Category: Article

Jabra is back with its fourth-generation Bluetooth true wireless earbuds, the Elite 85t, with improved fit, better sound and active noise cancelling to rival Apple’s AirPods Pro.

The Elite 85t cost £219.99 and top the range that includes its predecessors the £170 Elite 75t and £140 Elite 65t.

The new earbuds have a lighter and more balanced fit compared with the Elite 75t. The redesigned oval-shaped silicone ear tips don’t enter your ear canal quite so deeply, but are no less secure. The remainder of the earbud sits comfortably outside your ear, avoiding resting on any delicate parts or protruding too far.

Specifications

Water resistance: sweat and weather resistant (IPX4)

Drivers: 12mm

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.1, SBC, AAC

Battery life: 5.5 hours with ANC (up to 25 hours with case)

Earbud dimensions: 23.1 x 19.0 x 16.2mm

Earbud weight: 7g each

Charging case dimensions: 64.8 x 41.1 x 28.5mm

Charging case weight: 45.1g

Case charging: USB-C, Qi wireless charging

Connectivity and controls

The Elite 85t are some of the first true wireless earbuds to be able to connect to two different devices simultaneously – something that is common in high-end Bluetooth over-ear headphones and handy for connecting a phone and computer or tablet at the same time.

They support the latest Bluetooth 5.1 and both the universal SBC standard Bluetooth audio format as well as the higher quality AAC format used by Apple’s various products and most Android devices. They do not support aptX or higher quality audio formats commonly used by Windows PCs and Android devices, however.

Their connection to various iPhone 12 models, a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 and OnePlus 8T was rock solid. The right earbud can be used on its own for calls or music, but the left cannot.

A button on each earbud supports single, double or triple presses to control playback, noise cancelling or to summon your phone’s voice assistant. You can set which button combo does what in the Jabra Sound+ app. Pressing and holding adjusts the volume – left earbud for down, right for up – with useful audible clicks as each new volume level is set. The music pauses on removal of an earbud and resumes once reinserted.

Sound and noise cancelling

The sound quality is much improved over Jabra’s previous efforts. The earbuds produced a rich, highly detailed but balanced sound with excellent dynamic range. Bass is deep, but doesn’t dominate in the way it does for the Elite 75t, mids are rich in detail and highs are precise.

The earbuds handle most music genres well, including the complex and overlapping tones of tracks such as the Who’s Baba O’Riley. They are suitably aggressive for Dr Dre’s Next Episode while still managing to sound deep and rich on tracks such as Darkside’s Paper Trails.

A fully customisable equaliser is available in the Sound+ app alongside a test to personalise the sound to your hearing, although they sounded great out of the box.

They beat Apple’s AirPods Pro on audio quality, making them easily some of the best-sounding true wireless earbuds you can buy, but fall just shy of the sonic highs of Sony WF-1000XM3.

The active noise cancelling is equally impressive. Turned up to maximum it was very effective, reducing the sounds of speech, eliminating rumble and unwanted noise but without making you feel completely plugged in or cut off from the outside world.

There are five noise cancelling levels to choose from, plus “hearthrough”, which is a really good ambient listening mode that allows you to hear the world around you – great for listening out for announcements or road awareness.

Battery life and case

The battery lasts more than five hours of continuous playback with noise cancelling active or about seven with it off. The case can recharge the earbuds 3.5 times, bringing the total combined battery life to 25 hours with noise cancelling or 31 without. A 15-minute charge in the case provides up to an hour of playback.

The case is small, black and plastic with a flip-top lid. It’ll fit in the money pocket of a pair of jeans, making it one of the best in the business.

Sustainability

Jabra estimates the batteries in the earbuds and case will last for 500 full-charge cycles while retaining at least 80% of capacity. None of the batteries are replaceable nor are the earbuds repairable, ultimately making them disposable.

You can buy replacement tips, earbuds and cases. Jabra operates a recycling and trade-in scheme but the product does not contain any recycled material. The company publishes sustainability goals and yearly reports as part of parent company GN Store Nord.

Observations

Activating noise cancelling doesn’t inhibit the bass or tone.

Call quality was good, with recipients saying I sounded clear, and there was little background noise.

Price

The Jabra Elite 85t cost £219.99.

For comparison, the Elite 75t has an RRP of £169.99, the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds cost £249.95, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live cost £179, Apple’s AirPods Pro cost £249 and Sony’s WF-1000MX3 cost £169.

Verdict

The Jabra Elite 85t are some of the best true wireless earbuds you can buy.

