The new Sense Pro Deadbolt lock knows when you approach via Ultra Wideband signals. A new software patch will also redesign and add features to the Schlage Home app.

Even before opening day, CES sees major announcements from the likes of Samsung, Ring, Lenovo, and more. Here's our roundup of the new tech you don't want to miss.

Firehawk CEO Will Edwards is building his company on the idea that 3D-printed propellant, pictured, can replace traditional rocket systems.FirehawkA venture fund that works with President-elect Donald Trumps son, Donald Trump Jr, is leading a $60 million series C investment in rocket motors and propellant startup Firehawk Aerospace, Forbes has learned.Its the first defense tech investment for 1789 Capital, which funds companies aligned with a conservative world view. The firm invested $15 million in the deal, which is expected to close this month with additional checks from Draper Associates, Boka Capital and others. The company declined to share the valuation, though a person close to the deal said it was valued at more than $200 million.Dallas-based Firehawk says it has developed a safer, more stable rocket fuel using 3D printers and a hybrid engine to burn it, with the goal of replenishing a depleting U.S. arsenal. And its had early success securing contracts with the Pentagon and defense contractors. There's a missile shortage in the United States, said Omeed Malik, 1789s president. This is part of a defense tech investment that enhances the security and competitiveness of the United States.The investment comes amid a growing wave of interest in new companies promising to restore Americas defense industrial base to its former glory. Startups like Palantir and Anduril have become behemoths by securing billions in government contracts selling military software and weapons. With obvious ties to the incoming Trump administration, 1789 is positioned to help push Firehawks government business.The firm, which has raised more than $150 million for its first fund, is among a growing coterie of "anti-woke" investors whose investment thesis explicitly rejects progressive ideals like DEI and environmental, social and governance principles, known as ESG. Led by Malik and Chris Buskirk, who launched the Trump-donor group Rockbridge Network, it backs companies like Rumble and Substack it hopes will build a new parallel economy of conservative alternatives to what it says are liberal institutions. Another Firehawk investor, Point Bridge Capital, is best known for launching a MAGA ETF that it says it only invests in companies that align with your Republican political beliefs.My big investors in later stage happen to be politically outspoken, Firehawk CEO Will Edwards told Forbes. But, he added, we do have investors on the cap table who are pretty far lefttheres no motive beyond doing whats best for our country, and our company.Firehawk's hybrid engine, pictured at the company's test site at Midland, Texas, is powered by solid-state fuel it produces with 3D-printers.FirehawkEdwards, a Forbes 30 Under 30 alum who previously started a now shuttered HR software startup called MetKnow, founded Firehawk in 2019 with family friend and scientist Ronald Jones to build cheaper, solid-state fuel burning rocket motors. At the time, they had trouble raising capital due to investor reluctance to back a defense startup working with the U.S. military. I was called a murderer, Edwards recalled. Now theyve changed their tune.Firehawks key innovation is 3D-printed solid rocket propellant that is cheaper and faster to make than traditional fuel. Rocket engine fuel used for missiles and space rockets alike is currently made using a process known as casting and curing, which can take as long as two months to produce; the method is currently used by defense primes like Northrup Grumman and L3 Harris. In its pitch deck, Firehawk claims that its fuel can be made within hours using an off-the-shelf 3D printer. And it can be made almost anywhere that can accommodate a 20 by 40 foot shipping container including the battlefield.After completing initial rocket tests overseen by NASA, Firehawk raised $18 million in a series B led by Star Castle VC in 2022. The company announced in November that it had secured its own 30-square mile launch range in West Texas to serve as a testing range for contracts with the United States government, and other partners.Edwards told Forbes the company generated mid-seven figures in revenue in 2024, and had mid-eight figures committed in secured deals, including a trial contract with the Army Applications Laboratory in January to develop new rocket engines for heavy weapons like the GMLRS rocket artillery and infantry weapons like the Javelin anti-tank and anti-aircraft Stinger missiles.The company, which has partnered with Raytheon, has also run trials with the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA. Either Firehawk is going to be the company that makes 3D printing solid propellant the industry standard, Edwards said, or we're going to shut our doors.MORE FROM FORBES

