Alienware m17 R4 Review: The Fastest Gaming Laptop Yet

Just a few months ago, we reviewed the Alienware m15 R4, a seriously powerful 15.6-inch form factor laptop that, at the time, posted the best gaming performance benchmark results we had ever seen from a notebook. Not that we were particularly surprised—armed with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU based on Ampere and a 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10870H CPU (Comet Lake) CPU, it packs some serious artillery. Well, we've now tested an even faster gaming laptop, and it just so happens to be the 17-inch Alienware m17 R4. Call it sibling rivalry, if you wish, but the bigger 17.3-inch brother to...

Best Chromebooks Of 2021: Acer, ASUS And Lenovo Go Head To Head

by Brandon Hill - Fri, Jun 11, 2021

Check Out These Great Chromebook Options From Some Of The Most Trusted Names In Computing Unless you've been living under a rock, you already know that the Chromebook market is red hot at the moment. The COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp increase in demand for cheap computing devices from everyday consumers and school systems has led to a significant surge in Chromebook adoption. With this in mind, we decided to pull together a roundup of three current-generation Chromebooks that cover a broad pricing spectrum from Lenovo, ASUS, and Acer. Our Video Deep-Dive Of Chromebook Contenders Lenovo Duet Convertible...

ASUS Zenfone 8 Review: The Tiny But Mighty Android

by Myriam Joire - Thu, Jun 03, 2021

Most of you are likely familiar with ASUS’ extensive line of PCs and related components, including ASUS’ ROG gaming products. You’ve probably also seen our ASUS ROG Phone 5 benchmarks, which showcase this incredibly fast gaming phone. But let's not forget that ASUS has also been making innovative non-gaming handsets for years. In fact, the Zenfone series was first to introduce both the periscope camera and the flip camera to market. This year ASUS decided to launch two Android flagships, the €799 Zenfone 8 Flip, which continues the flip camera lineage, and the US bound €599...

AMD Radeon RX 6800M Rips Benchmarks In Powerful All-AMD ASUS Gaming Laptop

by Marco Chiappetta - Mon, May 31, 2021

During her Computex 2021 keynote this evening, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su, along with compatriots Frank Azor and Scott Herkleman, revealed a number of the company’s new products an initiatives, targeting the server, desktop and mobile markets. For gamers, perhaps the most enticing announcement was the revelation of AMD's Radeon RX 6000M series of mobile GPUs. Though Dr. Su had mentioned that mobile RDNA 2-based Radeons were inbound back at CES earlier this year, it wasn’t until today that the actual line-up with specs, speeds and feeds was announced. The flagship product in the Radeon RX 6000M...

Intel Expands Tiger Lake-U Laptop Line-Up, Teases Vicious Beast Canyon NUC

by Ben Funk - Sun, May 30, 2021

Computex might be a virtual online-only show this year, but you should expect some big announcements from many of the heavy hitters in tech. The virtual show kicks off May 31 at 7:30 AM local time in Taipei, which translates to 10:30 PM Eastern on Sunday the 30th in the U.S. While there will undoubtedly be a ton of announcements over the next few days coming out of the show, we do have some early news tonight from Intel, to get the show started. Intel hosted a press and analyst Performance Workshop, and has lifted the curtain on how it's expanding the Tiger Lake product lineup, with a few new point...

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 Review: Ultralight Greatness

by Dave Altavilla - Thu, May 27, 2021

Lenovo's venerable ThinkPad X1 Carbon has been one of the longest-running of the company's trusted business-class laptop series. Now in its 9th generation, Lenovo sought to re-energize the X1 Carbon not only with Intel 11th Gen Core Series processors (Tiger Lake), but with Intel Evo certification that brings with it a number of key refinements. The machine that we have on tap for review here today also includes an impressive new 16:10 format UHD+ (3840X2400) display. Though the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 retains its unmistakably classic and understated hybrid carbon fiber weave and magnesium alloy...

Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review: Zen 3 Laptop Invasion

by Ben Funk - Thu, May 20, 2021

Over the last eight months or so, segment by segment, AMD's various Zen 3-based processors have taken the world by storm. High performance servers, desktops, and notebooks all feature AMD's flagship silicon, thanks in no small part to its excellent perf-per-watt and strong overall value proposition. That dynamic really started in 2020, but we could sense a bit of hesitancy on the part of manufacturers with last year's Ryzen 4000 series gaming notebooks, since those topped out with midrange graphics. This year, though, the kid gloves have come off and higher-end graphics options have been made available. ...

