Cooler Master Announce MasterBox TD500L – Featuring A Diamond Cut With Three Dimensional Design!

Cooler Master has come out with their latest chassis, the MasterBox TD500L, which comes with a Diamond Cut design with three-dimensional, transparent surfaces on the front panel and side.
MasterBox TD500L
With the new MasterBox TD500L, its front and side panel illuminate differently depending on your viewing angle, creating a dynamic experience. It gets its cooling support from the top panel, with the ventilation placed on the front panel.
As always, with a transparent side panel, you get to flaunt off your build to the people around you. In this case with the TD500L, lighting effects will look different depending on viewing angles. For cable management, it comes with PSU cover and 19mm width space behind the mainboard, offering you plenty of cable management options, just so you can keep your build nice and clean.

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As for cooling performance, it gives you support for a total of six 120mm fans, where up to 240mm and 360mm radiator placement available at the top and front respectively, ensuring compatibility for high performance cooling components.
The box is coated fully black and the interior acts as a canvas to show off the configuration of components housed inside.
The MasterBox TD500L is now available. Do you want to purchase it? Well it is set at a price tag of RM209. If you’d like to purchase online, you can click here to go to Cooler Master’s official Lazada store.
Pokdepinion: Make sure to checkout the MasterBox TD500L if you are on the look for a case for yourself.
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Nintendo Switch Apparently Now Able to Run the EA Frostbite Engine

The Nintendo Switch is one of the most innovative videogame consoles around but it’s no secret that its performance (not in sales) is lagging behind the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While it’s not impossible for developers to launch some of the most resource-intensive games on the platform, it can be trickier to do so. Despite, EA appears to be making a big shift to the system.
The Frostbite Engine from EA is said to be working for the Nintendo Switch right now. It appears that they have found a solution to get it running on the system, and if true, would be a good indication that more games from them are coming your way.
Picture credits: Doctre81
According to the information stumbled upon by YouTuber Doctre81 on an EA engineer’s LinkedIn page, they have found a way to maintain SDK for game integration on the Nintendo Switch. This includes the likes of Battlefield V and Anthem. This may not necessarily be a clear indication of the Frostbite Engine running on the system, it certainly does point out what they’re working on.

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As the information isn’t made available for the public, it’s hard to verify it so for now, just that this information with a grain of salt. One thing’s for sure, the Frostbite Engine being compatible on the Nintendo Switch will certainly lead to plenty of other major games coming to the platform.
Many of you may have heard of the game engine from FIFA 19, which is also available on the Nintendo Switch. However, this version isn’t using the Frostbite Engine like on other platforms. In fact, it is using a specially built engine for the hardware. As such, the experience may differ to some extent on this platform.
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what EA has in store for the system. It seems like they’re definitely preparing to be firmly behind the platform.
Source: ComicBook
Pokdepinion: As someone who needs to be on-the-go most of the time, I hope this is real
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ASUS King of Mobile 2018 Registration now OPEN! Garena’s Free Fire survival is this year’s theme!

After the huge success of our little experiment last year, ASUS King of Mobile is back again! That’s right, mobile gaming binge, fused with lots of food, in a super cosy environment, ASUS King of Mobile 2018 is happening again! Registration is now OPEN, but please read this article carefully first.
This year, ASUS King of Mobile 2018 will be larger in scale compared to last year. We will be selecting 80 participants that will be picked randomly from the registration form. That means, submitting the form does not guarantee participation yet. Once we have drawn the lucky participants, we will personally call you to confirm your entry.
ASUS King of Mobile 2018 Registration

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What is ASUS King of Mobile?
Good question. In case you were not aware of the ASUS King of Mobile 2017 event, we have made a highlight video for a better understanding.

ASUS King of Mobile is a one of its kind event. Armed with ASUS ZenFone 3 Max smartphone, fuelled with lots of food, lingering in a very cosy environment, participants from around the country will be competing against each other in a series of matches to claim the King of Mobile throne. The King of Mobile himself walks away with awesome ASUS goodies including smartphones and merchandises.
ASUS King of Mobile 2018
This year, we are making things even better! Using the ASUS ZenFone Max Plus M1, participants will be competing in a series of survival matches on Garena’s Free Fire Battlegrounds battle royale style game (click here to read more about Garena’s Free Fire Battlegrounds). Teams will be assigned on the day of the event itself where you strategically find your opponents and eliminate them. Basically, we’re playing PUBG on mobile this year and the last man standing after a series of matches will be walking away with some awesome prizes.

Hosting it at Mighty Monster restaurant in MyTown mall, Cheras, we couldn’t find a better and cosier place. Bottomless food and drinks from a fusion of local and western cuisine, this will be one party you will remember in your lifetime!

Almost RM10,000 worth of prizes will be given out this year! ASUS Smartphones, ROG gears, vouchers, in-game items, and lots of goodies! This year, we will be having 4 winners and there will also be lucky draws!
Register for ASUS King of Mobile 2018
Okay, all is well! Click the button below and fill up the form. Remember, submitting the form does not guarantee you an entry yet, until we personally call you on your mobile phone. So make sure you get your details accurate.

ASUS King of Mobile 2018 Registration

Terms & Conditions

Registration is open to all residents of Malaysia above 16 years old.
Participants under the age of 18 years old must obtain permission from their parents.
This event is FREE for participants. Please do not make any payments if someone asks you to and immediately email us at [email protected]
Smartphones will be provided during the event. For fair play purposes, you will not be allowed to use any other devices other than the one provided during the event.
Food and drinks will be bottomless at no charges. You are not allowed to bring outside food to the event premise.
Participants will be selected randomly. All decisions are final and no communication in verbal or written form will be entertained.
Winners of the event will be judged by representative from ASUSTek Computer Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Urbanify Sdn Bhd. Decisions made by the judges will be final and no communication in verbal or written form will be entertained.
By attending ASUS King of Mobile 2018, you agree to appear in any pictures and videos that will be shot during the event and can be used for marketing purposes by ASUSTek Computer Malaysia Sdn Bhd
ASUSTek Computer Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Urbanify Sdn Bhd reserves the right to add or ammend any clause in this terms & conditions without prior notice wherever deem necessary. The stated terms & conditions here are final.

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Microsoft Surface Go 3 up for pre-orders in Malaysia from just RM1888

In the market for a tablet that doesn’t run Android or iPadOS? Well then, you can consider the Microsoft Surface Go 3, a tablet that’s built for Windows 11, and will be shipping with Windows 11 out of the box. The Surface Go 3 weighs a mere 544g, making it one of the lightest Windows 11 devices you can get in the market. It also enjoys the distinction of being the most affordable Microsoft Surface device you can get, so that’s a plus.
The Surface Go 3 can be configured with either the Intel Pentium Gold 6500Y or Core i3-10100Y, which are pretty clear upgrades from the Surface Go 2‘s Gold 4425Y or Core m3 configurations. Microsoft claims that the Core i3 option will be up to 60% faster than its predecessors, which is probably going to be quite noticeable even in daily use. For RAM and storage, you can go up to 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD, with a microSD slot for quick storage expansion.

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The display is kept the same, with a 10.5″ 3:2 PixelSense display pushing a decent 1920 x 1280 resolution. You also get stereo 2W speakers enhanced by Dolby Audio, along with dual far-field Studio Mics for your video conferencing needs. Speaking of which, it packs a 5MP front-facing camera as well as an 8MP rear-facing camera for all your imaging needs. Integrated into the Surface Go 3 itself is a kickstand so you can prop it up to use it on a desk.
Of course, being a member of the Surface family, the Surface Go 3 is also designed to deliver the standard Windows experience that a laptop can offer, if you are willing to shell out extra for the Type Cover, that is. There’s also support for stylus input, which is yet another additional accessory you can add to make your Surface Go 3 even more powerful.

Speaking of accessories, you get one USB-C port, one Surface Connect port, the Surface Type Cover Port as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack for the rest of your connectivity needs. The variant that’s available now only supports WiFi 6, but an LTE-A variant is also on the way if you need to stay connected even when out and about.
Microsoft Surface Go 3 Specs and Price in Malaysia

Processor
Intel Pentium Gold 6500Y, 2C/4T @ up to 3.4GHz, 5W TDP, 14nm
Intel Pentium Gold 6500Y, 2C/4T @ up to 3.4GHz, 5W TDP, 14nm
Intel Core i3-10100Y, 2C/4T @ up to 3.9GHz, 5W TDP, 14nm

RAM
4GB LPDDR3
8GB LPDDR3
8GB LPDDR3

Storage
64GB eMMC
128GB SSD
128GB SSD

Connectivity
WiFi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Bluetooth 5.0
USB-C
Surface Connect port
Surface Type Cover Port
microSDXC card reader

Display
10.5″ 1920 x 1280 3:2 PixelSense LCD display
10-point touch support, Surface Pen support
Corning Gorilla Glass 3

Audio
2 x 2W stereo speakers
2 x far-field Studio Mics
Dolby Audio

Power
28WHr battery, up to 11 hours of usage
Fast Charging

Dimensions
245 x 175 x 8.3 mm

Weight
544g

Price
RM1888
RM2588
RM2988

The Surface Go 3 is available for pre-order now from various channels, with it set to be officially available from 5th October onwards. Aside from the Surface Go 3, Microsoft Malaysia also announced the Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse that will be available from 5th October.

The mouse is created from a high-quality resin made up of 20% recycled ocean plastic. The mouse touts a rather generic shape, but you will be doing your part for the environment, so I guess that helps. You can get the Microsoft Ocean Plastic Mouse for RM119.
Pokdepinion: Given the price, it’s probably going to be a pretty easy pick over many premium tablets based on more portable-oriented OSes…
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Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Promising Move Forward

Unboxing the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Box

Let’s kick off the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 review with the unboxing. Inside the box, you will find the following items:
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Box content

Welcome note
User guide
Safety and regulatory information
240W power brick
The Alienware m15 Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 itself

Appearance
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Lid
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 looks pretty much the same as the recent m15 variants with its Legend design language. The only color choice you have is “Dark Side of the Moon with High Endurance Clear Coat and Silky Smooth Finish”. The lid is gray, has a number 15 on the bottom-right corner which signifies the model and the Alienware logo which can glow. Look further down, you’ll notice the hinge area is black, which contrasts the gray lid and giving it a pleasing two-tone look.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Open up the lid
Open up the lid, which can be easily done with one hand, and you will be greeted by a 15.6-inch display, a trackpad, and a per-key RGB keyboard. The Alienware text can be seen on the bottom bezel of the display. The power button is in the shape of logo above the Delete key.

