2015-The Best Laptops For Your Every Need

Laptops are on the rise again with Windows 10's encroaching arrival and a host of other factors including: Ultrabooks taking off in popularity. 2-in-1 laptop-tablet hybrids are seeing ever increasing releases. Cheap laptops, like may have stolen the show from Budget laptops are retaking ground from cheap Chromebooks with machines like the HP Pavilion x2. Meanwhile, performance gaming notebooks are on the rise and quickly becoming perfectly good replacements for your desktop computers.


With so many options to chose from picking the best laptop for your needs is getting harder. That's why it's important to start off by deciding what it is you're going to be doing with it.

Those after a fast boot up time and a lightweight machine to carry might drool over an Ultrabook. Serious gamers will gravitate towards machines tailored to their graphical and processing needs, while those after flexibility might fancy a convertible laptop-tablet hybrid.

It might seem overwhelming at first – what with all of the choices – but we're here to help you find the best laptop for you. Believe us when we say that there is a perfect laptop out there for you. With this guide, you'll find not only that, but which is the absolute best.

Best Ultrabook: Dell XPS 13 (2015)

Possibly the best laptop on the planet, Dell's latest is a masterpiece

CPU: Intel Core i5-5200 | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5500 | RAM: 8GB | Screen: 13.3-inch 3,200 x 1,800 UltraSharp QHD+ touchdisplay | Storage: 256GB SSD | Connectivity: 802.11 AC and Bluetooth 4.0 | Camera: 720p | Weight: 2.8 pounds | Dimensions: 11.98 x 7.88 x 0.6 inches

Gorgeous display
Super lightweight
No Ethernet port
Off-center webcam

The Dell XPS 13 (2015) isn't just an astonishingly thin and light laptop, it's a revolution in design. Fitting a 13.3-inch screen into a 11-inch laptop frame is no small feat, but Dell has pulled off a miracle creating a nearly borderless infinity display. This is also one powerful and long lasting machine, all while coming in at a very affordable starting price. It easily takes the top slot as the best Ultrabook and the best Windows laptop.

Best Chromebook: Google Chromebook Pixel 2015

The end all, be all of Chromebooks

CPU: 2.2GHz Intel Core i5-5200U | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5500 | RAM: 8GB | Screen: 12.85-inch 2,560 x 1,700 IPS touchscreen display | Storage: 32GB SSD | Connectivity: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260; Bluetooth 4.0 LE | Camera: 720p | Weight: 3.3 pounds | Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches

 Long, long battery life
Legacy ports with USB-C
Prohibitively expensive
3:2 screen hurts multitasking

As far as performance and screen resolution, nothing comes even close to rivaling Google's latest Chromebook Pixel. Packing a 2,560 x 1,700 IPS touchscreen, Intel Core i5-5200U CPU and even a USB type-C connector, the Pixel is on the bleeding edge. It's no surprise how Google labels it as a developer device for programmers building the future of Chrome OS. It has more than a few quirks including a square body and 3:2 screen, but if you're looking for the very best Chromebook this is it.

Best gaming laptop: Origin EON15-X



A desktop-grade CPU in an unbeatable gaming laptop

CPU: 4GHz Intel Core i7-4790K | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M (8GB GDDR5 RAM), Intel HD Graphics 4600 | RAM: 8GB | Screen: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 LED Backlit Matte Display | Storage: 240GB SSD; 1TB HDD | Connectivity: Intel PRO Wireless AC 7265 + Bluetooth Wireless LAN Combo | Camera: 2MP | Weight: 7.5 pounds | Dimensions: 15.2 x 10.31 x 1.40 inches

 Great value
Desktop-grade performance
Razor thin viewing angles

In the last few years, gaming laptops have amazing headway in catching up with their desktop gaming counterparts. And so it seems the most logical conclusion of this evolution was to start packing desktop parts inside a gaming laptop. Enter the Origin EON15-X, an unbelievably powerful 15.6-inch laptop rocking out a full-size desktop processor and the highest-end mobile GPU available. You might think this combo would produce a boat of a laptop, but the EON15-X manages to fit everything into a small, attractive shell.