Intel Core i9-11980HK Preview: 8-Core Tiger Lake-H Unleashed

by Marco Chiappetta - Mon, May 17, 2021

Last week, Intel officially unveiled its Tiger Lake-H45 based H-Series 11th Gen Core processor line-up, for high-performance gaming laptops and mobile workstations. The flagship consumer processor in the family is the Core i9-11980HK. The Core i9-11980HK is an 8-core / 16-thread processor, with a base clock of 2.6GHz and maximum turbo clock of 5GHz on one or two cores, when Intel’s Turbo Boost technology kicks in. The Core i9-11980HK supports DDR4 memory at speeds up to 3,200MHz, but this particular “HK” processor is also fully unlocked and overclockable via Intel’s XTU...

Intel 11th Gen Core H45 Tiger Lake-H CPUs Launch To Push Laptop Performance Envelope

by Marco Chiappetta - Tue, May 11, 2021

In early January, Intel officially announced its Tiger Lake-H mobile platform. For those that missed it, Tiger Lake-H is the foundation of the 11th Gen H-Series mobile processors. Like mainstream 11th Gen mobile processors, Tiger Lake-H is based on the 10nm Tiger Lake architecture, but Intel upped the ante with the H-series in terms of performance and features, and also pushed the form factor envelope. In addition to traditional gaming notebook form factors, Intel boasted that the new 11th Gen Core H-Series Tiger Lake-H processors would appear in high-performance gaming laptops as thin as 16.4mm,...

EVGA XR1 Review: Full-Featured High Quality Stream Capture

by Chris Goetting - Fri, May 07, 2021

HDMI capture cards, or HDMI capture devices, are extremely valuable tools with a wide variety of uses. As the description implies, these devices allow virtually any HDMI feed to be routed through them to be captured by a computer. The HDMI inputs on capture devices can be used with game consoles, video cameras, or even another computer -- just about any HDMI video source. This signal can then be encoded on the fly for a livestream, recorded for preservation, or both simultaneously. Most capture cards also allow for an HDMI output which passes a signal through the device, directly to a display with...

HP ZBook Fury 15 G7 Review: A Potent Mobile Workstation

by Ben Funk - Tue, May 04, 2021

Normally when people think of "business-class laptops" they envision moderately powerful systems that handle office productivity tasks and web browsing duties with plenty of performance to keep employees productive, but without frivolous cost-adding features. On the flip side, workstations conjure images of tremendously powerful beasts with all the right kinds of excess: plenty of cores, tons of memory, and high-end professional graphics with certified drivers for powerful, mission-critical applications. Somewhere in the middle is the mobile workstation market, where hybrid laptops like the HP...

Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable Review: Eclipsing Surface Pro

by Ben Funk - Tue, Apr 27, 2021

The detachable hybrid 2-in-1 laptop category may sound somewhat exotic, but these convertible tablet PCs aren't exactly a new thing. Hybrid devices with keyboard docks -- either first-party or made by other manufacturers -- are available that run Android, iPad OS, and of course Windows 10. Perhaps the most well-known detachable hybrids are from Microsoft's long-running Surface Pro family, including the x86-powered Surface Pro 7 and Arm64-equipped Surface Pro X. Dell is now throwing its latest entrant into this arena with the new Latitude 7320 Detachable.  At a quick glance, the Latitude 7320...

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 Review: A Mighty Zen 3 Gaming Laptop

by Ben Funk - Wed, Apr 21, 2021

At CES 2020, ASUS unveiled the ROG Zephyrus G14, which as its name implies is a 14" gaming notebook. It was our first experience with Zen 2-based APUs from AMD, particularly the 35-Watt Ryzen 9 4900HS. That processor had eight cores with AMD's best CPU architecture at the time, and despite the thin design and tight thermal budget of the G14, the performance of both the Ryzen APU and the included GeForce RTX 2060 with Max-Q really knocked our socks off. The system was relatively light, possessed performance that far exceeded its weight class, and was quite eye-catching with its unique, perforated...

OnePlus Watch Review: A Great First Effort In Need Of Polish

by Myriam Joire - Tue, Apr 13, 2021

Last month, OnePlus launched its OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro flagships, which we recently reviewed. At the same time, it also announced the OnePlus 9R (a reworked Snapdragon 870-equipped OnePlus 8T for India and China) and the $159 OnePlus Watch. This didn’t come as much of a surprise considering rumors of a OnePlus smartwatch have been swirling for years. It even looks similar to the Watch RX that its partner company Oppo teased last year. Before we dive into reviewing the OnePlus Watch, we have to set clear expectations. This device doesn’t compete directly with the Apple Watch, Galaxy Watch,...

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Review: A Petite Premium Powerhouse

by Nathan Ord - Thu, Apr 08, 2021

Lenovo's flagship ThinkPad X1 lineup has historically been one of our favorite business-class laptop product lines. Lenovo made a quick transition recently, and upgraded this popular laptop series with Intel's 11th Gen Tiger Lake processors that roared onto the scene with a nice performance lift and useful platform updates late last year. Besides the platform upgrade though, Lenovo also pulled a proverbial rabbit out of its hat when it dropped Tiger Lake into the thin and light 1.99lb ThinkPad X1 Nano. The performance-per-pound ratio of this machine should prove impressive and make for a solid,...

