Magazine

CheckMag A graphics card is the soul of every gaming PC. A strong card with efficient cooling is essential for smooth gaming and conquering the virtual world. Below is a list of the top 4 most worth-buying graphics cards for gamers in 2023.

CheckMag Some people compare Windows on ARM with Windows RT, declaring its death. But such proclamations may be a tad early. Arguably, Windows on ARM is more alive now than it has ever been since the 2016 Qualcomm/Microsoft partnership announcement, as it is getting ready for a busy year 2024.

CheckMag As November approaches, we look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday, the most unique sale of the year. Restful holidays wouldn't be complete without moments of relaxation. Below are the top five PlayStation 5 games that offer great family entertainment.

CheckMag If you've upgraded to the new M3 MacBook Pro or a Lenovo X1 Carbon, take a look at some of the options for repurposing your old hardware instead of selling, recycling or sending to landfill. Repurposing old hardware can be a rewarding adventure that forms a core part of your home network.

CheckMag The wide and ultrawide camera lenses seem to be the default setup for any phone that falls below the flagship tier. Who do we have to thank for this and are there any alternatives? If you aren't looking to spend top tier prices you might be out of luck.

CheckMag By recognizing the signs of mobile phone tracking, you can determine whether your iPhone is being monitored. Below are 7 warning signs your iPhone may be tracked, which range from unexpected Apple ID login alerts to unusual data usage patterns that could indicate the presence of tracking software or malicious activity.

CheckMag Of the 10 ARM-powered laptops we tested in 2022 and 2023, just 1 comes with Windows on ARM - all the rest are Apple MacBooks. Apparently, laptop makers do not see much point in using ARM chips; worse still, software developers do not appear to be very interested in creating/maintaining dedicated ARM versions of their products, either.

CheckMag Lumion has been the quintessential rendering software used by university students and professional architects to visualize buildings and interiors etc. We are finally at version 12 and the developers of Lumion have decided to add Ray Tracing support for GPUs.

What was once considered "big" in smartphone terms is now the norm in the industry. But one feature seems to be tied specificially to the size of the screen. If you don't like big phones, don't expect to be on the cutting edge of photography. Long zoom cameras are reserved for those with deep pockets and big hands only.

CheckMag For a quarter of the price of an Apple iPhone 15, Motorola's Moto G54 delivers very good shots, 5G compatibility, a sharp screen with no PWM flickering, good looks, strong performance and stock Android experience. A few quirks such as the lack of stereo speakers are not nearly enough to detract from what is a highly successful budget phone.

CheckMag A lot can change in less than a month. New iMacs, MacBooks, and M-series chips might have been announced, but don't let that distract you from the fact that Cupertino's new non-Lightning Pencil – its first in half a decade – is arguably its dumbest.

CheckMag A good expansion can turn a poorly received videogame into a darling, or elevate a good one to legendary status. Good expansions build upon and shape the base game they originated from – and the best can introduce innovations that influence the whole industry.

CheckMag Foldable or flip phones allow users to fold their phones in half or use them as a tablet. These devices have come a long way, surviving the thick and thin of the technology sector. They quickly gained customer attention, but the cons hinder their significant spot in the market.

CheckMag The launch of Apple's first home-grown CPU design in late 2020 has sparked an arms race with x86 giants such as AMD and Intel. The M2 Ultra has a total of 24 CPU cores in which 16 are performance cores and 8 are efficiency cores. Does the extra 4 efficiency cores that the M2 Ultra has over the M1 Ultra mean that Apple is finally able to entice workstation users?

CheckMag Before Samsung finally settled on making only Android smartphones, it experimented with other operating systems, one of which was Bada OS, a proprietary OS that powered some of Samsung's phones for a brief period.

CheckMag The Schenker Vision 14 is a very good laptop that fully deserves more spotlight. With no PWM, no coil whine and no significant throttling to speak of, the product is in several ways ahead of many Dells and HPs tested by us this year.

CheckMag In our review, we called the Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 8 16IRX8 the best Legion that money can buy, and that's not just because of its US$4,399 price and built-in water cooling. The Legion 9i Gen 8 earns its praise with an astonishingly-bright mini-LED display with DCI-P3 support, and, of course, killer gaming performance.

