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Weekly deals: the best smartphone deals from Germany, the UK, the US, and India
11:40 am | May 28, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: , , , | Comments: Off

The Google Pixel family is experiencing a tug of war between the Pixel 7 and 7a and in some markets the old flagship has the upper hand thanks to solid price cuts. We also found great deals on all four iPhone 14 models, all three Galaxy S23 phones as well as a variety of mid-rangers. Germany The UK USA India Germany Now that the Pixel 7a is out, the older Pixel 7 is almost obsolete – unless you find a great offer. In Germany, you can pick it up for €546, compared to €510 for the 7a. Worth it? The 7 has slightly higher end hardware and €36 isn’t much, so it’s...

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro: A cheap and cheerful fitness tracker with built-in GPS
7:42 pm | May 24, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: , , | Comments: Off

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro: One minute review

The Amazfit Bip 3 Pro is an affordable fitness tracker and one of the best cheap running watches, with all the basics you could ask for. It has an optical heart rate reader. It has full-on GPS, unlike the non-Pro edition of the Bip 3. Want phone-free run tracking? You got it. 

And where Fitbit offers a small lozenge of a display for this sort of money, the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro looks a lot like a smartwatch. 

The bad bits? It comes across cheaper in person than it does in photos. The display is compromised on multiple fronts. And while the location tracking is really quite excellent based on our testing, heart rate accuracy is mediocre. 

What does this add up to? A solid affordable fitness tracker, although the Honor Band 7 pulls off budget gloss better. 

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro: Specifications

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro: Price and Availability

  • $69.99 in the US
  • £69.99 in the UK
  • AU$119 in Australia. 

Amazfit launched the Bip 3 Pro in June 2022 as one of its cheaper fitness watches. It costs $69.99 / £69 / AU$119. 

This is just $10/£20 more than the standard Amazfit Bip 3, which is a largely similar watch, but one that lacks full GPS. It uses Connected GPS instead. 

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro: Design and Display

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro

(Image credit: Andrew Williams)
  • Low weight equals high level of comfort
  • Screen is basic
  • Feels cheap in places

The Amazfit Bip 3 Pro is a watch made to look a little like an Apple Watch, without going all the way and becoming a potentially embarrassing low-rent clone. It has the classic rounded square-ish display of Apple’s smartwatch, but the dimensions are different and the side button is in a completely different place.

Its display glass looks great in photos, particularly when papped with a wide aperture lens, but don’t come to the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro expecting it to drip in that luxurious smartwatch sense of quality. The casing is plastic, and the side button’s click feels cheap. This isn’t a rotary controller either. While the crown turns, doing so does nothing. 

However, the simple construction does lead to super-low weight. At just 35g, including strap, the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro is a watch you can forget you are wearing. In a positive sense. 

It’s a 5ATM watch too, so you’re rarely need to take it off — including when you go swimming.  

Amid all this breezy low-maintenance stuff, the screen stands out as a potential irritant. It does not have an ambient light sensor, meaning you need to manually alter the brightness level when you go out for a workout. 

You will need it maxed, too, as the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro can barely get bright enough for solid visibility on a sunny day. This is less of an issue with the OLED Honor Band 7. 

As with most more smartwatch-like designs we’ve tested at this level, the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro has an LCD screen. It’s a 1.69-inch panel of 240 x 280px pixel resolution. 

This is not a high pixel count for the screen’s size, leading to a slightly craggy appearance to menu text. However, it’s only the lack of auto brightness that grates. You’re pretty much forced to ramp up brightness when you go out for a run. And when you get back it, the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro will then look too bright indoors. 

The screen doesn’t look all that smooth when you scroll through menus either. It’s hard to tell whether this is down to the refresh rate of the screen of the frame rate of the interface, but you don’t get the smoothness of a top-tier watch. Typical of an LCD watch, there’s no “always on” mode either. This is only really suitable for OLEDs, because with an LCD like this the entire screen is lit whenever a tiny part of it is. 

It is good in other areas, though. Some of these budget watch LCD screens have fairly poor contrast, and a too-high black floor, making the black areas of the screen appear to glow. Not so here. It takes a pretty dim room to highlight this definitely isn’t an OLED. 

  • Design score: 4/5

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro: Features

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro

(Image credit: Andrew Williams)
  • Very basic smartwatch-style features
  • Solid use of the display for data visualisation
  • Full GPS

We reviewed the Amazfit GTR 4 recently. It tries to further blur the lines between simple fitness watches and true smartwatches. The Amazfit Bip 3 Pro isn’t one of these. It’s a classic health and fitness watch with some smart basics, like message notifications, alarms and weather reports. It can also control music played on your phone, but not play music directly. 

