22 May
Blog

Swing to Win – Kettlebell Swings Better Than Olympic Lifts?

Olympic weightlifting derivatives have long been celebrated as top exercises for strength training in strength and condition. There is evidence now that is probably wrong. For most people, a simple kettlebell swing is usually a better power move than any Olympic lift derivative.

Sport happens with full hip extension

The sprinting, hitting, throwing and swinging of a racket or racket is driven by your hips with full, powerful hip extension. The full hip extension is the part of the movements of the lower body in which you stand up fully and approach and reach fully stretched.

You have to catch the bar in Olympic lifts. Beginners and advanced users almost never achieve a full hip extension because they are already preparing to dive back in to catch the pole. With a kettlebell swing, it's easy for even beginners to get a full, snappy, and powerful expansion.

If you look at the end position of each repetition in the video, you will see that the body position also mimics the drive phase of a clean wood or stone load in Strongman, in which you vigorously drive your pelvis forward under the device.

In the swing you "catch" the weight with your hamstrings

One of the biggest risk of injury in sports is tearing an Achilles tendon. Recent research has shown that developing stronger and longer hamstrings is one way to minimize this risk of injury. 1

In the swing video above you can see the kettlebell coming back and I brake it, which ends the catching phase in a position where the hamstrings are on a stretch.

This strains the Achilles tendon when it is stretched, while strengthening and lengthening the muscle, just what has been shown to reduce the risk of hamstring rupture. It is also a movement that strengthens the inner Achilles tendon more than the outer hamstring2, which could also reduce the risk of hamstring. 3

No Olympic lift derivative has this weighted advantage of hamstring stretching. Therefore, no Olympic lifting variant helps to reduce the risk of hamstring injuries and at the same time train strength like the kettlebell swing.

Horizontal work

Swings have an obvious horizontal drive aspect that Olympic lifts don't. In a swing you drive the kettlebell forward powerfully, away from you, as you cannot with the pole in Oly lifts. If you did, you would not be able to catch the bar and exit the elevator.

This horizontal aspect is important for sports because the hips work the same way when sprinting, hitting, swinging, throwing, etc. There is evidence that training horizontal strength movements rather than vertical strength movements is more effective to improve sprinting. 4

This study compared barbell engines to barbell squats and the engines were more effective. It was suspected that the horizontal nature and the larger hip extension area of ​​the engines could be the reasons why the engine was more effective.

The effect of the kettlebell swing, unlike the Olympic lifts, is that kettlebell swings have these horizontal and larger hip extension features in an explosive lift, suggesting that they are more applicable to sprint and horizontal sport movements than a vertical power lift like the Olympic lifts.

Kettlebells are easier to learn

Anyone who has ever tried to teach beginners the Olympic lifts can tell you how difficult it is. Those of us who have tried Olympic lifting can all testify to how technically demanding it is.

This can be very fun and rewarding as a separate sport, but unfortunately it massively reduces the value of the Olympic lifts for strength and fitness. A kettlebell swing is fairly simple and easy to learn until you unlock the benefits.

When compared directly in a study with participants with more than a year of lifting experience, kettlebell swings performed well compared to power cleaning and high pulling forces. 5

Although the kettlebell group used much lighter loads, their vertical jump and power clean improved at the end of the study, as did the group that trained the power clean!

Not only that, the barbell group squatted and the chalice of the kettlebell group squatted, so that the barbell group became stronger through a stronger force movement.

This raises the question of whether the barbell group squatted heavier and became stronger, but the kettlebell group still improved in vertical jumping and power clean, although it was weaker and did not practice power clean. How much more effective was the kettlebell for power development? Swing as the Power Clean and the High Pull ?! The Kettlebell group has more power from less power, so that's relatively more power!

I think the relatively greater performance advantages of the kettlebell group were due to how much easier it is to learn and train the kettlebell swing to achieve physiological benefits while the barbell group was still trying the technical aspects of the Oly-Lift – Master derivatives.

