The Asus Zenbook 16 Delivers Great Performance in an Otherwise Mediocre Laptop
So, what’s not to like? Well, early compatibility problems slowed the initial uptake of Snapdragon X, and the CPU’s integrated graphics performance turned out to be pretty terrible. And to date, powerful onboard AI features just haven’t proven important, as most AI workloads are still being done in the cloud. With the second-generation X2, Qualcomm set out to deliver on the original promise of faster performance.
But what exactly does “faster” mean? As with most claims in the PC computing space, it’s all about the benchmarks. On the Zenbook A16, the tests I ran indeed showcased exemplary performance from the X2 Elite Extreme, in some of the most widely used benchmarking tools, namely Geekbench 6 and Cinebench 2024. (I don’t have enough competitive Cinebench 2026 results to make wide comparisons yet on that benchmark.)
The performance boost on Geekbench is particularly striking, with the A16 scoring 50 to 100 percent faster than competing systems from AMD and Intel. It’s even faster than the Apple MacBook M4 Pro, the last Mac for which I have comparable benchmark scores. However, that Mac did beat the Asus on the Cinebench benchmark, but not by much, and the Asus now stands solidly in second place in my testing archive.
Graphics performance is much better than in previous generations of Snapdragon X chips, with frame rates quadrupling on average, depending on the test. That’s a dramatic and much-needed improvement for the CPU, and while no one will accuse the A16 of being a gaming rig, it does at least make for a workable experience with less taxing games and graphics-heavy workloads.
Beige Belies Performance
Photograph: Chris Null
I’m happy enough with how the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme performs to sign off on its performance claims, but there’s a lot more to the Zenbook A16 than its CPU.
Under the hood, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E94100 CPU is complemented by 48 GB of RAM and a 1-TB SSD. The 16-inch touchscreen offers a solid resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels, and it’s incredibly bright. A weight of 2.9 pounds is impressive (if not unheard of) for the 16-inch category, and at 0.65 inches (at its thickest), it has a svelte, quite portable carrying experience. Asus’s Ceraluminum technology (now with added magnesium) is used in the machine’s lid, base, and keyboard frame. That helps keep it thin and light, though when adjusted or touched, the screen shimmied more than I expected.
So, what’s not to like? Well, early compatibility problems slowed the initial uptake of Snapdragon X, and the CPU’s integrated graphics performance turned out to be pretty terrible. And to date, powerful onboard AI features just haven’t proven important, as most AI workloads are still being done in the cloud. With the second-generation X2, Qualcomm set out to deliver on the original promise of faster performance.
But what exactly does “faster” mean? As with most claims in the PC computing space, it’s all about the benchmarks. On the Zenbook A16, the tests I ran indeed showcased exemplary performance from the X2 Elite Extreme, in some of the most widely used benchmarking tools, namely Geekbench 6 and Cinebench 2024. (I don’t have enough competitive Cinebench 2026 results to make wide comparisons yet on that benchmark.)
The performance boost on Geekbench is particularly striking, with the A16 scoring 50 to 100 percent faster than competing systems from AMD and Intel. It’s even faster than the Apple MacBook M4 Pro, the last Mac for which I have comparable benchmark scores. However, that Mac did beat the Asus on the Cinebench benchmark, but not by much, and the Asus now stands solidly in second place in my testing archive.
Graphics performance is much better than in previous generations of Snapdragon X chips, with frame rates quadrupling on average, depending on the test. That’s a dramatic and much-needed improvement for the CPU, and while no one will accuse the A16 of being a gaming rig, it does at least make for a workable experience with less taxing games and graphics-heavy workloads.
Beige Belies Performance
Photograph: Chris Null
I’m happy enough with how the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme performs to sign off on its performance claims, but there’s a lot more to the Zenbook A16 than its CPU.
Under the hood, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E94100 CPU is complemented by 48 GB of RAM and a 1-TB SSD. The 16-inch touchscreen offers a solid resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels, and it’s incredibly bright. A weight of 2.9 pounds is impressive (if not unheard of) for the 16-inch category, and at 0.65 inches (at its thickest), it has a svelte, quite portable carrying experience. Asus’s Ceraluminum technology (now with added magnesium) is used in the machine’s lid, base, and keyboard frame. That helps keep it thin and light, though when adjusted or touched, the screen shimmied more than I expected.
