Razer Blade 15 vs. MacBook Pro

Riley Young/Digital Trends

Apple and Razer typically offer rather different products to one another and as such, typically have rather different user bases too. However, as Razer has trimmed and tightened its laptops into sleek gaming machines, today both companies offer low weight, great looking laptops of various sizes.

That means new buyers may find it increasingly tough to pick which path to go down, which is why we’re pitting the Razer Blade 15 vs. MacBook Pro, to see which would be the better choice.

Design

There’s a reason we call Razer the “Apple of gaming” in our recent review of the Blade 15 — because typically its hardware looks like black-painted MacBooks. That’s changed up in the latest design though, with the Razer Blade 15 having a more boxy look while maintaining the sleek lines and low-profile form-factor of its predecessors. Its bezels have been trimmed down for this generation of hardware too, making for a seamless-looking display. Razer did have the forethought to retain a larger top bezel though, which means the webcam remains mounted up top where it belongs.

The MacBook Pro is as always, a beautiful design and its silver paint job does make it look starkly different to Razer’s usual black aesthetic. It’s also thinner and lighter than the Razer Blade 15. It doesn’t offer quite so much versatility in port selection though. While some MacBook Pro versions can have up to four USB ports, they are all Type-C, whereas the Blade 15 has a single USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port and three USB-A 3.1 ports. It also has an HDMI and Mini DisplayPort for hooking up external displays.

Keyboards are also noticeably different between the two. We found the latest generation of MacBook Pro frustrating in its keyboard design (which has a tendency to fail). While better than its predecessors, the low-profile “butterfly” switches are not something we were enamored with. The Razer Blade 15, on the other hand, has a fantastic keyboard, though Razer did make one arbitrary change its layout which took some getting used to.

The MacBook Pro does have the Touch Bar as an alternative input, but we found that rather gimmicky with no real purpose.

Performance

Riley Young/Digital Trends

Considering one of the laptops in this head to head is designed for gaming and the other isn’t, it’s no surprise to learn that the Razer Blade 15 is the more powerful machine — even if the Pro is the best MacBook available. The entry-level model starts at $1,900 and packs an eighth-generation Intel Core i7-8750H CPU with 16GB of RAM under the hood. It also has an Nvidia GTX 1060 Max-Q graphics card for gaming on its 1080p IPS monitor. For those with deeper pockets, there are options for up to a GTX 1070 graphics card, a 144Hz 1080p display, and a 4K option, though prices close in on $3,000 at the top end. There’s also always the option of expanding its graphical capabilities with an external GPU using Razer’s Core V2 external graphics enclosure.

The MacBook Pro, on the other hand, starts at $2,000 with a seventh-generation Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and no dedicated graphics at all. Optional upgrades let users opt for a higher CPU clock speed and Radeon Pro graphics, but that won’t hold a candle to the Razer Blade’s offerings. One advantage the MacBook does have though is in its default display. All Pro versions have a 2,880 x 1,800 display, which looks beautiful. It doesn’t support high-refresh rates, but that’s of less benefit on a non-gaming system anyhow.

The MacBook offers better storage options for potential buyers too. Where the Blade 15 can only offer up to 512GB of PCIe storage, the MacBook Pro can come with up to 2TB of solid state space.

Portability

One of the classic problems with gaming laptops is that they aren’t the most portable. Razer’s Blade 15 is its best effort yet but it still comes in heavier than the MacBook Pro. The Blade 15 is 13.98 x 9.25 x 0.66-inches and weighs in at 4.56 pounds, while the MacBook Pro is 13.75 x 9.48 x 0.61-inches and 4.02 pounds. The difference there isn’t huge and you’re unlikely to notice day to day, especially since you have to accept slightly weightier hardware at the 15-inch form factor.

The Razer Blade has the larger battery by the numbers at 80-watt hours, but its heftier hardware does mean it’s not quite as efficient a machine as the Apple alternative. It managed just over seven-hours in our video loop tests and just under four and a half hours in our web-browsing test. Apple claims around 10 hours of general usage for its 15-inch MacBook Pro, which was something that played out in our review of the 13-inch version. Much like the weight and size, what you get with the Razer is impressive considering its internal hardware, but it’s fair to say that the MacBook Pro is still a little bit more portable.

Bang for buck

Riley Young/Digital Trends

When it comes down to it, the Razer Blade 15 offers a lot more for your money than the MacBook Pro. While the Apple laptop is a beautifully designed piece of kit, with a gorgeous display, decent battery life, and a slightly lighter frame, the Blade 15 is just so much more capable. Its battery life and weight are close enough to not be major factors, it looks stunning, and has a better keyboard. But on top of all those close-run races, it destroys the MacBook Pro in terms of performance at a competitive. Its processor is a six-core powerhouse that steams ahead of the Apple’s older hardware offerings and the on board graphics card has real gaming power, unlike the MacBook’s Radeon GPU.

While some may opt for the MacBook Pro because of a passionate interest in Apple’s MacOS platform, there is little reason to otherwise. The Blade 15 is an all round better piece of kit.

