Paul Lilly
Paul is a seasoned geek who was first seduced into the world of computers and technology by the Commodore 64, and through the years he’s courted a number of OSes and platforms from DOS on up to the latest version of Windows. Having joined the HotHardware team in 2011, Paul is now a mainstay of the site covering the news beat and reviews, and resident wiseguy who keeps the mood light. He’s also an experienced freelance technology writer whose work has appeared in a number of online and print publications.
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
For those of you who follow display technologies, you know that OLED is basically the gold standard for overall image quality, and that will probably remain the case until micro LED (not to be confused with mini LED) breaks into the mainstream. Supposing you're ready to bite the bullet on an OLED upgrade, now is a...
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Cryorig has somewhat quietly introduced a new and massive CPU air cooler called the Monster XX. There's no accompanying press release that we can find, but there is a product page, as well as a handful of posts on X/Twitter, one of which puts the call out for "cooler reviewers from every part of the world," presumably...
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If anyone needs further proof that the PC gaming handheld market is thriving, just look at the wave of iterative and generational upgrades that have either already been released (like the Steam Deck OLED and ASUS ROG Ally X) or are in the pipeline. Pertaining to the latter, Lenovo has taken to the Eurasian Economic...
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It was really on a short time ago when OLED gaming monitors were relatively few and far between. You could still make that argument today, though the landscape is changing with a steady influx of options. One of those is AOC's new Agon Pro AG346UCD, a 34-inch monitor with a QD-OLED panel that the company is calling a...
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Perhaps the one and only thing that could potentially derail NVIDIA's ability to continue raking money in hand over fist in the AI era would be a design flaw that impacts chip yields. That's exactly what NVIDIA has been contending with in regards to its Blackwell GB200 silicon. However, NVIDIA's chief financial...
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Portable solid state drive (SSD) storage solutions are not exactly in short supply. Just the opposite, there are a plethora of options, most of which aim to separate themselves from the pack with fast speeds, slick-looking designs, and/or rugged protection. Well, MSI has found another way to make its latest portable...
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I come from a generation where hulking computer cases were a serious flex—it suggested some seriously powerful hardware resided inside. They still can be a flex, but there's been a definite shift (generally speaking) towards more compact systems. Well, it doesn't get a whole lot more compact than a mini PC (PC sticks...
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Coinciding with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite unveil, a new flagship processor for Android devices, ASUS is teasing new high-end hardware of its own—the ROG Phone 9 for gamers. The two products are linked, as the next Android gaming handset from the ASUS Republic of Gamers division is confirmed to feature Qualcomm's...
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There's a lot of excitement surrounding NVIDIA's next halo GPU for consumers, the GeForce RTX 5090, and for good reason—the flagship SKU is reportedly a beast, if the leaks and rumors are any indication. So it's no wonder that a video purportedly showing a Zotac-brand GeForce RTX 5090 booting in a test environment...
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At some point, Valve is going to release a Steam Deck 2 (even if it ends up being called something different). And when it does arrive, it could sport some notable upgrades, including variable refresh rate (VRR) support and longer batter life, compared to the Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED. That said, don't expect...
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Apple is hyping the heck out if its upcoming Apple Intelligence features that are headed to compatible devices, including the recently-launched iPhone 16 lineup (see our iPhone 16 Pro review) and the previous generation iPhone 15 series, both of which have the requisite hardware to power Apple's "AI" features. While...
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We all know it's only a matter of time before AMD gets around to giving its Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors the 3D V-cache treatment. For anyone who needs proof, just look at the mountain of leaks of rumors, the latest of which comes from multiple sources—a motherboard maker and at least two retail store listings...
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Intel kicked off the Arrow Lake party with a mix of "K" (unlocked multiplier) and "KF" (unlocked multiplier + disabled onboard graphics) models, and namely the Core Ultra 9 285K, Core Ultra 7 265K and 265KF, and Core Ultra 5 245K and 245KF. Eventually we will seen non-K models make a debut, evidence of which can be...
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It was not all that long ago when you could bemoan the lack of OLED monitor options, with a comparatively small list of models that would shrink even further if leaving out exorbitantly priced displays. Well folks, as Bob Dylan famously said, the times, they are-a-changin', and in a good way. OLED monitor shipments...
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As is customary whenever a company like AMD or Intel launches a new processor lineup, someone is going to rip off the integrated heatspreader (IHS) to expose the die area. That's precisely what has happened with a purported Intel Arrow Lake (Core Ultra 200S) processor, and what makes this especially interesting is...
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Remember those SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds that I wrote about a few weeks ago? They're part of a small but growing catalog of earbuds designed specifically for gamers, and they're now available to preorder. Just be sure that you select the right model for your game system, as only the Xbox variant will work with Xbox...
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It's been 17 years since Amazon introduced its first Kindle e-reader, and since then, there has never been a model with a color e-ink display. That is, until now—meet the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, which is arguably the highlight of Amazon's lineup of refreshed Kindle devices. Amazon also released new...
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Best Buy is one of the last major brick-and-mortar bastions of instant gratification when it comes to shopping for PC hardware, which has the added benefit of seeing and feeling a product in person before committing to a purchase. We bring this up because Fractal Design announced it is partnering with Best Buy to...
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One of the main appeals of GPU refreshes is the type of RAM configuration that will accompany next-generation products. To that end, Samsung is laying claiming to the "industry's highest capacity" GDDR7 with what it says are the first 24-gigabit (Gb) GDDR7 DRAM chips, which will find their way into numerous future...
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Most of the early attention on NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 50 series graphics card has been on the flagship GeForce RTX 5090, along with the two other GPUs that are expected to be announced at (or at least around) the same time—the GeForce RTX 5080 and GeForce RTX 5070. Historically, there can be a longer wait for...
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Activision has provided some additional details about Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 ahead the game's release next week, including specific launch times, when you can begin preloading the title, and what kind of PC hardware you'll need to play competitively at a 4K resolution. The publisher also dropped a launch trailer...
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Lenovo held its 2024 Tech World event this week and about midway through, Intel chief executive officer (CEO) Pat Gelsinger hopped on stage to discuss the artificial intelligence (AI) era, which he likened to being as disruptive as when the internet first burst onto the scene. He also touched on Intel's collaboration...
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