Review - Page 70 of 153

Asus ROG Gladius III Mouse Lets Gamers Pick Their Click

(Image credit: Asus)

Few things are more frustrating in-game than a faulty mouse. After years of heavy use, even some of the best gaming mouse options are known to suffer from degradation in the left and right click buttons, resulting in faulty behavior. At CES 2021 today, Asus introduced a potential solution in the Asus ROG Gladius III and ROG Gladius III Wireless.

Similar to the Asus ROG Chakram that Asus announced last year, the ROG Gladius III will offer the ability to swap out the switches in its left and right click buttons. Asus claims to have updated this mechanism, dubbed the Push-Fit Switch Socket II. While the ROG Chakram only supports 3-pin Omron mechanical micro switches, Asus’ new mouse will also support 5-pin Omron optical micro switches, bringing more options and jumping on the optical mechanical trend that’s getting more popular among gaming mice and even more among the best gaming keyboards.

Asus’ Push-Fit Socket II will not only allow gamers to easily replace deteriorating switches but also change the feel of their clicks. The ROG Chakram came with two pairs of switches. Asus hasn’t yet confirmed what will come in the box with the Gladius III.

The ROG Gladius III will compete with the best wireless mouse contenders and wired ones, as it’ll be available in both wireless or wired form and come with a Paracord cable that’s supposed to fight drag.

(Image credit: Asus)

Asus is also equipping the ROG Gladius III with 100% PTFE feet, which should help the mouse glide around easily, especially if Asus is generous with the application.

All that is enough to make the ROG Gladius III stand out, but Asus also included some inscriptions in the mouse’s side that almost look like alien writing to decode until you realize it’s just some laser-engraved Asus branding.

(Image credit: Asus)

With up to 19,000 CPI and options to use a 2.4 GHz dongle or Bluetooth connection for the wireless or to go wired, we’re interested in seeing how Asus’ new rat performs. In our Asus ROG Chakram review, we noted that removable left and right click buttons made for a bit of a clunky, cheaper feel. We’ll see if Asus tackled those complaints with the ROG Gladius III when it comes out in Q2. The wireless version will be available in mid-late May for $109.99 and the wired version in April for $79.99.

Nvidia RTX 3060 (12GB) Coming in Feb for $329

(Image credit: Nvidia)

Much to the surprise of no one, anywhere, Nvidia announced the GeForce RTX 3060 today during its not-technically-part-of-CES ‘special event.’ The RTX 3060 will be coming to desktops and laptops in February, and the desktop part at least will feature 12GB of GDDR6. Will it join the best graphics cards as the new mainstream favorite, and where will it place on our GPU benchmarks hierarchy? Nvidia didn’t provide too many details, but we expect it to land at roughly the performance of the outgoing RTX 2070 Super (maybe only RTX 2070).

The biggest news is perhaps the price. Nvidia says the card will launch at $329, which is less than the launch price of the RTX 2060 ($349). Whether you’ll be able to find a card at that price any time soon is a different story. Given the current GPU shortages, plus cryptocurrency surges, we fully expect the RTX 3060 to sell out quickly. Maybe we’ll end up pleasantly surprised, but don’t count on it.

(Image credit: Nvidia)

The above image shows eight custom designs from Nvidia’s partners, including all the usual suspects. There’s no Founders Edition pictured, and the majority of 3060 cards will almost certainly be third party designs. However, Nvidia’s promotional material does show what appears to be a Founders Edition, and it did a 2060 FE as well.

Core specs weren’t revealed, but Nvidia did give performance data. 13 TFLOPS and 25 RT TFLOPS with 101 Tensor TFLOPS puts it about 20-25 percent below the RTX 3060 Ti. Rumors and leaks strongly suggest the RTX 3060 will use a new GA106 GPU, though we may see future variants based off harvested GA104 GPUs.

The GA106 will only have support for six GDDR6 memory channels. In a somewhat unusual twist, Nvidia has announced the card will have 12GB of GDDR6 memory. That’s 50 percent more memory than the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070, and even surpasses the RTX 3080. There have been leaks suggesting 6GB cards are also in the works, but whether those will be for laptops only, or an RTX 3050 Ti, isn’t clear. There’s still a distinct possibility the RTX 3060 will end up like the GTX 1060, with two variants with different memory capacities. Let’s hope not, but … probably.

Rumored RTX 3060 Specs

Architecture: GA106

Process Technology: Samsung 8N

Transistors (Billion): 13.3?

Die size (mm^2): 300?

SMs: 28

GPU Cores: 3584

Tensor Cores: 112

RT Cores: 28

Base Clock (MHz): 1350?

Boost Clock (MHz): 1770?

VRAM Speed (Gbps): 16

VRAM (GB): 12

VRAM Bus Width (bits): 192

ROPs: 64

TMUs: 112

GFLOPS FP32 (Boost): 12.7

Tensor TFLOPS FP16 (Sparsity): 51 (101)

RT TFLOPS: 24.8

Bandwidth (GBps): 384

TDP (watts): 170

Launch Date: Feb 2021

Launch Price: $329

Of course, more memory doesn’t mean more memory bandwidth. Because Nvidia uses six 32-bit memory channels, the RTX 3060 will have a 192-bit memory interface. With 14Gbps GDDR6, that would give it the same 336 GBps of bandwidth as the RTX 2060, just with double the capacity. But there are rumors RTX 3060 could use 16Gbps memory, bumping it up to 384 GBps, which would be nice.