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• Razer Blade Stealth (2018) review
• Razer Blade Stealth vs. Apple MacBook Pro
• Razer Blade Stealth vs. Dell XPS 13
• Razer Blade 15 (2018) review
• 5 reasons why the new Razer Blade looks amazing

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 632, 439 and 429 are coming to mid-range phones this year

These are the new chips you’ll see in mid-range phones for the next two years.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800-series platforms get most of the headlines, but it’s the mid-range 600 and 400-series that power more devices and are critical to the performance of less expensive phones. With that in mind, Qualcomm has announced the new Snapdragon 632, 439 and 429 — upgrades from the current 626, 430 and 425, respectively.

Further pushing the envelope in the mid-range, the Snapdragon 632 brings some nice features. The base architecture is 8 Kryo 250 CPU cores, split into 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency-focused cores each at 1.8GHz. There’s a new Adreno 506 GPU, support for FHD+ displays and support for up to dual 13MP cameras or a single 24MP camera with real-time portrait mode processing and wide-angle lenses. The new 632 is likely to power phones up to the $400 MSRP range — and if the current devices using the 626 are any indication, this will be a great chip for getting enough power while having great battery efficiency.

You’ll see these chips in thousands of phone models over the next two years.

On the lower end, things aren’t as exciting. The Snapdragon 439 is an octa-core chip with Cortex A53 cores arranged in a set of 4 at 1.95GHz for performance and another 4 at 1.45GHz for efficiency. The 429 is a basic quad-core unit, with just the performance set of 1.95GHz cores. The 439 supports FHD+ displays and 12MP single or 8+8MP dual cameras, while the 429 maxes out at HD+ and 16MP or 8+8MP cameras. You’ll find the 439 and 429 in thousands of varieties of mid-range phones over the next couple years, from the $300 range all the way down toward $100 MSRP.

Outside of those differences, there are some consistencies. All of the new chips use the same supporting chips for functions like RF and audio, all support dual SIM with dual VoLTE connections, and each has some level of native artificial intelligence processing built in. A sneaky important announcement is that all three chips are using FinFET 3D transistor technology, which is used in high-end chips and lets them be more powerful while also using less power. So even though the 600 and 400-series are still not high-end chips, they’re sharing some core technology with the 700 and 800 series.

These aren’t high-end chips, but they share some core technology with Qualcomm’s best.

A notable talking point from Qualcomm is the cross-compatibility with these new chips and existing ones. The 632 is pin compatible with the existing 626, 625 and 450 chips, and the 439 and 429 are pin compatible between each other — that all means that manufacturers can pick and choose which one they want without making further architectural changes on their boards, and in the case of the 632 they could more easily choose to move from an older chip to the newer one in the middle of a development cycle.

Qualcomm’s partners are expected to release phones with the new platforms in the second half of 2018, so we won’t have to wait long to see what these processors can do in the real world.

Press release:

Qualcomm Announces Three New Snapdragon Mobile Platforms for Expanding High- and Mid-Tiers

—New Platforms Designed to Deliver Performance and Power Efficiency Improvements to Mass Market Smartphone Segment—

SAN DIEGO — June 26, 2018 — Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), announced three new additions to the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 600 and 400 tiers – the Snapdragon 632, 439 and 429 Mobile Platforms. These platforms are engineered to bring higher performance, better battery life, more efficient designs, impressive graphics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into the highest-selling Snapdragon tiers. Qualcomm Technologies continues to bring more premium technology advancements to lower Snapdragon tiers, which is helping to transform the mass-market consumer experience.

“The introduction of Snapdragon 632, 439 and 429 builds off Qualcomm Technologies’ highestselling mobile platforms and provides users with increased performance and power efficiency,
superior graphics, AI capabilities and enhanced connectivity features,” said Kedar Kondap, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We’re excited to offer these new
platforms with enhanced features to our OEMs and consumers.”

More than 1,350 commercial devices based on Snapdragon 600-tier mobile platforms and more than 2,300 commercial devices based on Snapdragon 400-tier mobile platforms have been announced by global OEMs. This new generation of platforms brings big improvements to already successful and feature-rich platforms.

Snapdragon 632: The new Snapdragon 632 brings some of the most sought-after mobile experiences, including mainstream gaming, 4K video capture, artificial intelligence, and fast LTE speeds—all for an affordable price. Built on advanced FinFET process technology, the Snapdragon 632 is designed to achieve 40% higher performance thanks to the combination of the Qualcomm® Kryo™ 250 CPU and Qualcomm® Adreno™ 506 GPU. Camera aficionados can benefit from either a single 24MP single-camera or dual cameras at 13MP each, while display resolutions can scale up to FHD+. For fast cellular speeds, the Snapdragon 632 also includes the X9 LTE modem, which supports LTE Advanced technologies like carrier aggregation.

