Asus is taking a slightly different turn with this year’s ZenFone series. While the ZenFone 8 Flip looks a lot like previous years’ phones, with its large screen and flip-out camera mechanism, the company went back to the drawing board for the flagship ZenFone 8 and redesigned it as a smaller one-hand-friendly device: kind of an Android iPhone mini. The two phones make their global debut today, priced at €599 for the ZenFone 8 and €799 for the ZenFone 8 Flip. Asus says that only the ZenFone 8 will come to North America; it is expected this summer. The US price is still being finalized, but the company says it will cost somewhere between $599 and $799.
The ZenFone 8 and 8 Flip both use a Snapdragon 888 chipset, but that’s about as far as the similarities go. The ZenFone 8 features a 5.9-inch 1080p OLED display with a fast 120Hz refresh rate. It will be sold in configurations of up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage and includes an IP68 waterproof rating. Both the 8 and 8 Flip support 5G — but when the ZenFone 8 arrives in the US, it will only work on AT&T and T-Mobile’s LTE and sub-6GHz 5G networks.
The ZenFone 8 offers just two fixed rear-facing cameras.Photo: Asus
The ZenFone 8’s two rear cameras are borrowed from the ZenFone 7 series: a 64-megapixel standard wide with OIS that kicks out 16-megapixel images and a 12-megapixel ultrawide. Since the camera array doesn’t flip forward to play the role of a selfie camera, there’s now a 12-megapixel camera under an off-center hole punch on the front panel.
The phone’s compact size is reflected in its 4,000mAh battery, which is much smaller than previous years’ 5,000mAh cells. It supports 30W wired charging with the included charger, but it doesn’t offer wireless charging. There are dedicated dual stereo speakers and even a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The ZenFone 8 Flip’s rotating camera housing features a stronger, more durable motor this year.Photo: Asus
The ZenFone 8 Flip is, by necessity, a much larger device with a 6.67-inch screen — a 1080p OLED panel with a 90Hz refresh rate. It offers a bigger 5,000mAh battery with 30W wired charging, includes up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but it lacks an IP rating.
The main attraction, of course, is its flip-out camera array. The triple-camera hardware is borrowed from the ZenFone 7, including a 64-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and an 8-megapixel telephoto with 3x optical zoom. Asus says the module itself has a stronger motor with better endurance; users can expect to get up to 300,000 “flips” out of it. A custom RhinoShield case will be sold separately in some markets with a sliding cover to protect the housing and a sensor that automatically activates the camera when the cover is opened.
(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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
Naim has launched a ‘Headphone Edition’ of its multi-Award-winning Uniti Atom just-add-speakers streaming system. The new just-add-headphones variant essentially gets rid of the power amplifier and speaker output stages and instead goes big on the headphone output. To that end, there are three headphone sockets on the front panel – the standard 6.3mm, plus balanced 4-pin XLR and Pentaconn.
While the standard Uniti Atom has a headphone amplifier feeding a 3.5mm jack, the Uniti Atom Headphone Edition has been “fully re-engineered” to deliver a more advanced headphones listening experience. Using technology trickled down from its flagship Statement amplifier, Naim has developed a new discrete headphone amp which it says is capable of driving even the most premium headphones. Naturally, Naim would point you to Focal’s high-end pairs, while the relatively niche balanced connections lend themselves to accommodating further examples of such.
(Image credit: Naim)
The Atom’s internals are based around an all-new discrete transistor circuit design, too, with a new transformer design providing power to it.
Like the existing Uniti Atom, but unique in its implementation in a headphone amplifier design, the Uniti Atom Headphone Edition is a fully formed music system, with built-in streaming smarts and connections aplenty. At its core is Naim’s streaming platform, a gateway to streaming services (such as Qobuz, Tidal and Spotify), internet radio and DLNA playback. Support for AirPlay 2, built-in Chromecast and Roon builds on that streaming savviness. Analogue and digital connections, including USB, coaxial, optical, RCA and phono, are also onboard for connecting additional sources.
While the new Atom has been designed with headphones users in mind, it can of course also be used as a streaming preamplifier, either connected to a power amp, or a pair of active speakers.
The Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition is available now, priced in line with the standard Uniti Atom at £2399 ($3290, AU$4299). And, while it probably has more niche appeal than the standard Atom, if it’s as good for headphones as its sibling is for speakers, we’re looking at another desirable member of the Naim Uniti family.
MORE:
Read our Naim Uniti Atom review
Our pick of the best audiophile headphones 2021
Check out these superb straight-up headphone amplifiers
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.
If you’re wondering why every company under the sun has released new gaming laptops today, it’s because Intel has announced its newest flagship mobile processors. They’re the newest members of its 11th Gen “Tiger Lake H” series. Asus and Intel have announced the new Zephyrus M16, which will pair the chips with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3000 GPUs (up to a 3070).
What’s exciting about the M16 is that it has a QHD, 165Hz display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. 16:10 is highly unusual to see in gaming laptops; it’s more commonly found in business and productivity machines due to the extra vertical space it provides. Asus hopes the new look will help the Zephyrus line reach content creators and other customers seeking a device that can work as well as game.
“It takes gaming laptops to an audience that wouldn’t have gone to a gaming laptop,” says Sascha Krohn, Asus ROG’s director of PC and laptop technical marketing.
The slim-bezeled M16 has been around two years in the making. “It’s really tricky to do a laptop with super slim bezels, because you have to design the laptop around that screen,” Krohn said. The M16 has a 94 percent screen-to-body ratio, meaning it has smaller bezels in relation to its size than the Dell XPS 15 and almost any other consumer laptop on the market. The Razer Blade 15, for comparison, has just above an 80 percent screen-to-body ratio.
