HP, the world’s second-largest PC vendor by market share, says that the new Pavilion Aero 13 is designed for Generation Z. Youthful, vibrant post-teens who love entertainment, communication and — COVID notwithstanding — travel. It’s ironic, then, that when you examine this machine from that perspective, it becomes a less attractive proposition. This is actually a pretty nice laptop, but I doubt it’s top on any Zoomer’s wish list.

Hardware

Daniel Cooper

The focus here is on making a machine that is as thin and light as possible while still offering a decent amount of power and connectivity. Weighing 2.2 pounds, about the same as the 14-inch LG Gram, the Aero is HP’s first low-end machine to pack a taller 16:10 display. It carries a pair of USB-A ports with kick-out covers, HDMI-out and a single USB-C socket alongside a 3.5mm audio jack and the barrel power connector. I’m still torn over the throwback power connector, which on one hand is acceptable and cost-effective, but, again, does your average Gen-Zer not want to minimize the number of chunky charging plugs they’re carrying around?

Build quality is solid, with no flex or creaks when you hold it open with one hand and wave it around. The one place where I’ll take marks off is in the display hinge, which is designed to push the laptop deck up off the table like ASUS’ ZenBook. It just feels a little bit less sturdy than you might expect, which you’ll need to be mindful of if you rest your weight too much on the front of your hands. The malleability of that hinge feels just weak enough to make me paranoid.

Keyboard and trackpad

Daniel Cooper

The Pavilion Aero 13’s keyboard is well-engineered and satisfying, with a fair level of travel and a good hit at the end of your press. Interestingly, you need to pony up extra for a model with backlighting, which is either miserly or smart cost-cutting, depending on your perspective. It may not be the same quality as HP’s higher-priced laptops but it’s certainly not a chore to write with.

Except for, and I am being needlessly grouchy here, HP’s inclusion of a function row along the rightmost side of the keyboard. Most 13-inch laptops, for obvious reasons, try to cut down on superfluous keys that you may only find on more spacious models. And that’s fine, because it’s rare that I ever find myself needing to use Home/Pg Up/Pg Down/End when I have other keyboard shortcuts (and, you know, a trackpad) available.

I get why HP insists on using them here, but it means that you’ll have a learning curve when coming off pretty much every other laptop in this class. And, if I were king, I would have opted for a standard layout with more breathing room, not to mention full-size up/down keys with more space around them. After more than a week using this thing, I’m still hitting the home key instead of backspace, dramatically slowing my typing speed, much to my frustration.

As for the trackpad, it’s bigger than on the 2020 model that this replaces, and has a decent click with tolerable accuracy. The lack of a touchscreen on this laptop isn’t, in my opinion, a huge issue given its size and class, so long as the trackpad is solid. And this trackpad is very much that, and there’s not much else to say about it as a consequence.

Display, sound and webcam

Daniel Cooper

This machine carries a 13.3-inch HD display, although because of its 16:10 ratio, that 1,920 x 1,200 resolution is actually WUXGA. I don’t think anyone would need a 4K display on a machine like this, but you can configure it with a WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) screen should you need to. The 400-nit panel can balance any strong summer light, and the matte screen means that you avoid a lot of glare.

The downward-firing B&O-branded speakers hidden under the edges of the laptop deck provide acceptable audio. They sound a little better than on some ultrabooks I could mention, but it’s still thin and reedy, with tinny equalization presets and nonexistent bass. This is audio you can put up with rather than enjoy during all of those Netflix and Chill sessions where you actually watch Netflix and Chill.

Daniel Cooper

Perhaps I’ve been reviewing too many laptops of late that have some sort of webcam shutter, but the omission here surprises me. The HP WideVision 720p HD camera is at least sharp enough that people can see your face properly when you’re using it. Even better, it handles most light well enough that blow-outs are occasional rather than ever-present, which is good considering how much we all need to Zoom each other right now.

Software

One thing to note is that HP pre-installs a number of apps onto its laptops, including McAfee, LastPass and ExpressVPN. This means you’ll start getting pop-ups after installing Chrome, telling you that plugins are about to be installed. That I think this is an unacceptable thing to happen, even for a relatively low-cost laptop, should go without saying.

