Author: batteryforpc

The Dell XPS 13 is the best laptop on the market, but its success has caused the XPS 13 2-in-1 to be somewhat overshadowed. It doesn’t help that early versions of the laptop/tablet hybrid suffered from poor battery life and a clunky chassis. The 2020 model, however, should help the XPS 13 2-in-1 step out of the shadows of its sibling and into the spotlight. 

The new XPS 13 2-in-1 is without question among the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy. That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Dell smartly used the XPS 13 as a blueprint for the XPS 13 2-in-1, an almost identical laptop, but with the ability to transform into a tablet. 

New features to this year’s edition make the XPS 13 2-in-1 more appealing than before. Intel’s 11th Gen Tiger Lake CPUs with Iris Xe Graphics deliver a solid performance and graphics boost from the previous chips. The XPS 13 2-in-1 also received a quality-of-life improvement in the way of an IR camera, so you can stop typing in passwords. And although the design is unchanged, a new Frost lid matches the white color option. 

There are still a few shortcomings you should consider before buying the XPS 13 2-in-1, like its shallow keyboard and lack of legacy ports. However, with a bright 13.4-inch screen, long battery life and stunning design, the XPS 13 2-in-1 makes it hard for us to recommend anything else. 

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Price and configuration options

The XPS 13 2-in-1 starts at $1,078 for a base model with an Intel 11th Gen Core i3-1115G4 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. 

We recommend upgrading to a Core i5-1135G7 model, which gets you Iris Xe Graphics for $1,225. I would personally spend $1,421 to double RAM to 16GB and storage to 512GB SSD if your budget allows for those upgrades. Our $1,617 review unit has those same specs but uses an upgraded Core i7-1165G7 CPU. 

Photo and video editors needing the best picture can spend $1,912 on a 4K model with a Core i7-1165G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. Alternatively, you can customize the aforementioned models to have a 4K display, but it’ll cost you an extra $294. 

Splurging on the top-end model will set you back $2,205 but the upgrades include a 4K display, a Core i7-1165G7 CPU (with Iris Xe graphics), 32GB of RAM and a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD. 

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Design

The XPS 13 2-in-1 was given a full-blown makeover last year. This year, it receives some makeup and a few accessories. 

Almost identical to the previous model, the XPS 13 2-in-1 has a sleek aluminum design with modern elements. You don’t get the four-sided bezels on the clamshell model, but the convertible still has thin display borders, resulting in a screen-to-body ratio of 84.9%.

The build quality is superb. Dell took painstaking measures to make the XPS 13 2-in-1 feel as premium as it looks. To that end, the XPS is CNC cut from two blocks of aluminum then bonded with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 for extra durability. Diamond-cut edges with a brushed finish give the convertible luxurious accents and the chrome Dell logo on the lid mirrors XPS branding underneath. 

The only change made to the 2020 edition is a new Frost aluminum lid, which compliments the Arctic White palm rest better than the previous Platinum Silver tone. If only wish Dell had sent me that color so I could marvel at the contrast. Fortunately, I’ve seen the Frost lid in person on the XPS 13, and it’s gorgeous. 

And let me ease any fears from you neatniks out there; the interior surfaces are covered in a stain-resistant coating to prevent them from yellowing or staining. I don’t dare test this with my morning Starbucks but the lack of complaints online is reassuring. Traditionalists can opt for the Platinum Silver model with a black carbon fiber palm rest. It looks stylish, if a bit stale. 

Of course, the main advantage the XPS 13 2-in-1 has over its clamshell sibling is the ability to convert into a tablet. You can also position the laptop in tent mode or fold the keyboard away when you’re watching shows and movies. The hinge has just the right amount of resistance; the screen doesn’t wobble when I tap on it yet rotating the display back doesn’t take much effort.

What impressed me most about the XPS 13 2-in-1’s design is how thin the base is. It is nearly the same thickness as the lid. As a result, the convertible is only 11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches and 2.9 pounds, which is thinner (but slightly heavier) than the HP Spectre x360 13 (12.1 x 7.7 x 0.7 inches, 2.7 pounds) and more compact than the Lenovo Yoga C940 (12.6 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches, 3 pounds). Its clamshell sibling, the Dell XPS 13, has an even smaller footprint (11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches, 2.8 pounds).

