Ultrabook

Asus has made the VivoBook Pro 14, Pro 14X, 15, and Pro 16X official in the European market. The new laptops have options on OLED screens and either Intel Tiger Lake or Ryzen 5000 processors. This, of course, also means Thunderbolt 4 in some SKUs, in a series offering up to RTX 3050 Ti cards in terms of graphics.

The display quality authority VESA has announced the latest standard against which PC and display OEMs can pit their new devices. DisplayHDR True Black 600 is rated to call for even higher luminance than its predecessors, and is thus pitched as a new badge of excellence in panels made of material such as OLED.

The technical specs of the current SureView panel sound great: 1,000 nits of brightness, a matte surface, and viewing angles are narrowed at the press of a button. But the impact on image quality shouldn't be underestimated, though; the EliteBook 830 G8 would make a better overall package with a different display.

Though Pavilion laptops are some of the cheapest models from HP, the latest design is a significant leap for the series terms of performance and looks that we think home users and students shouldn't ignore.

Xiaomi is now rumored to have new laptops to introduce to the Indian market. The Mi Notebook Pro and Ultra are slated to be 14- to 15.6-inch devices that go up to 3.2K in terms of display resolution. However, they may differ in terms of refresh rate and graphics solutions.

The power-accessory OEM Volta has revealed that its next product is to be the GIGA, a charger of the ultra-compact gallium nitride- (GaN) based variety. There will be 2 variants of this product: one rated to charge at up to 130W and one for up to 200W. The company notes that it will be available as an Indiegogo campaign reward soon, at potentially substantial discounts over retail.

The prospect of Windows 11 is strongly linked to mixed feelings at present. However, a study based on approximately 11,000 survey responses from participants who currently use the OS found that over 50% of this group would install the update without delay. Accordingly, 17% of the respondents are now in the Insiders program on the strength of Microsoft's latest launch.

Chargeasap has launched successors to its super-charged Flash power bank via Indiegogo. The OEM asserts that the new Pro series incorporates its forebear's best attributes, a 100W USB-C Power Delivery (USB-PD) 3.0 output suitable for MacBook Pros included, albeit with upgrades such as more type-C ports and a very Apple-specific variant this time around

Realme has confirmed that it will launch its first-ever ultrabook in a few days from today (August 15, 2021). This PC - to be called the Book Slim in some markets - is now also said to come with some additional features and accessories that might bring it up to the level of some rival OEMs such as Xiaomi and Huawei.

Cable Matters' latest USB type-C dongle is rated to connect an up-to-Thunderbolt 4/USB4 PC to an 8K monitor via HDMI 2.1. It has 2 variants: one with a DisplayPort and an 8K-capable HDMI port, and another with dual HDMIs for 1 8K monitor or 2 at 4K. Therefore, the OEM touts its new portable accessory as ideal for both remote work and gaming.

It's a tradeoff between fan noise and performance, but the reduction in noise will likely far outweigh the performance deficit that entails for most office users.

Xiaomi has launched 2 new laptops for the Indian market, which it calls the RedmiBook 15 Pro and the e-Learning Edition of the same. Both of these machines have the same 19.9mm deep chassis with 15.6-inch FHD displays, finished in polycarbonate for mobility and affordability. However, the two variants have their own choices of 11th-gen Intel chipsets and SSDs.

BOE has attended the ongoing China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference to announce that it has 480Hz display panels ready to go for the coming years. It has also been joined by the OEM's new ADS Pro technology, a form of mini-LED rated for up to 2000 nits of peak brightness, as well as upgraded curved OLED screens.

Though they may look very similar, the Summit E14 is actually the newer model with much faster performance and a brighter 600-nit 4K display. Users can distinguish the Summit from the Prestige by the gold-trimmed clickpad and MSI logo on Summit models.

Realme has confirmed that it will launch its first-gen PC soon, widely thought to be a MacBook clone since thanks to numerous leaks on the subject. Now, a new product from the OEM that is almost certainly this probable ultrabook has been approved by the regulator 3C. It suggests that the Book does indeed have a spec to match many of its Apple counterpart.

Tired of having manufacturers decide for you what ports you want or don't want? The Framework Laptop lets you choose exactly what you want and how many you want at up to four individual ports.

