‘A Normal Lost Phone’ arrives on Nintendo Switch March 1st

A Normal Lost Phone is the kind of indie game that seizes a tricky niche (mobile gaming) and leans into the form factor for a unique experience — a Gone Home or Life Is Strange that takes place entirely within a mock phone interface. The game will lose that skeuomorphic novelty when it arrives on Nintendo Switch on March 1st, but will be able to reach players on a console increasingly known for indie titles.

Like other character-driven games, A Normal Lost Phone is best explored without spoilers. But some critics felt the central conceit — picking up a stranger’s phone, poking around their texts and photos and then sending personal information to other characters — presented ethical challenges.

The game aims to deliver a unique LGBTQ narrative, and the team received developmental input from members of that community. But it was criticized for forcing the player to expose details about its queer central character without their permission, a serious breach of privacy during a deeply personal process.

But if you want to explore “A relatable story that helps build empathy with the characters, which allows difficult topics to be explored,” as the game is described, it will arrive in the Nintendo eShop on March 1st.

Source: Nintendo

Asus ZenBook 13 vs. Dell XPS 13

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Although you can find many great budget laptops out there today, the sweet spot in laptop pricing and hardware, as far as we’re concerned, is just north of $1,000. There are some truly stellar entries in that ballpark, including our favorite for the past few years, the Dell XPS 13. But there are always pretenders gunning for that throne and Asus has a new potential competitor that has us intrigued.

In this head to head, we’ll pit the Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UN vs. Dell XPS 13, to see which comes out on top in all of the most important categories.

To see how the new Dell XPS 13 measures up against the larger Dell XPS 15 2-in-1, check out our comparison between the two.

Specifications

Asus Zenbook 13 UX331UN

Dell XPS 13

Dimensions
12.2 x 8.5 x 0.55 inches
11.9 x 7.8 x 0.46 inches (0.3 at thinnest)

Weight
2.47 pounds
 2.67 pounds

Processor
8th Generation Intel Core i5, i7
8th Generation Intel Core i5, i7

RAM
8GB or 16GB
4GB, 8GB or 16GB

Graphics
Intel HD 620 or Nvidia MX150 with 2GB GDDR5
Intel HD 620

Display
13.3-inch wide-wide angle (touch optional)
13.3-inch InfinityEdge

Resolution
1080P or 4K
1080P or 4K

Storage
128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB SSD (PCIe optional)
256GB, 512GB, 1TB SSD (PCIe optional)

Networking
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2

Ports
USB-C, 2 x USB-A, HDMI, headset, microSD
USB-C, 2 x Thunderbolt 3, Headset, microSD

Webcam
VGA webcam
720P webcam

Operating System
Windows 10
Windows 10

Battery
50 watt-hours
52 watt-hours

Price
$1,000+
$1,000+

Availability
Now
Now

Review
Full review: 7/10
Hands-on

Design

Asus’ laptops have never been the most striking. Even its recent entries haven’t done much to change that, though it does appear to have taken some measures to improve the aesthetics of its new ZenBook 13 to bring it more in line with its pricing. With some subtle tweaks to the angling, a reduction in bezel size and a new, matt finish to the dark blue paint job, it certainly looks better than previous entries in this range.

The Dell XPS, on the other hand, is arguably one of the best looking laptops available today. Its latest refresh is slightly flatter and looks far more modern than its predecessors. It’s soft-touch, carbon fiber interior is still lovely to look at and feels great. Its bezels are thinner than ever too, practically making it an edge-to-edge display, which is more than can be said for the new Zenbook, despite its new slimmer design.

Both laptops are trim elsewhere too, although the XPS 13 just pips the ZenBook 13 there too, coming in a few fractions of an inch shorter and thinner. The ZenBook does manage to undercut the competition on weight though, shedding 0.2 of a pound compared to the Dell design. That weight loss may come at the expense of frame stability, as we noticed some flex in the display during our hands-on.

Elsewhere in the designs, the ZenBook 13 has a little more port flexibility with the inclusion of two USB-A ports, as well as an HDMI output that supports up to HDMI 1.4. There’s no Thunderbolt 3 support though and the webcam is only VGA, compared to the 720P version that the XPS 13 sports.

Although both designs have their perks, the overall look and feel of the XPS 13 is hard to beat, even if the ZenBook’s legacy ports give it a little more connectivity flexibility.

Winner: XPS 13

Hardware

Although the configuration options for both the Asus ZenBook 13 and Dell XPS 13 are similar, there are some notable differences that are worth considering. Both systems offer eighth-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 CPUs (8250U and 8550U respectively) and up to 16GB of RAM, though the base version of the XPS 13 comes with 4GB. The ZenBook starts with 8GB.

Storage options are a little more varied with the UX331UN, starting at 128GB of M.2 solid state storage (SSD), but both systems offer up to 1TB, with an optional PCIe drive.

