NVIDIA unveils 65-inch 4K ‘Big Format Gaming Displays’ with G-SYNC

We’ve seen the rumors and speculation about an Apple TV, but it turns out NVIDIA beat them to the punch. At CES today, the company unveiled its “Big Format Gaming Displays” (BFGDs), monstrous 65-inch 4K HDR screens with a ton of embedded technology. That includes NVIDIA’s own G-SYNC technology, which gets rid of screen tearing, and built in Shield functionality. No, this isn’t meant for your living room — NVIDIA envisions people using them on their PC desks.

NVIDIA is partnering with ASUS, Acer and HP to build these displays — a particularly interesting group of partners, since they don’t have experience building big-screen displays. As far as other screen technology goes, they feature 120Hz refresh rates, full-array backlighting, a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, and full DCI-P3 color gamut support. And of course, since they’re targeted at gamers, NVIDIA says they also feature low latency. With their built-in SHIELD support, they’ll do everything NVIDIA’s set-top box can, and they’ll also come with the company’s remote and gaming controller.

While this might seem like an April Fool’s joke, the BFGDs do off some benefits beyond normal TVs. For one, they don’t support technologies like G-SYNC, which smooth out game performance. And TV manufacturers typically cater more to home theater enthusiasts than gamers. While there’s certainly an audience for giant PC monitors, I have practical concerns: Most desks simply can’t fit these things.

Naturally, there aren’t any pricing details yet. NVIDIA is showing off BFGDs at CES, and we plan to get a look at them soon. The company says we can expect the displays in the summer, along with more information about specs and pricing.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

AMD’s Radeon Vega GPU is headed everywhere, even to machine learning

For 2018, AMD is building on its major innovations from last year: its new Ryzen CPU architecture and Radeon Vega graphics. Indeed, Vega is so versatile even its main competitor, Intel, has tapped it for its upcoming high-performance laptop chips. At CES, AMD revealed the Radeon Vega Mobile GPU, a dedicated graphics offering that’ll go toe-to-toe with NVIDIA’s GTX 10-series. Additionally, it’ll be bringing Vega graphics into upcoming Ryzen desktop chips, as well as a new machine learning product.

While we don’t know much about the Radeon Vega Mobile GPU yet, it’s not exactly a surprising announcement. Gamers have been waiting eagerly to see when AMD’s new graphics hardware would make it into high-powered laptops. In October, the company revealed that Vega was coming to its new Ryzen mobile processors. It was only a matter of time until it had a more powerful dedicated offering. AMD is also positioning it as something you’d find in ultrathin notebooks, and not just chunky gaming machines.

On the desktop side, you’ll also find Radeon Vega in AMD’s new Ryzen 5 2400G ($169) and Ryzen 3 2200G ($99) APUs. What’s really intriguing about those is the amount of performance they pack into relatively inexpensive chips. AMD claims that the 2400G’s 3D Mark Timespy benchmark score matched an Intel Core i5 8400, which retails for $199, paired together with an NVIDIA’s $80 GT 1030. It’s impressive that a $169 chip could easily compete with $280 worth of hardware from competitors — at least, according to AMD.

Looking ahead, you can also expect to see Radeon Vega in the Ryzen 3 mobile chip and a slate of Ryzen Pro APUs for enterprise and commercial users. If you’re looking for a bigger architecture upgrade, AMD says it’ll unveil the second generation of Ryzen desktop chips in April, and they’ll also be the company’s first 12nm products. Beyond that, the company revealed that its Zen 2 design is completed and expected to debut in 2019. AMD also has a followup to Radeon Vega in the works, “Navi,” which will be built on a 7nm process, and hinted that there’s a “next-gen” architecture coming on 7nm+.

Before AMD gets to those futuristic designs, though, it’s starting out with the Radeon Instinct Vega, its first 7nm chip. Like the company’s other Instinct products, it’s a GPU tuned specifically for machine learning. It’ll come with support for new software stacks and libraries that’ll make it easier for developers to build machine learning applications. You’ll also be able to port your apps developed for NVIDIA’s CUDA hardware and, with only a bit of work, optimize it for Vega. One big difference between AMD’s approach to machine learning and NVIDIA’s? It’s relying on open source solutions, whereas NVIDIA tools are proprietary.

