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Best gadgets of IFA 2020

Best gadgets of IFA 2020

The coronavirus pandemic might mean that the IFA 2020 tech show, usually held in Berlin every year, is mostly being held as a series of online events, but that doesn't mean there aren't as many neat new gadgets being launched. I've swapped a German beer for a strong coffee and a creaky press conference bench for my lumbar-supporting office chair to bring you the hottest products of the show. 

I'll be updating this article throughout the week, swapping in any new launch that deserves recognition for being particularly cool. Make sure to bookmark this page and come back to see what's new.

First shown off a couple of weeks ago, and demonstrated more fully at Samsung's online event this week, the Z Fold 2 is the second generation of the company's flagship folding smartphone. With a bigger exterior display and a less intrusive notch for the interior camera, this model addresses various issues we had with the first-gen Fold. 

It doesn't come cheap, with a $2,000 price tag, but it's packed with top-end tech, including 5G connectivity and multiple cameras.

Read more: Galaxy Z Fold 2 ongoing review: 5 of the foldable phone's best new features so far

Samsung

Now that movie theaters are a masks-on affair, those of you looking to bring the cinema experience to your living room will want to pay attention to this. Samsung's new projector, called The Premiere, is the first HDR10 Plus-certified projector, which the company says means it's extremely bright and vivid. Together with its 4K resolution and up to 130-inch size, it should be able to provide an extremely immersive experience for your movies. It's a short-throw projector too, meaning it can sit right up against the wall it's projecting onto, rather than having to put it on a stand on the other side of the room.

Read more: Samsung's The Premiere 4K ultra-short-throw laser projector goes up to 130 inches

Neato

The D10 sits at the top of Neato's new lineup of robot vacuum cleaners, featuring laser-guided navigation to avoid obstacles in its path, as well as a high-efficiency particulate air filter. Why? Because a HEPA filter can kill, Neato says, up to 99.97% of allergens, making it great for people with sensitivities to dust or other airborne particles. 

Read more: Neato's latest and greatest robot vacuum cleans up with a HEPA filter

Acer's new Spin 7 notebook, which converts to tablet, uses Qualcomm's second-generation 8cx chip for PCs. 

Acer

Acer Spin 7 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2

Acer's two-in-one laptop is the first device running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 platform. Unveiled during Qualcomm's virtual launch, the platform promises multiday battery life as well as 5G connectivity -- both of which will be useful for working on a laptop on the move. 

The Spin 7 itself has a 14-inch display which can swivel all the way around to function as a tablet and comes with a Wacom stylus for drawing or note taking. There's no pricing or availability yet, but we expect to hear more in the coming weeks.

Read more: Acer Spin 7 is the world's first Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 laptop

Asus

It's not just Qualcomm with new silicon to show off. Intel unveiled its latest Tiger Lake processors too, and Asus was quick off the mark to shove them inside its new Zenbook Flip S. Intel boasts huge boosts in speeds for word processing, video editing and online game streaming over its previous generation, while also supporting the latest Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 6. All of this will be welcome in the new Flip S, which -- much like the Spin 7 mentioned above -- can fold around on itself to be both a laptop and tablet. 

Read more: Asus ZenBooks and Vivobooks go 11th gen all the way

JBL

JBL's previous waterproof Clip speakers are friends to anyone who loves to sing along to their favorite tunes in the shower. The new model has an updated design and a battery life of up to 10 hours. There's still a built-in carabiner clip, which makes it super easy to hang from your soap dish while you're belting out the chorus to Taylor Swift's Shake It Off.

Read more: JBL's new headphones and Bluetooth speakers add battery life and wireless charging

Nvidia's latest graphics card series promises increased performance for 8K, 60 frames-per-second gaming, as well as improved ray tracing capabilities for realistic lighting and shadows. Fortnite has already shown off a demo that takes advantage of the new tech, as has upcoming RPG Cyberpunk. Plus the $499 RTX 3070 sounds like a real steal.

