Search results for '@C +!I' - Page: 8
| ITBrief - 27 Jun (ITBrief)MIT`s Center for Transportation and Logistics launches the Intelligent Logistics Systems Lab to advance data-driven technologies in collaboration with Mecalux. Read...Newslink ©2024 to ITBrief | |
| | | Ars Technica - 27 Jun (Ars Technica)AI-generated commercials are here, and critics are displeased—but human work is still key. Read...Newslink ©2024 to Ars Technica | |
| | | PC World - 27 Jun (PC World)Wish you could see who’s outside your door from anywhere? Like, even if you weren’t home? Then you need a video doorbell.
The Ring Video Doorbell is down to $50 right now—half off its usual price in this early Prime Day deal—and this popular video doorbell is an excellent way to get that peace of mind. It’s a fantastic opportunity if you’re a Prime member in need of one!
As Prime Day approaches fast, Amazon’s own products are bound to be the first to get their prices slashed, and we’re happy to see this Ring doorbell on the list of early winners.
The Ring Video Doorbell features 1080p HD video with two-way audio so you can see, hear, and speak to anyone who’s at your door directly from your own phone, tablet, or PC. Whether you’re at home or not, you’ll have a way to check in with whoever comes knocking.
This version of the Ring Video Doorbell includes improved motion detection, privacy zones, and better night vision, so you can review your home’s surroundings in the same detail as you see during the day.
You’ll also get mobile notifications whenever someone rings the doorbell and/or triggers the motion sensors.
However, you’ll need a separate Ring Protect Plan subscription if you want recorded videos (which keep as far back as 180 days) that you can review whenever you like. This plan also unlocks Alexa voice announcements on connected Echo and Fire devices.
Now’s the best time to upgrade your doorbell because you won’t always be able to get the Ring Video Doorbell for only $50. Not a Prime member? Start a free 30-day trial! With Prime Day coming up soon, you’ll be able to score all kinds of deals with it.
The Ring Video Doorbell is slashed down to $50Get it at Amazon right now
Smart Home Read...Newslink ©2024 to PC World | |
| | | PC World - 27 Jun (PC World)Smart home assistants are fun and they aren’t just for adults. Kids can have just as much—if not more—fun talking to Alexa and doing all sorts of cool stuff around the house. But what if you don’t want your kids to have full rein over Alexa’s capabilities?
That’s where the Echo Dot Kids comes into play—and right now the Echo Dot Kids is down to its best price of $28 for Prime members as an early Prime Day deal. More than half off, this awesome deal is just a foretaste of what you can expect in the upcoming Prime Day sale.
The Echo Dot Kids features a solid speaker that delivers clear vocals and rich, vibrant sound. It comes with a cute owl or dragon design that makes the famous Echo Dot look even more adorable.
The key here is that the Echo Dot Kids is specifically designed for children, making it a safe way for them to interact with smart home technology. Kids can ask Alexa to play music, read bedtime stories, get homework help, and more. You can connect various services for them, including Spotify and Amazon Music.
One of the coolest perks when getting the Echo Dot Kids is free access to Amazon Kids+ for a whole year. Amazon Kids+ is a digital service for kids ages 3 to 12, granting access to all kinds of age-appropriate books, games, and educational Alexa skills.
With the Echo Dot Kids, Alexa is already pre-programmed to provide kid-friendly responses and filter out explicit content, but you can also set daily time limits and review device activity in the Amazon Parent Dashboard.
Oh, and if your kid somehow breaks it, Amazon will replace it for free thanks to the 2-year worry-free guarantee.
Don’t miss this chance to get the Echo Dot Kids for $28, a hot deal that won’t last. Since this is a Prime deal, you’ll need a Prime membership, which you can try free for 30 days. After that, it’s $15 per month and you get tons of benefits, including one-day delivery.
Amazon`s Echo Dot Kids is on sale for $28Get it at Amazon now
Amazon Echo Read...Newslink ©2024 to PC World | |
| | | PC World - 27 Jun (PC World)Recently Apple reversed a long-standing policy that disallowed retro game emulator apps, so now gamers have access to decades of classic ROMs on the iPhone and iPad without work-arounds. But it appears that tolerance does not extend to emulating classic PC platforms, for games or any other purpose. Developers of DOS and early x32 emulators have been shown the door on the App Store.