Simple as it sounds, the diversity of the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro’s watch faces is one of its top features. There are loads available through the Zepp phone app. And while some are paid downloads, we counted 74 freebies. It gives you much greater control over the personality of your watch. In one face the time is displayed on a zombie’s rotting teeth, for example. Charming. 

Amazfit squeezes the usual array of metrics out of the relatively simple combo of motion sensors, and an optical heart rate reader. It records heart rate 24/7, can take blood oxygen readings on command, will track your sleep and stress, and count daily steps.

There are also some features that don’t really on daily data. You can set up to-do lists in the Zepp app, and tick them off on the watch. There are simple guided breathing exercises and the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro can also track menstrual cycles. But it appears to be based on following your established pattern, rather than the smart body temperature method used in an Apple Watch Series 8. 

You can use the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro to set off an alarm on your phone too, should you misplace it. 

Notifications is probably the feature we’ve appreciated most, though. The 1.69-inch screen offers a decent amount of space to see the top line info of emails and messages. You can’t reply to anything, and once dismissed notification cards are gone. But that’s the fundamentals covered at least. 

The Amazfit Bip 3 Pro does not have an altimeter, to count flights of stairs. There are no ECG readings on offer. However, the large screen does let Amazfit dress up the fitness watch essentials to look smart. For example, when you tap on the heart rate screen you will see a graph detailing the entire day’s readings as a data-packed graph. 

Useful? That’s up for debate, but this wouldn’t be feasible on a truly tiny-screened wearable. The Bip 3 Pro also has lots of exercise tracking modes, 61 one of them, but most are identical in practice, just showing your heart rate and a calorie estimate. 

  • Features score: 3/5

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro: Performance

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro

(Image credit: Andrew Williams)
  • Good location tracking
  • Frequently patchy heart rate readings
  • Long battery life

Amazfit says the Bip 3 Pro can last up to 14 days of light use, a week of heavier use. We found it lasts around 10 days with our kind of lighter use, six and a bit days with an hour of GPS tracked exercise on most days. 

45 minutes of GPS tracking took 4% off the battery, suggesting you may be able to get 16 hours of tracking out of a full charge. 

Looking a little deeper at the recorded exercise results, the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro has two sides. Its GPS location tracking is surprisingly great. It is not too slow to triangulate for a budget watch (perhaps 10-20 seconds), and its distance results were eerily similar to those of a Garmin Forerunner 965 — a watch that costs eight times the price. 

Over the course of an 11km run, the two watches ended up within 20m of each other.  Ridiculously close results. The watch does not have any particularly special GPS skills, with support for four satellite arrays — GPS, Galileo, QZSS and GLONASS. However, the quality of this   feature justifies the $20/£20 bump over the standard Bip 3, which lacks full GPS.

The heart rate reader’s performance is much more mixed. We found its all-day readings to often be way off the mark, featuring far too high spikes of 110bpm and up after just heading to the kitchen to grab a glass of water or make a coffee. 

Results during exercise were also quite messy. The first few minutes of recording are typically poor, which is quite normal for lower-end wrist-worn hardware. Readings throughout an hour-long run were also peppered with a few odd spikes there the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro was 15-20bpm off the mark.

This led to the Amazfit Bip 3 Pro recording inaccurate maximum heart rate readings during more easygoing mid-week workouts. But it’s not a total bust. 

The Amazfit Bip 3 Pro did not flat-out miss any exertion spikes in a mixed intensity workout, and aside from a dubious first five minutes, its general readings were not too wide of the mark. After an hour-long session its average reading was only 2bpm higher than that of a Garmin Forerunner 965. 

  • Performance score: 3.5/5

Amazfit Bip 3 Pro: Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Don’t worry: The Little Mermaid nails the songs, and that’s what matters
4:00 pm | May 22, 2023

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: , | Comments: Off

Each time Disney reaches back into its vast animation archive and says “let’s live action… this one!” to add to its roster of Disney Plus movies, there’s often a collection of groans online. Why? What’s the point? And just because you can, does it mean you should? The results are extremely varied  – for every Jungle Book (2016), there’s a Pinocchio (2022) – and would seem to point in the direction that perhaps some charming animated adventures are better off just staying in that format. 

So hats off to director Rob Marshall (Chicago, Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), for undertaking perhaps one of the trickiest Disney films to translate into “real-life”: the underwater musical about singing mythical sea creatures. He told TechRadar that, on a scale of 1 to 10 of how daunting the project was at the beginning, it was an “11”, but through four years worth of CGI, puppetry, live-action acting, stunts and other movie magic, he’s made the underwater world come alive, just as the original 1989 The Little Mermaid imagined.

