Month: September 2020

If you’ve ever attempted to use picture-in-picture (PIP from this point on) on a Chromebook, you likely understand a bit of the frustration that comes with the territory. For instance, you’ve always needed to right-click twice on YouTube videos to get the proper context menu to appear and choose to enable PIP. Even then, however, it didn’t always work or the option would sometimes disappear. It’s been so unreliable for me that I’ve never picked up on the habit of actually using the feature.

When I was actually using it, I was leveraging the Google-made PIP Chrome extension that, oddly enough, still lives on in the Chrome Web Store. You would think that Google would remove that since the feature is supposed to be baked into Chrome at this point, right? Perhaps, for many, having a dedicated button for PIP when you need it is the more straightforward, approachable route. It seems Google thinks so, too, and they’ve created a much more simple and direct route to start a PIP session on Chrome OS.

A new way to PIP

In the Stable Channel right now, you can turn on a simple flag to enable this new PIP setting and make it far easier and far more reliable to drop your videos in a small, floating PIP window. Just head over to chrome://flags/#global-media-controls-picture-in-picture, flip the flag to ‘enabled’, click that blue restart button and the next time you pull up a video that supports PIP (YouTube is the obvious choice, but many services use it), you can now look in your notifications tray for a new PIP button.

Over the top of your settings over in your system tray, you should see a persistent rich media player control. In that playback card, you’ll now have a new button that will quickly call up a PIP window without the need of digging through sub-menus or installing extensions. Even better, the ability to put the PIP window back into the tab from where it originated is also part of this media card. You can see in the pics above how the icon subtly changes from a pop-out button to a pop-in button. And it just works.

While this is still behind a flag, I’d assume we’ll see this as a standard feature in the next update or two to Chrome OS. It is simple, effective, and a great addition to the way PIP is handled in Chrome OS. Though we are expecting some changes to the way global media controls are presented in future updates, I’m hoping this feature comes along for the ride.

Samsung released the Galaxy Z Fold 2 globally last week. Some pre-order customers had already got their hands on the device by then. There were a few who couldn’t find the eSIM option on their new foldable device. That’s because the eSIM functionality wasn’t enabled at that time.

As many of you would be aware, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 has one physical SIM slot and an embedded SIM, quite like the Galaxy Fold. The embedded SIM wasn’t available out of the box but the latest Galaxy Z Fold 2 software update rolling out today addresses this.

Latest Galaxy Z Fold 2 update finally enables the eSIM

Samsung did confirm to us last week that it was going to enable the eSIM option for the Galaxy Z Fold 2 through a new firmware update. Fortunately, the company hasn’t taken a lot of time to follow through on this promise. The unavailability of eSIM was troublesome for those who use two different carriers or were using an eSIM before they upgraded to the Galaxy Z Fold 2.

The company is now rolling out firmware version F916BXXU1BTIA for the Galaxy Z Fold 2. It adds the SIM card manager menu that was previously missing from the Settings app, and eSIM was thus not available as a consequence. The changelog also mentions that the camera app has been updated as well. This software update is currently rolling out in Europe and it’s readily available for download from our firmware section.

Between its small, slim design and its snappy AMD processor, HP’s midrange convertible laptop is worth seeking out.

If I was still commuting regularly on a bus or train, the HP Envy x360 13 two-in-one laptop would be on my shortlist. It would also be a top consideration if I were shopping for an older high school or college student. It’s small, stylish and light at just less than 3 pounds (1.3 kg). Battery life is long despite the size. And the AMD Ryzen 5-4500U processor delivered performance beyond that of pricier Intel chips. Add in fast Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 and, essentially, you’re getting a speedy little two-in-one that’s ready for working from home or remote learning but is also ready for your backpack. 

The Envy x360 normally starts at $700 and the configuration I tested is $800 (£800, AU$2,000). (For those looking to spend even less, check out our list of best laptops under $500.) The price is more than reasonable for what you get, but the biggest issue I have with the Envy x360 13 is its availability. 

A $1,000 version comes in and out of stock and the same is true of my configuration, the Envy x360 13-ay0010nr. You can get a better configuration from Costco right now with twice the storage and a faster processor for $900, although it’s been as low as $750 from the warehouse club. The 15.6-inch version has more availability, so if you don’t mind a larger display, it starts at $700. 