Read more: Nvidia launches GeForce RTX 3090, 3080 and 3070 with Ampere

Lenovo

This two-in-one, laptop-tablet hybrid sits at the top of Lenovo's Yoga range, sporting a soft-touch leather-clad lid, updated keyboard and a massive touchpad that's seamlessly embedded into the glass palm rest. Other upgrades over previous versions include the latest Intel chips, improved audio from the soundbar in the hinge and improvements to its included stylus.

It'll be available in 14- and 15.6-inch varieties, the latter of which can be specced up with up to a 10th-gen Intel Core i9 HK-series processor and discrete Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q, plus up to 16GB of memory and 2TB SSD storage.

Read more: Lenovo Yoga 9i gets rid of traditional touchpad, slaps leather on its lid

Want to see just how browned those cookies are getting? With LG's new oven, you simply knock on the glass door to see inside. The gas or electric range ovens also have air fry modes to crisp up your chicken real nice.

Read more: Just knock to see your food inside LG's air-fry-equipped range

Blink has two new home security cameras.

Amazon

Setting up home security cameras can be a real chore when it comes to trailing power cables everywhere. Not so with the new Blink cameras by Amazon, which have optional battery packs that claim up to four years of battery life. The cameras are available in indoor and weatherproof outdoor versions, and have a $3-a-month subscription for cloud storage of your recorded footage.

Read more: Amazon's new battery-powered Blink security cameras promise to last 4 years

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Best budget laptop for 2022 best budget laptop 2022 best laptop computers under 500 dollars best budget laptop under 500 best budget laptop under best budget laptop for students best budget laptop for gaming best budget laptop for photo editing best budget laptop for music production best budget laptop for college best budget gaming laptop

Best Budget Laptop Under $500 for 2022

Best Budget Laptop Under $500 for 2022

Shopping for a new laptop can be a little intimidating with the vast range of models out there. You can't tell the difference between an expensive and an affordable laptop by looks alone, and their performance and functionality can vary greatly. However, such a huge market also means that you can find plenty of high-quality laptops at an affordable price, with plenty of great models starting at less than $500. In fact, it might even be worth it to grab one for yourself as an extra device for work or for games.

If you're searching for a laptop under $500, here are the best budget laptops you can buy right now. If you're not sure what to look for in a good budget laptop -- other than price -- jump to our buying advice right below our recommendations. This advice is based on our years of testing and review experience to figure out what to expect from a laptop priced under $500. It will also let you know what to look for if you want to continue your budget laptop hunt on your own. 

Use these picks to sort through the competition. Because there are a lot of cheap laptops that aren't worth it, try not to make rash decisions when buying. 

Josh Goldman/CNET

Gateway was best known for low-cost desktops and laptops back in the '90s. In 2020, the brand was revived for a new lineup of laptops and tablets sold exclusively through Walmart. Those models were recently updated with 11th-gen Intel processors and we tested both 15.6- and 14.1-inch models. The latter gets our vote as an inexpensive option for getting school work done while still being light enough to carry around campus for the day. 

The attention-grabber is the Intel Core i5 processor that provides reliable performance, despite being paired with cheaper components. The keyboard is comfortable, but not backlit, and the touchpad isn't the most precise. Also, the built-in fingerprint reader is hit-or-miss. Still, it has lots of ports so connecting a mouse or an external display isn't an issue and the full-HD display is decent too, all things considered. Plus, the battery lasted a couple minutes shy of 10 hours on our streaming video test.

Sarah Tew/CNET

This Lenovo Chromebook IdeaPad Duet is essentially a Chrome version of the first Microsoft Surface Go. Like the Go, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet is a 10-inch tablet with a detachable keyboard and touchpad-- making it a compact touch screen laptop. Unlike Microsoft, though, Lenovo includes the keyboard. The Lenovo Duet is essentially a smaller, albeit less powerful, Pixel Slate that makes more sense for more people with a cheap laptop price that's more in line with what people expect a Chromebook to cost.

