Pocket-lint has been scouring the show floor at Computex 2017 in order to find the very best products.
The Taipai-based show started on 30 May, and ever since then, we've been gleaning through the press conferences and more to determine what's noteworthy. We managed to narrow it to five products - with a couple of them more overarching concepts than actual hardware. However, they're design templates and processing chipsets that could change the way we perceive PCs and gaming laptops for years to come.
Here are our top five tech products at this year's Computex.
Intel Core i9 X-Series
Desktop processors aren't exactly exciting. With each new one, you can expect more power and more efficiency. So, when a company comes along and introduces a new processor with an insane amount of horsepower, especially at a time when everyone is clamoring for more of it, you take notice. Intel’s Core i9 is the first consumer desktop processor to pack 18 cores and 36 threads into one piece of silicon.
That matters when consumers are streaming more 4K video and jumping into more virtual reality experiences than ever before. The more cores and threads there are in a single CPU, the more dedicated tasks it can handle simultaneously without compromising performance. Needless to say, a 18-core, 36-thread processor is a bit much for some people, but for others using intensive apps it's a no-brainer.
A video editor, for instance, will want Intel’s $1,700 CPU. Or anyone who compiles code or runs VR experiences or live-streams games or tends to manage several interrelated tasks at once (think: streaming, recoding, broadcasting, chatting, etc -- all simultaneously). Intel even upgraded its Turbo Boost in order to give a pick-up to the two top-performing cores for single-threaded or light-threaded workloads.
MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro
If you want a powerful gaming laptop, you usually have to choose between thick, heavy machines with monster graphics cards or slim ones with lower-performing GPUs. In other words, hefty laptops tend to equal more power. However, MSI's new laptop, the GS63VR Stealth Pro, makes it so we no longer have to compromise. It packs a Nvidia GTX 1070 graphics and a 15-inch HDR (120Hz, 3ms) display.
And it's just 17.7mm thick and 4.2 pounds heavy. MSI said it's slimmest laptop available with this GPU and display. While the late 2016 version of the MSI GS63VR had the same exact thickness and weight, it packed Nividia's GTX 1060 GPU. The updated model also has MSI's Cooler Boost Trinity technology with five different heat pipes and advanced "Whirlwind" fan blades to keep your system cool.
Other features include a non-mechanical SteelSeries keyboard with customisable backlighting and ESS Sabre audio MSI also has yet to announce detailed specifications or pricing for the laptop. However, we imagine it'll be available with Intel 7th Generation and quad-core CPUs.
Asus Zenbook Pro UX550
Asus’ Zenbook range has quite the following, thanks to its very competitive prices. At Computex, Asus announced the latest addition to the family: Zenbook Pro UX550. it's is a revamp of the original Zenbook Pro, which launched a couple of years ago, and it looks like Asus has really gone to the next level in terms of battery life and portability. It’s slim, light, rocks some great specs, and is a bit of a looker.
Asus shaved almost 2mm off the earlier model, at 18.9mm, and the weight has dropped from 2.26kg to a mere 1.8kg. It still manages to squeeze in a 14-hour battery life and can charge to 60-per cent capacity in 49 minutes. The top-shelf model even runs on Intel’s H-series core i7 processor and boasts a Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti graphics card, up to 1TB of PCIe x4 SSD storage, and 16GB DDR4 RAM.
The display is another strong point with a 15.6-inch UHD 4K NanoEdge touchscreen with super slim 7.3mm bezels that give an 83-per cent screen-to-body ratio. There’s also a quad speaker set up by Harman Kardon, two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB 3.1 ports a full sized HDMI port, and a micro SD card reader, and a fingerprint scanner for Microsoft Hello. And it ships with Windows 10 Pro or Home.
Asus said it will start off at just over a £1,000 when it lands in July.
Nvidia Max-Q design
Nvidia has unveiled Max-Q, a design approach that major gaming laptop manufacturers can adopt for a series of Nvidia card-packed notebooks. They will be powerful and designed with gaming firmly at the forefront, but they will also be MacBook-thin and useable as a great, travel anywhere, multipurpose laptops. Max-Q laptops will sport GeForce GTX 1080, 1070, or 1060 graphics processing.
They will be engineered with sophisticated thermal and electrical design in order to maintain a thin footprint yet keep cool and quite in operation. Nvidia's proprietary WhisperMode technology will also ensure a Max-Q laptop runs quietly. Manufacturers signed on to produce Max-Q machines include Acer, Asus, Alienware, Gigabyte, Lenovo, and MSI. Expect them to appear on the market from 27 June.
Asus ROG Zephyrus
Republic of Gamers' (ROG) has unveiled an exceptionally impressive-looking gaming laptop at Computex: the Zephyrus. Essentially forget everything you think you know about the necessary form factor for a powerful and efficient gaming laptop, because the Zephyrus is packing a vast amount of power in a minuscule package. It's just 17.9mm thin at the thickest point and 16.9mm at the thinnest.
The Zephyrus can run GeForce GTX 1080 without any overheating, thanks to an ingenious cooling system ROG calls Active Aerodynamic System. Essentially, there is a flap on the rear of the base that flips out as you open the lid, allowing for a clear airflow. Plus, heat escapes from the large perforated area above the keyboard. The lid is made of contoured steel and there’s a lovely diamond cut edge.
It also boasts a 15.6-inch IPA panel with a 1080p resolution, 7th-generation Core i7 Kaby Lake processor, up to 24GB of RAM, four M.2 PCI ports for super-fast SSD storage, multiple USB ports, including USB-C, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an HDMI video output (no wired Ethernet, though). Unfortunately, it's an expensive machine. It costs $2,699 in the US, which will set you back £2,600.