Asus ROG Strix GL553VD-DS71 review

Research Center:
Asus ROG Strix GL553VD-DS71

Asus has made a name for itself as a manufacturer of reliable, affordable, and surprisingly capable gaming machines, under the Republic of Gamers brand. The latest, the ROG Strix, has all the makings of an excellent gaming laptop. This is a notebook that weighs in at 5.5 pounds, and is slightly over an inch thick, yet it boasts a GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card, an Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, and 16GB of RAM.

Couple that performance with a retail price of $1,100, and the Strix starts to look very appealing. It has a decent price, solid specs, all in an attractive package. In other words, the Strix seems like it should be a killer deal. But does it live up to that perception?

Sleek, pleasant, and troubling

When you first behold the Strix, named after a genus of predatory owls, you’ll notice that it’s a little less flashy than its predecessors. Like a sleek predator, the Strix conveys a sense of quiet power, of quality, and sophistication — despite its bright orange accents. It’s a refreshing change, a compromise between gaudy “gamer” styling and slick professional design, and it works. It’s clear this is a gaming laptop, but it’s not ostentatious or eye-rollingly over-the-top.

More: Razer’s updated BlackWidow Chroma keyboard gets yellow and a comfy wrist rest

Unfortunately, some of that luster wears off once you close the lid for the first time, and apply even slight pressure to the back of the display. The metal plate on the back of the display, where the bright orange acrylic panels reside, snaps inward like a fresh-seal cap on a jar of jelly. Press on the back with less force than you’d use to push a key on the keyboard, and the aluminum pops like a Snapple lid.

At first, it looked like it might just be a design quirk. After all, a lot of laptops have some amount of give in the display lid, and can be bent to a degree. This is different. When even a minuscule amount of pressure is applied to the back of the laptop, the aluminum case pops inward hard enough to visibly bruise the interior of the LCD.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Imagine you have the Strix in your bag, or backpack, with a water bottle, travel mug, or even a couple pens in an adjacent pocket. Any amount of pressure placed on the back of the laptop causes the lid to pop inward and put pressure on the LCD. Over time, you might even inadvertently cause serious damage to the screen simply by putting the laptop through the rigors of a daily commute.

To find out if this was simply a manufacturer defect, or a design flaw, we took a closer look at the culprit. The metal plate on the back of the Strix has two creases where the metal was bent to create an accent effect for the orange acrylic inserts. It looks nice, and adds some aesthetic appeal to the striated metal back plate. But those creases also create the structural flaw which causes the Snapple-lid effect.

Asus ROG Strix GL553VD-DS71 Compared To

Acer Predator 15

AVADirect Avant P750DM2-G

Asus ROG G752VS-XB78K

Acer Predator 17 X GX-791-73FH

Origin EON 17-S (2014)

Asus G750JX-DB71

Alienware M17x R4

Maingear eX-L 17

Asus G51J 3D

Asus G51VX

Gateway P-7808u FX Edition

Gateway P-7801u FX Edition

Asus G50VT

Dell XPS M1730

Alienware Area-51 m9750

So, this isn’t a one-off factory defect. This is a problem that will affect the entire product line, and it’s something you need to check out in person if you’re considering this laptop.

Throwback thursday

The Strix offers a number of ports, with a good amount of variety. The left side houses two USB Type-A ports, and one USB Type-C port, alongside an HDMI port, a headphone jack, and an Ethernet port. The right side has an extra USB Type-C port, and the rest of the real estate on that side is taken up by an optical drive.

Optical drives are less common than they used to be, so it seems like an odd choice. That real estate might have been better used for a few extra ports or an extra vent. As optical drives go, though, this one feels a little flimsy, and rattles around a fair amount even when the tray is secured and closed.

Satisfying clicks

Lately, laptop manufacturers have been putting a little extra effort into the keyboards and trackpads on their flagship gaming laptops, and it’s definitely appreciated. The Strix benefits from that trend, providing a keyboard with excellent key travel, and a surprisingly high-quality feel. It has a little give, as most laptop keyboards do, but the keys themselves are responsive, clicky, and satisfying to the touch.

The Strix features an excellent display, rich stereo sound.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a gaming laptop if it didn’t have an LED backlit keyboard. The lights on display here are sharp, bright, and transition smoothly from one color to another. They’re programmable via an included ROG Aura app, which allows you to set up transition animations, and customize each zone with its own color.

The trackpad feels great. It’s slick, with a matte texture that is pleasant to the touch. It’s also surprisingly accurate, sharp enough to use in games like Civilization VI, or other turn-based games that don’t require the precision and speed an external mouse provides.

Sharp picture, rich sound

Despite its flaws, the Strix manages to set itself apart when it comes to display and audio quality. A 1080p screen isn’t as cutting-edge as it used to be, but it’s a good standby, and the Strix is outfitted with an incredibly rich display even for a gaming laptop. This thing hits about 840:1 contrast, which is what you should expect from a high-end desktop monitor. On a laptop, it’s particularly stunning.

Colors are rich and vibrant, darks are deep and inky. Running through some high-resolution black-and-white photos, the Strix’s display rendered them perfectly, with an appreciable contrast between the brightest whites and the darkest darks.

More: The best laptop you can buy

Shadows and lowlights appeared stark and black without trending toward gray. Additionally, the Strix didn’t appear to suffer any amount of light bleed around the edges of the display, an issue common even in high-end gaming laptops.

Here you can see the Strix leaving the competitors in the dust when it comes to out-of-the-box picture quality. The color accuracy is close enough to perfect that you can trust the Strix’s display for color-sensitive work like photo editing in a pinch, but not quite enough to ditch a professional grade desktop monitor.

Similarly, the Strix faithfully reproduces 75 percent of the AdobeRGB spectrum, just a little more than the Acer Predator 15, and AVADirect Avant, which hit 73 percent and 71 percent, respectively. These are decent scores for laptop displays, which typically have a lower color gamut than a full-on desktop display.

Sound off

Moving on, the Strix is outfitted with a set of speakers that can produce rich, deep sounds a step above what you might be used to on a gaming laptop. The Acer Predator 15 features a set of speakers that produced hollow, relatively empty sounds that felt like they were coming out of a set of cheap earbuds. The Strix, by comparison, reproduces rich and lifelike sound without any noticeable clipping.

They also offer surprisingly precise directional sounds. It’s certainly no surround sound speaker system, but in games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, ambient sound has a directionality you don’t often hear on laptop speakers. Civilians talking to each other on your left, giant robot cops stomping through the streets on your right, sound moving in and out as you pass by or get closer. It’s a pleasant surprise.

