Category: Laptop

3D Designers over at Svetapple created a set of detailed concept renders of Apple’s upcoming 24-in and 32-in iMacs, based on accumulated design rumors. The renders indicate that the upcoming iMac lineup will feature significantly thinner bezels as well as round display corners, strongly evoking the design language used in the current generation of iPads. 

According to Svetapple, both the smaller 24-in iMac and the larger 32-in iMac will feature ultra high-resolution monitors. The 24-in model will feature a 4K panel, in line with the current generation variant. The 32-in, on the other hand, will feature a significantly higher resolution panel. This is due to the much larger screen-size relative to the current-generation 27-in iMac model. The upgraded display would offer significantly more real estate without compromising on pixel density. The slimmer bezels could even mean that the 32-in iMac’s footprint isn’t that much bigger. 

There’s very little to go on, right now. However, apart from the rejigged design, these new iMacs will likely feature 5nm Apple ARM-based CPUs. We should know more in the months to come. 

Yes, you read that headline correctly: according to a new listing in the Geekbench 5 database, the M1 MacBook Air absolutely destroys the Core i9 16-inch MacBook Pro in both single- and multi-core tests. 

The scores apparently come from the MacBook Air 10,1. According to the Geekbench post, this MacBook Air runs macOS 11.0.1 and uses an “Apple Silicon” processor. The laptop posted an impressive 1687 and 7433 in the single- and multi-core tests, respectively.

Comparatively, the top-of-the-line 16-inch MacBook Pro with a Core i9-9880H performs about 35% worse in Geekbench 5’s single-core test and about 15% worse in the multi-core test. Average scores for the Core i9 16-inch MacBook Pro hover around 1100 for single-core and 6000-6500 for multi-core. 

This is quite the performance gap, especially considering this MacBook Air looks like the baseline model with 8 GB of RAM. Also, keep in mind that the M1 MacBook Air is fanless, suggesting that the new M1 13-inch MacBook Pro will perform significantly better than the best MacBook Pros currently on the market. The M1 MacBook Pro has active cooling, which should allow for longer sustained load operation.

The Geekbench post also shed some light on an M1 specification many have asked about: clock speed. According to the listing, the M1 has a base clock of 3.2 GHz. The Core i9-9880H, for comparison, has a base clock of 2.3 GHz. 

If this listing is legitimate, Apple has worked wonders with the M1 chip. That kind of performance in a passively cooled system with a TDP of 10 Watts is incredible, especially compared to an 8 core/16 thread 45 Watt monster like the Core i9-9880H. 

Apple’s statement that the M1 is the fastest CPU in the world may have been more than marketing fluff after all.

Most companies wait at least a year to refresh their laptops, but Apple has unveiled another 13-inch MacBook Pro, six months on from the release of the last model. The design of the new edition remains unchanged, but Apple promises big things from its new M1 processor. As we have covered separately, the M1 has eight CPU cores and eight GPU cores, while Apple claims that it will offer the following performance improvements over the current 13-inch MacBook Pro:

Build code in Xcode up to 2.8x faster.

Render a complex 3D title in Final Cut Pro up to 5.9x faster. 

Fluidly design intricate game scenes in Unity Editor up to 3.5x faster. 

Perform ML tasks in Create ML up to 11x faster.

Separate out beats, instrumentals, and vocal tracks from a recording in real-time in djay Pro AI.

Play full-quality, 8K ProRes video in DaVinci Resolve without dropping a single frame. 

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro will replace the two cheaper Coffee Lake SKUs that Apple had been selling. The entry-level model starts at US$1,299 and comes with 8 GB of RAM, along with 256 GB of storage. 16 GB of RAM is a US$200 upgrade, as is a 512 GB SSD. 1 TB and 2 TB drives can also be configured, but these are US$400 and US$800 upgrades over the 256 GB option.

All SKUs will begin shipping in the US from November 17/18. Apple has included two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports on all M1 models too, while all SKUs are rated for up to 20 hours of battery life.

