Razer’s Project Linda could arrive alongside the Razer Phone 2 this September

Just over two months after making its debut, the Razer Phone is already feeling pressure stemming from the dreaded rumor mill. Recent reports claim that the second-generation model may appear in September, possibly during the International Franchise Association 2018 show in Berlin. The secret “internal source” at Razer also suggests Project Linda will make its debut at the show as a retail product donning an as-yet-unrevealed new name. 

Razer turned heads in November with the surprise launch of its first smartphone. The company is best known for its gaming peripherals targeting consoles and the PC, and its gaming-grade laptops. Razer previously dipped its toes into the wearable market with the notification-based Nabu wristband, but the company clearly wanted to take its brand to the next mainstream level with a gamer-focused smartphone. 

In case you missed the announcement, here are the specifications: 

Screen size: 

5.7 inches 

Screen type: 

IGZO 

Resolution: 

2,560 x 1,440 @ 120Hz 

Processor: 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 

Graphics: 

Adreno 540 

Memory: 

8GB LPDDR4 @ 1,866MHz 

Storage: 

64GB
1x Micro SD card slot supporting 2TB 

Cameras: 

2x 12MP (back)
1x 8MP (front) 

Audio: 

2x facing speakers
Dolby Atmos and THX-certified audio 

Connectivity: 

Wireless AC
Bluetooth 4.2
NFC
4G LTE 

Battery: 

4,000 mAh 

Operating system: 

Android 7.1 

Dimensions: 

6.24 x 3.06 x 0.31 inches 

Weight: 

0.43 pounds 

Price: 

$699 

As the specifications show, the only features missing from Razer’s smartphone is a laptop-sized screen and port complement. It essentially serves as an Android-based PC that fits into your pocket, and the company expanded on this vision by introducing a concept device that turns the Razer Phone into an actual laptop. 

More specifically, Project Linda includes a 13.3-inch screen supporting touch input and a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution at 120Hz. It’s backed by a built-in keyboard supporting the Razer Chroma illumination platform, and the phone itself, which plugs into a slot where you typically see the touchpad. The phone actually serves as the laptop’s “intelligent” touchpad, which loads a special-yet-familiar Android-based Sentio Desktop interface. 

The screen and keyboard are packed into a CNC aluminum chassis measuring just 0.59 inches thick. The only ports you’ll find is a single headphone jack, a USB-A 3.1 Gen1 port of the right, and a USB-C 3.1 Gen1 port on the left that’s also used for charging. Project Linda comes with 200GB of storage, and a built-in power bank that charges the phone while it is docked. 

But Project Linda is still a concept and it could either change before it eventually becomes a real product, or never see an official release. RazerCEO Min-Liang Tan recently hinted that the company intends to release Project Linda as an official product this year. When that will happen is up in the air, for now. 

As for an updated phone, September is seemingly too soon, but not out of the question. It will likely be based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor and other upgraded components. And given Microsoft recent collaboration with Qualcomm, a second Windows 10 Mobile-powered phone isn’t out of the question, either.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Razer Project Linda Preview
• Razer Phone review
• Razer Phone vs. LG V30: Can Razer topple a smartphone giant?
• Razer Phone vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 8: A new challenger approaches
• Android flagship throwdown: Razer Phone vs. Google Pixel 2 XL

The best apps to sell clothes will turn your unused wardrobe into cash

We’ve all been there. We buy new clothes and shelve the things we don’t wear anymore. Before we know it, we have a closet filled with clothes that we don’t need. So what do you do when you have a lot of used clothes in good condition that you no longer use?

We’ve come up with a list of the best apps to sell clothes, whether you’re looking for a quick sale or you want to recoup your investment on a luxury garment. Why not make some cash out of everything that is waiting in your closet for a new home? Don’t let your clothes end up in a landfill. Use these apps to sell your clothes, make a little money, and maybe even donate the proceeds to charity!

Are you looking for the best shopping apps? Here are our picks for you to find the very best deals.

eBay

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first; eBay is the biggest yard sale there is on the internet. Create a seller account and you can have 20 free listings per month. You will want to take good photos of clothes you’re selling, write up a detailed description, and decide whether to sell by auction or set an asking price. When an item sells, simply package it up and send it off. You can choose to donate a portion, or all, of the profits to charity when you set up a listing. If you have a lot to shift, then you can also set up an eBay Store where you can list more than 250 items in various categories including clothing, but monthly subscription fees will apply.

If you’re not familiar with eBay, check out our walkthrough on how to sell anything on eBay.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Mercari

With Mercari anyone can use their phone to sell anything including toys, electronics, sporting goods, and clothing. There’s a huge selection here, with more than 100,000 items listed daily. All you have to do is take a photo, add a description, and set a price. The listings are free, but there is a 10 percent selling fee charged when your sale is complete. After you sell your item, Mercari will email you a trackable shipping label so you can ship it out to the buyer right away. The service also protects the buyer and will only release the payment to the seller once the buyer confirms they have received the item and it is as specified.

Download now for:

Android iOS

ThredUp

When it comes to fashion few online resale stores are as big as ThredUp. You will find more than 30,000 fashion brands for kids, women, and teens that you can buy at up to a 90 percent discount on retail prices in some cases. Instead of throwing your old clothes away, you can request a “Clean Out Kit” from ThredUp, fill the bag with your unwanted items, then send it back to have your clothes categorized and listed. It works as a consignment shop where you can earn a little cash when your items sell or choose to have the money donated to a worthy cause.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Vinted

Vinted lets you sell, buy, or swap your used clothes. This app is also very easy to use. All you need is a photo, a description, and a price for your item and you are ready to sell. When the buyer receives the items, you can have the funds transferred directly to your bank account. You can also use PayPal with Vinted if you wish. Another feature is that the buyer can chat directly with the sellers using the app if they have any additional questions about the item.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Poshmark

Poshmark is another consignment solution for those who need to sell the unused clothes clogging up their closets. Buyers can shop for more than 5,000 brands in every size, and they can look forward to savings of up to 70 percent off retail prices. Your potential customers can shop for the specific items they want, or they can browse the newest listed items. There is even something called Posh Parties where thousands of women gather three times a day, every day, to make new listings, share, and shop together.

