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Most of Microsoft’s Surface product lineup is scheduled for a potential refresh at Microsoft’s October 2 event in New York City, and educated guesses, rumors, and potential reports of new Surface hardware are beginning to, er, surface. But which ones make sense?

Last October, Microsoft’s Surface launch included the Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2, the Surface Studio 2, and the Surface Headphones. Earlier in 2018, Microsoft announced the Surface Go and the Surface Book 2.  Theoretically, Microsoft could refresh all of these products, which would make for an epic Surface event next month.

Surface Pro 7 using USB-C: Credible

Thurrott’s Brad Sams begin making claims last year that the Surface Pro 7 (and probably the Surface Laptop 3, too) would include a USB-C interface, as part of Beneath A Surface, a book he wrote about the past and future of Surface devices. To be fair, most people expected Microsoft to migrate to USB-C last generation, as virtually all of its competition has done so, as well as the Surface Book 2. The question now is whether Microsoft will do away with the Surface connector, a staple of all Surface devices, or double it up, as it has done with the Surface Book 2.

Our guess: USB-C replaces the Type-A connector already on Surface devices. If Microsoft does away with the Surface connector, the USB-C port will probably be Thunderbolt-enabled. If not, it’s more likely that USB-C will exist alongside the Surface Connector as a more generic I/O.

Surface Pro 7 using Comet Lake: Credible

This is also credible, not the least of which because these are some of the default configurations for most every laptop at some time or another. But remember, Ice Lake boasts an upgraded Iris Plus-capable GPU, while Comet Lake boasts faster clock speeds. Deciding to boost clock speeds on a tablet while reserving Ice Lake’s graphics horsepower for a Surface Laptop 3 or Surface Book 3 makes more sense.

A 15-inch Surface Laptop 3: Plausible

The original Surface Laptop was a wonderfully purpose-built laptop for students. The Surface Laptop 2 didn’t change much, while the competition reacted. Winfuture.de again is suggesting a 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 may be in the offing, together with the existing 13-inch model.

It’s reasonable. I don’t see any particular need for a 15-inch Surface Laptop, but it would broaden a product line. On the other hand, it would also represent development work above and beyond any revisions to the 13-inch model. Past iterations have suggested that Microsoft has been conservative in making hardware changes.

A Surface Laptop 3 with mobile Ryzen: Doubtful

Winfuture.de is also claiming it’s seen private retailer data that suggest the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 (along with, possibly, some other device?) could include AMD’s mobile Ryzen chip inside of it. We’d like this to happen, and if so it would be an enormous validation for AMD’s mobile ambitions. Thurrott’s Brad Sams is also on record claiming that Microsoft is testing an AMD Picasso SOC inside a Surface.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx inside a Surface: Possible

Winfuture.de again predicts that a revamped Surface Pro 7 will use an Intel Core m, which the Surface Pro tablet has used previously. Brad Sams takes another tack—that the Surface Pro 7 may have an option that uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx instead.

A dual-screen Surface: Show, not sell

Intel began promoting dual-screen PCs in 2018, and we saw more prototypes this past summer at Computex with Honeycomb Glacier and others. Microsoft, too, reportedly has a “Centaurus” dual-screen tablet in the works, taking a page from devices like the Galaxy Fold.

A Surface Book 3 with RTX hardware? Why not?

The status of the Surface Book 3 is decidedly in question. It’s certainly time for Microsoft to update its mobile powerhouse laptop, though the Surface Book 2’s power problems suggested that Microsoft may need to rethink its design. A July bug blocking the Surface Book 2 from receiving the May 2019 Update—and playing 3D games—because of discrete GPU issues has not been officially fixed since then, either. (On my Surface Book 2, however, the discrete GPU works.)

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.

The GE Signal Finder HD Amplified Antenna is an indoor TV antenna with a built-in signal meter that will help you find the best place to install it. You’ll need it. In TechHive’s tests the antenna exhibited mediocre reception and didn’t displace the Winegard FlatWave Amped as our favorite indoor antenna.

The antenna is about the same length and width as a magazine and looks good with a smart black plastic front. A couple of rows of LEDs in the lower right-hand corner are the antenna’s main selling point.

Towards the end of the antenna’s 10-foot cable is an inline amplifier that requires power from a small wall-wart adapter. It uses a barrel-connector, and so it cannot be powered via a USB port on your television. This is unfortunate as it means you’ll need a spare outlet and installation probably won’t be as neat.

Performance

TechHive tests antennas by performing several scans to see how many channels are received. A pattern emerges over the course of the scans and we get to see how well an antenna pulls in the various strong and weak channels on air in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento regions.

