Total War: Three Kingdoms Review — The Art Of War Perfected?

Total War: Three Kingdoms Review
What Is Total War: Three Kingdoms About?

The latest entry in the Total War series is a turn-based strategy game that also integrates RTS (real-time strategy) elements. You take on a character from Ancient China, which is based on Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms historic novel. If that sounds familiar to you, then most likely you’ll know the story from other popular games like Dynasty Warriors and, of course, Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.

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There’s plenty of factions to choose from, 14 to be exact, ranging from Warlords such as Cao Cao and Liu Bei to the Yellow Turban bandits such as He Yi and Huang Shao. Each of these rulers come with their own starting difficulty, strengths and weaknesses, with the easiest out of them all being Cao Cao.
In Campaign Mode, you can choose to play Romance Mode or Records Mode. With the latter, you get a more ‘Total War’ experience, where the infantry movement is akin to the series’ previous titles. As for the former, it brings a more personal experience to the wars you fight. It’s a first in the series, where it allows for generals to engage in 1v1 combat (duel). Winning these duels can help turn the tide of the battle and raise the morale of your army. If you lose however, you might see your general captured or worse, killed.

If you’d like to play a specific scenario in the story, you can opt for the Battle mode. where it offers just that. Moreover, there’s also the option to play Custom Battle and Ranked Battles, as you’d guess from their names, the former allows you to customize on how everything is set up and the latter lets you join the leaderboard in rank.
Balance Is Everything

While the game focuses on unifying Ancient China, it’s important that you get everything in your army settled. This includes money, food, law, and even the morale of your officers (no one wants a person to defect during war, right?). Failing to do so may result in riots in your cities, or even worse, troops abandoning your army. Weather also plays a part in the game. If it’s in the winter season, expect to have limited map vision and more difficulties to wage war. Nevertheless, if you keep things in order, you will be rewarded.

When it comes to building an army, you’d also need to take account of the compatibility of the generals that you’d like to deploy. Each character has his / her own ambitions and relationships, so if you pit two people who hate each other in the same unit, you are going to have issues. I just wished that they’ve included more types of troops in the game, like an arbalest wagon for example.

An army can be filled with a maximum of three officers, with each of them capable of mustering different types of troops, depending on what you need. Though there’s a limit there, you can choose to send in another army to back you up in battles just in case the battle gets a bit tricky.

Diplomacy is key here when you take on your conquest in unifying Ancient China. Plan on how you treat the forces surrounding your city. You wouldn’t want an attack from behind while you are at war with another faction.

Having some knowledge about the Three Kingdoms story helps in some ways. How? Right off the bat, you’ll know which officers that are capable. These ‘Legendary’ characters come with unique perks as well as weapons and armors of their own, giving you an advantage. That being said, normal officers can also be trained and prove their worth to you in times of need.

Every five turns, the game will lead you to the ‘Reforms’ menu. As you can see, it is a talent tree for your factions. Each of them comes with their own benefits, so it’s really up to you on what you want to focus on. With it, you can gain access to new buildings, reduce officer salaries, increase faction support, and more.
SSD Comes In Handy

One thing that I find cumbersome with the game is its loading screens. You’ll encounter them at these very two moments; loading up your saved game and before every battle. Loading your saved file is acceptable since you’ll only have to do it once when you want to play the game but for the latter, it feels tedious.
It also doesn’t he;pt that there are a lot of cities and forces available in the map, so you can imagine how many loading screens you’ll have to endure. That being said, the problem can always be solve by installing the game on an SSD. It’s just too bad that I didn’t have enough space to do so.

Other than the issue above, gameplay is smooth. Battles are quite direct but if you want to get the upper hand in battles, a little bit of thinking helps. Each troop types have strengths and weaknesses of their own. If you see the enemy’s archer units taking down most of your spear troops, you can order your horse riders to charge and flank them to counter.
As you might have expected, if you’re breaching a city, a siege unit will come in handy in tearing defenses down. Take the time to observe enemy generals and what type of units they are bringing. Superiority in numbers doesn’t mean an instant win for you.

In terms of graphics, they look decent enough for today’s world. It’s not the best but then again, judging from what type of game it is and the scale of the world it offers, it’s pretty understandable.
If you are new to the series, you might find it tough to pick up the pace of the game but in all honesty, I feel that the game is the easiest to get into compared to its predecessor. So if you haven’t played a game from the Total War franchise, this is a good game to start with.
Total War: Three Kingdoms Verdict

Total War: Three Kingdoms can be hard at times, but with proper management and battle strategies, it is an enjoyable game. With a large world and a plethora of actions that can be made, it’s safe to say that it will give you countless hours of gameplay. If you are a fan of strategy games, this is a game that you’ll be pleased to have. For that, I am pleased to give Total War: Three Kingdoms our coveted Gold Pokdeaward.

Click right here to head to the game’s Steam page.
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Lenovo Launches Three New Workstations with Aston Martin-Designed Chassis

In partnership with Aston Martin – the new models see a new design inspired by the sportscars of the British marque.

Lenovo has announced the launch of three new desktop workstations – the ThinkStation PX, P7, and P5. The new workstations feature the latest processors from Intel, ranging up to 120 cores, and support for high-end NVIDIA RTX professional GPUs; also included are BMC capabilities for streamlined remote system monitoring. The chassis for all three models are jointly designed with luxury sportscar automaker Aston Martin – inspired by the DBS sportscar – to offer “best of form and functionality”.

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The Lenovo ThinkStation PX is powered by the latest 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, which offers up to 120 CPU cores and boasts a 53% average performance gain over the prior generation; it also offers support for up to four dual-slot NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPUs, up to 2TB of DDR5 and highly expandable PCIe 5.0, all powered by a single 1850W PSU or optional redundant power supplies.
The Lenovo ThinkStation P7 meanwhile features the latest Intel Xeon W processors, supporting up to 56 cores in a single socket, and is also rack-optimized for use in a variety of desktop and data center environments in a 4U enclosure. It supports up to three dual-slot NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPUs; the Lenovo ThinkStation P5 features a newly designed chassis, the latest Intel Xeon W processors, which offer up to 24 cores, and support for up to two NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPUs, as well as DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 capabilities.
Pokdepinion: I can see the design cues from Aston Martin, especially on the edges of the perforations.
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Samsung Introduces Limited Edition Star Wars POWERbot – The Suction Is Strong In This One!

Today, Samsung Malaysia Electronics has introduce their new Star Wars limited edition POWERbot, the VR7000, which comes with a Darth Vader design.
Star Wars Limited Edition POWERbot VR7000
In anticipation of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” which will come out this December, Samsung and Star Wars fans have collaborated in creating the limited edition POWERbot. It features a specially created cover using custom premium materials that resembles Darth Vader’s all-black mask.
The Darth Vader model comes with WiFi and its own remote control. What’s special about it is that it gives special sound effects of the character. It will play and mimic Darth Vader’s trademark breathing when you power on the POWERbot.

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We are very pleased to be part of the excitement leading up to the release of the Last Jedi and to be launching our limited edition POWERbot™ in partnership with Star Wars fans. From its industry- leading suction power, slim design, and smart features, to the wonderful character-themed voice feedback and sound effects, we are confident the Star Wars limited edition of the VR7000 will be a big hit Jimmy Tan, Head of Consumer Electronics, Samsung Malaysia Electronics.
The VR7000 Star Wars limited edition features the same cleaning technology and features as the original version, such as the suction power capacity of 10 watts, CycloneForce technology, and Edge Clean Master, which helps the vacuum to clean close to walls and edges. With Visionary Mapping Plus, it can also work autonomously with capability to memorize the room layout and determine the fastest route to clean. Coming with FullView Sensor 2.0, it allows the unit to clean around home decorations and personal items as small as 10mm.
Official availability for purchase is from 16 November 2017 onwards at Harvey Norman outlets only and it retails at RM2999. Despite that, you can choose to pre-order at Lazada or Harvey Norman which gets you a complimentary Star Wars R2-D2 collectible worth RM479.90. In addition, customers who purchase through the MySamsung app will receive an exclusive gift during the pre-order period.
Pokdepinion: I know avid Star Wars fans wouldn’t mind getting this for their home. Even better, it’s a limited edition machine that actually has use!
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Buy Netflix Gift Cards From 7-Eleven And Stand A Chance To Win RM10,000

The Netflix Buy & Win Contest, sponsored by 7-Eleven Malaysia, will run countrywide from now until December 26, 2021, with enticing prizes up for grabs. To enter, simply buy Netflix gift cards at 7-Eleven, take a clean photo of the receipt, and scan the QR code to be entered to win RM35,000 in prizes. Each RM55 Netflix gift card purchase enables you to one entry, while each RM100 Netflix gift card purchase entitles you to three entry entries.

Buy Netflix gift cards and win RM10,000

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Even better, there’s no limit to how many times you may enter the competition! So, what do you have to lose? Increase your chances of being one of the 14 fortunate winners by purchasing Netflix gift cards at your local 7-Eleven right now!

Visit the 7-Eleven website or follow 7-Eleven Malaysia’s official social media accounts for more information on the Netflix Buy & Win campaign, including complete terms and conditions.
Pokdepinion: Gonna turn off auto-renewal on my Netflix account just so that I can buy Netflix gift cards to enter this competition.
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Shop During 3.3 Supermarket Sale And Get Your Order Tomorrow With Shopee’s Next-Day Delivery

To celebrate the 3.3 Supermarket Sale, Shopee is rolling out its Next-Day Delivery service to most states across Peninsular Malaysia (excluding Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu) via Shopee Xpress. The service is available from today till 3 March.
Shop more during 3.3 Supermarket Sale with Next-Day Delivery

Shoppers must make their orders before 12PM to enjoy the next-day delivery service, and is applicable for purchases on Shopee Mart with the Next-Day Delivery tag. Orders that are made after 12PM will be considered as the next day’s order and will therefore be delivered the day after.

