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2
Jun

Nintendo Switch online subscription service delayed until 2018


Ever since the Nintendo Switch was released, Nintendo has been advertising new Nintendo online subscription service. From the moment the day one patch was downloaded, owners were told that it will be launched fully in autumn 2017.

However, it has now emerged that the paid online service promised by the Japanese gaming giant has been delayed. It will now not launch until 2018.

That’s actually good and bad news. For starters, playing multiplayer games such as Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be free for a longer period than previously planned. Eventually a subscription will be needed to play online, but not until 2018 now.

In addition, to soften the blow, Nintendo has switched its plans for the subscription service. Previously, as well as online play, a paid subscription would also reward a player a different classic game each month, playable for just that calendar month. Now, Nintendo has promised access to a larger catalogue of titles – much like the recently released Xbox Game Pass.

We have also been told how much the service will cost, in the US at least. A subscription in the States will be priced at $3.99 a month, $7.99 for three-months, or $19.99 for a full year’s membership.

  • Nintendo Switch review: Return of the king?
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild review: Game of the year already
2
Jun

The Morning After: Friday, June 3rd 2017


Welcome to Friday. The big news you probably didn’t miss is that the US is withdrawing from the Paris Accord: an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions struck back in 2015. While that sinks in, we got more details and a price for the Nintendo Switch’s online service, and investigate the past, present and future of the more intimate side of live-streaming video.

Change.Trump announces the US will withdraw from Paris climate change agreement

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Yesterday, the President announced that the US would initiate a four-year withdrawal process from the Paris Accord. Reached under the Obama Administration in 2015, it tied 143 countries in an agreement to reduce greenhouse gases and slow global temperature increase. He called it a bad deal and indicated that it could be renegotiated — a statement refuted by leaders of Italy, France and Germany.

In response, Elon Musk and Disney CEO Bob Iger resigned from presidential advisory councils, while Satya Nadella, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and others issued statements in support of the agreement’s principles. In local governments, 61 mayors made a pledge to uphold the agreement, while governors of California, New York and Washington formed the United States Climate Alliance to take “aggressive action” on climate change.

The first modular computing platform that might succeed.
Intel’s Compute Card could transform the world of smart devices

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It doesn’t take too long for your typical “smart” gadget to get dumb. After a few years, the hardware inside your TV or connected refrigerator will be hopelessly out of date. Typically, if you want to upgrade its smarts, your only choice right now is to buy a whole new device. Intel is hoping to change that with the Compute Card, a credit card-size device that packs in all of the hardware needed to make any device smart. Devindra Hardawar takes a look at some of the first experimental uses.

The new Play line of smartphones reflects a changing set of priorities.
Motorola’s Z2 Play sacrifices battery life for sleekness

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Motorola formally announced the Moto Z2 Play today, a $499 refresh of a phone that was almost shockingly good the first time around. Our full review is still in the works (thanks, Computex) but so far it’s been a remarkably capable performer. For better or worse, though, it has the potential to shake up the Z line as we know it. Things have changed.

Weird but cheap
Nintendo Switch online features will cost $20 a year, starting in 2018

Nintendo revealed a bit more information about how Switch multiplayer will work, including its price: $20. That’s cheaper than competing offerings from PlayStation and Xbox, and will include access to multiplayer gaming, a lobby and voice chat app, plus access to a rotating “classic game selection” modded for online multiplayer. Games will include the likes of Super Mario Bros. 3, Balloon Fight and Dr. Mario.

Snap’s camera-equipped Spectacles arrive in Europe
The first Spectacle-dispensing machine in Europe is at the London Eye.

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The camera company that isn’t quite a camera company is exporting its Specs to Europe, and London is first. The wearables do, however, maintain all the design flourishes and colors of something made by Fisher-Price.

To succeed, the company needs to appeal to more than pure gadget lovers.
The success of Andy Rubin’s Essential Phone may depend on carriers

When Android co-founder Andy Rubin left Google, we knew back then was that he reportedly wanted to strike out on his own, and that ultimately meant building a high-end phone: the Essential Phone. It looks gorgeous, has high-end components and all the hallmarks of a flagship smartphone. Except for one part: that all-important carrier support.

