Category: Article

Asus has gone and quietly introduced a PCI Express expansion card (PCE-AX3000) that adds Wi-Fi 6 connectivity to your desktop PC. Under the right circumstances, it can boost the wireless speed of your system, though other gear is required.

Namely, you also need a Wi-Fi 6 router to take full advantage of a Wi-Fi 6 adapter. The reason why is because Wi-Fi 6 is a next-generation standard (also known as 802.11ax) that introduces features not supported by previous generation Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) hardware.

The biggest benefit of Wi-Fi 6 is that it is better equipped to handle multiple devices at the same time. A typical home might have up to around a dozen connected devices, when you factor in desktops, laptops, smart TVs, game consoles, smartphones, smart speakers, tablets, and everything else. Wi-Fi 6 was designed with this in mind.

There’s also a very big caveat—to fully utilize Wi-Fi 6’s benefits, both the router and host adapters have to support the standard. The vast majority of wireless devices have not yet adopted Wi-Fi 6. So, plopping a Wi-F6 6 network card into your desktop will have a limited benefit, even if you’ve also purchased a Wi-Fi 6 router.

This is more about future proofing, as far as that is possible. The good news is, Wi-Fi 6 hardware is backwards compatible, so you could install the PCE-AX3000 into your desktop and connect to your Wi-Fi 5 router just fine.

At full bore, the PCE-AX3000 supports speeds of up to 2,402Mbps on the 5GHz channel and 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz channel. It also offers Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity.

Pricing is a little steep, though. It’s available to preorder on Amazon for $69.99, and will be “in stock on November 24.” It’s based on an Intel AX200 M.2 Wi-Fi module that sells for around $20, so you’re basically paying extra for the PCIe card form factor and external antennas.

It’s also one of the more expensive PCIe card solutions, even without factoring in potential Black Friday deals that might loom around the corner.

Intel is removing drivers and BIOS for its old desktop boards so anyone running an old Pentium-based PC has four days to get hold of anything they might need.

The warning on Intel’s download center page says:

End Of Life – This download, BIOS Update [RL86510A.86A] P21, will no longer be available after November 22, 2019 and will not be supported with any additional functional, security, or other updates. All versions are provided as is. Intel recommends that users of BIOS Update [RL86510A.86A] P21 uninstall and/or discontinue use as soon as possible.

Opinion on message boards is mixed, with some accepting that a 20-year support cycle is not terrible. But others pointed out that some industries like manufacturing will still be relying on old hardware to run parts of their infrastructure.

Posters on Vogon, a forum dedicated to ancient hardware and emulators that allow you to run old games on newer machines, questioned the move and how much space and storage Intel would really save by the housekeeping measure.

Various people are setting up their own mirrors and using archive.org, but the maker community noted that file names are not always obvious and downloading from mirror sites can be risky.

For anyone still requiring software support for aged Intel gear, or just playing Quake on a Pentium II, the Vogon thread is here.

This Reddit thread also has some relevant scrapings from the Wayback Machine.

Mechanics wanting to service one of the hundred or so remaining McLaren F1 supercars face a similar problem. They were reliant on ancient Compaq LTE 5280 laptops in order to service the cars. The cars, worth north of £10m, were surviving well but getting hold of remaining laptops was getting more difficult.

Reports suggest that an emulator has now been written to allow slightly newer laptops to work.

We’ve asked Intel for comment. 

Honor is set to unveil its Watch Magic 2 smartwatch on November 26 in China, and more than a week ahead of the launch TechRadar can share some exclusive pictures of the smartwatch.

While they’re not hugely revealing, they show us enough about the upcoming wearable to give us a good idea of what to expect when it launches.

Something we can tell from the images is that the body of the Honor Watch Magic 2 has seen a re-design from its predecessor – the bezel looks to be thinner, and rises less from the screen of the watch.

This indicates a departure from the ‘classic’ look of a wristwatch, which many smartwatches mimic.

The Watch Magic 2 also looks more monochromatic than before, with the device all black (save a red ring on the crown, like in the original Watch Magic), and white text around the dial instead of pink like before.

Of course, this could be just the style of the one device TechRadar was shown, with other colored variants available at launch. It’s also possible this is a design decision to make the Watch Magic 2 look more sleek.

The strap also looks to be leather, like the Watch Magic, but again it’s monochromatic black, unlike the older device which had a brown leather strap with white cotton threads.