According to a report from The Verge, Apple told developers that retro PC emulators run afoul of the App Store’s App Review Guidelines, section 4.7. These are the same rules that have proven so problematic for services that stream games from external servers. Though it now explicitly allows “game emulators” and “retro game console emulator apps,” that privilege apparently does not extend to apps that emulate more utilitarian software like DOS and Windows.
The developers of iDOS 3 and the UTM SE virtual machine both had their app submissions rejected, and social media posts indicate that Apple took exception to the programs specifically because they weren’t “emulators of retro game consoles.” The fact that both of these programs can and often are used to play PC games over 30 years old doesn’t seem to enter into the equation.
Apple was characteristically unhelpful in nailing down the guidelines. Would a Commodore 64 count as a console or a PC? Apparently the former, since C64 emulators are available on the App Store right now, despite the fact that the device was sold as a personal computer and could run a wide variety of productivity programs. As usual, developers are at Apple’s mercy when it interprets its own rules, and won’t find out that their app is in violation of those rules until it’s rejected.
It’s worth pointing out that Google’s Play Store for Android phones and tablets allows more or less any emulation app for any platform, so long as they don’t actually contain copyrighted content in the form of system files or ROMs. Apple seems to have changed its position earlier this year, around the same time that European Union legislators forced the company to allow third-party app stores on iOS, something already possible on Android. Users in the EU may be able to run PC emulators on the iPhone and iOS when this functionality becomes available, albeit without the ease of access granted by the App Store walled garden.
iPad, iPhone Read...Newslink ©2024 to PC World | |
| | | PC World - 27 Jun (PC World)It seems like the cryptocurrency boom has created a never-ending well of hucksters looking to steal your money. It’s scams all the way down.
According to a recent alert from the FBI, a new breed of scam is specifically targeting people who’ve already been scammed, posing as law firms that specialize in recovering funds lost to crypto schemes.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s public service announcement (spotted by BleepingComputer) says that fraudsters will reach out to people who have already been victims of cryptocurrency scams via social media. They’ll pose as a lawyer or a law firm that specializes in recovering assets stolen via crypto scams, sometimes even claiming that they work with the FBI or the separate Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Targeting people who’ve already fallen for a crypto scam seems incredibly scummy… but it makes sense in purely mercantile terms. Such victims have already shown that they’re susceptible to social engineering.
The scammers, who may or may not be the same people who ran the original scam, will claim that they’re actively seeking judgment against the original criminals. That’s the bait. The hook is personal banking information, a straight payment for “services,” or more complicated ruses involving fees or “back taxes.” Once they have enough info to steal your identity or just get paid, they vanish.
The FBI report says that this secondary round of scamming is on the rise, with an estimated $9 million stolen from victims between February 2023 and 2024. That’s a drop in the bucket of the larger cryptocurrency scam cottage industry, where pump-and-dump “rug pulls” and phishing scams to drain crypto wallets are now the norm. But it seems especially despicable to steal from people who’ve already been scammed.
Law enforcement can, on rare occasions, track and recover cryptocurrency to reimburse victims. And it’s certainly possible to pursue legal action against someone who’s scammed you, which means lawyers will be involved at some point. But they don’t typically reach out to victims on social media.
The sad truth is that most people who’ve been victimized by cryptocurrency scams either don’t know the real identities of their scammers or have no real legal recourse against them.
Security Software and Services Read...Newslink ©2024 to PC World | |
| | | PC World - 27 Jun (PC World)On June 25th, Microsoft released KB5039302 for Windows 11, a patch that brings a few small improvements for users, which are fully described in the official changelog.
This patch distinguishes between changes that Microsoft is gradually rolling out to users and improvements that the software company is rolling out to everyone in one fell swoop.
The gradual rollout changes
First up, this update adds a new “Game Pass” recommendation card to the Settings home page. The change affects both Home and Pro editions of Windows 11, but is usually only displayed if you’re logged in with your Microsoft account and actively playing.
get windows 11 pro for cheap
Windows 11 Pro
Emoji 15.1 support is also a new addition. Windows now supports the Unicode symbol-like shapes for various family constellations, plus several brand-new emojis (namely horizontal and vertical head shaking, phoenix, lime, brown mushroom, and a broken chain).