Addressing the Meltdown and Spectre CPU vulnerabilities, AMD CTO Mark Papermaster reiterated, once again, that the company takes security seriously. While he was quick to point out Meltdown only affected Intel chips, he also said that the differences with AMD’s architecture also “means there is near zero vulnerability” with the “Branch target injection” security hole. The other issue related to Spectre, “bounds check bypass,” is mostly resolved with OS and software updates. AMD claims the performance loss from those patches is “negligible” — but of course, that could easily change with specialized use cases. While AMD is relatively safe for now, a future vulnerability is still possible.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

NVIDIA and Volkswagen team up to build an AI co-pilot

Volkswagen’s been talking about its intelligent co-pilot system for upcoming vehicles since last year’s CES when it introduced Yui. So it’s no surprise that this year it announced it’s teaming up with NVIDIA to bring that plan to fruition. Both companies appeared on stage at NVIDIAs press event alongside the I.D. Buzz electric microbus for the announcement.

The two companies said they would initially work on an “Intelligent Co-Pilot” system that will gather data from both in and outside the car. Throw in some gesture and natural language voice controls and then fuse all that with what the AI has learned about the driver and you got yourself a helpful AI assistant.

So when the I.D. Buzz hits the market in 2022 expect it to ship with some sort of virtual co-pilot.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

Source: NVIDIA

NVIDIA adds Instagram-like filters to your games

NVIDIA is diving into curious new territory with its next GeForce Experience update: filters. With a new beta feature called Freestyle, you can spice up your gameplay with 15 different filters. Because who wouldn’t want to play Grand Theft Auto V in sepia tones? While it doesn’t seem particularly useful, there’s likely a crowd of gamers who might actually enjoy re-experiencing their favorite titles in new ways. So far, Freestyle supports 100 games, and it’ll likely get even more come its official release.

And speaking of filters, NVIDIA has also added more to its Ansel in-game camera. You’ll also be able to combine multiple filters for even more creative screengrabs. The new features will be available in the company’s GeForce Experience software on January 9th — just be sure to enable “Experimental Features” to see them.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

Source: NVIDIA

Red Honor 7X could be the perfect Valentine’s Day gift (Video)

When we reviewed the Honor 7X last month, we praised it for the incredible value that it provides. With the Honor 7X, you can get a great smartphone experience with few compromises for less than $200 in the US.

The Honor 7X’s competitive pricing makes it an undoubtedly excellent choice for first-time or young smartphone users. Those users will especially appreciate the new red color option that Honor has just unveiled here at CES 2018.

To be fair, we have seen other manufacturers offer their smartphones in similar red color options. However, virtually all of those devices have been priced at double or even triple the price of the 7X. Now, the beautiful red color option is not only accessible to a larger, more price sensitive market, but also in a package packing a serious punch.

We have already covered the Honor 7X in great detail in our comprehensive review. As you may have guessed, the red color option is identical to the others, aside from the fact that it’s, well, red.

Editor’s Pick

Honor 7X review

Buy it now!
The Honor 7X is a lot of phone for a very reasonable price. If you don’t want to join the 1K flagship club but still want to benefit from modern trends and features …

Thankfully, Honor has really paid attention to the detailed areas of the hardware. For example, the camera lenses have shiny red rings that nicely complement the rest of the phone’s matte red design. The prominent antenna lines also exhibit a red hue. When all of these elements come together, we are left with a stunningly beautiful smartphone.

The red Honor 7X will be available for sale on Valentine’s Day (February 14) in the US, Russia, India, and Western Europe. We expect it to sell out quickly, however, as Honor has produced just 20,000 units. If you would like to try your luck, Honor is also including red co-branded Honor-Monster AM15 headphones for the first 100 buyers in each country.

Buy the Honor 7X here

What do you think of this new addition to the Honor 7X family? Do you think that we will see more red smartphones in the near future, or do you suspect this to simply be a short-time fad? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Head here for more CES 2018 coverage!

