AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution — a free performance upgrade for just about everyone

AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution, or FSR, has been talked up quite a bit as AMD’s answer to NVIDIA’s DLSS. In reality, it isn’t exactly the same, but the end goal is pretty similar: improving performance without sacrificing image quality. AMD’s FSR is closer to conventional upscaling than NVIDIA’s AI-based super resolution tech, but it works on most GPUs launched in the past 5 years, so it does have that going for it. Without further ado, let’s check it out in further detail.
AMD FSR: How does it work?

The performance gains of AMD FSR is thanks to its upscaling ability. So essentially by rendering at a lower resolution, the GPU is doing less work and thus is able to push higher frame rates. But without a proper upscaling and sharpening algorithm, the visuals are going to be significantly softer than native resolution.

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AMD FSR integrates an advanced edge reconstruction algorithm and sharpening filter to provide for a sharper image. Essentially, this means that you do not have to play your games at a lower resolution just to enjoy better performance. And unlike Radeon Image Sharpening, which to be honest, does a pretty great job, it is integrated into the graphics pipeline, allowing it to be more precise with its upscaling and sharpening, rather than just sharpening everything up, film grain and visual noise included, which can really lead to odd-looking scenes.
There are four AMD FSR modes, and they are Ultra Quality, Quality, Balanced and Performance mode. The scaling is as follows:

Scale Factor
Input resolution for 1440p FSR output
Input resolution for 4K FSR output

FSR Ultra Quality
1.3X per dimension
1970 x 1108
2954 x 1662

FSR Quality
1.5X per dimension
1706 x 960
2560 x 1440

FSR Balanced
1.7X per dimension
1506 x 847
2259 x 1270

FSR Performance
2.0X per dimension
1280 x 720
1920 x 1080

AMD claims that it will support DirectX 11, 12 and Vulkan titles, which should be great for just about every game out there. And since it is also going to be supported by the latest consoles, developer adoption should be much better than proprietary techniques requiring dedicated hardware.
AMD FSR: How does it look?

Well, we did some testing, but you can refer to the image to just get a rough idea of what to expect. Essentially, AMD is recommending the Quality and Balanced mode, with the Performance mode being a last-ditch resort to get playable framerates on underpowered hardware.
But we also did some of our own testing, and I do find the results to be quite interesting. The images below are scaled up 2X to better illustrate the difference, although I am able to notice the differences even at normal viewing distances from my 28″ BenQ EL2870U 4K monitor. The only time that you might not be able to notice the difference is when you are in motion, as it is really hard to keep track of detail in motion.
Godfall 4K

So I only collected screenshots from Godfall, because I actually quite like the game. The rest of the games that currently support AMD FSR aren’t nearly as interesting to me, so I am gonna skip them. As you can see, 4K with FSR enabled on the Super Quality mode, actually results in sharper detail in areas like the hair of our character, but we still see some additional noise in the background, especially in the reflections. Once we get down to Balanced we see noticeable lack of detail, while Performance mode is essentially a very blotchy and noisy rendition.
Godfall 1440p

At 1440p, details are definitely softer, which is to be expected. However FSR takes it further down a notch, and I feel like FSR is best used at 4K instead of 1440p, due to just how it involves edge sharpening to deliver better perceived detail at lower input resolution. With less information to work with, the output is also quite shabby, and 1440p FSR UQ is the maximum I would go to if my GPU just fails to handle 1440p natively.
Overall, I would still say that AMD did a pretty decent job at enabling 4K gameplay on more GPUs, as no matter what you say, 4K is still quite difficult for most recent GPUs to handle. One thing worth mentioning is that we tested FSR on both the latest AMD and NVIDIA GPUs, and it is great to note that there are no visible difference in terms of the visual quality between the GPUs. Overall, the best mode to use is the FSR Ultra Quality or FSR Quality mode, which doesn’t impact visual quality as much but still offers a nice performance boost.
AMD FSR: How does it perform?
Now that we know FSR has a slight visual impact at 4K, and quite significantly reduces details at 1440p, let’s see the performance. At launch, FSR will be supported in seven games, but we will be showing results that we obtained on three of the supported titles. AMD provided special beta test passcodes to test the implementation of FSR in the games before they were made publicly available, and we also received a beta driver to use during testing. The test configuration is listed below:
Test System

CPU
Intel Core i9-11900K @ 5.1GHz

Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero

Memory
2 x 8GB T-Force Xtreem ARGB DDR4-3600 CL14

Storage
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SATA SSD
960GB Kingston UV500 SATA SSD
1TB Kingston KC2500 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD

Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition
or
ASUS ROG Strix LC Radeon RX 6800 XT OC Edition

Power Supply
Cooler Master V1200 Platinum

Monitor
BenQ EL2870U

GPU Driver
NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Drivers 466.77 (WHQL)
or
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 21.6.1 (Beta)

Performance
On AMD

The biggest gains are seen at 4K, which is actually somewhat expected, as going below 1440p we will probably be running into CPU-bound scenarios instead. We are seeing an average of 44% higher frame rates with FSR Ultra Quality, 102% with FSR Balanced and 112% with FSR Performance. Of course, we have already gone over the impact on visual quality by going with FSR Performance, so while the performance gains are nice, it isn’t ideal for visual quality.

At 1440p the performance improvements are slightly smaller, at 31% with FSR Ultra Quality, 71% with FSR Balanced and 90% with FSR Performance. Overall, I think the 1440p performance of the ROG Strix LC Radeon RX 6800 XT OC Edition is already good enough, so I wouldn’t turn on FSR at this resolution. But if you are on a slower GPU, you might want to enable FSR to boost the framerates up a bit.
On NVIDIA

To see the gains with an NVIDIA card, we also tested on the GeForce RTX 3070 FE. At 4K, we do see that we are observing massive gains, especially in Godfall. But Godfall with RT enabled really sees horrible frame rates on the NVIDIA cards, which I do believe is due to it needing quite a bit more VRAM than most titles out there right now. 8GB GDDR6 isn’t cutting it here, so dropping the render resolution down significantly improves performance. Across the three titles, we see close to 39% improvement with the FSR Super Quality mode, 93% higher framerates in Balanced mode and a whopping 128% uplift with the FSR Performance mode.

1440p sees more modest gains of 34% with FSR Super Quality, 68% with FSR Balanced and 91% with FSR Performance. Once again, the performance of the GeForce RTX 3070 at 1440p is very respectable, so I might not use FSR here, except if we see more demanding games in the future with FSR support.
It is very nice to note that AMD isn’t playing favorites here. While the NVIDIA GPU drivers were probably not optimized for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, it still brings gains that are in the same ballpark as seen with the AMD GPU. Now AMD did say that they aren’t going to do NVIDIA’s job of optimizing FSR for GeForce GPUs, but they do work on them and as we have seen, it is supported just as well on the Ampere GPU as it was on the RDNA 2 card.
Supported hardware

At the time of writing, AMD has announced that AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution will be working on the following GPUs:

AMD Radeon 6000 Series
AMD Radeon 6000M Series
AMD Radeon 5000 Series

AMD Radeon 5000M Series
AMD Radeon VII Graphics
AMD Radeon RX Vega Series

AMD Radeon 600 Series
AMD Radeon RX 500 Series
AMD Radeon RX 480/470/460

AMD Ryzen Desktop APU
AMD Ryzen Mobile APU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 Series
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 16 Series
NVIDIA GeForce 10 Series

This list practically covers most of AMD and NVIDIA’s GPUs released in the past five years, which means that you will essentially be getting improved performance on your existing hardware for free, provided that the game you are interested in supports it, great news during a time when GPUs can be harder to get than gold.
Supported games

As we mentioned earlier, there are seven games that already support AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution right now. That would include the three titles we tested, as well as Kingshunt, Terminator: Resistance, Evil Genius 2 and 22 Racing Series. Upcoming titles include Resident Evil Village, Far Cry 6 and DOTA 2. The latter I definitely look forward to playing with FSR on.

AMD also has a long list of game developers and publishers that have announced their support for FSR. Given how FSR is supported on nearly every GPU out there, as well as the consoles, adoption should be very good. It would remain to be seen if game developers will decide to support both AMD FSR and NVIDIA DLSS, which would be interesting for a comparison article. We have seen support for AMD FidelityFX CAS in games that support DLSS, so maybe we will indeed see FSR and DLSS support co-exist in games to bring better performance and visual quality to everyone.
Conclusion

Is AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution the answer to NVIDIA’s DLSS? I would say yes and no. Yes, as in it does deliver better performance with little visual quality impact, especially if you stick to the Super Quality mode, but no, if you intend on getting a better experience than you would get at Native resolution. DLSS has improved to the point where it will bring sharper details than rendering games natively, and I don’t see that from AMD FSR, yet. I am still optimistic though.  Down the line, as AMD optimizes their upscaling and sharpening algorithms, we might see FSR come close to what DLSS can offer. After all, we did see DLSS with teething issues in their earlier titles, before DLSS 2.0 came around and just blew everyone’s minds.

But the ability to harness AMD FSR on just about any GPU is probably the most important point out of all this. Regardless if you run AMD or NVIDIA GPUs, AMD FSR will work to improve your performance. And it even supports up to five-year old GPUs, which is something that NVIDIA DLSS is not going to be able to match. Truth be told, I do believe the old GPUs need more help when it comes to pushing more frames than the latest ones, and I do think AMD has done an excellent job with AMD FSR’s backward compatibility. AMD “fine wine” is definitely a theme that comes to mind.
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AMD Ryzen 4000 mobile processors now promise up to 43% faster video exports in Premiere Pro

Adobe’s Premiere Pro 14.2 update brought with it support for hardware-accelerated encoding for H.264 and HEVC formats with AMD GPUs in Windows. This take advantage of AMD Advanced Media Framework (AMF) to speed up video encoding on AMD GPUs, including the AMD Radeon Graphics that are in available in all AMD Ryzen 4000 mobile processors.

