Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i PCWorld

For years, PC gamers have needed to pick a poison: Buy a desktop with the most powerful components available, or sacrifice some performance for a laptop they could take on the road. Intel’s new 6-core mobile Core i9 chip, its fastest notebook CPU ever, paves the way for 5GHz gaming laptops, making that decision a little easier. Using new “thermal velocity boost” technology to propel the new Core i9-8950HK from a base clock rate of 2.9GHz to a whopping 4.8GHz, the new unlocked 8th-generation Core i9 sits atop five new Core i5 and Core i7 high-performance mobile H-series chips, plus four more U-series Core chips aimed at lower-power systems. (All are Coffee Lake 14nm chips.) Intel also launched a new lineup of desktop Core processors, plus a new designation (Core…

Acer’s Aspire S24 caught our eye in a way few all-in-one PCs do, because we almost didn’t catch it. At 0.235 inches, the display on the Aspire S24 is blink-and-you’ll-miss-it thin, a refreshing change from the chunky, top-heavy profiles of most machines in this category. The super-slim screen makes the Aspire S24 look premium, even though at its heart it’s still a mainstream PC. By focusing on the display technology, Acer gives it some distinction, balancing value with design. This is a machine you could place at a reception area or have out in the family room with no aesthetic risk. And it has one more forward looking surprise, too. PRICING AND SPECS Announced recently with a starting price of $879 and available later in April, the Aspire S24 is…

HP’s Chromebook x2 is more than the first Chrome OS-based 2-in-1 with a detachable keyboard and pen. This new $599 tablet wants to compete with the likes of the iPad Pro. If it makes any headway, the Surface Pro should probably worry, too. While the Chromebook x2 looks affordable compared to its iPad Pro and Surface Pro rivals, it does look expensive for a Chromebook—most of its category cousins are still around $300. Its features are pretty nice, though, and Chromebook veterans may be able to appreciate the difference. SPECS AND FEATURES The Chromebook x2 will ship in June. Here are the highlights from the specs we know. CPU: Intel 7th-gen Core m3-7Y30 Memory: 4GB LPDDR3-1600 Display: 12.3-inch 2400x1600 IPS WLED backlit Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 615 Storage: 32GB eMMC…

Intel’s Hades Canyon is more than a simple successor to its Skull Canyon predecessor, an extreme version of Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC). When Skull Canyon launched in 2016, it bucked the mini-PC trend of modest specs designed for general computing, instead boasting the absolute latest in hardware for its size: a 45W quad-core processor, integrated graphics capable of 1080p gaming, and a port that supported external graphics. At the time, that ultra-compact mini-PC was unrivaled. The Hades Canyon NUC brings its own first: a single, Intel-produced chip (code-named Kaby Lake-G) that marries an Intel mobile CPU with an AMD Radeon RX Vega M mobile GPU. It’s silicon that can handle heavy-duty tasks without breaking much of a sweat. PRICE, SPECS, AND PORTS Hades Canyon comes in two configurations—one marketed…

Western Digital’s (WD) Black 3D NVMe SSD delivers much the same performance as the chart-topping Samsung 960 Pro, but for significantly less cash—$200 less in the 1TB capacity. This is a good thing, and a big deal. Samsung has been unchallenged in the end-user, performance NVMe SSD market since its inception. If you wanted best speed at a fair y reasonable price, the company’s SSDs were your only choice. Until now. DESIGN AND SPECS Announced Thursday, the WD Black 3D NVMe is an M.2, PCIe x4 SSD in the 2280 (22 millimeters wide, 80 mm long) form factor. It uses WD’s 3D TLC NAND, though WD was unable to confirm the number of layers. The NAND resides on only one side of the PC board, so the Black 3D NVMe…

Selecting the best Intel 300-series motherboard to fit your needs was straightforward when the initial wave of 8th-gen Core desktop processors launched in October 2017, because only the enthusiast-class Z370 chipset released alongside the new chips. That was enough to help the flagship Core i7-8700K CPU counter AMD’s Ryzen threat at the high end, but left PC users looking for more affordable options in a pickle. Buying a $100 Core i3 chip doesn’t make much sense when you’re forced to slap it in a $130, high-end motherboard, especially with AMD offering a full arsenal of Ryzen motherboards at all price points. The disparity ended in April 2018, when Intel revealed the full lineup of 300-series chipsets for its 8th-gen CPUs. The lower-cost chipsets don’t offer all the bells and whistles of Z370 motherboards, but they…

