Gaming

The first gaming laptop from Huawei and Honor is almost here, and it will be called the Honor Hunter GameBook. The device is scheduled for release on September 16, and Honor has published a teaser video in advance of the laptop's grand unveiling.

During the NVIDIA GeForce Ampere RTX 3000 series launch, NVIDIA unveiled benchmarks for the GeForce RTX 3080 which indicate that its claim of a 2x performance improvement wasn’t sleight of hand. The GeForce RTX 3080 appears to genuinely double the RTX 2080’s performance level, even in a game without ray-tracing or DLSS.

Dell has announced its new Alienware gaming monitors. This series has 25- and 27-inch flat variants, although its flagship is a 38-inch curved option. Dell asserts that this "best-in-class gaming monitor" will enhance immersion and quality, with the latest certifications from NVIDIA and VESA to boot.

The new Alienware Area-51m R2 carries over much of what made the original Area-51m great while making some major improvements in key areas. Most eye-catching is the inclusion of a 360 Hz refresh rate Full HD display. This makes the Area-51m R2 the only laptop with this high of a refresh rate. Other highlights include options for Comet Lake CPUs and Nvidia GeForce RTX GPUs as well as a 12-phase power delivery system.

Dell's Alienware Aurora line of gaming PCs can now be configured with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 and RTX 3080. Everything else remains the same, including its aesthetic, choice of CPUs, and memory configurations. Dell will reveal its price and availability at a later date.

Dell has unveiled a refreshed version of its Alienware m17 R3 gaming laptop. It bumps up the refresh rate of its 17-inch FHD panel from 300Hz to 360Hz. There are also some improvements to the notebook's cooling system. However, Dell will reveal the laptop's price and availability later this month.

Microsoft has not formally unveiled the Xbox Series S, but a reference to the console in Xbox Game Pass promotional material suggests that an announcement is close.

Alongside the launch of its GeForce RTX 3000 Ampere series graphics cards, NVIDIA announced a lineup of new RTX and AI-powered technologies aimed squarely at gamers and streamers, including NVIDIA Reflex, Omniverse Machinima, and NVIDIA Broadcast.

An Ubisoft support page has seemingly confirmed that PlayStation 5 backwards compatibility will be restricted to PS4 titles, leaving games from the PS1, PS2, and PS3 generations out in the cold. An image of an alleged PS5 retail box has appeared online, but fake or not it pales into comparison next to an incredible fan-made Miles Morales concept design.

The next-generation of NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics cards are almost here, and some leaked benchmarks point to huge performance gains for the Ampere architecture. Depending on the game, the RTX 3090 may be over 2x faster than the RTX 2080 Ti at ultra settings with RTX on.

Lenovo has announced the launch of the Legion Slim 7i laptop. The Legion Slim 7i offers configuration options up to the Core i9-10980HK and the RTX 2060 Max-Q and is touted to be the lightest 15.6-inch gaming laptop to offer this configuration. The Legion Slim 7i also features the recently introduced Coldfront 2.0 cooling solution and an optional Corsair RGB keyboard with 1.3 mm key travel.

While Battle for Azeroth requires a fast HDD with at least 70 GB of free space, the upcoming expansion of Blizzard's World of Warcraft — Shadowlands — apparently needs an SSD with 100 GB of free space or more. The eight major installment in the World of Warcraft series is expected to arrive at the end of October on all continents.

With just one day to go before NVIDIA’s big GeForce Ampere reveal on September 1, the ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3090 was pictured in a leak. Furthermore, Gainward appears to have accidentally listed the RTX 3090 Golden Sample variant on its website before quickly taking it down.

There has been an alleged leak of the details for an upcoming PS5 event, which will apparently take place on Wednesday, September 9. According to the purported leak, the show will include a full look at the PlayStation 5 hardware and UI, price and launch date revelations, and a whole feast of information in regard to games for the next-gen console.

An IGN poll titled “which next-gen console are you most excited about” left the PS5 with 75% of the vote. Xbox owners and PC gamers have been tempted by the Sony console partially because of PlayStation 5 exclusives like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and many others.