Best 2-in-1 laptop: Microsoft Surface Pro 3
                               













The best laptop-killing tablet

CPU: 1.9GHz Intel Core i5-4300U | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4400 | RAM: 8GB | Screen: 12-inch, 2160 x 1440 multi-touch | Storage: 256GB | Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 | Camera: Two 5MP webcams | Weight: 1.76 pounds | Dimensions: 7.93 x 11.5 x 0.36 inches

Sharp display
Perfect as laptop and tablet
Mediocre battery life
Runs hot at times

The Surface Pro 3 is Microsoft's most striking and versatile device to date, and serves as the most convincing poster child for the 2-in-1 hybrid category yet. Through years of refinement, Microsoft's newest tablet-hybrid has seen some significant upgrades including a bigger, higher-res display and sharper exterior. Even the smallest little things like the hinge and type cover have been re-engineered to make the Surface Pro 3 a much more stable and usable device. This makes it easy to use whether you're at a desk, sitting or even lying down.

Best student laptop: Asus Zenbook UX305
A most affordable and excellent Ultrabook

CPU: 800MHz Intel Core M 5Y10 | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5300 | RAM: 8GB | Screen: 13.3-inch FHD 1,920 x 1,080 (matte) | Storage: 256GB SSD | Connectivity: 802.11n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0 | Camera: 1.2MP | Weight: 2.6 pounds | Dimensions: 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.5 inches

Solid performance
Incredibly thin and light
Wonky video driver
Tinny speakers

The Asus ZenBook UX305 might look like a MacBook Air from every angle, but it's a better machine in almost every way. It's thinner, lighter and even more attractive in some ways with its purple tinged aluminum body. Plus this machine also has a higher-res full HD display with a fanless Intel Core M CPU and 256GB of SSD storage by default. The most amazing thing is you can get all of this for just $699 or £649 (about AU$902), which makes this one of the best deals for a laptop for students around.

Best mobile workstation: Lenovo ThinkPad W550s
This workstation impresses with its long battery life and hi-res screen

CPU: 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-5600U | Graphics: Nvidia Quadro K2100M, Intel HD Graphics 4600 | RAM: 16GB | Screen: 15.5-inch, 2,880 x 1,620 (3K), multi-touch display | Storage: 512GB SSD | Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0; 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi | Camera: value | Weight: 4.92 lbs | Dimensions: 15 x 10.2 x 0.88 inches

Long battery life
Strong performance
Thick, boxy body
Bulky extended battery

The Lenovo ThinkPad W550s is pretty much everything you want a mobile workstation to be with understated aesthetics and a durable design on the outside. At the same time, it offers business users plenty of screen resolution, long battery life and strong, reliable performance. Starting at $1,196 (£1,229. AU$1546), the W550s is on the expensive side but it's well worth the premium as the best mobile workstations.

Best Windows tablet: Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000
A powerful, small tablet that wants to play in the big leagues

Weight: 1.6 pounds | Dimensions: 11.01 x 6.95 x .42 inches | OS: Windows 8.1 | Screen size: 10.8-inch | Resolution: 1,920 X 1,080 | CPU: Intel Core M-5Y71 vPro | RAM: 8GB | Storage: 128GB SSD | Rear camera: 8MP | Front camera: 2MP

Performance
Compact design
Cramped screen
Ergonomics

Starting at $700 (£437 and AU$800), the Venue Pro 7000 offers a nice balance of performance and portability in the perfect balance you'd look for in the best Windows tablet. The Venue 11 Pro is a versatile Windows slate with enterprise features and it can be readily convert to a laptop or desktop with the right accessory add-ons. As a standalone tablet it's also a joy to use with its 10-inch, 1080p display plus the onboard Intel Core M processor to keep things light, thin and above all, fanless.

