Lenovo’s laptops have long powered the productivity of small and medium businesses. In fact, their ThinkPad brand has been in the business for more than two decades now! The series has become synonymous with sturdy, well built, purpose built laptops which Lenovo has taken to the next level with models such as the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. However, the company didn’t announce another top of the link ThinkPad this time. Instead, they’ve shifted their focus to their affordable, durable, and purpose built line up: the ThinkPad E series.
They’ve partnered with AMD this round to bring even more efficient but powerful performance with AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series. The Ryzen 4000 series has been touted to bring better power efficiency and double digit performance gains over the previous generation of Ryzen processors. In fact, it’s boasting more than 30% increases in performance.
The two new entries: the ThinkPad E14 and ThinkPad E15 come equipped with the AMD Ryzen processors ranging from the Ryzen 3 to the Ryzen 7. These processors come with an integrated AMD Radeon graphics processor which provides enough power for regular day to day graphics and data processing. The processors are complemented with support for up to 24GB of RAM. 8GB of the RAM is soldered with an extra slot for users to add up to 16GB of RAM. On the memory side of things, the ThinkPad E14 and E15 both are able to support a dual SSD setup with up to 1.5TB of combined space. By default, the laptops come with up to 512GB of memory. The second SSD is an optional add on with support for up to 1TB of memory.
When it comes to display, the ThinkPad E14 comes with a 14-inch, Full HD screen; users have the option of a higher contrast IPS display or a TN display. Similarly, the ThinkPad E15 comes with a 15.6-inch display with the same options. Both laptops come with dual 2W Harman speakers with Dolby Atmos certification and a dual array microphone for conference calls. In fact, the laptops are optimised for conference calls with quick shortcut functions for answering and hanging up on con-calls directly on the keyboard. To complement this, the laptops come equipped with a 720p webcam with an optional Infrared function.
If privacy is a concern with the 720p webcam, Lenovo has got you covered with Lenovo’s built-in ThinkShutter allows you to cover the webcam when it’s not in use. However, the webcam is also used to keep your data secure by locking your laptop when you walk away and unlocking when you return. This, of course, works with Windows Hello and will require the IR sensor to work.
Other than that, the laptop comes with a few Lenovo staples including the spill-resistant keyboard and also the slim form factor that has now become ubiquitous with the ThinkPad brand. Both also support WiFi 6 connectivity.
Pricing and Availability
The ThinkPad E14 and ThinkPad E15 are already available in Malaysia with prices starting at MYR3,499 and MYR3,449 respectively.
The laptops are available via their official partner, SNS Network (M) Sdn Bhd. Customers can make their order in one of three ways:
Head to their head office in Petaling Jaya at C-11-2, Block C, 3 Two Square, Jalan 19/1, 46300 Petaling Jaya.
Dell’s gaming line up has long been one which has been growing in its scope and popularity. With the introduction of a whole new ethos and design last year, the company’s gaming segment is quickly growing and packing more of a punch. Last year, there was one big piece missing when it came to their offerings; this year, they are making sure they have all their bases covered with the Dell G5 Gaming Desktop.
The Dell G5 gaming desktop adopts the rugged design language of Dell’s gaming series and equips itself with some of the most sought after features. It’s deep metallic colour and hard lines are a pretty obvious cues that this machine is made for performance and gaming. You’ll be able to see the muscle behind the performance with the window on the side of the desktop.
The G5 is built for performance with options for processors ranging from the 10th Generation Intel Core i3 all the way up to the Intel Core i9 processors. This is paired with up to 64GB of RAM and up to 3TB of space. Hard disks are available in multiple configurations to fit the needs of the user. Users are able to choose graphics cards ranging from the NVIDIA’s GTX1650 to the RTX2070 Super or the AMD Radeon RX5600.
When it comes to connectivity, the G5 is equipped with more than enough ports for any user. These ports include USB type C, USB 2.0, Ethernet, and 3.5mm jacks for headphones and microphones. On the wireless side of things, it has support for WiFi 6 with Killer Wireless and Bluetooth 5.0.
Dell Gaming Monitors
Together with the Dell G5, Dell also announced two gaming monitors: the Dell 27 gaming monitor and the Dell 27 Curved Gaming Monitor. The two monitors join the ranks of the renown Dell monitor series which is well known for display quality and colour reproduction.
The new Dell 27 gaming monitor is a flat screen monitor. It has a QHD 4K resolution of 2560×1440 pixels. It has options for 144Hz and 165Hz refresh rate. The In-fast IPS Nano Color display has a 16:9 aspect ratio and is HDR compatible. Colour reproduction wise, the monitor covers 98% of the DCI-P3 gamut and has a 1.07 billion colours colour depth. It also has a 1ms grey to grey response time. The Dell 27 Gaming monitor is equipped with LED edge lighting so you can immerse yourself in the game. It has certifications for AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA’s G-Sync. On the back, it comes with 2 HDMI 2.0 ports, 1 Display Port, 4 USB 3.0 downstream ports, 1 USB 3.0 upstream port, a headphone jack and audio line out.
