Samsung’s Galaxy S9 And Galaxy S9+ Bring New Innovative Features And Great Refinement

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David Altavilla is just starting to kick the tires at HotHardware, on Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 and S9+ Android flagships but already he likes what he sees and Samsung managed to impress yet again. Part of what Samsung brings to the table in the GS9/9+ are continued refinements to the design with one of it not the best OLED smartphone displays in the business. Then there’s Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor, a marked upgrade in performance and hopefully efficiency and battery life as well, over the previous generation Galaxy S8’s Snapdragon 835. But perhaps what’s most impressive is the fact that Samsung has delivered true innovation in the area of camera technologies, from it’s new dual aperture f1.5  and f2.4 combination lens, to its multi-shot noise reduction and new Super Slo-Mo mode, that can shoot some really fun and interesting footage at 960 frames per second.

Samsung Galaxy S9 Preview - David Altavilla

Samsung Galaxy S9 Preview – David Altavilla

Check out our preview here at HotHardware and then scroll down for a little video roll action, in Super Slow-Mo Mode…

Always-Connected Qualcomm Snapdragon Windows 10 Devices Take On Intel’s Bread And Butter In Mobile

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Earlier this year, Qualcomm announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to deliver thin and light laptop and 2-in-1 convertible devices to market, powered by the Snapdragon 835 mobile platform. Microsoft extolled the virtues of full native Windows 10 functionality, as well as backwards compatibility to all legacy Windows apps (Win32) through emulation. Qualcomm made claims of all day battery life and always-connected LTE wireless networking as well. These devices are just now arriving to market and could prove to be a significant, credible threat to Intel’s mobile CPU business.

HotHardware was on-hand at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit in scenic Maui in early December, to witness the official launch of these devices. Check out our coverage here.

HP Envy x2 Windows 10 Snapdragon 835 Hybrid

Qualcomm Snapdragon 835-powered HP Envy x2 With Windows 10

Google Pixel 2 And Pixel 2 XL Impress With Android Oreo Superpowers

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Google recently launched the second coming of their Pixel line, dubbed unsurprisingly the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. These are next generation handsets from Google directly and designed to showcase the best that Android has to offer currently. With killer camera setups, powerful processors and cutting-edge designs, you’d think the hardware setup might be their best asset. However, under the hood is an operating system that that is a model of efficiency and a real speedster to boot. Check out my full review here with benchmarks for all the details…

Google Pixel 2 And Google Pixel 2 XL Review By David Altavilla

Google Pixel 2 And Google Pixel 2 XL

“Designed by Google but manufactured by HTC (Pixel 2) and LG (Pixel 2 XL), these two new handsets also boast Google’s latest Android 8.0 operating system, aka Oreo, an exclusive to Google Pixel and certain Nexus devices, at least for now. In some ways, this is also a big advantage as you’ll note on the pages ahead.”

 

Motorola Launches The Moto Z2 Play: HotHardware Claims The Battery Life King Never Looked So Good

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Smartphones are a funny beast of conflicting requirements, the insatiable need for more power and capability, hamstrung by the insatiable need for longer and longer battery life. The two are opposite, yet mutual complements, if executed well. Motorola has historically hit the mark in this regard, with the Moto Z Play series,  an Android smartphone with enough horsepower for the mainstream user but battery life that most handsets jones for.

Motorola Moto Z2 Play Smartphone - David Altavilla

Motorola Moto Z2 Play Smartphone

HotHardware’s Chris Goetting took the new Moto Z2 Play for a few loops around the test track and determined it was more of the same from Moto, only better. Check out his full review here and I reserve the right to ask for it back, if I’m feeling selfish. 🙂

AMD’s Radeon RX Vega Graphics Put To The Test

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It’s been a long time coming for AMD but the day is finally here when we get to look at the performance profile of the company’s next generation Radeon RX Vega GPU technology for gamers. The Radeon RX Vega 64 and Radeon RX Vega 56 are on the test bench at HotHardware and put through their paces in a myriad of game tests and benchmarks. Here’s a taste from the review…

