INSIDE: THE BIGGEST PC NEWS FROM COMPUTEX

JULY 2021

WINDOWS TIPS: SIX COMMAND PROMPT COMMANDS YOU SHOULD BE USING

PLUS: MEET AMD’S FIDELITYFX SUPER RESOLUTION TIGERREVIEWED LAKE H INTEL’S NEW LAPTOP CHIPS TAKE THE FIGHT TO AMD Remember the last time your family visited the forest? It’s a place of wonder and imagination for the whole family—where stories come to life. And it’s closer than you think. Sounds like it’s time to plan your next visit. Make the forest part of your story today at a local park near you or fi nd one at DiscoverTheForest.org. CONTENTS

JULY 2021

≥ DEPARTMENTS ≥ FEATURES

7 News

29 Reviews & Ratings 96 Meet AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution

109 Here’s How

132 Tech Spotlight 103 6 Command Prompt commands you should still be using

COVER LAPTOP IMAGE COURTESY OF AORUS; INTEL IMAGE COURTESY OF INTEL JULY 2021 PCWorld 3 MASTHEAD

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JULY 2021 PCWorld 5 Remember the last time your family visited the forest? It’s a place of wonder and imagination for the whole family—where stories come to life. And it’s closer than you think. Sounds like it’s time to plan your next visit. Make the forest part of your story today at a local park near you or fi nd one at DiscoverTheForest.org. TECH NEWS AND TRENDS THAT WILL News AFFECT YOU TODAY AND BEYOND.

The biggest PC news from Computex 2021 While you were enjoying a hot dog over the Memorial Day holiday last month, AMD, Intel, Nvidia and more were changing the future. BY MARK HACHMAN

ne of the most important trade If we had to pick an overall “winner,” well, shows in the PC universe, AMD stole the show. A number of CPU, GPU, Computex, unfortunately and even architectural announcements made O occurred during the wee hours for a jam-packed Computex presentation. But of the Memorial Day holiday in the United our email and internal chat channels were States at the end of May. Fortunately, we kept busy chewing over what Intel and Nvidia had tabs on the announcements from AMD, Intel, to offer, too. In no particular order, here’s what Nvidia and more that you need to know we consider to be the most important stories about, and we’ve summed them up below. that came out of Computex.

IMAGE: NVIDIA JULY 2021 PCWorld 7 NEWS COMPUTEX 2021

Unit of Computing (NUC), and just how small they were? No longer. Intel has entered the traditional small-form-factor PC market with an 8-liter “Beast Canyon” NUC that can house a full-length graphics card alongside a Compute Element with a gaming-class AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution looks like a must-have right now. 11th-gen Tiger Lake-H series processor. Intel pitched its AMD’S FIDELITYFX SUPER glimpse of Beast Canyon as a sneak peek, RESOLUTION withholding pricing and availability details. FidelityFX Super Resolution is AMD’s answer But we looked closely at what details were to Nvidia’s DLSS technology (go.pcworld. available, as well as what we think this bad com/dlt2), both of which use some box will be able to accomplish. computational magic to eke out more frames on your games. AMD’s technology, though, INTEL’S 5GHZ REFRESH OF can improve not only its own GPUs but the TIGER LAKE competition’s as well—yes, even Nvidia’s We originally thought the launch of Intel’s GTX 10-series GPUs! Even better, there are Tiger Lake-U parts last September (go. four levels of graphics performance (in addition to the native performance of the GPU), which, according to this AMD slide, offer frame rates ranging from 49 fps to a whopping 150 fps. That’s simply insane.

INTEL’S BEAST CANYON NUC Remember when Intel introduced the so-called New Intel’s Beast Canyon NUC is, well, a beast.

8 PCWorld JULY 2021 pcworld.com/tglu) needed a little more oomph. Well, Intel delivered. The company launched a new 5GHz Tiger Lake chip that it claims can top the 5800U in both gaming and content creation. By how much, you ask? If you cherry-pick a HandBrake video transcoding benchmark, the new 2.9GHz Core i7-1195G7 outperforms the comparable Ryzen by a whopping eightfold.

And did we mention Intel now has The Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition is a pretty notebook. a 5G module, too? What’s inside is even prettier.

AMD’S RX 6000M Advantage Edition. We call it a “worthy TAKES ON NVIDIA’S RTX competitor to Nvidia’s GeForce” right in GPUS the headline, and we’ll show you why with This is what you were waiting for: a new our tests. AMD GPU that can go head-to-head with Nvidia’s RTX GPUs. At Computex the NVIDIA’S MONSTROUS notebook graphics wars just began heating GEFORCE RTX 3080 TI up. AMD launched the Radeon RX 6800M, What Nvidia calls its “new gaming flagship” 6700M, and 6600M, all with differing GPU may have deserved a higher place in levels of horsepower. AMD said the RDNA our list, given that, well, it’s a new premium 2 chips offer 1.5X the performance over the GPU. Combine the $1,200 price tag and original RDNA designs, while also the fact that graphics cards are still selling operating at 43 percent less power. And out almost immediately, and the result is a boy, are there benchmarks! graphics card that you’ll probably never get your hands on. However, Nvidia’s RTX 3080 PCWORLD REVIEWS THE Ti specs are appropriately massive, and we’ve AMD RADEON RX 6800M even been able to review the GeForce RTX PCWorld reviewed the AMD Radeon RX 3080 Ti (go.pcworld.com/38ti) itself. Prepare 6800M, built into the Asus ROG Strix G15 to be amazed.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 9 NEWS COMPUTEX 2021

THE NEW AMD ADVANTAGE AMD LAUNCHES NEW APUS EDITION NOTEBOOK FOR LOW-COST PC BUILDS PROGRAM AMD announced that its hotly anticipated After reading about Intel Evo’s go-to-market Ryzen 5000G APUs (go.pcworld.com/5apu) (go.pcworld.com/g2mb) brand for its will launch on August 5. An APU is a Ryzen co-engineered ”Project Athena” (go.pcworld. chip that integrates Radeon graphics, com/patn) premium notebook designs, you providing DIY builders with a cheap, purpose- might have thought Intel was the only chip built foundation for building a PC. But things vendor spending time and money to make have changed somewhat with the ongoing sure your next gaming notebook was chip shortage, and we’ll explain why that is. designed properly. Did you notice the AMD Advantage program at the bottom of our AMD’S 3D V-CACHE CAN Radeon RX 6000M story? Here’s what AMD is BOOST PERFORMANCE BY doing to guarantee your next Ryzen/Radeon 25 PERCENT notebook is a compelling product. What is a 3D chiplet? And what is AMD’s 3D V-Cache? That, my friend, is the future. AMD WHAT IS ’S announced a way to stack memory on top of ELEMENT 31? its Ryzen processor, dramatically increasing Liquid metal always conjures up images of the the cache size and the performance. And it’s T-1000 Terminator rather than a cooling coming later this year. We explain what it all solution inside a premium notebook. We’re means in our report. not going to spoil (well, in this story, anyway) what Element 31 actually is. But we can tell you that it’s very important in allowing Alienware to create the crazy- thin Alienware x15 and x17 laptops. Thin-and-light gaming laptops? The future is now. What’s inside that thing?

10 PCWorld JULY 2021 ’s next way of working is ‘Smart Canvas’ Google’s all-in-one workspace appears to be similar to Notion. BY MARK HACHMAN

oogle’s next step in Google of , during a presentation Workspace is…a Google at Google’s Google I/O developer workspace: Smart Canvas, an conference in late June. G all-in-one digital document Soltero didn’t call out Smart Canvas as a that’s designed for collaboration. separate app, competing with existing “For over a decade, we’ve been pushing Workspace apps like Docs or Sheets. documents away from just being pieces of Instead, he positioned Smart Canvas as paper, and toward collaborative, linked more of a conceptual experience, guiding content inspired by the web,” said Javier the evolution of working within the Google Soltero, vice president and general manager Workspace apps over time. Some users

IMAGE: GOOGLE JULY 2021 PCWorld 11 NEWS SMART CANVAS

began comparing Smart Canvas to Notion share a Slide, Doc, or Sheet document within (go.pcworld.com/ntin), a subscription a call. Beginning this fall, Meet service for the Mac OS platform that uses the will be directly integrated into Docs, Sheets, same sort of inclusive design as Google’s and Slides as well. A related Companion own Smart Canvas. Mode will also give each member of that Smart Canvas looks like a document, but Meet call their own dedicated video window, includes links to people and other that if they want it, so they’ll always feel like part of can be linked via the Canvas. (Google calls the conversation, Soltero said. these “smart chips,” and they can be What’s next for Smart Canvas? It looks referenced through an “@” symbol combined like the concept will evolve over time. The with the relevant person or document.) idea is for Smart Canvas to be less of the old Soltero showed a reference that looked way of doing things—a document somewhat similar to ’s describing a moment in time—and rather an checklists, as well as integrated that always-actionable, up-to-date document, could be created within the document—again Soltero said. with references outside the document. Google included a visual demonstration Soltero’s demonstration included features of what Smart Canvas will look like, which can Google has talked about before, such as be viewed at go.pcworld.com/scdm. inclusive language that would change “chairman” to “chairperson.” (Microsoft, too, has included this in its own Microsoft Editor tools [go.pcworld. com/medt].) Google also offered an update on the integration timeline (go.pcworld. com/intm) that it

began putting forward Google will soon begin integrating Workspace and Meet so that you’ll be last year: You can able to launch Meet from, say, .

12 PCWorld JULY 2021 , Google Workspace, and five other big reveals at Google I/O Here’s the best of Google I/O 2021: Android 12, new additions to Google workspace, enhancements to Search and Photos, and more. BY MARK HACHMAN

oogle may not be ready to hold enhancements to its core Search, Photos, and an in-person developer Shopping experiences; and remind us over conference quite yet, but and over that, yes, it really cares about G Google I/O was full of new privacy. There was even a “one more thing” developments across Google’s products and moment in Project Starline. Below is what you services. One line of products was missing: need to know about Google I/O 2021. hardware. If you were hoping for details on new Pixels, , Stadia consoles, or ANDROID 12 Nest smart home gear, you’ll have to wait. One of the more hotly anticipated But Google did offer new details on the announcements of Google I/O 2021 was long-awaited Android 12; show off Android 12, the next iteration of Android for

IMAGE: GOOGLE JULY 2021 PCWorld 13 NEWS GOOGLE I/O

smartphones. Google said that it rethought layout, color—even line widths. And that goes every aspect of Android, from the basic UI to for third-party apps, too. notifications to quick settings. The result? Quick Settings have been reworked, What Google calls “Material You.” emphasizing and your Google As Google normally does, it will launch smart home ecosystem’s Home controls. Android 12 first in its phones—but it did New privacy indicators will tell you when not announce any new Pixel hardware, or any apps are using your camera or mic, and a hardware at all. Good news, though: Google new Private Compute Core will allow says it made under-the-hood improvements Google’s AI to perform tasks that would to speed up Android 12 by up to 22 percent. normally require help from the Google cloud This should allow it to run on cheaper, less to execute. powerful hardware. Finally, there’s a big change to Google Android 12 will automatically generate Assistant: Just give the power button a long personal color palates with a “designer’s press to access the feature. eye.” The “Material You” Android UI revamp begins with a phone’s wallpaper: Select an PRIVACY image, and Android will recalibrate the For the last year, Apple has made “privacy” device’s interface color palette to one of the watchwords of iOS. At I/O, complement it. Google says that Android 12 Google responded with a number of will “flex” to every device, too, adapting the privacy-focused features—such as the UI to different devices, with adjustments to Android-specific features, above—alongside

Android 12 will automatically generate personal color palates with a “designer’s eye.”

14 PCWorld JULY 2021 SEARCH Why should you care about a Multitask Unified Model? Because that’s what Google is predicating its next generation of Search upon. MUM is designed to understand the context of a query (“What do I need to hike Mt. Fuji?”) and search out the answer across text and video, and even in foreign languages. Google also says you’ll be able to snap a photo of your hiking boots and ask whether they could be used on the hike, and the new algorithm will

Don’t be embarrassed by your search history— understand enough about the specific you’ll be able to quickly delete it. model to answer your question. Visually recognizing the world around frequent reminders that Google does care you will be part of your Android phone, too. about your privacy. For example, we learned Google partnered with Simone Biles and that more than 2 billion Google accounts now use Google’s autodelete capability, which erases your Web and app activity after 18 months. Google also said that it is working to eliminate bad passwords (go. pcworld.com/bdpw) and is a strong proponent of phone-based authentication. Google also said at I/O that it’s adding controls to delete recent searches (specifically by time, such as the last 15 minutes). Maps will also remind you that Location History is on so that you can turn it off if you’d like. Finally, Photos is introducing a protected Locked Folder where you can store any Augmented images in a de facto lockbox—if stored there, reality can be used to they won’t show up elsewhere in Photos, or identify local anywhere on your device. businesses.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 15 NEWS GOOGLE I/O

SHOPPING Google is tapping the power of to help you buy things in the real world, too. On your phone, you’ll be able to tap the small Lens icon in the Google search bar and take a photo, and then Google will try to

Google Maps is also becoming more aware; here, Maps highlights coffee identify the object shops rather than restaurants early in your day. you’ve photographed. In a future version Megan Rapinoe to put them “inside” AR, so of Chrome, you’ll also be able to quickly see if you’ll be able to watch Biles perform a virtual you have left any items in shopping carts tumbling routine. In Maps, you’ll be able to across various sites. Executives also said that use your smartphone screen and camera to Google will also search out promotional tell what businesses are as you walk by them, how busy they are, and even what dishes they serve. Google is also slowly rolling out Indoor Live View, an AR map of train stations and airports, in Zurich. An upcoming version of Chrome will show your shopping carts across various sites.

16 PCWorld JULY 2021 codes (as in Microsoft Edge), and apply any discounts for loyalty programs it knows you’re a part of, all through Google Pay.

PHOTOS More than 4 trillion photos and videos are stored in , and Google knows you’ll probably never look at the majority of them again. That’s why Google invented Google Memories, Google is making adjustments to Android and its Pixel cameras to an existing feature that improve how they take photos of people of color. resurfaces older photos on a given day or topic. Google is now going to tweak this by adding what it calls “Little patterns,” which look for a number of related photos, such as images from birthday parties or hikes, and show them together. Google also knows that for some, memories can be painful—whether they be of an ex-partner, a deceased loved one, or the time before a transgendered person transitioned. For these examples, you’ll have the option of excluding a specific person, photo, or time period. Google also said that it worked with people of color to reassess how its cameras take photos of Black people; how its cameras adjust for exposure and white balance; and how portrait mode separates Black hair from

If you want to, you’ll be able to remove photos the background. This feature will arrive on from Google’s Moments feature. Android 12 and phones this fall.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 17 NEWS GOOGLE I/O

GOOGLE’S PRODUCTIVITY PROJECT STARLINE AND “SMART CANVAS” Google’s Google Meet may allow you to It’s taken a long time to evolve the concept of see a friend or colleague a few hundred a “document” from an electronic facsimile of miles away via video, but they’ll still look a piece of paper to something that embraces like they’re sitting in a distant room. Project the modern digitized workspace, but Starline aims to eliminate that feeling of Google’s Smart Canvas is how Google sees disconnect with a new combination of the future of work. Google Canvas takes a super high-definition video and depth Google Doc file, say, and basically makes it a cameras, connected by a high-speed living, always-evolving document by linking interface that’s augmented by digital to people, tasks, and files via linked “smart compression. chips,” and more. Essentially, what Starline is showing you As a related initiative, Google also said is less of a 2D video representation than a that it’s allowing Docs, Slides, and Sheets high-res 3D model. Google is only documents to be shared and collaborated implementing it at its own campus for now, within Google Meet, and it will add Meet but maybe we’ll see a commercial version video chat directly to those documents in the later on. fall—no need to switch from one app to Whew! That’s all from Google I/O for this another. Want more? Our Smart Canvas story year. Now we’ll have to wait until we see on page 11 explains this further. these features in the real world.

Google’s Project Starline fuses high-resolution video and 3D.

18 PCWorld JULY 2021 Qualcomm targets low-cost PCs with the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 CPU Microsoft and Qualcomm are also launching a new Snapdragon development PC for testing Windows on Arm applications. BY MARK HACHMAN

ualcomm’s lower-end Snapdragon 7c Gen 2, the main difference is Snapdragon 7c chips carved in clock speed: The Snapdragon 7c used a out a space for Kryo 468 CPU running at up to 2.4 GHz, Q and other value devices that while the new chip uses an identical Kryo aimed for long battery life and consistent 468, yet running 6 percent faster at 2.55GHz. connectivity. Now Qualcomm is announcing It appears that every other feature on the two an upgraded Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 chip different chips remains identical. The latest aimed at powering the low-end $350 chip also uses the same X15 4G LTE modem Chromebooks and PCs that flood Amazon’s as the 7c Gen 1. “most popular” list. What else has changed is the competitive Comparing 2019’s Snapdragon 7c (go. landscape for low-end PCs and pcworld.com/sn7c) and the new Chromebooks, which the original 7c seemed

IMAGE: QUALCOMM JULY 2021 PCWorld 19 NEWS SNAPDRAGON 7C GEN 2

Lenovo Flex 5G (go.pcworld.com/ lf5g) around Snapdragon processors like the Snapdragon 8cx. Qualcomm executives said they expect the first Snapdragon 7c devices in the summer, without The Snapdragon 7c Gen 2’s feature set remains largely unchanged. specifically identifying Lenovo. headed for (go.pcworld.com/hdfr). Intel’s “We look forward to launching new Celeron N4020 processor and Pentium Gold Lenovo devices with the Snapdragon 7c Gen N5030 are now viable solutions for low-end 2 compute platform later this year,” Emily PCs and Chromebooks, as is the Mediatek Ketchen, chief marketing officer of Lenovo’s 8183. You probably won’t look for any of Intelligent Devices Group, said in a statement. these on a spec sheet, but you will notice Qualcomm declined to publish actual how peppy the resulting performance is. performance numbers backing the What Qualcomm can’t really quantify is the battery life, since that’s dependent on the hardware manufacturer. One hardware maker that will use the Snapdragon 7c will be Lenovo, which has often built laptops like the Qualcomm’s performance estimates are disappointingly vague.

20 PCWorld JULY 2021 Snapdragon 7c. Instead, it published relative NUC-like box (go.pcworld.com/nucl) that comparisons against its competition from has a Snapdragon processor inside of it. The Intel and Mediatek across a variety of Snapdragon Developer Kit will be benchmarks. However, we’ve already commercially available at The Microsoft completed early testing on the HP Elite Folio Store this summer, the two companies said. (go.pcworld.com/elfl), which uses the faster The price and configuration weren’t Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 chip, the premium immediately available. offering in Qualcomm’s lineup. We also The development work has also paid off in performed hands-on testing with the original another area as well. This summer, Zoom will Snapdragon 7c (go.pcworld.com/8c7c), and be available in a native version coded for it felt quick enough. Windows on Arm that can run on Snapdragon. In a demo video, Qualcomm MEET THE SNAPDRAGON said that the added efficiency would allow a NUC Snapdragon test notebook to run for up to Two other key things have changed since almost eight hours while continually running Qualcomm released the original Snapdragon Zoom. That’s up to 12 percent more than the 7c. First, Microsoft now allows users to run unoptimized version, the company said. 64-bit apps via emulation (go.pcworld. com/64em) and via the Windows Insider program, allowing the vast ecosystem of Windows apps to finally run unimpressively on top of Snapdragon hardware (go. pcworld.com/tpsn). (The capability has not yet been pushed to the mainstream release build of Windows 10, however.) Second, more apps now have versions specifically coded for Windows on Arm. To kickstart development even further, Qualcomm and Microsoft said this week Microsoft and Qualcomm have co-developed a that they’ve co-engineered a low-cost Snapdragon Developer Kit, which developers will be development platform consisting of a able to purchase from the Microsoft Store this summer.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 21 NEWS

Garmin’s 2021 dash cams add cloud storage and app connectivity Garmin enhances the already impressive capabilities of its super-slim dash cams with phone connectivity and cloud uploads. BY JON L. JACOBI

armin recently announced that All except the appropriately named it has upgraded one of key-fob-size Mini 2 feature GPS and a two- PCWorld’s favorite lines of inch color display. The Mini 2 is priced at Gdash cams (go.pcworld.com/ $130, and the top-end 67W at $260. fvdc) with phone and cloud connectivity. Due to the newfound connectivity, there’s The new dash cams, which are available via now a parking mode (wake on disturbances garmin.com, include the 1080p Dash Cam to capture video), plus a live view on your Mini 2, the 1080p Dash Cam 47, the 1440p phone courtesy of the Garmin Drive app. The Dash Cam 57, and the 1440p, wide-field-of- app may also be used to offload and view view 67W. captures, as well as configure settings.