In a Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 4800U, encoding a 4K video was accelerated by a significant 29% when GPU encoding was used, as compared to when just the software encoder which relies solely on the CPU was used. The AMD Ryzen 7 4700U also posts a 26% improvement and even the AMD Ryzen 5 4500U promises a 25% faster export when GPU encoding is used.

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Meanwhile for the more serious content creators, AMD’s Navi-based GPUs promises performance gains of up to 43%. The combination of a dedicated GPU and AMD’s latest AMD Ryzen 4000H series processors are really quite potent options for those who demand higher performance.
Have you updated your Adobe Premiere Pro to better take advantage of your AMD graphics solutions?
Pokdepinion: I do wonder how will the AMD’s AMF compare against Intel’s QuickSync.
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Xbox One X Sells Poorly in Japan; Nintendo Switch at the Top

While the Xbox One X did spectacularly in the UK, that wasn’t the case in Japan as it did poorly. As in, you’d be surprised how much they managed to sell.

Xbox One X Sells Poorly in Japan

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Recently, we wrote about how the Xbox One X was a strong sales performer in the UK, outselling the PS4 Pro among many other things. Well, in Japan however, it did quite poorly, thanks to the weekly Media Create drop.
Here is the hardware sales chart related to the period between November 6th and November 12th.
Hardware Sales

Switch:  79, 958
PS4: 20,021
New 2DS XL: 10, 323
New 3 DS XL: 7,296
PS4 Pro: 6,037
PS Vita: 3,210
2DS: 1,484
Xbox One X: 1,344
New 3DS: 266
Xbox One: 121
PS3: 41
Wii U: 36

It has been said that Microsoft actually shipped a very limited number of units, and this is why the sales number is way lower than anything else in the list for Japan. It was also mentioned that retailers in Japan did not carry it on the first day of its launch, which certainly made the sales figure even worse for the console.
At this point, though, we can probably safely say that the promise of massive power (at least for a console) did not particularly tempt Japanese gamers.
On a side note, Media Create also shared the top games being sold there in Japan, which you can take a look just below here:

Game Sales

Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) : 73, 315/652, 284
Call of Duty: WWII (PS4) : 67,044/235, 368
Splatoon 2 (Switch) : 23, 130/1,318,138
Need for Speed Payback : (PS4) : 20,964/New
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) : 14,027/802, 472
Assassin’s Creed Origins (PS4) : 11,051/82,742
ARK: Survival Evolved (PS4) : 10, 253/103, 800
Girls Mode 4 Star Stylist (3DS) : 9,650/41, 826
.hack//G.U. Last Recode (PS4) : 6,659/68,475
Sonic Forces (PS4) : 5,938/New
Occultic;Nine (PS4) : 5,846/New
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wilds (Switch) : 5,498/634, 850
Gran Turismo Sport (PS4) : 5,439/182, 440
Sonic Forces (Switch) : 4,686/New
Occultic;Nine (PS Vita) : 4,595/New
DJMAX Respect (PS4) : 4,376/New
Taiko Drum Master: Drum Session! (PS4) : 4,002/39, 925
Pokkén Tournament DX (Switch) : 3,862/115, 691
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux  (3DS) : 3,533/74, 180
Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo (3DS) : 3,085/267, 322

The Switch keeps doing great, pulled by Super Mario Odyssey, that returns to the top of the chart, taking over Call of Duty: WWII, that still has a very solid second week for first-person-shooter in Japan.
At this point, it’ll be really interesting to see which one, between Super Mario Odyssey and Splatoon 2 will stand as the best-selling Switch game after the Holiday shopping season. All bets are on.
Need for Speed Payback debuts without much energy, but the real flop remains the launch of Sonic Forces, that barely passes 10,000 copies between the PlayStation 4 and Switch.
It’s no surprise that the Xbox One X isn’t doing well given the Japanese audience have always leaned more towards Sony and Nintendo products, for obvious reasons. It’s interesting to know that even hardware strength will not sway the people away from the homegrown brands.
If you wanna know how the Xbox One X performed in the UK, click here to find out.

Pokdepinion: Well, if you think about it, the Xbox One in itself isn’t doing well in Malaysia, although most likely better than in Japan. Heck, the Xbox 360 did better. Perhaps Microsoft will need to employ some new strategies to conquer the markets outside of US and UK.
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ASUS ROG Strix GL553 Review; Deadly Subtle Machine

Introduction

You might already have a perception that gaming notebooks are nothing but big colossal masses of plastic that are not meant to be carried around, apart from the fact that they’re highly capable of burning a hole through your pocket without leaving a mark, yet cunningly prove their innocence afterwards as you sit down and weep, thinking you should have just opted for that stationary gaming desktop instead anyway. Don’t even let me go to the dark abyss of unknown foiling in keeping the mammoth alive without having it beavered into the wall or socket using its power adapter that is larger than any yo mamma jokes you’ve heard before. Maybe that is only the case because you have yet to discover the ASUS ROG GL553 gaming laptop which is about to change everything you know about portable gaming laptops – that almost never existed anyway.
Unboxing ASUS ROG Strix GL553
We made an unboxing video earlier of the ASUS ROG Strix GL553, here’s the same video again to show you what you get when you purchase this laptop.

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Appearance

The ROG Strix GL553 is a black machine and looks all stealthy. The outer lid is made of brushed aluminium with hairline texture. On top of it is the Republic of Gamers’ Gamer Eye emblem donning in neon bright orange, squeezed between two vertical bars with similar silhouette. Even under dark conditions, these eye squinting elements capture enough attention, screaming to the world that you are using an ROG machine. If that’s not enough, fire up the machine and the emblem will actually lit up. Around the diagonal bars, there is immaculate precision finishing to keep the devil in the details.

I am not entirely sure if the ROG Strix GL553 can land you a girlfriend as that is not tested here, but landing fingerprints on it is definitely effortless. Then again, beauty comes at a cost so you might want to keep a micro fibre cloth handy with your ROG Strix GL553 at all times so it shines bright enough like your future will be if you own one of these.

On the left side of the ROG Strix GL553, we have the power socket to plug in the adapter, a beautifully crafted heatsink opening, followed by an RJ45 LAN port, a HDMI port, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 (Type-A), followed by a USB 3.1 Gen 1 (Type-C) and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

On the opposite side, we have a Kensington Lock socket at the right most, followed by.. wait..a..minute..! Is that a..? Is it..? Oh my god?! Is this real? WOW! We have a classic DVD+R DL drive! Not even Bluray, DVD! Welcome to 2000 ladies and gentlemen! I gotta talk more about this later on! Finally, at the end most, we have a USB 2.0 port which, while looks similar to the other two ports, according to specifications, is not the same. Then again, due to time constraints, I wouldn’t be testing this.

The front fascia looks pretty spick-and-span, much like what a gamer prefers to have in his arsenal. There’s LED indicators facing the user that shows the power, charging, HDD, flight mode and lock status for convenience. If you take a closer look;

There’s also an SD card slot right under the indicators. This thing, on a notebook is seriously very useful. Well, at least, for me it did me a great deal while I was overseas.

Flashing with neon orange again are the speakers of the ROG Strix GL553. These are front-facing, so sound should be something that you would enjoy on it. It looks pretty big for a laptop, but we’ll see how loud it gets.

Underneath the ROG Strix GL553, things start looking different. The ROG’s signature mayan design is clearly visible here, and the rubber stoppers are matched with the neon orange finishing, in case you have to show the bottom facade of the ROG Strix GL553 to your opponents just to intimidate them.

Opening it up and turning on the laptop, you will immediately see the rendition of nyan cat being portrayed across the board. Yes, the keyboard is RGB backlit and is slightly customisable from it’s console. The metal finishing inside is no different from the one found on it’s lid.
Specifications

CPU
Intel Core i7-7700HQ @ 2.8GHz (6MB cache, TurboBoost up to 3.8GHz)

RAM
8GB DDR4 2400MHz

GPU
Nvidia GeForce GTX1050 + Intel HD Graphics 610

Storage
SanDisk 128GB M.2 SATA3 SSD
Seagate 1TB 5400rpm HDD

Display
15.6″ FHD TN (1920 x 1080) anti-glare display

Connectivity
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
1 x Type-C USB3.0 (USB3.1 GEN1)
2 x Type-A USB3.0 (USB3.1 GEN1)
1 x USB 2.0 port(s)
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
1 x HDMI

Audio
2 x stereo speakers
1 x 3.5mm combo jack

Power
19 V DC, 6.32 A, 120 W

Dimensions
383 x 255 x 30 cm (WxDxH)

Weight
2.55kg including battery

Performance
Now what would a gaming laptop be, without some performance tests, right? As usual, we begin our tests with the CrystalDiskMark.

You guessed that right, The 128GB M.2 SATA is doing perfectly fine here, although having a PCI Gen3 X4 (NVMe) would have quadrupled these numbers. But well, we want to keep things decent in terms of performance and pricing here, so this will definitely do fine. Although the 128GB is a little disturbing in 2017, but nothing it can’t eat that we feed it including our games.

Now, don’t assume the ROG Strix GL553 is slim but can’t carry some serious punch. Under these skirts is what is highly capable of making you wet in tears. We’re talking about a 4 Cores and 4 Threads of a meaty Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU that is clocked at 2.81GHz and as you can see, it’s catching up with the Intel Core i7-4770K CPU that is overclocked at 4.40GHz. In case you are wondering, that 4770K is exactly what I use as my daily driver on my work desktop which runs a pretty monster setup on it’s own. And this measly little box is actually creeping up the charts close to it! I’m so impressed, I’m not even mad at all! And if this doesn’t blow your mind hard enough, let me show you something else.

