CPU guru David Kanter talks about AMD’s new Zen and Ryzen processor technology

Why it matters to you

If you’ve been looking for a breakdown of AMD’s new Zen architecture and Ryzen CPUs, you’re in luck.

AMD is releasing its Zen processor architecture soon with the release of the Ryzen line of CPUs. The new line will compete with Intel’s Core processors, in particularly the seventh generation of the Core line, called Kaby Lake.

There are plenty of opinions and a fair amount of controversy brewing over exactly how Ryzen will compare with Kaby Lake, particularly on the high-end and especially among gamers. No matter who you talk to, you will be sure to get an earful from anyone who is involved in assessing the relative performance of today’s CPUs. One of the most reputable opinions about where things stand comes from processor guru David Kanter.

More: AMD isn’t afraid of Intel anymore, and its $490 Ryzen CPU proves it

Kanter wrote a fairly in-depth overview of the Zen architecture and the Ryzen chips in a new microprocessor report post at The Lindley Group’s website. In the report, Kanter engages in a discussion of where AMD’s new architecture compares to Intel’s latest. The report compared Zen and Ryzen to Intel’s sixth-generation Skylake processors but the general discussion of AMD’s newest remains relevant.

Compared to many people talking about CPUs and their relative strengths and weaknesses, Kanter is a better source than most. He has more than a decade of experience in delving into CPU architecture and design and is generally considered an expert in the field. His opinion is worth a little more than most of the opinions you will come across on the internet.

The question of whether Intel or AMD is faster or better or more cost-effective is a complex one and the story is still out on Zen and Ryzen. There is also the question of which kind of processor you’re talking about, desktop, server, notebook, or where in those general categories you’re looking on, the low-end or high-end.

Regardless, if you want a good understanding of AMD’s new architecture and where it has improved and where it remains behind Intel’s best — then Kanter’s report and the video above is a great place to start. You can be fairly certain that at the very least, the information is going to be accurate and reliable, unlike any number of other opinions that you might come across in your research.

Google’s Instant Apps rolling out to some and Wish is first out of the gate

Are we ready for apps that install from a search result? We need to be because they’re here.

Some folks are starting to see Google’s Instant Apps feature roll out to their phones and it seems like Wish is the first company to use them.

Back at Google I/O 2016 Google told us about Instant Apps. The idea is that you would find an app in your Google search results and be able to tap a button and start using it, much the same way you would use a web page. They are “real” apps with a component that installs on your phone and not a web-optimized or HTML5 app that lives completely in the cloud. This should be a great way for companies to expose people to what they have to offer from a native app without having to get us to leave the search and open the Play Store to download it. For us, it means we can get instant access to something like a shopping app instead of using a web page that might not be designed for a small touch-based screen. Everyone wins.

Up until now, everything about Instant Apps has been in a slow testing phase while everyone outside just watches. But we’ve heard several reports from folks saying they can install and use the Wish instant app on their phones with Android 7.0 installed. We’re seeing the same thing here, and our pals at Audroid are, too. This is what the process is like.

• Open your settings and find Google Settings.
• Find the Instant Apps setting and tap the switch to enable it.
• Read the terms and agree.

Now when you’re searching for something (in this case the Wish website) you might see a search result for an Instant App version. If you open it, you’ll be able to install a tiny part of the app and jump right in.

Shopping sites and news websites will be able to benefit from these, and other companies are thinking about how they can leverage giving a user access without taking them away from their search. The idea is pretty cool, and we’re excited to see how companies use it to lure us to them.

Anyone else out there seeing Instant Apps? Give a shout in the comments!

HMD to bring Nokia 6 and three budget Android phones to Europe

The Nokia brand will announce four handsets at Mobile World Congress in a couple weeks.

HMD Global Oy, the Finnish manufacturer marketing phones under Nokia brand, has two Android 7.0 Nougat-powered devices, the Nokia 5 and Nokia 3, coming, as well as the Nokia 6, which was already announced as a China exclusive. You can also expect a “feature phone”, the Nokia 3310. And all this is according to Venture Beat’s Evan Blass.Nokia recently teased it will hold an event on 26 February. While there’s long been rumours of a Nokia P1 flagship device, Blass only mentioned the Nokia 5, Nokia 3, Nokia 6, and Nokia 3310. The Nokia 6, which has yet to release outside of China, features a full HD, 5.5-inch display, Snapdragon 430, 4GB of RAM, and 16-megapixel rear camera.