They combine great sound, good noise cancelling, long battery life and a comfortable fit with an excellent, pocketable case and the ability to connect to two devices at the same time. Only the right earbud can be used on its own and it is regrettable, similar to most true wireless earbuds, that they cannot be repaired.

It has been a long time coming, but Apple’s AirPods Pro have finally been bettered by the Jabra Elite 85t, particularly for Android users.

Pros: great sound, good noise cancelling, multi-connection, good controls, comfortable fit, great case, long battery, no stalks.

Cons: only right earbud can be used on its own, no aptX, not repairable, batteries not replaceable, expensive.

I mostly write reviews of VPNs, articles and features about VPNs, and responses to emails (of varying degrees of hostility) from or about VPN services. In nearly all of these contexts, I’ve tried to explain that VPNs (although excellent for securing your internet traffic) don’t replace password managers, antivirus suites, or the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). But recently a reader asked me if I was implying that the security software from Microsoft was somehow lacking. That’s a question worth considering.

Here’s what our intrepid reader sent me. Note that this excerpt has been edited for brevity and to remove personal information.

The short answer is that the bundled security solution from Microsoft is pretty good at most things. But the longer answer is that it could do better—and you can still do better with third-party antivirus.

Is Windows Defender Any Good?

For those who are unaware, Microsoft Security Essentials was antivirus software included by Microsoft with Windows starting in 2009, until it was supplanted by Microsoft Windows Defender Security Center. With this software, Microsoft ensured that customers would have some kind of protection from the moment they first booted up their computer. It costs them nothing and doesn’t require them to take any action.

When Microsoft’s security offering first went under the microscope, it didn’t impress. But it improved over time, so much so that it started to snag top scores from independent lab assessments. In his review, my colleague Neil Rubenking found that Microsoft’s offering did an excellent job detecting and preventing malicious software.

Now, Defender hasn’t totally stolen the spotlight away from the McAfees and the Bitdefenders of the world. You could chalk that up to decades of name recognition for competitors, but testing has revealed some notable shortcomings in Windows Defender. Rubenking found that the SmartScreen filter in Edge blocked just 68 percent of phishing sites, for example. That’s particularly bad compared to the 89 and 90 percent blocked by Firefox and Chrome. In those tests, Kaspersky and McAfee blocked 100 percent of the phishing sites.

That’s especially disappointing because phishing attacks can do a lot of damage to victims, and they don’t require a lot of technical sophistication on the part of attackers. A phishing site tricks people into voluntarily handing over personal information—like credit card numbers—by impersonating a legitimate website. For more on this particular threat, you can read our story on how to avoid phishing attacks.

Windows Defender also doesn’t cover the same breadth of products that third-party security companies do. The company that sells you antivirus software can also provide backup protection, a password manager, a VPN, parental control, and more besides, often rolled up in a security suite. 

A Matter of Perspective

I’m always glad when I get a reader question that I can answer definitively. I’m even happier when I can point to the work of some like my colleague Neil Rubenking, to back me up. But there was a point that I needed to take from this reader’s question as well.

I realized that even when I tangentially recommend security products, I should strive to make the recommendations as accessible as possible. Windows Defender is a great example. It’s something most people already have, works well, and doesn’t require consumers to pay anything (beyond the cost of Windows, at least).

This is especially important because, to my mind, the two biggest obstacles preventing people from adopting good security practices in their lives are money and effort. Security software is not fun to buy and only a little fun to use. It’s also expensive! These days, we’re expected to pay subscriptions for the videos we watch, the games we play, and now security software. We’re rapidly approaching a future where security and especially privacy area luxury afforded to the people that can pay extra.

It shouldn’t have to be that way, and it doesn’t have to be. High-quality free security products do exist, and Windows Defender is a good way to keep you and your computer safe. It is, however, not the best. For that, we recommend Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, and Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus, among others. If you can afford them, these options will provide far more protection.

High-speed memory kits are often associated with sloppy timings: Once you surpass that DDR4-4000 mark, it requires a lot of resources to cherry-pick the best integrated circuits (ICs) that meet the requirements. G.Skill is one of a handful of memory vendors willing to invest time and resources into bringing high-speed memory kits that aren’t held back by loose timings to the enthusiast market.

G.Skill offers a wide variety of DDR4-4000 memory kits with densities that start at 16GB (2x8GB) and go up to an awe-spiring 128GB (4x32GB). The CAS latency timings on these kits generally span from C15 up to C19. On this occasion, we’ll take a look at a DDR4-4000 C17 memory kit that hails from G.Skill’s exclusive Trident Z Royal family.