Googles new Agentspace enables business users to create productivity-focused AI agents.GoogleGoogle has just launched Agentspace, a no-code-ish environment geared towards personal work productivity. Many of Googles competitors are also playing in this market, so its no surprise that Google is getting into it. At this stage, each of the major cloud vendors now has an AI development platform (in Googles case Vertex AI) and multiple tools geared towards different types of developers. Googles foray into no-code for power users is different than its competitions, and quite interesting.Whats Cool About AgentspaceAgentspace is an extension of Googles viral NotebookLM offering. In fact, as part of the packaging, the enterprise-grade NotebookLM Plus is the base offering. NotebookLM has been in trial mode for a while now. I like it as a means for a user to create spaces around a topic or project and then leverage LLMs to search and create new content from that space. I know the create a podcast feature is what gets the clicks, but the whole concept is cool and useful.The higher-end Agentspace offerings add in new capabilities including third-party integrations (think SharePoint, Jira and Salesforce) and team space sharing. These are all good nods to how enterprise users can work together and share best practices via agents.Agentspace also has some prompt memory capabilities that enable agentic behaviors, such as prompt chaining. Its not really a structured workflow like we are seeing with Salesforces and ServiceNows agent development tooling. However, if you are a typical business user, it is reflective of the less structured processes that people create for themselves while performing daily tasks.What I Am Not Sure About With AgentspaceAbove all, Agentspace is a prompt-driven experience. I know that this approach works for searchand is therefore a natural fit for Googlebut I am not sure that a prompt-only agent will be accepted by most users. My issue is that sometimes I need to see something to act upon it. Is just a context window or a notification enough? Also, your mileage will vary based on how well you are writing promptsand there is a vast range of skill in that area in the average workplace. Ask anyone who does not understand good prompting how their experience with AI is going. The response will probably not be very good.MORE FOR YOUAs with other platform-centric agents, I remain concerned about Agentspaces cross-platform integration and how it will scale. For low-scale scenarios (for instance if I do only a few prompts a day), its likely fine. But when a whole organization is hitting agents that then need to reach back to on-prem IT resources or to another cloud, how will it perform? And what will it cost? I am optimistic that over time we will start to see more of an integration between no-code tools and AI development frameworks such as Vertex AI or AWS Bedrock. In fact, we are starting to see this with Salesforces Agentforce, which leverages Salesforces own Mulesoft technology to provide high-scale integration connectors. I am hopeful that this becomes a trend rather than remaining a one-off.Like its competitors, Google is putting a lot of different tools out there, and some of them overlap. For example, how does one compare Agentspace to Vertex AI Agent Builder? I appreciate that in the brave new world of AI, experimenting and failing fast is a good way to innovate. But I think that all of these AI vendors should be more declarative of their intent for each of these tools. Who was Agentspace designed for, and how will it improve those users lives or their work? I have this issue because I believe AI should elevate the capabilities of a business user to the point where we should see some sort of blurring or blending between no-code and low-code tools. But that may not be realistic yet, considering that Google has also announced a preview of a new tool called Jules, which seems kind of like AWS App Studio.Looking For Disruptive Approaches In The No-Code SpaceGoogle has made some pretty bold user experience decisions when it comes to no-code, which I respect. For example, I like the NotebookLM concept of creating a more freeform workspace rather than the more form-centric approach of other no-code tools. And extending the functionality with collaboration and third-party integrations provides a real opportunity to test whether that model can be a disruptor against SaaS no-code plays. Hopefully, Google has picked the right time to push against the convention with a solution that is pretty innovative.