• Mobile World Congress 2017: Nokia, Sony, Huawei, and more

The Nokia 5 and 3 will be lower spec’d. The Nokia 5, for instance, will feature a 5.2-inch 720p display, 2GB of RAM, and a 12-megapixel main shooter, totaling a €50 difference price difference. The entry-level Nokia 3 will reportedly cost €149. These are clearly budget devices – same with the Nokia 3310, which has a “nearly indestructible build”.

Venture Beat

It’s described by Blass, who has a great track record when it comes to leaking news before it’s official, as a “modern version of a classic workhorse” with plentiful battery life. It’ll cost only €59, naturally.

We’ll know more later this month, as Pocket-lint will be at MWC 2017 to see what HMD has in store for Europe.

Passenger drones will begin flying over Dubai this summer

The single-rider, human-sized quadcopter that whipped CES 2016 into a frenzy could be carrying passengers as early as this summer. As the head of Dubai’s Roads and Transportation Agency announced at the World Government summit today, the Chinese EHang 184 passenger drone will begin “regular operations” around the futuristic city in July of 2017.

In fact, as the Associated Press reports, the EHang 184 has already been zipping around Dubai’s Burj Al-Arab skyscraper, which happens to have a helipad floating a dizzying 689 feet off the ground. “This is not only a model,” Roads and Transportation chief Mattar al-Tayer said. “We have actually experimented with this vehicle flying in Dubai’s skies.”

Since al-Tayer didn’t elaborate, it’s currently unclear whether any of those flights actually carried a real person, but it sounds like the Personal Flying Vehicle’s specs have gotten some slight performance upgrades since we last saw it on the floor in Las Vegas. The AP reports the PFV now has a half-hour flight time with about 31 miles of range, but passenger capacity is still limited to one 260-pound person and single small suitcase. Since the vehicle is autonomous, the passenger only needs to punch in their destination and strap in before take-off. From there, the 184 will communicate via 4G wireless network with a control room on the ground similar to the one EHang showed Engadget late last year.

While the crown jewel of the United Arab Emirates will get to claim bragging rights as the first city to unleash flying passenger drones, officials in Nevada are also seeking the FAA’s approval on the EHang 184 — so we might see EHang back at CES with a real, flying product sooner than expected.

Source: Popular Mechanics/Associated Press

UK bookstore tweets entire ‘Harry Potter’ novel at Piers Morgan

J.K. Rowling is famously outspoken on Twitter, a lesson Piers Morgan is now learning the hard way. On a recent episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Morgan spoke in favor of President Donald Trump’s travel ban, according to The Huffington Post. That prompted this tweet from the Harry Potter author, who took pleasure in the TV personality “being told to fuck off” by Maher:

Yes, watching Piers Morgan being told to fuck off on live TV is *exactly* as satisfying as I’d always imagined. https://t.co/4FII8sYmIt

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 11, 2017

Morgan decided to clap back, tweeting that he’s not a fan of the writer’s boy wizard:

This is why I’ve never read a single word of Harry Potter. https://t.co/XUJBMs4KKm

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 11, 2017

As their back-and-forth continued, Simon Key, the co-owner of Big Green Bookshop in North London, England, decided he’d show solidarity with Rowling by tweeting the entirety of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at Morgan, line by line. On February 11th, he posted the first of a planned 32,567 tweets, and as of this afternoon, he’s tweeted the entire first chapter of the book.

.@piersmorgan Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say
that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

— Big Green Bookshop (@Biggreenbooks) February 11, 2017

.@piersmorgan Well Piers, that’s chapter one. Pretty fucking ace, innit?

— Big Green Bookshop (@Biggreenbooks) February 13, 2017

“He clearly needs a bit of a break from all the abuse, so as he mentioned that he hasn’t read any J.K. Rowling, rather than having to tear himself away from Twitter to read it, I’d tweet him,” Key told Sky News. “Obviously I’m sending it in bite-size chunks, which hopefully he’ll be able to cope with, rather than giving him the daunting process of reading a whole book.”

