Mini boxes in a box

THE PALM-SIZED PC CONTINUES TO GET MORE POWERFUL AND APPEALING.

Gigabyte Aero 14

A ZESTY, COMPACT GAMING LAPTOP. Gigabyte has been one of the top contenders in the ultraportable gaming laptop category for some time, with APC award winning models like the 14inch P34W v5. So the company’s newly announced ultra-slim gaming laptop, which comes in two uncustomarily zesty colour types, were some of the more unique gaming laptops on show. Though the new Aero 14 is 200g heavier than its predecessor at 1.89kg, we’re guessing the new 3K screen and 50% extra battery capacity is to blame, and even so, it’s ended up thinner than any other gaming laptop we’ve seen, impressively scraping in under the 2cm mark.

MSI GS63

4K GAMING ANYWHERE. In much the same way as Gigabyte, MSI has updated its own competitive GS range of portable gaming laptops, with the easily-carryable 1.9kg GS63 Stealth Pro. It took out an o cial Computex ‘Best Choice’ Golden Award. MSI still hasn’t catalogued nal specs for the GS63, as its waiting for Nvidia to unveil its next generation of mobile GeForce GPUs, but the system is set to be available with a 3,840 x 2,160-pixel 4K display.

Gigabyte Aorus X7 DT

VR ON THE GO. If you’re more concerned about what your gaming laptop can do than about it being easy enough to move around, then the new Aorus X7 DT will be more your speed. Gigabyte somehow managed to pack a full desktop-grade Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 GPU in the compact 2.5cm-thick chassis to make a VR-ready laptop that’ll weigh in at a manageable 3.2kg.

ASUS ZenFone 3

THE UNEXPECTED ANDROID. ASUS had a bunch to show at Computex, but one of the unexpected devices to come out of its bag of new goodies was the ZenFone 3. It’s the smallest of a new range of three handsets, which start with this 5.5-inch screen size and extend all the way up to a giant 6.8-inch Ultra model. Each of these mid-range phones boasts a Full HD screen and one of either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 or 820 SoC.

Zotac Zbox PI221

POCKET PC. The ‘compute stick’ PC is an interesting, if somewhat niche, space that is potentially perfect for people who travel a lot, and though we’ve tested a few in the o ce, we’ve never seen one with a dedicated Ethernet port. Zotac’s Zbox PI22 is more portable than your average smartphone, plugs into any display with an HDMI port and runs Windows 10, which, in our eyes, adds up to a winning combo.

Cooler Master MasterCase 5

FIT MORE IN. Much like with ASUS’s Avalon project above, Cooler Master has been angling towards modular PC cases that allow for uninterrupted upgradability with no compromise on the components that you can install. The MasterCase 5 series are big, but they not only include totally-modular exterior panels that can be swapped out at will, but also enough space for movable HDD bays and the room to accommodate up to three long GPUs.