laptop News - Page 11 of 33 - CNX Software

October 5, 2020October 5, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

TUXEDO Aura 15 Linux Laptop is Powered by AMD Ryzen 7 4700U Processor

There are few Linux laptops on the market and usually higher-end ones, so some people may decide to buy a Windows or FreeDOS laptop and install Ubuntu or another Linux distribution themselves. In theory, this is supposed to work, but when installed Ubuntu 18.04 on an Acer Ryzen 7 laptop a couple of years ago, it took me several hours of work to get this working despite it being pre-loaded with Linpus Linux operating system. So more choice is always welcome, and TUXEDO Computers has now added a mid-range Linux laptop to their offerings with TUXEDO Aura 15 powered by a 15W AMD Ryzen 7 4700U octa-core processor and shipping with Ubuntu 20.04, openSUSE 15.2, or TUXEDO_OS 20.04 based on Ubuntu plus Budgie Desktop. TUXEDO Aura 15 specifications: SoC – AMD Ryzen 7 4700U octa-core processor @ 2.0 to 4.1 GHz (Turbo) with 8 MB L3-Cache, AMD Radeon RX Vega […]

September 15, 2020September 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Chuwi GemiBook 13″ 2K Gemini Lake Refresh Laptop Sold for $299 (Promo)

Chuwi Geminibook Gemini Lake Refresh Laptop

Chuwi is running a promotion on Aliexpress where they sell some products at a discount including some previously launched devices such as LarkBox mini PC but also took the opportunity to launch Chuwi GemiBook laptop powered by an Intel Celeron J4115 Gemini Lake Refresh processors and equipped with a 13-inch 2K (2160×1440) display. The laptop also comes with 12GB LPDDR4X RAM, and a 256GB SSD which makes it a fairly decent deal for the $299.99 price asked during the two-day promotion. You can even shave off an extra $10 from the total price by selecting the $10 discount coupon for orders over $299. Chuwi Gemibook specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J4115 quad-core Gemini Lake Refresh processor @ 1.8 / 2.5 GHz (Boost) with Intel UHD Graphics 600 @ 750 MHz System Memory – 12GB LPDDR4X @ 2133MHZ Storage – 256GB SSD, MicroSD card socket up to 2TB Display – 13-inch […]

September 7, 2020August 24, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Education Laptop Review

I started my review of CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Learning Kit a while ago and at the time I showed content from the kit and its first boot. I’ve now spent more time with this very special Raspberry Pi 4 laptop and will focus this review on the education part, namely CrowPi2 software, but will also look at thermal cooling under stress with and without a fan, and try to install another Raspberry Pi compatible board inside the laptop shell. CrowPi2 Education Software It’s quite important to read the user manual before getting started as there are a few non-intuitive steps you may have to take. First I assume the wireless keyboard would just connect after pressing the power button, but it did not. The user manual explains the RF dongle is inside the mouse, and once you connect it you’ll be able to use the keyboard that has some […]

September 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G Compute Platform Offers 50% Greater Performance, Longer Battery Life

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx 5G processor was launched last year for always-on always-connected PC and delivers a similar performance of 15W Intel Comet Lake processors with much lower power consumption enabling 20+ hours battery life. The company has now an update with Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G Compute Platform with 50% greater system-wide performance and battery life versus “competing solutions”. More on that later. Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G specifications with the differences against the first generation in bold or stricken-through: CPU – 8x Qualcomm Kryo 495 64-bit cores 7nm Process Technology Visual Subsystem – Qualcomm Adreno GPU with DX12 support Memory – LPDDR4x, 8 Channels up to 2133 MHz Storage – NVMe SSD, UFS3.0 Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine Qualcomm Hexagon 690 DSP (was 685) Qualcomm Sensing Hub technology Qualcomm All-Ways Aware technology Display Maximum On-Device Display Support: 4K Ultra HD Dual 4K external displays support over DP-MST Audio Qualcomm Aqstic […]

