Inhaltsverzeichnis für December 2020 in PCWorld

Let me just say it out loud, OK? Apple is full of it. I’m referring to Apple’s claim that its fanless, Arm-based MacBook Air is “faster than 98 percent of PC laptops.” Yes, you read that correctly: Apple officials literally claimed that the new MacBook Air using Apple’s custom M1 chip is faster than 98 percent of all PC laptops sold this year. Typically, when a company makes such a claim, it publishes a benchmark, a performance test or actual details on what it’s basing that marketing claim on. This is to prevent lawyers from launching out of missile silos across the world. Apple’s website restates the claim by stating: “M1 is faster than the chips in 98 percent of PC laptops sold in the past year.” The site also includes…

AMD’s market share in notebook processors has reached a new all-time high, according to new market research, thanks to the powerful mobile Ryzen 4000 processors AMD released in March. The numbers were compiled by Mercury Research for the third quarter of 2020, and released on November 3. AMD’s notebook market share, excluding processors sold into the Internet of Things market (IoT) has reached an all-time high of 20.2 percent, climbing by 5.5 percentage points in the past year. AMD’s overall market share (including products for the IoT market and also system-on-a-chip processors, or SoCs) increased 4.1 percentage points in the third quarter, and 6.3 percentage points total over the past year. It now totals 22.4 percent, its highest point since 2007, according to Mercury. With nearly all of the X86 processors…

When you hear Raspberry Pi, you probably think of someone sitting in their bedroom with screwdrivers and pliers and a whole bunch of PC-building know-how. The newly announced Raspberry Pi 400 smashes that notion into a million transistors. The Raspberry Pi 400 looks a lot like the $20 Raspberry Pi Keyboard that launched last year, with a white design and red accents, but it’s actually a full PC, complete with a quad-core 64-bit processor, 4GB of RAM, wireless networking, dual-display output, and 4K video playback. What all that means to you is that you only need to bring a mouse, power supply, and SD card with Raspberry Pi OS to get up and running, which Raspberry Pi sells as a complete package for $100. You can also buy a standalone Raspberry Pi…

The Asus ZenBook Flip 13 is a beautiful laptop that offers decent battery life, very good graphics, and a lot of pep for most of what you’d do on a small 13-inch convertible laptop. Unfortunately, you probably won’t remember it for its impressive 11th-gen Intel Tiger Lake Core i7-1165G7 chip, nor its drop-dead-gorgeous OLED screen. Nope, instead you’ll fixate on something it doesn’t have: a 3.5mm analog audio jack. COURAGE OR COSTCUTTING? Yes, the same move that Apple claimed as “courageous” on the iPhone 7, Asus has now done to a laptop. And just as other smartphones followed Apple’s lead, we expect other PC vendors are watching closely to see how users react to this eviction. We have no idea why Asus did this. While Apple did it to save…

The Google Pixel 4a 5G sits in a very awkward place in Google’s 2020 smartphone lineup. As the newest member, the 4a 5G might initially seem like a no-brainer purchase over the Pixel 5 or the Pixel 4a. And for some it will be. But a closer inspection by a discerning buyer will reveal equally compelling arguments to upgrade or downgrade to either of its siblings—unless you definitely want a Pixel with 5G. Everything’s a trade-off. If display matters, the 4a 5G has a slightly larger display than the Pixel 4a and 5 (6.2 inches versus 6 inches), but a slower refresh rate than the 5 (60Hz vs 90Hz). The 4a 5G has a headphone jack like the 4a, but it doesn’t have wireless charging like the 5. Got all…

Intel users aren’t the only ones jealous of the gobsmacking perform-ance of AMD’s new Ryzen 5000. Those on older versions of Ryzen are probably green with envy too. Before you wade into the scrum of trying to buy one of AMD’s hot new Ryzen 5000 chips (see page 33), though, you should know whether it’s really worth upgrading or not. Generation-over-generation upgrades are rarely ever worth it, whether you’re talking CPUs or GPUs. To see if that applies here, we collected CPU performance figures from chips we’ve tested internally and supplemented them. This means they’re a little less precise, but because the test, Cinebench R15, is mostly a pure compute test, it’s precise enough for this purpose. Cinebench is a 3D modelling test, which doesn’t mean it will map directly…

