Windows

Omen II. Our second review gaming notebook from HP's updated 15-inch Omen series features almost the same hardware as the previous system, but it's equipped with a 4K display with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. How the theoretically less frugal display affects performance and the battery life is the subject of our review.

Dancing at two weddings with one laptop. With the Blade Stealth, Razer aims to attract gamers during the night and office workers during the day. In order to gain a performance increase compared to the predecessor, the Ultrabook is equipped with an i7-8550U of the 8th Intel generation. We took a look at the Kaby Lake refresh.

Lighter, slimmer fireball. The slim MSI GS63VR 7RG can run all the modern games smoothly on its matte Full HD screen. Here, MSI goes for a 120 Hz TN panel with fast response times. The rest of the hardware is also in good order: NVMe SSD, HDD, Thunderbolt 3.

A very rough gem. The performance-per-Dollar is easily the highlight of HP's first notebook centered around AMD's Raven Ridge platform. It's too bad that the software is still a buggy mess.

An all-round device with some point deductions! The Acer Aspire 7 offers a good performance for an acceptable price. Thanks to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, the 15-incher also offers appropriate gaming performance. However, the case and the display lose some points.

Powerhouse performance? According to Microsoft the new Surface Book 2 combines the best of two worlds and is also the most powerful Surface device yet. The specifications look promising, thanks to the new Kaby Lake-R processor and Nvidia's Pascal GPU. Our in-depth review reveals some shortcomings – some can easily be bypassed, but others are just incomprehensible in this price range.

Budget notebook to beat. The 14-inch Lenovo Ideapad 120s is a simple and sleek Windows laptop that retails for around $250. While the device looks and feels fairly good on the outside for a budget device, the internals are a major letdown. Considering the price, though, the Ideapad 120s is one of the better bargain laptops available.

Svelte performer. The latest Zenbook Pro features an updated GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU alongside the same i7-7700HQ CPU and NVMe storage (not to mention a touchscreen). How have performance, battery life, and emissions been affected by the updated configuration?

A tad slower. The XPS 13 with Kaby Lake Refresh Core i5 trails the Core i7 in raw multi-core performance, but as far as overall system performance is concerned, the model with i7 is only marginally faster.

Multi-functional. The VivoBook Flip 15 comes with a variety of features, but it also comes with some small flaws. The screen with a 360-degree hinge offers several modes of use.

A success. The Spin 5 has a lot to offer, including a fast SSD, a backlit keyboard and a powerful quad-core ULV processor. The laptop offers a good battery life to boot. The battery can be charged via the USB Type-C port. The touchscreen can be operated with fingers or with an Acer stylus (available separately).

Difficult position. Because of loot boxes, micro transactions, gambling loans, and pay-to-win tendencies, the publisher EA has become the target of some massive complaints. In our benchmark article, we are looking more at the question of how well the game is running on various desktop and notebook GPUs.

Not without flaws. The VivoBook Flip 14 comes with a bright, contrasty IPS display, a fast SSD and a backlit keyboard. The device also offers support for the separately available input devices from Asus. However, with a price tag of some 900 Euros (~$1073), the device does not represent a bargain buy.

From the crowd to the people. It has been about a year since the Eve V project made waves on the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform. The financial goal was achieved within a record time and finally even exceeded by more than 1800%. Now the time has come for the devices to be ready for shipment to the supporters and to be available for interested buyers. We have already tested the device and are comparing all three CPU models available for the Eve V.

Who invented it? To recognize similarities to the Apple design language in other manufacturers has become a tradition nowadays. The inhibition threshold for this is particularly low in the Chinese brands. With the Mi Notebook Pro, Xiaomi follows Apple's MacBook Pro, at least in terms of the looks. At a price below 1000 Euros (~$1177), the device offers an attractive package with a quad-core CPU, dedicated graphics card, and pleasing aluminum case. But what is behind the exterior?

Four cores for the office. For the first time, Dell is equipping its line of compact office laptops with the brand new ULV-Hyperthreading Quad-core i5-8250U. What performance benefits will a four-core setup offer, and how well does the device do in terms of its thermals, noise emissions and power usage? The case and the input devices are convincing, but there could be up to two things that may make potential buyers think again.

Next try. Even though the basic technology has been around for a while, Virtual Reality has not achieved a sweeping success yet. With Windows Mixed Reality, Microsoft makes a new attempt, competing against the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. We are testing the VR system with the Medion Erazer X1000.

Quiet refresh. HP's large Spectre 2-in-1, the Spectre x360 15t, now comes with eighth-generation quad-core i7 processor, refreshed Nvidia graphics and a faster SSD. The striking aluminum chassis remains unchanged. How the updated hardware components affect the performance, temperature, fan noise and the battery life is the the subject of our review update.

Top outside, top inside, but ... The new Dell aims to succeed with powerful and high-quality components. Will the all-rounder also convince us in the test and earn a purchase recommendation?

Revenge is sweet. The name says it all for the latest installment of the Need for Speed series. For a racing game, Payback turns out to be surprisingly story-focused. Our benchmark test will show if the technical aspects are convincing as well.

Priced to perform. The MSI GF62VR packs a punch for not a lot of change. However, users will have to deal with a fairly low quality screen and a cheaper plastic build quality. Are these tradeoffs worth the savings?

Fast, but hot and hungry. Schenker is using a new case for its Core 15 laptop and they have been keeping quiet about where they got it from. We will review whether the change was worth it and how well this 15-inch piece compares to similarly equipped gaming laptops.

Zero compromises… Today we evaluate the Tornado F5W, a high-end workstation from Eurocom. Considering that it’s decked out with an Intel Xeon E3-1280 v5 desktop CPU and NVIDIA Quadro P5000 GPU along with an NVMe SSD and 64 GB of RAM, are there any weaknesses to speak of? If so, we’ll find them.