HP Envy 15 – A 4K OLED RTX Laptop!

We’ve been featuring some very interesting Laptops on the channel lately, and this is another very unique Laptop. HP has sent over their brand new HP Envy 15 and they also sponsored the video linked up top, for us to give you a closer look.

It comes with a 4K Touch-Display that’s also an OLED Panel, up to a 10th Generation Intel Core i9 and an NVIDIA RTX GPU. This Laptop is not just outstanding for Video-Editing, Photo-Editing and 3D Modelling, but it’s also a very good choice for Gaming as well.

So, without any further ado, get those snacks ready and here is our first look at the HP Envy 15.

---

Design

Starting off with the Design, the HP Envy 15 is a 15” Laptop, hence the name. It comes in this really nice silver metal build, this is a fully metal body. There’s no plastic here at all, so it has a very premium build. I’m also a big fan of the silver colour, especially now when most Laptops are black or dark grey, seeing something different definitely makes it stand out. 

Rather than being a thick and heavy power Laptop, the Envy 15 is surprisingly portable. At a weight of just 1.81kg and a thickness of just 1.8cm, this is one of the thinnest and lightest power Laptops that I’ve ever seen. Also, the body itself is actually tapered, so it is thinner on the front, at just 0.5cm, and then it gets thicker towards the back. The sides are also very thin, they’re about the same thickness as the Ports. Overall the HP Envy 15 has this very thin look to it, no matter the angle that you look at it from.

The full-metal Body and tapered design make this look & feel very premium

In terms of the Ports, we have a microSD card slot on the left, alongside not one, but two Thunderbolt 3 Ports with 40Gbs/s Transfer Speeds. You can also use Thunderbolt to connect a powerful eGPU, something like an RTX 3080, and get some insane Gaming Performance out of this. It’s just incredible what you can do with Thunderbolt. You can also hook this up to a 5K Monitor via Thunderbolt, or even a 5K and a 4K Monitor at the same time, they all connect via this single cable. I’m a big fan of Thunderbolt and it’s really nice to see that we do get two of them rather than the usual one that we see on most Windows Laptops.

Aside from this, we get a full-sized HDMI Port, which is also HDMI 2.0, meaning it can do 4K60. Then we get a USB 3.1 Type A Port as well as the Power Connector, which uses a powerful 200W Power Adapter. On the right-hand side, we have a Vent, a second USB 3.1 Type A Port and a Headphone Jack. On the bottom, the HP Envy 15 has some pretty tall rubber feet in order to give it as much airflow as possible, which will be quite important when we get to the Performance section of this video.

I have to say, I really love how this Laptop looks from the bottom as well. I haven’t said this about many Laptops.It’s got this industrial look to it, with perfectly cut cut-outs for the Air Intake, the Air Outtake and the Speakers. So, Design wise, the HP Envy 15 is one of the most premium looking Laptops on the market right now. 

---

Display 

When it comes to the Display, this is one of the most striking Displays you can find on a Laptop, and not just because this is a full 4K panel, which has a PPI of 282 across 15.6 inches.

The 4K OLED & Touch-Screen Display gives you everything you’d expect from a high-end Laptop

Since this is an OLED Panel, a Samsung manufactured AMOLED Display to be more precise, the Black Levels are perfect, the Viewing Angles are incredible alongside a 100,000:1 Contrast ratio, you get what is one of the very best viewing experiences on a Laptop. Whether you’re watching a movie or playing a game, the colour will be super vibrant and the overall viewing experience is going to be very impressive. The Display itself can go up to 400 Nits of Brightness and it also supports HDR.

This is also a Touch Display, which means that even though the Panel doesn’t go fully flat, for you to be able to use it as a drawing Tablet, you can indeed interact with the on-screen elements by just touching the Panel.

---

Keyboard & Trackpad 

The Keyboard feels better than I expected. It’s soft to the touch, but you also get a clicky feel when you type. The Keyboard itself is Backlit but we do not have an RGB Backlight as this isn’t a Laptop dedicated to just Gaming, more about that in a bit. 

If you’re anything like us, you won’t miss that right Control Key.

We do have a Fingerprint Reader, which for the first time that I have ever seen on a Laptop, is actually a Key on the Keyboard. You cannot physically press it, but it does replace the right-hand side Control Key. That’s a Key that I don’t think I ever use, I mostly use the left Control Key and I think most of you do the same. To be honest, I actually do like having the Fingerprint Reader here as opposed to on the top, built-into the Power Button. It just makes it so much easier to reach when I’m using the Trackpad and I’m in an App that has Fingerprint Support. 

Speaking of the Trackpad, we get a Glass one rather than the traditional Plastic that we see on a lot of Windows Laptops, we get full support for the Windows 10 gestures as well as Windows Precision Drivers. The Trackpad is also a single Button and it uses a ‘Diving Board’ mechanism, meaning that it gets more difficult to press the closer you are to the top.

---

Camera, Microphones & Speakers 

Check out the Video above to see & hear how these fair.

Moving on to the Camera, the Microphones and the Speakers. The Front Camera is positioned on the top, so no weird angles from having the Camera on the bottom Bezels, or even inside the Keyboard.

I’ll let you be the judge when it comes to the Camera & Speaker Quality and the Microphones, you can check that out in the video linked at the top. The Speakers themselves are powered by Bang & Olufsen audio.

---

Performance

So now that we’ve covered the Design, Display the Keyboard, Trackpad, Camera, Microphones and Speakers, let’s talk about my favourite section, the Performance. The model that we have comes with a 10th Generation Intel Core i7 10750H Processor. This is a Six-Core CPU with a turbo-boost of up to 5GHz. According to Intel, this offers up to 54% more FPS in Games, up to 44% better overall Performance compared to a 3 year old PC and up to two-times faster 4K Video & Rendering. 

It’s not a purpose-built Gaming Laptop, but it does a decent job of it

GPU wise, we get the RTX 2060 Max-Q Edition with 6GB of GDDR6 Memory. This, in combination with 16GB of DDR4 2933MHz Memory and 1TB of NVMe Flash-Storage, make it a very powerful device for not just 4K Video Editing and 3D Modelling, but also Gaming. The 2060 isn’t really a 4K Gaming Card, so you wouldn’t be Gaming in 4K Resolution, however, you can easily play pretty much any modern game in 1080p on maxed out settings and get a very stable 60FPS or higher. In some games, you can even bump the Resolution to 1440p. In Fortnite for example, I can play on fully maxed out (Epic) settings and get a solid 90FPS in 1080p. If I bump the Resolution to around QHD, I still get 70FPS while still having everything on Epic settings. 

Since we have an RTX GPU, this Laptop is actually very good in terms of 3D Rendering. If you use software such as Keyshot 9, that support GPU Rendering, we’ve seen a noticeable improvement in rendering times, even coming from our 32-Core Rendering PC. This Laptop, thanks to its RTX GPU, can render faster than our dedicated Rendering PC using CPU Rendering. 

Overall, I would say that this Laptop is still suited more for creative professionals, rather than people who are just looking for a Gaming machine. Think of the HP Envy 15 as a Creative Laptop that can also game pretty well.

---

Battery Life

As with any PC of this variety, it is best to leave it plugged in to maximise Performance

In terms of the Battery Life, HP promises up to 16.5 hours of battery on the HP Envy 15. Obviously, that does depend on how you intend to use it. The HP Envy does actually support Fast Charging, meaning that you can charge it to 50% in just 45 minutes, which is pretty impressive. Now, I do have to mention that if you do want to use this at its fullest potential, you need to have it plugged in as when you’re on the go, the RTX 2060 would just be too power-hungry, depending on on if it’s utilised at its max Performance. 

---

Value 

So in the end, who is the HP Envy 15 for and how much does it cost? Well, a similar spec’d model to our unit, that comes with the same i7 10750H Processor, RTX 2060 and 16GB of RAM, but 512GB of Storage rather than 1TB and an 4K IPS LCD Display rather than 4K OLED, costs around £1,800. I think that is pretty good considering that for this price, other Laptops don’t even come with a dedicated GPU at all, not even to mention a 4K Display.

Overall, if you’re a creative professional and you do Photo & Video Editing, 3D Modelling or 3D Rendering, I would definitely consider taking a look at the HP Envy 15 as it not only offers a stunning looking body, but also a stunning Display alongside some unrivalled Performance for its price.

Apple vs Fortnite - The FULL Story!

You’re probably aware that there’s a massive dispute going on where not only has Epic Games sued Apple, but Apple has now removed Fortnite from the App Store. I want to give you the full story and everything you need to know when it comes to what is probably one of the biggest ever battles between two tech companies. Get those snacks ready and enjoy! 

If you’ve been following me on Twitter (@ZONEofTECH), you probably know that I’m kind of on Apple’s side here. But, to be as unbiased as possible, I’m going to split it into four sections: Apple’s Side, Epic’s Side, My Thoughts and the Present Day. 

---

Epic’s Side

Starting off with Epic’s side, Epic Games are now one of the biggest Game Development companies in the world, mostly thanks to their very popular game… Fortnite. But they were not always like that.

Whilst they were known for the first three ‘Gears of War’ games, Epic Games was mostly known for the Unreal Engine. This was not a game, but rather a Game Engine that Developers could use in order to develop games easier. I’ve used Game Engines before, mostly Unity. I have played around with Unreal Engine as well but long story short, Unity was originally aimed at Mobile Games whilst Unreal Engine was pretty much the most popular and advanced Engine for AAA Open-World games for PC and Console. Developers have been using Unreal Engine since it came out in 2001. Games such as the Tom Clancy series, the Batman Arkham Series, Borderlands, Fable, the Mass Effect series, Medal of Honor, the recent Mortal Kombat games, Darksiders and dozens more were all made using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine.