The biggest difference between the two is in the graphics department. Where the Dell XPS 13 offers no additional graphics support beyond the on board Intel HD 620 chip included with the processor, Asus offers an Nvidia MX150 with 2GB of GDDR5. That’s not a particularly powerful graphics chip, typically comparable to a desktop GTX 1030, but it’s significantly more powerful than Intel HD graphics — even if it’s throttled a bit.

All things considered, both systems should perform comparably in typical Windows tasks, but with the additional oomph of a dedicated graphics processor, even a slightly limited one, the ZenBook 13 should be the more powerful system with 3D applications and gaming.

Winner: ZenBook 13 

Display

The XPS 13 offers two resolution options for laptop displays: A standard 1080P, full-HD panel and a much more detailed, 4K choice, which gives both laptops native support for the latest consumer media source. Whichever resolution you opt for though, both come in the 13.3-inch form factor and have fantastic color accuracy — it’s some of the best we’ve ever seen on a display outside of a MacBook Pro.

The ZenBook 13, on the other hand, only offers a 1080p display — and it didn’t fare quite as well in our testing. It loses to the XPS 13 in pretty much every category, ranging from contrast ratio to color accuracy.

Winner: XPS 13

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Portability

Portable laptops need to be compact, lightweight and have plenty of battery life and both the XPS 13 and ZenBook 13 have all those in spades. The physical dimensions are a bit of a toss up, as though the ZenBook is the slightly lighter notebook, it’s not by enough of a margin that general usage will make it too noticeable. Likewise, the XPS 13, although smaller, is not so much so that it’s going to make an enormous difference to your day.

The kicker is likely to come in terms of battery life. Although there are only a few watt-hour difference between the batteries that both laptops employ, claimed battery life is a little different. Asus claims that the Zenbook 13 can offer up to 14-hours battery life. While that’s stellar, it’s not as much as Dell’s claimed 19-hours. Whether neither top the Surface Book 2, the XPS 13 wins out over over the ZenBook 13, giving it the overall edge in portability.

Winner: XPS 13

Price and availability

Arguably the most important category, nothing else matters if a product is too expensive or hard to find. This is where the Asus laptop could really give Dell a run for its money, as both systems start out at $1,000.  The ZenBook has a substantially more attractive configuration at that price point. For your money you get a Core i5-8250U CPU, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and the distinctive MX150 graphics chip. The XPS 13 in comparison, has the same CPU, but just 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and just onboard Intel HD 620 graphics.

You only need to bump up your budget by $150 to get the same sort of hardware — sans the MX150 graphics chip — with the XPS 13, but it’s still the more expensive option. The 2017 Dell XPS 13 is an alternative, as it can be purchased for as little as $800, but that does come with older hardware.

With all that in mind, at the time of writing, the above configuration of the ZenBook 13 UX331UN is the only one available. Even still, you get a better deal with the ZenBook 13, especially if you want to be able to play games on the side.

Winner: ZenBook 13

Close, but no cigar

It’s rare that a laptop can come close to toppling our long-running mid-range laptop champion and the ZenBook 13 UX331UN made a valiant effort. With a discrete graphics chip nestled inside its newly trim design, decent battery life, and display options, it came closer than most to becoming our new favorite. The GPU is certainly a distinguishing factor, but without the

However, the overall package just isn’t quite enough to sway us. Although the XPS 13 appears to be the more expensive offering right now, its wider array of (buyable) hardware options, its better-designed chassis and weight distribution, its new look and feel, and stellar battery life, mean it’s not leaving its cozy spot in our hearts just yet.

Overall winner: Dell XPS 13

Editors’ Recommendations

• Asus ZenBook 13 UX331 billed as the ‘thinnest laptop with discrete graphics’
• Dell XPS 13 vs. Asus ZenBook 13: Two thin and light 13-inch notebooks face off
• Dell XPS 13 vs. Dell XPS 15 2-in-1
• The best Dell XPS 13 cases, sleeves, and bags for every occasion
• Asus ZenBook 13 (2018) review

Asus ZenBook 13 vs. HP Spectre 13

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

One of the more striking developments in PCs has been the continued evolution of the Windows 10 thin-and-light notebook. Once dubbed “Ultrabooks,” these machines started out as a response to both the Apple MacBook Air and the modern smartphone and tablet — and they’ve gotten increasingly excellent over time. While 2-in-1s have gained some attention lately, manufacturers are still pumping out great notebooks that are easy on the back and slide easily into a backpack.

One of the most striking recent examples is the HP Spectre 13, a very thin and light notebook that’s notable for its exceedingly good looks. But Asus has a trick up its sleeve with its latest ZenBook 13 — a discrete GPU that pumps up the graphics performance. We put together an Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UN vs HP Spectre 13 cage-match to see if elegant design can trump pure performance.