Morgan has seen at least one of Key’s 275 tweets, responding to the 248th with some critical feedback on Rowling’s writing:

Jeez. Not exactly Dickens or Shakespeare is it? https://t.co/m2nkTs2WdK

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 13, 2017

Source: The Huffington Post, Sky News

Uber puts mapping cars on five continents

Uber just showed how committed it is to mapping the planet. The ridesharing outfit has started rolling out map cars in Singapore, putting the vehicles on five major continents (sorry, Antarctica, you’ll have to wait). As in other cases, the cartographic cars are really driver rides with mapping tech on top to collect data based on real trips. Privacy shouldn’t be an issue, Uber says — they won’t keep imagery from the end points of your trip, and what data they do collect won’t be made public.

The company is still a long way off from having comprehensive mapping data of its own. Outside of North America, it only has mapping hardware in one country per continent. All the same, it’s an important step. As much as Uber depends on Google for its regular mapping, it has a strong incentive to collect as much of its own data as possible. At a minimum, this means maps that reflect the harder-to-pinpoint aspects of routes, such as the exact side of a building for a drop-off. And Uber isn’t shy about how much this will help its self-driving car plans — especially in Singapore, which has embraced autonomous tech relatively quickly. What Uber invests now could pay tremendous dividends when robotic ridesharing is commonplace.

Via: The Verge

Source: Uber Newsroom

Senators ask for info on Trump’s smartphone use

When he isn’t addressing matters of national security amongst diners at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Donald Trump is reportedly using an unsecured Android phone for official communications. That’s of great concern for more than a few reasons and two prominent Democrat lawmakers want the Department of Defense to address why it’s happening.

I look forward to hearing from @DeptofDefense about the protective measures being taken for President Trump’s use of a personal smartphone pic.twitter.com/47cZeSn1bw

— Senator Tom Carper (@SenatorCarper) February 13, 2017

Citing a plethora of news reports and a memo from the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (PDF), Senators Tom Carper and Claire McCaskill wrote a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis asking for four things. First, confirmation on if Trump received a “secured, encrypted” smartphone for personal use on or before inauguration, and, if not, what kind of phone the President has been using since taking office.

Next Carper and McCaskill want to know what kind of policies and protections the DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency) has in place for the personal phone’s use.

Further on that note, the senators want to know if the DISA, Secret Service an National Security Agency were consulted and coordinated with regarding the president’s use of a personal cellphone.

And given Trump and his team’s propensity for denying things the president has said and tweeted in the past (and then deleted, sometimes years later), Carper and McCaskill want to know if the DISA had any meetings with the National Archives and Records Administration to ensure that “all security measures allow for the preservation of any presidential records” created through Trump’s use of his personal phone.

Considering how much of a security nightmare using a phone with outdated firmware can be for average Janes and Joes, the fact that the president may be using a Samsung Galaxy S3 is deeply troubling. But hey, it’s not like he (or his staff) is using a private email server, so the GOP probably won’t mind. Oh, wait.

Via: The Hill

Source: Senator Tom Carper

WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM review: The portable, go-anywhere speaker with an FM tuner

When it comes to reviewing Bluetooth speakers we find that there are often a few distinguishing characteristics to set them apart from one another. There’s no such thing as the perfect device; however, there may be something that’s perfect for you.

It goes without saying, but we all have different needs. Moreover, we all have different budgets to work with, too. Sometimes we end up at the crossroads of right product and right price. Sometimes we end up with a product that ticks off the right boxes and doesn’t break the bank in the process. The latest speaker we’ve reviewed, the Hercules WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM, hopes to fit that bill.

Overview

Priced roughly $80, the WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM is a portable speaker that’s designed to go just about anywhere you would. This means pretty much any weather condition and terrain. It’s IP67-certified meaning it can handle immersion in water for up to 30 minutes and can also withstand dust, sand, and snow. Taking things a little further, it also has reinforced rubber end-pieces so it handles bumps, too.

Design

In terms of size and design, the speaker is almost the exact dimensions of a 16-ounce can of soda or energy drink. It features a triangular profile that delivers sound out of one of the sides. Underneath you’ll find a threaded screw thread (1/4-inch) for bike mounts, tripods, suction cup mounts, and more.

