Anandtech News

**FEED** · 01-06-19, 01:48 PM

Physical privacy is becoming a key point of concern among many people and organizations, which is why hardware makers are addressing concerns of their customers by incorporating various technologies into their products. To that end, next month HP will start selling its EliteDisplay E243p Sure View Monitor that, as the name suggests, features the company’s on/off Sure View privacy screen tech.
Aimed at corporate environments, offices, and public services where shoulder surfing is a practical risk, the EliteDisplay E243p Sure View monitor's primary selling point is the integrated, user-controllable Sure View privacy screen. Designed to deter off-angle viewing, the privacy screen relies on HP’s proprietary technologies as well as 3M’s optical films. Once Sure View is activated, the display reduces its brightness to 180 nits and horizontal viewing angles to 80°, thus hiding sensitive data from prying eyes of passerbyes or hackers.

Past that, the Sure View screen is built on top of what's otherwise a fairly standard IPS monitor. The E243p relies on a 23.8-inch anti-glare IPS panel with a 1920×1080 resolution, 260 nits brightness, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, a 60 Hz refresh rate, a 14 ms response time, and 178°/178° viewing angles. Like many other displays designed for the said venues, this one comes with a stand that allows to adjust tilt, swivel, and pivot. Connectivity wise, the EliteDisplay E243p has one DisplayPort 1.2 input, one HDMI 1.4 input, and one D-Sub input to maintain compatibility with legacy PCs. The monitor also includes a dual-port USB 3.0 hub.

Multiple industries these days (healthcare, finance, security, military, and other industries dealing with sensitive information) have regulatory requirements for data protection, which is why various companies offer monitors with pre-installed privacy screens to prevent casual security breaches. This problem is of course by no means new, and for many years now various manufacturers have been aftermarket films that act like privacy screens. However permanent privacy screens are just that – permanent – so they persistently reduce viewing angles and therefore user comfort. By contrast, HP’s Sure View can be turned on and off as necessary, meaning it doesn't need to interfere when it's not needed. Though along those lines, one thing that remains unclear is whether Sure View can be activated automatically once an application is launched, or if it's entirely manual.

Specifications of the EliteDisplay E243p Sure View Monitor
		5FT13A8
Panel		23.8" IPS
Native Resolution		1920 × 1080
Maximum Refresh Rate		60 Hz
Response Time		14 ms
Brightness		260 cd/m² (typical) 180 cd/m² (SureView)
Contrast		1000:1
Viewing Angles		178°/178° horizontal/vertical (typical) 80°/178° horizontal/vertical (SureView)
Pixel Pitch		0.2744 mm²
Pixel Density		92 PPI
Display Colors		?
Color Gamut Support		?
Stand		Pivot rotation: 90° Swivel: ±45° Tilt: -5 to +22°
Inputs		1 × DisplayPort 1.2 1 × D-Sub 1 × HDMI 1.4
USB Hub		2-port USB 3.0
Audio		-
Power	Idle	0.5 W
Typical	50 W
Peak	55 W
Launch Price		$379.99

HP’s EliteDisplay E243p Sure View monitor will be available some time in February for $379.99. The price of the display looks very high for a rather regular 23.8-inch LCD, but keeping in mind target audience of the of the EliteDisplay E243p Sure View monitor, it may still become quite popular for its niche market.

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Source: HP

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**FEED** · 01-06-19, 01:48 PM

Having already sold tens of millions of laptops that only feature USB Type-C ports, it would seem that PC makers are finally getting into the burgeoning market for USB Type-C multi-feature hubs. To that end, HP plans to unveil its Envy USB-C hub, which offers USB Type-A and HDMI connectivity.
The HP Envy USB-C hub features an ultra-slim form-factor to match style of contemporary consumer laptops and offers two charging USB Type-A ports, as well as an HDMI 2.0 display output that supports 4Kp60 output. The hub offers pass-through laptop charging and can charge two mobile devices at the same time (HP does not mention power ratings here though), which seems like a rare feature that may be useful for those who travel light and do not take chargers for their smartphones with them.

