relatively efficient with current AMD Ryzen CPUs and Radeon graphics - what could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, actually. But it was really only one problem with the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 G1, that created difficulties for our test evaluation.

The pros and cons of CAMM. We take a firsthand look at the technology that Dell has been pouring years of work into to replace SODIMM. If all goes well, future laptops will drop SODIMM altogether much like how M.2 has effectively replaced the 2.5-inch SATA slot.

Lots of small changes that add up. The 2022 Envy x360 15 may look a lot like the 2021 model, but all the under-the-hood upgrades help make it a much better system. Users are getting additional ports, a higher resolution webcam, a faster Zen 3 processor, and more.

Long lasting. The TravelMate offers a Core i7 processor (Tiger Lake), 16 GB of RAM and excellent battery life. Acer has made a great decision to use a 14-inch display with a work-friendly 16:10 aspect ratio (1,920 x 1,200 pixels) and provide a three-year warranty on the device in Germany (two years in the US).

RTX 3070 Ti for 4,000 Euro? MSI wants consumers to fork out over 4,000 Euro (US$3,875) for its Creator Z17. But what makes the laptop so special for creatives that justifies the price? The Core i9-12900H and RTX 3070 Ti don't deliver the full answer. So let us examine this question in our in-depth review.

Now with a 16:10 display. Lenovo has completely redesigned the popular ThinkPad T14 G3 business notebook and deploys a new case together with a 16:10 display, but the keyboard is once again slightly inferior. The new AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U offers plenty of CPU power as well as a fast integrated GPU, ensuring a very efficient laptop overall.

The XPS and MacBook contender. The Envy is getting bigger, but does that make it a better system? The faster performance comes at the cost of a heavier design when compared to its 15.6-inch Envy 15 predecessor.

Large battery + low power display. The Lenovo ThinkPad T16 G1, a 16-inch laptop with long battery runtimes, has been redesigned with a 16:10 display, 28-watt Alder Lake and carbon fiber. The business notebook is very quiet, economical and has a strong short-term turbo. But what about long-term performance?

Untapped potential. On paper, the Aspire 5 A515-57G is a very interesting laptop. For instance, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050 is a rather uncommon graphics card. However, Acer messed up an otherwise good idea through unnecessary blunders and conscious cost-cutting measures.

Auspicious power is not the case with the HP Omen 17. The gaming laptop fully utilizes its potential regarding the TDP and TGP of the Intel Core i7 12700H and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. But gamers can also do things differently: if energy-saving settings are set correctly, the energy-hungry gamer becomes a meek, lamb-like laptop with a useful battery life.

The Lenovo ZenBook Duo. Cramming a second display onto a laptop has been challenging for makers like Asus, HP, and even Apple. However, we think Lenovo is closest to nailing the concept for a more seamless user experience.

16-incher worth a recommendation. With the IdeaPad 5 Pro 16ARH7, Lenovo creates a very exciting overall package. Until now, we did not have a Ryzen 5 6600HS with an integrated Radeon 660M in our test. In addition, there is a bright 16:10 display with a high sRGB coverage.

Aluminum case and WQHD panel. Lenovo is offering a large 16-inch multimedia notebook in the ThinkBook 16 G4+, which is armed with a lot of power thanks to an Intel Core i7-12700H and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050 as well as a good sRGB screen in 16:10 format.

The Core i5-11300H meets the RTX 3050 Ti. While most gaming laptops priced under 1,000 Euros (~$1,002) show significant weaknesses in image quality (keyword: color space), HP claims that the Pavilion Gaming 17-cd2146ng offers an sRGB coverage of 100%. We put the 17-incher through its paces.

Like an XPS 14. Just because you're small doesn't mean you can't be as powerful as the big guns. The Precision 5470 utilizes the same Core i9 CPU currently shipping on hulking gaming laptops and other workstations over twice its size, but how does it actually perform?

Intel HX-CPU and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. The Lenovo Legion 7 16 offers everything that gamers desire. In addition to the fastest mobile processor from Intel, there is also the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and a fast 165 Hz display. The cooling system also manages to keep the hardware cool, but at 4,499 Euros (~US$ 4,500), the high-end gamer is by no means a bargain.

The i7-1280P steals the show. Intel's Core i7-1280P makes the Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i the presumably fastest ultrabook of this time. Thanks to the 3K 90 Hz OLED display, low emissions, and high-quality quad speakers, you get a sturdy and nifty laptop.

All AMD, all zen. Aside from some bugs, the 2022 Legion 7 16 is arguably the best gaming laptop from Lenovo we've seen thus far — no Intel required. Meanwhile, the Raden RX 6850M XT is comparable to the Radeon RX 6800M for better or worse.