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Dell Inspiron 16 Plus review: A well-rounded content creation laptop

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 13:00:00 +0000

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Excellent performance
Good cooling avoids thermal throttling
Long battery life

Cons

Only one USB-C port, which is also used for charging
No facial recognition (only fingerprint)
Won’t get Copilot+ PC features

Our Verdict

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus is a powerful 16-inch content creation laptop with a nice combination of performance, battery life, and build quality. It’s a good alternative to gaming laptops for people who want more power than the average laptop offers.

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus is a powerful 16-inch laptop with high-end CPU performance, great cooling, and discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics. These are features you’d normally find in a gaming laptop, but the Inspiron 16 Plus is more focused on creative users who need a GPU for their professional applications and GPU-based AI workloads.

At $1,499, this laptop offers a great combination of hardware that’s worth a look. But everything in life involves compromises — especially laptops — and this machine won’t be the right fit for everyone.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available today.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Specs

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus (7640) is a 16-inch laptop available with a wide variety of different hardware options. Our review model came with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, but you can also get it with a Core Ultra 5 or Core Ultra 9 CPU. These are Intel Meteor Lake CPUs. (Dell’s specifications sheet says the company also offers this laptop with 13th-generation Intel “Raptor Lake” processors, but we’ll focus on the newer Meteor Lake versions here).

Dell offers this laptop with a variety of graphics options. Our review model included Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics, but Dell also offers GeForce RTX 4050 graphics as an option. They don’t all have discrete graphics, you can also get Intel Arc graphics. Dell isn’t positioning this as a gaming laptop — in fact, Dell says the extra graphics horsepower is for creators. This laptop also has a “GeForce RTX Studio” sticker. But, while it will work well in professional 3D rendering apps and AI applications that need GPU power, the graphics will also let you play games in a pinch, too.

Dell included 16GB of RAM with our review model, but you can get this machine with up to 64GB of RAM. Additionally, there are a wide variety of display options: We had a 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display without a touch screen, but you can also get this laptop with a lower-resolution 1920×1200 display. A touch screen is available as an option on that lower-resolution model.

This laptop includes Wi-Fi 6E support as standard, but you can also get Wi-FI 7 hardware. On top of that, while our review model had a 90 Watt-hour battery, Dell also offers this laptop with a 64 Watt-hour battery.

This laptop does have a Copilot key on its keyboard, but it’s worth noting that it has an Intel Meteor Lake neural processing unit (NPU.) That means it won’t get the Copilot+ PC features Microsoft recently announced. Those will require next-generation hardware from Qualcomm, Intel, or AMD.

Dell offers this laptop with a lot of different hardware configurations, so be sure to check the specs of the model you’re looking at.

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
Memory: 16GB RAM
Graphics/GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
Display: 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display with 120 Hz refresh rate
Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
Webcam: 1080p webcam
Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, microSD card reader, 1x combo audio jack, 1x DC power in
Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
Battery capacity: 90 Watt-hours
Dimensions: 14.05 x 9.87 x 0.69 inches
Weight: 4.94 pounds
MSRP: $1,499 as tested

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Design and build quality

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus has a nice-looking and solid-feeling all-metal design. It’s all silvers with a black bezel around the screen. Inside the laptop, the keys are a dark gray with a white backlight. There’s a silver Dell logo on the lid, but otherwise you won’t see a bunch of logos or distracting text elsewhere on the machine.

This laptop has extremely solid build quality, which is no surprise with that all-metal construction. There’s no real flex to the case, even when you pick it up with one hand from a corner.

The hinge feels extremely solid, too — and it’s interesting in another way. You can keep pushing the screen back, and this will raise the back of the keyboard, pushing it upward toward you. It works nicely, and the action feels great. You can only push it back so far, however — this laptop will not lie flat. (Of course, that’s fine! It doesn’t need to.

This laptop is 4.94 pounds. For a 16-inch laptop made of metal with a huge battery and a discrete Nvidia GPU, that’s a reasonable weight.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus has a full-size keyboard with white backlighting. The keyboard is plenty response and fast to type on. To me, the key travel is a little on the shallow side and the action doesn’t feel as snappy as it does on some of the most premium keyboards like a ThinkPad keyboard or a mechanical keyboard. Still, I wouldn’t describe it as mushy. It’s a fine keyboard.

The fingerprint reader at the top-right corner of the keyboard is also a power key, and it works well. I’m not a huge fan of the layout of the up and down arrow keys, though — Dell chose to use full-size left and right arrow keys, with half-height up and down arrow keys stuck in the middle.

The trackpad is centrally positioned below the keyboard and works well. The surface is smooth, the action is responsive and the feel of the click is pleasantly clicky. The palm rejection works well, too.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Display and speakers

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus has a nice-looking display. Our review model had a 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display. The 120 Hz refresh rate makes for a nice smooth experience. It’s in a convenient 16:10 aspect ratio, giving you plenty of vertical space for getting work done.

You can also get this laptop with a lower-resolution 1920×1200 display, and that resolution is available with a touch screen option — but this higher-resolution model isn’t available with a touch screen.

At 300 nits of brightness, it’s not the brightest laptop screen out there. But this isn’t a gaming laptop — it’s a content creation laptop. The anti-glare screen looks nice — it’s not super glossy and reflective — and the choice of display is likely a big factor in the laptop’s energy efficiency. If this laptop offered a high-resolution OLED display option, that would probably cut deep into the battery life.

When it comes to speakers, this system once again offers multiple options. If you have a version with Nvidia GeForce graphics — like our review unit — you get four speakers (two upward firing speakers above the keyboard and two downward firing speakers below the laptop). If you have a version with integrated Intel graphics, you just get the two speakers in the speaker grill above the keyboard.

The audio sounds alright, but. While speakers can deliver loud sound, but the bass is a little lacking. That’s normal for almost any laptop — you have to really look for a high-end gaming laptop to start getting serious bass.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Dell includes a 1080p webcam with its Inspiron 16 Plus laptop. The webcam also includes a physical privacy shutter, which is a great privacy feature often found on business laptops.

The webcam looks decent, although I’ve seen sharper image quality from some of the business laptops I’ve tested lately. Thanks to the neural processing unit (NPU) in Intel’s Meteor Lake, this laptop also gives you access to Windows Studio Effects, allowing you to fake eye contact and blur your background.

The microphone is also decent, although I don’t think it’s quite as clear and crisp as the built-in microphones on many of the business laptops I’ve been reviewing. It picked up a little bit of background noise, even in a fairly quiet room. It’s not bad — it’s good — but this isn’t the absolute best webcam and microphone setup for online meetings.

This laptop doesn’t offer facial recognition sign-in with Windows Hello — there’s no IR camera here. However, this laptop does include a fingerprint reader at the top-right corner of the keyboard, above the Backspace key. (This pushes the Delete key slightly to the left.) The fingerprint reader works well, and it scanned my fingerprint and signed me into Windows quickly. Some people will prefer fingerprint login to facial recognition, although I like the way facial recognition instantly signs me in as soon as I open a laptop. Facial recognition is just more convenient if you’re looking for biometrics.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Connectivity

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Dell Inspiron 16 has a decent selection of ports overall — aside from the Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports. It offers just a single USB-C port — which it also uses for charging with the standard USB-C charger Dell ships with the laptop.

On the left side, you’ve got a single Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) port along with an HDMI 2.1 port and a power jack.

On the right side, you’ll find an SD card reader, a combo audio jack, and two USB Type-A ports (USB 3.2 Gen 1.) Note that the versions of the laptop with integrated Intel Arc graphics have a standard sized SD card reader while the versions of the laptop with discrete Nvidia graphics have a microSD card reader.

The Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) port situation is the issue. USB-C charging is fine, and it works well here. The problem is that this laptop just has that single USB-C port. While this laptop does have a more traditional barrel charger port as well, it normally comes with a USB-C charger. So, if you want to plug something else into that USB-C port while the laptop is plugged in, you’ll need a Thunderbolt Dock that the laptop can charge through.

Out of the box, with the standard laptop configuration, there’s no way to actually use that power jack unless you hunt down a charger that doesn’t come with the laptop.

At least, that was the situation on our review unit. Dell told us that the base model of the laptop could ship with a traditional barrel charger. But, Dell also said that this laptop wouldn’t qualify for Intel’s Evo Edition sticker without USB-C charging.

If a manufacturer is going to use USB-C charging these days, they should provide more than one USB-C port. A second USB-C port would be a big help.

This machine includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 hardware. You can get a version of the laptop with Wi-Fi 7 support, too — Intel made that an extra add-on that doesn’t come standard with Meteor Lake-powered laptops like this one. While it’s fine to have Wi-Fi 6E because Wi-Fi 7 isn’t widespread yet, we’re getting to the point where it would be nice to see laptops support Wi-Fi 7 out of the box.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Performance

With its Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of solid-state storage, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus naturally delivered excellent performance in day-to-day desktop usage. This laptop comes with an “Intel Evo” sticker, too.

Of course, we ran the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. While this is designed as an overall system benchmark, the CPU performance is a big factor in the results.

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus delivered an overall score of 7,101. That’s a great score. It’s competitive or better than the other modern laptops with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processors we’re comparing this machine against.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage.

This 16-inch laptop delivered excellent performance with a multi-threaded score of 6,924. That’s noticeably faster than some 14-inch laptops we compared it to here.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load.

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus completed the encode in 957, which is about 16 minutes. That’s a solid score and it shows the machine is doing a good job of staying cool and not throttling due to heat under extended workloads, like the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus clearly is.

his machine did complete the encode more slowly than the HP Pavilion Plus with its previous-generation Intel Core i7-1355U Raptor Lake processor, however. Intel’s Meteor Lake hardware just comes up a bit shorter than the previous-generation hardware in CPU performance. Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware should hopefully fix this, beating Meteor Lake on power efficiency while also delivering more performance than Raptor Lake.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run a graphical benchmark. While this isn’t a gaming laptop, it does have a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. To benchmark the GPU, we run the 3DMark Time Spy graphical benchmark.

With a score of 8,735, the RTX 4060-powered variant of this laptop delivered much better graphical performance than an Intel Arc-powered Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, which delivered a score of 3,493.

Overall, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus delivered excellent performance with strong cooling and without noticeable thermal throttling slowing things down under load. Bear in mind that your performance will vary depending on the configuration — Dell offers a variety of different CPU and GPU options. In particular, the Intel Arc variant will be much farther behind on the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark.

When we reviewed the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, we found that its vents didn’t seem to be doing anything. I tested. I verified that the vents here are definitely working — which is no surprise, considering how well this laptop’s cooling helped its benchmark scores.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Battery life

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus packs either a 90 Watt-hour battery or a 64 Watt-hour battery. Our review unit had a 90 Watt-hour battery. That’s a nice big size and nearly as big as it gets — if a battery is 100 Watt-hours or larger, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration won’t allow it onto an airplane

IDG / Chris Hoffman

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in the Movies & TV app on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this.

In our benchmark, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus lasted for an average of 1,022 minutes. That’s just over 17 hours — a very good score for a 16-inch laptop. The large battery certainly helps matters, and the display is likely pretty power efficient. (Those OLED displays tend to drain more battery power).

This should be all-day battery life, depending on what you do — but you’ll need to plug this laptop into an outlet to really take advantage of the power of its Nvidia GPU. (Unfortunately, if you have the laptop’s normal USB-C charger, you won’t be able to connect other devices to it while charging unless you get a dock or dongle).

As usual, though, the devil is in the details: If you pick a variant of this laptop that comes with a smaller battery, for example, you won’t get anywhere near as long from it.

Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Conclusion

The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus is a nice machine. It’s a 16-inch laptop with excellent performance, long battery life, high-quality cooling, an all-metal build, and even discrete graphics for gaming and other professional tasks. At $1,499, that’s not bad — remember that you’re getting the kind of GPU you would often have to get a more expensive gaming laptop for.

Dell told me that this particular configuration was on sale for $1,299 right before we reviewed it, and it was once again discounted to same price while we were wrapping up our review. In general, laptops frequently go on sale — and you might be able to scoop up this one for hundreds of dollars off if you want for the right time. That’s a good price.

On the other hand, there are some reasons you may not want to buy this laptop: You may want a free USB-C port while charging, facial recognition, a brighter screen, or a more vibrant OLED display. Or you may just want to wait for a laptop that will get those Copilot+ PC AI features later this year. Every machine has trade-offs.

Still, this is a nice machine — especially at that sale price, if it goes on sale for a few hundred dollars off again. On the other hand, laptops like this one will offer even better battery life and performance when Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware arrives later this year. And Intel will require all Lunar Lake laptops to have at least two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which will ensure future laptops don’t end up with a charger that hogs their single USB-C port.

Laptops

Yawn. Windows’ Copilot+ AI features feel like early tech demos at best

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Microsoft, Qualcomm, and their PC-manufacturing partners are seriously hyping Copilot+ PCs. They’d have you believe that these “next-generation AI laptops” are packed with AI smarts and useful features.

But, while the hardware for AI tasks is ready in these laptops, the actual features built into Windows aren’t making full use of it.

We’re in a weird position. We’re excited about these laptops because they’re the first seriously impressive Windows on Arm laptops. We’re excited about long battery life with snappy performance. And we’re excited that next-generation Intel Lunar Lake hardware is looking like a huge leap for traditional x86 laptops.

But we’re not excited about all these at-launch AI features being pushed by marketing campaigns. Snapdragon X Elite-powered PCs might be intriguing, but if you’re excited about an immediate AI upgrade to your Windows experience, you’re going to be disappointed. Here’s why.

Further reading: Microsoft Surface Pro 7 review: A new long-lasting, Qualcomm-powered era for Windows laptops

Copilot+ PC? More like Copilot- PC

The name “Copilot+ PC” conjures to mind a kind of PC with extra features relating to Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot. After all, “Copilot Pro” is a paid subscription that upgrades the Copilot chatbot experience.

That’s not the case at all. A Copilot+ PC offers no extra Copilot upgrades. You get a Copilot key on the keyboard, which first-generation “AI laptops” with Intel Meteor Lake hardware have been offering for many months now. That’s it. Copilot doesn’t run offline or use the new integrated neural processing unit (NPU) hardware to do anything at all.

In fact, the situation is much more dire than that. These machines ship with a new Copilot app experience—it’s no longer a sidebar, but rather a normal floating desktop window. That’s fine. But, as Tom Warren noted for The Verge, the new Copilot app experience is a step back. You can’t tell it to “turn on Dark Mode” or “empty the Recycle Bin” anymore.

Chris Hoffman / IDG

Microsoft may eventually improve the Windows integration in this new Copilot app. And, even if not, this new Copilot experience will eventually come to all Windows 11 PCs. But, at launch, Copilot is surprisingly less powerful on a Copilot+ PC than it is on a standard Windows 11 PC.

It also doesn’t have those fancy GPT-4o features that Microsoft showed off, where it can see your screen and talk you through Minecraft gameplay, for example. Those features will arrive at some point in the future—but when they do, they won’t need Copilot+ PC hardware. That impressive demo will work on all Windows 11 PCs.

AI image generation needs a Microsoft account and internet connection

A Copilot+ PC has some extra AI image generation tools integrated into various apps throughout Windows:

Paint has a Cocreator tool that can generate an image as you draw, modifying it to fit your drawing.
Photos has a Restyle tool that will let you use generative AI as a “filter” for your image. For example, taking a photo and making it look like it was a watercolor painting.
Photos also has an Image Generator feature that generates images to match your text prompts.

Here’s the thing: While these tools all use the NPU inside a Copilot+ PC, none of them work offline. They require a Microsoft account and an active internet connection to work. Why? To check your images for “AI safety” before showing them to you.

Chris Hoffman / IDG

Without getting into whether that’s necessary or not, one thing is clear: There’s no point to running these tools on your computer’s hardware if they also require a cloud service to function. You might as well use a cloud-based AI image generation tool running in a powerful data center somewhere. You’ll get better, more realistic results.

The introduction of these new tools has muddied the AI experience on Windows 11. All of the above tools sit alongside other AI image generation tools that do use Microsoft’s cloud servers. For example, the Image Creator in Microsoft Paint uses the cloud, while the Image Creator in Photos uses your PC’s local hardware.

On a Copilot+ PC, Windows contains a confusing mishmash of AI features that may or may not use the PC’s hardware and may or may not use Microsoft’s cloud services.

Live Captions gains some tricks, but already runs on all Windows 11 PCs

On any Windows 11 PC, you can open the Live Captions app from your Start menu to get AI-powered captions for speech. It uses Microsoft’s cloud servers to generate live captions in real time from any audio—audio in a video file, audio in an online meeting, or even audio being picked up by your PC’s microphone.

On a Copilot+ PC, Live Captions gets a little more powerful: it can now work entirely offline (unlike Microsoft’s AI image generation tools) and it can now translate speech from 44 different languages to English.

Chris Hoffman / IDG

That’s a nice upgrade that some people will find very valuable. But if you don’t already use Live Captions, or if you do and you wish you had real-time translation or offline support, would that be enough reason to warrant buying a new Copilot+ PC? Likely not.

Windows Studio Effects are fine, but not much is new

Microsoft has been talking up Windows Studio Effects as one of the big AI features for Copilot+ PCs. These are real-time webcam effects that use the computer’s NPU to change how your webcam looks in any app.

I like them, really. You can enable fake eye contact or blur your background in any app, for example. And, because it uses the NPU, it’s a power-efficient way to do webcam effects. You won’t be wasting CPU or GPU power in an online meeting.

However, this isn’t exactly new. Windows Studio Effects is the one AI feature that functioned out of the box on first-generation “AI laptops” with Intel Meteor Lake hardware. You don’t need a Copilot+ PC for them.

There are some extra effects: you can use effects like “Animated,” “Illustrated,” and “Watercolor” to change how you look on your webcam in real time. It’s a nice idea, but I find the effects to be very subtle.

Chris Hoffman / IDG

Do I really look “illustrated” in the screenshot above? A little bit! Is that worth buying a Copilot+ PC for? Well, I don’t know about that…

Recall would have been the big feature

Recall will take screenshots of your PC’s display every five seconds, create a big database of your PC activity, and then let you search through it with plain language queries—just like when you talk to an AI chatbot.

Unlike the Copilot AI chatbot or AI image generation features, it will work entirely offline. That’s what Microsoft said when it announced Recall.

Microsoft

It’s clear why Microsoft made such a big deal about Windows Recall when it announced Copilot+ PCs. Without Recall, there’s a distinct lack of a centerpiece AI feature that really sells these PCs. Instead, it’s just a collection of little tech demos that shows off what the NPU can do.

But when Microsoft faced serious blowback regarding privacy and security concerns over Recall, it decided to pull Recall before launch and spend a few more months working on it before release.

Ultimately, this means none of the included “AI” software featured in Copilot+ PCs at launch is particularly exciting.

With Copilot+, you’re buying into a promise

I’m calling these features “tech demos” for a reason. They feel like they exist to demonstrate the power of the neural processing unit and the Windows Copilot Runtime that Microsoft is offering to developers.

The vision of a Copilot+ PC isn’t that Windows will totally transform itself. The vision is that third-party application developers will leverage this hardware to add AI features into their own applications.

It’s early days, for sure. If you’re excited about a Copilot+ PC because of the AI features, I recommend you slow down before buying one because you may be disappointed, especially without Recall.

I always recommend buying hardware for what it can do today, not based on what it might do in the future. (Already this year, buyers of first-generation AI PCs got burned for buying into a vision too early.)

But if you’re mainly excited about the battery life and performance promises of Copilot+ PCs? That may be a good reason to buy one! I’ve been very impressed with the battery life and snappy performance so far. I wish Microsoft and Qualcomm were talking more about that than AI with this debut Snapdragon X Elite laptops.

Let’s stay in touch! Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter—I’ll send you three things to try every Friday.

Laptops, Windows

7 warning signs your computer has been hacked — and what to do

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Your antivirus will protect you from many online threats, but no antivirus is perfect. Truth is, your PC can still be hacked even if you’re using reputable security software with a solid track record.

When we talk about your computer possibly being “hacked,” that’s exactly what we mean: a cybercriminal has gained access to your PC and compromised it in some way.

The hacker in question may be a criminal organization that’s installing malware on millions of PCs (e.g., to spy on you and steal your credit card numbers), or the hacker may be an individual using a remote access Trojan (RAT) to personally spy on you through your webcam.

Here some common warning signs that your PC might’ve been hacked, exposing your personal data and system resources.

Is something fishy? Run an antivirus scan

First things first: If you’re concerned that your computer has a virus or another type of malware, you should run a scan with an antivirus program—ideally one of our recommended antivirus software picks.

You should also consider using the free Norton Power Eraser (or a similar tool). Tools like this will reboot your PC into a special scanning environment outside of Windows so they can spot and remove malware like rootkits that normally evade detection.

Perhaps you’ve already run a scan. If your scan didn’t find anything wrong but you’re still concerned, I recommend getting a second opinion.

Beyond that, let’s dig into the actual signs you may have a problem with viruses, worms, rootkits, keyloggers, Trojans, crypto-miners, ransomware, or other dangerous malware on your Windows computer.

More like this: What to know about ransomware before it’s too late

1. Antivirus warnings and other messages

Chris Hoffman / IDG

Warnings from your antivirus—whether that’s the Windows Defender antivirus built into Windows itself or another antivirus you’ve installed—can be a sign that an attacker has gained access to your PC.

If you see lots of notices about a virus or other malware being detected, that’s a real sign that something is wrong. Even if your antivirus continues to insist that the malware was removed, if it keeps happening over and over, you should be suspicious.

It’s possible that your antivirus is only doing a partial cleanup. Whoever has hacked your system may have a foothold on your system that your antivirus software isn’t catching.

Meanwhile, strange messages saying that your antivirus is disabled are also a problem. An attacker who hacked your PC may have disabled your antivirus to stop it from getting in the way.

