Microsoft Your Phone can now support running multiple Android apps side-by-side on the Windows desktop. But before you get too excited, it seems that Microsoft and Samsung have done a deal, because it’s limited to recent Samsung handsets. The feature was first teased during the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and was believed to be flagship exclusive, at least to begin with, but a list of devices has appeared, which includes a much wider range of Samsung handsets, including mid-rangers and foldables.
The announcement was made on Twitter by Analy Otero Diaz, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft, who said:
As reported by onMSFT, although the news has been warmly welcomed by some, social media comments have questioned why this is a Samsung exclusive, especially in deference to its own Microsoft Surface Duo and ahead of other brands’ devices which in some cases can’t render a single Android app in Your Phone yet, leave alone several.
The full list of supported models, running Android 9.0 Pie or above, includes the Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+, S10, S10+, S10 Lite, S10e, S20, S20+, S20 Ultra, Note 9, Note 10, Note 10+, Note 10 Lite, Note 20 5G, Note 20 Ultra 5G, Xcover Pro, Fold, Z Flip, Z Flip 5G, Z Flip Fold2 5G, A8s, A30s, A31, A40, A41, A50, A50s, A51, A51 5G, A60, A70, A70s, A71, A71 5G, A80, A90s, A90 5G. Windows 10 is required for linking, and the feature is currently available on Windows Insider builds but has started rolling out to the stable channel too.
Oddly, the above list is pretty much every phone that has the ‘Link To Windows’ feature available as part of Microsoft Your Phone, but with the notable omission of the Surface Duo. Whether the omission is for technical reasons related to it being a dual-screen phone, or because of some kind of exclusivity deal with Samsung isn’t quite clear. We’re hoping that there are no technical limitations that would stop this feature from coming to other brands’ handsets further down the line.
Cloud storage is an essential part of any well-rounded backup strategy. However, many providers charge big money for limited space. In contrast,Degoo Premiumoffers more storage than Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive at a fraction of the price. Right now, you can get 15TB of storage space on alifetime subscription for just $149.99at the XDA Developers Depot.
While it’s smart to have a local backup of your files, it’s equally important to maintain a remote backup. In the event of fire or flood, you should still have a copy of every file in the cloud.
Degoo handles this role well, providing “simple, snappy backup” in the words of TechRadar. Available online and on your phone, the service backs up all your files on unlimited devices.
The app has automatic file change detection, which triggers a backup any time you edit an existing file. This is really useful when you’re doing work — if you ever mess up, you can easily go back and restore the previous version.
While your files are being backed up, you have the option to replicate the process to guarantee a safe transfer.
Degoo also allows you to share files with friends, family, and colleagues. To ensure your data stays secure, Degoo uses AES-256 encryption.
Best Buy’s Wish List sale is going strong, offering customers great deals until Sunday. The Wish List sale is just one of Best Buy’s weekly Black Friday-esque sales this November, allowing everyone to stock up on gifts and goodies before the big day itself. More time, less stress! One of the stand-out sales this week, aside from the sale on Samsung Note 20 phones, is picking up an Amazon Echo Auto Smart Speaker for an incredibly low price of $20.
The Alexa enabled speaker allows you to turn your car into a smart car effectively and without having to install expensive equipment. Install the little speaker, ask it to stream music or for directions, and you’re well on your way to a hands-free, safer driving experience. The speaker can even sync up with your smartphone via the Alexa app, giving an experience similar to Android Auto with larger buttons and hands-free functions.
You may ask, though, why you’ would pick up the Echo Auto smart speaker at Best Buy, as opposed to Amazon, where it’s also $20. Many Best Buy locations offer installation for products like this smart speaker, and I’ve seen Best Buy installation work in cars in the past–they’re pretty good at it! If you’re uncomfortable installing the speaker yourself and don’t want to attach it to your air vent, you can have the professionals at Best Buy take care of it for you.
If you’re not concerned about installation, then you can go with either retailer!
Make your car smarter for just $20! With the Amazon Echo Auto smart speaker, you can control your music, get directions, and more, all hands-free. With the Alexa app, you can also use your phone with a driving-safe interface!