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As of right now, the service is available for weekend orders and deliveries but does not include deliveries on public holidays. If eligible orders are not delivered by the next day, users will receive a Free Shipping voucher to be used on their next Shopee Mart purchase. Shopee Mart is an in-app portal that offers an assortment of over 11,000 products from groceries to household needs from trusted names such as Nestlé, Munchy’s, Top, Sunlight and Drypers.

Shopee has also widened its logistics network with the introduction of 10 new Shopee Xpress drop-off points, and a partnership with Parcelhub and MBE which brings the total number of drop-off points to more than 300 nationwide. This should help trim sellers’ travel time and subsequently reduce the duration from when buyers place their orders to receiving them at their doorstep.
Malaysians can give the next-day delivery service a try during the 3.3 Supermarket Sale which will also reward users with free shipping with an RM10 minimum spend, daily 50% off deals as well as bargains from as low as 33 sen. The e-commerce platform’s live streaming channel, Shopee Live is also working with TV3 to put together the best of TV shopping with the 3.3 Supermarket Show. The show which will keep Malaysians entertained and bargain hunters at the edge of their seats will be aired on 3 March at 9PM.
To know more about 3.3 Supermarket Sale, you can visit Shopee here.
Pokdepinion: What will you guys be getting during Shopee’s 3.3 Supermarket Sale?
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Razer Firefly Cloth Edition available for pre-order online at RM279

Fancy a RGB mousepad but prefer the texture of a cloth mousepad over a hard one? The Razer Firefly Cloth Edition may just be the right mousepad for you. It’s the world’s first cloth hard mouse mat that features a gaming-optimized cloth surface as well as cool Razer Chroma customizable lighting with 16.8 million customizable color options and lighting effects. And it is available for pre-order on Razerzone.com now at RM279 (excluding shipping)!

The Razer Firefly Cloth Edition is Razer Synapse enabled, allowing you to control the RGB lighting via the Razer Chroma suite. If you own other Razer Chroma peripherals, you can sync the mousepad with your other Razer Chroma enabled devices to enjoy the ultimate sensation of gaming on rainbows with all your peripherals.

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It is powered by a gold-plated USB connector to feed those colorful RGB LEDs. It measures 355 x 255 x 3.5 mm, and weighs a pretty hefty 166g. A non-slip rubber base keeps the mousepad planted on your table during even the most frantic of mouse swipes. If you are not interested in pre-ordering (which will incur a hefty RM59.18 shipping fee if you are buying less than RM359 of Razer products), you can wait till it arrives at retail stores in October later.

Pokdepinion: As we start going towards RGB everything, sometimes I think we need to stop and think: “Do we need RGB on that?” Well for those who say yes when looking at a mousepad, Razer has you covered with the Firefly Hard Edition and Firefly Cloth Edition.
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OPPO Find X6 Duo Flagships Certified by 3C, Revealing Charging Speeds

It appears that the charging speed for the OPPO Find X6 Pro, along with the base model Find X6, and it’s said to be up to 100W.
100W Charging for OPPO Find X6 Pro

Chinese smartphone manufacturer OPPO’s Find X6 duo of flagships has recently been certified by 3C, and as per the listing, both devices will feature lightning-fast charging speeds. While the vanilla OPPO Find X6 will support charging speeds of up to 80W, the Find X6 Pro will break records with its 100W SuperVOOC charging.

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According to reports, the OPPO Find X6 with model number PGFM110 will support basic wired charging at 5V/2A and 5V-11V/7.3A, equivalent to up to 80W SuperVOOC charging. The phone will be compatible with the VCB8JACH/VCB8JBCH adapter, which has the potential to support charging rates of up to 100W.
The 100W charging speeds, however, will only be available for the flagship OPPO Find X6 Pro, with the PGEM110 model number. The Pro version will support a charging mode of 11V/9.1A and come with the same SuperVOOC adapter as the vanilla variant.
Although there is no information available on the battery capacities of these devices, it is worth noting that the previous year’s OPPO Find X5 flagships also had the same charging rates but were different in size. As such, it remains to be seen whether the Find X6 will follow suit. We will write more about this when information becomes available so stay tuned.
Source
Pokdepinion: Given the recent OnePlus 11 launch, this much is what I expected. If you’re expecting anything faster from them, perhaps wait until the 2nd half of this year.
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Celcom Dedicated To Ensure You Remain Connected During Movement Control Order

In an effort to support all Malaysians during the Movement Control Order, Celcom has revealed that they are dedicated in ensuring their customers will be able to stay connected while being safe at home.
Celcom lends hand in Movement Control Period
Starting from today and up until the 31st of March 2020, Celcom will providing the following special relief services for their customers:
Free unlimited access to WhatsApp (chat, voice, video call) for all postpaid and Celcom Xpax prepaid customers (from 8am to 6pm daily)Work from home with free unlimited access to Microsoft Office 365 applications, for all postpaid and Celcom Xpax prepaid customers (8am to 6pm)Double the duration — 6 hours instead of 3 hours of Unlimited Internet access via Celcom Xpax Ultra Hour pass, at only RM2 (from 8am to 6pm)Celcom postpaid customers will have an extended payment period for 7 days for bill payments from their current due dateCelcom Xpax prepaid customers enjoy 10% cashback when purchasing Celcom Xpax Reloads RM10 and above through the Celcom Life App (until 30th June 2020)Celcom MEGA postpaid postpaid consumers can trade in their unused Internet quota for cashback (until 30th June 2020)
Here’s what the Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad, Idham Nawawi had to say about the initiative:

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As a responsible telco, we fully understand the importance for our customers to stay connected at all times. As our customers are working from home or are limiting their movement by staying in their homes, we have made the necessary arrangements for our network to meet the increased demand and change of usage behavior. During this period, we are also extending our support to all customers with additional relief special initiatives.CEO of Celcom Axiata Berhad, Idham Nawawi
Adding to that, they’ve also advised their customers to utilize Celcom’s online service channels for any customer related queries to reduce the risk of exposure outside.
Pokdepinion: That’s certainly courteous of them. Remember guys, stay safe and follow the Movement Control Order. We can do this.
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HUAWEI Wireless Quick Charging technology hacked!

HUAWEI’s 15W wireless quick charging on the latest HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro is pretty cool, but they have yet to license the technology to third party manufacturers. However this engineer has already successful designed a workaround to enable faster wireless charging on the HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro.
The jerry-rigged (unrelated to Zack) contraption appears to be capable of being recognized by the HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro as it apparently fast charging wirelessly, as shown by the shot of the device.

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The 15W wireless quick charging technology took charging experts just a week to crack. While HUAWEI probably does not want to share its technology with third party accessory manufacturers to ensure safety and 100% compatibility, but prices of official accessories are usually more expensive than what third party accessory manufacturers can produce.
What do you think? Should HUAWEI hurry up and start licensing their wireless quick charging technology to third party manufacturers, or should they remain the sole maker of official wireless fast charging technologies?
Pokdepinion: Where electricity in involved, I would surely choose authorized chargers over one which is unofficially supported…
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“Tilawah Bersama Bigo” Is A New Quran Recitation Competition From Bigo Live

Bigo Live has just announced a new Quran recitation competition called “Tilawah Bersama Bigo” which will also act as a fundraising campaign, in support of Islamic Relief Malaysia’s COVID Emergency Appeal Food Aid.
Bigo Live launches “Tilawah Bersama Bigo” competition

The preliminary rounds will take place between 24 May and 28 May from 8:30PM to 12AM and the finals will take place from 29 May to 30 May from 9PM to 10PM on the Bigo Live app (BIGO ID: MY.Eventroom). Local Malaysian influencer Farhatul Fairuzah, who is also a Bigo Live broadcaster and the winner of the 2019 International Al-Quran Recitation, will be collaborating with Bigo Live. As an adjudicator, she will be present at the competition’s finals.

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Viewers will be able to vote for their favourite competitors through free voting tickets and virtual gifting during the livestreamed competition. All proceeds from the competition will go to Islamic Relief Malaysia’s COVID Emergency Appeal Food Aid, which will help Malaysians affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns. In addition, Bigo Live has committed to donating RM4,000 to Islamic Relief Malaysia.
Registration is currently available, and anyone over the age of 18 can enter the competition by clicking here to register. In the finals, shortlisted participants will compete for cash prizes ranging from RM1,000 to RM3,000.
The Bigo Live app is available to download now on iOS and Google Play. Follow Bigo Live Malaysia for more updates on Facebook here and for T&C of the competition here.
Pokpepinion: Honestly I’ve never used Bigo’s services. Mainly because I don’t really go live nor do I participate in live videos on social media all that much. I like Quran recitation competitions (because I used to participate in them) so I might just give the “Tilawah Bersama Bigo” a watch.
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#Budget2021 Get RM50 eWallet Credit Free If You Fit This Age Range

As part of the recent Budget 2021 announcement, the government will be giving out RM50 eWallet credit to the people. However, this will only include the ones within a certain age range.
#Budget2021 Get RM50 eWallet Credit Free If You’re Between 18 to 20
Picture credits: Bloomberg
The government of Malaysia will be giving a one-off payment of RM50 eWallet credit to those between the ages of 18 to 20 via their eBelia programme. This initiative, which will cost roughly RM75 million, is said to benefit over 1.5 million youths in the country.