Whelming performance

When it comes to processor speed, the Strix manages to keep up with the competition, but never quite pushes past similarly outfitted competitors. That said, the Strix is outfitted with a 7th-generation quad-core Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor clocked at 2.8GHz, which proves to be very nimble in everyday use.

In our tests the Strix managed to stay right in the middle of the pack, with solid single and multi-core scores in Geekbench, just below the desktop-grade AVADirect Avant’s Core i5-6600K, and just above the Acer Predator 15’s Intel Core i7-6700HQ.

When converting a 4K video using Handbrake, the Strix achieves similar results, landing just between the AVADirect Avant and the Acer Predator 15. All in all, it’s a decent performer, never falling below performance expectations, but also never quite exceeding them.

Big but slow

If there’s one thing the Strix has an excess of, its storage space. Given how big games are getting, its 1TB hard disk will fill up faster than it would have just a year ago, but it’s still a staggering amount of space.

Because it features a standard hard disk, as opposed to a quicker SSD, the speed you can expect when reading or writing files will be well below what you might be used to. In fact, it’s downright slow, and despite its size, a quicker 256GB SSD would have been a more flexible choice — just enough space for a few games, and enough speed to move files around without any major issues.

More: The 10 best laptops from CES 2017 will have you itching to upgrade

Above you can see its read/write speeds are about on par with the comparable AVADirect Avant’s hard disk, but they’re far slower than the Acer Predator 15’s SSD, and all three are much slower than the MSI GS63VR’s lightning-fast SSD, which managed an impressive read speed of nearly two gigabytes per second.

Underpowered, underwhelming

Featuring an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with 4GB of RAM, the Strix is no slouch when it comes to horsepower. Keep in mind, Nvidia has all but done away with pared-down mobile GPUs for gaming laptops, and this GTX 1050 is the real deal — an almost-desktop-grade graphics card in a 15.6-inch laptop, albeit the lowest-power option in Nvidia’s latest generation.

It is still a budget gaming notebook, but with those specs it should be able to hold its own against competitors and offer decent framerates at high settings. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The GTX 1050 is a decent graphics card, but it really pales in comparison to even a GTX 1060, just one step up the Nvidia performance ladder.

Let’s look at the performance from the Acer Predator 15 G9-593. The unit we reviewed featured a GTX 1060 graphics card, and averaged 58 frames per second in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided on high , while the Strix averaged 28.3 frames per second. That’s not bad, but it’s a huge gap, and well below the display’s 60Hz refresh rate so gameplay isn’t as smooth as it could be.

On ultra-high detail settings, the gap between these two cards widens significantly. In Deus Ex the Strix’s GTX 1050 manages a barely playable 20 frames per second on average, while the Acer Predator 15 hits an average frame rate of 37 frames per second.

Those are some serious performance gains, and you can see the GTX 1060 in the Acer Predator 15 beating out the GTX 1050 in the Asus by similar margins in Civilization VI. Now, to be fair, the GTX 1060 is a bit more expensive than the GTX 1050, but those performance gains are not marginal. The GTX 1050 is a card that will likely start to show its age very quickly. It already has trouble running recent games at high and ultra-high detail settings in 1080p.

Heating up

While performing our gaming benchmarks, we noticed another peculiar issue. The Strix has a bad habit of accumulating an enormous amount of heat. There are two big intake vents on the underside of the laptop, and one exhaust vent on the left-hand side, where all the internal heat gets pushed out. The vent heats up and it heats up fast. After just ten minutes of running Battlefield 1 the desk beside the vent heated up to about 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

After about half an hour, the vent becomes nearly too hot to touch, hitting temperatures around 130 degrees Fahrenheit according to our IR thermometer. Thankfully, internal temperatures climbed only gradually while gaming, and remained well within tolerable levels. This is just an issue of dispersal, an extra vent would probably remedy this issue, taking the heat — literally and figuratively — off of that single vent.

Easy to carry, easy to drain

The Strix is a gaming laptop, and as such, it’s packed to the gills with heavy, power-hungry hardware. That means it’s not exactly dainty, but it is thinner than many of its competitors.

At five and a half pounds, it’s not too overbearing during a daily commute, and many laptop bags comfortably accommodate a 15.6-inch laptop like the Strix. Even when accompanied by a travel mug and a few other items, it doesn’t make your bag cut into your shoulder like some bigger, heavier laptops — looking at you, Predator 15.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

That pleasantly slender form factor may have resulted in a bit of a problem for the Strix — its battery life is notably lacking due to the undersized 48Wh battery its equipped with. For comparison, the Dell Inspiron 7500, another 15.6-inch laptop with a similar form factor, features a 75Wh battery — and it came out in 2015. There’s really no excuse for packing a gaming laptop with such a small battery, especially considering the Strix is fitted with a nearly desktop-grade video card which puts heavy demands on the battery life.

In our tests the Strix’s battery barely broke two hours of battery life on a full charge, and about two and a half hours during light usage. You might be able to stretch that out by turning the brightness down, the LED keyboard off, and sticking to word processing or other everyday tasks, but you should probably also pack a charger.

Still, its battery underperformed compared to nearly every other gaming laptop we’ve tested recently. The Strix couldn’t keep up with the Acer Predator 15 in this area either, which had less-than-stellar battery life — between two-and-a-half and three hours on a full charge.

Helpful utilities on demand

The Strix somehow manages to be less than the sum of its parts.

The included software is light, and you won’t find much in the way of manufacturer bloatware. In our experience, the included Asus-branded utilities worked well, and provided helpful functionality, no redundancies or uninstallation-fodder here.

The Asus ROG-branded utilities are available at the push of a button, the one on the keyboard that looks like a scary eyeball. Press it, and the ROG suite pops up, with diagnostic information presented front-and-center. Other utilities are linked at the bottom of the window, which is a nice addition so you don’t have to go digging for your LED settings.

Warranty information

The Strix includes a standard one-year warranty, covering parts and labor for any manufacturer defects you might encounter. That’s a standard warranty for a laptop, but some manufacturers like Acer slap on an extra year for gaming laptops.

Our Take

The Asus ROG Strix GL553VD somehow manages to be less than the sum of its parts. Despite having decent, middle-of-the-road specs, it’s plagued by a handful of significant design flaws and surprisingly underwhelming performance. The speakers, display, and processor performance can’t quite manage to make up for the Strix’s other flaws.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes, there are several better alternatives. Here’s the thing about the Strix: it’s $1,100 price point is reasonable, and because of that it’s easy to forgive some of the serious problems we encountered — until you start looking at what else is available.