This deal is part of Best Buy’s Wish List sale, which lasts until Sunday. If you’re in the market for a smart speaker for your car, make sure to pick this up before then!
Back in 2016 at its I/O developer conference, Google introduced the Google Assistant alongside the original Google Home smart speaker. At the time, Google Assistant was perceived as Google Now 2.0, a virtual assistant that adopted a conversational approach to search backed by Google’s artificial intelligence and machine learning. Fast forward to 2020, and Google Assistant has evolved into a potent virtual assistant — arguably even the best. Google Assistant powers some of the highlighting experiences on Android, and its deep, thoughtful, and focused integration on Pixel smartphones is what makes them a Pixel in the first place.
With the Google Home and later the Google Home Mini and Nest Mini, the company essentially tried to deliver the Google Assistant experience to every corner in every house. The idea was to encourage users to speak to Google without any effort and accomplish varied tasks without needing to put much thought into it. The speakers were mere vehicles, and the Assistant was the main product. But with the Google Home Max, the speaker finally took center stage, with Assistant taking on a supplementary role as an added benefit.
For users like me, who aren’t invested in the Google Assistant ecosystem, or in any smart home ecosystem for that matter, the Google Home, Home Mini, and Nest Mini were very uninteresting. The idea of a tiny speaker serving as a virtual assistant that brought no utility to my life was just not worth the investment, even if Google offered ludicrous discounts on these products from time to time. On the other hand, the Google Home Max was a much better sell, as it was a speaker first. But the speaker never made its way to my home country of India, and even if it had, the ~$400 price tag is too much for me. There just wasn’t enough in any of these smart speakers for me to part with my hard-earned money, and the same went for the Google Assistant ecosystem, if I am being honest.
When Google launched the Nest Audio, I was definitely intrigued. The device seemingly was a mid-point between the Google Home and the Google Home Max, offering a healthy mix of speaker specifications, cosmetic appeal, and smart assistant integration at a decent price tag. The Google Nest Audio has had a spot in my house for about three weeks, so I’ve been able to use it for enough time to put together some thoughts on the Nest Audio as a first-time Google Assistant adopter.
Google Nest Audio: Specifications
Specification
Google Nest Audio
Build
Fabric Cover made from 70% recycled plastic
4 LEDs in the middle
Dimensions & Weight
6.89 x 4.88 x 3.07 inches
2.65lbs
Audio (In and Out)
75mm woofer
19mm tweeter
3 far-field microphones
Voice Assistant
Google Assistant
Controls
Touch Controls:
Play/Pause – Tap front top
Volume up – Tap front right corner
Volume down – Tap front left corner)
Charging
30W DC power supply
Connectivity
2.4GHz/5GHz 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5)
Bluetooth 5.0
About this review: Google India sent us the Nest Audio in Chalk color for review. This review is after 20 days of regular use. Google had no input into the contents of this article.
Google Nest Audio: Design and Build
The Google Nest Audio has a discrete look that is both familiar as a Google product and different from a lot of speakers that we usually encounter. It looks like a shrunken-down pillow with a flat base and an upright speaker setup. At 1.18 kg, the device is surprisingly heavy and dense for its size.
The speaker cover is made out of a durable fabric top, which Google claims is made from recycled plastic bottles. The entire enclosure (i.e. the fabric, the housing, the foot, and some smaller parts) is made from 70% recycled plastic. The fabric cover sits atop an enclosing cage framework that is built solidly and does not flex (if handled ordinarily). It’s a stationary speaker, so hopefully, you can place it once and forget about it.
The LED on the Nest Audio glows blue during setup, orange when the microphone is disabled, and white when it is listening.
The design is very simple. The front looks completely clean, but underneath the fabric cover, there are four LEDs in the middle and touch sensors towards the top. On the back, there is just one hardware toggle for toggling the microphone input on or off. There is also a port for the barrel type charging pin and a small Google “G” logo on the back. And that’s it — there’s nothing else on the device — no on/off switches, no other buttons, and even no 3.5mm input. Even the box contents are fairly simple: You get the Google Nest Audio, the 30W barrel type charger, and some documentation.