Performance and battery life

Both Intel and AMD have made enormous strides toward integrated graphics units that don’t suck. This is thunderingly relevant in the ultrabook market where thinness and portability are prized over pretty much everything else. After all, even a few years ago you couldn’t have done much more on a machine of this class beyond mash the odd spreadsheet. Now you can expect passable, even quite pleasant performance on a wide variety of tasks, from intensive Chrome browsing to video games.

The model that HP sent to reviewers retails for $999, and includes AMD’s Ryzen 5800U with Radeon Integrated Graphics, which packs 512MB of dedicated DDR4 VRAM. Rounding out the spec list is 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, which sits on the higher end of what you can expect to get for this sort of money. Certainly, the benchmarks make this thing look a lot less powerful, but I suspect the Aero simply isn’t set up for intensive gaming. It’s worth saying that even the fan noise isn’t that aggressive under heavy load, too.

That said, I was able to play Fortnite pretty smoothly on this machine with the graphics set to Medium, and an evening’s marathon session of Two Point Hospital passed without comment. Certainly, if you are happy with undemanding titles, you’ll be able to squeeze a lot of fun from this machine. GTA V’s benchmarking tool was able to produce a fairly consistent 30fps, and if you dial down all of the visuals, you can get this running fast enough to play in a pinch.

Battery life is similarly resilient, with this machine clocking in at 9 hours and 43 minutes in our standard rundown test. When untethered from power, I didn’t feel any nagging urgency to head back to a socket while using this thing, and you should expect this to last for the length of your working day. And, to be honest, if this had conked out any sooner I would be screaming from the rooftops about it, since the whole point of an ultraportable is, after all, to be portable.

Price and the competition

Daniel Cooper

As I said, the model I’m testing costs $999. That’s a fair price, especially if you try to configure a similar spec list with some rival machines in the same category. There are some alternatives, and if your priority is a slender, lightweight machine, then LG’s Gram 14 can be picked up for $799.99. It has a 14-inch WUXGA display and weighs 2.2 pounds. Sadly, its specs fall far short of HP’s offering, with an Intel Core i3-1115G4, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. You could also opt for ASUS’ ZenBook 13 OLED, which packs a Ryzen 7 5700U, 8GB RAM, a 512GB SSD and an OLED display for $899.99.

If you’re feeling picky, you could do worse than to wait for more AMD-toting laptops to enter retail channels in the near future. I expect that we’ll see models similar to Lenovo’s ThinkPad X13 and Acer’s Spin 3 with comparable internals coming very soon. At which point, you should have your pick of any number of high-quality machines that can do jobs similar to this one.

Wrap-up

Daniel Cooper

This isn’t a fair comparison at all, but in my head I keep thinking about Dell’s XPS 13 which, for many people, is either the gold-standard ultrabook, or in the top three. And, right now, that on both specs and price, the Pavilion Aero 13 is a more compelling choice. When you look at the base model XPS 13, which starts $1,019.99, the only thing that HP loses out on is aesthetics. In almost every other regard, I’d much rather have this Pavilion Aero than the XPS and that, to me, is wild.

I think the Pavilion Aero 13 is a very good machine, with a solid thin-and-light body and performance that punches well above its weight. For some people, the 5800U running the show is enough of a reason to buy one of these that everything else is broadly immaterial. Do I wish it was priced a little more aggressively? Yes, because I could forgive the learning curve with the keyboard if it was a hundred bucks cheaper. Despite the keyboard and sound, though, it’s a good machine for folks who want a little bit of everything.

Sony, arguably nine months too late, is finally unlocking the 10 million PlayStation 5s around the world to accept expandable SSD storage. At launch, the next-gen console offered only 667GB of space for storing your PS5 games, with no way to expand that. While that’s been fine for some (like me), others (like my son) have been performing a near-daily juggling act, having to frequently delete and re-download games due to the restrictive storage size and the apparent need to have constant access to every Call of Duty game.

With the upcoming system software update — currently in beta testing — you’ll be able to increase your storage by slotting in a standard PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD. If that mess of acronyms has you recoiling, don’t worry, you’ll see that it’s not all that complicated, and if you want to know which drives we recommend, you can skip to the end.

How much storage do I need?

Aaron Souppouris / Engadget

The PS5 will accept drives between 250GB and 4TB in capacity. If you already have a PlayStation 5, chances are you have a reasonable idea of how much storage you want. If you’re buying an SSD with a new PS5, or buying for someone else, though, it’s difficult to tell.