The overall conclusion from the study is that a heavy barbell movement in combination with a kettlebell movement could be the optimal combination for strength and conditioning purposes.

The reduced risk of injury

When you prepare yourself or a team to perform better in a sport, it is your focus and not the tools you use for strength and conditioning. Nobody cares how well you clean and jerk off when you're a boxer who gets knocked out in every fight.

A major disadvantage of Olympic lifts is the risk of injury that they themselves have. Even the simpler fluctuations in performance disturb the wrists of many athletes, if nothing else.

Sometimes the risk of injury that we have from working in the gym is intentionally risked to protect the athlete from injury in sports. Unfortunately, some of the risks of Olympic lifting don't go over to much else, so they only affect their value as a strength and conditioning tool.

Kettlebell swings have no such problems. As mentioned earlier, the stretched strain they create from the hamstrings is beneficial for most sports and they don't put a lot of strain on your wrists.

A lower risk of injury from the lifts themselves, a higher injury potential and a higher return through less time invested make it child's play to choose kettlebell turns as strength and fitness training.

Program kettlebells

When it comes to integrating the kettlebell swing into your workout, I have a few preferred options. Explosive exercises can have a PAP effect 6, which means that they “wake up” your nervous system and facilitate the recruitment of muscle fibers.

This makes kettlebell swings a good choice to switch between general warm-up exercises and your first main lift. If you do, go to low volume. Work through the weights with sets of 5 or 6 reps as quickly and snappily as possible. When you get to a weight that slows you down and no longer feels snappy, stop there and ride your primary lift for the day.

The other way I particularly like is to take a kettlebell with you wherever you take your primary lower body lift. Whether it's squats, deadlifts, engines, or trap bar lifts, once your set is ready, hit a series of kettlebell swings without a break.

The weight does not have to be massively heavy as long as it is heavy enough that you feel like you have to work to move it quickly. Then rest as usual before the next sentence. This is contrast training.

However, if you incorporate kettlebell swings, this combination of research should clearly show that they are not a fad. A simple and effective movement that can help your hard-earned strength to transform into powerful sports movements cannot be ignored. Swing to win!

References

1. Short bicep femoral fascicles and weakness in the eccentric knee flexor increase the risk of thigh injury in elite football: a prospective cohort study

2. Kettlebell Swing Targets Semitendinosus and Supine Leg Curl Targets Biceps Femoris: An EMG study with effects on rehabilitation

3. Biceps femoris and semitendinosus – teammates or competitors? New insights into mechanisms of thigh injury in male soccer players: a muscle-functional MRI study

4. Effects of a 7-week hip push compared to squat resistance training on youth football performance

5. Effects of weight lifting vs. Kettlebell training on vertical jump, strength and body composition

6. Ballistic exercise as a stimulus before activation: An overview of the literature and practical applications

21 May
Blog

Swing to Win – Kettlebell Swings Better Than Olympic Lifts?

Olympic weightlifting derivatives have long been celebrated as top exercises for strength training in strength and condition. There is evidence now that is probably wrong. For most people, a simple kettlebell swing is usually a better power move than any Olympic lift derivative.

Sport happens with full hip extension

The sprinting, hitting, throwing and swinging of a racket or racket is driven by your hips with full, powerful hip extension. The full hip extension is the part of the movements of the lower body in which you stand up fully and approach and reach fully stretched.

You have to catch the bar in Olympic lifts. Beginners and advanced users almost never achieve a full hip extension because they are already preparing to dive back in to catch the pole. With a kettlebell swing, it's easy for even beginners to get a full, snappy, and powerful expansion.

If you look at the end position of each repetition in the video, you can see that the body position also mimics the drive phase of a clean wood or stone load in Strongman, in which you powerfully drive your pelvis forward under the device.

