AMD is finally ready to bring 3D V-Cache to its desktop chips. That technology, which essentially lets AMD stack more cache on top of its CPUs, will debut with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. While the original version of that CPU sported 36MB of L2 and L3 cache, this new edition has a whopping 100MB of combined cache. AMD claims it offers 5 percent better performance in 1080p gaming compared to Intel 12900K, and it's around 15 percent faster than the Ryzen 9 5900X. 

AMD

That may not sound like much, but this chip is basically just a proof of concept. AMD likely needs to prove that its V-cache technology can actually ship to consumers before it starts integrating it into future lineups. The company says the 5800X3D will be available later this spring.

And if that's not intriguing enough for you, AMD also revealed that its next-generation Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 processors will arrive in the second half of 2022. Built on a 5nm process, the Zen 4 chips will also be powered by a new AMD Socket AM5 platform. On stage at CES, AMD CEO Lisa Su noted that AM5 will be an LGA socket, placing delicate pins on the motherboard instead of the CPU. Ryzen 7000 chips will also support DDR5 and PCIE5, as expected. During a brief demonstration, Su showed Halo Infinite running smoothly on a Zen 4 chip, and she noted that every core was running at 5GHz.

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

With one eye on sustainability and the other on AMD’s high-performance chips, Lenovo is launching a new range of ThinkPads. The ThinkPad Z13 and Z16 (representing their screen sizes) is the result of an exclusive collaboration between Lenovo and AMD. The Z13, especially, can be specced with a custom AMD Ryzen 7 Pro chip that has been designed to maximize battery life and performance when you’re trapped inside an endless Zoom, or Microsoft Teams, call.

Sleeker-looking than your average X1 ThinkPad, the Z-series comes with 16:10 displays and ultra-narrow bezels paired with an FHD webcam. The camera itself sits in a lozenge-shaped mount that doubles as the lip you use to open up the machine, setting it apart from your standard ultraportable. Both machines ship with a 120mm haptic ForcePad and, of course, the red TrackPoint, which can now be double-clicked to open up a shortcut menu to control your webcam and microphone settings.

Naturally, much of the detail is in the options you can select for these machines, with a 2.8K OLED display on the 13.3-inch model and a 4K OLED on its bigger sibling. The base model Z13 comes with the Ryzen Pro U-Series, or the aforementioned custom Ryzen Pro, while the Z16 ships with a Ryzen Pro H series. Like all of AMD’s new 6000 series mobile chips, both of these machines come with Microsoft’s Pluton security processor to make Windows 11 machines more secure. The larger model, too, gets the ability to come with either integrated or discrete Radeon graphics, depending on your need and budget.

Both of these models will be available in May 2022, with the Z13’s base model priced at $1,549, while the bigger model will set you back no less than $2,099.

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

CES might look a little different this year, but that hasn't stopped Lenovo from doing what it does best: using the industry to event to launch many, many new products. In addition to the usual laptops, the company is showing off a new smart clock, the Smart Clock Essential with Alexa. Aside from a minimalist cloth design that clearly borrows from last year's Smart Clock 2, the new Essential improves on the old by adding a pogo docking pin at the bottom and, well, support for Amazon Alexa. The original Essential clock only worked with Google Assistant, and while I was hoping this new device could handle both, the new Essential with Alexa truly is Alexa-only, while the original remains available as a Google smart clock.

As an object that's meant to sit on your bedside table, there really isn't much to the new Essential. The fabric comes in either a muted "Clay Red" or pale "Misty Blue," with the entire front face given over to the 4-inch LED display. The interface is just white text on a deep black background; in addition to the time, you'll see the day and real-time decibel levels (an interesting touch). If you expected a display for streaming video, a la the Amazon Echo Show 5, you'd be mistaken. There's also a mic switch and no built-in camera, a design choice that many people will surely find welcome.

On the top edge there are just four buttons: volume buttons, a button for activating the assistant, and another for setting an alarm. There's also a USB port for charging.

Although optional, those docking accessories are actually an important part of the story. In addition to a basic pad with room for both the clock and another wireless-charging like a phone, the company is selling what it calls the Ambient Light Dock, which doubles as a nightlight. Available in two whimsical designs — a sea lion and a squid — it has eight different lighting modes and a rainbow of colors, plus the clock's screen shows a cute anthropomorphic face when you press the assistant button. Now, why a sea lion and squid, specifically? Why not, we say. (And a canny choice if this low-tech, low-cost product is largely meant to occupy kids' rooms anyway.)

