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Lilbits 350: TCL’s folding smartphone plans revealed (maybe)

If Chinese electronics company TCL may be better known in the US for its TVs than its smartphones, that’s because the company doesn’t use its own name on phones sold in the US. But if you buy a recent BlackBerry smartphone anywhere other than India, you’re probably using a device manufactured by TCL. The company […]

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Zotac is giving its excellent fanless PC a Whiskey Lake update

The Zotac ZBOX CI660 nano is a compact, fanless desktop computer powered by an Intel Core i7-8550U processor. That’s a laptop-class processor, but thanks to a larger-than-laptop chassis with a good passive cooling solution, I found that the computer actually outperformed most laptops with the same chip. Overall I was pretty impressed with the little […]

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Lenovo introduces ThinkPad L390 and L390 Yoga with Whiskey Lake chips

Lenovo is adding two new laptops to its ThinkPad lineup. The Lenovo ThinkPad L390 is a 3.2 pound notebook with a 13.3 inch full HD touchscreen display with a 180-degree hinge, while the Lenovo ThinkPad L390 Yoga is a 3.5 pound convertible model with pen support and a 360-degree hinge. They’re also the first two […]

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The Asus ZenBook 2018 lineup goes up for pre-order (with Whiskey Lake-U chips)

It’s been a few months since Intel introduced its 15 watt Whiskey Lake-U processors for laptops. But there aren’t actually very many notebooks you can buy with Core i5-8265U or Core i7-8565U chips yet. Dell, Lenovo, and HP have a few models, and Huawei just announced a new Whiskey Lake-powered laptop today. Now it looks […]

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Plater introduces a Whiskey Lake-U mini PC

Chinese electronics manufacturer Plater is showing off several new compact desktop computers at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair this week, including one of the first Intel NUC-like mini PCs to feature an Intel Whiskey Lake-U processor. According to Notebook Italia, the Plater Kodlix WB1 should be available later this year. Intel’s Whiskey Lake-U chips are […]

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Acer unveils new, more powerful Aspire 5 and 7 series notebooks

Acer is refreshing its mainstream laptop lineup with new Aspire 3 and Aspire 5 models featuring new specs and design. The new Acer Aspire 3 is an entry-level 14 inch laptop that will be available with AMD A-series, Intel Celeron, or Intel Pentium processor options. And there are several new Acer Aspire 5 models featuring […]

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Dell brings premium features to mid-range Inspiron 2-in-1 laptops

Dell has been giving a lot of attention to its XPS, Alienware, and Precision laptops in recent years. But this fall the company is refreshing its mainstream Inspiron lineup by bringing some premium features to its mid-range laptops. The new Inspiron 13 7000 series 2-in-1 is getting a spec bump with support for Intel’s new […]

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Intel expands 8th-gen chip lineup with 15W Whiskey Lake-U, 5W Amber Lake-Y chips

Intel is launching a whole bunch of new chips designed for laptops, tablets, and other thin, light, and sometimes fanless computers. They’re still part of the company’s 8th-gen Core chip family, but Intel says its new 15 watt U-series chips, code-named “Whiskey Lake” will offer up to 10 percent better performance than existing “Kaby Lake […]

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Intel’s mass production of 10nm chips slated for late 2019

The first laptops with 10nm Intel chips are already shipping… but so far they’re nothing to write home about. While the company has started producing a few processors based on the new “Cannon Lake” architecture,  they seem to be low-power, low-performance chips that offer little to no benefit over the company’s existing 14nm processors. That […]