Asus has unleashed its new range of Republic of Gamers (ROG) products at CES 2022 , revealing some intriguing new ideas alongside updated componentry for a few of its existing gaming mainstays.
The star of the show may well be the brand-new ROG Flow Z13, an entirely new product in the company's portable, 2-in-1 gaming lineup. Unlike its Flow X13 sibling (which also saw a new iteration with updated specs), the Z13 is fully detachable from its keyboard, making it much closer in style to Microsoft's Surface Pro range.
The tablet itself is ultra thin, measuring only 12mm, and manages to cram in some rather absurd specs for its size – configurations are available with a 14-core Intel Core i9-12900H CPU and RTX 3050 Ti graphics card.
The 16:10 touchscreen arrives in two flavors, with the faster 120Hz refresh rate option offering Full HD resolution while the 4K option comes with a slower 60Hz rate. Both promise 500 nits of peak brightness.
As with the Flow X13, the Z13 is able to be paired with Asus' external GPU product, the XG Mobile, which is now capable of housing up to an RTX 3080 or the newly announced AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT.
No availability or pricing information has been revealed for any of the latest Asus products, but we dare say the Flow Z13 will be superbly expensive, especially when specced up and/or paired with the XG Mobile.
Two screens, one mortgage
The apex of Asus' ROG gaming laptop range can be found in its Zephyrus machines, with most packing specs that outclass desktop machines, and housing it all in sleek, ultrabook stylings.
The dual-screen Zephyrus Duo lineup has been given a new member in the Duo 16, which is truly an exercise in excess. It houses an AMD Ryzen 9 6980HX processor, up to 64GB RAM, 4TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage, and (of course) the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card.
The ROG ScreenPad Plus is a touchscreen that, according to Asus, offers "extra productivity real estate, streaming gameplay, or even controlling supported games". It sits below the primary 16-inch display, tilting as you open the laptop's lid and sitting flush when closed.
Compared to its 15-inch predecessor, the Duo 16 is actually a smidge smaller, with its larger display making less of an impact due to reduced bezels. This main display comes in two options – either the new QHD, 165Hz ROG Nebula HDR panel with impressive contrast claims, or the 'Dual Spec' panel that can switch between 4K 120Hz or FHD 240Hz on a whim.
Much of Asus' other announcements are in the form of updates to its existing ROG Strix and Zephyrus products, with configurations now featuring the 12th-gen Intel Core processors, AMD's Ryzen 6000 series, the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and 3080 Ti laptop GPUs and AMD's Radeon RX 6000S series.
Some of the 2022 models feature the new Liquid Metal Conductonaut Extreme technology coupled with ROG Intelligent Cooling, which Asus claims can reduce the CPU temperatures by 15°C compared with previous thermal paste technology. No doubt this helps a great deal when trying to cram these ultra powerful components into sleek machines.
There's no doubt these fresh products and updated models from Asus are going to have a heavy price to go with them, but we'll have to wait until official pricing is announced in the coming weeks to find out exactly what the damage is.
Nvidia kills off $40bn Arm acquisition - here's what might happen next
Nvidia has confirmed the termination of its bid to acquire Arm from SoftBank Group in the face of insurmountable regulatory hurdles.
In late January, there were whispers that Nvidia was quietly preparing to back out of the deal, but the company has now made its stance official.
In lieu of an acquisition, SoftBank will now take Arm public via an IPO, which will take place within the next year or so. The UK-based firm is also undergoing a shake-up at executive level, with CEO Simon Segars to be replaced by Rene Haas (former VP of Arm IP) effective immediately.
Nvidia-Arm deal collapses
Arm operates upstream of Nvidia and its rivals, licensing out chip architecture to hundreds of different customers, including the likes of Intel, Samsung, Apple, Huawei and Qualcomm (and Nvidia, of course).
The company receives an upfront licensing fee from each customer, but also a per-unit royalty on all chips that incorporate its technology, typically worth 1-2% of the selling price.
The Nvidia-Arm deal attracted a great deal of suspicion from regulators and competitions from the outset. Broadly, the concern was that Nvidia might use its new position to meddle with Arm’s neutral licensing model, or steer the company’s R&D activity in its own favor.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), UK Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) and European Commission all launched separate antitrust investigations. And even if these inquiries had come to nothing, it was expected that China would raise objections in an effort to avoid a situation whereby companies like Huawei (which faces restricted access to US products) were unable to utilize Arm IP.
Although Nvidia had expected to be able to push the deal through within 18 months of the initial announcement, it quickly became clear this timeline was too ambitious. And now, the company will have to make do with partnering with Arm in the same way as any other customer might.
“Arm has a bright future and we’ll continue to support them as a proud licensee for decades to come,” said Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO. “Arm is at the center of the important dynamics in computing. Though we won’t be one company, we will partner closely with Arm.”
“The significant investments that [SoftBank] has made have positioned Arm to expand the reach of the Arm CPU beyond client computing to supercomputing, cloud , AI and robotics. I expect Arm to be the most important CPU architecture of the next decade.”
However, the collapse of the deal is not the end of the world for Nvidia. As noted by analysts consulted by TechRadar Pro last month, the company is still free to pursue its Arm-based developments and could also work to make its GPU IP available to the Arm ecosystem.
According to Glenn O’Donnell, Research Director at Forrester, Nvidia is also likely to hunt down alternative candidates for acquisition, albeit on a smaller scale. Asked whom and what sectors the company might target, he told us:
“The answers are all over the map, but Nvidia needs more depth in areas outside of its core processor line. Watch for moves in networking, sensors and specialized memory . Some of this will come via partnerships rather than acquisitions.”
Movies leaving Netflix in March 2022: we're saying goodbye to four family favorites
Details of which movies will be leaving Netflix in the US at the end of March have been revealed and some family favorites are among the list of departures.
At the end of March, 41 movies will leave the streaming service, including both Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, and Madagascar sequels Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.
The departure of both Despicable Me movies will come as a particular blow to parents, with both movies sitting in the streamer's Top 10 for its most-watched movies over the last week. Between them, they racked up almost 19 million viewing hours between February 14 and February 20.
They will be joined outside the confines of Netflix by some older family classics like Gremlins, Jumanji, Kung Fu Panda and The NeverEnding Story.
Want to find out everything that's leaving Netflix US in the coming weeks? We've got you covered here.
Where are Despicable Me and Madagascar going?
Both Despicable Me and Madagascar and all their various sequels are Universal Pictures' properties so have a permanent home on Universal's streaming service Peacock.
What else is leaving Netflix?
Some real old favourites are on their way out too. Historical epics Braveheart and 300 are out, so are knockabout comedies Bad Teacher and The Hangover, and action thrillers Blood Diamond and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra are also flying the coop.
What's coming to Netflix in March 2022?
While Despicable Me and Madagascar might be out, March will herald the arrival of Shrek and Shrek 2 onto Netflix once more.
As well as that, all-time classics like Top Gun, V For Vendetta and The Green Mile will all be back on Netflix's roster.
They will be joined by some much-anticipated new originals, like the Ryan Reynolds-led The Adam Project and chilly thriller Against The Ice.