As the news has been, new game releases means more driver updates. Alongside game ready support for more titles this week and a fix we also get a heads up on some key issues.

In this driver release brings us to the release 367 of the graphics drivers. In this round NVIDIA fixed an issue under Windows 10 where Tom Clancy’s The Division exhibited stuttering after 20 to 30 minutes. NVIDIA states elsewhere in the report that in the R367 and future driver releases that Crescent Bay and OSVR development kits will not work in NVIDIA VRWorks Direct Mode in systems containing GPUs from multiple vendors (e.g. NVIDIA and Intel). NVIDIA recommends disabling any GPUs from other vendors from inside the BIOS in order to use Direct Mode. NVIDIA also mentioned in the release notes that issues were found with Total War: Warhammer during testing. NVIDIA say’s they are working closely with Creative Assembly to resolve the issues that were found. They recommend running the newest drivers and latest game updates to ensure the best possible experience.

NVIDIA is of course providing updated support for multiple games this week. At the top of the list is this week’s release of Overwatch. With this new release NVIDIA also took the liberty to test out and provide hardware recommendations for those preparing themselves for release. With this data taken at face value it sounds like Overwatch will be easy enough to run with performance ranging from an average of 60fps at 1080p medium on the GTX 950 to an average of 60fps on High at 4K with a 980Ti. World of Tanks and War Thunder will also be receiving optimizations to coincide with their latest updates.

Anyone interested can download the updated drivers through GeForce Experience or on the NVIDIA driver download page. More information on this update and further issues can be found in the 368.22 release notes.

New technologies come along, new games release, things break, and developers fix them. As this cycle continues we are brought to this latest update from AMD which gives us fixes in the Crossfire and XConnect departments, along with optimizations for new and updated games.

AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.5.3 brings the Driver Version to 16.20.1013. With this release some fixed issues include crossfire fixes such as stutter while playing in Fallout 4 and texture flickering found when playing The Division with Crossfire enabled. Moving on to Radeon Settings, the utility may be removed from the system if the Radeon Software installer is launched while Radeon Settings is open. Also among the fixes is AMD XConnect which, though still young, is being improved as well. With Intel’s new Skull Canyon NUC there were stability issues which are now fixed, and a BSOD caused while Safe unplugging with AMD XConnect has now been fixed.

Among the latest to receive game specific optimizations from AMD are Total War: Warhammer and Overwatch which are both being released this week. Dota 2 is also recieving renewed optimisation for releasing a beta version of Vulkan support.

As always, those interested in reading more or installing the updated hotfix drivers for AMD’s desktop, mobile, and integrated GPUs can find them either under the driver update section in Radeon Settings or on AMDs Radeon Software Crimson Edition download page.

Arteris is a little mentioned company which we haven't had the opportunity to cover in the past, yet they provide IP for one of the most important parts of a modern SoCs: the various internal interconnects. Today's system-on-chips are compromised of dozens of different subsystems harbouring different kind of IP blocks which each have their specialised functions and purpose. Last year's deep dive review of the Exynos 7420 was an attempt at trying to show an example on how some of these subsystems work in union to enable various functions of today's smartphones.

The section where I talk about the SoC's internal busses is one of the more interesting parts. Yet, at the same time, it's also one of the parts where we have the least amount of information on, as the interconnect is one of the IP blocks which remains largely transparent to the overlying SoC functionality and software. In fact, it's Arteris IP FlexNoC IP which powers most of these SoCs, at least for vendors like Samsung, HiSilicon, LG in the mobile space and many others such as MobilEye, Freescale or Renesas in sectors such as the automotive SoC space.

In recent years in particular we've been talking a lot about cache-coherency and the interconnects which enable this functionality in mobile SoCs. ARM has been especially at the forefront of the topic as big.LITTLE heterogeneous CPU systems rely on cache-coherency to enable all processors in a system to work simultaneously, so of course we've had some extensive coverage talking about the by now familiar ARM CCI products.

As heterogeneous systems become the norm and customer increasingly demand the functionality, it's a natural progression to try to expand the IP offerings to also offer a cache-coherent interconnect able to provide the same functionality as ARM's CCI (Cache Coherent Interconnect) and CCN (Cache Coherent Network) products. 

Today's announcement revolves around Arteris' new Ncore Cache Coherent Interconnect. Arteris is in an interesting position here as they already have extensive experience with interconnects, so we're curious as to how their new IP is able to differentiate from ARM's offerings. Differentation is of course the key word here as this year in particular we've seen vendors start deploying their in-house designs, such as Samsung with their SCI (Samsung Coherent Interconnect) in the Exynos 8890 or MediaTek with the MCSI (MediaTek Coherent System Interconnect) in the Helio X20.

Ncore builds on the FlexNoC interconnect IP in that it relies on a lightweight switch-based fabric. In contrast, ARM's CCI is based on a crossbar architecture. One of the advantages of the former lies in the physical implementation of the interconnect as the packet-based network is able to use far less wires than an AXI-based crossbar. An 128-bit bidirectional AXI interface which is what we typically find requires 408 physical wires while the same data-width based on Arteris' internal protocol requires less at only 300 to 362 wires (depending on configuration).

The advantage of Ncore being largely based on FlexNoC means that vendors have large flexibility in terms of implementation configuration. When a vendor licenses Ncore, they also use a FlexNoC license. One example which Arteris presented is that the vendor can then implement a coherent interconnect "overlaying" a non-coherent interconnect, with the other possibility being to implement the two as two separate entities. It wasn't exactly clear what the exact differences between the two options are, but we're likely talking about actual physical layout of the interconnects.

Physical layout is definitely one of the aspects that Arteris seems to be confident on being able to differentiate from the competition as they promise better layout and routing flexibility when compared to other solutions. This allows vendors to achieve better overall SoC block layout and possibly enable gains in performance, power and most importantly, die area.

Ncore's components are composed of a few key blocks: On the interface side we have CAIs (Coherent Agent Interfaces) which connect to the desired IP block (agent) via "ports". Ports here refers to whatever interfaces the connecting agent offers, generally we'll be talking about AMBA ACE interfaces. For use-cases which were're familiar with and taking for an example ARM's CPU or GPU products this means 128-bit ACE interfaces. I asked how one would implement high-bandwidth agents such as ARM's Mimir GPU which can offer up to 4 ACE interfaces to the interconnect, and the solution is to simply use 4 ports to a single CAI. Multiported CAIs scale bandwidth into the CCTI with no associated bandwidth loss.

CAIs are offered in different classes depending on the supported agent protocol which can be ACE, CHI or any third-party protocols. There is a translation layer/wrapper which does the conversion from the external to the internal coherency. This seems very interesting as it allows Ncore large flexibility in terms of interoperability with other vendor's coherent systems, while for example ARM's product offerings are specialized and segregated into different categories depending on if they serve AMBA 4 ACE (CCI) or AMBA 5 CHI (CCN). CAIs are able to operate on their own clock and voltage plane for power management, and usually vendors chose to tie them to the clock and voltage plane of the connected agent / IP block. 

The central CCTI (Cache Coherent Transport Interconnect)'s transport layer is based on a simplified FlexNoC which utilizes proprietary protocols and interfaces. Again, this is a switch based architecture with fully configurable topology based on the customer's needs. It's actually hard to talk about bandwidth achieved by the interconnect as Arteris claims that the internal data-widths are fully configurable by the customer in 64, 128, 256 and in the future 512b widths, but they assured that the IP has no issues to scale up to satisfly the bandwidth requirements of fully configured CAIs.

The Coherent Memory Interfaces, or CMI's, are relatively self-explanatory. CMIs act as master interfaces on the interconnect. CMIs are also able to employ multiple ports in order to increase the memory bandwidth or to allow for flexibility between frequency and interface data widths.

NCB's are Non-Coherent Bridges which are used to interface between the coherent system and non-coherent systems or agents. NCBs are able to convert non-coherent transations into IO-coherent transations. Non-coherent traffic can be aggregated, triaged and vectored into one or multiple NCBs from non-coherent interconnect, essentially allowing for traffic shaping.

A unique feature of Ncore's NCB's are the ability for them to employ so-called proxy-caches which are able to provide pre-fetch, write-merging and ordering functionality. The caches are configurable to up to 1MB per NCB in 16-way associative spans. Arteris claims that this can be useful to offer better interoperability between blocks which can have different sizes and also offer power benefits for transactions which then no longer have to find their way all the way to DRAM. The most interesting aspect of the latter point also includes communication between two non-coherent agents which allows for a total bypass of system memory. Write-gathering can improve power by reducing the amount of main memory accesses.

Finally we can talk about Ncore's approach to snoop filters. First of all, Ncore supports directory-based snoop filters. We've talked about and explained the importance of snoop filters in coherent interconnects when ARM introduced the CCI-500 and CCI-550. Arteris' implementation differentiates in that it makes use of multiple smaller snoop filters in place of a larger monolithic filter.

Advantages of the multiple snoop filter approach lies in the reduction of die size thanks to a reduced need for storage, or in other words, SRAM, on the part of the the physical implementation. In an example detailing a 2x A72 with 4MB and an 2x A53 with 256KB cache system the advantage is around 8% if you keep the same set-associativity as the single filter option. The directory is also able to have multiple ports allowing for higher bandwidth which could improve performance of the system.

The same CPU configuration with one agent for an IO coherent GPU, one NCB with 16KB proxy cache on a TSMC 16FF+ process with SVT (standard transistor Vthreshold) libraries running at 1GHz target frequency is said to take up approximately 1.1mm². The metric doesn't include any non-coherent interconnect and is subject to a SoC's floorplan and physical design constraints.

Arteris sees Ncore continue to evolve in terms of its architectural capabilities with each new release. The latest version 1.5 of the IP which is being released this month is able to scale up to 8 fully coherent CAIs, 4 IO coherent CAIs, 4 NCBs and 6 CMIs with up to 6 snoop filters and 4 ports to the directory.

