The annual Comptex show in Taipei wound up last week, giving us a look at the next wave of laptops, all-in-ones, convertibles and everything in-between. We were out in force at Computex 2015 to bring you all the laptop and gadget news! This is everything you missed in one place. These are your next computers.
Gizmodo’s Computex coverage presented by the Lenovo range of laptops, convertibles, all-in-one desktops and tablets available from Officeworks.
Computers
Acer’s Computex Haul Includes Wearables, All-In-One PCs And The Switch 11 V Convertible
Acer is one of the first out of the gate, with a bunch of tech on show at the Computex 2015 expo starting today in Taiwan — and some of it looks pretty cool. Hurry up and bring it to Australia, guys.
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ASUS Computex 2015 Live Blog: All The News As It Happened
It’s that time of year again, folks! The Computex show is on again, and ASUS is first out of the blocks with its press conference. Get in here and follow it all as it happens!
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Gigabyte’s Ultraforce: Gaming Power Inside Everyday Laptops
Gigabyte has an entirely refreshed range of Ultraforce gaming laptops at Computex 2015. The new laptops aren’t quite as out there in their designs as Gigabyte’s sister brand AORUS — in fact, they’re positively mainstream — but the hardware inside is anything but boring.
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Aorus’s Crazy X-Series Laptops Have Dual Graphics, New CPUs, G-Sync Screens
Aorus has always built the Lamborghini Aventador of laptops. Its X-Series notebooks are packed to the brim with bleeding edge hardware, but are somehow ridiculously thin at the same time. At Computex 2015, the company has shown off a new X5 and X7 Pro for you to lust over, and both have dual-linked graphics cards that make them probably the most powerful laptops you can buy today.
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Corsair Bulldog: A Living Room PC With A Face Only A Gamer Could Love
If you build your own PCs, you’ve probably considered parts from Corsair. They sell well-liked memory, cases, power supplies, coolers, SSDs, even peripherals these days. Now they’re introducing their own do-it-yourself living room gaming PC. And gosh is it big and ugly!
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Windows 10 Will Be Out On July 29
It’s official. July 29 is the date that everyone can get Windows 10 for their PC — if they want it, that is — whether that’s as a brand new operating system, or as a completely free upgrade from Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1.
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This Crazy Shape-Shifting PC Is The Gaming Rig Optimus Prime Would Use
If you’ve always been disappointed by the simple way the Asus Transformer changes shape, prepare to finally be impressed. This Asus gaming PC tower flexes and folds more like Optimus Prime than any two-in-one tablet ever could.
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Your Next Windows PC Might Fit Inside A Phone Charger
What if that phone charger you casually toss into your bag everyday was more than just a power adaptor? What if was secretly a fully fledged Windows PC? Well, then you’d have the Quanta Compute Plug.
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Intel’s Cheap Windows PC TV Dongle Is About To Get Way Better
Cramming a full Windows PC inside of a cheap, $150 HDMI dongle sounds like a great idea — but Intel’s first attempt really fell flat. The Intel Compute Stick was underpowered, frustrating, and failed to live up to the hype. It wasn’t good enough to be a do-everything PC that fits in your pocket. No sweat: a leaked Intel roadmap shows how it’s going to get a lot better.
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Components
Intel Souped Up Its 5th Generation Core Processors: Better Graphics, Faster Chips
Intel’s Broadwell 5th Generation Core processors have only been around for a few months, but the chip maker is already souping them up. New 5th Generation Core processors with improved Iris graphics and speed.
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AMD’s Carrizo: Huge Performance Boosts For Everyday Laptops
We don’t all buy ridiculously powerful notebooks. Gaming PCs, sure, but not notebooks. Normal laptops — y’know, the ones you can buy in Harvey Norman and your local computer store, the ones that cost a thousand dollars and not five thousand — are far more common, but we don’t give them as much love as we should.
AMD has just taken the covers off its latest high-performance notebook APU, called Carrizo, and the under-the-hood improvements are genuinely amazing. Say hello to double the battery life of last year’s laptops, as well as almost double the computing power.
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AMD’s New Desktop APU Is A 12-Core Monster
AMD has a new top-end APU — that’s accelerated processing unit, if you didn’t know, combining a high performance CPU with a high performance integrated graphics chipset — in the A10-7870K. Built to go inside your next mainstream desktop PC purchase, it’s just as small as any other CPU, but has some serious graphics grunt under the hood — more than enough to beat a mainstream Intel chip and standalone graphics card.
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Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 980 Ti: For High-End 4K Gamers
If you don’t have the cash to splash on Nvidia’s eyeball-melting Titan X, then this is the GTX 980 Ti — the next GeForce flagship, designed for smooth frame rates at 1080p, 1440p and even 4K gaming of brand new AAA titles like The Witcher 3, GTA V and Project CARS. It’s the newest and most powerful 9-series graphics card from Nvidia, and overtakes even the regular GTX 980 by a fair margin.
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Intel Turned Me Into A Princess With Its 3D Laptop Cameras
Intel’s 3D camera division has been radio silent for a few months now. We were starting to get worried we wouldn’t get the smarter, depth-sensing laptops and all-in-ones we were promised. But today we saw life! Today I got hands-on with the new RealSense cameras that will help your laptop see you better than ever before.
