Laptop

Schenker has announced the release of the XMG Core 15 and 17 (M21) laptops. They may be refreshed versions of their early-2021 (or E21) counterparts; however, this involves an upgrade to 11th-gen Intel silicon, and, thus, Thunderbolt 4/USB4. The rest of their specs remain unchanged, their RTX 3060 graphics included.

No official release notes for now, but some reddit folks already managed to port the updated files to games that already support DLSS and noticed no fps performance increase. However, the new version does fix some visual artifacts and further improves image quality. Rainbow Six Siege is supposed to get an fps boost of up to 50% in 4K, but the implementation is not that good as HUD elements are displayed at rendering resolution instead of native resolution.

Dell may have enabled all possible CUDA cores on the Alienware m15 R5, but that has not necessarily improved GPU performance across the board. Instead, activating 10% more CUDA cores can reduce FPS in some games, albeit with reduced GPU temperatures.

Lenovo is now offering an upgraded ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 with 11th gen Core and Xeon options along with NVIDIA RTX A5000 graphics. The ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 features a 17.3-inch IPS display that is available in UHD and FHD variants. Prices for the ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 start from US$1,779.

For the first time since its original release in 2018, Lenovo is not merely updating the ThinkPad P1. The new version of the premium mobile workstation, the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 4, is a complete redesign. A large 16 inch 16:10 screen, vapor chamber cooling, top-firing speakers, 5G, a 1080p webcam and Tiger Lake H as well as up to the Nvidia RTX A5000 - Lenovo has packed the ThinkPad P1 G4 with new features.

Lenovo has launched the ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 with internal upgrades over the 2020 version. The 2021 ThinkPad P15 Gen 2 continues to offer the GPU in a daughter board and comes in several configuration options including Intel 11th gen Core and Xeon GPUs, NVIDIA RTX A5000 graphics, and UHD displays in both OLED and IPS variants.

A tech tipster has claimed that at least one M1X MacBook Pro laptop is scheduled for release in early August but this could change. The somewhat base-covering post has led to another commenter having a stab at predicting the specific release date for the 2021 MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon.

The 2021 models can also be configured with GeForce RTX 3050 Ti or RTX 3060 options of up to 70 W TGP. A fully configured XPS 17 9710 will set you back around $2600 USD.

The Legion 7 16ACHg6 brings all the latest computer games smoothly onto the matte 16-inch screen (2560x1600 pixels, 165 Hz, IPS) in the 16:10 format. Furthermore, its equipment is good: The Ryzen 9 5900HX APU, the GeForce RTX 3080 laptop GPU, 32 GB of RAM, and 2x 1 TB NVMe SSDs.

The Radeon RX 6600M is actually faster than the RTX 3060 in raster-heavy tests, but overall, it is as fast as the Nvidia card in 3DMark. It also falls behind by up to 13% in 1440p games and is significantly slower in ray tracing games. This SKU will no doubt be ignored by crypto miners as it is slower than the previous gen RX 5600M model.

After 6 years in hibernation, the 3.92 lbs Razer Blade 14 is returning with brand new tricks up its sleeves. Unsurprisingly, Razer has already crowned it the fastest 14-inch gaming laptop in the market.

Dell has acted quickly in rectifying the issue of missing CUDA cores on the Alienware m15 R5. The machine should now have all its full complement of CUDA cores on its NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU. But, erroneously, Windows and Microsoft Edge warn that Dell's vBIOS update could be harmful to your computer.

Lenovo US now offers the new Legion 5 with AMD silicon via its webstore. The 165Hz 15-inch PC is available with the Ryzen 7 5800H processor and either RTX 3060 or 3070 graphics. The OEM touts it as "battle ready" for the thin and light gaming laptop arena.

The trend for laptop displays is currently moving towards a longer 16:10 aspect ratio. The result is smaller bezels below and above the screen, more space for documents - and much better usability in tablet mode. This is shown by the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga Gen 2, for example.

Razer has launched the new Opus X headphones via its own website. These new wireless accessories have emerged as a new mid-range variant of their series, compared to the original Opus cans. They support active noise cancellation (ANC) and a low-latency connection, yet lack the THX certification of their predecessors, not to mention a 3.5mm port for a wired mode.

The manufacturer is likely clearing room for the eventual ThinkBook 15 G3 model with AMD Ryzen 5000U series options later this year. If you want a prosumer laptop for a budget price, then this deal will check a lot of boxes.

Realme has set the international launch of its flagship smartphone, the GT, for June 15, 2021. Now, its latest teasers hint that it has an additional new product by the same name to debut alongside it. This prospect is presented alongside images that might show the profiles of not only its rumored first laptop, but a tablet as well.

Games could see up to 28% fps improvements with faster RAM kits, but the average is around 10% at 1080p max settings or 15% for 1080p low settings. The absence of a MUX switch raises the performance gap to 33% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, so we might want to wait for the more expensive versions that allow us to disable the iGPU.

Tom from Moore's Law Is Dead reveals the hybrid core configurations for the upcoming Alder Lake S1, S2, P1, P2, M and N lineups and also shares a few more details about the 2022 Raptor Lake generation, plus other successive generations. No pricing info, though.

Opinion The Alienware m15 R4 we just reviewed offers gamers a strong performance, an RTX 3080, and a mechanical keyboard. But its battery life is downright abysmal. Is this an acceptable inconvenience for gaming laptops? Do gaming laptops even need good battery life? Yes!

Realme is all set to enter the highly competitive laptop market. Some renders of the Realme Book has shown up online, and it draws heavy inspiration from MacBooks. While its launch date is unknown, we can expect Realme to sell it for an affordable price.