In our tests, the antenna didn’t perform well. It managed to receive a maximum of four broadcast channels successfully (each digital broadcast channel carries several TV stations), with an additional two coming in just at the limit with broken signals. In contrast, the Winegard FlatWave Amped pulled in eight broadcast channels, with an additional single channel with broken signal.

Our top-ranked indoor antenna, the Winegard Flatwave, is similarly designed for UHF-reception only, but it managed to pull in a strong local VHF station, too. The GE Ultra Pro did not.

The marketing copy on the box advertises 60-mile reception, although this is perhaps only under perfect conditions. Numerous factors influence TV reception and these range claims shouldn’t be taken as a guarantee on this or any antenna.

Parts and Installation

The box contains three pieces: The antenna with attached cable and in-line amplifier, a power adapter for the amplifier and a plastic stand that can be connected to the rear of the antenna so it stands up on a shelf or desk.

There’s an included note that reminds customers to perform a rescan of their TV once the antenna is installed. It’s a perhaps obvious step, but enough people must forget to do it that the note is included. Presumably this is largely when people switch from cable TV to over-the-air and don’t realize a rescan is needed.

Conclusion

The GE Signal Finder HD looks good and the signal meter will help customers find a good position for their antenna despite its crudeness. The single most important thing with an antenna isn’t looks, however; it’s how well it performs.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.

If this particular model of the Acer Aspire 5 looks familiar, it’s probably because it’s been sitting atop Amazon’s laptop bestseller list for months. It’s easy to understand why. With a list price of $350 but usually selling for closer to $310, this AMD Ryzen 3-powered Aspire 5 packs some enticing features for the price, including a Full-HD 15.6-inch display, a slim-and-trim chassis, and solid performance when it comes to day-to-day computing tasks.

Price and configuration

Acer offers nearly two dozen configurations in its budget Aspire 5 line, ranging from $350 (list price, as opposed to Amazon’s sale price) for the somewhat bare-bones AMD model we’re reviewing here all the way to $850 for a considerably beefier quad-core Core i7-8565 model with a healthy 12GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics. Most Aspire 5 versions boast a 15.6-inch display (although I spotted at least one 14-inch model), with a mix of 1080p and 720p resolutions.

Cracking open the hood of this particular model, we find:

CPU: Dual-core AMD Ryzen 3 3200U

RAM: 4GB DDR4 RAM

GPU: Integrated Radeon Vega 3

Display: 15.6-inch 1920 x 1090 IPS “ComfyView”

Storage: 128GB SSD

We’ll cover the Aspire’s real-world performance in a moment, but on paper, we’ve got the makings of a fairly basic laptop that should do the job when it comes to general computing duties such as Office tasks and web browsing.

Design

Budget laptops are notorious for being boxy and bulky, but Acer has done a nice job of making its Aspire 5 line look slim and sleek. This particular AMD model is no exception. Measuring 14.3 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches, the Aspire feels lighter than its actual weight of 3 pounds, 13 ounces (or 4 pounds, 5 ounces if you include the AC adapter). The aluminum lid gives the Aspire a premium look. You can actually rotate the lid back a little beyond 180 degrees, meaning you can lay the laptop completely flat with the lid open.

The Aspire’s 15.6-inch display boasts impressively slim left and right bezels, while the black keyboard is nicely offset by the laptop’s silver chassis. The hinge on this particular Aspire is less prominent than it is on some other configurations we’ve seen, with the Aspire logo stamped along the top edge of the inside chassis rather than on the hinge itself. Both designs look good, if you ask me.

Display

The 15.6-inch full-HD display looks pretty similar to the screens we’ve seen on other Aspire 5 models, and that’s a good thing. The screen is reasonably bright for a budget laptop, measuring about 260 nits (or candelas) according to our readings. Sure, we’ve seen laptops with displays in the 300-and-up range, but they’ll generally cost you (many) hundreds more.

We also liked the viewing angles on this IPS display, which look pretty good up until you move your head to about the 45-degree mark—even then, the screen dims only slightly. Indeed, sharing the Aspire’s screen with a neighbor shouldn’t present much of an issue. Meanwhile, Acer’s anti-glare “ComfyView” design did a good job of warding off distracting reflections.

Keyboard, trackpad, and speakers

The backlit keyboard on this Aspire configuration is pretty much the same as on other models we’ve tested. The keys themselves have a solid, responsive bump with a springy rebound, although travel (or how far the key moves on each keystroke) is a little shallower than I’d like. You also get a dedicated numeric keypad with a somewhat narrow design, which makes the keys look a bit squished.