The Lenovo Smart Clock Essential goes on sale this month for $60, with the docks available at the same time for $30 apiece. Though Lenovo ultimately decided to pull its in-person exhibit at CES, we still got to see the company's new products at a socially distant briefing in New York this month. Check out our hands-on video (coming soon) for a first look.

There’s no shortage of smart locks and doorbells you can buy to modernize the entrance to your home, but a complete door that integrates both those devices into its frame is something we haven’t seen. Enter the M-Pwr smart door from Masonite. Made from fiberglass, it features a Ring Video Doorbell and Yale smart lock.

It connects to your home’s WiFi network and electrical system using a “patent-pending” technology that powers all the components so that you don’t need individual batteries for each one. It also includes an emergency battery system Masonite claims can power the smart lock, doorbell and LED lighting for 24 hours in case of a power failure. Naturally, no smart home product is complete without an accompanying app. In the M-Pwr’s case, Masonite’s software allows you to program the built-in welcome lights and confirm whether the door is open or closed.

At the moment, Masonite is only offering its M-Pwr smart doors through a single home builder in Charlotte, North Carolina. While the company plans to partner with additional builders over the next year, it hasn’t said anything about selling the doors to people who want to remodel their homes.

AMD cemented itself as a serious competitor to Intel's modern Core lineup with its Ryzen 4000 CPUs, and proved it could also offer much more than the Pentium-maker with its Ryzen 5000 Zen 3 chips. So what's next? Today at CES, AMD is introducing its Ryzen 6000 mobile CPUs, which are built on a 6nm Zen 3+ process and sport a significant upgrade: RDNA 2 graphics. The company claims these new chips will be able to handle most AAA games in 1080p, with gaming performance more than twice as fast as the previous generation's Radeon graphics.

You can also expect more than just the usual speed upgrade. AMD claims its Zen 3+ core can achieve better deep sleeping states to save juice, and it includes better adaptive power management features. You can expect the Ryzen 6000 chips to consume around 30 percent less energy while video conferencing. Even better, AMD says they'll offer up to 24 hours of movie playback. On the security side, Ryzen 6000 is the first platform to integrate Microsoft's new Pluton security chip.

Overall, the Ryzen 6000 mobile chips will be around 11 percent faster than Ryzen 5000 hardware when it comes to single threaded tasks, and it'll be up to 28 percent faster for multithreaded work. The new processor family will be spearheaded by the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 9 6980HX, which can reach up to 5GHz clock speeds. Given that this is an entirely new CPU platform, it also packs in other upgrades like faster DDR5 RAM, which AMD says will dramatically improve performance of the integrated GPU, alongside Wi-Fi 6E integration and better support for PCIe 4.0 and USB 4 devices. 

AMD

For most shoppers, we'd wager the integrated RDNA 2 graphics will be the biggest draw for many systems. Just a few years ago, you'd need a dedicated GPU to handle decent 1080p gaming. Being able to tackle that with onboard graphics is a major accomplishment for AMD. The RDNA 2 graphics also supports the company's FreeSync technology to smooth out gameplay, as well as Dynamic HDR displays. AMD claims it'll also be around 70 percent faster than Intel's Xe graphics on its 11th generation CPUs.

AMD isn't saying much about its Ryzen 6000 U-series chips, which are meant for ultraportables, but they'll likely benefit from many of the platform's upgrades. The fastest U-series chip, the Ryzen 7 6800U, will offer eight cores and speeds up to 4.7GHz. 

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

AMD is starting 2022 by bringing its RX 6000-series graphics to a wider range of laptops. The brand has unveiled an Radeon RX 6000S range of GPUs built specifically for thin-and-light laptops (under 0.78in and 4.5lbs). They tout power and performance-per-watt optimizations that theoretically allow for 20 percent thinner designs without steep hits to performance.

The mainstream RX 6600S reportedly delivers 80 frames per second or more at high detail settings across a range of recent games, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Deathloop. Bump up to the RX 6700S and you'll get 100FPS or higher, while the RX 6800S musters 100FPS and beyond at maximum settings. Your real-world experience will almost certainly vary, but AMD clearly believes all of the new GPUs can handle common games without a struggle.

