Apple : Best gaming laptops 2019: the 10 top gaming laptops we've reviewed |
- Best gaming laptops 2019: the 10 top gaming laptops we've reviewed
- The best Windows tablets 2019: all of the top Windows tablets reviewed
- The best 13-inch laptop 2019: the top 13-inch laptops we've reviewed
- The best Ultrabooks 2019: top thin and light laptops reviewed
- The best Chromebooks 2019
- The best 2-in-1 laptop 2019: find the best convertible laptop for your needs
- The best laptop 2019: our pick of the 15 best laptops you can buy this year
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| Best gaming laptops 2019: the 10 top gaming laptops we've reviewed Posted: 12 Apr 2019 01:18 PM PDT If you're looking for the best gaming laptop of 2019, then you've come to the right place, as on this page we've listed the top gaming notebooks no matter what your budget is. A lot has changed in the last few years, and gaming laptops are now more powerful than ever before, able to push high resolutions at steady framerates. You don't have to resort to buying the best gaming PC desktop to get high-end specs. Plus, the best gaming laptops come in every shape and size. Because it’s harder than ever to find the best gaming laptops, we’ve picked out a few of our favorite devices. And, while plenty of gaming laptops look like ordinary office devices, you shouldn’t ignore them. Thanks to Nvidia Turing Max-Q graphics for laptops, revealed at CES 2019, the best gaming laptops are stealthy – like the aptly named MSI GS65 Stealth. Don’t worry, though, there are still huge desktop replacement laptops like the MSI GT75 Titan if that’s more your style. So, whether you’re on the market for a thicc desktop replacement, packed with an RTX graphics card that can handle Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and the Division 2 with all the settings cranked, or if you want something thin and light so you can play games on the move, you’ll find the best gaming laptop here. We even found some cheaper options like the Dell G3. And, don’t worry, we’ve tested these gaming laptops ourselves, so you know they’ll be up to snuff. These days, many gaming laptop manufacturers seem to be locked into a race to see who can craft the thinnest gaming laptop that doesn’t compromise on power. And, right now, the crown might have to go to the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX701. At just 0.7 inches thick, this monster of a laptop houses an Intel Coffee Lake Core i7 chip, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q graphics and 16GB of RAM. That means you can crank any PC game under the sun to max settings, and take it with you wherever you go. And, of course, it’s packed with RGB lighting that’ll dazzle anyone that looks at it. Read the full review: Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 If you want to play some of the best PC games on the move, but you don’t want everyone to know you’re playing games, the MSI GS65 Stealth is the best gaming laptop for you. Coming in at just .69 inches thick and featuring impressive hardware like Intel Coffee Lake processors and Nvidia GeForce GTX 10-series – refreshed with RTX 20-series graphics at CES – the MSI GS65 Stealth packs a ton of power into a very svelte package. There’s nothing you won’t be able to throw at this thing that’ll slow it down. And, thanks to the subdued design, you’ll be able to bring this beefy rig everywhere you go, making it the best gaming laptop on the market right now. Read the full review: MSI GS65 Stealth For a few years now, the Razer Blade has been among the best gaming laptops on the market, filled with powerful components, beautiful displays and an elegant chassis. That’s all true for the 2019 model, too, which now rocks up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080. That is, frankly, a ton of power for a laptop this thin and light. Plus, even if that’s not enough GPU horsepower for you, you can use the Razer Core for future expansion. It’s an expensive device, but it might be worth it if style and power are equally as important to you. Read the full review: Razer Blade The best gaming laptops keep getting more expensive every day. Especially now that Nvidia RTX graphics are available, getting a powerful gaming laptop carries quite the toll. Luckily, laptops like the Lenovo Legion Y7000P are here to lighten the load. This budget-minded gaming laptop features an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, which should be just fine for its 1080p 60Hz display. When it’s a question of getting the essentials in order to save some cash, the Lenovo Legion Y7000P is a no-brainer. Read the full review: Lenovo Legion Y7000P Some gaming laptops just don’t pull any punches, enabling you to run any game you can imagine without breaking a sweat – and the MSI GT75 Titan is one of these laptops. It’s a titanic desktop replacement packing 6-core Intel Coffee Lake processors, plenty of RAM and powerful Nvidia Pascal graphics. You’re not going to be able to carry it around with you, and it’s not going to be something you’ll be caught with in a coffee shop, but if raw power is what you’re after, look no further. Just be ready to break open your piggy bank. Read the full review: MSI GT75 Titan Thin and light gaming laptops are everywhere right now, but if you don’t care about that, and want a thick, heavy and monstrous laptop that can demolish any game you throw at it – the Asus ROG G703GI is for you. This is a massive – and expensive – laptop, but it justifies its size and price with gaming performance that rivals the best gaming PCs. Just don’t think you’ll be able to haul it along with you to your local coffee shop without its two power bricks – or awkward stares. Read the full review: Asus ROG G703GI If you want one of the best gaming laptops, but don’t want to miss out on the ultra-portable craze, you need to consider the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1. Packed with an Intel Kaby Lake G-series processor, this gaming laptop can keep up with its competitors rocking a GTX 1050 without featuring truly discrete graphics. And, when you combine that gaming horsepower with a chassis that looks this good, it’s a total win – even if you have to endure some fan noise to get there. Read the full review: Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 It may not boast the most innovative design, substituting the usual black and red aesthetic for one that makes it feel like Halloween all year round (no complaints here). But, it’s undoubtedly one of the best when it comes to gaming in 1080p. In fact, we were able to crank the setting s all the way up in Overwatch without ever straying below 60fps. It doesn’t feature the longest battery life, but the screen, power and onboard sound system more than make up for it. Read the full review: Asus ROG Strix GL502
When you’re setting out to buy one of the best gaming laptops, one of the first things you’ll likely notice is how expensive they can get. Luckily, the Dell G3 15 is not just extremely affordable, but it punches above its weight class with great 1080p gaming performance. With up to an Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU, you’ll be able to play all the latest games at 1080p without breaking a sweat, even if it’s not at max settings all the time. And, that blue on black color combo is quite a looker, if that’s your aesthetic. Read the full review: Dell G3 15 Over the last couple of years, there’s been a trend among the best gaming laptops to make them as thin as possible. And, the Gigabyte Aero 15 definitely fits the bill, while delivering top-end gaming performance. This laptop is just 0.74 inches thick, while delivering up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 and an Intel Core i9 CPU. However, this thinness is a double-edged sword: the Core i9 gets way too hot and can throttle. So, just keep that in mind if you plan on doing any sustained creative work, like editing all your gaming videos. Read the full review: Gigabyte Aero 15
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| The best Windows tablets 2019: all of the top Windows tablets reviewed Posted: 12 Apr 2019 01:16 PM PDT The best Windows 10 tablets are getting better by the minute. Not only are they great for watching Netflix or playing some casual games, but because of their lightweight designs and powerful components, they’re among the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy. It’s easy to see why they’re so universally praised as being the best of both worlds. This is all thanks to the versatility offered by Windows 10 tablets. From thin and light showstoppers like the Acer Switch 5 to power hungry behemoths like the Surface Pro 6, the best Windows tablets have something for everyone. Plus, anyone looking for a cheap Microsoft Surface Pro alternative should be happy with the Surface Go: it offers a compelling Windows tablet experience without costing an arm and a leg. Still, you’ve probably noticed that there are hundreds of Windows tablets on the market right now, which makes it hard to find the right one. Luckily, we here at TechRadar took that as a challenge: we’ve found the best Windows tablets and listed them all here. And, because they’ve all been tested and reviewed right here, you can be sure you’re getting your money’s worth. Microsoft’s Surface Pro lineup has a reputation for being the ideal of what other Windows tablets should strive for – and the Surface Pro 6 is no different. It doesn’t bring anything especially new to the table, but it iterates in a meaningful way, with more powerful hardware and a new black color option. You still won’t find the Surface Pen or Type Cover in the box, but that’s just the reality we have to live with these days. Either way, it’s the best Windows tablet you can buy today. Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Pro 6 A budget Surface device has been demanded by users for years, but the wait is finally over. The Microsoft Surface Go is simply the best Windows tablet for anyone that wants to work on the go. Thin, light, portable and elegant without costing a fortune, Microsoft has packed in everything they could in a device at a low price point. And, if you’re a student, or just someone that wants to consume some media while traveling, you can’t go wrong with the Microsoft Surface Go – you can even play some of the best laptop games on an airplane. Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Go If you need a Windows tablet with the versatility of the Surface Pro, but you don’t have a lot of cash to spare, the Acer Switch 5 is an excellent choice. You’ll lose a bit in screen resolution and sound quality, but you're saving hundreds of dollars for comparable power. The Acer Switch 5 is one of the best Windows tablets for any students or professionals that need to get stuff done on the go, while sticking to a budget. Read the full review: Acer Switch 5 The Samsung Galaxy TabPro S features a quick Intel Core processor, and it’s a beautiful 12-inch tablet that manages to be thinner and lighter than almost anything else on the market. It rocks this gorgeous AMOLED panel that you won’t find on any other Windows device, plus a pair of high-quality speakers that sound better than they have any right to. The keyboard might rub you the wrong way, but if you’re just looking for a tablet to consume media on, you can’t go wrong with the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S. Read the full review: Samsung Galaxy TabPro S
The HP Spectre x2 was originally created to be a budget version of the Surface Pro. However, HP has redesigned this Windows tablet to vie for Microsoft’s premium crown. In many ways, we have to admit it succeeds. The HP Spectre x2 rocks a 7th-generation Kaby Lake Core i7 processor at a lower price point – it even looks cooler. It gets better – the Active Pen and keyboard come with the HP Spectre x2, which is more than can be said for the Surface Pro. Read our full review: HP Spectre x2
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| The best 13-inch laptop 2019: the top 13-inch laptops we've reviewed Posted: 12 Apr 2019 01:16 PM PDT It’s hard to imagine a world without the best laptops – pretty much everyone needs one these days. However, for the best 13-inch laptops, there’s one core reason to choose them over any other – they’re the perfect size. 15-inch laptops are just too big, and if you get something less than 12-inches, you’ll be left squinting. The best 13-inch laptops, then, hit the sweet spot.-- they’re perfect for watching online videos, and even getting some work done. We still love the Dell XPS 13, but it’s not the only choice out there. We would totally understand if you prefer the new MacBook Air, or even the Huawei MateBook 13. Sure, the XPS is beautiful, but the other options are more than valid, too. The best 13-inch laptops all excel in different ways. Still, the best 13-inch laptop for you will ultimately depend on your individual needs. Do you just want a normal laptop, without any fancy bells and whistles? Or, do you want a 2-in-1 laptop that can morph into one of the best Windows tablets? Or maybe you want to skip Windows 10 entirely, and opt for one of the best Macs, backed up by macOS Mojave. No matter what your needs are, you’ll find a great laptop here, there are so many choices. Image Credit: TechRadar It’s not often that we run into a 13-inch laptops that hits all the right boxes, without having to compromise on anything. And, the Huawei MateBook 13 does exactly that. Packed with the latest Intel Whiskey Lake processors and Nvidia MX150 graphics in a chassis that really should be too small to handle them, the Huawei MateBook 13 is a powerhouse that will fit in any travel bag. And, it’s affordable – what more could you ask for? Read the full review: Huawei MateBook 13 Image Credit: TechRadar The Dell XPS 13, while its changes over last year’s model are subtle, is still one of the best 13-inch laptops. On the high end, the 4K display offers a sharper picture across the board. But, even if you can’t afford the top end model, the gorgeous design, lengthy battery life and SD card slot aren’t going anywhere – plus, you’ve got a quad-core processor no matter what poison you pick. It’s going to be one of the best 13-inch laptops, no matter which configuration you go for. Read the full review: Dell XPS 13 Among other laptops in this list, namely the Surface Book 2 and Dell XPS 13, saying a laptop is beautiful might seem a little cliche. But, look at the HP Spectre x360, and you’ll see why we can’t stop staring at it. This beautiful 13-inch laptop is packed with the latest Intel hardware, so you know it can get your work done. And, the gem-cut build means it’ll get your work done in style. Plus, it can flip around into a tablet mode – it really is one of the best 13-inch laptops out there. Read the full review: HP Spectre x360 Image Credit: TechRadar It’s not quite as powerful as the 15-inch version, but everything else about the Surface Book 2 13.5 inch makes for one of the best 13-inch laptops on the market. No matter if you’re a professional or a creative, the Surface Book 2 will dominate your workloads in style. What’s more, the dynamic fulcrum hinge is even better this time around, which only complements its robust quad-core processor. Plus, unlike many other 2-in-1 laptops, the keyboard is removable, which makes it a much more manageable tablet when the need arises. Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Book 2 Image Credit: TechRadar You may be expecting a gaming laptop, especially given Razer’s reputation, but the Razer Blade Stealth is one of the best 13-inch laptops you can buy today. It’s thin, light, and packed with the latest Ultrabook-class hardware – including dedicated MX150 graphics. The 8th-generation Intel Whiskey Lake Processor makes this laptop a force to be reckoned with. And, while it’s certainly expensive, the sheer style and build quality might be worth it. Read the full review: Razer Blade Stealth Image Credit: TechRadar If you’re looking for a thin, svelte and fast 13-inch laptop to haul around with you, and you don’t mind giving up some premium features, you’ll fall in love with the Asus ZenBook 13. Coming in at just half an inch thick and weighing just 2.5 pounds, this is the perfect laptop to carry when traveling. And, don’t think you have to give up on power with all this portability, either. The Asus ZenBook 13 features quad-core Intel processors, 8GB of RAM and a fast SSD. The only thing you’re missing here is USB-C, and while it’s a nice feature to have, it’s easy to look past in a laptop this stylish. Read the full review: Asus Zenbook 13 Image Credit: TechRadar No one likes change, we get it. Still, the 15.6-inch frame of the Samsung Notebook 7 Spin we once knew will soon be erased from our memories forever, but the new 13.3-inch model doesn’t seem like an awful upgrade. It’s bounced two generations into the future in terms of processing power, and even though there are no discrete graphics – we’re happy to see a keyboard that can compete with some of the heavy hitters. It’s not going to blow your mind, yet as far as hybrid notebooks go, this one ain’t too shabby (plus it’s cheaper than a weaker MacBook Pro). Read the full review: Samsung Notebook 7 Spin
