Slate is getting into the audiobooks business. The online magazine and podcast subscription seller is launching its own audiobook store today in partnership with multiple publishing companies. The store will list and sell popular titles but with the added benefit of making the audio accessible through listeners’ preferred podcast app instead of a separate audiobook-only platform. This is likely its biggest sell for listeners, although Slate will compete on price, too. Listeners also will buy these books a la carte, meaning they don’t have to subscribe to an ongoing membership as they may through Audible, the biggest name in audiobooks.
The store and its functionality are powered through Slate’s Supporting Cast, its technology that powers recurring revenue audio services, like subscription podcasts. This means that on the back end, Slate is hosting publishers’ audiobooks on its servers and creating private RSS feeds for them, which can then be inserted into any podcasting app that supports them, like Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, and Overcast. The process basically looks like this: Listeners navigate to Slate’s store, buy a book, and can then either listen online or they can tap on the app of their choice to have the feed automatically inputted. They can also manually copy and paste the feed.
David Stern, vice president of product and business development, tells The Verge that its software automatically looks for suspicious activity and will revoke access if it suspects someone is sharing their private RSS link outside of a “very small flexible range.”
Initial partners include Penguin-Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Hachette. Slate wouldn’t disclose its royalty agreements with these companies. The initial catalog is small, especially compared to Audible’s thousands of titles, but Slate seems to be interested in books that its team has reviewed for the website. As evidence for why Slate thought it should pursue an audiobook business, the company says it’s generated more than $1 million through its book affiliate business, and that it tested selling Danny Lavery’s Something That May Shock and Discredit You audiobook and sold 500 copies.
Slate’s move into audiobooks continues the trend of podcast-oriented companies looking to audiobooks and audiobook companies looking to podcasts. Spotify launched audiobooks in its app, hosted by celebrity talent, earlier this year and has reportedly put the founder of Parcast in charge of its audiobook efforts, per a Bloomberg report. Audible also brought podcasts to its app for the first time last year. (Apple, for its part, sells audiobooks through its Books app, not Podcasts app.) The broader bet seems to be that people who enjoy listening to things will want to do so from one app.
“It’s sort of a no-brainer,” Stern says.
Slate is positioning itself to let people choose what app they want to listen within, although neither Spotify nor Audible support private RSS feeds.
We’re breaking down tips and trips for making Windows 10 shine. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
Your PC is nothing without its operating system, and for most devices (about 1 billion to be more precise), that OS is Windows 10. Windows has been around for so long that even the technologically inept should be able to find their way around the latest version. But if you’re a tech enthusiast, you don’t just want to be able to just use Windows 10; you want to master it. Only then can you enjoy the performance your system was built for and make the most out of what both your computer, the ubiquitous OS and you as a user can do.
We’ve been detailing some of the handiest Windows 10 tips and tricks so you can maximize your PC’s relationship with the OS and make sure it works the way you want it to with your device. This means tips on maximizing Windows 10’s productivity software, momentous Windows 10 hacks that are sure to boost your productivity, Windows 10 troubleshooting tutorials to keep in your back pocket and even answers to questions you’re too scared to ask.
Windows 10 Productivity Tips
If you got the basics of Windows 10 down ages ago, you might be wondering what we have to offer you. The following are some of our favorite hacks for boosting productivity while working with Windows 10. Between ways to capture screenshots you may not have thought of and instructions for a DIY SSD, these should help you learn something you didn’t know before.
How to Get Windows 10 for Free (or Under $30)
15 Windows Tips to Help You Work Faster and Smarter
How to Share Your Internet Connection in Windows Using Ethernet or Wi-Fi
How to Free Up Space in Windows 10 and macOS
How to Turn a Windows 10 PC Into a Wireless Display
How to Use the Same Keyboard and Mouse With 3 or More PCs at Once
How to Map a Network Drive in Windows 10
Five Easy Ways To Capture a Screenshot in Windows 10 (also see: How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac)
How to Get Microsoft Office for Free (or Under $50)
How to Use XLOOKUP in Excel
How to Delete Blank Cells in Excel / Google Sheets
How to Shade Every Other Row in Excel / Google Sheets
How to Use an External Drive for Internal Storage
How to Build Your Own SSD
Simple RAM Overclocking With a Few Clicks: How to Enable XMP
Windows 10 Troubleshooting Tips
If you’re the kind of person who people call when they can’t get their system to work properly, you’ll want to get a firm grasp of all the following Windows 10 troubleshooting tutorials.
How to Use a Minidump File to Fix Your Windows BSOD
How to Factory Reset a Windows 10 PC
How to Boot Windows 10 in Safe Mode
How to Find a MAC Address in Windows 10
How to Monitor Your CPU Temperature
How to Test RAM: Making Sure Bad Memory Isn’t Crashing Your PC
How to Pause Windows 10 Updates
How to Fix the ‘Page Fault In Nonpaged Area’ Error in Windows 10
Windows 10 Security Tips
Windows security isn’t just something that enterprises need to worry about. Not only do everyday users need to think about their security on the web, security at home or in the office can also be an issue if you share a device. For all those things on the family computer no one else needs to see, the following how-tos should help you out.
How to Password Protect a Folder in Windows 10
How to Change Your Password in Windows 10
Windows 10 Tips and Tricks: Make It Yours
Microsoft doesn’t have the final word on how you experience Windows 10. We have step-by-step instructions for tweaking the OS to your preference. Maybe bright apps make your eyes weary, you want to change how your system boots or just don’t want to make a Microsoft account. Look to these Windows 10 tips and tricks for assistance.
New PC? Change These 13 Windows Settings Right Away
How to Enter the BIOS on any PC: Access Keys by Manufacturer
How to Create a Local Account in Windows 10
How to Hide the Taskbar in Windows 10
How to Format a Hard Drive Using the Command Prompt
Paint It Black: 15 Ways to Dark Mode Your PC
How to Change the Lock Screen Photos on Windows 10
Basic Windows 10 Tips and Tricks
In the tech world, it seems everyone knows it all, but the truth is no one does. Whether you’re a macOS converter (welcome), coming to Windows 10 from an older version of Windows, looking for a refresher or just plain don’t know how to do some basic or introductory tasks on Windows 10, we’ve got you covered.
How to Disable Notifications in Windows 10
How to Use Focus Assist to Control Notifications in Windows 10
Amazon is refreshing a handful of products in its Echo line: the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 5, plus it’s adding a Kids Edition of the Echo Show 5. The big new feature on both models is the camera, but the upgrade is more impressive on the bigger Echo Show 8. It now has the same 13-megapixel sensor that you’ll find on the Echo Show 10. Instead of moving the screen around to point at you as the 10 does, the Echo Show 8 provides a wider, 110-degree field of view. Within that range, it does the pan and zoom trick to keep subjects centered in the frame.
To power that trick and some other new software features, Amazon says there’s a new “octa-core” processor inside the Echo Show 8. Otherwise, it’s the same Echo Show 8 that we reviewed in 2019, with dual speakers and a choice of either white or charcoal gray. It still sells at the same price, $129.99.
The other software tricks include using the camera to detect if a human has walked into the room and then plugging that information into routines (like turning on the lights). Amazon emphasizes that this is an opt-in only feature and it even requires users to manually punch in a code during setup to ensure they really mean to turn it on. It also does its human shape detection locally.
Amazon will also let all Echo 8 and 5 devices turn on Alexa’s security mode, so you can remotely view the cameras from your phone. Finally, the Echo Show 8 is getting new AR effects for Amazon’s own video chat service, including “reactions” like filling the screen with hearts or setting custom virtual backgrounds.
As for the smaller (and more popular) Echo Show 5, the upgrades are less impressive. The camera is doubling in resolution, from one megapixel to two. It won’t have the horsepower to do the follow mode on the camera. However, the Echo Show 5 is getting a permanent price drop; it’s now $84.99. It comes in the same charcoal and white colors but adds a new blue option.
If you want to spend $10 more, you can get a Kids Edition of the Echo Show 5 with a wild print on the rear fabric. That extra $10 also includes a year of Amazon Kids Plus services and a two-year warranty against whatever damage your child can inflict on the thing.
All three versions of the Echo Show should be available for order immediately, but shipping could take a few weeks — even Amazon is not fully immune to chip shortages, it seems. As for fans of the Echo Spot orb, it’s not seeing any updates today and is in all likelihood not going to make a comeback — Amazon tells us that most customers just opted for the Echo Show 5 instead.
We’re in a relatively quiet period for Switch releases while we wait for Skyward Sword’s remaster to release in July. Thankfully, today marks the arrival of a new $10 calculator app on Nintendo’s console, which should stop your machine from gathering too much dust over the coming months. Hell yeah. Math.
The app, which was spotted by Eurogamer, is literally just called “Calculator” and is being published by Sabec. It’s single-player, which unfortunately rules out any team-based calculating, and it works in TV and handheld modes, according to its product page. We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that the app bears a striking resemblance to the iPhone’s old calculator app, but being charitable, it’s possible that the app is only guilty of drawing inspiration from Dieter Rams’ classic design.
Math.Image: Sabec / Nintendo
Unlike Sony’s and Microsoft’s consoles, and even Nintendo’s previous machines, the Switch doesn’t have much in the way of non-gaming apps. It doesn’t have Netflix, Spotify, or those other pieces of software that we’ve come to expect will appear on basically any piece of electronics with a screen. But now, finally, it has a calculator app. Thank god.
