Riot Games has another jungle shakeup planned for League of Legends’ next preseason period, and this time, it’s doing something completely new. An overview of some of the work-in-progress jungle changes shared this week confirmed that Riot intends to add pets to the jungle, pets that’ll help junglers clearing out the jungle itself while also empowering champions to some degree. Riot’s full plans have not been laid out, however, so we only know of teases so far to hint at what might happen.
The plentiful jungle changes were talked about first in a Lol Pls video focused on the next preseason period and a couple of upcoming champions. These pets stem from planned changes for the jungle items themselves which Riot said don’t currently offer a lot of excitement or readability when it comes to things like Red Smite. Riot wo n’t be returning to the days of Spirit of the Elder Lizard or Wriggle’s Lantern but he will instead try out a new strategy via these pets.
“These pets will help you do little things in the jungle like clearing or taking down epic monsters (think old Sated Devourer puppy),” a post on the league site accompanying the video said. “As you jungle, you slowly raise and feed your pet until they’ve grown up enough to be able to empower you.”
Two early images showed what sorts of things Riot is looking at, though the devs clarified that the concepts were very early in development and that things would look different when the idea was fully realized. One image shown below had a tiny wolf walking behind Mundo in the jungle while another showed how Riot used stand-in effects for the part where the pet empowered the player.
“Our earliest prototype was a jungle wolf that followed you around and whenever you killed a camp, Ahri’s foxfire missiles shot into the wolf’s mouth,” the post explained. “At a certain point the wolf got really, really small (unlike our love of it) and attached to your head. Then a recolored version of (soon-to-be-outdated) Udyr’s Tiger Form glowed on you while Aatrox’s ult activation sound effect played repeatedly (and globally oops).”
As for what that buff does, Riot isn’t saying just yet, so we’ll have to wait until closer to the preseason period when that and more questions will be answered.
Transport energy provider Ampol has launched its new lubricants marketing alliance with ExxonMobil with a new campaign created by Saatchi & Saatchi Australia.
The alliance, which will see ExxonMobil bring its motor oil Mobil Super™ to Australia, follows the recently rebranded petroleum station chain’s latest energy evolution campaign in July, which marked the rollout of Ampol’s AmpCharge electric vehicle charging solutions while also showingcasing the various forms of energy solutions Ampol offers.
Other assets:
Radio 1: https://lion.box.com/s/c7mk138mzkt2scl1om75niqvcnu9630j
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Radio 2: https://lion.box.com/s/tpz8vci32a4rhcq3fv1lqu78hxeyxlu7
Radio 3: https://lion.box.com/s/78w0rvrz939w49qpzllwfenlk7i2r793
Piero Ruzzene, creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi said: “Motor oil is a purchase usually borne out of necessity rather than regularly, with many car owners rarely topping up or even checking their engine oil levels. That is, until their oil light comes on.
“When it comes to our cars, we’ve become reliant on the yearly visit to the mechanic and in-warranty service. We’ve come to think engine lubricants are only for car and motor enthusiasts. We hope this campaign gets people back in touch with their engines’ needs and empowers them to take engine care into their own hands.”
Sean Phillips, Ampol head of sales and marketing lubricants (Mobil Super) said: “We are thrilled to bring this campaign to life. Mobil Super is a brand that protects what you love, your engine, your car, and ensures a smooth journey for those inside the vehicle. Through our lubricant’s marketing alliance with ExxonMobil, we are using our scale, Australian expertise, manufacturing capability and strong customer relationships to bring Mobil Super to Australian consumers and support our commitment to evolving our lubricants offer to meet the ever-changing needs of our valued customers. .
“The suite of Mobil Super lubricants gives drivers a varied range of oils tailored for modern engines and a range of driving conditions and needs. Whichever range you choose, every Mobil Super oil provides high performance and protection backed by a long history of innovation in lubricant technology.”
The campaign will run across online video channels, radio and Spotify audio, as well as digital display from this month.
