AMD's naming scheme made it all but apparent that the company would be coming out with a Radeon RX 5600-series graphics processor to slot between the RX 5500- and RX 5700-series GPUs. Sure enough, AMD announced just that at its press event for CES 2020.

Specifically, AMD announced the Radeon RX 5600 XT. It touts the new graphics processor as the ultimate choice for 1080p gaming, with enough power to handle recent AAA games at max settings while delivering over 60 fps.

The specs

The Radeon RX 5600 XT runs on the same RDNA architecture found in the RX 5500 and RX 5700 cards. It offers up 36 compute units running at a up to 1,560MHz boost clock and aiming for 1,375MHz as AMD's Game Clock. The cards will include 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM.

AMD showed the new graphics card boasting 92 fps for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, 88 fps for The Division 2 and 87 fps for Gears of Wars 5. Those framerates show the RX 5600 XT beating out the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti by a decent margin, and the new AMD card happens to cost the exact same price as its Nvidia counterpart: $279 (about £210, AU$400) .

AMD also wants to target competitive online titles. It showed the RX 5600 XT hitting 124 fps in Apex Legends, 126 fps in Fortnite and 147 fps in World of Warcraft: Battle For Azeroth.

The new graphics card from AMD is shaping up nicely to compete with Nvidia in the mid-range graphics card market. And, it will do so soon, as AMD has set a launch date of January 21, with the card coming from all of AMD's AIB partners.

A mobile version, the Radeon RX 5600M, was also announced for a launch in the first half of 2020 alongside a Radeon RX 5700M. These two new mobile graphics processor will likely play a large role in AMD's deeper push into the mobile computing space in 2020 alongside its Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs.

• Check out all of TechRadar's CES 2020 coverage. We're live in Las Vegas to bring you all the breaking tech news and launches, plus hands-on reviews of everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops and smart home gadgets.

If 2020 didn't already seem like it was going to be the year of foldable devices, Lenovo is making it seem even more likely with the official introduction of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold at CES 2020. Many of the key details of the new device have been shared by our sister site, Tom's Hardware.

The ThinkPad X1 Fold isn't exactly new, as we'd already had a hands-on with an early prototype of the device in May 2019. The device is the next logical evolution for the Lenovo Yoga Book C930, taking what was a two-screened device and eliminating the gap in the middle where the hinge is.

This new ThinkPad X1 Fold is effectively similar to the Samsung Galaxy Fold, but on a larger scale. It has a 13.3-inch 4:3 OLED display that can fold in half. When it's shut, the device is made to look like a classy, leather-backed notebook. When it's open, it can sit in a variety of positions.

A kickstand on the back of the ThinkPad X1 Fold lets it stand up like a Surface Pro tablet, so you can use the full size of its display with a keyboard for a laptop-like experience. 

The display can also fold into a semi-open position. This lets you use it with the keyboard docked on the lower portion of the display, giving you more of a mini laptop to work with. In this position, you'd have about a 9.6-inch display space.

Not the foldable for just anyone

Among the new details to come out is the price. The ThinkPad X1 Fold will start at a stunning $2,499 (about £1,900, AU$3,600). It comes fitted with an unspecified Intel Core processor with Intel Hybrid Technology, which may be Intel's stacked Lakefield design.

That's a high starting price for a laptop or tablet, especially one that only comes with 8GB of RAM. This is definitely going to start out as a business-class laptop. The leather and carbon fiber trappings are also suggestive of this. Given the uncertainties about flexible displays that have only been made worse by the Galaxy Fold's issues, the ThinkPad X1 Fold is likely only going to be in demand for people who have the money to risk on a product that may run into design faults. 

Lenovo has put extra efforts into testing the hinge for durability. But, the plastic display that enables its flexibility will be more scratch-prone than a standard glass display. At least we can count on Lenovo avoiding any unsightly hinge crease, as we've seen accomplished on the new Motorola Razr.

The ThinkPad X1 Fold will launch in Q2 2020, per an earlier announcement from Lenovo.

• Check out all of TechRadar's CES 2020 coverage. We'll be live in Las Vegas to bring you all the breaking tech news and launches, plus hands-on reviews of everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops and smart home gadgets. 

At the beginning of 2019, AMD had a lot to respond to. Nvidia was still the king of the graphics hill with its RTX 20-series, and Intel similarly had the CPU space covered with many of the best processors thanks to powerful single-core performance.

But, this has been a year for change, and AMD embraced that. AMD launched a slew of new products this year, and shook up the market in a way we haven’t seen in a long while. It’s now coming out on top in a number of hardware matchups against its rivals, and is showing serious momentum that could make 2020 an even more impressive year.

• Here are the best graphics cards
• The Steam Winter Sale is on
• We'll show you how to build a PC

AMD in early 2019:

AMD started 2019 with something of a bang. At CES 2019, we not only learned a little bit more about the Ryzen 3000 processors that would be coming, but AMD also introduced the first consumer 7nm graphics processors in the AMD Radeon VII.