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Security

On the carbon-fiber deck is a fingerprint sensor embedded in the top-right corner of the keyboard underneath a pair of silver hinges. 

Along with the new IR camera, the fingerprint scanner makes logging into the XPS 13 2-in-1 quicker and easier than ever before. Neither the IR camera nor fingerprint sensor were 100% reliable, but between the two of them, I was signed into the laptop quicker than I could type my password.

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Ports

No bezels equals fewer ports. This calculation almost always proves true and it certainly does with the XPS 13 2-in-1. 

On the right side of the laptop are a Thunderbolt 4 port and a headphone jack. Flip over to the left side and you’ll find a second Thunderbolt 4 input alongside a MicroSD card slot. It doesn’t replace having on-board legacy ports, but Dell does include a USB-C-to-USB-A dongle in the box.

I know, another charging input to add to the long and confusing list. This one isn’t so bad. In short, Thunderbolt 4 is identical to Thunderbolt 3 except that it supports two 4K monitors and at least one port must be used for charging thin-and-lightweight laptops. Maximum data transfer speeds remain at 40GBps but can now be achieved using a 2 meter-long cable. 

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Display

You can upgrade to a 4K screen, but I’m perfectly happy with the 13.4-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel panel on our XPS 13 2-in-1 unit. 

The FHD+ screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio looks great. Although it isn’t the most colorful on paper, my eyes feasted on a vibrant, crisp and bright panel as I watched videos and browsed the web. The screen is so sharp that I could see each cigarette butt sticking out of the mouth of a skeleton in the trailer for The Kings Man. Even the grain of the darkened wood bunker panels was visible in a freeze frame. The colors were also rich; each of the commander’s ribbons popped off his dark uniform and the golden Aiguillette trimmed his attire. 

Our lab results surprised me. According to our colorimeter, the XPS 13 2-in-1’s display covers only 70% of the DCI-P3color gamut, making it less vivid than the panels on the Spectre x360 13 (77%), Yoga C940 (74%), XPS 13 (81%) and the premium laptop average (83%). 

That doesn’t tell the whole story. The XPS 13 2-in-1 rebounded by outshining the competition with a peak brightness of 488 nits. The XPS 13 was the closest, hitting 471 nits, while the Spectre x360 (369 nits) and Yoga C940 (339 nits) weren’t nearly as bright. The premium laptop average is 386 nits.

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Keyboard and touchpad

Oh no, I’m getting flashbacks of typing on Apple’s doomed Butterfly keyboard. 

Unlike the traditional keys on the XPS 13, the XPS 13 2-in-1 has a Maglev keyboard that feels eerily similar to the now-extinct Butterfly keyboard. The keys have practically no travel — they barely descend before actuating, which creates the feeling of tapping on a flat surface. Bottoming out is inevitable and these magnet-driven keys are rather loud compared to traditional spring-operated ones. 

While not the most comfortable to type on, the backlit keyboard spans from one edge of the deck to the other, resulting in keys that are large enough for big hands. My chubby sausage fingers never hit more than one key at a time, and the wide spacing between each letter helped with accuracy.

The generous spacing also prevented me from tapping the power button inconveniently positioned in the top-right corner of the keyboard. Why so much hatred with this placement? I will direct you to my rant on power button positioning before I get heated. 

As a speedy typer, I appreciate how little force is needed to actuate each key. I typed at 114 words per minute with a 96% accuracy on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is about as fast and accurate as my usual 119-wpm at 95% accuracy averages.

The comfort of a keyboard is subjective. I prefer keys with more travel and springier feedback than those on the XPS 13 2-in-1. The keyboard is fine for when you’re traveling, but I’d switch to a proper gaming keyboard or a wireless solution (like Lenovo’s ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II) in the office or at home. 

The massive 4.4 x 2.6-inch touchpad is one of the best I’ve used. The silky surface feels great against my fingers, and it quickly executed Windows 10 gestures, like three-finger swipe to switch apps and two-finger scrolling.

Dell doesn’t include a stylus with the XPS 13 2-in-1 so you’ll need to spend an extra $99 on the Premium Active Pen to get the most out of the touchscreen.

