Table of contents for May 2022 in Tech Advisor

After months of teasing its revolutionary new V-Cache technology, AMD finally unveiled the final key details about the product that serves as its flagship at a special event. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D will hit the streets on 20 April, wielding a massive slab of memory cache directly bonded to the top of the 8-core chip package and a $449 (around £345) suggested price – the same cost as the non-3D version of the 5800X, which launched in 2020. AMD also announced a slew of affordable new Ryzen 3, 5 and 7 processors to flesh out its line-up now that Intel’s 12th-gen ‘Alder Lake’ CPUs are here and kicking butt, and is finally extending official Ryzen 5000 support to older AM4 motherboards. But first, the star of the show. AMD already…

Two of the biggest laptop vendors have chosen to pass over Microsoft’s blossoming vision for PC chip security, Pluton. But the reason why may be less complex than it appears: both companies are apparently sticking with an established relationship with Intel’s vPro technology, instead. It’s been reported that both Dell and Lenovo plan to skip Microsoft’s Pluton technology in its commercial PCs, which Microsoft introduced two years ago as a better way of integrating security directly into the CPU. The technology originally received somewhat tepid endorsements from both Qualcomm and Intel, and a more enthusiastic response from AMD, which had helped develop the technology to secure the Xbox game console. Speaking to our colleagues at PCWorld, Dell said that: “Pluton architecture depends on support within the SoC – versus a…

Price: £1,899 (around £1,599) from fave.co/3u4XlZU Huawei’s flagship laptop is back for another pop at the high-end market and the MateBook X Pro for 2022 is better than ever thanks to a raft of upgrades. Headline features include a bigger screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, a larger trackpad with new gestures, speedy 90-watt charging and, wait for it, the webcam is no longer in that awkward pop-up key in the keyboard. After years of being nearly perfect, the X Pro is still not quite there, but largely in different ways to before. Battery life is still an issue, for example, and we must now mourn the loss of the trusty USB-A port. DESIGN On the whole, the MateBook X Pro is the same laptop it’s always been. However, there…

Price: £299 from fave.co/3J9rOfG OnePlus has been on a roll recently with its affordable mid-range options, which have consistently delivered solid specs for the price even as the lustre of its flagships has arguably begun to wane. I’m pleased to report that the Nord CE 2 is no exception. Yes, eagle-eyed industry watchers may note that this is probably just a re-packaged and rebranded spin on the Reno 7 5G from parent company Oppo (comparing the spec sheets is an especially challenging game of spot-the-difference), but for anyone actually considering buying the phone this simply doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, the Nord CE 2 offers strong specs and a potent camera at a price that’s hard to beat – and looks the part too. DESIGN If you’ve…

I’m just going to come out and say it: Printers are the most unfairly maligned technology in modern history. Despite all the condescension they get, printers do a lot of things right, especially compared to other tech gear. They don’t scream for your attention so they can serve you targeted advertising. They’re not trotted out at press events where slick executives hawk barely improved versions of what you already have. They aren’t rendered obsolete by the march of annual software updates. Instead, printers keep a low profile, only whirring and churning into action to copy a document, scan a form, or spew out an ever-growing pile of Pokémon colouring pages for children. When this happens, the delicate dance of machinery involved feels like a technological marvel, especially when you realize…

Microsoft has announced it is finally making its DirectStorage API available to game developers, promising to bring one of the best features of the Xbox Series X game console, Quick Resume, to the PC. However, the tech giant has yet to say which games will be supported by the new DirectStorage API. Put simply, DirectStorage drastically speeds up load times on a PC, tapping into how the GPU interacts with the SSD to dramatically increase data transfers. In the Xbox Series X, AMD’s integrated GPU interacts with the SSD, allowing ‘Quick Resume’, which essentially saves the state of games that allow it. Instead of loading the application and then the game, Quick Resume simply resumes the game, much like BBC iPlayer picks up a show that’s been previously paused and…

Windows 11 brings Auto HDR, first introduced on the Xbox Series X/S consoles, to the PC. The feature promises to make older titles look just as bright and vibrant as newer HDR-compatible releases without a major hit to performance. That’s sure to have PC gamers eyeing an upgrade to Windows 11. Is it worth making the leap? We’ve dug deep into Windows 11’s Auto HDR to find the answer. Here’s everything you need to know, from the hardware you need to how to set it up, along with image quality comparisons with the feature on and off, and comparisons of how Windows 11’s Auto HDR compares to the version offered on the Xbox. Let’s dig in. HOW TO USE AUTO HDR Auto HDR is a standard feature of Windows 11…

Price: £2,249 (review model) from fave.co/3qcKjIR Dell’s XPS 15 9510 is the latest addition to the firm’s luxury work range of laptops, and it’s been slimmed down and improved with a sleeker design and a new OLED screen option. On the inside, it still relies on muscular Intel 11th-gen silicon and discrete Nvidia graphics, and on the outside, it looks fantastic. But, as ever, the XPS 15 is not cheap. In the configuration we’ve reviewed, you’ll have to pay £2,249 to get your hands on this machine, and that’s a mid‑range XPS 15 configuration Since the name of the laptop stays the same with each new edition, this is the 9510 model which arrived late in 2021 and is the most recent XPS 15. DESIGN Not much has changed about…

