Computex2019
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The biggest news at Computex 2019
Our week in Taiwan is coming to a close, and as Team Engadget bids goodbye to the dumplings and beef noodles, it's time to look back on all the news we saw this week. As always, ASUS was the star of the show in its home turf, and this year was especially significant as the company celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. It unveiled attractive new special editions of the ZenBook and ZenFone, as well as a dual-screen laptop.
Pushing a 28-core CPU to its limits: 6GHz and beyond
I'm mesmerized by the way liquid-nitrogen vapor flows across the motherboard. There's something oddly therapeutic about extreme overclocking, especially when the cold air gently touches my skin, making even the tiniest bumps in clock speed the more worthwhile. There's probably no better place to see it in action than Taipei's Computex, where gaming PC memory maker G.Skill gathers the world's best overclockers for its OC World Cup event (with a $10,000 top cash prize). Our previous attempt to tame the 18-core Intel Core i9-7980XE was already rather ambitious, but this year, we decided to go all the way with the massive 28-core, 255W Intel Xeon W-3175X, a rare CPU gem that costs at least $3,000 -- if you can even find one. Our goal was to break the chip's records at the time: pushing it from its 3.1GHz base frequency to beyond 5.68GHz on Cinebench R15, or at least beyond 6.5GHz via the more lightweight CPU-Z validation. With this many cores, it posed a much bigger cooling challenge to run at higher speeds, especially compared to the quad-core i7-7700K I tinkered with the year before.
PC makers are getting better at copying smartphone innovation
For a long time, the PC industry was stagnating. Computer makers had grown comfortable with iterative annual updates to their devices, relying on yearly processor advancements to push consumers to buy new laptops. But recently, things changed. PC makers started borrowing features from smartphones to make their laptops stand out, just as phones keep trying to become more like computers. There were plenty of examples at Computex 2019, but instead of displaying purely imitated features, the PC industry showed it can actually do some of them better.
This double-height keyboard puts a numpad above the letters
Keyboards are infuriating, right? With their long, thin layouts require you to move your hands left and right in order to hit specific keys. If it's a sentiment you agree with, then Chassepot / Royal Kludge's new hardware will be perfect for you. The C1000 is a keyboard that, rather than putting the numpad and extra keys to the right of the keyboard, stacks them above the letter rows.
Intel and AMD won Computex 2019
You can thank AMD and Intel for the influx of news out of Computex over the past week. Both chip companies announced some major new products: Intel showed off its 10-nanometer 10th-gen laptop chips, and AMD gave us details on its third generation Ryzen CPUs and first Navi GPUs. At first glance, that might all sound like typical tradeshow news, the next steps in a boring, iterative upgrade cycle. But each announcement spoke volumes -- they're not just showing us what Intel and AMD are working on for the next year, they gave us a preview of what's to come for the next decade.
You can pry my keyboard from my cold, dead hands
If this week's Computex is anything to go by, the laptop industry is sharpening its ax in order to kill the keyboard. It won't happen overnight, but in the pursuit of thinner and lighter bodies, the mechanical, physical input will have to go. If, like me, you think that typing on screens will never be as accurate, or as fast, as hitting real keys, then it's not great news. The pitfalls of an all-screen laptop are the same as using a tablet as your primary machine for work. You'll need to pack a wireless keyboard (more clutter in your bag) and remember to keep it charged (more clutter in your mind). Soon after, Logitech or some other company will crank out a case to fix the issue, but you'll spend an extra $150 for something you used to take for granted.
Intel's Project Athena laptops can sense when you're near
We've heard Intel talk up its Project Athena program to provide long-lasting, high-spec laptops for months now, and the company finally shared the specifications a few weeks ago. Here at Computex, we're getting our first look at the initial slate of devices that are part of Athena, which include the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, HP Envy x360, an Acer Swift laptop and the Lenovo S940.
MSI GT 76 Titan hands-on: A very powerful, beefy laptop
Have you ever toiled on something, only for a rival to release something just days before your own effort is completed? No matter your intentions, the timing makes you look like a copycat. It's a fact that must rankle MSI, which spent four and a half years developing a laptop with a desktop CPU. Alienware may have gotten there first with its Area-51M, but MSI thinks that the GT 76 Titan is worth the wait.
AZIO’s gorgeous Iris keyboard is inspired by vintage cameras
AZIO is a company that makes keyboards that look as good as they feel when you type on them, and at Computex it was showing off the prototype for its next device. The AZIO Iris draws inspiration from the design of old-fashioned rangefinder cameras, from Leica and Fujica / Fujifilm, with unashamedly analog dials and switches. It may not be going on sale until the end of the year at the earliest, but I'm already in love.
Intel's 2-in-1 prototype proves it has big plans for dual-screen PCs
Intel surprised us last Computex with unique dual-screen prototypes like its Tiger Rapids device with an e-ink screen. This year, the company had even more concepts to show off at its technology open house. It showcased laptops from its Project Athena program and an intriguing Honeycomb Glacier idea that envisions different ways to make powerful laptops with integrated companion screens. Intel also gave us a glimpse at its new dual-screen prototype called Twin Rivers, demonstrating how its eighth-generation (and newer) processors are able to power such a resource-demanding device. As I played around with this prototype and Intel's other experiments, one thing became clear: The future of PCs is incredibly exciting.
