Dolby Vision gaming is arriving on the Xbox Series X and S for testers who are a part of the Xbox Insider’s “alpha ring” group. This HDR format offers an upgraded set of features like support for dynamic metadata. Microsoft says the feature means “brighter highlights, sharper contrast, and more vibrant colors” in games when you’re playing on a Dolby Vision-compatible TV, offering “better clarity in both light and dark scenes.” The consoles currently support HDR via the less advanced HDR10 standard.
We’ve known Microsoft’s current generation of Xboxes would support Dolby’s HDR standard since before the consoles’ release. Last September, Dolby announced that they’d be “the first consoles to support the Dolby Vision HDR format with dynamic metadata for gaming.” Sony’s PS5, meanwhile, currently does not support Dolby Vision.
Get ready to transform your gaming experience with full-spectrum visuals! Rolling out to Xbox Insiders this week: Dolby Vision for gaming on Xbox Series X|S. pic.twitter.com/iU2RktHvPG
— Larry Hryb ☁ (@majornelson) May 14, 2021
As well as improvements in picture quality, Microsoft says Dolby Vision support should be easier to configure for users. “Dolby Vision games automatically map to any display with Dolby Vision, you’re always seeing the best possible picture available,” the company says. “This means … no more sliders to adjust your picture settings.” However, it advises that testers might need to update their TV’s firmware to take full advantage of the technology.
During an earlier test of the feature in March, Forbes notes that users reported that all HDR games appeared to be outputting in Dolby Vision, rather than needing to specifically support the upgraded format. However, it’s unclear if this will be the case when the feature officially releases. As part of today’s announcement, Microsoft said it will be sharing more about the games that will take “full advantage” of the standard “soon.”
An earlier limited test of the feature got a positive reception. Forbessays alpha testers reported improvements to brightness, black levels, and color saturation in HDR games. At the time the feature seemed to be limited to 60Hz, but Forbes has more recently reported that Dolby is working with TV manufacturers to enable the standard to work at 120Hz.
In order to benefit from the feature, your TV will need to be Dolby Vision-compatible, as an increasing number of 4K TVs now are. But always be careful and check your specs. For example, Samsung — the largest TV manufacturer globally — doesn’t support the format.
Microsoft didn’t provide a timeline for when it expects the feature to roll out to everyone, noting only that it will be available “once we’ve completed testing.”
(Pocket-lint) – When Google-owned Nest announced a redesigned smart home security camera in the form of the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor, it saw the power and intelligence of its Nest Cam IQ Indoor moving outside.
The newer model improves upon its predecessor, the Nest Cam Outdoor, with a number of design and feature changes that offer a better, tighter and more effective smart home security experience.
But what are the differences and do these upgrades make the newer version worth a purchase?
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Design changes and enhancements
Both have 7.5m power cables
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor offers cable security installation option
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor is twice the size
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor features LED ring to highlight when it’s being used
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor is IP66 rated with -40C to +45C operational temperature
Nest Cam Outdoor is IP65 rated with -20C to +40C operational temperature
The Nest Cam IQ Outdoor features a similar design to the original Nest Cam Outdoor – only the updated camera is bigger, better and bolder.
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor is twice the size of the original Nest Cam Outdoor, with a larger, more robust and more weatherproof body.
The newer model is quite a bit larger than its predecessor, measuring 93mm in diameter and 128mm in depth compared to the original Outdoor camera that is just 72mm in diameter and 89mm in depth. Bigger is a good thing in the case of the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor though.
The IQ Outdoor camera is IP66 rated meaning it’s dust-tight and resistant to even powerful jets of water. The original Nest Cam outdoor is IP65 rated, so this is certainly an improvement. The IQ is also capable of resisting a greater range of weather conditions, withstanding lower temperatures while still being able to function.
Nest Cam tips and tricks: Get the most out of your Nest cameras
Like the Nest Cam Outdoor, the newer camera requires outdoor installation but the focus of the IQ device is on security. There are two installation options with the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor, one of which is to install the power cable through the backplate behind the camera which means cables are invisible and inaccessible from outside the house.
Both versions of Nest’s outdoor cameras come with a 7.5-meter power cable, giving you enough length to pass through the wall of your house or reach outdoor power outlets.
The Nest Cam IQ Outdoor includes a secure mounting option which requires a special tool and prevents unwanted tampering.
Pocket-lint
Hardware and specification improvements
4K, 8MP sensor with 12x digital zoom and HDR on Nest Cam IQ Outdoor
1080P, 3MP sensor with 8x digital zoom on Nest Cam Outdoor
Both offer 1080p recording and 130-degree field of view
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor has three microphones and 15 x more powerful speaker
802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi compatibility
The original Nest Cam Outdoor offers 1080P video playback and continuous recording using a 3MP sensor with 8x digital zoom. The improved Nest Cam IQ Outdoor uses an upgraded 4K, 8MP sensor with 1080P video and a 12x digital zoom.
Both cameras have a 130-degree lens and capture 1080p video at 30fps, but the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor offers HDR capture too for enhanced picture quality.
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor has three microphones which allow for noise cancellation and suppression. This will help with two-way communication but also the monitoring of important sounds around outside your home.
The upgraded Nest Cam IQ Outdoor includes a speaker which Nest claims is 15x more powerful than that on the older camera.
The original Nest Cam Outdoor has a half-duplex audio system, which means that you have to press the button to speak to someone and hold it while you talk in a walkie-talkie fashion. The newer Nest Cam IQ Outdoor camera meanwhile, uses a full-duplex system instead – so a single button press allows you to have a full conversation as if you’re making a phone call.
The newer design also includes a large RGB light ring which lights up when the two-way communication is in use so visitors can see where they’re being addressed from.
Both these cameras have similar Wi-Fi connectivity but the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor includes 2×2 MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) transmitters meaning it should be capable of maintaining a better signal than its predecessor.
Best smart plugs: Google, Alexa and smartphone compatible control
Pocket-lint
Features and capabilities
Both offer 24/7 live video with motion detection
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor has person detection alerts without subscription
Both have night vision mode
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor offers Philips Hue Lighting, Wemo plugs, TP-Link and Lifx compatibility
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor has Supersight for automatic zoom and tracking
Both Nest cameras offer 24/7 live video capture accessible via the Nest app, website or Google Home app. Both these cameras also offer night-vision mode for capturing footage day or night.
The Nest Cam IQ Outdoor has Supersight for automatic zoom and tracking of people moving about within its sight. This camera also includes person alerts as standard, out of the box, without the need for a Nest Aware subscription – something you’d need to pay extra for with the original Nest Cam Outdoor.
What is Nest Aware, how much is it and what does it offer?
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor offers Philips Hue Lighting, Wemo plugs, TP-Link and Lifx compatibility. This means you can set up smart home pairing so your lights will turn on when the camera detects movement outside to give the illusion of someone being at home when they aren’t.
Additionally, Nest Cam IQ Outdoor works with both Google Assistant and Chromecast, meaning you can use your phone or Google Home device to cast live Nest Cam footage to your TV. If you have the Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max, you can also ask Google Assistant to show you your Nest Cam IQ Outdoor footage on that.
Pocket-lint
Pricing and subscription costs
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor is more expensive to buy
Nest Aware subscription price changes and discounts available
Nest Cam IQ Outdoor offers familiar faces alerts with a subscription
Without Nest Aware subscription, both cameras record will send you alerts when motion or sound is detected, but there is no recording. With a subscription, you can get up to 60-days of event history and up to 10-days of video history, depending on the package you choose.
Nest Aware subscription also allows for the setup of activity zones within the camera’s line of sight which allows you to set areas you do or don’t want notifications from. This means you could stop getting notifications of people walking by, but get important alerts about someone trying to open your door.
Like the indoor version, the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor camera also has a “familiar faces” feature which is accessible under the Nest Aware subscription. This allows you to set the camera to recognise family and friends as it notices them. This learning ability should prevent unnecessary notifications about people the camera notices over time.
If you own a Nest Cam IQ and already have familiar faces setup then these settings will carry across to the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor too.
Nest Aware also allows for the creation of clips and timelapses on captured footage that can be used to share with family or the authorities depending on your needs.
The two subscription costs for both cameras are:
£5/$6 a month for 30-days event history but no video history
£10/$12 a month for 60-days event history and 10-days video history
These subscriptions cover all Nest devices you have though so you no longer pay extra per camera like you did when Nest Aware first launched.
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Conclusion
The Nest Cam IQ Outdoor offers various improvements over the original Nest Cam Outdoor, even without a Nest Aware subscription.
The specs mean you’ll get better video recordings, a better audio experience as well as person alerts and the ability to see a close-up tracking too.
Opt for the Nest Aware subscription and you’ll also get familiar faces alerts with the newer camera, which will help reduce unnecessary notifications and improve your experience.
The Nest Cam IQ Outdoor is quite a bit more money than the original but also offers better security solutions with the secure fitting options and ties in nicely with your other smart home devices too.
Now why not check out: Best outdoor smart home cameras: See outside your home anytime
Writing by Adrian Willings. Editing by Britta O’Boyle.
(Pocket-lint) – When it comes to compact phones with plenty of power, there aren’t a huge number of choices in the Android space. Sony has long operated in this area, offering a compact version, with the Xperia 5 III being the latest model in this range.
Asus has joined the fray with the Zenfone 8, taking its phones in a different direction and wanting to offer a compact powerhouse of its own. Here’s how the two phones compare.
Design
Zenfone 8: 148 x 68.5 x 8.9mm, 169g
Xperia 5 III: 157 x 68 x 8.2mm, 168g
Sony’s Xperia 5 III will look familiar, because it follows similiar design lines as previous models, most notably defined by the 21:9 display, meaning it’s a tall handset. Well, tall for something that’s compact.
It’s almost 1cm taller than the Zenfone 8, while these phones are otherwise a similar width, so theyt are equally easy to grip. Asus has the advantage in that you’re more likely to be able to reach the top of the phone, but Sony Mobile’s counter argument would be that it’s offering you more screen space without increasing the width, an argument that has merits.
Sony has a flatter design, with Asus using curves to the rear of the phone; we think Sony’s device looks more interesting, but that comes down to personal preference. Both have IP65/68 water protection which is a real benefit, but Asus uses Gorilla Glass Victus while Sony has Gorilla Glass 6 – so Asus’ device might have greater scratch resistance.
Both come in at the same weight, but Sony’s phone is a little slimmer.
Display
Zenfone 8: 5.9-inch, AMOLED, 2400 x 1080, HDR, 120Hz
Xperia 5 III: 6.1-inch, OLED, 2520 x 1080, HDR, 120Hz
Both these phones feature and AMOLED display, both have Full HD+ resolutions, but the Sony phone is taller, so it offers 6.1-inches of screen space compared to 5.9-inches on the Zenfone.
The aspect is the big difference with a 21:9 aspect on the Sony deivce making it a little more distinct. Reletively Sony packs in a few more pixels with a pixel density of 449ppi compared to the Zenfone’s 446ppi which is essentially the same.