The “Show desktop” button is also back in the taskbar by default. To change this, right-click on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings to adjust the taskbar behavior.
This patch also incorporates some minor changes to File Explorer. Microsoft writes the following:
You can now create 7-Zip and Tape Archive (TAR) files via the context menu. If you right-click on a file, you can use the Compress to file option to compress it using tools such as gzip, bzip2, and others.
There is also a new compression wizard in the additional options. It helps you to select additional formats and add details. You can use different compression types to add many files to archives in other TAR formats. You can also change the compression level and select the data types to be stored in each archive.
It’s now also possible to copy files from the Windows Share window. Simply click on the new Copy button.
This update also marks the start of the rollout of the new Account Manager in the Start menu. When you sign in to Windows with a Microsoft account, you’ll see an overview of your account benefits. This feature also allows you to easily manage your account settings.
The immediate rollout changes
In contrast to the previous changes, there are a few minor changes that are rolling out right away to everyone who installs the update.
Among other things, Microsoft is fixing a problem with the Snipping Tool, which only recorded distorted sound while recording video. Other bug fixes concern the safe ejection of USB devices.
To install this Windows 11 update, you can select “Check for updates” on your PC or contact the usual Microsoft sharing channels.
Windows Read...Newslink ©2024 to PC World | |
| | | PC World - 27 Jun (PC World)At a glanceExpert`s Rating
ProsFile, image, continuous, and cloud backupStraightforward interfaceSupports network locations and optical discSoftware is reasonably pricedConsNumerous visual glitchesSuper pricey online storageSlow enumeration of file listsImaging function disabled when accessing the host PC from a Microsoft Remote Desktop connectionOur VerdictNTI Backup Pro 7 offers a lot of backup functionality, including file/folder, image, continuous, and cloud backup; network; and even optical disc support. But I found numerous annoying glitches and the cloud storage is pricey.
Best Prices Today: NTI Backup Pro 7
Retailer
Price
NTI
$39.99
View Deal
Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide
Product
Price
Price comparison from Backmarket
NTI Backup Pro 7 is what one might refer to as the whole enchilada. It offers file backup, imaging/drive backup, continuous backup as well online backup to NTI Cloud (powered by Microsoft Azure). It backs up to and from networks, and is one of the rare backup programs that supports optical discs.
I was psyched at the feature list and assumed that in the 10 years since I last visited NTI’s flagship backup program, it would be finely honed and bullet-proof. In the end, everything worked as advertised, but there were glitches of various types.
Further reading: See our roundup of the best backup software to learn about competing products.
What are NTI Backup Pro 7’s features?
As I mentioned, NTI Backup Now Pro 7 offers file and folder backup, drive and partition image backup, continuous backup, and cloud backup. Continuous backup is file and folder backup where changes are backed up as they occur. Cloud backup is also file and folder backup, but to NTI’s online storage.
The plain file/folder, image, and online backups are stored in proprietary container files (single large files with all the data contained inside), while the continuous backup is a browsable plain file backup. i.e., files are copied as you would using Windows Explorer. Older revisions of files are kept in a separate folder.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7’s wizard-like interface handily steps you through the process of creating a backup job.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7’s wizard-like interface handily steps you through the process of creating a backup job.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7’s wizard-like interface handily steps you through the process of creating a backup job.
The Backup Now Pro 7 interface is very straightforward, though unlike the EZ version, there’s no hand-holding when it comes to selecting data to back up. No biggie, but it could be just a tad friendlier.
The just-mentioned NTI EZ Backup Now 7.5 (which is $10 less per license) has a slightly more intuitive workflow, though the interface is not one of the prettiest. It lacks the Pro version’s continuous backup, but is otherwise roughly feature equivalent.
NTI EZ Backup Now 7.5 is a bit friendlier than the Pro version, and didn’t have the imaging issues we had with Pro.
NTI EZ Backup Now 7.5 is a bit friendlier than the Pro version, and didn’t have the imaging issues we had with Pro.