Forward-looking: OpenAI was founded in December 2015 with a simple, yet ambitious goal: create a "safe and beneficial" artificial general intelligence (AGI) system that is generally smarter than humans. With the calendar having recently rolled over to 2025, the company is closer than ever to achieving its original vision and believes it'll happen sooner than later. Co-founder and CEO Sam Altman said in a recent blog post that when they started the company, they believed not only that AGI was possible, but that it could become the most impactful technology in human history.Few people cared at the time, Altman recounted, and most that did care simply thought they would fail. Everything changed with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, however. To their surprise, the launch proved to be a tipping point that kicked off the modern AI revolution for better or for worse.Things haven't been easy or smooth (nothing difficult ever is), but the team has learned an awful lot along the way. As we enter 2025, Altman and company are confident they know how to build AGI as it is traditionally defined as. In fact, it's possible that we may see the first AI agents "join the workforce" and start helping companies write the next chapter of their journey this year.With AGI right around the corner, OpenAI is already turning its attention to what's next. "We love our current products, but we are here for the glorious future," Altman said. That next step, he said, is superintelligence and with it, we can do anything.Superintelligence could rapidly accelerate scientific discover, and pave the way for innovation far beyond what humans can accomplish on their own. Altman teased that such tools could massively increase abundance and prosperity. It sounds like science fiction right now, he admitted, but they've been there before and they are comfortable with being there again. He is also well aware that they'll need to act with great care to prevent things from going off the rails (or worse), but they are up for the challenge. // Related Stories

What just happened? The big surprise out of CES 2025 is that AMD hasn't fully launched new RDNA4 GPUs at the show, instead deciding to merely "preview" the new architecture and a couple of graphics card models. As of writing, AMD has officially announced the RDNA4 graphics architecture, Radeon RX 9070 series of GPUs, ML-powered FSR 4 upscaling, and new Ryzen 9000 X3D desktop CPUs. We've got all the information for you here, plus a few thoughts on what AMD has shown off so far. AMD has announced new Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 graphics cards, but has done so without providing any specifications, any performance figures, pricing, or a release date, outside of a vague "Q1 2025." This is a pretty disappointing given that many were expecting full product details from AMD's RDNA4 launch you'll just have to keep waiting to learn everything about these models.It really seems like AMD is not willing to commit to providing concrete information ahead of Nvidia's GeForce 50 series announcement, which we're expecting later today as well. This gives AMD more flexibility to respond to Nvidia's new generation, for better or worse. If they really want to disappoint gamers this generation and ensure RDNA4 is a flop, they would wait for RTX 50 series pricing and make their equivalent models slightly cheaper a strategy that categorically didn't work with the previous generation and absolutely should not be attempted again. But who knows, we might be in for a repeat anyway.A more positive perspective is that AMD might be waiting to see what Nvidia does to ensure their products are highly competitive and to better market their cards in comparison to Nvidia. If Nvidia decides to give us a decent price-to-performance improvement this generation, then AMD could respond with even more aggressive pricing later or make minor configuration adjustments. Realistically, the most important factor for AMD is how good RDNA4 looks in comparison to Nvidia's new products.New Radeon RX 9070 GPUsAMD is announcing the Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070, which will be available in Q1 2025 from a range of partners, including the usual brands like Asus, Gigabyte, Sapphire, and PowerColor. MSI will not be producing RDNA4 products, having exited that market during the RDNA3 generation, though they haven't provided an official reason as to why. Our understanding is that there's some sort of relationship issue at the moment between AMD and MSI.You can see a variety of partner models in the image at the top of this story, but AMD also seems to have snuck in a new reference model into the picture, in both a three- and two-fan design. This reference design was previously revealed