The Acer Predator 15 will run you at least an extra $300, but what you get is a gaming laptop that doesn’t pull any punches and manages to impress at nearly every turn. On the other end of the spectrum, the latest Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming has very similar specs for just $899, with the same video card and a sturdier, more thermal-efficient design.

The DT Accessory Pack

Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2 gaming keyboard

$170

SteelSeries Arctis 5 gaming headset

$100

Razer DeathAdder Chroma gaming mouse

$50

How long will it last?

The Strix will likely outlast its own video card. The build quality is solid, despite the Snapple-lid issue, which might cause some screen fatigue over time, but will likely hold up for a few years. The GTX 1050, however, is already starting to show its age.

It has trouble running new games at high and ultra-high settings, and those problems are only going to get worse over the course of 2017. By the time 2018 rolls around, you’ll still be able to run new games, but you’ll probably be doing so only after paring back the detail settings significantly.

Should you buy it?

Unfortunately, no, you shouldn’t buy it. Hold off, and see if Asus fixes some of these issues, or spend a little extra to pick up an Acer Predator 15 — or even save a little cash and pick up the latest Dell Inspiron. A good display and surprisingly rich speakers don’t quite make up for the underwhelming performance and troubling structural issues from which the Strix suffers.

Chuwi confirms February release date for its Hi13 2-in-1 tablet

Why it matters to you

2-in-1 tablets have become big business in recent years, and the Hi13 is one of several devices looking to knock Microsoft’s Surface line from its perch.

Last month, Chuwi announced its Hi13 2-in-1 tablet at the Consumer Electronic Show, but didn’t reveal when the system would be made available, or how much it would cost. Now, the company has decided that it’s time to share that information — and the tablet will be launching sooner than you might have expected.

The Chuwi Hi13 will be available starting February 20. However, the device’s pricing is perhaps even more surprising, as it’s set to retail for just $369, according to a report from Liliputing. For comparison, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 is priced from $799, while the Surface Book starts at $1,299.

Of course, that’s not to say that the Hi13 is able to match specs with the most capable devices in the Surface line. However, anyone that’s simply looking for a potent 2-in-1 tablet with impressive 3,000 x 2,000 screen resolution might have a more difficult decision to make once Chuwi’s hybrid hits the scene.

More: Chuwi spills more details about its new Hi13 2-in-1 packing an ‘Apollo Lake’ CPU

The Hi13 comes with Windows 10 Home pre-installed, and also offers support for Ubuntu. The system features an Intel Celeron N3450 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of eMMC storage. The device is also equipped with a MicroSD card slot that allows for up to 128GB of removable storage to be added.

Its 13.5-inch display offers support for 10-point multi-touch input. In terms of connectivity, it’s outfitted with a USB Type-C port, a micro HDMI port, and two full-sized USB ports. The Hi13 is designed for use with peripherals like Chuwi’s HiPen H3 digital pen, and a detachable keyboard.

Given the continued strength of the Surface brand, it’s unlikely that Microsoft is preparing for a major shift in the 2-in-1 market once the Hi13 launches later this month. However, it’s clear that more and more companies are fielding their own hybrid devices to contest this sector, so there’s likely to be plenty more competition for the Surface line in the months and years ahead.

Uber finally lets Android Wear owners hail rides with their smartwatches

Why it matters to you

Smartwatches are useful if you can perform actions without the need of a smartphone, and Uber is helping Android Wear grow up with the option to hail a ride from your wrist.

Attention, Android Wear smartwatch owners: You can finally hail an Uber from your wrist. Support for the Wear app was announced at I/O 2015, Google’s annual developer conference, but it has taken the ride-booking company a whopping 21 months to deliver.

Now that Android Wear 2.0 is available on the LG Watch Sport and Watch Style — with a roll out to current smartwatches arriving at the end of the month — apps can be downloaded directly by the Android Wear Play Store app without the need for a phone. The stand-alone watch features in version 2.0 also mean you hardly need to interact with your phone to hail a ride with the Uber app.

More: Will your watch get Android Wear 2.0? Read our guide to find out

After installation, open the Uber app and you’ll be prompted to sign in — you’ll need to enter your login details via your phone, but you don’t need the Uber app on your phone to do this. You’ll then need to allow the Wear app to access your location — and that’s it. You can then drop a pin wherever you want and press the check mark. Set a destination, choose what type of ride and price you want — you have all the options depending on your location from UberPool and UberX to UberXL and SUV. Tap request, and a driver should be on the way.

You can check the driver’s ETA and progress to you, and the vehicle’s model and license plate number. Once you’re in the car you can view your progress to your destination.

Right now, it looks like Uber is the only on-demand ride-hailing service for Android Wear users — there’s no alternative, though Lyft used to have an app. It’s likely the company is working on a Android Wear 2.0 stand-alone app to compete with Uber.

More: Are cash payments to blame for assaults against Uber drivers in Brazil?

You can download the Uber app from the Android Wear Play Store now if you have the LG Watch Sport or Style, but you’ll have to wait until the latest version of the smartwatch operating system makes its way to existing smartwatches later this month.

Apple reportedly looks to Chinese supplier for iPhone displays amid OLED shortage

Why it matters to you

OLED displays are popular for their impressive contrast and energy-saving capabilities, but supply issues may dictate whether Apple can use the tech on its next iPhone.

Apple has been assembling a team of suppliers to satisfy demand for OLED displays in future iPhones, and it appears one of those suppliers could be China’s BOE Technology Group, according to Bloomberg.

The switch from LCD technology, which has powered every previous iPhone, to OLED has been one of the major changes predicted for the upcoming iPhone 8. Trouble is, OLED panels are more costly and difficult to produce, and Samsung, which was initially tipped to be Apple’s exclusive OLED supplier for this year’s batch of smartphones, is not confident it will be able to produce enough. This has caused Apple to look elsewhere, and one of the companies it is reportedly courting is BOE.

More: More leaks suggest wireless charging for the iPhone 8, as well as better battery life

BOE, which Bloomberg cites as the world’s largest producer of LCD displays by market value, is constructing one plant in Chengdu specifically for OLED manufacturing purposes, scheduled to be completed in the summer, and will start up on another in Mianyang soon after. Apple has been testing BOE’s displays for months, according to the report, and is still unsure if it will enlist the company’s services. While BOE seems likely to miss the cutoff for the iPhone 8, the companies might partner on Apple’s 2018 smartphones, and BOE is ramping up capacity in response.