Snapdragon 439 and 429: The new Snapdragon 439 and 429 Mobile Platforms were created to help deliver popular mobile experiences for mass market, price-sensitive consumers. Both platforms are equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities that enhance the camera, voice, and security experience. Built with FinFET process technology advancements, the Snapdragon 439 and 429 Mobile Platforms are designed to improve CPU performance and power efficiency by 25%3. They both feature the established X6 LTE modem for fast downloads, smooth video streams, and near seamless web browsing. Snapdragon 439 is equipped with an octa-core CPU and includes the Adreno 505 GPU designed with 20% faster graphics rendering. The Snapdragon 429 scales to an Adreno 504 GPU, designed for a whopping 50% improvement in graphics rendering. Snapdragon 439 features 21MP single-camera and 8+8MP dual-cameras along with support for FHD+ display, while the Snapdragon 429 includes 16MP single-camera and 8+8MP dual-cameras with HD+ display. Snapdragon 632, 439 and 429 are software compatible, as well as with Snapdragon 626, 625 and 450. The Snapdragon 439 and 429 are pin- and software-compatible. Commercial devices based on Snapdragon 632, 439 and 429 are expected to launch in the second half of this year.

Qualcomm wants to own the ‘kid watch’ market with its new Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform

More versions of Android optimized for the wrist.

The Android smartwatch space may be sputtering along, but Qualcomm is not worried. Its new Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform, a pseudo-successor to the Snapdragon Wear 2100, is aimed at children. Specifically, kids aged four to 10 years old.

Such an age bracket may seem a bit young to be outfitted with connected gadgets — most kids under 10 don’t yet have a smartphone — but Qualcomm thinks the realities are related. Parents want their kids to be accessible and trackable without giving them phones, and the Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform ostensibly provides the tools for manufacturers like Huawei, a hardware launch partner, to build those experiences.

An example of a kid watch from Vtech. Qualcomm thinks it can improve on this already-perfect design 😂

The Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform builds on the Snapdragon Wear 2100, which was itself based on the aging Snapdragon 400 smartphone chip from 2013, by integrating a number of Cortex-A7 cores, a built-in LTE modem for phone calls, always-listening voice activation for Google Assistant, a sensor hub for gestures and activity tracking, NFC for payments at school, GPS and geofencing for location, and even a 5MP camera for video calls.

Qualcomm says that these watches won’t run Wear OS but a variant of Android Oreo optimized for small screens and just 512MB of RAM.

One area Qualcomm says it’s improved dramatically over the Snapdragon Wear 2100 is the battery: by utilizing improvements in design, power efficiency in various chips, and a lower-power modem, Qualcomm believes Snapdragon Wear 2500-powered watches will get over a day of use despite doing much more than the average smartwatch.

In reality, though, what it sounds like Qualcomm is doing is providing the tools for hardware companies to build small, basic wrist-worn smartphones for kids. Huawei thinks this could offset the lull in smartwatch interest, but it remains to be seen whether there’s a sizeable audience for these kinds of experiences, especially since plain Android on a watch has typically been awful.

Qualcomm will be shipping development kits to interested parties in the fall of 2018, so it’s unlikely we’ll see any commercial products based on the Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform until 2019. In the meantime, we’re still waiting for Qualcomm’s real update to its smartwatch platform — the one that’s set to power the next-generation of adult smartwatches. That is, if anyone’s still buying.

Press release:

Qualcomm Helps to accelerate 4G Kid Watch Segment with Dedicated Snapdragon Wear 2500 Platform

—Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 Platform Now Widely Used in Kid Watch Products by more than 10 OEMs Across more than 10 Operators in more than 10 Countries—

**SHANGHAI, CHINA – June 27, 2018 ** Today, at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, announced its first platform targeted specifically for 4G connected kids watches. The Qualcomm® Snapdragon WearTM 2500 platform is designed to deliver a robust foundation with extended battery life, an integrated sensor hub with pre-optimized algorithms, low power location tracking, and the company’s fifth generation 4G LTE modem, and optimized version of Android for kids. Built into a variety of customer devices, the Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform helps children to keep in touch with family, learn and grow with access to rich multimedia content, have fun and play with friends, and stay fit and active throughout the day – while also helping provide parents with peace of mind.

“If you look at the targeted kid watch and tracker segment the growth in these designed-for-kids but highly capable devices, is very exciting, and customers are seeing wide spread global demand. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. has helped to drive this fast expansion of 4G kid watches with its Snapdragon Wear 2100 platform and there are more than 10 devices commercially available today through retail and carriers,” said Anthony Murray, senior vice president and general manager, voice & music and wearables, Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. “With this next generation Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform, we are supporting new performance and features that customers will be able to use to create even more fun features and compelling use cases for these connected 4G kid watches and with our dedicated kid watch platform we aim to deliver a robust foundation that supports a rich and engaging experience for children.”

A Robust Kid Watch Platform

Snapdragon Wear 2500 is designed for low power with up to 14 percent longer battery life across both active and standby modes of operation compared to prior generations. This extended battery life is supported via several new features including: Wearable PMIC, RF Front End (RFFE), location engine, Bluetooth streaming architecture, and processor and modem software optimizations. The new Wearable PMIC is designed to reduce Rock Bottom Sleep Current (RBSC) by up to 14 percent, is smaller by 38 percent and comes in a compact package that integrates power management, charger, fuel gauge, and haptics driver functionality. The new Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) based RF PAs are designed to consume up to 20 percent lower peak power compared to their predecessors.

The Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform is based on Qualcomm Technologies’ proven, globally certified fifth generation 4G LTE multi-mode modem. Using the latest in global navigation satellite system and sensor fusion approach, the platform supports more accurate location tracking and is designed to implement reliable geofencing use cases, important for parents eager to track their child’s location accurately.

Additionally, the Snapdragon Wear 2500 hardware platform is accompanied with an optimized version of Android for kid watches. Based on Android “O”, this version fits in a 512MB memory footprint, is designed to consume low power by shutting off capabilities not needed, right sizes the modem for wearables use cases, integrates the sensor hub for low power highly accurate sensing, and adds kid watch specific features.

Designed to Bring Tomorrow’s Kid Watch Experiences Today

Based on high-performance quad-core A7 processors and an Adreno-class graphics engine, the Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform is designed to bring rich messaging and integrated learning experiences to children. The platform supports a five mega-pixel camera for parents to get in touch with their child over a video call or for the kids to enjoy rich educational video-based content. The platform incorporates Qualcomm® Voice Activation and supports popular AI-based voice assistants, making it possible to converse naturally and access rich educational content on the web. The platform also integrates NXP’s next generation highly secure NFC solution, which is designed to allow kids to leave their wallet behind for everyday purchases at school.

The platform integrates an ultra-low power sensor hub and comes with pre-optimized sensor algorithms designed to provide a highly accurate smart sensing experience. Using these sensors can help children to stay active and fit while parents can monitor the health of their loved ones. Additionally, the platform supports gesture-based gaming and entertainment applications so children continue to enjoy their experience with the kid watch.

Ecosystem Collaboration to Extend the Benefits of the Platform

Qualcomm Technologies announced that it is collaborating with Huawei as the lead customer for the Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform and is working closely with InvenSense, Inc. to extend choice of sensor algorithms to its customers.

“At Huawei, we are proud to be the first company expected to commercialize a 4G Kids watch based on the new Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform,” said Rico Zhang, Smart Wearable and Health Product Line President, Huawei. “Built on the outstanding power-efficiency, 4G connectivity, smart sensing, and location capabilities that the new platform is designed to deliver, we are pleased to extend our long-time collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. in the wearables segment and bring our next generation kid watches to the industry.”

“We’re excited to be working with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. on the Snapdragon Wear 2500 kid watch platform”, said Nicolas Sauvage, Senior Director, Ecosystem, InvenSense, Inc., a TDK Group Company. “Utilizing our vast algorithmic expertise in six-axis motion sensing, InvenSense, Inc is supporting multiple meaningful gestures on this platform, helping to provide OEMs with customizable responses to gestures, reducing development time, and humanizing the digital experience.”

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is shipping commercial samples of the Snapdragon Wear 2500 platform to customers and via sales channels now. To help device makers bring exciting kid watches more efficiently and cost-effectively, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is working with a number of original design manufacturers (ODMs) on 4G kid watch designs. Additionally, Intrinsyc, a leading contributor in this effort, is aiming to offer a Snapdragon Wear 2500 based system-on-module and development kit will be available in the third quarter of 2018. The Development Kit is available for pre-order at http://shop.intrinsyc.com/collections/product- development-kits. Additional information is available at: https://www.intrinsyc.com/system-on- modules/.

Why leaky taps make that ‘plink’ noise — and what we can do about it

Whether it’s curing epidemics, figuring out how to knock Earth-bound asteroids off course, or working out the rocket science that will let us colonize Mars, there are some problems we’re glad to know the world’s best and brightest are focused on solving. A possible fourth? Giving us insight into out why in the name of all that is good do leaky taps drip so darn loudly — and what we can do about it.

This last conundrum was the focus of a recent research project from investigators at the U.K.’s University of Cambridge. While water droplets have been a source of scientific interest for more than a century, this is the first time anyone has tried to figure out the physical explanation behind the highly distinctive sound.

“This study was all about finding out what was behind the well known ‘plink’ sound produced by a drop of water falling into some more water — for example, from a leaking roof into a bucket, or a tap into a sink,” researcher Sam Phillips, who carried out the work for his masters’ degree dissertation, told Digital Trends.

The team used ultra high-speed cameras and sensitive microphones, placed above and below the water surface. With this setup, they then took slow-motion videos of water droplets impacting the water surface and synchronized these images with the sound recording. Their research demonstrated that the sound is, in fact, driven not by the splash that we see, but by a tiny vibrating air bubble which gets trapped under the surface of the water.

“We also found that the way this bubble produces the sound is that its vibrations cause the water surface itself to oscillate, with the surface then acting like a piston to drive sound waves into the air,” Phillips continued.

So how do we stop these sounds, so that we will never again have another night’s sleep disrupted by an unreasonably loud leaky tap?

“As part of confirming that the trapped air bubble really was causing all the sound we tried to prevent it from being produced,” Phillips said. “One way we did this was by adding a small amount of washing up liquid, or detergent, to the water surface to change the surface tension and prevent the bubble from being trapped under the water. In our experiment this worked, so it may be that adding a small amount of washing up liquid to the water that is being dripped into is a simple solution to stop the sound.”

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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New Google Maps update is rolling out with location-based recommendations

Google showed off a new version of Google Maps, with features like personalized restaurant recommendations, at Google I/O 2018 in early May. Now, it looks like that new version of Google Maps is finally rolling out.

