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By indospot
Microsoft is bringing News and Interests to Windows 10 versions 21H1, 20H2, and 2004
by João Carrasqueira
Microsoft is bringing the News and Interests feature that's been in testing in the Dev channel of the Insider program to older versions of Windows 10, including 21H1, 20H2, and 2004 (via Windows Central). The company released new cumulative updates to users in the Beta and Release Preview channels of the Insider program, bringing the feature to versions 21H1 and 20H2 today.
News and Interests has been a big highlight for Microsoft with the Dev channel since December, but it was believed to be part of a future feature update for Windows 10, so it's interesting to see Microsoft bring it to older versions. The fact that it's already rolling out to the Beta and Release preview channels also suggests we could see it being officially available significantly sooner than initially thought.
As to what News and Interests is, it's essentially a taskbar widget that gives you quick access to recent news and other information you may be interested in, like stocks, sports scores, or traffic information about a specific route you may usually take. It also makes it so that you have weather information displayed directly on the taskbar.
The feature is rolling out with builds 19043.962 for users running Windows 10 version 21H1 in the Beta channel or for pre-release validation in the Release Preview channel in commercial environments. For regular users in the Release Preview channel, running version 20H2, they'll see build 19042.962 instead, but they'll get the feature all the same. In fact, the two updates are exactly the same, labeled KB5001391, which makes sense considering they have the same bits. Here's the full changelog for both builds:
Just like version 20H2, Windows 10 version 21H1 is a simple enablement package, meaning they have the exact same bits, but certain features only light up in the newer release. It looks like this one will be coming to all versions based on the same bits, though. You can read our guide to what's new in Windows 10 version 21H1 here.
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By Rich Woods
Dell Latitude 7320 review: The ultimate work from home laptop
by Rich Woods
Last summer, I reviewed Dell's Latitude 7310 laptop, and I truly enjoyed it. When Dell offered the newer Latitude 7320, I couldn't resist, despite the fact that little has changed. Indeed, the fact that so little has changed is part of the charm. I just love the form factor of this tiny little PC,
The main thing that has changed, of course, is that it now comes with Intel's 11th-generation processors. The new chips come with Iris Xe graphics, and they're a massive upgrade from 10th-gen, especially for business PCs like this one. It's also a bit thinner, a bit lighter, has a 1080p webcam, and more.
These days, Dell does offer a higher tier, the Latitude 9000 series, but honestly, I like the Latitude 7000 series a bit more, even though it lacks some key features like 5G support (you can get it with 4G though).
Specs
CPU Intel Core i7-1185G7 GPU Iris Xe Body 306.5x202.81x16.96mm (12.07x7.98x0.67in), 1.17kg (2.57lbs) Display 13.3” FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-glare, Super Low Power, Non-Touch, ComfortView Plus Low Blue Light, WVA, 400 nits, sRGB 100% Memory 16GB LPDDR4 SDRAM (on board) 4266MHz Storage 256GB SSD M.2 2230 PCIe Gen 3 NVMe Input Single Pointing Non-Backlit Keyboard, Spill Resistant
Single Pointing Backlit Keyboard, Spill Resistant
Microsoft Precision Touchpad Ports (2) USB Type C Thunderbolt 4.0 with Power Delivery & DisplayPort
(1) USB 3.2 Gen 1 with Power share
(1) HDMI 2.0
(1) external uSIM card tray (optional)
(1) uSD 4.0 Memory card reader
Battery 4 cell 63 WHr ExpressCharge2.0 Capable Battery & Long Life Cycle capable Webcam 1080p Connectivity Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 2x2 .11ax 160MHz + Bluetooth 5.1 Material Carbon fiber Color Black carbon fiber weave OS Windows 10 Pro Price $2,149
Day one
Design
Dell's Latitude 7000 series comes in a variety of styles. The 7300 series is 13-inch, the 7400 series is 14-inch, and the 7500 series is 15-inch; on top of that, you can choose between the 7320 clamshell like the one I'm reviewing, or the 7320 2-in-1 if you want a convertible. Moreover, there are options between carbon fiber and aluminum.
The clamshell that Dell sent me is carbon fiber, allowing it to weigh in at just 2.57 pounds. The lid has a carbon fiber weave design, something that not a lot of companies are doing, especially in the mainstream space. Lenovo does it for premium, but that's it. It's a nice look, and it's something that's different from the rest of the pack.
What I really love about the Latitude 7320 is just how light and small it is. Being a 13-inch laptop and having small bezels, it has such a small footprint that it's just so easy to carry. When I reviewed the Latitude 7310 last year, I described it as the perfect laptop for around the house. If I had to get work done on the couch, this would be the first machine I'd grab because it just feels so comfortable to carry, and it's a laptop that feels good on a lap.
Being a business laptop, it's also got a solid array of ports, not skimping out on USB Type-A. On the left side, there's a lone Thunderbolt 4 port, which you can use to connect dual 4K monitors, an external GPU, and so on. There's also a 3.5mm audio jack on that side.