If you’re looking for something more curved, the Dell 27 Curved Gaming monitor has your name on it. The monitor comes with a Full HD display with 144Hz refresh rate. It comes with a 16:9 aspect ratio and is a VA panel. It covers 72% of the NTSC CIE 1931 gamut and 83% of the NTSC CIE 1967 gamut with a colour depth of 16.7 million colours. It has a 4ms grey to grey response time. It also comes with LED edgelighting which enables users to be more immersed into their experience. The monitor is AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA GSync compatible. It has 2 HDMI 1.4 ports, 1 Display port 1.2 and 1 headphone jack at the back.
Pricing & Availability
Dell’s G5 Gaming Desktop hit the market on July 9, 2020 with prices starting from USD$699.99 (MYR2,993.01). The G5 doesn’t look to be making its way to Malaysia. We will update you if this changes.
The Dell 27 Gaming monitor will be available starting June 28, 2020 with prices starting at USD$569.99 (MYR2,436.87).
The Dell 27 Curved Gaming monitor is available started 21 August, 2020 with prices starting at USD$279.99(MYR1,197.04).
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most prolific web service platform in the world. In fact, it’s estimated that over half of the world’s small and medium businesses have adopted the technology platform as their platform of choice when it comes to dealing with cloud services for their needs. AWS provides one of the most diverse platforms supporting Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and even rudimentary data storage. They provide their different services as deployable modules which allow companies to deploy and terminate instances as they need to.
AMD is one of the latest additions to the platforms array of instance which can be deployed. The new AMD EPYC instances will be powering the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) C5a instances. These instances will be powered by AMD’s 2nd generation server grade EPYC processors which also power one of the largest supercomputers in the world. The AMD EPYC processors will be able to run at frequencies of up to 3.3GHz and will be able to provide users with high performance x86 processing for large compute workloads. This includes batch processing, distributed analytics, data transformations, log analytics and web applications.
The new EPYC powered C5a instance joins the increasing number of AMD powered instances available on AWS. It will be available in eight configurations with up to 96 virtual CPUs (vCPUs). The new AMD EPYC powered instance also delivers on AMD’s promise of being able to deliver high performance compute at affordable prices. On AWS, the new C5a instance is the one of the lowest cost per x86 vCPU in Amazon’s portfolio.
The C5a instance is already available in AWS U.S. East, AWS U.S. West, AWS Europe and AWS Asia Pacific regions. AMD also has five other instances already available on AWS under the EC2 catalogue: M5a, M5ad, R5a, R5ad and T3a. These instances also provide users with compute capabilities that are catered to their needs and price points.
Lenovo Legion should not be an unfamiliar name for gamers by now. Personally, the Lenovo Legion Notebook PCs that came out last year are some of the ones that stand out most in the gaming notebook PC market. They are also some of the most well-built notebook gaming PCs in the market in our humble opinions.
The design language of the 2019 line-up of Lenovo Legion products hits the spot, we feel in balancing the powerful look of a gaming notebook and a sleek looking mobile productivity machine. They look industrial, durable, and clean. So we are quite glad to see that design language continue in the 2020 line-up of Lenovo Legion products.
Lenovo Legion 7i
We start with the most powerful notebook PC in their line-up for 2020, the Lenovo Legion 7i. Not the Y700 series anymore this time, just a simple number and letter marking its CPU variant according to Lenovo. The good part is that it simplifies naming and recognition of the notebooks. To be fair though, Lenovo’s line-up is not as extensive as the likes of ASUS, so confusion should be limited in the first place.
Still, the Lenovo Legion 7i is the brand’s flagship portable gaming rig that packs the power of Intel’s most powerful mobile CPU, the 10th Generation Intel Core i9 (up to). That is paired to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super GPU for a maxed out performance while gaming. While the hardware you can find within the all-aluminium body is testament enough that this is a serious piece of kit for both LAN parties and any CPU and GPU intensive work conditions, it does not stop here.
Source: Lenovo
The Lenovo Legion 7i also has an impressive array of RGB lights on the keyboard and around the outer shell to let anyone else in the room know that you are running a serious rig. You control the lighting effects via Corsair’s trusty iCUE RGB software built into the Lenovo Legion 7i. It is individual LED lights on the keyboard too, so you can have different colours on each keys if you want. Or, if you are like me, keep everything lighted to a single colour (a waste of good RGB I know).