22 PCWorld JULY 2021 IMAGE: GARMIN Garmin’s new dash cams feature a new parking mode.

Videos are uploaded for safekeeping to The Dash Garmin’s Vault storage service, where they’ll Cam Mini 2 is Garmin’s reside for at least 24 hours, with an option (via entry-level account and subscription, of course) for model. storage for up to 30 days. All four models store video on removable SD cards for easy swapping and archiving. Garmin’s dash cams support voice control and offer a variety of bad-driver— ahem, driver safety features, such as forward collision and lane departure alerts, as well as speed camera warnings. To our mind, Garmin’s new models are as full-featured as any forward-only dash cams on the market. We hope the next iteration will add options for interior and rear view cameras. To learn more, visit Garmin’s website at go.pcworld.com/gmwb.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 23 NEWS

RIP Internet Explorer: Microsoft will discontinue support in 2022 Fortunately, IE will live on within Microsoft Edge. BY MARK HACHMAN

elieve it or not, Microsoft’s Internet right in. Microsoft said in 2019 (go.pcworld. Explorer is still alive and kicking— com/sd19) that it planned to add an IE Mode but not for long. If you’re one of within Edge, and the virtualized browser lives B the people who relies on Internet on as a configurable mode within Microsoft Explorer (hi, Dad!), Microsoft has some bad Edge. That’s important, because the modern news: It will officially end support for the Edge browser is simply more secure than Internet Explorer desktop application on June Internet Explorer ever was. And you can’t say 15, 2022. Before that, however, Microsoft Microsoft didn’t signal IE’s demise—it basically 365 (formerly known as Office 365) will end booted users from accessing hundreds of sites support for IE on August 17 of this year. (go.pcworld.com/hnst) via IE in late 2020. The replacement? Microsoft Edge, which “Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, already has an “Internet Explorer mode” built more secure and more modern browsing

24 PCWorld JULY 2021 IMAGE: MICROSOFT experience than Internet Explorer, but it is to be reloaded in Internet Explorer” toggle also able to address a key concern: to On to enable the compatibility mode. compatibility for older, legacy websites and Here you can also choose when to launch applications,” Microsoft explained (go. sites in IE Mode, including Always. pcworld.com/mexp) in a recent blog post. Afterward, you’ll need to restart your However, there are exceptions. In a browser. technical FAQ (go.pcworld.com/tkfq), If you decide that Edge is for you, go to Microsoft noted that it will only phase out the Edge Settings menu again, and then go Internet Explorer on Windows 10 20H2 and to the Profiles header in the left menu. From later. (Eventually, however, these earlier there, select “Import browser data,” and version releases of Windows 10 will also then select Microsoft Internet Explorer from end support.) If you’re still stuck in the top drop-down menu. Click Import and Windows 8.1, the end-of-life notice won’t Edge will configure itself in the same way apply, either. that Internet Explorer was set up. Microsoft apparently hopes that you’ll HOW TO ENABLE poke around a bit within Edge, decide INTERNET EXPLORER MODE you’ll like it, and move on. Unfortunately, WITHIN EDGE even if you don’t, it’s going to give you a Fortunately, the way to enable Internet firm push in that direction. Explorer mode within Edge hasn’t Microsoft also has a more technical changed. First, of course, your PC will need explanation of its decision at (go.pcworld. to have Microsoft Edge, which you com/rtre. probably will find residing on the PC’s taskbar. You can then turn on IE Mode via Edge’s settings. In the address bar for Microsoft Edge, type edge://settings/ defaultbrowser and click Enter. Alternatively, you can also go into the Edge Settings menu and down to Default Here’s how to find the IE Compatibility Mode options within browser. Slide the “Allow sites Microsoft Edge.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 25 NEWS

If you hate the Microsoft Store, Windows 10’s package manager can bypass it “Get me Firefox, now.” The new Winget package manager literally tells Windows to do just that, and Windows will obey. BY MARK HACHMAN

inally, Microsoft has a way to avoid com/choc), for example, has been available wading through the Microsoft Store as a package manager for years. (Package app or hunting down an app managers have also been a staple of for F download link from the web: years, and one of the operating system’s Winget, also known as the Windows Package greatest features.) Version 1.0 of Windows Manager, has finally been released. Package Manager (go.pcworld.com/v1pm) is Package managers aren’t new to the a command-line application that simply tells Windows world. Chocolatey (go.pcworld. Windows to seek out a particular app and

26 PCWorld JULY 2021 IMAGE: MICROSOFT install it—no muss, no fuss. It will soon ship as Stable desktop browser. Winget search an automatic update via the Microsoft Store followed by the name of the package verifies for all devices running Windows 10, version that the package exists, and is the correct 1809 and later, Microsoft recently said. terminology to find it. Colloquially, the Windows Package You’ll want to know two other commands, Manager is known as “winget,” which is the too: winget uninstall and winget command you use to launch it. It’s easy to upgrade, where you’ll add the name of the use: Type “winget install firefox” to download app in question after the commands. The and install the Firefox browser automatically. latter upgrade command may be unnecessary, because many apps will simply HOW TO USE WINGET TO auto-upgrade themselves or ask you to do it DOWNLOAD APPS QUICKLY the next time you restart them. There are two ways of taking advantage of You won’t yet find every app in existence winget. First, via the App Installer app, you within the Windows Package Manager. But if can sideload apps without going through the you’re so inclined, you can ask Microsoft to Microsoft Store. Weirdly, though, the app add packages for others to find. The didn’t work well on our Insider machine. Windows Package Manager Manifest Creator We’d recommend the second way, using the (also known as “Winget create”) can be command line process instead—it’s simpler downloaded (go.pcworld.com/wcrt) at and more effective. Microsoft’s Github site. You’ll need to To do so, open the Windows PowerShell provide the install link to the installer file. app. By default, the app opens into a DOS Microsoft will then review the installer for shell. Type winget to see a list of commands security’s sake, though you’ll be able to track and launch the package manager itself. the status of the installer if you provide your What’s great about the winget command Microsoft credentials. is that it connects to a repository of existing The complexity of the Microsoft Store app packaged apps, so you can pretty quickly find has been a sore point with Windows users what you’re looking for if you already know (go.pcworld.com/sore). Microsoft is the name of the app. The exception is if expected to overhaul the Store in conjunction there’s more than one version of an app: with its “Sun Valley” Windows 10 graphical Typing winget install opera, for updates this fall, but so far the company has instance, returns a notice saying you’ll need just made incremental improvements (go. to reenter the command, selecting either the pcworld.com/inim). Winget is a terrific Opera GX gaming browser or the Opera alternative while we wait.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 27 Remember the last time your family visited the forest? It’s a place of wonder and imagination for the whole family—where stories come to life. And it’s closer than you think. Sounds like it’s time to plan your next visit. Make the forest part of your story today at a local park near you or fi nd one at DiscoverTheForest.org. TESTED IN PCWORLD LABS WE PUT HARDWARE & SOFTWARE Reviews & Ratings THROUGH RIGOROUS TESTING

11th-gen ‘Tiger Lake H’ performance deep-dive: Intel gets back in the game Intel’s 10nm Tiger Lake H puts it back into the fight with AMD’s best. BY GORDON MAH UNG

hoa, folks—don’t head for signal and Intel’s new rookie star is warming the parking lot because up in the bullpen: the 11th-gen “Tiger Lake H” this ball game ain’t over processors for gaming and creative laptops. W yet. Sure, you’ve been Unlike the once great but should-have- watching Intel’s older 10th-gen H-class CPUs retired-two-seasons-ago 10th-gen Comet get blasted off the mound all afternoon by Lake chips, Tiger Lake H features truly new Team Ryzen, but the coach just gave the cores and is built on Intel’s most advanced

IMAGE: INTEL JULY 2021 PCWorld 29 REVIEWS INTEL TIGER LAKE H

10nm “Super Fin” technology (go.pcworld. For comparison laptops, we sought only com/sprf). 8-core CPUs configurations—no 6-core or You can read more about Tiger Lake H’s 4-core laptops allowed. processor lineup here (go.pcworld.com/ • Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (go.pcworld. tgln), and dig into all the new 11th-gen com/14az) with Ryzen 9 4800HS, GeForce laptops announced (go.pcworld.com/tglp) RTX 2060 Max-Q and 16GB of DDR4/3200. so far, but rather than yakety yak, let’s find out It has a 14-inch screen and weight of 3.6 just how fast the new 11th-gen chip is. pounds. • Asus ROG Flow X13 (go.pcworld. HOW (AND WHAT) WE com/13ax) with Ryzen 9 5980HS, GeForce TESTED GTX 1650 Max-Q, 32GB of LPDDR4X/4266. To do that we got our hands on Gigabyte’s It has a 13-inch screen and weight of 3 new Aorus 17G laptop. On the outside, it’s pounds. mostly the same as the previous 10th-gen– • Asus ROG Strix G17 with Ryzen 9 based model (go.pcworld.com/p10g), but 5900X, GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU with the Aorus 17G we’re testing today features a TGP of 130 watts and 32GB of DDR4/3200. the 8-core, 11th-gen Core i7-11800H CPU It has a 17.3-inch screen and weight of 6 inside. It packs the same GeForce RTX 3080 pounds. Laptop GPU (go.pcworld.com/n38r) with a TGP of 105 watts as the previous version, but it’s hooked up to the 11th-gen Tiger Lake via PCIe Gen 4, rather than the slower Gen 3 connection used by Intel’s older CPU. The 11th-gen chip has enough spare PCIe lanes that Gigabyte pairs that GPU with a speedy 1TB Samsung PM9A1 on the Gen 4 bus too. Finally, unlike with the previous Core i7 model, Gigabyte uses 32GB of DDR4/3200 memory instead of DDR4/2933—an odd limitation of the last processor. You can see the plentiful PCIe lanes Intel has put The updated Aorus 17G features Intel’s new 10nm into the Tiger Lake H (page 8-core 11th-gen Core i7-11800H CPU and a 105- opposite). watt Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU.

30 PCWorld JULY 2021 that’s the laptop’s Turbo setting, while the Dell was tested in its Ultra Performance mode, and the pair of Gigabyte laptops were set to Boost for the 10th-gen and either its Creator Unlike AMD’s chips, the Tiger Lake H offers Gen 4 PCIe support and plenty of it too. or Gaming Mode for the 11th-gen • Gigabyte Aorus 17G (go.pcworld. version. The fan profile for the Gigabyte com/17ag) with Core i7-10870H, GeForce notebooks were set to Gaming for all testing. RTX 3080 Laptop GPU with a TGP of 105 Before we get too far into the numbers, watts and 32GB of DDR4/2933. It has a we do want to warn you that today’s 17.3-inch screen weight of 6.1 pounds. comparison sticks mostly to CPU • Dell XPS 17 9700 (go.pcworld. performance rather than gaming com/17dx) with Core i7-10875H, GeForce performance. That’s because we ran into a RTX 2060 Max-Q and 32GB of DDR4/3200. driver issue on the 11th-gen–based Aorus It has a 17-inch screen and a weight of 4.6 17G. It became stuck on one of Nvidia’s pounds. Studio Drivers (which revolve around All of the laptops are running Windows 10 optimizations in content creation apps) 2H02 19042.928 as well as the latest drivers instead of an Nvidia Game Ready driver. and BIOSes available directly from the We’re working to solve the issue with Nvidia manufacturers. While we have tested each and Gigabyte and will run our gaming results laptop’s different power state in their own once we have all three of the 3080 laptops individual reviews, today we’re sticking only running on the same gaming driver. to the laptops highest sane performance plan and fan settings available. By sane, we mean A WORD ABOUT WEIGHT the settings most people would run—not 100 In the charts below, you’ll notice we included percent fan speeds. For the Asus laptops, the total weight of the laptop along with the

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CPU model. That’s because size and weight The final point we want to make is that matter a lot in notebooks, and especially most of the big laptops here don’t just offer gaming notebooks. A larger laptop means bigger CPU performance—they also offer far you can have more cooling, which means you more graphics punch with their higher-end can have generally better performance. GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPUs. The For example, the older Dell XPS 17 9700 cooling in those bulkier builds can handle is about 4.6 pounds and ultrathin. Despite more GPU firepower too. wielding a 10th-gen chip with higher model number, it actually tends to trail the 6.1-pound 3D MODELING Aorus 17G with its beefier 6.1-pound chassis. PERFORMANCE It also goes without saying that you should We’ll kick this off where we typically do: 3D also be really impressed by the Asus Flow X13 modeling performance using Maxon’s and its Ryzen 9 5980 in these benchmarks popular Cinebench R20 benchmark. It’s because it often trades blows with the new based on the same engine used in the 11th-gen Core i7-11800H in the 6.1-pound company’s Cinema4D software that’s sold new Aorus 17G while weighing as little as a both standalone and integrated into apps like MacBook Pro M1 (go.pcworld.com/13m1). Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. Modeling typically loves more cores and faster cores, and you can see the weakness of Intel’s 10th-gen 14nm CPUs in the bars at right. Even a year-old Ryzen 4000 CPU in a laptop that’s much, much lighter than the

The size and weight of a laptop matters, so you should be very impressed with the 10th-gen Asus Flow X13’s tiny body and big performance thanks to its Ryzen 9 5980HS. laptops is faster.

32 PCWorld JULY 2021 Barbershop scene for our workload, which is Cinebench R20 nT more intensive than the standard BMW scene 3D modeling performance we’ve used before. The result again puts that Dell XPS 17 9700 monstrous Ryzen 9 5900HX with a decent Core i7-10875H 3,758 Gigabyte Aorus 17G lead, but that 11th-gen Core i7-11800H isn’t Core i7-10870H 3,772 Gigabyte Aorus 17G doing too shabbily—especially when you Core i7-11800H 5,028 Asus Strix G17 look at the performance of the older 10th-gen Ryzen 9 5900HX 5,275 Asus Flow X13 CPUs, which finish last. Ryzen 9 5980 4,824 Asus Zephyrus G14 Next up we use the Chaos Group’s new Ryzen 9 4900HS 4,068 V-Ray 5 benchmark in CPU rendering mode LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE to get yet one more look at the multicore performance of these 8-core laptops. The The good news, though, is that the new 11th-gen Core i7-11800H is the surprise 11th-gen Core i7-11800H is breathing down winner (albeit not by much). It crosses the the neck of the Ryzen 9 4900HX. No, it’s not finish line a hair faster than the Ryzen 9 faster, but remember that this is a Core i7 5900HX chip. That’s good news for Tiger versus a Ryzen 9 part. Lake H, and once again, before someone Next we move on to the open-source points this out: This is the Core i7 chip, not Blender 2.92, which is incredibly popular the higher-clocked Core i9 version. with indie movies as well as hobbyists due to Our next test is POV-Ray, a ray tracing its cost: free. Free doesn’t mean bad, though, application that can render scenes based on and Blender has a huge following. We use the text-based descriptions. The application

Blender 2.92 Barbershop V-Ray 5 CPU Seconds Vsamples

Dell XPS 17 9700 Dell XPS 17 9700 Core i7-10875H 1,146 Core i7-10875H 7,6 58 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 1,031 Core i7-10870H 7,7 76 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-11800H 817 Core i7-11800H 9,734 Asus Strix G17 Asus Strix G17 Ryzen 9 5900HX 707 Ryzen 9 5900HX 9,563 Asus Flow X13 Asus Flow X13 Ryzen 9 5980 838 Ryzen 9 5980 8,666 Asus Zephyrus G14 Asus Zephyrus G14 Ryzen 9 4900HS 988 Ryzen 9 4900HS 7, 3 4 4

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

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POV Ray 3.7nT Cinebench R20 1T Pixels per second Single thread performance

Dell XPS 17 9700 Dell XPS 17 9700 Core i7-10875H 3,221 Core i7-10875H 470 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 3,411 Core i7-10870H 453 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-11800H 3,976 Core i7-11800H 581 Asus Strix G17 Asus Strix G17 Ryzen 9 5900HX 4,834 Ryzen 9 5900HX 572 Asus Flow X13 Asus Flow X13 Ryzen 9 5980 4,424 Ryzen 9 5980 596 Asus Zephyrus G14 Asus Zephyrus G14 Ryzen 9 4900HS 3,774 Ryzen 9 4900HS 487

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

actually dates back to the Amiga in the 1980s largely make too much heat when under but has dutifully been supported and still sees all-core loads. This single-thread test lets them service. Unlike the previous modeling tests, finally beat that pesky Ryzen 9 4800HS. the Ryzen 9 5900HX opens up a hefty 21 Intel’s new 11th-gen chip definitely offers percent advantage over the Core i7-11800H up an improvement, but this is an area where chip. Still, 11th-gen does offer noticeable the Core i9 version would definitely get you improvements over 10th-gen. more performance. We’ll close our modeling tests by looking We’ll close out with Cinebench R20 using at single-threaded performance. First up is a single-thread. This really shows you that we POV-Ray 3.7, which actually puts the Ryzen 9 have a race here. The Core i7-11800H noses 5900HX behind its sibling, the Ryzen 9 by the mighty Ryzen 9 5900HX and pushes 5980HS. That’s a bit of a surprise considering right up against the Ryzen 9 5980HS. the HX is the unlocked, overclockable part in O, Core i9-11980HK, where art thou? a 6-pound laptop while the Ryzen 9 5980HS is in a smaller 3-pound laptop. But the power ENCODING PERFORMANCE dissipation of the CPUs come down We’ll leave the land of 3D modeling for considerably while running single-threaded another intense task people typically buy and the lighter laptops are simply less 8-core laptops for: video encoding. First up is constrained in these scenarios. The higher Handbrake 1.3.3. We’re converting a 4K boost clocks of the Ryzen 9 5980HS might open source Tears of Steel video to a 1080p, just be what it takes to come out on top here. 30 frames per second file using the It also aids Intel’s 10th-gen parts, which HEVC/H.264 CODEC. We measure the time

34 PCWorld JULY 2021 HandBrake 1.3.3 Encode HandBrake 1.3.3 Encode 4K to 1080p/30 HEVC 4K to 1080p/30 HEVC CPU-based VCE/Quick Sync Seconds Seconds

Dell XPS 17 9700 Dell XPS 17 9700 Core i7-10875H 1,319 Core i7-10875H 350 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 1,278 Core i7-10870H 347 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-11800H 988 Core i7-11800H 279 Asus Strix G17 Asus Strix G17 Ryzen 9 5900HX 897 Ryzen 9 5900HX 400 Asus Flow X13 Asus Flow X13 Ryzen 9 5980 1,053 Ryzen 9 5980 354 Asus Zephyrus G14 Asus Zephyrus G14 Ryzen 9 4900HS 1,232 Ryzen 9 4900HS 310

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

it takes to complete the job because that’s For Intel, it’s a good uptick, with the what will annoy you the most. newer media encoder yielding a very large Handbrake, like many advanced improvement over the previous encoder in encoders, loves fast CPU cores. The winner the 10th-gen chips. We’re a little puzzled over here is the Ryzen 9 5900HX, taking about 9 AMD’s results. Both of the Ryzen 9 5000 percent less time to finish than the 11th-gen chips should offer very similar performance, Core i7-11800H. Again, that’s fairly decent but the Ryzen 9 4800HS actually wins. All multicore performance for Intel’s latest three of the laptop’s update utilities were processor, especially when compared to the showing the latest drivers available so we’re at 10th-gen Core i7-10870H in the older Aorus a bit of a loss. We did try to manually update 17G. The 11th-gen chip finishes the encode the Asus Strix 17G using AMD’s updating tool about 23 percent faster. but that nearly corrupted the OS in the Both the Intel and AMD CPUs feature process. The short story? Stay tuned. integrated graphics with dedicated hardware encoding support. Intel’s is called QuickSync CONTENT CREATION while AMD’s is VCE. Hardware-accelerated Next, we’ll move onto practical applications encoding generally provides much faster that hordes of people buy expensive 8-core performance, but can come at the cost of visual laptops for: Adobe products. quality. To find out which chip rules, we ran the Our first test uses UL’s Procyon, which same test using the dedicated encoders. scripts Adobe Premiere Pro 15.1 to export

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UL Procyon Video Test UL Procyon Video Test using Adobe Premiere using Photoshop 22.3/ Pro 15.1 Lightroom Classic 10.2 dGPU disabled dGPU disabled

Dell XPS 17 9700 Dell XPS 17 9700 Core i7-10875H 1,743 Core i7-10875H 5,484 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 1,785 Core i7-10870H 5,553 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-11800H 2,411 Core i7-11800H 6,650 Asus Strix G17 Asus Strix G17 Ryzen 9 5900HX 2,589 Ryzen 9 5900HX 6,858 Asus Flow X13 Asus Flow X13 Ryzen 9 5980 2,521 Ryzen 9 5980 6,449 Asus Zephyrus G14 Asus Zephyrus G14 Ryzen 9 4900HS 2,306 Ryzen 9 4900HS 5,034

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

four different 1080p and 4K videos with some Classic are harder to run than browsing or effects applied. Because Adobe products can Office, but many of the tasks tap only a few tap the GPU for work, we ran all of our tests cores, or are optimized for the new with the discrete GPU off, which meant all of instruction sets in the CPUs. As with our the work was done by the CPU cores, the previous test, we leave the discrete graphics CPU’s integrated graphics cores, or the CPU’s disabled as both programs can use the embedded hardware encoder. GeForce GPUs inside. The winner (by about 7 percent) is the The Ryzen 9 5900HX is the technical Ryzen 9 5900HX, with the Ryzen 9 5980HS winner but it’s really a squeaker, as it’s just 3 just behind. Don’t feel too bad about that percent faster than the 11th-gen Core i7. bronze medal, Intel. The Core i7-11800H is a Intel’s latest chip again posts a very decent hefty 35 percent faster than the Core performance advantage over the 10th-gen i7-10870H in the older Aorus 17G. And once CPUs, to the tune of 19 percent. again: How would the 11th-gen Core i9 fare? Moving from Adobe Premiere Pro OFFICE AND BROWSER performance to Adobe Photoshop and PERFORMANCE Adobe Lightroom Classic, we tell Procyon Stepping back a notch, we wanted to look at to run the laptops through several scripted performance in more mundane work such as runs measuring multiple aspects of the Microsoft Office 365 and browsing. For programs. Photoshop and Lightroom Office, we use UL’s PCMark 10 Applications

36 PCWorld JULY 2021 test, which runs Word, Excel, PowerPoint, aces the 10th-gen by 17 percent in Excel and and Edge through various scripts to measure a whopping 25 percent in PowerPoint, with common everyday workloads. We hit a snag Word a wash. (Who pushes Microsoft Word where the benchmark failed its Microsoft that hard anyway?) Still, we’d declare the Edge run, so we can’t report an overall score, Core i7-11800H to be a pretty decent winner but it produced results for the stuff that over the 10th-gen chip it’s replacing, and a matters: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Both Core i7 breathing on the neck of a Ryzen 9 the 11th-gen chip in the new Aorus 17G and 5900HX is something to be proud of. the Ryzen 9 take CPU the technical win, but Since our Edge tests failed, we decided we think it’s mostly a tie. to at least look at browsing performance of We didn’t think there would that much of the laptops using 90 as the a difference in such “boring” work—but base. First up is Principled Technologies’ surprise, surprise: The 11th-gen processor WebXPRT 3, which measures performance running HTML5 and JavaScript applications such as photo enhancement, stock option PCMark 10 Apps picking, and an online homework task. It can Performance be used to measure browser performance Single thread but also yields system-level performance PowerPoint Excel Word insights if all of the machines are running the Dell XPS 17 9700 Core i7-10875H 10,509 same browser. 21,677 6,913 The overall winner is the Ryzen 9 5900HX Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 11,263 but it’s only 4 percent faster than the Core 22,554 7,235 i7-11800H. Compared to the 10th-gen chip, Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-11800H 14,106 26,337 7, 568 WebXPRT 3 Chrome 90 Asus Strix G17 14,862 Ryzen 9 5900HX Dell XPS 17 9700 27,459 Core i7-10875H 255 7,39 9 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 254 Asus Flow X13 Ryzen 9 5980 9,687 Gigabyte Aorus 17G 287 23,706 Core i7-11800H Asus Strix G17 7,2 97 Ryzen 9 5900HX 299 Asus Zephyrus G14 9,465 Asus Flow X13 Ryzen 9 4900HS Ryzen 9 5980 293 19,285 Asus Zephyrus G14 6,110 Ryzen 9 4900HS 241