Download now for:

Android iOS

The RealReal

Are you looking to sell high-end luxury garments? For anyone looking to buy a luxury item for their loved one but lacking the funds, The RealReal is the app that can make their dreams of owning that item a reality. This app specializes in pre-owned luxury. You will find everything here including clothes, jewelry, watches, and even fine art. You can save up to 90 percent off retail prices, and the service offers international shipping to more than 61 countries. Buyers trust The RealReal as all items are 100 percent guaranteed for authenticity by an in-house team of luxury experts.

Download now for:

Android iOS

There are many more great apps for both Android and iOS. We encourage you to take a look at our picks for the best apps for iOS and Android.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The world can be your oyster with a little help from the 21 best travel apps
• For deals or just the latest designs, these are the best shopping apps out there
• Run your way to better health with the 10 best running apps
• Easily settle your debts with these 11 money-transfer apps
• 15 essential Black Friday apps you need to navigate the maelstrom

CPU, APU, WTF? A guide to AMD’s processor lineup

For more than a decade, AMD played the decidedly second fiddle in the central processing orchestra, always falling behind Intel and forced to compete on value more than anything else. In 2017 though, with the launch of its Ryzen processors, that changed. Today, AMD is a reinvigorated company and a true competitor in the CPU game.

But that’s not to say its lineup is any more simple. On top of having powerful gaming and multitasking processors throughout the price/performance spectrum, AMD also has a solid offering of Accelerated Processing Units, or APUs, that deliver great graphics and CPU power on one die. It even teamed up with Intel in recent months for a unique competitor for Nvidia’s discrete graphics offerings.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the various configurations of AMD processors, what they’re good for and why they’ve given the competition something to worry about for the first time in a long time.

Wondering which AMD CPU is right for you? Check out our Ryzen buying guide.

New blood

Ryzen CPUs

The poster child for the real resurgence AMD experienced in 2017, Ryzen CPUs, based on AMD’s Zen architecture, have proved a force to be reckoned with. They threw down the gauntlet at Intel’s feet in a big way and forced the chip giant to respond in ways we haven’t seen since AMD’s Athlon 64+ chips pushed Intel to move beyond its Pentium 4s.

Although Ryzen chips still tend to fall behind their Intel counterparts in single-threaded performance — and indeed, some games — the multithreaded power of Ryzen chips can be streaks ahead of the competition. They introduced hexacores to the mid-range, with multithreaded support throughout, while the top chips are octacores with a full 16 threads. Xtended Frequency Range (XFR) automated overclocking helps bolster clock speeds to more than 4GHz on some chips, and for those who want to go further, they all have unlocked multipliers without paying for the privilege as is the case with Intel chips.

Prices range between $100 and $400 depending on the performance required and if you want even more, there’s always Threadripper.

Threadripper

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

If Ryzen CPUs were AMD nipping at the heels of Intel’s Core i5 and i7 CPUs, Threadripper took a full bite of even its Core i9 Extreme Edition chips. Threadripper are Ryzen CPUs taken to the next logical step and it’s a big one, quite literally. Measuring in at 3.1 x 2.2 x .03 inches, Threadripper chips are some of the largest consumer CPUs ever released.

All of that size equates to big performance, with even the weakest of the lineup, the 1900X, packing eight cores and 16 threads under its hood. Look to the 1920X or even the 1950x though, and you’re faced with 12 cores/24 threads and 16 cores/32 threads respectively.

Clock speeds on these chips hit 4.2GHz with XFR enabled and with up to 32MB of level three cache and a full 64 PCIExpress lanes across the range, they show what the true power of Zen hardware is capable of. Once again they are a little weaker on the single-threaded side of the processing coin, but as more software integrates greater support for multiple threads, that will become less relevant over time.

The real kicker when it comes to the Threadripper though, is in the pricing. Comparable Intel Core i9 Extreme processors cost well north of $1,000 and in some cases close to $2,000. Threadripper on the other hand, tops out at $1,000 and can be had for as little as $480.

Kaby Lake G

A unique entry in AMD’s lineup of hardware, Kaby Lake G chips are actually a construction of both AMD and Intel together. Although at the time of writing they aren’t available for performance tests, the unique combination of an Intel CPU with an AMD graphics chip on the same die, paired with second-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM2) has tongues wagging.

Performance isn’t expected to be world-beating, but it could offer real competition for Nvidia in ultra-light gaming laptops, a segment where the green team has typically held the lead.

Old guard

FX CPUs

Not long ago AMD’s FX chips were the jewel in its performance crown, but they fall far behind the potential of Ryzen CPUs. Although they sport up to eight threads and have decent multi-threaded performance for their era, AMD’s FX CPUs never competed well with Intel in most benchmarks and that’s not going to change in the future.

All of the FX chips run at high wattage (95-220 watts) on the AM3+ socket, with speeds ranging from 3.8GHz for the FX 4100 to as high as 5GHz for the FX 9590. L2 cache ranges from 4MB to 8MB.

