The Morning After: Computex's new laptops from ASUS, Razer and more
If you've been holding out for the latest 2025 PC models and graphics card loadouts, Computex is usually when you have to check your bank balance. The PC-centric tech show in Taiwan has kicked off with a barrage of new laptops from the likes of Razer, ASUS and Acer.
ASUS has revealed the new ROG Zephyrus G14, with a 14-inch (of course) screen at 3K resolution, a refresh rate of 120Hz, 500 nits of peak brightness and Dolby Vision support. The G14 can be outfitted with up to an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor with 12 cores and 24 threads and an AMD XDNA NPU with up to 50 TOPS. The graphics card maxes out with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, while RAM options go up to 64GB and on-board storage up to 2TB.
Meanwhile, Razer's new Blade 14 laptops will arrive with RTX 5000 series cards, while still remaining thin, thin, thin . Those NVIDIA cards can tap into the company's DLSS 4 tech to provide 'the highest quality gaming experience possible in a 14-inch' laptop, according to Razer. The laptops have AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processors that can achieve up to 50 TOPS. And if you're feeling even more lavish, there's also the bigger Blade 18, which you can load out with the RTX 5090. And then there's Acer, which is doing something special with thermal interface materials.
— Mat Smith
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More original Switch games are getting a Switch 2 makeover. Although their enhancements are subtler than the Switch 2 editions of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom , at least these will be free. Nintendo's list includes some of the console's best games: Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe . It also has the platform's top-down Zelda titles: Echoes of Wisdom and Link's Awakening . A pair of Pokémon games makes the cut: Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.
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LG's 27-inch 1440p UltraGear OLED monitor is as close to gaming nirvana as fps-hungry players can get. Topping out at a 480Hz refresh rate means it can actually display up to 480 fps. Devindra is already obsessed with it — 240Hz can go to bed.
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The Verge
2 hours ago
- The Verge
The Switch 2's promising start hides an uncertain future
With the Switch 2 launch days away, analysts and consumers are watching to see how well Nintendo can follow-up the best selling home console in its history. Judging from the pain of trying to secure a Switch 2 pre-order, it seems like Nintendo has nothing to worry about – at least at launch. Down the line, however, concerns about tariffs, a steadily rising cost of living, and a saturated market might cast a shadow on the Switch 2. The Verge talked to analysts, journalists, and normal video game playing people to put the Switch 2 launch in perspective. The key takeaway? While the console will assuredly have another blockbuster debut, its future looks much less certain. The Wii U gets brought up a lot in the conversation surrounding the Switch 2, as it's the most famous example of a Nintendo failure. 'The Wii U, with its confusing controller-screen gimmick, sluggish user interface, and lack of a great Custom Robo game, was one of Nintendo's worst flops,' GameFile author Stephen Totilo explained in an email to The Verge. It sold less than 14 million units, a dramatic drop from the Wii, which sold over 100 million. And while Nintendo expects to sell one million more Switch 2 units in its first year than the Wii U sold in its life, that's not necessarily indicative of long-term success. 'The Wii U nevertheless sold out at launch back in November 2012,' Totilo said, 'pulling in sales that reportedly topped the US launch sales of the Xbox 360 and PS3.' When looking at launch sales projections and predictions, Mat Piscatella, video game analyst for Circana, warned that what a console does during its launch period is no indication of what it'll do overall. 'Sales around the launch period are more reflection of available supply than anything,' Piscatella said. Another, more important factor for a console launch is the audience. 'With anything regarding gaming right now, we have to separate the enthusiast market from the mass market, because they're behaving very differently,' Piscatella added. According to Piscatella, it's the enthusiasts driving most of the Switch 2 hype we're seeing, particularly since the last major console launches – the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S – happened five years ago. 'We haven't had new hardware designed for the masses in a long time,' he said. 'So we have a big pent up demand just for something new.' We're seeing part of that demand satisfied by the Switch 2 pre-order frenzy. The day pre-orders opened in the US (after a few weeks' delay because of President Donald Trump's tariff chicanery) they sold out within hours. GameStop held in-store pre order events that saw people lining up outside storefronts for hours to secure one. But what will really determine the success of the console is how the bigger, mass market reacts, the same one that made devices like the Wii and original Switch such hits. Piscatella says this group is biding its time right now, 'leaning into free-to-play and the content they already have.' It's a tricky time for the industry. New blockbuster titles are getting ever more expensive to make. Consumers, in turn, are buying fewer of them in favor of spending their time and money in established games, all while persistent layoffs three years running are making it harder for new games to come out on time. Add that to 2025's unique and volatile US tariff situation and the associated price increases, and now is one hell of a time to launch a video game console. 