Nevertheless, in its ecosystem, this Galaxy Tab S3 is what the iPad Pro is to iOS or what the Surface Pro 4 is to Windows. It is, the best equipment to run Android with in the great format. Those who aspire to the best of the best regardless the price, should not have any doubts right now; especially since the high gamma in the segment shows few agitation. Samsung has done a noticeable effort to develop a product that fitted perfectly in the tablets boom moments and that is why this device is so special nowadays.

Design

It is simply, a spectacular aspect of the tablet. The Galaxy Tab S3 offers some fine and forceful lines, improving the length we had seen in its predecessors. At last, Samsung leaves aside the plastic for its high gamma tablet, the same way it did it with the smartphones in 2015. This model reproduce in a good measure the Korean firm new scheme of design related to the usage of materials. The profiles are finished in aluminum and the back part is made of crystal (black or gray).

Although the equipment seems to be kind of fragile, because of the breakable material it is covered with in a great part of its surface, the frontal and the back part are incased in Gorilla Glass 4, what made us not to be afraid of a fall or the usual scratches. Even so, those who go for the keyboard, will have a more complete protection for their Tablet. The only one problem in this sense, we would say, is the one of firgerprints and of dust, which easily stay adhered in the back cover.

As you will also know, besides the keyboard, the Galaxy Tab S3 has another luxury accessory. In the case of S Pen, besides, it is not necessary to buy it separately, but in comes in the box with the tablet. It is the same evolution showed up with the Note 7, and is able to recognize until 4.096 pressure levels. Maybe, it is, it had been useful some kind of anchorage or union between the tablet and the S Pen, in order to transport both of them together.

Finally, we must emphasize the integration of the four speakers signed by AKG (an affiliated of Harman Kardon). We will talk about the audio later, but what is interesting here is that absolutely, this factor does not condition the design. We have seen tablets with an impressive sound that they ought to have been thickened, or to place pretty visible outputs. In the Galaxy Tab S3 the speakers go practically unnoticed, unless we search for them. Definitely, the line is elegant and sober with neither specially disruptive nor striking elements of any kind.

Dimensions

The measures of this tablet are 27,7 cm x 16,9 cm x 6 mm i.e, smaller than the Ipad Pro or than the new iPad 9,7 inches, with the same size screen, in all its stroke. The frames are markedly lower, even when in a tablet they will not bother as much as in a smartphone. It is, maybe, a simple demonstration of power. Samsung may have taken the design one further step than Apple, even if it is a matter of just millimeters.

Having the device in your hand is a real joy: compact and consistent while extremely light. Its weight is merely 429 grams, or 434 grams in the LTE version. In this respect, the only thing left for the next generations is having Samsung introduce the Edge concept in their tablet segment. Imagine how nice a Galaxy Tab S4 would look with a slight curve in its edges and the Infinity screen. In this case, also, the fingerprint sensor should be incorporated in the panel.

Connectivity, ports, buttons

In the front, in a very classic style (or at least in a pre-Galaxy S8 style) we have the mechanical home button with a fingerprint sensor and two on the sides: a multitask and a back button.

In the upper side, we find only two speakers with eight small orifices each. The lower side presents the same together with the mini jack and the USB-C port. This one is a bit to the side, it doesn’t occupy a central position as it happens in a big portion of mobile devices.

In the left side, we can see the base or dock to connect the device to the keyboard. This may be the element that makes the bigger difference between the aesthetic of this device and the aesthetic of the Galaxy Tab S3, although it’s well integrated. It includes the port itself and two magnetic anchors at the sides.

The right side is left for the volume and power buttons. Below that we can see the micro SD card slot as well as the SIM card slot in the case of the 4G variant.

The device also includes other resources such as Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, GLONASS, accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. This year, once again, there’s still no NFC.

Screen and Multimedia

What can we say about this Galaxy Tab S3 that the professional analysis haven’t already said? Even though it has more or less the same core technology as the Tab S2, it’s practically unbeatable for the other manufacturers. This time, Samsung has added dynamic range visualization to video playback. This feature, basically, shows a similar color evolution as the HDR found in photographic cameras, balancing and giving more vibrancy to colors.

Here, we should also say that we can choose between different screen settings. The default setting is the Adaptative Display (which is not necessarily optimal in every situation), but we can change it to Cinema or Photo or, in my opinion, to the one that we should have as reference: Basic.

Going into the technical details, the panel is a SuperAMOLED with 2048 x 1536 pixels of resolution (264 dots per inch) and 4:3 format, which covers approximately 73% of the front. The colors are precise and realistic. The black, logically, is spectacular. The distance between the maximum and minimum level of brightness is really broad and the visibility angles are extraordinary, as it is usual with the company. Moreover, the OLED screen lets us play with dark themes and backgrounds to reduce power consumption.

In terms of the audio, the Galaxy Tab S3 now includes 4 speakers. This is one of the fields in which they have advanced the most compared to the last generation. Samsung had been working for some time with AKG to develop this device, this shared work started even before the South Korean company bought Harman Kardon.

The result – what else can we say? – is impeccable. From our point of view, this tablet can effortlessly compete with any soundbar. You don’t even need to use Bluetooth speakers to enhance the experience, you’ll hardly get a better one. Even though the Huawei MediaPad M2 10 surprised us in this same field, the Galaxy Tab S3 is less thunderous (it doesn’t reach such a high volume) but the sound is more clear and balanced in general.

Operating system and interface

The Galaxy Tab S3 comes with Android 7.0 Nougat, although is decorated with the traditional TouchWiz layer. In a few years,from having a bad reputation and beeing considered something to avoid, the personalization of Samsung has become one of the most powerful and better optimized on the market. In 2013 it maybe supposed a point against, but it’s not a surprise that every time there are more users who even prefer it over the AOSP style interface of Nexus (or Pixel).

As it happened with the Tab S2, this new generation has a place for the most important Microsoft tools, together with Google’s and Samsung’s own tools. In the rest of the device, we hardly find any bloatware. Logically, the app repertory is oriented to the use of the S Pen.

On the Samsung side, we find PEN.UP, an app that besides of teaching us tricks and other useful techniques to learn to draw in digital, it allows us to share our creations with other users. There is also the classic Samsung Notes, adapted to the times and optimized to take advantage of our pencil, and SoundCamp that will be the delight of the music lovers and will allow us to generate and record melodies with numerous instruments, including drums, keyboard, bass, guitar or synthesizer.

Other of the star apps of this Galaxy Tab S3 is the Game Launcher. This is one of the services in wich Samsung delved more during the presentation of this table. Its operation is simple, although we have to activate it from the menu Settings> Advanced functions. During our games we will see a small bubble on the screen from which, we can record the game, take a screenshot, block the touch or the capacitive controls to not affect the game if we touch by mistake,or even disable the notifications if we want these to not intercede with our enjoyment time.

In short, for some years Samsung devices would come loaded with applications which surely most of us would not use more than in passing. Today, the Korean brand only includes by default things which any intermediate user can truly take part in and that is something that one can appreciate enormously.

Rendering and Memory

After a while speaking to you of different possible options for the processor of this Galaxy Tab S3, at last has yielded Qualcomm, something that seems positive to us, although It has not been with the Snapdragon 835. In this case, we have the top of the line from the 2016 generation, which is to say, the Snapdragon 820, with four cores at 2,15 GHz, very powerful and perfectly balanced to sufficiently handle any content that may be around it.

The tablet is extraordinarily quick, and we do not encounter the slightest bit of lag; neither in games nor throughout the Android/TouchWiz interface. In the same fashion, the fingerprint reader is enormously efficient by all metrics. A true beast of equipment whichever way you look at it, as the different benchmarks which we have used demonstrate in this analysis.

The graphics rendering of Vulkan, added to the GPU Adreno 530 is the top of the line for the game mode. The Tab S3 is a perfect tablet to play games on, as much in options and tools as in graphics power. For the moment we have tried three or four titles (Mario Run and Deux Ex: The fall of Injustice 2 being among them) and the smoothness and performance have seemed incontestable to us.

For RAM, we count 4GB of memory, which is the maximum that Android is prepared to work on. In this sense, enough with looking at the Galaxy S8. If it needed any more (6GB), we have no doubt that Samsung would have involved themselves with it, but from that estimate, it becomes a waste. We have 32GB initial storage, however we count on the possibility of using MicroSD cards of up to 256 gigabytes and manage them as internal memory.

Operating Range

Another part of this model will not falter. The battery has grown a bit with respect to the previous generation, up to 6,000 mAh, and that does inevitably increase the thickness. Even so our trials in PC Mark left us a record of more than 8 hours of continuous work; for that it can be said that the change has indeed been worth it.

Beyond Doze, we find Samsung’s power saving mode that works at two levels and that can serve to scratch some hours of use in case we find ourselves rushed. In addition, we have the option of stopping processes in the background of any of the apps that we have installed when we are not utilizing them directly. The same that will happen to make Android O, TouchWiz already offers us information on energy consumption generated by the distinct tools of our equipment.

Camera

Normally, there isn’t much that we can say about the camera on a tablet, however, this is an exception; And it’s because, depending on which smartphone you have, it isn’t difficult to find that the Galaxy Tab S3 takes better pictures. We have on the equipment a 13-megapixel sensor with an aperture f/1.9. In this generation, furthermore, the tablet brings flash, although it also captures images with great quality when there isn’t much light. The forward camera meanwhile, offers a resolution of 5 megapixels, with an aperture f/2.2 and is also outstanding.

The autofocus is very quick and accurate while the camera catches an impressive level of detail, with little noise, that one practically will not fail to zoom in on any of the captures.

Galaxy Tab S3: Price and Conclusions

The Galaxy Tab S3 has an official price of 669 euros, although if we add 4G LTE connectivity to the equipment we are up to 769 euros. This said, Samsung’s prices have been going down as time goes on, and even considering that the equipment has finished to go for sale, already one can find both variants on Amazon for 639 and 700 euros respectively. As we say, the S Pen comes included, but if we want to acquire the keyboard case, we would have to spend another 135 more euros.

To a certain extent, these prices aren’t casual, already marking an identical level to the iPad Pro of 9, 7 inches. From our point of view, both apparatuses are very similar in terms of product quality, so then, it is logical that they go for a similar price in the market.

Cons

Even though we think this Galaxy Tab S3 is worth its price, we ought to say that it is a price we are not used to see for an Android tablet, especially when the Tab S2 was 500 euros. This device won’t be affordable for everyone although we hope, as we’ve already said, it gets cheaper and more affordable in the future. This is really the only weak spot to be found in this device, besides the issue of the fingerprints in the back.

Pros

The Galaxy Tab S3 nears perfection, not only as a tablet but also as an Android device in general. We have great finishes, powerful audio, the best visual experience available in tablets and a high performance in every other aspect. The battery, without being especially great, also accompanies the performance level, in spite of the huge density of pixels. Even the camera, which is not too important in a tablet, is quite good, better than most of the cameras in smartphones.

Samsung has designed an amazing product that surpasses its predecessor by far. We’ll have to see how the Android tablet market develops and we hope this device is not the last one from the S line. The challenge for the next generation: nailing the Edge formula.

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is already among us, besides, it is full of changes, improvements and novelties of all kinds, many of them visible and noticeable for all of the users and many others that have been introduced in the background, without fanfare, and designed to upgrade the experience of the users whenever they use the new operating system, as, for example, a new function that is applied when turning on and restarting Windows which permit us to start again with all the apps opened again, just as they were at the moment of restarting.

This new function has been implemented in the operating system in order to upgrade the experience of the users and speed up the restarts of the system and the turnings off as well, and at the same time, to permit to the users to recover the previous status of their computers when they turn them on again.

Even when this function is so interesting, nevertheless, it has come with a lot of problems that can cause some apps to entail problems when trying to restart again. Some of these apps are Google Chrome or NordVPN, according to the reports of some users.

Although, this function has come enable by default in all Windows 10 Fall Creators Update systems, Microsoft has hidden in the system a very simple way to restart and turn off, without this change taking effect, completing absolutely all the apps so that, when we start again, they will not be open and we may have done a clean restart in Windows 10.

How to turn off or restart Windows 10 without the apps we had opened become opened again.

We all are generally used to turning our computers off from the menu Start of Windows. Even when it is the most comfortable way, from Windows 10 Full Creators Update, the restart is not real, but it works as we have explained, and when it starts once again, the apps we had before opened, open by themselves again.

To avoid this happening again, what we have to do is to use the option “close Windows” so that, when we turned the computer off, or restarted it, from here, the process to be completed, and whenever you turned it on again, it started clean.

To open this menu to close Windows, the only one thing we must do is to locate the desk of the system and pulse key Alt+F4 of the keyboard (Shortcuts of the keyboard that, generally, serves you to close a window or a program)

Whenever we do it, we will be able to see a window like the next one.

In this window we will decide if we want to start or to turn off, and that´s it.

Whenever we do it, Windows will close all the apps we had opened and will turn the system off.

When we turned it on again, the system will have charged clean again, without opening neither apps, nor any process that we might have left opened.

As an alternative to this process, we can also open a window of CMD and execute the next command which does the same than the menu of close Windows but allow us, for example, to create a direct access to it.

. shutdown / r / t0

Are you used to doing clean restarts in Windows or you prefer to have your session restored when you turn your pc on?

Android is a mobile platform that changes constantly. With each new system version Google introduces new features and removes others that in general are obsolete or don’t provide an added value for users.

Nevertheless, in some occasions we’ve seen how some useful system tools, which we could even use in a daily basis, disappeared completely with no explanation. Today, we put together a list of five features that inexplicably disappeared.

Features that inexplicably disappeared from Android forever

Now on Tap

We have to start with the most recent one and also the one we miss the most. Now on Tap appeared on the Android 6.0 Marshmallow and it gave us information about what was happening in our screen.

It only took a long tap on the device’s home button for the Now on Tap to search the screen for relevant information and then give us helpful information when performing actions such as planning events, saving phone numbers or web addresses. However, it seems like Google decided that the Now on Tap and the virtual assistant couldn’t coexist and they made it disappear.

Live Folders

Live Folders were something that only the veterans of the Android universe will remember. In 2009, Google announced this launcher tool in the operating system developer’s blog. It allowed the apps to show information in the home screen, without having to execute the app – similarly to the quick accesses introduced in the Android 7.1.

The aim of this tool, which was born and died with the Android 1.5 Cupcake, was to show information in real time about the apps, such as a dynamic contact list, markers, playlists, emails or a newsfeed. Contrary to the widgets, the user would be the one tapping on the folder icon to see the information.

Widgets in the lock screen

Another one of the features some of us miss is the possibility of setting widgets in the lock screen. This characteristic appeared on the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and soon turned into one of the top rated features by the users, as it allowed them to personalize one of the few interface parts that up until then was unmodifiable.

The widgets in the lock screen allowed users to see information from the apps without having to unlock their phone. Unfortunately, the feature disappeared from Android overnight and we’ve never heard of it again.

Movie Studio

Probably, not many of you will remember Movie Studio. It was a video editing app introduced in 2011 together with the Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the tablet oriented version, which even got to be one of the most attractive features of this edition of the operative system.

Later, it also launched on smartphones, aiming to become the Snapseed of videos. This idea vanished when Google decided to abandon the app development and removed it from Google Play in 2013.

Daydream

Even though it hasn’t completely disappeared, the current Daydream has little in common with what it was a few years ago. Nowadays, we all know DayDream as a Google platform for virtual reality. But it wasn’t always like that.

In the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Google hid in the settings app a section called Daydream. It was a feature for moving screensavers and Google even introduced some of this screensavers, such as a clock or a colorful cloud that changed with time. Today, this feature is still available on Android Stock but the name has changed to “screensaver” probably to avoid misunderstandings.

About a month ago I bought an iPhone 8 Plus, putting aside my dear Galaxy S7 edge to give it a chance to apple devices. It’s already known: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. The fact is that, after a month of testing, and having found their good things and their bad things, there is just one thing that keeps annoying me and that, unless the stars are aligned, there is no solution in a short term.

I have always liked to buy apps. If a developer does a good job, I think the best way to make it up for him is paying for his app, and throughout my android life (which I still keeping even thoug i use an iPhone) I bought dozens of apps and spent many euros. Now, all that money doesn’t worth anything, because an app that I bought on Google Play I have to rebuy it on the App Store.

For when the multiplatform apps?

There are lots of paid apps that I used on my everyday and that now, unfortunately, I can’t use. They are not essentials apps, but I have paid for them and I would like to be able to use them regardless the operating system I use. A couple of clear examples would be Shazam Encore or Soundhound Pro (yes, I bought both), Tiny Scanner, Geometry Dash, the two of Monument Valley, Reigns or Runtastic Pro.

Those apps and games that I already paid for on Android i can not use them on iOS, and it seems wrong to me. I think that, regardless of the platform is being used, users should have the right to access an app they have paid for. From my point of view, it’s like I bought a subscription to Spotify Premium but I could only use it on the computer and not on the phone.

On my opinion, I think both operating systems should learn to coexist, and make some data crossing in orden to the App Store knows that I have bought X app anteriorly on Android, and vice versa. That would not only help people who pass from Android to iOS, but would be a incentive for people who don’t want to make the jump from iOS to Android because of the fear of losing their apps.

I understand it is a more complicated job for developers, but I am sure many people would be willing to pay a higher price for the apps if they had the guarantee that they are buying them for any operating system. This is my personal opinion, and I’d love to hear yours, so don’t hesitate on leave it on comments for open the debate.

Let us talk first about the characteristics and then we will value the price. The Asus ROG Strix XG258Q mounts a LED-TN of Full HD resolution. Knowing this, you will understand that the monitor cannot be very expensive, can it?. Well, the panel has logically 1ms of time of response, and Asus offers it in two variants: The first with NVIDIA G-Sync and the other one with AMD FreeSync, being the option with FreeSync $50 dollars cheaper. The best part of this monitor is its refresh rate, so that it goes from 48 to 240 Hz. It is really laudable.

The LED-TN panel is fast, very fast, but at the cost of having bad angles of vision and a very poor precision of color. That is what they got. The native contrast is from 1000 to 1, and the panel is of 6 bits with RFC. Asus has added technologies such as ELMB (Extreme Low Motion Blur) and of course it will never miss the Asus Aura RGB little lights that, in this case, they have installed them in the back of the monitor (As I understand it, it is for us to see them reflexed on the wall. I do not know…if not, what for, then?) I do not know if this is a good idea because watching little lights moving will get us distracted of the game, won´t it?. Well, they have also installed a light which is reflected on the table in the base of the monitor, as it is in other products of the gamma ROG of highest gamma.

The panel is able to give even 400 nits of bright, and has an entry HDMI 1.4 (the one with which the frequency of refreshment will be of 140 Hz at the most) a HDMI 2.0 and a DisplayPort 1.2. As we said in the beginning, it is available for $499 dollars in its version with G-Sync and for $499 dollars in its version with FreeSync. I do not know what your opinion is. But, So that we have already seen all this stuff, I do think that this monitor is, at least, $150 dollars overpriced, taking in account what it offers. But you already know how Asus work and its tendency to think that its trademark gives its products exclusive rights. And concerning to the little lights, it does really bother me, honesty. Because in a monitor for games, it will just serve to distract the users.

In the last hours the app of Google Play Services system was updated to the version 11.7.46 to correct some lesser performance problems, but the solution seems to have been worse than the sickness. And it is because many users warn that after installing the update they have found themselves having severe problems of battery in Android.

If you have gone through problems of battery in Android in the last hours, keeping the same usage in your cell phone, maybe the fault is on Google Play services, just as it is warned from Reddit. There are some users there who started complaining about the fact that the update of this service is wearing down the battery of their smartphones (no matter what model it is) in an alarming way. In fact, even when the problem seems to prevail, especially on the Google Pixel and One Plus devices, none is safe from being affected with this problem that, fortunately, has a solution.

If you see the bright of your screen stays stable, you are neither constantly consuming videos from your cell phone nor executing any other activities that could cause battery problems in Android, it is probable that you are affected by the failure of the app of the system. This app is the fundamental dorsal spine of Android and, one of its tasks is to manage the permissions of the location of the cell phone, and it is something that affects directly the cell phone energy.

Solution to the battery problem of Google Play Services

Fortunately, to fix these problems of battery in Android has an easy solution, once you have detected that the origin of them is in Google Play services. Even when it could sound contradictory, some users seem to have updated their format beta, and then, like magic, all the problems have been solved.

How do I install the beta of Google Play services in my cell phone? Very simple. To install the last version of Google Play Services v11.9.49 beta in your Android, the only thing you must do is download the APK from APKMirror. Another system you can follow is to become a beta tester of Google Play services and receive the beta update through a notification.

Whichever of the two process you decide to follow, you should stop having these battery problems in Android. If it did not work, please, leave a comment in this very same new and we will try to give you a hand in order you to be able to normally use your smartphone.

At the begginings of this year we talked to you about the new standard HDMI 2.1 presented in the CES,a draft of the new standard which would come definitly at the end of 2017 and that will have a support for HDR dynamic. Some hours ago, the official specifications of the new standard HDMI 2.1 have been made known, and they are coming with some very interesting novelties and surprises related to the initial draft.

The HDMI 2.1 is a standard developed thinking specially of the future in order to, besides being able to take advantage at the most of the televisions UHD of last generation they will also be able to get benefits of the potential of the future models gifted with panels Super Hi-Vision.

Although in the beggining this new standard was going to be prepared for resolutions 8K ( 7680 x 4320 ), it finally seems to be coming with support for resolutions of 10K ( 10.240 x 4.320 ) which will function, besides, to a maximun of 120 Hz. In addition to this standard HDMI 2.1, like the resolutions 4K @ 120 Hz y 8K @ 60 Hz, the support for HDR dynamic and the conectivity with audio-systems eARC, specially designed to work with formats of audio without compression based in objects, such as DIS:X and the great Dolby Atmos.

Besides, this new standard HDMI 2.1 will also be a very important version for the gamers, and it is because it will incorporate a function of adaptive refresh which is going to permit us to reduce the stuttering and the tearing when we play in the screen, just like Quick Frame Transport (QFT) which will reduce the latency.

Last. Quickly Media Switching (QMS) will permit us to reduce the black pauses that appear while watching videos.

When will we be able to enjoy the HDMI 2.1?

Without a doubt, this new standard will imply a great advance, so for the users that use it to watch movies or any kind of content in their televisions, as, above all, for the players, who will be able to enjoy the advantages that offer protocols like G-Sync and Free-Sync in the shape of Standard HDMI.

Besides, as we have seen all this year long, every time, among the makers of routers and servers NAS are more those who have a port HDMI that permit us to connect it directly to the tv. set. Most of the current models have support for resolutions until 4K, even when it will not be rare to see along 2018, some makers will start to implement the new HDMI 2.1, and so they will permit to reproduce content until 8K, in the highest gamma, at least.

The main television makers will not either delay to start to sell last generation televisions already fixed for this new standard, even update the firmware of the present ones to make them suitable with this new standard HDMI. Besides, Microsoft, on one hand, has already confirmed that will update Xbox One X to make it suitable, soon, with a simple patch, while Sony, on the other hand, should not delay too much to do the same with its most advanced console, the PS4 Pro.

Acer has been one of the latest brands to enter the gaming laptop market. This market usually consists of big laptops (15 or 17 inches) with processors and graphic cards more powerful than what you would see on a normal laptop. Exactly like the new Predator Helios 300.

Normally that means high prices, most of these kinds of laptops are still expensive, but brands are now facing other laptops at around 1000$ and even prices below that. Acer has been in that group lately, the Helios series is a good example of this, but it also has more advance and competitive models, like the Predator Helios 300 that we are reviewing today.

The Predator Helios 300 de 17″ is the kind of laptop that we want to use to replace a desktop computer, it’s able to do the usual task of a computer with ease and, of course, play the best video games. To be able to do this it needs the best components available for this price point.

The setting that we reviewed is a perfectly balanced machine. The Core i7-7700HQ processor is a classic that we can usually find in computers from the medium to high spectrum, it works really well to build a computer around. The processor has 4 cores and it has a big memory and has a turbo mode that reaches a frequency of 3.8GHz.

It offers a very good software that allows us to harvest the most of the graphic card, including the one that comes with this model. A Geforce GTX 1060 with 6GB of memory that is perfect for 1920×1080 screens.

It supports up to 32GB of DDR4 memory, but the actual price point makes the 16GB that it comes with preferable. It only has 2 memory banks, which are really easy to access thanks to a latch in the base of the laptop.

The storage system mixes the best from the PCI Express units in M.2 format with a 2.5″ bay occupied by a mechanical unit. In the variant that we tested, had Windows 10 software, had a 512GB SATA drive with a pretty disappointing performance, keeping in mind that it also supports a PCI Express high-speed unit.

That it uses a M.2 SATA drive is one of the most disappointing parts of this model’s settings and one of the flaws that doesn’t let it be in the best laptops that we’ve seen.

Acer also introduces a 2.5″ 1TB unit in mechanical format. This unit is also very easy to change or upgrade or expand with another latch in the back of the laptop. To access the system unit, we’ll have to dismount the base of the device, not so hard due to screws that facilitate the access. Admits M.2 units with up to 80mm of length.

Connectivity also includes wireless connections to AC type networks, with speeds reaching the 700mbps, thanks to an Intel chipset 2×2 setting and a maximal theoretical speed of 867mbps, also it adds Bluetooth 4.1 compatibility. Ethernet Gigabit comes also from Intel.

The laptop has connectors on both sides, especially in the left side. Acer put 2 USB 2.0 type A weird because every one of them could have been 3.0, the feeding input and the headphone jack.

In the right side there’s a card reader, the Ethernet port, with a blocking latch, a USB 3.1 type C port, HDMI, USB 3.0 type A that develops speeds of up to 80MB/s. A good set of connectors, well distributed, but lacking the Displayport connector (the USB-C doesn’t have support for video) that supports 4k screens.

2. Geforce GTX 1060 for a laptop

Nvidia closed the gap between graphic cards for desktops and laptops. It started with the previous generation but now it also extends to medium-high-end chips. The GTX 1060 for laptops has the same specs as the desktop variants, same type of memory, same max memory capacity and same features. ¿How do they do it?

This is because of the working frequencies and the energy profiles of the chip. These chips develop almost the same frequencies but a little bit less than the desktop one, but have stricter energy profiles and reduce the frequency a little bit more. That’s when the differences come to light about 10-15% from one format to another.

This generation of Nvidia chips has improved the efficiency and FPS settings capabilities with these energetic profiles it allows us to use the laptop to play video games more freely than ever the only catch is the battery life that compromises the autonomy that the GTX 1060 can offer.

These graphics offer us other added benefits of next-generation connectivity with support for interfaces like HDMI 2.0 for 4k to 60Hz or the Displayport 1.4 that allows resolutions 8K 60Hz, 4k 120Hz or 4K 60Hz with HDR.

It also has the capabilities to run actual virtual reality machines. This requires moving higher resolutions with ease and these new chips add that potential in a standard way and in more adjusted price ranges. Although this model will be expensive for most, this graphic chip is intended to appear in cheaper models.

Acer used the Optimus system from Nvidia which will cause a weird behavior in the chips when they are active or not. This has given problems in the past in systems like Nvidia’s Gsync.

3. Screen and sound

This is a big but light laptop, it doesn’t reach 3Kg, has a screen of 17,3″ in diagonal and has a 1920x1080p resolution. Uses a IPS medium quality panel with a standard refresh speed of 60HZ. It has great vivid colors, an extensive palette and very good brightness. Its only problem is that it has symptoms of “clouding” in the corners. Still, it’s a good screen for work, videos and, of course, gaming.

The resolution chosen is the right one for the mounted graphic cards, we could not run games at much higher resolutions. It is certainly a good choice, although it is true that we can find better IPS panels in the market, they are also quite expensive.

It offers good brightness, of almost 320cd/m2, with deep blacks of only 0.30cd/m2 and as such a 1023:1 contrast. It Reaches good levels of sRGB coverture, particularly 84%.

In RGB reproduction its far from being a great screen, but it’s above the normal IPS panel.

The gamma is a little bit turned up, will have to fix it in the games if we want to have the atmosphere and brightness that the designer had in mind for his game.

Sound

Sound is one of the weakest points of this device. The integrated speakers work, but get distorted when we reach 40% volume capacity and although it has the right audio connections, they lack any extra elements like noise canceling headphone amplifiers.

The DSP is good, a Realtek, but it doesn’t add much to the set. It’s the worst defect of an otherwise carefully designed machine.

4. Design and format and software

This is a big portable pc, its 17 inches screen obligate us to call it this way, with the dimensions of 432mm long, 290mm wide and 29mm thick, it is without a doubt a big laptop, even when within proper meassures that allowed it to be a portable of 17 inches pretty manageable. Its weight of 2.9 kilograms is added to its conditions, that are made possible by the good usage of light plastic materials, and more rigid and resistant zones made of aluminium like the case of its screen or the support area of the hands,where also is embedded the keyboard and the touchpad.

The secondary disc and memory, are easy to amplify with two little tricks in the buttom.

The predator Helios 300 wisely combines red black colors and has a nice heat escape area in the back which is composed of two air extractions turbines that are connected to a heatpipes system which comine the refrigeration for the CPU as they do for the GPU

So that it is a big portable, the hands support area is generous, and all the elements keep sizes as the ones we would have in a desktop computer.I specially like the angle of attack the support area has, so that it is more comfortable when you have to pass long mice in front of the keyboard.

The ergonomics of the connectors, as commented before, is also one of its elements better care. The screen also have a very good opening angle of almost 180 degrees, what allow us to position it the way we like.

The working temperatures will be seen later, but I can tell you that they are comfortable for the user, although the left area of the laptop, where we support the left hand, can reach high temperatures, above 40 degrees, which can become somewhat uncomfortable after a few hours of play.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is complete size, with numbers zone. It is well organized and, of course, it will be designed with distribution in Spanish as soon as it started to be sold in our country. The keys are big and generous and have the “WASD” zone differentiated red. The keys are big, they have “chiclet” format with almost 2mm separated from each other and a good movement of about 2mm with a very good recovery.It is not the best portable I have tried, but it is very far from being of the worst.

The touchpad, which is senseless to me in this kind of potable, is big and it is well marked in the chassis. It is centered in the letters zone of the keyboard, as it is supposed to be, and has the we buttons integrated in the body itself. I do think that there should be nothing, because this kind of portable demands,for itself, the usage of a good mouse. The good new is that we shall have a function key in the keyboard we shall be able to completly deactivate it with.

The keyboard has these multimedia elements, in some function keys, and also fast volume adjusting controls, bright, screen, etc. Beside, it has a way of feedback that, shamefully, we cannot adjust to different levels of bright.

Software

Acer does not add anything else but a Windows 10 and a control panel named “Predator Sense”which will permit us some configuration of fans managements and also three speed profile of the GPU, in order to get a much better performance in gaming. It permits us to control the two fans that form the ventilation system of the Helios 300.

We have not found too much “bloatware”of series installed, therefore it will not be necessary to make a complete reinstatement to have the system perfectly optimized. We have not either found problems of drivers neither instablity in any of its main elements such as WiFi connectivity, Ethernet, graphics, etc.

5. Analysis of performance and autonomy

We have passed the usual tests, the ones we do to all the portables we have in our lab. We have also added a gameplay with the new StarWars 2 for you to have an idea of the capacity of this portable to operate very recent games, like this one.

Saturating the double fan system we find frequencies over 4500rpm in both fans, it is reflexed in a noise near to the 45dBA, in a distance of a meter. Luckily, the screen works like a shield and isolate us from a good part of that noise.

The temperature of functioning and the frequencies of the processor and GPU keep in good shape through the time, and at the same time, they are the proper ones for the installed components, We have not seen any problem of Throttling neither stability.

After several hours of gaming we can have pretty high temperature in the keyboard, with hot spaces for above 50 degrees. This temperature is not going to burn us, but it could result being pretty uncomfortable, specially during the hottest seasons of the year, which would make us sweat even more.

Using a SATA hard drive is a really bad choice for a gaming laptop. Of course, you could buy a cheaper variation with a smaller disk and exchange it.

Autonomy

Performance:
Cinebench R15 SMP

3DMark FireStrike

3DMark FireStrike Extreme

3DMark FireStrike Time Spy DX12

PCMark 10

6. Conclusion

Acer sells this model in two sizes, there are also 15.6” screen variants starting at 1299 Euros. This model, more advanced that the basic one, has a pretty high price, 1699 Euros this is because of the components used for this device. IT has a really high price, but has really potent graphics too, a big SSD hard drive a common setting in the medium-high gamma. The performance is good, even though the SATA hard drive hurts it. This doesn’t mean that the system isn’t fast, but it would be better with a PCI Express unit.

After a month of testing, today the Microsoft Edge navigator launches its first stable version for Android mobile devices.

During these weeks, Microsoft Edge has polished small flaws and adding new characteristics to offer a complete web navigator that’s trying to become another alternative to Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.

This is Microsoft Edge for Android

Microsoft Edge arrives to Android mainly for Windows 10 users, so they can use Microsoft’s web navigator and enjoys its synchronization in mobiles as well as in PC.

Incognito mode

Edge for Android has every basic feature that we can expect from a web navigator. It allows us to open web pages in various tabs, using incognito mode for private navigation, texts browser and many more features that we’ll go over promptly.

Sending tabs from your PC

One of Microsoft Edge for Android’s more important features is that in only two touches we can send a web page to our PC to continue our work on Windows 10.

Dark theme

Microsoft Edge allows us to customize its interface thru its themes of light and dark color. Its appearance is customizable from the apps own settings.

Reading list and much more

Microsoft Edge allows us to synchronize our markers, reading list and our history. It will also synchronize our passwords and autofilling.

El Roccat Kone was one of the first peripherals in the market that had RGB lighting, a must now for a mouse in Gaming. From its launch, the Kone has had many variants, with better sensors in every release, ergonomics and illumination, and now with the AIMO the fabricant wants to add all the experience of these ten years of development to provide users with the best device possible.

The new Roccat Kone AIMO incorporates the Owl-Eye sensor with up to 12.000 DPI of sensibility, configurable and with the possibility of changing the resolution on the go without needing any software. On that subject, in these 10 years Roccat also has improved much this aspect, it’s now called SWARM and allows easy controlling of all the setting for the peripherals.

Following the AIMO, Roccat says that it has improved its ergonomics -for righties- but maintained the design that made people fall in love with the Kone line the first place. The biggest change is in the thumb zone, in which they have introduced a third button at the bottom that allows us to activate Easy-Shift [+], with which we can configure different profiles for the other buttons (although logically we can use it for any other function that we want to configure in the software). As always, it incorporates the robust 4D Titan scrolling Wheel, OMRON switches that last more than 50 million pulses, etc.

The new Kone AIMO is already available at a recommended retail price of 79.99 euros.