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Audio

The stereo speakers on the XPS 13 2-in-1 push sound out from grilles in the sides of the chassis. As a result, your mileage will vary based on how the laptop is positioned. 

As a clamshell laptop, the dual speakers were loud enough to be heard throughout my townhouse. But when I listened to Jessie Reyez’s “Apple Juice” in laptop mode on a desk, the vocals were slightly muffled and the treble sounded sharp. Flipping the laptop into tent mode improved the audio considerably; the midrange was more crisp and the subtle bass sounded refined. 

The sound certainly isn’t bad in clamshell mode but it goes from fine to very good when music isn’t being absorbed by a surface. 

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Performance

An Intel EVO-certified laptop, the XPS 13 2-in-1 is armed with 11th Gen (Tiger lake) Intel Core processors and Iris Xe graphics. Our review unit, outfitted with an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU and 16GB of RAM, handled a heavy workload with ease.

I loaded 20 Google Chrome tabs, which included my favorite tech websites along with more demanding pages, like YouTube and Twitch. Despite multiple videos and streams playing simultaneously, the XPS 13 2-in-1 had no problems launching new pages with photos and graphics rendering almost instantly.

The XPS 13 2-in-1 impressed on our benchmark tests, crushing the competition in most categories thanks to the new 11th Gen chips. On the Geekbench 5 overall performance test, the XPS 13 2-in-1 scored a 5,571, which is significantly more than what the Spectre x360 13 (4,074, Core i7-1065G7), Yoga C940 (4,074, Core i7-1065G7) achieved, and a notch above the XPS 13 (5,254, Core i7-1165G7). The category average on this test is 4,115.

It took 15 minutes and 52 seconds for the XPS 13 2-in-1 to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution using the Handbrake app. The XPS 13 (15:40) crossed the finish line a few seconds earlier but the Yoga C940 (19:32), Spectre x360 13 (21:13) and the average premium laptop (18:14) needed more time.

With a score of 659 on the Puget Photoshop benchmark, the XPS 13 2-in-1 topped the XPS 13 (588) and the category average (606).

The 512GB PCIe NVMe x4 SSD in the XPS 13 2-in-1 duplicated a 5GB multimedia file in 10 seconds for a transfer rate of 503.1 megabytes per second. That is quicker than the Spectre x360 13 (318.1 MBps, 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD) and the Yoga C940 (391.5 MBps, 512GB PCIe SSD) but a few paces behind the XPS 13 (642.5 MBps, 512GB M.2 PCie NVME SSD) and the 568.5 MBps category average.

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Graphics

This is a new era for integrated graphics. Previously only capable of playing less graphics-intensive titles at low frame rates, the new Iris Xe graphics are hyped by Intel to run some AAA games. 

Unfortunately, our graphics benchmarks tell a different tale. The XPS 13 2-in-1 played Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm at 21 frames per second, which is better than the XPS 13 (16 fps, Iris Xe) but short of the category average (27 fps) and our 30-fps playability threshold. 

Our synthetic benchmarks tell a more promising story. The XPS 13 2-in-1 hit 3,847 on the 3DMark Fire Strike test, topping the Spectre x360 13 (2,615, Iris Plus), Yoga C940 (2,138, Iris Plus), and XPS 13 (3,598) but falling short of the category average (5,393), which is inflated with scores from laptops with discrete GPUs.

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Battery life

Our primary complaint with the original XPS 13 2-in-1 was that its battery life lagged behind the competition. When Dell relaunched the convertible after a lengthy hiatus, the runtime issue had been properly addressed. 

The newest XPS 13 2-in-1 doesn’t move the needle, and that’s OK. The laptop endured for 10 hours and 52 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits), powering off 5 minutes before the 2019 model. 

The competition is fierce in this area so before making comparisons, I want to reiterate: 10:52 is an excellent runtime. That being said, the Spectre x360 13 (13:20), Yoga C940 (11:46) and XPS 13 (12:39) all outendured the XPS 13 2-in-1 even though it added an extra hour to the premium laptop average (9:52). 

