Laptop

The new driver package for GeForce GPUs arrived yesterday and, in addition to various optimizations for titles such as Atomic Heart or The Finals, it packs RTX Video Super Resolution support. This technology upscales videos and removes artifacts in Chrome or Edge across multiple streaming platforms.

At MWC, we were able to get a hands on with the newest 2023 gen ThinkPad laptops. Highlights are the new ThinkPad Z series and the ThinkPad X13 G3, but we also received some interesting information about the new ThinkPad T series.

Previously listed with a US$944.99 price tag, the HP Pavilion 15 laptop with Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor, 16/512 GB of memory/storage, FHD IPS micro-edge display, and Windows 11 Pro preloaded is now down to US$699 on Amazon. This quite tempting price is the result of a generous 26% discount.

Best Buy now has the MSI Delta 15 AMD Advantage Edition for 36% off the US$1,399.99 list price. With a combined 4.3 stars out of 5 from 324 reviews, the MSI Delta 15 on sale comes well-rated. In addition to commendable gaming prowess, the notebook can also serve as a worthy day-to-day laptop thanks to its light weight, thinner profile, and good battery life.

Introduced as one of the first laptops to use the Intel Tiger Lake architecture, the Intel Core i7-1165G7-powered Asus ZenBook 14, model UX425EA-EH71, comes with 8 GB of memory, a 512 GB PCIe SSD, and Windows 10 Home. This MIL-STD-810G-certified 14-inch lightweight laptop is now down to US$716.97 thanks to a 26% discount.

From a list price of US$329.99, the 2 TB version of the Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 7000s PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD is now down to US$169.99. This SSD features AES-256 encryption support, is compatible with the Sony PlayStation 5 console, and delivers sequential read/write speeds of up to 7000/5500 MB/s.

OLED doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg these days. Users can supplement their current desktop, laptop, Mac, or gaming console with this plug-and-play portable monitor. It also happens to be one of the most affordable OLED options out there.

Tecno has arrived at MWC 2023 with big plans to become more of an AIoT ecosystem OEM in the future. They are slated to include new security cameras, wearables and a router, all of which might revolve around products such as the latest Spark-series smartphone and Megabook-series laptop. It is confirmed to upgrade to a Raptor Lake platform on release.

With a list price of almost US$1,900, the Dell XPS 15 9520 laptop with Intel Core i7-12700H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics, and 16/512 GB of memory/storage is now down to US$$1,499. While Dell US provides this generous 21% discount, Amazon has no discount for this setup, which is listed for US$1,743.99.

The Dell XPS 17 9730 has been announced with a 17-inch 4K 16:10 screen, an Nvidia Geforce RTX 4070, Intel Core i9-13900H, 32 GB of 4,800 MT/s RAM, and a 1 TB NVMe SSD, with prices starting at US$3,749/CA$5,049. Other configurations with lower-end hardware will be available later this year.

Dell has refreshed its XPS 15 offering this year with the new XPS 15 9530. The XPS 15 9530 continues to feature the same chassis that was first offered by the XPS 15 9500. The upgrades this year are mainly with respect to the Intel 13th gen processor options up to the Core i9-13900H and new Nvidia RTX 40 GPUs up to a 40 W RTX 4070. An Arc A370M option is available as well.

Steam is now also available on Chromebooks. But the software is still in its beta stage. We installed Steam on an Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 to test out how well the program runs right now and found that some well-known games in our Steam library are playable on this Chromebook.

The Ryzen 7040 Phoenix-HS APUs combine a Zen 4 CPU with an RDNA 3 Radeon 780M/760M iGPU. The Radeon 780M on the Ryzen 9 7940HS and the Ryzen 7 7840HS features 12 Compute Units (CU) while the Radeon 760M on the Ryzen 5 7640HS boasts 8 CUs. Now, AMD has quietly reduced the GPU clock speeds as well as cut PCIe Gen 5 support from the upcoming Ryzen 7040-HS APUs.

For the first time, we have subjected the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 in MSI's Katana 17 B13V to extensive analysis. The new graphics chip proved itself to be clearly faster than the RTX 3060, however, it also lags significantly behind the top-of-the-range RTX 4090.

At MWC, Lenovo is introducing the second generation of its ThinkPad Z series. ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2 and Z16 Gen 2 both look a lot like their predecessors, but they receive a new haptic trackpad made by Sensel. This marks the first time that Sensel provides their complete technology stack for a laptop trackpad.

Lenovo asserts that it offers a range of generationally improved Chromebook functions with this new IdeaPad Slim 3 variant. It boasts a potentially color-accurate FHD display, front-firing speakers and up to 13.5 hours of battery life. The new PC supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, and starts under the equivalent of US$380.

Lenovo asserts that its new IdeaPad Duet 3i is an ideal student 2-in-1 PC, with its light chassis that packs a generationally-upgraded display and a battery rated for up to 8.5 hours of battery life with fast USB type-C charging. It boasts the latest Intel platforms for its form-factor, with support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1.

Lenovo's fourth-gen range of larger ThinkPad L-series laptops have made their MWC debut with up-to-date processors in both Intel and AMD flavors. Either option comes in relatively lightweight, cost-effective packages - although the new L14 and L15 have made some potential compromises to attain their attractive starting prices.

Lenovo has announced the ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2 and ThinkPad Z16 Gen 2 at MWC 2023. Both laptops feature 16:10 IPS/OLED screens, AMD Ryzen 7000 processors, two USB 4.0 ports and LPDDR5x memory. The Z16 Gen 2 goes on sale in August, and the Z13 Gen 2 in July.