In the swing you "catch" the weight with your hamstrings

One of the biggest risk of injury in sports is tearing an Achilles tendon. Recent research has shown that developing stronger and longer hamstrings is one way to minimize this risk of injury.1

In the swing video above you can see the kettlebell coming back and I brake it, which ends the catching phase in a position where the hamstrings are on a stretch. This strains the Achilles tendon when it is stretched while strengthening and lengthening the muscle, just what has been shown to reduce the risk of hamstring rupture. It is also a movement that strengthens the inner hamstring more than the outer hamstring2, which could also reduce the risk of hamstring. 3

No Olympic lift derivative has this weighted advantage for hamstring stretching. Therefore, no Olympic lifting variant helps to reduce the risk of hamstring injuries and at the same time train strength such as the kettlebell swing.

Horizontal work

Swings have an obvious horizontal drive aspect that Olympic lifts don't. In a swing you drive the kettlebell forward powerfully, away from you, as you cannot with the pole in Oly lifts. If you did, you would not be able to catch the bar and end the lift.

This horizontal aspect is important for sports because the hips work the same way when sprinting, hitting, swinging, throwing, etc. There is evidence that training horizontal strength movements rather than vertical strength movements is more effective to improve sprinting. 4

This study compared barbell engines to barbell squats and the engines were more effective. It was suspected that the horizontal nature and the larger hip extension area of ​​the engines could be the reasons why the engine was more effective.

The impact of the kettlebell swing, unlike the Olympic lifts, is that kettlebell swings have these horizontal and larger hip extension features in an explosive lift, suggesting that they can be better translated to sprint and horizontal sport movements than a vertical power lift like the Olympic lifts.

Kettlebells are easier to learn

Anyone who has ever tried to teach beginners the Olympic lifts can tell you how difficult it is. Those of us who have tried Olympic lifting can all testify to how technically demanding it is. This can be very fun and rewarding as a separate sport, but unfortunately it massively reduces the value of the Olympic lifts for strength and fitness. A kettlebell swing is fairly simple and easy to learn until you unlock the benefits.

When compared directly in a study with participants with more than a year of lifting experience, kettlebell turns performed well compared to power cleaning and high traction.5 Although the kettlebell group used much lighter loads, their vertical jump and power cleaning improved at the end of the study as much as the group that trains the strength cleanly! Not only that, the barbell group squatted and the cup of the kettlebell group squatted, so that the barbell group became stronger through a stronger force movement.

This raises the question of whether the barbell group squatted heavier and became stronger, but the kettlebell group still improved in vertical jumping and power clean, although it was weaker and did not practice power clean. How much more effective was the kettlebell for power development? Swing as the Power Clean and the High Pull ?! The Kettlebell group has more power from less power, so that's relatively more power!

I think the relatively greater performance advantages of the kettlebell group were due to how much easier it is to learn and train the kettlebell swing to achieve physiological benefits while the barbell group was still trying the technical aspects of the Oly-Lift – Master derivatives.

The overall conclusion from the study is that a heavy barbell movement in combination with a kettlebell movement could be the optimal combination for strength and conditioning purposes.

The reduced risk of injury

When you prepare yourself or a team to perform better in a sport, it is your focus and not the tools you use for strength and conditioning. Nobody cares how well you clean and jerk off when you're a boxer who gets knocked out in every fight.

A major disadvantage of Olympic lifts is the risk of injury that they themselves have. Even the simpler fluctuations in performance disrupt the wrists of many athletes, if nothing else. Sometimes the risk of injury that we have from working in the gym is intentionally risked to protect the athlete from injury in sports. Unfortunately, some of the risks of Olympic lifting don't go over to much else, so they only affect their value as a strength and conditioning tool.

Kettlebell swings have no such problems. As mentioned earlier, the stretched strain they create from the hamstrings is beneficial for most sports and they do not strain the wrists very much.

A lower risk of injury from the lifts themselves, a higher injury potential and a higher return through less time invested make it child's play to choose kettlebell turns as strength and fitness training.

