Author: batteryforpc

In addition to the consumer focused products announced this week at CES, Acer has also announced a new business notebook this week. The TravelMate X3410 is a 14-inch notebook aimed at professionals, with several options depending on the budget and performance requirements.

Unlike the Acer Swift 7 just announced, the TravelMate X3410 is more function over form. The 14-inch laptop offers a 1920×1080 IPS display with Acer’s ComfyView matte coating. Without the thin bezels of the higher-end models, the TravelMate X3410 is quite a bit bigger, with dimensions of 328 x 239 x 20 mm (12.9 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches) and a rather hefty weight of 1.6 Kg (3.53 lbs).

Acer offers a range of processor options, from the base model Intel Core i3-8130U, which is a dual-core part with a frequency of 2.2 GHz, to the Core i5-8250U quad-core, up to the Core i7-8550U quad-core. Interestingly, Acer has chosen to outfit the laptop with DDR4 SODIMMS rather than the more typical LPDDR3 we’d see in Ultrabooks, and Acer offers 8 to 16 GB of DDR4, but with SODIMMS that can be upgraded later as well. SSDs are all SATA based, from 128 GB at the low end to 512 GB at the high end.

As a slightly thicker device, Acer has found room for a Gigabit Ethernet port, to complement the 802.11ac wireless, and there is quite a wide range of ports as well, including three USB 3.0 ports, one USB 3.1 Type-C port, HDMI, and even VGA. For those that appreciate it, there’s also a SD card reader.

Acer rates battery life at up to 15 hours with the 5170 mAh battery, which should be right around 60 Wh total capacity. Acer ships a 65 W charger which should allow for a fast refill as well.

Although not as jaw-dropping as the Acer Swift 7, the TravelMate X3410 comes in with a much lower price, starting at $899.99 USD.

ASUS’ latest TUF gaming laptops may look about the same as before, but under the hood, it’s a new ball game. Rather than packing Intel and NVIDIA parts, the 15.6-inch FX505DY (above) and 17-inch FX705DY (below) are all AMD, with a 12-nanometer, four-core Ryzen 2 3550H APU and Radeon RX 560X discrete graphics. Both models also have 1080p FreeSync displays, with the 17-inch model hitting up to 60Hz, and the 15-incher maxing out at a decent 120Hz.

Both models are designed to survive falls and “extreme environments” thanks to the mil-spec toughness and hexagonal bottom design. They both pack beefier-than-usual LED keyboards with full number pads and 1.8mm of key travel. Other features include 7.1 channel virtual surround sound, onboard ethernet, a 512GB PCIe SSD or 1TB Fireuda SSHD, up to 32GB of RAM, HDMI 2.0 output and three USB ports.

ASUS’ move to AMD for its low-end gaming laptops is an interesting one. The current TUF laptops pack Intel eighth-gen CPUs and NVIDIA graphics (up to GTX1060), so don’t expect to see improved graphics performance with the RX 560X chip (the same one Apple uses in the MacBook Pro). It’s more likely that ASUS is trying to drive costs down, as the current models have generally been panned for having poor performance for the price. ASUS has yet to tell us the cost of the new TUF models, but they’ll arrive sometime this quarter.

When the first Chromebooks were released in 2011, they were aimed at the lower end of the market and carried matching price tags. After Google launched its Pixel laptop in 2013 and proved that it was possible to address the premium segment, other makers of PCs followed on with more advanced Chromebooks that were more expensive. Eventually, Chromebooks somewhat moved away from being exclusively in the low end of the market, and towards a broader market covering multiple price ranges. With the low end market diminished by not forgotten, HP has announced that it’s going to take another shot at this segment with its new Chromebook 14. Coincidentally, the Chromebook 14 is also the first ChromeOS-powered PC featuring an AMD processor.

As the name suggests, the HP Chromebook 14 features a 14-inch SVA display panel with a 1366×768 resolution and anti-glare coating. The notebook comes in a fine-looking chassis with a textured finish and a 1.8 cm (0.92-inch) z-height, though HP hasn’t specified what kind of material it is made of. Given the thickness, it is reasonable to guess that some sort of a plastic was used (I would assume polycarbonate).