Dell may be up to its CUDA core cannibalizing shenanigans again. A cursory glance at the Dell G15 listing tells us that its CUDA core count is set at 3,584 instead of 3,840. One could have dismissed it as an error had it not been for Dell's recent Alienware m15 R5 debacle. Update: The GeForce 3060 on the Dell G15 has the correct number of CUDA cores

Acer has announced that its latest round of consolidated revenue (for May 2021) was its best for 7 seven years. These earnings, which totaled about US$895 million, grew by nearly 23% year-on-year (YoY). The OEM's gaming arm grew by 15.3% YoY, whereas its Chromebooks brought in 30.1% more revenue compared to May 2020.

The 7th gen V-NAND memory chips with 176 layers from Samsung are offering the smallest cell size in the industry right now, with 16% increased energy efficiency over previous gen and 2 Gbps I/O speeds that are designed to take advantage of the PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 standards. 990-series NVMe SSDs are expected to be released towards the end of the year.

Realme CEO Madhav Sheth's latest tweet hints strongly at the imminent launch of this company's inaugural laptop. Judging from a possible product teaser included with this post, the machine is intended to be a MacBook clone, along the same lines as the Xiaomi Mi Notebook line. Realme's new take on this category is slated to launch by the end of June 2021.

The Schenker Vision 14 is a new entrant into the ~14-inch, 16:10 display thin-and-light laptop market. This fresh option has magnesium alloy in its construction, as well as Tiger Lake CPUs and 3K/90Hz panels in some configurations. It can support up to 64GB of RAM, Thunderbolt 4, and has 2 slots for M.2 2280 SSDs.

The Intel Core i7-1195G7 has been spotted on Geekbench recording incredible results for a laptop chip. The Tiger Lake-U part nipped at 5 GHz during testing and pulled out a single-core performance score that would leave it in the realm of Rocket Lake and Ryzen 5000 desktop processors in the chart if it was an average result.

The AMD Ryzen 5 processor rivals many flagship Intel-powered Ultrabooks retailing for twice the price. When compared to other sub $500 laptops, this Lenovo is easily one of the fastest.

The current silicon crisis is often perceived as bad news for CPU and GPU supplies worldwide. However, a new report highlights the point that its ramifications might be more widespread than that. It indicates that disrupted sales of a controller chip necessary for working USB 4/Thunderbolt 4 might lead to a lack of PCs with 11th-gen Intel processors next, or to OEMs resorting to releasing the same machines without this spec.

Dell has confirmed that it intentionally disabled CUDA cores on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 in the Alienware m15 R5. The company has pledged to return all missing CUDA cores to the gaming laptop by the middle of this month, which should give it a noticeable performance boost compared to what it currently offers.
Update: Dell has enabled all the RTX 3070's CUDA cores with a vBIOS update.

The revamped W-series now includes the WS76/66 and WE76 high-end models with up to an i9-11980HK CPU, up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and a choice between the RTX A5000 or A3000 professional GPUs plus screens up to 4K. These models also include PCIe 4.0 support and a Thunderbolt 4 connector, while the WF76/66 models do not, and also support only up to an i7-11800H CPU with RTX A2000 or T1200 and 1080p screens.

Lenovo will be offering new Legion 5 models with Ryzen 5 5600H and Radeon RX 6600M in Germany at prices starting from €1,299. However, this pricing is significantly higher than a Ryzen 7 5800H and RTX 3060 Laptop GPU configuration at €1,249 indicating that Legion 5 models with NVIDIA GPUs could offer a better price-to-performance ratio.

The featherweight LG Gram 16 scores points with a Tiger Lake processor, Thunderbolt 4/USB 4, room for two NVMe SSDs, and a 16-inch display in the 16:10 format. This is complemented by excellent battery life.

Microsoft has patented a new and particularly futuristic take on its logo: one that integrates camera sensors. This concept, which might come as part of the OEM's hardware one day, uses emerging under-display technology to put a tiny lens behind each square of the iconic Windows-evoking symbol. The new leak hints that it might appear on either the front or rear of next-gen devices.

AMD's Zen 4-based future processors are currently thought to have the code-name Raphael. It is also rumored to move on to a new LGA-based socket called AM5. Now, a new leak purports to show what one of them will look like from the other side, strange indented integrated heat spreader and all.

Popular YouTube tech commenter Dave2D has offered up some astounding estimates for the potential of the Apple M1X processor that could turn up inside the upcoming MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16. It is suggested that an M1X Apple Silicon with a 32-core GPU could keep up with a GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU while consuming less than half the power.

The slower RAM gimps the gaming performance by up to 20% on the Asus model, while the missing MUX switch is further limiting the potential that should match models equipped with RTX 3080 mobile dGPUs. Similar RAM problems can also be encountered on the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. However, the Lenovo Legion 7 AMD features faster RAM, so this is not really just another conspiracy against AMD.

Some of the reorganized specs include a Domains layer of partitioning for massive NVMe over Fabrics appliances, new system for handling multiple command sets, additional groundwork for the upcoming Computational storage command set, Protection Information support for 32-bit and 64-bit CRCs, new security feature called Command Group Control and explicit support for hard drives.

Several Alienware m15 R5 laptops are apparently reporting just 4,608 CUDA cores for the RTX 3070 Laptop GPU instead of 5,120. Apart from the CUDA cores, even the clocks, TMUs, and pixel fillrates are being reported to be lower than normal leading to performance loss. Currently, a possible workaround is to flash the VBIOS from an m15 R4 that seems to restore the correct values and performance.