Laptop

The tech world has been on fire these past few weeks with not one, but two major press events. After Nvidia unveiled its GeForce RTX GPUs at Gamescom, more OEMs unveiled brand new refreshed products at IFA in Berlin equipped with next generation Intel Whiskey Lake and Amber Lake processors.

At its TechLife event at IFA 2018, Lenovo unveiled the world's first Qualcomm Snapdragon 850-powered 2-in-1 — the Lenovo Yoga C630 WOS. The Yoga C630 has an integrated Snapdragon X20 LTE modem and promises a 30% performance increase compared to the previous generation while still claiming to offer battery life north of 25 hours.

The 15-inch Zephyrus S GX531 will launch in late September with the 17-inch ROG GL704 Scar II to follow a few days later. The new Zephyrus will be thinner and leaner than the GX501 at just $1900 compared to almost $3000 when the GX501 launched last year.

There are good reasons to settle for a less expensive configuration other than cost. Systems with less powerful components have less heat to dissipate and are therefore more likely to run cooler and quieter than their more powerful alternatives. The ROG GL504 series is the latest example of two visually identical SKUs with very different performance profiles.

When Lenovo released this years lineup of Legion gaming laptops, they were a downgrade in terms of GPU performance. A few months after launch, Lenovo will rectify this – at least when it comes to the less expensive Legion Y530.

Acer talked about the upcoming Swift 7 notebook during its IFA 2018 keynote and while there was only a dummy product on display, the company notes that the notebook will slim down even further and feature ultra-narrow bezels yielding a 92% screen-to-body ratio and a passively cooled Intel 'Amber Lake-Y' Core i7 processor.

We had an opportunity to play around with the new Dell Inspiron 7000 2-in-1 notebooks at IFA 2018 and were glad to see that the 15 and 17-inch versions sport the '1D10' version of the NVIDIA GeForce MX150 GPU. The '1D10' version of the MX150 can operate in a 25W TDP envelope, which should allow better performance in games and demanding applications.

Ever wonder what the GS65 could look like in white? The gaming laptop will be getting a new coat of paint with tons of free editing software to attract business users and editors alike. The rest of the chassis is the familiar MSI gaming laptop we've come to know.

With its single-sided M.2 2280 package, the XPG SX6000 Pro NVMe SSD can fit PCs, as well as compact laptops and mini PCs. The new Realtek PCIe Gen3x4 controller coupled with second gen 64-layer 3D TLC NAND memory chips can deliver sequential read speeds of up to 2,100 MB/s and write speeds of up to 1,500 MB/s. Capacities range from 256 GB up to 1 TB.

It's not easy categorizing a growing lineup of products for consumers to understand when new models are constantly being introduced. Lenovo will be changing its Yoga branding to something more self-explanatory for shoppers and the general consumer starting with the new IFA 2018 lineup.

The intricate and unique watchband hinge of previous Yoga 900 models will be dropped in favor of more powerful Dolby Atmos speakers starting with the Yoga C930. Much of the core hardware and processor features remain identical to the outgoing Yoga 920.

The quad-core Whiskey Lake i5-8265U and i7-8565U CPUs are both coming just in time for the Holiday season. The slim Lenovo Yoga S730 will be one of the first to carry the processors when it launches this November for $1000 USD.

The new 15-inch model will be significantly more powerful than its smaller 14-inch sibling, but it will also be dropping specific features including WQHD HDR and the proprietary Side-Dock. A NumPad will be omitted despite the size increase. Expect the ThinkPad X1 Extreme and its ThinkPad P1 workstation equivalent to retail for close to $2000.

Intel is announcing new 'Whiskey Lake-U' and 'Amber Lake-Y'-series processors as successors to last year's 8th gen 'Kaby Lake-R' U-series and 7th gen 'Kaby Lake-Y' CPUs. These new CPUs will continue to be a part of the 8th generation family and feature improvements to connectivity and battery life. The 15W 'Whiskey Lake-U' series starts with the Core i3-8145U and goes all the way till the Core i7-8565U while the 5W 'Amber Lake-Y' series starts with the Core m3-8100Y and tops out with the Core i7-8500Y. All processors feature support for Hyperthreading and the Whiskey Lake PCHs sport integrated USB 3.1 and Gigabit Wi-Fi controllers (partly). Update: Process and PCH updates

Alongside the ZenBook Flip convertibles, Asus has also announced new ZenBook ultrabooks in 13, 14, and 15-inch form factors. All ZenBook models come with a high screen-to-body ratio of 95% and the smaller variants use the trackpad area as a virtual NumberPad. Internally, all the new ZenBooks include the new Intel 'Whiskey Lake-U' CPUs with the ZenBook 15 offering graphics options up to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q.

The Toshiba Portege family has always been special with its matte touchscreens, integrated VGA ports, and unique magnesium alloy designs that look very different from the more popular Lenovo ThinkPad and Dell Latitude competitors. The latest 13.3-inch model will give a Surface-like experience while offering many more connectivity options than the Microsoft solution.

