Tom's Hardware's CES 2015 Top Picks

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The Tom's Hardware team was out in force at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas this year, and we've finally had a chance to regroup and establish our CES 2015 Top Picks.

Tom's Hardware's CES 2015 Top Picks : Read more

 

[USAdystopia]

Bet 90% of these "innovations" are NOT accepted by mainstream gamers.

 

[Super_Nova]

I want 3-D head, after seeing that awesome promo-video, and look like an alien, too.

 

[Grognak]

Gaming Docks are easily the dumbest "innovations" we've seen in laptop gaming in a long while.For the price of the laptop, dock and GPU, you could get a laptop that runs every game at Ultra 1080p 60fps and will do so for at least the next 2-3 years, probably even more. It's an expensive toy that'll only be bought by idiots who fall for the bullshit marketing.

 

[Ricky Behl]

Great..

 

[Urzu1000]

@Grognak , you're not taking into account a few things in your comment there.

1: While it's true that this is expensive, you have to take into account that it is relatively new technology. (Yes, I know it has existed as small niche previously, but that's not what I'm getting at.)

2: It's a desktop GPU.

3: If more laptops gain support for this, the prices will get more competitive, and the advantages over just buying a laptop that has a better discrete GPU will be less pronounced.


Also keep in mind: You might have two laptops, or a family with laptops, and they might need the extra "boost" to play certain games. It can be shared among compatible laptops. Furthermore, while you might get a laptop that will last a few years GPU wise, you need to remember that this has the advantage of either lasting several years, being upgradable without buying an entirely new laptop. You could even buy an entirely new laptop and re-use it with that.

You shouldn't look at things based on their current state, but based on their future potential. I completely agree though, that the marketing for current products is a bit...or a lot, of fluff.

 

[maxkremeur]

"best mobile tech X1 " What are you nuts ? Have you even been to the Intel booth ?

 

[brythespy]

Some of you need to realize that the entire consumer electronics world does not revolve around you, your prefereces etc. get of your high horse for once.

 

[kamhagh]

@Grognak yes, this controller is expensive, but there are lots of other controllers including Moga, PS3-PS4 or steelseries controllers that are MUCH cheaper than these and turns the device you "Already have" into a portable gaming console! eve theres the awesome shield controller which sadly only works with shield tablet !

 

[1369ic]

I'm sad to see you either didn't check out the specs on the Creative wonder amp before you praised it, or you did any you're OK with reinforcing the trend toward crappy marketing specs. They used the typical class-D/T amp trick of citing power ratings for both channels into 4 ohms at 10% total harmonic distortion. Most speakers are 8 ohm and 10% THD is horrible. When you check the page you find 22 watts per channel into 8 ohms with 1% distortion is what they should have used, and that's not very impressive. It makes you wonder why they would tout all those non-amp specs (like the very questionable, no-context 127db DAC spec) when it all has to run through a mediocre amp to get to the speakers. The $450 NAD D3020 puts our 30 WPC at .005% THD and seems to offer everything the Creative does, along with decent looks. Size aside, most people would be better off with a $99 Schiit DAC and a $50 craigslist amp (or just an old 5.1 amp with an spdif input).

 

[Demosthenest]

Why the hell isn't there any laptop with gtx 965m, u processor, 6+ hours of battery life and under 2kg? WHYYYYYYYY?

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Why the hell isn't there any laptop with gtx 965m, u processor, 6+ hours of battery life and under 2kg? WHYYYYYYYY?

Enter Dell Alienware 13. It's 860M but is bound to be updated to 965M soon, I believe. 1.96 kg, i5-4210U. Supports external graphics amplifier (though the CPU is bottlenecking most high-end GPUs). About 5-5.5 hours battery life on 1080p video/Wi-Fi surfing. Very decent FHD matte IPS screen.

Ah, I misread: you didn't specify it has to be 13 inch. In that case there are also some models from Asus available with 860M. Other brands too but I don't trust the likes of Lenovo and their fragile Y50. Please keep in mind that the 965M is a brand-new GPU. Expect to see many more laptops with it soon enough.