(Pocket-lint) – Gaming phones have become something of a fixture in the Android space; while many flagship devices push their gaming prowess, for a select few, gaming is their raison d’être, their everything.
The ROG Phone is one such device, pushing Asus’ Republic of Gamers brand and weaving into that the experience Asus has gained from its regular phones. And in the fourth-generation of this phone Asus is more ambitious than ever.
Here’s why the Asus ROG Phone 5 is not only a great gaming phone, it’s a great phone outside of that too.
Design & Build
Dimensions: 173 x 77 x 9.9mm / Weight: 239g
Under-display optical fingerprint scanner
3.5mm headphone jack
ROG Vision rear display
Gaming phones often show their colours when it comes to the design. Aside from being large – which the ROG Phone 5 definitely is – you’ll often find more overt graphics and emotive finishes rather than just being a safe black or grey.
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The ROG Phone 5 doesn’t go to an extreme though: from the front it just looks like a normal phone. Flip it over and you’re treated to subtle design touches etched into the rear glass, which also gives some indicator of where the touch points are for the AirTriggers (which Asus describes as “ultrasonic sensor zones that can be customised to perform different functions, such as reproducing actions in specific games and launching specific apps”. We touch upon these in more detail in the last section of this review).
The thing that gives the game away is the ROG Vision display on the rear of the phone. There are two different versions of the display, with a dot display on the regular ROG Phone models and a slightly smaller but more sophisticated display panel on the Pro and Ultimate models – the Pro is shown in this review.
ROG Phone 5 comes in regular, Pro and Ultimate editions
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That blows the subtlety out of the water, allowing you to have RBG illumination on the back of the phone – with the Pro and Ultimate models offering a wider range of graphics and animations – all of which can be controlled through the Armoury Crate app on the phone, just like Asus PC components.
That control includes turning the Vision display off if you don’t want it – but you’ll soon forget it’s there until people mention it. It’s on the back of the phone and it’s rare to be looking at the back of the phone when you’re doing something, so let’s not dwell on it.
There are a couple of other quirks around the body: The USB-C on the base of the phone is offset to one side rather than central (and we don’t know exactly why), while there’s a secondary USB-C on the side of the phone. This secondary USB sits alongside the contact point to power the AeroActive Cooler 5 – the clip-on fan – and both have a rubber seal that presses into the side to keep out dust.
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This cover is probably the worst piece of design implementation on the ROG Phone 5. The fact that there are a couple of spares in the box tell you everything you need to know: you’re going to lose this cover, because it’s a separate piece of rubber.
Motorola’s new Moto G9 Plus is a stunner of a phone – find out why, right here
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We’ve found it flapping off when pulling the phone from a pocket, and just when handling the device. We’re constantly pushing it back into place and a couple of times we’ve found it missing and then located it in the bottom of a pocket.
An out of box experience all phones can learn from
One of the great things about gaming phones is what you get for your money. There are a whole range of phones on offer and none are really expensive compared to flagships from brands like Samsung and Apple. The ROG Phone 5 starts at £799 in the UK – and that’s for a 12GB RAM model with 256GB storage, not the bottom of the range loadout.
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But it’s not just about the core device, it’s about the rest of the experience. Lavishly packaged, opening the ROG Phone 5 is an event. From the cool comic book graphics of inside of the box, that flow through into the startup process for the phone, there’s a sense of theatre. It’s a reward for your custom and it’s so much better than just sliding a phone out of a box.
You also get more in the box: the 65W charger that will deliver a fast charge; the case that brings some grip to what is, admittedly, a slippery phone given its massive size; and the clip-on AeroActive Cooler 5 fan, which integrates a kickstand, two physical buttons, and another RGB logo.
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Some might baulk at this as more landfill, but some companies will make you pay for the charger – and here you’re getting a powerful charger you can use with your other devices too.
Display
6.78-inch AMOLED panel
Up to 144Hz refresh rate
2448 x 1080 resolution
There’s a 6.78-inch display in the ROG Phone 5. It’s big by any standard, with Asus hanging onto the bezels top and bottom. The top bezel integrates the front-facing camera, so there’s no need for a notch or punch-hole.
It’s also a flat display, all practical design decisions made to give you the best gaming experience, ensuring that you get as much visual space as possible. Given how problematic we found the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra’s display, we’re just fine with the ROG Phone 5 going flat.
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The ROG Phone 5 models all stick to a Full HD resolution and while devices like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra can technically produce finer detail, generally speaking that makes little difference. We can’t fault the ROG Phone’s display for detail.
It also offers refresh rates up to 144Hz (if you have any games that support that, there’s a full list on the ROG website), with options to select 60 or 120Hz – or Auto, which will pick the refresh rate based on the content.
HDR 10+ is supported to bring pop to the visuals for high dynamic range content, while that AMOLED panel provides rich colour visuals, with the option to tune that to your preferences.
It’s a great display and about the only thing that separates it from the best displays on the market is the peak brightness. It offers 800 nits, which is still bright enough for most, but Samsung’s top-end offerings will outshine this model – most notable when outside in sunny conditions.
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Flanking the display top and bottom are dual stereo speakers, while there’s also a 3.5mm headphone socket for those wanting to go wired. The speaker performance is stellar, amongst the best you’ll find on a smartphone. It’s rich and immersive, with substantial bass and volume that means you don’t need headphones to get the most from your content.
Hardware & Performance
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 platform
8GB-18GB RAM, 128GB-512GB storage
6000mAh battery, dual USB-C 65W wired charging
The fact the ROG Phone 5 houses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 platform makes it especially good value for money – as you’re getting the latest flagship hardware that will embarrass some other phones.
Of course it comes in at different price points, with RAM and storage leveraging the price, although not all models will be available in all regions. We actually tested the 16GB/512GB model (the ROG Phone 5 Pro – a model that isn’t planned for the UK; although there’s a 16GB/512GB version of the standard ROG Phone 5, the only difference being the type of display you get on the back of the phone).
The performance is also exemplary. There are a number of elements to this. It’s got that great hardware and, as a result, we’ve found the gaming performance to be outstanding.
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This is a phone that eats hours of Call of Duty Mobile or PUBG Mobile, giving solid gameplay, combined with those design elements and some software enhancements that feel like they give you edge, or at least give you the opportunity to establish new preferences thanks to the bespoke gaming options offered.
We also didn’t find the ROG Phone 5 to get excessively hot under load, despite the option of the clip-on fan.
But the important point about performance is that the ROG Phone 5 also runs fast and smooth outside of gaming. We’ve seen gaming phones that drop the ball when it comes to simple tasks, because of poor software. The ROG Phone 5 is stable, which makes for a great experience.
There’s a huge 6000mAh battery, which is fitting for a phone of this size, again with Asus splitting the battery and enabling 65W wired charging. That makes for really fast charging, with the option to bypass charging – and just have the power used for the system rather than recharging the battery.
Again, this is an option for gamers, so you’re not charging (which produces heat) and loading the system (which produces heat) and could potentially lead to a drop in performance.
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A big battery means big battery life. In regular use the ROG Phone 5 will easily see you through the day and into the next. It’s not a charge every night type of phone. Even with a couple of hours of gaming thrown in – at top brightness and max settings – battery life isn’t a worry. That’s a great position not just for a gaming phone, but any smartphone.
There are power modes available, with X Mode firing up full power to let things rip, and a Dynamic Mode to keep things balanced. You can customise the power modes to suit your preferences with things like network, display, performance, and other controls all selectable.
There’s an under-display fingerprint scanner that’s fast to unlock, while calls comes through loud and clear too – with no detected problems with Wi-Fi or 5G connectivity.
The camera on any gaming phone is often something of an afterthought. The focus is on the experience of gaming – so the camera is seen as less of a focus. Despite that, Asus is pushing the ROG Phone 5 as having a triple camera system.
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The main camera is a 64-megapixel sensor, using pixel combining to produce a 16-megapixel image as standard. You can shoot in full resolution, but you have to dig into the menu to find that option, which no one is ever going to do.
There’s an ultra-wide lens, giving the equivalent of 0.6x, although the quality isn’t great, with visible blurring around the edges if there’s any detail there – but fine for open shots of expansive landscapes.
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1.0X MAIN CAMERA
The final camera is a macro camera, which we’re generally non-plussed about. As on other devices, macro cameras seem to be thrown in to make up the numbers – and that’s what it feels like here too.
So back the main camera and the performance is reasonable, producing naturally balanced pictures, although perhaps not getting the most out of scenes and not showing as much pop as other cameras we’ve seen can offer.
Low-light shooting offers that slow exposure so you can watch the image get lighter, which we like – and it will take those shots automatically in low light, which means people will actually use it.
There’s a portrait mode for blurring the background that works well enough, although it seems to soften the background with over-exposure which makes results look a little clumsy.
Portrait works on the front and back cameras and we generally prefer the results without portrait mode – and you can’t adjust the levels of blur after the fact, so it’s worth taking a few photos and figuring out what gives you pleasing results so you can change the settings before you take the picture. The selfie camera is generally good, although images quickly get softer in lower light conditions and aren’t good when it gets dark.