“Have you ever thought about how intimate your relationship is with your computer?”
The semi-nude lives of webcam stars

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In this week’s Computer Love, we talk to Harli Lotts. She’s part of a booming at-home workforce made up of young women — and a few men — who are upending the adult entertainment industry and social media at the same time. Like Instagram influencers or YouTube makers, today’s webcam models need little more than a strong WiFi connection and an internet-connected camera to make a living. Services like My Free Cams, Flirt4Free, or Chaturbate are platforms like Facebook or Snapchat, just a whole lot more adult in nature. With the right tools and an ID that says they’re 18 or older, these 21st-century push-button celebrities don’t even have to leave their bedrooms to make a living, and they all have one woman to thank. Jennifer Ringley was just the start.

To the death of the scanner.Adobe Scan turns documents into editable PDFs

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Adobe has launched a new way to turn your physical documents into PDFs with editable text, and it’s completely free. The company has released a new mobile app simply called “Scan” for both iOS and Android, and to create a digital copy of a document you merely have to point your phone’s camera at it. It effortlessly makes editable copies in the process.

But wait, there’s more…

  • Netflix cancels ‘Sense8’ after two seasons
  • AT&T’s $70 wireless bundle pairs unlimited data with 60 TV channels
  • Apple’s kid-friendly coding app can now bring toys to life
  • Plex Live TV and DVR launches for subscribers
  • Samsung Galaxy Book review: You’re better off with a Surface Pro
  • US is now asking for visa applicants’ social media handles
2
Jun

Intel starts MLB ‘Game of the Week’ VR live streams


We’d heard that Major League Baseball had virtual reality streaming aspirations, and a partnership with Intel is making them a reality. The two have reached a three-year deal for the Intel True VR Game of the Week, a Tuesday broadcast (blacked out in local markets) that will live stream via Intel’s True VR app. Currently only available via the Oculus store for Samsung Gear VR headsets, it will give fans a look at the game via a fully produced VR broadcast, or the ability to hop around through different viewing locations — captured by 4K resolution cameras — with optional stat overlays.

Broadcasts start next Tuesday, and the first four games are already scheduled:

  • Cleveland Indians vs. Colorado Rockies on June 6 at 8:40 PM ET / 5:40 PM PT
  • Kansas City Royals vs. San Francisco Giants on June 13 at 10:15 PM ET / 7:15 PM PT
  • Detroit Tigers vs. Seattle Mariners on June 20 at 10:10 PM ET / 7:10 PM PT
  • St. Louis Cardinals vs. Arizona Diamondbacks on June 27 at 9:40 PM ET / 6:40 PM PT

Source: Intel

2
Jun

Inside the Barbican’s sci-fi movie wonderland


The best science fiction movies use costumes, models and physical props to sell their vision of the future. Alien, for instance, would be nothing without the compression suits worn by its ill-fated crew outside the Nostromo. From June 3rd, the Barbican Centre in London will be celebrating these movies and the staggering work that went into them through a new exhibition called ‘Into the Unknown.’ Walk down its dark, curving corridor and you’ll find original spacesuits from Alien, Moon, Sunshine and Star Trek, as well as original Darth Vader and Stormtrooper helmets from Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.

Delve deeper and you’ll see the black, monolithic TARS robot from Interstellar, the humanoid Sonny from I, Robot and the smiling Twiki from the 1970s TV show Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. They’re flanked by manuscripts, concept art and other intriguing props — one cabinet hides a metal chair designed by H. R. Giger for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unreleased film adaption of Dune. But the exhibition is about more than film set leftovers. There are books, adverts and contemporary art too. VFX companies Territory Studio and Double Negative have also set up small installations dedicated to their work on The Martian and Ex Machina.

Ahead of the exhibition’s launch, Engadget was invited to walk around with camera in hand. The gallery below is a selection of our favorite displays.

2
Jun

Google Confirms Ad-Blocking Feature Coming to Chrome in Early 2018


Google will introduce an ad-blocking feature in both its mobile and desktop Chrome web browsers early next year, according to the company. Thursday’s announcement confirms rumors back in April that the tech giant was seriously considering the feature for Chrome, and provided more details on Google’s motives behind the move.

In a blog post, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior VP of Ads and Commerce, said Google wanted to “build a better web for everyone” by eradicating intrusive ads online without removing all ads entirely, since so many sites rely on ads as their source of revenue.

