Author: batteryforpc

I don’t mean to be disparaging of the MSI GF65 THIN 9SEXR, but take a look at its technical specifications and you’ll find the same parts that have been powering our machines for over a year—there’s truly nothing Super, 7nm, or 10th Gen about it. Yet its announcement has come as part of one of the few captivating developments in gaming laptops beyond AMD’s Ryzen 4000 APUs.

With the release of its Super GPU silicon for mobile, the RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Super, Nvidia also promised to make its RTX 2060 GPU available in a gaming laptop for under ($999) £999. That potentially means more to parsimonious customers than high-end GPUs, and it’s not often that gaming laptops are level-pegging with their DIY PC counterparts. MSI’s GF65 is one of the first of a handful of gaming laptops to make good on that promise. In the UK, anyways.

It’s powered by an RTX 2060, marking a step-up upgrade over the GTX 1660 Ti in 2019’s top model. With that not only comes the promise of a Turing GPU fit with 6GB of GDDR6 and 1,920 CUDA Cores—with the added potential of portable AI acceleration in creative applications and Nvidia’s updated Turing encoder—but also an easier point of entry into real-time ray tracing and Nvidia’s AI upscaling technology, DLSS 2.0.

At first glance not much has changed with the exterior of the GF65 compared with its predecessor. Both feature the same inornate chassis at 21.7mm thick, and the largely plastic construction does leave a lot to be desired. It’s undoubtedly a little on the large size, too, especially as we’ve already seen some incredibly thin gaming laptops so far this year. But at 1.86kg it is at least lighter than some comparable laptops in this price bracket.

The 15.6-inch 1080p panel is surrounded by a bezel that, while at its thinnest point extends only 0.7mm, reaches 2.7cm closer to the hinges. At least it houses a panel rated to 120Hz, which is suitably fast to make good on the promises of the RTX 2060 within. And it’s also of the IPS variety, so good marks here for an all-round decent panel pairing for the GF65’s entry-level RTX GPU.

Joining the fray is Intel’s Core i7 9750H. Despite the first wave of Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake H-series laptops starting to filter out from the rank and file of Intel’s partners—including MSI’s very own GF63 Slim in identical garb to the GF65—it’s instead made the decision to stick with the older, cheaper, Core i7 9750H. With relatively familiar specifications from the 14nm family, and an apparent price premium on the 10th Gen chips—by Intel’s own admission—I can’t help but think it made the right choice.

While the Core i7 9750H hits max velocity at 4.5GHz—quite a bit lower than its 10th Gen sibling—what matters most is whether it can sustain its rated clocks. In a single-core run of Cinebench R15, it maintained 4.4GHz for the duration, only a touch shy of the chip’s rated limit of 4.5GHz boost, and in multi-core testing that drops to around the 3.7GHz mark, but maintains it throughout.

So whatever misgivings I may have for the chassis in terms of its looks, it’s capable enough of maintaining decent performance. We saw no significant dips in performance across a lengthy three run marathon of the Metro Exodus benchmark at ultra, either. Temperatures soared to 97 degrees max for the CPU and 81 degrees max for the GPU that same run, but thankfully severe throttling was avoided with some judicious fan RPM—it’s far from the quietest laptop going.

Throughout our gaming benchmarks, the MSI GF65 performs well—if only a little shy of the Asus TUF FA506IV equipped with an RTX 2060 and AMD Ryzen 4800H. That’s true in all but Far Cry New Dawn where the TUF inexplicably, and repeatedly, soared above the rest.

What could become a boon to the GF65 (and the TUF, for that matter) is the growing prevalence of DLSS within the latest games. With DLSS offering the ability to improve frame rates, with little downside on the second-gen DLSS 2.0, the jump to the RTX 2060 nets the possibility of a large performance boon over 16-series cards of more than the silicon technically allows. You will have to put your faith in Nvidia and game developers to go above and beyond to access that performance, however, and it’s by no means a guarantee—the least bit for older games.

And while that all makes an RTX 2060 for under £1,000 sound like an alluring offer, MSI has made some sacrifices with the 2020 model of the GF65 in order to scrape in under the mark.

Both memory and storage have been stripped back in order to keep the balance sheet for parts in good stead with the shift to the RTX 20-series GPU. Unfortunately, that means replacing the 512GB SSD with a 256GB one, which after OS installation is running frightfully low on capacity with only a few benchmarks installed. That puts a hard limit on your choice of games (or game), too. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is absolutely out of the question without an upgrade.

