$480+ Aspire 3 laptop is powered by an Intel Core i3-N305 Alder Lake-N processor

Aspire 3 Laptop A315-510P-3905

Intel has just launched the Alder Lake-N processors and a duo of ACER Aspire 3 laptops are some of the first platforms to feature the Core i3-N305 octa-core processor, after the introduction of the MSI Cubi N ADL mini PC last week. Both models are equipped with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD, but the Aspire 3 A314-36P-360X comes with a 14-inch display while the Aspire 3 A315-510P-3905 features a 15.6-inch display both at Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution.  ACER Aspire 3 “Alder Lake-N” laptop specifications: SoC – Intel Core i3-N305 octa-core processor @ 1.80 GHz / 3.80 GHz (Turbo) with 32EU Intel UHD graphics @ 1.25 GHz; TDP: 15W System Memory – 8 GB LPDDR5 Storage – 256GB NVMe SSD Display A314-36P-360X -14-inch TN LCD display with 1920×1080 resolution, LED backlight A315-510P-3905 – 15.6-inch IPS LCD display with 1920×1080 resolution, LED backlight Audio – HD Audio, stereo speakers, […]

AMD Ryzen 5000 C-Series processors target Chrome OS devices for work

AMD Ryzen 5000-C Series

AMD has just introduced the 15W Ryzen 5000 C-Series “Zen 3” processors for premium Chrome OS devices designed for work and collaboration. The processors can with up to eight cores and sixteen threads and are said to offer all-day battery life. AMD Ryzen 5000 C-Series processors for Chrome OS are expected to offer up to 67% faster responsiveness and up to 85% better graphics performance when comparing a Chromebook based on AMD Ryzen 7 5825C against an earlier model based on AMD Ryzen 7 3700C introduced in 2020 using respectively WebXPRT 3 and Motion Mark 1.2 benchmarks. Multitasking performance comparison using Geekbench 5 shows a 107% improvement that is probably mostly due to the doubling of the number of cores. The AMD Ryzen 5000 C-Series “”Barcelo” family is currently comprised of four parts. We can look at the Ryzen 7 5825C other features for more details: Cache –  512KB L1 […]

MediaTek Kompanio 1380 Cortex-A78/55 processor is designed for premium Chromebooks

MediaTek Kompanio 1380

MediaTek Kompanio 1380 is a 6nm octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 processor clocked at up to 3.0 GHz designed for premium Chromebooks such as the new Acer Chromebook Spin 513 (CP513-2H), which will compete against the company’s Snapdragon 7c based Chromebook Spin 513 (CP513-1H). The processor supports LPDDR4x memory, UFS and eMMC storage, up to three displays, for example, the main display plus two external HDMI displays, WiFI 6/6E, and offers high-performance interfaces such as PCIe Gen 3 and USB 3.2 Gen 1. MediaTek Kompanio 1380 (MT8195T) processor specifications: Octa-core CPU 4x Arm Cortex-A78 cores @ up to 3.0 GHz 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC5 AI accelerator – MediaTek APU 3.0 up to 4 TOPS VPU Video Playback – 4K HDR H.264, H.265 / HEVC, VP9, AV1 Video Encoding – 4K HDR H.264, H.265 / HEVC Memory – LPDDR4x @ 2133 MHz Storage – […]

Acer Swift 3 (SF314-42) AMD Ryzen 4700U Laptop to Launch in March for €599 and Up

Acer Swift 3 SF314-42

AMD just announced its 15W Ryzen 4000-U series processors for laptops aiming to compete against Intel Ice Lake processors, and one of the first ultrathin laptop based on AMD Ryzen 4700U processor will be Acer Swift 3 (SF314-42) equipped with a 14″ display, up to 16GB LPDDR4x memory, and up to 512GB PCIe SSD storage. Acer Swift 3 (SF314-42) specifications: SoC – Up to AMD Ryzen 4700U octa-core/octa-thread Zen 2 processor @ 2.0 GHz / 4.1 (Boost) and 7-core Radeon graphics; 15W TDP; 7nm process System Memory – Up to 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM Storage – Up to 512 GB PCIe SSD Display – 14″ Full HD display Video Output – HDMI Audio – Stereo speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack Camera – 720p webcam Connectivity – WiFi 6 (802.11ax) USB – 1x USB Type-C port, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, Dimensions – 32.25 x 21.8 x 15.95 mm Weight – […]