There’s always the fear that, like Tom Hooper’s 2019 film of Cats, these anthropomorphized creatures, in the flesh, will be incredibly creepy. But these mer-people are truly a staggering sight to behold, flipping, swimming and diving around in apparent zero-gravity underwater, while the story around them unfolds.

Halle Bailey shines as the titular lead, Ariel, who is essentially a classic rebellious teen who wants to go and hang out with boys, except she lives 20,000 leagues under the sea and is a different species; plus her dad – the mighty Javier Bardem, adding his heavyweight acting chops to proceedings – is King Triton, who doesn’t want her having anything to do with those nasty humans, particular since we think they may have killed Ariel’s mother.

Ariel sings while laying on a rock in The Little Mermaid

Halle Bailey belts out the hits perfectly as Ariel. (Image credit: Disney)

When Ariel sings her siren song, or any of the original tracks by Alan Menken, it’s instantly obvious why Bailey (one half of the Chloe X Halle musical duo) landed the role: her incredible vocal skills. It’s a joy to hear her soar on 'Part Of Your World', and Menken’s collaboration with Hamilton and Moana hotshot Lin-Manuel Miranda has helped update the other classics, as well as freshening things up for the new-gen with three new songs. Here, Scuttle the seagull (played with gusto by Awkwafina) gets her own snappy song, while the heartthrob Prince Eric (played by Jonah Hauer-King) is given a chance to flesh out his character as an intrepid explorer with 'Wild Uncharted Waters'.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Disney without the arrival of a malevolent family member hell-bent on the downfall of others. Step up Ursula the sea witch, brought into full grotesque glory by Melissa McCarthy. She leans fully into the camp villain role, slithering around her sunken sea lair, tentacles creepily curling around, as she makes her famous devil’s pact with Ariel. 

McCarthy lends the air of darkness that’s needed to counterbalance the sweet, cutesy nature of the bubbling love story, which culminates in quite a frightening and ferocious battle between good and evil. As the somewhat heavy handed moral of the story seems to suggest, ultimately we should be more accepting of people who are different to us, even if that means making good with mythical creatures under the sea.

Where the film excels is the recreation of some of the classic songs-as-spectaculars. The 'Under The Sea' (sung by Sebastian the crab; the highly entertaining Daveed Diggs) sequence is the stand-out, as well as being a great rendition of probably the most famous song of the film (and possible the whole Disney canon). 

While Digg’s version is spot-on, it’s the matching visuals of the song that will truly blow viewers away: colorful blooms of sea creatures dancing around; shoals of tropical fish exploding across the screen like deep-sea fireworks.

King Triton looks menacingly at something in The Little Mermaid

Bardem as King Triton adds just the right level of gravitas. (Image credit: Disney)

The out-of-water scenes are a little less enthralling, and the spell slightly gets broken towards the end when the merpeople rise above sea level. Out in the harsh daylight, the costumes and accessories appear slightly cheapened, as opposed to the shimmering majestic appearance underwater. 

And with the film clocking in at two hours – almost 40 minutes more than the original animation – it might have a few people, especially kids, itching for it to end a little sooner. That space hasn't been filled with more jokes or extra-fun touches, despite the additional songs – much like The Lion King (2019), it just seems to have ballooned.

But for fans of the original and for a new generation of viewers, the movie works as a fantastical new journey into one of Disney’s most loved stories.

  • The Little Mermaid is in movie theaters in the UK and US on May 26, 2023.
  • It is expected to arrive on Disney Plus later in 2023
Lenovo Legion Pro 5i review: a solid gaming laptop
8:00 pm | May 19, 2023

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Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Two-minute review

Unlike the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i that was released earlier this year, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is a much more affordable gaming laptop that offers excellent performance for its price point. It comes in two separate types: the Legion Pro 5i outfitted with an Intel CPU and the Legion Pro 5 which comes with an AMD CPU. 

Both versions use an Nvidia 4000-series GPU, as AMD The cheapest configuration you can nab without having to customize one yourself is about $1,259.99 / £1,410 (including VAT) / AU$2,499, which is far more affordable than most of the best gaming laptops on the market while still commanding respectable specs.

Just as many of the other desktop replacements we’ve seen in 2023, this one comes in the standard black color with nothing particularly interesting about its shape and design. The chassis feels decently sturdy, with a nice metal finish on the top of the laptop. Opening it, the keyboard keys are more uniquely shaped, with a roundness to them you normally don’t see. It makes typing a bit weird at first until you adjust to it. The trackpad is pretty solid in terms of sensitivity, and I’m always a fan of mechanical feedback versus haptic feedback.

