This week, Bungie outlined what players who’ve already mastered the Menagerie can expect from next week’s launch of a Heroic mode and made a statement regarding Lord of Wolves’ dominance in multiplayer, saying they won’t be nerfing or banning the gun until later this summer.
First, the new mode. The Menagerie is Destiny 2’s newest cooperative, which lets matchmade teams of six players work through a series of short encounters until they fill a meter and fight a particular boss that week.
A harder version of the mode is expected to drop next week. The Heroic version of the mode will prevent players from matchmaking, meaning players will have to form their own six-person fireteams to tackle it. The mode will also have enemies who top out at 770 power – 20 power over the current cap of 750, meaning you’ll have to play a little better to get through encounters. Individual encounters will be more important, too, as you won’t be able to simply cycle through encounters until you fill the meter; if you can’t fill it by the time you’ve run each type of encounter once, you’ll fail the mode entirely and have to restart. There will also be weekly modifiers to contend with. To match the challenge, there will be rewards specific to his harder version of the mode.
Second, The Lord of Wolves. While players were mostly concerned with the nerf to Whisper of the Worm when Bungie outlined the patch notes for this season, Lord of Wolves quietly snuck by with a damage increase as a result to the changes made to shotguns last season. On top of that, a new change allowed players to manually swap to its “Release the Wolves” perk whenever they wanted, instead of having it trigger automatically after a kill. This has lead to the gun reaching new levels of dominance, coming to a head as part of this week’s Iron Banner event. It may not be quite as notorious as Prometheus Lens was in its heyday, but it’s certainly up there.
Bungie has released a short blog post on the gun’s rampancy, saying it won’t be nerfing the gun until later this summer. “In this instance, Lord of Wolves dominance (and its really showing out on PC) didn’t rise up to meet the bar of ‘this is broken enough to turn it off in all activities,’” said Destiny 2 game director Luke Smith. “If the Wolf Pack continues to grow, we can revisit turning it off. From our perspective, this feels like a week where the Wolves run wild and supers trample their way through Iron Banner a little less.”
So for now, players will have to deal with an enormously power gun they may not have access to. For what it’s worth, however, those who brave the den of Iron Banner this week, receive a special in-game badge and triumph to mark the occasion, whether they gave into the pressure to use the gun or had to suffer its wrath.
Summer is here, and you better believe the esports are too. We also have the start of one of the biggest events of the summer: SGDQ!
Summer Games Done Quick is back and brings with it another week of speedruns. So if you had plans you were thinking of flaking on, you now of a good excuse. (Stream / Schedule)
If you’re interested in watching any kind of competitive Pokémon, whether it’s the trading card game, Ultra Sun & Moon, or Pokkén Tournament DX, this weekend’s North America International Championships are for you! (Streams and Schedule)
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Pro League’s ninth season wraps up this weekend! This is one of the biggest majors for the CS:GO scene, so it should be a good time. (Stream / Schedule)
There’s more Overwatch League this weekend! Come watch my new favorite team the Boston Uprising, of which I have been a fan of forever, play on Sunday. (Stream / Schedule)
The last Dota 2 major before The International is finally here. After a slew of qualifying rounds and events, the best teams in the world have gathered once again to decided who’s going to lose to Team Secret in the finals. Prove me wrong, other teams! (Stream / Schedule)
We also have another round of League of Legends matches this weekend. If you’ve been following along for a while now, there’s no reason not keep doing so! (Stream / Schedule)
The Hearthstone Grandmasters event is back, so you can see the game’s top players in top form, making top plays. (Stream / Schedule)
We’ve got quite a few fighting events going on right now! Here’s the breakdown:
For Tekken 7 and some Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, check out the TGU X SEA Major in Thailand. (Streams and Schedule)
For a lot of Ultimate and some Splatoon 2, check out Smashadelphia. (Stream / Schedule)
For a bevy of games including many of the games above as well as BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Soulcalibur VI, and Dead or Alive 6, there’s KIT Summer Bash. (Streams and Schedule)
And for some European Brawlhalla action, check out Brawl at the Beach. (Stream and Schedule)
The Rocket League Championship Series returns! Big-name teams have their toy-car lineups ready to go. Let’s see who comes out on top this year. (Stream / Schedule)
That’s it for this weekend! Let us know if we missed an event, or if there’s a scene you’d like us to cover, in the comments.
Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer has become an instant success on the Switch eShop. It’s already dominating the download charts in multiple regions and has been well received by fans and critics alike. Being an indie-made title, it’s obviously got a lot of smaller-sized developers thinking about what they would potentially do with Nintendo’s IP if they were given the opportunity.
In an interview within the upcoming issue of Nintendo Force, Cuphead developer, Studio MDHR, revealed its own dreams to one day make a new Zelda game. Jared Moldenhauer – the brother and co-founder of the studio – was more than happy to go into detail about what the team had in mind:
In March, Sonic Team’s Takashi Iizuka confirmed the development of the next entry in the mainline Sonic the Hedgehog series was officially underway. Since then, there’s been no other information about this game.
When Iizuka caught up with Game Informer at E3 2019 last week, he was queried about the next major entry in the series. While he refused to reveal any details, he is believed to have perhaps teased when fans can expect this next outing.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order looked fairly promising during its gameplay demonstration at EA Play earlier this month. What wasn’t made particularly clear is that the game’s structure is actually similar to that of series such as Metroid Prime. As explained by Jeff Magers, lead level designer on the title, Fallen Order is a game about free exploration and discovering new areas.
Speaking about the in-game map, Magers explains: “We want to trust the player to find their own way and discover this world without breadcrumbing them along”. The game lacks any objective markers, so you’ll need to figure things out using the environment and this 3D map, which is pretty cool.
Just as the headline states, we’re getting our creative juices flowing with Dreams, Media Molecule’s outrageously ambitious PlayStation 4 exclusive that opens the floodgates for user made content. Inspired by a commuter with an impressive appetite, our ongoing project is Snacks on a Train, the goal being a simple minigame about dipping tortilla chips in salsa. Sounds simple, right?
Recap
So, it’s been a while. Apologies; a combination of review duties and E3 2019 meant we had to put this project on ice for a few weeks. However, we now feel like we’ve made enough progress to share another small update on our silly Dreams game. In the last update, we threw in some delicious crisp-crunching sound effects, and wrestled with getting the salsa jar moving the way we wanted it to. If you missed the last issue, click here.
Businesses and consumers are increasingly reliant on cloud based storage solutions instead of in-house, on-premise local storage hardware.
Your files are stored in the cloud, which is a simplified view of what is essentially someone else’s infrastructure (data center, server, hard drive, connectivity etc).
Ever since Amazon popularised storage online with S3 (Simple Storage Service), 13 years ago, Google data shows that interest for “Cloud Storage” alone has increased by 40x over the past decade. So much so that people less frequently refer to it as “online storage”.
Given the multitude of cloud storage providers out there, one has to wisely choose a provider who will offer the maximum amount of low-cost storage and bandwidth, while still keeping your data safe.
This list represents our top picks for cloud storage: most offer a free tier allowing you to see if they’re right for you before handing over any hard-earned cash.
Business users will need to consider carefully what their needs are as terms and conditions as well as quality of service is likely to differ significantly from their consumer alter ego.
Go straight to your desired option through the jump links below:
IDrive secures servers, desktop system and mobile devices with equal aplomb (Image credit: IDrive)
IDrive offers continuous syncing of your files, even those on network drives. The web interface supports sharing files by email, Facebook and Twitter. Cautious or click-happy users will be pleased to hear that files deleted from your computer are not automatically deleted from the server, so there’s less danger of removing something important by accident. Up to 30 previous versions of all files backed to your account are retained.
Another thing to note is that IT admins have access to IDrive Thin Client application, which allows them to backup/restore, manage settings, and more for all their connected computers via a centralized dashboard.
