Laptop

If you're looking for as much CPU power as possible in the price range below 1,500 Euros (~$1,696), the MSI Bravo 17 is exactly the right choice. The 17-inch gaming laptop is powered by the lightning-fast octa-core Ryzen 7 4800H.

GoPro has addressed an increasingly prevalent issue for many users who have shifted their work, learning or hobbies online in a new update under development at this action-cam OEM. It confers a new function on its HERO8 Black model that allows owners who also use Macs to use the device as an FHD, wide-angle upgrade on their default webcams.

Because of the inherent design limitations of the AMD Ryzen 4000U APUs, some benchmarks will favor the Intel Tiger Lake-U CPUs, but these results may not always reflect real-world usage scenarios.

Honor has announced that it will be hosting a MagicBook release event this month. Scheduled for July 16, it would seem that AMD Ryzen 4000 versions of the MagicBook 14, MagicBook 15 and the MagicBook Pro are on the agenda.

Lenovo's 15.6-inch laptop is equipped with an Ice Lake Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM (dual channel mode) and a GeForce-MX350 GPU. Despite this powerful hardware, the IdeaPad's battery life is very satisfactory.

A little late, but it is finally here: The AMD versions of the ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 and ThinkPad T14s Gen 1 are available. The two 14 inch business laptops are the first T series ThinkPads with AMD Ryzen 4000, also known as AMD Renoir.

Want to upgrade your own RAM? Then you'll have to go with the older Latitude 7400. The newer Latitude 7410 adds a few new features while taking away some others at the same time.

Dell has given the XPS 15 9500 a fresh lick of paint. Only released in May, the XPS 15 9500 is now available in two colours in multiple regions. Called Frost with an Arctic White palm rest, the new colour option will be a US$50 surcharge for Core i7 models with 16 GB of RAM and above.

Dell is offering up to 24% off several XPS, and Inspiron refurbished laptops. The offer includes the XPS 13 9300, XPS 13 7390, XPS 13 7390 2-in-1 and four Inspiron 5000 series machines.

GPD's goal-based Indiegogo campaign for its 8-inch Win Max console-control-enabled mini notebook has ended in triumph, raking in about US$2.8 million from over 3,000 backers. However, the device is still available on this platform for the next few days at a price closer to its eventual retail cost. It's not all good news for the OEM, though: some early adopters claim that its speedy 65W charger has failed on them.

Shengchang Chiang - also often known as Charles Chiang - has been reported dead. He had taken over as the chief executive officer (CEO) of MSI in January 2019, having served as the company's head of its desktop division prior to that. Chiang reportedly fell to his untimely demise at the OEM's Taipei headquarters.

The new 15.6-inch Lavie N1585 laptop is currently the only model equipped with the unannounced Ryzen 7 Extreme Edition APU, which appears to have identical specs to the Ryzen 7 4800U model. Other specs include 16 GB of RAM plus 1 TB NVMe SSD, and NEC recommends it for light gaming.

Xiaomi has launched new versions of the RedmiBook 14 II and RedmiBook 16. Available with either Core i5-1035G1 or Core i7-1065G7 processors, the Intel editions of the two laptops have also been paired with an NVIDIA GeForce MX350 GPU. The two laptops will be available to pre-order from today for CNY 4,699 (~US$670) and upwards.

Intel has announced the Thunderbolt 4 protocol and new Thunderbolt 4 controllers, which build on the capabilities of Thunderbolt 3 and also form the basis for the USB4 spec. Thunderbolt 4 offers the same throughput as Thunderbolt 3 along with additional platform and security features while also expanding the Thunderbolt dock ecosystem. Thunderbolt 4 will be compatible all existing USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 standards and will be first seen in Tiger Lake-powered laptops later this year.

A Geekbench 4 OpenCL benchmark surfaced last week pitting the Tiger Lake Core i7-1165G7 against the NVIDIA GeForce MX350. The Gen12 Xe iGPU in Tiger Lake manages to not only put up a convincing performance but also beats the MX350 in the test. We also get to see that the 80 EU Core i5-1135G7 is about 13.5% slower than a Core i7-1165G7 in the same benchmark.

Logitech is back this time with a new keyboard and mouse specifically customized for use with Apple’s Macs and iPads. The new MX Keys keyboard for Mac and MX Master 3 mouse incorporate pre-set functionality and features that even Apple’s own accessories don’t offer, making them well worth a look.

This $40 USD 4-in-1 adapter is as small and light as most single-purpose adapters. If you want to make your USB-C ports more useful, then the IOGEAR GUD3C460 will be a boon to your home office or workspace.