‘I Belong In Kenya’ Say's President Obama

 

The first time President Barack Obama visited Kenya was in 1987 and he wrote about it in his book Dreams From My Father.

Mr Obama said that he felt he belonged in the country as soon as he landed in Nairobi.

His luggage was missing and the cabin crew who assisted him recognised the name and asked if he was related to Dr Barack Obama.

He proudly said he was his son.

“For the first time in my life, I felt the comfort, the firmness of identity that a name might provide, how it could carry an entire history in other people’s memories, so that they might nod and say knowingly, ‘Oh, you are so and so’s son.’

“No one here in Kenya would ask how to spell my name, or mangle it with an unfamiliar tongue. My name belonged and so I belonged.”

US President Barack Obama In Kenya

 

US President Barack Obama has praised Africa’s economic and business potential in a speech in Nairobi on the first full day of his visit to Kenya.

“Africa is on the move… People are being lifted out of poverty, incomes are up (and) the middle class is growing,” he told a business summit.

He later visited a memorial for those killed in the 1998 US embassy bombing.

His schedule includes security talks with Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta.

The trip which started on Friday has been described as a “homecoming” by Kenyan media.

It is Mr Obama’s first visit as president to the country where his father was born.

Crowds cheered Mr Obama’s motorcade as it travelled from the airport.

His first appearance in Nairobi on Saturday morning, was presiding over the opening of a Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

Africa needed to be a “future hub of global growth”, Mr Obama told young entrepreneurs and businesspeople, adding that governments had to ensure that corruption was not allowed to flourish.

He said Kenya had made “incredible progress” since his last visit.

“When I was here in Nairobi 10 years ago, it looked different from what it looks today,” he said.

Later, Mr Obama visited the memorial park on the site of the US embassy where 213 people were killed in an al-Qaeda truck bombing in 1998.

Twelve Americans and 34 local embassy workers died in the blast on the same day the US embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was targeted killing 11 people.

Survivors attended as he laid a wreath.

Security is tight for Mr Obama’s visit with about 10,000 police officers deployed in Nairobi, major roads closed and US military planes patrolling overhead.

Security and Kenya’s counter-terrorism efforts are likely to dominate Mr Obama’s talks with President Kenyatta.

Kenya has been targeted by the militant Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabab which killed at least 67 people in an attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping complex in 2013.

The group also staged an attack on the university in Garissa, northern Kenya, earlier this year in which 148 people died.

Although trade and security are featuring strongly in Mr Obama’s visit, he has also pledged to deliver a “blunt message” to African leaders about gay rights and discrimination.

On his arrival at Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, he was hugged by his half-sister Auma and later, at dinner, the president was joined by more relatives including “Mama Sarah”, who helped to raise his late father.

Mr Obama’s visit would have been diplomatically impossible when President Kenyatta faced charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, says the BBC’s Karen Allen in Nairobi.

The case against Mr Kenyatta has since been dropped and the way seems clear for a restoration of ties, she adds.

After his visit to Kenya, Mr Obama will travel on to Ethiopia where he will become the first US leader to address the African Union.


    US-Africa ties
“I’ll be the first US president to not only visit Kenya and Ethiopia, but also to address the continent as a whole, building off the African summit that we did here which was historic and has, I think, deepened the kinds of already strong relationships that we have across the continent.”
    Giving the young opportunities“A while back, when we started looking at strategies to reach out to the Muslim world, to reach out to developed countries, a common theme emerged, which was people are not interested in just being… patronised. And being given aid. They’re interested in building capacity.”
    On China
“We welcome Chinese aid into Africa. I think we think that’s a good thing. We don’t want to discourage it. As I’ve said before, what I also want to make sure though is that trade is benefiting the ordinary Kenyan and the ordinary Ethiopian and the ordinary Guinean and not just a few elites.”
    On discrimination
“As somebody who has family in Kenya and knows the history of how the country so often is held back because women and girls are not treated fairly, I think those same values apply when it comes to different sexual orientations.”

