LG has announced its first foldable laptop, making it the newest player in the industry to launch its entry for the growing (but still something of a niche) category. Similar to the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, the LG Gram Fold is a touchscreen device that can be used as a massive tablet or a computer when fully unfolded. Users will get a 17-inch OLED screen with a QXGA+ (2560 x 1920 pixel) resolution when it's used purely as a display, and they can link it to its accompanying Bluetooth keyboard if they want to use it as workstation. The device also supports stylus pens, so it can act like a traditional tablet for projects involving art, architecture and calligraphy.
When it is folded, the top part becomes 12-inch screen, while the bottom could turn into a keyboard for typing. LG says it tested the model and verified that it could withstand 30,000 folds without its display getting damaged. Samsung tests its foldable Galaxy phones' hinges around 200,000 times, but most people likely access their phones a lot more than their computers or tablets within a day.
A 13th generation Intel Core i5 processor powers the LG Gram Fold, which is also equipped with a RAM that the company says is 15 times faster than an LPDDR5 5,200 memory. On the software side, the foldable laptop runs Windows 11 and comes with Sync On Mobile that makes it easy to transfer phone data to the device. The LG Gram Fold is scheduled for release in October, but only in Korea at the moment. It's priced at 4.99 million won ($3,700) — not cheap, but still a lot more affordable than HP's $5,000 Spectre Fold —though the first 200 customers can get it for 3.99 million won ($2,959). Further, only those who purchase the device at launch will get a mouse and a stylus as free gifts from the company, and the model will not ship with those accessories otherwise.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lg-is-getting-in-on-the-flexible-screen-laptop-game-with-the-gram-fold-054624893.html?src=rss
Microsoft, even without the usual face of its Surface announcements, had plenty to show off to the assembled media and industry guests yesterday. Unsurprisingly, it led with (and focused on) its latest AI developments. Its Copilot AI assistant is now graduating to assist with all things Windows 11, in an update coming September 26. It will appear in apps such as Edge, while browsing the internet, not to mention Microsoft 365 programs like Word and Excel. You activate Copilot with your voice or a right click and can use it for the sort of things you might not remember keyboard shortcuts for — or just can’t be bothered to do manually, like organize windows on your desktop, delete the backgrounds from photos or even generate a Spotify playlist. It’s shaping up to be a wide-ranging AI tool.
I’ll get into a few more of the AI announcements, but they were punctuated by more Surface hardware, including the Surface Laptop Studio 2 (hybrid, not laptop, surely?), coming with a much-needed specification boost. It has an Intel 13th-gen i7 H class processor, up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, and a 14.4-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate, which can now tilt forward. There’s also an intriguing trackpad that seemingly rolls in some features from Microsoft’s accessibility-focused Adaptive Mouse.
The company also unveiled its third-generation Surface Laptop Go, which Microsoft claims is 88 percent faster than the original Go, for $799.
It wasn’t the event (or the hardware) to turn around the rut that Microsoft’s Surface line seems to be in, but there might be enough to satisfy folks thinking about getting a new laptop… or whatever the Studio 2 is.
The green bubble/blue bubble controversy continues.
Google has been trying to publicly pressure Apple into adopting the GSMA’s RCS (Rich Communications Service) messaging protocol for a long time now, with the biggest response from Apple being CEO Tim Cook saying consumers should buy their moms an iPhone.
So now, it’s getting petty. Google’s “iPager” ad mimics Apple’s marketing language to reveal a retro-styled beeper, suggesting Apple’s behind the curve with its messaging platform. The spot says the iPager uses “outdated messaging tech” to “text with Android,” citing many of the perceived disadvantages of sticking with SMS technology. The question is: Who is this YouTube parody for?
Microsoft continues to build inclusive accessories and features for its mainstream products, and the company showed off more at its annual fall event on Thursday. It unveiled an Adaptive Touch feature that works on the “precision haptic trackpad” of the Surface Laptop Studio 2. During its keynote, the company called this the “most inclusive touchpad on any laptop” and helps people who can’t continuously use their fingers to move a cursor around. The system looks for multiple points of contact with the trackpad, noticing if they’re moving in the same general direction, to determine where to move the mouse. It’s in part based on the technology Microsoft uses for palm rejection, but reconfigured for Adaptive Touch.