To keep things cool, Lenovo developed something they call Coldfront 2.0. While that sounds like a bunch of gimmicks, it is actually a very clever solution to cool the CPU and GPU for optimised performance. Heat is the enemy, here, you get the idea. There is no way around the fact that the space on a notebook PC is very limited and therefore airflow is highly restricted in these conditions. Lenovo’s way of managing this is a combination of clever fan management from the software and designing more efficient heat sinks and pipes in optimised locations within the aluminium body.
Source: Lenovo
It sounds plenty easier said that done though. The new Vapor Chamber (heat pipes) that Lenovo developed for the Lenovo Legion 7i is supposedly larger than before, which is a challenge around the restricted space of the notebook PC. Still, they managed it so that there is more efficient heat transfer from the CPU and GPU to the cooling fans and ducts. All this while managing to keep two NVMe M.2 slots for two ultra-fast SSD and one SATA slot for maximum storage.
Source: Lenovo
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Source: Lenovo
All these is nothing though if you are seeing everything through a terrible display. Some of the previous Lenovo Legion notebook PCs have gotten a few negative comments when it comes to the display because plenty of them use TN (Twisted Nematic) panel displays. Those panels are known for horrible colour accuracy, washed out images, and even worse colour contrast. They are very fast though, pushing 300Hz in refresh rates in some cases and easily push 1ms in response time.
The progression in IPS (In-Plane Switching) technology though has allowed Lenovo to take advantage of the more colour accurate displays on the Lenovo Legion 7i with Full HD resolution with up to 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time (unreal, we know). Those, along with 1000% of sRGB colour gamut for super accurate colours when you need to do all your Adobe Photoshop work or Adobe Premiere Pro colour grading work.
Smarter Gaming
Lenovo has always looked for ways to innovate in the PC market. After all, it is a very saturated market with too many players to name in the first place. Staying at the front of the market with new innovations then is very important.
For the Lenovo Legion gaming line-up they have developed a new Lenovo Vantage software that allows users to have full control over each aspect of Lenovo’s gaming rigs. You can change the fan behaviour from the software itself. You can technically set maximum fan speed, and even more overclocking or undervolting settings within the software. Of course, if you know what you are doing with a PC, you might get more out of this than Lenovo’s own default settings for yourself.
With the Vantage also comes Lenovo’s new Q-Control 3.0. This is to control both the fan speed and overclocking on the Legion notebook PCs. It is designed to quickly switch between different thermal profiles to either keep the PC quiet, or to maximise cooling efforts.
Ther have also tuned the displays on the new Lenovo Legion notebook PC line-up. The new IPS panels means better colour accuracy. Lenovo’s very own Legion Visual software optimises the graphics and colours even more by tuning the colours for optimum usage in different brightness settings and use cases.
They even made the new Legion products last even longer than before with 80Wh of battery pack now. That means that Lenovo’s Legion gaming rigs can last up to 8 hours on a single charge or more, depending on hardware power requirements and others. 8 hours is a long time for any gaming PC though.
Lenovo Legion 5Pi
There is a few variants of the Lenovo Legion 5 series that is coming into Malaysia and we, of course, start with the most powerful one. This is also Lenovo’s second most powerful Notebook PC that is coming to Malaysia. As the ‘i’ in the naming scheme suggests, this is an Intel powered gaming Notebook PC. It has a 10th Generation Intel Core i7 (up to) paired to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super (up to).
While not as powerful as the super powerful Lenovo Legion 7i, the Lenovo Legion 5Pi is more powerful than plenty of gaming notebooks of its class. You get some really nice features on the Lenovo Legion 5Pi still too. There is a 4-zone RGB still on the keyboard of the Legion 5Pi notebook PC to show that this is not just a normal Lenovo Legion 5 series. Even the top clam housing the display has a slightly different design with the Legion ‘Y’ Logo front and center of the clam.
Source: Lenovo
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Source: Lenovo
The display is also a Full HD IPS panel with 100% sRGB colour gamut to make short work of Adobe Photoshop. Along with 144Hz refresh rate and up to 1ms response time, this could be the perfect rig if you are on a slightly lower budget but still need a primary notebook PC to work with in LAN parties or at work. Again, I would tone down the RGB for myself, a matter of preference.
Lenovo Legion 5i
The Lenovo Legion 5i is technically the Lenovo Legion 5Pi, but a little toned down. As the naming moniker suggests too, it is an Intel device. Powered by Intel’s 10th Generation 10nm Core i7 (up to), this thing is still no slouch. In place of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super though is a slightly less powerful NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti. The GTX 1660Ti is still powerful stuff to work with though. It is more than enough in most cases to deal with AAA games, Adobe Photoshop and 1080p video editing on Adobe Premiere Pro.