through an AMD ad a few weeks ago.As for the RDNA4 architecture, AMD has made only some light disclosures at CES. RDNA4 will be built on the same family of TSMC nodes as RDNA3 in this case for RDNA4, a 4nm node, whereas for RDNA3 the compute die was built on N5. The expectation is that RDNA4 uses a different design to RDNA3, no longer separating the GPU cores and memory controller into separate dies on separate nodes, but there's been no confirmation of exactly what this looks like.AMD is touting a wide range of architectural improvements with RDNA4. The headlining feature is an "optimized" compute unit, AMD told us in a briefing that this includes a "significant" change to the architecture, higher IPC, and increased frequency which sounds like a little more than a mere optimization. This suggests that RDNA4 should see a notable performance improvement from a similar number of compute units to RDNA3 RDNA3 models typically clocked between 2.1 and 2.3 GHz for their game clock, so pushing that up in combination with better IPC should lead to a healthy performance gain. // Related StoriesIn addition, RDNA4 features a "massive" change to the AI aspects of the architecture, and while AMD kept this vague, they did say they've added a number of capabilities to the design. The ray tracing engine has been overhauled for improved performance, but we have no numbers to back this up yet. There's also a second-gen "Radiance Display Engine," suggesting further improvements to display connectivity relative to RDNA3.The media encoder is "substantially" better according to AMD, and they actually provided some specifics to back up this claim. A footnote reveals this is comparing H.264 image quality using VMAF quality scores between RDNA3 and RDNA4 in three games (Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6, and Watch Dogs Legion) at 1080p and 4K. H.264 was a massive weak point for AMD's media encoder, so it's encouraging to see these claims targeting improvement in that area given H.264 is still widely used. Hopefully, there are no hardware bugs with the encoder this time, like outputting AV1 at 1082p instead of 1080p, a real issue with RDNA3.AMD has not provided concrete performance figures for RDNA4 just yet, however they shared a teaser on this slide talking about Radeon branding. In the dark gray, we have existing generations like the GeForce 40 series and RX 7000 series, and a dashed line indicating where AMD believes the RTX 5000 series will fall a bit faster than current models. Then on the right, we have the positioning for both the RX 9070 and RX 9060 series, and yes, there's a mention here of the 9060 with no further information.Where the RX 9070 series matches up with current cards is around the level of the RTX 4070 Ti and RX 7900 XT for the highest-tier 9070 model, which has long been rumored as the performance ceiling for RDNA4.AMD is suggesting the lower RX 9070 model could be in the range of the RX 7800 XT, and then we'll see the RX 9060 series offering performance at best between the 7700 XT and 7800 XT, and for the lowest-tier cards, around the 7600 XT.AMD says this new naming scheme was chosen for two reasons. Firstly, to match their direct competitor, essentially copying Nvidia to make it easier for people to figure out how AMD cards compare...AMD says this new naming scheme was chosen for two reasons. First, to match their direct competitor, essentially copying Nvidia to make it easier for people to figure out how AMD cards compare. Basically, they're saying the RX 9070 series is a competitor to the RTX 5070 series, though whether that means for both performance and pricing remains to be seen. Secondly, they said the 9000 series name was chosen to align with their CPU series and also because 8000 series GPU branding is being used for mobile designs with RDNA3.5.The name doesn't really matter too much, to be honest. What matters is whether AMD can deliver a strong GPU with competitive features and great value. Renaming their lineup so it looks more like an Nvidia card isn't the key to more sales. The key is creating a product similar to whatever the RTX 5070 ends up being, justifying the matched name, and then smashing Nvidia down with better pricing and value.FSR 4 = Machine-learning-based upscalingAMD also announced a couple of new features coming with RDNA4 GPUs. There's "Adrenalin AI", okay... Then the much bigger and more important feature for gamers, FSR 4, which is finally moving to machine-learning-based upscaling. There's not much detail being provided here either (see the pattern?), outside of FSR 4 being developed for RDNA4, and designed for high-quality 4K upscaling.The hope is that FSR 4's quality will improve to the point of being truly competitive with DLSS, which is more likely to