There are only a few visible buttons to mess with on the speaker: volume up, volume down, and power. But, just above the power button on the end is a spot labeled FM. Press here and you’ll find it does have a little tactile feedback. As you might have guessed, this is your button to toggle the FM tuner.

Staying on this end of the speaker we also find a rubber protective housing to hide the charging port (microUSB) and 3.5mm auxiliary input. Flipping the speaker on its head, the other end is void of any functionality or features.

Setup

Pairing the speaker was really easy in that you simply long press the power button. A normal power on plays a chime while the long press adds in a second one to indicate that it’s seeking a connection. There’s also a blue indicator light just above the power button that flashes when looking for a device.

The volume buttons can also double for track advance and previous track. Switched on to FM mode and they can be used to seek the next available station. These options are done via long pressing on the + and – symbols.

Although it’s not very big, the WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM delivers a nice, even sound that fills smaller and medium-sized rooms. Put this on a bike mount and face the speaker toward you and there’s way more than enough power to enjoy music on a ride. Or, use the included wrist strap to hang it from a backpack or canopy on your weekend getaway.

The FM tuner is a nice touch and not one we find in many Bluetooth speakers. The first time you turn that on, it will seek out channels on its own. Additionally, the FM tuner can be used all by itself. So, feel free to leave the phone in the house and take the WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM outside. Or, keep your handset in the bag while at the beach. The radio will work by itself and the speaker doesn’t mind the sand.

Volume and Sound

I found that I’d get the volume to about halfway up before I would get anxious. Any louder and I feared the other office tenants might complain. If I’m riding a bike, I don’t suspect I would get near that level in a public setting. Doing so would make me feel like an idiot as my music would announce my arrival far ahead of my physical one. It’s much louder than you might expect.

As you know, volume doesn’t necessarily equate to sound quality. I’d like to say that the WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM delivers a robust listening experience at all levels, but that’s simply not true. I found that, on average, I could get the volume to around 60-70 percent before it would distort. Given the size, this is better than I anticipated.

Keeping this in mind, you won’t turn to this one to provide a soundtrack to a full-on family reunion at the park. A family picnic, though? Sure! Set it on the hood of your car and it can pump out the tunes while you practice your jump shot in the driveway.

Features

• Bluetooth 3.0 A2DP wireless technology
• Total output power: 10 W peak power
• Single-unit 2.0 speaker + passive decompression driver
• Frequency response: 130 Hz – 20,000 Hz
• Built-in rechargeable 3.7 V 1500 mAh Li-ion (lithium-ion) battery
• Battery life: 10 hours
• 3.5 mm mini-jack auxiliary line input

Mobile App

Although you don’t need it, I definitely recommend installing the app. Not only does it give you better control over the radio stations, but it also lets users configure various equalizer settings. Switching from EDM to more traditional rock? Dial things up and down to get a better experience.

The app also lets you remotely power on and set the speaker to standby, create alarms, and set up sleep timers. You’ll also find at-a-glance indication of battery life so you know ahead of time if you should charge up before leaving the house.

Battery

Battery life is rated at 10 hours for normal music listening; we found that to be rather accurate, if not low. Volume levels always play a factor, of course, but can’t imagine having to charge this one up all that often. If you’re listening to the FM tuner on its own, the WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM promises up to 18 hours. Charging takes anywhere from a few minutes up to about four hours.

Conclusion

I am always reluctant to name something the best you can buy, particularly because of price. A soft rule in life tells us that if you throw more money at something, you can get more out of the end result. Speakers are entirely different topics, though — especially portable, Bluetooth device.

With that in mind, I feel very confident in recommending the WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM at its price. You can very easily spend more money and still come away with fewer features.

The sound is not as robust at high levels as I might like, but it’s not all that often that I need it that loud. I’ve already got speakers for those scenarios and I don’t need to replace them yet. But, I am always on the lookout for something portable that offers a nice range of features. This is one that can go into a backpack or carry-on without eating up precious space. The next time I pack for a long weekend or trip to the beach, the WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM is probably the first one I will grab.

Where to Buy

You learn more about the WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM at the Hercules website. From there you can also find various retailers based on your country and whether you’re looking for retail or online outlets. The US site doesn’t list a price, but the UK variant does: £69.99. Head to Amazon and you’ll see it selling for $79.99 as of today.