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Webcam

The miniature (2.25-millimeter) 720p webcam located on the narrow bezels above the display takes grainy photos and videos. 

A selfie I snapped in my office was colorful but my disheveled beard was a collective brown blob instead of a nest of individual hair strands. The burnt-orange color in my Texas Longhorns hat would have made Bevo (our mascot) proud and I could make out the brown-to-transparent gradient in the frame of my glasses. 

I went outside on an overcast day, but the sunlight streaking through the clouds didn’t expunge the visual noise completely. I could see more details, like creases around my eyes, but the graininess remained. The photo wasn’t helped by the overexposed sky, which blended in with the top of my gray hat. 

My advice? Buy one of the best external webcams, like the Logitech HD Pro C920, once they go back in stock if you Skype, Zoom or Hangouts regularly. 

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Heat

Overheating can be an issue for ultrathin laptops, especially those made of metal. Fortunately, the XPS 13 2-in-1 has sufficient cooling even under a heavy workload. 

After playing a 15-minute, Full HD video in full-screen, the hottest part of the laptop, on the deck near the PrtSc key, warmed to only 92 degrees Fahrenheit, a few degrees below our comfort threshold. You won’t have problems typing or using the cursor as the keyboard peaked at 81 degrees and the touchpad reached 75 degrees. With the underside reaching 88 degrees, you can use the XPS 13 2-in-1 on your bare lap without any red marks forming. 

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1: Software and warranty

Dell doesn’t package its pre-installed software into one app as some vendors thankfully do, but it doesn’t overwhelm the XPS 13 2-in-1 with bloatware, either. And actually, most of what’s here is useful. 

Dell CinemaColor, for example, makes it easy to adjust the screen colors based on the content you’re viewing. The Animation preset ramps up the color vibrancy while Movie mode seems to emphasize details and color accuracy. There is also an Evening mode to give your eyes a break after a long day of staring at screens. 

Dell also launched its Cinema Guide app, which puts all your streaming subscriptions (Hulu, HBO, Disney+, Netflix, Prime Video, and more) in one place for you to easily access. Searching for a movie or TV show in the search bar shows you a “Where to watch” section that lists all your streaming options and how much you’ll pay to rent or buy. 

Utility apps include the self-explanatory Dell Customer Connect and Dell Power Manager. As an XPS 15 owner, Dell Update is the app I probably use the most. Here, you can install the latest BIOS and drivers to keep your laptop running smoothly. 

Third-party apps include Dolby Access, Killer Control Center (for Wi-Fi) and MaxxAudioPro for adjusting the speakers. You also get your typical Windows 10 programs, including Your Phone, Groove Music and the Snip & Sketch for taking screenshots. 

The XPS 13 2-in-1 comes with a one-year warranty. See how Dell fared on our Best and Worst Brands and Tech Support Showdown special reports.

Bottom line

I’ll keep this simple. The XPS 13 2-in-1 is an excellent 2-in-1 laptop. I’m not quite ready yet to declare it the best on the market, but it certainly earns a spot among top rivals, like the Spectre x360 13 and Yoga C940.

Largely unchanged from the previous model, the 2020 XPS 13 2-in-1 benefits from 11th Gen Intel Tiger Lake CPUs and accompanying Iris Xe graphics. The updated components result in class-leading performance for ultrathin laptops. Along with fast speeds, you get a bright 13.4-inch FHD+ display, long battery life and useful security features, including a fingerprint sensor and new IR camera. 

As is the case each year, what makes the XPS 13 2-in-1 stand out from the competition is its design and build quality. There are very few laptops with such a sleek yet premium chassis as the XPS 13 2-in-1. It exudes class and will make you better about the hefty fee you plunked down to buy one. 

That said, the XPS 13 2-in-1 isn’t perfect. If you need legacy ports, this isn’t the laptop for you. Instead, consider the Spectre x360 13, which uses a clever drop-jaw mechanism to fit USB Type-A ports in a slim chassis. And while it’s clicky, the Maglev keyboard on this 2-in-1 laptop is very shallow, and won’t be for everyone (myself included). 

But these shortcomings are easily overlooked for a laptop that nails the basics, and looks stunning doing so.

