Laptops - Page 37

Not long ahead of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie launch and about a week before the Star Wars: Battlefront game launch, HP is releasing its Star Wars Special Edition Pavillion notebook.

It's a cheeky love letter of sorts to the hardcore Star Wars fan that packs in Star Wars sound bytes (like R2-D2 talking when you plug or unplug devices), a Death Star themed recycle bin icon that changes depending on how full it is, and a treasure trove of over 1,100 behind the scenes images, storyboards, artwork, audio selections, concept art, and more (which you can browse via the "Star Wars Command Center").

As for hardware, you can choose between a Skylake Core i5 or i7 CPU and Intel HD Graphics 520 or NVIDIA GeForce 940M7 GPUs, and set yourself up with as much as 12GB of RAM and 2TB storage. The display is a welcome 15.6'' and can be made touchscreen; an optical drive and B&O tuned speakers are also included; the battery will last you about seven hours. This is not the gaming laptop you are looking for, but if you're a Star Wars geek, it may be worth the $699.99 they're asking (an extra $39.99 if you want the themed wireless mouse and sleeve) over the $549.99 for the non-themed version.

Microsoft has taken aim at Apple's Macbook line with its own 2-in-1 Surface Book, a 13.5-inch Windows 10 laptop that features higher-end specs while fitting right into the new Windows ecosystem.

The Surface Book is touted as the "world's most powerful, thinnest PC" and Microsoft boasts that "ounce for ounce its the fastest 13-inch laptop on the planet". The hybrid laptop can be docked or removed from the base to transform from a laptop or a tablet, but the GPU itself is located in the base so you'll need to keep it docked to tap its power.

Even with these claims Microsoft has been somewhat vague on the GPU specifics, saying that the Surface Book has an accelerated NVIDIA GeForce GPU with GDDR5 memory that's been tuned by the Xbox team. It sports Intel's latest 6th-generation Skylake Core i5 and i7 processors for beefy performance, and can utilize up to 16GB of RAM. There's word that a NVIDIA GeForce 940M could be the GPU that powers the Surface Book's base, but nothing's been confirmed just yet.

In order to keep up with the rest, MSI has announced the launch of its upgraded GT72 Dominator Pro, GE62/GE72 Apache Pro, GS60 Ghost Pro and GS70 Stealth Pro and prestige laptops, all complete with Intel 6th Generation Skylake processors and more.

For those looking for ultimate power, the GT72 Dominator will house an Intel Core i7-6820K processor, a 17.3" IPS screen, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM and a Killer network plus more. All other models listed above will include Intel Core i7-6700HQ and other options ranging up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM and USB 3.1 Type-C.

Priced from $1499.99 for the GE62 models up to $2599.99 for the GT72 Dominator, it's obvious that MSI means business. If the internals aren't enough to entice you, MSI is further working with SteelSeries on selected models, providing backlit keyboards for those who like something a little flashy.

Keen on a laptop that is better than your desktop? Well, CYBERPOWERPC might just interest you with its new FANGBOOK 4 Xtreme, hosting within a plethora of amazing technology from Intel, NVIDIA, Samsung and more.

Sitting alongside an Intel Core-i7 6700K is a 250GB Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SSD, 16GB of DDR4 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 980m and more. Topped off with a cool programmable full color backlit keyboard, this XTREME G-SYNC 100 edition is the better of the two, further offering Bluetooth 4.1 and packaged with Windows Home 10 (64-bit) installed. Interested in all this power? Prepare to spend a minimum of $2155.

The lower model still features an Intel Core i5-6600k, an NVIDIA GTX 970M and a 250GB M.2 SSD so it's certainly nothing to scoff at. Expect to spend at least $1749 for this beast, with it also featuring an LED keyboard and Windows 10.

Brandishing 4GB of RAM, a full HD 1920 x 1080 IPS display, USB 3.0 and audio provided by Skullcandy, Toshiba's new Chromebook 2 comes in to stores during October 2015 at a nice price of $429.99 with the Intel Core i3 or $329.99 with the Intel Celeron.