Both phones support HDR, both also claim really accurate displays and both offer 120Hz refresh rates. There’s not going to be much to pick technically between these displays – again, it’s whether you want that taller Sony screen.
Both these phones offer the same core hardare, with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G delivering the latest power. Both start at 8GB RAM, but Asus offers up to 16GB (depending on the region). That means both will offer 5G – and the performance of these phones should be similar. In our testing, we’ve noted that the Zenfone 8 gets pretty hot when gaming – we’ve not been able to test the Xperia 5 III yet, but this wasn’t a problem we encountered on the Xperia 5 II.
Both also come with 128 or 256GB options, but the Xperia 5 III offers microSD expansion up to 1TB, so might be the better device for those who crave physical storage.
Sony has the advantage when it comes to battery capacity, with a 4500mAh battery and 30W charging. The Asus comes in with a 4000mAh battery and 30W charging, so it’s likely that Sony will offer slightly longer endurance – but Sony also offers wireless charging which Asus doesn’t.
Both phones have a 3.5mm headphone socket and stereo speakers.
Camera
Zenfone 8: Douple rear camera
Main: 64MP, 1/1.7in, f/1.8, 0.8μm
Ultra-wide: 12MP, 1/2.55in, f/2.2, 1.4μm
Selfie: 12MP, 1/2.93in, f/2.2, 1.22μm
Xperia 5 III: Triple rear camera
Main: 12MP, 1/2.6in, f/2.2
Ultra wide: 12MP, 1/1.7in, f/1.7
Telephoto: 12MP, 1/2.9in, f/2.3-f/2.8
Selfie: 8MP , 1/4in, f/2.0
Wading through the mass of camera specs, the big difference is that Asus offers 8K video recording on the Zenfone 8, thanks to that 64-megapixel main sensor, while Sony manages to offer a whole additional camera – and it’s a periscope-type telephoto, offering lossless zoom at 3x and 4.4x thanks to the variable focal length in the lense.
That gives Sony an immediate advantage here: it’s offering a wider range of cameras and lenses – and although we’ve not seen the performance from that camera, just offering an optical telephoto will deliver images that Asus won’t be able to match on quality.
Asus’ play comes from video, promising 8K video which Sony can’t match. Both offer 4K at up to 120fps for slow motion, while Sony also offers HDR video capture at 4K.
From the spec sheet it’s impossible to judge the performance of the cameras, with Asus putting in a good showing from what we’ve seen from it so far. But Sony is likely to emerge as the favoured model because of the additional zoom.
Price and availability
Zenfone 8: from £599/€599
Xperia 5 III: TBC
The prices aren’t known for all models, but the Zenfone 8 will start from 3/€599, which is likely to be cheaper than Sony – who hasn’t confirmed the pricing of the Xperia 5 III. The 16/256GB version will cost £699.
The Sony phone will be available in summer 2021, and the Zenfone 8 will be available in May 2021.
Conclusion
Both these phones sit in the compact phone space and share a lot in common: both have similiar core hardware, and the same power and both are likely to offer a similar experinece from Android 11 so in normal day-to-day use, there’s probably little between them.
Both come well packaged, with the Sony the more interesting phone to look at (although you may disagree), but the Zenfone 8 is shorter, so some might prefer it from a usability point of view. Technically the displays are closely matched, the only real difference being the aspect – with Sony’s 21:9 being more unique, but leading to a taller phone.
Sony is expected to have the longer battery life thanks the physically larger cell, while it also packs in a variable focal length periscope zoom on the rear, so will offer a range of photography choices that the Zenfone 8 can’t match – and that’s likely to come at a cost, with Sony expected to have a higher price.
As a daily driver, the Zenfone 8 looks like a great choice for those wanting something compact and not too expensive – but Sony’s display might be preferred by those who want to watch more movies or play more games.
The Aorus FV43U misses a couple of things as a TV replacement, but for gaming, it has few equals. A huge and accurate color gamut coupled with high contrast, 4K resolution and 144 Hz makes it a great choice for both PC and console gamers.
For
+ Class-leading contrast
+ Huge color gamut
+ Accurate out of the box
+ Excellent HDR
+ Solid gaming performance
Against
– No 24p support
– No Dolby Vision
Features and Specifications
If you’re looking for a jumbo-sized gaming monitor, there are plenty of routes you can take. There are multiple sizes of ultrawide 21:9 screens ranging from 34 to 38 inches diagonal. Then there’s the mega-wide 32:9, 49-inch genre. Or you can stick with flat panels in the 16:9 aspect ratio and go 32 inches or larger. Many simply opt for a TV, opening up the field to extra large displays that can top 80 inches.
If you want to stick with a desktop configuration though, the 43-inch category is a good choice. It’s large but not so big that you can’t sit close. It’s possible to play from 3 or 4 feet away, see the entire screen, and fill your peripheral vision with the image. And the 16:9 aspect ratio that 43-inch monitors come in means plenty of height, something that ultrawide and mega-wide monitors don’t have.
You can typically put a 43-inch gaming monitor on your desktop for around $1,500. That’s more than many 55-inch TVs but a computer monitor delivers a few things, like DisplayPort and high refresh rates, that consumer TVs do not. The Gigabyte Aorus FV43U makes the comparison a little easier, however, as it’s going for $1,000 as of writing.
The FV43U is a 16:9 VA panel competing with the best 4K gaming monitors with a 144 Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync, HDR and a quantum dot backlight that’s specced to reach 1,000 nits brightness. It also delivers decent sound from its built-in speakers, thanks to multiple sound modes. Let’s take a look.
Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Specs
Panel Type / Backlight
VA / W-LED, edge array
Screen Size & Aspect Ratio
43 inches / 16:9
Max Resolution & Refresh Rate
3840×2160 @ 144 Hz
FreeSync: 48-144 Hz
Native Color Depth & Gamut
10-bit (8-bits+FRC) / DCI-P3
DisplayHDR 1000, HDR10
Response Time (GTG)
1ms
Brightness
1,000 nits
Contrast
4,000:1
Speakers
2x 12w
Video Inputs
1x DisplayPort 1.4 w/DSC
2x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB-C
Audio
2x 3.5mm headphone output
USB 3.0
1x up, 2x down
Power Consumption
54.3w, brightness @ 200 nits
Panel Dimensions
38.1 x 25.1 x 9.9 inches
WxHxD w/base
(967 x 638 x 251mm)
Panel Thickness
3.5 inches (88mm)
Bezel Width
Top/sides: 0.4 inch (10mm)
Bottom: 1 inch (25mm)
Weight
33.8 pounds (15.4kg)
Warranty
3 years
By starting with a VA panel, the FV43U is already ahead of many premium gaming monitors that rely on lower contrast IPS technology. Most IPS monitors are specced for around 1,000:1 contrast, while the FV43U boasts 4,000:1 on its sheet and topped that dramatically in our testing with SDR and extremely when it came to HDR. HDR is aided by the monitor’s 1,000-nit backlight enhanced by a quantum dot filter for greater color volume, which our testing will also confirm.
Video processing leaves nothing under the table. The FV43U is one of the few 4K displays that can run at 144 Hz. It manages this over a single DisplayPort cable using Display Stream Compression (DSC). That means it can process 10-bit color, though it uses Frame Rate Control (FRC) to achieve this. FreeSync operates from 48-144 Hz in SDR and HDR modes. G-Sync also works with the same signals as verified by our tests, even though it’s not Nvidia-certified. (You can see how by checking out our How to Run G-Sync on a FreeSync Monitor tutorial).
Peripheral features include two HDMI 2.1 ports, which support console operation, namely the PS5 and Xbox Series X, with variable refresh rates up to 120 Hz. The monitor’s USB-C port accepts Ultra HD signals up to 144 Hz. This is common among USB-C monitors as USB-C can replicate DisplayPort functions, but you’ll need a graphics card with USB-C, of course. The monitor’s USB-C port also allows for KVM switching (allowing you to control multiple PCs with a single keyboard, monitor and mouse) through additional USB 3.0 ports.
Assembly and Accessories
Two solid metal stand pieces bolt in place on the bottom if you set up on a desktop or entertainment center. Wall mounting is supported by a 200mm lug pattern in back. You’ll have to source your own bolts which should be part of any bracket kit.
Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Side (Image credit: Gigabyte)
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Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Back (Image credit: Gigabyte)
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Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Top (Image credit: Gigabyte)
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(Image credit: Gigabyte)
From the front, the FV43U looks like any modern television with a narrow bezel around the top and sides and larger bit of molded trim across the bottom. The Aorus logo and a power LED are visible in the center. The stand puts the panel a bit less than 3 inches from the table, so it’s a good height for a desktop if you plan to sit around 4 feet back. The anti-glare layer is more reflective than most smaller screens, so plan placement accordingly if you have windows in your room.
A joystick for controlling the on-screen display (OSD) menu joystick is prominently situated on the panel’s bottom center but the easiest way to control the FV43U is with its tiny remote. It only has a few keys but they’re enough to zip through the OSD, change inputs and control the gaming features.
The back is where you’ll find most of the styling elements. Two slanted shapes are rendered in shiny plastic, along with an Aorus logo in the center. The rest of the finish is matte and features some brushed textures. Angles and straight lines are the order of the day with a generous grill at the top for heat dissipation. Speakers fire from the bottom vents and deliver 12W apiece (more on that in the Hands-on section).
The input panel is on the right side which makes it easily accessible. You get two HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4 and a USB-C, which also supports 144 Hz and Adaptive-Sync. The HDMIs are limited to 120 Hz but support Adaptive-Sync and 4K resolution, making it fit for console gaming.
OSD Features
The OSD looks just like the menu found in all Aorus monitors but you can make it larger so it can be more legible from across the room.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Gaming sub-menu has everything needed for competitive gameplay. At the top is Aim Stabilizer Sync, which is a backlight strobe for blur reduction. It’s one of the rare implementations that can work in concert with Adaptive-Sync, and it manages to do this without reducing brightness too much out of the box (of course, you can always turn the brightness up).
Black Equalizer makes shadow detail more visible; Super Resolution adds edge enhancement (not in a good way), Display Mode changes the aspect ratio and Overdrive offers four options. Balance is the best one, as it has good blur reduction, no visible ghosting and allows you to toggle Adaptive-Sync on or off.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Picture menu offers an extensive array of image modes (eight, plus three custom memories), along with color temp and gamma presets and something we normally see only on professional screens: selectable color gamuts. You can choose between Adobe RGB, DCI-P3, sRGB or Auto, but in our tests, Auto did not automatically switch the color gamut for different signal types. That means that if we wanted to watch SDR content in the sRGB it’s made in, we had to select the gamut manually.
You also get Local Dimming, which increases contrast significantly. It makes the picture very bright as well, but highlight and shadow detail remain solid, so it is perfectly usable. However, we recommend leaving it off unless your room has a lot of ambient light because you can’t reduce brightness when it’s on. If you prefer a Low Blue Light mode for reading, that feature is in the OSD too.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
A single press of the large button in the center of the remote’s nav pad brings up a quick menu. Pressing left opens the Aorus dashboard, which can display your PC component’s internal temperatures and fan speeds. You’ll need a USB connection for this, but most motherboards will transmit the information to the FV43U.