The images show the Honor Watch Magic 2 as a more modern-looking device, shirking the classic wristwatch look of old for a more decidedly ‘smartwatch’ feel. We don’t know much about the specs or internals of the device yet, but there’s not long to go until it’s officially unveiled.

That’s set to happen alongside the Honor V30 launch in China, which is happening in Beijing on November 26.

Related product: Honor Band 5

Our Verdict:

☆☆☆☆☆

The Honor Band 5 is a small, but steady, step up from the Honor Band 4 in many regards. It’s got it’s problems, for sure, but as one of the most affordable fitness trackers on the market right now, it’s easy to forgive these issues.

FOR Affordable price tag

Improved sleep tracking

Expanded exercise roster

AGAINST Screen sometimes unresponsive

Must be plugged in to power on

Notifications temperamental

It’s only a matter of time before AMD rolls out a GPU architecture with hardware-based real-time ray tracing support (though not in time for any Black Friday deals), to take on Nvidia’s growing army of GeForce RTX graphics cards. But might we see something in that regard at CES in January, 2020? According to the latest rumor mill chatter, the answer is yes.

Take this with a dose of skepticism, but according to Chiphell forum member Wjm47196, AMD will be previewing a second-generation Radeon DNA (RDNA) Navi GPU architecture at the annual convention in Las Vegas, as spotted by WCCFTech.

I can see your eyes rolling in the back of the head, but there are couple of things that make this rumor at least plausible. One is Wjm47196’s track record. The same user had posted accurate information about AMD’s first generation Navi architecture before it launched. Same goes for some other GPU launches.

Secondly, we know AMD will implement ray tracing support into a future Navi GPU architecture, because both Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s next Xbox (Project Scarlett) will feature one, based on custom silicon.

A CES announcement also doesn’t mean the GPU would launch soon after. The past several years, AMD has announced products and disclosed roadmaps in December in January for products that eventually launched in June or July. So an initial preview even in January, six months before availability, would be perfectly in line with AMD’s previous GPUs.

Assuming nothing in AMD’s roadmap has changed, the next high-end version of Navi (Navi 20) will be built on an enhanced 7nm manufacturing process (7nm+). As these things go, we can assume it will have faster clocks and better power efficiency, probably more GPU cores, and of course ray tracing.

Beyond that, there is not much in the way of official information. There are also plenty of questions to go around, though. For example, will Navi 20 be competitive with Nvidia’s top cards, or slot in a peg or two below whatever Nvidia’s fastest cards will be at the time? How much will they cost? And will Intel have a discrete GPU for gaming when Navi 20 actually launches?

Strap in, 2020 could be a wild ride.

Recently, Lenovo announced its own 5G smartphone and said all upcoming phones of the company will support 5G. Today, on November 18, the Lenovo Z6 Pro 5G version opened an appointment on the official website. It costs 3,299 yuan (8GB + 256GB), which is equivalent to $470. However, the handset will go on sale only on December 12. As you can see, this is by far the most cost-effective 5G smartphone. So there is every reason to think it will be quite competitive.

As it is released in China first, many may wonder which networks this phone support. The Lenovo Z6 Pro 5G version supports 5G/4G dual card dual standby. As the company claims, for the realization of a stable 5G network connection, they are innovatively using a distributed antenna layout. In other words, the phone will have stable connectivity even if holding it horizontally when playing games. Plus, you can freely switch between 5G and 4G.

Apart from the 5G connectivity, the Lenovo Z6 Pro 5G version uses a 6.39-inch waterdrop screen. Under the hood, there is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 flagship platform. It is also quite good for photography purposes. On the front, the device carries a 32MP selfie shooter. And on the back, there is a quad-camera, which uses a 48MP + 16MP super wide-angle + 8MP telephoto + 2MP sensors combination. The battery capacity is 4000mAh.

At last, the Lenovo Z6 Pro 5G uses a 4×3 Coldfront 2.0 liquid cooling system. The latter significantly increases the heat dissipation area by 20%. In the heat dissipation structure, it mainly uses various materials such as silicon sheet, copper tube, gel, graphite, etc.

Not to be outdone by the Razer Blade Studio series, Asus will be launching its own lineup of thin and sleek laptops aimed at professionals. The ProArt StudioBook Pro X sits at the top of the family with its Xeon E-2276M CPU, Nvidia Quadro 5000 GPU, 64 GB of RAM, and 17-inch 1200p display with a chassis design that borrows unabashedly from both the consumer ZenBook and gaming Zephyrus S series.

