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AMD is following up its impressive Ryzen Z1 chip, which powered the original ASUS ROG Ally, with the Ryzen Z2 at CES 2025. You can pretty much guess what it delivers: More power, and potentially more battery life. AMD also confirmed a rumor that's been floating around for months: Valve also plans to put the Ryzen Z2 in an upcoming Steam Deck revision. Valve hasn't responded to our request for comment yet, but given that the original Steam Deck was powered by a custom AMD chip, it makes sense that it would eventually be upgraded with AMD's latest hardware. Leading the charge for the Ryzen Z2 family is the Z2 Extreme, featuring eight cores, a 5GHz max clock speed and 16 RDNA 3 graphics cores. The least powerful model is the Z2 Go with four CPU cores and 12 graphics cores. That could be a useful chip for cheaper handhelds, especially those that tout game streaming capabilities over local play. AMD AMD didn't have any performance metrics to share, but it likely won't be long until we see the Ryzen Z2 in action. It'll arrive in the first quarter of 2025 in revamped versions of the ASUS ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. While Valve has said it's trying to avoid a horsepower rat race, constant leaks around a potential Steam Deck 2 indicate some sort of upgrade is on the way soon.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-amd-ryzen-z2-will-power-next-gen-gaming-handhelds-including-a-new-steam-deck-194531373.html?src=rss
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So long XPS, au revoir Inspiron, later, Latitude. Dell is officially giving its existing PC brands the boot at CES 2025 and moving to terms that normal people will actually understand: Dell, Dell Pro and Dell Pro Max. Seems self-explanatory, no? Dell systems are purely consumer plays, while the Dell Pro line focuses on business users. Dell Pro Max, naturally, are super-powered workstations meant for the most demanding users. The rebranding makes a certain amount of sense. Why should consumers have to learn about the difference between Latitude and Inspiron laptops? But it's also disappointing news for fans of the company's XPS lineup, as that's now officially dead. Going with "Pro" and "Pro Max" terms also evokes Apple's hardware more than anything from the land of Dell, so it's not exactly coming from a position of strength. At a briefing around the rebranding in December, I asked CEO Michael Dell a simple question: "What does Dell gain by copying Apple?" Needless to say, he didn't look pleased. He and other executives were quick to point out that the term "Pro" has been used throughout the industry for years. I shouted back "I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max in my pocket!" Every tech company copies to a certain extent, but we all have eyes and ears. It's not hard to see who Dell is following with this rebrand. While simplicity seems to have been the ultimate goal, like many PC makers, Dell couldn't help but muddy things up a bit. Within each new PC line are sub-tiers: Base, Plus and Premium. The XPS lineup will now live under the "Dell Premium" moniker, while other customers will have to figure out the difference between a "Dell Pro Plus" and "Dell Pro Premium" system. Things get even more bonkers for Dell Pro Max systems, where you can also choose between Plus and Premium options. Doesn't Pro Max already mean the best? The naming logic breaks down entirely for desktops. Just try to read the names Dell Pro Max Micro and Dell Pro Max Mini without having your brain self destruct. Dell Pro Premium 13 and 14.Sam Rutherford for Engadget Oddly, Dell doesn't have any truly groundbreaking new hardware to celebrate its new naming scheme. The Dell Pro Premium 13 and 14 laptops look pretty sleek for business machines, but they still remind me more of Apple hardware than anything distinctly Dell. (It's hard not to associate the curved opening notch with anything but a MacBook Pro.) At 2.36 pounds, the Dell Pro Premium 13 is definitely one of the lightest commercial systems I've ever seen, so that's a slight win. The company claims it gets 21.2 hours of battery life and offers 82 percent faster graphics rendering than Dell's last premium enterprise-focused system. The larger Pro Premium 14 will also be the first commercial notebook with a tandem OLED screen, which is more power efficient and brighter than a typical OLED. On the consumer side, the Dell 14 and 16 Plus (along with their 2-in-1 versions) look like typical mainstream Dell laptops. The Dell Premium systems, formerly XPS, look completely unchanged from last year. (I've heard that we likely won't see any big changes for that lineup until next year.) The Dell Premium 14 (formerly