PS5 games are a little smaller on average than their PS4 equivalents, typically ranging between 30GB and 100GB, with some notable (and very popular) exceptions. If you’re a fan of the Call of Duty series, just having Cold War multiplayer and Modern Warfare/Warzone installed will require 307GB of space. A full Warzone-Modern Warfare-Cold War install will take up almost two thirds of the PS5’s internal storage. If you’re not a CoD fan, though, chances are you’ll be good to store between six to 10 games on your PS5 internally before running into problems.

One additional thing to consider is your internet speed. If you live in an area with slow broadband, the “you can just download it again” rationale doesn’t really work out. A 100GB download takes me around eight hours, during which time it's difficult to simultaneously watch Twitch or, say, publish articles about upgrading PS5 SSDs. Keeping games around on the off-chance you’ll want to play them at some point make sense, at least for my household.

Off the bat, there's basically no point in going for a 250GB drive. Economically, 250GB drives aren’t that much cheaper than 500GB, and practically, that really isn’t a lot of space for modern games to live on. 500GB drives, coming in at around $90 to $150, are a decent bet, but the sweet spot for most is to opt for a 1TB drive, which should run you between $160 and $250. That will more than double the space you have available for games without breaking the bank. (Seagate’s official 1TB Xbox Series expansion card, for comparison, sells for $220.)

If you have the money, 2TB drives sometimes offer marginal savings per gigabyte, and can often be found when other models are out of stock. Unless you’re rolling in cash and want to flex, 4TB models should mostly be avoided, as you’ll end up paying more per gigabyte than you would with a 1TB or 2TB drive.

One final note: While the 825GB PS5 only provides 667GB of storage, that’s largely due to storage being reserved for the operating system and caching. If you install a 1TB SSD, you'll have, within margin of error, 1TB of storage available for games.

What about external SSDs?

Samsung

These are dramatically cheaper than the high-end internal SSDs, but there are restrictions on what you can do with them. An external SSD connects to your PS5 via USB, and is only suitable for playing PS4 games, or storing PS5 titles. This is useful if you have anything but the best internet — it’s faster to move a PS5 game out of “cold storage” on an external drive than it is to re-download it — or just want a large number of PS4 games to hand.

Due to the limitations here, you don’t need the highest performing model, although you should opt for SSDs over HDDs for improved transfer speeds. Any basic portable drive from a reputable brand will do, with the Crucial X6 and Samsung T5 being options we’ve tried and can recommend.

What SSDs are compatible with PS5?

The official answer to this question is an “M.2 Socket 3 (Key M) Gen4 x4 NVME SSD.” But even within that seemingly specific description, there are still more things to consider. The main requirements Sony has laid out for compatibility come down to speed, cooling and physical dimensions.

For speed, Sony says drives should be able to handle sequential reads at 5,500MB/s. Early testing has shown that drives as slow as 4,800MB/s are accepted by the PS5, and using them to play a game that taps into the SSD regularly — such as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart — causes no issues. Pretty much the only thing the PS5 will outright reject is one that doesn't match the Gen4 x4 spec. 

In our opinion, though, using a drive slower than the specification is a risk that, if you don’t already have that drive lying around, is not worth taking. Just because we haven’t found issues now, that doesn’t mean there won’t be games that will be problematic down the line. The price difference between these marginally slower Gen4 drives and the ones that meet Sony’s spec is not huge, and you may as well cover all your bases.

Slightly more complicated than speed is cooling and size. Most bare SSDs are going to be just fine; the PS5 can fit 22mm-wide SSDs of virtually any length (30mm, 42mm, 60mm, 80mm or 110mm, to be precise). The vast majority of drives you find will be 22mm wide and 80mm long, so no problem there.

It should be noted that the system can fit a 25mm-wide drive, but that width must include the cooling solution. Speaking of, Sony says SSDs require “effective heat dissipation with a cooling structure, such as a heatsink,” which is where most of the complications arise.

The maximum height supported by Sony’s slot is 11.25mm, of which only 2.45mm can be “below” the drive. This is intensely specific, and rules out some popular heatsinked Gen4 SSDs such as Corsair’s MP600 Pro and Sabrent’s Rocket 4 Plus. With time, it’s likely that manufacturers will want in on this new avenue for high-end SSD sales, and these heatsink size limits are going to become the de facto standard for the industry. In the meantime, however, only a couple of heatsinked drives fit out of the box.