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Youths play an important role as pioneers and users in adapting to the latest technologies. Towards culturising cashless financial transactions, the government through its eBelia programme will credit a one-off RM50 payment into the e-wallet accounts of those aged between 18 and 20.
Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz
Apart from that, there is an RM1,000 monthly incentive for private sector employers up to 3 months for every fresh graduate that participates in the apprenticeship programme. Moreover, employers can claim a grant of up to RM4,000 for training programmes for the apprentices. This will encourage youth employment within the workforce.
In other related news, the government will be allocating RM15 million for Esports development. As for how the funds will be utilized, that is still uncertain but we will report more on this as soon as information becomes available so stay tuned.
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Pokdepinion: Well, I’m too old for this but if you or your family members fit the age range, let them know about it.
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Apple A15 Bionic leaked to be 16% faster than Samsung’s Exynos 2200

Samsung’s Exynos 2200 is probably going to be one of the most interesting mobile chipsets yet, marking the debut of AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture in a smartphone. However there are already rumors of the upcoming Apple A15 Bionic chip which will power the iPhone 13 series handily outpacing the Exynos 2200 in benchmarks.

Apple A15 GPU peak benchmark test
Manhattan 3.1: 198 FPS (July unit sample)
However, after second round of test, throttling kicks in and drops to 140~150FPS.
(1/2)
Source: https://t.co/Sl1xfN5ktB
— Tron ❂ (@FrontTron) September 6, 2021

Of course, take these rumors with a pinch of salt, as neither the Exynos 2200 nor the A15 Bionic are officially launched yet. Benchmark scores for both chipsets are speculative at best, since both Samsung and Apple might optimize the performance characteristics before the finalized products are launched. In any case, the Apple A15 Bionic is reportedly pushing 198FPS in Manhattan 3.1, versus the Exynos 2200’s 170.7FPS.
Once throttling takes its toll, the A15 Bionic allegedly loses around 30% of its performance, and drops to around 140~150FPS. Samsung’s chip also suffers from similar throttling, with performance dropping to as low as 127.5FPS. That’s a smaller 25% drop, but as you can see, the Apple chip still maintains a pretty good lead.

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What remains to be seen is how their performance will be like in actual devices. Apple has traditionally suffered significantly in this area, as the iPhones generally do not feature the fancy cooling systems many Android devices have nowadays. Whether the iPhone 13 will actually exhibit even more intense throttling than what was revealed in the leak is going to be interesting.
The iPhone 14 series is slated to be launched pretty soon, so we will definitely find out more about the A15 Bionic soon. Meanwhile, the Exynos 2200 is expected to debut in the Galaxy S22 series, which should be arriving early next year.
Pokdepinion: Well at least we are seeing more competition in the Android space. Apple is in a category of itself anyway…
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Dying Light 2 PC System Requirements Revealed

Do you want to play Dying Light 2 when it comes out? Don’t know whether your machine will be able to run the game? Well here’s the official Dying Light 2 PC system requirements that you will need.
Dying Light 2 PC system requirements
Minimum requirement

OS: Windows 7
CPU: Intel Core i3-9100 / AMD Ryzen 3 2300X
RAM: 8GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti / AMD Radeon RX 560
Storage: 60GB

Recommended

OS: Windows 10
CPU: Intel / AMD CPU running at 3.6GHz or above, Intel i5-8600K and AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or newer
RAM: 16GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB or AMD RX Vega 56 or newer
Storage: 60GB

As you might have known, the game which was originally set for a release at the end of this year, has been pushed back to a 5th of February 2022 release date.
Here’s a synopsis of the game, courtesy of Steam:

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You are a wanderer with the power to change the fate of The City. But your exceptional abilities come at a price. Haunted by memories you cannot decipher, you set out to learn the truth… and find yourself in a combat zone. Hone your skills, as to defeat your enemies and make allies, you’ll need both fists and wits. Unravel the dark secrets behind the wielders of power, choose sides and decide your destiny. But wherever your actions take you, there’s one thing you can never forget—stay human.
Dying Light 2 will be available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X platforms. For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: I for one will definitely play this game when it comes out. Thankfully, I should have no issues running the game. Do you?
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vivo Lines Up 7 Wonders Of Diwali – Ways To Celebrate This Festive Period!

vivo will be lining up the 7 Wonders of Diwali, a series of activities and promos to celebrate the festive period.
7 Wonders Of Diwali
1st wonder is the previously the Limited Edition FIFA Worldcup Russia 2018 Bag deal that we’ve posted recently. Customers are entitled to get the bag with the purchase of the vivo V7+ from 12 October 2017 until the 22 of October 2017. Available while stocks last.
Additionally, customers can enjoy a variety of offers on vivo smartphone series on the from 15 October until 31 October 2017 at online sellers such as Lazada, 11Street, Shopee, Shoppu, and PGMall which includes;

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Free tempered glass screen protector with the purchase of vivo Y25
Free leather slip case and tempered glass screen protector with the purchase of vivo Y53
Free selfie stick with the purchase of vivo Y55s
Free vivo thermo flaskwith purchase of vivo Y69
RM100 off the vivo V5
Free VR box with the purchase of vivo V5s
Free vivo thermo flask with the purchase of vivo V7+

2nd Wonder of the promo is 2 lucky winners will be picked by Janna Nick, the ambassador for the vivo V7+, on vivo’s Facebook page. The lucky two will get a chance to get Air Asia Travel vouchers worth a total of RM2000. Besides that, 5 pairs of G-shock wristwatches and vivo merchandise with Janna Nick’s autograph will also be given to winners during the live session.
Up next is the 3rd Wonder, where a selfie contest will take place from the 16 to 23 of October 2017. Interested participants need to take a selfie by showing a sign of ‘7’ and share it under the comment section of the vivo’s contest post itself along from their own personal Facebook account with creative hashtags and captions. Not to forget, make sure the post is made to ‘public’. Each week, a winner is chosen to win the new vivo V7+.
Besides that, vivo will be holding a Diwali Selfie Experience at Batu Caves temple on the 18th of October. The event will be held in the vicinity of the temple from 9.30AM until 1PM. This is a chance for vivo fans to get vivo merchandise with vivo selfienista, and Janna Nick’s autograph.
The 5th and 6th Wonder has to do with Akademi Fantasia. On 14 and 21 October 2017, a behind the scenes video will be uploaded vivo Malaysia’s official Facebook page. To win exclusive Akademi Fantasia merchandise, all you need to do is share the video and 3 winners will be chosen.
Another contest is the prediction of the the upcoming winner of Akademi Fantasia. One lucky fan will be picked to win the V7+, which they will announce at their official Facebook page.
Last but not least, vivo will be debuting the vivo Y69 in Malaysia on the 13th October 2017. Retailing at RM999, the phone features a 5.5-inch HD display. The device is powered by MediaTek MT6570 with 3GB RAM. Camera wise, it packs a 13MP on the rear and a 16MP front camera. It runs on Android 7.0 Nougat and has a 3000mAh battery.
Pokdepinion: Boy, those sure are a lot of activities and promos from vivo.
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AMD Ryzen 3000 series processors leaked by e-tailer

We have previously reported about a rumor of what AMD’s Zen 2 architecture will bring to the table There are apparently up to 16-threaded CPUs in the new Ryzen 9 family of processors, as well as much higher clocks than what we have seen with the current crop of AMD Ryzen processors. It seems that the rumors have been confirmed.
A Russian e-tailer has accidentally (or intentionally?) leaked out information regarding the upcoming AMD Ryzen 3000 processors on their site, just in time before CES 2019. Somehow they just revealed everything from core count to core clocks, but somehow just didn’t leak out the pricing.
So based on the listings, we will have AMD Ryzen 9, Ryzen 7, Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 processors, all based on the new 7nm FinFET Zen 2 (Matisse) cores. AMD has bumped up the core count across the range as well, with the Ryzen 3 starting with 6 cores now, and the new Ryzen 9 sporting 16 cores.

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Here are the specifications tabulated for easy viewing:

Cores / Threads
Base / Boost Clock
TDP

AMD Ryzen 9 3800X
16C/32T
3.9 GHz / 4.7 GHz
125W

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
12C/24T
4.2 GHz / 5.0 GHz
105W

AMD Ryzen 7 3700
12C/24T
3.8 GHz / 4.6 GHz
95W

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
8C/16T
4.0 GHz / 4.8 GHz
95W

AMD Ryzen 5 3600
8C/16T
3.6 GHz / 4.4 GHz
65W

AMD Ryzen 3 3300X
6C/12T
3.5 GHz / 4.3 GHz
65W

AMD Ryzen 3 3300
6C/12T
3.2 GHz / 4.0 GHz
50W

If AMD prices them similarly to what they are selling the current AMD Ryzen processors for, Intel would be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Intel is pricing their 9th Generation Intel Core processors quite exorbitantly while also running into supply issues, due to the fact that they can’t expand 14nm production capacity, and 10nm is not ready for mass production yet.
Pokdepinion: Wow these look really cool. And they will be based on AM4 still, so if you upgrade from previous Ryzen processors you don’t even need to buy a new motherboard!
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Xbox One X Destroyed PS4 Pro in Launch Week Sales; It’s Quite a Difference

It would appear that the Xbox One on steroids, a.k.a. the Xbox One X, actually outsold the PS4 Pro in its first week of sale. It’s surprising and amazing.