Athlon CPUs

Arguably the most recognizable AMD CPU brand, Athlon chips have been around in one guise or another for the best part of two decades. Although they have chugged along over the years though, they don’t offer anywhere near the kind of performance of the new Ryzen CPUs and the last Athlon chips to hit the market were released in 2016.

You’re unlikely to come across Athlon chips in any new desktop systems, as there are far better alternatives out there if you’re buying new. Second-hand systems may sport an Athlon X4 (quad-core) or Athlon X2 (dual-core) operating anywhere up to 4.2GHz with up to 4MB of level two cache.

What about APUs?

AMD’s acquisition of graphics card manufacturer ATI in 2006 boosted the company’s ability to produce and innovate in graphics hardware. While it fell behind rivals Intel in terms of CPU power, the integration of its own graphics chips with its CPUs to form APUs meant that it could compete in the more small-form-factor spaces.

As such, APUs are often intended for smaller and more energy-efficient machines.

Ryzen Mobile with Vega

The newest entry in AMD’s APU range, Ryzen Mobile with Vega chips were officially released in January 2018. However, they made their debut a few months earlier with the HP Envy x2 which sports the 2500U with Vega 8 graphics, performing very favorably in benchmarks. It showed that a Ryzen CPU with Vega graphics processor (GPU) on the same die can offer performance comparable to an Intel/Nvidia combo with far greater gains in energy efficiency and better pricing.

With higher and lower-end versions of these chips released in January 2018, AMD’s Ryzen Mobile with Vega could prove to be a solid choice for single-chip performance in entry-level gaming and ultra-small-form-factor systems.

A-Series APUs

Not too long ago, AMD’s A-series APUs were its top of the line integrated chips. Combining up to an Excavator v2 CPU with up to an R7 graphics processor, they offered decent performance in a relatively low-power package — though they all draw far more than the newer Ryzen APUs.

Throughout the line up, CPU cores range from two to four and GPU cores from two to eight. Clock speeds for the CPU cores go as high as 4.3GHz, though most, even the last releases in mid-2017, don’t go that high. These APUs can’t handle the latest games at high detail settings, but they can play most titles at low-to-medium detail and 1080p resolution.

Buying one today is growing increasingly difficult as AMD shifts its focus to new Ryzen APUs. If you’re dead set on one, make sure to shop around to find the best deal.

Athlon APUs

AMD’s mid-range APU lineup gets the Athlon product line name. These exclusively quad-core chips have much lower power requirements than the A-Series, but max out at 2.2GHz on the CPU and come with R3 graphics chips only. Built atop the AM1 platform, Athlon APUs are also restricted to DDR3 memory at 1,600MHz.

Although capable in their day, this ageing architecture falls far behind the capabilities of more modern hardware.

Older product lines

Please note that older AMD CPU lines, like the Sempron and Phenom II series, have been left off of this list as they are no longer sold at most retailers. If you’d like to compare AMD APU and CPU chips directly across product lines and ranges, the company offers a master list of all its chips on its website.

Updated 01/15/2018 by Jon Martindale with Ryzen, Threadripper, Kaby Lake G, and Ryzen on Mobile sections. Deleted some legacy chip descriptions.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Time to upgrade your gaming PC? These are the best processors to choose from
• AMD is more than the Threadripper. Here are the best AMD CPUs on any budget
• AMD crams desktop performance into ultra-thin laptops with its new Ryzen APUs
• AMD lands prestigious award for its beastly Ryzen Threadripper 1950X
• Intel’s ‘Hades Canyon’ NUC packs gaming hardware into just 1.2 liters

Microsoft Surface Book 2 13 Review

Research Center:
Microsoft Surface Book 2 13-inch

Microsoft wowed us when it introduced the original Surface Book and showcased its ability to produce innovative products that create entirely new PC categories. Watching the display tear off to become a usable tablet with active pen support felt like gazing into a time machine set firmly to the future. Two years later, Microsoft continues to leverage the design, releasing two versions of the Surface Book 2: the 13.5-inch and 15-inch. Other than size, they’re nearly identical in appearance. In fact, they’re even hard to tell apart from the original and the mid-term Performance Base upgrade — that is, until you turn them on and start running them through their paces.

The model we’re reviewing here is a higher-end configuration, decked out with an eighth-generation quad-core Intel Core i7-8660U (the fastest available), Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB solid state drive (SSD), and an ultra-sharp 13.5-inch display running at 3,000 x 2,000 resolution (267 PPI). It’s very expensive at $2,500, but you can drop down to a seventh-generation dual-core Intel Core i5-7200U with integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD for a (slightly) more reasonable $1,500. You can also bump up our review configuration to a 1GB SSD and spend a whopping $3,000.

In our Surface Book 2 review, we consider whether its updated guts are enough to justify the huge investment.

A design that’s stood the test of time

There’s a reason why Microsoft didn’t mess with the original Surface Book’s design: it’s just that good. The magnesium chassis is solid as a rock, with zero flexing or bending no matter where you poke or prod. Seriously, the thing is built like a tank. It’s also innovative with its push-button, “muscle wire” latching mechanism that makes detaching the display downright fun. The only notebook that matches the Surface Book 2 in build quality is the latest MacBook Pro 13, but Apple’s design isn’t nearly as daring.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

The “dynamic fulcrum” hinge, which is required to push the display farther back to better balance the weight created by jamming a complete PC into the display, remains an oddity that takes some getting used to. It makes the Surface very thick and rounded in the rear, and it creates a sharp angle whereby the display doesn’t sit flush with the keyboard. Theoretically, that means that debris could get in between and cause some problems, but we haven’t seen too many users complaining about it.