For photos, you have a neat facial recognition feature that helps you to automatically organize them as well as syncing them across all your lined devices. IDrive also offers IDrive Express which sends you a physical hard disk drive if you lose all your data, allowing for the swift restoration of all your backed up files. That applies to the newly introduced disk image backup feature.
A business version exists and offers priority support, single sign-on as well as unlimited users and server backup.
pCloud delivers an affordable Cloud storage facility with a selection of apps (Image credit: pCloud)
While some bandwidth limits apply, there seems to be no limit to the size of files you can upload, so feel free to sync large media files with pCloud. The service is available for all desktop and mobile platforms – users can also log in via the website. The company itself is registered in Switzerland which has strong privacy laws and you can also pay a premium of $4.99 a month for pCloud Crypto to lock (and unlock) individual files with passwords.
Note that it is one of the very few cloud services that offer lifetime subscriptions. The latter come with 30 days trash history and unlimited remote upload traffic (you only need the URL of the file); you are – as expected – limited on the download link traffic: 500GB for the Premium package and 2TB for the Premium Plus package.
There are lots of things to like about Zoolz Cloud Backup for both personal use and business deployment. It offers an easy to follow interface with excellent web management options, and the ability to combine cloud operations with local external storage.
This UK-based company leverages Amazon’s Glacier infrastructure to deliver a compelling price/performance ratio, with prices far cheaper than the competition. With 20PB of data stored for three million users for more than a decade, Zoolz is also not as ephemeral as some of its rivals.
Image credit: Degoo
Swedish outfit Degoo is not a household name, and therefore it comes as a surprise that it has managed to carve itself a niche inside the ultra-competitive cloud storage market.
With only two offerings, this outfit has managed to attract more than 15 million users globally since its inception earlier in 2019 – an estimated 20,000 people join Degoo every day. It is one of the few cloud storage companies worldwide that encrypts stored files and disperses them across four different continents. It also supports two-factor authentication via the Google sign-in.
Image credit: Mega
With an insanely generous free tier and a simple drag-and-drop interface, New Zealand-based Mega is one of the cloud storage heavyweights. There’s a handy mobile app to allow you to upload files and photos, as well as sync clients with desktop machines. The company also has business tailored plans.
Mega claims that all data stored in its cloud is encrypted on your device before it reaches the firm’s servers. As the company has released the source code to its sync client, experts can check that there are no vulnerabilities.
Price: 50GB free. 200GB for $6 a month (£4.50, €4.99, around AU$7.50). 1TB for $12 a month (£9, €9.99, around AU$16). 4TB for $23 a month (£17, €19.99, around AU$30). 8TB for $35 a month (£26, €29.99, around AU$46).
OneDrive is integrated into Windows 10’s File Explorer. You don’t have to download an additional app – it’s there to use out of the box, which is obviously very convenient for those who have made the jump to Microsoft’s newest operating system.
Microsoft’s Photos app can also use OneDrive to sync pictures across all your devices. As of late March, Autodesk AutoCAD has been integrated with OneDrive which is good news for anyone using the software’s drafting tools. There’s an app for Android and iOS devices, and there’s even one in the App Store for Mac users (although it has received mixed reviews).
Price: 5GB free. 50GB for $3 a month (£1.99, around AU$4). 1TB for $8 a month (£5.99, around AU$11). Unlimited (as part of Onedrive for Business) for $11 a month (£7.99, around AU$14)
If you want to back up your iPhone to iCloud, you’ll need more than the free 5GB allowance Apple gives you, but compared to rivals iCloud prices are very reasonable.
The Mac Finder app integrates iCloud Drive, where you can store any files you wish. Documents created in the iWork office suite are also saved to iCloud and can sync across your devices. Windows users can also sync their files with iCloud Drive using the official client, and access the iWork apps on the iCloud website.
Price: 5GB free. 50GB for $0.99 a month (£0.79, AU$1.49). 200GB for $2.99 (£2.24, AU$4). 2TB for $9.99 (£8, AU$13)
Google Drive is a natural choice for owners of Android devices as it’s already integrated, but users of other platforms may appreciate the generous free storage too. You can also store high definition photos on your mobile phone with companion app Google Photos, and make use of Google’s own office suite (now known as G Suite). Also, upgrading to paid Google Drive plans is now called Google One (although it might not yet be available, depending on the region).