The most noteworthy characteristics of the ProArt StudioBook Pro X are its ScreenPad, Xeon CPU, and 16:10 17-inch display. The ScreenPad can be convenient if used correctly, the Xeon processor can allow for ECC RAM, and the 16:10 aspect ratio is uncommon on most laptops. These small touches show that Asus has tuned the ProArt StudoBook Pro X specifically for professional users instead of rebranding existing consumer laptops as workstations. The Razer Blade Studio and most MSI W series laptops, for example, are simply reskinned consumer laptops but with Quadro GPUs.

As with most mobile workstations, the ProArt StudioBook Pro X is going to cost an arm and a leg. Asus is offering just one major SKU at the moment as detailed in the specifications sheet below for $4999 USD. Online retailers like Amazon, Newegg, and Xotic PC have all started taking pre-orders for the laptop.

Apple is releasing iOS and iPadOS 13.2.3 today to address a variety of odd bugs that have been introduced with the release of iOS 13. The latest update includes a fix for the Spotlight system search feature that had been failing for some users recently. Search should now work consistently at the system level and in the Mail, Files, and Notes apps.

If you use an app that downloads content in the background and you’ve noticed weird issues in iOS 13.2.2 or before, Apple is now addressing this in the new update. Mail is also getting updated to fix problems fetching new messages or quoting messages from Exchange accounts. The only other fix that’s listed on Apple’s release notes for iOS 13.2.3 is concerning an issue where photos, links, and other attachments haven’t been displaying properly in the iMessage details view.

Apple continues to patch up its buggy iOS 13 release, and hopefully we’re closer to a more stable OS now. Apple is also testing betas of iOS 13.3, which is expected to include some fairly minor additions like better support for FIDO2-compliant security keys that use USB, Lightning, or NFC. Today’s iOS 13.2.3 update will also include any security updates for iOS and iPadOS, and you can download it immediately from your settings menu.

MSI has introduced one of the industry’s first ultra-compact desktops powered by Intel’s 10th Generation ‘Comet Lake-U’ processors, the Cubi 5 10M. With Comet Lake-U available in up to 6 core configurations and supporting up to 64 GB of memory, the Cubi 5 10M is powerful enough that it can be used for a wide variety of applications, including productivity, photo editing, design, and multimedia playback.

Measuring 124×124×53.7 mm and weighing 550 grams, MSI’s Cubi 5 10M compact PCs are quite literally palm-sized. Under the hood, they pack one of Intel’s 10th Generation Core i3/i5/i7 processors with two, four, or six cores as well as Intel’s UHD 630 Graphics. The CPU is cooled down using an active cooling system, so the processors should be able to turbo fairly often. The SoC is accompanied by two SO-DIMM memory slots supporting up to 64 GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an M.2 slot for an SSD, and a 2.5-inch bay for additional storage.

On the wireless connectivity side of matters, MSI’s Cubi 5 10M UCFF systems come with either Intel’s Wireless AC 9462 or Wireless AX201 adapters with Bluetooth 5. As for wired connectivity, the mini-PC offers GbE (Intel WGI219V), three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A connectors, one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, two USB 2.0 headers, two display outputs (DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4), a headphone output, a microphone in, and a power connector. The Cubi comes with a 65 W external power brick, and it can be further equipped with an external power switch to turn it on or off when it is located in a hard to reach area.

Overall, the Cubi 5 10M SFF PC is fairly typical for a small form factor PC design, incorporating Intel’s latop-focused hardware to instead build a small and low power desktop. With Comet Lake-U reaching 6 cores, the system should be able up to the task for most office-grade, non-graphics-heavy workloads, as well as making for a modest HTPC.

MSI is already listing its Cubi 5 10M ultra-compact desktop on its website, so expect it to hit the market shortly. They’ve yet to disclose the pricing, however, so we’ll have to see where that ends up.

The Motorola Razr, which was a household name in the mid-00s at the height of the popularity of flip-phones, is getting a reboot from Motorola this year. The latest report says that the 2019 Motorola Razr will be launched on Wednesday, 13 November 2019 at an event in Los Angeles. Scroll down and you’ll see the video invite that was sent out for the event.

The return of the Razr became certain in mid-April 2019, when the new Motorola Razr was officially confirmed as existing and indeed called the “Motorola Razr” in an official Bluetooth certification body listing, which also confirmed that the phone would use Bluetooth 5.0 technology.