The uncommon capability comes at a price though. HP’s Envy USB-C hub will be available this March at $79.99. To add some context: Kingston’s Nucleum 7-in-1 USB-C dock with an HDMI 1.4 output and up to 60 W power input carries the same MSRP. So HP is entering an already well-stocked and potentially price sensitive market.
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Source: HP

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**FEED** · 01-06-19, 02:29 PM

At CES 2019, Acer has announced the Acer Chromebook 315, interestingly powered by AMD but not Ryzen. Instead, the Chromebook 315 features the AMD A6-9220C or A4-9120C processors with Radeon graphics in this cost-conscious Chromebook.
The Acer Chromebook 315 is a 15.6-inch laptop offering either a 1366x768 TN, or a 1920x1080 IPS display, but unlike the much more expensive Acer Swift 7 they announced, this is not the new thin-bezel design, but a more typical design that is indicative of its target price segment.

ChromeOS has proven itself to be frugal with performance, which is likely a good thing since the AMD A-Series APUs fitted in the Chromebook 315 are not the newest and fastest chips from AMD. The A6-9220C APU is a dual-core processor with a base 1.8 GHz and boost of 2.7 GHz, based on AMD Stoney Ridge and featuring Excavator cores built on 28 nm. It offers AMD Radeon R5 graphics. The base offering in this laptop is the AMD A4-9120C, at 1.6/2.4 GHz, and Radeon R4 graphics. The laptop is offered with 4 or 8 GB of DDR4 RAM, and 32 GB or 64 GB of eMMC storage.

Acer Chromebook 315
Component	Chromebook 315
APU	AMD A6-9220C 1.8-2.7 GHz, 1MB L2 cache 15-W TDP Radeon R5 Graphics AMD A4-9120C 1.6-2.4 GHz, 1MB L2 cache 15-W TDP Radeon R4 Graphics
RAM	4-8 GB Dual-Channel DDR4
Storage	32-64 GB eMMC
Display	15.6-inch 1366x768 Acer ComfyView 15.6-inch 1920x1080 Acer ComfyView IPS 15.6-inch 1920x1080 Acer CineCrystal high-brightness IPS Touch Optional
Dimensions	380.54 x 256.28 x 19.95 mm 14.98 x 10.09 x 0.79 inches
Weight	1.8 Kg / 3.97 lbs
Connectivity	802.11ac 2x2 MU-MIMO Bluetooth 4.2
Battery	54 Wh Li-Ion, up to 10 hours 45 W USB-C Charger
Ports	2 x USB-C Gen 1 2 x USB-A 3.0 microSD Reader Headset jack
Starting Price	$279.99 USD

Acer touts that the Chromebook 315 can offer up to 10 hours of battery life from its 54 Wh battery capacity, which is not too bad considering the 28 nm CPUs on-board. Acer offers USB-C charging with a 45 W PD adapter.

The Chromebook is a pretty stout unit, measuring 19.95 mm thick, and weighing in at 1.8 Kg, or just under 4 lbs.
Considering the range of low-end parts, it’s not surprising to see that the Acer Chromebook 315 starts at $279.99, with availability in February.
Source: Acer

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**FEED** · 01-06-19, 02:29 PM

At CES today, Acer has announced their latest Ultrabook in the Acer Swift 7. Acer has fully embraced the thin-bezel design ethos with the Swift 7 as well, with 2.57 mm bezels shrinking the device and offering an impressive 92% screen to body ratio. The Acer Swift 7 also offers the modern connectivity you’d expect in a modern Ultrabook.

