HP announced new AMD and Intel convertibles today, the first of which upgrades the company’s AMD convertibles to Ryzen 5000U chips and the latter of which comes with a new discrete graphics option and plenty of utility software. Granted, that discrete GPU isn’t gaming-tier. Also, if you want something a bit larger and just a touch more powerful, there’s also a new, Intel-based Envy 17 coming out with the same GPU options as HP’s new Intel convertibles, plus some of that new utility software (no word on an AMD Envy 17). These are HP’s mid-range attempts to make our list of the best ultrabooks.
HP Envy x360 15
HP Envy 17
CPU
Up to Intel Core i7-1165G7/Up to AMD Ryzen 7 5700U
Up to Intel Core i7-1165G7
GPU
Up to Nvidia MX450
Up to Nvidia MX450
Memory
Up to 16GB DDR4
Up to 32GB DDR4
Storage
Up to 1TB M.2 SSD
Up to 1TB M.2 SSD
Display
Up to 4K OLED
Up to 4K
Networking
Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5
Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5
Release Date
March 22nd
March 22nd
Starting Price
$899 for Intel/$749 for AMD
$999
That discrete GPU option coming to these new Intel devices would be the Nvidia MX450, which is meant mostly for light productivity and explains why much of the ad material for these machines is aimed at photographers, artists and other creators who might need a little more oomph for editing, but don’t exactly need to buy an RTX 3000 series card.
(Image credit: HP)
Unfortunately, as we stated before, that GPU isn’t available on the black HP Envy x360 15. Instead, AMD HP convertibles will have to settle with an upgrade to either an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U CPU or an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U CPU with integrated Radeon graphics. That’s a generational upgrade over current AMD Envy x360 devices, which currently use Ryzen 4000U chips. It also has up to 16GB of DDR4-3200 MHz RAM and Up to 1TB of M.2 SSD storage. You can also add on a magnetic HP stylus to the device and choose display options ranging from a 1920 x 1080 IPS touchscreen to a 4K OLED display.
(Image credit: HP)
Intel’s also getting a new HP Envy x360 15 release with the silver edition of the same device, this time with a discrete graphics option. This upgrade stays on the same generation as current HP Intel convertibles with up to an 11th generation Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU, but brings that Nvidia MX450 GPU option to the table. RAM, storage and display options mirror the AMD model, as does the ability to add on an HP pen.
HP hasn’t made it clear yet whether it plans to release silver AMD models or black Intel options. We also don’t know if the company will add additional color options over time.
(Image credit: HP)
For Intel fans (sorry Team Red) who are looking for a more traditional laptop experience, there’s also the new HP Envy 17. This is a silver laptop with up to an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU and a 17 inch inch touch-compatible display with options ranging from 1920 x 1080 IPS to 4K. RAM can be pushed up to 32GB and storage up to 1TB, and the Nvidia MX450 is also available as an add-on here. The HP pen isn’t available as a magnetic add-on here, but you will get Bang & Olufsen speakers and an optional fingerprint reader.
The HP Envy 17 and Intel version of the HP Envy x360 15 will also come with toggleable AI noise removal software that attempts to remove background noise like dogs barking or babies crying from your video calls. All devices mentioned here will also get post processing lighting software for adjusting how you appear in video calls, as well as “HP QuickDrop,” which allows for easily sharing files across your phone and your computer.
Unique to the Intel version of the HP Envy x360 15 is a toggleable thermal management option that attempts to leverage machine learning to automatically adjust performance, fan noise and temperature based on which apps you’re using and the airflow surrounding the device.
It’s hard to say which among AMD or Intel is more improved here. While Intel has more options, including discrete graphics, AMD is making a generational leap on the CPU.
Regardless of your pick, you can order certain configurations at
Best Buy
starting today, with the rest set to come to HP.com in April.
We ask The Verge staff what they like to work with, play with, and cook with
We all have our favorite stuff. It could be a laptop that you’ve used for several years or the snazzy new one that just arrived last week. It could be the headphones that deliver your favorite music and podcasts, the controller that helps you win your games, or the app that puts a weird background on your Zoom calls.
Of course, we’re not just talking tech. We’re also talking about your favorite coffee maker, the TV shows that you binged through the pandemic, the hiking boots that have never given you a blister, and the immersion blender that your friend gave you for your birthday.
We’ve talked to the people who work at The Verge and asked them to tell us about their favorite stuff, whether it be for working at home, cooking, or playing. Some of these things may be what you already like to use; others may give you ideas of the kind of items you could use for yourself. Either way, we hope you enjoy reading about the things we use and enjoy.
Now that many of us are working from home (and it looks some will continue to do so, even after we’ve gotten past the worst of the pandemic), one of the most important places in those homes is our workspaces — in other words, our desks.
Everyone’s workspace is different. What kind of desk — and desk chair — do you use? Is your workspace neat and organized or filled with tchotchkes and toys? Do you have an old-fashioned wooden desk or a mechanized standing desk? Are you sitting on a stool or the latest Herman Miller desk chair? Is your workspace filled with this year’s high-end tech for working and gaming, or are you happy with a five-year-old laptop and a pair of headphones?
In our “What’s on your desk?” series, we look into how people organize and use their workspace so that you can find out all of the various ways we see our spaces and ourselves.
Images of two of Samsung’s rumored upcoming laptops — the Galaxy Book Pro and Galaxy Book Pro 360 — have leaked early, giving us our clearest look yet at the two devices. The apparent marketing images were posted to Voice by reliable leaker Evan Blass, who says they could launch as early as April.
The Galaxy Book Pro will reportedly be available in both blue and silver, while the Pro 360 will come in navy and gold. Both are available with 13 and 15-inch displays. Blass confirms that the Pro 360 will support Samsung’s S Pen stylus, and his images show that some variants of the laptops will include full size keyboards with numpads. In the images, the Pro 360 appears to have a USB Type-C port, headphone jack, and microSD card slot, while the Pro is shown with a Type-A port visible alongside its card slot and headphone jack.
