Alienware is back at it, launching its newest gaming laptop. However, you wouldn’t think that this notebook is fit for fragging foes just by picking it up.
The Alienware 13 weighs just 4.5 pounds, which is impressively light for a gaming laptop. It’s also roughly an inch thick, so you shouldn’t have any problems wrapping a single hand around the body if you lug it around with it packed underneath your arm.
However, there’s a price to be paid for better-than-average portability, and that shows up in the Alienware 13’s specs. While the Intel Core i5-4210U 1.7GHz dual-core CPU that comes standard with the Alienware 13 may be sufficient, Alienware’s decision to include an Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M GPU in its newest offering is a bit disappointing. You can’t upgrade either of these components, so you’re locked into them.
The 860M is no longer a part of Nvidia’s newest series of GPUs. Recently, Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 980M, and 970M. The former GPU offers impressive performance, equating to roughly 75 percent of the power offered by the GTX 980, which is a desktop-based card.
The Alienware 13 will be available with one of three displays, all measuring 13-inches. The standard model includes 1,366 x 768 resolution panel. From there, you can upgrade to a 1080p model, or a 2,560 x 1,440 screen. Keep in mind that, the higher you go up on the resolution scale, the lower your battery life will drop. Plus, the GPU here, which isn’t a top of the line unit, will have to push even more pixels, which will bring down frame rates.
The Alienware 13 can be configured with a 500GB hybrid hard drive, a 1TB mechanical hard drive, or a 256GB or 512GB SSD. There’s also an option to pair a 256GB SSD with a 128GB SSD. The base model Alienware 13 includes 8GB of RAM, but you can double that to 16GB if you wish.
Port selection consists of three USB 3.0, Ethernet, mini DisplayPort, and HDMI 1.4. There’s also a special addition here, dubbed the Alienware Graphics Amplifier Port. This connection allows you to plug in an accessory made only by Alienware that lets you upgrade the Alienware 13’s GPU with a desktop graphics card.
Windows 8.1 is included by default, but you can go for Windows 7 if you want. Power is provided via a four-cell battery.
On the plus side, the Alienware 13 isn’t exorbitantly expensive. The company’s latest mobile PC gaming rig starts at $999, but the amount you pay will depend on how you configure it. You can order it starting October 28.
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.