Dell’s new XPS 13 and XPS 13 Plus laptops were launched a few months ago, equipped with brand new Intel 12th generation processors, NVMe storage, and in the case of the XPS 13 Plus, an impressive OLED display. These were all squeezed into a thin and light design that wowed reviewers who got their hands on it. However, the excitement began to fall off for some reviewers for one specific reason....

First up we measured the sequential read and write performance using CrystalDiskMark. As suggested by Sonnet, some mobile devices do limit performance and we are seeing that here. Still a read bandwidth of 1.35GB/s is nothing to be ashamed of, nor is the 1.2GB/s write speed. This meant that the Fusion Thunderbolt 3 was roughly twice as fast as Plextor’s internal M6e SSD which was tested in our Core i7 rig....

The Z3 Compact packs all the same goodness inside its chassis: a powerful Snapdragon 801 SoC, a 20.7-megapixel Exmor RS camera, fast connectivity features including Category 4 LTE and NFC, and IP68 waterproofing. It comes with the same software, too, so for all intents and purposes it’s a smaller Xperia Z3. The Compact also occupies an interesting position in the market with little, if any competition. The iPhone 6 packs top-end hardware and is close in size, though it’s still slightly larger....

Rather than relying on a series of filters to decontaminate water, the machine leans on a technique called ion concentration polarization (ICP) that uses electricity to filter out salt molecules, viruses and bacteria. Another technique called electrodialysis helps to eliminate any remaining salt that may have slipped by the ICP stage. It works on both dissolved and suspended solids and with no filters to replace, long-term maintenance requirements are greatly reduced....

Despite strong upload and download performance in our single large file test, the Synology DS1515 only provided average performance in the copy test. With 57.6MB/s the DS1515 did manage to match the TS-451, though it was considerably slower than the DS415+ and TS-653 Pro. The game copy performance was stronger as the Synology DS1515 managed to match the DS415+, making it just 4MB/s slower than the QNAP TS-653 Pro....

Update: Rockstar has confirmed that the leaked material is genuine and it is “extremely disappointed” to see GTA 6 details shared in this manner. The studio stressed that the incident will not delay the project, which is set to arrive in 2024 or 2025. The company said, “We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorized third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto....

The Fitbit Ultra tracker shows your real-time activity stats so you know how close you are to your goals. It’s a pedometer on steroids. This small, lightweight device comfortably fits in your pocket and can analyze your eating, exercise and sleep patterns, while displaying recorded data on an easy to use website and mobile app. If you or someone you love is looking for some motivation to be more active then this might be the perfect gift....

Tesla’s Wireless Charging Platform is described on the company’s website as being inspired by the angular design and metallic styling of the Cybertruck. It offers 15W of fast charging power per device for up to three devices simultaneously, which, as a reminder, means you’ll be paying the equivalent of $100 per device. Other features that definitely make it worth the price include aluminum housing, a premium alcantara surface, and a detachable magnetic stand that allows users to lay the charger flat or at an angle for better viewing....

There was also the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2’s impressive (but buggy) PC port, the PC-exclusive Total War: Three Kingdoms, and the brilliantly-written, award-winning cop RPG Disco Elysium. Despite how excellent many of those games are, they’ll have some pretty stiff competition this year. With highly-anticipated titles like Mount & Blade: Bannerlord and Cyberpunk 2077 on the release docket, 2020 is set to be one hell of a year for PC gamers....

Likewise, Intel hasn’t really wowed us since Sandy Bridge four years ago. Its chips have become more powerful and efficient since then, but the generational improvements haven’t been as significant as you would expect in that amount of time. The biggest achievement for desktop processors in recent memory was the eight-core Core i7-5960X, though at $1,000 it’s well beyond the reach of mainstream users. Given how little has changed, you might expect buying a new processor to be fairly straightforward....

Sound Out of the box with no EQ tweaks, subjectively, I felt the A50 delivered better audio than the SteelSeries H Wireless. That’s a good thing for Astro considering the A50 only has three possible EQ presets. By comparison, the H Wireless sports a 5-band equalizer which allows you to dial in the sound you like. Because input into your A50 will likely come from a secondary analog or optical source (i....

The Federal Communications Commission has launched an interactive broadband map that provides a snapshot of broadband coverage across the US. Maps that highlight the availability of various services are nothing new (remember those early, spotty cell phone coverage maps?). The FCC has maintained broadband coverage maps for a while but up to this point, they were based on data collected at the census block level. This meant that if a single home in a census block was served by broadband, the entire block would show up as served on its maps regardless of whether or not other homes actually had access to service....

And yet my quest for the perfect handset continues. Some phones came close - I loved the Google Pixel XL and the Galaxy S7 was pretty good, too - but nothing was without fault. I still caught manufacturers packing weak batteries in their most powerful phones, while loading out their budget options with massive batteries. I still struggled to use some horrendous software distributions, even though stock Android is available for all to implement....

It would be a massive understatement to say artificial intelligence has affected our lives. Whether that’s a positive or negative is entirely up to you. Virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri are integrated into many devices that people interact with everyday. Self-driving vehicles, not limited to Tesla models, utilize machine learning to teach AI to drive the vehicle. Manufacturing robots is another such example, although more relevant to business than the consumer....

I feared that Blow’s magnificent new puzzle game had deadended my ability to reach a solution. I sent it on a Saturday afternoon. “I’ve been playing for much of the day and am having a good time,” I wrote. “I’ve solved a LOT of puzzles.” I listed my accomplishments in the game so far. I needed him to know that I hadn’t buckled early. “One puzzle, though, is really vexing me,” I continued, “I’m not sure if I should be able to solve it yet....

Unless you were a network wiz, configuring the N2100 could be somewhat challenging. Worst of all, the N2100’s performance was miserable – we’re talking slower than some USB 2.0 thumbdrives with a peak transfer rate of around 13MB/s. Looking back at the review, it’s incredible how far we’ve come in terms of cost and functionality in just a few years. While pricing on NAS devices hasn’t changed much, virtually everything else has....

Steam is, on one hand, a brilliant thing, more feature-rich than just about any other gaming platform on the planet. However, as it’s expanded over the years it’s also taken on an infernal-machine-like quality; it’s become this cacophonous conglomerate of bells and whistles, many of which are buried under other bells and whistles. It’s hard to know everything Steam is capable of, is what I’m saying. Here are a few lesser-known Steam features I’ve come across, as well as a few people brought up in this Reddit thread started by user Zyhoxem:...

At my personal favorite resolution of 1600p (reduce the numbers by roughly 10% for 1440p performance) we find that The Division is extremely demanding, even with the high quality preset. In order to keep the frame rate above 40fps gamers will require a R9 390 or GTX 970, both dipped to the same 40fps with a 48fps average. In order for an average of 60fps+ the R9 Fury or GTX 980 Ti will be required....

Around half of the world’s supply of neon—needed for the lasers used in chip manufacturing—comes from two companies in Ukraine. Reuters reports that both have ceased production since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Market research from Techcet notes the US gets just under 50 percent of its supply from the region. One of the companies, Ingas, is based in Mariupol, which is currently under attack from Russian forces. Mariupol is the same city in which a Russian airstrike hit a maternity hospital earlier this week....