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

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This measures JavaScript and WebAssembly JetStream 2 Chrome 90 performance again. The 11th-gen Core i7

Dell XPS 17 9700 ekes out about a 3 percent win over the Core i7-10875H 156 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Ryzen 9 5900HX but also a very impressive Core i7-10870H 157 Gigabyte Aorus 17G 22 percent win over the older 10th-gen Core Core i7-11800H 185 Asus Strix G17 i7 CPUs. Ryzen 9 5900HX 186 Asus Flow X13 186 Ryzen 9 5980 AI PERFORMANCE Asus Zephyrus G14 149 Ryzen 9 4900HS We’ll close out with the brave new world of LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE PC-based AI work. AI for consumers has been a pretty abstract long-hair book topic, the 11th-gen model delivers a decent 13 but clearly its most promising practical use percent higher score. for now is helping to accelerate image Up next is JetStream 2. This benchmark processing. Our first test is Topaz Lab’s measures JavaScript and WebAssembly Gigapixel AI. This benchmark uses performance and is rooted very much in AI-trained models to make better image Apple’s WebKit. It’s pretty much a three-way enlargements than more conventional (and tie between 11th-gen and the two Ryzen far dumber) algorithms. 5000 chips, with Intel’s latest outpacing its We start with a picture of a US Navy F-18 10th-gen predecessors by a solid 18 percent. Hornet taken at an air show with an 8.2MP Last up is another Apple-based, WebKit- Canon EOS 1D Mk IIn camera more than a rooted benchmark called Speedometer 2.0. decade ago. Viewed from 2021, 8.2MP sounds pretty pathetic, so we task Gigapixel AI 5.5.1 with increasing the image by 6 times Speedometer 2.0 and timing the result. Gigapixel AI can run on Chrome 90 a GPU or CPU, so we pick the CPU. Gigapixel

Dell XPS 17 9700 Core i7-10875H 154 AI supports Intel’s OpenVINO technology. Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 151 The winner shouldn’t surprise anyone as Gigabyte Aorus 17G Intel has pushed AVX-512 support—even to Core i7-11800H 185 Asus Strix G17 the detriment of its own chips, some would Ryzen 9 5900HX 180 Asus Flow X13 say—for years now. The technology was Ryzen 9 5980 174 Asus Zephyrus G14 found in Intel’s Skylake-X products, its Ryzen 9 4900HS 151 10th-gen Ice Lake CPUs, and its mainstream- LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE focused 11th-gen Tiger Lake U chips, and now

38 PCWorld JULY 2021 was a bike, it would classify the image as a Topaz Gigapixel 5.5.1 bike for you. Sure, your phone might already F-18 Hornet AI Time to do that now for new pictures, but if you’re Upscale 6x CPU sitting on tens of thousands of images you’ve Seconds shot, no one’s going to sort or tag them for Dell XPS 17 9700 Core i7-10875H 105 you. Until now, anyway. Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 102 Rather than using the actual AI Photo Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-11800H 79 Tagger (which is no longer free for newer Asus Strix G17 Ryzen 9 5900HX 102 versions), Nero Score is based on an updated Asus Flow X13 core that quickly measures how fast a CPU Ryzen 9 5980 137 Asus Zephyrus G14 can use AI to analyze 50 small pictures three Ryzen 9 4900HS 129

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE times. This is actually better than trying to use AI Photo Tagger since it likely all fits into makes it way into these more powerful memory and would thus be less influenced by 11th-gen Tiger Lake H CPUs. The dividends the speed of the drive it’s reading from. are pretty sizeable. The Core i7-11800H Nero Score is based on Intel’s OpenVINO finishes the job 42 percent faster than the toolkit and—shocker—a CPU with AVX-512 Ryzen 9 5980HS, which oddly ends up losing support yields big, big wins here. We’re to the Ryzen 9 4800HS. We’re again at odds looking at 50 percent more performance over to explain the mismatched performance of the Ryzen 9 5900HX from the Core the Ryzen CPUs. Further investigation needs i7-11800H. Intel’s latest chip is also a massive to be done as to why the results are so 78 percent faster than the 10th-gen Core scattered, but we can say GigaPixel AI is on a i7-10870H. development fast track. It feels like updated versions drop every other week. We feel more confident in the Nero Score 1.08 performance difference between the Dell XPS 17 9700 Core i7-10875H 1,278 10th-gen and 11th-gen chips, though. Tiger Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 1,408 Lake churns through the job 22 percent faster. Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-11800H 2,505 Our final AI task is the new Nero Score Asus Strix G17 Ryzen 9 5900HX 1,669 benchmark. We’ve previously used Nero AI Asus Flow X13 Ryzen 9 5980 1,284 Photo Tagger, which was initially a free Asus Zephyrus G14 Ryzen 9 4900HS 1,188 proof-of-concept that used AI models to sort LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE and analyze photos. If it found what it thought

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If you really believe this newfangled consumer AI stuff is going places, this counts Counter-Strike: Global as a big (and predictable) win for the Tiger Operations 19x10 High Lake H. Frames per second

Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 324 Gigabyte Aorus 17G GAMING PERFORMANCE Core i7-11800H 417 As we said earlier, gaming performance is Asus Strix G17 Ryzen 9 5900HX 323 essentially TBD since we could only run the LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE Nvidia Studio Driver on our laptop. Studio Drivers are optimized around content creation updates rather than improving gaming while the Core i7-11800H outpaces the performance like the company’s Game Ready 10th-gen chip by about 9 percent. The test drivers, so testing with a Studio Driver doesn’t always represent real-world gaming, installed could very well depress the results though, so don’t rely on it too much. for Intel’s 11th-gen chip. That technical hiccup We know you’re hungry for any signs of adds to the difficulty of trying to compare a gaming performance, so this one is probably Ryzen 9 laptop with a 130-watt GeForce RTX fine (even though the 11th-gen’s 3080 might 3080 Laptop GPU to a pair of Intel Core i7 be at a disadvantage). The incredibly popular laptops with 105-watt GeForce RTX 3080 Counter Strike: Global Offensive is such a light Laptop GPUs. load these days that it’s very CPU bound. On There are a few tidbits we don’t think will the desktop side of things, we’ve seen Ryzen move much, though. The first is 3DMark’s 5000 eat Intel’s lunch here, partly thanks to its Time Spy CPU test. It measures CPU physics giant cache. But the laptop Ryzen 5000 chips using a real-world engine. You can see the don’t have that big fat cache, and in a Ryzen and 11th-gen chip are basically tied reversal, the Tiger Lake H chip does. That may contribute to the Tiger Lake’s huge 23 percent advantage over both the Ryzen 9 and 3DMark Time Spy 10th-gen CPU. CPU performance The final result we’ll show you—3Dmark’s

Gigabyte Aorus 17G PCIe bandwidth test—is a direct result of the Core i7-10870H 9,493 Gigabyte Aorus 17G design of Tiger Lake H and its newfound Core i7-11800H 10,382 Asus Strix G17 PCIe Gen 4 support. Again, the results of Ryzen 9 5900HX 10,141 this test are unlikely to move even with the LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE Nvidia driver differences, but you can see

40 PCWorld JULY 2021 rarely flex the PCIe bandwidth needs, so 3DMark PCIe while this massive win for Tiger Lake may be Bandwidth Test cool to whistle at, the practical upside is far, GBps far less. Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 12.5 Gigabyte Aorus 17G Core i7-11800H 18 BOTTOM LINE Asus Strix G17 As you’d expect from the reigning champ Ryzen 9 5900HX 6.6 and one of the historic greats, AMD’s LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE powerful Ryzen 9 chips don’t ever back down in this slugfest. But after a brutally long the Core i7-11800H indeed has a rebuilding season, it’s clear that Intel’s new gargantuan 172 percent PCIe bandwidth Tiger Lake H is a real contender. Even advantage over the Ryzen 9 with its limited 8 though the Core i7 doesn’t clearly win many lanes of Gen 3 PCIe, as well as a 44 percent contests here, it’s so damned close that it’d advantage over the 16 lanes of Gen 3 in the be difficult to bet against the upcoming 10th-gen chip. 11th-gen Core i9 offering. Does that really matter? Well, we’re not so As we’ve been saying: We got us a ball sure. Most games, even the newest ones, game, folks.

In this slugfest, AMD’s powerful Ryzen 9 chips didn’t ever back down.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 41 REVIEWS

Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1: A value tablet for business

It’s affordable and a solid performer, but the design raises questions. BY MARK HACHMAN

he ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen BASIC FEATURES 1 is Lenovo’s answer to the very Of the seven different configuration options T good Microsoft Surface Pro 7+. of the ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 on Both are tablets with detachable Lenovo’s website (go.pcworld.com/lnwb), keyboards and a business bent. While the our review unit (the 20UW0012US, $2,229 Surface Pro 7+ has high-end cachet, the on Lenovo.com [go.pcworld.com/lnwb]) ThinkPad X12, on the other hand, is more seems to be popular, going in and out of about value. stock as we wrote this review. The tablet

42 PCWorld JULY 2021 IMAGE: MARK HACHMAN has sold out on Amazon as well. Lenovo offers other basic configurations of the X12 Detachable that start with 8GB of RAM, but we’d consider that setup a bit skimpy if other options are available. It’s very much worth noting that unlike the rival Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ (go.pcworld. com/7prp), Lenovo bundles a keyboard rather than making you pay extra for it. A pen is extra cost (the keyboard comes with a pen loop). A Lenovo pen with 2,048 levels of ink Ports: USB-C (Thunderbolt 4/USB4, sensitivity (go.pcworld.com/lacp) is the DisplayPort, Power Delivery, Data Transfer, 40 cheaper option; a separate Lenovo pen with Gbps), USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), 3.5mm 4,096 levels of ink sensitivity (go.pcworld. jack, optional nanoSIM com/lap2) is about the double the price. Security: Windows Hello depth camera/ Here are the rest of the main fingerprint reader specifications. Where there are many options Camera: 5MP (user-facing)/8MP (rear (such as with CPU, RAM, and so on), the facing) features on our specific model are indicated Battery: 42.2Wh (design), 41.9Wh (full) by the words “as tested” in parentheses after Wireless: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax 2x2), the item. Bluetooth 5.1 Processor: Intel Core i3-1110G4, Core Operating system: Windows 10 Pro i5-1130G7 (as tested), Core i5-1140G7, Core Dimensions: 11.15x8.01x0.34 inches i7-1160G7, Core i7-1180G7 Weight: 1.67 pounds, 2.4 pounds with Display: 12.3-inch (1920x1280 touch, keyboard (measured) anti-reflective) Colors: Black Memory: 8GB-16GB LPDDR4x Prices: Starting at $1,829 (less with 4267MHz (soldered) (16GB as tested) discounts, if active) at Lenovo (go.pcworld. Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB PCIe SSD com/lnwb) and Amazon (go.pcworld.com/ Graphics: Intel UHD (Core i3), Iris Xe amx2) ($2,229 as tested)

JULY 2021 PCWorld 43 REVIEWS LENOVO THINKPAD X12 DETACHABLE GEN 1

have to do some fumbling about to find the small tab that folds it out, though. The kickstand supports the ThinkPad X12 Detachable firmly until its point of greatest recline, where it becomes somewhat springy. If there’s anything I truly hate about the ThinkPad X12 Your fingers will have to find the small lip to pull out the kickstand, a solution I found somewhat annoying. Unlike the competing Microsoft Surface Pro Detachable, though, tablets, the X12 doesn’t have a microSD card slot hiding underneath. it’s the anemic grip that the keyboard has DESIGN on the tablet itself. With the keyboard While Microsoft’s Surface tablets have always unfolded, moving the Detachable around the been aimed at a broad market of creators, house usually means grabbing the tablet consumers, and professionals, Lenovo has itself…and off pops the keyboard, time and aimed its ThinkPad purely at professionals— again. Even worse, the tablet doesn’t always and it shows in the design. electrically reconnect to the keyboard when The ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 reattached, meaning that I had to fiddle with maintains the boxy, black ThinkPad aesthetic, it—disconnect, reconnect—until it finally using a magnesium alloy for the chassis worked. It’s not a great look when you have material. Though just a smidgen thicker than to pop the keyboard on and off to get a the Surface Pro 7+, the squared lines really product like the ThinkPad X12 Detachable contribute to the idea that this is indeed a Gen 1 to work out of the box. “detachable,” which favors keyboard use, That’s before the ThinkPad X12 rather than a traditional tablet that could take Detachable went overboard. As I was it or leave it. finishing the review, I put the attached tablet A wedge kickstand reclines almost flat, to and keyboard on my lap. The keyboard about 10 degrees off the horizontal. You’ll released its grip, and the tablet tumbled

44 PCWorld JULY 2021 For connectivity Lenovo has gone wholly USB-C, with a pair of ports on the left side. Look closely: A faint glyph next to the upper port indicates the presence of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 (go. pcworld.com/4usb). You

The right side of the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 hides a could also use a USB-C dock volume rocker and a Kensington lock slot. with the lower port. Though the tiny 65W USB-C power backward, landing on my toe. The display brick could be used in either port, the small bowed out from the frame. I was able to snap plug symbol tells you it should be used on it back in with no apparent loss of the plain USB-C one. I was worried that the performance, but still—Lenovo needs to fix Thunderbolt cables that come with some this. The combination of the weak magnetic portable Thunderbolt docks like our Editor’s grip and the thin, narrow edge of the Choice-winning pick, the IOgear kickstand means that the ThinkPad X12 Thunderbolt 3 Travel Dock (go.pcworld. Detachable should be left on a desk, not your com/iogr), might be too short to connect to lap. We informed Lenovo of our experiences, the tablet without dangling the dock in the and the company did not comment. air. After trying a few, though, that doesn’t The ThinkPad X12 Detachable includes seem to be the case. venting in the side and top of the tablet, and it emits an occasional faint hiss while under normal use. It’s generally almost quiet during normal use. However, the tablet seemed particularly sensitive to the ambient temperature of the room. On the left, the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 includes a 3.5mm We’ll explore this further jack, a Thunderbolt port, an optional SIM slot, and a second USB-C port later on in the review. for charging. The charging port lacks Thunderbolt capabilities.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 45 REVIEWS LENOVO THINKPAD X12 DETACHABLE GEN 1

The optional SIM slot on the side of the tablet pops out with a standard SIM tool. Lenovo also splurged for a backplate for the SIM caddy, lessening the chance that your SIM card will slip through and onto

the ground. Though the image is fairly sharp, my navy sweatshirt and kelly green T-shirt fade Lenovo’s display into a uniform blah. Hopefully this is a last hurrah for pandemic hair, though. isn’t anything to write home about, but the matte screen puts to be comfortable. My fingers initially felt out a comfortable 398 nits max, enough for a cramped, but my typing improved over time. well-lit room. According to our colorimeter The two levels of keyboard backlighting can tests, the display covers 98 percent of the sRGB be controlled via the keyboard itself (Fn + color gamut, but just 73 percent of AdobeRGB Space), and also via an excellent commercial and 74 percent of the P3 gamut. That might not version of the Vantage system utility. be color-accurate enough for content creation, The iconic red TrackPoint remains in the but it’s fine for everything else. center, with a touchpad below. The ThinkPad X12 Detachable’s touchpad is KEYBOARD, AUDIO small and somewhat constrained by the AND WEBCAM discrete buttons at the top—a legacy Lenovo has always had an elite reputation for feature from earlier ThinkPads. They’re its keyboards, and the ThinkPad X12 dependable, though. Lenovo’s touchpad is Detachable’s is pretty good. Naturally, the key otherwise smooth and clickable most of the travel (1.3mm, according to a Lenovo way up and down its length. Gestures representative) isn’t quite as deep as a worked as expected. traditional notebook would allow, but there’s The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable smooth, consistently firm resistance, and the Gen 1’s audio is subpar. Lenovo includes keys are large enough (about 1.5mm square) Dolby Audio Premium enhancement. When

46 PCWorld JULY 2021 the Dolby feature is disabled, music sounds (such as the Windows Camera app) will vaguely underwater, jumbled together simply report that no camera is present. My unpleasantly. Enabling Dolby’s technology only criticism is that you may need a spare couldn’t entirely save it. While the volume is fingernail, nail file, car key or something to sufficient, make sure to pack headphones or catch the tiny slide and slide it over; a earbuds for a decent aural experience. fingertip doesn’t always work. The tablet’s user-facing webcam offers The webcam works in conjunction with 1080p resolution, rather than the more typical the in-keyboard fingerprint reader to provide 720p cameras that accompany most laptops one of the most convenient biometric and tablets. This makes for a sharper image. experiences in computing today. (Both are On the other hand, I was disappointed by the Windows Hello certified, and both ship washed-out color and lighting, which feels standard with the tablet.) In fact, I had to do a like it falls short of what we should expect in lot of ducking just to allow my finger time to 2021, post-pandemic. A second, front-facing be read before the wide-angle depth camera 8MP camera can be used to take photos or picked up my face. videos of things taking place in front of you. Lenovo also includes a tiny, manual lens shutter for the webcam. Once closed, a small red dot covers the camera lens, and a white LED lights up next to the lens to confirm. The camera lens is completely This may look like a blurry photo, but it’s actually the Mirametrix Glance blocked, and technology blurring and obfuscating the display when it thinks that you’re not apps that use it paying attention.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 47 REVIEWS LENOVO THINKPAD X12 DETACHABLE GEN 1

APPS: GLANCE IS A COOL PRIVACY UTILITY PCMark 10 Lenovo kept the ThinkPad X12 Detachable CPU performance Gen 1 relatively bloatware-free, but there are Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 Ryzen 7 4980U SE 4,774 two apps that stand out. First, there’s a Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 Core i5-1135G7 4,650 commercial version of the Lenovo Vantage Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Core i7-1065G7 4,481 app, Lenovo’s superior system utility, which Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ max Core i5-1135G7 4,294 can be used to control a number of aspects of Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ Core i5-1135G7 4,016 your PC. It’s well organized and powerful. Microsoft Surface Pro 7 max Core i7-1065G7 3,959 Glance by Mirametrix is also intriguing. It’s Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Core i7-1065G7 3,838 a bit like the Tobii eye-tracking technology Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 Core i5-8250U 3,400 (go.pcworld.com/tob1) that we first wrote Microsoft Surface Pro 6 Core i5-8250U 3,367 about several years ago, but with a privacy Microsoft Surface Go 2 Core m3-8100Y 2,685 bent. The app offers several components, LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE many predicated upon what the depth camera can see of your face. If enabled, What this test shows is that Lenovo’s ThinkPad presence detection looks to see if you’re at X12 Detachable Gen 1 will do just fine in everyday office tasks. the helm. Look away for too long, and the app blurs your display for privacy’s sake. If it designed for productivity first and foremost. can “see” another person behind you, it will Our real-world tests showed that it handles do the same. Leaning too close? A warning the demands of the work-from-home office will pop up for you to adjust your posture. fairly well, although I had to train myself to The app will even smartly remind you to move the X12 Detachable with one hand on look away from the screen every twenty the keyboard and the other on the table or minutes or so to relieve your eyesight. simply fold it up. Glance struggles with external displays. The Real-world performance tests were “smart pointer” component also supposedly satisfactory. The tablet’s 16GB of memory is teleports the cursor to an external display, but it more than enough for web browsing and never worked. And the app required a bit of Microsoft 365 office apps, and the tablet fiddling to blur my external monitor. dropped only 8 frames out of 10,000 when tested against a 4K/60Hz YouTube video. I PERFORMANCE actually noticed the YouTube skip a time or Lenovo’s ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1’s two, but it happened so infrequently that it sober black design communicates that it’s never became irritating in the slightest.