The Galaxy Book Pro.Image: Evan Blass / Voice
The existence of the two laptops has been known for at least a couple of months after SamMobile spotted that they’d been registered with the Bluetooth SIG back in January. A pair of reports in February from SamMobile and leaker WalkingCat revealed more of the laptops’ specs, including OLED displays, Thunderbolt 4, and optional LTE support. Internally they’re said to be running Intel’s 11th-Gen processors, and the 15-inch version of the Galaxy Book Pro could be available with Nvidia MX450 discrete graphics. According to WalkingCat, the Galaxy Book Pro will release in May alongside an ARM-based laptop called the Galaxy Book Go.
The two laptops join a slew of other Samsung machines released in recent months including the Galaxy Chromebook 2, which runs on Intel processors and includes support for styluses.
João Silva 2 days ago Featured Tech News, Graphics, Notebook
The Geekbench 5 database is leaking more unannounced hardware. This time around, entries have detailed the upcoming RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti GPUs for laptops, including specifications and performance scores.
The RTX 3050 will feature 2048 CUDA cores, 4GB of VRAM across a 128-bit memory bus and a 1060MHz clock speed. The GPU was tested in an unannounced laptop – the Samsung 760XDA. The GPU scored 52,587 points in Geekbench 5’s OpenCL test, rivalling the GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q, which scored 53,607 points in the same test.
The RTX 3050 Ti was also tested inside of a Samsung 760XDA laptop, so there will be multiple configurations of this laptop available. The RTX 3050 Ti ups the ante with 2560 CUDA cores, a 1030MHz clock speed and the same memory configuration as its younger sibling.
In Geekbench 5’s OpenCL test, the RTX 3050 Ti comes out with a score of 60,479, putting it roughly on par with the RTX 2060 Max-Q. You gain about 15% extra performance jumping from the RTX 3050 to the Ti model.
RTX 3050 series laptops are expected to begin shipping in Q2 2021. Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru says: These are early and limited indications of performance, but it still gives us a good idea of what to expect from Nvidia’s entry-level RTX laptop GPUs. What do you think of the RTX 3050 and the RTX 3050 Ti? Is performance in line with what you expected?
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Intel launched a new ad campaign starring Justin Long, Apple’s “I’m a Mac” actor, but for this campaign, Long is singing the praises of PC laptops and comparing them to MacBooks. The thing is, for reasons that we can’t quite figure out, Intel actually made the MacBook Pros in its commercials look better than they do in real life, as spotted by tech YouTuber Rene Ritchie.
Take a look at these two photos. The one on the left is a photo of a MacBook Pro with an M1 chip taken for The Verge’s review. The one on the right is taken from this Intel ad. Can you spot the difference?
I’ll spoil it for you: Intel’s version of the MacBook Pro has much thinner screen bezels, making it a nearly edge-to-edge display. I’d love it if my MacBook’s bezels were this thin! (Though Intel’s version of a MacBook Pro doesn’t have a webcam. Bummer.)
But Intel’s fabled all-screen MacBook Pro didn’t make just one appearance. It’s also in this ad, which attempts to ding the MacBook Pro for not being a 2-in-1. Look at that Mac — all screen!
Image: Intel
Intel did confirm to The Verge that it used real MacBook Pros with an M1 chip in the commercials, but the company wouldn’t say what it may or may not have changed about them: “With respect to filming and showcasing details, we’re not commenting at this time,” an Intel spokesperson said.
So what probably happened here is that Intel changed the look of the MacBook Pros’ screens in post-production, which had the happenstance effect of making their screens look better than they do in real life. (And if you look at the image from the second ad, you can see some kind of blackish-haze applied over the screen, which probably wouldn’t be there in reality.)
These ads, in my opinion, are also kind of missing the point. None of Intel’s four new commercials demonstrate how Intel’s chips can compete with the MacBook Pro’s real advantage: Apple’s speedy and battery-efficient M1 chip. (So far, Intel has only produced cherry-picked benchmarks to try and hit back at the M1.) And by trying to dunk on the MacBook Pro, Intel is also, in a way, dunking on itself, since it still provides chips for some models of the Apple laptop.
And seriously, doesn’t that all-screen MacBook Pro just look good?
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Any business laptop that comes out these days is entering a tough field full of very established players. The world is already stuffed full of ThinkPads and Latitudes, which have strong followings, cover price ranges across the board, and are highly attuned to what workers need.
So my question with lesser-known business laptops is usually: Where does this fit? What customer is it catering to who might be underserved by a ThinkPad?
With its TravelMate line (specifically the TravelMate P6), Acer seems to be going for two potential openings. The first is that the TravelMate is, as the name implies, specifically intended for frequent business travelers. It’s light, portable, and sturdy, at the expense of some other traits. And the second is its price. Starting at $1,199.99, the TravelMate line is targeting a more price-conscious demographic than many business laptops that would be considered “premium” are. I think the TravelMate succeeds in filling these two niches in particular. But it has some other drawbacks that make it tough to recommend for a general audience.
The aspect of the TravelMate that should be a big help to mobile business users is the port selection. Despite being quite thin, the laptop is able to fit a USB Type-C (supporting USB 3.1 Gen 2, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3, and USB charging), two USB 3.1 Type-A Gen 1 (one with power-off USB charging), one HDMI 2.0, one microSD reader, one combination audio jack, one Ethernet port (with a trap-door hinge), one DC-In jack for Acer’s adapter, one lock slot, and an optional SmartCard reader. The fewer dongles and docks you have to travel with, the better.
Portability is another priority here and is another one of the TravelMate’s highlight features. At just 2.57 pounds and 0.65 inches thick, the TravelMate should be a breeze to carry around in a backpack or briefcase. Acer says it’s put the product through a slew of durability tests for weight and pressure, drops, shocks, vibrations, and other hiccups you may encounter during the day.
