If you don’t know already, Corsair just launched its very first PC Build Kits, so naturally we had to test them out for you.
Now, I should preface this by saying that the last time I built my own computer was back in college – practically an entire lifetime ago. And, back then, we didn’t really have things like Wi-Fi/Bluetooth cards and these massive graphics cards that look less like cards and more like portable weapons of mass destruction sent from the future. So, essentially, my knowledge of modern PC building is just slightly above that of an average person – and only because I know about all the components that one needs to build it.
Then again, that just makes me the perfect consumer to invest in one of these Corsair PC Build Kits. Those that know their stuff, after all, are more likely to pick out every component and part themselves, which is a big part of the appeal of building your own PC.
The question is, are the new Corsair PC Build Kits well worth it for lay people, whether its those who have zero experience but want to learn sans the pressure of getting the right parts, or those who simply do not have the time to do the digital legwork?
The one thing that might discourage potential customers is the price of entry of these gaming PC kits. The cheapest of the three configurations will set you back $1,199.99 (about £995 / AU$1,740), which is admittedly a lot for casual users. However, that isn’t anything different from what you’d expect from Corsair, as the brand does, in its own words, aim to “deliver a great gaming and PC experience with every build. We did not want to sacrifice quality, warranty, and performance” just for the sake of offering budget-friendly options.
And, you’re also paying for convenience here. The Corsair PC Build Kits essentially takes the amount of painstaking research behind building a PC (and the risks that come with not doing it properly) off your hands and into theirs. So that when you get all the components and parts at your doorstep, you only need to lay them all out and follow the instructions diligently.
I am a massive fan of that, and as someone who is essentially a newbie, the kit that Corsair sent me not only made it easy for me to build my own PC, but it also turned me into a convert.
Getting a pre-build PC? Please! Where’s the fun in that?!
Corsair PC Build Kit: Price and availability
How much does it cost? $1,199.99, $1,499.99, $1,999.99
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Only available in North America at the time of writing
Corsair PC Build Kit: SPECS
Here is the Corsair Novice PC Build Kit configuration sent to TechRadar for review: CPU: Intel Core i5-13400F Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 RAM: Asus B660-PLUS 16GB DDR4 Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.0 Chassis: Corsair 4000D Airflow Fans: 2x non-RGB fans PSU: Corsair CX550M
To make this hobby more accessible, Corsair is not launching one but three different potential builds. The most affordable, which is the one I put together, goes for $1,199.99 and includes a 13th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, 16GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, a 1TB M.2 SSD and the basic essentials for the rest of the build.
Moving to the $1,499.99 version means upgrading the GPU to an RTX 3070 as well as getting RGB-equipped liquid cooling and case. Finally, the most expensive build, which goes for $1,999.99, will upgrade that CPU to an Intel Core i9, the RAM to 32GB, and GPU to one of the latest from Nvidia, the GeForce RTX 4070.
As pricey as that may seem, other PC build kits are not necessarily going to give you a better price for the same level of components. For instance, picking the same or similar parts on PCPartPicker resulted in a slightly higher price tag.
Value: 4 / 5
(Image credit: Future / Michelle Rae Uy)
Corsair PC Build Kit: Packaging
Neatly packed
Not a lot of wasteful packaging materials in the main box
I personally appreciate products that come neatly packaged, and that’s how my Corsair PC Build Kit arrived. Every single component came in its own packaging – apart from the SSD card and the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card, which came in their own plastic bags for some reason (though this might just be for test units) – then piled neatly on top of each other next to the Corsair PC case that occupied half of the box.
Another thing I appreciated is the lack of packing peanuts or styrofoam in this main box. Though Corsair could have chosen to use those to really secure all the individual boxes, it went with packing pillows instead. Less packaging waste, less things to put away.
Packaging: 4.5 / 5
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Corsair PC Build Kit: Assembly
Unpack, organize and build
Video tutorial needs improving
Instructions missing some bits
One thing to know about Corsair’s PC Build Kits is that you’re not getting that PCPartPicker iBuyPower experience here of picking out every single internal component yourself (you can check out Corsair’s custom PC builder for that too). However, being a building PC newbie who also doesn't have the time to do proper research on things like compatibility, I appreciated the fact that because Corsair already picked out all the stuff for me, all I need to do is build the PC.
Not that that part doesn’t have its share of challenges either. I do feel that building a PC is easier for me as I already know the technical terms and basic foundations like how everything should be connected to the motherboard. I can imagine how getting started might be a bit of a head-scratcher for those who absolutely have zero knowledge of what’s inside a computer, however.
Before you do get started on building the PC, my biggest advice here is to give yourself a lot of space – space to lay out all the components so that you’ll easily find every single bit you need without needing to dig through piles, and space to do the building. That should ease any stress you might encounter during the process.
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Corsair also really does try to make things more palatable and less challenging for the uninitiated. You don’t need to deal with things like applying thermal paste (it’s pre-applied to the CPU), which is something that some folks find a little daunting. Corsair’s PC cases, which are obviously the PC cases it’s using for these pre-builds, also already come with fans – with Novice kit having the Corsair 4000D Airflow case and the second and third tiers coming with the RGB version – so that’s also less work for you.
For the rest, you just have to read through and follow the instructions. Just know that Corsair is using an older video tutorial, which seems to be geared towards folk who kind of already know the basics. It’s more of an overview rather than a step-by-step process, so I’m really hoping that Corsair will roll out a new one that’s much easier to follow if you know pretty much nil about PC building.
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Luckily, Corsair’s online instruction manual has instructions specific to each kit. And, while I didn’t take a look at the other two, I can tell you that the instructions for the Novice kit are mostly easy to follow, taking you through every step and even providing images, which prove very useful when you’re figuring out which ports you should be plugging those I/O cables into, for example. It takes you through most things from beginning to end, essentially from which panels of the PC case you should remove to prep it to setting up Windows 11 after your PC’s very first boot.
But fair warning; the instructions are not perfect. There were missing bits here, like where exactly to insert the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card on the motherboard. This wasn’t a big deal to me as I knew where it was supposed to go, but this is also something that a complete novice would definitely not know.
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The hair-pulling bit for me, trying to follow every single step in the instructions faithfully, is the missing bit about the I/O (input/output) plate. The instructions tell you how to install the motherboard, but it doesn’t remind you to make sure to secure the I/O plate first before you install the motherboard. I also forgot about the plate, having accidentally buried it in all that discarded packaging (this is why you have to almost be meticulously organized when building a PC).
So, what ended up happening was me completing all the steps only to find out that there was a very unattractive gaping hole in the back of the PC. And, trust me, there’s no way that plate was going in there after the motherboard had been secured with screws, which meant that, you guessed it, I had to unplug everything, unscrew the motherboard, put that pesky plate in place, then redo the whole thing again! The second time was a lot faster, since I already knew where everything went, but it was still a time drain.
I admit that I was very apprehensive at first about whether or not I did everything correctly, so much so that when I had everything ready, I literally grabbed a bucket of water and brought it to my desk because I was scared that my build was going to burst into flames and burn the house down. This is why I think that Corsair should roll out kit-specific video guides that really take you through everything.
But, everything worked perfectly the first time I turned the thing on and took me right through the Windows 11 setup, which says a lot about Corsair’s instruction manual.
Assembly: 4.5 / 5
(Image credit: Future / Michelle Rae Uy)
Corsair PC Build Kit: Performance
Novice kits delivers good performance at 1440p
Doesn’t get too loud or too hot
Don’t expect an Intel Core i5 13400F chip and an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card to take you very far in gaming, even if you’ve got a 16GB DDR4 memory backing it all up. This is exactly what you’re getting, however, if you go for the Novice kit – the same basic configuration that I received as my “test unit”. Corsair itself recommends this kit to those who are “interested in building their first gaming PC,” which means that it was never going to be kitted out with cutting-edge tech.
Still, Corsair has done a great job of putting these components together. I wouldn’t recommend this kit for 4K gaming, with the middle one being better-suited to meet such demanding gaming needs, but it performs admirably whenever I’m gaming on high or ultra settings at 1440p.
Playing Hogwarts Legacy on it is a favorable experience, even with ray tracing at low, as it delivers a smooth performance with no noticeable lags. I have seen the occasional minor stutter and noticed that the fans tend to get a little louder – though not too loud to be distracting. Same deal with Kena: Bridge of Spirits, which it handles beautifully, giving me smooth gameplay even when I’m battling the bosses.
Of course, setting everything on ultra, including ray tracing, then removing the frame rate cap is a slightly different deal. Both games start to fumble a little with stuttering and lags becoming more apparent and frequent. However, they’re still more than playable and would, in my opinion, satiate most folks out there, especially those who aren’t massive gamers.
Performance: 4 / 5
Should I buy the Corsair PC Build Kit?
(Image credit: Future / Michelle Rae Uy)
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Corsair PC Build Kit: Report card
First reviewed February 2023
How I tested the Corsair PC Build Kit
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.
Motorola's Edge 40 Pro is rumored to arrive in Western markets at some point in the near future as a rebranded version of the Moto X40, which launched in China back in December.
Today a Motorola Edge 40 Pro prototype seemingly ran Geekbench, which means it's been inducted into the benchmark's online hall of fame - or, more accurately, its database.
The Edge 40 Pro managed a 1,480 single-core score and a 4,889 multi-core score in Geekbench 5. The "rtwo' motherboard could apparently be "associated with" the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which is completely unsurprising if the...
For those watching the market for rugged phones closely, there is a crunch about to happen where the specifications of cheap phones seem destined to collide with those from the premium end ranges.
At this ground zero point are makers like Blackview, aiming to sell rugged designs for a minimum of $250, but also trying to take market share from those in the $300-350 bracket.
A case in point is the Blackview BV9200, a phone that, based purely on specifications, should cost more than the asking price.
However, to achieve this attractive price point, some compromises have been made, and it’s the purchasers’ choice if those are significant enough to warrant not buying one.
The boxes unreservedly ticker in the BV9200 are that it has a good Helio G96 processor, providing plenty of power, alongside a reasonable GPU, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.1-based storage.
The scale of this device allows for a large 6.58-inch IPS LCD panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and a natural resolution of 1080 x 2408 pixels, sufficient for unscaled 1080p playback.
This is also the first Blackview phone to have dual smart-PA BOX speakers designed by Harman AudioEFX for an enhanced auditor experience.
The first signs of cost saving appear in the cameras, as the best sensor is a Samsung ISOCELL JN1 50MP, and this is supported by an 8MP Macro lens with a 120-degree field of view and a 0.3MP sensor for depth of field control.
The cameras are far from useless, but this phone isn’t packing the 108MP sensors we’ve seen from Doogee and Ulefone.
Another limitation is the battery capacity, as 5000 mAh is on the low side for a rugged design. But conversely, this has the positive impact that at 310g this is one of the lightest waterproof designs we’ve seen so far.
More of an issue potentially is the installed OS, which is Android 12 but with the Doke-OS 3.1 interface sat over the vanilla Android core.
This version of Android seems stable, but Doke-OS preloads all manner of games and other junk that most users won’t want or care about. It is possible to remove this junk, but it’s disappointing that it was pre-installed in the first place. By not using the vanilla interface options, new Android releases are likely likely to be delayed by its integration, and Blackview doesn’t have the best history of passing all of these on to users.
The final point about this phone is that it is 4G, not 5G, and how important that is will be dependent on the region you live in and the mobile service you use.
Where can you get it? You can get it in most regions direct from AliExpress
Coming in black, green and orange, the BV9200 is best sourced from AliExpress, as it doesn’t seem to be generally available through Amazon or other big online retailers.
The pricing is relatively consistent based on exchange rates, with the three colours all costing around $250. AliExpress does offer two bundle options; phone with “Airbuds 6” and “Smartwatch R1”. These add about $25 if you want either of those extras.
The downside of AliExpress is that the phone will only ship within 30 days and could take another 30 to reach you. Hopefully, Blackview will make this design more readily available through Amazon and other faster channels.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Value score: 4/5
Blackview BV9200 design
Slim
Offset camera cluster
A charging monster
We’ve seen a new class of rugged phones emerge in the past year that delivers a robust package but in a distinctly thinner aspect.
While not as light as the svelte 290g Ulefone Armor 17 Pro, the 310g BV9200 is still much lighter than the majority of rugged designs and 150g less than Blackview’s own BV7100.
The reduced weight and thinner form make this an easier phone to handle and secure in a pocket, although, with a 6-58-inch screen, it is still a substantial device.
It’s a nice tactile experience, the sides and buttons are mostly metal, and the visible bolt heads on these are neatly recessed.
The layout used is a cookie-cutter form with the volume rocker and power/fingerprint reader on the right and the SIM tray and custom button on the left. As with most rugged phones that use it, this layout is biased towards right-handed users and not those who are left-handed.
The camera cluster is oddly set to the top left when viewed from behind, placing the main 50MP sensor centre approximately 24mm from the centreline of the phone body.
This position might need some adjustment for those taking pictures, but due to a gentle curve of the underside, the sensor cluster projection doesn’t stop the phone from lying flat.
That it can lay flat is essential, as it supports wireless charging using the Qi standard, but not the usual 15W, but the higher 33W level.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
For those wanting to charge even faster, the USB-C port is the weapon of choice, as this allows 66W mode using the PSU that Blackview includes with its phone.
This port is covered with a rubber plug that needs to be removed every time it is charged this way, and therefore the wireless charging option might be preferable.
We’d also like to comment that the rubber plug on the BV9200 is small, and the space it offers for USB charging cables is narrow. When we first took this phone from its box, we tried to attach it to a typical USB-C cable, and it wouldn’t fit. The assumption is that the connector approach is this narrow to avoid water or dust getting in, but being forced to find the narrower USB-C cable that came with it isn’t ideal.