Fortnite isn’t the only game that Epic are known for.

But then in 2017, something happened. Epic Games had this game called Fortnite in the works and at that time, it was just a Co-Op RPG Shooter. But after Epic saw how successful PUBG’s Battle Royale mode was, they decided to add the Battle Royale mode in Fortnite as well. They released the game with the ‘Save the World’ beta, which was the original Fortnite game-mode and was only released as a full game three years later, in June 2020. 

Fun Fact, the Battle Royale mode in Fortnite was so simple to make, that it took Epic Games just two months to build it, whereas ‘Save the World’ was in development for many years prior to 2017. As you all probably know, Fortnite ended up being a world-wide success and overtook PUBG quite quickly. The main reason for it being so successful was that you could play it on literally any platform from PlayStation, to Xbox, to PC, Mac and even iOS and Android, Fortnite was basically everywhere. 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t going that well for PUBG, who tried to sue Epic Games for copying their Battle Royal idea. However, it was actually Minecraft that first introduced the Battle Royale genre with a mod, followed by an ARMA 2 mod in DayZ. Fun fact again, there was a Japanese movie called ‘Battle Royale’ from 2000, based on the 1999 novel by Koushun Takami, which was the very first to introduce the Battle Royale concept. This was even before ‘Hunger Games’. 

Anyway, I hope that this gives you a bit more of an insight into Epic Games as a company. They’re really more like a Game Engine company that then became massive thanks to Fortnite. Earlier this month, they launched a silent update to Fortnite on iOS where they purposely introduced a direct payment system. This meant that users could pay Epic Games directly, rather than the money going through Apple first, which would take a 30% cut. I’ll cover why Apple takes that 30% cut when I’m covering Apple’s side but essentially, Epic Games were not ok with Apple taking a 30% cut of their revenue, so they wanted to avoid paying it. Makes sense, right? 30% is quite significant.

Unfortunately, avoiding the 30% cut was against Apple’s App Store policies, so Apple took down Fortnite until they fixed the issue and as soon as Apple did that, Epic Games had a massive lawsuit ready and they sued Apple and even released a full-on anti Apple video. They even held a ‘#FreeFortnite’ tournament where you could get this ‘Evil Apple’ skin.

Epic knew that this would get them banned, so what’s their angle?

They had all of this ready on the spot, so it was pretty clear that they’ve been preparing for this for a while now and intentionally wanted to get banned in an attempt to get Apple to decrease, or even drop that 30% fee entirely. That makes sense. Fortnite made $1.8 billion in 2019, which makes it the most successful game of 2019 and also one of the most successful Video Games in history. Epic Games doesn’t share how many players they have on iOS, but if we estimate this as 10% of the total player-base, Apple would’ve taken $54 million in commission, and I’m pretty sure iOS, macOS and the iPadOS player-base is quite a bit larger than 10%. This is why Epic Games wants that commission to be decreased or even dropped, they want more profit. But according to them, the users would also benefit by the fact that the prices would be lowered.

When Epic Games introduced the direct payment method in Fortnite, the prices were $2 less, however Epic was still charging $1 more than the revenue that they were making after Apple’s cut. So they were still making more money this way than by going the Apple route. Tim Sweeney, the CEO, Founder and Prime Shareholder of Epic Games, actually sent an email to Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Craig Federeighi and Matt on June 30th, telling them that Epic is unable to provide consumers with certain features in their iOS Apps. They requested the following:

1. Allow Epic Games to have a direct payment method, without Apple taking that 30% cut.

2. Allow Epic Games to launch their own Epic Games Store App on iOS, to compete with Apple’s own App Store.

Those are some big requests, but I do see where Epic are coming from. They say that there are no other options on iOS for Game Developers other than going through Apple’s system. Epic are calling Apple a monopoly and they want others to be able to compete with Apple’s own App Store, on Apple’s own devices. Epic Games stated that on Android you can side-load Apps, so you can have a separate store that competes with Google’s own PlayStore, which Epic Games does actually have. On iOS, you cannot have another store, other than the App Store.

On August 13th, the day Fortnite launched the new direct payment method, Tim Sweeney emailed Apple again, basically making them aware that they will be launching the update today and if they do get their game blocked, they will follow the legal path in getting this resolved. So, this is pretty much what Epic wants. This is their side of the story. 

---

Apple’s Side 

What’s Apple’s perspective on this? Well, Apple does indeed take 30% as a commission, but they do take this from every single Developer on the AppStore. Apple’s argument is that they created the iPhone, they created iOS and they also created the App Store, the world’s very first global App Store on a mobile device. For that 30% cut, Apple is giving Developers:

Apple announced the App Sore back in 2008, the first of its kind and now worth over $50 Billion a year (Source: Apple)

• Exposure to literally billions of Apple users.

• Hosting services on Apple’s store.

• Tools to build their App, with Xcode. 

• A programming language (Swift) that Developers can use. 

• Access to thousands of guides, tutorials and help.

• WWDC - an entire week full of workshops for Developers so that they can update their Apps and get it ready for when the new version of iOS gets released. 

On top of that, Apple manually verifies every App that goes onto the App Store for not just Malware, but also Performance issues and UI Design. They need to make sure that everything is consistent and high quality. For everything that Apple does, they feel like they deserve that 30% cut. It would not be fair for Apple to have to fund the AppStore through AirPods sales rather than AppStore revenue directly. When it comes to Epic’s second request, releasing a competing App Store, Apple’s argument is that they built the iPhone as well as iOS and in order to maintain that high quality and security that they praise themselves for, they need this to be their system. This is the reason why we only have Apple’s AppStore on iOS.

---

My Thoughts

So, what are my thoughts on all this? When it comes to that 30% commission, Epic Games’s first issue, I’m sort of in the middle. I don’t agree with Epic, where they basically want this fee removed as Apple’s clearly providing a ton in return for that 30% commission. But at the same time, I don’t agree with Apple either here as 30% is quite a large chunk.

Initially, that 30% cut was only there in order to help Apple run the servers. But in 2008, Apple was only worth $75 Billion. Today, they are worth more than $2 Trillion! Fun Fact, Apple’s entire AppStore in 2019 alone made over $50 Billion in revenue. So in a single year, that 30% commission that Apple takes made them almost as much money as Apple was worth back in 2008, when the App Store was launched. Does Apple need that $50 billion, when they have $2 Trillion? Probably not. 

Apple are by no means the only ones charging 30%, but a change from them may trigger a drop industry-wide.

However, I’m not saying that Apple should drop the commission entirely, as they still deserve to charge some sort of commission from Developers, but I do think that 30% is far too much. I would say that 15% would be fair and anything lower would deeply benefit the Developers and to some extent, the customers as well. Now, the thing is, Apple isn’t the only one taking a commission. Google also takes a commission, the Playstation Store is also taking one, the Xbox Games Store, the Samsung Galaxy Store, the Nintendo eShop, Steam has one as well and even physical stores such as GameStop, Amazon, BestBuy and Walmart, they all take a commission if you want to sell your product through them. Take a guess what percentage all of these companies charge, as commission? That’s right, 30%.

They all charge 30%. Likely because of Apple being the very first, but the idea here is that no matter where you sell your product, you do pay a 30% commission, with only two exceptions. The first one being the Microsoft Store on Windows, which has recently dropped the commission to only 5%, then there’s the Epic Games Store, which is charging 12%. Other than that, everyone’s at 30%.

I do hope that Apple drops this to 15% or so as that way, all the other Stores will likely follow suit and drop the commission as well, in order to stay competitive. Interestingly enough, YouTube actually takes a 45% commission, which I do think is gigantic. But, I am happy to give YouTube that big of a share because without YouTube, I wouldn’t even have that income in the first place. It’s the same thing with the commission that these stores charge. Without any of these stores, you wouldn’t have any audience and if you do, your audience would be a fraction of what it could otherwise be. 

Epic isn’t only going after Apple, this is all part of a much wider mission (Source: The Verge).

Something that I do want to mention here, regarding the commission, is that there are a few stores that do make some exceptions. Samsung’s Galaxy App Store does take a 30% commission, but you can actually cut a deal with Samsung if you’re big enough. There are some reports that Epic Games has a 0% commission deal with Samsung, which I think is pretty messed up considering that you need to be big to strike a deal. Speaking of that, apparently Apple struck a deal with Amazon where Apple was not taking the 30% commission on movies bought by users who already had an Amazon Prime Membership. Only new Prime Members would trigger Apple’s 30% commission. I think that’s messed up, no store should make any exceptions whatsoever. 

When it comes to Epic’s second request, their own Epic Games Store on iOS, I personally don’t agree with that at all. It’s Apple’s own platform, why would they allow a competing store on it. Not even to mention the fact that this will affect the quality and security of the Apps available. Playstation doesn’t have an alternative to the PlayStation Store, Xbox doesn’t have an alternative to Microsoft’s Xbox Store either, so why should iOS have one? Epic’s argument here is that you can indeed install a third-party store on Android but you cannot do it on iOS at all.