Asus’ G-series (including the renowned Zephyrus G14 and Zephyrus G15) will remain the more “mainstream” Zephyrus options going forward. The M16 is more expensive, and the Intel chip enables features that enthusiasts and content creators may value more, including Thunderbolt and Intel’s Quick Sync as well as the 16:10 display.
Image: Asus
Intel worked closely with Asus to equip the M16 with a number of modern features, including Dolby Atmos audio with Intel’s Smart Sound Technology Driver and MS Hybrid Mode. Mainly, the company believes its CPUs will provide enough power to take advantage of the 165Hz QHD display, a feat that only really became possible this year.
“We’re really ensuring that we continue to deliver the gaming performance that we had in 10th-Gen, where we outgamed the competition earlier this year, and focused on making sure that your IPC gains and our single-threaded performance is at the level that we expect it,” says Kim Algstam, Intel’s interim GM of premium and gaming notebooks.
Algstam also claims the new Tiger Lake chips will be better at multithreaded workloads and will outpace the competition (read: AMD) on battery life, which is an important consideration for the M16’s target audience. “We’ve spent incredible time making sure that the performance tuning and battery life tuning is up to expectations,” Algstam says. “Customers want to do more than just game. They want to work, they want to do more personal tasks when they’re out and about, and that happens on battery.”
AMD has set a high bar in that regard. The Ryzen-powered Zephyrus G15 and Zephyrus G14 were two of the longest-lasting gaming laptops I’ve ever reviewed. Many comparable 10th Gen Intel systems have lasted significantly less time in our testing.
The elephant in the room is Alder Lake, Intel’s next generation of hybrid chips, which are slated for release in the second half of this year. The company called the new line “a significant breakthrough in x86 architecture” at a preview in January. Should enthusiasts wait for that? Algstam didn’t address Alder Lake directly but did give a clear verdict. “I would definitely not wait,” he says. “I would buy today.”
Asus has not yet announced pricing or a release date for the Zephyrus M16.
ASRock’s Z590 Taichi is a well-rounded premium mid-range motherboard, with more-than-capable power delivery, Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, three M.2 sockets, Intel- and Killer-based networking, including Wi-Fi 6E.
For
+ Unique style
+ Killer 2.5 GbE and Wi-Fi 6E Networking
+ Robust 90A power delivery
+ 2x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports (40 Gbps)
Against
– Last gen audio codec
– Only eight rear USB ports
– PCIe 4.0 M.2 compatibility issues
Features and Specifications
The latest in a long line of Taichi boards, ASRock’s Z590 Taichi for Intel’s latest Rocket Lake CPUs includes improved power delivery, fast Killer-based networking, eight SATA ports, native PCIe 4.0 for the GPU and M.2 socket, and improved aesthetics. Landing at $459.99, this upper-midrange board may be out of range for some users. But if you want to spend this much, this is a feature-rich and capable Z590 board.
ASRock’s Z590 lineup is similar to the previous-generation Z490 product stack. At the time we wrote this, ASRock had 12 Z590 motherboards listed. At the top is Z590 Taichi, followed by the PG Velocita we’re looking at here, and three Phantom Gaming boards, including a Micro-ATX option. Additionally, there are two professional boards in the Z590 Pro4 and Z590M Pro4, two Steel Legend boards, two Extreme boards (also more on the budget end), and a Mini-ITX board rounds out the product stack. Between price, size, looks, and features, ASRock should have a board that works for everyone looking to dive headlong into Rocket Lake.
Performance testing on the Taichi went without a hitch, producing results aligned with the other tested boards. Game performance was on the slower side of things, but the meager difference will be tough to notice unless you’re benchmarking. The memory, which uses Gear 1 on the latest BIOS, is where the Taichi shined. That said, outside of the benchmarks, again you won’t notice the difference. Overall, the Taichi performed well compared to other tested Z590 boards.
The Z590 Taichi is a nice improvement over the previous Taichi, between the improved appearance and cool moving gear feature, it is one of the better-looking Z590 boards. But looks aren’t everything. The Taichi comes with two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports (40 Gbps), eight SATA ports, Killer-based Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5 GbE, and a graphics card support bar. We’ll check out these details and other features below. But first, here are the full specs from ASRock.
Specifications – ASRock Z590 Taichi
Socket
LGA 1200
Chipset
Z590
Form Factor
ATX
Voltage Regulator
14 Phase (12+2, 90A MOSFETs)
Video Ports
(1) HDMI (2.0)
(2) Thunderbolt 4
USB Ports
(2) USB 4.0 Thunderbolt 4 Type-C (40 GB/s)
(2) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-A (10 Gbps)
(3) USB 3.2 Gen 1, Type-A (5 Gbps)
Network Jacks
(2) 2.5 GbE and 1 GbE
Audio Jacks
(5) Analog + SPDIF
Legacy Ports/Jacks
✗
Other Ports/Jack
✗
PCIe x16
(3) v4.0 x16, (x16/x0/x0, x8/x8/x0, or x8/x8/x4 (PCIe 3.0)
Inside the box, along with the motherboard, you’ll find cables, the graphics support bar and even a second VRM fan and an additional bracket to add your own 40mm fan. The included accessories should get you up and running without having to scramble and head to the store. Below is a complete list of all included extras.