'A games console is for a lot of people [...] an unaffordable luxury, especially for families,' said Keza MacDonald, video game editor at The Guardian and author of a forthcoming book about Nintendo's history. MacDonald believes that most people who want a Switch 2 will have already pre-ordered one and that Nintendo's real work will be to convince everyone else they want one too – a job the company doesn't seem to be doing that well. Silvie Krekow, a gamer who works at Vox Media as a creative director, says she knows 'almost nothing' about the Switch 2. She doesn't frequent gaming websites or consume gaming media, but she noted it was odd that 'a 33-year-old gamer with disposable income who owns a Switch, PS4, and Xbox One' didn't casually come across at least some Switch 2 information. Other colleagues and self-described 'gaming casuals' I spoke to expressed similar sentiments. According to MacDonald, Nintendo is handling this launch period very conservatively. 'It's like, 'We know everyone's going to buy this anyway. We don't have to sell you on it,'' she said. 'But I'm not sure if that's true.' At the Switch 2 Direct in April, Nintendo showed off a console with some slight quality-of-life and performance upgrades. That may work for the enthusiasts – they get more of what they already liked about the original. But without something more to entice consumers beyond the diehards, the Switch 2 may struggle to find its audience. 'As for the [Switch 2 features] I'm not particularly excited,' said Kushal Raval, an operations manager at Vox Media. 'The rolling controller sounds interesting, but the voice chat feature seems a bit pointless.' Kushal owns a Switch, which he said didn't run games like Fortnite as well as he wanted. And while the Switch 2's technical upgrades will likely improve this, Kushal said, 'With a $450–$500 price tag, I'm leaning much more toward getting a Steam Deck.' The Switch 2 also has to compete against people content with its predecessor. 'I have a Switch Lite that I bought during the pandemic,' said Jackie Noack, a video producer at Vox Media. 'My husband has the Switch 1, and I don't think we use them quite enough to justify replacing them.' For Noack, the console's price is also a major factor. '$500 does seem steep to me!' The Switch 2 will not be a dud like the Wii U, but it likely will not reach the heights of the original Switch. The price and lack of defining new features are two reasons, but perhaps the biggest is that the circumstances that fostered the OG Switch's success were incredibly unique. 'The Switch really picked up during the pandemic with Animal Crossing. That was an enormous hit,' MacDonald said. 'And obviously that was such a unique combination of circumstances, I'm not sure that could happen again.' Piscatella agrees: 'The Switch is an outlier success. I think [the Switch 2] is unlikely to do Switch numbers in the long term.' The lead up to the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 has been filled with so much built-up pressure from the anticipation of hungry gamers eager for any news, which was exacerbated by prolific leaks and Nintendo's typical propensity for silence. With the console's official reveal and the enthusiastic response from dedicated fans, that pressure could not be higher – and with launch coming next week, the release valve is finally about to open.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Your Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order may have been cancelled with no explanation
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Quick Summary Some customers have had their Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders cancelled without any warning. UK retailer Game has informed some buyers that not only will their Switch 2 console will not arrive on launch day, their early orders have been scrapped entirely. It is also yet to provide an explanation why. The Nintendo Switch 2 will finally be available next week, with consoles shipping for the 5 June 2025 release date. However, not everyone will get their pre-orders, it seems. One retailer has cancelled some of its Switch 2 pre-orders, with no explanation as to why. Game in the UK has informed several of its customers that their early orders of Nintendo's new machine will no longer be fulfilled. It has sent them cancellation notices and simply posted an apology on its X feed without further details. "We sincerely apologise for the recent cancellation of some Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders," it reads (via the BBC). "We understand how disappointing this is, especially for those who have been eagerly awaiting their order." There is some good news for some of those who have ordered, though – Game is trying to reinstate their purchases. "We're currently working hard to reinstate as many affected pre-orders as possible." It goes on to say that it will be in touch with updates. There's seemingly no guarantee this will happen before launch day – if at all. Although Game doesn't explain why it