NTI EZ Backup Now 7.5 is a bit friendlier than the Pro version, and didn’t have the imaging issues we had with Pro.
Back to Pro… There’s granular scheduling (in addition to the continuous, of course) available, as well incremental backups to save space, and automatic maintenance of destination storage by purging older files when necessary. Encryption and password protection are also provided.
An NTI Backup Now Pro 7 feature that I absolutely love is the ability to choose multiple local destinations (a secondary internal drive plus external drive, etc.) for a backup job. It would be nice if you could combine local with network locations and the NTI Cloud, but hey, it’s a start
And yes, the program will back up both to and from network locations. As well as to FTP. And, as mentioned up top, Backup Now Pro 7 even supports optical discs.
How much does NTI Backup Pro 7 cost?
At the time of this writing NTI Backup Now Pro 7 was on sale for $40, down from the normal $60 retail price. The EZ version without the continuous backup was $30, $20 off of full list. The continuous backup-only NTI Shadow program is also $30 on sale.
An NTI Backup Now Pro 7 feature that I absolutely love is the ability to choose multiple local destinations (a secondary internal drive plus external drive, etc.) for a backup job.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7 offers a variety of scheduling features as well as incremental backup.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7 offers a variety of scheduling features as well as incremental backup.
NTI Backup Now Pro 7 offers a variety of scheduling features as well as incremental backup.
NTI Cloud (required for cloud backup) is free for one-month of 16GB, $5 a month for 32GB, $10 monthly for 64GB, $20 a month for 128GB, $40 per month for 256GB, $100 a month for 640GB, and $200 a month for 2TB. My OneDrive subscription is $70 per year for 1TB and includes Office 365.
The math is rather obvious, but OneDrive is less than anything but NTI’s 16GB plan. Google Drive offers 15GB for free. Spelling it out, the NTI Cloud is very pricey and as it’s the only online storage supported, that feature is considerably less attractive than it might be.
Note that you can use just about any backup program with nearly any online storage service by employing a cloud storage manager.
How well does NTI Backup Pro 7 perform?
I ran into issues with NTI Backup Pro 7 right off the bat, with the interface scaling incorrectly on my 4K display. It took a trip to the program file’s Properties/Compatibility/Change DPI settings to select “Program DPI” before the text and icons were large enough that I could use the program. There was more visual sloppiness in spots, which always gives me pause when it comes to software.
I had to set Backup Now 7 to use its own DPI to get rid of tiny text and icons.
I had to set Backup Now 7 to use its own DPI to get rid of tiny text and icons.
I had to set Backup Now 7 to use its own DPI to get rid of tiny text and icons.
The program was also slothful at presenting files and folders. Seemingly, it doesn’t query the file system pre-emptively as is common practice. While all these idiosyncrasies may seem picayune, they add up, and do nothing to reassure me that the actual backup functionality will be bullet proof. As it turned out…
While file/folder and continuous backups to local media went off without unusual glitches, imaging proved an issue — as it turns out, because we remote control the test beds using Microsoft Remote Desktop. Backup Now Pro 7 didn’t like this, cancelling every image job before it was five seconds old.
After over a week of back and forth, and hours of troubleshooting, NTI explained this as a security “feature.” However, the logic behind it escapes me, and it’s hard to consider it a feature when no other program exhibits the same behavior. R-Drive Image, Acronis Cyber Security Home Office, Aomei Backupper, Macrium Reflect Home all backed up without a fuss.
NTI Backup Pro 7 will not work if you’re controlling the PC its installed on via Microsoft Remote Desktop.
NTI Backup Pro 7 will not work if you’re controlling the PC its installed on via Microsoft Remote Desktop.
NTI Backup Pro 7 will not work if you’re controlling the PC its installed on via Microsoft Remote Desktop.
I checked NTI’s EZ Backup Now 7.5 (see above) to see if it suffered the same ‘feature,” and while it failed initially, on the the second try it imaged a partition correctly. Apparently, a partial implementation of said “feature.”
