Windows

Microsoft has posted something for consumers to think about prior to their Black Friday shopping this year. It includes some details on its Surface deals for that period, including up to US$230 off the new Pro 7. There is also a link to the even earlier "X019" event, in which seasonal Xbox hardware promotions may be unveiled.

Many pages from the Diablo 4 artwork book have been posted online, giving fans an idea of what they can expect from the game when it finally gets released. Vile-looking characters such as the Goatman Abomination and Drowned Raider feature alongside a terrifying battleground, a gory sacrifice, and the possible reveal of a new Prime Evil.

Seven years since the release of Diablo III, Blizzard has officially announced Diablo IV at BlizzCon. Unfortunately, however, Blizzard hasn’t announced an official release date with the title still anywhere from 12 to 24 months away although the first game play trailer has been released to whet gamers' appetites.

The HP Pavilion Gaming 15 displays all current games smoothly on its matte 15.6-inch screen (FHD, IPS). The memory configuration is good as well: 16 GB of RAM (dual-channel mode), NVMe SSD, HDD.

The latest update, labeled 2.9.1705.31, is now available with multiple enhancements to the Vivaldi Menu, the ability to set global default preferences for requests based on sound, geolocation, camera, microphone, motion sensors, Bluetooth devices, and pop-ups, as well as multiple tweaks and fixes.

The Your Phone app in Windows 10 has acted to effectively mimic iPhone syncing on Mac, but for Android devices. It has also allowed users with these devices to mirror their phone screens on PCs via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). However, this has come to an end in the latest Insiders' build.

The Lenovo ThinkPad L590 is a solid business laptop at just under $1,000, but it is not without its problems. The 15.6-inch laptop appears to offer plenty on paper, with Lenovo including a quad-core Core i5 Whiskey Lake CPU, 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of NVMe storage. However, its cooling system holds the device back, hampering its CPU performance.

In addition to the iconic Kamov Ka-50 single-seat attack helicopter — surnamed "Black Shark" — War Thunder 1.93 comes with the first three Swedish planes, a new Abrams tank, the first Italian helicopter, a new location, the first rank V ship in the game, as well as the usual pack of minor tweaks and fixes.

The Lenovo IdeaPad C340-15IWL is equipped with a Core i5-8265U processor, a GeForce MX230 graphics core and dual-channel RAM. The IPS touchscreen display supports the Lenovo Active Pen 2.

Lenovo's gaming notebook displays all current games smoothly on its matte 17.3-inch screen (144 Hz, G-Sync, FHD, IPS) and also offers great connectivity: a combination of SSD + HDD, 16 GB of RAM (Dual-Channel mode) & a Thunderbolt 3 port.

Microsoft's latest Surface Laptop only started shipping last week and we're already seeing some issues with our review unit. If you're sensitive to onscreen flickering or are planning to use the Microsoft notebook for audio streaming or editing, then you may want to skip this model.

September’s Steam Hardware and Software Survey has seemingly delivered more good news for AMD. The survey has measured data in regard to PC processor usage by manufacturer, which yet again has been thoroughly dominated by Intel. However, the red team has enjoyed another month of considerable growth, which could be down to its Ryzen 3000 generation of chips.

The 13.3-inch foldable notebook from Lenovo was recently spotted at an event in Barcelona, and it looks like Lenovo is just waiting for Microsoft to finalize the Windows 10X OS specifically designed for dual-screen devices. The hardware good to go, so, with a bit of luck, we might be able to test the foldable notebook next summer.

We have just released our review of the Lenovo ThinkPad X395, an AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 3300U powered 13.3-inch subnotebook. The Ryzen 3 PRO 3300U integrates a Radeon RX Vega 6 GPU too, which is known to have better graphics performance than its Intel counterparts. But how does the ThinkPad X395 compare against the ThinkPad X390, its Intel equivalent, and which is the better overall device?

Intel's Ice Lake platform performs convincing in the first reviews. With the Lenovo Yoga C940 convertible we recently reviewed another Ice Lake laptop, which directly competes with Dell's XPS 13 7390 2-in-1. In terms of battery life the Lenovo Yoga C940 is even better than the XPS.

The Surface Book 2 and Surface Book 2 15 may be innovative devices, but they have suffered from two critical problems in recent months. Microsoft now claims to have fixed the NVIDIA dGPU disconnects and BD PROCHOT-related throttling issues that have affected some machines since at least the summer. The fixes should prompt the re-release of Windows 10 version 1903 for the Surface Book 2 series too.

