Review Index Page 36

  • AMD Radeon R9 290X Review

    In a sense, the Radeon R9 290X could be considered AMD's Titan, as it takes the Tahiti architecture and stuffs with nearly 2000 million more transistors. It's the most complex and powerful GPU AMD has created and by no coincidence, it's also one of the most expensive, but before you click away, that's 'only' $550, which is substantially cheaper than Nvidia's solution.
    By Steven Walton on
    95
  • Gaming Mouse Roundup: Corsair, Steelseries, Gigabyte, Tt eSports, Logitech & Razer

    Shifting from a standard office mouse to something more appropriate for gaming is worthwhile if you care about your performance, but investing $60 or more in handful of plastic might seem silly if you've never experienced the realm of difference a proper mouse can make.
    By Chris Ittensohn on
  • Apple iPhone 5s: The TechSpot Review

    As an incremental update, the new iPhone 5s borrows heavily from its predecessor, building upon its solid foundation yet adding an all-new 64-bit A7 processor, the Touch ID fingerprint reader, a totally revamped operating system, while also learning a few new software tricks that enhance how the camera operates.
    By Shawn Knight on
    90
  • LG G2 Review

    LG has jam-packed nearly every feature you can imagine into the G2, from a powerful Qualcomm Snadpdragon 800 SoC and a 1080p display, to an optically stabilized camera and finely tuned software. LG has clearly thrown everything they can into this device, but does it stand above the rest of the flagship pack?
    By Tim Schiesser on
    85
  • AMD Radeon R9 270X and R7 260X Review

    Previous years have seen the release of a new GPU generation every year which makes the Radeon HD 7000's shelf life surprising, even more so considering the majority of the new RX 200 series cards rebadges from existing HD 7000 products. The RX 200 series will consist of the Radeon R7 240, R7 250, R7 260X, R9 270X, R9 280X and later this month the R9 290 and R9 290X. Confused yet? Well let us try and clear a few things up.
    By Steven Walton on
  • HTC One Mini Review

    On paper, the naming of the HTC One mini makes perfect sense. The mini is a mid-to-high-end aluminum-clad smartphone with a 4.3-inch display, designed for those who want a premium device without the massive size that's often associated with its bigger and faster brother, as well as other Android 'superphones'.
    By Tim Schiesser on
    70
  • Mionix Avior 8200 Gaming Mouse Review

    Like its bigger brother the Naos, the Avior is that rarest of beasts, a fantastic gaming mouse that's also subtle in design. There are no enormous logos or flashy color schemes, build quality is superb, the soft matte finish to the exterior is extremely comfortable, and not once did it stall, slow down or glitch out during tests.
    By Luke Plunkett on
  • Silverstone Fortress FT04 Case Review

    The Fortress FT04 has been designed to maximize cooling while generating as little noise as possible and it sets out to do it in style. Upon first glance this latest version looks a lot like the FT01 that was released back in 2008.
    By Steven Walton on
    70
  • Google Nexus 7: The TechSpot Review

    Time to refresh the Nexus 7 with a new model and new specifications. Asus is still producing the device, receiving a serious speed boost, a better quality display, a rear camera and new features. At $220 the new Nexus 7 presents itself as a remarkably attractive proposition for people who want to read, watch or play.
    By Tim Schiesser on
    90
  • ARMA 3 Benchmarked: GPU & CPU Performance

    Built with Real Virtuality 4, Arma 3 expands on its predecessors' realistic military experience with features including an enhanced mission editor, DirectX 10 and 11 support, improved physics across the board, underwater environments, volumetric clouds, better lighting and a 20km view distance with photo-realistic terrain.
    By Steven Walton on
  • Grand Theft Auto V Review

    GTA V's credits roll for 36 minutes. For however many hours they play the game, players will feel that they are playing a game made by the amount of people it takes to keep a crawl rolling that long. The attention to detail in GTA V is likely unparalleled in any other video game.
    By Stephen Totilo on
  • Samsung SSD 840 Evo 1TB & 250GB Review

    Having aced its attempts at speed and durability, Samsung seems focused on solving flash's biggest sacrifices: size and affordability. Its new SSD 840 Evo lineup has models spanning from 120GB to 1TB, with the largest costing only $0.65 per gigabyte thanks to its use of TLC NAND.
    By Steven Walton on
    95
  • Sony Xperia Z Ultra Review

    If I had to describe the Xperia Z Ultra in two words, it would be 'gorgeously massive'. On the one hand, Sony has crafted an astoundingly beautiful smartphone, combining a slim design with premium materials. On the other, the device is ridiculously large, pushing the boundaries of what can be considered a phone, and making it somewhat hard to use.
    By Tim Schiesser on
    70
  • The Best CPU Coolers: 10-Way Roundup

    An often overlooked but always important side of PC building, we test 10 of the best CPU coolers in the market including units from Noctua, Thermalright, Xigmatek, Silverstone and Thermaltake.
    By Steven Walton on
  • Intel Core i7-4960X Ivy Bridge-E Review: New flagship, old flagship

    Intel is now ready for a refresh of its Extreme platform, but they won't be skipping the Ivy Bridge architecture and moving straight to Haswell. Rather, the LGA2011 platform is getting an upgrade with new Ivy Bridge-E processors.
    By Steven Walton on
    70
  • Splinter Cell: Blacklist Performance, Benchmarked