The Chromebook Duet screen is small, however, so if you're regularly using it at a desk, we recommend attaching an external monitor to its USB-C port. You'll probably want to connect a wireless keyboard and mouse, too. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

The Acer Aspire 5 15-inch clamshell continues to be one of the best laptop deals available. This sub-4-pound Windows laptop includes an AMD Ryzen 3 3350U processor, 4GB of memory and a speedy 128GB SSD. This budget laptop also features a USB 3.2 Gen 1 USB-C port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, Ethernet and an HDMI port. 

The Acer Aspire even has a backlit keyboard and fingerprint reader for quick sign-ins -- rarities at this price. The 4GB RAM and 128GB solid-state drive storage don't allow you to have many programs or lots of browser tabs open simultaneously but you can add more of both down the road. 

Asus

Amazon currently offers an older Core i3 8GB model for under $450, a reasonable price for a Windows laptop with an Intel Core processor. You'll also see listings with 4GB RAM, but that's way too little memory for Windows, which barely gets by on 8GB. Don't confuse it with the thinner, lighter, more expensive Asus VivoBook S15.

Lenovo

The Windows version of the Flex two-in-one has the beefed up specs (at least over a Chromebook) necessary to run Windows, though probably not very fast -- the dual-core Intel Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM are the reasons the price is low. But it has a bigger full HD screen than the Chromebook model.

Are laptops under $500 any good?

As a rule of thumb, resist buying out of desperation -- don't spend $500 because you can't find a cheaper laptop deal available, for example. Buying a need-it-now laptop can be like shopping for food while hungry. Even for a laptop, $500 can be a lot of money, and you'll likely be holding onto it for at least three years, if the statistics Intel and PC manufacturers hurl at us are correct.

You can also try to make your current laptop last a little longer. If you need something to tide you over for a few months, dig into possible places to buy refurbished machines and explore nonprofit or educational discounts if you're eligible. Also, if there's something you really want in a laptop, like a touchscreen, a backlit keyboard, DDR4 RAM, an HD webcam, Intel UHD Graphics, AMD Radeon Vega Graphics or an HDMI port, check the manufacturer's specs closely to make sure it has it. You'll regret it if you don't.

If you suspect you'll be holding onto your new laptop for a while, see if you can stretch your budget to buy a slightly more expensive laptop to accommodate more than 8GB of RAM or a processor with more cores than you were otherwise considering. If you haven't thought about it, look at AMD Ryzen processors as alternatives to Intel Core for Windows laptops or alternatives to Intel Celeron and Pentium for Chromebooks.

Even better, if you're comfortable with it, think about an affordable laptop with a replaceable battery (if you can find one), upgradable memory, graphics card and storage, or all of the above. Furthermore, while you might be working remotely now, you won't be stuck at home forever. Remember to consider whether having a lighter, thinner laptop or a touchscreen laptop with a good battery life will be important to you in the future. 

Read more: Best Monitors Under $200 You Can Get Right Now

You can always add an external drive or two (or five, if you're me) at some point down the road. But if your internal storage is the type of slow-spinning hard drive that comes in a lot of cheap laptop models, fast external storage is unlikely to help speed up loading Windows or applications. You can frequently set a system to boot from an external solid-state drive if necessary.

You may see references to Intel Optane in conjunction with slow (5,400rpm) spinning hard drives; Optane is fast solid-state memory that acts as a temporary storage space for frequently accessed files on the hard drive to speed things up. It helps, but not as much as an SSD drive. 

And finally, if you're replacing an old Windows laptop that's not up to running Windows anymore, consider turning it into a Chromebook.

What are the trade-offs on laptops under $500?

As long as you manage your expectations when it comes to options and specs, you can still get quite a bit from a budget laptop model, including good battery life and a reasonably lightweight laptop body. 

