Eric Born
The Tech Report
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Past articles by Eric:
Asus' latest VivoBooks offer a splash of color and Coffee Lake
Asus's VivoBook line of notebooks has considerable mass-market appeal, and it's easy to see why. These notebooks are slim, stylish, and capable. For this year's refresh, Asus updated the processors to the latest models from Intel, slimmed down the display bezels, and made sure to give purchasers plenty of options. Let's take a look. The VivoBook Flip 14 is a light-and-thin notebook with a 360°… → Read More
Asus teases the Project Precog dual-screen concept notebook
New notebooks are announced all the time, but the basic formula hasn't changed that much over the years. The screen flips up revealing a keyboard and touchpad and most of the internal hardware fits into the base. Asus has a concept notebook in the works that challenges this formula. The Project Precog notebook ditches the keyboard and touchpad entirely and replaces them with a second screen.… → Read More
Ultra-slim ZenBook S and two ZenBook Pro notebooks join Asus' stable
Manufacturers typically love to announce a large number of notebooks at Computex, and this year was no exception. Asus in particular has a wide variety of new portables on the way. We'll take a peek at the new entrants to its ZenBook line. First up is the ZenBook S (UX391). As it's only 0.5" (13 mm) tall and 2.3 lbs (1.0 kg), this 13.3" notebook is positively svelte. The all-metal unibody… → Read More
Asus pulls out a set of rough-and-TUF peripherals
Asus boldly claims that PC gaming is in the midst of a renaissance. The company sees a new generation of gamers eyeing up their first PC build, and it's orienting its TUF sub-brand toward these neophytes. Along a budget-conscious lineup of motherboards, notebooks, and desktops, Asus is adding a series of peripherals to the TUF family. The new products include the TUF Gaming M5 mouse, the TUF… → Read More
iOS 12 promises new life for older devices this fall
Good news for users of Apple's phones, tablets, notebooks and other devices: iOS 12 is coming, and it's bringing a number of welcome improvements. Notably, iOS 12 should bring a variety of performance improvements to a broad range of devices. Additionally, the OS is set to offer more control over notifications, more information about app and device usage, and improved Siri functionality. New… → Read More
Asus presents the rugged-and-chiseled TUF Gaming GT501 chassis
The RGB LED craze shows little sign of abating, but options still exist for builders who don't need their PC cases to double as nightlights. The TUF Gaming GT501 chassis is a sturdy and spacious unit that takes the "gamer" aesthetic in a different direction than usual. Asus says its design team found inspiration in military designs for its TUF lineup. The GT501's exterior is primarily black and… → Read More
Asus TUF Gaming FX10CP desktop delivers durable basics
Keen-eyed readers might already be aware of Asus' TUF lineup of reliability-focused motherboards. The company has decided to expand the sub-brand's lineup to include a variety of durable and affordable systems and components. In addition to a previously-announced TUF gaming notebook, Asus has let loose the TUF Gaming FX10CP desktop. The manufacturer claims that this rugged machine will serve as… → Read More
Corsair's Obsidian 500D RGB SE chassis lights the way
Today marks the launch of Corsair's iCUE app, the company's new unified RGB LED lighting control software. But what fun is a lighting control app without new hardware to bedazzle with synchronized lighting effects? We're not surprised, then, to see that Corsair has new RGB LED-equipped products. The Obsidian 500D RGB SE is a showcase chassis that takes the solid good looks of the Obsidian 500D… → Read More
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro RAM redlines at 4600 MT/s
Corsair has quite the lightshow going on this year at its Computex 2018 booth. Its new iCue unified lighting and cooling control software has officially launched, and a number of its product lines have been refreshed with new lighting options. The company added to its evergreen Vengeance lineup of memory products with the Vengeance RGB Pro series. These DDR4 memory sticks combine blazing speeds… → Read More
Gigabyte's Aero 15Xv8 gaming notebook reviewed
Gigabyte's Aero 15Xv8 mixes Intel's Coffee Lake Core i7-8750H and Nvidia's GTX 1070 Max-Q graphics card into a potent blend of gaming and productivity potential. We put those parts to the test to see whether the Aero 15X's thin-and-light chassis is up to the task of keeping all of that processing power in check. → Read More
Seagate floats 14 TB of storage in the helium-filled Exos X14