Program kettlebells

When it comes to integrating the kettlebell swing into your workout, I have a few preferred options. Explosive exercises can have a PAP effect 6, which means that they “wake up” your nervous system and facilitate the recruitment of muscle fibers. This makes kettlebell swings a good choice to switch between general warm-up exercises and your first main lift. If you do, go to low volume. Work through the sets with sets of 5 or 6 repetitions as quickly and snappily as possible. When you get to a weight that slows you down and no longer feels snappy, stop there and ride your primary lift for the day.

The other way I particularly like is to take a kettlebell with you wherever you take your primary lower body lift. Whether it's squats, deadlifts, engines, or trap bar lifts, once your set is ready, knock out a series of kettlebell swings without a break. The weight does not have to be massively heavy as long as it is heavy enough that you feel like you have to work to move it quickly. Then rest as usual before the next sentence. This is contrast training.

However, if you incorporate kettlebell swings, this combination of research should clearly show that they are not a fad. A simple and effective movement that can help your hard-earned strength to transform into powerful sports movements cannot be ignored. Swing to win!

04 May
Blog

Samsung Galaxy Book Flex Review: QLED For the Big Win

"The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex offers incredible battery life and a vibrant QLED display."

  • Light, thin design

  • Good performance

  • Excellent battery life

  • The QLED display has great colors

  • Built-in S-pin

  • Cumbersome keyboard placement

  • Huge lower bezel

Samsung operates a tech empire. From phones and televisions to air purifiers and vacuum cleaners, Samsung has expanded everything down to the individual components that drive these products.

However, laptops have always been the only small domain outside their limits. Sure, there have been a lot of Samsung laptops over the years, but none that were really worth putting up Samsung's proud banner.

But 2020 is the year of conquering Samsung's laptops, and the Galaxy Book Flex is its war horse. It starts at $ 1,349, though my more expensive configuration comes with 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and a Core i7 processor. No question, this is the best laptop Samsung has ever made. But is that one you should buy?

QLED display and battery life

The Galaxy Book Flex has some outstanding features that come from other areas of the Samsung empire. The most notable feature is the QLED display. This comes from Samsung's hugely successful TV business. As an alternative to the standard LED, the Galaxy Book Flex is the first laptop to use QLED that uses quantum dots. The results are groundbreaking.

It's bright (428 nits) and has a high contrast (1,080: 1), but QLED really makes a difference in color gamut and accuracy. It hits 92 percent of Adobe RGB, a color space that most laptop screens struggle with. This colorful, accurate screen is important for photographers. Perhaps it is one of the best photo laptops you can get at this price.

There is even an "outdoor mode" that increases the brightness to 600 nits. This can be useful if you work outdoors. This is Samsung that flexes its muscles.

The Galaxy Book Flex offers the best battery life you can get with a laptop.

However, Samsung has two competitors. The 13-inch MacBook Pro still has a brighter, more colorful screen and a higher-resolution display. OLED screens also offer better contrast and better colors, but are rare on 13-inch laptops. There is only one option for the HP Specter x360 13 and only available in 4K. It looks good, but it's expensive. The Specter is a $ 300 display upgrade, while the Galaxy Book Flex QLED is standard.

In addition, 4K OLED screens are expensive in terms of performance. The Galaxy Book Flex's QLED 1080p is far better in terms of battery life. In fact, the Galaxy Book Flex has some of the best battery life you can get in a laptop.

It delivers almost 14 hours of battery with low power consumption and a whopping 17.5 hours when playing local videos (no streaming). Many laptops promise such numbers, but none deliver as much as the Galaxy Book Flex. It overtook the Dell XPS 13 battery life champion by an hour and lasted more than twice as long as the 4K Specter x360.

Sticking to 1080p helps here, but Samsung also jammed a 69.7-watt-hour battery. It's a huge battery for a laptop of this size that pays off.

S pen and keyboard

The S Pen was also borrowed from another Samsung product – in this case the Galaxy Note. Earlier Samsung laptops also used the S Pen, such as the Notebook 9 Pen and the Galaxy Book 2 from 2018. The pen itself has not changed, but is now in a slot above the keyboard. Clicking on the pin in the slot ejects it, making it quick and easy to access (and you won't lose it). This accessibility has always been special about the S Pen: it is part of the device and not an additional peripheral.