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#Asus #Zenbook #Delivers #Great #Performance #Mediocre #Laptop
From Lego, the new tie-in hotness is the “Hutt Palace Sentry Droid Showdown” set. With 415 pieces, owners can pit Din and Grogu against the Hutt Cartel’s three-armed sentry and its stud shooter. Once the beat the sentry and open the palace doors, they’ve got one other obstacle in Embo, everyone’s favorite Clone Wars-era bounty hunter. Along with his bowcaster, Embo’s got his own backup in his anooba Keibu.
In his earliest appearances, Embo had another named Marrok, but we know from the Aftermath: Empire’s End novel that one had died before the New Republic era. Canonically, it makes sense that Embo would get a new pet, but this probably also comes from other Star Wars projects like Ahsoka and Maul: Shadow Lord—which, like this movie, count Dave Filoni as a key creative—having an Inquisitor with the same name among their casts.
Newly named space dog aside, the set takes inspirartion from a fight we’ve seen in the final trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu wherein Din fights two sentry droids and Grogu tries to shut one of them down. Fans of the movie could recreate that fight beat for beat, or do their own version—maybe one where Din and Embo are buds, or Grogu solos everyone else. The choice is yours, but you’ll be waiting for a while to make it happen: the movie’s out on May 22, but the set’s available beginning August 1 for £44.99 (or roughly $53).
From Lego, the new tie-in hotness is the “Hutt Palace Sentry Droid Showdown” set. With 415 pieces, owners can pit Din and Grogu against the Hutt Cartel’s three-armed sentry and its stud shooter. Once the beat the sentry and open the palace doors, they’ve got one other obstacle in Embo, everyone’s favorite Clone Wars-era bounty hunter. Along with his bowcaster, Embo’s got his own backup in his anooba Keibu.
In his earliest appearances, Embo had another named Marrok, but we know from the Aftermath: Empire’s End novel that one had died before the New Republic era. Canonically, it makes sense that Embo would get a new pet, but this probably also comes from other Star Wars projects like Ahsoka and Maul: Shadow Lord—which, like this movie, count Dave Filoni as a key creative—having an Inquisitor with the same name among their casts.
Newly named space dog aside, the set takes inspirartion from a fight we’ve seen in the final trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu wherein Din fights two sentry droids and Grogu tries to shut one of them down. Fans of the movie could recreate that fight beat for beat, or do their own version—maybe one where Din and Embo are buds, or Grogu solos everyone else. The choice is yours, but you’ll be waiting for a while to make it happen: the movie’s out on May 22, but the set’s available beginning August 1 for £44.99 (or roughly $53).
#Legos #Mandalorian #Grogu #Set #Confirms #Silly #ChangeLego,Star Wars,The Mandalorian and Grogu">Lego’s New ‘Mandalorian & Grogu’ Set Confirms a Very Silly Name Change
From Lego, the new tie-in hotness is the “Hutt Palace Sentry Droid Showdown” set. With 415 pieces, owners can pit Din and Grogu against the Hutt Cartel’s three-armed sentry and its stud shooter. Once the beat the sentry and open the palace doors, they’ve got one other obstacle in Embo, everyone’s favorite Clone Wars-era bounty hunter. Along with his bowcaster, Embo’s got his own backup in his anooba Keibu.
In his earliest appearances, Embo had another named Marrok, but we know from the Aftermath: Empire’s End novel that one had died before the New Republic era. Canonically, it makes sense that Embo would get a new pet, but this probably also comes from other Star Wars projects like Ahsoka and Maul: Shadow Lord—which, like this movie, count Dave Filoni as a key creative—having an Inquisitor with the same name among their casts.
Newly named space dog aside, the set takes inspirartion from a fight we’ve seen in the final trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu wherein Din fights two sentry droids and Grogu tries to shut one of them down. Fans of the movie could recreate that fight beat for beat, or do their own version—maybe one where Din and Embo are buds, or Grogu solos everyone else. The choice is yours, but you’ll be waiting for a while to make it happen: the movie’s out on May 22, but the set’s available beginning August 1 for £44.99 (or roughly $53).
