Asus releases new MacBook Air rival with metal design, 16 GB RAM, and 120 Hz OLED display - Notebookcheck

Taking a look back at this week's news and headlines from across the Apple world, including iPhone 18 Pro switching, iPhone Duo benchmarks, HomeView Hubs, Apple's next event, iPhone 18 orders, No Man's Sky on iPhone, and a very expensive Apple-1. Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the many discussions around Apple in the last seven days. You can also read my weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes. Android to iPhone 18 Pro ObservationsThe iPhone 18 Pro is an easy sell to Apple's existing community, thanks to strong brand loyalty and Apple's velvet-lined garden of software and services. Bringing in users from other platforms to the iOS-powered smartphones is an important second-string goal. So what is it like to switch to Android? Harish Jonnalagadda picks out some key differences in his switch to Apple's platform, starting with the processor:"More than anything else, this makes the biggest difference in daily use, with the iPhone 18 Pro Max delivering much better sustained performance without overheating.

Thursday October 15, 2026 12:09 pm PDT by Juli CloverApple is planning to introduce new OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro models on October 27 or October 28, and the machines could launch on Friday, November 6, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said during his latest podcast. Apple retail stores apparently have a "big floor reset" scheduled for the evening of Thursday, November 5, and into Friday, November 6, which Gurman says could be in preparation for the new Macs. The store reset will follow a debut in late October, with Apple planning a creator-focused gathering in Los Angeles to introduce the new products.

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Tom Warren is a senior correspondent and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Earlier this year Microsoft laid out a plan to fix Windows 11, with a focus on performance, reliability, and the overall OS experience. After months of fixes, Microsoft now says the “result is a Windows experience that’s up to 20 percent more responsive.”Microsoft has made improvements to Start, File Explorer, Search, Edge, and other parts of Windows 11 to make it feel faster and more responsive. “A big part of that work is making smarter use of memory and system resources,” says Navjot Virk, corporate vice president of Windows experiences at Microsoft. “We’ve improved memory management and efficiency across Windows to help keep more of your PC’s resources focused on what you’re actively doing.”The improvements to memory management now make a “meaningful difference” on PCs with just 8GB of RAM. “Windows can now keep up to 2GB more of your active data in memory instead of moving it to slower storage,” says Virk.

The Neo Effect: How Apple’s cheapest Mac is changing the PC gameSee all StoriesPosted Oct 14, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTCAAsus’ new business laptop will have 8GB of RAM and be aimed at less business-y types. Asus is announcing the ExpertBook A7: a 14-inch laptop with a 120Hz OLED display and an Intel Core 5 320 chip. It’s available today, starting at $1,299.99 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. But coming in the new year is an 8GB / 256GB version for a more affordable $899. 8GB felt workable in the XPS 13, and it didn’t have a fancy OLED, but it cost $200 less. Update, October 14th: The entry-level ExpertBook will have 12GB of RAM for $899, not 8GB. See new post here.1/3The ExpertBook A7 will have that bright OLED, an aluminum chassis, and a haptic trackpad on all configurations. Image: AsusFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Antonio G. Di BenedettoLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready... The Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most. Email (required)