Another area that’s likely important to some mobile professionals is videoconferencing capability. I found that to be a mixed bag here. The TravelMate’s four-microphone array had no trouble catching my voice, in both voice recognition and Zoom meeting use cases. Acer says they can pick up voices from up to 6.5 feet away. The webcam also produces a fine picture (though this unit doesn’t support Windows Hello for easy logins) and has a physical privacy shutter. The speakers are not great, though — music was tinny with thin percussion and nonexistent bass.
Acer promises that the TravelMate can survive “the bumps from airport security, accidental drops, and other mishaps.”
The TravelMate also includes some business-specific features including a TPM 2.0 chip and Acer’s ProShield security software.
In other, less business-y areas, though, the TravelMate has a few shortcomings. Shoppers looking for anything more than portability out of the chassis may be disappointed. While most of the TravelMate is made of magnesium-aluminum alloy, it has a bit of a plasticky feel — and while the keyboard is sturdy, there’s considerable flex in the screen. And then there’s the aesthetic: the P6 is far from the prettiest computer you can buy for $1,199.99. It’s almost entirely black, with very few accents (and the ones it has are a drab gray color). And the bezels around the 16:9 screen are quite chunky by modern standards. Plus, the 16:9 aspect ratio is falling out of fashion for a reason — it’s cramped for multitasking, especially on a 13- or 14-inch screen — and the panel maxed out at 274 nits in my testing, which is a bit too dim for outdoor use.
The color is called “mild black.”
The TravelMate looks and feels like it was made a bit better than budget fare. But it also looks and feels closer to an Aspire 5 than it does to a top ThinkPad. For context, you can get an Aspire 5 with identical specs to this TravelMate model for just over $700. Another comparison: the Swift 5, a gorgeous consumer laptop that’s even lighter than the TravelMate, can be purchased with comparable specs for just $999.99. This is all to emphasize that you’re sacrificing a bit of build quality (as well as some extra money) for the TravelMate’s weight and business-specific offerings.
The touchpad is also not my favorite. For one, I had some palm-rejection issues. Those didn’t interfere with my work per se, but it was still unnerving to see my cursor jumping around the screen while I was typing. In addition, the touchpad on my unit had a bit of give before the actuation point, meaning one click required me to make (and hear) what felt like two clicks. And its off-center placement meant that I was constantly right-clicking when I meant to left-click, and I had to consciously reach over to the left side in order to click with my right hand. Finally, the click itself is shallow and far from the most comfortable.
I also didn’t love the power button. It contains a fingerprint sensor, which worked quite well. But the button itself is stiff and very shallow. I know this sounds like a small nitpick, but it was really irksome and made turning the TravelMate on in the morning more of a hassle than it could’ve been.
Some TravelMate models support facial recognition, but my model did not.
The TravelMate model that I received to review is sold out everywhere I’ve looked as of this writing. The closest model to it is listed at $1,199.99 (though it’s cheaper through some retailers) and comes with a Core i5-10310U, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage. My unit is the same, but it has a Core i5-10210U. Those processors don’t have a significant performance difference, so my testing here should give you a good idea of what to expect from that model. You can also buy a model with a Core i7-10610U, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD for $1,399.99. Both configurations run Windows 10 Pro and include a 1920 x 1080 non-touch display.
For my office workload of emails, spreadsheets, Zoom calls, etc., the TravelMate did just fine. I sometimes heard the fans spinning at times when my load wasn’t super heavy, but the noise wasn’t loud enough to be a problem. Note that this processor has Intel’s UHD graphics, rather than its upgraded Iris Xe graphics, which means the system wouldn’t be a good choice for gaming, video software, or other graphics work.
But there’s one area where the TravelMate really impressed, and it’s one that’s quite useful for travelers: battery life. Running through my daily workload at 200 nits of brightness, my system averaged nine hours and 15 minutes of continuous use. That’s almost twice what the budget Aspire 5 got with my same workload. It also beats the Swift 5 and the pricier ThinkPad X1 Nano. If your workload is similar to (or lighter than) mine, you should be able to bring this device around an airport or conference for a full work day without being attached to a wall.
The notebook can charge up to 50 percent in less than 45 minutes.
One performance complaint, though: this thing comes with bloatware. My unit was pre-installed with all kinds of junk, including games (Amazon was pinned to the taskbar) and other software like Dropbox. Most annoyingly, it came with Norton, which bugged me with annoying pop-ups all the time and also seemed to impact battery life: the TravelMate consistently lasted around an hour longer after I uninstalled the program. It doesn’t take too long to uninstall everything, but I’m still morally put off by the idea of so much cheap crapware being loaded onto a laptop that costs over $1,000. And it’s especially troubling to see on a business laptop, because it can expose users to cybersecurity risk.
The TravelMate line is filling a pretty specific niche, and it fills it just fine. If you’re a frequent business traveler who needs a light device with plentiful ports and all-day battery life, you’re shopping in the $1,199 price range, and you’re willing to overlook a mediocre touchpad, dim 16:9 display, and other hiccups, then the P6 will be a better choice for you than something like a pricier and heavier Dell Latitude or the shorter-lived and port-starved ThinkPad X1 Nano.
That said, the P6 has enough drawbacks that I think the bulk of customers would be better served by other laptops. Those who like the Acer brand may like some of Acer’s other offerings — especially those who don’t need the business-specific security features. The Swift 5 is lighter, nicer-looking, and more affordable than the TravelMate, with a better touchpad, screen, and processor. And budget shoppers can find much of what the TravelMate offers in any number of cheaper laptops. The Aspire 5 and the Swift 3 don’t have the TravelMate’s battery or port selection, but they do improve upon its touchpad, audio (in the Aspire’s case), and looks (in the Swift’s case). And, of course, there’s a litany of other laptops in this price range — from HP’s Spectre x360 to Dell’s XPS 13 — that are excellent in almost every way and also offer 3:2 screens.
Ultimately, the TravelMate isn’t a bad laptop — but if it’s the best laptop for you, you probably know who you are.