We’re actually very happy to see 12GB, even if it’s not absolutely necessary today, because plenty of games are already bumping into VRAM limits at 8GB, never mind 6GB. Whether the GPU will be fast enough to really use the additional capacity remains to be seen. In some games, the 12GB could actually put it close to the 3060 Ti, maybe even ahead of it, which would be a bit strange but not impossible.

We also expect Nvidia will launch updated RTX 30-series parts with double the VRAM of the existing GPUs at some point. Whether it’s called the RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3080 Super, or RTX 3080 20GB (most likely the first), we should get higher VRAM configurations in the coming months. An RTX 3070 Ti with 16GB is also likely to show up. Those will inevitably cost more than the existing models, and considering the continuing GPU shortages it’s probably not a bad idea for Nvidia to wait a bit before announcing and launching those parts.

We’ll be back in February with the full review of the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB, to see how it stacks up against the rest of the current graphics card offerings. The price looks good, but then so do the other official prices on RTX 30-series cards. Let’s hope supply can start to match demand.

Asus ROG’s 2021 lineup includes its first convertible gaming laptop (ish)

Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) has unveiled its varied, eclectic, and very cool-looking lineup of new gaming laptops for 2021. The highlight, and the product I’m both very excited and very confused about, is the ROG Flow X13. It’s the company’s first 2-in-1 convertible gaming laptop.

That’s right — a 2-in-1 gaming laptop. You don’t see that every day. What’s more, as you may have deduced from the name, the X13 is a 13-inch convertible gaming laptop.

As you can probably see from the above picture, the X13 doesn’t look like your typical gaming rig. It’s the type of thing I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone whip out in a class or a meeting. Portability is a theme here: Asus says you’ll get up to 10 hours of video playback on a charge and that the 100-watt USB-C charger delivers 50 percent in 30 minutes. You can choose between a 120Hz FHD touch display or a 3840 x 2400 touch display. Either way, you get a 16:10 aspect ratio with extra vertical space for multitasking.

All of that sounds nice enough, but the insides are where things get confusing. The Flow X13 includes up to AMD’s Ryzen 9 5980HS, one of the flagships in its new Ryzen 5000 mobile series. That makes sense for a gaming laptop. You’d think that should be paired with a pretty powerful GPU — but instead, Asus went with the entry-level GeForce GTX 1650, which just feels like a waste of the 5980HS’s power. Similar combinations have been tried before: take a look at Verge writer Cameron Faulkner’s review of Lenovo’s IdeaPad Gaming 3, which also attempted to pair the GTX 1650 with an H-series processor to disappointing results.

Now, for a regular work laptop that might occasionally be used to edit some photos, that combination makes a lot of sense. But if you’re purchasing the X13 expecting incredible frame rates, you may end up disappointed. (Of course, I’ll need to run games on the thing myself before making a recommendation either way.)

The way Asus is trying to get around this is it’s bundling the Flow X13 with an external GPU called the ROG XG Mobile. This can include up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics, and Asus says it’ll deliver desktop gaming performance to the X13. It acts as a power adapter as well. Fair enough. But with the bundle of the X13 and the XG Mobile, you’re looking at a price of $2,999.99. Yeesh.

You can preorder the Flow X13 and XG Mobile now at the Asus store.

I have to admit it looks very cool.

Image: Asus

Another headliner (which is perhaps a bit more practical) is the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE. This is a refresh to the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15, which has two screens — the regular one (a 15.6-inch, 4K, 120Hz panel or a 300Hz FHD panel) and the ScreenPad Plus (a 14.1-inch touch display that’s built into the top half of the keyboard deck — choose 3840 x 1100 or 1920 x 550 resolution).

The form factor means that, in theory, you could run a game on the top screen with a Spotify playlist or Discord chat on the bottom screen, though my experience with the previous Zephyrus Duo 15 is that your mileage on that varies by game. Perhaps more promising is that Asus says it’s working with game developers and companies like Adobe to customize content for the dual-screen setup.

Look at that beauty. The touchpad even becomes a numpad.

Image: Asus

The main update is that the new Duo 15 comes with up to an eight-core AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. There’s a new “Arc Flow” fan design, which Asus says can help dissipate “up to 165W of combined processor power.” You’ll also get up to 2TB of storage and up to 32GB of combined onboard and SO-DIMM memory.

You can preorder the Zephyrus Duo 15 SE now at the Asus store for $2,899.99. (Yes, it’s cheaper than the Flow X13 bundle.)