Xiaomi has seen major success with its recent TV releases. The 98-inch Redmi Smart TV Max, for example, has racked up impressive numbers every time it's been put on sale. It's no surprise, then, that Xiaomi is looking to build on that success with the release of two new massive 82-inch TVs.

Square Enix has announced that the remastered Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles title has gone live. It has PS4, Nintendo Switch, Android and iOS versions, across which gamers can form teams and explore all the dungeons. It also has a Lite (or free) version and a Mimic Mode for those who want to play as original characters.

The hardware in the Pavilion Gaming 15 brings all modern computer games smoothly onto the matte 15.6-inch screen. This is complemented by an NVMe SSD, 8 GB of RAM (dual-channel mode), and very good battery life.

Apple had warned that it might terminate the developer account page on its Store for Epic Games. The studio is currently involved in action that challenges the Cupertino giant's app-revenue model. Now, this threat has come to fruition, meaning that access to all of Epic's apps on iOS or iPadOS has been revoked.

Samsung has launched its 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD that offers a maximum read speed of 7,000 MB/s (1 TB SKU). This means that PC gamers can fit a speedy solid state drive into their machines that challenges the much-heralded superfast SSD that the PS5 will be bringing with it, at least in terms of uncompressed data handling.

AMD quietly launched one more first-generation Navi part, the Radeon RX 5300, even as RDNA2 parts like Big Navi and NVIDIA’s GeForce Ampere lineup are set to hit the market soon. At US$129, the RX 5300 promises better performance than the GeForce GTX 1650, while undercutting it in price.

A modder has managed to fit a fully-featured Nintendo Wii into a case the size of a Nintendo Game Boy Color. The Wiiboy Color, as it is called, can play Wii and GameCube games, as well as Virtual Console and Homebrew titles. The device is clever in its construction, as the creator GingerOfMods details in YouTube video.

Asus' latest external monitor is aimed at eSports players, with its 360 Hz refresh rate, 1 ms grey-to-grey response times and NVIDIA G-Sync support. The 24.5-inch IPS panel supports HDR10 too and has the not-so-catchy name of the ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN.

Dell Technologies has posted its performance for its second fiscal quarter of 2021 (2FQ2021), which ended on July 31, 2020. The company has announced total revenues of US$22.7 billion for this period, with a net income of $1.1 billion. This success was attributed to demand for devices and services that drove working and learning from home.

The ninth console generation is rapidly approaching. However, with the rise of more powerful mobile hardware and the major strides made in terms of thin client game streaming, a mobile Nintendo Switch successor could prove to be a better ninth-gen pick than either the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X.

Since the RTX 3060 cards got mentioned this early in Palit's certification files, we could see the mid-lower-end cards launching sooner than expected, possibly around Holiday season this year to compete with AMD's Navi 22 and Navi 10 refreshes.

A new announcement trailer for Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition has been shared as part of the Gamescom event. The remastered game now boasts of 4K graphics and features two additional civilizations for RTS fans to get to grips with. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition will be released on October 15 priced at US$19.99/£14.99/€19.99.

A new Nintendo Switch is on the horizon, albeit another revised version of the console that Nintendo released in 2017. Like last year's revision, the new Switch will feature a newer memory and SoC. These changes have required Nintendo to change the Switch's CPU board too, but the new revision will look visually identical to existing models.

GeForce NOW is NVIDIA's solution for online cloud gaming. It famously adds titles every Thursday, for the benefit of players who own them already but do not have a high-powered PC to hand. Today, this list includes Control, as well as games that have also become free on the Epic Games Store today.

NZXT is best known for its excellent PC cases which allow for very clean builds and contemporary looks. For those who like their cases, but don’t think they are equipped for a build, NZXT also offers prebuilt machines. The company has just launched its latest entry-level model for US$700 which it says is powerful enough to run games in 1080p/60 fps.

PlayStation US has announced that direct pre-order registration for the PS5 console is now open. To register, fans will need a PlayStation Network ID. However, the process is a lottery as registering for direct pre-orders does not guarantee selection for the opportunity to actually reserve a PlayStation 5.

International pre-orders for the latest in RedMagic gaming phones have gone live today (August 26, 2020). This device is a variation on this series' early 2020 flagship, which launched with a 144Hz display and active cooling. That phone, the 5G, is also still available with a slight discount.

