Last week at Build, Microsoft unveiled an forthcoming free update to Windows 10 called the Anniversary update but that will only come later this Summer. In the mean time, HP announced their new HP Spectre ultrabook that claims to be the world's thinnest laptop. At just 10.4mm (which is slightly slimmer than a AAA battery), the new 2016 HP Spectre does not sacrifice performance or sheer looks for that slim form factor.
Unlike other devices this thin (namely the 12-inch MacBook at 13.2mm), HP's new Spectre 13 comes with the power of a regular ultrabook. Being powered by a 6th generation (Skylake) Core i5 and i7 opposed to a Core M CPU, the Specture 13 ides designed to be portable, stylish and powerful. The biggest downside is that while HP's engineers did manage to fit a Core i processor into the package, they did not manage to cram in a high resolution display. As is, the Spectre 13 only features a 1080P non-touch display. On the upside, HP did manage to include dual USB Type C ports that also functions as Thunderbolt 3 interfaces capable of up to 40Gbps speeds
With all of that engineering prowess and the bragging rights to say you have the world's thinnest laptop. HP is pricing the HP Spectre (13) at $1,169.99 and the laptop can be configured with higher end hardware too. HP will begin shipping the world's thinnest laptop sometime next month (May 2016). Learn more about the new HP Spectre here
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
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
Windows 10 has been officially out for about a week now and you can check out our full review to decide whether you should take on the free upgrade or not but if you are waiting for some fresh new hardware made for the new operating system, Acer Malaysia has got you covered.
Today, the company is officially launching the new Acer Aspire R11 laptop to the Malaysian market and this laptop is probably the first one in Malaysia to come pre-loaded with Microsoft's new Windows 10 operating system. Initially built to run Windows 8.1, the Acer Aspire features a 360 degree hinge which enables it to be positioned into various device states.
As for the Aspire R11 itself, the device comes with a 11.6" 1366 x 768 touch display and is powered by Intel's Pentium N3700 quad core processor paired with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, a HD webcam and a 3,320mAh battery that is rated for 8 hours of usage.
Acer says the Aspire R11 will be available starting today for RM 1,499 and can be picked up through authorized dealers today itself. Just remember that if you plan to purchase boxed copies of Windows 10, those will be coming to stores on August 10
Windows 10 has been out for a couple of days now and while the momentum isn't as strong like it was last week, Microsoft's new operating system is still gaining traction over the market. While the majority of devices running Windows 10 comprises of upgrades of existing devices, that's about to change as the back to school season is upon us.
Well, Acer is unveiling a totally new type of Windows device today and they're calling it the Cloudbook. As the name suggests, the new Cloudbook lineup harnesses the power of the cloud as the laptop itself can only be configured to a maximum of 64GB of flash storage. To replenish that lost storage, Acer will be bundling the purchase of the Cloudbook with a years' subscription of Office 365 which includes 1TB of OneDrive storage.
Powering the Cloudbook is intel's dual core celeron processor clocked in at 1.6GHz and there's also 2GB of DDR3 RAM, Wireless AC, Bluetooth 4.0 and a couple of USB ports. The Acer Cloudbook runs on Windows 10 Home and will be available in two display sizes, a 11.6" model and a 14" model which starts at $170 and goes up to $200 for the 64GB 14" Cloudbook. Acer says the smaller 11.6" model will begin shipping later this month and the 14" model will come in September