Finally, there are two big additions to the esports side: the Strix Scar 15 and Strix Scar 17. Both models have an optical-mechanical keyboard, the first one ever to appear on a Scar model. They’ve also gotten a higher screen-to-body ratio (up to 85 percent), a bigger battery, an updated cooling system, support for Type-C charging, and quad speakers with Dolby Atmos technology. The Scar 17 now offers a 360Hz panel option, the fastest display you can get on a laptop. And both models include the new Ryzen and Nvidia chips, up to a Ryzen 9 5900HX and a GeForce RTX 3080.

Check that per-key RGB lighting.

Image: Asus

The Strix Scar 15 and Strix Scar 17 are coming to North America in Q1 2021.

Asus also announced the Strix G15 and Strix 17, lower-key Strix models for gamers who aren’t serious esports players. These can also come with a Ryzen 9 5900HX processor but max out at a GeForce RTX 3070 and a 300Hz screen. The G15 is coming to North America in Q1 2021; the G17 is up for preorder now for $1,799.99.

These models join a big wave of gaming laptops that have been announced today, following AMD’s launch of its Ryzen 5000 processors and Nvidia’s release of its RTX 3000 GPUs. Razer, Gigabyte, Acer, and more have unveiled new models.

Motorola moto g 5G: winner for incredible autonomy! The review

With the new Motorola moto g 5G the winged company decides to continue on the open medium range 5G device line with the Plus version. The will is to ignite the desire of users for the old brand by offering good quality at an attractive price and even with the prerogative of the 5G network.

by Bruno Mucciarelli published on 12 January 2021 in the channel Telephony

Motorola

The new Motorola moto g 5G forcefully enters the mid-range market with a price of 369 ?? allowing the company to propose a new device of its historic moto g series but elevating the user to the 5G network, that is the new ultra-fast network. In this case, Motorola aims to rekindle the old glory of the g series, offering perhaps one of the best value for money in the mid-range, a bit mimicking what it had done a few generations ago with the moto g.

Clearly in moto g 5G there is no is only the substance of the support for the new fast 5G network but also much more especially for those who intend to use the smartphone on long journeys without possibility to recharge it for a long time. First of all, let’s start from the design which, although in polycarbonate, reflects the classic lines of Motorola’s moto gs. Here is a large 6.7 inch LCD panel with HDR support 10 and we know that not all manufacturers in this price range bet on this particular one. It also has a single front camera as well as a generous 5 battery . 000 mAh which also allows you to have support for fast charging. A novelty for the company that in recent years had lagged a bit behind its other competitors.

Clearly there is also the triple rear camera with a main sensor from ben 48 MP but also a practically clean graphic interface with the company’s customizations that do not take anything away from Android Stock, on the contrary, they allow you to have some more features that are not too invasive. All at a price of 369 ?? which somehow ranks with many competing smartphones in this range but with which we will see it can easily compete.

UNBOXING

The new Motorola moto g 5G is sold in a classic box of the company’s latest smartphones with the smartphone in plain sight as soon as the lid is opened and also with the transparent silicone cover not too invasive but still protective. Present all the classic accessories that are now sold by most of the manufacturers of mobile devices. In this case, the endowment we received sees the presence primarily of the smartphone but also of:

a charger for fast charging from 18 W , a Type-C cable, the tool for ejecting the dual SIM slot but also the in ear headphones with good quality.

DESIGN

A before given the moto g 5G it is perhaps not very different from other devices of the company and of this series. Looking at it better, however, it has two distinctive visual traits: one on each side. On the front we have a camera present on the “ perforated ” display. One sensor from 16 MP who undoubtedly it changes the aesthetics of the front but not too negative since on a visual level the display is not too affected. The frames are not too exaggerated with the slightly thicker upper one due to the presence of the ear capsule, the ambient light sensor and the proximity sensor. Below there is a greater frame but in substance it does not create any annoyance and everything is more than homogeneous and balanced with the rest of the device.

Also in this case, as happened for other last generation Motorola, the display has an elongated form factor but not a 21: 9 but a 20: 9 which means that the management in hand is facilitated both for the insertion of data with the keyboard than for everyday use in general. On the other hand, it is large in its size and this sometimes precludes the possibility of reaching the top of the screen without a slight extension of the hand or a movement of the same.

power button, unlike the Plus version, does not work as a fingerprint reader which instead we find it in the back in the center of the body in a classic circular holder. The position of the sensor in this case is the usual one and therefore the index reaches us without too many problems at all times and the unlocking of the device is therefore practically immediate. To underline, however, the knurling of the on and off button that allows the user to find it easily and immediately without having to look every time. The volume rocker is instead higher but with only one key and relatively solid. The same goes for the dedicated button of the Google Assistant on the opposite side of the frame present as in other company devices.

Motorola moto g 5G has a completely polycarbonate frame which, however, both to the eye and to the touch allows you to have an excellent impression of resistance. The device also offers good levels of grip with an almost always precise and not too slippery grip. The back cover in this case is completely in glossy plastic with the presence of a texture in color Volcanic Gray that tends to bordeux , not too exaggerated, in full Motorola style. At the top left is the important structure where the company has positioned the three photographic sensors. They are reminiscent of other competitive devices but in fact the small thickness of the structure also allows on a flat surface to make the device stable without it wobbling as other smartphones very often do today. There is also an important LED flash module right next to the square of the ” triple rooms ”.