Source: Lenovo
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For better colour accuracy for those software too, the Lenovo Legion 5i gets a nice IPS panel with 100% sRGB colour gamut like its more powerful and premium Legion 5Pi at 144Hz and up to 1ms response time. This is the perfect balance between raw power and budget. It does not feature the same front and center logo design like the 5Pi, but you still get an all-aluminium body build and the same Legion design of the Legion 7i
Lenovo Legion 5
And then there is the AMD offering that we also saw from AMD’s presentation for the APAC region yesterday. The Lenovo Legion 5. Yes, just the number ‘5’ without any thing like an ‘a’ or ‘R’. There is a small caveat with the AMD version for now though. The Lenovo Legion 5 only comes with up to an AMD Ryzen 5-4500H CPU.
There is no mention anywhere yet on whether or not we will see an AMD Ryzen 7 or even the Ryzen 9 variant pop up in either the Legion 5i or the Legion 7i, but we remain hopeful. Still, the Ryzen 5-4500H is AMD’s latest 4000 series CPUs that has proven in value and power. Paired to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, the AMD powerhouse should still impress in games and even for workflow, especially when it comes to CPU intensive software like Adobe’s Premiere Pro.
Source: Lenovo
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At the same time you only get 8GB in RAM, but you can always add another one RAM stick into the notebook PC or upgrade the one that is already in the PC. Lenovo encourages you to do that apparently. They even have a guide to help you do that on your own on their website.
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i
A top-end and a mid-range has to be competed with an entry-level. After all, accessibility to the products becomes a concern sometimes when it comes to gaming. That is the idea of the IdeaPad Gaming 3i (no pun intended).
The Lenovo IdeaPad does not have the Legion branding moniker. It is still no slouch though. You still get Intel’s latest 10th Generation Core i7 (up to). You also can spec it with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 if you want and it will be the perfect companion for both work and play on a budget.
Source: Lenovo
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Source: Lenovo
The 15-inch display is still a Full HD resolution display and fast enough for plenty of games. You get up to 120Hz in refresh rate, which is more than enough for most use case and games. It also comes with some Lenovo Legion design work within the body. That means bigger thermal pipes for better thermal performance under load too.
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i
Their product range is not just limited to notebook PCs though. Although that is the current most popular platform, nothing beats the power of a desktop tower set up. Lenovo has that answer too with the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i that is set to launch in Malaysia later in the year.
They did mention a more powerful Lenovo Legion Tower 7i too, but unfortunately that is not coming to Malaysia. Still, the Legion Tower 5i is a powerful gaming PC tower than anyone can appreciate. You get two variants of the Lenovo Legion Tower 5 series technically. You can spec your’s with either an AMD Ryzen 3000 series CPU or a 10th Generation Intel Core CPU. You can also pick from a variety of GPUs up to an NVIDIA GeForce 2070 Super if you want.
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
Source: Lenovo
While it is a tower, it is not that big of a thing and is designed to be something that is small enough and light enough to be as portable as possible. In this case, you can even take it out to a LAN party alongside a small monitor and keyboard and still get the benefit of gaming on a proper desktop rig.
Lenovo Legion Phone – the Future of Gaming Smartphones
Lenovo has not been in the smartphone game for a while. That is since they took over with Motorola. They did make some compelling smartphones and tablets in the past though.
Earlier in the year there are rumours surrounding Lenovo jumping back into the smartphone scene with a gaming focused smartphone. They dub it the Lenovo Legion Phone. There are no confirmation of specifications or renders yet about the anticipated device. We do have confirmation from Lenovo’s executives regarding the existence of the device and that we will see it somewhere in the late 2020.
There are still no confirmed dates on the device so far. The only thing we got from them is; “Lenovo will launch a Legion gaming phone in 2020. Please stay tuned for more information”. Which is not too much to work with. We are excited to see ROG Phone II, Black Shark II, and Razer Phone rival though.
Price and Availability
The Lenovo Legion 7i, Lenovo Legion Tower 5i, and Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i will be coming later in 2020. There are no confirmed prices for the three models mentioned yet too. We are expecting the Lenovo IdeaPad 3i to hover somewhere between MYR 2,500 and MYR 3,500 price point though.
The Lenovo Legion 5, Lenovo Legion 5i, and Lenovo Legion 5Pi will be available in Malaysia June 2020 onward. The AMD based Lenovo Legion 5 will be the most affordable option with prices starting from MYR 3,599. The Lenovo Legion 5 with Intel’s Core i5 will start from MYR 4,199. Of course, you can get that with an Intel Core i7 too. The top-of-the-line Lenovo Legion 5Pi will set you back at least MYR 6,399.
Acer in 2019 impressed with the ultra-thin, ultra-light Swift 7. Even the Swift 5 became a fan favourite with plenty of power on offer and even more value to give. Our favourite in their line-up was also the Swift 5, to be honest. It was a perfect workhorse for the likes of us.