The upshot of all of this is that Apple still may not have enough OLED displays on hand by the end of the year to equip the entire iPhone range — something the Cupertino, California, company was reportedly considering. Even with production from LG, Japan Display, and Sharp, in addition to Samsung, some analysts say Apple might be forced to restrict OLED to the flagship iPhone 8, or just shelve the new screens entirely until next year.

OLED displays are favored for their impressive contrast ratio and frugal energy consumption compared to conventional LCD. Previous sources have suggested the iPhone 8’s implementation could be curved and run from side to side, similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Edge series.

Now on sale for $300, the Intel NUC Core i5 is a mini PC with plenty of power

Computer hardware is getting smaller and smaller, and even laptops — once a revolutionary step forward from bulky desktop PCs — are no longer the most portable game in town. You likely carry a small computer with you throughout the day in the form of a smartphone, but now, even desktop PC technology is small enough to be packed into cases that can easily fit in your bag. Models like the versatile Intel NUC Core i5 mini PC, now available on Amazon for a 22-percent discount which brings it down to just $300, offer desktop-like performance in a compact package that can go with you anywhere.

The NUC6i5SYH mini PC sports a Core i5-6260U built on Intel’s sixth-generation processor architecture. The dual-core CPU boasts 1.9GHz of clock speed which can be increased up to 2.8GHz with Intel Turbo technology. The integrated Iris 540 graphics processor offers 4K display capabilities for crisp high-definition video output via HDMI or the Mini DisplayPort. For audio, the compact computer supports 7.1 surround sound and the 3.5mm audio jack allows use of headphones and microphones.

More: Need a gaming monitor on a budget? Score $171 off a 24-inch Samsung monitor

Dual-channel DDR4 RAM slots can handle up to 32GB of memory and the Intel NUC Core i5 supports a 2.5-inch internal HDD at SATA3 speeds. You can also upgrade your hard drive performance by installing a 2.5-inch SSD or compatible M.2 SSD card. Intel Wireless-AC 8260 M.2 antennas support Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth 4.1 for wireless connectivity, and an Ethernet port on the back gives you wired internet when necessary. Four USB 3.0 ports and an SDHC card reader take care of your portable storage and data transfer needs.

At just 5 inches wide and 5.5 inches thick, this lightweight mini PC can be your portable computing companion for work and play. Now at $300 on Amazon, the Intel NUC Core i5 is available at an $86 discount for a limited time.

$300 on Amazon

Pioneer’s Rayz Plus Lightning earbuds let you juice up your iPhone while listening

Why it matters to you

If you often find yourself pausing your music to charge your iPhone 7, these headphones will finally let you listen in peace.

When Apple released the iPhone 7 without a headphone jack, it was the end of an era. Like it or not, it’s doubtful the company will re-introduce the headphone jack in the future. Headphones with Lightning connectors are gaining in number, but many introduce another problem in that you cannot charge and listen at the same time. With its new Rayz Plus earphones, Pioneer lets you do both.

Pioneer’s Rayz line, announced on Wednesday, consists of two models: the Rayz and Rayz Plus. The models are similar when it comes to most features, but only the Rayz Plus offer the built-in Lightning port that enables charging while listening. Even so, both models do make use of the Lightning connector on iOS devices.

More: How to use the old headphones you love with the new iPhone 7

Both the Rayz and Rayz Plus make use of Avnera’s LightX platform, which the company says allows them to use the least possible power from iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices. The company doesn’t go so far as to say if this means more or less power draw than Apple’s own Lightning EarPods, but the LightX platform does enable features that Pioneer says isn’t possible with a standard 3.5mm jack.

Each mode features six embedded microphones for a feature Pioneer calls Smart Noise Cancellation, which is supposed to scan your ear and optimize the cancellation for your ears and environment. These microphones can also detect when you’re wearing the earphones and when you’re not, allowing for smart pausing of playback when you take them off and resuming playback when you put them back on. This also causes the headphones to enter a low- power mode, saving you precious battery life.

A companion app, called Rayz by Pioneer, is available in the App Store and allows you to adjust the EQ as well as program the “smart button,” a feature available on both models. This button allows you to quickly and easy open apps without having to reach into your pocket for your phone.

More: Pioneer’s latest 2-channel receiver features hi-res audio, Chromecast

The Pioneer Rayz will be available in Onyx and Ice for $100, while the Rayz Plus come in graphite and bronze metallic finishes for $150. Neither model is available now, but Pioneer says that the earphones will be sold via OneCall. For more information on the new Rayz line, see the company’s website.

Clever new water bottle tricks your brain into thinking regular H2O is flavored

Why it matters to you

Water is an incredibly healthy drink, but it sure can get boring! The creator of this flavor-changing water bottle Kickstarter wants to help.

Do you get bored of drinking plain old water when you’re out jogging, but don’t want to switch it for another drink that’s full of added junk and preservatives? Then 20-year-old pre-med student Saef Munir may have the perfect solution in the form of his innovative “Flavour Bottle.”

Currently raising funds on Kickstarter, the Flavour Bottle is a regular water bottle with a scented silicone spout. Since smell accounts for up to 80 percent of our sensation of taste, the idea is that the proximity of the scent essentially tricks your brain into thinking that what you’re drinking carries a flavor when in fact it’s purely water.

More: Everything can taste sweet with the Taste Buddy gadget

Flavors available for pre-order include strawberry, watermelon, orange, grape, and cola (which can be augmented by using carbonated water), so interested parties should be able to find one they like to quench their thirst.

“I am a future medical school student who had the idea when I was in my college anatomy class and learned about the connection between taste and smell,” Munir told Digital Trends. “I’ve worked on this product for the past three years, starting with a scented water bottle cap, scented ring, and eventually to a prototype scented straw and then scented spout. The straw worked the best because drinking through it allowed a person to breathe in while drinking, while the ring and cap did not work as well because a person had to consciously smell and drink at the same time. That is how we came to create the scented spout.”

Each scent reportedly lasts up to twelve months, depending on usage. You don’t have to throw the whole thing away once the taste has worn off, though, but can instead buy additional lids to replace the old one. Munir said that the lids are safe, with the spout made of a material similar to the edible waxes that are incorporated into paper coffee cups to keep them from leaking. The flavorings have also been approved by the FDA.

