Laptop

The next Snapdragon flagship processor may be expected to be called the SD 855. However, the most recent leaks on this subject suggest that it will not follow the motifs typically associated with this series - in fact, not even the naming convention will remain the same.

Better late than never. Dell has updated its mainline 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch Alienware laptops from four-zone RGB lighting to per-key RGB lighting. The design and internal specifications are otherwise identical. Both systems will begin shipping this week.

All eyes will continue to be on Nvidia as the inevitable announcement looms. AMD launches its 32-core Threadripper 2990WX CPU to both excellent and mixed results and Asus unveils its thinnest second generation Zephyrus GX laptop just in time for Gamescom 2018. New workstation from MSI and Lenovo add even more power to increasingly thin chassis designs.

Since the Windows on ARM initiative did not impress too much with this year's Snapdragon-powered laptops, ARM is willing to take matters into its own hands and release CPUs specifically designed for ultrabooks and compact laptops. Based on the Deimos 7 nm architecture an Hercules 7-5 nm architecture, ARM's upcoming laptop chips are set to rival Intel's and AMD's ULV offers.

Want to see a laptop with 12 cores and over 20 TB of internal storage? Eurocom can make it possible if enough users show interest. The reseller is collecting data to see how it can best approach building its next generation of gaming laptops and mobile workstations.

The new "thinnest gaming laptop in the world" is just 15.75 mm thick at its thickest point to be even thinner than last year's ROG GX501. The GX531 introduces narrow bezels and 144 Hz displays to the Zephyrus family with plenty of changes both internal and external. Expect a worldwide launch as early as September.

There have been no notebooks with both narrow bezels and 144 Hz panels until now. Asus has teamed up with AU Optronics to develop a 17.3-inch 144 Hz/3 ms panel made specifically for gaming and the narrow-bezel GL704 will be the first to use it.

Lenovo has introduced the AMD Ryzen variant of the Lenovo Yoga 530 convertible notebook in without much fanfare and initial reviews seem to show promising performance. The Lenovo Yoga 530 is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 2500U with Radeon RX Vega 8 graphics and benchmarks have shown the laptop beating the Intel Core i7-8550U by a fair margin. The dual-channel DDR4-2400 memory in the Yoga 530 also helps it gain leads over the Ryzen 7 2700U-powered IdeaPad 720S.

Macs are more or less impervious to hacking, right? Not any more, according to two cybersecurity researchers during a briefing at the Black Hat USA Conference 2018. However, the attacks involved are difficult to achieve and need to be launched at very specific times during the computer's set-up.

MSI has announced a new mobile workstation for creatives. The WS65 is a professional makeover for the GS65 Stealth Thin and comes with processor options up to the Intel Core i9-8950HK and GPU options up to the NVIDIA Quadro P4200. The MSI WS65 will be on display during SIGGRAPH 2018 and is expected to be available from September.

Acer is announcing discount offers for its Nitro 5, Chromebook 15, and Chromebook R11 for the Back to School season. The limited period offer gives up to US$50 discount on select models of the Nitro 5 and first-gen Chromebook 15, and Chromebook R 11. Acer is also offering US$100 discount on the second gen Chromebook 15.

Expect the same ThinkPad carbon fiber and magnesium alloy finish but in a newer design inspired by the ThinkPad X1 Carbon series. Intel 8th gen Xeon and Quadro GPUs complete the package, but the high starting price of just under $2000 USD may turn off some workstation users.

Apart from introducing their thinnest mobile workstation ThinkPad yet, Lenovo updated their most powerful ThinkPad laptop today as well. The new ThinkPad P72 ditches the DVD drive and opts for a thinner chassis, while also offering far more powerful GPU options than any other ThinkPad, up to the Nvidia Quadro P5200.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is finally coming, next generation GeForce 11xx/20xx details continue to leak, and AMD is slowly but surely making a comeback on desktop. Catch up on some key topics in the industry you may have missed over the past week here.

Visually, the UX580 is nothing more than a UX550 with a secondary trackpad display. Users not interested in the dual-screen capabilities of the UX580 can now get the UX550 with an Intel 8th gen Core i7 processor for $1800 USD.

Those who had any hopes of being able to acquire the Dell XPS 15 9570 updated with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 11 graphics before the end of the year should change their shopping plans because Frank Azor has just confirmed that this machine will not receive any hardware refresh in Q4.

Per-key RGB lighting, 1800p QHD+ IGZO touchscreen, Thunderbolt 3, and 16 GB of RAM for just $900 USD. The new Razer deal is one of the better promotions from the manufacturer. Unfortunately, there is one caveat that hardcore gamers should be wary of.