Another annoyance was that choosing to stop a 7GB cloud backup job at 30 percent didn’t stop the backup. I waited a full 10 minutes, then killed the process to cancel the job. Perhaps I was impatient, or perhaps the stop request wouldn’t have been processed until the current 7GB container file was completed — i.e., at 100 percent.
A smaller online backup of the documents, desktop, and downloads folders proceeded without incident, as I’m sure the larger one would have too, if I hadn’t needed to cancel.
On another positive note, creating a recovery disc went without a hitch and booted on both test beds. Restoring the image I was finally able to create was successful as well.
Should you buy NTI Backup Pro 7?
In the end, NTI Backup Pro 7 worked as advertised, but the annoyances I encountered and the super-high cost of the cloud storage left me not completely enthusiastic about the program. Give it a spin and see if it’s right for you, but do the same for the competition.
How I test software
All software is installed on an AMD Ryzen 3700X system utilizing an MSI MEG X570 motherboard with 64GB of Kingston DDR4 memory, and several PCIe 4 NVMe SSDs. The operating system is Windows 11 21H2, to which only security updates are applied to maintain a level playing field over time. The test bed is largely kept off the Internet unless testing the software demands it. All pertinent features are tested and the program rated for stability, suitability to task, ease of use, and feature set.
Should issues arise, all possibly conflicting applications are uninstalled, and if that doesn’t fix the problem, Windows is reinstalled. And as off this writing, controlling the test bed remotely will be checked.
Computer Storage Devices, Storage Read...Newslink ©2024 to PC World | |
| | | PC World - 27 Jun (PC World)Love grilled foods but hate working a grill? The fully electric Ninja Woodfire Outdoor Grill & Smoker promises to level up your grill game, all without you needing to know how to light a fire.
And the best part? Ninja’s 7-in-1 electric grill and smoker is only $299 right now, down from its usual $370 for a hefty savings.
The Ninja brand is known for its super useful appliances that help you prep and cook delicious food, and this one takes you outside and makes it easy to grill, smoke, air fry, and more.
With Ninja’s Woodfire technology, you don’t actually have to light a fire: it’s entirely electric for heat, while also allowing you to add wood pellets to get that rich barbecue smoke flavor that makes grilling so special.
It gets hot enough to sear and char your meats and vegetables, so it’s the perfect solution for family cooking and get-togethers. And Ninja doesn’t stop there—this thing is also an air fryer, so you can serve up crispy fries or delicious wings in just a few minutes.
Approximately 13 inches tall, 24 inches wide, 19 inches deep, and weighing about 30 pounds, it’s just portable enough to bring out and take back in as you need it. (Note that the power cord is only 4 feet long, so you’ll likely need a 3-prong extension.)
But it’s also weather-resistant, which means you could leave it outside in a safe spot if you wanted to. Keep it on your patio, your balcony, your shed, or anywhere you’d keep a traditional backyard grill.
The Ninja Woodfire Outdoor Grill & Smoker is currently on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for 20% off. With so much summer ahead of us, now’s a fantastic time to grab one of these!
This Ninja grill & smoker is on sale for $299Get it from Amazon
Get it from Best Buy
Smart Appliances Read...Newslink ©2024 to PC World | |
| | | PC World - 27 Jun (PC World)At a glanceExpert`s Rating
ProsExcellent performanceGood cooling avoids thermal throttlingLong battery lifeConsOnly one USB-C port, which is also used for chargingNo facial recognition (only fingerprint)Won’t get Copilot+ PC featuresOur VerdictThe Dell Inspiron 16 Plus is a powerful 16-inch workstation with a nice combination of performance, battery life, and build quality. It’s a good alternative to gaming laptops for people who want more power than the average laptop offers.
The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus is a powerful 16-inch laptop with high-end CPU performance, great cooling, and discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics. These are features you’d normally find in a gaming laptop, but the Inspiron 16 Plus is more focused on creative users who need a GPU for their professional applications and GPU-based AI workloads.
At $1,499, this laptop offers a great combination of hardware that’s worth a look. But everything in life involves compromises — especially laptops — and this machine won’t be the right fit for everyone.
Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops available today.
Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Specs
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus (7640) is a 16-inch laptop available with a wide variety of different hardware options. Our review model came with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, but you can also get it with a Core Ultra 5 or Core Ultra 9 CPU. These are Intel Meteor Lake CPUs. (Dell’s specifications sheet says the company also offers this laptop with 13th-generation Intel “Raptor Lake” processors, but we’ll focus on the newer Meteor Lake versions here).
Dell offers this laptop with a variety of graphics options. Our review model included Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics, but Dell also offers GeForce RTX 4050 graphics as an option. They don’t all have discrete graphics, you can also get Intel Arc graphics. Dell isn’t positioning this as a gaming laptop — in fact, Dell says the extra graphics horsepower is for creators. This laptop also has a “GeForce RTX Studio” sticker. But, while it will work well in professional 3D rendering apps and AI applications that need GPU power, the graphics will also let you play games in a pinch, too.
Dell included 16GB of RAM with our review model, but you can get this machine with up to 64GB of RAM. Additionally, there are a wide variety of display options: We had a 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display without a touch screen, but you can also get this laptop with a lower-resolution 1920×1200 display. A touch screen is available as an option on that lower-resolution model.
This laptop includes Wi-Fi 6E support as standard, but you can also get Wi-FI 7 hardware. On top of that, while our review model had a 90 Watt-hour battery, Dell also offers this laptop with a 64 Watt-hour battery.
This laptop does have a Copilot key on its keyboard, but it’s worth noting that it has an Intel Meteor Lake neural processing unit (NPU.) That means it won’t get the Copilot+ PC features Microsoft recently announced. Those will require next-generation hardware from Qualcomm, Intel, or AMD.
Dell offers this laptop with a lot of different hardware configurations, so be sure to check the specs of the model you’re looking at.
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
Memory: 16GB RAM
Graphics/GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
Display: 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display with 120 Hz refresh rate
Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
Webcam: 1080p webcam
Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, microSD card reader, 1x combo audio jack, 1x DC power in
Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
Battery capacity: 90 Watt-hours
Dimensions: 14.05 x 9.87 x 0.69 inches
Weight: 4.94 pounds
MSRP: $1,499 as tested
Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Design and build quality
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus has a nice-looking and solid-feeling all-metal design. It’s all silvers with a black bezel around the screen. Inside the laptop, the keys are a dark gray with a white backlight. There’s a silver Dell logo on the lid, but otherwise you won’t see a bunch of logos or distracting text elsewhere on the machine.
This laptop has extremely solid build quality, which is no surprise with that all-metal construction. There’s no real flex to the case, even when you pick it up with one hand from a corner.
The hinge feels extremely solid, too — and it’s interesting in another way. You can keep pushing the screen back, and this will raise the back of the keyboard, pushing it upward toward you. It works nicely, and the action feels great. You can only push it back so far, however — this laptop will not lie flat. (Of course, that’s fine! It doesn’t need to.
This laptop is 4.94 pounds. For a 16-inch laptop made of metal with a huge battery and a discrete Nvidia GPU, that’s a reasonable weight.
Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Keyboard and trackpad
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus has a full-size keyboard with white backlighting. The keyboard is plenty response and fast to type on. To me, the key travel is a little on the shallow side and the action doesn’t feel as snappy as it does on some of the most premium keyboards like a ThinkPad keyboard or a mechanical keyboard. Still, I wouldn’t describe it as mushy. It’s a fine keyboard.
The fingerprint reader at the top-right corner of the keyboard is also a power key, and it works well. I’m not a huge fan of the layout of the up and down arrow keys, though — Dell chose to use full-size left and right arrow keys, with half-height up and down arrow keys stuck in the middle.
The trackpad is centrally positioned below the keyboard and works well. The surface is smooth, the action is responsive and the feel of the click is pleasantly clicky. The palm rejection works well, too.
Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Display and speakers
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus has a nice-looking display. Our review model had a 16-inch 2560×1600 IPS display. The 120 Hz refresh rate makes for a nice smooth experience. It’s in a convenient 16:10 aspect ratio, giving you plenty of vertical space for getting work done.
You can also get this laptop with a lower-resolution 1920×1200 display, and that resolution is available with a touch screen option — but this higher-resolution model isn’t available with a touch screen.
