The smartphone was between manufacturers is pretty strong these days but the PC market despite the decline in market share is still a thriving industry. In fact, companies like Huawei is getting ready to extend their reach to serve the declining PC market with Microsoft's big push at Windows 10. With that in mind, Australian-based Harvey Norman which has stores throughout Malaysia is entering the PC market with the Malaysia-exclusive Charge Plus 2-in-1 computer.
Made in collaboration with Intel Malaysia and Microsoft Malaysia, the Charge Plus 2-in-1 will be exclusively available at Harvey Norman outlets throughout the country. While the device does not explicitly have any sort of Harvey Norman branding whatsoever, the device is very much a proprietary product.
At the core of Harvey Norman's Charge Plus 2-in-1 laptop convertible is Intel's Cherry Trail T8300 SoC paired with 2GB of RAM and the device does run Windows 10 too. The 11.6-inch display is detachable and this compact tablet convertible PC has 64GB of internal memory that can be expanded with a microSD card. Harvey Norman is pricing this one of a kind device at RM 1,899 and if you are the first 500 customer to purchase the device, you will also walk away with freebies that is worth over RM 1,000.
Learn more about Harvey Norman's Charge Plus 2-in-1 computer here
During CES last year, Razer showed off their first console called the Forge TV which ended up being a complete mistake as it never made it's way to the market. This year however, Razer is going back to what it's good at and here it is, the Razer Blade Stealth rounds up Razer's lineup of gaming laptops. While the Razer Blade Stealth is categorized as a gaming laptop, it actually runs on Intel 520 (not even iris graphics, just the normal HD graphics from intel) graphics which is bascially on every Skylake laptop out there. In fact, the new Blade Stealth is actually rocking a measly 25w dual core i7 processor.
Well, as you might have noticed in the picture above, the Razer Blade Stealth is not meant to be a all in on gaming device like previous Razer Blades. You could just take the Razer Blade Stealth as a regular Windows 10 laptop since it starts at just $999 or you can do what Razer wants you to do and buy the Razer Core and pop in your desktop grade graphics card, hook up a monitor, mouse and keyboard and you have yourself a gaming experience that is comparable to the 14" Razer Blade that cost well over $2,000 for the base model.
But it is actually hard to say how good of a deal is this as Razer has yet to announce pricing for the Razer Core GPU dock. Razer is not the first to do such a thing, MSI launched a GPU dock specifically for their GS30 gaming notebook last year at CES and that cost about $399. I personally think Razer has a good chance of making this a success if they price the Razer Core correctly and given that the Razer Blade Stealth costs like half the price of the most affordable Razer Blade system at the moment makes it an instant buy for Razer fans.
Beyond the potentially unrivalled performance that the Razer Core can provide, the Razer Blade Stealth itself is a very capable machine. The new Blade Stealth looks to be designed to take on the Surface Book in terms of price and performance. In fact, Razer's new Blade Stealth is actually just as thin and ligh as the Surface Book and the specifications of both devices are identical. But the big difference is the price, for $999 you will be getting a i7 processor with 8GB of RAM while the Surface Book which starts at $1,499 will only get you a i5 processor with 8GB of RAM. In terms of what you get for your money, the Razer Blade Stealth wins this round without a hitch but it'll be interesting to see how both devices fare in the market.
The Surface Book has the power of the Surface Pen and magic button which automatically detaches the display into a clipboard but the Razer Blade Stealth also has a few tricks up it's sleeve. The highlight of the device is undoubtedly it's Razer Chrome keyboard which are individually lit up and can be configure with over 16 million colors to match all the other Razer accessories. Another cool part of the Razer Blade Stealth is that the device has a USB Typ-C port that is capable of speeds up to 40Gbps thanks to Thunderbolt 3. This port will both be used as a charging port and a link to the Razer Core GPU dock.
If you're sold on this ultrabook, Razer is starting to accept orders for the Razer Blade Stealth which starts at $999 (~RM 4,415) for the 128GB model and goes up to $1,599 (~RM 7,066) for the top of the line 512GB model with a UHD display. Razer will begin shipping the Blade Stealth in late January and there is no official pricing and release date of the Razer Core but it should't be too far from now. Learn more about the Razer Blade Stealth here
It is the first week of 2016 and that means that Las Vegas will be facing the limelight as the annual Consumer Electronics Show will be there for a week. To start things off, Lenovo is unveiling a couple of new Windows 10 and Intel Skylake powered computers. More specifically, the new tablet, computer an All-in-one from Lenovo comes under the Lenovo X1 brand. Namely the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ThinkPad X1 Yoga, ThinPad X1 Tablet and the ThinkCentre X1 which will all be available at Lenovo's CES 2016 booth this week.