The new Radeon VII was the answer to Nvidia that AMD fans had been waiting for, at least kind of. It couldn't offer performance that could keep up with Nvidia’s best consumer graphics card, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, but instead rivaled the slower RTX 2080. And, the card’s 7nm architecture likely played a part in the cards ability to also run cooler than the Nvidia RTX cards we tested, helping dispel the long-running impression that AMD products run hot - though some still do.

The Radeon VII may not have been the card to rule all graphics cards, but it was an impressive entry from AMD at a fair price point of $679 (about £540, AU$970) at launch, which seated it below the price of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080. That was good news for gamers, and even better new for creatives who could take advantage of the insane 16GB of HBM2 VRAM.

That price-to-performance win was just the first hint of things to come from AMD later in 2019.

AMD also had something to show in the mobile space in early 2019 with the introduction of 2nd Gen Ryzen Mobile processors. It released several models, all with integrated graphics, for mobile devices that tended to feature in more affordable laptops than Intel counterparts. A few  months later, AMD also introduced new Ryzen Pro mobile processors. However, in light of AMD’s imminent 7nm architecture, all of these mobile processors were a little less exciting on account of their 14nm architecture.

All the cores and all the power

The events that would make 2019 the year of AMD began to unfold in July, when AMD launched its first Ryzen 3000 processors. The new CPUs were built on the 7nm Zen 2 architecture, a move which proved to allow AMD to offer substantially more performance while maintaining similar thermal profiles to the Ryzen 2000 processors before them.

The Ryzen 3000 party kicked off hard, with affordable CPUs that were scoring big in performance benchmarks. These new processors quickly rocked the consumer CPU market, knocking Intel out of many spaces in our picks for best CPU. 

At mid-range, the Ryzen 5 3600 and 3600X became true champs, especially where gaming is concerned, toppling even some of Intel’s best CPUs in gaming benchmarks. The Ryzen 7 3700X also impressed, but the Ryzen 9 3900X and 3950X showed that the mainstream processor market and HEDT market are starting to blur. We saw the Ryzen 9 3950X challenge CPUs twice its price.

These new CPUs also introduced PCIe 4.0 on compatible X570 motherboards, which doubles the possible transfer rates of add-in cards, enabling faster SSDs and graphics. Of course, another perk of AMD’s new lineup of chips is that anyone with a Ryzen system already built could upgrade to one of the new Ryzen 3000 series chips without needing a new motherboard, as AMD has stood by its promise to support the AM4 CPU socket.

The Radeon bait-n-switch

Shortly after the introduction of the new Ryzen 3000 CPUs, AMD also unveiled its mid-tier Radeon graphics cards, the Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT. These new cards came in at price points that were below the competing Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 and 2070. The RX 5700 was initially $379 (about £300, AU$550) and the RX 5700 XT was $449 (about £350, AU$650). 

But those initial prices turned out to be a fake out, AMD admitted. They lured Nvidia into introducing the RTX 2060 Super and 2070 Super. Then what did AMD do? It lowered the prices of its brand new cards to $349 (around £280, AU$500) for the RX 5700 and $399 (around £320, AU$570) for the RX 5700 XT, promptly undercutting the new GeForce Super RTX series.

These new cards renewed the tight competition between AMD and Nvidia at almost all levels of the competition. AMD’s older Vega-based graphics processor still had something to offer on the low-end, while the new 7nm chips were competing nearly up to the highest tier for gaming. But, AMD still didn’t come up with an answer to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.

More recently, AMD introduced its lower-tier Radeon RX 5500 XT, which can muster the performance needed for strong 1080p gaming with low power consumption and a low price. It has proven a competent competitor with Nvidia’s GTX 16-series graphics processors.

Taking the lead

The move to 7nm in both the CPU and GPU department has helped AMD come out on top in a number of ways. It still may lack a challenger to Nvidia’s top mainstream graphics processor, but AMD is offering impressive value against almost everything else Nvidia has to offer, from the GTX 1650 up to the RTX 2080. 

AMD’s processor gains are even more impressive. Not only has it shown incredible performance, we’ve seen AMD jump ahead in sales and even break overclocking records. One German retailer sold five times more AMD processors than Intel processors in November, and a similarly high lead in September. 

Helping make it clear that Germany isn’t a special exception, the best selling CPU list from Amazon has seen dominated by AMD recently. AMD had a strong hold on eight of the top 10 slots, with the Ryzen 7 2700X landing the top spot followed by the Ryzen 5 2600 and Ryzen 5 3600. At the time of writing, AMD’s hold on that list has even grown, knocking Intel out of the top 10 entirely, with a motherboard curiously landing the 10th slot.

AMD has seen a bump in the Steam Hardware Survey as well. AMD processor now appear in 20.5% of Steam users’ computers, a jump up from 8% two years earlier. The actual percentage could be even higher, as AMD has argued Steam’s survey undercounts AMD systems because individual log-ons at internet cafes would count the same computer multiple times.

What’s in store for 2020?

All signs point to 2020 being another big year for AMD, as it doesn’t show any signs of losing momentum.