CheckMag When getting a laptop with a Gig+ Wi-Fi card such as the AX200, consumers know they are getting at least 900 Mbps in either direction. In contrast, download/upload rates smartphone chip makers such as Qualcomm mention in media releases just keep becoming more ridiculous and misleading; the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and its X75 5G modem represent the latest instalment in that sad series.

CheckMag Alan Wake 2 is one of the most anticipated games of 2023. The minimum specifications were so high they had the PC community up in arms. But does it work on a Steam Deck? The short answer: Yes. But there are some fairly significant caveats. Read on to find out more.

CheckMag Since 2006, CUDA has been consistently gaining ground in the workstation and gaming market. In recent times AMD has introduced Pro Render and other features to entice workstation users.

At best, many reviews of the Pixel 8 Pro don’t distinguish between when AI tasks are performed on device by the Tensor G3 and when they are off-loaded to Google Cloud for processing. At worst, some assume that all of the AI models are being processed by the Tensor G3, which is far from ideal for consumers seeking out accurate advice on what phone to buy.

CheckMag Don't have a Steam Deck to hand? Waiting for Apple to release Resident Evil on the iPhone 15 Pro? Here are 3 Android and iOS games that offer PC and console class gaming on your device today. Just make sure you pair it with a decent mobile controller.

CheckMag The Huawei Band 8, the Huawei Watch Fit SE and the Amazfit Band 7 are the lightest fitness trackers and smartwatches that we have tested over the course of the last 10 months. In this short piece, we briefly revisit their features, their strong sides and their shortcomings, of which there are many.

CheckMag Does measuring features differently to the competition make a product better? Is Apple "Thinking Different" or hoping branding will sell more devices? There certainly seems to be some convenient favouritism shown by Apple in regard to the iPhone camera specification.

Notebookcheck has received written confirmation from Google that it deliberately blocked the installation of benchmarks on its Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro devices during the review embargo period. It confirms our earlier report on the issue while raising questions about the company’s practices.

CheckMag Warframe's Abyss of Dagath update just went live, bringing with it a number of big changes that may make the game more friendly to both new and old players alike. Here are four Abyss of Dagath highlights, including immortal companions, a new planet, and a substantial shield rework.

Between the atmospheric horror platforming of Artificial and the expansive, fantastical exploration of Europa, the Steam Next Fest previewed some of the most visually-pleasing indie adventure games coming to Valve's platform.

CheckMag So, another game comes out. It’s packed with battle passes, a cosmetic store, and an intolerable grind carefully designed to inflate playtime until you give up and spend money on it. It’s not made to be fun, it’s made to drive engagement. You know the story by now...

CheckMag The Gazelle Esprit C7 HMS's low standover height, combined with quality Shimano components, makes for enjoyable rides and trouble-free day-to-day use. The 418 Wh battery allowed us to ride 70 km (43 miles) in the Alpine foothills before giving up. The product is available in green and in black colorways.

CheckMag Music lockers have always been curious creatures. Amazon, Google and Apple promised they would bring legacy music collections forward into the cloud age – but all three pivoted to streaming services as they saw the way the wind was blowing, leaving only a few of these rare beasts still surviving today.

Samsung leads the premium Android tablet market with its Galaxy Tab Ultra, and its ultraslim design and fast, bright Dynamic AMOLED 2X display are just some highlights of the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra's features that impressed us in our review.

CheckMag The titanium credit card Apple launched in 2019 was set to conquer the world, according to easy-to-excite types. The hype was so abundant that Samsung followed suit shortly out of fear of missing out. It's Q4 2023 and Apple Card's future looks bleak, as if the company has somehow forgotten about this little project.

Valve won't be releasing a Steam Deck 2 with more performance until at least 2025. Given the broadly parallel smartphone market's reputation for disappointing incremental updates, this is the right choice. Valve should, however, throw gamers a bone with a Steam Deck 1.5.

PC gaming has come a long way, but the retro look and nostalgia factor are picking up steam. As such, here are some excellent, affordable retro gaming accessories such as the Retroid Pocket Flip and 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard that will help you enjoy the look of the past with a blast.

Since the iPhone 15 Pro rolled out to customers last week, reports quickly started to emerge that were overheating. Renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has pointed the finger at the iPhone’s internal design, but not all iPhone 15 Pro users are reporting the problem. What gives?