To stress the point, the Surface Book 2 isn’t the thinnest (0.51 to 0.90 inches) or lightest (3.38 pounds) 2-in-1 notebook around. Other 2-in-1s, such as the Lenovo Yoga 920 (0.50 inches and 3.02 pounds) and HP Spectre x360 13 (0.53 inches and 2.78 pounds), are considerably thinner and lighter. They’re also built well, but they can’t match Microsoft’s machine for pure granite-like solidity.

And of course, flipping their displays around results in a tablet form factor that’s not nearly as comfortable to carry around and use as the Surface Book 2’s almost unbelievably thin (0.30 inches) and light (1.6 pounds) tablet portion. The Surface Book 2 is just as flexible, only rather than spinning the display, you detach and reverse it for multimedia and drawing modes.

Whether those are better looking machines in terms of pure aesthetics comes down, as always, to personal preference. We like the Surface Book 2’s conservative silver-grey color, but some others might prefer a little more panache. The Spectre x360 13, in particular, offers a bit more ostentation with its Dark Ash Silver with Copper Luxe accents color scheme.

Finally, we should note that the Surface Book 2’s main PC component, the tablet, is completely fanless. That means that unless you fire up the Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU in the base, you won’t hear any fan noise. Among other 2-in-1s, the newest Surface Pro stands out with a similarly quiet design, but only for the slower Core i5 configurations.

There’s a reason why Microsoft didn’t mess with the original Surface Book’s design: it’s that good.

Breaking that silence, unfortunately, is a very serious case of coil whine, which creates a maddening cacophony of electronic buzzing, fritzing, and whirring that’s obtrusive and distracting in a quieter environment.

It seems like a fairly widespread problem judging by this Reddit thread and other references in a variety of forums, and our review machine was the issue’s poster child.

It’s most noticeable when the Windows 10 power slider is pushed all the way to “Best Performance,” and oddly enough only when the CPU is idle. Push the CPU to full speed and the problem disappears. The Surface Book 2 13 isn’t alone in suffering from coil whine — the 15-inch model can have some as well, for example — but it’s just worse than we’ve seen with other notebooks.

Only slightly improved connectivity, and no Thunderbolt 3

The Surface line has never been known for offering the best in connectivity options, and for the most part, the Surface Book 2 13 follows that trend. There are two USB-A 3.0 ports, both on the left-hand side, along with an SD card reader. On the right side is the Surface Connect port that provides power and the connection to the Surface Dock peripheral, and a new USB-C 3.1 port that is Microsoft’s only nod to future peripheral support.

Microsoft Surface Book 2 13-inch Compared To

Eve Technology Eve V

Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017)

Asus Transformer Pro T304

Microsoft Surface Pro 4

Amazon Fire HD 8 (2017)

Xiaomi Mi Pad 3

Apple iPad 9.7

Samsung Galaxy Tab S3

Chuwi Hi12 Windows 10 2-in-1

Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro

Microsoft Surface Pro 3

Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2

Sony Vaio Duo 11

Lenovo IdeaTab Lynx

Acer Iconia Tab W700

Unfortunately, the USB-C port is only Gen 1, meaning it’s limited to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) speeds and it doesn’t provide Thunderbolt 3 support. That means it won’t support the fasted add-ons and that external monitor support is limited. Wireless connectivity includes the usual 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 radios. When you compare to just about every recent notebook or 2-in-1, the Thunderbolt 3 omission is a serious one, and might give some buyers reason to pause.

Getting information into the Surface Book 2 is a real breeze

The Surface Book 2’s keyboard is only slightly changed from the previous versions, and that’s a good thing. Microsoft decreased the key travel the tiniest bit (from 1.6mm to 1.55mm) and changed the feel just slightly to be closer to the very good keyboard on the Surface Laptop. But you’d probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference from the older models.

We found the keyboard to offer a crisp, precise action that’s consistent across all of the keys. Our only concern is that it’s slightly loud. Keyboards in general have improved over the last several years, and the Surface Book 2 has some tough competition. The keyboard on the HP Spectre x360 13, for example, is very good as well, as is the Yoga 920’s.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

The touchpad is even better. It’s large enough to be eminently usable but not so large as to take up too much space below the keyboard. It has a smooth glass surface that provides just the right amount of resistance, and its support for the Windows Precision Touchpad protocol is absolutely perfect. Multitouch gestures work flawlessly, and the Surface Book 2’s touchpad thus remains the gold standard.

Of course, the machine is a 2-in-1, and so it also sports a multitouch display that benefits from Microsoft’s continuous effort to reduce the space between the glass and the touch electronics for the best possible response. The Surface Pen also benefits from these efforts, while also gaining the ultra-low latency, 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and tilt support introduced with the 2017 Surface Pro. Simply put, it’s the best inking experience available in a Windows 10 PC.

Finally, the Surface Book 2 sticks with Microsoft’s usual facial recognition for Windows 10 Hello password-less login. It works perfectly, recognizing us every time and very quickly indeed.

The usual Surface display – in a word, it’s excellent

The Surface line universally enjoys some very nice displays, with high contrast and great brightness. The Surface Book 2 retains the same 3,000 x 2000 (267 PPI) Panasonic panel used in the previous models, and that’s a good thing. Of course, like all Surface machines, it’s in the 3:2 aspect ratio that’s great for productivity (but with some video letterboxing).

Our colorimeter agreed. The Surface Book 2 scored well in just about every metric. Maximum brightness was excellent at 402 nits, and contrast was a stunning 1,460:1. Gamma was close to perfect 2.3 (2.2 is ideal), meaning that images and video will be just slightly darker. Overall, the display should make for deep blacks and awesome text (given the sharpness as well).