The simplistic design and discrete look for the Nest Audio allow the speaker to inconspicuously blend in with your furniture
The simplistic design and discrete look for the Nest Audio allow the speaker to inconspicuously blend in with your furniture. You can place it alongside your other tech, hide it on your bookshelf, or place it next to other decorations. The Google Nest Audio ends up attracting very little attention if you hide it well, and it can look good on its own when people do notice it.
Unlike the Home Mini that lay flat and spread audio in a 360° fashion, the Google Nest Audio is meant to be unidirectional. The placement of this speaker becomes somewhat important, even though Google claims that the Nest Audio will sound great in most common placements. To that end, I agree, as the Google Nest Audio sounded pretty much the same when placed in corners, on the dining table, or next to a wall. Just make sure that the speaker end faces the general area where you want the audio to be directed, and you should be good to go. Note that there is no IP rating or any claims of water resistance whatsoever, so it’s best that you keep it away from the bathroom. I’m also a little concerned about what happens to the fabric look as the device ages and accumulates dust and smaller stains, but I haven’t had the Nest Audio for long enough to find out.
I’m very impressed with how the Google Nest Audio looks and fits in. The other residents at my home have had no issues leaving this piece of tech on display, and they have had no complaints of it disrupting their carefully constructed aesthetics. It doesn’t look like a regular speaker with bare metal surfaces or other garish looks — and that’s what gives it its ability to just blend in when it isn’t actively blasting away music.
Google Nest Audio: Sound Quality
The Google Nest Audio comes with a 75mm woofer and a 19mm tweeter for sound output, and 3 far-field microphones for voice input. With these specifications, Google says that the Nest Audio is 75% louder and has a 50% stronger bass than the original Google Home. And while I do not have the original Google Home for comparison, I can attest to the fact that the Google Nest Audio gets pretty loud for its size, to the point that neighbors have complained. And this loudness doesn’t come at the cost of sound quality, as my neighbors can attest. (Sorry about that.)
The Nest Audio has a strong, pronounced bass, and I love it. A lot of Indian pop music favors bass on the heavier sound, and the Google Nest Audio produced these sounds wonderfully. Some of my favorite tracks, such as Nucleya’s Laung Gawacha from Bass Rani and Ritviz’s Sage, sound amazing, with beats being surprisingly pronounced throughout the tracks. Audio across the spectrum is well reproduced, with very good performance across highs, mids, lows, and even vocals. While I cannot claim the audio to be satisfactory for audiophiles, nobody who has heard the Nest Audio at my home has complained about the sound quality. So for average consumers, this smart speaker from Google does a great job.
Audio across the spectrum is well reproduced, with very good performance across highs, mids, lows, and even vocals
Google claims that the Nest Audio comes with internal smarts that help it adapt to homes. There is the Media EQ feature, which adapts the tuning to the content that you are listening to, with different outputs for music, podcasts, or the Assistant. And then there is Ambient IQ, which allows the speaker to adapt to background noise in your home. Honestly speaking, both of these features are difficult to notice — I am not sure if these features “kick” into place or if they are always enabled. It is difficult to find the differences in output, but the audio sounds great and remains clear even when there is a lot of background noise. You can say that the features are working just as advertised, but there is no easy way to tell these features are working as there is no setting or toggle to check on. There is no way to change equalizer settings too, so you’re restricted to just changing the Bass and Treble response from the speaker.
These are the only two options present and available as Equaliser Settings
The Google Nest Audio is also very good at picking up voice commands. The microphones pick up commands from a pretty good distance. The only times I have experienced the speaker struggling to pick up my voice is when it was placed very high up and I was closer to the floor. Unless you plan to place your speakers at a height, you should have no issues with voice reception.
Overall, I am very happy with the Google Nest Audio when it comes to sound quality. I only have a single unit at the moment, but I am planning on picking up another unit to get a sweeter stereo set up thanks to the Speaker Pair feature.
Google Home app
One of the highlight features of speakers from Google is, obviously, Google Assistant. To set up the speaker and begin using Assistant, you need the Google Home app. The Google Home app serves as the middleman for all your smart home peripherals that don’t have a settings surface by themselves, letting you set up the device, invite home members, set up routines, create speaker groups for multi-room playback, and manage services related to Music, Video, Podcasts, and more.