Last year's Latitude 7310 supported a single 4K display on each Thunderbolt 3 port, as Dell used the base spec. That means that Thunderbolt 4 is actually a big improvement, offering double the bandwidth.
On the right side, you'll find a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port for 5Gbps speeds, an HDMI 2.0 port that supports 4K output, a microSD slot, a SIM slot that's filled with a slug if you get the cellular model, and a second Thunderbolt 4 port.
I really want to commend Dell for putting Thunderbolt 4 ports on each side, and that's actually one thing that did change in the chassis since last year. So few OEMs do it, but it really makes life easier when you can charge your laptop from either side. It's really rare in the Windows world.
Like I said, I really do like the design of this laptop, particularly just the shape and size of it.
Display and audio
The Latitude 7320 has a 13.3-inch 1080p display, and unfortunately, there's no option for 4K resolution. There are four display options, including non-touch options that come in at 250 nits or 400 nits, and two 300-nit touch options, one of which has Dell's SafeScreen privacy display.
Dell sent me the 400-nit non-touch screen, which is pretty good. It's easily bright enough to work from anywhere, which is something that I always appreciate. You should never have to use anything at 100% all of the time in order to be comfortable. You can use this screen at 50% brightness or less without an issue.
While is has narrow side bezels, the top bezel is a bit bigger, and as you can see, there's a lot to unpack there. First and foremost, the webcam is 1080p this time around, and that's super important. We're in an age where working from home is super popular, and while webcam quality wasn't nearly as important a couple of years ago, it's important now. So many companies are still using 720p webcams, so this is another thing I'll commend Dell for.
As you can see, there's also a privacy guard over the camera that you can use if you want to. Of course, that means that a bunch of other stuff won't work, the least of which is the IR camera for facial recognition.
Dell also has a bunch of AI features included, and there are some extra sensors in that are in that top bezel, all of which can be controled in the Dell Optimizer app. Those sensors can tell when you sit in front of the PC or when you walk away. When you sit in front of the PC, it can wake up, and then Windows Hello will light up to know that it's you that sat down, logging you in without you ever touching the PC. And then it can lock your PC when you walk away after a determined amount of time.
This is a security feature if you're working in an office or if you're working in public, but it's also great if you're working from home. When your computer automatically locks a minute after you walk away, you don't have to worry about your little kids messing up your important work. Moreover, you just don't have to think about this stuff.
And then there's audio, as the dual speakers are located under the base as usual. The audio gets louder than I thought it would, which is great for listening to music. But I once again want to focus on working from home, as both the speaker and microphone are great for meetings. I really feel like this is the ultimate work from home PC.
Keyboard and touchpad
While there have been some subtle changes to the rest of the PC, I don't think that the keyboard has changed at all. It's a backlit, Chiclet-style keyboard that you'll find on all of Dell's Latitude laptops, which is fine. Dell's keyboards are good, and in fact, I'd probably say I like the Latitude ones even more than the consumer ones.
The only problem is that they're not the best. This is never the highlight of the review because Lenovo's ThinkPad and HP's Elite laptops simply have better keyboards. Again, this is good, but those are better. Of course, I don't think you'd ever think that this is lacking in any way if you didn't compare the two.
The touchpad uses Microsoft Precision drivers, as you'd expect. It's also a bit larger than it was last year, taking advantage of more of the real estate on the keyboard deck. This is always nice to see. I much prefer a larger touchpad to wasted space.
Performance and battery life
The Latitude 7320 that Dell sent me includes a Core i7-1185G7, 16GB RAM, and a 256GB SSD. Strangely enough, when I went to price it out on Dell.com, there were no configs on there with over 256GB of storage. That's just an interesting fact though; businesses can get PCs through other channels that no doubt have additional customization options.
The performance improvement over the last generation is significant. Here's the long story. Last year, Intel's 10th-gen processors had two families: Ice Lake and Comet Lake. Ice Lake moved to 10nm, but it also included Iris Plus Graphics, a significant improvement over the integrated graphics in previous generations. Comet Lake pretty much existed because Intel couldn't make enough 10nm chips, so it was another 14nm lineup, once again including UHD Graphics.
This year's 11th-gen 'Tiger Lake' is a big step forward. The 10nm process has been refined, but also, these chips come with Iris Xe graphics. While last year's Iris Plus was nearly double the performance as before, this is nearly double the performance of Iris Plus.
Here's where it gets even better. Since Intel was so short on Ice Lake chips, all business PCs came with Comet Lake. The company didn't even make a vPro variant of Ice Lake. So while Tiger Lake is a big improvement on Ice Lake, it's an even bigger improvement over Comet Lake, which is what was in the Latitude 7310.
Intel's U-series processors, now called UP3, have been great at productivity for a long time, but now you can do more creative work on them. There's some actual graphics power here. Photo editing is no problem, nor is FHD video editing. It's a great product.
Battery life on this laptop is phenomenal too. I can easily get over a dozen hours of battery life on here, with the battery slider on one notch above battery saver and the screen on about 25% brightness. Dell has been making some bold battery life claims, and it's nice seeing it deliver.