Lenovo has announced its newest ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One (TIO) Gen 5 monitor at MWC 2023. It is available in two configurations (21.5-in/23-in) with an FHD (1,920 x 1,080) LCD panel, one DP 1.4 port, one HDMI 1.4 port, and an integrated webcam. It goes on sale in August 2023, starting at €299 (US$316).

At MWC, Lenovo is announcing most models of the new ThinkPad lineup. One of the main highlights are the classic models of the ThinkPad T series. T14s Gen 4, T14 Gen 4 and T16 Gen 2 are updates of last years models, but they still bring a few new features.

Lenovo's concept devices with working expandable displays have come to take part in the ongoing MWC event. One could form the basis of a next-gen ThinkBook or IdeaPad one day, whereas the other might ship as a mobile device from the OEM's brand Motorola. Our time with both devices gave us a good look at their cutting-edge screens in action.

The ThinkPads of the X series are the smallest, most mobile ThinkPad laptops for the enterprise market. In 2023, Lenovo is completely redesigning the X13 and its convertible counterpart ThinkPad X13 Yoga.

Colorful's latest gaming laptop has debuted with 13th-gen Intel Core processors and up to RTX 4070 graphics. The EVOL X16 PRO also boasts 240Hz display options, as well as a "multi-zone cooling system" that can be adjusted in a number of ways, simple keyboard shortcuts included. The new 16-inch PC also offers the option of user-upgradable storage and a Thunderbolt 4 port.

Armed with just an iGPU, the VivoBook is a multimedia laptop aiming to compete in the entry-level segment and pulls this off in a surprising manner. What's more, not having a dGPU also has some interesting side benefits.

With a list price of US$899.99, the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED ultra-slim laptop is now down to US$647.03 on Amazon thanks to a generous discount. The model UM325UA-DH71 comes in Pine Grey finish, loaded with Windows 11 Home and driven by the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U processor alongside 8 GB RAM and a 512 GB SSD.

The powerful 14-inch gaming laptop originally carried a price tag of way above US$2,500, but thanks to a new clearance sale, the RTX 3080-powered model variant of the Razer Blade 14 has now dropped below the US$2,000 threshold.

With a list price of almost US$3,000, the Asus ZenBook Pro 16X OLED currently discounted by 25% on Amazon is now down to US$2,254, which is also the lowest price in 30 days. This model sports a 16-inch 4K OLED touchscreen display, Core i9-12900H & GeForce RTX 3060, 32 GB of memory, and 2 TB of storage space.

The Gram 15 (2022) can now be ordered for under US$1,400 with an Intel Core i7-1260P processor, 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. LG also equips the Gram 15 (2022) with an 80 Wh battery and a dedicated number pad, among other features.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio launched with a novel display hinge. While the utility was a gimmick for some, the notebook was an excellent product overall. Per the latest leaked hardware specifications, the successor to the original Surface Laptop Studio will come with the newest Intel CPUs and GeForce GPUs.

In contrast to some cheaper models in the American manufacturer's product portfolio, the Dell G16 7620 comes with a crispy 165Hz QHD+ display that should allow for a much better gaming experience. Thanks to a current deal, this exact gaming laptop has now breached the US$1,000 mark.

Razer has launched the Blade 15 (2023), an updated version of its popular laptop line and a less powerful alternative to the Blade 16. Starting at US$2,499.99, the Blade 15 (2023) features a 1440p and 240 Hz display, as well as an Intel Raptor Lake-H series processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs.

The AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX scores 2,127 and 19,403 points on Geekbench's single and multi-core tests, putting it within spitting distance of the Raptor Lake-HX flagship, the Core i9-13980HX.

The Acer Swift X (SFX14-42G-R607) with a Ryzen 7 5825U and an RTX 3050 Ti is now discounted by a significant 32%. With an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 on Amazon, the notebook ticks all the boxes as it is powerful, well built, boasts a beautiful display, and has very good endurance.

Just as it refreshed the Redmi G (2021) about a year ago, Xiaomi has now also updated the RedmiBook Pro 15 2022 in China almost a year after it debuted, with a slightly more powerful Alder Lake CPU, and an accompanying price reduction.

Thanks to two stackable coupon codes, the usually pretty expensive 17-inch gaming laptop made by the the Dell-owned company can now be bought for US$1,146, which arguably is a reasonable price for this particular all-AMD Alienware m17 R5 configuration.

MSI has confirmed pricing for many new gaming laptops in Germany and the Eurozone. Beginning with the Thin GF63 12V at €1,199 and topping out at the Titan GT77 HX 13V with its €5,499 starting price, the company's new gaming laptops combine Intel Raptor Lake processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs.

AMD Ryzen 7045HX “Dragon Range” chips are set to make their debut in enthusiast gaming laptops this month. Per AMD’s marketing materials, the Ryzen 9 7945HX, the Ryzen 7 7745HX, and the Ryzen 5 7645HX will beat their Intel Alder Lake competitors in both single-core and multi-core workloads.

Besides the updated processors and dGPUs, XMG also includes redesigned cooling solutions with more heat pipes and quieter fans, support for up to DDR5-5600 RAM modules and 240 Hz screens. The PRO lineup features slimmer chassis and more ports, while the FOCUS models remain more budget-oriented, yet offer similar performance to the PRO variants.

Chuwi has presented the GemiBook xPro, a 14.1-inch laptop powered by an Intel Alder Lake-N processor. Available soon, the GemiBook xPro also has 8 GB of RAM, WiFi 6 connectivity and an IPS display, all for about US$300.