While the distinctive tri-fin design still remains, the Trident Z Royal looks more like a piece of jewelry than computer memory. The aluminum heat spreader, which features a gold or silver paint job, now comes with a beautiful mirror finish. It’s a complete delight to look at for sure, but the shiny surface is a dust and fingerprint magnet. G.Skill was considerate enough to provide a small microfiber cloth for cleaning the memory modules, so you don’t scratch the surface.

Despite the drastic makeover, the Trident Z Royal still measures 44mm (1.73 inches) tall. G.Skill replaced the boring light bar with one that flaunts a crystalline design. The eight-zone RGB lighting remains untouched. As usual, you have the option to control the Trident Z Royal’s illumination with either the provided Trident Z Lighting Control software or through your motherboard’s software, including Asus Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0, MSI Mystic Light Sync, and ASRock Polychrome Sync.

There are no surprises here. Given that each memory module is 16GB, they feature a dual-rank configuration. G.Skill uses a custom 10-layer PCB in tandem with high-quality Samsung K4A8G085WB-BCPB (B-die) ICs to assure very tight timings.

When your system posts for the first time, you’ll find the Trident Z Royal memory kit at DDR4-2133 with 15-15-15-36 timings. At this point, you can either set up the memory modules manually, or by enabling the XMP profile. In either case, the Trident Z Royal is certified to run at DDR4-4000 with a 1.4V DRAM voltage and 17-18-18-38 timings. For more on timings and frequency considerations, see our PC Memory 101 feature, as well as our How to Shop for RAM story.

Our Intel test system consists of an Intel Core i7-10700K and Asus ROG Maximus XII Apex on the 0707 firmware. On the opposite end, the AMD testbed leverages an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and ASRock B550 Taichi with the 1.30 firmware. The MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Trio handles the graphical duties on both platforms.

Intel Performance

The Trident Z Royal was the best performer on the Intel platform, whether it be application or gaming performance. The memory kit demonstrated its superiority in the individual tests, placing first in most of them.

AMD Performance

Unfortunately, the Trident Z Royal kit struggled on the AMD platform due to the nature of the Zen 2 microarchitecture. The inability to run the memory modules with the processor’s Infinity Fabric clock (FCLK) and memory clock (MCLK) in a 1:1 ratio led to added latency. As a result, the Trident Z Royal trailed behind its DDR4-3600 rivals. Bear in mind, tuning the kit to a 1:1 fabric/memory ratio will yield better results. 

Overclocking and Latency Tuning

We suspect that G.Skill binned this particular Trident Z Royal memory kit close to the borderline of its capacity. Even at 1.45V, we could only push it to DDR4-4133 with timings at 18-19-19-39.

On the contrary, we had better luck at optimizing the timings at the advertised DDR4-4000 frequency. A small 0.05V increase to the DRAM voltage was sufficient for us to reduce the XMP timings from 17-18-18-38 down to 15-16-16-36, which represents a major increase in performance.

Bottom Line

While aesthetics is a subjective matter, the Trident Z Royal DDR4-4000 C17’s strong performance is unquestionable. A bit of fine-tuning can even take the memory kit to another level. While we can’t speak for every single kit, our sample was stable with very tight timings with just a small bump in the DRAM voltage. A CAS Latency of 15 is no joke, considering that we are dealing with DDR4-4000 speeds here.

There’s one important aspect to take into consideration with the Trident Z Royal DDR4-4000 C17, though. The memory kit evidently performs at its highest on the Intel platform. Zen 2 processors will have a very hard if not impossible time to run these memory modules in a 1:1 ratio between the FCLK and MCLK. Zen 2 chips typically support up to 1,800 MHz on the FCLK (DDR4-3600), with the really spectacular samples doing a bit higher. The latest Zen 3 parts, on the other hand, have a higher chance of exploiting the Trident Z Royal memory kit as hitting a 2,000 MHz FCLK (DDR4-4000) isn’t a given, but it’s more common. That’s really the sweet spot for this kit on a Ryzen platform. 

The Trident Z Royal DDR4-4000 C17 is a high-end memory kit, and it’s priced like one. It retails for $289.99 and represents a good purchase if you want a fast memory kit that doesn’t hinder your equally high-end system.

In its midrange P Smart 2021 smartphone, Huawei uses a processor that comes from the manufacture of a Chinese partner for the first time. The Kirin 710A is considered the first SoC that Huawei developed itself. For quite a while, the Chinese manufacturer SMIC and the HiSilicon division have been working together in the commercializing of the 14-nm process in China.