If you're looking for some more goodies thrown in, Toshiba also offers up 100GB of Google Drive storage, 90 days of unlimited Google Play streaming and 12 in-air passes for Gogo internet. Other features include a 13.3-inch display, a weight of only 2.9 pounds and a lengthy 8.5 hour battery life across both models.

Also included is a SD Card slot, one USB 2.0 port and dual microphones, just in case you're sporting two voice boxes (or enjoy better microphone quality).

Alienware has just announced that it will be upgrading any of their customers who purchased a Haswell-powered gaming laptop with an upgrade to Intel's latest Skylake-based processors.

Dell/Alienware executive Frank Azor confirmed the news, taking to Twitter where he said: "Our new notebooks launched last week. If you buy one & a new CPU launches within the next 30 days, you get a frere upgrade ;) Badass". The new upgrade will be for consumers who have purchased a Haswell-powered Alienware laptop in the last 30 days, you'll receive an upgrade to a Skylake-powered machine. The upgrade applies to the Alienware 13, 15 and 17 models, with the option available to also upgrade to Windows 10.

The ASUS ROG G751 is one of the most powerful gaming laptops on the market, but the Taiwanese giant has just one-upped itself with the new GX700 gaming notebook. What makes it so special? Well, it's watercooled. Frickin' watercooled.

The ASUS GX700 features a 17-inch screen with a 4K resolution, which is a first. Inside, we have the new Intel K-series Skylake processor, and an unreleased NVIDIA GeForce GPU. The CPU itself is reportedly the Core i7-6820HK, which has a 2.7GHz base frequency and Turbo clock of 3.6GHz. There's an insane 64GB of DDR4 RAM inside, and as for the GPU, it's an unreleased GeForce chip with 2048 CUDA cores, a 1190MHz GPU clock, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and 160GB/sec of memory bandwidth. The big difference between the G751 with its GTX 980M, is that the GTX 980M has 1536 CUDA cores, so this new GPU should be quite the jump.

ASUS includes a huge 'docking base' with the GX700 which is just a standalone watercooling solution. The notebook itself is very similar in its cooling design to the G751, but the watercooling base is a huge change. When attached, it can increase performance by as much as 80% according to ASUS. This is because gaming notebooks throttle the GPU speeds when it's not adequately cooled.

Acer has announced the Acer Chromebook R 11, the company's first convertible Chromebook laptop unit.

The Chromebook R 11 features an 11.6-inch (1366x768) display, HD webcam, powered by Intel Celeron processors. The device features a dual-torque hinge design able to support the following modes: laptop, pad, display and tent. It is just 19.2mm thin and weighs less than three pounds, so it'll be easy to transport out and about.

The Acer Chromebook R 11 will launch in North America next month with a $299 MSRP. Global rollout will begin in November.

It might be the introduction of high performance unlocked K-series mobile processors from Intel, but EVGA has decided to enter the gaming notebook market. At IDF, Intel hinted that EVGA would be bringing a gaming notebook to market featuring a new Skylake mobile CPU.

EVGA is traditionally known for their aftermarket video cards and motherboards, and they have a large following of enthusiasts and gamers who want the best hardware in their computers. I contacted our EVGA representative to get more information or even confirmation. According to EVGA marketing, "[EVGA] are working on a new 17-inch thin gaming notebook with very high-end hardware. Plan to launch late this year/early next. 100% EVGA design from the ground up".

EVGA is known for their NVIDIA-based GPUs and Intel-based motherboards, so we should expect an Intel CPU and the possibility of a discrete mobile GPU from NVIDIA. We could even go as far as to expect Intel's first K-SKU mobile CPU in EVGA's gaming notebook, but at this time there is no solid confirmation of what hardware will be used in their gaming notebook.

Now that the new Skylake processors are floating into PCs across the world, Apple is preparing new 12-inch Retina MacBook models using Intel's latest and greatest processors.

Intel will be reportedly providing low-power Skylake-Y processors including the Core M3, Core M5 and Core M7 for the new Retina MacBooks. The new Retina MacBook that will have an expected price of $1299 will rock the Cor M3 6Y30, with a default clock speed of 900MHz and two cores. Intel's Turbo Boost technology will push it up to 2.2GHz when needed.