2. Webcam light mysteriously on

If your computer’s webcam light is ever on and you don’t know why, that’s a big problem and you should find out why. If you can’t pin down the cause, a hacker may be involved.

If someone is using a remote access Trojan (RAT) or some other kind of malware that spies on you through your webcam, you’ll usually see a webcam light indicating the camera is in use. (Some laptops and PCs don’t have webcam lights, but they may still show you that your webcam is in use with a system tray icon.)

You may be able to see which application is using your webcam from your PC’s Settings app, but, unfortunately, malware can hide from this list.

It’s also possible that you’ve left a video conferencing app running in the background, of course—and that’s also something you’ll want to know about! Here’s a guide for taking control of your webcam privacy.

3. Unusually slow performance

If your computer was hacked and malware is running on it, you may see slow performance. Applications may take a long time to open, web pages may take a long time to load, and things may just feel sluggish.

This can happen if a lot of malware is running on your PC or if you have a specific type of malware that’s draining your system resources. For example, crypto-mining malware may use all your CPU and GPU resources to mine cryptocurrency, slowing everything to a crawl.

You can dig into the Windows Task Manager to see exactly what’s consuming resources, but Windows has a lot of legitimate background processes that could be using lots of system resources. For example, things can slow down while installing updates.

So, if performance seems low and your computer is crunching away on something in the background, it may not necessarily mean you have malware—but it’s definitely worth looking into.

4. Computer freezes and application crashes

Chris Hoffman / IDG

If Windows keeps freezing or your apps keep crashing, that’s another sign that something isn’t quite right.

Malware that digs deep into the Windows operating system may install drivers or interfere with the Windows kernel, which can cause system instability in the form of blue screens, crashes, and freezes. It may also interfere with the applications you use, causing them to crash.

This isn’t foolproof evidence of your computer being hacked, though. Blue screens can be caused by hardware problems and application crashes can be due to the application itself. But if you can’t figure out the root cause, malware should be on your radar.

5. Strange applications and popups

If you’re getting a lot of weird popups (like browser popups) or other weird, unexpected applications showing up, that could be a sign someone with access to your PC—or just malware running in the background—is installing that junk on your PC.

Of course, even this isn’t a way to know for sure. PCs often come with a lot of manufacturer-installed applications you may not recognize, and some applications you use may create popups.

Popups of a text-mode Command Prompt window quickly appearing and vanishing should be suspicious, but some legitimate applications create popups like this one when they install updates.

6. Changes to browser home page, search engine, or extensions

Adware, spyware, and other “junkware” (junk software) have historically been known to take over web browsers.

When they do, these nasty forms of malware may change your browser home page and default search engine to capture more advertising revenue. They may also install browser extensions to spy on your web activity, capture information, and insert more ads into web pages.

If your browser has strange changes like these, that’s a sign your computer may be compromised in some way. You can reset your browser, but it’s also a good idea to run a deeper scan to root out the malware.

7. Odd emails being sent and received, password changes, and more

Hacks aren’t just about access to your computer. Hackers also want access to your various online accounts.

One of the most common ways accounts are “hacked” doesn’t even involve hacking a computer at all. The attacker may discover a password you use—possibly a password that you re-use everywhere, which ended up leaked in a data breach somewhere.

Then, the attacker uses your username and password combination to see if they can gain access to your other accounts. If the service allows the attacker in with your leaked credentials, they’ve essentially hacked your account. That’s why re-using passwords is so dangerous and why enabling two-factor authentication is so helpful.

If you see strange emails being sent and received, or if your account passwords are suddenly reset, it could be the result of a hack. Someone with access to your computer (or someone who knows your passwords) may have gained remote access to your accounts.

If malware scans come up clear and your computer seems secure but you still see strange things like this, it’s a good idea to change your passwords just in case.

Be on alert and trust your gut

Chris Hoffman / IDG

To be clear, this isn’t an exhaustive list. There may be other warning signs of hacks and/or malware. What’s even scarier is that a particularly well-executed hack may not leave any signs at all.

A sophisticated attacker doesn’t want to be noticed at all. They want to quietly spy on you and steal important data, and they’re going to do their best to ensure their hack doesn’t affect your PC in any noticeable way so they can remain undetected. That’s a big difference from the bog-standard malware that will be happy to waste your PC’s resources just to mine some cryptocurrency.

Ultimately, the best answer is to trust your gut. If something seems wrong, run scans with the various antivirus programs we recommend.

If nothing comes up and you’re still concerned, consider resetting your PC. This is basically like reinstalling Windows—you’ll get a “factory default” setup and you can set everything up again. This process will remove any malware or other hacker tools that could be lurking on your system, but you’ll have to reinstall the programs you use and set things up again afterward. Still, that’s a small price for peace of mind.

Want more PC advice? Subscribe to my free Windows Intelligence newsletter to get all the latest tips, tricks, and news sent straight to your email inbox.

Antivirus, Security Software and Services

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 review: A ThinkPad with a pen

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 10:00:00 +0000

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

ThinkPad build quality
Good battery life
360-degree hinge with a pen and touchscreen

Cons

Expensive
Long battery life comes at the cost of performance
Slow integrated graphics
Won’t run CoPilot+ PC features

Our Verdict

Lenovo delivered a 2-in-1 ThinkPad with great build quality, a nice pen, and serious battery life. But you may want to wait for a next-generation model powered by Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is a 14-inch 2-in-1 premium business laptop from Lenovo, complete with a 360-degree hinge and optional stylus. This is part of the legendary ThinkPad line of laptops, so it’s a high-end machine – with a high-end price, too.

If you want a ThinkPad and you want it to be a 2-in-1 machine with a touchscreen and a stylus, this is definitely the laptop for you. It delivered serious battery life in our benchmarks, but it’s not a performance-focused beast of a machine.

Here’s the inconvenient thing about this PC: A potential future version of this laptop with Intel’s upcoming Lunar Lake hardware should have even better battery life and improved performance — and it would support all those Copilot+ PC features Microsoft just announced, which this laptop (and other Meteor Lake-powered laptops) will never get. Now that Intel has announced Lunar Lake hardware coming later this year, battery-life-focused laptops with Meteor Lake hardware already feel a little dated.

Further reading: Best laptops 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Specs

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 (Gen 9) is a 14-inch laptop that comes with an Intel Meteor Lake CPU. This is a 2-in-1 laptop with a touchscreen and an optional pen. Our review model had an Intel Core Ultra 7 155U CPU, but you can also configure this laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 5 125U, an Intel Core Ultra 5 135U, or an Intel Core Ultra 7 165U processor.

Either way, you’re getting an Intel Meteor Lake CPU, so it has more of a focus on power efficiency than Intel’s previous Raptor Lake CPUs. However, it looks like Meteor Lake pales in comparison to the Lunar Lake hardware that’s right around the corner. This laptop also comes with an “Intel Evo” badge.

This machine uses Intel graphics – not the higher-end Intel Arc graphics, which means it’s not great for gaming, even by integrated laptop graphics standards. Our review model included 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and you can get up to 64GB of RAM – but the memory is soldered to the motherboard. Our review model had a 1TB SSD, but you can configure this laptop with up to 2TB of storage.

Since this is a Meteor Lake laptop with a Meteor Lake neural processing unit (NPU,) it will never run any of those new Copilot+ PC features. You should wait for a Lunar Lake laptop if those are important to you.

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155U
Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X
Graphics/GPU: Intel graphics
Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS touch screen with 60Hz refresh rate
Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIE 4 SSD
Webcam: 1080p webcam
Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB4 with DisplayPort 2.1 Alt Mode and Power Delivery 3.0), 2x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.,1, 1x combo headset jack, 1x Kensington nano security slot
Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Biometrics: IR camera for facial recognition and fingerprint sensor
Battery capacity: 57 Watt-hours
Dimensions: 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
Weight: 2.98 pounds
MSRP: $2,761 as tested

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Design and build quality

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 has great build quality. That’s no surprise: Lenovo uses the prestigious ThinkPad name for its high-end business laptops. Of course, they also come at a high-end price compared to Lenovo’s ThinkBook line of laptops.

The laptop is made of metal – aluminum and magnesium – and it’s all grays and silvers with a black bezel around the screen. In the center of the keyboard, you’ve got that classic red TrackPoint “nub,” which you can use to move the cursor around.

The “communications bar” containing the webcams and microphone at the top of the display juts out a bit and sticks out on the back. On the lid of the laptop, the dot at the top of the “i” in “ThinkPad” lights up red when the laptop is on.

It’s a great, business-like look. The metal makes it feel premium to touch, and the build quality is great with no creaking bits. The hinge works smoothly and solidly, which is obviously critical for a 2-in-1. At a hair under three pounds, it’s not as lightweight as a ThinkPad X1 Carbon with that carbon fiber, but it’s a good weight.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

This is a 2-in-1 laptop, so it has a touch screen and a 360-degree hinge that lets you rotate the laptop into a variety of shapes, lying it flat, using it in “tent mode,” or rotating it all the way so that the keyboard is at the back of the screen and turning it into a tablet. The screen also has a digitizer that works well with the Lenovo Slim Pen, which is an optional accessory our review model included.

Lenovo chose not to have the ThinkPad’s optional pen – the Lenovo Slim Pen – insert into a slot on the laptop for storage. Instead, it attaches magnetically to side of the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1. Lenovo says that it it is larger and “attaches to the side of the keyboard frame magnetically, so it’s always at arm’s reach.” Some people will prefer this approach to storing the pen. Although the magnetic attachment is strong and the pen does attach securely to the laptop, it’s also easy to see how the pen could get bumped and become detached in a bag.

While the pen connects to the laptop magnetically for storage, it doesn’t charge wirelessly from the laptop. You will have to plug a USB-C cable to a port under the cap on top of the pen to charge it.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 has a great full-size keyboard that feels pleasantly snappy. There’s nothing “mushy” about the keys here. I also like some of the little touches, like the “Delete” key at the top-right corner of the keyboard being wider than other nearby keys.

There’s also the red TrackPoint “nub,” of course – this is a ThinkPad – but the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 also has a solid touchpad. Our review model had a touchpad with three physical buttons above it, but you can also get a haptic touchpad with customizable haptic feedback. The touchpad was nice and response to the touch, the click action felt good, and you have those three physical mouse buttons above the touchpad if you want them.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Of course, this is also a touch screen laptop, so you have the full touchscreen experience available to you. And that optional Lenovo Slim Pen seems like a great stylus, too. I’m no artist, but it offered a responsive experience when writing notes in OneNote.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Display and speakers

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 offers a variety of 14-inch display options. Our review model had a 1920×1200 IPS display with a touch screen, a 60 Hz refresh rate and 400 nits of brightness. It looks good and has a nice anti-reflective coating that doesn’t produce as much glare in direct sunlight as I see on some laptops.

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is also available with a 2880×1800 OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate.

I’d recommend the lower-resolution display. It delivered amazing battery life in our benchmarks (and normal computer usage,) while the choice of an OLED display dragged down the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon in our battery benchmarks. Yes, the OLED display is probably beautiful – the OLED display on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon certainly was when I reviewed it. But, for a machine like this, all-day battery life is probably your priority.

This laptop’s speakers are decent and can put out surprisingly loud audio with clear sound. As usual with thin-and-light laptops — or most laptops of any weight — the speakers are lacking bass. Everything else sounds good, though — and you can make it quite loud, if you like.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 has a high-quality 1080p webcam. For a business laptop like this one, that’s table stakes – you don’t want to spend this much only to drag a low-resolution 720p webcam into meetings! The webcam looks good and worked well both indoors and outdoors, and you also have access to Windows Studio Effects for tricks like faking eye contact and removing your background on the fly thanks to the neural processing unit (NPU) included with Intel’s Meteor Lake platform.

In addition, the webcam includes a nice physical price shutter on the communications bar itself. Just slide the shutter closed with your finger and you’ll physically block the webcam for added privacy.

The microphone setup also works nicely, picking up your voice clearly. Between the webcam and microphone, this is a capable laptop for online meetings.

This laptop includes both an IR camera and fingerprint sensor, so you can use Windows Hello to sign in with either facial recognition or your fingerprint. Facial recognition worked well in a variety of lighting conditions, and the fingerprint reader also does a good job. It’s located to the left of the arrow keys on the keyboard.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Connectivity

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 offers a decent selection of ports for a laptop this size. You get two Thunderbolt 4 (USB4 Type-C) ports on the left side of the laptop – but bear in mind you’ll use one of them to charge the laptop.

In addition, you get two USB Type-A ports – one on the left side of the laptop, and one on the right side. On the right side, you also have HDMI 2.1, a combo audio jack, and a Kensington nano security slot.

You’re not getting a microSD card reader of any sort, so you’ll have to connect a dongle if you want to access an SD card, connect to Ethernet, or do anything else these ports don’t offer. For the size, it’s a good selection of ports – although some people might want a third USB Type-C port or an SD card reader of some sort.

This laptop also includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 radios. That’s not the end of the world as Wi-Fi 7 routers aren’t widespread yet, but there’s a reason the next-generation Lunar Lake hardware will come with Wi-Fi 7 support as standard. Now that we’re getting into the middle of 2024, it would be nice to have. You can get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, if you like – but that’ll cost you extra.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Performance

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 delivered solid, speedy performance in day-to-day work tasks like browsing the web with a lot of tabs open and working with Microsoft Office documents. That’s table stakes these days for a laptop with an Intel Core Ultra CPU, 16GB of RAM, and fast solid-state storage.

As always, we ran the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 delivered an overall score of 6,226, in the middle of the pack. It’s not quite as fast as a ThinkPad X1 Carbon, and interestingly enough Lenovo’s dual-screen Yoga Book 9i actually beats it on performance in this benchmark, despite both systems having the same CPU. However, this ThinkPad did deliver stronger performance than the HP Spectre x360.

That’s a surprise because that HP 2-in-1 has an H-series chip, which should deliver higher performance than the U-series ship in this laptop, which is more focused on power efficiency. It’s another reminder that the specs sheet isn’t what’s important — HP’s Spectre x360 is likely being constrained by its thermals (cooling performance).

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The ThinkPad’s score of 2,915 was in the bottom of the pack here. That’s not a huge surprise because this has a U-series Core Ultra chip from Intel, which is more focused on long battery life than performance. However, it’s interesting to see that Lenovo’s dual-screen Yoga Book 9i — which has the same CPU — beat the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 on performance again.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period of time. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load.

The ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 completed the encode process in an average of 1,902 seconds — that’s nearly 32 minutes. It’s a long time in comparison to other laptops with more performance-focused CPUs. This laptop isn’t optimized for delivering sustained power in heavy workloads like this — it’s more focused on power efficiency and battery life than computing performance.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. Professional 3D rendering applications that use the system’s GPU will also benefit from a good score here. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance.

With a score of 2,169, the Lenovo ThinkPad 2-in-1 was in the bottom of the pack as far as Intel Meteor Lake-powered laptops. That’s because the U-series processors come with the lower-end “Intel graphics,” which isn’t as fast as the Intel Arc graphics you can get with Intel H-series CPUs.

However, this machine’s integrated Intel graphics were still much faster than the previous-generation Intel Iris Xe graphics found in the older Asus ZenBook 14 Flip OLED we compared it to.

Overall, the results paint a clear picture. This laptop isn’t a speed demon, and if you’re looking for a machine to run heavy computing workloads, this is the wrong system for you. Its hardware is optimized for long battery life and power efficiency. Luckily, as we saw in our battery life benchmark below, this machine delivers.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Battery life

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 includes a 57 Watt-hour battery. That feels like it’s a little on the low side, so it’s extra surprising that the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 delivered amazing numbers in our battery life benchmarks. Yes, this looks like it should deliver all-day battery life – thank the display. If you opt for a model with an OLED display, bear in mind you won’t get the same battery life results.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in the Movies & TV app on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than the number you see here.

In our video rundown benchmark, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 lasted for an impressive 1055 minutes before powering itself off. That’s seventeen and a half hours, and it outshined all the other laptops we compared it against. We benchmarked a ThinkPad X1 Carbon with an OLED display, so keep that in mind when you look at the results here — the ThinkPad X1 2-in-1’s OLED display option will likely cut hours off your battery life, although I imagine it looks stunning.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1: Conclusion

ThinkPads aren’t targeted at the average PC user. They’re premium business laptops, and Lenovo gives them a price that matches – thankfully, Lenovo also gives them a premium build quality. (But ThinkPads also go on pretty deep sales sometimes – especially previous-generation ones. You may be able to find this PC at quite a large discount someday).

At $2,761, our review model is seriously expensive for a laptop, especially one that trades so much performance for battery life. However, it also does have serious battery life. For people who use a computer for light tasks rather than heavy local computing workloads — and who want a pen with their high-end business laptop — this is a good option.

After considering the benchmarks above, you should have a pretty good idea of whether this machine is for you. Other 2-in-1 options include Lenovo’s Yoga Book 9i, which takes the concept even further, delivering two separate displays – at a lower price, but without the ThinkPad branding and with much lower battery life. (After all, it’s powering two separate screens). Or you could go for a competing 2-in-1 like the much less expensive HP Spectre x360, although it doesn’t have anywhere near the battery life and its performance was inconsistent in our benchmarks. Plus, none of those are competing laptops are ThinkPads. That lineage and high-end design is important to a lot of people.

If you don’t need a laptop right now, you may want to wait for the next generation. Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware sounds like it will be a huge leap over Meteor Lake and deliver much more power efficiency along with improved performance – and it will support all those Copilot+ PC features Microsoft announced, which laptops like this one won’t receive. From what Intel is saying, that next-generation hardware will be a big upgrade to battery life-focused laptops like this one.

Laptops

Windows Defender antivirus: 5 settings to change first

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Windows Defender is a capable antivirus solution built into Windows itself. Unless you’ve installed a different antivirus program on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 PC, your PC is using it right now. The good news is that Microsoft’s Defender antivirus is designed to “just work” without a lot of tweaking and it has sensible defaults. But there are still a variety of settings you may want to change in your PC’s built-in antivirus program.

Here’s one setting you no longer need to change: Windows Defender now blocks “potentially unwanted apps” (PUAs) out of the box. Spyware, adware, and other junk you probably don’t want installed is blocked automatically — you no longer have to flip a switch to activate that additional protection.

Protect your files with controlled folder access

Windows Defender antivirus has an especially useful feature named “controlled folder access” that’s turned off by default. It provides extra protection against ransomware and other malicious software, preventing dangerous software from messing with files in sensitive folders like your Documents folder.

You can activate controlled folder access for extra protection for your files — although you should still have backups of your important files. Backups are always essential.

Be aware that, if you do activate controlled folder access, it may block applications you trust from accessing your files. You’ll then need to go into the Windows Security window and add those applications to the allowed-apps list.

That’s why it’s disabled by default — you’ll likely have to do some fiddling with it. It could be especially inconvenient for gamers, as PC games often want access to your Documents folder so they can save your game files there. But, if you want some extra security for your files, it could be worth it.

To activate controlled folder access, open the “Windows Security” application from your Start menu, select “Virus & threat protection,” and then choose “Manage ransomware protection.” You can then turn on “Controlled folder access” from here. The links here will let you see a history of blocked applications, choose which folders are protected, and control which apps are allowed through the controlled folder access protection.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Turn off unnecessary notifications

While Microsoft Defender normally gets out of your way and does its job quietly, there’s one unnecessary thing it bothers you about. Defender tries to perform a full system scan in the background once a day — when you’re not using your computer. After a successful scan, it will send you notification a telling you “No new threats were found.”

Clearly, Microsoft wants you to know Defender is doing something. But do you really need to be interrupted by a popup telling you everything is fine? I don’t think so.

To get rid of these unnecessary notifications, open the “Windows Security” application from your Start menu and click the gear-shaped “Settings” option at the bottom-left corner of the window.

Click the “Manage notifications” link here to see notification options. Uncheck only “Recent activity and scan results.” If you leave the other options enabled, Windows will tell you when it finds a threat — but it won’t tell you if it scans and finds no threats.

You can turn off other types of Defender notifications here, too — but the other ones are more useful.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Ditch the system tray icon — especially the second one

The Windows Defender antivirus comes with a blue, shield-shaped system tray icon to let you know it’s running. That’s fine, but it’s extra clutter you don’t really need if you don’t want it.

Worse yet, if you subscribe to Microsoft 365, you may end up with two blue shield-shaped icons in your system tray. You’ll get one for Windows Security, which is built into Windows itself, and one for Microsoft Defender, which is part of Microsoft 365.

Technically speaking, Microsoft Defender is a little different and has some extra features like identity theft monitoring as part of your subscription. Why they have almost exactly the same name and icon is a mystery that only Microsoft knows.

Anyway, Microsoft doesn’t offer an obvious way to turn these icons off. But you can do it by disabling startup applications.

You can do this right from the Task Manager: First, open the Task Manager by right-clicking an empty spot on your taskbar and selecting “Task Manager” — or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Then, select “Startup apps” (on Windows 11) or the “Startup” tab (Windows 10.)

To disable the Windows Security system tray icon, right-click the “SecurityHealthSystray.exe” application and select “Disable.” To disable the Microsoft Defender icon included with Microsoft 365, right-click the “Microsoft Defender” application and select “Disable.”

(You can also head to Settings > Apps > Startup to find a Startup-app-management tool built into the Settings app. You can use whichever tool you prefer — the one in the Settings app or the one in the Task Manager.)

The next time you sign out of your computer and sign back in — or restart it — the shield-shaped Defender icons will vanish from your system tray.

Even after you do this, Windows Defender is still running in the background. It will block malware and send notifications when it does. You can access its features from the Windows Defender app — just launch “Windows Defender” from the Start menu. It just won’t appear in your PC’s system tray.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Set up exclusions to speed things up

Most PC users won’t need to set up exclusions in Windows Defender or any other antivirus program. But, if you do have the kind of workload that benefits from setting up exclusions, this will be the most important setting to change in this entire list.