As with the keyboard, the trackpad on this laptop is standard issue for Acer’s Aspire 5 line: a bit on the large side, which (in my case, anyway) meant that my palms were often brushing it while I typed. Luckily, the trackpad did a pretty good job of rejecting any false inputs.

Ports

The port selection on this budget Aspire 5 model is fair. On the left side, you get a single USB 3.0 Type-A port, a USB 2.0 port, HDMI, ethernet, and a combo audio jack, along with a barrel-shaped power port.

Missing from the port party is a USB-C port, which we’ve seen on other Aspire 5 models and would have been handy for connecting newer external storage devices and other peripherals. We also wouldn’t have minded a memory card slot.

Performance

We’ve compared this dual-core Ryzen 3-powered Aspire 5 to a series of similar 8th-generation Intel Core i3 and i5 laptops, some of which retails for hundreds more than this particular model. Now, let’s just cut to the chase: The Aspire 5 we’re reviewing generally sits at or near the bottom of each of our performance charts.

PCMark 8 Work 2.0 Conventional

First up, the PCMark 8 benchmark simulates such daily computing tasks as online shopping, tinkering with spreadsheets, light video chat, and other common chores. A PCMark 8 score above 2,000 means you shouldn’t see any speed bumps while, say, plugging away in a Word document, while anything about 3,000 should yield buttery productivity performance.

HandBrake

Taking things up a notch, our HandBrake test involves using the free HandBrake utility to encode a 40GB video files into a format suitable for Android tablets. It’s a CPU-intensive task that rewards laptops with the most processor cores, while dual-core systems like our Aspire 5 system tend to lag behind.

Cinebench

Similar in difficulty to our HandBrake benchmark, Cinebench tests how quickly a given laptop can render a 3D image in real time. Once again, we’re talking a processor-intensive torture test that tends to heat up CPUs and spin up cooling fans.

3DMark Sky Diver 1.0

You can’t expect much in the way of gaming performance from a laptop with an integrated graphics core, but we put the Aspire 5 and its integrated Radeon Vega 3 graphics to the test anyway.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience. If you’re not running A/V protection right now and you want more than what Windows Defender offers, this is a great buy.

If you would have told me that my favorite smartwatch of 2019 would have a brilliant OLED display, great battery life, effortless fitness tracking, Spotify support, and an on-board assistant, I would have guessed it was the Series 5 Apple Watch. It’s not. It’s the Fitbit Versa 2.

Fitbit hasn’t reinvented the wheel with the Versa 2. Rather, a series of small but meaningful changes make it feel like a completely new device that’s ready to compete with the Apple Watch at half the price. Where the original model had clear shortcomings that I was willing to overlook due to its price tag, the Versa 2 plays in the feature-rich deep end, and feels like a veritable bargain as a result.

The Fitbit Versa 2 isn’t perfect, nor does it match up spec-for-spec with the latest Apple Watch. But the improvements it brings put it on equal footing with the cream of the smartwatch crop, marrying Fitbit’s fitness acumen with the features we want in a cutting-edge wearable device.

OLED is the difference maker

At first glance, the design of the Fitbit Versa 2 is nearly identical to the Versa. It has a squircle shape with tapered edges and a thin profile, and it’s just the right size to look good on the majority of wrists. Like the Versa Lite, which was introduced earlier this year, it has a single button rather than three on the original Versa, which simplifies both the look and the navigation.

At 1.34 inches, the display is the same size as before, but there are two notable changes that make a huge difference: It’s OLED and it’s centered. On the original Versa, text and images on the LCD display were a touch dull due to backlighting, but they’re bright and vibrant on the Versa 2’s OLED screen. Also, you have to try really hard to see where the display ends and the bezel begins, which gives it a classier overall feel.

Alexa is listening

The Versa’s maturity isn’t just skin deep. All models now include NFC for Fitbit Pay transactions, and it runs a new version of Fitbit OS that features thoughtful flourishes throughout, including improved navigation and better app support. My favorite change is the collapsable quick settings pane at the top of the notifications window that offers a variety of shortcuts.

But most people will be interested in a more obvious addition: Alexa. Rather than try to build its own assistant, Fitbit has partnered with Amazon to bring its digital assistant to the Versa 2, and it’s a fantastic debut. While the integration is relatively rudimentary, Alexa adds an important missing piece to Fitbit’s wearables that put it in the conversation with Siri and Google Assistant.

A battery that lasts and lasts

I tested the Versa 2 with the Galaxy Note 10 and the Pixel 3 XL running Android 10, and set-up was a breeze with both phones. I had sporadic issues with syncing when more than one phone was around, but it was cleared up with a simple restart of the watch. And besides it’s not a problem most people are going to run into.