Image Credit: TechRadar The original Surface Laptop was already one of the best 13-inch laptops – it had a gorgeous screen, competent internals and fantastic build quality. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that the sequel, the Surface Laptop 2, does everything better. YOu won’t find any radical changes, but the speedy 8th-generation CPUs, 8GB of RAM and, most importantly, the removal of Windows 10 S, all add up to make the Surface Laptop 2 one of the best 13-inch laptops out there. Read the full review: Surface Laptop 2 Image Credit: TechRadar As time goes on, 2-in-1 laptops are becoming more popular, and their manufacturers are improving them at a rapid pace. This is especially true for Lenovo – it’s been creating drop-dead beautiful convertibles for years, much like the Lenovo Yoga 920. This 13-inch laptop brings Thunderbolt 3 to the table, an improved webcam – and most importantly – an 8th-generation Intel Kaby Lake Refresh processor with every configuration. The fans get loud, but the Lenovo Yoga 920 is certainly among the best 13-inch laptops on the market. Read the full review: Lenovo Yoga 920 Image Credit: TechRadar The MacBook Pro 2018 feels like the final form of Apple’s pro series laptop since its 2016 redesign. It keeps the thin and light design, but brings a wealth of improvements, both to the hardware within and, more importantly, Apple has vastly improved the Butterfly keyboard – making it quieter and more reliable. So, you no longer have to worry about it breaking cause a piece of dust appeared under the spacebar. So, if you need an ultra-portable workhorse running macOS Mojave and you can justify the cost, the 2018 MacBook Pro won’t let you down. Keep in mind, though, the model without the Touch Bar is still running last year’s hardware. Read the full review: MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid-2018)
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| The best Ultrabooks 2019: top thin and light laptops reviewed Posted: 12 Apr 2019 01:14 PM PDT The best Ultrabooks won’t just be able to get work done, but they’re also a status symbol of sorts. Just think about it: you’re sitting at a coffee shop, where everyone is either using a Chromebook or some big and bulky laptop relic. Then, you whip out an Ultrabook – a thinner, lighter, faster and more attractive laptop, rocking the best processors and SSDs on the market. These thin and light beauties are as much about portability as they are about sheer horsepower. The best Ultrabooks won’t freeze up on you when you’re trying to get an important project done, or run out of battery on a short flight. You don’t have to worry about any of that. That’s why we took the time to find the best Ultrabooks on the market right now. From household names like Dell and HP, to brands you might not have heard of like Huawei, these thin and light beauties will get you through your work day in style. Plus, we tested and reviewed all these Ultrabooks ourselves, so you can be confident you’re getting your money’s worth. For a few years now, Huawei has been lurking in the shadows, ready to take on the best Ultrabooks, and its time has finally arrived. Like the Huawei MateBook X Pro before it, the Huawei Matebook 13 packs in a ton of powerful hardware into an attractive shell, while keeping the price low enough for anyone to afford. Plus, we have to mention those discrete graphics – it may be one of the smallest laptops out there to pack an MX150 GPU. It’s not hard to see why the Huawei Matebook 13 is the best Ultrabook right now. Read the full review: Huawei MateBook 13 The Dell XPS 13 has been the best Ultrabook for years, and while it’s been dethroned by the Huawei MateBook 13, it remains one of the Ultrabooks to beat in 2019. This time around, Dell has moved the webcam from the bottom of the display to the top, fixing one of the biggest problems faced by the XPS 13 for years. Add in the updated internals, and the Dell XPS 13 is still one of the best Ultrabooks out there – even if some of the competition has caught up. Read the full review: Dell XPS 13 Sometimes an Ultrabook comes along that completely changes the game. And, the 2018 model of the Huawei MateBook X Pro did just that. This beautiful Ultrabook brings high-end components into an elegantly designed package that puts even the MacBook Pro to shame. It really is one of the best Ultrabooks on the market. There is a 2019 model, with an Intel Whiskey Lake processor, but the 2018 model is still where it’s at. Read the full review: Huawei MateBook X Pro The original Surface Laptop launched nearly two years ago, and while it was a great Ultrabook, it was held back thanks to relatively weak hardware and Windows 10 S. Thankfully, Microsoft launched the Surface Laptop 2 in late 2018, bringing quad-core processors and the full-fat version of Windows 10. Its through these core improvements that the Surface Laptop 2 is able to bring the purest Windows 10 experience on a laptop, at a price that won’t make you gasp. Read the full review: Surface Laptop 2 Few Ultrabooks are as brilliantly designed as the Lenovo Yoga 920, a 2-in-1 laptop that’s as illustrious to look at as it is to use. In contrast to its nearest competitors, such as Microsoft’s Surface Book 2, it’s also a far less expensive endeavor. For the modest price you pay, you’re getting a gorgeous, all-metal finish that can be flipped inside out for extended functionality. It also houses the latest 8th-generation Intel processors, just in case speed was a concern. Read the full review: Lenovo Yoga 920 From the moment your eyes meet the HP Spectre 13, you’ll be impressed by its sheer beauty. HP has taken the already luxurious Spectre and dialed the design up to eleven with gold trim and packed it with internal specs that blow the competition out of the water. One of the first Ultrabooks rocking an 8th-generation Kaby Lake Refresh chip, the 2017 Spectre 13 more than doubles the CPU performance of most of its competitors. This added performance comes at the cost of battery life, but clocking in at just under 6 hours – the battery life is still passable. Read the full review: HP Spectre 13 Razer has been known as a gaming company for years now, but with the Razer Blade Stealth the green-themed manufacturer wants to dispel that. If you’re not convinced, this Ultrabook might change your mind by turning into a 13.3-inch, QHD+ beauty. You can no longer upgrade to 4K, but the performance this Ultrabook offers is more than worth that compromise – especially given how beautiful the chassis is. Read the full review: Razer Blade Stealth If you’re looking for a powerful and attractive Ultrabook, but you also want some 2-in-1 functionality, it’s hard to find a better option than the HP Spectre x360. This svelte Ultrabook isn’t just packed with the latest Intel Whiskey Lake processors and plenty of RAM, but it may just be the most beautiful laptop you can buy today. So, if you’re looking for a laptop that won’t just get your work done, but will look good while doing it – you won’t find many better Ultrabooks than the HP Spectre x360 2019. Read the full review: HP Spectre x360 Anyone familiar with Apple’s thinnest and lightest laptop would be wise to compare the Asus ZenBook 3 to the 12-inch MacBook. The similarities are obvious, but one look at the specs and the differences stand out too. Adorned with the choice of a U-series Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, the ZenBook 3 is awfully powerful considering it’s less than half an inch thick and weighs two pounds. The port selection is sparse, but ultimately it’s well worth the sacrifice. Read the full review: Asus ZenBook 3
It’s no secret that Apple neglected the MacBook Air – at least until the MacBook Air 2018 launched – but, in some cases a Windows Ultrabook can be just as good. Take the Asus ZenBook UX310UA, for instance. With still-good 7th-generation Intel Kaby Lake processors, a 178-degree viewing-angle QHD+ display, a USB-C port and an aluminum build, it’s still one of the best Ultrabooks out there, even after all this time. Read the full review: Asus ZenBook UX310
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| Posted: 12 Apr 2019 01:13 PM PDT The best Chromebooks have been around for quite a while now, but they’re just now being accepted in the mainstream as fantastic budget devices. However, when Google first announced its laptop brand, no one knew what to make of it. Luckily, those days are over: there are now over 25 million Chrome OS users, and the top Chromebooks continue to lead the charge with amazing battery life – something we wish Windows 10 laptops would catch up with. But, what is a Chromebook? Well, Chromebooks don’t just feature fantastic battery life, but they’re also extremely affordable. This is because the best Chromebooks don’t need the latest and greatest processors – as they run Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system, and they only pack what they need to get the job done. Plus, with devices like the Google Pixel Slate the best Chromebooks are getting more advanced by the day. And, because you are restrained by your web browser and Android apps, some users may be wary of picking up one of the top Chromebooks, and we totally get it. But, if your computer use just boils down to word processing and email, with very little video editing or gaming, you can’t go wrong with one of the best Chromebooks. Shortly after proclaiming the Chromebook Pixel as dead, Google revived it in a way nobody expected. Now, it’s the Google Pixelbook and it stands completely independent of its predecessor. That’s because, unlike the Chromebook Pixel, it can run Android apps natively, on top of building upon Chrome OS. And, when you add in the huge amount of storage space, fantastic stylus and Google Assistant, it shouldn’t surprise you when we say the Pixelbook is the best Chromebook 2018 has to offer – even so long after its launch. Read the full review: Google Pixelbook Before Google put the Pixelbook out, and showed us exactly what Chromebooks could be, the Asus Chromebook Flip was our ideal Google laptop. With a full Intel Core processor and a full-HD display, the Asus Chromebook Flip changed the game. Put simply, if you want key features that the Pixelbook offers, but you don’t want to deal with that massive price tag, the Asus Chromebook Flip is the next best Chromebook. Read the full review: Asus Chromebook Flip When Android apps started heading to the best Chromebooks, it was only a matter of time before Samsung jumped into the ring to craft something truly beautiful. With a 12.3-inch QHD touchscreen and a 360-degree hinge, the Samsung Chromebook Pro also includes a built-in stylus – the first of its kind to show up in a Chromebook. Not only does it show up many of its competitors, but it’s better than most Android devices, too, even if the keyboard could use some tightening up. Read the full review: Samsung Chromebook Pro
When you think of Chromebooks, education is one of the first things that comes to mind. And, with the Acer Chromebook Spin 13, Acer wants them to be synonymous with business, too. Beautifully built from aluminum with a gorgeous QHD screen, it won’t just fit in the office, but it may actually draw some jealous looks. It’s more than just an attractive chassis, though: the Acer Chromebook Spin 13 is backed by full-fat Ultrabook processors, so it can get work done, and this Chromebook will look good while doing it. Read the full review: Acer Chromebook Spin 13 In our minds, the best Chromebooks are affordable devices that anyone can get their hands on. And, in that spirit, it’s not hard to see why the Dell Inspiron Chromebook 11 2-in-1 fits the bill. This isn’t the most powerful Chromebook on the market – instead it boils Chromebooks down to what they need to be: affordable, easy to use and durable. This Chromebook will be great for doing all your web browsing and video editing, and may just be one of the best laptops for kids, as it won’t break from a simple drop. What more can you ask for? Read the full review: Dell Inspiron Chromebook 11 2-in-1 One of the most compelling use cases for the best Chromebooks is that of the student laptop – and the Acer Chromebook Spin 11 is a perfect example. If you’re a student, or even a parent of a student that’s looking for a cheap, capable and, more importantly, durable machine to get some homework done on the go, you shouldn’t need to look further than the Acer Chromebook Spin 11. You won’t be able to do any hardcore gaming or video editing on this thing, but if you just need something to write some papers and watch some YouTube in your downtime – you should give it a look. Read the full review: Acer Chromebook Spin 11 With a pristine build quality that rivals a MacBook, it’s easy to forgive the Acer Chromebook 15’s aversion to 2-in-1 form factors. However, given that most Chromebooks releasing this year are fully convertible, thanks to the wide adoption of Android app support, the Acer Chromebook 15 had to prove itself to us with more than good style. And, beyond its ability to lay flat using a 180-degree hinge, this beautiful 15-inch Chromebook makes a great impression with its battery life, too, lasting nearly 17 hours in our battery test. Read the full review: Acer Chromebook 15 We wouldn’t be surprised to see Acer replacing the Chromebook R11 – at least, judging by the recent release of the Chromebook Spin 11, but it still holds up to this day as one of the best Chromebooks on the market. It isn’t the most powerful option out there, but it still gives you full access to Android Apps on the Google Play store. What’s more, it does so on a touchscreen display that can be rotated around into tablet mode, complemented by an all-metal finish that you won’t be ashamed of. Read the full review: Acer Chromebook R11 In our mind, the best Chromebooks are the ones that balance a rock-bottom price and speedy use of Chrome OS – and the HP Chromebook 14 is a perfect example. While it’s similar to the Acer Chromebook 15 in a lot of ways, this 14-inch Chromebook is a bit more compact and even looks better. Complemented by a bright blue finish and a screen made to astonish, the HP Chromebook 14 boasts the best value of any Chromebook out there. Even if the battery life and performance are average – the HP Chromebook 14 is easily one of the best Chromebooks on the market right now. Read the full review: HP Chromebook 14 The HP Chromebook 13 is way better than anyone would expect from a Chromebook. You’re getting a 1440p display, two USB-C ports and, if you’re willing to shell out a bit more cash, you can get yourself an INtel Core M processor rather than a Pentium. All of this is complemented by incredible style and a metallic design that exudes Pixel influence. It might not be as powerful as the Google Pixelbook, but it’s still one of the best Chromebooks when it comes to sheer style. Read the full review: HP Chromebook 13 Watch the video below for the top 7 things to consider when buying a laptop:
Juan Martinez and Gabe Carey have also contributed to this article.