The vast majority of online content creators fund their work with advertising. That means they want the ads that run on their sites to be compelling, useful and engaging–ones that people actually want to see and interact with. But the reality is, it’s far too common that people encounter annoying, intrusive ads on the web–like the kind that blare music unexpectedly, or force you to wait 10 seconds before you can see the content on the page. These frustrating experiences can lead some people to block all ads–taking a big toll on the content creators, journalists, web developers and videographers who depend on ads to fund their content creation.

Google said efforts to find a solution to the problem involved several steps, one of which is the ad blocking software, or “ad filter”. Chrome’s ad filter won’t block all ads, but only those that are classified as intrusive or annoying. To help with its classifications, Google said it had joined the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group dedicated to improving online ads, and would be using the coalition’s guidance to determine which ones should be blocked.

According to the coalition’s Better Ads Standards, ad formats like pop-ups, auto-playing ads with audio, and ads with countdown timers fall under “a threshold of consumer acceptability”, so these will be blocked by Chrome. Even ads “owned or served by Google” will be blocked on pages that don’t meet Chrome’s guidelines, said the company.

Google also said it planned to support the guidance by helping publishers understand how the standards apply to their own websites. To that end, it has published an Ad Experience Report, which provides examples of annoying ad experiences, and a best practices guide offering ways to fix the issues.

In addition, Google will introduce an option for website visitors to pay sites that they are blocking ads on, called Funding Choices. Google has already been testing a similar feature for some time, but it hopes the updated model will be supported by more publishers when it goes live.

Tags: Google, Chrome
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2
Jun

The Eve V came from nowhere to challenge the Surface Pro


The Eve V convertible has become something of a media darling lately, mostly because it claims to be the first PC to be developed by consumers, not massive corporations. The idea of the populist PC was intriguing enough that Microsoft and Intel both worked with Eve to make the V happen, but c’mon — we’ve seen countless, less ambitious projects fail after building loads of hype. (Especially on Indiegogo, where Eve raised over $1.4 million last year.) After spending a little time with the V at Computex though, the hype is starting to seem warranted.

The specs have been well-defined for a while now — the Eve V will be available with Intel Core Y-series i3, i5 or i7 chipsets along with either 8 or 16GB of RAM. While you’ll have to choose between 128, 256 and 512GB storage options, all versions of the Eve V pack a full complement of ports: two full-size USB 3.0 ports, two USB-C ports (one of which supports Thunderbolt 3) and a slot for microSD cards.

Meanwhile, the centerpiece is a 12.3-inch, 3:2 IGZO display running at 2736 x 1824. At 400 nits, it was plenty bright for the dim atmosphere in the Computex show hall, though it struggled when we took it for a spin under the bright Taipei sun.

All that’s fine, but this is the first time we’ve see the Eve V in person. How well did all of these components come together? Well, considering this is the Eve’s first original hardware project, I’d say that answer is “pretty damned well.” The models we played with here at Computex weren’t final yet, but even then, there was little to complain about. The V’s aluminum unibody felt sturdy and well constructed; the fit and finish were mostly spot-on. Look closely enough at the machine and you’ll find your share of whimsy, too. The backspace key just says “oops”, and the area under the (quite nice) kickstand is subtly decorated with Eve logos.

It’s a handsome machine even beyond those little touches. The Eve V is a bit thicker than the Surface Pro 4, but not to the point of ever feeling bulky. In fact, its gently angled body serves as a handsome counterpoint to Microsoft’s flat Surface slab. CEO Konstantinos Karatsevidis told Engadget this slightly thicker body was one of the bigger decisions made by its community of crowdfunders. Turns out, they’d rather have a bigger body with better battery life than a slimmer machine that was forced to make compromises. Karatsevidis shied away from making firm battery claims, but he himself gets out 8 hours of fairly intense work out of the Eve V before needing a recharge.

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Chris Velazco/Engadget

Even the keyboard manages to impress. Besides having multicolored backlit keys (another point the community insisted on), the Alcantara-coated keyboard also works when it’s disconnected from the Eve V body. It’s a neat touch, but I’m more impressed by the level of key travel and the responsiveness of the trackpad. If a device can’t nail the basics, no amount of gimmicks can save it — thankfully, that’s not the case here.