You probably already are familiar that we always set our Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 settings to render on DX11 at 1600 x 900 resolution, with maximum 8x Anti-aliasing, and quality set to ultra with no tessellation enabled. This puts these puny machines to enough hard work, a non-gaming laptop struggles to achieve anything impressive. But look at this ROG Strix GL553! On average, we are locking 48.4 FPS and the lowest being 24.6 FPS. This means, if you are going to hit some Dota2 or CS:GO on the ROG Strix GL553, medium settings will be somewhat insulting to it. You can fairly set to high or even ultra and get impressive results.
I think ASUS has found a very sweet spot in terms of specifications on the ROG Strix GL553. The Kaby Lake CPU coupled to a GTX1050 fuelled with the Intel HD Graphics 610 and churned on the M.2 SATA HDD grants a magnificent experience! Imagine carrying all that horsepower in merely 2.55kg weight! No seriously, I’ve weighed it already!
User Experience
So where were we? Oh yes, the weight! Yup, I took the liberty to put this on a weighing scale and see if it really is what it says it is and indeed, it displayed exactly 2.55kg. So for young teenagers or adventurous adults, this should be rather feasible to carry around. That’s exactly what I did. Instead of packing my Macbook Air, I decided to take this bad boy instead for a long travel, just to see how convenient it gets to carry the ROG Strix GL553 around. Now imagine having raw processing power that can not just get my tasks done, but also provide some solid hours of gaming pleasure. Sounds like a trade.

The first wonderful experience that I got was the fact that the ROG Strix GL553 has a pretty wide opening for it’s vent. Using it on a plushy surface like bed didn’t block the airflow. Credits goes to ASUS’ intelligent thermal design that provides maximum cooling efficiency based its design. When you need to force out more heat from these vents, the ROG Strix GL553 has an ROG-exclusive Cooling Overboost that allows you to adjust fan speeds. Besides, surprisingly on your average daily task usage, the heat dissipation is very generous and the ROG Strix GL553 barely feels warm. Put it this way, I’ve reviewed a huge number of ROG machines and the cooling on this one is so magnificent, it’s the first opening topic in my user experience.

The ROG Strix GL553 has a chiclet gaming keyboard that uses scissor-switch keys offering a 2.5mm key travel distance so you can really feel your gaming key strokes. Not just that, typing on it is also very comfortable. The WASD keys are highlighted separately as an insignia that this is a gaming laptop, not your average grumpy sluggish block. It’s wide enough to fit isolated arrow keys and a full numpad as well, so apart from gaming, the ROG Strix GL553 makes a great companion for work too.

Of course, let’s not forget the fact that it’s RGB backlit keyboard too. Take note that this is the ROG Strix GL553VD and shouldn’t be confused with the ROG Strix GL553VW which only comes with red backlit keyboard. The RGB is zone separated, so you have some customization options too.
Isn’t that just breath taking?
When you are having some pitch dark sessions with the ROG Strix GL553, the back cover ROG emblem glows so gracefully, it’s a beautiful sight on its own. There’s no animation on this one like what you would have seen on the G701 that we reviewed earlier but I think I can live with that given the fact that the neon orange finishing wouldn’t make the animation much visible anyway.

The display is a TN panel and not an IPS and you would find it a little disturbing to use if you are a designer, given the fact that dark areas are easily visible at different angles. It does have 178° wide-angle view, but nothing like what an IPS can deliver. It’s a 60Hz display and there is no GSync here which could have sweetened the deal a bit.

I’m really not sure why did ASUS include one of these when all the space that it uses could have been used for lots of different purposes. This is a HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GUE1N that is a product of Hitachi-LG Storage and it’s actually a DVD+R DL type spinner. It’s not even a Bluray drive! I don’t need this here, and now that it’s here, it’s not even something that is the best out there. Well, in my case, I would just buy an internal hard disk enclosure and replace this with another spare drive for what I know. I didn’t test this any further because I couldn’t even find an empty DVD in my office and didn’t bother buying one!

One thing that I’m pretty impressed with the ROG Strix GL553 is that the battery life definitely lives up for a gaming laptop. On my daily average usage, I can get an accumulated 3 hours of continuous usage on standard power settings. If I enable the power saver, I can extend it for quite a mile, giving a pretty solid battery life. Of course I didn’t game on battery and you wouldn’t want to, too. I mean, 3 hours of productivity, gives you enough reason to go for a round of gaming session with “charging battery” as a reason, no? ;)
Finally, the speakers are also worth noting. These stereo speakers are really loud. If you want to know how loud, go to your current system and fire up Coldplay’s Hymn For the Weekend and test your audio for loudness. The ROG Strix GL553?

84dB is so loud, and considering this is a laptop, you should never game at this loudness continuously at the distance that you get when using a laptop. You can see that the tested song is consistenly running between 70dB – 85dB. Who said powerful machines can’t be slim?
Conclusion
I’m really impressed with the ROG Strix GL553 if you ask me. I mean, the awkwardness of having a DVD combo drive in 2017 and not having GSync aside, this monster is not just powerful, it also looks very good! ASUS has got a very sweet spot with the GL553 in terms of specifications. Combining the Intel i7-7700HQ with GTX1050 and M.2 SATA with 8GB of RAM which can still be expanded, this is what I call a portable powerhouse. Considering all that and the fact that this machine is priced at RM4,999 which is really a bargain for a gaming laptop, it definitely deserves our Gold Pokdeward and in case you’re wondering, this is the first time a 15″ ROG laptop actually got this award from us :)

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[UPDATE] Monster Hunter World Iceborne PC Release Date Confirmed

Mark your calendars, Hunters! Here’s the latest #Iceborne Title Update Roadmap: pic.twitter.com/ckeSrKJeFC
— Monster Hunter (@monsterhunter) March 21, 2020

[UPDATE 23rd March 2020 @2PM} There is some confusion on exactly what is being released here for the game. We’ve updated the article to reflect that it’s an update to the expansion itself as opposed to it being the release date of the expansion.. We apologize for the confusion
The folks over at Capcom have recently updated their roadmap for their biggest MMORPG yet, which shows the versions and in-game events coming for gamers to enjoy. The biggest piece of news here is the release date for the Monster Hunter World Iceborne PC version update.

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The Monster Hunter World Iceborne PC version update will be coming on 9th April 2020. There will be more new quests, new enemies, new equipment, and more coming. Most notably is Raging Brachydios and Furious Rajang. The updated roadmap shows a number of updates coming for March, April, and May 2020.
There’s More Aside from the Monster Hunter World Iceborne PC Version Update

We also get a brand new trailer highlighting the new Alatreon hunt coming in May 2020, which you can view right above here. With regards to the future of the franchise, this is what series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto had to say:
Regardless of the success of Monster Hunter: World, we’ve always taken the approach of focusing on two things: action and communication. Regardless of what we work on in the future, I feel like that’s a foundation we’re probably not going to change. We also understand that we do have a bigger player base, and yet, there are still many people who don’t know about the franchise.
The game itself, along with the Iceborne expansion pack, has sold over 14 million copies. That number is expected to go higher with the release of the Monster Hunter World Iceborne PC version update with more things to do in Iceborne. Once again, the update will be released on 9th April 2020 for PC gamers whereas for console, you can already start enjoying new things in Iceborne.
Source
Pokdepinion: I know of many gamers who were complaining as to when the PC version’s expansion is coming out. Good thing the release date is sooner than expected so we don’t have to wait for much longer.
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HUAWEI And Maxis Releases Zerolution Bundle – Match ‘Mate’ In Heaven

Giants HUAWEI Malaysia and Maxis are collaborating and setting up an awesome bundle package where buyers can get HUAWEI’s brand-new Watch 2 bundled with the HUAWEI P10 or HUAWEI Mate 9 from as low as RM78 a month starting from today. Now’s a chance to burn off all those post Hari Raya food!
It’s More Than A Watch

Pricing from as low as RM78 a month for a HUAWEI Watch 2/ HUAWEI P10 combo or RM133 a month for the HUAWEI Watch 2/ HUAWEI Mate 9 combo, it also comes with a free two-month MaxisOne Share line. What better way to stay connected with families and loved ones.

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HUAWEI is delighted to offer the all-new HUAWEI Watch 2 in this Maxis exclusive Zerolution bundle –in line with our promise to deliver products that enrich our customers’ mobile user experience and digital lifestyle in a timely manner. With this bundled promotion, we aim to offer Malaysian customers the best of both worlds in today’s mobile devices experience; complementing the all-new HUAWEI Watch 2 with either our best-selling HUAWEI P10 or Mate 9 Matthew Ng, Deputy Country Director, Huawei Consumer Business Group (Malaysia).
Announced at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the HUAWEI Watch 2 is a serious contender for the sports smartwatch category. With health and fitness apps and features, it is totally suitable for those casual athletes who also wants a sporty look to go with.
Available nationwide, while stocks lasts. Here is the full Maxis Zerolution HUAWEI Bundle promo;

Packages
Price

MaxisONE158
MaxisONE188

HUAWEI P10 + HUAWEI Watch 2*
RM93/mth
RM78/mth

HUAWEI Mate 9 + HUAWEI Watch 2*
RM148/mth
RM133/mth

You can head down to your nearest Maxis store right now or grab the deal online by going to the official Maxis website and treat yourself!
*Carbon Black only
Pokdepinion: A great deal to begin with. Even if I didn’t workout much, I would still get the HUAWEI Watch 2.
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ASUS ZenPad 3S is official — a potential iPad killer?

ASUS‘ latest tablet, the ASUS ZenPad 3S was officially launched yesterday. The 10-inch tablet is surprisingly good looking and looks set on its way to be an “iPad killer”.

The ASUS ZenPad 3S will be equipped with an IPS display pushing a high resolution of 1536 x 2048. In terms of horsepower, the ASUS ZenPad 3S has a hexa-core MediaTek MT8176, a 64bit processor with 2 Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.1 GHz and another 4 Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.6 GHz. Graphics processing is handled by a PowerVR GX6250, clocked at 600 MHz. The SoC is mated to 4GB of RAM. MediaTek claims the MT8176 as their most powerful SoC for tablets, which means you won’t find it on any smartphone.