The manufacturer is currently offering $50 off for pre-orders until August 20. Additionally, an XPG headset, backpack, and mousepad will all be bundled with every pre-order to sweeten the deal even further.

The new tech start-up Nothing is slated to launch its inaugural product, the ear (1) TWS buds, on July 27, 2021. However, it has chosen to share some details on the peripherals' charging case ahead of this event. Not that there is much to see here, as the accessory is largely transparent.

The latest market research indicates that Lenovo was the top dog among PC OEMs in terms of shipments during the second quarter of 2021. HP and Dell came in second and third, whereas Apple and Acer were found to have a joint fourth place for the quarter. The market continued to grow as a whole, although some slowdowns compared to early 2021 and 2020 may now be starting to emerge.

The second generation of the compact ThinkPad X13 G2 gets new processors, 16:10 displays, and 5G as an optional extra. The business laptop convinces with good connectivity, but long-term ThinkPad users will have to make compromises when it comes to the keyboard.

Lenovo US has declared today (July 9, 2021) a "second Black Friday", with generous discounts on a range of PCs and peripherals. They include the Core i7-1185G7-powered version of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which started at US$3,369, but can be had for $1,685 instead during this event. A ThinkPad P17 is also involved in this sale, although it is not the latest model.

This year, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 2 stands almost alone among the ThinkPads of the higher price segment. However, its distinguishing characteristic, the 16:9 format, is by no means positive. It is time for Lenovo to change the format.

It's easily one of the cheapest 14-inch laptops you can find with full sRGB coverage and a 3:2 2160 x 1440 resolution display. For each thing it does right, however, there are at least three other aspects that bring it all down.

The budget Dell laptop is now even more affordable with CPU and GPU performance levels that rival most pricier Intel Ultrabooks. The performance-per-dollar here is very high without needing to pay more for discrete Nvidia graphics.

Xiaomi has launched its newest "extra-pro" laptop in China. The 15.6-inch Mi Notebook X Pro has an OLED display of a 3.5K (3456 x 2160) resolution, driven by Intel 11th-gen Core i5 or i7 processors and up to 4GB RTX 3050 Ti GPUs. Xiaomi has packed all of this into a CNC-machined chassis that starts at 7,999 yuan (~US$1,240).

HP is taking some risks with its budget Pavilion series by toying with different aspect ratios and offering higher resolution displays approaching 2.5k. The manufacturer is even showing a preference for AMD instead of the usual Intel Core-U options.

The jack-of-all trades Inspiron system should be a solid budget buy for general users and students who frequently travel, work, game, and edit because of the fast Ryzen 7 5700U CPU.

TCL has made its new NXTWEAR G smart glasses official. The new wearable has Sony OLED lenses equating to a 140-inch view, which can display content from a USB type-C-enabled mobile device or laptop or 2-in-1. The OEM claims it is compatible with over 100 of these, and will be available later in 2021.

The Lenovo Go series of remote-work-focused accessories is expanding at MWC 2021 to include new and arguably thoughtful peripherals for those who have come to rely on PCs such as ultrabooks in professional capacities. They include new wireless mice, one of which is of the upright variety, and a handy cable-free numberpad. The OEM has also launched audio equipment under this new sub-brand.

Lenovo has expanded its Go series of remote-working tools with new power accessories, directed at use with freshly-launched ThinkPads in particular. They include a Wireless Charging Kit, designed to combine a laptop stand with up to 65 watts (W) of USB type-C power. There is also a new 10,000mAh power bank with Qi wireless charging from this line.

Thin and less features - many modern laptops have to make compromises in the hunt for every millimeter. The Schenker Vision 14 now shows that there is another way. In addition to plenty of ports, you also get replaceable RAM modules and two M.2 slots in a 1 kg magnesium chassis.

In earlier years, the energy efficient "Ultra Low Voltage" CPUs of the U series hardly offered any performance, but manufacturers still packed them into workstation laptops. Even though the modern U processors are still considerably slower than H CPUs, at this point their absolute performance is high enough for new models such as the ThinkPad P15s Gen 2 to be able to deliver sufficient power for CAD applications.