Acer Aspire S7 A fashion forward Ultrabook

 

With an already stunning design from last year, most of the improvements Acer made to this year's Aspire S7 come under the hood. This year's model bears the same luxurious white glass aesthetics from last year, but Acer gave the S7 a speed boost with the latest generation of Intel Core processor and integrated Intel HD graphics.

To give the Aspire S7 its minimalist and refined style, Acer chose to go a different route than most of its competitors.

Unlike the metal-clad Dell XPS 13 and Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina display, the S7's design is reminiscent of Apple's iPhone 4 design, with a metal frame holding a glass sandwich together.

The Aspire S7 takes on a more minimalist, and less gaudy, design than the faux-leather cover on last year's Samsung Ativ Book 9, a decision that Samsung has since abandoned for a more simple metallic finish on this year'siteration.

 Buy Acer Aspire S7 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Notebook (White) - (Intel Core i5-5200U 2.2 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, LAN, WLAN, Bluetooth, Webcam, Integrated Graphics, Windows 8.1) at Amazon for £999.99

Design

Fashionable, luxurious and chic are a few adjectives that I would use to describe the Aspire S7's glass design. The white finish and aluminum trim makes the Ultrabook unique in the Ultrabook market, appealing to those who prefer white electronics given that most laptops today come in silver or black, and Apple has since abandoned the color option on the discontinued plastic MacBook.

With a 12.72 x 8.78-inch (32.31 x 22.30cm) footprint and a uniformly slim 0.51-inch (1.30cm) frame, the Aspire S7 comes in at 2.87 pounds (1.30kg). This means that the Aspire will occupy slightly more real estate on your desk compared to the smaller 12.35 x 8.62-inch (31.37cm x 21.89cm) footprint of the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina display ($1,299, £833, AU$1,766), but the MacBook is thicker at 0.71 inches (1.80cm) and weighs more at 3.48 pounds (1.58kg). With Apple's option, you'll gain a higher resolution display, but lose the Aspire's touchscreen.

Neither notebook is as light as the Lenovo LaVie Z ($1,499 US-only, but about £952, AU$1,936), which comes in at just 1.87 pounds (0.85kg), giving it the title of the lightest laptop in the world.

Dell's XPS 13 ($799, £512, AU$1,086) with its bezel-less infinity display screen takes up even less desk space with its compact 11.04 x 7.74-inch (28.04 x 19.66cm) footprint. The XPS 13 has a similar thickness as the Aspire, but appears slimmer with its tapered design, similar to the Apple MacBook Air ($999, £640, AU$1,358).

The white lid of the Aspire S7 is very slim. A silver Acer logo is etched onto the left-hand side of glass lid. Power on the Aspire S7 and the Acer logo glows white, similar to how the Apple logo glows on the MacBook Pro.

The glass attracts a fair amount of fingerprint, but thankfully the white color does a good job of concealing fingerprints. It's unclear how well the Gorillas Glass lid can withstand scratches over time compared to metal and plastic notebooks.

On the other side of the lid is a bright 13.3-inch display. Our review unit comes with a full HD 1080p touchscreen making

it ideal for watching videos and movies. For productivity tasks, I felt the 16:9 aspect ratio to be a bit too narrow and would have preferred the 3:2 aspect ratio of Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 ($799, £512, AU$1,086) or the 16:10 aspect ratio found on Apple's 12-inch MacBook ($1,299, £833, AU$1,766).

Surprisingly, even though last year's model can be configured with a WQHD screen, bringing the resolution to 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, this year's model is capped at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, making the 2015 Aspire S7 seem like a downgrade for those chasing a Windows version of Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display.

The wide viewing angle and 180-degree hinge makes the Aspire S7 an attractive option for mobile professionals and students. Coupled with the compact frame and light weight of the laptop, the Aspire these screen features make peer-to-peer collaboration easier for projects and small presentations.