There’s no optical zoom on offer here, although you can pinch-to-zoom from the main camera out to 8x. It’s not an especially elegant system and the results are typical of digital zoom, with quality dropping as you increase the “magnification”.
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One of the reasons for the high-resolution sensor – apart from for the benefit of the spec sheet – is to allow 8K video capture, on top of the 4K 60fps option.
The important thing about the camera is that it gets the job done: while other phones will sell themselves on camera features above all else, that’s not really the ethos behind the ROG Phone 5. This phone is all about the power and the gaming experience. So, yes, there are more engaging cameras elsewhere, but at the same time, this Asus will give you perfectly good results in most situations.
Software and custom gaming options
Android 11
Armoury Crate
Custom gaming controls
As we’ve said previously, the software on the ROG Phone 5 runs smooth and fast. We’ve experienced no problems with the tweaks and changes that Asus has made over Google’s Android operating system, and it’s easy to swing in with Google versions of apps rather than supplied alternatives.
It’s running Android 11 too, so the latest version of Google’s OS – although Asus doesn’t quite have the update record that a company like Samsung now offers, so there’s no telling how long it would be before it moves to Android 12 once that’s released later down the line.
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What’s more relevant here is the gaming software and the options that controls. We’ve mentioned Armoury Crate, which will let you control things like the ROG Vision display on the back of the phone, and act as a launch pad for your games.
Within each game you can see how long you’ve spent playing that game, but more usefully you have a record of profiles for that game. You can, for example, restrict background CPU usage when playing a particular game, change the touch performance, turn off background network syncing – all designed to ensure you have the optimal gaming experience.
That you can customise this to each game is great. For something like a shooter where connection and touch matters more, you might want to restrict everything else. For something casual like Pokemon Go, you might be happy to have everything else on your phone happening. It’s freedom to choose, rather than one gaming mode fits all.
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Within games you have access to the Game Genie dashboard too, allowing you to perform essential things, like tweak the brightness, turn off alerts or calls, speed up your phone – and block navigation gestures so you don’t accidentally exit the game.
There’s the option to have stats always showing – CPU and GPU usage, battery, temperature, fps – and you can drag these to anywhere on the screen so they are out of the way.
But it’s the AirTriggers that are the biggest differentiator from other phones, giving you a range of touch zones around the body of the phone that you can customise. That also includes two physical buttons on the AeroActive Cooler accessory too – which might convince some people to use it, as those buttons feel more positive than the touch areas of the phone’s casing.
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The Cooler buttons are great for things like dropshotting in shooters, because you can hit the deck while still firing, and get back to your feet, all without having to touch anything on the screen – which is a real advantage during games.
There are two ultrasonic buttons on the top of the phone, like shoulder buttons, with haptic feedback. These can offer a full range of programmable options – taps, swipes, slides – and they can be divided into two buttons each side, or you can programme and assign a macro to that button for a sequence you might use in a game.
Then there’s motion support, which you can assign to controls in the game – like forward tilt to reload, or whatever you like.
There’s also (on the Pro and Ultimate models only) rear touch zones you can use for slide input for your fingers on the rear of the phone.
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The challenge is how you incorporate all these tools to make things easier for you during games – although setting them up is easy enough and each setup is unique to each game.
Even if you just find one thing that’s useful, then you’re a step ahead. That might be using an additional AirTrigger for an on-screen control you find hard to hit – or that you can then remove from the display so you have less UI in the way of the game.
Verdict
The thing that really hits home about the Asus ROG Phone 5 is that it’s not just a great gaming phone: it’s a great phone full stop.
Yes, you can’t avoid the fact that the majority of phones are now based around the camera experience – and that’s one area that the ROG Phone 5 doesn’t really go to town on. But with huge battery and display, this is a great media phone in addition to a gaming delight.
For keen gamers, there’s a market of phone choices out there – and the ROG Phone 5 should definitely be high up your shortlist. For everyone else, if you can accept that this Asus is designed for gamers first, it’s still an awful lot of phone for the money.
Also consider
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Nubia Red Magic 6
This gaming phone attempts to steal the show with a 165Hz display. Despite being a powerful device that’s good value for money, it does oversell the cameras and also brings with it some software quirks you’ll need to work around.
Volkswagen will start testing its new autonomous vehicles in Germany this summer, the company announced Wednesday. The German automaker’s electric ID Buzz vans will use hardware and software developed by Argo AI, a Pittsburgh-based startup that is backed by Ford and VW. The aim is to launch a commercial delivery and micro-transit service in Germany by 2025.
Executives from VW and Argo convened a press conference this week to provide an update on their partnership, which was first announced in 2019 as an extension of VW’s “global alliance” with Ford. And while much of what they discussed was already known, it did provide a closer look at the timeline for launching a revenue-generating service using VW’s vehicles and Argo’s autonomous technology.
Argo, which has been testing its vehicles in the US with Ford for the last few years, said it would be launching the fifth generation of its automated driving technology with the VW ID Buzz, which is the electric version of the automaker’s iconic microbus. Bryan Salesky, the startup’s founder and CEO, praised the collaborative nature of Argo and Volkswagen’s partnership.
“We’re building our technology and partnering with Volkswagen in a way that really sets us apart from what others are doing,” Salesky said. “And we think it really puts us in a position to deliver a safe, smart, and scalable product to deliver on the promise of autonomous driving.”
That work has already started. Earlier this year, Argo and VW developed a prototype minivan using the German company’s MEB electric vehicle platform inside the body of a VW T6 Transporter and Argo’s AV technology, including LIDAR sensors, radar, and cameras. In addition, Argo’s software enables the vehicle to “see” its environment, plan for its next steps, and predict the movements of other vehicles and pedestrians on the road. This, in combination with Argo’s sensor suite, allows for automated driving at low and high speeds, Salesky said.
VW said that it plans to put the vans in service as a ride-sharing fleet under its subsidiary Moia. Since 2017, Moia has been operating a fleet of electric vehicles as part of its “ride-pooling” service in Hamburg, where it has served 3 million customers to date. Those customers have provided a treasure trove of feedback that Moia CEO Richard Henrich says will come in use as the company shifts to a completely autonomous fleet by 2025.
“We have learned in recent years that both customers and cities have really high and very specific expectations towards future autonomous ride-pooling systems,” Henrich said. “Customers, on the one hand side, expect ride-pooling to be as easy, convenient, and reliable as riding their own car… But cities, on the other hand, expect ride pooling to help alleviate traffic congestion.”
The AV industry has been consolidating rapidly over the past year, with many companies being acquired or merging with other companies. It’s a mad dash to keep businesses afloat in the face of lengthening timelines and steep operational costs with little expectation for revenue generation in the near term. Robotaxis, in particular, are seen as being further out than most companies are predicting. VW and Argo say they remain bullish about their ability to hit the target date.
“There is a long way to go still until this high tech becomes an enormous growth market,” said Christian Senger, VW’s senior VP for commercial vehicles.
HTC kicked off its Vivecon 2021 virtual event with a big announcement. During the opening keynote today, the company revealed a pair of near-5K resolution VR headsets, the HTC Vive Pro 2, which connects to a PC, and a standalone product called the HTC Vive Focus 3. HTC said these upcoming devices are primarily for businesses, but the specs and features, including a data compression technique not yet seen among the best VR headsets, will also interest gamers with a penchant for a high-end headset upgrade.
HTC Vive Pro 2
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HTC new PC VR headset, the Vive Pro 2 is, more of an evolutionary change than a revolutionary change from the original HTC Vive Pro. HTC poured its attention into improving the visual experience you get from the new headset rather than redesigning the entire structure of the product.
The HMD maker worked with AMD and Nvidia to implement Display Stream Compression (DSC) on the Vive Pro 2 – a first for a VR headset – enabling lossless transmission of high-resolution data. The Vive Pro 2 includes dual fast-switching RGB subpixel displays, giving the headset a total resolution of 4898 x 2448. These displays also operate at a speeder 120 Hz refresh rate to reduce motion blur. Faster refresh rates also improve user comfort, as we learned with Valve’s Index.
DSC, which is standardized by VESA, helps the high-bandwidth display signal stay within the constraints of DisplayPort 1.2. It even allows HTC’s Vive Wireless Adapter accessory to carry the Vive Pro 2’s high-bandwidth signal, which upon release will make it the highest resolution wireless PC VR solution.
The Vive Pro 2 shares the same shape and design as the original Vive Pro, including a rigid, mechanical headstrap and built-in adjustable headphones. This time, however, the headphones feature 3D spatial audio and Hi-res-certified speakers. The new headset also retains compatibility with all SteamVR and Vive Pro accessories, such as the Vive Trackers, Vive Facial Tracker and Valve Index controllers. The screens and the lenses are the significant changes.
HTC said you would need an Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card or an AMD Radeon 5000-series or better to get the full potential out of the Vive Pro 2. However, you can set the screens to run at 90 Hz if necessary, which should allow you to use the new headset on lower-end graphics cards while you wait out the GPU shortage.
Beyond increasing the resolution and refresh rate, HTC also expanded the field of view (FOV) by a slight margin compared to the original Vive Pro from 110 degrees to 120 degrees. The improvement closes the FOV gap between the Vive Pro and the Valve Index (adjustable up to 130 degrees), but it’s still a far cry from ultrawide Pimax headsets.