But even with that argument, side-loading isn’t something that the average user would do. Epic already has a Game-Store on Android and then they decided to go on the PlayStore, but not before suing Google as well, in order to avoid Google’s 30% cut. Obviously that lawsuit didn’t go anywhere and they just gave up and stayed on the PlayStore in the end. Now, one counter argument to this would be: why do we have the Epic Game Store on macOS, but not iOS? MacOS doesn’t have as many limitations as iOS does but at the same time, take a look at the quality of Apps in the Epic Games Store or Stream for Mac, compared to the Apps that we get in the App Store.

The App Store games use metal, they run very smooth, they’re very well optimised, whereas Fortnite on Mac for example, even if you have a very powerful Mac that can play it well on Windows, on macOS on the same exact hardware, it has random freezes and many frame-drops that can make it unplayable. Still, Apple made the entire platform, from the hardware to the software, and if they don’t want to compromise on the quality and security of their App Library, I do support that entirely.

---

Present

Now that I’ve covered both sides as well as my own thoughts, what is the status of all this, as of right now? Shortly after Fortnite got banned by Apple, guess what? Google banned it too, Fortnite had implemented the direct payment method on the PlayStore as well.

Epic Games basically had a lawsuit ready for Google, just minutes after the ban. Everything was carefully planned. But they haven’t targeted Google as much as they have with Apple. This is mostly because they do have their own third-party store on Android, it’s far more difficult to access, when compared to Google’s own PlayStore.

This dispute and very quickly, and very publicly turned sour and it’s the Players & Developers who are currently being affected the most.

Apple then gave Epic Games a deadline, August 27th, to release an update to their game to fix the direct payment issue. Otherwise, Apple would close Epic Games’s Developer Account, essentially taking all of their Games and products off the App Store. Luckily, Epic doesn’t have loads of Games. It’s just Fortnite and Infinity Blade but they do have the Unreal Engine, if you remember that from earlier in the video. What this ban meant, was that Apple was planning to revoke Epic’s Unreal Engine License on Apple products, meaning that no Developer could use Unreal Engine at all. So, all the games that I’ve listed before, would be banned on any Apple device (Mac, iPhone & iPad) and third-party Developers would be banned from updating and developing new Games using the Unreal Engine. This was really messed up and I was very against this from the moment I heard about it. These Developers shouldn’t be affected by Apple and Epic’s dispute at all.

Anyway, Apple and Epic had a court hearing and the judge basically ruled the Unreal Engine ban to be completely unfair so they forbid Apple from doing it, but they did give Apple the green-light to keep Fortnite off their platform if Fortnite doesn’t want to follow Apple’s rules and pay that 30% cut. The lawsuit is still ongoing and it looks like it might take a few years to get it fully sorted. 

In the meantime, Epic Games released a few more anti-Apple videos, just mocking Apple and trying to rally their Fortnite community against them. I think that’s messed up and completely unprofessional, so I’m not ok with mockery of any sorts. Apple’s keeping Fortnite blocked until Epic updates the Game. It’s good that Apple are still leaving that door open for Epic to return, when they want. The game is still playable if you have it installed, but you would not be able to download it again if you do not have it installed. If you open up the game, you’ll notice that all the in-app purchases are gone, the Battle-Pass is gone and the game is stuck to the pre-Season 4 update. Also, Apple has now started promoting PUBG on the front page of the App Store, probably in response to Epic mocking Apple so much.

In the end, it really does suck that the player-base is really the one affected the most here. Epic Games could stop this at any time they want really. But, I don’t think they will. I think they’re going to keep this going just to paint Apple in a bad way and if Apple drops the commission, that would be great as other stores will drop it as well. If they don’t, then Epic Games made a massive mistake as they will likely be losing hundreds of millions of dollars over the years.

MSI GS66 Stealth (2020) - A 300Hz Portable Gaming Laptop!

Meet the MSI GS66 Stealth Laptop, a Laptop that comes with a 300Hz Display, but unlike some other 300Hz Laptops, this one is actually very portable. It comes with a 15” Display, it’s thin, light and it also comes with pretty much the highest-end specs that you can find on a Laptop.

MSI sent this over, and sponsored this entire video, for us to take a closer look at probably the most powerful portable Laptop that you can buy. 

---

Design

Starting off with the Design, the MSI GS66 Stealth is an absolutely stunning looking Laptop. It’s got this very stealthy Matte Black look, which MSI is calling Core Black. The logo itself is laser etched into the body of the Laptop, so from certain angles it’s not even visible and you just get a slab of black metal. When closed down, the GS66 Stealth is simply just a straight piece of metal. I really love how this Laptop looks, it’s a very anonymous Laptop so to say, it’s definitely deserving of its ‘Stealth’ branding.

At some angles, you can’t see the MSI logo at all.

It’s also surprisingly portable. With a weight of just 2.1kg and a thickness of just 1.9cm, this is really the thinnest and most portable high-end Gaming Laptop that I have personally seen. The whole idea of the GS66 Stealth is that you have a very powerful Laptop when you’re at work, then you just pack it in your bag and take it to your place and use it as a high-end Gaming Laptop there. It’s really the best of both worlds, work and Gaming.

The Port selection is also very generous on this. We have a Thunderbolt 3 Port, which allows you to connect this Laptop to 5K Monitors or even connect an External GPU for even more Performance in case you need it. You get a full sized HDMI 2.0 Port, three USB 3.2 Type A Ports, as well as one USB 3.2 USB C Port and an Ethernet Port as well. The Cooling on this Laptop is very extensive as well. We have Vents on each side, in the Hinge as well as under the Laptop itself. You’ll see why this is important when I get to the Performance section of this video. 

---

Display

Now, the Display. The model we have comes with a 15.6”, 1080p, IPS Display with a 300Hz Refresh Rate. Usually, Laptops have a 60Hz Refresh Rate, meaning that they can display up to 60FPS. Some of the higher-end Gaming Monitors that you can buy have something like a 144Hz Refresh Rate, or 240Hz as a maximum. This one has an insane 300Hz Display, more than on any Desktop Monitor that you can buy as of right now. So, if you’re a competitive Gamer, this Display is going to make a massive difference as you’ll be able to see five times more frames per second, compared to a standard Display. 

This model has a 1080p Display, but there is a 4K option.

Now, if you’re not a competitive Gamer, MSI does have a 4K option of this Display. This gives you more sharpness at a more standard 60Hz Refresh Rate. If you’re a Content Creator and not an E-Sports Gamer, I would recommend that version, but if you need an insanely high Refresh Rate, you do have this option on the GS66 Stealth. 

When it comes to the quality of the Display Panel itself, it’s a pretty great Panel. The Viewing Angles are great and the colours pop. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any calibration happening at the factory, at least not for the 1080p Panel. The Bezels are very thin, with the exception of the pretty noticeable chin. I would’ve loved this to be as thin as the other three Bezels, but of course that that would’ve required a 16:10 Aspect Ratio Display, which isn’t really that common on Gaming Laptops. 

Something that I really like about this Display is that you can tilt it all the way down and the Hinge itself, just like the entire Laptop, is fully made out of metal, giving the entire Laptop a very premium look and feel. 

---

Keyboard & Trackpad

It just wouldn’t be a Gaming Laptop without RGB.

What about the Keyboard and the Trackpad? I’ll start with the Trackpad because this is far simpler. You get a very wide Trackpad with the GS66 and there are no individual Buttons on it, it’s all just a single Button. Just like on most other Windows Laptops, it does indeed use a Diving Board mechanism, which means that it’s fairly easy to press near the Button and then it gets harder, the higher you go. We do have Windows Precision Drivers, so the tracking is really good, I don’t really have anything to complain about here.

Now, when it comes to the Keyboard, we do have a full RGB Keyboard, with each Key being individually back-lit. The Keyboard Backlight is provided by ‘Steel Series’ and there’s a ton of different effects that you can have and tweak, based to your liking. In terms of how it feels, it’s a very rubbery Keyboard so it’s soft to the touch rather than ‘clicky’. So, if you’re into that, you’ll definitely love this Keyboard. 

---

Camera, Microphones & Speakers

Before I talk about the Performance, which is what you’re all probably here for, we did some tests with the Camera, Microphones and Speakers in the video above. If that’s of interest, be sure to give it a watch.

---

Performance 

Right, time for the Performance. CPU-wise, we get the highest-end 10th Generation Intel i9 10980HK Chip, which is Intel’s most powerful Processor for a Laptop. It has eight Cores and can Turbo Boost up to 5.3GHz. As for the GPU, this model right here comes with the NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super Max-Q, with 8GB of GDDR6 Memory. With the RAM, our unit has 16GB of 2666MHz DDR4 Memory, but you can actually configure this to up to 64GB of RAM. Storage-wise, our unit has 1TB of NVMe Flash Storage, with Read Speeds of just over 3GB/s. So, these specs are pretty much the highest that you can get in a Laptop, normally stuff that you see in a large, thick 17” Gaming Laptop. But as you can probably tell, the GS66 is very thin and very portable, considering the specs that it packs. 

If you’re looking for a Gaming Laptop, you can’t get much better specs than these.

So, now let’s run some real world tests and see how it performs. In Fortnite, I was playing this game on maxed-out settings and I was getting around 120FPS, which is nuts for a Laptop. But, keep in mind that you do have that insane 300Hz Refresh Rate, so if you drop the settings a bit, you can actually get close to, or even exceed that 300FPS mark and take full advantage of what this Display has to offer.