Credits:
Client: Ampol Australia General Manager B2B Sales: Brad Phillips Head of Sales & Marketing: Sean Phillips Lubricants Product Marketing Manager: Bernadette Sykes Lubricants Marketing Advisor: Shaun Ramadan Marketing & Product Manager, Automotive Lubricants: John Child Lubricants Communications Coordinator: Neha Bahri
Creative Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Australia Head of Creativity: Simon Bagnasco Strategy Partner Sydney: Iona Macgregor Creative Director: Piero Ruzzene Senior Art Director: Simon O’Neill Senior Copywriter: Anton Posa Group Account Director: James Tracy-Inglis Account Director: Izabela Gustowski Executive Producer – Head of TV/Content: Michael Demosthenous Senior Integrated Producer: Holly DeRoy Digital Director: Danny Marston
Production Company: MOFA Director: Bill Bleakley Executive Producer: Llew Griffiths PDO: Simon Walsh Editor: Stewart Arnott Grade and Online: ArcEdit
Sound & Music: Rumble Studios EP: Michael Gie Composer: Jeremy Richmond Sound Designer: Liam Annert
How do you feel about traveling overseas to surf? I’m excited to travel again. I’ve had some amazing experiences surfing in Indonesia and Hawaii, among other locations, and now that my son has the froth for surfing too, I’m looking forward to taking him to some of these places. That said, I still love pulling up at my local with my boy and think that I can’t ever be beaten.
Most memorable surfing experience? This might sound kind of cheesy, but I’m just grateful for every experience I get in the water these days. If I had to say one particularly memorable session, though, it would be last year at a secret spot on the Gold Coast (I know, not many of those left). I was out there with some of my best mates. The waves were insane. Then one of my mates got hit in the head by his board from him. We couldn’t find him for at least two minutes. We were terrified he’d drowned, but then we saw him floating facedown in the water, so we raced over on the jet ski and got him back to shore. Luckily, one of our other mates is a paramedic and got him breathing again. In the end, the rescue helicopter had to come and get him. That day was certainly a rollercoaster. He was wearing a float vest, which brought him to the surface – that’s what saved him.
Scott putting one of his four surfboards through his paces. “Surf as much as you can” to improve, he advises.
How many boards do you own? Right now, I’ve got about four boards on rotation: a JS board, an Album board and a couple from Gold Coast shaper Stuart Surf Design.
Do you surf on your own? Very rarely.
Favorite surfer? Honestly, my mate Josh, who I surf pretty much every session with. It has been epic seeing him grow from a grom to a semi-professional surfer on the World Surf League Qualifying Series when he was younger, and now into a hero firefighter. I still have my mind blown watching him surf some days.
Most like to go surfing with? Again, I know this is cheesy, but honestly, my son, Ace.
Tips to become a better surfer? Nothing secret about this tip: surf as much as you can.
Ever been scared in the water? All the time. Sharks, big waves, jet skis, debris – you never know what’s coming, so you always have to keep your wits about you.
Any serious injuries or catastrophes? No, touchwood.
Dislike anything about surfing? Nope!
Your view on sharks? We are in their home and must respect them.
Most like about surfing? I’m not joking here: not having any devices on me.
What do you think about when you’re sitting out there on your board? lots. I think being in the ocean is the best meditation of all. It just calms my mind, especially if we’ve got a lot going on with Hard Fizz. It’s weird but seriously, all my worries just disappear after I get a crazy barrel or pull an epic turn. The happiness I get from surfing – be it a good or bad session – is the best feeling.
We all lead busy lives with work and family and being social, and that can get overwhelming. The past few years have been tough for me, like everyone. At one stage I was unfit, stressed and drinking a bit too much – but surfing, in combination with breath work and daily ice baths, has changed my life. I’m a better husband and father, a better business person and workmate, and just generally, a lot happier. Nothing gets me down any more.
Intel kicked off its Xe HPG Scavenger Hunt in early 2021, and a rather large 18 months later we have no Arc graphics cards in the wild… meaning no Intel Arc graphics cards to give away to Arc Scavenger Hunt winners.
