Weekly Recap: Apple's Foldable iPhone and Ryzen-based Mini PCs
A look back at the week's highlights: Apple's first foldable iPhone Duo, GMKtec's powerful Mini PC, and RTX 5090 chips being repurposed for AI servers.
It has been a busy week for hardware enthusiasts, marked by Apple's entry into the foldable market with the iPhone Duo, a high-performance Mini PC from GMKtec, and reports of RTX 5090 cards being modified for AI server use.
The most significant headline is the launch of the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable smartphone. Early testing highlights its impressive design, performance, and battery life, though the new form factor requires an adjustment period. The outer display can feel cramped in certain apps, and Apple has already confirmed screen breakage issues in a 'small number' of units.
In the Mini PC segment, GMKtec released the EVO-X1 Pro. This compact machine is powered by an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 processor, paired with 64 GB of RAM and Radeon 890M graphics. It delivers strong everyday performance and remains relatively affordable even with a 2-TB SSD configuration, though there is room for improvement regarding customer support and return policies.
Tech Trends and Other Highlights
Regarding GPUs, observations show consumer GeForce RTX 5090 cards being repurposed for AI servers. These modifications involve mounting the GPU and memory onto new PCBs with more compact cooling solutions. It remains unclear how much this practice contributes to current retail shortages.
Other notable news includes the Factorio 2.1 update, which focuses on refining factory and space logistics rather than adding new planets; Amazon's Echo Time smart alarm clock featuring sleep sensors; and benchmark results for Phantom Blade Zero, which revealed an unusual performance profile where traditional rasterization is more demanding than raytracing and pathtracing.
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