Support DVD / Quick installation Guide
Graphics card holder
Wi-Fi Antenna
(4) SATA cables
(3) Screw package for M.2 sockets
(3) Standoffs for M.2 sockets
Wireless dongle USB bracket
3010 Cooling Fan with bracket
4010 Cooling Fan bracket
Wireless dongle USB bracket
ASRock Screwdriver (Torx)
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(Image credit: ASRock)
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(Image credit: ASRock)
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(Image credit: ASRock)
After removing the Z590 Taichi from the box and setting it up, one of the first things I noticed was the addition of the moving gears above the IO area. During POST, the watch-like gears rotate, which gives this board a unique design aesthetic–although your system will need to be sitting at eye level with a clear side panel to notice this. The VRM heatsinks are connected via heatpipe and use active cooling (in the form of a small integrated fan) to keep temperatures in check. The bottom half of the matte-black, 8-layer PCB is covered in heatsinks and shrouds for the M.2 sockets.
You’ll find RGB lighting elements under the IO cover, chipset heatsink, and on the right edge of the board. The RGBs are bright and saturated, adding a significant glow from under the board. Control over the RGB is provided by ASRock’s Polychrome Sync software. In the end, the Z590 Taichi’s appearance has improved over the last generation and shouldn’t have issues fitting in with most build themes.
(Image credit: ASRock)
Focusing on the top half of the board and starting on the left side, we get a closer look at the unique gear design. The black half gear/counterweight slowly ticks when powering the board up and stops once POST completes. The cogwheel spins either clockwise or counterclockwise via a small motor. In the BIOS, you’re able to adjust the time between rotations (5/10/30/60 minute intervals and off). Although this is clearly a gimmick, it’s truly a unique design aesthetic. Just below this is the Taichi name lit up by RGB lighting.
The VRM heatsinks are large and actively cooled with a small fan hidden inside the left bank. Just above this are the two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) for powering the CPU. Just to the right of the socket area are the unreinforced DRAM slots. The board supports up to 128GB of RAM at speeds listed to DDR4 5000 when using an 11th generation CPU (lower with a 10th gen). Just above the DRAM slots is the first RGB header. In this case, it’s 3-pin ARGB.
Just to the right is the first 4-pin fan header. This particular header happens to be the Chassis/Water Pump connector and supports 2A/24W. The CPU fan headers are located mid-board above the first M.2 socket. The CPU connector supports up to 1A/12W, while the CPU_Fan2/WP3A supports 3A/36W. The rest of the connectors support up to 2A/24W. These headers have plenty of available power to connect your fans and water pump, without overloading the board.
Making our way down the right edge, we find the 24-pin ATX connector for board power, two front-panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers (one vertical, the other horizontal) and the front-panel USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C header. Last, in white, is the first 3-pin RGB header.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Z590 Taichi sports a 12-phase VRM setup for the CPU. The 8-pin EPS connector(s) send power to the Renesas ISL69269 12-channel (X+Y+Z=12) controller, then on to six ISL6617A phase doublers. Last but not least is the 12 90A Renesas ISL99390B Smart power stages. This configuration supports up to 1080A for the CPU, which is plenty for stock and overclocked operation, including extreme (read: sub-ambient) overclocking. The power delivery on this board will not get in your way. Again, this board also includes an additional fan for the VRM. After testing without it, we chose not to use it as there wasn’t a need and it would only increase the noise profile, which was quiet without it. Temperatures were well within operating range throughout all testing.
(Image credit: ASRock)
Moving down to the bottom half of the board, we’ll again start on the left side with audio. Hidden below a plastic shroud is the Realtek ALX1220 codec – a last-generation flagship solution. I would like to have seen the latest generation codec (not that most will notice the difference) for this price. We can also see the audio separation line from the other parts of the board and the red WIMA audio caps. The Taichi also includes an ESS ES9218 Sabre DAC supporting up to 600 Ohm headphones and 130dB SNR.
In the middle of the board are three full-length, reinforced PCIe slots along with a single x1 size slot. Between them are heatsinks for the three M.2 sockets and shrouds covering the board. When using an 11th gen CPU, the top two PCIe slots support PCIe 4.0 speeds. The top PCIe slot runs at x16 while the second slot runs at a maximum of x8 — both are CPU connected. The bottom full-length slot is connected to the chipset and runs at PCIe 3.0 x4. The board supports AMD Quad CrossfireX, 3-Way CrossFireX and CrossfireX. No mention of NVIDIA SLI, even though the board is wired to support it.
On the M.2 storage front, the Taichi includes three sockets. The top M2_1 is the Hyper socket (PCIe 4.0 x4, 64 Gbps) and supports 80mm PCIe-based modules. M2_2 supports both SATA and PCIe modules up to PCIe 3.0 x4 (32 Gbps), up to 80mm long. The bottom socket, M2_3, supports 110mm SATA or PCIe modules up to PCIe 3.0 x4. M2_2 shares lanes with SATA port 0/1. If either one is in use, the others are disabled. M2_3 shares lanes with SATA ports 4/5 and the bottom PCIe slot. If either is in use, the others will be disabled. You can have three M.2 devices and up to 4 SATA ports running concurrently.
Note, though, that I had trouble with the PCIe 4.0-based Phison drive we use for testing. Using the latest BIOS, version 1.63 for me, the top M.2 socket that runs PCIe 4.0 doesn’t recognize the drive. The Phison storage drive works just fine on all of the other PCIe 3.0 sockets and other boards’ PCIe 4.0 M.2 sockets. We’re not sure if this is limited to the Phison drives, as they are the only PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives I have in-house. We’ve let ASRock know and they are working on the issue. It’s likely that a BIOS update will resolve this problem.
