
Search results for 'Technology' - Page: 9
| Aardvark - 20 Jan (Aardvark)China is pushing back against US bans on its technology in an interesting way. Read...Newslink ©2025 to Aardvark |  |
|  | | PC World - 19 Jan (PC World)TL;DR: Charge four devices at once with the 100W Omega USB-C GaN Charger on sale for $59.99.
Having a lot of different devices means you also have a lot of different batteries to manage. That’s a lot easier when you can use one charger for all of them.
The Omega 100W GaN Charger is a compact, practical solution for charging multiple devices. It has two USB-C ports and one USB-A port, providing up to 100W of power. That means you can charge a laptop, phone, and tablet at the same time. It’s also on sale for $59.99 (reg. $119).
This charger uses GaN (Gallium Nitride) technology to charge efficiently without overheating, but it’s not one of those huge bricks. The Omega is smaller than a lot of traditional chargers, so you can pop it in your pocket or bag. It’s compatible with global voltages, so you can use it wherever you go, whether at home, in the office, or abroad. The charger uses smart power distribution to make sure that each connected device gets the appropriate charge without overheating or slowing down.
Simplify your charging setup.
Get a 100W Omega USB-C GaN Charger for $59.99.
100W Omega USB-C GaN Charger – $59.99
See Deal
StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | BBCWorld - 19 Jan (BBCWorld)The government says technology should `make people`s lives easier` but any system won`t be mandatory. Read...Newslink ©2025 to BBCWorld |  |
|  | | BBCWorld - 18 Jan (BBCWorld)The two countries sign a 20-year treaty covering areas ranging from defence and technology to energy and trade. Read...Newslink ©2025 to BBCWorld |  |
|  | | PC World - 18 Jan (PC World)“Variable Refresh Rate” (VRR) technology like G-Sync and FreeSync dynamically adjusts the refresh rate of your monitor to the frame rate of the game, but they can sometimes cause undesirable side effects such as flickering. Monitors with VA and OLED panels are particularly affected, although some IPS and TN screens can also fall prey.
Fortunately, there are some methods to fix this problem. The flickering occurs because the frame rate in certain games fluctuates greatly or there are sudden variations in frame time, for example, when compiling shaders or loading new areas in open-world games. VA panels in particular are sensitive to voltage fluctuations caused by changes in the refresh rate, which can exacerbate flickering.
Further reading: Best monitors 2025: Gaming, 4K, HDR, and more
VRR actually ensures smooth playback of games, but can cause unpleasant flickering. Lowering the frame rates often provides a remedy.
MSI
A very simple way to eliminate the flickering is to deactivate VRR. Although this means that you have to fall back on V-Sync (vertical synchronization) and live with tearing effects, it reliably eliminates the flickering. The good news is that you can deactivate VRR for individual games in the GPU settings without switching off the technology for all applications.
Another option is to limit the frame rate in games that are prone to flickering. If you limit the maximum frame rate to a value that your GPU can keep constant, tearing can often be avoided. For games in which flickering is triggered by even the smallest fluctuations in the frame rate, it can help to limit the frame rate to a stable 60 FPS to avoid the problem.
Activating V-Sync prevents the monitor display from flickering. However, you will then also have to accept the possibility of tearing.
IDG
If the flickering is less noticeable at higher frame rates, it can also be helpful to adjust the graphics settings so that your graphics card can constantly maintain a high frame rate above 75 FPS. At particularly high frame rates, around 100 FPS and above, you should no longer notice the VRR flickering.
If these methods are unsuccessful and you continue to suffer from the flickering, the last and most radical option is to change the monitor. If you have a display with a VA panel in particular, you can benefit from upgrading to an IPS panel, as this type of panel is rarely affected by VRR flickering. If you’re using an OLED monitor, a downgrade could be a solution, as these screens are particularly susceptible to flickering.
However, before you consider a new purchase, you should try out the other approaches. In many cases, minor adjustments to the settings can make a big difference and significantly reduce or even completely eliminate flickering. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 18 Jan (PC World)You would think that Arm, which arguably has been the vanguard in the smartphone and PC industry push for improved power efficiency, would double down on that strategy in its plans for 2025. Actually, it’s sort of the opposite.
PCWorld sat down at CES 2025 with Chris Bergey, senior vice president and general manager for Arm’s client line of business. Bergey is responsible for both the smartphone as well as the laptop and tablet business, where Arm’s designs are licensed by companies like Qualcomm and Apple, who tweak and eventually manufacture them as finished goods.
