Reviews

Bigger, faster, better value? The Zotac ZBOX Magnus EK71080 is one of the most powerful small form factor desktops on the market. While relatively small compared to traditional desktops, it is twice as large as other Zotac ZBOX devices. Zotac puts this extra space to good use by packing in a full desktop Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card.

The sum of its parts. Asus' good-looking VivoBook S14 comes with ample processing power thanks to the 8th-generation CPU and a dedicated - albeit low-end - graphics card, but the chassis quality is less praiseworthy.

AMD-Update. We have already had Lenovo's IdeaPad 720s in review, and found it to be a lightweight and thin notebook for everyday challenges. The 13-inch notebook is now also available with AMD's Ryzen 5 2500U processor and as a viable alternative to the Intel SKU.

Periodic throttling. The Notebook 9 NP900X5T would have been a powerhouse of an Ultrabook if it weren't for its intolerable throttling when gaming.

Getting started for the daily routine The HP 14-bp001ng is an affordable 14-inch laptop that is equipped with an Intel Pentium N3710, 4 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB hard drive. Find out what you can expect from HP's entry-level device and its hardware in our review.

With the power of six cores. After years of quad-core processors being the standard in powerful notebooks and desktop computers, 2018 is the starting point for Hex- and Octa-Core chipsets on a large scale, thanks to Intel’s Coffee-Lake and AMD’s Ryzen architecture. The Schenker XMG Ultra 17 has to prove itself, being one of the first notebooks with a six-core processor.

Big, clunky, and enduring. Oukitel not only claims extremely long battery life for the K10 but also plenty of performance and amazing cameras. At 11,000 mAh, the battery's capacity is bigger than on some notebooks, but can the 6-inch smartphone deliver? Let us find out.

Mini Carbon. With a fresh design and a clearly thinner case, Lenovo is trying to make its traditional 12-inch ThinkPad X Series more attractive. In this review we will be explaining why this approach works well, and what features we miss despite the other improvements.

Power on a budget. The 17-inch counterpart to the VivoBook Pro we reviewed last year is now in our labs. Now equipped with an 8th-gen Intel CPU, IPS display, and NVMe SSD, can it resolve the quibbles which plagued the previous unit? Our full review awaits.

How exactly is the Huawei P Smart smart? Why did we not think of that? Choosing 'smart' as a name for a smartphone is just as in-your-face as naming a soccer team 'the team'. And it inadvertently raises the question: what exactly does 'smart' really mean?

Unpretentious workhorse! Having recently reviewed the 2018 ThinkPad equipped with a Radeon RX 550 GPU, we now have the entry-level SKU in our lab. We are particularly interested in temperatures, which were the E480's most pronounced and prominent weak spot.

In this review will be testing Anker's two cheap wireless chargers, and whether they work with the iPhone X.

Hotter, Louder, Faster, Stronger. The Asus ROG Strix GL703VM is a more powerful version of the GL703VD, which we reviewed back in October. In addition to a faster GPU, the GL703VM brings a 120 Hz display, but fan noise and temperatures leave room for improvement.

Trending. The HTC U11 Plus emerges about a year after the U11 and offers very similar specs. It comes with more storage space, and the new Super LCD display now has a trendy 2:1 aspect ratio. Moreover, the battery also gets a significant bump. You can learn here how well the new smartphone does in our review.

8 follows 5. The Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) succeeds the Galaxy A5 (2017) as the latest device in the popular Galaxy A Series. The €499 (~$615) price tag could prove to be unpopular though. We will find out in our tests whether Samsung can justify this ambitious price.

Frequency fanatic. If until recently, 120 Hz displays represented the ultimate in gaming laptops, now Asus goes a step further and presents one of the first 144 Hz notebooks with the ROG Chimera G703. You can find out in our test what the 17-incher additionally has to offer.

A business laptop? There are many 14-inch notebooks in the office segment, and HP has now presented its redesigned ProBook 440 G5 as an entry-level device. Its quad-core CPU, IPS display and large glass touchpad sound promising. Find out why all this is not quite good enough in our detailed review.