Finally, to the right of the PCIe slots and M.2 sockets is the chipset heatsink. Here we get a close look at the unique pattern found on the heatsinks. It’s almost like a rough wood grain type of finish, quite unique. To the right of it are the eight SATA ports, two of them managed by an ASMedia ASM1061 controller, with the rest connected to the southbridge. Just below are two more fan headers. The included GPU support bracket mounts in this area to the ATX screw holes in the middle and bottom of the board. This is a nice value-add in these days of huge and heavy cards. Now if only ASRock could do something about how much modern high-end cards weigh on our wallets.
Across the board’s bottom are several headers, including more USB ports, fan headers and more. Below is the complete list, from left to right:
Front-panel audio
RGB and ARGB headers
(2) Chassis fan headers
Clear CMOS jumper
TPM
(2) USB 2.0 headers
Dr. Debug LED
Reset/Power buttons
Clear CMOS button
Temperature sensor, water flow headers
Front panel header
(Image credit: ASRock)
Looking at the rear IO, we see the pre-attached IO plate matches the colors and design theme of the rest of the board. One thing that jumps out is the 5-plug plus SPDIF audio stack’s location: It sits in the middle. Typically this is on the right edge/bottom, but in most cases the odd placement shouldn’t be a cause for concern. From left to right, we have the BIOS Flashback button to flash the bios without a CPU, the Wi-Fi antenna connections and an HDMI (v2.0) port for the integrated video. Next are two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and the audio stack mentioned above.
On the networking front, the Intel-based Ethernet port is black, while the Killer 2.5 GbE port is blue. Below those are two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports. At the bottom are two Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C ports that support up to 40 Gbps throughput. They also double as additional video outputs. Curiously, these aren’t labeled as Thunderbolt here. On the far right are the last two USB ports that run at USB 3.2 Gen 1 speeds.
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.
Intel has added five consumer processors and five commercial processors to its 11th Gen Core H-series generation (codenamed “Tiger Lake-H”). Both groups include three eight-core chips and two six-core chips. All of the parts are 35W, save the flagship Core i9-11980HK, which is clocked at 65W. You’ll see them in over 30 upcoming ultraportables (laptops 20mm or thinner) and over 80 workstations.
The company (unsurprisingly) says the new chips will provide significant performance improvements over their predecessors from the 10th Gen “Comet Lake” series. It claims they’ll provide a 19 percent “gen-on-gen multithreaded performance improvement.”
On the gaming front, Intel says the Core i9-11980HK will deliver significantly better frame rates than its Comet Lake predecessor on titles including Hitman 3, Far Cry New Dawn, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. The company also took aim at its competitors. It claims the 11980HK also beats the rival AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX on these titles and that its Core i5-11400H (meant for thin and light laptops) will outperform the Ryzen 9 5900HS on some and come close to matching its performance on others.
Intel did not make battery life claims in its presentation. That’s a bit concerning because recent AMD-powered laptops have been excellent in that department for the past two years.
In terms of more nitty-gritty specs, the chips will support up to 44 platform PCIe lanes, Thunderbolt 4 with up to 40Gbps bandwidth, discrete Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), Optane H20, overclocking with Intel’s Speed Optimizer (on some SKUs), 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes with RST-bootable RAID0, and turbo boost up to 5.0Ghz with Intel’s Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0.
The commercial chips will support Intel’s vPro platform, which includes a number of business-specific security features and management tools, including Intel’s Hardware Shield (which includes a new threat-detection technology that Intel says is “the industry’s first and only silicon-enabled AI threat detection”), Total Memory Encryption, and Active Management Technology. Intel says its Core i9-11950H will be up to 29 percent faster than its predecessor in product development, 12 percent faster in financial services work, and 29 percent faster in media and entertainment.
Many eyes are on these new chips, as AMD’s Ryzen 5000 mobile series took the laptop market by storm when it was announced earlier this year. Its eight-core chips have shown significant performance gains over previous generations, particularly in multi-core workloads and efficiency. Meanwhile, Apple’s Arm-based M1 chip has put up startlingly good performance numbers while maintaining incredible battery life.
Intel is playing catch-up here, and the Tiger Lake-H chips we’ve gotten to try so far haven’t been astonishing. The lightweight Vaio Z, powered by the quad-core Core i7-11375H, yielded great results on single-core benchmarks but couldn’t hold a candle to Apple’s M1 Macbook Pro in multi-core tasks. On the gaming front, we’ve also tested MSI’s Stealth 15M and Acer’s Predator Triton 300 SE (both powered by the 11375H as well). The Stealth didn’t quite achieve the frame rates we’d expect from a laptop of its price (and couldn’t take full advantage of its QHD screen), and the Predator had disappointing battery life.
I’ll have more to say about these new CPUs when I’ve gotten to test them for myself — hopefully sooner rather than later.
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.
Intel introduced its long-awaited eight-core Tiger Lake-H H35 chips for laptops today, vying for a spot on our best gaming laptop list and marking Intel’s first shipping eight-core 10nm chips for the consumer market. These new 11th-generation chips, which Intel touts as the ‘World’s best gaming laptop processors,’ come as the company faces unprecedented challenges in the laptop market — not only is it contending with AMD’s increasingly popular 7nm Ryzen “Renoir” chips, but perhaps more importantly, Intel is also now playing defense against Apple’s innovative new Arm-based M1 that powers its new MacBooks.