It has an excellent, well-balanced 16-inch WQXGA (2560x1600) display, with a choice to upgrade to HDR and from 165Hz to 240Hz refresh rate. For most gamers, the difference doesn’t matter, and if you’re purchasing this laptop in particular to save money, then you can do without the pricier upgrade. I also enjoy the fact that there’s a manual switch to turn the webcam off and on, which is lacking in the vast majority of laptops, though I wish it linked up to a physical shutter instead.

There are two downsides to the Legion Pro 5i, however. The first is the audio, specifically how low it is. Of course, you could mitigate this by simply using a headset, but the fact that the speakers are so quiet compared to every other laptop I’ve reviewed in 2023 so far is a huge inconvenience. The second issue is the placement of the keyboard and trackpad. Both feel like they’re too far to the left,  requiring you to adjust to the orientation. Until you do, typos and mis-presses are commonplace. This isn’t much of an issue if you use a controller or mouse, but for those who use a keyboard for gaming or productivity work, this could be an issue.

I received two personal review units — the first came with the Intel Core  i7-13700HX and the second with an AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX. Both come with an Nvidia GPU, as AMD hasn’t yet released gaming laptops with mobile processors. The Intel and AMD CPUs are mostly comparable in theory but in practice, the Ryzen 7 7745HX completely blows the i7-13700HX out of the water in every benchmark.

Despite these differences, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i’s gaming performance is excellent, handling any of the best PC games easily, including Cyberpunk 2077 at max settings and ray tracing on while maintaining 60fps on average. Other titles like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered also look and run great, with very little slowdown at max settings. The former is able to lock in at 60fps when the option is chosen, while the latter consistently stays above that with the proper frame rate settings.

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Price & availability

closeup of keys

(Image credit: Future)
  • Starting at $1,259.99 / £1,410 (including VAT) / AU$2,499
  • Available now 
  • Available in the US and UK, and Australia

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i sits firmly in the affordable market of gaming laptops — never quite dipping down to budget levels but still a well-rounded choice for those wanting great gaming performance for a solid price. The price is especially impressive for a gaming laptop with a 4000-series GPU and a 13th Gen CPU.

It’s available in the US, UK, and Australia, with a nice range of configurations for each region. The US has the most choices, with several models available for purchase as well as an option to customize your laptop, while the UK and Australia only have the preset models.

It’s difficult to compare to other gaming laptops in the 2023 market, as many of them are meant to either be super expensive desktop replacements or ultra-cheap laptops. The Legion Pro 5i is meant as an affordable option that sits in mid-range pricing. The closest are the Alienware m18 and the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, which are nearly double the price but feature the best specs in return.

  • Price score: 5 / 5

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Specs

closeup of stickers

(Image credit: Future)

The specs for the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i review unit sent to me are as follows: Intel Core  i7-13700HX CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GDDR6 GPU, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 512GB SSD of storage, and a 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) display with 100% sRGB, 300 nits, and 165Hz.

I was also sent a Lenovo Legion Pro 5 for comparison, which features the following specs: AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 8GB GDDR6 GPU, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 512GB SSD of storage, and a 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) display with 100% sRGB, 300 nits, and 165Hz.

Like the Pro 7, the Legion Pro 5 comes in two main types: the Legion Pro 5i outfitted with an Intel CPU, and the Legion Pro 5 with an AMD CPU. The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i comes in several configurations depending on the region. The main difference in configurations will have you choose between Intel Core i5-13500HX and i9-13900HX CPUs, between the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 and RTX 4070 GPUs, RAM, storage, and displays.

Only those in the US can configure their laptop based on several specs. Those in the UK and Australia can only choose from the available models, with no customization options.

  • Specs score: 4.5 / 5

a closed black laptop

(Image credit: Future)

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Design

  • Plain looks
  • Great port selection
  • Great display, average keyboard and touchpad
  • The sound is very low

Like many affordably priced gaming laptops, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is rather plain looking from the outside. Its chassis has a nice metal finish, and its weight is hefty but not unmanageable. The size of the display makes it a little tricky to carry around in bags, but a large enough one won’t struggle with the five-pound weight as well.

It has an excellent port selection with a wide selection of slots including four USB Type-A ports, two USB Type-C (both with DisplayPort 1.4), one HDMI port, one ethernet port, one headphone/microphone combo jack, and one power connector. 

Many of the ports are located in the back but are thankfully labeled, making it a breeze to know which port is what without having to turn around the laptop. Unfortunately, there’s no SD card reader, which is a shame as that’s one of the most useful ports for a laptop to have.

Image 1 of 4

closeup of ports

(Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 4

closeup of ports

(Image credit: Future)
Image 3 of 4

closeup of keyboard

(Image credit: Future)
Image 4 of 4

closeup of ports

(Image credit: Future)

The display is a thin-bezel beauty 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) with its brightness between 300 to 500 nits, 100% sRGB coverage for creatives and editors (which pairs perfectly with the gaming-level GPU and CPU), and a choice of either 165Hz or 240Hz refresh rate, as well as a screen that supports HDR. 