Moving on to the guts of the system. The HP Chromebook 14 is based on AMD’s A4-9120C processor, a relatively unknown SoC featuring two Excavator cores running at 1.8 GHz and the GCN 1.2-based Radeon R4 iGPU with 128 SPs operating at 720 MHz (more information about the SoC is available in Ian’s AMD at CES 2019 coverage). Being fabbed on a 28 nm process and a low-end chip overall, this SoC is cheap enough to that AMD and HP can still turn a profit even with the low-end pricing of the system. All told, do not expect too much from this APU (and therefore the Chromebook 14 as a whole): it can handle productivity apps, VP9/H.264/H.265 decode, play some games, but that is about it.

The Chromebook 14 is equipped 4 GB of DDR4 RAM and 32 GB of local eMMC storage, just like early Chromebooks. As for I/O, it has a Qualcomm 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 4.2 controller, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C ports, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a microSD card reader, a dual microphone array, B&O-badged speakers, a webcam, and so on. Overall, hardware wise the laptop looks pretty much okay.

As for battery life, HP says that its Chromebook 14 lasts for nine hours and 15 minutes on a single charge in their mixed use case workload. The company is using a fairly hefty 47.36 Wh battery here, driven in good part by the need to light up the relatively large 14-inch display.

Finally, while HP is announcing the laptop today, they aren’t announcing pricing or an ETA for the device. We may find out more on AMD’s Wednesday keynote; competing AMD-powered Chromebooks are due in February, so AMD is just about ready themselves.

While all eyes were trained for AMD to announced 7nm Ryzen 3rd Generationprocessors and Vega II graphics cards, the company has surprised us all with its new 2nd Gen Ryzen Mobile CPUs.

Whereas in years past AMD would only introduce a handful of CPUs, the chipmaker now has a full product stack to power everything from gaming laptops, Ultrabooks, budget notebooks and even Chromebooks – more on this last one soon.

AMD Ryzen 7 3750H: 4-cores, 8-threads, 10 GPU cores, clocked at 2.3GHz to 4.0GHz

AMD Ryzen 7 3700U: 4-cores, 8-threads, 10 GPU cores, clocked at 2.3GHz to 4.0GHz

AMD Ryzen 5 3550H: 4-cores, 8-threads, 8 GPU cores, clocked at 2.3GHz to 3.7GHz

AMD Ryzen 5 3500U: 4-cores, 8-threads, 8 GPU cores, clocked at 2.1GHz to 3.7GHz

AMD Ryzen 3 3300U: 4-cores, 4-threads, 6 GPU cores, clocked at 2.1GHz to 3.5GHz

AMD Ryzen 3 3200U: 2-cores, 4-threads, 3 GPU cores, clocked at 2.6GHz to 3.5GHz

AMD Athlon 300U: 2-cores, 4-threads, 3 GPU cores, clocked at 2.4GHz to 3.3GHz

Looking at AMD’s product stack from the bottom up, you’ll find it offers quad-core chips more quickly and regularly than even Intel’s latest Whisky Lake and Amber Lake processor families. The Ryzen 3 3300U is AMD’s second lowest-tier entry-level CPU, but if you were to buy an Intel-powered laptop with the same number of cores you would have to find a machine with at least an Intel Core i5-8265U – or i5-8259U from the Coffee Lake U-series family.

Unfortunately, AMD’s top-tier mobile processor only features four-cores, whereas the Intel Coffee Lake H-series chips have moved up to being hexa-core. However, it’s worth noting that the company has only announced two H-series CPUs, so this could just be the beginnings of the brand’s gaming laptop ambitions.

Performance gains

According to AMD, the Ryzen 5 3500U will deliver 14% faster web browsing, 27% greater media editing performance and tie in productivity than an Intel Core i5-8250U (Kaby Lake R). In terms of battery life, Team Red promised users can expect up to 12 hours of general usage and 10 hours of video playback.