Defender and other antimalware tools perform real-time scanning of the files you use on your PC. This is normally pretty fast, and modern antivirus tools don’t slow things down much on a modern PC with a typical workload. When we benchmark PCs here at PCWorld, we always run our benchmarks with Windows Defender enabled. After all, that’s the default.

But, for certain workloads, there is a significant benefit to using exclusions. If you are regularly creating or working with lots of small files you trust — or some very big files you trust — that real-time scanning can slow down system performance.

This is particularly useful if you’re using virtual machines or are compiling software, for example. By excluding the folders with the files you’re working on from real-time scans, you can reap some speed improvements.

But be careful with this, as you’re opening a hole in your defenses. You should only do this with folders you thoroughly trust. It’s not a good idea to exclude game folders — we live in a world where malware has been distributed through Steam game updates, after all.

If Exclusions make sense for your workload, you should configure them in Windows Defender. To do so, launch “Windows Security” from the Start menu, click “Virus & threat protection,” and click “Manage settings” under Virus & threat protection settings. Scroll down to the Exclusions section and click “Add or remove exclusions.” Then, add folders you want to exclude from scanning — but, again, be absolutely sure you’re ready to place complete trust in whatever you’re excluding.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Consider whether core isolation is right for your PC

The Windows Security app has lots of other interesting security settings you may want to experiment with. I recommend launching the “Windows Security” app from your Start menu and poking around a little.

One controversial setting that Microsoft includes in the Windows Security interface — which isn’t quite a Windows Defender feature, but is something the Windows Security app will bug you to activate on your PC — is core isolation. Core isolation uses hardware virtualization features offered by your CPU to isolate system processes from the rest of your PC. With its memory integrity feature, it can better protect system processes from malware during an attack on your PC.

This isn’t an antivirus feature exactly — it’s an overall Windows operating system security feature. It can offer some extra protection, although it may slow down PC performance some — so it may not be ideal for PC gamers.

If you upgraded to Windows 11 or set up your PC prior to the end of 2022, core isolation is disabled by default. If you have set up a new PC since the big update at the end of 2022, core isolation is tuned on by default.

While this setting can boost security, it also cuts performance a bit — especially in games, and especially on older computers. I recommend reading the details about core isolation before activating it. Or, if you have a modern gaming PC, you might want to think about turning it off for some extra FPS.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Prefer another antivirus? You don’t need to turn off Defender

Windows Defender is a capable antivirus tool that works well without much configuration. That’s one of the best things about it.

Even if you prefer another antivirus program, you don’t need to turn off Microsoft’s Defender antivirus. After you install another antivirus program, Defender will notice you’re using another antivirus and stop its real-time scanning. If you uninstall that other antivirus program, Defender will leap back into action.

Microsoft’s Defender antivirus ensures Windows PCs always have a baseline level of antivirus protection. You don’t really need to install antivirus on a modern Windows 11 or Windows 10 PC — that’s a security myth.

Windows

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x review: All-day battery life

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 10:30:00 +0000

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Excellent all-day battery life
Portability and performance
Good value

Cons

No USB Type-A ports
No option for 32GB of RAM on the base model

Our Verdict

Lenovo’s ThinkBook is a better business laptop for most people than a top-of-the-line ThinkPad, but the lack of ports may be a problem.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x (Gen 4) is a 13-inch business laptop designed for portability. The ThinkBook line of laptops is a more affordable alternative to Lenovo’s high-end ThinkPad laptops. But this laptop doesn’t just beat a top-of-the-line ThinkPad on price — it beats it on battery life, too.

The value is definitely here: At $1,106, this ThinkBook is much less expensive than Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It lacks the high-end touches of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but it’s an incredibly practical machine for getting work done on the go — or at your desk.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available today.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Specs

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The ThinkBook is a capable “ultraportable” business laptop. It’s branded as an “Intel Evo” laptop and features a Meteor Lake-based Intel Core Ultra CPU with Intel Arc graphics. Our review model included an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H CPU, but Lenovo also offers this machine with a Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor for another $432. That upgrade seems overboard for a laptop at this price point, and it would make more sense if Lenovo offered this machine with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor as an upgrade instead.

This laptop includes 16 GB of LPDDR5X RAM that’s soldered to the motherboard. That’s fine for many purposes, but you can’t get 32GB of RAM without also upgrading to that Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU. This unfortunately isn’t a good machine for you if you need or want 32GB of RAM.

Our review unit also included a 512GB SSD. For an extra $89, you can upgrade that to a 1 TB SSD — that’s reasonable, at least.

While Intel’s Meteor Lake platform includes a neural processing unit (NPU,) Intel’s first-generation NPUs aren’t powerful enough for Windows 11’s upcoming AI features. This laptop won’t get those AI features Microsoft just announced, which are exclusive to Copilot+ PCs. If those features are important to you and you want an Intel-powered PC, you’ll want to wait for Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware.

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 125H
Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X-8400MHz
Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc graphics
Display: 13.5-inch 2880×1920 IPS display with 120Hz refresh rate and touch screen
Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD
Webcam: 1080p webcam with physical webcam shutoff switch
Connectivity: 3x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), 1x combo audio jack
Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Biometrics: IR camera for Windows Hello
Battery capacity: 74 Watt-hours
Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches
Weight: 2.7 pounds
MSRP: $1,106 as tested

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Design and build quality

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Lenovo’s ThinkBook 13x has a smart all-metal design, all grays and silvers. The edges are slightly rounded so you don’t have hard metal edges pressing into your hands. The “ThinkBook” name appears on the laptop’s lid and the “Lenovo” brand name appears both below the bottom right area of the laptop’s keyboard and on the lid.

Build quality feels excellent whether you’re holding the laptop in your hand or opening and closing the laptop’s hinge. At the top of the display, the area with the webcam and IR camera sticks out a bit. This reduces the bezel around the display and gives you a good handhold to use while opening the laptop.

At 2.7 pounds, the laptop feels nice and light — but not quite as light as a ThinkPad X1 Carbon, naturally. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is also a more ruggedized design, so it will likely do better in extreme environments. But the ThinkBook will be more than sufficient for the average business traveler.

The ThinkBook 13x has one trick up its sleeve: A “Lenovo Magic Bay” connection at the top of the lid, behind that webcam bar. This lets you connect “Magic Bay” accessories magnetically. Lenovo bundled a Lenovo Magic Bay Light which is designed to provide extra lighting for video calls and other recordings. However, I don’t see Lenovo offering any other Magic Bay accessories for this laptop on its online store, and Lenovo told me available accessories vary between regions.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The ThinkBook 13x’s keyboard is a good keyboard and is a pleasure to type on. It’s a good size and the key travel feels reasonably snappy — in other words, the keys don’t feel “mushy” to me.

That said, this definitely isn’t the most premium keyboard I’ve used — Lenovo’s more expensive ThinkPad X1 Carbon definitely offers a snappier and more premium typing experience. But this is a solid keyboard.

The keyboard also has all-white LED keyboard backlighting so you can see the keys in a dark room. However, there’s no red “nub” for controlling the mouse in the middle of the keyboard, as there is on ThinkPads.

Like the keyboard, the trackpad feels response and smooth. It’s not quite as smooth to the touch as the touchpad on that high-end Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, but it’s definitely something I could be happy using regularly. The click-down action feels right, too.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Display and speakers

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x’s 13.5-inch display is exactly the kind of thing you’re looking for on a portable business laptop. You’re getting a 2880×1920 IPS display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 3:2 aspect ratio. That 3:2 aspect ratio is an excellent choice that offers a lot of vertical space for getting work done.

The display also offers up to 500 nits of brightness, which is great to see. It does have a fairly glossy display that’s prone to reflections — which you can see in some of the photos in this review. It’s probably not the best option for use outdoors in direct sunlight, but the high brightness can help compensate.

This display is also a touch screen, which is convenient for scrolling documents and navigating the Windows operating system.

It’s a good-looking screen with a solid resolution, refresh rate, and brightness, along with a good aspect ratio and a touch screen. Sure, this isn’t a beautiful OLED display like the one the ThinkPad X1 Carbon offers — but that’s probably part of why this ThinkBook beats that ThinkPad when it comes to battery life.

The speakers are good for a business laptop, too. Lenovo says they’re Harman Kardon speakers, and you’ve got the Harmon Kardon logo on the laptop. It also supports Dolby Atmos audio. You won’t be replacing your home theater system with this laptop, but you’ve got a good volume and clarity here. I took this laptop on a weekend trip and watched some videos in a hotel room with a noisy air conditioner running a few feet away, and it offered a great watching-videos-in-a-hotel-room experience — a common task for any business laptop!

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x’s webcam looks great for a laptop webcam: It’s a 1080p webcam that puts 720p webcams to shame. You’re probably only going to do better if you hunt down an external 4K webcam. You’ve also got a physical switch for turning off the laptop’s webcam on the right side of the machine, which is a common privacy feature on business laptops.

This machine has a trick up its sleeve with that magnetically attaching Magic Bay Light, too. It offers customizable lighting so you can record videos in a more natural light. I’ll be honest, though — it’s a little fatiguing staring at the laptop’s screen while the Magic Bay Light is shining brightly just above it, so you probably won’t want to use this all the time.

The four-microphone array also offers good, clear sound quality. Between the webcam, microphone, and speakers, this laptop will offer a great experience for online meetings and video calls without any extra accessories.

The ThinkBook 13x includes an IR camera that supports facial recognition with Windows Hello, and it speedily logged me into Windows with my face in a variety of lighting conditions.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Connectivity

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Connectivity options on the ThinkBook 13x are a little limited, which is a problem for a business laptop. You’re getting three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports: one on the left side of the laptop, and two on the right. One of them is used for charging the laptop.

Also, you’ve got a combo audio jack on the left side of the machine. That’s it: You won’t find any classic USB Type-A ports here, nor will you find an HDMI port or an SD card reader. For anything even a little off the beaten path, you’ll need a dongle.

Whether this is a big deal is up to you. If you don’t plug in devices much, a thin-and-light laptop with a total of three USB-C ports may be perfectly fine — along with a dongle for when you need it.

For wireless connectivity, the ThinkBook has Wi-Fi 6E support and Bluetooth 5.3 hardware built in. Wi-Fi 7 routers aren’t very widespread yet, so it’s no surprise to see a laptop like this one choose Wi-Fi 6E hardware. But, if future-proof Wi-Fi 7 is a priority to you, this is the wrong machine for you.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Performance

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x handled everyday desktop tasks — web browsers, office applications, and more — with snappy performance. That’s no surprise with the hardware in this laptop. Of course, we ran the Lenovo ThinkBook 13x through our standard benchmarks to measure its performance.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. This particular benchmark is a little more focused on the CPU, but it tries to measure general system performance. The ThinkBook 13x turned in a great result for an ultraportable laptop, with an overall score of 6,911 — just a little bit behind Lenovo’s much more expensive ThinkPad X1 Carbon and ahead of many other similar laptops in its class.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The ThinkBook 13x with its Core Ultra 5 CPU delivered a score of 5,117. That’s a stronger result than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and other systems with Core Ultra 7 CPUs.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Lenovo ThinkBook took 1,174 seconds — that’s about nineteen and a half minutes — to complete the encode process. That’s faster than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, once again. The ThinkBook seems to deliver better cooling than the somewhat smaller and lighter ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which is no surprise. Of course, we also see the larger HP Pavilion Plus deliver great performance here thanks to its cooling ability.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance.

The Intel Arc graphics in this machine are faster than previous-generation Intel Iris Xe graphics. But they delivered a higher performance score the Arc graphics in the ThinkPad X1 Carbon — again, this laptop seems to punch above the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s performance in a variety of ways. Cooling is likely a huge factor.

Overall, the ThinkBook 13x’s performance is excellent for a business laptop. Earlier, I wrote that I would like to see Lenovo offer this machine with a Core Ultra 7 CPU as an option. But, seeing how the Core Ultra 5 hardware here is beating so many other Core Ultra 7 systems, there may be no point in that!

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Battery life

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x includes a 74 Watt-hour battery, which is a good size for an ultraportable system. It also delivers excellent battery life in the real world.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in the Movies & TV app on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmark. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this.

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x lasted for 783 minutes on average. That’s over 13 hours of battery life during video playback — notably better than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

Of course, machine will definitely not get 13 hours of battery life under normal use when you’re using web browsers, office applications, and everything else you use. But it should reliably deliver all-workday battery life, which is a huge deal. That’s something the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and a lot of other business laptops can’t reliably deliver, which is a shame — but this machine can.

Lenovo ThinkBook 13x: Conclusion

The ThinkBook 13x is an excellent ultraportable business laptop: It’s a great price and offers high performance along with good keyboard, display, and excellent all-day battery life. The webcam, microphone, and speakers are great for business meetings.

While a machine like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon offers more premium touches with an OLED display and snappier keyboard, I’d say the ThinkBook 13x offers a better overall package with its all-day battery life and better performance benchmarks in a variety of scenarios — not to mention the much lower price.

There are still some catches: If you want more connectivity than three USB-C ports and an audio jack, you’ll need to look elsewhere. If you want more than 16GB of RAM on your laptop, you can’t get more without spending a lot of extra money to also upgrade the CPU.

Still, some people will prefer a lighter laptop with a more beautiful OLED display and snappier keyboard — even if it can’t necessarily deliver all-day battery life under many workloads. The ThinkPad Carbon X1 is still compelling.

But the ThinkBook 13x is a better ultraportable business laptop for most people.

Laptops

Intel’s Lunar Lake is what the first AI PCs should have been

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Intel is in a tough spot. Qualcomm is comparing its Snapdragon X Elite hardware to Intel’s current Meteor Lake chips, and lots of the numbers don’t look great for Intel. But Intel says it’s still competitive — and that its just-around-the-corner Lunar Lake platform will outshine Qualcomm’s Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite.

“Our mission with Lunar Lake is we wanted to build the most power-efficient x86 architecture there is — period. And we’re feeling pretty confident,” said Intel’s Dan Rogers in an interview with PCWorld’s Mark Hachman at Computex.

That’s great, but Lunar Lake isn’t out today. Intel spent many months talking up the current Meteor Lake platform, promising that it would be more power-efficient and enable local AI experiences with its neural processing unit (NPU.) Intel even transformed its processor naming scheme starting with Meteor Lake — these were the first “Core Ultra” chips.

Now, Qualcomm is about to release the first wave of Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops, ushering in Microsoft’s new Copilot+ PC era. But Intel wants you comparing it to the Lunar Lake hardware launching in the coming months — not the Meteor Lake hardware you can buy today.

Meteor Lake’s battery life gains weren’t the big leap we expected

I’ve been reviewing a lot of laptops here at PCWorld, and many of them have Meteor Lake CPUs in them. As Meteor Lake was designed more for power efficiency than the previous-generation Raptor Lake hardware, I would expect to see big battery life gains generation-over-generation.

That hasn’t always panned out. Many Meteor Lake laptops have similar levels of battery life to their Raptor Lake ancestors. Some even have worse battery life — the Meteor Lake-powered Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12) actually had lower battery life than the previous-generation Raptor Lake-powered model. Now sure, lots of that battery drain is likely because Lenovo included a beautiful OLED screen that likely sucks a lot of power. But shouldn’t Meteor Lake have big underlying efficiency gains that help counteract that?

I don’t mean to single out Lenovo here. It’s not a Lenovo problem. I’ve encountered a lot of Meteor Lake laptops that don’t offer the big battery life improvements I would have expected from reading about all the architectural changes Intel made in Meteor Lake.

If you listen to Intel’s employees talk about Lunar Lake, it sounds like this problem is resolved. There’s a lot of talk about how applications can now be constrained to run on those low-power E-cores, where on Meteor Lake they might have hit those higher-power P-cores, for example.

“We just don’t believe you need to compromise,” Intel’s Dan Rogers told us in a wide-ranging interview.

Qualcomm is comparing its Snapdragon X Elite hardware to Meteor Lake when it talks up how much better it is than a “Core Ultra” CPU. Intel is saying that Lunar Lake will be able to go toe to toe with Snapdragon X Elite — and surpass it. But if Meteor Lake had delivered the kind of battery life gains we expected, Qualcomm wouldn’t have such a compelling argument to make.

Qualcomm

Meteor Lake CPU performance actually declined a bit

One reality of Meteor Lake is that single-core CPU performance actually declined a bit, generation over generation. It’s a small difference, but the same laptop with a previous-generation Raptor Lake chip might perform a bit better than a current-generation Meteor Lake chip. That Meteor Lake chip might be more power efficient, but it’s an unfortunate truth.

That’s one reason why high-end gaming laptops are often going with those new Intel Core HX chips, which are in fact based on the Raptor Lake architecture. If you want top-end performance, Meteor Lake isn’t the right choice.

It seems like this may be resolved with Lunar Lake, too. Intel is insisting that Lunar Lake delivers both much higher performance and dramatically improved energy efficiency.

“Lunar Lake is kind of a rebasing of mobile architectures for us. We’re trying to communicate to you and the world that this is how we want to do it going forward,” said Intel’s Robert Hallock in an interview with PCWorld while discussing the architectural changes.

Qualcomm

A big part of Qualcomm’s push was that Snapdragon X Elite wouldn’t force you to compromise on performance vs. battery life, illustrated in the chart above. Qualcomm argues that have you can have it all — if you go with Arm-powered Qualcomm hardware, not x86-powered Intel hardware. That’s an easier argument to make when you look at Meteor Lake and you see Intel trading some of the last generation’s performance for improved energy efficiency. Compared to Lunar Lake, Qualcomm’s arguments may look a little less persuasive. Once again, Intel would prefer you compare Snapdragon X Elite to Lunar Lake — not Raptor Lake.

Microsoft is leaving Meteor Lake’s NPU behind

The neural processing unit (NPU) is probably the messiest part of the Meteor Lake story. Intel’s Meteor Lake platform heralded the start of the “AI PC” with its NPU that delivered 11.5 TOPS (trillion operations per second.)

Microsoft dealt Intel a big blow when it revealed that Windows 11’s new “Copilot+ PC” AI features will require at least 40 TOPS. That means they won’t run on Meteor Lake hardware. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite offers an NPU with 45 TOPS, which has let Qualcomm run a victory lap, touting how far ahead of Intel and AMD it is. Qualcomm can shout “Three times faster AI performance!” from the rooftops. And the company can point out that Intel’s current Meteor Lake hardware can’t even run these new AI features — Microsoft just doesn’t think they’re fast enough.

Qualcomm

That’s a bad look when AI PCs are being so hyped. A lot of us expected Microsoft would support Meteor Lake laptops when it added AI features to Windows, although no one ever promised us that. Now they’re left out in the cold.

This reminds me a bit of that old “Vista Capable” situation. In that case, Microsoft stuck a “Windows Vista Capable” sticker on Intel-powered PCs that didn’t support a variety of Windows Vista features. In this case, Intel Meteor Lake-powered systems were marketed as AI PCs, but they can’t run the big AI features Microsoft is adding to Windows. All I’m saying is that neither situation is ideal for PC buyers.

But Intel’s Lunar Lake has a neural processing unit that can generate 48 TOPS, moving Intel and its PC-making partners away from this inconvenient conversation. This not only catches Intel up — it surpasses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite AI performance.

Meteor Lake’s GPUs were great, but Lunar Lake looks much better

Intel’s Meteor Lake platform had some great integrated GPUs. Now, you’re still going to want a gaming PC with a dedicated Nvidia or AMD GPU for serious gaming performance — don’t get me wrong.

But Meteor Lake’s integrated Intel Arc graphics hardware was a big leap over the previous Raptor Lake generation, delivering up to twice the performance. We’ve seen it over and over in our benchmarks – it’s a huge leap.

Intel says Lunar Lake will be another huge leap thanks to its architectural changes. Intel is promising 50 percent faster graphics performance compared to Meteor Lake. Based on the benchmarks going around, it seems like Lunar Lake’s GPUs should beat what Qualcomm is offering with Snapdragon X Elite.

Unfortunately, Intel has lagged on integrated graphics performance for so long that, when news of Snapdragon X Elite-powered PCs running current-generation PC games with acceptable performance leaked, people were amazed — even if modern Intel laptops can do the same thing with their integrated Intel Arc graphics.

Intel really needs to get the word out on how good its integrated graphics are becoming.

Thunderbolt ports are becoming less confusing

People don’t really understand Intel’s Thunderbolt 4 standard. Thunderbolt 4 uses the USB-C connector shape — you can think of Thunderbolt 4 ports as upgraded USB-C ports that are guaranteed to support fast speeds and features.

But things have been messy. Many Meteor Lake laptops have both Thunderbolt 4 and traditional USB-C ports, mixing and matching them. Some Meteor Lake laptops don’t have Thunderbolt 4 ports at all. And laptops don’t always properly label which ports are Thunderbolt 4 ports and which aren’t, forcing you to dig into the spec sheet to see what’s going on.

Intel is fixing a lot of the confusion here. All Lunar Lake systems will have a minimum of two Thunderbolt 4 ports.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Intel also says that it is “strongly encouraging” manufacturers to place Thunderbolt ports all on one side of the laptop, stop mixing and matching Thunderbolt ports, and label them clearly. That’s all good to hear — but the words “strongly encouraging” suggests this is still optional for PC manufacturers, not required.

Thunderbolt is something Intel holds up as a unique advantage of its platform. If it was less confusing, people would be able to understand what they have available — and take better advantage of it.

Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 will be everywhere

Most Meteor Lake-powered computers have Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. That’s not the end of the world because Wi-Fi 7 routers aren’t widespread yet. And you can get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 on some Meteor Lake laptops — you’ll often just have to pay for an upgrade when configuring the laptop.

Against that backdrop, Qualcomm arrived and advertised that all its computers supported future-proof Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. It was another great comparison to the stodgy-seeming old Intel x86 PCs and their charging extra for Wi-Fi 7 as an optional upgrade.

Lunar Lake rights the ship once again, including Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 in a more fully integrated way. It sounds like we should be seeing it on all those upcoming Lunar Lake-powered laptops.

