Buyer’s Guide

In comparison to Lenovo’s more expensive Legion 7 and Legion 9 gaming laptop lines, the company’s new Legion Pro 5i Gen 9 (which starts at $1,369.99 at the time of writing) offers remarkable performance for the money. Consider the base model pictured here as a somewhat larger-screened competitor to the slightly larger-screened Acer Nitro 17 and Asus ROG Strix 17, or as a chunkier alternative to our favorite midrange gaming setup, the Editors’ Choice award-winning Lenovo Legion Slim 5 Gen…

Designed to be portable, the Lenovo ThinkBook 13x (Gen 4) is a 13-inch business notebook. Lenovo’s high-end ThinkPad notebooks can be replaced at a lower cost with the ThinkBook series of laptops. However, this laptop outperforms a high-end ThinkPad not just in terms of cost but also in terms of battery life. This is undoubtedly valuable: This ThinkBook costs $1,106, much cheaper than Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Although it may not have the luxurious features of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon,…

M.2 slots vary in length even though they are all 22 mm wide. Generally, they are either 30mm (Steam Deck and other gaming handhelds) or 80mm (your typical desktop or laptop). However, certain devices have a distance of 42mm between the contacts and the rear mounting screw, most notably the Lenovo Legion Go and Thinkpads. You would require a somewhat awkward adapter to fit a 2230 SSD in such a space. A true 2242 SSD, such as the Sabrent Rocket…

Google is revitalizing the ChromeOS platform with a new generation of Chromebooks that rely heavily on Google’s AI, following a few years of minor Chromebook improvements. With its robust processor and ideal 120Hz display for cloud gaming, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is a clear contender for the title of leader in this space. The only issue is that it is not any better than its predecessor. Specs and features The older Acer Chromebook 516 GE and the new…

The Acer Nitro 17 achieves something that borders on the miraculous. It seems to strike a clever mix between performance and cost while still being reasonably priced. This accomplishment even made me wonder if a 17-inch gaming laptop could truly replace a desktop gaming PC. Regarding gaming, desktop PCs are often less expensive than laptops, but the large Nitro 17 surprised me. An AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, and a 17.3-inch Full HD display with…

Affordable lines have always been the hallmark of Asus’s TUF brand, and the recently unveiled A14 and the updated A16 carry on this heritage. But here’s where things stand out: the aesthetics have been completely redesigned to appear a lot more upscale. Furthermore, the gaming laptop lineup now includes a second, more portable alternative thanks to the arrival of the A14. Naturally, a laptop’s performance is its most crucial feature, and during my hands-on, I was unable to run benchmarks…

I am still impressed by Lexar’s storage products. This time, their external SSD, the Armor 700, is rated IP66. I enjoy how weatherproof and ruggedized it is, and I like how it looks. This is an obvious choice if you are looking for a performance drive that can withstand the demands of being in the field. What features does the Lexar Armor 700 offer? The Lexar Armor 700 is a stylish, compact, 3.4-inch-long by 2.15-inch-wide portable 20Gbps (USB 3.2×2) SSD.…

For hundreds cheaper, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 16 ($2,441.49 as tested) rivals many expensive gaming laptops. While it falls short of Lenovo’s flagship Legion 9 machines in terms of frills, it is still quite close, offering a premium build and powerful components without going into the stratosphere of laptop cost. Capable of handling even the most demanding games, it boasts an Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU that drives a 2,560-by-1,600-pixel screen…

In 2024, there are many options for OLED monitors; however, if you are searching for a 27-inch 1440p display, Samsung’s QD-OLED panel has been the main option. Asus is now attempting to change that with the ROG Strix XG27AQDMG. LG’s OLED panel powers this new 27-inch 1440p 240Hz gaming monitor. While it is superior in HDR capability, it is comparable to QD-OLED in many other ways.  Specs and Features Looking at the specs sheet would not tell you the Asus…

Although the Teamgroup PD20M is a good 20Gbps USB SSD with moderate workloads, it is not the disk to use for continuously writing big data sets. Our 1TB test unit ranked dead last overall in our performance assessments due to its frugal 20GB of cache. Unfortunately, this is also one of the thinnest and most stylish SSDs we have tried; that means it travels well, especially with the convenient carrying case Teamgroup included. What features does the Teamgroup PD20M offer?…