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The company is now offering an alternative prize because there are simply no Intel Arc GPUs, so instead of an Intel Arc A7-series graphics card (Intel was giving Grand Prize winners an Intel Arc A770, while the first place prize was an Intel Arc A750 ) winners can now opt for an Intel Core i7-12700K and Core i5-12600K processor.
Intel sent an email to its winners, explaining to a Xe HPG Scavenger Hunt Top 300 prize winner that they would be provided with an alternative to the original hardware prize, in addition to the standard merchandise and swag prizing. The company confirms that the winners only have a few days to decide — up to August 19 — if you want to switch over your Arc GPU to an Intel 12th Gen Core “Alder Lake” CPU.
But now, this is the clincher: if you opt back into the original GPU pricing, Intel warns that you will have to do so with the understanding that such pricing is tied to the launch timeline of Intel Arc A7-series GPUs. Because we don’t know when that happens, and neither does Intel, you could be waiting a while.
Intel does note that while they anticipate that the hardware should get to you ahead of Intel Arc A7-series GPU availability, Intel “cannot guarantee that to be the case, as Intel is very close the Intel Arc A7-series GPU launch“. I guess Intel means to say in that email that they are “very close to the Intel Arc A7-series GPU launch”. Mistakes everywhere, Intel.
The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are old news and in Google’s rear view mirror. For now, the Pixel 6a is getting its 15 minutes to shine before the Pixel 7 phones inevitably push them aside, too. It’s just the way things go. But it might also be prime time to go a-huntin’ for some terrific Pixel deals… except in this case, you’d have to do it in the real world.
Threads on the r/GooglePixel subreddit (via 9to5Google) have popped up with people penning posts telling the good people online about their stroke of luck coming across a 128GB Pixel 6 Pro in Stormy Black on final markdown, snagging it for 70% off. That brings it down from an MSRP of $900 to an boost buy-level of $270. So far, such clearance stickers have been found in Florida, Georgia, and Massachusetts.
ANDROID POLICE VIDEO OF THE DAY
But don’t go thinking you’ll just find them in any Target because the situation definitely depends on the particular store. One redditor claiming to be an employee says the chain has four markdown tiers — 15%, 30%, 50%, and 70% off — and that the only reason they could think of for marking down stock is because the store wasn’t ” supposed to have it in the first place.” They also say not to call their store to ask about their Pixel 6 Pro inventory. Another self-identified employee says not every store has the same stock. Their store carried the Pixel 6, but not the 6 Pro.
People have been advising bargain seekers to check inventory scanner site BrickSeek to see if they have stores with low inventory (usually two units or one unit) before heading out. Low stock is not a guarantee of a low price, it’s just an indicator. If you do take the effort to visit a Target, remember to be polite and kind to the sales associates.
Still, we’re not surprised to hear about retailers emptying shelves for the upcoming Pixel 7. There have been suggestions from some of the cheekier folk on the threads that those who can snag a bargain here can trade up nicely to the newer phone come release day. We don’t officially recommend that, obviously.
“The story of the M3 is everlasting,” said van Meel. “Every time we change the story of the engine, from four-cylinder to six-cylinder to eight-cylinder to six-cylinder and a turbocharger, the story continues.
“Maybe it will go electric – but if it does, it will always be an M3. Whatever the powertrain, you should always be able to drive our cars and know they are M cars. We have stood the test of time for 50 years and will continue to do so.”
Intriguingly, he added: “I would love to see electrified Ms in the future – hybrid and pure-electric, but if we bring them, they will be so groundbreaking that you will say: ‘This is crazy, I didn’t see that coming.’”
His comments suggest BMW bosses are not concerned about the appeal of its high-performance products wanting as they go electric, Neither, it seems, are its customers. “We’ve just been talking to customers and the feedback is that 90-95% don’t care what direction we take on powertrain. They just want an M car. Yes, some say that if we don’t do V8s, they’re out but that’s okay: I respect that,” said van Meel.