(Pocket-lint) – The HP Spectre x360 13 is a bit of a dream convertible laptop. Not much has changed in this 2020-2021 version apart from a shift to Intel’s 11th Gen processors. But these bring a significant jump in performance, especially for gaming, with no downsides.
You have plenty of laptops to choose from with this much cash to spend. You could get a (admittedly non-convertible) MacBook Air, a Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, or a Lenovo Yoga 9i (although the Shadow Black model we saw we can’t recommend).
Particular benefits of the HP Spectre x360 13 include an ultra-small footprint, a near-perfect hinge design that’s far more sturdy than most, and a great keyboard. This is a style laptop that doesn’t compromise on the basics, and that matters because no matter how expensive a laptop looks or feels, you always take the outer gloss for granted quickly enough.
Design
Dimensions: 16.9 x 194.5 x 306mm
Weight: 1.3kg (1.28kg measured)
Unibody aluminium shell
HP Spectre laptops are some of the most striking, and perhaps contentious, slim-and-light models we review all year. The HP Spectre x360 13’s look hasn’t changed much in this latest generation, but is still worth a mention.
Pocket-lint
It has a thing for angles – like the 45-degree cut-outs in the corners, and peaked contoured edges. It all gives the Spectre x360 a distinct and angular appearance – but not one that all will instantly like. However, HP tempers the look by keeping everything bar the screen border a sedate silver. A couple more striking two-tone finishes are available if you want to fully embrace the Spectre’s provocative style.
All the HP Spectre x360 13’s panels are aluminium, rather than magnesium. HP could have used the latter to bring the weight below its currently perfectly respectable ~1.3kg. But then you’d lose some of the cool, metallic feel that works hand-in-hand with the laptop’s severe look.
The Spectre x360 13’s build is exceptional too. There is zero keyboard flex, real Apple-grade rigidity, and the integrity of the flippy hinge is best-in-class stuff.
Pocket-lint
Use the rival Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 2 on your knees and you’ll notice the screen actually wobbles slightly from the motion. There’s almost none of that in the Spectre x360.
However, the HP’s footprint is actually one of the most notable things here. The Spectre x360 is tiny for a 13-inch machine, shaving off a significant amount of depth. Some of you won’t appreciate this as much as the sub-1kg weight of lighter alternatives. But it helps this laptop fit in smaller bags or onto cramped tables.
Screen
13-inch IPS LCD touchscreen with stylus support
Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels)
100% sRGB colour, 460-nit brightness
Part of this footprint is down to HP’s cutting down of the screen border at the bottom edge. And, of course, because the HP Spectre x360 13 has a widescreen display rather than the 3:2 aspect ratio some prefer for productivity apps.
Pocket-lint
Are you in that crowd? HP caters for you too, now. Hunt down the 14-inch version of the HP Spectre x360 13, which trades the small footprint for more screen space and a larger touchpad. Yes, a “14 13”, weird naming, isn’t it?
HP sent us the “entry-level” screen version of the HP Spectre x360 13. It has a Full HD IPS LCD screen, rather than the 4K OLED you can get if you’re willing to spend more (and probably sacrifice battery life as a result)
This LCD isn’t a true wide colour gamut screen – but we still think it is great. It delivers very high contrast for this style of display, making blacks look rich and deep even when the brightness is maxed. And that top brightness is high enough to work outdoors comfortably enough.
Resolution is the one obvious shortfall. While 1080p lets you see slight pixellation in text – which is why you might choose to buy a MacBook Air instead – it’s still not a low resolution per se. Where almost all Windows laptops of this type offer 1080p as a starting resolution, and an ultra-high res one as a pricey upgrade, all MacBook Air models have 1600p screens, which wipe out that slight pixellation.
Pocket-lint
The HP Spectre x360 13 also supports a digitiser stylus, with pressure sensitivity. Looking online, it seems you may get one in the box with some packages, but ours didn’t include the stylus (based in the UK, so it may be a regional thing). This doesn’t seem as essential an accessory as it does in the Lenovo Yoga 9i, though, as there’s nowhere to store then pen in the laptop itself.
Keyboard and Touchpad
2-level backlight
Textured glass touchpad
The HP Spectre x360 13 is at heart a pretty straightforward laptop. It’s a good job, then, that HP has the basics aced.
Pocket-lint
For one, it has a very good keyboard. There’s plenty of key travel, zero flex to the keyboard plate, and meaty-but-quiet feedback when you press the keys. This is not necessarily what you’d expect from a style-driven portable laptop in 2021. But HP has not forgotten this element is pretty important for those who actually work eight hours a day in front of the thing.
There’s a two-level backlight for confidence when typing in darker rooms. And the only concession to the Spectre’s low-depth case design is that a row of function buttons are shifted to the right of the keyboard. We guarantee you’ll press Page Up/Down accidentally a hundred times, but you’ll get used to the layout in the end.
The touchpad is trimmed down more substantially to fit the Spectre x360 13’s shape, but is still very good. It has a smooth textured glass surface, and a confident clicker that isn’t affected by pressure places around the pad itself.
Pocket-lint
There’s a hint of pre-click float, which is usually something to complain about. But here it actually seems deliberate, to lend the pad a greater sense of click depth.
The HP Spectre x360 13 also has a little fingerprint scanner, below the arrow keys. It is not as subtle as a pad built into a keyboard key or a power button, but then HP doesn’t exactly have much space to work with here and its responsiveness is sound enough. Plus, as you can see, subtlety isn’t the name of the game when it comes to design.
There’s also, sadly, no room for a good webcam. A 720p camera sits in the screen surround, and it doles out a soft, noisy image like the vast majority of laptops in this class. Puts it on par with a MacBook then, but that’s another way of saying it’s not nearly good enough for this day and age.
Performance
Intel Core i7-1165g7 CPU
16GB DDR4 RAM
512GB Intel Optane SSD
The HP Spectre x360 13 is an Intel Evo laptop. This is a new quality seal from Intel that ensures you get quick-resume from sleep, a Thunderbolt 4 port, fairly fast charging, and good battery life too. And it all revolves around Intel’s 11th Gen processors.
