Laptop

The Summit E15 is supposed to make life difficult for the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme and Dell XPS 15 top dogs. To do this, MSI uses the most current technology: Tiger Lake, Turing, USB 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, and PCI Express 4.

Nvidia looks impressively strong in the PC video card usage chart in Steam’s latest monthly Hardware & Software survey. There are new entries for both the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3090, while the RTX 3080 enjoys a third month of popularity. In terms of overall percentage share, Nvidia has no real rival in the GPU space yet.

Steam has published its hardware and software survey for January 2021 and there are certainly some differences in comparison to the previous month in terms of processor usage and share. AMD has achieved its highest share against Intel, likely aided by the uptake of fast Ryzen 5000 processors among the gaming community.

A 14C/20T Intel 12th gen Alder Lake-P processor has been spotted on Geekbench showing a boost up to 4.7 GHz. This particular entry pertains to the OpenCL benchmark of the 96-EU Xe GT2 iGPU, and the score is in line with expectations, though there definitely seems to be further scope for improvement.

The ThinkPad X1 series has already been updated by Lenovo, but not the regular T & X series ThinkPad laptops. A listing at the TCO certification site reveals the first details about the upcoming ThinkPads: The X13 Gen 2 adopts the taller 16:10 aspect ratio, like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The bigger T series meanwhile continues to use wider 16:9 screens.

A Gigabyte G5 KC gaming laptop with an Intel Core i7-10870H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU has been spotted on Geekbench turning out a terrific OpenCL score that would place it roughly between the RTX 2070 and RTX 2070 Super desktop cards in the benchmark chart. Unfortunately, the TGP of the RTX 3060 is not mentioned.

The aluminum-clad Lenovo convertible may be designed for businesses, but it works just as well for home users, too. It'll be tough to find another 13.3-inch convertible as light as this one with the same CPU and for the same price.

Out of the Ampere laptops that we have tested so far, the XMG Neo 17 from Schenker Technologies came out on top with the best performance. Thanks to the high TDP, the RTX 3070 laptop GPU even computes faster than many RTX 3080 devices.

Although the "Max-Q" marketing term was flawed, it at least helped to differentiate the "slow" GeForce gaming laptops from the "fast" ones. The onus will be on the manufacturers to list their thermal graphics power (TGP) targets in the specifications now that Max-Q is no more.

Samsung's Display division recently held its earnings call for the last quarter of 2020 (4Q2020), which apparently involved profits that grew nearly 800% year-on-year and revenues equivalent to about US$8.9 billion. It also announced that it would indeed get into emerging panel types, including rollable ones, so as to stay competitive in 2021 and beyond.

The Wi-Fi Alliance has only just begun to validate hardware with the newest 6E wireless-data standard. This is good news for MediaTek, which has had its latest access point and client-side wireless solutions picked up for use in this official body's new test bed. Therefore, the company might now find it easier to pitch these components to OEMs who make routers, broadband equipment or PCs.

An AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U and Ryzen 5 PRO 5650U have made their first appearances thanks to a benchmark and a manufacturer. The Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U was spotted in an EliteBook 845 G8 laptop on UserBenchmark while it seems HP managed to unveil the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5650U via a prematurely published support page.

Own one of the fastest U-series processors of 2020 for the price of a cheap Intel Core i3 or Core i5 system. This Acer unit is more powerful than what its entry-level price and thin design may otherwise suggest.

The latest market research report from Canalys shows that the PC market enjoyed success not seen in years during 2020. It posted shipment volumes not seen since 2015, hitting 143.7 million units (a 35% year-on-year (YoY) increase) in the last quarter (4Q2020). Tablet and Chromebook shipments also saw record increases, with the latter doubling in number compared to 2019.

The laptop versions of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 are yet to land, but the first gaming benchmarks are already online. The two videos compare the GeForce RTX 3060 against the GeForce RTX 2060 in nine games, including in CDPR's latest title, Cyberpunk 2077.

MSI has defended its decision to omit GPU wattages from its new NVIDIA GeForce 30 series gaming laptops, despite the considerable differences in performance between some GPUs of the same name. Apparently, MSI believes that it would be unable to inform people that one RTX 3080 GPU has an 80 W TGP, while another has a 150 W TGP. Its justification has left us unconvinced, though.

The DCS feature was discovered in a recent Linux patch and it looks like it is designed specifically for laptop GPUs, even though it is supported on the high-end RX 6800 series, as well as the upcoming RX 6700 mid-range models. DCS reduces power consumption by turning the core off when thermal and power limits are exceeded.

Realme is mostly known for its phones and audio devices; however, like Xiaomi and Huawei before it, it is now rumored to get into the laptop game as well. According to a well-known leaker, the first of these new products will debut in June 2021. Meanwhile, the OEM has teased a new initiative called TechLife, which will launch in February.

XMG has offered an insight into the availability of AMD Ryzen 5000 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series gaming laptops. Sadly, it is bad news for gamers, as companies are uncertain of the volumes of Cezanne APUs that AMD will be able to supply in the first half of 2021.

The Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR is not directly aimed at gamers but rather at creative users. Consequently, a high frequency and good response rates are not the most important factors to consider.

There are pros and cons for sure, but the advantages arguably outweigh any losses especially since many retailers would avoid listing "Max-Q" anyway and that some Max-Q laptops would even outperform Max-P ones.