Low price and good design. But what about performance? Everyone is supposed to be able to afford the Trekstor Primebook C13, which should come with a strong hardware configuration. We have reviewed the 13-inch convertible and reveal what you can expect from this bargain-bin device.

Affordable combined with design. Ulefone is one of the Chinese manufacturers who offer affordable smartphones in all quality segments of the market. The Power 3 is the latest creation by this manufacturer, and we have tested what the device has to offer beyond its large battery.

Bigger is better. Shortly after reviewing the ThinkPad E480 its bigger brother, the E580, found its way to our lab. Does the affordable 15.6-inch business notebook suffer from the same heat issues as the E480? Let us find out, shall we?

Portable workhorse. The ProBook 450 G5 was one of the first business notebooks offering the newest generation of Intel Core processors. In this review, we will cover, whether this cheap office notebook is worth your time.

CES novelty in review. Presented by Sony at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the Sony Xperia L2 is currently the Japanese manufacturer's cheapest smartphone. The €249 (~$307; RRP) device, which has a fingerprint scanner and runs Android 7.1.1, is now available in Germany. Find out how the Xperia L2 fares in our tests.

14-inch Camouflage. Update 2/22/2018: finalized our additional tests. Asus is pretty ambitious with its latest subnotebook, to say the least. At 14 inches it is large enough for serious work but at the same time highly portable with just 13 mm of thickness and a weight of no more than 1.1 kg. Thanks to NanoEdge, Asus has been able to fit a large screen into a 13-inch case. Big, ugly ports are also a thing of the past: the future belongs to 2x Thunderbolt 3, which is incidentally also used for charging.

Well made. Lenovo’s 14-incher comes equipped with a Core i5 processor, a fast SSD, a matte IPS-based screen and a dedicated GeForce 920MX graphics card in the rare configuration with GDDR5 video memory.

A multimedia device with flaws. The Inspiron 17 is based on Intel's most recent generation of processors. However, customers should pay attention to the configuration because the versatility of a multimedia device is very limited without a dedicated graphics card.

Its design, its name, its feel. The Spectre attracts attention wherever it goes - that part already worked last year. The new model features an Intel Core upgrade to the i7-8550U and its design has received a final polish. Will the Spectre impress us as much as it did last year?

4K overkill. We check out the popular 15.6-inch mainstream gaming notebook from Dell for a third time in yet another configuration. As impressive as the GTX 1060 Max-Q may be, it just isn't the best GPU for 4K gaming.

Now in a 15-inch form factor - Live Review. After a few months' delay, the larger version of the Microsoft Surface Book 2 is finally available in Germany. We have got our review device precisely at the sales launch and now we put it to the test. We are especially excited to examine the energy management of the more powerful components, because we already saw bottlenecks in this area in the smaller model. Update: display readings, Witcher 3, temperatures, video playback battery life

Dark Display. Asus's VivoBook Flip 15 is equipped with a powerful quad-core CPU, a fast solid-state drive, a backlit keyboard, and features a touchscreen with support for Asus's optional stylus pen. Yet despite its price tag of around $900, it is not free of faults.

Powerful long runner. The ZenBook 13 does not lack in power. ASUS has equipped the slim Ultrabook with a quad-core processor and a dedicated graphics card. Coupled with that is a quick SSD, long battery life and a good display. Nevertheless, the seemingly successful ZenBook draws some criticism.

My kingdom for a role-playing game. Kingdom Come: Deliverance was originally financed through Kickstarter and is an extremely ambitious Open World RPG. Will the medieval graphics look good, or suffer from performance problems? Find out in this benchmark article.

The best of both worlds. While most people have to choose between a gaming notebook that supports either G-Sync (smooth image) or Optimus (longer battery life), the XMG Pro 17 supports both Nvidia technologies at the same time. You can find out in our review what else the 17-incher has to offer.

Great components. Lenovo's Surface Pro competitor can score with a strong quad-core processor, 16 GB of RAM, an NVMe SSD, a backlit keyboard, input pen and LTE modem. But despite its high price, the device is not free from issues.

Cheap, bezel-less, good? The Maze Alpha X succeeds the recently introduced Maze Alpha and sells for 50 Euros (~$62) more on the virtual shop counter. On the outside, the screen has grown by 240 pixels vertically and the pixel-free portion on the front was decreased accordingly. We will evaluate the device's strengths and weaknesses in this review.

