How to Tame macOS Hot Corners Using Modifier Keys

In macOS, the Hot Corners feature turns each of the four corners of your screen into a designated action, allowing you to quickly access certain functions built into the system, such as Mission Control, Notification Center, the Screen Saver, and more. Many Mac users would agree, there’s something satisfying about bringing up these commonly used functions with a simple, swift cursor movement.

What isn’t so satisfying, however, is accidentally triggering a Hot Corner, which can lead to all kinds of unintended desktop behavior – like application windows flying all over the place. This can happen when you lose track of the mouse cursor, or when you’re working within the confines of a small MacBook screen. Thankfully, there’s a way to tame wayward Hot Corners using modifier keys. Here’s how.

How to Combine Hot Corners With Modifier Keys

Launch System Preferences from the Apple menu bar ( -> System Preferences…).
Click the Mission Control preference pane.

Click the Hot Corners… button in the bottom left of the preference window.

In the dialog that appears, click on the dropdown menu that corresponds to the screen corner that you want to use as a Hot Corner.
Now, hold down a modifier key and select a function from the dropdown to assign to the Hot Corner. We’re using the Command key (⌘) in our example.

Repeat the action for any additional Hot Corners you’d like to set. Note that you can use different modifier keys for different Hot Corners, and even key combinations if you prefer.

Click the OK button when you’re done.
Click the red traffic light button, top left of the Mission Control pane to close it.The next time you come to use a Hot Corner, hold down the modifier key as you move the mouse cursor towards it, otherwise the action you assigned to that corner won’t work!

If you want to change the modifier key associated with a Hot Corner, navigate back to the Hot Corners… preference pane, click on a Hot Corner to open its dropdown menu, and tap the assigned modifier key to remove it, then hold down the new one you want to use as you click on the Hot Corner function. (Note: You can also access your Hot Corner settings from the Screensaver tab in the Desktop & Screensaver preference pane.)

Related Roundup: macOS High Sierra
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Qualcomm targets the ‘premium midrange’ phones with the Snapdragon 710

Qualcomm wants to make midrange phones a little more high tech. The company announced the creation of the 700-series earlier this year and now it’s unveiling the first chip in that new series — the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710.

The Snapdragon 710 is a whole lot more than just a slightly more powerful 600-series chip. It’s aimed at bringing some of the features from the 800 series — like improved security and artificial intelligence — to a cheaper chip that could make its way to some of the so-called “premium midrange” phones to be launched this year.

The Qualcomm 710 represents a number of “firsts” for Qualcomm, outside of the 800-series. Apart from the Snapdragon 845, it’s the first chip to be built on the 110-nanometer process. It also features a third-generation Kryo CPU and an Adreno 6-series GPU.

Under the hood, the Snapdragon 710 represents a modest performance boost over the current 600-series flagship, the Snapdragon 660. According to Qualcomm, with the Kryo 360 CPU, the chip offers a performance boost of up to 20 percent compared to the Snapdragon 660, while saving up to 40 percent of power during 4K video playback and mobile gaming. That is pretty impressive for a so-called midrange chip.

There are other things that make the chip decidedly better than the Snapdragon 660 too. For example, the chip boasts a Spectra 250 image signal processor, which is aimed at reducing image noise, image stabilization, and even performing active depth sensing — a feature that may lead to more secure facial recognition on midrange phones. The Spectra 250 ISP supports single-sensor cameras up to 32 megapixels, and dual-sensor cameras up to 20 megapixels.

Of course, none of this really matters if the chip doesn’t make its way into real-world phones — and while we’re certain it will, no phones using the tech have been announced just yet. Still, Qualcomm says it’s working with partners on deploying the new processor, and we expect to see phones announced with the new chip over the next few months, if not sooner.

The release of the Snapdragon 710 highlights the rise of the all-important “premium midrange” phone. As flagship phones, like the iPhone X, get more expensive, customers are looking for devices that offer flagship features at a lower price. That is likely where phones with the Snapdragon 710 will come in.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Qualcomm’s new 700 series could help create a new ‘premium midrange’
• AMD leaks Ryzen 2000-series expansion with mobile and Threadripper CPUs
• Panasonic Leica 50-200mm F2.8-4 is a bright, stabilized Micro Four Thirds zoom
• Mediatek’s new chipset could make cheaper smartphones a whole lot smarter
• Here is everything we know about the Asus ZenFone 5

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 710 brings flagship performance to mid-range phones

710 reasons to get excited.