It has been well over a year since we reported on EGLOBAL, which released a mini-PC with an Intel Core i9-8950HK processor. Now, EGLOBAL is selling the S200, which comes with a choice of Coffee Lake Refresh-H and Comet Lake-H processors. The 144 x 134 x 64 mm machine comes with the Core i5-9300H, Core i9-9880H, Core i7-10750H or Core i9-10880H, which are all 45 W chips. Unsurprisingly, the S200 is an actively cooled machine, regardless of the processor with which it has been equipped.

By default, the S200 does not come with any RAM or storage. However, EGLOBAL offers the S200 with up to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM and a 1 TB SSD. The RAM is socketed, so you should be able to add up to 64 GB. Additionally, the mini-PC accepts NVMe drives, not just the slower SATA III standard. There are actually two M.2 2280 slots, along with a 2.5-inch drive bay that can take up to 9.5 mm drives.

EGLOBAL has equipped the S200 with plenty of ports too, as the image below demonstrates. In summary, the machine has dual video and LAN connections, with seven USB connections to boot. There is also built-in Wi-Fi, should you not need Ethernet.

The EGLOBAL S200 starts at US$348 on AliExpress for the Core i5 model without any RAM or storage. The machine can cost up to US$912 with a Core i9-10880H processor, 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD, though.

Shuttle has announced its latest mini-PC, the XH410G. While the machine may look like a run of the mill mini-PC, the XH410G packs a punch. Measure 250 x 200 x 79 mm, the XH410G supports with a choice of 65 W Intel processors, an expansion slot and multiple ports.

Specifically, Shuttle has designed the XH410G with an LGA1200 socket, meaning that it supports Comet Lake S from the Celeron G5900 to the Core i9-10900. The machine also has two SO-DIMM slots, an M.2 2280 slot and a 2.5-inch bay that can take up to 9.5 mm drives. Additionally, Shuttle has included an M.2 2230AE slot for Wi-Fi cards.

The XH410G has multiple ports, including Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0a, VGA and four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports. There are also four USB 2.0 ports and dedicated headphone and microphone jacks.

Another highlight of the XH410G is its PCIe slot, which supports X16 PCIe 3.0 and up to 75 W. Shuttle has left enough space in the chassis to accommodate a graphics card, so you could install something like the GeForce GTX 1650. The XH410G supports up to 208 x 120 x 33 mm expansion cards, for reference.

The Shuttle XH410G will be available from €283. It is unclear when the machine will be purchasable, though.

We are but one week away from Apple’s next hardware event, where the company is expected to announce its first ARM-powered Mac hardware. Apple will announce a new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 based on its new ARM architecture, according to Mark Gurman and Debby Wu of Bloomberg, which may be joined by a revised version of the MacBook Pro 16.

Leaker @000leaker has gone one further, though. Posting on Twitter, the account claims that Apple will launch the ARM MacBook Air for as low as US$799, with prices rising to US$999 for what we presume will just be higher memory SKUs. We should stress that @000leaker does not have the best track record, but there have been rumours that Apple will price its ARM Mac hardware at cheaper price points than its current Intel ones.

Additionally, the account claims that the new MacBook Pro 13 will cost between US$1,099 and US$1,299. Meanwhile, a 12-inch MacBook will apparently follow in Q1/Q2 2021, before 14-inch and 16-inch Pro models arrive in Q2/Q3 2021. @000leaker adds that the MacBook Pro 14 will retail for upwards of US$1,799, which would be quite the price hike from the MacBook Pro 13.

Apple is expected to equip the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 with full bore versions of the A14 Bionic, the 5 nm chipset that it uses in the new iPad Air and iPhone 12 series. The company may not brand its first ARM laptop chip as the A14 Bionic though, but it is thought to offer between eight and twelve processor cores.

Not even a year has passed since Purism released the Librem Mini, but the company has now unveiled a second-generation model. Unsurprisingly, Purism has called its latest machine the Librem Mini V2, which also offers a hint of the breadth of upgrades that the mini-PC has been afforded.

