With Google dropping prices on one terabyte of storage to $9.99 a month, a number of competitors will feel the pressure of dropping their prices too. However, experts believe that these developments are much more than a price war.

In comparison, Apple charges $100 a year for its 50 GB plan while Microsoft’s OneDrive costs about $25 for 50 GB for the same time period. Similarly, both DropBox and SugarSync want $9.99 (100 GB) and $55 per month (1 TB) respectively.

But that’s not all – this price reduction gives a consumers a better deal than Google’s own cloud storage platform for developers, Amazon’s S3 as well as Microsoft’s Azure storage platforms too.

While a number of cloud storage startups use these platforms and even get discounts for using such large amounts of storage, this move will ensure that consumers will still get a better deal than developers will going forward.

However, one might wonder why Google is doing this: it’s simple, really. Such a price reduction means that it want to take its competitors out of business in a market that it doesn’t dominate just yet.

And there are clear reasons why this is so.

Firstly, users think of online storage and syncing when one thinks of DropBox while Microsoft OneDrive is built into Windows 8.

Google Drive, on the other hand, isn’t yet recognized as these two tech giants are even if people love its collaborative productivity apps. That’s an area that Microsoft is now taking seriously with its online (and free) versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote.

So, by just cutting prices, one can see how Google should be able to garner a host of paid users even if Microsoft’s Office suite is still used by corporations around the world.

Yet what makes the next few months interesting is the fact that not only has Google cut prices but it is also increasing its investments on products that use its storage service.


Just like desktop gaming rigs, a gaming laptop can cost an absolute fortune. Fortunately, if you are on a budget, you can still find some great options for gaming laptops. Here are some of the best laptops you can buy under $1,000 that will still keep games like Destiny running along at decent frame rates:

HP Omen 15

The top pick is the HP Omen 15. Unlike its predecessor, the Omen 15 has a better-looking chassis that will appeal to gamers. Also, it sports a nice clicky keyboard along with a user-replaceable hard drive and RAM. You also get decent and loud speakers with a vibrant display.

Specs:

CPU: 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU * GPU: AMD Radeon RX 550 GPU with 2GB of VRAM * RAM/Storage: 8GB/1TB 7,200-rpm HDD * Display Size/Resolution: 15.6/1920 x 1080

Lenovo Legion Y520

Are you looking for the best possible graphics performance at this price range? Nothing will beat the Lenovo Legion Y520. With its Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti GPU, the Legion managed some surprisingly high frame-rates for a laptop of this configuration.

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Laptop

When it is battery life you are after, then look no further than the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming Laptop. Battery tests show the laptop running solid for as long as seven hours. It is also one of few laptops in this range that is ready for VR.

Specs:

CPU: 2.5-GHz Intel Core i5-7300HQ CPU * GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (Max-Q) 6GB of VRAM* RAM/Storage: 8GB/256GB SSD * Display Size/Resolution: 15.6-inch/1920 x 1080


AMD spent the last few years far behind Intel in the performance stakes. Aside from powering low-end laptops, AMD was absent in any other segment of the mobile computing market. Fortunately, AMD’s latest generation Ryzen processors are taking the fight to Intel, with comparable performance to Intel’s eight generation processors at a fraction of the cost. With Ryzen Mobile, AMD now has a processor that will appear in ultra-thin and performance laptops.

There are only three laptops that will have Ryzen Mobile at launch, and they are the HP Envy x360, the Lenovo IdeaPad 720s and the Acer Swift 3. All other models with the new processor will ship starting 2018.

Pricing

There is no indication of pricing; however, when we look at the desktop market, we can approximate a similar price curve for the mobile processor. Such a pricing scheme would see a comparable performance at a lower price to laptops with Intel chips.

Performance

There are no reviews yet, but the expectation is that there will be comparable processor performance to 8th generation Intel cores. However, the integrated Radeon GPU will be far superior to any Intel mobile graphics offering.

Cores

The starting slate for Ryzen Mobile will sport four cores, with two threads each. The design appears to be intentional in its similarity to Intel’s architecture. The easiest way to compete is to provide a benchmark for comparison. The Radeon Vega will have eight (or ten) compute units, which are the graphical version of processor cores.