In Call of Duty Warzone, I was getting around 120FPS. This was on ‘Epic’ settings with everything maxed out, except for Ray-Tracing, which was disabled. In Overwatch, I was getting 160FPS on ‘Epic’ settings and after dropping the settings to Medium, I got to 300FPS. I then decided to cap the Frame-Rate to 60 and, holy smokes, I was shocked to see how laggy 60FPS looked, compared to 300FPS. Next up, I tried Starcraft 2, one of my personal favourites and on the highest possible settings, I was getting between 200-220FPS. It’s unbelievable that we can do all of this on a Laptop that can easily fit in your bag.

Now, with this insane Performance, you can also use this Laptop for actual work. So, I loaded ‘Keyshot’, which is what we use for all the concepts and renders that you see on the channel, and the GS66 rendered our ZONEofTECH benchmark in just 29 seconds. This is using the GPU. For example, rendering the same project at the same exact settings, on the 2019 maxed out iMac that has an Eight-Core i9 9900K Processor, took 5 minutes and 50 seconds. This is why having an RTX Card in your computer makes such a massive difference. 

---

Battery Life 

That Thunderbolt Port could come in handy if you’re looking for the best performance on the go.

The MSI GS66 Stealth features a 99WHr Battery, which is the largest Battery that you can legally carry with you on an Plane, so MSI have really gone all the way here. Since we do have a Thunderbolt 3 Port, we can actually charge it via any USB C Charger. In fact, you can even charge this Laptop on the go, via a USB C Power Bank. 

According to MSI, you can get up to 9 hours of productivity use out of it. This will of course drop if you’re Gaming or if you’re doing anything intensive. Also, because of how power hungry the NVIDIA GPU and the Eight-Core CPU is, you will need to have this Laptop plugged in if you want to take full advantage of its Performance. Otherwise, on Battery, it will run at about 50% of its full power.

---

Value

Ok, how much does the GS66 cost and what do you get for that money?

Well, at the moment you can get it for as low as £1,550 and for that price you get a Six-Core, 10th Gen, i7 Processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, an RTX 2060 GPU with 6GB of Video Memory and a 240Hz Refresh Rate. It’s not 300FPS, but it is very close.

That’s the configuration that I would personally recommend. It’s still extremely powerful and with that Thunderbolt 3 Port, you can indeed connect a Desktop Class GPU in case you do need more Performance.

PS5 vs Xbox Series X – The Complete Buyer’s Guide!

PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X? Which one is the better Console and which one should you guys get? Well, spoilers, they’re both very good Consoles. You’ll be extremely happy with either of these two.

But, there are quite a few differences that might make you pick one over the other. We did a similar comparison back in March, but that was before we knew the Design of the PS5, or even the Games and Graphics reveals, so there’s tons of new details in this video.

So, without any further ado, here is the ultimate PS5 vs Xbox Series X comparison, covering the Design, Specs, Games, Graphics, Special Features and finally…Price.

---

Design

Starting off with the Design, the PS5 and the Xbox Series X couldn’t have been more black and white, literally. The Xbox Series X has this very elegant and classy look in all Matte Black. It is bigger and fatter than the Xbox One X, but that’s because of the massive Cooling System that this Console needs. 

In terms of the Ports, we have three USB Type A Ports, all are USB 3.2. We have one on the front and the other two are on the back. In addition, we have a HDMI 2.1 Port, which supports 4K120 as well as 8K60, an Ethernet Port and a Kensington lock so that you can lock your Xbox in place. This is very useful for public spaces, as well as the Expansion Slot for the first party SSD Expansions, which I’ll be covering in just a second. 

The Digital-Only Version of the PS5 is definitely the better looking of the two.

The PS5 on the other hand, is completely different. First of all, it comes in this really nice Matte White colour, with Glossy Black accents and a blue LED strip which I’m assuming would change its colour based on the different states that your PlayStation can be in, such as Rest Mode, Sleep, Powered-On and so on. Size-wise, the PS5 is gigantic. It is much taller than even the Xbox Series X and also taller than pretty much any Console ever made. It is also said to be very heavy at 4.8kg, however, the PS5 is slimmer than the Xbox. 

When it comes to the Ports, the PS5 features one USB C Port on the front, as well as a USB Type A. We don’t really know any other details and Sony hasn’t shown us the back of the Console just yet. It is safe to assume that it will have an HDMI 2.1 Port, an Ethernet Port, a PSVR 1 Port and likely even a PSVR 2 Port, which will allow the External Receiver for that to be connected. The PSVR 2 will be a completely wireless Headset. Also, I do expect a few more USB A Ports on the back. 

Now, there will be two models of the PS5, a Regular Version and a Digital Only Version, which lacks the Blu-Ray Drive. This Digital Only Version looks much better as it’s perfectly uniform. The Disc Version looks like it has this tumour that grew on its side, it doesn’t look good at all and it’s pretty obvious that when Sony designed the PS5, they designed the Digital Version first as that’s really the future. Speaking of models, there is a rumoured second model of the Xbox Series X just around the corner, this is the Lockhart / Xbox Series S, with this possibly having a very square and boxy design. Personally, I really do like both but I am leaning more towards the Digital Version of the PS5’s Design. Something about it just makes it look more futuristic and high-tech, I’m really into that.

---

Specs

When it comes to the Specs, both of these Consoles feature an AMD CPU and GPU alongside hardware based Ray-Tracing and a very fast SSD. So, you would assume that these Consoles are identical in terms of the Performance, but that’s not really the case.

The Series X splits its RAM into two chunks, at different speeds.

CPU-wise, both feature an AMD Ryzen Processor based on the Zen 2 Architecture. These are basically Desktop class CPU’s that you would find in AMD’s latest offering. They’re both 8-Core Processors, however, the Xbox Series X is clocked at 3.8GHz, while the PS5’s CPU is clocked at 3.5GHz. Not only that, but Sony has confirmed that the PS5’s CPU will be running at a Variable Frequency, meaning that while the Xbox will be running at a constant 3.8GHz, the PS5 can go up to 3.5GHz, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it would run this high all of the time. This was apparently done so that the PS5 has more power to divert to the GPU, when needed. Otherwise, the CPU might consume a ton of power even when the Game itself doesn’t actually require that much. 

On the GPU side, both GPU’s are based on AMD’s new Navi/RDNA 2.0 Architecture, which isn’t even out for PC yet. The Xbox GPU has 52 Compute Units, or “Cores” that each clocked at 1.825GHz, while the PS5 has 36 Compute Units, clocked at 2.23GHz. This translates to the Xbox having 12.15 TFLOPS of GPU Compute Power, while the PS5 has 10.28 TFLOPS. That’s a 1.87 TFLOP difference. Fun fact, the difference between the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X was 1.8 TFLOPS, so this is quite significant. 

RAM wise, both have 16GB of GDDR6 Memory, but they’re both using it in a fairly different way. For example, the PS5 has a 448GB/s Memory Bandwidth for the entire 16GB chunk. The Xbox, on the other hand, has 560GB/s but only for 10GB, while the other 6GB are running at a slower 336GB/s. 

At this point, it seems like the Xbox Series X is superior, Performance wise, to the PS5, which is indeed correct. However, the PS5 does have one big advantage when it comes to the Storage. Both Consoles now have a Flash Storage Module, or an SSD, compared to the mechanical HDD’s that the current-gen Consoles have.

Microsoft have Proprietary Drives, but the PS5 allows Third-Party Support.

The Xbox Series X comes with a 1TB SSD, while the PS5 comes with a 825GB SSD. But, while the Xbox’s SSD has a read speed of 2.4GB/s, almost 50 times faster than what the Xbox One, the PS5’s SSD has a read speed of 5.5GB/s, 110 times faster than the PS4 and Xbox One’s Drive. I’ll go into more detail about why this is important when we get to the Graphics section of this video.

Now, with both of these Consoles, you will be able to expand the Storage if you really need to. On the Xbox, Microsoft will be selling Drives that they’ve developed in partnership with Seagate, which will allow you to add one extra Terabyte to the Console. 

Sony won’t be selling any first party SSD, instead, you will be able to buy any third party m.2 Drive and replace the Internal Storage with that. However, it will need to have at least the speeds of the Internal Drive. As of right now, there are no Drives that even match that speed. 

You can indeed connect External HDD’s to both of these Consoles, but you would not be able to play any next-gen Games from those as they’re simply way too slow. You can store your current-gen Games on those, which will be playable on both of these Consoles. 

---

Games

But the specs really don’t mean anything if there are no great games to take full use of them. So, what games are we getting for each Console? Well, this is where the biggest differences between these two Consoles really show.

‘Horizon: Forbidden West’ is just one of the many AAA Exclusives that Sony will have before there are any on the Series X (Source: Sony).

On the PS5, you will have Exclusive Games. So, just like with the PS4 now, all new games made by Sony studios will only work on the PS5. That means that the next ‘Spider-Man’, the next ‘Horizon’, the next ‘God of War ‘and so on. The good news is that those games will look absolutely incredible and truly next-gen. The bad news is that you need to buy a PS5.

When it comes to the Xbox, things are entirely different. Microsoft says that for the first two years, there will be no Exclusives at all on the Xbox Series X. This means that any new Game that you will buy for the Xbox will work on the Series X, the Xbox One X, the Xbox One S, the Xbox One as well as on any Windows PC. So, the great news here is that you don’t really have to buy the Xbox Series X to take advantage of the new Games. The bad news however, is that the Games will not look as good as the Exclusives will on the PS5. There’ll be more about that when it comes to the Graphics. 

---

Graphics

So now, which Console will have better Graphics? This is also really tricky.