Of course, AMD’s greatest strength is it integrated, discrete-class Vega graphics and company. The Ryzen 7 3700U pitted against an Intel Core i7-8565U (Whisky Lake) can play most games 10 or more frames per second faster at a 720p resolution and low settings.

AMD also plans to keep its mobile chips in top game playing shape by delivering Radeon Software updates to all its Ryzen Mobile processors both past and present.

Meet the first AMD-powered Chromebooks

On top of introducing its 2nd Gen Ryzen Mobile Processors, AMD also introduced new A-series chips designed specifically for Chromebooks.

AMD A6-9220C: 2-cores, 2-threads, R5 Series Radeon Graphics, clocked at 1.8GHz to 2.7GHz

AMD A4-9120C: 2-cores, 2-threads, R4 Series Radeon Graphics, clocked at 1.6GHz to 2.4GHz

In a fight between the AMD A6-9220C and the Intel Pentium N4200, Team Red promises users can expect 23% faster web browsing, 2.5x faster email, 33% faster photo editing and 34% gaming. That last bit seems crucial as Chrome OS and Android seem to be inseparable at this point and gaming on Chromebooks becomes bigger.

Want more CES 2019 highlights? TechRadar is hands-on with 8K TVs and foldable, rollable displays, along with new laptops and Alexa-enabled smart gadgets.

Huawei, currently the world’s second-largest smartphone company by sales, has won over users partly by loading its devices with a ton of new features, from wireless charging to top-class cameras and catchy cosmetic features like the colorful gradients on their shiny backsides. Now, a leaked image of its next flagship Android phone appears to reveal a surprising reverse course. According to Indian blog 91phones (and via Engadget) its next premium device, dubbed the P30, will feature a HEADPHONE JACK.

What’s that, you say? Aren’t headphone jacks so yesterday?

Well, it turns out that sometimes progress isn’t universally loved. (Pour one out for the futurists here.)

Over the past couple of years, Apple and others have gradually removed the jack from their devices.

Yes, it’s been done in the name of thinner handsets and more features like waterproofing. But — let’s be honest — also most likely also to up-sell people to those very pricey, sometimes pretentious-looking wireless earphones.

But you know what? People — say, those who have a favorite set of corded headphones, or who hate the idea of losing the ability to charge using said headphones — are still missing those inky black holes.

Huawei has been no different, removing its jack in the P30’s P20 predecessor.

But the leaked image reveals that it seems to be making a return in the familiar lower edge of the handset, to the left of the USB-C charging port.

Other features revealed in this and previous leaks of the phone include a six-inch screen, more of that gradient backing, a 24MP selfie camera in a streamlined notch on the front, with a Sony triple camera at 38MP with 5x optical zoom on the back, and no fingerprint sensor port, with the device likely to be shipping in 128GB and 256GB versions.

Huawei overtook Apple as the world’s second largest smartphone vendor in Q2 of 2018, and the last two quarters have only cemented that position. In Q3, only Samsung (the leader) and Huawei saw shipment growth among all the top players; and as for Q4, well, Apple’s given us a little preview of what we will expect there.

Interestingly, Apple specifically has singled out China as a disappointing market when it comes to iPhone sales: Huawei happens to be the market leader there.

So — if this leak is accurate — it’s interesting to think that as Huawei grows often by aggressively following the playbook of other brands, it may be making a bold move by bringing something back that appeared to have gotten discarded in the tech march forward.

If its pace of handset sales continues to stay strong, this could be coming at a key time for Huawei. The company remains in hot water with governments in Europe, the US and elsewhere over questionable and potentially illegal business practices, and that appears to be potentially impacting its massive telecoms equipment business and its lucrative deals with carriers.

As for when this supposed phone might launch, we’re just about to kick off CES in Vegas, but it’s unlikely to appear here. The P20 launched in March last year, a few weeks after the big MWC mobile event in Barcelona, and that could potentially be the same timescale the company follows again.

We’re contacting Huawei for comment and will update this post as we learn more.