Buyer’s Guide

It is time we paid the midrange some attention because they are frequently paired with more powerful towers. This particular desktop workstation is a Dell Precision 5860 Tower. Dell’s mid-range workstation, which starts at $2,049 (around $9,100 in the highly customized version we tested), is another plain-looking, but sizable, black full-tower chassis with handles. One of several Intel Xeon-based processors with professional graphics cards from AMD, Nvidia, or vPro, up to an incredible 2TB of RAM, and up to 72TB…

Choosing a low-cost Chromebook might be rather confusing. While many Chromebooks are affordable, not all of them are worth purchasing, particularly those with less than 128GB of storage and only 4GB of RAM. The Acer Chromebook Plus 514 is a good substitute, offering far more RAM and storage than many competitors at comparable prices, but it still has several issues that are typical of notebooks costing less than $500. Specs and features The Intel Core i3-N305 processor, which powers the…

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…