The halo eight-core 16-thread Core i9-11980HK peaks at 5.0 GHz on two cores, fully supports overclocking, and despite its official 65W TDP, can consume up to 110W under heavy load. Additionally, Intel has also added limited overclocking support in the form of a speed optimizer and unlocked memory settings for three of the ‘standard’ eight-core models.
As with Intel’s lower-power Tiger Lake chips, the eight-core models come fabbed on the company’s 10nm SuperFin process and feature Willow Cove execution cores paired with the UHD Graphics 750 engine with the Xe Architecture. These chips will most often be paired with a discrete graphics solution, from Nvidia or AMD. We have coverage of a broad selection of new systems, including from Alienware, Lenovo, MSI, Dell, Acer, HP, and Razer.
All told, Intel claims that the combination of the new CPU microarchitecture and process node offers up to 19% higher IPC, which naturally results in higher performance potential in both gaming and applications. That comes with a bit of a caveat, though — while Intel’s previous-gen eight-core 14nm laptop chips topped out at 5.3 GHz, Tiger Lake-H maxes out at 5.0 GHz. Intel says the higher IPC throws the balance towards even higher performance regardless of 10nm’s lower clock speed.
The new Tiger Lake-H models arrive in the wake of Intel’s quad-core H35 models that operate at 35W for a new ‘Ultraportable’ laptop segment that caters to gamers on the go. However, Intel isn’t using H45 branding for its eight-core Tiger Lake chips, largely because it isn’t marking down 45W on the spec sheet. We’ll cover what that confusing bit of information means below. The key takeaway is that these chips can operate anywhere from 35W to 65W. As usual, Intel’s partners aren’t required to (and don’t) specify the actual power consumption on the laptop or packaging.
Aside from the addition of more cores, a new system agent (more on that shortly), and more confusing branding, the eight-core Tiger Lake-H chips come with a well-known feature set that includes the same amenities, like PCIe 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, and support for Resizable Bar, as their quad-core Tiger Lake predecessors. These chips also mark the debut of the first eight-core laptop lineup that supports PCIe 4.0, as AMD’s competing platforms remain on the PCIe 3.0 connection. Intel also announced five new vPro H-series models with the same specifications as the consumer models but with features designed for the professional market.
Intel says the new Tiger Lake-H chips will come to market in 80 new designs (15 of these are for the vPro equivalents), with the leading devices available for preorder on May 11 and shipping on May 17. Surprisingly, Intel says that it has shipped over 1 million eight-core Tiger Lake chips to its partners before the first devices have even shipped to customers, showing that the company fully intends to leverage its production heft while its competitors, like AMD, continue to grapple with shortages. Intel also plans to keep its current fleet of 10th-Gen Comet Lake processors on the market for the foreseeable future to address the lower rungs of the market, so its 14nm chips will still ship in volume.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Specifications
Processor Number
Base / Boost
Cores / Threads
L3 Cache
Memory
Core i9-11980HK
2.6 / 5.0
8 / 16
24 MB
DDR4-2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
3.3 / 4.6
8 / 16
16 MB
DDR4-3200 / LPDDR4x-4266
Core i9-10980HK
2.4 / 5.3
8 / 16
16 MB
DDR4-2933
Core i7-11375H Special Edition (H35)
3.3 / 5.0
4 / 8
12 MB
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-4266
Core i9-11900H
2.5 / 4.9
8 / 16
24 MB
DDR4-2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
Core i7-10875H
2.3 / 5.1
8 / 16
16 MB
DDR4-2933
Core i7-11800H
2.3 / 4.6
8 / 16
24M
DDR4-2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
Core i5-11400H
2.7 / 4.5
6 / 12
12 MB
2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
Ryzen 9 5900HS
3.0 / 4.6
8 / 16
4 MB
DDR4-3200 / LPDDR4x-4266
Core i5-10400H
2.6 / 4.6
4 / 8
8 MB
DDR4-2933
Intel’s eight-core Tiger Lake-H takes plenty of steps forward — it’s the only eight-core laptop platform with PCIe 4.0 connectivity and hardware support for AVX-512, but it also takes steps back in a few areas.
Although Intel just released 40-core 10nm Ice Lake server chips, we’ve never seen the 10nm process ship with more than four cores for the consumer market, largely due to poor yields and 10nm’s inability to match the high clock rates of Intel’s mature 14nm chips. We expected the 10nm SuperFin process to change that paradigm, but as we see in the chart above, the flagship Core i9-11980HK tops out at 5.0 GHz on two cores, just like the quad-core Tiger Lake i7-11375H Special Edition. Intel uses its Turbo Boost 3.0, which targets threads at the fastest cores, to hit the 5.0 GHz threshold.
However, both chips pale in comparison to the previous-gen 14nm Core i9-10980HK that delivers a beastly 5.3 GHz on two cores courtesy of the Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) tech that allows the chip to boost higher if it is under a certain temperature threshold. Curiously, Intel doesn’t offer TVB on the new Tiger Lake processors.
Intel says that it tuned 10nm Tiger Lake’s frequency for the best spot on the voltage/frequency curve to maximize both performance and battery life, but it’s obvious that process maturity also weighs in here. Intel offsets Tiger Lake’s incrementally lower clock speeds with the higher IPC borne of the Willow Cove microarchitecture that delivers up to 12% higher IPC in single-threaded and 19% higher IPC in multi-threaded applications. After those advances, Intel says the Tiger Lake chips end up faster than their prior-gen counterparts. Not to mention AMD’s competing Renoir processors.
Intel’s Core i9-11980HK peaks at 110W (PL2) and is a fully overclockable chip — you can adjust the core, graphics, and memory frequency at will. We’ll cover the power consumption, base clock, and TDP confusion in the following section.