Overall Arteris' Ncore Cache Coherent Interconnect continues FlexNoC's design philosophy by enabling vendors able to use a scalable and configurable solution which offers both high performance and low power at a high area efficiency. Ncore's main advantage seems to be on the physical implementation side as Arteris promises much better layout flexibility and area efficiency. Today's SoC interconnects can take up large amounts of a chip's overall die area and recent manufacturing nodes have shown that wire scaling hasn't kept up with transistor scaling, making this an increasingly important design property that vendors have to account for, and Ncore seems to address these needs.

Over the past few months, Toshiba has started fully assimilating & integrating OCZ, the SSD business they acquired from bankruptcy in 2014. Rather than just absorb OCZ's SSD-related assets like the Indilinx SSD controllers, Toshiba kept the business relatively intact as the independently operated subsidiary OCZ Storage Solutions. The existing product lines were updated to use Toshiba NAND and OCZ drives accounted for the bulk of Toshiba's retail and consumer SSD presence.

Last year, the OCZ Trion 100 marked a shift in strategy as a Toshiba-developed drive bore OCZ branding for the first time. OCZ has continued developing their own products as well, but now the two development roadmaps are being combined, some projects have been repurposed as Toshiba products instead of OCZ products, and work is underway to reduce the overlap between the product lines.

Organizationally, OCZ is being absorbed into Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. (TAEC), though the brand and the products they develop will still be international. Later this year, TAEC will be consolidating several Silicon Valley offices onto a single campus in San Jose and their former OCZ employees will no longer work at a separate location.

The public facing OCZ name will function as a consumer-only brand which now features just three products. The Trion, Vector and RevoDrive families are all that's left and the names have been shortened to just two letters, giving a lineup of TR150, VT180 and RD400. The former two are just rebadges of existing products while the RD400 is the successor and replacement for the RevoDrive 350. Older products that are still supported but not for sale are retaining their original naming. The Toshiba brand may still be applied to some consumer SSDs particularly in markets where the OCZ brand is less well-established, so the distinction between brands won't be as clear as it is for Micron and Crucial. Where the two brands do coexist in the consumer market, expect to see OCZ used as the more enthusiast-oriented brand.

In addition to renaming the SSDs, several of OCZ's other trademarks are being replaced with more mainstream and mundane names. The OCZ SSD Guru software is now the OCZ SSD Utility and the ShieldPlus Warranty is now the Advanced Warranty Program, but both are functionally equivalent. It does appear that going forward the Advanced Warranty will be offered in fewer countries (or else OCZ drives will be sold in fewer countries), but no existing warranties are being dropped. The new OCZ web site lists fewer supported legacy products than were listed at the time of the Toshiba acquisition as still eligible for the full original warranty term. OCZ has assured me that drives like the original Vector that are still within their original warranty period are still supported, so it appears that Toshiba is just trying to avoid mentioning on their site the pre-acquisition OCZ drives that used a competitor's NAND.

The future of OCZ's enterprise products is less certain. Intrepid, Saber and Z-Drive products are still supported but are no longer for sale. It's likely that Toshiba hasn't entirely decided what to do with those product lines but if they reappear in some form they will be under the Toshiba brand with different names. Likewise, any OCZ enterprise SSD projects that haven't made it to market yet are now Toshiba enterprise SSD development projects. This area in particular might be more likely to see cancellations due to overlap between OCZ and Toshiba efforts, but we are unlikely to get much information about such inner workings from Toshiba.

For several months now, the management of Nokia has been talking about the possible return of the brand to the smartphone market, but emphasized multiple times that the corporation itself is no longer interested in producing, or selling handsets itself. On Wednesday, the future of Nokia in the world or smartphones and tablets became more or less clear: Nokia-branded Google Android-based devices are set to return in the coming quarters. However, the upcoming products will not be developed by Nokia itself, but by a brand new company called HMD Global. Let’s try to analyze what just happened and what to expect from the “new” Nokia devices.

Microsoft Departs with Feature Phone Assets for $350 Million

A little more than two years ago, Microsoft acquired Nokia’s devices and services business unit in a bid to become a sizeable supplier of smartphones and ensure that its (forthcoming) Windows 10 Mobile would be available on a top-to-bottom family of devices. Since then, the company has changed its corporate strategy, ceased to use the Nokia brand for new products, stopped development of new mainstream devices and announced plans to shrink its family of smartphones. This month the company signed an agreement to sell off its feature phone business to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Hon Hai/Foxconn Technology Group (we will call the company “Foxconn” onwards in this column just to make it short and simple). Separately, HMD Global, a private venture, got an exclusive global license to create Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets for the next ten years. Microsoft will get $350 million in cash from the two companies as a result of the deal. The transactions will enable Foxconn and HMD to build and sell feature phones, smartphones, and tablets under the Nokia brand.

Under the terms of the deal, Foxconn gets a manufacturing facility in Hanoi, Vietnam, which is used to manufacture Nokia-branded feature phones, but the future of the factory is unknown. Foxconn will also get customer contracts, critical supply agreements, sales and distribution assets which used to belong to Microsoft (and Nokia before that). HMD will get brands, intellectual property, and software which were previously sold to Microsoft. Moreover, after the deal is closed in the second half of 2016, about 4,500 employees will transfer to, or have the opportunity to join, Foxconn or HMD Global.

Nokia Networks factory in Chennai, India. Image for illustrative purposes only.

While the feature phone business does not seem to be very important for anyone right now, the acquisition of Nokia's facilities and contracts is a big deal for Foxconn. For many years, Foxconn has been trying to reduce its reliance on Apple as the primary source of its revenue. The recent acquisition of Sharp and the new deal with HMD and Nokia could help the company to improve its revenue and profitability. 

Microsoft will continue to develop Windows 10 Mobile and support Lumia devices, as well as Windows-based smartphones from other vendors, including Acer, Alcatel, HP, Trinity and VAIO. However the acquisition of Microsoft’s feature phones division demonstrates that the software giant has no plans to address the market of low-cost handsets with entry-level smartphones in the future. Just like Microsoft announced in 2014, the company will not pursue smartphone market share, but will focus on profitability and development of halo devices. Microsoft will likely apply its Surface tablet and Surface Book hybrid PC strategy to smartphones: it will produce flagship smartphones and rely on its partners to follow with more affordable models.

The Union of Three

FIH Mobile, HMD Global and Nokia Technologies on Wednesday (5/18) signed several agreements, which will enable the companies to jointly develop, manufacture and distribute Nokia-branded smartphones and tablets. What is interesting to note is that the agreements are negotiated in such a way that the three companies can only bring products to market if they work closely together. Take a look:

• HMD will become the world’s only licensee for all types of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets till 2016. Under the terms of the 2013 deal between Nokia and Microsoft, the former could develop Nokia-branded tablets and return to the market of smartphones in 2016. The rights for Nokia-branded tablets, feature phones and smartphones now belong to HMD.
• Nokia Technologies will take a seat on the five-seat board of directors of HMD. It will set compulsory brand requirements and performance-related provisions for all Nokia-branded products. Besides, it will also have certain controls over quality, design and features of the devices.
• HMD gets brands, cellular standard essential patent licenses in return for royalty payments to Nokia Technologies.
• HMD will invest $500 million over the next three years to support the global marketing of Nokia devices. The company hopes to get the money from its investors and profits from the acquired feature phone business (which means that the unit, which produces $30 - $60 handsets is still profitable).
• HMD and Nokia will have access to Foxconn's device manufacturing, supply chain and engineering capabilities as well as proprietary mobile technologies and components developed by the company.
• HMD will have full operational control of sales, marketing and distribution of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets (formally, the assets will belong to Foxconn).
• Foxconn will be exclusive manufacturer of the Nokia-branded devices.

In accordance with the current agreements, HMD will handle development of mobile phones and tablets running Google’s Android operating system under the control of Nokia. At present, the extent of collaboration between the two companies is not completely clear, however, it is evident that Nokia will have control over many aspects of the upcoming products. The latter part is important because Nokia knows how to build devices and which features to add. Moreover, Nokia will naturally keep its cellular standard essential patents, which is important as the world is gearing up for 5G networks. Thus, Nokia retains control over devices, gets royalty payments, but never takes any tangible risks.

Foxconn will be the exclusive producer of Nokia-branded smartphones and tablets. Moreover, HMD and Nokia will use its engineering resources to develop the aforementioned devices. While this may seem a tad strange, but nowadays contract manufacturers handle a substantial amount of engineering work for their clients. As a result, Nokia and HMD will not have to R&D manufacturing basics like designs of antennas, but will be able to focus on something that matters for the next generation of phones and tablets.

What Is HMD Global?

Speaking of HMD Global: one of the questions curious readers might have asked us is what is HMD Global? From what we have researched, this is now a private company which has just spent tens of millions of dollars buying feature phones brands and IP from Microsoft and planning to invest another $500 million in Nokia devices over the next three years.

HMD Global is based in Helsinki, Finland, not far away from Nokia, which is based in Espoo. The CEO of HMD is Arto Nummela, a veteran from Nokia, who worked there for 20 years from 1994 to 2014 and oversaw development of smartphones, product roadmaps, and strategic decisions. The president of HMD is Florian Seiche, another industry veteran, who used to work at Orange, HTC and Nokia, where he oversaw their businesses in EMEA. Right now, both executives of HMD Global work at Microsoft in the feature phone division. It is important that both share the same “old Nokia” culture, they know requirements of end-users and carriers and they know how to manufacture handsets. However, there is another name which cannot be ignored.

The domain name hmdglobal.com was registered on April 11, 2016, by Jean-Francois Baril. Mr. Baril is a former senior vice president and chief procurement officer of Nokia, who worked at the company from 1999 to 2012. An interesting thing from his biography is that prior to Nokia he worked as sourcing director at Compaq under the direct leadership of Tim Cook. With this background in his arsenal, Mr. Baril can definitely attract investors to his projects. According to Reuters, HMD Global is owned by Smart Connect LP, a private equity fund run by Jean-Francois Baril. In addition to Smart Connect LP, the former Nokia exec also manages Ginko Ventures and Connecting Partners SA as well as sits on the board of Vertu.

“We are impressed by the experience and expertise of the HMD management team and are committed to supporting them with our manufacturing, technology, and supply chain capabilities, to capture market opportunities together in the future,” said Vincent Tong, chairman of FIH Mobile.