HP Spectre X360 13 (2021) Review: Gem-Cut Beauty Of A Laptop

by Paul Lilly - Fri, Mar 26, 2021

As time goes on, more laptops built around Intel's Evo platform are emerging, bringing with them a combination of specifications and features that meet or exceed specific baseline criteria for performance, battery life, connectivity, and a few other bits. These common threads weave through Intel's Tiger Lake silicon with Xe graphics, which are key cogs in the Evo machine. HP's latest refresh of its Spectre X360 13 for 2021 is one of those laptops, blending luxury styling with Intel's newest generation CPUs and graphics, and the result is an absolutely gorgeous convertible with plenty of zip. The...

OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro Review: Great 5G Flagships With A Catch

by Myriam Joire - Tue, Mar 23, 2021

By now, you’ve read the leaks, rumors, buzz and hype. The OnePlus 9 series is finally here, and as always, there’s a lot to talk about. 2020 saw OnePlus launch three flagships, the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro in the spring, and the 8T (basically an updated OnePlus 8) in the fall. But OnePlus also went down-market with three more handsets last year -- the mid-range Nord and the affordable Nord N10 5G and N100. If that seems like a lot of devices, it is -- not to mention the TVs, earbuds, and watch. OnePlus is basically following Oppo’s playbook. And after years of obviously sharing tech,...

Xiaomi Mi 11 Review: A Loaded, Value-Priced Android Flagship

by Myriam Joire - Fri, Mar 19, 2021

If you’re a regular HotHardware reader, or live outside the US, you’re probably somewhat familiar with Chinese giant Xiaomi. The company makes and sells a wide variety of consumer electronics from smartphones (branded Mi, RedMi, Poco, and CC), to electric scooters. It keeps prices low by subsidizing its products in several markets (like China and India) via online services -- much like Amazon does here in the US. Today, Xiaomi ranks number three in global smartphone market share. Its latest flagship, the $750 / €750 Mi 11, was the first handset to feature Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon...

Behold The Sweet Rock Pi X Powered Serene Screen Aquarium And How To Build One

by Colton Westrate - Thu, Mar 11, 2021

Some may think it strange to design and build an entire PC and custom enclosure dedicated to running a 20-year-old screensaver, but I can explain. Retro computing fans and well-seasoned enthusiasts may remember that the superlative Defender of the Crown first hit the Amiga in 1986. Four years old at the time, and eight years away from getting my first PC, I had no idea what I was missing. I figured it out a few years and a couple of computers later though, when I stumbled upon the Serene Screen Marine Aquarium. This classic screensaver from the late 90s was created by the legendary artist of Defender...

ASUS ROG Phone 5 Benchmarks: The Mightiest Android Yet

by Dave Altavilla - Wed, Mar 10, 2021

The ASUS ROG Phone family has always been synonymous with squeezing the most performance out the Android smartphone platform and more specifically Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile processing platforms. If you've been keeping tabs on the ROG phone line-up, you're probably aware that ASUS recently unveiled its 5th gen ROG Phone 5, and it's based on Qualcomm's powerful new Snapdragon 888 mobile SoC. With big gains claimed in both standard compute and graphics workloads, versus Qualcomm's previous gen Snapdragon 865, the ASUS ROG Phone 5 provides for an interesting vehicle to look at what should prove...

Samsung Galaxy S21 5G Review: Packed With Features And Value

by Dave Altavilla - Thu, Feb 11, 2021

When Samsung first introduced its new Galaxy S21 5G line-up, the company took a similar good, better, best approach to its previous generation launch. Like the Galaxy S20, the new Galaxy S21 lineup consists of a base device, a mid-tier device and a top-end model, though all of them can be considered "flagship" phones among Samsung's large and varied handset product offerings. However, for the Galaxy S21 launch, it was clear that Samsung was more focused on value at all tiers this time around, with pricing starting at $799 and topping out $1199 for the Galaxy S21 Ultra, representing a $200...

Alienware m15 R4 Review: A GeForce RTX 30 Series Invasion

by Ben Funk - Tue, Jan 26, 2021

Alienware's m15 series of notebooks has typically impressed us, thanks to the family's performance and unique good looks in a relatively svelte mobile package. Performance always hinges upon having the latest platform hardware, so perhaps it's no surprise that the laptop we're looking at today has one of NVIDIA's latest mobile Ampere GPUs on board from its new GeForce RTX 30 family. When NVIDIA pulled the lid off mobile Ampere, it made some pretty big promises. Performance across the Ampere lineup that spans from RTX 3060 to 3080 should be faster than NVIDIA's previous mobile powerhouse, the...

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