The changes could help make Google Maps a whole lot more useful than it already is. The overall interface is relatively similar to the old Google Maps, but you’ll now find two new tabs at the bottom of the screen — “Explore,” and “For You.”

As the name suggests, the “Explore” tab will show you things like recommended restaurants and cafes nearby, events coming up in the area, and more. It’s also a nice way to show a list of particular types of restaurants. After launching the new version of Maps, we found an “Outdoor dining” list, “Vegan restaurants” list, and even an “Outdoor drinking” list. You can also filter results to only show restaurants, only show places you can get coffee, and so on. It also keeps track of places you’ve visited on any trending lists.

The “For you” tab is similar in that it provides recommendations for restaurants, but it also shows newly opened venues nearby, allowing you to “Follow” certain areas that you might be interested in. It’s a nice way for new businesses to get the word out while allowing users to discover something new. The tab is a little bare for now, but Google says it will be bringing more content in upcoming weeks.

Another new feature leverages your location history to tell you how likely Google thinks you are to enjoy a restaurant. The feature, called “Your Match,” essentially shows a percentage match compared to places you visited before. You can also tell Google Maps exactly what you’re interested in by heading to Settings, selecting “Exploring Places,” and then tapping on “Food & drink preferences.”

Some of the new features should be rolling out globally, but the “For you” tab is currently only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Japan. The new version of the app is available now, though Google often rolls new apps out in stages, so if you don’t have it yet you may just have to sit tight for a few days.

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Spit-checking mouthguard can tell if athletes are tired or mentally drained

NextFlex

Xerox Parc, the legendary research and development center, is probably best known to readers as the research lab that Steve Jobs visited in the late 1970s, getting his first glimpse at the graphical user interface concept he later made famous with the Mac. But Parc has been involved in plenty of other innovative research projects over the years — and its latest is no different. Working with flexible hybrid electronics group NextFlex and the University of California, San Diego, Xerox’s Parc development lab has created a smart mouthguard biosensor which can detect early signs of dehydration, exhaustion, and mental engagement levels, based on nothing more than a sample of your saliva.

The sensor is made from electronic plastic foil and is designed to fit into an ordinary mouthguard for use in everything from workouts to military missions. It does this by analyzing the lactate and glucose naturally found in saliva and is able to send this information to a connected smartphone in close to real time.

“The electrochemical sensor system is fabricated on a small, flexible plastic foil that is mounted on a mouthguard,” David Schwartz, Parc’s manager of Energy Devices and Systems, told Digital Trends. “Sensing is through chronoamperometry, an established electrochemical measurement technique, based on enzymatic oxidation of target species. Chronoamperometry is known to have high sensitivity, specificity, and capability for quantification of analyte concentrations.”

The printed sensor electrodes in the mouthguard are replaceable and interchangeable with electrodes sensitive to other analytes including glucose, uric acid, and more. The electronics are protected from the saliva by an encapsulant, and the batteries are wirelessly rechargeable, which allows the battery electrodes to be completely enclosed.

“The background on the project is that there was some proof-of-concept work already completed with rigid circuit boards, and the question to be answered was, ‘How could you create a form factor that someone would fit comfortably into a person’s mouth so that they would actually wear it?’” Jason Marsh, NextFlex’s director of technology, told us. “Parc developed the sensor and conducted small-scale integration on a prototype. NextFlex’s capability is to take the prototype and scale it to be manufacturable in higher volumes.”

With a proof of concept demonstrated, both parties are now keen to commercialize the technology. The next step of this will likely involve fabricating multiple units for in-mouth testing.

Along with the concussion-diagnosing mouthguard we wrote about earlier, it seems that this is the decade when this otherwise innocuous piece of sports equipment gets smart.

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Future pain-free microneedles could be inspired by mosquitos

If you receive a painless injection courtesy of a new microneedle in the near future, you may owe a debt of gratitude to the mosquito. The reason? Because quite possibly everyone’s least favorite insect is the inspiration behind new work being carried out by researchers at Ohio State University.

“The reason we look at nature for cues is because nature has been through so much evolution to discover the simplest and most efficient methods,” Bharat Bhushan, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Ohio State, told Digital Trends. “In this work what interested us was the way that mosquitoes bite, since they are able to do this for several minutes without us feeling a thing. We wanted to use this to see if we could develop a painless microneedle.”

So far, they haven’t actually developed a prototype of this needle. What they have done is to take a much closer look at the unique components that enable the mosquito to bite people without causing them discomfort. The mosquito uses a combination of four things. These include the use of a saliva-based numbing agent during biting, a serrated design for the “needle,” vibration during the piercing process, and a combination of soft and hard parts on the proboscis, the insect’s elongated sucking mouthpart. This combination allows the mosquito to pierce the skin with just one-third of the force required for an artificial needle, while the numbing agent takes care of the rest.

Based on the team’s research, Bhushan suggests that it would be possible to create a microneedle containing two needles. One of these would inject a numbing agent, while the second could be used for drawing blood or injecting a drug. This second needle would also bost a serrated edge like the mosquito’s fascicle, be flexible and softer on the tip and sides, and vibrate when inserted. He claims that the materials and technology to create such a needle already exists.