AMD is already done designing Zen 3, and chips based on that architecture are expected in late 2020. Once again, they should work on any motherboard with an AM4 socket, keeping the low barrier of entry for users already running a Ryzen system. The new Ryzen 4000 series may even double the simultaneous multithreading, which could allow a single core to process four threads (never mind that one of AMD’s 16-core processors would then handle 64 threads).

While it may seem like the Ryzen 9 3950X with 16 cores is tipping the scales of what a mainstream processor should be, it’s possible AMD planning even more cores for the mainstream market.

Graphics will hopefully be getting plenty of attention from AMD in 2020 as well. The Radeon VII may be the top competitor the company has, but it’s already reached the end of life. It’s about time for AMD to launch something that can compete at the high end, and CES 2020 would be a great time to do it.

The Radeon VII was launched at CES 2019, and a follow up makes a lot of sense. A new high-end card, this time built around the Navi architecture instead of the Vega used for the Radeon VII, could be just what AMD needs to challenge the best from Nvidia.

At the lower tier, AMD’s graphics processors could get a boost, so to speak, from Radeon Boost. This could make lower-end cards feel more powerful by using adaptive resolution to smooth out frame rates when there’s a lot of movement on screen but hold the full resolution when the scenery is static. But, we may be waiting until 2020 to see if that’s what the feature is.

In-game physics may also get a boost in 2020 with AMD’s FEMFX. The technology shows promise, as materials shatter and tear apart while others melt and deform in realistic ways using multi-core physics processing. While Nvidia blustered about ray-tracing in 2018, AMD could have something far more compelling ahead in FEMFX.

That compelling experience could also find its way to a much wider audience, as 2020 is all set to be another year for AMD to secretly shine in the console space. Both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 are expected to launch in 2020, and they’ll have AMD hardware powering the experience. 

If 2019 looked like a good year for AMD, 2020 appears to hold just as much promise - if not more.

• Plenty of AMD processors made it onto our list of the best processors

5G's promises are super exciting: the next-gen cellular networks are going to make phones way faster, letting you do things like stream AAA video games without latency, or download entire series in HD in a matter of seconds. So Verizon's proposed 5G home internet should be just as exciting - but from what we saw at a preview event, 5G home internet struggles in the same ways as mobile 5G.

We had a chance to check out an apartment running on Verizon's 5G Home in Chicago, one of the biggest 5G battlegrounds in the US. We already saw Verizon deploy the first 5G mobile network in that city, so we were eager to see how the carrier-telecom could bring the same next-gen network to home internet.

The big takeaway is that 5G is just another way to get your data from point A to point B, and there's less to get excited about than you'd hope, though it leaves the door open for more rapid improvements down the line. And thankfully, Verizon is making it easy for early adopters to try the new service out - read on for what we found.

• 5G: everything you need to know

What is 5G home internet?

There are many parts in the infrastructure of the internet, but the one most of us care about is that last stretch that delivers it to our house - the so-called 'last mile'. 

Some of us get our internet through phone lines in the form of DSL, some get it beamed down from satellites, and many of us get it through the copper cable lines coming into our homes. A lucky few get it routed through high-speed fiber optic cables, but that rollout has been slow-going.

5G home has been proposed as a higher-speed alternative by beaming signal into the home. In the case of Verizon's 5G Home service, a high frequency radio wave (mmWave) wirelessly sends data back and forth between a nearby cell tower and a receiver set up within a customer's home. 

So, instead of having a physical cable connecting your home or apartment to the network, you've got a wireless signal carrying data over that last stretch.

Once that 5G signal hits Verizon's 5G Home receiver, it's carried over a typical Ethernet cable to a standard Verizon router, which broadcasts Wi-Fi signal within your home. From there, every device connecting to that internet signal is doing so over Wi-Fi or a wired Ethernet connection. None of them are connecting directly to that 5G signal.

So, it's really just normal internet?

The short answer: yes. While the window receiver will pick up a 5G signal, that receiver is the only piece of the whole setup that actually interacts with the 5G towers outside. 

You don't plug your computer into the coaxial cable with cable internet, and you won't be connecting your device to the 5G network with Verizon 5G Home. You'll still just being using Wi-Fi or Ethernet to create your home network, albeit on the new, speedier Wi-Fi 6 protocol.

We tested that connection the apartment Verizon had set up for an event. Running a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G on the Wi-Fi 6 connection, we downloaded the 1.8GB PUBG Mobile game in one minute and 38 seconds. 

That translates to a download speed of 18.4MB/s (or 147.2 Mbps). That's fast, but it's not mind-blowing compared to 5G mobile speeds we've seen - or the claims of top-tier home interent providers. For instance, Comcast Xfinity offers plans from 25Mbps to 1,000Mbps.

What's it cost me?

Verizon's 5G Home plan costs $70 month with auto-pay and paperless billing, but Verizon customers with a mobile plan of $30/month of more can get the 5G Home service for a discounted $50 a month. Verizon's plan doesn't have any extra taxes or fees on top of that price though, and the hardware needed for the service is included in the price.

Early adopters get a bit of a break with an introductory trial that offers three months free alongside a year of Disney+, a month of YouTube TV, and a streaming device thrown in for free (pick between an Amazon Fire Stick, Amazon Fire Cube, or Stream TV). 