The current M3 was launched in 2020 as a highly bespoke and far more potent take on the G20-generation 3 Series, which has just been updated and is expected to remain on sale until around 2025. Whether the M3’s life cycle will follow that timeline has yet to be confirmed, but van Meel’s hint at an electrified future for the super-saloon raises the possibility of a hot version of the radical new ‘NK1’ saloon due to arrive in 2025.
For many of us, the sight of waking up to a 911 sitting in our driveway is the stuff of dreams. A beautifully designed, meticulously engineered, driver-focused package that has arguably become the most recognizable silhouette in the history of sports cars. There is, however, a small subset of individuals whose days are spent in fire-retardant clothing that requires a far more ludicrous iteration of that gorgeous profile – a track-only, performance-focused monster, more commonly known as the Porsche 911 GT3 R .
The GT3 R is the first customer racing car based on Porsche’s exceptional 992 platform, which will be officially unveiled at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and ready to race at the start of the 2023 GT3 season. Development of the car began in 2019 with a focus on driveability for gentleman drivers and reducing the running costs for teams, though make no mistakes about it; this is a professional piece of kit.
911 GT3 R Project Manager, Sebastian Golz was adamant about blending performance with usability: “For us, it was primarily about our customers being able to drive the racing car fast for longer. This requires durability and that’s why we focused predominantly on improved driveability. This is reflected in the new 4.2-liter engine’s broader usable rev band, more stable and constant aerodynamics and lower loads on the rear tires, which allow their potential to last longer.”
RELATED: Jeremy Clarkson’s Story About Why He Loves The Porsche 928 Will Make Grown Men Cry
The most apparent internal improvement to 911 GT3 R is the increase in capacity from 3,997 to 4,194 cc, resulting in a power output of around 416 kW (565 PS). The flat-six is still normally-aspirated and will sound symphonic all the way up to its ludicrous rev limiter, while a sequential six-speed contest-mesh gearbox (pulled from the 911 GT3 Cup) should produce shifts as fast as they are reliable .
In terms of exterior, the aerodynamic upgrades are noticeable. An elevated underbody combines a smooth undertray and a rear diffuser, increasing downforce without much drag increase. The polarizing “swan-neck” mount has also found its way onto the GT3 R, which might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but the clean air under the wing improves the aerodynamic efficiency and, therefore, shaves a bit of time off those precious laps.
Porsche Motorsport now offers the new 911 GT3 R for €511,000 ($750,000) plus country-specific charges and optional extras.
2023 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) Technical Data
Weight/Dimensions
Basis weight: ca. 1,250 kg (depending on BoP classification); wheelbase: 2,507mm
Water-cooled six-cylinder boxer, rear-mounted; capacity 4,194 cc, stroke 81.5 mm, bore 104.5 mm; max rpm 9,250/min; power: ca. 416 kW (565 PS); four-valve technology; single throttle butterfly system; direct fuel injection; engine control unit Bosch MS 6.6; dry sump lubrication with oil-water heat exchanger; single mass flywheel; race exhaust system with twin tailpipes and DMSB certified catalytic converter; fuel quality: Superplus unleaded to E20 (min. 98 octane)
Transmission
Porsche six-speed sequential constant-mesh gearbox; shift paddles on the steering wheel with electronic shift actuator; mechanical limited slip differential with adjustable preload system unit; three-plate carbon race clutch
Suspension
Forged aluminum control arms and top mounts, stiffness optimized; high-duty spherical bearings with dust protection; wheel hubs with central locking; five-way adjustable racing shock absorbers, motorsport-specific valve design and blow-off function; suspension adjustment via shims; sword-type anti-roll bars adjustable on both sides; spring travel potentiometer; tire pressure monitoring system
front-axle
Double wishbone front axle, adjustable ride height, camber and toe
Electro-hydraulic power steering
Single-piece alloy rims, 12.5J x 18, tire size 30/68-18
rear-axle
Multilink rear suspension, adjustable ride height, camber and toe
Racing driveshaft with tripod flanges
Single-piece alloy rims, 13.5J x 18, tire size 31/71-18
If you love to get free games on Steam, a new Steam update has just made the process of claiming free-to-play games and free DLC add-ons a little easier. The new addition may not sound like much at first, but it makes building up that backlog pile in your Steam library much smoother, meaning you can commit to even more games that you know, in your heart of hearts, that you probably don’t have time to get around to.