Pocket-lint
Our HP Spectre x360 13 has an Intel Core i7-1165g7 processor with 16GB RAM and a 512GB Intel Optane SSD. This makes Windows 10 fly. And while it doesn’t quite have the raw power of the MacBook Pro’s M1 processor, there are not going to be any compatibility headaches – as this is a more conventional CPU.
Gaming is the most noticeable performance improvement you’ll see in this generation. Laptops like this traditionally use the graphics chipset baked into the main processor, and Intel’s traditionally are not all that good. But the HP Spectre x360 13 has the Intel Xe chipset, which brings performance up to that of an entry-level Nvidia dedicated graphics card.
We’ve tested a bunch of laptops with Xe graphics recently. They let you play Skyrim at Ultra graphics settings, Subnautica at a fairly pretty Medium, Euro Truck Simulator 2 with everything turned on, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance at 900p with good results.
How about GTA V? That runs just fine too, delivering frame rates in the 40s at the default graphics settings. Intel has finally caught up with AMD, delivering results similar to what you’d see in a Ryzen 7 4700U laptop – like the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 – or a last-gen Intel one with a dedicated Nvidia MX350 graphics card.
Pocket-lint
We’ve been waiting for this moment for ages: you can treat a laptop like the HP Spectre x360 13 a bit like a last-gen games console, even though it is not remotely made for the purpose.
The HP Spectre x360 13 is also silent when you do light work that doesn’t tax the processor, causing the fans to start spinning. These latest-generation chipsets seem to have a better handle on heat than their predecessors. It’s not silent when you run GTA V, of course, but avoids the annoying high-pitch whirr you sometimes get with small laptops.
The HP Spectre x360 13’s speakers are reasonable, but not quite as the same level as those of a MacBook Pro or Lenovo Yoga 9i. There’s the small portion of bass that largely separates good speakers from poor ones and the tone is even enough, but maximum volume doesn’t break out of the so-so laptop mould.
Battery Life
60Wh battery
65W charger
USB-C charging
The HP Spectre x360 13 has a 60Wh battery – the same size this series has used for a few generations now. It’s a mid-size battery – which is no surprise given the laptop’s footprint – but lasts very well considering the laptop uses an Intel CPU, which aren’t quite as frugal on power as the latest AMD Ryzen models.
Best laptop 2021: Top general and premium notebooks for working from home and more
By Dan Grabham
·
Pocket-lint
In our hands it lasted 12 hours 15 minutes when streaming video over Wi-Fi at the sort of brightness level you might use indoors. Not bad, right? The Intel Evo mark guarantees nine hours of general use, so the HP Spectre x360 13 is a good way ahead of that.
Its charger is a 65W brick – uh oh, it’s not exactly in keeping with the laptop’s elegant style – but at least it’ll bring the charge to around 50 per cent in a mere half-hour.
Verdict
The HP Spectre x360 13 is a laptop focused on quality. Its build is exceptional. You get the cool and hard feel of aluminium, very low-flex panels and a non-wobbly convertible display hinge. Its keyboard is far better than the thin, clicky designs used in plenty of slim laptops. And while the weight isn’t dramatically low, this laptop’s footprint is among the smallest in its class.
Sure, you don’t get a slot-in stylus and for the deepest display colour you’ll need to upgrade to the 4K OLED version, but HP has aced the parts that affect your day-to-day experience using this machine. Don’t be confused by the funky angular design, HP knows the importance of getting the basics right. Oh, and it costs less than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, which is an added bonus. It’s top marks all round.
View offer on HP Store (sponsored link)
Also consider
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1
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It’s pricier for the same spec, but you have to pay big to get the comparable Dell XPS convertible. It also has a shallower keyboard and a larger footprint, although the touchpad is a lot bigger too, which may appeal.
Read our review
MacBook Air
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Apple doesn’t make a convertible laptop – but the Air is probably the laptop you might consider in this HP’s stead. It has a sharper display and doesn’t use a fan at all, so stays silent 24/7. However, the keyboard is shallower, which may be an issue for those who spend a lot of typing tapping out emails and docs.
Intel has demonstrated a laptop based on its upcoming eight-core Tiger Lake-H processor running at up to 5.0 GHz, essentially revealing some of the main selling points of its flagship CPU for notebooks. Mobile PCs based on the chip will hit the market in the second quarter, Intel said.
As a part of its GDC 2021 showcase (via VideoCardz), Intel demonstrated a pre-production enthusiast-grade notebook running a yet-to-be-announced 11th-Generation Core i9 ‘Tiger Lake-H’ processor with eight cores and Hyper-Threading technology running at 5.0 GHz ‘across multiple cores.’
The demo CPU is likely the Core i9-11980HK, which Lenovo has already listed, but without disclosing its specifications. This time around, Intel also did not reveal the base clocks of the processor and how many cores can run at 5.0 GHz, but it’s obvious that we’re talking about more than one core, implying 5.0 GHz is not its maximum single-core turbo clock.
Intel’s Tiger Lake-H processors are powered by up to eight cores featuring the Willow Cove microarchitecture equipped with up to 24 MB of L3 cache and a new DDR4 memory controller. The new CPUs also have numerous improvements over processors on the platform level, including 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes to connect to the latest GPUs and high-end SSDs, as well as built-in Thunderbolt 4 support.
To demonstrate the capabilities of the 8-core/16-thread Core i9 ‘Tiger Lake-H’ CPU, Intel used the Total War real-time strategy game that uses CPUs heavily. Unfortunately, it is unknown which GPU Intel used for the demonstration or if it was a discrete high-end notebook graphics processor or Intel’s integrated Xe-LP GPU. Since the laptop featured at least a 15.6-inch display, common sense tells us that this was a discrete graphics solution.