To summarise the design of the BV9200, there isn’t any remarkable about it, but equally, no horrible mistakes. It might have been a little better, but it could also have been much worse.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Design score: 4/5
Blackview BV9200 features
High spec platform
Modest battery
No audio jack
Specs
The Blackview BV9200 that was sent to us for review came with the following hardware:
CPU: MediaTek Helio G96 Cores: Octa-core, Dual-core 2.05 GHz Cortex-A76, Hexa-core 2 GHz Cortex-A55 GPU: Mali-G57 MC2 RAM: 8GB LPDDR4X Storage: 256GB +MicroSD Screen: 6.58-inch IPS LCD 120Hz Resolution: 1080 x 2408 SIM: Dual Nano SIM (+microSDXC) Weight: 310g Dimensions: 174 x 82 x 13.6 mm Rugged Spec: IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810H Rear cameras: 50MP + 8MP + 0.3 MP Front camera: 16MP Networking: WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.2 Mobile Network: 2G/3G/4G OS: Android 12 (Doke-OS 3.1) Battery: 5000 mAh Colour Options: Black, Green, Orange
Chinese phone makers love MediaTek SoCs for commercial reasons, and Blackview uses them exclusively in its latest designs.
What is slightly odd is where many phone makers are going with the Helio G99 or even the Dimensity 900, but the BV9200 has the scaled-back Helio G96. This silicon has seen some use in the Doogee S99, POCO M4 Pro and Xiaomi Redmi Note 11S, to mention just a few.
Like the Helio G99, this is an eight-core design that has two Cortex-A76 performance cores alongside six Cortex-A55 efficiency cores and the same Mali-G57 MC2 GPU.
The only major computing platform difference is that the performance G99 can clock its Cortex-A76 parts up to 2.2GHz, whereas the G96 is capped at 2.05 GHz. The Cortex-A55 cores run at 2 GHZ on both chips.
While not the very fastest SoC that MediaTek makes, the G96 is powerful enough for most purposes.
Another strong point in the specification is the screen. This IPS panel offers strong colours, a good resolution and up to a 120Hz refresh along with 90Hz and 60Hz, and it is well protected from accidental damage with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
Where the BV9200 is less impressive is in the networking, cameras and battery specifications.
For example, the wireless networking on this phone is only WiFi 5, although it is Bluetooth 5.2, thankfully.
The camera selection is curious, as we’ve not seen another phone with this exact combination. While the primary 50MP camera and optics look decent, typically, we see them alongside 16MB supporting sensors. But here, the wide-angle option is just 8MP, and the depth of field sensor is 0.3MP, making it remarkably low res.
As we’ll cover in more detail below, these curious choices don’t impact the quality of the results, but they do seem to fly in the face of what other phone makers are doing.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
A rugged phone only having 5000 mAh of battery capacity does seem on the low side, especially for those wanting to take this device on a long hike away from mains power.
That said, it is possible to carry charging packs or solar collectors to extend its operation, and when you do encounter power, the BV9200 can charge up remarkably quickly.
One final feature note is that this phone has no 3.5mm audio jack, and Blackview didn’t include an adapter to use the USB for headphones. These are cheaply bought, but it is worth noting that an adapter will be required.
Despite a somewhat odd combination of sensors, the camera on the BV9200 performs admirably. The main sensor might be 50MP, but the maximum image size that is captured is 13MP in a 4:3 ratio, making the files significantly smaller. Having more sensor pixels than those on the output results is some crisp and colour-accurate results.
Our only complaint is that getting the best images requires good lighting, as the focus is poor in less-than-ideal lighting conditions. This issue is especially true of the night vision mode, something we’d avoid using.
But for daylight photography, it is possible to get some excellent captures that are generally free of optical aberrations and colour shifts. For those wanting the best results, we recommend Beauty mode and the HDR options since these make the best use of the ArcSoft True-Chroma software working behind the scenes to extract the best image fidelity.
The ultra-macro mode gets to within about 10mm of the subject, and the beauty mode has a depth control with ten levels of impact.
Probably one of the best features of the camera is that it will shoot video at a resolution above 1080p. It can record 2K or, more accurately, 1440p, aka 2560 x 1440 video.
The only downside of that functionality and video capture is that no controls are provided for frame rate. It’s 30fps at all resolutions, with no other choices.
The phone camera application does have H264 or HEVC encoding, balancing the options for the greatest compatibility with the most efficient encoding. And, image stabilisation is always available irrespective of capture resolution.
Overall, the camera on the BV9200 is better than anticipated, and unless you need night vision or some other special sensor modes, it does a reasonable job.
Camera samples
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Camera score: 3/5
Blackview BV9200 performance
All-round performer
Strong GPU
Power and efficiency
Benchmarks
This is how the Blackview BV9200 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
Overall, the performance of this phone is excellent, and the 120MHz mode of the display makes the interface seem even smoother than normal.
If we compare the G96 used in the BV9200 with a G99-powered phone, the difference is about 10% lower across most benchmarks, but in some tests, it is much, much closer.
The PCMark 3.0 test, as an example, scores 8727 on the BV9200 and 9176 on the Ulefone Armor 17 Pro, a difference of just 5%.
To get significantly better performance than this requires the Dimensity 900 powered phone, and those cost more than double the asking price of the BV9200.
The graphics performance of this SoC will work for most mobile games, even if it’s only about 60% of the power that the Mali-G68 MC4 used in the Dimensity 900 SoC can output.
Understanding the wide range of capabilities, game creators tend to create predefined quality settings for specific SoCs and screen resolutions, and the BV9200 has enough visual performance that this shouldn’t be an issue.
The only issues you might encounter are those related to the lack of Widevine L1 encryption, a standard that many of the branded streaming services use to deliver their content to TVs and mobile devices.
Blackview only offers an L3 security level on the BV9200, reducing the streamed quality of most services to 480p (640 x 480), irrespective of the screen size.
But in some services, such as watching some, but not all, streamed movies through Google TV, possibly due to a mistake when the OS was compiled, movies appear with a large black border around them, and no icon appears to rescale them to the full display.
The lack of Widevine L1 and inconsistent scaling issues make the BV9200 unsuitable for watching TV shows and movies on this phone, despite the screen being suitable for this purpose.
Performance score: 5/5
Blackview BV9200 battery
66W Fast charging
33W Qi charging
The SoC in the BV9200 is highly efficient and can make the most of the battery capacity, even if it is only 5,000 mAh. For a typical smartphone, that would be plenty of battery, but for a rugged design, it's on the light side of what is often provided.
That said, you should be able to get more than six hours of movie streaming on a single charge, and on standby, it should last 500 hours on standby and 37.5 hours calling.
But where the BV9200 has the advantage is when it charges. Because it has two charging options, and both of them get the phone ready to travel quickly.
For conventional USB-C charging, when empty, it can utilise the 66W charger Blackview include with the phone. That enables it to grab 20% of the power capacity in 5 minutes and be fully recharged in around 53 minutes.
Conversely, the 33W wireless charging option takes approximately twice as long, but it is still much faster than most wireless charging phones, as they usually only support 15W mode.
To be concise, the battery on this phone could be bigger, but making it this size makes the phone light and also enables it to charge quickly.
Battery score: 4/5
(Image credit: Blackview)
Like the Ulefone 17 Pro, the Blackview 9200 provides an excellent alternative to the brick-like rugged phones that are heavy and somewhat impractical.
The SoC is a good choice, with plenty of RAM and storage. The camera seems somewhat quirky but delivers good results, and given the hardware in this phone, it is competitively priced.
What is less wonderful is the Doke-OS version of Android and all the apps you never asked for, and that it is 4G in a world that is increasingly 5G.
For those wanting to go into the wilderness and not take an iPhone, the Blackview BV9200 is an affordable choice. With the exception of the battery capacity, it is built for that job.
Back in November of last year a leak talked about vivo launching the V27 and V27 Pro in India sometime this month. Today the V27 has allegedly showed up in the Geekbench online database, and thus is seemingly solidifying the credibility of that past information, since prototypes are usually tested closer to their official introductions.
The phone which ran Geekbench has the model number V2246, and it runs Android 13, unsurprisingly. Perhaps somewhat more surprising is the fact that it has 12GB of RAM, which is not something you see often on a mid-ranger. The chipset isn't listed, but due...
The Dell Latitude 9330 is a 2-in-1 remote working powerhouse designed for the work-from-anywhere individual due to its lightweight frame, focus on virtual meetings, and high-powered chipset. The Latitude 9330 is the smallest model Dell currently offers, though this is only small in footprint, as the power coming out of this device is truly impressive for its size.
Fingerprint Scanner (Image credit: Future)
First impressions
Left Side Ports (Image credit: Future)
Dell has designed this laptop to be ultra-portable while maintaining the power level needed for professional users. The Latitude 9330 is light and slim, with a sleek design, although it does feature minimal ports, which could be an issue for some users - although if you do need one of the missing connections (HDMI, USB-A, Ethernet, etc.), you could utilize an adapter or docking station at your desk.
Another thing that we noticed right off the bat is that the Latitude 9330 doesn’t look like a 2-in-1 device at first glance, instead resembling a standard slim laptop - but when we took it out in the real world, it performed impressively.
Right Side Ports (Image credit: Future)
Design and build quality
Specs
Weight: 2.8lb / 1.27kg Screen size: 13.3 inches Resolution: 2560 x 1600 Processor: 12th Gen Intel Core i7 RAM: 16GB Storage: 500GB Graphics: Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 Ports: 3x USB-C, audio jack Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
The Dell Latitude 9330 2-in-1 features a 13-inch display, but is remarkably light and minimal, despite housing up to a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and LPDDR5 memory.
The 2-in-1 design can be seen when the keyboard is folded all the way around behind the screen, turning it into a 13 inch tablet for those moments when you want to go hand-held.
The laptop's right side has one USB-C port and a headphone jack, with theleft side featuring two thunderbolt ports. The device is incredibly portable, weighing just under 1.3kg / 3lb, and is only ¾ inch thick when sitting on a table, closed. All around, this laptop screams portability by design and functionality.
In use
We took this laptop with us everywhere for our tests, including at an office, on transportation, the couch, the coffee shop, as well as just our home, and it performed well in all settings.
On the go, it's small and light enough to carry around easily, and functional enough to work effectively without having to find the "perfect" spot, whether that’s a kitchen table or countertop at a coffee shop - as unlike those who needed a large table, with a power supply, at the right height, we could be flexible.
It was much the same when working at home, where we could use this device on the couch comfortably without needing to contort around a bulky laptop. When we sat at a proper desk with an external monitor (or three) and peripherals, this laptop gave us the feel of a full-powered workstation with the power to tackle any of the tasks we threw at it.
The i7 processor has been able to handle a wide range of daily activities, with word processing tasks, email, spreadsheets, virtual meetings, project management, chat programs, music, and light photo editing all completed smoothly. Even while running on multiple screens, this laptop could handle what we were throwing at it without compromising. Granted, we did not use this to edit 4K footage or rework terabytes of audio files - but for a business professional who primarily works with the previously listed tasks, the Latitude 9330 is more than enough to get that taken care of with room to breathe.
The Latitude 9330 also features a significant focus towards virtual and remote work due to a suite of included features designed to make collaboration seamless.
While we usually spend most of our time in Google Meet, we tested a few meetings in Zoom thanks to the Collaboration Touchpad integration with Zoom (we reached out to Dell, and they confirmed this feature would expand to Microsoft Teams and other virtual meeting platforms soon).
This feature allows four soft buttons to show on the top of the trackpad that gave quick access to enable or disable the camera, mic, chat, and screen share. This functionality made it so we could confidently throw our mic on when speaking and then just as confidently mute afterward without an awkward delay (even if we were on a different screen during the meeting).
Similarly, we could turn our camera on quickly for a quick demonstration and then confidently know that we had turned it off thanks to the soft button and a camera shutter button integrated into the F9 key. Lastly, the quick button to respond to the ongoing chat in the company meeting and the switch to screen share in an instant proved very useful.
In addition to these features, the Latitude 9330 has intelligent neural noise cancelation, which makes any background noises in a virtual meeting disappear for those listening. The AI noise elimination tool means your coworkers will hear only you, not the lady ordering coffee at the counter next to you, your dog snoring, or your vacuum running.
The last area worth mentioning cover the enhanced security and privacy features included. The Latitude 9330 comes with ExpressSign-in and onlooker protection, meaning you can step away from your device, for example to grab something from the printer, and as you look away the screen, the laptop would dim and lock, protecting your information . When you return, the system awakes and signs you in (thanks to an integration with Windows Hello).
Elsewhere, one of the coolest added features to this laptop is the ability to detect onlookers to protect valuable or personal content. This tool alerted us a handful of times when we were in a public space to people peeking over our shoulders, texturizing the screen, essentially blurring the content until the onlooker turns away or we disabled the feature.
Integrated soft buttons in the trackpad (Image credit: Future)
Final verdict
The Latitude 9330 laptop has impressed us, with its snappy processor, flexible 2-in-1 design, integrated security and privacy features making it a useful workplace ally.
The device is clearly made for the remote worker, though it can be an excellent option for anyone looking for a flexible laptop solution to get the job done.
Looking for a desk for your work-from-home space? Check out our best standing desks
Das Steam Deck kam im Februar 2022 auf den Markt. Seit seiner Veröffentlichung hat Valve das Gaming-Handheld regelmäßig aktualisiert, um einige der Probleme zu beheben, die bei der ersten Nutzung des Systems auftraten.
Für das Steam Deck sind drei verschiedene Speichertypen erhältlich: 64 GB, 256 GB und 512 GB. Das 64GB Steam Deck hat eine eMMC-Speicherkarte und die 256GB und 512GB Steam Decks sind mit einer NVMe-SSD ausgestattet, aber alle drei werden mit einer Tragetasche für den einfachen und sicheren Transport geliefert. Je höher deine Speicherkapazität ist, desto mehr "Extras" bekommst du auf oder mit dem Steam Deck.
Vorbestellen konnte man das Handheld bereits im Juli 2021 und die meisten mussten sich bis zum Oktober 2022 gedulden, bis die ersten Steam Decks ausgeliefert wurden. Als das Steam Deck zum ersten Mal auf den Markt kam, wurde vor allem die Akkulaufzeit bemängelt – oder vielmehr das Fehlen einer solchen. Valve hat das Steam Deck durch Software-Updates verbessert, die nicht nur Patches waren, sondern auch die Benutzerfreundlichkeit, die Zugänglichkeit und die Spielbarkeit von PC-Spielen auf dem Handheld verbessert haben.