The new update adds a blue “Add to Library” button to free games and DLC next to the usual green “Install Game,” “Play Game,” or “Download” buttons that appeared previously. This means that you can now quickly add the free content to your Steam library without having to kick off the installation process. Previously, the method to claim free games required you to start the installation process – you could cancel the installation afterwards and the game would remain on your account, but it was nevertheless a hassle, so this is a welcome quality of life change.
Similarly, this makes picking up free DLC and add-ons for your games smoother – ordinarily, many games automatically launch when you attempt to claim free DLC. This is perhaps an even more useful change in this case, because many games such as Dying Light 2 and Monster Hunter: World that have offered numerous free add-ons split up into separate Steam store listings would launch the game every time you wanted to add one of them to your account.
PC gaming data coordinator Alejandro LL (who goes by Morwull on Twitter) highlighted the new feature, which was quickly picked up by users on the Steam subreddit. Many were quick to celebrate the announcement, while some joked about how it’s taken almost twenty years of Steam to add this feature. That’s not much of an exaggeration – the platform first launched in September 2003, with the first game to require it (Half-Life 2) arriving in November 2004.
Other users expressed bemusement at the positivity of the reactions, given that you could always cancel out of the installation process – but anything that makes filling up your library with those juicy free games a little easier is bound to be welcome, and the ability to quickly toss all the free add-on content for a game into your account without having to boot the game up is very welcome.
Personally, I hadn’t claimed half of the free cosmetic add-ons for Monster Hunter: World, despite spending hundreds of hours in-game, because the process was so clunky. Previously, every time you clicked “download” the game would boot up, whether you wanted it to or not. Now, with just a few clicks, all of those extra hairstyles that I’ll likely never use are mine forever. After all, clogging up your Steam backlog with cheap and free goodies has been a long-standing tradition ever since the service first launched all those years ago.
If you’re looking for the best way to play all your new freebies, Valve has implemented official Steam Joy-Con support for the Nintendo Switch controllers. If you prefer the PlayStation or Xbox pads, you can take advantage of the Steam controller lighting options. Meanwhile, you might have noticed a recent change to Valve’s storefront as new rules come in enforcing a ban on reviews and awards in Steam game art – although when you’re grabbing free games, you don’t have much to lose anyway.
As 2-in-1 laptops go, 16 inches is pretty huge. Most convertible laptop/tablet hybrids have screens measuring 12 to 14 inches for more comfortable carrying in tablet mode. A 16-inch tablet isn’t one you’ll use all the time, but a 16-inch desktop replacement laptop that can pivot for presentations or become a tablet for annotating or sketching? That’s a combination that may make more sense, and that’s where the Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 Gen 7 ($1,399.99) comes into the picture. Launching alongside the more mainstream Yoga 7i 14 Gen 7, the bigger model gives users a little more elbow room, a slightly beefier CPU, and a larger battery. It’s got the slick, feature-filled design and rock-solid performance we love about the 14-inch model, but in giant economy size. Bigger may not always be better, but in this case it’s not half bad.
The Biggest Convertible Since Mary Kay’s Cadillac
Like its smaller sibling, the Yoga 7i 16 is available in two colors, Storm Gray and Stone Blue, both anodized shades to dress up the CNC milled aluminum chassis. The Lenovo measures 0.76 by 14.2 by 9.8 inches, more or less matching its 2-in-1 archrival the HP Specter x360 16 (0.78 by 14.1 by 9.7 inches), but is lighter—the Lenovo tips the scale at 4.19 pounds to the HP’s 4.45.
