Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2020 i PCWorld

You might think the new $1,000 Galaxy Note 20 and $1,000 Galaxy S20 are two peas in the same pod as “affordable” counterparts to their high-priced Ultra siblings. They’re not. While the Galaxy S20 is basically a smaller version of the S20 Ultra, with the same chip, RAM, and screen tech as its pricier sibling, the Galaxy Note 20 shares very little with the Note 20 Ultra. Samsung has set the cheaper Galaxy Note 20 apart from both the Note 20 Ultra and the Galaxy S20 Ultra with a number of changes, many of which might make buyers think twice about buying one. Here’s why your thousand bucks might be better spent on the slightly older Galaxy S20—or not. THE GALAXY NOTE 20’S PROCESSOR IS FASTER THAN THE S20’S… For…

In a blunt video posted in early August, outspoken former Intel principal engineer Francois Piednoël offered his advice on how to “fix” Intel CPUs, criticized current leadership for not being engineers, said AVX512 was a misadventure, and declared that it’s only luck AMD hasn’t grabbed more market share. “First, Intel is really out of focus,” Piednoël said in the nearly hour-long video presentation. “The leaders of Intel today are not engineers, they are not people who understand what to design to the market.” Piednoël said Intel’s technical decisions have largely been “nonsense” since 2016. Incidentally, Piednoël left Intel in 2017 after serving as a principal engineer and performance architect for 20 years, working on CPUs from the Pentium III to the 6th-gen Core i7. The outspoken engineer often made technical…

Google+ might be gone but it’s not forgotten. At least not by the courts. On June 10, Google agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit over the “software bugs” that led to some 50 million accounts having their data leaked. The settlement is a relatively small one, just $7.5 million, but if you ever set up a Google account, you may be eligible for a piece of it: $12 to be exact. Previous Google+ account holders have likely already received an ominous email claiming “You are not being sued,” but if you banished it to your spam folder, here are the details. All claims must be submitted by October 8 and as per usual, any claims forfeit all rights “to sue Google and/or any other released entities regarding the legal claims in…

Budget laptops continue to improve, and the Acer Spin 3 is a good example. For an affordable price it offers adequate components and battery life, with enough flexibility to accommodate a range of peripherals. Though the 14-inch, 360-degree convertible laptop delivers middling performance, a modern Thunderbolt port and a nifty integrated stylus stand out. In all, it’s a solid laptop, but in a market whose competition is growing stronger, quickly. BASIC FEATURES The Acer Spin 3 (SP314-54N-58Q7) we tested is sold at Costco for $650, although the company lists a few alternatives on its Acer online store. Of the four listed, only one, the SP314-54N-50W3, contains an up-to-date Core i5-1035G4 processor as well as a larger 512GB SSD, for about $150 more. (Intel’s 10th-gen “Ice Lake” processors use the number attached…

Thunderbolt 3-based eGPUs have been around for many years, offering the ability to plug a full desktop-class GPU into a laptop. Theoretically it’s an appealing idea, especially if someone is using an older laptop that has a perfectly fine CPU to handle games, but the GPU is long in the tooth. But there are some drawbacks. In the video (linked to at the end of this article), I talk about my experiences using an eGPU over the past 4 months to play 10 of the biggest games from the past couple of years. Each game was tested in four different ways, and below are the specs of the equipment I used—all of which is covered in the video. DELL XPS 15 7590 SPECS: Available here. • 15.6-inch 4K OLED…

Few PC components require more care and attention than a hard drive. We’ve all heard the admonishments to defragment drives, and clean up junk files to keep all our 1s and 0s sparkling. No matter how well you care for it, however, at some point that drive is going to fail. Sometimes you can hear it coming, sometimes it happens suddenly in the middle of a project, and other times it just refuses to boot one morning. Whatever way your hard drive meets its end, it’s a certainty you’ll see it happen if you use a PC long enough. Hard drives are complicated little devices. The primary components are the magnetic platters that contain the data, as well as the head that reads and writes the data. Those moving parts…