Back in February, Qualcomm said it was going odd with the unveiling of a new 700 series of Snapdragon platforms, designed to bridge the gap between flagship-level performance (and pricing) of the 800 series, and the bifurcated mid-range expectations of the 600 series.

The Snapdragon 710 is the first chip in that new series, and it’s a doozy. It uses the same 10nm manufacturing process as the Snapdragon 845 while borrowing a bunch of that chip’s features. In fact, the Snapdragon 710 is basically a truncated 845, using a variation of the same Kryo cores in a 4×4 configuration, with support for nearly all of the flagship line’s camera, AI, and modem improvements.

Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon 710, which uses four performance cores at 2.2GHz and four efficiency cores at 1.7GHz, has a performance boost of 20% over the Snapdragon 660 while coming in 40% more efficient in video playback and gaming. It can also reach LTE speeds of 800Mbps using a new X15 modem, with support for 4×4 carrier aggregation and 256QAM. There’s also a new Adreno 616 GPU that should be a nice bump over the 600 series chips.

From a marketing perspective, Qualcomm is going hard on AI, something it’s neglected to do in the past. According to the press release, the Snapdragon 710 “transforms the smartphone into a customized experience for users across camera and voice, powered by a multi-core AI Engine, delivering up to 2X overall performance improvements in AI applications, as compared to Snapdragon 660.” There’s no dedicated neural processing unit in this, or any other Qualcomm platform, but the company says the Hexagon DSP, Adreno GPU and Kryo CPU all work together to enhance AI applications. Sure.

Perhaps more important for the average phone user is the Spectra 250 ISP, which brings the mid-range closer than ever to the same superlative image processing of the Snapdragon 845. You want to know the secret of the OnePlus 6’s camera? Yes, it’s a bigger sensor, but its low-noise nighttime photos owe a lot to Qualcomm’s Spectra ISP.

Finally, being built on a 10nm process means that the Snapdragon 710 is more efficient than any mid-range processor to date, which will be welcome news to power users on a budget.

The platform is shipping now, so it’s possible we’ll see devices with it launching in the early summer.

Video: OnePlus 6 Marvel Avengers Edition unboxing and hands-on

OnePlus is continuing its partnership with Disney in 2018 with the OnePlus 6 Marvel Avengers Edition. The phone is limited to India and China — two of the company’s largest markets — and comes with a custom kevlar pattern underneath the glass body. Other design touches include the Avengers logo at the back, and gold accents for the alert slider.

Overall, the Avengers edition looks pretty spectacular, and the packaging includes a lot of goodies as well. Hit up the video above to take a look at what the OnePlus 6 Avengers edition is all about, and be sure to check out our full review of the OnePlus 6.

• Android Central on YouTube
• This is the OnePlus 6 Marvel Avengers Edition
• OnePlus 6 India review
• OnePlus 6 video review
• More on the OnePlus 6

Xiaomi rolls out a payday loan service called Mi Credit in India

Xiaomi’s first financial service in India delivers instant loans to young professionals.

Xiaomi offers a wide range of services in China, and the company is now looking to do the same in India, its second-largest global market. After rolling out Mi Music and Mi Video earlier this year, Xiaomi is now wading into financial services with Mi Credit, a lending platform that makes it easier for MIUI users to get a line of credit.

Xiaomi says it is partnering with India’s KreditBee to offer instant loans — from ₹1,000 ($15) to ₹1,00,000 ($1,500) — with the service aimed at young professionals. KreditBee relies on KYC authorization to disburse the loan, and you’ll have to link your bank account with the service to receive the funds. Once you link your bank account, the loan amount will be disbursed within 10 minutes.

Xiaomi mentions that Mi Credit is exclusive to MIUI devices — meaning it won’t work on the Android One-based Mi A1. From Xiaomi India head Manu Kumar Jain:

Xiaomi provides internet services to give our users a complete mobile internet experience, and MIUI functions as an open platform for us to deliver our wide range of internet services, such as content, entertainment, financial services and productivity tools. The connectivity between our devices and the seamless integration between hardware and internet services enable us to provide our users with better user experience.

