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Want a Steam Deck-style gaming handheld with a bigger screen and extra features? Check out the Lenovo Legion Go. Not only does it have a super-sized 8.8-inch screen, its handles can pop off a la the Nintendo Switch, and one of them can even be used as a pseudo gaming mouse. And right now, Amazon is selling the Lenovo Legion Go on sale for $500, a whopping $200 off its original price. The Legion Go uses the same souped-up AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor seen in the Asus ROG Ally, with an impressive 2560×1600 resolution and 144Hz refresh rate to really make that oversized screen shine. Inside is 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, not to mention a robust cooling system to keep it all ticking. The Legion Go includes a touchpad and programmable rear “paddle” buttons, which are sometimes omitted on Windows-based Steam Deck-style systems. But the unique selling point is definitely that Switch-inspired chassis and its breakaway controllers. You can prop up the screen portion of the device with an integrated kickstand, then slip the right-hand controller into a detachable shell and use its bottom-mounted sensor to turn it into a tiny gaming mouse. That makes the Legion Go uniquely qualified to tackle first-person shooter games. The Legion Go isn’t an automatic recommendation, especially since it has to deal with the general clunkiness that seems to be endemic to Windows-based handhelds. You might want to check out our hands-on video before you click the buy button. But if you’re ready to go, this is the best price we’ve seen yet for a new Legion Go, so get it while you can. Save $200 on the Lenovo Legion Go handheldBuy now on Amazon Read...

General Capital Limited is pleased to advise that, further to its announcement on 23 October 2024, General Capital’s wholly owned subsidiary, General Finance Limited, has now completed the purchase of 100% of the shares in Bridges Financial Services Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Attractive, minimalist design  Includes LG webOS, remote control, and webcam  Has USB-C with 90 watts of Power Delivery  Cons LG webOS is sluggish at times  Low contrast ratio  Mediocre color gamut   Unimpressive HDR   Our Verdict The LG MyView 32SR85U is packed with features but fails to deliver on image quality. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: LG MyView Smart Monitor 32R85U Retailer Price LG $449.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket The differences between monitors and televisions seem to become slimmer every year. Some people now use a television as their monitor and others use monitors like televisions. The LG MyView 32SR85U is an example of the latter. It’s a 32-inch 4K monitor that uses LG’s webOS to provide access to streaming apps and control smart home devices. It even has a bundled webcam.  LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U specs and features  The LG MyView 32SR85U’s basic specifications are typical for a 32-inch 4K monitor that is priced around $500. It has a resolution of 3840×2160 across an IPS panel, with a refresh rate of 60Hz.  Display size: 32-inch 16:9 widescreen  Native resolution: 3840×2160  Panel type: IPS  Refresh rate: 60Hz  Adaptive sync: None  HDR: HDR10  Ports: 2x HDMI 2.0, 1x USB-C upstream with DisplayPort and 90-watts USB-C Power Delivery, 2x USB-C downstream  Wireless: AirPlay, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth  VESA mount: 100x100mm  Speakers: Yes, 2x 5-watt  Price: $599.99 MSRP, $449.99 typical retail  However, several specifications stand out, though none of them have anything to do with the display panel. The monitor has several USB-C ports with up to 90W of USB Power Delivery, which makes them useful for charging a connected tablet or laptop. The monitor also ships with LG’s webOS, which is a smart television operating system that can be used to access streaming apps. And, because it has webOS, the monitor also supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and AirPlay.  Further reading: See our roundup of the best monitors to learn about competing products. LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U design   The LG MyView 32SR85U’s design is simple but effective for a monitor meant for home office use and entertainment. LG goes for a sheer, ultra-white look which is attractive and should match any similarly colored peripherals you might have on your desk.   An L-shaped monitor stand keeps the display stable. The stand has a small base that minimizes the space the monitor takes up, and the base is flat, so you can still place notebooks or knick-knacks on the stand itself. The stand includes ergonomic adjustments for height and tilt, but I was a bit disappointed to find it doesn’t swivel or pivot into portrait orientation.  Matthew Smith / Foundry The stand also omits a thumb screw for securing the base to the stand neck and instead uses two Phillips head screws, which must be installed with a screwdriver. That’s unusual for a monitor in this price range and makes the monitor slightly more difficult to set up. A 100x100mm VESA mount is included for use with third-party monitor stands and arms.  LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U connectivity   LG takes a somewhat unconventional approach to video connectivity with the MyView 32SR85U. It has two HDMI ports and one USB-C upstream with DisplayPort for video input and provides up to 90W of power delivery for charging connected devices, which is excellent. DisplayPort, the most common connection for a PC monitor, is not included.   