Intel wants everyone’s eyes on Lunar Lake, not Meteor Lake

Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry

Just a few months ago, it seemed like Meteor Lake with its new “Core Ultra” branding was the hot new architecture that was going to usher in a more power-efficient future alongside AI features in Windows.

But, time moves quickly, and that story is already in the rearview mirror. Now, Intel wants you to focus on Lunar Lake and how it will beat Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite hardware at its own game. Intel wants you to compare Snapdragon X Elite to Lunar Lake — not Meteor Lake. (But Qualcomm would love to compare Snapdragon to Meteor Lake, since that’s what’s available in laptops shipping right now. Expect to see a lot more of those comparisons from Qualcomm.)

The only problem is that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite-powered Copilot+ PCs will arrive in a few short weeks, on June 18. They’ll be sitting on the store shelves next to Intel Meteor Lake laptops.

Lunar Lake won’t arrive until sometime in the third quarter of 2024 — “in time for the holiday season.” Unfortunately for Intel, it’s giving Qualcomm a head start.

CPUs and Processors, Laptops

Intel and AMD need to deliver better laptop battery life – fast

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 10:30:00 +0000

At Computex 2024, everyone was talking about AI again. Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware and AMD’s Strix Point chips will deliver faster AI performance, with upgraded neural processing units (NPUs) that meet and exceed Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC requirements. That’s great.

But the big promise of Qualcomm’s soon-to-be-released line of Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops is the huge battery life numbers we’re being promised over Intel and AMD-powered laptops.

“We know we haven’t necessarily been the highest battery life design point,” said Intel’s Dan Rogers in an interview with PCWorld’s Mark Hachman at Computex.

Intel is talking like it’s solved the problem — but we haven’t heard any concrete numbers yet.

Now, the race is on. At Computex, Arm CEO Rene Haas told us Apple “woke up the industry on the art of the possible.” After all, Apple’s Macs once used Intel CPUs. The company dumped them for more power-efficient Arm chips. Now, Intel and AMD need to prove they can deliver long battery life in laptops, too — they don’t want a repeat of what happened to the Mac market happening in the light-and-portable Windows laptop market.

Why Snapdragon PCs are such a threat

Microsoft

With Snapdragon X, Qualcomm is hitting Intel and AMD where it hurts — in the battery life.

Microsoft, Qualcomm, Arm, and PC manufacturers are focusing on the AI performance when it comes to marketing those new Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ laptops. It is, as Arm’s CEO put it, a good upgrade story that gives these Arm-powered PC “a great kind of tailwind” — one that makes people want to buy a new machine and start taking a look at these new laptops.

But the real big story for PC users is the battery life. We haven’t gotten our hands on any of these Snapdragon X-powered PCs just yet, so we can’t evaluate the battery life claims — we look forward to doing that in the coming weeks. Still, Qualcomm is talking up some huge numbers. Manufacturers are promising up to 22 hours of battery life on some of these systems. Internal documents from Dell claim Snapdragon-powered laptops may nearly double the battery life offered by Intel-powered laptops.

AMD didn’t talk up battery life improvements

AMD

Unfortunately, AMD wasn’t big on talking battery life at Computex. AMD is focusing hard on powerful high-end desktop processors with its Ryzen 9000 processors. On the laptop side, AMD is all about performance, too: Both AI performance and all-around performance with its Ryzen AI 300 series processors.

This all sounds great — but one thing AMD isn’t talking about much is battery life. AMD has a good story if you’re looking for a powerful NPU for AI tasks, a high-end desktop processor, or performance boosts in a gaming laptop.

AMD isn’t pitching its new processors as enabling a huge upgrade in battery life, like Intel and Qualcomm are. Of course, we’ll have to see what happens when new laptops with these processors are released.

We interviewed Donny Woligroski, Senior Technical Marketing Manager at AMD, who had a little bit to say about battery life — saying that it was up to its hardware partners what gets built.

That’s fair, and maybe it’s a smart move for AMD to focus more on high-end performance and leave Intel and Qualcomm to fight over the battery life crown. But that does mean AMD might not be the company manufacturers turn to for thin-and-light laptops — not unless it can deliver the kind of power efficiency numbers Intel and Qualcomm are talking up.

Intel talked about power efficiency — but not battery life

Intel had a lot to say about Lunar Lake at Computex 2024. Intel’s new hardware platform prioritizes power efficiency and AI performance. Yes, these will truly be modern “AI PCs.”

Intel

Insert a record scratch here. Yes, we heard all these things about Intel’s Meteor Lake CPUs earlier this year. But, in many of our benchmarks, Meteor Lake hasn’t really delivered the big battery life gains we would hope for. And that Meteor Lake NPU — well, it’s not powerful enough to run those new Copilot+ PC features.

Still, Intel is making a variety of changes aimed at efficiency. For example, there’s now something called an “OS containment zone” that lets the operating system force a program to run only on low-power efficiency cores (E-cores) and never touch higher-power P-cores. Intel said this cuts the power usage of Microsoft Teams by 35 percent on a Lunar Lake chip versus a Meteor Lake chip.

“Our mission with Lunar Lake is we wanted to build the most power-efficient x86 architecture there is — period. And we’re feeling pretty confident,” said Intel’s Dan Rogers in our interview with him and Robert Hallock at Computex.

Intel had a lot to say about this sort of thing — how on-package memory will boost energy efficiency, the changes to Lunar’s Lake’s architecture, the elimination of hyperthreading, the changes to the Intel Thread Director, and how it will all come together for more performance and power efficiency.

For example, Intel said those low-power E-cores in Lunar Lake can be run in low-power mode using one-third the power of a Meteor Lake E-Core, or they can be run in a higher-power mode where they offer 1.7 times the performance.

That’s all great, but one thing was absent: Any talk of concrete battery life numbers, since Intel didn’t announce specific products (read: individual CPUs) and only detailed the underlying Lunar Lake architectural design. (This Intel fact sheet does say “up to 60% battery life in real life usage,” which is the closest to a concrete figure I can find.)

We don’t know what these laptops will deliver yet — though, to be fair, we don’t really know whether those Snapdragon X Elite chips will live up to the hype until we put them through our benchmarks, either.

Either way, Intel will need to deliver big battery life games to compete with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite. Intel wants people to compare Snapdragon X Elite to its upcoming Lunar Lake hardware, not its current Meteor Lake hardware — and Intel will need to deliver something impressive to avoid the perception that it’s far behind Arm-based Windows laptops on battery life.

Soon Intel and AMD will have to worry about more than Qualcomm

Everything we’ve heard suggests Qualcomm’s Snapdragon hardware will be a huge upgrade. But we really have to test these things for ourselves soon.

For example: Everyone’s impressed by Microsoft saying the 16-inch Surface Laptop with Snapdragon will get 22 hours of battery life. But Microsoft also says that the 15-inch Intel Meteor Lake-powered Surface Laptop 6 for Business gets 19 hours of battery life. So, going by the official numbers, there’s not much of a boost in battery life coming over Meteor Lake — not unless those manufacturer-provided battery life numbers were a little too optimistic. In my experience, those manufacturer-provided numbers are usually too optimistic — but that means Snapdragon may not deliver the 22 hours people are talking up, either.

Either way, if Qualcomm doesn’t deliver, another company might soon. It’s rumored that Microsoft and Qualcomm had a confidential agreement that Qualcomm is the only company allowed to create Arm hardware for Windows PCs. That would explain why we haven’t seen any other companies throw their hat into the ring — at least since the days of the Surface RT and Surface 2, which were powered by Nvidia hardware. It’s also rumored that that exclusivity agreement ends this year.

Arm’s CEO Rene Haas told us that all this talk about the exclusivity agreement — and its expiration — is true according to all the rumors he’s heard. This means we could see a flood of Arm chips for Windows laptops that Intel and AMD need to compete with.

To do it, both Intel and AMD will need to have a more competitive battery life story. After all, Qualcomm is gunning for half the PC market over the next five years.

CPUs and Processors, Laptops

Your ‘AI PC’ is already obsolete: The curse of early adoption strikes again

Wed, 29 May 2024 10:30:00 +0000

“The year of the AI PC” got off to a strange start.

All the “AI PCs” sold by manufacturers for the first half of the year are now effectively out of date. They won’t be able to run Windows Recall, the Windows Copilot Runtime, or all the other AI features Microsoft showed off for its new Copilot+ PCs.

Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC certification just taught us a valuable lesson in buying PC hardware: Never buy hardware based on the promise of what it might be able to do in the future. Only buy PC hardware because of what it can actually do today.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen PC hardware that promised a glorious future end up not panning out and needing a new generation before really managing to deliver. It’s happened many times before.

Further reading: What exactly is an AI PC?

Why the first “AI laptops” are already outdated

Intel, Microsoft, and PC makers have been promoting “AI laptops” since the start of 2024. PC makers have been talking a lot about how Intel’s Meteor Lake “Core Ultra” hardware has a built-in neural processing unit (NPU) that can accelerate AI tasks.

These systems certainly do have NPUs, and those NPUs aren’t totally worthless. You can use Windows Studio Effects for “AI-powered” webcam effects and you can hunt down a collection of third-party, mostly open-source utilities that take advantage of the NPU.

While that’s all true, it’s really just the beginning—or not.

If you thought these AI laptops were “future-proof” because of their neural processing units (NPUs), you were in for a rude awakening when Microsoft recently branded them “too slow” for new AI features.

Chris Hoffman

Intel’s NPUs deliver 10 TOPS (trillion operations per second) while AMD’s NPUs deliver up to 16 TOPS. Neither are fast enough to meet Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC baseline standard of at least 40 TOPS.

To be fair, no one promised that these first-generation AI PCs would be able to run future Windows AI features. But I feel like a lot of people in the PC industry wanted us to believe they would be ready for and capable of the AI features coming to Windows.

Or maybe we just wanted to believe.

I recommended not going out of your way to buy an AI PC near the start of 2024, yet even I’m surprised to see them left behind so quickly.

Again, here’s the lesson: You shouldn’t buy PC hardware based on its potential future. Wait until that future arrives, and then you can buy the right hardware to take advantage of it.

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs were early, too

When Nvidia announced their GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs back in 2018, they delivered transformative technology. These were the first graphics cards that could provide real-time ray tracing in games—something that was long considered the holy grail of gaming graphics.

They also included the first generation of Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology, which could run games at a lower resolution and then upscale them to a higher resolution, delivering similar graphical quality with much higher performance.

It all sounded great. And honestly, today, it is great! Ray tracing is actually here and functional. If you’re a gamer and you haven’t experienced ray tracing in the Metro series or Cyberpunk 2077, you really should give it a try—because it’s amazing. Nvidia’s DLSS technology is up to DLSS 3 now, and it works very well. Lots of games support these things.

CDProjekt Red

But things weren’t so great back in the first few years after the big launch. Gamers who bought those first-generation RTX 20-series GPUs based on the promise of transformative changes had to wait a while. Windows didn’t even support ray tracing when the GPUs were released, and game developers were slow to implement support for ray tracing and DLSS into their games.

By the time these technologies started becoming reasonably widespread, Nvidia was already launching GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs. Those 20-series GPUs weren’t immediately made obsolete, but if you wanted games that supported these technologies, you could’ve skipped those first-generation GPUs and gone straight to the faster 30-series hardware for an even better experience.

Our Nvidia RTX retrospective from a few years back gets into all the details, and I recommend you read it.

The curse of the early adopter repeats itself

This isn’t the first time “future-proof” hardware has proven anything but. Call it the curse of the early adopter. Don’t believe me? Let’s look back at just a few things that didn’t quite pan out in the PC space:

DirectX 12

DirectX 12 launched in 2015 and AMD talked up how its R7 and R9 300-series GPUs would be compatible, but many games were stuck with DirectX 11 for years.

There was no point in buying AMD’s GPUs to “future proof” your gaming PC. You were much better off waiting until DirectX 12 support became widespread in games and buying a current graphics card then.

3D monitors

Remember 3D monitors? Everyone was pushing those a few years ago. I hope you didn’t buy one based on the promise of an explosion in 3D content, because they didn’t take off and the media and software never really arrived for them.

Windows Mixed Reality

How about Windows Mixed Reality and Microsoft’s plan to run “universal” Windows apps on VR headsets? That didn’t pan out. In fact, Microsoft just removed Windows Mixed Reality from Windows.

Want Windows apps in VR headsets? This week, Microsoft started talking about how it’s now working with Meta on “Windows Volumetric Apps” for Meta Quest headsets.

You’ll want a Meta Quest headset for that sort of thing—not an out-of-date Windows Mixed Reality headset—but I wouldn’t buy a headset for this purpose until the software materializes!

Be an early adopter at your own risk

It happened before, it’ll happen again. Not everything pans out—and even when a technology does take off, the first-generation product may not be powerful enough to participate (which is what we’re now seeing with first-generation AI laptops and Microsoft Copilot+).

Now, if you’re all about bleeding-edge technology, I get it. So am I! I need to play with this stuff so I can share my hands-on experiences here on PCWorld and with the readers of my free Windows Intelligence newsletter. But you have to know what you’re getting into.

If you only care about the best and most reliable experiences, you’re better off avoiding the bleeding edge. Let other people get cut while the new products get polished.

Then, when it makes sense to upgrade, when there’s widespread support for the new hardware, you can swoop in and get an even more refined product—often for less money than you would’ve spent on that first-generation hardware. Score.

Desktop PCs, Laptops

Alienware x16 R2 review: High-end gaming at a premium price

Tue, 28 May 2024 10:30:00 +0000

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

High-end performance
Premium build quality
A great mechanical keyboard
Excellent speakers

Cons

Expensive
Low display brightness
No HDR for games
No Ethernet jack

Our Verdict

The Alienware x16 R2 is a premium 16-inch gaming laptop at a premium price. But its mechanical keyboard and the highest-end hardware will cost you extra.

The Alienware x16 R2 is a high-end 16-inch gaming laptop. An Alienware representative told me this machine is Alienware’s “most premium ever.” It comes at a premium price, too — this is the kind of machine you pick if you want a polished experience with an all-metal chassis, mechanical keyboard, and high-end speakers. It’s not a value-focused gaming laptop that will give you the most gaming performance possible at the lowest price point. But if a more premium design is what you’re looking for, this might be the gaming laptop for you.

Looking for other options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best gaming laptops.

Alienware x16 R2: Specs

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Alienware x16 R2 is a 16-inch gaming laptop with a lot of powerful hardware inside. Our review model had a high-end Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU, but the base model is also available with a Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 155H CPU. These are both Intel Meteor Lake CPUs, which means this laptop comes with the neural processing unit hardware that may become important to take advantage of AI features in Windows and other applications one day.

The model we reviewed had Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 graphics hardware, but Alienware also offers a higher-end model with GeForce RTX 4090 hardware — or you can step down and choose an RTX 4060 or RTX 4070.

Alienware included 32 GB of RAM our review model, but the base model has 16 GB. Additionally, we had a machine 1 TB of solid-state storage, but you can get versions of this laptop that come with a built-in RAID — up to two 4TB storage drives for a combined 8TB of solid-state storage.

The Alienware x16 R2 we got our hands on had a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX ultra low-profle switches, but the base model comes standard with an “Alienware X Series keyboard” — a more traditional laptop keyboard.

Finally, the laptop we reviewed included a 16-inch 2560×1600 resolution IPS display with a 240Hz refresh rate. Alienware told us you can also get this laptop with a 2220×1080 display with a blazing-fast 480Hz refresh rate.

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X, 7467MT/s
Graphics/GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080
Display: 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display with 240Hz refresh rate
Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Webcam: 1080p webcam with HDR
Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C with Power Delivery and DisplayPort), 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x Mini DisplayPort 1.4, 1x combo headset jack, 1x microSD card slot, 1x DC power in
Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Biometrics: IR camera for Windows Hello
Battery capacity: 90 Watt-hours
Dimensions: 14.36 x 11.41 x 0.73 inches
Weight: 5.86 pounds
MSRP: $3,199 as tested ($2099 base price)

Alienware x16 R2: Design and build quality

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Alienware x16 R2 is a well-designed gaming laptop. While it’s a 16-inch gaming laptop weighing in at nearly six pounds, the curved edges ensure it doesn’t look or feel too blocky. Alienware calls the color scheme “Lunar Silver.” The laptop’s lid is silver with a glowing alien head logo you can customize the color of, the inside of the laptop is black, and the back of the laptop — where all the ports are conveniently placed — is framed in white. The design is very Alienware, but it’s polished and not gaudy or over the top — as far as gaming laptops go.

This is a laptop with a full metal chassis. The lid and bottom of the laptop are made from anodized aluminum, there’s stainless steel around the keyboard, and the palm rest is made of a magnesium alloy. It feels nice to hold, and the solid metals give the laptop more of a premium feel than less-expensive gaming laptops that are often just made of plastic. (Plastic is fine and there’s nothing wrong with it, but there’s certainly something that feels high end about a nice metal laptop.)

There’s no weird flex to the laptop’s chassis, and the screen is very solid — it wobbles very little when you adjust its position.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The LEDs are well integrated: The keyboard offers per-key backlighting, and the entire touchpad’s surface has backlighting, too. (The touchpad backlighting turns on when you’re using it and then fades away a few seconds after you take your finger off of it, so it’s not always distracting.) The alien head logo on the lid is backlit, too.

The back of the laptop also has “stadium” backlighting, with a sleek-looking lightbar around the panel with the ports on the back of the laptop. All this “AlienFX” backlighting is customizable in the included Alienware Command Center software. But, out of the box, everything is a nice shade of blue — no over-the-top rainbow effect the first time you boot it up. (But you can configure it to look like that, if you like!)

It’s also worth noting that the touchpad and “stadium” backlighting on the back of the laptop have “100 micro LEDs,” according to Alienware. This means you can customize them with a variety of different colors and effects — you don’t have to choose just a single color.

Alienware x16 R2: Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Alienware x16 R2 we reviewed had an excellent keyboard. This is no surprise — the model we reviewed came with a mechanical keyboard with CherryMX ultra-low profile switches. Since this is a mechanical keyboard, the keys have a great tactile feel and “clickiness” to them — totally different from the standard keyboards you’ll experience on the average laptop.

Mechanical keyboards aren’t too common on gaming laptops. They’re usually found more on the external keyboards you’d use with desktop gaming PCs.

While I’m a big fan of mechanical keyboards — and so are many other gamers and PC users in general — they’re not a must-have feature. If you’ve never tried a mechanical keyboard, you should give one a try in person to decide how important this feature is to you, since it’s an additional upcharge and not included on the base model.

Mechanical keyboards tend to be on the loud side. While this is fairly quiet for a mechanical keyboard, it’s definitely a bit noisier than the average non-mechanical keyboard. If you’ll be gaming in a quiet room with someone sleeping next to you, the mechanical keyboard version of this laptop probably isn’t ideal. Otherwise, the sound is probably no big deal.

This laptop’s touchpad also feels excellent with a pleasantly smooth surface and good location. I’ve used gaming laptops with larger touchpads, but the touchpad’s size was never an issue — and the compact size ensures palm rejection works well, too. I wasn’t accidentally bumping it while typing.

Alienware x16 R2: Display and speakers

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Alienware x16 R2 has a 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display with a 240Hz refresh rate. The display looks good, but there are some things you need to be aware of.

First, this laptop’s display doesn’t have full support for HDR. Alienware says it supports Dolby Vision videos, so that will be nice when streaming Dolby Vision-enabled content. But this is a gaming laptop, and it’s notable that the display does not support HDR in video games.

Speaking of brightness, this display is on the dim side. It offers just 300 nits of brightness. Other high-end gaming laptops — the Asus ROG Strix Scar, for example — offer 500 nits of brightness.

The laptop looked good while gaming. It felt a lot brighter and looked better than the on-paper brightness numbers would lead me to expect. And that 240Hz refresh rate makes for a smooth experience. But the Alienware x16 R2 is definitely behind some of its competitors on brightness and HDR.

The x16 R2’s speakers sound excellent — perhaps the best speakers I’ve ever heard in a gaming laptop. You’re getting a decent amount of bass (for a laptop.) It’s a six-speaker system with two upward-firing tweeters, one on each side of the keyboard. If you plan to do a lot of gaming with the laptop’s speakers — rather than plugging in a pair of headphones or external speakers — you’re getting a worthwhile premium speaker setup with this laptop.

Alienware x16 R2: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Alienware x16 R2 comes with a 1080p webcam with HDR. The webcam looks good — much better than the cheap 720p webcams that are often found in lower-end laptops. Also, thanks to the neural processing units (NPUs) included with Intel’s Meteor Lake chips, you get access to Windows Studio Effects — a suite of AI effects like Eye Contact that makes it look like you’re always looking at your webcam when you aren’t, as well as blurring your background and framing the video around your face.

The dual-array microphones work well for built-in microphones. I still would want to use a dedicated microphone for gaming sessions — especially if you’re blasting sound from those speakers — but the microphone setup is perfectly serviceable for online meetings or for gaming in a pinch.

The Alienware also comes with an IR camera for Windows Hello. It reliably signed me into Windows with my face in a variety of different lighting conditions. It’s a great convenience feature to have, and I missed Windows Hello when I reviewed a gaming laptop without it recently.

Alienware x16 R2: Connectivity

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Alienware x16 R2 has a rich selection of ports and great connectivity options — with the notable exception of an Ethernet port for a wired network connection, which is a popular feature on desktop-replacement laptops like this one.

All the ports on this laptop are conveniently located on the back of the laptop, ensuring cables aren’t sticking out to the sides of your laptop and getting in the way. Of course, if you’re a fan of USB and headset jacks on the side of your laptop, this may not be the machine for you — but you could always plug in in a USB-C hub or dongle for easier access.

On the back of the laptop, you’ll find a combo headphone jack, a microSD card reader slot, an HDMI 2.1 port, a Mini DisplayPort, and a power jack. You’ll also find a total of four USB ports: This machine has two USB-C ports, one of which is a Thunderbolt 4 port and one of which is a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. There are also two USB-A ports, both of which support USB 3.2 Gen 1.