Unfortunately, unlike newer convertibles, like the Lenovo LaVie Z 360 ($1,599, £1,026, AU$2,138) and the HP Spectre x360 ($999, £899, AU$1,899), the hinge on the Aspire S7 doesn't go all the way to 360 degrees to allow the notebook to convert into a tablet.

While the display of the Aspire S7 is more than bright enough for indoor use, the screen is instantly washed out under a bright sun. Those looking to do most of their productive work indoors shouldn't have any issues with the screen, but the display shows glare and reflections under the sun.

The Aspire S7 uses a barrel hinge design, which is unique for a consumer-class Ultrabook as it allows you to open the screen out to 180 degrees. This hinge allows the screen to lay flat, and for students looking to use the Aspire S7 in classrooms, this allows for better peer-to-peer collaboration. Lacking a 360-degree hinge, the Aspire S7 is not a convertible and can't be used as a tablet like the HP Spectre x360.

There are also LED light indicators on the barrel, which are visible whether the laptop is closed or open, and gives you a quick visual on whether the system is in standby mode and if it's charging. The plastic cover surrounding the hinge on to the Aspire S7's body isn't as secure as I had hoped – apply a bit of pressure to the silver plastic and the hinge cover pops out of place. I am not sure if this is a design flaw or just an anomaly with my review unit.
 
KeyboardOpening up the lid, you'll find an aluminum keyboard deck and silver keys. Even though the Aspire S7 comes with full-sized keys arranged in an island-style layout, the keyboard is missing a dedicated row for the function keys. Instead, the function keys live alongside the top number row, and the keys are accessible with the Fn button.

Because of the more compact keyboard arrangement, Acer had to shuffle around some symbol keys. This means that the Caps Lock button has been compressed, the Delete key has been moved from the top to the bottom next to the arrow keys and the tilda key ( ) has found a new home next to the miniaturized Caps Lock.

Despite coming with full-sized keys, Acer made some compromises to fit everything into the Aspire's thin frame. The key caps are flat on the Aspire S7, and key travel is shallow.

Even though the keys don't move in as far as on a MacBook Pro when depressed, there is more key travel compared to Apple's MacBook. Key travel feels about on par as the Microsoft Surface 3 with Microsoft's Touch Cover keyboard case.

The keyboard backlight glows a blue-green hue when you're typing in the dark. The choice of color appears less harsh on my eyes compared to the bright white LED backlighting on competing notebooks when typing in darkened environments, but the color seems to jar with the white aesthetics of the hardware.

Just below the keyboard is a large trackpad. Similar to the design of the touchpad on Apple's MacBook line, the trackpad is a large, single button affair, meaning you can press the trackpad to register a click. Pressing on the left side tells Windows you're trying to perform a left click, and pressing on the right side of the trackpad indicates a right click.

A white sheet of matte plastic covers the bottom of the laptop. It's unclear if stains on the undercarriage will be an issue over long-term use as they were on the white plastic MacBook. Bottom firing stereo Dolby-branded speakers are also located at the bottom.

Despites its thinness, the Aspire S7 was able to deliver left- and right-channel sound isolation for stereo sound. There is also rich audio fidelity, and even at higher volumes there is minimal sound distortion.

The side-mounted power button on the left-hand side sandwiched between the USB 3.0 port and power connector is an odd choice. Given the spacious keyboard deck on the Aspire S7, it's curious why Acer didn't place the power button there.

ZTE Axon-An Unlocked Android Phone That Balances Price And Specs

 

 Update: the full ZTE Axon review will be published Monday, ahead of the unlocked phone's July 27 release date.

ZTE isn't just backing championship NBA teams in the US, it's also backing a high-end phone dubbed the Axon.

This Android 5.0 Lollipop handset, teased for a month with mysterious marketing campaign, is part of the Chinese manufacturer's "plan to define an affordable premium handset."