If you want a nice new shiny OLED TV, but you don’t want it to a) be massive and b) sound rotten, especially when you compare the quality of its sound to the quality of its pictures, you’ve been bang out of luck. Until now, that is.

Philips has stridden in where other TV brands apparently couldn’t be bothered to tread, and the result is the OLED+935. Oh, you can have a massive version if you want: the OLED+935 is available in both 55in and 65in screen sizes. But it’s also yours in a relatively titchy 48in version if you fancy – which is a much more realistic screen size for plenty of people. And regardless of the size you choose, the OLED+935 features an off-board (yet integrated) speaker array designed and specified by loudspeaker guru Bowers & Wilkins.

So suddenly, you’re covered. A small-ish OLED TV with sound quality to match the picture quality. Well, that’s the theory anyway.

DESIGN AND BUILD: DEEP AND MEANINGFUL

Like any worthwhile new TV, the OLED+935 looks ideal from the dead-ahead – basically, it’s all screen. There’s a staggeringly brief bezel holding it in place, of course, but it’s so narrow it may as well not be there at all once you’re sitting an appropriate distance away.

Viewed from the side, the Philips is as mildly disappointing as every other OLED TV you ever saw. OLED promises otherworldly slimness, doesn’t it? And it’s true, in some places OLED TVs are so slim it almost seems unfeasible – but then they all have to keep their inputs and outputs, their electronics and what-have-you somewhere. And that ‘somewhere’ generally turns out to be a bulge or an extrusion on the rear panel of the screen, which pretty much ruins the whole ‘super-slim’ vibe. And that’s the case here: in places, the OLED+935 is tremendously slim – but in practice, it’s 47mm deep. Which is, to be fair, hardly a catastrophe.

The bespoke Bowers & Wilkins soundbar also functions as a stand, if you’re not wall-mounting your new OLED+935. It attaches to the TV using a chunkily decorative bracket – and it, like the rest of the package, looks and feels solidly made and built to last. Unless you scour the bargain basement it’s hard to find a new TV that isn’t properly made these days – and the Philips OLED+935 is impressively built and flawlessly finished. For a product that’s trying hard to be as minimal as possible, it certainly seems built to last.

FEATURES: THE GIFT OF SOUND AND VISION

If the Philips OLED+935 isn’t quite as svelte a TV as we’d all hoped, the fact that it is absolutely packed with features and functionality might go some way to explaining why.

From the top, then: this is a 4K HDR OLED TV. And, unlike the majority of its competitors, the Philips covers each and every HDR base, from broadcaster’s favourite HLG to HDR10+ and Dolby Vision dynamic metadata. Some unlike equivalent screens from LG, Samsung or Sony, you’ll never find yourself in a situation where the Philips isn’t able to give you the full HDR-driven story.

There are four HDMI inputs, all ARC-enabled and all at HDCP2.3 standard. There are a couple of USB inputs too, aerial posts for the integrated terrestrial and satellite tuners, an Ethernet socket and a CI card slot. It covers wireless connectivity with Bluetooth 4.2 and dual-band wi-fi. There are digital optical, analogue 3.5mm outputs and a pre-out for a subwoofer. And, because this a Philips TV, the OLED+935 also features Ambilight – here, on all four sides.

(Briefly, for the uninitiated: Ambilight is a series of LEDs arranged on the rear of the chassis that beam light (coloured to mimic the on-screen tones) onto the surface the TV is standing in front of. It’s meant to offer both a more immersive watch and suggest a screen that’s considerably bigger than it actually is – and though it looks gimmick written down, it works an absolute treat. Genuinely unique selling points are thin on the ground where TVs are concerned, but Ambilight most definitely is one.)

The whole show is run by Philips’ most recent picture-processing engine, the 4th generation P5. Here it’s a dual-chip arrangement, and incorporates both AI and machine learning to assist with picture balance and upscaling accuracy. And it also offers protection against that OLED nemesis: screen-burn. The P5 engine is constantly on the hunt for static on-screen images, and having identified them will turn down their brightness in order to guard against image retention.