If you’re into cross-platform Games, such as ‘Call of Duty’, ‘Fortnite’, ‘Minecraft’, ‘Overwatch’, ‘Assassin’s Creed’ or basically anything that works on both Playstation and Xbox, those Games will run better on the Xbox. Most of these Developers have already confirmed that the Xbox Series X will run their Games at a higher Resolution and higher Frame-Rates. In fact, Microsoft is aiming for a full Native 4K experience at least 60 FPS, with some Games even targeting 120 FPS. 

Footage from ‘Halo Infinite’ did not showcase the best of what the Series X can offer (Source: Xbox).

Sony, on the other hand, hasn’t really confirmed that they’re even targeting 60 FPS. Insomniac Games for example, the Developer of the next ‘Spider-Man’ Game, have confirmed that ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ will have a 60 FPS Mode. But, their Tweet is a bit strange and it sort of implies that you’ll have to choose between 4K and 60 FPS or if you want 60 FPS, you’ll need to have some graphical options disabled. 

Since the PS5 will indeed have Exclusives at launch, these games will indeed look true next-gen, while the launch Games on the Xbox Series X, since these are cross platform/non-exclusives Games, will just look like the current-gen in higher Resolution and at a higher Frame Rate.

Take a look at ‘Halo Infinite’, which we just got a gameplay reveal for last week. The game looks decent, it runs in Native 4K60 but the Graphics themselves just look like current-gen. Take a look at the Grass and the Lighting, now compare it to, let’s say, ‘The Last of Us: Part 2’ or ‘Ghost of Tsushima’. In these games, the Foliage Density is significantly higher. Not only that, but in ‘The Last of Us: Part 2’, you can even interact with the foliage to the point where you can bump into a Pine Tree and you’ll see the snow fall off of it. Also, pay attention to the Lighting and compare both of these to how it looks in Halo Infinite. Also, keep in mind that ’The Last of Us: Part 2’ and ‘Ghost of Tsushima’ are PS4 games, ‘Halo Infinite’ is a next-gen title.

Long story short, when you develop a Game, you have to develop it on the weakest common denominator and then let the more powerful hardware run that same Game at a higher Resolution and Frame-Rate.

Otherwise, if you develop the Lighting and the Physics on a higher-end Platform, porting that down is going to be incredibly difficult. For example, ‘Halo Infinite’ was developed on the Xbox One and then ported onto the Xbox One X, the Series X and then onto PC.

For a PS4 Game, ‘The Last of Us: Part 2’ looked truly next-gen (Source: Sony).

Luckily, Microsoft has also shown a few Games developed on the Series X, which would not work on the Xbox One at all, just the Series X and PC.  Those games were the new ‘Fable’, ‘State of Decay 3’, ‘Forza Motorsport 8’ and a few more. Finally, these definitely looked like next-gen Games.  Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t said when we’ll get these Games, but it seems like they will all come out after those first two years as again, these Games will now be “Exclusives” rather than Games that also work on the Xbox One series, in order to take full advantage of the hardware inside the Series X. 

So, at launch, cross platform Games will look better on the Xbox One X, while Exclusives will look better on the PS5 as the Xbox won’t actually have any until two years after launch. We don’t yet know to what extent cross platform Games run better on the Series X just yet, this is because the PS5 does indeed have that much faster SSD. If we take a look at ‘Star Citizen’, a Game that is actually a PC Exclusive, it has been fully optimised with SSD’s in mind and if you have an m.2 Flash Storage Module for example, that game can run at up to 20 FPS higher than if you were running the same Game, on the same platform, with the same specs, but on a HDD.

The speed difference between a HDD and a standard 2GB/s m.2 Flash Module is a factor of 40x. The speed difference between the PS5’s SSD and the Xbox SSD is only about 2x. This is not enough to give us 20 FPS or anything like that on the PS5, but likely something that can make this Performance gap between these two Consoles, look smaller.

---

Special Features

So what about the Special Features? Is there anything unique in terms of each Console that might make you pick one, over the other? Well, the Controllers are a pretty big difference here. 

The Xbox Series X Controller looks almost identical to the Xbox One X Controller, which is not necessarily a bad thing as that Controller was regarded by many as the best Controller on the market. This has been improved this time by adding a Dynamic Latency Input which is supposed to significantly reduce the Input Lag, making this Controller likely the best  choice if you’re into competitive gaming. 

Microsoft have very much taken the approach of ‘If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’.

However, the PS5’s Controller is a complete redesign. Not only that, but it also implements a Touch-Bar and Haptics Support similar to what we have on modern Smartphones, just on steroids. This will give you the ability to feel different surfaces in a Game, I’m really curious to see how well it works.

The Xbox Series X though, has a massive advantage in terms of Backwards Compatibility. It allows you to play Xbox One, Xbox 360 and even original Xbox Games, while the PS5 will only allow you to play PS4 games with the DualShock 4. Also, the Xbox does feature the Xbox Game Pass, which lets you play a selection of Games via a monthly subscription, which is pretty amazing if you just want to try some Games out. Sony does have PlayStation Now, which is also a monthly subscription, but this one streams Games rather than downloading them, so the quality is affected here. Some Games can indeed be downloaded though, but only a few. 

However, one big advantage to the PlayStation could be the new 3D Audio Engine. This is a hardware-based engine, which will immerse you significantly more into a Game by giving you 7.1 Surround Sound in all PS5 Games. 

---

Price 

And finally, let’s talk about the price. So the prices have not been revealed as of yet, which means that the prices that I’m going to give you are based on leaks from some reliable sources. 

The PS5 is said to start at $400 for the Digital Version and $500 for the Disk Version. The Xbox Series X is said to start at $500, but we’ve also seen reports that Microsoft will also launch another Xbox, the Xbox Series S, which would start at around $300. However, the Series S will be considerably less powerful than the Xbox Series X, whereas both versions of the PS5 are identical in Performance. 

PS5 – Major Controller Updates, Pre-Orders, Price & More!

We’ve had some major PS5 updates over the past week, ranging from the first hands-on video with the DualSense Controller, to Pre-Order Updates, Performance Updates, Games, Graphics and so much more. So, get those snacks ready and here’s everything new in terms of the PS5!

---

Pre-Orders 

First things first, there were a ton of rumors that the PS5 Pre-Orders would start as soon as possible. These were mostly coming from Twitter leaker ‘IronManPS5’, previously known as ‘PSERebus’, who’s actually been very accurate in the past. He started tweeting that the PS5 Pre-Orders would start on Monday, 13th July. This, unfortunately, did not happen.

We then heard the news that the PS5 Controller would get a hands-on look on Friday, 17th July, and that that would also be when the Pre-Orders would start. That did not happen either. But luckily, in that hands-on video/interview that Geoff Keighley had with Eric Lempel, the Global Head Marketing of PlayStation, Eric debunked those Pre-Order rumors as false. He said that Sony will let their customers know, ahead of time, when the Pre-Orders would start. They wouldn’t just start out of the blue and catch everyone by surprise, which is the good news.

A more strict & direct approach from Sony, with the Pre-Orders.

The bad news, or maybe this is actually good news as well, is that we now have confirmation that you would only be allowed to buy one PS5 per household as the stock would be quite low at launch. This was found by a Reddit user who was browsing the web page source code on ‘direct.playstation.com'. It seems that when you’ll try to add another PS5, you’ll get an error message saying that you can only purchase one Console. Now, in that code, it is revealed that Sony will also be adding labels on certain PS4 products that would be PS5 compatible, this includes Games and likely some PS4 Accessories as well. 

Speaking of Labels, we actually got to see the PS5 label that would be on Game Cases, the top left label that we’ve had on PS4 & PS3 Game-Cases and so on. For the first time, with the PS5, the Label is black & white, so no more Blue PS5 Logo or anything like that. Sony seems to have fully embraced the white & black colour scheme that they’ve introduced on the PS5 Console and the PS5 Controller. I do love the minimalist look they’ve gone for.

Finally, seen as how we’re talking about Pre-Orders and Boxes, both Nikkei and Bloomberg report that Sony is increasing the PlayStation 5 manufacturing by around 50% with aims of reaching 10 million units by the end of 2020. Just to give you guys an idea, the PS4 sold 4.2 million units in 2013. The PS4 was released on November the 15th, which is around the same rumoured released date that the PS5 is said to come out. 

The Gaming Community has increased significantly since 2013 and considering the price of the PS5, I do expect loads of users wanting to upgrade to the new Console. I don’t see twice the number of units sold as launch, compared to the PS4, I think that’s a bit too optimistic. But, if Sony manages to manufacture 10 million units of the PS5, that would solve the entire stock issue at launch.

---

Price 

Now, let’s talk about the price, ‘IronManPS5’ tweeted the full prices for not just the PS5 itself, but also the prices for the Accessories. Even though he was wrong in terms of the Pre-Orders, he was right in the past, numerous times. So, even if his price leaks are not 100% correct, they should at least be very close to the final retail prices. 

He says that the PS5 will cost $500, €500 or £450 in the UK. The PS4 Pro was priced at $400, the PS4 was also priced at $400, whereas the PS3 was priced at $500. This might seem like a lot, But do keep in mind that unlike a Smartphone, which can cost way over $1,000 and only used for two years or so, you would actually end up using a Console for a lot longer. This will probably be around five years or even more, which means that the $500 would be split into something like $100 a year, compared to $500 a year, which is what a high-end Smartphone would cost you.

The Digital Only PS5 may only come in at £350.