Only color gamut support was average, at 94 percent of sRGB and 73 percent of AdobeRGB. Color accuracy was good at 1.90, where 1.0 and less is indistinguishable to the naked eye. That means that anyone looking for the utmost in color support and accuracy might want to look at a different machine.

In practice, the display is just as good as some excellent objective results would indicate.

So how does that compare to most notebooks, including our comparison group? Simply put, you need to pick up another Surface device or a MacBook if you want a better overall display. Or check out the Sharp IGZO displays that Dell puts in machines like the XPS 15.

In practice, the display is just as good as these objective results would indicate. Black text is pin sharp and contrasts nicely against a white background, making the productivity experience simply excellent. Images look great with fairly natural colors, and video is fantastic even if the display isn’t quite 4K resolution. In short, the Surface Book 2 has a superior display to the vast majority of its competition.

The audio isn’t spectacular, but it gets the job done

The Surface Book 2 has two front-firing speakers set into the edge of the display on each side towards the top. They put out loud audio that’s clear and bright, but that lacks in bass like most notebook speakers. It’s great audio for watching movies and TV shows and for listening to music, but anyone whose favorite music tends toward the lower registers will want to put on a pair of headphones.

Finally, the Surface Book is up to speed

The Surface Book with Performance Base improved the machine’s GPU, but it held onto the same sixth-gen Intel processor. With the Surface Book 2, Microsoft has finally caught up, putting in Intel’s eighth-generation, 15-watt quad-core processors for a nice boost in both performance and efficiency.

We’ll note that Microsoft has incorporated a power slider that in its newer Surface machines has a real impact on performance. It’s accessed by clicking on the battery icon in the system tray and selecting from “Recommended,” “Better Performance,” and “Best Performance.” You can dial in better performance simply by moving the slider to the right – or slow things down to reduce fan noise and power draw by moving the slider to the left. “Recommended” is the default, and so this is where we focused our benchmarks, but note the “Best Performance” results in the graph.

As we expected, the Surface Book 2 performed admirably in CPU-intensive tasks. In Geekbench 4, for example, the machine scored a solid 4,528 in single-core mode and 14,510 in multi-core. That’s in line with the Lenovo Yoga 920’s 4,683 and 14,566 respectively, and it blows away seventh-generation competitors like the earlier model of HP’s Spectre x360 15.

On our more demanding and real-world Handbrake test that encodes a 420MB video to H.265, the Surface Book 2 was able to finish the task in 740 seconds. The Yoga 920 was faster at 613 seconds (the Surface Book 2 took 650 seconds in Best Performance), but the Surface Book with Performance Base took much longer at 983 seconds. The Lenovo Yoga 720 15 with Intel’s higher-power 45-watt Intel Core i7-7700HQ is faster at 573 seconds, but it’s also considerably less efficient.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

In short, the Surface Book 2 is plenty fast for even higher-end productivity tasks, and it’s a real jump up from the previous generation. You can get a faster notebook in machines like the Yoga 720 15 or the Dell XPS 15 thanks to their higher-powered CPUs, but you’ll pay a price in battery life.

Another note: there’s a power supply issue with the Surface Book 2 15-inch model related directly to the 95-watt unit that Microsoft ships with both versions. The larger machine’s GTX 1060 GPU uses up to 80 watts or so of power by itself, meaning that it’s easy for the system to exceed the power supply’s capabilities and start pulling from the battery. The Surface Book 2 13’s GTX 1050 GPU, on the other hand, maxes out at around 50 watts. So while it’s theoretically possible that it could suffer the same battery discharge when both the CPU and GPU are being stressed, we didn’t encounter the issue during our testing.

Storage speed doesn’t break any records, but it’s fast enough

Microsoft chose the popular Samsung PM961 PCIe solid state drive (SSD). That typically means that accessing and saving files will be more than fast enough for the typical productivity tasks.

In our benchmark tests, the Surface Book 2 13’s implementation was a little slower than most other notebooks using the same drive. In CrystalDiskMark, it scored 1,203 megabytes per second (MB/s) in the read test and only 657 MB/s in the write test. That’s crushed by the Surface Book 2 15’s 2,877 MB/s and 1,233 MB/s, respectively. The Yoga 920 was lightly slower in the read test at 1,147 MB/s but much faster in the write test at 1,172.

We’re not sure why this Surface Book 2 scored as low as it did in the write test, but it’s not that big of a deal. These are still fast scores that promise excellent overall performance, and you’ll be unlikely to notice any kind of a slowdown even in applications that write a lot of files.

Solid entry-level gaming, as long as you crank things up

The Surface Book 2 13 comes equipped with an Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU, a step up from the previous models’ GTX 965M and a common chip for entry-level gaming systems and faster productivity machines. Notebooks with this GPU tend to provide for a solid 1080p experience in modern titles if graphical details are kept in check.

In the 3DMark synthetic benchmark, the Surface Book 2 13 scored 5,160. That’s a solid score compared to the Lenovo Yoga 720 15 with its identical Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, and it beats out the Surface Book with Performance Base (GTX 965M) by reasonable margin. Of course, the GTX 1060 in the Surface Book 2 15 was much faster. As with our CPU tests, we ran our gaming benchmarks in “Recommended” mode, but we’ve reported the faster “Best Performance” mode results in the graphs.