A Sony Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax) wireless communication module has been spotted in certification that likely pertains to the PlayStation 5. An image of the chip has also been revealed in one particular filing, which also includes the PlayStation logo. Having Wi-Fi 6 support would offer PS5 owners the chance to enjoy faster connection speeds and lower latency.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Founders Edition will have irregular-shaped PCBs, NVIDIA has teased. 12-pin and backwards-compatible connectors are inbound for Ampere cards too, as is the leaked cooler design. The RTX 3090 will have 24 GB of GDDR6X VRAM, while the RTX 3080 must make do with 10 GB of VRAM. There will be no RTX 3080 Ti for the time being, though.

The Ampere RTX series is almost here and water blocks will be "ready at or close to launch", according to one water block supplier. Additionally, a picture of the die for the GeForce RTX 3090 has leaked, detailing that NVIDIA is readying the GA102-300-A1 for release.

Intel has been emphasizing the need to move away from traditional benchmarks for quite some time now. A recent press briefing to APAC journalists saw Intel extolling its advantages in gaming and postulating it as a more realistic metric that users should lean on compared to traditional synthetic benchmarks, all while making a few chimerical comparisons. While not entirely false, such marketing can potentially backfire in the long run.

It has been more than 30 years since Nintendo launched the Game Boy, but new games are still being released for the platform. Where is My Body?, an 8-bit adventure game, has been successfully funded on Kickstarter, smashing through over 600% of its funding goal. The game can still be pre-ordered if you missed the crowdfunding campaign and will be playable as a physical Game Boy cartridge.

The pre-order date and launch date for the PlayStation 5 may have been revealed via a Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War leak. It appears data miners have managed to prise out information about the upcoming title’s reveal and release dates, which could coincide with those for the next-gen console. Known PS5 commenters have also seemingly pinpointed a particular PS5 pre-order date.

The German mail order company Otto has already listed the PlayStation 5 on its webshop at short notice. The next-generation Sony console has been priced at almost €1,000 for 2 TB of storage, which would be unexpected enough but for the fact that it is the Digital Edition that lacks a disc drive.

MSI has certified a bunch of possible NVIDIA Ampere cards with the EEC. The registration of twenty-nine cards has been published just a week before NVIDIA hosts its GeForce Special Event on September 1, where it is expected to unveil the likes of the RTX 3070, RTX 3080 and RTX 3090.

XMG is now offering an i7-10875H CPU option for the NEO lineup of liquid-metal-cooled laptops. The 17-inch model is also getting a 62 Wh larger battery, although it still seems quite small compared to the 93 Wh battery on the 15-inch model. Additionally, XMG finally reveals the brand of the liquid metal thermal compound.

Shortly after rumors emerged about an updated Nintendo Switch variant arriving next year to take on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, a Bloomberg analyst, who earlier outed valid info on Nintendo products, claimed that the alleged “Switch Pro” will support 4K gaming.

Nexoc's 15.6-incher brings all modern computer games smoothly onto the matte screen (Full HD, IPS). The device can be individually configured and offers space for up to three storage drives.

Recent leaks assert that NVIDIA has developed a new 12-pin connector that will supersede the 8-pin PCIe component often seen today. Now, a tipster claims to have been given the cables that go to this newer option. According to its images and rumors, its size is comparable to that of the current standard, but can be used to draw much more power.

New rumors have appeared about the Nintendo Switch, with a report suggesting that the Japanese company is busy putting together the next generation of the massively popular console. With a supposed improved screen and other upgrades, this possible Nintendo Switch Pro will be taking on the PS5 and Xbox Series X for next-generation console supremacy.

According to an industry insider, Grand Theft Auto fans might have to wait until 2023 before they can get their hands on GTA VI. The information gives credence to an earlier leak, which predicted a similar release date.

Smach is still yet to begin shipping the Smach Z, and it seems increasingly likely that it never will. After the company looked so close to releasing its long-awaited console in 2019, updates have dried up and its social media channels are a wasteland.

The latest Razer Blade 15 is now the cheapest it's been even though it will still cost you just a little bit more more than a typical gaming laptop with the same Core i7-10750H CPU and GeForce RTX 2060 GPU.