Acer offers a 1920x1080 IPS display, which features 300 nits of brightness and 100% sRGB coverage. For added durability, the display has a Corning Gorilla Glass 6 covering, going hand-in-hand with the added durability of an all-metal design, featuring magnesium-lithium and magnesium-aluminum alloys on the rest of the chassis. Acer claims these alloys are two to four times stronger than standard aluminum alloys, but 20-35% lighter. This keeps the laptop at a very svelte 9.95 mm (0.39-inches) thick and just 890 grams (1.96 lbs). The Gorilla Glass also is used as the trackpad covering as well, which should offer a nice experience.
To power the latest Acer Swift 7, the design team has chosen the Intel Core i7-8500Y, which is a 1.5 GHz base frequency, but a strong 4.2 GHz boost frequency, all in a 7-Watt TDP for fanless operation. The Y series should offer decent performance, especially in light workloads. Acer offers up to 16 GB of LPDDR3 RAM, which is a limit of the CPU, and up to 512 GB of PCIe storage.
Acer is claiming up to 10 hours of battery life as well, but with a fairly pedestrian 1920x1080 display, and a Y series CPU, that likely means the amount of battery capacity they were able to fit into this very thin chassis is not as high as other devices which would of course be thicker and heavier. For those who are on the go, the lighter overall design may be of more benefit than longer battery life.

Acer hasn’t short-changed their customers on connectivity either. The Acer Swift 7 offers two USB Type-C ports with 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 3, which also adds in power delivery and DisplayPort 1.2, and Acer offers Intel Wireless AC with Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0.
Other features of the Swift 7 is a push-to-open webcam, which makes sense since there would be no room for a webcam on a thin-bezel device like this, which won’t be optimal for video calls, but does offer the added benefit of privacy when closed. The Swift 7 also features Windows Hello login via a fingerprint reader.

The Acer Swift 7 will be available in May, starting at $1699 USD.
Source: Acer

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**FEED** · 01-06-19, 06:05 PM

When the first Chromebooks were released in 2011, they were aimed at the lower end of the market and carried matching price tags. After Google launched its Pixel laptop in 2013 and proved that it was possible to address the premium segment, other makers of PCs followed on with more advanced Chromebooks that were more expensive. Eventually, Chromebooks somewhat moved away from being exclusively in the low end of the market, and towards a broader market covering multiple price ranges. With the low end market diminished by not forgotten, HP has announced that it's going to take another shot at this segment with its new Chromebook 14. Coincidentally, the Chromebook 14 is also the first ChromeOS-powered PC featuring an AMD processor.
As the name suggests, the HP Chromebook 14 features a 14-inch SVA display panel with a 1366×768 resolution and anti-glare coating. The notebook comes in a fine-looking chassis with a textured finish and a 1.8 cm (0.92-inch) z-height, though HP hasn't specified what kind of material it is made of. Given the thickness, it is reasonable to guess that some sort of a plastic was used (I would assume polycarbonate).
Moving on to the guts of the system. The HP Chromebook 14 is based on AMD’s A4-9120C processor, a relatively unknown SoC featuring two Excavator cores running at 1.8 GHz and the GCN 1.2-based Radeon R4 iGPU with 128 SPs operating at 720 MHz (more information about the SoC is available in Ian’s AMD at CES 2019 coverage). Being fabbed on a 28 nm process and a low-end chip overall, this SoC is cheap enough to that AMD and HP can still turn a profit even with the low-end pricing of the system. All told, do not expect too much from this APU (and therefore the Chromebook 14 as a whole): it can handle productivity apps, VP9/H.264/H.265 decode, play some games, but that is about it.
The Chromebook 14 is equipped 4 GB of DDR4 RAM and 32 GB of local eMMC storage, just like early Chromebooks. As for I/O, it has a Qualcomm 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 4.2 controller, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C ports, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a microSD card reader, a dual microphone array, B&O-badged speakers, a webcam, and so on. Overall, hardware wise the laptop looks pretty much okay.
As for battery life, HP says that its Chromebook 14 lasts for nine hours and 15 minutes on a single charge in their mixed use case workload. The company is using a fairly hefty 47.36 Wh battery here, driven in good part by the need to light up the relatively large 14-inch display.
Finally, while HP is announcing the laptop today, they aren't announcing pricing or an ETA for the device. We may find out more on AMD's Wednesday keynote; competing AMD-powered Chromebooks are due in February, so AMD is just about ready themselves.
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Source: HP

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**FEED** · 01-06-19, 06:05 PM

In addition to the consumer focused products announced this week at CES, Acer has also announced a new business notebook this week. The TravelMate X3410 is a 14-inch notebook aimed at professionals, with several options depending on the budget and performance requirements.