For benchmarks, I used PCMark 8, PCMark 10, Geekbench, and Cinebench.
Latitude 7320
Core i7-1185G7 Latitude 7310
Core i7-10610U XPS 13
Core i7-1065G7 PCMark 8: Home 4,478 3,639 3,899 PCMark 8: Creative 4,655 3,693 4,253 PCMark 8: Work 4,099 3,845 3,797 PCMark 10 4,743 4,253 4,402 Geekbench 1,540 / 5,181 Cinebench 1,230 / 4,428
As you can see, there's a big improvement over the last generation.
Conclusion
While all of the changes that Dell made on this generation seem small, they're meaningful changes. I love that there are charging ports on either side for convenience, and of course, the FHD webcam is a must in 2021. Seriously, the amount of companies that have ignored that just baffles me.
My biggest complaint is that it doesn't have a 4K option again. This is something that's competing with the EliteBook 800 and ThinkPad T-series of the world, just like the Latitude 9000 should be competing with EliteBook 1000 and ThinkPad X1. A 4K option would be nice.
Of course, that would affect the sweet, sweet battery life that I'm getting from this thing. Seriously, it's wild. It's hard to not look at the Dell Latitude 7320 and call it the ultimate working from home PC, because it checks those boxes. It has the proper webcam, which is a rarity, and it's also light and small. It's easy to work from anywhere in your home, whether that's at a desk or on the couch.
This really is just such a good PC, and this year's improvements are really meaningful. If you want to check it out on Dell.com, you can find it here.
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By Sszecret
Microsoft Weekly: New Surface devices, April Patch Tuesday, and game updates
by Florin Bodnarescu
In the last seven days, Microsoft unveiled its latest Surface Laptop (and a number of other peripherals), acquired Nuance Communications for a cool $19.7 billion, and even pushed out a number of updates for Windows and first-party games. You can find info about that, as well as much more below, in your Microsoft digest for the week of April 11 - 17.
New Surface devices
After a number of leaks, and even a teaser video from Microsoft itself, the fourth iteration of the Surface Laptop was unveiled earlier this week.
Swapping out the Cobalt Blue variant for an Ice Blue color, the Laptop 4 now also includes AMD CPUs for both its 13.5 and 15-inch models (namely the Ryzen 4000 generation), as well as 11th-gen Intel Core CPUs. The device starts at $999, and has begun shipping since April 15, and in case you want to check out the full range of options available, have a look here.
The company also unveiled a number of peripherals, including the Surface Headphones 2+ for business (priced at $299 and available later this month), and the Modern USB Headset and Modern Wireless Headset, priced at $49.99 and $99.99 – arriving in June. Also arriving in June are the Modern USB-C Speaker ($99.99) and the Modern Webcam, the latter of which supports 1080p 30FPS video output, has a 78-degree FOV, and is priced at $69.99.
Last but not least, the Surface Duo was also mentioned, with Microsoft confirming that it’s headed for more European markets. Specifically, it’ll be available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland, though only for business and education customers.
April Patch Tuesday
Since this week was the second Tuesday of the month, Microsoft pushed out its by now traditional set of Patch Tuesday updates. If you’re on Windows 10, these are:
May 2020 Update / October 2020 Update (2004, 20H2): KB5001330, builds 19041.928 / 19042.928 – contains updates that improve basic Windows operation secuirity, as well as enhance security when using input devices like mice, keyboards, or pens. November 2019 Update (1909): KB5001337, build 18363.1500 – changelog is identical to the version above. October 2018 Update (1809): KB5001342, build 17763.1879 – supported for Enterprise, Education SKUs. April 2018 Update (1803): KB5001339, build 17134.2145 – supported for Enterprise, Education SKUs. Anniversary Update (1607): KB5001347, build 14393.4350 – supported in the Long-Term Servicing Channel. Windows 10 RTM (1507): KB5001340, build 10240.18906 - supported in the Long-Term Servicing Channel. Windows 8.1 and 7 aren’t forgotten either, with the former still in extended support until 2023, and the latter being kept alive in the business environment via Extended Security Updates. As such, here’s what folks running those operating systems need to be on the lookout for:
Windows 8.1: KB5001382, KB5001393 (security-only) – this monthly rollup includes some time zone and security enhancements, while still containing the now traditional Cluster Shared Volume error „STATUS_BAD_IMPERSONATION_LEVEL (0xC00000A5)” in terms of known issues. Windows 7: KB5001335, KB5001392 (security-only) – contains similar time zone and security enhancements to Windows 8.1, and has the identical known issue. Naturally, beyond the regular updates, Insiders in the Dev channel also got a new build to play with, namely 21359. Beyond its laundry list of fixes, it introduces a brand new option in the Power menu, which allows the system to restart your apps after signing in. Essentially, this works in a similar way to the ability to recover the last session in browsers, only this one applies to open apps at the time of restarting the system.