If you’re looking to save some money, bare drives are often much cheaper and prevalent than their heatsinked alternatives, and it’s trivial to find a cooling solution that will work for the PS5.

The only component in an NVMe SSD that really requires cooling is the controller, which without a heatsink will happily sear a (very small) steak. Most SSDs have chips on only one side, but even on double-sided SSDs, the controller is likely to be on top, as manufacturers know it needs to be positioned there to better dissipate heat. So, head to your PC component seller of choice, and pick up basically anything that meets the recommended dimensions. A good search term is “laptop NVME heatsink,” as these will be designed to fit in the confines of gaming laptops, which are even more restrictive than a PS5. They’re also typically cheaper than the ones popping up now that are labelled as “PS5 heatsinks.”

One recommendation is this $7 copper heatsink, which attaches to the SSD with sticky thermal interface material. It works just fine, and really, performing stress tests on a PC, we couldn’t find anything metal that didn’t keep temperatures under control. When you’re searching, just make sure the solution you go for measures no more than 25mm wide or 8mm tall including the thermal interface material and has a simple method of installation that’s not going to cause any headaches.

Now, if all of that was very boring, here are some ready-to-go recommendations:

Best PS5 SSD: Patriot Viper VP4300

Patriot

Patriot may not be the biggest name in components, but it has a long history in the PC market, and the Viper VP4300 is a solid drive for the PS5. With a sequential read rating of 7,400MB/s and a slim heatsink preinstalled, it meets all the necessary requirements for a simple upgrade. The reason it tops our list is the cost. It comes in 1TB and 2TB varieties, both of which are competitively priced. Expect to pay around $210 for the 1TB version or $430 for the 2TB.

Best cheap PS5 SSD: PNY XLR8 CS3040

PNY

If you’re not a PC user, PNY is another company you probably haven’t heard of. Again, though, it has a good track record, operating for three decades out of the US. The XLR8 CS3040 is a fantastic value option, though it will require you to add your own cooling solution, as the one PNY sells won’t fit in the PS5.

While that may sound like a hassle, maybe the pricing will convince you: The $90 500GB option is great, but the $160 1TB drive is a steal, and the $307 2TB model is also outrageously cheap. As mentioned, we don’t really recommend 4TB drives but, among the typically four-figure options on the market, PNY’s $700 CS3040 is the only one that makes any sense.

Other compatible drives

WD Black SN850

Western Digital

The SN850 is a plug-and-play option for the PS5, with a sequential read rating well above the necessary numbers and a 6.5mm-high heatsink preinstalled. It comes in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB varieties, all of which are priced fairly competitively, though the price-per-GB of the 1TB and 2TB is significantly lower than the 500GB.

Expect to pay around $140 for the 500GB drive, $250 for the 1TB version or $430 for the 2TB. If you’re willing to go it alone on the heatsink, those prices drop to around $120, $200 and $400, respectively.

Seagate FireCuda 530

Seagate

We haven’t been able to test this one ourselves, as it starts shipping “this summer,” but given Seagate is a trusted brand and has outright said its heatsinked drive supports PS5, we’re happy to include it on this list. Unfortunately, the list pricing on the 530s is high, at $160 for 500GB, $260 for 1TB, $540 for 2TB and $1,000 for 4TB. The non-heatsink version will retail at $140, $240 and $490, for the 500GB, 1TB and 2TB versions. These aren't a million miles away from the RRP on other drives on this list that have a lower real-world price now, so we’d expect that you’ll be able to find some deals at similar rates down the line.

Samsung 980 Pro

Samsung

Samsung does not sell a 980 Pro with a heatsink attached, but it does have a fantastic reputation for reliability, and prices that are competitive with WD, Seagate and others on this list. Expect to pay around $130 for 500GB, $190 for 1TB, or $370 for 2TB.

Crucial P5 Plus

Crucial

Crucial’s P5 Plus is another budget model, which missed out on the “best cheap SSD” spot thanks to PNY’s marginally lower prices. Again, this one has no heatsink, so you’ll need to supply your own. The 1TB drive is the sweet-spot option, coming in at $180, while the 500GB and 2TB drives will set you back $108 and $368, respectively.

Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus

Sabrent

Sabrent sells a bunch of Rocket drives, but only the Plus model actually meets Sony’s requirements, so be sure you’re looking at the correct model before you buy. The Rocket 4 Plus’ heatsink is too chunky to fit in the PS5, so you’ll again have to fit your own cooling solution. Sabrent typically has aggressive pricing, but as of writing the Plus hasn’t seen any major discounts. The 1TB model can be found at around $180, the 2TB $360 and the 4TB for $900.

How to install an SSD in a PS5

As of writing, the first thing you’ll need to install an SSD is access to the semi-closed system software beta. From an admittedly small sample, I’ve yet to hear of people being denied access to this; everyone I know who's applied was accepted within a week. You can enroll here if you’re in the US, or you can google “PlayStation 5 System Software Beta Program sign-up” to find your local sign-up link.

Once you have the beta on your PS5, installation of a PS5 SSD is fairly straightforward. Sony recommends a #1 Phillips or crosshead screwdriver, but this isn't rocket science. Any crossed screwdriver of similar size will do fine.

Begin by powering down your PS5, unplugging everything, removing the stand and flipping it over to its underside. If you have the regular PS5, that’s the side with the disc drive, if you have the Digital Edition, it’s the side without the PlayStation logo cutout.

Sony has a video guide to popping off the outside cover here, but the gist is you gently lift up the opposing corners and slide the panel towards the flat end of the console. There’s a knack to this, and it requires very little effort or strength. If you’re not getting it, rather than force it just readjust your grip and try again. A member of our video team managed to break one of the tabs on our review unit doing this last November so… yeah, don’t force it.

Engadget

Once you’ve got everything open, you’ll see a rectangular piece of metal with a screw holding it in place. Remove that screw, and you’ll be able to access the drive bay.

You’ll see five holes inside, each numbered corresponding to the standard SSD drive lengths I mentioned earlier. The one numbered 110 will have a metal insert and screw inside. You need to unscrew the screw with a screwdriver, and then unscrew the insert with your fingers and move it to the relevant hole. Your eyes should tell you which is the right one for your drive, but it’s most likely going to be 80.

Aaron Souppouris/Engadget

Then take your SSD — mine is a 980 Pro I bought on Prime Day with a $2 piece of aluminum attached to the top — and slot it in. The slot is at the edge closest to the number “30,” and SSDs are keyed to only fit in one way, so again, no force is required. If it’s not sliding in, don’t force it. You’ll notice the SSD doesn’t sit flat — that’s fine, and is as intended.

Engadget

Once the SSD is seated, take the screw you removed from the insert, line it up with the little notch at the end of your SSD, and push down so it meets the insert. Give the screw it a few turns — it doesn’t need to be very tight — and you’re done.

Engadget

Replace the metal cover and screw it down, and then slide the plastic outer shell back on. When you first turn on the PS5, it’ll prompt you to format the drive. Do that! You have now successfully expanded your console’s storage, and can set about downloading and moving games to it. Personally, I moved all of the PS4 games I had to the new drive, along with all of my clips and screenshots. The PS5’s built-in SSD is always going to be the most compliant, so I’m keeping my important stuff there. 

We'll be updating this guide as more SSDs come to market and onto our test bench, so feel free to bookmark it for when you need it.

Those looking to snag a new laptop from Apple ahead of the upcoming semester can do so for less if they go through Amazon. The online retailer has the MacBook Pro M1 with 256GB of storage for $200 off right now, bringing it down to $1,099. The sale price is $1,199, but an automatically applied coupon will knock the final cost down to $1,099. If extra storage means a lot to you, the 512GB model has also on sale: it's on sale for $1,299 thanks to a discount plus another automatically applied coupon.

Buy MacBook Pro M1 (256GB) at Amazon - $1,099Buy MacBook Pro M1 (512GB) at Amazon - $1,299

Most people would probably be best served by the MacBook Air M1, but the Pro M1 is a good option for those that want extra graphics power and better cooling. Notably, the Pro M1 has a built-in fan, something that Air M1 lacks, and it helps the laptop handle tough work like 3D rendering and laborious video encoding. In our testing, the MacBook Pro M1 performed similarly to the Air M1 — Apple's SoC allows it to be incredibly fast and efficient, and it'll last all day with its 16.5-hour battery life.

But there are a few limitations to the Pro M1 that are worth considering before buying. Namely, the laptop only supports one external display and there's no external GPU support at all. While the latter is a bit of a niche concern, it's a bummer for those that rely on external cards to boost performance. If you can live with those tradeoffs, the MacBook Pro M1 should make a good workhorse.