X users will no longer be able to tweet to a small group of friends or add people to their Circles after that date. The website formerly known as Twitter has announced it’s deprecating Circles on October 31. The company launched Circles in August 2022, so the feature barely made it to its first birthday.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-everything-announced-at-microsofts-surface-event-111527099.html?src=rss
This year’s Razercon event held a couple of surprises for those who love the computer accessory company and luxury lifestyle brands. Razer has partnered up with Lamborghini to create a beefed up Blade 16 laptop that draws plenty of aesthetic inspiration from the sports car maker. It boasts a customized chassis with orange highlights that’s “infused with the spirit of Lamborghini.” The price tag is also infused with the spirit of Lamborghini, as this thing costs $5,000.
It looks pretty cool, but the actual components also got some Lambo love. The CNC-milled chassis is made from a single block of aluminum, adding durability, with a finish inspired by Lamborghini’s signature orange and matte black. The design on the lid echoes the headlights of the recently-announced Lamborghini Revuelto hybrid vehicle. So now you can race down the information superhighway in your Lambo computer as you race down the actual highway in your Lambo car. It’s an ouroboros of unnecessary speed.
The specs here are on-point, as there are some significant improvements over the base-level Blade 16 laptop. This is a highly-souped up edition, with a 13th Gen Intel Core i9 HX processor that boasts 24 cores and 32 threads. It also features a GeForce 4090 GPU, a 4TB SSD, 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a dual-mode mini-LED 4K 16” display. This thing is a beast, but remember that $5K price tag. Despite the cost, the Razer Blade 16 x Automobili Lamborghini Edition could become a collector’s item some day, as the company is only making 150 units.
Razer
Razer has also teamed up with fashion icons Dolce & Gabbana to create a gold-emblazoned edition of its popular Barracuda wireless headphones. The fashion brand’s signature design has even been applied to a Razer Enki gaming chair and a bunch of clothing items to celebrate the partnership, like hoodies and t-shirts. Let’s hear it for corporate synergy!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/razer-makes-a-5000-lamborghini-inspired-version-of-its-blade-16-laptop-180013410.html?src=rss
Microsoft continues to build inclusive accessories and features for its mainstream products and the company showed off more at its annual fall event on Thursday. It unveiled an Adaptive Touch feature that works on the “precision haptic trackpad” of the Surface Laptop Studio 2. During its keynote, the company called this the “most inclusive touchpad on any laptop,” and based on my early impressions, that claim might just be true.
Not a lot is currently known about how the feature will work, but I was able to spend some time with Microsoft’s accessibility program manager Solomon Romney to get a deeper understanding. Romney was born without fingers on his left hand and struggles to use standard touchpads on most laptops. Adaptive Touch allows him to drag his left hand on the glass-covered surface and not have the cursor jump around the screen.
The first thing to point out is that the adaptive touch feature currently requires a haptic trackpad to work, meaning at the moment it’s only available on the Surface Laptop Studio 2. You’ll have to go into the computer’s touchpad settings and enable Adaptive Touch, which throws up an alert that you won’t be able to use multitouch gestures like pinch to zoom.
That’s because the system is looking for multiple points of contact with the trackpad and noticing if they’re moving in the same general direction, to determine where to move the mouse. It’s in part based on the technology that Microsoft uses for palm rejection, but reconfigured for Adaptive Touch.
Microsoft barely mentions this feature in its materials announcing the Surface Laptop Studio 2, and Google searches for terms like “Microsoft inclusive trackpad” or “Surface Laptop Studio 2 accessibility touchpad” yield unrelated results. It’s clear there’s still a lot to understand about how Adaptive Touch works and what its limits are. For now, though, it's encouraging to see Microsoft continue to design for inclusivity.
Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-adaptive-touch-makes-laptop-trackpads-more-inclusive-174526667.html?src=rss
The Surface Laptop Studio is sort of a unique PC thanks to its innovative hinged display, stylus support and well-rounded specs. In some ways it's the ultimate jack-of-all-trades but master of none system. And now a sequel has arrived sporting a much-needed spec bump and the addition of some long-requested features including a microSD card slot.