A right press brings up Game Assist, which offers timers, counters, refresh rate info and aiming points. You also get a single cross in the OSD and can create additional reticles if you download the Aorus desktop app. Additionally, the OSD offers alignment marks in case you plan to set up additional FV43Us in a multi-screen configuration. Now that would be super cool! We’re thinking ultimate desktop flight simulator.
Gigabyte Aorus FV43U Calibration Settings
The FV43U comes set to its Green (yes, that’s the term used in the OSD) picture mode. It has nothing to do with the color green but is fairly accurate out of the box – enough to make our Calibration Not Required list. But if you’re a perfectionist and want to tweak the image, choose the User Define color temp and adjust the RGB sliders. Gamma presets and color gamut options are also available. For the full native gamut, choose Auto or Adobe RGB. Either will deliver just over 100% of DCI-P3 coverage. sRGB is also very accurate, but we found it better to choose the sRGB picture mode rather than the sRGB gamut mode. Below are our recommended calibration settings for SDR on the Gigabyte Aorus FV43U.
Picture Mode
Green
Brightness 200 nits
13
Brightness 120 nits
4
Brightness 100 nits
2 (min. 89 nits)
Contrast
50
Gamma
2.2
Color Space
Auto or Adobe
Color Temp User
Red 100, Green 97, Blue 99
When HDR content is present, there are four additional picture modes available: HDR1000, HLG, Game and Movie. HDR1000 is the most accurate, but locks out all image controls. Game and Movie allow for brightness and contrast adjustments and toggling and local dimming. We’ll explain that in more detail in the HDR tests.
Gaming and Hands-on
A question that should be answered when one considers buying a 43-inch gaming monitor is, will it function as a TV? Since some FV43Us will wind up in living rooms or entertainment centers, it’s important to know whether it can play well with things like disc players or streaming boxes.
There is no internal tuner so technically, the FV43U is not a TV. But its HDMI 2.1 inputs can accept input from any cable or satellite receiver, as well as a 4K disc player or streaming box like Apple TV. We tried a Philips BDP-7501 player and an Apple TV source. SDR and HDR10 signals were supported fine with one omission, 24p. Film cadences are present on any Blu-ray and in many streamed shows and movies from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime (in addition to 50 and 60 Hz). The FV43U converted these streams to 60 Hz, which caused a bit of stuttering here and there. It wasn’t pervasive, but we occasionally saw artifacts. Note that the FV43U, like most computer monitors, doesn’t support Dolby Vision. We’ve only seen a few pro screens that includeDolby Vision.
As a monitor for controlling Windows, the FV43U was a joy to use. With its vast area, we could clearly view four or five documents simultaneously. Sitting about 4 feet back, the pixel structure was invisible, but if we sat closer we were just able to see the dots. Color, meanwhile, was beautifully saturated, great for watching YouTube and browsing the web. If you want perfect accuracy for web browsing, the sRGB mode is available with a few clicks of the remote.
Gaming is also a blast with a screen this big. SDR games like Tomb Raider rendered in vivid hues with deep blacks, bright whites and superb contrast. The large dynamic range and accurate gamma mean that you’ll see all the detail present in the original content. That lends a realism seen on only the very best computer monitors.
HDR games, like Call of Duty: WWII, also showed tremendous depth on the FV43U. We played exclusively in the HDR1000 picture mode because of its very accurate luminance and grayscale tracking. The FV43Us large color gamut was put to good use here. It was readily apparent in skin tones and natural earth shades, like brown and green. That, coupled with nearly 39,000:1 contrast, made surfaces and textures pop with a tactility that we’ve only seen from premium screens like the Acer Predator CG437K or the Asus ROG Swift PG43UQ (both go for $1,500 as of writing). Without a full-array local dimming (FALD) backlight like that Acer Predator X27 and Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ have, the FV43U doesn’t quite make the very top tier of the best HDR monitors. But it comes awfully close to their image quality while delivering a lot more screen area.
The monitor’s two 12W speakers deliver sound that’s better than what you’ll hear from smaller monitors with much more bass and overall presence. Five audio modes help you tailor sound to your preference. If you’d rather use your best gaming headset, there’s a 3.5mm jack and an additional analog output for external systems.
(Pocket-lint) – Gaming phones have become something of a fixture in the Android space; while many flagship devices push their gaming prowess, for a select few, gaming is their raison d’être, their everything.
The ROG Phone is one such device, pushing Asus’ Republic of Gamers brand and weaving into that the experience Asus has gained from its regular phones. And in the fourth-generation of this phone Asus is more ambitious than ever.
Here’s why the Asus ROG Phone 5 is not only a great gaming phone, it’s a great phone outside of that too.
Design & Build
Dimensions: 173 x 77 x 9.9mm / Weight: 239g
Under-display optical fingerprint scanner
3.5mm headphone jack
ROG Vision rear display
Gaming phones often show their colours when it comes to the design. Aside from being large – which the ROG Phone 5 definitely is – you’ll often find more overt graphics and emotive finishes rather than just being a safe black or grey.
Pocket-lint
The ROG Phone 5 doesn’t go to an extreme though: from the front it just looks like a normal phone. Flip it over and you’re treated to subtle design touches etched into the rear glass, which also gives some indicator of where the touch points are for the AirTriggers (which Asus describes as “ultrasonic sensor zones that can be customised to perform different functions, such as reproducing actions in specific games and launching specific apps”. We touch upon these in more detail in the last section of this review).
The thing that gives the game away is the ROG Vision display on the rear of the phone. There are two different versions of the display, with a dot display on the regular ROG Phone models and a slightly smaller but more sophisticated display panel on the Pro and Ultimate models – the Pro is shown in this review.
ROG Phone 5 comes in regular, Pro and Ultimate editions
Pocket-lint
That blows the subtlety out of the water, allowing you to have RBG illumination on the back of the phone – with the Pro and Ultimate models offering a wider range of graphics and animations – all of which can be controlled through the Armoury Crate app on the phone, just like Asus PC components.
That control includes turning the Vision display off if you don’t want it – but you’ll soon forget it’s there until people mention it. It’s on the back of the phone and it’s rare to be looking at the back of the phone when you’re doing something, so let’s not dwell on it.
There are a couple of other quirks around the body: The USB-C on the base of the phone is offset to one side rather than central (and we don’t know exactly why), while there’s a secondary USB-C on the side of the phone. This secondary USB sits alongside the contact point to power the AeroActive Cooler 5 – the clip-on fan – and both have a rubber seal that presses into the side to keep out dust.
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This cover is probably the worst piece of design implementation on the ROG Phone 5. The fact that there are a couple of spares in the box tell you everything you need to know: you’re going to lose this cover, because it’s a separate piece of rubber.
Motorola’s new Moto G9 Plus is a stunner of a phone – find out why, right here
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We’ve found it flapping off when pulling the phone from a pocket, and just when handling the device. We’re constantly pushing it back into place and a couple of times we’ve found it missing and then located it in the bottom of a pocket.
An out of box experience all phones can learn from
One of the great things about gaming phones is what you get for your money. There are a whole range of phones on offer and none are really expensive compared to flagships from brands like Samsung and Apple. The ROG Phone 5 starts at £799 in the UK – and that’s for a 12GB RAM model with 256GB storage, not the bottom of the range loadout.
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But it’s not just about the core device, it’s about the rest of the experience. Lavishly packaged, opening the ROG Phone 5 is an event. From the cool comic book graphics of inside of the box, that flow through into the startup process for the phone, there’s a sense of theatre. It’s a reward for your custom and it’s so much better than just sliding a phone out of a box.
You also get more in the box: the 65W charger that will deliver a fast charge; the case that brings some grip to what is, admittedly, a slippery phone given its massive size; and the clip-on AeroActive Cooler 5 fan, which integrates a kickstand, two physical buttons, and another RGB logo.
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Some might baulk at this as more landfill, but some companies will make you pay for the charger – and here you’re getting a powerful charger you can use with your other devices too.
Display
6.78-inch AMOLED panel
Up to 144Hz refresh rate
2448 x 1080 resolution
There’s a 6.78-inch display in the ROG Phone 5. It’s big by any standard, with Asus hanging onto the bezels top and bottom. The top bezel integrates the front-facing camera, so there’s no need for a notch or punch-hole.
It’s also a flat display, all practical design decisions made to give you the best gaming experience, ensuring that you get as much visual space as possible. Given how problematic we found the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s display, we’re just fine with the ROG Phone 5 going flat.
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The ROG Phone 5 models all stick to a Full HD resolution and while devices like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra can technically produce finer detail, generally speaking that makes little difference. We can’t fault the ROG Phone’s display for detail.
It also offers refresh rates up to 144Hz (if you have any games that support that, there’s a full list on the ROG website), with options to select 60 or 120Hz – or Auto, which will pick the refresh rate based on the content.
HDR 10+ is supported to bring pop to the visuals for high dynamic range content, while that AMOLED panel provides rich colour visuals, with the option to tune that to your preferences.
It’s a great display and about the only thing that separates it from the best displays on the market is the peak brightness. It offers 800 nits, which is still bright enough for most, but Samsung’s top-end offerings will outshine this model – most notable when outside in sunny conditions.
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Flanking the display top and bottom are dual stereo speakers, while there’s also a 3.5mm headphone socket for those wanting to go wired. The speaker performance is stellar, amongst the best you’ll find on a smartphone. It’s rich and immersive, with substantial bass and volume that means you don’t need headphones to get the most from your content.
Hardware & Performance
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform
8GB-18GB RAM, 128GB-512GB storage
6000mAh battery, dual USB-C 65W wired charging
The fact the ROG Phone 5 houses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 platform makes it especially good value for money – as you’re getting the latest flagship hardware that will embarrass some other phones.
Of course it comes in at different price points, with RAM and storage leveraging the price, although not all models will be available in all regions. We actually tested the 16GB/512GB model (the ROG Phone 5 Pro – a model that isn’t planned for the UK; although there’s a 16GB/512GB version of the standard ROG Phone 5, the only difference being the type of display you get on the back of the phone).
The performance is also exemplary. There are a number of elements to this. It’s got that great hardware and, as a result, we’ve found the gaming performance to be outstanding.
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This is a phone that eats hours of Call of Duty Mobile or PUBG Mobile, giving solid gameplay, combined with those design elements and some software enhancements that feel like they give you edge, or at least give you the opportunity to establish new preferences thanks to the bespoke gaming options offered.
We also didn’t find the ROG Phone 5 to get excessively hot under load, despite the option of the clip-on fan.
But the important point about performance is that the ROG Phone 5 also runs fast and smooth outside of gaming. We’ve seen gaming phones that drop the ball when it comes to simple tasks, because of poor software. The ROG Phone 5 is stable, which makes for a great experience.
There’s a huge 6000mAh battery, which is fitting for a phone of this size, again with Asus splitting the battery and enabling 65W wired charging. That makes for really fast charging, with the option to bypass charging – and just have the power used for the system rather than recharging the battery.