Asus ZenBook 13

HP Spectre 13

Dimensions
12.2 x 8.5 x 0.55 (in)
12.03 x 8.83 x 0.41 in

Weight
Starts at 2.47 pounds
2.45 pounds

Keyboard
Full-size backlit keyboard
Full-size backlit keyboard

Processor
Eighth-generation Intel Core i5
Up to eighth-generation Intel Core i7

RAM
8GB RAM
Up to 16GB

Graphics
Intel UHD 620
Nvidia GeForce MX150
Intel UHD 620

Display
13.5-inch IPS Display
13.3-inch IPS display

Resolution
Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 or 160 PPI)
Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 or 160 PPI)
4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160 or 331 PPI)

Storage
256GB SATA SSD
Up to 1TBGB PCIe SSD

Networking
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1

Connectivity
2 x USB-A 3.0, 1 x USB-C 3.1, 1 x HDMI, microSD card reader, 3.5mm combo jack
2 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 3, 1 x USB-C 3.1, 3.5mm combo jack

Windows Hello
Fingerprint reader
Infrared facial recognition
Fingerprint scanner

Operating System
Windows 10
Windows 10

Battery
50 watt-hour
43.7 watt-hour

Price
$1,000
$1,080+

Availability
Coming soon
Now

Review
Full review: 7/10
Full review: 8/10

Design

With the latest HP Spectre 13, the company took an already sleek, modern notebook and turned up the aesthetics while shaving off some millimeters. The result is a very thin (0.41 inches) and light (2.45 pounds) machine with tiny bezels and a svelte chassis, and a design that’s incredibly striking. It’s available in two colors, the previously available Ash Silver (really dark gray) and Chrome Luxe scheme and the new Ceramic White and Pale Gold, and both are simply lovely.

The ZenBook 13 follows along with its other ZenBook siblings, adopting a similar Royal Blue color and iconic concentric circle pattern on the lid. This time, though, Asus utilized a special nano-imprinting lithography (NIL) technique to lay on a special ultraviolet coating that’s cured to a hard, glass-like finish over the anodized metal surface. The result is an attractive notebook that’s still relatively conservative. It’s a bit thicker than the HP at 0.55 inches, but it’s almost identically weighted at 2.47 pounds.

Where the two machines are somewhat similar is in their build quality. They’re both nicely made, and they’re both a bit bendy in the lid. The HP, however, manages to remain more rigid in the keyboard deck thanks to the carbon fiber bottom complete the otherwise all-aluminum chassis. The all-aluminum ZenBook 13, on the other hand has far more keyboard flex and the bottom can also be depressed with relatively light pressure.

That makes the HP Spectre 13 not only the more rigid notebook but also the more handsome. It wins this round handily.

Winner: HP Spectre 13

Performance

Both the HP Spectre 13 and the ZenBook 13 utilize the quad-core eighth-generation Intel Core processor, with Asus choosing the Core i5-7250U and HP going with the Core i7-8550U. Regarding CPU performance, therefore, the Spectre 13 has the edge, but it’s not terribly significantly. Both machines are powerful productivity notebooks that can tackle both typical and more demanding tasks.

The ZenBook 13, however, has the distinction of being the “world’s thinnest notebook with discrete graphics,” as Asus puts it. Yes, the notebook has more than just the usual Intel UHD graphics you’ll find in such a thin and light machine — it also squeezes in an Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU. While that’s a distinctly entry-level graphics chip, it’s significantly faster than integrated graphics and can run some modern titles on low graphics settings.

At the same time, HP opted for a much faster PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) for the Spectre 13, whic his significantly faster than the SATA SSD that’s in the ZenBook 13. That means opening and saving files will be faster on the Specre 13.

Overall, the ZenBook 13 is going to be able to act as a more performant gaming system, and it’s also going to be able to more quickly churn through creative tasks that can utilize the GPU, such as photo and video editing. It’s the clear performance winner.

Winner: Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UN

Keyboard, Mouse, and Pen

Sometimes, an incredibly thin notebook like the HP Spectre 13 compromises on the keyboard, suffering from short travel and a typing-on-a-block-of-wood effect (MacBook, we’re looking at you). That’s not the case with the Spectre 13, though — the keyboard has 1.3mm of key travel that feels like more, and a light and precise bottoming action that provides plenty of snap. The touchpad is large and fits the display’s dimensions, but it’s not a Microsoft Precision version and so isn’t quite as responsive.

The ZenBook 13’s keyboard has a similiar 1.4mm of key travel, but it feels like less. It’s saved somewhat by a firm bottoming action that avoids a mushy feel and allows for some accuracy. It’s a good keyboard, but not as comfortable as the Spectre 13. The touchpad, though, is both larger and, as it supports the Microsoft Precision protocol, more precise.

Both notebooks have touch displays, but only the ZenBook 13 supports an active pen. Whether that’s a huge advantage depends on whether you like writing on an upright notebook display. In terms of Windows 10 Hello password-less login goes, the Spectre 13 supports both infrared facial scanning and a responsive fingerprint scanner, while the ZenBook 13 relies on your fingerprint alone.

We do like a good keyboard, and here the Spectre 13 is a standout — it really does have a nice keyboard for such an incredibly thin notebook. The ZenBook 13’s touchpad is better, but not nearly as much so, giving the HP the win.

Winner: HP Spectre 13

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Connectivity

The HP Spectre 13 has every port you could want, as long as it’s USB-C. Yes, that’s right: if you want to plug in any kind of legacy device, you’ll need a dongle. However, two of the ports support Thunderbolt 3, and so you have tremendous options for connecting external displays, superfast accessories, and external GPUs. That’s a real plus.