In actual gaming, the Surface Book 2 13 did well in Civilization VI, at least in 1080p and medium details, where it managed 51 frames per second (FPS). It was less impressive with ultra details configured, where it could only muster 30 FPS. The Yoga 720 15 achieved 40 FPS and 33 FPS, respectively, and the Surface Book 2 15 only managed to hit 51 FPS on medium but it jumped up to 46 FPS on ultra. Of course, the Yoga 920 with integrated Intel UHD 620 graphics was unplayable.

You won’t find another in its class that lasts as long as the Surface Book 2 13 away from a charger.

Next, we ran Battlefield 1 at 1080p, and the Surface Book 2 13 scored 39 FPS in medium detail and 28 FPS in ultra. The Yoga 720 15 scored a stronger 55 FPS and 35 GPS, while the Surface Book 2 15 ran at 55 FPS and 48 FPS.

In For Honor, the Surface Book 2 13 scored 37 FPS at medium detail and 27 FPS at extreme. The Yoga 720 15 scored 57 FPS and 39 FPS, while the Surface Book 2 15 scored 73 FPS (with Nvidia drivers, which were required to get the test to run) and 56 FPS.

Finally, we ran Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at high and ultra detail, and the Surface Book 2 13 scored 15 FPS at both settings. The Yoga 720 hit 27 and 17 FPS, respectively, and the Surface Book 2 15 was faster at 39 FPS and 28 FPS.

In conclusion, we can say that the Surface Book 2 13 makes for a decent entry-level gaming notebook with modern titles at 1080p resolution and medium graphics. This is particularly true if you’re willing to crank the performance slider to “Best Performance” and deal with the fan noise and potential battery drain — in that case, the Surface Book 2 is more competitive with the other 2-in-1s equipped with a GTX 1050, the Lenovo Yoga 720 15.

Portability is compromised by the design, but it lasts a good long while

You won’t find the Surface Book 2 13 to be the most conventional notebook to carry around, with its severe taper and rounded back. It’s also not the lightest notebook, at 3.38 pounds — but then again, that’s not too heavy given that its 13.5-inch 3:2 display is more like a 14-inch 16:9 in real estate.

Where it does particularly well is in the total of 70 watt-hours of battery life that’s packed into the tablet and base portions.

That promises good battery life, and the Surface Book 2 delivers. In our most aggressive test, which uses the Basemark web benchmark to stress the CPU and GPU, the Surface Book 2 13 lasted a very solid six hours and 21 minutes. That’s bested only by the Surface Book 2 15 that lasted just ten minutes longer. By comparison, the HP Spectre x360 13 lasted for just over four hours, which is a very good score for any machine that’s not a Surface Book 2.

On our web browsing test, the Surface Book 2 13 lasted for just over 10 hours, another very strong score. Its larger sibling lasted for a spectacular 15 hours and 33 minutes, and the Lenovo Yoga 920 lasted for just over eight hours.

The Surface Book 2 is a huge upgrade over the previous Performance Base model, which could only muster just shy of seven hours — a good score for previous machines but eclipsed by today’s Intel eighth-gen notebooks.

Finally, in terms of watching video, the Surface Book 2 13 could loop our local Avengers trailer for almost 17 hours, an excellent score that’s only topped by the Surface Book 2 15’s 20 and a half hours. The HP Spectre x360 13 was a strong performer at just over 14 hours, but the Surface Book 2 line obviously leverages the efficiency of the new CPUs with their large battery capacities.

You might be wondering about how long the Surface Book 2’s tablet portion will last, with its 18 watt-hour battery (meaning the base portion has the other 52 watt-hours). We have those results as well, and they’re naturally less impressive. The tablet lasted for an hour and 16 minutes on the Basemark test, two hours and 44 minutes on the web browsing test, and three and a half hours on the video test.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

As a clamshell notebook, you won’t find another in its class that lasts as long as the Surface Book 2 13 away from a charger. It’s all-day battery life and then some, with a chassis that’s just the slightest bit clumsy putting into a backpack but that will allow you to work an entire day away from a charger. The only notebooks likely to last significant longer is the upcoming wave of 2-in-1s using the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 ARM processor, but those will most certainly sacrifice some performance.

Software

The Surface Book 2 comes with a minimal software load. There’s the usual Windows 10 installation of casual games and Microsoft first-party apps, and the innocuous Surface app, but that’s all. You won’t need to worry about uninstalling any bloatware as you’re setting up your new machine.

Warranty

Microsoft offers the usual one-year warranty service on the Surface Book 2, which can be accessed either by sending your notebook in for service or taking it into your local Microsoft store. You can also purchase a Microsoft Complete extended two-year warranty for $250, and get accidental damage protection as well.

Our Take

The Surface Book 2 13.5-inch model is an ultra-premium machine that feels like one, with one of the most innovative designs around and build quality that rivals the best the PC market has to offer. It’s incredibly expensive, but for the money you get solid productivity performance, strong entry-level gaming chops, great battery life, and the ability to enjoy both an awesome traditional notebook experience and a very usable high-powered tablet.

Is there a better alternative?

The Surface Book 2’s 13.5-inch 3:2 display is in between the usual 14-inch and 15.6-inch 16:9 alternatives, and it has a unique form factor with some unusually powerful components — that makes for an interesting set of alternatives, but none that match exactly what the Surface Book 2 13 offers.

First up is the Lenovo Yoga 720 15, which matches the Surface Book 2 13 with its GTX 1050 and is a bit faster in CPU-intensive tasks. It’s also much less expensive, at $1,700 for 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 4K UHD display. You’ll get equivalent performance if you go this route, but you’ll give up a lot of battery life and you’ll be relegated to used a very thick tablet.