48 PCWorld JULY 2021 Our performance evaluations begin with PCMark 8 Creative UL’s PCMark 10 suite, which has replaced Native resolution the older PCMark 8 suite in our testing. Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 PCMark 10 measures everything from Ryzen 7 4980U SE 4,343 Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable videoconferencing apps to web browsing to Gen 1 Core i5-1135G7 4,338 Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ max office apps to CAD renders, using real-world Core i5-1135G7 4,328 Microsoft Surface Pro 7 max apps when it can. Here, the ThinkPad X12 Core i7-1065G7 4,273 Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ does better than the Surface Pro 7+ in either Core i5-1135G7 4,145 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 performance mode. Core i7-1065G7 4,033 Microsoft Surface Pro 7 We’ve also compared the tablet using Core i7-1065G7 3,904 Microsoft Surface Pro 6 the older PCMark 8 suite for backward Core i5-8250U 3,253 Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 compatibility. Both are still relevant, Core i5-8250U 3,001 Microsoft Surface Go 2 although PCMark 10’s tests are more taxing. Core m3-8100Y 2,506 The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable again LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE comes out just a little ahead of the Surface Pro 7+. While we eventually expect a competing tablet from Dell’s Latitude line, it’s currently a Cinebench RT15.038 two-horse race between it and the Microsoft All threads Surface Pro 7+ (go.pcworld.com/7prv). (In Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 1,531 the graphs following, the Surface Pro 7+ is Ryzen 7 4980U SE Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ max 901 highlighted in grey.) The race is close, though Core i5-1135G7 Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable 819 the differences aren’t profound. We’ve also Gen 1 Core i5-1135G7 Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ included the older Surface Pro 7 (go.pcworld. Core i5-1135G7 776 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 com/s7rv). Core i7-1065G7 751 Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Remember that Microsoft dials down the Core i7-1065G7 737 Microsoft Surface Pro 7 max Windows power/performance slider to Core i7-1065G7 723 Microsoft Surface Pro 6 minimal levels, while Lenovo maxes it out. We Core i5-8250U 576 Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 show the Surface Pro 7+ results at both that Core i5-8250U 558 Microsoft Surface Go 2 default, and dialed up to prioritize Core m3-8100Y 245 performance, to compare with the Lenovo. LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE The darker grey is what we recorded with the Lenovo’s ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 may not power/performance slider dialed up to “Best be the best tablet for video transcoding, but it’s performance.” near the top.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 49 REVIEWS LENOVO THINKPAD X12 DETACHABLE GEN 1

transcodes movies into a format a tablet can HandBrake 0.99.0 use, taxing the CPU for longer than Encoding (H.264) Cinebench does. Here, where shorter bars Seconds are better, the ThinkPad X12 drops further

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 Ryzen 7 4980U SE 1,493 back in the pack. Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Finally, we look at UL’s 3DMark Core i7-1065G7 2,973 Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ max benchmark to evaluate 3D performance. Core i5-1135G7 2,997 Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ We normally would use the more advanced Core i5-1135G7 3,245 Microsoft Surface Pro 7 max “Time Spy” benchmark here, but we used Core i7-1065G7 3,278 Microsoft Surface Pro 7 the older “Sky Diver” benchmark instead for Core i7-1065G7 3,313 Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 compatibility with older tablets. The Iris Xe Core i5-8250U 3,874 Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable GPU inside Lenovo’s tablet holds up Gen 1 Core i5-1135G7 3,895 Microsoft Surface Pro 6 respectably here, fourth out of five Core i5-8250U 4,116 Microsoft Surface Go 2 leading results. Core m3-8100Y 8,682 As noted above, performance does seem SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE to depend upon the ambient temperature. Here, the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen In a climate-controlled office, we’d expect 1’s performance is disappointing, possibly due to thermal throttling. 3DMark 8 Our Cinebench CPU test uses Maxon’s Sky Diver Overall rendering tool to stress-test the CPU in short Demo mode off bursts, as most tasks do. We use the older R15 Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 AMD Radeon 13,526 test for compatibility’s sake. Cinebench Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ max Iris Xe 13,335 measures how powerfully the ThinkPad X12 Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ Iris Xe 12,672 will run under most loads, not really factoring Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 Iris Xe 11,957 cooling into the equation. Here, the Surface Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Iris Plus 10,441 Pro 7+ in performance mode takes the lead. Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Iris Plus 6,999 We run a similar test using the R23 version Microsoft Surface Pro 7 max Iris Plus 6,954 of the benchmark, however, which adds a Microsoft Surface Pro 6 UHD620 4,690 “thermal throttling” element. In that test (not Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 UHD620 4,658 shown in a chart), the ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 performance dropped about 15 percent. LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

We normally test thermal stress by running In graphics, the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable HandBrake, another real-world tool that Gen 1 does well.

50 PCWorld JULY 2021 BOTTOM LINE Battery life Lenovo has a respected history in the tablet Minutes market. I recall with fondness the Lenovo Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 Core i5-8250U 633 ThinkPad X1 tablet, especially the smart Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Core i7-1065G7 626 kickstand design that the company, sadly, Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ Core i5-1135G7 605 later abandoned. Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 Ryzen 7 4980U SE 602 I’m left thinking that Lenovo’s return to Microsoft Surface Pro 6 Core i5-8250U 588 the tablet market after a year or two off feels Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 Core i5-1135G7 563 a little lacking. Of the two Tiger Lake tablets Microsoft Surface Pro 7 I’ve tried, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 7+ feels Core i7-1065G7 536 Microsoft Surface Go 2 like the superior offering, in terms of both Core m3-8100Y 441 physical design as well as performance in LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE several of our benchmarks. For a tablet, over nine hours of battery life is That said, the ThinkPad X12 Detachable certainly satisfactory. Gen 1 would suffice for day-to-day office use, and it’s much more affordable than the GPU performance to be consistently stable. Surface Pro 7+. From a value perspective, But even in an air-conditioned home, the the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 tablet seemed to be sensitive to slight is clearly the superior tablet. changes in temperature. The tablet passed one 3DMark thermal stability test Lenovo ThinkPad X12 and failed another. Detachable Gen 1 How well will a thin-and-light tablet last against the demands of all-day computing? PROS • Good value for the price. Battery life is our last test, where we set the • Competitive performance. screen to a fixed brightness level and then • Intriguing “Glance” app preserves security. CONS loop a movie over and over until the battery • Excessively weak connection between the expires. The Lenovo’s ThinkPad X12 keyboard and tablet. • Muddy audio. performed about as well as we’d expect, at • Poor color and lighting on 1080p webcam. about 9 hours and 20 minutes of battery BOTTOM LINE life. Unlike some of its competition, Lenovo’s ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 1 competes well against Microsoft’s Surface Pro 7+ in the however, it doesn’t offer any quick-charging Windows tablet market, though its strength lies in value more than design or performance. option, and the tablet required over two $1,331 hours to charge fully.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 51 REVIEWS

Acer Predator Triton 300 SE: Affordable GeForce RTX performance in a slim package This GeForce RTX 3060-powered laptop makes for great gaming value. BY BEN PATTERSON

n on-the-go gaming rig with cutting-edge Tiger Lake H35 “ultraportable ray-tracing chops that won’t gaming” CPU (go.pcworld.com/ti35), along break your budget or your back, with GeForce RTX 3060 graphics and a slim A the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE 3.8-pound design. serves up an enticing mix of value and The Triton’s understated silver chassis performance. With a list price of $1,400 but gives the laptop a corporate look, but if you currently on sale at Best Buy for just $1,300, crack open the lid, you’ll find a 14-inch, the Predator Triton 300 SE arrives with Intel’s 144Hz Full HD display, three-zone RGB

52 PCWorld JULY 2021 IMAGE: BEN PATTERSON keyboard backlighting, and one-touch Dimensions: 12.7x8.97x0.7 inches overclocking. Thunderbolt 4 and solid battery Weight: 3.8 pounds (measured), 1.3 life make a good thing even better. pounds (AC adapter) Starting at the top, Intel’s “Special CONFIGURATION Edition” H35 CPU promises up to 5GHz The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE is one of the single-threaded performance (which we’ll be first laptops to pack Intel’s “Special Edition” putting to the test later). The RTX 3060 card 11th-gen Core H-series CPU, a so-called H35 should serve up 1080p gaming frame rates chip (go.pcworld.com/ti35) that’s designed north of 60 fps and “smooth” 4K gaming, for a new class of (as Intel puts it) “ultraportable complete with plenty of ray-tracing eye candy. gaming” systems. Also inside: a GeForce RTX The roomy 16GB of RAM can be upgraded to 3060 GPU, which boasts Nvidia’s Ampere an even roomier 24GB, while the 14-inch IPS 2nd-gen RTX architecture. display can crank out 144Hz visuals (although Let’s take a more detailed look under the you’ll have to do without G-Sync support). hood: Moving along, the 512GB solid-state drive CPU: Quad-core Intel Core i7-11375H won’t be enough to store your Steam library; Special Edition thankfully, the Thunderbolt 4 port and the pair Memory: 16GB DDR4 dual-channel of SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps ports should be SDRAM (upgradable to 24GB using a single able to handle your external storage needs. soDIMM module) There’s no ethernet, but you do get a Killer Graphics: GeForce RTX 3060 with 6GB Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 low-latency wireless module GDDR6 VRAM with Bluetooth 5.1 and up to 2.4Gbps of Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD throughput. Finally, a beefy 60 Whr battery Display: 14-inch 1920x1080 IPS with should help boost your on-battery gaming 144Hz refresh rate, 300 nits time—although, realistically, you should keep Webcam: 720p SHDR the 1.3-pound AC adapter within reach. Connectivity: Thunderbolt 4, two USB As with other laptops in the Predator SuperSpeed 10Gbps Type-A ports (one with series, the Predator Triton 300 SE comes with power-off USB charging), HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm Acer’s PredatorSense app, which offers the combo audio jack choice of four performance modes: Quiet, Networking: Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX 1650, which keeps the laptop’s cooling fans as quiet Bluetooth 5.1 as possible; Default, for everyday use; Biometrics: Fingerprint reader Extreme, which overclocks the CPU and GPU Battery capacity: 60 watt-hour while throttling the cooling fans; and Turbo,

JULY 2021 PCWorld 53 REVIEWS ACER PREDATOR TRITON 300 SE

which is designed to maximize overclocking giveaway that this is a gaming rig. while dialing up the cooling fans to a roar. The Measuring just 0.7 inches thick and PredatorSense app lets you assign a weighing in at 3.8 pounds, the Triton 300 performance mode (as well as lighting and SE could be slipped into a backpack, sound modes) to specific games, but the although with its largish 14-inch display, laptop itself always boots into Default mode. you’ll certainly know it’s there. Inside the Triton 300 SE’s chassis is a DESIGN dual-fan cooling system featuring upgraded Intel’s been making a push this year for AeroBlade fans. According to Acer, its Vortex low-profile, H35-powered ultraportable Flow technology is designed to “create an gaming laptops that won’t raise an eyebrow aerodynamic flow” courtesy of dedicated at work or on campus. The slim, all-silver GPU and CPU heat pipes, while “strategically Predator Triton 300 SE could certainly pass for placed” fans help cool the DDR RAM, power one of Acer’s productivity-minded Aspire supply, and other “critical” components. Will systems if you don’t look too hard. the Triton 300 SE’s thermal management You won’t find any garish, bright-red solution translate into faster performance? highlights here—even the Predator logo We’ll soon see. on the corner of the lid is relatively tame. Of course, the jumbo vents on the sides DISPLAY and back of the laptop are a dead The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE ships with a 14-inch full-HD (1920x1080) display with a 100 percent Adobe RGB color gamut and a fast but not exceptional 144Hz refresh rate. Given the Triton 300 SE’s moderate price tag and its bleeding-edge H35 CPU, we’re not surprised that Acer opted to dial down the The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE cuts a slim, low-key profile for a gaming rig. refresh rate a tad. If

54 PCWorld JULY 2021 you’re looking for a gaming laptop with refresh rates in the ultrafast 240Hz-300Hz range, you’ll need to either up your budget (substantially) or go for a more affordable system saddled with an older-gen CPU. The IPS display delivers typically solid viewing The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE comes with quiet keys and three-zone RGB angles. Its 300-nit keyboard backlighting. maximum brightness spec is good, provided you keep and Zoom, or you can create your own the gaming indoors. The screen is static patterns. surrounded by slim bezels on top and As for the keyboard itself, the Triton 300 particularly along the sides, although the SE’s flat keys offer plenty of travel and are chunky bottom bezel is a bit of an eyesore. virtually silent. Gamers who prefer a smooth, The top bezel, incidentally, houses the linear-style action (ideal for those who want to Triton’s 720p webcam and a three-mic array. their fingers over the keyboard) might The display isn’t touch-sensitive, but that’s not like the solid, tactile bump at the actuation common for a gaming laptop. point, but again, that’s par for the course given the laptop’s price range. KEYBOARD, TOUCHPAD, The Triton 300 SE’s keyboard lacks AND SPEAKERS media playback hotkeys, but there is a The Triton 300 SE’s keyboard boasts dedicated key that launches the three-zone RGB backlighting, which you PredatorSense app. A one-touch Turbo can control via the PredatorSense app. You button sits above the left side of the can pick from seven dynamic lighting keyboard. Positioned directly—and profiles, including Breathing, Neon, Wave, worryingly—above the PredatorSense

JULY 2021 PCWorld 55 REVIEWS ACER PREDATOR TRITON 300 SE

technology that commonly appears on Lenovo laptops). While object-based audio can effectively open up a laptop’s soundstage, it won’t necessarily improve overall audio performance, and that’s pretty much the case here. Whether I was Watch out for the Power key, which sits right above the PredatorSense button. running Vanguard strikes on Destiny 2 button is the Power key, which immediately or listening to The Boss on Spotify, the Triton puts the Triton to sleep when struck. Take 300 SE’s speakers sounded disappointingly heed of that juxtaposition. thin, with barely any bass response—in other The Triton’s compact glass touchpad felt words, par for the course as far as laptop smooth and responsive, with the cursor speakers go. If you really want to crank the floating along in unison with a silky motion. sound while listening or playing on the The touchpad is small enough that my palms Triton, you’ll be better off with external rarely brushed against it while I was typing, speakers or a decent set of cans. but even when I tried smashing both my palms on its surface, the cursors barely PORTS budged. There’s a fingerprint reader The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE comes with embedded in the top-left corner of the an impressive array of ports, which will come touchpad for those who want to enable in handy for putting your Steam library on biometric security. external storage as well as connecting gaming The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE’s mice or controllers. up-firing stereo speakers are augmented by First and foremost is the left-side DTS:X Ultra, an object-based sound format Thunderbolt 4 port, which can support up to that competes with Dolby Atmos (an audio two 4K monitors or a single 8K display at

56 PCWorld JULY 2021 Thunderbolt 4 headlines the Triton 300 SE’s array of ports. Also pictured: the first of two SuperSpeed 10Gbps Type-A ports, plus a barrel-shaped DC input.

On the right: a second SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps Type-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a combo audio jack.

60Hz. The Thunderbolt 4 spec also allows for PERFORMANCE connecting up to four Thunderbolt 4 hubs, as While the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE’s RTX well as longer cable runs (including upcoming 3060 is—or was, until just recently (go. 50-meter optical cables) compared to pcworld.com/rcnt)—the least powerful of Thunderbolt 3. Nvidia’s 30-series RTX graphics cards, it still Next to the Thunderbolt 4 port is the first packs impressive bang for the buck. of two SuperSpeed 10Gbps USB Type-A Coupled with Intel’s H35 ultraportable ports, along with a barrel-shaped power port gaming chip, the GPU should manage solid for the bulky 180-watt AC adapter and a performance gains compared to its Kensington laptop security slot. predecessor, the RTX 2060. So how does On the right side is the second the Triton 300 SE compare to pricier—and SuperSpeed 10Gbps USB Type-A port, an heavier—gaming laptops with beefier HDMI 2.1 port, and a combo audio jack. graphics cards? Let’s take a look. Not bad, but there are a couple of omissions, including a media card reader and HANDBRAKE a wired ethernet port (although you could Our first benchmark measures how well a given always just get a USB ethernet adapter). laptop handles crushing CPU loads over a

JULY 2021 PCWorld 57 REVIEWS ACER PREDATOR TRITON 300 SE

at 6.6 and 6.1 pounds, respectively. That extra HandBrake Total bulk gives the MSI and Gigabyte, and the Encode Time Acer Nitro 5, much more latitude in terms of Seconds thermal management, thus allowing them to

MSI GE76 Core i7-10870H 1,344 turn up the heat with HandBrake. Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 1,348 Acer Nitro 5 Ryzen 5 4600H 1,685 CINEBENCH Gateway GWTN156-3BK More of a sprint than the marathon of our Core i5-10300H 2,152 Acer Predator Triton 300 SE HandBrake benchmark, Cinebench measures Core i7-11375H 2,316 HP Spectre x360 how long it takes for a laptop to render a 3D Core i7-10750H 2,962 LG Ultra PC 17 image in real time, a process that generally Core i7-10510U 3,584 only takes a few minutes. We run Cinebench SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE in both multithreaded and single-threaded The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE’s HandBrake modes, giving us a chance to consider a performance isn’t bad considering it’s among the lightest laptops in our chart. laptop’s single-core efficiency as well as its sheer multicore speed. lengthy period—in this case, transcoding a 30GB MKV file to a format suitable for Android Cinebench R15 0.38 tablets using HandBrake, the free video encoding utility. This multicore chore is Single thread All threads guaranteed to spin up cooling fans. Because it Aorus 17G 203 Core i7-10870H 1,750

can take up to an hour or more to complete, it’s MSI GE76 200 a great test of a laptop’s thermal management. Core i7-10870H 1,676 Acer Nitro 5 178 At first glance, the Acer Predator Triton Ryzen 5 4600H 1,360

300 SE’s HandBrake performance might look HP Spectre x360 203 Core i7-10750H disappointing (remember, shorter bars are 1,111 Acer Predator Triton 300 SE 205 better), but keep in mind that all of the Core i7-11375H 1,045

laptops that snagged better HandBrake Gateway GWTN156-3BK 189 Core i5-10300H 906 scores are heavier—in some cases, much LG Ultra PC 17 189 heavier—than the Triton 300 SE. Core i7-10510U 616

The Acer Nitro 5, for example, is nearly a LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE pound heavier than the 3.8-pound Triton, The Triton 300 SE’s multithreaded Cinebench while the two top finishers—the MSI GE76 performance is middling, but its single-threaded and the Gigabyte Aorus 17G—tip the scales result shoots to the top.

58 PCWorld JULY 2021 Again, we see the Acer Predator Triton RTX 3060 GPU to fall roughly in the middle of 300 SE’s multicore performance fall behind the pack, behind the RTX 3080 laptops in our those of its heavier competitors (with the comparison but ahead of GTX 16 series- and 6-pound–plus Aorus and MSI laptops again RTX 20 series-powered systems. leading the pack), but take a look at the No surprises here: The Triton sits Triton’s single-threaded performance. If we somewhat behind a trio of RTX 3080 laptops rejiggered the chart to highlight single- but slightly ahead of the RTX 2060–powered threaded scores, the Triton 300 SE would Gateway, while beating three GTX 1650 come out on top, followed by the systems by wide margins. With these results, Gigabyte, the HP Spectre x360, and the we’d expect to see real-world gaming MSI. Pretty impressive. performance well north of 60 fps at max settings in most titles. 3DMARK FIRE STRIKE 1.1 Next up is a synthetic graphics test courtesy of RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER 3DMark’s Fire Strike 1.1 benchmark, which Speaking of real-world gaming, the second should give us an indication of how the entry in the rebooted Tomb Raider series Predator Triton 300 SE’s overall graphics can help give us an idea of how the Triton performance lines up with the competition. 300 SE fares during actual gameplay, even We’re expecting the Triton and its GeForce Rise of the Tomb Raider 3DMark Fire Strike 1.1 Very High DX11 Graphics performance Frames per second

MSI GE76 MSI GE76 Core i7-10870H 23,945 Core i7-10870H 149.75 Aorus 17G Aorus 17G Core i7-10870H 21,755 Core i7-10870H 123.85 Acer Predator Triton 300 SE Acer Predator Triton 300 SE Core i7-11375H 14,789 Core i7-11375H 93.02 Gateway GWTN156-3BK Gateway GWTN156-3BK Core i5-10300H 13,653 Core i5-10300H 67.9 Acer Nitro 5 Acer Nitro 5 Ryzen 5 4600H 8,701 Ryzen 5 4600H 54.91 LG Ultra PC 17 LG Ultra PC 17 Core i7-10510U 7,79 6 Core i7-10510U 52.58 HP Spectre x360 HP Spectre x360 Core i7-10750H 7,613 Core i7-10750H 43.61

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

The laptops at the top of our Fire Strike chart all The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE can crank out have more powerful GPUs than the Triton 300 SE better than 90 fps visuals when running Rise of the (and they’re also heavier and more expensive). Tomb Raider at max setting.

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though the 2015 title is getting just a little Once more, the Triton falls pretty much bit long in the tooth. where we’d expect, significantly behind three As you can see, the Triton easily clears the laptops with RTX 3080 GPUs but ahead of the vaunted 60-fps mark with Rise of the Tomb RTX 2060-powered Gateway. Raider, trailing (as expected) only the three RTX 3080-powered laptops in our chart. BATTERY LIFE More interesting is the sizable margin We test battery life by looping a 4K video using between the Triton and the RTX 2060– the stock Windows Movies & TV app, with enabled Gateway. Looking down the list, the screen brightness set to about 260 nits and the three GTX 1650–powered laptops can’t quite volume dialed to 50 percent, with headphones make it to the 60-fps mark, which goes to plugged in. The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE show what you’re giving up when you dial and its 60 watt-hour battery acquit themselves back to the GTX 16 series. well here, lasting a solid nine hours during our battery drain test and outlasting all comers save 3DMARK PORT ROYALE the LG Ultra PC 17 (which has a larger 72.7 To wring out the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE’s watt-hour battery) and the Acer Nitro 5 (a ray-tracing performance, we fired up heavier laptop with a slightly smaller 57.5 3DMark’s Port Royale benchmark, which puts watt-hour battery). The Gateway at the bottom RTX-powered laptops through their paces with ray-traced reflections, shadows, and glass surfaces. Battery life Minutes

LG Ultra PC 17 Core i7-10510U 738 Acer Nitro 5 3DMark Port Royale 1.2 Ryzen 5 4600H 633 Graphics performance Acer Predator Triton 300 SE Core i7-11375H 547 MSI GE76 MSI GE76 Core i7-10870H 7, 55 0 Core i7-10870H 415 Aorus 17G HP Spectre x360 Core i7-10870H 6,294 Core i7-10750H 387 Acer Predator Triton 300 SE Aorus 17G Core i7-11375H 3,968 Core i7-10870H 353 Gateway GWTN156-3BK Gateway GWTN156-3BK Core i5-10300H 3,463 Core i5-10300H 280

LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE’s ray-tracing The Triton 300 SE boats impressive battery life, performance isn’t bad given its RTX 3060 although your mileage may vary depending on GPU; those laptops above it have RTX 3080 the games you’re playing. graphics cards.