Sexy Beast. A lot of performance in a stylish and compact case: Schenker Technologies aims to achieve all that with the brand new Key 15. Find out in our test, how the 15-incher fares against its main competitor from Gigabyte, the Aero 15.

X marks the spot. HP has unleashed a beast in the form of the HP Omen X 17. With a high-refresh rate panel, an overclockable Core i7 CPU, and the most powerful mobile GPU currently on the market, does the Omen X 17 have the "X factor" it needs to stand apart from the crowd, or is it just white noise in a highly competitive performance tier?

The familiar problems remain. The 15.6-inch device from Lenovo has been given a good performance upgrade. The new quad-core processor is fast and works well together with the dedicated graphics card. But the biggest headache remains - the ThinkPad's low-quality screen. The battery runtimes are also rather disappointing.

Packing a punch. With its quad-core CPU and high-end GeForce GTX 1080 GPU, the ROG Strix GL702VI handles even the latest generation of graphically-intensive games with relative ease. The dual fans have no problem keeping the heat in check, but overall system performance lags slightly behind the competition.

Old on the outside, new on the inside. Dell has updated the Inspiron 13 5379 with an Intel 8th generation Kaby Lake processor. This is the only noteworthy change though. Aesthetically, everything remains the same, including the I/O. In this review we will be clarifying what performance you should expect from the Dell Inspiron 13 5379.

Lightweight. The VivoBook E12 can score with its noiselessness and long battery runtime. At a weight of around one kilogram, it is one of the lightest of its kind.

Shortly after the introduction of Ryzen-based mobile APUs AMD has also announced two desktop APUs for its AM4 platform. The more powerful Ryzen 5 2400G features 4 cores and 11 graphics compute units based on the Vega GPU architecture. We take a closer look at the application and gaming performance as well as energy efficiency.

Big laptop, small price. The VivoBook 17 X705UA from Asus can be had for 500 Euros ($620). For this price, the manufacturer promises a lot of internal storage space, heaps of performance and a great design. In our review, we take the lowest-priced version to the task to see how well these promises hold up under scrutiny.

Powerful brick. Back in August, we had the BV8000 Pro in review. Today, we are proud to present its successor, the BV9000, and you better watch out: That thing is a massive brick and most likely tougher than a human being. It also marks a point in time where Blackview is the only OEM with two current outdoor smartphones listed in our database. The newcomer shares several features with its own predecessor. In some aspects Blackview has managed to improve upon the phone, in others the company has made it worse. Let’s take a closer look and find out what exactly this means in our extensive review of the BV9000.

Wasted potential. With the GS370 Plus, the German communications company Gigaset offers an attractively priced mid-range smartphone with an 18:9 aspect ratio. Weaknesses with the screen, among other things, damage our overall impression of the 5.7-inch device though.

The Chinese original. Xiaomi notebooks are still considered a rarity in Europe and have to be imported from Asia. Not having the opportunity of looking at the device beforehand at your trusted local store, plus the additional effort of making warranty claims etc., makes it all the more important to read reviews of imported products before making your final decision. Notebookcheck has therefore decided that after reviewing the Intel Core i5-8250U version, we will now also take a look at the model with the stronger Intel Core i7-8550U. In this review, we have focused mainly on the device's performance and its differences to the other model that we have already tested.

Thinner, lighter, better? HP seeks to pack even more power into an even smaller shell with their latest Spectre x360 convertible. But with a quad-core Core i7 CPU, NVMe SSD, and 16 GB of RAM, can the machine take the heat?

Desktop in disguise. Our latest Eurocom system returns the highest PCMark 10 score in our database at 6620 points. Its removable GTX 1080 GPU and LGA 1151 Coffee Lake CPU give the system longer legs than most gaming notebooks.

The new XPS 13. It has been a few years since Dell last showered its successful XPS 13 line with a major update. While the hardware has already been used in the older model, the new thinner case is supposed to make everything better. One improvement we have already been able to spot: CABC can be fully disabled at last. Update: The review is now complete.