Beyond being powered by Intel's new 14nm Skylake CPUs, the new ThinkPad X1 series being unveiled at CES 2016 will come with a consistent design and these devices will be part of Lenovo's flagship lineup of Windows 10 powered devices.
The newest addition to the ThinkPad X1 series is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet which is indeed a tablet hat has a 12" 2160 x 1,440, an Intel Core M processor, a standard USB port, a USB Type-C port and a built in kickstand. But what makes the new ThinkPad X1 Tablet a different device compared to the Surface Pro 4 is it's modular port that will accept modules like a battery extender, a projector module and another module with Intel's RealSense camera.
To top things off, Lenovo will also offer an optional $50 stylus alongside the other optional modules and also a Surface type keyboard with the signature lenovo keyboard. But bottom line, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet itself starts at $899 (~ RM 3,897) and will launch in February.
In terms of laptops, Lenovo is introducing the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga in addition to updating their well acclaimed ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Basically, the new ThinkPad X1 Yoga has the same 14" display with an optional OLED display like the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon but the former has the same hinge design like the Yoga 900 enabling the screen to rotate 360 degrees. The convertible ThinkPad X1 Yoga starts at $1,499 (~ RM 6,493) and the updated ThinkPad X1 Carbon will go for $1,299 (~ RM 5,627).
And finally to round up the new ThinkPad X1 series is the Lenovo ThinkCentre X1 which is an All-in-one system that packs a 24" 1080P display that features a USB Type-C connector that is capable of outputting to a 27" 4k monitor. Lenovo will allow you to configure the ThinkCentre X1 with an i7 processor, up to 1TB of SSD storage and up to 16GB of RAM. With it's Military grade ruggedness and design aesthetics like the Lenovo X1 Carbon, the new ThinkCentre X1 which starts at $1,049 (~ RM 4,547) will be available starting March.
In August, Intel finally launched the much delayed Skylake series and while their CPU lineup has been delayed for the past few months it looks like Intel is preparing to refresh their Enthusiast CPUs on the LGA 2011 platform. According to a leaked table by Xfastest, Intel's upcoming Broadwell-E CPU's will be bumped up to a 10 core 20 thread configuration on the highest end model.
Also it looks like there will be more LGA 2011 CPU options this time around as there will be (as many as) three unlocked (K) SKUs in this table in which two features 12 threads and the third one has 15 threads. Nothing too amazing about the clock speeds but the high end model will apparently have a whopping 25MB of L3 cache.
This alleged document also shows that the upcoming Broadwell-E CPUs, namely the i7 6950X, i7 6900K, i7 6850K and i7 6800K will all support the revised LGA 2011 v3 motherboards which supported last year's Haswell-E CPUs. No word on when these new processor will hit the market but intel could be targeting to announce this as early as January or maybe during Computext 2016?
Earlier this year, Swiss watch maker Tag Heuer announced that they are partnering with both Intel and Google to create their first connected watch. Well, after the much anticipated wait, Tag Heuer officially unveiled the new Tag Heuer Connected smart watch that runs on Google's Android Wear platform and features a premium titanium frame with their signature precision lasered etchings.
On the front of this $1,500 Android Wear smartwatch is a 1.5" 360 x 360 circular display and as expected, powering Tag Heuer's first venture into the smartwatch world is an Intel processor (dual core 1.6GHz/500mHz) paired with 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a 410mAh battery and the usual array of wireless connections.
In terms of the software experience, Tag Heuer says that customers will get their hands on some exclusive sports applications as well as three custom watch faces that is exclusive to the Tag Heuer Connected. The software and hardware has been tuned to make the watch portion of the device tick like an actual mechanical watch.
But if you are planning to get this smartwatch, it probably isn't about the Android Wear experience as it is able to do the basics like beam notification to your wrist and track steps but it does not have features like heart rate tracking. However, Tag Heuer is mostly selling this as a high end timepiece with the 'connected to eternity' hashtag but while this is probably the most expensive Android Wear smartwatch to date, it is considered affordable when you compare it to other watches from the company.
Despite the theme to get you connected to eternity, Tag Heuer has already got you covered if you think that the digital smartwatch experience is not to your liking. After two years, you will have the option to trade in your Tag Heuer Connected for a genuine Carrera mechanical watch for an extra $1,500 which is actually a pretty good deal since the price of a Carrera itself is well over $3,000.