The decision to pare back memory to single-channel will also strike fear in the hearts of many a PC builder. The 8GB of dual-channel memory is capable of getting by in most titles, especially at 1080p on a laptop such as this. But with only a single channel in play, that 8GB doesn’t get you very far. Memory bandwidth is significantly hampered, and that may find you dropping frames in demanding games or incredibly conscious of app RAM usage for the duration of your time with the GF65.

The last-gen GF65 (2019) doesn’t suffer the same fate. For a similar price tag, last year’s model comes with a GTX 1660 Ti, 16GB of dual-channel memory, and a 512GB panel. The Asus TUF FA506IV, too. Granted, £300 is no small matter more, but its Ryzen 4000 mobile/RTX 2060 combo is a great buy. And it’s got all the memory and storage you could want at that price and form factor. The GF65 THIN 9SEXR feels like a partially incomplete product by comparison, and lacking what is required to get the most out of it.

The models available in the US have seen especially harsh cuts to come in under $1,000. In order to get your hands on an RTX 2060 for $999, you’ll have to make do with Intel’s Core i5 9300H, in lieu of the Core i7 9750H found in the UK model. At least the storage has returned to a healthy 512GB SSD.

In order to hit a specification roughly analogous with the UK model at £999, you’ll have to spend $1,099. That’s actually rather favourable to the dollar when you look at today’s exchange rate, and you still hold on to that 512GB SSD, but it’s not quite in keeping with Nvidia’s $999 promise, is it?

Strangely the MSI GF65 THIN 9SEXR will be available exclusively at Curry’s PC World from May 4th in the UK. If you reside in the US, you can find that similar configuration I mentioned for $1,099 across major retailers.

With the specs list of the UK model as it is, the GF65 does leave me wanting for more. Performance is decent in today’s games, but I’m not entirely convinced how much ray tracing you’re going to get done with a spec that only gets by with the skin of its teeth without cutting-edge rendering tech helping to grind performance into pulp.

But I usually recommend overspending on your graphics card and making up for less storage capacity when you can afford it—so why should a laptop be any different? The upgrade process is at least a simple one. Pop the underside off by removing an ungodly quantity of screws and you’ll find a spare NVMe slot and a spare SODIMM slot. Both can be fitted with off-the-shelf parts as and when you have the budget to do so. Two NVMe slots also makes for an easy transfer if you do end up swapping out your boot drive.

As important as it is to point out what’s been lost in order to hit £999, it’s just as important to quantify what has been gained as a result of offering RTX at this price point. You can’t upgrade a laptop GPU yourself, after all, it’s soldered down tight. So the shift to the RTX 2060, even with sacrifice, may make the most financial sense for someone looking to buy an RTX laptop without the means to immediately buy one that’s high-end on all counts.

In order to get the best fit for their devices, PC and laptop manufacturers will often tinker with Intel’s drivers prior to users installing them. The knock-on effect of which is that users are blocked from downloading Intel’s latest generic drivers without workarounds—but no more.

If you thought downloading Intel’s graphics drivers for your Intel-powered system would be as easy as heading to the driver download page and clicking install, you’d be wrong. No, users wishing to utilise the onboard integrated graphics (iGPU) with the latest graphics firmware have until this point been forced to seek the OEM-approved driver package, which often required a trip to the device manufacturer’s website or patiently waiting for a pushed system update.

In theory, pre-approved and tailor-made OEM drivers should prove a simple and straightforward solution. But when is anything ever simple? The drivers provided by OEMs were often lacking functionality or the latest updates—such as game optimisations, new features, and bug fixes—and could be on a much slower update cadence. If they were even set to get the updates at all.

However, from this week onwards, Intel will be removing its generic driver updates from the OEM firmware package (via Windows Latest). This will allow users previously barred from Intel’s generic DCH drivers to now download and install them from the Drivers and Support Assistant Tool without waiting on an OEM or system manufacturer to give them the all-clear.

You won’t lose any OEM-specific functionality with the new drivers. These will be maintained via Windows Update.

“We heard how much our users want the freedom to upgrade their systems to our regularly released generic graphics drivers and enable our latest game optimisations, feature updates and fixes,” Intel says in the 26.20.100.8141 driver release notes [PDF warning].

