Review – ASUS VivoBook S15 S533EA: Tiger Lake is just amazing

A few months ago, we reviewed the VivoBook S15 S533FA – and we said that for its price, it’s actually a very good laptop that offers well-balanced performance because of its Intel + NVIDIA combo.
Now, the VivoBook S15 has been updated with the new Intel 11th Gen chipset and changed its codename to S533EA, and while they look the same – there are quite a few differences here and there.

But, we gotta clarify that the VivoBook S15 S533EA that we have here is… definitely not the official Malaysian retail unit – and the most obvious reason is the lack of stickers on the laptop. It’s using the Core i7-1165G7 with 16GB RAM and also 1TB SSD.

The similarities
Okay, let’s start with the similarities – as a refresher. The design – it’s exactly the same. It still comes with the new VivoBook chassis that I like which has a metal deck. It’s really solid and a major step-up from last year’s VivoBook.

Then, the color options. This time, we have the VivoBook S15 S533FA in Gaia Green, and personally – I love this color the first time I saw it and it’s my absolute favorite. It’s definitely love at first sight for me.

The keyboard is the same as well – feels great to type on with good travel distance and great tactility and it also has a physical number pad, albeit a little weirdly shaped.

The trackpad is the same as well, as well as the fingerprint scanner. The trackpad works well, just like before – and no complaints here as well.

The screen is also the same. The colors and brightness are pretty decent, and again – no complaints here.

The differences
As for what’s new, obviously – the new Core i7-1165G7 that’s equipped in the VivoBook S15 S533EA. It’s powerful AF and since this chipset is operating at 28W max, I can finally play games like GTA V at above 30fps consistently. Wow, this is amazing.

And obviously just the ZenBook Flip S UX371, I can also edit simple videos on this laptop. Just that this laptop can get things like warp stabilizer done faster because it’s operating at 28W instead of the 15W on the ZenBook Flip S UX371.
By the way, if you want to know what’s the difference if the Intel Core i7-1165G7 is operating at 15W or 28W – click at the top right corner there because we did an in-depth test to find out.

Okay, back to what’s new with this laptop – the motherboard. Actually, not the motherboard itself but the components on it. You see, the previous generation of this laptop has an Intel + NVIDIA combo in it – but this new generation doesn’t have an NVIDIA GPU in it, but they’re using the same motherboard… so…….. there are a few empty BGA pads on the motherboard, unutilized.

But that’s not the only thing that’s changed. ASUS also yeeted out the second M.2 SSD slot and replaced but with some other components. While I do feel that it’s weird, I think I know what they did.

Let’s now take a look at the ports. They’re pretty much the same. On the right side we have some indicator LEDs, a microSD card slot, double USB 2.0 ports.
On the right side, there’s a barrel power jack, a full-sized HDMI port, a USB 3.0 Type-A port, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and also an audio jack. By looking at where the Thunderbolt 4 port is at, I think ASUS had to remove the M.2 SSD for the Thunderbolt 4 port.

And I think it’s a good trade! Because Thunderbolt 4 offers magnificently fast speeds and we can also use any USB PD chargers we have to charge the laptop. Which means, we can use either the included power brick, or a USB-PD power bank, or the new, small GaN chargers that can output 65W. Thank you ASUS!
Charging using a USB-PD power bank!
Now speaking of that, the battery in this VivoBook S15 S533EA is the same as before – 50Wh only, and it can last for around 6 hours in Silent power profile.
Should you buy the ASUS VivoBook S15 S533EA?
If you’re looking for a laptop right now, then yes – I suggest you wait for this laptop and buy this instead. It’s powerful and puts up a good fight against AMD’s mobile chips.
For us here in Malaysia, the ASUS VivoBook S15 S533EA will be available in this spec configuration:

Intel Core i7-1165G7
8GB RAM
512GB SSD

It’ll be priced at RM3,399, which I think is actually a reasonable price hike over the VivoBook S15 S533FL in terms of performance, but seriously – Tiger Lake needs to have 16GB RAM to maximize its performance.
Yet with the removal of the second M.2 SSD, it lacks upgradability and that might be an issue for a small group of users. Nonetheless, the ASUS VivoBook S15 S533EA is still a fantastic laptop.

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Samsung issues fix to Galaxy S10 & Galaxy Note10 series fingerprint scanner

Last week, The Sun published the fingerprint issue of one particular user in the UK. She had a glove-like TPU case for her Samsung Galaxy S10. That glove-like TPU case covers the entire phone from front to back – so even the under-display fingerprint scanner is covered. The user then registered the dotted texture on her Galaxy S10 cover as the fingerprint. Obviously since the cover is registered as the fingerprint, anyone can unlock it.
Despite being not Samsung’s fault in this case, Samsung still promised a fix for it – and they delivered. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ that I’m using just got a push notification for an update to the fingerprint scanner.

This new fingerprint scanner update bumps its firmware version number to v2.0.24.20, with an update size of 4.2MB. You can check your current fingerprint scanner firmware version number by heading to Setting > Biometrics & Security > Biometrics Preferences.
As of now, this update is pushed to the Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+, Galaxy Note10, and Galaxy Note10+ smartphones. These 4 smartphones from Samsung uses the ultrasonic under-display fingerprint scanner.
Click to expand
The highlight of this fingerprint scanner update are as follows:

About the issue

If you’ve used a screen cover, such as a silicone cover, with a textured surface on the inside, the texture itself may be recognized as a fingerprint that can unlock your phone

Update instructions

All users should tap Update below, then restart the phone once the update is complete. Additionally, if you’ve registered or scanned your fingerprint with a screen cover on your phone, remove all of your fingerprints and register them again without using a screen cover.

Notes

Make sure that there’s no screen cover when you register a fingerprint. You may not be able to register or scan your fingerprint if you use a screen cover.
We recommend that you don’t use a screen cover, especially any screen cover with a textured surface on the inside.
When registering, scan your fingerprint in its entirety, including all corners.

I did all of the following instructions and I personally don’t feel any different at all. I’ve been using a third-party TPU film screen protector (smooth, textureless) ever since I got the device and I never encountered any issue. I deleted all registered fingerprints and enrolled again and it also felt the same.
Currently, we still do not know what Samsung did to change the fingerprint enrolment and detection. Any readers here who encountered this issue and found some differences?

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Neffos X Series Unveiled; Shows X1 And X1 Max

In case you didn’t know, TP-Link is now redefining themselves with a flatter design and flashier colours. This re-definition means TP-Link is now pivoting their focus into 3 main things, and smartphone being one of them. Obviously this is referring to TP-Link’s brand new line of smartphones under the name Neffos.
They’re doing pretty well too, and you can check out our review of the Neffos C5 right here. Now, Neffos is back at it again with a brand new line of devices – the Neffos X.

There’s gonna be two brand new smartphones under the Neffos X branding. Starting with the Neffox X1 – it has a 5-inch 720p display, running on Mediatek’s MT6755M chipset with Helio P10 octa-core processors and Mati-T860MP2 GPU. Other than that, it comes in two different variations –  either 2GB RAM/16GB storage, or 3GB RAM/32GB storage. It also has a microSD card slot to store all the pics taken by its 5MP selfie camera and 13MP rear-facing camera. All these are powered by its 2,250mAh battery.
The Neffos X1 Max however is a larger phone. This 5.5-inch smartphone has a 1080p display, running on the exact same chipset, processor, and GPU, but has either 3GB RAM/32GB storage or 4GB RAM/64GB storage. Also, it’s powered by a larger 3,000mAh battery too.
Both the Neffos X1 and X1 Max comes in either Cloudy Grey or Sunrise Gold. The Neffos X1 is priced at €199 – which would be  about RM909, whereas the Neffos X1 Max is priced at €249, which is about RM1138.13.
The Malaysian prices here are converted directly from euros, so expect the price to be a little higher in Malaysia. Both the X1 and X1 Max will be available in stores by the 4th quarter of this year.

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Review – Samsung Neo QLED QN95B 55-inch Mini LED TV

Okay, it’s December right now and we just got the 55-inch version of the Samsung Neo QLED QN95B for review. By the time this video is published, it will be supremely close to CES 2023, and that means Samsung will announce a whole new generation of TVs, making this TV that we are showing here, essentially out of date. Since we’re technically a year late for this review, I’m going to briefly talk about what my thoughts are and if this TV is worth buying even though it is “a year late”.
Please watch the video instead of reading the article. Seriously, it’s better to see it in motion instead of screenshots.

When we unboxed the TV, well I gotta say the unboxing experience of Samsung TVs is always fantastic and the installation process is amazing. Just make sure to get someone to help because the entire setup is actually rather heavy. Once we got everything installed, you have two choices – do you want to mount the OneConnect Box on the neck of the TV stand, or separate it out and put it somewhere in your TV console for easy access?
New OneConnect box can be mounted on the monitor stand directly.
That choice is up to you. Samsung provided two lengths of cables to connect the OneConnect Box to the TV panel and I gotta give them credit for that.
          Short cable to mount the OneConnect box on the TV stand            Long cable to mount the OneConnect box somewhere around your TV console
If you chose the latter like what we did here, then you can enjoy the new – actually not that new – Infinity One design. It’s sleek and everything is housed within a small footprint – but accessing those ports will be a pain in the butt.

We do have a bunch of ports here including 4 HDMI ports – one of them supports eARC – and 3 USB Type-A ports for external storage support. I still wish there is a direct 3.5mm audio jack and maybe the inclusion of a USB-C port since their phones come with USB-C to USB-C ports nowadays.