Downsides include the fact that the web interface isn’t very easy-to-use, although Windows and Mac users can download a desktop app to drag-and-drop files easily.
Price: 15GB free. 100GB for $1.99 a month (£1.59, around AU$2.50). 200GB for $2.99 a month (£2.35, around AU$4.10). 2TB for $9.99 a month (£8, around AU$13). 10TB for $99.99 a month (£74, around AU$130). 20TB for $199.99 a month (£148, around AU$260). 30TB for $299.99 a month (£236, around AU$426).
Box’s website currently seems to be pushing its Business plans as clicking ‘sign up’ takes you to the pricing page where for $15 per user (£11, around AU$19) you can benefit from advanced collaboration options and unlimited storage. But there is a 10GB free option, too.
As Box has been around for a while, it is supported by a number of mainstream apps such as Google Docs and Office 365. It’s also integrated with G-Suite, which means Docs, Sheets and Slides are automatically saved and managed in Box. Additionally, like OneDrive, it’s also been integrated with AutoCAD. The Box Sync client is available from the Downloads page for Mac and Windows, plus there’s also an official Android client.
Price: 10GB free. 100GB for around $10 a month (£7.50, around AU$13)
NextCloud isn’t an online cloud storage provider itself, but offers free software to download and install a cloud storage service on your own server. Using a server on your home network for cloud storage is much faster. You can also enable encryption and make sure the information never leaves your home network, which is far safer.
If you’ve no server or IT experience, you can even purchase a preconfigured NextCloud Box (if you can find one) which comes with a 1TB hard drive and will work with an inexpensive Raspberry Pi board to keep your data synced. Unfortunately, NextCloud Box is sold out but you can check out the alternatives on their website
Price: Free to install and use. Self-hosting so storage costs vary.
SpiderOak is part of a new trend of zero knowledge cloud storage providers. The website claims that after installing the client your data is encrypted before syncing. Unfortunately since SpiderOak hasn’t made the client source code public, there’s no way to confirm this.
The SpiderOakOne client is available for Windows, Mac and Linux as well as Android and iOS (although, both Android and iOS are read-only apps, meaning you can only view files, and can’t upload or sync anything). You can also log in via the web interface but privacy lovers may prefer not to as it exposes your password to SpiderOak employees.
Price: 21-day free trial.150GB for $6 a month (around £4.5, AU$8.25). 400GB for $11 a month (around £8.4, AU$15). 2TB for $14 a month (around £10.7, AU$19.25). 5TB for $29 a month (around £22.1, AU$39.9)
If you’re a Google user, you already benefit from Google Drive integration, such as the ability to save email attachments from Gmail. However, anyone can sign up for the free cloud storage, even if they don’t have a Gmail address, by creating a new Google account. Google is also in a process of releasing Google One as a sort of substitution for Google Drive, although depending on your region it might not be available yet.
With 15GB of space for new users, Google Drive is one of the more generous cloud offerings, and there are occasional ways to boost this capacity free of charge. The catch is that this Google storage space is also shared with a user’s other Google services including Gmail and Google Photos.
Mobile apps are available to allow easy access for iOS and Android users, and Google’s Backup and Sync desktop app lets you synchronize files from your PC to the cloud. Google Drive also includes online office tools for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations which can makes sharing files with others effortless.
You might not recognize the name, but if you’re looking for a decent chunk of cloud storage free of charge, pCloud could be just the ticket. To kick things off, you’re given a fairly generous 10GB to play with, and there’s a bandwidth allowance of 50GB of downlink traffic per month.
While we’re primarily interested in the free version of pCloud, note that you can upgrade to 500GB of space for a monthly plan of $4.99 (£3.70), or 2TB for $9.99 (£7.50) a month – both of which are great deals for storage. You also have annual and lifetime plans, which are a cheaper option in the long run.