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Calling all Android gamers! MT8176 is our high-end #tablet SoC, with #AnTuTu v5.6 scores >50,000 ?. #androidgaming pic.twitter.com/AY3rgWJEFb
— MediaTek (@MediaTek) May 19, 2016

The tablet only has 32GB on-board storage but it can be expanded via a microSD card slot that supports up to 128GB. If cloud storage options are what you are looking for, ASUS bundles 5GB of ASUS WebStorage and 100GB of Google Drive for free.

The rest of the specifications include an 8 MP rear camera and a 5 MP front shooter, a USB Type-C port also a huge 5,900 mAh battery. The ZenPad 3S will be running on the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow with ASUS ZenUI, naturally. All of that is packed in a premium metal chassis, a refreshing change after the barrage of affordable ZenPads that ASUS released last year. The ASUS ZenPad 3S  is expected to be priced somewhere around MYR 1400, when it arrives in Malaysia possibly sometime in mid or end of August.
SOURCE: mobilegeeks

Pokdepinion: MediaTek claims that its MT8176 is the most powerful SoC for tablets, but will it deliver on its promise?
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UGREEN HiTune T2 True Wireless Earbuds Review – It just doesn’t stay on

Last year, we reviewed the original UGREEN HiTune T1 True Wireless Earbuds and we found it to be a pretty good pair of wireless earbuds. Now we’re taking its successor, the UGREEN HiTune T2 True Wireless Earbuds for a spin to see if it is indeed an upgrade or will it suffer an unfortunate bout of sequelitis.
Unboxing

The UGREEN HiTune T2 comes in a white box very similar to last year’s HiTune T1 and has the T2 branding splayed proudly at the front. Turning the box over and you will find the UGREEN HiTune T2’s specifications as well as a list of the earbuds’ touch functions.

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Once you’ve opened the box, you will find:

The UGREEN HiTune T2 earbuds and charging case.
A small box containing a Type-C charging cable.
A user guide.

Appearance

The UGREEN HiTune T2’s design is completely different from its predecessor in that it ditches the in-ear design of the Hitune T1 in favour of a design that is reminiscent of the first-generation AirPods. Whether or not that is a good decision on UGREEN’s part, we’ll touch on that a bit later.

The case also brings to mind the first-gen AirPods case but instead of being made with glossy material, the UGREEN HiTune T2’s case is decked in all-white matte plastic. The case has an indent between the body and the lid which makes it very easy to flip the lid one-handed. You will also find a USB Type-C charging port at the bottom as well as a reset button at the back.
UGREEN HiTune T2 Specifications

Drivers
14.2mm

Frequency Response
20 – 20000Hz

Impedance
16Ω

Chip
Pixart Pau1606
Supports AAC, SBC

Microphone Sensitivity
-38dB ± 3dB

Headphone Type
True wireless, AirPod-style earbuds

Connection
Bluetooth 5.0
USB Type-C

Wireless Range
10m

Noise-cancelling
No

Battery
Earphones
40mAh, Up to 4 hours
Charging Case
500mAh, Up to 20 hours

Colour
White

Ingress Protection
IPX5

User Experience
Pairing

The UGREEN HiTune T2 is pretty easy to pair with. When you remove the earphones from the charging case, they will immediately enter pairing mode. A voice saying ‘BLUETOOTH CONNECTED’ will indicate whether or you have successfully paired the earbuds to your device. What’s more, the earbuds will connect to your device as soon as you flip open the lid of the charging case. The UGREEN HiTune T2 can be used as a pair or individually.
Sound

The sound quality of the UGREEN HiTune T2 leaves a lot to be desired especially coming from the previous UGREEN HiTune T1 which I thoroughly enjoyed. Music on the UGREEN HiTune T2 turned out pretty bassy but that’s about it, just bass. The sound quality is very muddy with the highs and the lows feel messy and absolutely scattered. The call quality was also a disappointing experience with many people on the receiving end of my calls complained that my voice wasn’t very clear and there were strange and often annoying hissing sounds in the background.
The UGREEN HiTune T2 comes with a ‘Gaming Mode’ built-in that UGREEN claims have a low latency of just 60ms. This feature came out surprisingly decent to my utter relief. I managed to play many rounds of COD Mobile while wearing the HiTune T2 with no noticeable issues.
Comfort

The design of the UGREEN HiTune T2’s earbuds is the most disappointing aspect for me overall as I much prefer in-ear style earphones. Due to the way the earbuds are designed, the HiTune T2 has some real issues with staying put in my ears especially when I take them for workouts. Not only that, the rather large size of the earbuds does tend to put pressure on my ears which in turn causes them to get sore after prolonged use. All in all, these earbuds are really not that comfortable to wear.

I do like how the case feels in the hands though. The case is pretty big but the rounded edges and the curved top and bottom makes the case very comfortable to hold and bring around. I also like the indent UGREEN included on the lid. Makes it really easy to open the lid one-handed, a feature I find quite subtle but very convenient. Another point of criticism for me is that the earbuds sit way too deep inside the case. It can be quite a hassle to get the earbuds out and it becomes incredibly frustrating particularly when you’re in a hurry or when you’re trying to get them out while doing something else.

The touch sensors on the UGREEN HiTune T2 functions pretty well I would say and are quite responsive nine times out of ten. Though I do think that some of the touch controls are not that intuitive particularly the music controls and the toggling of the ‘Gaming Mode’. You can check out the full list of the UGREEN HiTune T2’s touch controls down below.
For music:

Tap once on either side to play or pause music.
Tap three times on the right earbud to skip a song.
Tap three times on the left earbud to back to the previous song.
Tap twice on the right earbud to increase the earbuds’ volume.
Tap twice on the left earbud to lower the earbuds’ volume.

For calls

Tap once on either side of the earbuds to accept a call.
Press and hold the touch sensor for 2 seconds on either side to decline a call.

For Voice Assistant

Press and hold the touch sensor for 2 seconds on the left earbud until you hear a notification sound.

To toggle Gaming Mode on and off:

Tap the touch sensor four times until you hear the prompt.

Battery life
The UGREEN HiTune T2 is officially rated to last up to 4 hours of continuous playback and with that, I can say that the earbuds do last as advertised. The earbuds managed to last slightly more than 3 and a half hours of Spotify while I was working. UGREEN also claimed that the earbuds can last up to 60 minutes with just 15 minutes and to my surprise, it did manage to last an hour, Slightly more, even. The HiTune T2 also supports Qi wireless charging which I’m happy to report, works.
UGREEN HiTune T2 Verdict

I was hoping that the UGREEN HiTune T2 would be a step up from its predecessor but unfortunately, that did not turn out to be the case. The sound and call quality were largely disappointing, the earbuds have issues staying in the ear most of the time and for the most part, they are just not comfortable to wear for a long time.
The HiTune T2’s only saving grace for me was that the Gaming Mode worked decent enough and the battery life is as advertised. Other than that, I suggest you look elsewhere if you’re looking to get a pair of decent and reasonably priced TWS earbuds. Heck, just go for the UGREEN HiTune T1 as they’ll give you a much better experience.
The UGREEN HiTune T2 can be found in the official UGREEN stores on Shopee and Lazada with a retail price of RM138.99.
Big thank you to UGREEN Malaysia for providing us with the UGREEN HiTune T2 for this review.
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Stay Safe with Intel with these selected Intel Core laptops!

As we enter an extended Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), it is probably best to continue staying safe at home, and reduce going out as much as possible. Since you will be cooped up at home, why not get a new laptop to maximize your productivity and also your enjoyment of the limitless entertainment available on the internet?
Or maybe, even pick up a new skill like photo manipulation or video editing. With the latest Intel® Core™-powered laptops, you will have all the performance you need to perform your daily tasks and much more. The latest 10th Gen Intel® Core™ processors based on the 10nm process also offer exceptional battery life, allowing you to work, learn or play without worrying about having to look for a power point.
All the features combined mean that you will have a laptop that’s great for working at home or on the go. A wide selection of laptops from Acer, Apple, ASUS, Dell, HP, HUAWEI, Lenovo, MSI and Microsoft across a wide price range powered by the latest Intel® Core™ processors are just perfect for your next upgrade.

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Acer
          Acer Predator Triton 300          Acer Aspire 3            Acer Aspire 5
Apple
Apple MacBook Air

ASUS
          ASUS VivoBook S13          ASUS ZenBook 14 (UX425)            ASUS A409J-PEK065TS
Dell
          Dell Inspiron 15 (7501)          Dell Inspiron 15 (5501)            Dell Inspiron 13 5300
HP
          HP 14s          HP Pavillion 15            HP Envy 13
HUAWEI
          HUAWEI MateBook 13 (i5)          HUAWEI MateBook X Pro            HUAWEI MateBook 13 (i7)
Lenovo
          Lenovo Ideapad 3          Lenovo Ideapad 3            Lenovo Legion Y545
MSI
          MSI Thin GF63            MSI Thin GF65
Microsoft
          Surface Laptop 3          Surface Go 2            Surface Pro 7
The list above is not exhaustive, as there are just way too many laptops to list them all out. You can head on over to the link at the end of the article to find out more about the laptops available.

But that’s not all. With the currently ongoing Stay Safe with Intel campaign, you will also be eligible to get protective face masks when you purchase the above Intel® Core™ devices. Aside from netting yourself a new laptop to improve your computing experience both at home and out and about, you also get 50 pieces of face masks with your laptop. If you purchase any 8th Gen to 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 laptops, you will also be entitled to an additional knitted mask. Now is that a good deal or what?