“We think it’s great for people who are trying to get in their water goals, but can’t because of their addiction to sugary drinks,” Munir continued. “It’s also great for kids to build up healthy water habits, [as well as for] diabetics as they cannot enjoy sugary beverages — but with this product they are able to get a taste of that.”

Flavour Bottle prices start at $20, with a shipping (or should we say “sipping?” No, we shouldn’t!) date set for July 2017.

HP Spectre x360 15 review

Research Center:
HP Spectre x360 15-bl075nr

We concluded following CES 2017 that 2-in-1 devices — that is, touch-enabled PCs that can convert from standard notebooks to tablets, often with other modes in between — are becoming the new normal. Between Windows 10 offering a much-improved touch experience and Microsoft’s Surface line blazing a trail, manufacturers are trending toward making as many 2-in-1s as they are traditional notebooks.

That’s a good thing, because many 2-in-1s are excellent machines no matter how you use them. In fact, some 2-in-1s are so good you could use them as standard notebooks, and completely disregard their extra flexibility.

The HP Spectre x360 15 is one such machine. It offers hardware that competes well with most traditional notebooks. That means a seventh-generation Core i7 processor, 15.6-inch 4K display, Nvidia discrete graphics, large battery, and no-compromise keyboard. These are features you expect in a high-end notebook, but not necessarily in a 2-in-1 that’s meant to serve double duty as a tablet.

More: Apple’s MacBook Pro is too thin, and HP can prove it

To top it all off, the Spectre x360 15 isn’t particularly expensive, given its specifications. Our review unit had an Intel Core i7-7500U, 16GB RAM, and 512TB SSD for $1,500. While that’s expensive, it’s quite a fair price for everything that’s included. Given its lofty aspirations, then, did HP manage to make a machine that doesn’t compromise power for flexibility?

Well-built and good looking — a great combination

At first glance, the new Spectre x360 15 looks a great deal like a blown-up and repainted version of HP’s current 13.3-inch version. That’s not a bad thing – the Spectre x360 13 is itself a great looking machine that’s elegant and attractive. With its subdued “Ash Silver” color accented in copper, and an all-aluminum chassis that feels as solid as it looks, the Spectre x360 15 definitely looks like a luxury laptop.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

As a 360-degree 2-in-1, the Spectre x360 15 offers the typical four usage modes: traditional notebook, tent mode, presentation mode, and tablet. Of course, it’s a large machine despite the thinner “micro-edge” bezels on each side of the display, and it’s too heavy to use for long in tablet mode. You won’t want to carry it around as a tablet held in the crook of one arm, but it works fine if you have a surface you can rest it on. As usual, the display’s 16:9 aspect ratio feels fine in laptop use, but awkward as a tablet.

The Spectre x360 15’s build quality doesn’t disappoint. It’s solid through and through, with no sign of excessive bending or twisting. Even the display, a weak spot with many machines, requires some real pressure before you can get the screen to warp. The hinge rotates easily but maintains its position once in place. You can make it move if you jolt the base sharply, but in typical use it stays firmly in place.

In with the new (ports) without throwing away the old

USB Type-C connections are becoming de rigueur lately, with manufacturers of particularly slim machines including them as the only connectivity option. HP hasn’t followed the industry down that rabbit hole with the Spectre x360 15, choosing instead to include a USB 3.1 port and a full-sized HDMI connection to go along with two USB Type-C ports. One of the latter includes Thunderbolt 3 support, and both can be used to charge the machine with the included 90-watt AC charger.

Wireless connectivity is provided by an Intel AC8265 Wi-Fi adapter with 2X2 MU-MIMO support, along with Bluetooth 4.2. The standard combo headphone and microphone adapter is on hand, along with an SD card slot — a nod to creative professionals who often rely on SD cards to transfer images and video.

Excellent keyboard, touchpad, and active pen make for a plethora of input options

HP has packed just about every meaningful input technology into the Spectre x360 15, including an active pen and Windows Hello support. It all works extremely well, making the machine as robust in the input department as anything else on the market.

To begin with, the keyboard has excellent feel, with sufficient travel and a nice crisp action. Keys require enough force to depress that they don’t feel the slightest bit mushy, and the bottoming action is soft and springy such that that even extended typing sessions shouldn’t cause fatigue. Thankfully, the keyboard is also quiet, with only the spacebar on our review unit exhibiting any noise that might interrupt someone close by.

The Spectre x360 15 is a better notebook than 2-in-1, and that’s a good thing.

In short, HP accomplished its objective of providing a superior typing experience with the Spectre x360 15. We think it’s one of the better keyboards you’ll find on a notebook today — particularly with Apple abandoning the tried and true MacBook Pro keyboard for the second-generation MacBook-style version in its new MacBook Pro 15 with Touch Bar.

Of course, the keyboard is backlit, which is mandatory today with all but the lowest-end machines. The keys are uniformly lit, with minimal light leak. Oddly enough, there are only two settings, on and off, and so some users might find the lighting a bit bright for dark rooms. A lower brightness option would’ve been welcome.

HP calls the Synaptics glass-covered touchpad an “Imagepad,” and it’s rather large, with the same wide aspect ratio as the display. If you’re accustomed to square touchpads, then it might take some getting used to. The touchpad sits underneath your palm as you type, which can feel a bit strange. It has very good palm rejection software, however, so we didn’t experience any inadvertent cursor movement while typing.

More: CES 2017 proves 2-in-1s are becoming the new normal

Overall, the touchpad works well, with good responsiveness and gesture performance. One disappointment is that it doesn’t support the Windows Precision Touchpad protocol, which seems to provide the best overall experience in other notebooks. The Synaptics drivers work well and gestures are generally smooth, but there’s some minor lag at times that might have been avoided had HP simply went with Microsoft’s standard.

Of course, the Spectre x360 15 is a 2-in-1, and so it sports a touchscreen display. In this case, it’s a full 10-point touchscreen with excellent responsiveness. Flip it into one of its non-traditional modes and you’ll be fully productive swiping, tapping, and typing using the on-screen keyboard.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Every new Spectre x360 15 includes an active N-Trig pressure-sensitive pen, which provides another solid input mechanism that greatly enhances the 2-in-1 experience. The pen doesn’t have quite the same feature set as Microsoft’s Surface Pen. There’s no eraser, for example, or Bluetooth connectivity that pairs the pen to the machine to expand button press functionality. Still, active hover works well, and pen input is smooth and reliable.