Taking a step back and look at the TV itself, yeah it has a truly magnificent design. The bezels are supremely thin and it just looks gorgeous. Plus, the only small “anomaly” here is the small Samsung logo at the bottom right corner.

The looks aside though, the panel is what impressed me the most. This Samsung Neo QLED QN95B uses a mini LED backlight and everything looks absolutely gorgeous on this TV. No joke – it is supremely amazing and bright. It also comes with the Quantum Matrix Technology which essentially means they have fine controls over the local dimming zones to allow a better HDR experience. Colors are supremely vibrant as well – especially in dynamic mode. It also has the Filmmaker mode that says true to the filmmaker’s intent.
The dimming zone control is excellent on this TV
Then, they have a new and improved Neural Quantum Processor 4K. It now uses 20 neural networks to enhance details to ensure your 4K content looks good. This feature is not applicable to PC connection and Game Mode, however.

We also finally have the new remote control that has a rechargeable battery that we can charge by either plugging in the USB-C port or flip it and let the sunlight charge it for us. Yes, it’s solar-powered but it’ll take a supremely long time to charge the remote. Take it as a bonus feature.

I guess I should also mention this TV’s built-in speakers. On the specs sheet, Samsung states that this TV has 4.2.2 channel – to which I want to ask – which speaker is pointing upward? Samsung’s official product page says sound is coming from the top left and right corners but there are no speakers there.
Which speaker is pointing upwards???
We have paired this Samsung Neo QLED QN95B TV with the Samsung Soundbar Q800B and with this combo, we have Q-Symphony. As far as I remember, last time it just says “Q-Symphony” outright but now it’s “TV+Soundbar”. Either way, they mean the same thing and the sound truly becomes a lot better. Here is a comparison between the TV speakers only, the soundbar only, and with TV+Soundbar modes.

In terms of other features though, they’re pretty much the same as before. Looking at the settings menu, we have the usual picture settings and whatnot – even the interface is the same as the Freestyle projector or the M7 Smart Monitor that we reviewed previously.
Review – Samsung Smart Monitor M7 43-inch

Should you buy the Samsung Neo QLED QN95B a year after its release?
Okay, enough about those. The question I want to ask is – should you buy this TV a year after its release? Remember – we don’t know what Samsung is going to announce during CES 2023, and I’m sure they’ll have a batch of new TVs with new technologies and whatnot.

The 3 reasons why I choose the Samsung Neo QLED QN95B are:

The beautiful TV panel with super slim bezels. Seriously, no other TV looks this good and has a mini LED panel and you don’t even have to worry about burn-in.
The features. That OneConnect box is handy especially if you put it externally somewhere around your TV and you get easy access to all the ports you need.
Depending when you’re seeing this, you could get the TV at a heavily discounted price.

What we’re seeing right now
This TV is also available in 3 sizes – 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch.
I think for most people, buying the previous-generation TV is actually a better financial decision. It probably will have a big discount yet it probably won’t lose out that much compared to the new one, especially if the price gap is huge enough.
That is why even with this entire review done, I will not recommend you buy now. Wait until CES 2023 announcements and see what’s new. Then, see how the prices of previous models change, then rewatch this video again to reevaluate the situation.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)

Amazon
Lazada
Shopee

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You Can Pre-Order iPhone 7 / Plus Now

If you’re dying for an iPhone 7 / Plus even after the countless social media posts and shares warning not to get the iPhone 7 / Plus, this is your chance. You can now pre-order iPhone 7 / Plus variants from Lazada now – at an insane price that is.
Before I show you these deals, there are some aspects of this “deal” that you need to know. Firstly, it’s imported. The pre-ordered iPhone 7 / Plus chargers won’t work at all, since they’re not using the UK power plug standard. Also, the shipping time is a little sketchy here, since it’ll be imported. Some of the pre-order iPhone 7 / Plus are explicitly stated that they’re shipped from overseas, whereas some of them are labelled as “local”

Check out the deal right here at https://goo.gl/ifgl0i!

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5 things to know about FFX|X2 HD remaster

[no_toc]
Alright – first off, the entire series is has aged since its first debut on the Sony PS2. Then again, age is just a number in this case, as the HD remaster of the brilliance of FFX is just too much to describe. Here are the 5 main things that you should know about FFX HD remaster.

1. Language tweaks are available

There are lots of people who wants to play FFX in all of its Japanese glory – I would want it too, actually. However since the first release of FFX that I played was in English, I couldn’t help but to cringe at Tidus’s Japanese voice actor – it’s just horrible. Maybe that’s more of a personal preference issue too. If you wish to do that to your copy of FFX HD remaster, you can. Personally, the best combination is Japanese audio and English subtitles of course.
You can find the tweak here.
2. Graphic options abundant
Yeah, it’s not a full-range of options as you’ll find from something like Metro: Last Light, but it does offer some flexibility so that you can run FFX HD remaster on a laptop.
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Just so you know though, the options actually affect the performance of the game quite significantly. That said, there’s absolutely nothing about this game that the GTX970 can’t handle. Which leads us to the next bit of information about the FFX HD remaster of course.
As of today though, there are no 21:9 support at all.
3. It’s capped at 30FPS, but not for long
It might be strange at first, but then again you have to realize it’s made for consoles that was released fifteen freaking years ago. 15 years! Computers those days weren’t about delivering 60FPS with utmost beauty on consoles, it was about the beautiful graphics. At 30FPS with these graphics at that time, it’s splendid.

However there is a brand new mod to unlock that cap has been discovered by a fan. It’s not perfect yet, but there is proof shown, and it works. There are bits of hiccups here and there, but overall it is really promising. Hope it gets released quick enough!
4. You can just play it for the story
To be completely honest, even I would like to just play it for the story. It’s interesting enough to play a game with such a beautiful lore and to be completely immersed in it feels fantastic. Square Enix is kind enough to provide certain options for you to have supercharge a.k.a. god mode, or speed up the game by 4x excluding cutscenes. These options will often come in pairs of course, as having absolutely no enemy encounters means zero leveling for you. You’ll of course gonna need god mode for that.

That said, there’s a 5th option here that hides the HUD, including subtitles and text boxes when you’re talking with NPCs. That’s a little weird and I really hope they didn’t do that. Speaking of NPCs however,
5. Side characters look like crap
Sure, NPCs aren’t the main characters, so why waste resources on perfecting their faces and textures, right? Hmmmm… that’s a little odd, because just look at this guy here compared to Tidus.

You get it now? One guy has flat eyes and 2D spiky hair, whereas the other one looks way too good to be fighting with monsters while getting sprayed by Malboro all day long. Of course, I completely understand why the staggering difference – just pointing this out because it piqued my interest. At least…
6. Bonus: Yuna’s eyes are beautiful

Seriously, look at them.
Bonus: A gallery full of screenshots from the beautiful HD remaster.
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Review – HONOR MagicBook Pro: Bigger display in a compact body with a logical price

When HONOR released the MagicBook back in April earlier this year, I was shocked by the value it offers. For its price, it struck a lot of the right chords – making it one of the laptops that I personally recommend. Unfortunately, the lack of availability plagued it. Then came the MagicBook 14 came around but it’s technically a refresh of the original MagicBook but with an insane price hike.
Today, we have a completely new product within HONOR’s lineup of laptops. This is the new HONOR MagicBook Pro. On paper, it’s not entirely special – but how the laptop is constructed is what makes it special as it also strikes a lot of the right chords.

Design
Fairly simple laptop design here. Fully grey in color. While HONOR does say it’s made out of aluminium… from what we can see, hear, and feel – it’s mostly plastic.

Still, I like its understated design and it’s durable too, despite its questionable build materials. I guess the material doesn’t really matter much since it’s durable.
By the way, the ports are also the same in terms of location, variety, and amount. The main difference is that the USB 2.0 ports just got a generation bump to USB 3.0.

Display
This is the first time I’ve seen and used a laptop that’s equipped with a 16.1-inch IPS LCD screen with 1080p resolution.
This humongous display is actually very nice to use. It’s not about the 16.1-inch screen size because I think it’s not that big of a deal because it’s just slightly larger than a typical 15.6-inch screen laptop. The main magic here is those thin bezels.

In the future iteration of the HONOR MagicBook Pro laptop, I do wish to see a 16:10 aspect ratio screen to make use of that bottom chin as well. It’s not something that I will be expecting, but it’s something that’s nice to have.
HONOR also claims that this display here has is rated for 100% sRGB color gamut coverage, but from what we can see with our own eyes – it’s not the most color-accurate display but good enough for most cases.
Specs and performance
This is where things start to get a little weird. The HONOR MagicBook Pro comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H processor with AMD Radeon Graphics, 16GB RAM, and 512GB storage. Yes, AMD’s H-series of mobile processor instead of a U-series mobile processor.
Comparing both the Ryzen 5 4500U and the Ryzen 5 4600H, the latter is a higher-powered chip with 6 cores and 12 threads instead of 6 cores and 6 threads on the former. Other than that, the Ryzen 5 4600H has better boost clocks and obviously better multi-core performance.

Combined with the Radeon Graphics, this laptop can do wonders as we can play Overwatch at its lowest graphical settings and get a very enjoyable experience too.
One question we get asked frequently is “can we edit videos using this laptop?” and we’re answering that question in this video. Once we got Premiere Pro running and imported our usual Sony 1080p 60fps videos into the timeline and hit play, it’s not smooth. Granted, it’s skipping frames consistently so if you don’t mind that frame skipping, then it’s perfectly fine to edit videos on the HONOR MagicBook Pro.
I’m not particularly sure why the frame skipping is happening, but looking at the task manager, we can see that the GPU still only has 512MB of dedicated VRAM. Once we hit play, the VRAM is nearly all used up.
In short, despite this laptop having so much power, I still treat it as an ultrabook.