The USB-C upstream port connects to two additional USB-C ports, so the monitor functions as a USB-C hub to connect wired USB-C peripherals. USB-A is not available, however, and the monitor doesn’t include a KVM switch function.  The monitor’s physical connectivity is joined by wireless options, which include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Apple’s AirPlay. Wireless connectivity not only provides access to streaming services available through the LG webOS operating system but also allows wireless connections with other devices, like smartphones or a wireless gamepad.   And, because it has AirPlay, the monitor even supports wireless video streaming from an iOS or MacOS device. This is a small but notable advantage over Samsung’s Odyssey OLED G8, which has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth but lacks AirPlay.   LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U features  Technically, the LG MyView 32SR85U is not a television because it lacks a TV tuner and can’t connect to cable or antenna television over coaxial. It does have LG’s webOS smart television operating system, though, so it effectively works as a television in many situations. WebOS provides access to all the usual streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. It also supports cloud gaming services like Nvidia GeForce Now and Amazon Luna.  Because of this, the LG MyView 32SR85U requires a bit of setup before it’s ready to use. When first turned on, the monitor will ask you to connect to Wi-Fi and complete a few setup steps. Setup takes about five minutes and is like setting up the Samsung Odyssey G8 OLED. However, compared to Samsung (which uses Samsung’s Tizen OS), LG’s setup is less visually appealing, and the setup menu feels a bit sluggish.  Matthew Smith / Foundry That sluggishness continues to the general webOS experience. I found the main webOS interface, which displays the available apps and video sources, was responsive. However, it takes a few seconds to load when switching to it from an app or the Windows desktop. The monitor’s on-screen settings menu was also slow. It often took more than a full second to appear (though, again, it was responsive once the menu was visible).   LG includes a remote control to access the MyView 32SR85U’s features, most of which focus on webOS and connectivity instead of image quality adjusts. The monitor’s settings are also accessible through a joystick on the rear of the display, though there’s not much reason to use it when the remote is available.     While I found the MyView 32SR85U’s menus sluggish compared to the Samsung, LG does a slightly better job of arranging the on-screen menus. LG’s menus are arranged in a layout more typical of a monitor (with easy-to-read text labels and nested menus). That contrasts with Samsung’s Odyssey monitors, which place some settings in a confusing “Game Bar” that appears at the bottom of the display.   That makes for a tough comparison with Samsung’s alternatives. I think the LG MyView 32SR85U with LG webOS is easier to use than a Samsung Odyssey with Tizen OS, but the LG was less responsive when navigating the OS. Shoppers must pick their poison.  WebOS provides access to all the usual streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U camera and speakers  The LG MyView 32SR85U has a bundled webcam that attaches magnetically to the top of the monitor. It’s unremarkable. The webcam’s image quality is no better than a typical mid-range laptop webcam. While it’s nice that it’s included, that inclusion probably adds to the price—and I’m not sure it’s a worthwhile trade-off.  A pair of 5-watt speakers are bundled into the monitor. They offer passable sound for listening to a podcast but have a harsh, hollow quality that quickly becomes irritating. Most people choosing the MyView 32SR85U will need to budget for external speakers or a soundbar—especially if you plan to use it like a Smart TV.  Matthew Smith / Foundry LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U SDR image quality  While the LG MyView 32SR85U and the Samsung Odyssey G8 are similar in terms of display size, resolution, and Smart TV features, the similarities end there. LG’s MyView 32SR85U is roughly half the price of the Samsung. That’s good news for your wallet, but it’s not great news for the monitor’s SDR image quality.   Matthew Smith / Foundry The LG MyView 32SR85U gets off to a modest start in brightness with a maximum sustained SDR brightness of 311 nits. That’s bright enough for most situations, but it’s not as bright as many competitive monitors, and it might look dim if the monitor is used in a room with bright interior lighting or large, sunlit windows.   Matthew Smith / Foundry Contrast, however, is where the LG MyView 32SR85U really runs into problems, as it has a maximum measured contrast ratio of 950:1.   IPS panels are notorious for limited contrast due to their elevated black levels in dark scenes. Still, the LG MyView 32SR85U’s contrast is unimpressive, even by modern IPS display standards.   The low contrast ratio reduces the sense of depth and immersion in the image and introduces a distracting issue known as “IPS glow.” This happens when too much light from the backlight escapes through the display in dark scenes. The problem is obvious, and distracting, on the LG MyView 32SR85U.  