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Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Ports

One the left side, you have the Noble Lock port, an air vent, an RJ45 LAN port, and a combo audio jack. On the right side, you have two USB-A ports and an air vent. The rest of the ports are located on the rear, which includes another USB-A port, HDMI port, USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port, and the proprietary charging port. The ports are between the two rear vents. The charging connector itself glow blue when there’s power.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Bottom
Moving to the bottom, you have a bunch of air vents in a honeycomb design, product stickers, and two raised lines on the top and bottom to give the laptop a bit of a lift. There are eight visible screws here but there may be more hidden. The four speaker grilles are located closer to the lid opening.
Overall, the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 may not have changed much in design but it’s still one good looking machine. Not only does it have a clean look, it’s one that stands out from a lot of gaming laptops out there. It doesn’t need to look aggressive to let people know that it’s a beastly gaming laptop. Furthermore, the magnesium alloy build gives it a premium look and feel while lowering its overall weight.
Specifications

CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 5800HX (8C / 16T @ up to 4.6 GHz), 20M Cache, 45W TDP, 7nm FinFET

RAM
16GB 3200 MHz DDR4

GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6

Storage
1TB PCIe M.2 SSD (Micron 2300)

Display
15.6″ FHD (1920 X 1080) 165Hz 1ms display with ComfortView Plus, NVIDIA G-Sync, and Advanced Optimus

Keyboard
Per-key AlienFX RGB keyboard

Connectivity
Wireless:
802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax Wi-Fi (Dual Band 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
KILLER Wi-Fi 6 1650 2×2
Bluetooth 5.2
I/O:
1 x SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C
3 x SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A
1 x RJ45 LAN (KILLER Ethernet E3000)
1 x HDMI 2.1
1 x Proprietary Charging Port

Audio
4W Stereo speakers, Realtek ALC3254 with A-Volute Nahimic audio processing software – Integrated in Alienware Sound Center (AWSC)
1 x Combo Audio Jack
Dual Array Digital Microphones

Power
86 Wh, 6-cell Battery with Alienware Battery Defender
240W Power Adapter

Dimensions
356.2 x 272.5 x 22.85 mm (W x D x H)

Weight
2.6 kg

Performance
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – CrystalDiskMark
Starting off our benchmark suite with CrystalDiskMark, the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 performed admirably. You’ll be able to enjoy high speeds for bootups and loading whenever you face it. In case you’re wondering, it’s the Micron 2300 NVMe SSD.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Cinebench R15
Moving on to Cinebench R15, the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 performs great as the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX proves to be quite the powerhouse compared to other CPUs.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Cinebench R20
The same can be said in Cinebench R20, although it does lose out to the Intel Core i9-11900H. That doesn’t mean it’s weak however, as it’s still a very powerful CPU. I also believe with some further optimizations, it can perform even better.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Unigine SuperPosition 4K Remastered
Now on Unigine SuperPosition’s 4K Optimized benchmark, the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 had a pretty high score given the specifications. The ones it lost to are the higher end graphics cards like the RTX 2080 and 3080 respectively, which makes sense since this is a graphically-intensive benchmark.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – 3DMark Time Spy
A similar pattern can be seen in 3DMark Time Spy, which shows the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 performing admirably here as well. Essentially, while it is powerful, do be reasonable with your expectations, especially if you plan on gaming in 4K resolution. Full HD and 1440p should be more than adequate.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – 3DMark Port Royal
This is even more noticeable in the 3DMark Port Royal, which tests out the ray tracing performance. This is an indication that while you can enable it in your game settings, it would be preferable not to so as to maximize the performance and smoothness in your in-game experience.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – PCMark 10
In PCMark, it shows that the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 works well in all areas; digital content creation, productivity, essentials, and overall. Given how it scored in the 9000s for all areas, I expected the overall score to be higher but perhaps there is some calculations there that I might have missed.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Battery life endurance test
Like most gaming laptops, I’m not too hopeful on battery life given the immense power it usually packs. It does have a hefty 86Whr battery and to my surprise, it lasted 4 hours and 8 minutes (248 minutes). It did better than the Alienware m15 R3, which has the same battery capacity. As for gaming endurance, it lasted 1 hour and 19 minutes (79 minutes), which is understandable given how resource-intensive gaming can get.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Gaming benchmark
Can’t have a gaming laptop review without the gaming benchmarks, and for the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5, it performed exceptionally well. At the highest quality, you can pretty much enjoy a smooth 60FPS gaming experience assuming ray tracing is disabled. It’s worth noting that it is running all games in Full HD as that is the native resolution of the display. If you were to use an external display such as a 1440p or 4K display, be sure to tone down the settings for an overall better gaming experience.
User Experience
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Powered by AMD Ryzen
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 isn’t the most powerful gaming laptop around but it certainly packs quite the punch. It uses the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU. It also has 16GB DDR4 RAM and a healthy 1TB SSD storage. As far as thermals go, the GPU runs pretty cool but the CPU can still get rather hot in the low 90°C range at times.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Display
As for display, this one is using a 15.6-inch Full HD 165Hz display. You get good viewing angles and decent colour reproduction that is more than adequate for gaming. This isn’t ideal for those looking to do colour-accurate work on it, especially as the display is a little dim. It’s worth noting that there is a variant with a QHD panel if you prefer that but personally, this is more than enough.

Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Ports

To my surprise, the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 has reduced the number of ports compared to other Alienware laptops. What we have here is essentially 3 USB-A ports, a USB-C port, an RJ45 LAN port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a proprietary charging port.
The lack of Thunderbolt isn’t a big surprise as most AMD-based laptops lack support for it anyway but the loss of a standalone DisplayPort, Alienware Graphics Amplifier, and memory card reader is a bit of a letdown. One upside is the inclusion of HDMI 2.1 which is a new standard allowing for 4K 120Hz and 8K 60Hz support.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Keyboard
As for the keyboard, we have a per-key RGB chiclet keyboard powered by AlienFX. As we’d expected, it’s still one of the best laptop keyboards around given the good tactility and low travel distance. The keys are also sized well so you won’t accidentally press the wrong key. The trackpad works great but the clicks are a little loud.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Alienware Command Center

If you’d like to personalize the laptop, you will need to make use of the Alienware Command Center software. You can tailor game settings, adjust RGB lightings, and do some simple overclocking. Compared to the previous iteration, I had no trouble getting the software to run. I just had to install some additional modules to get certain features like AlienFX to run, but everything worked smoothly after it’s done. The UI could still use some improvements but it’s just a matter of familiarizing yourself with it.

Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review – Rear

On the sound department, the speakers on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 is better than expected. It’s rather loud, has a little bit of bass, and manages to produce some good clarity. Furthermore, having the audio directed towards you certainly helps a lot. You’re definitely better off with your favourite pair of headphones but this will actually do well enough if you find yourself without one.
Looking for a laptop that’s more dedicated towards productivity rather than gaming? Check out our review of the Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1 by clicking right here.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Verdict
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Review
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 is certainly a powerful gaming machine but some of its missing elements make it feel like you’re missing the full experience. You get powerful performance, good RAM and storage configuration, Wi-Fi 6, HDMI 2.1, one of the best keyboards on a laptop with per-key RGB lighting, 165Hz refresh rate, and a useful Alienware software suite in a portable, yet attractive body.
However, the reduction of ports is seen as an odd choice, CPU thermals could be improved, it is a little bit on the heavy side, and it is pricey as this variant starts at RM9,199. At the end of our Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 review, I award this with our Silver Pokdeward.

Big thanks to Dell Malaysia for sending us this laptop for the purposes of this review.
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Alienware Unveils Revamped Software & New Peripherals, Coming Soon To Malaysia

The new products include both wired and wireless versions; the Alienware Command Centre gets a redesign.
          New version (ACC 6.0)            Old version (ACC 5.x)
Dell’s gaming sub-brand, Alienware, has announced a new version of software is coming with redesign UI, replacing the previous 5.x version which has been plagued with stability issues. The company claims this redesigned software will see improvements on app stability as well, plus a new interface that puts focus on intuitiveness and conforming to adaptive UI/UX. The new home screen now shows a quick summary on all aspects of the system including RGB, performance metrics and game libraries.

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          Alienware AW720H            Alienware AW520H
New products has been announced as well. The new headsets share same design cues but differs from the inside – the AW720H and AW520H share mostly the same specs aside from connectivity options and microphone features. Both will feature the same 40mm Hi-Res certified drivers with Dolby Atmos support, AlienFX RGB lighting, soft memory foam with breathable fabric and adjustable sliding suspension.
Where it differs the most is connectivity. The upper range AW720H is the wireless model with 2.4GHz USB-C dongle (plus USB-A adapter) and 3.5mm wired support; whereas the AW520H runs through standard wired USB for PC or 3.5mm for consoles. The AW720H also comes with 30 hours of battery life, and features onboard controls for volume adjustments.
Alienware AW920K
Next up is the tri-mode wireless gaming keyboard (AW920K) – features 2.4GHz USB-C, Bluetooth 5.1 (connecting up to 3 devices) as well as wired USB paracord cable, the key switches are courtesy of CHERRY MX Red rated for 100 millions keystrokes, with doubleshot PBT keycaps on top of them for fade resistance. It also features a magnetized charging port which should make it easy for users to attach the cables without much hassle.
Alienware AW620M
The last one set to arrive in Malaysia is the AW620M wireless gaming mouse. This ergonomically-shaped gaming mouse supports 2.4GHz and wired USB, with no Bluetooth connectivity seen here. You get 140 hours of usage from 2.4GHz from a full charge; with up to 10 hours from just five minutes of charging. The sensor features up to 26,000 DPI with 650 IPS (inches-per-second) tracking speed, with the optical switches rated for 70 million clicks.
While Alienware says these products will arrive to Malaysia soon, no date has been announced so far – so stay tuned for updates.
Pokdepinion: The new software is definitely a lot more concise and hopefully more stable to use.
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COVID-19 Pandemic Could Make Ubisoft Change Rainbow Six Quarantine Title

Ubisoft’s co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot has said that the company may be swapping the name for Rainbow Six Quarantine due to…well the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rainbow Six Quarantine title change?