The initial 10GB free offering can also be expanded up to 20GB via an additional 4GB for completion of offers, as well as referrals that add 1GB each. It’s also worth noting that pCloud offers well-designed desktop and mobile apps that supplement the website for seamless integration into a user’s workflow.
With no limit on file sizes, and simple sharing options, pCloud is a great way to send large files to friends and colleagues – it’s even possible to share with people who aren’t using the service themselves. Add in decent streaming options and a neat online interface, and pCloud is well worth a look.
Coming from Microsoft – a company with plenty of money to throw at the cloud – it’s a little disappointing to find that OneDrive doesn’t include more space free of charge. Free users get a mere 5GB of storage, although it’s relatively inexpensive to increase this to 50GB.
If you have Office 365, you’ll automatically get boosted to 1TB of space, but not everyone wants an Office subscription.
Like Google Drive’s appeal to Google users, OneDrive will be a good fit for anyone who is committed to using Microsoft’s services. There’s neat integration with Outlook.com, for instance. It’s also integrated with non-Microsoft services like AutoCAD. OneDrive also ties in nicely with Windows 10, and there is a selection of reasonable mobile apps to facilitate access on the move.
It’s possible to share files with other people even if they aren’t OneDrive users (complete with customizable permissions), and the ability to edit files online without downloading them is a welcome touch.
Dropbox is a stalwart of the free cloud storage world, with a web interface that remains streamlined and easy-to-use.
Despite its popularity, Dropbox actually has one of the least generous free packages for new users (just 2GB), but there are various ways to boost this space without paying, including inviting friends to join (you get 500MB per referral up to 16GB), completing the Getting Started guide (250MB) and contributing to the Dropbox forum (which elicits 1GB per ‘Mighty Answer‘ provided).
DropBox really comes into its own when you start delving into the service’s extra features. There’s a great collaborative working tool called Dropbox Paper that acts as a group workspace, and – if you install the desktop app – you can back up photos automatically. The File Requests feature also allows you to request another user to upload a file to your Dropbox account.
There are desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, and mobile apps including Android, iOS and even Kindle. This gives Dropbox broad appeal, as does the support for third-party apps and services.
The web version of Dropbox lets you edit files without needing to download them, and really the only thing that counts against the cloud storage service is that most alternatives offer more space to free users.
MediaFire has been around for over a decade, and those years of experience really show. You’re given 10GB of free space initially, but you can boost this by an extra 40GB through activities like referring friends and following MediaFire’s social media accounts. Few people would disagree that 50GB of free cloud storage is impressive. Free accounts carry ads, but this is a small sacrifice to make.
There’s support for large files up to 20GB, and the sharing options are very impressive, even allowing sharing with non-users.
The web-based interface is excellent too, and MediaFire offers mobile apps for convenient uploading and downloading on iOS and Android. These make it easy to access files you’re storing in the cloud, and include convenient features such as automatic photo syncing.
SpiderOak is a collaboration tool, online backup and file hosting service founded in 2007. The platform allows users to access, synchronize and share data using a cloud-based server.
The company places a strong emphasis on data security and privacy. They offer a cloud storage, online backup and sharing service which they claim uses a ‘zero knowledge’ privacy environment. This means the client is the only one who can view all stored data. Not even SpiderOak themselves have access to your data.
SpiderOak’s main focus is on privacy and security. As a result, the tool itself has a very basic design. This makes the admin console and all central device management very straightforward to use. They also include a handy drag and drop feature for organising files.
From the centralized device management dashboard, users can access settings for all applications such as backup selection and sharing. The dashboard also allows users to manage their accounts, set group permissions and gain insight into usage.
Prospective business clients will need to contact SpiderOak’s Sales Team directly to obtain a quote. 500 users minimum is required.
Online commentators have observed that SpiderOak lacks many of the collaboration tools available from other cloud storage providers.
Tresorit is a cloud storage provider based in Hungary and Switzerland. It was founded in 2011. The provider emphasizes enhanced security and data encryption for businesses and personal users alike.
