Laptops

TikTok trends can be idiotic, or downright dangerous, at times - as you may have noticed - and here's one that definitely falls into the latter category: jamming a paperclip into a port on your Chromebook.

The 'Chromebook Challenge' has become a trend after some influencers on the social media site promoted the idea, and according to Axios (as flagged up by Wccftech), it has caught on with some students in the US.

Basically, it's kids messing with the Chromebook given to them by the school, inserting random objects into the ports, mostly bits of metal like a paperclip, pushpin or piece of foil.

Valve has released its Steam Hardware Survey for the month, and something surprising is at the top of the GPU charts: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU.

The GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU currently has 4.99% of PC gamers running a gaming laptop with NVIDIA's previous-gen laptop chip inside, while owning pretty much the rest of the entire GPUs used on Steam. NVIDIA has its GeForce RTX 3060 in second spot with 4.72% of users running one, and in third place the R TX 4060 with 4.51%.

If we look at these numbers in December 2024, the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU was only being used by 4.19% but it has slowly been gaining traction (except for the dip in February 2025) and now sits at 4.99%. NVIDIA has also had its GeForce RTX 4060 desktop graphics card slowly feeding more and more systems worldwide, with 4.04% of Steam gamers running one in December 2024, compared to 4.77% in April 2025.

ASUS has just launched a flurry of new gaming laptops powered by NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU, including new ROG Strix and TUF Gaming models. Check them out:

Starting with the new ASUS ROG Strix G18 and G16 gaming laptops, which feature up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, and up to NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU. ASUS packs in up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM, with its advanced Tri-Fan technology, full-width heatsink, and full-surround vents keeping the Intel CPU and NVI DIA GPU as cool as possible.

Both the new ASUS ROG Strix G18 and G16 gaming laptops feature dual Gen4 SSD slots and have been designed for tool-less access, with the Intel models featuring support for new Gen5 SSDs in one of the slots for Strix G for seamless storage upgrades.

Apple's MacBook Air M4 hasn't been around long - it only went on sale early in March - and already you can pick one up for a 15% discount.

This is the MacBook Air 13-inch with M4 processor and of course it's the base model, which normally retails at $999 but can now be had at a few major US retailers for $849. That includes Amazon, Best Buy and B&H as ZDNet flagged up.

Don't forget that you're getting a MacBook which is now equipped with 16GB of RAM (since Apple started upping the entry-level allocation of Unified Memory for Macs in recent history), as well as 256GB of storage.

Acer has just expanded its Nitro gaming line with the new Nitro AI gaming laptops, featuring new slim models, and a new Nitro 20 desktop PC.

The new Acer Nitro A Igaming laptops are Copilot+ PCs featuring an AMD Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point" APU and NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 50 series Laptop GPUs, while the new Nitro 20 desktop uses AI processors alongside the GeForce RTX 5060 graphics card. Acer says it is "focusing on better energy efficiency with a smaller footprint" for its new Nitro 20 desktop PC.

Acer is introducing a new 18-inch Nitro AI gaming laptop as well as 3 new 16-inch models, with new slim models introduced for gaming and productivity on the go. All of the new Nitro AI gaming laptops feature up to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 "Strix Point" APU, and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 50 series Laptop GPUs are now out in the market, with new testing pointing out that the new RTX 5080 Laptop GPU is only 10-15% slower than the RTX 5090 Laptop GPU in gaming tests... and RTX 5080 gaming laptops are 72% cheaper.

In some new benchmarks from the folks at Notebookcheck, we get a battle against NVIDIA's new flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU against the RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, with some big differences in terms of specs between teh mobile GPUs, a chasm in price (72% or so), yet the RTX 5080 Laptop GPU isn't that much slower.

NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU features 37% more CUDA cores than the RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, but both of them are limited to just 150W (175W with Dynamic Boost). Another big difference between the two laptop graphics chips is that the RTX 5090 Laptop GPU features 24GB of GDDR7 while the RTX 5080 Laptop GPU sports 16GB GDDR7.

Microsoft launched its Copilot+ PC range last year, with the custom AI-powered version of Windows 11 exclusive to Windows on Arm systems running the latest Snapdragon X Series processors. It was a strange move from the traditionally x86-based software and services company, but it was born from the fact that, at the time, Snapdragon X APUs were the only ones with the required NPU grunt (measured in AI TOPS) to run the new features.

Since then, AMD and Intel have released new CPUs or APUs with powerful enough integrated AI hardware - namely, the AMD Ryzen AI 300 and Intel Core Ultra 200V series of processors. This week, Microsoft announced that Copilot+ PC features or "experiences" are now available to x86 machines with these AMD and Intel chips.

Let's break them down. First up is the useful Live Captions feature, which uses AI to offer real-time translations in English for audio and video content in over 40 languages. This can be used for meetings while watching videos or listening to a podcast. Microsoft notes that support for Simplified Chinese translations is coming soon to AMD and Intel devices, with support for 27 languages.

NVIDIA's RTX 5000 laptop GPUs have been keenly awaited by many for quite some time, but it's official - these notebooks are now on sale, although you can't actually buy one yet.

Why not? As VideoCardz reported, breaking down the availability at Newegg in the US, many of these portables are simply out of stock, and some are available for pre-order - but it'll obviously take a while before they're shipped.

How long? Well that depends on the laptop in question as you might guess, but most models are not actually going to be out until April 30, over four weeks away (some are due to ship on April 15, mind, but not many).

HP's new ZBook Ultra 14 workstation laptops are now available for pre-order, rocking AMD's fantastic new Ryzen AI Max+ 300 series "Strix Halo" APUs, with prices starting at around $4000 but pricing scales up to an eye-watering $8250.

On its official website, HP lists the new ZBook Ultra 14 G1a mobile workstation PC Wolf Pro Security Edition, packing the AMD Ryzen AI Max Pro 385 "Strix Halo" APU, the Radeon 8050S "RDNA 3.5" integrated GPU, 32GB of LPDDR5X memory, and 512GB of Gen4 SSD storage for $4296.

HP has a bunch of different configurations with slightly different Strix Halo APUs, with plenty of variants of RAM + SSD upgrades along the way. A higher-end configuration of the ZBook Ultra 14 includes one with the AMD Ryzen AI Max Pro 395 "Strix Halo" APU, 64GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD for $5660, however the same laptop but with an upgraded 128GB of RAM and 4TB SSD will cost you $8250... representing a $2590 price increase for 64GB more RAM and 3TB more SSD... ouch.

Razer's new Blade 16 and Blade 18 gaming laptops are now available, with the Blade 16 starting at $2999 packing NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU.

The new Razer Blade 16 gaming laptop can be configured with AMD's new Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU with 12 cores and 24 threads of Zen 5 processing power on the CPU side, while configuring it with up to NVIDIA's new flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU with 24GB of GDDR7 memory.

Razer allows you to configure your new Blade 16 or Blade 18 gaming laptop with NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, or the flagship RTX 5090 Laptop GPU. The new Blade 16 starts off at $2999 with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 365 APU and the RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU with 12GB GDDR7, also featuring 32GB of RAM and a 1TB Gen4 SSD (which can be boosted up to 64GB of RAM and 2TB SSD for another $800).