Our $1,399.99 review unit combines Intel’s 12th Generation Core i7-1260P processor (four Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 16 threads) with 16GB of LPDDR5 memory, a 512GB PCIe 4.0 solid-state drive, and a glossy IPS touch screen with 2,560-by -1,600-pixel resolution and 400 nits of brightness. No other screen is available (ie, you can’t match the Specter x360 16’s OLED panel), but other models at Lenovo.com offer a 4GB Intel Arc A370M GPU instead of our unit’s Iris Xe integrated graphics.
There are a few design changes that come with the increase in bulk from the Yoga 7i 14 to the 7i 16. The wider chassis provides room for a compact numeric keypad squeezed in at the right of the keyboard. The keys of the number pad are a little narrower than the primary keys, but not so much that they feel cramped when entering spreadsheet data.
Another change is a different position for the speakers, with a speaker grille between the screen and keyboard. With four stereo speakers, two 3-watt woofers, and dual 2-watt tweeters, the sound offered by the 16-inch laptop is superb, with robust volume and great clarity. It’s enhanced with Dolby Atmos support and automatic amplification.
Given the slim, streamlined design of the Yoga 7i 16, the convertible offers an impressive selection of ports. It’s a welcome departure from the current minimalist chic that relies on just a few Thunderbolt 4 ports plus adapters or dongles, for most ports, and it makes the Yoga 7i a versatile choice for users on the go. On the left, you’ll find an HDMI video output, two USB Type-C/Thunderbolt 4 connectors, a USB 3.2 Type-A port, and a full-size SD card slot.
On the right are a 3.5mm headphone jack and a second USB-A port, along with the power button. The Lenovo also has up-to-date wireless support, with Wi-Fi 6E in lieu of Ethernet and Bluetooth 5.2 for quick connections to peripherals and audio devices.
The Display: Skinny Screen Sides, With a Bump
The 16-inch touch screen looks great, with crisp details thanks to 2,560-by-1,600 resolution, good contrast, and full support for both touch and active pen. (Unfortunately there’s no pen in the box.) But it’s all the more impressive when you stop to notice the slim bezels around the display—if you don’t look for them, you might miss them completely, since Lenovo boasts the laptop has a 91% screen-to-body ratio in tablet mode.
It’s also impressive that despite the narrowness of the screen borders, you never feel like you’re missing a place to hold the Yoga when in tablet mode—the rounded edges of the chassis provide enough of a finger and thumb grip to hold on comfortably without encroaching on the display real estate.
Above the screen is the slight protrusion of what Lenovo calls the communications bar, the housing for the 1080p webcam, dual microphones, and Windows Hello-compatible IR face recognition sensors for the laptop. It’s sort of a reverse approach to Apple’s infamous notch, raised above the display instead of dipping down into it. There’s a sliding privacy shutter for the webcam (although it’s so small you might not notice it) and the bar itself provides a handy ridge to help you open and close the lid despite the smoother rounded corners.
Performance Testing the Yoga 7i 16: A High-End Laptop Contest
For our benchmark charts, we matched the Yoga 7i 16 Gen 7 against two other 16-inch deluxe notebooks, the directly competing HP Specter x360 16 convertible and the AMD-powered Asus Vivobook Pro 16X OLED. We also compared it to another plus-size convertible, the 15-inch, business-oriented Dell Latitude 9520 2-in-1.
Our main productivity benchmark for Windows systems is UL’s PCMark 10, which simulates everyday tasks like word processing, spreadsheet analysis, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10’s Full System Drive test to assess the responsiveness and throughput of a laptop’s boot drive. Geekbench 5 is another test that simulates popular apps including PDF rendering and speech recognition with a bit more of a focus on processing power.