Xbox One X Destroyed PS4 Pro in Launch Week Sales

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Courtesy of the folks over GamesIndustry.biz, it would appear that the Xbox One on steroids, otherwise known as the Xbox One X, actually outsold the PS4 Pro in the UK for its first week of sales. To be precise, the Xbox One X managed to sell close to 80,000 unit.
Interestingly, retailers have shared more insights on the Xbox One X’s sales. Apparently, it managed to sell almost as many units as the ever popular Nintendo Switch during its first week of sales in March.
To give you a clearer idea, the PS4 Pro sold approximately 50,000 units back when it launched in November 2016. It took the PS4 Pro 4 weeks to reach about the same amount. Of course, shortage of supply would have definitely affected the sales number for both the PS4 Pro and Nintendo Switch.
Most of the Xbox One X machines that were sold was for the special edition version known as the Project Scorpio edition. This is a very good sign for Microsoft as it proves that they can do well in the console market whereas before the Xbox 360, it felt more like a PC in console form rather than a proper videogame console.
According to GamesIndustry, the best-selling Xbox One game of the week was Call of Duty: WWII, followed by Assassin’s Creed Origins (which was promoted with the system), FIFA 18 and the Forza duo: Forza Motorsport 7 and Forza Horizon 3.
Well, we might be able to see some interesting changes in the videogame industry soon, and we can see the other companies being extra competitive because of this starting 2018.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Pokdepinion: Good on Microsoft in proving that the Xbox One X can actually sell, even with its price tag. Not sure if it’s doing well in other countries and I certainly have zero hope for it in Japan but this is still a good sign nonetheless.
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Is Valheim Getting Cancelled?

One of the most popular games available on PC today, albeit as an early access game, is Valheim. It’s been the case for a while but all of a sudden, rumours started to surface online about it possibly getting cancelled. Here’s what we know about it thus far.
Is Valheim Getting Cancelled?

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Valheim is a survival adventure game by Iron Gate AB that will have you gather resources, hunt monsters, and more with friends and other players to survive. It has gained quite a bit of notoriety online with plenty of known personalities making content and streaming the game online. As such, hearing rumours of the game getting cancelled can come off as a surprise, so what’s the truth behind the matter?
Rumours initially stemmed from a YouTube channel called Neebs Gaming, who intended the title to simply be clickbait as the video itself addressed that the game isn’t actually getting cancelled. Unfortunately, there were also a lot of people who saw the title but didn’t really bother to watch the video in its entirety, which led to the rumour mill spinning like crazy.
Iron Gate AB has a lot of plans for Valheim with a lengthy roadmap in place for it. In fact, the team is currently expanding so they can do even more with the game. The next update will most likely be Hearth and Home, which will have an emphasis on building and crafting. While no release date for the update is made known yet, it is currently in its playtesting and bug fixing phase, which means it shouldn’t take too long for it to launch.
Source
Pokdepinion: If the game somehow got cancelled, this is going to be Flappy Bird all over again. It doesn’t make sense why it would be cancelled given how popular it is now as they could easily sell the game off to some publisher and let other people hold the reins.
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Here’s why you should get a 5GHz Wi-Fi AC router (Part 2: Advantages and Disadvatanges of 5GHz band in IEEE 802.11)

Before we dive deep into the advantages and disadvantages of the 5GHz band in IEEE 802.11, you should read up our earlier article on the history of the 5GHz band to get a better understanding of its journey in order to be able to appreciate the benefits that it will carry. Some of the highlights here will be focused based on the history, so understanding it will make this article more meaningful.
Take note that this article is based on our technical testing environment and our opinions are based on our own user experience and hardware advantages that we have. For our testing, we have used the ASUS RT-AC5300 which is an extremely powerful router but is capable of portraying the real benefits in terms of throughput and signal range.
Goodbye Interference
Probably one of the most important benefits of having a 5GHz band connectivity is the fact that its less likely to be a culprit of interference compared to 2.4GHz band. As you already know, your device might or might not have 5GHz capabilities, but it will definitely have 2.4GHz capabilities if it works on Wi-Fi.

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To understand interference, it is important to understand wave coherence. Two (or more) wave sources are coherent if they have a constant phase difference and modulate at a same frequency. As we already know, our wireless waves are modulating at specific frequencies. When these waves come into contact with each other, there are two scenarios that happen; when they have the same frequency but no phase difference, they are said to be in phase. When they have the same frequency and have phase differences, they are said to be out of phase with each other. When two waves are out of phase and the difference is exactly 180° from each other, they reach an antiphase which creates a destructive interference causing them to cancel each other out.

These phase differences are calculated at every single wave form, which means the interference happens very quickly and rapidly. As a result, your wireless internet packet will have to be reissued, causing a very little delay in the accurate data delivery. The cause of interference itself could be anything between the various smartphones and gadgets that you have, network extenders, smart home appliances, radio control toys, cordless phones, or pretty much anything that has wireless capabilities in them. Because 2.4GHz is the prime choice (I’ll explain why later on), the likeliness of having interference on 2.4GHz band is much higher than 5GHz. Take note of the term “likeliness” that I use repetitively.
Higher Throughput
The 5GHz is capable of offering much higher throughput compared to the 2.4GHz with the same channel width. This is subjective to the hardware that is used, of course. A typical 5GHz band has 23 non-overlapping channels as compared to only 3 offered in the 2.4GHz band. Some newer routers even offer powerful tools and technologies like MU-MIMO, beamforming, WTFast, etc which even enhances the streamlining of the waves.
Some routers like our ASUS RT-5300 has tri-band capabilities to offer even higher total throughput on the 5GHz band. Tri-band means that the router has 2 x 5GHz bands and 1 x 2.4GHz band. The two 5GHz bands in the RT-5300 router are coupled to a load-balancer whereby it will automatically offload devices from one band to another when too many devices connect to one of the bands.
Because the 5GHz has higher maximum speed and wider spectrum of channels, you can connect way more devices to the 5GHz and still maintain excellent speeds compared to 2.4GHz. Think of it as a highway where you have 23 lanes, compared to 3 lanes. If you have only one car on the highway, your limitation is the speed of how fast your vehicle can travel. But when you talk about 50 cars, the significant difference that 23 lanes can bring compared to 3 lanes in terms of congestion is pretty clear.
5GHz vs 2.4GHz throughput speed test
To test this out, I ran a quick test to show the speed difference between both networks. I setup a little local server to which I added SFTP access. Local server, because we want to gauge only the wi-fi transfer speeds without latency from the internet. If I were to test the transfer speed of one single file, I would get pretty much the same results for both network bands. Instead, I increased the limit to 8 concurrent SFTP connections to the server to allow multiple simultaneous downloads, maximizing throughput utilisation.
On my remote server, I uploaded a small NodeJS project file that I had lying around that contains 5 main directories, 75 sub-directories and about 350 files, mix of binary and ASCII based files. Because the SFTP would run a recursive command searching every single file in every sub-directory while transferring, I loaded up the recursive queue first, then processed the queue to ensure minimal discrepancies. I’ve also enabled timestamp logging so we can gauge the time taken for the transfer to complete.
I’ve set the best possible settings for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The 2.4GHz mode is set to N-only, using channel bandwidth of 40MHz and using the best available control channel (1). The 5GHz mode is set to N/AC mixed, using channel bandwidth of 80MHz and also using the best available control channel (149). Now, to make the results even more significant, I could have set the 2.4GHz to use legacy Wi-Fi mode which is still used in some older routers, but instead, I decided to do a test of best of both worlds – since we have the ASUS RT-5300 anyway. I’m also using the second 5GHz band for this test because it uses 1024-QAM and higher number of available channels.

Each of these transfers were done three times to get the final results. This eliminates any disk caching and other parameters that can affect the outcome.
2.4GHz FTP Transfer test
Our first test begins with the transfer of the 2.4GHz band. The timestamp shows 12:36:24 as the starting time.

Below you can see that the final file transfer completes at 12:37:08 which means the whole queue took about 44 seconds.

5GHz FTP Transfer Test
Then we move on to the 5GHz transfer test. The timestamp shows that the test was began at 12:53:46.

The final file is transferred at 12:54:02 which means the same queue took about 16 seconds to complete.

That’s a pretty staggering difference right there. 44 seconds on the 2.4GHz compared to only 16 seconds on the 5GHz band. This is only based on one user running multiple streams of file transfer. If you have several users on your network, and have multiple devices per users connected to the same router, imagine the difference on a larger scale that it could bring.
Take note also that a part of this speed is also affected by the interference that happens in the 2.4GHz band. The number of 2.4GHz Wi-Fi bands around our testing environment is pretty huge whereas there was only one 5GHz band in our premise which was ours during the test.
Shorter Range & Poorer Wall Penetration
If there is one thing that the 5GHz band doesn’t win over 2.4GHz band, it’s range. Because of higher frequency, 5GHz attenuate faster compared to 2.4GHz causing it to have much shorter range (often almost half) of what 2.4GHz is capable of. 5GHz band also has poorer wall penetration because of its shorter wavelengths compared to 2.4GHz.
Now this is up to you too look at one perspective or another. The good things about having a short range is that 5GHz is almost definitely NOT going to reach your neighbour’s premises. Even if it does in high rises, due to poor wall penetration, they would be getting very poor performance, which gives you an advantage to fully utilise your own high speed internet for yourself. Even if they have the password, connecting to the 5GHz band will be disappointing for them.
On thicker walls (and different material walls), the likeliness of 5GHz to perform better reduces as well. But how far does it really matter? We did a test on the RT-AC5300 to find out about this. The image below depicts the layout of my house where I conducted the test and the position where I have placed the router. There are three different locations where I tested the network performance:

First position is right in front of the router with no interference at all.
Second position is the guest room that passes through one solid brick wall.
Third position is the play room that passes one glass door and one brick wall.
Fourth position is near the entrance that passes two solid brick walls and thick concrete-based staircase.
Fifth position is the furthest corner from the router and passes one solid brick wall.