If you're looking to move away from traditional laptops all together, Amazon also has some of the highest-powered iPad Pros on sale right now, too. The latest 11-inch iPad Pro with 1TB of storage is $100 off, bringing it down to $1,399. The WiFi + Cellular model has also been discounted by $100, dropping it down to $1,599. These both run on M1 chipsets, so they could easily replace your aging laptop, especially when paired with an accessory like the Magic Keyboard.

Buy 11-inch iPad Pro (1TB, WiFi) at Amazon - $1,399Buy 11-inch iPad Pro (1TB, WiFi + Cellular) at Amazon - $1,599

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Intel has chosen a name for its high-performance consumer graphics products: Intel Arc. The branding will cover the hardware and software sides of its high-end graphics cards, as well as services.

The first Arc GPUs, code-named Alchemist, will arrive in the first quarter of 2022 for desktops and laptops as Intel looks to take on NVIDIA and AMD. Intel also revealed the codenames for later generations of the hardware: Battlemage, Celestial and Druid.

Alchemist GPUs will support hardware-based ray tracing, mesh shading, variable rate shading and Direct12 X Ultimate. Intel claims they'll be capable of "artificial intelligence-driven super sampling" as well. That certainly seems to be the company's spin on NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Super Sampling upscaling tech, which boosts resolution while lessening strain on GPUs.

The Alchemist cards are based on the Xe-HPG microarchitecture, a blend of Xe LP, HP and HPC microarchitectures. Intel says Xe-HPG will "deliver scalability and compute efficiency with advanced graphics features." Intel's Iris Xe dedicated graphics cards, which were primarily geared toward laptops and pre-built desktops, are based on Xe LP architecture. Intel says it will share more details about the first Arc products later this year.

Intel also gave a quick peek at Arc graphics in action. In a video, it showed games including Forza Horizon 4, Psychonauts 2, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (or PUBG: Battlegrounds, to be precise) and Metro Exodus running on the tech. And yes, it looks like the GPUs can run the Crysis Remastered Trilogy.

If the Mac Mini with Apple's M1 chip has been on your radar as your next desktop machine, it's worth checking out the latest deal on the system. The base model with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM is once again available for $600 on Amazon. That's $100 off the regular price. The discount includes a $49 coupon that's automatically applied at checkout.

Buy Apple Mac Mini (256GB) at Amazon - $600

The Mac Mini is perhaps the most cost-effective way to get your hands on an M1-powered system at the minute. The M1 is a powerful chip designed by Apple that can handle most day-to-day tasks with ease and speed. The chip boasts an eight-core CPU (with four performance and four efficiency cores) and an eight-core GPU. There's also an 16-core Neural Engine to handle machine learning tasks.

The system runs on macOS Big Sur and you'll be able to upgrade to the latest version of the operating system, Monterey. On the connectivity front, there are two Thunderbolt ports and a pair of USB-A ports, along with HDMI 2.0, WiFi 6 and gigabit Ethernet support. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack too.

Unlike with an M1 MacBook or iMac, you'll need to connect your own display, keyboard and mouse, which might not leave a lot of space among those ports for other peripherals. You won't be able to upgrade the storage or RAM either. However, the base Mac Mini should still be capable enough for many users.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

HP has announced another batch of Chrome OS devices. Perhaps the most notable addition to the lineup is the latest Chromebook x2. The keyboard is detachable, so you can use the system as a tablet. HP says it's the first detachable Chromebook to use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7c chipset. There aren't too many Snapdragon 7c-powered Chromebooks around in any case. Acer has releaseda few Chrome OS laptops with the chipset, but they're still relatively rare.

The Chromebook x2 11 is Universal Stylus Input-compatible. It'll work with any pen that supports that standard, though the HP Wireless Rechargeable USI Certified Pen is bundled in.

HP

This Chromebook has an 11-inch, 2K-resolution screen, with a 3:2 aspect ratio and 400 nits of brightness. The Adreno 618 GPU supports a maximum resolution of 2560x1440 on an external display with a 60Hz refresh rate. The system has a 5MP front-facing, wide-vision camera and an 8MP real-facing camera, as well as Bang & Olufsen speakers.

On the connectivity front, there's an optional 4G LTE module (which supports AT&T and T-Mobile in the US), as well as WiFi 5 compatibility and two SuperSpeed USB-C ports. HP claims you'll get up to 11 hours of use from a single charge.

The device weighs 2.57 lb. It comes with 8GB of LPDDR4x-2133 MHz RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. There are microSD and fingerprint readers, as well as a kickstand that allows for 170-degree positioning.

The HP Chromebook x2 11 and USI pen bundle starts at $600. It should be available sometime this month from Best Buy. All going well, HP will start selling it directly through its website in October.

HP

Alongside the Chromebook, HP revealed its Chromebase 21.5 inch All-in-One, a Chrome OS-powered desktop. It has a rotating full HD display that can tilt 20 degrees upwards and switch from horizontal to vertical orientation. The system uses Intel Core processors with up to 256GB of SSD storage and up to 16GB of DRAM memory. It includes dual 5W speakers from B&O and a five-megapixel camera with a privacy switch, which also turns off the microphone.

The Chromebase desktop starts at $600. It should be available this month from HP's website and other retailers.

In addition, HP has added another monitor to its lineup. The M24fd can connect to and power any compatible laptop over USB-C, though it was designed with Chromebooks in mind. The 23.8-inch, full HD display also harnesses HP's Eye Ease with Eyesafe tech, which aims to reduce blue light without impacting color accuracy. The $250 monitor should be available in October.

HP

Parallels, the company best know for its virtualization software that lets you run Windows and Linux directly on your Mac, has had a busy year. In addition to building a version of Parallels that can run on Chrome OS for the first time, the company also had to figure out how to quickly make its software work with the new, ARM-based M1 Macs that arrived last fall. Now, Parallels Desktop 17 is being released with improved performance on M1 Macs, as well as full support for the upcoming macOS Monterey and Windows 11 operating systems. 

Before getting into these improvements, though, it's worth taking a moment to talk compatibility. Apple moving the Mac to ARM architecture means there are now two classes of Macs for Parallels to support. As of today, the only versions of Windows that Parallels can run on an M1 Mac are the Insider Previews for Windows 10 and Windows 11 — because those versions of the OS are able to run on ARM-based hardware. But, Parallels unequivocally says that when the full version of Windows 11 is released to the public, it'll run on Parallels 17.

On an Intel-baed Mac, however, users can still run a host of virtual machines, including Windows support all the way back to XP and Windows 2000, and macOS all the way back to 2011's OS X Lion. It can also run eight different Linux distros; M1 Macs can only virtualize four right now, including Ubuntu and Fedora.

So while Intel Macs still offer the broadest compatibility, Parallels has found that the raw power of the M1 chip means users likely aren't giving anything up running the Windows 10 or 11 Insider Previews. Microsoft's built-in emulation for Windows means that Windows 10 Insider Preview can run almost any 32-bit x86 app as well as "many" 64-bit x86 apps, and the M1's power helps to make up for speed lost due to emulation. 

As for what's new, Parallels has speed improvements across the board, whether you're running Intel or M1. Regardless of which system you're using, Parallels 17 resumes Windows and Linux up to 38 percent faster, while OpenGL graphics run up to six times faster than the previous version. M1-specific speed improvements include 20 percent faster disk performance when using Windows 10 Insider preview, while DirectX graphics should perform up to 28 percent better. These tests are all run by Parallels, and we can't verify them yet, but improving performance has long been a focus for the company. 

There are a handful of new features on board, as well. Parallels improved its "Coherence" mode, where you can run a Windows app without launching into the full Windows UI. Now, things like shutdowns, updates and sign-in screens are windowed as well, making them easier to pop into the background. The ability to drag and drop between Windows and Mac apps has been improved, as well — for example, you can now highlight and drop text and images between Mac and Windows apps, and it'll work with the new Quick Note feature coming to macOS Monterey. 

Parallels 17 also contains a virtual TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chip, which lets the system use BitLocker and Secure Boot when running Windows 10 and Windows 11. There's an added layer of intrigue to this feature: Microsoft originally said that a computer with a TPM chip was a requirement for Windows 11 before backtracking (at least for the testing period). It's not clear yet if the final version of Windows 11 will require a TPM chip, but this virtualization should let Parallels users get around this requirement. 