When it comes to wireless networking, this laptop is as futureproof as you can get thanks to its support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. You probably don’t have a Wi-Fi 7 router yet, so it’s not essential to have right now — but it means this laptop’s hardware will be ready when you upgrade your router. (Wi-Fi 7 connectivity isn’t available at launch and will be activated later in the year with a software update, according to Alienware.)

There’s one big omission: This laptop doesn’t offer a built-in Ethernet jack for wired network connections. Most gaming laptops of this size offer built-in Ethernet connectivity, but of course not everyone uses it. You’ll need a dongle if you want to connect it to your network via Ethernet — otherwise you’ll just be using Wi-Fi.

Alienware x16 R2: Performance

The Alienware x16 R2 delivered great performance in both gaming and day-to-day desktop use — that’s no surprise thanks to the high-end Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 graphics hardware, and 32GB of RAM.

I enjoyed playing Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion with maxxed-out settings. The Alienware x16 R2 generates a lot of heat, but it has the cooling system to deal with it. Alienware says it has “Alienware Cryo-tech cooling technology,” and whatever it’s called, it worked well. It definitely moves a lot of hot air away from the laptop. The keyboard and other places you’d touch on the laptop stay cool enough that it’s not a problem.

But benchmarks will tell the full story. As always, we ran the Alienware x16 R2 through our standard benchmarks to see how it really performs.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. While this is supposed to be an overall system performance benchmark, the CPU has a bigger impact than the GPU here. The 16-inch Alienware x16 R2 delivered a score of 7664.

That’s about what we’d expect to see — Alienware’s 18-inch m18 R2 with its Intel Core i9 185H CPU beats it. The Gigabyte Aorus 16X with its Intel Core i7-14650HX CPU also edges out the CPU in this Alienware laptop, but only by a little bit. Those Intel HX CPUs are delivering slightly better top-end performance than Intel’s latest Meteor Lake CPUs. Meteor Lake CPUs are more focused on power efficiency and AI performance, with their integrated neural processing unit.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling isn’t a huge factor. Since it’s multithreaded, CPUs with more cores deliver more performance and get higher scores.

The Alienware x16 R2 delivered a score of 7742. That’s a few notches below the Gigabyte Aorus 16X. Despite the Aorus having a “Core i7” CPU with a 7 in the model number rather than a 9, that particular CPU outperforms the Intel Core Ultra 9 in this laptop. If top-end CPU performance is what’s important to you, you’ll probably want a gaming laptop with an HX chip.

However, this isn’t representative of real-world gaming performance — these CPU differences don’t necessarily make that much of a difference in games, which are much more about GPU performance. A laptop’s cooling system is also an important factor, as we’ll see below.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

We also encode a video file with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period of time. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load.

The Alienware x16 R2 completed our standard encode process in 728 seconds — that’s just over 12 minutes. Interestingly enough, the Alienware x16 R2 outperformed the Gigabyte Aorus x16 R2 that beat it in the Cinebench benchmark. That suggests that the Alienware x16 R2 has a better cooling system that does a better job of keeping its CPU running cool under load, even if the CPU in the Aorus does have higher top-end performance.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run a graphical benchmark — the most important type of benchmark for gauging gaming performance. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance.

The results give us a look at how the different Nvidia GeForce RTX GPUs compare to each other. The Alienware x16 R2, with its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU, delivered an average score of 17089. That’s a great score — a no-expenses-spared RTX 4090 is only 22 percent faster here. The RTX 4080 is significantly faster than the RTX 4070 — and much faster than the RTX 4060 and RTX 4050.

Next, we run the benchmarks in some games. First, we use the built-in benchmark in Shadow of the Tomb Raider to test all the gaming laptops we review. It’s an older game, but it’s a great way to compare graphical performance across different PCs.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Alienware x16 R2 ran the benchmark with an average performance of 166 frames per second. Once again, the RTX 4080 in the model we reviewed was slower than the top-of-the-line RTX 4090, but significantly faster than the RTX 4070.

Finally, we run the built-in benchmark in Metro Exodus. This is a more demanding game, and we set the benchmark to 1080p resolution at the Extreme detail setting.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Alienware x16 R2 delivered an average FPS of 72. Again, that’s midway between the performance of an RTX 4070 and an RTX 4090.

Overall, the Alienware x16 R2 delivered excellent performance. But this laptop is very customizable, and graphics performance will come down to which GPU you choose to put in your Alienware x16 R2 at checkout.

You may be able to get more top-end CPU performance by opting for a different laptop with an HX CPU instead of a Meteor Lake Core Ultra CPU — but remember that cooling is important, too. A Core Ultra-based laptop like this one may still deliver better sustained CPU performance than an HX-based laptop that has to throttle down to stay cool, as we saw in the Handbrake encode benchmark.

Alienware x16 R2: Battery life

Gaming laptops aren’t known for their long battery life, but the Alienware x16 R2 has a built-in 90 Watt-hour battery. That should deliver decent life — it’s nearly the biggest battery you can get. The largest batteries in gaming laptops top out around 99 Watt-hours, as the U.S. Transportation Security Administration won’t let you take larger batteries on airplanes.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in the Movies & TV app on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmark. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient. Bear in mind that real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this as you use various applications.

The Alienware x16 R2 delivered surprisingly good battery life for a 16-inch gaming laptop, running for an average of 425 minutes — that’s just over seven hours. It lasted 15 minutes longer than the Gigabyte Aorus 16X, despite that laptop having a larger 99 Watt-hour battery. This may be down to the difference in CPUs — as mentioned, the Meteor Lake-based Core Ultra CPU in this laptop is more focused on power efficiency than those HX CPUs, which are more focused on top-end performance.

It’s a great result for a gaming laptop. You aren’t going to be using this laptop away from an outlet for an entire eight-hour workday, but you have plenty of battery life to go for hours away from an outlet when you need it. (Bear in mind that all gaming laptops run games slower when they aren’t plugged in, so you’ll want to plug into an outlet to play games, anyway.)

Alienware x16 R2: Conclusion

The Alienware x16 R2 is a polished 16-inch gaming laptop with a good-lucking design, a nice all-metal chassis with great build quality, lots of customizable LEDs, and a collection of ports smartly placed on the back of the laptop. The mechanical keyboard on our review model felt great, too. It’s also very customizable with a wide range of different CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage options, and the configuration of our review model delivered great performance with excellent cooling.

There are a few weak points: You’ll find brighter displays elsewhere, and the lack of HDR support within games does feel like a shame at this high price point. Neither are deal-breakers, but they’d be nice to have upgrades on a premium gaming laptop. Additionally, if you want to use an Ethernet cable with your laptop, you won’t find that here — I know that will be a deal-breaker for some people.

Our review model was $3,199, so we’re definitely not in budget gaming laptop territory here. But the machine we reviewed was a high-end gaming laptop with an RTX 4080, mechanical keyboard, all-metal chassis, impressive speakers, and unusually long battery life for a gaming laptop. You’re paying extra for these things.

The base model starts at $2,099, which is a much lower cost than the model we reviewed— but you’re getting a Core Ultra 7 CPU, RTX 4060, 16GB of RAM, and no mechanical keyboard. These prices do feel a little high, and I expect you can save hundreds of dollars by choosing a less expensive gaming laptop with similar hardware — perhaps even an Alienware m16 R2. Those less-expensive laptops will probably be made of plastic instead of metal, though — and I don’t think their speakers will sound anywhere near as nice either. (Still, they may have brighter displays!)

Overall, the Alienware x16 R2 is a premium product at a premium price point, and that’s mostly what you’re getting — but it would be nice if that display had premium-level brightness and HDR support, too.

Laptops

Do you really need a password manager as part of your antivirus software?

Thu, 23 May 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Today’s antivirus programs are full security suites packed with extra features. Many of the best antivirus programs often include a built-in password manager. That makes sense, as a password manager is an essential online security tool.

You don’t need a password manager built into your antivirus suite — especially if you already have a password manager you prefer. But it can be convenient — especially for people who may not already use a password manager.

Do you need a password manager?

A password manager is an essential tool you should be using to keep your accounts safe. It’s important to use strong, unique passwords everywhere. This will help protect your accounts when services you use are breached and your passwords leak — something that unfortunately happens often. If you reuse the same password everywhere, your accounts are vulnerable.

A password manager can generate strong, unique passwords for you and automatically fill them in while you browse. It’s more secure and more convenient. If you don’t already use one, you absolutely should.

What’s the advantage of a bundled password manager?

Since modern antivirus tools are full-featured security suites that increasingly aim to bundle everything you need for online security, it’s no surprise that they include password managers. For example, Norton 360 Deluxe includes the Norton Password Manager.

For people who don’t use a password manager already, having their antivirus program nudge them towards a password manager is a big improvement. Everything is in one place and on one convenient security dashboard. You don’t have to hunt down a bunch of separate security tools.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

In theory, a password manager bundled with your antivirus could also save you money. You wouldn’t have to pay separate subscription fees for a password manager and an antivirus tool.

However, the bundled Norton Password Manager is also available for free to everyone. You can even use it if you don’t pay for Norton 360. We’re also big fans of Bitwarden, which offers a capable free plan. And you can also use the password manager built into Google Chrome or your web browser of choice. You can get a good password manager without spending any money at all.

What’s the downside of a bundled password manager?

If you start using a password manager because it’s bundled with your antivirus suite, that’s a win for your online security. However, a password manager built into your antivirus often isn’t the best solution.

Bundled antivirus password managers like Norton Password Manager are on the simple side. They’ll get the job done, but our favorite password managers have extra features and more polished interfaces. For example, password managers like 1Password, Bitwarden, and Dashlane now support passkeys for signing into your online accounts. Norton hasn’t added support for this yet.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

You’ll have to install a browser extension to use your antivirus’s password manager, so there’s about as much setup as there is with any other password manager. You could also just install another password manager’s browser extension or even use the built-in password manager in your browser. The antivirus suite nudges you towards its password manager on its convenient dashboard, but otherwise you’re not getting a lot of extra integration.

Any good password manager is better than no password manager

You don’t need a password manager as part of your antivirus software. But security experts do think you need a password manager.

It will be convenient for many people — especially less technically inclined PC users — to have “everything in one place” and use something like Norton Password Manager with Norton 360 antivirus. If they weren’t going to use a password manager but their antivirus suite pushed them to do so, that’s a win.

On the other hand, you’ll probably have a better, more polished experience with a dedicated password manager like one of our favorite password managers. And if you’re just looking for something that’s easy and integrated with the applications you use, you can try your web browser’s built-in password manager.

There are lots of excellent free password managers you can choose from, too. We called Norton’s password manager “simple but good” in our review of Norton 360 Deluxe, the best overall security suite we’ve reviewed. It’s a fine option — but Norton offers its password manager free to everyone. You can use Norton Password Manager even if you don’t pay for a Norton subscription.

Still, it’s hard to go wrong with any solid password manager. The password managers bundled with the best antivirus programs are certainly fine. If you’re happy with them, that’s great. But you don’t need to focus on the password manager when you’re picking the best antivirus program for your needs.

Antivirus, Password Managers

Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC push leaves existing ‘AI PCs’ behind

Thu, 23 May 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Microsoft just announced a new wave of Copilot+ PCs. These PCs will have a bundle of extra AI features that use the neural processing unit (NPU) hardware built into the PC’s hardware for superpowered AI experiences, like Recall, powered by the PC’s local hardware — they’ll even work offline.

There’s just one problem: If you bought one of those “AI laptops” PC manufacturers have been selling for the first half of 2024 — the ones with neural processing units (NPUs) — you may be surprised to learn no existing “AI laptops” will be getting these new features.

That’s right, existing AI PCs with Intel, AMD, and Nvidia hardware aren’t getting Windows 11’s big AI features. Those neural processing units just don’t meet Microsoft’s hardware requirements.

Why ‘AI PCs’ aren’t ‘Copilot+ PCs’

PC manufacturers have been selling “AI PCs” for months. There are a variety of different “AI PCs” you can buy right now:

Laptops with Intel’s Meteor Lake-powered “Core Ultra” CPUs are being proudly branded “AI PCs.” Intel’s Meteor Lake platform includes an NPU. Many of these laptops have Microsoft’s Copilot keyboard key, too.
AMD has its own “Ryzen AI” hardware in a variety of PCs, too.
Gaming laptop manufacturers are advertising so-called “AI gaming laptops” with powerful Nvidia GPUs — just the standard Nvidia graphics hardware you’d find in a gaming laptop.

Microsoft seems to be pivoting away from the current “AI PC” branding. Instead, the company is pushing the “Copilot+ PC” certification. Only PCs with this certification will get the new AI features Microsoft is showing off for Windows 11. To be branded a Copilot+ PC, a PC will need to meet these minimum requirements:

A neural process unit (NPU) with at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS) to run the AI models.
16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage to make room for the AI models.

Microsoft

That NPU requirement is the big deal. Intel’s Meteor Lake NPUs only go up to 10 TOPS, while the NPUs in AMD’s Ryzen platform deliver up to 16 TOPS.

The initial wave of Copilot+ PCs launching in June 2024 will be powered by Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors. These systems have NPUs that can deliver 45 TOPS.

Neither Intel nor AMD has an NPU that meets Microsoft’s Copilot+ requirement today. And neither company will have an NPU that meets these requirements at launch in June, either — both companies are getting left in the dust by Qualcomm, although they have announced plans to deliver faster NPUs that meet the requirements in the future.

Why ‘AI gaming laptops’ aren’t getting AI features, either

What about those “AI gaming laptops” with Nvidia hardware? Well, a powerful GPU is a speedy way to run AI models. But it’s not very power efficient: It would be a big hit to battery life, and it would get in the way of gaming and using your GPU for anything else. That’s why the new Windows AI features — many of which run continuously in the background — can only use an NPU.

In the future, an AI gaming laptop with a future NPU from Intel or AMD will likely be able to run these AI tools and meet the “Copilot+ PC” requirements. But that will require the right hardware from Intel or AMD — it doesn’t matter how fast the Nvidia graphics hardware is. The built-in Windows features need an NPU and can’t use your GPU.

It’s no surprise that Nvidia is pushing “Premium AI PCs” and bragging about how its graphics cards can handle upwards of 100 TOPS. But that won’t help with the AI features built into Windows.

Chris Hoffman / Foundry

When will Intel and AMD deliver faster NPUs?

Intel and AMD aren’t shipping fast-enough NPUs yet, but these companies say they will soon. Intel’s upcoming Lunar Lake hardware and AMD’s Strix hardware will boost NPU performance, bringing future Intel- and AMD-powered laptops up to the minimum requirement. Then, those traditional x86 PCs will be able to run all those new AI features in the latest version of Windows 11.

That’s a big deal, and it will open a lot of options for people. It also means all these impressive-sounding local AI features will one day run on future powerful gaming laptops — using the Intel or AMD NPU, naturally, even if the system has Nvidia graphics hardware.

Intel says its Lunar Lake processors will arrive starting in the third-quarter of 2024, so laptops should be available for the holiday season. Expect to see AMD launch its own Strix hardware sometime in 2024, too — AMD hasn’t announced a specific timeline yet.

Here’s what’s happening to existing ‘AI PCs’

The AI future looks bright for Intel and AMD laptops. But what about the present?

You may have already purchased an “AI PC” this year, or you may encounter “AI PCs” for sale later in the year — after all, laptops don’t vanish from the virtual shelves immediately. They’ll end up on sale, often for a great price, with people buying them for years to come.

Ultimately, these laptops aren’t losing anything. They still have NPUs — technically, even if Microsoft thinks they’re too slow to use for much. They still get access to tricks like Windows Studio Effects for webcam effects like background removal and eye contact. Copilot will continue working normally like it will on any other non-AI PC. They can do anything they could do with that NPU at launch — which isn’t much.

Microsoft

But first-generation AI laptops weren’t “future proof” with their slow NPUs. They’re not getting the new AI features Microsoft is so proud of. That’s a shame, but it’s a reminder of something important when buying PCs or any other type of technology: Buy hardware based on what it can do today, not what it might be able to do in the future.

Desktop PCs, Laptops

Do you really need a VPN as part of your antivirus software?

Tue, 21 May 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Modern antivirus programs aren’t just antivirus tools. They’re often big security suites, bundling additional security features along with malware protection. Many of the best antivirus suites we recommend include a built-in virtual private network (VPN) service.

You don’t need a built-in VPN in your security suite of choice — especially if you already have a VPN you prefer — but it can be very convenient.

Do you need a VPN at all?

Clearly, you can use the internet without a VPN. It’s not a mandatory online tool.

That said, VPNs have a lot of advantages. They can provide extra protection when you use public Wi-Fi hotspots — public Wi-Fi isn’t as dangerous as it used to be, but there are still some risks. They create a secure tunnel that shields your online activity from your internet service provider — although you’re trusting your VPN provider of choice with that data instead. They let you access geographically restricted websites, which can make them extra useful for streaming services. People who use BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer file sharing tools often depend on VPNs to shield their file-sharing activity.

And let’s be honest: VPNs are also becoming more common now that an increasing number of U.S. states are cracking down on adult websites, too.

What’s the advantage of a VPN built into antivirus software?

The advantage of a VPN built into antivirus software is convenience. You’re getting a convenient tool built into the security suite you already use. You don’t have to install an extra program and juggle an extra system tray icon on your PC.

You don’t have to pay for an extra subscription, either. Rather than subscribing to a VPN for an extra yearly fee, you’ll get a VPN bundled with the security suite you subscribe to. You won’t have to deal with multiple yearly subscriptions. (A built-in VPN is a feature often found in premium antivirus programs, not free antivirus tools.)

A security suite’s built-in VPN tool may include features that block known malicious websites and other dangerous online junk while you’re connected to the VPN. However, most dedicated VPN services offer similar dangerous-site-blocking options.

If you have already hunted down the best VPN for your needs and you have strong feelings about it, a VPN built into your antivirus program probably isn’t the right option for you. You can use whatever VPN you like with whatever antivirus tool you like.

On the other hand, a bundled VPN tool in an antivirus program is perfect if you don’t have strong feelings about a VPN and you just want something convenient. For example, Norton 360 Deluxe has a built-in VPN that’s configured to automatically start whenever you connect to public Wi-Fi. It’s the perfect set-it-and-forget-it extra security feature for people who don’t want to juggle a lot of programs. Of course, you can also open Norton and connect to the VPN whenever you want — you still have that control.

What’s the downside of a VPN built into antivirus software?

VPN tools built into antivirus programs are often less feature packed. Dedicated VPNs may offer more knobs and switches. They may provide a larger number of VPN servers you can connect to in a wider variety of geographical location. Those servers may be faster, and they may deliver a better streaming experience. A dedicated VPN service may not care if you use BitTorrent or other peer-to-peer file-sharing tools to download and upload files, but the VPN built into an antivirus may not approve of that.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

A dedicated VPN may also offer extra anonymity when it comes to payments, too — for example, Mullvad offers an anonymized payment system where you can actually mail the company cold hard cash rather than having your name and credit card number associated with your account.

Additionally, dedicated VPNs may be more up-front about a no-logging policy and may bring in third-party auditors to provide extra assurances of privacy, while built-in VPNs in antivirus suites may not.

But, for the average person who just wants some extra protection while connecting to public Wi-Fi networks without an extra subscription, program, and account to juggle, an antivirus suite’s built-in VPN may be perfect.

A convenient feature, but not an essential

You don’t need a VPN as part of your antivirus software. But it can be nice to have.

If you already have a VPN you love and have strong feelings about, you can keep using it with whatever antivirus program you like.

On the other hand, if you want convenient access to a VPN without any extra subscriptions, applications, and accounts to juggle, a VPN built into an antivirus tool might be perfect.

It’s all about convenience. You don’t have to pay for any of this if you don’t want to — you can assemble your own online security suite out of free tools. You can combine a capable free antivirus and a capable free VPN — but bear in mind that you need to ensure you choose a trustworthy free VPN, as there are a lot of questionable free VPNs out there. And bear in mind that a free VPN usually won’t offer the fastest speeds — and it may have limits, like only letting you transfer a certain amount of data each month before you need to pay up.

Be sure to check out PCWorld’s guides to the best antivirus software and the best VPN services to find the right options for you.

Antivirus, VPN

Gigabyte Aorus 16X review: Another powerful gaming laptop

Wed, 15 May 2024 10:30:00 +0000

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Performance matches its price
Beautiful, bright display
Decent battery life for a gaming laptop

Cons

Power connector doesn’t fully insert into the laptop (at least on initial models)

Our Verdict

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X is a solid gaming laptop that offers competitive performance for its price range, although the power adapter is lacking some polish. If you can find it at a price that beats the competition, it’s a fine choice.

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X is a powerful, sleek 16-inch gaming laptop. Our souped-up review model came outfitted with great hardware, a high refresh rate display, and whatnot. So, why didn’t I give it a higher score? Well, this kind of package is what we expect to see on a laptop that costs around $2,000. It’s a fine value, but there’s nothing about it that stands out as an unusual value.

Gigabyte has gone out of its way to provide a “premium” laptop experience and has overall done a decent job, but there’s one thorn in my side and that’s the power connector. It doesn’t quite fit into the laptop, which doesn’t match the kind of polish I’ve come to expect from a high-end machine. Although Gigabyte says it’s fixing this problem in manufacturing, it soured my experience a bit.

I also reviewed the less expensive Gigabyte G6X laptop at the same time as this one, so you’ll see me compare the two machines throughout this review.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best gaming laptops available right now.

Gigabyte Aorus 16X: Specs

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X packs a lot of powerful hardware into a 16-inch gaming laptop chassis. The Gigabyte Aorus we reviewed came with an Intel Core i7-14650HX CPU. This is an Intel Core HX chip, a refresh of last year’s Raptor Lake hardware. These seem to perform a little better than Intel’s current Core Ultra chips, which are based on the Meteor Lake architecture. However, these Raptor Lake chips lack the neural processing unit (NPU) that will supposedly accelerate future Windows AI features, according to rumors.