Finally, the Spectre x360 15 has an HP TrueVision Full HD web cam with infrared, meaning it supports Microsoft’s password-less Windows Hello login technology via facial recognition. We tested it throughout the review process and found it to be at least as reliable as the technology used on Microsoft’s own Surface machines. Just open the lid, look at the display, and you’re logged in almost instantly.

A very good, but not necessarily great, display

HP decided to forego the 1080p display option offered with the previous generation, and so this time around you’re “stuck” with a 4K (3,840 x 2,160) resolution 15.6-inch display. In addition, while the last generation used a PenTile panel, the new Spectre x360 15 uses the more standard RGB stripe technology. We won’t get into a debate over the relative advantages and disadvantages of PenTile displays on large notebook screens, but some people dislike the technology, so we thought it worth mentioning that HP made the switch.

In terms of objective measurements, the Spectre x360 15 display offers up some good, but not great, results. Brightness is decent at 315 lux, which is bright enough to work indoors but likely won’t be enough to see the screen clearly in sunlight. Contrast was, again, good but not great at 720:1 at full brightness, and colors were fairly accurate at 1.95. This color measurement is an error reading, so a lower score is better. The HP’s result is about average overall, but some competitors – like Apple’s MacBook Pro – reach a score below one, which is so low that errors become hard for the human eye to detect.

In terms of color, the display’s 74 percent of AdobeRGB and 95 percent of sRGB fell a few points below other machines of the same class, such as the Spectre x360 13 and Lenovo Yoga 910, but are still good results. The display’s gamma was a strength at 2.2, which is perfect — meaning that the display should be neither too light nor too dark compared to source content.

Each of these specifications, except for gamma, place the Spectre x360 15 display generally below the comparison machines listed here, but still much better than lower-end machines. Microsoft’s Surface Book has one of the best displays available on a Windows 10 machine, and it’s noticeably better when compared side-by-side with the Spectre x360 15.

Despite this, in actual use, the display looks excellent and is a pleasure to stare at for long sessions. Video, especially 4K video, is simply a joy to watch on the expansive screen, with good detail and accurate lighting — bright scenes aren’t blown out, and darker scenes aren’t the least bit muddied. Images also look good, with accurate colors, and using the Spectre x360 15 as a productivity machine is also pleasant. Black text looks excellent on a white background, which is important to anyone who writes or works with numbers for a living.

This is a testament to how far notebook displays have come in recent years. These scores would’ve been class-leading a couple years ago. It’s also worth noting that while the Microsoft Surface Book and MacBook Pro 15 with Touch Bar have superior screens, they’re also much more expensive when similarly equipped.

Great speakers, for a notebook

HP partners with Bang & Olufsen on its machines, with two amplified speakers bracketing the keyboard on the Spectre x360 15. The partnership paid off, with sound that gets loud enough to fill a medium-sized room without breaking down. While bass isn’t terribly robust, it’s not all that bad for notebook speakers, and midrange and high tones come across clearly. There’s also a utility that provides some ability to adjust the sound for music, movies, and voice, and it works — movie audio mates well with the display and makes for a great experience.

Notably, headphones also sound great plugged into 3.5mm jack. The machines pumps out serious volume through the headphone jack.

Class-leading processor performance

There’s only one processor option offered with the Spectre x360 15, and that’s Intel’s seventh-generation Core i7-7500U. That’s a strong processor for most general computing tasks, and it’s exceeded only by much more power-hungry quad-core processors. Toss in the included 16GB of DDR4-2133 RAM, and the Spectre x360 15 promises very competitive performance indeed.

Simply put, the Spectre x360 15 leads this pack of machines sporting the same processor. On the Geekbench 4 synthetic benchmark in single-core mode, it was significantly faster than the Spectre x360 13, and meaningfully faster than the Asus Zenbook 3 and Lenovo Yoga 910. Not surprisingly, it also beat out the Surface Book with Performance Base, with its previous-generation Intel Core i7-6600U processor. In multi-core testing, only the Lenovo was slightly faster.

On the Handbrake 4K video conversion test, the HP again provided better performance than all the other systems using the Intel Core i7-7500U. Only the Dell XPS 15 with its quad-core Core i7-6700HQ processor was faster.

In actual use, the Spectre x360 15 felt plenty fast. No matter what we threw at the machine, it responded without hesitation. Simply put, it should perform extremely well for any productivity task and for some serious content creation as well.

More: HP Spectre x360 2-in-1 (2016) review

Note that the fans do kick on when the CPU (or GPU, for that matter) is working overtime, and they’re loud. In more typical use the machine remained quiet, with the fans only periodically turning on at low levels that were quite tolerable.

Working with files is quick, too

The Spectre x360 15 review unit came equipped with a Toshiba 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD. Typically, that technology provides good performance, and HP’s iteration is no different.

The Spectre x360 15 scored 1,280Mbps on the CrystalDiskMark read test, which is a very good score that’s competitive with all the comparison systems. The Dell XPS 15 and Lenovo Yoga 910 were faster, but not by much.

On the same benchmark’s write test, however, the Spectre x360 15 was much faster than the comparison machines, scoring 934Mbps. The Asus Zenbook 3 was the next closest at 737Mbps per second, and the other systems were a little more than half as fast.

Most modern systems using the same SSD technology are similarly fast, and the Spectre x360 is no exception. Opening applications, accessing and saving files, and loading games was immediate and refreshingly quick. The exceptionally speedy write speed means that the machine will not bog down when editing video, which is a real plus for creative professionals.

You can game a little, but keep your expectations in check

HP included an Nvidia GeForce 940MX in the Spectre x360 15 primarily to help drive the 4K display and to meet the needs of its content creator target market. Indeed, the GPU should help a bit with editing video and the like, but by no means is it a gaming GPU. It’s also well behind newer machines that are starting to ship with GTX 1050/Ti GPUs.

Compared to systems with Intel HD integrated graphics, the Spectre x360 15 looks good. It scored 1,939 on the 3DMark Fire Strike test, and 6,316 on the Sky Diver test, close to twice as fast as the machines using integrated graphics. Of course, the Dell XPS 15 with its Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M GPU was about twice as fast as the Spectre x360 15, which gives a hint as to how much faster newer systems must be with GTX 1050 GPUs on board.

These scores are good enough for some light Full HD gaming with older titles, but they hint that running newer games at the machine’s full 4K resolution — or even at Full HD — would be out of the question. We don’t stop with synthetic benchmarks, however.

Keyboard, touch, active pen; it’s all here, and it all works.