Matthew Smith / Foundry The LG MyView 32SR85U delivers similarly mediocre results in color gamut. The monitor’s color gamut covers 90 percent of DCI-P3 and 84 percent of Adobe RGB. These would have been great results a few years ago, but times have changed, and modern monitors tend to offer a slightly wider color gamut. This is especially true for OLED monitors and those with quantum dot technology. OLED monitors are more expensive, but monitors with quantum dots are available around $500 and below.  That’s not to say the MyView 32SR85U’s color performance is bad. On the contrary, it provides a vivid, punchy, and saturated image. Still, a more limited color gamut means the display will seem a bit dull compared to a monitor with a wider gamut. It’s also an obstacle for content creators, who often work in DCI-P3 or AdobeRGB and crave color gamut coverage well above 90 percent.   Matthew Smith / Foundry While the LG MyView 32SR85U has a modest color gamut, the monitor has top-tier color accuracy. The only exception is in blue and cyan hues, which have a color error in a range that would be visible. Still, this level of performance indicates the monitor provides an extremely realistic and lifelike image.   However, the MyView 32SR85U’s color temperature is not ideal. It measured a default color temperature of 7300K, far above the target of 6500K. That means the image looks much cooler than we prefer. Additionally, the monitor’s default gamma was measured at 2.3, which is slightly off the target of 2.2. That means content may appear a bit darker than it should. However, the gamma result is close enough that most viewers won’t be bothered by it.  Sharpness is certainly an advantage for the MyView 32SR85U, as the monitor’s 3840×2160 resolution offers a tack-sharp look. This is close to the sharpest image available in a 32-inch display, beaten only by a rare few 5K and 6K monitors. They’re far more expensive, though, so I doubt shoppers will compare them to the LG.  Unfortunately, the LG MyView 32SR85U’s SDR image quality isn’t impressive for a 32-inch 4K monitor. The main issue is the low contrast ratio, which saps immersion and leads to distracting “IPS glow.” The monitor also delivers mediocre results in brightness and color gamut. These problems are especially disappointing for a display with Smart TV features. You can use the MyView 32SR85U to watch Netflix or stream a movie from Apple TV—but most viewers won’t be happy with the image quality.  LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U HDR image quality  The LG MyView 32SR85U’s disappointing SDR image quality spells trouble for its HDR performance.  While the monitor can accept an HDR10 signal, it lacks VESA DisplayHDR certification. In my testing, it hit a maximum sustained brightness of just 372 nits in HDR mode. To be fair, that’s similar to price-competitive monitors that have VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification (like the Asus ProArt PA278CFRV). However, 372 nits isn’t enough to deliver on HDR’s potential. As a result, bright objects and scenes often look blown-out.  The LG’s contrast ratio is another significant issue. Dark scenes appear flat and washed out, with a noticeable grayish haze or “fog” over the image. It’s a serious problem in dark, moody movies like The Batman or Pan’s Labyrinth.  While the monitor’s HDR performance is underwhelming, it’s typical for a 32-inch 4K monitor in this price range. Shoppers looking for great HDR in a 32-inch 4K display must spend more for a Mini-LED monitor (like the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8) or an OLED monitor (like the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 or LG Ultragear 32GS95UE-B).  LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U motion performance  The LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U isn’t a great monitor for motion clarity. It sticks to a 60Hz refresh rate and doesn’t support Adaptive Sync for smooth frame pacing in 3D games. Motion clarity is fine for a 60Hz monitor, but motion blur is obvious and details become difficult to see when panning the camera quickly in a 3D game.  Should you buy the LG MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U? LG’s MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U provides a long list of useful extras including Smart TV functionality, a remote control, wireless connectivity, and a bundled webcam. Yet these extras are held back by the monitor’s low contrast ratio, which is limited even for a mid-range 32-inch 4K monitor.   The monitor’s features and quality are at odds, too. It has LG webOS and can be used as a Smart TV, but it lacks the image quality to help shows, movies, and games look great. If you use it for productivity, on the other hand, webOS may feel like an unnecessary distraction. Read...

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As any lawyer will tell you, a law doesn’t necessarily have to make sense, or be in any way enforceable, to be on the books. Following some legal back-and-forth resulting from the restrictions of Russian media channels on YouTube, a Russian court has presented Google with a fine of 2 undecillion rubles. That’s approximately 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 US dollars. As The Register points out, this is a ludicrous amount of money. It’s about 200 trillion times the current estimated amount of “liquid” monetary value, in all currencies from all countries, currently in circulation on the planet. (I think I got that right. It’s a lot of zeroes.) The total was apparently reached after accounting for 17 Russian TV channels that were removed from YouTube following US sanctions