Android Auto will work in any car, even an older car. All you need is the right accessories—and a smartphone running Android 5.0 (Lollipop) or higher (Android 6.0 is better), with a decent-sized screen. Add a few handy apps and phone settings, and you can make your smartphone version of Android Auto just about as good as the dashboard version. Android Auto wasn’t always this easy. When it debuted in 2015, you needed either a new car or pricey aftermarket hardware to run Google’s infotainment system of the future. Google brought a stand-alone Android Auto app to smartphones the following year, allowing anyone with an Android phone to use the simplified menu system for music, navigation, phone calls, and messages. More recently, Android Auto added support for Google Assistant and all the…

Know why the MacBook Pro 15 is so thin? It’s because of all the times Dell’s powerhouse XPS 15 has stomped on it. Yes, that’s a cheap shot, but it’s been mostly true—and Apple’s beatdown will only get worse as the newest XPS 15 (model 9570) ups the ante to a 6-core, 12-thread Core i7-8750H. Part of Intel’s new enthusiast-class Coffee Lake H (see page 7) series of chips, the Core i7-8750H is essentially a mobile version of Intel’s powerful Core i7-8700K chip. For the Dell XPS 15, the big deal is upping the core count, which Intel claims will increase “overall performance” up to 88 percent over previous iterations. Intel’s prior Core i7 processors topped out at four cores and eight threads. Dell didn’t just stop there though. While the…

Intel’s Kaby Lake-G chip harbors a mystery. PCWorld has learned the company’s exciting CPU/GPU combo chip may actually be based on AMD’s older-generation Polaris cores rather than the newest Vega cores. This revelation doesn’t change how we feel about the chip, having already tested it (and liked it) in Intel’s Hades Canyon NUC, which earned an Editors’ Choice award. But an industry standard system utility identifies the Kaby Lake-G as having an AMD Polaris bloodline. And we’ve discovered other evidence suggesting the chip’s GPU core is Polaris. MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE In January, Intel unveiled it had linked a Core i7 to an AMD Radeon RX Vega M with its advanced Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge. And thus the Kaby Lake-G mobile chip—and a once-unthinkable Intel/AMD partnership—was born. >But that Vega may not…

Recently, Boss Key said it was moving on from Lawbreakers to a “passion project.” Now that passion project is out on Steam. I didn’t expect such a fast turnaround, but the game is called Radical Heights, and it’s a free-to-play, ’80s game show–themed battle royale shooter. Basically, it’s The Running Man. And you know what? I like it. SMASH AND GRAB Okay, like is maybe too strong a word for what’s here. I think it has potential, though. Radical Heights cribs a lot of its best ideas from the arcade classic Smash TV, but I’m hardly going to complain about that. There’s an over-the-top announcer yell-talking bad jokes at you, there are “prizes” to pick up. It’s very much that sort of game show aesthetic, and it fits well with…

Yes, you can scoop up a faster 8th-generation Intel quad-core ultraportable than the $1,000 Asus ZenBook 13, but good luck finding one with a discrete graphics core, perfect for Photoshop-minded professionals or casual gamers craving on-the-go Fortnite or Dota 2. A solid array of ports, a snappy keyboard and impressive battery life round out the enticing (if fingerprint-prone) package. SPECIFICATIONS AND PRICE We tested the $1,000 royal-blue version of the ZenBook 13, which comes with a 13.3-inch touch display, an 8th-generation quad-core Intel Core i5-8250U processor, discrete Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB solid-state drive. A cheaper version of the ZenBook 13 with integrated graphics might be on tap in “a couple months,” according to an Asus rep. The ZenBook 13’s most arresting feature has to be…

Corsair’s carved itself out a nice niche. Wireless headsets have come down in price a lot over the last five years, but still average around $150 list price—a category that includes Logitech’s G533 and G933, HyperX’s new Cloud Flight, the SteelSeries Arctis 7, Razer’s Man O’ War, and more. And yet somehow Corsair continues to put out its flagship wireless headset for $100. The latest iteration is the Void Pro, which improves upon its predecessor’s microphone while keeping the same low price. Not a huge upgrade, but is it enough to earn our recommendation? Read on to find out. CARBON COPY I’ll admit: I was hoping for a more extensive design overhaul with the Void Pro. That’s not the case. Corsair’s Void Pro is essentially identical to the previous Void model.…

Was your Facebook data shared with Cambridge Analytica? The political research firm harvested the personal information of roughly 87 million people to target American voters, using a personality quiz called “This Is Your Digital Life” that scraped the Facebook data of you and your friends. The social network recently started notifying users who had their information scooped up. If you haven’t seen the prompt in your News Feed, you can check if your Facebook data was shared with Cambridge Analytica by logging in to the network and visiting this help page. The section titled Was My Information Shared? explains whether you or your friends ever logged in to the nefarious quiz, though it won’t name which friends handed over your data to the app. While you’re at it, take the…