The Aorus 16X we reviewed was an Aorus 16X ASG model, which has Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics along with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB solid-state drive. Gigabyte also has other variants that come with Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics. Additionally, Gigabyte says it will offer versions of this laptop with a faster Intel Core i9 CPU. And, as usual, RAM and storage may also vary.

We should also address the AI elephant in the room: Gigabyte is calling this an “AI gaming laptop.” For the most part, this is just as much an AI laptop as any other laptop with a powerful Nvidia RTX GPU. Gigabyte is right about its AI performance — as we’ve pointed out, a fast GPU will give you the best AI performance. However, since this system doesn’t have an NPU, it’s unclear if it will support the AI features Microsoft adds to Windows in the future. Microsoft hasn’t said yet.

Gigabyte shows off the system’s AI performance by bundling a convenient little tool that will download and set up Stable Diffusion on your PC, giving you a graphical interface for AI generation of images on your own PC. That’s honestly super cool and one of the most useful “AI laptop” features I’ve seen yet. The other options in Gigabyte’s “AI Nexus” feel a little gimmicky: Using “AI” to adjust system power consumption and fan speed, for example. I don’t imagine those will make a huge difference in system performance compared to other brands without these features.

CPU: Intel Core i7-14650HX
Memory: 32GB DDR5-5600 RAM
Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 4070
Display: 2560×1600 16:10 IPS display with 165 Hz refresh rate and HDR
Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Webcam: 1080p webcam
Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 / USB Type-C (USB4, DisplayPort 1.4, and Power Delivery 3.0), 1x USB Type C (USB3.2 Gen2 and DisplayPort 1.4), 2x USB Type-A (USB 3.2 Gen2), 1x MicroSD card reader, 1x combo audio jack, 1x HDMi 2.1, 1x RJ-45, 1x DC power in
Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, gigabit Ethernet
Biometrics: IR camera for Windows Hello
Battery capacity: 99 Watt-hours
Dimensions: 14.01 x 10 x 1.06 inches
Weight: 5.07 pounds
MSRP: $1,949 as tested

Gigabyte Aorus 16X: Design and build quality

Chris Hoffman/IDG

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X has a “sports car-inspired design,” according to Gigabyte. Compared to less expensive gaming laptops like the Gigabyte G6X, there are more sleek curves and visual touches, with a more polished design overall. The lid on top of the laptop is made of aluminum, while the rest of the chassis is made of plastic.

The back of the laptop has a light bar which fits the whole sports car theme. The light bar cycles through different colors, and you can see its light through the hinge area between the laptop’s display and its keyboard. The light bar has the “Aorus Beacon” — a small projector that projects the word “Aorus” onto the surface right behind the laptop.

Complete with a “Team Up Fight On” graphic below the keyboard that continues onto the touchpad, it’s a more traditionally “gamer” design than other modern gaming laptops, like the Alienware m16 R2, which often try to de-emphasize the gamer styling. There’s nothing wrong with that, and many gamers will prefer a design like this.

The design feels solid. There’s no creaky plastic, the hinge feels nice in action, and the lid doesn’t have too much flex. At just over five pounds, it’s a reasonably good weight for a gaming laptop this size and with this kind of hardware.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

One thing here feels strange: The power connector. First, the power connector is on the left side of the laptop — not the back, where it’s located on many gaming laptops. Second, the bundled power adapter has a cable that sticks straight out — there’s no L-shaped connector that directs the cable to the back of your laptop. Because of this, I expect this laptop will not feel great to use for people who use their mice left-handed. Even if you aren’t left-handed, this is an inconvenient configuration for the power connection that will use a good chunk of space on the desk to the left of your laptop.

Additionally, the laptop’s power connector doesn’t fully insert into the jack. There’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily — the laptop works fine, and nothing seems like it’s going to break — but this laptop is around the “upper midrange” price bracket. At this almost-$2,000 price point, this sort of fit-and-finish issue cheapens the overall feel.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

This issue was not exclusive to my review model — I found reviews on Amazon and YouTube that pointed out the same issue. While I don’t think it’s a huge problem deserving of a one-star review, like that particular Amazon reviewer, it’s easy to see how someone spending nearly $2,000 on a laptop could be disappointed by this sort of thing.

Gigabyte provided us with a statement saying the power adapter sticking out from the charging port is a known issue and that there does not appear to be any problem with it — something I completely believe, as the laptop worked perfectly well in my testing. Still, Gigabyte says this is not the intended experience and the issue will be fixed in July 2024, after which Gigabyte says it will prevent a similar issue from happening again.

Gigabyte Aorus 16X: Keyboard and trackpad

Chris Hoffman/IDG

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X has a classic “chiclet” keyboard that feels great to type on. Its keys feel snappier and less “mushy” than the keyboard on the more bargain-priced Gigabyte G6X. That’s no surprise — in the specs, Gigabyte says that the Aorus 16X’s keyboard has 1.7mm of key travel compared to the G6X’s 1.5mm of key travel. The keyboard feels good to type on. It’s definitely a more premium keyboard on a more premium laptop.

The Aorus 16X’s keyboard has three zones of LED lighting. It’s nice and colorful, and the WASD keys — along with Q, E, and R — are transparent to really stand out and highlight the LED lighting.

This is a traditional laptop keyboard layout without a big number pad at the right side, like on the less expensive G6X. However, there are full size arrow keys, which are nice to see.

The trackpad is large and responsive, with a satisfying click — a click that feels snappier than the trackpad included on the less-expensive Gigabyte G6X. That’s a pattern I saw repeated throughout the experience, with most things about the Gigabyte Aorus 16X just being somewhat nicer.

Gigabyte Aorus 16X: Display and speakers

Chris Hoffman/IDG

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X has a beautiful matte display. The nicer display is a big reason why it’s worth spending a bit extra for a premium gaming laptop like this one, if you’re willing to spend the money on it.

The Aorus 16X has a 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display with a 165 Hz refresh rate. It supports HDR, including Dolby Vision, and it’s plenty bright. Gigabyte says it has up to 400 nits of brightness, and Windows says it has more like 500 nits of peak brightness with HDR enabled. The colors, contrast, and responsiveness are great, and it was a joy to play games on.

It’s a big upgrade from the Gigabyte G6X’s display, which is lower resolution at 1920×1200, dimmer at 300 nits of brightness, and doesn’t support HDR. It’s not just about that other Gigabyte laptop, though: Less-expensive gaming laptops frequently cut corners on the display to get the price down and include fast CPUs and GPUs on the spec sheet.

The Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers also sound fine for laptop speakers. They have decent volume, and they sound better than the speakers on the less-expensive Gigabyte G6X — although they are still built-in laptop speakers.

Gigabyte Aorus 16X: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The 1080p webcam here is a very nice webcam! It’s also a very standard 1080p webcam — for a 1080p webcam. It’s a big upgrade over the 720p webcams commonly found on cheaper laptops like the Gigabyte G6X. You won’t feel compelled to plug in an external webcam if you want to have video meetings on this laptop.

The microphone produces clearer sound than the built-in microphone on the Gigabyte G6X, with no background noise in a quiet room. It was surprisingly quiet — a problem I wasn’t alone in noticing. I turned the microphone’s volume up from about 50 percent, its default volume level, to 100 percent, and the volume level was fine. I would still want to plug in a dedicated mic or headset for voice chat while gaming, but that’s always the case.

This laptop has an IR camera for Windows Hello, so you can sign into your PC with your face. The IR camera worked well in a variety of lighting conditions. Less-expensive gaming laptops often omit this feature to save money, but it’s nice to have — it’s great to just open your laptop or sit down in front of it and have Windows automatically sign you in with no typing necessary.

Gigabyte Aorus 16X: Connectivity

Chris Hoffman/IDG

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X provides a wide selection of ports, like most 16-inch gaming laptops do.

On the left side, you’ve got DC power in for the charger, an RJ-45 (Ethernet) jack, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB Type-A port (USB 3.2 Gen2), and a Thunderbolt 4 / USB Type-C port (with USB4, DisplayPort 1.4, and USB Power Delivery 3.0.)

On the right side, you’ve got a USB Type-A port (USB 3.2 Gen2), a USB Type-C port (USB 3.2 Gen2 and DisplayPort 1.4), a microSD card reader, and a combo audio jack.

On the back of the laptop, there are no ports! Just fan exhaust vents and a light bar along with that cool little projector that projects the word “Aorus” onto the surface behind the laptop. (It’s more visible in the dark, but I could still see it in the daylight).

The Aorus 16X offers bleeding edge wireless hardware with support for both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. You probably don’t have a Wi-Fi 7 router yet, but it’s great to see this laptop is futureproof when you’re spending this kind of money. Additionally, it offers gigabit Ethernet if you want to go wired.

Gigabyte Aorus 16X: Performance

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X delivered great performance in day-to-day computing use and gaming, which is no surprise thanks to all the powerful hardware packed into this laptop. Of course, we ran the Aorus 16X through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs.

We benchmarked the laptop in its default mode out of the box, with the “AI Power Gear” setting set to “Performance” in the Gigabyte Control Center. This uses the laptop’s Mux switch to boost performance by letting the laptop bypass Intel GPU, but you’ll have to reboot if you want to use the laptop’s integrated GPU to save battery power away from an outlet.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. This is an overall system benchmark, but it favors the CPU.

The Raptor Lake-based Intel Core i7-14650HX CPU in this laptop delivered great performance with a score of 7,774, only beat by the higher-end Core i9 CPU in the MSI Raider GE78.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Once again, the Core i7 HX CPU delivered great performance with a core of 8,428 in the multi-threaded benchmark. That’s a 15 percent higher score than Gigabyte’s less-expensive G6X laptop and its Intel Core i7-13650HX, which offers less top-end CPU performance.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

The Aorus 16X delivered a great result, completing the encode in 762 seconds — just under 13 minutes. Once again, that’s only beat by the Core i9-powered laptop we’re comparing it to. It’s noticeably faster than the Gigabyte G6X, which has a CPU with less top-end performance. The Aorus 16X’s cooling did a great job here.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This is gaming laptop, so gaming performance is going to be the result that matters most. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance.

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X delivered a score of 12,723. It’s normally all about GPU models here. And, as expected, we see the Aorus 16X and its Nvidia RTX 4070 come out ahead of RTX 4050- and 4060-powered laptops and behind an RTX 4090-powered laptop. But the Aorus beat out the Alienware m16 R2 and its RTX 4070 here, too.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Now, we look at some games. We run the benchmark in Shadow of the Tomb Raider to test all the gaming laptops we review. This is an older game, but it’s a great way to compare graphical performance across different PCs.

The Aorus 16X delivered an average FPS of 137 frames per second, about the same as the Gigabyte G6X. The laptops with RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 hardware we’re comparing the Aorus to tend to be in the same ballpark here.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Last, we run the benchmark in Metro Exodus, a more demanding game. We set the benchmark to 1080p resolution at the Extreme detail setting. The Gigabyte Aorus 16X delivered 50 frames per second in this benchmark, 20 percent faster than the Gigabyte G6X’s result of 40 frames per second.

Once again, the story here is all about the different GPUs. This laptop’s RTX 4070 is faster than RTX 4060 and RTX 4050 hardware — but nowhere near as fast as a much more expensive RTX 4090.

Overall, the Gigabyte Aorus 16X delivered great performance with its Intel Core i7-14650HX CPU and Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU. The laptop’s cooling worked well, too: Gigabyte says it has “Windforce Infinity Cooling Technology,” which delivered good cooling performance. When gaming, the laptop’s keyboard stayed nice and cool and never became annoyingly hot.

Gigabyte Aorus 16X: Battery life

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X delivered good battery life for a gaming laptop of its size. That’s likely thanks to its massive 99 Watt-hour battery — this is the largest battery the U.S. Transportation Security Administration will let you take on an airplane!

Chris Hoffman/IDG

(We switched the laptop to Balanced mode in the Gigabyte Control Center for this battery life test.)

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X lasted for 410 minutes — nearly seven hours — before shutting down. This is a best case scenario, and you won’t get this long while using the laptop normally. You’ll want to plug the laptop in to get a full workday’s worth of use from it. But this is quite a good result for a gaming laptop. It’s nearly two hours longer than the less-expensive Gigabyte G6X laptop, with its 73 Watt-hour battery.

Gigabyte Aorus 16X: Conclusion

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X offers solid hardware at a reasonable price. Gigabyte is going for a more “premium” laptop experience here, so it’s not a bargain that offers unusual value for at its retail price like the less-expensive Gigabyte G6X. The Aorus 16X is an RTX 4070-powered gaming laptop that is similarly priced to many other laptops in its price range.

Overall, this is a good laptop. It performs well, the display is beautiful, and everything about it feels very nice to use. But that’s true about a lot of gaming laptops around the $2,000 mark. Consider the $1,849 Alienware m16 R2, for example: It also has an RTX 4070 GPU. The display is dimmer, but it offers a higher 240Hz refresh rate. It has less RAM and doesn’t have Wi-Fi 7, but its power connector is in a more convenient place and it’s $100 cheaper.

I keep coming back to that power connector because this laptop costs nearly $2,000. For a premium laptop that’s all about fit and finish, having a power connector that doesn’t insert fully just feels cheap. There’s nothing wrong with it and the laptop works fine, but that sort of thing doesn’t scream “premium.” People spending $1,949 at launch will probably want more polish.

But Gigabyte says that issue will go away on future production runs of this laptop. You may be reading this review many months from now, with the power adapter situation resolved, and the Aorus 16X available at a great sale price. And, if you can find the Aorus 16X at a better price compared to laptops with similar specs, you’ll have a perfectly nice experience.

Laptops

Buying a laptop? Here’s why you need to shop the sales

Tue, 14 May 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Laptop sticker prices don’t really matter. Yes, obviously the price you pay for a laptop matters, but a laptop’s “manufacturer-suggested retail price” (MSRP) isn’t something you should focus on when picking your next laptop.

If you’re buying a laptop, you’ll get the most value from focusing on sales. Let’s say you have $1200 to spend on a gaming laptop. The best gaming laptop for your dollar might not be a $1200 laptop at all — it might be a $1600 laptop that’s currently $500 off.

In fact, the best value may be snatching up last year’s laptop on a clearance sale. Laptop hardware isn’t advancing very quickly year over year. A laptop from last year might be roughly as good as one from this year — and half off, too.

Further reading: Today’s best laptop deals: Save big on work, school, home use, and gaming

Why manufacturer-set laptop prices don’t really matter

Michael Crider/Foundry

We review a lot of great laptops here at PCWorld. Often, I find myself wanting to write something like “This laptop is a tad expensive, but if you can find it at a good price, it’s an excellent piece of hardware.”

This happens frequently with gaming laptops, but it applies to all laptops. When reviewing a laptop, I must evaluate its manufacturer-set retail price against other similarly priced laptops. I may give a laptop a thumbs up for being a good value compared to the competition at its manufacturer-set price.

As I do it, I often cast an eye at PCWorld’s laptop deals page and notice that the best deal is a laptop with similar hardware that’s on sale for hundreds of dollars off. It’s not fair to say a particular laptop isn’t a good value just because a competing laptop happens to be on sale at the moment I’m writing the review, but it happens frequently.

If you’re buying a laptop, you’ll get the best value by shopping the sales. Don’t buy a laptop just because it’s on sale — look at the reviews for a laptop that’s on sale so you’re sure you’ll be happy with it. But you’ll find the best value by starting with the sales.

Laptops are constantly going on big sales

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Laptop sales are common — and frequent. You don’t have to wait for the big Black Friday or back-to-school sales events. (Although, if you are shopping for a laptop around those events, you may want to wait for them — you’ll find more laptops than usual on sale when big events like those arrive.)

But even if you’re looking for a new laptop this week, there’s a good chance you’ll find lots of great options on sale right now. Manufacturers are constantly putting laptops on sale to stand out in the market and to free up space for new models.

And these sales can be huge. Gaming laptops frequently go on sale for $500 or more off. Laptops from last year that often offer very similar performance to this year’s laptops may be on sale for 50 percent off on clearance events.

For example, Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a great laptop with excellent build quality and an awesome keyboard. But at over $2000, it’s rather pricy. As I write this, Lenovo has the previous-generation ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 model for $1007 off. At $1391, it’s a serious value if you’re looking for a high-end, rugged, ultraportable business laptop.

That sale may be expired when you’re reading this, but there may be another amazing laptop we like for $1000 off right now. Check out our favorite laptop deals (where our ThinkPad X1 Carbon example came from!) to learn more.

Even just-released laptops might already be on sale

In fact, some laptops seem to be almost permanently available at a discount on certain manufacturers’ websites. A laptop may launch with an official $1400 MSRP but be available at a “promotional” price of $1200 on the laptop manufacturer’s online store — complete with the $1400 proudly crossed out and a “$200 off” sale tag.

If your budget is $1200, there’s no sense writing off that laptop just because it technically has a $1400 MSRP. It might almost always sell for $1200!

Laptops may even already be on big sales close to their release dates. When I reviewed the HP Omen Transcend 14 laptop around its launch date earlier this year, it was already on sale for $300 off. Maybe you thought $1499 was too much for that laptop. But there’s no sense focusing on that retail price: Even if you have bought one around launch, you could have spent $1199. If you’re keeping an eye on sales, you may not even have to wait for a newly released laptop to be available at a discount.

Last year’s laptop models on clearance sales are an amazing deal

Here’s another fact that PC manufacturers often don’t trumpet: This year’s laptop model and last year’s laptop model are often extremely similar. This year’s version might be a little bit faster — maybe.

That’s because PC hardware isn’t advancing by leaps and bounds each year.

Take CPUs, for example. Intel launched Meteor Lake Core Ultra CPUs in late 2023. They’re more focused on efficiency, battery life, and AI. They perform similarly to last year’s 13th-generation Raptor Lake CPUs. Many laptops that aren’t focused on battery life — like gaming laptops — are actually using 14th-generation Core HX chips that perform very similarly to the 13th-generation hardware.

The one advantage you get with a Core Ultra-powered CPU is the neural processing unit (NPU) for accelerating AI PC tasks, but how much that actually matters is unclear — we’ll have to see what Microsoft announces and delivers later this year. Right now, it doesn’t add much.

Let’s talk about graphics hardware: The latest gaming laptops with Nvidia GPUs have Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs (the GeForce RTX 4050, 4060, 4070, 4080, and 4090.) Those are state-of-the-art graphics processors in early 2024-era gaming laptops. 2023-era gaming laptops have the exact same GPUs — the 40-series mobile GPUs came out in early 2023 and Nvidia hasn’t announced anything new.

In other words, if you’re buying a gaming laptop, a gaming laptop that came out in early 2023 might have almost the same hardware as a gaming laptop that launched in early 2024 — a very similar CPU and the same selection of GPUs. If you can find a very similar gaming laptop from last year at a big discount compared to this year’s model, why wouldn’t you buy it instead?

Of course, it’s worth focusing on other things as well — the laptop’s display, keyboard, storage, and other factors. That’s why you should check reviews before buying a laptop. But a laptop from last year might even have a nicer display than a laptop from this year. Don’t dismiss it just because it’s technically a year older.

How to find the best laptop sales

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

PCWorld’s list of laptop deals is the perfect place to find excellent laptop sales. We’re scouring the web for deals every weekday and sharing the ones we think are the best.

Our page isn’t just updated frequently — we also only list laptops we like and recommend, complete with a description of what we like about each laptop. Whether you’re looking to spend a few hundred bucks on an inexpensive laptop for web browsing, you want a sleek ultraportable, or you’re trying to get the most gaming performance for your dollar, it’s the perfect place to start your laptop shopping.

Of course, you don’t have to start with our deals page. But if you go elsewhere, be sure to do some research — we’re only trying to recommend the best deals on laptops we think are worth buying. Other sites — especially online stores — may push sales on laptops that are not all that great.

As I write this, our laptop deals page has a high-end ThinkPad ultraportable at $1007 off, gaming laptops for as much as $700 off, and a capable lightweight laptop for $600 off. It also has inexpensive laptops for everyday tasks at nearly $200 off, bringing them to around the $249 mark.

Who knows which laptops will be on sale by the time you read this? Check out PCWorld’s list of the best laptop deals to see what’s available right now.

Want more PC advice? Subscribe to my free Windows Intelligence newsletter to get all the latest tips, tricks, and news sent straight to your email inbox.

Laptops

Gigabyte G6X review: A value-packed gaming laptop

Mon, 13 May 2024 10:30:00 +0000

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Great specs for the price
Serviceable hardware all around
Comes with lots of RAM and storage space

Cons

Display could be better and brighter
Not the nicest keyboard, touchpad, webcam, or speakers
No IR camera for Windows Hello

Our Verdict

The Gigabyte G6X delivers a great GPU and CPU at a good price — and it comes with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, too! Everything else is fine, but it’s not flashy or premium feeling.

The Gigabyte G6X is all about the specs for the price. Gigabyte packed an Intel Core i7 HX CPU along with an Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU into a 16-inch gaming laptop. The company also went above and beyond at this price point by including 32GB of RAM and 1TB of solid-state storage. That’s a lot for a $1,349 laptop.

After that, Gigabyte started making compromises to keep the price down. But the compromises are all smart: There’s nothing here that’s bad. Everything else about the laptop is serviceable, even if it doesn’t go above and beyond. If this laptop fits your budget and powerful specs are more important than a flashy exterior, this could be the right gaming laptop for you.

I got my hands on the $1,949 Gigabyte Aorus 16X at the same time as the Gigabyte G6X and used them side by side. The experience was instructive: This laptop is $600 less than the Aorus 16X. In comparison to that more expensive laptop, I noticed a blockier design, a less-beautiful display, and a lack of nice-to-have features like an IR camera for Windows Hello facial recognition. But while the G6X here doesn’t feel as premium as laptops costing hundreds of dollars more, it does its job well and offers a perfectly fine experience.