You can find out the terms and conditions of the Stay Safe with Intel campaign as well as the participating stores via the link below:
Find your nearest participating store!
Pokdepinion: Well I guess no one will complain about having more masks at this point in time…
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Valve / Steam Has Added LGBTQ+ Tag and Hub Page

The tag system has been a very important part of Steam as it allows gamers to find titles related to the tags. It’s  It’s not something that anyone can simply add however as Valve / Steam will have to approve it themselves. Well, recently, they have approved and officially added the LGBTQ+ tag on their platform.
The change to the system can be credited to an independent developer named Yitz, creator of hand-drawn RPG Nepenthe and upcoming “visual poem” To The Dark Tower, after he brought up the issue on the Steam developer forums. He’d realized an LGBTQ+ tag would make perfect sense for To The Dark Tower, only to find that there wasn’t one.

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When he contacted Steam, the email they sent back stated: “If you have something in mind that isn’t already a public tag, please let us know in the Steamworks Discussions.” He soon started a thread there and it triggered a huge discussion with plenty of mixed feedback, although plenty were in support of the tag and its importance to devs regardless of how it could be misused. Not long after, a Valve employee responded to Yitz’s Steamworks thread and informed him that Valve had added “LGBTQ+” as a globally-approved tag, along with a brand new hub page.
While there still isn’t much available under the label, it’s only a matter of time for it to be populated with a healthy amount. Indie developers can have their own games classified under the LGBTQ+ tag without worries anymore and simultaneously increase visibility of their work on the platform.
If you want to check out what’s already included in the tag, click right here.
Pokdepinion: Well, as the world progresses forward, it’s not a surprise to see everything else follow suit sooner or later.
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PRISM+ Introduces New Models to the Q-Series Pro Android TV Lineup

PRISM+ Introduces the Q65 and Q55 PRO Quantum Edition to Its Android TVs Series

The Q-Series PRO, a series of Android Televisions from PRISM+, was introduced today. Following the release of its largest-ever TV, the Q86 PRO Quantum Edition earlier this year, the company has attempted to add two more models to its lineup: the Q65 PRO Quantum Edition and the Q55 PRO Quantum Edition.
The Q-Series PRO will include Hands-Free Voice Control, Dolby Vision HDR, Dolby Atmos immersive audio, and upgraded Quantum Color backlight technology, in addition to the smart features associated with its previous Android TVs.

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The Q-Series PRO series of TVs, designed to provide users with the finest home entertainment experience, will include 4K Ultra High-Definition displays on par with other premium televisions available on the market. PRISM+’s latest premium Android TVs feature exceptional brightness and contrast, as well as colour volume and accuracy, thanks to its Quantum Color backlight technology.
Dolby Vision, which transforms picture quality with ultra-vivid images loaded with exceptional brightness, contrast, colour, and detail that bring entertainment to life, is available on premium Android TVs. Highlights can be up to 40 times brighter and blacks can be up to 10 times darker than in a conventional image. Furthermore, Dolby Vision’s considerably increased colour palette offers distinct colours across a larger brightness range.
The PRISM+ Q-Series PRO Android TVs feature outstanding sound, courtesy of Dolby Atmos. Dolby Atmos immerses viewers in a wave of sound with immersive audio and in the action by bringing people, places, things, and music to life with astounding realism and movement across the area.
With built-in microphones in the TV and Google Assistant, viewers can manage their whole entertainment experience with their voice from any corner of the room which eliminates the need for remote control. This is a significant improvement from the prior Q-series, where users had to manually touch a button on the remote to activate it.
Users may now tell their Android TV to do various things by saying “Hey Google” or “Ok Google.” Users may use voice commands to change stations, watch films on Netflix or YouTube, and even switch on the television. Aside from the convenience, users will be able to save money on additional Google Home devices because the Q-Series PRO is fully compatible with existing Smart Home installations.
With a huge 32GB of storage, the brand’s Q-Series Pro TVs can store up to four times more than its previous generation of Android TVs, removing the need for consumers to choose between keeping one app and another. Furthermore, with a Wi-Fi speed of up to 5GHz, the Q-Series Pro delivers higher streaming speeds for your favourite content streaming platforms such as meWATCH, Viu, and WeTV which come pre-installed on all the Q-Series PRO Android TVs and are bundled with extensive premium free-trial periods up to 12 months.

The PRISM+ Q-Series Pro will be available for purchase at its online store and official Lazada store for RM2,399 for the Q55 PRO QE, RM3,299 for the Q65 PRO QE, and RM8,999 for the Q86 PRO QE. The Q55 PRO and Q65 PRO Quantum Edition will also come with a special package of freebies worth up to RM557, including free subscriptions to streaming services like VIU, WeTV, and meWatch, as well as a slew of accessories like the Logitech K400 while stocks last.
Pokdepinion: Finally smaller option for the PRISM+ 86″ TV and they look decent at launch. Colours look vivid with smooth frame rates. The Google Assitant seems really convenient for people who are couch potatoes like me.
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Ghost Recon Frontline From Ubisoft Is The Latest Battle Royale Game

Fan of battle royale games? Well here’s something for you. Ubisoft has recently announced Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Frontline.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Frontline

The game will be available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X platforms. Similar to most battle royale games out there, it will be free to play and will have crossplay support.
If you’re wondering, the game will see players battle it out on an island called Drakemoor where a total of 100 players in three-man squads.

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Aside from that, it seems that the game comes with a class system which allows you to upgrade and customize your character. Classes include Assault, Support, and Scout.
Sadly, despite the announcement, they haven’t revealed the release date for the game. Should there be news about it, we’re sure to update you. Till then, stay tuned to Pokde.net for the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews.
Source
Pokdepinion: I don’t really have a good feeling about the game.. Remember what happened to Hyper Scape? Yeah exactly.. Well let’s see and hope that I’m wrong.
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Hawkeye Official Trailer Is Now Out

The folks at Disney+ Hotstar and Marvel Studios has announced of the official trailer as well as teaser poster for Hawkeye.
Hawkeye official trailer

The series is set in post-blip New York City and it stars the man himself, Jeremy Renner as former Avenger Clint Barton. He is set on a mission: getting his family back for Christmas.
He’ll be helped by Kate Bishop, a 22 year old archer with dreams of becoming a superhero. The two are forced to work together when a presence from Barton’s past threatens to derail far more than the festive spirit.

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If you are interested in catching the series, Hawkeye debuts exclusively on Disney+ Hotstar on the 24th of November 2021. Find out more on the streaming platform in our full review right here.
For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: Seems like a show that the family can enjoy together. Let’s hope that it doesn’t fail to impress.
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Concerned About Privacy and Security? Here’s 6 Things To Look For In A Messaging App

These days we rely on messaging apps on just about everything – talking to friends, collaborating in work, discussing study topics, keeping in contact with families and much more. With that comes a huge responsibility for apps to make sure your data doesn’t go anywhere outside of your intended recipient – which is what happens when a data breach occurs, exposing user’s information or even sensitive data.
We at Pokde.net takes privacy seriously – in the time when online scams is more prevalent than ever, especially in Malaysia, how do one protect themselves from scams striking their savings? Here’s six things that users should take a look at.

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End-to-End Encryption Chats & Calls
These days, End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) is a must-have for anyone with privacy and security considerations. How does it work? As you sent your message to the recipient, the message itself gets encrypted by a ‘cryptographic lock’ – think of it like a luggage lock that secures your belongings as you arrive in the airport. This lock is only available to you and the intended recipient – in the event of the data getting intercepted by hackers, they wouldn’t be able to read the data as it is literally jumbled into a bunch of random characters that only you and your recipient’s device can read normally as texts, media or calls.
Same applies to the app developers themselves – the cryptographic keys are never shared outside of you and your recipient, so even they couldn’t read anything from it.
Encrypted Chat Backups
Here’s something that most people might not know: did you know that your chat could be exposed as you backup the chat history from some apps? Here’s where Encrypted Chat Backups comes in. Like how E2EE works – as you backup your chat, the data is encrypted using the key that is either provided to you, or you can set one yourself. This option is available for some apps, and it can come in handy especially when you backup your chat to the cloud (which is another hotspot that hackers like to breach).
Two-Factor Authentication
Another common feature these days, Two-Factor Authentication or often shortened as 2FA, is extremely useful against account thefts. It works by making sure the person logging in the account is the intended person – often the second factor is an unique code sent to your email or SMS. However, newer 2FA methods has started utilizing code generators (usually from your phone app) for increased security. The same principle applies to account recovery in case you forgot your passwords, or you are setting the account into a new device.
More Control Over What You Send
Dropped a message on wrong chats? Aside from few moments of awkwardness, you can reverse it very straightforwardly. Most apps has included the ‘unsend’ feature where you can retract whatever you may have mistakenly sent to the chats – and certain apps has even more robust features such as ‘disappearing messages’ and ‘view once’ for the privacy-minded users, which destroys the message after a certain period or even after single viewing, 007-style (without explosions, of course).
Enhanced Privacy Controls
Much like phones that recently getting new privacy features, messaging apps have privacy controls of their own as well. They let you control who can see your status, activities and more. Some allow users to prevent others from knowing if they have seen the message, or your last online time. Others allow you to control who can add you to group chats and view your user info, and more.
Managing these options are equally important to the security measures already in place – with many scams originating from social engineering attacks (i.e. phishing scams), it is crucial to know what kind of data you allow others to see and how easily accessible your data can be from the public.
Ability to Report and Block
Finally, if the scammers are stepping right at your bank account’s front door, this is your most straightforward option. Pretty much all messaging apps have this feature in different forms – but the basic principle is there, making sure users won’t hear the offending account from scamming attempts or even potential harassments ever again. Blocking them is half of the story though, there is the option of reporting the account if you think the sender has violated the rules (often referred by ‘Terms of Service’ by apps) such as sending explicit content or scams, and more.
For instance, WhatsApp – where messages are end-to-end encrypted by default – only when you chose to report the sender then the app will flag it and reveals the last five messages for further review, and takes actions accordingly depending on the offence, such as account ban.
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Sony Backtracks, Horizon Forbidden West Free PS4 To PS5 Upgrade Now Available

A few days ago, Sony made the controversial decision in an announcement that the PS4 standard version of Horizon Forbidden West will not be eligible for a free upgrade to PS5. Naturally, this caused much discourse among the gaming community with many criticising the decision. Now, Jim Ryan, President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment has come out with a statement saying that players who purchased the PS4 version of Horizon Forbidden West will now be able to upgrade to the PS5 version for free.
Horizon Forbidden West PS4 to PS5 now available

In an update to the original blog post, Jim Ryan said that “it’s abundantly clear that the offerings we confirmed in our pre-order kickoff missed the mark”. He also clarified that they will stand by their original decision to continue offering free cross-gen upgrades for their games including the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel.