One good but weird thing is that the HONOR MagicBook Pro made an emphasis on the temperatures and noise – to which I commend them because this laptop is dead silent under our usual workload.
HONOR delivered this promise magnificently, too. When we stressed the CPU and GPU with synthetic load, the fan did ramp up but it’s still very quiet. Though, the fans make a higher-pitched noise which might annoy users with sensitive ears.
Also, I can’t find any settings to manually change the fan speed or to select a high power profile.
Keyboard & trackpad
The trackpad is pretty fine, though it could’ve been bigger since there is room for it to grow anyway. It tracks well and uses Windows Precision Touchpad drivers too. The palm rejection is still quite bad, just like many other Windows laptops out there.

As for the keyboard, it’s actually good. It’s a little mushy for my liking but generally, it’s fine as I can get used to it easily. Though, I don’t like the arrow key cluster, though. All 4 directional arrow keys should be the same size – either all of them at half-height or all of them at full size but offset from the entire keyboard cluster.

I still don’t like how the Fn key functions – which I have complained in the previous HONOR MagicBook review before – and also that webcam on the keyboard. I guess I’ll give it a pass this time because of that big display with small bezels.
Those fantastic speakers
Now, the extra space between the left and right sides of the laptop has two large speaker grills. And yes, the speakers are top-firing. They actually sound amazing for a laptop.
But why does the speaker has to look like it’s gutted out from another laptop and tacked onto the HONOR MagicBook Pro though? Aesthetically, it’s just not coherent with the laptop. At least make those grills the same color as the entire laptop.

Also, I think there is room to further grow the laptop. There is unused space on the keyboard deck, after all.
Maintenance & upgradability
It’s still a rather weird decision for laptops to use Torx screws. Anyway, removing the bottom screws and popping off the back panel reveals that the RAM is completely soldered. What we can swap here is the single M.2 SSD and also the WiFi card. That’s it.

What’s weird here is the empty space left beside the battery. At first glance, that slot is obviously made for a 2.5-inch drive – but there is no way to actually install a 2.5-inch drive there. That part is just completely left empty.
HONOR could’ve grown the battery in size and just occupy that empty space as well – but they didn’t.
Empty, wasted space.
By the way, stop partitioning that 512GB SSD into 128GB for the C:/ drive and then all the remaining capacity for the D:/ drive. It’s not the year 2000 anymore. Ransomware will take all drives, regardless it’s a partition or a completely different drive.

Battery & charger
Not bad. Despite it using a 56Wh battery. From our usage, this battery can last for about 6-7 hours while doing some intense web browsing with Spotify in the background and some YouTube videos in the mix.
Should you buy the HONOR MagicBook Pro?
I think we should flip that question around first – you should not buy the HONOR MagicBook Pro if you’re going to run graphical-intensive applications on it – like After Effects, and Lightroom. The CPU can provide a lot of power, but the GPU is still lacking because of the minuscule amount of VRAM.

You should absolutely buy the HONOR MagicBook Pro if you’re doing a lot of office work and multitask a lot since it has a larger display and also 16GB of RAM. Coupled with that high-powered AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, it can even handle large excel workbooks. With that extremely silent fan, this laptop is just perfect for office work. Yet despite all that it has to offer, it’s 16.9mm thin but weighs 1.7kg.

Personally, I like this laptop. This is my first time using a laptop with a 16.1-inch screen and it looks and feels amazing to use. Coupled with the great battery life, the only thing holding me back is the weird Fn key functionality and the obnoxious arrow key cluster.
For the price of RM3,599, I do think that it’s a good price with all things considered.

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Meet the Galaxy Buds+ in striking vivid Red

Now you get to live to your Superman fantasy (red spandex maybe?) as Samsung has revealed the Galaxy Buds Plus in a striking new Red color. The pricing is to remain at RM599!
That’s great as Samsung doesn’t charge extra for uncommon colors like some other competitors do.

In case you don’t have one yet, we have only one comment to describe it: full customization that lets you tune it to however you like through the amazing easy-to-use app for casual users or go full ham on the equalizer for the audiophiles out there.
Catch our review on these triple-sided round-edged earbuds here and you can get them online now through the official web store too.

It wasn’t the first time smartphone-related gadgets have a product in such bright and warm colors. I personally have an ASUS ZenFone 2 in similar reds a few years ago and it definitely stands out in the crowd as I was using it without a casing and I think you’ll stand out even more if you put such colors right at the ear tips where everyone can see it from meters away.
And hey – if you’re going to use a pair of true wireless earbuds, might as well make it look nice and attractive. Let your personality shine through.

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Review – Noctua NH-D15: King of Air Coolers

I’ve always been wanting to get an aftermarket air cooler. Noctua NH-D15 was a great candidate, because why not go for the most well-reputed air cooler out there? For those who had been following my PC case reviews which we started off not too long ago, then you might have seen the hideous Intel stock cooler in there. Well, don’t judge me. That stock cooler is actually doing quite a lot of work.
As stated in those case reviews, I’m using an Intel i5-6400, overclocked from 2.7GHz to 4.0GHz with an ASRock Z170 Pro4 motherboard. That kicks out quite a lot of heat, but the stock cooler survives only because of my air-conditioned room.

So I reached out to Noctua to holla at them, and they were kind enough to send us a unit of their best of the best – the Noctua NH-D15. Just how exactly good is the NH-D15? That’s why we’re here to test it!
We’ve also prepared a video just to showcase the packaging itself, the unboxing experience, the super-simple and straightforward installation process, and then showcase on how it looks. While I was at it, why not add the benchmark scores alongside?
Trust me – there’s a plot twist near when I finished installing the Noctua NH-D15 and was about to put everything back together.

Unboxing
The Noctua NH-D15 has a humongous box – I’m not going to lie, I was awestruck when I first saw it. The sheer size of this box raises a lot of skepticism on whether their case will fit or not. I can assure you, however, that the cooler itself is obviously much smaller than this humongous box, but the size can be managed easily too. More on this later, of course.

Opening the box is definitely an experience for me. It’s nice. Take a look at the series of images.

What Noctua did to the packaging is fantastic. It made the whole unboxing experience a bliss. I highly recommend you to watch the video to really get a feel for how the Noctua NH-D15 unboxing experience really is.
These are all the things you’ll get in the box!
Accessories
First of all, the included screwdriver is a godsend. Secondly, Noctua included a Noctua NA-YC1 Y-cable to split a single 4-pin male fan header to two 4-pin female fan headers. Then, Noctua also included their low-noise adapters – or LNA, for their included fans. Since there are two included fans, they gave two LNA adapters! Fourthly, the fans they included is their 140mm NH-A15 fans – two of them, actually. Fifth, they included a tube of Noctua NT-H1 thermal compound.

Lastly, Noctua logo badge. It’s made out of metal, and there’s 3M adhesive at the back!

Now that’s a lot of accessories!
Installation
It’s really simple. Just take the appropriate installation manual  – and there are 3 of them in the box, one for LGA2011, LGA115X, and AM3 individually. They just told the world that you’re eligible to get the NH-AM4 mount for Ryzen-based CPUs for free too.

For me, I took the LGA115X manual, read through it and saw what type of and prepared the appropriate screws and mounts and remembered to the included screwdriver too.
Installation was super straightforward. I took out the Intel stock cooler, oriented the backplate and placed it on the back, then screwed according to the user manual. Since they’re thumbscrews, I just screwed them finger-tight plus a slight nudge with the screwdriver.
The machine mills are beautiful!
Onward with a tad of thermal paste, then placing the NH-D15 on the CPU itself and screwing it on. Again, not too tight – but appropriate tightness is needed.
These two screws lock on to the bracket nicely.
After screwing it in, I placed both the fans back onto the Noctua NH-D15. Seriously, Noctua made everything so easily accessible on their coolers!
Another shot on the beautiful base.
Issues I faced with the Noctua NH-D15
For me, there is just one – clearance. Firstly, as mentioned above, the RAM clearance. Although Noctua trimmed off some of the fins at the bottom of the stack, it’s still not enough to accommodate those RAMs and the fan together.
Both sides of the bottom part of these fin stacks have been trimmed off.
What happened was I had to bias the right fin stack tower’s fan a little higher. Thanks again for Noctua for having such a versatile design, but the cooling performance will obviously be hindered. The second fan can be mounted on the same side as the first fan too – making a push-pull configuration for the right stack of fins.
The other fan is raised.
Secondly, is the case itself. I installed the NH-D15 on the budget-oriented PC case, the SilverStone RL05 that I’ve reviewed here. I knew it was going to be an issue since the RL05 can only take a 120mm fan beside the rear I/O panel. By doing some mental math, I was skeptical at first but went ahead with the installation.
By the looks of it, it nearly touched the side panel!
Luckily, I was wrong – or at least nearly wrong. The Noctua NH-D15 sits nicely in the SilverStone RL05 – but just barely. The clearance between the side panel and the entire cooler itself is minute. I mean, a slight tap on the side panel and I’ll be knocking on the cooler itself!
Now, for most people, this won’t be an issue – but I suppose it’s a warning for those who are seeking to get a Noctua NH-D15 for your personal beast of a machine. Just make sure your case is wide enough. Else, you can get Noctua’s shorter coolers.
The Noctua NH-D15 is very close to my GPU – which is in the second PCI slot!!
Thirdly, the PCI slot clearance issue. From what I can see, the first slot will be blocked – so this is definitely something to keep in mind for those who uses the topmost PCI slot.
Performance
Now, how about that performance? I’m still using the same rig – and I’ve applied the same thermal paste for both stock Intel cooler and the Noctua NH-D15.