This year, they kick it off with updating two line-ups. They kick off with the Acer Spin 3 and the Acer Swift 3.
We start with the Spin 3 first. The Spin series is Acer’s answer two Lenovo’s very popular and very highly rated Yoga series. The Spin is Acer’s two-in-one line up, in short.
The Acer Spin 3
The new Acer Spin 3 has a new look and body to match its new internals. Not only is it more powerful, it is lighter too at 1.5kg. Yes, more powerful from the latest 10th Generation Intel Ice Lake Core processors. You get to choose between a Core i5 or a Core i3, no Core i7 option here. But they are the entry level class 2-in-1 type notebooks for Acer anyway.
Source: Acer
Both does not feature a discrete GPU, but Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics is a big improvement over the older Intel HD Graphics integrated GPU. Iris Plus Graphics also allows you get working on Adobe’s Photoshop and Premiere Pro averagely at least.
You can opt for up to 8GB in RAM. Of course, if that is not enough, you should be able to open it up and add more yourself. The Intel Core i3 model only comes with a 4GB RAM, which most likely is not enough.
The 14-incher is slightly smaller than before with a tinier bezel around the Full HD display. Like before though, you still get a stylus packed in with the notebook PC. Like before too, there is a dock for the stylus so that you do not lose it.
Speaking of stylus though, the touch screen is WACOM digitised. They are the best in touch screen and digital drawing industry. On the Acer Spin 3, you get up to 4096 pressure levels thanks to the WACOM developed digitiser. You can draw with your fingers too, but why do that when you have a nice stylus?
Source: Acer
Technically on the Acer Spin 3, there are about four speakers on the device. Acer says that there are always two speakers that will face you for better audio projection. We believe them on that front of course. They also included Acer’s very own True Harmony technology and tuning for a premium audio experience.
With all that power packed in the Acer Spin 3, Acer quotes a battery life of up to 13-hours in a typical case. Considering modern battery life – that is a pretty decent battery life to boot. If you run out of battery life on the Acer Spin 3 though, the notebook PC is a quick charging one. You get 90 minutes of run time out of 15 seconds in charging.
Of course, a modern notebook PC has to have modern peripherals to keep you connected. WiFi 6 capabilities is a given of course. This has two antennas to keep connections stable and strong though. It has all the right ports as well, including a Thunderbolt 3 port to power another monitor if need be. If not, this can be your biggest power bank in the world. It can charge your devices even with the power turned off; not something plenty of notebook PCs can do actually.
Source: Acer
Source: Acer
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Source: Acer
Source: Acer
The Acer Spin 3 is available now starting from MYR 2,799 (Intel Core i3 variant) and MYR 3,299 (Intel Core i5 variant). Both are only available in Silver colour. Silver is still a premium looking colour though. If you are spending on the more powerful Core i5 variant, stocks are available now. For the Core i3 variant, Acer says that the stocks are arriving and will be shipped out as soon as it is available later this month. You can visit Acer’s webstore to purchase one, or their online marketplace partners for more information.
Acer Swift 3 in Two Flavours
One of the most popular series in Acer’s line-up must be the Acer Swift series. The Swift series is Acer’s thin and light offering that caters to all kinds of users. The Swift 3 caters to the mid-range market that is looking for something that will not break the bank yet practical and powerful enough to work on all kinds of projects.
Source: Acer
That has been the Swift 3 and it is the Swift 3 still now. The new Swift 3 comes in either an Intel guise or an AMD guise though, for your discerning choice. To make things easier for you, the cheaper one is the AMD variant.
We will start with the AMD variant with that. It comes with a Ryzen 4000 Mobile series that was just announced not too long ago by AMD. Specifically you get an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U CPU with eight cores and 16 threads. Yes, quite a powerful chipset for your money. You get up to 8GB of RAM. Unfortunately you cannot upgrade or add additional RAM sticks into the PC, so you have to make do.
Still, at least you are getting a powerful AMD Radeon Graphics GPU to work with. That should make games like DOTA 2 a breeze to play. That should also make some Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop work pretty nicely on board.
Source: Acer
From that powerful processor you get about 11 hours of battery life. That may not sound like a lot of time to work on the PC, but it is enough to at least last you a whole day in the office or campus, if you are a student. As if the PC is not fast enough you get 512GB in SSD storage too, out of the 14-incher.
There are two Intel variants for the Acer Swift 3. There is the more powerful Intel Core i7 (10th Gen) and an Intel Core i5 variant. On the Swift 3 that comes with Intel’s 10th Generation Core i7-1065G7 CPU, you are getting an NVIDIA GeForce MX250 discrete GPU. This makes it the most powerful Notebook PC that is recently announced by Acer.