As you may recall, the game was announced back in E3 2019 where it is a three player co-op shooter that was inspired by the Outbreak mode in Rainbow Six Siege.
Seeing how the pandemic is still around us, it isn’t surprising to see if the company changes the title of the game. Here’s what Guillemot had to say:

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We are creating a product that is actually.. as it’s named today, it is something we are evaluating and we’ll see what comes in the future (on the title).
Despite the news, it seems that the game will indeed launch later in this year, albeit at an unspecific date. Rainbow Six Quarantine will be available on PC, PS4, Xbox One and we will probably see it on next-gen consoles too.
Ubisoft has recently offered Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China for free. Read more on that by heading to our previous article right here.
For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Source
Pokdepinion: It sounds weird if someone said “let’s play quarantine!”. What do you think? Should Ubisoft change the title? Let us know in the comments.

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Nintendo Switch Online Service Has Amassed Nearly 10 Million Subscribers

Every major console game platform has their own premium online game subscription service. Nintendo is one of the later ones to adopt such a method with the Nintendo Switch Online Service, which launched in September 2018. Within a short period of time, it managed to amass nearly 10 million subscribers.
As revealed during Nintendo’s recent earnings call going over financial numbers from the past fiscal year, it was announced that the Nintendo Switch Online service now boasts over 9.8 million users. This total is comprised of both those who have done a free trial of the service in addition to family memberships. When compared with the most recent sales numbers for the system, this means that almost a third of all Nintendo Switch owners have at one point subscribed to the service.

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Along with revealing general numbers on the Nintendo Switch Online Service, the company also shared some details about Tetris 99, the battle royale version of the classic puzzle game. Nintendo stated that Tetris 99 has been played by over 2.8 million accounts and has boosted activity on the platform. Essentially, it means that nearly 30% of all Nintendo Switch Online users have played Tetris 99 at some point. Nintendo says it will continue to support Tetris 99 in the future with new in-game events.
With the Nintendo Switch Online Service still being relatively new in the market, I’m pretty sure Nintendo is very pleased with the early success thus far. After all, it’s a great and consistent revenue stream for the company.
Source: Nintendo
Pokdepinion: I’ve subscribed to it solely for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Kinda wished it had free games like PS Plus but since it’s affordable, I won’t complain.
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Qualcomm announces slew of upgraded processors

After the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 which is essentially an even faster Snapdragon 820, Qualcomm has decided to give their other processors an upgrade too. Say hello to the Snapdragon 427, Snapdragon 626 and also the Snapdragon 653.
The Snapdragon 427 gets the biggest upgrade here, getting the Qualcomm X9 LTE modem which supports up to 300 Mbps downlink and 150 Mbps uplink, doubling the rates the Snapdragon 425 with the X6 LTE modem was capable of. It also receives an upgrade to its fast charging capabilities, supporting the latest Quick Charge 3.0 technology. Clock speeds are kept the same at 1.4 GHz though.
The Snapdragon 626 is clocked higher this time, with a max clock speed of 2.2 GHz instead of the 2.0 GHz in the Snapdragon 625. The Snapdragon 625 has already proven to be quite potent in the ASUS ZenFone 3, but more performance is always welcome.

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The Snapdragon 653 sees its A72 cluster boosted to 1.95 GHz, compared to 1.80 GHz in the Snapdragon 652, while the LITTLE cluster of A53 cores remains at 1.44 GHz. Aside from the clock speed increases, the Snapdragon 653 is also capable of addressing more RAM now, with a maximum of 8GB instead of the 4GB the Snapdragon 652 can handle.
With the recent upgrades, all the latest processors will offer support for Quick Charge 3.0, faster data rates over LTE and also support for dual camera systems. VoLTE will also be supported across the board, which is a good sign considering telcos like Webe are starting to utilize VoLTE for better quality calls. TruSignal antenna boost technology is also new, which should help to improve reception in congested areas.

The Snapdragon 653 and 626 chipsets are expected to be commercially available by the end of 2016. The Snapdragon 427 chipset is expected to be in commercial devices in early 2017. The new processors are also pin and software compatible with their predecessors, which should allow OEMs to make a painless upgrade to these newer chips.

Pokdepinion: Qualcomm is really moving forward here, but I wish they started manufacturing all their processors on the newest 14nm FinFET manufacturing process. The efficiency improvements are no joke. Perhaps we will have to wait till the next generation then.
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iPhone 12 Pro And iPhone 12 Pro Max Will Be Thinner And Offer 120Hz Display

Ross Young from the DSCC has shared recently of the latest smartphones to offer 120Hz displays and on that list features the newest iPhones.
Upcoming iPhones to offer 120Hz displays and thinner builds

The list features a host of smartphones with the 120Hz capability such as the ASUS ROG Phone II, HUAWEI Mate 40, OPPO Find X2 series, and the OnePlus 8 Pro.
Despite that, the normal variant of the iPhone 12 is more than likely to come with a lower 60Hz display, either using an LCD or OLED panel.

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According to reports, the upcoming iPhone 12 series will come with a thinner build where the iPhone 12 Pro Max is said to be just 7.4mm thick. This is quite the difference when you compare it to the iPhone 11 Pro Max’s 8.1mm thickness.
Even with the thinner build, the source has said that it won’t affect the battery size of the devices as they will use a ‘multi-layer stacked motherboard’ and we could possibly see a slight upgrade in terms of battery capacity.
Other than that, reports suggest that the iPhone 12 will not be offering headphones straight out of the box, where it is said that Apple is aiming to boost the sale of their AirPods by selling it separately.
Source
Pokdepinion: Welcome to the club is all I have to say.
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Oukitel K6000 Plus and Oukitel U16 Max officially launched in Malaysia – U & I for OK Life

Aimed at the budget smartphone market, Oukitel today officially entered into Malaysia market with its new smartphones series. Divided into three separated series, the K series which stands for long and lasting battery life, the U series which sport premium design, and the C series which are affordable devices for everyone.
Oukitel K6000 Plus
The latest Oukitel’s K series smartphone, the Oukitel K6000 Plus features a metallic body with a front mounted fingerprint scanner. It uses a 5.5-inch LTPS panel Japan Display Inc, with a FHD resolution.

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The Oukitel K6000 Plus is powered by a MediaTek 6750T, Samsung’s 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage which is expandable up to 128GB via a microSD card. For the rear camera, it featured a 16MP Sony IMX 298 and 8MP front camera. Its main feature, the large 6080 mAh SCUD battery provide one of the longest battery life and can be used for reverse charging.

The Oukitel K6000 Plus runs on the latest Android Nougat, available in two color options (gray and gold) is priced at RM999 retail.
Oukitel U16 Max
The Oukitel U16 Max is designed to look elegant and comfortable in hand with its aluminium alloy body design. With the thickness at 9.15mm and weighing only 222g, the Oukitel U16 Max features a 6-inch LTPS display by Japan Display Inc.

Powered by a MediaTek MT6753 SoC, it is paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. For camera, it offers a 13MP rear camera and 5MP front selfie camera.

Running on the latest Android Nougat, the Oukitel U16 Max will be available starting in April with a retail price of RM889.
Oukitel K6000 Plus and Oukitel U16 Max Specifications:

Oukitel K6000 PlusOukitel U16 Max

CPU
MediaTek MT6750T
MediaTek MT 6753

RAM
4GB
3GB

Storage
64GB
32GB

OS
Android Nougat
Android Nougat

Display
5.5-inch Full HD with LTPS
6.0-inch HD with LTPS

Resolution
1080 x 1920
720 x 1280

Camera
16MP Rear + 8MP Front
13MP rear + 5MP Front

Micro SD
up to 128GB
Up to 32GB

Battery
6080 mAh SCUD
4000 mAh SCUD

Price
RM999
RM889

Oukitel C3 and C5 Pro
The Oukitel’s C series smartphone targeting lower end market segment with affordable and competitive smartphones price. The Oukitel C3 is a 5.0-inch smartphone with IPS display at HD resolution Under the hood it features a MediaTek MT6580 SoC, paired with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage.

Meanwhile, the Oukitel C5 Pro is powered by a MediaTek MT6737 SoC, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Running on Android 6.0, both Oukitel C3 and C5 Pro are priced at RM 299 and RM399 respectively.
Oukitel C3 and Oukitel C5 Pro Specifications:

Oukitel C3
Oukitel C5 Pro

CPU
Mediatek MT6580
MediaTek MT6737

RAM
1GB
2GB

Storage
8GB
16GB

OS
Android 6.0
Android 6.0

Display
5.0-inch HD
5.0-inch HD

Resolution
720 x 1280
720 x 1280

Camera
8MP rear + 2MP front
8MP rear + 5MP front

Micro SD
Up to 32GB
Up to 32GB

Battery
2000 mAh
2000 mAh

Price
RM299
RM399

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ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie & ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro – A deep dive into front facing dual-lenses camera smartphone

With the announcement of the ASUS ZenFone 4 line-up, the most interesting devices that ASUS has brought about to the market this time around has to be the selfie series – ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie and ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro. This is ASUS’ first ever attempt to bravely bring the dual-lenses to the front facade of the device focusing on what is more of a trend nowadays – taking selfies and wefies. Let’s take a deep dive into what these devices have to offer and why selfie lovers are going to love it!
A selfie galore
ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie (top) and ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro (bottom)
The first thing that is pretty obvious is the fact that both of these smartphones feature dual cameras on the front but separated from each other rather differently. The ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie cameras are separated across the device while the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro cameras are located next to each other. Both of the cameras on each devices have different functionalities, so it is important to understand what they do in order to capture the perfect selfie or wefie.