A compact entry-level powerhouse. For those who seek a 13-inch gaming notebook, there is practically no alternative other than the Alienware 13 R3. Nevertheless, our review device will still compete with other gaming laptops. At the same time, we compare the performance of different hardware variants in our review update for the 3rd generation of the Alienware 13.

Ultra-mobile office performance. Lenovo calls the new IdeaPad 720s an "extremely high-performance and stylish power package." Even though we would not quite call it that, the performance is still impressive for a notebook that is only 13 mm (~0.51 in) thin. We found out in our test report what exactly you can expect from the 720s in its various configurations.

Heavyweight. Final Fantasy XV is due for release on PC next month, after console owners have been enjoying the open-world roleplaying game since the end of 2016. In the meantime, Square Enix have released a benchmarking tool as a way to shorten the wait for fans of the series. Update: Benchmarks of the final version

Touches into the edges. The Nubia Z17 Mini is a 5.2-inch mid-range smartphone that tries to impress with a special mode of controlling the device from the edges of the screen. A dual-camera on the rear and ample storage options are other good reasons. Therefore, can you overlook this outdated Android?

Very power-hungry. The Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC can run all the latest games smoothly on its matte screen. The laptop comes equipped with a Ryzen 5 1600 hexa-core processor, a Radeon RX 580 GPU and a hybrid drive. This entry-level model forgoes an SSD.

Tame lightweight. A 15-inch device which is still as thin as 17 mm and weighs only 1630 grams? A brilliant screen with minimal bezels? A battery runtime lasting a whole day? We will check into those big promises the manufacturer has made, thoroughly testing the allegedly slimmest ZenBook with gaming graphics.

To InfinityEdge and beyond. Dell dauntlessly doubles down on its InfinityEdge design and the race for an even thinner Ultrabook. The end result is a noticeably smaller and more visually attractive offering that doesn’t do much else significantly better or worse than the last generation XPS 13.

Spoiled brat. WWith the new and relatively affordable TravelMate, ACER introduces a typical 15-inch office notebook, which can be purchased for less than 400 € (~$496) with weaker equipment and Linux. If you consider the price, there is hardly anything to complain about - if only the manufacturer had not skimped on the quality control of our test unit!

Battle Royale. Epic Games' Fortnite is a new survival shooter and wants to join the success of PUBG. We check the hardware requirements of the colorful multiplayer title. Is a low-end PC sufficient or do you need a high-end GPU similar to PUBG?

Price-to-performance deficit. The Asus VivoBook S14 S406UA delights with a slim, light case, a thin display lid, a backlit keyboard and great battery life. The screen and the case, however, disapoint.

A 72 Wh power bank should fulfill all your smartphone needs, but can a PowerCore power bank be used to charge laptops as well? Let's find out.

Maxed out. Samsung launches the SSD-860 series for the SATA-3 interface in order to support upgrading users without a fast M.2 connection. What is the difference between the 860 Evo and 860 Pro? How fast are the new models and who should buy one? All this is clarified in our test of the 1 TB storage version.

This little one hears everything. Today, we have taken a look at Google's small smart speaker. After having had some difficulties with touch inputs, everything should be working again now. We took a closer look at the smart little helper and wondered: What about privacy and data protection?

Alexa, where are you? The Moto X4 is released with a dual camera, IP68 protection, and a stylish design, trying to conquer the midrange market. However, the promised support for Amazon Alexa is not currently available on our test device. Is the Moto X4 still worth buying? Our review will show.

Not quite grown up yet. The new VivoBook from Asus sounds promising: A new quad-core processor and a dedicated graphics unit are wrapped in a premium-looking case. The sales price also seems very fair. While it looks similar to the high-quality ZenBook visually, taking a closer look, this is only the surface.

Fully specced. The Dell Precision wants to be the best mobile workstation with a mobile Xeon processor, plenty of RAM, Nvidia's new P5000 GPU, and a high-resolution PremierColor display.

A straightforward concept. The requirements for a convertible that functions as your daily companion are high. Apart from a fully functioning Windows operating system, performance and battery runtimes need to be good too. A bright display and solid build should also be included - and all this, ideally for a good price. Asus has a solution to offer: The Transformer Book.