in 2020, which have only been expanded since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The fine starts as 100,000 rubles for each day that Google keeps said channels restricted, and doubles for every week of non-compliance. There is no upper limit on the fine, and even an elementary school student could see how this quickly gets out of hand. According to a machine translation of the original news story on RBC.ru, Google’s Russian subsidiary has been effectively bankrupt since 2022. While several billion rubles have been paid in fines for similar actions, Google’s assets in Russia are already so far in the red that getting anything meaningfully valuable out of the company is near impossible. Google deactivated AdSense accounts in Russia in August, effectively shutting the American company out of the territory for its core business. Google-owned websites like Google Search and YouTube are still available to Russian residents, as are Chrome, Android-based devices, and plenty of other products. But Russians are noticing severe slowdowns as Google’s infrastructure across the region is essentially abandoned and local competitors like Yandex are trying to move into the vacuum. While the initial blocking of content was definitely inspired by US sanctions and a general crackdown on attempts by Russian state-controlled media to influence other countries, it’s worth noting that Russia isn’t exactly doing itself any favors when it comes to giving foreign companies access to its economic space. In March, Russia passed a new law that banned online advertising from “foreign agents,” which includes pretty much anything that Russian leaders consider “anti-Kremlin.” Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Transcendent battery life A purposeful use of space Lovely, surprisingly large OLED screen Lighter than a MacBook Air Great audio Cons Keyboard needs more key travel Performance needs improvement, especially on battery Our Verdict If it weren’t for the keyboard, the Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) would be my go-to productivity laptop. It’s a potent lightweight package that allows you to work over a day without a charge. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406SA) Retailer Price Asus $1499.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket You might approach buying the Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) for a variety of reasons such as its status as an AI-infused Copilot+ PC and its lovely OLED screen. But it’s the long-lasting battery — 21 hours in our tests! — that will change your life. I don’t mean this lightly. I’m used to packing a charger in my bag because I know instinctively that the laptop will run out of battery. This, the launch platform for Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) mobile chip, simply does not. I’m not overly impressed with the performance, especially when run on battery alone. I would also prefer a springier, more responsive keyboard. But this laptop simply makes battery anxiety a thing of the past. “Tight” is a word that has come to connote an efficiency of space and effort. This laptop feels tight in that very little is without purpose. My review score reflects a less-than-ideal keyboard. Intel’s Lunar Lake certainly could improve in terms of performance, and that’s reflected here too. But otherwise, this laptop is close to perfect in my eyes. Further reading: Best laptops 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1s, and more Asus Zenbook S 14: Buying options Asus sells a single version of the Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) for $1,499, with an Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 258V as well as 32GB of memory. Our review unit was the UX5406SA, which shipped with a 512GB SSD instead. Remember, Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 chips (Lunar Lake) package the system memory directly on the package. That limits the available configurations and prevents you from upgrading the memory later. Best Buy and Walmart are selling versions with a Core Ultra 7 processor, but only 16GB of RAM for slightly cheaper. Otherwise, Asus offers this laptop in a pair of colors: Scandinavian White and a blackish tint formally called Zumaia Gray. Asus also offers the Vivobook, which is aimed more at budget buyers. Best Buy just announced the related Asus Vivobook S 14 Q423, with a Core Ultra 5, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1200p screen for $949. Mark Hachman / IDG Asus Zenbook S 14: Specifications Display: 14-inch (2880×1800) touchscreen OLED up to 120Hz Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (eight cores, eight threads) Graphics: Intel Arc NPU: Yes, 47 TOPS Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X, integrated Storage: 1 TB NVMe PCI 4.0 SSD (512GB as tested) Ports: 2 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4), 1 10Gbps USB-A, HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm audio jack Security: Windows Hello (camera) Camera: 1080p30 Battery: 72Wh (design), (71.9Wh (full, as tested) Wireless: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 Operating system: Windows 11 Home 24H2 Dimensions: 12.22 x 8.45 x 0.47 inches Weight: 2.65 pounds Color: Scandinavian White, Zumaia Gray Price: $1,499 as tested Asus Zenbook S 14: Build quality and first impressions The Asus Zenbook S 14 was Intel’s launch laptop for its latest Core Ultra Series 2 (Lunar Lake) processors, so most of my early experience with this clamshell laptop was quickly installing and running