It would be nice if the HDR support was included and we had a choice for an OLED screen instead, which many other gaming laptops have been offering. Rounding that out is a handy manual switch on the side for the largely average webcam, which is always preferable to a key press, but a physical shutter for the camera would have made things even sweeter.

Though I always appreciate the RGB backlighting of the keyboard and the unique shape of the keys that afford more space to type on, the keyboard and touchpad are positioned in an odd way. They’re a little more to the left than normal, which requires a period of adjustment that can cause mistyping and missed presses on the touchpad in the meantime. This could be an issue for those who heavily rely on both for work and gaming. Otherwise, feedback from the keys and pad is perfectly serviceable and shouldn’t hamper gamers who use a controller and gaming mouse instead.

Ventilation is probably the biggest issue with this laptop, which is strange considering it has more than enough vents. The largest ones are located at the bottom – a standard gaming laptop design, but for some reason, they aren’t quite up to snuff when it comes to encouraging airflow properly. I found myself having to prop up the laptop using the cable itself, giving it just enough wiggle room to cool down. You may have to invest in a cooling pad or prop if you have these issues too.

  • Design score: 4 / 5

a black laptop

(Image credit: Future)

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Performance

  • Gaming performance is excellent
  • CPU performance is fine 
  • But underperforms in benchmarks
Alienware m18: Benchmarks

Here's how the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Night Raid: 52,244; Fire Strike: 21,729; Time Spy: 8,869; Port Royal: 4,834
GeekBench 5: 1,825 (single-core); 8,126 (multi-core)
Cinebench R23 Multi-core:
10,450 points
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 80 fps; (1080p, Low): 227 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 44 fps; (1080p, Low): 63 fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 40 fps; (1080p, Low): 131 fps
25GB File Copy: 15.0
Handbrake 1.6: 3:37
CrossMark: Overall: 2,017 Productivity: 1,916 Creativity: 2,148 Responsiveness: 1,945
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 6,854 points
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 3 hours, 28 minutes

At this point, it’s difficult to directly compare the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i to other gaming laptops in 2023, as most of them are running on high-end GPUs like the RTX 4070, 4080, and 4090. However, comparing benchmark scores between those and last-gen laptops give us a better range of how well the Legion Pro 5i performs. I’ve found that the RTX 4060 scores quite high on its own merits, far surpassing the 3000-series and merely 30K points behind the two most powerful GPUs.

This, in turn, is well reflected in its general gaming performance and frame rate stability. When maxing out Cyberpunk 2077’s settings and turning on both tray-racing and DLSS 3, the laptop was able to maintain a stable 60fps. On Final Fantasy VII Remake, I chose to lock in gameplay at 60fps while maxing out the graphic setting, and it ran beautifully with no slowdown to speak off. And Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered also runs incredibly well, staying above 60fps at all times, even during the more intensive web-swinging sections.

Testing out the Intel Core  i7-13700HX CPU, however, and the results aren’t nearly as impressive. Benchmark scores across the board for the 13th Gen Core i7 are far lower than any of the laptops with a 13th Gen Core i9. Even worse, many of the scores are comparable to the 12th Gen CPUs. I also tested out the AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU in my other review unit, and in benchmarks like Geekbench, Cinebench, and PCMark10 the results were definitively superior to the i7-13700HX. 

When testing out how this translated to creative and productivity performance, however, I found no slowdown or sluggishness in either model, with responsiveness that never waivered no matter how many tasks were going off at once. But if you’re looking for which is the better-performing processor, the AMD version is the way to go. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test which version has the better-performing Nvidia 4000-series GPU, since the Legion Pro 5 uses a 4070 instead of the 4060 in the Legion Pro 5i.

  • Performance score: 4 / 5

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Battery

closeup of time and battery display

(Image credit: Future)
  • Terrible battery life
  • Charges fast

I regret to inform you that, as with most other desktop replacement gaming laptops, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i’s battery life is horrible. At most, it lasts about three and a half hours for productivity and creative work, less than half a standard workday and about the same amount of time if you’re streaming videos or movies instead. 

Keeping this baby plugged in at all times is the way to go, especially for intensive gaming sessions that will drain the power even faster. Its saving grace is the fast charge time, which will give you a full battery in about an hour. 

  • Battery score: 2.5 / 5

Should you buy the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i?

Buy it if...

You need great gaming performance
For its pricing, the gaming performance is quite great, maintaining a solid framerate even on the highest settings.

Don't buy it if...

