T3 India

Laptops

Intel Showcases 12th Gen Processors

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Intel showcased the 12th Gen family of processors at the 12th Gen Intel Core Experience event. The latest processors redefine multi-core architecture for PCs with an all-new performance hybrid architecture. The experiential event showcased the latest suite of cutting-edge desktops and laptops powered by Intel’s latest family of processors, and enthusiasts experienced unprecedented performance like never before.

Built on the Intel 7 process, the 12th Gen Intel Core processors feature a new architecture design breakthrough that brings together two types of specialised cores to deliver class-leading performance and responsiveness. The latest platform also integrates technologies, like DDR5 memory support, Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, and Intel Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), to elevate user experience even further.

All-new performance hybrid architecture: Intel’s performance hybrid architecture is its most significant shift in x86 architecture in more than a decade, re-envisioned to provide the performance to match the way people use their PCs today. The new performance hybrid architecture brings a combination of performance cores and efficiency cores to deliver ultimate performance. These performance cores are the highest performing CPU core Intel has ever built, for maximum burst and single-threaded performance. The Efficient-cores are designed for scalable performance-per-watt, for multi-threaded and multi-tasking performance. Intel 12th Gen family of processors scales from U series to P series to H/HX series for notebook platform and going up to S series for desktops.

The new cores include the Intel Thread Director, one of the most significant and exciting innovations in the new performance hybrid architecture. Built on top of Intel’s performance monitoring unit, it provides the best hardware telemetry in the industry according to Intel. Traditionally, the OS would have made decisions based on limited stats that are available aligned to foreground/background workload or task characterization, but Intel Thread Director adds a new dimension with this HW telemetry so threads with higher performance requirements end up on the cores that provide the performance, Performance-cores or P-cores.

The 12th Gen Intel Core HX Series processors are Intel’s latest versatile portfolio of mobile products that bring breakthrough power performance. The family of processors features up to 16 cores to deliver unrivalled mobile performance and speed, enabling studio-level creativity and hardcore gaming, and offers support for overclocking.

The 12th Gen Intel Core H-series processors offer up to 14 cores paired with discrete graphics, delivering an elite gaming and professional video editing experience. The 12th Gen Intel Core U-Series processors feature up to 10 cores and is designed for ultrathin laptops that accelerate your office productivity on the go. The 12th Gen Intel Core P-series combines the best of both worlds for enthusiast levels of performance in a thin-and-light form factor.

The company also showcased the Intel Evo Third Edition designs, specifications, and Key Experience Indicators for Intel Evo laptops. The 3rd edition Intel Evo platform features 12th Gen Intel Core processors and sets more demanding Key Experience Indicators for no-compromise mobile experiences that go-getters need. Intel also elaborated on the new cache architecture found in the 12th Gen Intel Core processors at the event. With the 12th Gen Intel Core Architecture, Intel is introducing a new Common Intel Smart Cache architecture shared among the P Cores, E Cores, and processor graphics.

Dell Displays New Alienware Devices

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Dell has announced its latest Alienware devices, the X15 R2 and X17 R2.

Commenting on the awaited launch of the new range, Anand Subramanya, Director, Product Marketing, Consumer and Small Business, Dell Technologies, India, said, “Alienware and performance are synonymous with each other for decades. For the ever-evolving Indian gaming community, the Alienware X15 and X17 are an attestation of the brand’s evolution that is driven by next-level performance and motivated by portability. Our latest line-up delivers the best design, thermal controls, and robust technologies enhancing immersive gaming experience and delivering the thrill for the enthusiasts!” “We have been paying close attention to the needs of the casual and hardcore gamers and content creators and our product innovation is centred to meet the varied customer requirements.”, he further added.

The company reports that the Alienware X-Series achieves its super-thin form factor by leveraging ‘premium’ materials such as magnesium and stamped aluminium with CNC for structural rigidity, thinness and lightness. The X-Series comes with a low VOC (volatile organic compounds) waterborne paint. Its gaming features include the use of Cryo-Tech cooling technology that features Element 31, which is a thermal interface material (TIM) concocted from encapsulated gallium-silicone liquid metal compound,  Quad-Fan design for airflow (using evacuative fans and dual opposite outlet fans for thermal control, along with AI-powered Smart Fan control technology that enables independent control over each fan) and Thermal Control Circuit offset (TCC offset) offering five Tailored Power States (TPS) to choose from viz. Full Speed (max power), Performance mode (graphics priority), Balanced mode (balanced CPU/GPU), Cool mode (low-temperature priority) and Quiet mode (acoustics priority).