The S Pen is suitable for all common pen functions such as notes, sketching and selecting. A button on the S Pen opens a familiar options menu that allows you to dive straight into the drawing on the screen. These simple apps are fairly simple, but provide a good entry point to try the S Pen for the first time.

A larger pen like the Surface Pen or the Apple Pencil fits better in the hand for illustrations and detailed work. The S-pen is just long enough to fit in my hand and doesn't mimic the feel of a real pencil as well. However, that was never the point. As with the Galaxy Note, the greatest strength of the S Pen is its convenience. It's always there and it's easy to take out and start writing.

The Galaxy Book Flex is a 2-in-1 device, meaning you can fold the screen flat with its 360-degree hinge. Unfortunately, the screen is pretty shaky and the hinge is a bit loose, so using it in a position other than completely flat makes it difficult to take notes.

The S Pen's convenient location also has a disadvantage. To make room in the case, Samsung had to impair the typing experience. The keyboard sits closer to you and leaves less space for the palm rests. They are one centimeter narrower than a MacBook Air and about half a centimeter narrower than the Dell XPS 13. The lack of support is just enough to make typing on the Galaxy Book Flex uncomfortable, as the edges of the aluminum case dig into your palms . The keyboard layout also feels tight, although the keycaps are no smaller than most laptops.

To make matters worse, the Galaxy Book Flex uses a keyboard with low travel. It's not as flat as the old MacBook keyboards, but the keystrokes could take a little more depth.

The touchpad is quiet, easy to track and can even be used as a wireless charger. Now there is something I have never seen in a laptop. A Qi-enabled phone or a pair of earphones will charge wirelessly, which is a nice addition. You can't use the laptop often when a phone is in the way, but I could imagine that this is a convenient option in a confined space.

design

In the past, Samsung made some of the lightest laptops. They were also some of the most flimsy. The Galaxy Book Flex manages to balance these two things by providing aluminum for stability and keeping the weight at just 2.5 pounds. It's lighter than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 and the MacBook Air, but built just as well as the Galaxy smartphones with which it shares its brand.

The Galaxy Book Flex is pretty too. The silver-colored, diamond-cut edges subtly reflect the light, and of course the dark blue color is unforgettable. If you want something different, but even bolder, check out the red on the Galaxy Chromebook, the Chrome alternative to Flex.

Both are a little too brave for my preference. The flex resembles the HP Elite Dragonfly in tone, but is even brighter and more pronounced. Compared to the Flex's two main competitors, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 and the HP Specter x360, the Galaxy Book Flex is the aesthetic that I least prefer.

It's more than just a color preference. The steady rests are my real touch. The top and bottom edges are narrow, and to make up for this, the Galaxy Book Flex has an unusually large lower chin. It is a real eyesore. When you sit next to the XPS 13, it's strange how high the screen starts. In addition to the MacBook Air, it even looks strange, which I often criticize for its large bezels.

These bezels spoil the otherwise attractive design.

On the silver sides you will find a selection of USB-C ports, but no full-size USB-A. Two Thunderbolt 3 ports flank the right side next to the power switch and S-pin. The headphone jack, the microSD card slot and a USB-C 3.1 port are on the left.

Next to these connections is a pair of speaker grilles. The audio output is branded by AKG and the result is impressive sound quality. The MacBook Air is in another league, but the Galaxy Book Flex has a fuller-bodied audio profile than some of its competitors and even offers a hint of bass in the mix. It blows the XPS 13 2-in-1 out of the water with thin, downward-facing speakers.

performance

The Galaxy Book Flex is powered by a standard mix of high-end components. On the processor side, the latest 10th generation Ice Lake processors from Intel are used, which provide the laptop with four cores, eight threads and a base clock speed of 1.3 GHz. My test device was the Core i7 variant with 16 GB RAM, although the only 13-inch model sold in the USA only has 8 GB RAM. It also comes with 512 GB SSD storage.