Karatsevidis admits the company almost got it wrong a few times. Among the most notable near-misses for the CEO was ditching pen support altogether, a move the community strongly opposed. While the Eve V comes with a relatively basic stylus called the V Pen, the convertible also works fine with Microsoft’s own Surface Pen. Design by committee gets a bad rap, but in this case, Eve had a legion of passionate fans who have a handle on what makes a compelling computer.

In short, it’s an impressive machine, especially when you consider its unorthodox origins. The Eve V will start at $799, and is poised to offer more bang for the buck than the Surface Pro. So, what’s the catch?

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Chris Velazco/Engadget

Karatsevidis readily points to a few — you’ll only be able to get an Eve (or one of its possible sequels) online, in a bid to keep costs down. People interested in taking the plunge who haven’t already locked down a unit are in a for a wait, too, and I want to see how well the small team grows to handle customer service.

Lingering questions also remain regarding the company’s ability to spin up production and produce these things for the masses. After all, Karatsevidis’s only experience delivering products was when the Eve released the T1, a white-label Windows tablet. Don’t get me wrong: that takes work, but it’s nowhere near as hard as building a product from scratch.

So yeah, there are many reasons to be skeptical. Still, I’m cautiously optimistic. Out of nowhere, a startup built a serious PC contender, and they’ve cleared the first hurdle — building a device that feels worth using. Now it’s time for the hard part: making these machines for everyone who wants one and keeping quality high along the way.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from Computex 2017!

2
Jun

Snapchat Spectacles Now Available to Purchase Across Europe


Snap made its Spectacles available across Europe today, almost seven months after the company debuted them in the U.S.

For anyone unfamiliar with Snapchat’s first hardware product, the Spectacles are a one-size-fits-all pair of sunglasses that can record 10 seconds of video at a time and sync wirelessly with the mobile Snapchat app.

More than 55 million people use Snapchat daily in Europe for at least 30 minutes a day, according to Snap. It’s unclear what sales number the company is targeting on the continent, given that the launch of the Spectacles in the U.S. didn’t raise significant revenue, but today’s rollout comes as part of a planned substantial investment in the product’s marketing and distribution.

The camera-equipped sunglasses cost £130/150 euros and can be purchased from the product website or through “Snapbot” vending machines, which will appear on Friday in London, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, and Venice. The vending machines dispense the Spectacles in either Black, Coral or Teal, and allow customers to try them on virtually using a built-in augmented reality display. A case and charging cable are included.

Tags: wearables, Snapchat, Snap
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2
Jun

The extraordinary ‘Stratolaunch’ is the largest airplane you’ve ever seen


Why it matters to you

The team behind this huge airplane claims it to be a “consistent, flexible, and viable alternative to traditional ground-launched rockets” for getting satellites into space.

If you’ve ever seen an Airbus 380 up close, you’ll likely have dropped a comment along the lines of: “That plane is $#+$%# massive.”

But for the recently unveiled Stratolaunch aircraft, you’re going to have to search for even more colorful language, for this particular plane, with its wingspan of 385 feet and 28 wheels, is supposed to be the largest in the world.

The gargantuan aircraft, which thanks to its twin-fuselage makes it look rather like two planes welded together, was hauled out of a Mojave Air and Space Port hangar in California this week to begin preparations for a series of ground-based tests.

Designed by Vulcan Aerospace — a company launched in 2015 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen — the Stratolaunch is 250 feet long and stands 50 feet high. It can carry a payload weighing up to 550,000 pounds, and uses six engines typically used by a Boeing 747 to power it along.

It’s not a passenger plane, nor a ridiculously ostentatious private jet for Mr. Allen, but instead an aircraft designed especially for releasing rockets that’ll carry satellites into space.

The Stratolaunch, rather like the rocket systems designed by SpaceX and Blue Origin, focuses on reusability as a cost-effective way of launching space missions. Allen’s design, however, clearly differs in that it takes an “airport-style approach.” The plane is designed to carry a rocket on the underside of its central wing, releasing it when it reaches around 35,000 feet. Such a system would therefore incur cheaper fuel costs than a rocket launched from the ground. Also, with its 2,000-mile range giving it greater flexibility over where it can take off and land compared to fixed-location rocket launches, the system “significantly reduces the risk of costly delays or cancellations,” the team says on its website.

With the likes of SpaceX and Blue Origin in mind, Allen says that the Stratolaunch will offer its customers “a consistent, flexible, and viable alternative to traditional ground-launched rockets.”

