Winners and Losers: Apple’s new Macs, and the smoking Xbox hoax

Our Winners and Losers column has returned for another week, as we highlight the best and worst stories in the world of tech in the past seven days. 

With England in the middle of yet another lockdown, there’s been no better time to use technology as a form of escapism. Fortunately, there’s a lot to be happy about in that respect this week, with the Xbox Series X and Series S arriving at people’s homes, while a string of new games have launched including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

But only one company/product can be called the Trusted Reviews’ ‘Winner’ of this week. Find out who we picked below:

Related: MacBook Air with M1 chip

Winner: Apple

This shouldn’t be too much of a shock, with Apple revealing its revolutionary M1 chip this week, along with three new devices that will house it, including the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini.

When Apple revealed it was ditching Intel for its own Apple Silicon processors earlier this year, it was deemed as a potential big risk. But with Apple now suggesting the newly revealed M1 chip is not only capable of pushing CPU and GPU speeds to new heights but also doubling the battery life of the previous Intel models, its looks like the firm could be onto a real winner with its new Arm-based processors.

What’s more, Apple has promised its entire Mac range will benefit from Apple Silicon upgrades within the next two years, so we can expect to see similar performance improvements for the likes of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac Pro too.

It was admittedly disappointing that Apple didn’t introduce new designs for its Macs, with the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro both crying out for makeovers, especially when compared to the ultra-stylish Dell XPS 13 2020. But it’s a very minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things.

If Apple’s impressive claims hold true, there’s every chance Apple could once again become the king of the laptops. For now, keep an eye out for our upcoming reviews as we put the M1 chip to the test.

Related: Xbox Series X review

Loser: Xbox vapers

It’s been an exciting week for Xbox fans, as both the Series X and Series S hit stores worldwide. We gave both next-gen consoles a 4.5 rating out of 5, highlighting the jump in graphics performance and the speedy NVMe SSDs as game-changing upgrades. But despite being a time to celebrate for gamers, it looks like there were a small number of people who wanted to spoil the fun.

On launch day, videos started circulating online showing the Xbox Series X seemingly smoking from the top. There had been previous rumours of the next-gen Xbox heating up to uncomfortable temperatures, so seeing smoke rising from the console undoubtedly made many new owners start to worry that their new, expensive consoles could have a fatal flaw.

Of course, these videos turned our to be hoaxes, as one YouTuber was spotted blowing vape smoke into the bottom of the console. It boggles the mind why people would do that to their own console, although the YouTube videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of views which will no doubt please the hoaxers.

Having reviewed the consoles, we can confirm there is absolutely no reason to worry about the Xbox Series X overheating and blowing smoke out the top. So ignore the shameless hoaxes, and enjoy your new Xbox. It’s not every week that a new console launches after all.