Streamlined and simple

HP was aiming for a minimalist design with the Envy x360 and I’d say it hit the mark. Made from aluminum, the outside is clean and subtle. The lid lifts easily and the display doesn’t have much of a bezel around it at all, including the bottom, which is significantly smaller than the 2019 model. That reduction shifts the keyboard and touchpad up with the keyboard going nearly edge to edge.

It’s a comfortable keyboard with a two-level backlight. The key legends are easy to read and the function keys include the usual hotkeys for volume and screen brightness along with options to instantly mute your mic and block the webcam for privacy. A responsive fingerprint reader is nearly hidden in the keyboard, sitting between the right Alt key and left arrow key. 

The glossy display is definitely a highlight here. It has excellent color and contrast and, at 400 nits, it’s bright. Not quite bright enough to see past reflections outside on a sunny day, but otherwise it’s great. The reduced bezels do make it more comfortable to use on your arm as a tablet and the display supports simultaneous pen and touch input and works with MPP 2.0 pens. 

AMD’s got what it takes

No doubt about it, AMD’s newest mobile processors outperform pricier Intel CPUs. The Ryzen 5-4500U can keep pace with an Intel Core i7-1065G7 and it isn’t even the fastest AMD chip available for this two-in-one. There isn’t a huge gap in performance between the 4500U and higher-end 4700U, so if only one or the other is available you’ll be in good shape regardless. Aside from the processor, though, you might want to go with a configuration with 16GB of memory. The memory is soldered on and that means models with 8GB of memory can’t be upgraded. 

The Envy x360’s battery lasted a fairly long time. On our streaming video test, it hit 10 hours. In general use — streaming music, browsing, writing and basic photo editing — it was closer to 7 hours. However, it does charge quickly, getting up to 50% in 30 minutes. 

The HP Envy x360 13 is an excellent small two-in-one with a higher-end design than you’d typically get at this price — assuming you can find one in stock. Factor in the solid AMD performance and battery life and it’s an easy recommendation.

We’re just weeks away from the launch of AMD’s RDNA 2 GPUs, but a firmware listing may have prematurely outed the specs for the the company’s highly-anticipated Big Navi cards.

An eagle-eyed Redditor found a listing in the new ROCm (Radeon Open Compute) firmware that reveals some of the specs for the so-called Sienna Cichlid GPU – otherwise known Navi 21 or Big Navi – which will arrive as the flagship of the RX 6000 series

The listing hints that the GPU will feature 80 compute units (CUs) and a 256-bit memory bus. If each Compute Unit (CU) in AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture still equates to 64 Stream Processors (SPs), that means Big Navi will 5,120 SPs. 

If this is true, and if the GPU runs on TSMC’s latest 7nm process, the flagship RDNA 2 processor could deliver Nvidia RTX 3080 levels of performance. After all, AMD has already promised that RDNA 2 will deliver 50% more performance per watt than its first generation RDNA architecture. 

What’s more, a recent rumor suggests the GPU will feature 16GB VRAM – more than the 10GB Nvidia has loaded onto its Ampere GPU. 

The firmware update also references a graphics card codenamed Navy Flounder, believed to be Navi 22 or Navi 23. This mid-range GPU features 40 CUs and a 192-bit memory bus, according to the listing, which amounts to 2,560 SP.

This card will likely arrive as a replacement for the AMD RX 5700 XT, but with its newer RDNA 2 architecture, it will support real time ray tracing and be capable of gaming in 4K. We don’t have any details about performance just yet, but it could give Nvidia’s RTX 2070 a run for its money. 

It won’t be long until we find out for sure, as AMD will announce these new GPUs under the RX 6000 series branding on October 28. 

A new series of Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC) has been detailed. 

The next generation Tiger Lake NUC has been detailed

Intel is adding a new series of NUCs called 11 PRO (Tiger Canyon). The PRO series is meant for business and commercial use. These are not the same series as Panther Canyon (NUC 11 Performance), also featuring Tiger Lake, as those are meant for consumers.

Intel Tiger Canyon aka NUC 11 PRO will feature up to 11th Gen Core i7-1185G7 processor based on Tiger Lake-U architecture. This is a quad-core CPU with eight threads offering up to 4.8 GHz turbo clock at 28W. The NUC 11 PRO would also be offered with lower-tier Core processors going down to Core i3-1115G4, which is a dual-core processor.

The NUC 11 PRO would offer dual HDMI 2.1 display connectors (supported by integrated Xe-LP Graphics) and dual Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. Since these devices are often used for home theatre media boxes, such options will certainly not go unnoticed. In businesses, this might mean connecting multiple high-resolution screens for presentations.

