Computers, Laptops & Tablets

While autonomous cars, smart appliances and super thin TVs made most of the headlines at CES 2017 last week in Las Vegas, an underlying trend was mesh networking in the home. Think of it as Wi-Fi with a wider net that doesn’t lose signal strength at each point in the chain: it’s better Wi-Fi for your home.

I’m willing to bet there are many people who have a gaming laptop on their holiday wish list this year. Even if you’re not a PC gamer, these high powered laptops are also a favourite for other demanding tasks. But gaming laptops are expensive, so you want to make the right choice. Here’s where Best Buy customers can help. I’ve put together five picks that stand out based on reviews and comments left by the people who bought one.

When it comes to Wi-Fi, gamers have some very demanding requirements and these three high performance Wi-Fi routers will make for great wireless gaming.

HP just released a new laptop. It has a 6th generation (Skylake) Intel Core i5 CPU, 12GB of RAM, a 15.6-inch Full HD display and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce 940M graphics card for gaming. All this is great, but what really matters is the look. No sleek machined aluminum or magnesium, this thing is battle-worn, covered with dark side graphics and glowing an ominous red. It’s the new HP Star Wars Galactic Empire Edition Laptop. And I want it …

When your Wi-Fi network is set up properly and everything’s humming, life is good. But what happens when it’s time for a new router, or when you move out of your parents’ house to go to college or university and need to start from scratch with your own Wi-Fi network? Building a new wireless network —complete with printer access and storage— used to be a challenge, but these days you don’t need to be a systems administrator to do it. In fact, most router companies offer plug and play options that make setup and configuration a matter of minutes.

Microsoft is on a roll. Windows 10 is so much better than Windows 8—worthy of skipping an iteration number altogether—Office 2016 is out and the company topped off the software announcements with several big hardware releases. The Surface Pro 4 and all new Surface Book convertible laptop are turning heads on the portable PC front, while new a new Microsoft Band hits the red hot wearables market and long-awaited Lumia flagship smartphones bring the best of Windows 10 to mobile. Microsoft has plenty to look forward to this fall.  

 Microsoft Office has been around longer than most of its users and it keeps getting better.  In fact you may be surprised at how many different applications are included. Stream the live Facebook event with experts from Microsoft and Best Buy so you can learn about how many different things you can now do with Office 365. Ask questions during the event and you may win a fantastic prize, including a new Surface Pro 4 computer.

    Welcome July! In this month of beach time, trail rides, and camping in the great outdoors, take a minute to look through what’s new at Best Buy.