Despite being made of polycarbonate, the moto g 5G weighs quite a bit, that is 212 grams. A little or a lot let’s say that the weight is felt even if the whole device is well balanced probably for the size of the display or for a well-studied distribution of components. Moreover, on the weight, let’s not forget that the device has a large 6.7-inch panel but also a prodigious 5 battery. 000 mAh.

DISPLAY

The Full HD + resolution of 2400 x 1080 6.7 “display pixel compensates for a form factor 20: 9 quite ” high ”. The screen has HDR support 10 which guarantees to users the vision of decidedly optimal contents. Actually what we can declare on the daily use of the smartphone is to be in front of a good quality panel that guarantees vision movies or even browsing the web without eye strain. Clearly we are talking about an IPS LCD panel with its pros and cons.

Moving on to the tests on the screen we can see how the display on the moto g 5G a good level of maximum brightness is set to automatic mode in bright environments. It is certainly not the brightest of the mid-range but still allows excellent comfort and sufficient readability in any lighting condition.

Three different preset color modes on the Motorola moto g 5G: Natural, Enhanced or Intense. The difference is not excessive. In fact, with the first mode, the screen tends to find a balance with colors closer to reality and therefore certainly less shot than the other two modes. The ” Enhanced ” colors allow you to have a middle ground with the Natural and the Intense where the latter shoot strongly and make the screen even more ” alive ” even in the contents.

HARDWARE

We have often criticized Motorola in the past for using outdated or undersized chipsets compared to its direct rivals, but we are happy that this is no longer the case. The new moto g 5G sports a Snapdragon chipset 750 G , which is fast becoming the 5G chip most popular mid-range. Compared to Snapdragon 730 G settles for a slightly clocked GPU lower but with very minimal differences in daily use.

The processor is an octa core unit based on Kryo cores 570 (therefore based on Cortex-A 77), equipped with 2 high-power cores at 2.2GHz and 6 at low consumption, while the graphics processor is an Adreno 619 which supports Full HD + resolution displays up to a refresh rate of 77 Hz. The chip is made with an 8nm manufacturing process.

6 GB

OS ( at launch)	Android 10
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 657 G Octa-Core at 2.2GHz
RAM
Display	IPS LCD 6.7 “Full HD + (20: 9)
Resolution	2400 x 1080 px
Storage (at launch)	64 / 128 GB + MicroSD
Rear Camera	Triple Camera: Main 48 MP (26 mm – f / 1. 7) PDAF + Ultra Wide 8MP (f / 2.2) + Macro 2MP (f / 2.4) 4K UHD video @ 30 fps

Front Camera 16 MP (f / 2.2) – Video 1080 p. @ 30 fps Extra

5G

NFC

Fingerprint sensor

Doors USB Type-C + 3.5mm jack Battery 5. 000 mAh + Quick charge Dimensions 120. 1 x 76. 1 x 9.9 mm Weight 187 gr

In terms of performance, the chipset is very similar to the Snapdragon 730 G but offers slightly better single core performance. In fact, in everyday use we never slow down and Motorola’s software optimization seems to go hand in hand with the chipset that never gives up a moment even in situations of greater stress. It is undoubtedly an excellent mid-range hardware and the presence of 6GB of RAM do not seem to worry the user who still manages to do everything or almost everything. The memory is of 128 GB but we must emphasize the possibility of expanding it with MicroSD up to 1TB.

GeekBench 5

		MOTOROLA moto g 5G
Browser	Sunspider	344, 5 ms
Browser	JetStream 2.0	53. 443 points
CPU	COMPUTE 1. 308
CPU	Single-core CPU: 657 Multi-core CPU: 1969
GPU	GFXBench 5	Aztec Ruins: On 11 Fps / Off 7.3 Fps Car Chase: On 17 Fps / Off 19 Fps Manhattan 3.1: On 30 Fps / Off 31 Fps
Storage	Androbench	Read seq .: 948, 51 MB / s Write seq .: 443, 38 MB / s Random reading seq .: 187, 76 MB / s Random write seq .: 179, 66 MB / s
Generic	3D Mark	2.789 points
Generic	AnTuTu	326. 344 points

GRAPHIC INTERFACE

The company opted for an Android experience mostly stock for its smartphones , even for those not part of the Android One program. This means that there is a large list of custom features grouped in the Moto app also in this new device. It is one of the strengths of Motorola phones: clean and tidy Android experience. If you like the look of stock Android, you will definitely like this one from Motorola.

Clearly we are talking about Moto Action which is an assortment of intelligent ways to interact with the smartphone between a quick movement of the device to turn the flashlight on or off, the rotation of the same to start the camera app, or a gesture with the three fingers for the screenshot of the display and much more. Also clearly present Moto Display which allows to interact with notifications or other information directly on the standby screen thanks to the system created by Motorola for some time in its smartphones. The gestures are the usual ones of Google with the back gesture performed on both sides of the display. There is also a swipe option for the backward gesture sensitivity which determines how close to the edge you need to get for the system to register the gesture. Don’t forget the old on-screen navigation buttons anyway.