The X-Series also includes Alienware’s HyperEfficient Voltage Regulation technology, which is, reportedly, capable of up to 12-phase (on the X17) or 8-phase graphics voltage regulation (on the X15). It features AlienFX stadium lighting (an independent and programmable lighting zone that gamers can personalise through the Alienware Command Center), panel options such as ComfortView Plus, NVIDIA G-SYNC on the FHD 360Hz display option with QHD 240Hz (for X17) and FHD360Hz display (for X15). Other features on the X17 include Cherry MX keyboard and an upgrade of DDR5 memory after purchase.

Both devices come in Lunar Light colour and are available for purchase across Dell Exclusive Stores (DES), Dell.com large format retail, and multi-brand outlets at a price of INR 2,49,990 (X15 R2) and INR 2,99,990 (X17 R2).

Asus Unveils ZenBook 14 Flip OLED Laptop

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Asus has announced the 14-inch 2.8K OLED HDR display convertible laptop, Zenbook 14 Flip OLED, the latest addition to its ZenBook series.

Commenting on the launch, Arnold Su, Business Head, Consumer, and Gaming PC, System Business Group, Asus India, said, “We are elated to bring world’s first 14″ 2.8K OLED HDR display in an ultra-versatile and convertible laptop for our consumers. We are optimistic that consumer productivity will touch the new skies with this laptop as they have access to a feature-loaded and lightweight design.  We firmly believe in building a complete ecosystem for consumers and we will continue to announce innovation designed to meet modern world requirements.”

The device features a 14-inch 2.8K OLED HDR 16:10 display with a 4-sided NanoEdge design with slim 2.9 mm side bezels and provides an 88% screen to body ratio. Its 360° ErgoLift hinge design allows the display to be flipped to any position. The display supports 2880 x 1800 resolution, a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 0.2 ms response time, along with smooth 90Hz refresh rate. It is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor.

Its full-sized backlit keyboard achieves a 19.05 mm pitch and the audio system has been certified by audio specialist Harman Kardon. It features Asus AI Noise-Cancelling Audio and is equipped with a 63 Whr battery and 100W Type-C fast-charger. The product pricing starts from INR 91,990 and is now available for purchase across online (Asus e-shop/ Amazon/ Flipkart) and offline platforms.

MSI Expands Business and Productivity Laptop Series

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MSI has announced new Business and Productivity laptops for the Summit, Prestige, and Modern Series with 12th Gen Intel Core Processor.

Derek Chen, MSI Notebook Worldwide Sales & Marketing Director, said that “MSI’s roots are in high-performance laptops, and our Business Series laptops are built to complete any workspace. Our core mission has never changed; it’s built to be the backbone that maximizes your productivity.”

Summit Series:

Aside from the existing Summit E13 Flip Evo and Summit E16 Flip, the new Summit E14 Flip Evo is joining the Summit series more sizing options for different user needs. The Summit E16 Flip is powered by NVIDIA GeForce RTX Graphics to further boost its performance. Its display comes protected by Tobii Aware, that automatically locks the laptop when the user is not nearby or blurs the screen.

The device implements enterprise-grade securities such as webcam and port locks, discrete TPM support, fingerprint or IR webcam, and webcam status notification. It also comes integrated with Tile finding technology (Tile app) that can be used to activate and locate Summit laptops nearby or far away.

The E14 Flip Evo comes with a 14-inch QHD+ (2880×1800), 16:10, touchscreen display, LPDDR5 onboard, 16GB memory, connectivity options like Wi-Fi 6E AX1675 and Bluetooth v5.2, white backlit keyboard, 2x 2W Speaker, Hi-Res audio ready with DTS audio processing, 65W USB-C PD charging with fast charging function, measures 314 mm (W) x 227.5 mm (D) x 17.9 mm (H) and weighs 1.6 kg.

Prestige Series

Both the Prestige 15 and Prestige 14 boast a thin and light chassis design for portability with better thermals. It also boasts lossless music with Hi-Res Audio combined with DTS Audio Processing. Users can choose between an NVIDIA GeForce RTX Graphics or Intel Evo platform based on preference. The devices come with True Pixel technology, additional security with face or fingerprint sign-in, ‘long’ battery life and fast charging. The Prestige 15 comes with a 15.6-inch UHD (3840 x 2160), 100% AdobeRGB (Typical) or sRGB display, LPDDR4x onboard, 32GB memory, connectivity options like Wi-Fi 6E AX211 and Bluetooth v5.2, white backlit keyboard, 2x 2W Speaker, Hi-Res Audio Ready with DTS Audio Processing, 100W USB-C PD charging with fast charging function, measures 356.8 mm (W) x 233.7 mm (D) x 18.9 mm (H) and weighs 1.69 kg.