According to the manufacturer, the Librem Mini V2 has been upgraded to a Core i7-10510U, a 15 W chip from Intel’s Comet Lake-U family. While this is an upgrade from the Core i7-8565U that the company included in the first Librem Mini, the change will only yield a 6% performance improvement, based on our database.

Elsewhere, the Librem Mini V2 remains identical to its predecessor. The machine has two SO-DIMM slots for up to 64 GB of DDR4-2400 RAM, one M.2 slot for an NVMe or SATA III drive, along with a 2.5-inch drive bay for another SATA II drive. Additionally, Purism continues to equip its mini-PC with two video outputs, seven USB ports, an RJ45 connection and optional Bluetooth/Wi-Fi.

The Librem Mini V2 starts at US$699 with 8 GB of RAM, a 250 GB SATA SSD and a combination of coreboot + SeaBIOS. The machine can be configured up to US$3,193, though. The Librem Mini V2 is available to order now.

Despite their announcement several months ago, Apple has been fairly tight-lipped about when it will unveil the world’s first ARM-based Macbooks. Earlier reports have told us that the notebooks would likely land before the year ends. Thankfully, that wait got a whole lot shorter, as Apple just announced its ‘One More Thing’ event on November 10.

A report from Bloomberg suggests that Apple will unveil three new Macbooks at the event, namely a 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and a 16-inch MacBook Pro. Renowned Twitter leaker l0vetodream also confirms that there will be two 13-inch MacBooks but neglected to mention the exact model.

We can also expect Apple to unveil a new iPad Pro alongside the MacBooks. An earlier report told us that Apple’s in-house silicon was likely to come in two variants, one with eight cores and the other with twelve. The former will likely be a modified version of the A14X Bionic, which is also set to power the iPad Pro.

Considering that MacBooks need to pack a more formidable punch than iPads, we can expect Apple to use a 4+4 (power/efficiency) configuration on the eight-core chip and an 8+4 layout on the eight-core variant. There’s a more powerful sixteen-core version of the silicon due to hit the shelves in 2021.

It has been a while since we reported on Alldocube, which sells an array of hardware, including tablets like the Alldocube X. Its latest laptop is intriguing, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

On the one hand, the i7Book has an aluminium build, 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and a 14.1-inch IPS display. The 1080p panel supposedly has a 90% screen-to-body ratio too and a matte finish, although it is unclear how bright it gets. There is also a 256 GB SSD, albeit a slow SATA III one.

Alldocube has included a rather strange choice of processor, though. The company has gone with a Core i7-6600U, a Skylake processor that Intel released over five years ago. The 15 W processor possesses two cores, supports Hyper-Threading and can reach 3.4 GHz. Unsurprisingly, the Core i7-6600U cannot match the performance of the Core i7-10510U or even the Core i7-8550U.

The i7book has plenty of I/O, including three USB 3.0 Type-A ports and a USB Type-C. However, that cannot overcome its high asking price of US$499.99, which is simply too much for a Core i7-6600U-powered machine in 2020. If you are interested in the Alldocube i7book, then it can be purchased on Banggood.

It has been nearly a year since Apple announced the first 16-inch MacBook Pro, replacing the 15-inch model that the company had been selling for over a decade. Apple is yet to confirm any plans to release a new MacBook Pro 16, but it has seemingly provided a concrete reference to the launch date of a subsequent model.

Apparently, Boot Camp 6.1.13 ‘fixes a stability issue…on 16-inch MacBook Pro (2019 and 2020)’, as it also does for the most-recent MacBook Pro 13. Apple released a MacBook Pro 16 with a Radeon Pro 5600M earlier this year, but the company refers to this model as the 16-inch MacBook Pro 2019. So, Apple has either published the changelog for Boot Camp 6.1.13 in error, or it is an indication of the upcoming launch of a new 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Rumour has it that Apple will host a Mac event on November 17, with an announcement for the event due a week before. The company may just use this event to showcase ARM hardware, so we may see a new MacBook Pro 16 arrive via an Apple press release, instead.