In the mean time, Tag Heuer will start offering their new Connected watch to customers in the US starting today for $1,500 and expect to see it become available in other Tag Heuer shops worldwide in the coming weeks and months ahead. As referenced by the microsite, the Tag Heuer Connected will retail in Malaysia for MYR 6,100.
Gamers are finally getting the attention they need from computer makers. This year, Acer jumps on the bandwagon, launching several new gaming oriented devices. Acer launched the Predator 15 and Predator 17, which gives away the screen size of the laptops by the name. Both the 15 and 17 are very similar in specifications other than some minor differences.
Starting with the Acer Predator 17, Acer boasts this laptop can keep cool even under intense gaming sessions. Interestingly, cooling for the Predator laptop lineup is provided by CoolerMaster. The laptop has dual fan setup but with an interesting twist. The optical drive can be removed and replaced with a third fan for additional cooling headroom. Both the Predator 15 and Predator 17 have this feature.
The Predator also have programmable keys for user recordable macros. The keyboard is illuminated but it is not yet known if the colors will be user changeable. The laptop also uses Killers Doublehot Pro, allowing users to combine WiFi and Ethernet network connection. The biggest difference, other than the screen size, of the 15 and 17 is in the sound department. While the Predator 15 has 2 speakers and a subwoofer, which is great, the Predator 17 has 4 speakers and TWO subwoofers for the ultimate thumping experience
Both Predators will have Thunderbolt 3 support. NVMe SSD support has not yet been confirmed but both versions of the laptop will have 6th Generation Intel Core processors as well as Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980M. The displays will be either 1080p or 4K, both with support for G-SYNC. Acer says that its DustDefender will help reduce dust buildup. The laptops will have an expected launching price of $1499 for the Predator 15 and $1599 for the Predator 17 and may launch by the end of the year.
Every year at IFA, tech companies show off their latest gadgets and devices. New devices are exciting and all but nothing has taken the show floor, yet. This is where Asus new GX700 laptop comes in. We'll dive into specifications later but for now an overall look at this magnificent beauty. Asus GX700 has a new color scheme that does not follow the conventional red and black, instead its now silver and orange-ish red. Asus calls it the Armor Titanium for the silver and Plasma Copper for the accompanying orange accents.
The laptop has a detachable water cooling All-in-One kit located around the back to cool the, to date, unreleased Nvidia GPU. We think its the GeForce GTX990M, the full unlocked GM204 Maxwell core, that has been making waves on the Internet about a month ago. It also will cool the new Skylake CPU. This Skylake chip is rather special, its a K chip on a laptop, Intel Core i7 6820HK. Operating at a base clock of 2.7GHz and Turbo clocks to 3.6GHz.
It has also been spotted housing a massive 64GB of DDR4 RAM. Asus has also stated that the laptop will support NVMe based SSD running at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds. The laptop sports a 17.3" 4K (3840x2160) IPS display that also has support for Nvidia's GSYNC. Thunderbolt 3 is also present on the computer as well as the usual Asus ROG set of macro keys. The laptop, according to Asus, may hit shelves as early as this year. We are very interested in checking out his beast in person and how it works.
Recently Alienware has just refreshed their entire lineup of gaming notebooks as well as the X51 gaming desktop. Today we will be focusing on the 18" variant in Alienware's new lineup of gaming laptops. Unlike the other smaller screened brethren, the 18 doesn't come with the newer Intel CPU's, instead they stick with the older but still blazing fast CPU's. Alienware, with the 18, brings more connectivity ports with USB 3.0, with another USB 3.0 supporting Dell's PowerShare, 7 in 1 card reader, HDMI (ver 1.4), mini DisplayPort and more.
Beyond the new hardware improvements, Dell has essentially still kept the relatively new and beautiful design but they have overhauled the internals for more performance, screaming performance. Besides options to change the base 4710MQ to a monstrous 4940MX, there are also options to configure the laptop with Nvidia's new graphics solutions. Just like other 18" Alienware's, this new refreshed model can also be configured with dual graphics options.
Alienware didn't stop there as they have also improved the cooling solution to maintain manageable temperatures for the CPU (one fan), GeForce GTX970M 6GB GDDR5/GTX980M 8GB GDDR5 (one fan per GPU) bringing three cooling solutions for this behemoth. Besides the new cooling mechanism, Alienware is touting this model to be their most upgradable laptop ever sporting Intel's 4710(M)Q, not the usual 4710(H)Q which means its using the swappable LGA based CPU's and not the soldered onto the motherboard BGA based CPU's.