The mid-range processors will include the Core M5 6Y54 and Core M5 6Y57 and will be clocked at 1.1GHz with Turbo Boost speeds of 2.7GHz and 2.8GHz, respectively. These chips will be plopped into the MacBook priced at $1599. The higher-end model will feature the Core M5 6Y75 that will be clocked at 1.2GHz, with Turbo Boost of up to 3.1GHz and doesn't yet include a price. If we had to guess, it would be $1999.

Alienware has just announced its latest and greatest gaming notebook, the Alienware 18, with what I would call the single most best, cringe-worthy announcement video of all time. Check it out below.

The new Alienware 18 gaming laptop kicks off with a minimum of a Core i7-4710MQ at 2.5GHz, but you can opt for the Core i7-4910MQ or Core i7-4940MX if you want some added CPU performance. There's four DIMM slots inside, with a stock 16GB of RAM upgradeable to 32GB. The stock model includes a 500GB HDD, while the 1TB model costs an insane 1TB more. Very strangely, there's no SSD here which is super disappointing and somewhat of a showstopper for me.

GPU wise you can have up to two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M or GTX 980Ms in SLI, which will more than handle the 18.4-inch 1920x1080 display and any game you throw at it. Connectivity wise, we have a Killer Ethernet port, Broadcom 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 4 x USB 3.0 ports, a miniDisplayPort, HDMI (in and out) and more. Dell has also packed in 20 LED lighting colors across 10 separate zones for the ultimate customization.

Acer is excited for the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, and consumers can purchase the Aspire E Series notebook powered by Windows 10 starting tomorrow.

The Aspire E Series will launch during the first week of August, Acer said in a press statement. The notebooks support either 15.6-inch or 17.3-inch displays, powered by Intel CPUs.

The cheapest model, the E5-573-58FN, has the following specifications: 15.6-inch display, 5th Generation Intel Core i5-5200U CPU, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive, and will be available for $499.99.

"Upgradeability is a core tenet of all Eurocom systems" reads a recent press release from this high-end portable technology company. Eurocom's latest release, the Shark 4, is no different with its changeable wireless card compatibility, M.2 4G/LTE module support, replaceable keyboard and even the ability to change your display to suit your needs.

Further supporting DDR3-1600 RAM up to 16GB, three storage devices, an optical drive and more - this product strays away from Eurocom's general tech-heavy products but still includes customization to suit all needs.

Complete wth an Intel i7-4720HQ processor, an NVIDIA GTX 960M and the choice between two 15.6" displays (matte or gloss), the technology within is certainly nothing to sneeze at either way, but it's the extra options that Eurocom believes will set it apart from the rest.

Windows 10 is right around the corner with its July 29 release, but an interesting new tidbit is that Acer is preparing a seriously cheap Windows 10-powered notebook, the Cloudbook, at just $169.

While Chromebooks might not have ignited the smaller notebook market, a Windows 10-powered offering might be a low-end enough market that has people interested. Acer is set to release two models; an 11-inch and 14-inch model with the 11-inch model starting from $169. There's no pricing on the 14-inch model, but we should expect the Cloudbooks to launch next month, just after Windows 10 flies out..

So where Microsoft can't compete against Chromebooks in the super-cheap market, it will compete against them at the interface level. Microsoft's operating system is much more known than Google's, and has a far bigger feature set. At just $169, Acer could quickly secure itself some serious Windows 10 market share, especially when it comes to the education and low-end markets.

The P5 Pro SE3 is powered by the Intel Xeon E3 processor series and comes with 32GB of memory, 5TB of RAID storage and support for upgrades depending on your needs. This product is described by the Eurocom president, Mark Bialic, as "designed to provide professionals with a quick deployment solution that can be carried into a new office or even an emergency or disaster area."

Complete with a keyboard, display and UPS battery, the P5 Pro SE3 utilizes the Intel Z97 Express Chipset with an LGA 1150 socket. Support for up to 32GB of memory is on offer with this mobile server running the Windows Server 2012 operating system.