The re-imagined handset had been rumoured to be incoming ever since the hugely-successful relaunch of the Nokia 3310 two years ago, and will apparently combine the hinged design of the original 2004 flip-phone with a new folding OLED display.

The addition of a foldable display means the new Motorola Razr will compete directly with the likes of the Huawei Mate X, the Samsung Galaxy Fold, and the unnamed (and so far unreleased) dual-folding Xiaomi.

Plenty of information about the next-generation Motorola Razr has already landed, so read on to get up to speed on one of this year’s biggest folding phones. We’ll keep this article updated with every whisper, leak or educated guess that we hear, too. Stay tuned.

MOTOROLA RAZR PRICE

Unlike the rebooted Nokia 3310, which sells for £49.95, the Motorola Razr will be a high-end flagship smartphone with a price tag that competes with the latest iPhone models and the Samsung Galaxy Fold. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the revived Razr will cost in the region of $1,500 ( £1,170).

MOTOROLA RAZR LAUNCH AND RELEASE DATE

The Motorola launch date looks set for 13 November 2019 at an event in downtown Los Angeles.

However, that launch might not be followed by a worldwide release of the handset. According to a report from GSM Arena, the new Motorola Razr will be exclusive to US mobile carrier Verizon, with only 200,000 units available. It’s currently unclear whether the phone will even make it to store shelves outside of the United States.

As for the release date, Motorola VP Dan Dery originally said the company wanted to get its flexible device into customers’ hands “no later” than its rivals. Given that the Samsung Galaxy Fold was set to launch on April 26 in the United States and May 3, 2019 in the UK and Europe, while the Huawei Mate X was tipped to launch worldwide sometime in mid-2019, that meant we were expecting to see something from Motorola before summer 2019.

However, Motorola was given a bit of leeway there as the Samsung Galaxy Fold release has been delayed due to issues with the display, and the release date for the Huawei Mate X has apparently been delayed following the issues that Samsung faced.

In the unusually candid chat with Engadget, the technology company confirmed that it’s already working on a device with a pliable display and that it has “no intention of coming later than everybody else in the market”.

Motorola Vice President of Global Product Dan Dery added: “We started to work on foldables a long time ago, and we have been doing a lot of iteration.”

Motorola’s wish didn’t come true, though, as the Samsung Galaxy Fold is now on sale and the new Motorola Razr is nowhere to be seen. CNET is now reporting that the new Razr will be announced on 13 November 2019. The video invite for the event can be seen below.

MOTOROLA RAZR DESIGN AND FEATURES

Motorola is expected to keep the same industrial design of the original July 2004 Razr V3, albeit with a very modern twist. The schematics of the as-then unannounced Motorola-branded smartphone, now widely-believed to be the 2019 rebirth of the Motorola Razr, were spotted in a patent filing late last year.

These illustrations have since been transformed into a series of stunning high-resolution renders, as well as a glossy new concept video. Based on both, the new Razr will keep the iconic flip phone design seen on the original handset, as well as the secondary screen on the outside of the casing for notifications.

Then on 31 October 2019, a leaked image of the 2019 Motorola Razr broke cover. The picture was tweeted by leakster Evan Blass and can be seen below. How modern-retro cool does that look?

Just a few minutes later, a new series of Motorola Razr 2019 images leaked and then on Friday 1 November, a THIRD successive leak saw a hands-on image of the new Razr hit the internet courtesy of Mobile news site DroidShout.

That was followed by a fourth leak just a few hours before the 13 November launch event where images that were posted to the website of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) were spotted by Mysmartprice. They’re not the clearest of images but they do show the new handset in its folded and unfolded form and they match earlier leaks, leading us to believe that these are genuine.

What can just about be seen in these new images is a probable rear-mounted fingerprint sensor on the back beneath a Motorola logo, a camera on the rear, and a USB-C port on the bottom of the handset. What’s missing from the handset is a headphone jack and, although the pics are low res, we can’t see a front-facing selfie camera on the phone and we think it’s highly unlikely that there is one hidden under the screen.

Open up the new Motorola Razr and you can see just how the design has changed from the original. According to the patent schematics and rumours from the supply chain, the new Razr will have a foldable OLED display that runs the length of the handset and that’s what the leaked images confirm.