For fans of Timeline - the feature in Windows 10 that allows you to view your activity history (more or less a giant “recent files” screen -, there is some bad news. While the capability will remain functional for local activity, cross-device syncing is being removed.
Finally, in case the rumored Sun Valley UI refresh has piqued your interest, check out this concept which brings File Explorer a little more in-line with the Redmond giant’s vision. Sure, Windows 10 may never look like this, but it’s a fun little bit of speculation if you will, at least until Sun Valley arrives via 21H2 later in the year (assuming there’s no delays).
Game updates
This week was all about game updates on the Microsoft side.
On one hand, World Update IV dropped for Flight Simulator, featuring enhancements to the scenery in Western Europe. Included in the update are enhancements to regions in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, covering cities, airports, landmarks, and much more.
Sea of Thieves players were also greeted by the start of Season Two, adding Trade Routes, the ability to purchase resources directly from outposts, the addition of 100 more unlockable items to the free battle pass, and so much more.
For folks eagerly awaiting the Caves & Cliffs update that’s coming to Minecraft, there’s some interesting news. Mojang Studios has decided to split the update in two, with the mobs, items, and blocks arriving in the summer (the original target of the bigger update), and the world generation upgrades landing during the holiday season.
Those who enjoyed InXile’s latest release, Wasteland 3, will be happy to hear that the game is in fact getting its first expansion, The Battle of Steeltown. Adding a new location, new mechanics, more enemies, weapons, armor, combat and gear scaling and more, the expansion drops June 3 across Steam, GOG, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and (now) current-gen consoles for $13.99. Game Pass subscribers get at 10% discount when purchasing the expansion.
And while we’re on the subject of Game Pass and deals, you are now able to download Game Pass games using Amazon Alexa, while the ever-present Deals with Gold are yet again out in full force with The Division, ABZU, Apex Legends, Battlefield 1, and more receiving respectable discounts.
Last, but most certainly not least, if you’re an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, Uprising and Truck Racing Championship are now free to claim, with Vikings: Wolves of Midgard still being available to grab as well, at least until April 30.
Dev channel
Edge is set to get a new Workspaces feature, now available in the Canary channel. Additionally, Edge Dev build 91.0.852.0 is now out, adding Password Monitor for everybody, while the stable channel has gotten version 90, and the Canary variant on Android has received an update too. Chat bubble support is planned for Teams, as is support for electronically-signed approvals. All major Microsoft services will exclusively use SHA-2 starting next month. PowerToys pre-release v0.36 is now out, with a video conference mute tool. The Remote Desktop app has been updated with support for Apple Silicon devices. Logging off
We end the column with some Exchange, acquisition, and podcast news.
We’ll begin with Exchange, as Microsoft has released yet another set of security updates for the ever-unfolding Exchange Server vulnerabilities. This latest round of patches comes as a result of an NSA report and, for those not aware, is meant to further protect against the state-sponsored group attacks on on-prem Exchange Server instances, which started surfacing last month.
Moving on to acquisition news, Microsoft was rumored to be in talks with Nuance Communications, the company behind the underlying technology for Apple’s Siri digital assistant for a buyout. The firm's speech recognition system, Dragon, is used in a number of fields including healthcare, legal, law enforcement, and financial services.
While the initial rumor pinned the sum of the buyout at $16 billion, the Redmond giant came out not long after to confirm that it was indeed acquiring Nuance, but for $19.7 billion. This is because it’s also taking on the firm’s debt.
Last but not least, feel free to check out the latest episode of the Neowin Podcast, in which Rich and Joao discuss the shuttering of LG’s phone business, what’s next for Windows 10, and indeed what’s next for Rich Woods, as he will be leaving Neowin. You can check out the podcast at this link.
Missed any of the previous columns? Be sure to have a look right here.
If you’d like to get a daily digest of news from Neowin, we now have a Newsletter you can sign up to either via the ‘Get our newsletter’ widget in the sidebar, or this link.
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By Rich Woods
Lenovo ThinkBook 14 Gen 2 review: A solid mainstream business laptop with AMD Ryzen
by Rich Woods
Lenovo's ThinkBook 14 Gen 2 is here, and what you need to know is this: it starts at around $630. While it comes with a choice of Intel or AMD Ryzen 4000 processors, we're focusing on the AMD model here. The configuration that Lenovo sent me is the base model, with a Ryzen 5 4500U, 8GB RAM, and 256GB of storage.
And it's pretty awesome given the price. Sure, it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles like a premium laptop does, but it gets the job done. ThinkBook is a brand that's aimed at small to medium size businesses (SMBs), and this is something that fits in perfectly for an SMB use case. It's inexpensive and checks the right boxes, and it doesn't stand out too much.