Chuwi has unveiled another laptop following the HeroBook Pro Plus release last week. The company has called its latest laptop the HeroBook Plus, which it equips with plenty of RAM and an outdated processor. The 15.6-inch laptop retails for US$439.

Shortly after the CES, a Lenovo manager has shared some interesting information in an interview. Especially interesting: In the future, Lenovo ThinkPad laptops will be equipped with better webcams.

Unlike most other gaming laptop sales for under $800, this MSI GL65 strikes a respectable balance between graphics performance, CPU performance, display, RAM, and storage. Owners will just have to live with average color reproduction and the lack of Thunderbolt support.

Lenovo's US webstore has begun what it calls a "You Pay What We Pay" event, which apparently entails the same kinds of discounts only normally available to the OEM's staff members. They include up to US$800 off an Intel 10th-gen Legion 7i laptop, as well as deals on gaming mice and headsets.

Micron has launched its latest form of DRAM, which is also now in volume production. It is based on the company's 1-alpha (1α, or fourth-generation) 10 nanometer (nm) node, and also incorporates 176-layer NAND for the first time. Micron asserts that has up to 40% more memory cells, and is up to 15% more power-efficient, than its predecessor.

The ridiculous number would not really be a problem for end users if OEMs actually respected Nvidia's guidelines and provided clear info with the official specs. Unfortunately, very few OEMs are currently doing this, and we are seeing wild spec variations that allow lower-priced SKUs to outperform higher-priced variants.

First shipments are expected to arrive by February 15. The Asus model is notable for its next-gen components that were unveiled just a few weeks ago at CES 2021.

We evaluate how the new 35 W CPUs from Intel and AMD including the Core i7-11370H, Ryzen 9 5900HS, and Ryzen 9 5980HS fare in our CPU benchmarks. We find that Intel and AMD are on par with each other in most single-core tests making them both great choices for such workloads. However, AMD may offer a more holistic package for overall mobile computing.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Max-P and RTX 3070 Max-Q differ by over 30% in benchmarks, early reviews of two MSI gaming laptops have shown. Many OEMs, including MSI, are divulging the minimum information about the RTX 30 series GPUs in their machines though, leaving people in the dark over what performance to expect.

AMD's support for USB4 and Thunderbolt is scheduled to arrive in early 2022, and, until then, laptop OEMs are trying out alternatives. One solution would be to implement a new type of connector, like Asus has done on its new ROG Flow X13 laptops. Lenovo, on the other hand, is exploring something more simple in the form of a cable that connects external video cards to the M.2 slot inside the laptop.

The new RTX 3080 cards proved to be quite the crypto mining monsters, but these high-end solutions are still in very short supply. A better and more efficient alternative could be presented by Nvidia's mobile RTX 3000 dGPUs, as suggested by the latest leaks from China. If this is indeed true, miners could eventually impact the availability of all upcoming Nvidia-based laptops.

AMD won't be making the same exclusivity mistake again with the mobile Ryzen 5000 series. The chipmaker has confirmed that all of its mobile Zen 3 CPUs will be available for all major OEMs to deploy in contrast to the more limited approach with certain mobile Zen 2 processors the year before.

NVIDIA has confirmed that it is encouraging OEMs to list TGP and clock speeds of their RTX 30 series laptops. Few OEMs have done so yet. Additionally, the latest GeForce Experience version brings WhisperMode 2.0 to RTX 30 series laptops. The feature utilises 'AI-powered algorithms' to balance acoustics and system performance.

Lenovo updates the inexpensive ThinkPad L series without a big announcement. Both the new Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Gen 2 and ThinkPad L15 Gen 2 are optimized for enterprise customers. They keep the same design as their predecessors, but contain the new Intel Tiger Lake chips.

The laptop is pick-up only from Staples with no delivery. It's an entry-level offering with a mostly plastic design, but the relatively powerful Core i5-1135G7 CPU and integrated Iris Xe GPU make it fast for the price.

Is the GPU 90 W or 135 W? With "Max-Q" gone, performance hunters will be asking this question left and right to make sure they are buying the fastest possible laptop graphics. Fortunately, XMG is looking ahead by stating the numbers directly on the specifications list.

Dell does without the "slim", "super light", and "mobile" marketing phrases for the Latitude 15 5511, but it presents the business laptop as a practical work machine in return.

Millions of people search for news on Google or Facebook; therefore, those tech behemoths should pay media outlets for their content. At least, this is the Australian government's position in a dispute with the companies in question. Google has responded by threatening to deprive the country of its Search service.

A lot of Intel’s hopes for 2021 are pinned on Tiger Lake-H. After all, Intel has to put something up against the Ryzen 5000 CPUs. The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 comes with only a Tiger Lake-UP3 chip. However, it can draw up to 35 watts of power for a significant period of time, showing the world what a Tiger Lake chip can achieve with such a high TDP.

Fifty gaming laptops featuring Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs from major vendors such as Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte have been listed on the Scan website. Many feature Ryzen 5000 APUs and there are a couple of Tiger Lake H-35 options too. Prices go from £998.99 (US$1,367) for an Asus TUF Dash RTX 3060 laptop up to £4,298.99 (US$5,882) for an MSI GS66 Stealth RTX 3080 laptop.