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| The best 2-in-1 laptop 2019: find the best convertible laptop for your needs Posted: 12 Apr 2019 01:10 PM PDT Over the last decade, we have fundamentally changed the way we use our laptops – thanks in large part to 2-in-1 laptops. The best 2-in-1 laptops come in every size and shape, and there’s nothing like flipping your laptop into tent mode to take in some Netflix after a long study session. Some of the top 2-in-1 laptops, like the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1, will come strapped with the best processors, and will be among the best laptops on the market right now. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for this convenient form factor. Most of the best 2-in-1 laptops are going to be convertible, meaning their keyboard flips around the back, in order to transform into a tablet. There are a few 2-in-1 laptops that approach it differently, namely the Surface Book 2. Microsoft’s convertible has a detachable keyboard, and its high resolution PixelSense display is held up by sheer magnetic force. No matter how they implement the 2-in-1 functionality, these flexible laptops will usually have stylus compatibility – even if it’s becoming more rare to find a stylus included in the box. So, to help you find the best 2-in-1 laptop for your needs, we’ve gathered up every convertible notebook we’ve reviewed recently, with all their pros and cons taken into consideration. The Samsung Notebook 9 Pro can go head-to-head with the 15-inch MacBook Pro, and for a substantially lower cost. Though it’s limited to only one configuration, albeit across two different sizes, the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro is as powerful as it is pragmatic. Defined in part by its inclusion of the S-Pen, this heavy-hitting hybrid is every bit as capable as Microsoft’s Surface Book and without the need to recharge its stylus. Read the full review: Samsung Notebook 9 Pro
It might strike you as odd that a Chromebook is on a list of the best 2-in-1 laptops, especially rated so high, but the Google Pixelbook merges the two so flawlessly. It’s a wonderful device that takes the Chrome OS platform and elevates it to levels never seen before, or even since. The Google Pixelbook is packed with powerful internals and supports full Android apps, tearing down the walls that prevented Mac and Windows faithful from embracing the best Chromebooks. Read the full review: Google Pixelbook We get it, the Pixelbook is enticing, but it’s also out of your price range. In that case, the Asus Chromebook Flip C302 is a choice alternative. Having introduced a touchscreen and convertible design to Google’s cloud-based Chrome OS, the Asus Chromebook Flip is made better by its compatibility with Android apps. That’s right, just like the Pixelbook, you can use the Asus Chromebook Flip for Google Play apps, albeit after installing an out-of-the-box update. Read the full review: Asus Chromebook Flip The HP Spectre x360 isn’t just one of the best 2-in-1 laptops on the market, it’s one of the best laptops, period. There are few devices out there that match powerful components with svelte design quite as well as HP does here. The gem cut chassis will draw plenty of jealous looks in the coffee shop, while the powerful hardware will breeze through all of your work. And, when you’re done drawing in those jealous looks, you can flip it around into tablet mode to get some late-night Netflix in. Read the full review: HP Spectre x360 If you’ve been looking for one of the best 2-in-1 laptops, but you also kind of wanted something with some serious horsepower, you’re in luck. The Dell XPS 15, already one of the best Ultrabooks you can buy today, has been transformed into one of the best 2-in-1 laptops – with discrete class Radeon RX Vega graphics to boot. What this means is that you can get a beautiful 2-in-1, without sacrificing sheer power. And, while that means it’s a bit expensive on the high end – it’s totally worth it. Read the full review: Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 The original Surface Book was great enough, so when we first heard that a 15-inch Surface Book 2 was on the way, our expectations went sky-high. Microsoft’s second 2-in-1 laptop isn’t perfect, but it’s still an impressive device. This 2-in-1 laptop isn’t just gorgeous, but it’s packed with 8th-generation Intel processors and Nvidia 10-series graphics for gamers and creative types alike. When you take that power and pair it with its nifty convertibility – it’s easy to see why it’s a winner. Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13-inch) While it doesn’t offer the same level of graphics performance, the Lenovo Yoga 920 is a much more affordable alternative to the Surface Book 2. For anyone who’s looking for value, rather than a detachable screen, the Lenovo Yoga 920 has a lot to offer. The design, for example, is less pronounced and has the subtlety of a more traditional Ultrabook. Meanwhile it’s thin and powerful at the same time. Read the full review: Lenovo Yoga 920 To be fair, we loved the 13-inch Surface Book already, so when we first caught word that a 15-inch Surface Book 2 was in the works, our expectations were amplified. In the end, Microsoft’s second 2-in-1 laptop isn’t perfect, but it is an impressive feat held back by a handful of (frankly necessary) concessions. For starters, this machine features cutting-edge 8th-generation Intel processors and Nvidia 10-series graphics for gamers and creative types alike. Pair that with its nifty convertibility, and we have ourselves a winner. Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Book 2 (15-inch) If you’re in the market for one of the best 2-in-1 laptops, but want to save a few bucks, look no further than the Lenovo Flex 6 14. For less than $1,000, you’re getting specs that will be able to handle most common workloads life throws at it – in a chassis that doesn’t just look good, but is rigid and even supports the Lenovo Active Pen. The only real downside here is the tinny speakers and the lack of Thunderbolt 3 – but even that’s not enough to hold it back from – especially at its bargain price. Read the full review: Lenovo Flex 6 14
For years, HP’s Spectre line of Ultrabooks and 2-in-1s has been all about elegance and performance, and the 2018 HP Spectre x360 15 is no different. Packed with an 8th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia MX 150 graphics and 16GB of RAM, you’re going to be able to do anything your work day throws at you – even up to some light gaming. However, the Spectre x360 is a bit heavy for a 2-in-1, so you likely won’t be using it in tablet mode very often, instead putting it in tent mode to watch some movies on its gorgeous 4K panel. Read the full review: HP Spectre x360 15 (2018)
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| The best laptop 2019: our pick of the 15 best laptops you can buy this year Posted: 12 Apr 2019 01:08 PM PDT In this guide to the best laptops 2019 has to offer, we here at TechRadar have gathered up a smorgasbord of fantastic notebooks and laptops that will appeal to a broad range of people, no matter what sort of laptop you’re looking for. So, we found the best Ultrabooks and premium laptops, alongside the best Macs, Chromebooks and budget Windows tablets. On this page, you’ll also find the best gaming laptops and 2-in-1 laptops. We've made sure to pack our best laptops guide with brilliant devices that cover a wide range of price points, so every budget is catered for in this list. Remember: you don't need to spend a fortune to get one of the best laptops of 2019. All of the laptops on this list have been tested and reviewed right here at TechRadar, so you can be sure they’re worth your time. Only the best laptops will be found here, so you won’t find any lemons here. Plus, we included our exclusive price comparison tool, so you can make sure you’re getting the best laptop deal at all times. We're constantly updating this guide as well, so as soon as the newest laptops are released, we'll add them to this best laptops guide – as long as they are worthy, of course. Our built-in price comparison tool will also automatically highlight the top deals from online retailers, so you can be sure you're getting the best laptops for the best price. The best laptops of 2019:Huawei has done it again, and its latest laptop has topped our best laptops list for 2019. As with last year's Huawei MateBook X Pro, the MateBook 13 comes with some of the latest components, including a discrete Nvidia MX150 graphics card, and a gorgeous lightweight design, that you'd expect to find on a much more expensive laptop. The fact that the MateBook 13 offer so much, yet comes with an impressively low price – compared to its Ultrabook competitors, like the XPS 13 below – makes it our choice for the best laptop money can buy right now. Sure, you may be missing a few minor niceties here and there to achieve such a competitive price, but on the whole, this is the most value-packed flagship laptop that we’ve ever tested. If you're after a few more bells and whistles, like super-fast Thunderbolt 3 ports and a 4K display, then the Dell XPS 13 or MacBook Pro (also on this list of best laptops) may be better choices, but for sheer bang for your bucks, the MateBook 13 is the laptop to beat in 2019. Read the full review: Huawei MateBook 13
The Dell XPS 13 has been a regular of our best laptops list for years, and the 2019 model is no exception. It retains everything we've come to love from Dell's flagship 13-incher, from the gorgeous and light design, to the powerful modern components that power it. The Dell XPS 13 rocks an 8th-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and a bezel-less ‘Infinity Edge’ display, this Dell XPS 13 continues to be the most popular Windows laptop in the world. What’s more, there’s a wide range of customization options, so you can really make the Dell XPS 13 the best laptop for your needs. The 2019 model doesn't bring a huge amount of improvements, but then not that much about the Dell XPS 13 needs improving. Its webcam has been placed at the top center of the screen, rather than at the bottom, which a lot of customers have been asking for. You also get a longer battery life in this year's model. Read the full review: Dell XPS 13 Image Credit: HP The HP Spectre line of Ultrabooks and 2-in-1 laptops has always consisted of extraordinarily attractive devices. So, when we say that the 2019 Spectre x360 takes things to another level, that should mean something. This is one of the most beautiful laptops on the market right now, with its gem cut design and sleek profile. Couple that with the powerful Intel Whiskey Lake processors and long battery life, and you get one of the best laptops on the market right now. Its ability to flip into a Windows tablet is just icing on the cake. Read the full review: HP Spectre x360 (2019) If you're after the latest and greatest laptop from Apple, we suggest you look into the 2018 model of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. While Microsoft had the performance edge over last year's MacBook Pro, with the Surface Book 2, Apple has come out swinging with some seriously beefed up specs for the 13-inch MacBook Pro 2018, and even more so if you go for the larger 15-inch model. The headline Touch Bar – a thin OLED display at the top of the keyboard which can be used for any number of things, whether that be auto-suggesting words as you type or offering Touch ID so you can log in with just your fingerprint – is again included. It's certainly retained Apple's sense of style, but it comes at a cost. This is a pricey machine, so you may want to consider one of the Windows alternatives. If you're open to switching to a PC, definitely consider the XPS 13 or the excellent MateBook X Pro. But, if you're a steadfast Apple diehard, this is definitely the best laptop for you! Read the full review: Apple Macbook with Touch Bar 13-inch (2018) The Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is the best gaming laptop of 2019 thanks to its powerful components that include a 6-core Intel processor, and the latest RTX 2080 graphics from Nvidia. Not only is this a brilliant performer, but it's also impressively thin and light as well (by gaming laptop standards). Asus' Zephyrus laptops have constantly pushed the boundaries of what gaming laptops can do, and this new model for 2019 is no difference, which is why it has made it straight onto our best laptops list. It's available to pre-order now, but be warned: this is a very expensive laptop. If you're looking for something a bit more affordable, check out the Acer Predator Helios 300 later on in this list. Read the full review: Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701 Microsoft's second attempt at a pure laptop device is an absolute winner in our view, and while it doesn't represent a huge overhaul of the original Surface Laptop, it offers improvements in all the areas we were hoping for, including updated hardware that brings serious performance benefits. This is a laptop that finally delivers on what Microsoft set out to do with the original: a pure, powerful Windows 10 laptop experience. If you're not sold on the 2-in-1 nature of the Surface Book 2 (which is also on this best laptops list), but love Microsoft's premium build quality and design, then the Surface Laptop 2 is the laptop for you. A very worth addition to this list. Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 Last year’s Dell XPS 15 was already one of the best laptops you could buy, but now that Dell has taken the beautiful redesign of the Dell XPS 13 and applied it here – while also making it a convertible. Well, it’s amazing. Not only do you get one of the most aesthetically pleasing 15-inch laptops on the market, but it also packs one of those new Intel Kaby Lake G-series CPUs featuring ‘discrete-class’ Radeon graphics. This means that this laptop packs serious power – even if it can get a little loud. Read the full review: Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a fantastic affordable gaming laptop that proves that even if you don't have the kind of money to buy the MSI GS65 Stealth that also features on this best laptops list, you don't have to sacrifice too much when it comes to power. The Acer Predator Helios 300 packs some excellent components, such as a new 8th generation 6-core Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics card and 16GB of RAM. While it's still an expensive proposition compared to regular laptops, for a gaming notebook you are getting a heck of a lot of power for the price. Read the full review: Acer Predator Helios 300 When it comes to the best Chromebook laptop, you have a choice between two stark alternatives. There's the premium Chromebook Pixel, which we list further down this page, and then there's the excellent Asus Chromebook Flip C302, which combines premium features in a much more affordable package. For many people, Chromebooks are excellent and affordable laptops that are perfect for students, and the Asus Chromebook Flip C302 is easily one of the best Chromebooks, and one of the best laptops, money can buy. It comes with an Intel Core processor, full 1080p display, touchscreen, backlit keyboard and USB-C port. Read the full review: Asus Chromebook Flip When HP unveiled the HP Spectre Folio, it made some big claims about how the 2-in-1 laptop would reinvent the PC. While it doesn't quite match the hype, what we do have is one of the most beautifully-designed laptops we've ever tried. Billed as "modern vintage meets technology", the HP Spectre Folio is built directly into a piece of genuine leather. That's not a fancy cover, it's a part of the laptop. It's not just looks that has put it on this list of the best laptops of 2019, the HP Spectre Folio is also a brilliant performer as well, with modern components powering the device. It is very expensive, though, so if you're on a budget, check out the more affordable 2-in-1 Acer Switch 3 below. But, if you want the best laptop for making a statement as soon as you pull it out of the bag, then the HP Spectre Folio is the one to get. Read the full review: HP Spectre Folio If you want the Microsoft Surface Book 2 but you want to spend a lot less, the Acer Switch 3 2017 is definitely the your best option. It's designed around essentially the same concept as the Surface Book 2 and it's a less capable thanks to slightly lower power innards, but for most tasks it's a brilliant little machine. What's more, to add further value this 2-in-1 laptop/tablet comes with the keyboard upgrade which means no little extras to pay for. As usual it comes in several different versions, with USB Type-C, 8GB RAM, an IPS display and Intel Core i3 7100U CPU coming with the more expensive option. Read the full review: Acer Switch 3 Last year's iteration of the MacBook is another win for Apple, and it's once again won us over with a gorgeous design, excellent performance and best-in-class battery life. Apple has updated the processors with Intel's 7th-generation Kaby Lake range, which means you get improved performance and longer battery life without sacrificing the thin and light design that the MacBook is famous for. While the MacBook 2017 is not designed as a pure productivity machine, like the more powerful and versatile MacBook Pro above, or as a gaming machine like the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501, it's still one of the best laptops in the world right now thanks to being a super slim and light MacBook that you can take anywhere without even noticing the weight, and being a powerful showcase for macOS High Sierra. If you're after a MacBook, this year's model is easily one of the best. Read the full review: Apple MacBook The best Chromebooks have experienced huge success in recent years as a result of their accessibility, and the Google Pixelbook is no exception. Even though it costs twice as much as the average Chrome OS device and doesn’t come with a stylus as you may expect, the Pixelbook is built to withstand the future. It features a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports for accessories and super fast file transfers, a hinge that flips inside out for watching movies on planes and a taste of Android. You get full access to the Google Play store on the Pixelbook, from playing Sonic the Hedgehog to watching videos in VLC. The icing on this pixelated cake is its long battery life – it lasted nearly 8 hours in our own testing, so you shouldn’t need to worry about the Pixelbook dying on you. Read the full review: Google Pixelbook
While you may have been convinced that ‘budget Ultrabook’ was an oxymoron up until this point, the Acer has turned this common misconception on its head with the Swift 3. That’s because the company has taken the all-aluminum chassis of the Acer Swift 7 and stuffed some more affordable components inside for everyone to enjoy. It doesn’t run macOS, but the Acer Swift 3 does put the age-old MacBook Air to shame in about every other regard, including the nigh-unbeatable price tag. Of course, in the process of demolishing the competition, Acer did have to cut a few corners in order to keep the price so impressively low. So although you can’t expect much in the way of an Ultra HD display or quality onboard sound, the performance benchmarks alone give even the Surface Laptop a run for its money. We've also had a glance of the upcoming 2018 edition of the Swift 7 at CES 2018, which comes with boosted graphics and processing specs. It could be a shoe-in for a place on this list when it launches later this year. Read the full review: Acer Swift 3 While it may not have the best keyboard in the world, the Samsung Notebook 9 was one of the best laptops you could buy in 2018. and that stands in 2019. Packed with more horsepower than the MacBook Pro, but at a much lower price, Samsung has crafted a laptop that has just as much substance as it does style. Plus, on top of its killer specs, it’s lightweight and thin, making this one of the most portable 15-inch laptops you can buy today. Read the full review: Samsung Notebook 9
Which type of laptop is best for you?General laptops: Where the best cheap laptops are found, devices that focus more on practicality than style, portability or power. That’s not to say they can’t be fast, but you’ll typically find a non-Ultrabook clamshell laptop with an HD screen and spinning drive-based storage for less than $600 or £400. Ultrabooks: Where you’ll find thin-and-light notebooks sporting SSD storage and display resolutions that exceed 1080p. Paired with powerful, albeit mobile-centric components and especially long battery life, the best Ultrabooks will cost a pretty penny – $700 or £500 to $2,000 or £1,800. 2-in-1 laptops: Where notebooks that double as tablets are located. The Surface Book 2 might be a ways off, but many of the best 2-in-1 laptops are available right now. Outfitted with both detachable and 360-degree rotating hinges, these hybrids are the most versatile way to experience Windows 10 (or Chrome OS) on a touchscreen. Chromebooks: Where you’ll find the best Chromebooks running Chrome OS. These do much of what Windows and macOS can in the browser, focused on cloud storage over local, while recently getting Android app support for touchscreen models. They generally cost less than $300 or £200 and some can even withstand a slight tussle. Gaming laptops: Need a laptop to play games (almost) just like a shiny desktop PC can? Then you’ll want one of the best gaming laptops. These machines generally cost from $800 or £600 to upwards of $3,000 or £2,800 and they’ll likely be the ones to take advantage of AMD’s laptop-grade Ryzen processors first. Laptop-tablet hybrids: Designed from the tablet-first approach to laptop-tablet hybrids, the best Windows tablets pack beyond-HD touchscreens, sometimes with kickstands in their frames or provided via keyboard covers. These generally shine with a stylus, and range from the budget to the premium price ranges. Linux, Windows or Mac - which one is best for you? Watch our guide video below: This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| White Sox vs Yankees MLB live stream 2019: how to watch today's baseball from anywhere Posted: 12 Apr 2019 11:27 AM PDT We realise that it's very early on in the MLB baseball season to say this, but it feels like this Chicago White Sox vs New York Yankees three match series at Yankee Stadium could be an early turning point in the regular season for both franchises. Find out who will win game one with a White Sox vs Yankees live stream today. It's been a slow start for both MLB teams, with 5-7 and 3-8 records for the Yankees and White Sox so far respectively. And both are coming out the back of three-match series whitewashes, with the Chicago White Sox going the last five games without a win. It's now been 10 years since the Yankees last won a World Series and their players and fans alike will be desperate to go back to the top of the MLB tree. Aaron Judge will be the man with so many hopes on his shoulders, although it's catcher Gary Sanchez that leads home runs for the Yankees in 2019. Keep reading to see the best ways to get a White Sox vs Yankees live stream. As you'll see, it's available via the ESPN+ subscription service (which comes with a 7-day free trial if you haven't tried it before). And we'll also tell you how to catch it even if you're not in the US this weekend.
How to watch White Sox vs Yankees in the US for FREE
Live stream MLB baseball from outside your countryIf you've been looking forward to watching this match-up but now find yourself abroad, you'll find that your coverage will be geo-blocked. Annoying for sure, but not the end of the road...as you can try using a VPN to change your IP address to a US server and watch as if you were back at home. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Star Wars Episode IX now has a proper name Posted: 12 Apr 2019 11:20 AM PDT At the Star Wars Celebration event today in Chicago, the cast and crew of Star Wars Episode IX unveiled the full title of the last film in the Star Wars saga, and it is...The Rise of Skywalker. Now, admittedly, The Rise of Skywalker is a strange name for the film as – spoilers! – Episode VIII (The Last Jedi) ends with Luke joining the great Jedi ghost village in the sky. Crucially, he passes without revealing any long-suspected familial connection to the new trilogy's Force-sensitive protagonist, Rey. If the film’s name wasn’t cryptic enough, the trailer contains a voice over line from Mark Hamill “no one’s ever really gone” followed by the distinctive maniacal laugh of Emperor Palpatine (played by Ian McDiarmid). McDiarmid himself appeared on-stage at Star Was Celebration just after the trailer debuted. Forebodingly, the last shot of the trailer before it cuts to the title logo is of the remnants of a Death Star – in all likelihood, the reconstructed one from Return of the Jedi, a callback to the third film in the original saga and another piece of the puzzle. The trailer also gave us our first look at Billy Dee Williams as an older, gentlemanly Lando Calrissian at the helm of the Millennium Falcon and Kylo Ren fighting what appears to be the Knights of Ren, as well as a lingering shot of the much-missed Carrie Fisher. Check it out for yourself below! Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker will debut in theaters on December 20, 2019.
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| Major vulnerabilities found in new WiFi standard Posted: 12 Apr 2019 11:06 AM PDT The WiFi Alliance's recently launched WPA3 Wi-Fi security and authentication standard could potentially allow hackers to infiltrate user's networks by exploiting a new group of vulnerabilities discovered by two security researchers. The vulnerabilities discovered by the researchers, collectively referred to as Dragonblood, would allow a potential attacker within range of a victim's network to recover their Wi-Fi passwords and infiltrate the target's network. In total, the researchers discovered five vulnerabilities: a denial of service attack, two downgrade attacks and two side-channel information leaks.