Specs
CPU AMD Ryzen 5 4500U GPU Radeon Graphics Body 323x218x17.9mm (12.72x8.58x.7”), 1.4kg (3.09lbs) Display 14.0” FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare, 250 nits Storage 256GB PCIe SSD Memory 8GB DDR4 3200MHz (soldered) Ports (1) USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
(1) USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (always on)
(2) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (data transfer, power delivery, DisplayPort 1.4)
(1) HDMI 1.4b
(1) 4-in-1 Card Reader
(1) RJ-45 Ethernet
(1) Headphone/microphone combo jack Connectivity Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 11ax, 2x2 + BT5.1 Webcam 720p with ThinkShutter Input 6-row, Spill-resistant, multimedia Fn keys, LED backlight, Buttonless Mylar surface multi-touch touchpad, supports Precision TouchPad Audio 2x2W Stereo Speakers with Dolby Audio, Dual Array Microphones Security Power-on password, hard disk password, supervisor password, TPM 2.0 integrated in chipset Battery 45Wh battery, supports Rapid Charge Pro (up to 50% in 30 min) Material Aluminum Color Mineral Grey Price $629.85
As always, it's worth noting that Lenovo's business laptop prices on its websites fluctuates, so this reflects the price at the time that this review was written.
Day one
Design
If you checked out, say, my ThinkBook 15p review, then you already know what the ThinkBook 14 Gen 2 looks like. The current generation of ThinkBooks has a very clear and consistent design language. For example, the lid has that same two-tone design with a Mineral Grey color, using two shades of gray. The ThinkBook logo sits in that bottom half, and it's a clean look without any flash.
This machine feels solid and well-built. It's free of bells and whistles, but it doesn't feel like it's free of quality. It comes in at 3.09 pounds, an average weight for an aluminum laptop of this size. It doesn't go out of its way to be thin or light, as this is really the type of PC that's aimiung to check boxes.
And since it's not going out of its way to be thin, that means we have a solid port selection to choose from. On the left side, you'll find two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, meaning that they're good for 10Gbps speeds. They also support Power Delivery and DisplayPort, so you can use either one to charge the laptop, or you can use them to connect a monitor. Being a mainstream AMD-powered laptop, there's obviously no Thunderbolt.
You'll also find an HDMI 1.4b port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port for 5Gbps speeds, and a 3.5mm audio jack.
On the right side, there's a full Ethernet port, an SD card reader, and another USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port. Indeed, it's pretty cool that this machine has four USB ports. I feel like most OEMs are using three at best, two of which are usually USB Type-C. With the ThinkBook 14, you get two of each.
I do enjoy the ThinkBook 14 design, at least as it applies to small businesses. The whole theme seems to be solid, yet subtle.
Display and audio
The ThinkBook 14 comes with a screen that's, you guessed it, 14 inches. And it comes in any resolution you want as long as it's 1920x1080, also meaning that it's still 16:9. That doesn't mean that there aren't different variations of the screen though, because there are.
Like I said, Lenovo sent me the base model, which has a 250-nit screen without touch. There are also 300-nit touch and non-touch options, and you should definitely get one of them. To be clear, 250 nits is a very dim display. In fact, even 300 nits isn't very impressive, but at 250 nits, you'll probably have to use it at full brightness all of the time.
Other than that, the display is pretty good for what it is. It's a matte anti-glare display, which compensates for the lack of brightness a bit. Lenovo isn't pushing Dolby Vision HDR or anything like that with this one. It's just your basic 1080p 250-nit display, made for productivity.
The bezels are pretty slim on all sides, with the top bezel being a bit larger to make room for the webcam. There's also a privacy guard that can cover the webcam, so you don't have to worry about putting a piece of tape over it or anything like that. There's no IR camera, which is fine to me since there's a fingerprint sensor in the power button.
Also, it's worth noting that privacy guards and Windows Hello don't play nice with each other. If you're the type to keep the webcam covered but also want facial recognition to work, you'd have to remember to open it every time you want it to recognize you, which is a pain. A fingerprint sensor works out better.
The ThinkBook 14 has dual 2W speakers on the bottom that support Dolby Audio, and they're decent. They're not particularly loud or amazing, but they work great for calls and meetings. If you're playing music at your desk, you might want some proper speakers. But for meetings, you won't find them lacking in any way.
Keyboard and touchpad
One of the things that I really like about ThinkBooks is that while they're business PCs, they're sort of the anti-ThinkPads. They maintain the same quality that you'll get on a ThinkPad keyboard, quality that it's known for. But it sheds the legacy components. You won't find a TrackPoint here, nor will you find any physical buttons above the touchpad.
It also doesn't feel as deep as the keyboard on a ThinkPad keyboard. It still feels accurate and it feels comfortable, but all of it feels a bit more modern.
This is actually an important bit, because this is a premium keyboard. Indeed, ThinkPads are renowned for their keyboards, so when you put that kind of quality into a PC that costs six hundred dollars and change, it's something that's worth noting. If you're looking for a great typing experience in a package that doesn't cost too much, look no further.
And then there's the touchpad, which uses Microsoft Precision drivers. It's just a regular clickable touchpad though, so it's actually bigger than what you'd fine on a ThinkPad. ThinikPads have physical buttons above the touchpad, which are necessary for use with the TrackPoint. Since there's no TrackPoint, those buttons aren't necessary and Lenovo is able to produce a larger touchpad that works the same way as it would on any other PC.