Snake oil, or black magic? Windows’ new game mode is a bit of both

The upcoming Creators Update for Windows 10 promises a host of new features, not least of which is the highly-anticipated “Game Mode,” which wants to push your PC to its limits and deliver unparalleled gaming performance.

According to Microsoft, Game Mode optimizes CPU resources when you enable it in the Windows Game Bar, making it a little different from standard optimization tools like the Nvidia Experience. That sounds impressive, but will it have an actual impact on gameplay?

What is Game Mode?

Microsoft claims that Game Mode works in a fundamentally different way than other optimization tools. For instance, tools like the Nvidia GeForce Experience can optimize your games by custom-tailoring your in-game graphics settings based on your system’s hardware and capabilities. It can detect your GPU, and turn individual detail settings up or down based on how well that GPU handles certain settings — like depth-of-field effects, texture filtering, and shadows.

Microsoft hopes to improve your core gameplay experience on PC by optimizing your hardware.

Windows 10’s Game Mode doesn’t touch in-game graphics settings. Instead, when a Game Mode-enabled game is launched, it kicks into high gear and starts re-allocating your PC’s CPU and GPU resources. For instance, when a full-screen game is running, your PC doesn’t really need to spend valuable clock cycles on your Twitter client, or Microsoft Word.

Game Mode attempts to juice your FPS by keeping your PC’s attention focused on whichever game is running at the time. It’s a good idea, and since Microsoft has built the feature into Windows 10 itself, it should have an easier time juggling those precious CPU and GPU resources than a third-party application might.

More: Microsoft kicks off second Windows 10 Creators Update Bug Bash

That’s a crucial point. We’ve seen a lot of so-called game optimization tools in the past, and the clear majority are snake oil.

Does it work?

That’s the real question, isn’t it? Before now, we’ve only had Microsoft’s word to go on. Game Mode remained locked deep in some lab on Microsoft’s Redmond campus, straining against the bars, eager to get its paws on your games. Luckily for us, Microsoft included a preview version of Game Mode in the most recent Windows Insider build for users on the Fast Ring.

Yep, that means you can go get it right now. But before you do, let’s see if it actually accomplishes what it claims to do. To gauge Game Mode’s capabilities, we tested it on two very different systems — the Dell Inspiron 7559, and the Asus ROG Strix GL553VD.

The Dell Inspiron 7559 is a budget gaming notebook built on last year’s hardware, while the Strix GL553VD is a mid-range gaming notebook that just hit the market. Both systems are decent performers on their own, but neither one is a top-of-the-line blazingly-fast monster of a gaming PC, and that’s important.

We want to see if Game Mode can help you get more out of an older, or maybe lower-end system. If you already have a gaming PC that eats lesser rigs for breakfast, it’s doubtful you’d even notice any improvements Game Mode might provide — a few extra frames per second matter a lot more when you’re barely managing 60 FPS, but not so much when you’re pushing 200.

Three games, two systems

To get a good handle on Game Mode, we ran our test systems through a couple simple benchmarks. First up, we used Deus Ex: Mankind Divided on high-detail settings. Next, we ran through a couple test-matches of Overwatch on high-detail settings. And finally, we raced through a few rounds of Forza Horizon 3.

In order to gauge Game Mode’s capabilities, we tested it on two very different systems.

These three games are important because of the way they interact with Windows 10. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided doesn’t actually support the Windows Game bar, and Microsoft has stated previously that games without Game Bar support might not turn on Game Mode by default, even if you set that option in your Windows Settings.

Overwatch does support the Game Bar, and it’s an online game, so a little extra CPU priority could potentially go a long way toward smoothing out overall performance. Forza Horizon 3 also supports the Game Bar, but it goes a step further. It’s a game available on the Windows Store, so it’s built on the Universal Windows Platform — which Microsoft claims will enhance its Game Mode gains.

The results are in

After wrangling with Windows Insider builds and the eccentricities they often introduce to even the most beloved and familiar PC, running through the tests was easy. Enabling Game Mode is quick, painless, and doesn’t require any digging through system menus.

Initially, Game Mode didn’t make games feel any smoother or faster, but the numbers tell a slightly different story.