"Affordable" and "premium" are typically polar opposites in the world of smartphones, but ZTE is striving to make an inexpensive metal phablet that has a 5.5-inch display.

It costs less than many of today's Android flagships, and we got a chance to test out its specs and design before it's delivered to its unlocked customers later this month.

Release date
ZTE did a solid job at ensuring the Axon didn't leak ahead of this month's announcement. That doesn't mean the phone is conceptual or far off, however.

The official Axon release date is July 27, with some retailers promising to deliver by July 28. Others have pushed the date back to August. Pre-orders began on July 14 on sites like Amazon, eBay and Newegg.

Don't expect this particular ZTE handset to show up in carrier stores like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. It's an unlocked 4G LTE phone without US carrier subsidies. Word of mouth is how this phone is going to sell itself.
Price

ZTE Axon costs $449.98 (about £290, AU$617), which is unsurprisingly lower than most high-end flagship phones that the company is trying to live up to.

Compare that to the $600 LG G4 and Samsung Galaxy S6, or the even pricier $650 iPhone 6 when they're bought unlocked, and it seems like a good deal.

ZTE Axon's price is sandwiched in between these high-end rivals that are often deceivingly priced with smaller upfront costs but higher monthly plans, and low-end unlocked plastic handsets like the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3, Asus Zenfone 2 and OnePlus One.
 
Specs and performance
The ZTE Axon specs seems to back up the company's intentions of delivering a premium device at an affordable price, though I'll wait for proper benchmarking in a final review on Monday.

It boasts a 5.5-inch LCD display with a quad HD resolution of 2560 x 1440 and 534 pixels per inch. That's the same size and resolution as the LG G4, though the LCD tech behind them is slightly different.

Underneath the Gorilla Glass 3-protected display is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor clocked at 2.0 GHz Octa-Core. That's the same chip in the LG G Flex 2 and HTC One M9.

Axon's performance is unlikely to be hindered by its memory thanks to a high-ceiling 4GB RAM, like the Asus Zenfone 2. It also has 32GB of storage space, but no microSD card slot.

Design
This isn't the world's thinnest smartphone, with the official ZTE Axon dimensions at 6.06" x 2.9" x 0.37" (154 x 75 x 9.3mm).

It feels solid in the hand with a weight of 6.10 oz (175 g). Some people prefer a weightier phone (read: HTC owners), and that's exactly what you get thanks to the aluminum design.

The phone, with a non-removable back, comes in three colors: Chromium Silver, Ion Gold and Phthalo Blue. Even the blue has a bit of gold on the buttons and around the camera.

Camera
All phone manufacturers should focus on developing the best camera within their budget, and that's something the ZTE Axon promises.

It features a dual lens 13-megapixel camera in back, sort of like the HTC One M8. It lets you quick auto focus and has the ability to refocus later on in post. Shooting 4K video is also possible.

The front-facing "selfie" camera is two megapixels and shoots 1080p video. I'll update this review with a complete camera test and performance benchmarks closer to the ZTE Axon release date.

Intel's Skylake Expected To Bring Performance Improvements And Better Battery Life

 

Leaked Intel presentation slides show what is believed to be Skylake's improvements over the company's current Fifth Generation Broadwell processors. The new Skylake chips, expected later this year, will deliver faster processor compute performance, better graphics and longer battery life.

Skylake will be Intel's Sixth Generation processor architecture. Intel will have three different mobile chips – Y-Series, U-Series and H-Series – as well as the desktop-class S-Series for this generation. The leaked slides show that Skylake brings at least an 11% processor improvement across the board, and graphics performance will increase between 16% and 41% compared to Broadwell's integrated Intel HD Graphics.

Not only will mobile workers be able to get better computing performance, you'll also be able to work longer on a single laptop or tablet charge. Skylake is anticipated to deliver a 30% increase in battery life, and Intel is claiming 1.4 hours longer battery life in its Y- and U-Series processors.