The Asus ZenBook 13 is far more legacy-friendly. It has two USB-A 3.0 ports and a full-size HDMI port to go with a single USB-C connection that does not support Thunderbolt 3. And so in a sense, Asus took the opposite approach to HP in terms of legacy versus future peripheral support.

Both notebooks support 2×2 MU-MIMO 802.11ac W-Fi and Bluetooth support, of course, while only the ZenBook 13 has a microSD card reader. In the end, we’re challenged to award a winner here. We like Thunderbolt 3, and we like lots of ports with legacy support. Neither notebook has both, though, and so we’re going to take the easy way out and assign this one a tie.

Winner: Tie

Display

Both the Spectre 13 and the ZenBook 13 have 13.3-inch Full HD displays, and so they’re equally sharp. Both are also relatively closely matched in terms of color gamut, color accuracy, and gamma (how light or dark the display is compared to source material). The only material differences between the two according to our colorimeter are brightness, where the ZenBook 13 slightly wins out, and contrast, where the Spectre 13 is a little bit better.

In real-life use, you’d have a difficult time picking out which display belongs to with notebook. They’re both average for the premium notebook space, but that’s actually a good thing given how great displays have become over the last several years. However, here’s the kicker: HP offers a 4K UHD display option for the Spectre 13, meaning that if you’re a pixel peeper and you want extremely sharp text and graphics, then HP has you covered. Asus, unfortunately, only offers the ZenBook 13 with a Full HD display, to its detriment. That’s worth a win for HP in our book.

Winner: HP Spectre 13

Portability and Battery Life

As mentioned in the design section, the Spectre 13 and the ZenBook 13 are almost exactly the same weight. However, the HP is significantly thinner, and it has very small bezels and so its chassis is also slightly smaller. Neither notebook takes up too much space in a backpack, but the Spectre 13 just takes up less.

But that’s only half the battle. The other half is how long each notebook can last away from a charger. That’s determined by a few factors, including battery capacity, and here the ZenBook 13 wins out with 50 watt-hours of capacity versus the Spectre 13’s 43.7 watt-hours.

In testing, the Asus’s larger battery generally wins out. At least, that was the case on our most aggressive web benchmark test where the ZenBook 13 lasted an hour longer and in our web browsing test where it lasted for three hours longer. The Spectre 13 was able to last for a half hour longer when looping our test video.

In the end, we think that battery life trumps a design that’s only thinner and slightly smaller in overall dimensions. The ZenBook 13 is going to keep you working longer, and that’s well worth a real win for Asus.

Winner: Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UN

Availability and Price

HP has a variety of configurations avaialble for the Spectre 13, ranging from a Core i5-8250U, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB PCIe SSD for $1,300 (currently $1,080 on sale) up to a Core i7-8550U, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe SSD, and an upgrade to 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160) display for $2,210 (currently $1,900 on sale). That’s firmly in premium notebook territory.

The ZenBook 13 only has one configuration at the moment, however. That’s a Core i5-8250U, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SATA SSD for $1,000. That, too, is premium notebook territory — though with a discrete GPU, that’s not such a bad deal.

We’re disappointed with the lack of options that Asus is providing with the ZenBook 13. Having options for 16GB of RAM and a larger SSD, not to mention a 4K display, would let users take much better advantage of that discrete GPU. While ZenBook 13’s retail price is lower than the Specre 13’s entry-level price, HP often has sales that bring the prices much closer together.

We like options, and we like the ability to flesh out a more powerful notebook. Therefore, HP gets the win for giving us what we want.

Winner: HP Spectre 13

The ZenBook 13’s power overcomes the Spectre 13’s better design

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

This was a tough one. The HP Spectre 13 is a gorgeous notebook that performs very well and has an excellent keyboard. It’s also highly configurable, up to all of the RAM, storage space, and display sharpness that you could want in such a machine.

The ZenBook 13 has better battery life and it also sports a useful discrete GPU that makes it the more powerful notebook overall. It’s also well designed and very thin and light, even if it slightly falls behind the HP in this regard.

We’re not happy with being unable to choose a ZenBook 13 with just 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. But nevertheless, we have to give some kudos for Asus for packing in more power at such a low price point — so we’re giving it the slightest of wins in this shootout.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Asus ZenBook 13 vs. Dell XPS 13
• HP Spectre 13 (2017) review
• Dell XPS 13 vs. MacBook Pro 13
• Dell XPS 13 vs. Asus ZenBook 13: Two thin and light 13-inch notebooks face off
• Asus ZenBook 13 (2018) review

Intel is working hard to bring 5G technology to mobile PCs

As is so often the case with technology, just as you’re getting used to 4G LTE networking on your phone there’s new 5G network technology on its way. The new 5G networks, which all four major U.S. carriers are supporting, will bring faster theoretical speeds up to five gigabits per second and real-world speeds approaching hundreds of gigabits per second. On Thursday, February 22, Intel announced its own 5G modem to PCs to enable incredibly fast computing on the go.