How does it perform? Let’s look at it one by one. We have Pokde2.4G as the SSID of the 2.4GHz band and Pokde5G-2 as our 5GHz band. Take note that these network are running freely without any devices attached to them (not even my test device) to make sure our results are as accurate as possible without having any load on the router.
Test 01 – Right in front of the router

As you can see, when my test device was right in front of the router, our 2.4GHz band is claiming about -35dBm signal strength and this is very much similar to our 5GHz band. This is our “control” results which is what we will compare against. You can also see the super wide number of channels catered by the 5GHz band that shows how powerful the ASUS RT-5300 router is.
Test 02 – Guest room with one brick wall apart

As the distance increases, combining with the fact that now there is a wall between the device and the router, you can see that the signal strength is naturally decreased. Our Pokde2.4GHz band dropped down to about -55dBm while our Pokde5G-2 dropped to about -63dBm making its strength still better than the 2.4GHz band. Don’t mind the rest of the networks. These are starting to appear from my neighbourhood. I didn’t hide them to showcase the likeliness of interference to happen on both bands too. Let me also tell you that my house is a corner lot, which means I could have doubled the number of network signals if my house was in the middle ;)
Test 03 – Play room with one brick wall and glass door

This is where things get a little more interesting. I increase the distance and now we have a glass door on top of a brick wall in between the router and the test device. Our 2.4GHz band only got a slight decrease to about -58dBm compared to Test 02. But our 5GHz band had a bigger fall, down to -71dBm. Like I mentioned earlier, different materials will have different affect on the signal strength.
Test 04 – Entrance with two solid bricks and concrete stairs

Let’s push it further. This time, looking at the layout, we have two solid brick walls and a concrete stairs in between our router and the device. Our 2.4GHz band almost didn’t felt a pinch here, sitting at -62dBm but our 5GHz band is getting a lot weaker at almost -75dBm. This is good news for me because outside of my house entrance, the 5GHz signal will disappear, making my 5GHz band only available within my premises ;) And that’s what we will test in the next environment.
Test 05 – Furthest corner from the router

So this is the furthest corner from the router and it only goes through one single brick wall. As you can see, the results are somewhat similar to our Test 04 because now we have removed all barriers, but increased the distance.
Here’s the thing, you can see so much overlapping 2.4GHz network bands coming from all the houses around me, but not a single 5GHz band. Like I said earlier, you can either take this as an advantage for yourself (like what I think it is) or a disadvantage.
Conclusion
Nowadays, with technology advancement progressing so quickly, hardware has stepped up to support much advanced technology and one of them that many have missed out is the 5GHz wireless capabilities. I get a common question a lot and that sounds like, “Should I invest in a new router, and if yes, which one?”. The first thing that you need to identify is the speed capabilities of the router that you already have. Having a 5GHz capable router but has a slower throughput will not prove its point. I’ve jumped between one too many routers and I can very clearly tell you that getting a better router definitely has its perks and advantages. Right now, for me, the ASUS RT-5300 is the one I trust my network with. And I can only show you results to prove my point. To experience it, you will have to get one yourself ;)
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GSA Championship 2017 Grand Finals Concludes – With Taylor’s University And UNISEL Taking Top Spots!

The Garena Student Alliance 2017 recently concluded with Taylor’s University and UNISEL emerging as the campus champions for League of Legends (LOL) and EA Sports FIFA Online 3 (FO3).
GSA Championship 2017 Grand Finals Concludes
The first-ever Garena Student Alliance Championship was held at Asia Pacific University’s (APU) new campus at Bukit Jalil last weekend, with eventual winners being Taylor’s University and UNISEL.

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They’ve won a total prize pool of RM62,000 which includes partial scholarships worth RM6000 for each individuals of the winning teams. For the League of Legends section, lucky 5 winners for the scholarship are students from Taylor’s University while three students from UNISEL claimed the reward for the FO3 tournament.
Being the host university and official venue partner, APU secured a commendable 2nd runner up positions for both League of Legends and FO3 competition. Filling up the Top 4 spots for League of Legends are Multimedia University (MMU) Cyberjaya and INTI University & College. Where else for FO3, it consists of University Teknikal Melaka (UTeM) and INTI Nilai.
Back in September Garena Malaysia announced ASUS ROG to be their official title sponsor for the GSA Championship 2017. With the completion of this year’s tournament, ASUS ROG acknowledges that the tournament is unique bridge between education and gaming, while hope for the GSA tournament to grow even further in the future.
Pokdepinion: The winners are so lucky. Who wouldn’t want scholarships, even though it’s partial? Every money saved is priceless.
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AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-series deliver up to 2X faster CPU render times

AMD has announced their latest AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-series processors that feature the latest Zen 3 cores. These will be OEM-only parts, with the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-series only available in the Lenovo ThinkStation Pro 620 pre-builts for now.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-series with Zen 3 cores
Just like previous generations of AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO products, these are for professional workstation applications. They are a bump up from the non-PRO versions of the Ryzen Threadripper processors, which are intended for enthusiasts. It bridges the gap between the AMD EPYC lineup of server processors, and the AMD Ryzen range which is more consumer-oriented.

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Coming from the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3000 series, we are not seeing any other major upgrades, aside from the jump to the Zen 3 core architecture. With that said, Zen 3 delivered massive performance boosts in the desktop space, and with them scaling up to 64 cores in the Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-series, you can expect all the performance boosts to scale as well.
The biggest differentiator will be the fact that the Zen 3 architecture involves 8-core CCDs, versus the 4-core CCXes of Zen 2. This allows 8 Zen 3 cores to access 32MB L3 cache without additional latency, unlike with Zen 2 where the 8-core clusters were divided into two CCXes with 16MB L3 cache each. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-series will still support the same sWRX8 socket, and thus will work with existing WRX80 motherboards, after a BIOS update. But of course, since it’s currently only available in the Lenovo ThinkStation Pro P620, that’s somewhat of a moot point for now.

Compared against their Intel counterpart, the Intel Xeon series, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-series is up to 67% more efficient, delivering up to 2X better performance-to-power ratio. Performance gains ranges, but the Threadripper PRO 5995WX is capable of outperforming TWO Intel Xeon Platinum 8280, which is a very impressive feat indeed.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-series series Specs

Cores / Threads
Base / Boost frequency (GHz)
L2 + L3 cache
TDP

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX
64C/128T
2.7 / 4.5
288MB
280W

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5975WX
32C/64T
3.6 / 4.5
144MB
280W

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5965WX
24C/48T
3.8 / 4.5
140MB
280W

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX
16C/32T
4.0 / 4.5
72MB
280W

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5945WX
12C/24T
4.1 / 4.5
70MB
280W

No pricing information for these processors are available, which is understandable given that they are OEM-only products.
Pokdepinion: Intel has been really quiet recently in the HEDT/workstation space…
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Slash The Price To Win Prizes From HONOR Malaysia

HONOR Malaysia has introduced their Slash It! Deals where you can knock down the price of some of their products with the help of your friends and family on social media.
HONOR Malaysia Slash It! Deals
From now till the 20th of May 2020, you can get your hands on limited items that includes the HONOR MagicWatch 2, HONOR Band 5 Sport, HONOR FlyPods Lite as well as an HONOR Powerbank for free with the HONOR Slash It! Deals.
The flash deals will happen for a period of three times between 4-6, 11-13, and 18-20 May 2020 respectively.

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To participate, you can follow the steps below:
If you are not already a user, register for a hihonor accountSlash the price of your preferred item to startShare it on Facebook and invite as many friends as you can to help slash the price within the target slash time (72 hours)a) Each device require a specific number of slashesb) There will be limited number of units available for each deviceOnce you have reached the required number of slashes, you win
In case you’ve missed our previous post, HONOR Malaysia is also hosting their Fantastik Raya Bersama campaign. Read more on that here.
Pokdepinion: Well? What are you waiting for? Get to slashing those prices right now!
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Xiaomi Mi 9 launched in Malaysia from RM1699 — we unbox the most affordable Snapdragon 855 flagship in Malaysia!

The Xiaomi Mi 9 is probably one of the most anticipated smartphones here in Malaysia. We are all suckers for great value here, and the Xiaomi Mi 9 is the most affordable smartphone with a Snapdragon 855 inside. Of course, aside from the powerful chipset, we are looking at an impressive triple camera setup that consists of a proper telephoto camera, ultra-wide angle camera and also a 48MP shooter.

Malaysians will be looking at two color options of the Xiaomi Mi 9, with the Ocean Blue and Piano Black variants making it to Malaysia. For those waiting for the Lavender Violet color variant, Allen An shared in today’s livestream today that it might be brought in to Malaysia starting next month. We will be getting the 6GB + 128GB variant, as well as a 6GB + 64GB variant which wasn’t announced internationally.

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Key Xiaomi Mi 9 Specifications

Snapdragon 855, octa-core up to 2.84 GHz, 7nm FinFET
Up to 12GB RAM
Up to 256GB storage
6.39″ FHD+ AMOLED display
48MP f/1.75 Sony IMX586 + 16MP f/2.2 wide angle + 12MP f/2.2 telephoto
20MP f/2.0 selfie camera
MIUI 10 based on Android 9 Pie
3300 mAh battery, 27W Charge Turbo, 20W Wireless Charging
6 + 64GB: RM1699
6 + 128GB: RM1999

The Xiaomi Mi 9 will be up for pre-order starting from 6th April, with availability commencing on 13th April. The 6GB + 64GB will be offered on Lazada while the 128GB variant will only be available at Xiaomi’s physical stores. The first 1000 pre-orders will also be getting the 27W Charge Turbo + 20W Wireless Charger for FREE.
Unboxing the Xiaomi Mi 9

The Xiaomi Mi 9’s box actually looks somewhat more interesting than the phone itself, as you can see. The iridescent shades of the box are really attractive, and is an interesting shift from the much more common black packaging used with most flagships.