The Intel Series
Intel's current U-Series processors are used in many mainstream Ultrabooks. The current U-Series Broadwell-based Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors are the CPUs found in systems like the Dell XPS 13, Acer Aspire S7 and Asus ZenBook UX301. Broadwell's biggest improvement over the prior Fourth Generation Haswell chip is better battery life.

The H-Series family deliver more power than the U-Series, and the chipset is expected to arrive in the next Apple MacBook Pro, which comes with Intel's improved Iris graphics.

The Y-Series processors use a fanless design, and are optimized for tablets. This could give a boost to the two-in-one convertible market, and current fanless notebooks can also benefit from the performance gains. Fanless notebooks on the market today include the Intel Core M-powered HP EliteBook Folio 1020 G1, Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi and the Apple MacBook.

Launch timing
According to Windows Central, Skylake is anticipated to arrive in Microsoft's Surface Pro 4, with the site claiming that the next-generation flagship tablet could arrive in October. Skylake is also expected to launch in this timeframe, andIntel previously confirmed that the chip will arrive in the second half of this year. We previously reported that Skylake could arrive as early as August, which is the time that Intel will host its IDF developer conference.

Additionally, new memory improvements could lead to a 50% increase in 3D gaming performance compared to Broadwell, so it means you'll also be able to get a better gaming experience on your downtime.

Even though the performance claims look promising, a lot could still change between now and when Skylake officially launches. These slides are taken from third-party site Fanless Tech, so the information should be taken with caution as the information hasn't been confirmed by Intel.

Skylake was shown off in a few mini PC systems from Asus earlier this summer at Computex.

Billionaire Word; 9 Books Warren Buffett Thinks Everyone Should Read

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he spends about 80% of his day reading.

Business Insider looked through 20 years of interviews and shareholder letters to find out which books he recommends most highly.

Read on for the summaries.

Microsoft Style: $7.5 Billion Nokia Charge, $3.2 Billion Net Loss, 5.1 Percent Revenue

Microsoft has reported the biggest quarterly net loss in years, no thanks to a decrease in demand for the Windows OS, as well as the company writing down Nokia's phone business

On Tuesday, July 21, Microsoft reported $3.2 billion net loss or 40 cents per share for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. By comparison, the company's net income in the same period in 2014 was $4.61 billion or 55 cents per share.

The $7.5 billion was the accounting charge as a result of its acquisition of Nokia's mobile phone business. Even though this charge is merely on paper and will not impact Microsoft's cash fund, it will leave a psychological impact.

The company also took a $940 million accounting charge due to the job cuts it announced in 2014, as well as in July. For the unfamiliar, earlier this month, Microsoft divulged that it would be laying off 7,800 employees i.e. 7 percent of its workforce who primarily comprise its phone hardware business.

The revenue for Microsoft's fiscal fourth quarter was $22.2 billion, which is a 5.1 percent drop. Operating loss, gross margin and loss per share for the period were $2.1 billion, $14.7 billion and $(0.40) per share, respectively.

Revenue from Windows OEM also saw a decline and fell 22 percent largely due to "XP end-of-support refresh cycle." Microsoft is poised to release Windows 10 OS on July 29 and the company would be hoping that this would give a push to its revenue in the next quarter.

Under CEO Satya Nadella's guidance, Microsoft has been focusing more on cloud services and software as demand for the Windows OS sees a steady decline. Nadella, however, is optimistic of the company's future and believes that the release of Windows 10 will open new doors for Microsoft.

"Our approach to investing in areas where we have differentiation and opportunity is paying off with Surface, Xbox, Bing, Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM Online all growing by at least double-digits," said Nadella. "And the upcoming release of Windows 10 will create new opportunities for Microsoft and our ecosystem."

Revenue generation from Microsoft's cloud business grew by 88 percent or $832 million.

On Tuesday, in after-hours trading Microsoft's shares drop to $45.38, falling by 4 percent.