Looking for more budget-friendly options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best gaming laptops under $1,000 right now.

Gigabyte G6X: Specs

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Gigabyte G6X is all about specs for your dollar. We reviewed a Gigabyte G6X 9KG model that came with an Intel Core i7-13650HX CPU. This is one of Intel’s Core HX chips, a refresh of last year’s Raptor Lake CPUs. These seem to perform a bit better than Intel’s current Meteor Lake Core Ultra chips, although they lack the neural processing unit (NPU) that will supposedly accelerate future Windows AI features, according to rumors.

Our review unit came with Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics as well as 32GB of RAM and 1TB solid-state drive. That’s a good selection of hardware for the laptop’s $1349 price. Gigabyte also has a model of this laptop with an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, and Gigabyte says the laptop’s storage capacity may vary by region.

Let’s address the AI elephant in the room: Gigabyte is calling this an “AI gaming laptop.” It’s just as much an AI laptop as any other modern laptop with a powerful Nvidia RTX GPU inside it. And Gigabyte is right — as we’ve said, powerful GPUs deliver the fastest AI performance on PCs right now. But there’s nothing extra here beyond a standard Nvidia RTX GPU despite all the AI talk — the Aorus 16X at least has a few little software AI features designed to show things off, but I didn’t see any of those here.

However, the lack of a neural processing unit means it may not get future Windows AI features that may only work on systems with an NPU — we don’t know yet! We’re waiting for Microsoft to reveal its plans.

CPU: Intel Core i7-13650HX
Memory: 32GB DDR5-5600 RAM
Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 4060
Display: 1920×1200 16:10 IPS display with 165 Hz refresh rate
Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Webcam: 720p webcam
Connectivity: 2x USB Type-C (Both USB3.2 Gen2, one with USB Power Delivery 3.0, one with DisplayPort 1.4), 2x USB Type-A (USB3.2 Gen 2), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x combo headphone jack, 1x RJ-45 (Ethernet), 1x Kensington lock slot, 1x DC power in
Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, gigabit Ethernet
Biometrics: None
Battery capacity: 73 Watt-hours
Dimensions: 14.21 x 10.19 x 1.06 inches
Weight: 5.64 pounds
MSRP: $1,349 as tested

Gigabyte G6X: Design and build quality

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Gigabyte G6X’s design isn’t going to turn any heads. Compared to the Gigabyte Aorus 16X, it’s a much “blockier” design without sleek-looking curves. There’s nothing wrong with that: This is a classic utilitarian gaming laptop through and through.

This 16-inch laptop has Gigabyte branding, complete with a silver Gigabyte logo on the lid, the name “Gigabyte” below the screen, and some understated “X” graphics on the lid and to the right of the touchpad.

Aside from that, it’s a blocky design, all gray chunky plastics. (Gigabyte calls it “Gunmetal Gray”). It’s fine, but it doesn’t feel or look premium — that’s no surprise, as that’s what Gigabyte’s more expensive Aorus line of laptops is going for.

Still, the Gigabyte G6X feels like it has solid build quality. This may be a five-and-a-half pound brick of plastic, but it feels like a solid one. The chassis doesn’t have any weird creaky bits or questionable flexing to it, and the hinge feels fine when opening and closing the laptop. While gaming, the fans work well and direct air out the back of the laptop, not onto your mouse hand.

There’s also not a lot of bloatware. It’s nice to see Gigabyte didn’t make compromises there.

Gigabyte G6X: Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Gigabye G6X’s classic chiclet keyboard is fine to type on. The keys feel a little bit mushy, and the keyboard on the Aorus 16X feels a little snappier to type on. Digging into the specs, I see the G6X’s keyboard has up to 1.5mm key travel while the Aorus 16X has up to 1.7mm key travel. The difference is a little noticeable, but this keyboard still feels fine.

The keyboard has LED backlighting, but only a single zone — just one color at a time.

One thing that stands out about the keyboard is the full-size number pad at the right side. Many gaming laptops don’t include a number pad anymore. Even the Aorus 16X, which is the same size, doesn’t include this feature. I’m personally a big fan of the extra keys here.

The trackpad feels fine — not as nice as a premium glass trackpad, but not bad. The clicking-down action feels less snappy than on the Aorus 16X, though — it’s a pretty middle-of-the-road trackpad experience.

Gigabyte G6X: Display and speakers

IDG / Chris Hoffman

To deliver these specs on a budget price, you have to make some compromises. This 16-inch laptop’s display is one of those compromises. Like the keyboard and trackpad, the display is fine. It’s not bad, but it’s not outstanding.

The 1920×1200 IPS display doesn’t have the highest resolution you’ll find on a display, but it’s not unreasonably low either. It has a 165 Hz refresh rate, which is good to see. It’s not particularly bright, though — delivering only 300 nits of brightness, which means we had to turn the brightness up high for our standard battery benchmark. In addition, you won’t find HDR support in this display.

The display works fine for gaming and day-to-day computer use, but it’s nothing to write home about. (Meanwhile, the more expensive Aorus 16X delivers a more premium display with a higher 2560×1600 resolution, much more brightness, and HDR support.)

The speakers sound fine, as well — they’re more than loud enough and the sound is clear. There’s not a lot of bass, though. You’re going to want some headphones or external speakers to properly appreciate games, streaming videos, and music.

Gigabyte G6X: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The 720p webcam is a very standard 720p webcam. If you want something with a higher resolution, you can plug in an external webcam. It’s nice to see the webcam is there, though! I’ve seen budget gaming laptops without webcams at all.

The microphone is serviceable — it did seem to pick up some background static, even in a quiet room. But it does work fine. I would plug in an external microphone for gaming sessions and online meetings, although it will work in a pinch.

Biometrics are another place the Gigabyte G6X cuts corners: There are none. Without an IR camera or fingerprint reader, you can’t use your face or fingerprint to sign in with Windows Hello. You’ll be using a PIN or password to sign into this PC. It’s a shame because facial recognition is so convenient for signing in on a modern Windows PC. But, once again, it’s not a dealbreaker. It’s an understandable omission to help keep the price of this laptop down. (Unsurprisingly, the more expensive Aorus 16X does have facial recognition.)

Gigabyte G6X: Connectivity

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Gigabyte G6X doesn’t compromise on the number of ports it provides, which is good to see.

On the left side, you’ve got a USB Type-A port (USB 3.2 Gen 1), a combo audio jack, and a Kensington cable lock slot.

On the right side, you’ve got a USB Type-A port (USB 3.2 Gen 1), and a USB Type-C port (USB 3.2 Gen 2 with USB Power Delivery 3.0.)

On the back of the laptop, you’ve got a gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI 2.1 out, DC power in for the charger, and a USB Type-C port (USB 3.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort 1.4 out).

This laptop does omit Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 — the USB ports here use a previous-generation standard, unlike on the Aorus 16X, which does provide Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 if you’re willing to pay for a more expensive laptop. Again, that’s not a deal breaker, and if you’re looking at this laptop, there’s a good chance you aren’t seeking out the latest and fastest USB connection standards for high-end gear.

The Gigabyte G6X supports Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and gigabit Ethernet for networking. The Aorus supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. That’s nice and future proof, but the Gigabyte G6X likely supports the Wi-Fi router you have today — you almost certainly don’t have a Wi-Fi 7-compatible router yet.

Gigabyte G6X: Performance

The Gigabyte G6X delivered snappy performance in day-to-day use, which is to be expected given all the powerful hardware in this laptop chassis. As always, though, we ran this laptop through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. This benchmark is designed to give us an idea of overall system performance, but it’s rather CPU focused. The Gigabyte G6X delivered a PCMark 10 score of 7609, right around where we’d expect it to be with other Intel Core i7 HX-powered laptops.

The upgraded Raptor Lake CPU here delivers stronger performance than a laptop with Intel’s Meteor Lake Intel Core Ultra 7 hardware. This isn’t surprising, as those Meteor Lake-powered PCs have more a focus on power efficiency and AI performance with their built-in neural processing units (NPUs.) Despite all Gigabyte’s marketing around this being an AI laptop, it’s again worth noting that it doesn’t include an NPU for accelerating AI tasks — the Nvidia GPU has to provide the AI-related horsepower.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Gigabyte G6X delivered a score of 7278 in Cinebench R20’s multi-threaded benchmark. That’s about what we’d expect to see given its specs. The Intel Core i7-13650HX CPU delivers less top-end performance than the Intel Core i7-14650HX CPU found in some other laptops, like Gigabyte’s more expensive Aorus 16X laptop, and the scores show the Aorus 16X achieving a 15 percent higher score in this benchmark.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Gigabyte G6X finished the encode in 979 seconds on average — that’s a bit over 16 minutes. That’s a little on the high side compared to some other gaming laptops we’re measuring against, with Gigabyte’s Aorus 16X clocking in at 22 percent faster on this benchmark.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Now, we get to the graphical benchmarks. As this is a gaming laptop, the graphical benchmarks are the most interesting. First, we run 3DMark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance.

The Gigabyte G6X, with its Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU, delivered a score of 10383. The results here are all about which GPU each laptop has — the Aorus 16X is about 20 percent faster thanks to its RTX 4070, for example.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we look at some games. We run the benchmark in Shadow of the Tomb Raider to test all the gaming laptops we review. This is an older game, but it’s a great way to compare graphical performance across different PCs.

The Gigabyte 16X delivered 136 frames per second with our benchmark settings, which is within the margin of error of what the Aorus 16X delivered here. The shift from an RTX 4060 to a 4070 doesn’t make a big difference in this one game. Only upgrading to the $3,800 MSI Raider GE78 with its RTX 4090 GPU makes a big difference.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Finally, we run the benchmark in Metro Exodus, a more demanding game. We set the benchmark to 1080p resolution at the Extreme detail setting. The Gigabyte G6X delivered 40 frames per second in this benchmark, 20 percent slower than the Gigabyte Aorus 16X’s result of 50 frames per second.

Once again, the story here is all about the different GPUs. This laptop’s RTX 4060 is faster than an RTX 4050 but not as fast as a 4070 — and nowhere near as fast as a 4090.

Overall, the laptop’s performance is what we’d expect to see given its powerful hardware. The cooling works well. The fans are moderately loud while gaming, about normal for a laptop like this. You’re getting the strong performance you’d expect from an Intel Core i7-13650HX powered laptop with an Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU. That 32GB of RAM is really nice to have, too, in a world where many gaming laptops still come with 16GB of RAM.

Gigabyte G6X: Battery life

The Gigabyte G6X laptop has a 73 Watt-hour battery. Battery life was middle of the road for this type of gaming laptop — many laptops have lower battery life, while others offer more.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Gigabyte G6X lasted for 306 minutes (a bit over five hours) in our benchmark. You won’t get this much battery life in real use, so this isn’t an all-day-away-from-an-outlet system. Of course, that’s no surprise — this is a big gaming laptop.

The Gigabyte Aorus 16X lasted for 410 minutes instead — that’s nearly another two hours over the Gigabyte G6X here. That more expensive Aorus has a much larger 99 Watt-hour battery, which explains how it’s able to deliver that longer battery life.

Gigabyte G6X: Conclusion

The Gigabyte G6X has excellent internals — an Intel Core i7-13650HX, Nvidia RTX 4060, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD — for the price. It makes some compromises elsewhere on the laptop, so whether this is the right laptop for you really depends on your budget and whether you want a nicer display, a fancier design, a keyboard with more key travel, an IR camera so you can sign in with your face, and various other niceties.

Laptops with Nvidia RTX 4060 GPUs tend to be more expensive than this. Laptops which are in this ballpark of price tend to have other compromises: Consider the Asus ROG Strix G16, which costs another $20 but has just 16GB of RAM instead of the 32GB on the Gigabyte G6X here. Or take a look at the MSI Cyborg 15, which gets down to $999 but does so by going down to an older Core i5 CPU, half the RAM, and half the storage.

Of course, laptop prices will shift over time, so it pays to keep an eye on laptop deals.

If you’re eying this laptop at a good price, the good news is that there are no deal breakers here. You’re getting a lot of great hardware in a modest box. From the display to the keyboard, touchpad, and webcam, everything feels fine. Nothing about this laptop feels bad, and that’s a triumph in its own way.

Laptops

The ultimate free digital security guide: Stay safe without spending a dime

Mon, 13 May 2024 10:30:00 +0000

You don’t have to spend a lot of money for online security tools. In fact, you don’t have to spend a single cent to stay secure. There are a lot of great security tools that we recommend — features built into Windows, trustworthy free downloads, and protection practices that won’t cost you anything at all.

We do recommend a variety of premium antivirus software, password managers, VPN services, and Windows backup tools. But you don’t need any paid offerings to stay safe online — you can get all the security you need for free.

Protect your PC with a free antivirus

Antivirus software is an essential security tool on any PC. Even if you’re careful, applications you trust could have security flaws that open your PC to attack. Malware could get onto your PC due to a flaw in your web browser or even a developer’s account falling prey to criminals on a platform like Steam.

If you’re using a modern Windows PC running Windows 10 or Windows 11, good news: You already have an antivirus program installed, even if you’ve never thought about it. It’s called Microsoft Defender and is part of the Windows Security suite of software. It works well as baseline protection, but it’s not particularly feature-packed. Still, it’s nice that it doesn’t try to upsell you to a paid antivirus tool.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Want to try a different antivirus? We can recommend quite a few other high-quality free antivirus programs, including Avast Free Antivirus. Paid antivirus suites pack in additional features — they may bundle their own password manager, VPN, and even backup tools — but free antivirus programs will scan your PC for malware in the background and keep it safe.

You don’t have to pay for capable antivirus software. That’s an antivirus myth.

Store your passwords in a free password manager

We often recommend premium password managers that cost money, and those paid password managers often have more polished interfaces. But you can get a free, high-quality, secure password manager so you can generate, store, and access all your passwords on all your devices.

Our top choice for a free password manager is Bitwarden. It’s not just free — it’s open-source. You get browser extensions for all popular browsers, apps for everything from Windows PCs and Android phones to Linux systems and iPhones, cloud syncing, sharing with one other person, and two-step authentication to protect your passwords — all for free.

Bitwarden’s Premium plan adds some nice-to-have features like file attachments, emergency access to your account, and security reports — but they’re not essential, and they’re just $10 a year if you decide you want them in the future.

There are other options, too. KeePassXC is free, open-source, and a very traditional experience. It stores your password database locally on your own device so there’s no cloud syncing. It’s not what we’d recommend to most people, but some people will prefer this type of thing.

Also, web browsers now often have solid password managers built in — and they’re free. For example, Google Chrome has a capable password manager that doesn’t require installing any extra software. If it feels right to you, you shouldn’t feel bad about using your web browser’s password manager.

Use a free two-factor authentication app

Two-factor authentication, also known as two-step authentication, is an important tool for keeping your accounts safe — even if you use a password manager. If an attacker gets your password somehow, they still won’t be able to sign in with your two-factor authentication code.

Paid password managers often have built-in code generators as a convenience feature. But you don’t need that kind of feature built into your password manager of choice.

To generate app-based 2FA codes, you can use an app like Google Authenticator, which is our favorite 2FA authentication app. It’s completely free and available for both Android phones and iPhones. Just use it when setting up two-factor authentication with your accounts.

Activate free ransomware protection on your PC

Ransomware is one of the most dangerous threats out there. While you can get expensive tools that promise ransomware protection, you can also turn on the ransomware protection built into Windows.

This feature may be a little annoying to use. You’ll have to go out of your way to allow apps access to locations like your Documents folder when they need it. That’s the tradeoff you make if you want to control which apps have access to these sensitive locations.

Of course, your antivirus already protects against known ransomware — but antivirus software isn’t perfect.

Back up your files with free tools

Backups are a critical part of any online security strategy. They won’t just protect you if ransomware locks up your files or malware takes over your PC and you have to wipe it — they’ll protect your important data if you lose your laptop or your PC stops working for whatever reason.

While there’s a lot of paid backup software we like — and cloud backup tools that automatically back up to a remote server — there are lots of good free backup tools, too.

We recommend Fbackup 9 as our favorite free backup tool here at PCWorld, and you can also use the File History feature built into Windows 10 and Windows 11. You’ll just need a location to back up to — an external hard drive, for example, or a network share on a network attached storage (NAS) device.

If you’re looking to get some peace of mind from cloud backups, you can also use the OneDrive storage Microsoft provides for free — you get 5GB of storage for free with every Microsoft account. Additionally, if you pay for a Microsoft 365 subscription, you get a whopping 1TB of storage you can store files in.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Keep an eye out for phishing and other scams

People always say that “the best things in life are free.” Likewise, the best ways to beat phishing and other scams are also free.

Yes, you can pay for security suites that provide phishing protection, attempting to warn you when you visit scam websites and see phishing emails. But you already have a lot of these protections: Your web browser has built-in protection against phishing websites, for example, and the email service you use attempts to file away all the phishing emails you can into your spam folder so you never see them.

Be sure to watch out for scams and avoid clicking links in suspicious emails. If your boss contacts you via text and asks for a pile of gift cards on the company card, be suspicious! Don’t provide sensitive personal details to anything that isn’t trustworthy.

A password manager can help you avoid phishing sites, too: If you always use a password manager to enter your online banking password, for example, you’ll know something is up if you somehow end up on a phishing website impersonating your bank’s website. Your password manager won’t auto-fill those details on an imposter website.

Pick the right free VPN (if you need a VPN)

VPNs aren’t the ultimate, one-step solution to online security — despite some of the marketing you may see online. Still, they can provide some extra privacy and are useful in certain situations. For example, public Wi-Fi isn’t as dangerous as it once was, but you may still want a VPN for public Wi-Fi networks that you don’t fully trust.

Free VPNs are easy to find, but you shouldn’t trust most of them. Free VPNs have drawbacks. Many free VPNs may sell your data or do other sketchy things to pay the bills. Even the best free VPNs may not provide enough bandwidth to stream another country’s Netflix library, for example. Or, they may limit you to a certain amount of data each month. Still, they should be great for using public Wi-Fi in a pinch.

We’ve got a list of free VPNs PCWorld trusts. You don’t have to pay to use a decent VPN, but be sure to pick a trustworthy one.

All the most important security tools are free

The complete package of useful security tools we recommend above are all available for a grand total of zero dollars and zero cents.

Of course, you can spend money on security software if you like! The premium applications we recommend often have extra features, sleeker interfaces, and other goodies. But you can get a complete layer of online protection without shelling out a single cent.

Antivirus, Security Software and Services, VPN

More than antivirus: What to expect from your security software

Wed, 08 May 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Antivirus is just one part of keeping your PC secure. What about backups, password storage, and software updates? Do you use a VPN? Are you monitoring the dark web for your personal data? That’s where security suites come in — they bundle all the tools you might need into a convenient package. Everything is available in one place for a single payment, no juggling eight different applications with different subscription fees.

There are all kinds of features you’ll find in premium security suites. We’ll use Norton 360 Deluxe as an example here, as it’s our top antivirus security suite pick here at PCWorld. But all popular security suites from Avast One and AVG Internet Security to Avira Prime and McAfee Total Protection offer a variety of similar features.

Dark web monitoring

Security suites frequently include dark web monitoring for details like your e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and credit cards. The dark web is a place where people can better hide their identity and be anonymous. It may involve using software like the Tor web browser and anonymous .onion sites, for example.

Given the vastly improved anonymity, there’s a seedy underbelly of criminal dark web sites where databases full of e-mail addresses and passwords, payment details, and other private information are sold. The dark web scan feature will let you know if your information appears in one of these breaches. You’ll be able to see what appears in various leaks.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Norton 360, like many other security suites, offers dark web scanning for your e-mail addresses as well as any phone numbers and credit card numbers you may want to provide. You’ll get reports about the contents of each breach the scan finds.

You can get this kind of monitoring in a lot of places. For example, Google’s Google One subscription offers dark web monitoring, too.

A built-in VPN service

Premium online security suites usually include built-in VPN services. While our top-rated VPN services aren’t the ones built into online security applications, VPNs built into security apps work fine. A VPN is a nice to have security feature and having it built into your security app means you don’t have to juggle a pile of different system tray icons. Everything is in one place.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

The VPN built into Norton 360, for example, can be configured to automatically start and protect your connection whenever you connect to a public Wi-Fi network. You can turn it on and off whenever you want — on any connection — and choose what region it connects to. It supports optional features like split tunneling (only sending traffic from some apps through the VPN) and a kill switch (automatically cutting off all network access when the VPN connection goes down to protect your privacy).

Dedicated VPN apps may be shinier and have more bells and whistles, but you may not need them. A capable VPN is a great additional value in a security application. You won’t have to pay for a VPN subscription separately and you won’t have to deal with the drawbacks of a free VPN like a limited monthly data allowance.

A password manager

Everyone should use a high-quality password manager. After all, you need to use strong, unique passwords for all your accounts and unless you have a photographic memory, there’s no way to remember them all.

Online security suites have bundled password managers. For example, you get Norton Password Manager with Norton 360. Like with other password managers, you can generate and autofill passwords and access them on any browser you use — with Android and iPhone apps, too.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

If you’re seeking out the absolute best password manager, you may want to look for a dedicated one (check out PCWorld’s top password manager picks). But Norton’s password manager is perfectly capable.

In fact, there are a wide variety of solid password managers these days. We even think using Google Chrome’s built-in password manager is fine. An online security suite that bundles a solid password manager means you don’t have to pay for anything extra.

Cloud backups

Online security suites also often bundle some cloud backup capabilities. Norton 360 Deluxe gives you 50GB of online storage so you can back up your personal files.

These built-in cloud backup tools are nice to have in a pinch. If you need to back up a lot of files, you may want a dedicated cloud backup service.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Likewise, it’s worth noting that if you pay for a Microsoft 365 subscription, you get 1TB of cloud storage with OneDrive and OneDrive can sync folders like your PC’s Documents folder to the cloud.