Specifically, Intel announced that it is working with Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Microsoft on notebook PCs that will build on the Intel XMM 8000 series of 5G modems. Carrier networks are not likely to be fully implemented until 2020, and these PCs should hit the market just prior to that in late 2019. Once they arrive, PC users will have access to incredibly fast networking that is more likely to maintain speeds in congested areas, while making the “always connected” PC an even more compelling concept.

If you’re attending Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain starting on Monday, February 26, then you will be among the first to see an early prototype detachable 2-in-1 with the 5G modem installed. The machine will utilize an eighth-generation Intel Core i5 processor and will be aimed at highlighting the performance improvements that 5G technology will bring to PCs, such as untethered virtual reality anywhere a user might go.

Intel isn’t alone in pushing 5G technology as Qualcomm and a host of companies are looking to put out 5G smartphones within the same timeframe. The difference is that Intel is naturally focusing on the PC and is bringing a few other technologies that will enhance the 5G rollout on that platform. For example, the company will be showing off the next major iteration of Wi-Fi, 802.11ax, which enhances manageability and network efficiency, along with eSIM functionality that will allow PCs to access carrier networks without a physical SIM card.

If you’re attending MWC 2018, you definitely want to stop by Intel’s booth to check out their 5G technologies. Otherwise, just stop by Digital Trends for all of the up-to-date information on this compelling new network.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X24 will likely be its last LTE modem
• These 19 companies will offer 5G devices by 2019. Where’s Apple?
• Verizon gets serious about 5G, plans to launch in homes in 2018
• AT&T names first three cities chosen to receive 5G networks by the end of 2018
• Gigabit LTE will give your current phone insane speeds. Here’s how it works

Robinhood lures digital coin traders from Coinbase with a free service

Robinhood Markets is now offering a service called Robinhood Crypto for the commission-free trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum digital currencies. The company is currently rolling out its Robinhood Crypto platform in California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, and New Hampshire and plans to launch the service in other states in the near future.  

Founded in 2013, the California-based company provides means for investors to purchase stock and trade investment funds without the need to pay a commission. In return for using this service, Robinhood Markets generates revenue from interest earned from margin lending and cash balances. To reduce its overhead, the company doesn’t provide customer-facing offices or analytical tools. 

“We believe that the financial system should help the rest of us, not just the wealthy,” the company says. “We’ve cut the fat that makes other brokerages costly, like manual account management and hundreds of storefront locations, so we can offer zero-commission trading.” 

Robinhood provides a mobile app for Android, Apple Watch, and iPhone to purchase and sell stocks listed on U.S.-based exchanges. It’s also rolling out a web-based version with a current waiting list of 1,088,614 potential users, and a free options trading service with a current waiting line of 578,290 potential customers. Both are rolling out in waves throughout 2018. 

According to Robinhood, around four million individuals use its free service, saving more than $1 billion in commission costs. But the company also serves up a “gold” version that lends out money strictly for purchasing stock; cryptocurrency is not an option. It’s a margin account, thus your gains and losses increase. And while you’re not charged for transactions, interest, or other fees, you are required to pay a monthly fee to pay for the money you borrow. 

Robinhood’s current foundation powers its new cryptocurrency trading service. And while Robinhood Crypto only enables trading of Bitcoins and Ethereum in just five states, you can pull up the mobile app and track the market data of 16 cryptocurrencies. For instance, you can see that the current price for a Bitcoin is $9,910.44, down around six percent over the last 24 hours. 

“Over the past few weeks, we’ve been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm towards Robinhood Crypto and are excited to contribute to the cryptocurrency community in a meaningful way,” the company said. 

In addition to Robinhood Crypto, the company also introduced Robinhood Feed, a means to chat with other Robinhood-based investors in real-time regarding market swings, news, and cryptocurrencies. But like the new Crypto platform, the rollout is limited. Only a small number of people can use the platform, for now, to provide feedback and help evolve the real-time chat client for a wider release. 

Robinhood and other online brokers are causing ripples across the stock-trading market. Due to their commission-free trading, Charles Schwab reduced its per-trade commission to $5 after Fidelity’s per-trade fee fell from $8 to $5. Meanwhile, Interactive Brokers charges a $1 fee per trade, one of the cheapest trading fees you will find on the internet. Before brokers like Robinhood began offering free transactions, the per-share trade fee averaged around $7. 

Editors’ Recommendations

• Cryptocurrency not an ideal long-term investment, warns Ethereum co-founder
• The best bitcoin alternatives
• Ethereum vs. bitcoin: What’s the difference?
• CryptoCelebs: Famous people who’ve bought the cryptocurrency craze
• What is Litecoin? Here’s everything you need to know

HP’s first Qualcomm-powered PC, the HP Envy X2, is available for pre-order

Among the first of Qualcomm’s new Always Connected PCs, the HP Envy X2 is now available for pre-order, and its hardware suggests this laptop could live up to Qualcomm’s lofty promises of super-long battery life and always-on connectivity.

