There are dragons pretty much right away. The dungeons may have to wait for a bit later, because some Cthulhu-esque monster is sticking a brain slug in my eye. No, it’s not a Ceti Eel, it’s a Mind Flayer’s parasite. And this is all part of the cinematic dragons-versus-a-giant-flying-airship cinematic opening of Baldur’s Gate 3, …

A truly great budget laptop is a PC holy grail, but also about as hard to find. Laptops around the $500 mark tend to compromise on design, materials, performance or features, doing well in one area, but poorly in others. In 2020, it’s been even more difficult, as remote workers and students quickly snatch up any half-decent budget laptops, leaving …

Update, Nov. 5: Read our reviews of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. The Xbox Series X is here. Sort of. While we have a final hardware unit of the coming-soon new game console from Microsoft, our hands-on experience to date is with a handful of backwards-looking features and technical improvements to how games load. See it at Amazon That means no …

Update, Nov. 5: Read our reviews of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. There’s a better-than-decent chance that your next console is going to live in a piece of Ikea furniture. The assemble-it-yourself Swedish brand is known for inexpensive media centers and TV stands, which range from generic white boxes to industrial-style metal shelves.  Having gotten my hands on life-size plastic mockups …

Update, Nov. 6: Read our reviews of the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PS5. PlayStation 5 preorders were a trash fire, with Sony even taking to Twitter to apologize for the mad rush that left most potential buyers empty-handed. Xbox Series X and Series S preorders were slightly better, if only because they started at the announced time — though Microsoft’s consoles sold …

What a time to be a tablet shopper. Apple just launched a major revision to its iPad Air, and also gave the plain old basic iPad a power boost. Microsoft’s Surface series makes regular Windows 10 feel more like a tablet experience. And Samsung has a new pair of premium tablets — the Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7 Plus …

There is another… Besides the iPad Air updates announced today and the iPad Pro from earlier in 2020, there’s also a lightly refreshed plain old iPad from the September Apple Event. This lower-end model, technically the closest direct descendant of the original decade-old iPad 1.0, continues to serve as an affordable, if not flashy, entry point into the Apple ecosystem.  …

Surprising virtually no one, Microsoft has announced that the upcoming Xbox Series S game console will cost $300 (£250, AU$499), and that the more-hyped Xbox Series X will be $500 (£450, AU$749). Now that we have a better idea of the specs and differences between each system, it certainly looks to me like the smaller, somewhat less capable little brother is the better deal of …

Seven years is a very long time in the tech world. You probably wouldn’t keep the same phone for seven years, or the same laptop. But if you bought a new Xbox One or PlayStation 4 in 2013, when those consoles originally went on sale, it’ll be seven years old later this year. (I’m still using my launch PS4, which …

Acer is the first across the line offering a laptop powered by the just-announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 platform, with the new Spin 7. This two-in-one hybrid, presented onstage during Qualcomm’s (virtual) keynote at the IFA tech show, is part of a new generation of Snapdragon devices that Qualcomm says will, “support the digital transformation and mobility needs for remote productivity …