Again, this is an option for gamers, so you’re not charging (which produces heat) and loading the system (which produces heat) and could potentially lead to a drop in performance.
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A big battery means big battery life. In regular use the ROG Phone 5 will easily see you through the day and into the next. It’s not a charge every night type of phone. Even with a couple of hours of gaming thrown in – at top brightness and max settings – battery life isn’t a worry. That’s a great position not just for a gaming phone, but any smartphone.
There are power modes available, with X Mode firing up full power to let things rip, and a Dynamic Mode to keep things balanced. You can customise the power modes to suit your preferences with things like network, display, performance, and other controls all selectable.
There’s an under-display fingerprint scanner that’s fast to unlock, while calls comes through loud and clear too – with no detected problems with Wi-Fi or 5G connectivity.
The camera on any gaming phone is often something of an afterthought. The focus is on the experience of gaming – so the camera is seen as less of a focus. Despite that, Asus is pushing the ROG Phone 5 as having a triple camera system.
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The main camera is a 64-megapixel sensor, using pixel combining to produce a 16-megapixel image as standard. You can shoot in full resolution, but you have to dig into the menu to find that option, which no one is ever going to do.
There’s an ultra-wide lens, giving the equivalent of 0.6x, although the quality isn’t great, with visible blurring around the edges if there’s any detail there – but fine for open shots of expansive landscapes.
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1.0X MAIN CAMERA
The final camera is a macro camera, which we’re generally non-plussed about. As on other devices, macro cameras seem to be thrown in to make up the numbers – and that’s what it feels like here too.
So back the main camera and the performance is reasonable, producing naturally balanced pictures, although perhaps not getting the most out of scenes and not showing as much pop as other cameras we’ve seen can offer.
Low-light shooting offers that slow exposure so you can watch the image get lighter, which we like – and it will take those shots automatically in low light, which means people will actually use it.
There’s a portrait mode for blurring the background that works well enough, although it seems to soften the background with over-exposure which makes results look a little clumsy.
Portrait works on the front and back cameras and we generally prefer the results without portrait mode – and you can’t adjust the levels of blur after the fact, so it’s worth taking a few photos and figuring out what gives you pleasing results so you can change the settings before you take the picture. The selfie camera is generally good, although images quickly get softer in lower light conditions and aren’t good when it gets dark.
There’s no optical zoom on offer here, although you can pinch-to-zoom from the main camera out to 8x. It’s not an especially elegant system and the results are typical of digital zoom, with quality dropping as you increase the “magnification”.
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One of the reasons for the high-resolution sensor – apart from for the benefit of the spec sheet – is to allow 8K video capture, on top of the 4K 60fps option.
The important thing about the camera is that it gets the job done: while other phones will sell themselves on camera features above all else, that’s not really the ethos behind the ROG Phone 5. This phone is all about the power and the gaming experience. So, yes, there are more engaging cameras elsewhere, but at the same time, this Asus will give you perfectly good results in most situations.
Software and custom gaming options
Android 11
Armoury Crate
Custom gaming controls
As we’ve said previously, the software on the ROG Phone 5 runs smooth and fast. We’ve experienced no problems with the tweaks and changes that Asus has made over Google’s Android operating system, and it’s easy to swing in with Google versions of apps rather than supplied alternatives.
It’s running Android 11 too, so the latest version of Google’s OS – although Asus doesn’t quite have the update record that a company like Samsung now offers, so there’s no telling how long it would be before it moves to Android 12 once that’s released later down the line.
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What’s more relevant here is the gaming software and the options that controls. We’ve mentioned Armoury Crate, which will let you control things like the ROG Vision display on the back of the phone, and act as a launch pad for your games.
Within each game you can see how long you’ve spent playing that game, but more usefully you have a record of profiles for that game. You can, for example, restrict background CPU usage when playing a particular game, change the touch performance, turn off background network syncing – all designed to ensure you have the optimal gaming experience.
That you can customise this to each game is great. For something like a shooter where connection and touch matters more, you might want to restrict everything else. For something casual like Pokemon Go, you might be happy to have everything else on your phone happening. It’s freedom to choose, rather than one gaming mode fits all.
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Within games you have access to the Game Genie dashboard too, allowing you to perform essential things, like tweak the brightness, turn off alerts or calls, speed up your phone – and block navigation gestures so you don’t accidentally exit the game.
There’s the option to have stats always showing – CPU and GPU usage, battery, temperature, fps – and you can drag these to anywhere on the screen so they are out of the way.
But it’s the AirTriggers that are the biggest differentiator from other phones, giving you a range of touch zones around the body of the phone that you can customise. That also includes two physical buttons on the AeroActive Cooler accessory too – which might convince some people to use it, as those buttons feel more positive than the touch areas of the phone’s casing.
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The Cooler buttons are great for things like dropshotting in shooters, because you can hit the deck while still firing, and get back to your feet, all without having to touch anything on the screen – which is a real advantage during games.
There are two ultrasonic buttons on the top of the phone, like shoulder buttons, with haptic feedback. These can offer a full range of programmable options – taps, swipes, slides – and they can be divided into two buttons each side, or you can programme and assign a macro to that button for a sequence you might use in a game.
Then there’s motion support, which you can assign to controls in the game – like forward tilt to reload, or whatever you like.
There’s also (on the Pro and Ultimate models only) rear touch zones you can use for slide input for your fingers on the rear of the phone.
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The challenge is how you incorporate all these tools to make things easier for you during games – although setting them up is easy enough and each setup is unique to each game.
Even if you just find one thing that’s useful, then you’re a step ahead. That might be using an additional AirTrigger for an on-screen control you find hard to hit – or that you can then remove from the display so you have less UI in the way of the game.
Verdict
The thing that really hits home about the Asus ROG Phone 5 is that it’s not just a great gaming phone: it’s a great phone full stop.
Yes, you can’t avoid the fact that the majority of phones are now based around the camera experience – and that’s one area that the ROG Phone 5 doesn’t really go to town on. But with huge battery and display, this is a great media phone in addition to a gaming delight.
For keen gamers, there’s a market of phone choices out there – and the ROG Phone 5 should definitely be high up your shortlist. For everyone else, if you can accept that this Asus is designed for gamers first, it’s still an awful lot of phone for the money.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Nubia Red Magic 6
This gaming phone attempts to steal the show with a 165Hz display. Despite being a powerful device that’s good value for money, it does oversell the cameras and also brings with it some software quirks you’ll need to work around.
Gigabyte is announcing seven new laptops featuring the hardware from Intel and Nvidia, two of which are packing Nvidia’s brand new RTX 3050 Ampere mobile GPU.
The new Gigabyte G5 and G7 are the company’s latest budget-friendly offerings for mainstream buyers. Both models are packing Intel’s 11th Gen Core processors, the eight-core i7-11800H or the hexa-core Core i5-11400H based on the Tiger Lake architecture. The G5 and G7 also use Nvidia’s newly released RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti mobile GPUs.
Both notebooks feature dual DDR4-3200 slots supporting a max of 64GB (32GB per DIMM), and dual M.2 slots supporting PCIe with one allowing up to Gen 3 speeds and the other up to Gen 4. Plus, you get one 2.5-inch HDD/SSD slot that supports 7mm (or thinner) SATA drives.
The main difference between the G5 and the G7 is display size. The G5 is a 15-inch notebook while the G7 comes in a larger 17-inch form factor. Despite the changes in size, both laptops will come with the same panel specs, with a 1080p display at 144 Hz.
For connectivity the G5 and G7 come with four USB ports of different variations: You get a single USB 2.0 Type-A, dual USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports with one being type-C, and finally a USB 3.2 Gen 1 type A port.
For wireless connectivity, the G5 and G7 come with Intel’s AX200 or AX201 wireless cards which both support WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. For storage and memory, you get dual M.2 slots with one supporting Gen 3 speeds and the other supporting Gen 4.
The line starts at $1,149 for the lowest-end G5.
Refreshed AERO 15/17
(Image credit: Gigabyte)
Gigabyte is also updating its Aero line of laptops, which are targeted towards creators and gamers alike. Gigabyte is adding two upgraded models to the Aero lineup, the Aero 15 OLED and the Aero 17 HDR with new CPUs.
The main differences between the 15 and 17 will be its size and display type (as the name implies), the Aero 15 will come with a Samsung AMOLED display so you get those very crisply visuals and stunning visuals. Unfortunately, you will not be able to get an AMOLED display for the Aero 17, so Gigabyte has opted for a 4k HDR display instead.
The upgrade you’re getting on the new refreshed Aero 15 and 17 are the CPUs; both the OLED and HDR variants get upgraded to Intel’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake CPUs, specifically the i9-11980HK or the i7-11800H. Giving these laptops a big performance and efficiency boost over previous Comet Lake mobile CPUs.
Like the previous Comet Lake-based Aero 15 and 17, you get options for either an RTX 3070 or RTX 3080 GPU with a 105W TDP.
AORUS 17X
(Image credit: Gigabyte)
Gigabyte is also refreshing the Aorus 17X, the companies flagship gaming laptop with a 17.3 display and a thick chassis with vapor chamber cooling to cool Nvidia and Intel’s top tier CPUs and GPUs.
The 17X will come with Intel’s highest-end mobile processor you can get, the i9-11980HK with 8 cores and a max turbo frequency of 5GHz. The chip has a configurable TDP up to 65W. What we don’t know is how Gigabyte configured the TDP for the Aorus 17X.
For graphics, the Aorus 17X will come with an RTX 3080, with a whopping 165W of target graphics power.
This flagship device includes some other top-end specifications, including a 300 Hz display and a mechanical keyboard with Omron gaming switches and RGB backlighting.
This laptop is set to launch in June starting at $2,099.
The new Atom’s headline ability is headphone playback, but don’t underestimate its value as a preamplifier. It’s a classy and versatile addition to Naim’s Uniti range.
For
Top-notch streaming
Great headphone stage
Also a great smart preamp
Against
No HDMI ARC input
Sound+Image mag review
(Image credit: Future)
This review originally appeared in Sound+Image magazine, one of What Hi-Fi?’s Australian sister publications. Click here for more information on Sound+Image, including digital editions and details on how you can subscribe.
UK-based Naim Audio became first renowned for its amplification, proving the importance of power quality from the early 1970s. Three decades later Naim was also quick to recognise the future of file-based and streaming music, and today enjoys great success with its Mu-so wireless speakers, while the Uniti range of all-in-one streaming systems deliver simple but definitely hi-fi ‘just-add-speakers’ solutions.
In a way the Uniti players brought together everything Naim has learned – the wireless, multiroom and control elements of the Mu-sos, with the solid hi-fi amplification developed over decades, including more recent trickle-down tech from the developmental fillip of investment made in the company’s no-holds-barred Statement amplifier project.
Now here comes the Uniti Atom Headphone Edition (£2399/$3290/AU$4299), which takes the smallest of the existing Uniti all-in-ones and does something rather unexpected for Naim – it throws out the part on which the company built its reputation, the amplification.