Intel has also now added support for limited overclocking on the Core i7-11800H, i9-11900H, and the i9-11950. The memory settings on these three chips are fully unlocked, although with a few caveats we’ll list below, so you can overclock the memory at will. Intel also added support for its auto-tuning Speed Optimizer software. When enabled, this software boosts performance in multi-threaded work, but single-core frequencies are unimpacted.
Intel also made some compromises on the memory front, too. First, the memory controllers no longer support LPDDR4X. Instead, they top out at DDR4-3200, and that’s actually not the case for most of the 11th-Gen lineup, at least if you want the chip to run in the fastest configuration.
The eight-core Tiger Lake die comes with the System Agent Geyersville just like the Rocket Lake desktop chips. That means the company has brought Gear 1 and Gear 2 memory modes to laptops. The optimal setting is called ‘Gear 1’ and it signifies that the memory controller and memory operate at the same frequency (1:1), thus providing the lowest latency and best performance in lightly-threaded work, like gaming. All of the Tiger Lake chips reach up to DDR4-2933 in this mode.
Tiger Lake-H does officially support DDR4-3200, but only with the ‘Gear 2’ setting that allows the memory to operate at twice the frequency of the memory controller (2:1), resulting in higher data transfer rates. This can benefit some threaded workloads but also results in higher latency that can lead to reduced performance in some applications — particularly gaming. We have yet to see a situation where Gear 2 makes much sense for enthusiasts/gamers.
Intel also dialed back the UHD Graphics engine with Xe Architecture for the eight-core H-Series models to 32 execution units (EU), which makes sense given that this class of chip will often be paired with discrete graphics from either AMD or Nvidia. And possibly Intel’s own fledgling DG1, though we have yet to see any configurations yet. For comparison, the quad-core H35 Core i9 and i7 models come equipped with 96 EUs, while the Core i5 variant comes with 80 EUs.
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
This is Not The Tiger Lake H45 You’re Looking for – More TDP Confusion
As per usual with Intel’s recent laptop chip launches, there’s a bit of branding confusion. The company’s highest-end eight-core laptop chips previously came with an “H45” moniker to denote that these chips have a recommended 45W TDP. But you won’t find that designation with Intel’s new H-Series chips, this even though the quad-core 35W laptop chips that Intel introduced at CES this year come with the H35 designation. In fact, Intel also won’t list a specific TDP on the spec sheet for the eight-core Tiger Lake-H chips. Instead, it will label the H-series models as ’35W to 65W’ for the official TDP.
That’s problematic because Intel measures its TDP at the base frequency, so a lack of a clear TDP rating means there’s no concrete base frequency specification. We know that the PL2, or power consumed during boost, tops out at 110W, but due to the TDP wonkiness, there’s no official PL1 rating (base clock).
That’s because Intel, like AMD, gives OEMs the flexibility to configure the TDP (cTDP) to higher or lower ranges to accommodate the specific power delivery, thermal dissipation, and battery life accommodations of their respective designs. For instance, Intel’s previous-gen 45W parts have a cTDP range that spans from 35W to 65W.
This practice provides OEMs with wide latitude for customization, which is a positive. After all, we all want thinner and faster devices. However, Intel doesn’t compel manufacturers to clearly label their products with the actual TDP they use for the processor, or even list it in the product specifications. That can be very misleading — there’s a 30W delta between the lowest- and highest-performance configurations of the same chip with no clear method of telling what you’re purchasing at the checkout lane. There really is no way to know which Intel is inside.
Intel measures its TDP rating at the chip’s base clock (PL1), so the Tiger Lake-H chips will have varying base clocks that reflect their individual TDP… that isn’t defined. Intel’s spec table shows base clocks at both 45W and 35W, but be aware that this can be a sliding scale. For instance, you might purchase a 40W laptop that lands in the middle range.
As per usual, Intel’s branding practice leaves a lot to be desired. Eliminating the H45 branding and going with merely the ‘H-Series’ for the 35W to 65W eight cores simply adds more confusion because the quad-core H35 chips are also H-Series chips, and there’s no clear way to delineate the two families other than specifying the core count.
Intel is arguably taking the correct path here: It is better to specify that the chips can come in any range of TDPs rather than publish blatantly misleading numbers. However, the only true fix for the misleading mess created by configurable TDPs is to require OEMs to list the power rating directly on the device, or at least on the spec sheet.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Die
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(Image credit: Intel – Tiger Lake-H Die)
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(Image credit: Tiger Lake-U (@Locuza_ via Twitter))
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(Image credit: Intel – Comet Lake-H Die)
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(Image credit: Intel)
The eight-core H-series chip package comes with a 10nm die paired with a 14nm PCH. The first slide in the above album shows the Tiger Lake die (more deep-dive info here) that Intel says measures 190mm2, which is much larger than the estimated 146.1mm2 die found on the quad-core models (second image). We also included a die shot of the eight-core Comet Lake-H chip (third image).
We’ll have to wait for a proper die annotation of the Tiger Lake-H chip, but we do know that it features a vastly cut-down UHD Graphics 750 engine compared to the quad-core Tiger Lake models (32 vs 96 EUs) and a much larger L3 cache (24 vs 16MB).
The Tiger Lake die supports 20 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, with 16 lanes exposed for graphics, though those can also be carved into 2×8, 1×8, or 2×4 connections to accommodate more PCIe 4.0 additives, like additional M.2 SSDs. Speaking of which, the chip also supports a direct x4 PCIe 4.0 connection for a single M.2 SSD.
