Acer today announced updates to the Nitro 5 gaming laptop and the Swift 3 thin-and-light with support for AMD Ryzen 7 mobile processors with Radeon Vega graphics. These are familiar laptop lines at this point, but the implementation of these processors inside is brand new.
For the uninitiated, this means you can expect excellent performance and better power efficiency at a lower price point than Intel-based equivalents.
The new Nitro 5 comes with up to 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen 7 3750H processor. These CPUs are built around AMD’s new 12nm Zen Core Architecture and SenseMI Technology which promises greater performance and resource management. The new Ryzen 7 features four CPU cores, eight threads, and a maximum clock speed of 4.3GHz.
The 15.6-inch FullHD screen has a 144Hz refresh, 3ms response time, and thinner bezels. The size of the bezels around the screen create an impressive 80% screen-to-body ratio. A discrete Radeon RX 560X graphics is included and should provide some excellent 1080p performance in most titles. Acer claims its dual-fan, dual-exhaust design combined with Acer CoolBoost gives the Nitro 5 10% better CPU/ GPU cooling than in automatic mode.
Acer has also kitted the Nitro 5 with Killer Ethernet E2500 and Gigabit Wi-Fi 5 with 2×2 MU-MIMO technology for high speed data transfer great for streaming. Acers Network Optimizer gives you more control over which programs get network priority and bandwidth allocation.
Acer has also updated its thin-and-light productivity champ, the Swift 3. This time around, it gets also gets the 2nd Gen AMD Ryzen 7 3700U processor with embedded Radeon RX Vega 10 graphics. With a base clock of 2.3GHz and a max TDP of 15 watts, the new Ryzen is said to be powerful yet frugal. Acer says the power consumption should give the Swift 3 all-day battery life.
If you need some extra horsepower for video editing and gaming, you can also opt for discrete Radeon RX 540X graphics. We’ll be curious to see how the RX 540X compares to the MX150 offered in the Intel model. The Swift 3 has a 14-inch IPS, FullHD display with up to 178-degree viewing angles. The screen can also open 180 degrees to lay completely flat and has some narrow bezels around each side.
The Swift 3 comes in a slim and light aluminum chassis that weighs an impressive 3.2 pounds and is 0.7 inches thick. That’s bulkier than a MacBook Pro, but not by much.
The new Nitro 5 and Swift 3 with Ryzen will be on display at Acer’s showcase at Computex 2019 in Taipei from May 28 to June 2. We don’t have an official release date or pricing information yet available.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.