HTC developed new dual-element lenses to achieve the FOV improvements within the existing Vive Pro form factor by enabling the displays to sit closer to the lenses and retain focus.
HTC is approaching the market with the Vive Pro 2 the same way it did with the original Vive Pro headset. The headset will initially hit the market as an upgrade kit for people with an existing SteamVR-based VR system. It works with both the 1.0 and 2.0 versions of Valve’s base stations.
The headset alone will sell for $749 (£659 / €739), with pre-orders open today and hardware shipping before the end of the month. A complete Vive Pro 2 kit, with base stations and controllers, will be available on June 4 for $1,399 (£1,299 / €1,399).
HTC Vive Focus 3: A Standalone Vive
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(Image credit: HTC)
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The Vive Pro 2 is HTC’s top PC VR offering, but that’s not the only incoming Vive headset. The Vive Focus 3, which doesn’t require tethering to a system, shares a handful of the new features introduced on the Vive Pro 2.
HTC’s new standalone includes the same dual-element lenses found in the Vive Pro 2, giving it the same 120-degree FOV as the PC VR headset. The Vive Focus 3 also has dual 2448 x 2448 RGB panels, but they’re limited to 90Hz. HTC’s new headset also features adjustable IPD (interpupillary distance, the amount of space between your pupils), with a granular range of 57-72mm.
Unlike the Vive Pro 2, which borrows its exterior design from its predecessor, the Vive Focus 3 features an entirely new industrial design. HTC reduced the weight by 20% compared by building it from magnesium alloy instead of plastic. HTC said the metal housing is also 500% stronger than plastic.
To help balance the weight evenly, HTC installed the battery pack under the rear cushion of the headstrap. The battery gives the headset roughly 2 hours of run time, with a charge time of approximately 30 minutes. The battery is also removable, so you can always keep a spare ready to go. The headset doesn’t have a backup power source, so you can’t hot-swap the batteries while it’s running.
The Vive Focus 3 has a pair of speakers embedded in the rigid head strap, plus a headphone jack so that you can use your favorite headphones with it. Four onboard cameras embedded in the front of the visor handle inside-out tracking and provide tracking for the two wand controllers that ship with the headset.
In this era of working in a pandemic, no one wants to share something like a VR headset. That’s why HTC looked to make the Vive Focus 3 simple to keep hygienic. The front and rear cushions are easy to remove for cleaning, thanks to a magnetic mounting mechanism.
A Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 SoC does all the heavy lifting to power the Vive Focus 3. HTC installed a copper heatpipe and an active cooling fan to extract the most performance possible out of the XR2 platform. By contrast, Facebook throttled the XR2 in the Oculus Quest 2 standalone headset to keep it within certain temperature constraints.
Not Really for Gamers
On paper, the Vive Focus 3 looks like a worthy competitor to the Oculus Quest 2. Unfortunately, it’s not priced for consumers and doesn’t include a game library to back it up. However, HTC said the new headset will support streaming PC VR content wirelessly over WiF, so maybe we’ll see support for PC VR gaming.
The Vive Focus 3 will be available on June 27. Buying one will set you back $1,300 (£1,060 / / €1,180). For this price, you get the headset with controllers and a business warranty.
A Business Ecosystem
HTC is offering more than just a pair of new VR headsets. The company has put together an entire ecosystem for using VR in business announced today. Vive Business provides a handful of business-focused VR solutions, such as the Vive Business Device Management System, which gives IT departments the tools necessary for keeping track of a fleet of devices.
The Vive Business platform also includes an Android-based progress monitoring system for instructors called Vive Business Training and a VR meeting place called Vive Sync.
Meanwhile, the Vive Business AppStore offers a curated collection of off-the-shelf business-related VR software for the Focus 3 headset. HTC said it would launch with roughly 20 titles, with more content in development from various ISV partners.
With all of these tools, HTC hopes to accelerate the adoption of VR in the workplace. The company believes that as more people encounter VR for the first time at work, it will drive more adoption in the home. So don’t think we’ve seen the last gaming-centric Vive headset quite yet.
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The Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel is a computer I will never own. But I really, really wish I could.
Artists, creators, and engineers who are looking for a powerful high-end convertible have all kinds of options on today’s market. But only Acer’s ConceptD line can fold in six different ways. There are not one, but two hinges attached to the display: a traditional clamshell hinge and another one in the middle of the lid that enables the screen to rotate outward. By using the two hinges in tandem, you can put the screen in nearly any position you want. This unique form factor makes the ConceptD 7 Ezel unlike any other laptop on the market.
There are other things that separate the Ezel from something like a MacBook, of course. It also has a sleek look with an attractive finish, a gorgeous 15.6-inch 4K UHD touch display, a built-in Wacom EMR pen, and all the ports you need. The chips on the inside are quite powerful. But you can find similar benefits in many convertibles that are half the price. The people who should shell out thousands of dollars for this device are those who have a need for the combination of its unique form factor and large screen — and the rest of us can be jealous of them from afar.
Before ogling too much over this form factor, you might want to know how much it costs. The $2,499 base model comes with an Intel Core i7-10750H, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. For $2,999.99, you can bump the graphics up to a GeForce RTX 2070 and 2TB of storage. I was sent the top model, which has a Core i7-10875H, 32GB of RAM, and a GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q, for a whopping $3,999.99. These components are both a generation old — Acer hasn’t refreshed the ConceptD with the latest chips yet — but they still deliver solid performance, as you’ll see later on.
These prices will make the ConceptD 7 Ezel an unrealistic purchase for most people, but there’s a 14-inch ConceptD that’s more affordable if you’re interested in this form factor. For those whose work involves professional design and video editing, CGI, machine learning, and the like, Acer also sells a ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro with an Nvidia Quadro GPU. Those are expensive, and people whose work requires a Quadro likely know who they are.
A normal-looking laptop, until you start bending the screen.
There are all kinds of ways you could theoretically arrange the ConceptD, but Acer has defined six. There’s Laptop (self-explanatory), Pad (tablet mode), Float (screen facing forward, hanging above the keyboard deck), Stand (screen facing forward, forming a tent shape over the keyboard deck), Share (screen facing upward, parallel to the keyboard deck), and Display (clamshell shape, but with the screen facing away from the keyboard).
I started out using the Ezel in Laptop most of the time, but Float grew on me quickly. It brought the screen much closer to me — it’s pretty far away in Laptop mode, given the size of the keyboard deck. I can see the use cases for the other modes as well: I’d love to use Stand to take notes during a lecture, for example, and Share could be useful for drawing while standing at a desk. The one form I can’t really see myself using is Pad because, at 5.6 pounds, the Ezel is too heavy to practically hold as a tablet unless you’re swole.
The one hiccup I ran into is that the screen is very top-heavy. A few times when I picked the device up, the screen would start to fall forward and I’d have to catch it to keep the lid open. My preferences for Windows tablet mode vs. Windows desktop mode also didn’t quite line up with the device’s. It stayed in desktop mode when in Stand, for example, but I’d prefer it switch to Tablet Mode in that form since the keyboard isn’t accessible.
Acer calls this the “Ezel Hinge design.”
The fact that these form factors are useful, of course, doesn’t mean that most people needthem. Convertibles like the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 can emulate most of these positions as well (Float and Stand are the really unique ones). The Ezel is really meant for people who will be using the nontraditional forms a lot. For those folks, it has two main benefits: moving the screen around is quite smooth and seamless (you don’t have to use two hands to flip the whole machine around, as you would with a 2-in-1 workstation), and the hinge is also sturdy enough that you can draw in Float and Share with no wobble at all. Of course, this sturdiness comes with a big weight penalty, in addition to its price premium — the Ezel is much heavier than most convertible machines.
That extra heft isn’t for nothing — there are some serious fans in this device. Specifically, there are two “4th-Gen AeroBlade 3D” fans in addition to three heat pipes, and there are vents all over the place including the sides of the case and above the keyboard. The system (which Acer calls its “Vortex Flow” design) did a good job of keeping the chassis cool during my day-to-day work — the bottom sometimes got warm but was never uncomfortably hot, and I never felt much heat on the keyboard or palm rests.
Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel benchmarks
Benchmark
Score
Benchmark
Score
Cinebench R23 Multi
8610
Cinebench R23 Single
1249
Cinebench R23 Multi looped for 30 minutes
8413
Geekbench 5.3 CPU Multi
7879
Geekbench 5.3 CPU Single
1280
Geekbench 5.3 OpenCL / Compute
91801
PugetBench for Premiere Pro
604
The fans had trouble keeping pace with the CPU, though. Temperatures stayed solidly in the mid-70s to mid-80s (Celsius) during a 30-minute loop of Cinebench — but throughout several runs of a five-minute, 33-second 4K video export in Adobe Premiere Pro, I saw it jump up to the mid-90s, and even high-90s often. Cinebench scores did decrease over time, and export times also got slower.
The ConceptD took two minutes and 55 seconds to complete the video export, which is one of the fastest times we’ve ever seen from a laptop. The Dell XPS 15 with the same processor and a GTX 1650 Ti took four minutes and 23 seconds (though different versions of Premiere Pro can impact export times, so synthetic benchmarks such as Cinebench are more precise for direct comparison).
Chunky as tablets go.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Here’s Stand.
There’s a “specialized silent switch” under the touchpad.
The webcam’s okay. There’s no privacy shutter.