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The statement also mentioned that future games will cost RM50 to upgrade from the PS4 version to the PS5 version. These future cross-gen titles include the upcoming God of War game and Gran Turismo 7.

Horizon Forbidden West is set to release on February 18th, 2022, for the PS4 and PS5. There will be several versions of the game available including a standard edition, Digital Deluxe Edition, a Special Edition, a Collector’s Edition and a Regalla Edition.

The standard edition will carry a retail price of RM229 for the PS4 version and RM299 for the PS5 version while the Digital Deluxe Edition will retail for RM339. The retail prices for the other editions have yet to be revealed at the time of writing.
You can pre-order the game here.
Pokdepinion: I’m glad that Sony reversed their decision to not offer free PS4 to PS5 upgrade for Horizon Forbidden West. I don’t have a PS5 as of yet and I do plan to buy the game for the PS4 in the meantime and it would be nice for the game to be available when I eventually get the PS5 in the future.
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GLOO’s 11.11 Sales is about to start! Enjoy limited time promotions with discounts of up to 50%!

The annual phenomenon which is the 11.11 Sales are upon us! The sales are about to commence this weekend. There will be promotions left, right and center on that day, so do not miss your chance! And here we have some interesting information about GLOO’s 11.11 Sales!
GLOO.com.my will also be participating in this event, with a slew of promotions for gadget loves, including RM11 rebates for purchases RM111 and above, simply by entering the Coupon Code GLOO11. You can also get free shipping worth RM10 with your purchase during the 11.11 Sales!

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You can also get various tech gadgets like smartphones, laptops and monitors as well as other accessories which can be gotten with discounts of up to 50%! Interested? Don’t miss out on this promotion and head over to http://www.gloo.com.my NOW!
Pokdepinion: I wish I had money to spend… even with the sales going on I can’t afford anything :(
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Samsung Reportedly Delays Switching Default Search Engine to Microsoft’s Bing

Samsung Electronics has reportedly decided against changing the default search engine on its smartphones from Google to Microsoft’s Bing, according to sources familiar with the matter. The company has suspended its internal review exploring the possibility of replacing Google with Bing on its pre-installed web-browsing app. In this article, we delve into the details surrounding Samsung’s decision and its implications for the search engine market.
Samsung Suspends Internal Review to Move from Google to Bing

According to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung Electronics has halted its internal review that was examining the potential switch from Google to Microsoft’s Bing as the default search engine on its smartphones. The web-browsing app, which comes pre-installed on Samsung devices, currently utilizes Google as the default search engine. Neither Google nor Samsung have responded to requests for comments, while Microsoft declined to comment on the matter.

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Long-term partnerships between search-engine companies and phone manufacturers, such as Apple and Xiaomi, play a significant role in generating revenue. In the case of Google, it is estimated to earn approximately $3 billion in annual revenue from its contract with Samsung alone, as reported by the New York Times in April. The potential shift to Bing had initially affected Alphabet’s shares when it was first reported.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Bing has been leveraging OpenAI’s artificial intelligence technology to enhance its search engine capabilities. This integration has resulted in increased page visits, challenging Google’s dominance. Analytics firm Similarweb has reported positive data indicating Bing’s improved performance in terms of page visits growth. While Bing remains less utilized compared to Google, the adoption of AI technology has contributed to its competitive position in the search engine market.
Samsung’s decision to delay the switch to Bing as the default search engine indicates the company’s preference to maintain its existing partnership with Google. This choice aligns with the significant revenue generated from such collaborations. As Microsoft continues to invest in Bing’s development through OpenAI’s technology, the search engine market may witness increased competition and innovations in the future. Users can expect ongoing enhancements and improvements from both Google and Microsoft as they strive to provide the best search experiences.
Despite initial reports suggesting a potential shift to Microsoft’s Bing, Samsung has decided to postpone changing the default search engine on its smartphones from Google. This decision highlights the importance of longstanding partnerships and revenue considerations in the search engine market. Meanwhile, Bing’s growth, fueled by the integration of OpenAI’s AI technology, has improved its competitive position.
Source
Pokdepinion: As the industry evolves, users can anticipate further developments and innovations from both Google and Microsoft in their quest to deliver optimal search experiences. What we know of them now might be completely different in just a year thanks to AI advancements.
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Xiaomi’s List Of New And Upcoming MIUI Features Revealed

Are you a Xiaomi smartphone user? Well you might be interested in learning of what new features will the company bring in to MIUI 10 as well as future updates. It seems that Xiaomi has listened to their users and revealed of a list of MIUI features on their very own MIUI Forum.
In the forum, they’ve two separate lists; one that comes with features that are planned to get adopted and the other list comes with features that they might implement in the future. Starting off with the former list, here’s what included:

Option to show lock screen while using face unlock instead of directly unlocking your phone and going to the home screen
New sound effects
Enhanced Dolby sound effects
Face unlock and fingerprint scanner to work at the same time
Optimized power saving mode
Screen wake-up using voice recognition
Optimized clean-up with one-click command
Support for album privacy for videos
Global night mode
Vertical text support for photo editing
App Store user interface redesign
Show charging status and power level on the information screen

As for future features that could come to MIUI, here’s the list:

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Automatically delete the installation package after installing the app
Reduce false touch
Local recycle bin for photo albums
Picture crop support for 18:9 display
Optimized App permission management
Better voice-activated shutter function
Mi Pay support Jingdong flash payment
Driving mode support QQ message broadcast and voice broadcast
Child Mode
Bluetooth stereo while playing games
Internet speed and traffic management
Show emergency contact information of lock screen
New charging animation

If you are interested in checking out the full list of features, you can check that out in the link right here.
Pokdepinion: A whole lot of awesome features coming, especially night mode! I’ve been crying out for that feature for some time now and now it’s finally coming :D

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Nokia Smartphones Now Available On Shopee — Enjoy Nokia 7.2 Promo Price At RM949

HMD Global has announced that they’ve opened up the official store for Nokia on Shopee. In conjunction with the launch, they are offering special discounts up until 12.12 of this year.
From the store, you can get the Nokia 2770 Flip in Red, which is exclusively on their Shopee store. Other than that, the Nokia 2.2 (3GB/32GB) and Nokia 7.2 (6GB/128GB) will be sold at a price of RM399 and RM1,099 from now till 12 December 2019.
That’s not all. To add to that, only on 12 December 2019, limited units of the Nokia 2.2 and Nokia 7.2 will be sold at RM379 and RM949 respectively.

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You can check up on their store by heading to the link right here.
Pokdepinion: If you’ve missed out on our review of the Nokia 7.2, one of the drawbacks of the phone that I thought of is the price. With that promo price, it seems a bit more reasonable now.
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HUAWEI P50 Is Now Available in Malaysia For Pre-Order

Malaysians Can Now Pre-order the HUAWEI P50 for RM2,999

HUAWEI Malaysia officially introduces the new and revamped HUAWEI P50 as the latest addition to its P Series product line today. The P50 now features an all-new Dual-Matrix Camera design. The HUAWEI P50 Pro features a 3D curved glass display with a single discreet punch-hole camera in the centre for a comfortable experience.
The P50 also supports a full P3 broad colour gamut for accurate and lifelike colour calibration. Up to 1.07 billion colours are supported, providing for a full HDR experience that shows the vibrancy of the world. Users can enjoy a smooth and responsive experience with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz and a touch sampling rate of 300Hz. The HUAWEI P50 Pro and HUAWEI P50 are both IP68 rated for dust and water resistance and come with dual audio speakers.
The Dual-Matrix Camera technology on the P50 captures True to Life photos with excellent clarity and dynamic range and offers remarkable photography capabilities in a lightweight form factor by balancing the capabilities of several lenses like a 10-channel multi-spectrum sensor, HUAWEI XD Optics, the XD Fusion Pro Image Engine, and other technologies.

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Users can capture incredible photographs with the all-new HUAWEI XD Optics. The optical imaging system gains computing capabilities, resulting in the industry’s first all-inclusive image signal restoration system capable of correcting optical faults and reproducing fine details. This exceeds the constraints of optical design by restoring up to 25% of the picture signal. The P50 will launch with the XD Fusion Pro, the upgraded approach that includes a new Super Colour Filter System, True-Chroma Image Engine, and Super HDR technology to improve detail, colour, and dynamic range.
The P50 Pro offers an incredible 200 times zoom range, allowing users to record any item from any distance. Close-up images are rich in detail, while zoomed-in shots up to 100 times are crystal clear. The ultra-wide-angle lens has an equivalent focal length of 13mm for wide photographs and can capture macro images up to 2.5cm away from the lens.
The True-Chroma Image Engine achieves the highest possible colour accuracy, producing images that accurately match what the human eye sees. The ambient light detection system utilizes a 10-channel multi-spectrum sensor in conjunction with colour calibration of over 2,000 colours spanning the P3 wide colour gamut to improve its capacity to detect ambient light and average colour hue accuracy by 50% and 20%, respectively.
The P50 is capable of 4K video capture across the full focal range and the all-new AIS Pro image stabilisation solution allows users to easily create steady handheld movies. Even when zoomed in, the 4K time-lapse mode allows users to distil the essence of time, and the AI cinemograph is perfect for creating images that highlight subtle motions. Users can import movies to PetalClip for editing by just tapping “Edit” in the Gallery.
The P50 Pro features an all-new Super Color Filter System, with the True-Chroma Camera (Colour) and True-Chroma Camera (Monochrome) increasing main camera light intake by 103% for improved image clarity. Pictures are brighter and more detailed in low-light situations. Users can zoom in on individual subjects in group images while still seeing crisp details and textures on each person. Super HDR captures 28% more dynamic range for greater backlighting performance, while light and shadows are optimised for richer textures and more pronounced layering.