A bright spot is you don't have to settle for a traditional clamshell laptop with a fixed display and keyboard. You can also get a convertible laptop (aka a two-in-one), which has a screen that flips around to turn the screen into a tablet, to position it for comfortable streaming or to do a presentation. Keep in mind that all convertibles work as both laptops and tablets. A touchscreen is a prerequisite for tablet operation, and many support styluses (aka pens) for handwritten and sketched input. Don't assume a stylus is included, though.

One thing you won't find at these cheap laptop prices: a MacBook or any other Apple laptop. An iPad will run you more than $500 once you buy the optional keyboard (though it might work out to less if you look for sales on the tablet or keyboard), which is above our budget here. A base-model iPad with an inexpensive Bluetooth keyboard and cheap stand for the iPad might suffice.

You'll see a lot of cheap laptops listed as coming with Windows 10 S, a stripped-down and locked-down version of the operating system intended for use by schools -- it only allows you to install applications from the Windows Store, forces you to use Microsoft's Edge browser and includes a subset of the administrative tools in Windows 10 Pro. You can upgrade to the full version for free, though.

It doesn't feel like there's much to make the new Windows 11 a must-have upgrade, but if it's going to be important to you for some reason, be careful about checking that the laptop will meet the requirements. These inexpensive models can be especially at risk of not making the cut.

It's easier to find inexpensive Chromebooks than Windows laptops, making them one of the most popular budget laptops on the market, though we're also seeing a lot more Chromebooks in the $500-to-$1,000 range. That's because Google's Chrome OS isn't nearly as power-hungry as Windows (check the specs), so you can get by with a lower-end processor, slower storage and less screen resolution or RAM -- just a few of the components that make a laptop expensive. 

But the flip side is Chrome and Google apps are more of a memory hog than you'd expect, and if you go too low with the processor or skimp on memory, the system will still feel slow. Chrome OS is also a much different experience than Windows; make sure the applications you need have a Chrome app, Android app or Linux app before making the leap.

Since Chromebooks are cloud-first devices, however, you don't need a lot of storage built-in. That also means if you spend most of your time roaming the web, writing, streaming video or playing Android games, they're a good fit. If you hope to play Android games, make sure you get a touchscreen Chromebook.

For a cheap gaming laptop, though, you'll still have to break the $500 ceiling to support most games. The least expensive budget laptops suitable for a solid gaming performance experience -- those with moderately powerful discrete graphics processors -- will run you closer to $700. Here are our recommendations if you're looking for the best gaming laptop under $1,000. 

Although, if you like to live on the bleeding edge, cloud gaming services such as Google Stadia and Microsoft Xbox Game Pass Ultimate's Game Streaming will let you play games on laptops with specs that hit the under-$500 mark. 

What to look for in laptops under $500

While Chromebooks can run Chrome OS-specific and Android apps, some people need the full Windows OS to run heftier applications, such as video-editing suites. If you want a good video editing laptop, the HP Chromebook with Intel Celeron processors provides 5.4 times high-resolution video editing than the basic HP laptop. With that comes a need for a faster processor with more cores, more memory -- 8GB RAM is the bare minimum -- and more storage for applications and the operating system itself. A lot of these have 4GB or 6GB, which, in conjunction with a spinning hard disk, can make for a frustratingly slow Windows laptop experience. But demands on Chromebooks are growing, so if your Chrome needs to run beyond the basics you should think about paying more for more memory and a faster processor.