If you are concerned with ensuring that your stored data is kept safe online then Tresorit is the service for you. This provider allows you to keep control of your files through ‘zero-knowledge encryption’ meaning that only you and the chosen few you decide to share with can ever see your data. Your Tresorit account can also be secured by two-factor authentication login. Furthermore, you also have features like Document Scanner which securely scans and uploads documents directly to Tresorit.
Tresorit’s ‘Small Business’ Packages starts at $25 (£19.60) per month (or $20 monthly for the annual plan) for teams with 2-9 users. This includes 1000GB encrypted storage, secure access on up to 10 devices and synching of existing folder structure.
Tresorit’s ‘Business’ plan begins at $30 (£23.30) per month (or $24 monthly for the annual plan) for businesses with over 10 users. This comes with extras such as digital rights management, remote wipe and phone support. At the time of writing there is a 50% discount on “Business plan”, so you can pay as low as $12 (£9.4) per month
The ‘Enterprise’ tier weighs in at $34 (£26.65) per month (or $27 monthly for the annual plan) for businesses with more than 100 users. Extras included in this are personalized staff training, admin API and on-premises deployment. In order to sign up for this plan, users need to contact Tresorit directly.
All tiers come with a 14-day free trial.
The extra security offered by Tresorit makes it relatively expensive compared to other cloud backup solutions. However most users will probably appreciate the greater piece of mind and extra features offered by Tresorit.
Egnyte was founded in 2007. The company provides software for enterprise file synchronization and sharing.
Egnyte allows businesses to store their data locally and online. All types of data can be stored in the cloud, whilst data of a more sensitive nature can be stored on servers on-premise. This makes for better security.
Business teams can work how and where they want with an easy to use collaboration system through Egnyte’s content services platform.
Egnyte integrates with popular industry applications such as Office 365 or Gmail. This allows both remote and internal employees to access all files with ease.
Egnyte’s ‘Office’ plan starts at $8 (£6.21) per employee per month. This covers 5-25 employees, 5TB of storage and 10GB max file size.
The ‘Business’ packages starts at $20 (£15.7) per employee per month. This includes 25-100 employees, 10TB online storage and 10GB max file size.
In order to take advantage of their ‘Enterprise tier’, which includes over 100 employees, 25GB max file size and unlimited storage, you will need to contact Egnyte directly.
Egnyte offer a 15-day free trial for all packages.
Users have observed that some files, such as photos, can take a long time to load.
Dropbox is one of the oldest cloud storage providers. It was founded in 2007.
To date it is one of the simplest storage providers to use. Dropbox can be installed on most computers or devices and syncs easily between apps. The app can store almost any kind of file while never having any issues with compatibility. You can drag and drop files into the desktop app with ease.
You can also share files with other users easily through links. These can be shared with users who don’t have a Dropbox account.
As Dropbox has been around for a long time it integrates with most other apps such as MS Office and Slack.
All files and folders can be shared with other users even if they are not part of your account. These users will be limited to their own plan’s storage limits.
Dropbox Business can be connected to your personal account so you can access all your files in once place. Personal account feature “automatic camera upload” is now also available to Business accounts, as of November 2018.
The dashboard is simple and easy to use. From here, admins can see how many team members they have as well as any pending invites. You can restrict sharing, and allow/block commenting as you see fit. The dashboard allows you to access settings and to monitor usage.
Dropbox offers a 30-day free trial which asks for your payment details. Your plan will automatically upgrade after the trial at which point your card is charged.
The ‘Standard’ plan starts at $12.50 (£9.71) per user per month starting at 3 users and includes 3TB storage.
The ‘Advanced’ package begins at $20 (£15.70) per user per month with unlimited storage.
In order to subscribe to the ‘Enterprise’ tier, users will need to contact Dropbox directly.
Some users have commented on the lack of online editing tools.
Box is a cloud content management and file sharing service for businesses. It was founded in 2005.
Box offers strong management capabilities and security features. The interface is made for ease of use and is simple to navigate.
The dashboard allows access to settings, files and folders. Admins can manage all users, monitors activity and control sharing.