At this year's OCP Summit, Seagate teased a new drive for its storage-hungry enterprise clients. This hard drive adds a new tier of storage to its helium-filled Exos X line. Seagate says the 14-TB Exos X14 offers higher capacity than its siblings in the same form factor, while maintaining the same efficiency and performance. Seagate's Exos X line of drives already includes 10-TB and 12-TB… → Read More
EVGA teases its 2200-W power supply and Z10 keyboard at CES
EVGA teases its 2200-W power supply and Z10 keyboard at CES by Eric Born 2:00 PM on January 12, 2018 Exhibitions like CES are a great place to find the largest, wildest, and most extravagant pieces of hardware on the market. This year's show has been no exception. At EVGA's booth, convention-goers were treated to a peek at a monstrously-powerful power supply. The model name of EVGA's new… → Read More
Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 router swoops in at CES
Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 router swoops in at CES by Eric Born 3:15 PM on January 10, 2018 For whatever reason, few computer accessories get the "gaming" treatment quite as often as networking products. With its Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500, Netgear seeks to prove that a router's gaming credentials don't just rely on styling and the number of antennae it sports. The Nighthawk Pro Gaming… → Read More
Thermaltake Pacific CL radiators pack copper, brass, and steel
Thermaltake Pacific CL radiators pack copper, brass, and steel by Eric Born 12:15 PM on January 10, 2018 A couple years back, Thermaltake caught our attention with its commitment to providing a one-stop shop for custom liquid-cooling setups. That intention hasn't waned in the meantime. At CES this year, the Taiwanese manufacturer has introduced the Pacific CL line of liquid-cooling radiators… → Read More
Viewsonic shows off its pro display range with an 8K model
Viewsonic shows off its pro display range with an 8K model by Eric Born 3:30 PM on January 9, 2018 We're only a few days in, and 2018 is starting to look like the year of the massive display. Viewsonic's new professional-grade displays might not be quite as large as the ones that Nvidia has in mind, but there's something impressive on its list of new products: a 32" 8K display, among a host of… → Read More
Dell squeezes Kaby Lake-G into its slim XPS 15 2-in-1
Dell squeezes Kaby Lake-G into its slim XPS 15 2-in-1 by Eric Born 2:30 PM on January 9, 2018 Intel's G-series Core processors are making folks reconsider what kind of performance they can expect from ultrabooks. Dell is the latest company to announce a notebook powered by one of the Core-processor-plus-RX-Vega-M packages. The company updated its XPS 15 2-in-1 convertible with new Kaby Lake… → Read More
Lenovo outfits ThinkPad X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga with HDR displays
Lenovo outfits ThinkPad X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga with HDR displays by Eric Born 1:00 PM on January 9, 2018 One of the longest-standing brand names in the notebook world is ThinkPad. With the prestige that name affords, ThinkPad notebooks receive a bit more scrutiny than others. Perhaps to maintain the brand's reputation, Lenovo upgraded the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon and ThinkPad X1 Yoga with Intel's… → Read More
Intel and Micron's joint NAND development is coming to an end
Intel and Micron's joint NAND development is coming to an end by Eric Born 12:30 PM on January 9, 2018 Intel and Micron have enjoyed many benefits from their long-standing partnership for the development of NAND flash memory, but it turns out that this particular relationship is about to end. While the two companies intend to wrap up work on the third generation of 3D NAND, Intel and Micron… → Read More
Asus lets loose a volley of ZenBooks and Vivo AIOs
Asus lets loose a volley of ZenBooks and Vivo AIOs by Eric Born 3:30 PM on January 8, 2018 Take cover, soldier! Product announcements are coming in hot and heavy today. Asus just launched a salvo of notebooks and all-in-one PCs, and they're about to hit a store near you. Let's take a look at each in turn. Headlining Asus's list of new notebooks is the ZenBook Flip 14. The company calls it the… → Read More
Kaby Lake G makes an appearance in the HP Spectre x360 15
Kaby Lake G makes an appearance in the HP Spectre x360 15 by Eric Born 1:30 PM on January 8, 2018 The unexpected-yet-welcome pairing of Intel processors and AMD GPUs into one package seems poised to revolutionize what consumers can expect from thin-and-light notebooks. Hot on the heels of Intel's disclosure of the inner workings of G-series Core processors, HP has announced the Spectre x360… → Read More