The follow-up to the Galaxy Fold is such a departure from the original beleaguered model that Samsung gave it a new name. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 would seem to fix much of what was wrong with the original Fold, bringing bigger outside and inside screens, better cameras, and a smarter design with a stronger screen and sturdier hinge. Whether that fits into “the new normal” Samsung is selling with the Galaxy Note 20 is another story. While Samsung continuously stressed during Unpacked how its lineup of new “power devices” are built for the new way of doing things remotely, the original Galaxy Fold doesn’t really fit that mold. It’s a device for traveling light and convenient, and, let’s face it, to be seen by others. Even for those able…

AMD’s share in the notebook PC market is now the highest ever, just under 20 percent, the company said in early August. AMD’s market share of X86 notebook PCs now stands at an all-time high of 19.9 percent, according to the company, citing a recent report by analyst firm Mercury Research. Though PCWorld did not have access to the full report, Dean McCarron, the Mercury analyst who authored it, confirmed the accuracy of AMD’s statement in an email. Though neither AMD nor Mercury cited the reasons for AMD’s strength in the notebook PC market, it’s reasonable to assume that AMD’s mobile Ryzen 4000 is the cause. AMD’s latest mobile chip is blowing away Intel in terms of performance. Notebook sales more than doubled during AMD’s recent quarter. AMD’s mobile Ryzen 4000 now…

The endless fake E3 summer continued in July with yet another Xbox games showcase from Microsoft. Unlike the ho-hum reveals of May’s Xbox event,this show brought the hits, as Microsoft revealed a slew of first-party blockbusters destined to land on Windows 10 PCs as well as the forthcoming Xbox Series X (go.pcworld.com/srsx)—including an extended demo of Halo: Infinite, which got itself a Steam page while the 10-minute video played. We also got our first glimpse at Obsidian’s next game and—finally!—Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2, complete with a serenade from Jack Black. And we’re getting a new Fable game, though the tantalizingly brief trailer failed to mention an estimated release date. People hoping for an Xbox Series X price or the reveal of the long-rumored Xbox Series S were disappointed, however. This event…

Having reviewed both Crucial’s P1 and P2 bargain NVMe SSDs, I expected more of the same middling performance from the new P5. I was wrong: The P5 was strictly upper-crust with normal workloads, and actually took home first prize in one test. It’s not the drive you want for extremely long writes, but otherwise—it hauls the freight. DESIGN AND SPECS The P5 is available in four capacities: 250GB ($63 on Amazon, 500GB ($87 on Amazon), the 1TB we tested ($180 on Amazon), and 2TB ($400 on Amazon). Those prices are pretty much on track for a midrange NVMe SSD. Note that the 250GB version is rated for half the write speed of the larger versions. This is common across the industry in that capacity. A single NAND chip, instead of…

I dig PUBG. My kids are into Roblox and Minecraft. We’re all wildly in love with Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout after playing a closed technical beta one past weekend. Turns out that a cute, colorful battle royale party game was exactly the game I need in the dark summer months of 2020. This could very well be gaming’s next big hit (which has launched on Steam and PlayStation since this writing). It’s just $20, but the game will also be free for PlayStation Plus subscribers—a recipe for success that helped Rocket League blow up back in the day. But more importantly, it’s an absolute blast to play. Fall Guys channels the feel of the old Wipeout game show, if up to 60 contestants plowed through Wipeout’s zany courses simultaneously. It even refers…

It's just like your PC or Mac, A lot of what ails your Android phone can be fixed with a simple restart. Laggy navigation, crashing apps, and system quirks can be cleared easily that way. But some maladies need more than a restart. Here’s how to remedy those peskier problems. 1. BLUETOOTH DEVICES WON’T CONNECT If you own an Android phone—especially a Pixel or a Galaxy—you’ve encountered this: The Bluetooth device that you were using yesterday won’t connect anymore. You could try toggling the Bluetooth switch, but even if that works it’ll likely be a temporary fix. But other than waiting for the next Android update, there are a few things you can try to fix it. Of course, you could unpair the device from your phone in the Bluetooth…

Microsoft Rewards is basically free money, and not enough of you know how to use it. We’re going to show you how to use Microsoft Rewards to help buy all the things you want—an Xbox Series X! Starbucks! Amazon gift cards!—beginning with the awesome Game Pass for PC subscription. Like the name says, Microsoft Rewards is Microsoft’s incentive program for using its consumer services. Using Bing earns you points. Playing Xbox games can earn you points. Playing PC games can earn you points. You can “chase points” as much as you’d like, and earn more and more. Or you can chill, go about your daily activities as you normally would, and still earn points. All of these points can be traded in for stuff you’ll actually want. We’ll use the…