This $500 is just for the regular PS5, here will also be a ‘disk-less’ / Digital Only version of the PS5, which is said to cost $400, €400 or £350, the same price as the PS4. The only reason why you would get the more expensive PS5 is if you have any disk-based PS4 Games that you still want to play on the PS5. I do have a few disk Games, but I bought all of those when the PS4 came out, then I started moving towards Digital Games. Those old games that I got on disk can always just be bought again from the PlayStation Store as they’ve gotten so inexpensive now. I personally think that I would be going with the Digital Only version, especially since I really do prefer the way it looks.

The DualSense Controller is said to be $60, €60 or £55. The Charging Station for these Controller, which can charge two of them at the same time, that’s said to cost $30, €30 or £25. The PS5 Media Remote will also have the same price. The PS5 HD Camera is said to cost $60, €60 or £55 and finally, the Pulse 3D Wireless Headset will apparently cost $160, €180 or £130. I would say that these are some very good prices, for both the Consoles and the Accessories. 

---

Controller Update 

Now it’s time for the big one, the Controller.

As I mentioned before, Geoff Keighley, who’s pretty well known in the Gaming Industry, was the very first person outside of Sony themselves and the Developers, who has laid his hands on the PS5 Controller. The first thing I took from the full video and interview with PlayStation’s Eric Lempel, was the actual size of the Controller.

We’ve seen some alleged leaked images of the DualSense, where it looked gigantic, but now Geoff has showed us a side-by-side image against the PS4’s DualShock Controller. While the DualSense is indeed larger than the DualShock 4, it is not significantly larger. Realistically, the size and the weight should in fact make it more comfortable than the DualShock 4 was, at least this is what Sony is saying.

The first ‘hands-on’ clip with the DualSense revealed it’s not quite as unwieldy as we may have first thought.

We also got to see the bottom of the Controller for the very first time, which was something that for some strange reason, Sony has avoided showing. This made me think that maybe it was because Sony added two customisable Buttons there, just like the Back-Button Attachment on the DualShock 4. But now that we finally got to see the bottom of it, there are no Buttons at all, just a sticker.

Geoff also mentioned that the Speaker on the DualSense had a wider range of sound, compared to the DualShock 4 Speaker and also the fact that the Controller had a nice hefty weight to it. The game that he got to test was Astro’s Playroom, which is a spin-off from the PSVR’s highly praised AstroBot VR game, just in non-VR this time. The game lets you fully explore the functionality of the Controller, test out the Haptic Feedback, the Touchpad, the Adaptive Triggers and so on. He mentioned how cool the Triggers felt now that the Game Developers could actually implement different levels of pressure in them so that when you draw a Bow, it would feel entirely different from when you would fire a Gun. I can’t wait to try this.

I was expecting Geoff to be blown away by the Haptics or at least talk more about them. He did mention how realistic the game feels but I was just expecting him to praise the Haptic Touch a bit more.

Speaking of Astro, I’m assuming that Geoff was indeed playing this on a PS5 unit, which means that he also got to experience the PS5 to some extent but he didn’t talk about that at all here. However, Eric, PlayStation’s Global Head of Marketing, did talk a bit about the PS5 itself. Aside from the Pre-Order news that I mentioned before, he did talk about how Sony believes in Console Generations and Console Exclusives.

---

Games 

This was in contrast to Microsoft, who will be enforcing Cross-Generation Compatibility for Games. So, any Games developed for the Xbox Series X, at least for the next two years, will also need to run on the Xbox One X as well as the Xbox One. I’ll talk about this more, in a separate video, so do Subscribe and enable Notifications for that. 

But until then, Eric made a good point here, saying that Games such as ‘Ratchet & Clank – Rift Apart’, would not even be technically possible on previous Consoles at all. This is because in this game, which is a PS5 Exclusive, you can instantly travel through different dimensions and take the fights from one dimension to another, which is only achievable thanks to the PS5’s insanely fast SSD, which is more than 100 times faster than the PS4’s Hard-Drive. Making this game run on the PS4 would involve changing the Gameplay and the Story of the Game.

‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ was not fully developed on the PS5, which may explain some of the apparent compromises (Credit: PlayStation).

Not only that, but if you make the game for the PS4 first, which you would do in a down-up development cycle and is how most Games are made, you would not be able to implement such ground breaking features.  Again, more about this in a separate video, but Eric does have a very good point. This is why the next PlayStation exclusive games to launch, such as ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’, ‘Ratchet & Clank -  Rift Apart’, ‘Horizon: Forbidden West’ and many more will only run on the PS5.

Speaking of Games, Insomniac games have confirmed that ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ would run at 60FPS on the PS5, sort of. They said that you would get to choose between a 4K Mode and a Performance Mode with 60FPS.

So, here’s the thing, we were all hoping that this Console generation would finally be a 60FPS generation. Microsoft have already confirmed that their standard would be 60FPS for Games and even 120FPS in some cases. We’ve seen some rumors that Sony was planning to do the same in all of the Games to be released for the PS5. However, judging by what Insomniac has said, it seems like while you can indeed play Spider-Man Miles Morales in 60FPS, you would have to downgrade a few graphical settings and apparently, the Resolution too.

Now, we don’t really know what these downgrades would be as of yet, but I would say that in the best case scenario, we can turn off Ray-Tracing to enable 60FPS. In the worst case scenario, not only will Ray-Tracing be disabled for 60FPS, but the Resolution would also be dropped to 1440p, or even 1080p, and then dynamically upscaled to 4K. Judging from Insomniac’s message, it is looking quite likely that we will have some drop in Resolution as well. 

Now, the good news is that ‘Spider-Man: Miles Morales’ wasn’t fully developed on the PS5. It’s still using the same engine as the 2018 ‘Spider-Man’, just modified to take better advantage of the PS5. It will be only when games such as ‘Horizon: Forbidden West’ or the next ‘God of War’ come out, games which have been fully developed on the PS5 from scratch, that we might see 60FPS as a default on the highest possible settings.

For a start, it seems that Sony would be focusing on the highest possible Graphics first, and then the Frame-Rate. To be honest, even-though I’m personally disappointed in this decision, games such as ‘Last of Us: Part 2’ look absolutely breath-taking on the PS4 Pro, it honestly looked as if I was playing a PS5 game, it looked that good. So, I cannot wait to see what Sony has in store next.

If you look closely, you can still see a little bit of blue on the left-hand image (Credit: PlayStation Lifestyle).

Speaking of that, we actually had a recent leak from what seems to be a retailer that was listing a few Sony products. One of those products is a Black PS5 and a Black Controller with both having a red LED light, as opposed to the standard blue LED light that the White PS5 has. Now, we have heard many rumors that Sony is indeed working on different colour schemes for the PS5, one of them being black, so this could indeed be the real thing. I would expect Sony to give us an update on the colours as the pre-orders open. 

Personally, I do think that this image is fake. It does look very photoshopped, not even to mention errors such as the back of the Controller still being white, or the red light still having a blue glow on the Console. This is definitely fake. Regardless of that being fake, we’ve actually modelled our very own concept of the PS5, in black, and I’m definitely team Matte Black. I would definitely go for this option, should Sony give us the option at launch.

You can of course change the colour of the LED bar on the PS4, kind of. This was done by the system itself, based on the games. I’m hoping that with the PS5, we would also have the option to have custom colours, that would be quite cool!

The BEST TV (2020) - For PS5 & Xbox Series X!

The PS5 and the new Xbox Series X will both be out around November 2020, so now is a very good time to buy a new TV. This is pretty much the best one on the market, especially if you’re into Gaming.

Ok, so a bit of a background story first. My previous TV was an LG B7 OLED. This TV came out in 2017, hence the ‘7’, and it was the lowest-end OLED TV from LG, but that was fine because all of the other models still had the same OLED Panel and the same CPU. The only real difference was that the C7, E7 and W7 had a nicer Design and improved Speakers, that was it.

I bought this TV in mid-2018 for about £1,500, which was quite a good deal, and I’ve been very happy with it. I didn’t really plan to upgrade to the 2018 models as they were mostly the same. The 2019 models were using almost the same OLED Panel again and the 2020 models had some minor improvements, so I didn’t really see myself upgrading for a few more years.

Well, LG HQ actually got in touch and they’ve sent me the brand new LG CX, which just came out now, in 2020. Massive thanks to LG for sending this over. I have to say, it turns out that the CX is a massive upgrade over my B7 and here is why I genuinely believe that this TV is the best TV that money can buy, for the next-gen Consoles. 

---

4K OLED 

So, number one, this is a 4K OLED TV.

OLED is really the highest-end TV technology on the market right now. The only other technology that’s superior is microLED, but that’s still a few years away from being available for consumers. Samsung is indeed working on that Wall TV but until microLED becomes a real thing, OLED is the best.

Don’t be fooled by Samsungs ‘QLED’ Branding, OLED is definitely the superior technology.

Some of you might have heard of QLED, which is what Samsung calls their high-end TV’s. Spoiler though, QLED is still LCD, it is not OLED or anything like that. Essentially, on an LCD Display, the Pixels only provide the Colour and not the Brightness. This means that you would need a Backlight in order to be able to see anything on the screen. This Backlight not only makes the TV’s very thick, but it also means that when you want to display Black, the Backlight would still have to be fully on and would therefore look grey-ish, they wouldn’t be pure Black.

On OLED Displays, the Pixels provide both the Colour and the Brightness, so you can turn each of these 8 million Pixels off individually and get perfect Black Levels and an infinite Contrast. It’s the best picture quality that you can get right now. 