If you own a Windows PC as well as a recent iPhone, the U.S. government wants you to open the Windows Store today and make sure that you have the most recent version of the HEVC video codec. The U.S. government (specifically the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) has warned that the Microsoft Windows Codecs Library includes a vulnerability that affects how it handles objects stored in memory. Specifically, a specially-crafted image file could be used to remotely take over your machine unless your PC is patched. Many attacks against PCs require local access, or the actual presence of a bad guy sitting at your keyboard. What the U.S. CISA is worried about is the presence of an HEVC file specifically designed to take over your PC. And it’s no idle threat;…

In mid-November, Google announced a major change to its policy on storing photos and other documents: All will start contributing to your overall storage cap, pushing you to eventually pay for Google’s Google One cloud storage, or risk having files deleted. The changes won’t take place immediately. Beginning on June 1, 2021, any new photo that you take with a smartphone not made by Google will count towards your cap, which is currently 15GB within Google’s free tier. The same is true of any new Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, or Jamboard files. Existing photos and documents, however, will not. The change is a major one for Android smartphone users, but can affect iOS users too. Generally speaking, when you take a photo with your Android smartphone, it’s backed up…

If Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser fails to open your favorite sites soon, there’s a reason: Microsoft will block those sites from opening in Internet Explorer, and will require them to be opened in Edge instead. Although Microsoft has long tried to get rid of Internet Explorer for security’s sake, the ancient browser clings to 5 percent of the worldwide browser market. Preventing sites from opening within Explorer is a new way for Microsoft to “encourage” users to abandon Microsoft’s legacy browser and adopt Edge instead. The change, however, doesn’t actually mean that you have to stop using Internet Explorer; you just have to stop using the Internet Explorer browser. (We’ll explain.) Microsoft described the changes in a support document, and indicated that the change in behavior will roll out in…

Microsoft’s Game Pass for PC may be the best deal in gaming, and we’ve previously listed five reasons to back that up. Now we can add a sixth: Even more games from EA Play are joining Xbox Game Pass for PC on December 15. If you’re an Xbox owner, you already know what we’re talking about: Over 60 games from EA Play became available to Xbox owners on November 10, including sports titles like the latest Madden NFL 20, FIFA 19, UFC 2, and Fight Night Champion. Other titles included the Battlefield series, Mass Effect, and more. Now, at least some of them are coming to the PC, too. At press time, there were a whopping 229 titles available for you to play on Game Pass for PC—and that’s before EA…

We’ve long been fans of Acer’s line of affordable Nitro 5 gaming laptops. This new entry in the series, just $670 at Best Buy, ups the ante with eye-popping CPU performance and great battery life. Note that it keeps the same GTX 1650 graphics card that we saw in a similar model last year, so don’t expect ray tracing or frame rates much higher than 60 fps or so. But with its revamped cooling system and Ryzen 4000-series CPU, the updated Nitro 5 manages to squeeze every last ounce of performance from its limited GPU power, making it an enticing pick for gamers on a budget. CONFIGURATION Acer offers a wide variety of Nitro 5 configurations, with models powered by 9th- and 10th-gen Intel (Whiskey and Comet Lake) processors or…

Want to get more immersion out of your PC gameplay? Imagine this: You’re aiming down the sights of a rifle in Call of Duty, straining to track the player who’s been sniping you from afar and get him in your crosshairs. Suddenly a barrage of missiles rain down from overhead, blanketing your area in explosions and vibrating your headphones with a long, low rumble. Not only have you lost your target but your heart is racing from the intense sounds coming from the battlefield, literally shaking your head. Corsair’s $130 HS60 Haptic headphones have rumble motors—like the ones found in gaming controllers—built into each earcup. They read the low frequencies coming through the USB connection to your PC and use that to trigger vibrations so you can feel the sound as…

Hotly anticipated Radeon cards expected to sell out. Shortages of GeForce GPUs. Even if you wanted to build a gaming PC right now, obtaining the all-important discrete GPU is practically impossible. But there is an alternative: The Xbox Series X. For a week or so, I’ve tested a $499 Xbox Series X console provided by Microsoft. Announced November 5 and shipping as of November 10, it remains one of the most accessible ways to play next-gen games at PC-like resolutions and frame rates. There are also a few things it can do that the PC can’t. So who needs a gaming PC? Read on to see why you don’t. HORRENDOUS GPU SHORTAGES? BUY AN XBOX! The GPU shortage is real. Nvidia’s cards are selling out within minutes. Gamers are livestreaming and…