The denial of service attack is a less severe vulnerability as it only leads to crashing any WPA3-compatible access points but the other four could be used to recover user passwords. Dragonblood vulnerabilitiesThe researchers have called the vulnerabilities they discovered Dragonblood since both downgrade attacks and both the side-channel leaks take advantage of design flaws in the WPA3 standard's Dragonfly key exchange. The downgrade attacks work by putting pressure on WIFI WPA3-capable networks to use an older and less secure password exchange system that could allow hackers to retrieve network passwords using older flaws. Side-channel information leak attacks on the other hand, work by tricking devices on WiFI WPA3-capable networks into using weaker algorithms that leak small amounts of information about the network password. Over time and with repeated attacks though, the full password can be recovered. Following the release of information on these vulnerabilities, the WiFi Alliance reassured users that they had not been exploited by cybercriminals yet in a press release, saying: “These issues can all be mitigated through software updates without any impact on devices’ ability to work well together. There is no evidence that these vulnerabilities have been exploited.” Via ZDNet
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| Nvidia Volta release date, news, and features Posted: 12 Apr 2019 10:45 AM PDT When it comes to the best graphics cards, Nvidia’s varied selection of awesome graphics cards is unrivaled. From the wickedly powerful GeForce RTX 2080 Ti to the entry-level GTX 1050 – and everything in between. Nvidia remains the crowned ruler of the graphics world. But, because there’s always a demand for new graphics technology and faster hardware, particularly among creators and data scientists, the best graphics card is never enough. This is why Nvidia Volta was created – the next generation architecture for creatives and professionals. There have already been some Nvidia Volta cards out there, but you should consider that these aren’t for gamers – these high-end GPUs are aimed at professionals, and they have price tags to match. That’s not to say that Nvidia Volta isn’t exciting – it definitely is – especially when its developments in AI-powered Tensor cores has trickled down to Nvidia TuringGeForce graphics cards like the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: Nvidia Nvidia Volta release dateWe already mentioned that Nvidia Volta is available now, but not in any from that you’ll slip into your gaming PC. The Nvidia Tesla V100 hit the streets in May 2017, as a pro-level GPU built to empower AI workloads and run data centers. It’s not a consumer-level device by any stretch of the imagination. On the other hand, the Nvidia Titan V – released in December 2017 – is considered a consumer device, but you might scoff at the $2,999 (about £2149, AU$3800) price point. The Titan V is targeted towards researchers and other high-performance computing needs rather than making PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds look pretty. Image Credit: Nvidia Nvidia Volta priceBecause Nvidia Volta cards are aimed entirely at professionals and creatives, you shouldn’t expect them to be affordable for a gaming build. Both the Volta-powered Titan V and Tesla V100 are ludicrously expensive. The Titan V comes in at a cool $2,999 (£2,800, AU$4,699), where the Tesla V100 will cost you about $8,799 (£8,819, about AU$12,378) – definitely not cards you want to use to run Battlefield V. As for consumer-grade cards, we don’t think Volta will ever actually create one. Instead, Nvidia Turing was created with real-time ray-tracing tech that’s priced at a level that gamers should find palatable. Nvidia Volta specsVolta introduces a new 12-nanometer manufacturing process, which marks a significant step up from the 16nm process seen with the Pascal GPUs. What exactly does that mean? Well, it means that Nvidia's manufacturing partner TSMC can jam a whole lot more transistors into a comparable amount of space, thus yielding a massive surge in computing ability. You'll get better performance, not to mention significant power savings. The Titan V packs in 21.1 billion transistors, which collectively provide a stunning 110 teraflops of computing power. New tensor cores are designed to speed up deep learning ability, with nine times more peak computing teraflops over the previous Titan Xp card. And it's twice as energy-efficient too. Additionally, the Titan V has six graphics processing clusters with 5,120 CUDA cores (up from 3,840 in the Titan Xp) and 320 texture units, and a base clock of 1200MHz that can boost up to 1455MHz. With 12GB HBM2 memory onboard, the Titan V boasts a memory bandwidth of 652.8GB/sec. The last bit on the specs side is surprising from Nvidia, whom just the last year championed the enhanced speed of GDDR5X memory on its high-end GPUs. The Nvidia Titan V is the first mainline card to feature high-bandwidth memory outside of the company’s Quadro and Tesla parts. Whether this means HBM2 will be a mainstay of Volta remains to be seen. All told, it's a potentially enormous upgrade over the last generation of Nvidia cards. Image Credit: Nvidia But let's step back for a moment, because comparing a $2,999 gpu to its $1,200 predecessor doesn’t make much sense – and there isn’t going to be any Volta-powered gaming graphics cards, anyway. Based on these initial pro-level renditions, Volta seems capable of so much more than the previous Pascal-powered GPUs – and even if those are powerful enough right now, Volta appears poised to take AI and professional workloads to previously unseen levels. Either way, keep this page bookmarked, as we’ll update it as new details, leaks or cards pop up on our radar. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Intel Cascade Lake-X release date, news and rumors Posted: 12 Apr 2019 10:44 AM PDT In 2017, Intel reacted to the threat of Threadripper by pumping out high core count (HCC) Skylake-X processors in the consumer space. And, while processors like the Core i9-7980XE outperformed the highest-end Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, they were also much more expensive, leading more enthusiast consumers to go with AMD’s high-end desktop (HEDT) solution. We expected Intel to follow Skylake-X with Cascade Lake-X, but we got Basin Falls Refresh instead. However, there have been some leaks that point to Cascade Lake-X being the next HEDT release – though still stuck on 14nm. We’ve already seen some Cascade Lake processors show up in the small business-focused Intel Core Xeon E processors, so we can’t wait to see what Cascade Lake-X becomes. Just because Cascade Lake is focusing on server chips right now, doesn’t mean that there isn't any excitement to be had, or that it won’t turn into HEDT products later on down the line. So, keep this page bookmarked, as we’ll update it with all the latest information. Cut to the Chase
Image Credit: Intel Intel Cascade Lake-X release dateEven though we’ve finally got word from Intel about Cascade Lake server processors, the release schedule for Cascade Lake-X is kind of a mess. Some Cascade Lake Xeon processors hit the street already, namely the Xeon E-2100 line processors. These chips are aimed at small businesses, with up to 6 cores. There are also some 48-core server grade Cascade Lake processors coming out later this year, according to a report from Ars Technica. We’ve also seen a leak from the Chiphell forums that hints at a Cascade Lake-X reveal at Computex 2019. This leak refers to these new chips as LGA 2066 parts, which would put them in the same league as Intel’s new Basin Falls Refresh processors. That’s all we know for now, but something tells us that there will be much more to Cascade Lake over the next few months, so stay tuned for all your Cascade Lake release date information. Image Credit: TechRadar Intel Cascade Lake-X priceThis is where things might get uncomfortable, so brace yourself. Intel doesn’t exactly have a history of releasing HCC and HEDT processors for what we would call ‘reasonable’ prices. So, we expect the pricing of Cascade Lake-X to fall in line with, or exceed Skylake-X’s pricing. However, the early days of Cascade Lake looks reasonable, with the small business-targeted pricing being pretty reasonable. The prices of the Cascade Lake Xeon E-2100 line is as follows:
When it comes to the eventual Cascade Lake-X chips, and the Xeon W chip the prices are going to be much higher. So, we’ve taken the liberty of listing the pricing of Skylake-X processors below.
Image Credit: TechRadar Intel Cascade Lake-X specsAssuming for a second that the 28-core CPU showed off at Computex is indicative of what we can expect from Cascade Lake-X, things are about to get bananas. Skylake-X offered significantly higher core counts than the previous generation of HEDT processors because it was manufactured on a smaller die. Cascade Lake-X doesn't have the same advantage as it’s still based on 14nm++ manufacturing. So while it will be able to offer slightly higher core counts, core clocks and power efficiency than Skylake-X, the leap in performance isn’t going to be as breathtaking. Still, Intel could use this process refinement to deliver a better value proposition – maybe offering a 10-core CPU for under $1,000. This could attract plenty of enthusiasts over to this server and enterprise platform, rather than more affordable mainstream CPUs. Intel has finally revealed the Intel Xeon W-3175X, which is a 28-core processor, meant for high-end server solutions. We don’t quite know what it’s going to be able to do, as it won’t be coming out until December 2018, but we do have specs for the Xeon E-2100 series of processors, which are targeted at small business-grade servers. Those specs are as follows:
That’s all we know for now, so now we just have to wait for Intel to reveal what’s in store – and we’ll be sure to update this page the second we know more.
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| Nvidia Turing release date, news and features Posted: 12 Apr 2019 10:43 AM PDT The wait for Nvidia’s next-generation Turing graphics cards was excruciating but, finally, the latest and greatest GPU architecture is here. It was a long wait, but the sheer power of Nvidia Turing was definitely worth it. Now that we finally have Turing-powered Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, RTX 2070 and RTX 2060 cards in our hands, we know they’re the best graphics cards for the games we’ll be playing for the next few years. Nvidia Turing will be behind some creative work too, thanks to the recently introduced Nvidia Titan RTX. Real time ray tracing is the game changing technology this time around, bringing this long-awaited graphics technology to the mainstream with Nvidia Turing. This could bring about a graphical revolution in the way the best PC games are rendered. And, judging by recent games like Metro Exodus, that revolution has arrived – especially considering you can enable ray tracing on non-RTX cards (to the tune of a major performance hit). Of course, if you don’t want to invest in the unique RTX tech, Nvidia has launched the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and the GeForce GTX 1660. They’re not quite as powerful as their ray tracing cousins, but they’re significantly more affordable. Plus, it looks like Nvidia is planning on releasing more affordable GPUs. We’ve seen some leaks that shed light on the GTX 1650. We’ve seen some leaks of new laptop GPUs, too. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: Nvidia Nvidia Turing release dateAll of the currently-announced Nvidia Turing GPUs are now out in the wild – the RTX 2080 Ti, 2080, 2070, 2060, GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1660. Thankfully, the RTX-series cards are readily available now after some initial limited availability, and you’ll likely find more than a few models on sale everyday. And, at CES 2019, we didn’t just finally get an RTX 2060 announcement, but also over 40 gaming laptops sporting the mobile version of Nvidia RTX graphics. The best gaming laptops of CES 2019, like the Alienware Area 51m, were all packing the latest Nvidia Turing graphics, and they’ve started hitting the market almost immediately in early- to mid-January 2019. And, if you were looking for a graphics card that you won’t have to take out a personal loan to afford, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti arrived on February 22nd. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 quickly followed with its own March 14th release date. Nvidia isn’t showing any signs of slowing down anytime soon, as rumors also suggest that the GeForce GTX 1650 is on its way. We’ve already seen some leaked photos of the GTX 1650, along with its retail boxes. Rumors suggest that the GTX 1650 will release on April 30. We’ve also seen some leaks suggesting that Nvidia Turing GTX graphics will start showing up in less prohibitively expensive laptops. An Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650showed up in a rogue 3DMark entry. And, earlier that same week, another new Nvidia GPU popped up in Notebook Check’s database, and this GPU is suspected to be the mobile version of the GTX 1660 Ti for desktops. Image Credit: TechRadar Nvidia Turing priceAlthough the Nvidia Turing series started with the Quadro RTX GPUs, we're far more interested in the graphics cards available for consumers. If you wanted to check out these enterprise-leaning parts head on here, otherwise read on for the prices of the announced consumer cards below:
Overall, the prices for Nvidia's newest graphics cards seem to have risen with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti taking the place of Nvidia’s past Titan cards. This shift up can sadly be seen across the entire lineup. Not to mention that the prices on the store for the RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 were a bit higher than what Nvidia CEO and founder Jensen Huang revealed at the Nvidia Geforce Celebration at Gamescom 2018 – at the time of writing. For instance, the 2080 Ti was initially revealed at $999, but that price is rarely reflected outside of some occasional discounts. Then there’s the GTX Turing cards. Right now, there’s only one on the market, the $279 (£259, AU$469) GTX 1660 Ti. However, there are rumors of two more affordable Turing cards launching later this year. And, while there are some rumored prices for these cards, they haven’t been confirmed, so you should take them with a grain of salt.
Image Credit: TechRadar Nvidia Turing specsThe headline feature of Nvidia Turing is the inclusion of ray-tracing tech that can render more realistic visuals and lighting in real time without having to fall back on programming tricks. These specialized RTX cores essentially calculate how light and sound travel in a 3D environment at a rate of up to 10 GigaRays on the RTX 2080 Ti. These specialized cores will also supposedly allow Nvidia Turing-based graphics cards to process ray tracing up to 25 times faster than Pascal. When these RTX Cores aren’t in use for processing ray tracing, they’ll essentially switch off, ceasing to draw any power. In addition to these RTX cores, the Turing Architecture will also feature Tensor Cores, like the ones found in Volta. These specialized cores enable artificial intelligence and neural networking so that Turing cards get better at rendering over time – something previously exclusive to supercomputers. With the ability to deliver 500 trillion Tensor operations a second, this technology accelerates deep learning training and inferencing. This will allow Nvidia to offer Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), which could be a version of super sampling that won’t bring your computer to its knees. Even for games that don’t support this new DLSS tech, these AI-fueled cores should deliver traditional anti-aliasing much more efficiently – up to eight times. As with Volta, Nvidia Turing is adopting GDDR6 memory – up to 11GB in the RTX 2080 Ti, which can clock in at up to 14Gbps, quite the leap over the Pascal-powered Nvidia Titan Xp that clocked in at 11.4Gbps. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is an absolute behemoth of a GPU. With 4,352 CUDA cores, 11GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a 352-bit memory bus and 18 billion transistors, it’ll be capable of 4K Ultra gaming at high refresh rates for years to come. It’s no wonder it comes with such a high price tag. The more mainstream RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 are both also quite impressive and absolutely destroy the previous generation of GPUs. The former will feature 2,944 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR6 memory and clocks in at a 1.5GHz base frequency. The 2070, though is be a bit weaker, coming with 2,304 CUDA cores 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM and clocked at a 1,410Mhz base frequency. And, while the RTX 2060 is basically just a cut-down RTX 2070, with the same TU106 GPU, but with 1,920 CUDA cores, 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a boost clock of 1,680 MHz, it’s still a formidable graphics card. There are rumors of an RTX 2070 Ti, through some leaked benchmarks. The details are a bit hard to believe, as it’s listed with 7.5GB of VRAM at 3,150MHz, when the 2070 has 8GB at 3,500MHz. Given the fact that Ti-branded graphics cards are usually more powerful than their non-Ti companions, we’d take this with a grain of salt. Nvidia has also launched a couple non-RTX cards, starting with the GTX 1660 Ti. This entry-level card features 1,536 CUDA cores, 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM at 12Gbps, and a base clock of 1,500 MHz. It’s slower than the RTX 2060, but it’s a substantial upgrade over the GTX 1060 it replaces. Team Green’s second non-RTX GPU, the GTX 1660 features 1,480 CUDA cores, 6GB of GDDR5 video memory and a reference boost clock of 1,785MHz. It might not sound mighty on paper, but between its low price and fantastic 1080p gaming performance, it’s currently the absolutely best entry-level graphics card you can buy. Word on the street is that a third non-RTX GPU is on the way, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650. This low-end gpu is rumored to feature the TU117 GPU, clocked at 1,655 MHz with 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM. These aren’t confirmed specs, but that would make it quite the entry-level card. There are rumors that we’ll see more Turing budget cards, namely the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650. We don’t know what kind of power this cards will pack, at least not for sure. But, word on the street is that the GTX 1650 will pack GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit memory bus, but beyond that who knows what it can do.