Modern Series For the Modern Series, MSI teamed up with French illustrator, Lorraine Sorlet to tell four stories through visuals inspired by love, work, and travel. The devices in the series sport a new chassis design to showcase the “Modern” look. The devices also feature a thin bezel, a 180° flip screen, an enlarged touchpad and a full-size keyboard. The Modern 15 comes with a 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) display, DDR4-3200 onboard, up to 16GB memory, connectivity options like Wi-Fi 6 AX201 and Bluetooth v5.2, white backlit keyboard, 2x 2W Speaker, Hi-Res Audio Ready, 65W adaptor that supports fast charging, measures 359 mm (W) x 241 mm (D) x 19.9 mm (H) and weighs 1.7 kg.

Review: Asus Vivobook K15

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Price: From ₹46,990

Asus Vivobook laptops have been value-for-money offerings, and the K15 takes this a notch higher by bringing an OLED screen to affordable levels. As Asus says, the K15 is designed with Gen Z users in mind.

The Vivobook K15 features a polycarbonate and aluminium alloy chassis that appears tough for a budget-friendly laptop. The device is thin and light for a 15-inch laptop, about 18 mm thick and weighing 1.8 kg. The laptop is available in Indie Black, Transparent Silver, and Hearty Gold colours. The touchpad includes a fingerprint scanner for Windows Hello login, and it proved quite responsive. The keypad offers good feedback and is quite comfortable for long-form typing with 1.4 mm key travel. I found the compromise in arrow keys a little frustrating at the start, but then it became less of an annoyance after a few days of use. The keyboard offers three levels of backlight and the Enter key has a neon green backlight. The touchpad felt somewhat lagging. The device offers a full suite of I/O ports including three USB-A, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, two USB 2.0 Type-A, one HDMI and a MicroSD card reader along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. It provides up to Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) dual-band and Bluetooth 5.0.

Coming to the main USP of the laptop, the Vivobook K15 features a 5.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) OLED display that provides 100 percent DCI-P3 colour gamut, ideal for videos. The display proved to be vibrant with true blacks and rich saturation. The panel is certified by TUV Rheinland for low blue light and flicker-free operation to reduce eye fatigue. The display has been validated by Pantone and comes pre-calibrated by Asus. However, we felt the factory calibration had over-saturated the warm tones, making it even more strenuous to look at for a long time. So, we attempted a hardware calibration using the i1 Display Studio device to DCI-P3 and found the pre-calibrated setting to be off by a wide margin. If you are into photography or colour-critical use, we would not recommend this display in its native calibration setting. We hope Asus would take care of this in future since the buyers of this laptop are not likely to have a colorimeter lying around to calibrate their displays.

The K15 is available in various configurations. The options in processor include 11th Generation Intel Core i3, i5 and i7, while Asus also offers up to 16GB DDR4 RAM, up to 512GB of SSD and up to 1TB of HDD. We received the i5 variant with 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD and the review is based on this configuration. The laptop features Intel UHD or Intel Iris Xe graphics. We used the K15 for photo editing and multimedia other than the regular light tasks, and the device handled all these without any problems. The laptops are equipped with an upgraded 8 mm heat pipe and a new fan to dissipate heat more efficiently. We did not feel any uncomfortable heating while using the device, and the fan ensured near-silent operation.

The K15 uses a 42 Wh battery, which lasted for about 5 to 6 hours in our use. The charger tops up the battery in about an hour. The MyAsus app lets you customise power, performance, audio and other parameters according to your use.

The Harman Kardon certified audio system provides good sound output for video calls and presentations, though this is not the best we have experienced. The camera also provided image quality of the expected levels. The laptops come with Windows 10 pre-installed but are eligible for a free Windows 11 upgrade.

RATING

★★★★

WE’RE IMPRESSED Lightweight, full-sized keyboard, good response, excellent display

WE’D IMPROVE Display calibration, Touchpad response

THE LAST WORD The Asus Vivobook K15 is a competent value-for-money laptop that exceeds the usually expected specs by a wide margin.