While this could prove to be more expensive than traditional needles, it may be useful for cases in which children or adults have a phobia around the use of needles. “It could also be in cases of drug delivery in patients, where the needle needs to be in for a long period of time,” Bhushan continued.

This isn’t the only pain-free needle project we’ve covered at Digital Trends. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are busy developing a new smart injection technology that promises a way to inject drugs without the needles by blasting them into your body at Mach 0.7. Still, we could do a lot worse than having competing projects designed to bring us pain-free injections, right?

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Rare physical copies of ‘Fortnite’ are selling for up to $1,000 on Amazon

Gamers are reportedly paying over-inflated prices for physical copies of Fortnite. On Amazon, third-party sellers are pricing the physical game at up to $999 for a new copy, up to $359 for a used, “like new” copy, and up to $195 for a used, “acceptable” copy. Meanwhile, over on eBay, customers are actually shelling out $450 for a physical copy.  

The reason for the price hike isn’t anything new. Once a product becomes scarce, third-party sellers inflate the price of the remaining stock to outlandish proportions knowing that someone surfing the web will shell out the big bucks. In the case of Fortnite, physical copies of the original game haven’t appeared on store shelves for months. 

Fortnite is a collaboration between People Can Fly (Painkiller) and Epic Games (Unreal, Gears of War). Epic published the game digitally as a paid-for early access title for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, MacOS, and Windows 10 while Gearbox Publishing handled the physical copies for retail stores. Launched on July 25, 2017, all versions of the co-op survival game relied on a player-versus-environment Save the World scenario that blended the fort-building mechanics of Minecraft with the survival shooter aspects of Left 4 Dead. 

Along with the Save the World mode was the Fortnite Battle Royale mode that pits 100 players against each other until there is a last player or team standing. Players parachute onto a large island, gather weapons, ammo, and resources, and build forts to protect themselves and their fellow team members against the opposing team until the very end. 

That said, Epic Games spun off Fortnite Battle Royale as a free-to-play game on all platforms — including the Nintendo Switch and iOS — powered by in-game micro-transactions. For example, on the Nintendo Switch, you can spend your hard-earned cash on outfits, harvesting tools, emotes, and the Wingman Starter Pack. You can purchase in-game content using V-Bucks you buy with real money.  

Epic Games plans to re-tool the Save the World portion to support the free-to-play platform later this year, but you can currently purchase the $40 “Standard Founder’s Pack” for Windows 10, MacOS, Xbox One and PlayStation. It includes the Save the World campaign, four exclusive in-game banner icons, six daily loot piñata packs, and an exclusive Founder’s Loot piñata pack. The $60 “deluxe” edition adds a rare starter weapon pack, an exclusive Founder’s pistol, and more. 

Those prices are seemingly small potatoes given fans are willing to shell out $400 or more for a physical copy of the game. But for those fans, physical copies are not only a rare find, but they contain the original pre-free-to-play version. They’re a collector’s item providing an untouched product that fans are eager to purchase, no matter the cost. 

Fortnite swag is just as valuable. Recent Fortnite-related goodie bags distributed by Epic Games included an exclusive in-game spray stemming from E3 2018, codes for 2,500 V-bucks ($25), the game’s currency, and more. Fans are scooping up variants of these goodie bags, paying up to $300.  

Editors’ Recommendations

• Grab the new Pikachu 2DS XL and score a free game and Poké Ball power bank
• Here are 9 tips to help you master ‘Fortnite’ on your phone
• ‘Fortnite’ Season 4 transforms the Battle Royale map with comet debris
• ‘Fortnite: Battle Royale’ review
• ‘Fractured Lands’ is battle royale action with a Mad Max twist

Razer Blade 15 (2018) review

Research Center:

Razer Blade (2018)

Gamers have grown up.

Plenty of us love to play games, but also have jobs and computing needs outside the arena. We want the best of both worlds — something as sleek as a MacBook, but with the horsepower of a desktop command station. It’s a goal Razer has always shot for with the Blade, but past iterations made compromises to stay on target.

With the 2018 Blade, though, Razer may have finally done it without any downsides – aside from the price. The new Blade starts at $1,900 for an 8th-gen Core i7, Nvidia GTX 1060 Max-Q graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB solid state drive. Our review unit, upgraded to GTX 1070 Max-Q and a 512GB SSD, was a whopping $2,600.

A masterclass in laptop design

Razer has always tried to market itself as the Apple of gaming, focusing on devices that are expensive, but also innovative and robust. Past versions of Razer laptops, however, have strayed almost too far into the Apple camp. Laptops like the Razer Blade 14 and Razer Blade Stealth looked very much like matte black MacBooks. Yes, yes, there’s only so many ways to design a metal rectangle, but the resemblance was uncanny.

The new Razer Blade 15 bucks that trend with a fresh take on the thin-and-light gaming laptop. It’s still refined, and it still has a unibody aluminum chassis, all black except the growing green snake logo on the lid. However, Razer has ditched the indented lines on the top and rounded corners in favor of a simpler, boxy look. It’s a striking aesthetic that ensures no one will mistake the Blade for a MacBook again. The new Blade is also slightly trimmed down from 0.7 to 0.66 inches yet has become only more durable in the process. Good luck finding any flex or give anywhere on this device.