happen with an AI-enhanced algorithm like Nvidia already uses and like Intel uses with XeSS. But we haven't been provided any demonstration of FSR 4, and we don't know when it will launch.There are a few additional tidbits though. FSR 4 is designed to use the AI accelerators built into RDNA4, but AMD hasn't confirmed whether FSR 4 is exclusive to RDNA4 graphics cards or whether it will be broadly available like FSR 3, which works not only on older AMD GPUs but also with chips from Nvidia and Intel.AMD says FSR 4 will provide not just an image quality improvement compared to FSR 3, but a performance improvement as well, which is interesting.We also spotted a rather interesting footnote, which reads: AMD FSR 4 upgrade feature only available on AMD Radeon RX 9070 series graphics for supported games with AMD FSR 3.1 already integrated. This implies that AMD has developed some sort of conversion system that will take a game with FSR 3.1 and automatically upgrade it to FSR 4 when you have an RX 9070 graphics card.We asked AMD about this strange footnote that doesn't seem related to any of the main points on the slide, and they declined to elaborate or explain this, which is a little unusual. If this feature does exist in the way the footnote seems to suggest, it would be a very solid way to launch FSR 4, given that FSR 3.1 is already available in around 50 games.Game support is crucial because FSR 4 would not enhance the value of RDNA4 if it took two to three years for it to be supported in a wide number of games. In that sort of scenario, DLSS would still have a huge advantage in game support, and thus would still be worth paying for. But if FSR 4 can launch with decent game support right off the bat, it will go a long way to closing that gap, provided image quality and performance also hold up.Various board partners will be showing off Radeon RX 9070 models at CES 2025, so we'll hopefully get some hands-on time with them in the coming few days right here in Las Vegas.New Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPUsAMD also announced two additional desktop Ryzen 9000 CPUs: the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D. These are exactly as expected, bringing 2nd-gen 3D V-Cache technology to 16- and 12-core CPUs, providing a single CPU with great performance for gamers and creators.If you had to guess what the specifications of these CPUs looked like, you'd probably be right.The Ryzen 9 9950X3D with 16 cores packs 128MB of total L3 cache, 64MB from the original Zen 5 CCDs, and 64MB stacked beneath one of the CCDs the other CCD remains without V-cache, in a similar design to the 7950X3D. Scheduling is still required to ensure games run on the 8-core CCD with V-cache, while the other CCD is designed to run at the highest possible frequencies in this case, 5.7 GHz, the same max clock speed as the 7950X3D.The TDP is also identical to the 7950X3D at 170W, so this is basically a straight Zen 4 to Zen 5 core architecture upgrade.The 9900X3D, the 12-core model, is also what you'd expect: 128MB of L3 cache and up to a 5.5 GHz max boost frequency, 100 MHz lower than the 7900X3D. The TDP remains the same at 120W. No pricing was given for either of these CPUs, and AMD has only said they will be available in Q1 of 2025.As for performance, AMD claims in their own benchmarks that the 9950X3D will deliver performance roughly equivalent to the 9800X3D in games, within 1%. This means an 8% improvement compared to the 7950X3D in AMD's testing across 40 titles at 1080p high settings which, again, AMD says is similar to how the 9800X3D compared to the 7800X3D. Relative to the 285K, AMD believes the 9950X3D should be 20% faster in games.In productivity apps and creator workloads, AMD is quoting a 13% increase in performance relative to the 7950X3D across 20 apps and a 10% increase relative to the Core Ultra 9 285K. This is why AMD believes the 9950X3D will be the best part for both gamers and creators, as it offers both better gaming and better productivity performance than the 285K in their testing. Of course, we'll have to verify whether that's true in our full review when the parts launch, so stay tuned for that.Other AMD announcements at CES 2025 relate to mobile parts, which we'll be covering shortly, including new laptop hardware and chips for gaming handhelds. There are tons of mentions of AI, too, because of course, that's the trend. Some of the laptop CPUs even have AI in the name, like the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395, which is a real name for a real product.That was more of a teaser from AMD than a full product launch, but all of these new products are not too far away. We should learn more about RDNA4 in particular shortly. Stay tuned for more CES 2025 coverage here on TechSpot.