Steam Deck: Updates
Die Steam Deck-Updates von Valve umfassten alles von Fehlerbehebungen über Controller-Konfigurations-Updates bis hin zu neuen Optionen für die Anzeige der Framerate. Die Updates wurden im März und April kontinuierlich veröffentlicht, um das Steam Deck-Erlebnis der Spieler noch angenehmer zu machen. Das jüngste Update ermöglicht es den Nutzern nun, Windows 11 zu installieren und ihren eigenen Sperrbildschirm und Pin-Passcode zu erstellen, wenn sie dies wünschen.
Es gab mehrere Updates für die Steam Deck-Tastatur, so dass nun 21 verschiedene Sprachen und verschiedene Layouts neben der englischen QWERTY-Standardtastatur verfügbar sind. Valve arbeitet auch an anderen Tastaturlayouts, darunter Koreanisch, Japanisch und Chinesisch. Nutzer können jetzt zwischen Fenstern in derselben Anwendung wechseln, z. B. zwischen Tabs im Webbrowser.
Ein Problem, das noch nicht ganz gelöst ist, ist das heulende Geräusch des Lüfters des Steam Decks, das hoch und nervig sein kann, auch wenn es nicht besonders laut ist. Es heißt jedoch, dass das neueste Steam Deck-Update versucht hat, das Heulen des Lüfters zu korrigieren, indem es die Tonhöhe des Lüfters verringert und ihn fast geräuschlos laufen lässt. Der einzige Nachteil des Lüfter-Updates ist die leicht erhöhte Temperatur der Steam Deck CPU.
Die kontinuierlichen Updates des Steam Decks zeigen, dass es sich um ein Handheld-System handelt, das sich in seinen ohnehin schon beeindruckenden Kritiken stetig verbessert. Als wir das Steam Deck im Februar 2022 zum ersten Mal getestet haben, hat es uns trotz einiger Mängel sehr gut gefallen und die jüngsten Updates zeigen das Potenzial des Steam Decks. Schau dir unseren Originalbericht unten an, um herauszufinden, ob das Steam Deck für dich geeignet ist.
Steam Deck: 2-Minuten-Rezension
Spezifikationen
(Image credit: Valve)
CPU: AMD Zen 2 Vierkernprozessor 2,4-3,5GHz Grafik: AMD RDNA 2 RAM: 16GB LPDDR5 Bildschirm: 7-Zoll-Touchscreen, 1.280 x 800, 60Hz Speicher: 64GB (eMMC), 256GB, 512GB (NVMe-SSD) Anschlüsse: USB-C, 3,5-mm-Kopfhöreranschluss, microSD Konnektivität: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5 Gewicht: 667g Abmessungen: 29,8cm x 11,7cm x 4,9cm (B x T x H)
Das Steam Deck ist eine der am sehnlichsten erwarteten Produkteinführungen der letzten Zeit, denn Valve versucht sich an einer Handheld-Konsole. Das ist sicherlich ein ehrgeiziges Vorhaben, das Valve aber größtenteils gelungen ist. Auch wenn du vielleicht denkst, dass das Steam Deck mit der Nintendo Switch konkurriert, ist es in Wirklichkeit eher eine Alternative zu Gaming-Laptops.
Das heißt, wenn du ein PC-Spieler mit einer großen Steam-Bibliothek bist und dich an die Macken und Ärgernisse gewöhnt hast, die mit dem Spielen von PC-Spielen einhergehen, dann wirst du das Steam Deck wahrscheinlich lieben und über seine Ecken und Kanten hinwegsehen. Wenn du jedoch ein Konsolenspieler bist, der an ausgefeiltere Produkte gewöhnt ist, die alles so einfach und unkompliziert wie möglich halten, wirst du vielleicht enttäuscht sein.
Einige der Ecken und Kanten des Steam Decks sind jedoch Teil seines Charmes und in einigen Fällen auf die Flexibilität des Geräts zurückzuführen, die traditionelle Konsolen einfach nicht bieten können. Du kannst so ziemlich jeden USB-C-Hub anschließen, einen Monitor oder Fernseher anschließen und Spiele auf dem großen Bildschirm spielen. Du kannst das Steam Deck auch im Desktop-Modus verwenden, um eine Vielzahl von Linux-Apps zu installieren und das Steam Deck in einen vollwertigen Mini-PC zu verwandeln. Du kannst sogar andere Betriebssysteme installieren, wie z. B. Windows 11.
(Image credit: Future)
Mit dieser Vielseitigkeit hebt sich das Steam Deck von seinen traditionellen Konkurrenten ab, und während Leute, die ein Nintendo Switch-ähnliches Erlebnis suchen, vielleicht nicht begeistert sind, ist das Steam Deck für PC-Spieler, die über einen Gaming-Laptop nachdenken, ein brillantes Gerät mit einem riesigen Potenzial, vor allem für Leute, die gerne experimentieren.
Die Spieleunterstützung ist eine dieser rauen Kanten. Wenn du ein Nintendo Switch-Spiel kaufst, kannst du davon ausgehen, dass es auch auf deiner Nintendo Switch funktioniert. Wenn du jedoch ein Spiel auf Steam kaufst, bedeutet das nicht unbedingt, dass es auch auf dem Steam Deck läuft. Das liegt vor allem daran, dass das Steam Deck unter Linux läuft – genauer gesagt unter Steam OS 3.0 – während viele Steam-Spiele nur unter Windows laufen. Valve hat an einer cleveren Lösung namens Proton gearbeitet, mit der du Spiele auf Linux spielen kannst, aber sie ist nicht perfekt. Und einige Spiele – vor allem solche, die Anti-Cheat-Software verwenden – laufen nicht.
Valve hat eine einfache Methode, um festzustellen, welche Spiele auf dem Steam Deck laufen können. Spiele mit einem grünen Häkchen in der Steam Library UI bedeuten, dass sie für das Steam Deck verifiziert sind und ohne Probleme laufen. Die Standard-Grafikeinstellungen und Steuerungsoptionen funktionieren einwandfrei, und alle Menüs und Texte sind lesbar.
Es gibt auch Spiele, die ein gelbes Häkchen haben. Diese Spiele sind "spielbar", aber nicht vollständig getestet, und es kann Probleme geben, sie zum Laufen zu bringen. Im Moment fällt wahrscheinlich der größte Teil deiner Steam-Bibliothek in diese Kategorie.
Dann gibt es noch die Kategorie "Unbekannt", bei der es nicht genug Informationen gibt, um zu wissen, wie gut ein Spiel funktioniert. Es gibt auch eine Kategorie "Nicht unterstützt", die bedeutet, dass Spiele definitiv nicht laufen werden. Diese Kategorie ist im Moment zum Glück relativ klein und betrifft hauptsächlich Spiele, für die du bestimmte Hardware benötigst, die vom Steam Deck nicht unterstützt wird, wie z. B. Virtual Reality-Titel. Auf der Steam Deck Compatibility Website von Valve kannst du überprüfen, wie viel von deiner Bibliothek auf dem Steam Deck spielbar ist.
Das lohnt sich, denn eines der wichtigsten Verkaufsargumente für PC-Spieler ist, dass deine Steam-Bibliothek auf dem Steam Deck gespielt werden kann, ohne dass du deine Spiele neu kaufen musst. Wenn du bereits eine große Bibliothek an Steam-Spielen hast, ist der Startpreis von 419 Euro viel günstiger.
Wir sagen "Einstiegspreis", da es sich um das Einsteigermodell mit 64 GB eMMC-Speicher und einer Tragetasche handelt. Wir empfehlen dir jedoch, in das 256-GB-SSD-Modell für 549 Euro zu investieren, das viel mehr Speicherplatz bietet und zudem schneller ist. Es gibt auch ein Modell mit 512 GB SSD für 679 Euro, das ebenfalls mit entspiegeltem Glas ausgestattet ist. Alle Modelle verfügen über einen microSD-Kartenslot zur Speichererweiterung, was eine gute Option ist, aber mit langsameren Ladezeiten für Spiele einhergeht.
(Image credit: Future)
Das Steam Deck ist solide gebaut. Obwohl es groß ist, ist es nicht unbequem, auch wenn du mit kleineren Händen Probleme haben könntest. Das Erstaunlichste am Steam Deck ist jedoch die schiere Menge an Spielerlebnissen, die es bietet. Es bewältigt das visuell beeindruckende God of War ohne Probleme und ist ein großartiges Schaufenster für Indie-Spiele. Letzteres ist der Grund, warum das Steam Deck wirklich beeindruckt: Spiele, die in kurzen Intervallen gespielt werden sollen, und stilvolle Grafiken, die die Hardware des Steam Decks nicht überfordern.
Die Suspend-Funktion, mit der du Spiele schnell wieder aufnehmen kannst, wenn du sie spielen willst, ist sehr willkommen. Weniger erfreulich ist die Tatsache, dass die Akkulaufzeit des Steam Decks ziemlich schlecht ist: Beim Spielen von God of War hält es gerade einmal eineinhalb Stunden durch. Bei weniger intensiven Spielen kannst du mit etwa vier Stunden rechnen.
(Image credit: Future)
Steam Deck: Preis & Verfügbarkeit
Das Steam Deck gibt es in drei Versionen: eine Basisversion für 419 Euro, die mit 64 GB eMMC-Speicher und einer Tragetasche geliefert wird. Die Mittelklasse-Variante kostet 549 Euro und enthält eine 256 GB große NVMe-SSD für schnelleren Speicher, eine Tragetasche und ein exklusives Steam-Community-Profil-Bundle. Dies ist die Version, die wir zum Test hatten. Die höchste Stufe schließlich kostet 679 Euro und umfasst 512 GB internen NVMe-SSD-Speicher, hochwertiges entspiegeltes Schutzglas, eine exklusive Tragetasche, ein exklusives Steam Community-Profilpaket und ein exklusives virtuelles Tastaturdesign.
Ursprünglich sollte das Steam Deck im Dezember 2021 auf den Markt kommen, aber Valve gab bekannt, dass es sich auf den 25. Februar 2022 verschiebt. Auch konnte man sich das Steam Deck lediglich reservieren. Die erste Auslieferung der Handhelds erfolgte schließlich im Oktober 2022. Inzwischen kannst du es ganz einfach über die Steam-Webseite bestellen.
(Image credit: Future)
Steam Deck: Design
Das Steam Deck ist zwar eine Handheld-Konsole, aber auch eine der größten, die wir je benutzt haben. Es ist deutlich größer und schwerer als die Nintendo Switch. Im Vorfeld der Veröffentlichung behauptete Valve, dass es viel Zeit darauf verwendet hat, das Steam Deck so zu gestalten, dass es bequeme und lange Spielsitzungen ermöglicht.
Die Größe ist sicherlich gewöhnungsbedürftig, vor allem, wenn du an kleinere Handhelds oder traditionelle Gamepads gewöhnt bist. Rasante Spiele wie Hades können sich etwas unbequem anfühlen. Aber je länger wir mit dem Steam Deck spielen, desto bequemer wird es. Auf der Vorderseite des Steam Decks befinden sich auf jeder Seite des Bildschirms zwei Sticks mit eingebauten kapazitiven Touchsensoren, die laut Valve "ein Maß an Präzision und Komfort bieten, das es bei anderen tragbaren Spielgeräten nicht gibt".
Sie fühlen sich auf jeden Fall robust, reaktionsschnell und präzise an und sind die Steuerungsmethode, die wir am häufigsten verwenden. Unterhalb der Sticks befinden sich zwei quadratische Trackpads, die bei Spielen, die sie benötigen, die Maussteuerung ermöglichen. Sie ähneln dem Trackpad des Steam Controllers und bieten subtile haptische Vibrationen, was eine nette Idee ist. Wir benutzen sie jedoch nur selten.
(Image credit: Future)
Etwas oberhalb des linken Sticks befindet sich ein D-Pad, das für 2D- und Retro-Spiele sehr praktisch ist, und in der gleichen Position über der rechten Hand befinden sich vier Tasten: A, B, X und Y, die in der gleichen Position angeordnet sind wie auf einem Xbox-Controller. Außerdem gibt es eine Ansichtstaste, eine Menütaste, eine Steam-Taste und eine Schnellzugriffstaste. Das wirkt manchmal etwas übertrieben, denn es ist nicht immer klar, was die Tasten in bestimmten Situationen bewirken, und manchmal haben sie eine Doppelfunktion.
Aber wenn du Knöpfe magst, wirst du das Steam Deck lieben! Auf der Oberseite des Steam Decks befinden sich zwei Lautstärketasten, eine Einschalttaste, zwei Schultertasten (L1 und R1) und zwei Auslöser (L2 und R2). Außerdem gibt es einen Kopfhöreranschluss, einen USB-C-Anschluss zum Aufladen und Anschließen eines USB-Hubs sowie eine Status-LED.
Immer noch nicht genug Tasten für dich? Die gute Nachricht ist, dass es auf der Rückseite vier weitere gibt. Das gibt dem Steam Deck zwar eine gewisse Vielseitigkeit, vor allem bei PC-Spielen, die Hotkeys erfordern, die normalerweise auf einer Tastatur zu finden sind, aber wir benutzen sie in unseren Spielen eigentlich nie. Zwar ist es besser, mehr Tasten als nötig zu haben, als nicht genug, aber diese zusätzlichen Tasten sind manchmal im Weg, da du sie versehentlich drücken kannst. Beispielsweise, wenn du das Steam Deck hältst oder in die Hand nimmst, was unerwünschte Folgen beim Spielen haben kann.
(Image credit: Future)
An der Vorderseite des Steam Decks befinden sich außerdem Stereolautsprecher und zwei Mikrofone, mit denen du auch ohne Headset deutlich mit deinen Mitspielern sprechen kannst. Das Steam Deck hat ein 7-Zoll-Display mit 1.280 x 800 Pixeln und einem Seitenverhältnis von 16:10. Es hat auch einen Touchscreen, was eine weitere nette optionale Eingabemethode darstellt. Wir benutzen es zwar nicht in Spielen, aber es ist praktisch, um in Menüs schnell Optionen auszuwählen.