Good luck finding any flex or give anywhere on this device.

The Razer Blade 15 weighs 4.5 pounds, which is half an ounce heavier than the previous version. There’s a good reason for that. The screen has bumped up to 15.6 inches, but Razer has lopped off the display bezels to just 0.19 inches, which is even thinner than the Dell XPS 15. That keeps the overall footprint within millimeters of the same size as the 2017 model, despite having a larger screen. The top and bottom bezels are still large, but that gives Razer room to leave the 720p webcam where it belongs.

Razer isn’t alone in this new category of thin-and-light gaming laptops. Hot on its heels are the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin and the Gigabyte Aero 15, both of which are just as light, thin, and powerful. What sets the Razer Blade 15 apart is its uncompromising build quality and serious, subtle design. There’s no ugly hinges, seams, or air vents to be found here. It’ll cost you a couple hundred bucks, but if you want something that cuts through the gaming design clichés, the Razer Blade is the one you want.

Razer Blade (2018) Compared To

Digital Storm Equinox

Dell Inspiron 15 7577

HP Omen 15

Origin EON15-S

Asus ROG Zephyrus

MSI GS63VR 6RF Stealth Pro

Alienware 13 R3

MSI GS60 Ghost Pro

Alienware 15 (2015)

Asus ROG G501

Digital Storm Triton

Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Edition

AVADirect Clevo P157SM-A

MSI Global GT60 Dominator Pro

Lenovo IdeaPad Y500

Port selection is an area where you’d think gaming machines and thin-and-light laptops clash. Gamers typically want as many legacy ports as possible, while modern laptops like the Dell XPS 13 or MacBook Pro rely more heavily on USB-C and Thunderbolt 3.

The Razer Blade offers a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port, but also three full-sized USB-A, an HDMI port, and Mini DisplayPort. The two missing connections are an Ethernet port and an SD card slot. While some will miss those, we think Razer did a respectable job picking the right ports to keep. Despite the inclusion of USB-C, the Razer Blade uses a proprietary power port – likely due to its high performance and power draw at maximum load.

Great inputs, a questionable keyboard layout

Razer Blade has a history making PC peripherals, so we expect the company’s integrated keyboards and touchpads to be excellent — and for the most part, it’s a homerun. The touchpad is now considerably larger than before, stretching across the palmrests more than any laptop other than the MacBook Pro. The smooth, glass surface uses Windows Precision Touchpad drivers, meaning gestures are responsive. It’s hands-down one of our favorite touchpads on any machine.

There’s no sidestepping the fact that Razer made an unnecessary change to the keyboard layout.

The keyboard is good, but more divisive. It’s not the key travel, RGB lighting options, or even spacing that’s the issue — all of that is great. The problem is the layout. Located in the bottom right corner of the keyboard, right between the shift key and the question mark, is an up-arrow key. While this means you get a full-sized up and down arrow key, the trade-off doesn’t feel worth it. We found ourselves consistently hitting the up-arrow key instead of typing a question mark. While we familiarized ourselves with it after a time, there’s no sidestepping the fact that Razer made a completely unnecessary change to the standard layout.

Less bezel, faster refresh rate

One of the reasons Razer claims it moved to a 15.6 screen was a wider availability of high-quality panels to choose from — and that shows on the Razer Blade. There’s now three options; 60Hz 1080p, 144Hz 1080p, and a 60Hz 4K touchscreen. We think most people will want the midrange 144Hz 1080p model, which is what Razer sent us for review. The higher-end 4K model aimed at video editors, while the lower-end option is more for less intense gaming, or shoppers who find even the base Razer Blade expensive.

Though it doesn’t top our tests in any category, the Razer Blade has a fantastic IPS panel on it. The colors in games really pop, thanks to its wide color gamut and low average color error at 2.16. In no area does it compete with something like the 15-inch MacBook Pro or the Dell XPS 15 (especially in contrast or Adobe RGB color gamut), but compared to your average gaming laptop, this thing dominates. Even if you go for the 1080p model, games look fantastic, and the image quality is among the best you’ll find on a gaming laptop. But let’s be honest — it comes to games, what people interested in this laptop really care about is the smooth 144Hz screen.

Riley Young/Digital Trends

The speaker grill is located on the keyboard deck, which is great placement. Sound quality is louder and clearer than your average laptop, but not as good as the most recent MacBook Pro.

The sharpest blade in the toolkit

The Razer Blade 15 features the Intel Core i7-8750H, which is an extremely fast CPU. Its multi-core score in Geekbench destroys mainstream chips like the Core i7-8650U in the Surface Book 2, or the 7th-gen Intel Core processor in the previous Razer Blade. For a more demanding task, we encoded a 4K video in Handbrake on the Razer Blade, and it finished in just three minutes and 23 seconds. That’s impressive. It’s second only to the new Core i9-7850HK in the Alienware 17 R5, a much larger and more expensive gaming laptop.