---

120Hz

Now, the second reason why this TV is so good for Gaming is that it supports 120Hz, meaning that it can display up to 120FPS in a game, which is something that both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X will support.

A little bit of downgrade, but it makes almost zero difference.

There have been some TV’s, mostly OLED TV’s from LG before, which have also supported 120Hz. However those ones, like my B7, did not have HDMI 2.1, which meant that while Netflix content could run at 120Hz, all the inputs going into the TV were limited to 4K 60, rather than 4K 120 like we have now. Not only that, but the CX can do 10-bit at 4:4:4 Chroma, which is pretty nuts. However, this is actually a bit of a downgrade from the LG C9 from last year, which could also accept a 12-bit signal. This is because the HDMI Bandwidth has been downgraded from 48Gb/s to 40Gb/s.

My friend Vincent Theo from ‘HDTV test’ did a very detailed Review of the CX and talked about this more in-depth, so if you want to know what this all means, I highly recommend watching his content if you’re looking for the best TV Reviews on YouTube. Long story short, this won’t affect you at all, as 10-bit already displays over 1 billion colours compared to the usual 64 million colours on 8-bit Displays. The Panel is still a 10-bit Panel anyway, it’s just that having a 12-bit signal would have resulted in slightly better Gradients when it comes to Banding. A very minor thing, which I did want to point out. But no need to worry, the PS5 and the Xbox Series X will be fully utilised by using this TV.

---

Response Time 

Now, the next most important thing about a Gaming Monitor, or a TV, is the Response Time. This is the amount of time it takes for the Monitor to switch the Pixels from one state to another, after it receives an input.

This TV could easily be used as a Gaming Monitor, especially the smaller variants.

Gamers prefer extremely quick Response Times, ideally 1ms. Unfortunately, TV’s have typically always had around 30-40ms and around 20ms for the very best TV’s on the market. Well, not anymore. The LG CX 2020 has a 1ms Response Time, on par with all the highest-end Gaming Monitors out there. Anything that I do on my Controller translates pretty much instantly to the TV, Modern Warfare (Warzone) feels like it’s had a massive upgrade. It feels incredibly responsive and it’s pretty much the same experience as playing on a high-end Gaming Monitor.

Not only that, but the CX supports both NVIDIA GSync and AMD Freesync, so if you decide to hook this up to a PC, you can actually use it as a Gaming Monitor. Since this is a massive OLED Panel, the Gaming experience would be even better, even when compared to a standard Gaming Monitor. LG does have a smaller 49” model, which is more suitable for PC Gamers as it’s smaller. If you care about a fast and competitive Gaming experience, the CX is the best TV on the market for this. 

---

HDR Performance 

Another important thing about any Gaming TV is the HDR Performance. 

The CX supports Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HLG and pretty much all the main HDR modes. But, thanks to the brand new Alpha 9 Gen 3 Processor, the Brightness of HDR Content, when in Game Mode, has been significantly improved. With my B7, HDR Gaming was pretty dim to the point where if I was playing anything during the day, I could barely see anything on the screen. But on the CX, the difference in HDR Performance is night and day. Even when in HDR Game Mode, the screen stays just as bright as when it is not in HDR Game Mode. In fact, it was so bright that I had to turn down the Brightness as it was bothering my eyes. 

This was probably the biggest improvement over my old B7.

Not only is the CX significantly brighter in HDR Game Mode, but we also have a new HDR option called ‘HGIG’. What this is, is a brand new HDR standard where the Games themselves send the HDR Metadata directly to the TV, through the Games Console. What this means is that you’ll get a perfect HDR image without having to calibrate the image, as it will always be calibrated as the Game Designers intended. There are only a few games that do support it but for the ones that do, such as Spider-Man and Modern Warfare, the results are incredible.

So, this is why this TV is perfect for the next-gen Consoles. You get a 4K OLED Display with a 120Hz Refresh Rate, 1ms Response Time, NVIDIA G-Sync & AMD FreeSync Support and this brand new HGIG HDR Standard, on top of an already bright HDR representation.

But, there are a few more other things that I really love about this TV.

---

Smart Home

For example, not only does it have an AI Voice Assistant, but it even allows you to set-up your Smart-Home Accessories and control them from there, with full support for the Google Assistant and Alexa. You have this massive digital hub where you can control your entire home, which is really cool.

---

AppleTV & AirPlay

The CX also supports both Apple AirPlay, which means that you can stream content to it directly from an Apple device, and an integrated version of the AppleTV App, meaning that there’s no need for you to buy a separate Apple TV Box. I haven’t even used my Apple TV at all, since I got this TV.

---

Magic Remote

Not something that you might normally think about for a TV, but it makes a huge difference.

Probably my favourite part about this TV, is LG’s Magic Remote. LG has had this for a few years now, you essentially get a Mouse Cursor that you can control by just waving the Remote in the air. It honestly works so well that now it’s simply a joy to navigate through the TV Menus. Even typing text with this Remote is incredible, it’s just like using a Mouse on a digital, on-screen Keyboard. The Remote itself also has dedicated Buttons for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which allow you to instantly access the Apps, there’s really no need for an AppleTV at all anymore. 

---

WebOS

Also, the UI on LG TV’s is just brilliant. You get this Navigation Bar on the bottom, which contains all of your Apps and you even get a dedicated App Store from where you can download even more. The catalogue of Apps isn’t that massive, but you can still find all of your most popular TV Streaming Services. 

---

Sound

The sound on this is very good and you can even enable AI Sound, which will dramatically improve the sound quality based on the content that you’re watching. Also, the TV Remote itself has a Microphone which can monitor the sound levels of the TV and adjust those based on that as well, pretty smart.

---

Design

Finally, you cannot talk about a modern TV without talking about its Design. The CX is basically all screen. There are no Bezels at all aside from the very slim screen border, but that’s it. It looks absolutely stunning. 

Out of the current range of OLED TV’s, the CX is the best value for money.

I also love the stand, which is made out of Machined Metal, it looks very sleek, premium and the TV itself is also crazy thin. It does get quite thick towards the bottom, as that’s where all the components are located, but I do still think that this is one of the best looking TV’s on the market. So there you go, my In-Depth Review of the brand new LG CX 2020. The TV which I consider to be the best for Gaming, in 2020.

Ok, but…why not get the BX which is less expensive? Well, the BX comes with a weaker Processor, which means that the HDR Processing won’t be as good on the BX, as it is on the CX. All of the higher-end models like the EX or the WX still have the same image quality and processing power as the CX, it’s just that those are wall mounted. 

There’s honestly nothing negative that I can see about this TV, aside from the price. It’s quite expensive but OLED TV’s have dropped in price over the years. Again, massive thanks to LG for sending over this amazing TV!

The PS5 - Finally Revealed!

So…here it is.

We have finally got our first look at the PlayStation 5, nearly 6 months after Xbox first showed us the Xbox Series X at last years’ Game Awards. Sony has certainly kept us waiting and they left it right to the very end of their 75 minute showcase to reveal the final design, although there were a few teasers scattered between the Trailers.

We’ve linked the main event above but if you want to check out the entire livestream, check out the official PlayStation YouTube channel for Gameplay & Trailers for games including:

• GTA V - PS5 Edition

• Spider-Man - Miles Morales

• Gran Turismo 7

• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

• Project Athia

• Stray

• Returnal

• Sackboy

• Destruction Allstars

• Kena

• Goodbye Volcano High

• Oddworld: Soulstorm

• Ghostwire Tokyo

• JETT: The Far Shore

• Godfall

• Solar Ash

• Astro’s Playroom

• Bugsnax

• Demon Souls

• DEATHLOOP

• Resident Evil 8: Village

• Pragmata

• Horizon: Forbidden West

We also saw two separate models of the PS5, a standard model with a 4K Blu-Ray Drive and a Digital Edition, without any form of Disk Drive at all. We still don’t have word on a price for either model or an exact release date, but one thing that we certainly know is that this is going to be big, in every sense of the word.

We’ll have a video up on the channel next week, so make sure you’re Subscribed and have that Notification Bell turned on so you don’t miss it!

New Razer Blade Pro 17 (2020) - 300Hz GAMING Laptop!

Welcome to something pretty different. I’ve always been a very big fan of Razer Laptops and have always considered them to be the very best Gaming Laptops that money can buy. This is not just because of their outstanding industrial design, but also because of their incredible performance, amazing Displays and of course, the stunning Razer Chroma RGB Keyboards. 

Well, this is our very first video on a Razer Laptop, we have featured the Razer Core X GPU before, but not a Razer Laptop, and what better way to start featuring Razer Laptops than to review the highest-end one that they make. This is our first look at the brand new Razer Blade Pro 17 (2020), which is likely the best Gaming Laptop that money can buy right now.

---

Design

Design wise, the new Razer Blade Pro 17 2020 looks pretty much identical to the 2019 model. The 2020 iteration is a spec bump rather than a complete redesign, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That’s because the Razer Blade Pro 17 has one of the most premium designs that I have ever seen on a Laptop.

It is made entirely out of machined metal, with an anodised finish that gives it this dark grey or even black look. It’s very sturdy and feels like a tank. Just by using this for a few minutes, I could immediately tell how high the quality of the experience was going to be, just judging by the extraordinary build quality. In a way, it reminds me of using a MacBook Pro. They both have that machined unibody look, the only difference being that the Razer Blade Pro 17 is much larger as it has as 17 inch Display and is also thicker & heavier than the MacBook Pro. You’ll see why that is, when we get to the performance section.