Microsoft teases a 'modern OS' with 'seamless updates'
Microsoft made a nod towards a possible new operating system at Computex in Taipei this week, when corporate vice president of consumer and device sales Nick Parker took to the stage to outline the company's future OS ambitions. While the event would have been a prime opportunity to reveal the much-rumored Windows Lite, no official announcements were made, but the company did discuss -- albeit cryptically -- what's in the pipeline.
MediaTek's 5G chipsets are ready for cheaper next-gen phones
The first wave of 5G devices carried a high premium, but MediaTek is working hard to ensure that budget handsets aren't left behind. The company has announced a new 5G-compatible system-on-chip that will offer decent performance and 5G connectivity to lower-end devices. The elegantly-named Integrated 5G SoC combines MediaTek's M70 5G modem with Arm's Cortex-A77 CPU and Mali-G77 GPU.
Intel's gaming laptop prototype is a dual-screen PC with a point
Intel's Open House event at Computex was filled with Project Athena devices, prototype demos, new chips and more, but the company's dual-screen prototypes were the ones that drew the crowds. Its new Honeycomb Glacier form-factor concept is for some of the most discriminating (and most PC buying-inclined) customers: gamers and creators.
Acer ConceptD 7 laptop hands-on: Quadro RTX power in a stylish package
Acer's pro-grade family of laptops, ConceptD, is getting an upgrade already, less than two months since it broke cover. Following up on the company's promise of making a strong bid for the PC-buying dollars of high-end laptop users, the ConceptD 7 the first laptop we've actually handled that packs NVIDIA's new, powerful Quadro RTX 5000 GPU.
Gigabyte's Aero 15 OLED laptop is made for video editors (updated)
In 2019, OLED laptops are nothing new. ASUS even took this feature to the next level on its dual-screen ZenBook Pro Duo. At Computex, Gigabyte is the latest company to join the trend, with a refreshed Aero 15 featuring a Samsung 4K AMOLED panel, wrapped in a 3mm-thin bezel. Inside, you get up to a Core i9-9980HK octa-core CPU, up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU, DDR4 2,666MHz RAM and a speedy SSD. It's quite the beast. But what Gigabyte has been focusing on is the fact that every Aero 15 OLED has its screen tuned by X-Rite Pantone before leaving the factory, and with its 100-percent DCI-P3 gamut plus DisplayHDR 400 certification, this laptop is clearly designed with video makers in mind. Likewise, this is one of the very few laptops that feature a UHS-II SD card slot. This means you no longer have to whip out a dedicated card reader to reach full speeds -- up to about 300MB/s or at least three times faster than UHS-I cards. For on-the-go video editors and creatives, it's a very tempting feature.
SteelSeries' Apex Pro keyboards have customizable key travel
The watchword for any gaming peripheral worth its salt is customization, because you want to make sure that everything is in sync with your hands. SteelSeries has taken this to heart, and is launching a pair of new keyboards that let you customize how hard you need to press the keys. The Apex Pro and Apex Pro TKL — short for TenKeyLess — will let you tweak how far you need to push down before a keystroke is registered.
Here are all the laptops getting NVIDIA’s new Quadro RTX graphics
After NVIDIA revealed its Quadro RTX 5000 designed for laptops, a number of manufacturers announced machines that'll pack the new gear. Acer, ASUS, MSI, HP and Razer have all launched machines that offer the most powerful in professional mobile-graphics hardware. Here's a brief run-down of what's going to be available in the near future, and how much you can expect to pay for it. Now, these aren't all the RTX Studio laptops, which NVIDIA is using as branding for all devices that it will supply special drivers for. These are just the models packing, specifically, the new Quadro RTX 5000 GPU.
HP’s latest VR Backpack swaps gaming for the workplace
HP is still trying to make VR backpacks happen. But its latest offering, unlike its 2017 release, is intended for workplace scenarios such as training and VR development instead of gaming, and packs a powerful punch for tether-free VR creativity.
Watch Intel's Computex 2019 keynote in 11 minutes!
It's the battle of the chip makers here at Computex 2019 and in addition to companies like NVIDIA, AMD, ARM and Qualcomm, Intel had a slew of new products to unveil. It showed off 11 new 10nm Ice Lake SKUs and shared specification details for the Project Athena platform it first announced this CES. The company also showed off some impressively effective AI demos running smoothly on its processors, as well as its Core i9 CPU that can run all its cores at a beastly 5GHz. We've taken all the most fun parts of this presentation and compressed it into a snackable clip that you can enjoy, so bon appetit!
Watch everything from ASUS' Computex 2019 press event in ten minutes!
ASUS crammed in an awful lot of press, gaming enthusiasts and their own execs to celebrate 30 years in the business, as well as its latest range of laptops, phones, routers and more. While the ZenBook Pro Duo, a dual-screen laptop that holds on to its physical keyboard, might have been the stand-out announcement, there was a lot to get through. We've honed down over an hour of specs, product proclamations and sizzle reels into an even... sizzlier 10-minute recap.