A new feature in the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build allows Windows to make and receive phone calls when synced with a compatible Android smartphone. The feature, part of Microsoft's Your Phone app, is expected to roll out to the public sometime in the first half of next year.

Shadowy Contracts is a stealth-based RPG in Steam Early Access. While the game ambitiously tries to mix elements from the Thief and Elder Scrolls series, there's still work to be done before the game could be considered complete.

The HP ZBook 15u G6 continues to offer the usual quality in terms of exteriors. However, some weaknesses that ought not to occur persist on the inside. Let's just hope the new AMD GPU can save the day.

Hewlett Packard's mobile workstation features good input devices and a great display. This is joined by a docking port, good battery life and a Thunderbolt 3 port. There are problems with performance.

The ASUS ROG G703GXR bucks the slim bezel trend and delivers a no-compromises gaming platform with plenty of ports and decent performance. We have put the 17.3-inch gaming laptop through its paces, which you can find in our accompanying review.

The latest Insider's version of Windows 10 updates the Your Phone app so that it is compatible with the Samsung Galaxy S10 series, as well as the Galaxy Fold. This allows a user to monitor battery levels, screen-mirror and sync data. However, Microsoft has stated that these new features will be available to certain regions only to start off with.

In a recent article, we pointed out that we have yet to see a laptop with the Intel Core i9-9980HK outperform the MSI GE75 GS9, which runs the cheaper (and theoretically less powerful) Intel Core i9-9980H. A forum user by the name of littlezipp has posted evidence that the 9980HK in his Alienware m15 R2 thoroughly beats the 9980H in a 30-loop test of Cinebench R15. However, littlezipp nabbed this performance by way of a good undervolt and repasting his CPU with liquid metal.

AMD and Microsoft have since confirmed that the Ryzen Surface Edition processors are custom versions of the Ryzen 5 3500U and Ryzen 7 3700U, and now examples of the former have appeared on UserBenchmark. While the Ryzen 5 3580U fares well compared with the Core i5-8265U, it appears to fall short of the Core i5-1035G7 in multi-core workloads.

With Dell recently releasing a BIOS revision to improve the thermal stability of the XPS 15 9570, pictures of a decimated XPS 15 doing the rounds online may be concern those who are either considering the series for their next laptop or already own an XPS 15. The cause of the damage can affect any laptop though, and does not appear to be XPS 15 specific.

The Dell Latitude 3400 offers excellent battery life, input devices and a wide selection of ports. Our review unit impressed us during our tests, not least because of its value for money. However, there is one area that could have people looking elsewhere.

Lenovo’s Ideapad Flex 14API is equipped with a Ryzen 5 APU, dual-channel RAM, and an NVMe SSD. Its IPS touchscreen supports the Lenovo Active Pen 2. Unfortunately, the display turned out to be one of the Flex 14’s major weaknesses.

The first generations of the Surface Laptops were good laptops, but they had some drawbacks. One of them was that it was nearly impossible to repair these devices, as Microsoft used to glue the chassis shut. With the new Surface Laptop 3, Microsoft will now improve the repairability of its laptops to make them more attractive for enterprise customers.

Be prepared to carry around a bunch of adapters if you plan on buying the latest Surface Laptop. The newest models haven't improved upon one of the weakest aspects of the Surface Laptop 2 series to make alternatives like the Dell XPS series, HP Spectre series, or Asus ZenBook series appear more versatile.

During the unveiling of the Surface Neo, Microsoft also showed off an early build of Windows 10X — a Windows 10 version that is tailored exclusively for dual-screen devices. Windows 10X will allow users to run regular Win32 apps while also offering new ways of interacting with apps that are designed to take advantage of dual screens. Windows 10X will be available next year on the Surface Neo and similar devices from Asus, HP, Dell, and Lenovo.

Not content with just releasing newer versions of existing Surface products, Microsoft has upped its game and announced two foldable Surface devices. The larger is called the Surface Neo and features two 9-inch displays, a fold-out keyboard, a 360° hinge and is compatible with the Surface Slim Pen that docks on the rear of the device. The Surface Neo is powered by Intel's upcoming Lakefield processors and will be available from late 2020.

Microsoft has taken wraps off the Surface Duo, a Surface device that offers telephony capabilities. The Surface Duo runs on a custom version of Android built in partnership with Google and will feature support for apps from the Google Play Store, which can scale across dual screens for enhanced productivity.

The Surface Pro 7 has finally stepped up to USB type C support. Otherwise, it remains a 12.3-inch 2-in-1 with advanced Pen features and a refined Type Keyboard attachment. The Pro 7 starts at US$749 and ships from October 22, 2019.