While the Razr will still have a hinge, it will be hidden from view by the pliable display whenever you’re using the smartphone. When the rebooted smartphone is open, it is expected to have an expansive screen with a widescreen aspect ratio so that you can watch the latest blockbusters without any of those troublesome black bars.

Like the iPhone XS Max and Pixel 3 XL before it, Motorola will use a notch at the top of the screen for the earpiece, and probably a selfie-camera, though that selfie camera is looking a bit doubtful based on the latest leaked images shown above.

Based on the schematics included in the latest patent from Motorola, and confirmed in the leaked images, there will be a single rear-mounted camera, as well as a fingerprint scanner just below it. Motorola recently moved every model in its new Moto G7 range to a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner to increase the size of the display.

According to a report from XDA Developers, this external screen will not be able to run every Android app installed on your smartphone. Instead, Motorola is believed to be limiting the touchscreen to a select few system apps, like Moto Display, Moto Actions, and the Moto Camera app. That is a very different approach to the Samsung Galaxy Fold, which treats its 4.6-inch so-called Cover Display as a traditional smartphone screen that runs anything the larger folding screen can – albeit it’s limited to two app multi-tasking, not three like the 7.3-inch Flex Display.

As well as core system apps, the external display on the Motorola Razr can be used to show up to six Quick Settings tiles. These will be similar to those in the dropdown available at the top of the display on all Android smartphones and will allow users to quickly toggle Airplane mode and the like without interrupting whatever they’re doing on the main screen. According to XDA Developers, it’s unclear whether Motorola will allow users to scroll to see more than the six tiles displayed on the screen at any one time.

Elsewhere, whenever the Google Assistant is triggered with the wake phrase “OK, Google” or “Hey Google” while the Razr is flipped close, the Assistant animation will be shown on the external display to notify users that the handset has heard the command. This option can be disabled in the settings, in which case the user will simply be prompted to “flip open to unlock” with a passcode, pattern or PIN.

XDA Developers believes that users will be able to set separate wallpapers for the main foldable display and the smaller touchscreen on the outside of the clamshell.

Apparently, Motorola also experimented with putting the folding screen on the outside of the device (as in this concept video) but the company seems to have abandoned that approach. When asked whether the product would be similar to the Huawei Mate X design, which has the foldable screen on the outside of the device, Motorola’s Dan Dery said: “We have been testing a plastic OLED device with plastic film on top. The fact that you’re touching [that kind of display] with your nails is scratching it. It has a short life right away; it starts dying the day you unpack it. But it’s beautiful. That first day, it’s beautiful.”

MOTOROLA RAZR SPECS

In terms of specifications, it seems the new Motorola Razr will not have anywhere near the same processing grunt as rival foldable phones like the Huawei Mate X and Samsung Galaxy Fold. According to a report from XDA Developers, the new Motorola will employ the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 system-on-a-chip coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. A model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will also be available, it claims.

Although this chipset does support Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4+ technology, we don’t yet know what kind of fast charging the Motorola Razr will offer. However, we have heard that Motorola will kit out its bendy blower with a 2,730mAh battery cell.

That’s significantly smaller than the battery in the Mate X and Galaxy Fold. However, the Motorola Razr is a smaller device, so shouldn’t have a negative impact on the battery life of the handset. We can’t believe Motorola would fit its flagship foldable with anything other than all-day battery life, especially given its emphasis on battery with the recent Moto G7 series.

The latest Motorola Razr spec leaks come from XDA Developers Editor-in-Chief Mishaal Rahman, who on 1 November 2019 tweeted a summary of “basic Motorola Razr specs”:

* sdm710, likely Qualcomm Snapdragon 710

* Main display: 6.20″ 2142×876 by BOE

* Closed display: 2.69″ 800×600 also by BOE

* 4/6GB RAM

* 64/128GB storage

* Now believed to have 2510mAh battery

Those specs pretty much align with earlier leaks although the battery size, if correct, is now even smaller, at 2,510mAh.

MOTOROLA RAZR CONCEPTS

Ahead of the launch, designer Waqar Khan has been hard at work building a slick video the forthcoming smartphone based on the latest leaks and rumours.

The short clip, which can be viewed below, gives a pretty good glimpse at what the final product could look like…

MOTOROLA RAZR OFFICIAL PRESS IMAGES

On Sunday 28 April 2019, images purporting to be official press renders of the 2019 Motorola Razr briefly appeared on Chinese social networking site Weibo before being quickly pulled down. They were then reposted to Slashleaks.