Feature Phones to Open Doors to Nokia’s Smartphones

Some of Microsoft’s feature phone assets, including production facilities and supply agreements, are not likely to be a sizeable asset for Foxconn, which is the world’s largest contract maker of electronics and has its own fabs and supply contracts. The working fab in Vietnam will not hurt, though. However, assets like sales and distribution networks are hard to overestimate. These assets are something that Foxconn currently does not have and they will be instrumental in bringing Nokia devices back to the market, particularly in Asia, Africa and Europe, where the brand is still strong. Remember, Nokia’s sales organization once made the company the world’s largest supplier of mobile phones and they used to be relatively successful until Nokia’s market share collapsed as a result of the company’s decision to solely adopt Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system.

Since feature phones are hardly popular in North America and Western Europe, appropriate sales and distribution networks in these regions might have been trimmed by Microsoft (and the software company is keeping its smartphone sales/distribution assets). It is unknown whether current sales assets there are good enough at all. In the worst-case scenario, Foxconn and/or HMD will probably need to build new teams and/or relationships in several countries, which means, to start from square one in certain areas.

In any case, the vast majority of Nokia-branded products that HMD/Foxconn will offer in the second half of 2016 will be inexpensive feature phones. Therefore, for a while, the sales and distribution assets of Foxconn will naturally keep selling feature phones to their customers, who are primarily network carriers and distributors in developing countries.

While Microsoft sells tens of millions of feature phones and seems to do so profitably (at least, based on this HMD press release), industry analysts from companies like Gartner and IDC predict that such devices will be rare several years from now, even in emerging markets, as smartphones come down in cost. Still, because current users of Nokia feature phones are loyal to the brand (no one, except Nokia, addressed them properly back in the days, which is why the trademark still has a strong presence in many developing countries), HMD and Foxconn will be able to capitalize on that and offer them compelling smartphones, which should be inexpensive and easy to use, in the coming years. Therefore, the "new Nokia" will have to keep selling feature phones for a while and then introduce very affordable smartphone models. Nonetheless, inexpensive smartphones for the emerging world will definitely not be the only focus of the “new Nokia”.

What to Expect?

While there are no doubts that it is possible to hire engineers and develop feature-rich and relatively competitive smartphones based on reference designs from companies like Qualcomm, this is not what Nokia is known for. Right now, neither of the companies will reveal any details about their future plans, but there are certain things we do know already. Besides, we can make some educated guesses.

For more than a year, the management of Nokia has been talking about its interest in returning to the smartphone market with a manufacturing partner, which would license its brand and technologies. It is hard to imagine that the company was publicly discussing its return in 2016 (after the non-compete agreement with Microsoft expired) without any ongoing R&D activities. While we do not know what Nokia has been developing internally, the important thing is to consider that projects may be in the advanced stages of completion (simply because of the timing). In fact, back in 2014 the company even released its Z Launcher user interface for Android (which was later used on its tablet that is made by Foxconn). While it is plausible to think that Nokia already has something up its sleeve, it remains to be seen whether HMD/Foxconn can bring that to market by the end of the year. The CEO of HMD implied that the company would act quickly, but naturally did not elaborate.

“We will be completely focused on creating a unified range of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets, which we know will resonate with consumers,” said Arto Nummela. “We will work with world class manufacturing and distribution providers to move quickly and deliver what customers want.”

The new range of Nokia mobile phones and tablets will be based exclusively on Google Android operating system, which is not surprising. It is logical to expect Nokia to introduce its own implementation of Android as well as exclusive programs. However, from a hardware standpoint, the first wave of Nokia-branded devices will likely use platforms developed by third parties. Some of Nokia's traditional IP remains at Microsoft: the PureView camera technology (a massive sensor with an image co-processor and a set of sophisticated algorithms that “know” how to process oversampled images), ClearBlack display technology (a set of special filters on the display that can enhance blacks) and some other important assets. Which is why HMD and Foxconn (and, perhaps, Nokia?) will have to develop new technologies for high-quality imaging and displays because both features are crucial for modern handsets, especially in a competitive mid-range market. We do not expect HMD and Foxconn to introduce custom SoCs for Nokia devices anytime soon both due to technological and financial reasons. Even though Foxconn has been adding semiconductor design capabilities into its war chest for some time now, it is unlikely that the company can produce anything comparable to Mediatek's low-cost SoCs, and as a result the software will play a critical role for the new Nokia smartphones and tablets. A good news is that Nokia plans to control certain aspects of design, performance and feature-set of the devices, which could mean exclusive technologies and capabilities. Moreover, the real fruits from Nokia’s participation in the project should emerge with the roll-out of 5G networks in 2020 – 2022. Nokia is a big contributor to the standard and it could help its partners to capitalize on it.

When the Nokia N1 tablet was launched, user reviews noticed a good build quality,  performance and fine design. What they also noticed was the lack of killer features, which would have set the N1 apart from other Android-based tablets at the time. One might argue that the N1 was supposed to be inexpensive and was designed exclusively for the Chinese market, but it is important to note that the device lacked Nokia’s touch. With smartphones, Nokia used to have features like PureView, but going forward it will have to invent something else. While people are familiar with the Nokia brand, if smartphones carrying the label do not offer any breakthrough features, it will be a matter of time before HMD/Foxconn will have to engage in a price war against other smartphone vendors in a bid to gain market share.

There are many technologies that HMD, Foxconn and Nokia could bring to future smartphones and tablets carrying the brand, at the end of the day Nokia has historically been a very innovative company. However, the real big questions are which market segments they plan to address and how much money they can invest. Part of the reasons why the Nokia brand has become so popular was the company’s very broad product family, which consisted of several lineups of devices targeting different types of customers (young/active, business, fashion, luxury, etc.). A similar approach may not make a lot of sense today, but they could smartly mix utility features like waterproof cases with high-performance SoCs and stylish design. While many expect the “new Nokia” to create a strong rival for Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S (which they are likely to do as far as technology is concerned), this is hardly their primary concern. The companies will need to offer a lineup of compelling products to compete against suppliers like HTC, Huawei, Xiaomi and to appeal to those who currently use feature phones in what Mediatek call the 'Super-Mid' range. It would be interesting to see Nokia’s QWERTY, sliders and fashion phones in the future, although chances that this will happen are thin as this is currently a niche market.

Closing Thoughts

After Nokia’s (and then Microsoft’s) failed attempt to popularize Microsoft’s Windows Phone, the decision to use Google’s Android for Nokia-branded devices looks positive for many loyal customers of the company (especially those, who are currently on Android), but restricts an element of differentiation. While the adoption of Android was an inevitable decision, from many points of view it is still a way for ex-Nokia executives to reinvigorate the brand and product line. The obvious challenge is that there are far too many vendors shipping proper Android-based smartphones today. Even though Nokia still has a great brand recognition, HMD/Foxconn will have a relatively short amount of time to prove that the “new Nokia” is relevant for today’s market. Moreover, it will not be easy to sell Nokia-branded devices at a hefty premium, as it used to be a decade ago.

Making predictions regarding product lineup and business performance of the “new Nokia” is relatively rough at the moment because there are far too many variables. All we do know for sure is that Nokia has been extensively working on tweaking Google’s Android for years (first for its X-series smartphones and then for the N1 tablet), whereas Foxconn is a top performer in volume production as well as sourcing of components and materials. Besides, Nokia could give HMD and Foxconn a lot if insights regarding the forthcoming 5G.

Wrapping things up, it is most likely a good thing to see that the Nokia brand is back and that there are companies who are willing to create another supplier of volume and high-quality smartphones. However, it remains to be seen how good those products will actually be. We expect to certainly see some noise by Mobile World Congress in Q1 2017

Shipments of SSDs in the first quarter of 2016 were up 32.7% compared to the same period a year ago, according to findings of TrendFocus*, a storage market tracking company. Sales of all types of SSDs, including those for client and server systems, were up sequentially and year-over-year, which indicates that NAND-based storage devices are taking share away from traditional hard drives.

30.777 Million SSDs Shipped in Q1 2016

The industry sold a total of 30.777 million SSDs in Q1 2016, up 32% from 23.190 million in the same period of 2015, according to data by TrendFocus. By contrast, shipments of PCs dropped to 60.6-64.8 million units (according to Gartner and IDC), or by around 10% year-over-year (YoY); whereas shipments of HDDs collapsed by 20% YoY, based on data from hard drive manufacturers. The growth of SSDs has been consistent despite slowing sales of PCs and HDDs for several quarters now, therefore, a minor sequential increase (~4%) of their shipments in Q1 2016 was not surprising.

Of nearly 31 million SSDs sold in the first quarter, approximately 27 million drives were designed for client PCs, whereas about ~4 million were aimed at servers. In the PC space, sales of SSDs grew about 29% over the first quarter of last year, but in the enterprise space shipments of SSDs skyrocketed by 69% compared to the same period in 2015.

TrendFocus estimates that the total capacity of SSDs shipped in Q1 2016 was around 10 Exabytes, up from 5.65 EB in Q1 2015, an increase of nearly 77%. The average capacity of one SSD also grew from approximately 245 GB in the first quarter last year to roughly 325 GB in the first quarter of this year (or by 33%).

Due to speedy development of solid-state drives, there are multiple trends, which help to speed up adoption of NAND flash storage across the whole spectrum of the market. Rapid per-GB price declines thanks to TLC NAND help to reduce prices of entry-level SSDs. As a result, 120 GB solid-state drives now cost only around $40 in retail, which is why many PC makers use them instead of HDDs. In addition, major performance improvements thanks to NVMe and new controllers are driving adoption of SSDs by high-end client computers.

Samsung Remains No. 1 SSD Maker

Samsung is the world’s largest maker of NAND flash and is also the largest manufacturer of SSDs. The company has been controlling over 40% of the market for a while now and its unit shipments increased from 9.42 million in Q1 2015 to 12.93 million in Q1 2016. Samsung supplies SSDs to such large PC makers as Apple, HP and Lenovo, therefore, its success is well expected.

The second largest supplier of SSDs in Q1 2016 was SanDisk, which shipped 3.94 million drives and controlled 12.8% of the market. It is noteworthy that while SanDisk and Toshiba operate the world’s largest NAND flash manufacturing complex, the latter is not a major maker of SSDs. In Q1 the company only sold 1.2 million of SSDs, whereas its market share was 3.9%.