Now, some folks may be dismayed to see that the exterior of the just-announced Surface Laptop Studio 2 is largely unchanged. But as someone who's been using the previous model as my main travel notebook for the last couple of years, I'm not that bothered. You still get clean, minimalist lines along with a 14.4-inch 2,400 x 1,600 120Hz PixelSense display that can tilt like an easel. I'm even happy to see little quirks like its two-tiered base return, which keeps the system's vents cleverly hidden and away from the edges of the system while also offering a shelf for Surface Slim Pen 2 to latch onto.
However, along the sides are some very important updates: a new USB-A port and a microSD card slot. This is the first time either of these has been available on this line, and while it might not sound like a big deal, for a system that's geared toward artists and content creators, this change represents a major quality-of-life upgrade. Just being able to quickly transfer photos from a camera to your laptop without needing a cable or an adapter is extremely useful. And with the addition of a USB-A port along with the two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C jacks, there's a good chance you'll be able to leave all your dongles at home without sacrificing connectivity.
There are also some subtle design changes including a new aluminum chassis instead of magnesium like you got on the original. This results in a very slightly thicker body (just 1 or 2mm), a more silvery hue and a smoother finish.
As you can see, Microsoft hasn't messed around much with the new Surface Laptop Studio 2's design (left) when compared to the original (right).
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
As for performance, I really like the Surface Laptop Studio 2's updated components. Even at launch, the original felt somewhat underpowered due to a middling quad-core chip despite being billed as Microsoft's most powerful laptop. But now, with support for up to an Intel Core i7-13800H chip, 64GB of RAM, 2TB of storage and an RTX 4060 GPU (or an RTX 2000 card on commercial models), this successor feels like a more well-rounded machine. Sure, it's not as fast as a similarly-priced gaming laptop and it's not quite as thin as a typical 14-inch ultraportable. However, the combination of a high-res touchscreen with pen integration and a spec refresh delivers way more versatility than almost all of its rivals.
One last big change is the addition of Microsoft's Adaptive Touch feature, which brings increased accessibility. The tech uses a new touch algorithm that makes it easier for differently-abled people to mouse around and use the touchpad. And while I might not get a ton of use out of it, I appreciate how simple it is use. All you have to do is open the Surface app and you are immediately presented with options for enabling Adaptive Touch and adjusting things like click sensitivity and double-click speed.
Granted, there aren't a ton of major changes on Surface Laptop Studio 2 aside from refreshed specs and some new ports. But I think that's OK, as this feels like a case of not messing with an already tested and still very innovative design. The main drawback is that with a starting price of $1,999, Microsoft's latest flagship laptop costs a lot more than a typical 14-inch rival. But that may just be the cost for a system that can do a lot of everything.
The Surface Laptop Studio 2 goes on sale on October 3.
Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-surface-laptop-studio-2-hands-on-more-ports-and-a-much-needed-spec-bump-171733141.html?src=rss
It was Microsoft's turn to step up to the plate and hold a fall hardware event on Thursday. Although Surface devices were the name of the game, there was a heavy — and I mean heavy — focus on AI. In the company's first event since longtime Chief Product Officer Panos Panay departed this week (reportedly for Amazon), Microsoft revealed a pair of new consumer laptops and a whole lot of Copilot AI news.
Copilot and other AI updates
Microsoft spent most of the event talking about AI and Copilot. In fact, the hardware almost seemed like an afterthought. The company is unifying the Copilot AI assistant across its suite of products. Copilot will be available more broadly as part of a Windows 11 update that will arrive on September 26.
Copilot is built into Windows and it will appear in apps such as Edge. You'll be activate Copilot with your voice or a right click. You might use Copilot to organize windows on your desktop, delete the backgrounds from photos or even generate a Spotify playlist.
The assistant will be able to pull context from your phone. For example, by reading information you receive from your airline via text message, Copilot can pull up your flight information. A shopping-focused version of Copilot is on the way too.
Copilot works with a new feature called Windows Ink Anywhere. You'll be able to use a pen to, for instance, snip a screenshot of a math problem. Copilot can then solve the problem and explain how it reached that solution.
Enterprise users will need to wait a little longer to make use of Copilot in the Microsoft 365 suite. It will be generally available starting on November 1 for $30 per user per month. Microsoft says Copilot can summarize meetings and prioritize tasks based on what's in your inbox. In Outlook, it will be able to draft emails in a way that mimics your writing style and voice, according to the company.