During the presentation, Intel said that the first notebooks based on the Tiger Lake-H processor would arrive in Q2 2021 but did not disclose whether they will show up in early April or late June.
Alienware and Cherry have partnered to bring new Cherry MX Ultra Low Profile switches to the Alienware m15 R4 and m17 R4, the companies announced today. If it works well, it could be a crucial step in making the experience of gaming on those notebooks more like gaming on a desktop.
The MX Ultra Low Profile switches fit in a 3.5mm design with 1.8mm of key travel. It features stainless steel components that look sort of like wings. Alienware and Cherry claim the switches are rated for 15 million keystrokes per key and feature “two-piece” keycaps with a “gold-based cross-point contact system” to keep the keys sturdy with every press.
(Image credit: Cherry)
(Image credit: Cherry)
For the acoustically inclined, Alienware tweeted out a teaser yesterday that it has confirmed is the sound of the keys being typed on:
Super 🍒 sweet 🍒 news is dropping tomorrow. Until then 🤫@cherrymx pic.twitter.com/YKkdMhpG7aMarch 17, 2021
See more
Other specs include anti-ghosting,
n-key rollover
and per-key RGB backingthing with AlienFX.
Alienware introduced the
m15 R4
and
m17 R4
at CES 2021 and released them shortly after with 10th Gen Intel Core processors and new Nvidia GeForce RTX 30-series graphics in order to compete with the
best gaming laptops
. The keyboards will be on new configurations of the device that will add $150 to each laptop.
These aren’t the first gaming notebooks with mechanical keyboards, or even with Cherry switches. MSI’s GT Titan line, for instance, had full-sized Cherry MX Brown and MX Silver switches implemented by SteelSeries for a bit in the mid 2010s, and we just reviewed a
Gigabyte Aorus 17G
using mechanical switches, albeit not Cherry-branded. And a version of the Razer Blade 15 introduced optical mechanical switches to laptops.
But Alienware’s laptops offer a new approach and a new kind of switch. It’s unclear how long (or if) the MX Ultra Low Profile switches will be exclusive to these devices.
Alienware and Cherry have worked together to cram what both companies are calling the “first true” mechanical keyboard into a gaming laptop. Starting March 18th, you’ll be able to purchase Alienware’s M15 R4 or M17 R4 laptops and upgrade them to a Cherry MX mechanical keyboard for an extra $150 at checkout.
The laptops will house a new kind of Cherry switch called the MX Ultra Low Profile, which is 3.5mm thick (compared to the 11.9mm-sized MX Low Profile switch). The switch is built with stainless steel wings that swing open and push down — picture the way a DeLorean’s car doors open and close. (Cherry not-so-subtly teased these new switches with a picture of the famously heavy car that’s built with stainless steel). The rest of the switch is made of thermoplastic polymer that can withstand high temperatures.
Cherry
Cherry touts 1.8mm of total travel for this switch, which the company says provides a satisfying amount of feedback. The design of the switch is also said to improve typing accuracy, as well as self-clean with each press to prevent particles from messing it up over time. And, based on this tweet from Alienware, the switches seem like they’ll have that signature “thock” sound that’s associated with mechanical keyboards.
The new MX Ultra Low switch in action.GIF: Cherry
As for its integration into the latest Alienware M15 and M17 R4 laptops, the companies say that the laptop designs didn’t need to be tweaked at all to accommodate the new Cherry switch. The lids will still close just fine, which seems like a testament to how thin the switch is.
When you purchase the Cherry upgrade, you’ll get per-key RGB backlighting and AlienFX customization, along with full N-key rollover with anti-ghosting, so it won’t get overloaded when you’re pressing a lot of keys at once. One thing to note is that when you get the keyboard upgrade, all keys, aside from the function row, will have the Cherry MX Ultra Low Profile switches.
I haven’t had the chance to try out these new switches, so I can’t attest to how they feel compared not only to other Cherry MX switches but to the switches Alienware typically uses as well. Admittedly, $150 is a steep add-on for a laptop that’s already going to cost you a lot of money, but it could end up being a good investment if you’re obsessed with mechanical keyboards.
If you’ve got a recent Canon DSLR or mirrorless camera and are interested in getting more use out of it, Canon announced today that it would soon begin selling webcam accessory kits, allowing Canon owners an easier way to retool their cameras as high-quality webcams.
Each kit has different parts, but all three packages include a USB cable to connect your camera to your desktop computer or laptop, and a battery insert and power cord so that you can continually keep your Canon camera powered with a wall outlet. It is important to note that none of these kits include a tripod to mount your camera.
Canon has announced three versions of its accessory kit, which are available for preorder at Adorama, Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo, with both retailers noting that preorders are expected to ship on March 25th. The two most affordable kits are compatible with EOS M cameras (M50, M50 Mark II & M200) and EOS Rebel cameras (Rebel T3, T5, T6 & T7), and cost $89.99 each. The more expensive kit, which works with EOS RP cameras, will retail for $159.99. Alternatively, you can buy a third-party charging kit and supply your own USB cable for less than the Canon kits cost; or if you don’t own a camera at all, you can buy a webcam starter kit for as low as $466 on Canon’s website.
Within the past year, webcams have been in high demand due to the pandemic as many people work from home or rely on videoconferencing tools to communicate. Canon, like its competitors, already released software that allowed owners to repurpose select Canon cameras as webcams to address the shortages.
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If you’ve used a ThinkPad before, you probably know 90 percent of what to expect from the ThinkPad X1 Nano. All of the staples are here. It’s got the black carbon fiber chassis, the discrete buttons on top of the touchpad, the mechanical privacy shutter, the ThinkPad logo on the palm rest, and (of course) the red pointer nub in the middle of the keyboard.
But one thing is unique about the X1 Nano: it’s the lightest ThinkPad Lenovo has ever made. Starting at just 1.99 pounds, the Nano isn’t technically the lightest laptop on the market. But it’s still one of the best combinations of portability, build quality, and performance that you can buy.