benchmarks for our review of the Lunar Lake chip. (While I’ll reproduce some of my benchmarks there, the Lunar Lake review dives much deeper into the laptop’s performance while on battery and on maximum performance settings). For this review, I treat the laptop much more holistically. Asus and Intel sent us the Zumaia Gray version for review. The Zenbook S 14 is constructed of what Asus calls Ceraluminum, a portmanteau of “ceramic aluminum.” While it does have a bit of a ceramic feel to it, your fingers will probably take away a somewhat plasticky feel from it all. Asus etched silvery lines on to the chassis on the back of the display, giving it the unfortunate look that a few cracks appeared. Overall, the laptop has a prestigious look to it, but nothing especially luxurious. Mark Hachman / IDG Structurally, it’s sound, too. I noticed just a minimal amount of flex when pressing hard upon the center of the keyboard and the display doesn’t demonstrate meaningful wobble. My overall impression of the Zenbook S 14 is of a compact little productivity powerhouse, and picking up and opening this notebook reinforces this idea rather quickly. The Zenbook weighs just 2.65 pounds, with a screen-to-body ratio of 90 percent — with a 14-inch screen that pushes up right against the borders of the chassis, in other words. Did you know that the 13-inch MacBook Air weighs 2.7 pounds? The left side of the Zenbook S 1 4 boats two Thunderbolt 4 ports as well as an HDMI connection.Mark Hachman / IDG There isn’t too much room between the left and right sides of the keyboard and the edges of the keyboard tray, and the touchpad feels like they had to lean hard against it to squeeze it — as well as the integrated functions it controls — in. The downside is that the keyboard looks and feels a mite cramped. Still, all of these things contribute to the impression that this little laptop is jam-packed with features. This new Asus Zenbook is extremely quiet. I tested it in a variety of modes, accessible via the MyAsus app, and forgot I had left it in “performance” mode. Normally, that means a loud, noisy fan blowing hard to keep the laptop cool. At least while performing office tasks, “Performance” is basically as loud as many laptops’ standard or “quiet” modes. There’s no real need to run the laptop in a high-performance mode, but rest assured that if you do, you probably won’t even notice. Even “full speed” mode, the laptop’s highest performance setting, declined to actually run the fan at high speed when it wasn’t needed. The Zenbook S 14 sucks air via vents on the bottom of the chassis and blows it out through the hinge. Is that a properly labeled USB-A port? It is!Mark Hachman / IDG Asus has added a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports to the left side of the chassis, next to an HDMI 2.1 port. Asus has also included a single USB-A port on the right side, with a 3.5mm audio jack. It’s a nice mix of ports, able to accommodate an external display and mouse without the need for an optional Thunderbolt dock or USB-C hub. Inside, Asus has added an up-to-date Wi-Fi 7 radio, paired with Bluetooth 5.4. Asus Zenbook S 14: Display Asus chose a 14.0-inch, 3K (2880 x 1800) touch OLED panel with refresh rates up to 120Hz for use with the Zenbook S 14. The display is rated for 500 nits HDR peak brightness, which isn’t that much. At maximum brightness, the display produces 358 nits by my measurements, which is good for indoor use but not direct sun. Lenovo’s rival Lunar Lake platform, the Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, uses a traditional IPS panel instead. The difference is one of image quality and a power tradeoff. An IPS panel typically uses a single, uniform backlight, which brightens and dims the entire screen depending upon the demands of the image it’s rendering. That can cause a bit of backlight “glow” in darker scenes, which OLED displays don’t have. OLEDs regulate brightness on a per-pixel basis, which gives darker scenes richer, deeper blacks. But they have a reputation for consuming more power than an IPS display if rendering a bright scene, such as you might use for apps like Microsoft Word or Outlook. It’s likely, given the stellar battery life this notebook already has, that chips like the Intel Core 200 series found inside will allow for visually richer OLED displays to be more common than in the past. Mark Hachman / IDG We’ve thankfully begun to move from a standard 1080p, 60Hz display to higher-resolution displays like the 1800p display here. That allows for a crisper image, and the dynamic 120Hz screen should feel more comfortable to look at for longer periods of time. (It will dip down to 60Hz when it thinks it can to save power, though you can fix it at 120Hz using the MyAsus settings app). An 120Hz screen refresh rate also allows for smoother inking and mousing, which isn’t so much of an issue because of the lack of an integrated stylus. (The laptop does boast stylus support). The Zenbook reclines to an approximate 30-40 degrees off the horizontal, which is fine for office work — reclining flat would allow for easier inking, however. In the real world, what this means is that you’ll be able to work in either light or dark mode, while enjoying a lovely screen for enjoying streamed video after hours. I’m an unabashed fan of OLED displays, and the Zenbook’s choice of an OLED display is probably a good thing. Inside the MyAsus app you’ll find various controls to tweak the display, from adjusting the color gamut to tweaking how the OLED displays visible pixels