Arm provides multiple types of licenses, but the two most common types are a core license, where a customer will buy a verified core that includes an Arm Cortex CPU, Mali GPU, or other intellectual property. Arm also sells architectural licenses to companies like Apple, which gives them the freedom to design their own cores from scratch, though they must be fully compatible with the Arm architecture.
Arm’s RISC architecture is generally considered to be more power-efficient than the X86 architecture used by AMD and Intel, though it requires either that applications be natively coded for it or for an emulator like Microsoft’s Prism to step in and interpret the code for an X86 chip to understand. While the Arm chips are often more efficient — in terms of the work done per clock cycle (instructions per clock, or IPC) or per watt — they still can lag in overall performance. One exception has been Apple’s custom M4 chip, where its single-threaded performance is seen as especially competitive.
In 2025, the plan is to improve Arm’s own cores, Bergey said. And the first goal is simply to run them faster.
“We think that we are reaching, we’ve reached kind of IPC leadership, and now people are getting very aggressive on frequency, so we’re going to continue to really push there,” Bergey said.
“We’re leading on IPC on some of the products in the market,” Bergey said. “But we’re clocking at a lower frequency than some of those products. And so what I’m just suggesting is — you know, IPC times frequency, right, gets you to [higher] performance. We want to continue to provide the highest performance Arm cores, so we’ll continue to make those investments.”
Bergey said that Arm’s second priority is to accelerate AI workloads on its own designs, specifically on the CPU and GPU. On the CPU, that entails specific instruction capabilities that Arm is adding to the CPUs, progressing past Neon, its Scalable Vector Extensions (SVE), and 2021’s SVE2. These additional extensions will build off of SVE2 to accelerate some of these AI workloads, Bergey said.
Arm also plans to make additional investments in its GPU business — and, like its more established competitors in the PC space, to use AI to improve graphics. “In a mobile handset, you can render at 1080p, 60Hz right? But you could also render at 540p, 30Hz, and use AI to interpolate.”
That sort of approach should be very familiar to PC users who have bought graphics cards from AMD or Nvidia, and who will end up using technologies like DLSS 4’s neural rendering to ease the burden on a discrete GPU. In Arm’s case, using AI to interpolate or render an image is simply more power-efficient than directly rendering the image, Bergey said.
“We’re going to be a leader in trying to bring total processing to the GPUs in a mobile environment,” Bergey said.
Expect to see that as part of what Arm calls the Arm CSS for Client, its next-gen Arm compute platform.
“Basically, we’re making it easier for people to put the technology together, and do so to maximize the performance,” Bergey said. “So if you need to maximize that frequency and get to a four-gigahertz design, we’re going to be able to provide you that recipe for some of the latest [manufacturing] nodes.”
Arm’s litigation: It ain’t over ’til it’s over
Arm normally enjoys solid relationships with its licensing partners — save for Qualcomm, and an ongoing lawsuit that has simmered since 2022. Last October, that suit boiled over after Arm cancelled Qualcomm’s architectural licensing agreement. But when the suit reached court, a district judge found in favor of Qualcomm in two of the three issues, including that Qualcomm proved that the CPUs acquired via Nuvia are covered by its architectural license, and that Qualcomm did not breach the terms of the Nuvia license it acquired.
However, the jury could not come to a conclusion over whether Nuvia itself had breached the terms of its architectural license. According to Bergey, this leaves the case between the two companies “unresolved.” “It’s still an open issue that needs to be resolved between the two parties,” he said. He declined to comment further.
Qualcomm, for its part, was undeterred. “We’ve made a public statement that we are happy with the outcome of the case, and [the court] upheld that we have the right to innovate and to the technology that we are bringing, the disruption that we are creating in the marketplace,” said Nitin Kumar, senior director of product management, at CES last week. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | ITBrief - 17 Jan (ITBrief) The Wireless Broadband Alliance has unveiled a report advocating for enhanced collaboration among industry players to realise the full potential of 6G technology. Read...Newslink ©2025 to ITBrief |  |
|  | | PC World - 17 Jan (PC World)Matter may be the big new thing in the smart home arena, but the old Zigbee protocol still has some tricks up its sleeves, and this one’s pretty cool: The ability to transform Zigbee devices, such as Philips Hue lights, into motion sensors.
It’s called Ambient Sensing and apparently it works with a simple firmware upgrade and without additional hardware. Even better, all the motion sensing happens locally, no cloud required.