The world’s third largest supplier of SSDs in the first quarter of 2016 was Lite-On, which sells drives under Plextor and Lite-On brands. The company not only increased shipments of its SSDs from 1.39 million units in Q1 2015 to 3.51 million units in Q1 2016, or by 152% year-over-year, but also gained a significant amount of market share. In the first quarter Lite-On controlled 11.4% of the global SSD shipments.

Kingston, which is the world’s No. 1 independent supplier of DRAM modules, is also a significant maker of SSDs. The last 12 months were not exactly good for Kingston in comparison to others. Unit sales of Kingston’s SSDs only increased by around 14% year over year, but its market share dropped from 10.8% in Q1 2015 to 9.3% in Q1 2016.

It is noteworthy that shipments and market shares of Intel, Micron and HGST dropped year-over-year. The reasons for that are unclear, but it is possible that the three companies focused on high-capacity enterprise-class SSDs, which is why their unit sales declined.

Shipments of PCIe and SAS Enterprise SSDs Are Growing, But Unit Numbers Are Not High

When it comes to data-centers, multiple companies are replacing their 10K/15K HDD-based mission critical deployments with SSDs at a very rapid pace. Since one high-end enterprise SSD offers higher IOPS and throughput than multiple hard drives, volume shipments of PCIe and SAS solid-state drives are not high. In the first quarter only around 164 thousand of PCIe enterprise SSDs were shipped, whereas sales of SAS-based SSDs grew to 590 thousand units. By contrast, the industry sold 2.95 million SSDs with a SATA interface.

TrendForce believes that Samsung, Intel and HGST control the lion’s share of enterprise SSDs (approximately 80%). HGST is also a leading supplier of enterprise-class HDDs, which is why the transition from HDDs to SSDs by various owners of data-centers does not hurt the company, but rather allows it to capitalize on its SAS expertise.

The Future Looks Bright for SSDs

If sales of PCs drop in Q2 2016, shipments of SSDs and HDDs will decline as well. Earlier this year Western Digital already predicted a slight decrease of the HDD TAM (total available market) in the second quarter, which is a bad news for storage market in general. On the other hand, shipments of PCs usually increase in the second half of the year, which means that not only HDDs 'should' rebound, but SSDs will have good chances to set a new record in terms of unit shipments (we say should, as various reports have mixed predictions).

There are several positive trends for the solid-state storage in general. Firstly, NAND flash is getting cheaper to manufacture and companies like Intel and Micron are about to ramp up production of their 3D NAND. More affordable memory helps to build cheaper SSDs. Secondly, the share of mobile PCs that can only house SSDs is increasing as computers are getting thinner and lighter. Thirdly, Seagate no longer wants to aggressively participate in the market of affordable notebook storage. All-in-all, the future looks good SSDs, but the question is whether all market participants are ready to take advantage of the current situation.

*Please note that some of the numbers mentioned in this news story were not directly revealed by TrendFocus as a part of the company’s press release on the matter, which is why we fetched them from previous announcements, or estimated based on previously released numbers by the company. If you need precise numbers for business decisions, you should acquire the full report from TrendFocus.

When Samsung released its 750 EVO lineup of SSDs based on planar TLC NAND flash memory earlier this year, it seemed like a big surprise, as the company was first to ramp up production of 3D NAND memory and to use it for SSDs. Apparently, Samsung not only decided to expand the lineup with a 500 GB model, but also to make such drives available worldwide and even change their positioning.

Earlier this year Samsung introduced its 750 EVO drives with 120 GB (MZ-750120BW) and 250 GB (MZ-750250BW) capacities, which are based on simplified version of the company’s MGX controller with only two cores and TLC NAND chips produced using 16 nm fabrication process. The drives are equipped with 256 MB of DRAM cache, AES-256 encryption, and support various performance improving technologies typically found in TLC-based SSDs, such as pseudo-SLC cache and so on. Samsung’s 750 EVO 500 GB drive (MZ-750500BW) is based on the company’s 16 nm TLC NAND and offers similar levels of performance as already released SSDs — up to 540 MB/s sequential read and up to 520 MB/s sequential write speed. Besides, the higher-capacity version is rated for 100 TB total bytes written (TBW) endurance.

Initially, Samsung positioned its 750 EVO SSDs as inexpensive solutions primarily designed for system builders in select markets, but with the addition of a 500 GB model into the family, the company also changes positioning of the lineup. Starting from early June, the 750 EVO family of SSDs will be offered in 50 countries, including the U.S., Europe, China, Korea, and other regions. Moreover, the drives will be marketed not only to system builders, but also to end-users.

The 750 EVO SSDs are positioned just below the V-NAND-based 850 EVO and replace the discontinued 840 EVO, which faced writing performance degradation scandal and caused some troubles for Samsung. Despite formal positioning, performance levels of the 750 EVO are very similar to those offered by the 850 EVO drives. However, endurance of the planar TLC-based drives is unsurprisingly somewhat lower compared to the 850 EVO (which uses 3D V-NAND). Besides, the more advanced drives also come with a five-year warranty.

The 750 EVO 500 GB’s MSRP is $149.99 and the drive is covered with a three-year warranty (or 100 TB TBW). By contrast, the 120 GB version costs $54.98, whereas the 250 GB model is priced at $83.99 at Amazon.

Gallery: Samsung Expands 750 EVO SSD Lineup with 500 MB Model, Changes Positioning

Microsoft on Wednesday announced another reorganization of its smartphone business with plans to streamline operations and eliminate redundant personnel. The company will lay off 1850 of its employees in Finland and other countries and will take a $950 million charge. The actions seem to be in line with Microsoft’s plans to focus on development of flagship smartphones and leave the market of mass handsets.

When Microsoft closed its acquisition of Nokia in late April, 2014, it received approximately 25,000 new employees from around the world, who were involved into development, production, sales, and distribution of smartphones and feature phones. Shortly after, in July, 2014, Microsoft laid off 12,500 former Nokia staff as a part of its major reorganization, when it let go 18,000 Microsoft employees in total. The first wave of dismissals eradicated numerous positions at Nokia and shut down the division, which developed software for feature phones, leading to eventual elimination of Asha devices from Microsoft’s lineup.

A year after the company announced the first phase of streamlining, the software giant revealed further plans for phone business restructuring. In July, 2015, Microsoft decided take an impairment charge of approximately $7.6 billion related to assets associated with the acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business, and take a restructuring charge of approximately $750 million to $850 million. As part of its second phase of optimizations, the company laid off another 7,800 former Nokia employees globally. Besides, Microsoft announced their intentions to focus on flagship smartphones and generally to phase out inexpensive handsets going forward.

Today’s announcement further eliminates 1350 jobs in Finland as well as 500 additional jobs globally. The actions are to be fully completed by July, 2017, and will cost Microsoft approximately $200 million related to severance payments. Microsoft further noted that sales teams based in Espoo, Finland, will not be affected by the layoffs.

As a result of its optimizations of the handset business, by mid-2017 Microsoft will have eliminated approximately 21,650 former Nokia employees out of the iniitlal ~25,000 who joined Microsoft in 2014. Moreover, as 4,500 former Nokia staff are set to join FIH Mobile or HMD Global in the coming months, it means that by mid-2017 the absolute majority of the former Nokia employees will be gone from Microsoft.

Microsoft did not reveal any new plans concerning its smartphones going forward, but repeated what it said in 2015: the company will concentrate on flagship models and will support its traditional hardware partners with development of their smartphones featuring Windows 10 Mobile. The software giant sees security, manageability and Continuum feature as its key strengths on the smartphone market going forward, which essentially indicates that the company sees enterprises as the main customers for its handsets. Microsoft did not mention its PureView camera and other consumer focused assets it got from Nokia as its unique advantages to address consumers, which may indicate that the company no longer considers consumers as its main customers in the smartphone world.

“We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differentiation — with enterprises that value security, manageability and our Continuum capability, and consumers who value the same,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “We will continue to innovate across devices and on our cloud services across all mobile platforms.”

What the head of Microsoft did mention is that the company will continue to offer cloud-based services to all mobile platforms. Again, this is not something new as it emphasizes Satya Nadella’s cloud approach to mobile and his reluctance to fight against Apple, Google and Samsung in the world of mobile platforms and mobile hardware.

Cryorig has announced its new cylindrical PC chassis, which enables system makers and enthusiasts to build Mac Pro-styled gaming computers. The new case can house one graphics card and a mini-ITX motherboard. While the chassis can formally support a variety of components, actual capabilities of such PCs will be limited by PSUs and cooling. The Ola PC case will only hit the market in 2017. In addition, Cryorig announced its ultra-slim desktop chassis called Taku.

Ola: Designed for Gamers, Inspired by Mac Pro

The Cryorig Ola PC chassis can house an SFX power supply unit, a motherboard in mini-ITX form-factor, a typical full-height high-end graphics card (up to 280 mm in length), one 3.5” HDD as well as one or two 2.5” storage devices. The chassis is divided into two compartments: one for the motherboard with the CPU as well as storage devices, another for the graphics card. Inside, Cryorig’s Ola has a rather sophisticated internal cooling system that relies on one big 140 mm fan and two shark-gill like side air intake ducts (one for each compartment) that run the length of the case and let in cool air from the outside. Components like CPU and GPU will have to use their own cooling solutions.

At present, Cryorig does not reveal anything about the maximum TDP of a GPU that the Ola chassis can house, but claims that the maximum TDP of its CPU should not be higher than 100 W, which is enough for non-overclocked Intel Core i7 K-series processors in LGA1151 packaging, but which does not give any headroom for overclocking. The 100 W limitation is likely conditioned by supported cooling system, which cannot be higher than 72 – 82 mm and its top cannot be larger than 92×92 mm. In its press materials, Cryorig shows off its Ola chassis with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, which consumes up to 180 W. Hence, it should be possible to build a fairly powerful PC using the Ola.

On the aesthetics end, the Ola features a modular front and back panel for multiple textured options. Right now, the company considers brushed aluminum and wood veneer, but when the product hits the market, other options could emerge. Due to its cylindrical form-factor and a tricky internal architecture, the Ola from Cryorig will have a limited amount of external connectors, including at least one for display, audio input/output, a USB 3.0 and so on.

