- Carl Pei’s Nothing will unveil its first wireless earbuds in June
- Wyze unveils Buds Pro with ANC for just $60
- Samsung and Lenovo pull out of physical MWC 2021 appearances
Yesterday was a big day for the laptop world with the introduction of Intel’s new 11th-gen Tiger Lake-H processors. There are plenty of new improvements and upgrades onboard, and a solid list of manufacturers have already introduced devices powered by the new chips.
But I wanted to draw emphasis to a certain exclusion Intel made during its announcement of the processors: it didn’t talk about battery life. Obviously, OEMs have mentioned how long their individual laptops will last on a full charge, but the company making the chips didn’t share any guidance as to what we can expect in terms of longevity.
While I can’t prove it, it’s entirely possible Intel doesn’t wanna share battery stats because of how far behind its technology is compared to AMD and Apple. Both of these companies have introduced chips in recent memory that boast both incredible performance and fantastic endurance. Meanwhile, Intel’s chips have historically lacked in both areas, especially in consumer-grade devices like traditional laptops.
AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series, Intel’s biggest competition with these new Tiger Lake-H chips, offer some of the best performance you can get in a mobile chipset. Intel says its new processors can either match that performance or come notably close, which is good.
Intel shared a list of performance improvements with the new 11th-gen chips, including up to 19 percent better performance gen-over-gen. The new Core i5-11400H can outperform the Ryzen 9 5900HS, while the much higher end Core i9-11980HK rivals the Ryzen 9 5900HX. You also get plenty of support for external elements like Thunderbolt 4, Wi-fi 6E, overclocking, 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes with RST-bootable RAID0, and more.
Really, I don’t think performance will be a major issue for the new chips. They’ll be speedy enough for whatever tasks the laptops they’re built into are designed for.
What I’m worried about is battery life. Typically, whenever Intel includes a super powerful chipset in a laptop, it’s usually a laptop that has no business being a laptop in the first place. It likely needs super high-powered fans to keep things cool, it’s probably huge and bulky, and it probably requires a power connector for at least 90 percent of the time you use it. I can’t help but think these new chips won’t improve anything in this area, and that’s evident with Intel’s lack of acknowledgement when it comes to power draw.
With AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series and Apple’s M1 processor, it’s clear Intel has a long way to go until it’s directly rivaling these newer chips in both performance and battery life. The Tiger Lake-H series likely won’t be the era where Intel comes back swinging like we all want them to. They’re gonna need some more time.
If you want to read all about these new chips, Intel has a full press release on its website.
Carl Pei’s Nothing will unveil its first wireless earbuds in June
Back in January, it was confirmed that Carl Pei would be leaving OnePlus and embarking on a new journey with a new company: Nothing. The new venture will see the introduction of new hardware and software from the ex-founder of the Never Settle brand, and this June, we’ll finally see some of the fruits of his labor.
This June, Nothing has confirmed that its first pair of wireless earbuds, simply called the Ear 1, will arrive. Nothing (pun intended) is known about the headphones just yet, including their design and feature set.
You may be asking yourself, “why earbuds?” Luckily, Nothing has a reason.
So why start with earbuds? Like you, we love music, podcasts, and audiobooks.
We like to immerse ourselves into a world of our choosing. And not have the world choose for us.
But more than that, we believe the earphones market was begging for differentiation, a space where we can elevate design and deliver value from day one.
Additionally, as an area of hyper growth, the earphones market will provide a fertile backdrop as we strengthen our capabilities and prepare to enter new product categories.
But all that is for another day.
Until there’s more to say about the Ear 1s, we’ll have to keep our eyes on the project. Stay tuned.
Wyze unveils Buds Pro with ANC for just $60
Speaking of earbuds, Wyze has unveiled its own pair of wireless buds for just $60. Called the Wyze Buds Pro, the earbuds definitely make a case for themselves in the market with features you typically see in buds that cost $100+.
Right off the bat, these earbuds include 40db active noise cancellation, or ANC. That’s an extreme rarity in earbuds under $100, so it’s interesting to see Wyze include it here. The buds also have wireless charging, a six-microphone voice system, up to 18 hours of battery life, and a transparency mode so you can listen to your surroundings. They’re extremely feature-packed for $60, so I’d assume the only thing taking a hit would be sound quality. Then again, I have yet to listen to them.
Right now, they’re available for preorder if you wanna grab a pair. For those who wanna pay even less, Wyze teases on its website an upcoming version of the Buds Pro without ANC and 24+ hours of battery life.
Samsung and Lenovo pull out of physical MWC 2021 appearances
It looks like Mobile World Congress 2021 won’t be that big of a show, at least for those attending in-person. today, both Samsung and Lenovo confirmed they plan to stick to a digital format throughout the duration of the tradeshow, following in the footsteps of Google.
Last year, many companies had to do the same thing to limit the amount of people who would attend the show in-person due to COVID-19 concerns. This year, it’s no different. Outside of the US, vaccine availability is very scarce, so it makes sense for companies to be weary about having a presence at a tradeshow that could prove to be a super-spreader event.
Currently, MWC 2021 is scheduled to occur in Barcelona June 28th through July 1st. Obviously, I’ll be covering all the biggest news out of the show.
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