Mi Credit is another big step in bringing an important internet service to India and we trust that our users would be able to truly benefit as the service becomes more sophisticated.

Currently, KreditBee is the only loan provider on Mi Credit, but that may change in the coming months as the service gets more momentum.

Before you get started with the service, a note of caution: payday loan providers tend to charge a higher rate of interest than banks, so make sure you read the details of the loan clearly before you avail a line of credit.

Nvidia vs. AMD

The Nvidia vs. AMD debate is like stirring up a den of snakes. Fans on both sides will strike out in defense of their preferred brand. The debate will never end as long as both manufacturers continue to feed the graphics market.

With AMD’s new Vega-based graphics products now on the streets, let’s take a look at the current state of the conflict to see where AMD and Nvidia stand in both desktop and laptop markets.

The best of the best, tested

Desktop PCs are important for AMD, since it has a chance to market directly to gamers rather than depending on relationships with manufacturing partners. Knowing this, AMD re-entered the high-end graphics game with the Vega chips in 2017, ready to take on Nvidia’s 10 series.

Going blow for blow, the top-of-the-line GPU for Nvidia is the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, which will cost you a hefty $700 when bought directly through Nvidia’s website (assuming they’re in stock). On the AMD side of the ring, you’ve got the Radeon RX Vega 64. Let’s see how the two stack up both in terms of performance and value.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Let’s start with Battlefield 1. In our testing at 1080p resolution and Ultra settings, AMD’s Radeon RX Vega 64 card managed a 138 frames-per-second (FPS) average. It fell between Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti with a 154 FPS average, and the GTX 1080 with a 135 FPS average. One step down from the Vega 64 is the Vega 56, which trailed behind the trio with an average framerate of 127 FPS. Crank up the resolution to 1440p, and you’ll see a big shift. Both GeForce cards come out on top, leaving the Vega cards in the dust.

Out testing with the resource-intensive Deus Ex: Mankind Divided generated similar results although the average frame counts weren’t quite as high, as is to be expected. Using the 1080p resolution and Ultra settings, the GTX 1080 Ti came out on top with a 102 FPS average, followed by the Radeon RX Vega 64 (78FPS), the GTX 1080 (74FPS), and the Radeon RX Vega 56 (73FPS). The latter cards were essentially running neck-to-neck, which wasn’t the case in Battlefield 1. But again, when switched to 1440p and Ultra details, the rankings went back in favor of the GTX cards.

In the performance-per-watt argument, Nvidia clearly wins here. The company’s cards come at a higher cost but are quieter and more efficient. On the other hand, most gamers will care more about price than wattage — and rightfully so. The $500 RX Vega 64 is a cheaper option than the $550 GTX 1080, and as we’ve shown in our numbers, there’s only a three-frame difference between the two.

Budget options

On the lower end of the desktop GPU spectrum, the Radeon RX 580 and RX 570 graphics cards tend to out-perform the GeForce GTX 1060 and lower in both Battlefield 1 and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided tests. For instance, with Battlefield 1 set at 1080p and Ultra detail settings, the RX 580 had a 91 FPS average followed by the RX 570 (89 FPS) and the GTX 1060 (77 FPS). You’ll see the same order when increasing the resolution to 1440p.

But with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at 1440p and Ultra settings, we barely saw any performance difference between the GTX 1060 and the RX 570, with the latter hitting a 30 FPS average and the GTX 1060 hitting a 29 FPS average. The RX 580 came out on top with a 35 FPS average. These three cards are obviously not ideal for playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided using these settings. But they are very capable desktop cards when playing the game at 1080p.

The big value resides in these Radeon RX 500 Series cards. Again, they draw more power than Nvidia’s GTX 10 Series models, with the $229 Radeon RX 580 (8GB) requiring 185 watts versus the $299 GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) pulling 120 watts. But AMD’s RX 580 outperforms the GTX 1060 for a lower price. The $170 Radeon RX 570 outperforms the GTX 1060 as well. In other words, when it comes to more budget-friendly GPUs, the AMD offerings have a better overall value.