The new Acer Chromebook 514 combines a metallic chassis, backlit keyboard, USB Type-C connectivity, a Corning Gorilla Glass touchpad, and promises to deliver a 12-hour battery life. Sadly, the hardware details have not been unveiled yet, but we know that the North American market will get this premium Chromebook in October, starting at only US$349.99.

A Geekbench entry has surfaced for a new Qualcomm SoC and a closer examination reveals that this is indeed the Snapdragon 8180 SoC that was rumored to be in development exclusively for Windows 10 on ARM notebooks. The Snapdragon 8180 was originally referred to as the Snapdragon 1000 and it offers a higher 15W TDP envelope to power typical mainstream computing tasks. The initial benchmark scores, however, are not very convincing.

At IFA 2018, Acer is taking wraps off its new Aspire notebook models. The budget-gamer focused Aspire is getting an upgrade to Intel 'Kaby Lake-G' CPUs with onboard Radeon RX Vega M GL graphics while the Aspire 5 is being upgraded to Intel's latest 'Whiskey Lake-U' 15 ULV chips with optional NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics.

Privacy and security are a major focus for business laptops. An in-built privacy filter like HP's SureView displays for its EliteBooks is very important for customers who work with sensitive information. To counter HP, Lenovo has introduced its very own in-built privacy filter for its popular ThinkPad T480s.

The XPS 13 convertible is returning next month with refreshed Intel 8th gen Y-series CPUs. Dell will be sticking with the same design, but they have suggested that the series has been successful enough that a full refresh will almost surely happen sometime down the road.

The XPS 13 9370 will no longer be limited to just Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Dell will be throwing in the new Core i3-8130U to bump the entry-level price down by $100 to just $900 USD. For more demanding power users, however, the Core i7 SKU with Iris Pro Graphics remains elusive.

The 13-inch Inspiron 13 7386, 15-inch Inspiron 15 7586, and Inspiron 17 7786 convertible notebooks will all carry similar CPU Core i5-8265U and i7-8565U options when they launch in early October. Their announcements supplement the reveal of Intel Whiskey Lake at this year's IFA.

The systems will carry new ULV Whiskey Lake and Kaby Lake options including the Core i3-8145U, i5-8265U, i7-8565U, and i3-8130U. The Windows version will have discrete GeForce MX130 options while the Chromebook version will integrate a passive stylus.

The aging 15-inch Vostro 15 5000 series gets a much-needed injection of stronger hardware, more versatile ports, and a more modern narrow bezel chassis design. Most notably, both the 14-inch and 15-inch models will drop the GeForce 940MX and Radeon 530 GPUs in favor of the GeForce MX130. Expect a launch price of $580 USD before the end of the year.

YouTube allows vloggers who use the platform to monetize their videos with AdSense. However, many of these ads can be skipped after a few seconds. Now, however, YouTube now contains options to include skip button-less ads for all creators.

Not long ago, the first specifications of a new Lenovo ThinkPad laptop called 'ThinkPad X1 Extreme' were leaked. In another leak today, the first pictures of this mysterious new model have been leaked. They show a machines that almost looks identical to the recently announced ThinkPad P1. With its more consumer-friendly specifications, the X1 Extreme seems predestined to compete with the popular Dell XPS 15 9570.

The Xiaomi Mi Notebook is the Chinese juggernaut's latest foray into the laptop market. Featuring a Kaby Lake-R CPU and a low-end Nvidia GeForce MX110, the laptop is a decent midrange device. Unfortunately, Xiaomi's aggressive pricing won't translate to western markets, where import costs push the device out of "value buy" territory.

Following the successful release of the Matebook D powered by the AMD Ryzen 2500U CPU, Huawei now releases two version with Intel's Kaby Lake-R CPUs and Nvidia's MX150 GPUs. The chassis and display are unchanged, but users can choose among the Intel Core i5-8250U and the i7-8550U CPUs coupled with 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and 256 GB / 512 GB, respectively.

Huawei and ZTE provide hardware for mobile data networks, including modems, in addition to mobile devices. Therefore, it may be a blow to both companies to find they cannot tender for supplier contracts as Australia prepares for 5G connectivity. Both companies have a good track record of mobile network product sales in the country.

The PS42 is notable for carrying the faster '1D10' GeForce MX150 GPU instead of the slower '1D12' variant found on many sub 15-inch Ultrabooks. MSI has priced its 14-inch system to compete with popular 13-inch Ultrabooks like the XPS 13, Spectre 13, or Yoga 920.

Will the GTX name live on for gaming laptops after Pascal? Eurocom will soon be updating its high-end Sky series of laptops to support both Coffee Lake Intel CPUs and mobile Turing.

Announced roughly one week ago, the new Lenovo ThinkPad P1 is already orderable on Lenovo's US website. The new 15.6 inch mobile workstation is supposed to compete with the Dell XPS 15 and its workstation cousin, the Dell Precision 5530.

Somebody was apparently too hasty: The data-sheet of the Lenovo's upcoming convertible flagship for consumers is already online on Lenovo's own site – despite the fact that the Lenovo Yoga C930 has not been announced yet.

WhatsApp has distinguished itself among messaging apps through its ability to eat your storage. However, a new agreement between the Facebook subsidiary and Google mean that WhatsAapp backups will no longer clog up space on the Drives of its users.