10 of the best British amplifiers of all time
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
Features
Well, that’s not entirely true. There are no amplifiers for loudspeakers, as provided on the other Uniti units (excepting only the Uniti Core, which adds networked hard-drive storage to the range).
But as the ‘HE’ of the new name suggests, it caters instead to headphones. On the front there are headphone outputs for jacks of full-size quarter-inch (6.5mm in new money) and 4.4mm Penteconn balanced connections, while round the back there’s a second balanced connection on 4-pin XLR.
We’re told that for this product Naim has used an all-new amp implementation designed especially so it delivers the best headphone amplifier experience, including a new transformer design to provide power tailored to the needs of the headphone amplification.
But this is not only a headphone amp. It’s also a preamplifier, and Naim has optimised its preamplifier performance also, “including elements originally used in our flagship Statement Amplifier” it says.
As a preamplifier it offers one analogue input pair on RCA sockets, and then digital inputs: two optical and one coaxial, plus USB-A slots both front and rear. There’s also Bluetooth available, which includes the aptX codec.
What doesn’t it have? It loses from the original Atom the HDMI ARC connection which was handy to play audio from your TV, and there’s still no USB-B connection to play direct from computer.
But its outputs are expanded, its variable preamplifier output available on both unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR outputs to feed your downstream amplification. This could play straight to power amps, since there is full volume control in the Atom HE – either from the remote, from its app, or from the heavenly Naim knob which sits on top, the only disadvantage of this positioning being that it is hidden when the unit goes on a good rack shelf, though its minimal height of 9cm means you should still be able to squeeze your hand in there for a knob spin when the urge presents itself.
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
Streaming
And in addition to physical inputs, this Naim has all the streaming prowess of other Uniti members, and that’s to say as complete a set of protocols as you’ll find anywhere – so many, indeed, that when the range originally launched, it was significantly delayed by the paper trail for all the licensing involved.
So this includes being easily addressed from any Spotify app, free or paid, or using Apple’s AirPlay 2 to stream the output of a Mac or any app on an iOS app, and Chromecast too, for point-to-point streaming from Android devices. Those with music libraries on a PC can use its UPnP ‘server’ function. It’s also Roon Ready, and although the Roon-direct licensing was still going through when it arrived for review, it was nevertheless available in Roon via its Chromecast and AirPlay abilities.
Then there are the services available within the Naim app itself. These include internet radio and podcasts, Tidal, and Qobuz (the latter newly available to Australia). You may note these are services which offer higher-quality subscriptions; Naim emphasises this quality also in its internet radio app, with a section devoted to higher-rate streams than the often grungy desk-compressed pop stations.
And one last batch of capabilities – the Atom HE is multiroom-capable with other Naim equipment including the Mu-so wireless speakers, so you can have music playing in unison (and Uniti) throughout your home. Chromecast and AirPlay 2 offer other paths to multiroom and multi-device playback.
Best music streamers 2021
Setting up
Having previously reviewed the standard Uniti Atom, we found set-up here to be a breeze. You have to pair the remote control by holding it to the full-colour five-inch front-panel panel display while you push ‘Home’ for three seconds. Our Naim app, already installed on an iPad Pro, needed a reinstall before it saw the Atom HE on the network and delivered it a firmware update, losing contact until the update was complete.
Beyond that, we had absolutely zero operational issues, and indeed throughout our testing we were able to generate no criticisms at all – not one – because Naim has honed its highly versatile and potentially complex operation to something near perfection.
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(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
The Naim app presents all its streaming services on one screen, the inputs on a scrolling second screen; if that doesn’t appeal you can use the settings to reorder the inputs to your preference, banishing unused ones to the second screen.
We had connected a Thorens turntable via a phono stage into the analogue input. We connected our computer to an optical input, using a DAC between them as a USB-to-SPDIF converter.
To kick off, we ran the Atom HE’s unbalanced pre-outputs to our resident power amps, always a slightly nervous connection to make when the preamp is digitally controlled and might flick the output to max accidentally. (Once we had Roon connected, we specified a safety level beyond which the volume slider then can’t go.)
We addressed it first from Tidal on the Naim app, then from the Tidal app itself, then from Roon.
Indeed during the Atom’s visit it may have be physically located in one room, but it seemed omnipresent. Wherever we accessed music – on the music room computer, on our Chromebook, the iPhone, a tablet – there was the Naim Atom as a playback device waving at us as if saying ‘Play to me! Play to me!’ There are so many ways to play that surely any current preferred path to playback will fit right in.
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
Listening
We can fully believe Naim’s claim that the preamp of the Atom HE is actually superior to those of the current Uniti range. Even in our initial set-up without the benefit of the balanced connections, all the cues from our favourite tunes poured from power amp and speaker references, dynamically delivered, cleanly resolving the good and the bad.
The effect on Alex the Astronaut’s main vocal for Split the Sky can sound curiously excessive on systems lacking resolution, degenerating into a mush. Here it could be discerned separately, part delay, part reverb. More to the point, the music and the emotion were entirely unchecked. The quite awful subject matter of her remarkable I Like To Dance is chilling; her Triple J cover of Mr Blue Sky – The Go-Betweens’ Lindy Morrison on drums – is sheer joy.
The Tidal stream through the Atom HE easily outperformed Spotify’s relatively softened sound. Naim’s Uniti platform does not support the MQA encoding which Tidal uses to ‘unfold’ its high-res Masters to their high definition – Naim could change this by firmware update, it has said, but is being led by demand.
Whatever you might think of MQA, it may be that uncompressed FLAC high-res streaming as offered by Qobuz and Deezer represents a purer future – after all, with today’s bandwidths defined by streaming 4K video, what need for data compression of high-res music any more?
So with Qobuz newly launched in Australia, we took the opportunity to connect our Roon to Qobuz, and our Roon to the Uniti. Roon’s excellent quality check pop-up box reminded us that Roon via Chromecast dropping the high-res to 48kHz, so we switched to Qobuz direct inside the Naim app. And what a joy that was. Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way was almost alarmingly crisp; details on Toto’s Africa (the left-channel chuckle on the intro) astoundingly apparent, especially as our usual playback preference for this slice of soft rock is the vinyl 45.
Best music streaming services
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
On Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, the continuous rolling drums’n’bass were entirely segregated from the other parts, and the emotional lift of multitracked Kates as we reached the first ‘Come on baby, come on darlin’ was thrilling at an almost tactile level. We began regretting our agreement to return the Atom HE to distributor BusiSoft AV within an unusually brief two weeks; we were barely getting started and we were missing it already.
Headphone playback
Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition specs
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
Inputs: 1 x analogue RCA, 2 x optical digital, 1 x coaxial digital, 2x USB-A
Streaming: Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast, UPnPT, Spotify Connect, TIDAL, Qobuz, Roon Ready, Bluetooth, Internet radio
Also visiting from Naim’s Australian distributor were the Final Audio D8000 Pro headphones, themselves a mere AU$4999 (£3995, US$4299) with their silver-coated cables trailing away to the Atom HE’s full-size headphone jack like weighty twisted tinsel.
The Naim had not the slightest trouble driving these esoteric 60-ohm planar magnetic headphones to their maximum ability, whether delivering a tight and punchy kick drum under the guitar and synthscape of The Triffids’ Wide Open Road, or highlighting the curiously lo-fi elements opening Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know.
The Naim and Finals delivered a mind-meltingly zingy portrayal of The Go-Betweens’ Streets of your Town, currently resurrected for advertising purposes by Ampol but here crisply separated to the point where our attention was constantly darting around the soundstage to small sonic elements like the cunning combination of panned rhythm guitars, the tight block hits in the left, each element easily individually selectable by the mind’s ear, yet held together in a finely musical whole.
We also ran more affordable headphone references – open AKGs, closed Sennheisers – and there wasn’t a pair which didn’t display their full abilities or receive more than enough power on tap from the Atom HE – enough, indeed, to achieve quite worrying levels without any hint of congestion or distortion.
The relevant figures are 1.5 watt-per-channel output into 16 ohms (from all headphone outputs), and output impedance of 4.7 ohms. The headphone amp remains in pure Class-A except for lower impedance headphones pushed to the extremes of volume, when a Class-AB circuit is “seamlessly” invoked.
If you like it loud (bearing in mind the dangers of so listening), the Atom HE will at least ensure you get your music with a minimum of damaging distortion.
After a head-pumping serve of Wolfmother’s The Joker and the Thief we wondered if we should take a rest, but Qobuz continued serving such delights that we didn’t, instead diverting to some high-res classical. This confirmed the dynamic reserve of the headphone output and a remarkable ability to stay tonally accurate across different impedance headphones. All this was from the standard unbalanced quarter-inch headphone socket; the balanced outputs could potentially lift the Atom HE’s game still higher.
Best headphones 2021
(Image credit: Naim Audio)
Having an assortment of active stereo speakers in residence for our group test this issue, it occurred to us that the Atom HE’s abilities as a preamp perfectly complemented just such devices. The ELAC Navis, for example, has balanced XLR inputs, to which we connected the Atom HE’s balanced outputs.
The result was wildly successful – a brilliant pair of speakers provided with a perfectly-pitched preamp output backed by physical inputs, streams galore, an app, a physical remote control and Naim’s big knob. Adding good active speakers to the Atom HE makes for a wonderfully compact yet versatile system, boosted by its particular powers to make your headphones sing when privacy is required.
Verdict
The Atom HE is an excellent addition to the Naim Uniti range – something genuinely different in offering a streaming preamplifier with a top-quality headphone amplifier. Use it alone with headphones, with power amps, or with active speakers, and you have a system just as versatile in its streaming abilities as the Mu-so, more versatile in its connections, and far higher in its hi-fi quality. And it comes with the best knob in hi-fi. It’s a big thumbs up from us.
Earlier this year we reported that Walmart was prepping a new streaming stick under its affordable ‘Onn’ brand. The big-box retailer is yet to release details of that product, but now another Onn media streamer has shown up on Walmart’s website.
First reported by 9to5Google, the official listing for the ‘onn. Android TV UHD Streaming Device’ promises 4K and Dolby Audio support, as well as Chromecast built-in and Google voice controls for the princely sum of $29.88.
As you can see, this version is a streaming ‘box’ rather than a ‘stick’ and has a slightly different remote with dedicated buttons for YouTube Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max. (The leaked photo of the streaming ‘stick’ showed it with an Amazon Prime Video shortcut.)
Spec-wise, the new box is just what you’d expect from a budget-friendly streamer that runs Google’s Android TV. There’s support for WiFi 5, an HDMI port (for video output) and a micro USB connection (for charging).
There are plenty of 4K streaming sticks already on sale around the $50 mark, with the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and Roku Streaming + both proving popular choices at the moment. But at less than $30, Walmart’s onn. Android TV UHD Streaming Device could give consumers another tempting proposition (and rival brands a sleepless night or two).
The device isn’t available to purchase yet – Walmart shows it as “Out of stock” – but the fact that the listing is public points to a launch in the near future. Perhaps we’ll see this model joined by the rumoured Onn streaming stick? Over to you, Walmart.
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The Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel is a computer I will never own. But I really, really wish I could.