Project Athena Specification 1.0 – Fast Response Times and Long Battery Life

Project Athena Specification 1.0

Project Athena innovation program aims to provide a set of guidelines for Windows or Chrome OS always-on always-connected laptop powered by Intel processor. At the time of the first announcement at CES 2019 few details were provided, but Intel has now released Project Athena 1.0 target specification which gives clearer details of what such laptops will have to offer. Intel also introduced new “key experience indicators” (KEI) aligned with real-world conditions in order to provide to best experience to end-users. Project Athena 1.0 target specification defines six key areas of innovation: Instant Action – Modern Connected Standby and Lucid Sleep (feature of Chrome OS) features implement fast wake with a simple lid-lift, push of a button or quick fingerprint recognition. System wake from sleep must occur in less than 1 second Performance and Responsiveness – Systems based on Intel Core i5 or i7 processors with Intel Dynamic Tuning Technology, a […]

Acer Aspire 3 A315-41G (AMD Ryzen 7 2700U) Laptop – Installing Ubuntu 18.04 and “Hidden” M.2 SSD Socket

Acer Aspire 3 A315G-41 Ubuntu 18.04

Everyday I’m using a tower PC running Ubuntu 18.04 to take care of this blog, but when I travel it’s obviously not so convenient, so a few years ago I bought an  Acer Aspire E5-421G laptop powered by an AMD A4-6210 processor with 4GB RAM, 512GB HDD, and a 14″ display. I installed Ubuntu on the laptop and it works, but with 4GB RAM, it’s not always usable while multitasking. For example I can run Thunderbird and Firefox, but if I ever make a Skype call for example, the system becomes unusable, and I have to close one of the programs. Tasks like video editing are also quite slow on the machine. So since I’m going to travel in a few weeks, I decided I needed a new laptop. My requirements were 8GB RAM,  SSD and HDD support, a 15″ display, the ability to run Ubuntu 18.04, and possibly a […]

Acer Swift 1 Laptop Gets an Upgrade to Intel Pentium Silver N5000 Gemini Lake Processor

Acer Swift 1 laptop was introduced last year with an Intel Pentium N4200 “Apollo Lake” processor and a 13.3″ display, and it appears the laptop is getting an upgrade to the latest Intel Pentium Silver N5000 Gemini Lake processor and a large 14″ display based on product pages (here and there) recently updated on Acer Germany website. Acer Swift 1 (2018) specifications: SoC – Intel Pentium Silver N5000 quad core processor @ 1.1 GHz  / 2.7 GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD Graphics 605; 6W TDP System Memory – 4GB DDR4 Storage – 256GB SSD, SD card reader Display – 14″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS display Video Output – HDMI Connectivity – 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi Audio – Built-in microphone, stereo speakers Camera – 1280 x 720 webcam USB – 2x USB 3.0 , 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C Input device – TouchPad, keyboard Battery – 3-Cell […]

Acer Chromebook Tab 10 is the First Chrome OS Tablet

Chrome OS has been found in laptops (Chromebooks), and mini PCs (Chromeboxes) or even All-in-One PCs (Chromebases) for a while, but a new category has launched with Chrome OS tablets starting with Acer Chromebook Tab 10. The tablet is powered by a Rockchip RK3399 / OP1 processor, comes with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage, a 9.7″ display, supports Wacom EMR stylus, targets the education market. Acer Chromebook Tab 10 (D651N) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399-C / OP1 hexa core processor with two Cortex A72 cores, four Cortex A53 cores, and a Mali-T860MP4 GPU System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 32GB eMMC flash, micro SD card slot Display – 9.7″ touchscreen IPS display with QXGA (2048×1536) resolution Audio – Headphone/speaker jack Connectivity – 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2 Camera – 2MP front-facing camera USB – 1x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type C  port for charging, data transfer and connection […]

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