Lenovo turns to 'AI' to optimize its 2023 gaming laptops
Marketing gimmicks are alive and well in the new year.
Lenovo believes artificial intelligence will help differentiate its 2023 gaming laptops. Four new models at CES 2023 include the Lenovo LA AI chip, which the company says can dynamically adjust frame rates, increase the maximum heat threshold and boost overall performance. Additionally, it's launching new gaming desktops across different price points.
The LA AI chip is in the new Legion Pro 7, 7i, 5 and 5i (the "i" suffix denotes Intel variants) gaming laptops. Lenovo's AI Engine+ software uses the chip to deploy a "machine learning algorithm to tune system performance optimally." The company says FPS monitoring, higher thermal design power (TDP) and other tweaks boost performance and efficiency over previous generations. Although until we get some hands-on time, it's unclear how big of a significant difference that will make.
The Intel-powered Legion Pro 7i is the highest-end model, starting at $2,000. (Its AMD equivalent, the Legion Pro 7, won't be available in North America.) The maxed-out versions of the 7i run on the latest 13th Gen Intel Core processors with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX Next-Gen series Laptop GPUs. The notebook has a 16-inch QHD (2,560 x 1,600) display with a 240Hz refresh rate. NVIDIA versions use Lenovo's ColdFront 5.0 thermal management system, including an extra-wide vapor chamber covering the processor and graphics card. (Lower-tier models use a dedicated CPU vapor chamber with hybrid heat piping instead.) Lenovo says the more advanced cooling system leads to zero throttling while totaling 235W of thermal design power. Additionally, a tricked-out version uses a 99.99Whr battery, the largest allowed on flights, that also supports quick charging.
PR image of Lenovo Legion Pro 5i gaming laptop against a plain white background
The Legion Pro 5 and 5i are slightly cheaper, starting at $1,460 for the AMD version (with a Risen 7000 Series CPU) and $1,480 for Intel (13th-gen Intel Core). Lenovo pitches this tier as equally suitable for gaming or work, and the machines include the new AI chip and ColdFront 5.0 system. The Pro 5 series also maxes out with the latest NVIDIA laptop cards for graphics, and its display is a 16-inch WQXGA panel with up to a 240Hz refresh rate.
Lenovo also updated its gaming desktops. The Legion Tower 7i is the highest-end model, starting at $2,480. The PC uses 13th-gen Intel processors, NVIDIA graphics and up to 64GB of 5600Mhz DDR5 RAM in the top-shelf versions. The company offers plenty of cooling options for the premium machine, including a bigger VRM heatsink, up to six ARGB fans and a liquid cooling system (adding up to a 260W TDP). The Tower 7i comes in configurations of up to 6TB storage (three 2TB SSDs) and 1,200W PSU.
Meanwhile, the Tower 5i ($1,200) and Tower 5 ($1,300) are the company's less expensive desktop machines. The "i" variant runs 13th-gen Intel Core chips and next-gen NVIDIA graphics, while the standard Pro 5 sticks with an AMD Risen 7000 series processor and either NVIDIA or Radeon RX 7000 graphics. Both machines ship with up to 32GB 5600Mhz DDR5 RAM and up to two 1TB SSDs.
Lenovo's new gaming hardware is scheduled to ship around springtime. The Legion Pro 7i laptop kicks things off in March, with the Pro 5i/5 laptops and Tower 7i and 5i desktops following in April. Finally, the Tower 5 desktop will launch slightly later in May.
UK under fire over retreat from Windrush scandal reforms
Britain's government came under withering criticism Friday after retreating from reforms it had promised to prevent a repeat of the "Windrush" scandal affecting black immigrants.Braverman, who is of Indian heritage, is an unabashed campaigner against "woke" culture who says it is her "dream" to see illegal immigrants flown to Rwanda for resettlement under one UK government plan.