The setup process for the Nest Audio through the Google Home app is fairly straightforward, and the app hand-holds you through the process. You do need an active Internet connection for the setup though, and without that, you cannot begin to use the speaker. You also need to have an active Internet connection to pair a device through Bluetooth to the speaker for the first time, though subsequent Bluetooth connections don’t need an active Internet connection.
Further beyond the setup, the app also teaches you about the on-device controls and some of the ways you can use the smart speaker.
Once set up, you are presented with an overview of your smart home setup and some quick actions. The “Media” button shows you which media is playing, the “Call Home” function calls your home device through Google Duo (oddly, the app would force close for me when this option is selected), “Broadcast” lets you broadcast an audio note to your speaker, “Routines” lets you set multiple instruction sets to be carried out with one command, and access Settings.
Device settings includes a whole host of other settings, letting you set adult content filters, set downtime for command reactions, set night mode for lowered volume responses and lowered LED brightness, and even allow all connected Android devices to control casted media.
Using a Smart Speaker
While a speaker being smart is a good thing, it won’t be much of a selling point if the smart bits weren’t actually useful. My experience on this end has been a little mixed, and I say this as someone who is not invested in the Google Assistant ecosystem or in other voice assistant ecosystems for that matter.
People are diverse, so even if we speak the same language, we do so with individual accents that make us sound different. My personal experience with voice assistants thus far has been sour. My first language is Hindi, my second Urdu, and my third is English, followed by French and Marathi. When I am speaking in English (which I can mostly speak fluently), I do have an accent that is typically heard in India. Others in my household are not as proficient in English, so conversations in my house involve a weirdly-evolved mix of Hindi and Urdu sprinkled with words from English and Marathi. It’s not singularly one language. A huge chunk of India is bilingual and multilingual, so I know this situation is not just reflective of my house.
So when the rest of the world got excited about making voice assistants like Google Now and Google Voice Search a part of their daily routine, I could never get as excited. The potential was visible, sure, but getting these voice assistants to even understand my query was a challenge that preceded the voice assistants’ ability to execute the query properly. It has largely been an affair that required multiple instances of shouting the same command differently, and eventually, just giving up and doing things sans-voice. A lot of features are also tuned for Western markets and are not available in regions like India. Further, “smart home” and “home automation” are still emerging concepts for urban India, and often require fairly substantial monetary investments and infrastructural changes that aren’t always economically feasible. As a result of all of this, I just haven’t been into Google Assistant, opting to remove it entirely from all my devices as it barely brought any utility into my life.
The Google Nest Audio is my first dedicated Google Assistant device, and it is also the first “smart” accessory in the house, if you don’t count smartphones and TVs. So, while the Nest Audio can be used to control your smart home, you do need a smart home to do so in the first place.
I am happy to see the usability situation for voice assistants has improved. To the Nest Audio and Google Assistant’s credit, the speaker and the voice assistant combination has been far better at understanding what I and other members of my house are instructing through voice commands. This has been a breath of fresh air, as most commands are recognized. There are still caveats — commands in mixed languages are not recognized that well (like a primarily English command with some Hindi words), and setting up bilingual languages is still limited to some combinations (Hindi + Urdu, or any two Indic languages are not a valid combination, but Hindi + English is). Largely, I am happy to see the current progress on this end since the situation was disappointing a few short years ago, but there is still some room to improve.
Getting Google Assistant to actually be useful remains a limited case scenario for me. Over a period of three weeks, my household has defaulted to just issuing YouTube Music song commands to the Nest Audio. That makes sense, since it is a smart speaker after all, and music playback is one of its highlights. What I mean to point out is that practically speaking, what we use the Nest Audio for on a daily basis has ended up being a very small subset of uses from the larger set of functions that the Nest Audio can actually accomplish. We ask it to read the news aloud sometimes, and occasionally ask for a weather update or to set an alarm. Sometimes, my nephew asks Google what a lion or a tiger sounds like. But by and large, we just go, “Hey Google, play Baby Shark” — and in the age of Bluetooth speakers and Chromecast Audio, I can argue that one doesn’t really need a dedicated smart speaker for such a task.