Testing hardware configuration

CPU
Intel i5-6400 @ 4.0GHz

Motherboard
ASRock Z170 Pro4

GPU
MSI GEFORCE GTX 1060 3GT OC

Memory
Corsair Vengeance LPX 4GBx4

Power supply
FSP Hexa+ 550W

The test was done in an air-conditioned room that’s very cold, and it was coupled with a rainy midnight too. I did not use the included LNA, as that LNA is actually a resistor to change the RPM. Since I’m using 4-pin headers on my motherboard anyway, I’ll let my fan curve handle it.

Stock (℃)
NH-D15 (℃)

CPU
GPU
CPU
GPU

Idle
38
28
30
26

CPU Only
56
29
42
27

GPU Only
56
62
43
61

CPU + GPU
62
62
47
57

Now that’s a humongous delta between both coolers! The temperature drop in idle isn’t that extreme – I get it, but under load, that’s a huge drop. I actually did monitor the temperatures on a rather hot (we’re in Malaysia after all) afternoon, and the temperatures were about 40 degrees on average under my daily usage loads.

Another thing that has improved is the acoustics. From a noisy and whiny stock cooler to near-silent operations even under load while maintaining such great temperatures? That’s a difficult feat difficult to pull off.
Wrapping up the Noctua NH-D15 review
Here, what I can tell you is this – the NH-D15 is a strong air cooler. While this isn’t an apples to apples comparison between form factors – as the stock cooler is a blower style cooler and the Noctua NH-D15 is a tower style cooler.
Beautiful, thick aluminium fin stacks.
For the price of RM 419, it’s definitely a premium air cooler. From what I can see, the Noctua NH-D15 can even outperform some all-in-one liquid coolers too. Of course, the price to pay – other than cash – are the form factor and compatibility issues.
Where to buy?
Malaysia: You can find a great deal here over at Lazada!
US: Amazon is the place to be.

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Need to watch blocked YouTube videos?

Some videos on YouTube aren’t available for us Malaysians to view here in Malaysia. To be honest, I find it quite annoying when I’m in the mood to watch a certain video and it’s unavailable.
Fortunately though, multiple solutions are available for users, one of them being  proxy solutions through browser plugins like Proxtube

However, unless you want to run all traffic through a proxy, (instead of only the videos as is the case with ProxTube), this has the disadvantage that blocked videos won’t even show up in your YouTube searches. Additionally those free extensions often suffer from the problem of having high traffic costs to run their proxy servers, so they try shady things like injecting ads on other sites. However, in practice this difference is not really noticeable.
When any device in my network connects to YouTube over IPv6 through the tunnel, Google will now assume a user from London! A brilliant little work through around something very annoying.

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Review – Samsung Galaxy Watch Active

When the Samsung Galaxy S10 series was announced back in March, Samsung also announced a slew of accessories. One of it is the new Galaxy Watch Active – a variant of the Galaxy Watch that I would consider as “budget” but still packs with the core essentials.
The new Galaxy Watch Active is smaller and yet still packs the features that we’ve come to expect from a Samsung smartwatch.

Unboxing

The entire Galaxy Watch Active comes with the required accessories to get started. You get the watch itself, a shorter wrist strap, a magnetic charger, and also the Galaxy Watch Active itself.

Instead of having just one long wrist strap and have the extras coil around the wrist, Samsung included a shorter one instead. To swap between these two wrist straps are easy – there’s a latch at the back that releases the strap. You can even buy third party straps if you like.

Its elegant design
When compared to the Galaxy Watch (not Active), the main differences here are two things – its size and the lack of a rotating bezel. In turn, this makes the watch smaller and has a more elegant look, suitable for those who have a small wrist.

It comes in a total of 4 different color variants – black, silver, rose gold, and green. The biggest difference here is the non-removable metal frame around the watch itself which is also colored. As for the included straps, once again – you can swap them out for whatever design or size you want.

There are also two buttons on the Galaxy Watch Active, a back button at 2 o’clock and also a home button at 5 o’clock. Honestly, I’d much rather have the home button placed at 12 o’clock as it is a little awkward to press. But then again, Samsung made the software so that you don’t really have to press the home button at all.
Measuring in at 28.1mm (or 1.1-inch) watch face with 360×360 pixels in resolution. Rather sharp, honestly.

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Also, since these watch faces define your user experience with the smartwatch itself, you can get some dynamic watch face to spice things up. I’m using a built-in watch face and it changes according to the time of the day and the weather. Very fancy.
Lots of features!

Like any other Samsung wearables, you’ll have to pair it up with your phone via Samsung Wearables app. Fitting name. Its pairing process is simple too, actually. For Android users, just follow the instructions shown on the Samsung Wearables app and you’ll get it paired easily.
One thing I enjoyed using the most – and surprised by its accuracy – is the ability to reply messages by writing a message on the watch itself. You can write individual alphabets like how you are writing on paper (single, double, triple strokes) and the sentence appears on the screen itself.
It works – and surprisingly accurate as well. Though the tiny screen is the main limitation here. Also, you’ll have to wear the watch extremely tightly to prevent it from wobbling around on the wrist while writing.
This long screenshot shows the entire dashboard for the Galaxy Watch Active.
Of course, you can also use Samsung Pay with the Galaxy Watch Active. You can make payments easily through your watch without bringing your wallet or phone with you!
Remember – you can also pair your Bluetooth headphones or earphones directly with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active. You can either transfer mp3 files and store inside the Galaxy Watch Active’s 4GB storage. You can even sync the music folder on your phone with the Galaxy Watch Active if you choose to do so.
Spotify on the Galaxy Watch Active. This screenshot is taken via the watch itself.
Or, use Spotify instead. Yes, you can download Spotify on your Galaxy Watch Active and directly save tracks onto the watch as well. Of course, you can connect the Galaxy Watch Active directly to your WiFi to allow even faster downloads for Spotify. Seriously, don’t use Bluetooth to download songs – it’ll take forever and eventually draining more battery than you bargained for.

Then, it can also monitor your stress level and your heart rate constantly. These data will be synced back to the Samsung Health app for better viewing as well.

While the Galaxy Watch Active is indeed a smartwatch, it can become a fitness band by selecting what type of activity you’re doing. But, remember to check the weather before heading out for a workout.
Battery life?
It can last for about 48 hours with 50% brightness and auto dimming turned on. The watch does not have auto brightness feature, by the way.
A literal calendar on my wrist.
How I use the watch is pretty standard – I was constantly flipping around my wrist to check time and notifications whenever it vibrates. I occasionally replied messages through the watch too because that is honestly cool.

As for the charging times, it charges using a proprietary magnetic charger that Samsung is calling it a “WPC-based wireless charger.” Why we are calling it proprietary is because it does not work with any other Qi wireless chargers we have. It only works with its own charger and also the Samsung Galaxy S10 series smartphone’s Wireless PowerShare.
Speaking of Wireless PowerShare, it’s slow and honestly quite difficult to align. If you opt for this method of charging then be aware that you will have to immobilize two devices. Though, it is a great way to charge your phone if you are traveling and don’t want to bring yet another charger.
It takes about a total of 3 hours to charge from 10% to 100% via Wireless PowerShare from the Galaxy S10+ (review).
Wrapping up the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active review
It’s an interesting watch for sure. It’s small – sure, but that’s why the bigger-sized Galaxy Watch exists. This is a watch that is meant for those who prefer smaller watches yet with full-fledged features of a smartwatch.
The official price for this watch is at RM799 but you can already get it off of Lazada and Shopee for around RM699. Is it a good deal? Yes, it’s not that expensive for a smartwatch either. Great deal for what you’ll get, honestly.

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Leaked records from recent data breach are fake, according to Maybank; Astro and TM to publish official findings soon

We’ve seen numerous hacks and database leaks in 2022 and one would think the year would end without one happening again. But wrong here’s another round.

After June’s JPN and MySejahtera breach followed by last month’s real-time cyberattack involving AirAsia, the victims this time includes multiple organizations with the prominent subjects being Maybank, TM, and Astro, just to name a few.
Following SoyaCincau‘s report, the user who opened the “WTS” thread showed off screenshots of alleged records in pure strings which are comprehensible and easy to identify without prior need for database knowledge.
While Maybank and Astro records are focusing on the customer side, TM’s Unifi Mobile is a mixed bag of client info and backend access which is far worse than a simple transaction record leak. Referencing lowyat.net’s image, the hacker just wants USD850 which is kinda low for an actual admin credential.

Ini satu dakwaan yang serius, melibatkan jumlah data yang banyak.
Saya akan minta CyberSecurity Malaysia, JPDP siasat apakah benar berlaku kebocoran data melibatkan pihak-pihak berkenaan, serta mengambil tindakan berdasarkan undang-undang. https://t.co/ZvaTJajVje
— Fahmi Fadzil 🇲🇾 (@fahmi_fadzil) December 30, 2022

Of course, with this much hassle generated among social media platforms, Fahmi Fadzil, our new Communications, and Digital Minister, quickly announced that he has notified MCMC to quickly ban access to the website that hosts the leaked database.
He also mentioned Astro and TM are also working internally to verify the records to generate proper feedback on the issue.
However, Maybank has officially responded to the matter and claims that the data leak is false and no breaches have been detected.
PSA from us, if you’re scared of being one of the entries within those records, quickly swap out any passwords with a new one on all affected platforms that you may have used currently or in the past.