AI companions are quietly becoming a staple across the industry, and OpenAI is now joining the trend. The company has launched Codex Pets, an optional animated companion baked into its AI coding tool.
Like most AI companions, it isn’t doing any heavy lifting. But Codex Pets earns its keep as a floating overlay that surfaces project status updates in real-time, so you don’t have to switch tabs. Users can monitor active threads and track whether Codex is running, waiting on input, or ready for review, all without ever leaving whatever they’re working on.
Getting started is straightforward. Head to Settings, select Appearance, then choose Pets to pick from the built-in options. Once activated, the floating overlay can be toggled on or off by typing /pet in the composer, using Wake Pet or Tuck Away Pet in Settings > Appearance, or by pressing Cmd+K on Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows.
Mashable Light Speed
The feature ships with eight built-in variations — including a cat and dog — but the more interesting play is the custom pet creator. Users can prompt Codex directly to generate their own companion, then share it online. A quick scroll through the homepage reveals the community has already gotten to work. Current creations include Goku, Patrick Star, Microsoft’s long-retired Clippy, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and — naturally — a goblin.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
AI companions are quietly becoming a staple across the industry, and OpenAI is now joining the trend. The company has launched Codex Pets, an optional animated companion baked into its AI coding tool.
Like most AI companions, it isn’t doing any heavy lifting. But Codex Pets earns its keep as a floating overlay that surfaces project status updates in real-time, so you don’t have to switch tabs. Users can monitor active threads and track whether Codex is running, waiting on input, or ready for review, all without ever leaving whatever they’re working on.
Getting started is straightforward. Head to Settings, select Appearance, then choose Pets to pick from the built-in options. Once activated, the floating overlay can be toggled on or off by typing /pet in the composer, using Wake Pet or Tuck Away Pet in Settings > Appearance, or by pressing Cmd+K on Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows.
Mashable Light Speed
The feature ships with eight built-in variations — including a cat and dog — but the more interesting play is the custom pet creator. Users can prompt Codex directly to generate their own companion, then share it online. A quick scroll through the homepage reveals the community has already gotten to work. Current creations include Goku, Patrick Star, Microsoft’s long-retired Clippy, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and — naturally — a goblin.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
#OpenAI #adds #pets #Codex #coding #tool">OpenAI adds AI pets to its Codex coding tool
AI companions are quietly becoming a staple across the industry, and OpenAI is now joining the trend. The company has launched Codex Pets, an optional animated companion baked into its AI coding tool.
Like most AI companions, it isn’t doing any heavy lifting. But Codex Pets earns its keep as a floating overlay that surfaces project status updates in real-time, so you don’t have to switch tabs. Users can monitor active threads and track whether Codex is running, waiting on input, or ready for review, all without ever leaving whatever they’re working on.
Getting started is straightforward. Head to Settings, select Appearance, then choose Pets to pick from the built-in options. Once activated, the floating overlay can be toggled on or off by typing /pet in the composer, using Wake Pet or Tuck Away Pet in Settings > Appearance, or by pressing Cmd+K on Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows.
Mashable Light Speed
The feature ships with eight built-in variations — including a cat and dog — but the more interesting play is the custom pet creator. Users can prompt Codex directly to generate their own companion, then share it online. A quick scroll through the homepage reveals the community has already gotten to work. Current creations include Goku, Patrick Star, Microsoft’s long-retired Clippy, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and — naturally — a goblin.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
#Reggie #FilsAimé #Amazon #asked #Nintendo #break #lawAmazon,Gaming,News,Nintendo,Tech">Reggie Fils-Aimé says Amazon once asked Nintendo to break the law
“Literally, we stopped selling to Amazon, and it’s because I wasn’t going to do something illegal. I wasn’t going to do something that would put at risk the relationship we have with other retailers. But it also set the stage to say, look, you’re not going to push me around. This is the way we do business. And so that’s how, over time, you build respect.”
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