The news was teased Wednesday in a YouTube video posted by the Connectivity Standards Alliance, the group that’s behind both the Zigbee and Matter protocols.
Ambient Sensing works with both new and existing Zigbee devices, according to the video, which demonstrates how Zigbee mesh networks can be divvied up into “precise” motion-sensing zones within your home such as in your living room, entry hall, or garage.
When those motion zones detect activity, they could trigger automations that turn nearby lights on, fire off security alerts, or perform other tasks.
The CSA video is light on details, but it does note that Ambient Sensing can be enabled with an over-the-air update, and without the need for additional hardware.
So, when will these Ambient Sensing updates be available? That’s not immediately clear, but given that the CSA is a standards group, we’ll probably have to wait for Zigbee device manufacturers to implement the feature in their hardware.
Of course, one Zigbee device maker that jumps to mind is Philips Hue, which has long employed the Zigbee protocol in its smart lights. (Indeed, anyone using Hue lights with the Hue Bridge is sure to have multiple Zigbee mesh networks present in their home.)
We don’t yet know whether Hue is looking at Ambient Sensing specifically, but as Hueblog points out, there’s long been chatter that Hue is interested in turning its lights into motion sensors. (We’ve reached out to both Philips Hue and the CSA for comment.)
That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Wiz, Hue’s sibling brand (both companies are owned by the same parent, Signify) already offers a similar motion-sensing technology for its lights.
Unlike Ambient Sensing, Wiz’s SmartSense tech leverages Wi-Fi signals rather than Zigbee, but both appear to employ the same basic technique: detecting motion by sensing disturbances within wireless networks.
If Hue does adopt Ambient Sensing, the benefits would be immediate: You could easily set up motion zones that would turn your Hue lights on and off as people enter or leave a room, all without needing to install a separate motion sensor.
Even better, your Ambient Sensing-enabled Hue lights would be able to trigger security alerts when they detect motion where there shouldn’t be any. (Philips Hue does make traditional motion sensors, and its Hue Secure cameras can detect motion.)
Given Hue’s recent foray into home security, Ambient Sensing seems like a perfect fit for the brand. Will it actually happen? We’ll have to wait and see. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 17 Jan (PC World)At a glanceExpert`s Rating
Pros
Unique decentralized Mixnet provides superior anonymity
Open source
Privacy-first approach
Cons
Still in beta
Lacks some common VPN features
Limited server network
Future cryptocurrency payment model not accessible to everyone
Our Verdict
NymVPN is a really interesting, if somewhat incomplete, service built on decentralized blockchain technology. There are potentially huge privacy upsides with its Mixnet connections, but the beta version still has some bugs to work out and essential features to be added before I’d recommend it to anyone.
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NymVPN is a brand new service out to shake up the whole VPN market. It’s an ambitious project that uses blockchain technology to decentralize control of user privacy, taking it out of the hands of a central VPN provider and into those of individual users.
Through the use of a decentralized Mixnet, traffic is routed through distributed nodes instead of just one encrypted tunnel in order to further obfuscate a user’s identity.
NymVPN’s decentralized approach to privacy is set to make big waves in the VPN industry. That being said, it’s still in beta at the moment. This means there are kinks to work out and features yet to come. I took the pioneering service for a test drive to see what it’s all about and how its feature set, speeds, and privacy match up in the more traditional VPN market.
NymVPN in brief:
P2P allowed: Yes
Simultaneous device connections: 10
Business location: Switzerland
Number of servers: 700+ “mixnodes”
Number of country locations: 34
Cost: Currently free during beta
Further reading: See our roundup of the best VPN services to learn about competing products.
What are NymVPN’s features & services?
Sam Singleton
Since NymVPN is still in beta, it hasn’t yet released its full set of features. At the moment the VPN Windows app offers little more than a server list, choice between a Mixnet or WireGuard connection, and a “Connect” button. Under the sparsely populated “Settings” menu there are a few cosmetic options and an area to provide feedback on the beta client.
When discussing NymVPN’s feature set I can only really talk about what’s in store for the future full release. So, what will NymVPN have coming?
Obligatory VPN features such as a kill switch and split tunneling are on the way, which will undoubtedly help the service compete against rivals. There are currently no plans for ad- and tracker-blocking, nor are there many other security extras on the horizon.
NymVPN is also planning to offer some more unique privacy solutions in the near future. These include zero-knowledge proof access to allow you to access the network with total anonymity, as well as post-quantum cryptography and censorship-resistance features.