The iridescent finish is continued even on the inside. Xiaomi also appears to be quite proud of their Xiaomi Mi 9’s design, as they embossed the Designed by Xiaomi on the inner box.

Under that box lies the phone, which features Xiaomi’s standard stickers highlighting its features and key selling points.

So the Xiaomi Mi 9 comes with a soft case, 18W Quick Charge 3.0 power adapter, 3.5mm dongle and also SIM ejector pin. The soft case is somewhat unsuitable for the Xiaomi Mi 9, as it does not protect the camera bump at all. The charger is also the victim of some cost-cutting as it only goes up to 18W, despite the Xiaomi Mi 9 supporting Xiaomi’s latest 27W Charge Turbo.

We are working on the in-depth review of the Xiaomi Mi 9, so stay tuned!
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Acer Showcases the Ultrathin Predator Triton 700 Gaming Laptop; A Major Showing at Computex Taipei 2017

The Acer Predator Triton 700 gaming laptop isn’t just powerful, it’s also superbly thin.
Not too long ago, we had a look at one of the most powerful gaming laptops ever introduced in the world by Acer. Some are wondering what they would have in store for Computex Taipei 2017.
Well, if you’re looking for a new Acer Predator gaming laptop, this might be something to consider. Introducing the Acer Predator Triton 700 gaming laptop.

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Acer Showcases the Ultrathin Predator Triton 700 Gaming Laptop

The Acer Predator Triton 700 ultrathin gaming notebook is front and center at Acer’s Computex Taipei showcase, flaunting its incredibly slim design, powerful graphics, and processors along with industry-leading thermal technology.
The Predator Triton 700 houses the high-performance NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (overclockable) GPU and standard-voltage 7th Generation Intel Core processors in a svelte 18.9 mm-thin (0.74 inch) aluminum chassis, which is made possible with Acer’s AeroBlade 3D metal fans that increase airflow by 35% without taking up space.
It also has 2 NVMe PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 configuration and up to 32 GBs of DDR4 2400 MHz RAM, which helps the system run at peak performance.

The Predator Triton 700 utilizes Max-Q, NVIDIA’s innovative approach to designing the world’s thinnest, fastest, and quietest gaming laptops. Max-Q, an integral part of NASA’s mission to launch man into space, is defined as the point at which the aerodynamic stress on a rocket in atmospheric flight is maximized. Thus, the design of the rocket is precision-engineered around Max-Q.
NVIDIA has applied a similar philosophy to designing gaming laptops, enabling Acer to build laptops that are thinner with more GPU performance of previous generation products.
The Acer Predator Triton 700 is VR-ready, and has a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display supporting NVIDIA G-SYNC for buttery-smooth gameplay. On the audio department, you have Dolby Atmos surround sound and Acer TrueHarmony which will deliver immersive audio with crisp, rich acoustics, while Skype for Business Certification ensures conversations are clear and lag-free.
Rounding out the notebook’s powerful features are Killer DoubleShot Pro networking and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, which provides speeds up to 40 Gbps and supports dual 4K video output. The Predator Triton 700 also includes two USB 3.0 ports (featuring power-off USB charging), one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI 2.0 port, one DisplayPort connector and a Gigabit Ethernet port for those preferring a hard-wired connection.

Networking is powered by Killer DoubleShot Pro technology, which picks the fastest network connection (Ethernet or Wireless) and sends all high priority traffic over that interface, while standard traffic is sent over the other.
The first from the new ultrathin Predator Triton gaming notebook series, the Predator Triton 700 features an understated black chassis and a minimalist design, with straight contours and angular front corners. Interestingly, a large Corning Gorilla Glass plate above the keyboard serves as a window into the notebook’s cooling system, showcasing the AeroBlade 3D Fan and five heat pipes, and also functions as a Precision Touchpad.
Of course, no gaming notebook is complete without a mechanical keyboard, which delivers a satisfying typing experience and fast, accurate response times. The keys are RGB backlit and can be individually programmed.
PredatorSense software enables gamers to control and customize the Predator Triton 700’s vitals from one central interface, including lighting, hotkeys, fan control and general system monitoring. Think of it as the laptop’s command center.
Price and Availability
The Predator Triton 700 gaming notebook will be available in North America in August starting at $2,999; and in Europe, Middle East, and Africa in August starting at €3,399. More details on its availability in other countries will be available in the near future, and the Acer Predator Triton 700’s specifications may vary from region to region.

Pokdepinion: Okay, at least this price tag is easier to swallow than the Acer Predator 21 X. It looks promising but I would like to see the performance of the laptop through my own experience before giving out a verdict.

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BIOSTAR’s announces A320MH mATX motherboard — just the essentials

Motherboards are increasingly loaded with features, especially when you move up the price ladder. Everything from dedicated amplifiers to LEDs strewn across the board that glow in all the colors of the rainbow is offered. When you want nothing but the bare essentials, the BIOSTAR A320MH is what you want.
The BIOSTAR A320MH supports the latest AMD Ryzen CPUs, both Ryzen 1000 and Ryzen 2000 and all APUs that are based on the AM4 socket. The AMD A320 chipset supports an array of I/O, while keeping costs low. RAM support is basic, accepting up to two sticks of DDR4 RAM.

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For those who intend to use this motherboard to build their HTPC with AMD’s APUs, the on-board HDMI port with 4K support allows you to power high resolution displays without a dedicated GPU. The 7.1 channel HD Audio thanks to the Realtek ALC887 enables great audio for your media enjoyment.
BIOSTAR A320MH Specifications

Socket:
AMD AM4

Chipset:
AMD A320

CPU support:
AMD A-series APU, Ryzen CPU/NPU

Memory support:
2 x DDR4 DIMM, Max. 32GB, Up to DDR4 2933 MHz

Expansion:
1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (runs in x8 mode with APU/NPU)
2 x PCIe 3.0 x1

Storage:
4x SATA 3

I/O:
2 x USB 3.0 ports
4 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x USB 3.0 header
2 x USB 2.0 header
1 x PS/2
1 x HDMI (only available with AMD APU)
1 x VGA (only available with AMD APU)
1 x GbE LAN (Realtek RTL8111H)
3 x audio connectors (Realtek ALC887)

Features:
100% solid capacitors, BIOS-Flasher, BIOS Online Update

Bundled software:
Bull Guard, Smart Speed LAN (Windows 7 only)

Pokdepinion: A cute mATX case, a Ryzen 3 2200G… Sounds like a great way to build a HTPC case.
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PS Plus Asia March 2020 FREE GAMES Lineup

If you’re a PS Plus member then you have the privilege of enjoying some free games on a monthly basis. As March is getting closer, I’m sure you’re curious as to what you will be getting this time around. Here is the PS Plus Asia March 2020 free games lineup for you to look forward to.
Shadow of the Colossus Remake

Tales speak of an ancient realm where Colossi roam the majestic landscape. Bound to the land, these creatures hold a key to a mystical power of revival — a power you must obtain to bring a loved one back to life. Shadow of the Colossus is a breathtaking journey through ancient lands to seek out gigantic beasts. Armed with only a sword and a bow, explore the spacious lands and unearth each Colossus, presenting a unique challenge to test your wits, determination, and skill.
Sonic Forces

In Sonic Forces, the evil Dr. Eggman has conquered much of the world with help from a powerful and mysterious new villain named Infinite. Now, you must assist Sonic and build an army to reclaim the world as they fight against chaos and destruction. Defeat enemies with blazing speed as Modern Sonic, catapult past perilous platforms as Classic Sonic, and create your very own Custom Hero Character equipped with a variety of powerful gadgets.
PS Plus Asia March 2020 Availability
Shadow of the Colossus Remake and Sonic Forces will be available for free as part of the PS Plus Asia March 2020 free games lineup from 3rd March to 6th April 2020. In the meantime, you still have time to claim February’s lineup of free games, which you can view by clicking right here.
What do you think of the lineup? Join the discussion right below here:

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Pokdepinion: I really didn’t like Sonic Forces. It could’ve been so much better but if you’re a fan of the hedgehog, you should play Sonic Mania instead. Shadow of the Colossus is pretty good so it’s definitely a good attract for March’s lineup.
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OPPO Find X5 Pro Review – A Little Hard to Justify

Unboxing the OPPO Find X5 Pro
OPPO Find X5 Pro Review – Box

The OPPO Find X5 Pro comes in a gray box that is quite thick as a charger is included inside it.
OPPO Find X5 Pro Review – Box Content
Inside the box, you can find the following items:

USB to USB-C cable
80W charger
Matte Black silicone phone casing
Sim ejector tool
OPPO user and safety guide
OPPO Premium Service card
The OPPO Find X5 Pro smartphone

Specifications

Processor
Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
Octa-core
1x 3.00GHz Cortex-X2 + 3x 2.50GHz Cortex-A710 + 4x 1.80GHz Cortex-A510
4nm

GPU
Adreno 730

RAM
12GB

Connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e (2.4GHz and 5GHz)
Bluetooth 5.2
USB Type-C 3.1
A-GPS, Glonass, BDS, Galileo, QZSS
NFC
5G

Storage
256GB UFS 3.1

Display
6.7″ LTPO2 AMOLED
HDR10+
Up to Dynamic 120Hz Refresh Rate

Rear Camera
50MP f/1.7 wide-angle camera, multi-directional PDAF, OIS
50MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, multi-directional PDAF
13MP f/2.4 telephoto, 2x optical zoom, PDAF

Selfie Camera
32MP f/2.4 wide-angle selfie cam

Battery
5000mAh
Fast Charging 80W
Fast Wireless Charging 50W
Reverse Wireless Charging 10W

OS
ColorOS 12.1
Android 12

Ingress Protection
IP68

Dimensions
163.7 x 73.9 x 8.5 mm, 218 or 195g

Colours
Ceramic Black, Ceramic White, Blue

Performance

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Starting with Antutu v9, the OPPO Find X5 Pro falls behind the Xiaomi 12 Pro but the difference with the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus is negligible. The latter shouldn’t be a surprise since they’re running the same chip.