I am not going to judge the Google Nest Audio too harshly for this section, as a lot of what I mention is based on personal anecdotes and experience. But I see these aspects rarely mentioned when people talk about smart speakers with Google Assistant. Yes, Google Assistant can be very helpful, but the world is more than just the USA and Europe. If you are in a region outside of these, I would recommend assessing what use you actually want to derive out of Google Assistant before you invest in a smart speaker. This is a general comment on the state of smart assistants and not a critique of the Google Nest Audio per se.
Conclusion: The Google Nest Audio is good enough to buy two of
The Google Nest Audio does what it says, and it does it very well
Even though my personal use for the Nest Audio is fairly limited, I am very impressed with its build and sound quality. I am impressed to the point that I may just pick up another Nest Audio unit to create a stereo pair. This smart speaker does what it says on the box, and it does it very well. Google has found the sweet spot of mixing in smarts with a good speaker at an affordable price tag. And in some regions, the deal gets better if you pick up two units together. A two-unit pair also gives you greater flexibility with how you can place the speaker in your house. And if the stereo pair doesn’t work out, you can also create a multi-room group to play the same music across different rooms at the same time, and have all of them sound very good while at it. That versatility is what gives the Google Nest Audio an edge over other bigger and possibly better speakers, such as Google’s own Home Max.
In the Indian market, there aren’t that many options when it comes to Google Assistant-powered smart speakers (since this category split entirely removes Amazon’s Alexa powered smart speakers because of their ecosystem). If you are just getting started on this smart speaker journey, good first steps are the Google Nest Mini (₹2,299) and the recently launched Xiaomi Mi Smart Speaker (₹2,999 in Diwali sales). If you have a larger budget and want a very good speaker, you should absolutely get the Google Nest Audio (₹6,999), for it sounds well worth its price tag. And if it is an option, definitely consider picking two units up for a stereo setup.
The Google Nest Audio is the latest smart speaker from Google with Google Assistant, baked in. It merges a powerful speaker system with the right smarts and a great design.
Google Chat is about to change the way it organizes conversations. Following criticism that threaded conversations are confusing, Google has confirmed that newly created rooms will soon be unthreaded by default. According to a posting in the Google Workplace blog, the change will kick in on all rooms created after November 16th. Google notes, however, that you won’t be able to switch between threaded and unthreaded in existing rooms, but you can toggle between the two options when you create new ones.
One advantage of unthreaded rooms is the option to toggle chat history on and off, via the Admin console’s “room history” setting. It will be up to each Workspace Admin to decide whether to enable history, rather than being an option for the end-user. Conversely, the new unthreaded rooms are not
Such a fundamental change is, indirectly, a result of the pandemic, which has already seen Google Meet become a free service to all, ahead of the originally planned rollout which was due in 2021. Ultimately, Google Meet and Google Chat will replace Google Hangouts, the increasingly neglected yet stalwart chat app which is being retired at around the same time.
Google Chat has had to adapt and evolve far faster than was ever intended, due in no small part to the world situation, and the threaded conversations, similar in style to Slack, are one example of a feature which has been tried and hasn’t worked out. It’s good to see Google is willing to adapt in this way. Given that its previous exploits with communication apps – GTalk, Google Allo/Duo, and Google+, to name a few have ended up in a hot mess, it’s clear that Google is committed (at least for now) to making Google Meet and Google Chat work out. Until they think of yet another reinvention, of course.
Google Shopping was not a particularly high profile element of the search experience, but that seems set to change as Version 56 of the Android app has arrived with a bunch of new features. Many we already knew about, but this update has brought us yet another new feature. Ahead of the Black Friday shenanigans, Google has added a price comparison feature in the app, which is accessed through the sharing context menu. By highlighting and sharing a block of plain text, Google Shopping will make a search amongst the myriad of stores and websites it monitors and takes you to a page comparing prices for that product, using the same format as the web version. It’s a little bit like the Amazon Assistant app, which allows you to check the price of a product on Amazon, in line.
