Marking the fourth time we’ve taken ASUS’ G7 gaming series for a spin, the G74SX actually changes up the formula from the last-iteration G73Sw in some meaningful ways. Superficially, the two notebooks look the same, but when you crack open the spec sheet and take a closer look you’ll find some nice updates. It’s pretty easy to list what exactly has changed: the keyboard layout is better—nearly perfect in my opinion—and ASUS has finally decided to ship a high-end notebook with an SSD + HDD storage combination. ASUS also bumps the GPU up to the GTX 560M from the GTX 460M, and memory in our test unit checks in at a hefty 16GB (4x4GB).

There’s one remaining update we expected to see that’s still missing, however: NVIDIA’s Optimus Technology. This tends to be a polarizing technology, and while the best-case solution would be a GPU that can run as fast as the GTX 560M when needed but drop down to HD 3000 power use levels when it’s not, for the time being such a solution doesn’t exist. ASUS has taken the “safe” approach of using only the discrete GTX 560M GPU, which means you sacrifice battery life and Intel’s Quick Sync technology, but you gain some simplicity at the same time. Is the end result worth your hard earned pennies? Read on.

Historically, whenever NVIDIA or AMD launched a new mobile powerhouse GPU, AVADirect and Clevo were ready to ship us a high-end notebook to show us what the latest mobile GPUs could do. The problem is that NVIDIA and AMD have been playing a rapid game of oneupsmanship lately, while Clevo has been content with their dual-GPU + desktop CPU X7200. We've already looked at that notebook twice, so we wanted to see if we could find the high-end hardware elsewhere. Thankfully, Alienware was ready to step up to the plate with their M18x.

Perhaps even more interesting, we were able to pull some strings and get Alienware to agree to send us two M18x units back-to-back. Today we present to you the first of a two-part series where we begin with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580M (tested in both single GPU and SLI modes), and we'll also given a thorough overview of Alienware's M18x. We'll follow up in the near future with a second look at the M18x, but with AMD's Radeon HD 6990M (again tested in single GPU and CrossFire modes), at which point we'll be able to give a full rundown on how these two top-of-the-line mobile graphics solutions stack up.

Read on for the first part of our Alienware M18x coverage, with dual 580Ms and enough performance to put many a desktop to shame.

In a move that has been anticipated for sometime, Amazon has introduced their own branded Android tablet, the Kindle Fire. Though based on Android, you won't be confusing this device with any of the growing army of Android tablets joining the market, nor will you see much of the Android you've come to expect. The 7" slate is designed to deliver Amazon services in a user friendly walled garden that bears little resemblance to vanilla Android. We've got first impressions and details along with a gallery after the break.

First revealed at CTIA, alongside it’s big brother the Tab 10.1, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 has been a long time coming. At today’s launch event Samsung gave the device little fanfare, preferring to give media attendees as much hands-on time as possible. We picked up our review sample at the event so expect our full review shortly. For now, we have a hands-on of Samsung’s littler tablet, along with the Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0. Jump past the break to find out how the latest additions to the Galaxy fare.

AMD has had switchable graphics technology with their mobile GPUs for a while now, with solutions like the original HP Envy 13 from two years back and Lenovo’s T400 in late 2008. NVIDIA’s switchable graphics was first seen in Sony’s VAIO SZ around August 2008, requiring a reboot when switching modes. Since then, we’ve gone from hardware-based switching with a required reboot, to software-based switching on-the-fly, and now we’ve got dynamic switching based on application needs in the form of NVIDIA’s Optimus Technology (first launched in early 2010 and now seen in over 100 different laptops from every major OEM). AMD also has a dynamic graphics switching technology, called AMD Dynamic Switchable Graphics (and apparently doing away with the PowerXpress brand), debuting with the HD 6000M series and supporting CPUs with integrated graphics in the form of AMD’s own Llano laptops as well as Intel Sandy Bridge offerings. The question is: are these two technologies equal, or does one of them work better than the other?

Prior to now we haven’t had a chance to test AMD’s Dynamic Switchable Graphics with Intel IGPs, and we only briefly toyed with the technology in our original Llano notebook review. The drivers in the Llano notebook felt a bit raw, so we didn’t want to dwell on the technology too much, but now we have a Sony VAIO CA laptop with an i5-2410M CPU and HD 6630M GPU to add to the mix. We have looked at dozens of laptops with NVIDIA’s Optimus Technology since it first launched, but we also have a newcomer in the form of Acer’s TimelineX 3830TG, which uses the same i5-2410M CPU with a GT 540M GPU. Our focus today will be on the switchable graphics technology, however, with detailed benchmarks for the two laptops coming in a future article.

Curious about how the two technologies stack up to each other? Read on for our head-to-head comparison.