Finally, I do want to draw attention to the power button in the top-right corner of the keyboard deck, which doubles as a fingerprint sensor. As is always the case with ThinkBooks, it scans your fingerprint when you first press it, so you don't have to touch it again after the PC boots up. That makes it just as natural of an interaction as facial recognition, since you don't have to perform any additional steps.
Performance and battery life
The model that Lenovo sent me has an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U processor under the hood. The 15W chip has six cores, and it does not have simultaneous multithreading (SMT), so it has six threads as well. Along with that, it comes with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. It's a pretty basic model.
On Lenovo.com, you can have it configured with the octa-core Ryzen 7 4700U, which is also lacking SMT. However, Lenovo says that it's available with the Ryzen 5 4600U and Ryzen 7 4800U as well, and those are the same chips but with SMT. Honestly, it all depends on your work load to know if you'd benefit from SMT, and frankly, for a productivity machine like this, six cores and six threads is probably fine.
While it's a productivity machine, you can definitely do more than that, such as comfortable edit photos and even edit FHD videos. AMD's Ryzen 4000 processors were its first to be built on its 7nm process, and combined with the integrated Radeon graphics, there's a lot that they can do.
Battery life was pretty great as well, coming in at around eight hours with the lower slider at one notch above battery saver and the screen on about 50% brightness. Honestly though, I did increase the brightness at some point because this screen is so dim that it was hard on my eyes. I do credit that dim display with the excellent battery life that I'm getting.
For benchmarks, I used PCMark 8, PCMark 10, Geekbench, and Cinebench.
ThinkBook 14 Gen 2
Ryzen 5 4500U ThinkBook 14s Yoga
Core i7-1165G7 Surface Pro 7+
Core i5-1135G7 Acer Enduro N3
Core i5-10210U PCMark 8: Home 3,451 3,851 3,521 3,344 PCMark 8: Creative 3,712 4,861
4,192 3,419 PCMark 8: Work 3,584 4,083 3,403 3,513 PCMark 10 4,177 5,105 3,963 3,655 Geekbench 5 969 / 3,142 1,534 / 4,861
1,358 / 5,246 Cinebench 1,121 / 5,782 1,455 / 4,820 1,235 / 2,854
I do think that Intel's 11th-generation processors beat Ryzen 4000, although when Ryzen 4000 came out, it crushed Intel's 10th-gen chips. But in fact, it crushed Intel's 10th-gen processors that were being used in business PCs even more. While Ice Lake had the benefit of Iris Plus Graphics, Comet Lake didn't even have that. In other words, whether you choose AMD or Intel on the ThinkBook 14, you're getting a big boost over the previous generation.
Conclusion
Most of what this all adds up to is that it costs just over $600. You get a ton of value for that price, including AMD Ryzen 4000 performance, a solid build quality, and a great keyboard. My biggest issue with it is the display, which simply isn't bright enough to get the job done consistently.
But most of all, this is just a no frills business laptop. It's a good one, which is actually my experience with ThinkBooks in general. They're fantastic PCs but without the bells and whistles of say, a ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga. But then again, a ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga costs nearly three times as much.
Overall, the ThinkBook 14 just checks the right boxes. The performance is there, the keyboard is there, and the battery life is there. Indeed, the battery life is pretty great, and that's with the smaller battery installed in this unit. Overall, there's a ton of value here.
If you want to check out the ThinkBook 14 Gen 2 on Lenovo.com, you can find it here.
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By Rich Woods
Huawei MateBook X Pro review: A great PC with a WFH deal-breaker
by Rich Woods
Huawei's MateBook X Pro has long been one of my favorite consumer PCs. It's thin, it's light, it's powerful, and it's just awesome. It was always the company's top-end PC, taking a swing at Apple's MacBook Pro.
Now, here we are in 2021 and not much has changed. There's a new color called Emerald Green that I'm absolutely in love with, and it's a nice departure from the previous gray color. And of course, it uses 11th-generation Intel processors, but instead of dedicated graphics this time, it uses Intel's integrated Iris Xe graphics.
The chassis itself hasn't changed, and there's still no webcam in the display. Indeed, Huawei's solution for a privacy guard was to actually put a pop-up camera in the keyboard.
Specs
CPU Intel Core i7-1165G7 GPU Iris Xe Body 304x217x14.6mm, 1.33kg Display 13.9 inches, 3000x2000, 260ppi, 450 nits, 100% sRGB, 1500:1 contrast ratio, 178-degree viewing angle, touch, 91% screen-to-body ratio Memory 16GB LPDDR4x 4266MHz Storage 1TB NVMe PCIe SSD Battery 56WHr Lithium polymer Connectivity IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax
2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
2 x 2 MIMO
Support WPA/WPA2/WPA3
Bluetooth 5.1 Ports (2) Thunderbolt 4
(1) USB 3.2 Type-A
(1) 3.5mm audio Input Full-size Backlit Chiclet Keyboard
Touchpad with Multi-touch and HUAWEI Free Touch
Huawei Share Built-in Webcam 1MP Recessed Camera (720P HD) Audio Speaker x 4
Microphone x 2 Material Aluminum Color Emerald Green OS Windows 10 Home Price €1,899.00
Day one
Design
If you go back to my review of the original MateBook X Pro back in 2018, you'll find the specs almost identical to the specs of the 2021 model, down to the millimeter and gram. Nothing has changed in terms of the actual hardware, not that that's a bad thing. It's not like the design itself feels dated.