The new HP Envy 2-in-1 features a touchscreen display, support for an included stylus, and a removable soft-touch keyboard cover. On the surface, it looks, well, like a Microsoft Surface. But the Envy’s hardware makes it something a little more unusual.

Instead of an Intel Core processor like we usually see on 2-in-1s, the HP Envy X2 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with a 2.2GHz base clock and eight physical cores. For graphics, it features a Qualcomm Adreno 540 GPU, and that glossy touchscreen is a 12.3-inch IPS display with a max resolution of 1,920 x 1,280. The Envy X2 also boasts 4GB of RAM, a 128GB solid state drive, and a 3-cell 49.33 Watt-hour battery.

Additionally, the Envy X2 features a USB Type-C port, one nano-SIM card slot, a MicroSD card reader, and a 5MP front-facing camera, with a 13MP rear-facing camera. It will come in at 1.54 pounds, and it should be 0.27-inches thick at its thinnest point. The Envy X2 will be running Windows 10 S when it ships, despite the changes rumored to be coming to that particular platform.

Overall the HP Envy X2 is positioned to be a solid competitor for other $1,000 laptops and 2-in-1s, provided Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors live up to their promises. Speaking of promises, HP claims the battery on the Envy X2 will not only see you through an entire workday, but it could see you through a couple workdays on a single charge — HP quotes its battery max life at 22 hours, or 19 hours of video playback.

Those are some bold claims for a 2-in-1 that will be among the first of its kind, but it falls in line with what we’ve already heard from Qualcomm about the capabilities of these new Always Connected PCs — long battery life, constant connectivity provided by a robust LTE connection. It’s available now for pre-order starting at $1,000, with an estimated ship date of March 9. It will ship with a one-year limited hardware warranty.

Editors’ Recommendations

• HP Envy x2 (2017) hands-on review
• Best Qualcomm-powered laptops of CES 2018
• HP Envy x2 Hands-on Review
• Lenovo Miix 630 hands-on review
• Super-efficient Windows laptops powered by Qualcomm phone chips are here

Gaming without a GPU has never been easier, here’s how we did it

Like tropical birds, gaming laptops are bright, flashy, and not always an affordable or sensible purchase. I mean where do you even put a bird? Can it just chill in your living room or does it need a cage? Anyway, gaming laptops. They’re expensive, they run hot, and for everyday use you don’t usually need all that extra horsepower.

That doesn’t mean you’re out of luck when it comes to gaming though, the integrated graphics you have right there in your work laptop can get the job done if you’re careful with your settings — and your game selection.

Testing conditions

To get an idea for how you should tune your settings on laptops running integrated graphics, we tested each of the games below on Asus Zenbook UX330UA with an 8th-generation Intel Core i5-8250U and integrated Intel UHD 620 graphics, and a Surface Pro 4 running a 6th-generation Intel Core i5-6300U with integrated Intel HD 520 graphics.

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Surface Pro 4

Asus Zenbook UX330UA

These systems represent a cross-section of the kinds of onboard graphics you’re going to find in an everyday work laptop, or student laptop. If we can get games to run smoothly on these systems, chances are you’ll be able to apply the same strategies to improve performance on your laptop.

Hearthstone, Gwent, and Duelyst

To be perfectly honest there are more games you can play on integrated graphics than we can list in a single article of reasonable length. Seriously, go have a look at any Steam sale and you’ll see dozens of games that fit the bill. Instead, we’re going to focus on a few popular games to give you an idea of how they perform on integrated graphics, and what kinds of tweaks you should make to get the most out of them.

First up, Blizzard’s flagship collectible-card game Hearthstone. We didn’t have much trouble getting Hearthstone to run, even on a barebones last-generation Microsoft Surface Pro. Thing is, basically any computer made in the last four years or so can play Hearthstone without too much trouble. You just need an internet connection and decent battery life. Just look at the minimum requirements: Intel Pentium D, or AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2GB of RAM, and just 3GB of hard drive space.

Hearthstone

On the Asus Zenbook UX330UA, with Intel UHD 620 integrated graphics, we saw a consistent 30 FPS average at 1080p, even on Hearthstone’s High graphical preset. As a turn-based game, FPS isn’t as important as it is in the other games on our list, but it’s nice that you can crank it up and not worry about causing your system any serious distress.

There are a few things you can do to improve your performance on an older device, even with a low-impact game like Hearthstone.

Unless your system is a Surface Pro 4. At the highest settings in Hearthstone we encountered some slowdown when there were a lot of cards on-screen — or when a bunch of effects were triggered at once. To mitigate that, we have a couple tricks.

There are a few things you can do to improve your performance if you’re running an older device like the Surface Pro 4, even with a low-impact game like Hearthstone.

First, open your options and turn the quality preset to Low. I know, it’s not going to look as nice, but it’ll feel a lot smoother and run better overall.

Second, and this is something we wouldn’t recommend with a more action-oriented game, try running Hearthstone in windowed-mode with a resolution just below your display’s maximum resolution — for 1080p displays, that’ll be 720p. The window will look great, you can also quickly hide it behind a web browser or a spreadsheet so your boss doesn’t see optimizing your Warlock deck on company time.