Intel’s ‘Hades Canyon’ NUC packs gaming hardware into just 1.2 liters

On Sunday, January 7, Intel finally revealed its portfolio of modules pairing its seventh-generation “Kaby Lake” processor cores with AMD’s Radeon “Vega” graphics cores. The announcement originally made waves in November, with Intel and AMD-based customers seemingly looking up into the sky for flying pigs. But the collaboration is no joke, and one of the first products to benefit from the team-up is a new NUC (short for Next Unit of Computing) for enthusiasts, codenamed ‘Hades Canyon.’

Although Intel didn’t provide any detailed hardware specifications prior to Sunday’s reveal, what we do know is that it’s based on the Core i7-8809G. We saw this module briefly listed on Intel’s website in India earlier this week, but now we have confirmed hardware details to give us an idea of what this NUC for “enthusiasts” is all about. Here’s are the specifics:

Model:
Core i7-8809G
Intel cores:
4
Intel threads:
8
Base speed:
3.1GHz
Maximum speed:
4.2GHz
Shared Cache:
8MB
Supported memory type:
DDR4 @ 2,400MHz
Supported memory channels:
2
Integrated graphics:
HD Graphics 630
Base speed:
350MHz
Maximum speed:
1,100MHz
Discrete graphics:
Radeon RX Vega M GH
Discrete graphics architecture:
Vega M
Compute units:
24
Stream processors:
1,536
Base speed:
1,063MHz
Maximum speed:
1,190MHz
Memory bandwidth:
204.8GB/s
Memory amount:
4GB HBM2
Render output units:
64 pixels per clock

If you haven’t kept up with recent Intel-based news, your eyes aren’t playing tricks. The Core i7-8809G is a rectangular device sporting three chips on a small, enclosed circuit board: One packing Intel’s CPU and integrated GPU cores, one playing host to AMD’s Vega M cores, and one housing dedicated HBM2 memory. The Intel and AMD chips are connected by eight PCI Express lanes while AMD’s chip connects to the HBM2 memory package using Intel’s Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge technology.

Due to the module’s shape, you can’t just cram the chip into any motherboard supporting eighth-generation processors. The design saves space compared to the typical CPU/GPU/GDDR layout in notebooks and AIO PCs. The modules are also unlocked on all three levels. You can read more about Intel’s new 8th-Gen Intel Core with Radeon RX Vega M graphics in our round-up.

Between Intel’s Kaby Lake cores and AMD’s Vega M cores, the new NUC should be able to handle PC-based VR experiences, and high-resolution gaming. AMD’s Vega M is the company’s latest GPU design that made its debut in the Radeon RX Vega 64 and Vega 56 add-in cards. AMD then brought its Vega graphics cores to its new Ryzen-branded all-in-one chips (APU) packing up to a mere 640 stream processors (10 CUs). But combined with Intel’s integrated graphics, the company’s tiny new NUC 8 can handle six displays lighting up your face at one time.

How small is the NUC 8? Intel says it takes up around 1.2 liters of space despite all the horses running inside. But keep in mind that despite its size, the NUC 8 may not sport a small price tag. Intel’s NUC 7 for enthusiasts has a starting price of $899 packing 16GB of memory, a Core i7-7667U processor, 512GB of storage, and more.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Intel’s chip-packing Radeon graphics slips a brief tease just before CES 2018
• Intel promises its new CPUs will match Nvidia’ potent GTX 1060, thanks to AMD
• Leaked photo shows upcoming Intel/AMD module on a compact motherboard
• Intel and AMD’s love/hate relationship spilled in benchmarks detailing two chips
• AMD CEO shows off first laptop packing a Ryzen-branded chip at Best Buy

Intel promises its new CPUs will match Nvidia’s potent GTX 1060, thanks to AMD

AMD and Intel surprised us all in November 2017, announcing an unprecedented partnership that would bring AMD’s Radeon RX Vega M graphics to a new lineup of Intel’s 8th-gen Core processors. Details were limited at the time, but Intel has now removed the veil, spilling all the juicy details. Here’s everything we know.

AMD and Intel, sitting in a tree…

The Radeon RX Vega M graphics chip AMD is providing to Intel is “semi-custom” hardware, which means it’s tailoring Vega hardware specifically for Intel’s requirements.

The first shipments will come in two flavors. Intel’s Core-i7 8809G and i7-8709G is the first, which will have GH Graphics with 24 Compute Units. Meanwhile, Intel’s Core i5-8305G and i7-8705G will have the less-powerful GL Graphics, which includes 20 Compute Units. The GL Graphics version also has a slightly lower clock speed and GPU clock.