Artists, creators, and engineers who are looking for a powerful high-end convertible have all kinds of options on today’s market. But only Acer’s ConceptD line can fold in six different ways. There are not one, but two hinges attached to the display: a traditional clamshell hinge and another one in the middle of the lid that enables the screen to rotate outward. By using the two hinges in tandem, you can put the screen in nearly any position you want. This unique form factor makes the ConceptD 7 Ezel unlike any other laptop on the market.
There are other things that separate the Ezel from something like a MacBook, of course. It also has a sleek look with an attractive finish, a gorgeous 15.6-inch 4K UHD touch display, a built-in Wacom EMR pen, and all the ports you need. The chips on the inside are quite powerful. But you can find similar benefits in many convertibles that are half the price. The people who should shell out thousands of dollars for this device are those who have a need for the combination of its unique form factor and large screen — and the rest of us can be jealous of them from afar.
Before ogling too much over this form factor, you might want to know how much it costs. The $2,499 base model comes with an Intel Core i7-10750H, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. For $2,999.99, you can bump the graphics up to a GeForce RTX 2070 and 2TB of storage. I was sent the top model, which has a Core i7-10875H, 32GB of RAM, and a GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q, for a whopping $3,999.99. These components are both a generation old — Acer hasn’t refreshed the ConceptD with the latest chips yet — but they still deliver solid performance, as you’ll see later on.
These prices will make the ConceptD 7 Ezel an unrealistic purchase for most people, but there’s a 14-inch ConceptD that’s more affordable if you’re interested in this form factor. For those whose work involves professional design and video editing, CGI, machine learning, and the like, Acer also sells a ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro with an Nvidia Quadro GPU. Those are expensive, and people whose work requires a Quadro likely know who they are.
A normal-looking laptop, until you start bending the screen.
There are all kinds of ways you could theoretically arrange the ConceptD, but Acer has defined six. There’s Laptop (self-explanatory), Pad (tablet mode), Float (screen facing forward, hanging above the keyboard deck), Stand (screen facing forward, forming a tent shape over the keyboard deck), Share (screen facing upward, parallel to the keyboard deck), and Display (clamshell shape, but with the screen facing away from the keyboard).
I started out using the Ezel in Laptop most of the time, but Float grew on me quickly. It brought the screen much closer to me — it’s pretty far away in Laptop mode, given the size of the keyboard deck. I can see the use cases for the other modes as well: I’d love to use Stand to take notes during a lecture, for example, and Share could be useful for drawing while standing at a desk. The one form I can’t really see myself using is Pad because, at 5.6 pounds, the Ezel is too heavy to practically hold as a tablet unless you’re swole.
The one hiccup I ran into is that the screen is very top-heavy. A few times when I picked the device up, the screen would start to fall forward and I’d have to catch it to keep the lid open. My preferences for Windows tablet mode vs. Windows desktop mode also didn’t quite line up with the device’s. It stayed in desktop mode when in Stand, for example, but I’d prefer it switch to Tablet Mode in that form since the keyboard isn’t accessible.
Acer calls this the “Ezel Hinge design.”
The fact that these form factors are useful, of course, doesn’t mean that most people needthem. Convertibles like the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 can emulate most of these positions as well (Float and Stand are the really unique ones). The Ezel is really meant for people who will be using the nontraditional forms a lot. For those folks, it has two main benefits: moving the screen around is quite smooth and seamless (you don’t have to use two hands to flip the whole machine around, as you would with a 2-in-1 workstation), and the hinge is also sturdy enough that you can draw in Float and Share with no wobble at all. Of course, this sturdiness comes with a big weight penalty, in addition to its price premium — the Ezel is much heavier than most convertible machines.
That extra heft isn’t for nothing — there are some serious fans in this device. Specifically, there are two “4th-Gen AeroBlade 3D” fans in addition to three heat pipes, and there are vents all over the place including the sides of the case and above the keyboard. The system (which Acer calls its “Vortex Flow” design) did a good job of keeping the chassis cool during my day-to-day work — the bottom sometimes got warm but was never uncomfortably hot, and I never felt much heat on the keyboard or palm rests.
Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel benchmarks
Benchmark
Score
Benchmark
Score
Cinebench R23 Multi
8610
Cinebench R23 Single
1249
Cinebench R23 Multi looped for 30 minutes
8413
Geekbench 5.3 CPU Multi
7879
Geekbench 5.3 CPU Single
1280
Geekbench 5.3 OpenCL / Compute
91801
PugetBench for Premiere Pro
604
The fans had trouble keeping pace with the CPU, though. Temperatures stayed solidly in the mid-70s to mid-80s (Celsius) during a 30-minute loop of Cinebench — but throughout several runs of a five-minute, 33-second 4K video export in Adobe Premiere Pro, I saw it jump up to the mid-90s, and even high-90s often. Cinebench scores did decrease over time, and export times also got slower.
The ConceptD took two minutes and 55 seconds to complete the video export, which is one of the fastest times we’ve ever seen from a laptop. The Dell XPS 15 with the same processor and a GTX 1650 Ti took four minutes and 23 seconds (though different versions of Premiere Pro can impact export times, so synthetic benchmarks such as Cinebench are more precise for direct comparison).
Chunky as tablets go.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Here’s Stand.
There’s a “specialized silent switch” under the touchpad.
The webcam’s okay. There’s no privacy shutter.
All ConceptDs include a Pantone-validated display.
SD card reader on the front.
On the left: one USB-A, two Thunderbolt 3, one headphone jack, one Kensington lock slot.
On the right: One USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, one DisplayPort, one HDMI, one Ethernet, one power port.
Check out that hinge.
I also ran PugetBench for Premiere Pro, which measures a device’s performance on a number of real-world Premiere Pro tasks, and the ConceptD scored a 604, which beats the XPS 15 as well. The ConceptD also solidly beats the XPS on Geekbench 5 across the board. The XPS isn’t exactly on a level playing field here, since it has a weaker GPU — these results just illustrate the increased performance that the ConceptD will give you for the extra money. Acer’s machine did lose to Apple’s M1 MacBook Pro in both single-core tests, which underscores how powerful Apple’s processor is in single-core workloads.
The Ezel comes with some software features tailored to creative work as well. In Acer’s ConceptD Palette app, you can swap between Native and Adobe RGB color presets, as well as customizable profiles. You can also monitor CPU, GPU, and memory usage to see how much power your apps are using, and you can toggle between various split-screen layouts if you’re multitasking.
Acer says it’s worked with developers to “optimize” the device to work with various software including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Maya, Revit, and KeyShot. You could also run games on the ConceptD, but it wouldn’t be the best choice since the screen is just 60Hz and won’t be able to display very high frame rates.
As is often the case with big workstations, the Ezel’s battery life isn’t amazing. I averaged four hours and five minutes of continuous use with the screen around 200 nits of brightness. That’s not unexpected, considering the high-resolution display and the discrete GPU, but it’s worth noting that you’ll probably need to bring the hefty brick with you if you’re taking the Ezel out and about.
Elsewhere, the ConceptD 7 is a fine laptop to use. The keyboard is a bit flatter than I prefer but comfortable enough. The backlighting is a dark orange color (Acer calls it warm amber) that looks nice against the white deck. The touchpad is a bit small for a laptop of this size and I sometimes hit plastic while scrolling, but it is quite smooth. The chassis itself is a sturdy magnesium-aluminum alloy, and it’s covered in a nice white finish that Acer says is “highly resistant” to dirt and sun exposure. There’s a fingerprint reader built into the power button on the left side of the chassis, which works just fine.
I enjoyed using the built-in stylus, though it’s a bit stiff to pull out of its garage and requires a substantial nail. The pen uses Wacom EMR technology, meaning it never needs to be charged; it draws its power from inside the display. I enjoyed the limited drawing I was able to do on the smooth matte display (I’m an amateur artist at best).
The pen lives on the right side.
Acer says the ConceptD utilizes “improved psychoacoustics” to provide a better listening experience. You can swap between presets for music, voice, movies, and various types of games in the DTS:X Ultra app that comes preloaded if you have external speakers or headphones connected. If you’re using just the laptop, there are Music, Game, Movies, and Voice presets in ConceptD Palette. The dual front speakers themselves deliver not-great audio that’s quite lacking in the bass department.
Do you want to switch to tablet mode?
The ConceptD 7 Ezel is… well, in a word, it’s awesome. But you don’t need me to tell you that you don’t need to spend $4,000 to get an awesome device. If you want a touchscreen convertible with stylus support and can live without quite this much processing power, devices like the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 and the HP Spectre x360 15 are half the price of this device, more portable, and also have outstanding screens. The Spectre’s screen doesn’t literally fold over the keyboard, but it’ll work for many of the same use cases. And even for folks who want this particular form factor, the smaller ConceptD 3 Ezel will be a more practical purchase. The ConceptD 7 Ezel is for those who need serious power.
But man, is the ConceptD 7 Ezel a great device for content creators. As a professional reviewer, I’ve used more creator-focused laptops than most people on the planet — and I’ve never used anything like this. It’s a great idea, it’s powerful, it’s well-built, and it’s a lot of fun to use. I won’t recommend that you buy it — but if you do, please know that I’m very jealous of you.
The Razer Blade 15 Advanced, one of the numerous laptops announced today with Intel’s new chips.Image: Razer
Over half a dozen manufacturers have announced new models
Intel is adding new processors to its 11th Gen Core H-series lineup today, and over half a dozen laptop manufacturers are announcing new machines that make use of them. In total, there are 10 new Tiger Lake-H processors being announced today, including five consumer processors and five commercial processors, with between six and eight cores. Here’s our full writeup on the chips themselves.
According to Intel, its new H-series processors will be used in over 30 upcoming ultraportables (aka: laptops that are 20mm thick or less) and upward of 80 workstations. Companies including Razer, HP, Asus, Lenovo, MSI, Acer, Gigabyte, and Dell are announcing their first laptops with the new chips today, and we’ve rounded up their models below.
Razer
Razer has announced a range of new Blade 15 Advanced laptops featuring Intel’s 11th Gen H-series processors. At the top of the lineup is a model with a Core i9-11900H paired with an RTX 3080 GPU with 16GB of video memory and a 4K 60Hz OLED touchscreen. But if you’re looking for something a little less powerful, you can get a machine that’s just 15.8mm thick, and Razer claims it’s the smallest 15-inch gaming laptop with RTX graphics. This thinner model is a step down specs-wise: it has a Core i7-11800H, an RTX 3060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a QHD 240Hz IPS display.
Razer’s laptops will be available to preorder from May 17th and will ship in June. Prices start at $2,299. Read more about Razer’s new laptops here.
HP’s ZBook Studio G8.HP
HP
HP has three new laptops it’s announcing today: the ZBook Fury G8, the ZBook Power G8, and the ZBook Studio G8. The Studio G8 can be configured with up to an Intel Core i9-11950H vPro processor, alongside an Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU with up to 16GB of video memory (there’s also the option of equipping it with a more creative-focused Nvidia RTX A5000 GPU). Available display options for the ZBook Studio G8 include 1080p IPS, 4K 120Hz IPS, or 4K OLED.