Intel’s new MiniPC supports two M.2 slots for (key M for PCIe NVME SSD and key B for other peripherals). It supports WiFi 6 and memory up to 64GB DDR4-3200. The device does not offer discrete graphics options, but one would guess that these might come next year when Intel’s DG1 graphics become available.

The device will be offered in two sizes: ‘tall’ H chassis (117x112x54mm) and ‘slim’ K chassis (117x112x37mm), both were pictured on a leaked slide.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition is a more affordable version of the flagship phone ‘for the fans,’ which means it prioritizes cameras and display quality at a more favorable price than the rest of the Galaxy S20 line, starting at $699 / £699 / AU$1,149 for the sub-6 5G model.

The phone goes as low as £599 / AU$999 for the 4G-only version, which isn’t coming to the US, though a different mmWave 5G $749 version is coming to the US through Verizon. All S20 Fan Edition models can be pre-ordered starting September 23, while the S20 Fan Edition release date is set for October 2, except in Australia where pre-orders start September 25 and the release date is October 9.

For those prices, the S20 Fan Edition packs most of the best perks of the flagship S20 line: a Snapdragon 865 chipset (or Exynos 990 for the 4G version), 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage (expandable to 1TB via microSD). The phone has a 4,500mAh battery, maxing out at 25W wired fast charging and 15W wireless charging. 

A few compromises for lower cost

The S20 Fan Edition makes some compromises compared to its pricier siblings, though it has some advantages, too. Its 6.5-inch OLED display only has Full HD Plus resolution (2400 x 1080) instead of the WQHD Plus of the main S20 line, but the S20 Fan Edition retains a 120Hz refresh rate. The phone also has a polycarbonate rather than glass back, but it comes in six colors (navy, red, lavender, mint, white, orange).

Despite releasing in October 2020, the phone comes with Android 10; an expected upgrade to the recently-released Android 11 will be one of a guaranteed three major operating system updates coming in the next few years.

Ultimately, Samsung believes the S20 Fan Edition makes the right cuts and comes in at the right price to appeal to budget-conscious shoppers who still want good specs and features. It’s this phone generation’s version of the Samsung S10e or S10 Lite to tide buyers over until the 2021 slate of Samsung phones.

We were fairly impressed with Adata’s first foray into gaming PCs, which began a few months ago with the XPG Xenia 15, a genuinely impressive laptop with better-than-expected battery life. For its followup act, Adata is trying its hand at a mini PC with its new XPG Gaia.

The Gaia is based on Intel’s NUC 9 Extreme Kit, or otherwise known as Ghost Canyon. That is not necessarily a bad thing, just perhaps a bit uninspired for Adata’s introductory desktop.

Built for “gamers, esports pros, and tech enthusiasts,” Adata appears to have simply taken the Ghost Canyon NUC and stuffed its own brand memory and storage inside, then slapped an XPG logo on the front. The result is a compact 5-liter PC that should be relatively fast out of the box, though gamers, esports pros, and tech enthusiasts will undoubtedly want to add a discrete GPU.

The system is built around an Core i9 9980HK processor, a relatively meaty 8-core/16-thread chip with a 2.4GHz base clock, 5GHz boost clock, and 16MB of L3 cache. This also provides the graphics, by way of Intel’s UHD 630 GPU (24 execution units, 350MHz to 1,25GHz clockspeed). That’s fine for playing less demanding games like League of Legends, but is not going to cut it for more graphically intensive titles (Notebookcheck has a nice rundown of benchmarks).

One of the neat things about the Ghost Canyon NUC is that it can fit a discrete graphics card up to 202mm (7.95 inches) in length. There are even graphics cards designed specifically with the Ghost Canyon NUC in mind, like the Asus Dual GeForce RTX 2070 Mini OC Edition.

As far as what comes with the Gaia, in addition to the 9980HK CPU, Adata ships it with 32GB (2x16GB) of DDR4-3200 “sorted” RAM (undoubtedly from its own stock) and an XPG SX8200 Pro SSD, a fast storage drive rated to deliver read and write speeds of up to 3,500MB/s and 3,000MB/s, respectively. Adata does not mention the capacity, so it’s likely there will be multiple SKUs with different storage allotments.

The system also boasts Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, and is powered by a 500W PSU that is 80 Plus Platinum certified.