Apple is planning to equip all 2021 MacBooks with ARM-based CPUs designed in-house and it looks like this switch could also happen for GPUs. Currently, most AMD laptops come equipped with AMD dGPUs, but, starting with the 2021 MacBook models, we could see Apple solely using in-house GPUs derived from the A Bionic SoCs.

A new study conducted in June 2020 by the company TeamBlind indicates that 33% of the workers who participated in it have been given a date on which they can resume office work. This figure varied when corrected for location or company, however. 57% of the respondents stated that they would keep working from home given the opportunity, however.

Despite the ongoing pandemic and slow death of malls, Razer will chug through the thick and thin with its retail locations in direct contrast to Microsoft.

Xiaomi launched the AMD Ryzen 4000-series-powered RedmiBook 13, RedmiBook 14, and RedmiBook 16 back in May. The company has now confirmed that it's set to release a new RedmiBook 16, but this time out, one powered with Intel's 10nm Icelake Core i7 processors.

The widget is lacking at the moment, but it's at least easy on the eyes with direct controls for brightness, colors, power plan, and live recording or streaming. A more fully-featured version of the widget is expected to come later in the year.

A new feature update coming to Chrome 86 looks set to make serious reductions in its resource usage. The experimental feature could extend battery life considerably on laptops by shutting down certain background tasks in open tabs.

Apple’s MacBook keyboards have been the recipient of plenty of unwanted attention in recent years thanks to the infamous butterfly keyboard debacle. However, the company seems intent on continuing to try to innovate on that front with a patent lodged for glass keycaps that might feature on future MacBooks.

With the MateBook 13, Huawei has a low-priced subnotebook in its product portfolio, which confronts buyers with the choice between an Intel or an AMD chipset. This is not an easy decision as neither of the two achieves a real dominance.

The major update of the compact 2020 ThinkPad X1 Carbon is the more compact power adapter. You also get new processors, but they do not offer a performance advantage. The new X1 Carbon is once again a very good business laptop, but you can just get the previous model and save money.

Lenovo has quietly updated one of the most interesting consumer laptops made by the Chinese company in the last year: The Lenovo IdeaPad S540, which sports a screen in the rare 16:10 aspect ratio. The new version S540-13ARE sports AMD Ryzen 4000. The catch: It is not available in the USA, at least for now.

Dell's July 4th weekend sale is cutting $50 off last year's Inspiron 14 5000 convertible. Its chassis and hardware aren't half bad especially for a 1080p subnotebook convertible with the performance level of a Core i7.

A small, affordable convertible that does not have a fan sounds like a good second laptop or a recommendable notebook for schoolchildren, but the impression is deceptive: To push the price down, the manufacturer makes too many compromises with the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 11IGL05.

Purism is back with its latest privacy focused Linux-based laptop. The latest device in its range is the Librem 14 which effectively crams in a larger display into a similar footprint to its Librem 13 model.

In what is essentially an eGPU docking station in reverse, the Eurocom Riser card allows users to install laptop MXM3 graphics cards directly onto their desktop PCIe slots. The product is aimed at professionals and workstation environments for specialized SFF PCs rather than a home office.

MSI presents its new notebooks that, while being powerful enough for many enthusiasts and creators, retain decently portable dimensions. The series consists of 15.6- and 17.3-inch machines that feature up to Intel Xeon processors and NVIDIA Quadro GPUs across the board. They are available to buy now from platforms such as Newegg.

Schenker has announced the VIA 15 Pro, a 15.6-inch Renoir laptop with a 91 Wh battery. The device features either the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H or Ryzen 7 4800H and is freely configurable up to 64 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage. The 1.4 kg laptop is estimated to start shipping from the end of August.

The Lenovo Flex 5 is back for under US$600. Available on Amazon, the device comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U APU, a Radeon RX Vega 6 GPU, 16 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 RAM and a 256 GB SSD. An Active Pen is included in the box, too.

The Ryzen 5 4600U-powered Envy costs hundreds of dollars less than the Core i7-1065G7 Spectre and yet it is able to run longer and faster while being just as thin and light. Maybe it's time for HP to add the same Ryzen options for its flagship Spectre series.

After hinting at upcoming changes to the Start menu, Microsoft has officially announced that it is coming to Window 10 in the near future. Currently only available in Windows 10 Preview build 20161, users can start to play with the new Start menu and other design and UI tweaks coming to the shipping build soon.

Apple copies from the Far East have a long tradition. The current RedmiBook 16 from Xiaomi is another reincarnation of the MacBook, in this case the current 16-inch version. Nevertheless, the package appears extremely attractive: A matt IPS display, Type-C charging, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U and 512 GB SSD storage at a price point of less than 700 Euros (~$788).