has cancelled orders – such as the one placed by disgruntled X user @nomad_ebp – there are two trains of thought: it either hasn't received enough stock to fulfil all of its orders in time, or there has been a technical error in the pre-ordering process. The latter is backed up by the retailer's comment that it's trying to reinstate affected orders, although it clearly does still have a record of each purchase as it has informed each customer individually. It's more likely that it over-estimated its pre-order stock levels. Nintendo had previously promised to manufacture more stock in order to beat the scalpers, but considering just how much demand there has been for the Switch 2, even it might have been taken by surprise. We haven't yet heard of other retailers cancelling their pre-orders, while some have promised (in the UK, at least) to reserve some units for purchase on day one. You'll likely have to queue early in the morning though, as it's unlikely they'll be available for long. In the meantime, you can check T3's Switch 2 stock updates for the UK and US to find out where best to place your orders.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why the gaming industry is expecting a 'rebound' this year
Gaming demand has cooled since the pandemic, but major launches and tech advances are reigniting interest. Lewis Ward, IDC Research director of gaming and interactive 3D software, joins Asking for a Trend to break down what to expect from the gaming industry, Nintendo's (NTDOY) next-gen Switch, and how Nvidia (NVDA) chips are shaping the industry's future. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Asking for a Trend here. I want to start high level, Lewis, because I want your take on how healthy the gaming industry is right now. Um, you know, during the pandemic, Lewis, I I used to call you then for your your very smart insight and analysis on this industry. You know, it's been a while. Um, you listen, people were home, gaming was the thing to do, but spinning ahead now, Lewis, May 2025. How healthy, how resilient, what kind of growth are we seeing? I think it really depends on the region. So globally, things were pretty flat if not down last year, and they've kind of been trending lower since the pandemic spike you mentioned, like 2021, 2022. In 2025, we do expect a rebound. We expect mobile growth worldwide to be up high single digits, consoles to be up maybe mid single digits, and PC-based spending up low single digits. But having said that, the US, I mean there's just a lot of uncertainty around the tariff situation and uh physical goods, right? So not just PCs and gaming systems, but all the accessories and everything else that goes along with it if they're made in China, right? And so, uh, in the US, for example, uh we're projecting slower growth than those global rates uh partly because we're kind of anticipating a negative hit, and how negative is, is, you know, very much up in the air. Let me ask you, Louis, you mentioned consoles. I want to dig into that because next week got Nintendo, right, introducing the Switch 2, which uses Nvidia's chips. How popular is that device going to be, Lewis? What what do you think demand's going to look like? Right. Well, uh, I think it'll be close to what Switch has done. So maybe, uh, you know, I'm kind of hedging my bets here, but basically, uh, through the first four years on the market. So my current forecast goes through 2028. We have Switch 2 shipping about 83 million units. Switch, original Switch and all the other skews associated with it, did about 80 million over its first four years on the market. So it's a little bit ahead, but Switch also launched one quarter earlier in the first quarter of 2017 versus the second quarter of 2025. So once you net those out, the difference is, you know, within the margin of error, basically. So we're effectively expecting the hardware at least to more or less do what Switch has done. And then the Switch 2, I mentioned, Lewis, so using Nvidia chips. Can you explain for folks what those Nvidia chips do for video games, for the industry? Why they're so sought after? Well, you know, Nvidia's been, um, out in front of a lot of trends related to GPUs in particular, right? So, uh, the the RTX, I think it's, uh, series 50 today, is, you know, cutting edge in terms of the power and performance, right? So the number of frame rates you can get per second in a high-end PC game, for example, in their GPUs. But you mentioned the consoles, and so what we expect for Switch 2 is that some games, um, you know, will be playable on Switch 2 which simply were not playable on original Switch consoles. So, um, uh, the Cyber Cyberpunk 2027, 2077 is coming out for Switch 2. I think I'm going to try to get a copy of that to see how quickly it runs, but supposedly some of these games are going to run at, you know, 40, 50, 60 frames a second, and possibly have ray tracing, which is like a a very much a leap forward, right? So at the end of the day, what you get with them, uh, relative to, you know, AMD has his own chips and Nvidia, uh, sorry, Intel's trying to get in around the corner with Arc, uh, Battlemage, I believe, is their new GPU. But at the end of the day, you know, they're kind of setting the benchmark for what high-end GPUs can do, and basically, you know, we expect, um, faster performance, uh, higher frame rates, better-looking games, right? At the end of the day, that's what gamers are willing to pay for.
