Notebooks
It was not that long ago when the idea of buying a gaming laptop meant spending a heavy premium versus a desktop setup. That was always a tough pill to swallow, because for the most part, there was no way to upgrade critical components like a GPU, down the road a bit. What you got is what you would have to live with for the life of your laptop. That latter restriction remains today but now, more than ever with more powerful mobile platforms, gaming laptops can offer a reasonably good return on investment. That is certainly true of the EON15-S from Origin PC, the 15.6-inch frag-ready notebook...
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ASUS has earned high praise over the years for its ZenBook line of ultraportables. They marry sleek ultrabook designs with generally good value. We usually don’t see a lot of groundbreaking new technology from the line-up, but not everyone needs that and consistent quality builds are more generally the ZenBook hallmark. Some people just want a thin, light laptop that gets the job done and looks good doing it. The ASUS ZenBook Deluxe 3 UX490UA is the big brother of the UX390UA we previously reviewed. It is, essentially, the same laptop bumped up from a 12.5-inch display to a 14-inch display. It’s...
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There was a time when laptop options were basically a choice between desktop-like performance in a heavy and bulky form-factor, an ultralight with integrated graphics, or something in the middle, around 5-lbs with a low-end GPU. NVIDIA sought to solve this choice compromise with its Max-Q Design initiative that was announced at Computex last month. Max-Q Design is a holistic approach to notebook graphics design that ensures a svelte exterior, light weight, quiet thermals and optimal performance.ASUS and NVIDIA joined forces to produce the 15.6-inch Republic of Gamers (ROG) Zephyrus GX501, the first...
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There is a new-found push to market, lightweight 2-in-1 devices as productivity tools for business-savvy road warriors. That has occasionally been an angle, though for the most part, the appeal of these convertible systems has largely been their ability to function as both a tablet and a general purpose laptop for lightweight computing or media consumption duties. There have been previous attempts to expand the 2-in-1 category into the business market, and that is where Lenovo's new ThinkPad X1 Tablet fits in.What we have in for review is Lenovo's second generation ThinkPad X1 Tablet for 2017....
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Dell updated its Alienware 17 gaming laptop at PAX West 2016 with NVIDIA Pascal graphics, but at the time Intel’s quad-core Kaby Lake mobile processors weren’t available yet. It was a short-lived update, however, as the Kaby Lake-powered Alienware 17 was announced a short time later at the start of the Consumer Electronics Show this past January. Today, we’re checking out the newest Alienware 17 R4 gaming laptop featuring the latest of both technologies. The chassis may look familiar, but its all-new on the inside with two 7th-Generation Intel Core i7 processor and four NVIDIA Pascal graphics options....
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NVIDIA's Computex 2017 unveiling of the new GeForce GTX with Max-Q Design technology for laptops was presented with the usual charismatic polish and enthusiasm that the company's leather-clad CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang is well known for. Frankly, it seemed a little too good to be true. In one hand, Huang held a legacy 10-pound boat anchor of a gaming notebook, while in the other he held the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus, a sub-5 pound machine that's just 17.9mm thick. Extolling the virtues of the new ASUS notebook powered by a GeForce GTX 1080 with Max-Q Design technology, he pointed out that the new machine...
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The slim, sleek Razer Blade gaming laptop we'll be looking at here is an interesting beast that does its best to perform a balancing act of sorts. The gaming laptop arena is a landscape full of compromises. Gamers generally crave the most powerful technologies on the market, but until we can cram 8K displays into a fanless 13-inch form factor with dual Titan X GPUs and physics-defying thermal headroom, sacrifices obviously must be made. And we love high-end, 10 pound gaming battle stations, don't get us wrong, but sometimes situations and use cases call for something actually portable....
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Lenovo has carved out quite a business for itself in the laptop space over the years, led more recently by premium machines like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. However, there are obviously many more models in the ThinkPad family of products, beyond just the top-shelf X1 Carbon line. In the more affordable ThinkPad T470s (starting price of $959), you will find a thin, light ultrabook with many of the features Lenovo is known for, including the usual fantastic keyboard setup and solid performance. At just 2.9 pounds, you’d be forgiven for thinking it doesn’t pack much punch, but this Kaby Lake...
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Hybrid 2-in-1 tablet convertible devices like Samsung's new Galaxy Book 12 are a tough gig. Striking a balance between ultimate portability, performance, and battery life is not easy when it comes to the well-under 2 pound device class of products. That said, Microsoft made a go of it with the very popular Surface Pro series, and since then, even Apple has been trying to catch that elusive upscale large tablet convertible mojo, and mostly unsuccessfully we might add. Further, Microsoft has been asleep at the switch for a while, without a proper Surface hybrid refresh for what is essentially...
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Lenovo's venerable ThinkPad business oriented laptop line is punctuated by a couple of stand-out models, but perhaps none as striking, at least for a ThinkPad, as the ThinkPad X1 series. In its current lineup, Lenovo offers two models specifically that command attention perhaps more than others, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga that we recently revisited--with its 360-degree hinge and sweet OLED display--and the new 5th generation ThinkPad X1 Carbon that we'll be looking at here today. Though the 5th gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon may share a similar design signature and materials as the previous generation, Lenovo's...
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HP is not one to let the weeds grow under its feet, at least not when it comes to its Spectre x360 line. The company it has no problem changing things up in an effort to keep its premium ultraportable hip and trendy. Having already gone through a few mild wardrobe changes over the past few years, the newest iteration of the Spectre x360 brings another slightly different look than last year's model -- one that is perhaps more refined and mature. It retains the gold accents introduced by its predecessor, but does not flaunt them quite as loudly. Other upgrades are not as subtle. HP continues...
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The Dell Inspiron 7000 Gaming straddles the line between mainstream and gaming notebooks. It is offered in a few sizes, including a svelte 14" model, but after getting some hands-on time with the Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming at CES earlier this year, we decided to check the larger laptop out. It sports a 7th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPU, along with some fairly high-end internals. Before we dig into the Inspiron 15 7000’s specs, we should point out that this particular system sits at the top of the Inspiron line. The entry-level 3000 series is easy on the...
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Lately, Dell has been able to deliver notebooks that bring a smile to our faces, especially when a new XPS laptop slides across our desk. It hasn't always been that way, but since revamping the XPS line, starting with the XPS 13 back in 2015, Dell’s premium laptops have been leaders in the ultrabook market, especially in the 15 and 13-inch formats. The XPS 13 and its new 2-in-1 variant make great and highly portable workstations to tote around, but their smaller frames and relative horsepower may not be for everybody. That’s where the crossover to a 15-inch machine might make for a worthy...
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Dell's XPS 13 and 15 line of notebooks have done well for the company, sparked by a reinvention of the product line back in 2015. Since then, its design signature has reached iconic status for Round Rock, with the ultra-thin bezel of its Infinity Edge display and hatched carbon fiber composite palm rest and keyboard area earning the series many awards, including our Editor's Choice on multiple occasions. And as you might expect, Dell has continued to evolve its well-received XPS product offerings, not only as new notebook platform architectures roll out, but the company is also now looking...
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