Are there advantages to 5G home internet?

Truth be told, the price is one advantage. Verizon's 5G Home appears to have a fair price compared to other plans. It's not forcing you to sign a year-long contract to get a special rate, and it's not stacking equipment rental fees on top of the cost of service. For current Verizon mobile customers, it's an even better deal. But, that may be where the advantages end, at least for now.

We saw the service offer decently, but not dazzlingly, fast internet - and that was in fairly ideal conditions. The 5G receiver was stuck to an upper-story window directly across the street from a 5G-broadcasting tower. All that stood in the way between the two devices was a barren tree and maybe 30 feet of open air.

We've seen in past mmWave tests, like what's used in the Sprint 5G network, that the 5G signal is easier to lose than it is to find. The mmWave frequencies often have difficulty passing through obstacles, and the space between the 5G tower and home receiver is not necessarily a controlled environment. 

Street-level customers could have vehicles, pedestrians, or even trees block the line-of-sight between their receiver and nearest tower, and that could impact their fast internet speeds, let alone baseline connectivity.

There are some theoretical advantages of 5G home internet, though. For one, upgrades could be easier. Since there are no cables running along poles or underground, the network could simply be upgraded with new towers or even software updates over time. 

That means no digging up wires to replace them with fiber and no needing to lay new cable in areas that are still waiting on high-speed internet (though it may still be some time before 5G home internet reaches those locations).

There's also a slight bonus for radio interference. Since mmWave has trouble penetrating buildings, the radio waves used to beam 5G internet won't be permeating every building in the vicinity.

In summary, Verizon's 5G home internet is promising but not speedy enough to recommend without caution, especially with so many unanswered questions about how the service will perform in real-world conditions. But should it live up to Verizon’s claims and avoid mmWave's signal shortfalls, 5G internet could change how data gets into our homes.

• 5G phones: these are the first next-gen handsets

If you're dying to enter the Shadowlands in World of Warcraft, but need a new PC to get you there, you might want to go with a case that will let you represent. NZXT has just released a limited series in its CRFT lineup of licensed cases with both the Horde and the Alliance represented.

The new cases are selling for $199 (about £150, AU$290), with pre-orders available now and shipping expected in January. You can see the Horde case here and the Alliance case here.

• Check out the best gaming PCs
• We'll show you how to build a PC in this case
• There's a whole world of PC components out there

Both cases come skinned in World of Warcraft style, with some maps of Azeroth as well as a backlit faction logo on the front of the case.

This is already a serious case for gaming, with two pre-installed fans. But these custom built chassis' let you show you're serious about your World of Warcraft faction as well. 

If you really want to show off your Alliance or Horde pride, you'll have to be quick if you want to get one, as NZXT is only making 1,000 of each faction case. All we're wondering is who will win this Alliance vs Horde battle. 

What's inside

These cases are custom versions of the NZXT H510 case, which is already one hell of a case. They have a steel build and a tempered glass side panel. That will let you show off not only your faction allegiance but also your sick PC build.

The case supports Mini-ITX, MicroATX, and standard ATX motherboards, so you can build the computer you want or transfer your current hardware into the new case. It has three 2.5-inch drive bays that are perfect for SSDs and three 3.5-inch drive bays that can house hard drives.

The front panel offers up a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port, a jack for your headset, and a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port.

The case is also designed to be kept clean. That starts with the built-in cable channels and straps, helping you keep your power and SATA cables tucked out of the way. There are also dust filters in the front panel and at the power supply intake, both of which are removable to clean off the dust they've kept out of your PC.

So basically, at the end of the day, this is everything you'd expect out of one of the best PC cases, but with the added bonus of being able to represent your WoW faction. 

• Check out the best CPUs to power your rig

Amazon has scheduled its MMORPG New World release date for early 2020, and that just means you'll soon be able to warp back in time to the 17th century.

The cinematic trailer for the MMO game was revealed at The Game Awards and, according to the Amazon trailer, the official release window will be May 2020.

New World will take players back to a time when there was still much to explore and focuses on an island called Aeternum, or the Eternal Isle. There players will get to do their own share of exploring.

Being an MMORPG, players won't be alone. And, that appears to be a very important part of the puzzle. Based on our experience in the New World Alpha, most of the gameplay is centered on how players interact with each other. There weren't scripted events or a guided narrative.

New World is an open world sandbox. Players will band together, collect resources, craft equipment, and build fortresses. Other players can go it alone. But, the game is PvPvE, so loners and players in different factions are likely to run into one another on not-so-friendly terms as they vie for the same resources.

Those interactions between the players looks to be where the meat of the game will take place. As with Minecraft and Eve, players will be making their own fun within the world that Amazon has built. Though the monsters roaming Aeternum will likely add some extra dynamics to the game.

The combat we've seen in the alpha version was Dark Souls-esque, with stamina factoring into each fight. That may make it simpler than other MMORPGs that are loaded with fantastical abilities (though there are magical abilities). That combat can take place at a massive scale, too, as Amazon has said 100 players can take part in the same battle.

Amazon will also launch a New Worlds beta before the official release date, and the full game is available for pre-order now. You can find out more about New World on its website here.