Compute Units and clock speeds are the only major areas of difference, however. The GH and GL models otherwise share many details, including four gigabytes of HBM2 memory. This memory connects to the Vega GPU using a new “embedded multi-die interconnect bridge,” which drastically reduces the amount of physical space required for video memory.

The result is space savings of up to 1,900 square millimeters compared to previous set-ups. Intel says this will help these new chips fit into much slimmer, smaller laptops. Several design wins are promised at CES 2018, though they are currently under embargo by their respective designers.

Processor
i7-8809G, i7-8709G
i7 8705G, i5-8305G
Graphics Version
Radeon RX Vega M GH
Radeon RX Vega M GL
Compute Units
24
20
Stream Processsors
1,536
1,280
Base GPU Clock
1,063MHz
931MHz
Boost GPU Clock
1,190MHz
1,011MHz
Memory Bandwidth
Up to 3.7 TFLOPs
Up to 2.6 TFLOPs
ROPs
64 pix/clk
32 pix/clk
High Bandwidth Cache
4GB HBM2
4GB HBM2

Watch out, Nvidia

What does that mean for performance? Intel says the Radeon RX Vega M GL’s performance is slightly better (between 10 and 40 percent improved) than a Core i7-8550U with GTX 1050 graphics. The games used for this example, as you can see below, include Hitman, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Vermintide 2.  It’s also worth note that this comparison involves GL Graphics, the least powerful of the two options.

The more-powerful Radeon RX Vega M GH is even more impressive. Intel says it can go toe-to-toe with the Nvidia GTX 1060 Max-Q in Hitman, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Total War: Warhammer. That’s performance even serious gamers can appreciate. It’s also, of course, a staggering leap above Intel’s UHD graphics, which often struggled to play these titles at an acceptable framerate — even with settings at their lowest presets.

These results, if delivered, are impressive. It suggests that a notebook powered by one of Intel’s new Radeon-powered chips could go toe-to-toe with an entry-level gaming laptop and win. That likely doesn’t mean we’ll see the Intel hardware power a surge of new budget gaming laptops, but it might mean a better baseline of graphics performance from many laptops.

Intel says virtual reality is a target, too, and promises that Intel 8th-gen Core with Radeon RX Vega M will bring VR capability to thinner devices than ever before. Technically, that’s not a claim Intel can back up yet because Oculus and HTC haven’t certified it (with this being brand-new). If performance does stack up to what’s promised, however, VR should be at least possible — if not necessarily ideal.

Would you like all the drivers?

While the hardware inside Intel’s 8th-gen Core with Radeon RX Vega M is intriguing, it’s just half the story. Equally interesting, and important, is the software used. What drivers will be available, and how will you use them?

As it turns out, Intel won’t be putting up arbitrary barriers. PCs built on the new hardware can use features from the AMD chip, Intel’s chip, or both. The chip’s feature list is impressive as a result. It can handle up to nine displays, along with the newest connection standards: Thunderbolt 3, DisplayPort 1.4 w/HDR, and HDMI 2.0b with HDR10 — at up to 4K resolution.

HEVC and H264 HDR encode/decode support is included, and Radeon ReLive can be used to encode/decode multimedia at up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. DirectX 12 is supported, of course, but so is the less common Vulkan API. We can’t think of any obvious feature the chip won’t handle, and it’s a huge step forward from Intel’s UHD graphics.

Another feature, referred to as “dynamic power sharing,” will manage the power draw of the CPU and GPU. Intel says the thermal design power target is 65 watts for mobile, and 100 watts for desktop, but that number is not based on full use of both the CPU and GPU portions. Instead, Intel says its software will shift load between, depending on the task at hand.

That will not doubt raise eyebrows among enthusiasts, who generally prefer to see their hardware capable of going all-out instead of relying on opaque software to decide how the hardware is used for them. Yet dynamic power management is hardly new – almost all modern processors do it to some degree. Intel says dynamic power sharing improves power efficiency by up to 18 percent, improving performance in thin-and-light form factors.