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The ZEISS co-engineered vivo X60 series flagship smartphone has been announced; Plenty of professional grade photographic features to work with

vivo’s latest flagship series has gone official as the X60 series is announced during the online launch on March 22.
Coming in as the brand’s first attempt at collaborating effort with ZEISS, the X60 series carries the company’s mission of ante up the camera game, pushing the capabilities of what a smartphone can do and possibly stepping into the boundaries of the professional photography sector with top tier photosensors and image processing software.

For this time, 2 models are announced for the Malaysian market, the base X60 and the more powerful X60 Pro.

vivo X60

6.56-inch AMOLED Display

1080p resolution
Punch hole notch at middle
120Hz refresh rate
HDR10+ support

Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chipset
Up to 12GB RAM
Up to 256GB storage

No microSD card slot

Triple rear-facing cameras

Main: 48MP f/1.79 with PDAF; OIS, EIS
Ultra-wide: 13MP f/2.2
Portrait: 13MP with 2x optical zoom; PDAF

32MP f/2.5 selfie camera
4,300mAh battery

33W Fast Charge

Shimmer Blue, Midnight Black colors

vivo X60 Pro

6.56-inch AMOLED Display

1080p resolution
Punch hole notch at middle
120Hz refresh rate
HDR10+ support

Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chipset
Up to 12GB RAM
Up to 256GB storage

No microSD card slot

Triple rear-facing cameras

Main: 48MP f/1.79 with PDAF; gimbal-like stabilization
Ultra-wide: 13MP f/2.2
Portrait: 13MP with 2x optical zoom; PDAF

32MP f/2.5 selfie camera
4,200mAh battery

33W Fast Charge

Shimmer Blue, Midnight Black colors

Technically, both the vivo X60 and the vivo X60 Pro are pretty similar to each other. The Pro comes with the gimbal-like stabilization and has a different battery between the both – and that’s it. They’re both using the exact same Snapdragon 870 chipset, too.

While the vivo X60 series of smartphones aren’t advertised as a gaming phone – we still did a gaming test to see how the Snapdragon 870 performs.

Price & availability
The vivo X60 series will be available on both Lazada and Shopee at these prices:

vivo x60 @ RM2,699
vivo X60 Pro @ RM3,299

Pre-orders are open from now until 26th March 2021 at all vivo concept stores and all pre-orders come with 1-year extended warranty, 1-year screen crack protection, and either an X60 premium gift box or a free luggage.

Model
Pre-order promotion
22nd March (9.30pm onwards) – 26th March (11.59pm) 2021

X60
Protection Plus
(1-year extended warranty + 1-year screen crack protection) + X60 Premium Gift Box
(X60 Phone Case + Thumb Drive)with a total worth of RM458

X60 Pro
Protection Plus
(1-year extended warranty + 1-year screen crack protection) +Luggage with a total worth of RM658

First 50 purchases of the vivo X60 series of smartphones on the official Shopee and Lazada, you can also get the X8 smartwatch and one piece of HealthLand Massage Gift Card worth RM100 (with purchase the X60) or one piece of Aurum Theatre Cinema Pass worth RM110 (with purchase of the X60 Pro).

Model
Pre-order promotion
22nd March (9.30pm onwards) – 26th March (11.59pm) 2021
Additional Gifts* with purchase through Shopee or Lazada

X60
Protection Plus
(1-year extended warranty + 1-year screen crack protection)Worth RM299
X60 Premium Gift Box
(X60 Phone Case + Thumb Drive) + X8 smartwatchTotal worth of RM557

X60 Pro
X8 smartwatch + Luggage
Total worth of RM757

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CES2017: Razer Project Valerie – Every Gaming Laptop’s Wet Dream

I think many people have already thought of this design in their minds before. No one can ever have too much screen estate – especially desktop users, but no one made a multi-monitor laptop as excellently as Razer did. This is Razer Project Valerie – a triple-monitor setup for gaming laptop.

Let’s address the biggest question here. What are those displays?
They’re a total of 3 built-in monitors, each of them are 17.3-inch 4K IGZO display with NVIDIA G-SYNC technology and with 100% Adobe RGB color accuracy. To drive all these monitors, Razer Project Valerie is showcased with the latest and greatest NVIDIA GTX1080, but we all know that even the GTX1080 can’t handle 4K properly while gaming.

What about its “folding” mechanism? How do the 3 monitors hide itself?
According to Razer, this is how they did it:
Project Valerie uses an automatic deployment mechanism designed by Razer. Each display mechanically slides out of the side of the main screen and adjusts into place, making it easy for users to deploy. With integrated multi-monitor support, users will no longer have to deal with the cable clutter from traditional desktop setups. The result is a clean gaming and working environment that’s just as easy to maintain.

Razer Project Valerie is currently still a prototype, but knowing that Razer actually made such a laptop made me drool. Seriously, an automated screen deployment system? That’s just fantastic – and yet the entire laptop isn’t that much thicker than any of Razer’s competitor’s bulky gaming laptops either.

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Review – POCO M4 Pro 5G (Updated)

This is the brand new POCO M4 Pro 5G. I’ve been using it for like a week or two at this point – and I have to start by saying that the POCO M4 Pro is quite a weird one. It’s not exactly “entry-level” and yet there’s no POCO M4 – without the Pro. So, let’s get into it.

Design
I think we’ll start by talking about the design of the POCO M4 Pro 5G first. I immediately realized it’s using a very similar design as the POCO M3 from last year, but flattened the phone and changed the faux leather texture into this matte finish. That humongous camera cutout is now swapped with this two-tone design instead.

Screen
The screen is a simple 6.6-inch IPS LCD screen with 2400×1080 pixels in resolution with 90Hz refresh rate – but there is nothing much to talk about since it’s just like many other phones we’ve seen before.

The colors are decent but its brightness isn’t that high so it’ll struggle when used outdoors. Typical stuff for a phone with such hardware.
Cameras
Let’s now talk about the cameras. Even though it looks like there are lots of cameras, there are only two. You only get a main camera and an ultrawide angle camera.

To have a look at all the pictures taken with the POCO M4 Pro 5G, watch our video at the top of this review. The cameras are actually fairly decent.
Performance
The performance. It comes with a MediaTek Dimensity 810 chipset and overall, I think the performance is something I’ll consider as acceptable for its price range. Like what we mentioned in the gaming test video – which you can check below here – is rather weird.

We can play games like Genshin Impact at its lowest graphical settings at slightly above 30fps most of the time, the graphical settings available for PUBG, COD Mobile, and Mobile Legends are quite low.
Battery
This phone comes with a 5,000mAh battery and hey, it can last for quite a long time. It can definitely last you through more than one day with just one charge. From our battery life test, it lasts for >16 hours so I really won’t have to worry about the battery life of this phone at all.
Charger
The charger that’s included in the box is the proprietary 33W fast charging that we’ve encountered many times before – charges the phone from 15% to 100% in about 75 minutes or so.

Software
Of course, let’s not forget about the software side of things. It’s running a modified version of MIUI but in truth, it seems like only the home launcher got changed.

The POCO M4 Pro 5G comes with a lot of apps pre-installed that I think many people won’t use. I am not going to touch those pre-installed trash mobile games for sure.

And if you think the regular version of MIUI is problematic, then I have a surprise for you. It’s even more broken and buggier on the POCO M4 Pro 5G. On top of everything that we’ve complained about, it now has two more issues.

The first one is this NFC persistent notification that cannot be dismissed. To dismiss it, we can disable NFC entirely, which renders the feature more pointless than it already is. This issue is the first time we’re encountering this issue and it is not present on any other Xiaomi or POCO phones that we reviewed.

The second issue is a dark mode. For some reason, they manage to screw up dark mode. For a few apps like Facebook and Messenger, dark mode is literally black text on a black background. I can’t see anything. Enabling or disabling dark mode in the app doesn’t fix anything.
I have no idea what caused this issue but this happening on the POCO M4 Pro 5G. I have also tried it on the Redmi 10 that has the same version of Facebook but doesn’t have this dark mode bug. Even the subtitles in Netflix is black in color.

So, will this issue be fixed? MIUI has a “force dark mode” functionality built-in and it is forced upon all apps when dark mode is turned on. We can head into the settings up and manually disable that “forced dark mode” feature for certain apps to “fix” this issue.

We have already reported all of these issues back to Xiaomi directly as they are fundamentally affecting the user experience. We do expect a new firmware update to fix these issues soon.
UPDATE: Yes, a new update is issued to address the broken dark mode that we mentioned here. Though it’s still not “perfect”, at least we don’t have to deal with black-on-black texts.
Misc. things to mention
While the POCO M4 Pro 5G comes with “stereo speakers”, the secondary speaker is practically nonexistent as the volume is too low and the sound quality is horrendous.

Also, the POCO M4 Pro 5G comes with a dedicated SIM + combo slot instead of having 3 dedicated card slots. Just thought that’s worth pointing out for those who care.
Should you buy the POCO M4 Pro 5G?
We should really talk about the price. The starting price is RM849 with 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and I think that price is rather high, honestly. However, POCO Malaysia did have a promotion for this phone for the price of RM749, which was the retail price I was expecting, not the promotional price.