As you can see above, there is some minor variations, particularly in Overwatch. On high-detail settings, the minimum framerate went up by about 20 percent. That sounds a lot bigger than it is, so it’s important to point out that the maximum frame rate didn’t budge, or went up by less than one or two percent. It’s not a huge gain, and you probably won’t even notice it, but it is present and that’s important.

Rather than pushing your highest frame rate even higher, Game Mode’s enhanced resource allocation seems to bring up the bottom end of the spectrum — it smooths out your gameplay when things are getting rough for your PC.

Useful, but not a game-changer

So why is it important if it doesn’t do all that much? Because it means Game Mode can smooth out your performance, making your games play a little better than they would without it. Microsoft might not be able to say that Game Mode will be like pumping your PC full of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, but it can claim — truthfully — that your games will run better with Game Mode enabled.

Enhanced resource allocation was never going to make your GTX 965M run like a GTX 1080. But according to our tests, this early preview version of Game Mode could help smooth out bumps in your gameplay that might occasionally disrupt the experience.

We hope it will improve before it comes out in the release version of the Creators Update, but even if it doesn’t, it offers just enough of an edge to be worth the extra few seconds it will take to enable.

Lenovo is refreshing its Flex 4 2-in-1s with more storage, 7th-gen Intel CPUs

Why it matters to you

The leak shows that Lenovo is getting ready to refresh its Flex 4 2-in-1 device with a thinner frame and more storage configurations.

After launching the Lenovo Flex 4 here in the United States last year, the company is gearing up to refresh the convertible notebook in the near future. Lenovo briefly displayed the unannounced product on its website over the weekend, listing it as the Lenovo Yoga 520 given that the older model is sold as the Yoga 510 outside the United States.

The upcoming convertible will be based on seventh-generation “Kaby Lake” Intel processors up to a Core i7 model. It will also sport an optional fingerprint reader, a flexible 360-degree hinge, a battery promising up to 10 hours of use on a single charge, and support for the Lenovo Active Pen. The 2-in-1 device will be sold in 14-inch and 15.6-inch form factors.

Here are the specs for the leaked 14-inch model:

Operating system:
Windows 10 Home
Screen size:
14 inches
Screen resolution:
1,920 x 1,080
Screen type:
IPS
Processor:
Up to seventh-generation Intel Core i7
Graphics:
Integrated
Memory:
Up to 16GB DDR4
Storage:
Up to 512GB PCI Express SSD
Up to 1TB SATA HDD
Up to 128GB PCI Express SSD / 1TB SATA HDD combo
Connectivity:
Wireless AC
Bluetooth
Camera:
720p with dual-array microphones
Audio:
Dolby Home Theater
Harman Audio
Battery:
Up to 10 hours
Ports:
2x USB 3.0 (one charges)
1x USB Type-C
1x SD card reader
1x HDMI
1x Gigabit Ethernet
1x headphone/microphone combo jack
Size:
12.9 x 9.0 x 0.8 inches
Weight:
3.9 pounds
Colors:
Onyx Black
Mineral Grey
Metallic Gold

According to Lenovo, the refreshed 2-in-1 device sports smaller bezels on each side of the screen, reduced from 12.3mm to 7.6mm for a better viewing experience. The refresh is slightly smaller, too, despite keeping the same screen size, down from the older model’s dimensions of 13.24 x 9.13 x 0.82 inches.

On the processor front, Lenovo doesn’t list specific chips, but does indicate on the product page that it will likely ship with configurations based on the Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 processors. The older model supported processors up to a seventh-generation Core i5 chip, and up to an Intel Pentium 4405U chip. Lenovo may have done away with the AMD Radeon R5 M430 graphics option, too.

More: Lenovo Yoga 720 with GTX 1050 graphics rumored to arrive at MWC 2017

One noticeable change is the storage configurations. The older model provides storage options of up to 1TB on a hard drive or up to 256GB on an SSD. The new 14-inch model, as the specs show above, doubles the SSD capacity limit while throwing in a storage configuration pairing a 1TB hard drive with an SSD of up to 128GB in storage capacity.

Right now, pricing and availability is unknown, but Lenovo will likely reveal the new 2-in-1 during the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain, starting February 27. However, as a comparison, Lenovo sells seven different set configurations of the current 14-inch Lenovo Flex 4 ranging from $370 to $950 (web prices). We presume the new units may be sold as the Lenovo Flex 5 here in the U.S.