at low brightness. Probably the most important control from a visual sense is whether you enable a screensaver to kick in at about 30 minutes; OLEDs can suffer from “burn in,” but the issue is less of a concern now than it once was. Peer in closely, however, and you may notice the “speckling” that affected the Surface Pro 11th Edition’s OLED screen as well. Think of it as a very light coat of dust upon the “inside” of the screen. It’s extremely faint, not distracting at all, but it’s there. Asus Zenbook S 14: Keyboard and touchpad I’ve never found Asus keyboards particularly appealing, and that still holds with Zenbook S 14. The keys themselves aren’t any smaller than other notebooks I’ve tried, but the pitch — the space between the keys — is less than some competitors, contributing to a cramped feel. Mark Hachman / IDG Key travel is only 1.1mm, too, which is at the minimum end of the spectrum. Again, I prefer keyboards with at least 1.25mm of travel. You might think, does just 0.15mm make a difference? I believe it does and you’ll notice it. I typed this review on the Zenbook itself and I don’t feel like my fingers were as comfortable as on an Acer, Microsoft, or HP keyboard. The keyboard includes three levels of backlighting, which feels pretty necessary given the rather poor contrast between the key markings and the “gray” background. The backlighting will turn off after one minute on battery, a configurable setting. It remains on constantly while on wall power, unless disabled or unless the MyAsus setting disables it when the notebook detects bright light. If it weren’t for the keyboard, the Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) would be my go-to productivity laptop. It’s a potent lightweight package that allows you to work over a day without a charge. Asus places a row of function keys atop the keyboard, which can be triggered either by tapping the Windows key or just the function key itself. There’s a dedicated emoji key, as well as one (F11) which is surprisingly without purpose. There are camera and mic control on the Asus Zenbook S 14, but no physical covers or slides.Mark Hachman / IDG The Zenbook S 14 is not the first Asus notebook to use its configurable touchpad, which incorporates the standard Windows touchpad gestures as well as its own: A swipe along the left edge to raise or lower the volume, along the right edge for brightness, and along the top to scrub back and forth within a video. They’re all surprisingly useful little tweaks. Otherwise, the mammoth touchpad is clickable just two-thirds or so up the screen. That’s acceptable, though not stellar. Asus Zenbook S 14: Audio, mic, and webcam The Zenbook S 14 has stellar audio, boosted by four integrated Harmon Kardon speakers and augmented by Dolby Atmos audio. Dolby’s “dynamic” setting is on by default, which will carry you across the finish line as far as audio quality is concerned. (The “music” setting sounds a bit better, but not by much). Again, the MyAsus app hides a few settings that may be of interest. Using AI to adjust the speakers didn’t do much, but the volume booster control nudges the volume up a bit. The AI mic control, though, continues to be really impressive. I’ve written before how Asus essentially filters out background noises, even music, almost perfectly from apps like Zoom or Teams using the NPU’s AI powers. If you do buy this notebook, try this out with a friend — it’s really remarkable. About the only knock on it is that it does cause your voice to sound somewhat hollow, and unless you start speaking immediately the tech might briefly and incorrectly “focus” on the background music instead. The bottom of the Zenbook, with a vent grille and speakers to the far left.Mark Hachman / IDG The Zenbook’s integrated 1080p, 30Hz webcam is decent. The video quality is sharp enough that you’ll come across pretty well on a video-conferencing app. The color balance, though, is hit or miss: my skin tone looked pretty normal, but my green shirt appeared brown. There are no physical slides or covers for the webcam, though Asus dedicated two function keys to turning off the webcam and mic. The webcam does have a depth camera attached, which is configured during setup to recognize your face. It worked flawlessly in my experience. Asus Zenbook S 14: Performance Whenever we test something, we try to minimize any potential conflicts or sources of trouble. In certain situations, though, that’s unavoidable. In this case, I tested the Asus Zenbook S 14, one of the first laptops out the door with Intel’s latest chip, together with one of the first Thunderbolt 5 docks in existence, the Kensington S5000T5. The Zenbook only has a Thunderbolt 4 port inside, not a Thunderbolt 5. But the dock played well with other laptops I own with a TB4 port. That wasn’t the case with the Zenbook S 14 — every hour or so, it would drop the connection to a monitor for a second or two. The displays wouldn’t disconnect, but the screen would blank. Also, I conducted a Web video chat with a vendor, using a Web-based “white box” video client that featured the vendor’s name — not Zoom or Teams. The laptop locked up completely, becoming totally unresponsive until I held down the power button to reboot it. I can’t say for certain what the cause was, but my time using this Asus notebook was not without issue. This review, though, will run through our standard benchmarks, plugged in on wall power. Qualcomm has been vehement that this generation of laptop testing should be performed on wall power as well as on battery, to show