There is Moto Game which is nothing but the mode that allows you to set some set of tools to improve the use of games during sessions. In this case, thanks to the display with strongly curved sides, it is possible to add virtual buttons to be used during the video game. The immersive mode allows you to filter calls and notifications, the performance section allows you to disable adaptive brightness, disable parts of the display at the edges and activate audio enhancements.

All this thanks to Android 10 which is implemented with very few things but well done as always by Motorola. A remarkable optimization that not only allows the user to have the best performance in terms of daily activities but also to be able to guarantee autonomy, as we will see, never seen lately on a device of this type.

Also, there is a completely new customization menu that wasn’t available before. Similarly to OnePlus OxygenOS, you can choose the color of the switches, sliders and quick toogle on the menu. You can also choose the shape of these quick buttons. There are also icon shapes and many options to choose from and the same goes for fonts. It’s the first time Motorola has allowed all of these things to be customized on its phones and it all started with the Edge series. Finally, the fingerprint reader is fast in most cases very accurate.

CAMERA

Motorola moto g 5G

Main

Main 48 MP Quad Pixel – 0,8 µm
Wide angle lens with f / 1.7 aperture

Ultra – Wide Angle

8MP sensor – 1. 12 µm
Lens angle from 118 ° with aperture f / 2.2

Macro Camera

5MP sensor
Aperture f / 2.4 – Minimum distance 2 cm

Front

Sensor from 16 MP – 1.0µm – f / 2.2

4K Video @ 30 fps

The moto g 5G uses a Quad-Bayer sensor from 48 MP to shoot in reduced mode from 12 MP. A fairly large 1/2 “sensor that sits behind a fast f / 1.7 aperture lens. The ultrawide camera , on the other hand, take photos from 8MP with field of view of 118 degrees and aperture f / 2.2. There is also a third camera of the module which is a dedicated 5MP macro and aperture from f / 2.2, definitely a step up from the more common 2MP macro cameras. Especially since it has autofocus, which makes shooting macros much easier. On the other hand, a sensor is positioned on the front 16 MP which has an f / 2.0 aperture.

The application of the Motorola’s default camera is quite different from most of its rivals. Swiping left and right allows you to use only three modes: the default photo mode, video recording, and the last used mode. By touching the squares icon, you can access the complete list of camera modes including manual, vertical and night mode. The settings icon in the upper right corner of the viewfinder allows you to adjust the video resolution, aspect ratio settings and many other things.

How does Motorola moto g 5G Plus shoot?

Day photo: in the photos during the day the smartphone is average. The main camera works well with outdoor shots that collect overall good details, a fairly wide dynamic range, punchy colors and a nice feel. There is some noise in the shadows, but the overall results are nice for the price.

Photo in the dark: when the light fades, the image quality deteriorates. The shots in low light conditions are not at the top with some underexposure errors which also correspond to a lack of detail and the presence of a fair amount of noise. The night mode relatively improves the quality: we have better exposure here and the images are more detailed. There remains the noise that is mitigated but the result is better than before but not exciting.

Ultra-wide module: the ultra-wide-angle module of the device offers a good yield. The sensor does not have the same resolving power as the main one and you can see it in the softness of the shots. In fact, however, there is undoubtedly a color rendering in favorable lighting conditions and it has a decent dynamic range.

Zoom: the zoom does not enhance the results. We do not have a specific sensor for this type of shots and this is partly felt. By zooming in up to 2X zoom, which still has to be done manually with pinch to zoom, we get decent results. Then, by increasing the magnification, the details are lost and above all you cannot get decent quality photos.

Macro: good results with macro photos that the user can make. Having a sensor for this type of shot can be a plus that gives greater quality to the results. This does not always happen because often the main lens is still capable of making close-up shots. Here in some situations the macro camera guarantees improvements.

Portraits: portraits lack sharpness and dynamic range, but have well-rendered skin tones and great edge detection. Noise levels are relatively high in any situation. That’s why we recommend taking portraits outside or in a well-lit room if image quality is to be important.

Video: The phone supports video recording up to 4K and can also be stabilized. We shot a 4K video without EIS and liked what was recorded. The colors are punchy, the contrast is good, there is some noise in the not too bright stages, the dynamic range is wide, and the sharpness is important. Nothing to complain about especially given the price of the phone.
Selfie: HDR on selfies looks more than competent as it keeps the subject’s face well exposed even in more challenging lighting conditions without cropping the bright background. Sharpness and detail are well preserved throughout the process, while colors appear to be fairly accurate. The ultrawide camera is noticeably softer with lower dynamic range and colors that look darker. The noise begins to creep in as the light begins to fade.

AUTONOMY

The moto g 5G boasts a 5 battery. 000 mAh , which proved incredible to power current hardware for more than a day. Using the smartphone in all the most common situations with or without Wifi network and therefore with or without 4G or 5G mobile network but also to play with it, work with it or even to record videos or take photos, the smartphone always maintains a certain regularity in battery consumption. which is not canceled until after a day and a half.