Intel touts that you can RAID several M.2 SSDs together through its Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) and use them to boot the machine. This feature has been present on prior-gen laptop platforms, but Tiger Lake-H marks the debut for this feature with a PCIe 4.0 connection on a laptop.
The PCH provides all of the basic connectivity features (last slide). The Tiger Lake die and PCH communicate over a DMI x8 bus, and the chipset supports an additional 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes that can be carved up for additional features. For more fine-grained details of the Tiger Lake architecture, head to our Intel’s Tiger Lake Roars to Life: Willow Cove Cores, Xe Graphics, Support for LPDDR5, and Intel’s Path Forward: 10nm SuperFin Technology, Advanced Packaging Roadmap articles for more details.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Gaming Benchmarks
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
Intel provided the benchmarks above to show the gen-on-gen performance improvements in gaming, and the performance improvement relative to competing AMD processors. As always, approach vendor-provided benchmarks with caution, as they typically paint the vendors’ devices in the best light possible. We’ve included detailed test notes at the end of the article, and Intel says it will provide comparative data against Apple M1 systems soon.
As expected, Intel shows that the Core i9-11980HK provides solid generational leads over the prior-gen Core i9-10980HK, with the deltas spanning from 15% to 21% in favor of the newer chip.
Then there are the comparisons to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, with Intel claiming leads in titles like War Thunder, Total War: Three Kingdoms, and Hitman 3, along with every other hand-picked title in the chart.
Intel tested the 11980HK in an undisclosed OEM pre-production system with an RTX 3080 set at a 155W threshold, while the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX resided in a Lenovo Legion R9000K with an RTX 3080 dialed in at 165W. Given that we don’t know anything about the OEM system used for Intel’s benchmarks, like cooling capabilities, and that the company didn’t list the TDP for either chip, take these benchmarks with a shovelful of salt.
Intel also provided benchmarks with the Core i5-11400H against the Ryzen 9 5900HS, again claiming that its eight-core chips for thin-and-lights offer the best performance. However, here we can see that the Intel chip loses in three of the four benchmarks, but Intel touts that its “Intel Sample System” is a mere 16.5mm thick, while the 5900HS rides in an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 that measures 18mm thick at the front and 20mm thick at the rear.
Intel’s message here is that it can provide comparable gaming performance in thinner systems, but there’s not enough information, like battery life or other considerations, to make any real type of decision off this data.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Application Benchmarks
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
Here we can see Intel’s benchmarks for applications, too, but the same rules apply — we’ll need to see these benchmarks in our own test suite before we’re ready to claim any victors. Also, be sure to read the test configs in the slides below for more details.
Intel’s 11th-Gen Tiger Lake brings support for AVX-512 and the DL Boost deep learning suite, so Intel hand-picks benchmarks that leverage those features. As such, the previous-gen Comet Lake-H comparable is hopelessly hamstrung in the Video Creation Workflow and Photo Processing benchmarks.
We can say much the same about the comparison benchmarks with the Ryzen 9 5900HX. As a result of Intel’s insistence on using AI-enhanced benchmarks, these benchmarks are largely useless for real-world comparisons: The overwhelming majority of software doesn’t leverage either AI or AVX-512, and it will be several years before we see broad uptake.
As noted, Intel says the new Tiger Lake-H chips will come to market in 80 new designs (15 of these are for the vPro equivalents), with the leading devices available for preorder on May 11 and shipping on May 17. As you can imagine, we’ll also have reviews coming soon. Stay tuned.
MSI is getting a new lineup, including some new designs, in sync with Intel launching its Tiger Lake-H processors. While it refreshed recently at CES 2021, this new launch includes more new designs. Some of them will also utilize Nvidia’s new RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti graphics cards. Pre-orders begin today, and laptops will begin to ship on May 16.
MSI GE76 and GE66 Raider
The GE76 and GE66 Raider have taken the flagship spot. (The latter has long been on our list of the
best gaming laptops
.) They’re the same design, but with 17-inch and 15-inch screens, respectively. Both will go up to an overclockable Intel Core i9-11980HK and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080. At launch, the GE66 will go up to
4K
, while the GE76 will only have faster but lower resolution 1080p screens. Higher-resolution screens for the 17-incher will come in May and June.
While the design is the same, including a blue aluminum, MSI said it intends on using more powerful cooling. The Raiders also have
FHD
webcams and have bumped up to Wi-Fi 6E and Thunderbolt 4 for connectivity.
MSI GE76 Raider
MSI GE66 Raider
MSI GS76 Stealth
CPU
Up to Intel Core i9-11980HK
Up to Intel Core i9-11980HK
Up to Intel Core i9-110900H
GPU
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (16GB GDDR6)
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (16GB GDDR6)
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (16GB GDDR6)
RAM
Up to 32GB at 3,200 MHz
Up to 32GB at 3,200 MHz
Up to 64GB at 3,200 MHz
Storage
Up to 1TB
Up to 2TB
Up to 2TB
Display
17.3-inches, 1920 x 1080, up to 360Hz (QHD coming late May)
15.6-inch, up to 4K, QHD up to 240 Hz
17.3-inches, up to 4K, FHD up to 300 Hz
Networking
Killer WiFi 6E AX1675 (2×2), Bluetooth 5.2
Killer WiFi 6E AX1675 (2×2), Bluetooth 5.2
Killer WiFi 6E AX1675 (2×2), Bluetooth 5.2
Battery
99.9 WHr
99.9 WHr
99.9 WHr
Starting Price
$1,499
$2,299
$1,999
MSI GS76 Stealth
(Image credit: MSI)
We’re also seeing a larger version of the existing MSI Stealth. The new GS76 is a 17.3-inch version of the laptop. (We only saw the GS66, the 15.6-incher, at CES, though that is getting upgraded to new parts, too.) It won’t get the overclockable processor, but you get RAM going up to 64GB at 3,200 MHz, up to 2TB of SSD storage and the same 99.9 WHr battery as the Raider line. Like the Raider, there will be
QHD
options coming later in the month.