You need a high-volume audio system
For some reason, the audio is extremely low and you'll most likely have to purchase a headset or headphones to get anything adequate.

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i: Also consider

If the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...

How I tested the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i

  • I tested two models of the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 for several weeks
  • I tested it using both benchmark tests and video game benchmarks
  • I stress-tested the battery using the TechRadar movie test

First, I tested the general weight and portability of the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i by carrying it around in a laptop bag for a day. After I set it up, I ran several CPU and GPU benchmarks to thoroughly test out the graphics card's performance and how much it affected processing performance. Finally, I used a variety of programs and applications to test out both battery life and general performance during work-like conditions, as well as gaming benchmarks to test the RTX 4060 GPU.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i is an average desktop replacement for gaming, meaning it's meant to be used for hardcore gaming sessions. I made sure to thoroughly test out this laptop in that regard, to make sure it reached certain levels of performance. I also tested out the CPU to see how it fared against the current competition.

I've tested plenty of gaming PCs and laptops, making me more than qualified to understand benchmark test results and how to properly stress test machines to see how well they perform as a work machine.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed May 2023

OnePlus Pad is finally available in the UK and the EU
3:53 am |

Author: admin | Category: Mobile phones news | Tags: , | Comments: Off

The OnePlus Pad was initially announced back in February, and pre-orders started before its pricing was even revealed. That happened on April 25, and on that day the company said it would become available on April 28 in India and Europe. Well, not quite. It turns out that the OnePlus Pad is only now available for open sale in the UK and the EU, from today. The company sent us a press release detailing the development. As you may already know, the OnePlus Pad is available in only one version, in Halo Green, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. In the Eurozone, it's priced at €499,...

Weekly deals: the best smartphone deals from the US, the UK, Germany and India
2:01 pm | May 14, 2023

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Google launched the new Pixel 7a in multiple countries around the world and in some places it is a better pick than the Pixel 7. Not everywhere, though, the older model has fallen to a similar price in a few places. In the US, there’s a gift for Mother’s Day, plus cheap older flagships from Samsung and OnePlus. In India, the iQOO 11 price is starting to fall, but the gaming phone got unexpected competition as the PS5 also got cheaper. Use the links below to jump to your region: USA Germany The UK India USA For Mother’s Day, Samsung is offering a free...

Honor Magic Vs arrives in the UK for GBP1,399
2:03 am | May 12, 2023

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The Honor Magic Vs was announced in November 2022 to the Chinese audience and later began its global journey in February 2023 during MWC in Barcelona. Today, Honor revealed the foldable is finally reaching the United Kingdom with a price tag of £1,399. The foldable will go on sale on May 19 at the company website in Cyan and Black colors. A week later, it will hit Amazon, Argos, and Very, where only the latter color option will be available. According to the official press release, the carrier Three will also offer the Magic Vs in Early June with 6-month free airtime on Unlimited data...

Dell XPS 15 (2023) review: a well-rounded Ultrabook that pales to its predecessor
8:00 pm | May 6, 2023

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Dell XPS 15 (2023): Two-minute review

The Dell XPS 15 (2023) laptop is a refresh of the phenomenal version from 2022, which scored a perfect five out of five stars from us. But while the 2023 model has mostly stayed the same in terms of design and offerings, there are some key differences between the two, both good and bad. 

From the outside, you see the same light silver chassis that sets it apart from many of the other best Ultrabooks. Though it feels comparable to the best light and thin laptops in terms of weight, the chassis still has a nice, hefty feeling to it. It’s also the exact same chassis from the previous model, which was also a work of art. It only makes sense not to alter a design that served it so well.

Opening it up, we also run into very familiar territory. Just like the 2022 version, this one has a thin bezel, with the areas surrounding the keyboard and touchpad a pleasant black matte texture that’s satisfying to the touch. The keys are still nice and wide, fitting for most fingers, and the touchpad itself is the mechanical type that gives you a sense of feedback, even though it's softened enough for there not to be an audible click. I personally miss it but others might not so it’s purely subjective.

Just like what was detailed in our Dell XPS 15 (2022) review, the 2023 model’s display is a stunning 15.6-inch HD+ screen, with a choice between FHD+ (1920 x 1200) or OLED 3.5K (3456x2160). The port selection is quite good as well, offering pretty much everything you need including Type-C and Type-A USB ports, an HDMI port, an SD slot, an audio jack, and more. It is missing an ethernet port, and having only one Type-A port pulls it away from perfection. Its audio quality is absolute perfection, however, delivering rich sound from its dual speakers. I would even go so far as to say this is a major area that the 2023 model improved over its predecessor.