NymVPN is pretty bare-bones right now with very little in the way of extra features or settings.Sam Singleton
NymVPN’s sole focus seems to be its biggest selling point, the Mixnet. Unlike a traditional VPN which encrypts and routes your data through a single VPN server, NymVPN instead splits up your data, encrypts it, and then sends it through a multi-layered network. Your data is then mixed with the traffic of other users to anonymize it as it moves through the Mixnet before being rebuilt and decrypted at the endpoint.
It’s a similar concept to how Tor anonymizes user traffic, but with the added benefit of built-in cover traffic and timing obfuscation so that even if someone were monitoring the entry and exit nodes they wouldn’t be able to discern one user’s traffic patterns from another.
All of this will be run by volunteer node operators who, through Nym’s cryptocurrency system will be rewarded with Nym tokens for providing high-quality networking performance. Thus, the system is theoretically self-incentivizing—better operators means better anonymity for users means more rewards for the operators, and the cycle continues.
Technical know-how aside, NymVPN has a few more things going for it. Not only does it allow privacy-first users to take advantage of the Mixnet for total anonymity, it also allows for more traditional two-hop WireGuard connections in case you need faster connections as well.
The app itself is extremely easy to use. Switching entry and exit locations is dead simple and even toggling between “Anonymous (mixnet)” mode and “Fast (WireGuard)” mode is straightforward enough.
NymVPN supports Windows, macOS, Android, and Linux platforms.
NymVPN rewards its volunteer node operators with cryptocurrency tokens in a theoretically self-incentivizing system.
How much does NymVPN cost?
Currently, NymVPN is free during its beta access. All you have to do is sign up on NymVPN’s website, create an account, and download the app.
After the official launch of the service though, NymVPN will move into a crypto-based payment system using the Nym blockchain. You’ll then be able to pay for the service using various popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In order to maintain total anonymity, users will be required to convert their cryptocurrencies to Nym tokens, which will then be used to fund a VPN connection. Essentially, a user will purchase a subscription (e.g., one month, a year, or two years) and pay using whatever method they wish such as a credit card, PayPal, crypto, etc.
NymVPN will then issue what it calls zk-nyms, or zero-knowledge Nym credentials. These zk-nyms act as ticketbooks representing purchased bandwidth access on the Nym network. This process delinks a user’s payment details from their network access credentials. The user can then use the zk-nyms to gain anonymous access to the NymVPN network.
NymVPN’s token flow for both user payments and node operator rewards.
NymVPN
In theory, all of this sounds appealing. The issue is that proprietary tokens such as those issued by Nym have a tendency to fluctuate in value, sometimes wildly so. If the value of the token becomes worthless, then server operators won’t be incentivized to keep supporting the network. The token economy surrounding Nym isn’t likely to succumb to the same scenario, but only time will tell how well the monetization system works.
How is NymVPN’s performance?
In order to test NymVPN’s speeds I rated connection speeds across its servers in six different countries all around the world for multiple days and then compared them to my baseline internet speeds. I conducted these tests for both the “Anonymous (mixnet)” mode and the “Fast (WireGuard)” mode.
The results for the Anonymous (mixnet) connections were, let’s just say, disappointing. Almost half of the time my connection was so slow that the speed tests couldn’t register anything or my internet simply wouldn’t work at all. The rest of the time my connection speeds were less than 1Mbps—making it practically unusable.
It’s safe to say that as of right now, while still in beta, the mixnet is not a viable everyday option. I don’t doubt that once perfected, you’ll experience unparalleled privacy and anonymity, but there are still major kinks yet to be worked out.
Fortunately, the WireGuard connections were better, but still won’t win any races. Across all locations tested, the speeds averaged just under 15 percent of the base download speed and 21 percent of the base upload speed. Those might not sound good, and on their own they’re not, but relatively speaking these aren’t terrible.
This is because even with the faster WireGuard mode, NymVPN still uses a built-in multi-hop for all connections. This means that your connection will be routed through two encrypted servers rather than the standard single server that most other VPN connections use. As such, you’re just about guaranteed to see slower average speeds due to the longer routing and extra server hop. I reckon that if you were to test average multi-hop speeds on all other VPNs you might find that speeds are similar to NymVPN’s two-hop WireGuard connections.
When it comes to streaming unblocking, NymVPN probably isn’t your best bet here either. Disregarding the fact that the Anonymous (mixnet) connections have trouble even loading webpages, I found the WireGuard mode hit-or-miss with streaming as well.
