Laptop

AMD has listed a couple new CPUs, the Ryzen 5 2600H and Ryzen 7 2800H. Both chips are definite upgrades over the Ryzen 5 2500U and Ryzen 7 2700U, respectively, but their 45 W nominal TDP suggests that they will be used in gaming laptops upon release. This is curious, as the onboard Vega GPUs are far outpaced by even entry-level gaming laptops.

To the surprise of no one, Apple's new smartphones sparked loud online discussions and arguments ranging from the absurd prices of the new models to the seemingly minimal upgrades from the original iPhone X. Outside of Apple, Razer is preparing its own smartphone refresh whil GeForce RTX rumors continue to churn.

Readers have been demanding a review of the Core i7 SKU of the latest XPS 15 9570. Expect our full take on the system and how it compares to the Core i5 SKU next week! Meanwhile, our page on the Core i9 SKU should be coming in the month ahead.

Intel will not have enough chips to satisfy demand during the upcoming holiday season. This is part of a recent prediction by a JP Morgan analyst. The analysis may take factors such as the long-awaited switch to 10nm chipsets by the premier processing manufacturer into account.

Frank Azor already revealed that the Dell XPS 15 9570 will not get any updates by the end of the year. However, when asked about a thinner model, he simply said that he can't comment on announced products and his answer makes us believe that such an update is, in fact, going to arrive the next year.

Back in early July, Frank Azor revealed that the Alienware 13 gaming laptop will not get a Coffee Lake refresh. Those still living with the hope that some other update might arrive should move on, because Alienware's co-founder has just pointed out that there are no more updates coming to this machine.

The OEM is looking to secure funding via Kickstarter to launch one of the smallest Windows laptops around. The Falcon promises USB Type-C, a 1080p IPS touchscreen, and a water-resistant keyboard for what we hope will be an affordable price.

Two popular VPNs have been reported as subject to newly-discovered security issues discovered by Cisco Talos. These flaws apply to those using the services on Windows PCs, and could allow a hacker access through a 'Connect' command. Both companies say they have issued updates to prevent this.

NVIDIA brought its GeForce NOW to the AT&T Spark Conference to showcase the service's potential when combined with 5G. The company is confident that its new cloud-based graphics solution can negate the need for expensive hardware in areas such as 60fps gaming. It is now moving to build partnerships to bring this to a wider audience.

Microsoft could be demoing its new "Modern Life Services" next month during a live event in New York City. There is a good chance of new Surface announcements to take advantage of the Holiday shopping season. A full Surface tablet redesign with USB Type-C, however, is unlikely to make an appearance.

Using the 10 nm manufacturing process, Samsung managed to pack 256 GB or RAM on a single stick, proving that DDR can offer a viable alternative to Intel's Optane and 3DXPoint technology. The 256 GB RAM modules are only available for servers at present, while desktop and laptop PCs get 32 GB per module, but it will not be long before these capacities hit the mainstream markets.

According to AMD, third-party analytical tools may not be giving correct information on Raven Ridge SoCs like the Ryzen 5 2500U or Ryzen 7 2700U. It's unknown if popular tools like HWInfo or AIDA64 would ever be updated to fully support Raven Ridge SoCs. For now, AMD μProf is the only reliable method.

Google is celebrating its 10th anniversary of Chrome with the release of a considerable update (Chrome 69) for the browser. It features a substantial UI redesign, as well as a new password generator. This version will be available for mobile and desktop.

The new NVIDIA Turing architecture may be coming to laptops soon. Listings on the GPU maker's website and on GitHub specifies a "GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile" with device ID and model number included. It suggests that this GPU will be available for non-desktop boards soon.

OLED offers an unbeatable experience when it comes to response times, viewing angles, and contrast ratio. After making a very brief appearance on the Alienware 13 R3 and Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga last year, the technology has been lying dormant ever since to make room for narrower bezels and more incremental improvements to IPS panels.

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.