Laptops News - Page 11

AMD has a new tech on the boil that might just prolong the battery life of your laptop considerably.

Phoronix.com reports on the sighting of FreeSync Panel Replay in a new patch for AMD's Linux display driver.

In theory, if it comes to fruition, FreeSync Panel Replay will mean less power usage for AMD Ryzen-powered laptops.

When Apple announced the 15-inch MacBook Air during the WWDC 2023 event on June 5 it brought to an end months of rumors and speculation. And it gave us exactly what we expect it to give us - a MacBook Air that was just like the 13-inch model but butter.

Now, the folks at iFixit have taken a new 15-inch MacBook Air apart to confirm just what's going on inside and then ascertain just how easily that laptop can be repaired. Apple hasn't done too well on that front in recent years, and as expected, the 15-inch MacBook Air is not going to change that anytime soon.

The iFixit teardown ultimately comes to the conclusion that the new MacBook Air is pretty poor in terms of repairability. The reasons all revolve around that M2 chip that's used to power the new laptop. Not only can that not be replaced, but the same goes for the RAM and storage because they're all so intricately connected to the chip itself. The RAM is actually part of the chip these days, making it impossible to upgrade.

Apple's brand-new 15-inch MacBook Air and updated M2 Ultra Mac Studio are both now available to buy and you can pick either up from the Apple Store right now, depending on where you happen to be.

The two machines are available for in-store pickup starting today across the United States with same-day or next-day collection available depending on the configuration that you want to buy. However, while the new M2 Ultra Mac Pro is also available for in-store pickup, you're going to have to wait a little longer for it to be ready - many locations report that the new Mac Pro won't be available for a couple of weeks yet.

Apple announced its three new Macs during the WWDC 2023 event on June 5. The new MacBook Air is its biggest to date and gives buyers who want a big-screen laptop another option rather than forcing them towards the costly 16-inch MacBook Pro. Beyond the display size, the 15-inch MacBook Air is largely identical to the smaller 13-inch model, right down to the M2 chip that powers it.

After months of rumors, Apple finally announced the 15-inch MacBook Air a week ago, and that laptop is set to actually go on sale this week. But a new report suggests that Apple is already hard at work on what comes next. And it might be a big upgrade.

The 15-inch MacBook Air, like the smaller 13-inch model that it joins in the lineup, is powered by the M2 variant of Apple's in-house silicon. But there will be a new flavor as soon as 2024, and now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple is already hard at work on an M3 MacBook Air in both 13 and 15-inch configurations.

Gurman was writing in his weekly Power On newsletter when he said that Apple is already developing upgraded M3 versions of the MacBook Air models. with laptops expected to go on sale at some point in 2024.

When Apple announced the macOS Sonoma update during its WWDC 2023 event on June 5, it previewed a number of new features that are going to be available to Mac users later this year. However, not all of them will be available to everyone.

That's because some of the macOS Sonoma features won't work on some Macs - specifically, those that are running Intel chips.

While a macOS update being made available to more Macs is always a good thing, it seems that reducing the functionality on some of them is the only way that Apple could make that happen. And while it isn't yet clear why Apple silicon appears to be required for these specific features, this could be an indication that it's only a matter of time before Intel Macs no longer receive big macOS updates at all.

All the rumors were true - Apple has now announced its biggest-ever MacBook Air at the company's WWDC 2023 opening keynote. The new 15-inch MacBook Air is set to be available in four colors, while Apple also confirmed that the 13-inch MacBook Air is getting cheaper.

The new 15-inch MacBook Air will start at $1299, Apple confirmed via press release. The news means that the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air is now set to sell for $1099 while the M1 13-inch MacBook Air will retail for under $1000, but only just - it can be yours for $999.

The brand-new 15-inch model will be available in midnight, starlight, silver, and space gray with Apple noting that its 15.3-inch display can provide one billion colors and 500 nits of brightness. That's 25% brighter than a comparable PC laptop, we're told.

Computex 2023 is off to a roaring start, and as you can probably imagine, ASUS is very excited to show off its latest products. Introducing the already-released ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED.

ASUS was kind enough to give me an introduction to the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED and explained to me that the product is designed for versatility as it can be transformed into multiple modes depending on what the user requires. ASUS explained to me that the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED comes with an ASUS Lumina OLED display for more accurate color, which tiers perfectly into the video-watching mode as pictured above. More specifically, the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED comes with a 17.3' 4:3 2.5K FOLED touchscreen that folds down to a 12.5" 3:2 laptop, as pictured below.

ASUS has equipped the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED with a laptop mode for users that need to work in tight spaces, such as on a flight, or users that are looking to conserve battery life. Additionally, users have the option of using a virtual keyboard if the physical keyboard isn't their forte. Furthermore, the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED comes with a 12th Gen Intel Core 17 processor.

Apple is expected to announce new Macs with M3-series chips in the future and a new report suggests that Apple is now testing an M3 Pro for a future MacBook Pro update.

If the report is accurate the M3 Pro will feature more cores than the M2 Pro and M1 Pro that came before it, with the MacBook Pro thought to be in testing ahead of an expected 2024 release. The machine in testing is said to be running macOS 14, a software update that isn't expected to ship to the public until this September.

The latest report comes via Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and his weekly Power On newsletter. Gurman believes that Apple is now testing the chip based on data collected by an App Store developer that has been shared with him.

If you've been pondering picking up a 14 or 16-inch MacBook Pro or Apple's latest Mac mini but have been waiting for a great price, now might be the time to hold on a little bit longer.

That's because a new report claims that Apple is getting ready to start selling refurbished 2023 Macs, with those including updated 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models as well as a revamped Mac mini that offered the most powerful chips ever used in that chassis.

Those chips include the latest that Apple silicon has to offer, with all of Apple's 2023 Macs sporting M2-series silicon. The 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros ship with either the M2 Pro or M2 Max chips inside, promising speed improvements of up to 20% CPU and 30% GPU performance. They also have support for up to 96GB of RAM which is a big jump over the previous 64GB limitation. Other improvements include an upgrade to HDMI 2.1 and Wi-Fi 6E support.

Apple could be getting ready to announce a number of new portable Macs within the next few weeks according to a new report. But that report stopped just short of saying exactly which of those Macs we should be looking out for.

The report says that Apple has a lot going on for the upcoming WWDC23 event that will kick off on 5 June 2023, with a few MacBooks on the horizon. But it also says that some of them might not arrive just yet after all, leaving potential buyers a little lost as to what they should be saving their cash for

Writing in his weekly Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple is working on a number of Macs. He says that the much-rumored 15-inch MacBook Air is still coming while a refreshed version of the current 13-inch MacBook Air is also in development. There's also an updated 13-inch MacBook Apro as well, we're told.