• A lot of Windows laptops in this range use AMD Athlon and lower-end A series or Intel Celeron and Pentium processors to hit the lower price. I don't really recommend going with an Athlon instead of a Ryzen or a Celeron/Pentium instead of a Core: Windows is too heavy for them, and in conjunction with the 4GB memory a lot of them have, you may find them abysmally slow at best.
• Because of their low prices, 11.6-inch Chromebooks are attractive. Samsung Chromebook has a fantastic screen and nearly 10 hours of battery life. But we don't recommend that size for any but the youngest students. And if you're both going to be looking at the screen frequently for remote learning, 11 inches can get really cramped.
• SSDs can make a big difference in how fast Windows performance feels compared with a spinning hard disk, but they also push the price up. So if your budget can stretch a little and you want more storage, you may want to consider stepping up from base storage options to a 128GB SSD. 
• In the budget price range, you have to watch out for screen terminology when it comes to specs: An "HD" screen may not always be a truly high-definition screen. HD, which has a resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels, is called "Full HD" so marketers can refer to lesser-resolution displays (1,280x720 pixels) as HD. In Chromebooks, HD usually refers to a screen with a resolution of 1,366x768 pixels. On the upside, the boom in 14-inch laptops trickles down to this price range, which allows for more FHD options in the size. 
• A frequent complaint I see is about "washed-out" looking displays with poor viewing angles. Unfortunately, that's one of the trade-offs: A lot of these use TN (twisted nematic) screen technology, which is cheap but meh.
• Pay attention to networking. Inexpensive models with older chipsets may only support Wi-Fi 3 (or 802.11b/g/n). Wi-Fi 3 is limited to 2.4GHz channels; those are slower than more recent chipsets with Wi-Fi 4 (aka 802.11ac) that add a 5GHz channel as well. I haven't seen any laptops in this price range with Wi-Fi 6, the newest version; chances are you won't have any Wi-Fi 6 access points to connect to, though, so you likely won't miss it now. The specifications aren't always correct on the shopping sites, so if you see a model that doesn't seem to have Wi-Fi 4, double-check on the manufacturer's site before ruling it out. Remember, Chromebooks are designed to work predominantly over the internet, so Wi-Fi speed and stability are crucial. 

Considering all specs and options -- battery life, storage space, screen resolution, screen size, core processor performance, general machine and battery performance -- you'll find some of our top picks for 2022's best Windows laptops and Chromebooks under the $500 budget in the list above, along with their pros and cons.

How we test computers

The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computer-like devices consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. This includes evaluating a device's aesthetics, ergonomics and features. A final review verdict is a combination of both those objective and subjective judgments. 

The list of benchmarking software we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. The most important core tests we're currently running on every compatible computer include: Primate Labs Geekbench 5, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra. 

A more detailed description of each benchmark and how we use it can be found in our How We Test Computers page. 

The best laptops in every category

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Intel boasts 50 new 12th-gen CPUs at CES 2022 (and the Arc discrete GPU, too)

Intel boasts 50 new 12th-gen CPUs at CES 2022 (and the Arc discrete GPU, too)

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.

Intel dropped an Acme anvil of 12th-generation (Alder Lake) processors on us at CES 2022: That's 22 for PCs, eight for gaminglaptops, six in a new P series, 10 U series for thin-and-lights and four for cheap laptops and Chromebooks.

AMD's new deluge of processors  looks like a drizzle in comparison. And as usual, you should expect a corresponding flood of system-refreshing upgrading to the new processors. Intel says that for creative work, its most powerful chips can outperform an Apple M1 series-equipped MacBook.

"Starting today, we're bringing our new hybrid architecture to performance laptops," the leader of Intel's PC chip business, Gregory Bryant, said at an online launch event. The top-end H series chips are up to 40% faster than last year's Tiger Lake equivalents, he said. Intel's Alder Lake chips, already shipping in high-end desktop PCs, combine two types of processing cores to balance performance and efficiency. 

Intel also announced it's shipping its first Arc discrete graphics chip, an important effort to take on Nvidia and AMD given that GPUs run more and more software. The first to incorporate the Intel Arc graphics chip is the Acer Swift X, but other PC makers shipping it include Lenovo, Dell, HP, Samsung and Alienware. One new Arc feature, HyperEncode, lets video editors use both the discrete Arc chip and the Core's built-in Iris graphics to export video 40% faster than just with the discrete GPU.