Cryorig started to work on the Ola only recently and the chassis is still a work in progress, which is why the company keeps the final specs. The maker hopes to release Ola sometimes in Q2 2017, about a year from now. The early prototypes will be on display at Computex trade show next month.

Gallery: Cryorig Ola

Taku: Neat, Slim, Holds Your Display

Next up is the Cryorig Taku ultra-slim desktop, which is made of 3 mm thick aluminum and which can be used as a display stand. The internal architecture of the Taku is rather simple: it has one sliding drawer, which can house a mini-ITX motherboard with a CPU, a graphics card (which is no longer than 240 mm), storage components as well as an SFX PSU.

Due to slim form-factor, the CPU will have to use a cooler, which is no higher than 47 mm, which brings some limitations to TDP and almost certainly leaves no space for any tangible overclocking. Right now, Cryorig is trying to figure out how to best cool-down internal components of the chassis, which is why it does not share its own recommendations regarding CPUs and GPUs.

Like the Ola, the Taku is also a work in progress with targeted release dates in late 2016 or the first quarter of 2017. Early prototypes will be demonstrated at Computex.

Gallery: Cryorig Taku

Today Samsung announced two new smartphones that are coming to the Chinese market. They're called the Galaxy C5 and Galaxy C7, and they kick off a new line of Samsung smartphones targeting the upper-mid segment of the smartphone market. Both the C5 and C7 have a full metal chassis, and they have an interesting mix of specifications, which you can check out in the chart below.

The Galaxy C5 and C7 are the same in a number of ways. They share the same cameras, wireless capabilities, and amount of RAM. The fact that they ship with 4GB of RAM stands out to me, but it doesn't seem to have had a large impact on the price so there's not really any harm. The devices are primarily differentiated by their SoCs and displays.

The Galaxy C5 uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 617 SoC. This is still a 28nm LP part, with four Cortex A53 cores that have a peak frequency of 1.5GHz, and another four with a peak frequency of 1.2GHz. The Galaxy C7 is another story, as it's built on Samsung/GlobalFoundries' 14nm LPP process. It still has two clusters of four Cortex A53 cores, but the performance cluster tops out at 2.0GHz.

As for the displays, the big difference is the size. The Galaxy C5 uses a 5.2" 1080p AMOLED panel, while the Galaxy C7 moves to 5.7" while maintaining the resolution. At that size a PenTile subpixel arrangement is less than optimal, but on phones of this price I wouldn't expect to see anything else, and so it may be that the Galaxy C5 ends up having the better display of the two phones. The battery capacity scales naturally with the display, with it going from 2600 mAh in the C5 to 3300 mAh in the C7.

The Galaxy C5 and C7 are only headed to China for now, but there's always a chance that devices like these can make their way to other parts of Asia, to Europe or even North America, although the latter is quite unlikely. Both of them come in silver, black, gold, and rose gold, and they also include Samsung Pay which just recently launched in China. Both devices come in under $400 when you convert the price to USD, with the Galaxy C5 coming in at roughly $330 and the Galaxy C7 at $396.

Samsung via The Verge

Be Quiet! has introduced its new flagship PC chassis, which combines the company’s expertise in building quiet PC components with extensive modularity and customization features. The be quiet! Dark Base 900-series PC cases will feature aluminum finish, whereas the Pro version will also come with LED strips as well as Qi wireless charger for mobile devices.

The new be quiet! Dark Base 900 and Dark Base 900 Pro chassis feature a modular design, which allows switching sides of the motherboard tray, adjusting its height, removing redundant HDD and ODD cages and, of course, installing any types of fans and/or liquid cooling. Since be quiet! is primarily known for silent PC equipment, the Dark Base 900 inherit numerous designs ideas from its predecessors, including internal architecture that optimizes airflow; specially designed noise intake systems; noise-cancelling side and front panels; decoupled fan, HDD and motherboards mounts to eliminate any transmission of vibration to the case and so on.

The Dark Base 900 and the Dark Base 900 Pro chassis from be quiet! can be equipped with up to two ODDs and up to seven HDDs. They also come with pre-installed three SilentWings 3 fans (one 120 mm fan and two 140 mm fans) and feature a basic fan control.

Unlike the previous-generation high-end PC cases from be quiet!, the new Bark Base 900-series chassis come with stylish brushed aluminum front and top panels, which feature four USB (two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0) ports as well as 3.5-mm audio input and output.

To appeal to modders and enthusiasts, the more sophisticated Dark Base 900 Pro chassis will also have a side panel made of 4-mm tempered glass, LED strips with five colors pre-installed as well as a Qi wireless charger for mobile devices. The Dark Base 900 Pro will be one of the world’s first PC cases with Qi charger, a decent addition to those, who are on the bleeding edge of progress and uses either devices with wireless charging, or cases with appropriate capabilities.

Both new cases from be quiet! will hit the market later this year and will be covered with a three-year limited warranty. As for the price, the Dark Base 900 will retail for $199, whereas the more advanced Dark Base 900 Pro will retail for $249.

Gallery: Be Quiet! Introduces New Flagship Silent Base 900 Chassis

Many PC and chassis makers these days are trying to address console gamers with computers that are as small as game consoles and fit into the living room design-wise, but which are considerably more powerful and can run games at ultra-high resolutions. When Corsair announced its plans to enter this market with its Bulldog concept a year ago, it was not exactly a big surprise: a company with expertise in cooling and PC chassis is arguably the best possible candidate to offer such kind of products. Even though some chassis designs seem to churn out over weeks, Corsair has taken over a year and a half to bring the final product to the market.

This week, Corsair finally started to sell the Bulldog chassis and barebones in North America and Australia. Corsair equips its Bulldog case with its H5 SF low-profile liquid cooler, which was specifically designed for mini-ITX systems and which performance is sufficient for all mainstream CPUs from Intel and AMD, its SF600 SFX PSU as well as two fans. The Bulldog case can house a mini-ITX motherboard, a full-height graphics card (which is not longer than 300 mm and is not thicker than 90 mm), a 3.5” HDD, up to three 2.5” storage devices, multiple fans as well as an SFX power supply. The price of the Bulldog chassis (CS-9000003-NA) is $299, just like Corsair promised a year ago.

The internal architecture of the Corsair Bulldog allows installing modern high-performance graphics cards, such as NVIDIA’s reference GeForce GTX 1080 with blowers. However, due to thermal constraints, Corsair recommends using its own H55 liquid cooling system with the HG10 bracket to cool-down GPUs, or install the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X or graphics cards with pre-equipped hybrid cooling. 

Corsair also offers the Bulldog DIY PC barebone with pre-installed GIGABYTE GA-Z170N-WIFI motherboard. The GA-Z170N-WIFI supports all modern Intel Skylake-S processors in LGA1151 packaging (as well as, we assume, the next Intel generation of Kaby Lake processors), up to 32 GB of DDR4 memory, an M.2 slot for high-performance SSDs, a PCIe x16 slot for graphics cards, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, 2T2R 802.11ac Wi-Fi, integrated multi-channel audio, USB 3.0 (with Type-A and Type-C connectors) ports and so on. The Bulldog barebone kit (CS-9000001-NA) is priced at $399, in line with Corsair’s original promises. In addition, select PC makers  and system integrators will offer pre-configured systems featuring Corsair’s Bulldog chassis, which will cost according to their specifications.

From an aesthetics point of view, Corsair has altered the design of its Bulldog compared to the prototype. Among some other things, it eliminated red inlays to make it look less aggressive in order to blend in with home theater surroundings. The chassis has retained its futuristic look as well as the ventilation capabilities, but now it matches various players and other equipment in terms of color scheme.

Even though Corsair’s Bulldog has hit the market somewhat later than expected, it still looks very promising thanks to the emergence of new 14nm and 16nm video cards this quarter that can better handle games in 4K resolution than previous-gen graphics adapters.

(Edit from Ian: I should also add a nod to Dustin Sklavos, former AnandTech editor for cases and cooling, who is the Corsair Product Manager for Bulldog and had a big hand in its design and development.)

A few weeks back we saw the announcement of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080. NVIDIA put the founders cards on sale first, with third-party cards set to be released later. As we approach the sale date of the 1080 we can now lift the covers on the solutions other vendors will be releasing. Today features cards from both Zotac and EVGA.

Zotac will be releasing two custom version of the GeForce GTX 1080, the GeForce GTX 1080 Amp Edition and Amp Extreme. Both cards will receive their own revision of their Icestorm cooler. The key differences between the two for the cooler is that the the AMP Edition (pictured above) sports five heatpipes and two 100mm fans, while the AMP Extreme will have six heatpipes, three 90mm fans, and those fans will have a new design aimed at reducing the dead spot in the middle of the fan. Zotac claims that on the latter this will increase airflow and reduce noise.

Speaking of noise, both cards will have a 0 dB fan idle mode that they call Freeze, which stops the fan under low load situations. Each of these cards will be wearing what Zotac calls “Carbon Exoarmor”. Featuring a full backplate, a metal fan shroud, and what appears to be carbon fiber highlights.

To aid with fitting these cards in with any build these cards will feature Zotac’s all new Spectra lighting system. Meaning that these cards will have RGB LED’s on both the front and back of the card, and will be fully adjustable from the redesigned FireStorm App. Pricing and availability for these cards is not yet known.

EVGA’s entry into the ring is the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 SC Gaming ACX 3.0. What this will mean is a card that carries the third iteration of their ACX 3.0 Cooler Featuring a 0 dB fan idle mode, RGB lighting, and a load of heatsink changes. EVGA is specific on two features of this cooler including their Straight Heat Pipe 3.0 technology which they say increase heat pipe and copper contact to increase cooling. They also note a cooling plate, a.k.a. heat spreader, that sits between the PCB and the heatsink to cool memory and MOSFETs.

Worth noting for these numbers is increased base and boost clocks to the tune of about 6%. A moderate but practical difference. Aside from that we are looking at the standard memory and memory speeds. EVGA will also be releasing Precision X 6.0 to Coincide with the upcoming release. The EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 SC Gaming ACX 3.0 card will release in early June for $649.99.