The 14-incher also comes with up to 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM for maximum performance with a 512GB SSD storage. All this is packed in a package that is slightly under 1.2kg and can last up to 16-hours on a single charge. If you are a workaholic, this can last you through a workday in the office and more outside the office. Keep it charged, you can go all night without a charger to prepare that beautiful slideshow for your latest project. We are not responsible for your all-nighter, nor do we encourage that. We encourage a balanced and healthy work-life separation and balance.
Source: Acer
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Source: Acer
In a more budget friendly guise is the Acer Swift 3 with Intel’s Core i3-1035G1 CPU. You do not get a discrete GPU with this, you make do with Intel’s trusty UHD Graphics GPU. It is not as terrible as we put it. It still works nicely with Adobe Photoshop especially with 8GB of onboard RAM. It is also fast enough with 512GB of SSD on board. Of course with Intel, you get Thunderbolt on the USB Type-C ports.
Source: Acer
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All the available Acer Swift 3 are now available via Acer’s webstore or their retail partners. There are some limited colour options to each variant though. If you are planning to get the top-of-the-line Acer Swift 3 with Intel’s Core i7 and MX250 that sets you back MYR 4,299, you only can get it in Glacier Blue. Not a bad colour, quite funky. For the Intel Core i5 variant, setting you back MYR 3,099 you get to choose between Steel Grey, Millenial Pink, and Glacier Blue. The Swift 3 with AMD’s Ryzen 5 will set you back MYR 2,599 and comes in either Pure Silver, and Mauve Purple.
Alienware saw a return to the spotlight last year thanks to a large, power packed champion: the Area 51m. The new form factor paired with a major redesigned pushed the Alienware offerings into the spotlight. The new Legend design language brought a sense of imposing elegance to the new offerings which enhanced their offerings.
This year, Alienware is continuing with their Legend design and is packing more performance into their products.
Alienware Area 51m R2
The Alienware line up continues to be spearheaded by the Area 51m R2. This year’s Area 51m R2 comes in the same larger than life form factor as last year. However, it has a slimmer silhouette coming in at 1.7 inches at its thickest and 1.089 inches at its thinnest. It’s 15.85 inches by 12.565 inches in size and comes in at only 4.7kgs at its most specc’d out. However, the slimmer body of the R2 isn’t lacking in ports it comes with 2 USB 3.2 ports, 1 USB 3.2 with powershare, 1 card reader, 1 Thunderbolt 3 Port, an Alienware Graphics Amplifier Port, an HDMI port, 1 Audio Out, a microSD card reader and a global headset port.
The Alienware Area 51m R2 comes with a 17.3-inch display with options for Full HD and UHD panels. These display panels are also available with NVIDIA G-SYNC and come with up to 300Hz refresh rate. It also has options for Tobii Eyetracking. The panels support 100% Adobe RGB gamut and RGB gamut where compatible. Otherwise, the panels cover 72% of the NTSC gamut.
The new refresh also comes equipped with 10th generation Intel Core i7 or Core i9 processors for power. This is complemented with up to 64GB of RAM. Storage wise, the Alienware Area 51m R2 comes with options for single storage, dual and even RAID0 Plus configurations of up to 4TB. Graphics wise, the laptop is available with the AMD Radeon RX 5700M, NVIDIA GeForce GTX1660 Ti, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER.
Alienware m15 & m17
Alienware’s m15 and m17 are also getting a new refresh. The new offerings retain the Legend design language but come with more power so users can be productive and game on the go. They also come in the same, familiar size that users have already fallen in love with.
The Alienware m15 and m17 both come with the latest generation of Intel Core i processors with i5, i7 and i9 options to choose from. They also come packed with gaming and graphical prowess with the choice of AMD RADEON RX5500M or NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX1650 Ti, GTX 1660 Ti, RTX 2060, RTX 2070, RTX 2070 SUPER and RTX 2080 SUPER. They also come with up to 32GB of RAM. This is complemented with up to 4.5TB of storage in either single, RAID0 or RAID0 Plus configurations.
The displays on the Alienware m15 and m17 are similar to the Area 51m options. The only difference would be in the m15’s smaller 15.6-inch size and an additional OLED option for UHD resolution. Both the m15 and m17 have options that include Tobii Eyetracking technology too. They also share a similar number of ports as the Area 51m.
Alienware Aurora R11
Together with the laptops, Alienware is also refreshing the Aurora with the latest Intel Core i processors. The R11 will be coming with options with the Core i5, Core i7 and Core i9. It comes with options for up to 32GB of RAM in both 2933MHz and 3200MHz flavours depending on your performance needs. It will also be sporting up to 4TB of storage. These will be available in Single, Dual and Intel Optane configurations.