As Box has been around for a while, it is supported by a number of mainstream apps such as Google Docs and Office 365. The Box Sync client is available from the Downloads page for Mac and Windows. There’s also an official Android client.
Box offers a 14-day free trial for all packages. Their ‘Starter’ plan is priced at $5 (£3.88) per user per month. This includes 100GB secure storage, 2GB file upload with a maximum of 10 users.
The ‘Business’ plan starts at $15 (£11.80) per user per month which includes unlimited storage, 5GB file upload and no maximum number of users.
The ‘Business Plus’ package is $25 (£19.60) per user per month and comes with unlimited storage, 5GB file upload and unlimited external collaborators.
In order to subscribe to Box’s ‘Enterprise’ plan, users will have to contact them directly for a quote.
If you choose to share files external users are limited to read-only access.
For better or worse, the touchscreen has completely changed the laptop scene. From more touch-friendly operating systems like Windows 10 and Chrome OS to the explosion of drawing apps, there are more reasons to have a touchscreen on the best laptops than ever before, and the surging best 2-in-1 laptops popularity does nothing but confirm this.
In 2019, it does seem like every laptop under the sun has touchscreen capabilities – and though that’s not far from the truth, not all touchscreen laptops are created equal. For example, while most will detect basic finger scrolling up or down a web page, the best touchscreen laptops are finely tuned for precise digital pen utility, and will even have some specialized features.
Keeping this in mind, we went ahead and found all the best touchscreen laptops for everyone – from note takers to digital artists. Whether you need to be a part of the touchscreen revolution, you’re looking to upgrade to the next best thing, or you just need some tech-savvy gifts in time for the holidays – you’ve come to the right place.
The touch model in the Dell XPS 13 line touts every single thing we love about this highly-rated laptop, from its updated 8th-gen processor to its battery life boost. Of course, the display also inherits excellency, with top-notch color reproduction, HDR features and 400 nits of brightness, not to mention, practically non-existent bezels. It’s only made better by its 4K touchscreen feature, which makes it even more useful for many productivity and creative endeavors.
Chromebook fans adore the Asus Chromebook Flip, and so will those users shopping around for a lightweight (at least, on the inside) laptop with touchscreen functionality. It’s gorgeous screen, which gets pulled tightly against the underside of the notebook by a magnetic clasp when in tablet mode, is gorgeous and vibrant – not to mention, responsive. So that whether you’re in laptop mode or doing some creative stuff in tablet mode, you’ll enjoy the seamlessness of the experience.
Over the last few years, Microsoft has been hard at work to design some of the best touchscreen laptops on the market. Devices like the Surface Pro 6 and the Surface Book 2 are brilliant devices. However, it’s the new Surface Laptop 2 that takes the cake, using that traditional laptop form factor and merging it flawlessly with touchscreen technology in the most compelling way. Plus, not only is it a beautiful display, fitted in a gorgeous chassis, but it also has the hardware to back it up. Some may lament the absence of Thunderbolt 3, but when it already does so many things right, it’s hard not to love the Surface Laptop 2.
The Samsung Chromebook Pro is similar to an extremely large Samsung Note device in that it has a stowable stylus and a fantastic touchscreen for handwriting notes. What’s better, every single thing you write down on the Samsung Chromebook Pro is saved to Google Keep, which then digitizes your handwriting into a text document for convenient searching afterwards. And, when you take into consideration its access to the Google Play Store for all the best Android apps, it isn’t hard to see why this is one of the best touchscreen laptops.
This product is only available in the US at the time of this writing. UK and Australian readers: check out a fine alternative in the Microsoft Surface Pro
The HP Spectre x360 is not only one of the best touchscreen laptops out there, but it’s also one of the best laptops, period. It manages to strike a perfect balance between tablet and laptop. As a tablet, it has superbly slim bezels for consuming all sorts of content, and is light enough to hold for a long time. With long battery life and powerful full-fat Ultrabook processors, it excels as a laptop that’ll power you through any work you throw at it – without making you scramble for the nearest outlet.