All ConceptDs include a Pantone-validated display.
SD card reader on the front.
On the left: one USB-A, two Thunderbolt 3, one headphone jack, one Kensington lock slot.
On the right: One USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, one DisplayPort, one HDMI, one Ethernet, one power port.
Check out that hinge.
I also ran PugetBench for Premiere Pro, which measures a device’s performance on a number of real-world Premiere Pro tasks, and the ConceptD scored a 604, which beats the XPS 15 as well. The ConceptD also solidly beats the XPS on Geekbench 5 across the board. The XPS isn’t exactly on a level playing field here, since it has a weaker GPU — these results just illustrate the increased performance that the ConceptD will give you for the extra money. Acer’s machine did lose to Apple’s M1 MacBook Pro in both single-core tests, which underscores how powerful Apple’s processor is in single-core workloads.
The Ezel comes with some software features tailored to creative work as well. In Acer’s ConceptD Palette app, you can swap between Native and Adobe RGB color presets, as well as customizable profiles. You can also monitor CPU, GPU, and memory usage to see how much power your apps are using, and you can toggle between various split-screen layouts if you’re multitasking.
Acer says it’s worked with developers to “optimize” the device to work with various software including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Maya, Revit, and KeyShot. You could also run games on the ConceptD, but it wouldn’t be the best choice since the screen is just 60Hz and won’t be able to display very high frame rates.
As is often the case with big workstations, the Ezel’s battery life isn’t amazing. I averaged four hours and five minutes of continuous use with the screen around 200 nits of brightness. That’s not unexpected, considering the high-resolution display and the discrete GPU, but it’s worth noting that you’ll probably need to bring the hefty brick with you if you’re taking the Ezel out and about.
Elsewhere, the ConceptD 7 is a fine laptop to use. The keyboard is a bit flatter than I prefer but comfortable enough. The backlighting is a dark orange color (Acer calls it warm amber) that looks nice against the white deck. The touchpad is a bit small for a laptop of this size and I sometimes hit plastic while scrolling, but it is quite smooth. The chassis itself is a sturdy magnesium-aluminum alloy, and it’s covered in a nice white finish that Acer says is “highly resistant” to dirt and sun exposure. There’s a fingerprint reader built into the power button on the left side of the chassis, which works just fine.
I enjoyed using the built-in stylus, though it’s a bit stiff to pull out of its garage and requires a substantial nail. The pen uses Wacom EMR technology, meaning it never needs to be charged; it draws its power from inside the display. I enjoyed the limited drawing I was able to do on the smooth matte display (I’m an amateur artist at best).
The pen lives on the right side.
Acer says the ConceptD utilizes “improved psychoacoustics” to provide a better listening experience. You can swap between presets for music, voice, movies, and various types of games in the DTS:X Ultra app that comes preloaded if you have external speakers or headphones connected. If you’re using just the laptop, there are Music, Game, Movies, and Voice presets in ConceptD Palette. The dual front speakers themselves deliver not-great audio that’s quite lacking in the bass department.
Do you want to switch to tablet mode?
The ConceptD 7 Ezel is… well, in a word, it’s awesome. But you don’t need me to tell you that you don’t need to spend $4,000 to get an awesome device. If you want a touchscreen convertible with stylus support and can live without quite this much processing power, devices like the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 and the HP Spectre x360 15 are half the price of this device, more portable, and also have outstanding screens. The Spectre’s screen doesn’t literally fold over the keyboard, but it’ll work for many of the same use cases. And even for folks who want this particular form factor, the smaller ConceptD 3 Ezel will be a more practical purchase. The ConceptD 7 Ezel is for those who need serious power.
But man, is the ConceptD 7 Ezel a great device for content creators. As a professional reviewer, I’ve used more creator-focused laptops than most people on the planet — and I’ve never used anything like this. It’s a great idea, it’s powerful, it’s well-built, and it’s a lot of fun to use. I won’t recommend that you buy it — but if you do, please know that I’m very jealous of you.
Microsoft is introducing a new “Console Purchase Pilot” program that will give selected Xbox Insider members the chance to register to reserve an Xbox Series X or Series S console directly from the company through their existing Xbox One consoles.
The new program is only rolling out in the US for now, and even if you are given the chance to sign up, it doesn’t mean that you’ll actually be selected to buy one of the highly in-demand consoles.
Today we’re introducing the Console Purchase Pilot, allowing US #XboxInsiders on Xbox One to register for a chance to reserve an Xbox Series X|S console. Check the Xbox Insider Hub on Xbox One for details. Limited space is available and not all who register will be selected. pic.twitter.com/MBkQmbSDWc
— Xbox Insider (@xboxinsider) May 11, 2021
Customers will also have to use the Xbox Insider Hub app on an Xbox One console to both sign up for the Console Purchase Pilot and purchase the console itself — you won’t be able to conduct the transaction on a PC, web browser, Xbox 360, or Xbox Series X / S by design.
That means that the program will be intentionally targeted to dedicated Xbox fans who already own an Xbox One console and are looking to upgrade, and it could help cut down on scalpers. Introduced in 2016, the Xbox Insider program lets dedicated Xbox fans give direct feedback to Microsoft and test future software updates and features ahead of broader public rollouts.
And with next-gen consoles expected to be hard to find for months to come — at its last update, Microsoft said to expect the new Xboxes to be tough to buy until at least June — testing out new ways to directly sell consoles to fans could be the best way to make sure that more units don’t end up on the eBay aftermarket.
Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) — the ambitious smart home partnership that will see Apple, Apple, Google, Samsung, the Zigbee Alliance, and dozens of other companies work together on an open standard — has gotten a new name: Matter.
The rebranding comes ahead of the first Matter certifications, which are set to arrive before the end of 2021. The new branding and logo are designed to help make it easier for customers to tell which devices work with Matter’s unified system, with the logo set to appear on future hardware products.
Image: Connectivity Standards Alliance
The goal of Matter is deceptively simple: make sure you’re able to use your smart home devices with the voice assistant (or assistants) of choice, whether that’s Apple’s Siri / HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant. At launch, Matter will run on Ethernet Wi-Fi, Thread, and Bluetooth Low Energy.
Other big companies, like Philips Hue, are on board: the company has already promised to release a simple software update in the coming months that will make all of its past and present products compatible with Matter once it launches.
It’s an ambitious goal, which could vastly simplify the confusing parts of smart home setup — assuming companies are willing to put in the work to issue software updates and integrate the standard into their current and future products.
As part of the announcement, the Zigbee Alliance (which created the Zigbee standard for interconnected smart home gadgets) has announced that it’ll rename itself to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) as it expands to focus more on projects like Matter in addition to the existing Zigbee network.
SteelSeries has debuted its Rival 5 wired, right-handed gaming mouse that is available right now for $59.99. From a distance, the Rival 5 looks similar to the modular Rival 600, but this is a simpler and slightly more ergonomically friendly mouse. The overall shape of the device seems to have a softer curve, making it fit a little more comfortably for palm or fingertip grip users.
This mouse offers plenty of controls, starting with the primary mouse buttons, an RGB-backlit scroll wheel, and a DPI switcher. Two thumb buttons are near the concave thumb rest; they’re flanked by an interesting toggle bar that can be customized using SteelSeries’ software to execute an in-game command when you tilt it right or left. In addition, there’s a silver-colored side button that, in my brief testing, felt easy to reach and feel for in games. SteelSeries says this selection of buttons makes it adept for multiple gaming genres.
The Rival 5 weighs 85 grams and features the company’s TrueMove Air optical sensor — the same one found in 2020’s SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless and the Rival 3 Wireless. It’s also getting the main mouse switches that have an IP54 rating to protect against some water and dust; the company claims these can last for 80 million clicks.
At $59.99, this seems like a good, budget-friendly option for people looking for a versatile mouse. We’ll be testing it more in the near future to see how it compares to the best gaming mice of 2021.
ASRock’s Z590 Taichi is a well-rounded premium mid-range motherboard, with more-than-capable power delivery, Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, three M.2 sockets, Intel- and Killer-based networking, including Wi-Fi 6E.
For
+ Unique style
+ Killer 2.5 GbE and Wi-Fi 6E Networking
+ Robust 90A power delivery
+ 2x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports (40 Gbps)
Against
– Last gen audio codec
– Only eight rear USB ports
– PCIe 4.0 M.2 compatibility issues
Features and Specifications
The latest in a long line of Taichi boards, ASRock’s Z590 Taichi for Intel’s latest Rocket Lake CPUs includes improved power delivery, fast Killer-based networking, eight SATA ports, native PCIe 4.0 for the GPU and M.2 socket, and improved aesthetics. Landing at $459.99, this upper-midrange board may be out of range for some users. But if you want to spend this much, this is a feature-rich and capable Z590 board.
ASRock’s Z590 lineup is similar to the previous-generation Z490 product stack. At the time we wrote this, ASRock had 12 Z590 motherboards listed. At the top is Z590 Taichi, followed by the PG Velocita we’re looking at here, and three Phantom Gaming boards, including a Micro-ATX option. Additionally, there are two professional boards in the Z590 Pro4 and Z590M Pro4, two Steel Legend boards, two Extreme boards (also more on the budget end), and a Mini-ITX board rounds out the product stack. Between price, size, looks, and features, ASRock should have a board that works for everyone looking to dive headlong into Rocket Lake.