Fast charging from 20 W is not the top of fast reloads . The times are also higher due to the important battery for amperage. The device allows you to recharge the 35% in 30 minutes, while a full charge took about 2 hours and 10 minutes.

CONCLUSIONS

The moto g 5G was placed on the market to bring 5G also to the economic range, allowing anyone to have support for the new generation networks that will become a fundamental point for the future.

With a limited budget , moto g 5G certainly lends itself as an interesting all-rounder. Certainly a few tens of euros less would have definitely benefited the smartphone that has a good quality front panel even if still IPS. It also possesses exceptional battery life, clean Android with only some useful and minimally invasive customizations and features and above all a capable chipset. Certainly something is missing on the cameras that are good but not excellent and above all the weight that clearly due to the huge battery makes it look a bit retro from this point of view compared to other devices of the moment.

2400

In fact there are many peculiarities that we liked about this new Motorola g series 5G and certainly an Android Stock and the excellent battery life that are enough to attract many potential buyers with the hindsight to wait maybe that the price can be lowered by a few tens of euros.

Acer Nitro 5 (2021, AMD) initial review: An affordable, customisable gaming laptop

(Pocket-lint) – The whole pitch of the Acer Nitro 5 is that it can deliver gaming goodness without costing a fortune. When we reviewed the laptop back in June 2020 we said much the same: “[It’s] a pleasing piece of kit for the money, proof that good gaming performance doesn’t necessarily need to cost a fortune”.

For 2021 Acer’s take on the Nitro 5 is to shake up the specification options, introducing AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors – Intel Core i5 or i7 is still an option – along with optional bumps in screen resolution and refresh rate.

So how does the 2021 Acer Nitro 5 refresh stack up? We’ve had our paws on the 17.3-inch mega model to preview what to expect…

Design & Display

17.3-inch IPS LCD, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 360Hz refresh rate
- (15.6in & 17.3in at 144Hz or QHD at 165Hz also available)
Dimensions (17-inch): 403.5 x 280 x 24.9mm / Weight: 2.7kgs
Ports: 3x USB-A, 1x USB-C, 1x HDMI, 1x 3.5mm
1x Ethernet port (E2600), Wi-Fi 6 connectivity
4-zone RGB keyboard
DTS X: Ultra Audio

The Nitro 5 comes in two size options: the 17.3-inch model, as seen here; or the 15.6-inch option (not shown). Both offers specifications that are much the same, it’s down to how large a screen you want and how much you want to customise the internals (and, by virtue of that, the overall asking price).

The screen can be decent staple gaming quality – with a Full HD (1920 x 1080) panel shown here with 144Hz refresh rate – or the company has really pushed the options list with up to a QHD resolution 165Hz refresh rate available or a Full HD with 360Hz refresh rate. You’ll obviously need all the power you can get to try and keep frame rates to match the refresh, though, so we suspect the 144Hz option will be the most popular of the lot (and the more affordable).

In terms of design not a massive amount has changed generation to generation though. It’s still fairly obvious that the Nitro 5 is a budget laptop – not just because of the asing price, but based on other features too. The screen bezels, for example, aren’t as thin as those on other more premium gaming laptops that we’ve tested. The screen also wobbles a bit if you type to aggressively.

There are some tweaks though: the charging port has gone from the side of the laptop and is now slap bang in the centre of the rear, which ought to help tidy up those desk-bound gaming sessions. Otherwise there’s no lack of ports overall: three full-size USB meet just one USB-C (we’d have liked two – oh, and there’s no Display Port options either), along with both Killer Ethernet E2600 and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity options.

Best laptop 2021: Top general and premium notebooks for working from home and more

Being a gaming laptop, the Nitro 5 comes with a backlit keyboard – but one with some pleasant highlights around the WASD keys and directional arrows. The trackpad no longer has the mean-looking red accent around its outside, but we can take that. The keyboard offers single-press access to Acer’s NitroSense software. From there you can see an at-a-glance view of temperature and load on CPU and GPU, as well as access various power plan modes including power saving, balance and high performance. It’s a really handy button to have.

Hardware & Performance

AMD Ryzen 5000 series processor
- (Intel Core i5/i7 option)
16GB RAM (upgradable to 32GB)
Next-gen Nvidia GeForce GPU
- GTX 1650 w/ Intel option
Acer CoolBoost cooling
Quad exhaust system
256GB/512GB SSD

On the inside the Nitro 5 sports the dual-fan cooling system of its predecessor, called CoolBoost technology, which intelligently adjusts cooling to keep you playing at decent frame rates. Those fans will kick in under little pressure, adding some sound as a result, but that’s typical of such a laptop.

The big change is the AMD Ryzen 5000 processor under the hood, paired with the up-to-the-minute Nvidia GTX GPU. Whether that will be enough to stop the Nitro 5 heating up quite as much as its predecessor we’re yet to see. But it should result in better still performance thanks to the chipset’s architecture.

It’s also worth considering the overall spec when you purchase. The base model comes with a 256GB SSD – sure, it’s fast, but when games these days are over 100GB a piece you’ll fill it up in a matter of moments. Certainly consider the 512GB option as a minimum.

