Last October, Intel handed over its Next Unit of Computing (NUC) product lines—in an official capacity—to a new patron; ASUS. A couple of months later, the latter's Republic of Gamers brand introduced a new NUC model—"Scorpion Canyon"—during their Transcendence Virtual Launch Live event at CES 2024. TPU staffers in attendance managed to spend some time with the ROG NUC, at the ASUS booth. A preview placard advertised that the best configuration could be powered by up an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H CPU and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile GPU. At the time, company representatives did not disclose any pricing information.

Finalized units are pre-orderable at one retailer, according to reports from Friday—Proshop's listing reveals that customers in Denmark, Germany and Finland can purchase the top-end ASUS ROG NUC 14 configuration (RNUC14SRKU9189A2I) for €2499 (~$2724). NotebookCheck has discovered the existence of six different SKUs—on ASUS Spain's official website. Despite the diverse list of (apparent) options, ROG: "only really offers Core Ultra 7 155H and GeForce RTX 4060, or (the aforementioned) Core Ultra 9 185H and GeForce RTX 4070 spec. While pricing for the former remains unknown, Proshop is selling the latter with 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage for €2499 in the Eurozone...Currently, Proshop expects to begin shipping ROG NUC orders from April 10, signalling an April 2024 global launch."

Acer today announced the new Predator Triton 16 (PT16-51), the latest addition to its power-packed gaming line. This laptop for gaming and work is equipped with the latest 13th Gen Intel Core processors, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, and up to 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, along with an abundance of features that would excite any type of gamer. To ensure the vital components are kept cool throughout gaming sessions, the laptop's advanced thermal solutions combine dual 5th Gen AeroBlade 3D fans, Vortex Flow optimization, and liquid metal thermal grease on the CPU, all housed within a thin metal chassis design.

Evolutionary Performance and Cooling
At just 19.9 mm (0.78 inches), the sleek, yet powerful Predator Triton 16 showcases a sophisticated metal casing topped off with a sparkling silver finish, giving players the confidence and portability to game on-the-go. The new thin gaming laptop packs massive computing prowess as it features up to 13th Gen Intel Core i9 processors, supported by a new hybrid core architecture with a 5.4 GHz max turbo frequency. The CPU works hand in hand with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, along with NVIDIA DLSS 3 and its bundle of Max-Q technology features for optimized ray tracing and performance across the board. Gamers are treated to an even greater performance boost as the laptop can be configured with up to 32 GB of DDR5 5200 MHz memory and up to 2 TB PCIe M.2 SSDs in RAID 0 configuration.

Early details of MediaTek's next generation mobile chipset have emerged this week, courtesy of renowned leaker Digital Chat Station via their blog on Weibo. The successor to MediaTek's current flagship Dimensity 9200 mobile chipset will likely be called "Dimensity 9300" - a very imaginative bump up in numbering - with smartphone brand Vivo involved as a collaborator. The tipster thinks that the fabless semiconductor company has contracted with TSMC for fabrication of the Dimensity 9300 chipset - and the foundry's N4P process has been selected by MediaTek, which could provide a bump in generational performance when compared to the older 4 nm and 5 nm standards used for past Dimensity SoC ranges. It should be noted that the current generation Dimensity 9200 chipset is presently manufactured via TSMC's N4P process.

MediaTek is seeking to turnaround its fortunes in the area of flagship mobile chipsets - industry watchdogs have cited a limited uptake of the Taiwanese company's Dimensity 9200 SoC as a motivating factor in the creation of a very powerful successor. Digital Chat Station suggests that the upcoming 9300 model will pack enough of a hardware punch to rival Qualcomm's forthcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC - both chipsets are touted to release within the same time period of late 2023. According to previous speculation, Qualcomm has also contracted with TSMC's factory to pump out the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 via the N4P (4 nm) process.

ASUS ROG has started selling its RTX 4090 XG Mobile external graphics card in China and Japan this week. Japanese customers are being charged a cool $3000 for the pint-sized powerhouse external GPU, and Chinese buyers are getting a slightly better deal at $2700. It should be noted that this eGPU is the (GN21-X11) mobile variant of the GeForce RTX 4090, and not the full fat desktop version. The newly updated XG Mobile enclosure can only be connected to an ASUS Flow laptop, which limits the scope of compatibility to an already very expensive range of devices. The proprietary connection standard will keep customers in the ASUS ROG mobile hardware ecosystem - but their higher end laptop models can be configured with the very capable GeForce RTX 4070 mobile GPU, so the RTX 4090 XG Mobile seems to appeal to a very small buying niche.

The XG Mobile interface uses the PCIE Gen 3 x8 standard of connection, and the GPU has access to a dedicated 63 GB/s of bandwidth. This beats the Thunderbolt 4 standard of 40 Gb/s, by a 57% margin. The enclosure acts as a docking station - its features include an up to 2.5 Gbit Ethernet, a single HDMI 2.1 port, one DisplayPort 1.4 with G-Sync support and three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (3x Type-A + 1x Type-C). ASUS ROG has engineered the docking station/enclosure to be as compact as possible (21.7 cm x 16.5 cm x 3.26 cm), when compared to competing products from other manufacturers. The whole package weighs in at 1.3 kg, which will ensure decent portability for gamers on the move.