As with most software these days, Parallels Desktop 17 is being sold as a subscription. The standard edition is $79.99 per year, and the pro edition costs $99.99 per year. If you're on a subscription, you'll get Parallels updates as long as the subscription is active. If you prefer, though, you can get a perpetual license of the standard edition Parallels 17 for $99.99; people who have purchased a past perpetual license can upgrade for $49.99.

When [John Floren] obtained a vintage Depraz mouse, he started out being content to just have such a great piece of history in his possession. But if you’re like him, you know it’s not enough to just have something. What would it be like to use it?

To find out, [John] embarked on a mission to build a USB adapter for his not so new peripheral.
Originally used in very early terminals with a Unix GUI, the Depraz mouse utilizes an unusual male DE9 connector rather than the more familiar female DB9 used in RS232 serial mice. Further deviating from the norm, he found that the quadrature encoders were connected directly to the DE9 connector.

Armed with an Arduino Pro Mini and some buggy sample code, he got to work. The aforementioned buggy code was scrapped and a fresh sketch for the Arduino Pro Mini gave the Depraz mouse the USB interface it lacked. [John] also found that he wasn’t the first hardware hacker to have modified the mouse for their use. Be sure to read to the end the article to find out about the vintage surprise lurking in the mouse shell itself! A demonstration of the mouse in action can be seen in the video below the break.

Looking for a fun mouse hack? Perhaps you’d like to use your more modern USB mouse on a retro computer, or try your hand at recreating an early Apple mouse for use in modern computers.

Earlier this year, Intel announced they were planning to retake the CPU manufacturing lead and "unquestioned leadership" in the PC world. These were impressive goals, but what was missing was any sense of how they'd actually achieve them. Now, we finally know Intel's plan.

Intel's CEO Pat Gelsinger and SVP of Technology Development Dr. Ann Kelleher, laid out the company's plan for the future. For starters, Intel is renaming its manufacturing nodes. What used to be 10nm "Enhanced Superfin" is now just "7." This may feel a little duplicitous — "just wave a wand a you've got better technology!" — but to be fair to intel, the nanometer measurements of process nodes don't really correspond to anything physical any more, and in terms of density Intel's current 10nm chips are competitive with TSMC and Samsung's 7nm.

Looking beyond 7nm, Intel is targeting an aggressive release schedule with major product updates happening annually. We're expecting their Alder Lake chips this fall, which will mix high and low-powered cores, followed by now-4nm Meteor Lake chips that will move to a "tile" (chiplet) design, and incorporate Intel's 3D stacked-chip technology, Foveros. 

Beyond that, Intel has technology mapped out for an EUV-based 3nm node that will use the high-energy manufacturing process to streamline chip creation, and a "20A" for angstrom node. This is one ten-billionth of a meter (meaning it's 2nm), and will be followed by a 18A node that Intel hopes to start moving into production in 2025 for products sometime in the 2nd half of the decade. Again, while node measurements don't really correspond to physical structures any more, a silicon atom is in the area of 2 angstroms wide, so these are seriously tiny transistors.

This release schedule seems aggressive, and Intel does not have the best track record of meeting targets for new nodes, but if it can even come close to these goals, expect your laptops and desktops to get a huge performance boost in the next few years. 

For even more info on Intel's plans, and details on its EMIB interconnect technology and two new versions of Foveros, be sure to check out the video above. You can see our sources here.

A few months after it introduced new Touch ID-enabled Magic Keyboards along with M1 Macs, Apple is now selling the peripheral separately. The Magic Keyboard with Touch ID costs $149, while a version with a number pad can be all yours for $179. It's worth noting the Touch ID functions only work on M1-powered Macs.

Along with helping you log in to your Mac without having to punch in a password, you can use Touch ID to verify Apple Pay transactions. For now, the standalone version of the Magic Keyboard is only available in the standard silver and white color scheme. You won’t be able to snag it in one of those funky M1 iMac-inspired designs without shelling out for a new computer. 

Apple

Apple has also refreshed several other Magic accessories. The standard $99 Magic Keyboard now has keys for Spotlight, dictation, do not disturb and emoji, as do the Touch ID-equipped models. The $129 Magic Trackpad, meanwhile, has a tweaked shape to match the Magic Keyboard. 

All of these accessories, as well as the $79 Magic Mouse, now come with a braided USB-C to Lightning cable rather than the old Lightning to USB-A one. Apple says the accessories can run for around a month, if not longer, on a single charge.