• See the best MMO games

What can you expect from the best hard drives? While they won’t beat the best SSDs in any speed tests, there’s a reason they’re still around. And those reasons come down to two things: price and space. Not only are they more affordable, but the best hard drives also give you that extra space needed to back everything up, especially for data-heavy users.

There are a few things to keep in mind when shopping for the best hard drive for your needs. Are you trying to get some more storage for your PS4 or Xbox One? If that’s the case, an ideal option might be a 2.5-inch drive or possibly an external hard drive. Alternately, you might have one of the best gaming PCs but no room for your bulging library of half played games. You should take a look at a 7,200 RPM 3.5-inch drive, as that could be one of the best hard drives for your needs.

This might be a lot to wrap your head around, particularly if you’re new to shopping for internal components, such as hard drives. We’ve cut out some of the guesswork for you and collected the best hard drives we’ve come across below.

It’s almost impossible to talk about hard drives without mentioning Seagate’s BarraCuda lineup – it’s a force to be reckoned with. And, it’s not hard to see why, Seagate BarraCuda drives offer a great gigabyte-per-dollar ratio and speed benefits to top it off. The 2TB model hits a sweet spot by balancing high performance and affordability. Since this drive combines 7,200rpm platters and high density data, computers outfitted with this drive will be able to read data extraordinarily fast.

Even if its laptops aren’t as popular as they used to be, Toshiba is still a huge name in computing, and has a lot to offer. When it comes to the best hard drives, the Toshiba X300 is a high-capacity, high-performance champ worth taking a look at. The X300 drives boast great gigabyte-to-dollar value without sacrificing on performance. These drives all spin at 7,200 rpm and include 128MB of cache for higher speeds. The only downside is the warranty only lasts two years, which feels short for a drive meant to store so much important data.

When it comes to PC gaming, it’s better to be fast than capacious. So, if you’ve been resisting the allure of an SSD, and looking to kick it old school with one of the best hard drives, the WD VelociRaptor should be up your alley. Not only does this drive have a whopping 10,000 rpm spin speed, but you’re going to want to pay attention to it. With capacities up to 1TB, the VelociRaptor drives are ready to store large game libraries, and the super fast platters will help your games launch and load quickly.

Western Digital offers a solid bargain with its line of WD Blue hard drives. With a wide variety of storage options from a small 500GB to a capacious 6TB, the WD Blue is a viable pick for almost any type of PC build that’s sticking to a budget. The best value comes from the larger drives – they’ll give you much more storage per dollar spent. And, if you’re looking for a bit more speed, there are also 7,200rpm models available that don’t come with too much of a price hike. 

SSDs are incredibly popular, and it’s not hard to see why. But, if you need a lot of fast storage, and you don’t have a vault of cash, hybrid hard drives are a great option. The SeaGate FireCuda is the best hybrid hard drive on the market. It can fit up to 2TB of data, and then its 8GB of solid state cache storage learns which data you use most, so that you can access it quickly. That speed boost is even sweeter when you consider that this drive spins at 7,200rpm. With a 5-year warranty and an approachable price tag, it’s easy to see why this is one of the best hard drives you can buy today.

It’s a little unfortunate that the Seagate IronWolf NAS drives come at a premium, but they aren’t priced much more expensively than a standard hard drive at their capacity. However, their native NAS optimization makes that premium totally worth it. These drives are capable of running at a fast 7,200rpm spin rate 24/7 without having to worry about drive failure. Really, if you have one of the best NAS devices for your business or home, the Seagate IronWolf NAS really is your best bet. 

Upgrading the storage in a laptop can be tough, since the hard drives are much smaller. There aren’t a lot of impressive 2.5-inch hard drives, as anything fast comes with a serious markup, but Seagate’s 2.5-inch FireCuda hybrid drive strikes a nice balance. It offers an easy way to add loads of storage to a laptop while also giving it a speed boost thanks to 8GB of flash storage. A five-year warranty on the drive will also help ensure it lasts a long time.

Game consoles hard drives fill up fast with massive libraries. And, like laptops, the upgrade path for 2.5-inch hard drives isn’t all that great, but that’s where an external drive comes in. The WD My Book strikes an amazing balance of storage and price, offering enough room for massive game libraries. Running on USB 3.0, it may not be quite as fast as an internal drive upgrade, but it will run games and offer more storage at a cheaper rate.

A lot of people seem to think that the best hard drives are ancient and dead technology in 2019. However, with devices like the G-Technology G-Drive, you can show the naysayers in your life that spinning disks have their own place in the future. Not only does this external hard drive offer huge amounts of storage – up to 10 TB – but thanks to Thunderbolt 3 compatibility, it can even charge your laptop while you work. If you have a MacBook Pro, it’s hard to think of a better work companion.

The GOG Galaxy 2.0 open beta has finally begun, and gamers of all stripes can sign up for the new service. Its purpose: simplify gamers lives by combining all of their friend lists and game libraries into one space.

There has long been strain between game consoles, PC gaming, and the friend networks and game libraries available on each. And, with more launchers on PC vying for priority, especially as Steam and Epic Games Store duke it out over exclusives, keeping track of online friends and game libraries can get tricky.