This is further emphasized in Geekbench 5, where the OPPO Find X5 Pro falls behind the Xiaomi 12 Pro yet again. It also loses out to the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus and HONOR Magic 4 Pro even though they run on the same chip. The results might be due to thermal throttling.

Moving on to 3DMark, the OPPO Find X5 Pro achieved results that are within our expectations. While there are minor differences with the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus, Xiaomi 12 Pro, and HONOR Magic 4 Pro, they essentially perform at roughly the same level.

In PCMark, the OPPO Find X5 Pro lags behind the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Xiaomi 12 Pro despite having the same chipset. While the HONOR Magic4 Pro managed to achieve a higher score, the difference is minuscule so expect similar performance from both devices.

For the battery life of the OPPO Find X5 Pro, the device could last up to 627 minutes at 60Hz and 654 minutes at dynamic 120Hz refresh rate which is a rather surprising result. This is likely due to the fact that the 120Hz setting is adaptive whereas, on 60Hz, it was constant. Have no fear about your battery life when running on 120Hz as you get to enjoy both battery life and fluidity.
As for the charging speed on the device, the OPPO Find X5 Pro can support both wired and wireless charging with wired charging being more stable than the latter. It takes about 58 minutes on wired charging to reach 100%.
Camera
OPPO Find X5 Pro Review – Back Camera
The native camera UI of the OPPO Find X5 Pro is pretty standard. For more detailed photo-taking, one can use the Pro camera mode instead. The triple camera setup here consists of a 50MP wide-angle primary camera, 50MP ultra-wide, and a 13MP telephoto along with a 32MP selfie camera.

The camera software did get laggy at start-up and while switching different camera modes and I, unfortunately, did miss some nice shots due to the long boot-up. However, the camera can take highly detailed images and videos, and enlarging them would not lose their quality. The MariSilicon’s AI can assist with enhancing the image vibrance, exposures, and contrasts if one does not know how to use the Pro mode.
The Hasselblad filters add a nice touch of style to the pictures and give a variety of tones to the photos taken. In night mode, the pictures taken look washed out but it managed to somewhat retain the colour of the object in the dark. It was a little hard to take a moving photo in night mode as it requires some time to process, resulting in the objects being blurry.
The selfie camera’s photos taken are rather grainy and it requires much editing to fix the lighting. Not only that, the selfie camera features a beauty mode that you can adjust to your own liking from 0 to 10 levels. However, the photos did look unnatural as it excessively softens our skin.
The one camera feature that amazes me is the video camera stabilization software whereby even the shakiest of hands can take the most stable of videos. The camera also takes smooth 60FPS video recording and the videos produced have vivid lifelike colors.
The Good
The OPPO Find X5 Pro has a 6.7″ LTPO2 AMOLED display with up to 120Hz dynamic refresh rate, protected with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, which feels pretty solid. The display of the phone produces vibrant colours which are rather pleasing to the eyes when gaming, watching videos, and viewing photos. The under-display fingerprint sensor is rather fast as its response rate is 0.01ms. The phone has an IP68 rating which is dust and water-resistant and can last up to 30 minutes under 1.5m of water.
The phone can handle Genshin Impact relatively well on medium settings and despite long hours of gaming and social media scrolling, the battery life is still relatively high. Multitasking on the phone is quick, smooth, and reliable, and running two apps at once did not slow the phone down. The phone speakers are backed up by Dolby Atmos which makes video watching on Youtube and Netflix more enjoyable.
The Bad
Despite having a solid build, the glossy finish of the phone makes it rather slippery and is a fingerprint magnet. When running Genshin Impact and Dislyte, the phone did have minor frame drops, but it is uncertain whether this is the game or the phone issue.
I managed to fix this issue by tweaking the Game Toolkit settings by going to the Performance settings and changing the Balanced mode to Pro Gamer mode. The frame drop instantly disappears, however, doing this makes the phone uncomfortably warm and consumes battery life noticeably more. The Air Gesture feature stopped working on the third day and it became a hassle to get it to work again after trying several fixes.
OPPO Find X5 Pro Verdict
The OPPO Find X5 Pro is priced at RM4,999 which is standard for a flagship these days. While it is still a good phone, it does have several flaws that you should be aware of before making the purchase.
At the end of our OPPO Find X5 Pro review, I award this phone with a Bronze Pokdeward.

Big thanks to OPPO Malaysia for sending us this smartphone for the purpose of this review.
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Here’s how to Work from Home, Pokde Style

With the COVID-19 outbreak still going on, a lot of companies have or will be announcing that you guys will be able to work from home. While working from home sounds fun, a lot of of us might not be ready for it. Here are our recommendations to help you work from home safely and comfortably. We do use these apps in our daily workday too. Let us know if you have any other ideas that we can add to this article too.
Use Franz to consolidate your messaging

While most companies will probably maintain a single communication channel, it does help to use software like Franz to consolidate all your messaging apps into one software. With support for nearly every of messaging tool including Gmail, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Telegram, it helps you stay organized without having to switch over to your phone every time you get a new message from your aunt asking you to drink more water to flush the virus down your throat.

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Aside from being a hub for your messaging apps, it also offers the ability to create separate workspaces and also to-do lists right in Franz. When it comes to convenience, Franz is definitely at the top of our list.
You can download Franz via the following link: https://pokde.la/2H0
Microsoft Teams for organized collaborations

Another tool that Franz also supports is Microsoft Teams. While we mainly touched on individual messaging platforms in Franz, Microsoft Teams is purpose-built to make collaborations a lot easier than it would be via say, a WhatsApp or Messenger group. You can either download the standalone app, use it from your web browser or just add it to Franz, like what I do.
With the ability to create separate Teams to manage different tasks, group voice calls, individual chats and most importantly, a seamless file-sharing platform that can sync changes instantly from Microsoft Office. And if you need more features than the web-based version of Office offers, you can open it up in your desktop version of the Office suite and do your stuff there. Needless to say, Microsoft Teams is a pretty indispensable tool for work.
Check out Microsoft Teams here: https://pokde.la/2H1
Or… What about Google Office?

Google Office lets you do most of what Microsoft Teams allows you to, aside from the Teams part. It is also a bit more full-featured than Microsoft’s web-based version of their Office suite, so there’s that. It might come in handy if you don’t have a copy of Microsoft Office on your home PC. With the ability to also work collaboratively on all documents, it is a legit alternative to Microsoft Office’s offering. And since it is all web-based, you can even work from a ChromeBook, if you want to.
Stay Home
The main goal of asking you to work from home is to avoid you going out and being exposed to potential COVID-19 patients. So to also help you avoid from having to go out and get your daily needs, you can use the following services:

Food: GrabFood, foodpanda, dahmakan, DeliverEat,
Groceries: Shopee, Lazada, Tesco, selected Jaya Grocers
Other necessities: GrabExpress

All these should help keep you safe from going out and limit your exposure to the outside world.
Need Internet?

Well obviously none of these would work without an Internet connection. If you don’t already have an Internet connection at home, you can consider subscribing to Celcom MEGA which gives you unlimited internet and calls from just RM98/month.
Did we miss anything? Let us know and we will add it in!
Featured image by pressfoto / Freepik
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ASUS Unveils ROG, TUF And DUAL Models For RTX 4060 Ti 8GB

A total of 8 variants has been unveiled by ASUS in line with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB’s launch – these include two ROG STRIX models, two TUF Gaming models and a total of four DUAL variants (in two colorways). The company noted that the same models will apply for the upcoming 16GB version  and the non-Ti version of the GPU as well.
The ROG STRIX models leads the way with the 311.4mm, 3.1-slot design that sits on the larger side as far as midrange GPU designs go. The card remains the same look visually as the higher-end SKUs in the NVIDIA GPU product stack, and comes with the features such as Dual-BIOS, two FanConnect II headers, and the wraparound RGB lighting situated at the tail end of the card. The OC variants can clock as high as 2715MHz under OC BIOS mode – or +180MHz over stock.

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Meanwhile, TUF Gaming models also inherits the same design from all prior RTX 40 releases, with this card in particular measuring at 300mm long, while slightly thicker at 3.12-slot. The OC variants comes with factory overclocks up to 2655MHz – a +120MHz overclock under OC mode. The pricing for this lineup, is RM2,389 for the OC variant and RM2,349 for the standard model.