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On the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie, the main front camera is a 20MP, Omnivision 20880 sensor, 1.0μm pixel size, f/2.0 aperture, 31mm focal length and has a 69° field of view. This allows you to take closer selfies that can capture more details at a higher resolution. When you need a wider angle for wefie, the second camera comes into play with a 8MP, Omnivision 8856 sensor, 1.12μm pixel size, f/2.4 aperture, 12mm focal length and 120° field of view. You can see from the example above how this plays.

Similarly, the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro’s dual camera does exactly the same, only capture more details with better cameras. The main camera is a 24MP SuperPixel, Sony IMX362 sensor with 1.4μm pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, 25mm focal length and 83° field of view.
The main selfie camera on ZenFone 4 Selfie features a very high 20 megapixel resolution, allowing users to shoot the most detailed selfies. Compared to typical front facing smartphone cameras that are about 8 megapixels (3264 x 2448), the 20 megapixel (5140 x 3860) main front camera of the ZenFone 4 Selfie produces photos that look much clearer and detailed on high resolution devices like monitors, and when printed on photo paper as large as A3 size.
On the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro, the main camera features a F1.8 aperture lens and the latest Sony Exmor RS IMX362 image sensor. It has a large 1/2.55” size format, and large 1.4µm pixels.  Combined with the ASUS SuperPixel Engine that intelligently controls sensor light sensitivity and reduces image noise, ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro is able to achieve twice (2x) the light sensitivity of a typical smartphone camera and helps users take beautifully clear and vivid selfies, day or night, indoors or out.
Much of the jargon on the main camera of the ASUS ZenFone Selfie Pro makes sense enough, but the one that has always been a question is the pixel size. So we know that the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro has large 1.4µm pixels, but what does that actually account for? Low light and night photos often turn out blur because the camera needs more time to capture the light from the scene compared to daytime shots where there is a lot more light. To overcome this issue a sensor must be able to capture more light in a shorter amount of time – in other words, it has to be more light sensitive. The sensor of the ZenFone 4 Selfie’s main front camera has extremely large 1.4µm wide pixels that allow it to capture more light in a shorter amount of time compared to conventional sensors in other smartphone cameras.

Another awesome feature that the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro has is the fact that it’s capable of shooting 4K videos! Yes, you heard that right. You can now shoot 4K videos with your front camera! 4K videos are much more beautiful and lifelike compared to standard or even high definition videos.
There’s a whole load of awesomeness in the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie and ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro cameras that we will elaborate further in the future when we do our review of these devices.
Just because these are selfie-centric smartphones, didn’t mean that ASUS wouldn’t throw in some love for the rear camera. Both ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie devices have 16MP, 1.0μm pixel size, 26mm focal length and 80° field of view in the rear cameras. The difference in both devices is that the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie has an Omnivision 16880 sensor and and f/2.0 aperture, while the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro has a Sony IMX351 sensor with f/2.2 aperture.
Device Outlook – Premium metal appearance
The ZenFone 4 Selfie features a lightweight, beautifully slim, polycarbonate shell that has a metallic finish and a unibody construction. Its display’s glass features “2.5D” contouring at the edges which blends it perfectly into the chassis and provides a comfortable grip. It also has one of the slimmest bezels of any smartphone at only 1.65mm, giving it one of the highest screen-to-body ratios too at 74.2%. The frame around the rear camera lens has an engraved detailing that shimmers with a radiant luster when viewed from different angles. Although the ZenFone 4 Selfie has dual front cameras, it is only 7.85mm thick and weighs only 147 grams.
Red is in again, yo!
Different it is, in the case of the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro where it features a beautifully slim, metal unibody that was created by an advanced manufacturing process known as Nano Molding Technology (NMT). Its display is covered by tough Gorilla Glass which is then contoured at the edges. The metal unibody also features a beautiful, diamond-cut chamfer and engraved detailing around the rear camera lens that shimmers with a radiant luster when viewed from different angles. Although the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro has dual front cameras, it is only 6.85mm thick and weighs only 147 grams.
Both devices are 5.5″ with the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie featuring an HD IPS LCD while the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro featuring an FHD AMOLED display.Both of them have 2.5D contoured glass edges, the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro has 1mm slimmer chassis at 6.85mm compared to the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie.

Another notable physical feature of the ZenFone 4 Selfie and the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro is its home button that doubles up as a fingerprint
sensor for rapid unlocking of the phone in 0.3 seconds, and can also be used for authentication by other apps. It lets up to five fingerprints to be registered, and it can detect them regardless of the direction of the fingers placed on it. Not just that, you can also tell that the softkeys are backlit, providing ease of use in your dark area adventures.
Finally, the most notable experience on the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie and the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro would be the responsiveness of the devices. ASUS has heard our prayers and removed a huge number of bloatwares, cutting down to bare minimum software that is only useful to the users. The ZenUI 4.0 definitely delivers a rather unique experience compared to its predecessors. The twin apps feature allows you to  easily create copies of the same app on your phone, so you can stay logged in to two accounts on the same app simultaneously! These may include social or messaging platforms to separate work and play, or two gaming accounts to boost player scores, reduce wait–to-play times or get faster upgrades (farming). At least this is the most favourite feature of the ZenUI 4.0 that ASUS has implemented. We’ll take you to a much deeper tour in our detailed reviews moving forward. Stay tuned.
The ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie is priced at RM1,299 while the ASUS ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro is priced at RM1,799.
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Sony Asia Pacific Hosts World Of Film Campaign

To celebrate the company’s legacy and commitment to the movie making world, Sony Electronics Asia Pacific has announced the World of Film campaign.
Sony World of Film
The campaign starts on the 2nd of August 2021 and runs until the end of the year. Sony hopes to encourage content creators to blossom through the power of their digital imaging equipment.
Sony will be celebrating several unique filmmakers from a diverse range of backgrounds and across a wide range of genres. Their films will be showcased alongside exclusive behind the scenes production footage starting on the 2nd of August itself. In addition to that, these creators will hold workshops sharing insights on how they achieved their cinematic visions.

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As part of the campaign, they will be running a filmmaking competition consisting of two categories: Open Category and Student Category. All submissions must be submitted via the online submission form right here and each of them will be judged based on their artistic excellence in craftsmanship across various aspects of filmmaking.
Winners will first be chosen on a local level before being judged regionally. Local winners will be judged in January 2022 while the regional winner will be judged in February 2022. The local prize winners will receive digital equipment while the grand prize for the regional winner will receive US$15,000 as well as a FX3 with a G Master lens of winner’s choice for the Open Category and US$8,000 and ILCE-7M3 with kit lens and a SEL2870 zoom lens for the Student category.
For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: That’s a big prize waiting for the regional winner but then again, it’s not easy to film. Let’s hope we can see some awesome contents soon!
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Kingston Wins Multiple Cyber Defense Magazine Awards

Kingston has announced that they’ve won several awards which includes the ‘Hot Company Data Loss Prevention’ category from the Cyber Defense Global Awards 2018.
Kingston Wins Several Cyber Defense Magazine Awards
Besides that award, they’ve also won in other categories through both of their IronKey D300 encrypted USB flash drive and UV500 SSD. Apart from that, according to DRAMeXchange, Kingston has also been ranked as No.1 SSD module makers in 2017 with a market share of 23%.
The Global Awards was presented by Cyber Defense Magazine where they honor cyber-defense and information-security innovators. Here’s the full list of what Kingston won at the awards;

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Hot Company Data Loss Prevention
Editor’s Choice Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
Best Product Security Hardware
Most Innovative Data Loss Prevention
Most Innovative Encryption
Next Gen Security Hardware

Cyber Defense Magazine spent six months searching the globe to find the most innovative and cutting-edge cyber security companies for their 2018 Global Awards. They’ve said that Kingston was fitting to win these awards.
Pokdepinion: That’s quite a number of awards won by the company and those categories says a lot about their products.
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Nokia 8.1 Smartphone Review — Nokia’s Value Flagship?

Nokia 8.1 Smartphone Review

While HMD dubbed the Nokia 8.1 as a ‘value flagship’, it is more of a mid-range device as it is packing a Snapdragon 710 chipset. Similar to other recent Nokia smartphones, the Nokia 8.1 is under the Android One program. So what makes this smartphone special? Is it worth your money? Let’s dive right into it, shall we?
Unboxing the Nokia 8.1

So here’s what you get with the Nokia 8.1. There’s the phone itself, the power brick, a USB Type-C cable, a pin to eject the SIM/microSD tray, a user guide, as well as a 3.5mm handsfree kit.

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Appearance

We got our hands on the Blue variant of the Nokia 8.1. On the display side, there’s a rather large notch where the selfie camera resides. There’s also the standard Nokia logo which can be seen on the bottom part here.

Over on the right side, you’ll find the volume rockers and a power button. It is also here where you can clearly see the metal finish which covers all four sides of the Nokia 8.1 smartphone.

Switching over to the left side, the SIM card / MicroSD tray resides here in solitude.

On the top part of the device, you have the 3.5mm jack where you can plug in your headphones / earphones. There’s also a microphone hole on the opposite side of it.

Head down to the bottom of the Nokia 8.1 smartphone and you’ll find the two perforations for the loudspeaker, a USB Type-C port, and yet another microphone hole.