As the incoming hardware approaches we can look forward to learning more of what the market will bring us. Today saw the announcement of cards from Zotac and EVGA, though I’m sure we’re bound to see many more releases as summer comes upon us. Be sure to keep an eye out here in the coming weeks as review samples start to trickle in.

FSP this week announced its new series of redundant PSUs called the 'Twins'. The new power supplies are compatible with standard ATX and PS2 tower chassis, but provide redundancy capabilities and can thus enable building non-stop servers using 'relatively affordable' components.

The manufacturer positions the FSP Twins PSUs for home and SMB mail, web and intranet servers when building in a standard ATX or PS2 tower chassis. Like other redundant power supply units, the FSP Twins houses two hot-swappable PSUs and if one fails, another immediately kicks in, ensuring that the system never stops due to power supply failure. Both PSUs can be replaced without shutting down the machine, similar to typical datacenter-class mission critical servers. The PSU modules are proprietary, and each has its own 40-mm high-pressure server-grade fan, implying they have the potential to be pretty noisy. The FSP Twins series come with special firmware and sensors that monitor over-current, short-circuit, over-voltage, or fan failure, and the special LED indicators can alarm users of any problems.

Initially, FSP will offer two Twins models with 500W and 700W PSUs. The Twins will have EPS12V power connectors (one 24-pin and two 4+4-pin connectors) and will thus be able to handle dual-socket (or even multi-socket) motherboards up to the power capacity. The 500W version will feature two PCIe 6+2-pin power connectors, six SATA power connectors, two Molex plugs, one connector for floppy drives and one 8-pin USB connector to interface with monitoring software. FSP notes that all cables supplied with the Twins are flat in a bid to enable easier cable management in space-constrained chassis. The specifications of the 700W unit have not been announced as of yet.

The FSP’s Twins series is not the first attempt to wed ATX/EPS12V PSU form-factor with redundancy. However, some of the predecessors of Twins did not have enough wattage for modern servers, poor serviceability, or became EOL quite quickly for replacement components. Moreover, keep in mind that an ATX chassis is not particularly designed for a server, despite the homebrew market, which is why the market for such PSUs is relatively small.

The FSP Twins 500W will cost $399, which comes across as a reasonable price for a redundant PSU module that is essentially two 500W units. The price of a 700W version is being determined, as is the individual units themselves. Both will come with a five-year limited warranty later this year. FSP will demonstrate its Twins series at the Computex Taipei 2016 trade show next week.

The big consumer push for laptops is generally around the CES timeframe in January, but not all of those devices are available immediately. There have also been a couple of new models launched since January so we’ll see a few new additions to this guide since our last refresh.

The PC market has certainly been struggling lately, but the increased competition has been good news for consumers with some fantastic laptops coming to market over the last several years. There has been a big push to better displays, solid state storage, and much better battery life than only a couple of years ago. Intel’s latest Skylake processors are out in full force, and with this guide we even see a device with AMD’s Carrizo processor available.

Low Cost Laptops

Low cost has a whole new meaning now. With Microsoft changing the pricing on Windows for low cost devices, it has opened up a new PC competitor to the Chromebook. There are plenty of compromises with devices that cost at or around $200, especially the TN displays, but performance is enough for light work.

HP Stream 11

I still like the HP Stream 11. The pop of color sets this apart from a lot of the other devices around, and despite the low price, the build quality is pretty good. The TN display is the biggest detractor, along with the low amount of eMMC storage, but with Windows 10 the 32 GB is sufficient for the OS and you can add a SD card for extra apps and data storage. There are both 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch models from $179.99 to $199.99 which includes a dual-core Braswell CPU, 2 GB of memory, and 32 GB of storage.

ASUS VivoBook E200HA

The company that started the Netbook was ASUS, and they offer a similar product to the HP Stream 11, but with a much different design. This 11.6-inch notebook is very portable, and goes with an Atom x5-z8300 Cherry Trail chip with four Airmont cores instead of the dual-core Braswell of the HP. A 38 Wh battery keeps it running for up to a rated 13 hours by ASUS, and it even includes 802.11ac wireless. The E200HA sells for $199.99

ThinkPad E460/E465/E560/E565

Moving up a bit in price, but still coming in less than the price of an Ultrabook, is the ThinkPad E460/560 and E465/565. The two model numbers denote a choice in CPU and display size, with the E460/E560 being offered with a 6^th generation Intel Core, and the E465/E565 comes with AMD’s Carrizo A10-8700P, and the 4 designates the 14-inch model and 5 designates the 15.6-inch version. The AMD offering is a bit less money, but both can be configured with 1920x1080 IPS displays (A 1366x768 TN is unfortunately the standard) and 192 GB SSDs. You can buy them with spinning drives for a bit less money, and the 500 GB offered is of course more storage, but you give up a lot of real-world performance without the SSD option. Being a ThinkPad, the devices are more configurable on Lenovo’s site than most of the consumer laptops as well. Graphics see AMD’s R6 M340DX in the AMD version and the R7 M360 in the Intel version. The E465 and E565 start at $431.10, and the E460 or E560 start at $521.10.

Ultrabooks

Utrabooks have moved the laptop forward, with sleek and thin designs that still feature good performance with the Core i-U series processors, and even thinner and lighter models are available with the Core m-Y series models. The definition has expanded somewhat over the years, but a good Ultrabook will have at least a 1920x1080 IPS display, SSD storage, and over eight hours of battery life, with many of them over ten now. If I was to recommend an everyday notebook, it would be an Ultrabook. The traditional laptop form factor is less compromised for notebook tasks than most of the 2-in-1 designs, and there are some great choices now.

HP Spectre

HP recently launched a new entrant in the Ultrabook category with the “world’s thinnest laptop” which they are calling the Spectre. It’s not quite the lightest, but the 2.45 lbs is a very low weight, and the design is stunning. U series Core processors are available with 8 GB of memory, and HP has gone with PCI-E storage in 256 or 512 GB offerings. The display is a 1920x1080 IPS model at 13.3-inches.  The very thin design has precluded the use of USB-A though, but the Spectre does have three USB-C ports, with two of them capable of Thunderbolt 3. The Spectre is just 10.4 mm thick, yet despite this they have still included a keyboard with a solid 1.3 mm of travel. The Spectre starts at $1169.99, which is a lot, but it’s a stunner.

Dell XPS 13

The reigning Ultrabook on the best-of lists is generally the Dell XPS 13. The Infinity Display makes it stand apart, with very thin bezels packing a large display into a small chassis. The downside of this is the webcam, which is mounted on the bottom of the display, which might make this a non-starter for people who do a lot of video chat, but despite this, Dell has crafted a great machine here. The Skylake model features a slightly larger battery than the Broadwell version, bumping total capacity to 56 Wh even though the laptop is smaller than most other 13.3-inch Ultrabooks. I love the aluminum outside with the black carbon fibre weave on the keyboard deck, and the black keys make the backlighting stand out with great contrast. The Core i7 model now features Iris graphics, which would be a great addition if you have the 3200x1800 display. The XPS 13 starts at $799 for the i3 model.

ASUS UX305CA

ASUS packs a lot into the UX305CA, and you likely get more Ultrabook for the money with this model than pretty much any other. At a MSRP of just $699, the UX305CA features a Core m3 processor, 8 GB of memory, and 256 GB of SSD storage. Compare that to a Dell XPS 13 which is hundreds more to get a model with that much RAM and storage. The Core m CPU is plenty for most tasks, and with the 4.5 W TDP you get the advantage of a fanless device. ASUS includes a 1920x1080 IPS display as well. If you want a thin and light, all aluminum laptop, but don’t want to break the bank, the ASUS UX305CA needs to be highly considered.

MacBook

Love it or hate it, the MacBook is the only Mac to make the list this go-around. Apple recently updated it to use Skylake Core m CPUs, and although I would expect the rest of their lineup to be updated soon, this is the only current generation CPU based MacBook at the moment. The display is great, and Apple continues to buck the trend and use 16:10 aspect ratio displays. Apple’s MacBook keyboard is a big change from normal laptops, leveraging butterfly switches to keep the travel consistent despite having a very short throw. The trackpad has no click action at all, and instead uses haptic feedback. The biggest controversy is the single USB-C port, which is also the charging port, but despite this the Retina display and fanless design make it a great portable laptop if you need a Mac. It’s pretty hard to recommend the Air at this point, since it still features a low resolution TN display and old processors.

Convertibles

As much as I love an Ultrabook when I need a true laptop experience, there are some great convertible devices out there too which can serve multiple roles. They may not be the best laptop and they may not be the best tablet, but they can generally handle either chore well enough.

Microsoft Surface Pro 4

The best convertible is the Surface Pro 4. This 12.3-inch tablet has basically created the 2-in-1 tablet market, with many competitors now creating similar devices, from Dell to Google and Apple. The Surface Pro 4 certainly sets the bar high compared to the other Windows based devices, and with the legacy software support, is highly productive. All the changes from the Surface Pro 3 to the Surface Pro 4 are subtle, with a slightly larger display in the same chassis size, higher resolution, and Skylake processors, but there are new features too like the lightning fast Windows Hello facial recognition camera. Possibly the best new feature is an accessory, with the new Type Cover offering edge to edge keys and a much larger glass trackpad, meaning the Surface Pro 4 can double as a laptop much better than any previous model could. Starting with the Core m3 processor, the Surface Pro 4 starts at $899, but the more popular Core i5 version with 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage costs $1199 without the Type Cover. It’s not the most inexpensive 2-in-1, but it’s a leader in this category.

Microsoft Surface Book

Software issues plagued the Surface Book at launch, but in the last several months Microsoft has seemed to sort all of them out. The Surface Book is now easily recommended as a great 2-in-1 if you need something that’s more of a laptop than a tablet. The 13.5-inch 3:2 display with it’s 3000x2000 resolution is one of the best displays on a laptop, with a sharp resolution and great contrast. Performance is solid too with either a Core i5-6300U or Core i7-6600U, and you can also get discrete NVIDIA graphics with a custom GT 940M. It’s not a gaming powerhouse, but the NVIDIA option is pretty much double the integrated performance. The all magnesium body gives the Surface Book a great look and feel, and the keyboard and trackpad are some of the best on any Ultrabook as well. The Surface Book is not perfect though; the device is heavier than traditional Ultrabooks and the weight balance makes it feel heavier than it is. Also, there’s the price, which starts at $1349 and goes all the way up to $3199 for a Core i7 with 16 GB of memory, 1 TB of SSD storage, and the dGPU. Still, it’s got solid performance, good battery life, and a great detachable tablet.