So, here’s the one-liner for the POCO M4 Pro 5G. This is a decent phone that has decent hardware but the software is even more broken than before, and the price is also not that low. That is why I suggest that if you want to buy the POCO M4 Pro 5G, wait for a sale and get it at RM749.

Where to buy? (Affiliate links)

Amazon
Lazada
Shopee

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Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx chips are made to power laptops

ARM-powered Windows devices aren’t a new idea at all – and Qualcomm is set to partner with Windows laptop manufacturers to bring even more high-powered and efficient Windows laptops that are powered by their own Snapdragon chips.
The Snapdragon for laptops is made specifically for this purpose, and it has the codename of 8cx. There are a few different variants under this family, like the Snapdragon 8cx 5G, and also the 8cx Gen 2 5G.

The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, according to Qualcomm’s benchmark, has huge performance boost over the 10th Gen Intel Core i5 but at less than half the operating wattage.

Qualcomm is also positioning the Snapdragon 8cx family of chipsets as the premium level of devices, whereby there’s also the Snapdragon 8c for mainstream and the Snapdragon 7c for entry-level devices.

Qualcomm also said that these laptops with Snapdragon chips are made to be always on and always connected with their superior multi-day battery life.

Currently, there is already a multitude of laptops that are running on Snapdragon chipsets, ranging from the Snapdragon 7c all the way up to the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G.

And since Qualcomm has immense experience in making chipsets for smartphones, many of the same technologies can be found in these Snapdragon 8cx chipsets too. For example, the camera ISP and audio DSP can be used for laptops now. Even its AI algorithms can be run efficiently and faster than ever, thanks to the Snapdragon chip.

Personally, I’m wondering how Microsoft will support this new branch of chipsets because it’s a completely different platform. The kernel and OS will pretty much need to be reworked, and many applications won’t work as intended too since the instruction set is different. Perhaps Microsoft will develop some sort of translator to support existing x86 apps – but we’ll see.

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Android 12L is made specially for foldables and tablets

Back in like a decade ago (yes, it’s been that long), Google released Android 3.0 Honeycomb. That is a special version of Android made specifically for tablets. However, that idea didn’t last long as it was axed pretty quickly and consolidated back to the smartphone UI in Android 4.0. I think that is also the time that the idea of an “Android tablet is essentially a larger Android phone” is solidified.

Now, Google wants to right its mistake with Android 12L. It’s something like an add-on for the base version of Android 12 that is made specifically for large displays like certain Chrome OS devices, the unfolded Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip series of devices, and – obviously – Android tablets.

The Android 12L does look and feel a lot like the Galaxy Z Fold3’s way to multitask whereby apps will snap side by side and to use them as windows, one on top of the other.

Compatibility is also a part of the highlight as apps need to adapt between different screen sizes and rearrange its buttons and how the app is shown. Specifically for foldable devices (like the Galaxy Z Fold3), it will need to interchange between phone and tablet interfaces seamlessly.

To help with developers, Google added foldable devices for emulation so that new apps can work seamlessly with the foldable devices and change between interfaces without problems.
It seems like Samsung’s Flex Mode is also becoming a part of Android 12L’s base feature.

Are the days of “Android tablets are just larger Android smartphones” gone? Maybe. It will still depend on the app developers.
To learn more about what Android 12L brings to the tablet, click here.

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Catch Yuna, SonaOne, Pastel Lite and Bil Musa on 30 May at U Mobile #GroovesWithU livestream

U Mobile is here to jack up the Raya hype by inviting the famous Malaysian artist Yuna, SonaOne, Pastel Lite, and Bil Musa to lead the finale of #GroovesWithU music stream. The event is part of U Mobile’s #RayaWithU campaign which aims to spread the message of giving and positivity while supporting local businesses and talents at the same time.

The #GroovesWithU Raya Special will stream for free starting 30 May 2020, 8.30 pm on www.youtube.com/umobile, and will feature some of her biggest Malay hits alongside classic Raya tunes. To make this performance even more meaningful, Yuna will be donating a portion of her artiste fees to The Lost Food Project and KITA Fund, two organizations that have been assisting communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and each of them received RM10,000 each from her.

Yuna also shared some of her thoughts regarding the music stream being part of her charity move:
“I am delighted to be invited to be part of U Mobile’s #GroovesWthU Raya Special! This show is particularly meaningful to me as firstly, I’m excited that I am able to sing for and engage with my fans even in this time of social distancing. Secondly, I am able to perform some of my favourite Hari Raya tunes to make this Raya even more memorable.  I’m also glad to mark this partnership with U Mobile in a meaningful way with a donation to two organisations who are providing COVID-19 relief to those in need, The Lost Food Project and KITA Fund.”
Find out more information about the music stream on U Mobile’s Instagram page.

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Review – Xiaomi Mi LED Smart Bulb (aka Yeelight)

Today, we have with us a product that was on our radar for quite a long time. It’s a product that goes by the name of Yeelight, but is officially known as the Mi LED Smart Bulb in Malaysia. Not sure why there is a name difference, but here’s the gist of it.
Firstly, we have to talk about Mi Home. Cumulatively, all smart home products are parked under the Mi Home umbrella – be it the smart kettle, sensors, doorbell cameras, rice cooker, and of course – the lightbulbs. Yeelight is under Xiaomi, hence that is why the app works under Mi Home as well.

Take a look at our review of the Yeelight bulbs. We integrated it into our day-to-day and studio usage to spice up the place and for a better work atmosphere.

Though with that said, there are two different apps that you need to install – the Mi Home and Yeelight app. These two apps do completely different things, with the basic features overlapping each other.

The “openness” here is in terms of how open the platform is for other developers to create their own piece of software to work with the Yeelight. Out of the box, the Yeelight is supported by Google Home, Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and a few more that are also supported by the Philips Hue.
Not only that – there are other 3rd party services that can be used with the Yeelight as well. We’ve seen Razer Chroma support for the Yeelight too.
While the Yeelight’s colors and vibrancy aren’t as strong as the Philips Hue that we reviewed previously, it is an okay tradeoff given that the Yeelight is relatively affordable and works through WiFi. There is no need for a master hub!
You can buy the Yeelight here in Malaysia for the price of RM99 on both Shopee and Lazada. For us studio use who need about 2 or 3 of these, it’s a really great deal.

Where to buy?

Lazada
Shopee
Amazon (USD $19.99)

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CES2018: HyperX Reveals Wireless Headset & New Suite Of RGB Gaming Gear

If you think CES 2018 news is ending, then too bad. CES2018 HyperX has a few more things up their sleeves, and I guess they’re making up for time lost. Remember – HyperX’s 2017 gaming gear wasn’t particularly RGB. Take a look at their HyperX ALLOY FPS Pro that we reviewed here and you’ll understand. It’s not exactly gamer-looking.
Now it’s 2018 – and HyperX is announcing their first ever wireless gaming headset, RGB keyboard, and an RGB mouse too.

Availability?
We have zero dates or prices from HyperX as of now. They did say it’ll be in the market later this year – but hey, we’re barely halfway through January.

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Two versions of Nexus 5 gets WiFi certification

Since the mistake on Android 4.4 KitKat’s mistake of showing off the alleged Nexus 5, renders, rumours, leaks and more news have been flying out in all directions.

The latest news is that there are two LG phones from the LG-D820 family that just got its WiFi certification, the LG-D820_S and also the LG-D820_C. Up until now, no one knows what the S and C stands for.

It is unknown that the referred model is the upcoming Nexus 5, but no one really knows. The source link also tells that the two phones have dual-band WiFi support under a/b/g/n/ac bands and also supports WiFi Direct. Definitely does help in connecting phones together to get data through each other at a fast rate.
The LG Nexus 5 is said to be revealed on the same day as Android 4.4 KitKat’s announcement, which is on the 14th of October 2013. Again, the highlight is on the word “said”, as Google never sent out media invites yet.

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Flappy Bird Installed Phone Is Now Pricier

I know many of you played the suddenly famous,  Flappy Bird where you experience frustration more than fun. Yes, a game that frustrates you because you can’t even get one score before training for hours. The inartistic game with a ripoff of Mario scene setting on the background down to the Mario pipes used in Smash Bros. The only original thing in this game is the Flappy Bird; that ugly looking bird that has a thick lips instead of a beak, and obviously for its easy one-button control with just screen tapping.

Enough describing this tasteless game. Breaking news, phones that has Flappy Bird pre-installed now can be sold at a higher price since it has been taken down from both the App Store and Google Play. There are no official report to why it is being taken down but my best guess is because of legal issues. I think it won’t be a problem with Android phones since we can just get the ‘APK’ and install from our computer or just download the ‘APK’ file directly to our Android phone using the mobile browser and install right away without any external computer intervention. iPhones can’t do that. People buy iPhones because they want to be restricted. They want to be controlled by Apple. If Apple says it’s not going to be on your iPhone, you can’t have Flappy Bird on the iPhone anymore, unless you have a jailbroken Apple device.

There are now a few listings on ebay for ‘Flapppy Bird installed’ phones that reached several thousand USD. I’d say yes, the game is now rare; at least for iPhone users. As usual *whistles*
If you’re on Android and you’d like to get the ‘APK’, download it here.

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Review – Samsung Galaxy S23: Impactful changes

We have the entire family of Galaxy S23 series of phones with us – but in today’s video, I want to focus on this – the small one. The S23 deserves a lot more love because small flagship smartphones are a dying breed, but also because Samsung manages to spice up the deal with this phone to the point that it surprised me on multiple different occasions.
As usual, everything is timestamped below – so let’s begin.