“Well, as of this release, Intel Graphics DCH drivers are now unlocked to upgrade freely between Computer Manufacturer (OEM) drivers and the Intel Generic graphics drivers on Download Center. Simply use the .exe and enjoy the update on your 6th Generation Intel processor platform or higher, and don’t worry about your OEM customisations, they remain intact with each upgrade and the OEMs can maintain customisations separately via Microsoft Windows Update. Intel Drivers and Support Assistant will also be unlocked starting April 28th, 2020.”

With the announcement of Intel Xe, the company’s graphics architecture set to release later this year, iGPU graphics drivers have been developing at a much faster pace. With the OEM levy lifted, far more users can make the most of these optimisations, many of which add support or fix bugs in the latest games.

Sony may have recently announced its flagship Xperia 1 (mark 2) but it seems the Japanese technology firm isn’t forgetting about its fans who want something a little cheaper in their pockets. The all-new Xperia L4 has just gone on sale in the UK and it offers plenty of features at very a small price.

In fact, this latest device costs under £170 making it one of the cheapest Xperia phones Sony has ever made.

For that low price, you’ll be treated to some very nice updates including a capable triple rear camera. This trio of snappers can shoot standard photos with its 13-megapixel main lens but there’s also the addition of a wide-angle sensor to add some drama to your images.

The third camera offers the ability to add DSLR-style depth of field to photos which is usually something only found on more premium devices.

To consume your content Sony has packed a 6.2-inch LCD display into the L4 which includes the firm’s unique 21:9 aspect ratio for a cinema-style experience.

Under the hood is a fairly basic Mediatek MT6762 processor but Sony has added 64GB of internal storage which can be boosted via an SD card. A 3580mAh battery should offer all-day power and things can be refilled quickly via fast charging.

Other features include a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, Side sense gestures for easy access to apps and, unlike most modern smartphones, you get a standard 3.5mm headphone port.

This means you can plug in your existing headphones without needing an adapter.

The Xperia L4 is available to buy now in Blue or Black from the Sony online store as well as local retailers, priced at £169 SIM-free.

If you want something more premium in your pocket then the Xperia 1 (mark 2) should be hitting stores soon.

This flagship gets a stunning 6.5-inch HDR OLED screen, triple rear camera, wireless charging and latest Qualcomm 865 processor.

Like the L4, you’ll discover a headphone port on the base of this premium device. This marks a dramatic change as nearly every other manufacturer has now ditched this much-loved way of connecting headphones and it could give the Xperia 1 II an advantage.

It’s also fully compatible with the latest 5G data speeds meaning you can download files at fibre-like speeds when away from home.

Speaking about the new Xperia 1 II, Mitsuya Kishida, President of Sony Mobile Communications said: “Sony is uniquely positioned with our wide portfolio in the era of 5G,” said. “Xperia with 5G takes your mobile experience to the next level.”

Xperia 1 II will be available in Black and Purple in Europe, shipping with Android 10 from late Spring 2020.

In a bit of a shocking move, HP has decided to make its upcoming Chromebook-focused virtual event into a public affair, issuing not only an open invite for anyone to attend, but also a sign up form to get a feel for the number of attendees expected for the event. From what we can tell at this point, the form entry isn’t required to watch the event, but by filling it out I’d assume you’ll get a followup email to confirm the details of the event before things go live on May 5th at 10AM PST.

While we will be getting the scoop on all this a few days prior, it is an interesting play by HP who, by and large, don’t hold these types of events on a regular basis for any of their products. As a matter of fact, as long as we’ve been covering Chromebooks, there’s never been any sort of public-facing device reveals for Chrome OS hardware. We’ve had a couple press-only virtual events, but that is about it. While I expect companies like Apple, OnePlus, Google, and Samsung to figure out ways to deliver their normal keynote events in an all-digital manner, it’s great to see HP dive in and do the same even though we didn’t really expect it at all.

Even more interesting is the fact that this event looks to be squarely for the new Chromebook Enterprise offerings. I could see HP putting together a whole event to unveil a bunch of stuff while including a few new Chromebooks, but to do all this for only Chromebooks? That’s a bit new to us as well.