Unlike the Acer Swift 7 just announced, the TravelMate X3410 is more function over form. The 14-inch laptop offers a 1920x1080 IPS display with Acer’s ComfyView matte coating. Without the thin bezels of the higher-end models, the TravelMate X3410 is quite a bit bigger, with dimensions of 328 x 239 x 20 mm (12.9 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches) and a rather hefty weight of 1.6 Kg (3.53 lbs).

Acer offers a range of processor options, from the base model Intel Core i3-8130U, which is a dual-core part with a frequency of 2.2 GHz, to the Core i5-8250U quad-core, up to the Core i7-8550U quad-core. Interestingly, Acer has chosen to outfit the laptop with DDR4 SODIMMS rather than the more typical LPDDR3 we’d see in Ultrabooks, and Acer offers 8 to 16 GB of DDR4, but with SODIMMS that can be upgraded later as well. SSDs are all SATA based, from 128 GB at the low end to 512 GB at the high end.

Acer TravelMate X3410
Component	TMX3410-M-866T	TMX2410-M-5608	TMX3410-M-30Q6
CPU	Intel Core i7-8550U 4C/8T 1.8-4.0 GHz 15W TDP 8MB Cache	Intel Core i5-8250U 4C/8T 1.6-3.4 GHz 15W TDP 6MB Cache Intel UHD 620	Intel Core i3-8130U 2C/4T 2.2-3.4 GHz 15W TDP 4MB Cache Intel UHD 620
RAM	16GB DDR4	8GB DDR4	8GB DDR4
Storage	512 GB SATA SSD	256 GB SATA SSD	128 GB SATA SSD
Display	14-inch 1920x1080 ComfyView IPS
Dimensions	328 x 239 x 20 mm 12.9 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches
Weight	1.6 Kg / 3.53 lbs
Connectivity	802.11ac Gigabit Ethernet
Battery	60 Wh Li-Ion, up to 15 hours 65 W Charger
Ports	1 x USB-C Gen 1 3 x USB-A 3.0 Headset jack HDMI VGA
Starting Price	$899.99 USD

As a slightly thicker device, Acer has found room for a Gigabit Ethernet port, to complement the 802.11ac wireless, and there is quite a wide range of ports as well, including three USB 3.0 ports, one USB 3.1 Type-C port, HDMI, and even VGA. For those that appreciate it, there’s also a SD card reader.
Acer rates battery life at up to 15 hours with the 5170 mAh battery, which should be right around 60 Wh total capacity. Acer ships a 65 W charger which should allow for a fast refill as well.

Although not as jaw-dropping as the Acer Swift 7, the TravelMate X3410 comes in with a much lower price, starting at $899.99 USD.
Source: Acer

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**FEED** · 01-06-19, 07:30 PM

In perhaps a very unexpected turn of events, one of our first meetings at CES has heralded an important nugget of information.

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**FEED** · 01-06-19, 10:30 PM

ASUS has announced their upcoming lineup of gaming monitors at CES under the Republic of Gamers branding, and as with everything in Las Vegas, bigger appears to be better. The Strix XG32VQR is a 32-inch 2560x1440 144Hz display, the Strix XG438Q is a 43-inch UHD HDR with a 120 Hz refresh rate monitor, and the Strix XG49VG is a massive 49-inch 32:9 3840x1800 144 Hz beast.