Microsoft is making clear that its strategy to retire Windows 10 later this year will proceed as planned, and that its primary focus after that will be Windows 11 and Copilot+ PCs. To that end, the brand shared all the developments we can expect in a forward-looking blog post. Considering how focused Microsoft is on getting people to finally upgrade to Windows 11, its hard to imagine that Windows 12 is anything more than a distant prospect at this point.Windows 10 will reach the end of its life cycle on October 14, 2025. After this date, Windows 10 PCs will no longer receive security or feature updates, and our focus is on helping customers stay protected by moving to modern new PCs running Windows 11, says Yusuf Mehdi, Microsofts executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer.Recommended VideosAfter several years of encouraging users to update from Windows 10 to Windows 11, Microsoft appears to have shifted gears toward having consumers buy more devices that already run Windows 11. In 2023, researchers observed that enterprise users were more likely to upgrade to Windows 11 and purchase new devices rather than upgrade the hardware they already have. This was one of the main aspects bolstering Windows 11 growth early on. As brands showcase Windows 11 PCs in conjunction with CES 2025, Microsoft noted that they are powered with components developed by Qualcomm, Intel, AMD, and Nvidia, which enable Copilot+ AI features.Luke Larsen / Digital TrendsUpdated statistics from IDC suggest that approximately 80% of businesses have plans to invest in a new PC portfolio by the end of 2025, while 70% of consumers plan to update hardware within the next two years. This stands to aid Windows 11 in gaining market share as time goes by, Windows Central noted. Similarly, it will help AI PCs solidify a place in the industry, as the category completes its second year.RelatedWhether the current PC needs a refresh, or it has security vulnerabilities that require the latest hardware-backed protection, now is the time to move forward with a new Windows 11 PC, Mehdi said.While Microsoft focuses on ushering out Windows 10, it is also set to fortify Windows 11 with software updates. The OS received the 24H2 update last year, and the Windows version 25H2 update is set to be released later this year. That, it seems, is where Microsofts focus lies for the time being, and the 25H2 update could potentially be a further development of Windows 11, rather than a level up to Windows 12. That wouldnt come as a surprise, as the huge 24H2 update was also initially referred to as Windows 12, but Microsoft remained committed to Windows 11.Editors Recommendations

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsSpecs and configurationDesignKeyboard and touchpadConnectivity and webcamPerformanceBattery lifeDisplayAnother in a strong line of business laptopsWhile HP has completely revamped its consumer laptops, with its budget, premium, and gaming laptops all falling under the new OmniBook brand, it has retained the EliteBooke lin to designate its commercial machines. The first was the EliteBook X G1a, which used a custom AMD chipset for enhanced performance and particularly fast on-device AI.The EliteBook Ultra G1i takes a different approach. It features the same enterprise features as all EliteBooks, but its built around Intels Lunar Lake chipsets for greater efficiency. I took a look at a preproduction model, and so I couldnt run the usual tests, but I came away suspecting that the EliteBook Ultra G1i might very well make our list of the best business laptops.Recommended VideosHP EliteBook Ultra G1iDimensions12.35 x 8.55 0.59 inchesWeight2.68 poundsDisplay14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1600) OLED, 60Hz non-touch14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1600) OLED, 60Hz touchCPUIntel Core Ultra 5 and 7 with vProGPUIntel Arc 130V and 140VMemory16GB32GBStorage256GB SSD512GB SSD1TB SSD2TB SSDPorts3 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 41 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 11 x 3.5mm headphone jackCamera9MP with infrared camera for Windows 11 HelloWi-FiWi-Fi 7 and Bluetoth 5.4Battery64 watt-hourOperating systemWindows 11 We dont have any pricing yet for the EliteBook Ultra G1i. Given its commercial focus with extra security and management features, its likely to garner a premium price.RelatedMark Coppock / Digital TrendsHP has had a distinct style with its laptops going back to the beginning of the older Spectre era. The overall design cues are subtle, but I can tell its an HP when I pulled the EliteBook Ultra G1i of the box. HPs EliteBooks have never been as decorative as Spectres, with more of the subdued lines and angles that business users might want, but the edges are a bit curved to be more comfortable, the keyboard has the same look, and its familiar from various directions. Its a good look, equal to any other premium laptop.The build quality is also excellent in all metal. Theres no bending, flexing, or twisting, which has become pretty much the norm