Still, you only get 5GB of OneDrive storage with Windows unless you pay. That 50GB of cloud backup storage in Norton, for example, will be more than enough for many people, no extra payments required.

Software updaters

Windows application updates are messy. Unlike on an Android phone or iPhone, apps have to update themselves on a PC. You can easily end up with outdated applications installed and they might have security flaws.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

That’s why security suites often include software updaters: They’ll scan your computer for installed software, let you know which ones have updates, and tell you how important they are for your security. They may even be able to auto-update these programs for you.

You can get features like this with other free apps, but they may be rather technical. I’m a big fan of the free WingetUI tool for updating apps, for example, but it doesn’t have the most user-friendly interface. Software updaters in security suites will have an easier-to-understand interface and be easy to find.

Online privacy scans

Data broker websites collect all sorts of public records on you and make them available to people who want to pay up. You can remove your data from these websites, but it’s a time-consuming task.

Some security suites have features that will scan for your personal information on these data broker sites and perhaps let you remove it. Norton 360, for example, has a privacy monitor feature that will scan data broker sites for your personal data and let you know where it’s found.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

You can then contact these sites on your own to get them to remove your data. Unfortunately, Norton charges you extra for the Privacy Monitor Assistant if you want Norton to do the legwork of removing the data on your behalf. Still, it’s good that Norton and other security suites are letting people know about this privacy concern — data broker sites are big business, but they aren’t often talked about.

A security-focused web browser (and extensions)

Security suites are increasingly bundling their own unique web browsers with their security suites. For example, Norton 360 offers Norton Private Browser. These are totally optional — you can keep using Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or whatever other browser you might prefer instead.

These browsers will feel familiar to use. They tend to be based on the same open-source technology that underlies Google Chrome. They also bundle extra features: Norton’s browser has Norton’s password manager built-in, naturally.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Security suites also tend to offer browser extensions that warn you about dangerous websites in your browser of choice. For example, Norton has the Norton Safe Web extension for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. It’s the kind of thing that’s built into Norton’s own browser.

In my opinion, a dedicated web browser isn’t a critical feature — modern web browsers are pretty secure and you probably already have a web browser you use and trust. You can also install your security suite’s browser extension in whatever browser you currently use. But security-focused browsers are clearly in high demand and they’re fine if you want to use them. They’re just customized versions of Google Chrome, after all.

Parental controls

You’ll often find parental control features built into security suites, too. For example, Norton 360 has Norton Family built in. You can monitor what children are doing on the web, set screen time limits, and access other similar features. With the associated mobile apps, you can also keep track of a child’s location (or at least the location of their phone!).

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Available parental control features will vary depending on the application you choose. It’s worth doing some research to see whether the parental controls in a security suite fit your needs, or whether you may want a different tool with different features. But once again, it’s nice to have this thrown in: You get a useful package of software that you’d often have to pay for bundled with all the other tools in your security suite of choice.

Is a paid security suite worth it?

Security suites offer a lot of features. Many of them, like password managers, VPNs, and online backup, often require separate subscription fees if you go for dedicated apps.

That’s a big difference between paid premium security suites and free antivirus programs: Security suites go beyond antivirus. Free antivirus programs often stick to the basics — just antivirus software and you’ll have to look elsewhere for any extras. Free antivirus software does the job, but paid security suites often have some nice-to-have extras.

Which you prefer is up to you. Maybe you want to seek out the best password manager, top-tier VPN, and and assemble your own security suite from parts. Go right ahead!

But it’s easy to see the value of a security suite in providing everything in a convenient bundle. There’s a lot of value in simplifying things and saving time. Having all those tools in one dashboard is a much cleaner experience that will be much easier for many people to understand.

Why get eight different pieces of software when you can install one to do the same job?

Antivirus, Security Software and Services

7 antivirus myths that are dead wrong

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 10:30:00 +0000

Antivirus software is an essential piece of protection on any Windows PC. On an internet where malware is only becoming more and more profitable for organized crime, you don’t want to be without a good antivirus program.

But there are a lot of myths floating around out there about antivirus software. Let’s bust them.

Myth: You need to install antivirus on Windows

You don’t have to install antivirus software on Windows because Windows already comes with antivirus software. In fact, Windows has had built-in antivirus software since Windows 8, and it’s still included on Windows 10 and Windows 11 today. The built-in Microsoft Defender antivirus is part of the Windows Security suite of tools. It’s as basic as it comes, but completely free and runs automatically in the background, even if you never think about or install antivirus software.

Now, you may prefer another antivirus — other antiviruses have extra tools, protection features, and options, and they use different detection engines. But the good news is that every Windows PC has a baseline antivirus package. We’re long past the days of Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP nagging you to install antivirus software when you set up a new PC.

Microsoft’s antivirus gets out of the way when it needs to, automatically disabling its automatic background scanning features if you choose to install a third-party antivirus. You just don’t have to think about it.

Myth: Only Windows is vulnerable to malware

Malware (including viruses, Trojans, worms, rootkits, ransomware, and all kinds of other appalling things) is a problem on all platforms.

Yes, even Linux is vulnerable to malware threats — just check out the recent XZ Utils backdoor saga that nearly saw a rootkit slipped into a critical piece of open-source software. Or, consider the Linux distribution Ubuntu labeling a malicious app that stole people’s cryptocurrency as “safe.” Linux malware often targets server software, as Linux is so much more popular in data centers than on the desktop.

I’m not trying to single out Linux here! The reality is that malicious software is a problem on all platforms — even Linux. No platform is above the fray.

People may say Macs don’t need antivirus, but Apple actually has an antivirus-style system built into macOS. It’s named XProtect. Various companies also make antivirus programs for Macs.

Further reading: Windows includes built-in ransomware protections. Here’s how to turn it on

Myth: Antivirus will slow down your PC dramatically

Antivirus software runs in the background, scanning files when you download them and before you open them. Before an application launches, your antivirus gives it a quick check and warns you if it appears to be malicious.

Now, obviously this will use some system resources. Your PC is doing a bit of extra work. But we’re not in the ‘90s or early ‘00s anymore. Back then, PCs were much slower. Antivirus software just felt so heavy to use, and you could feel it slowing down your PC at times. I remember it well! But that was long ago.

Modern antivirus applications shouldn’t slow your PC down in a noticeable way. If it takes 2 percent longer to launch an application, will you notice? Not really. Those shouldn’t be constant slowdowns, either — they should occur when you launch an application and the antivirus is checking it out, not all the time while you do things on your PC.

Plus, unless you’ve gone out of your way to disable its background scanning (I recommend against it!), Microsoft’s Defender antivirus is already running in the background on your PC, scanning for malware. When we benchmark PCs here at PCWorld, we leave the standard Defender antivirus running. So, even if you chose to swap out the built-in Defender antivirus for another antivirus, you’d just be trading one antivirus for another — not adding an extra performance cost on top.

In some cases, antivirus software may slow down a workload: If you’re compiling software, for example, and you have a folder where a large number of files are being created, you may want to simply “exclude” such a folder from your antivirus’s scanning. That’s the most you should need to do.

When antiviruses perform their heavy full-system scans, that will definitely slow things down further while they’re running. But those scans are usually scheduled to happen while you’re not using your PC. You shouldn’t notice them at all.

Myth: You have to run antivirus software manually

There’s no need to regularly open your antivirus program, click the “Scan” button, and wait for the results. Your antivirus is automatically scanning in the background to protect you, checking files when you download and launch them. It’s also performing this type of comprehensive system scan on a schedule — in the background — when you aren’t using your PC. Your antivirus will let you know if it finds as problem.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Save yourself the trouble and avoid the time-consuming manual scans — unless you’re concerned your system might have malware and you want to check all the files on your PC’s storage right now. Scanning like this is just one of many outdated security practices you no longer need to follow.

Myth: Antivirus will protect you from all threats

Antivirus software isn’t completely perfect. Now, I know this is sort of an obvious statement. But I’ve seen many people act like antivirus will provide them perfect protection and run into trouble.

You should think of your antivirus software as a last line of defense. If all your normal security precautions fail or an application you use has a dangerous zero-day flaw that lets an attacker gain access to your PC, your antivirus program is there to pick up the slack and stop malware from running.

But it’s not perfect. Antivirus software catches malware in several ways. For example, it looks for known-dangerous application files — programs that have been seen before that the antivirus knows is bad — and uses heuristics to attempt to guess whether a newly seen file is dangerous or not. Neither method will catch everything. And Windows Security doesn’t even try to protect users from phishing email attacks or surfing potentially dangerous websites (though many premium AV suites off this).

While antivirus is an important layer of protection, it’s not a good idea to rely totally on it. In particular, it’s an extremely bad idea to pirate software and games — if you’re running pirated application files, cracks, key generators, and similar sketchy things, you’re exposing yourself to a lot of potentially dangerous things. Antivirus isn’t guaranteed to protect you from all of them.

Myth: You don’t need antivirus if you’re careful

On the other hand, some people think antivirus is only necessary for less-experienced computer users without ideal security practices. The idea is that, if you’re careful and smart, you can skip the antivirus and get back that little bit of performance.

But this isn’t really true. Malware isn’t just something you get infected with when you’re not careful. Attackers can exploit zero-days in applications you use, and you could be infected simply by viewing a compromised web page. All it would take is the right flaw in your web browser.

Chris Hoffman/IDG

Also, take a look at Steam: Steam developer accounts have recently been compromised and used to serve malware through Steam game updates — and mod updates. Hopefully Steam’s update system won’t deliver malware to your PC, but it illustrates that it doesn’t just matter how careful you are. A solid antivirus could provide a good layer of protection against attacks like this.

Myth: Antivirus will completely protect you

Antivirus isn’t all you need to protect yourself — and your PC — online. It’s an important part of the puzzle, but you need more than that.

Scam websites and phishing emails are dangerous on every device — not just Windows PCs, but also smartphones. You still need to browse carefully, keep an eye out for scammy-seeming emails, avoid downloading dangerous junk, and not get tricked into giving passwords, payment info, and other personal details to bad websites. Antivirus programs and web browsers do have phishing protection — but, like antivirus scanners, it isn’t perfect.

A good password manager is particularly important. Using strong, unique passwords everywhere is critically important. But, unless you have a photographic memory, you’re probably not going to remember dozens (or hundreds) of strong unique passwords for all your accounts. A good password manager is the solution to keep your accounts secure.

By the way, even if you do install another antivirus on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 PC, you don’t have to pay for one. There are great free antivirus programs you can install if you’re not looking to pay for one of PCWorld’s favorite antivirus programs, though the premium versions tend to protect against more types of threats (such as malicious links, webcam hacks, and privacy monitoring) and offer additional features (like VPNs and parental controls).

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Acer TravelMate P6 review: Business on a budget

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 10:30:00 +0000

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Long battery life
Light and portable
A good price for a business laptop

Cons

Keyboard is a t ad mushy
No NPU for future Windows AI features
Consumer laptops deliver similar specs for a lower price

Our Verdict

The Acer TravelMate P6 offers excellent value for a business laptop, with long battery life, a surprisingly light weight, and more ports than a typical consumer laptop.

The Acer TravelMate P6 is a business laptop through and through. It’s packed with ports, delivers long battery life, is surprisingly lightweight, and has a nice matte screen designed to avoid glare in normally uncomfortable lighting conditions.

It’s a nice and supremely practical piece of hardware, and I’d be happy to get a machine like this from my job. Starting at a retail price of $1,329, it’s a bargain as far as business laptops go, especially if a workplace is getting a discount for buying a bunch at once! But if you’re just looking to buy a single laptop for your own personal use, a consumer laptop may be better bet.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops.

Acer TravelMate P6: Specs

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Acer TravelMate P6 comes with 16 GB of RAM, 1 TB of solid-state storage, and an Intel Core i5-1335U CPU. This is one of Intel’s 13th-generation Raptor Lake CPUs, released in 2023. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The latest Meteor Lake CPUs are more focused on power efficiency and AI performance.

The latest Meteor Lake CPUs aren’t necessarily faster, but you are missing out on the neural processing unit (NPU) found in the latest Meteor Lake CPUs. These will make it possible to run more AI features locally on your own PC hardware rather than relying on the far-off cloud servers that power features like Microsoft Copilot today. Rumor is that Windows will soon take much better advantage of NPUs to deliver all sorts of AI features. And there’s no NPU here.

CPU: Intel Core i5-1335U
Memory: 16GB LPDDR5 RAM
Graphics/GPU: Intel Iris Xe
Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 60Hz refresh rate
Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Webcam: 1080p webcam with privacy shutter
Connectivity: 2x USB Type-C (Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 40Gbps with DisplayPort over USB-C, Power Delivery), 1x USB Type-A (USB 3.2 Gen 1), HDMI 2.1, microSD card reader, headphone jack, Kensington lock slot
Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Biometrics: IR camera for Windows Hello facial recognition, fingerprint reader
Battery capacity: 65 Watt-hours
Dimensions: 12.34 x 8.93 x 0.79 inches
Weight: 2.65 pounds
MSRP: $1,329 as tested

Acer TravelMate P6: Design and build quality

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Acer TravelMate 6’s design is pretty simple: Black with squared off edges and slightly rounded corners. Nothing too crazy or unusual, a workhorse of a laptop with nothing particularly unusual about it. It’s a workhorse. The name “Acer” appears in silver below the screen, and there’s also an “Acer” badge on the back of the laptop, but that’s extremely understated.

This laptop is quite light thanks to the magnesium-aluminum alloy that makes up its chassis. At just 2.65 pounds, it’s nice and easy to pick up and throw in a bag. (It’s only a tiny bit heavier than the famously lightweight and much more expensive Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which weighs 2.42 pounds.) There’s a little bit of flex to the screen and case, but nothing that seems bad. In fact, that flex may help the laptop stand up to life on the road.

Acer touts the TravelMate 6’s ruggedness — it’s MIL-STD 810H-tested and Acer says the ports are reinforced with additional metal brackets to hold up wear and tear. It also includes an “Acer Dust Defender” feature that will reverse the laptop’s fans every six hours of use to prevent dust buildup. (At peak performance, when the fans are needed, Dust Defender won’t interrupt anything, it’ll wait until later).

While this laptop may not look particularly exciting in a photo, it has a classic design that fades into the background, and that light weight is very nice.

The included promotional software is a little disappointing. Out of the box, for example, a Dropbox promotion is pinned to the taskbar. One of the benefits of business laptops is that they tend to provide a stripped-down selection of included promotional apps, and the included software is on the busy side for a business laptop. Of course, this is something you can uninstall very easily.

Acer TravelMate P6: Keyboard and trackpad

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Acer TravelMate P6 is a business laptop, so it should be designed for some serious typing. On the one hand, this machine has a perfectly nice keyboard. I could type quickly and didn’t have any issues with accuracy. On the other hand, the key feel a little on the shallow side. That’s fairly common with laptops designed for portability, as there’s only so much room.

The keyboard also has convenient white backlighting built in, an important feature when typing in low-light environments.

The touchpad feels great. It’s made of Corning Gorilla Glass, and it’s very responsive and smooth. It’s nice and large, too, taking up a good amount of room below the keyboard. The click feels good and solid, too.

Acer TravelMate P6: Display and speakers

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Acer TravelMate P6 has a 14-inch 1920×1200 display. That’s a 16:10 aspect ratio, which gives you more vertical space to get work done than you’ll get on a standard 16:9 screen, for example, a “1080p” or 1920×1080 resolution screen. Still, it’s not as much vertical screen real estate as you’ll get on a screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio.

This is an IPS display that Acer calls a “ComfyView” display, as Acer puts it, it’s an “anti-glare matte display.” It will do much better in bright sunlight than “glossy” displays, which tend to have a lot of glare.

With a refresh rate of just 60Hz, this isn’t the fanciest display out there. Still, it’s perfectly serviceable and it looks good in day-to-day use. In fact, I suspect that this display may be one of the secret ingredients that gives this laptop the long-lasting battery life its competitors with fancier displays often can’t match.

The upward-firing speakers aren’t bad. As usual for laptop speakers, they don’t deliver a lot of bass — that’s normal. But they sound clear and have plenty of volume. They’ll do well for a video meeting or watching some videos, but you’ll want to connect some headphones or external speakers to properly experience anything bassy.

Acer TravelMate P6: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The Acer TravelMate P6 has a 1080p webcam. This is a pretty standard 1080p webcam, and it’s perfectly serviceable as far as 1080p webcams go. It will be fine in business meetings. I’ve seen high-level executives use much, much worse. The webcam has a convenient privacy shutter, so you can quickly block it, if you like.

Strangely enough, Windows offers Studio Effects for this webcam, features like Eye Contact to make you look like you’re always making eye contact with the camera and Background Blur to blur your background. According to Microsoft, this requires a neural processing unit (NPU), but this Acer laptop doesn’t have an NPU. The effects seem to be using the integrated GPU for their processing power. While the effects are available, which is nice, this implementation will likely drain more battery power than running these effects on a lower-powered NPU in a modern PC.

The microphone sounds nice and clear, picking up speech well, which is critical feature for audio calls, so it’s good to see Acer got it right. Acer says this laptop has “Acer PurifiedVoice’s AI-powered noise reduction.”

The TravelMate has both facial recognition and fingerprint recognition for Windows Hello. The IR camera for facial recognition worked well, as they generally do, signing me when I opened the laptop in a variety of lighting scenarios. The fingerprint scanner is located in the power button at the top-right corner of the keyboard, and it also worked well for authentication.

Acer TravelMate P6: Connectivity

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The port selection on the Acer TravelMate P6 is quite good for a modern laptop. On the left side, you’ll find two USB Type-C ports (Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 40Gbps) along with an HDMI 2.1 port. You’ll plug the laptop’s power adapter into one of the USB-C ports to charge it.

On the right side, you’ve got a USB Type-A port, a combo headphone jack, a microSD card reader, and a Kensington lock slot for physically securing the laptop.

Acer also says models of this laptop are available with an optional nano SIM slot for cellular connectivity, but our review unit didn’t have that feature.

It’s a good selection of ports, and it should save you from having to use a dongle most of the time.

Still, if you want to charge and use more than one USB Type-C device — or if you ever want to plug in more than one USB Type-A device — you’ll need a dongle. You’ll have to plug in a dongle to use a wired Ethernet network connection, too.

For the wireless radios, you’ve got Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 support. That’s a standard, modern setup. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 would certainly be nice to have to make this laptop more future proof, but they’re not standard on new laptops yet.

Acer TravelMate P6: Performance

The Acer TravelMate P6 delivered solid performance in day-to-day use. That’s no surprise thanks to its 13th-generation Intel Core i5 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB solid-state drive.

As always, we ran the TravelMate through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. PCMark 10 is designed to as an overall benchmark to get an idea of overall system performance, but the CPU is as big factor in the results.

The Acer TravelMate P6 delivered the kind of performance we’d expect to see with a 13th-generation Intel Core i5 laptop CPU. The results were competitive with the HP Pavilion Plus, a heavier laptop with a Core i7 CPU. It’s still outcompeted by the significantly more expensive Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which retails for $2,703, double the price of this system.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run Cinebench R20. This benchmark is heavily multithreaded and focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage and will get higher scores.

The Acer TravelMate P6 puts out decent performance, with more powerful Intel Core i7-powered systems pulling ahead of its Intel Core i5 CPU.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

The Acer TravelMate P6 delivered took 1,847 seconds to complete the encode on average. That’s just over 30 minutes. It’s competitive with other ultraportable-style machines, and only beat by the larger and heavier HP Pavilion Plus, which can likely deliver better cooling for extended workloads due to its size.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance.

Graphical performance wasn’t great, which isn’t a surprise. Intel has improved integrated GPU performance dramatically over the last generation. A system with the latest Meteor Lake hardware — not the 13th-generation Raptor Lake hardware here — delivers much better graphical performance.

Overall, performance is where it should be for an ultraportable with this hardware. Intel’s latest Core Ultra chips, the Meteor Lake CPUs, don’t necessarily deliver a huge performance upgrade in normal use. Meteor Lake’s big advantages are in improved integrated GPU performance and that neural processing unit (NPU) isn’t present on systems like this one.

Acer TravelMate P6: Battery life

The Acer TravelMate P6 includes a 65 Watt-hour battery. In day-to-day use — web browsers, office apps, and all the usual applications — battery life was excellent.

IDG / Chris Hoffman

To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in the Movies & TV app on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmark.

The Acer TravelMate P6 delivered a great result here, running for an average of 771 minutes, which is nearly 13 hours. That result puts it ahead of all the other laptops we’ve been comparing it to.

The display probably gives the Acer TravelMate P6 a leg up. This isn’t an extremely high-resolution display. There’s also no touch screen. Many people will appreciate having the all-day battery life this system should deliver instead of a fancier display that needs more frequent charging.

Acer TravelMate P6: Conclusion

The Acer TravelMate P6 is a good laptop. It’s half the price of a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and nearly as light. The screen isn’t the highest-resolution display you’ll find, but that’s likely one of the secret ingredients that helps it deliver much longer battery life.

For a business laptop, a starting price of $1,329 for this hardware is very reasonable. On the other hand, if you’re just buying a single laptop and are open to consumer hardware, the price gives me pause.

Take a look at the HP Pavilion Plus, for example. It’s not an ultraportable, as it’s about a half pound heavier. But you can get a configuration with the same Intel Core i5-1335U CPU and a 1920×1200 resolution display, the same resolution as the Acer TravelMate P6 here, for just $828. That’s $500 cheaper than the TravelMate here. Yes, the TravelMate is lighter and gets longer battery life, but is it really $500 better?

Meanwhile, that $1,329 price point is close to the price of many consumer ultrabooks like the HP Spectre x360 14 with higher-resolution displays and other features like touch screens. They may not have the battery life a system like the TravelMate delivers and won’t have as many ports as this laptop, but many people will prefer those features.

Still, if you want a business laptop, the TravelMate P6 is a great choice. It’s a great value in the business laptop segment, even if it isn’t the best laptop for everyone.

Laptops