Although the “original” Kirin-710 SoC is already manufactured in the modern 12-nm production process, it is manufactured by TSMC in Taiwan. Until now, the Kirin chips have been designed by the HiSilicon division at Huawei and then manufactured by TSMC. However, in order to break the dependency on the USA, the Chinese manufacturer is now willing (or was forced) to change to the slightly older 14-nm process. Our test will show whether this move can bring success. 

Case – A Huawei smartphone with a punch hole

While the case, which is made from plastic, shows good workmanship, it does not offer a particularly high-quality appearance. Due to its pronounced thickness of more than 9 millimeters (~0.35 in), the P Smart 2021 also feels a bit chunky. Thanks to the relatively slim bezels – with the exception of the “chin” – and the punch-hole design, the display-to-surface ratio of the Huawei smartphone is almost 84.5%, which is not bad for this price class.

The keys show solid workmanship and offer a well-defined pressure point. The Huawei smartphone does not have any protection against water or dust. 

Equipment – P Smart 2021 with a 3.5-mm audio port

The equipment of the Huawei smartphone includes an FM radio, dual SIM, a 3.5-mm audio port, as well as eMMC storage with a capacity of 128 GB. After taking the operating system into account, there are still about 109 GB of that available to the user. Those who need more storage capacity can expand the storage by up to 512 GB via microSD card, but this will not work as internal storage. The exFAT file system is supported, however. 

The large 5000-mAh battery of the midrange smartphones can be recharged via the USB Type-C port, and this connection can also function as OTG host for peripheral devices.

Software – Huawei smartphone without GMS

The P Smart 2021 is delivered with Android 10 as the operating system, which is overlaid with the EMUI 10.1 surface. The security patches of our test unit were last updated on August 2020.

Because of the US ban that was imposed on the Chinese manufacturer, the Huawei P Smart 2021 has to make do without Google Services and the Play Store. In addition, you can only play DRM protected content on the 6.67-inch display in 480p or 540p resolution, since the DRM Widevine certification of the Huawei smartphone is at the L3 level. 

Communication and GPS – The P Smart 2021 communicates at a snail’s pace

The Huawei smartphone accesses the mobile Internet at LTE speeds, and there is no 5G option. As usual for smartphones of this price class, the number of frequency bands supported by the P Smart 2021 is limited. While the midrange smartphone only offers a total of 10 LTE bands, no compromises are necessary for using it in this country (Germany). In addition, the P Smart 2021 supports Bluetooth version 5.1. On the other hand, the P Smart 2021 lacks an NFC chip for wireless communication with peripheral devices. 

The WLAN module only communicates with the IEEE-802.11 a/b/g standards in the 2.4-GHz frequency range. Correspondingly, at 70 Mbit/s and 67 Mbit/s respectively, the transfer speeds between the Huawei smartphone and our Netgear Nighthawk AX12 reference router are at a very low level for a smartphone in this price class.

The location is determined via the GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and BeiDou satellite systems. In order to evaluate the locating accuracy of our test unit in practice, we record a route in parallel with the Garmin Edge 500 for comparison. The deviations of the GPS module from the route are small and there is only a 180-meter (590 ft) difference in the route recorded by the Huawei smartphone and the navigation device at the end of the 12-kilometer (~7.5 miles) test route.

Telephone Functions and Voice Quality – Huawei smartphone without VoLTE?

The voice quality using the P Smart 2021 is good and inconspicuous. Voices are reproduced clearly. In addition to the dual-SIM function, the Huawei smartphone supports WiFi-Calling. However, we did not find an option for VoLTE in the Settings. 

Cameras – Huawei smartphone with a quad-cam

The selfie camera has an 8-MP resolution and offers a quality that is reasonable for this price class and quite suited for multimedia content and snapshots. Colors appear realistic and blurriness remains within limits. 

The main sensor of the quad-camera setup in the back has an f/1.8 aperture and 48-MP resolution. The photos show some problems with exposure and focus already in daylight. In worse light conditions, the image sharpness problems also worsen. This can be done better even in this price class. 

In addition, the P Smart 2021 offers an 8-MP wide-angle lens and two 2-MP sensors that are responsible for computing depth information and macro recordings respectively. While the ultrawide-angle lens delivers usable results, they are at a low level. Often the recorded pictures have poor contrast, and details are lost in blurriness, image faults, and muddy pixels. 

Image Comparison

Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.

Accessories and Warranty – P Smart 2021 without a case

The box of the smartphone includes a modular 22.5-Watt charger, USB cable, SIM tool, quick-start guide, and headphones.