ThinkPad X1 Yoga

Lenovo pretty much invented the flip-around convertible with their Yoga series, and the latest ThinkPad X1 Yoga takes it all to the next level. This 14-inch convertible has the tried and true 360° Yoga hinge, meaning the keyboard can fold underneath to use it as a tablet. But even better is you can fold it part way and use it in stand mode or tent mode, which I find to be much more useful than the full tablet mode. The X1 Yoga is more of a traditional laptop, with the CPU and other components in the keyboard, meaning it has the correct weight balance for a laptop and you could use it as an Ultrabook with no issues at all. The extra functionality is only a quick flip away though. Amazingly the X1 Yoga weighs about the same as the original ThinkPad X1 Carbon, despite the extra hinge capacity. As someone who uses convertibles as laptops more than tablets, I find the Yoga style devices to be better suited to my needs than full detachables, and the X1 Yoga is the best in this segment. It starts at $1161.75.

Large Laptops

For some people, a 13.3-inch or 14-inch laptop is just too small. Maybe they need more performance, and the quad-core chips in larger laptops and better discrete GPUs are necessary. Maybe they just like the larger display. There are some great large form factor laptops that are available too.

Dell XPS 15

Dell took the winning formula with the XPS 13 and applied it to their larger XPS 15, and the result is a great looking laptop, which has a 15.6-inch display in a smaller than normal chassis. The XPS 15 features quad-core 45-Watt Intel Core processors, and the NVIDIA GTX 960M discrete graphics card, which is a big jump in performance over what’s available in any Ultrabook. You can get a UHD display with 100% of the Adobe RGB gamut as well, although the battery life takes a big hit with that many pixels, so the base 1920x1080 offering may be better suited to those that need a bit more time away from the power outlet. The keyboard and trackpad are both excellent, just like the XPS 13, and it features the same styling cues. The XPS 15 starts at $999.

HP Spectre x360 15

Just to mix it up a bit, let’s take a look at the other end of the large laptop spectrum with the HP Spectre x360 15. This is a larger version of the great x360 launched last year, and keeps the same all-aluminum styling and the 360° hinge to let you use this as a touch device too. Unlike the XPS 15, the x360 sticks to Ultrabook class processors, which mean dual-core i5 and i7 offerings. The lower performance gives better battery life though, with the x360 15 rated for up to 13 hours with the FHD display, but despite the Ultrabook class parts, it’s really not much thinner or lighter than the XPS 15. The big difference of course is that this is a true convertible. The x360 15 starts at $1149.99.

Corsair has introduced its new custom-built kit of Dominator Platinum memory modules, which are specifically designed for ASUS ROG motherboards. The new DDR4 modules contain an exclusive SPD profile, which is only available on select ASUS ROG platforms featuring Intel’s Z170 PCH (platform controller hub).

The Corsair Dominator Platinum ROG Edition kit (CMD16GX4M4B3200C16-ROG) consists of four 4 GB DDR4 memory modules rated to run at 3200 Mbps data-rate with CL16 18-18-36 timings at 1.35 Volts. The modules are primarily designed for Intel’s Skylake-S processors when used in Intel’s Z170-based motherboards that support XMP 2.0 technology (to automatically set their frequencies and latencies when they are installed into appropriate PCs and the BIOS option is selected). However, when the Dominator Platinum ROG Edition kit is installed into one of ASUS ROG motherboards featuring the Z170 chipset, it allows setting 3333 Mbps data-rate and CL16 timings.

The Dominator Platinum ROG Edition modules are based on binned DRAM chips as well as Corsair’s proprietary 10-layer PCB with internal cooling planes as well as external thermal pads. For improved cooling and visual aesthetics, the modules come with aluminum heat-spreaders and customizable LED lighting. The memory sticks also feature famous Republic of Gamers red and black brushed aluminium finish, to compliment the current-generation ASUS ROG line of motherboards.

As for the price, the Corsair Dominator Platinum ROG Edition kit represents a premium, much like other DDR4-3200+ kits. The set of four ROG-branded modules costs $224.99 excluding taxes in the U.S., which is considerably higher than the price of any other 16 GB DDR4-3333 kit. The Dominator Platinum ROG Edition kit is also more expensive than Corsair’s own Dominator Platinum 16 GB DDR4-3200 CL15 (4 x 4 GB kit), which is priced at $189.99. Possibly, an exclusive SPD setting, custom-painted heatsinks as well as elite Republic of Gamers brand add a tangible amount of money to the price tag, but is aimed squarely at users with specific ROG motherboards.

The list of compatible motherboards looks as follows:

• ROG Maximus VIII Formula
• Maximus VIII Hero
• ROG Maximus VIII Extreme/Assembly
• ROG Maximus VIII Hero Alpha
• Maximus VIII Impact
• Maximus VIII Extreme
• Maximus VIII Ranger
• Maximus VIII Gene

Plextor plans to showcase its new SSDs next week at Computex 2016 trade show in Taipei, Taiwan. The new M8Pe will be the company’s new flagship storage solution and also the first high-end drive from the company in two years. Meanwhile, the EX1 will be Plextor’s first external solid-state storage device designed for those, who demand ultra-fast flash drives. In addition, the firm will demonstrate its next-generation mainstream M8Se SSD at the trade-show.

The Plextor brand got famous back in the 1990s, when the company introduced its first optical disc drives, which eventually were recognized as one of the finest quality ODDs in the industry. Eventually, the company experimented with other products as well, but its ODDs based on precision electric motors from Shinano Kenshi (the owner of the trademark) were still the best known devices featuring the name. Fast forward to 2010, Lite-On Technology licensed the Plextor brand, hired a team of engineers and teamed up with Marvell and Toshiba to develop SSDs, which would match the legendary name with performance and quality. Over the following years, Plextor/Lite-On released a number of SSDs that became popular among enthusiasts, which is why every new product by the company gets a great deal of attention. The years 2014 and 2015 were not exactly good for Plextor, though: the company ran into problems with its M6 Pro and then had to cancel the M7e. As a result, Plextor’s high-end lineup has not been updated for two years now, a very long time for the rapidly developing solid-state storage industry. However, the new flagship from the popular brand appears to be just around the corner and on paper it looks quite good.

The Plextor M8Pe family of SSDs will be based on Marvell’s 88SS1093 controller as well as Toshiba’s MLC NAND flash memory made using 15 nm manufacturing technology. The 88SS1093 features three cores and supports Marvell’s third-generation NANDEdge error correction control and management technology, which is based on LDPC (low-density parity-check code) and is designed to improve reliability of planar MLC and TLC NAND flash memory made using 15 nm fabrication process. Besides this, the controller fully supports NVMe protocol as well as new power management technologies.

The M8Pe drives will be available in 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB configurations. Plextor is specing the M8Pe 1 TB at up to 2500 MB/s for sequential reads and up to 1400 MB/s for sequential writes, but more affordable models will feature considerably lower speeds. The highest-capacity M8Pe can also perform up to 280K random read IOPS as well as up to 240K random write IOPS. Plextor’s numbers look rather competitive against Samsung’s 950 PRO, but we will need to test the novelty first before drawing any conclusions here.

As for form-factors, expect the new M8Pe flagship drives from Plextor to be available in both add-in PCIe 3.0 x4 card as well as M.2-2280 versions. It is noteworthy that the rated performance of the M8Pe drives in different form-factors is equal. The SSDs will feature heatsinks to prevent overheating of components as well as illuminating LEDs to complement modern high-end motherboards and PC chassis.

In addition to the flagship M8Pe, the Plextor will also demonstrate its forthcoming mainstream product, the M8Se. This SSD will come in an M.2 form-factor and will feature PCIe interface. At this time we have no information about the controller or NAND used by the M8Se.

Finally, the Plextor EX1 will be the brand’s first external fixed storage solution in a decade. The EX1 will be offered in 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB capacities. The maximum transfer rate of the drive will be 500 MB/s, which means that we are talking about an SSD and not just another USB flash stick. As for the interface, the EX1 will rely on USB Type-C (USB 3.1 Gen 1, 5 Gbps) and will thus be compatible with the latest PCs. While a fast external SSD from Plextor seems to be an interesting product, it remains to be seen which of Plextor’s exclusive technologies it will support, given the size and other constraints. Earlier this year we reviewed the Samsung T3 external USB-C SSD and it left a very positive impression. Plextor’s EX1 will offer some competition to Samsung’s external SSD.

The M8Pe SSDs from Plextor are expected to hit the market already in June. Pricing information has yet to be disclosed, but we do know that the drives will be backed by a five-year warranty. Further details regarding the M8Se and EX1 SSDs are unknown, but we'll publish that information once its available.

As part of today's announcements, we're able to provide more information on ARM's new "Built on ARM Cortex Technology" license. The license was first officially revealed in ARM's quartely financial call back in February, however at the time the company wasn't ready to talk about the exact details of this new license.

We covered ARM's business and licensing models back a few years ago in a dedicated article which goes into more depth what kind of options vendors have when deciding to license an ARM IP. ARM likes to represent the licensing model in a pyramid shape with increasing cost and involvement the higher you get on the pyramid. Until now vendors had two main choices: Use one of the various available Cortex licenses, or get an architectural license and develop one's own microarchitecture based on ARM's ISA.

The former licensing options varied depending on what kind of engagement and deployment a vendor is looking for. Lead licensees for example get early access to new microarchitectures but also have to pay more for this access and it's possible that they will have to deal with still immature toolkits and documentation, both which would then require move engagement and investment on their part. Vendors who are willing to wait a bit more or who aren't looking in an as deep engagement are able to use some of the cheaper licenses and more mature tools and documentation.