Nvidia Turing PerformanceAnd, as long as you have the high-end specs to back them up, the new Turing RTX cards are able to perform much faster than their Pascal equivalents, and will be able to push it even further once DLSS or deep learning super sampling is more widespread. And, thanks to the AA improvements in the Tensor cores, we’re seeing about a 20-40% increase in games that don't support DLSS. In our benchmarks, the GeForce RTX 2080 outperforms the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti by about 11% and the Nvidia GTX 1080 by a more impressive 32% in Middle Earth: Shadow of War in 4K. This performance difference is even more massive when you look at the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti which not only is 20% faster than the RTX 2080 in the same title, but beats out the last-generation 1080 Ti by a massive 30%, destroying the GTX 1080 with a 45% performance delta. Unfortunately, the Nvidia RTX 2070 is less impressive. While it does absolutely wipe the floor with the GTX 1070, it is essentially neck in neck with the GTX 1080 – barely hitting a 10% performance increase at 4K in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. At its price point we were hoping for more, especially after seeing the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti’s impressive performances. The RTX 2060 is obviously the weakest of the bunch, but you shouldn’t dismiss it outright. The mid-range Nvidia Turing card far outclasses the GTX 1060, but what’s more surprising is that it surpasses the GTX 1070 Ti – for a lower asking price. We were able to get 90 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p, whereas the 1070 Ti lagged behind at 86 fps. That’s not a huge difference, but the 2060 is $100 cheaper at launch. In traditional games, there’s no question that Nvidia Turing marks a total upgrade from Pascal. And, over time as drivers mature and users get ready to start overclocking their Turing cards, the difference is only going to grow. That’s not to mention the inclusion of incoming DLSS and ray tracing in games, which should only increase the Nvidia Turing performance gap. When it comes to ray tracing, there’s only one title that supports it right now: Battlefield V. And, in that title, the Nvidia Turing cards use a hybrid rendering technique – combining both traditional rasterization and ray tracing in order to produce playable frame rates. Nvidia utilizes “Bounding Volume Hierarchy,” or BVH to track large portions of the scene being rendered for whether or not a ray is being bounced. The RTX cores will then dig deeper into these large rendering zones until it finds the polygon that’s getting hit by the light ray. This method impacts performance far less than tracking each ray live, but it’s still very demanding. In our own testing, you’ll be stuck at 1080p if you’re looking for smooth gameplay with ray tracing turned on. However, with Nvidia’s latest RTX drivers, it’s claiming to increase performance by up to 50% for ray tracing. We’ll be sure to test this and report back, but we have to wait for the new Battlefield V patch to do it. As for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, you can expect much better performance than the GTX 1060 for less money – up to 56% faster in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p in our testing. That makes the 1660 Ti a beast when it comes to value.
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| Intel Skylake-X release date, news and features Posted: 12 Apr 2019 10:42 AM PDT Over the last few years, there has been a ton of newfound competition in the CPU space – reigniting the endless war of AMD vs Intel. Enter Skylake-X, Intel’s answer to AMD’s massively successful Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs. AMD launched its Ryzen processors back in 2017 and it caught Intel by surprise. We didn’t know how Intel would respond, at least at first. There were scattered rumors that Intel would launch Cannon Lake at Computex 2017, but, of course, that didn’t happen. Instead, INtel announced Skylake-X, a line of HEDT processors. And, Skylake-X successfully countered AMD. The Intel Core i9-7980XE was launched at Computex 2017, and while we all saw it coming, we were impressed by the performance, even if it was prohibitively expensive. But, the Intel Skylake-X story isn’t over yet. About a year later, in 2018, Intel announced the new HEDT Basin Falls Refresh processors, like the beastly Intel Core i9-9980XE, based on an improved 14nm architecture, along with a 28-core Xeon W chip to extend the Skylake-X family into 2019 and beyond. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: TechRadar Release dateIntel released the lower-end Skylake-X processors immediately following their reveal at Computex 2017 with the Core i7-7800X, Core i7-7820X and Core i9-7900X. All of which was released on June 19, 2017. Later, Intel launched three more enterprise processors, with the Intel Core i9-7920X, Core i9-7940X and Core i9-7960X all hitting the streets by September 2017. Later that month, Intel launched the Core i9-7980XE, an absolute unit of a chip that destroyed everything that came up against it. And, now that Kaby Lake-X chips are a thing – or, were a thing when they died unceremoniously – you might be thinking to yourself that all the fun ended with the 7980XE. However, Skylake-X isn’t dead yet. Intel also announced a Skylake SP 28-core server chip, which would later be christened the Intel Xeon W-3175X, back at Computex 2018. Intel’s newest addition to this family was officially announced on October 8, 2018 and release in February 2019 to dethrone Threadripper 2nd Generation. Image Credit: TechRadar PriceThe biggest thing holding Intel Skylake-X chips from an easy recommendation is their price – they’re some of the most expensive consumer CPUs you can buy today. If you want to pick up a Core i9 processor for your latest build, you might actually need to sell your car first, as they start out around $999 (about £750, AU$1,340). Now, the Core i7 Skylake X processors are a bit more reasonable, but you’re still paying to adopt a high-end platform, so don’t expect to base a budget build off of Skylake-X. Below you can find the pricing for all of the Skylake-X processors currently available.
We also finally know that the 28-core A-series chip is going to be extremely expensive – if you want to get your hands on the Intel Xeon W-3175X, you’re looking at $2,999 (about £2,330, AU$4,250). Get ready to drop at least $10,000 if you’re planning on building an equally powerful rig around this chip. Image Credit: TechRadar SpecsIntel newest Cascade Lake chip, the Intel Xeon W-3175X, seems to be beyond the realm of these other Skylake-X HEDT chips. With a name like Xeon, this CPU is designed for more enterprise usage than enthusiast overclocking. Although the chip first debuted at Computex 2018 with a 5.0GHz boost clock, it was later revealed that Intel was actually overclocking while immersing the processor in liquid-nitrogen. Without an extreme setup, you're more likely to see this chip running at a maximum of 4.3GHz. However, the next actual HEDT processors lie within the Basin Falls Refresh lineup. Chips like the Intel Core i9-9980XE are positioned to take on the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX and Threadripper 2970WX. And, while it is faster, it’s still hard to justify the high price. Image Credit: TechRadar Intel newest Skylake chip, the Intel Xeon W-3175X, is beyond the realm of these other HEDT chips. With the Xeon name, this CPU is designed for more enterprise usage – think 3D animation – than enthusiast overclocking. Although the chip first debuted at Computex 2018 with a 5.0GHz boost clock, it was later revealed that Intel was actually overclocking while immersing the chip in liquid-nitrogen. We finally have the final specs, and it looks like the Intel Xeon W-3175X will have a core clock of 3.1 GHz, with a boost of 3.8GHz across all 28 cores and a 4.3GHz single-core turbo clock. And, with the new Intel C621 chipset, this CPU comes with a greatly expanded support platform. This chip supports 68 PCIe lanes, 6-channel memory for up to 512GB of RAM running at 2,666MHz. Image Credit: Intel Intel newest Skylake-X chip, the Intel Xeon W-3175X, seems to be beyond the realm of these other HEDT chips. With a name like Xeon, this CPU is designed for more enterprise usage than enthusiast overclocking. Although the chip first debuted at Computex 2018 with a 5.0GHz boost clock, it was later revealed that Intel was actually overclocking while immersing the chip in liquid-nitrogen. Without an extreme setup, you're more likely to see this chip running at a maximum 4.3GHz. Although Intel has yet to reveal a new chipset for the Xeon W-3175X, this CPU comes with a greatly expanded support platform. Team Blue has said the chip will support 68 PCIe lanes, 6-channel memory for up to 512GB of RAM running at 2,666MHz. All told, this maybe the processor to finally outpace the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX and Threadripper 2970WX.
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| AMD Navi release date, news and rumors Posted: 12 Apr 2019 10:41 AM PDT Now that AMD has revealed its first 7nm consumer graphics card, the Radeon VII, it’s about time for Team Red to reveal its other 7nm GPU architecture, Navi. We have seen rumors that suggest AMD Navi won’t immediately occupy the high end of the market – even if it may include similar variable rate shading to Nvidia Turing. Instead, AMD Navi looks like it’ll occupy the mid range at first, along with the rumor of a GPU designed for the next generation of consoles. So, before we dive into all the juicy gossip, speculation and even some official info, you should know that nothing has been confirmed. Still, you should keep this page bookmarked, and we’ll keep it updated with all the latest information as it emerges. Cut to the Chase
Image Credit: AMD AMD Navi release dateRight now, the only official proof that Navi will be launch anytime soon is a small statement from AMD titled “Expanding our High-Performance Leadership with Focused 7nm Development.” In the release, AMD Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster states that “We have already tapped out multiple 7nm products at TSMC, including our first 7nm GPU planned to launch later this year and our first 7nm server CPU that we plan to launch in 2019.” Unfortunately, even with that statement we don’t really have a full picture of when or how AMD Navi is going to hit the market. Especially when the only 7nm GPUs have been the Radeon Instinct cards for workstations, Vega II and the AMD Radeon VII – a high-end part tapped to compete with the RTX 2080. A lot of the speculation right now revolves around Navi being designed to power the next generation of game consoles, with gaming graphics cards to follow later. This all comes from that leaked roadmap we mentioned earlier, which suggests that AMD Navi will show up in the second half of 2019. However, the entire line probably won’t make an appearance at the same time. Instead, the cards that will likely show up in 2019 will be more mid-range products for budget-minded gamers with full-fat enthusiast grade 7nm cards showing up as late as 2020. This all comes from a leaked benchmark, however, but it would seem to fall in line with when we can expect the next generation of consoles – late 2019/early 2020. And, recent leaks that point to AMD Navi launching in October 2019 seem to back up that speculation. But, AMD Navi graphics cards may appear much earlier. There has been plenty of speculation that AMD may launch Navi alongside its 7nm Zen 2 processors at Computex 2019 in July. that would still be the second half of 2019, but it does seem a bit early. AMD Navi also may come in laptops and even the next line of MacBooks if newly found code in macOS Mojave is to be believed. These Navi-powered MacBooks are rumored to arrive in July, which would follow just a month after the purported debut of next-gen consoles. Either way, we know that AMD Navi is coming, we’ve even seen rumors about Navi’s follow-up, called Arcturus, according to a report from Wccftech. It seems like AMD has a lot of stuff coming out in the next few years, we just have to wait to see what happens. Image Credit: TechRadar AMD Navi priceOver the last decade or so, AMD has essentially built a name for itself in the GPU space as the budget king. And, as Nvidia gets ready to release its next generation of Turing RTX graphics cards that cost upwards of a thousand bucks, AMD will probably double down on this – just like it released Ryzen and Ryzen Threadripper to counter Intel. As for the exact pricing, we’re not entirely sure, but we expect the pricing to follow in line with the Radeon RX 500 series. Those prices are below.