Flip it over and you’ll get a clear look of the Nokia 8.1 smartphone’s glass back. It goes well with the color of choice (in this case, blue). In terms of look, it really does look like a ‘true flagship’. There’s the dual camera setup that’s accompanied by the LED flash and also the fingerprint sensor just beneath it.
Specifications

CPU/Chipset:
Snapdragon 710 Octa-core (2×2.2 GHz 360 Gold & 6×1.7 GHz Kryo 360 Silver), 10nm FinFET

GPU:
Adreno 616

RAM:
4GB LPDDR4

Display:
6.18″ FHD+ (1080p), 18:7:9 PureDisplay, HDR10

Storage:
64GB (up to 400GB via microSD)

Camera:
Main Camera(s)
12 MP, f/1.8, 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS
13 MP, HDR, ZEISS, LED flash, Live Bokeh, Bothie
Front Camera
20MP f/2.0, 0.9µm
AI beautification, Bokeh, AR sticker

OS:
Android 9.0 Pie, Android One

Connectivity:
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz)
Bluetooth 5.0
LTE

SIM:
Hybrid Dual SIM

Battery:
Li-ion 3500 mAh (non-removable)

Dimensions:
154.8 x 75.8 x 8 mm

Weight:
180 g

Performance
Before we begin our usual benchmark suite, I would like to point out once again that the Nokia 8.1 smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 chipset, which is the company’s premium mid-range SoC.

Starting with the Antutu benchmark, it managed to beat the OPPO R17 Pro, which uses the same chipset. It’s not by much but it’s worth noting. It managed to get a decent score, but it’s nothing particularly impressive.

In Geekbench, we can see that the Snapdragon 710 does slightly better when compared to the lesser Snapdragon 660 chipset, which is used on the Mi 8 Lite. This suggests that it has an all-around better CPU, although not by much.

The Nokia 8.1 (Adreno 616) scored higher in all three tests on 3DMark than the OPPO R17 Pro. Despite that, they are way behind when compared to a flagship’s chipset scores. This is to be expected given the chipset that it is using but it’s a good indication that you should manage to enjoy a decent gaming experience.

PCMark performance test shows that the device actually managed to score higher than the original Nokia 8, which uses a higher-end Snapdragon 835 chipset and was the company’s flagship smartphone previously.

The battery test results of the Nokia 8.1 is below my expectations. It lasted 9 hours and 55 minutes. While this may be considered a decent score, you’d also need to take in the fact that it comes with an above than average battery capacity of 3,500mAh under the hood.
In terms of my daily usage, I find that the phone can easily last me up to 1 and 1/2 days before i feel the need to recharge it (usually around 15%). With a 30-minute charge, I found that the phone was able to charge 24% of its 3,500mAh battery capacity, using the charging brick that was provided. It’s not bad, but not impressive at the same time. So the next time you’re planning on going out, be sure to plan that out.
User Experience

When it comes to aesthetics, the Nokia 8.1 smartphone certainly does feel and look like a premium device. The display is pretty decent, colors are vibrant, and it also has support for HDR10 content.
The fingerprint sensor on the back does the job and it’s pretty fast in picking up your prints. For a Nokia device, the Nokia 8.1 was probably one of the smoothest experience I had from their lineup. There was no lags or delays when I was using it and performance has been rather snappy.
I felt that the phone had a notch that was way too big. If you compare it to another device that has a similar sized notch, they’d at least put in LED notifications or even infrared lens to fill in the space. For the Nokia 8.1 smartphone, the space is as empty as my soul, so I can’t see the reason why they opted for a notch of that size.
In terms of connectivity, it appears that the phone doesn’t support LTE-A, commonly known as 4G+ here in Malaysia. Even so, I’ve been getting good reception here using Hotlink / Maxis so most people shouldn’t have problems with it either.

The phone’s UI offers the smoothest experience yet from Nokia based on my experience as it was buttery smooth, with no lags whatsoever. The Snapdragon 710 pretty much does the job in the Nokia 8.1.

Coming to the camera’s UI, it’s quite straightforward and what you’d expect from a device in this price range. There’s a couple of features like Live Bokeh and Nokia’s very own Bothie feature which allows you to capture both front and back of the phone at the same time. Its Pro mode gives you more control as it allows you to adjust the white balance, shutter speed, exposure, and focus mode.

If you’ve used their previous Nokia 7 Plus, the Nokia 8.1 comes with the same 12MP+13MP rear camera combo but this time around, it offers optical image stabilization (OIS) as well as a depth sensor for those instagram-worthy bokeh shots.

Shots with adequate lighting is pretty decent. As for night-shots, you’d notice some noise. I wished that they had offered a night-mode, a feature that some devices on Android 9 Pie are already packing. Other than that, the AI in the camera doesn’t really help much. More likely than not, it just won’t focus on where I want to. This is especially the case when I took shots of buildings. Close objects and person was okay though. One thing that irks me with the phone is the Nokia watermark. I think that it’s just too big and doesn’t make the pictures feel ‘special’.
You can check out the full-sized images here on Flickr.
Nokia 8.1 Verdict
Let’s get this straight, the Nokia 8.1 smartphone isn’t really a flagship. It is more of a higher end mid-range device. Priced at RM1,699, the Nokia 8.1 will surely make some people think twice before purchasing because of what the specifications offer. They could’ve add in more RAM and storage or even offer fast charging to justify the price. Its price tag is slightly higher than what I would’ve expected.
Don’t get me wrong though, I was quite satisfied with the phone. The number one thing that I look for when I use a device is the experience of daily use and how smooth that the device can offer me, and the Nokia 8.1 didn’t let down. This phone looks one of a kind and it certainly won’t disappoint Nokia fans anywhere. Therefore, I am giving the Nokia 8.1 our bronze medal.

We would like to thank HMD/Nokia for the Nokia 8.1 that was used in this review.
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HyperX Cloud Core Wireless Review – Needs Rather Than Wants

Unboxing the HyperX Cloud Core Wireless
HyperX Cloud Core Wireless Review – Box

Let’s kick off the HyperX Cloud Core Wireless review with the unboxing. The packaging comes in your standard HyperX design, clad in their signature red and white colour scheme. There’s all sorts of information on the features of the headset listed on the box itself. Inside it, you can find the following items:
HyperX Cloud Core Wireless Review – Box content

Quick Start guide
HyperX customer support leaflet
DTS: Headphone:X leaflet
USB-A to USB-C cable
Detachable mic
USB wireless receiver
The HyperX Cloud Core Wireless gaming headset itself

Specifications

Frequency Response
20Hz – 6.8kHz

Impedance
60 Ω

Sensitivity
99 dBSPL / mW @ 1 KHz (HATS)

Connectivity
Wireless (2.4GHz)

Battery
Lithium Polymber
30 hours run time
3 hours charging timen

Cable
0.5m USB-C charging cable

Drivers
Dynamic, 53mm with neodymium magnets

Noise Cancelation
Passive

Microphone
Electret condenser microphone
Bi-directional, noise-cancelling

Isolation
Closed back

Earcup
Memory foam

RGB
No

Audio Technology
DTS Headphone:X

Weight
283g (without mic)
294g (with mic)

Mic Test

https://pokde.net/assets/uploads/2022/07/HyperX-Cloud-Core-Wireless-Mic-Test.mp3
The microphone on the HyperX Cloud Core Wireless isn’t studio quality by any means. However, it does capture a nice, clear vocal quality with minimal background noise. It will certainly make a great headset for voice chat and online calls, anything other than professional recording, of course. New livestreamers could also make do with this as well, with a proper upgrade saved for later on.
Looking for a high performance DDR4 RAM? Check out our Kingston FURY Renegade DDR4-4600 CL19 review by clicking right here.

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The Good
HyperX Cloud Core Wireless Review – Wearing the headset
The first good thing about the HyperX Cloud Core Wireless is how comfortable it is. It’s lightweight at under 300g and uses memory foam for cushioning. Granted, it can get a bit warm after long hours but given the price point and what you’re getting, it’s hard to complain.
Secondly, you get to enjoy good audio positioning, which is very important for games. If you frequently play Valorant, Apex Legends, or similar games, the direction of sounds is very important as you get to tell where the enemies are based on footsteps, weapon noises, and anything in between. If you want something more immersive, you can make use of DTS Headphone:X for that.
HyperX Cloud Core Wireless Review – USB-C port
Next up, the HyperX Cloud Core Wireless has a consistent, stable wireless connection with good range. In a 1,000 square feet apartment, I can go around the entirety of my house without any disconnection issues whatsoever. In case you’re wondering, the wireless range is said to be up to 20 meters.
In case you’re not a fan of peripherals that comes with a mandatory use of proprietary software, that isn’t the case here. It’s plug and play so as long as there is still some battery life left, just plug in the wireless receiver and you’re good to go. Lastly, the HyperX Cloud Core Wireless is pretty affordable, at least within wireless gaming headset standards. At RM479, you get a no-frills wireless gaming headset that simply works.
The Bad
HyperX Cloud Core Wireless Review
The first drawback on the HyperX Cloud Core Wireless is the battery life. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad but if you’re the kind of person who relies primarily on a single audio device, you will likely find yourself charging this everyday, if not once every two days. Your mileage may vary but I get about 20-25 hours of battery life per full charge depending on the volume I set it to.
Secondly, it lacks some of the features that would really pique the interest of gamers, especially those who rely on a single audio device. It doesn’t have any fancy RGB lighting, and it lacks Bluetooth support. The latter is a bit of a shame as the microphone quality is more than enough for calls, which would have been nice to use for. Given the price, it’s still forgivable.
Lastly, the sound isolation on the headsets could certainly be improved. It does a good job of fitting securely on my head but I believe the materials used made it easy for me to hear the sound around me. On the plus side, if you’re worried that someone around might call for you, then this would be a benefit but if you want a more focused experience, you might not enjoy this as much.
HyperX Cloud Core Wireless Verdict
HyperX Cloud Core Wireless Review
The HyperX Cloud Core Wireless has plenty to offer from a value standpoint. If all you need is a simple yet effective wireless gaming headset, then look no further. If you have specific, aesthetically-focused needs, then it’s best to check first whether this headset offers it or not, as it’s likely pointing towards no.
At the end of our HyperX Cloud Core Wireless review, I award this gaming headset with our Silver Pokdeward.

Big thanks to Image Media for sending us this gaming headset for the purpose of this review.
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Cooler Master celebrates formation of Team MBT.Valkyrie; Malaysia’s First All-Female Overwatch Team!