60 PCWorld JULY 2021 The Predator Triton 300 SE is a fantastic value gaming laptop. of the chart has the smallest battery (46 watt- visual heights of RTX 3080–enabled systems. hours), while the system with the beefiest Toss in Thunderbolt 4, RGB keyboard battery, the Aorus 17G (99 watt-hours) limped backlighting, and solid battery life, and you to the finish with a second-to-last result. have a good value in gaming laptops. We should note, of course, that the Windows Movies & TV app is a fairly Acer Predator Triton 300 SE lightweight task as far as CPU loads go. If you’re playing Destiny 2 with Turbo mode PROS engaged, you’re not going to get anywhere • Slim, sub–4-pound design. • Solid gaming and ray-tracing performance. near nine hours of battery life. • Three-zone RGB keyboard backlighting. • Impressive battery life. BOTTOM LINE CONS • No G-Sync support. The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE will be a • No wired ethernet. pleasant surprise for budget-minded gamers BOTTOM LINE An on-the-go gaming laptop with ray-tracing chops who thought RTX-powered laptops were out that won’t break your budget or your back, the Acer of reach. Affordably priced, slim, light, and Predator Triton 300 SE serves up an enticing mix of value and performance. powerful, the Triton 300 SE can hang with the $1,299 ray-tracing crowd even if it can’t scale the

JULY 2021 PCWorld 61 REVIEWS

Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360: A beautiful thin-and-light PC Samsung’s new notebook ranks among the best thin-and-light convertible notebooks we’ve ever reviewed. BY MARK HACHMAN

Even in an era of progressively shocking all-day battery life demand lighter notebooks (go. additional praise. pcworld.com/prlt), larger Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro 360 lends thin-and-light laptop options credence to Intel’s Evo program (go.pcworld. like the 15-inch Samsung Galaxy Book Pro com/iev0), from which this laptop graduated. 360 are relatively rare. Sure, you might buy it Thin-and-light laptop keyboards can be iffy, because it simply won’t break your back. But though, and this laptop suffers accordingly. a stunning multimedia experience and Samsung also loads up the Book Pro 360 with

62 PCWorld JULY 2021 IMAGE: MARK HACHMAN apps for just about everything. Nevertheless, Processor: Intel Core i7-1165G7 we’ve awarded this laptop our Editor’s Display: 13.3-inch or 15.5-inch (as Choice award. Read on for why. tested): 1920x1080 (AMOLED, touch) Memory: 8GB/16GB LPDDR4x (16GB as BASIC FEATURES tested) Samsung offers the Galaxy Book Pro 360 in Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD (as either a 13.3-inch or a 15.6-inch tested) configuration. Prices start at $1,199 (the Graphics: Intel Iris Xe minimal 13-inch spec: Core i7/8GB Ports: 1 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4); 2 USB-C, RAM/256GB SSD) and $1,299 for the microSD, 3.5mm jack cheapest 15-inch configuration with 8GB of Security: Fingerprint reader RAM and a 512GB SSD. It’s worth Camera: 720p (user-facing) highlighting that our review unit and price Battery: 67.0Wh (design), 68.0Wh includes a 1TB SSD, a luxury in an era of (reported) 256GB and 512GB notebooks. Wireless: WiFi 6E Gig+ (802.11ax), Note that all of the Galaxy Book Pro 360 Bluetooth 5.1 models ship with a Samsung S Pen (go. Operating system: Windows 10 Home pcworld.com/amsm) in the box, which Dimensions: 13.97 x 8.98 x 0.47in. would normally cost about $32 on Amazon. Weight: 3.02lb, 3.38lb with charger (as At press time, Samsung.com (go.pcworld. weighed) com/smsm) was the only source for the Colors: Mystic Bronze, Mystic Navy (as Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360. tested) If those prices are still too expensive, Prices: $1,499 as tested (Samsung.com consider the similar Samsung Galaxy Book [go.pcworld.com/14ts]); otherwise $1,199 Pro (go.pcworld.com/ sgbp), a traditional and up clamshell with a few differences: the lack of an included S Pen, for example, as well as a CONSTRUCTION non-touch display. The Book Pro also includes Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro 360 proudly a USB Type A port. Otherwise, the Samsung proclaims itself a member of Intel’s flagship Galaxy Book Pro 360 we’re reviewing Evo lineup via a small sticker on its keyboard requires purchasing one of our deck, and it deserves it. The Galaxy Book Pro recommended USB-C hubs (go.pcworld. 360 is a beautiful piece of engineering, very com/hsbu) to connect to devices with a much in the mold of the Surface Laptop (go. USB-A connector. pcworld.com/msf4): all cool, glossy metal

JULY 2021 PCWorld 63 REVIEWS SAMSUNG GALAXY BOOK PRO 360

tablet mode. The Book Pro 360’s hinge holds the display true even when almost fully reclined, though it oscillates back and forth before settling in. Less obvious but equally profound is the weight—this is a notebook that you can easily pick up by a corner and set down somewhere else. Samsung used aluminum to construct the Galaxy Book Pro 360, but it felt absolutely stable with no give in the keyboard or to the chassis. While you can theoretically open the laptop with a single finger, its light weight and the The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360, in tent mode. slick, stubby feet beneath it nearly caused me to push it off my test stand and minimalist ports. We received our review when I tried. unit in the Mystic Navy color scheme, and the As many notebooks do, the Samsung blue hue is virtually indistinguishable from Galaxy Pro 360 pulls cool air from the bottom black in most lighting. of the notebook and vents it out the back It’s also the first laptop in a very long while through a grille hidden within the hinge. that’s persuaded me to care about how thin it Samsung shipped the notebook set to the is, especially when folded back flat. middle “better performance” tier in the Remember, this is a 360-degree convertible, Windows power/performance slider. Under which can be reclined all the way back into load, the fan noise increases to a moderate

Laid flat, the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 practically disappears. The right side of the chassis includes a standard USB-C port and a microSD card slot.

64 PCWorld JULY 2021 but not annoying hiss, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly the fan turned off, about fifteen seconds after exiting out of a computationally intensive application. Samsung’s thin, light aesthetic extends to its port That LED to the right is really your best indicator of which USB-C port is choices, which Thunderbolt-enabled (the right) and which is a standard USB-C port (the left). include a pair of USB-C ports and a third USB-C port that includes Thunderbolt 4 capabilities. Which don’t want to use one of the installed wireless one is which? Good luck trying to tell. There’s apps like Galaxy Share that comes a virtually indistinguishable “lightning bolt” preinstalled on the notebook. logo that signals that the front left USB-C port is Thunderbolt enabled, and a blue LED next DISPLAY AND AUDIO to it. Otherwise, you’ll be left trying to figure Samsung has a well-deserved reputation for out which port is which. its dramatic OLED screens on its TVs, tablets We’d recommend connecting the 65W and phones, and its Super AMOLED display cellular-style charger to one of the other (an OLED screen (go.pcworld.com/oled) USB-C ports and dedicating the Thunderbolt with an active matrix and touchscreen on top port to one of our recommended of it) certainly doesn’t disappoint. If you’re a Thunderbolt docks (go.pcworld.com/rctd) content creator, you can be assured that instead. Alternatively, you can buy a cheaper, Samsung is nearly perfect in satisfying the slower USB-C hub (go.pcworld.com/hsbu) to various color gamuts. In part, that’s because connect to older devices that use a USB Type Samsung offers several color options. There’s A connector. Samsung also includes a a general AMOLED color profile, but also microSD card slot on the Galaxy Book Pro separate display profiles within the Windows 360, allowing you to “sneakernet” a microSD 10 Settings menu, each tuned to the card from a Samsung Galaxy Phone if you AdobeRGB, P3, or sRGB color space.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 65 REVIEWS SAMSUNG GALAXY BOOK PRO 360

By default, the general AMOLED profile deeply dark an OLED display can be until covers 100 percent of sRGB, 98 percent of the black letterboxes surrounding a video AdobeRGB, and 99% of P3. Unfortunately, are indistinguishable from the thin (about the AdobeRGB profile didn’t really increase 5mm) black bezels that wrap around the the AdobeRGB coverage—it remained corners of the screen. It’s truly revelatory, unchanged at 98 percent. The P3 profile especially when the Book Pro 360’s audio is produced 100 percent of sRGB coverage and layered on top. 91 percent of AdobeRGB, and covered 99 Samsung shipped the Galaxy Book Pro percent of the P3 color gamut. Enabling the 360 with a pair of 4-watt AKG-tuned speakers sRGB profile covered the sRGB color space underneath, which sound all right by by 100 percent as well, but decreased themselves. Of course, the flat laptop AdobeRGB coverage to 77 percent and P3 speakers can only do so much—there’s no coverage to 78 percent. All of these way to manufacture the bass you’ll receive measurements were recorded by Datacolor’s from a large, physical speaker. But there’s a SpyderX Elite colorimeter, which also Dolby Access app hidden within the Start measured the display’s luminosity at a menu, which is off by default. Enable it, flip maximum of 295 nits—far less than the rated the Book Pro 360 back into tent mode, and 370 nits that Samsung claims. That’s still fine enjoy a superb entertainment experience. for working in even a well-lit room, however. I have more mixed feelings about the The extreme width of the display Galaxy Book Pro 360’s fingerprint reader, (measuring 19.5mm high by 34.5mm long, a which began as the worst I’ve ever used, by roughly 1.77 display ratio) also calls into far. Normally, you simply touch the sensor question Samsung’s choice of 1080p several times to establish an “authorized” resolution rather than a 4K option. As you fingerprint. However, the notebook’s tiny might imagine, video played back looks “strip”-style fingerprint reader nestled in bright and vivid, but there’s a hint of the upper right corner of the keyboard graininess to it that might go away with a failed to recognize that my finger had higher-resolution option. The screen is quite actually touched it probably two out of glossy, too, with reflections often creeping every three times during the setup process. into your peripheral vision. I gave up in disgust. That’s objective criticism. Subjectively, But near the tail end of the review, I you might wonder whether the Samsung decided to once again use Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro 360 might replace your Samsung Update utility to search out new television. You don’t really realize how drivers. Voila! A new fingerprint reader driver

66 PCWorld JULY 2021 downloaded, and the reader worked near silence. Nope. That amount of key travel flawlessly for the last days of our review. simply feels too shallow to be truly comfortable. But—I say this reluctantly, TYPING EXPERIENCE AND because I don’t want laptop makers to think WEBCAM we’re encouraging this—it wasn’t that bad, If there’s anything that should give you pause offering more cushion than I expected. about the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360, it’s Fortunately, keyboards are subjective the keyboard. A thin-and-light PC must experiences, and your fingers may find it inevitably make some sacrifices—and my more welcoming. goodness, the Book Pro 360 is thin, especially Samsung provides keyboard controls for when unfolded flat along a desk or table. three levels of backlighting, though you also Samsung claims that its reengineered have the option of entering the built-in keyboard includes a scissor mechanism that, Samsung Settings app and manually adjusting combined with rubber keypad domes, the backlighting via a slider control. provides a “satisfying” 1mm in key travel in There’s one aspect to the keyboard that partially redeems it: the presence of a narrow but otherwise full- featured number pad to the right side of the keyboard, thanks to the extended width of the 15-inch laptop. Number pads are not only excellent for data entry, but they also provide left-handers an alternative to the You probably won’t love the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360’s keyboard, but it does have a spacious touchpad, a dedicated number pad, and a fingerprint WASD key layout reader in the upper right corner, which doubles as a power button. for games, too.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 67 REVIEWS SAMSUNG GALAXY BOOK PRO 360

“beauty” options seemed to knock a few pounds off my pandemic pudge. On the other hand, 720p webcams are the norm for laptops, so the graininess probably won’t be called out. Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360’s webcam doesn’t look that great, even with doesn’t include a the available beauty options turned on. cubby or holder for the S Pen that The dimensions of the keyboard also it includes in the Galaxy Book Pro 360 box. allow the Galaxy Book Pro 360 to sport a Instead, the pen can be magnetically gargantuan precision touchpad that takes up attached to the top of the notebook, though much of the remaining space on the chassis, that’s not really secure in the slightest. The allowing your wrists to rest on either side. stylus does exhibit a bit of lag while inking. It Gestures worked well, and you’ll find plenty also includes a single button, which when of clickable space. double-clicked triggers a menu that launches Samsung includes a fairly generic 720p a number of pen-enabled apps. user-facing webcam on top of the display, with no privacy shutter. As you might expect from a 720p camera, your image will be somewhat soft, as opposed to a cheap but good standalone 1080p webcam (go.pcworld. com/18pw). I honestly didn’t like the resulting image quality, though Samsung’s You’ll find an S Pen in the box.

68 PCWorld JULY 2021 functions, or tie the Galaxy Book Pro 360 to Samsung’s ecosystem of phones and tablets. Quick Search doesn’t do that much more than Windows’ own search bar. Quick Share is like the Windows Your Phone app. It will find

I couldn’t discern any tilt support for the included S Pen, and there was a nearby devices and bit of lag while inking. share files, texts, and photos, provided both SAMSUNG HAS A UTILITY are signed into a Samsung account. FOR NEARLY EVERYTHING Here’s just some of the apps Samsung Fortunately, Samsung doesn’t particularly reserves for the Start menu: the Galaxy Book overload the Galaxy Book Pro 360 with Smart Switch app, for porting over data numerous third-party “crapware” apps. Still, Samsung adds tons of its own Samsung- or Galaxy-branded apps—some of which, it should be said, are quite good. Samsung reserves pride of place on the Windows taskbar for Amazon’s Alexa app, and adds a Quick Search and Quick Share app shortcut to the taskbar, too. The latter apps reflect both of Samsung’s approaches to PC Here’s what someone viewing your Samsung Galaxy Book Pro software: replace or enhance 360’s “secret screen” will see: a mishmash of translucent windows. Windows’ own apps or Here, the “active” window is Word, with a line of text.

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from an earlier Galaxy PC; the PenUP drawing app; Samsung’s DeX app for connecting your Samsung phone to your PC; the Samsung TV Plus link to a TV-like collection of video streams; the Samsung Update service for updating drivers; and even the ability to control your Samsung Forza Horizon 4 looked particularly grainy while running, though this benchmark proves that you can achieve playable 36fps frame rates SmartThings smart home even at High visual settings. (Driving games aren’t as sensitive to frame via a dedicated app. rates as first-person action games.) Spotify also comes preloaded, as does Booking.com. from Windows File Explorer and is locked The only three must-open apps are with your PC’s password when discovered. Samsung Update, Settings, and Security. It’s like OneDrive’s Personal Vault (go. Samsung Settings provides granular controls pcworld.com/1dpv), but on your PC. you won’t find elsewhere, such as the ability to enable USB charging when your laptop is PERFORMANCE otherwise asleep, or fine-grained control of Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro 360 straddles the the keyboard backlighting. dividing line between an entertainment and Samsung Security combines four productivity PC, with a thin-and-light bent. As interesting features. One grants the ability to noted above, it’s absolutely superb for “obscure” your screen by making the current watching movies and streamed video, and window semitransparent and allowing a the performance is good enough for both. wandering eye to confuse it with other apps. One of my checks involves streaming 4K Another provides the option to manually YouTube video at 60fps and noting any disable your webcam and mic via software; a stutters. It dropped an imperceptible three third creates a “security cam” that snaps a frames out of a sample size of about 10,000. photo of anyone who tries to log into your PC Likewise, Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro 360 and fails. The fourth feature, “Privacy Folder,” can’t truly be called a gaming PC, but as CPU creates a hidden folder that is kept hidden and GPU capabilities steadily improve, you’ll

70 PCWorld JULY 2021 find a broader range of games that offer In the charts below, it’s worth comparing playable frame rates. We ran the built-in the 15.6-inch, $1,499 Samsung Galaxy Book “battle” benchmark of the strategy game A Pro 360 to the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Total War Saga: Troy and achieved playable Laptop 4 (go.pcworld.com/msf4; $1,469 at frame rates (39.5 fps average) at the laptop’s press time) as well as our May 2021 choices native 1080p resolution, on Medium graphics for best thin-and-light laptop (go.pcworld. settings. We also used the built-in benchmark com/tnlt): the 14-inch HP Spectre x360 (go. within the open-world driving game Forza pcworld.com/hspc; $1,269 at press time) Horizon 4 and achieved playable frame rates and 2020’s 14-inch Acer Swift 5 (go.pcworld. at 1080p resolution, too. com/asw5; $1,299 at the time of this review). Samsung’s notebook will slow itself down The 14-inch Acer Swift 3X (go.pcworld.com/ under load to prevent overheating, however. asfx; $1,199) certainly ranks highly, too. At We noted a 6 percent drop in CPU 13.4 inches, Dell’s XPS 13 2-in-1 9310 (go. performance using the prolonged Cinebench pcworld.com/del9) is both a little smaller and R23 throttling test. GPU performance was a little more expensive at $1,449. The 14-inch uneven too. 3DMark’s looped Time Spy stress test found that the notebook could maintain a consistent frame rate 90.2 percent of the PCMark 10 time. A perfectly thermally managed CPU performance notebook should be able to maintain a Asus ZenBook UM3255 Ryzen 7 5800U 6,188 consistent 100 percent frame rate; UL Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Ryzen 9 4980HS 6,022 considers above 96 percent acceptable. Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 Core i7-1165G7 5,204 Many thin-and-light PCs emphasize the Acer Swift 3X Core i7-1165G7 5,103 smaller 13-inch or 14-inch size to save on Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 9310 Core i7-1165G7 4,920 weight, so it’s rarer to find a larger 15-inch Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) Core i7-1165G7 4,808 thin-and-light laptop. (Many 15-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 Ryzen 7 4980U SE 4,774 notebooks are simply designed for gaming.) Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Core i7-1065G7 4,481 We compared the Galaxy Book Pro 360 to HP Spectre x360 14 1Q881AV Core i7-1165G7 4,457 several competing laptops for comparison, Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Ryzen 7 3780 SE 4,077 but the majority of these are 14-inch offerings. Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Ryzen 5 3580U SE 3,977 Still, thin-and-light convertibles are generally slower than their more full-featured cousins, LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE so we were eager to see how the Galaxy Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro 360 proves itself as a Book Pro 360 performed. capable day-to-day productivity machine.

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Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (go.pcworld. Pro 360 lands in the upper echelon with its com/14az; $1,450 at press time) is a little 5,204 score. heavier at 3.5 pounds, but it’s a strong The Maxon Cinebench score uses a performer, too. rendering engine to construct a 2D image. UL’s PCMark 10 offers a solid overall Cinebench R15 is the older test, and most benchmark for measuring day-to-day office notebooks chew through it fast with their turbo work (Web browsing, spreadsheets, video modes enabled. That’s fine—it’s a good test to calls) as well as light gaming, video see how well the Galaxy Book Pro 360 will transcoding, and even some CAD work. handle somewhat short, CPU-intensive tasks. Once the benchmark has completed its Samsung’s laptop falls in the middle of the battalion of tests, it generates a score. We pack, an unsurprising result given its consider a score in the 4,000 range pretty extremely slim nature. good, with anything above 5,000 Handbrake, meanwhile, is a prolonged considered exceptional. The Galaxy Book test that still taps that majority of CPU cores.

Cinebench RT15.038 HandBrake 0.99.0 All threads Encoding (H.264)

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Seconds Ryzen 9 4980HS 1,931 Asus ZenBook UM3255 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Ryzen 7 5800U 1,584 Ryzen 9 4980HS 1,332 Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 Ryzen 7 4980U SE 1,531 Ryzen 7 4980U SE 1,493 Acer Swift 3X Asus ZenBook UM3255 Core i7-1165G7 970 Ryzen 7 5800U 1,722 Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 9310 Acer Swift 3X Core i7-1165G7 921 Core i7-1165G7 2,561 Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 Core i7-1165G7 833 Core i7-1165G7 2,740 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Core i7-1065G7 751 Core i7-1065G7 2,973 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Ryzen 7 3780 SE 695 Ryzen 7 3780 SE 3,280 HP Spectre x360 14 1Q881AV Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 9310 Core i7-1165G7 678 Core i7-1165G7 3,287 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) Ryzen 5 3580U SE 662 Core i7-1165G7 3,315 Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Core i7-1165G7 626 Ryzen 5 3580U SE 3,498 HP Spectre x360 14 1Q881AV LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE Core i7-1165G7 3,622

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE Thin-and-light PCs like the Galaxy Book Pro 360 usually struggle somewhat in performance, and Again, the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 lands in you’re seeing that here. the upper middle tier of performance.

72 PCWorld JULY 2021 real-world games we played and our scores 3DMark Time Spy 1.2 in our benchmark argue that you’ll be able to Graphics performance sneak in a bit of fun. Remember, this Acer Swift 3X configuration of this laptop ships with a Core i7-1165G7 1,917 Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 terabyte of SSD storage, which is an Core i7-1165G7 1,821 Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 9310 unusually high capacity. Core i7-1165G7 1,714 Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) But then we come to battery life, and Core i7-1165G7 1,692 HP Spectre x360 14 1Q881AV whoa. Wow. Normally, all-day battery life is Core i7-1165G7 1,454 Asus ZenBook UM3255 reserved for battery-sipping Qualcomm Ryzen 7 5800U 1,388 Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 Snapdragon processors or thick, chunky Ryzen 7 4980U SE 1,296 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 notebooks that pack the chassis full to the Ryzen 7 3780 SE 1,006 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 brim with a massive lithium-ion battery. Yes, Ryzen 5 3580U SE 971 Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 there’s a big battery squished flat within the Core i7-1065G7 968 Pro 360’s chassis—68 watt-hours—but about LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

Here, the Galaxy Book Pro 360 does surprisingly well in 3D performance. Battery life Minutes

Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 Handbrake is a real-world app that Core i7-1165G7 966 HP Spectre x360 14 1Q881AV transcodes video (we use a full-length Core i7-1165G7 881 Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 9310 Hollywood movie) into another format. Not Core i7-1165G7 862 Asus ZenBook UM3255 only does it ask the laptop to run flat out for a Ryzen 7 5800U 770 Acer Swift 3X half hour or more, but the Handbrake Core i7-1165G7 753 benchmark helps gauge the laptop’s cooling Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Core i7-1065G7 626 mechanisms—a poorly cooled laptop won’t Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 Ryzen 7 4980U SE 602 be able to run as fast, prolonging the Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) Core i7-1165G7 541 transcoding time. Here, smaller numbers are Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Ryzen 5 3580U SE 502 better. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 delivers Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 Ryzen 7 3780 SE 445 good but unspectacular results. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Ryzen 9 4980HS 383 In terms of performance, our final LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE benchmark is UL’s 3DMark, specifically the more advanced “Time Spy” test. Again, we Top of the heap and then some: the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 truly offers all-day battery don’t consider the Samsung Galaxy Book life (measured in minutes, above) during our Pro 360 to be a gaming machine, but the video run-down test.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 73 REVIEWS SAMSUNG GALAXY BOOK PRO 360

Book Pro 360 with the ecosystem of Samsung phones, but the company hasn’t yet found an efficient way to do so. Paying about $1,500 for all this might be a bit too much, though Samsung offers cheaper options that we’ve listed elsewhere in this review. For the size, weight, and price, plus intangibles like its rich multimedia

The Galaxy Book Pro 360 is one of the premier thin-and-light notebooks capabilities, we’d PCs that you can buy. recommend the Samsung Galaxy Book 16 hours of battery life should be a major Pro 360 as one of the premier thin-and-light factor when considering the purchase of the notebooks PCs that you can buy. chart-topping (by far) Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360. Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360

BOTTOM LINE PROS If it’s performance you’re after, Samsung’s • Fantastic 16-hour battery life. • Ultrathin, light and svelte. Galaxy Book Pro 360 does fairly well in our • Excellent 1080p OLED display and Dolby audio. roundup of comparable laptops. But it isn’t • Solid value, though a premium price. the reason to buy the Samsung’s massive, CONS • Shallow keyboard. svelte laptop. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 truly • A ton of preloaded apps, many from Samsung. shines as a multimedia machine, with battery • No 4K display option. life that’s an unexpected delight. BOTTOM LINE Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro 360 360-degree I’m not a fan of the keyboard. Samsung’s convertible laptop is an elegantly slim notebook PC no that we recommend for its all-day battery life and rich app designers also need to be told a stern multimedia capabilities. when they ask to write and bundle more $1,499 apps. There’s reason to integrate the Galaxy

74 PCWorld JULY 2021 Viofo A139 3CH 3-channel dash cam: Discrete design and full car coverage The interior camera of the trio is, unusually, a discrete unit—handy for placement, bad for cable clutter. BY JON L. JACOBI

Viofo’s A139 3CH three- into the same body as the front camera. channel, three-camera dash Viofo’s is separate, as is the rear camera. cam system is a first in our The upside to this discrete interior camera experience. We’ve tested approach is versatility in locating each camera. three-channel products before, but the The downside, though easily surmountable, is interior camera has always been integrated that you have more cables to hide.