Huawei offers a 24-month warranty on its smartphone.

Input Devices and Operation – Huawei smartphone with face unlock

In our test, the capacitive multi-touchscreen pleases with accurate operation. For unlocking, you can use either your fingers or biometric identification via face recognition. The fingerprint sensor of the P Smart 2021 is hidden in the power key. While neither unlocking mechanism is very fast, they are both reliable.

Display – P Smart 2021 with an IPS panel

The 6.67-inch IPS display, which has a punch hole in the top center, offers a 2400 x 1080 pixel resolution and a pixel density of about 400 ppi. Image and text content appear sufficiently sharp, even at close viewing distance.

At an average of 426 cd/m², the maximum brightness of the IPS display is slightly low, particularly compared to the Xiaomi competitors. In our more realistic APL50 measurement, which simulates an even distribution of light and dark areas on the LCD display, the maximum brightness is 438 cd/m². 

Due to its background illumination, an IPS panel will never achieve the perfect black value of an OLED panel as in the Oppo A91. Correspondingly, you have to live with a lower contrast ratio in the P Smart 2021, which still is a solid 1.000:1 in the Huawei smartphone, though. The APL-50 measurement shows a minimally reduced contrast ratio, since the black value is then slightly increased (0.46 cd/m²). 

We analyze the display using a photo spectrometer and the CalMAN software. The deviations from the sRGB color space are very low, and the color temperature of the display is also well calibrated.

When using the smartphone outdoors, because of its low brightness, you have to make sure to avoid direct sunlight. Otherwise you can hardly read the display contents. When looking at the display from the sides, the reduction in brightness is low, and the viewing angles remain stable for a long time. 

Performance – Huawei smartphone with Kirin 710A

The HiSilicon Kirin 710A is an octa-core SoC that is based on the Kirin 710 but manufactured in the 14nm-FinFET process. Like the Kirin 960 and 970, the processor integrates four Cortex A73 (2 GHz) and four Cortex A53 cores in the big.LITTLE architecture that have a clock speed of up to 1.7 GHz. The integrated graphics card is a Mali-G51 MP4 with a weak performance.

In the CPU benchmarks, the Kirin SoC places significantly lower than the Snapdragon competitors. Even a Huawei P smart Pro with the Kirin 710 often places ahead of the P Smart 2021, particularly in the single-core arena. A similar picture presents itself in the graphics test of the GFXBench benchmarks, only with the performance differences to an Adreno 618 being even more pronounced.

Despite the low performance capabilities, subjectively the system performance feels acceptable. The P Smart 2021 often shows some smaller delays and scrolling in the browser looks choppy, but the Huawei smartphone does not present any major lapses.

You should note that the performance we described was achieved in the Performance mode. With the selection of Normal mode, our test unit becomes significantly slower at 1.7 GHz, showing some significant throttling after a short time (see Emissions section). 

Games – Can you use the P Smart 2021 for gaming?

While you are able to play some graphically demanding games such as “PUBG Mobile” smoothly with the P Smart 2021, 30 fps are the limit. It is not possible to play the shooter game in the best graphics settings. Due to the lack of Google Services, besides apps, some games such as “Asphalt 9 Legends” or “Dead Trigger 2” are also not supported.

We also look at some less demanding games in more detail using the GameBench app. Here, the Mali-G51 MP4 is able to achieve a relatively even frame rate close to the native 60-Hz limit of the panel.

Emissions – P Smart 2021 with low heat

Temperature

The surface temperatures range at uncritical levels, and even under load, the surface never becomes uncomfortably hot. However, what is more interesting is the heat development inside the P Smart 2021. 

In order to evaluate the heat development under constant load, we use the battery test of the GFXBench app. The Manhattan 3.1 test shows that with increasing load, the frame rate of the Kirin 710A only remains stable in Performance mode. 

Speaker

In everyday operation, the mono speaker located at the bottom of the device produces a high maximum volume of 91 dB. As expected, the sound spectrum is dominated by sounds in the mid and high frequency range, and even lower mids are hardly reproduced. 

While the 3.5-mm audio port permits a more bass-heavy sound reproduction, the noise level is somewhat pronounced at an SNR value of 75. Those who prefer a wireless connection via Bluetooth 5.1 should note that neither the LDAC nor the aptX or aptX HD codecs are supported.

Battery Life – Huawei smartphone with SuperCharge

Power Consumption

The battery of the P Smart 2021 offers a capacity of 5000 mAh. It can be completely recharged in about 90 minutes at up to 22.5 watts. 