Move over, Wi-Fi 6E! Chip vendors like Qualcomm are beginning to make plans for Wi-Fi 7, the next generation of Wi-Fi technology. Qualcomm announced at Mobile World Congress 2022 that it plans to launch the world’s first Wi-Fi 7 chip, the Fast Connect 7800, as part of its new premium Snapdragon Connect specification by the end of 2022. The Wi-Fi 7 specification, also known as 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (or just 802.11be), isn’t even close to being completed – the IEEE’s current paper on the current status of 802.11be calls for the standard’s ratification sometime in 2024. But as with previous Wi-Fi standards, that isn’t stopping vendors from developing silicon based upon draft releases, tweaking them via firmware or other updates as the specification moves through its final approval process.…

Let’s face it, email is a bit of a pain. And while Google’s Gmail service is generally pleasant to use, it certainly has some room for improvement – especially on the mobile front. But as is so often the case with Google products, what you see isn’t entirely what you get. The Gmail Android app has some useful hidden touches you’ve probably never noticed lurking beneath its surface – easily overlooked features that can make your mobile email experience more powerful, productive, and effective. Here are 14 options worth uncovering – or maybe just remembering. 1. ADVANCED EMAIL FORMATTING COMMANDS The Gmail Android app’s email composing screen seems like a bare-bones affair, but long-press on any open space while writing a new email and you’ll see screen 1.Tap that ‘Format’…

When you sell, recycle or donate any gadget, you wipe your data off it. That’s just basic computer security, right? It’s why the ‘Reset this PC’ option, a staple of Windows for years, includes the option to ‘Remove everything’, ostensibly wiping the storage drive clean of anything close to personal data. But with the latest versions of Windows 10 and 11, everything doesn’t necessarily mean everything. In a recent support document (fave.co/3tcYsHR), Microsoft warns that files stored in OneDrive accounts might not be removed from a computer’s local storage even after the user goes through the ‘Remove everything’ reset process. Obviously that’s a huge security issue. To work around it, Microsoft recommends that you sign out of OneDrive or unlink your account before resetting your PC. If you encounter the…

Plenty of people like Windows 11, but if you’re not one of them, don’t worry. You can go back to Windows 10. That’s right – even if you bought a computer with Windows 11 preinstalled, you can ditch Microsoft’s latest operating system. The process just varies depending on how you got Windows 11. SCENARIO 1: ROLL BACK AN UPGRADE WITHIN THE FIRST 10 DAYS For this method to work, you can’t have wiped your system when you upgraded from Windows 10 to 11. Instead, Windows Update or the Windows 11 Installation Assistant left your files and apps intact when performing the switch. Also, you must still be within Microsoft’s absurdly short 10-day window for rolling back the upgrade. If you’re not sure about either point, not to worry. You can…

Price: £949 from fave.co/36aO0aJ On the surface, Samsung’s latest S22+ simply looks like another incremental upgrade with a familiar face, but is there more to this middle-child of a Galaxy S phone than the expected annual hardware updates and design revisions? While the ‘S’ branding within Samsung’s Galaxy naming convention has always been tied to the company’s flagship Android phones, the ‘+’ suffix is a relatively recent addition to the lineage whose function continues to change over time. The most obvious difference between the S22 and the S22+ – as is true of previous generations – is the larger size that the Plus model sports; not to mention the extra benefits that its additional volume brings. Moving from the standard to the Plus not only means a bigger screen but…

Google has released Chrome OS Flex, a way to take older Windows and Mac hardware and replace the operating system, turning them into Chromebooks. It’s an interesting development given Windows 11’s strict hardware requirements, which could leave legions of older PCs stranded when Windows 10 goes end-of-life in 2025. Although Google is calling Chrome OS Flex an “early access” and “unstable” project, the concept is intriguing: Instead of disposing an old PC that’s nearing the end of its life, you can turn it into a Chromebook instead. Google has launched the new operating system on its dedicated Chrome OS Flex site (fave.co/3thlSMn), though you’ll have to sign up with an email to receive download instructions. Google appears to be positioning Chrome OS Flex for a dual purpose: a way for…

Getting around Android isn’t what it used to be. Google has made some serious changes to the Android navigation experience over the past few years, going from the old-style three-button set-up to a clunky early gesture model in Android 9, then a whole other new gesture system in Android 10, and finally some slightly refined versions of that same gesture model with Android 11, 12 and beyond. It’s enough to make anyone’s head spin – and whether you’re a card-carrying Android nerd or someone who’s just reluctantly trying to figure out the ins and outs of your phone’s ever-evolving navigation system, there’s almost certainly more you could be doing to make the most of Android’s current gesture arrangement. I’ve been fiddling around obsessively with Android gestures for what feels like…