At 300 nits of brightness, it’s not the brightest laptop screen out there. But this isn’t a gaming laptop — it’s a workstation. The anti-glare screen looks nice — it’s not super glossy and reflective — and the choice of display is likely a big factor in the laptop’s energy efficiency. If this laptop offered a high-resolution OLED display option, that would probably cut deep into the battery life.
When it comes to speakers, this system once again offers multiple options. If you have a version with Nvidia GeForce graphics — like our review unit — you get four speakers (two upward firing speakers above the keyboard and two downward firing speakers below the laptop). If you have a version with integrated Intel graphics, you just get the two speakers in the speaker grill above the keyboard.
The audio sounds alright, but. While speakers can deliver loud sound, but the bass is a little lacking. That’s normal for almost any laptop — you have to really look for a high-end gaming laptop to start getting serious bass.
Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Webcam, microphone, biometrics
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
Dell includes a 1080p webcam with its Inspiron 16 Plus laptop. The webcam also includes a physical privacy shutter, which is a great privacy feature often found on business laptops.
The webcam looks decent, although I’ve seen sharper image quality from some of the business laptops I’ve tested lately. Thanks to the neural processing unit (NPU) in Intel’s Meteor Lake, this laptop also gives you access to Windows Studio Effects, allowing you to fake eye contact and blur your background.
The microphone is also decent, although I don’t think it’s quite as clear and crisp as the built-in microphones on many of the business laptops I’ve been reviewing. It picked up a little bit of background noise, even in a fairly quiet room. It’s not bad — it’s good — but this isn’t the absolute best webcam and microphone setup for online meetings.
This laptop doesn’t offer facial recognition sign-in with Windows Hello — there’s no IR camera here. However, this laptop does include a fingerprint reader at the top-right corner of the keyboard, above the Backspace key. (This pushes the Delete key slightly to the left.) The fingerprint reader works well, and it scanned my fingerprint and signed me into Windows quickly. Some people will prefer fingerprint login to facial recognition, although I like the way facial recognition instantly signs me in as soon as I open a laptop. Facial recognition is just more convenient if you’re looking for biometrics.
Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Connectivity
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
The Dell Inspiron 16 has a decent selection of ports overall — aside from the Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports. It offers just a single USB-C port — which it also uses for charging with the standard USB-C charger Dell ships with the laptop.
On the left side, you’ve got a single Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) port along with an HDMI 2.1 port and a power jack.
On the right side, you’ll find an SD card reader, a combo audio jack, and two USB Type-A ports (USB 3.2 Gen 1.) Note that the versions of the laptop with integrated Intel Arc graphics have a standard sized SD card reader while the versions of the laptop with discrete Nvidia graphics have a microSD card reader.
The Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) port situation is the issue. USB-C charging is fine, and it works well here. The problem is that this laptop just has that single USB-C port. While this laptop does have a more traditional barrel charger port as well, it normally comes with a USB-C charger. So, if you want to plug something else into that USB-C port while the laptop is plugged in, you’ll need a Thunderbolt Dock that the laptop can charge through.
Out of the box, with the standard laptop configuration, there’s no way to actually use that power jack unless you hunt down a charger that doesn’t come with the laptop.
At least, that was the situation on our review unit. Dell told us that the base model of the laptop could ship with a traditional barrel charger. But, Dell also said that this laptop wouldn’t qualify for Intel’s Evo Edition sticker without USB-C charging.
If a manufacturer is going to use USB-C charging these days, they should provide more than one USB-C port. A second USB-C port would be a big help.
This machine includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 hardware. You can get a version of the laptop with Wi-Fi 7 support, too — Intel made that an extra add-on that doesn’t come standard with Meteor Lake-powered laptops like this one. While it’s fine to have Wi-Fi 6E because Wi-Fi 7 isn’t widespread yet, we’re getting to the point where it would be nice to see laptops support Wi-Fi 7 out of the box.
Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Performance
With its Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of solid-state storage, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus naturally delivered excellent performance in day-to-day desktop usage. This laptop comes with an “Intel Evo” sticker, too.
Of course, we ran the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs.
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. While this is designed as an overall system benchmark, the CPU performance is a big factor in the results.