On the graphics front, the Aurora R11 will be able to handle single and dual GPU configurations. Alienware is offering NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards ranging from the GTX1650 to the RTX2080 Ti and AMD options ranging from the RADEON 5600 to the RADEON VII for single graphics card configurations. For dual graphics configurations, users can choose from the RTX 2070 SUPER with NVLink SLI, RTX 2080 SUPER with NVLink SLI and RTX 2080 Ti with NVLink SLI.
Being a tower, the Aurora R11 comes with a a slew of ports including a headphone jack/line out port, microphone/line in port, 2 USB Type A v3.2, 1 USB Type A v3.2 with Powershare Technology and a USB Type-C v3.2 with Powershare technology on the front of the tower. On the back, there are 6 USB Type A v2.0, 1 USB Type-C v3.2, 2 USB Type A v3.2 and various surround sound ports on the back. It has an RJ-45 Killer E3000 Gigabit ethernet port as do all the Alienware offerings.
Pricing & Availability
The Alienware Area 51m R2 will be available globally starting on June 9, 2020 starting at USD$3,049.99 (MYR13,202.69).
The m15 and m17 will be available globally starting on May 21, 2020. The Alienware m15 is priced starting at USD$1,499.99 (MYR6,493.10) while the m17 will be priced from USD$1,549.99 (MYR6,709.54).
The Auroro R11 wil be available from May 13, 2020 with prices starting at USD$1,129.99 (MYR4,891.26). Alienware mentioned that there will be additional configurations available starting May 28, 2020 for as low as USD$879.99 (MYR3,809.12).
Only the m15, m17 and Aurora R11 will be available in Malaysia. The m15 R3 will be available starting 22 May, 2020 with prices starting at MYR9,899. The m17 R3 will be going on sale at the same time with prices starting at MYR12,199 while the Aurora R11 will be available starting 30 June, 2020 with prices starting at MYR6,999.
AMD has been creating waves in the processor space for a few years now; dropping the gauntlet for its competitors when it comes to their Ryzen processors and also their RADEON graphics cards. The company is also expanding their reach to mobile in a collaborative effort with Samsung to bring their RDNA architecture to mobile processors.
That said, the company has long been working at providing compute capabilities to the industry as well. While they haven’t had a single product geared at taking on the market directly, their products have been used and optimised for years. This year, AMD is filling the void with their new AMD RADEON PRO VII graphics processor.
The new AMD RADEON PRO VII graphics processor uses AMD’s VEGA 20 architecture to help deliver top class performance at a more affordable price point for the industry. In fact, the new PRO VII comes in at about 25% of the price of competing products. This allows companies and workforces to free valuable resources for other functions.
With the new PRO VII, AMD looks to address the increasing demand for simulation workloads. The new card is capable of up to 6.5 TFLOPS of double precision performance and is equipped with 16GB of HBM (High bandwidth memory) to help process compute and simulation tasks more efficiently and at a faster pace. In fact, the RADEON PRO VII has about 1TB/s of memory bandwidth. This allows it to handle even more complex models and datasheets and even enables more efficient 8K broadcasting. It also runs at lower temperatures compared to the competition allowing it to function at high capacity for longer durations.
The RADEON PRO VII also supports AMD’s Infinity Fabric Link which allows two GPUs to share memory resources for bigger project workloads. The new GPU is also built with security in mind with hardware validated boot.
Software Geared for Professionals
Together with the announcement of the RADEON PRO VII, AMD also highlighted their continual support for industry and professional applications with their commitment to providing stable, industry grade software. The company announced the availability of Professional drivers which will be updated regularly. In addition, their software will have Day-0 certification from relevant parties to ensure that programs are stable and compatible for professionals. This certification process will be ongoing and will be applied to every update.
In the same vein, AMD also announced that their RADEON ProRender will have a more simplified licensing model to enable more widespread adoption. The company will be using the APACHE based licensing format to streamline licensing and ease adoption among professionals. At launch, the ProRender 2.0 is supported by Unreal, SideFX, Autodesk Maya and Blender.
Pricing & Availability
The AMD RADEON PRO VII card will be available starting June, 2020. It will cost USD$1899 (MYR8,215.05).
AMD’s entreprise drivers are already available for download as of the announcement.
AMD announced their 4000 series mobile CPUs last month. The updated 4000 series mobile CPUs are supposed to be a huge upgrade over the older 3000 series mobile CPUs. They are supposed to be faster and more powerful with more cores as well.
The new 4000 series of mobile CPUs are also supposed to be much better for gaming. In reported benchmarks, it showed a huge improvement over the older 3000 series that it replaced. It also showed overall advantage over older Intel 9th generation processors. We do not have the numbers against the newer 10th Generation Core mobile processors for now, we can assume that they are somewhat on par.
There is a small niche of users who require a bit more than just processing power though. They require reliability, and efficiency in their work. They jump from one workspace to another very quickly too. In that case, they need something more secure. Security in terms of PC is mostly seen as a software implementation rather than hardware. Not anymore with the AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 series.
