Acer Nitro 17 (2024, AMD) Review: Great Power Yet Affordable

[ With all the chatter about the artificial intelligence features of Intel’s new Core Ultra CPUs, it’s easy to forget that AMD has been busy doing AI too. AMD has outfitted many of its Ryzen processors with neural processing units (NPUs) since mid-2023, and it’s continued to expand its AI offerings ever since. Acer’s latest … Read more

Dell Alienware m16 R2 Review: Gaming Power in a Business Suit

[ The Alienware m16 R2 uses a 2,560 X 1,600-pixel resolution IPS display that’s decent for its price but not particularly remarkable. The display lacks HDR support, instead opting for a basic sRGB color gamut. This isn’t a huge deal, but when similarly priced laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 pack vibrant OLED panels, … Read more

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Review: A Gaming Laptop Perfect for Both Work and Play

[ A beefy graphics card paired with the lovely 14-inch screen size at an affordable price? That’s the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, and when you add extras like an OLED display and battery life impressive for a gaming laptop, it’s hard for me to not fall in love with this thing. The G14 is the … Read more

The 6 Best Handheld Gaming Consoles (2024): Switch, Steam Deck, and More

[ It feels like a distant memory by now, but right before the Nintendo Switch launched in 2017, it seemed like portable gaming was on its last life. Mobile games had gobbled up huge portions of the market, and most modern games required a lot of power to run on devices like the Nintendo 3DS. … Read more

Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) Review: Portable Powerhouse Gaming

[ The Mini LED display is the primary differentiator between last year’s Strix Scar 18 model. Both can be upgraded to the RTX 4090, and both come with 32 GB of DDR5 RAM (though the 2024 model’s is a bit faster). The 2024 model has a slightly newer 14th-generation Intel Core i9-14900HX processor. Based on … Read more

Mobile Gaming is Having a Moment—and Backbone Wants to Unite It

[ Other perks to being a Backbone+ subscriber include game capture, recording, and editing tools for folks who like to share content on social media. There are promotions, like free months of Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass, in-game content for titles like Diablo Immortal, and 30 percent off new Backbone products and accessories. Unfortunately, … Read more

‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’ Initial Prototypes Were ‘Chaos’

[ The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s developers had a problem: the land of Hyrule kept falling apart. Anyone who has played Tears of the Kingdom might be able to guess why. Some of the game’s big advances—Link’s Ultrahand and Fuse abilities, which allow players to create any tool they’re clever enough to … Read more