The P50, which runs HarmonyOS 2, has a new Home screen that is cleaner and more organised. Swiping up on an app icon brings up Service Widgets, which display real-time data with a single tap. The smartphone symbol is in the centre of the Super Device interface of the P50’s Control Panel. Users can connect other devices to the smartphone by dragging the matching icons to the centre of the screen.
The smartphone can also function as a wirelessly linked external storage device for the PC, allowing users to view smartphone files from their laptops. Users can project their active video to the larger display by dragging a smart TV icon towards the smartphone icon in the UI while playing a video. The smartphone Control Panel also enables customers to effortlessly configure internet connectivity for smart home appliances with a simple drag and drop, making the overall experience smarter and more intuitive.
P50 owners can get their favourite apps through AppGallery, HUAWEI’s exclusive app market that comes pre-installed on the smartphone. AppGallery provides a comprehensive selection of premium apps for customers to get the most out of their smartphones, including Booking.com, MAE, Malaysia Airlines, Union Pay, and others.

The P50 is priced at RM2,999 and is available for pre-order from now until May 26, 2022, and receive a free HUAWEI FreeBuds Lipstick and free HUAWEI Mobile Services, a total of RM1,000 in free goodies.
Meanwhile, the P50 Pro‘s pricing has been reduced to RM3,699 in order to make it more accessible to a wider range of users. Customers who pre-order the P50 Pro between now and 3 June 2022 will receive a free HUAWEI Band 6 worth RM219 when they do so.
To purchase the P50 and P50 Pro, feel free to visit HUAWEI’s official stores below:
HUAWEI P50
Official Website
Lazada Store
Shopee Store
HUAWEI P50 Pro
Official Website
Lazada Store
Shopee Store
Pokdepinion:  The Pro version looks affordable and those looking for a long term phone can consider getting it.

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Cooler Master Launches MasterCase

In-line with their new slogan, Make it Yours, which refers to the human nature of wanting unique products to express themselves, Cooler Master announces the launch of the MasterCase, the world’s first mid-sized modular tower with exterior expandability. The MasterCase heralds a new family of cases that offer unparalleled control over form and function. It draws inspiration from the MasterConcept, a revolutionary concept case developed at Cooler Master Headquarters in Taipei.
“The MasterConcept represents a vision that every person’s PC case should be unique, and is a first step in a fundamental re-imagining of our relationship with our fans and supporters,” said PS Tang, Vice President, Cooler Master. “Inspired by the MasterConcept’s revolutionary approach to interior and exterior modularity, the MasterCase represents the crest of this new wave of case technology.”
Cooler Master’s FreeForm™ Modular System
Computex 2015 will see Cooler Master debut the MasterCase 5, a 460mm-tall modular tower that comes in three distinct iterations: MasterCase 5, MasterCase Pro 5 and MasterCase Maker 5.

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MasterCase 5
MasterCase Pro 5
The MasterConcept and MasterCase break new ground in the way PCs are designed, made, bought and used. Fundamental to this reimagining is FreeForm™. Cooler Master wants users to have absolute control over how their case looks and functions. So FreeForm provides options to adjust the case exterior via the replacement of panels and doors, while also offering unparalleled flexibility for a mid-sized case in terms of interior layout.
Users can choose from the MasterCase 5’s dual top handles and standard door, the MasterCase Pro 5’s elevated mesh top cover, or the sleek lines, solid top cover and brooding, open-vent front door of the MasterCase Maker 5.
In the MasterCase, FreeForm allows a single case to support a host of different configurations, enabling users to upgrade and not replace their case and system. Through a unique clip-and click panel, FreeForm also lets users vertically adjust or entirely remove drive cages, allowing for multiple system configurations like home servers, water-cooled workstations, or gaming rigs with dual-slot extra-long graphics cards.

MasterCase 5 Interior
Those cut-outs seem pretty handy for easy installation of CPU cooler backplates and good cable management.

MasterCase Pro 5 Interior
Expected of a product carrying the “Pro” moniker, it comes with more drive bays compared to the plain-jane MasterCase 5 and also an elevated top cover to offer support for water-cooling radiator placement.

Pokdepinion: This is indeed an interesting concept. Mix and match components to get the functionality and looks you need. Sounds good. Not only does the consumer save money by just swapping out certain pieces to suit their needs, but Cooler Master themselves will be able to save costs because they only have to produce one main chassis for the entire line-up, and produce the . And of course there is always the possibility of the modder community coming up with custom components that will just “clip and click” into the case.
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Google Reveal Details On Fuchsia OS And It’s Not What You Think

It’s been almost 3 years since we first heard about Google’s Fuchsia project, where it appeared out of nowhere on GitHub. Some have said that it will be the new Android or Chrome OS, well Google has finally revealed details on the topic.
The senior vice president of Android and Chrome, Hiroshi Lockheimer unveiled new information regarding Fuchsia in a recent podcast with The Verge.
We’re looking at what a new take on an operating system could be like. And so I know out there people are getting pretty excited saying, ‘Oh this is the new Android,’ or, ‘This is the new Chrome OS,’”.“Fuchsia is really not about that. Fuchsia is about just pushing the state of the art in terms of operating systems and things that we learn from Fuchsia we can incorporate into other products Hiroshi Lockheimer, Vice president of Android and Chrome
In addition, he went on to give slight hints on what Fuchsia will bring where he said “It’s not just phones and PCs. In the world of IoT (Internet of Things), there are an increasing number of devices that require operating systems and new runtimes and so on. I think there’s a lot of room for multiple operating system with different strengths and specializations. Fuchsia is one of those things and so, stay tuned”.

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Pokdepinion: So there you go, if you believed that Fuchsia will take over as the OS on Android, well it won’t (at least not in the near future).
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Nokia 8 receives latest September Google Security Patch; they are really holding up to their promise of fast updates!

The blistering fast Nokia 8 that we have just finished reviewing has gotten a new update with the latest September Google Security Patch, fixing 81 CVEs and vulnerabilities. The security patch has just been began rolling out to the Google Pixel and Nexus devices recently, and the Nokia 8 has already received it. Talk about speed!
This is not the Oreo update that is promised for the Nokia 8, Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 but only features improved system stability and user interface enhancements along with the Google Security Patch for September. As the Nokia devices run on mostly pure Android aside from a custom camera app in the Nokia 8, Nokia will have an easier time pushing out updates to the devices with less tinkering to do on the custom skins most manufacturers apply on their device.

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If Nokia keeps this up, Android enthusiasts will have a new option to satisfy their taste for pure, secure Android with security patches rolling out every month. They did promise fast updates for their devices, so with this update now out, I guess they are really holding up to their promises, something which many brands have failed to do.
Pokdepinion: I always envied how Nexus devices were always the first in line to receive updates. While my friend with the Nexus 6P was enjoying Android 7.1.1 Nougat, I was stuck on Android 7.0 Nougat. Looking at this, I guess if I had a Nokia 8, I wouldn’t be waiting much longer for Android 8.0 Oreo to hit my device.
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Cooler Master Hyper H411R review — the little cooler that could!

Introduction
While cooling is probably one of the last things I would skimp on when building a rig, not everyone is like me. This is especially applicable if you aren’t running unlocked CPUs. If you are like me, you should definitely check out the review of the MasterLiquid ML240R RGB. That cooler not only looks good, but performed beyond my expectations as well. If you want an affordable cooler that costs less than RM100, this review is for you. Keep reading, as we test the Cooler Master Hyper H411R.
Packaging

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The Cooler Master Hyper H411R is a throwback to the good ol’ days before RGB is a must in all PC hardware to be relevant. The packaging is also very simple, with the product name and the product image easily recognizable from a distance.

On the right side of the box, Cooler Master decided to do justice to the Hyper series with a short history lession. Anyone who has built a desktop in the last 5 years or more should have at least considered the Hyper series. Anyone remembers the legendary Hyper 212 series? Pokde.net remembers.

Here on the left we find the list of specifications. The details of the fans are listed out as well. It is quite rare to find 92mm fans, as it is to find a cooler this diminutive. Look at that weight! Just 358 grams! While it may seem to be rather undersized, Cooler Master offers support for everything up to the LGA2066 socket. You will most probably not want to slap this onto an Intel Core i9 7980XE, but it’s good to know you can.

With extensive compatibility comes a comprehensive mounting mechanism. The Cooler Master Hyper H411R comes with a plastic backplate that works with adapters to fit almost every socket except the LGA 2066 and LGA 2011/2011v3 sockets. That’s because Intel’s recent high end desktop (HEDT) platforms feature an Independent Locking Mechanism (ILM) with the mounting points for coolers built in already. For some reason, the included thermal paste here is the MasterGel Pro, while the much pricier MasterLiquid ML240R RGB actually came with the cheaper plain MasterGel. Curious decision there by Cooler Master.
Appearance

Just to give you an idea of how small this cooler is, here’s a 2.5″ SSD for scale. Yep. It is barely taller than a 2.5″ drive, thus allowing it to fit in all but the tiniest of cases. The fan is translucent black, which should allow the white LEDs to glow pretty nicely.

The fins are shaped to direct airflow towards the heatpipes, for faster cooling. Note the asymmetrical shape, cutting off any support for a second fan. It looks like a wasted opportunity to get better performance without much added cost. Then again, the Hyper 103 which it succeeds doesn’t offer support for a second fan either. The fan clips feature rubber pads on the inner surface, preventing vibration from the fan from generating noise.

