AND THE REST...

ASUS ZENBOOK FLIP S S IS FOR SLIM. Price TBA | August 2017 | www.asus.com/au

With a byline of ‘the thinnest convertible notebook’, the 10.9mm-thick ZenBook Flip S made it look easy to cut through the noise at the world’s biggest PC conference. Part of this is undoubtedly the 1.1kg ultra portable package, but there is also the hard-to-believe top-end specs that max out with an Intel Core i7-7500U CPU, a 1TB PCIe SSD and a 4K multi-touch NanoEdge display. To keep this full i7 CPU cool is a reengineered 0.3mm-thick liquid-crystalpolymer fan and the device even throws in one of the smallest fingerprint sensors ever implemented.

ASUS BLUE CAVE DUAL-BAND ROUTER THE HOLY CENTRE OF YOUR HOME NETWORK. Price TBC | Q4 2017 | www.asus.com/au

Somewhere between sci-fi and modernism, the ASUS Blue Cave Wi-Fi Router uses a clever trick to boost the performance of its wireless signal. You may notice a giant hole in the centre of the device — this ostensibly separates the internal antennae (on the top of the titular ‘blue cave’) and the Intel chipset (on the bottom), thus removing interference betwixt the two. Apart from this striking design, this ASUS router handles dual-band AC2600 Wi-Fi connections and comes stocked with its new AiProtection technology, promising a secure network.

AMBI AN INTELLIGENT AMBIENT TEMPERATURE CONTROLLER. HK$772 (~$130) | July 2017

Air conditioners might not seem like the kid of thing that needs to be managed by AI, but other factors like humidity, sunlight levels, the outdoor conditions and time of day play a role alongside temperature in how comfortable the home climate is. Ambi is a Hong Kong-based Kickstarter that’s turning up (or down) the heat in the automated air conditioner space. By letting Ambi’s in-built AI know if you are hot, cold or comfortable, the software will weigh up the parameters and get used to delivering the temperature you like, at any time of the day.

ADATA RUGGED SD700 EXTERNAL 512GB SSD PROTECT YOUR DATA FROM THE ELEMENTS, AND THE APOCALYPSE. $430 | Available now | www.adata.com/au

The latest in durable external drives from Adata comes in the form of the SD700 SSD, a stupendously rugged half-terabyte of external storage, promising a read/write speed of up to 440MB/s and using the latest 3D NAND Flash storage for better reliability and power efficiency. Most impressively, this compact drive has military-grade shockproof requirements and is rated IP68, meaning it can withstand some serious wetness and is completely dust-proof, making it ideal for photographers and videographers on the move in potentially inclement weather.

CRYORIG TAKU STAND UP FOR A DIFFERENT PC CASE. US$299 | www.cryorig.com

There were a number of excellent-looking PC cases shown off at this year’s show, but most have enough LED lights, coloured coolants and vibrant metals to trigger an epileptic fit. If you want all the power of a gaming rig, but don’t need your PC to dominate the room, then Cryorig’s Full ITX TAKU PC case accommodates all the components you’d need and doubles as a subtle monitor stand.

CORSAIR K68 KEYBOARD A MECHANICAL KEYBOARD BUILT TO SPILL. $159 | Coming soon | www.corsair.com

A silicone rubber shield protects the mechanical switches at the heart of the K68 Keyboard from Corsair, making it IP32 water- and dust-resistant. Cherry MX Red switches, fully red backlit keys, and a removable full length wrist rest make this an affordable option that tows the line between a feature-rich and mega-durable option for gamers. The keys are also fully programmable using Corsair’s Utility Engine software, so the lack of macro controls won’t necessarily be as much of a drawback as it may seem.

AMD RYZEN 9 THREADRIPPER X399 CPUS RYZEN GOES EVEN HARDER. Price TBA | Q3 2017 | www.amd.com

Computex is a big event for Intel, but there was no doubting that AMD stole a good chunk of attention from it this year with the announcement of an even more powerful Threadripper CPU range. The most powerful of the new Ryzen 9 CPU range will feature 16 cores and 32 threads while the whole series will get 64 PCIe lanes, quad-channel DDR4 memory and will run on the the X399 platform.

ASUS ZENBOOK PRO THE ULTRABOOK GETS A TITANIUM UPGRADE. Price TBA | August 2017 | www.asus.com/au

While ASUS’s ZenBook 3 laptop was our favourite announcement of Computex 2016, its more recent sibling the ZenBook Pro has added a Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti GPU to make a laptop that is leagues ahead of the MacBook Pro in terms of graphics processing. This does cost of a few millimeters of thickness against its Apple rival, squeezing into a not-so-slim 18.9mm, but when both 15-inch models weigh 1.8kg, it’s a worthwhile compromise. An Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, a 4K display, 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 1TB PCIe SSD adds to a rap sheet we’re used to seeing on high-end gaming laptops, not ultrabooks.