Cheaper access to low-Earth orbit, Allen explains in a blog post, would allow the launch of more satellites for scientific research and monitoring, though it’s not clear how the Stratolaunch’s running costs will compare to rival systems.

If tests over the coming weeks and months go according to plan, the enormous Stratolaunch could take to the skies as early as 2019. And that’s something we can’t wait to see.




2
Jun

Tekken 7 review: The king of fighters


Fighting games more than any other often get stick for not innovating, for not changing up the core gameplay they’re built on. Tekken 7 manages to balance a decades-old fighting system with some fancy new mechanics that charge the game up with enough violent energy to make it a worthwhile release in a console generation that’s already brimming with fighters.

Tekken 7 does an exemplary job of bringing the 3D fighter kicking and screaming into 2017. Considering the game has been alive in Japanese arcades now for over two years now, the core balance of the title feels perfect on console release. Every kick, every punch, every headbutt and every grapple feels perfectly weighted and satisfying to pull off.

For casual fans that remember Tekken 3 back on the original PlayStation and want some light beat-’em-up action, this game won’t let you down. The massive character roster is accessible enough for casual players to understand but deep enough for more serious fighters to get their teeth into, too, and in balancing those two sides of the game, Tekken 7 has done what the likes of Street Fighter V failed to do: appeal to an audience that might not typically be interested in fighting games.

Tekken 7 Review: The Best 3D Fighter Of 2017?

This appeal is helped by the game’s story mode: a single-player affair that most fighting games seem to be adopting these days (see: Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter V and Injustice), which takes you on a tour of the impressive roster of characters whilst playing cutscenes that serve to explain Tekken’s absolutely insane storyline. Which is all about patricide, murder and international zaibatsu vying for control of global power. It’s a well-presented action film that errs on the edge of the ludicrous but totally owns it, and the way fights seamlessly run out of cutscenes is inspired.

Bandai Namco

Single-player fighting fans might find the content offering a little short, especially if you enjoyed what Injustice 2 had to offer. Standard character endings in Tekken (traditionally unlocked via finishing the Arcade ladder) are gone, mixed instead into the main story mode.

There is an endless Treasure mode that apes previous Tekken games’ infinite ladders, and this is good fun if you want to fight ghosts from the game’s proper arcade iteration, but other than that and the story mode, there isn’t an awful lot to do if you’re a lone wolf.

Fun ol’ Tekken modes like Ball or Force or Bowl have gone; the focus is instead on the fighting and to be honest, that’s not really a bad thing.

Bandai Namco

On the PlayStation 4, there is a VR mode, too, but it’s totally forgettable – you’ll use it once and never boot it up again.

Tekken 7 Review: Street Fighter Goes 3D

Street Fighter’s mascot villain Akuma makes an appearance in Tekken 7 as both a playable character and a huge part of the story. You’d think thanks to his penchant for projectiles and reliance on moves that can absorb the impact of other fighters’ attacks, he’d be a bit overpowered but Akuma actually fits into the world of Tekken wonderfully. His presence in the story doesn’t feel as crowbarred-in as you’d expect, either, and Bandai Namco, the game’s publisher, does an impressive job of making him feel like a powerful, threatening force.

Bandai Namco

Playing Akuma and spamming fireballs at your opponents makes you realise how well balanced the game is, overall. Once you get hit by Akuma’s ranged attacks a few times, you’ll learn how to get in close (sidestep, dash) and then you can start to mitigate damage and play your counter. The same is true of just about any other character – like Tekken games past, every seemingly overpowered combo or setup has a very distinct counter, and you need to mix up your tactics if you want to come out on top.

There’s a playstyle for everyone, too: from the rushdown flailing of Lili, to the grappling of King or Shaheen, to the cautious zoning of Dragunov – every type of player will find their niche.

Bandai Namco

Tekken’s trademark juggle mechanic makes its return, too. Where 2D fighters rely on frame-perfect inputs for certain attacks, Tekken relies instead on bounds and bounces and keeping the player aerial, disabled and unable to punish you for missed attacks. Bandai Namco makes this advanced technique accessible enough for new players by loading new characters like Katarina and Claudio up with really simple combos that give you a taste for the advanced facet of Tekken 7 and tempt you to really get your teeth stuck in.