The Steam Deck may still be the de-facto gaming handheld in 2023, but that doesn't mean there aren't alternatives. Companies like Asus, GPD, and OneXPlayer have all released excellent alternatives to the Deck that deserve consideration — especially by those looking for more performance.

Recent Nintendo Switch 2 leaks have led to much speculation about specifications. The apparent suggestion is that Nintendo's next-generation hybrid handheld console would match the PS4 in performance, but lofty performance doesn't quite align with Nintendo's typical strategy, especially given the trade-offs in the name of performance.

CheckMag 2017 was a heady year for Nvidia. The Pascal architecture remains fondly regarded even today, with the GTX 1080 Ti seen as one of the company's high-water marks - but it also ruled the bottom end of the market, with the MX150 the only game in town for low-power graphics in thin-and-light laptops. Six years later, the MX brand is seemingly abandoned to rot - what happened?

CheckMag Whale by Naver is like a breath of fresh air in the crowded Web browser market. The browser hails from Korea; it looks great, it has additional features that are actually useful, like screen recording in GIF format, and it is compatible with extensions found in the Chrome web store.

CheckMag We have chosen a selection of 3 gaming laptops from our detailed Notebookcheck reviews: The ROG Strix Scar 17 G733PY, the Legion Pro 7 16 and the Erazer Beast X40 all sport 175 W RTX 4090 graphics and spacious, color-accurate, flicker-free displays for content creation and unrestrained gaming.

CheckMag Image upscaling techniques in games have been a huge step forward, enhancing graphics quality while optimising performance. While the promise of better-than-native-resolution image quality is only a reality in a few select cases - usually because of poor temporal antialiasing (TAA) in the base game - the ability to turn lower resolutions into higher ones with minimal loss of visual fidelity is to be lauded, whether it be Nvidia's DLSS, Intel's XeSS, or AMD's FSR 2.

When it comes to tablets, Apple's iPad is the gold standard, but many Android makers have spent years playing catch up. A number of top Android manufacturers that have spent years chasing the iPad have finally stumbled across winning devices, with some that are even significantly cheaper than the US$449 iPad.

Python, Java, JavaScript, and C family members are the world's most widely used programming languages as of September 2023, according to the IEEE and PYPL. The Rust language that is increasingly used by Microsoft is found closer to the bottom; PHP is not doing very well, either.

There are plenty of supposed Steam Deck killers available in the portable gaming space, from the Asus ROG Ally to the Lenovo Legion Go and all the Ayaneo and ONEXPLAYER devices in between. But none of them have managed to outright slay the dragon that is the mighty Steam Deck yet.

Of the 3 Dell XPS laptops we tested in 2023, none was truly great. The XPS 13 9320, the XPS 15 9530 and the XPS 17 9730 all sport a similar range of issues including subpar performance-per-dollar ratios, DPC latency issues and blurry 1 MP webcams. Those forgiving enough to overlook the drawbacks are still getting some of the best-looking Windows laptops money can buy though.

Whether you're in it for the brain-tickling strategy, or you're simply looking for an adventurous game to take a break from all the MMORPG and FPS games, the Steam Strategy Fest has something for you to explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. This includes three of the best 4X games around.

On the 12th of September, we are getting a new generation of the iPhone, as well as the Watch. In the meantime, several iconic products such as the "trash can" Mac Pro will again be left waiting for Apple to revive them in one form or another. This is a short list of what will most certainly not be revived this September.

It's not just ChatGPT and Midjourney; there are lots of AI-enabled sites out there, waiting for the user to come and generate exciting things. Some are not only free to use, they also do not require one to sign up. Wallpapers by AI, Soundraw, Fusion Brain and Pic Finder deserve a bit of spotlight for that reason alone.

From screen upgrades to retro docks, there are some truly fascinating Steam Deck accessories kicking about, whether already released or on the horizon. Here are four tantalising options to kick Valve's handheld gaming experience into high gear.

FunTech FunTech is Notebookcheck’s new regular magazine feature where we will post great cartoons featuring tech, the best tech memes, and any other tech-related zaniness that has made us smile. It’s good to remember that in such a serious and competitive arena there is still time to have some fun and laugh at situations some or many of us will find all too familiar.