how sharply the Lunar Lake chip’s performance drops while on battery power. I absolutely agree, and conducted numerous tests on wall power and battery power — on this laptop, no less — to test the chip itself. Basically, expect that this laptop’s performance, unplugged, will drop to about 50 to 70 percent of what our test results show here. Office work and web browsing are just fine on battery, but if you plan to do something like intensive editing work, I’d plug in. A close competitor: the Surface Laptop, powered by Qualcomm.Chris Hoffman / IDG Should you buy a Lunar Lake laptop like this one over one powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, such as the 2024 version of the Microsoft Surface Laptop? I don’t think it’s a conclusive win for either side. Qualcomm, like it or not, still has some lingering, minor compatibility issues, but the Snapdragon is a more power-efficient chip than the Core Ultra Series 200 / Lunar Lake chip found within this Asus Zenbook S 14. For comparison’s sake, I’ve chosen the 13.8-inch, $1,999 Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition (aka the Surface Laptop 7) with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, the 15.3-inch, $1,379 Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition with another Lunar Lake processor, the 14-inch $1,689 HP OmniBook Ultra 14 with AMD’s latest Ryzen AI 300 chip inside, plus Acer’s 14-inch, $1,329 TravelMate P4 Spin 14 with a Core Ultra Series 1 chip inside. I’ve also added a budget 14-inch $849 Asus Zenbook 14 from earlier this year as well as the surprisingly inexpensive $769 16-inch HP Pavilion Laptop 16 with a Core Ultra 7 155U inside, just to demonstrate what an extra $1,000 or so supposedly buys you. We use four major tests to determine the laptop’s performance, beginning with PCMark 10. This benchmark puts the laptop through a number of tasks, from videoconferencing to web browsing, to general Office tasks, and even some mildly intensive CAD work. It’s a good approximation of many daily tasks in a variety of applications, and a good score here means that this laptop will be able to hold up over a day’s work. Mark Hachman / IDG You would expect this laptop to hold up, however, and it does. There’s one thing I noticed, however, that stands out. If you drill down inside the PCMark scores (which we don’t usually break out), the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i falls just below the Zenbook in the total score, which includes a variety of factors. In a single category, spreadsheet performance, the Yoga far exceeds the Zenbook, with a score of 14,646 to 10,855, a whopping 35 percent difference. I don’t know why that is, but it’s noteworthy. Cinebench is a synthetic benchmark that pushes all of the laptop’s CPU cores to their limit. In this case, we’re trying to understand how well the laptop to respond to an application’s demands for the full capabilities of the PC, whatever that application may be. Don’t expect Lunar Lake laptops to be especially powerful; battery life is now the focus. Still, this laptop can hold its own. We use an older version of the test, Cinebench R20, as the version we test here. On the latest iterations, Cinebench R23 and Cinebench 2024, the laptop scored 1,855 and 589, respectively. You can find more context in our Lunar Lake review, which used this laptop as a test bed. Mark Hachman / IDG Handbrake is a similar test, though with prolonged exertion in mind. Handbrake takes an approximately 90-minute video file and transcodes it into a more compact format. It’s a practical task, one that people still perform for copying videos onto a tablet for a plane flight. But it’s really a test of how well the laptop can deal with a prolonged workload. After a while, running at full speed can cause the laptop to dial back its performance to prevent it from overheating. What this test evaluates is how well the laptop can cool itself and modulate its own power to prevent that from happening. Cutting back the performance increases the time it takes to complete the transcoding test, and we don’t want that. Mark Hachman / IDG While I wouldn’t look at the Asus Zenbook S 14 as a gaming laptop, we use the 3DMark test suite to evaluate the laptop’s 3D performance. UL, the developer behind the benchmark, has a variety of different benchmarks, which have slowly become more complex throughout the years. Time Spy is the test we use to compare laptops both past and present. Intel’s promised that the GPU inside this generation of Core Ultra chips has been significantly improved, and that’s true. Still, this isn’t a gaming laptop. Mark Hachman / IDG Our final test is of battery life, and it’s here that the competition between Intel and Qualcomm has been especially fervent. We take a 4K video and loop it over and over until the battery expires — which it does, hours and hours later. The laptop lasts so long that we even ran tests using UL’s Procyon battery life tests, which simulates someone “working” in the Microsoft Office apps for hours on end. That’s a long workday, for in this environment the laptop lasted for 17 hours, seven minutes instead of the 21 hours it persisted on our video rundown test. Basically, you can argue that this laptop will last about two workdays without a charge. Granted, Lunar Lake is not the absolute most efficient chip. The Surface Laptop 7th Edition with its Snapdragon X Elite chip is paired with a 54Wh battery. Asus includes a 73Wh battery inside, and the two laptops are neck and neck in overall battery life. That’s where I’m