Source: AMD
The AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 series is offered in three flavours. It comes in a budget friendly form: an AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 4450U. It comes with the value pack: an AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U. It also comes with the top-of-the-line no compromise package: the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U.
This is not to be mistaken for the regular AMD Ryzen 4000 series CPUs, however. This is a class of its own. There is a difference between the AMD Ryzen 7 4700U and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U. But, the U moniker at the back still stands. They are both made for ultra-thin notebook PCs.
There are several key differences between a regular premium ultrabook and a made for business ultrabook. Business grade notebooks usually are more robust for example. They also place more emphasis on data security more than everything else. Those are the key differences between the regular Ryzen 4000 series and the Ryzen PRO 4000 series.
Source: AMD
The clock speeds are not actually that different from the regular AMD Ryzen 4000 series mobile CPUs. Which also means that they are supposed to have all the same power ratings, there or there abouts. Being an ultrabook type CPU, they should be similarly power efficient too.
What is different though is the PRO suite that comes with the AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 mobile CPU series. The suite built within the CPU itself is meant for make your work more secure and easily manageable by your IT team. They promised around 20+ hours of battery life with more premium platforms too. They did not mention the exact battery size used for this claim though, so take it with a pinch of salt.
Source: AMD
Still, the business grade processors are designed to fit any sort of businesses. There are businesses that refuses to upgrade their software until it is too late. There are some businesses that are always eager to update their software. AMD Ryzen PRO is designed to be stable and prepared for any eventuality in that regards. Of course, the AMD Ryzen PRO is also designed to last forever. Then again, that would also depend on manufacturer otpimisation in cooling solutions, or maintenance efforts.
We should see some work class notebook PCs to feature the AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 CPUs. We have seen some consumer grade AMD Ryzen 4000 series launched in the new ASUS notebook PCs. It is only a matter of time before we start seeing more notebook PCs come packing a Ryzen processor.
Apple and Google found themselves at odds with Governments when it came to how data should be handled in their Contact Tracing API.
The OnePlus 8 series found its way to Malaysia. The new Snapdragon685 touting Smartphones are up for pre-order. They are priced starting from MYR2,699.
AMD unveils a new generation of Zen 2 based Ryzen 3 processors.
Facebook had a busy week enhancing Messenger with Messenger Rooms and enabling Group Calls on WhatsApp.
vivo launched their Snapdragon 712 powered V19 in Malaysia. The Quad Camera touting flagship is retailing for MYR1,699.
Netflix scores an new Netflix Original with Pokémon Journeys and sneaks in a new feature on the Android app.
Motorola makes a comeback in the Flagship smartphone market with the new Motorola Edge! Remember to hit that like and subscribe button!
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AMD has been bringing the gauntlet when it comes to pushing processor technology. The company has shown, in recent years, that it is able to compete and innovate in an industry which hasn’t seen much development. The company’s continuous development of new technologies and also investing bringing these technologies to consumers at an affordable price point.
The company has announced the availability of their new 3rd generation Ryzen 3 processors. The new processors will be running on AMD’s Zen 2 architecture which debuted last year with their announcement of brand new Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 processors. The Zen 2 architecture brought increased performance efficiencies that allowed it to outperform the competition. The new Ryzen 3 processors have been a long time coming. The Ryzen 3 processors are the entry range of processors from AMD and are some of the most affordable in their lineup.
The new Ryzen 3 3300X and Ryzen 3 3100 introduce Simultaneous Multithreading, a feature reserved for higher performance processors, to their line up. The new processors come with 4 cores and are capable of processing 8 threads. This means that they will be able to process more information and also handle larger workloads.
AMD is touting increases in gaming and creator performances with their new Ryzen 3 line up. AMD claims that the processors show up to 20% increase in gaming performance and up to 75% increase in creator performance compared to its competition.
Here’s a little bit more technical details for the processors for all you data bugs out there.
MODEL
CORES/ THREADS
TDP5 (Watts)
BOOST6/BASE FREQ7. (GHz)
TOTAL CACHE (MB)
PLATFORM
AMD Ryzen™ 3 3300X
4C/8T
65
4.3/3.8
18
AM4
AMD Ryzen™ 3 3100
4C/8T
65
3.9/3.6
18
AM4
Together with their announcement of the Ryzen 3 processors, AMD also announced the availability of their new B550 chipset. The new chipset still runs on the AM4 socket and will be able to support all Ryzen 3000 processors.
Pricing and Availability
The new AMD Ryzen 3 processors will be available starting in May 2020. The Ryzen 3 3100 will be retailing at USD$99 while the Ryzen 3 3300X will be USD$120. In Malaysia, they will be retailing at MYR449 and MYR549 respectively.