That's where GOG Galaxy 2.0 offers a solution. Before this 2.0 version, GOG Galaxy was just another game store and launcher to add to the list, but GOG Galaxy 2.0 is trying to change all that.

Currently the platform offers 20 integrations with different platforms, from consoles to other PC launchers. This enables gamers to log into different gaming services, and then see their game libraries and online friends from other launchers all within GOG Galaxy 2.0. 

For example, if you're looking for friends to play a game online, GOG Galaxy 2.0 can let you know who's signed on and on which platform. Though it's not live yet, cross-platform chat should eventually let you communicate with this friends from right inside the GOG Galaxy 2.0 application.

Friends - and games - all in one place

It does a similar thing for your game library. Much like some smart TVs that bundle media from all your subscription services, you won't have to remember which games you have installed and through which launcher you got them. You can compile your whole library (including games you don't have installed) in GOG Galaxy 2.0. GOG is firm on that point, saying you can "install and launch any PC game you own, no matter the platform." It will even keep track of in-game achievements and progress, and let you compare with friends.

The present, official platform integrations include GOG.com and Xbox Live, while community integrations are available for Epic Games Store, Origin, PlayStation Network, Steam, and Uplay.

You can check out the GOG Galaxy 2.0 Open Beta here. It is available for computers running Windows 8 or newer and Mac OS X. You can find a trailer for the platform below:

• Check out the best free games for PC

AMD may not keep us waiting much longer for the anticipated Radeon RX 5500, which the company unveiled back in October. The new graphics card, particularly the rumored Radeon RX 5500 XT could be coming next week, according to VideoCardz.

There's still little detail on the Radeon RX 5500 XT. We know the 5500-series graphics cards will have 22 compute units with 1408 stream processors, a bit more than half of those found on the RX 5700 XT. The new cards will use a 128-bit memory bus (half that of the 5700-series) and offer up to 8GB of GDDR6, according to an official slide from AMD, shared by Hot Hardware.

• These are the best graphics cards
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• Check out our review of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

That leaves some room for guessing as to just what the RX 5500 and 5500 XT could do. The two cards would need to differentiate somehow, and if it's not in stream processors or clock speeds, it could be in memory. VideoCardz believes the RX 5500 may come exclusively with 4GB of GDDR6 memory while the RX 5500 XT could offer 4GB and 8GB variants, similar to the way the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 has come in 3GB and 6GB variants.

A contest of variety

AMD is playing a hard game against Intel on the processor side and Nvidia on the graphics processor side. This has been working for AMD in the processor fight, with Ryzen CPUs stealing market share from Intel, but Nvidia's cards still offer the most power at the high end.

AMD has still managed to make progress against Nvidia's market share, and these new Radeon RX 5500-series cards could help it snag even more of the budget market. Team Red will be positioned to challenge Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1650 and 1660 models, including the Ti and Super versions. Given that Nvidia effectively has six graphics processors in the low-to-mid-range space, it makes sense for AMD to introduce more than just one version of the RX 5500.

Leaked benchmarks have shown the Radeon RX 5500 giving the GTX 1650 serious competition, and a higher-spec 5500 XT could be the card to run against the GTX 1660. If the new graphics cards come out this month, we may get to see just how the competition heats up just in time for the next big shopping rush.

• Learn all about AMD Navi graphics

There are a variety of Samsung Galaxy S10 Black Friday  deals available today, and it just so happens that Samsung's new S phones are among the most popular Android devices this holiday season.

It doesn't get much better than the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus price drop to $799 – it cost $999 before Black Friday, and it remains our best phone pick for 2019 (that hasn't changed in the eight months since it launched). 

With a 6.4-inch QHD display, you won't find a bigger Samsung phone at a better price. It also comes with a free pair of wireless Samsung Galaxy Buds.

What can make that deal even better? There are no strings attached. This is an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S10, which means it isn't linked to any carrier contract, nor any longer-term payment plan. This is a straightforward discount on the phone, and it's an unlocked model that you can take to whatever carrier you want. That means you can pick whatever unlimited data plan suits you.

If your budget is a little tighter, or your pocket is just a little smaller, you can also pick up the standard Galaxy S10 for $699. The price and phone are the only differences here, as you'll still get a free pair of Galaxy Buds and an unlocked model.

Here are the two unlocked Galaxy S10 Black Friday deals:

Unfortunately, there's no matching deal on the Galaxy S10 5G. But, if you want to go even lower still, you can also score the Galaxy S10e for $200 off, which brings it down to $549. This version doesn't come with a pair of Galaxy Buds though, but it's still unlocked from Amazon.

If you opt to activate the phone with a carrier today, you can get an even bigger discount from Best Buy. There, you'll be able to pay just $449. If you head to the store and decide you don't want to activate today after all, you can still get the $549 price from Best Buy.

Here are those Galaxy S10e deals:

Not in the US? You can still find Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus deals below but they may not come with the free Galaxy Buds.

TechRadar is scouring every retailer and rounding up all the top deals over the Black Friday period, and we’ve put all the best Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday deals in easy-to-navigate articles to help you find the bargains you’re looking for. 