impressed with Asus. Yes, it stuffs more battery inside to keep up with Qualcomm and Microsoft, but it does so without the penalty of substantial extra weight. Mark Hachman / IDG There’s really no conclusion to draw here but the obvious one: This laptop will just keep going and going and going. Asus Zenbook S 14: Conclusion I typically prefer a laptop with a 15-inch screen, in part because I prefer as much information as possible to be on the screen at any one time. Seated at my desk, I’d prefer something a bit larger. Small and light is for on the go. On the last few trips I’ve made this year, however, I’ve found that for whatever reason, the charging ports that are now ubiquitous on most airlines aren’t as common in conference rooms. Teachers tell me that they simply don’t always have a charger at their podium or desk. If you arrive at a city for work, you may be shuttled around from appointment to appointment. You’d rather think about other things besides where your laptop can get a sip of juice. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and the laptops it appears in are excellent. I have only tested one, the most recent Surface Laptop, and I would take that along on a trip, too. I already have. Some people, like me, are a bit nervous about the lingering compatibility issues Windows on Arm still have — though they’re minor, and Qualcomm and Microsoft are doggedly working to eliminate them. But the battery life, like Intel’s Lunar Lake laptops offer, is superb. If this new way of working appeals to you, I’d recommend you take a hard look at Asus Zenbook S 14. We’re headed into a new era of computing, and this laptop is on the cutting edge. Read...

The European Union can be a tough regulatory arena, especially for American tech megacorps. But according to a Microsoft lawyer, Google has been manipulating regulators by creating an “astroturf” group of cloud providers to lobby against Microsoft specifically. It’s a brazen and surprising accusation, directly from one corporation to another. In a lengthy blog post on Microsoft’s official site, the company’s deputy general counsel Rima Alaily accused Google of enticing smaller European cloud computing companies to create a lobbying group “directed and largely funded by Google for the purpose of attacking Microsoft’s cloud computing business in the European Union and the United Kingdom.” Or at least that’s what Microsoft claims it was told by one company that was approached by Google but declined to join the group. The Open Cloud Coalition (PDF) is the group in question, which Microsoft says is essentially a front for Google to attack its competition via regulatory lobbying. Citing the unnamed company that turned Google down, Microsoft accuses Google of essentially starting, funding, and recruiting for the Open Cloud Coalition, hiring third parties for lobbying and communication with the intent to present itself as a minor participating member. The group’s goal, Microsoft alleges, is to undermine Microsoft’s cloud computing and cloud storage offerings in the EU and UK. The blog post stops short of accusing Google of paying other companies to join, but definitely hints at the possibility: “It remains to be seen what Google offered smaller companies to join, either in terms of cash or discounts.” Microsoft points to Google’s recently publicized €470 million offer to CISPE (another European cloud service industry group) to continue its antitrust complaint against Microsoft, which ultimately failed as the parties reached an out-of-court settlement. Alaily goes on to outline Google’s efforts to use courts and regulators against Microsoft in the United States and elsewhere: “We understand Google is a main funder of the U.S.-based Coalition for Fair Software Licensing… The organization is run by a well-known lobbyist for Google in Washington DC, but Google’s affiliation isn’t disclosed publicly by the organization.” Directly accusing a competitor of funding and organizing shadowy lobbying groups is a pretty big stone to throw for Microsoft, and its glass house is pretty vulnerable. According to OpenSecrets, Microsoft and its subsidiaries have spent over $10 million on lobbying every year for the last three years in the US alone, and they’re on track to do so again in 2024. Make no mistake, Microsoft is not above weaponizing political influence against its opponents. But Microsoft is accusing Google of “shadowy campaigns” that obfuscate its involvement and direct influence, and doing so as a result of being under increased regulatory scrutiny in markets around the world. “By our count, there are at least 24 antitrust investigations against Google in the leading digital markets around the world. At a time when Google should be focused on addressing legitimate questions about its business, it is instead turning its vast resources towards tearing down others.” (Here I’ll point out that Microsoft accused Google of being under antitrust scrutiny is not without a bit of historical irony.) The accusations in the blog post don’t quite include anything that could put the company in danger of a civil lawsuit from Google. And even if Google’s involvement in the Open Cloud Coalition is being heavily exaggerated, the former would probably avoid litigious action just as a matter of damage control. But this bit of legal saber-rattling shows that both companies are willing to fight hard — in the conventional market, in lobbying and regulatory circles, and in the court of public opinion — to gain any advantage in the lucrative cloud market. Read...