The UPS features an 8-cell 82Wh Li-Ion design and is said to provide 120 minutes of backup power in emergency situations, allowing for a safe shutdown procedure. This is coupled with 3G/4G module support, a fingerprint reader, a 15.6" WLED backlit screen, a mechanical frame brandishing heady duty ABS plastic and much more.

There has been no shortage of awe surrounding Eurocom and its beastly laptop releases this year, with the latest M5 Pro announcement showcasing four different 15.6" screens being made available for all consumers - FHD Matte, FHD GT, 4K Sharp GT and 4K Sharp Matte.

These screens will be coupled with "an Intel HM87 Express Chipset running the Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor with 4 cores, 8 threads running at 2.5 GHz with integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600" as announced in a recent press release. Don't be worried, this isn't the graphics processor utilized! If the CPU isn't good enough for your needs, Eurocom also offers the Intel Core i7-4720HQ and Intel Core i7-4870HQ as an upgrade.

Complete with a full-sized LED backlit keyboard, there's the option to throw in an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, GTX 970M or 965M to support the 4K graphical performance and this can be coupled with up to 32GB of DDR3 1600MHz or 1866MHz 204 pin SO-DIMM RAM.

Complete with an Intel Core i7-4790K or i7-5775C desktop processor, an upgradable NVIDIA Quadro of GTX 900 series graphics chip, 32GB of RAM and with capacity for up to 5.2TB of total storage, Eurocom has come out of the blocks swinging once again with this amazing piece of technology.

There's also the option throw in an AMD Radeon R9-M290X if that is what you're more interested in. Set to power the highest available models 15.6-inch 4K QFHD screen, it will certainly look amazing either way.

With two M.2. SSD slots on hand to solve all of your storage needs, PCIe SSDs are further supported for optimal performance. If you're interested in more information, head to the official announcement here.

Computex 2015 - Yesterday (local time) we covered the release of AUROS' new 17" slim laptop that boasts the most powerful performance in the world, including two NVIDIA GeForce 970m video cards and measuring just 0.9 inches thick. Today this new brand is at it again, making claim to having produced the "earth's most powerful 15 inch" laptop.

Complete with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M SLI setup coupled with NVIDIA G-Sync, AUROS has presented us with a 3k IPS display running at 2880 x 1620 resolution, three SSDs in RAID boasting transfer speeds of up to 1500Mb/s and 25 sets of macro keys.

Adding to the pile of features, AUROS claims this is the first laptop in the world to be able to cast your game-play to the world in-house, boasting a live streaming engine located within. There's no telling if this is a third-party collaboration with someone like BlackMagic or AVeRMedia just yet, or pre-installed software like XSplit or OBS.

Computex 2015 - PC maker Dell used Computex to help showcase its new Inspiron 15 7000 Series 2-in-1 PC.

The 2-in-1 device features a 15.6" display, and can rotate between four different modes: tablet, laptop, tent and stand mode. True Color ships standard with the 7000 Series 2-in-1 PC, and features a wide-viewing angle courtesy of the IPS screen. Dell included the Standard Waves MaxxAudio Pro audio software to provide enhanced audio playback.

Dell promotes the 2-in-1's sub-20 mm form and its 802.11ac wireless standard functionality. Hardware specifications weren't revealed.

ORIGIN PC has announced that it will include NVIDIA G-Sync technology on its EON17-X and EON15-X gaming laptops.

The addition of G-Sync will minimize display stutter, lower input lag, and eliminate screen tearing - while providing 1080p and 4K resolutions. Gamers interested in seeing NVIDIA G-Sync technology in a gaming laptop can join the fun starting this month, according to ORIGIN PC.

"Anything that improves your gaming experience is something that ORIGIN PC craves," said Kevin Wasielweski, CEO and co-founder of ORIGIN PC. "NVIDIA's G-Sync technology is truly a game changing technology that allows us to offer the smoothest and fastest gameplay on a laptop. It's time to leave lag, stuttering, and tearing behind. It's true what they say: Once you go G-Sync you can never go back."