Happy Medium! The Slim 15 L17 is a solid business notebook made by Schenker. On the plus side it is equipped with Intel's latest generation processors, on the downside the case is far from perfect.

Half the weight of the XPS 15. How light can a 15-inch notebook get? The LG Gram 15 dares to be the lightest in the world at just over 1 kg, but the system is not without some missing bells and whistles commonly found on most other Ultrabooks.

Gold chain substitute. The Acer Iconia Tab 10 stands out with above-average performance at an ambitious price. But can it meet these expectations? A few minutes of close contact with the device quickly leave a lasting impression.

Bulletproof? The Motorola Moto Z2 Force high-end smartphone is the latest member of the Moto Z family and is, as expected, compatible with Moto Mods upgrades. In addition, it is equipped with ShatterShield: a display technology that is supposed to make the display completely shatter-proof.

Slow start. With the 255 G6, HP offers a very affordable entry-level notebook. Using an AMD processor and a replaceable battery, our test device could be given a buying recommendation. However the moderate system performance and cheap production leave much to be desired.

Ensured updates. If it were not for the touch-sensitive sides and Android One which ensures operating system updates for two years, the HTC U11 Life would be a mid-range device like many others. Does this make it a very special smartphone?

Beauty and a beast. The EliteBook 1040 G4 now offers Intel's Core i7-7820HQ. The quad-core processor is quite a step up from most ultrabook CPUs, but how does it compare to more powerful devices and Intel's own 8th-gen Kaby Lake R silicon?

A niche of its own. Panasonic is the manufacturer of the robust Toughbooks made for the military and use on building sites. The CF-XZ6 is supposed to attract regular business customers who would usually choose a Surface, Latitude, ThinkPad or EliteBook. Find out why the Toughbook has not quite managed to get out of its niche in our detailed review.

6-inch 18:9 Android for $199. Honor has taken a page out of the current crop of flagship smartphones to deliver one of the most compelling Android smartphones yet for under $200 USD. Update: GPS and camera tests added

Portable all-rounder. Ultrabooks like the Dell XPS 13 are selling like hotcakes and every OEM wants a piece of the pie. Asus' candidate of choice is the ZenBook UX331UN, a high-quality subnotebook with a dedicated GPU. Read our extensive review to find out why it deserves a recommendation.

The boys are back in town. The mobile version of the Ryzen is here. Is this the first time that AMD is eye to eye with Intel? Overall, the answer is a definite yes, although Acer should not have cut corners with the SSD.

With the handbrake on! After testing the Inspiron 15 with Nvidia's Max-Q technology, we have now also taken a look at the entry-level model of the series. But the storage device leaves a bit of a bad taste in our mouth.

One of the last ones of its kind. With their XXL-sized smartphone Mate 10, the Chinese manufacturer Huawei bucks the current trend towards displays with a 2:1-aspect ratio. How does the high-end phablet fare and is an import worth it?

Long-lasting laborer. HP's ProBook 470 G5 is equipped with a powerful quad-core CPU, a fast NVMe SSD, and a bright IPS display with great viewing angles. It also features a great backlit keyboard and incredible battery life but lacks an optical drive.

Versatile with limited stamina. Lenovo's new compact device gets a nice aluminum case and versatile 360-degree hinges, but also works well as a conventional office subnotebook. Important advantages such as the screen and the input devices are countered by a small number of drawbacks, and most interested buyers should be fine with them – except one.

Variable mobility. Schenker promises to deliver a thin and light notebook with the highest possible mobility to the buyers of the Slim 14. In particular business users, but also students are targeted by this concept. We tested whether the Schenker Slim 14 also keeps in practice what it promises on paper.

A BlackBerry without a physical keyboard! Nothing like this has ever happened before. The BlackBerry Motion shows that it can be done, without a physical keyboard. The latest Smartphone from the brand is based on Google’s Android OS instead of the conventional BlackBerry OS. The preferred audience, however, continues to be business people.

LandingZone recently launched its new USB 3.1 Type-C Docking Station for the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and we have it on hand to review. The dock boasts 16 ports, which makes it quite unique in the docking station market. It is not, however, TB3-based.