Elsewhere, Bing Image Creator will soon employ the DALL-E 3 model to generate more realistic-looking images. It will include an attribution to note that an image was AI generated.
Bing will also be able to prioritize search results based on your chat history. If you often ask the Bing chatbot about a certain sports team, the search engine may prioritize results accordingly. You can switch this function off, if you prefer (or you can simply avoid using the chatbot).
Surface Laptop Go 3
Microsoft
Oh yes, there was some pesky new hardware to discuss too. Microsoft showed off the Surface Laptop Go 3, a 12.4-inch touchscreen notebook designed for portability. It weighs just 2.49 pounds and it has a 12th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU. Microsoft says it's 88 percent faster than the original Surface Laptop Go from three years ago.
The Surface Laptop Go 3 will be available in four colors — Platinum, Sage, Sandstone and Ice Blue — and it starts at $799. You can get your hands on the system on October 3. We've already had the chance to try it, so be sure to check out our first impressions.
Surface Laptop Studio 2
Microsoft
On the higher end is the Surface Laptop Studio 2. Microsoft says this is the most powerful Surface it has built to date. It has an Intel 13th-gen i7 H class processor and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. You can have up to 2TB of storage and 64GB of RAM as well.
The Surface Laptop Studio 2 has a 14.4-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The screen can tilt forward this time around. Elsewhere, there's an intriguing trackpad that seemingly rolls in some features from Microsoft's accessibility-focused Adaptive Mouse as well as a slot for a microSD card.
Notably, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 has a neural processing unit that can power AI effects. Microsoft says this is the first Intel NPU in a Windows laptop. Meanwhile, the company is bundling in the Surface Slim Pen 2.
Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/everything-microsoft-announced-at-its-surface-and-ai-event-171043141.html?src=rss
The Surface Laptop Go has always been an interesting experiment for Microsoft: What if you took the basic design of the Surface Laptop, but diminished its specs to make it far more affordable? We've always found them intriguing, but with the Surface Laptop Go 3, Microsoft has finally transformed its cheap PC into a potentially great computer. Mostly, that's due to the new Intel 12th-gen CPU, which makes the entire computing experience feels far zippier than before. It feels so good, you might not even notice that the Laptop Go 3's screen doesn't quite hit 1080p (it's still 1,536 by 1,024, like before).
Other than the internals, though, the Surface Laptop Go 3 is pretty much the same as before. The 12.4-inch PixelSense screen is decently bright at 300 nits, the keyboard has enough depth and responsiveness to handle my furious typing, and the trackpad is wonderfully smooth and responsive. It would have been nice to see some port upgrades this year; it's still equipped with a single USB-C connection, one USB Type A port and a slot for the Surface charger.
If you can live with some of those compromises, though, the Surface Laptop Go 3 is a compelling machine for $799. Zipping around the web and launching multiple apps felt no different than a typical ultraportable. I was even able to get some gaming on, thanks to Xbox cloud gaming. I played several minutes of Need for Speed Unbound and was surprised that it felt no different than being played locally. That was especially surprising since I was playing over Wi-Fi in a crowded event space with over a hundred attendees. You can probably get some local gameplay in too, thanks to Intel's Iris Xe graphics, but certainly not Need for Speed.
Our demo unit was also configured with 16GB of RAM, a first for the Surface Laptop Go line. That upgrade, along with the CPU bump, further erodes the line between the Surface Laptop Go and the more powerful Surface Laptops. It'll be interesting to see how Microsoft upgrades those machines next. For now, though, the Surface Laptop Go 3 may be all the PC some users need.
Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/surface-laptop-go-3-hands-on-a-better-cheap-pc-161738763.html?src=rss
While Microsoft's event on Thursday focused on AI, the company spent some time debuting a few new Surface devices as well. The new Surface Laptop Studio 2 is supposedly the most powerful Surface device Microsoft has made, with support for the latest Intel processor, NVIDIA RTX 40 series GPUs and the first Intel NPU on Windows to power AI effects. The Surface Laptop Go 3, on the other hand, is the company's newest small laptop and it's billed to have significant performance improvements and up to 15-hours of battery life. Here's how you can pre-order the new Surface Laptop Studio 2 and the Surface Laptop Go 3.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2
The updated Surface Laptop Studio 2 is even more powerful than the previous version, sporting 13th-gen Intel i7 H-class processors, NVIDIA RTX 4050 and 4060 GPUs and it can be configured to have enterprise-level RTX 2000 Ada Generation graphics as well. The 14.4-inch touchscreen tilts forward so you can use it in studio and stage modes (in addition to the standard laptop mode), and the machine has Dolby audio-powered speakers, a touchpad that supports adaptive touch and an included Surface Slim Pen 2. The latest model can be configured to have up to 64GB of RAM and up to 2TB of storage.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3
The new Surface Laptop Go 3 is the latest iteration on Microsoft's tiny notebook. Coming in at under 2.5 pounds, it has a 12.4-inch touchscreen, a fingerprint-toting power button for biometric logins and improved performance that should make it 88 percent more powerful than the original Laptop Go. Microsoft claims the Laptop Go 3 will have up to 15 hours of battery life and it will come in four colors: platinum, sage, sandstone and ice blue. It will run on Intel Core i5 processors and can be configured to have up to 16GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage.
Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-pre-order-the-microsoft-surface-laptop-studio-2-152956033.html?src=rss
During its annual fall event on Thursday, Microsoft announced the (previously leaked) sequel to the Surface Laptop Studio, and it appears to come with plenty of much-needed improvements.
For starters, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 will offer twice the CPU and GPU power of its predecessor, thanks to Intel 13th-gen i7 H class processors and NVIDIA RTX 4050 or 4060 GPUs. Those GPU options are geared toward speed and gaming, but can be traded for RTX 2000 Adas for those doing intensive graphical rendering work. During a demo of the machine during the event, Microsoft made a point of showing it smoking the M2 Max MacBook Pro in Blender.
The Surface Laptop Studio 2 can also be loaded with up to 2TB of storage and 64GB of RAM. It will sport an adaptive touch-enabled trackpad, and come packed in with the Surface Slim Pen 2. The touchscreen will still clock in at 14.4 inches, with a 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby IQ and HDR. And, yeah, the screen tilts forward. Because of course it does. As for battery life, Microsoft is claiming the Surface Laptop Studio 2 will get up to 18 hours of runtime on a charge.
Notably, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 will also feature a neural processing unit, which can power AI effects — seemingly the first Intel NPU in a windows laptop . And just for good measure, it'll host a USB-A port, two slots for USB-C and a microSD card reader.
The Surface Laptop Studio 2 will be available for customers on October 3, and starts at $1,999.
Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-surface-laptop-studio-2-has-a-13th-gen-intel-cpu-and-rtx-40-series-gpu-options-152547778.html?src=rss
Although Microsoft's annual fall event largely ended up being focused on AI, the company did have some new Surface hardware, too, as we all expected. Microsoft unveiled the new Surface Laptop Go 3, which it says will run for up to to 15 hours on a single charge while still being thin and light (0.62 inches and just shy of 2.5 pounds). The lightweight machine has a 12.4-inch touchscreen with a 3:2 ratio, a resolution of 1,536 x 1,024 and a brightness rating of 320 nits. At first glance, the bezels don't seem to have changed much from previous iterations.
Performance-wise, Microsoft claims the Surface Laptop Go 3 is 88 percent faster than the original model, which came out three years ago. Inside, it runs a 12th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU along with Intel Iris Xe graphics. You can configure it with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of storage (512GB in the commercial version).
In addition, there's a 720p HD front-facing camera; a power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor; dual far-field Studio Mics; and Omnisonic speakers with Dolby Audio. As for connectivity, you'll get a USB-C 3.2 port that you'll use for DisplayPort and fast charging; a USB-A 3.1 socket; a 3.5mm headphone jack and a Surface Connect port. There's also Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 support.
Unsurprisingly, given Microsoft's focus on AI over the last year, the laptop will embrace Copilot AI, which the company is baking into Windows 11. The Surface Laptop Go 3 will be available in four colors — Platinum, Sage, Sandstone and Ice Blue — and will start at $799. It ships on October 3.
Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-surface-laptop-go-3-starts-at-799-and-arrives-on-october-3-150707089.html?src=rss