Two other CPU-intensive benchmarks that stress all available cores and threads are Maxon’s Cinebench R23, which uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, and the open-source video transcoder HandBrake, which we use to convert a 12-minute clip of 4K video to 1080p resolution (lower times are better). Our final productivity test is workstation vendor Puget Systems’ PugetBench extension for Adobe Photoshop, which uses the Creative Cloud 22 version of the famous image editor to execute a variety of general and GPU-accelerated tasks ranging from opening, rotating, and resizing an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters. Like HandBrake, the test rates a PC’s suitability for digital content creation and multimedia jobs.
All of these systems sailed past the 4,000-point mark in PCMark 10 that indicates excellent productivity for the likes of Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, but they swapped victories in specific benchmarks, with the Asus claiming most of the CPU honors but the Yoga 7i 16 winning in Geekbench. The bigger picture shows that they’re all high-performance productivity and creative machines.
We test PCs’ graphics capabilities with two game-like animations a piece from two benchmark suites. The DirectX 12 tests Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, ideal for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs) hail from UL’s 3DMark, while GFXBench contributes the 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Car Chase subtests, rendered off-screen to accommodate different display resolutions. The latter two tests focus on high-level image rendering and low-level routines like texturing respectively.
The HP and Asus dominated these tests, which was predictable since they have discrete Nvidia GeForce GPUs that outperform both the Dell’s 11th Gen and the Lenovo’s 12th Gen Intel integrated graphics.
Finally, we test laptops’ battery life by looping a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting off. We also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and software to measure the screen’s color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its brightness in nits (candelas per square to put).
The Lenovo’s battery life was impressive, exceeding 18 hours in our video rundown. That outlasted the Dell by nearly two hours and crushed the runtimes of the OLED-screened Asus and HP. Those systems got their revenge in our color coverage measurement, showing more vivid hues and spanning virtually all of the various gamuts compared to the laptops with IPS panels. The Yoga 7i’s screen brightness was a little lower than we like to see in a high-end notebook (the same number of nits look more brilliant with an OLED rather than IPS display), but perfectly acceptable. The screen supports Dolby Vision HDR, reserving max brightness for smaller portions or application windows rather than the full screen that our test measures.
Verdict: More Room to Maneuver, If You Want It
Generally speaking, 15.6-inch and 16-inch convertible laptops are awfully unwieldy for use as tablets, but they shine when pivoted to easel or kiosk more for presentations and can take touch interaction further than a smaller notebook. If your budget permits we prefer the HP Specter x360 16’s dazzling OLED display, but the Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 Gen 7 is a great alternative and a superbly well-made solution for anyone seeking a larger 2-in-1.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s total sales hit 45 million since the game released in 2018.
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Nearly four years after launch, Red Dead Redemption 2 has achieved powerful sales figures across all platforms. As of June 30, 2022 during Take-Two Interactive’s Q1 FY23 period, Rockstar’s cowboy epic has sold 45 million copies combined across digital and physical channels.
These gains are up 1 million units quarter-over-quarter and 7 million units year-over-year, and continue RDR2’s trends of selling 1 million units between Q4 and Q1 periods. These sales may punctuate a sunsetting of Red Dead franchise content for some years to come; Rockstar has effectively stopped updating Red Dead Online with new meaningful content so it can focus almost exclusively on Grand Theft Auto 6, and RDR2’s campaign is practically set in stone with no expansions in sight.
That being said, Take-Two Interactive still expects Red Dead Online to be a meaningful contributor to its annual net bookings. Red Dead Online delivers microtransaction revenues through live service purchases and has, to a lesser extent, buffered TTWO’s yearly digital revenues.
“We now expect to deliver net bookings of $5.8 billion to $5.9 billion. Our assumptions take into consideration some shifts in our pipeline for the year, as well as movement in foreign exchange rates and the uncertain macroeconomic backdrop. The largest contributors to net bookings are expected to be NBA 2K, Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto V, Empires & Puzzles, Rollic’s hyper casual mobile portfolio, Toon Blast, and Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online. 45% Zynga, which includes our former T2 mobile titles, 37%, 2K; 17%, Rockstar Games; and 1%, Private Division.”