Der Bildschirm ist größer als das 6,2-Zoll-Display der Nintendo Switch und hat die gleiche Größe wie der OLED-Bildschirm der Switch. Beide Switch-Modelle haben eine Auflösung von 1280 x 720, das Steam Deck hat also eine etwas höhere vertikale Auflösung. Während viele Spiele verschiedene Seitenverhältnisse unterstützen, bleiben einige bei 16:9, was bedeutet, dass oben und unten auf dem Bildschirm des Steam Decks schwarze Balken zu sehen sind, sodass du nicht von der zusätzlichen Auflösung profitierst.
(Image credit: Future)
Zum Glück kommen die meisten modernen PC-Spiele mit einer Vielzahl von Auflösungen und Seitenverhältnissen zurecht, sodass sie perfekt auf den Bildschirm passen. Auch die Auflösung ist sehr sinnvoll. Auf einem 7-Zoll-Bildschirm sieht es scharf und lebendig aus (allerdings nicht so gut wie auf dem OLED-Display der aktuellen Switch), und die relativ niedrige Auflösung bedeutet, dass die Spiele die Hardware des Steam Decks nicht zu sehr beanspruchen, was zu einer besseren Leistung und Akkulaufzeit führen kann.
Im Gegensatz zu den meisten anderen Handheld-Konsolen ist das Steam Deck mit Lüftern ausgestattet, die die Wärme an der Oberseite der Konsole ableiten. Wenn das Steam Deck anfängt, hart zu arbeiten, surrt es auf. Es ist nicht das lauteste, aber es ist spürbar, und während PC-Spieler das vielleicht nicht stört, könnten Fans von leisen Handhelds etwas abgeschreckt sein.
(Image credit: Future)
Steam Deck: Leistung
Die Leistung des Steam Decks ist eine gemischte Angelegenheit, die uns manchmal ernsthaft beeindruckt und manchmal frustriert. Ein Großteil der Frustrationen ist auf die frühe Version von Steam OS zurückzuführen, für die Valve fast täglich Updates und Korrekturen herausgibt.
Viele Spieleentwickler arbeiten auch daran, ihre Spiele als Steam Deck zu verifizieren. Diese Spiele, die in deiner Bibliothek mit einem grünen Häkchen angezeigt werden, wurden ausgiebig auf dem Steam Deck getestet und bieten ein flüssiges Gameplay sowie Interface-Optionen, die auf dem Bildschirm des Steam Decks gut lesbar sind. Wenn du eines dieser Spiele lädst, kannst du sicher sein, dass es auf dem Steam Deck gut läuft, ohne dass du an den Einstellungen herumfummeln musst.
Die Zahl der für das Steam Deck geprüften Spiele wächst ständig und umfasst große Veröffentlichungen wie God of War, aber auch Klassiker wie Portal 2. Als wir anfingen, das Steam Deck zu testen, war Hades – ein brillantes Rogue-Lite, von dem wir dachten, dass es sich perfekt für das Steam Deck eignen würde – nicht Steam Deck Verified. Nach ein paar Tagen veröffentlichten die Entwickler jedoch ein Update, mit dem es verifiziert wurde. Aber auch im nicht verifizierten Zustand spielte es sich sehr gut.
(Image credit: Future)
Diese Erfahrung kannst du bei vielen Spielen machen, die als "spielbar" gekennzeichnet sind. Das bedeutet, dass sie noch nicht verifiziert wurden, aber trotzdem auf dem Steam Deck laufen sollten. Es gibt einige Spiele, die als "spielbar" gekennzeichnet sind und genauso gut laufen wie verifizierte Spiele. Es gibt aber auch Spiele wie Monkey Island 2, die ärgerliche Bugs haben. Im Fall des Point-and-Click-Klassikers von LucasArts können wir das Spiel nicht über das Hauptmenü hinaus laden.
Außerdem gibt es einige Spiele, die als "nicht unterstützt" gekennzeichnet sind. Aufgrund der schieren Größe der Steam-Bibliothek wird es wahrscheinlich viele Spiele geben, die unter diese Kategorie fallen, vor allem obskure Titel. Das bedeutet nicht, dass die Spiele nicht funktionieren, aber es kann sein, dass sie Bugs haben, die Benutzeroberfläche nicht funktioniert oder der Text nicht ganz richtig aussieht.
Zum Glück gibt es im Steam-Deck viele Optionen, mit denen du das Spiel so einstellen kannst, dass es besser läuft. Manche Spiele laufen besser, wenn du sie im Vollbildmodus statt im Fenster spielst und die Auflösung anpasst. Es gibt auch zahlreiche vorgefertigte Controller-Optionen, die dir helfen, das beste Steuerungsschema für ein Spiel zu finden, vor allem für ein Spiel, das nicht für die Verwendung von Controllern entwickelt wurde.
Diese Art der Anpassung ist ein fester Bestandteil des PC-Spiels, so dass es PC-Spieler vielleicht gar nicht stört. Für Konsolenspieler, die ein ausgefeilteres Spielerlebnis gewöhnt sind, könnte dies jedoch abschreckend wirken. Die gute Nachricht ist, dass wir im Allgemeinen keine Probleme haben, Spiele zu spielen, die mit dem Steam Deck verifiziert wurden. Wenn du nicht gerne an den Optionen herumspielst, solltest du dich an diese halten.
(Image credit: Future)
Schon jetzt ist der Umfang der verifizierten Spiele auf dem Steam Deck beeindruckend und es ist ein echter Nervenkitzel, ein grafisch intensives Spiel wie God of War auf einem Handheld zu spielen. Dann zu fesselnden Indie-Spielen wie Hades und Hotline Miami zu wechseln (die perfekt für das Steam Deck geeignet sind), ist eine Freude und bedeutet, dass das Potenzial des Steam Decks extrem spannend ist.
Wir haben God of War von "Ultra" auf "Hoch" heruntergeschaltet, um eine konstantere Leistung zu erzielen. Auf dem 7-Zoll-Bildschirm sieht es phänomenal aus, es sinkt nie unter 30FPS und bleibt meist bei 40FPS.Obwohl es beeindruckend ist, ist es eindeutig kein Spiel, das für Handhelds gedacht ist. Auch einige Ego-Shooter fühlten sich umständlich an, aber das mag daran liegen, dass wir für diese Art von Spielen Tastatur und Maus bevorzugen.
Aber schnelle und rasante Spiele, die du für kurze Zeit in die Hand nehmen und spielen kannst (wie die bereits erwähnten Hades und Hotline Miami), funktionieren wirklich gut. Wenn du die Power-Taste drückst, geht das Steam Deck in den Suspend-Modus. Wenn du erneut auf den Einschaltknopf drückst, schaltet sich das Steam Deck nach ein paar Sekunden wieder ein und du bist sofort wieder da, wo du warst.
Das ist eine tolle Funktion, die das Steam Deck noch attraktiver macht. Die schnelle Wiederaufnahme ist etwas, an das Konsolenspieler gewöhnt sind, aber nicht auf dem PC. Ein Spiel, das auf dem Steam Deck eine besonders angenehme Überraschung war, ist Portal 2. Valves kultiger FPS-Puzzler wurde hier zu neuem Leben erweckt. Wir haben zwar schon erwähnt, dass einige FPS-Spiele nicht so recht auf das Steam Deck passen, aber Portal 2 funktioniert hervorragend. Das liegt zum Teil daran, dass es ein langsameres Spiel ist, bei dem das Lösen von Problemen wichtiger ist als schnelle Reflexe, aber auch daran, dass das Spiel im Wesentlichen aus kurzen, separaten Rätseln besteht, was es ideal macht, um es zum Beispiel unterwegs zu spielen. Obwohl es ein älteres Spiel ist, sieht es immer noch fantastisch aus, und es ist eine wahre Freude, nach so langer Zeit zu diesem Spiel zurückzukehren. Da es sich um einen Titel von Valve handelt, ist es nicht verwunderlich, dass das Spiel Steam Deck Verified ist.
(Image credit: Future)
Die Leistung ist jedoch nicht perfekt, und selbst bei weniger grafikintensiven Spielen kann es gelegentlich zu Stottern kommen. Aber im Großen und Ganzen ist die Leistung gut und wir haben das Gefühl, dass diese kleinen Probleme mit der Aktualisierung von Steam OS, Proton (dem Tool, mit dem Windows-Spiele unter Linux laufen) und den Spielen selbst behoben werden.
Valve hat das Steam Deck nicht umsonst als Handheld-PC angepriesen. Du kannst vom Big Picture-Modus (der Standardeinstellung) zur Desktop-Ansicht von SteamOS 3 wechseln und von hier aus andere Anwendungen installieren und nutzen. Diese können entweder über einen Webbrowser oder über das Discover Software Center installiert werden.
So kannst du das Steam Deck wie einen vollwertigen PC nutzen. Dank einer engagierten Community von Open-Source-Entwicklern gibt es eine riesige Auswahl an Anwendungen, die du unter SteamOS nutzen kannst. Du kannst das Steam Deck auch an einen USB-Hub anschließen und eine Maus, eine Tastatur und einen Monitor damit verbinden, so dass es als Mini-Desktop-PC verwendet werden kann. Das ist beeindruckend und es ist toll, dass Valve sich für Offenheit und Flexibilität einsetzt, denn du kannst so ziemlich jeden USB-C-Hub verwenden, anstatt teures proprietäres Zubehör.
Anders als bei der Nintendo Switch bringt das Andocken des Steam Decks jedoch keine Leistungsverbesserungen mit sich, und wenn du einen hochauflösenden Bildschirm, wie z. B. einen 4K-Fernseher, verwendest, werden die Hardwarebeschränkungen des Steam Decks deutlicher. Trotzdem kannst du mit Tastatur und Maus Spiele auf dem großen Bildschirm spielen, und auch hier sind die Ergebnisse sehr gut.
Linux, insbesondere eine Arch-basierte Distribution, ist jedoch nicht das benutzerfreundlichste Betriebssystem für Anfänger. Wenn du also nicht damit vertraut bist, solltest du das Steam Deck im Steam Big Picture-Modus betreiben. Im Desktop-Modus bleibt alles, was du tust, getrennt. Das bedeutet, dass größere Updates von Steam OS deine Arbeit nicht zerstören sollten. Allerdings besteht beim Herumspielen in Linux immer die Gefahr, dass du etwas kaputt machst und einen Neustart brauchst.
Du kannst auch Windows 11 auf dem Steam Deck installieren. Dadurch hast du eine größere Auswahl an Spielen, da du auch Spiele von Entwicklern wie Ubisoft und Activision Blizzard installieren kannst, die nicht auf Steam veröffentlicht werden und die es nur für Windows gibt. Zum Zeitpunkt dieses Tests war die Unterstützung von Windows 11 mit einigen Treiberproblemen etwas problematisch, aber auch das wird sich dank kontinuierlicher Updates wahrscheinlich mit der Zeit verbessern.
Selbst bei unserem 256-GB-Modell mit Solid State Drive waren die Ladezeiten für Spiele ziemlich lang. Wenn du von einem Gaming-PC mit einer superschnellen SSD (oder einer Konsole wie der PS5) kommst, werden die Ladezeiten zu einer spürbaren Belastung. Noch schlimmer ist es, wenn du eine microSD-Karte verwendest, da die Geschwindigkeit auf UHS-I begrenzt ist, was etwa 104 MB/s entspricht. Das ist viel langsamer als jede SSD und kann bei großen Spielen zu längeren Ladezeiten führen.
Auf der SSD brauchte Portal 2 – ein mittlerweile ziemlich altes Spiel – 51 Sekunden, um das Menü zu laden, und weitere 23 Sekunden, um unseren Spielstand zu laden. Das sind insgesamt 1 Minute und 14 Sekunden vom Starten des Spiels bis zum Spielen. Das scheint zwar nicht viel zu sein, wenn man es aufschreibt, aber es fühlt sich so an, wenn du das Steam-Deck benutzt und darauf wartest, dass ein Spiel geladen wird.
Bei älteren Titeln oder Indie-Spielen ist die Ladezeit weniger ein Problem. Das Steam Deck hat auch eine nette Abhilfe in Form der bereits erwähnten Suspend-Option. Wenn du das Steam Deck aufweckst, wird das Spiel, das du gerade spielst, innerhalb weniger Sekunden geladen, ohne dass dein Fortschritt verloren geht.
Das macht es besonders für PC-Spieler interessant, die normalerweise ihren PC einschalten, auf den Start von Windows warten und dann ein Spiel laden müssen. Abgesehen von diesem ersten Ladevorgang oder dem erneuten Laden eines Spielstands, wenn das Spiel stirbt, bedeutet die "Suspend"-Funktion, dass die Ladezeiten kein Problem darstellen. Auch der Akku wird nicht übermäßig beansprucht – er hat im Suspend-Modus 16 Stunden lang 8 % verloren, während wir ihn benutzt haben.
Valve hat während unserer Zeit mit dem Steam Deck auch eine Funktion hinzugefügt, mit der mehrere Apps gleichzeitig ausgeführt werden können. Das kann praktisch sein, um Musik-Apps abzuspielen und gleichzeitig Spiele zu spielen, aber es bedeutet auch, dass du zwei Spiele gleichzeitig laufen lassen und zwischen ihnen wechseln kannst, ohne dass sie geladen werden.
Das belastet das Steam Deck natürlich stärker, vor allem den Arbeitsspeicher und den Akku, und es gibt sogar eine Warnmeldung, wenn du versuchst, ein zweites Spiel zu starten, in der erklärt wird, dass dies die Leistung beeinträchtigen könnte, aber wir hoffen, dass mit der Weiterentwicklung der Software für das Steam Deck zwei gleichzeitig geöffnete Spiele weniger ressourcenintensiv sein werden.
Die Spiele auf dem 7-Zoll-Bildschirm sehen gut aus, vor allem 2D-Spiele. Während das spiegelnde Display der 512-GB-Topversion sicherlich sehr schön ist, fanden wir das Standard-Display völlig in Ordnung. Die Audioqualität aus den beiden Lautsprechern war jedoch eine angenehme Überraschung, mit einer ordentlichen Portion Druck und Stereotrennung. Selbstverständlich kannst du auch Kopfhörer (entweder über die Audiobuchse oder Bluetooth) als Audioausgang verwenden.