The Logitech C922 is a winner in our book. Capable of 1080p recording at 30 frames per second and 720p recording at 60fps, it’s simply one of the best webcams out there for most mainstream users and businesses.

In fact, in this day and age when laptops are more prevalent and webcams aren’t as much of a necessity for many users anymore, the Logitech C922 manages to shine with its capabilities and its extra features like the dual-microphones for stereo audio, which you won't find on every webcam.

The Logitech C922 also boasts the Logitech stand, which is versatile as it can easily be mounted onto most monitors or simply sit at your desk. Round those out with a solid low-light correction feature, the ability to remove and replace video backgrounds, and a 3-month license for XSplit Premium, and you’ve got a fine webcam that’s worth every penny.

If you’re seeking something with 4K and high frame rate capabilities, you might want to consider other options. However, if you’re looking to get into streaming, video chatting with friends and family, or doing more video conferencing for work, the Logitech C922 is an option that stands out from the dizzying array of webcams in 2019.

Keep an eye out for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals as well. You might save a bit of money on this webcam.

What you pay and what you get

Logitech advertises the C922 Pro Stream webcam at $99, but we've been able to find it for as low as $50 during sales. Black Friday always sees deep discounts at retail.  

If the Logitech C922 Pro Stream checks all the boxes of what you need from a webcam, then by all means, go for it. It's a strong contender that can do a good job in a wide variety of applications, whether that's Skype calls with family, business video conferences, or game streaming. 

But, if you find yourself wanting more and have some budget room or you don't need all of the features and want to save some money, there are other options that may be more worthwhile.

It's good, but there are other options

If you're not trying to go for any fancy game streaming with high frame rate video or background replacements, you can get the more affordable Logitech C925-e, which is otherwise fairly similar to the C922 Pro Stream. One handy feature that comes with this webcam that the C922 lacks is a sliding privacy shade, so you can keep the webcam plugged in while knowing that any digital intruders won't be seeing anything.

Microsoft's LifeCam Studio is a simpler but more affordable webcam that drops the exciting features for a straightforward offering. It just uses a single mic, and it doesn't support 60fps recording, but it will give you Full HD resolution at a lower price. If that's all you're after, this will do.

Of course, there are some cameras that are a lot more exciting as well. They'll cost a bit more and have higher system requirements to get the full performance, though.

Creative's Senz3D is a little more expensive than the C922 Pro Stream, thanks to a price drop, but it's every bit as good a webcam. It supports 1080p at 30fps and 720p at 60fps, plus it can handle background removal, and it uses dual mics for stereo audio. However, the Senz3D's advanced depth sensors also support facial recognition for Windows Hello, as well as hand and joint tracking for some advanced 3D applications, opening the door for some exciting avatar possibilities. 

For a simply better video experience, Logitech's Brio webcam takes the C922 Pro Stream's specs and dials them up. It can handle 4K HDR video with a wide 90-degree field of view, or you're able to bump down to 1080p at 60fps. Switching resolutions also gives you different field of view options and the ability to digitally zoom and pan. The catch: this webcam is more expensive than the C922.

Given the reduced price of the Creative Senz3D, we're inclined to go for that over the C922 Pro Stream even though the former is still a little more pricey. But, if you know you'll never use Windows Hello or other depth-sensing features and still want 1080p/30 and 720p/60, then the C922 is still a fine choice.

• We've picked out the best webcams you'll want to check out

TechRadar is scouring every retailer and rounding up all the top deals over the Black Friday period, and we’ve put all the best Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday deals in easy-to-navigate articles to help you find the bargains you’re looking for.

Microsoft announced a suite of Surface products earlier in October, and that included a new audio option in the form of the Surface Earbuds. 

The earbuds had originally been planned for a 2019 release, but Microsft Chief Product Office Panos Panay has just confirmed their launch is being pushed back globally to Spring 2020 (March through May for the southern hemisphere).

Panos announced the delay in a Tweet.

A number of Twitter responses to the Tweet from Panay are positive about the company's choice to delay the product rather than launching it in a sub-par state.

That being said, it's especially important for Microsoft to make sure it gets the Surface Earbuds right, as they will come at a launch price of $249 (about £199, AU$360), which is more expensive than almost all of the best wireless earbuds, and just as expensive as the Apple AirPods Pro.

Made for many purposes

Part of what could be holding up the Surface Earbuds is just how much they can be used for: The dual-microphones on each bud can cancel out background noise while taking calls or talking to a digital assistant. And, the earbuds can handle dictation. They also have a number of touch gestures on the round surface of each bud.

All that, and the Surface Earbuds will be supporting devices running Windows 10, iOS 9 and later, and Android 4.4 and later. That is a wide array of devices to support a wide array of features on, and may be part of Microsoft's difficulty in getting everything working just right.

Despite the delay, the Surface Earbuds have a lot going for them. They will have an 8-hour battery life bolstered by an extra two full charges in the carrying case, plus fast charging for an hour of playtime in 10 minutes and three hours of playtime in 15 minutes.