You’ll manage all these features through a software interface that’s virtually identical to AMD’s Radeon Adrenalin Edition, which ships with AMD’s Radeon RX Vega video cards. The driver replaces AMD’s logos with Intel’s, however, and the color scheme is shifted from red to blue. Intel itself will distribute driver updates, though those updates will be sourced from AMD. One concern is the possibility of delayed driver releases that put the Intel hardware a few driver versions behind AMD hardware, despite both using the same GPU architecture. Intel hasn’t said how long updates will take to release or how it plans to manage the driver release schedule.

Intel’s own driver software will be present too, which means features like Intel Quick Sync video and Intel XTU will also be available.

You’ll have to settle for a last-gen CPU

The new Vega-based GPU is obviously the star of this show, but what about the processors themselves? Intel says they’ll be based on the Kaby Lake architecture, which is a generation behind the Coffee Lake architecture used in the 8th-gen Intel Core mobile chips that debuted in late 2017.

One feature, however, does standout: Overclocking. The Core i7-8809G will be unlocked, for both the CPU and GPU. That means enthusiasts will have a lot of freedom in tuning its performance. And remember, as mentioned, the chip will run AMD driver software for the Vega GPU, which means you can use AMD’s Wattman utility to fine-tune the chip with ease.

Here’s all the specifications.

Processor
Core i7-8809G
Core i7-8790G
Core i7-8705G
Core i5-8305G
Maximum Clock Speed
4.2GHz
4.1GHz
4.1GHz
3.8GHz
Base Clock Speed
3.1GHz
3.1GHz
3.1GHz
2.8GHz
Cores/Threads
4/8
4/8
4/8
4/8
Cache Size (MB)
8
8
8
6
Memory Channels
2
2
2
2
Memory Type
DDR4-2400
DDR4-2400
DDR4-2400
DDR4-2400
Overclockable?
Yes
No
No
No
Discrete Graphics
Radeon RX Vega M GH
Radeon RX Vega M GH
Radeon RX Vega M GL
Radeon RX Vega M GL
Intel HD Graphics
UHD 630
 UHD 630
 UHD 630
 UHD 630

The chips all have four cores, with eight threads and a maximum clock speed ranging from 3.8GHz to 4.2GHz. It does appear that Intel has managed a small bump to clock speed when compared to similar, older chips. The new Core i7-8705G has a maximum clock of 4.1GHz and base clock of 3.1GHz, while the old Core i7-7700HQ has a maximum clock of 3.8GHz and minimum clock of 2.8GHz.

Intel hasn’t released pricing for these chips, and it wouldn’t be of much use, anyway. These are all BGA packaged, which means they’re soldered onto the motherboard. No plans have been announced for socketed versions of the hardware. That doesn’t mean it’ll never happen, but Intel clearly wants to see these chips show up in laptops and desktops from major manufacturers, not scooped up by enthusiasts building rigs at home.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Intel’s chip-packing Radeon graphics slips a brief tease just before CES 2018
• Intel’s ‘Hades Canyon’ NUC packs gaming hardware into just 1.2 liters
• After teaming with AMD, Intel poaches its graphics guru to build its own GPUs
• Intel is cramming custom AMD Radeon graphics into an eighth-generation chip
• Intel and AMD’s love/hate relationship spilled in benchmarks detailing two chips

The inventor of the ‘hoverboard’ just unveiled a killer new rideable gizmo at CES

You know those self-balancing “hoverboards” that were all the rage a couple years ago, before they started spontaneously combusting and burning people’s houses down? What about those motorized electric unicycles that you’ll occasionally see people riding on? Ring a bell?

Well as it turns out, both of these innovative devices were originally created by the same guy — before they were copied like crazy and mass produced in Shenzhen, China. His name is Shane Chen, and this week he’s at CES showing off his third invention: an ultra-compact, self-balancing rideable gizmo called IotaTrax.

The IotaTrax is far more compact and portable than any hoverboard you’ll find.

In terms of both form and function, IotaTrax is a happy medium between Chen’s previous two inventions, the Hovertrax (the original “hoverboard”) and the Solowheel (the original self-balancing unicycle). Just like a hoverboard, it’s equipped with two wheels — but those wheels sit between the rider’s feet rather than outside of them. Chen calls this configuration a “compromise,” but he’s just being modest. After taking it for a ride, we can confirm that it’s more like the best of both worlds.