Just as with any Dell laptop, there are a wide variety of configurations and specs to choose from, depending on what your needs are. This makes it quite balanced in terms of performance, as it handles pretty much any productivity or creative tasks thrown at it. It also shares with the 2022 version the ability to game at higher GPU specs, with the 2023 version having the added bonus of being able to ray-trace. 

However, the GPUs seem to be lower-powered in some aspects compared to the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra, which features an RTX 4050, and there are benchmark tests that scored even less than the 2022 XPS 15. That leaves us to wonder if the Dell XPS 15 (2023) is worth the upgrade.

Dell XPS 15 (2023): Price & availability

closeup of keyboard

(Image credit: Future)
  • Starting at $2,799 / £2,649 / AU$4,500.10
  • Available now
  • Available in the US, the UK, and Australia

The starting price for the Dell XPS 15 at the basic configurations is $1,499 / £1,498.99 / AU$2,498.10, which is equipped with an Intel Arc A370M. And though the Arc A370M is a budget gaming GPU, if you want a higher-end model the starting price for an XPS 15 with an RTX 4050 is $1,899 / £1,849 / AU$2,998.60. 

The review unit sent to me is even more expensive than that, at $2,799 / £2,649 / AU$4,500.10, with this one equipped with a GeForce RTX 4070. In general, this laptop is quite pricey even by Ultrabook standards. And though we don’t consider the XPS 15 a gaming laptop, it’s more affordable than many other options.

When compared with its current direct competitors, like the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2023) or the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra, its starting pricing is more affordable but quickly ramps as you go for higher configurations. But the Galaxy Book3 Ultra is still a bit pricier at higher specs as well, so if cost is what’s most important to you then the XPS 15 is your choice. 

On the other hand, the M2 MacBook Pro 16-inch is just under the XPS 15 in the US and Australia (and barely over in the UK) and blows away the latter in both Geekbench and Cinebench benchmarks, so the performance for creative and productive work there is superior. Of course, you’re giving up most PC gaming in return, so if that’s important to you then the latter is the better choice. Overall, it boils down to what your needs are. 

As always with Dell products, this laptop is readily available in the US, UK, and Australia. And the available configurations are the same across the board for the most part, so no one region is left out regarding what a buyer can choose from.

  • Price score: 4 / 5

Dell XPS 15 (2023): Specs

closeup of keyboard and touchpad

(Image credit: Future)

The specs for the Dell XPS 15 (2023) review unit sent to me are as follows: Intel Core i7-13700H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, 32GB of RAM, 1TB storage, and a 15.6-inch OLED 3.5K resolution screen. 

It also comes in several configurations that are customizable by the buyer. You can choose up to an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU, an RTX 4070 GPU, 64GB of RAM, 8TB of storage, and an OLED 3.5K display. Interestingly enough, the 3.5K version has 400 nits of brightness while the FHD+ (1920 x 1200) version has 500 nits.

The only real difference between regional configurations is that the UK model can’t go over 4TB while the US and Australian models can go up to 8GB. There are also some slight differences, like the Core i9 CPU only being available with certain other specs.

  • Specs score: 5 / 5

Dell XPS 15 (2023): Design

silver laptop sitting on purple desk

(Image credit: Future)
  • Beautiful, sturdy design
  • Great display, keyboard, and touchpad
  • Incredible audio quality

The Dell XPS 15 (2023) is a very lovely Ultrabook to look at, with a light silver chassis that glimmers in the light. Its weight is a little over four pounds or just under two kilograms, but its form factor is well-balanced so you don’t feel it, even when transporting it around in a bag. It has a nice heft to it as well, a nice solid build that promises to resist damage over time. 

On the inside is a black carbon fiber palm rest that has a great texture to it, as well as serving the practical purpose of keeping cool and preventing sweat build-up. The keyboard has nice wide keys that work well for people with larger fingers or conditions that require such, but I wish there was backlighting for late-at-night typing. The mechanical touchpad has great visceral feedback with every click, though I wish there was that audible click to match it.

The display is gorgeous, with both the FHD+ (1920 x 1200) or OLED 3.5K (3456x2160) being viable choices. But if you can, I would recommend you spend the extra money for the OLED version as it’s absolutely stunning to look at and everything, from games to creative works, to video and image projects, truly pop.

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silver laptop sitting on purple desk

(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
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silver laptop sitting on purple desk

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keyboard and touchpad

(Image credit: Future)

There’s a nice variety in port selection, including one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with DisplayPort, two Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2) ports, one headset (headphone and microphone combo) port, one SD slot, and one wedge-shaped lock slot. It is missing an ethernet port, which seems to be becoming the norm among laptops but no less disappointing if you wanted to plug up your machine for a stable internet connection.