for any laptop that costs more than $1,000. So while the EliteBook Ultra G1i is well-built, that aspect doesnt stand out quite as much. The hinge is a bit stiff, which means you need two hands to open the lid. That can either contribute or detract from the overall feeling of quality depending upon your point if view.In terms of size, the laptop has small enough bezels to remain nicely sized in width and depth, but not as small as Dells XPS lineup. The EliteBook Ultra G1i is thin at just 0.59 inches at its thickest point, but not the thinnest, and its around the 14-inch laptop average at 2.6 pounds. So, its highly portable, but again, it doesnt really stand out.Mark Coppock / Digital TrendsHP has always had great keyboards on its premium laptops, with large keycaps featuring bold, highly visible lettering, tons of key spacing, and quality switches. This keyboard maintains that trend with a new design thats been further refined in the EliteBook series. I did find the switches on this model to be a little less snappy than on the EliteBook X G1a, with a bit of an abrupt bottoming action. But thats being picky.The touchpad is a large haptic version thats excellent, as have been all of HPs haptic touchpads. It would be the equal of Apple Force Touch haptic touchpads except it lacks Apples Force click feature. Its as precise and responsive as any Windows touchpad, however.A touch display is optional for those who like that input option. I do like to have it, but its not a must-have for most people.There are three USB-C with Thunderbolt 4 ports, which is one more than usual and a plus given that one is needed for charging. Theres also a USB-A port for legacy support. Wireless connectivity is fully up to date.The webcam is HPs usual high-resolution 9MP version, and HP has a number of features that utilize the on-device capabilities of the fast Neural Processing Unit (NPU) included in the Intel Lunar Lake chipsets to enhance videoconferencing features.Mark Coppock / Digital TrendsI couldnt test performance, but we have some experience with the Lunar Lake chipsets used in the EliteBook Ultra G1i. Whether its the Core Ultra 5 or the Core Ultra 7, the Core Ultra Series 2 chipsets have provided solid but not outstanding productivity performance. Theyre good enough for demanding productivity users, but offer no real advantage for creators or gamers.That matters because the Qualcomm Snapdragon X chipsets have the same efficiency goals, but are considerably faster across the board. They run Windows on Arm, however, which might be more problematic for commercial users with applications written for Intel architectures.Note that the Lunar Lake chipset options include Intels vPro features, which provide for enhanced security and management system support. HP has its Wolf Security suite, along with a host of plug-ins for enterprise environments, and that makes the EliteBook Ultra G1i a great option for large companies. Any buyers looking for higher performance should consider the EliteBook X G1a that uses a custom AMD Ryzen 9 AI chipset thats bound to be a lot faster.Mark Coppock / Digital TrendsThe EliteBook Ultra G1i has a 64 watt-hour battery and a high-res OLED display. Those are matched up with Intel Lunar Lake chipsets that have demonstrated very good efficiency in other laptops Ive reviewed.In our testing, Lunar Lake provides battery life across both lightweight and demanding tasks thats closer to Apples highly efficient Arm-based silicon chipsets than Qualcomms Snapdragon X. Those are also more efficient than previous Windows laptops, but they lose some of their advantage when working the CPU harder.Youll still get overall better battery life with a MacBook. But the EliteBook Ultra G1i will likely provide good enough battery life that you wont be able to tell the difference.Mark Coppock / Digital TrendsTheres one basic display option for the EliteBook Ultra G1i, coming in touch and non-touch versions. Its a 14.0-inch 16:10 2.8K (2880 x 1800) OLED display running at 60Hz. Subjectively, its as good as any other OLED display Ive used and tested, with bright, dynamic colors and inky blacks.I couldnt use my colorimeter to test it, but I suspect that the display is as good as any other OLED panel. That would make it quite good, indeed. Is it necessary for a laptop that will likely be used for mostly productivity tasks? Maybe not. But its not like this would be a bargain laptop if the display was just IPS.It looks like HP has checked all the boxes for a premium commercial laptop. Performance and battery life should be more than good enough, the high-res OLED display will please every potential user, and HPs suite of enterprise utilities will be attractive for companies of all sizes.But we wont know for sure until we have a chance to run it through out benchmarks. And we dont know the pricing, which is likely to be relatively high given the business user target.Editors Recommendations

The dons could be beasts to one another, but the atmosphere was one of lively give and take. Conversation was key to the interplay of minds.