IMAGE: INTEL JULY 2021 PCWorld 75 REVIEWS VIOFO A139 3CH

Wi-Fi–connected phone app for displaying live views and changing settings. Feedback is provided by status lights, voice, and other audio clues. On the back of the main camera are power, record on/off, emergency record (save), the microphone on/ off, and Wi-Fi buttons. You must connect to the phone Viofo’s A139 main (forward) camera body. There’s no display. to change the numerous Instead, the camera relies on a Wi-Fi–connected phone app for displaying live views and changing settings. other settings, and you can’t record while doing so. Small DESIGN AND FEATURES matter—you shouldn’t be driving while using The A139’s three cameras are also notable your phone anyway. for their high resolution. The 140-degree There’s quite a bit in the box to support FOV front camera is 1440p, while the three cameras, as you can see here. 170-degree cabin (interior) and rear cameras are both 1080p. All manage 30 fps while recording simultaneously, which means there’s a fair amount of processing power under the hood. High-quality Sony STARVIS IMX335 sensors are used by all three cameras. The main (forward) camera body uses a sticky mount. The camera attaches and detaches from said mount by sliding to the left or right. There’s no adjustment once mounted (place carefully!), and there’s no display. Instead of The Viofo Phone app for the A139. The front live view and settings the latter, the A139 relies on a pages are shown.

76 PCWorld JULY 2021 The notable feature of the interior camera is the infrared array—six lights surrounding the lens. Otherwise, as you can see in the two upcoming images, it’s a dead ringer for the rear camera. The A139’s camera is nothing special, though it does take some of the best video we’ve seen for a unit peering out your back window. Other features include integrated GPS As you can see, the A139 packs a lot of stuff into the box, and there’s a (embedded in the video lot of cabling to hide. If you have a powered mirror, grab an adapter to and watermarked on the power the main camera. That will cut down on the clutter. video), a parking mode, As I mentioned, the most problematic and a polarizing filter. The latter increased aspect of the A139 is the cabling. The cables reflectivity somewhat, though it did tamp are thin, and they snap into place using mini down glare from the sun. COAX connectors. How much of an issue they’ll be depends on where you place them. With most cars, you’ll want to hide the main camera behind the rearview mirror (use an adapter to power the A139 if the mirror is powered), and the interior camera somewhere high up on the windshield so it covers as much of the back seat as possible. Viofo thoughtfully includes a spudger/ crevasse tool for tucking the cables away The interior camera for the Viofo A139 features six behind molding. infrared lights to enhance low-light captures.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 77 REVIEWS VIOFO A139 3CH

Front day captures are excellent, though the 170-degree lens captures quite a bit of the dashboard in my small sports car.

The polarizing filter is supposed to cut down on glare, but increased reflectivity from the interior dramatically. And yes, I hadn’t set the readout to MPH. Divide by 1.6.

PERFORMANCE reflections quite a bit. As you can see, the A139’s daytime The A139’s low-light captures aren’t captures are excellent, offering a very wide, half-bad. Keep in mind that it was 140-degree field of view without much impossible to keep the windshield fisheye distortion. completely clean with the San Francisco Viofo includes a polarizing filter, but marine layer hitting the car off and on. Note during everyday use (as shown below) it the exceptional color depth. And that’s increased the intensity of the dashboard without WDR (Wide Dynamic Range)

78 PCWorld JULY 2021 enabled. It was not nearly as light out as the You can really appreciate the wide angle image would make it seem. of the rear camera lens when you see the Rear captures are as good as the front night shot. Again, moisture is responsible for captures, albeit with a touch less detail some of the halos. (1080p versus 1440p). Note that the band In the first daytime interior shot, notice running horizontally across the image below that the view is so wide, you can see the is a defrosting heater wire, not an issue with main camera and buildings overhead. the camera. Place yours better. There was no room higher up on my small,

Front night captures were excellent. This capture doesn’t show it, but the camera handles headlight flare very well.

The rear camera during the day. The dark line running horizontally across the middle is a heater wire, not a defect in the camera.

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This rear night capture is also quite good. Most of the halos are caused by moisture on the window. And yes, I was parked.

steep windshield or I’d have placed the At left in the interior night capture, the camera there. If I’d used the phone to sloppy cable run that fell out of the molding in check the view, I would have aimed the my car presents a teachable moment. (I was in camera lower. It’s one of the foibles that a hurry, okay?) comes from not having a display on the In summary, there’s nothing to worry camera itself. about when it comes to video quality with the

This day capture by the interior camera shows lots of detail— and lots of ceiling. Most users will mount the camera higher and aim it lower.

80 PCWorld JULY 2021 Interior night captures show a lot of detail. And the wide field of view will capture just about all of the cabin that’s not hidden.

A139. Thanks to the wide fields of view, the everything in and around your car, the A139 system covers nearly all of your car’s 3CH has you covered. surroundings and interior, and the results are nicely detailed and colorful. Viofo A139 3CH

BOTTOM LINE PROS • Separate interior camera allows better cabin The Viofo A139 3CH is an easy Editor’s coverage. Choice. It takes fantastic video. With the • Excellent, colorful day and night captures. • Integrated GPS. exception of the Nextbase modular CONS cameras (go.pcworld.com/nxtb) with their • Lots of cabling to hide. telephoto rear cameras, the A139 is my new BOTTOM LINE The Viofo A139 3CH 3-channel camera is unique for favorite. The discrete design lets you mount its discrete interior camera (most are integrated with the cameras at their best possible vantage the front camera). It’s versatile for placement, but it adds another cable. It would be a good fit for points, especially helpful for ride-givers ride-giving pros. It takes great video from all angles, and it interfaces nicely with your phone. who want to keep an eye on what’s going $269 on in the backseat. If you want to track

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Best USB microphones for streaming: Upgrade your stream with high-quality audio Our top picks provide great vocal clarity and robust features while still being affordable. BY ADAM PATRICK MURRAY & ALAINA YEE

hether you’re streaming or talking with your viewers as you work on a games to Twitch (go. project.) And unfortunately, microphones pcworld.com/sgtw), built into laptops, webcams, and even W YouTube, or another headsets just don’t sound as good as a streaming platform, your audience needs to full-size mic sitting close to your mouth. hear you clearly over the gameplay. (The same The good news is, you don’t have to holds true if you’re holding live chat sessions spend a lot of money to upgrade. While

82 PCWorld JULY 2021 IMAGE: MARK HACHMAN professional streamers use pro-level audio running immediately. Our picks for the best equipment for the best possible sound, USB microphones focus on these core USB microphones are much cheaper. basics: They’re easy-to-use models that They’re also much easier to use without offer great quality for a fair price, as well as sacrificing quality. Plug a USB microphone working with a variety of voice types and into your computer, and you can be off and volume levels.

OUR TOP PICK RATING ELGATO WAVE:3 The Elgato Wave:3 (go. PRICE $160 from pcworld.com/ewv3) packs in a go.pcworld.com/ewv3 PROS lot of performance for a $160 • Fantastic ADC. • Clean and sleek look. USB microphone. Not only does it sound • Great value for the price. great out of the box, but it can be tuned CONS • Mic mute placement. further, too. You can also easily adjust the • Included stand not usable for mic during streams, thanks to a capacitive serious streamers. mute button and a physical dial that controls mic gain, headphone volume, and crossfade (that means the balance of your mic versus PC volume when using connected headphones). Powering the excellent audio is a 24-bit/96kHz analog-to-digital converter and a large condenser capsule sensitive to voices of all volumes, plus a lone cardioid polar The Wave:3 also comes pattern that keeps the focus on you and not with built-in hardware to reduce on background noises. Overall, voices sound unwanted vocal pops (those distracting natural coming through the Wave:3, and bursts of air that happen when you’re saying transitions from loud to quiet speaking are words that start with letters like “p” or “b”), as smooth. Our one nitpick is that this mic would well as a unique feature that reduces clipping sound even better with a little more sharpness (the distortion that happens when you talk or in the midtones. yell louder than the mic can handle) by

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switching to a secondary signal that’s been most people, the Wave:3 is the closest to a picking up your voice at a lower volume. one-size-fits-all solution—especially since Streamers with a two-PC streaming Elgato’s Wavelink software gives you setup or the use of additional non-Elgato control over audio routing of other sources mics may need to look elsewhere, but for beyond your mic, too.

RUNNER UP RATING ELGATO WAVE:1

The Elgato Wave:1 (go.pcworld.com/ PRICE $129 from ew1) may lack its sibling’s fancier go.pcworld.com/ew1 PROS features, but don’t count it out. It still has • Same great sound profile as the Wave:3. the same fantastic large condenser • Same amazing software features. capsule and protection against plosives • Same clean and sleek look.

and clipping as the Wave:3, and you CONS • Not a great value for its price. get similar sensitivity and tonal clarity, • Lacks dedicated mic gain/ crossover control. too. This mic plays nice with almost every voice out there—it provides warm, full tones in the low end that mix perfectly with a crisp high range. Where it falls behind the Wave:3 is with its lower-quality analog-to-digital converter, which offers a 24-bit/48kHz signal. Less data in the digital capture of your voice means a less faithful reproduction of it, though as noted above, it still sounds pretty good. More disappointing are the stripped- down hardware controls. The control dial on more cumbersome than having dedicated the Wave:1 only toggles muting of the mic controls on the mic. We think it’s worth the and headphone volume. You can still control extra $30 to get a Wave:3, but if you’re on a mic gain and crossfade through Elgato’s tight budget, this $130 mic is still one of the Wavelink PC software, but the experience is best on the market.

84 PCWorld JULY 2021 PREMIUM PICK SHURE MV7 RATING

Last fall, Shure released the MV7 (go. PRICE $249 from pcworld.com/smv7), a USB microphone go.pcworld.com/smv7 inspired by the well-known audio company’s PROS • Rich, bright radio sound. legendary SM7B—a professional microphone • USB/XLR connections. • Easy-to-use software. used for decades by vocalists and countless CONS radio shows. But while still aimed at a more • Touch controls. • Micro-USB connection. experienced user, the MV7 requires far • Steep price. less time to learn its ins and outs for the best possible experience. And what an experience it is. This dynamic-capsule mic sounds fantastic in the lower range (think booming radio voice), with smooth, clearly defined reproduction of tones in the midrange and high range, too. To get the best results, you’ll need to tweak the EQ settings using Shure’s easy-to-use MOTIV software, but you largely get similar performance to the unparalleled SM7B’s. Furthering the MV7’s professional vibe is its solid build quality, though its heavier weight and lack of included stand means you’ll need how you can use it. (Its position relative to a strong boom arm to use it effectively. The your mouth strongly affects performance.) MV7 is also compatible with XLR connections, This mic’s signal also caps out at so if you upgrade to a more high-end audio 24-bit/48kHz. Most disappointing is the system in the future, you can do so without touch panel interface on the device for mic having to buy another mic. gain control, mute button, and monitor The MV7 isn’t for everyone, however. Its levels, which can be awkward to use during dynamic capsule is better suited for a loud streams. But if you’ve got the patience and voice, and it also has a highly directional the right kind of voice, it’ll make you sound hyper cardioid polar pattern, which limits like liquid gold.

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MOST AFFORDABLE PICK RAZER SEIREN ELITE Razer’s top offering boasts specs that put it on par with the best mics in this round-up. Like Shure’s MV7, the Razer Seiren Elite (go. pcworld.com/res) sports a dynamic capsule that works well with many vocal types, emphasizes low-end tones, and requires close proximity for smooth output. (That last aspect is a positive when in a noisy environment, as it keeps background noises RATING from being picked up.) And like Elgato’s PRICE Wave:3, the Seiren Elite has easy-to-use $195 from physical controls, with one knob controlling go.pcworld.com/rse PROS mic gain, another controlling headphone • Low-end heavy, radio-like sound. volume, and a mute switch. It even features • Simple controls. • Light-up compression warning. an LED ring around the base of the mesh CONS grill that lights up to indicate when the mic’s • No software tuning. • Micro-USB connection. built-in compressor kicks in to even out high spikes in volume. While this compact mic generally takes a higher bit rates will have a longer life as future radio-like approach to mic design and sound standards (and audience expectations) rise. signature, its $200 price tag drags down its You won’t be able to tune its output further, appeal compared to our top pick, the $160 either, as Razer’s Synapse app doesn’t Wave:3. That’s particularly the case with its support that—a real bummer, since Seiren analog-to-digital converter limited to a Elite lacks the clarity and sharpness of other 16-bit/48 kHz signal—the baseline of usable mics in the middle to higher frequencies signal by today’s standards. Other mics with necessary for that classic radio sound.

GREAT FOR OTHER USES has a history of producing great USB-based BLUE YETI X microphones for many use cases—and the Like Shure, Blue is a well-respected name in company’s Yeti X (go.pcworld.com/byx) professional audio. But unlike Shure, Blue also comes closer to the Wave:3 in terms of audio

86 PCWorld JULY 2021 performance than the other mics on RATING this list.

Unlike the rest, though, the PRICE $170 from Yeti X doesn’t focus specifically on go.pcworld.com/byx streamers. The company’s top PROS • Simple and clean sound profile. microphone features multiple • Sturdy build for mic and included stand. polar patterns (cardioid, • Feature-rich software. omnidirectional, bidirectional, CONS • Sound lacks character. and stereo), which you can • Micro-USB connection. easily toggle through using the physical dial on the buggy, making such back. The condenser adjustments unreliable. capsules in the Yeti X pick up Build quality is solid on this voices easily and capture all mic, which also comes with a vocal ranges well, with an heavy and sturdy included base. output at 24-bit/48kHz that The main drawback of the Yeti X’s has a neutral, more generic design is its imposing size—it takes up sound and works well for a a lot of space in your field of view. variety of scenarios. That’s At $170, the Yeti X is the best Blue both a plus and a minus for this has to offer, but unless you’ll use mic—with no features or distinct your microphone for other identity in its sound, it lacks a purposes (in-person personality worth lavish interviews, multisinger praise. While you can tweak recordings, and so on), the audio profile in Blue’s Voice you’ll be better off with a software quite a bit, the program can be streaming-focused mic like the Wave:3

AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE microphone that offers good sensitivity to a TO THE BLUE YETI X variety of voice types and clear, neutral- BLUE YETI sounding output. It also has excellent Similar to its newer, higher-end sibling, physical controls on the mic, with separate Blue’s original Yeti (go.pcworld.com/by) dials for headphone volume, polar pattern model is a solid, all-purpose USB (cardioid, omnidirectional, bidirectional, and

JULY 2021 PCWorld 87 REVIEWS BEST USB MICROPHONES FOR STREAMING

stereo), and gain level, as well as a RATING mute button.

As you’d expect, this signal PRICE $108 from produced by this baseline Yeti is go.pcworld.com/by stepped down (16-bit/48kHz PROS • Simple and clean sound profile. versus the X model’s • Sturdy build for mic and included stand. 24-bit/48kHz), but audio • Feature-rich software. reproduction still sounds good. Its CONS • Big and bulky. primary downside is just how • Buggy software. sensitive its condenser capsule is—even in cardioid mode, the on the desk with unfortunate mic picks up background clarity.) Positioning it can be a noises easily, including the bit of a hassle, though, due to sound of pressing the mute how the Yeti’s large size can button. The Yeti also still sports block your view. the mini-USB connection that it At a list price of $130, the launched with back in 2009, Yeti is best for budget-minded though arguably mini-USB is a people who will also use it for sturdier port type than micro-USB. other purposes like multisinger The included base is sturdy recordings and in-person interviews. and heavy, though this mic However, if you can find it for a sale benefits from being put on a boom price of $85 (which the Yeti often arm. (Remember, it picks up dropped to before the background noise easily, so pandemic), we’d consider it’ll capture the sound of it a solid budget mic. your keyboard and how it rattles

OTHER MICROPHONES While the QuadCast’s flashy red coloring, tall WE’VE TESTED rounded shape, and included shock mount HYPERX QUADCAST show well onscreen, it doesn’t produce audio HyperX’s QuadCast (go.pcworld.com/hqc) that sounds good. HyperX uses an electret has a distinctive look, but unfortunately its condenser capsule, which is cheap and appearance is the primary thing going for it. small—the opposite of what you want inside a

88 PCWorld JULY 2021 $140 microphone. Its signal is capped at RATING 16-bit/48kHz, too, which doesn’t do the

QuadCast any favors given how light and PRICE $139 from flimsy it is. Its output sounds hollow and tinny, go.pcworld.com/hqc with a lack of warm, full lower tones. HyperX PROS • Unique, flashy design. had a great idea with the built-in shock mount • Built-in shock mount. • Easy-to-access controls. and the inclusion of physical controls on the CONS mic, but the audio performance just isn’t up • Subpar audio quality. • Overpriced for its audio to snuff, especially at this price performance.

IMPORTANT FEATURES what’s close to IN A USB MICROPHONE the microphone CAPSULE TYPE (that is, trying to Capsules are pieces of hardware that convert block out sound-pressure levels traveling through the background noises air (in this case, your voice) into a direct- like a mechanical current (DC) signal, aka the audio signal. keyboard or loud PC How a capsule picks up audio signals is fan). Dynamic mics determined by its type. The two most tend to last longer, as common kinds you’ll encounter—and should too much sensitivity can seek out—are condenser and dynamic capsules. harm a capsule over time. Condenser capsule microphones: Electret condenser capsules: This This variety of mic uses extra voltage (+48V capsule type is cheap and small, and more aka phantom power) to charge the capsule, often used in laptops and smartphones. which makes it more sensitive. Generally, Unlike a true condenser mic, electret condenser mics are better for people who condensers aren’t actively charged—instead, speak at softer volumes or have voices with they essentially come precharged, so they’re more dynamic range. lower power and produce lower-quality audio. Dynamic capsule microphones: Dynamic mics don’t require that extra voltage DIGITAL SIGNAL QUALITY and are thus less sensitive. This sort of mic is (BIT DEPTH/SAMPLE RATE) better for people with loud voices or folks After your voice has been transformed into an trying to better isolate audio pick-up to only electrical signal by a microphone’s capsule, it

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tuned, also influence what you actually hear as the end result, but because bit-rate and sample-rate numbers reveal the amount of data captured and kept for use, they can serve as a quick way to screen for anything underpowered. A low bit depth and sample rate results in a voice that

This cutaway shot from Elgato’s Wave:3 product page shows what a sounds digital and capsule looks like. robotic—the signal lacks enough detail to keep all then passes on to the analog-to-digital the nuance and personality of the original converter (ADC) found in all USB mics. As you speaker—so avoid microphones that are might guess, the ADC converts the incoming stingy in this regard. analog signal (your voice) into a digital signal that your computer can use. How accurately the ADC does so depends on its defined bit depth and sample rate. These two technical specs indicate how faithfully an audio signal replicates the original sound—in this case, the transmission of your voice through your mic to your PC. As the microphone transcodes your voice, it captures parts of the audio at specific intervals (sample rate) and a specific level of detail (bit depth) and then reconstructs the original The digitization of an analog waveform involves based on that data. two measurements: bit depth, which refers to the amount of amplitude samples available, The higher the number of both bit depth and sample rate, which refers to the amount of and sample rate, generally the more faithful samples per second (measured in Hz) available. More bit-depth samples provide more dynamic the reproduction. Other factors, such as the range, while more sample-rate samples offer condenser type and how the microphone is more granularity between frequencies.

90 PCWorld JULY 2021 Consider a 16-bit/48kHz signal a minimum (it’s roughly the level of a CD in quality), and aim for higher to prolong the use of your microphone. As with photos and video, standards gradually climb over time, and so too do audience expectations for quality.