Malaysia’s homegrown pro-gaming team, Malaysian Battlefield Team (MBT) has long expanded beyond being just a band of Battlefield players, and are now celebrating the formation of their first all-female Overwatch team, MBT.Valkyrie.

Since collaborating with Cooler Master last year, they have continued to hit milestone after milestone, taking home 1st prize at the MSI Overwatch Open Tournament 2017 and is the Second Runner Up in the Overwatch MSI MGA Dragon Cup 2017. Their goal is inspiring younger members to strive in eSports while shaping a positive gaming community in Malaysia. The team’s effort to achieve their goals include organizing Cyberfusion 2016 community events and show-matches, proving their capabilities and sustainability.

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With the formation of the all-female team, Cooler Master and MBT have reached yet another milestone in building a more diverse and inclusive gaming community. Cooler Master will support this new team with cases, power supplies, thermal solutions and peripherals to allow them to pursue their dreams.

Team MBT.Valkyrie will consist of:

Sylvia “Yue” Yap
Elaine “Bloodyrukia” Chern
Alice “EvieNya” Chong
Angeline “iCaramel” Chan
Tan “GrilledKoi” Yen Li
Amanda “Hamlet” Yow
Yuukii “Kusochii” Yong

We wish Team MBT.Valkyrie all the best, may your heroes never die!
Pokdepinion: We always welcome more pro-gaming teams in Malaysia, as we can never have enough of them. With Malaysian talents already hitting the big time in DOTA 2, it’s only a matter of time until Overwatch players from Malaysia making waves in the international arena.
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HTC Zoe – Now public

Good news to those who want to use the HTC Zoe function which was previously only available to HTC phones! It is now available for all Android phones running Android version 4.4 (KitKat) or later. However do note it is currently in beta which means it might have bugs.
For the uninitiated, Zoe allows you to conveniently make slideshow videos from your photos and music collection.
For those who are interested, go ahead to https://www.zoe.com and find out more. Or just go ahead and download it right away from Google Play.

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2022 ROG Zephyrus M16 and ROG Strix G lineup coming to Malaysia from RM5399!

ASUS Malaysia has just announced the latest additions to the 2022 ROG lineup, comprising of the ROG Zephyrus M16 and ROG Strix G series. The ROG Zephyrus M16 mainly received a hardware refresh, while the ROG Strix G15 and ROG Strix G17 gets a refreshed design, available in two unique colorways and of course, new hardware under the hood as well.
ROG Zephyrus M16 (2022)

On the outside, there really isn’t any difference. You still get the beautiful off-black finish with the vibrant Prismatic Film under the CNC-milled holes on the lid, and the smooth soft-touch coating on the palm rest area. But given that the ROG Zephyrus M16 is still one of the best looking laptops from ROG yet, I guess we can let the lack of a new design slide.

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But what’s important is what’s under the hood, and for the 2022 refresh we get the new 12th Gen Intel Core processors and up to the latest GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics. Considering that the last-gen ROG Zephyrus M16 topped out at the GeForce RTX 3070, the 2022 model should deliver a very welcome boost in terms of both CPU and GPU performance.

ASUS also equipped the ROG Zephyrus M16 (2022) with the latest ROG Nebula display, offering a sharp 16:10 WQXGA resolution, as well as stunning color gamut coverage with 100% DCI-P3 support. While specifications wise it is very similar to yesteryear’s ROG Zephyrus M16, the ROG Zephyrus M16 (2022) gets Dolby Vision support, as well as the new MUX Switch, that allows for improved performance by connecting the display directly to the dedicated GPU.
ROG Zephyrus M16 (2022) Specs and Price in Malaysia

GU603Z-MK8054W
GU603H-WK8060W
GU603Z-XK8044W

Processor
Intel Core i9-12900H, 14C (6P + 8E)/20T @ up to 5.0GHz
Intel 7

RAM
16GB DDR5-4800 (8GB on-board + 8GB SO-DIMM)
32GB DDR5-4800 (16GB on-board + 16GB SO-DIMM)

Graphics
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6, max 120W TGP
MUX Switch
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8GB GDDR6, max 120W TGP
MUX Switch
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 16GB GDDR6, max 120W TGP
MUX Switch

Storage
1 x 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
1 x vacant M.2 slot
1 x 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
1 x vacant M.2 slot
1 x 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
1 x vacant M.2 slot

Connectivity
WiFi 6E + Bluetooth 5.2
1 x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (40Gbps)
1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (10Gbps)
1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (10Gbps)
1 x USB 3.0 Type-A (5Gbps)
1 x microSD reader
1 x RJ45 LAN

Display
ROG Nebula Display
16″ WQXGA (2560 x 1600) 16:10 165Hz IPS-level display
Pantone Validated, 100% DCI-P3, Adaptive Sync, Dolby Vision
1 x HDMI 2.0b
2 x DisplayPort Alt Mode over Type-C

Power
240W power adapter
90WHr 4-cell Li-Po battery
100W USB-PD charging support

Dimensions
355 x 243 x 19.9 mm

Weight
1.9kg

Price
RM8099
RM11 499
RM16 499

Availability
April~May onwards
March 2022

Bundled Items
ROG Backpack
100W Type-C AC Adapter
ROG Backpack
ROG Chakram Core
100W Type-C AC adapter
ROG Backpack
ROG Chakram Core
ROG Delta headset
100W Type-C AC adapter

Interestingly enough, ASUS managed to offer us better value with the refresh, with the 12th Gen model starting at RM900 lower. You do get a smaller 512GB SSD instead of the 1TB SSD that was included in the 11th Gen Intel Core model, but hey, the CPU and memory upgrades more than makes up for it.
ROG Strix G15/G17 (2022)
          2022 ROG Strix G15 Eclipse Gray            2022 ROG Strix G15 Electro Punk            2022 ROG Strix G15 Volt Green
If you want something that’s flashier and more affordable, the ROG Strix G15 and ROG Strix G17 are probably perfect for you. The ROG Strix G15 and ROG Strix G17 this year have been refreshed with the latest AMD Ryzen 7 6800H processors, which brings with it support for DDR5 memory, PCIe 4.0 storage and also improved performance. You also get a MUX Switch to better take advantage of the dedicated graphics.

Esports gamers can also look forward to the 300Hz and 360Hz panel options available with the ROG Strix G15 and ROG Strix G17, respectively. Unfortunately if you want a funkier color option, you won’t get the choice of the more performant displays, which can be a slight bummer.
ROG Strix G Series (2022) Specs and Price in Malaysia

ROG Strix G15 (2022)
ROG Strix G17 (2022)

Model Number
G513R-CHN060W
G513R-CHN086W
G513R-CHN100W
G513R-MHF049W
G513R-MHF278W
G713R-MKH160W
G713R-MKH172W

Color
Eclipse Gray
Volt Green
Electro Punk
Eclipse Gray

Processor
AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, 8C/16T @ up to 4.7GHz, 6nm

RAM
8GB DDR5-4800
(1 x 8GB SO-DIMM, total 2 x SO-DIMM slots)
16GB DDR5-4800 (1 x 16GB SO-DIMM, total 2 x SO-DIMM slots)

Graphics
AMD Radeon Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4GB GDDR6, max 95W TGP
MUX Switch
AMD Radeon Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6, max 140W TGP
MUX Switch

Storage
1 x 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD
1 x slot vacant
1 x 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD
1 x slot vacant
1 x 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD
1 x slot vacant
1 x 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD
1 x slot vacant

Connectivity
WiFi 6E + Bluetooth 5.2
2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C (10Gbps)
2 x USB 3.0 Type-A (5Gbps)
1 x 2.5GbE RJ45 LAN

Display
15.6″ FHD 144Hz IPS display
250 nits, 62.5% sRGB, Adaptive Sync
1 x HDMI 2.0b
1 x DisplayPort Alt Mode over USB-C
15.6″ FHD 300Hz IPS display
300 nits, 100% sRGB, Adaptive Sync
1 x HDMI 2.0b
1 x DisplayPort Alt Mode over USB-C
17.3″ FHD 360Hz IPS display
300 nits, 62.5% sRGB, Adaptive Sync
1 x HDMI 2.0b
1 x DisplayPort Alt Mode over USB-C

Power
56WHrs, 4-cell Li-ion battery
200W power adapter
USB-PD support
90WHrs, 4-cell Li-ion battery
240W power adapter
USB-PD support

Dimensions
354 x 259 x 25.9 mm
354 x 259 x 27.2 mm
395 x 282 x 28.3 mm

Weight
2.1kg
2.3kg
2.9kg

Price
RM5399
RM5399
RM5599
Coming soon

Availability
March 2022

Bundled Items
ROG Backpack
Pink ROG Backpack
ROG Strix Impact II Electro Punk
ROG Sheath Electro Punk Limited Edition
ROG Backpack

If you are waiting for the ROG Flow Z13, new ROG Zephyrus G14… Well, stay tuned. Those are coming soon too!

Pokdepinion: Surprisingly ASUS managed to bring down the starting price of the Zephyrus M16, while also offering an upgrade in terms of the CPU. Good stuff!
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ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL Review — Big Battery Maximum Satisfaction?

Some of you folks out there might be a little confused, wasn’t the big-battery’d ASUS Zenfone 3 Max released like mid-year last year? Why are we only reviewing it now? Well my dear readers this is actually a re-release of that very device now with a few new features such as a new processor  which sees the device swapping the quad-core Mediatek MT6737M found on the old ASUS Zenfone 3 Max with an octa-core Snapdragon 430.
A slightly bumped up 16MP camera with laser autofocus rather than a 13MP camera with no laser autofocus from the old device. Also a bigger 5.5″ 1080p HD compared to its predecessor’s 720p HD display. So with all these upgrades is the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL actually good? Read on folks to find out.
Unboxing

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The ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL comes in a pretty low-key box. A front and back image of the device itself is featured prominently on the top of the box with the 4100mAh battery size plastered proudly next to it. At the bottom of the box we have your various bar-codes and what not.

Here we have the phone in a simple tight plastic sleeve. Just enough to prevent the phone from getting unnecessarily scratched or scuffed while in the box.