First Impressions

Overall the 2021 Acer Nitro 5 is a more powerful and customisable offering than its predecessor.

It’s an affordable gaming laptop – well, at its entry point – that should still manage to perform under pressure thanks to up-to-date AMD and Nvidia on board, while delivering a great display experience (depending on which of the Full HD/QHD 144Hz/165Hz/360Hz options you pick/can afford!).

Whether the ongoing questions of the series from before – light bleed, excess fan noise, limited battery life – continue here we’ll need to do some more thorough testing. But at this price such foibles are forgivable for all the potential gaming joy the Nitro 5 can bring.

Writing by Mike Lowe.

Acer Predator Triton 300 SE initial review: The everyday gamers’ laptop

(Pocket-lint) – Acer’s gaming laptops span a wide range, so whether you’re looking for something more outlandish or something altogether more discreet, there are plenty of options. If you’re in the latter camp then this, the Predator Triton 300 SE, might house heaps of appeal.

The ‘SE’ – which stands for style edition – is the first 14-inch Predator laptop that Acer has ever made, placing it in a footprint that is more akin to an everyday lifestyle laptop. Indeed, the Triton 300 SE looks every bit like your day-to-day machine, but inside it houses much more grunt than your average.

Design & Display

14-inch IPS LCD, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, 300 nits brightness
Dimensions: 323 x 228 x 17.9mm / Weight: 1.7kgs
Ports: 2x USB-A, 1x USB-C, 1x HDMI
3.5mm headphone jack
DTS X: Ultra Audio
Fingerprint sensor

This isn’t just any old 14-inch display either. It’s a 144Hz refresh rate panel, giving gamers one of those much-desired features: higher frame-rates and greater smoothness during play (well, if the CPU and GPU can keep up).

Pocket-lint

As such it’s not an Ultra-HD display, rather a Full HD panel instead. Again, this is fairly common in gaming laptops of all sizes – and at this 14-inch scale it looks plenty sharp. It’s an IPS LCD so viewing angles are good, but there’s no touch panel control here, so keep those grubby mitts off to keep everything looking extra plush, eh?

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We do wonder why the lower bezel is so pronounced though; it’s a big silvery-grey bar that looks more like what Lenovo was making a couple of years back. We think there’s scope for Acer to squash that down, while maintaining the same screenaspect ratio, to given an even more refined finish.

The overall product’s finish, however, here dressed in a silver-like colour – it’s the only option, but it’s not too spangly or metallic – is generally discreet. The lid has a simple raised Predator symbol logo to the top corner, but no in-your-face text or other logo prints anywhere else to be seen.

Pocket-lint

There is perhaps some greater giveaway that this machine has more going on under the hood though: you only need to look at the large vents to the rear to know that it’s ready to pass a lot of air through for the sake of cooling. Still, at 17.9mm thick at its deepest, it’s really not that massive compared to an everydayer.

Open to Triton 300 SE up and the keyboard also has an air of ‘normal’ about it. By which we mean there’s no raised WSAD keys. But, dig deeper, and you’ll quickly see there’s more to it: the typical backlight is a reasonably subtle blue, but there’s full RGB lighting control if you want animations and rainbow colours.

The keys are full-size – the only irritation being the split Enter key (sharing with ‘|’) – in order to open up an additional row to the right side with Predator symbol for quick-access to PredatorSense software and controls, alongside play/pause/skip keys.

Pocket-lint

There’s also a Turbo button towards the speaker grille, for quick-access overclocking. Basically all the gamer goodness that you might want access to, but achieved in a more subtle way.

Hardware & Performance

Intel Core i7 (11370H) processor, up to 24GB RAM
5th Gen AeroBlade 3D Fan cooling system
Next-gen Nvidia GeForce GPU
Dedicated Turbo button
256GB/512GB SSD
Wi-Fi 6 (AX1650i)

This setup comes with Intel’s 11th Gen Core i architecture – it’s the i7-11370H here – with up to 24GB of DDR4 RAM. So it’s certainly no slouch if you want to load heavyweight AAA titles.

Pocket-lint

Or perhaps you’re a creative who’s looking for that bit extra – as you can pick from Intel Iris Xe or discrete graphics from Nvidia’s brand new GeForce RTX 30 series.

All of that obviously requires more cooling than your average, hence those big vents to the back and side of the device. But we’ve found the fans do kick in with little fuss. Just resting the laptop on a desk and opening a browser saw them intermittently switch on and off – and a little noisily. There are more fan controls within PredatorSense to take extra command, including maxxing them during gaming sessions.

Acer calls this cooling setup AeroBlade 3D – a method that uses the fans to pull air in over the most heat capacitive components (CPU, GPU, RAM) and hold air in chambers to aid with this cooling process.

Pocket-lint

We’ve not had the time to test this laptop under full pressure to see how well it will handle various circumstances, nor how long the battery will hold out, but being a gaming laptop with Intel architecture we wouldn’t ever assume it’s going to be a long-laster (Acer claims up to 10 hours use per charge).