The new design has top-firing speakers, and MSI says this laptop will have a far more tactile keyboard than the previous 17-inch Stealth, the GS75.
MSI GL66 Pulse and Crosshair
The MSI GL Pulse is a new entry that joins the Crosshair, both of which are intermediate-level gaming laptops. They’re largely the same, including metal lids, but the Pulse has some engraved designs where the Crosshair is plainer.
Both the Pulse will start at $959 with a Core i5-11400H and RTX 3050 and go up from there, topping out at $1,799. Both are getting new keyboards with single-zone RGB, and while the more expensive Raider and Stealth will have Gen 4 SSDs, the GL lineup will stay on Gen 3.
MSI GF Katana and Sword
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(Image credit: MSI)
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(Image credit: MSI)
MSI’s most entry-level gaming notebooks are the new Katana and Sword. They’re replacing the previous GF Thin line. The two notebooks differ only in color: Katana is black with a red keyboard, while Sword is white with a blue keyboard. These differ from the GL lineup in that they are plastic and have fewer panel options.
Katana starts at $999 with a Core i7-11800H and an RTX 3050 Ti and goes up to $1,449 with a Core i7 and an RTX 3060. The white laptop, Sword has a single $1,099 configuration with a Core i7 and RTX 3050 Ti. Sword has a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 display at 144 Hz, while Katana will be at both 15 and 17 inches.
MSI Creator Z16
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(Image credit: MSI)
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MSI is taking another shot at the MacBook Pro crowd with its new Creator Z16. It starts at an eye-watering $2,599 with an Intel Core i7-11800H, an RTX 3060, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The $2,999 configuration bumps up to a Core i9-11900H and 2TB SSD.
The new top-of-the-line creator notebooks are minimalist with a CNC aluminum build. MSI has opted for a 16:10 touch display with 2560 x 1600 resolution and a speed of 120 Hz. It also includes two Thunderbolt 4 ports, microSD slot. Unlike the Raider, this sports a 720p webcam and a 90 WHr battery.
Memory specialist HyperX has expanded its Predator DDR4 family with fresh offerings up to DDR4-5333. The new memory kits are tailored towards Intel’s and AMD’s latest platforms, but it remains to be seen whether they have what it takes to disrupt the best RAM kits on the market.
The memory kits are available in DDR4-5000, DDR4-5133 and DDR4-5333 flavors. Given the difficulties to bin for these frequencies, the memory kits only come in dual-channel 16GB packages comprised of two 8GB memory modules. Taking into consideration the density, the memory modules adhere to a single-rank design. We suspect that HyperX’s latest memory modules are leveraging Hynix D-die integrated circuits (ICs) to hit these top speeds.
The DDR4-5333 memory is the current flagship part for the Predator DDR4 lineup. With 20-30-30 timings and requiring 1.6V to operate the memory kit retails at an eye-watering $1,245 price tag.
Memory Kit
Data Rate
Primary Timings
Voltage (V)
Capacity
MSRP
HX453C20PB3K2/16
DDR4-5333
20-30-30
1.60
2 x 8GB
$1,245
HX451C20PB3K2/16
DDR4-5133
20-28-28
1.55
2 x 8GB
$995
HX450C19PB3K2/16
DDR4-5000
19-28-28
1.55
2 x 8GB
$870
If you don’t need the fastest memory kit, HyperX also offers the Predator DDR4 in slightly slower DDR4-5133 and DDR4-5000 configurations. The first has its timings set to 20-28-28, while the latter comes with 19-28-28 timings. Regardless of the frequency, both command a 1.55V DRAM voltage. The DDR4-5133 and DDR4-5000 memory kits certainly won’t be easy on the pockets, either. They sell for $995 and $870, respectively.
Predator DDR4 memory kits are XMP-ready so setup should be a breeze, assuming that your processor is up to the task of taming these fast memory kits. Considering the frequency, a fair bit of manual tweaking is probably required. As always, HyperX backs its memory kits with a lifetime warranty.
The Predator DDR4-5333, DDR4-5133 and DDR4-5000 memory kits’ availability will vary from region to region.
Xiaomi brought Mi Air 2 Pro back in October, but now the TWS earphones are getting a successor. The company has posted a teaser on its Weibo profile, revealing a new case with the new Xiaomi logo on the hinge. The image also tells us when the launch will take place – this Thursday, May 13. Meanwhile, a leakster posted an alleged image of the actual buds, which will have rubber tips.
Xiaomi TWS earphones
Xiaomi said the upcoming set will be the company’s flagship noise-cancelling earphones, without clarifying if there will be Active Noise Cancellation – something we are yet to see from the maker. However it’s certain the tight seal of the rubber tips will improve the passive cancellation.
The design of the case is inspired by Xiaomi’s new round logo. All the corners from previous designs are polished to the point of having no corners at all, and we hope the case will retain its wireless charging capabilities, as well as inheriting the 500 mAh battery capacity from the Mi Air 2 Pro.
Source 1 • Source 2 (both in Chinese) | Via
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