The Razer is built for Performance, but it still looks the part.

Razer also sent over a brand new Razer Studio, which is a beast in its own right with a full 4K OLED Display. That thing is just nuts, but definitely stay tuned for a completely separate video just on the Razer Studio 15. 

On the back we have a Razer logo which does light up, just like on the old-school MacBooks, and then on the bottom we have three massive Vents, with another Air Out-Take on the back of the Hinge. On top of that, the new Razer Blade Pro 17 also features a Vapour Chamber. So, the Cooling on this Laptop is extremely well thought-out, which it really has to be because of the insane specs that we’ll talk about in just a second.

When it comes to the Ports, on the left we have the proprietary power connector, which supports up to 230W of Power. We then have a 2.5Gb Ethernet Port which is two and a half times faster than your usual Ethernet Port, meaning that you can get wired speeds of up to 2.5Gb/s, pretty nuts. Then we get two 3.2 Gen 2 USB A Ports, a USB type C Port, (Gen 2) as well as a 3.5mm Headphone Jack. On the left we have an SD Card reader, I love seeing that. We also get a Thunderbolt 3 Port, I love seeing this even more. It can be used to connect even more powerful Desktop-Class GPU’s, 5K Monitors and more. We then have another USB A Port and a HDMI 2.0B Port, which supports 4K 60 Output as well as a Kensington Lock. So there you go, Port select wise, the Razer features everything you could wish for, which is great.

In terms of portability, the Razer Blade Pro 17 is definitely not the most portable Laptop out there. It’s pretty massive and it also weighs 2.75kg, but at the same time, there are other 17” Laptops out there that are not portable at all. You can at least put the Blade Pro 17 in your backpack when you want to take it to places. So, it is portable, just not as portable as a Razer Studio 15 or a MacBook Pro 15”/16”.

---

Display

When it comes to the Display, the Blade Pro 17 comes with…a 17” Display of course, which in the case of our unit, is a 1080p Panel. Now, 1080p at 17” is probably not the best idea. The Text looks noticeably blurry and it’s just nowhere near as sharp as a QHD or a 4K Laptop. But, on the upside, it is an IPS Panel with 100% sRGB coverage, so the Colour Gamut on this Display is very good, the viewing angles are great. Overall, it’s just a very good 1080p Panel, one of the best I’ve seen.

With the Blade Pro, you can get up to 10 times the FPS that you might be used to on the current Games Consoles.

But, what makes this Display so special, is the Refresh Rate. On Consoles, you mostly get a 30FPS experience. On PC, 60FPS is pretty much standard and this is what gamers aim for. However, over the past two years, we started seeing more and more high Refresh Rate Monitors. These were mostly 144Hz Panels and in order to achieve 144FPS, you needed a pretty beefy GPU, something like a ‘2080’. Well, this panel isn’t 60Hz, 90Hz or even 144Hz. This Display is 300Hz, Meaning that It can display up to 300FPS in a game! That’s absolutely insane. I have done a few tests where I got around 220FPS on this Laptop and it felt unlike anything that I’ve experienced before. Everything was so smooth and so fluid, it almost felt like real life.

So, there you go. This is why we have a 1080p Panel, because if this Resolution was any higher, we wouldn’t have been able to hit 300FPS. The highest that I have seen is 270FPS, which was in Starcraft 2 with everything maxed out.

Now, if you really want, you can actually upgrade this Display to 4K. It won’t be a 300Hz Display in that case, but it will still be 120Hz, which will also support Touch-Input. It does depend on the game that you usually play but I would personally go for that. 120FPS is more than enough and unless you’re an e-sports player, a sharper 4K Display would make a more noticeable difference than the 1080p 300Hz Panel.

---

Keyboard & Trackpad

When it comes to the Keyboard and the Trackpad, the Trackpad is absolutely brilliant. It’s made entirely out of glass and there are no other buttons to it, it is just one piece. It is definitely one of the best Trackpads I have experienced on a Windows Laptop, with full multi-touch gestures. It’s not quite as good as on a MacBook but that’s mostly due to how well the Trackpad is optimised in macOS, compared to Windows. Overall, still a very similar experience to a Mac and one of the best Trackpads on a Windows Laptop.

It just wouldn’t be a Razer Laptop without the RGB Keyboard.

The Keyboard on the other hand is interesting. I found the typing experience to be… I don’t wanna say bad but let’s just say that I was making more mistakes with this Keyboard, than I was on my horrible MacBook Pro Butterfly Keyboard. Most of this is just me not being used to this Keyboard but, the layout of the Keys is a bit strange. The Left Shift Key is quite narrow on the European models, even more so than on other Laptops. The Arrow Keys are similar to the ones on the MacBook Pro’s, with the Butterfly Keyboard, rather than the usual T-Shape style.

But it was mostly the typing experience that felt odd. Something about the Keys didn’t feel right, maybe that’s just me. Anyway, what definitely blew me away was the Razer Chroma RGB functionality. Every Razer Laptop comes with the built-in Razer Synapse App, from which you can adjust the Backlight of the Keys in almost any way you can imagine. You can have a specific Key light up in a specific way when you press it and really have a bunch of different styles and effects that just immerse you into the gaming experience. 

The RGB Lighting makes this one of the most unique Laptops that I have ever seen. For those of you who think that RGB is a gimmick, it might be, but it’s so cool! You can’t argue with that.

---

Camera, Microphones & Speakers

The stand-out feature with the Camera is definitely the Windows Hello functionality.

Now, the next most important thing in a Laptop for me are the Speakers, the Microphones and the Front-Facing Camera. The Razer Blade Pro 17 comes with a 720p Camera. The good news here is that we also get Windows Hello, meaning that we can log into Windows by just using our face, which is nice. In terms of the Speakers, they do sound good and you can check out the comparison between the 2020 Blade Pro, my MacBook Pro 15” from 2019 and the Blade Studio, in the video.

---

Performance

Now let’s talk about the reason why you’ll want to buy this Laptop, the performance. The new 2020 Razer Blade Pro 17, comes with the new Intel 10th generation i7-10875 Processor, which is an Eight-Core CPU with a Turbo Boost of up to 5.1GHz. This makes the Razer Blade Pro 17 one of the very first Laptops to come with an Intel 10th Generation H series Processor.

With the GPU, our unit comes with the brand new Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, Max-Q, with 8GB of Dedicated Video Memory. We also get 16GB of DDR4 2933MHz Memory, which is upgradable to 64GB, as well as a 512GB PCIe Flash Storage. This is combined with a free m.2 Slot, in which you can install your very own m.2 Flash Module. On paper, that sounds pretty amazing. So, how does all of this translate to some real world usage?

Despite all that the Blade Pro already has, you can add even more.

Well, in Doom Eternal, with everything maxed out to the teeth, we were getting an average of 240FPS. Do keep in mind that this is a flagship 2020 game, imagine what you would get in older titles. In StarCraft 2 for example, a game that I’ve never been able to play fully maxed out, the Razer Blade Pro 17 can do this at an average of 270FPS. Overwatch runs at 200FPS with everything maxed out. Fortnite runs at 120FPS with everything maxed out, I was expecting to see even better performance in Fortnite here. Finally, in Modern Warfare, more specifically in Warzone, I was getting around 130FPS with everything maxed out aside from Ray-Tracing. When I enabled Ray-Tracing, I was getting 120FPS, which is still pretty insane.

Also, as a disclaimer, I did those tests about three weeks ago with an unreleased Razer Blade Pro 17, so the Drivers weren’t even up to date. In fact, I was even getting errors that I have unsupported Drivers, yet I was still getting an insane 120-270FPS in all the games that I tested. Once the Drivers do get updated, expect those numbers to be even higher!

Temperature wise, I haven’t’ seen this Laptop exceed 75 Degrees, which is very good. It’s just that if you want to do any intensive tasks, you need to have it plugged in, otherwise you will get less than half of the performance that you get when plugged in.

---

Battery Life

With its size and capabilities, the Blade Pro will drain its Battery very quickly.

When it comes to the Battery Life, I cannot really talk about that as much because my time with the machine was pretty limited and I’ve mostly used it plugged in. We do have a 70.5Whr Battery, which is fairly decent, size wise. But, the MacBook Pro 16”, which has a much smaller body, comes with a much larger 100Whr Battery.

Now, when the Blade Pro 17 was not plugged in, it would discharge basically overnight. So, standby time wasn’t great. Do keep in mind that this was with a pre-release unit though. But, considering that you need to have to plugged in, in order to achieve peak performance, I wouldn’t expect a great Battery Life out of this. Especially when you’re gaming. 

---

Value

Finally, when it comes to the value, is the new Razer Blade Pro 17 2020..worth it?

At a starting price of $2500/2900 Euros, which can go up to $4200/3800 Euros, the Razer Blade Pro 17 is one of the most expensive Laptops that you can buy. However, you do get an outstanding level of performance with the ability to play pretty much any game in well over 100FPS, sometimes even getting close to that 300FPS mark. Also, if you’re not a gamer and you’re into content creation and 3D modeling, the Blade Pro is still incredibly powerful for that as well.

There’s really not much to complain about it. My only wish would be that the next version would feature a QHD Display at maybe 144Hz. This is just because 4K is honestly overkill on a small 17” Display. You won’t be able to reach 4K 120, but you’ll definitely be able to reach 144fps in QHD and overall, it would be a much better experience.