We use Civilization VI, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Battlefield 1, running at 1080P and 1440P, in our reviews. We ran the Spectre x360 15 through each of them, and the only game that the machine could run at something approaching a playable framerate was Civilization VI. And even then, we only managed to squeeze 30 FPS out of the title at 1080p and medium settings.

The best Battlefield 1 result was 24 FPS at 1080p, with medium settings. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided never exceeded an average of 11 FPS. Our test just confirmed our expectations. The Spectre x360 15 has a good enough GPU for assisting with running creative applications, but it’s not nearly good enough for running modern games.

It’s grown a bit since last year’s model, but the added girth and weight is put to good use

The Spectre x360 15 isn’t a small machine by any means. HP made the conscious decision to increase the thickness of the machine over last year’s model, to ensure that battery life, keyboard quality, and connectivity options weren’t compromised. The decision was a good one.

All told, the company added just under two millimeters to the machine’s thickness, making it 17.9mm thick. The thin bezels keep its overall dimensions a reasonable 14 x 9.88 x 0.7 inches. Finally, it’s a bit heavy at 4.42 pounds, which is also up slightly from the previous generation. Thanks to the slight increase in thickness, HP was able to increase the battery capacity from 64.5 watt-hours to 79.2 watt-hours.

As it turns out, battery life is quite good for a machine with such a large 4K display. In fact, it’s competitive with several machines using the same processor but sporting smaller displays. Given our results and assuming the display is kept at our tested 100 lux brightness, the Spectre x360 15 can likely last most of a typical workday unless you’re hammering on it non-stop.

On our aggressive Peacekeeper battery test, the Spectre x360 15 lasted for four hours and 37 minutes. That’s competitive with the four hours and 54 minutes achieved by its smaller 13.3-inch Full HD sibling. In our comparison group, only the Acer Swift 7 with its low-power core i7-7Y54 processor lasted significantly longer.

Our web looping test uses live sites with idle time in between page swaps to more closely mimic how we use our machines when browsing. On this test, the Spectre x360 15 lasted for seven hours and 10 minutes, which is about two hours behind the Spectre x360 13 — which is an outlier in this group — but slightly longer than the other machines in our comparison.

HP has accomplished something special with the Spectre x360 15.

Finally, the Spectre x360 15 lasted 10 hours and 17 minutes on our video looping test, which plays an HD video clip full-screen until the battery dies out. Once again, that compares favorably to our comparison group with smaller displays. Only the Spectre x360 13, with its Full HD display, lasted significantly longer than its larger sibling.

HP has built in its Fast Charge technology, which promises to juice up the battery from empty to a 50 percent charge in 30 minutes using the included 90-watt charger. In our informal testing, the feature lived up to its billing. Speaking of the charger, it’s a rather large rounded brick that you won’t want to carry around with you wherever you go.

Warranty information

HP provides a one-year parts and labor warranty with the Spectre X360 15, which is the industry standard. You can buy extended warranties starting at $220 for a second year of coverage, or extended warranties with accidental damage protection starting at $240 for two years.

A little bloated, but nothing too terrible

The Spectre x360 15 doesn’t come with an inordinately bloated set of pre-loaded apps. There are a couple of games, including the ubiquitous Candy Crush, to go with the usual Microsoft first-party Windows 10 apps. HP includes their typical management utilities, including HP Recovery Manager for performing factory resets and reinstalling drivers and software and the HP Support Assistant app that provides a bevy of system information and diagnostic tools.

HP Spectre x360 15-bl075nr Compared To

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1

Acer Spin 7

HP Spectre x360 13-w023dx

Samsung Notebook 7 spin

Dell Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1 (2016)

Acer Switch Alpha 12

Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 (2016)

Huawei Matebook

Vaio Z Flip

LG Gram 15 Z960

Samsung Notebook 9 Pro…

Toshiba Satellite Radius 12…

Dell XPS 15

Toshiba Satellite Radius P55W

Acer Aspire R7 (late 2013)

HP also includes an app for adjusting the Bang & Olufsen audio settings, an HP Pen Control app, and HP Orbit that sets up a connection between the notebook and smartphones for transferring files, notes, and links. HP Orbit uses an Android or iOS app to easily pair devices via Wi-Fi, and works seamlessly.

Our Take

HP accomplished something special with the Spectre x360 15. It’s not an inexpensive machine, but it’s nevertheless a no-compromise option that will leave you convinced that you’ve made a great investment. In all its aspects, from performance to battery life to utility, the Spectre x360 15’s whole is more than just the sum of its parts. Admittedly, it makes for a very large 2-in-1 device, but if that bothers you, then just buy it because it’s an excellent notebook and ignore the fact the screen flips around.

Is there a better alternative?

Finding a machine in its distinct class — that is, 15.6-inch 2-in-1s — is a challenge. At least, finding ones that are as high-quality and offer the same value is difficult. The Lenovo Yoga 710 comes closest, offering a 4K display, the same Core i7-7500U processor, 16GB RAM, GTX 940MX GPU, but with only a 256GB SSD for $1250. But the battery is significantly smaller at 53 watt-hours, and there’s no active pen support, making the Spectre x360 15 the better option.

The DT Accessory Pack

Anker USB-C to 3-Port USB 3.0 hub

$30

HP Powerup backpack

$169

Cable Matters USB-C multiport adapter

$45

At the same time, the Spectre x360 also competes against higher-end notebooks like the new Dell XPS 15. While Dell’s machine has a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor option and Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 GPU, and thus offers higher performance, it’s also significantly more expensive at $2,000 with similar RAM and storage. That’s $500 more than the Spectre x360 15, so if you don’t need the XPS 15’s workstation-level performance, you can save some money with the HP and gain occasional 2-in-1 functionality.

Finally, the Spectre x360 15 also competes against Microsoft’s Surface Book, as both are large 2-in-1s with active pens. The Surface Book’s “clipboard” tablet component is much lighter and more comfortable to carry around than the Spectre x360 15 in tablet mode. Pen support is similar between the two, as is performance, and so if your tablet use doesn’t require carrying it around in one hand, then the Spectre x360 15 is an interesting alternative — and it offers a $1,300 savings over the equivalent Surface Book with Performance Base.

How long will it last?

The Spectre x360 15 uses a seventh-generation Intel Core i7 processor, includes a USB Type-C port with Thunderbolt 3, and supports Windows Hello and an active pen. Those are some of the latest and most relevant current technologies, and they should keep the machine cruising along for a good while. The 1TB SSD option means you’ll be able to store tons of apps and files, and so that component should last for some time as well. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 940MX is an older GPU, however, and so graphics performance will likely be the first aspect of the machine to become obsolete.