The images show the folding phone leaning against its prism-shaped packaging. A second image shows the contents of the packaging, which seem to be a wireless charger, a USB-A to USB-C cable, a USB-C-to-3.5mm audio cable (which suggests that there will be no headphone jack on the new Razr), earbuds andthe Motorola Razr V4.

Are they genuine? To us, these renders look decidedly non-luxurious for a phone that is expected to cost in the region of $1,500. So if they are actually from Motorola, or a company acting on its behalf, they’re most likely early rough renders that were never intended to see the light of day. Or they’re fake with a capital F.

MOTOROLA RAZR ALTERNATIVES

On Tuesday 29 October 2019, Samsung took to the stage at the Samsung Developers Conference to tease its own clamshell concept. Unlike the Galaxy Fold, which folds on a vertical axis, the new concept phone folds on its horizontal axis, exactly like the Motorola Razr. Dutch site LetsGoDigital took the presentation slide and mocked up a 3D model which you can see below.

It’s not clear whether the Samsung concept would feature a smaller screen on the front, as the new Razr will have, or whether Samsung will even put this phone into production but given that Samsung has seemingly solved the problems with folding screens, the appearance of this concept is sure to cause a few worries at Motorola HQ.

Seagate has bulked up it range of storage for gamers with the launch of the new FireCuda 520 PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD and the 4TB FireCuda Gaming Dock. The first of these products is pretty straightforward, it is a M.2 2280 double-sided PCIe Gen4 ×4 NVMe 1.3 SSD and will be made available in capacities of 500MB, 1TB and 2TB. The 4TB FireCuda Gaming Dock can be summarised as an external 4TB HDD that interfaces to your PC via Thunderbolt 3 – however it includes niceties such as an NVMe M.2 expansion slot, DisplayPort 1.4, RJ45 Ethernet, audio interface and more.

“Next-gen gaming is all about speed, compatibility, and flexibility,” said Jeff Fochtman, VP of marketing and consumer solutions for Seagate. “Our FireCuda storage solutions deliver the performance, simplicity, and ingenious design to help gamers realize peak potential.”

Seagate FireCuda 520 PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD

Seagate promises “faster gaming” with its Seagate FireCuda 520 PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD. It is designed for pro-level gaming, it says, and is nearly 45 per cent faster than previous gen M.2 PCIe devices from Seagate.

Moving onto harder tech information, the FireCuda 520 uses 3D TLC NAND and is capable of sequential read/writes up to 5,000/4,400MB per second. The M.2 2280 NVMe form factor storage stick plugs straight into AMD X570 chipset PCIe 4.0 motherboards for leading performance but is backwards compatible with PCIe 3.0 platforms.

Seagate is offering buyers of the FireCuda 520 PCIe Gen 4 x4 SSD a five year warranty with 1.8M hours MTBF, and up to 2,800 TBW (varies with capacity). In an email to HEXUS, Seagate said that the FireCuda 520 retails for £125.90 (500GB), £234.90 (1TB), and £409.00 (2TB) with immediate availability.

4TB FireCuda Gaming Dock

Docking systems are pretty convenient for people on the go but most are aimed at the professional mobile workforce and similar. Seagate hopes that its new 4TB FireCuda Gaming Dock can have a strong pull on a different demographic – PC gamers. As is obvious from its name, this Thunderbolt 3 connecting device comes with 4TB of storage built-in. However this is HDD storage. Not to fret though, as the dock has a slot for an PCIe Gen3 NVMe M.2 SSD for frequently accessed files – your current favourite games or active projects perhaps.

A Dock wouldn’t be a dock without providing a plethora of fixed ports. Once you have plugged in the Thunderbolt 3 cable the new Seagate device will provide a Thunderbolt 3 accessory port, DisplayPort 1.4, RJ45 Ethernet network port, a 3.5mm audio-in/mic port, 3.5mm audio-out port, four USB 3.1 Gen2 ports, and a USB 3.1 Gen2 charge port – as well as the built-in and optional storage. However, please note that this dock doesn’t provide power to laptops, whatever power port you might have on your portable.

RGB LEDs take this device deeper into gaming territory. Of course the LED lighting is customisable and software lets you easily choose colours and effects.

Seagate told HEXUS that the Gaming Dock will start to become available later this month for £379.99. Buyers get a three year warranty.