There are more options if you value performance above portability. The new Radeon RX 6850M is only 7 percent faster than the 6800M, but the mid-range RX 6650M and 6650M XT are up to 20 percent faster than the 6600M. You'll also find starter RX 6300M and 6500M chips that are billed as 200 percent faster than NVIDIA's GeForce MX450, although we'd expect that gap to narrow with the new MX550 and MX570.

You can expect a wave of laptops using these chips to be announced throughout CES 2022. Prices are bound to vary widely, but they should appear in the first quarter.

AMD

And yes, there's plenty for desktop gamers — including a long-awaited software feature. The Radeon RX 6500 XT rivals NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1650 with a claimed 20 to 60 percent higher performance in 1080p games. And importantly, there's a new Radeon Super Resolution feature that better counters NVIDIA's DLSS upscaling. Enable it in "thousands" of games and you can use a lower internal resolution (like 1440p) to boost frame rates at 4K. The Adrenalin Edition software needed to enable RSR won't be available until later in the first quarter, but it will come with perks like an enhanced AMD Link (up to four friends can connect to your desktop) and an eye-tracking Privacy View.

The RX 6500 XT arrives January 19th for $199. That's a solid value if the performance claims hold up, although we'd note that chronic GPU shortages could easily send that price skyward.

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

Optimizing a router for your space can be a pain, but TP-Link is looking to take some of the sting out of that with a wild new router. The Archer AXE200 Omni is a WiFi 6E model with four mechanical antennas that rotate automatically. The idea is that, to optimize the signal, the router will adjust the antenna placement based on the location and usage of WiFi devices.

The Archer AXE200 Omni can deliver total speeds of over 10 Gbps, according to TP-Link. It has a tri-band setup that includes a 6Ghz band. If it works as promised, the router could improve iffy connections throughout your home or maintain a solid WiFi link as you move around while streaming video on your phone.

TP-Link

Elsewhere, TP-Link has made its first quad-band router, the Archer AXE300. It says the device can provide WiFi speeds of up to 16Gbps. Having more bands could reduce network congestion. You can set up a dedicated band, which should be useful for things like online gaming if your console or PC is too far away from the router to connect it via Ethernet.

In addition, the company’s latest flagship mesh system is the Deco XE200. With the help of WiFi 6E, TP-Link claims it can deliver speeds of up to 11Gbps. A two-pack should cover up to 6,500 square feet and connect more than 200 devices.

All three of these router systems will come with TP-Link HomeShield to provide owners with full control of their network as well as a degree of security. The company announced several other WiFi 6E products at CES, including the Deco Voice X50, which has a built-in smart speaker, and a unit designed to extend a mesh network outdoors. All of these routers should be available in 2022.

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

Sony thinks it knows how to counter the latest OLED and mini-LED TVs from its rivals: add a dash of intelligence. Its 2022 A-series 4K OLED TVs, plus its Z- (8K) and X-series (4K) mini-LED and basic LCD models, can use a new Bravia Cam (the 'bump' shown at top) for video chat, gesture control and even optimizing the picture and sound quality. They can tweak the brightness, voice emphasis and sound balance based on your viewing distance and direction. You can also have the picture dim when you leave the room, or display a warning when your kids get too close to the screen.

The camera is bundled with the flagship A95K and Z9K models, and is optional for Sony's other 2022 sets. You'll need a firmware update to unlock more than video chat, but the company hasn't said when that might arrive. And yes, Sony is aware of privacy concerns. There's a hardware switch to disable the camera, and neither the camera nor the TV will store private data. You can delete any positional data through the TV menu.

Sony

The new TVs improve image and sound quality whether or not the camera is present. The A95K uses a new Quantum Dot OLED panel to reproduce a larger color range at wider viewing angles, while the Z9K and X95K have smarter backlighting that reduces mini-LED's characteristic light blooming without lowering brightness. A Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode adjusts output based on ambient light, while Bravia Core Calibrated Mode alters quality to match a director's "original vision." And yes, there's tight integration with other Sony products — they can harmonize with higher-end soundbars and speakers (the built-in speakers are also richer), while PlayStation 5 owners can take advantage of both automatic picture mode switching as well as auto HDR tone mapping.

Other improvements include a switch to the unified, media-centric Google TV interface and smaller, simpler remotes that add backlighting and a find-my-remote feature. A95K uses also have a stand that can sit at the front or back to suit your viewing environment.