Excel spreadsheet databases work because users can filter the data inside these workbooks. Filters are conditions you specify in databases and spreadsheets to extract only the precise, requested information. For example, in a Human Resources spreadsheet database, the IT director may want to hire a candidate with a degree in Computer Science plus experience using HTML, Java, and C++ languages. The IT director uses filters based on logical operators to extract all the candidates with these credentials: equal to (Equals) degrees in “Computer Science” plus computer languages equal to (Equals) “HTML, Java, and C++.” She may add more conditions, such as candidates equal to (Equals) “CS Software Developer,” but not equal to (Does Not Equal) “CS Hardware Engineer,” to minimize the list. This selective process can go on and on…

The Origin PC EVO15-S wowed us late last year as one of the first gaming laptops wielding Nvidia’s potent GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q graphics. Now the slim, sleek, and supercharged notebook is getting a CPU upgrade to match. Recently, Origin announced that the EVO15-S and its classy professional cousin, the Origin NT-15, can be ordered with the 6-core Core i7-8750H processor that Intel just revealed. Before now, Intel’s fastest mobile CPUs topped out at four cores. Boutique PC builders like Origin thrive by offering buyers wider component selection than they’d find elsewhere. The processor isn’t the only hardware receiving a speed boost. Boutique PC builders like Origin thrive by offering buyers wider component selection than they’d find elsewhere. Unlike many premium gaming notebooks, a wide variety of panel options exist for the EVO15-S…

Cortana, where art thou? That’s what PCWorld wanted to know when we spoke with Microsoft’s recently-minted Cortana czar, Javier Soltero. The digital assistant, which made a splash in Windows 10 with her snappy comebacks and silly knock-knock jokes, is still offering to help you with your calendar and search. She’s even migrated to mobile apps for Android and iOS. But Cortana hasn’t talked her way into our homes like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have, making her staying power look uncertain. That’s where Soltero comes in. We sat down with Cortana’s new chief in the wake of a significant management shakeup that will see senior executive Terry Myerson leave, as well as the creation of a new “Experiences and Devices” team that seemingly downplays Windows. Does that mean Cortana has been…

Just over a year ago, AMD flipped the PC industry on its proverbial head with revolutionary Ryzen 7 processors that democratized CPU core counts in a way never seen before. While the recently unveiled 2nd-gen Ryzen 7 2700X (don’t call it Ryzen 2—that’s coming later) doesn’t quite shake things up the way the original Ryzen chips did last year, it’s a solidly good sequel that, in many ways, is far better than what it replaces. And it puts the squeeze back on Intel’s 8th-gen Coffee Lake processors, which upped their own core count to counter Ryzen’s threat. This review focuses on the 2700X, but a total of four new chips make up the 2nd-gen introduction: two 8-core CPUs and two 6-core chips. • The 8-core Ryzen 7 2700X costs $329 on…

Pull it off the shelf at the Apple Store, and you’d be hard-pressed by sight alone to distinguish the new sixth-generation 9.7-inch iPad from last year’s model. And under the hood, it’s not much different, where there’s simply a speedier A10 processor. The new iPad is, well, an iPad. What’s truly new is support for Apple Pencil, the sleek stylus that formerly only played nice with the iPad Pro. But never doubt that the Pencil support marks a bold move on Apple’s part. Combined with the new chip, the formerly capable iPad is transformed into something that’s now a serviceable substitute for an iPad Pro—for a mere $329 ($299 if you’re shopping for a school, $309 if you’re a student, teacher, or faculty shopping on Apple’s Education Store). Some will find…

If you’re asking yourself: “Should I buy a Core i9 laptop?” don’t worry. We can help you cut through the hype, innuendo, and specs so you can make the right decision. Frankly, the name itself is enough to confuse casual observers. In desktops, the Core i9 brand indicates the processor packs a ton more CPU cores (10 to 18) than the other “Core” brands (4 to 8). But today, Core i9 in laptops mostly just signifies higher clock speeds—not more CPU cores. The 6-core, 12-thread Core i9-8950HK laptop chip has a base clock of 2.9GHz with a boost speed of 4.8GHz, for example. Intel’s new 8th-gen Core i7-8850H laptop chip also packs 6 cores and 12 threads, but slower speeds at 2.6GHz base and 4.3GHz boost. So the correct question,…

A trustworthy virtual private network (VPN) is a good way to keep your internet usage secure and private whether at home or on public Wi-Fi. But just how private is your activity over a VPN? In other words, how do you know if the VPN is doing its job or if you’re unwittingly leaking information to prying eyes? To find out, you first need to know what your computer looks like to the internet without a VPN running. Start by searching for what is my IP on Google. At the top of the search results, Google will report back your current public Internet Protocol (IP) address. That’s a good place to start, but there is more to your internet connection and its potential for leaks. DIVING DEEPER Your public IP address is…