HP seems to have accidentally revealed all the specs for Intel's Whiskey Lake-U family of mobile CPUs, as the information was taken down soon after. Nevertheless, it is now known that there will be three models - the Core i3-8145U, Core i5-8265U and Core i7-8565U, HP also revealing core count, frequencies and cache memory configurations.

Although not yet available in market, the 14-inch Asus E406MA will be one of the few Asus laptops to carry Gemini Lake options. The Pentium N5000 can provide a multi-core performance boost of about 65 percent over the Pentium N3710 found on the older Asus E406SA.

Though the patch notes don't explicitly mention it, the update is likely addressing the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities on the old Microsoft 2-in-1 tablet. Owners should prepare for a small performance drop if so.

Kaby Lake-R has proven to be much more capable than the 7th gen Kaby Lake U-series to the point where performance can rival a Core i5-7300HQ. If Whiskey Lake-U will be similar, then it would be the perfect candidate for entry-level gaming laptops like the Asus ROG GL series.

A couple of B2B sites have started listing Lenovo laptops that feature the upcoming Intel 'Whiskey Lake-U' CPUs. The notebooks include the Lenovo s730 and IdeaPad 730S powered by the Intel Core i5-8265U and the Lenovo Yoga 730 powered by the Intel Core i7-8565U. Not much information is available about these notebooks right now but we can expect them to be officially announced during IFA 2018.

The new entry-level SKU is $300 to $400 cheaper than the current UX331UN SKU by axing the dedicated GPU and halving both the LPDDR3 RAM (16 GB to 8 GB) and internal M.2 storage (512 GB to 256 GB).

Ryzen is possibly the most prominent form of competition for the Coffee Lake family of chipsets. However, the Intel CPUs have dominated the market since the release of both lines. Now, however, Ryzen appears to have opened a lead on them (if a very slim one) in these terms.

Laptops with the GeForce GTX 1060 will always be more expensive than the same model with the slower GeForce GTX 1050. Price mistake or not, the Dell G7 15 with the GTX 1060 Max-Q is suddenly cheaper than the GTX 1050 Ti option. The sale extends across the entire G5 lineup, but the price cut is steeper on the GTX 1060 Max-Q SKU for one reason or another.

Acer now offers premium builds for the Chromebook lineup. The latest Chromebook 13 and Spin 13 come with all-aluminum chassis and 13.5-inch IPS displays supporting 2256 x 1504 resolutions. Spec-wise, these notebooks come powered by Intel's gen 8 Core i3 and i5 CPUs coupled to up to 16 GB of RAM and up to 128 GB storage.

Origin's new EVO17-S is the thinnest and lightest 17-inch laptop from the custom retailer. That said, the device is still comparatively hefty at 0.98-inches thick and 6.6. lbs. However, crammed into the case are an Intel Core i9-8950HK, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Max-P, and up to 6 TB of NVMe and SATA storage. Expect to pay out the nose for all that tech, though.

Although he previously stated that the Intel Core i5-powered XPS 15 9570 would get the 97 WHr battery option, Frank Azor has recently revealed that those who want this power pack should "move up to the next config" to get it. This means a US$500-worth jump to the cheapest Intel Core i7-driven model.

Google seems to take on Windows and macOS head on with its latest Chromebook ad. The ad shows how Chromebook users don't have to deal with any of the errors and update nags that plague traditional PC users. While Chromebooks are indeed easy to use and stable, most of the issues shown in the ad are largely passe.

The Intel Core i7-8550U-powered Dell XPS 13 9370 ultrabook is now available with Ubuntu Linux 18.04 onboard. The first XPS 13 Developer Edition arrived more than five years ago and back then it had Ubuntu 12.04 installed. The new XPS 13 Developer Edition is only available in the US for now, but Europe and Canada will follow soon.

The 13.3-inch laptop will fit right in between the 12.3-inch LapBook and 14.1-inch LapBook Air. The inexpensive laptop will rely on the 6 W Celeron N4100 for yet another low-power lightweight offering from the Chinese manufacturer. Let's hope that construction quality will be better this time around.

WCCFTech's sources inform that the GTX 1060 successor should feature 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM and will be launched in late September for around US$500, while the GTX 1070 successor would also get 8 GB VRAM, but will be launched in mid-September for US$600. As for the flagships, these are said to feature 11 GB GDDR6 and would launch in early September for US$700.

Systems powered by Intel 10nm CPUs might hit shelves just in time for the holiday season in 2019. The 10nm part will first be made available to client systems followed by datacenter products. However, Intel feels that 14nm will continue to play a significant role next year as well.

The latest Bluetooth vulnerability may affect many more devices than last year's BlueBorne, because it can affect smartphones as well as laptops that integrate Apple, Google, Intel, Broadcom or Qualcomm hardware. Due to insufficient encryption validation during the pairing process. Microsoft claims that Windows 10 is not affected, but all the other companies are releasing fixes as soon as possible.