The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus delivered an overall score of 7,101. That’s a great score. It’s competitive or better than the other modern laptops with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processors we’re comparing this machine against.
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage.
This 16-inch laptop delivered excellent performance with a multi-threaded score of 6,924. That’s noticeably faster than some 14-inch laptops we compared it to here.
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load.
The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus completed the encode in 957, which is about 16 minutes. That’s a solid score and it shows the machine is doing a good job of staying cool and not throttling due to heat under extended workloads, like the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus clearly is.
his machine did complete the encode more slowly than the HP Pavilion Plus with its previous-generation Intel Core i7-1355U Raptor Lake processor, however. Intel’s Meteor Lake hardware just comes up a bit shorter than the previous-generation hardware in CPU performance. Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware should hopefully fix this, beating Meteor Lake on power efficiency while also delivering more performance than Raptor Lake.
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
Next, we run a graphical benchmark. While this isn’t a gaming laptop, it does have a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. To benchmark the GPU, we run the 3DMark Time Spy graphical benchmark.
With a score of 8,735, the RTX 4060-powered variant of this laptop delivered much better graphical performance than an Intel Arc-powered Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, which delivered a score of 3,493.
Overall, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus delivered excellent performance with strong cooling and without noticeable thermal throttling slowing things down under load. Bear in mind that your performance will vary depending on the configuration — Dell offers a variety of different CPU and GPU options. In particular, the Intel Arc variant will be much farther behind on the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark.
When we reviewed the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, we found that its vents didn’t seem to be doing anything. I tested. I verified that the vents here are definitely working — which is no surprise, considering how well this laptop’s cooling helped its benchmark scores.
Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Battery life
The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus packs either a 90 Watt-hour battery or a 64 Watt-hour battery. Our review unit had a 90 Watt-hour battery. That’s a nice big size and nearly as big as it gets — if a battery is 100 Watt-hours or larger, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration won’t allow it onto an airplane
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
IDG / Chris Hoffman
To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat in the Movies & TV app on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this.
In our benchmark, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus lasted for an average of 1,022 minutes. That’s just over 17 hours — a very good score for a 16-inch laptop. The large battery certainly helps matters, and the display is likely pretty power efficient. (Those OLED displays tend to drain more battery power).
This should be all-day battery life, depending on what you do — but you’ll need to plug this laptop into an outlet to really take advantage of the power of its Nvidia GPU. (Unfortunately, if you have the laptop’s normal USB-C charger, you won’t be able to connect other devices to it while charging unless you get a dock or dongle).
As usual, though, the devil is in the details: If you pick a variant of this laptop that comes with a smaller battery, for example, you won’t get anywhere near as long from it.
Dell Inspiron 16 Plus: Conclusion
The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus is a nice machine. It’s a 16-inch laptop with excellent performance, long battery life, high-quality cooling, an all-metal build, and even discrete graphics for gaming and other professional tasks. At $1,499, that’s not bad — remember that you’re getting the kind of GPU you would often have to get a more expensive gaming laptop for.
Dell told me that this particular configuration was on sale for $1,299 right before we reviewed it, and it was once again discounted to same price while we were wrapping up our review. In general, laptops frequently go on sale — and you might be able to scoop up this one for hundreds of dollars off if you want for the right time. That’s a good price.
On the other hand, there are some reasons you may not want to buy this laptop: You may want a free USB-C port while charging, facial recognition, a brighter screen, or a more vibrant OLED display. Or you may just want to wait for a laptop that will get those Copilot+ PC AI features later this year. Every machine has trade-offs.
Still, this is a nice machine — especially at that sale price, if it goes on sale for a few hundred dollars off again. On the other hand, laptops like this one will offer even better battery life and performance when Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware arrives later this year. And Intel will require all Lunar Lake laptops to have at least two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which will ensure future laptops don’t end up with a charger that hogs their single USB-C port.
Laptops Read...Newslink ©2024 to PC World | |
| | |
|
|
| Top Stories |
RUGBY
Former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper announces immediate retirement from Australian rugby More...
|
BUSINESS
A popular drinking hole in Auckland's Ponsonby has entered receivership, after failing to pay back a loan worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to its co-owner More...
|
|
| Today's News |
| News Search |
|
|