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Accessories
Intel Thunderbolt 3: One USB Type-C Cable To Rule Them All
It’s happening: Intel has ditched its proprietary connector for the super-fast Thunderbolt standard and adopted USB Type-C connectors to supercharge the reversible cable.
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Computex 2015: All About The PC Case Mods
PC gaming is enjoying a renaissance, with new massively powerful graphics cards and CPUs coming out, the imminent arrival of Windows 10, and a ceaseless stream of high-profile blockbuster game releases. What all that means is that enthusiasts are tinkering with their home-made PCs more than ever. Here are some of the most bonkers custom cases on show at Computex this year.
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Intel Has Cracked Wireless Charging Through Your Dumb Wooden Desk
Wireless charging is still a bit of a hassle. You have to have the right charging plates for your phone and make sure you’re matching the same standards between devices. Intel showed off a proof of concept that allows you to place a phone anywhere on your wooden desk and charge your gadgets, and it wants to bring it to market in the next 12 months.
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The New Linksys EA8500 Max-Stream Wi-Fi Router: All The Bandwidth, All The Time
Having super-fast, 802.11ac is great for high-speed file transfers — we know this much from testing the Linksys WRT1900AC, the Netgear Nighthawk X6 and D-Link’s crazy DIR-890L. The brand new Linksys EA8500, though, one-ups all of those by being super-fast for multiple devices at once using a new technology called MU-MIMO beamforming.
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Roccat’s Nyth Build-Your-Own Mouse: Made For Just About Any Game You Can Think Of
If you’re an avid gamer, choosing a comfortable and versatile mouse is one of the most important things you can do; along with a keyboard and mouse and audio, a mouse is one of your primary points of input to a PC. Getting the right mouse design is tricky, though, and Roccat’s minutely customisable Nyth should go a long way to helping that — especially if you’re a fan of MMOs or MOBA.
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I Don’t Know What This Weird Gadget Is, But I Want It
Inside my mind I am completely lost. A few minutes ago, I was standing in front of a booth in front of a gadget that I just could not identify. I don’t know what it is or what it does, but I think I need to own it.
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Asus Audio Cover Hands-On: Holy Crap, This Thing Is Awesome
When Asus announced its new ZenPad at Computex, it slipped a little gadget into the accessories section that we think needs a lot more attention. It’s called the Audio Cover, and it’s an awesome idea.
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Antec Just Reinvented The PC Case
Again. The PC case has been reinvented again. Antec has unveiled the S10, the first in an ongoing series of Signature high-end cases, all with the three highest heat output components — power supply, hard drives, and motherboard — separated into different chambers and unique thermal zones. The idea is for you to build the most powerful PC you can, without the annoying hurdle of actually cooling it.
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It Was Only A Matter Of Time Until Someone Put A Touchscreen Into A Router
At Computex 2015 in Taipei, there are a lot of networking devices. Everybody is talking the Internet Of Things, and there’s dozens (probably hundreds) of different Wi-Fi routers and modems and access points. There’s also a lot of smartphones and tablets and little touchscreen gadgets. But why, why, do you have to have your smartphone and your Wi-Fi router? Why do they have to be so… separate? ¿Porque no los dos?
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Mobile
New Asus Tablet Has Swappable Backs That Add Extra Features
Asus has announced a new ZenPad tablet that allows you to swap its back panel. But unlike phones of yesteryear, these changes add new features — like extended battery life or a more powerful set of speakers.
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New Asus ZenWatch2 Comes In Two Sizes And Features Digital Crown
Asus has announced a new version of its smartwatch, the ZenWatch 2. Unlike the old version it comes in two sizes, like the Apple Watch, and features a digital crown… rather like the Apple Watch.
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Around The Show
Gogoro SmartScooter Hands-On: Riding The Tesla Of Electric Bikes
The first thing you need to know about Taipei is that it’s hot. Well, more humid, really. The second thing you need to know is that if you don’t have a scooter, you’re a nobody. That’s why all the hype in Taipei right now is around a scooter company called Gogoro and its first pilot store in the city centre: it’s cool as ice, and riding around on one is like putting a Tesla between your legs.
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How I Got Four Days Out Of My Apple Watch Battery
I’m always paranoid about battery life. When I get down to 60 per cent battery on my smartphone I start to think of plugging my devices in. To help me get over my battery paranoia, and as a fun little experiment, I decided to live this week at Computex 2015 like I’d forgotten my Apple Watch charger. Here’s how you get four days out of Apple’s wearable instead of just one.
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Android Will Become As Big As PC For Gaming Says Nvidia CEO
As Microsoft and Sony duke it out for home gaming supremacy, the self-styled “PC master race” happily sits back and watches the chaos, satisfied at their customisable builds, superior hardware and better graphics. Nvidia, a key benefactor of the PC master race has tipped Android to surpass the PC’s popularity in future.
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Opinion: International Roaming Is Still Stupidly Broken
I’m in Taipei this week to cover the annual Computex convention, and like an idiot, I brought my smartphone thinking I could get a good deal on roaming through my carrier. As it turns out, I can’t. Somehow after Aussie telcos spent a year of trying to fix it, international roaming is still stupidly broken.
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