If you’re a little tired of Hearthstone or you want to give a new card game a try, these tricks also work on CD Projekt Red’s Gwent and Counterplay’s Duelyst. Like Hearthstone they’re free-to-play PC games, so there are no upfront costs in just trying them out.

Gwent

Gwent in particular, is newer than Hearthstone so it’s a bit more demanding, but not by much, check out the minimum requirements: Intel Celeron G1820 or AMD A4-7300, an Nvidia GeForce GT 710, and 4.5GB of disk space. Chances are your PC can run it just fine without a GPU, but just in case head into the graphics settings, turn on windowed mode, downscale your resolution and you’re good to go. Same deal for Duelyst, which suggests you have at least a 1.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 and an Nvidia GeForce 600-series graphics card with at least 2GB of memory. The minium requirements are low enough that you should be just fine with the tips we outlined for Hearthstone.

Rocket League

If you’re looking for a good game for a lower-end system or work laptop, you really can’t do better than Rocket League. The video settings are pared down to the barest of minimums, laying it all out for you under the headings of High Quality, Quality, Performance, and High Performance. It’s an elegant way to break down typically obtuse graphical settings. On top of that, Rocket League is surprisingly lightweight for such a good-looking game.

Rocket League is also a notoriously competitive game, so sometimes visuals take a backseat to a high FPS. Luckily, the in-game video settings are varied enough that it’s easy to get what you want out of the game’s performance.

For the more competitive-minded player, you’re going to have to dig deep to max out your framerate on integrated graphics. The highest FPS we were able to hit on average, 88 FPS, came at significant cost to visuals. To get there, all you need to do is head to Video menu, turn both render quality and detail quality boxes to High Performance and Performance, respectively. Then step your resolution down to 720p.

The game looks real rough at these settings, but we managed an average of 88 FPS on the Asus Zenbook. That’s impressive for a humble Intel UHD integrated graphics chip. Quick enough that you can play in competitive matches, even if your game does look a bit drab.

If you’d rather your game still retain a bit eye candy, just go ahead and step that resolution back up to 1080p. We saw a consistent 35 FPS at the Quality preset in 1080p. Taking some deeper cuts into the graphical detail, we hit a surprisingly high average of 54 FPS at the Performance preset. Stepping up to Quality, we saw 35 FPS on average, and at High Quality our FPS dropped to 22 FPS.

Performance

Quality

So, for most systems without discrete graphics cards, the Performance preset at 1080p is a great starting point. It offers a quick framerate for competitive games but enough visual fidelity that your car’s tricked out rims will still sparkle.

Heroes of the Storm

There are dozens of different MOBAs on the market right now, and most of them are free to play. Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm isn’t as lightweight and quick-on-its feet as Riot Games’ League of Legends, which is why we chose it for our benchmarks. It’s a little more intensive, and at the highest settings it can make even mid-range gaming rigs start to chug. The minimum requirements are pretty low — Intel Core 2 Duo, or AMD Athlon 64, GeForce 7600 GT, 2GB of RAM and 10 GB of disk space — but it should be more than a sufficient challenge for our humble Asus Zenbook and Surface Pro 4.

Heroes does a decent job of guessing which video preset you should use, but for our purposes be sure you set everything back to Low. When you do this, make sure you take a look at the texture detail setting on the right-hand side here, and set that to Low also.

Running Heroes at 1080p on these settings our Zenbook saw an average FPS of about 113. That’s definitely high enough to contend with any slowdown or frame loss you’ll see in an action-packed competitive game with abilities going off left and right. For a game like Heroes, the visual detail you lose here is pretty minimal overall. At high settings you will see a lot more fine detail in the game world and the ability effects, but your framerate will take a substantial hit. At high settings, the Zenbook managed an average of 31 FPS. It’s playable, but during spikes of activity like teamfights, the game slowed down significantly, making it hard to land attacks accurately.

We saw very similar results on the Surface Pro 4 at 1080p, hitting 98 FPS on average at low settings, and 27 FPS at High settings. Our recommendations here are the same, make sure your texture detail is set to Low, and play Heroes on the Low preset if you’re running on integrated graphics.

Low quality

High quality

Keep in mind these framerates are high, but there’s a reason for that. It’s important to have a good amount of FPS headroom for when things get hectic in competitive games. On average, we saw our framerate take momentary hits of about 50 percent in big team fights. So even though you can play Heroes on high settings on a recent laptop like the Zenbook — even a discrete GPU — you probably won’t want to, unless you want to end up dropping frames when the other team rolls up on your objective.

Fortnite: Battle Royale

Epic Games’ popular (and free) Fortnite: Battle Royale presents something of a problem for us. It’s a competitive game, with drop-in gameplay that makes it ideal for playing a couple rounds while you have some downtime at work or you’re waiting for class to start, which is great.

Fortnite is a demanding game, especially when you don’t have a GPU.