And then there’s that speaker array. In a clean, relatively compact enclosure that’s partially covered in the obligatory Kvadrat acoustic cloth, Bowers & Wilkins has positioned three forward-firing 19mm titanium-some tweeters (one in the ‘tweeter on top’ arrangement the company’s so fond of) and four 50mm midrange drivers – they form the ‘left/right/centre’ channels. There’s a rear-firing, vented ‘racetrack’ subwoofer (100 x 65mm) delivering low-end substance, and firing from the top of the soundbar are two more 50mm midrange drivers – they are intended to offer some Dolby Atmos-style ‘elevation’. Using this nominal 3.1.2 arrangement, Philips and Bowers & Wilkins is attempting to make the OLED+935 a complete, self-contained audio/video solution.

That’s a lot of features, sure. But there’s no HDMI 2.1 compatibility here, which makes the OLED+935 a) no friend of next-gen gamers and b) deficient in an area where you might least have expected it.

INTERFACE: SET UP. AND SET UP SOME MORE

The smart TV interface here is Android 9.0, which is your classic game of two halves. On the plus side, it’s comprehensive (along with catch-up TV via Freeview Play, every service you could want is here – except Apple TV, naturally). On the downside, it occupies the whole screen, is slightly sluggish in responding and fancies itself altogether too much.

Navigation is via a very agreeable, beautifully finished (how many other TV remotes feature leather trim?) and mercifully logical remote control. And along with buttons that aren’t too small and aren’t too numerous, there’s a mic for Google Assistant-powered voice control.

Philips has never been shy of making its set-up menus as long as a Russian novel, and you could easily grow old while investigating every one of the OLED+935’s options. In truth it’s not all that difficult or time-consuming to get the balance you want, but if you like to fiddle around the edges of your television’s performance you can’t go wrong here.

PERFORMANCE: ALL OF THIS AND MORE

If your new TV can deal with both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, then that’s the place to start. And as far as a 4K Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos stream of Ratched on Netflix goes, the Philips absolutely knocks it out of the park.

The colour palette is vibrant but never lurid, and the OLED+935 is capable of seemingly limitless subtlety of tone. Primaries are strong and assertive, but the nuances – whether they’re the result of shadow, or texture, or a combination of factors – are described with just as much positivity.

This holds especially true where skin tones are concerned. The Philips has the ability to look deep into complexions and deliver the finest details, making faces look as natural and convincing as can be. And it does this without being in any way aggressive or forceful about it. And as a result, the OLED+935 is a confident, absorbing watch.

And while it’s far from the brightest OLED TV around, white tones are kept so clean, and loaded with so much detail, that peak brightness (or the lack thereof) is hardly an issue. Combine these with those OLED-tastic deep black tones, which are equally varied and detailed, and the Philips is capable of wide and potent contrasts.

Detail levels are high, and for once with a Philips TV they’re really well controlled – even a complex, intricate pattern is described securely, with no shimmering or dor-crawl. Edges are crisply defined, but not aggressively so – so there’s no impression of layering that can afflict less capable TVs.

Spend enough time getting the balance just so, and motion is dealt with persuasively too. At its most testing – which is generally with broadcast sport, of any and all kinds – the Philips can betray exactly how hard it’s working. But get into the depths of the set-up menus and its possible to strike a balance between smooth motion, strong edge-definition and high detail levels. TV nirvana, in other words.

As an upscaler, the OLED+945 is no less impressive – at least as far as 1080p, Full HD content goes. It’s not as lavishly detailed or as boundlessly coloured as 4K stuff, naturally, but nevertheless it’s a strong performer. Step down to the level of 4:3 content from the pre-flatscreen era and the Philips doesn’t exactly throw in the towel – but you’re left in no doubt as to just how much work needs doing to fill this huge pixel-count with information.

In terms of sound, it’s probably easiest to say that there’s no other TV on the market with an integrated audio system that sounds as wide, as accurate, as focused or as dynamic as this one. The world isn’t short of soundbars with this sort of scale, that can fling effects as high as this or offer as much low-end grunt as this – but they’re all pretty expensive, and none of them integrate with your TV as smoothly as this.

Bowers & Wilkins has done quite a job with its end of the OLED+935 package – the sound is tonally balanced, expansive, chunky, distinct and dynamic. It’s difficult to know what else you could reasonably demand.