SENSITIVITY balance between your PC’s audio and The sensitivity of a mic indicates how easily it hearing your own voice fed in from the mic) as picks up sound. If you have a quieter voice, an option, too. seek out a more sensitive microphone for more accurate reproduction of your voice— SOFTWARE CONTROLS conversely, if you have a booming voice, For a USB microphone, you’ll do all your you’ll need a less sensitive microphone for audio processing—that is, tweaking the audio the same effect. Condenser types (see above) that comes through the mic—in a desktop PC influence how sensitive a mic is, as does the program. Ideally, this companion software ability to tweak the gain level. should be easy to use, easy to navigate, and allow you to tune the audio output. The best MIC CONTROLS software also lets you configure the routing of Touch-based controls might be popular for other audio sources (such as the game, chat some microphones, but physical controls like from programs like Discord, and music from buttons, knobs, and dials are superior: No Spotify). You can choose what gets pulled in looking is necessary when making on-the-fly and how that’s directed out. adjustments during streams—you can keep your eyes on your screen while fiddling. BUILD QUALITY Better microphones offer control over mute, The build quality of a microphone affects gain level, and headphone volume (if you can more than just how the device holds up with plug in headphones directly into the mic) at use—it also has an impact on audio minimum. We like to see crossfade (the performance. The better the materials, the

JULY 2021 PCWorld 91 REVIEWS BEST USB MICROPHONES FOR STREAMING

better quality for vocal performance. The POLAR PATTERN capsule type, housing around it, and any A polar pattern (or pick-up pattern) indicates shielding placed between you and the the areas of a mic that are sensitive to sound. capsule (to tamp down unwanted noises) all Streamers should focus on microphones with influence the mic’s output. a cardioid pattern, which makes the mic more sensitive right in front of the capsule (typically TYPE OF USB CONNECTION the top of the mic) and less so on the sides Micro-USB is still surprisingly common among and rear. This type of polar pattern helps USB microphones, despite the growing physically isolate the audio source being adoption of USB-C and its advantages. We recorded—in this case, you. prefer a USB-C connection for its better Some mics feature other polar patterns as durability, both for the port itself and for well, making them more versatile for use. cables—anecdotally, we’ve had more micro- Other common ones are omnidirectional, USB ports and cables fail or loosen over time. which makes the mic sensitive to pick up on That said, micro-USB should still serve all sides (useful for conference calls); fine, especially if you don’t plan to move your bidirectional, which picks up from the front microphone around (a potential source of and rear (useful for face-to-face conversations stress on the port) or regularly plug and between two people); and stereo, aka unplug the cable. midside, which makes the mic pick up the right and left channel separately while being sensitive at the front (useful for multiple people conversing or singing while sitting side-by-side and all facing the mic).

WHAT TO LOOK FOR Our picks for best USB microphones work well

This screenshot from the Blue Yeti product page illustrates which parts of with a wide variety of the mic are active for each polar pattern supported. voices, but to find a mic

92 PCWorld JULY 2021 While tone can certainly play a part in this, the biggest influences on clarity are how sensitive the microphone is to the audio it’s receiving and how strong the amplification process is in translating that to a digital signal. A quiet voice will need both a more sensitive microphone and stronger amplification in order to achieve desired volume levels, while a big, Stay close to the mic to get the best-sounding audio from it. booming voice will need the opposite. (In fact, if a highly that fits your voice just that much better, keep sensitive microphone is regularly subjected to these factors in mind. loud sounds, it can actually damage the capsule over time.) TONAL REPRODUCTION The distance from you to the microphone Tonal reproduction refers to how close the has an impact on this as well, but we don’t microphone’s output matches the sound of a recommend shifting your position to make a person’s actual voice. Some microphones mic work with your voice. Generally, you want cater to lower-end vocal ranges by doing to have a microphone as close as possible to things like boosting midrange frequencies, your mouth, as that’s the position for getting while others cater to those with higher its best performance. pitches by having a less sensitive capsule. To get your desired style of output, find out how ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL a microphone is tuned, plus the size of CONVERTER QUALITY capsule in the mic and the type of mic. These As mentioned above, when you speak into a add up to form the microphone’s profile—and mic, that analog signal gets captured by the once you know it, it’s pretty easy to narrow microphone’s capsule, then an analog-to- the field of mics that are right for you. digital converter (ADC) transcodes that to a digital signal that your computer can use. VOCAL CLARITY How good an ADC is will impact both the Vocal clarity refers to how loud and clear tone reproduction and clarity of the digital someone can be heard with a microphone. output, as well as how loud it is. Output from

JULY 2021 PCWorld 93 REVIEWS BEST USB MICROPHONES FOR STREAMING

low-quality ADCs sound less natural and can headsets that cost about the same may still even have more digital artifacts, resulting in a seem more appealing, since you can use a tinny sound with less range. An ADC can also headset for both listening and talking. affect the signal transmitted to your PC by not So why choose a USB microphone providing enough power to the output of the instead of a headset? While headsets don’t audio, resulting in less clarity and a quieter sound bad on a stream, a headset volume to work with. microphone is just too small to really compete Think of an ADC like the middle person in with a USB mic. Generally, the larger the a three-person game of Telephone—it has the capsule, the more sensitive a microphone can ability to dramatically convolute or distort be to sound pressure changes, thus what the original person passed on. producing more accurate results. Generally, the better the converter, the more That’s the reason headset microphones voices of all types benefit from accurate struggle to produce a well-rounded sound, reproduction, but some folks with specific especially in the low end. Short of attaching a voice concerns (like quiet volume or a thinner huge capsule to a boom arm on a headset, a sound) might need to pay more attention to standalone USB mic will be better suited for specs like bit depth/sample rate, which professional-sounding streams. And the more influence how strong a signal the ADC sends you sound like you could be in the same room to your PC. as your viewers, the more likely they’ll Once you’ve narrowed down your connect with you and stick around. potential microphone picks, find videos of them in use to get a better sense of how their output sounds. As a starting point, we’ve used all of these microphones in this roundup in our live videos on YouTube (.com/ pcworld) and Twitch (twitch.tv/ pcworldus).

USB MICROPHONE VS. A HEADSET While USB microphones are cheaper than a full professional setup, they’re Good headsets sound decent on a stream, but a dedicated USB microphone provides the clarity and warmth that really draws pricier than a good headset. Even in your listeners.

94 PCWorld JULY 2021 My kid would never vape.

More than 5 million American kids vape. Which means, they’re being set up for a lifetime of addiction. Good students. Athletes. Kids who’d never smoke regular cigare es. All types of kids. Maybe even yours. Talk to your kid about vaping. Start by ge ing the facts at TalkAboutVaping.org FEATURE

MEET AMD’S FID SUPER RESOLUT RADEON’S DLSS RIVAL EVEN MA YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT. BY BRAD CHACOS

96 PCWorld JULY 2021 FIDELITYFX OLUTION N MAKES GEFORCE GPUS FASTER

JULY 2021 PCWorld 97 FEATURE MEET AMD’S FIDELITYFX SUPER RESOLUTION

ay hello to Radeon’s long-awaited graphics cards at sane prices (go.pcworld. answer to Nvidia’s DLSS com/gcsp). Free extra performance when technology. AMD finally took the you’re struggling to make do with an older S wraps off its FidelityFX Super GPU will certainly prove welcome indeed. It Resolution feature (go.pcworld.com/ffxs) also drives home AMD’s ongoing during its Computex 2021 keynote. The commitment to more open standards that company promised up to twice your GPU’s benefit the wider PC community, following in native performance when you need extra the footsteps of other AMD initiatives like gaming firepower (like when you activate ray FreeSync monitors and GPU Open. tracing, for example) and the ability to make In a briefing with PCWorld prior to the most recent graphics cards (go.pcworld. keynote, Radeon chief Scott Herkelman drove com/mrgc) even faster in supported games— that point home by showing FidelityFX Super even if you’re running a GeForce GPU. And Resolution boosting the performance of AMD just released it to the public. Nvidia’s older GTX 1060 by a whopping 41 The feature’s open nature makes it a huge percent in Godfall, and that wasn’t even with deal to all PC gamers—not just Radeon FSR’s fastest form active. In my decade-plus of owners—during a time when nobody can buy covering PC technology, I can’t recall a single

AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution being used to speed up Nvidia’s older GTX 1060 in Godfall.

98 PCWorld JULY 2021 other time that a major vendor made an effort to show a new feature making its competitor’s hardware faster. By contrast, Nvidia’s excellent Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology works only on newer GeForce The cornerstones of AMD’s approach to FSR. RTX–branded graphics cards that contain proprietary AI tensor cores. tpr) coming to Epic’s Unreal Engine 5 also Even Nvidia’s own GTX GPUs can’t partake. revolves around temporal upsampling (hence FidelityFX Super Resolution, on the other the name). FidelityFX Super Resolution utilizes hand, works on all AMD graphics cards from spatial upsampling instead. Herkelman didn’t the Radeon RX 500 series on up, as well as go into specific technical details about how Nvidia’s GTX 10–series GPUs and newer, FSR works under the hood, but typically, spatial Herkelman told PCWorld. Hallelujah. And a upsampling has a GPU create a frame at a few days after the keynote, AMD said that it is lower resolution, then renders it onscreen at a bringing FSR to the popular Radeon RX 470 higher resolution, using interpolation and 480 graphics cards as well, though the techniques to fill in the blank pixels. company didn’t mention any other 400-series DLSS also starts with a lower-resolution GPUs (go.pcworld.com/400s). image that’s upsampled to fit your screen, but FSR differs from DLSS in other tangible it uses AI comparing against a super-high- ways as well. Nvidia’s DLSS relies on machine resolution “ground truth” image along with learning and temporal upsampling to drive its temporal feedback to fill in the blanks. The performance-boosting feature. The new first generation of the technology looked a bit Temporal Super Resolution (go.pcworld.com/ blurry and smeared onscreen. The much more popular DLSS 2.0 works like black VIDEO: AMD’S FIDELITYFX magic, especially when you use it with SUPER RESOLUTION, ANNOUNCED settings enabled that render at a higher base Watch now at youtu.be/Drrkm615WOs resolution, so the technology doesn’t need to “fill in the blanks” as much.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 99 FEATURE MEET AMD’S FIDELITYFX SUPER RESOLUTION

upsampling technology of choice over DLSS, but don’t expect to be able to flip it on in every game right away. Herkelman said that over 10 game studios and engines will support FSR at some point in 2021 (without noting specifics), but he added that there will be a “tremendous

FidelityFX Super Resolution offers four quality levels with varying amount more in 2022.” levels of performance and visual quality. We’ll have to see how the technology handles in the AMD’s Fidelity FX will also offer multiple real world now that it’s out, but if FidelityFX quality levels, Herkelman told PCWorld—four, Super Resolution proves successful or even to be exact: Ultra Quality, Quality, Balanced, and just good enough, it could truly bolster Performance. FSR settings toward the left of that Radeon ray-tracing performance—AMD’s list favor fidelity more, while Performance may major weak spot (go.pcworld.com/mws) sacrifice some eye candy for more raw speed. against Nvidia’s RTX 30–series GPUs. And Each quality level deploys spatial upsampling in FSR could make everybody’s graphics cards different ways to achieve its results. Herkelman faster in the games that support it. Exciting said that Ultra Quality FSR is “very similar” and times lie ahead. “pretty close” to native rendering while still providing a very nice performance bump, as you can see in the slide above. On the other end of the spectrum, Herkelman said that Performance mode can offer up to twice the native performance at 4K resolution. AMD hopes that the more-open FidelityFX Super Resolution will become the It’s finally here.

100 PCWorld JULY 2021 “My wife onew that I was mixing things up at woro.” — Mario, living with Alzheimer’s

When something feels different, it could be Alzheimer’s. Now is the time to talo.

Visit alz.org/ourstories to learn more BUZZED DRIVING IS DRUNK DRIVING FEATURE

6 COMMAND- PROMPT COMMANDS YOU SHOULD STILL BE USING OLD-SCHOOL DOESN’T MEAN OBSOLETE. BY ALAINA YEE

IMAGE: JAKE WALKER/UNSPLASH JULY 2021 PCWorld 103 FEATURE 6 COMMAND PROMPTS YOU SHOULD BE USING

n the beginning, all we had was the you like to kick it old-school, there are still command line. Then as Windows plenty worth your time. For most people, I matured, the need to access that though, these six will add efficiency to your throwback interface waned. regular routine without requiring excessive That doesn’t mean the Command Prompt time in a command line interface. is completely useless. In fact, recent versions To open the Command Prompt, tap the of Windows (go.pcworld.com/rvw) have Windows key, then enter cmd. introduced new commands. And while Windows 10’s graphical interface is generally 1. ECHO straightforward to use, several features are still On its own, the echo command (go.pcworld. faster to execute through that last tie to com/ech) has little relevance for the MS-DOS. The same goes for accessing a few overwhelming majority of Windows users. pieces of useful information, too. (The PCWorld staff included.) But we like We’ve listed our top Command Prompt using one specific application of it: echo commands below, but don’t take this list as off | clip. Entering this string into the the complete lineup of useful commands. If Command Prompt clears the last item on your

104 PCWorld JULY 2021 Clipboard—helpful when you’ve copied 3. IPCONFIG sensitive information and are done with it. On its own, ipconfig gives a brief readout (This command won’t clear your full of the active networking hardware’s local IP Clipboard history though, so you’ll have to address—useful for identifying your PC when use Windows 10’s Clipboard settings to do looking separately at your router’s list of that. You can also turn off history while you’re connected devices. in that menu.) But the real beauty of ipconfig is when An alternative way to use this command is Windows 10’s network troubleshooting to open Windows 10’s Run command window isn’t fixing your connection woes and you (Win + R) and enter cmd /c “echo off | need to manually release (ipconfig / clip”. If you never use Run for anything else, release) and renew (ipconfig /renew) it’ll remember this command whenever you your IP address. You can also see full next call it up, making it slightly faster than detailed information of all of your opening a fresh Command Prompt window networking hardware, including the MAC each time. address for when you need to add it to a whitelist, whether or not it’s connected 2. POWERCFG (ipconfig /all). The powercfg command can be of use to both desktop PC and laptop owners, 4. TRACERT especially if you need to toggle the Can’t connect to a website and want to figure hibernation feature (powercfg / out whether it’s you or the site? (As much as hibernate) or begin an investigation into we wish it knew everything, downdetector. what’s disturbing your computer from sleep com doesn’t always catch every outage.) Use (powercfg /lastwake). tracert to both test the connection and see But laptops benefit the most from the gem where in the journey the trouble is, if any among powercfg’s operations: the battery exists (tracert [website address or report (powercfg /batteryreport). If ip address]). you’ve felt like your battery life has taken a The tracert command functions similarly sudden dip, this information will share the to ping in that it sends out data packets to battery level at certain points in time, along the site and waits for a response, but it also with the time it recently took to drain since last reports the details of the journey that the plugged in. By default, the report will save to data takes. If a communication attempt your Windows 10 user folder under the name times out, you’ll see where in the trip it “battery-report.html.” happens, helping you to troubleshoot. For

JULY 2021 PCWorld 105 FEATURE 6 COMMAND PROMPTS YOU SHOULD BE USING

on Start button, then type cmd. Right-click on the result for the Command Prompt, then choose “Run as administrator.” As a slightly faster alternative, you can also open a PowerShell window as an administrator (Win+X Downdetector.com doesn’t catch every outage. or right-clicking on the Start button). It’ll work example, if you can’t even reach the first the same as the Command Prompt. hop—your router—then you’ll want to start by looking at your connection to your 6. CHKDSK home network. You may already be familiar with chkdsk. Ping is better for answering the question After an unexpected shutdown, Windows will “Is there a connection and how fast is it?” sometimes halt a reboot to run chkdsk in while tracert answers both that and “Where order to check for bad sectors and repair does the connection fail?” It’s more rare that errors on the disk. If you suspect that one of we want only the information that ping your drives may have issues, you can initiate reveals, hence tracert’s place of importance this same scan manually as well. on this list. Open a Command Prompt as an administrator, then enter chkdsk to begin a 5. SFC read-only scan. You can also add a drive letter When parts of the Windows interface start to specify which storage disk to check (for acting up—say, disappearing taskbar icons—it instance, chkdsk D:) and/or a switch to fix may be time to lean on the System File errors on disk (such as chkdsk /f), locate Checker. Running sfc /scannow will check bad sectors and recover readable information for corrupted files on your system and attempt (say, chkdsk /r), run an online scan on an to repair any files with problems. NTFS volume (for instance, chkdsk D: / To open a Command prompt as an scan), and more. (Use chkdsk /? to get the administrator, hit the Windows key or click full list of available switches.)

106 PCWorld JULY 2021 All of the things I just found too hard to say.

LAUREN JAUREGUI // TRACK 03

WHEN YOUR KID CAN’T FIND THE LANGUAGE, FIND THE LYRICS.

USE THEM TO START A CONVERSATION WITH YOUR KIDS ABOUT EMOTIONAL WELLBEING. LISTEN TO THE ALBUM, FIND TOOLS AND GET TIPS FROM PROFESSIONALS AT SOUNDITOUTTOGETHER.ORG #Dadication

fatherhood.gov HOW TO BUILD, MAINTAIN, Here’s How AND FIX YOUR TECH GEAR

Play games on a If you include Android games, a Chromebook arguably can play more games than a PC. BY MARK HACHMAN

e’ve become used to not much else. But there are many ways to thinking of Chromebooks game on a Chromebook, too. as simple productivity You have three options to play games on W machines: a web interface most modern Chromebooks: as a web app, in for classwork, online productivity apps, and an Android app, or remotely via one of the

IMAGE: BROOKE CAGLE / UNSPLASH JULY 2021 PCWorld 109 HERE’S HOW PLAY GAMES ON A CHROMEBOOK

prior two ways. Gaming on a Chromebook and recommendations for picking a can mean playing the same games you’d play Chromebook (go.pcworld.com/hro), as well on a PC, but given all the options you could as the differences between a Chromebook argue that the diversity of games is richer on a and a traditional Windows laptop (go. Chromebook than on a PC. pcworld.com/twl). For gaming, you’ll As we’ll explain, though, many of the probably prefer a Chromebook with a gaming opportunities a Chromebook offers touchscreen. A 360-degree convertible that depend on accessing a game on a remote folds into a tablet mode is quite handy for server. The quality of such gaming Android games. We’ve recommended a few experiences will depend on the quality of good models for gaming above. your Internet connection and, to some extent, on what processor the Chromebook HOW TO PLAY WEB GAMES contains. Only Android apps, many of which ON A CHROMEBOOK assume the presence of a slower Arm chip, As you might expect, playing a game inside a will run natively (and probably very smoothly) web browser on a Chromebook is a lot like on the Chromebook itself. playing it on a PC’s web browser—load up the Below, we’ve included a guide to get you site and you’re ready to go. In 2021 there’s up and running. Feel free to refer to our guide one key difference from years past: Chrome 88, released in January 2021, eliminated support for Adobe Flash (go.pcworld.com/ c88), the foundation for an entire generation’s worth of web games. However, the well-publicized demise of Flash allowed popular

Fallen London, a conversational browser-based game, is a place to start when Flash entertainment considering Chromebook games. It just gets better from here. repositories like

110 PCWorld JULY 2021 from Happy Homes next to a few genuinely interesting games like Pink (go.pcworld. com/pink) or Tiny Fragments (go.pcworld. com/tfr). Browser-

Flash gaming may be a carryover from a bygone era, but it still houses a few based gaming interesting, unique titles. starts to open up a bit more when Newgrounds.com time to convert their you visit the , which allows games to HTML5 or provide transitional you to download Chrome game extensions. plug-ins. If you visit a site like Newgrounds, Click with caution here, as Google seems to you’ll be able to play the site’s simple Flash have ditched its dedicated gaming section for games and movies with no trouble at all. A some reason. Chances are that you’ll have to competing site, Kongregate.com, asks you to search out older games like Cut the Rope (go. install an SWF plugin (go.pcworld.com/swf). pcworld.com/ctro) or Tank Riders (go. Just be warned: Flash games on sites like Newgrounds can be notoriously weird. Creative coders used to put their own spins on Nintendo games and other licensed IP, which lawyers have now quashed, leaving games like Wife FreeCiv Web isn’t the prettiest of games, but it runs in the Chromebook’s Quest and Escape Chrome browser—entirely for free.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 111 HERE’S HOW PLAY GAMES ON A CHROMEBOOK

pcworld.com/tri) by name. A smaller number of “native” browser- based games will take advantage of your Chromebook’s CPU and graphics capabilities. A good example of this is Web Quake (go. pcworld.com/wq), The Asphalt series provides one of the more graphically intensive essentially the demo experiences of any Android app running locally on a phone or Chromebook. of the old iD game It also runs in landscape mode. Quake, or an open- source version of the PC classic Civilization, ChromeOS-powered Chromebooks to run known as FreeCiv Web (go.pcworld.com/ Android apps. Virtually every Chromebook fcw). shipping since 2019 includes this capability. The “traditional” browser-based games For the purposes of gaming, your are certainly not exclusive to Chromebooks. Chromebook is simply a larger Android Games like Fallen London (go.pcworld.com/ phone. In fact, your Chromebook will include flon) and Kingdom of Loathing (go.pcworld. the Store app down in the com/kol) are more traditional point-and-click Chrome OS shelf, otherwise known as the adventures. We’d recommend PC Gamer’s taskbar. Select the app you want to install, collection of browser games (go.pcworld. and Google will download it and install it on com/cbg) for additional options. They should your Chromebook. all be playable on a Chromebook. Because many Android apps depend upon touch, you’ll want to own a HOW TO PLAY ANDROID Chromebook equipped with a touchscreen. GAMES ON A You’ll also quickly realize that you usually hold CHROMEBOOK your phone vertically, while a Chromebook’s In 2016, Google launched Chrome OS 53 screen is oriented horizontally in landscape (go.pcworld.com/53), the version of the mode. Many Android games will carve out a Chromebook operating system that allowed narrow vertical strip on a horizontal screen. A

112 PCWorld JULY 2021 Chromebook that you can fold back into a from the PC and console onto native Android tablet configuration and then reorient into a apps. Statista clams (go.pcworld.com/tist) vertical portrait mode will allow you to take there are over 480,000 Android games full advantage of your “tablet’s” screen. available as of the first quarter of 2021, so A Chromebook also allows you to mix and you’ll have plenty to choose from. match input methods. In some games a We can’t say for sure how well each game touchscreen is best, though a touchpad or a will run on your Chromebook, but the mouse may serve just as well. Games like affordable price usually justifies trying them Asphalt 8 smartly support both keyboard out. Google’s refund policy also usually input as well as Chromebooks that include allows you up to 48 hours to decide gyroscopes for tilt steering. whether you want to keep the game or get As far as gaming recommendations go, your money back. the sky’s the limit. We selected the best action games for Android (go.pcworld.com/gfa) a HOW TO PLAY PC GAMES few years ago, and followed that up with the REMOTELY ON A best Android games of the year (go.pcworld. CHROMEBOOK com/gty), period. Many PC games, such as Once you start combining the power of a web Grand Theft Auto III: San Andreas( go. or Android app with a Chromebook, your pcworld.com/snd), have made the transition gaming horizons can expand further. It’s at this point, however, that gaming moves off Many Android games the Chromebook and into the cloud. formatted for Remote or cloud gaming uses a PC or a traditional smartphones console situated remotely, and streams the will align resulting content down to your Chromebook. themselves You sign up for a service like , vertically on a Chromebook. and typically download a small web app or Android utility. You can typically connect an Xbox or other third-party controller to the Chromebook, or you can simply use a keyboard and mouse. During gameplay, the Chromebook and app will take your button or key inputs, send them up via the Internet to the cloud PC, and then show you the results of your actions. It

JULY 2021 PCWorld 113 HERE’S HOW PLAY GAMES ON A CHROMEBOOK

was predicated upon having a hardwired ethernet connection, which improved performance dramatically. Most Chromebooks don’t have ethernet connections. Stadia is priced relatively Doom Eternal is a faster-paced game, but it’s still part of the Google Stadia lineup. affordably: $9.99 a month (go. happens so quickly that you’re more or less pcworld.com/stadi), and there are a number “playing” the game right on your of top-tier games (go.pcworld.com/tg). Chromebook. In 2021 you have access to a number of There will always be a bit of input lag, different cloud services. In 2020, I used which will make fast, twitchy games less Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass app go.( responsive. You’ll see better results with pcworld.com/xb)—part of a $14.99 per metropolitan broadband connections, for month Game Pass Ultimate subscription (go. example, than with rural DSL. That matters pcworld.com/pus)—to play Xbox cloud less in slower-paced adventure and games on a Chromebook. That story has a exploration games, however, which is why a detailed evaluation of how to set it up, plus game like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey was a what worked and what didn’t. Unfortunately, launch title for the Google Stadia service. Sony’s PlayStation Now service (go.pcworld. Google Stadia began shipping by default com/psns) demands a Windows 10 PC, not a with new Chromebooks (go.pcworld.com/ Chromebook. Google’s rival in the cloud, nch) in February 2021, allowing you to try out Amazon, also plans a service called Amazon cloud gaming on Google’s own service. Luna (go.pcworld.com/aml) that will But—and this is a big but—our original review eventually run on Android devices—it’s stuck of the Stadia service (go.pcworld.com/sse) in early access for now, however.