Fitbit doesn’t divulge the processor that’s powering the Versa 2, but it’s definitely a capable one. Apps are still extremely rudimentary compared to watchOS or Wear OS, but they launch quickly and do just enough. Navigation is extremely fast as well, with taps and swipes registering instantly. I also had great results with the heart-rate sensor. On previous Fitbits, I had to reposition my tracker higher on my wrist while working out to ensure a proper reading, but the Versa 2 registered my heart rate without fiddling with it.

Should you buy a Fitbit Versa 2?

When it launched last year for $200, the Fitbit Versa 2 was an excellent value. The Fitbit 2 ups that ante considerable without raising the price, bringing a better screen, better features, and better battery. And the Alexa integration isn’t too shabby either. Basically, unless you really want Google Assistant or LTE. There’s no reason why the Versa 2 shouldn’t be on your shortlist when shopping for your next wearable.

The Versa 2 is a fantastic upgrade from the original Versa or even an older Apple Watch, with smart enhancements that dramatically improve all aspects of the device and make it feel far more feature-rich than its $200 price tag. Speaking of which, you can still buy a special edition version of the Versa 2, but unless you want an extra woven band, there’s no reason to. Last year’s special edition model Brough NFC in addition to the extra band, but this year’s SE model doesn’t have any additional features.

That’s not really a criticism (although the SE model does seems a bit unnecessary now). Rather, Fitbit loaded the Versa 2 with so much, you might not need to consider another watch. Even one made by Apple.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience. If you’re not running A/V protection right now and you want more than what Windows Defender offers, this is a great buy.

Acer’s latest Nitro 5 shows you just how affordable gaming laptops have become. Last year we reviewed the 2018 version of the Acer Nitro 5, which promised a great entry-level gaming experience for a mere $800 or so—cheaper even than some entry-level desktops I’ve built.

Now 2019’s Nitro 5 (available at Best Buy) has come across my desk, touting the usual annual upgrades. That means slightly more than usual though, as we’ve had both CPU and GPU generation changes this year. What can $800 buy you in 2019? Is it actually good enough for a modern gamer-on-the-go? Let’s find out.

This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best gaming laptops. Go there for information on competing products and how we tested.

Variants

We took a look at the $830 Nitro 5, which features an Intel Core i5-9300H clocked at 2.4GHz, an Nvidia GTX 1650, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and a 128GB SSD boot drive.

It’s not quite the most expensive Nitro 5, but it’s close. There’s also an $880 version that’s almost identical, except it trades the dual-drive storage solution for a single 500GB SSD. It’s up to you whether that’s worth the extra dough, though I’d argue the answer is yes.

Design

The Nitro 5 may not be the sleekest or most attractive laptop, but it doesn’t feel cheap either—a common pitfall for budget laptops. The faux-brushed metal lid looks higher-end than it is, though one touch dispels the illusion. This laptop is very plastic. Still, it’s a stealthy way to improve the Nitro 5’s standing from a distance. And while I’m not in love with the red-and-black color scheme, which just screams “Gaming Laptop,” the jewel-tone variant used here is eye-catching and slightly less garish than the norm.

That said, this is unmistakably a gaming laptop—same as the Nitro 7 we reviewed a few months back. It’s aggressive, especially the vents on the rear, though at least those aren’t red this time. I also find the pentagonal lid shape questionable. It doesn’t really do much to slim the Nitro 5’s profile, nor is it especially interesting.

But in most respects the Nitro 5 is identical to the Nitro 7, and I liked the Nitro 7. The Nitro 5 even features, if not the same keyboard as the Nitro 7, then one I enjoyed equally as much. As I said when reviewing the Nitro 7:

“In most ways it’s just your typical chiclet slab, but there’s a generous amount of travel to each keystroke and a crisp, tactile click that makes it a joy to type on.”

Performance

So let’s get into the under-the-hood hardware, shall we? As I said, the Nitro 5 we reviewed packs an Intel Core i5-9300H, Nvidia GTX 1650, and 8GB of DDR4 RAM.

It’s modern but very entry-level gaming hardware, exactly what you’d expect for the price. Benchmarks prove that out, as the Nitro 5 slips a few notches below the Nitro 7 we looked at—especially in the CPU category, where the Nitro 7’s Core i7-9750H handily outpaced the Nitro 5’s Core i5 in Cinebench, most notably in multi-threading.

Bottom line

Honestly the only aspect of the Nitro 5 that gives me pause is longevity. Look at that Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark again: The GTX 1650 struggles with a four-year-old game. You’re definitely not going to max out most of 2019’s biggest releases, and it’s only going to get worse from here.