Due to its unique design, the IotaTrax is far more compact and portable than any hoverboard you’ll find. When you fold up the foot platforms (or “wings” as Chen calls them) for transport, the device is no bigger than a six-pack of beer — and not much heavier, either. There’s even a handle on the top for you to carry it around with.

And because it’s equipped with two wheels instead of just one, the IotaTrax is inherently more stable than any electric unicycle you’ll ever ride. It’s also easier to balance on. After a top secret demo and a quick tutorial, we were doing figure-eights around the parking lot like we had been born with wheels for feet.

Drew Prindle/Digital Trends

Drew Prindle/Digital Trends

Drew Prindle/Digital Trends

The Iota boasts an extremely free and intuitive riding experience — but of course, making it so simple to control was no easy task. The big challenge, Chen tells us, was figuring out how to make the device –which features two linked wheels– turn properly. In order for the rider to successfully execute a turn, one of the IotaTrax’s wheels (the outside wheel) needs to spin slightly faster than the other (the inside wheel). To make this possible, Chen actually designed and patented a completely gearless differential system — one that he hopes will make his latest creation more difficult for copycats to reverse engineer.

All things considered, the IotaTrax is definitely one of the most exciting additions to the “rideables” category in recent memory. With its mild learning curve, ultra-portable design, and the ability to travel more than eight miles on a single charge, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a hit with city dwellers looking to hack their morning commute. And the best part? When it goes on sale in late February (the 28th, to be exact), it’ll retail for just $599. If you pre-order one before then, you can snag it for $499 — which means it’s actually cheaper than most electric longboards currently on the market.

Head over to Inventist’s website to get the scoop.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Sick of walking everywhere? Here are the best electric skateboards money can buy
• Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Better gaming keyboards, wrist phones, and more
• Boosted 2 Dual+ electric longboard review
• Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Heated coats, folding ebikes, and more
• Hoverboard problem smolders on as more recall notices are issued

How to watch Nvidia’s CES 2018 press conference

CES 2018 kicks off on Sunday night with Nvidia’s press conference. Nvidia is obviously known for its impact on the graphics card world, but these days, the company is involved in all sorts of different industries, ranging from autonomous cars to set top boxes. Last year at CES, they company talked about its crazy-powerful chip called Xavier, made specifically for self-driving cars — as well as its Nvidia Drive platform. Don’t be surprised if we see something announced in that space again.

With that being said, we really don’t know all what Nvidia and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has planned to announce. But thing’s for sure: With everything it has going, it’s hard not to be excited for it.

The event starts at 8pm PST on Sunday, January 7 and can be watched in the embedded video above once it begins.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Roborace self-driving race car gets an upgrade, but when will it actually race?
• The Nvidia Pegasus system may turn robotaxis into a reality
• Watch Nvidia’s powerful A.I. change day into night, and winter into summer
• Nvidia Shield supports Wii games like ‘New Super Mario Bros.’ — in China
• Nvidia will no longer publish new drivers for 32-bit systems

Samsung Notebook 9 Pen hands-on review

Research Center:
Samsung Notebook 9 Pen

Samsung is much better known in North America for its smartphones than its computers and, at CES 2018, the company is trying to take advantage of that fact. Its new Notebook 9 Pen 13 brings the familiar S Pen, well-known to Samsung Note owners, to the laptop for the first time.

There are other nods to mobility, as well. The silver magnesium-aluminum chassis is extremely light, shaving weight down to just 2.19 pounds. It’s a thin laptop, too, at .64 inches. All that sounds great for anyone who needs a laptop for travel, but can it possibly stack up against the Microsoft Surface Book 2 or HP Spectre x360 13-inch?

It’s all about the S Pen

Samsung’s S Pen, unsurprisingly, is the standout feature of Samsung’s Notebook 9 Pen. It looks and feels like the smartphone model – perhaps even identical, though we didn’t have one available to compare. In any case, its smartphone heritage is evident. It’s slim, delicate, and quick, traits that lead to precision, but make us wonder how it would feel to use for more than a few minutes. The S Pen can handle 4,096 levels of pressure and has a thin .7 millimeter tip, so it’s on par with the latest Microsoft Surface Pen.