You can also consider the excellent HP Spectre x360 13, our favorite in the very strong convertible 2-in-1 market. The Spectre x360 offers strong performance for productivity tasks, great input options, and solid battery life. It’s also significantly less expensive than the Surface Book 2, coming in at $1,380 for a similar configuration with a Core i7-8550U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160 or 331 PPI) display. Of course, it’s not as fast and it’s battery life, while good, isn’t as spectacular.

Next is the machine’s larger sibling, the Surface Book 2 15-inch. That machine ratchets up the performance another notch, swapping in an Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU for even better gaming and the ability to churn through demanding creativity tasks like video editing. Adding in the larger display and faster GPU adds $400 to the price, making a similar configuration with a Core i7-8650U, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD add up to $2,900.

Finally, you could eschew the 2-in-1 category altogether and opt for the Dell XPS 15 clamshell notebook. You’ll get great performance, a lovely 4K UHD touchscreen display, and a full-power Core i7-7700HQ to go with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for $2,000. That’s a savings of $400, but of course you can’t tear off the display and use it as a tablet. The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 is a closer form factor, but it’s an underpowered product when it comes in the internal components.

We should note that Intel and AMD announced a new CPU/GPU hybrid solution, Kaby Lake-G, that mates a 45-watt quad-core Intel Core processor with AMD’s Radeon RX Vega M GL GPU. That machine promises somewhat greater performance than the Surface Book 2 13 at much lower prices, meaning that machines like the new Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 and the updated HP Spectre x360 15 that sport Kaby Lake-G will be worth considering when they’re released in Spring 2018.

How long will it last?

The Surface Book 2 has a future-proof design that promises to be useful well into the future, with matching performance. The addition of a USB-C port helps it keep up with the newest standard in peripheral connectivity, but the lack of Thunderbolt 3 support will hold it back from working with the latest and greatest add-ons.

Should you buy it?

Yes, if you want one of the most powerful 13-inch class 2-in-1s on the market, and the one with the absolute most innovation and flexibility. You’ll pay through the nose, but you won’t be compromising in design, build, or performance, and the battery life can’t be beat unless you spend even more money and step up to the 15-inch model.

This Nerf gun mod fires 20 rounds per second, destroys nieces and nephews

Nerf gun battles are as much a part of startup culture as putting stickers on your MacBook, crashing in the office after a hard night’s coding, and overusing the word “disrupt.” Well, if you get hold of Chaylo Laurino’s (aka YouTuber Captain Xavier) new Nerf minigun creation, you will never lose a battle again. Heck, you will probably be running the startup before things are over!

“What I have built is a high-capacity, high rate of fire, fully automatic Nerf Rival blaster that I call Try, named after the Norse god of war, law, and heroic deeds,” Laurino told Digital Trends. “To build it, I took the functional internals from a Nerf Zeus MXV-1200 and used them to replace the internals of an Air Warriors Predator. I then connected that to a custom-built hopper in a backpack. The hopper has an agitator and a powerful fan that feed the balls from the backpack to the blaster. There is then an adjustable speed motor in the blaster that controls the rate of fire.”

The fearsome results are capable of firing 20 Nerf balls per second, with a magazine able to hold 2,000 rounds of soft artillery.

“I am not the first to build one of these,” Laurino continued. “My design is functionally based [on fellow YouTuber] OutofDarts‘ Proton Pack, and I got plenty of help from him in building this. In fact, he provided me with the agitator for the hopper. The only real difference between our designs is that mine has a higher capacity and is much cooler looking. Mine also has a built-in modular compressed air system that allows me to fire pretty much any type of ammo I want with the right attachment, including Nerf rockets. I took the extra time and effort to make mine so much more cosmetically impressive because I do a lot of theatrical Nerfing, where presentation makes all the difference.”

While Laurino has no plans to manufacture or sell his design, he said that OutofDarts is considering producing a kit with all the parts needed to build your own. After that, you just need to dedicate “an obscene amount of [time for] tinkering” in order to get it right.

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This Harvard-designed miniature robot shows that size does matter

There is a new machine on the block that is so small you might just look over it. Developed by engineers at Harvard University, the Millidelta looks a lot like other Delta robots, industrial machines used for things like food packaging or welding thanks to their exceptional speed and precision. Except the Millidelta is small. Really small. When completely unfolded, the miniature robot is barely taller than a penny.

Such small stature limits the ways in which the Millidelta can be used in the real world. It can’t, for example, place chocolate pralines into their packaging like the first Delta robots were designed to do. But in some regard, the Millidelta’s size is a big advantage and its ability to fold up in origami fashion make it ideal for conserving space.

“Smaller robots, and devices in general, generally have a higher mechanical bandwidth, meaning that they can perform trajectories at higher speeds and accelerations relative to larger robots,” Robert Wood, a Harvard engineer whose team designed the Millidelta, told Digital Trends.

The Millidelta isn’t the first miniaturized form of the popular Delta design. In fact, roboticists have been scaling down the design for years in an effort to fit the devices into small workspaces, but have struggled to make them at millimeter scale using conventional manufacturing methods.

In a paper recently published in the journal Science Robotics, Wood and his team demonstrate how their fabrication technique enables them to develop the Millidelta at such a small scale. Known as pop-up microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), the manufacturing technique can create complex structure from flat pieces of material. The researchers have previously used the technique to develop a small flying machine called the Robobee.

The Millidelta’s speed advantage is the most tantalizing result from the recent study, according to the team which develop the robot.

“The most exciting result for us is the high bandwidth that the Millidelta is able to achieve,” Hayley McClintock, a Harvard researcher who helped design the device, said. “Currently available Delta robots are only able to operate at a few hertz, so for our robot to be able to draw circles at frequencies up to 75 Hz is quite impressive.”