Here’s everything out of the box. Apart from the phone itself you get the usual suspects. Some documents regarding the phone, an OTG cable for reverse charging another phone, a micro USB cable, a SIM card ejector pin and a standard 5.2W charger. I have to say the inclusion of a standard charger by ASUS is surprising considering the phone’s humongous battery and the Snapdragon 430’s Quick Charge 3.0 support. Also, no earphones.
Appearance

At first glance you’ll notice that ASUS has ditched their signature concentric-circle design at the bottom of the device that was pretty much prevalent on the older generation of Zenfones. This is probably a conscious design choice as it allows for a much bigger screen to body ratio on the device. A 72.3% screen-to-body ratio to be exact.
You’ll find a 5.5″ 1080×1280 full HD IPS LCD display. Below the screen you’ll find three non-backlit capacitive buttons that’ll make it a little tough to use in the dark (wth ASUS).

I’m really glad that ASUS has finally moved on from their all plastic look the previous generation of the Zenfone line had. The ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL has an aluminum unibody broken up slightly with two deep and shiny antenna lines at the top and bottom. The slightly curved sides makes the device very comfortable to hold. However, due to the curved sides it gets a tad bit slippery at times, so fair warning to all those butterfingers out there! Remember, a protective is your best friend.
The 16MP camera is placed at the top middle of the device with a dual LED flash on one side and a laser focusing sensor on the other. Below the camera is the fingerprint sensor.

On the top right of the device you’ll find the volume rocker and the lock button right under it. ASUS has relegated their signature concentric-design to these side buttons.

You’ll find a standard microUSB port and a single speaker grille right next to it at the bottom of the device.

Here’s the 5.2W charger that comes shipped together with the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL.
Specifications

CPU:
Octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 Qualcomm MSM8937 Snapdragon 430

GPU
Adreno 505

RAM
3GB LPDDR3

Display:
5.5″ 1080×1280 full HD IPS LCD display

Storage:
32GB internal (expandable with microSD up to 128GB)

Camera:
16 MP, f/2.0, phase detection & laser autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash
8 MP, f/2.2 front camera

OS:

Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with ASUS ZenUI 3.0

Connectivity:
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot
Bluetooth 4.1

SIM:
microSIM (dual SIM support)

Battery:
Non-removable Li-Ion 4100 mAh battery

Performance

The ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL didn’t really fare well when it comes to benchmarking. The overall AnTuTu score was actually slightly lower than the ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser. However it did outscore both the OPPO F1s and the VIVO V5 by a whisker or two.

Here are the 3DMark scores for the ASUS Zenphone 3 Max ZC553KL. The Snapdragon 430 is the culprit here.

Here are the PCMark scores for the ASUS Zenphone 3 Max ZC553KL.

Here are the CPU performance scores for the ASUS Zenphone 3 Max ZC553KL. Performance measured by Geekbench.

What do you call a device that proudly emphasizes its huge battery that couldn’t even last a full day before you have to plug it in for a top-up? A disappointment. My usage was fairly non-straining with only the occasional game every now and then. Also, with ASUS not providing a fast charging charger bundled together with the device means that charging the device is a pain. A huge colossal pain. A single charging session can easily take a whopping 5 hours to fully charge.
3 hours to full charge. What’s up with that ASUS?
Oh the irony is strong with this one.
User Experience

The ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL features your standard hybrid dual SIM card tray which to be quite honest I’ve never been that huge fan of. I’d rather a easier dual micro SIM tray and a separate slot for your microSD but c’est la vie.

The ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL feels really good in the hand. It has a good heft to it without feeling like you’re carrying around an object that could cause severe blunt force trauma. The curved sides adds another layer of comfort when holding it. It’s a little slippery though because of the curved edges. Oh how I miss the curved arch on the back of the old Zenfone devices. That really was a stroke of designing genius from ASUS. Here’s hoping they’d bring that back somehow in the future.

The Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL features a reverse charging feature where you essentially turn the device into a powerbank using the OTG cable provided in the box.

The responsiveness of the fingerprint sensor is a little iffy at times. Sometimes you’ll find yourself re-adjusting your finger quite a few times before you can unlock your phone which can be annoying. Other times however, the phone fires up at the slightest brush of your fingertip on the sensor. Most of these happen just as you’re sliding your phone into your pocket hence pocket dialing somebody will be a less rarer occurrence. Oh how ASUS trolls.

Nothing beats ZenUI. Tell me any other and I’ll fight you. The Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 with  ZenUI 3.0 is such a joy to use. The overall clean look and the abundance of custom choices makes this one of the best custom Android skin made by a manufacturer. Sure it does come with some bloatware but nowhere near as many as other manufacturers’ custom skins which proves that ASUS has been listening to feedback.

ZenUI 3.0 also comes with a some great and useful features such as the on board Mobile Manager which manages your applications and helps you shut down any background apps that might be running. ASUS also provided an aptly named gaming-centric Game Genie where you can actually record your gameplay in-game and share it to your friends on social media. You can even live-stream your game on YouTube.

The ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL sports a 16MP f2.0/ camera made by Sony that really packs a meaty punch when taking pictures. Leaps and bounds better than its predecessor. It also features a few photo capturing modes like a manual mode, a super resolution mode, a HDR pro and a few others. However, the decision to use EIS rather than the superior OIS hurts the quality a little.
At the front is an 8MP f2.2/ front camera that takes selfies that look better than most. Take a gander at these sample photos I took with the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL down below.
Auto Mode
HDR Pro Mode
Low-light shot
Selfie with the beutifying features turned down
Selfie with the beutifying features turned all the way up
Super Resolution Mode
Super Resolution Mode Close-Up
The camera on the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL won’t topple any of the mobile photography heavy hitters like the Samsung Galaxy 7, iPhone 7 Plus or the Google Pixel but it definitely does its job admirably. The photos taken on the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL are clear, crisp and overall quality satisfying. The ‘little smartphone camera that could if you will’.
Conclusion
The ASUS Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL is an interesting smartphone. On one hand you’ve got all these solid features that points to a upper mid-range device bracket but on the other hand, Snapdragon 430. It coughs and sputters through all of the benchmark tests and it’s a wonder why ASUS went with such an under-powered processor. It’s also interesting to point out how the battery performance doesn’t actually perform as how ASUS had advertised. Also a fast charging charger should’ve been provided together with the device itself.

But not all is bad. You’ve got a beautifully designed phone with fantastic build quality, an exceptional Operating System that trumps almost all other custom OS and a surprisingly good camera. All in one neat package that retails at a slightly hefty RM999. Would I recommend this to anyone? Depends. If you’re specifically looking for a phone that could last you longer than most phones before you have to plug it in to charge then yes. If not then I’d rather you add another few hundred ringgit and get the 5.2″ ASUS Zenfone 3 ZE520KL.
UPDATE: Hugely dissatisfied with the unexpectedly disappointing battery life I decided to try and hunt down and isolate any apps that might be sucking up more battery juice than they should and after much tinkering I have identified the main culprit. Turns out the Facebook Messenger app is eating up the bulk of my battery life and after uninstalling that the Zenfone 3 Max ZC553KL lasted significantly more than just one day.
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HUAWEI P50 Pocket Review — just sheer extravagance

HUAWEI’s recent launch of the HUAWEI P50 Pocket was probably quite shocking. The pricing was indeed quite high, with prices starting from RM5999. HUAWEI did cram quite a lot into the HUAWEI P50 Pocket, and gave it a very unique design unlike any other foldable out there. But, is it really worth shelling out RM6000 for this smartphone? Well, that’s what we are here to find out.
Unboxing

The packaging of the HUAWEI P50 Pocket is pretty simple, as is usual for HUAWEI flagships. And of course, there’s the AppGallery logo at the bottom, in case you aren’t aware that recent HUAWEI flagships no longer rely on the Play Store for their apps and are instead reliant on the HUAWEI AppGallery in the HUAWEI Mobile Services ecosystem.

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Lifting off the lid, you will get to lay your eyes on the HUAWEI P50 Pocket, laid out flat. The paper sleeve protecting it reminds you that this is a foldable device, and lists down a few warnings to protect the device from damage. Overall, pretty standard stuff, including a reminder that there will be crease, and that it’s normal. Don’t stress over it.

In the box you get a two-piece case to protect your device, the mandatory SIM ejector, and the increasingly rare charger. Yes, HUAWEI is still including a charger with the HUAWEI P50 Pocket, and not just any charger, but a 40W SuperCharge one. I guess that’s a tick in the box — pun not intended — in terms of value. AFAIK no other foldable come with a charger in the box anymore. Retail units should come with some additional documentation, but our sample did not come with any of that.
Appearance

HUAWEI went with a rather unique crosshatch pattern. I am personally not a big fan of this, but it sure looks different, and it does feel quite special as you run your finger across the squares. The two circular holes are house the circular OLED cover screen and the triple camera setup, for a nice bit of symmetry. This not only fits right into the HUAWEI P50 family’s design language, but also helps it stand out from the rest of the foldables in the market.

The inner flexible display is a sizeable 6.9″, that’s just slightly taller than 21:9. Despite the fact that the external display can be used to frame selfies using the main cameras — and that’s one of the highlights of the HUAWEI P50 Pocket — HUAWEI still included a selfie camera at the top of the display. More on that later though.

Something that will please those who aren’t particularly a fan of their smartphones looking like little wedges would probably be quite happy to know that the two halves of the HUAWEI P50 Pocket sit flush against each other. There’s no gap at the hinge, and it looks like a well-polished foldable device. It’s also quite a bit thinner when folded, which probably is a great thing when it comes to pocketability. I mean, it is named the HUAWEI P50 Pocket, after all. The fingerprint scanner and volume button are all on the right, which is pretty standard.