However, it’s more graphically demanding than any of the other games on our list here. Don’t be fooled by the minimum requirements though — Intel Core i3 2.4GHz processor, Intel HD 4000 graphics, and 4GB of RAM — Fortnite is a surprisingly demanding game, especially without a GPU.

That doesn’t mean we didn’t get it to work, it just required a little extra attention. The Fortnite art style really helps mitigate lower-end graphics settings. In the end, we hit an average 32 FPS by sacrificing just a bit of our graphical detail.

So here’s how you can tune your underpowered laptop for Fortnite. When you first fire it up, Fortnite will offer to scale your video settings based on your hardware. Say no to this, that way we know we’re going into the same menu layout together without any changes having been made.

Once you get in game, open the options and navigate to the graphics menu. There are a lot of settings here, but we can ignore most of them for now. First, we’re going to have to figure out your resolution. We ran into some issues running on integrated graphics, particularly on the Surface Pro, so make sure the game is set to Fullscreen.

Next, lower that preset to Low, and take a look down at the bottom of the menu, where you’ll see options like V-Sync, Motion Blur, and Show FPS. Make sure Motion Blur is disabled. And finally, where it says 3D resolution, right under the quality presets, roll it all the way to 75 percent. Why not 100 percent? Well, as much as we prefer to run games at full-resolution, for the purposes of this guide it’s better to keep your resolution scale at about 75 percent, at 100 percent our average framerate dropped to 18 FPS.

Additionally, it’s worth pointing out that if your laptop is a couple years old, the integrated graphics chip might not be able to handle Fortnite very well. If that’s the case, go ahead and step your resolution down to 720p, and keep the resolution scale at 75 percent. You should see that framerate creep back up into the playable range. At these settings, we still had trouble on the Surface Pro 4, but maintained an acceptable 28 FPS on average.

Low quality

High quality

If you’re still having some framerate problems at these settings, roll the resolution scale down to 50 percent. There’s a chance you might still hit some snags, but this is the lowest you want to go with Fortnite. Scaling the resolution down further will increase your framerate, but your game will be so blurry and jagged that it will be nearly unplayable. If that’s the case, it’s time to call it, and move on to other games.

Making the most of the least

Playing games on integrated graphics will always provide a lesser experience than gaming on a system with a discrete graphics card. Nothing we do to the in-game settings will change that, but with these tweaks you should be able to get a good, playable framerate out of esports games, and games with a bit more graphical wiggle room.

These tips work for most games in fact, even ones we don’t specifically name here. Tune things down to Low, step your resolution scale down to about 75 percent, or worst case, step your overall resolution down to 720p and you should be able to get a playable framerate out of all but the most demanding games.

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Sling TV offers League Pass to expand its NBA streaming options

A day after Sling TV revealed that it counts 2.2 million subscribers, the over-the-top internet service announced that it’s added new add-on options to watch NBA games. Users can access NBA League Pass today to watch out-of-market games, and in the coming weeks they’ll be able to subscribe to Team Pass to follow a single club.

Sling Orange, Sling Blue, Spanish-language and Sling International subscribers can get NBA League Pass for an additional $29 per month. That includes nearly 1,000 live out-of-market NBA games, along with access to NBA TV. Users with those package options will also be able to add Team Pass for $18 per month when it launches, allowing them to follow any one of the league’s 30 teams for all of its regular-season games.

Of course, if you don’t want one of those packages, you can still watch NBA games on Sling TV packages that include NBA TV, TNT, ABC, ESPN3, ESPN and regional networks for Fox Sports and NBC Sports.

Source: Sling TV

MLB’s ‘Home Run Derby VR’ is coming to PSVR and Vive this spring

Major League Baseball has gotten into VR lately with a host of initiatives, including partnerships with Google for At Bat VR, Intel for “Game of the Week” live streams and Samsung for immersive highlights of the 2017 season. Now MLB is bringing a VR Home Run Derby that debuted at the All-Star Game and select ballparks to your home via PlayStation VR and HTC Vive.

The game should be available this spring on both platforms, though there are no details on pricing or a specific release date at this time. The game will put you at the plate in three different MLB stadiums — Marlins Park in Miami, Nationals Park in Washington, DC and Progressive Field in Cleveland — to hit as many home runs as you can. MLB plans to expand the number of stadiums you can virtually visit to at least 10 over the course of the 2018 season.

Source: Yahoo Sports, Polygon

Robinhood’s commission-free cryptocurrency trading is live

The zero-fee stock trading app, Robinhood, announced its plan to enable users to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum last month. Now the company is making good on its promises. Starting today, Robinhood is rolling out access to trade the two cryptocurrencies in California, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana and New Hampshire, with plans to expand to many more states later.

If you’re not in one of the states covered, you can still monitor and track market data for all 16 cryptocurrencies in the Robinhood app. You’ll also have access to a new feed, which gives users a way to talk about cryptocurrency, news and market swings in real time with other folks on the system. Robinhood Feed is only available to a limited number of people, however, so you’ll need to update the app to see if you’re one of them.

Source: Robinhood