Die Gesamtleistung des Steam Decks hat uns beeindruckt, da es sowohl mit grafisch beeindruckenden AAA-Titeln als auch mit Indie-Spielen gut zurechtkommt. Aufgrund des Formfaktors und der gesamten Hardware fanden wir, dass das Steam Deck besonders gut für Indie-Spiele geeignet ist, die du einfach in die Hand nehmen und spielen kannst, und nicht für cineastische Spiele oder Titel mit übermäßig komplexer Steuerung.
(Image credit: Future)
Steam Deck: Akkulaufzeit
Während unserer Zeit mit dem Steam Deck war die Akkulaufzeit leider ein Problem. Beim Spielen von God of War hält das Steam Deck nur anderthalb Stunden durch und liegt damit unter dem von Valve angegebenen Minimum von zwei Stunden. Offensichtlich handelt es sich um ein besonders intensives Spiel, aber das bedeutet, dass es nicht möglich ist, über einen längeren Zeitraum zu spielen, ohne das Steam Deck aufzuladen.
Das wird viele Leute verärgern, die das Steam Deck z. B. für lange Flüge nutzen wollten. Es gibt zwar Möglichkeiten, das Steam Deck zu verlängern, z. B. indem du die Einstellungen herunterdrehst oder ein Akkupack verwendest, und da es über USB-C aufgeladen wird, sollte es einfach sein, es bei Bedarf ein wenig aufzuladen, aber dadurch fühlt sich dieses portable Spielsystem sicherlich weniger... nun ja, portabel an.
PC-Spieler, die sich seit Jahren mit der schlechten Akkulaufzeit von Gaming-Laptops abfinden müssen, werden an dieser Stelle weise nicken. Denn wenn du ein kleines, aber leistungsstarkes Gerät brauchst, um moderne Spiele zu spielen, wird die Akkulaufzeit darunter leiden. Für Konsolenspieler, die an längere Akkulaufzeiten bei ihren Handhelds gewöhnt sind, werden anderthalb Stunden allerdings ein herber Schlag sein.
Die gute Nachricht ist, dass die Akkulaufzeit bei weniger intensiven Spielen viel besser ist und wir mit 2D-Spielen über mehrere Spielsitzungen hinweg stundenlang Spaß haben können.Wenn du deine Erwartungen nicht zu hoch schraubst, ist die Akkulaufzeit des Steam Decks keine Katastrophe, aber wenn du stundenlang AAA-Spiele spielen willst, wirst du ein Ladegerät brauchen.
Each time Doogee comes out with a new flagship design, it moves the bar for numerous companies in the rugged phone sector.
The new V30 takes features exclusive to premium branded phones only months ago and delivers them in an affordable package for those that work outdoors or yearn to adventure.
Ticking the rugged phone boxes, this is an IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810H compliant design that can handle dust and water, including full submersion for limited periods and shallow depths.
But the parts of this phone that will interest the discerning customer are all inside. Specifically, the Dimensity 900 SoC, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and 108MP camera.
These make the V30 a potent and capable phone that can connect using 5G when available and capture the world around it in astounding detail.
On the rear are a 108MP Samsung S5KHM2SP03 main camera (F1.79, 90-degree FOV, PDAF) a 20MP Sony IMX350 night vision camera (F1.8, 70-degree FOV) and a 16MP wide-angle & macro camera (F2.2, 130-degree FOV).
For selfie-takers, the front has a 32MP IMX616-AAJH5-C front camera (F2.0, 90-degree FOV).
Like we’ve seen before with this sensor, the taking of 108MP images negates some of the special features like HDR and Bokeh, but you can get those things in a 12MP mode.
However, other phones don’t offer 4K video capture, and the V30 does, along with lower resolutions.
Viewing those pictures or streamed content is easy on its 6.58-inch IPS 120Hz display with a natural resolution of 2408 x 1080, similar to one of that we’ve seen before on the Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro.
With a battery capacity of 10800mAh, the V30 should operate for more than three days of normal use without needing a recharge. And, using the included 66W charger, it can recover 50% of its battery capacity from empty in around 30 minutes.
These features and its 5G functionality make the V30 an exceptionally good choice for anything travelling abroad, capturing images and video and then securing them over cellular or WiFi connections.
It might not be the cheapest rugged phone design, but the amount of technology that Doogee shoehorned into it makes it easily worth the asking price.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Doogee V30 price and availability
How much does it cost? $449.99 / £407.99/ $AU 779
When is it out? It is available now
Where can you get it? You can get it in most regions direct from AliExpress or on Amazon.com
The Doogee V30 costs $449.99 directly from Doogee or $529.99 on Amazon.com for next-day delivery. European costs from online retailers are slightly better, with the Amazon.co.uk cost being just £407.99.
Whereas direct from an Australian online retailer, the V30 costs AU$ 779.
But if you want a real bargain Doogee has this phone at its own outlet on AliExpress, and it costs only £329.16 or $395.24, although delivery might take 30 days or more.
Considering the features of this phone, the price is very competitive.
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Value score: 5/5
Doogee V30 design
Built to last
By-the-numbers buttons
No audio jack
From the outside, there isn’t much radical about the V30, as it falls into the familiar tropes where most large rugged phones fall.
One unique aspect is that the phone's body has a boat-like profile, making it slightly easier to handle than some thicker phone models. Having its sides elevated also helps when picking up, which might otherwise be a challenge.
The construction uses a combination of a milled metal frame covered largely in impact-resistant plastic and dense TPU. This has been texturized for better grip and to match a section of ‘leather’ on the flat underside.
One curiosity is the side panels that have a wood grain finish, although it's hard to determine what they’re actually made from. It all looks nice, and with the ‘Leather’ underside, it gives the phone the feel of a luxury car interior.
Every phone maker seems to be glued to this layout with the thumb-activated power button, and Doogee engineers didn’t buck that trend. It works well for right-handed users and less elegantly for left-handed.
Typically, rugged Chinese-made phones come with a SIM tray that can accept two Nano SIMs and a MicroSD card, but the V30 only supports one Nano alongside the MicroSD or, alternatively, two Nano and no MicroSD.
However, as we’ll cover elsewhere, this phone supports eSIMs, so it can have up to five different numbers and services if required.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
The charging and data port is the USB-C variety placed on the centre of the bottom edge and covered in a rubber plug. We’ve seen designs by Ulefone recently that dispensed with the rubber plug but still offering to waterproof, something Doogee needs to consider offering in its designs.
However, the phone will wirelessly charge at 15W with a suitable Qi wireless charger if repeatedly removing the plug annoys you.
What is missing is any 3.5mm audio jack. Doogee assumes music fans will be using Bluetooth or buy their own USB-C-to-audio adapter, as one isn’t included in the box.
What you get with the phone is a plastic tool to avoid breaking a nail opening the SIM tray, a Euro pinned wall-socket PSU rated to 66W, USB-C to USB-C OTG cable, some screen protecting accessories and a User Manual.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Design score: 4/5
Doogee V30 hardware
Powerful
High specification
eSIM flexibility
Specs
The Doogee V30 that was sent to us for review came with the following hardware:
CPU: MediaTek Dimensity 900 GPU: Mali-G68 MC4 RAM: 8 GB (15 GB with Memory Fusion) Storage: 256GB (expandable to 1TB with MicroSD) Screen: 6.58" FHD+ 120 Hz IPS waterdrop display Resolution: 2408 x 1080 SIM: Dual Nano SIM (or 1 and MicroSDXC) and eSIM (4) Weight: 376g Dimensions: 177 x 80 x 18 mm Rugged Spec: IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810H Rear cameras: 108MP main, 20MP night vision, 16MP ultrawide Front camera: 32MP Networking: WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0 OS: Android 12 Battery: 10800mAh
The MediaTek Dimensity 900 is the SoC of choice for flagship designs for those companies unwilling to pay Qualcomm for the latest Snapdragon silicon. We’ve seen it used in the V30 and the Ulefone Power Armor 18T, and it impressed us in both devices.
This is a third-generation MediaTek APU that combines dual ARM Cortex-A78 performance cores with six ARM Cortex-A55 cores for efficiency. Its integrated GPU is Mali-G68 MC4 can handle 4K video encoding/decoding and supports OpenGL3.1 and Vulkan for 3D rendering.
As an SoC and not just a CPU/GPU, this 6nm chip can connect to LPDDR4X or LPDDR5X, and supports UFS 2.1 and 3.1 storage.
In this phone, the memory type is LPDDR4X, and this is one of those designs where the amount of RAM can be expanded by sacrificing some of the storage. This memory fusion mode enables up to 15GB of RAM to be allocated, nearly doubling the amount available for apps.
But it isn’t just the SoC and memory model that is premium on this design. The networking technology is also state of the art, with WiFi 6 (2x2 MIMO), Bluetooth 5.2, and mobile comms for 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G cellular services.
Using the dual SIM mode can choose from physical SIMs and eSIMs, and if the service provider supports the mode, it can communicate over dual 5G links at up to 2.7Gbps download speeds.
Where the eSIM model used in the V30 is truly revolutionary is that the whole process of getting a service can be achieved from the phone. If you imagine wanting to go to a distant country and needing a local number and service, this would normally involve sourcing a physical SIM and paying for that service when you arrive.
Using the pre-installed eSIM store, you can simply select the country and the required data plan, sanction the payment and magically, you’ve now got access to the local service and a mobile number. And, if you are involved in some shuttle diplomacy or the like, it is possible to have four eSIM numbers active at any time.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
The only disappointment in the hardware is that the V30 doesn’t support the Widevine L1 video decryption standard, only L3. With only L3 decryption streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ reduce the best resolution available to just 480p. 1080p playback on YouTube and with capture videos is possible, but not over the mainstream services.
This limitation appears to be the norm among Chinese phones, regrettably.
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Hardware score: 4/5
Doogee V30 cameras
108MP sensor on the rear
Wide-angle, macro and night vision
Four cameras in total
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
The Doogee V30 has four cameras:
Rear cameras: 108MP Samsung S5KHM2, 16 MP OmniVision OV16B10 (Ultra-Wide), 20MP Sony IMX350 (Night Vision) Front camera: 32MP SONY IMX616 Sensor (Wide)
We’ve seen the 108MP Samsung S5KHM2 main sensor before on the Ulefone 17 Pro, and it can deliver some amazing resolution images if you need the highest levels of detail.
The trade-off for getting 12000 x 8992 resolution pictures is that it will only do this in a basic snapshot mode, with all the clever Pro and specialist capture being limited to 12MP.
With such a large sensor and all the light it can capture, the 12MP results are excellent, but it would be nice to extract more resolution without losing all the shooting modes.
Where this camera design differs from that in the Ulefone 17 Pro is it uses 8MP supporting wide-angle sensors, while the ones in the V30 are 16MP and 32MP. This results in better close-up and macro results, along with better selfies.
But it isn’t only the supporting sensors that are generally better, but also the way that the main 108MP is exploited is superior in the V30.
We’ve seen designs that use this sensor and then offer only 2K video resolution, but the V30 does offer 3840 x 2160, aka 4K UHD. The screen might not have the resolution to display these capture without scaling, but it can grab video at 4K.
There is still work to be done here, Because irrespective of what video resolution you pick, the only framerate available is 30fps. Not only is this not helpful for those that like 25fps, but it also ignores all the possibilities for slow motion.
That point aside, the results from this camera are outstanding, with exceptionally crisp images and natural colours, and they’re relatively artefact-free.
While I’m sure that the latest Apple or Samsung premium design might be able to do better, there isn’t much that is substandard about the images the V30 can capture.
Camera samples
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Camera score: 4/5
Doogee V30 performance
All-round performer
Strong GPU
Power and efficiency
Benchmarks
This is how the Doogee V30 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
The performance of this phone is terrific, as across the benchmarks. These results display its superiority to MediaTek Helio series SoCs and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G in every test. The Dimensity 900 is equivalent to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 in a few respects, though it is marginally better in many areas.
Where often Octo-core SoCs are good at multi-thread tests but less wondering at single-task challenges, the 2.5GHz Cortex-A78 performance cores deliver excellent single-thread performance. But when two of these are combined with the six Cortex-A55 cores, it can also achieve excellent results in multi-threaded scenarios.
Compared to the MediaTek Helio G99 phones, the V30 is around 30% faster at single-thread tests and up to 25-30% better at multi-threaded. And it entirely crushes lower G and P series SoCs.
The Mali-G68 MC4 is also a dramatic improvement over the Mali-G57 MC2 used in the G99 designs, delivering an improvement of around 40% in most of the 3DMark benches and closer to 80% in Wild Life.
Overall, the performance of this phone is fantastic, as the configuration of the SoC allows for high performance and power efficiency when priorities change.
There is nothing low-budget about the performance of the V30.
Performance score: 5/5
Doogee V30 battery
Good battery size
66W Fast charging
15W Qi charging
When phones get more than 10,000 mAh, they’ve got enough battery for extended use without a recharge, and this one has 10800 mAh of battery inside.
According to Doogee, the V30 should operate for more than three days of typical use without needing a recharge, and it might make it to a fourth.
The included 66W charger can recover 50% of its battery capacity from empty in around 30 minutes, although if you use the 15W wireless charging, it will take four hours to reach the same level.
There are rugged designs that offer more battery, but they trade weight for that advantage, and the physical mass of the V30 isn’t so great that it becomes impractical.
The available capacity is enough for a camping holiday, and the power efficiency of the platform makes the most of it.
Battery score: 4/5
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
The V30 is easily the best Doogee phone we’ve tested so far, with many positive aspects and relatively few caveats.
It has a powerful platform, an impressive camera, decent battery life and 5G communications. But the stand-out feature is the inclusion of eSIM technology, which makes international use significantly less of a hassle.
We’d like to see more camera options at 108MP, framerate control on the video, and L1 Widevine decryption, but those things could all be added with firmware and software enhancements.
Doogee has set a new high watermark for rugged phones, and we can’t wait to see how its competitors react.
When you’ve recently reviewed the 16 Pro and then are sent the 17 Pro, it’s not an unreasonable conclusion that the new phone will build on the previous design.