At the moment, it is not yet known if the GPU's are based on MXM or soldered onto the motherboard. This laptop also has 4x DDR3L SO-DIMM slots for a maximum configurable memory of 32GB. Alienware also included up to four bays for users to populate with SATA HDD's or SATA SSD's, with the drives maximum height of 7mm, with the addition of a M.2 slot for SSD's seen on the maxed out option of the 18.
Dell is shipping the Alienware models starting today for a starting price of USD2,499 (likely to be ~RM 10,456) and can be configured with different hardware options through Dell's online store. No word as to when these refreshed models will make it to Malaysia. For more information on the laptop, click here
A few weeks back, Intel officially announced the arrival of Skylake CPUs with the first batch of high end overclocking i5 and i7 CPUs which has since then go on sale in multiple markets alongside the slew of new Z170 motherboards. Besides featuring a new 14nm die, the Skylake processors have also gotten a thicker new thermal interface material (TIM) as reports suggest.
But beyond the microscopic changes, Intel also introduced a brand new box for the desktop grade CPUs which are similar to that of the extreme editions processors with a flat style box. With the new box design, Intel was basically selling you just the CPU itself without the stock cooler given that the first batch of Skylake CPUs are indeed targeted at overclocking enthusiasts which would likely use a third party solution.
While we have to wait a little longer before other Skylake CPUs arrive, this is our first look at the new CPU cooler that intel might be shipping with lower end Skylake CPUs. The TS15A Intel stock cooler is made for the new LGA 1151 socket and features the usual push pin locking mechanism, a copper base and the standard intel logo atop of the embedded fan.
What's interesting here is the sheer size of the heatsink, When compared to the existing stock cooler that came with previous Intel CPUs, the new TS15A cooler looks double it's size and is nothing like the low profile design intel has been pushing for the past few years. This new cooler looks a lot like the old LGA 775 stock cooler back in the day.
As for it's price, Intel is planning to sell this for a pretty premium $41 (RM 168).
After months and weeks of delays, today Intel is finally unleashing their new 6th generation core processors which has the company's new an improved 14nm die. As expected, first out of the line is the two flagship desktop SKUs which Intel plans to offer to their overclocking community. The new Core i7 6700K and the Core i5 6600K will be driving the first wave of Z170 motherboards coming out today.
The i7 6700K will have a quad core CPU with hyperthreading enabled (8 cores) and will feature a base clock of 4.0GHz with a turbo frequency of 4.2GHz. Also included in the package is 8MB of L3 cache and the new Intel HD 530 graphics processor that is clocked in a 1.2GHz. The more mainstream i5 6600K in the other hand comes with a quad core CPU (4 cores) that is clocked in at 3.5GHz with a 3.9GHz turbo frequency. It also comes with 6MB of L3 cache and the same Intel HD 530 graphic found in the i7.
All of these specifications is packed into a processor that features a 91w thermal design and is higher than the 85w TDP that came with the Haswell processors. But bottom line, the new unlocked Skylake SKUs supports the new DirectX 12 API that comes with Windows 10 and also includes support for DDR4 memory, NVMe drives, and the new Z170 motherboards which come with a broad range of I/O options.
As expected, the new Skylake CPUs will be using the new LGA 1151 processor but intel is shaking things up a bit by not including a stock heatsink for the overclocking SKUs. This choice can be clearly seen with the new box for the i7 6700K and the i5 6600K which feature a new hero graphic and the box looks flat like the extreme edition CPUs on the LGA 2011 platform.
The i7-6700K has an MSRP of $350 (~RM 1,356) while the i5-6600K (~RM 941) is at $243. These two unlocked CPUs are now available for purchase but there's no official word as to when they will arrive in Malaysia. As for the rest of the Skylake CPUs, Intel says more will be revealed during IDF 2015 later this month and by then we will also know a little bit more about the other Skylake processors that intel has souped up.
Now that Windows 10 has officially hit the market, the next big launch in the PC market is Intel's new 6th generation core processors codenamed Skylake. There has been ongoing reports that Intel will be announcing the highly anticipated processors during a keynote at Gamescon later this week. But whether the ends up being the case or not, we'll just have to wait till the day itself to confirm these claims.
But in the mean time, the new boxes for Intel's new Skylake desktop CPUs has been leaked. Specifically, the i7-6700K and i5 6600K which is the top of the line SKU in terms of performance. The back of the box looks like a normal Intel processor box but the front has a new set of graphics that looks like a vortex of light.
These boxes also confirm that the new unlocked Skylake processors will come with the new Intel HD Graphics 530 and as usual, the i7 has a hyper-threaded quad core processor and the i5 just has a quad core processor. Both devices are based off the LGA 1151 socket and supports DDR4 memory.