    Equipped with his iconic night vision goggles and a new counter-terror agency, Sam Fisher has returned to foil another anti-US plot in Ubisoft's sixth Splinter Cell game. PC gamers can look forward to a typical array of graphics options including TXAA antialiasing, soft shadows, horizon-based ambient occlusion and advanced DX11 tessellation
    By Steven Walton on
  • LCDSysInfo for GOverlay Review

    As a PC builder and gamer I find it fun and incredibly interesting to tinker around with my set-up, whether that's buying a new graphics card to improve its speed, fiddling with the cooling to ensure everything can run smoothly, or overclocking to squeeze out some extra performance.
    By Tim Schiesser on
    75
  • Plants vs. Zombies 2 Review: Free-to-play that's better without paying

    Plants vs. Zombies 2 is a free-to-play game with optional in-app purchases. But rather than alienating fans of the franchise by locking content behind pay walls or dumbing-down gameplay, the game is every bit as challenging and rewarding as the original.
    By Mike Fahey on
  • Leap Motion Controller Review

    The miniscule gadget barely measures larger than a USB flash drive, however inside the Leap you'll find two cameras and three infrared LEDs that are capable of tracking hand movements in all three spatial dimensions. Making use of motion-sensing technology to interact with your computer is at least refreshing, if not magical.
    By Rick Burgess on
    70
  • Lenovo IdeaCentre Horizon 27-Inch All-in-One Review

    Lenovo's IdeaCentre Horizon embraces Windows 8's touch capabilities with a social twist - it moonlights as a Surface (the table, not the tablet) that can be used by the entire family for a "fun night in." The design is innovative and has a ton of potential on paper. But how does this translate to real world usage?
    By Shawn Knight on
    65
  • Corsair Obsidian Series 350DW Case Review

    Branded the Obsidian 350D, Corsair's newcomer crams its more expensive sibling's features into an affordable microATX package and sports the same clean, black brushed-aluminum finish, handy tool-free design and innovative cable management.
    By Steven Walton on
    95
  • Nokia Lumia 925 Review

    The Lumia 925 is what the Lumia 920 should have been at launch: a device with some fantastic technology packed into a design that isn't a massive, heavy slab of plastic. If you're after a Windows Phone, this is the high-end device you should be looking at, as it's simply the best one out there.
    By Tim Schiesser on
    80
  • Gigabyte Brix Mini PC Review

    Gigabyte's pint-sized Brix systems come in four different processor configurations, from Celeron to Core i7 variants. More powerful than Intel's NUCs, the BRIX is Gigabyte's take on SFF systems, adding more ports and Wi-Fi out of the box.
    By Steven Walton on
    70
  • Lian Li D8000 Review: Double-Sized, Full HPTX Tower

    Lian Li's latest HPTX chassis is larger than any case we've seen before, supporting well over a dozen hard drives, which should make it a hit among case modders, folks with liquid cooling and other extreme setups as well as professional users such as photographers, video editors and animators.
    By Steven Walton on
    85
  • Lenovo Yoga 11S Ultrabook Review

    A lot has changed since late last year when I first looked at the Yoga 13. That system showed that there is a market for convertible notebooks and while the Yoga 11S is essentially a slimmed down version of the original, there needs to be more to it at this point to make it a true standout device.
    By Shawn Knight on
    70
  • Palit GeForce GTX 780 Super JetStream Review: Overclocking to reach Titan-like performance

    We've only previously seen water-cooled GTX 780 cards pushed this far. Palit's GTX 780 Super JetStream is no ordinary graphics card, however, as its massive heatsink and three large fans keep its core cool when under stress -- a solution that allows the card to outpace the Titan, Palit says.
    By Steven Walton on
    90
  • Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 Review

    Apple won't appreciate my perversion of their iPad Mini slogan, but the Lenovo ThinkPad 2 is every inch a ThinkPad. Polarizing as it may be in the consumer world, ThinkPads have long-donned an inky-black design with well-defined corners and edges. Love or hate it, the ThinkPad 2 tablet lives up to its namesake.
    By Rick Burgess on
    85
  • Ouya Gaming Console Review

    The Ouya sets the bar low with its $99 price tag and its initially-free games. There are some good games, but not many, and they're hard to discover. Yet the system is a fascinating experiment and can be fun for those for whom $99 isn't much to plunk down. Read on for some of the hits and misses along with a look at the game lineup.
    By Stephen Totilo on
  • Razer Blade 14" Gaming Laptop Hands On

    At a mere .66 inches thick and powerful enough to capably handle some of the most demanding games on the market, Razer's new 14-inch Blade might be the coolest piece of equipment I've ever played a PC game on. Crammed inside its sleek aluminium body is an Intel Core i7-4702HQ and Nvidia GeForce GTX 765M.
    By Mike Fahey on
  • Company of Heroes 2 Performance, Benchmarked

    Company of Heroes 2 takes advantage of DirectX 11 but also supports DirectX 9, and Relic's proprietary Essence 3.0 engine has a mess load of new features. Our tests comprises nearly 30 graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia paired with an Intel Core i7-3960X to remove any CPU bottlenecks.
    By Steven Walton on