Battery Life

Under realistic conditions (display brightness set to 150 cd/m², Normal mode) in our WLAN test, the Huawei smartphone achieves a solid battery life. However, lasting more than 5 hours longer with the same-size 5000 mAh battery, the Redmi Note 9 Pro shows that much more is possible with a battery of this capacity.

Verdict on the P Smart 2021: Huawei not only limps behind in apps

Huawei’s midrange smartphone offers some solid basic virtues such as good workmanship and a decent IPS panel as well as a satisfactory battery life in combination with fast charging. But not more than that. Especially the performance of the new Kirin 710A is simply too weak for a smartphone that costs 230 Euros (~$275) recommended retail price. 

Overall, the P Smart 2021 is hardly able to distinguish itself from the powerful competitors, and if it does, then only in a negative sense. Particularly with a Poco X3 NFC or Redmi Note 9 Pro, buyers will be offered significantly more smartphone capabilities at a similar price. 

For the 190 Euros (~$227) that it currently costs, buyers shouldn’t really choose the P Smart 2021. The real competitors of the Huawei smartphone are the Redmi 9 or Galaxy A20s, which are available at about 140 Euros (~$168). 

And even if we disregard this fact, due to the current lack of Google Services, it would be difficult to recommend the Huawei smartphone, even if it were able to surpass those of other manufacturers in terms of overall capabilities. 

What just happened? Good news for AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPU owners looking to run their shiny new processors in older 400 series motherboards as multiple board suppliers have seemingly decided not to wait until 2021 to roll out updated BIOSes supporting the new chips.

AnandTech points out that several ASRock B450 motherboards now have updated BIOSes available to download that add Zen 3 support. Indeed, a quick check reveals that many B450 boards do have new BIOSes that were made available on November 19 but the descriptions are vague, only saying that they optimize system compatibility.

Asus’ official ROG Twitter channel on November 18 teased that 400 series BIOS updates (AGESA 1.1.8.0) for AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPUs will be available “in a couple of weeks.” Biostar echoed similar sentiments on November 22, noting that Ryzen 5000 series support was “coming soon.”

In related news, Tom’s Hardware is also reporting that ASRock has enabled Smart Access Memory (SAM) on B450 motherboards. SAM up to this point has only worked with 500 series boards running a Radeon 6000 series GPU like the RX 6800 and a Ryzen 5000 CPU.

Of course, for many, the toughest task will be finding a Ryzen 5000 series CPU in stock. All of the new chips sold out within minutes of launch and are still out of stock at major retailers.

A French security researcher has accidentally discovered a zero-day vulnerability that impacts the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems while working on an update to a Windows security tool.

The vulnerability resides in two misconfigured registry keys for the RPC Endpoint Mapper and DNSCache services that are part of all Windows installations.

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RpcEptMapper

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache

French security researcher Clément Labro, who discovered the zero-day, says that an attacker that has a foothold on vulnerable systems can modify these registry keys to activate a sub-key usually employed by the Windows Performance Monitoring mechanism.

“Performance” subkeys are usually employed to monitor an app’s performance, and, because of their role, they also allow developers to load their own DLL files to track performance using custom tools.

While on recent versions of Windows, these DLLs are usually restricted and loaded with limited privileges, Labro said that on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, it was still possible to load custom DLLs that ran with SYSTEM-level privileges.

ISSUE DISCOVERED AND DISCLOSED ACCIDENTALLY

But while most security researchers report severe security issues like these to Microsoft in private, when they find them, in Labro’s case, this was too late.

Labro said he discovered the zero-day after he released an update to PrivescCheck, a tool to check common Windows security misconfigurations that can be abused by malware for privilege escalation.

The update, released last month, added support for a new set of checks for privilege escalation techniques.

Labro said he didn’t know the new checks were highlighting a new and unpatched privilege escalation method until he began investigating a series of alerts appearing on older systems like Windows 7, days after the release.

By that time, it was already too late for the researcher to report the issue to Microsoft in private, and the researcher chose to blog about the new method on his personal site instead.

ZDNet has reached out to Microsoft for comment today, but the OS maker has not provided an official statement before this article’s publication.

Both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 have officially reached end of life (EOL) and Microsoft has stopped providing free security updates. Some security updates are available for Windows 7 users through the company’s ESU (Extended Support Updates) paid support program, but a patch for this issue has not been released yet.