Whether you sign up or not, we’ll be sharing the details of the event – mainly the link for your watching pleasure – at a later date when we have them. More importantly, we wanted to share with you the first look at one of the new devices HP is ready to unveil to the world as ‘The Chromebook of the Future.” That’s a bold statement and from what we can gather, this will likely be one of the ‘Hatch’-based Chromebooks like the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook and the ASUS Flip C436. That means all the goodies are on the table like fingerprint scanner, Bluetooth 5, WiFi 6, NVMe storage, and 10th-gen Intel processors.

Behold, our first look at HP’s latest, greatest Chromebook. This image is directly pulled from the sign-up form for the event we mentioned above. There are a few observations we can make quite quickly. First, this is what appears to be a very thin convertible. Second, pen support looks to be on board as well. Third, the bezels on all sides are very thin, giving the device a very futuristic look. Finally, it would appear this device will be a 16:10 or 3:2 device, making the tablet orientation a bit more tablet-like and less ridiculous when held vertically.

From some of the language in the emails we’re seeing about this event, we’re expecting more than one device to be debuted, but we don’t have those firm details just yet. My guess is we could see a convertible and clamshell device, but likely no tablets. This event looks to be focused towards the enterprise end of the market, so it will be interesting to see how HP targets these new Chromebooks both from a marketing and price point angle. Their last big enterprise effort – the HP x360 14 G1 – was basically a regurgitation of the well-liked x360 14, but did little to justify the massive price hike. I sincerely hope HP doesn’t make that mistake again and gets back to delivering cutting-edge Chromebook experiences like the HP Chromebook 13 G1 did in its day.

We’ll get more info about where to check out the event in the coming days, but if you think you’d like to attend live, make sure and fill out the form and let them know Chrome Unboxed sent you.

Lenovo’s Yoga C630, which we reviewed late 2018, got high marks for its convertible design, excellent battery life, and LTE connectivity. It was an ARM-based device running on a Snapdragon 850 processor (CPU) and 8GB of RAM, which at the time made it rather powerful in this category of devices. It was compared as a cheaper alternative to the Samsung Galaxy Book2, another hot ARM-based device at the time.

Lenovo has refreshed the C630 with the C640 I’ve been using for the last week. Instead of running on ARM, it has moved to 10th Gen Intel Core “Comet Lake” CPUs. Also gone, unfortunately, is LTE connectivity for staying in touch with cellular data instead of Wi-Fi. A lot has otherwise remained the same with a few tweaks here and there. Is it still worth the bargain price?

Lenovo Yoga C640 at a glance

Lenovo supplied Windows Central with a review unit of the Yoga C640, with 10th Gen Intel “Comet Lake” Core i3-10110U CPU with two cores and a turbo frequency up to 4.1GHz. Backing up the CPU is 8GB of DDR4-2400MHz RAM that is soldered to the board (no option for upgrades) and a 128GB M.2 PCIe solid-state drive (SSD). It uses a small 2242 M.2 format that can be upgraded, but not to something larger like the 2280 size.

This is the baseline model that Lenovo has to offer, starting at about $630. That’s a stellar price even for the relatively low-end hardware inside, as we will see when it comes to features and build quality.

Lenovo allows you to customize the Yoga C640 to your liking at checkout, currently offering up to a 512GB SSD and 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10510U CPU. This high-end model tops out at about $910 before any of the frequent Lenovo coupons and sales.

What I love about Lenovo’s Yoga C640

Compared to the Yoga C630, the C640 is a bit thicker at 0.67 inches (16.95mm) compared to 0.49 inches (12.5mm). It’s also heavier at 2.98 pounds (1.35kg) compared to 2.65 pounds (1.2kg). However, thanks to the chin bezel being shrunk down to better fit the 16:9 display, the laptop isn’t quite as deep. That means the palm rests are about a half-inch less spacious, but I didn’t find it to be an issue when typing.

Whereas the Yoga C630’s lid was aluminum and base was magnesium alloy, the C640 employs an aluminum lid and PC plastic with a glass fiber blend for the base. It’s plenty sturdy, and it’s finished with an iron-gray “sandblasted” coating that feels a lot like the soft-touch type Lenovo uses on the ThinkPad lineup. It’s smooth to the touch and overall just a lot more comfortable to hold compared to something like the all-aluminum Yoga C740.

The backlit keyboard stretches from edge to edge, leaving just enough space on either side for dual top-firing 2W speakers. Like the C630, audio is still a bit flimsy despite Dolby Atmos. Sound is clear and unmuffled (especially when in notebook mode), but it’s not as deep or full as larger Ultrabooks. Typing is stellar with full-size Shift, Ctrl, Tab, and Backspace keys. There’s plenty of key travel despite the thin chassis, and keys are spaced appropriately. The only thing to note is that the up and down arrow keys are compressed into the size of a single regular key.