I would like to see more configurations in the future, but the one offered is a fairly fast computer. My daily routine consists of dozens of Chrome tabs, Spotify, Slack, Office and some light photo editing. The Galaxy Book Flex never flinched. It'll crank up its fans and seem to get a little warm by chance, but it was never loud or hot enough to distract.

There are faster laptops like the XPS 13 in this class. The Galaxy Book Flex was only 5 percent behind in Geekbench 5, but 24 percent slower in Handbrake video coding. You may not be planning much video encoding with the Galaxy Book Flex, but the ability to create content may be somewhat limited compared to the powerful XPS 13. Still, it's one of the more powerful laptops with these processors.

The Galaxy Book Flex also has Iris Plus graphics. This is the greatly improved integrated graphics from Intel, which promises twice the performance of the old Intel UHD graphics. The Core i7 model has the best of these Iris Plus graphics, which allow for improved content creation and even easy gaming.

It was still struggling with a game like Fortnite, which is unfortunate. You need to reduce the resolution to playable frame rates. But the Galaxy Book Flex can handle lighter games like Rocket League without too much trouble.

Our opinion

The Galaxy Book Flex is everything you could want in a modern laptop. It's slim, portable, and powerful – and outperforms some of the best laptops in key areas like display and battery life. Adding the S-pin to the case is just the icing on the cake.

Some minor user experience issues such as keyboard placement and front panel size prevent them from getting really great, but it is without a doubt the best laptop Samsung has ever made.

Are there alternatives?

There are tons of laptop options out there, but the Flex's closest rivals are the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 and the HP Specter x360 13. The Galaxy Book Flex gains battery life and display, even though I match the keyboard and frame size of the other options prefer. The Specter x360 is also a battery life champion and the cheapest of the three. I prefer the design and look of the XPS 13 2-in-1, although the Galaxy Book Flex's colorful QLED screen is ideal for photographers. I wish there was a 4K option as well as a cheaper Core i5 model.

When you're ready to go without the 2-in-1 element, the Dell XPS 13 remains the best laptop you can buy as it can be configured with a touchscreen.

How long it will take?

The Galaxy Book Flex should last for at least four or five years. The components are up to date and the build quality is excellent. Samsung offers a one-year limited warranty at the time of purchase.

Should you buy it

Yes. The first-class battery life and the display make it an outstanding 2-in-1 laptop.

Editor's recommendations




21 Mar
Blog

Intel Frost Canyon NUC (NUC 10i7FNHAA) Review: Big Win

Intel Frost Canyon NUC

Intel Frost Canyon NUC (NUC 10i7FNHAA) review: Big win for developers

"Intel's Frost Canyon NUC is powerful, yet surprisingly easy to update."

  • Small form factor

  • Solid CPU performance

  • Easy to update RAM, hard drive

  • Energy efficient

  • Many ports (for its size)

  • Very poor game performance

  • CPU cannot be replaced

  • Loud

Small PCs are usually associated with compromises that are often lacking adjustments, future upgrades, power supply and port selection.

Then there is Intel NUC (short for Next Unit of Computing), which makes these functions his selling point. For this reason, this long line of miniature PCs, which is now seven years old, is unique.

The NUC I'm looking at today, officially called NUC10i7FNHAA, is one of the most powerful so far. It has a 10th generation Intel Core i7 processor with six cores, a 256 GB solid-state drive, a 1 TB SATA hard drive, 16 GB RAM and Windows 10 Home.

In contrast to some of the NUC systems I have tested, it is sold as a fully functional PC and not as a barebone. It contains everything you need at a price of $ 1,049. Is it the ultimate mini PC?

Design and ports

There is not much to say about the external devices of the Intel NUC10i7FNHAA. If you've ever seen a NUC, it looks similar. It offers the dark gunmetal exterior of other newer NUCs instead of the silver of previous models. It has a glossy black plastic lid.