The common limitation of all current Cortex licenses however is that a vendor is not able to change any aspect of the microarchitecture. If a customer needed a feature that ARM's cores didn't provide, they had to go with an architectural license and develop their own microarchitecture from scratch. Currently such licensees with shipping custom microarchitectures include Apple, Qualcomm and Samsung.

The new license being detailed today is the  "Built on ARM Cortex Technology" license, which is quite a mouthfull and will unofficially refer to as "Built on Cortex"/BoC from here on. The new BoC license represents a new "tip of the pyramid" for Cortex licenses with even greater engagement than that of lead licensees.

The new license allows vendors to request changes of an ARM microarchitecture and use this customized IP in their products. The way this works is that basically ARM provides its engineering and design services to the vendor who wants a certain aspect of an "off-the-shelf" Cortex design customized. Under the license's terms, ARM still owns and controls the IP, however the changes requested for that particular vendor's design is not shared or made available to other vendors.

An example of a customization that a vendor would be able to request is the instruction window size. An increase in the instruction window size would increase the IPC of a microarchitecture, however this can cause higher area and power which would need to be compensated by more implementation work by the vendor.

While ARM didn't want to go into details of what other customization options a vendor would have, they say that it will have a rather limited scope and things such as altering decoder width or changing the execution resources of a microarchitecture are beyond the scope of the license. In general, it seems more that the license is meant to allow vendors to tweak and configure the knobs on some aspects of a microarchitecture rather than do significant changes to the way the µarch works.

What is in my view the most important and controversial aspect of the new license is that it allows vendors full branding freedom on this customized CPU design. This means that a Built on Cortex licensee is free to give the resulting new core any name it sees fit. We'll however still be able to differentiate the core from a full custom microarchitecture as ARM still requires a disclaimer / footnote / subtitle with the "Built on ARM Cortex Technology" phrase.

In February ARM disclosed that Qualcomm is the first costumer signed up for this license, and what this means for the Snapdragon SoC lineup is currently still unclear. If this new licensing model will be able to allow vendors to truly differentiate their products beyond just the marketing aspect is something we won't know until the first designs come out and will be tested, and until then, the verdict on ARM's new license is still open.

Today at Computex, as part of their annual Zen press conference, ASUS lifted the lid on the Zenfone 3 series. In previous Zenfone generations, the Zenfone has been one of the premier devices featuring Intel’s Atom smartphone chipset, however due to the announcement that Intel has cancelled their Atom smartphone ‘Broxton’ program ASUS is going all in with a series of Qualcomm chipsets, including the custom Kryo based Snapdragon 820 and also the first 14nm Snapdragon 625 device.

The Zenfone 2 line is known for having numerous, region specific models over its lifespan. To start, the Zenfone 3 will come in three formats and sizes: the base Zenfone 3 (ZE552KL), the premium Zenfone 3 Deluxe (ZS570KL) and the media-consumption focused Zenfone 3 Ultra (ZU680KL).

We were able to get a quick preview the day before the announcement, and had some hands-on time:

The black model is the base Zenfone model, featuring a Snapdragon 625 (dual 4xA53), and comes with Gorilla Glass 3.0 on the front and sides with 2.5D for the contouring on the edge. This model will feature up to 4GB/64GB, a Sony IMX298 rear camera, 2x2 dual-band 802.11ac WiFi, up to Cat 6 LTE, dual SIM and a USB 2.0 but Type-C based connector. The screen is a 5.5-inch Super IPS+ LCD, and runs Android Marshmallow with ZenUI 3.0.

The gold model is the Zenfone Deluxe, designed to be the high-end model with the main focus on the Snapdragon 820 (using Qualcomm’s custom Kryo cores, similar to the LG G5 and certain Samsung Galaxy S7 models) and having up to 6 GB of memory. So add to this on the storage of up to 256 GB, supporting the UFS 2.0 standard, and an upgraded 23MP Sony IMX318 rear camera and USB 3.0 (again, via Type-C), and ASUS hopes to be challenging some of the high-end devices. The unibody design aims for a seamless rear, with no antenna banding or windows, instead going for a small hole on the side of the phone at the top which, according to ASUS’ internal metrics, should be sufficient. The Deluxe will support Quick Charge 3.0 and has a similar 3000 mAh battery to the base model.

The large 6.8-inch Zenfone 3 Ultra is what ASUS is calling its ‘multimedia Smartphone’, aiming to combine the use case of a tablet with a smartphone. We’ve seen large smartphones before (like the Huawei P8 Max) but these tend to be region focused: I was told that the Ultra will be coming to the US in some form over the next few months. The Ultra runs a Full HD display (1920x1080) like the other two devices, but uses ‘ASUS Tru2Life’ technology based on Pixelworks’ 4K TV processor which also featured in the ZenPad S 8.0. This is supposedly an upgraded version over the ZenPad S 8.0, and it will be interesting to see Brandon’s reaction to it over the ZenPad. ASUS is equipping the Ultra with the Snapdragon 652 (4xA72, 4xA53), with up to 4GB/64GB and a 4800 mAh battery. ASUS is keen to promote that the phone can also act like a power bank and offers reverse charging. The Ultra will also come with DTS HD Premium Sound and Headphone 7:1 support, allowing for hi-res audio support up to 24-bit/96 kHz, and aiming squarely at the multimedia experience.

All three will feature fingerprint sensors, with the base model and the Deluxe having a rear touch sensor, the Ultra having a button sensor on the front, and all three supporting five fingers of recognition. They will all support ASUS’ PixelMaster 3.0 camera features: an f/2.0 6-element lens, 4-axis photo OIS, 3-axis EIS and dual tone LED flash. ASUS wants to promote its TriTech autofocus technology, enabling focus via contrast, phase and a second generation laser (capable up to 1.2m) for a 0.03-second autofocus system (ASUS states that around 250,000 pixels have left/right light detection to aid this).  An 8MP front camera is on the front of all the cameras also.

We’re writing this before the announcement, and we expect pricing to be specified during the presentation along with the time for device rollout. 

Gallery: ASUS Announces the ZenFone 3 Series, with 6 GB Deluxe Model and 6.8-inch Ultra Model

Computex is already a whirlwind of announcements even for day zero. At the ASUS Zenvolution press event today, the lid was lifted on the next generation of premium ASUS Zenbook: the Zenbook 3. No release date was placed, but the specification list and feature set puts it squarely in line to compete against very popular notebooks, albeit on the premium side.

The Zenbook 3 comes in at 11.9mm thin, weighing 910g, and gives a 12.5-inch display at a 1920x1080 resolution using a thin bezel display. This is similar to the XPS 13 (I’d give a nod more to the XPS 13, but it’s pretty close), but uses an aerospace grade aluminium body design similar to a Macbook but featuring a full Core i7-6500U with 16GB of LPDDR3-2133 memory. The use of a 15W Skylake-U processor means that the memory is limited to LPDDR3 rather than DDR4, which means 1.35V rather than 1.2V, but the faster 2133 MT/s memory should assist in a good number of daily tasks reliant on memory speed, such as gaming.

Storage options run up to 1TB of PCIe 3.0 SSDs (we’re double checking if these are NVMe, or SM951s), however the peak bandwidth is limited to 1700 MB/s sequential reads similar to the how Ganesh found the Intel Skylake NUCs SSD limitations – in this case the On Package Interconnect between the CPU and the integrated chipset is limited to PCIe 2.0 (though it’s worth noting that sustained writes are difficult to get above 1600 MB/s anyway).

The device will have a sole USB 3.0 Type-C port which will allow for charging and IO connectors which sounds like a Macbook, but as a difference ASUS has engineered the keyboard to allow for 0.8mm of key travel, compared to 0.4mm of the Macbook. The Zenbook 3 will have a 40 Wh battery, which ASUS rates for 9 hours of battery life but offers Quick Charge 3 which was presented as offering 60% battery charge in 49 minutes.

Other features in the mix include fingerprint login through the touchpad, a harmon/kardon enhanced audio system, Corning Gorilla Glass 4 display and the colors offered will extend to Royal Blue, Rose Gold and Quartz Grey.

One of ASUS’ issues here will be that their Zenbook UX305 line, at $700, represents a nice product for most of their intended customers. The Zenbook 3 is supposed to be the stylish alternative, that also gets a significant specification boost for users that need the power. At the show, ASUS showed three different models and their price points:

Intel Core i5-6200U, 4GB LPDDR3-1866, 256GB SSD: $999
Intel Core i7-6500U, 16GB LPDDR3-2133, 512GB PCIe SSD: $1499
Intel Core i7-6500U, 16GB LPDDR3-2133, 1TB PCIe SSD: $1999

The entry point is aimed at users who want the style but do not need much machine – the DRAM is severely cut back, and the SSD moves down to a SATA based M.2 SSD. The Core i7 models, from $1499-$1999, means that to get the power it can get expensive, bridging the cost between the cheaper Macbooks using Core M, the Dell XPS 13, and the more powerful Core i-based notebooks moving into higher power processors. The $1999 unit comes across as a lot, especially as an upgrade over the $1499 unit (because $500 for 500GB of PCIe SSD is a bit steep), however ASUS is hoping that the style will sell.

Personally, I run a self-purchased Zenbook Infinity (Haswell i7) that is showing its age and it actually ran out of power during the ASUS Zen press event (my 3^rd of the day). On some level I think the drive to thin and light and powerful can detract from what power users might need: if ASUS makes a Zenbook 3 like device with a separate sheet battery to make it 90 Wh, I might be interested.

Some users might state that a Core i-series based device and a Macbook are in two different product categories. However, during ASUS' presentation, it was constantly compared to the Macbook, and the low end price of the base model is certainly encroaching into Macbook territory. The most expensive Macbook comes with 512GB of PCIe storage and 8GB of memory for $1599 - ASUS' Zenbook 3 will give you the same storage, double the memory, ever so slightly lighter, and a full Core i7 for $100 less, although battery life is an hour in the Macbook's favor.

ASUS didn’t specify release dates, and I was told that exact US pricing is yet to be finalized, but we should expect sampling during the second half of the year. When we visit the ASUS Computex booth tomorrow, we should get a chance to see the device up close.

Gallery: ASUS Announces the Zenbook 3: A Macbook Competitor with Core i7, 16GB DRAM and 1TB SSD