The world of personal computing just keeps chugging along, and any technological problems are treated more as minor annoyances rather than full-blown road blocks. As it stands, computers are getting even brawnier, speedier, smaller, and even more innovative by the minute. Only a few really get to stand out from the crowd, however, and in our opinion, these are the ones that deserve special mention.
- Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1080 Xtreme ( Best Overall Graphics card )
The stock Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 is already a beast in its own right. But slap in the crazy antics of add-in-board partners and you get a card that not only blows any graphical workload out of the water, but also turns any rig into sweet eye candy. Out of the many aftermarket 1080s out there, the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme delivers not only great performance, cooling, and looks, but also a dedicated 5.25-inch front I/O solution for VR aficionados.
It features 2560 CUDA cores with a maximum factory overclock of up to 1936 MHz—the highest buzz we’ve seen thus far, as well as 8 GB of GDDR5X VRAM with an effective memory data rate of 10400 MHz on a 256-bit-wide bus. This Pascal-based card is cooled by Gigabyte’s signature WindForce stack 3x cooling system composed of three 100 mm dual ball bearing fans, angular radiator fins, six composite heat pipes, and a large copper base plate covering the GPU and VRAM modules
Additionally, it also boasts Gigabyte’s signature durable build with a back-plate covered, aerospacegrade PCB that is dustproof, bendproof, and waterproof. That last bit there is particularly important to water-cooled rigs where a bad leak can spell disaster for the entire PC. And just to hit that point a bit harder, it comes with up to a four-year warranty. Four years!
- Asus Republic of Gamers Strix GL502 ( Best Overall Gaming Laptop )
Now this was a tough one. Obviously, there are a lot more powerful laptops in the market, including the MSI GT Titan with its SLI graphics cards and mechanical keyboard; Asus’ own ROG GX700 with its water-cooling attachment; and the Razer Blade with its impossibly svelte form factor. However, those are either too large to strut around everyday or likely to face serious overheating problems in the long run. But while the Asus ROG Strix GL502 doesn’t excel in everything, it is a jack of all aspects, allowing for true on-the-go gaming with little compromise.
Driving this notebook is up to an Intel Core i7- 6700HQ four-core eight-thread processor, up to 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, and up to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 video card with up to 6 GB of video memory. It also carries up to a 512 GB SSD, up to a 2 TB HDD, and a 15.6-inch LED backlit IPS display with up to 4K resolution. These are essentially desktop-grade components (give or take a couple of performance metrics) crammed into a mere 2.2 kg package.
One of the problems compact gaming laptops face is thermal management. Luckily, the GL502’s Hyper Cool Duo-Copper cooling solution is sufficient enough to keep temperatures tame. As such, both the processor and graphics chip rarely faces thermal throttling, ensuring a smooth use scenario. Of course, more manageable temps also mean you won’t be searing yourself when you’re trying to game.
- Lenovo yoga book ( Most Innovative 2-in-1 )
I truly wish the market would see more innovations like what the Lenovo Yoga Book brings to the table: a 2-in-1 device that you can touch, swipe, type on, and draw with. What makes it unique from other convertibles, you ask? It has no physical keyboard. Rather, its bottom part is a blank slate that transforms into either a capacitive haptic keyboard or a sizable Wacom digitizer. What you end up with is an ultra thin and light device built for quick bursts of productivity wherever and whenever it may hit you.
And by quick bursts, I mean quick. This thing isn’t built to handle resource-intensive activities such as heavy audio, photo, and video editing. It’s only equipped with an Intel Atom x5-28550 processor, 4 GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and 64 GB of expandable storage after all. That also means you won’t be storing a lot of multimedia on the internal storage, though feel free to load up a microSD card with all the movies you want because the 10.1-inch Full HD 1920 x 1200 IPS display is very pleasant to the eyes. Battery life ain’t bad either and can last you a full working day.
The Yoga Book ships with a stylus, and the whole drawing/writing array is as responsive as can be. Overall, it’s a wonderful tool for sketch artists and notetakers alike. Here’s hoping that the next iteration comes with beefier specs for more demanding tasks.
- HP Spectre ( Best Overall ultrabook )
Ultrabooks—you won’t be gaming on them, but if you need some serious work done in a coffee shop, on the road, or wherever, and you don’t want to strain yourself carrying around a backbreaker of a laptop, they’re the one to get. And the ultra thin, ultra smexy HP Spectre hits all the right notes for a portable, work-oriented device.
Even though it’s just 10.4 mm thin and 1.12 kg light, the HP Spectre’s metal and carbon fiber body still manages to pack some serious heat. It comes with up to an Intel Core i7-6500U dual-core Hyper-Threaded processor with integrated Intel HD Graphics 520, 8 GB of RAM, up to 256 GB of PCIe NVM M.2 solid state storage, Intel 802.11ac 2x2 Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.2 interfaces. Under the hood is also a 13.3-inch Full HD IPS panel protected by Corning Gorilla Glass, while flanking both sides of the surprisingly tactile keyboard is a pair of Bang and Olufsen custom-tuned speakers.
To further add to the glitz and glamor, the HP Spectre also sports a unique “piston hinge” mechanism that makes it seem that the display is floating. To achieve this, HP has engineered the crescent-shaped hinge to slide in and out of the device’s body. The premium treatment is capped off by the gold and black color treatment all around.
- AOC agon aG271QX ( Best Overall Gaming monitor )
A great monitor may seem like an unnecessary purchase, but trust me when I say that it’s worth it. Not only will you greatly benefit from and appreciate the better brightness, contrast, and colors an above average panel can provide, you’ll also be saving yourself from the headache and eye damage arising from cheaply made screens. Gamers also have the added incentive of better refresh rates and sync times when they fork out a little more cash for a dedicated gaming monitor over an office-purpose one.
AOC recently entered the Philippine gaming monitor market with the Agon AG271QX, a competitively-priced, straightforward package. Its panel is a 27-inch diagonal with a 1440p resolution, and though the viewing angles suffer because it’s only a TN one, the tradeoff is the buttery smooth 144 Hz refresh and 1 ms response rate. It also boasts Adaptive Sync technology to reduce tears and stutters when gaming. The AG271QX also comes with Flickerfree and Low Blue Light technology that help reduce eye fatigue, as well as fluid joints for height, tilt, and angle adjustment.
- Samsung 850 Pro ( Best Overall Storage )
Though 2.5-inch SATA SSDs have become significantly cheaper over the last year, their storage-per-Peso ratio is still pretty steep. It’s even steeper for M.2 solutions and PCIe-based SSDs, and is eye-openingly costly for those using the newer NVMe standard. Until such a time where you can get 1 GB of flash storage for under PHP 10 (average is around PHP 20 to PHP 30 per gigabyte), hard drives will still be the way to go for economicalbulk storage. However, if you got the dough to buy an allaround great SSD, the Samsung 850 Pro is the one you should be gunning for.
The 850 Pro is an impressive mix of performance and consistency. Not only does it boast superior read and write speeds both in random or sequential workloads, it can also sustain blazing fast data throughput so you don’t get random drops and gains. Better yet, it’s not a power hog, meaning it won’t generate too much heat that will shorten its lifespan. Speaking of lifespan, it has a 150 TB total read/write endurance and an amazingly long 10-year warranty to showcase how confident Samsung is with the puppy.