First Impressions

So there you have it: the first Predator laptop with a 14-inch screen is basically a business laptop in disguise. It’s this discreetness that’ll be its make-or-break appeal for many.

But don’t let the subtle silver finish and relatively ‘normal’ size fool you: there are the cooling vents, the Turbo button, the high-end innards and all the goodness that you’re likely to want from a gaming laptop. Just wrapped up into something somewhat different to usual.

Writing by Mike Lowe.

AMD Threadripper Pro Processors and WXR80 Motherboards Coming To Retail

(Image credit: AMD)

You simply can’t find more powerful chips for a desktop or workstation than AMD’s Threadripper Pro series, and now they’re coming to retail. With 64 cores, 128 threads, up to 2TB of memory spread out among eight memory channels, not to mention support for 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0, the beastly chips represent the ultimate in workstation power.

Unfortunately, until today, the Threadripper Pro series chips were locked into the OEM market, meaning you could only find them in uber-expensive pre-validated systems like the Lenovo ThinkStation P620 that we recently tested with the flagship Threadripper Pro 3995WX.

AMD Threadripper Pro Series
	MSRP/RCP	Cores / Threads	Base / Boost (GHz)	L3 Cache (MB)	PCIe	DRAM	TDP
Threadripper Pro 3995WX	$?	64 / 128	2.7 / 4.2	256	128 Gen 4	Eight-Channel DDR4-3200	280W
Threadripper 3990X	$3,990	64 / 128	2.9 / 4.3	256	88 Gen 4 (72 Usable)	Quad DDR4-3200	280W
EPYC 7442	$6,950	64 / 128	2.25 / 3.4	256	128 Gen 4	Eight-Channel DDR4-3200	225W
Threadripper Pro 3975WX	$?	32 / 64	3.5 / 4.2	128	128 Gen 4	Eight-Channel DDR4-3200	280W
Xeon 8280	$10,009	28 / 56	2.7 / 4.0	38.5	48 Gen 3	Six-Channel DDR4-2933	205W
Intel W-3175X	$2999	28 / 56	3.1 / 4.8	38.5	48 Gen 3	Six-Channel DDR4-2666	255W
Threadripper 3970X	$1999	32 / 64	3.7 / 4.5	*128	88 Gen 4 (72 Usable)	Quad DDR4-3200	280W
Xeon W-3275	$4,449	28 / 56	2.5 / 4.6	38.5	64 Gen3	Six-Channel DDR4-2933	205W
Threadripper 3960X	$1,399	24 / 48	3.8 / 4.5	*128	88 Gen 4 (72 Usable)	Quad DDR4-3200	280W
Xeon W-3265	$3,349	24 / 48	2.7 / 4.6	33	64 Gen 3	Six-Channel DDR4-2933	205W
Threadripper Pro 3955WX	$?	16 / 32	3.9 / 4.3	64	128 Gen 4	Eight-Channel DDR4-3200	280W
Ryzen 9 5950X	$799	16 / 32	3.9 / 4.9	64	20	Dual DDR4-3200	105W
Threadripper Pro 3945WX	$?	12 / 24	4.0 / 4.3	62	128 Gen 4	Eight-Channel DDR4-3200	280W

Now AMD is bringing the ultimate in threaded goodness to the retail market through participating global retailers, e-tailers, and system integrators. AMD hasn’t share pricing information yet, but we’ll update once the company shares more information. It should be much friendlier than what we see with OEM systems, though. For instance, it costs $7,000 just to upgrade from the 12-core 3945WX in a Lenovo system to the 64-core 3995WX.

If you want to see how these chips compare in about a jillion benchmarks, including gaming, head to our recent review.

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(Image credit: AMD)

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(Image credit: AMD)

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(Image credit: AMD)

You’ll need a WRX80 motherboard to unlock the best of Threadripper Pro, but never fear, ASUS has listed the Pro WS Sage SE on its website and we should learn pricing and availability in the coming days. This motherboard represents the ultimate in PCIe – it comes with seven PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and eight memory slots. The board also comes with a 16-phase power delivery substem, supports RDIMMs, and has a BMC chip for remote management. ASUS hasn’t shared the detailed specs yet, but we expect it will post the full listing soon.

(Image credit: VideoCardz)

Gigabyte also has its WRX80-SU8 waiting in the wings, but the details are slight. We know the massive board (most likely E-ATX) also has seven PCIe slots and BMC features, two 10 GbE ports, two GbE ports, and a 7.1-channel audio system. With AMD’s official release of the Threadripper Pro series to retail today, we expect more information on this motherboard to be inbound soon.

CPU	Up to the latest AMD Ryzen 7
GPU	Up to the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX
RAM	Up to 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
Storage	Up to 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Display	16-inch, 16:10, IPS QHD (2560 x 1600) @ 165Hz, G-Sync, VESA DisplayHDR 400
Networking	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1
Availability	March 2021
Starting Price	$999.99

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Acer Nitro 5 (2021, AMD) initial review: An affordable, customisable gaming laptop

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Acer Predator Triton 300 SE initial review: The everyday gamers’ laptop

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