114 PCWorld JULY 2021 We haven’t even reviewed all the cloud GameStream technology and the so-so Shield gaming services available. One intriguing TV (go.pcworld.com/stvv), but an open- option is Shadow (go.pcworld.com/shd), source project called Moonlight (go.pcworld. which can stream to a PC or a Chromebook’s com/mon) can route the GameStream Android app. You can subscribe to Shadow protocol to Android-powered devices such (go.pcworld.com/sssh) for $12 per month. as Chromebooks, too. (Valve unfortunately Pony up $25, and Shadow promises that your killed its similar Steam Link service [go. game can run on the equivalent of an Nvidia pcworld.com/sls].) GeForce RTX 2080 in the cloud. Yes—ray- The abundance of available options traced graphics on a Chromebook! provides two great benefits for users. If you own a PC, there’s another option: Competition should keep prices in check, Use your PC as the local “cloud” and stream and you’ll have a wealth of services and games from it. It’s a viable option if the games from which to choose. Part of the “gaming” PC is in another room in the house, hurdle is simply accepting that you can use and a child wants to spend some after-hours inexpensive, portable little Chromebooks as time in the privacy of their room. That used to gaming machines—you’ll just need to be the domain of Nvidia’s GeForce-powered discover what works for you.

This is Microsoft’s own Forza Horizon 4 running on a Chromebook. In this still image, you can see how Microsoft paints some of the periphery of the game in lower resolution. At full speed, though, it’s not really noticeable.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 115 HERE’S HOW

Tune Windows 10 for laser- focused productivity These tips make working from home less distracting—and a lot easier. BY BRAD CHACOS

ind yourself suddenly needing to be news: All those excellent productivity-boosting more productive in the midst of Windows tools and tweaks aren’t immediately chaos? Good news! Windows 10 obvious, with many of the most useful settings Fcomes loaded with all sorts of tools buried deep inside a maze of options menus. designed to help you Get Things Done, along We can help. Taking five or ten minutes to with deeper tweaks to optimize the operating tinker with Windows 10 can supercharge your system for productivity. Each new major setup, regardless of whether you’re trying to upgrade—like the Windows 10 May 2021 keep working while stuck at home Update (go.pcworld.com/2021), the most temporarily or setting up something more recent one—adds more. Now for the bad permanent. Let’s dig in.

116 PCWorld JULY 2021 IMAGE: MAJID RANGRAZ (CC0) item to Off. Boom. For a more nuanced approach, you can click the tiny “Focus assist settings” link underneath that option, which allows you to set up rules for when and how you’ll receive OS notifications. If you want to receive some notifications—say, Mail and Calendar events—but not others, head back to the main Windows 10’s notifications options Notifications & actions screen. At the bottom, you’ll GET RID OF INTERRUPTIONS see a big list of all the apps that can If you want to stay focused on a task, reducing potentially send you notifications. Slide the your interruptions is key. That can be as simple ones that aren’t critical to Off. I like to disable as checking your email and social media only at the Razer Synapse and Discord system designated times, but Windows 10 can still pop notifications, for example, because even up notifications that can kick you out of a though I’m a gamer they’re prone to interrupt productive headspace, be it from apps or the OS itself. Let’s eradicate those first. Open the Start menu, click the Settings cog icon, and head to System > Notifications & actions. You have a few different options here. To nuke all notifications from orbit, eradicating them completely, move the “Get notifications from apps and other senders” Windows 10’s focus assist options.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 117 HERE’S HOW TUNE WINDOWS 10 FOR LASER-FOCUSED PRODUCTIVITY

me during work hours. I also avoid Mail out for just over a month. notifications, preferring to check my inbox on my own schedule. ORGANIZE YOUR Notifications aren’t even the worst WORKFLOW offender when it comes to interruptions. Instilling some order into your workflow can Nothing is worse than Windows 10’s forced make a big difference. Sure, Alt-Tab-bing restarts of your PC to install updates. through all your open programs can work, Fortunately, Microsoft has worked in lots of but taking the time to set up some sort of tools over the years that make that scenario organization can help keep things running as much less likely—if you know they exist. smoothly as possible. Windows 10 includes Head to Start > Settings> Update & several tools that can make multitasking even Security > Windows Update to tinker with more productive. your options. In particular, check on your First off: Multimonitor setupsrock for Change Active Hours settings. These let you productivity, and I highly recommend using tell Windows when you’re working, and it more than one monitor if possible. Our guides won’t automatically reset your PC during that on how to set up two monitors (go.pcworld. time. The ability to pause all updates for a com/goh) and Windows 10’s individual display week is handy, too; if you dig into the scaling (go.pcworld.com/i) can help you out Advanced options menu, you can push them in that case. In a pinch, you can even use a TV

Windows Update options.

118 PCWorld JULY 2021 the left or right of the screen, until your cursor touches the edge of the display. You’ll see a transparent outline flow out from your cursor to fill half the screen. Let go, and the chosen program will expand, taking

When you Snap a window to one half of the screen, Windows pulls back all up that space. Any your other open windows and lets you choose one to fill the other side. other programs open on that monitor will as a computer monitor (go.pcworld.com/ appear on the other half of the screen, and if acm), though they work better as auxiliary you select one, it’ll expand to fill that space. displays. That said, not everyone wants (or Boom! Now you’ve got two programs on the can afford) more than one display, and the screen at the same time, split right down the Windows 10 tools below help even if you’re middle. stuck on a single screen. If you’ve got a large monitor, or a Don’t underestimate the power of Windows Snap, a native way to easily divvy up your monitor into multiple segments devoted to separate apps. Grab an open window by its title bar—the horizontal bar at the top that says its name—and Four windows Snapped into four quadrants of the screen can put a lot of info at drag it all the way to your fingertips simultaneously.

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Virtual desktops let you separate virtual versions of your desktop, each running its own instances of software, that you can hop between. I work from home, so I sometimes run separate virtual desktops devoted to work time and play You can see your various virtual desktops at the top of Windows 10’s Task View, time, for instance— above your activity Timeline. Office, Slack, and a browser dedicated pixel-dense 1440p or 4K display, you can use to work tasks in one, and fun apps like Steam, Snap to divide your screen even further. Discord, and a browser with Reddit or Twitter Dragging open windows to a corner of your open in another. When it’s break time (or beer display will Snap them into that quarter of the o’ clock), I can just hop over to the play time screen, though using this method won’t virtual desktop and pick up where I left off. trigger a prompt asking you what to fill the Alternatively, you could set up multiple rest of the screen with. You’ll need to virtual desktops, each dedicated to its own manually Snap the windows you want to each complicated work task, with all the relevant corner. programs, browser tabs, and documents or It’s worth doing, though. Having, say, a spreadsheets open to that particular project. document, a spreadsheet, your work’s chat Your only limit is your imagination! software, and Outlook open and visible all at To start using virtual desktops, click the the same time can help you get a lot of stuff Task View icon in Windows 10’s taskbar to done faster, especially if you’re transferring summon your Timeline. Select the tiny +New data from one app to another. desktop text at the top left of the screen. Another potent tool for organization is the Once you’re set up, use the same Task criminally underutilized Virtual Desktops View interface to swap among open virtual feature, which debuted in Windows 10. desktops in the bar that appears at the top of

120 PCWorld JULY 2021 In Windows 10, the Task View icon (a small stack of rectangles with a slider on the right side) can be found to the right of the search bar and the Cortana icon. the screen. virtual desktop. You can also use these keyboard shortcuts Windows+Ctrl+Left or Right: Switch to control your virtual desktops: to the virtual desktop on the left or right. Windows+Ctrl+D: Create and open a Windows+Tab: Open Task View/Virtual new virtual desktop. desktop interface. Windows+Ctrl+F4: Close the current Finally, while this guide is dedicated to Windows tips, if you tend to juggle multiple programs simultaneously for complicated tasks, consider paying up for Stardock’s excellent Groupy software. Groupy essentially lets you organize several programs into a single window, letting you hop between them like so many browser tabs. It’s great (go.pcworld.com/ Stardock’s Groupy lets you combine several programs into one window, igr), and it only costs like browser tabs, and jump between them. If you look at the title bar at the top of the screen, you’ll see that this window includes File Explorer, $10 direct from Stardock Chrome, Spotify, and Slack. (go.pcworld.com/100).

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Microsoft was working on a native tabbed > Settings > System > Display and activate interface for Windows 10, dubbed Sets, but the Night Light slider to turn it on, and then alas, it’s dead (go.pcworld.com/sts). Groupy click the “Night light settings” link to adjust earns our very highest recommendation. how it works. Windows Timeline shows you a history ODDS AND ENDS of your recent activity in Microsoft apps, Getting rid of distractions and organizing including individual Office files and Edge your workflow will go a long way toward browser tabs, making it easy to jump back making you more productive, but a handful into something you were working on before. of other Windows 10 tweaks can make your (If you’re a Chrome user, grab the official Web life easier, too. Activities browser extension by Microsoft [go. Night light restricts blue light emanating pcworld.com/wab] to enable the same from your display by changing its hue, similar functionality.) You summon Timeline by to the popular f.lux app (go.pcworld.com/ opening the Task View icon on the Windows lux). “Studies have shown that blue light at 10 toolbar, or by pressing Windows+Tab. night suppresses melatonin production more Your recent activity appears underneath the than other colors and shifts the body’s virtual desktop view. circadian timing, thereby disrupting the Cloud clipboard further leverages the sleep-wake cycle,” we said in our Night Light connectivity of your Microsoft Account by primer (go.pcworld.com/nlp). Head to Start letting you copy text on one PC, and then paste it on another. It’s wonderful. Head to Settings > System > Clipboard to turn it on and configure its behavior. If you have external storage connected to your PC, File History is a godsend, taking snapshots of your files as you go and storing the different versions, so you can recover older saves if need be. “Say, for example, you really liked a paragraph from the first draft of an essay, but you deleted it long ago and are now battling regret,” we explained in our primer. “You can dip into File History, retrieve the right version of your Night light’s options are basic, but it’s a handy tool. document, and copy the paragraph.” Our

122 PCWorld JULY 2021 Windows 10’s Timeline shows you what you’ve worked on recently, letting you hop back in where you left off with a single click.

File History guide (go.pcworld.com/fhg) can set you up if it sounds interesting, while our roundup of the best external drives (go. pcworld.com/bed) can point you toward the best hardware for the task. (You don’t need a fast external SSD for File History; a slower—and thus more affordable—hard drive performs the job just fine.) That about does it. If you want to finish your day sooner, be sure to check out 10 time-saving Windows tricks that help you get stuff done faster (go.pcworld.com/gsd). Those simple tips aren’t glamorous, and most aren’t even new, to be honest, but when you use them together, they can seriously File History makes it easy to manage which folders streamline your workflow. you’re backing up.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 123 HERE’S HOW

Enable HDR in Windows 10

You need to manually turn HDR on before Windows 10 will use it. BY MATT SMITH

DR, or High Dynamic Range, most out of an HDR-compatible display. delivers a dramatic upgrade in Here’s how to turn it on. brightness, color, and contrast H HOW TO ENABLE HDR IN compared to SDR, or Standard Dynamic Range. HDR content looks more WINDOWS 10 brilliant, and more detailed, than SDR. You’ll Windows 10 supports HDR by default and has notice an unmistakable difference when for several years. Microsoft plans to release an viewing a movie, TV show, or gaming that’s Auto HDR update (go.pcworld.com/mp) that, mastered for HDR. once available, will automatically detect an Windows 10 offers HDR support, but you HDR display and adjust Windows accordingly. must enable it in Windows’ settings to get the For now, however, you must turn it on manually.

124 PCWorld JULY 2021 IMAGE: MAJID RANGRAZ (CC0) Microsoft plans to release an Auto HDR update that will automatically detect an HDR display and adjust Windows accordingly.

• Open the Windows 10 Start Menu. WHY CAN’T I SEE THE • Select Settings, which is represented WINDOWS HDR TOGGLE? by a gear icon. Windows HDR does not automatically turn • The Settings window will open. Select on, but it does automatically detect whether System. the display you’re using supports HDR. • You’ll now see Display settings. Scroll down until you see the Windows HD Color section. • Flip the Use HDR toggle to On. Turning the Use HDR toggle to On will force your monitor to turn off and back on, or flicker, as it changes to its own HDR mode. This should only take a few seconds. The HDR toggle you’re looking for in Windows 10’s system settings.

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The HDR toggle won’t appear if Windows If your hardware is compatible but you fails to detect an HDR-compatible display. Refer don’t see the HDR toggle, try these solutions. to the monitor’s specifications to see if HDR is • If you’re on a laptop, connect the supported. You need specific hardware to use machine to power. HDR, including an HDR-compatible display. • Turn the monitor off and back on. Most HDR displays aggressively market this • Disconnect and reconnect the monitor’s fact, so you should be able to determine video cable to your PC. compatibility at the manufacturer’s website. • Swap out the HDMI or DisplayPort Your graphics solution also must support cable. If you’re using an adapter to switch HDR. Nvidia added HDR with the GeForce from one to the other, try a different adapter, GTX 900 series. AMD embraced HDR with or find a way to connect without an adapter. the Radeon R9 300 series. And Intel threw • Check that Windows 10, and your PC’s HDR in with the Intel UHD Integrated video drivers, are up to date. Install any Graphics found on seventh-generation Intel updates that are available. Core processors. Any GPUs released • Manually toggle your monitor to its afterward (go.pcworld.com/gpu) also HDR mode using its on-screen menu. The support HDR monitors. specifics of how to do this vary from one monitor to another, so check the monitor’s manual for details. Still can’t see the Use HDR toggle? Take a look at Microsoft’s HDR troubleshooting guide (go. pcworld.com/ hdr). It lists over a dozen potential issues and their Nvidia added HDR with the GeForce GTX 900 series. workarounds.

126 PCWorld JULY 2021 Add Linux apps to Windows in just one easy step An improved Windows Subsystem for Linux is the key to mixing and matching Linux and Windows apps. BY MARK HACHMAN

et’s face it: Not everyone wants to Instead of installing Linux within a partition futz with Linux. But within Windows, or virtual machine, Windows uses the playing around with Linux is Windows Subsystem for Linux, added way L becoming easier and easier—so back in 2016 as part of the Windows 10 much so that you can get up and running with Anniversary Update. The recent Microsoft little more than a single command. In Build conference covered more on this topic seconds, you can download and run powerful as Microsoft encouraged developers to run Linux apps, and even pin them right to your Windows alongside WSL for development Windows desktop. and even general use. It’s not exactly the

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same as running Linux in a virtual machine, but which has just begun rolling out (go. it’s getting closer and closer. pcworld.com/bro). But the company When the Windows Subsystem for Linux clarified that it is not generally releasing the debuted in Windows 10 in 2016, it had feature in 21H1. It will have more somewhat limited, text-based capabilities. information about availability later. But in the upgrade to WSL2 in May 2020 (go. Unfortunately, that means you’ll need to pcworld.com/wsl), Microsoft opened the be part of the Windows 10 Insider program door to more visually friendly GUI apps and instead, running version preview build 21364 even the ability to perform GUI computations or higher. Configuring your PC for Windows (go.pcworld.com/gui). Essentially, Linux Subsystem for Linux previously required a within Windows isn’t restricted to text any more. special GPU driver, too: an Intel GPU driver That means if you have a favorite Linux (go.pcworld.com/gpud), an AMD GPU GUI app that’s written strictly for Linux, you driver (go.pcworld.com/dgpu), or an Nvidia can probably run it as part of Windows— GPU driver (go.pcworld.com/ngpu). We that is, launch the app from the Start menu, can’t confirm yet if those drivers ship with the pin it to the taskbar, and so on. That allows Windows Insider build, so we’ve included you to use a greater number of apps than them for reference. any one OS offers, since you can use apps coded for Linux or for Windows. At the HOW TO SET UP THE recent event Microsoft hinted that these WINDOWS SUBSYSTEM FOR features would be released in Windows 10 LINUX IN ONE COMMAND 21H1, the latest Windows feature update, About the only app you’ll need to launch to

128 PCWorld JULY 2021 Setting up WSL and Ubuntu is a snap. Just remember to add a username and password. accomplish this task is Windows’ own HOW TO EASILY RUN LINUX PowerShell, which you can launch via the APPS ON WINDOWS Start menu or just by typing PowerShell in So what can you do with WSL? First things the Windows search box. Be sure to click first: While you still can’t run a Linux graphical the “run as administrator” option that will environment within WSL, you can run Linux appear to the right. GUI apps—what you might think of as If you’ve never set up WSL before, it’s as traditional apps that you interact with using a easy as typing wsl —install -d Ubuntu mouse. The only kicker here is that WSL into the resulting PowerShell window. That doesn’t support a native GUI, so that means will load the necessary files as well as install you’ll simply have to download and run them the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. You’ll via the PowerShell command line. It’s still also need to reboot your machine. Since pretty simple. Ubuntu runs as an OS, you’ll need to then Before you do anything, it’s always good choose a username and password specifically form to make sure everything is up to date by for Ubuntu. That’s it! entering the following command—sudo apt There’s also one annoying little trick that update—and waiting for the process to you’ll need to do each time you open complete. Do the same with sudo apt PowerShell. By default, PowerShell opens upgrade. Then you can begin downloading into DOS. Type wsl to begin interacting with and trying out specific apps. the Windows Subsystem for Linux. To exit out This is where you can start exploring. of WSL, type exit at the prompt. Microsoft’s WSL tips page itself suggests ways

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didn’t notice any obvious lapses in functionality as a result. GIMP is the open-source version of Adobe Photoshop, and the app has a reputation for being both powerful and complex. Still, it’s free, and—like Linux—it rewards exploration, discovery, and patience. To download it within to download apps you can already get on WSL, type sudo apt install gimp -y at Windows, such as Chrome, Edge, and the prompt. To launch the app, type gimp at Microsoft Teams. We’d suggest you stick with the Windows versions and avoid the complex installation process. Instead, we’d suggest downloading and trying out three Linux GUI apps to begin with. Don’t be disconcerted if

PowerShell reports Even though the PowerShell app fired off several error listing a few errors; I problems, the GIMP app seemed to work just fine.

130 PCWorld JULY 2021 the prompt. Audacity is an open-source audio editor and another favorite of the open-source community. It’s traditionally considered an excellent choice for audio editing, although audio support hasn’t been supported within WSL until Audacity finally allows you to record audio as part of Microsoft’s WSL updates. As now, when you can imagine, this was a severe limitation in previous implementations! Microsoft added it alongside GUI app support. You can install it of Windows apps, or ways of running Windows by typing sudo apt-get install functions or services within Linux. (Knowing the audacity at the PowerShell prompt. To name of the app is often the key to launch the app, type audacity at the prompt. downloading it, even if you don’t have a VLC is an open-source video-playback traditional link: you can download and install app that can handle pretty much any format GNOME-chess via sudo apt-get under the sun. VLC also has a Windows install gnome-chess, for example.) version, so your choice to download VLC Linux apps appear on your taskbar just within Linux may simply be a matter of like any Windows apps, and from there you preference or to compare the two versions. can treat them just like any other app: Pin It appears that Windows only allows you to them to your taskbar or Start menu, create run one Linux GUI app at a time, so you’ll need shortcuts to them, and so on. We’re not to exit or close the GUI app before launching saying that you’ll instantly fall in love with the another. Want even more suggestions on what ecosystem of Linux apps, but they’re free, GUI apps to run under Linux? Here’s a good available, and usually frequently updated. collection of Linux apps (go.pcworld.com/ We’d highly recommend taking five minutes cla)—though many of them are Linux versions to check them out.

JULY 2021 PCWorld 131 A video showcase Tech Spotlight of the latest trends

Watch the video at youtu.be/ NszKVWGqeyI Best $50 smart speaker: Echo ≥ Ready to start turning your house into a smart Dot vs Nest Mini home? There’s no better place to start than with an inexpensive smart speaker. Our two favorites cost $50 or less. Which one is right for you? Both the Amazon Echo Dot and the Mini can control smart home devices, play music, tell the weather, read your schedule, and more, all using voice commands.

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