However, the Razer Blade 15 isn’t the only laptop with this chip. The Digital Storm Equinox features the same six-core CPU, as do other thin-and-light gaming laptops like the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin and the Gigabyte Aero 15. We haven’t tested those yet, but we’d expect to see similar results.

Razer has included high-speed storage in the Blade as well, specifically, a Samsung NVMe 512GB SSD. Configurations start as low as 256GB and max out at 512GB. Meanwhile, 16GB dual-channel RAM comes standard on all models. Although you can’t configure beyond that, Razer has made swapping out both storage and memory easy, something laptops like the MSI GS65 Stealth Thin or Surface Book 2 lack.

Don’t underestimate its gaming skills

None of the advances Razer made in terms of design or function would matter if cut corners in gaming. Fortunately, the opposite is true. The Razer Blade now includes the option of either the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q or 1070 Max-Q. The 1070 is new to the Blade this year, and it’s what we tested in our benchmarks and gaming tests.

The Razer Blade handles 1080p gaming no sweat, easily hovering around 80 frames per second in most games at max settings. Even in a demanding game like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the Razer Blade churned out 53 frames per second with Ultra settings. No, you can’t play at 60 FPS in every game – but you can in most. That’s impressive given the new Blade’s size. Consider, for example, HP’s Spectre x360 15-inch. It has an Intel G-Series chip with AMD Radeon Vega graphics on-board, and it’s similar in size and weight to the Blade, but its game performance is roughly half that of the new Blade with GTX 1070 Max-Q.

While our review unit had a 1080p display, we tried the Razer Blade on higher resolution monitors, too. We still saw solid performance at 1440p resolution, especially in games like Civilization VI, where we managed 62 frames per second on ultra detail. We also saw 46 frames per second in Battlefield 1 on Ultra. These results mean you can pair the Blade with a quality 27-inch, 1440p gaming monitor and see enjoyable results.

The Razer Blade handles 1080p no sweat, hovering around 80 frames per second in most games at maximum settings.

If you venture up to 4K, only lighter fare like Rocket League or Fortnite will be playable with settings maxed – but no gaming laptop has conquered 4K yet.

This performance was made possible with a complete redesign of the Blade’s thermal solution. The previous Razer Blade was known for throttling the GPU, a common complaint against it. This time around, a new vapor chamber cooling system ensures that throttling is not an issue, even in the most intense gaming sessions.

With that said, the Razer Blade still runs hot when playing games. Aluminum doesn’t handle heat as well as plastic. We even noticed the heat in the palmrests, which is a bit unusual. You’re not going to want this machine in your lap while you play The Witcher 3, but that’s true of most gaming laptops.

Solid battery life completes the puzzle

All of this would be for naught if the Razer Blade lacked decent battery life, but we can report the Blade lasts long enough to at least hang with the rest of its competitors.

We saw around seven and a half hours of battery life consistently, whether it was in day-to-day productivity work, or in our video loop test. That’s not anywhere near what you’ll get with battery life champs like the Surface Book 2, but compared to your average gaming laptop, you’ll be getting well over twice the life on a charge.

The Blade did struggle in more intensive benchmarks like our demanding web browsing test, where it only lasted 4 hours and 25 minutes. Keep that in mind before buying. The Blade performs well for a gaming laptop and felt adequate in our use, but it can’t compare to smaller, less powerful laptops built with frequent travel in mind.

Our Take

The Razer Blade is a work-hard, game-hard laptop. In a work setting, it blends in with sleek laptops like MacBook Pro or Surface Book 2. In a gaming setting, it’s every bit as capable as a traditional gaming laptop. You’ll see better battery life out of the Surface Book 2, and more frames per second out of the Alienware 17, but for someone who wants the best of both worlds, this is as close as it gets.

Any alternatives?

The Razer Blade isn’t alone in its ambitions. The MSI GS65 Stealth Thin and the Gigabyte Aero 15 both feature identical components, as does the Digital Storm Equinox. They’re all less expensive, but none of them can compete with the design, build quality, and battery life of the Razer Blade.

If you’re someone who plays mostly less-demanding games, the Dell XPS 15 or Surface Book 2 might be a good alternative, too.

How long will it last?

Though you can’t upgrade things like the processor or graphics card, the Razer Blade features top-of-the-line specs to ensure they won’t be outdated for many years. The expandability of RAM and storage and excellent build quality also add to the overall longevity of the device.

Razer has a standard 1-year warranty, which isn’t great, but it is in line with the offerings from nearly all major manufactures.

Should you buy it?

Yup. If you want a laptop that looks as good as it games.

Power up USB-C compatible devices with Google’s $49 Pixelbook 45W Wall Charger

Charge your USB-C devices quickly with Power Delivery.

Amazon has the Google Pixelbook USB-C Charger on sale for just $49 right now. Today’s deal marks its lowest price ever and an $11 drop from what it sells for regularly.

This compact wall adapter is not just a good fit for the Pixelbook; you can also use it with various other USB-C devices. It features USB Power Delivery 3.0 technology and a 45W output so you can quickly charge up. It comes with a six-foot-long USB-C cable and features strong reviews from a handful of customers at Amazon currently.

See at Amazon