But, the Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro takes very little, if anything, from its predecessor.
Where that was a super-cheap and heavy, rugged phone with a massive speaker on its back, the 17 Pro is double the cost, significantly lighter and generally has a much better specification.
Where the 16 Pro uses the lacklustre MediaTek Helio G25 SoC, the 17 Pro sports the very pinnacle of the Helio series, the G99. A chip that, in comparison to other SoCs, the G99 is a very powerful ARM processor and offers excellent performance.
The underlying platform allows this phone can handle most tasks with ease while also offering great battery life. Additionally, it supports a wide range of features, such as dual-SIM support, NFC, and Wi-Fi 6. In terms of gaming performance, the Helio G99 is enough power for most games, although it may struggle with more intense titles.
The strengths of this design over other rugged options are that at just 290g it is much lighter than most, and the case isn’t oddly shaped and thickened. That makes it a more practical phone to carry, even if you don’t use the optional protective case and its belt clip.
It also has an impressive 108MP rear camera, along with an 8MP PDFA wide-angle sensor and an 8MP night vision camera, Though even with that massive rear sensor, it still can’t capture 4K resolution video, only 2K.
There are two significant weaknesses in the 17 Pro, and the first of those is a battery capacity of just 5380 mAh, an amount that you would find in any typical mid-priced phone.
The battery can be fast charged, and the phone supports wireless charging, but this isn’t a phone that you would want to take on a long hike away from civilisation.
The second major weakness is that it doesn’t support 5G, making this a 4G phone with LTE support at best. Phones costing this much are starting to come with 5G, but this one doesn’t.
Overall, a phone that is more practical than most rugged designs and an interesting divergence from the previous 16 Pro.
This isn’t an expensive device and has plenty of useful features for the asking price..
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro price and availability
How much does it cost? $340 / £290
When is it out? It is available now
Where can you get it? You can get it in most regions direct from AliExpress or on Amazon.com
Typically, on Amazon or other mainstream online retailers, the 17 Pro costs around $340, but for those willing to wait for AliExpress to deliver, it can be purchased for $60 less.
That still makes it almost twice the cost of the 16 Pro, but the power and performance in this design justifies the additional cost.
Alongside just the phone, the 17 Pro can be bought with an additional protective case, a wireless charging base, a portable Bluetooth speaker, or various combinations of those items. With them all included by AliExpress, it costs about the same as just the phone from Amazon.
Even with the increase over the 16 Pro, this is still one of the cheapest phones built around the MediaTek Helio G99 SoC and more sophisticated than the typical rugged designs.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Value score: 4/5
Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro design
Solid construction
By-the-numbers buttons
Dedicated flashlight
Rugged phones tend to fall into two subcategories; chunky or slim. And, the 17 Pro is distinctly in the ‘slim’ category, only 12.5mm thick.
It would be even thinner if the camera cluster on the rear didn’t project outwards.
At just 290 g, this is one of the lightest phones from Ulefone we’ve seen, and unless specifically primed, most people picking up this device would assume it was a regular Chinese smartphone.
That said, there are a few rugged hints, in that the back has a faux carbon fibre finish, and the sides and all the buttons are metal.
The button layout is the de facto standard comprising of the audio rocker and power button (doubling as thumbprint reader) on the right and the custom button and SIM tray on the left.
On the bottom edge is the USB-C charging port and a 3.5mm audio headphone jack, and neither of these is protected by a rubber plug.
Despite the lack of a plug, the phone is rated for IP68 (maximum depth of 1.5 metres up to 30 minutes) under IEC, and it even has underwater camera modes.
Also, in the bottom left corner is a lanyard hole for those wanting to secure the Pro 17 to a strap or belt.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
As with most modern phones, the standout feature is the display. It’s a 20:9, 1080 x 2408 FHD+ screen, offering 6.58‑inches of touch panel that even those with big fingers should be able to operate. It’s bright and colourful and has a decent resolution for viewing captured images and video. The refresh rate is 120Hz, enough to avoid screen tearing when rapidly scrolling images.
In the centre of the back are the cameras, in a generally good position for those that often accidentally put their fingers on the edge of their photos. This is a triple-sensor cluster with the top sensor offering an amazing 108MP resolution. The two other sensors are one for wide-angle work (8MP) and a night vision camera (also 8MP).
To provide flash illumination, three conventional LEDs and two IR LEDs are also part of the rear camera cluster.
The 16MP selfie camera on the front is centrally mounted in a cutout at the top of the display. Normally the loss of a part of the panel to this feature would annoy us, but the screen here has extra pixels to avoid this being a factor in presenting video or images.
Overall, the Pro 17 is a good example of a new generation of ruggedized designs where its ability to withstand the environment and a few hard knocks hasn’t compromised it as a phone in any substantial way.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
Design score: 4/5
Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro hardware
Low spec platform
Decent battery size
Endoscope option
Specs
The UleFone Power Armor 17 Pro that was sent to us for review came with the following hardware:
CPU: MediaTek Helio G99 GPU: Mali-G57 MC2 RAM: 8GB LPDDR4X Storage: 256GB eMMC 5.1 Screen: 6.58-inch IPS LCD Resolution: 2408 x 1080 SIM: Dual Nano SIM (+microSDXC up to 128GB) Weight: 405g Dimensions: 172.7 x 80.4 x 12.5 mm Rugged Spec: IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810H Rear cameras: 108 MP, f/1.9, (wide), 1/1.52”, 0.7µm, PDAF 8 MP, f/2.2, 119˚, (ultrawide), 1/4”, 1.12µm 8 MP, (night vision), 2 infrared night vision lights Front camera: 16 MP, f/2.2, (wide), 1.0µm Networking: Wi-Fi 5 dual band, Bluetooth 5.2 OS: Android 12 Battery: 5380 mAh
The Mediatek Helio G99 is a mid-range mobile system on a chip (SoC) released in 2021. It is based on the 12nm fabrication process and is the successor to the Helio G90T. The Helio G99 is an 8-core CPU with 4 ARM Cortex A-76 and 4 ARM Cortex A-55 cores. This package includes a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU for graphics and support for up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.1 storage.
In this design, 8GB of memory is combined with 256GB of main storage, providing enough space for most use profiles. But this is also one of the new designs where some of the main storage can be reallocated to RAM, boosting the amount available by up to 5GB. But, the maker warns that not all Android software is compatible with this Virtual Memory Expansion feature.
While this chip doesn’t compete with some of the latest Snapdragon designs, it’s an excellent all-around performer and allows the 17 Pro to deliver impressive benchmark scores.
An SoC of this performance level is critical when you have a camera capable of 108MP images in the system for the post-processing of that data.
One contradiction of this design is that the screen has a resolution of 2408 x 1080, providing more space than a 1080p video requires to be fully represented without scaling.
However, the Pro 17 doesn’t support the Widevine L1 video decryption standard, resulting in streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ reducing the best resolution available to just 480p. It is possible to get 1080p playback on YouTube and with capture videos, but not over most streaming services.
This limitation appears to be the norm among Chinese phones, and it may be to do with the additional cost of getting L1, over the L3 decryption many come with.
While still image capture can be made at crazy resolutions, even with a 108MP sensor, the Pro 17 can only offer 2K recording at 30fps, with no 4K options.
While there may be good reasons for avoiding 4K, why they didn’t include faster frame rate versions of 1080p, 720p and 480p is a mystery. They’re all locked at 30fps.
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
For western buyers, the lack of 5G comms might be an issue, depending on the locale, but it does offer a pervasive selection of 4G LTE frequencies (FDD and TDD) alongside support for 3G and 2G legacy services.
One curiosity is that this design supports simultaneous dual SIM support, allowing both connections to be active. However, the support of two 4G connections to a single device depends on the local telecom operator and if they allow this on their service.
When you see the Samsung HM2 108MP sensor on this phone, one is immediately drawn to conclude that this might be a good phone for pictures, and it is.
However, the 108MP mode that captures whopping 12000 x 8992 resolution images isn’t the one that most people will use. Because none of the ‘Pro Mode’ features exists at this level of detail, and with the exception of 4X digital zoom, there are no options.
The standard resolution for pictures is only 12MP, or 4000 x 2992, or about 12% of the sensor area.
Admittedly not as impressive as 108MP, but the lower quality setting gives full control over ISO, aperture and speed, resulting in much better quality results.
It’s also worth considering that the typical size of a 108MP image is between 20MB and 25MB, whereas a 12MP is usually below 10MB. It takes longer to take 108MP images, you have less control, and they take up excessive space.
Usually, we might complain that RAW isn’t supported, but 108MP RAW images would be exceptionally large and probably not practical on this platform.
It’s tempting to think that the 108MP is just a hook to get customers who want the best pictures, but it’s more complicated than that due to the results of using a 108MP sensor to take 12MP images.
These pictures are predictably good, display relatively few artefacts and chromatic aberrations, and are well colour balanced even with everything set to auto.
It would have been nice to have a 24MP or 56MP mode which had all the controls of 12MP, but it is possible to get some excellent results out of the Pro 17, just not by using 108MP.
Camera samples
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Camera score: 4/5
Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro performance
Performance powerhouse
GPU isn’t the very quickest
Benchmarks
This is how the Ulefone Armor 17 Pro performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
These results are right up with the very best we’ve had from rugged phones, bettered only by those powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC or Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G.
And, even those devices only make a handful of score points more, and not across all benchmarks.
To underline this, the Passmark score of 9359 is one the highest we’ve tested from a rugged phone, and only Dimensity 900-powered devices did better.
The only weakness we noticed is that the Mali-G57 MC2 isn’t as quick as the Mali-G68 MP4 that the Dimensity 900 SoC uses, delivering 1359 on the Wild Life test on this phone, but more than 2000 on the Doogee V30 and Ulefone Power Armor 18T.
That makes the G99 a little less suitable for gaming, but not by an amount most players would immediately notice.
What is more likely to be noticeable is the amount of battery capacity.
Performance score: 4/5
Ulefone Power Armor 17 Pro battery
Small capacity for rugged design
66W super fast charging
Qi charging and MagSafe
The elephant in this powerhouse is the battery, or more specifically, the 5380 mAh battery Ulefone blessed the 17 Pro with.
By rugged phone standards, that’s not huge, and while it is bigger than the 4,323mAh that Apple gives the iPhone 14 Pro Max, we typically see phones with 10,000 or more mAh in this sector.
The available capacity has a quoted standby of 294 hours and a talk-time of 29 hours, but realistically most phones don’t run out of power on standby or while being used as a phone.
With a smaller battery, Ulefone did make some effort to enable the phone to charge quickly, and with a suitable charger like the one included with the phone, it can handle a 66W fast charge. Due to the flattened back, this design can also wireless charge up to 15W using Qi charging pad (not included). It will also wireless reverse charge to another phone with Qi.
Its final trick is that it can also magnetically wireless charge in much the same way as a recent iPhone, allowing it to be used with a magnetic wallet. Included in the box is a soft magnetic wallet that doubles as a phone stand, conveniently.
While the 17 Pro might not have the battery capacity of the 16 Pro or 18T, it does have a few other neat charging features that go some way to balance this equation. The smaller battery positively impacts the phone's overall weight, importantly.
Battery score: 3/5
(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)
There are many things to like about the 17 Pro that address some of the issues with the 16 Pro and also offer a hint at where Ulefone is likely to go with future rugged designs.
Instead of emulating spare parts from a transformer, the Pro 17 offers a large but not excessively sized phone that is robust and protected from the environment without resorting to shipping container aesthetics.
The MediaTek Helio G99 SoC gives plenty of processing performance, and the 108MP camera sensor delivers excellent photo capture. The only real caveat is the limited battery capacity, making it less than ideal for long adventure holidays away from mains power.
It might cost nearly double the cost of the 16 Pro, but the 17 Pro is a lot more phone for the cash and probably better value on the investment.
The Xbox Series S is a far more affordable alternative to the Series X, and despite its smaller size it still boasts some incredibly impressive capabilities without breaking the bank. Due to this, it's a fantastic gateway into current-gen gaming without costing anywhere near as much as you might expect.
The Xbox Series S is designed to take the same generational leaps as the Series X, such as being capable of ray tracing, sporting lightning-fast load times, and showcasing higher frame rates, yet it remains to be significantly cheaper than its competitor, but there's certainly a hit to overall power and features.
The Xbox Series S is praised for its digital-only build, but surprisingly there is significantly less storage than the Xbox Series X. The console also targets a 1440p resolution rather than 4K, with the opportunity to upscale when connected to an Ultra HD display. But the console is designed to run optimally at lower resolutions. So you should take your display setup into account when thinking of purchasing the Series S.
Microsoft's more affordable Xbox also does away with the 4K HD Blu-Ray drive of the Xbox Series X, making this a digital-only affair. If you've amassed a large library of the best Xbox Series X games over the years, this alone could be a deal-breaker and means you're at the mercy of Microsoft's store pricing when it comes to buying new titles.
Xbox Series S one year on
(Image credit: Shutterstock/m.andrei)
We've updated our Xbox Series S review to reflect our impressions after using the console for nearly two years. Microsoft has rolled out a few welcome improvements to the Series S, and we now finally have exclusive titles that take full advantage of the hardware's power like Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5.
These cutbacks might be too much for some users, then, but it makes the Xbox Series S a much cheaper and less hefty device as a result. Crucially, it's still capable of playing new-gen games, making this a great entry point into the Xbox ecosystem.
Each one impressed us, with smoother frame rates, increased resolutions (when compared to Xbox One, and Xbox One S), and faster load times, even if the games didn't look quite as pretty as they did running on the Xbox Series X. But that's mostly due to Xbox Series S targeting a lower resolution.
That said, for gamers who have no qualms about buying games digitally, or subscribing to Xbox Game Pass, you’re getting the full suite of next-gen features on Microsoft's cheaper console: Quick Resume, Auto HDR, 120Hz, you name it. The Xbox Series S is a great option for those wanting to experience new-gen gaming, without the sizable financial outlay required to own a full-blown console.
(Image credit: Future)
As we've alluded to already, there are drawbacks to consider. If you prefer to purchase games physically, or have amassed a large collection of Xbox One games over the years, the Xbox Series S's lack of disc drive may put you off.