HP’s ZBook Studio G8 will be available from July at a price that’s yet to be announced. Meanwhile, the Power G8 and Fury G8 will launch at some point this summer. Read more about HP’s new laptops here.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16.Image: Asus
Asus
Asus has new Zephyrus laptops to bring to the table today. First is the Zephyrus M16, which will sit above its more mainstream G-series laptops like the Zephyrus G14 and Zephyrus G15. Asus says the M16 will be configurable with up to an Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU, alongside Intel’s H-series chips. In terms of its display, the Zephyrus M16 has a tall 16:10 aspect ratio, QHD resolution, and 165Hz refresh rate. The company is also announcing the Zephyrus S17, a premium gaming laptop, which is available with up to an Intel Core i9-11900H, 48GB of RAM, and an Nvidia RTX 3080 with 16GB of VRAM.
Pricing and release information for the Zephyrus M16 is yet to be announced. The Zephyrus S17 will be available at some point in Q2 in North America. Read more about Asus’ new laptops here.
The Lenovo Legion 7.Lenovo
Lenovo
While we’re on the topic of 16:10 displays, Lenovo’s new Legion 7i and 5i Pro gaming laptops also use the aspect ratio for their 16-inch screens, paired with a 165Hz refresh rate. Specs for the 7i range up to the flagship Intel Core i9-11980HK, which can be paired with up to an Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU with 16GB of video memory. Step down to the Lenovo 5i Pro and your most powerful options drop to the Core i7-11800H, with an Nvidia RTX 3070. On the lower end, Lenovo also has models featuring Nvidia’s new RTX 3050 and 3050 Ti GPUs.
The Legion 7i and 5i Pro will both release in June starting at $1,769.99 and $1,329.99, respectively. Meanwhile, the 5i will release later in July with a starting price of $969.99. Read more about Lenovo’s new laptops here.
MSI’s GL66 Pulse.Image: MSI
MSI
MSI is announcing a number of new gaming and creator-focused laptops today, ranging from two Creator Z16 models (which are aimed at the kinds of customers that would otherwise have bought a MacBook Pro), down to its more gaming-focused “Katana” and “Sword” machines.
The Creator Z16 has a 120Hz 16:10 QHD+ touch display and is available with an Nvidia GeForce 3060, and either a Core i7-11800H or a Core i9-11900H. Stepping down to the Creator M16 still gets you a QHD+ display, but its internal specs top out at Nvidia’s RTX 3050 Ti and Intel’s Core i7. There’s also a new Creator 17 using the new chips, which is available with up to a Core i9 and RTX 3080, and comes complete with a Mini LED display.
On the gaming side, MSI has also bumped over a half dozen laptops up to the new processors, including the GE76, GE66 Raider, GS76 Stealth, GS66 Stealth, GP76 Leopard, GP66 Leopard, GL76 Pulse, and GL66 Pulse. Finally, there’s the new “Katana” and “Sword” laptops. These are available with up to Core i7-11800H CPUs and include versions with Nvidia RTX 3060, RTX 3050 Ti, and RTX 3050 GPUs.
MSI’s Creator Z16 starts at $2,599, its Katana models start at $999, Sword will start at $1,099, and pricing for the Creator M16 is yet to be announced. The laptops are due to release later this month on May 16th. Read more about MSI’s new laptops here.
Dell / Alienware
Not to be left out of the action, Dell has a collection of new laptops it’s announcing based on Intel’s latest-generation H-series processors, with some targeting consumers and gamers, and others aimed at business users. There are Dell-branded models, as well as laptops from its Alienware subsidiary.
First up is the Alienware M15 R6. It’s available with up to a Core i9 11900H, 32GB of RAM, and an Nvidia RTX 3080 with 8GB of video memory. It’s got a 15.6-inch display, and there are options for a 1080p 165Hz display, 1080p 360Hz, or QHD 240Hz. Dell is also teasing the Alienware X17 in a series of images, as well as the teaser trailer embedded above. Details on this laptop are currently slim, but the company says it’ll eventually be available with 11th Gen Intel Core processors and 30-series GPUs from Nvidia.
Dell is also announcing a new G15 laptop today. The laptop will be available with up to an Intel 11th Gen six-core Core i7 CPU, Nvidia 30-series GPUs, and a choice of 120Hz or 165Hz refresh rates for its 15.6-inch 1080p display.
Away from its gaming machines, Dell is also announcing revamped XPS 15 and XPS 17 laptops today. They’ll be available with Intel’s latest processors, Nvidia RTX graphics, and there’s also a new OLED screen version of the XPS 15. Finally, Dell is also releasing updated models across its business-focused Precision and Latitude lineups.
The Alienware M15 R6 will start at $1,299.99, the Dell G15 at $949.99, the XPS 15 at $1,199.99, and the XPS 17 at $1,399.99. All are available from today. Expect more information on the X17 in the months ahead.
The XPS 15.Image: Dell
Gigabyte
Gigabyte is also announcing new laptops across its Aero, Aorus, and G series lineups.
First up from Gigabyte are new Aero series laptops aimed at creators. There’s the Aero 15 OLED, which is available with up to an Intel Core i9-11980HK, RTX 3080, and 4K HDR OLED display. Meanwhile, the Aero 17 HDR is available up to the same specs, but it’s got a larger 17.3-inch display (up from 15.6-inch with the Aero 15) which is IPS rather than OLED.
Meanwhile over on the gaming side, there’s the Aorus 15P, Aorus 17G, and Aorus 17X. The 15P and 17G are available with Intel Core i7-11800H processors and up to an Nvidia RTX 3080 with 16GB of video memory. The Aorus 15P has a 15.6-inch 1080p IPS display that’s available with either 240Hz or 360Hz refresh rates, while the Aorus 17G has a 17.3-inch IPS display with a refresh rate of 300Hz. The Aorus 17X also has a 17.3-inch 300Hz IPS display and is available with up to an RTX 3080, but it features a more powerful Intel Core i9-11980HK processor.
Finally, there are Gigabyte’s 15.6-inch G5 MD and G5 GD, and its 17.3-inch G7 MD, and G7 GD laptops. Resolution and refresh rate is 1080p and 144Hz across the board. The G5 MD and G5 GD have Intel Core i5-11400H processors, the G7 MD has an i7-11800H, and the G7 GD has an i5-11400H. The laptops are equipped with Nvidia’s new RTX 3050 and 3050 Ti GPUs.
The Aero 15 OLED starts at $1,799, and the Aero 17 HDR starts at $2,499, and both are officially on sale today. The Aorus 15P starts at $1,599, and the 17G starts at $2,099 (pricing for the 17X was not available at time of publication), and they’re also available starting today. Preorders for the new G5 and G7 models also open today, with the G5 starting at $1,149.
The Gigabyte Aorus 17X.Image: Gigabyte
Acer
Acer has three new laptops it’s announcing today: the Predator Triton 300, Predator Helios 300, and the Nitro 5. All three are spec bumps of existing models.
The company says its Triton 300 will be available with up to a 4.6GHz Intel 11th Gen H-series processor, an Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU, and 32GB of RAM. Available displays include a 165Hz QHD screen, or a 360Hz 1080p panel.
Next up is the Helios 300. It’s also available with Intel’s latest processors paired with 32GB of RAM, but it maxes out at an Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU. Like the Triton 300, it’s also available with a 360Hz 1080p or a 165Hz QHD display. Similarly, the Nitro 5 is also available with Intel’s latest-generation chips, an RTX 3070 GPU, and 32GB of RAM. Acer says the Nitro 5 is available with 15.6 or 17.3-inch QHD IPS displays with 165Hz refresh rates.
The Predator Triton 300 will be available in North America from July starting at $1,699, while the Nitro 5 will be available from June starting at $999. Pricing and availability for the Predator Helios 300 was not available at time of publication.
Asus is announcing a slew of new gaming notebooks today, timed with Intel’s 35-65W Tiger Lake H processors and Nvidia’s new RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti.
The new gaming laptops are a mix of old and new designs, flagship Zephyrus notebooks, more affordable TUF laptops, Strix G refreshes, and an update to the ROG Flow X13.
Among the Zephyrus lineup, the Intel flagship is the Zephyrus M16, with Intel’s latest and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, as well as a 16-inch, 16:10 QHD display at 165 Hz. That screen is surrounded by narrow bezels on all four sides, allowing it to fit in a 15-inch chassis. Oddly, Asus didn’t specify exactly which CPUs it uses in the chassis.
Oh, and Asus is finally bringing the webcam back for this model, too. Hallelujah.
Asus will use liquid metal to cool the CPU and pair it with up to 48GB of DDR4-3200 memory and up to 2TB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. The 90 WHr battery should help it out with endurance, but that’s something we’ll have to test on our own.
The lid has a matrix design similar to that on the
Zephyrus G14
, but with a film that makes it look colorful from different angles. The chassis will come in either black or white, and both will offer that effect.
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
Asus ROG Zephyrus S17
CPU
11th Gen Intel Core H-Series
11th Gen Intel Core H-Series
GPU
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (16GB)
RAM
Up to 48GB DDR4 3200 MHz
Up to 48GB DDR4 3200 MHz
Storage
Up to 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD
Up to 3 PCIe Gen 4 SSDs in RAID0
Display
16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 165Hz, Pantone validated
17.3-inch, QHD 165Hz with G-Sync or 4K 120 Hz or 4K at 120Hz, Pantone Validated
Battery
90 WHr
90 WHr
Availability
Late Q2
Late Q2
There’s also a 17-inch model, the Zephyrus S17, which will use a liquid metal thermal compound and go up to an RTX 3080 for graphics. The S17 has room for up to three PCIe Gen 4 SSDs inside.
(Image credit: Asus)
The S17’s design borrows from the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo. The keyboard lifts up like the ScreenPad Plus, moving to a five-degree angle to assist with cooling and ergonomics. The 17-inch display comes in two options: a WQHD display at 165 Hz with support for advanced Optimus and Nvidia G-Sync, or a 4K, 120 Hz panel with adaptive sync.
Asus has moved the keyboard to a more traditional spot (it had previously been jammed in the front to make room for cooling, prior to this model’s lifting design), and the touchpad is under the keys, rather than next to them. There’s a wheel to control the mic, volume, and keyboard backlight, and the keys now use optomechanical switches.
(Image credit: Asus)
Lastly, Asus is also relaunching the TUF series. The new machines will support up to 32GB of RAM, include an open m.2 slot for user-upgradeable storage, and go up to an RTX 3060 on the graphics side. The F15 will have a 240 Hz display, while the F17 will settle for 144 Hz.
All of these devices are scheduled for late in the second quarter of 2021, and Asus hasn’t announced pricing just yet. Asus will also be refreshing a number of existing notebooks with Nvidia’s new RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti GPUs.
Razer has just announced new versions of its Blade 15 workhorse gaming laptop, complete with some of the biggest changes to the lineup in some time.