Performance testing on the Taichi went without a hitch, producing results aligned with the other tested boards. Game performance was on the slower side of things, but the meager difference will be tough to notice unless you’re benchmarking. The memory, which uses Gear 1 on the latest BIOS, is where the Taichi shined. That said, outside of the benchmarks, again you won’t notice the difference. Overall, the Taichi performed well compared to other tested Z590 boards.
The Z590 Taichi is a nice improvement over the previous Taichi, between the improved appearance and cool moving gear feature, it is one of the better-looking Z590 boards. But looks aren’t everything. The Taichi comes with two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports (40 Gbps), eight SATA ports, Killer-based Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5 GbE, and a graphics card support bar. We’ll check out these details and other features below. But first, here are the full specs from ASRock.
Specifications – ASRock Z590 Taichi
Socket
LGA 1200
Chipset
Z590
Form Factor
ATX
Voltage Regulator
14 Phase (12+2, 90A MOSFETs)
Video Ports
(1) HDMI (2.0)
(2) Thunderbolt 4
USB Ports
(2) USB 4.0 Thunderbolt 4 Type-C (40 GB/s)
(2) USB 3.2 Gen 2, Type-A (10 Gbps)
(3) USB 3.2 Gen 1, Type-A (5 Gbps)
Network Jacks
(2) 2.5 GbE and 1 GbE
Audio Jacks
(5) Analog + SPDIF
Legacy Ports/Jacks
✗
Other Ports/Jack
✗
PCIe x16
(3) v4.0 x16, (x16/x0/x0, x8/x8/x0, or x8/x8/x4 (PCIe 3.0)
Inside the box, along with the motherboard, you’ll find cables, the graphics support bar and even a second VRM fan and an additional bracket to add your own 40mm fan. The included accessories should get you up and running without having to scramble and head to the store. Below is a complete list of all included extras.
Support DVD / Quick installation Guide
Graphics card holder
Wi-Fi Antenna
(4) SATA cables
(3) Screw package for M.2 sockets
(3) Standoffs for M.2 sockets
Wireless dongle USB bracket
3010 Cooling Fan with bracket
4010 Cooling Fan bracket
Wireless dongle USB bracket
ASRock Screwdriver (Torx)
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(Image credit: ASRock)
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(Image credit: ASRock)
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(Image credit: ASRock)
After removing the Z590 Taichi from the box and setting it up, one of the first things I noticed was the addition of the moving gears above the IO area. During POST, the watch-like gears rotate, which gives this board a unique design aesthetic–although your system will need to be sitting at eye level with a clear side panel to notice this. The VRM heatsinks are connected via heatpipe and use active cooling (in the form of a small integrated fan) to keep temperatures in check. The bottom half of the matte-black, 8-layer PCB is covered in heatsinks and shrouds for the M.2 sockets.
You’ll find RGB lighting elements under the IO cover, chipset heatsink, and on the right edge of the board. The RGBs are bright and saturated, adding a significant glow from under the board. Control over the RGB is provided by ASRock’s Polychrome Sync software. In the end, the Z590 Taichi’s appearance has improved over the last generation and shouldn’t have issues fitting in with most build themes.
(Image credit: ASRock)
Focusing on the top half of the board and starting on the left side, we get a closer look at the unique gear design. The black half gear/counterweight slowly ticks when powering the board up and stops once POST completes. The cogwheel spins either clockwise or counterclockwise via a small motor. In the BIOS, you’re able to adjust the time between rotations (5/10/30/60 minute intervals and off). Although this is clearly a gimmick, it’s truly a unique design aesthetic. Just below this is the Taichi name lit up by RGB lighting.
The VRM heatsinks are large and actively cooled with a small fan hidden inside the left bank. Just above this are the two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) for powering the CPU. Just to the right of the socket area are the unreinforced DRAM slots. The board supports up to 128GB of RAM at speeds listed to DDR4 5000 when using an 11th generation CPU (lower with a 10th gen). Just above the DRAM slots is the first RGB header. In this case, it’s 3-pin ARGB.
Just to the right is the first 4-pin fan header. This particular header happens to be the Chassis/Water Pump connector and supports 2A/24W. The CPU fan headers are located mid-board above the first M.2 socket. The CPU connector supports up to 1A/12W, while the CPU_Fan2/WP3A supports 3A/36W. The rest of the connectors support up to 2A/24W. These headers have plenty of available power to connect your fans and water pump, without overloading the board.
Making our way down the right edge, we find the 24-pin ATX connector for board power, two front-panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers (one vertical, the other horizontal) and the front-panel USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C header. Last, in white, is the first 3-pin RGB header.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Z590 Taichi sports a 12-phase VRM setup for the CPU. The 8-pin EPS connector(s) send power to the Renesas ISL69269 12-channel (X+Y+Z=12) controller, then on to six ISL6617A phase doublers. Last but not least is the 12 90A Renesas ISL99390B Smart power stages. This configuration supports up to 1080A for the CPU, which is plenty for stock and overclocked operation, including extreme (read: sub-ambient) overclocking. The power delivery on this board will not get in your way. Again, this board also includes an additional fan for the VRM. After testing without it, we chose not to use it as there wasn’t a need and it would only increase the noise profile, which was quiet without it. Temperatures were well within operating range throughout all testing.
(Image credit: ASRock)
Moving down to the bottom half of the board, we’ll again start on the left side with audio. Hidden below a plastic shroud is the Realtek ALX1220 codec – a last-generation flagship solution. I would like to have seen the latest generation codec (not that most will notice the difference) for this price. We can also see the audio separation line from the other parts of the board and the red WIMA audio caps. The Taichi also includes an ESS ES9218 Sabre DAC supporting up to 600 Ohm headphones and 130dB SNR.
In the middle of the board are three full-length, reinforced PCIe slots along with a single x1 size slot. Between them are heatsinks for the three M.2 sockets and shrouds covering the board. When using an 11th gen CPU, the top two PCIe slots support PCIe 4.0 speeds. The top PCIe slot runs at x16 while the second slot runs at a maximum of x8 — both are CPU connected. The bottom full-length slot is connected to the chipset and runs at PCIe 3.0 x4. The board supports AMD Quad CrossfireX, 3-Way CrossFireX and CrossfireX. No mention of NVIDIA SLI, even though the board is wired to support it.
On the M.2 storage front, the Taichi includes three sockets. The top M2_1 is the Hyper socket (PCIe 4.0 x4, 64 Gbps) and supports 80mm PCIe-based modules. M2_2 supports both SATA and PCIe modules up to PCIe 3.0 x4 (32 Gbps), up to 80mm long. The bottom socket, M2_3, supports 110mm SATA or PCIe modules up to PCIe 3.0 x4. M2_2 shares lanes with SATA port 0/1. If either one is in use, the others are disabled. M2_3 shares lanes with SATA ports 4/5 and the bottom PCIe slot. If either is in use, the others will be disabled. You can have three M.2 devices and up to 4 SATA ports running concurrently.
Note, though, that I had trouble with the PCIe 4.0-based Phison drive we use for testing. Using the latest BIOS, version 1.63 for me, the top M.2 socket that runs PCIe 4.0 doesn’t recognize the drive. The Phison storage drive works just fine on all of the other PCIe 3.0 sockets and other boards’ PCIe 4.0 M.2 sockets. We’re not sure if this is limited to the Phison drives, as they are the only PCIe 4.0 M.2 drives I have in-house. We’ve let ASRock know and they are working on the issue. It’s likely that a BIOS update will resolve this problem.
Finally, to the right of the PCIe slots and M.2 sockets is the chipset heatsink. Here we get a close look at the unique pattern found on the heatsinks. It’s almost like a rough wood grain type of finish, quite unique. To the right of it are the eight SATA ports, two of them managed by an ASMedia ASM1061 controller, with the rest connected to the southbridge. Just below are two more fan headers. The included GPU support bracket mounts in this area to the ATX screw holes in the middle and bottom of the board. This is a nice value-add in these days of huge and heavy cards. Now if only ASRock could do something about how much modern high-end cards weigh on our wallets.
Across the board’s bottom are several headers, including more USB ports, fan headers and more. Below is the complete list, from left to right:
Front-panel audio
RGB and ARGB headers
(2) Chassis fan headers
Clear CMOS jumper
TPM
(2) USB 2.0 headers
Dr. Debug LED
Reset/Power buttons
Clear CMOS button
Temperature sensor, water flow headers
Front panel header
(Image credit: ASRock)
Looking at the rear IO, we see the pre-attached IO plate matches the colors and design theme of the rest of the board. One thing that jumps out is the 5-plug plus SPDIF audio stack’s location: It sits in the middle. Typically this is on the right edge/bottom, but in most cases the odd placement shouldn’t be a cause for concern. From left to right, we have the BIOS Flashback button to flash the bios without a CPU, the Wi-Fi antenna connections and an HDMI (v2.0) port for the integrated video. Next are two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and the audio stack mentioned above.
On the networking front, the Intel-based Ethernet port is black, while the Killer 2.5 GbE port is blue. Below those are two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports. At the bottom are two Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C ports that support up to 40 Gbps throughput. They also double as additional video outputs. Curiously, these aren’t labeled as Thunderbolt here. On the far right are the last two USB ports that run at USB 3.2 Gen 1 speeds.