 

[kamhagh]

I'm sad to see you either didn't check out the specs on the Creative wonder amp before you praised it, or you did any you're OK with reinforcing the trend toward crappy marketing specs. They used the typical class-D/T amp trick of citing power ratings for both channels into 4 ohms at 10% total harmonic distortion. Most speakers are 8 ohm and 10% THD is horrible. When you check the page you find 22 watts per channel into 8 ohms with 1% distortion is what they should have used, and that's not very impressive. It makes you wonder why they would tout all those non-amp specs (like the very questionable, no-context 127db DAC spec) when it all has to run through a mediocre amp to get to the speakers. The $450 NAD D3020 puts our 30 WPC at .005% THD and seems to offer everything the Creative does, along with decent looks. Size aside, most people would be better off with a $99 Schiit DAC and a $50 craigslist amp (or just an old 5.1 amp with an spdif input).

wait, im confused, who are you talking to? please quote or something 😀

 

[Demosthenest]

Why the hell isn't there any laptop with gtx 965m, u processor, 6+ hours of battery life and under 2kg? WHYYYYYYYY?

Enter Dell Alienware 13. It's 860M but is bound to be updated to 965M soon, I believe. 1.96 kg, i5-4210U. Supports external graphics amplifier (though the CPU is bottlenecking most high-end GPUs). About 5-5.5 hours battery life on 1080p video/Wi-Fi surfing. Very decent FHD matte IPS screen.

Ah, I misread: you didn't specify it has to be 13 inch. In that case there are also some models from Asus available with 860M. Other brands too but I don't trust the likes of Lenovo and their fragile Y50. Please keep in mind that the 965M is a brand-new GPU. Expect to see many more laptops with it soon enough.

Alienware 13 looks great but I couldn't bring it to the office 🙁

 

[haggismaninca]

Vote for 3DHEAD! It is awesome!
Favorite articles:

http://www.vrcircle.com/post/CES-1015-is-3dhead-the-oculus-rift-killer

http://gizmodo.com/this-oculus-killer-looks-like-a-gigantic-tron-nightma-1678099108

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/07/3dhead-gcs3/

Hilarious!

 

[DecafTable]

Free Sync Monitors are my most anticipated tech...why no mention?

 

[hst101rox]

Don't forget the nose of the 2016 Chevy Volt unveiling!

 

[PanzerIV]

Nothing really interesting in that list, mostly all 3D gimmicks. The only thing that seemed to have potential at first was the Creative X7... until you go read the specs in tiny characters that says it's barrely like 22-25W if you consider RMS instead of Peak, then 1%THD instead of 10%, and also that most passive speakers like my KEF Q900 are 8Ohm so way to ruin a really nice product with an impressive DAC by using a very sh*tty amp. Thunder powerfull blabla amp... haha!

 

[Reynod]

Girls of CES ??? Need I say more??

 

[TwoEyed Jack]

The phrase "professional gamer" has an oxymoronic ring to it.

 

[scrote]

I'm sad to see you either didn't check out the specs on the Creative wonder amp before you praised it, or you did any you're OK with reinforcing the trend toward crappy marketing specs. They used the typical class-D/T amp trick of citing power ratings for both channels into 4 ohms at 10% total harmonic distortion. Most speakers are 8 ohm and 10% THD is horrible. When you check the page you find 22 watts per channel into 8 ohms with 1% distortion is what they should have used, and that's not very impressive. It makes you wonder why they would tout all those non-amp specs (like the very questionable, no-context 127db DAC spec) when it all has to run through a mediocre amp to get to the speakers. The $450 NAD D3020 puts our 30 WPC at .005% THD and seems to offer everything the Creative does, along with decent looks. Size aside, most people would be better off with a $99 Schiit DAC and a $50 craigslist amp (or just an old 5.1 amp with an spdif input).

wait, im confused, who are you talking to? please quote or something 😀

He is, quite obviously, talking to the editors at Tom's.

 

[synphul]

I wish I had the paydays some of the pro gamers have. Some of those guys (and gals) make decent wages when they win tournaments. Not to mention when someone like 'fatal1ty' got their name all over products marketing merchandise.

 

[Pauline Demetry]

NASA has been "blasting" dissimilar metals together for years. There was even a movie that used it as a central point. Nowadays radio waves are used to bond dissimilar metals together, something this other company still blasting could not afford. Think Boeing.