Lenovo has made a few other useful tweaks as well, though they’re not tweaks you’ll necessarily notice when you’re looking at the machine. There’s not much to overthink here: it’s a smaller, lighter ThinkPad. Lenovo didn’t reinvent the wheel, but the updates it made succeed in keeping the Nano current among its rapidly innovating peers.
The keyboard is “nearly full-sized.”
Here’s what’s new with the Nano, in addition to its lightweight build. It has a 16:10 screen, a feature that a number of this year’s ThinkPads are adopting for the first time. It has a new 11th Gen Intel processor, and it’s certified through Intel’s Evo program (which is the chipmaker’s way of verifying that a laptop includes its latest features like Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6, instant wake, and fast charging). And there are a few enhanced security features, including a match-on-chip fingerprint reader and a dTPM 2.0 chip, which will mostly be notable for business users.
What looms over that verdict, of course, is the Nano’s price. Technically, it starts at $2,499 and maxes out at $3,719. The good news is that Lenovo’s products are very often heavily discounted, and the current sale prices at the time of publish range from $1,149 to $2,231.
The Nano is highly customizable. It comes with a Core i5-1130G7, a Core i5-1140G7, a Core i7-1160G7, or a Core i7-1180G7, all of which support Intel’s vPro. You can also select 8GB or 16GB of RAM, 256GB through 1TB of SSD storage, and a touchscreen or non-touch screen (both with 2160 x 1350 resolution). There’s even a Linux option. My review model (which runs Windows 10 Pro) is in the middle, with a quad-core Core i7-1160G7, 16GB of memory, 512GB of storage, and the non-touch display. Folks interested in the touchscreen should note that those models are heavier (2.14 pounds) and a bit thicker as well.
You’re paying a premium for the Nano’s weight and the extra business features. A comparable Dell XPS 13 to my test model, for example, is $1,599.99 and 2.64 pounds (over half a pound heavier than this unit).
That said, the Nano’s weight is astounding. I feel like I’m carrying nothing while I’m holding it, even one-handed. I’d easily haul it in my purse or throw it into my backpack and forget that it’s there. For a few comparisons: it’s half a pound lighter than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9. It’s close to a pound lighter than the ThinkPad X13, as well as the latest MacBook Air. These are already laptops known for their portability, and the Nano is noticeably slimmer.
The laptop achieves this without sacrificing durability, which is often a concern with ultra-light devices. The chassis feels sturdy — there’s just a tiny bit of flex in the keyboard and screen, and I’d be very comfortable jerking it around in a briefcase. Lenovo says the Nano has been “tested against 12 military-grade certification methods,” so there’s also that.
I’m also very happy with the 16:10 display, which is about the same height as a typical 14-inch 16:9 screen. In addition to the extra vertical space it provides, it’s sharper than a 1080p display, and it delivers a nice picture.
There’s also a Dolby Atmos speaker system, which includes two upward-firing and two downward-firing woofers. The laptop comes preloaded with Dolby Access, which is one of my favorite audio apps. You can swap between presets for Movies, Music, and other scenarios (as well as custom profiles), and the settings make an audible difference. You can also personalize the four-microphone array for different uses, including conference calls and voice recognition.
My one quip with the chassis is the keyboard. It’s a fine keyboard, and the little red nub is there if you want to use it. But the Fn and Ctrl keys are swapped from the locations where you’ll find them on other laptop keyboards — every time I meant to hit Ctrl, I hit Fn. After a week of use, I have not yet adjusted to this.
Now, I want to be very clear: I know this is the way ThinkPad keyboards have been laid out since the dawn of time. I also know you can swap the two keys in BIOS. Still, if you’re not currently a ThinkPad user, you should note that you’ll either need some time to get used to this keyboard layout or you’ll be using mislabeled keys.
The port selection is also limited, though that’s not unique among thin devices. You get two USB-C ports and an audio jack, and they’re all on the left side.
Performance-wise, the X1 Nano did an excellent job. It’s not what you’d want to buy for demanding tasks like heavy gaming or video editing, but it kept up with my gaggles of Chrome tabs, spreadsheets, and streaming apps without a stutter. I never heard any noise out of the machine or felt noticeable heat, even when I was running fairly taxing loads.
“Anti-fry circuitry” ensures that USB-C chargers send the correct voltage.
As mentioned earlier, the Nano has a number of new security features that are coming to 2021 ThinkPads across the line. The one I found most useful was the presence-sensing tool, which automatically locks the device when you’re not in front of it and unlocks it when you’re back. ThinkPads aren’t the only business laptops to adopt this technology, but it is convenient and worked well in my testing. You can also turn it off if it creeps you out. Elsewhere, there’s a match-on-sensor fingerprint sensor next to the touchpad (the qualifier means that fingerprint enrollment, pattern storage, and biometric matching all happens directly within the sensor). The sensor also uses AI to distinguish between real and fake fingers, in case that was a concern of yours.
The one feature that isn’t quite stellar here is the battery life. I averaged 6 hours and 38 minutes between charges with my daily workflow (around a dozen Chrome tabs with office stuff like emailing, Slack, Google Docs and Sheets, occasional Spotify and YouTube streaming, with brightness around 200 nits). That’s fine, and not unexpected since the Nano only has a 48Whr battery, but I often see over seven hours out of machines at this price. It means that if your workload is similar to mine, you may not make it through a full workday on a charge. The 65W charger took 43 minutes to juice the device up to 60 percent.
In the ThinkPad X1 Nano, Lenovo is playing to its strengths. You’re getting a comfortable keyboard and touchpad, a red nub, and a capable processor in a sturdy system that’s built to last. The Nano brings a new factor to the table — a chassis that’s (just) under two pounds. The target audience here is clear: business users who like the traditional ThinkPad look and feel and are willing to pay more for an ultralight machine.