An important thing to keep in mind is that when we’re spouting prices and power requirements, they’re based on Nvidia’s Founders Edition cards sold directly by the company. Meanwhile, AMD doesn’t sell graphics cards directly to customers, but instead it relies on third-party manufacturers. Typically, that means prices will be higher, and with the graphics card market thrown into chaos due to cryptocurrency, prices will be even higher for now. That’s why Nvidia can’t keep is Founders Edition models in stock.

For example, the Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ RX 580 with 8GB of memory currently retails for $359 on Newegg while MSI’s RX 580 Armor MK2 8G OC 8GB card sells for $339 — a far cry from AMD’s suggested $229 price. Meanwhile, EVGA’s single-fan GTX 1060 SC Gaming ACX 2.0 (6GB) sells for $319 on Newegg along with the dual-fan GTX 1060 06G-P4-6262-KR card (6GB) sells for $329. That’s slightly higher than Nvidia’s Founders Edition model sold on its site.

What about in laptops?

Here we don’t have a bunch of numbers because, quite frankly, discrete AMD graphics in a laptop is a rare find. The laptops we’ve tested thus far all relied on Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 10 Series for mobile, including the Max-Q variants. For instance, you can’t configure Alienware’s latest 17-inch laptop with a discrete Radeon GPU, while all gaming laptops manufactured by MSI ship with GeForce graphics. Why? Head here and notice that the most recent mobile-focused discrete GPUs launched in 2016.

While you see some entry-level options in laptops like the 15-inch MacBook Pro, they are few and far between. AMD’s recent push, it seems, is to focus on its all-in-one chips combining CPU cores with GPU cores. The company calls this an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). Nvidia does something similar with its Tegra-branded chips, one of which resides in the Nintendo Switch console. But on a mobile discrete front, Nvidia clearly dominates the laptop market, although AMD’s collaboration with Intel seeks to steal some of that thunder.

Using Battlefield 1 at 1080p and Ultra settings, we found that the Radeon RX Vega M GH packed into two eighth-generation Intel Core i7 “modules” averages 68 frames per second. That’s better than Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q chip (65FPS) but falls behind the vanilla GTX 1060 for mobile (86FPS). We saw a similar order with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at 1080p and Ultra settings, as the RX Vega M GH component averaged at 33FPS, while the GTX 1060 managed 38FPS, and the GTX 1060 with Max-Q hit 31FPS.

Meanwhile, the Radeon RX Vega M GL component fell between the mobile version of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and vanilla GTX 1050 chips. For instance, in Battlefield 1 at 1080p and Ultra settings, the RX Vega M GL scored an average 49FPS while the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti hit a 51FPS average and the GTX 1050 hit a 42FPS average. Again, we saw a similar order with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at 1080p and Ultra settings.

All we can really say is that Nvidia is dominates the laptop market through its relationships with both mainstream manufacturers like Dell, as well as gaming-specific manufacturers like MSI. Intel’s new modules, which do include discrete Radeon graphics, are just now getting off the ground. We also haven’t benchmarked AMD’s latest Ryzen all-in-one chips for mobile despite having integrated Vega graphics. Even in most of the mainstream laptops you’ll find, manufacturers either rely on Intel’s integrated graphics or pair an Intel processor with a discrete Nvidia graphics chip.

Conclusion

The AMD vs. Nvidia argument is difficult to discuss because fans on both sides are so passionate about their allegiance. Feathers get ruffled, but in the end, you can’t help but notice that Nvidia takes the graphics lead in both the desktop and laptop markets.

AMD’s product rollout is also problematic. Aside from the two new Vega cards, which only target the top-end, the company’s last major GPU family shipped in 2015. A year later, Nvidia launched the first two cards in its performance-driven GTX 10 Series. AMD responded with the budget-focused RX 400 Series, tweaked and re-branded the family as the 500 Series in early 2017, and didn’t launch its two performance Vega cards until the latter half of 2017. Meanwhile, Nvidia grew its GTX 10 Series from two to ten products since launch.