Along the bottom, you get a pretty standard USB-C port, and that’s all the ports you are gonna get on this thing. There is no headphone jack, which I guess you would have already expected if you have seen any of HUAWEI’s previous flagships. The two grilles host the microphone and primary loudspeaker, with the secondary loudspeaker role handled by the earpiece.
HUAWEI P50 Pocket Specifications

CPU
Snapdragon 888 4G, 5nm FinFET
1 x Cortex-X1 @ 2.84 GHz + 3 x Cortex-A78 @ 2.42 GHz + 4 x Cortex-A55 @ 1.80 GHz

GPU
Adreno 660

Memory
Up to 8GB

Storage
Up to 512GB

Display
Cover Screen: 1.04″ 340 x 340 60Hz OLED display
Main Screen: 6.9″ FHD+ (2790 x 1180) 120Hz flexible OLED display, 10-bit color

Audio
Dual speakers

Camera
40MP f/1.8 True-Chroma Camera
13MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, macro AF
32MP f/1.8 Ultra Spectrum Camera
Fluorescence, Story Creator, Audio Zoom, High-res, Time-Lapse, Ultra Wide Angle Lens, Aperture, Dual-View Video, Night, Macro, Portrait, Pro, Slow-Mo, Panorama, Monochrome,Filter, Stickers, Documents, Master AI, Moving Picture, Ultra Snapshot, 4D Predictive Focus,  Capture Smiles, Audio Control, Timer, Burst Shooting, Snapshot

Selfie camera
10.7MP f/2.2 selfie camera
Slow-Motion, Intelligent Field of View, Portrait, Panorama, Time-Lapse, Moving Picture, Filter, Stickers, Capture Smiles, Mirror Reflection, Audio Control, Timer

Connectivity
Dual SIM
Primary: LTE Band 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 7/ 8/ 12/ 17/ 18/ 19/ 20/ 26/ 28/ 32/ 34/ 38/ 39/ 40/ 41
Secondary: LTE Band 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 7/ 8/ 12/ 17/ 18/ 19/ 20/ 26/ 28/ 34/ 38/ 39/ 40/ 41
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
USB 2.0, Type-C

Software
EMUI 12

Battery
4000mAh
40W HUAWEI SuperCharge

Dimensions
Folded: 87.3 x 75.5 x 15.2 mm
Unfolded: 170 x 75.5 x 7.2 mm

Weight
190g

Ingress protection
N/A

Performance

The HUAWEI P50 Pocket is probably testament that the smartphone makers themselves has a lot to do when it comes to hitting specific performance targets. We see the Snapdragon 888 here underperform even the last-gen Snapdragon 865, which is a very peculiar showing.

Over in Geekbench, which tests the CPU performance, we can see that the CPU performance falls short of the Snapdragon 865 once again, and it also ever so slightly trails its brethren, the HUAWEI P50 Pro. In fact the HUAWEI P50 Pocket even loses to the venerable Kirin 990 5G, which was also under the hood of some of HUAWEI’s last-gen flagships like the HUAWEI P40 Pro 5G.

This trend of lagging behind last-gen processors finally ends with 3DMark, where it finally comes up ahead in the Wild Life Unlimited benchmark. Unfortunately that’s the only thing we see the HUAWEI P50 Pocket winning in, as it lags behind the Snapdragon 865 once again in the other 3DMark benchmarks using older APIs.

3DMark which is probably a more realistic test with real-world workloads also see the HUAWEI P50 Pocket lag behind, so it’s not really an issue with being not well-optimized for benchmarks. The HUAWEI P50 Pocket seems to feature a detuned Snapdragon 888, on top of losing its 5G capabilities.

Battery life is a pretty strong point though, with its 4000mAh battery giving it a pretty decent 7 hours with the higher 120Hz refresh rate, and an impressive 9 hours when we dialed it down to 60Hz. Considering that the Snapdragon 888 is not known to be a particularly efficient chipset, this is a great showing, and probably partially explains the dismal benchmark figures. Perhaps HUAWEI was targeting efficiency over raw performance?
In any case, the 40W SuperCharge brings the battery from 5% to 59% in 30 minutes, which is good, but definitely quite a bit slower than some of the faster charging technologies we have seen recently, including from HUAWEI themselves, in the HUAWEI P50 Pro. With that said, this is probably one of the fastest charging foldable smartphones in the market right now.
User Experience
Display and Audio

HUAWEI went with a great flexible display here, one that’s capable of 120Hz and 10-bit color, which means that it can display up to 1.07 billion colors. You don’t get true DC dimming here, but it has a 1440Hz PWM dimming that’s makes the pulses invisible to the naked eye, and also to cameras, even at minimum brightness. There’s also a touch polling rate of 300Hz, which is right up there with the gaming phones, so really, this OLED display here doesn’t sacrifice anything to be flexible.

One other thing that HUAWEI did really well is to minimize the crease. I was actually trying quite hard to show the crease on camera, but in most usage scenarios you won’t ever notice the crease. You will actually have to look for the crease to actually see it, and in normal operation, where you will be looking directly at the display, it is mostly invisible.

There is a dual-speaker configuration packed into this tiny device, and it does sound pretty good. Now, I do recommend listening to music with the HUAWEI P50 Pocket open, as the earpiece doubles as a secondary speaker. It generally handles the upper frequencies, while the bottom speaker tries to pump out some bass. I found that the earpiece isn’t able to keep up with the bottom loudspeaker, and the sound does end up lopsided, but then again I am probably not supposed to do any sort of critical listening on the built-in speakers. I would say that the HUAWEI P50 Pocket’s speakers sound decent, but not as good as some 2021 flagships I have tested.
Software

HUAWEI has clearly been hard at work at optimizing the software experience with EMUI 12. While EMUI 11 still looked severely outdated, EMUI 12 refreshes the overall UI slightly. We now have sleeker icons, a fancier dropdown Control Panel and overall what looks like a good step in the right direction.

Swiping to the left of the homescreen also gives you the Assistant•Today home screen, that’s customizable with a limited selection of widgets, not unlike what Apple added to iOS 15 with Today View. Of course, EMUI 12 also supports your regular Android app’s widgets on the regular home screen so you can just pack your HUAWEI P50 Pocket’s home screen(s) full of widgets, if you see fit.
AppGallery has also seen some improvements, with much better adoption by app developers. Most of your frequently used apps in Malaysia like MySejahtera, TNG eWallet, MAE or Maybank2u are all available from the App Gallery natively. Meanwhile for apps that are not available on the AppGallery, HUAWEI’s improved integration of Petal Search makes things much easier.

Instead of having to download the third-party app stores separately, you can now download directly via Petal Search, and the apps will be sourced from APKPure. It will even pull updates from APKPure to be delivered via the AppGallery. One thing worth noting is that apps like Genshin Impact that are in APKPure’s XAPK format cannot be downloaded this way, and you will need to download the APKPure app separately to be able to get the larger apps that are available as XAPK files on APKPure. But hey, still a big step in the right direction, and I managed to get most of the apps I needed without having to resort to downloading third party app stores.

UI wise, there really isn’t much separating the HUAWEI P50 Pocket from its predecessors. I do quite like the clean-ish UI, with quick access to most of the settings you need. The Fluorescence mode is a unique feature that’s only available to the HUAWEI P50 Pocket, but I would say that it’s probably not going to be of importance to anyone.
Camera

The trio of cameras on the HUAWEI P50 Pocket is quite a confusing triplet. There’s a third 32MP Ultra Spectrum Camera that can capture data from beyond the visible light spectrum, which sounds pretty cool… Until you realize that even the Fluorescence mode that uses a UV-like illuminator relies on the main camera and ultra-wide camera combo…
          Fluorescence mode is a weird gimmick          Fluorescence mode is a weird gimmick                 Good low light performance          Food looks quite appetizing!                   Leica color science bumps up saturation          Very nice natural bokeh                                               Good detail with natural bokeh          Weird rendering of fine detail          Over-saturated colors on slides          Over-saturated colors on slides
Speaking of which, the Fluorescence mode is a pretty meh gimmick as it requires you to be in a pitch black environment and be quite close to the subject for it to do anything. It’s like one of those things that seems like it had a bigger purpose, but ultimately wasn’t taken full advantage of. The main camera does a great job most of the time, depending on whether you like HUAWEI’s oversaturated Leica colors, which can be a major issue when you have to take images of presentations pretty regularly, which is part of my job. There’s also some issues with resolving finer details in stuff like grilles, presumably because of a subpar pixel-binning algorithm.
                                                               Macro is decent, but not great
Meanwhile the ultra-wide shooter is decent enough, and it does double duty as a macro camera. A wide angle camera definitely doesn’t give you the ideal focal length for close ups, but you can use digital zoom… On a 13MP camera that doesn’t have particularly large pixels in the first place. So yeah, not that great. Meanwhile selfies are best taken with the HUAWEI P50 Pocket closed using the Cover Screen as the viewfinder, as the inner selfie camera sometimes exhibits an unsightly haze, presumably due to the material of the protection layer covering the flexible display.
You can check out the full-sized samples taken by the HUAWEI P50 Pocket here.
Conclusion

The HUAWEI P50 Pocket is probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing devices I have looked at, with its beautiful 3D crosshatch pattern that helps set it apart from other flagships in the market. The main display is great as well, with a very mild crease. Speaking of which, the hinge seems to only wants to open flat or close shut, with it not exactly wanting to stay open in the popular 90° open angle.
For RM5999, the HUAWEI P50 Pocket is well in the “very expensive” category of gadgets, all things considered. For two-thirds of the money, you could get a comparable foldable. While it may not have the gapless hinge design, sweet symmetrical holes on the lid and also the rather impressive camera setup of the HUAWEI P50 Pocket, for that much less money, I think it’s pretty obvious what people will go with…

I personally prefer larger foldables like the HUAWEI Mate X series, but hey, if you want something more pocketable than your current smartphone or just something fancier, I guess the HUAWEI P50 Pocket is the device to look at. It is currently the thinnest foldable of its kind available officially in Malaysia, and the two halves fold flush, which surely gives me extra confidence to keep it in my pocket and not worry about pocket gunk getting in between and damage the inner display.
Our thanks to HUAWEI Malaysia for sending us the HUAWEI P50 Pocket for review. You can help support what we do at Pokde.net by checking out the HUAWEI P50 Pocket on Shopee via this affiliate link.
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