At long last and longer rumor, the Google Pixel 4a has arrived, adding another strong entry to a very crowded midrange market. As premium phone sales continue to plummet due to the coronavirus, the Pixel 4a should be the 2020 value phone to beat, with surprisingly good looks and an aggressive $349 price tag. But while the Pixel 4a brings all the things you’d expect from a Google phone—namely an optimized UI and an excellent camera—it might be too little, too late. Google has built an excellent phone for an excellent price, but so have so many others. In just the time since it was originally rumored to launch at Google I/O in May, the Samsung Galaxy A51, OnePlus Nord, and TCL 10 Pro—not to mention the iPhone SE—have brought…

Dell has confirmed that charging issues with some of the company’s new XPS 17 9700 laptops, as well as some of its Precision 5750 corporate laptops, have been identified and fixed. The problem came to light when Dell XPS 17 9700 review units tested by Notebookcheck.com (which first reported it) and PCWorld exhibited the strange behavior of discharging their battery while plugged in, if the laptop was under heavy load. To help diagnose the issue, PCWorld sent its review unit and charger back to Dell for analysis. Dell confirmed what had been observed, and said it was resolving the matter: “Dell has identified an issue on a limited quantity of XPS 17 9700 laptops and Precision 5750 mobile workstations where users may notice their battery depleting at a higher than expected…

HP’s Ryzen 4000-powered Envy x360 13 proves that you can get first-class features for coach pricing. Don’t believe me? Here are some of the goodies included: • Decent 13.3-inch IPS panel with good off-axis viewing, touch, and optional pen support • Solid all-aluminum body with 360-convertible hinges • Speakers that actually sound better than the ones on a lot of larger 15.6-inch gaming laptops • And the crown jewel, a mid-priced Ryzen 4000 CPU with high-end CPU performance In fact, the HP Envy x360 13 we tested is so good, yet so affordable (despite a few corners cut to save cost), that you might not be able to get it. At the time of this writing, our exact, $799 configuration was sold out. However, you can customize it into being…

The Cherry DW 9000 Slim is a modestly priced wireless desktop keyboard-and-mouse combo. With its full-size layout and comfortable keys, the keyboard can be easily swapped in for your daily driver without missing a stroke. And, though the mouse is a little on the small side, its half-dozen customizable keys allow you to tailor it to your productivity needs. DESIGN The Cherry DW 9000 Slim is quite a looker. The underside of my review model was done in bronze, with the top deck and keys in black. (It’s also available in a very Apple-like silver-and-white color scheme.) There’s a bit of cutaway around each key to allow a sliver of bronze to show through, creating a nice accent trim. Despite the plastic casing, the keyboard weighs about half a pound…

As Windows 10 turns five years old this week, it’s a good time to look at how much Windows 10 has changed the PC—with everything from Windows Hello to free updates, seemingly in perpetuity. Microsoft began shipping Windows 10 to PCs on July 29, 2015—“ordering pizza for 1.5 billion people,” as one Microsoft executive put it. Few remember now that PC makers barely made the launch, with even Microsoft admitting most PCs would ship with Windows 8 pre-installed instead—even as PC makers hoped and prayed that Windows 10 would outsell the debacle that was Windows 8. Well, it did. Improvements like Windows Hello might be taken for granted now, but they were groundbreaking for their time. (Apple Macs still haven’t quite figured out what these “touchscreen” things are!) As Windows…

How to find and delete unwanted files on your PC is a chore everyone thinks is going to take hours, when in fact it takes just a minute or two. Just don’t use Windows 10’s File Explorer! The Windows Settings’ Storage menu was designed to eliminate digital file clutter. It’s the DIY kit to the more sophisticated WinDirStat tool (which we recommend if you want to dive deeper). The need is only growing: Laptops with 128GB and 256GB SSDs are still the norm, but photos and videos already hog a lot of space. If you’re a fan of reboots of classic games like Flight Simulator, you need to know that they can take up to 150GB of storage, just by their lonesome. Here’s how to take back some of that…