The size of NUC has not changed significantly over the years. This model is 4.4 cm wide, 4.4 cm deep and two cm tall. It is not the thinnest NUC, but also not the thickest and many times smaller than a typical desktop PC.

Intel Frost Canyon NUCMatt Smith / Digital Trends

Nevertheless, it has many ports. The front offers a USB-A 3.1 port, a USB-C 3.1 port and a headphone jack.

On the back you will find a Thunderbolt 3 port, two additional USB-C 3.1 ports, Ethernet and HDMI output. Thunderbolt 3 is particularly nice to have. While it is common on laptops, it is still rare on PC desktops. This is a solid connectivity area that covers most options, though the lack of DisplayPort could bother some.

Internals and updateability

Due to its size, the tiny body of the Frost Canyon NUC can be expected to hide complex internals. That's not the case. Intel has been around for seven years, and it shows.

You open the NUC by unscrewing the four feet on the underside of the machine. After loosening (they cannot be completely removed, so you cannot lose them), the base plate loosens with a jerk.

Intel Frost Canyon NUCMatt Smith / Digital Trends

This provides access to the RAM-SO-DIMMS, the smaller sticks that you would normally find in a laptop instead of larger desktop DIMMS. You also have access to the M.2 drive and hard drive. This is all you can replace in the NUC10i7FNHAA since the CPU is soldered to the mainboard.

Upgrade options are limited. There is no free RAM slot, no free M.2, no free SATA. What is installed is all the desktop can handle.

However, these parts can be easily removed and replaced if necessary. The NUC10i7FNHAA supports up to 64 GB of RAM, far more than the 16 GB installed.

There are restrictions on what a NUC can handle due to its small size, but what is available is impressive.

You will find a few open headers in it, but most users won't care. This includes two empty USB 2.0 headers and a FRONT_PANEL header.

There are, of course, limitations to what a NUC can do due to its small size, but what is available is impressive. The components that you can update are easy to find and are immediately accessible after removing just a handful of screws. I would argue that the Frost Canyon NUC is easier to maintain than most desktops sold by major manufacturers.

CPU performance

The Frost Canyon NUC I tested, model number 10i7FNHAA, had an Intel Core i7-10710U processor. This is a 12-thread mobile processor with six cores and a base frequency of only 1.1 GHz, but a maximum turbo frequency of 4.7 GHz.

It is a powerful chip. Geekbench 5 delivered a single-core result of 1,099 and a multi-core result of 5,702. These numbers don't break records, but exceed most laptops and small desktops. The Dell XPS 13 7390, which we tested with the same processor, achieved a higher score of 1,250 in the single-core test, but stayed behind with a score of 5,491 in the multi-core test.

Intel Frost Canyon NUCMatt Smith / Digital Trends

For comparison: An HP Specter x360 13 with a Core i7-1056G7 achieved 1,164 points in the Geekbench 5 single-core test and 3,981 points in the multi-core test. The only mobile chips that can significantly outperform the Core i7-10710U are Core i9 silicon, like the Core i9-9880H in the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2. It achieved 5 single-core and multi-core in Geekbench Test 1,196 and 6,529 points. respectively.

The NUC 10i7FNHAA's performance is solid at $ 1,049. Desktops and all-in-one devices from major brands usually offer a Core i5 processor like the Core i5 9400 at this price. This processor is somewhat competitive with the Core i7-10710U, but will fall behind in most cases.

In addition to Geekbench, I started Cinebench R15. My Frost Canyon NUC scored 980 points there. This is less impressive, but still acceptable for the price. I noticed that the NUC had to accelerate during this test. The first test run achieved a higher result with 1,180 points, but successful test runs always achieved a value in the range of 900. The number of points I reported of 980 is the average of 5 test runs.

Our handbrake benchmark, which encodes a 420MB 4K video file from H.264 to H.265, took just over two and a half minutes. The Dell XPS 13 7390, which had the same Core i7-10710U processor, was three minutes slower. The NUC 10i7FNHAA even beats some laptops with Core i9 processors, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2.

This NUC can meet the needs of many photo and video editors, developers and engineers.