Sony won't provide pricing and ship dates until the spring, but it's using a familiar size strategy. The Z9K is unsurprisingly limited to 8K-friendly 75- and 85-inch sizes, while the A95K sits in the sweet spot with 55- and 65-inch variants. The A90K is built for gamers' desks and dorm rooms with 42- and 48-inch sizes (and an optional high position stand), while the 'entry' A80K courts the mainstream with 55-, 65- and 77-inch panels. The X95K comes in 65-, 75- and 85-inch flavors, while the full array LED-lit X90K comes in 55-, 65-, 75- and 85-inch versions. The X80K and X85K have 'just' direct LED backlighting, but are available in a wide range of sizes from 43 inches through to 85 inches.

When Sony debuted its premium home theater gear for 2021, the company's pricey HT-A9 speaker set had a key feature that its soundbars didn't. It's called 360 Spatial Sound Mapping and it creates "phantom speakers" to help the actual speakers produce room-filling sound. Today at CES, Sony announced that it will offer an upgrade to both the HT-A7000 (7.1.2) and HT-A5000 (5.1.2) soundbars that adds the 360-degree audio mapping later this spring. 

360 Spatial Sound Mapping first uses a combination of Sound Field Optimization tech and built-in microphones to measure the height and position of both a soundbar and rear speakers. Once that's done, the setup creates virtual speakers by positioning sound waves based on the collected location information. Sony says the result is a "wide spatial sound field" capable of filling a room and it promises that everyone will get "the same sound experience" no matter where they're sitting. The company also reminded us that an Acoustic Center Sync feature on Bravia XR TVs will work with the sound mapping to become a center speaker that enhances dialogue. Both the A7000 and A5000 already support Sony's 360 Reality Audio for more immersive music listening. 

Sony

To help you make the most out of the soundbars' new ability, Sony is debuting a new set of wireless rear speakers. Unlike most rear satellites that connect wirelessly but rely on a cord for power, the new SA-RS5 speakers are totally wireless and can be charged out of sight. The company says you can expect up to 10 hours of use when they're fully charged and 10 minutes will give you 90 minutes of play time if you forget to replenish the batteries. They also feature up-firing speakers, wide directional woofers, dome tweeters and dual passive radiators for a more robust soundstage and better clarity. The SA-RS5 can run Sony's Sound Field Optimization with the press of a button so they're easily calibrated with your soundbar each time you reposition them. Lastly, the cylindrical speakers have a flat back side so they'll sit nicely against a wall. 

You'll need a set of rear speakers to employ the forthcoming 360 Spatial Sound Mapping upgrade on the aforementioned soundbars — hence the new model. If you can live without all the bells and whistles of the SA-RS5, the SA-RS3S is also compatible. They're a plain ol' set of two-way rear satellite speakers in comparison, but they'll save you some money over the upcoming model at $350. And based on my experience, they should get the job done just fine. 

The new SA-RS5 wireless rear speakers will be available this spring for $600. That's $250 more than the SA-RS3S that debuted alongside the HT-A7000 last year. 

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

While we saw the Mac Mini M1 drop in price during the holiday shopping season, you have another chance to grab the desktop for less right now. Amazon has the base model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $649, or $50 less than usual. It's not a record low — the machine dropped to $570 last month thanks to a sale combined with an addition coupon — but it's a noteworthy discount for this time of year in which most gadgets return to normal prices after the seasonal rush.

The Mac Mini M1 runs on the same processor as the latest MacBook Air, which means you should notice a big improvement in performance, especially if you're coming from an aging device. It has an eight-core CPU and an eight-core GPU, along with a Neural Engine that handles machine-learning tasks. In our experience with the Air, the M1 chipset was blazing fast, helping sites load almost instantly and running native apps smoothly. And you'll get all of that in the most affordable M1 machine if you go with the Mac Mini — even at its normal price of $699, the Mini is $300 cheaper than the $999 MacBook Air, making it a good option for those who don't want to break the bank while investing in a newer, faster computer.

If you appreciated the minimalist design of previous Mac Minis, you'll like the latest model because it hasn't changed much. Its silver exterior is only interrupted on one edge by the machine's port array, which includes two Thunderbolt ports, two USB-A connectors, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. If you've been itching to update your family's computer, or you just want to add a capable desktop to your home without spending too much money, this sale on the Mac Mini M1 is worth considering.

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