ASUS ROG Strix XG Monitors
	XG438Q	XG49VQ	XG32VQR
Panel Size	43-inch 16:9	49-inch 32:9	31.5-inch 16:9
Panel Type	VA Panel	VA Panel	VA Panel 1800R Curve
Color Saturation	P3-D65 90%	P3-D65 90%	P3-D65 94%
Brightness	450 nits	January 450 nits	450 nits
Response time (GTG)	4 ms	4 ms time 400	4 ms
Resolution	3840x2160	3840x1080	2560x1440
Refresh Rate	120 Hz	144 Hz	144 Hz
HDR Support	Radeon FreeSync 2 HDR	Radeon FreeSync 2 HDR	Radeon FreeSync 2 HDR
VESA HDR Specification	DisplayHDR 600	Display HDR 400	DisplayHDR 400
Speakers	10 W x 2	5 W x 2	No Speakers
Availability	Spring 2019	January 2019	January 2019

To hit VESA HDR specifications, ASUS has custom designed the backlights on all three models to improve the local dimming. They also support FreeSync 2 HDR with low framerate compensation.
ASUS Strix XG438Q

The ASUS Strix XG438Q is an impressive piece of tech, and ASUS claims it’s the biggest and fastest UHD Freesync 2 HDR gaming monitor on the market. This VA panel offers 90% of the P3-D65 gamut, and a 120 Hz refresh rate, so if you have the hardware to drive this, it should offer very smooth response. This display meets the VESA DisplayHDR 600 specifications, and features ASUS GameFast Input, along with PiP, and PbP modes. Availability is listed as Spring 2019, with no pricing offered yet. It likely won’t be inexpensive.
ASUS Strix XG49VQ

If a 43-inch UHD display isn’t big enough, perhaps a 49-inch Ultrawide is just what you were after. The Strix XG49VQ is a 32:9 aspect ratio VA monitor, with a 3840x1080 resolution. This display offers a 144 Hz refresh rate, along with FreeSync 2 HDR. It covers 90% of the P3-D65 gamut, and is VESA DisplayHDR 400 compliant. Pricing has not been announced but the display will be on the market by the end of January.
ASUS Strix XG32VQR

This 32-inch monitor seems outright small by comparison, but the 2560x1440 VA display offers a 144 Hz refresh rate, and covers 94% of the P3-D65 gamut. It also features FreeSync 2 HDR, and is DisplayHDR 400 compliant. This display also will be available by the end of January, with pricing to be determined.
Source: ASUS
Images will be updated when made available by ASUS

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**FEED** · 01-06-19, 10:30 PM

We're here in the desert city that is Las Vegas for CES. And for the first keynote presentation of the show. As has been the case for a few years now, NVIDIA is kicking things off with a Sunday night presentation.

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**FEED** · 01-06-19, 11:00 PM

D-Link's mydlink service has served as the backbone of their cloud strategy for the better part of this decade. Initially, it served their IP camera lineup. In early 2014, D-Link pivoted the service to target the home automation / smart home market as a whole. The company has been regularly releasing new mydlink products and adding features to the existing service.
At CES 2019, D-Link is introducing three new products in the mydlink lineup - a Wi-Fi indoor smart plug (DSP-W118), a Wi-Fi outdoor smart plug (DSP-W320), and a Wi-Fi water sensor (DCH-S161). The Wi-Fi water sensor, unlike the previous DCH-S160 water sensor introduced in 2015, is now battery powered and can run for up to 1.5 years with AA batteries. It also comes with a 6ft. long probe and a built-in siren. It will go on sale in Q1 2019 for $50. The new indoor smart plug has a smaller form-factor compared to the existing one (DSP-W215). It no longer obstructs other outlets. The outdoor version has two outlets and is IP44-rated. Both carry over the outlet on/off, schedule, and timer controls of the existing smart plugs / outlets in the mydlink lineup. These plugs will become available in Q2 2019 (pricing not announced yet).

On the firmware features / backend side, D-Link is bringing more support for Google Assistant and Alexa to simplify the smart home experience. A couple of new features - 'Smart Recap' and 'Rich Notifications' - address some of the feedback that D-Link has been receiving from their existing IP camera customers.

The addition of Google Assistant / Alexa voice control to the existing existing IFTTT support enables mydlink to tick all the boxes in what consumers can expect from cloud-reliant smart home platforms. As we have been indicating for a few years now, it wouldn't hurt D-Link to shift more of the intelligence to the edge. This will give consumers better experience in the case of unreliable Internet / cloud connectivity.
Gallery: D-Link at CES 2019: mydlink Smart Home Lineup Expands

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