On the other hand, it’s about $800. Would I recommend saving up an extra $150 to $200 for Acer’s beefier Predator Helios 300, reviewed in July? Yes, absolutely. But if you simply can’t, or if you plan to buy a cheaper laptop and upgrade more often, then the Nitro 5 is a respectable entry-level machine. The build quality far surpasses what I’d expect from a laptop this cheap, and the internals are “good enough,” for what that’s worth.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.

Now that Apple’s finally debuted Night mode for the iPhone 11, it’s time to compare it to the Android competition. It was just about a year ago when Google launched its innovative Night Sight mode to critical acclaim. With the ability to turn unusable low-light scenes into spectacular, backlit, frame-worthy photos, Night Sight was the prime example of just how far ahead Google was when it came to photography.

Since Night Sight’s launch, Samsung, OnePlus, Huawei, and LG have all developed low-light modes for their cameras. Keep reading as we take a close look at how Apple’s new low-light camera stacks up against the best Android has to offer.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•           The interface

•           The shooting

•           The results

The interface

While the iPhone bakes night mode into the camera like the other phones, the implementation is a little different. The Galaxy S10, Pixel 3 XL, and OnePlus all require swiping to a separate mode, but they can be used whenever you’d like. The iPhone’s Night mode, on the other hand, is available only when there is insufficient light. The option appears as a half-moon icon in the upper right corner next to the flash, and can be toggled off and on with a tap.

The shooting

Night mode looks the same as any other mode on your phone’s camera app, but it handles shooting much differently. Because night mode bumps the exposure and slows down the shutter speed, the processing time is increased. So while you can tap the shutter and instantly take a regular photo, you’ll need a second or three to take a night photo. On the Pixel, you’ll see a countdown indicator in center of the screen that tells you to hold your phone still while it processes, while the S10 and OnePlus 6T merely tell you to hold still without telling you how long. They all take an extra second or two to optimize the image, which prevents you from taking another photo until it’s done.

The iPhone puts the countdown timer at the bottom of the screen so it doesn’t interfere with what you’re shooting. It also differs in the control you have over how slowly it shoots. The camera app tells you exactly how long the processing will be—generally one or two seconds, depending on the available light—so you know ahead of time how long you need to keep your hand still. It’s a mystery with the other phones. The iPhone process was also quicker than the rest of the pack on average because it optimizes as it processes, eliminating the extra step.

The results

But how you shoot doesn’t mean nearly as much as what you shoot. I’m simply blown away by what Apple has accomplished with Night Mode on the iPhone 11. When I first tried Night Sight on the Pixel 3 last October, I couldn’t believe what Google was able to do with its AI and processing. In no uncertain terms, Apple’s Night Mode makes Night Sight look amateurish.

Of course, Google’s Pixel 4 is right around the corner and will surely improve on Night Sight. But at the moment, Apple’s Night Mode is the one to beat. In one fell swoop, Apple went from the sidelines to stardom, and every other phone maker should take notice.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience. If you’re not running A/V protection right now and you want more than what Windows Defender offers, this is a great buy.

HP acquired security company Bromium, announcing the purchase on Thursday afternoon. Much as Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft, and other major vendors hoard key pieces of computer technology, HP may be trying to corner the market on a unique piece of browser technology it already uses.

Bromium technology already underlies HP’s Sure Click feature, which locks every individual browser tab inside of its own virtual machine. Theoretically, any piece of malware on the tab can’t “see” anything more than the tab upon which it resides, protecting the browser as well as the PC host.

Bromium also supplies what it calls Secure File technology, which does the same for each individual download—Office documents, PDFs, and the works. If the file isn’t marked as trusted, it will be opened in what Bromium calls a micro virtual machine.

We’ve previously looked at how virtualization seems to be a key Microsoft technology within the company’s own Windows Server products, and how virtualization-dependent features could translate into the consumer space via Windows 10 Pro. A central component of that is Windows Sandbox, which dramatically expands what Bromium is doing. Instead of wrapping each file in a virtualized environment, Sandbox virtualizes the entire Windows OS, building a Windows PC within a PC. Microsoft doesn’t have a direct analog to Bromium’s technology.

According to HP, the Bromium technology will be used in conjunction with its existing Sure Sense AI-driven antimalware solution on the Elitebook 800 G6; its Sure View display technology; and Sure Start, a secure boot technology. HP didn’t disclose how much it paid for Bromium.

Abigail Smith is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on  Printer Customer Support and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience. If you’re not running A/V protection right now and you want more than what Windows Defender offers, this is a great buy.