It is unclear if Microsoft will patch Labro’s new zero-day; however, ACROS Security has already put together a micro-patch, which the company released earlier today. The micro-patch is installed via the company’s 0patch security software and prevents malicious actors from exploiting the bug through ACROS’ unofficial patch.

Most years we’re all about building the best PC you possibly can from Black Friday deal parts, but 2020 isn’t exactly a normal year. AMD’s brand new CPUs are scarce, and even old graphics cards are hard to find. The latest Nvidia RTX 30-series and RX 6800 from AMD? Forget about it—we can’t find them in stock, let alone on sale.

But there is a way to get one of these new cards, if you don’t mind getting a whole PC right along with it. Buying a prebuilt gaming PC right now is the easiest way to get your hands on an RTX 3080 right now. Conveniently, Dell has chopped about $50 off the high-end configuration of the Alienware Aurora R11 with an RTX 3080, which happens to be our pick for the best gaming PC today.

Over on the Alienware Aurora R11 configuration page, you can choose a base model of the PC and then customize it with the graphics card of your choice, including an RTX 3070 or 3080. When I got to the order screen I put in my zip code in San Francisco, and found that I could get the system delivered as soon as December 3 with express shipping. In other words, the RTX models aren’t back-ordered, at least right now; stock might not hold out for the entirety of Black Friday.

The default high-end RTX 3080 Aurora R11 model is a pricey $2,391.19, but Dell lets you do plenty of customization here. I started with the cheapest config, using an Intel i5-10400F, and upgraded to the RTX 3070 along with a 1000W power supply, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB M.2 SSD for a total price of $1,754 (with discount code “EXTRA50” applied). That’s $600 cheaper, though still a pricey PC build.

If you just want an RTX 3080 model with no thought tweaking required, here it is. Bonus: it comes with a free copy of Call of Duty: Cold War.

The Aurora R11 comes with a one-year warranty including tech support and on-site service if you need it. In our review of the R11, we wrote that “the higher-than-average price provides you with reliable build quality, exceptional customer service, and solid warranties. The numerous pre-fab options offered by Alienware also help eliminate much of the guesswork associated with customizing your system. Some options provide better value for the parts used, but for hassle-free PC gaming out of the box, it’s tough to beat the ease of use that Alienware provides.”

The ThinkPad X1 Fold is finally here and in the hands of reviewers. Sadly, it is not all rosy for Lenovo’s first foldable. The ThinkPad X1 Fold starts at US$2,499, although that only gets you 256 GB of storage and no accessories. Lenovo charges US$2,749 for the detachable keyboard and pen, and another US$50 if you want a Windows 10 Pro licence. Prices rise to US$3,099 though if you want 1 TB of storage, instead of 256 GB.

For that money, you could pick up practically any high-end laptop or 2-in-1, although they lack the foldable display that the ThinkPad X1 Fold has. However, MKBHD inadvertently summed up the limitations of the new form factor, in our opinion, despite ringing its praises. In short, the foldable screen appears to offer no added functionality than one could already get with a Surface Pro. MKHBD highlights the tablet mode of the ThinkPad X1 Fold, before explaining that the detachable keyboard offers a better typing experience than the onscreen keyboard does. 

PC Watch has demonstrated the drawbacks of Intel’s Lakefield processor, too. The Core m3-8100Y in the Surface Go 2 outperforms the ThinkPad X1 Fold and its Core i5-L16G7 in multiple benchmarks, for example, while also lasting longer in PCMark 10 battery life tests. The Core m3-8100Y should offer about 91% of the Core i5-L16G7 according to our database, but Lenovo may have tuned its performance based on the form factor of the ThinkPad X1 Fold, somewhat.

Ultimately, the ThinkPad X1 Fold disappoints on price, performance and does not offer more versatility than something like a Surface Pro. Nonetheless, we hold out hope for the likes of Lenovo delivering more useful second and third-generation foldable laptops, as Samsung has with its foldable smartphones.

If you had hopes of getting a shiny new RDNA 2 graphics card from AMD this upcoming Black Friday, you’ll likely be very disappointed. Even though AMD’s launch for third-party custom Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards officially occurred today, every single tech store has sold out its entire stock in both aftermarket and reference flavors. That isn’t surprising, as some retailers didn’t even have stock to begin with. 

Both graphics card manufacturers and some stores have gone to Twitter to share the problems with the RX 6000 series volume. Simply put, just like the Ampere shortages, AMD and its partners are unable to manufacturer enough graphics cards to meet demand.

Most of the recent product launches have been plagued by bots, but that doesn’t seem to be the cause of the shortage this time around. In fact, Microcenter says it had zero cards for the launch today. 