It still weighs in at just one and a third kilograms, and it's 14.6mm thin. Plus, there's a new Emerald Green color. It kind of reminds me of Microsoft's Cobalt Blue color from its Surface Laptop lineup, a color that it just killed off with the Surface Laptop 4. I'm a huge fan of bold, beautiful colors like this, and I feel like it's something that few laptop makers take advantage of. Everyone sticks to that boring gunmetal gray color; it's like black on smartphones.
Microsoft is moving toward more subtle colors in its Surface lineup. I'm really happy to see bolder colors from Huawei, although I'm not surprised that the Shenzhen firm can innovate with colors and design. I visited its design center in Paris a few years back and they work on some cool stuff.
The lid has the word Huawei stamped in it with silver letters, giving it a bit of extra flash. It's different from the petal logo that was on the original version.
While this is quite a thin PC, it doesn't sacrifice USB Type-A. Indeed, that's actually one of the "Pro" aspects of it that separates it from the regular MateBook X, which is USB Type-C only. You'll find the lone USB Type-A port on the right side of the PC.
On the left side, there are dual Thunderbolt 4 ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. Oddly, Huawei doesn't actually describe them as Thunderbolt on its spec sheet, but the page is very clear that each port supports dual 4K monitors and 40Gbps data transfer speeds. In other words, they\re Thunderbolt 4 ports.
I love the look and feel of the Emerald Green MateBook X Pro. I can't go on about the color enough. It really stands out from the pack, and it's bound to catch some eyeballs if you're out and about with it.
Display and audio
The screen has not changed since the first generation model. It's that same 13.9-inch 3000x2000 touchscreen, and actually, touch support is another feature that made it "Pro" over the MateBook X back in the day. It's got a 91% screen-to-body ratio, because the bezels are just so tiny on all four sides.
Indeed, there isn't even a webcam in any of the bezels. Indeed, the bezels are about as small as they can possibly get.
And the 13.9-inch screen feels like a good size. I don't talk about this a lot, but the more common 13.5-inch size with a 3:2 aspect ratio (Surface Laptop, Surface Book, ThinkPad X1 Titanium, Spectre x360 14) always feels just a bit too small for me. I often use two apps side-by-side, so being that 3:2 makes it taller, the screens tend to not be quite as wide as a 13-inch 16:9 laptop. At 13.9 inches, I feel like there's a bit more room to work, and it makes a difference to me.
Huawei also just makes good screens. The colors are vibrant, and the brightness is 450 nits, which is a proper brightness level. When working indoors, you can set it to areound 33% brightness and still feel comfortable, and then turn it up if you're in bright sunlight.
In my opinion, you should never have to set anything to 100% in order for it to be comfortable. That goes for brightness, for volume, and for anything else. If you have to use it at 100% in normal circumstances, you're not giving yourself any room for abnormal circumstances.
And just like you won't have to use the display at 100% brightness, you won't have to use the four speakers at 100%. The speakers sit on either side of the keyboard, and this time around, I'm not finding any Dolby Atmos branding on this machine. Still, the audio is crystal clear and gets uncomfortable loud, as speakers should do. If you care about audio quality and volume in a laptop, this is something that Huawei has focused on since it started making laptops.
Keyboard, touchpad, and webcam
As I've said a few times, nothing has changed in the external hardware, and that includes the keyboard. This is where the big problem comes in. It's not the keyboard itself, which is actually quite good. It feels modern, comfortable, and accurate. The model that Huawei sent me actually has a UK keyboard, which took a bit of getting used to, but it's fine.
The big problem is the webcam. In most reviews, I talk about the webcam in the "Display" section, because on most laptops, the webcam is in the lid. That's not the case on the MateBook X Pro. The MateBook X Pro has the webcam in the keyboard; it's a pop-up between the F6 anf F7 keys. The pop-up nature of it doubles as a privacy guard.
When Huawei introduced the pop-up camera in 2018, it was a brilliant idea, the same as when Dell used to put the webcam below the display on its XPS laptops to give us thinner bezels. These companies had data that showed that for most consumers, the webcam simply wasn't important, and if it is, you can buy something else. That changed in 2020 though; a pandemic caused a lot of people to work from home, and now that webcam is a staple to our work flow.
That's the angle that you're going to get from the webcam if you're on a call. Also, the quality isn't particularly good either, being a 720p webcam instead of 1080p, not that it really matters at that angle.