There’s also a new revenge mechanic in play in Tekken 7: once you get reduced to the final third of your health, you can trigger either a Rage Drive or a Rage art. The former buffs all your existing moves and makes them do more damage, the latter is basically a Super Move (it can even be mapped to a single button on your pad to make it easy to pull off).

Bandai Namco

This means you can never take your place in the fight for granted, and that there’s always a risk of throwing a game away… even if you’ve been dominating the entire match. It gives every fight a unique ebb and flow and really keeps the adrenaline up for the duration of what can sometimes be quite cautious games of footsie.

Verdict

Tekken 7 recaptures all the fun of the PlayStation era of fighting games without getting bogged down in useless mechanics and slapping contrived, over-the-top meters and bars all over the place. It’s a high-damaging, high-impact fighting game that offers great replayability, an enjoyable learning curve a ludicrous story mode that catches up on the history of the Tekken universe and unveils new revelations, too.

Tekken 7 is among the best 3D fighters on the market right now. It offers a varied cast of fighters with a wide range of styles to master, it works on a cosmetic and technical level, and whilst it may not offer as much of a single-player experience as Injustice 2, it at least offers one of the most complete, satisfying fighting products out there at the moment. Pick it up for the memories, then stick with it for the mechanics.

2
Jun

MSI GS36VR Stealth Pro preview: Taking gaming laptops to the Max-Q


The announcement of Nvidia’s Max-Q during Computex 2017 in Taiwan has seen some interesting slimline gaming machines launched this week. Pocket-lint had some time with the MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro on the show floor and it’s a fantastic piece of work.

The GS in the name stands for Gaming Slim and through using Nvidia’s Max-Q design ideals – also announced at Computex – MSI has slimmed down the Stealth to a mere 17.7mm chassis.

The Stealth refers to the discrete design – there are no oversized vents here. To the untrained eye this could pass as a regular laptop, making it perfect for gamers who want to take their gaming on the go and maintain a professional look. This is a nod to MSI’s recognition of gamers fitting more than the tired old stereotypical profile.

Pocket-lint

It’s full of beautiful design points but before we get to those let’s run through the specs. It runs Nvidia’s GeForce 1070 8GB GGDR5 (although marketing staff hinted a 1080 version may well be in the offing) and up to an Intel Core i7 7th gen processor.

  • Computex 2017: All the announcements that matter
  • Best of Computex 2017: The top 5 tech products on show

There’s a 2.5-inch HDD slot and an NVMe M.2 SSD PCIe Gen 3 x 4 SATA SSD Combo – which can offer up to 2,200MB/s data transfer. Plus up to 32 GB (2 x 16GB) of DDR4 memory can be spec’ed.

You have a choice to make on the 15.6-inch display front with both Full HD and Ultra HD IPS options available. You can also use the Thunderbolt 3 to achieve a 40GBps rate on a 4K external display. Each screen is individually tested to ensure it meets the True Color standard to boot.

And it features the Killer Network card to reduce lag and assist with bandwidth control.

Pocket-lint

Now with all this going on in such a slim form factor, overheating would normally be a matter for concern but MSI’s Cooler Boost Trinity kicks in to take care of this. Essentially, you’re talking copper tubes with copper bumps inlaid to increase the surface area so that heat transfers more quickly. Three fans with 41 individual blades add to the cooling power.

The Max-Q architecture assists with thermal management too, although a lot of the credit should go to MSI for coming up with this design.

Hardcore gamers will be pleased that there’s a Turbo mode for overclocking that should help the GTX 1070 Max-Q get closer to achieving the performance levels of the original GTX 1070.

There is a napped, almost suede-like fabric on the base of the alloy chassis to make sure that heat isn’t a problem if it’s literally being used on a lap. Through the base vents you can see the red accenting on the fans too. It’s such attention to detail that helps to make this feel like exactly what it is: an exceptionally well-crafted machine with great attention to design details.

Pocket-lint

Neither has MSI skimped on the keyboard, having teamed with SteelSeries for its brand new RGB backlit number. Or for that matter on the audio. There’s a built-in digital audio convertor from Nahimic Audio to provide well-rounded low and high ends.

The Stealth is a great looking, discrete, slim gaming machine that shows a lot of promise. We’re really looking forward to getting hold of it to put it through its paces in the near future.