The main compromises you’re making are the battery life and port selection. Neither of these is an absolute disaster for the Nano, but they mean that a chunk of users may find competing business laptops more practical. There are a number of ultraportable business laptops with superb battery life, more useful ports, and comparable weight (such as Asus’ ExpertBook B9450 and HP’s Elite Dragonfly). That said, for users who are attached to the ThinkPad brand and want the lightest of the light, the X1 Nano will deliver.
The ever-insightful benchmark database detective @TUM_APISAK has just shared Geekbench 5 results for a Samsung laptop powered by unreleased hardware from both Intel and Nvidia. The mysterious laptop in question is called the 760XDA, and it comes equipped with a Core i5-11400H processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 mobile GPU.
This is the first we’ve heard of a Core i5-11400H, and Geekbench 5 lists the chips as a 6-core 12 thread part, leading us to believe the 11400H should be the Tiger Lake-H successor to the previous-gen Core i5-10400H.
The 11400H scored 1387 points in the single-threaded Geekbench 5 test and 4934 points in the multi-threaded test, making it 15% faster than its predecessor in the single-threaded test and 20% faster in the multi-threaded benchmark.
The Nvidia RTX 3050 is even more interesting, though. We’ve heard rumors of an RTX 3050 for months now, but this Geekbench 5 result is as close as we’ve come to seeing potential specifications for the unreleased silicon.
Geekbench 5 says the RTX 3050 comes equipped with 16 Compute Units (CUs), a 1.06GHz maximum boost frequency, and 4GB of VRAM. If we factor in that Nvidia uses 128 CUDA cores per SM on the Ampere architecture, that means the RTX 3050 should come with 2048 CUDA cores in total.
Compared to RTX 3060 mobile, the RTX 3050 mobile has less than half the CUDA core count of its bigger counterpart. That means we can expect 50% less performance than an RTX 3060.
This new entry-level GPU features “RTX” branding from Nvidia, so we can fully expect this 3050 to feature both ray-tracing cores, and tensor cores for DLSS support. If accurate, this would be Nvidia’s first entry-level GPU to feature both technologies. Hopefully, the GPU will have enough horsepower to give gamers an incentive to use Nvidia’s RTX features without suffering a severe frame rate penalty.
If this laptop is more than just a prototype, we should see Nvidia’s RTX 3050 and Intel’s new Tiger Lake-H CPUs on the market soon.
AMD is moving its mobile Ryzen 5000 processors into business with Ryzen 5000 Pro, the company announced today. The new series consists of three chips, the Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U, Ryzen 5 Pro 5650U and Ryzen 3 5450U, and AMD claims the processors will show up in 63 laptop designs this year, including laptops from Lenovo and HP.
All three processors are on AMD’s Zen 3 architecture and 7nm process. (In fact, they are almost exactly identical, except for cache, on specs with the consumer-focused Ryzen 7 5800U, Ryzen 5 5600U and Ryzen 3 5400U)
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: AMD)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: AMD)
Cores / Threads
Frequency
Architecture
Node
L2 + L3 Cache
TDP
Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U
16-Aug
1.9 GHz base, up to 4.4 GHz
Zen 3
7nm
20 MB
15W
Ryzen 5 Pro 5650U
12-Jun
2.3 GHz base, up to 4.2 GHz
Zen 3
7nm
19 MB
15W
Ryzen 3 Pro 5450U
8-Apr
2.6 GHz. up to 4.0 GHz
Zen 3
7nm
10 MB
15W
In benchmarks released by the company, it compared the top-of-the-line, Cezanne-based AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U to Intel’s 28W Core i7-1185G7 “Tiger Lake” part.
(Image credit: AMD)
AMD admitted to a 3% loss against the Core i7 in single-threaded performance (measured in Cinebench R20) but showed 65% gains in Cinebench R20 multi-thread and Passmark 10 CPU Mark, as well as Geekbench 5’s multi-core (single-core scores weren’t listed). In these tests, Intel’s chip was housed in a Dell Latitude 5420 with 32GB of RAM at 3,200 MHz and a 512GB SSD from SK Hynix, while the Ryzen Pro was in a reference platform with 16GB of LPDDR4 RAM at 4,266 MHz and a 512GB Samsung 970 Pro SSD.
(Image credit: AMD)
In productivity, the two tied in Microsoft Word and the Edge browser in AMD’s tests, but the Cezanne chip came out between 4% and 23% in other productivity benchmarks. Those tests switched the Intel laptop to an MSI Prestige 14 Evo with a 28W TDP, 16GB of RAM at 4,267 MHz, and a Kingston SSD of unspecified size. The AMD machine remained the reference design.
(Image credit: AMD)
Just to show off, AMD also picked some benchmarks comparing the Ryzen 5 Pro 5650U and the Core i7-1185G7, where its chip outperformed Intel in Passmark 10 CPU Mark (+25%), Geekbench 5 multi-core (+26%), PCMark 10 Apps (+4%) and PCMark 10 Benchmark (+20%). This round of testing also used the MSI Prestige 14 Evo and the reference design.
(Image credit: AMD)
Compared to the Latitude with Intel Core i7-1185G7, AMD claims that the Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U is up to 10% faster while running a 49-participant Zoom call and running the PCMark 10 applications benchmark.
(Image credit: AMD)
For battery life, AMD compared to previous generation Ryzen Pro chips, suggesting the 7nm process helps the new Ryzen 7 reach 17.5 hours on Mobile Mark 2018’s general computing test.
(Image credit: AMD)
The company is touting new security features for this year. AMD Shadow Stack is at the hardware level to prevent malware. It’s part of the Secured Core PC program, which Microsoft announced with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm in late 2019, and also meets the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS).
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: AMD)
Image 2 of 2
(Image credit: AMD)
To mark the launch, AMD is also showcasing six laptops coming from partners HP and Lenovo. The HP Probook Aero 635 G2 and HP Probook x360 435 G8 will be exclusive for 2021, and the Lenovo ThinkBook 16) is listed as an “AMD exclusive creator platform.” The company also listed the HP EliteBook 845 G8, ThinkPad T14S and ThinkBook 14S as highlighted notebooks.
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