What blew me away was the audio quality, which is some of the best I’ve ever heard from any laptop, including plenty of gaming laptops. The stereo woofers located on each side of the keyboard retain full sound quality at any volume, even when maxed out, the bass is incredible, and its audio clarity (which allows you to hear different elements clearly) is impeccable.

  • Design score: 4 / 5

Dell XPS 15 (2023): Performance

silver laptop sitting on purple desk

(Image credit: Future)
  • Great all-around performance
  • Underpowered GPU
  • Can perform ray-tracing
Dell XPS 15 (2023): Benchmarks

Here's how the Dell XPS 15 (2023) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Night Raid: 25,710; Fire Strike: 16,782; Time Spy: 7,124; Port Royal: 4,712
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 8,088 points
GeekBench 5: 1,778 (single-core); 8,667 (multi-core)
25GB File Copy: 13
Handbrake 1.6: 5:01
CrossMark: Overall: 1,906 Productivity: 1,790 Creativity: 2,130 Responsiveness: 1,650
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 7,496
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 8 hours, 3 minutes
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm: (1080p, Ultra): 69 fps; (1080p, Low): 115 fps
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 90 fps; (1080p, Low): 216 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 23 fps; (1080p, Low): 61 fps

The higher specs you can choose from allow it to churn out consistently high performance that essentially makes it a gaming laptop in everything but in name. It even has ray-tracing capabilities, though not very impressive compared to actual gaming rigs but it’s still there. And as for productivity and creative work, I found that it performed smoothly with no slowdown or struggle to speak of. Even during intensive work or play, the ventilation system did its job well and prevented the laptop from overheating.

However, benchmark testing tells a different story. When comparing some scores for tests like 3D Mark’s Time Spy and Fire Strike, the XPS 15 2023 beats out the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra and the XPS 15 2022 handily. But in other benchmarks like Night Raid, Cinebench R23, and GeekBench 5, either the scores match or are actually lower. This means that despite this being a 4070 GPU, it’s most likely a lower-powered one, which means that you’re getting a current-gen card that matches the 4050 of the Galaxy Book3 Ultra and even the 3050 Ti of the 2022 XPS 15.

Gameplay-wise, those benchmark scores play out in performance just as you’d think they would – mainly that the framerate is either barely higher than in the previously mentioned laptops, or in a few cases lower. Granted, for an Ultrabook you’re getting surprisingly good performance even with games like Cyberpunk 2077, but it feels almost misleading that you’re paying for a higher-end GPU and getting something not much better than last-gen’s offerings.

  • Performance score: 4 / 5

Dell XPS 15 (2023): Battery

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(Image credit: Future)
  • Not bad but could be better
  • Charges fast

The battery life on the Dell XPS 15 (2023) isn’t bad per se, as it’ll almost carry you through the average eight-hour work day when using it for regular work, and just over that mark when it becomes a video streaming machine. But compared to the stellar battery life of the Dell XPS 15 (2022), this one definitely falls short. Most likely, it’s due to the 4000-series GPUs, as they seem to be battery drainers on every level. Still, it’s still a bit disappointing that you need to plug it in before your work day is over.

Thankfully it charges very quickly, reaching full charge in just under an hour when I tested it. Even more impressive is that it manages this even with the default low-powered AC adapter, which is most likely thanks to the Thunderbolt 4 charger.

  • Battery score: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Dell XPS 15 (2023)?

Buy it if...

You want a lightweight laptop
Most likely the lightest laptop I ever reviewed, it's like lifting air. You won't feel anything at all carrying it around, even with such a large screen size.

You want a laptop with a great variety in specs
The choice of configurations is top-notch, with tons of different components, two displays, and more to really customize your Ultrabook.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget
This is an Ultrabook through and through and it's steeply priced as such, especially as you start to upgrade the specs.

Dell XPS 15 (2023): Also consider

If the Dell XPS 15 (2023) has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...

How I tested the Dell XPS 15 (2023)

  • I tested the Dell XPS 15 (2023) for about a week
  • I tested it using a variety of productivity applications and video games
  • I stress-tested the battery using the TechRadar movie test

First, I tested the general weight and portability of the Dell XPS 15 (2023) by carrying it around in a laptop bag. After I set it up, I ran several benchmarks to thoroughly test out the processor and graphics card. Finally, I used a variety of programs and applications to test out both battery life and general performance during work-like conditions. 

The Dell XPS 15 (2023) is an Ultrabook that's meant to be both a portable laptop with a thin and light chassis, as well as an excellent productivity machine. I spent a good amount of testing not only on performance issues but looking for any ventilation issues. I also tested out battery life to see how long it could last off AC power.

I've tested plenty of gaming PCs and laptops, making me more than qualified to understand benchmark test results and how to properly stress test machines to see how well they perform as a work machine.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed May 2023

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