Like many other laptops announced today, the new Blade 15 Advanced features Intel’s 11th Gen H-series processors and Nvidia’s RTX 30-series graphics chips, with up to a Core i9 11900H (2.5GHz base clock, 4.9GHz boost clock), an RTX 3080 GPU with 16GB of video memory (Razer declined to share the total graphics power ahead of publishing), and a 4K touchscreen.
The most welcome improvement might be the new fingerprint-resistant coating making its way to all of these new models. I can’t imagine that it’ll eliminate fingerprints altogether, but this should address one of the biggest annoyances with the prior models. The Windows Hello webcam is getting bumped up to 1080p resolution (from 720p), and Razer claims the trackpads have improved palm rejection.
For the new design, Razer managed to shave off a little more than a millimeter from the thickness of the Blade 15 Advanced, coming in at 15.8mm thick. Razer claims that it’s the smallest 15-inch gaming laptop with RTX graphics and is 17 percent smaller by dimensions compared to the MSI GS66 Stealth. This size reduction applies only to the starting model that has the RTX 3060, though. Thinner might sound more appealing, but it isn’t usually better for gaming performance. Nvidia allows OEMs like Razer to choose the wattage and clock speed of the GPU based on their laptop designs, and generally speaking, the thinner the laptop is, the worse it can be running games compared to thicker laptops that typically allow for bigger cooling systems.
The higher-specced options are thicker than this 15.8mm model, but that’s roughly the same thickness as the previous generation. The width and depth of these machines debuting today are also unchanged from the previous gen at 355 and 235mm (13.98 and 9.25 inches), respectively.
The Blade 15 Advanced can be configured with an FHD, QHD, or 4K display.Image: Razer
The latest (and thinnest) Blade 15 Advanced starts at $2,299, and this model has a 240Hz QHD IPS panel with 2.5ms response time and 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut. It has an octa-core Intel Core i7-11800H processor, the RTX 3060 GPU with 8GB of video memory, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM clocked at 3,200MHz. A 1TB NVMe SSD that supports PCIe 4.0 for faster read / write and transfer speeds and a 80Wh battery come standard across all Advanced models.
The selection of ports across the Advanced lineup is similar but not exactly the same as the models released earlier in 2021. The most notable exceptions are the two new Thunderbolt 4 ports. In addition, you’ll find an UHS-III SD card reader, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a headphone jack, and an HDMI 2.1 port. Aside from that, all new Blade 15 models support Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, 20V charging via USB-C.
All of the Advanced models also support upgradeable storage and RAM. The starting model has only one M.2 slot because of its thin design, but all other new models have an additional M.2 slot for a total of up to 4TB of storage supported.
Spending more will get you a better screen, processor, and GPU. Below you can see the specs of each option, as well as the most recent version of the prior Blade 15 Advanced.
QHD (240Hz IPS), upgradeable to FHD (360Hz IPS), or 4K (60Hz OLED with touch)
QHD (240Hz IPS, 2.5ms response time)
OLED 4K touchscreen (60Hz, 1ms response time)
Storage
1TB PCIe NVMe SSD (supports a second M.2 drive for a total of up to 4TB)
1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD (supports a second M.2 drive for a total of up to 4TB)
Memory
16GB dual-channel DDR4-2933MHz RAM (upgradeable to 32GB, user replaceable up to 64GB)
16GB dual-channel DDR4-3200MHz (upgradeable to 32GB, user replaceable up to 64GB)
32GB dual-channel DDR4-3200MHz (user replaceable up to 64GB)
Processor
Intel Core i7-10875H (2.3GHz base clock, 5.1GHz boost)
Intel Core i7-11800H (2.3GHz base, 4.2GHz boost)
Intel Core i9-11900H (2.5GHz base, 4.9GHz boost)
Graphics
Nvidia RTX 3070 (upgradeable to Nvidia’s RTX 3080 with 16GB of VRAM)
Nvidia RTX 3060 with 8GB vRAM
Nvidia RTX 3080 with 16GB vRAM
USB-C ports
Two (one being a Thunderbolt 3 port with four lanes of PCIe throughput)
Two Thunderbolt 4 ports
Two Thunderbolt 4 ports
USB-C charging
Yes (20V charging)
Yes (20V charging)
Yes (20V charging)
Battery
80Wh
80Wh
80Wh
USB Type A ports
Three (3.2 Gen 2)
Two (3.2 Gen 2)
Two (3.2 Gen 2)
HDMI 2.1 support
Yes
Yes
Yes
SD card reader
Yes (UHS-III)
Yes (UHS-III)
Yes (UHS-III)
Ethernet port
No
No
No
Headphone port
Yes
Yes
Yes
Webcam
Windows Hello 720p
Windows Hello 1080p
Windows Hello 1080p
Wi-Fi 6E support
Yes
Yes
Yes
Bluetooth
5.2
5.2
5.2
Starting price
$2,499
$2,299
$3,399
All of these new Blade 15 Advanced machines will be available for preorder starting Monday, May 17th from Razer. They’ll go on sale and ship sometime in June.
HP’s ZBook workstations are designed primarily with creators and enterprise users in mind. Two of the three new ZBook G8 laptops announced today — the ZBook Fury G8 and the Power G8 — should serve those crowds nicely. But the 15.6-inch Studio G8 is the oddball of the group for a very obvious reason, and I love it so much. It’s a work laptop, yet it has an RGB-backlit keyboard.
It has this colorful keyboard for the reason you might expect: HP apparently hopes you might also want to do some gaming on it. The laptop can be configured with some seriously high-end components, like Intel’s newly-announced 11th Gen H-series Core i7 and Core i9 processors, going up to a Core i9-11950H vPro (2.6GHz base clock, 5GHz boost clock) processor. Impressively, it can house all of that power in a chassis that weighs less than four pounds.
The colors can be customized in HP’s Omen gaming hub software.HP
The Studio G8 should shine in the graphics department as well, because it’s configurable with the variant of the Nvidia RTX 3080 that can contain up to 16GB of video memory, currently the most powerful mobile GPU available. Though if you’re concerned more with creative workflows than gaming, opting for the Nvidia RTX A5000 GPU intended for professionals might be the smarter choice.
The ZBook Studio G8 ships with a 1080p IPS display by default, but it can be upgraded to a 4K IPS screen with a 120Hz refresh rate that has 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut; you can also opt for a 4K OLED touchscreen. One other unexpected gaming-focused feature this laptop has is an HDMI 2.1 port, which allows certain configurations of the Studio G8 to display 4K resolution at up to 120 frames per second on external monitors or TVs that allow it.
Would I recommend the ZBook Studio G8 over any newer gaming laptops? Likely not, but it’s tough to say, since we don’t know the price. HP says it plans to release this particular model in July and will share the price closer to that time. The company also says that certain configurations with consumer-grade RTX 30-series GPUs may launch in the second half of 2021. HP’s other ZBook G8 models, the ZBook Power G8 and ZBook Fury G8, will launch this summer.
Intel has just announced its new 11th Gen processors for more powerful laptops, and Dell is ready with refreshed versions of its XPS 15 and XPS 17 laptops that add the new chips, along with Nvidia’s latest RTX 30-series laptop GPUs.
The new models are virtually the same on the outside as the more substantial 2020 refresh, which saw the reintroduction of the largest 17-inch size and a redesign for the 15-inch model to better match Dell’s popular XPS 13 design.
But both laptops now offer improved specs, featuring Intel’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake H-series chips, bringing the company’s 10nm process to Dell’s more powerful laptops. Both the XPS 15 and XPS 17 can now be configured with the six-core i5-11400H or eight-core i7-11800H and i9-11900H option. The XPS 17 also adds an additional i9-11980HK option, offering eight cores and a maximum 5.0GHz clock speed for what Dell says is the “most powerful XPS laptop ever.”
Dell’s 2021 XPS 15Image: Dell
There are also new, more powerful GPU options. The XPS 15 can now be configured with either Nvidia’s RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti (with 45W of power), while the XPS 17 offers a beefier 60W RTX 3050 or a 70W RTX 3060 GPU.
Both computers still can be configured with up to 64GB of RAM, with options for either 4K (3840×2400) or FHD (1920 x 1200) panels, although the XPS 15 also has a 3456 x 2160 OLED option. Ports have also been upgraded: the XPS 17 now has four Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the XPS 15 offers two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a regular USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port.
The XPS 15 will start at $1,199.99, while the XPS 17 will start at $1,399.99. Dell has yet to announce when the new laptops will be available.
Lenovo is banking hard on 16-inch QHD displays in the taller 16:10 aspect ratio with its new lineup of Legion 7i and 5i Pro gaming laptops, and I’m all for it. These laptops are a showcase for crisper, more spacious displays that have a fast 165Hz refresh rate and G-Sync support, as well as faster processors by way of Intel’s new 11th Gen H-series CPUs. They’re also among the first laptops announced to support Nvidia’s lower-end GeForce RTX 3050 and 3050 Ti graphics chips, in addition to more powerful GPU options.
The Legion 7i is the flagship and can fit the most amount of power, supporting up to a 165W total graphics power (TGP) variant of Nvidia’s RTX 3080 (16GB) with a boost clock of 1,710MHz. That’s more power-hungry than what we’ve seen in most gaming laptops, so it should, theoretically, allow for some fantastic gaming performance. It can be configured with Intel’s flagship Core i9-11980HK processor, too, one of the fastest laptop chips on the market. The Legion 7i comes with a 300W power adapter, though if you’re doing light tasks (and not gaming), it can also recharge via USB-C at 95W. Lenovo says this model will release in June 2021 and will start at $1,769.99.
The Legion 7i is powerful. It’s also a bit hefty, starting at 5.5 pounds.Lenovo
Despite a few differences, many of the Legion 7i’s ports and specs trickle down to the lower-end Legion 5i models announced today, including its two Thunderbolt 4 ports, three full-size USB 3.2 ports, an Ethernet jack, and an HDMI 2.1 port for outputting 4K resolution at up to 120Hz in external displays that support it. They also host fast DDR4 RAM clocked at 3,200MHz and NVMe PCIe SSDs, though the maximum capacity varies depending on the model you’re buying.
If you don’t need quite as much power as the 7i offers, the Legion 5i Pro has a similarly fast, tall pixel-dense 16-inch QHD screen with the same 16:10 aspect ratio. It tops out at the Core i7-11800H processor and Nvidia’s RTX 3070 GPU with a maximum TGP of 140W and a boost clock of 1,620MHz, which is still plenty fast. That combination of specs should be sufficient to play most games in QHD resolution at high graphical settings, quite possibly with some ray tracing effects switched on. The Legion 5i Pro will ship in June as well, costing $1,329.99 to start.
The backside of the flagship Legion 7i. The other models look similar, but lack the RGB lighting.Lenovo
The Legion 5i lineup also includes 15-inch and 17-inch variants. The specs don’t spell out all that many differences compared to the 5i Pro, aside from the lack of its 16:10 aspect ratio display. You can still get fast QHD screens with these models, though, and you can configure them with Intel’s Core i7-11800H and the RTX 3070, or save money by knocking them down to the Core i7-11400H CPU and the RTX 3050. Both of these sizes will release in July, and Lenovo says they’ll start at $969.99.
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