Next up is the touchpad, which is nice and big, taking advantage of the available real estate on the deck. Here's the twist: it's actually a haptic touchpad. For the most part, you probably won't notice a difference from a mechanical touchpad. When you click it, it feels like a proper click. It's just kind of wild when you turn the PC off and nothing happens when you press it. Actually, it's also worth noting that if the MateBook X Pro is asleep, you can't use the touchpad to wake it up because of this.
I feel like for most haptic touchpads, there are a few kinks that need to be worked out, like being able to wake the PC from sleep. Another thing that's good on this PC (compared to some others) but not perfect is using two fingers to drag and drop something. With a mechanical touchpad, it's fine; you just press with one finger, drag, then press with a second finger before using that to drag. With some haptic touchpads, it doesn't pick up that second finger properly, making drag and drop operations a pain. Like I said, this one is pretty good and you probably won't notice significant issues.
Speaking of not being able to wake it with the touchpad, you can of course use the power button, which is located to the top-right of the keyboard. It's got a fingerprint sensor built into it, one of my favorite features of MateBooks in general. It scans your fingerprint when you first press it, so you don't have to touch it again after the PC boots up. It just logs you in. Huawei makes really good fingerprint sensors too, so it's accurate.
One other thing that's awesome is that if you're in the Huawei ecosystem, this thing is amazing. It has Huawei Share built in, so you can tap your Huawei phone against it and share a bunch of photos and videos. Also with things like Multi-screen Collaboration, the company has really been focusing on tight integration between its products.
Performance and battery life
The configuration of the MateBook X Pro that Huawei sent me includes an Intel Core i7-1165G7, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Indeed, it's the fully specced out model, although the Shenzhen firm really doesn't allow you to make a lot of compromises. You can get it with a Core i5-1135G7, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD, but there's no option for 8GB RAM or 256GB of storage. I'm a big fan of not allowing consumers to make bad choices.
This is actually the first version of the MateBook X Pro that doesn't have dedicated graphics. Historically, it's used something from Nvidia's MX series, which is for thin and light ultrabooks for this. Indeed, the MX series has never been particularly good, but it's always just carried that label of being better than integrated graphics.
What's changed now is that Intel's integrated graphics are good, really good in fact. It's called Iris Xe, and I assume that Huawei just decided that Iris Xe was good enough to not use something like an MX450 GPU. Indeed, I don't feel like we're missing out on anything.
Intel's 11th-gen processors are pretty great for anything from productivity to FHD gaming to creative work. In fact, it's worth notiong that with the previous MateBook X Pro, Huawei actually used 10th-gen 'Comet Lake' instead of Ice Lake, so it didn't use Iris Plus Graphics. That means that this year's model is that much more of an upgrade.
With the power slider on one notch above battery saver and the screen at around 33% brightness, I was able to get seven to eight hours of battery life with regular usage. That actually really impressed me because Huawei's own specs page said that it gets 10 hours of local video playback, so it's not making any bold claims like Windows OEMs typically do. Typically, it's the companies that are promising 18 hours of batter life that are putting out machines that get eight hours of juice. I'm sure that if I left a local video on a loop, it would get at least 10 hours, perhaps even more at the settings that I used.
For benchmarks, I used PCMark 8, PCMark 10, Geekbench, and Cinebench.
MateBook X Pro
Core i7-1165G7 MateBook X Pro
Core i7-8565U, MX250 IdeaPad Slim 7
Ryzen 7 4800U Spectre x360 14
Core i7-1165G7 PCMark 8: Home 3,839 3,186 4,566 4,094 PCMark 8: Creative 4,598 3,471 4,861 4,527 PCMark 8: Work 3,541 3,305 3,926 3,896 PCMark 10 4,692 3,774 5,252 4,705 Geekbench 1,518 / 4,929 1,414 / 4,470 Cinebench 1,361 / 4,119
Conclusion
There's a lot of good here, and unfortunately, one major deal-breaker. Huawei took what's historically been a winning formula and basically bumped up the specs. It's got a new Emerald Green color and a haptic touchpad, but for the most part, the thing that's new here is the addition of 11th-gen processors and the lack of a dedicated GPU. And being that this has always been a winning formula, it's understandable to see why Huawei didn't think to change it.
Unfortunately, the webcam is unusable. I'd never show up in any professional setting using a webcam like this, especially when we're well over a year deep into a pandemic. Seriously, we all should have figured out proper webcam set-ups right now where we can at least be close to eye-level.
If you're buying a PC and for some reason, you have no interest in the webcam, then you're good to go here. I just don't know how common that can possibly be right now. The recent spike in PC sales is due to people needing to work from home, and if you're working from home, then you need a proper webcam.
It's a shame because the rest of this laptop is just so good. The Emerald Green color is bold and sexy, and Huawei gives us a 13.9-inch display that's just a bit bigger than what you'll find on the 13.5-inch Surface Laptop or Surface Book. It also comes with phenomenal audio quality, better than most laptops on the market. All around, this really is a fantastic machine, just with a terrible webcam.
If you want to check it out, you can find it here.
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