In the time since the Surface Earbuds were announced, Apple released the AirPods Pro. That increases the competition the Surface Earbuds will face when they launch, and with this delayed release date potentially pushing back the release as late as June, Microsoft may have even more competition.

Via: The Verge

Samsung has a perk for anyone who signed up for early access to its pre-Black Friday deals. Those who did will be able to order the Galaxy Note 10 in two new colors: Aura Red and Aura Pink. 

While these two new colors are available first to shoppers who signed up to the deal, Samsung is also planning to make them publicly available starting at 12:01am Eastern Time on Thursday, November 21. That means the public availability is just hours away. 

The announcement of these new colors notes that they are "available in limited quantities". So it's very possible they'll sell out quickly. They're even limited to just the Note 10, and won't be available on the Note 10 Plus.

Shoppers who signed up for the early deals can improve their chances of picking up the Note 10 in one of the new colors by ordering today. Anyone who didn't sign up and hopes to get the new colors will likely want to jump on that chance as soon as they can after midnight (early in other US time zones). Curiously, though, we're currently able to add them to our cart on Samsung.com despite not being signed up for the early deals.

Luckily, Samsung is also making it cheaper to pick up the Note 10. It has a trade-in discount for the flagship device that can cut the price down dramatically, bringing the starting price as low as $309 depending on the phone your trade in. It's also throwing in a pair of Galaxy Buds as a bonus, which have recently seen some nice improvements.

Right now, the starting price for an unlocked Galaxy Note 10 is $949, but that can go down to $509 with an eligible trade-in. A further drop to $309 is no small discount, though it will take a fairly recent flagship device to get that substantial trade-in value, like the Galaxy S10 or iPhone XS Max. 

If you want to get those deals, you'll have to wait for the the pre-Black Friday discount to kick in.

• See all the best Black Friday deals

Apple's iPhones haven't been known for having the best battery life, so last year the company introduced its own battery cases. For this year's iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro family, Apple has new versions of these cases - but, this time, they also added a shutter button for the camera.

The new Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max has an extra button built-in on the side - one that, to be clear, isn't on the iPhone. Neither does it just tap-through to the volume rocker, which takes photos if the camera app is open. 

Instead, the button launches the camera app whether the phone is locked or not, and it can take a photo with a quick press and record video with a longer press. It's a quick shortcut that conceivably gets you shooting and recording faster.

This is a big enough deal that it was even called out in a Tweet.

• Here's a look at the iPhone 11 Pro Smart Battery Case

Hardware for the win

It might seem like a small addition. After all, the focus of the case is the 50% boost in battery life, and the fact it still works with Qi wireless charging and Lightning accessories. But, the camera button is kind of a big deal.

Pressing a physical button can be a lot easier than pressing an on-screen one. Adding that convenience and dependability to the camera can bump up their ease of use. 

With Apple's cameras being one of the standout features on the iPhone 11 line of phones - especially with the improved night mode - anything that can improve the experience is worth considering as an upgrade.

It doesn't hurt that the case extending the battery life also means there's that much more time to take photos and record videos. 

• See how the iPhone 11 Pro compares to the Samsung Galaxy S10

Nvidia recently shook up the graphics card market with its line of Super RTX and GTX cards, and now it appears the company may be preparing to deliver that same performance boost to the mobile computing market. Mobile Max-Q versions of Nvidia's GTX 1650 Super up through the RTX 2080 Super have shown in a leak from NotebookCheck translated and shared by Hothardware .

The refresh is expect in March 2020, and the leaked graphics cards are believed to be the following:

• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q with 8GB GDDR6 (80W TDP)
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super Max-Q with 8GB GDDR6 (80W TDP)
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super Max-Q with 8GB GDDR6 (80W TDP)
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super Max-Q with 4GB GDDR6 (35W TDP)
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super Max-Q with 4GB GDDR6 (35W TDP)

When the first Super RTX graphics cards launched, they boosted the performance of existing cards. But, they didn't quite manage to outshine what AMD had done with the introduction of the Radeon RX 5700 on a price-to-performance level. AMD's high performance, value, and efficiency thanks to its 7-nanometer architecture helped it get an edge, even if it's not competing at the highest-end.

• See the MSI Alpha 15 with AMD Navi graphics
• These are the best gaming laptops
• Here's our review of the AMD Radeon RX 5700XT

A mobile battle

Now, AMD is geared to gain even more ground in the mobile space with the Radeon RX 5500M. That's where Nvidia's new graphics processors could come in to keep its footing.

These new Super Max-Q graphics processors would effectively take all the recent GPU offerings from Nvidia (excluding the MX models) and upgrade them for better performance. And, that comes at a time when we're seeing more machines that can use the extra performance, like the Asus gaming laptop with a 300Hz display.

AMD's RX 5500M may be a strong low-to-mid-range options, but it's just that. As of yet, AMD doesn't have the anticipated RX 5300M or RX 5700M available in laptops to round out its performance options.

Nvidia's launch of Super Max-Q GPUs in early 2020 could help it cement its dominance in the mobile gaming space, making it harder for AMD to break in even if its Navi mobile GPUs are competitive.

• Learn about Intel's Xe graphics card