Ray tracing. Zen 2. Variable refresh rate. 4K/60fps gaming. RDNA 2. 120Hz refresh rate. The tech specs for the Microsoft Xbox Series X and Sony PlayStation 5, which hit shelves in November, contain a familiar list of elements for PC gamers. In fact, outside of RDNA 2, they’re all old news at this point. Looking at the next-generation consoles, you could easily think, “Why not just build a PC? It’ll only be a little more expensive.” Everyone’s favorite Greek chorus (aka the internet) would agree. Vocal commentors like to claim that a PC equivalent to a PS5 or Xbox Series X costs as little as $800—or the “true” price of those consoles after factoring in the mandatory subscriptions for online play. But we here at PCWorld follow both hardware launches…

Intel claimed recently that its new Iris Xe Max graphics can outperform Nvidia’s GeForce MX350 in gaming, and even top a GeForce RTX 2080 in some encoding tasks. How it does that—through power sharing, and an Intel technology called Deep Link—could make the package of an 11th-gen Core Tiger Lake CPU and an Iris Xe Max GPU a spec to look for in future laptops. Code-named DG1, Intel’s first discrete GPU since 1998’s Intel i740 will appear in mainstream thin-and-light PCs like the Acer Swift 3x, Asus VivoBook Flip TP470, and Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1. The Iris Xe Max faces off against Nvidia’s GeForce MX350 and MX450, both discrete mobile GPUs that split the difference between a gaming-class mobile GPU and the integrated graphics included in mobile Ryzen and Core…

The Porsche Design Acer Book RS is a beautiful laptop with a lot riding on its slim shoulders. With a name like that (Porsche Design is owned by the same parent company as automaker Porsche AG), it is naturally expected to combine performance along with style. The lofty prices—$1,400 for the base model and $2,000 for the “premium package”—also carry some pressure to deliver. Will this product rise to defend its good name? Partner Acer’s considerable skill at making laptops is a solid starting point. Announced in October and available in December, the Porsche Design Acer Book RS does appear to bring sports-car flair. The lid for its 14-inch display is made of 3k carbon fiber for lightness as well as aesthetics. The all-metal, CNC-machined chassis has diamond-cut edges, an…

Many will see November 5, 2020, as a historic day in computing power. With its new Ryzen 5000 desktop CPUs, AMD has finally knocked Intel to the floor, and is raising its boxing gloves in victory as the flash bulbs pop and the ref declares a winner. The headline takeaway: Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 9 5950X have trounced Intel’s Core i9. The Ryzen 5000 chips using AMD’s Zen 3 cores are arguably the best consumer desktop CPUs the world has ever seen. Ryzen 5000 simply gives no quarter to its Intel arch-nemesis in any single task. Heavy lifting multi-core work? AMD. Light single-threaded tasks? AMD. Gaming? AMD. PCIe 4.0? AMD. No need to throw away your existing motherboard? AMD. The $800 Ryzen 9 5950X and $550 Ryzen 9 5900X…

LG tends to fly under the radar as a PC maker, yet its laptops—including the recently launched LG Ultra PC 17—are some of the most interesting ones around. Weighing in at 4.3 pounds, LG’s Ultra is surprisingly light for laptop with a 17-inch display and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card inside. It’s as if LG sized up its Gram 17 notebook, which at three pounds is perhaps one of the most underappreciated laptops on the market, and decided to make a version that plays games. The result is admittedly less breathtaking than the aforementioned Gram—it doesn’t quite feel like it’s defying physics when you pick it up—but also more practical. The Ultra’s 17-inch screen really shines when you’re using it for a round of Deep Rock Galactic or…

BY HAYDEN DINGMAN The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have ridden off into the sunset, replaced by the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. But what do we care, right? This is PCWorld, and my graphics card will function just as well next month as it does today, new consoles be damned. But there’s no denying that hardware changeovers tend to drive the industry forward. Freed from the constraints of aging consoles, games leap ahead—not just in the living room, but on PC as well. By this time next year, today’s best games may well look…well, old. Time marches on, even children get older, consoles embrace modern SSDs and Ryzen CPUs, et cetera. Thus the end of a console generation is also the perfect time for a retrospective. We’re feeling nostalgic about…

On December 31, Adobe Flash Player will go out of support. A new Windows patch, however, will allow you to get a jump on things. Microsoft detailed the process to remove support for Adobe Flash Player as part of a new support document, which links to the patch itself for various Windows platforms. As Microsoft warns, however, the process is a one-way street: Once installed, the patch cannot be uninstalled—though you could reinstall Windows if you were desperate. Adobe, in conjunction with browser makers Microsoft and Google, announced three years ago that Adobe Flash Player would be shelved by the end of 2020. Adobe said at the time that enough progress had been made within open web standards like HTML5 that it was time to phase out Flash. With that date almost…