The DUAL model, now revamped with new designs featuring two colorways – black and two-tone white – utilizes the dual-fan designs which greatly shortens the card length down to 227mm (though it still occupies 2.5 slots in thickness). The OC variants receives +60MHz clockspeed bump with OC mode resulting in 2595MHz clockspeed, whereas the standard variants – including ROG and TUF standard variants – gets a small 30MHz overclock available with OC mode enabled. Both black DUAL variants are priced at RM2,050 – while the white versions are not yet revealed as far as pricing goes.
Pokdepinion: ROG seems to have the most aggressive overclocks I’ve seen in GPU launched so far. Of course, there’s always more room if you try.
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vivo V5s Review – Is It An Upgrade From The V5?

Introduction

Previously, we did a review on the vivo V5, which was not really encouraging. Now, we are looking at the vivo V5s. What is the difference between the two? Did vivo make any new changes? Let’s see what they have to offer this time. fingers crossed
Unboxing
For the unboxing, we prepared a little video for our viewers to enjoy. So enjoy!

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As you can see from the video, the vflicivo V5s includes your standard charger head, USB charging cable and they were kind enough to give a silicone cover for extra protection. Surprisingly vivo included a set of earphones, which is nice but nothing to shout about (No, they are not AirPods, which is definitely nothing to shout about either).
Appearance

In terms of looks, the vivo V5s has a very common look (hint hint like an iPhone). There’s a home button underneath the display for your fingerprint security purposes. Two navigation buttons sit beside (left and right) of the home button.

At the back, the design is slightly different from the V5. The antenna lines that were in the V5 are now lined up on the edges of the phone with the top one just above the camera. It’s metallic finish doesn’t look too shabby either. The single rear camera is located at the top left and only accompanied by a single LED flash.

Here we have the right side look of the phone. There’s your standard power button, accompanied by the volume control buttons. At the left side, there is a SIM tray cum microSD tray at your disposal.

At the bottom view, it is very packed. Starting from the left, we have the 3.5mm jack, a microphone hole, microUSB connector, and finally the mono loudspeaker. Turn to the top of the phone, it is completely blank with nothing situated there.
All in all, appearance wise it looks rather simple. The design seems similar to some of the other smartphones on the market. Wished that they could add something and spice things up a little bit.
Specifications

CPU:
MediaTek MT6750 64-bit (4x A53 @ 1.5GHz + 4x A53 @ 1.0GHz)

GPU
ARM Mali-T860 MP2 @ 520MHz

RAM
4GB LPDDR3

Display:
5.5″, HD (720p) IPS display

Storage:
64GB internal (expandable with microSD up to 256GB)

Camera:
13MP f/2.2, single LED flash
20MP f/2.0 front camera

OS:
Funtouch OS 3.0 (based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow)

Connectivity:
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0

SIM:
microSIM (dual SIM support)

Battery:
3000 mAh (non-removable)

Performance
So here is the part where it counts the most. Although we already know that the phone with a MediaTek MT6750 won’t rip through the benchmarks, the question still stands. Does the vivo V5s perform better than the V5? We’ll see. Note that for every bench test, the phone was only carrying pre-installed apps with just a game or two.

Antutu rates the phone rather low here. Despite that, the result is slightly higher than the vivo V5 which shares most of its innards with this updated variant. It has a sizable lead over the smartphones powered by the quad-core MTK6735, but it still trails behind the beefier Snapdragon 430-equipped devices.

Here are the 3DMark scores for the vivo V5s. Still relatively similar results with the vivo V5. Not surprising given the similar hardware inside. Here it is ranked above the Snapdragon 430 devices simply because of their higher scores in the ES 3.1 API benchmark. If we take a look at the scores in the older APIs, the Adreno 505 still has a sizable lead over the Mali-T860MP2 in the vivo V5s.

Geekbench tests the CPU performance, and the vivo V5s’ scores are very close to the vivo V5’s scores. It does manage to eke out a small lead, but run-to-run variance is probably the reason behind the difference rather than optimizations. The MTK6750 actually has higher multi-core scores than the Snapdragon 430 which will be great if you run modern apps optimized for multiple cores.

With a score of 3186, it beats the vivo V5 hands down on the Work 2.0 performance. It still fails to best the Snapdragon 430 devices here, but given that it features eight cores, it does walk all over the MTK6735 smartphones which only features four cores.

We were unable to run our usual PCMark battery life test, we had to make do with Antutu’s version. The vivo V5s did not blow our mind with the battery life even with a SoC which was more optimized for efficiency than raw performance, with the 3000 mAh battery only keeping it on for around 4 hours before the test ended by itself. This is understandable as the MTK6750 here based on the rather old 28nm planar process node. Coupled with the average battery size, what you get is average battery life.
User Experience
When I first got my hands on the V5s, it felt rather slim in my hands. I kind of felt scared that it would get away from my grasps. Saying that, after I put on the silicone case that came along with the box, it felt perfect. The size was just right and it felt comfortable. So in terms of comfort, I would rate this. The vivo V5s features the usual microSIM and microSD tray which allows you to only slot in a nanoSIM in place of the microSD if you want to have dual SIM functionality, which is not really my type of usage but there are pros and cons to this. If you don’t have either a nano sim or a micro sim, you can use one or another.

Next is about the interface. When I had my first look at it, first thing that came to mind was “This really looks like an iOS”. When they said that the FunTouchOS was inspired from android’s 6.0 Marshmallow, I did not expect for it to be like this. I came from a device that had the back button on the left side, so it took me a little time to get used to it. Since most devices now allow you to customize these keys as they appear on the interface rather than hardware, I think vivo needs to up the ante in this as well. Despite using FunTouchOS, I can say that it runs smoothly. There were rarely moments when I had to deal with lag or slow performance, switching between applications.
The fact that it still runs on 720p display with the price that it’s asking for, I mean come on. This is 2017. With that said, colors look decent but the lack of sharpness is immediately noticeable if you put it beside a higher resolution display.
One thing that I’ve noticed when playing around with it is that the air operation (one of the smart gesture features) is not working. While this was maybe due to the fact that the phone that I’ve received was a test unit. But still, I felt like a fool waving my hands back and forth on top of the phone just to try and turn the display on.
The home button which acts as the fingerprint security was quite surprising. When vivo said that it was fast, they really mean it. It took me almost instantly to unlock the phone by using the feature.

Referring to the video above, my other issue with the phone is that it was not able to even run Asphalt 8. Even if the game had high requirements, to not be able to run the application, seriously?

We then go in to the camera section. With the front camera of the phone boasting the highest resolution among smartphones with 20MP, expectations are high. The rear camera meanwhile sports a more “conventional” 13MP sensor.

The UI for the camera is pretty common with only few modes and filters available.

Since it is branded as a selfie phone, the main focus would be well, on the front camera. As you can see, the three modes available do have a drastic effect on my face. My experience with the Face Beauty effect was a bit of both positive and negative. There were that moments when I went, “what the hell happened to me?” to “woah, that’s nice”. But more to the negative side, the face beauty in my opinion most of the time makes the image looks more ‘plastic’. It doesn’t look natural. Great for those who want to look like they did plastic surgery, but without the pain, eh? For the Bokeh mode, I enjoyed using it actually. When you take selfies, you would probably want to focus on yourself only. Picture looks sharp and looks good with more emphasis on my face thanks to the background blur. Excuse my mediocre looks by the way.The rear camera’s performance in low light environment was a bit lower than expected. In day light, it performed to expectations. All in all, still good enough for your social media posting usage.

Don’t expect much from the mono loudspeakers as it has the common quality, which is loud. If you really want to enjoy every inch and detail of sound, here’s where the headphones come in handy. With them, you can utilize the Hi-Fi option. There’s also BBE mode with quite of few options to toy around with to suit your ears.
Conclusion
At the price that it is retailing at (RM1299), it was kind of a let down for me. Expect similar performance with the vivo V5 on the inside with more storage and also a little tweak to the design on the back of the phone. That being said, personally I am not one who takes a lot of selfies which makes this device fail to appeal to me. Selfie addicts may enjoy this model though.

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Apple is Planning to Release a VR Headset and AR Glasses in the Coming Years

It looks like Apple may have plans to release a VR gaming headset as well as AR glasses in the coming years. According to Bloomberg, the former is expected to launch in 2022 whereas the latter will be in 2023.
The report mentions that Apple is aiming to release a VR and AR headset in 2021 and 2022 which will let users play games, watch videos, and attend virtual meetings. Apple planned on having the technology ready to go by this year with a release in 2020, but the date got pushed back to 2023 at the earliest. Furthermore, Apple is aiming to have the VR headset out sometime in 2022 with the AR glasses out in 2023.
Apple has over 1,000 engineers working on VR and AR technology, with some of them coming from NASA and game developers. The team is lead by vice president Mike Rockwell and the team features members from Apple’s gaming division, software engineering and manufacturing, and iPhone hardware.

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Bloomberg also mentions that engineering teams for the iPhone and iPad are working on a new operating system called “rOS,” which will let current Apple devices work on the VR headset and AR glasses. Additionally, Apple is working on a new 3D sensor that will be more advanced than the current Face ID system. This new sensor would be at the core of Apple’s AR push.
Recently, Apple has made a bigger presence in the gaming industry. The company launched Apple Arcade in September, its game subscription service which costs USD $4.99 a month. Among the games available on the service include Sayonara Wild Hearts, Frogger in Toy Town, and Rayman Mini to name a few. Moreover, you can play games on Apple Arcade using a Dualshock 4 and Xbox One controllers.
For now, do take this information with a grain of salt. Anything can change from now until 2022 but we’ll be reporting more on the matter when information becomes available.
Source: Bloomberg
Pokdepinion: I’m very curious as to how much it will be priced. Sure, it will most likely be expensive, but how so? Especially since VR headsets aren’t exactly the most affordable gadgets around.
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