Linux Torvalds has announced availability of Linux kernel 5.13 release candidate that adds preliminary support for Apple’s M1 system-on-chip along with a number of improvements to the operating system itself, reports 9to5Linux.com.
The most interesting addition to Linux kernel 5.13 is preliminary support for Apple’s M1 SoC, something that developers have been working on for months now. While Linux does support Arm and can run on various SoCs such as the Raspberry Pi, Apple’s M1 is considerably different from other processors, so making Linux run on this chip was a tough challenge.
At this point Linux 5.13-RC1 can boot on an M1-based system, but does not support all features of the SoC. For example, GPU support is still not even half-baked.
“This is just basic bring-up, but it lays a solid foundation and is probably the most challenging up-streaming step we’ll have to do, at lease until the GPU stuff is done,” said Hector Martin, a software developer, reports The Register.
Availability of Linux kernel 5.13-RC1 means that the Linux development community finds that the new build is almost ready for release, with an anticipated final release due in June / July.
“This was – as expected – a fairly big merge window, but things seem to have proceeded fairly smoothly,” wrote Torvalds in a description of the new Linux kernel version. “There’s a lot in there. […] It’s all over the place, although GPU and networking stands out. […] Outside of drivers, it’s a bit of everything: arch updates (Arm, x86 and PowerPC dominate), documentation, tooling, and obviously all the expected core kernel stuff: file systems, process handling, VM, and core networking.”
In addition to Apple’s M1, the new Linux kernel 5.13-RC1 features improved support for Arm’s Zen 3 microarchitecture, the latest Arm-based SoCs for servers, and the RISC-V architecture.
HP’s ZBook workstations are designed primarily with creators and enterprise users in mind. Two of the three new ZBook G8 laptops announced today — the ZBook Fury G8 and the Power G8 — should serve those crowds nicely. But the 15.6-inch Studio G8 is the oddball of the group for a very obvious reason, and I love it so much. It’s a work laptop, yet it has an RGB-backlit keyboard.
It has this colorful keyboard for the reason you might expect: HP apparently hopes you might also want to do some gaming on it. The laptop can be configured with some seriously high-end components, like Intel’s newly-announced 11th Gen H-series Core i7 and Core i9 processors, going up to a Core i9-11950H vPro (2.6GHz base clock, 5GHz boost clock) processor. Impressively, it can house all of that power in a chassis that weighs less than four pounds.
The colors can be customized in HP’s Omen gaming hub software.HP
The Studio G8 should shine in the graphics department as well, because it’s configurable with the variant of the Nvidia RTX 3080 that can contain up to 16GB of video memory, currently the most powerful mobile GPU available. Though if you’re concerned more with creative workflows than gaming, opting for the Nvidia RTX A5000 GPU intended for professionals might be the smarter choice.
The ZBook Studio G8 ships with a 1080p IPS display by default, but it can be upgraded to a 4K IPS screen with a 120Hz refresh rate that has 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut; you can also opt for a 4K OLED touchscreen. One other unexpected gaming-focused feature this laptop has is an HDMI 2.1 port, which allows certain configurations of the Studio G8 to display 4K resolution at up to 120 frames per second on external monitors or TVs that allow it.
Would I recommend the ZBook Studio G8 over any newer gaming laptops? Likely not, but it’s tough to say, since we don’t know the price. HP says it plans to release this particular model in July and will share the price closer to that time. The company also says that certain configurations with consumer-grade RTX 30-series GPUs may launch in the second half of 2021. HP’s other ZBook G8 models, the ZBook Power G8 and ZBook Fury G8, will launch this summer.
Intel introduced its long-awaited eight-core Tiger Lake-H H35 chips for laptops today, vying for a spot on our best gaming laptop list and marking Intel’s first shipping eight-core 10nm chips for the consumer market. These new 11th-generation chips, which Intel touts as the ‘World’s best gaming laptop processors,’ come as the company faces unprecedented challenges in the laptop market — not only is it contending with AMD’s increasingly popular 7nm Ryzen “Renoir” chips, but perhaps more importantly, Intel is also now playing defense against Apple’s innovative new Arm-based M1 that powers its new MacBooks.
The halo eight-core 16-thread Core i9-11980HK peaks at 5.0 GHz on two cores, fully supports overclocking, and despite its official 65W TDP, can consume up to 110W under heavy load. Additionally, Intel has also added limited overclocking support in the form of a speed optimizer and unlocked memory settings for three of the ‘standard’ eight-core models.
As with Intel’s lower-power Tiger Lake chips, the eight-core models come fabbed on the company’s 10nm SuperFin process and feature Willow Cove execution cores paired with the UHD Graphics 750 engine with the Xe Architecture. These chips will most often be paired with a discrete graphics solution, from Nvidia or AMD. We have coverage of a broad selection of new systems, including from Alienware, Lenovo, MSI, Dell, Acer, HP, and Razer.
All told, Intel claims that the combination of the new CPU microarchitecture and process node offers up to 19% higher IPC, which naturally results in higher performance potential in both gaming and applications. That comes with a bit of a caveat, though — while Intel’s previous-gen eight-core 14nm laptop chips topped out at 5.3 GHz, Tiger Lake-H maxes out at 5.0 GHz. Intel says the higher IPC throws the balance towards even higher performance regardless of 10nm’s lower clock speed.
The new Tiger Lake-H models arrive in the wake of Intel’s quad-core H35 models that operate at 35W for a new ‘Ultraportable’ laptop segment that caters to gamers on the go. However, Intel isn’t using H45 branding for its eight-core Tiger Lake chips, largely because it isn’t marking down 45W on the spec sheet. We’ll cover what that confusing bit of information means below. The key takeaway is that these chips can operate anywhere from 35W to 65W. As usual, Intel’s partners aren’t required to (and don’t) specify the actual power consumption on the laptop or packaging.
Aside from the addition of more cores, a new system agent (more on that shortly), and more confusing branding, the eight-core Tiger Lake-H chips come with a well-known feature set that includes the same amenities, like PCIe 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, and support for Resizable Bar, as their quad-core Tiger Lake predecessors. These chips also mark the debut of the first eight-core laptop lineup that supports PCIe 4.0, as AMD’s competing platforms remain on the PCIe 3.0 connection. Intel also announced five new vPro H-series models with the same specifications as the consumer models but with features designed for the professional market.
Intel says the new Tiger Lake-H chips will come to market in 80 new designs (15 of these are for the vPro equivalents), with the leading devices available for preorder on May 11 and shipping on May 17. Surprisingly, Intel says that it has shipped over 1 million eight-core Tiger Lake chips to its partners before the first devices have even shipped to customers, showing that the company fully intends to leverage its production heft while its competitors, like AMD, continue to grapple with shortages. Intel also plans to keep its current fleet of 10th-Gen Comet Lake processors on the market for the foreseeable future to address the lower rungs of the market, so its 14nm chips will still ship in volume.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Specifications
Processor Number
Base / Boost
Cores / Threads
L3 Cache
Memory
Core i9-11980HK
2.6 / 5.0
8 / 16
24 MB
DDR4-2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
3.3 / 4.6
8 / 16
16 MB
DDR4-3200 / LPDDR4x-4266
Core i9-10980HK
2.4 / 5.3
8 / 16
16 MB
DDR4-2933
Core i7-11375H Special Edition (H35)
3.3 / 5.0
4 / 8
12 MB
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-4266
Core i9-11900H
2.5 / 4.9
8 / 16
24 MB
DDR4-2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
Core i7-10875H
2.3 / 5.1
8 / 16
16 MB
DDR4-2933
Core i7-11800H
2.3 / 4.6
8 / 16
24M
DDR4-2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
Core i5-11400H
2.7 / 4.5
6 / 12
12 MB
2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
Ryzen 9 5900HS
3.0 / 4.6
8 / 16
4 MB
DDR4-3200 / LPDDR4x-4266
Core i5-10400H
2.6 / 4.6
4 / 8
8 MB
DDR4-2933
Intel’s eight-core Tiger Lake-H takes plenty of steps forward — it’s the only eight-core laptop platform with PCIe 4.0 connectivity and hardware support for AVX-512, but it also takes steps back in a few areas.
Although Intel just released 40-core 10nm Ice Lake server chips, we’ve never seen the 10nm process ship with more than four cores for the consumer market, largely due to poor yields and 10nm’s inability to match the high clock rates of Intel’s mature 14nm chips. We expected the 10nm SuperFin process to change that paradigm, but as we see in the chart above, the flagship Core i9-11980HK tops out at 5.0 GHz on two cores, just like the quad-core Tiger Lake i7-11375H Special Edition. Intel uses its Turbo Boost 3.0, which targets threads at the fastest cores, to hit the 5.0 GHz threshold.
However, both chips pale in comparison to the previous-gen 14nm Core i9-10980HK that delivers a beastly 5.3 GHz on two cores courtesy of the Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) tech that allows the chip to boost higher if it is under a certain temperature threshold. Curiously, Intel doesn’t offer TVB on the new Tiger Lake processors.
Intel says that it tuned 10nm Tiger Lake’s frequency for the best spot on the voltage/frequency curve to maximize both performance and battery life, but it’s obvious that process maturity also weighs in here. Intel offsets Tiger Lake’s incrementally lower clock speeds with the higher IPC borne of the Willow Cove microarchitecture that delivers up to 12% higher IPC in single-threaded and 19% higher IPC in multi-threaded applications. After those advances, Intel says the Tiger Lake chips end up faster than their prior-gen counterparts. Not to mention AMD’s competing Renoir processors.