Not only does the new Lenovo Yoga C930 one of the best hybrid laptops we’ve tested to date, but it’s also deserving of a spot on our best touchscreen laptops list. It’s all thanks to that high-quality IPS Glossy touchscreen display that extends stylus support and available in both Full HD and 4K, if you work with high resolution photos. Get all your productivity tasks out of the way, and after work, squeeze in some decent gaming.
The Surface Book 2 15-inch offers the same great touch and pen experience as the Surface Pro, yes. But it also takes it to the next level, featuring a larger screen and extremely beefier hardware. Thanks to its quad-core processor and potent discrete GPU, it’s fitted to handle your most demanding art projects, not to mention some of the best PC games you’re obsessed with.
Budget-minded shoppers seeking touchscreen functionality will appreciate the value the Lenovo Yoga C630 offers. This 2-in-1 starts at $629, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 Processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB of SSD storage and integrated Qualcomm graphics, making it a lightweight option for those folks who aren’t entirely convinced by the Chrome OS environment. It’s got a few tricks up its sleeves as well, including the Lenovo Active Pen, a Fingerprint Reader and more than 23 hours of battery life. And, what of the display? It’s a 13.3-inch, wide-angle FHD stunner with touchscreen functionality.
If you’re looking for a powerhouse and you have the funds for it, then Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Extreme mobile workstation is the ideal machine for you. It has several configurations on hand, depending on your needs and budget, but at its most basic, it’s already pretty powerful, packed with a solid graphics card and a 4K multi-touch display that is a stunner. For gamers, this display also boasts the Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR) technology for top-notch image quality.
Apple makes some of the best phones out there but obviously with that comes a pretty big price tag. With devices such as the iPhone XS Max and XR costing eye-watering prices, it can make sense to go back a models and pick yourself up one of Apple’s older plus size models.
This is where the iPhone 8 Plus deals come in. If you want one of the newest large screened Apple smartphones, but the price of the iPhone XS make you feel dizzy, then the 8 Plus will be the one for you.
So how are iPhone 8 Plus prices looking. On average, if you shop wisely (using our price comparison chart below) you’ll save yourself around £300 if you go for this handset over the iPhone X. We’ve seen monthly tariffs as low as the £25 region if you’re prepared to stick a wedge down upfront.
Still feeling a bit overwhelmed by these prices? Don’t forget that iPhone 8 deals are also available if you’d prefer the smaller smartphone, along with the smaller prices. And you can save £10 on the upfront cost of any iPhone 8 Plus deal at Mobiles.co.uk by using the voucher code 10OFF at the checkout.
The 5 best iPhone 8 Plus deals you can get in the UK right now:
iPhone 8 Plus price: how much does it cost?
A mighty £699. That’s how much the 64GB iPhone 8 Plus will cost you in the UK according to the RRP. That might seem like a lot but that’s one hundred pounds cheaper than when it first came out.
Need more memory? Then your only other option is spending an extra £150 and grabbing a £849 256GB iPhone 8 Plus.
If you opt to buy the iPhone 8 Plus upfront without a contract you will save money in the long run, but of course £699 is a lot of money to pay. If you can afford it though it the way to go once you pair it with a cheap SIM only deal.
This is the iPhone you want if you can’t quite afford the iPhone X or iPhone XS Max. It’s got the larger battery, same powerful innards and strong camera. If you don’t mind the poorer screen, it’s a good option – and the screen is still a beaut. And we prefer it quite a lot more to the regular iPhone 8.
For those looking to invest in a brand new big data SIM only deal, you’re pretty much spoilt for choice right now. In fact, with so many impressive offers, dare we say it is one of the best SIMO line-ups we’ve ever seen? Dare, we shall.
Ready to invest in your new SIM only offer? We’ve listed all of the standout offers below so you can find the one that works for you. But if you find yourself still lacking your perfect deal, consult our SIM only guide for everything from the cheapest offer to the most feature packed.
Compare these offers to the rest with our SIM only deals guide
These big data SIM only deals in full:
Still not convinced? Select from our list of best SIM only deals in the UK today