We can expect the prices to go up, however, due to the likely inclusion of GDDR6 memory, which we’ll dive into later. Either way, expect to pay more for the Radeon RX 650. Image Credit: AMD AMD Navi specsBeyond the rumor that it’s going to be running on a 7nm process and GDDR6, there’s not much we know about AMD Navi. Because AMD Navi is going to be the first mainstream GPU processor to break away from the GCN architecture, we could see more shaders and and faster clock speeds, while improving efficiency substantially. However, we don’t think AMD is going to be doing much to compete on the high-end with Nvidia this time around. AMD Vega 7nm, which would have the horsepower to compete with Nvidia Turing, won’t be coming to gamers. Instead, it will likely appeal more towards professionals and creatives – with Apple likely being a huge customer. In the past AMD would compete with high-end Nvidia GPUs by just shoving multiple chips into a graphics cards and passing it along as a enthusiast-grade GPU. This time around, though, AMD has made it clear that it’s not interested in making multi-GPU setups, according to a report from PCWorld. This is backed up by the fact that only two of the AMD Radeon RX 500 series cards were even compatible with Crossfire. So, instead of any high-end GPU, we’ll likely see a Radeon RX 600 series that’ll continue the legacy of cards like the AMD Radeon RX 580, delivering respectable performance in modern titles at 1080p while keeping prices attainable for more budget-conscious gamers. So instead of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti rival, think more Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 in terms of direct competition – at least until Navi 20 next year. There are rumors that AMD is going to follow up the first iteration of Navi, which will be aimed at mid-range systems, with Navi 20, which should compete with Nvidia’s flagship. This next-generation graphics card family is rumored to offer improved performance, allowing for ray tracing, according to a report from Wccftech. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to keep waiting for concrete information on AMD Navi. But, until then, keep this page bookmarked for all the latest news, rumors and speculation. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Intel Lakefield release date, news and rumors Posted: 12 Apr 2019 10:40 AM PDT Intel must be feeling the heat from Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered laptops, because the company is now developing its first hybrid processor or system-on-a-chip (SOC). Cue Lakefield, an Intel processor unlike anything that you’ve ever seen. It comes packed with more than one type of CPU core to create a more stable and better-rounded chip. Plus, these hybrid SOCs can even come with their own integrated memory, I/O interface, wireless connectivity, and, of course, integrated GPUs. Because it has so many different components built into the chip, Lakefield operates more like the ARM processors found in the best smartphones, than the traditional CPUs that have been powering laptops and desktop computers practically since they were invented.Lakefield could just change the computer game for the first time in years. It’s not surprising that Intel isn’t the only one chasing the SOC dream, as AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation chips are also architecturally designed to be hybrid processors. Before this new wave of SOCs hits us, here’s everything you need to know about Intel Lakefield. Cut to the Chase
Intel Lakefield release dateSo far, Intel has only promised that Lakefield will be in production this year. However, Intel has also stated that it’s committed to having 10nm devices on shelves in time for the 2019 holiday shopping season in the US, so we can reasonably expect to see Lakefield-powered products become available sometime between October and December. Image credit: Intel Intel Lakefield pricePricing on Lakefield processors is going to be really hard to pin down, because as we’ve mentioned these will be Intel’s first ever hybrid processors. Without any pre-existing chips to use as a point of reference, we don’t really have much to base our speculation on. Additionally, it seems like Lakefield will primarily be integrated into laptops and other types of mobile devices, rather than appearing on store shelves as boxed processors. With this in mind, these hybrid CPUs will likely only be available to commercial partners such as system integrators and original device manufacturers – so the chances of you being able to buy standalone Lakefield CPUs are slim. Image credit: Intel Intel Lakefield specsBefore we get into the nitty-gritty of the makeup of an Intel Lakefield processor, it’s worth discussing the guiding principle or technological revolution behind the company’s first hybrid x86 CPU: Foveros. To start this journey, we’ll first take a look back at where Intel has been. For the most part, Intel’s processors up to now have utilized either monolithic or 2D integration packaging – that is to say, that’s how the chips are built. The former process has been used for the bulk of Intel’s processors, in which the CPU core, integrated memory, I/O and graphics are all integrated into a single die or unit. Image credit: Intel Intel recently introduced 2D integration with its Kaby Lake G processors, which placed Intel CPU cores with discrete-class AMD graphics next to each other. Although the two separate components are ultimately built into a single package, they’re connected through the use of Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge, which enables high-speed communication. Foveros is essentially an evolution of this 2D integration, in which other components can be stacked on top of each other in a form of logic-on-logic integration. The influence Foveros has had on the design on Intel’s Lakefield processor can be easily seen thanks to a recently released video that dissects the hybrid processor. We can clearly see the 12mm square package is stacked like a sandwich, with integrated memory sitting on top of the chip’s main components. The CPU itself includes a mix of different cores, including one big 10nm Sunny Cove core for performance and four, smaller 10nm Atom cores for low-energy tasks. This mix of differently performing CPU cores will supposedly allow small-form-factor devices to deliver both performance and power efficiency at the same time. What's more, this chip comes with Intel’s Gen11 integrated graphics, as well as interfaces for cameras and hardwired connections, or I/O – not to mention the integrated memory sitting on top of all these components. Image credit: Intel Despite their stacked nature, Intel Lakefield processors will still fit into the smallest of devices. At its CES 2019 keynote, Intel demonstrated how its hybrid processor can be fitted onto a motherboard no larger than a Roku Streaming Stick. Intel has said that Lakefield can scale from low-power systems to full PC performance machines. This wide range of devices includes traditional notebooks, 2-in-1 (convertible or detachable) laptops, and even dual-screen laptops. Devices similar to the Intel Tiger Rapids and Asus Project Precog could get this new hybrid processor. That’s everything we know about Intel Lakefield so far, but we’re sure to learn more about Intel’s innovative hybrid processor soon. Stay tuned to this page, as we’ll be bringing you the latest developments as we learn about them.
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| AMD Vega II release date, news and rumors Posted: 12 Apr 2019 10:40 AM PDT It was a fairly quiet year for AMD’s graphics department in 2018, but now that AMD has released the Radeon VII graphics card for gaming, 2019 is the year of the 7nm GPU. We were left in anticipation for a new AMD graphics card for quite a while, but the Radeon VII managed to put AMD back on the map – even if it continues to be dominated by Nvidia. Thanks to the new 7nm GPU architecture, AMD was able to pack its latest graphics cards with more transistors than ever before, without increasing the power draw. Priced the same as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, while delivering comparable performance – albeit without Nvidia Turing’s ray tracing or DLSS features – the Radeon VII has ensure that 2019 is an exciting year for the best graphics cards. While the AMD Radeon VII is at least superficially related to Vega, it hasn’t been confirmed whether or not it’ll be an official part of the Vega II family – if he Vega II family is even a real thing. Based on what we were hearing before the Radeon VII was revealed, it lines up with what we were expecting from Vega II, so we’ll be treating it as a Vega II part, even if it’s not official. So, be sure to keep this page bookmarked, and we’ll dive into everything there is to know about AMD Vega II. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: AMD AMD Vega II release dateAt CES 2019, AMD announced the Radeon VII, the first 7nm consumer graphics card. Launching on February 7, 2019, what we believe to be the first of the Vega II graphics cards arrived with Devil May Cry V, Resident Evil 2 and The Division 2. However, while the Radeon VII faced some supply issues at launch, AMD’s high-end GPU is now widely available. This is good news, as AMD’s Navi cards may not even show up until October 2018, even if we’ve seen some other speculation that AMD’s next cards will be revealed at Computex 2019. Either way, we’ll be sure to update this article with any new information that comes our way. Image Credit: AMD AMD Vega II priceRight now there’s only one AMD Vega II card, the Radeon VII, and that has launched at $699 (£649, AU$1,109), bundled with three games. We’re sure that AMD will fill out the product stack with lower priced GPUs in the future, but we don’t know what the pricing will look like quite yet. However, you can probably assume it’s going to compete with Nvidia’s Turing product stack directly. Image Credit: TechRadar AMD Vega II specsThe switch from a 14nm process to a 7nm process allows AMD to pack even more power into each GPU. For its graphics cards, this move means more transistors in each GPU without having to increase the die size or the power requirements. And, the AMD Radeon VII is the fist 7nm graphics card for gamers, with 3,840 stream processors, 16GB HBM2 VRAM and 1TB/s of memory bandwidth. This goes directly against the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, which has 2,944 CUDA cores, 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM and 448GB/s of memory bandwidth. The Radeon VII will definitely outperform its competitor in some workloads thanks to sheer horsepower. But, it’s especially going to shine in creative workloads, meaning that it’s going to be the best graphics card for hobbyist video editors and content creators who don’t have the cash to drop on a professional product. But, the AMD Radeon VII won’t offer the double-precision capabilities that the enterprise Radeon MI60 does, according to ExtremeTech, so it’s still very much a consumer graphics card. Aside from standalone cards, it seems all but guaranteed that the Vega II series will find its way into mobile and lower-power devices as integrated graphics processors. With a new generation of Ryzen processors expected, a new generation of Vega graphics to integrate into APUs is only fitting. In fact, laptops will soon see a flurry of 2nd Gen Ryzen Mobile processors equipped with brand new Vega graphics. Even the anticipated Xbox Scarlet Cloud could see Vega II built into its APU.
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| Intel Ice Lake release date, news and features Posted: 12 Apr 2019 10:39 AM PDT The computing world has eagerly waited for Intel to boldly show us something we haven’t seen before – and that might be Intel Ice Lake, the company’s first 10nm CPU family, which may make it out ahead of Cannon Lake. Intel Ice Lake processors will finally move away from the aging 14nm process, which has been ‘enhanced’ repeatedly since the introduction of Broadwell nearly five years ago. With AMD going full steam ahead with its 7nm Zen 2 processors, including AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation and presumably Threadripper 3rd Generation, it’s about time for Team Blue’s chips to evolve. Cut to the Chase
Image Credit: TechRadar Intel Ice Lake release dateIntel’s announcement of Ice Lake at CES 2019 came as a surprise, and it was even more surprising to hear that these 10nm processors would release this holiday season in the US. We don’t have a narrower release window than that, so we’re expecting these chips to arrive within the last three months of the year worldwide. Until recently, we expected Cannon Lake would usher in Intel’s first 10nm processor, but then the company pulled a fast one and introduced Ice Lake instead. It was a bit of a gotcha moment at CES, when we were fully expecting Cannon Lake to finally get its long-delayed reveal. But then again, Intel introduced its Sunny Cove architecture – from which these Ice Lake CPUs will be derived – a few weeks before the giant tech conference. Intel Ice Lake priceIntel isn’t anywhere close to announcing pricing for its Ice Lake-series processors, unfortunately. For now, we can only look at how the prices of Intel’s processors have shifted going from Coffee Lake to Coffee Lake Refresh to speculate about how much Ice Lake CPUs will go for. AMD could also be another influence on Intel pricing – although unfortunately Team Red also has yet to announce pricing for its Ryzen 3rd Generation CPUs. So we’ll have to wait and see how the cost of the first 7nm processors will affect Team Blue’s pricing scheme for its own 10nm processors. Image Credit: Intel Intel Ice Lake specsThe headline feature of Intel Ice Lake is, of course, the new underlying 10nm Sunny Cove microarchitecture. What’s more, these new processors will be the first to the feature next-generation Gen11 graphics. Overall, Intel has promised a 2x performance boost, thanks to the smaller fabrication processes and the die shrink from 14nm. Aside from the chips’ main microarchitecture, Ice Lake CPUs will also come with native support for Thunderbolt 3, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and DL Boost. While Intel has yet to officially announce any exact processor models, it showed off an unnamed Ice Lake U-series CPU at its Architecture Day and at CES 2019. The basic specs of the 15W laptop processor included 4-cores, 8-threads and Gen11 graphics with 64 GPU execution units (EU). The new graphics look like a significant improvement from the Gen9 GPU found in Intel’s current line of processors, which only featured 24 EUs. In fact, the company claims Ice Lake-U will be the first chip with one TFLOP of integrated graphics performance. Additionally, we’ve seen leaked GFXBench and CompuBench benchmarks that show Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics 940 (Gen11) blowing past other 15W parts like the Intel Core i5-8250U and AMD Ryzen 7 2700U. Going on the leaked scores, Gen11 graphics may even be able to keep up with a desktop AMD Ryzen 5 2400G APU. Lastly, Intel also promised that Ice Lake will help devices achieve a battery life of over 25 hours. This is largely thanks to Team Blue performing a top-to-bottom analysis of power draw to reduce energy consumption, and also adding its new 1W display technologies. That’s everything we know about Intel’s ambitions for Ice Lake in the mobile sector, but while we're waiting to learn more we're expecting to hear about Intel's new desktop processors in the summer. Stay tuned, as we’ll be posting regular updates to this page as we hear new rumors, leaks and any official news Intel spoon-feeds us throughout the year.