You only get a 512GB SSD, too, as there's no higher-capacity option. And while the console's SSD is dramatically faster than the old mechanical drives in the Xbox One X and Xbox One S, it can fill up fast. The five games we mentioned above almost took up the entire 512GB SSD on our review unit (you only get 364GB of usable space), leaving us with just 30GB of storage to play with.
That means if we wanted to install a game of that size to the system's internal drive, we'd likely have to delete something first (or additionally purchase the Seagate Xbox storage expansion card, which costs nearly as much as the Xbox Series S itself).
Xbox Series X review
(Image credit: Future)
The Xbox Series X utilizes its powerful specs to significantly reduce load times and increase overall game performance and visual fidelity. But, while features such as Quick Resume, Smart Delivery, and backward compatibility give it that extra boost, it's hard to deny that it’s lacking in key areas, notably significant UI improvements and captivating exclusive launch titles.
What may deter people from buying Microsoft's more affordable Xbox is the fact that it outputs at 1440p for gaming. This lower resolution is a firm favourite in the PC gaming space due to the superior image quality it provides over 1080p, and the lower amount of graphical grunt it requires from developers to achieve. This has allowed Microsoft to create a lower-spec machine that still boasts next-gen features.
If you own an Xbox One X, the drop to 1440p from native 4K can be noticeable. The Xbox One X could deliver games like Forza Motorsport 7 at 4K/60fps and is still capable of some sumptuous visuals. It's easy, then, to think that the Xbox Series S is a step back – however, it's capable of a lot more than Microsoft's aging Xbox One X, even if it doesn't always beat it in terms of resolution.
Looking at the system internals, the Xbox Series S separates itself from the One X with its vastly more powerful CPU and more technically capable GPU, courtesy of AMD's RDNA 2 architecture which enables cutting-edge features like ray tracing. Yes, the Series S has fewer teraflops than the Xbox One X (four compared to six), but teraflops are no longer the defining factor in how GPU power is determined.
For Xbox One owners looking to upgrade without breaking the bank, the Xbox Series S is a great option, if you can accept what it's been designed to achieve. If you've already got the Xbox One X and a 4K display at home, however, we suggest considering the Xbox Series X instead. Read on for our full Xbox Series S review.
Considering the bigger sibling? Check out our Xbox Series X video review below.
Xbox Series S: price and release date
Xbox Series S release date: Out now (released November 10, 2020)
Xbox Series S price: $299.99 / £249.99 / AU$499
Can be bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $24.99 / £20.99 / AU$33 a month
The Xbox Series S is available now for $299.99 / £249.99 / AU$499 and was released on November 10, 2020. That's the same release date as the Xbox Series X, though the price is significantly cheaper than the Series X's price of $499 / £499 / AU$749. Thankfully, Xbox won't follow PlayStation with price hikes, so while Xbox doesn't rule out future price hikes just yet, this isn't changing anytime soon.
Keep in mind however that, without a disc drive, you won't be able to buy used games or trade games with your friends: you're dependent on the Xbox Store for any purchases, which means you won't always get the best deal.
That issue is negated somewhat if you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass (a separate expense, but exceptional value nonetheless), or if you only buy the occasional game at full price around launch. Still, it's not ideal for those who rely on physical game sales or trade-ins to fund their favorite pastime.
Xbox Series S is also available on Microsoft's Xbox All Access subscription service in select regions, including the US, UK, and Australia. Xbox All Access bundles the console with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on a 24-month plan (giving you access to the latter for the duration) for $24.99 / £20.99 / AU$33 a month, with no upfront costs – that's a good deal which proves cheaper than buying the console and 24 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate separately.
Of course, Microsoft isn't the only one with newer hardware out. Sony released the PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition soon after the Xbox Series S and Series X dropped, so if you're still on the fence then it's worth checking out our PS5 review before committing.
(Image credit: Future)
Xbox Series S review: design
Looks great when placed horizontally or vertically
Can comfortably fit into any setup
The console and controller look great in white
While the hardware powering the Xbox Series S is brand-new, the Xbox Series S design is reminiscent of the now-discontinued Xbox One S All-Digital Edition.
The Xbox Series S has a distinctive black fan vent, almost like a speaker grille, on the top that breaks up the swathe of white which encases the rest of the console, and it's where the majority of heat is exhausted. It's the smallest Xbox that Microsoft has ever made, with a plain front face that sports a single USB port and a power button. It's a clean, understated, and functional design.
For ports, you’ll find an HDMI 2.1 output, two USB 3.2 ports, an Ethernet port, a storage expansion slot, and an AC input. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Xbox Series S doesn't have a port for Kinect, Microsoft's now-defunct motion-sensing camera, or a HDMI input for cable boxes. However, that the Xbox Series S only ships with a High-Speed HDMI cable, not an Ultra High-Speed HDMI cable.
With weight and size, the Xbox Series S measures in at 6.5 x 15.1 x 27.5cm and 4.25 pounds (around 2kg). Its size should ensure it easily fits into most entertainment center cabinets and on TV stands, and it's light enough to pack up and bring to a friend's house or take with you on vacation.
As we mentioned above, the Xbox Series S is smaller than the Xbox One S. That's an impressive feat considering that it’s packing a 4 TFLOP GPU and an octa-core Custom Zen 2 CPU that needs to be cooled.
While some might not like the way Microsoft has aped its own design from the last generation, we're okay with it. It's nice to have some continuity, especially in products that are advertised as a family of devices, although it is fairly straightforward and industrial-like in its appearance.
(Image credit: Future)
Xbox Series S review: performance
Upscaled 4K looks great, and native 1440p is a nice compromise
Offers smooth and fluid 120fps gameplay
Xbox Velocity Architecture is fast… but not instantaneous
The Xbox Series S's strong suit is its value proposition – it's a compact powerhouse. It can offer either upscaled 4K gaming, native 1440p resolution, or a 1080p picture.
Its GPU, while not as powerful as the one in the Xbox Series X, can upscale games to 4K (in a similar way to the Xbox One S) and still run games at 120fps at 1440p, but you'll need a HDMI 2.1-compliant TV if you want to keep the resolution at 1440p. It's also capable of ray tracing, and loads games faster than ever, thanks to Microsoft's Xbox Velocity Architecture.
Combine Velocity Architecture with the 10GB of GDDR6 memory and built-in SSD, and you’ve got all the makings of a powerful console. Better still, Microsoft recently gave a performance boost for Xbox Series S games, which frees up hundreds of additional megabytes of memory. Crucially, this should help improve graphics performance.
Xbox Series S specs
CPU: 8-core 3.6GHz (3.4GHz with SMT) custom AMD 7nm GPU: 4 teraflops at 1.565GHz RAM: 10GB GDDR6 Frame rate: Up to 120fps Resolution: 1440p with 4K upscaling Optical: No disk drive Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD Usable storage space: 364GB
But do you actually need a 4K TV? And furthermore, do you need one that supports HDMI 2.1 for its 120Hz refresh rate? Let’s walk through all the scenarios.
If you're using a 1080p TV, the Xbox Series S uses a technique called supersampling to create better-looking images, even on less-capable displays. Supersampling is a complex process, but the basic idea is that the game is rendered at a higher resolution, and then the console downscales the image to match the output of your TV.
The end result is a noticeable boost in image clarity and anti-aliasing (the removal of jaggies and pixelated edges) and means that gamers who aren't using a 4K or 1440p -capable screen will still benefit from improved image quality from the Xbox Series S.
Most folks though, we expect, will be pairing the Xbox Series S with a 4K HDR TV – potentially one with a 120Hz native refresh rate, although the majority of displays sold over the last few years are likely to only support 60Hz at 4K and 1440p. If you do have a capable display, here's how to enable 120Hz on Xbox Series S.
Hook the Xbox Series S up to a 4K panel, and the console uses a technique called upscaling to convert a non-native 4K signal to 4K. While there's a stark difference between rendering in 4K, and rendering in 1440p and then upscaling to 4K – especially if you've got a keen eye for detail – it still makes games on the Xbox Series S look better than if the console was locked to a 1440p output.
It's worth noting that the Xbox Series S can render some games in native 4K if a developer chooses to enable that option. Just be aware it's done on a game-by-game basis, and isn't something you’re going to see on every game on the system.
The upshot here is that the console can utilize HDR (high dynamic range), which enables a wider color palette, higher peak brightness, and better contrast levels. Skies look bluer, the grass looks greener and colors pop in every scene. If you haven't had the opportunity to game in HDR yet, you're in for a treat.
If you are fortunate enough to have a display that's compliant with HDMI 2.1, you can enable 120fps at 1440p without having to drop down to 1080p resolution. To enable 120fps, simply pop into the console's audio and visual settings, where you can choose from various frame rate and resolution options.
It's pretty straightforward, but it's worth noting that not all games can hit 120fps, though Microsoft has amassed a handsome collection of titles since launch including Halo Infinite, Gears 5's multiplayer, and Call of Duty: Vanguard. Check out the full list of Xbox Series S games with 120fps support.
Even if you don't invest in a new TV, you're still going to see the benefits of the new SSD and Microsoft's Xbox Velocity Architecture. The latter is a multi-step solution that combines the Series S's custom NVMe SSD, hardware-accelerated decompression blocks, a brand-new DirectStorage API layer, and Sampler Feedback Streaming (SFS).
That's a lot to parse, but the gist of it is that data is stored in a more efficient way, and can be loaded into memory faster thanks to both the physical storage medium and the software algorithms that Microsoft has implemented to load the data.
(Image credit: Future)
The result is significantly faster load times compared to Xbox One X – we're talking about games that now load in a matter of seconds. The SSD also enables features like Quick Resume, which we’ll get to shortly. Of course, the one area that's less impressive here is the meager 512GB of storage capacity, which most people will fill up fast.
While 500GB was sufficient early on during the last console generation, game file sizes have expanded exponentially in the years since, making anything less than 1TB of storage seem like a raw deal. It gets worse when you realise that you can't access the full 512GB of storage. The system OS takes up 148GB of space, meaning you've only got 364GB of usable storage to play with from the outset.
By the time you've installed four or five games, you'll need to start thinking about what to uninstall, which is never a fun experience. While Microsoft claims that games on Xbox Series S will be up to 30% smaller due to not having 4K texture files, this won’t stop the system's internal drive from rapidly filling up.
The good news is that Microsoft has released an add-on storage solution at launch, in partnership with Seagate, that can add 2TB, 1TB or 500GB of extra storage if you run out of room. The bad news? The 1TB Seagate Storage Expansion Card costs $219.99 / £219.99 / AU$359 – money that could be spent on buying an Xbox Series X instead, which has 1TB built-in storage and better 4K support.
Xbox Series S review: controller
More tactile than before thanks to careful refinement
Triggers are shorter, controller is easier to grip thanks to new textured finish
Share button is a welcome addition, and the 360-degree D-pad feels great
Still uses AA batteries, unfortunately
Coming from the Xbox One Controller, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Xbox Wireless Controller for Series X/S isn't that different. However, it's now more comfortable and easier to use than ever before, due to subtle changes in the controller's ergonomics.
Its overall dimensions have been tweaked ever so slightly, reducing the size of the controller as a whole, but not to the point where it's noticeable to the average user. It means more hand sizes can use the new Xbox pad comfortably. Other changes include a textured and matte finish on the handles, triggers, and bumpers, that help you get more purchase on the controller during tense gaming sessions.
Probably the biggest change for the controller itself, though, is the new D-pad, which has been revised to be a full 360-degree pad that feels great on the thumb. Each direction clicks with a satisfying sound and tactile feedback (though some might find it noisier than they'd like). Its smooth finish makes pulling off half-circle sweeps in fighting games a real pleasure.
Another minor change is that the triggers have been shortened to make them more accommodating for smaller hands. These triggers still have haptic feedback in the form of rumble motors, but it's not the same as the adaptive triggers in the PS5 DualSense controller, which can change resistance on the fly.
The new Share button does exactly what you'd expect – it captures and shares moments in your game for posting in your Xbox Feed or on social media. One click takes a snapshot, while holding the button down longer captures a 15-second video (you can adjust the duration in the Capture settings).
It's much easier than on the Xbox One, where you had to press the home button twice and then X or Y, but it takes some getting used to if you’re accustomed to the old way.
(Image credit: Future)
Overall though, it's mostly what you remember, with two asymmetrical analog sticks, the menu and view buttons that fill in for start and select, and the four face buttons (A, B, X, Y).
The Xbox Series S controller keeps its 3.5mm audio jack and expansion port at the bottom, but it now uses a USB Type-C charging port instead of microUSB. You'll also find the pairing button at the top, which you use to sync the controller to the console, or for pairing when using Bluetooth.
The new Xbox pad is still a comfortable controller to play with, but its biggest weakness is the fact that it still uses AA batteries. That's instead of a rechargeable lithium-ion cell like the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller or Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 houses. We found a pair of AA batteries lasted for around 10 days or so of heavy gaming.
If you're appalled by the idea of a controller using AA batteries in 2020, you can also pick up Microsoft's play-and-charge kit, which comprises a rechargeable battery and USB-C cable, for $24.99 (£20.99 / AU$29.95 ) to save you money in the long term (you can also use rechargeable AAs).
While the kit is obviously an extra expense that may irk some, there's an element of flexibility at least – and you're also not at the mercy of a lithium-ion cell battery, which can degrade over time, and which is more costly to replace should anything go awry.
Our advice? Pick up rechargeable batteries, or Microsoft's play-and-charge kit, if you plan on doing more than 40 hours of gaming a week.
Xbox Series S review: features
User interface feels a bit overcrowded and, in some places, slow
Quick Resume feels really cutting-edge
Smart Delivery ensures you get the best possible version of a game
Good selection of streaming apps, plus Dolby Vision and Atmos support
If it's been a few years since you bought an Xbox console, and you're worried that the process of setting it up might be confusing, don't be. Setting up the Xbox Series S proved to be a streamlined process, thanks in no small part to the new-and-improved Xbox app for Android and iOS. We've even seen Discord become available for all Xbox Series S players.
