Video Reviews, How-Tos, Events And Our Two And A Half Geeks Webcast
In-depth video reviews, news and Tech event coverage of computers, smartphones, tablets, notebooks, PC components, and tech gadgets. Here you'll find supplemental content that you can also find on our YouTube channel, right here.!
Hot on the heels of the release of AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series processors and Navi-based Radeon RX 5700 series, we’ve connected with the VP and General Manager of the Radeon Business Unit, Scott Herkelman, to discuss the launch, get a few technical questions answered, and get to the bottom of the “jebaiting” story. Show Notes: 02:15 – Scott’s Role As VP and General Manager of the Radeon BU 05:54 – What Did The Hardware Review Community Miss With The Radeon RX 5700 Launch? 10:45 – Radeon Image Sharpening versus NVIDIA DLSS 13:11 – What Happens During The Bring-Up Of A New GPU? 16:15 – Scott’s Thoughts On The Push For Real-Time Ray Tracing...
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DJI has once again stepped into the spotlight with another powerful, yet portable, 4K drone that combines the video capabilities of its highly regarded Mavic Pro, with the smaller footprint of the consumer-focused DJI Spark. DJI has gone to great lengths in recent years to appeal to consumers looking for more portable devices. As a photographer, I carry a camera bag littered with lenses and DSLR bodies; but most will agree that something like DJI's earlier Phantom drones were simply too large to consider highly portable. With DJI’s latest and greatest drone, the Mavic Air, however, photographers and videographers alike are able to carry a foldable, simple to deploy, and extremely easy to...
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Gaming laptops typically make no bones about price points and usually command a premium, due to their more powerful components on board. Either that, or some machines pack potent components inside somewhat lack-luster skins, leaning into their inner mojo to attract gamers. With its G Series, Dell set out to appeal to price-conscious mobile gamers that still want good firepower, in addition to a quality, good-looking chassis design. Lower cost gaming notebooks often sacrifice on materials and build quality in an effort to drive cost down. However, in a follow-on to its successful Inspiron Gaming line of machines, Dell decided to take aesthetics up a notch, while also capitalizing on some...
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Dell’s XPS 15 2-In-1 is a unique hybrid convertible, premium ultrabook in a couple of respects, partly because of its high quality Dell XPS series machined aluminum and hybrid carbon fiber construction, along with its beautiful 15-inch, 400 nits, near bezel-less Dell Infinity Edge display. However, the machine is also powered by a unique processor that marks the first collaboration of its kind by two archrivals in the PC processor arena, both Intel and AMD. Otherwise known as Kaby Lake G, the new Intel 8th Gen Core Series with integrated AMD Radeon RX Vega M graphics is a potent hybrid chip that offers discrete graphics horsepower and 4GB of HMB2 memory, coupled with Intel quad-core...
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At CES earlier this year, Dell strutted out a few new products, including its XPS 15 2-in-1 with a 360-degree hinge. It is the first XPS 15 to adopt the convertible 2-in-1 form factor, providing customers with flexible use case scenarios, like folding the display all the way back onto itself to become a tablet, or propping it up in tent mode as a kitchen counter companion. While not groundbreaking in 2018, it's a welcome upgrade to one of the more desirable and premium laptops on the market. What is groundbreaking, however, is what lies inside this laptop in terms of processing engines. Dell's new 15-inch convertible wields Intel's 8th generation Kaby Lake G processors with Radeon RX Vega graphics....
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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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Over the past couple of years, Dell has been driving a widespread redesign effort of its consumer and commercial product lines and has been systematically been updating both design signatures and the technology platforms within them. Dell's premium consumer XPS product line, perhaps more so than any, has seen the most significant design reinvention, with features that could be classified as "iconic," as with the company's XPS 13 and XPS 15 laptops that employ Dell's Infinity Edge display technology and premium carbon fiber composite materials. Today, Dell is taking the redesign of their XPS product line another model deeper with the unveiling of one of its first new products out of the...
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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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Update 4/26/2016: We've refreshed our battery life test suite for this review and have new, more real-world metrics to share on page 8. When Dell launched its updated XPS 13 notebook with an Infinity Edge display that squeezes a 13 inch IPS panel into essentially a 12-inch frame, it was met with universal praise for its unique mechanical design advantages and premium build quality. In fact, it was so well-received that many of you, upon seeing our review, almost immediately started asking if Dell would follow-up with the same sort of revamp for their 15-inch XPS 15 line as well. Dell apparently already had the same idea in mind and clearly the new XPS 15, with its 15-inch Infinity Edge display,...
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The 2-in-1 and convertible PC space has changed significantly over the past couple of years. What was once a cluttered mess of kludges is now a well-defined market segment packed with refinement, power, and plenty of options. You could partially credit Microsoft's Surface line for making 2-in-1s an object of desire, but it's also products like the Dell XPS 12 that make today's line-up of convertible devices so much more interesting. Dell's XPS 12, which was first announced last fall, is just as capable as a laptop as it is a tablet. That's no small feat, and it's multifaceted abilities are largely due to Dell's top-shelf keyboard cases. Though it's engineered as a tablet first, the 12.5-inch...
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The tablet world is shifting quickly. While arguments for and against the need for a "third device" have been raging since the early days of the iPad, we're seeing tablets emerge that are far more potent and capable than ever before. In fact, it's tough to lump products like Dell's Venue 10 7000 in with bargain-bin slates that are clearly built to be used primarily for mobile Internet browsing and other strictly consumption-based use. This device we're testing here is cut from a different cloth. In many ways, it's paving a new path for tablets, and at first blush, you may assume that such a well-engineered product has Windows underneath. Instead, there's Android 5.0.2 (Lollipop), alongside a...
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Take everything you know and expect from an Android tablet, crumple it into a ball, and throw it away. Done? Good -- none of what you just purged from your brain will do you any good when looking at the Venue 8 7000 from Dell. It's not heavily modified and tied to an online shopping experience like Amazon's Fire tablets, nor does it take a barebones approach like the defunct Nexus 7 from Google. The Venue 8 7000 doesn't even flex an ARM processor. So now that you know what Dell's latest Android tablet doesn't have, let's spend a few moments talking about exactly what it is. For one, it's the world's thinnest tablet, measuring a mere 6 millimeters thick, or 0.24 inches and change if you're...
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