Our Editor-In-Chief, Mishaal Rahman spotted the new feature in the code for the new version of the app, in addition to the raft of new features introduced last month, including price tracking on specific products, price insights to help you decide if a price being offered is above or below average, and details about physical stores, such as their parking availability and if kerbside pickup is available, presumably pulled from the Google Maps ‘Guide’ community, which has been collating this kind of data for several years.
At present, these features are only available to US users – in fact, the Google Shopping app doesn’t appear in some local Play Stores. Google says it refocused on the Google Shopping app and website in response to the current pandemic which has seen a huge rise in online shopping during 2020. With the regular triple threat of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Singles Day just around the corner, Google has given savvy shoppers an army of tools for finding the best bargains.
Smartphones have become extremely powerful and are as useful as your everyday laptop or even more. Apart from many tasks that one can achieve from a notebook, the best smartphones have gone way beyond. You can click amazing pictures and videos, binge watch your favorite TV shows, or even pay money without ever reaching for your wallet. But even to this date, most people continue to rely on laptops to get their work done faster and more efficiently. The initial days of the Covid-19 lockdown saw a decline in smartphone sales due to obvious reasons. However, at the same time, there was a huge demand for laptops as organizations scrambled to switch to a work from home setup.
Now there is a wide variety out there for almost every type of user. From gorgeous displays to long-lasting battery life, getting the right notebook is honestly not that difficult. Of course, you just need to look in the right place. It is best to assess all the factors before you go ahead and put your money down. Apart from choosing the right specs, you need to be mindful of the size and form factor. Of course, in the end, it all comes down to your needs and requirements. To make things easy, we have listed some of the best laptops that you should consider if you are planning to buy one in 2020. These are the best and top of the line options in various segments.
The XPS 13 has quintessentially been one of the most influential Windows laptops in the past few years. Known for offering a solid balance of style and performance, the current generation model offers up to a 10th-gen Intel Core i7-1065G7 processor, 16GB of memory, and 512GB SSD. The sleek metal design complements the borderless display, which is also one of its highlight features. Speaking of which, Dell has been offering some of the best-looking displays on its XPS lineup. This one features a 16:10 ratio screen, and you can opt for a 1080p or 2400p resolution. The port selection is limited to a couple of USB-C with Thunderbolt 3, while the claimed 12-hour battery life sounds great for all-day workloads. Be on the lookout for the newly launched XPS 13 9310 model that comes with the same design and styling, but features the new 11th-Gen Intel Core processor options with the new Iris Xe Graphics. The new model should be available soon and offer a slight edge in terms of performance compared to the outgoing model.
The Dell XPS 13 is a highly recommended premium notebook that offers a solid balance of style and performance. It is also one of the best ultrabooks out there.
Best Everyday Gaming Laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14
Probably one of the most eye-catching notebooks of 2020, the Zephyrus G14 from ASUS is quite a versatile machine. It offers a fairly sleek 14-inch design and is also loaded with powerful CPU and GPU options to fulfill your gaming needs. The solid build, battery life, and that unique dot-matrix display on the lid add up to what can be called the best everyday gaming laptop. Notably, ASUS is offering the machine with AMD’s powerful Ryzen 4000 processor options as well as a 120Hz display. The only gripe we have is that it does not come with a built-in webcam for your Zoom meetings.
The ROG Zephyrus G14 is one of the most praised laptops of 2020. It offers one of the most unique designs and comes with powerful CPU options from AMD.
The biggest and most powerful MacBook in years, the MacBook Pro 16 is an easy recommendation for power users. The notebook has been applauded for finally bringing back the scissor-style keyboard switches. It also comes with some of the best speaker systems on any laptop on the market. Of course, being a MacBook Pro, you can expect this machine to glide through your audio, video, or photo editing tasks without working up a sweat. Apple has also gone all-out when it comes to the hardware offering up to an 8-core Intel Core i9 processor, up to 16GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM, further expandable, and up to a whopping 8TB of SSD storage.
Dell reintroduced a 17-inch XPS laptop earlier this year, almost 10-year after we saw the last model. Offering all of the best features that we have seen on the recent XPS lineup, the XPS 17 simply enlarges the package. It also offers up to an Intel Core i9 processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU making it an apt device for creative professionals and casual gamers. Additionally, you can expect the premium XPS styling, including the super-slim bezels, which reduces the laptop’s overall footprint down to a 15-inch notebook. This notebook is also a serious competitor if you are looking for a Windows alternative to the MacBook Pro 16.