Should you buy it?

If you’re looking at the HP Spectre x360 15, then chances are you’re interested in a machine with a larger display. You’re also probably looking for a traditional notebook first and a 2-in-1 second — otherwise, you’d likely be looking at something smaller. If this describes you, then the Spectre x360 15 is a great choice. It’s not a workstation, nor a solid tablet, but it does deliver an excellent laptop experience at a more reasonable price than its entirely unaffordable peers.

AMD’s Ryzen desktop processor box art, details, and pricing leak before launch

Why it matters to you

This leak provides a possible look at what enthusiasts, mid-range, and entry-level customers will be required to pay for the new Ryzen desktop processors.

With roughly 15 days before AMD spills the Ryzen beans all over the desktop market, a whole heap of leaked information arrived to get customers revved up for the new CPUs. Not only did the box art briefly appear online via computer retailer Centralpoint, but the details and prices of all 17 Ryzen chips were posted as well. Let’s dive in, shall we?

The high-end Ryzen R7 family

Cores
Threads
Base
Speed
Boost
Speed
L3 Cache
TDP
Price
R7 1800X
8
16
3.6GHz
4.0GHz
16MB
95 Watts
~$499
R7 1800 Pro
8
16
—
—
16MB
95 Watts
~$449
R7 1700X
8
16
3.4GHz
3.8GHz
16MB
95 Watts
~$389
R7 1700
8
16
—
—
16MB
65 Watts
~$319
R7 1700 Pro
8
16
3.0GHz
3.7GHz
16MB
65 Watts
~$299

The mid-range Ryzen R5 family (six cores)

Cores
Threads
Base
Speed
Boost
Speed
L3 Cache
TDP
Price
R5 1600X
6
12
3.3GHz
3.7GHz
16MB
95 Watts
~$259
R5 1600 Pro
6
12
—
—
16MB
95 Watts
~$249
R5 1500
6
12
3.2GHz
3.5GHz
16MB
65 Watts
~$229
R5 1500 Pro
6
12
—
—
16MB
65 Watts
~$219

The mid-range Ryzen R5 family (four cores)

Cores
Threads
Base
Speed
Boost
Speed
L3 Cache
TDP
Price
R5 1400X
4
8
3.5GHz
3.9GHz
8MB
65 Watts
~$199
R5 1400 Pro
4
8
—
—
8MB
65 Watts
~$185
R5 1300
4
8
3.2GHz
3.5GHz
8MB
65 Watts
~$175
R5 1300 Pro
4
8
—
—
8MB
65 Watts
~$165

The entry-level Ryzen R3 family

Cores
Threads
Base
Speed
Boost
Speed
L3 Cache
TDP
Price
R3 1200X
4
4
3.4GHz
3.8GHz
8MB
65 Watts
~$149
R3 1200 Pro
4
4
—
—
8MB
65 Watts
~$139
R3 1100
4
4
3.2GHz
3.5GHz
8MB
65 Watts
~$129
R3 1100 Pro
4
4
—
—
8MB
65 Watts
~$119

For the uninitiated, the new Ryzen processors will only work on motherboards with AMD’s new AM4 socket and one of the following chipsets: X370, B350, A320, X300, and A300. Manufacturers selling compatible motherboards when Ryzen finally arrives in March include ASRock, Asus, Biostar, Gigabyte, and Micro-Star International.

Here are a few details regarding the five chipsets:

X370
B350
A320
X300
A300
Form factor:
ATX
ATX
M-ATX
M-ATX
Mini-ITX
Mini-ITX
Mini-ITX
Target Audience:
Enthusiast
Mainstream
Essential
Enthusiast SFF
Essential SFF
PCIe Gen3 Lanes:
24
24
—
—
—
PCIe Gen2 Lanes:
8
6
4
—
—
Dual PCI3 Slots:
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
USB 3.1 Gen2:
2
2
1
—
—
USB 3.1 Gen1:
6
2
2
—
—
USB 2.0:
6
6
6
—
—
SATA 3:
4
2
2
—
—
SATAe:
2
2
2
—
—
DDR4 Slots:
4
4
—
—
—
CrossFire/SLI:
3x Radeon
2x GeForce
No
No
No
No
Overclocking:
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
NVMe:
Yes
Yes
—
—
—
Price range:
~$129+
$59 to ~$99
$59+
~$129+
—

As the chart shows, we don’t know all the details regarding the supporting chipsets. We presume AMD’s use of “essential” means the chipset targets entry-level solutions, but we will likely find out more in the next several weeks.

More: AMD’s new R7 1700X desktop CPU may outperform $1,000 Intel chips in some cases

Notice that we don’t have all the info regarding the “Pro” Ryzen models either. These are expected to target the enterprise sector and hit the market sometime after the enthusiast, mainstream, and entry-level models arrive in March. The details of these chips may be revealed during AMD’s Capsaicin & Cream event slated for February 28. AMD typically reveals graphics cards for the enterprise sector during this specific show.

Unfortunately, the Ryzen processor listings discovered on Centralpoint’s online shop were removed. But that also indicates the info wasn’t bogus, thus there is a good chance everything listed in the tables above is correct. We shall find out in the first week of March (if not earlier) when AMD’s Ryzen lineup finally arrives.

You may soon be able to use Google Home or Amazon Echo to make phone calls

Hey Alexa, get me the operator!

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that both Google and Amazon are looking into ways to add phone call functionality — remember that? — to the Home and Echo, respectively.

The tech giants could launch the feature this year, the people said — but the effort is hung up over concerns about privacy, telecom regulations and emergency services. And they are aware of the inherent awkwardness of having phone conversations on a speaker.

While one would think that having phone call functionality on such a product would be equivalent to using the speaker on a phone, but both the Home and Echo are stationary products that plug into a wall, and the companies would have to figure out how to seamlessly transition a call from one room to another, or back to a phone, without interrupting the call.

Amazon would also have to contend with the fact that it doesn’t own the operating systems the Echo would connect to in order to facilitate the phone call, something that Google, with Android, can more easily overcome. Amazon is looking into call forwarding or even providing the Echo with its own virtual number to get around that limitation.

Would you use a Google Home or Echo to make phone calls? Let us know in the comments below!

Amazon Echo

• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Top Echo Tips & Tricks
• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

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