You’ll need to download the Xbox app from the App Store for iOS or Google Play Store on Android devices, and log in to your Microsoft account. Once you're in, power on the console and type in the code you see in the app, which appears on your TV screen – this pulls in all your data without you having to type it all in. You'll still need to enter a few details via the console, like Wi-Fi password, but then you're off to the races after waiting for an update to land.
The UI that greets you when you’ve finished setting up the Xbox Series S will be instantly familiar to anyone who's used an Xbox One in the last three months. The 'new' Xbox Dashboard rolled out in August 2020, and is the same across both Xbox Series X and S and the older hardware. It isn’t the most intuitive of interfaces, though.
There's a lot of information on display at once, and it's fair to say there's a small learning curve when it comes to figuring out how to navigate the UI effectively. The downside to the new consoles having the same user interface as the One series is that the Xbox Series S doesn't feel any different right away. It doesn't feel that new, even if navigating the dashboard feels snappier than before thanks to the extra power underneath the hood.
Moreover, the new UI still presents some of the same problems we've noticed in the past with Xbox One's interface: some images on the screen take a few seconds to load as content is pulled from the internet, and it's generally a bit too busy for most tastes, with far more information on the screen than you actually need at one time. Look past the UI, however, and you'll begin to see some areas where the Xbox Series S really innovates, though they're admittedly more subtle.
We can expect further changes to come for the UI, too. If you're an Xbox Insider, Microsoft recently rolled new Xbox Series X homepage layouts but fans aren't happy. While this introduces some quality of life changes, some players weren't so keen on the "tile clutter" this introduced, while others aren't fond of ads still taking up homepage space. As a feature currently in beta testing, this could change, so we'll keep this updated as we learn more.
(Image credit: Future)
Smart Delivery from the Xbox Store means you'll always get the best possible version of a game when you download it, or if it's upgraded in the future. Your save data also carries over seamlessly, even if you jump back and forth between your old Xbox One / One X / One S and new Xbox Series S. It's simultaneously backward and forward compatibility, which is reassuring.
Jumping between multiple games is now possible thanks to Quick Resume, a new feature that allows the Xbox Series S to hold multiple game states in the memory at one time, so you can jump back and forth between games without having to reload them.
The number of games that can be suspended varies – we had as many as eight in rotation at one point – and it won't work with every title, especially those with ever-changing online worlds, like Sea of Thieves. It's a handy, time-saving feature that's only possible thanks to the console's SSD, and game states are preserved even if the console is completely powered down.
Lastly, we have to talk about the console's multimedia capabilities. As a streaming device, the Xbox Series S carries most major services. That goes between Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, and others that are available on existing Xbox One consoles, plus some that are new to the platform, including Apple TV Plus. There's also region-specific apps such as Hulu in the US, and Sky Go in the UK.
Accessing these requires navigating to the Apps section of your library. Or, if you frequently use particular apps you can pin them to the home screen or create a specific group that can be accessed from the Xbox guide. We noticed that, like games, apps stayed in a suspended state when we flicked between them.
It's important to note that while the Xbox Series S only outputs at 1440p resolution when you're gaming, the console is capable of displaying streaming apps in 4K HDR. That means the likes of Netflix, Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus will output in 4K if you're using a compatible display.
As on the Xbox One X, some of these services are available in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, giving you access to advanced HDR and 3D surround sound respectively, but you may have to pay for a higher subscription tier in order to access those formats.
Xbox Series S review: game library
Scarce launch lineup with few exclusives
Backwards compatibility with three generations of Xbox consoles
Xbox Game Pass is a great way to instantly build up your library
We won't mince words here: the Xbox Series S's game library got off to a bad start. With the delay of Halo Infinite, there weren't any first-party exclusives available at launch on the Xbox Series S, other than titles that have previously been available on Xbox.
More third-party and first-party exclusives have since arrived like The Medium and Microsoft Flight Simulator, but Microsoft's first-party output is slowly catching up. Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, Grounded, and As Dusk Falls are all now available.
Instead of releasing new experiences on day one, Microsoft mainly opted to improve the existing library of games via Xbox Series S optimizations. Games like Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and Sea of Thieves have all been optimized to either increase their base resolution or frame rates or to offer greater visual fidelity.
If you want to quickly see which games have been optimized for the Xbox Series S, head to 'My Games & App' > 'Games' > and then select 'Group by console type'. You can then see all the games optimized for Xbox Series X/S at a glance.
If you're someone who loves having access to the entire library of Xbox games past and present, the Xbox Series S will be appealing because it supports four generations of Xbox titles, stretching all the way back to the original Xbox. Being able to jump back and forth between Xbox 360 classics like Viva Piñata and Red Dead Redemption to more modern-day blockbusters is comforting.
It's nice not having to break out the old hardware or track down an old CRT TV but the caveat here is big. Because the Xbox Series S doesn't have a disc drive, you'll need digital versions of those older games in order to play them – and for that reason alone, Xbox Game Pass is great.
On it, you'll find over 100 games available to download on the Xbox Series S, with a mix of new first-party titles like Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Gears 5, and Forza 7, and some indie gems from the Xbox 360 era. If you're someone who loves the Xbox Games with Gold program but wished you had a few more options to download, Game Pass is really satisfying.
While Game Pass can't make up for that lack of exclusives, it does enable you to pad out your library and gives you a chance to see some of the best previous-gen games in a new light. You also get access to all of Microsoft's first-party games the day they release, which represents a huge long-term saving in itself.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can also stream games via Xbox Cloud Gaming. It means that rather than take up storage space, you can play games instantly without having to wait. This is a great option if you simply want to try something out, but we still prefer gaming natively as opposed to via the cloud due to increased input latency and some image issues that can occur.
If you're hoping to get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for an even cheaper price, we've got good news. While this is currently being trialled in just the Republic of Ireland and Colombia, Microsoft is looking to launch an Xbox Game Pass family plan, allowing you and four players to jump in for a monthly cost of €21.99 – which comes to around $21.99 / £19.99 / AU$32.99
• Original review date: December 2022
• Launch price: $650 (around £530 / AU$955)
• The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is still available, and a new model hasn't been announced as of September 2024
Update – September 2024: The Acer Chromebook 516 GE, one of the first gaming-oriented Chromebooks to hit the market, is still available. Its successor hasn't been announced, though it's unlikely any time soon since the specs for this device are still about as good as you can hope for in a Chromebook at this price.
Since the real focus of this device is to empower cloud gaming services through Nvidia GeForce Now, this Chromebook is as good today as it was when we reviewed it in December 2022.
Original review follows.
Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Two minute review
The Acer Chromebook 516 GE claims to be the world’s first gaming Chromebook, which is a title that is both technically true and utterly meaningless. With game streaming services like Nvidia GeForce NOW, any Chromebook with a solid internet connection can be a gaming machine, and that’s precisely how the 516 GE functions as of now, since the ChromeOS Alpha that would allow for Steam compatibility isn’t out yet.
That being said, this is a great Chromebook. Its performance is excellent, efficient and speedy in a way that belies its specs, and when you have a high-speed internet connection it streams games without a single hitch. Its airflow is great as well, as even playing demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Dying Light 2 for extended periods of time only makes the machine run slightly warm. And its superior performance extends to productivity, as it easily handles conference calls, web browsing, video streaming, spreadsheets, and more with no hiccups or slowdown.
The benchmarks back up these claims, as the scores for each test are much higher than most other Chromebooks. And supporting such great performance is the HD 2560 x 1600 display, and 120Hz refresh rate. However, there is one aspect that underwhelms: the sound quality. To put it bluntly, it’s really bad. At normal volume levels it’s just fine but as you raise the volume the sound quality becomes more congested. This is also a noticeable issue when gaming, which means you’ll have to invest in some gaming headsets to offset this.
The port selection is quite good for a Chromebook with two Type- C USB ports, one USB Type-A USB port, one Ethernet port, one combo jack, and one HDMI 2.0 port. You have something for all your needs, much like a dedicated Windows gaming laptop. It also has an excellent battery life, lasting seven hours on average during both normal and gaming use. Most other gaming machines can’t even come close to those numbers, which makes the 516 GE worth investing in alone.
Its pricing, $650 (around £530 / AU$955), is a little steep for a Chromebook and the availability is not too great either, being nearly impossible to find outside the US. Within the US, there’s only a single model that has 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage space, as well as a Core i5-1240P CPU and Iris Xe Graphics GPU. It would be nice to see improved availability and options in the future, to better suit a wider variety of needs.
Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Price and availability
(Image credit: Future)
How much does it cost? The single available model is $650 (around £530 / AU$955)
When is it out? It's out now
Where can you get it? In the US only
Acer Chromebook 516 GE Key Specs
Here is the Acer Chromebook 516 GE configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Intel Core i5-1240P Graphics: Intel Iris Xe Graphics RAM: 8GB Screen: 16" WQXGA (2560 x 1600) 16:10 120 Hz Storage: 512GB Optical drive: None Ports: 2 x Type- C, 1 x USB Type-A, 1 x Ethernet, 1 x combo jack, 1 x HDMI 2.0 Connectivity: Wireless Wi-Fi 6E AX211, Bluetooth 5.2 Camera: 720p Weight: 3.75 lbs Size: 14 x 9.8 x 0.84 inches (W x D x H)
The price is more than right for the Acer Chromebook 516 GE that’s currently selling for $650 (around £530 / AU$955), an absolute steal for a gaming laptop. Of course, it has much more limited utility than the best gaming laptops running Windows, as it currently doesn’t have Steam available for download and can only game through Nvidia GeForce NOW, but gaming through the streaming service offers performance just as solid as through normal means.
Unfortunately, the availability of this Chromebook is already pitiful in the US, with just a single model available for purchase. And if you want this laptop in other regions like the UK or Australia, then you’re completely out of luck. In the US though, you may be able to save via the Acer promo codes currently available so remember to look.
Value: 3.5 / 5
Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Design
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Lightweight with a solid chassis
Great keyboard but no numlock
Bad sound quality
The first thing you’ll notice about the Acer Chromebook 516 GE is that it’s huge for a Chromebook, which makes sense since it’s built for gaming. It’s not exactly sleek looking either, with a plain black chassis that’s more round than slender. But it’s still pretty lightweight despite it all.
Though the chassis is light, it doesn’t feel nearly as flimsy as many Chromebooks tend to, though it doesn’t have the same hardy weight and build as your average Windows gaming laptop. It works to the 516 CE’s advantage, making it far more portable and easier to carry around than said laptops.
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The keyboard functions well, with nice-sized keys that avoid excessive typos and a solid, responsive touchpad. It also comes with RGB backlighting, which makes it well-suited for late-night gaming sessions as well. We wish it had a numlock pad, which would have been super convenient for both gaming and any productivity work you might want to do. Instead, there are two speakers built-in on the sides, similar to the Alienware x15 R2, which should mean better sound quality, right?
Except that the sound quality is pretty bad. Even just listening to regular music on YouTube produces a very tinny, muddy sound quality with too much congestion, let alone how poor it sounds when gaming. You’ll definitely need to pick up one of the best PC gaming headsets for this laptop for your more serious gaming sessions and streams.
The port selection is pretty solid as well with one HDMI port, an Ethernet LAN port, two USB 3.2 Type-C ports, and a USB 3.2 Type-A port. Though I wish we had another Type-A port, there’s plenty going with a wide variety of ports for many different tasks and uses.
Design: 4 / 5
Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Performance
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Excellent performance
Can't run Steam on its own
The display is surprisingly great for a Chromebook, sporting a QHD panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio, 100 sRGB color reproduction, solid maximum brightness, and a 120Hz refresh rate. All this means is that games will look and run well onscreen, which is vital for more hardcore gaming sessions featuring fast-paced high-end PC titles.
Running a streaming service like Nvidia GeForce NOW, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE performs quite well. We tried it out using titles like Dying Light 2 and Dirt 5, which often have tons of objects or enemies on screen and would serve as a solid stress test for the Chromebook.
Even using the basic streaming plan that offers a strict time limit and no frills like a more powerful graphics card, we rarely experienced any framerate drops and the graphics were quite good. The RTX 3080 tier, which is the highest possible tier for the GeForce NOW service, is where the 516 GE shines. The graphics and framerate are incredible, to the point that you forget you're even playing on a Chromebook in the first place. Of course, this all depends on the strength of your internet connection, so it's also best to invest in a high-speed connection.
We used the Kraken Javascript, Jetstream2, and Speedometer benchmarks to test the Acer Chromebook 516 GE. The first one tests general performance speed using real-world applications and libraries, the second tests the performance of browsers, and the third one measures the speed and responsiveness of a browser.
Benchmarks
Here's how the Acer Chromebook 516 GE performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
Compared to other similar Chromebooks, the 516 GE Kraken Javascript benchmark is much faster than most other Chromebooks on the market, some by over a thousand milliseconds or more. The same goes for its Jetstream 2 benchmark scores, which are much higher than most other Chromebooks. Finally, the 629 score for Speedometer is incredibly high, over double the 300 score that’s already considered solid by testing standards. This Chromebook is a performance beast and is tailor-made to support any game streaming.
An important caveat to note, however, is that this Chromebook currently can’t run Steam on its own. According to Acer, this model is set to soon have the ChromeOS Alpha available, allowing the storefront to run properly. But even when that first launches, it’s still an alpha build which means bugs, instability, performance issues, and more will be waiting for you until the final version is hashed out. So don’t go buying this Chromebook unless you’re prepared to only invest in the Nvidia GeForce NOW or Amazon Luna streaming service subscriptions.
Performance: 5 / 5
Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Battery life
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Amazing battery life for a gaming machine
Charges fast thanks to the Type-C charger
Unlike most gaming laptops, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE has a great battery life, which is one of the defining features of the best Chromebooks, generally. In our movie test, which involved looping a dynamic, 1080p video until the battery gives out, The 516 CE lasted on average above seven hours, and for around the same amount of time for everyday use.
When gaming, the battery lasts just a little less than that, which is phenomenal for any gaming machine. If you’re in need of a quick gaming session and can’t get to an outlet, the 516 GE has your back. And it charges quickly thanks to the USB Type-C charger, so even a limited window of time (about an hour) will net you nearly a full charge.
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