PHILIPS 48OLED+935 4K HDR OLED VERDICT

£1799 for a 48in TV is no one’s idea of a bargain. But when you consider the level of audio/visual fidelity this money buys, the ingenuity of the packaging and the degree of convenience, it’s hard to suggest the 48OLED+935 isn’t worth every penny.

Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology is expected to enable rather massive increase of hard drives capacity in the coming years. It took the industry several decades to develop this technology and its mass roll-out was delayed several times. In fact, Western Digital even decided to use energy-assisted perpendicular magnetic recording (ePMR) and microwave-assisted (MAMR) technologies before moving on to HAMR. Yet, its rival Seagate is on track to introduce HAMR-based HDDs this year. 

At its earnings conference last week Seagate reiterated plans to ship its 20 TB HAMR HDDs this December. Initially, the drives will be available to select customers as well as inside Seagate’s Lyve modular storage systems. Seagate appears to be so confident of its HAMR technology that it also reiterated plans to introduce 50 TB hard drives in 2026. 

“We remain on track to ship 20-TBHAMR drives starting in December, which is an important milestone, as we believe HAMR technology will be the industry’s path to scaling a real density and increasing drive capacities,” said Dave Mosley, CEO of Seagate. “Seagate will be the first to ship this crucial technology with a path to deliver 50-TB HAMR drives forecast in 2026.” 

At present, Western Digital offers its Ultrastar DC HC650 20 TB HDD, but this drive uses energy-assisted shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology with all of its peculiarities when it comes to re-writing data. Therefore, Seagate’s 20 TB HAMR drives will offer numerous performance advantages when compared to their direct rival, at least for customers who can get these HDDs. 

Since HAMR HDDs will use new heads and new platters, it will take some time for Seagate to fully ramp up production of new hard drives. Furthermore, technology transition will cost money as Seagate will have to upgrade some of its manufacturing equipment.

The Sony Xperia 1 II is already out in a special 12GB RAM configuration in Taiwan. Now we get a Geekbench listing for the device which shows out the small performance gains compared to the regular 8GB RAM model.

The 12GB RAM Xperia 1 II manages a 908-point single-core run and 3387 points in the multi-core department. For comparison, the standard 8GB RAM model pushes around 895 points in the single-core test and just over 3,225 in the multi-core department.

The 12GB RAM Xperia 1 II is expected to launch in more regions on October 30.

Microsoft is “experimenting” with a new feature – called start-up boost – that could increase the speed with which its web browser Edge is able to launch from the Windows 10 desktop or taskbar.

The speed gain will be achieved by activating select Microsoft Edge processes when a Windows 10 machine is powered on. With these processes already running in the background, using up minimal computing resources, Edge will exist in a state of readiness that should improve launch times.

The start-up boost feature is already available as an option in Edge version 88, which was recently released to the Dev Channel but is not expected to launch as a stable build until mid-January.

Early users can activate the feature via Edge settings and administrators can also put in place a blanket policy for all devices running the appropriate browser version.

Microsoft Edge for Windows 10

With the latest Windows 10 update, Microsoft’s Edge browser has become much more tightly integrated with the operating system. This means the browser is now impossible to uninstall via traditional methods, which could be a frustration for some users, but also paves the way for improvements like start-up boost.

According to a Microsoft Q&A, start-up boost will be available to all Windows 10 users, but the firm could withdraw the feature from certain devices “that do not see expected positive impact”.

The firm also warned it is “in the process of experimenting with the feature, so it may be a little while before you see it in your respective channel and build.”

In recent months, Microsoft has not been shy about its ambitions for Edge, which is now indisputably the company’s flagship browser.

As of this week, for example, users of now defunct Internet Explorer will be redirected automatically to Edge when they visit certain websites. A recent Windows 10 update also saw the new browser force-installed onto users’ devices.

The company has also delivered a host of new upgrades to the browser of late, including a secure password generator, in-built price comparison tool, screenshot capture facility and scrolling tab bar.

Microsoft Edge still has a meagre share of the overall market (2.16%) when compared with leading browser Google Chrome (66.34%), but its userbase has more than doubled since June and Microsoft will hope recent improvements will help claw back users lost with the decline of Internet Explorer.