If you still need clarification of which company currently dominates the graphics market, look no further than Steam. The April 2018 Steam Hardware & Software Survey shows 75.26 percent of the graphics cards in use are based on Nvidia GPUs, while 14.89 percent are AMD-based chips. It’s got a good start, but that’s a serious gap. If AMD wants to close in on Nvidia, it needs more than just two Vega cards on the market.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how great AMD cards are if they don’t show up in laptops. In order to make a serious kind of headway on Nvidia, it’s going to need to solidify relationships and build trust. Those don’t come easy.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ASRock’s four add-in graphics cards are based on AMD’s Radeon RX 500 Series
• Recent data suggests that GPU supply might be stabilizing and prices falling
• HP targets gamers on a budget with new Pavilion notebooks, desktops, and more
• The best cheap gaming PCs
• Intel’s Radeon-backed ‘Hades Canyon’ mini PC runs games at 1080p, Ultra graphics

YouTube Music: Everything you need to know

YouTube is taking the reins for Google’s music strategy — and it’s soft launching on Tuesday.

Google’s music strategy has been fractured and confusing and falling behind for years, with Google Play Music being treated like an orange-haired stepchild, YouTube Music being ignored by some users and unheard of by the rest, and YouTube being a place where people of all kinds come to listen to music — both legitimately uploaded and not-so-much.

Google’s been amassing a new team to take on the music industry, from streaming competitors like Spotify to the record labels that control what music can appear on what platforms and how.

We’ve been waiting months for the shoe to drop and Google to reveal its new strategy, and now we know what that new direction looks like. YouTube Red is dead, and it’s being replaced by YouTube Music and YouTube Premium.

May 23, 2018 — Your locally owned songs from Google Play Music will transfer over to YouTube Music

Google wants all of its Play Music subscribers to migrate over to YouTube Music at some point in 2019, and to help make that process as seamless as possible, the company’s confirmed that some of Play Music’s best features will be coming to the new YouTube Music — the biggest of which is a music locker for storing copies of song you locally own.

This news was recently confirmed by Google to The Verge, with the Head of YouTube Music saying on Twitter that “Your collection, playlists and preferences [from Google Play Music] will be preserved at migrated to YouTube music for a soft landing.”

In addition to having a place to store music you already own, YouTube Music will eventually allow you to buy new songs that you can add to your collection.

May 22, 2018 — The new YouTube Music is officially here!

Just like we expected, YouTube Music’s new app and desktop site officially started rolling out on May 22. Google says the new look is currently in “early access” and is gradually becoming available for folks in the U.S., Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.

To access YouTube Music, you can download the app from the Play Store or hit up the desktop site at music.youtube.com. If you’re not seeing the changes quite yet, be sure to check back frequently to know when you’ve been graced with Google’s good wishes.

The service starts at $9.99/month

Similar to every other streaming service, the new YouTube Music will offer a paid subscription of $9.99/month. For that price, you’ll get an ad-free experience when listening to your tunes, can have music videos play in the background, and download songs for offline listening.

The big difference with Google’s new plan, however, is that all of the non-music features included with YouTube Red will now cost extra.

For $11.99/month, you can subscribe to YouTube Premium and get all of the above features in addition to ad-free videos, the ability to play videos in the background and download them for offline viewing, and access to the growing collection of YouTube Original programming.

Existing YouTube Red subscribers are grandfathered into the old plan

Having to pay more for the same features is never an exciting proposition, but Google’s made sure to cater to those that are already subscribed to YouTube Red/Google Play Music.

If you’ve been a paying member for some time or sign up for the current service before the new YouTube Music + YouTube Premium changes take hold, you’ll be able to get all of the YouTube Premium perks for just $9.99/month instead of $11.99.

All-new apps are coming to mobile and desktop

If you’re already using YouTube Music, you’ll notice some big changes coming to the user interface. A “reimagined mobile app” is in the works, as is a brand-new desktop site. According to The Verge, both of these have been “designed specifically for music.”

Similar to what’s already offered in Play Music, Google will use AI to recommend songs and playlists based on where you’re at and what you’re doing. If YouTube Music detects you’re at the gym, it’ll suggest music to listen to that’ll help keep you moving. If it’s late at night and you’re home, you might be offered calm songs for unwinding.

