Neptun Wave Spring 2018 – New Devices and Accessories

The new year has brought a lot of changes to the lineup of Neptun devices for Spring 2018. Dell, HP, and Lenovo have introduced updated versions of their Latitude, EliteBook 8X0, and ThinkPad L, T, and X series, respectively. All new devices that make their first appearance at Neptun in 2018 come equipped with the new Intel 8^th generation quadcore CPUs. With twice as many computing cores as their predecessors, these processors mark the largest improvement in mobile CPU power in years. You can read more about Intel’s new CPUs here: https://www.projektneptun.ch/en/blog/read/1

The new models of HP’s 800 series and Lenovo’s T and X series are now all equipped with at least one Thunderbolt 3 port. These enable the laptop to be connected to several high-resolution displays, to super-fast storage arrays, or even to . Additionally, since Thunderbolt 3 can also deliver up to 100 W of power, along with a data rate of up to 40 Gb/s, you can attach a dock to your laptop that charges the battery and connects all your peripherals over a single connection.

New HP devices

HP has introduced three new devices for Spring 2018: The 830 G5, successor of the 820 G4, the 840 G5, and the 850 G5. They all come equipped with the latest Intel 8^th gen CPUs and one full-speed Thunderbolt 3 port at 40 Gb/s. HP has designed a new, very slim aluminum chassis for 800 series devices, giving them all a reduces footprint and a thickness of less than two centimeters. Thanks to smaller screen bezels, the 830 G5 can now fit a 13” screen instead of a 12” one, hence the new name, and with 512 GB it has double the SSD storage space compared to other laptops in its category. The 840 G5, on the other hand, still has a 14” screen, but its resolution has been bumped to 4k, while the 850 G5 now has a significantly faster graphics card.

New Lenovo devices

The L380 is an entirely new device which fits into our baseline category. With an Intel 8^th gen CPU, a sharp IPS display, and the characteristic ThinkPad design, it’s an affordable and reasonably powerful entry into Lenovo’s ThinkPad line.

The new X1 Yoga 3^rd gen no longer has an option for an OLED screen, instead it’s equipped with a very bright Dolby Vision HDR display. With similar image quality compared to the OLED display, you can now expect even better battery life from the X1 Yoga.

New Dell devices

The Dell Latitude has been upgraded to the newest version, from the 7480 to the 7490. It features a new Intel 8^th gen quad core CPU and NVMe SSD instead of a SATA SSD, making for much faster data transfers.

The XPS 13 2-in-1 features the same hardware, apart from an upgrade from 8 GB of RAM to 16 GB.  Especially in heavy multitasking situations, this upgrade can significantly improve the performance of the device.

NEC monitors

Our high-quality NEC monitors are the same as last Fall, except for the 27” model. Instead of a WQHD panel, it now features a super-crisp 4k screen with accurate colors and useful connectivity options. This is the same model that was available last Spring, however it wasn’t available last Fall due to delivery shortages. The EA245WMi-2 24” model comes with the same panel as the previous model, but the newly developed display stand offers more ergonomic options to set up the device.  

Accessories

As always, there are lots of useful accessories available for all our devices that can enhance the performance, improve the connectivity, or prolong the life of your new machine. Warranty extensions and accidental damage protections fall into the third category. The warranty of most devices from Dell, HP, and Lenovo can be extended up to five years (four years for Apple), which ensures that you won’t have to buy a new laptop because of a small issue, when the old one is still fast enough. For people who like to spill their drinks and slip on banana peels, accidental damage protections are a worthy investment, shielding them from cracked screens and broken keyboards. With accidental damage protection, unfortunate accidents that aren’t covered by regular warranty policies will be repaired free of charge.

Hardware upgrades for devices like more RAM or additional SSDs are displayed in the shop for Dell, HP, and Lenovo machines. Naturally, only compatible upgrades are shown. Additionally, you can find power banks for our more light-weight machines that can significantly extend their battery life. They are also compatible with cell phones and tablets. Adaptors, which are especially important for USB-C-only devices like Apple MacBooks or the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, are available in many variants.

Finally, we’re offering docking solutions for all Neptun laptops and for different applications. Since most devices now feature Thunderbolt 3 ports, Thunderbolt docks from a different brand than your new laptop may work, but for best results we still recommend matching the brand of the dock to the brand of the laptop. In case of the Surface Pro, the choice is easy since Microsoft only offers one compatible dock. The most interesting dock-like solution, however, is the new HP Omen Accelerator. The Accelerator is an external Thunderbolt 3 graphics enclosure with some dock functionality, a hard drive bay, and the possibility to insert a full-size desktop graphics card. Over Thunderbolt 3, you can enjoy almost the full performance (80-90%) of a high-end GPU to boost your laptop’s functionality in CAD, GPU compute applications, and of course in games. Together with Intel’s new quad core mobile CPUs in our new devices, entirely new levels of performance are possible with light-weight laptops.

We compiled a docking and monitor matrix for all Neptun devices that tells you which dock is best for which laptop, and how each monitor can connect to our laptops, since sometimes additional cables or adaptors are necessary.

Demo Days

If you’d like to see our new devices first-hand, we’d be happy to welcome you at our Demo Days at 15 university campuses all over Switzerland. At the Demo Days, you can check out all our devices and some peripherals first-hand, and have a chat with our support team who will answer any questions you might have. You can find the dates for the Demo Days here: http://projektneptun.ch/en/about-us/demodays/