Police protest in Haiti after six officers killed
Civilian protesters and police marched through Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince on Thursday to demonstrate against a slew of killings of police officers by armed gangs in worsening violence in the Caribbean nation.Fourteen police officers have been killed by armed gangs since the beginning of the year, according to the National Union of Haitian Police Officers.
Spain shaken after deadly church attacks
The southern Spanish city of Algeciras was reeling Thursday, a day after a machete-wielding assailant stormed into two churches killing a verger and badly injuring a priest. Spanish prosecutors immediately opened a terror probe following the incident near the city's port on Wednesday evening. The attacker was arrested at the scene, with a police source identifying him as a 25-year-old Moroccan man. "Just after 7:00 pm (1800 GMT), a man entered the church of San Isidro in Algeciras, where, armed with a machete, he attacked the priest, leaving him seriously wounded," an interior ministry statement said. "Subsequently, he entered the church of Nuestra Senora de La Palma in which, after causing damages, he attacked the verger." The verger, Diego Valencia, "managed to get out of the church, but was caught by the attacker outside and sustained mortal injuries," it said, identifying the weapon he used as a machete. The two churches are several hundred metres apart and located in an area very close to the port in this town of around 120,000 residents.The emergency services said the priest had sustained injuries to the neck.His parish identified him as 74-year-old Antonio Rodriguez and said he had been celebrating the Eucharist at San Isidro church when he was attacked, describing his condition as "serious but stable". A police source told AFP the assailant was wearing a long robe and had "shouted something" as he carried out the attack. - Attacker shouted, threw icons -Eyewitnesses at Nuestra Senora de La Palma told local media the attacker ran into the building at around 7:30 pm and shouting, began throwing icons, crosses and candles to the floor.The mayor of Algeciras has declared a day of mourning and called residents to gather for a demonstration of condemnation at midday (1100 GMT) in front of the church where the verger died. In the town, which hosts the main port for ferries and other vessels travelling between Spain and Morocco, residents reeled from shock. Juan Jose Marina, the parish priest of Nuestra Senora de La Palma, told public radio the idea of such an attack was unimaginable "because our ties with the Islamic world in Algeciras are good and we've never had any sort of problem". "It just defies all logic," agreed Dris Mohamed Amar, spokesman for the local Muslim community, who was speaking on the same radio programme, saying he hoped "it was an isolated case by a demented lunatic and not something premeditated". bur-hmw/chz/yad
Teacher Oleksandr Pogoryelov occasionally strolls up the sloping road to the school in his village in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine where he taught for more than two decades.Parents have been supportive, he said, but the village is emblematic of tensions in many communities in the Donetsk region, where pro-Russian separatists had been fighting Ukrainian forces for years.
More than one third of the Amazon rainforest may have been degraded by human activity and drought, researchers said Thursday, and action is needed to protect the critically important ecosystem.In a separate study published in Science of the human impacts on the Amazon, researchers from the University of Louisiana Lafayette and elsewhere called for action.
Migrants in Morocco limbo as they cling to Europe dreams
Oumar left home in Guinea five years ago in search of a better life in Europe, but today he inhabits a daily purgatory of hunger, cold and police violence in Morocco.Bakary, also from Guinea, said he had been living here for three years.
The Indian rupee rose marginally against the dollar on Friday, but ended the week lower due to suspected intervention by the central bank. For the week, the local currency was down 0.5%. The currency came under pressure after it managed to climb above the 81 level on Monday thanks to dollar purchases from public sector banks, likely on the directions of the Reserve Bank of India.
Hijabi 'indie mothers' embraced by young Indonesian music fans
At a packed festival in central Jakarta, hijab-clad sexagenarian singer Rien Djamain bursts into an upbeat track about nuclear destruction to a crowd of thousands, mostly young Indonesians.They are attracted not only to the musical aesthetics but also musical comedy," he told AFP. Dangdut music has been increasing in popularity, with acts now playing at festivals across Indonesia, performing for young audiences alongside rock bands, in addition to gigs for their usual crowds in smaller villages.