XPS).Sam Rutherford for Engadget As I wandered around Dell's rebranding event, I got the sense that many Dell employees weren't exactly thrilled with the new strategy. They typically described being a bit shocked about the news at first, especially those who devoted their lives to their specific Dell PC brand for years. Many eventually came around to the argument that simplicity will ultimately make life easier for consumers. Nobody, except for marketing leads, seemed genuinely excited about Dell's bold new journey. (I'm keeping the Dell workers anonymous to avoid any potential repercussions, especially since I noticed PR workers hovering nearby as I grilled their colleagues.) Dell doesn't have the sort of brand loyalty that Apple does, so I doubt many regular consumers will miss the company's old PC brands. But this is surely a sad day for XPS fans, a brand that started out with Dell's premium desktops in the '90s. The Dell Pro 13 and 14 Premium will be available today (we still don't have pricing details, unfortunately), while the Dell 14 and 16 Plus arrive on February 18 starting at $999. The Dell Pro Max 14 and 16 are set to arrive in March, and we're still waiting on pricing information.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/dell-dumps-its-pc-brands-to-be-more-like-apple-194524781.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Acer is a little late when it comes to releasing its first handheld gaming PC. But now at CES 2025, it seems like the company is trying to make up for lost time by going big. Really big. Thats because later this year, its planning to release a gigantic offering in the Nitro Blaze 11. Packing detachable controllers and a built-in kickstand, the Blaze 11 shares a number of similarities with Lenovos Legion Go. However, when all that is attached to an 11-inch 2,560 x 1,600 IPS display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness, the result is something that feels very different. In some ways, its almost like holding a steering wheel with a tablet-sized screen slammed in the middle along with your typical assortment of joysticks, face buttons and shoulder triggers on either side. As youd expect from a device in this category, Acer has included some familiar gamer touches like RGB lighting surrounding analog sticks along with a new Acer Game Space app thats meant to serve as a one-stop game launcher and control panel for settings. In person, the Blaze 11s screen is bright and vivid to the point that I had to confirm that it wasnt OLED. You also get whats becoming a fairly standard set of ports: two USB-C, a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card slot. That said, I do appreciate that Acer found room for a USB-A port, which brings the total number of USB connections to three. Meanwhile, on the inside, the Blaze 11s specs look good, though not especially impressive, with an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS chip and Radeon 780M graphics, 16GB of RAM (7500 MT/s) and up to 2TB of SSD storage (though Acer says initial configurations will come with 512GB). That said, if an 11-inch gaming tablet seems a bit too unwieldy, Acer does have a second option in the Nitro Blaze 8. It features nearly identical specs and a very similar design minus the detachable controllers and kickstand, but with a smaller 8-inch IPS screen that has a slightly faster 144Hz refresh rate. Both models felt solid, though the Blaze 8 does win out in overall rigidity thanks to its non-detachable controllers. In case thats not enough, theres actually a third handheld that will be joining Acers ranks in the Nitro Blaze 7, which was announced back in September but has yet to go on sale (at least in the US). Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget My one concern with the Blaze 11 is that while it seems totally serviceable, Im not quite sure its gigantic dimensions alone will be enough to carve out a significant niche among rivals from ASUS, Lenovo, Valve and others, as it lacks much in the way of additional defining characteristics. That said, I did notice that the bottom of the Blaze 11 features pogo pins that suggests some peripherals (most likely a dock) will arrive at a later date. However, when I asked an Acer representative for confirmation, they said they had no official announcements regarding additional peripherals or accessories for the Blaze family at this time. Acer says all three handhelds will go on sale sometime in Q2 2025, with the Nitro Blaze 11 starting at $1,100, the Blaze 8 at $900 and somewhere around $800 for the Blaze 7.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/the-acer-nitro-blaze-11-is-an-absolutely-massive-handheld-gaming-pc-194505881.html?src=rss
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