Intel introduces this Frost Canyon NUC, the 10i7FNHAA, as a small workstation that is suitable for many content creators. It works well enough for that as long as you don't work with cutting-edge content like 8K videos. There you need a more powerful computer.

However, this NUC can meet the needs of many photo and video editors, developers, engineers, etc. Call it appropriate. That may not sound like much praise, but given the price of $ 1,049 and the small footprint, it would be stupid to expect more. This is a powerful PC for its price.

Player, look somewhere else

What about games? It’s not great. The fast Core i7-10710U processor does not contain the latest graphics from Intel, but the older Intel UHD solution. It scored only 1,288 in 3D Mark Fire Strike and only 490 in Time Spy.

These values ​​are solid for Intel UHD. However, Intel's Iris Plus graphics are about twice as fast. And even a discrete entry-level graphics solution like the GTX 1650 Max-Q from Nvidia can score over 3,000 points in Time Spy. That's six times faster than Intel UHD.

In summary, you can not play most modern games.

In summary, you can not play most modern games. A title with relatively simple 3D graphics such as Fortnite or World of Warcraft may offer acceptable performance with a resolution below 1080p and low graphics settings. Everything else demands too much.

The Frost Canyon NUC has a Thunderbolt 3 port, through which an external graphics dock can be connected. However, given the price of an external graphics dock, it's not a great solution for games. You're better off with an entry-level gaming desktop.

power consumption

Size is not the only advantage of a desktop based on mobile hardware. The use of mobile hardware also significantly reduces power consumption. Intel's Frost Canyon NUC consumes power under a variety of workloads.

The system only consumes 9.8 watts when idle. This is equivalent to many 13-inch laptops and less than most 15-inch systems. Desktop consumption can be very high, but it rarely happens that a desktop consumes less than 20 watts when idle. Therefore, the power consumption of the NUC is excellent.

Intel Frost Canyon NUCMatt Smith / Digital Trends

In Cinebench, power consumption reached a maximum of 98 watts and then held at 57 watts after thermal throttling had limited the processor. This is again comparable to modern laptops. Mid-range desktops that I tested easily exceeded 100 watts in the benchmark.

Low electricity consumption means lower electricity costs and less impact on the environment. It can also mean less fan noise. Unfortunately, this is not the case here. The Frost Canyon NUC turned out to be an exuberant PC puck, the fan of which was audibly buzzing even when idling. It's good that the NUC is small, as you may need to place it out of earshot.

Our opinion

The Intel NUC 10i7FNHAA, like the NUC models before, is a unique interpretation of what a desktop should be. It is not for everyone, but it is absolutely fulfilling its mission. The NUC is simple, compact and energy-efficient. It accomplishes all three goals and is one of the best mini PCs I've tested.

Is there a better alternative?

It depends on what you want.

If you only want a desktop and are not interested in the size, there are numerous options available worldwide. Dell's XPS desktops are consistently among our best desktops and remain our first choice.

Apple's Mac Mini is the best known alternative. However, it is a bit bigger, almost 20 cm wide and deep. While you can buy a six-core Mac Core for $ 1,099, this model only has 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. A Mac Mini with similar RAM and memory will bring you back $ 1,500.

If you want a small desktop, especially one that runs Windows, the NUC 10i7FNHAA – and the NUC models in general – remain a good choice. The most common brands in the U.S., such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo, offer small PCs. However, they are mainly designed for the business-to-business market, which leads to a high price for many models.

How long it will take?

You can't replace the NUC 10i7FNHAA's processor, but the Core i7-10710U is fast enough to stay relevant for at least a few years. The RAM and the hard disk can also be replaced without any problems. I think you will benefit from it for at least five years.

Intel grants a standard 3 year warranty. This is unusually good in the PC area, where a 1-year warranty is standard.

Should you buy one?

Yes, if you want a powerful desktop PC that fits almost anywhere. The Frost Canyon NUC fits into a niche like previous models. But if this niche is perfect.

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