There will be a bigger focus on YouTube Originals

YouTube Originals have paled in comparison to programming made by the likes of Hulu and Netflix, but this is another area Google’s hoping to improve.

It’s promised that YouTube Originals will offer “bigger original series and movies” spanning the genres of action adventure, drama, comedy, and reality shows. Along with the U.S., YouTube Originals will also feature content from the UK, Mexico, France, Germany, and others.

What’s happening to Play Music?

All of this is great, but what in the world is happening to Google Play Music? YouTube’s announcement says “if you use Google Play Music, nothing will change — you’ll still be able to access all of your purchased music, uploads and playlists in Google Play Music just like always.” However, I wouldn’t expect things to stay that way forever.

Google clearly wants YouTube Music to be the face that takes on Spotify and Apple Music, and having another service lying around that offers so many overlapping features will only create for continued confusion.

Play Music needs to be laid to rest in order for Google’s efforts with YouTube Music to truly pay off, and while that may not happen soon, I wouldn’t expect Play Music to still be kicking in a year’s time.

All of this will begin to roll out May 22

The new YouTube Music and YouTube Premium services are launching on Tuesday, May 22 in markets that already offer YouTube Red.

Judge rules it’s unconstitutional for Trump to block critics on Twitter

AFP/Getty Images

In a decision in a federal court in New York, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that President Trump may not block critics on Twitter for not sharing his political views. Doing so violates the First Amendment, the judge ruled.

“While we must recognize, and are sensitive to, the president’s personal First Amendment rights, he cannot exercise those rights in a way that infringes the corresponding First Amendment rights of those who have criticized him,” the judge said. The lawsuit was filed by Columbia University’s Knight Amendment Institute and seven Twitter users whom Trump blocked.

“Media reports say among those Trump has blocked are novelists Stephen King and Anne Rice, comedian Rosie O’Donnell, model Chrissy Teigen, actress Marina Sirtis and the military veterans political action committee VoteVets.org,” Reuters reported.

However, the judge did not compel Trump and co-defendant Dan Scavino, who serves as the president’s social media director, to unblock users, noting that a declaratory judgment was sufficient and that she assumed the president’s team will abide by her ruling.

In arriving at her decision, Buchwald agreed with Columbia University and the plaintiffs in that President Trump’s Twitter account is a public forum, and that blocking critics amounts to viewpoint discrimination, a violation of the First Amendment. Because the personal @realDonaldTrump account, which was established long before Trump’s presidential bid, was used by Trump in a presidential capacity in the past, Buchwald argued that it should be treated as a government account. The U.S. National Archives previously stated that tweets from the president’s account will be preserved and are considered presidential records. Trump has 52.2 million followers at the time of writing, and he has posted  more than 37,600 tweets since the account was created.

“This case requires us to consider whether a public official may, consistent with the First Amendment, ‘block’ a person from his Twitter account in response to the political views that person has expressed, and whether the analysis differs because that public official is the President of the United States,” Buchwald said said in her opinion. “The answer to both questions is no.”

Buchwald followed similar precedents set in a prior 2017 case involving a county board of supervisor blocking a critic on Twitter. Twitter users who are blocked may not respond to Trump’s tweets. Rather than blocking critics, Buchwald suggested that Trump used the mute function on Twitter to avoid seeing comments from those who don’t share in his viewpoints.

Acer’s new lineup includes white gaming laptop and Pixelbook-esque Chromebook

Acer held its annual Next@Acer press event in New York City on Wednesday to show its new line of products rolling out across the summer and into the fall. A big chunk of the show focused on gaming, revealing new desktops, laptops, peripherals, and other accessories. The company also teased the Predator X, a gaming desktop that borrows the typical workstation two-socket design to utilize two Xeon processors. Unfortunately, that’s all we know about that product at this time. 

Outside gaming, Acer also introduced some mainstream laptops including a premium Chromebook meant to compete with the Pixelbook. There’s a lot going on here after the Next@Acer event, and Acer CEO Jason Chen said even more will be announced several months down the road at the company’s next press event. Until then, let’s first dig into Acer’s updated gaming arsenal for 2018. 

Gaming 

Predator Orion 5000 Desktop (PO5-610, PO5-600) 

For starters, the PO5-610 provides four processor options ranging from the Core i5-8400 to the Core i7-8700K, all of which support up to 32GB of Intel’s Optane memory. The real kicker here is that the model shown during Acer’s event had two GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards running in SLI mode, so expect to pay a pretty penny for a configuration sporting this duo. Other GPU options include the 1080, 1070, and 1060 graphics cards. 

Outside the CPU and GPU aspects, the PO5-610 supports up to 64GB of DDR4 memory clocked at 2,666MHz, up to 3TB on a hard drive, and up to 512GB on a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD. Audio is handled by a Creative Sound Blaster X 720 component while connectivity includes Wireless AC, Bluetooth 4.2, and Killer Ethernet wired networking. The dimensions are 9.96 x 20.47 (D) x 22.16 (H) inches. 

As for the PO5-600, it’s mostly similar to the PO5-610. You only have two processor options with this model (i7-8700 and i5-8400), and only one installed graphics card (GTX 1080, GTX 1070, or GTX 1060). That means it has one less PCIe x16 expansion slot, otherwise it provides the same expansion options consisting of two PCIe x1 slots, one M.2 2280 PCIe x4 slot, and one M.2 2230 slot for the Wireless AC card. 

• Availability: July
• Starting price: $1,499 

Predator Orion 3000 Desktop (PO3-600) 

Think of this desktop as a smaller, more cost-friendly version of the PO5-600. Feature-wise, it’s nearly identical, providing the same processor and memory options. But with this model you’ll find an expanded list of graphics add-in card options that tacks on Nvidia’s GTX 1050 Ti and vanilla GTX 1050 variants.

What you won’t see here is Killer wired networking (replaced by Realtek Dragon) or the same EMI-compliant transparent side panel provided on the Orion 5000 models. Instead, the left side plays host to a view of the inner components through a rectangular, grid-like window similar to what covers the intake fans mounted on the front. The dimensions are 6.57 x 14.64 (D) x 14.48 (H) inches. 

• Availability: October
• Starting Price: $999 

Nitro 50 Desktop (N50-600)

Moving down the gaming line we find the new Nitro 50 desktop packing three processor options ranging from the Core i3-8100 to the Core i7-8700 supporting up to 32GB of Intel Optane memory. The system memory, hard drive, and SSD options are identical to the Orion desktops. Connectivity includes Wireless AC, Bluetooth 5.0, and Realtek Dragon Ethernet networking. 

What sets this system apart from the Predator Orion desktops are options for AMD graphics cards: the Radeon RX 580X or the Radeon RX 580. If you cater to Team Green, the GTX 1070, 1060, 1050 Ti and 1050 cards are on the list too. The overall dimensions are 6.41 13.77 (D) x 13.38 (H) inches. 

• Availability: July
• Starting price: $799

Predator Helios 500 Laptop (PH517-51) 

Technically Acer introduced two Helios-branded models, but the only new gaming laptop in this bunch is the Predator Helios 500 – the other model was a white and gold edition of the current Predator Helios 300 (along with similarly-themed peripherals). This 500 model packs a 17.3-inch IPS G-SYNC display with options for a 4K or FHD resolution and backed by four processor choices spanning the Core i5-8300H to the Core i9-8950HK. The only discrete GPU option you have is this laptop is Nvidia’s GTX 1070 chip. 

The Predator Helios 500 can be configured with up to 16GB of DDR4 memory but manually upgradable to 64GB (4x 16GB). The laptop appears to support two storage devices: one M.2 SSD up to 1TB of storage and one 2.5-inch hard drive with up to 2TB of storage. The overall dimensions are 16.85 x 11.73 (D) x 1.52 (H) inches while its weight is 8.81 pounds.  

• Availability: June 
• Starting price: $1,999 

Acer’s new lineup includes white gaming laptop and Pixelbook-esque Chromebook

Acer held its annual Next@Acer press event in New York City on Wednesday to show its new line of products rolling out across the summer and into the fall. A big chunk of the show focused on gaming, revealing new desktops, laptops, peripherals, and other accessories. The company also teased the Predator X, a gaming desktop that borrows the typical workstation two-socket design to utilize two Xeon processors. Unfortunately, that’s all we know about that product at this time. 