cache on hand AMD launches new Ryzen 9000X3D CPUs for PCs that play games and work hard Not much faster at games than 9800X3D, but with up to twice as many CPU cores. Andrew Cunningham Jan 6, 2025 2:45 pm | 10 AMD's 9950X3D (and 9900X3D) combine 3D V-Cache with 12- and 16-core Zen 5 processors. Credit: AMD AMD's 9950X3D (and 9900X3D) combine 3D V-Cache with 12- and 16-core Zen 5 processors. Credit: AMD Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAMD's batch of CES announcements this year includes just two new products for desktop PC users: the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D. Both will be available at some point in the first quarter of 2025.Both processors include additional CPU cores compared to the 9800X3D that launched in November. The 9900X3D includes 12 Zen 5 CPU cores with a maximum clock speed of 5.5 GHz, and the 9950X3D includes 16 cores with a maximum clock speed of 5.7 GHz. Both include 64MB of extra L3 cache compared to the regular 9900X and 9950X, for a total cache of 144MB and 140MB, respectively; games in particular tend to benefit disproportionately from this extra cache memory.But the 9950X3D and 9900X3D aren't being targeted at people who build PCs primarily to gamethe company says their game performance is usually within 1 percent of the 9800X3D. These processors are for people who want peak game performance when they're playing something but also need lots of CPU cores for chewing on CPU-heavy workloads during the workday. 7950X3D vs 9950X3D performance comparisons. AMD 7950X3D vs 9950X3D performance comparisons. AMD 9950X3D compared against the flagship Intel Core Ultra 285K. AMD 9950X3D compared against the flagship Intel Core Ultra 285K. AMD 7950X3D vs 9950X3D performance comparisons. AMD 9950X3D compared against the flagship Intel Core Ultra 285K. AMD 7950X3D vs 9950X3D performance comparisons. AMD 7950X3D vs 9950X3D performance comparisons. AMD 9950X3D compared against the flagship Intel Core Ultra 285K. AMD 9950X3D compared against the flagship Intel Core Ultra 285K. AMD 7950X3D vs 9950X3D performance comparisons. AMD 9950X3D compared against the flagship Intel Core Ultra 285K. AMD AMD estimates that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is about 8 percent faster than the 7950X3D when playing games and about 13 percent faster in professional content creation apps. These modest gains are more or less in line with the small performance bump we've seen in other Ryzen 9000-series desktop CPUs.Like the older 7950X3D and 7900X3D, these two CPUs include one CPU chiplet with the stacked 3D V-Cache and one CPU chiplet without the cache (that cache is also stacked underneath the CPU cores rather than on top of them to make them easier to cool, a change also made to the 9800X3D). AMD's drivers and Windows' CPU scheduler will attempt to "park" the cores without cache when games are playing to prevent games from inadvertently running on the "slower" cores. Some key specs for both new CPUs. Credit: AMD This core parking system hasn't always worked consistently, but hopefully, the new Ryzen 9000 CPUs will benefit from improvements AMD has made over the lifetime of the Ryzen 7000X3D chips (YouTuber JayzTwoCents has a detailed and recent video about the problems some people have encountered and steps you can take to fix them).AMD hasn't announced pricing for either new CPU yet, but the 9800X3D launched at $479, $30 more than the 7800X3D when it launched. Expect the new chips to be slightly pricier than the $599 and $699 launch prices for the 7900X3D and 7950X3D.Andrew CunninghamSenior Technology ReporterAndrew CunninghamSenior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 10 Comments