Smart industry phone. The rugged smartphones from Caterpillar, a manufacturer of construction equipment, are entering the next round. On the outside everything stays as it is, but on the inside some improvements have been made. In our test we found out what exactly is new about the extreme outdoor smartphone Cat S31.

Disappointing display. The Pavilion 15 offers a ULV quad-core processor, a dedicated GeForce graphics core, and a solid-state disk. The greatest weakness of this device is the disappointing display.

Chic. With the Yoga 720-13IKB, Lenovo delivers a chic 13.3-inch convertible that shines with a great keyboard, a fast NVMe SSD and good battery life. The touchscreen can be used both with the fingers and the included stylus. The quad-core processor can utilize its Turbo boost only for a very short while.

No reference. The Pixel 2 XL is visually a high-end smartphone from 2017 and has a POLED display in the 2:1 format. Visually, the relation to the LG V30 cannot be denied, but it has taken a different path in terms of the camera. Furthermore, there is ample battery power.

Small, but powerful! The smallish Pixel 2 smartphone features a 5-inch 16:9 display. In addition to being slightly cheaper, this is the only difference when compared with its bigger brother. The camera has managed to impress us but battery life is a little on the short side.

A technological Swiss Army knife for the living room. Razer's Core V2 makes anything possible, transforming a slim, unprepossessing ultrabook into a serious gaming PC in seconds. With its dedicated bandwidth, the additional TI82 controller lends the graphics card even more power compared to the previous Razer graphics enclosure. But is it worth investing your hard-earned cash in this device? And how smoothly do games run on the dock? We used several benchmarks and two graphics cards to answer those questions.

12 pounds of pure power. We end the year with the most powerful consumer gaming notebook currently available. Its Core i7-8700K CPU, GTX 1080 SLI GPUs, 4K UHD screen, 1 TB NVMe RAID 0 storage, and 64 GB of DDR4 RAM are astronomical specifications regardless of form factor.

Business to Go. It took Samsung almost three years to upgrade the Galaxy Tab Active. As before, it is water- and dust-resistant and should withstand drops fairly well. LTE and support for stylus input made the predecessor very popular with outdoor fans, and our review reveals that Samsung has only improved the Galaxy Tab Active 2 ever so slightly.

Surprise! The mid-range smartphone Aquaris V from BQ surprises with its accurate GPS module and fast WLAN. However, we did not expect the comparatively low processor performance. So is it a positive or a negative surprise?

Uncertain Prospect. Lenovo has created an AMD version of the X270. It excels in terms of input devices, security and portability. However, the stability and build quality are subpar, and the display somehow does not quite seem to fit the bill.

Off beat. The Defiance IV is a stylish 17-inch gaming notebook that is equipped with a Core i7-7700HQ, a GeForce 1060 and a 120-Hz display. Find out whether the CPU's clock rate problems under higher loads impact the gaming experience in our detailed review.

Quiet and powerful. The ThinkPad P71 is Lenovo's biggest and most powerful mobile workstation. It is a powerful machine, but still pleasantly quiet in many situations. You also get a very good 4K UHD panel.

Spectre Elite. The EliteBook 1020 G2 is a great example of the merging between sleek consumer designs and feature-heavy business configurations. It's inarguably faster and thinner than the 1020 G1, but not without some cutbacks that longtime EliteBook owners may lament.

Robust. Panasonic's Toughbook is well-protected against dust, liquids, and falls. In addition to a robust case, the 12-inch detachable offers powerful hardware and many connections. The battery life is good.

New entry. PC Specialist, a hardware reseller based in the UK, has recently started selling its gaming notebooks in Germany via pczentrum.de. We have got our hands on the Proteus V, a 15-inch gaming notebook for roughly 1400 Euros (~$1660), and are putting it through its paces.

Bright prospects. With the LG V30, the Koreans now show a real high-end smartphone, which offers strong video features and an improved dual camera. LG has taken the complaints about the G6 for the German market to heart and also offers the device with wireless charging and quad-DAC audio here as well.

Durable. Acer’s 15.6-incher scores some major points with its hardware combination of a Kaby Lake CPU, an SSD and 8 GB of RAM (running in dual-channel mode). The great battery life adds more value to the package. The screen proves to be disappointing, though.