Performance
We’ll start off with the biggest highlight of the Galaxy S23 – the performance. This phone is also powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, just like the S23+ and the Ultra.
Now, from our gaming test – we said that the FPS is pretty much identical to the Ultra – but Samsung can’t cheat physics and the hot chip still needs to be cooled down.

How did they do it? Well, they have some trick up their sleeves. Using Genshin Impact as the example, the maximum render resolution is actually lowered to 1755×810. It’s not THAT much lower, actually. Doing some quick math, we can find out that the render resolution is only 12.622982% lower than the Ultra.

So, by lowering the render resolution, the S23 is able to maintain an FPS number that is similar to the Ultra while also keeping the temperature in check. Remember, a smaller phone means it has a smaller surface area to dissipate heat away from the phone – and I’m actually impressed that this phone didn’t even reach 45°C on the surface. That’s really good engineering on Samsung’s part.

You might argue that the lowered render resolution makes the game look ugly – and I think we need to look at the bigger picture. By doing some math, we can calculate the pixel per inch of each phone and also the game’s pixel per inch values using the maximum render resolution.

Then, when we divide the two numbers, we can use this result as the “sharpness” value. When we compare the sharpness value of each phone, we can see that the S23 is only behind the Ultra. The S23+ is the least sharp in this regard.

But ultimately, does it matter? I don’t think so. They all look super good and I just wanna do some math.

Oh, a quick highlight here – does the Galaxy S23 have the battery bypass feature? The answer is yes – and it works just the same as the Ultra.

What I discovered is that you’ll have to perform some weird ritual to get that option to appear. We did another video about this.

Display
Then, it’s time to talk about the display. I think this is the S23’s double-edged sword. It’s either you like the small display, or you don’t. This flat 6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen with 120Hz maximum refresh rate and a resolution of 2340×1080 has a pixel per inch value of ~422ppi, and that’s very high.

The notable highlight for this generation though, is the screen. Samsung claims that even the S23 has the same peak brightness of 1750 nits, which is the same as the Ultra. Is it true?
Max manual brightness
Let’s take a step back. If we turn on manual brightness and crank up the brightness, then it’s at about 460 nits brightness. Once we turn on “extra bright”, then its maximum brightness is at around 750 nits.
Max manual brightness + extra bright
However, as we mentioned before, playing a white HDR video will make the screen go even brighter – and we recorded a maximum of about 1200 nits – which is the same as the Ultra.
Max brightness + extra bright + HDR white video
Then, the color accuracy. Tested at 100 nits of brightness, this display covers about 100% for both sRGB and DCI-P3, while the Adobe RGB is at 93.98%. This is the highest we’ve seen so far, actually.

The maximum Delta E is relatively high at 3.1111, but the average delta E is very low. Either way, this is still a magnificent display.
Design
As for the design, we all know this story by now. The S23 got a redesign and it is now a more elegant and minimalistic design with individual protruding circles for each camera. I personally like this design a lot more, honestly.

The back panel is also in a matte finish that feels smooth to touch, and for the Phantom Black color, the Samsung logo is actually more apparent compared to all other colors. And yes, there are two more exclusive colors that are only available on Samsung.com. We have the Graphite and Lime colors.
Camera
Okay, the cameras. Specs of all the cameras are as shown on the screen right now. It might look the same as the S22, but there are a few notable changes – especially in the videography. We’ll get to it later.
To have a look at all of the pictures and videos taken with the Samsung Galaxy S23, watch our video at the top of this review.
Battery life
Okay, let’s talk about battery life. The Galaxy S23 did get a larger battery over its predecessor, totaling to 3,900mAh now. Yes, it doesn’t sound like much and yes, I was also worried about its battery life. However, doing our usual PCMark battery life test locked at 100 nits brightness, we can see that the battery life got a massive increment over the S22 – partly thanks to the new, more efficient chipset.

It jumped from about 9.5 hours to 13 hours – and that is a significant increase. This battery life result is also almost identical to the S23 Ultra as well, actually.
Charging time
The charging time though, stays the same as last year. Maxed out at 25W only, the used our Ugreen 100W USB-PD charger and the phone charges from 15% to completion in about an hour. The temperature did touch 40°C though, but it didn’t stay there for long and then it does the temperature control thing whereby the charging speed ramps up and down in response to the temperature.

Software
So, the software – One UI 5.1. After spending more time with the Galaxy S23 series, I realized that the animations are now super smooth, everything is much more responsive overall – and on top everything mentioned in the Galaxy S23 Ultra review – watch it at the top right corner there – it also has this feature where you can tap and hold on the subject in an image to lift it up. Yes, this is copied from iOS 16. However, I want to question its usefulness.

Also, quick correction on the bloatware that we mentioned. We have to tap on that little “i” icon and grant it proper permissions to see the real system app size. On the 128GB variant of the S23, it is at 27.62GB, and I have installed quite a lot of things already.

Again, I believe that there are lots of unnecessary things pre-loaded into the phone, but I also believe labeling all of them as bloatware is unfair since there are lots of useful features inside.
Misc.
Okay, so before we end – I want to quickly mention a few things. First, the storage speed of the 128GB variant of the S23 is very slow compared to the S23+ or S23 Ultra. The RAM speed is about the same, though.

Second, the S23 also has a proper USB 3.0 port at the bottom , making it super fast to transfer files in and out of the phone. This is especially true if I’m recording 4K 60fps or even 8K 30fps videos.

Of course, the S23 still has Samsung DeX – so plug in any external monitor and you can start using it immediately.

Also, it has IP68 rating too.
Conclusion
So, conclusion time then. I just gotta be straightforward with you – I love this phone. Some of us just prefer smaller phones – and Samsung managed to fix up a lot of problems and worries by extending the battery life significantly, packing a beautiful display, and the cameras are still gorgeous.

Also, tiny flagship smartphones are a dying breed. The Galaxy S23 is one of those tiny flagship smartphones that is actually made well and is readily available worldwide.
So, if you’re looking for a tiny phone that has the best of everything, this is the phone to get.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)

Amazon
Lazada
Shopee
Samsung.com (telco unit)
Samsung.com (unlocked)

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Review – Honor 8X

The X-series of smartphones from Honor has been one of the more anticipated smartphones in the market. Now we have the brand new Honor 8X in the market – and it has a few new feats that makes it stand out from the crowd.

However, there are a few things to be disclosed beforehand. We actually got an early version of the Honor 8X – and it’s not a retail unit. In the box, we only have the Honor 8X itself, a USB cable, and the charger. It also has an unlocked bootloader as well.

With that out of the way, let’s take a deep dive into what the Honor 8X has to offer in this in-depth review. The specific variant of the Honor 8X that we are reviewing has the codename JSN-L22.

Specs
The Honor 8X is quite similar to the Huawei Nova 3i that was launched some time ago. They’re both using the new Kirin 710 SoC but the Honor 8X comes with a few extras:

6.5-inch IPS LCD display with notched 19.5:9 aspect ratio
Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 710 chipset

4x Cortex-A73 @ 2.2GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.7GHz
Mali-G51 MP4 GPU with 4 GPU cores

4GB RAM
128GB internal storage (expandable with microSD)
3,750mAh battery
Android 8.1.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.2

This is our first time reviewing a smartphone that’s using the new Kirin 710 chipset as well. We tested it as much as we can to know how powerful and efficient is the Kirin 710 chipset in this review.
[nextpage title=”Design”]
Taking our first look at the Honor 8X, it looks rather simple. First taking a look at the back of the phone, it has a two-tone color behind the glass back. The two-tone color is actually a fresh look for smartphones in the market. The two-tones aren’t contrasting each other but instead lighter in color.

The cameras do protrude quite a bit – so we hope that the Honor 8X does come with a case in the full retail set. The case will play quite a crucial role here since the Honor 8X is indeed slippery with the glass back.

The glass sandwich sinks blends into the metal frame of the phone quite well, creating a slim profile while looking and feeling elegant.

At the front, we see something unique – this phone has thin bezels all around and there’s a relatively small notch at the top. It’s a beautiful smartphone – but how did Honor achieve this?

This phone is definitely not small as my big hands can only reach about 40% of the 6.5-inch screen with one hand. Without the bottom chin, some might complain that the elements are way too low at the bottom of the screen – but I find it to be just fine after some time.
[nextpage title=”Display”]
When I first pressed the power button on the Honor 8X, I was amazed by the screen. It uses a technology where the display driver (the chip) is folded under the display, hence the bezels can be made smaller. And that’s exactly what Honor did.

The Honor 8X boasts a 91% screen-to-body ratio with its 6.5-inch notched IPS LCD display that has a massive 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The 6.5-inch display has a resolution of 2340×1080 pixels, by the way. The bezels around the screen is small with rounded corners, and the notch is relatively small as well. These characteristics make the phone feels whole on the hand.

The screen quality itself is quite good too. The colors are saturated enough and the overall looks pleasing – and it can get really bright for outdoors use too. The white balance is good as well. It also comes with a film screen protector pre-installed.
The Honor 8X is also the first ever smartphone to be certified by TÜV Rheinland. According to Honor, this means the blue light emission of the display is reduced by more than half.

One thing I do find a little annoying while the display is the rounded corners as some of the elements in games like PUBG Mobile gets cropped off. Same goes to the notch, actually.
If you choose not to hide the notch, then many app’s buttons will be cropped off as well. I play PUBG Mobile quite often and the buttons were eaten by the notch. You can fix this issue by hiding the notch – which can be done in the settings menu.
[nextpage title=”Connectivity & Ports”]
The Honor 8X has a few great merit points when it comes to its connectivity. It’s one of the few rare phones that actually has true dual-SIM + microSD card slot, which is found on the left side of the phone. You can put in two SIM cards and a microSD card at the same time!

