Items tagged with laptop
The PC gaming market continues to grow, thanks in part to the increasing popularity of eSports. While Lenovo is best known for its Thinkpad and Yoga family of notebooks with legendary reliability and slick form factors, it was time the company got serious about gaming. So, Lenovo took the plunge and launched a new sub-brand at CES this year – Legion. The new Legion family of gaming notebooks include the entry-level Y520, mid-level Y720, and high-end Y920. Lenovo sent over the mid-level 15.6-inch Legion Y720 series for us to check out, which provides a step up in build quality over the entry-level Y520 without going all-in with the beefier 17.3-inch Y920. The headlining feature of the Legion Y720...
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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 we're looking at today.With a starting price of $999, the EON15-S is not an expensive gaming laptop...
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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 got the same overall design signature and major features. The machine even comes with a similar carrying...
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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 complete Max-Q Design gaming notebook to hit the market, though others from Alienware and Gigabyte...
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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. Like cars, system makers often release new models by the year, so long as Intel and AMD cooperate with...
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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. The Alienware 17 R4 is a full-fledged desktop replacement that packs serious hardware...
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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 had 3 times the gaming performance of the old one (powered by a mobile GeForce GTX 880) at half the...
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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. Now, there are a plethora of gaming notebooks to rival even the best desktops, though many...
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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 powered ultrabook can get the job done. The T470s is available with a 14-inch 1920x1080 (HD) screen...
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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 an eternity, when it comes to technology anyway. Though MSFT's next gen Surface was just announced,...
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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 2017 version has been almost completely re-designed. Lenovo made some tough, smart decisions here...
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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 to offer the Spectre x360 in 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch form factors, the latter of which we're reviewing...
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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 trade-off. For a little more heft, the XPS 15 of yesteryear boasted a discrete GTX 960M onboard with...
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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 to capitalize on its the XPS design signature with new machine types, cut from the same cloth. Dell...
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Some people have relatively low risk jobs, where the biggest hazard is getting pricked by a staple or poked by a thumbtack. Take Bob from accounting, for example. He sits in his office and crunches numbers that get plugged into spreadsheets all day and for Bob, his thin and light Dell laptop serves him just fine. Then there's Barbara. She's a scientist studying volcanic activity and her job often requires treading rocky terrain in intense heat while recording critical data in the field. Come rain or shine, she's out there with her laptop. Likewise, her husband Joe is a demolitions expert and spends his days on various construction sites, oftentimes climbing over all kinds rubble and debris. For...
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Everyone hates a thief — especially when they strike close to home. Our personal devices like smartphones and notebooks are often targets for criminals, and one Canadian man found this out the hard way. Stu Gale, who just so happens to be a computer security expert, had the misfortune of having his laptop stolen from his car overnight. However, Gale did have remote software installed on the device which allowed him to track whenever it came online. So, he was quite delighted to see that a notification popped up on one of his other machines alerting him that his stolen laptop was active.Stu Gale - Credit: CTV News Calgary Gale took the opportunity to remote into the laptop, only to find that the...
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One thing Microsoft is putting a lot of focus on with its next major update for Windows 10 is content creation, hence why it is called the Creators Update. It will introduce several new features designed to bring ideas to life in 3D, but what good is the software without the hardware? To help take advantage of those features, Dell is introducing a new touch input device called Canvas that could help artists and other creative individuals interact with Windows 10 in a more natural way. If oversimplifying things, Canvas is a 27-inch touch-sensitive secondary display with a 2560x1440 (QHD) resolution. However, it is not designed to function as another monitor or to even stand upright like one—it...
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Even with Microsoft and its hardware partners blitzing the market with increasingly affordable Windows laptops as of late, Chromebooks do not seem to be going anywhere. Just the opposite, established players are getting release new models. That includes ASUS. While nothing has been officially announced yet, what looks to be a successor to the company's Chromebook Flip made an appearance on Newegg recently.The listing is no longer online, but as we often say, there are no mulligans on the web. What appeared on Newegg's website was an ASUS Chromebook with the model number C302CA. Like the original Chromebook Flip, press renderings of the new model show the display folding all the way back on itself...
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Mechanically speaking, Dell has done little to change or update the company's wildly popular XPS 13 and 15 series of premium consumer notebooks since their initial release. There's no mystery as to why that is the case, however. When something works this well, you stick with it. The Dell XPS 13 and XPS 15 have been two of the best selling notebooks in the company's history. That's a bold statement and it stands to reason. The Dell XPS 13 and XPS 15 line of machines, with their unique Infinity Edge displays and gorgeous carbon fiber and aluminum adorned chassis, are some of the best looking, best built, and highest performing laptops on the market. However, despite minimal exterior design changes,...
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Dell's Alienware gaming PC division recently announced a refresh of their 13, 15 and 17 notebook product lines, starting with the introduction of their 15 and 17 inch models and more recently unchaining their smaller but just as scrappy 13-inch beast. While the new machines don't usher in Intel's latest Kaby Lake 7th Gen Core series processors (of which only dual-core variants are currently available), they are now packing NVIDIA Pascal firepower, with a GeForce GTX 1080, GeForce GTX 1070 and GeForce GTX 1060 powering the Alienware 17, 15 and 13 models respectively. It was a clean sweep for NVIDIA and the Alienware team also took the opportunity to tighten-up the build quality of their gaming...
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Update: 11/11/2016 -Our full deep-dive review of the Alienware 13 R3 is now live. Please head here for all the details, benchmarks and analysis.Dell's Alienware division stepped up today with a new, compact and powerful weapon in its laptop arsenal with the announcement of the redesigned Alienware 13 notebook. Now, before you get all misty about the headline, we understand Apple's latest MacBook isn't optimized for gaming, but the comparison of what can be done in a 13-inch notebook frame can still be made. We're just having a little fun with it. Unlike Apple's MacBook Pro and the revamped Microsoft Surface Book, the Alienware 13 R3 (3rd revision) is a different class of machine altogether,...
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Asus is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand this year. The manufacturer launched its ROG line in 2006 and has since developed a wide range of gaming products under the brand, including some monstrous gaming notebooks like the one we'll be showing you here. With the arrival of NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture this summer, the hulking systems are getting a shot in the arm, so we brought Asus’ flagship mobile gaming machine, the ROG G752VS XB78K, in house to see what you get when you go big. The efficiency of the Pascal architecture has made for mobile GPUs that are very similar to their desktop counterparts. In fact, NVIDIA has dropped the “M” from the product names...
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