Outside gaming, Acer also introduced some mainstream laptops including a premium Chromebook meant to compete with the Pixelbook. There’s a lot going on here after the Next@Acer event, and Acer CEO Jason Chen said even more will be announced several months down the road at the company’s next press event. Until then, let’s first dig into Acer’s updated gaming arsenal for 2018. 

Gaming 

Predator Orion 5000 Desktop (PO5-610, PO5-600) 

For starters, the PO5-610 provides four processor options ranging from the Core i5-8400 to the Core i7-8700K, all of which support up to 32GB of Intel’s Optane memory. The real kicker here is that the model shown during Acer’s event had two GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards running in SLI mode, so expect to pay a pretty penny for a configuration sporting this duo. Other GPU options include the 1080, 1070, and 1060 graphics cards. 

Outside the CPU and GPU aspects, the PO5-610 supports up to 64GB of DDR4 memory clocked at 2,666MHz, up to 3TB on a hard drive, and up to 512GB on a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD. Audio is handled by a Creative Sound Blaster X 720 component while connectivity includes Wireless AC, Bluetooth 4.2, and Killer Ethernet wired networking. The dimensions are 9.96 x 20.47 (D) x 22.16 (H) inches. 

As for the PO5-600, it’s mostly similar to the PO5-610. You only have two processor options with this model (i7-8700 and i5-8400), and only one installed graphics card (GTX 1080, GTX 1070, or GTX 1060). That means it has one less PCIe x16 expansion slot, otherwise it provides the same expansion options consisting of two PCIe x1 slots, one M.2 2280 PCIe x4 slot, and one M.2 2230 slot for the Wireless AC card. 

• Availability: July
• Starting price: $1,499 

Predator Orion 3000 Desktop (PO3-600) 

Think of this desktop as a smaller, more cost-friendly version of the PO5-600. Feature-wise, it’s nearly identical, providing the same processor and memory options. But with this model you’ll find an expanded list of graphics add-in card options that tacks on Nvidia’s GTX 1050 Ti and vanilla GTX 1050 variants.

What you won’t see here is Killer wired networking (replaced by Realtek Dragon) or the same EMI-compliant transparent side panel provided on the Orion 5000 models. Instead, the left side plays host to a view of the inner components through a rectangular, grid-like window similar to what covers the intake fans mounted on the front. The dimensions are 6.57 x 14.64 (D) x 14.48 (H) inches. 

• Availability: October
• Starting Price: $999 

Nitro 50 Desktop (N50-600)

Moving down the gaming line we find the new Nitro 50 desktop packing three processor options ranging from the Core i3-8100 to the Core i7-8700 supporting up to 32GB of Intel Optane memory. The system memory, hard drive, and SSD options are identical to the Orion desktops. Connectivity includes Wireless AC, Bluetooth 5.0, and Realtek Dragon Ethernet networking. 

What sets this system apart from the Predator Orion desktops are options for AMD graphics cards: the Radeon RX 580X or the Radeon RX 580. If you cater to Team Green, the GTX 1070, 1060, 1050 Ti and 1050 cards are on the list too. The overall dimensions are 6.41 13.77 (D) x 13.38 (H) inches. 

• Availability: July
• Starting price: $799

Predator Helios 500 Laptop (PH517-51) 

Technically Acer introduced two Helios-branded models, but the only new gaming laptop in this bunch is the Predator Helios 500 – the other model was a white and gold edition of the current Predator Helios 300 (along with similarly-themed peripherals). This 500 model packs a 17.3-inch IPS G-SYNC display with options for a 4K or FHD resolution and backed by four processor choices spanning the Core i5-8300H to the Core i9-8950HK. The only discrete GPU option you have is this laptop is Nvidia’s GTX 1070 chip. 

The Predator Helios 500 can be configured with up to 16GB of DDR4 memory but manually upgradable to 64GB (4x 16GB). The laptop appears to support two storage devices: one M.2 SSD up to 1TB of storage and one 2.5-inch hard drive with up to 2TB of storage. The overall dimensions are 16.85 x 11.73 (D) x 1.52 (H) inches while its weight is 8.81 pounds.  

• Availability: June 
• Starting price: $1,999