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| AMD Vega release date, news and features: everything you need to know Posted: 12 Apr 2019 10:38 AM PDT AMD Vega first appeared way back at CES 2017. What we didn’t know then, however, is that it wouldn’t show up on the market until seven months later in August 2017. And, looking back on 2017, cryptocurrency was all the rage, and AMD Vega was massively successful as the architecture behind the best mining cards. That crypto craze didn’t last long, and as everyone moved on, the consumer demand for AMD Vega cards similarly quieted down. Luckily, that means that AMD Vega graphics cards are affordable again – though we suspect many users will opt for the new Radeon VII instead. Not that the AMD Vega cards are necessarily outdated, though. AMD’s latest Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition unlocks a ton of new functionality for current graphics cards. AMD Vega graphics cards will be just fine for quite a while. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: TechRadar AMD Radeon RX Vega release dateBack in August 2017, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 launched as a standalone card for $499 or £549 (about AU$630). That's a big step up from the Radeon RX 500 lineup, which starts at as low as $169 (about £136, AU$219), but this is meant to be AMD's enthusiast-class grade graphics card. It's been a long-awaited sequel to the company's mostly defunct Radeon R9 Fury X, which was still going for a cool $389 (about £315, AU$505) up until the very end. What's more, at this price point it's competitive against the $549 (£539, AU$1,299) Nvidia GTX 1080 Founders Edition. After the launch of the Vega 64 in the US, AMD offered two other editions of the card that could be bought exclusively as part of ‘Radeon Packs’, which bundled two free games, and discounts on a Samsung CF791 curved ultra-wide FreeSync monitor and a nice $100 discount on a Ryzen 7 processor and motherboard. The packs are unfortunately unavailable to purchase at time of writing, however. Unfortunately, those hardware discounts only kicked in if users are buying the said monitor and CPU/motherboard combo at the same time as their Vega GPU. Of course, users could choose to not buy the extra components and peripherals while still getting the two free games, confirmed – in the US at least – to be Wolfenstein II and Prey. The limited-edition AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 came as part of a Radeon Black Pack for $599 (£460, AU$750). Meanwhile, the liquid-cooled Vega 64 ran for $699 (£530, AU$875), and can only be purchased as part of AMD's Radeon Aqua Pack. Lastly, you'll be able to purchase the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 by itself for $400 (about £284, AU$500) MSRP. At the end of the day Vega was as competitive to Nvidia’s Pascal cards as the first generation Ryzen was to Intel’s Kaby Lake. And, now that AMD Vega cards are back down to MSRP, or even lower, you won’t have to worry about spending 2-3x retail price to upgrade your graphics cards. Image Credit: TechRadar AMD Radeon RX Vega priceBack in August 2017, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 launched as a standalone card for $499 or £549 (about AU$630). That's a big step up from the Radeon RX 500 lineup, which starts at as low as $169 (about £136, AU$219), but this is meant to be AMD's enthusiast-class grade graphics card. It's been a long-awaited sequel to the company's mostly defunct Radeon R9 Fury X, which was still going for a cool $389 (about £315, AU$505) up until the very end. What's more, at this price point it's competitive against the $549 (£539, AU$1,299) Nvidia GTX 1080 Founders Edition. After the launch of the Vega 64 in the US, AMD offered two other editions of the card that could be bought exclusively as part of ‘Radeon Packs’, which bundled two free games, and discounts on a Samsung CF791 curved ultra-wide FreeSync monitor and a nice $100 discount on a Ryzen 7 processor and motherboard. The packs are unfortunately unavailable to purchase at time of writing, however. Unfortunately, those hardware discounts only kicked in if users are buying the said monitor and CPU/motherboard combo at the same time as their Vega GPU. Of course, users could choose to not buy the extra components and peripherals while still getting the two free games, confirmed – in the US at least – to be Wolfenstein II and Prey. The limited-edition AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 came as part of a Radeon Black Pack for $599 (£460, AU$750). Meanwhile, the liquid-cooled Vega 64 ran for $699 (£530, AU$875), and can only be purchased as part of AMD's Radeon Aqua Pack. Lastly, you'll be able to purchase the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 by itself for $400 (about £284, AU$500) MSRP. At the end of the day, Vega was – at least at launch – as competitive to Nvidia as Ryzen is to Intel. Thankfully, due to the cryptocurrency market cooling down, AMD Vega cards have fallen to a reasonable price. They’re not quite down to MSRP, but they’re pretty close – you won’t have to worry about spending 2-3x MSRP value to upgrade your GPU. Image Credit: AMD AMD Radeon RX Vega specsFollowing its 2017 Capsaicin 2 livestream event, AMD revealed the exact specifications for its two new Vega GPUs, as well as its underlying Vega 10 architecture. From the chart above, it's clear the most powerful of the bunch will be the liquid-cooled version of the Radeon RX Vega 64. The more expensive water-cooled version will operate at higher base/boost clocks, despite sharing identical specs to its air-cooled twin. Image Credit: AMD The RX Vega 56, on the other hand, is positioned against Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1070 at $400 (about £305, AU$505). However, early benchmarks have cited performance that greatly outweighed that of its closest competition while running triple-A games at 2560 x 1440. Like the Polaris 10 architecture that preceded it, AMD's Polaris 10 architecture is built on an 14nm FinFET process that should ultimately make it more power-efficient and robust in performance. Image Credit: AMD Vega 10 is also noticeably skewed towards delivering on more compute power than raw graphical strength like Nvidia's Pascal GPUs. This will likely mean Vega will be able to better handle the complex calculations of procedural surfaces, volumetric lighting and the overall quality of the in-game graphics. This era of Vega GPUs also ditches GDDR5 memory altogether for a new format known as HBM2, or high-bandwidth memory. AMD believes its efficient memory offers a 75% smaller footprint than GDDR5 while also being 3.5 times more power-efficient. AMD also claims that Vega’s high-bandwidth cache controller will improve maximum frame rates by 50% and minimum frame rates by 100% over GDDR5 memory. Interestingly, Vega 10 is also designed to support up to 16GB of HBM2 memory – which we've already seen from Radeon Vega Frontier Edition – so Nvidia's Titan X may finally get some competition from AMD. Stay tuned for more details regarding everything AMD Vega, as we'll be updating this page with the latest as it happens. In the meantime, be sure to update to the latest version of AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive for a generous helping of GPU control features. Gabe Carey also contributed to this article
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| Best Elder Scrolls items - and a few we’d like to see in The Elder Scrolls 6 Posted: 12 Apr 2019 09:53 AM PDT What makes The Elders Scrolls such a brilliant RPG series is the expansive worlds that Bethesda builds - and the items and objects that fill it. Unique axes, maces, shields and chest pieces hide in dungeons, waiting to be discovered, and finding your new favorite, enchanted sword is every bit as rewarding as slaying a powerful boss. In anticipation of The Elder Scrolls 6, and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series, we’ve scoured Tamriel to find the items that we love the most. Here are the best weapons, armor, scrolls and shields in The Elder Scrolls- along with some suggestions for what we’d like to see in Bethesda’s next game. Wabbajack – Daggerfall/Oblivion/SkyrimThe Wabbajack is The Elder Scrolls’ most unpredictable weapon. Point it at an enemy and you might transform them into a sweetroll, but they may also morph into a powerful Daedra that can maul you in seconds. In Daggerfall and Oblivion, the Wabbajack turns NPCs into a random creature. Skyrim’s version is even better: as well as transforming an enemy into a chicken or a book it might decapitate them, teleport them a short distance, or make them explode in a shower of Septims. That randomness can make fights harder - but the resultant chaos is always worth it. Boots of Blinding Speed – MorrowindFor the small price of your eyesight, the Boots of Blinding Speed let you sprint around Morrowind as if you have rocket-powered shoes. You have no idea where you’re going thanks to the pure white light filling your screen- but you know you’ll get there very fast. Certain enchantments, such as resist magic, will keep the blindness at bay so you can see where you’re going, but we prefer to leave it to chance. Skull of Corruption – Daggerfall/Oblivion/SkyrimA wonderfully evil item that, in both Daggerfall and Oblivion, spawns a duplicate of any enemy, forcing your foe to fight a corrupted copy of itself. In Skyrim it’s different, but no less dastardly: it’s a regular staff that you power up by harvesting the dreams of NPCs. The more dreams you collect, the more damage the staff deals, and it can hit multiple enemies at once. Sleep with one eye open. Severed Nord Leg – Morrowind’s Bloodmoon expansionDying by a sword or axe isn’t humiliating. Dying because you’ve been bashed over the head by a severed leg, however, is The Elder Scrolls’ ultimate embarrassment. Part of the joy of getting this weapon is the beast you must kill to find it: it’s part troll, part gorilla, with glowing green eyes. It’s a tough fight, so stay limber. Ebony Blade – Arena/Daggerfall/Oblivion/SkyrimA beautiful, terrible sword that has become more twisted as the series has progressed. What started out as a weapon that leeched life from enemies when you slashed them has become, in Skyrim, a blade that hits harder the more friendly NPCs you slay with it. You’ll have to kill 10 friendly characters to max out its stats, you awful, awful person. Dawnbreaker - SkyrimA sword that smacks the undead so hard they explode. That ability, deriving from an enchantment called Meridia's Retribution, is specific to Dawnbreaker, making it the best sword for cutting down Dragon Priests and Draugr. These explosions of fire and flesh will damage any other undead enemies nearby, and some survivors will flee in fear. One to keep in mind for the zombie apocalypse, then. Auriel's Shield – Arena/Daggerfall/Skyrim’s Dawnguard expansionThe Elder Scrolls has plenty of powerful shields that will deflect blades and arrows, but Auriel’s Shield is the only one that’s also a viable weapon. In Arena, it healed you as you held it, in Daggerfall it reflected spells - but in Skyrim, it absorbs the energy from attacks that it blocks and, when you power bash, turns that energy back on your enemy, blasting them through the air. Who needs a fancy sword? Scroll of Icarian Flight – MorrowindYou can’t fly in Bethesda’s RPGs - but this scroll is the next best thing. It boosts your acrobatics skill by 1,000 points, which basically makes you springier than Flubber on a trampoline, and you can jump halfway across the map in a single leap. The way you discover it is one of Morrowind’s best moments: a wizard plummets from the sky, screaming. If you’re quick enough, you can save him with a Slow Fall spell, which is also the best way to safely land after you’ve gone airborne. Bow of Shadows – MorrowindThis bow takes your stealthy archer build to another level. When wielded, you become invisible, raining down arrows on your opponents while they scan the horizon, clueless. You’ll also get a speed boost, which lets you dart from vantage point to vantage point, constantly flanking your enemies. It hasn’t made an appearance since Morrowind, sadly - we’d love to see the damage it could do in Skyrim’s dungeons Mehrunes' Razor – Daggerfall/Morrowind/Oblivion/SkyrimDon’t judge it by its size: this dagger can take down any enemy in one hit. It has decent base damage, but on every strike there’s a small chance - around 2% in Skyrim- that you’ll one-shot an enemy. That goes for dragons, daedra and Dwarven Centurions. Nobody is safe. Armor of the Crusader – Oblivion’s Knight of the Nine expansionTechnically a group of items rather than just one, but the Armor of the Crusader deserves to be worn as a set, or displayed in its full glory on the Priory of the Nine’s armor stand. Each piece has its own benefits and abilities: the boots will cause usually-hostile animals to pay you no attention, for example. Really, it’s on this list for how it looks. The red and gold diamond on a white background is iconic, and makes you look every inch a Knight of the Nine. Bloodskal Blade – Skyrim’s Dragonborn expansion/Morrowind’s Bloodmoon expansionWithout mods, this is the closest you’ll get to a lightsaber in The Elder Scrolls. Power attacks send out a beam of energy that travels through both enemies and walls, letting you deal damage to large groups at once. It has a devilish red tinge and mean-looking notches on either side of its giant blade. It also made an appearance in Morrowind’s Bloodmoon expansion, where it was simply called Bloodskal. That version looked more vanilla, though, and its effect was just plain old frost damage. Eltonbrand – MorrowindA shiny gold katana that smites your enemies with extra fire damage. To obtain it, you first need to obtain the Goldbrand sword and then follow a set of ridiculously precise steps, including having exactly 11,171 gold to your name. It’s also, to our knowledge, the only Elder Scrolls weapon named after an NBA Basketball player. That player is Elton Brand, who went to Duke University - the developer that made it was a huge Duke fan, and when you pick up the weapon you’ll see the message “Go to hell, Carolina!" Dawnfang and Duskfang – Oblivion’s Shivering Isles expansionTwo swords for the price of one, this blade is fiery Dawnfang by day, and frosty Duskfang by night, changing colour as the sun sets. As if a transforming sword wasn’t cool enough, it’ll also track how many enemies you’ve killed with it. Slice up 12 foes before it changes form and you’ll get a superior version the next day that absorbs health or magicka from enemies. Glass Bow of the Stag Prince - Skyrim’s Dragonborn expansionUnless we’re roleplaying a ranger, we never really find a reason to hunt in Skyrim beyond the first few hours. But the Glass Bow of the Stag Prince changes that: for every 20 animals you kill, you gain a blessing that boosts your health and stamina. That’s reason enough to stay on the tail of every stray deer - just try not to think about Bambi. Skooma – Morrowind/Oblivion/SkyrimDrink responsibly. A few items we’d like to see in The Elder Scrolls 6Image credit: Bethesda We’re sure Bethesda has plenty of unique weapons and armor pieces planned for The Elder Scrolls 6, but here are some specific items we’d like to see in the game when it finally arrives... Gloves of Fire (or ice, or lightning) Spears Free Horse Armor Customizable shields Wearable lanterns Pouches and backpacks The Wabbajack This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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