Intel’s Core i9-11980HK peaks at 110W (PL2) and is a fully overclockable chip — you can adjust the core, graphics, and memory frequency at will. We’ll cover the power consumption, base clock, and TDP confusion in the following section.
Intel has also now added support for limited overclocking on the Core i7-11800H, i9-11900H, and the i9-11950. The memory settings on these three chips are fully unlocked, although with a few caveats we’ll list below, so you can overclock the memory at will. Intel also added support for its auto-tuning Speed Optimizer software. When enabled, this software boosts performance in multi-threaded work, but single-core frequencies are unimpacted.
Intel also made some compromises on the memory front, too. First, the memory controllers no longer support LPDDR4X. Instead, they top out at DDR4-3200, and that’s actually not the case for most of the 11th-Gen lineup, at least if you want the chip to run in the fastest configuration.
The eight-core Tiger Lake die comes with the System Agent Geyersville just like the Rocket Lake desktop chips. That means the company has brought Gear 1 and Gear 2 memory modes to laptops. The optimal setting is called ‘Gear 1’ and it signifies that the memory controller and memory operate at the same frequency (1:1), thus providing the lowest latency and best performance in lightly-threaded work, like gaming. All of the Tiger Lake chips reach up to DDR4-2933 in this mode.
Tiger Lake-H does officially support DDR4-3200, but only with the ‘Gear 2’ setting that allows the memory to operate at twice the frequency of the memory controller (2:1), resulting in higher data transfer rates. This can benefit some threaded workloads but also results in higher latency that can lead to reduced performance in some applications — particularly gaming. We have yet to see a situation where Gear 2 makes much sense for enthusiasts/gamers.
Intel also dialed back the UHD Graphics engine with Xe Architecture for the eight-core H-Series models to 32 execution units (EU), which makes sense given that this class of chip will often be paired with discrete graphics from either AMD or Nvidia. And possibly Intel’s own fledgling DG1, though we have yet to see any configurations yet. For comparison, the quad-core H35 Core i9 and i7 models come equipped with 96 EUs, while the Core i5 variant comes with 80 EUs.
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This is Not The Tiger Lake H45 You’re Looking for – More TDP Confusion
As per usual with Intel’s recent laptop chip launches, there’s a bit of branding confusion. The company’s highest-end eight-core laptop chips previously came with an “H45” moniker to denote that these chips have a recommended 45W TDP. But you won’t find that designation with Intel’s new H-Series chips, this even though the quad-core 35W laptop chips that Intel introduced at CES this year come with the H35 designation. In fact, Intel also won’t list a specific TDP on the spec sheet for the eight-core Tiger Lake-H chips. Instead, it will label the H-series models as ’35W to 65W’ for the official TDP.
That’s problematic because Intel measures its TDP at the base frequency, so a lack of a clear TDP rating means there’s no concrete base frequency specification. We know that the PL2, or power consumed during boost, tops out at 110W, but due to the TDP wonkiness, there’s no official PL1 rating (base clock).
That’s because Intel, like AMD, gives OEMs the flexibility to configure the TDP (cTDP) to higher or lower ranges to accommodate the specific power delivery, thermal dissipation, and battery life accommodations of their respective designs. For instance, Intel’s previous-gen 45W parts have a cTDP range that spans from 35W to 65W.
This practice provides OEMs with wide latitude for customization, which is a positive. After all, we all want thinner and faster devices. However, Intel doesn’t compel manufacturers to clearly label their products with the actual TDP they use for the processor, or even list it in the product specifications. That can be very misleading — there’s a 30W delta between the lowest- and highest-performance configurations of the same chip with no clear method of telling what you’re purchasing at the checkout lane. There really is no way to know which Intel is inside.
Intel measures its TDP rating at the chip’s base clock (PL1), so the Tiger Lake-H chips will have varying base clocks that reflect their individual TDP… that isn’t defined. Intel’s spec table shows base clocks at both 45W and 35W, but be aware that this can be a sliding scale. For instance, you might purchase a 40W laptop that lands in the middle range.
As per usual, Intel’s branding practice leaves a lot to be desired. Eliminating the H45 branding and going with merely the ‘H-Series’ for the 35W to 65W eight cores simply adds more confusion because the quad-core H35 chips are also H-Series chips, and there’s no clear way to delineate the two families other than specifying the core count.
Intel is arguably taking the correct path here: It is better to specify that the chips can come in any range of TDPs rather than publish blatantly misleading numbers. However, the only true fix for the misleading mess created by configurable TDPs is to require OEMs to list the power rating directly on the device, or at least on the spec sheet.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Die
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(Image credit: Intel – Tiger Lake-H Die)
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(Image credit: Tiger Lake-U (@Locuza_ via Twitter))
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(Image credit: Intel – Comet Lake-H Die)
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The eight-core H-series chip package comes with a 10nm die paired with a 14nm PCH. The first slide in the above album shows the Tiger Lake die (more deep-dive info here) that Intel says measures 190mm2, which is much larger than the estimated 146.1mm2 die found on the quad-core models (second image). We also included a die shot of the eight-core Comet Lake-H chip (third image).
We’ll have to wait for a proper die annotation of the Tiger Lake-H chip, but we do know that it features a vastly cut-down UHD Graphics 750 engine compared to the quad-core Tiger Lake models (32 vs 96 EUs) and a much larger L3 cache (24 vs 16MB).
The Tiger Lake die supports 20 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, with 16 lanes exposed for graphics, though those can also be carved into 2×8, 1×8, or 2×4 connections to accommodate more PCIe 4.0 additives, like additional M.2 SSDs. Speaking of which, the chip also supports a direct x4 PCIe 4.0 connection for a single M.2 SSD.
Intel touts that you can RAID several M.2 SSDs together through its Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) and use them to boot the machine. This feature has been present on prior-gen laptop platforms, but Tiger Lake-H marks the debut for this feature with a PCIe 4.0 connection on a laptop.
The PCH provides all of the basic connectivity features (last slide). The Tiger Lake die and PCH communicate over a DMI x8 bus, and the chipset supports an additional 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes that can be carved up for additional features. For more fine-grained details of the Tiger Lake architecture, head to our Intel’s Tiger Lake Roars to Life: Willow Cove Cores, Xe Graphics, Support for LPDDR5, and Intel’s Path Forward: 10nm SuperFin Technology, Advanced Packaging Roadmap articles for more details.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Gaming Benchmarks
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Intel provided the benchmarks above to show the gen-on-gen performance improvements in gaming, and the performance improvement relative to competing AMD processors. As always, approach vendor-provided benchmarks with caution, as they typically paint the vendors’ devices in the best light possible. We’ve included detailed test notes at the end of the article, and Intel says it will provide comparative data against Apple M1 systems soon.
As expected, Intel shows that the Core i9-11980HK provides solid generational leads over the prior-gen Core i9-10980HK, with the deltas spanning from 15% to 21% in favor of the newer chip.
Then there are the comparisons to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, with Intel claiming leads in titles like War Thunder, Total War: Three Kingdoms, and Hitman 3, along with every other hand-picked title in the chart.
Intel tested the 11980HK in an undisclosed OEM pre-production system with an RTX 3080 set at a 155W threshold, while the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX resided in a Lenovo Legion R9000K with an RTX 3080 dialed in at 165W. Given that we don’t know anything about the OEM system used for Intel’s benchmarks, like cooling capabilities, and that the company didn’t list the TDP for either chip, take these benchmarks with a shovelful of salt.
Intel also provided benchmarks with the Core i5-11400H against the Ryzen 9 5900HS, again claiming that its eight-core chips for thin-and-lights offer the best performance. However, here we can see that the Intel chip loses in three of the four benchmarks, but Intel touts that its “Intel Sample System” is a mere 16.5mm thick, while the 5900HS rides in an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 that measures 18mm thick at the front and 20mm thick at the rear.
Intel’s message here is that it can provide comparable gaming performance in thinner systems, but there’s not enough information, like battery life or other considerations, to make any real type of decision off this data.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Application Benchmarks
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Here we can see Intel’s benchmarks for applications, too, but the same rules apply — we’ll need to see these benchmarks in our own test suite before we’re ready to claim any victors. Also, be sure to read the test configs in the slides below for more details.
Intel’s 11th-Gen Tiger Lake brings support for AVX-512 and the DL Boost deep learning suite, so Intel hand-picks benchmarks that leverage those features. As such, the previous-gen Comet Lake-H comparable is hopelessly hamstrung in the Video Creation Workflow and Photo Processing benchmarks.
We can say much the same about the comparison benchmarks with the Ryzen 9 5900HX. As a result of Intel’s insistence on using AI-enhanced benchmarks, these benchmarks are largely useless for real-world comparisons: The overwhelming majority of software doesn’t leverage either AI or AVX-512, and it will be several years before we see broad uptake.
As noted, Intel says the new Tiger Lake-H chips will come to market in 80 new designs (15 of these are for the vPro equivalents), with the leading devices available for preorder on May 11 and shipping on May 17. As you can imagine, we’ll also have reviews coming soon. Stay tuned.
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