We were also treated to a tease of Intel's upcoming KS versions of its desktop processors, which look to be its new flagship, and which Intel says will be able to hit a boost frequency of 5.5GHz, a new high. Those will ship to PC makers by the end of March.

And to help people working on PCs, phones, tablets, smartwatches and other devices, Intel acquired technology called Screenovate to bridge across all those devices. That'll let people answer SMS text messages on their laptops, view smartwatch health data on their phones, see phone photos on their TVs, and otherwise break down cross-device barriers.

The P series fits in a gap that allows Intel to prioritize battery life over performance for laptops that are faster than the ultraportable U series but less power-demanding than H series gaming, which manufacturers had to use previously. It does so by incorporating more low-power E-cores than performance-prioritizing P-cores. In other words, the H series is now for gaming laptops that can handle 45 watts or more power draw; the P series scales from a default draw of 28 watts to boosts up to 64 watts; and the U series, for the thinnest and lightest systems, comes in two flavors, targeted at 9 to 19 watts or 15 to 55 watts.

The Acer Swift X is the first to use Intel's discrete graphics.

Acer

While the hybrid P/E core gives Intel much finer control over performance and battery life, the downside is there are now a lot more combinations possible, currently ranging from 6P/8E for 20 threads in the new i9-12900HK, and down to 2P/4E for 8 threads in the i3-1210U (only P cores support threading). And of course almost every variation has different clock speeds for each type of core, including the iGPU. Intel has also become a lot more transparent on the integrated graphics, publicly stating how many execution units are in each, still ranging from 64 to 96. That's great. And overall, the slate of choices should give manufacturers more granular control over the price of the processor they put in any given system, which hopefully will translate into better prices for us.

But the overabundance of parts is excessive for buyers, even those who care, since it makes it harder to figure out how any given CPU will perform relative to another based on the model. And the total number of cores doesn't mean as much as it used to. I'm not feeling masochistic enough to add a chart of all the offerings, but you can check Intel's details on Alder Lake laptop options if you're curious.

There's also a new naming convention, though it's inconsistently applied across the lines. The P series goes from the i7-1280P (6P/8E/20T) at the top end, down to the i3-1220P (2P/8E/12T) at the low end. Notice the naming difference between those and the H series. I ranted about it the last time Intel treated us to the transition for 10th gen, but as usual got used to it over time. It's now dropping the name change.

The new desktop processors fill in the price and power-requirement gaps for mainstream systems (as opposed to gaming or pro content creation) below the higher-end versions announced late in 2021. They range from the Core i9-12900 (8P/8E/24T) down to the entry i3-12100T (4P/0E/8T). The i3 and i5 desktop processors have no E cores. Plus there are new 600 series chipsets to match. The CPU cooler in the boxed desktop processors has been upgraded as well.

Though not all systems will offer them, all the 12th gen systems support DDR5 (LPDDR5 for laptops) in addition to DDR4/LPDDR4, Thunderbolt 4 and WiFi 6E.

Intel also announced commercial vPro equivalents of the new Alder Lake chips. Here, there are two versions based on whether they support vPro Enterprise or vPro Essentials -- the latter for those who don't have a centralized IT department to manage their laptops.

Along with the new CPUs, Intel expanded its Evo badging program -- its partnership program for indicating flagship light and responsive laptop designs -- with updated requirements. New Evo laptops will use 12th gen processors, Wi-Fi 6E, Intel's Connectivity Performance Suite (which provides wireless prioritization and optimization for better connections) and Intel's AI processing technologies, like its neural-network based audio noise reduction.

A subset will also incorporate Intel Arc discrete graphics and 15-inch or larger "creator-oriented displays." Also, systems with its commercial vPro processors will now be able to earn its own Evo vPro badges. And the company formalized its foldable display specification, which is essentially Evo plus a large, foldable display.

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