September 3, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Intel Launches 11th Gen Intel Core “Tiger Lake” Processors with Intel Iris Xe graphics

Intel has officially launched Tiger Lake processors for thin-and-light Laptops. The new 11th generation processors come with either Intel Iris Xe graphics or the older Intel UHD graphics, and nine processors are currently available divided into two families: UP3 with 12W to 28W configurable TDP, and UP4 with 7W to 15W configurable TDP. Manufactured with a 10nm process, the new processors are said to deliver up to 2.7x faster content creation (Photo Editing), more than 20% faster office productivity in Office 365, and more than 2x faster gaming plus streaming when comparing an Intel Core i7-1185G7 processor to AMD Ryzen 7 4800U. The new Intel Iris Xe graphics comes with up to 96 EUs and up to 16MB of L3 cache, and Intel claims it outperforms 90% of the discrete graphics usually paired with U-series processors. Tiger Lake processors also integrate a new DP4a instruction set for neural network inferencing […]

August 12, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Zero Terminal V3 is a Modular Raspberry Pi Zero W Powered HandHeld PC

Zero Terminal V3 Raspberry Pi Zero W Handheld

Hardware hacker NODE has created a slick handheld Linux PC based on the Raspberry Pi Zero W board. About the size of a thick smartphone, Zero Terminal V3 also includes a touchscreen display, a built-in battery, a USB Type-A port, and a microSD card slot. The keyboard found in previous iterations of the Zero Terminal is gone, as the new version focuses on modularity thanks two 40-pin sockets that connect to the GPIO pins, video output, camera connector, USB ports, power indicators, etc… in order to allow people to create and add custom backpacks to change the functionality as needed. Zero Terminal V3 specifications: SBC – Raspberry Pi Zero W with Broadcom BCM2735 ARM11 processor, 512MB RAM, MicroSD card socket, WiFi 4, and Bluetooth 4.0 Display – 5.5″ 1080p AMOLED touchscreen display bought on Waveshare and designed for Raspberry Pi 3/4, but NODE designed an adapter for RPi Zero. Audio […]

August 5, 2020August 5, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

6W AMD 3015e Dual-Core “Zen” Processor Shows Up in Lenovo Laptops

While AMD has done a good job with their Ryzen processors based on Zen architecture, the company did not provide alternatives to low-cost, low-power Intel Gemini Lake processors with the closest equivalent being the 15W AMD Athlon 3000-series processors. But this may be about to change, as Lenovo has now unveiled two new education laptops, namely Lenovo 100e 2nd gen and Lenovo 300e 2nd gen, powered by a previously-unannounced 6W AMD 3015e processor, and expected to become available in September 2020 for $219 and up. AMD 3015e key features and specifications: CPU – 2x cores, 4x threads @ 1.2 GHz / 2.3 GHz (Boost) GPU – Vega 3 Graphics @ 600 MHz Cache – 1MB L2 cache, 4MB L3 cache Memory I/F – Single-channel DDR4 up to 1,600 MHz Video – HDMI and DisplayPort Peripheral Interfaces – PCIe 3.0 TDP – 6W Process – 14nm Based on the product page, […]

July 31, 2020August 24, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 Learning Kit Review – Part 1 – Unboxing and First Boot

Last month, we wrote about Elecrow introducing CrowPi2 Raspberry Pi 4 laptop and electronics learning kit for its launch on Kickstarter crowdfunding website. The company has now sent one of its kits to CNX Software for evaluation and review. I’ll start by checking out the content of the package, and boot it up, before publishing a more detailed review in a few weeks. The package is fairly big and highlights it’s made for kids over 8 years old with close to 100 course resources and over 20 electronics modules. The back of the package list the main features and package contents with for example a 11.6″ Full HD display, Raspberry Pi 4 4GB board running a customized (Linux) system or Retropie for game emulation, electronics components and modules like servos and motors, as well as some resources for gaming including two USB gamepads. The first things we get when opening […]