While connected via the WireGuard mode, I was able to access Netflix and Amazon Prime in the U.S., but struggled with other countries. Disney Plus and HBO Max were blocked on every connection I tested.
Theoretically, the Anonymous mode should work about as well as the WireGuard mode as the endpoint servers will be the same. But until the speeds become much faster and more reliable, I just can’t recommend NymVPN as a good streaming VPN.
This shouldn’t be taken as too much of a hit against the service though, as it doesn’t advertise itself as a streaming VPN nor do I suspect that many users interested in the NymVPN model will use it to stream anyways—it knows its lane.
How is NymVPN’s security and privacy?
Privacy is where NymVPN really shines. As I mentioned previously, NymVPN uses a multi-node mixnet that splits up your data, sending each part through different nodes that individually encrypt the data before sending it on and repackaging it at the endpoint. Additionally, fake cover traffic and timing-delay methods are thrown in to further obfuscate the origin of the data when it reaches the exit point.
NymVPN’s mixnet vs. traditional VPNs and Tor.
NymVPN
NymVPN backs this up by using multiple encryption methods such as AES-256, ChaChaPo-ly, and Lioness. Due to the nature of the mixnet mode, there is no need for access to different protocols like a traditional VPN. However, under the “Fast” two-hop mode you’ll have access to the WireGuard protocol, but no others. WireGuard is generally considered to be one of the best protocols available so this isn’t too much of an issue.
NymVPN is owned by Nym Technologies SA, and is based out of Switzerland. This is another huge privacy boon as Switzerland has strong data privacy laws and is not a member of any intelligence sharing alliances such as 5, 9, or 14 Eyes.
NymVPN does collect some user data though. Per its privacy policy this includes browser type and version used, timestamps, duration of sessions, and device model. It claims that all of this data is used to run and optimize the website and improve Nym products.
Because of the nature of NymVPN’s unique, zero-knowledge mixnet, it says that there is no need for a “No logs” promise. The company justifies this claim by saying that at “no single point in the Nym mixnet can there be a way to connect the origin and destination for a user’s traffic.” This may be true in theory, but until NymVPN undergoes a proper independent audit we’ll just have to take its word for it.
Is NymVPN worth it?
NymVPN is a fascinating attempt at a large-scale decentralized VPN service and it definitely shows promise. With a privacy-first model and blockchain foundation, the VPN has the bones to be something really revolutionary. Beyond the fact that the beta version has some bugs, the biggest issue is that the market just may not be ready for these kinds of changes.
The mixnet is an exciting concept that unfortunately works better in theory right now than reality. The crypto-based payments seems to be a perfect pairing for a VPN where users demand total anonymity, but a token system is likely too niche for the mass market.
Overall, NymVPN is one to watch for the future. For now, you’re probably better off sticking with a traditional VPN provider for your day-to-day privacy needs.
Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
|  | | PC World - 17 Jan (PC World)More than a year has passed since Asus’ acquisition of the NUC brand from Intel, which marked the first major change the brand had seen since Intel launched it back in 2013.
After more than a decade of continuity — including last year’s transition year where Intel still had a say on design — this will be the real first year in which Asus has done most of the groundwork, fronting up with its own designs and innovations. So how is the NUC different now in this new era? I spoke to Kuo Wei Chao, general manager of Asus IoT business unit, to find out.
The new Asus NUC models and 2025 focus
The Asus NUC lineup announced at CES 2025 in Las Vegas included the NUC 14 AI and the more premium NUC 14 Pro AI+ with 48 TOPS NPU AI power and a dedicated Copilot+ button for quick access to the AI assistant. They were on display alongside two new powerful mini-PCs for everyday use featuring the latest Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) chips: the NUC 15 and NUC 15 Pro+.
A fourth model, the NUC 14 Essential is the efficiency workhorse, designed to provide maximum performance while sipping tiny amounts of power. Last but certainly not least, Asus’ ROG NUC makes a comeback with the most powerful CPU and GPU combination we’ve seen to date.
Chao said Asus’ focus for its second year of NUC is threefold. Like other PCs at CES 2025, the addition of AI hardware is a big change allowing users a high degree of AI task mobility. Asus is also keen to communicate its commitment to “improving performance while keeping NUC sizes as small as possible.”
The third focus reeks of Asus’ company ethos and is arguably the reason why it has been so successful with product lines like the Asus ROG gaming laptops. Chao said there has been a concerted effort to “incorporate a lot of user feedback in the NUC range.” In other words, it has added features and design elements that specifically tailor the NUC experience to what consumers want.