So what should you do as a gamer? Right now is perhaps one of the worst times to build a system, so if you’re a DIYer we would highly recommend you wait until next year to build a new workstation/gaming machine when stock goes back to normal and prices are not over-inflated. 

But, if you’re a gamer and desperate to grab anything to get your game on, check out our Black Friday deal guides here, which can help you get together a gaming machine. If you don’t mind going with entry-level graphics like an RX 5500 XT, those are still a solid option for a “gaming-capable PC.”

It really is a terrible time to build a gaming computer, especially if you were considering purchasing an RX 6800 or RX 6800 XT. If you really need something to game on now, be prepared to make some sacrifices.

The programmability of a processor is a scale is all about flexibility and performance – something highly programmable and customizable is adaptable to all sort of situations, but often isn’t as fast. However, something that has a very specified compute pathway can go very fast, but can’t do much beyond that pathway. On the flexible side, we have FPGAs, that can be configured to do almost anything. On the fixed side, we have ASICs, such as fixed function hardware for AI. Somewhere in the middle is what’s called a ‘Structured ASIC’, which tries to combine as many benefits from the two.

An FPGA, or Field Programmable Gate Array, is a piece of silicon built that can be configured after manufacturing. By implementing a series of programmable logic blocks, memory cells, and layers of connectivity, a programmer with enough knowledge can configure the FPGA to run the equivalent of unique circuit designs for specific functions. For example, any series of AI calculations can be done on a CPU core slowly, and a subset of them can be very fast on a GPU, but if that calculation methodology has to change, the FPGA can be adjusted to be GPU-like of efficiency while being as configurable as the CPU.

An ASIC, by contrast, is a very fixed unit of hardware. By knowing what sort of calculations are expected, an ASIC can implement those calculations very fast and very efficiently, but it can only do that sort of calculation. For example, a graphics card can be thought of as an ASIC, as it does graphics very well, however the special 4K decode engine inside the GPU is better suited to the term of an ASIC, because all it does is decode 4K images/video and it knows how to do it much faster and much more efficiently than a CPU or an FPGA could.

Obviously if there are security concerns, an FPGA has the ability to perhaps be configured to avoid that issue. An ASIC by contrast has no solution. FPGAs can be deployed with updates to be sent later, whereas ASICs cannot be updated. FPGAs are initially very cheap, and ASICs require a lot of up-front non-reusable engineering (NRE) costs, however when built at scale, can offer something cheaper at orders of magnitude lower power and higher performance. These are some of the trade-offs.

A structured ASIC (or for Intel, an eASIC), is something between the two. The underlying design of an eASIC product is similar to an FPGA, but by doing some small upfront NRE/circuit design, an eASIC company changes some of its silicon manufacturing masks for FPGAs for the design in question. This means that the eASIC is no longer as configurable as an FPGA as it now has some rigid pathways in its silicon, but it takes gains some of the performance and power efficiency by having rigid pathways. It also hasn’t required the large amount of design costs that a full ASIC requires, and thus saves a lot of cost, and the product ends up somewhere between an FPGA and an ASIC.

For any company interested in something like a structured ASIC, it means developing a relationship with a vendor offering a portfolio of structured ASIC base designs, and then implementing some level of circuit customization on top at the point of manufacture.

Intel recently purchased a company called eASIC in mid-2018 to do just this, and the first line of products are called the N5X eASICs (Diamond Mesa, for anyone following code names), which add-in hardened embedded CPU cores to allow for control and security. A number of technologies have been pulled in from the Intel Agilex FPGA family to improve the previous eASIC offering, as well as a software platform.

The N5X series base design is built on a 16nm process (TSMC, by virtue of the acquisition), uses up to 80 million eASIC gates (8.8 million FPGA-like look up tables/logic elements), 225 megabits of dual port memory, supports 32G transceiver tiles, and features a quad-core A53 hard processor system. The N5X product line is in the form of N5Xabc, where abc is the number of FPGA-equivalent cells divided by 100,000 – thus the top model is the N5X088, with 8.8 million.

With customers implementing their own DSPs and pipelines into the N5X, Intel is promising faster time-to-market than traditional ASICs, up to 50% lower power than FPGAs with smaller form factor packaging, overall lower unit cost than FPGAs, and enhanced security.

Intel decided to make this announcement at its FPGA Technology Day, which coincided directly with the annual Supercomputing conference. It seemed odd that Intel would cause the two to clash. The N5X family of products however won’t be in production until Q2 2021.