Outside the lab, the Millidelta may find a number of uses, from small-scale assembly to microsurgeries, which Wood said, “would benefit from high-speed and precise motion.”

“I think the next step is to narrow down an application or two and refine what are the required specifications,” he added. “Once we have that it would be fairly straightforward to modify the design and integrate with the rest of the system components, for example, power and control electronics.”

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Bring new life to your aging tech with this $10 Aukey Bluetooth receiver

Bring your old tech to the current day.

As the year’s pass technology continues to adopt Bluetooth, but if you have some older gear hanging around you may not be able to take advantage of the wireless future. Luckily there are ways around this, and one of them is Aukey’s Bluetooth receiver. Right now you can grab one for just $9.91 at Amazon when you use the coupon code WYF6SCC5 during checkout. This saves you just over $6 from its regular selling price.

So, what does it do? Well, it’s quite simple. You can plug this device into your car to stream music from your phone through the aux jack in your vehicle, or you can plug your favorite set of wired headphones into it and then stream music from your phone that doesn’t have a headphone jack.

Aukey backs this with a 24 month warranty.

See at Amazon

The Amazon Alexa app now lets you use Alexa voice commands

Alexa’s latest home is the Alexa app.

Up until now, Alexa’s presence on Android has been a bit confusing. Phones like the Huawei Mate 9, HTC U11, and Moto X4 have the assistant built right into them, and last summer, Amazon rolled out Alexa to the Amazon Shopping app. Now, Alexa is getting a more fitting home inside of, well, the Alexa app.

The Alexa app has been a free download on Android since the launch of the first Amazon Echo, but you’ve never actually been able to use Alexa within the app. Instead, it’s always acted as a hub for your Alexa lists, music control, etc. However, according to Android Police, Amazon will soon be updating the Alexa app so that you can tap an icon and perform all of the Alexa voice commands you’ve come to know and love.

This might be exciting news for Amazon superfans, but for most folks, this likely isn’t anything that’ll change your life. You’ll still have to open up the Alexa app and tap the icon as saying “Alexa” doesn’t do anything, and if this is the case, you might as well just use Alexa in the Amazon Shopping app that you probably already have.

Amazon’s adding this new functionality to the Alexa app over the coming days, but I’ve already got it on my Pixel 2 with client version 1.24.3555.0 and bridge version 2.2.1010.0 of the app.

Or, you know, just use Google Assistant.

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Spotify’s ‘Spotlight’ feature adds a visual touch to podcasts and news

Spotlight adds the visual component to Spotify you never knew you wanted.

Like a lot of you reading this, Spotify is my go-to app for listening to music. However, do a little bit of digging and you’ll see that it has a lot more to offer than just your favorite tunes. Spotify is also home to a wide range of podcasts covering just about every topic you could imagine, and these will soon become even better with a new feature called “Spotlight.”

With Spotlight, podcasts will now feature visual components such as text, images, and videos to give you more context about what it is you’re listening to.

Podcasts using Spotlight will be featured in their own special playlists, and Spotify is first partnering with BuzzFeed News, Cheddar, Crooked Media, Lenny Letter, Gimlet Media, Genius, The Minefield Girl, Refinery29, and Uninterrupted as the brands that’ll help launch it.

Spotlight is launching first in the United States, and “additional markets” will follow in the future.

Spotify is testing a sleeker and less cluttered UI for its Android app

Duncan Jones’ sci-fi movie ‘Mute’ debuts on Netflix February 23rd

Duncan Jones’ next movie won’t be coming to theaters — it’s going straight to streaming. The Moon and Warcraft director has revealed that his long-in-the-making sci-fi film noire, Mute, will premiere on Netflix February 23rd. The movie is set in a future Berlin where a mute bartender (played by Alexander Skarsgård) has to trust a pair of American surgeons (led by Paul Rudd) as he tracks down a disappeared woman. Justin Theroux also stars. There’s no trailer yet, but in many ways the effort taken to release the movie is the hook — Netflix is giving Jones a chance that might not have come up through conventional formats.

As Jones noted, Mute is his “Don Quixote.” It was supposed to be his first movie (he had a first draft in 2003), but it got pushed back for a number of reasons. Sam Rockwell was supposed to play a role, but Jones’ insistence on different casting led him to write Moon to give Rockwell a lead (Mute is a sort of spiritual follow-up to Moon). And after that, it “kept being pushed back to the back burner” — Source Code, the cancers of his dad (David Bowie) and wife, and other factors led him to sideline the movie and try for a Mute graphic novel that itself didn’t pan out.

Netflix was, effectively, Jones’ savior. He described it as an avenue for making movies that creators are “passionate about,” rather than”homogenous blobs” intended to cater to absolutely everybody. The internet giant thrives on niche productions, and was willing to take a chance. It certainly helps that Jones is an accomplished filmmaker who can bring well-known actors to his work, but it’s clear that Mute’s odds of release wouldn’t as been as high if Jones had pushed for conventional distribution.

Netflix clearly has reasons to be optimistic about Mute’s success. The streaming giant has been making a big push into exclusive movies with top-notch talent, and that strategy has already paid off with the success of Bright. It doesn’t always need blockbuster viewership — it just needs enough interest to recoup its investment and draw in would-be subscribers. Should Mute be even modestly popular, it could also attract other directors who feel that theatrical releases have too many creative and financial hurdles.

So here we are.@mute. Starring Alex Skarsgård, Justin Theroux & Paul Rudd.

Out on Netflix February 23.

Got there in the end! pic.twitter.com/rmCE65ghcN

— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 19, 2018

Source: Duncan Jones (Twitter)