But what does all that product talk actually mean? I picked one model, the 2025 ROG NUC to find out!
The Asus NUC 14 Essential
Asus
The 2025 Asus ROG NUC leads the charge
The Asus ROG NUC is perhaps the most impressive of the 2025 NUCs, and the best example of those Asus changes to the NUC brand in action.
Here Asus has not only increased the performance power on offer by bumping the ROG NUC’s CPU and GPU up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 mobile CPU and mobile Blackwell variant of the Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU, respectively — both titans of Intel and Nvidia’s 2025 performance offerings — but it has also made cooling, upgradability, and connectivity priorities in 2025.
Asus didn’t reveal what model of the Intel Core Ultra 9 (Series 2) chip it has used in the 2025 ROG NUC at CES, but based on the turbo clock speed of 5.5GHz in the specs sheet, I surmise that it can only be Intel’s flagship Arrow Lake mobile CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX.
No other mini gaming PC announced at CES is as stacked for performance, upgradable, overclockable, and yet so portable.
The 2025 Asus ROG NUC.
Asus
It goes without saying that’s one heck of a chip. It puts 24 cores of raw processing power at your disposal, including 36 TOPS of AI power to capitalize on innovations in AI.
Personally, I’m not sure what 5.5GHz looks like in a game, let alone the kind of performance I’d get when that’s paired with 16GB of fast DDR5-6400 memory and the 7,680 CUDA cores in the RTX 5080. But I’m really excited to find out.
The RTX 5080 GPU in particular is a great choice in hardware. It means the 2025 ROG NUC’s GPU will be fully compatible with Nvidia’s new DLSS 4 AI technology so it can access a full suite of features including Nvidia’s Multi Frame Generation, which older Nvidia RTX GPUs cannot.
More changes including overclocking
Another cherry on top of the cake with this year’s ROG NUC is, wait for it… overclocking! Yep, the bump up from an Intel H series chip in 2024 to an Intel mobile HX Series Arrow Lake chip in 2025 gives gamers more control over their NUC’s maximum CPU speed, for the first time.
Overclocking is accomplished in Asus’ Armory Crate software, where gamers can also control their fan speed settings.
Among the other cascade of changes is a “more comprehensive cooling system,” Chao explained. “It comprises an integrated triple-fan design with twin vapor chambers that not only provides enhanced cooling but also makes the 2025 ROG quieter than its 2024 counterpart,” he said. It works in conjunction with a perforated chassis that provides more airflow than before, too.
Asus’ NUC mini-PC lineup. The Asus ROG NUC is shown top left.
Asus
A new chassis size measuring 11.1 x 7.4 x 2.2 inches does make this year’s model slightly larger (3 liters versus 2.5 liters in volume), but the larger size provides users with “more capacity to upgrade,” Chao promised.
“We upgraded the CPU to support a higher TDP and reserved some buffers because we know that many gamers want to overclock and increase performance. So, gamers who want to upgrade, it will be easier to do that,” he said.
In regard to that upgradability, the 16GB starter RAM can be expanded to a whopping 96GB. Swapping out RAM is also made easier by a new single-screw design that allows gamers to access the internal components in seconds.
Connectivity options galore
The ROG NUC also hits the right note with connectivity. In fact, the I/O lists off like a fine wine menu, including no less than 6x USB-A 3.2 ports, 2x HDMI 2.1 FRL ports, and 2x DisplayPort 2.1 ports. It also has a Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen2 port, a 3.5mm combo jack, and a 2.5Gb Ethernet port. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 make up the wireless connectivity.
The choice of Thunderbolt 4 port instead of the newer Thunderbolt 5 is an interesting choice considering that Asus’ own 2025 XG Mobile eGPU uses the latter this year. On that point Chao said:
“We listened and had many discussions with gamers. I think that Thunderbolt 5 would be very important in the long term. But I think right now, from an ecosystem perspective, it’s not so complete and in its infancy. So, we focused on what the majority want and the best choice for gamers in 2025 — that’s Thunderbolt 4.”
On top of all that, Asus’ ROG branding brings the device in line with Asus’ ROG portfolio aesthetically.
If you’re thinking Asus just won over a whole lot of gamers this year, you may be right. No other mini gaming PC announced at CES is as upgradable, overclockable, stacked for performance, and yet so portable. Let’s hope it lives up to expectations. Read...Newslink ©2025 to PC World |  |
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