Just below the keyboard is a fingerprint reader embedded into the palm rest. It works with Windows Hello for extra security. Lenovo’s trend of putting an unobtrusive webcam shutter into its laptops continues here. The 720p camera is nothing miraculous but gets the job done for video conferencing, something especially important while many people are working from home. The Precision glass touchpad is sized appropriately for the device and tracks perfectly.

The C640 is perfectly sized to be a convertible that can convert into tent, stand, and tablet modes. It’s not too heavy or thick to be held as a tablet, and the narrow bezel that remains prevents accidental touches. The power button has been repositioned and set into the chassis edge to prevent unwanted presses when the tablet is held in two hands. You can add Lenovo’s Active Pen 2 for about $70; the review unit didn’t include one so I can’t comment on how well it inks. However, the pen offers 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and two customizable buttons.

The touch display is rather basic with only an FHD option, but that’s sort of expected at this price. It is considered “anti-glare” to help with the glossy finish, but at a maximum 305-nits brightness, there are still some issues with working in a sunlit room. I had brightness cranked up above 85% when working during the day. It does lower down to just 2.9 nits brightness, though, making it ideal for late-night viewing even without Windows 10’s night light feature.

I tested brightness and color with Datacolor’s SpyderX Pro and came away with 100% sRGB, 80% AdobeRGB, and 81% DCI-P3 coverage. It’s a great looking panel despite the average brightness, and it will do the trick for work or media.

I used the Yoga C640 for everyday productivity work for a few days, including word processing, heavy web browsing, video streaming, and email. Even with the low-end Core i3-10110U CPU, it handled everything efficiently. I didn’t get into photo editing or gaming — if those are on your list and you’re firm on this laptop, you’ll want to consider upgrading to a Core i5 or Core i7 version. Even then, something with Intel’s Ice Lake integrated Iris Plus graphics or a dedicated GPU will make a lot more sense.

One of the shining features that have carried over from the Yoga C630 is battery life. The 60Wh battery is rather large for a laptop this size with this level of hardware, and I clocked just less than 14 hours from PCMark10’s Modern Office battery test. That’s slightly less than the 15 hours seen in the C630, but 14 hours is still above average and figures out to about 11 or 12 hours of regular usage. If you’d like to head out in the morning to the office or elsewhere, you won’t have to worry about hauling the (albeit small) AC adapter with you.

What I dislike about Lenovo’s Yoga C640

Other than the middling audio and so-so webcam I already mentioned — both things I can live with — I must talk about port selection. The Yoga C630 featured dual USB-C ports (one reserved for charging) alongside dual USB-A, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a SIM slot. The Yoga C640 has been pared down to just one USB-C, with charging instead of going through a barrel slot. No, you cannot use the USB-C port on the right side for charging. It would have been nice to see the dual USB-C ports make a return here, especially considering how long the battery lasts and the options for alternate connectivity without a charger attached.

Finally, the fan behavior is notable. Even with Lenovo’s Intelligent Cooling feature disabled in the Vantage app, it seemed to kick on and off way too frequently, sometimes spinning up and down 40 times in a minute under low load. With the PC being pressed, it turns on and stays on as it should, which is far less noticeable. At least it’s quiet, so if you’re not in an otherwise silent room, you likely won’t hear it. Still, it’s an issue that should be fixed.

Should you buy Lenovo’s Yoga C640?

The Yoga C640 sits among some tough 13-inch convertible competition, including premium options like the HP Spectre x360 13 and Dell XPS 13 2-in-1. That’s where most people begin their search, and both devices toe the line of being perfect PCs. Despite competitive pricing, however, they’re out of budget range for a lot of people. That’s where a truly budget option like the C640 excels.

It doesn’t quite have all the same magic as the C630 predecessor, but it still nails the basics. Typing and pointing are comfortable, the display is colorful and is inking-compatible, and it’s built to a high standard that’s not always evident with a device at this cost. Lack of LTE is a shame because it helped make the C630 something special for those always on the move. LTE was included in the features when the C640 was first revealed, but it has since gone by the wayside in North America. Lenovo does say it expects LTE is some other regions at some point.