Cooler Master claims that this is a special fin design to channel air flow towards the heatpipes, for optimal cooling. We will test that in a moment. The fins are spaced out pretty nicely, which might have been necessary given the smaller fan. Fins packed too densely would adversely affect airflow, and thus cooling performance.

The heatpipes on the Cooler Master Hyper H411R directly contact the integrated heatspreader (IHS) of your CPU to wick heat away as efficiently as possible. This is in contrast to conventional designs where heat has to be conducted through a copper contact plate, before it is transferred to the heatpipes to be carried into the heatsink array. Cooler Master has already perfected the Direct Contact technology, and named it Continuous Direct Contact (CDC). With the patented CDC technology, the heatpipes form a continuous surface without the gaps you see here. With this being a budget offering, it probably wasn’t feasible for Cooler Master to implement that here.

The fan actually looks pretty decent, with the blades diffusing the white light, making the fans look as if they are electrified. RGB would have been better… If you prefer the fan in red, you can also opt for the Hyper H410R, which is the same cooler, except for the color of the LEDs.
Specifications
Cooler Master Hyper H411R

CPU socket compatibility
Intel LGA 775 ~ 1151 / LGA 1366 ~ LGA2066
AMD AM2 ~ AM4 / FM1 ~ FM2+

Heatsink dimensions
102 x 83.4 x 136 mm

Fan(s)
Size
92 x 92 x 25 mm

Quantity
1 pcs

Speed
600 ~ 2000 rpm

Airflow
34.1 CFM (max)

Air pressure
1.79 mmH2O (max)

MTTF
40 000 hours

Noise
29.4 dBA (max)

Included accessories
Lots of screws, lots of mounting mechanisms, MasterGel Pro thermal paste

Warranty
2 years

Pokde Benchrig

CPU
Intel Core i7-5820K @ 4.125 GHz

Motherboard
ASUS X99-Deluxe

GPU
MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G

Memory
4 x 4GB Kingston HyperX Predator 3000 MHz CL15

Storage
Kimtigo 120GB SSD

Power Supply
Cooler Master V850

Testing Methodology
Our Intel Core i7-5820K CPU will be clocked at 4.125 GHz, with a Vcore of 1.11V set in the BIOS. The thermal paste of choice will be the MasterGel Maker, sponsored by Cooler Master. To test the performance of CPU coolers, we run LinX 0.6.5 for 40 minutes, with a problem size of 23118. The fan(s) (and pump(s), if available) will run at maximum speed to gauge maximal performance. Ambient temperatures are fixed to 25°C, in an air-conditioned room. Noise levels are recorded approximately 50cm away from the bench rig.
Installation

Before mounting the cooler, you will have to affix the mounting bars onto the cooler itself. The AMD and Intel mounting kit are different, so be sure to check the user manual to know which one to use.

The Intel mounting kit features four screws, which can be repositioned to work with the various socket sizes Cooler Master supports with the Cooler Master Hyper H411R. To reposition them, all you have to do is pull the screw upwards and slide them to the desired position.

As we will be testing on the Intel X99 platform, the ILM on the LGA 2011v3 socket makes installation really easy. All you have to do is screw in the standoffs into the mounting points and you are ready to slap the cooler onto the CPU. The standoffs can be put in by hand, but you will want to tighten them a tad with the included bolt turner.

Here’s a trick I learnt from my earlier days. The Hyper 212+ I used back then had similar gaps, and to account for the gaps, it was advisable to apply thermal paste between the heatpipes to fill up the spaces between the heatpipes. Usually you would apply the thermal paste onto the CPU and mount the cooler to spread it, but with direct contact heatpipes, this method works better.

Tightening the screws onto the standoffs is a fairly easy affair. You will need to remove the fan before doing it though. Do not repeat my silly mistake now that I have told you how to mount it on properly. Then all you have to do is clip the fan back on and plug the fan onto your CPU fan header.

Just check out how much space we have! While you may not see it from this angle, there is more than enough clearance for a tall stick of RAM in the slot closest to the socket. The Cooler Master Hyper H411R also stays clear of the first PCIe slot.
Performance

Our overclocked Intel Core i7 5820K was throttling while we went through the 40 minutes of LinX. However the Cooler Master Hyper H411R managed to allow the CPU to maintain an average clock speed of around 3.9 GHz on all six cores, which is quite an interesting feat. It is indeed ridiculous to think that we can cool a CPU drawing more than 200W to be cooled by such a small cooler, but we are confident that you will be able to cool any locked CPU out there, or even pull off small overclocks on lesser CPUs.

If you are worried about noise from the small fan, do not. The fan is near inaudible about 50cm away from our benchrig. The well-spaced fins also help to keep noise levels low. It is noticeably more silent than the MasterLiquid ML240R RGB.

This is the part where I decided to see how much better the Cooler Master Hyper H411R could have been if only it had two fans. Resting a second fan on the back of the Cooler Master Hyper H411R, I simulated a push-pull setup with Noctua’s top-of-the-line 120mm fan, the Noctua A12x25. I actually successfully shaved off 2°C and prevented the CPU from throttling! An overclocked i7 5820K barreling along at 4.125 GHz, cooled by such a tiny cooler! If only Cooler Master decided to add support for a second fan, we could probably be enjoying more cooling performance without having to resort to MacGyver-esque methods like this.
Conclusion
Would we recommend the Cooler Master Hyper H411R? Absolutely, if you aren’t planning on overclocking, or use a small form factor case that won’t fit beefier cooling solutions. Let’s not forget the very affordable price tag of just RM79. While it couldn’t keep our overclocked i7 5820K cool, it should have zero issues keeping the locked LGA 115X CPUs happy, and might even handle a mild overclock. With realistic expectations given the size, you would actually be surprised by how well the Cooler Master Hyper H411R performs. One thing is for sure: it will be a massive upgrade over the stock Intel coolers, any day. Now Cooler Master, about the second fan…
Our thanks to Cooler Master Malaysia for the Cooler Master Hyper H411R used in this review! To support us, click on the following link to check out the Cooler Master Hyper H411R on Lazada:

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A New PlayStation 5 Variant Spotted in SIRIM Database

Many gamers are still struggling to get their hands on Sony’s next gen gaming console due to a supply shortage. Now, a new PlayStation 5 variant has reportedly been spotted in SIRIM database, and there may be hardware inside it that sets it apart from the launch version.
New PlayStation 5 Variant Spotted in SIRIM Database

@Soya_Cincau @LowyatNET possibly minor hardware change of new PS5 variant passes #SIRIM certification pic.twitter.com/rIhZhmVToX
— Kevin Ng TK 🇲🇾🌺 (@KevinNgTK) July 9, 2021

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Previously, we learned of the PS5 console being packed with a newer 6nm CPU as opposed to the launch edition’s 7nm CPU, with both coming from AMD. Then there’s also the hardware revision with improved 5GHz Wi-Fi performance at a small cost to 2.4GHz performance. One of these PlayStation 5 variants have been spotted in the SIRIM database.
It was first discovered by SIRIM database observer, Kevin Ng TK, who tweeted out his findings. While there is no direction mention of the PS5 console, it was labeled as “video game console” under Sony Malaysia. The model numbers listed are “CFI-1118A” and “CFI-1118B”.
It seems that the CFI designation is pointing towards the PS5 console itself, and the A / B suffixes pointing whether it’s the standard edition with a disc drive or the Digital Edition. The middle 4 digits are most likely pointing towards regional variances and nothing more.
It’s highly likely for it to be the PlayStation 5 variant with the new wireless module as it would take longer for the one with the newer CPU to reach. However, we can’t confirm anything just yet so stay tuned for further updates.
Source
Pokdepinion: If it means giving more people the opportunity to get their hands on the next gen console, then it’s great news. Would like to see how different both PlayStation 5 variants play from the original launch edition, though I’m sure it won’t be too big of a difference.
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PS Plus Asia October 2018 FREE GAMES Lineup

The most exciting month of gaming this year is about to end, with blockbuster game releases like Marvel’s Spider-Man, which we reviewed already, and Dragon Quest XI, which we are currently reviewing. Some of you right now are looking towards the horizon, wondering what free games will be coming for PS Plus Asia this October 2018. Well, let’s jump right into it, shall we?
This is the free games lineup for PS Plus Asia, which is the Asia region. If you’re from the US / EU regions, click right here for your lineup instead.

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The headlining act of this month’s free games line up for PS Plus Asia is Portal Knights. It is an RPG where you level up your character and craft powerful gears to defeat your enemies in real-time tactical combat. Explore a bunch of randomly-generated islands and enjoy up to 4-person co-op multiplayer. Work together on the same island to build structures, explore dungeons, and overcome the toughest perils or play separately on different islands.
Next up, we have Rocketbirds 2 Evolution, where the original Rocketbirds return with a bang. Featuring enhanced controls, new combat systems, a Story Mode, a revamped 1-4 player Rescue Mode, and an improved soundtrack, it’s said to be an all-around better game.
And then we have Thumpers, a rhythm-based game with blistering speeds. Scream down the endless track and crash through punishing obstacles with simple, airtight controls. Reach speeds like never before and fight through every obstacle, even the crazy boss battles, accompanied by a pounding original soundtrack. If you’d like, you can even play the game using your PSVR.
For the full lineup of free games coming to PS Plus Asia this October 2018, check them out right below here:
Full Lineup

Portal Knights
Rocketbirds 2 Evolution
Thumpers
The Bridge
Master Reboot

As an added bonus for everyone, there will be a free multiplayer weekend from 5th October to 7th October 2018, You can make use of the online multiplayer feature in games even without a PS Plus subscription. The titles that they recommend trying out multiplayer for is Monster Hunter World, Rainbow Six Siege, and FIFA 19.
Pokdepinion: The free games lineup this time around is okay I guess. Was expecting a little bit better but I’m still more than happy to get Portal Knights since I haven’t played that yet.
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