“Radeon RX Vega is an all-new GPU architecture for AMD, built from the ground-up to be optimized for DirectX 12 and asynchronous compute, with a revised pixel engine and higher clock speeds that the previous generation Fiji architecture could not achieve. Vega also offers a new mixed-precision support AMD is calling Rapid Packed Math. “

AMD Radeon RX Vega Review - David Altavilla

AMD Radeon RX Vega Review – David Altavilla

NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti – This One Goes To 11

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GeForce GTX 1080 Ti]

NVIDIA finally lifted the veil on its latest monster graphics card for gamers — the long-rumored GeForce GTX 1080 Ti — at an event this evening in San Francisco during the Game Developers Conference (GDC). The card will sit at the top of NVIDIA’s Pascal-powered GeForce product stack alongside the mighty Titan X and GeForce GTX 1080, promising significant performance gains over the GTX 1080 and faster than Titan X-class performance, for a much lower price with MSRP set at $699 (versus the $1200 Titan X). I unbox the card here and HotHardware’s full review is here.

Maingear’s RUSH SuperStock X99 Is Pretty And A Crazy-Fast Killer Gaming Rig

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I recently took a Maingear RUSH custom gaming PC for a spin, and needless to say it really kicked some backside…

The Maingear RUSH system we received is an absolutely one of a kind gaming PC that is built with a zero-compromise component configuration. The system is built on an InWin 909 chassis platform with removable tempered glass sides. We received a stock black matte finish model, though highly customized automotive grade paint jobs are always an option for many Maingear systems.

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Let’s first take you on the video tour of this beast. Then we’ll run down its component load-out, design, build quality and of course let it rip down our benchmark drag strip.

Read more at http://hothardware.com/reviews/maingear-rush-superstock-x99-review

Our Top Ten Best Of CES 2016

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We covered a lot of miles at CES 2016 this year, our fitness trackers often chirping “success” rather early in the day, but we saw a lot of people and a lot of tech gear in our travels. Some of it was hot – damn hot – some of it, not so much. There were some recurring themes this year, as with every year at CES it seems. The hot topics and trends this year were autonomous cars, virtual reality, more thin and light computing and of course more powerful gaming gear. Every Tech Web publication has its own short list of the best products showcased at CES 2016. We’re going to run down our top 10 products we saw on display at the show, in no order of importance or preference. However, we will group them together in terms of product type, just so your head isn’t spinning like ours was, after the better part of a week in the sensorial overload that is the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Check out our full coverage here…

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HotHardware’s And David Altavilla’s 10 Best Of CES 2016

Via: HotHardware

Dell XPS 15 Late 2015 Review: Pushing The Infinity Edge

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When Dell launched its updated XPS 13 notebook with an Infinity Edge display that squeezes a 13 inch IPS panel into essentially a 12-inch frame, it was met with universal praise for its unique mechanical design advantages and premium build quality. In fact, it was so well-received that many of you almost immediately started asking if Dell would follow-up with the same sort of revamp for their 15-inch XPS 15 line as well. Dell apparently already had the same idea in mind and clearly the new XPS 15, with its 15-inch Infinity Edge display, was already in the engineering pipeline. Like the XPS 13, the XPS 15’s material choices, design and build quality are premium, through and through, from its carbon fiber composite palm rest area to its machined aluminum lid and base, and edge-to-edge Corning Gorilla Glass NBT that covers its near bezel-less display… small_Dell-XPS15-front-lid-open-right-angle The configuration we’re looking at here is one of Dell’s best setups with a 4K IPS display, a 6th gen Intel Core i7-6700HQ Skylake quad-core processor at 2.6GHz with turbo boost to 3.5GHz, 16GB of DDR4 RAM at 2133MHz, NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 960M 2 GB mobile graphics engine and a 512GB NVMe PCI Express Solid State Drive. At $2229 MSRP we’ve certainly got a stacked and jacked configuration to show you here today. MacBook Pro killer? Maybe, but the Dell XPS 15 looks to be much more than something so tediously defined by cliche’. Here’s my full review on Dell’s new beautiful beast.