The S Pen is easy to put away, because there’s a built-in holster.

The S Pen’s size does lead to one major boon – it’s easy to put away, because there’s a holder built into the 2-in-1 itself. That’s rare, but appreciated, because losing a stylus is a costly annoyance. This is a feature we’d like to see in every 2-in-1 that ships with a stylus.

Samsung says the S Pen will work with bundled software, like Samsung Notes and Autodesk Sketchbook, in addition to the usual array of Windows 10 support. A menu of these features can be summoned with the press of a button on the S Pen itself. You can then select a portion of the screen to take a screencap, or make an animated GIF, all with the pen. There’s also support for other Samsung apps that have less to do with pen support, like Samsung Message, which can shoot an instant message to others who use the app on a smartphone, tablet, or PC.

It’s clear that Samsung is using the software strategy that has worked so well for it on mobile, and it does tack on features not available on other 2-in-1s. PCs aren’t phones, however – users tend to be hostile to anything that might look like bloatware. We’re also not sure the software features are all that necessary. Microsoft already includes sticky notes, OneNote, and a digital ink space for sketches or quick notes.

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Otherwise, the Samsung Notebook 9 Pen 13 is a conventional 2-in-1 with a 360-degree hinge. It works much like a Lenovo Yoga or HP Spectre x360, though it’s lighter than most its competitors — a lot lighter. It weighs over a pound less than a Microsoft Surface Book 2, HP Spectre x360, or Lenovo Yoga 920. In fact, the entire 2-in-1 weighs about six-tenths of a pound more than the Surface Book 2 13-inch’s screen when detached. That’s nuts! The Notebook 9 Pen 13 is so light that, at first touch, it almost feels like a prank. Surely, there can’t be entire PC in there, right? And yet there is.

The 13.3-inch display offers plenty of screen space, with thin bezels surrounding it, keeping the overall footprint down. A 1080p touchscreen is all that’s available, so the screen can’t compete with the sharpness of most its peers. Still, it looks good enough to satisfy in day-to-day use. Brightness is a perk – Samsung says it can hit 450 nits — and the display looks incredibly vibrant when we handled it.

Samsung Notebook 9 Pen Compared To

Dell Inspiron 13 5000 2-in-1

Asus NovaGo

Acer Switch 3

Lenovo Yoga 720 13-inch

Samsung Galaxy Book

Samsung Chromebook Pro

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1

Lenovo Yoga Book

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro

Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro

Dell XPS 12 (2013)

Lenovo ThinkPad Helix

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13

Acer Aspire S5

Lots of performance, but not so much battery

The hardware in the Notebook 9 Pen 13 is what you’d expect to see from any high-end 2-in-1. There’s an 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB of DDR4 memory, and up to 512GB of NVMe PCIe solid-state storage. These specifications, while impressive, are not unusual – and as usual, they lead to a system that feels snappy. Even demanding users should be happy with this 2-in-1’s performance. Well, if you don’t play games, because Intel UHD 620 graphics is all that’s available.

Battery life might prove a weak spot. We can’t test it during a hands-on, obviously, but we do know the battery is a 39 watt-hour unit. That’s toward the small side. While it contributes to the system’s light weight, it may also result in less exciting endurance. Samsung says it’s good for nine hours of 1080p video. That’s not bad, but many competitors promise more than 10 hours. Microsoft’s Surface Book 2 claims 17 hours – which held up in our tests – and the Lenovo Yoga 920 claims 15 hours.

A notebook that’s all about the pen

Endurance aside, the Samsung Notebook 9 Pen seems built entirely around on-the-go use of a stylus. Its light enough to lift and maneuver with one hand, includes an extremely precise pen with a holster to help you keep it secure, has unique software, and includes excellent hardware in all areas. It wouldn’t be my pick if laptop use was my main worry, but if I wanted a great 2-in-1 – in a 360-degree format, instead of detachable – the Notebook 9 Pen would be on my list.

Or, at least, I think it would be. One piece of the puzzle is missing – price. Given its hardware, we doubt the Notebook 9 Pen will be affordable, and that may put it toe-to-toe with the Microsoft Surface Book 2.  That’d be a tough match for Samsung to win.