Bringing the best of the XPS lineup, the XPS 17 is the best 17-inch laptop that offers a footprint of 15-inch machine. It comes with an excellent display and a premium design that you cannot ignore.
AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series has given solid competition to Intel this year. Apart from mainstream laptops, the chipset also crept into the gaming segment. One such option, especially if you are looking for something on a budget, is the ASUS TUF A15 gaming notebook. Targeting entry-level gamers, the TUF A15 is a fairly affordable option if you are looking for something powerful for your everyday work and gaming needs. The notebook isn’t the most premium-looking machine out there, but you get MIL-STD 810 certification and some RGB lighting for the keyboard. You also get the option for a 144Hz panel, although it isn’t the most color-accurate screen, which is expected from an entry-level gaming laptop.
The ThinkPad series is a no brainer if you are looking for a solid business notebook. The X1 Carbon primarily witnessed under-the-hood upgrades this year, but that doesn’t make it any less of a recommendation. The 10th-Gen Intel vPro CPUs deliver only a slight performance boost compared to the previous generation. But if your business notebook is 3-4 years old, then the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a wise choice. The laptop offers an ultraslim design that is highly durable and the best keyboard in its class, and good display options. We would also recommend looking at the HP Elite Dragonfly if you are willing to stretch your budget.
The ThinkPad is a popular name when it comes to business laptops. The 8th-gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon is pretty much the same as the last year's model, but brings new innards for improved performance.
Razer might still be an underdog, but the Razer Blade Pro 17 is undoubtedly the best gaming laptop out there. It has a fairly slim persona yet offers a healthy set of ports, including a full-size HDMI and Ethernet. There’s certainly some high-end hardware as well, including the options of a 300Hz display or a 4K 120Hz screen, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q, and an eight-core Intel Core i7-10875H processor with 16GB RAM. If you want to go all-out, you can look at the Alienware m15 R3 or even the Gigabyte Aero 17. Still, in our opinion, Razer is offering a wider option for gamers and creative professionals in a package that would appeal to a wider audience.
The Razer Blade 17 Pro is the ultimate gaming machine that combines a stealthy look and beastly performance. Razer is offering this notebook with up to a 300Hz display or a 4K 120Hz option which is quite something.
If you are looking for the best 2-in-1 laptop that also looks impressive, then the HP Spectre x360 is a wise choice. Apart from offering strong performance, it features a vivid 13.3-inch 4K OLED touch display and an excellent keyboard. Compared to the previous-gen model, HP has trimmed down the areas around the display and keyboard, making it smaller in terms of the overall footprint. The notebook also offers fingerprint and face recognition for added security, while the improved trackpad offers a fluid experience.
One of the most premium 2-in-1 laptops, the HP Spectre x360 is for the ones who don't want to compromise on style and performance. It comes with a great 4K touchscreen display option along with Intel's latest 10th-gen CPUs.
Chromebooks are usually the best option for school and college students since they are usually cheap. Not the Acer Spin 713 though. It is one of the most powerful, pricey, and best Chromebooks out there. Since it is expensive, it also comes with powerful 10th-gen Intel CPU options going all the way from Core i3 to a Core i7. It also comes with a 13.5-inch 2256×1504 touchscreen, a 128GB NVMe SSD, and 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM, making it the fastest one out there. The Acer Spin 713 is also Project Athena certified, which means that it has a seal of approval from Intel when it comes to performance and battery life.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is one of the most powerful Chromebooks you'll be able to pick up today. With beefy specs that rival that of budget gaming laptops, performance will never be an issue.
Considering the holiday season is just around the corner, we are assuming that you might be tempted to get your hands on one of these notebooks. Having said that, we suggets you to hold on for a few more days. As in the case of XPS 13, Intel’s new 11th-Gen mobile processors are slowly making their way to newer models. We are expecting more device manufacturers to start shipping newer variants in the coming weeks with the new processor options.