We’ve only seen such expandability in the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) which we reviewed here – which makes the Honor 8X a gem for those who needs dual-SIM.

At the bottom of the phone we can see a 3.5mm audio jack, a microphone, a micro USB port, and the mono speaker grill.

At the right side is where we’ll find all the buttons. We have the power and volume rocker which feel tactile and satisfying to press.
However, it only uses 2.4GHz for WiFi – which means it only supports up to 802.11n WiFi. Not a huge deal considering 2.4GHz can transmit WiFi signal further albeit at slower speed. Stable WiFi is more important when it comes to online gaming anyway.
[nextpage title=”Cameras”]
Honor once again touts its AI-enhanced cameras and surprisingly, this is the first time an X-series smartphone from Honor has AI capabilities. We previously tested the AI capability previously but we found out that Honor 8X is different the others.

Let’s first take a look at the camera specs:

Rear-facing cameras

20MP f/1.8 camera with PDAF
2MP depth sensor

Selfie camera

16MP f/2.0 camera; fixed focus

Like any other smartphone reviews that we’ve done, the images shown in this review can be viewed in its full glory alongside with its EXIF data at our Flickr album.
Rear-facing camera
I realized that the camera on the Honor 8X is a lot better than what we’ve experienced before. The AI camera still works the same as before – the color saturation is bumped all the way up with higher dynamic range and better contrast. Different enhancements are done towards different scenes that are detected by the AI camera. I also realized that the AI camera did add a very subtle vignette effect around some of the pictures taken.

Without AI.

With AI.
The AI mode enhancements look surprisingly good in some scenes, but as a personal preference – I don’t like the amount of unreal color saturation for night shot as shown below.

Without AI.

With AI.
For daylight photography, I switched off the AI and the picture looks more natural now. The color saturation and white balance is good as well.

Without AI.

With AI.
Take a look at some other pictures taken with the Honor 8X.

One small quirk when it comes to the AI mode is that the resolution of pictures taken is locked down to 12MP only. To take the full 20MP picture, you’ll have to disable AI mode. There’s a few reasons to this – namely for stabilization and also for sharper image.
Selfie camera
I’m not much of a selfie expert here and from the selfies taken with the Honor 8X, it’s not bad. It’s a fixed focus camera – so don’t expect sharp selfies. In dimly-lit conditions, the selfie cameras still take decent selfies – but the shutter is a little slow. Perhaps a firmware update can improve on this.

Camera UI
The camera UI itself didn’t change much from the previous Honor smartphone that we reviewed. The new AI toggle button is still there, and the detected scene/subject is shown at the bottom of the screen.

I actually wish that we as users can fine-tune the AI enhancements a little as I still find the saturation a little to extreme in some cases.

[nextpage title=”Software – Android 8.1.0 with EMUI 8.2.0″]
The EMUI 8.2.0 didn’t really change much from before. Once you finished setting up the phone after starting up for the first time, we’re greeted with the familiar UI.
There is no app drawer, so the number of home screens will grow as more apps get installed – unless you create a “junk” app folder and throw some unused apps inside. I do wish that EMUI 8.2.0 has the option to toggle the app drawer on or off. That will definitely cater to the two different types of users.

Speaking of unused apps, the EMUI 8.2.0 still has the folder of “top apps” and the folder will recommend some new apps from time to time. You can switch off the app recommendation if you choose to do so, or “delete” the folder entirely.

There’s also a new app here called “ride mode”. This app changes the phone to become something like “driving mode” but for bicycles, where it disables Bluetooth and headset and you can configure it to answer calls and reply via the recorded voice or text.

We did mention at the beginning of this review that the Honor 8X we have had unlocked bootloader as well. While we did not encounter any anomalies on the software experience side, we’ll have to talk about the performance.
[nextpage title=”Performance & Gaming”]
We found it weird that the Honor 8X had an unlocked bootloader. There are a few apps which did not run at all – like Antutu and also Geekbench. Hence, we are unable to get the benchmark scores for both those apps – but we still managed to get scores from our other benchmarkers.
Here’s a quick rundown of the specs of the Honor 8X.

6.5-inch IPS LCD display with notched 19.5:9 aspect ratio
Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 710 chipset

4x Cortex-A73 @ 2.2GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @ 1.7GHz
Mali-G51 MP4 GPU with 4 GPU cores

4GB RAM
128GB internal storage (expandable with microSD)
3,750mAh battery
Android 8.1.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.2

The Kirin 710 is a rather new chipset and we are curious about its performance. Take a look at the benchmarks below.

From the benchmarks, we can see that the Honor 8X is actually somewhat near the Snapdragon 636’s performance – like the Redmi Note 5 and the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) and the ASUS ZenFone 5 that we reviewed here. But our gaming experience tells a different story.
Gaming on the Honor 8X
The Honor 8X touts GPU Turbo, which learns how to optimize its GPU performance for the games according to the scene that’s being rendered. As of now, we know that PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends support GPU Turbo, but there is no official list of games that are supported.
We played our usual few games to test the gaming performance of the Honor 8X – PUBG Mobile, Honkai Impact 3, and also Asphalt 9. Surprisingly, this is where the Kirin 710 outperforms Snapdragon 636 – mainly because of the faster CPU.

Upon launching PUBG Mobile for the first time, the game tells us that it automatically selected to run at medium settings. We went into the settings and set the frame rate to high, disabled anti-aliasing and auto-adjust graphics. The Honor 8X runs fairly well, but does have frame rate drops from time to time. We recommend enabling auto-adjust graphics for a smoother gaming experience.
Then we started Honkai Impact 3. We are able to experience Honkai Impact 3 in the highest settings at 60FPS with only occasional frame rate drops while having intense fights. It can play the Sakura Samsara map without any hitch as well.
As for Asphalt 9, the Honor 8X can run it in highest quality without any issues at all. Bravo, Kirin 710.
To add another positive point, the Honor 8X is just a tad warmer after gaming for a very long time. I’m impressed by its efficiency. Speaking of its efficiency, let’s take a look at its battery life.
[nextpage title=”Battery & Charger”]
Packed with a fairly large 3,750mAh battery, we predicted that the Honor 8X will last for a long time in terms of battery life – and we’ve been proven to be right. In our usual battery life test, the Honor 8X managed to last for nearly 14 hours.

Comparing with the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) and ZenFone 5 which uses the high-efficiency Snapdragon 636, we realized the efficiency of the Kirin 710 that is used in the Honor 8X is comparable. That’s a good sign, if you want a phone with an all-day battery life.
Charger

The Honor 8X comes with a 5V 2A charger, which is basically the standard right now. It does take quite a long time to completely charge the 3,750mAh battery. It reaches 50% battery at around 37 minutes, then 75% at 66 minutes, and finally 100% full charge at 116 minutes.
[nextpage title=”Wrapping up the Honor 8X review”]
The Honor 8X is a good smartphone for sure. Not because it has a beautiful faceted back or whatever – but because of its simplicity. The two-tone back is a refreshing look – though I think many people will just slap a case and forget about it – and the cameras are decent as well.

The large 6.5-inch screen with 91% screen-to-body ratio is a definite plus – making it a truly unique smartphone to use. The COF technology is definitely something new here. To our surprise, the Kirin 710 is efficient and offers good performance as well. It’s efficient like the Snapdragon 636 while having a faster CPU.
For the price of only RM949 RM849, the Honor 8X is a no-frills smartphone that has a large screen with great performance and a fairly large battery. Great for day-to-day use and for some gaming while bring wallet-friendly as well.
If you plan to buy it, then check out this post where we talked about its roadshow and online sale deals.

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Facebook Gaming Has Arrived; Rivals Twitch & YouTube

For me personally, I saw this coming. Facebook already has “gaming” all up on their face (pun intended) since Facebook Live came along. There are lots of streamers using Facebook to stream their games too. And now, Facebook is honoring those people by introducing Facebook Gaming.
Facebook has a brand new subsection in their site which you can access by going to Facebook.gg. Cheeky for a link, we know.

This appeared on my Facebook sidebar.
Upon close inspection, Facebook Gaming is a “hub” or “main page” for the list of streams that are popular or browse streams by games. It’s quite similar to what Twitch is doing.

To get started, it’s easy. Make sure you set your livestream’s activity to “playing [game]”, and it’ll automatically add your stream in the list of Facebook Gaming streams.

If you don’t know how to do it, then don’t worry. Facebook actually prepared a special site to guide you through the steps to get started.

Introducing the Facebook Gaming Creators page. Here, it’ll teach you how to get started in just 3 simple steps. First, build your own page with your own name/alias and identity. Then, Facebook tells you to download either OBS or XSplit and recommends the ideal settings for Facebook Gaming live streaming. Funny enough, Facebook Gaming doesn’t seem to support NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience for now.
After that, you can start your live stream and play your game to your heart’s content. Simple as that.
Alright, time for some personal opinion. Can Facebook Gaming leave a dent in the scene even though Twitch and YouTube are such a big site right now? I think yes. Facebook still has over 2.20 billion monthly active Facebook users for Q1 2018. The odds of having a “one in a million” is pretty high here.
It’s a matter of time until Facebook Gaming streamers to receive donations. Then, we might see more and more people moving to Facebook Gaming.

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