Today is the first day of October, meaning we’re approaching peak season for tech announcements. Microsoft, Intel, AMD, and more have already made big splashes and are expected to make more over the coming weeks. With so much news coming out each week, it’s easy to miss a few stories. That’s why we’re here to gather the biggest pieces of news into one bitesize roundup.
Intel announces 13th Gen desktop CPUs
After months of rumors, Intel finally announced its 13th Gen Raptor Lake desktop CPUs this week. The new processors are built with the same big.LITTLE hybrid architecture seen in Intel’s 12th Gen chips. The lineup has up to 24 cores and a boost clock of up to 5.8GHz. Those cores are split between Performance and Efficient cores in order to deliver power when needed while not always requiring a full power draw.
Intel will launch its new CPUs on October 20, 2022 with a starting price of $294 for the entry-level Core i5-13600KF. On the high-end of things, the Core i9-13900K starts at $589.
Our Senior Editor Cale Hunt shared a complete breakdown of the processors as soon as they were officially announced.
| CPU | Cores | Threads | Turbo Boost Max 3.0 | P / E Core Max Turbo | L3 / L2 Cache | Base / Max TDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core i9-13900K | 24 (8P + 16E) | 32 | Up to 5.7GHz (5.8Ghz ceiling) | Up to 5.4GHz / 4.3GHz | 36MB / 32MB | 125W / 253W |
| Core i9-12900K | 16 (8P + 8E) | 24 | Up to 5.2GHz | Up to 5.1GHz / 3.9GHz | 30MB / 14MB | 125W / 241W |
| Core i7-13700K | 16 (8P + 8E) | 24 | Up to 5.4GHz | Up to 5.3GHz / 4.2GHz | 30MB / 24MB | 125W / 253W |
| Core i7-12700K | 12 (8P + 4E) | 20 | Up to 5.0GHz | Up to 4.9GHz / 3.8GHz | 25MB / 12MB | 125W / 190W |
| Core i5-13600K | 14 (6P + 8E) | 20 | N/A | Up to 5.1GHz / 3.9GHz | 24MB / 20MB | 125W / 181W |
| Core i5-12600K | 10 (6P + 4E) | 16 | N/A | Up to 4.9Ghz / 3.6GHz | 20MB / 9.5MB | 125W / 150W |
Intel Arc A770 gets a release date and price
Microsoft’s Surface event isn’t the only major tech news that will happen on October 12, 2022. On that day, Intel will launch its Arc A770 graphics card. That GPU will have a starting price of $329 and is expected to compete with the NVIDIA RTX 3060 and AMD RX 6650 XT.
Intel had already shared ray tracing benchmarks for its Arc A770, but we didn’t have a release date and pricing until this week.
We also got details from Intel for the Arc A750. That GPU will also ship on October 12, 2022, but with a starting price of $289. That price undercut NVIDIA’s RTX 3060, which could help Intel compete with the GPU giant.
With Intel announcing release dates for its new Arc graphics, several companies announced PCs with the GPUs inside, including Dell, Acer, and MSI.
Intel Unison to unite phones and desktops
Sticking with Intel, the tech giant announced an app called Intel Unison that’s set to ship with select laptops in the near future. Intel Unison is similar to Screenovate and Dell Mobile Connect, but it has been optimized by Intel. It connects Android and iOS devices in several ways, allowing people to make calls, send texts, and receive notifications on their PC.
Dell purchased Screenovate in 2021, so it’s not surprising that an app like this was in the works.
The biggest differentiator for Screenovate is that it works with iOS and Android devices. If it works as planned, it will deliver a similar experience to iOS and macOS integration; except it will bring together iOS, Android, and Windows devices.
Our Managing Editor Daniel Rubino recently spent time with Intel in Israel. There, he discussed Intel Unison, the tech giant’s new CPUs, and much more.
Android apps on Windows 11 roll out to 31 markets
Until recently, Android app support on Windows 11 was limited to Japan and the United States. That changed this week when Microsoft rolled out the Android Subsystem for Windows to 31 additional markets. Now, those in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and many other countries can try out Android apps on their PCs.
Microsoft also announced that the Amazon App Store on Windows 11 has over 20,000 apps. While that is a milestone for the company, make people will still want to sideload Android apps using WSA on Windows 11. If you’re tech-savvy, you can even run Google Play Store Android apps on Windows 11, though it takes a bit of work.
Surface Studio 3 design leaks
Microsoft has a Surface event coming up in a couple of weeks, but details about the company’s upcoming devices are coming out in droves. This week an FCC report showed a photo of the Surface Studio 3. From the looks of the device, it appears to have an identical design to the Surface Studio 2, which will likely disappoint some fans.
Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden covered the FCC report and added information from his own sources regarding the Surface Studio 3.
Microsoft is expected to announce the Surface Studio 3 alongside the Surface Pro 9 and a new Surface Laptop on October 12, 2022.
Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5 details leak
Speaking of the Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5, details leaked about both of those devices this week as well. Rather than just a single image, the leak included full spec tables for the PCs. Based on the leak, the Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5 will feature either Intel Core i5-1245U or i7-1265U chips when purchased by consumers. Commercial versions of the devices will have Intel Core i5-1235U and Intel Core i7-1255U chips with Intel vPro.
The report also backed up our previous coverage that stated the Surface Pro 9 will have a variant with an ARM CPU.
As previously mentioned, Microsoft will hold its Surface event this year on October 12, 2022. There, it will likely announce the Surface Pro 9, Surface Laptop 5, Surface Studio 3, and more. Recent reports suggest that the Intel versions of the Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop 5 will ship by the end of October and that the ARM-based Surface Pro 9 will come out late in November.
Review roundup
In addition to covering the biggest breaking news stories, our team of experts review the last gadgets and games. Here’s what we looked at this week:
