PUBG Mobile Super League Southeast Asia Team Lineup Revealed

15 teams are listed to join the Partnership Program which kicks off from Southeast Asia region.

PUBG MOBILE has officially announced the 15 Southeast Asian partner teams who will be joining the Partnership Program – the pioneering teams joining the program are from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The teams were selected based on their previous tournament performance, future commitment, fan popularity, and the popularity of PUBG MOBILE Esports in the respective country; each team will receive guaranteed slots for PMPL and PMSL plus other partner benefits and opportunities.

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The Southeast Asia region’s partner teams are:
Indonesia
ALTER EGO, BIGETRON ESPORTS, BOOM ESPORTS, PERSIJA EVOS, and RRQ ESPORTS
Malaysia
GEEK SLATE, SEM9, TEAM SECRET, and YOODO ALLIANCE
Thailand
BACON TIME, FAZE CLAN, and VAMPIRE ESPORTS
Vietnam
BOX GAMING and D’XAVIER
Philippines
PLAYBOOK ESPORTS
The PMSL SEA kicks off on March 22nd with three weeks of battle across Sanhok, Erangel, and Miramar. All partner teams and other teams that have qualified through PMPL will compete in the PMSL Spring Season, and the top 16 teams will head to the PMSL Finals, taking place from April 14th – 16th. It is expected that this inaugural PMSL will showcase some of the best teams in the region, so don’t miss it!
Pokdepinion: Which team are you supporting?
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Pre-orders For New Gran Turismo 7 Open Now, Details On 25th Anniversary Edition Revealed

The newest addition to the long-running racing simulation franchise, Gran Turismo 7 was first announced during the recent PlayStation Showcase a few weeks ago. Now details on the game’s pre-order and 25th Anniversary Edition has just been revealed which include many in-game goodies.
Pre-order Gran Turismo 7 now
Gran Turismo 7 is due for release on both the PS4 and PS this 4th March 2022 and will feature three different editions, the Standard Edition, the Digital Deluxe Edition and the 25th Anniversary Edition. Each of the different editions will come with its own set of features and bonuses.
Standard Edition

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The Standard Edition of Gran Turismo 7 will come with pre-order bonuses such as:

Toyota Castrol TOM’S Supra
Mazda RX-VISION GT3 Concept (Stealth)
Porsche 917K Living Legend
100,000 in-game Credit (CR)

You can pre-order the Standard Edition on the PS Store right now for RM249 (PS4) and RM299 (PS5). Purchasing details for the physical version of the Standard Edition will be revealed at a later date. Those who purchase the PS4 version will be entitled to an upgrade to the PS5 version for a fee of RM50.
Digital Deluxe Edition

Those who pre-order the Digital Deluxe Edition of Gran Turismo 7 will receive in-game pre-order bonuses that include:

Dual PS4 + PS5 Entitlement
In-Game Credits – 1,600,000 CR
Toyota GR Yaris with country specific Livery
30 Manufacturer / Partner Avatars
The Music of Gran Turismo Official Soundtrack
Toyota Castrol TOM’S Supra
Mazda RX-VISION GT3 Concept (Stealth)
Porsche 917K Living Legend

The Digital Deluxe Edition will retail for RM379 and can be pre-ordered now from the PS Store.
25th Anniversary Edition

The 25th Anniversary Edition of Gran Turismo 7 is only available at retail stores and includes a limited-edition SteelBook case. Other bonuses included with the 25th Anniversary Edition are:

Includes PS5 Game Disc and Voucher for PS4 Game**
In-Game Credits – 1,100,000 CR
Toyota GR Yaris with country specific Livery
30 Manufacturer / Partner Avatars
The Music of Gran Turismo Official Soundtrack
Toyota Castrol TOM’S Supra
Mazda RX-VISION GT3 Concept (Stealth)
Porsche 917K Living Legend

The 25th Anniversary Edition of Gran Turismo 7 will be limited so best to check with your local game retailer as soon as you can.
Source
Pokdepinion: Wow, I remember playing the first two Gran Turismo games with my uncle on his original PlayStation. God, I feel old.
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GALAX organized GOC2017 and GEC2017; GPUPI world record broken!

It was a rather interesting view in Prantip Pratunam mall in Bangkok, Thailand as GALAX fans had gathered and lined-up in front of the gates early in the morning in anticipation of GALAX’s most prestigious event of the year, the GALAX Overclocking Carnival (GOC2017) and GALAX eSports Carnival (GEC2017) here.

The GEC2017 is pretty straightforward as contestant compete in CS:GO game to be throned as a winner and walk away with 50,000฿ (approx RM6300 or $1530 USD) and a trophy. But that’s not the main reason we were here, all the way in Bangkok. Our main focus is the GALAX GOC2017 which is an annual overclocking event following last year’s carnival that was held in Wuhan, China.

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GALAX GOC2017 Contest and Rules
Contestants have to tweak their rigs, pushing the limits of the machines using Liquid Nitrogen cooling, competing to get the best scores in four different tests:

3DMark Time Spy
3DMark TIme Spy Extreme
Geekbench 3 – Multicore
GPUPI 1B

For each of the tests, the top scorer will obtain 50 points, and these points gradually reduce by 2 points for the subsequent positions. In the case of a tie, the first tie breaker is the Time Spy Extreme and the second tie breaker is the GPUPI-1B.
The competition restrictions are as follows:

Only use LGA1151 CPUs (Core i7-7700K or below)
Only use 1x GALAX GeForce GTX 1080 Ti HOF OC Lab Edition
Only use GALAX DDR4 memory
No limits on VGA overclocks, system memory clocks or cooling

The overclockers line-up were as following:

OGS from Greece
DrWeez from South Africa
bon(nz) from New Zealand
ikki from Japan
Phil from Greece
dogna from Japan
[email protected] from Romania
rsannino from Italy
Bullshooter from Germany
Micka from China
ZeR0_Dan from China
bboyjezz from Indonesia

After a long, pain-staking 7 hours of endurance, overclocking, tweaking, testing and benchmarking, the results were finalized. Here are the official final results of the competition (scroll to the right to view the rest of the table):

Contestant

TimeSPY

GPUPI-1B

Geekbench3 – Multi Core

TimeSPY Extreme

Total Points

Rank

Score

GPU (MHz)

CPU (MHz)

Point

Time

GPU (MHz)

CPU (MHz)

Point

Score

GPU (MHz)

CPU (MHz)

Point

Score

GPU (MHz)

CPU (MHz)

Point

OGS

13019

2582

5500

46

8.228

2797

4300

48

25371

1480

5999

38

6112

2658

5500

50

182

2

DrWeez

12546

2620

5500

36

8.969

2633

4525

36

26168

1480

5999

46

5851

2545

5498

38

156

7

bob(nz)
11719

2253

4304

28

–

–

–

–

25202

2620

4304

34

5037

2050

4306

32

94

11

ikki

13079

2595

4495

48

8.63

2670

4598

40

18637

1480

4300

28

6111

2582

4502

48

164

6

Phil

12804

2595

6000

44

8.382

2746

4300

44

26034

1480

5999

40

5951

2570

5997

44

172

3

dogna

12785

2607

2417

42

8.856

2633

4300

38

26281

1480

6007

48

5882

2582

4300

40

168

4

[email protected]

13387

2607

6004

50

8.052

2680

4520

50

26382

1480

6002

50

5987

2595

4300

46

196

1

rsannino

12780

2557

4300

40

8.559

2708

5500

42

26141

1480

6005

44

5895

2556

4300

42

168

4

Bullshooter

12070

2405

4300

30

10.15

1480

4300

30

22098

1480

4300

30

–

–

–

–

90

12

Micka

12767

1480

5500

38

9.518

2455

4521

32

26099

1911

6000

42

–

–

–

–

112

10

ZeR0_Dan

12311

2367

4519

34

9.174

1924

4300

34

25262

2050

4306

36

5372

1696

4300

34

138

9

bboyjezz

12188

2455

4500

32

8.352

2759

4300

46

23904

1480

6000

32

5759

2455

4500

36

146

8

From the results, [email protected] from Romania reigned supreme by helming the throne for GOC2017 scoring highest in almost ALL of the tests, except TimeSPY Extreme. Scoring a rather impressive 196 points, [email protected] walked away with the trophy and $5,000 USD grand prize.
[email protected] was tailgated by OGS from Greece who scored 182 overall points, placing him as the runner up. Scoring 182 overall, OGS walked away with $4,000 USD in cash. However, OGS made a unique achievement where he broke the GPUPI-1B record with a whopping 7.731 seconds on the 1B  test with PI 20 iteration.
Image courtesy of HWBOT.org
Finally, in the third position, we saw Phil from Greece scoring 172 overall score, walking away with $3,000 USD in cash.
All in all, the event was a joyous one, and we’re definitely looking forward to GALAX GOC2018 next year.
Pokdepinion: While this time there was only one record broken compared to 15 in last year’s GOC2016, I guess the competition is getting tougher and soon enough, there will be very little room left for breaking the records. We still had plenty of fun and hope to visit GOC2018 next year. Congratulations to all the winners!
Event Gallery

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ROG Phone Review – BEST Gaming Smartphone Ever Built!

The ROG Phone is probably the most anticipated gaming smartphone of the year, developing so much hype and made the masses wait very long. Now, the wait is over and here is our official review after using the ROG Phone for about two weeks. I started writing this review with a “brief” introduction that became anything else but “brief”, so I isolated it into a separate article instead. Go ahead and read that here, it opens in a separate page.
Unboxing the ROG Phone

We made a little unique unboxing video for you guys, so I hope you guys enjoyed it. Take note that the version in the video is a Taiwanese set whereas the Malaysian unit will come with an ROG Phone back case that protects the device without jeopardizing the looks. That, apart from the UK 3-pin for the adapter.
Appearance
Let’s take a tour around the smartphone. The ROG Phone is one of its kind gaming smartphone that ever existed. The design is unseen in this category, and it comes in only one color variant, Space Gray with a dash of Copper Plasma. Let’s take a deep look around it like we always do.

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The front façade of the ROG Phone is entirely taken up by the glass panel. The screen makes up to 84.5% of the front surface but the glass literally covers 95% and the remainder is taken by a pair of copper plasma colored stereo front-facing speakers giving it an asymmetric look when it is held in landscape mode. This huge piece of glass is actually world’s first implementation of the 6th generation of 2.5D curved edge Corning Gorilla Glass that makes it comfortable to wrap fingers around them; because you would be doing that very frequently.

At the top of the front display, you can find a notification LED next to the proximity sensor horizontally across the front facing 8MP f/2.0 camera for your selfies and streaming. Finally the front camera has a new purpose.

Moving to the right side of the device, you would see the usual Power button and the volume rocker. Towards the end of this side, where the top edge is, you will find one of the three microphones and I’m not kidding when I’m saying THREE microphones that serve various functions at different times and orientations. Lurking around, if you look at it carefully, there’s ROG’s signature Mayan design which is more than just aesthetics. Under these, are the ROG Phone’s AirTrigger sensors that provide two out of three additional physical triggers that you can customize and bind to anything that you see on the display while gaming.

Moving to the left side, you will be presented with the SIM tray at the far left that hold the dual-SIM tray. Nope, there is no SD Card whether in combo or dedicated here, which is a bummer. Centered to this section is the one of two power connectors that looks like the older ugly USB 3.0 wide connector, except, it is not it. In fact, the left portion of the port houses the USB Type-C, while the entire port is proprietarily used to power and communicate with the accessories. At far right end, you will find the final AirTrigger making it the third one.

At the top, things are rather simple. Adopting similar design as that of the ZenFone series, you can see two antennas crossing the area with one of them housing the second microphone.

At the bottom, you would see again the similar antennas configuration here. At the left most, is the third microphone, completing the full set, followed by a Type-C USB port and a 3.5mm audio jack for your audio pleasures. So far things have been pretty interesting, but it only gets even more exciting when we flip the device over.

The back of the ROG Phone is probably one of the sexiest and unique designs I have seen on a smartphone, EVER! This probably is the case because I myself am a gamer and the gaming design just works for me. Aesthetics are subjective after all.

However, what all of us can agree here, is that ROG emblem at the back with RGB backlighting totally ROCKS! RGB lighting on phone is not something new actually, but since it’s THE thing in the gaming scene, it makes more relevance on the ROG Phone than ever. We’ll elaborate more on how to use it and the available effects in the User Experience.

At the top of this, you will find the dual camera setup in a not-evenly-spread hexagon glass section. This is a 12MP f/1.8 that sits on top of a 1.4 µm sensor and has 4-axis Optical Image Stabilization with dual pixel PDAF. The other camera here is a 8MP f/2.0 without OIS.

Slightly to the right, the rather rectangular shape is the fingerprint scanner.

To the right, you can find the ultra-thin cooling pad that pushes out the heat from within the device. The vents themselves are covered with copper plasma theme that gives it a sporty yet functional look.
Overall, the ROG Phone is definitely a perfect piece of art with gamers in mind. I really can’t find much flaws in this department, maybe prolonged usage will show something?
Specifications

Processor
2.96GHz specially-binned Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 Mobile Platform with 10nm, 64-bit Octa-core Processor

GPU
Qualcomm® Adreno™ 630

UI
ROG UI

Display
6.0” 18:9 2160×1080 AMOLED 90Hz with 1ms response time 550nits brightness
108.6% DCIP3; 10,000:1 contrast ratio. Front 2.5D Corning Gorilla 6 glass

Capacitive touch panel with 10 points multi-touch (support Glove touch)
Gaming HDR and Mobile HDR supported

Memory
LPDDR4X 8GB RAM

Storage
UFS2.1 128GB / 512GB、Google Drive 100GB / 1 year

Sensor
Accelerator, E-Compass, Proximity, Hall sensor, Ambient light sensor, fingerprint sensor, Gyro, Ultrasonic sensor

Main Rear Camera
6.25x light sensitivity low light photos (compared with a typical camera with 16MP, F1.7 & 1.12µm pixel size)
Sony flagship IMX363 12MP dual pixel image sensor – 1/2.55″ large sensor size, 1.4µm large pixel size
F1.7 aperture
26.6mm equivalent focal length in 35mm film camera
6p lens
78.2° field of view
Instant cameras switching
0.03 seconds phase-detection autofocus
4-axis, 4 stops optical image stabilization
LED flash

Second Rear Camera
120° wide-angle camera
200% wider view for more friends and scenery in the frame
12mm equivalent focal length in 35mm film camera

Front Camera
8MP
F2.0 aperture
24mm equivalent focal length in 35mm film camera
84° field of view

Video Recording
4K UHD (3840 by 2160) video at 30 / 60 fps for main rear camera
1080p FHD video recording at 30 / 60 fps
720p HD video recording at 30 fps
3-axis electronic image stabilization for rear cameras
Take still photo while recording video
Slow Motion video (1080p at 240 fps / 720p at 240 fps)
ZeniMoji

Speaker
Dual front-facing speakers
5-magnet speaker with dual NXP 9874 smart amplifier for louder, deeper and less distorted sound effect

Audio Output
Hi-Res audio 192kHz/24-bit standard that is 4 times better than CD quality
DTS:X Ultra 1.0 delivers incredibly realistic 3D audio rendering for any kind of games or virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR), featuring immersive 7.1-channel surround-sound with enhanced bass response.
AudioWizard with listening profile

Microphone
Triple internal microphones with ASUS Noise Reduction Technology

FM Receiver
FM radio

Wireless Technology
WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4 & 5GHz
WLAN 802.11ad 60GHz (32 Antennas)Bluetooth 5.0
Wi-Fi direct

Navigation
GPS/Glonass/Beidou/Galileo/QZSS

SIM Cards
Dual SIM dual standby
Slot 1: 2G/3G/4G Nano SIM Card
Slot 2: 2G/3G/4G Nano SIM Card

Data rate
LTE Cat13 UL up to 150Mbps / Cat18 DL up to 1.2Gbps
DC-HSPA+: UL 5.76 / DL 42Mbps
DL 5CA and UL 2CA supported
4×4 MIMO and CA w/4×4 MIMO supported
5CA 4×4 MIMO up to 1.2Gbps supported

B version
FDD-LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 28, 29, 32)
TD-LTE (Bands 34, 38, 39, 40, 41,46)
WCDMA (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 19)
TD-SCDMA (Bands 34,39)
CDMA (Band BC0)
EDGE/GPRS/GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz)

Interface
Side: 48 pin Customized connector
USB3.1 gen1/DP 1.4(4K)/Fast Charging (QC3.0+QC4.0/PD3.0) / Direct Charge
Bottom: Type C connector
USB2.0/Fast Charging (QC3.0/PD3.0)/Direct Charge

3.5mm Audio jack

NFC
Support

Operating System
Android™ Oreo 8.1

Battery
4,000mAh

Power Adapter
Output: 10V 3A, supports up to 30W QC4.0 / PD3.0 / Direct Charge adapter

Dimensions
158.83x 76.16x 8.3mm

Weight
200g

Performance
What’s a gaming phone without its performance, right? Under the hood, the ROG Phone is already packing the best and nothing less, but that’s just on paper. We already know that the Snapdragon 845 itself is speed binned and capable of delivering performance beyond what most smartphones today are capable of. But let’s make things interesting. Instead of maximizing the performance, my tests here would put the device in its normal mode and not the X mode. The brightness has been standardized to our usual tests using our Lux meter. The RGB at the back is also left running. This means, what you are seeing here, technically the ROG Phone can perform better than this!

Look at our Antutu v7 charts! The ROG Phone just broke our ceilings and topped the charts here. There is no other Snapdragon 845 device that made it this high, ever! The speed binned CPU is already living up to its name here. We’re off to an excellent start.

How efficient actually are the CPU cores working together? Let’s test it out with our usual Geekbench test. In multi cores test, the ROG Phone once again topped the charts in normal mode. This is getting easier than I thought actually. However, in single core test, it lost to the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Then again, comparing it against other Snapdragon 845 devices, it still showed up the highest.

Now, let’s test the ROG Phone on the daily productivity test. You’re buying a gaming phone, but you would want to use it as your daily driver flashing the RGB logo everywhere after all. The PCMark Work 2.0 score wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it was lugging right behind POCOPHONE that topped the charts with a difference of only 13 points only.

Moving on, is our GPU performance. The ROG Phone didn’t really score well on ES2.0 tests but excelled in ES3.0 and ES3.1. I’m not entirely sure why, but then again, it’s a hard debate, but to me, personally I think ES2.0 shouldn’t be relevant anymore in 2018 onwards. With ES3.0 taking the largest percentage and ES3.1 slowly on the rise, ES2.0 should be phased out soon.

Finally, the battery test. The ROG Phone has a 4000 mAh battery under its hood and I think it could have performed better here with that capacity. It’s not bad, it wasn’t bad at all. It would definitely get you through your day without breaking a sweat. It’s all the fluff that ASUS has add to it that comes at the cost of the battery usage. RGB emblem, binned CPU, high refresh rate and high resolution display just being the main contributors. Hey, you’re getting a gaming smartphone. Much like gaming laptop, battery is the last thing we’re going to consider in this test at least, wouldn’t we?
User Experience

I’ve been carrying the ROG Phone around for about two weeks now, and in a few occurrences now, a random person would just approach me and ask me “Isn’t that the ROG Phone?” I guess it has become the most anticipated device of the year with so many eye balls on it. Either that, or perhaps it’s just the RGB emblem at the back of the smartphone. The thing is, there is a new smartphone launched almost every month anyway and every brand has their fan base. But it has never occurred to me that someone actually approaches me just to have a look at the smartphone that I have been using.

The Space gray and copper plasma mix is just perfect. At first when I was told about this color scheme I was a little disappointed inside because I wanted it to be Space gray with red instead. After seeing the real thing and actually using it, I think they got the balance right here.
One of the thing that I thought would be a problem is the fact that they added glass at the back of the device. However, the cooling pad on the side of the device compensates for this and no matter which orientation you are holding the device in, you will be holding a part of it anyway.

Speaking of the cooling pad, the ROG Phone has what ASUS calls the GameCool which is basically a vapor-chamber for heat dissipation. This is not something new in the modern smartphones but it definitely affects how the thermals play out. On the ROG Phone, the thermals are insanely good. I played a few games in series for about an hour and then immediately took the following screenshot.

That’s 37°C after some serious gaming. In fact, with PUBGM at its maximum settings, the highest temperature that I hit was 44°C and that is without the AeroActive Cooler mounted yet. If it’s a gaming device, it needs to perform like a gaming device after all. The ROG Phone totally didn’t disappoint with the thermals, living up to the ROG branding. So what happens if you mount the AeroActive Cooler?

Yup, mounting the AeroActive Cooler actually brought a difference of 5°C in temperature difference. 5°C for a smartphone of this grade is A LOT!

You do have to trade it with the noise that the fan makes at maximum speed but if you are gaming with earphones or headset on, this is not even a problem at all.

Let’s get on to the display. This is a 6” AMOLED display that has a 2160 x 1080 resolution with 18:9 ratio. What is actually breathtaking here is that it has a 90Hz refresh rate with 1ms quick response and it even supports HDR! You might be wondering which games are able to support this refresh rate. Our awesome friends at AndroidCentral have compiled a list of games that supports up to 120Hz, so 90Hz should automatically be supported. Why 90Hz and not 120Hz like the Razer Phone has?
90Hz is as fast as AMOLED can go right now. The display that Razer hones is an IGZO IPS LCD. If you have ever seen both displays before, you can clearly tell which one is a clear winner in terms of vibrancy. Combine this with ASUS’ proprietary ASUS Splendid technology? This becomes one of the most beautiful display ever on a gaming smartphone to date! So when you are getting the ROG Phone, you can be assured that performance is not the only DNA that ROG has planted into it.

Let’s talk about the ports. The ROG Phone has two Type-C ports on bottom and side of the device. This allows plugging in at your convenience based on how you are using the device. I know you definitely would try to plug in two chargers, so I tested it out for you instead. When two chargers are plugged in, the one on the right side will become the dominant. You will be prompted too.

There was a little bug here though. The ROG Phone only detects when it’s plugged in without detecting its polarity. Being a Type-C, it also supports Type-C headsets, so I tested it out with the ROG Delta. When I plug the Type-C and the charger together, I still get the prompt. But don’t worry, your device will still charge even if your headset is plugged to the side port and the charger to the bottom one. Speaking of ROG Delta? The ROG Phone actually supplies enough power for it to even run the headset’s RGB effects. It’s just incredible!
Yes, you can actually run it in landscape mode if you wish
Talk about the RGB leads us to the game center.  The Game Center is just one of the touches that ROG has put their love into. It looks very much like the BIOS in the ROG motherboards with red and black touches everywhere. Apart from the device stats, you will also find the Game Profiles, Fan Speed and AURA lighting option here. Let me go through one by one.

The Game Profiles allows you to define unique behaviors across every game differently.

Whether you want to turn on X Mode, run memory cleaner prior to starting the game, set the maximum CPU frequency for that game, define the refresh rate of the display, turn off anti-aliasing, or block alerts. All these can be defined for every individual games differently. This is approaching the PC level options!
Then we have the Fan speed option which is a pretty straightforward menu here. It allows you turn it on or off and adjust the speed of the fan manually or set it to automatic to let the ROG Phone decide itself.

The AURA lighting mode is definitely fun to play with! For starters, you can synchronize your AURA settings with other ROG Phones around you that are connected on the same Wi-Fi network. You can also set a different RGB profile for the normal mode and the X mode respectively. There are four modes available:

Static that just turns on one color without any effects
Breathing that gradually turns off and on again with fade effects
Strobing that look like breathing but without the face effects
Color Cycle that shows all available RGB colors in a transition effect

You can set the brightness of the RGB lighting to conserve some of the battery power. I didn’t see too much difference in battery life even when I leave the RGB on the whole day so go away, flaunt the colors. You can also set the rate of the effects on how fast do you want them to transition. The color combination is so massive, there is definitely a way to match the color with your OOTD everyday.
X Mode Off vs X Mode On
The X Mode is definitely an easy way to put your device on supercharge. With just a tap of a button in the shortcuts drawer, the X Mode can be activated and deactivated at any time. Turn it off and the whole theme remains in black and copper color. Turn it on and it turns into red, intimidating you that it has engaged the ultimate gaming mode, ready for anything that you can toss to it.

Let’s talk about the in-game overlay or Game Genie that we never really loved previously. ASUS has improved the Game Genie and the options are just amazing now. The Lock mode disables the navigation bar altogether to avoid any accidental button presses. No alerts will avoid any notifications to appear at all.

Real-time info opens up a movable live stats bar that shows the CPU usage, GPU usage, battery life, temperature (see for yourself the temperature in a live game if you didn’t believe me above), and the FPS that you are getting.  Lock brightness do exactly that. Lock the brightness at the one that you are gaming on. That’s not all.
With one press of button, you can clear any unwanted background ram usage and speed up the device. The most important feature here is the AirTriggers. Once you activate it, two blobs in red and blue will appear and you can just drag them wherever you want and that section will become the active area for the left and right trigger. Don’t want to use it? Turn it off. That’s not all though.

Drop the shortcut drawer from the top and long press the AirTrigger and you will be taken to the AirTrigger customization option. Here, you can set the level of how sensitive do you need the AirTriggers to be. You can also set a single hand operation mode, or double hand operation mode. You are also given the “tap” and “squeeze” options where you can define different actions for stronger squeezes. I KNOW RIGHT! That is ACE!
It’s a gaming phone, so Macros are definitely something you are going to love! Setting up a macro is pretty easy, Turn it on from game genie, and a record button appears. Record your sequence and once done, hit stop and save the macro. You can then play it back after that. You can save as many macros as you want and give them unique names too. HOWEVER, the macros feel a little clunky. I’m not sure if it was done on purpose to avoid cheating, but I was not able to get the macros to 100% accuracy. For example, in Garena’s Contra Return, there is a mode called endless where the map actually repeats everytime you start and you are given only one life to endure it. I recorded the macro until pretty far, but when I played it back, it didn’t perform the same and I died in the middle. Again, I’m not sure if this is on purpose, but macro accuracy would be good to have for farming.
You can record your game play if you wish or you can stream it live to twitch or YouTube.
Let’s talk about the camera. The camera technology is ported over from the ASUS ZenFone 5 actually. So you can check out the samples that we took in our ASUS ZenFone 5 review. Of course I took some samples for you, my beloved readers still. For a gaming phone? The camera is more than what you need.

Conclusion
I saw the ROG Phone at Computex 2018 already. I already said it would be one of the best gaming smartphone of 2018. I still stand firm with my statement. ROG Phone is the best gaming smartphone of 2018. Fight me.
ASUS has really lived up to the ROG emblem with the ROG Phone. At this point, I’m not even kidding, finding the flaws on this gaming phone proved extremely difficult because it almost had none! If you bought a unit and found something, please do let us know in the comments and we will be more than glad to test it out.
You realized that I did not mention any of the accessories in this review. That’s just because I am planning to get them and if I do, I’ll review them separately. If you play PUBG or Mobile Legends, share your ID with us and let’s GAME ON!

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Microsoft Testing Tabs for Notepad in Windows 11

After Commant Prompt, File Explorer – Notepad is apparently the next to receive tabbed UI implementation for Windows 11.
Image credit: Windows Central (posted by internal Microsoft employee)
A screenshot was posted on Twitter by Microsoft’s employee (which has since been taken down) has shown the Notepad with tabs shown on top of the window. Note the giant “Confidential” warning that says “Don’t discuss features or take screenshots”.
While the screenshot is all there is to it – it’s not difficult to figure out how it’d work. Like the Windows File Explorer, opening a new file or a new window will spawn a new tab instead of a new window, which helps to reduce clutter if you have multiple files opened at the same time.

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It’s unclear whether this update will go past the Insider channel to ship in next Windows update, or rather a standalone update that will arrive as soon as the testing is complete.
Source: Windows Central
Pokdepinion: Good luck to whoever that Microsoft employee was…
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Gears of War 5 PC System Requirements Revealed

The Gears of War 5 technical test on PC will be happening soon, and now we have some indication of what sorta hardware you need for the game. Develop The Coalition has indicated some rather beefy specifications for the ideal system requirements, but the others look pretty reasonable.
It appears that the game will take up about 15GBs of space at launch, and will require the Windows 10 May 2019 update. The pre-download for the Gears of War 5 technical test will begin on 17th July 2019 at 10AM PDT / 18th July 2019 at 1AM GMT +8. The technical test itself will be running from 19th July 2019 at 10AM PDT to 22nd July 2019 at 10AM PDT. For Malaysians, that will be 20th July 2019 at 1AM (GMT +8) to 23rd July 2019 at 1AM (GMT +8).
This is what The Coalition has to say about the Gears of War 5 Technical Test:
During Test periods, our goal is to test our servers handling an influx of players ahead of launch day. Gears 5 has an access queue system in place to protect server stability as much as possible – please be aware you may encounter some queueing as you start to play. Between test periods, the Tech Test will remain available for download but servers will be offline.
For a complete look into the game’s system requirements, check it out right below here:

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Minimum System Requirements

CPU: AMD FX-6000 Series / Intel Core i3 Skylake
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 / 1050 / AMD Radeon R9 280 / RX 560
Memory: 6GB RAM
Storage: 15GB
OS: Windows 10 (May 2019 Update)

Recommended System Requirements

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 / Intel Core i5 Skylake
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / 1660 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 570 / RX 5700
Memory: 8GB RAM
Storage: 15GB
OS: Windows 10 (May 2019 Update)

Ideal System Requirements

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 / Intel Core i7 Skylake
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 / AMD Radeon VII
Memory: 16GB RAM
Storage: 15GB space in SSD
OS: Windows 10 (May 2019 Update)

Source: TweakTown
Pokdepinion: The Gears of War 5 system requirements look pretty hefty for the ideal one. Regardless, looks like my PC will be run the game without any issues.
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Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade DLC Had Design Changes for Yuffie and Sonon

While Episode 2 isn’t due for release anytime soon, we do have the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade DLC to look forward to. Apparently, there were notable changes for Yuffie Kisaragi and Sonon Kusakabe’s design, and here’s why.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade DLC Yuffie and Sonon Design Changes

According to a recent Famitsu interview featuring game director Tetsuya Nomura, there have been notable changes for both Yuffie Kisaragi and newcomer Sonon Kusakabe. The latter’s final design was especially influenced by Cloud Strife and Vincent Valentine.

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Apparently, Sonon Kusakabe was initially depicted as a young “bishonen” type character. If you’re not sure what that means, it refers to a beautiful young boy. The decision was made to change Sonon into an older, manly type of character to differentiate himself from the likes of Cloud and Vincent. It’s also to let gamers see another side of Yuffie as to how she interacts with different types of characters.
As for Yuffie’s design change, the idea here is to create a balance in design with Sonon, which is why she appears the way she does in the trailer. It’s not meant to be too different from the original so gamers who remember the character won’t feel like it’s a replacement.
As explained in the profiles we previously revealed, Sonon is from Wutai and a member of Avalanche. Sonon’s features mixes Asian influences and military motifs, like with his shoulder guard armor. He uses a stick to fight and wears easy to move in, light clothes, to create a balance with Yuffie’s design.
Tetsuya Nomura
For now, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade DLC will be coming exclusively to the PlayStation 5 on 10th June 2021. Those who own the PS4 version of the base game will be getting a free next gen upgrade, but the DLC will have to be purchased separately.
Source
Pokdepinion: Personally, I’m still a massive Aerith fanboy, but Yuffie comes at a very close second. As such, I’m very excited to play the DLC.
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vivo Presents New “Antara Dua Hati” Video Featuring Brand Ambassador Mira Filzah

vivo Malaysia has just released a new brand video titled “Antara Dua Hati” which Mira Filzah, the new vivo V21 brand ambassador. The “Antara Dua Hati” video highlights the importance of enjoying and capturing life’s simple moments as they happen during these strange, challenging, and unprecedented time.
Watch vivo’s “Antara Dua Hati” with vivo V21 brand ambassador Mira Filzah

The video sees Mira Filzah navigating through the intricacies of a new marriage, alongside husband Wan Emir Astar Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar. Throughout the video, Mira is steadfast in capturing life’s unexpected surprise, the good and the bad, with the new vivo V21 series. Equipped with a 44MP OIS Night Selfie front camera, the smartphone allowed her to capture super-clear selfies that made every detail of her precious moments last while the slim, 7.29mm 1 body of the V21 allowed her to stay fashionable while on the go.

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You can check out the full “Antara Dua Hati” featuring Mira Filzah down below.

The vivo V21 series was just launched yesterday which consists of the vivo V21 and the vivo V21e. Both devices sport a triple camera setup with emphasis on night photography and videography which includes a 64MP main camera, 8MP wide-angle camera and a 2MP macro camera. They both also sport a 44MP front camera with OIS.

Both the vivo V21 and vivo V21e comes equipped with a 6.44-inch AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. There is also a Dimensity 800U chip powering the V21 while the V21e is powered by a Snapdragon 720G SoC. Both smartphones feature a 4,000mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging. They are both available to purchase now with the vivo V21 retailing for RM1,599 and the vivo V21e retailing for RM1,299.
That’s not all as vivo Malaysia is also throwing in a bunch of promotions to celebrate the new phones’ launch. For more information on that, you can check our coverage right here. Stay tuned for our review of the vivo V21 coming real soon.
Pokdepinion: The “Antara Dua Hati” video is surprisingly well shot in my opinion. It’s done in a way that it doesn’t feel overly cringey to me like a lot of other videos or short films produced by brands.
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TM to Invest RM50 Million for Streamyx and Unifi Upgrades in Sabah

We knew for a while that Telekom Malaysia (TM) is set to upgrade their services across Malaysia. After all, even MCMC is keeping a close eye on them due to the high number of consumers voicing out their displeasure across a variety of reasons. Well, we have a glimpse of another big move as TM is set to invest roughly RM50 million for Streamyx and  Unifi service upgrades in Sabah this year.
According to TM Sabah General Manager, Dato’ Mohd Sainal Mohd Amin, their focus this year is to improve Streamyx areas so that the consumers can also enjoy Unifi. There will be a variety of technologies being utilized but the primary focus will be on wireless.

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It was mentioned that they will be doing their best to improve and upgrade their services in cooperation with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). At this point in time, TM has about 70,000 residential and business customers throughout Sabah.
For those of you who might not be aware, TM has been given a month (now roughly 20 days left) to report and give a final solution that will aid Streamyx users who are still paying a high price and “enjoying” abysmal speeds. You can read more about that in our earlier report by clicking here.
Source: Berita Harian
Pokdepinion: Good to see some updates on what developments we can expect in the future. Hopefully there will be plenty more upgrades across Malaysia that we can see, especially for Streamyx.
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ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) vs Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 — will the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) live up to its tagline?

Let’s start off by saying that neither of these devices are gaming smartphones. In their respective families, ASUS has the incredibly overkill ROG Phone, while Xiaomi has the Black Shark, as their gaming smartphones.However the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is marketed with the tagline “Limitless Gaming” which should mean it has decent gaming chops, right? The Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 shares most of the basic specifications with the ZenFone Max Pro (M1), and a lot of our readers requested us to compare these two very similarly specced devices. To satisfy everyone, as well as our own curiosity whether the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is a better gaming smartphone than its peers, this is our comparison between the ZenFone Max Pro (M1) vs Redmi Note 5. *cue standing ovation
Specifications

ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1)
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5

CPU/Chipset:
Snapdragon 636 (4 x Kryo 260 @ 1.8 GHz + 4 x Kryo 260 @ 1.6 GHz), 14nm FinFET
Snapdragon 636 (4 x Kryo 260 @ 1.8 GHz + 4 x Kryo 260 @ 1.6 GHz), 14nm FinFET

GPU:
Adreno 509
Adreno 509

RAM:
3GB LPDDR4X
3GB LPDDR4X

Display:
6.0″, FHD+ (2160×1080) IPS display
5.99″ FHD+ (2160×1080), IPS display

Storage:
32GB eMCP 5.1 (expandable via microSD up to 2TB)
32GB eMMC 5.1 (expandable via microSD up to 128GB)

Camera:
Main Camera(s)
13MP f/2.0, PDAF + 5MP depth detection sensor
Single LED flash, HDR, 4K video
Front Camera
8MP, Beauty mode, 85° FoV
Main Camera(s)
12MP f/1.9  IMX363 1.4μm + 5MP f/2.0 depth detection
Front Camera
13MP f/2.0, Beautify 4.0

OS:
Pure Android 8.1 Oreo
MIUI 9.5 based on Android 8.1 Oreo

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

SIM:
Dual nanoSIM
Dual nanoSIM (second SIM slot shared with microSD slot)

Battery:
Li-ion 5000 mAh (non-removable)
4000 mAh (non-removable)

Weight:
180 g
181 g

Price:
RM699
RM749

The ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) comes up on top with a slightly bigger display and better support for expandable storage. We didn’t expect it to be actually lighter than the Redmi Note 5 with the bigger battery. Pure Android 8.1 Oreo gives the ZenFone Max Pro an edge here too, promising faster updates than MIUI 9.5. Both devices are actually running Android 8.1 Oreo, so we wouldn’t give the ZenFone Max Pro a direct win just yet. True dual SIM functionality is also an advantage you get with the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1), allowing you to use two SIMs and a microSD at the same time. The more affordable price tag of the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) also makes it the more palatable choice. The Redmi Note 5 doesn’t go down without a fight, as its 12MP IMX363 f/1.9 camera and 802.11ac WiFi are clearly better than the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1)’s 13MP camera and 2.4 GHz WiFi.

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Gaming Experience
Brightness
After calibrating the brightness
Right off the bat, to get an accurate representation of our gaming battery life benchmarks which we will discuss later on, we noticed that with both devices set at 50% brightness, the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is way brighter than the Redmi Note 5. We had to reduce the the brightness on the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) so that both devices are at the same brightness before starting our benchmarks. Worth noting also is the ZenFone Max Pro (M1)’s display offers more saturated colors, while the the Redmi Note 5’s display is both less saturated and warmer.
At maximum brightness, both devices are pretty similar, with the Redmi Note 5 eking out just a bit more brightness than the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1). No idea why Xiaomi decided that 50% brightness should be less than half the maximum brightness.
Maximum settings

This is when we noticed yet another discrepancy. The Redmi Note 5 can’t do the higher settings that the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is capable of. In PUBG Mobile, the Redmi Note 5 caps off at Medium Frame Rate and Balanced Graphics.

A similar situation is noted in Arena of Valor (AOV), where the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro sports the High Frame Rate Mode for 60 fps gameplay, and the Redmi Note 5 is stuck at the standard 30 fps.
Despite such similar specifications, the Redmi Note 5 clearly lost this round, as any half-decent gamer will tell you that a higher frame rate not only makes the visuals smoother, but also helps you respond better to fast-paced in game situations.
Battery life
Here’s where we test the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1)’s endurance versus the Redmi Note 5. The similar hardware and larger battery of the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) should give it a clear win over the Redmi Note 5, but maybe MIUI’s optimizations will allow the Redmi Note 5 to make up for the difference in battery capacity?
To test, we played Free Fire, AoV, PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang for 1 hour each. The settings are fixed to equivalent settings on both devices.

As it stands, the ZenFone 5 Max Pro (M1) consumes up to 3% less battery per hour as compared to the Redmi Note 5 in most games. This metric is far from useful as a gauge of power consumption, but we can see that you will get much more gaming out of the ASUS ZenFone 5 Max Pro (M1) than you can out of the Redmi Note 5.

Here we extrapolate the data, assuming you will stop gaming at 10% battery and run to a charger. With up to 90% of the respective battery life to use for gaming, we calculated that you can play up to 10 hours of AoV, 9 hours of Free Fire and Mobile Legends or 7.5 hours of PUBG Mobile with the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1). Converting that into percentage yields a gain of between 25-33% more gaming time. The battery of the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is just 25% larger, which means that ASUS’ choice of going with Pure Android 8.1 Oreo may have paid off, with less background power consumption than MIUI 9.5. This allowed for up to 33% more gaming, with just 25% more battery.
Conclusion

Without any doubt left in us, ASUS has definitely delivered a smartphone that is indeed the better option for gaming than it’s peers in the same price range. We aren’t saying the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) is perfect though, as 802.11ac WiFi would definitely help maintain a more stable connection especially when gaming in more crowded wireless environments. But for less than RM700, we really can’t think of a better smartphone for gaming. The ASUS ZenFone Max Pro (M1) delivers on its Limitless Gaming tagline, outperforming and outlasting its closest competitor, the Redmi Note 5 comfortably.
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Why Final Fantasy VII Remake Was Absent at E3 2018 – It’s Better This Way

Many people were disappointed by the lack of Final Fantasy VII Remake at E3 2018, but there’s a legit reason for that and it might be better this way.
Why Final Fantasy VII Remake Was Absent at E3 2018

It’s no surprise that many were expecting some form of announcement, teaser, or just about anything on the Final Fantasy VII Remake at E3 2018. Because of that, there were also many gamers that were disappointed and / or outraged by the lack of it. Interestingly, this is the 3rd year in a row where nothing on the game was shown at E3 2018.

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Speculations were rampant on the game following E3 2018, but most of these were just pure speculations fueled by rumours and possibly some hurt feelings. If you were wondering why there nothing to show, Italian gaming website, Multiplayer, has got some interesting details.
In an interview with game director Tetsuya Nomura about Kingdom Hearts III, the topic of Final Fantasy VII Remake was inevitably brought up. When asked about the remake, Nomura-san admits that it was announced very early and states:
I am aware that we announced it very early, but in the industry, word was starting to spread that we were working on the game, so we decided to stop keeping it a secret and to reveal it officially.
Nomura-san also mentions that nowadays, many important projects are often leaked, especially with the outsourcing of work being widespread. It’s even worse when a false rumour starts spreading, and developers have to decide whether to respond, and what sort of response to give.  He prefers to announce the game officially, over having it leak. This is why the Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced back in 2015.
No word yet on when Final Fantasy VII Remake will be released.
Source: Multiplayer
Pokdepinion: Well, the same thing happened to Kingdom Hearts 3 but to the least, we at least have that to look forward at the moment. I’m not going to worry much about that until I’m done with that game. I’d rather them not sharing anything rather than sharing something insignificant or risky.
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Spyro Reignited Trilogy Finally Coming to Nintendo Switch?

A listing for Spyro Reignited Trilogy for Nintendo Switch has been found on GameStop Germany’s website. It gives the game a August 16th release date.
Found by :@AngrySpace.#SpyroReignitedTrilogy. pic.twitter.com/j8bKWTusfo
— Spyro Universe 💎 (@SpyroUniverse) February 10, 2019

Gamers who grew up playing Spyro the Dragon got the opportunity to relive their childhood memories with the release of Spyro Reignited Trilogy. However, not all gamers were able to play it as it was only made available for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It appears that the game may indeed be coming to the Nintendo Switch soon.
According to Twitter user @SpyroUniverse, they have found that GameStop Germany has a listing for Spyro Reignited Trilogy for the Nintendo Switch. The listing also mentioned that the game will be coming out on 16th August 2019.

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However, we have received no official word from Toys for Bob or Activision, so we will have to take this information with a grain of salt for now. If it’s true, then great. Otherwise, we’ll just hope for the best for an eventual release.
For those of you who are wondering, there has been no word on a PC release for the game yet.
Spyro Reignited Trilogy is already out for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This remastered collection includes the first three games in the series; Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon.
Pokdepinion: If it actually does pop up for the Nintendo Switch, I really hope it can do 60 FPS overall.
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TIPA awards BenQ SW2700PT as Best Photo Monitor

The BenQ SW2700PT is an impressive monitor in its own right, sporting a 1440p resolution, 350-lux bright IPS panel and also 99% coverage of the AdobeRGB color space. And now it is officially the one and only display ever awarded by Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) as the 2016 Best Photo Monitor.

BenQ SW2700PT was awarded for its precise 99% coverage of Adobe RGB color space, vivid high-contrast rendering of deep black levels, and comprehensive connectivity including Displayport, DVI, HDMI, USB 3.0, and even includes a memory card reader and OSD controller.

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ARVE Error: need id and provider
BenQ SW2700PT delivers high resolution with wide 178° viewing angles thanks to its IPS technology. Its 14-bit 3D lookup table (LUT) with Delta E ≦ 2,as determined by Comission Internationale de l’Eclairge (CIE) to designate pure color fidelity exceeding the limits of human vision, provides accurate 99% replication of the Adobe RGB color space. With over one billion discrete colors precisely on-line hardware-calibrated and protected by a detachable shading hood specifically designed to prevent glare and ambient light obstruction, SW2700PT produces the most realistic, natural, and reliable colors with the silkiest smooth gradations.
The BenQ SW2700PT is available for RM2690.

Pokdepinion: While I have rather low requirements for color accuracy, I believe this will come in handy for photographers who want the absolute best when post processing their images.
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New Tales of Arise Trailer Shown Off at Tales of Festival 2019

At Tales of Festival 2019 which took place at the Yokohama Arena, fans were treated to a brand new trailer of the upcoming JRPG, Tales of Arise. It’s not entirely new as it included some bits of the E3 2019 reveal trailer, but there’s a fair bit of new screens and details there were unveiled.

『テイルズ オブ アライズ』で主人公アルフェンの声を担当させていただくことが発表されました。
僕の方から物語の事はまだ何もお話しできませんが、ご縁をいただけた事に感謝しています。
今後の情報にご注目ください。
よろしくお願い致します！ https://t.co/K4y9lwWEE2
— 佐藤拓也 (@5tAkUyA5) June 15, 2019

Takuya Sato tweeted out that he is the voice actor for the game’s male protagonist, Alphen. He also mentioned that he can’t share more details on the story yet but he’s grateful to be part of the project. As for the female protagonist, her name has been confirmed to be Shionne / Shion.

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Despite E3 arguably being the biggest gaming expo in the world, it’s interesting that Bandai Namco made a new trailer specifically for the Japan-only Tales of Festival event as opposed to just airing the same trailer. However, the event itself is huge for fans of the Tales of JRPG series, and it shows that the company is paying special attention to the fans of the series.
The gameplay of Tales of Arise is expected to be a noticeable departure from the series. As to how different it will be, that one is unknown at this point in time. However, it will still retain the series’ signature Linear Motion Battle System, albeit one that’s specifically designed for the game itself.
Tales of Arise will be coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC sometime in 2020.
Pokdepinion: I hope the Japanese and English version will have a simultaneous release. I really wanna see how different it is from the usual entries and I do have a craving for RPG now. Can’t wait to play the game.
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Canon announced new imageRUNNER ADVANCE Colour series — Canon iR-ADV C7500i and C5500i

Canon today announced the launch of its A3 colour models third generation multifunctional devices (MFDs), the imageRUNNER ADVANCE (iR-ADV) series namely the iR-ADV C7500i series (C7580i / C7570i) and the C5500i series (C5560i / C5550i / C5540i / C5535i) to fit the trending designs of current work spaces. The iR-ADV C7500i and C5500i series feature remarkable print speeds in colour and monochrome to produce outstanding business documents in rich and vibrant hues.
Exceptional user experience drives workplace productivity
Canon iR-ADV C7500i
Canon iR-ADV C7500i series offers an all-in-one solution that delivers maximised productivity with advanced finishing options, and scanned documents can be fed through the 300-sheet-capacity document. Count on the Canon iR-ADV C5500i device to scan and convert documents to PDF or select *Microsoft® Office® file formats like Word® or PowerPoint® for your convenience.

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Canon iR-ADV C5500i
The Canon iR-ADV C7500i and C5500i series further enhance work productivity thanks to intelligent document workflows and a personalised user experience. Built with smartphone-like gestures such as swiping and pinching, the series offers easy navigation across the local user interface and ensures an intuitive user experience from end-to-end.

With Force Hold Printing feature that allows users to preview and edit print settings before print. Unintended output options such as incorrect quantities and finishing can be rectified prior to printing, reducing paper wastage and saving users the hassle of re-submitting print jobs in an effort to increase cost and workflow efficiencies.

With My ADVANCE feature incorporated in both series, users can customise workflows and preferences easily. This can range from personalising display language, initial display screen, frequently-used settings, address lists and more, enabling a one-step approach to streamlining work processes. The personalised My ADVANCE settings also can be integrated across the third generation of iR-ADV devices via the new My ADVANCE Synchronisation.
Intelligent functionality tailored for the smart-offices
The Canon iR-ADV C7500i series offer intelligent features such as motion sensor technology built within to wake the device from Sleep mode, and the ability to remove blank pages when scanning can help maximize day-to-day productivity. As for the iR-ADV C5500i series, Intelligent Recovery system identifies a bystander, a passer-by or an approaching user via the infrared motion sensor, and assesses their intentions. Accordingly, the device avoids unintentional recovery and remains in sleep mode or automatically recovers for added user convenience.
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Both series are equipped with Intelligent Document Feeder designed to effectively handle documents for the smart-offices. Common bottlenecks faced by users in the course of document digitisation, such as double-feeding of originals and scanning of blank pages can be easily resolved by Multi-Sheet Detection and Skip Blank Originals respectively.

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Businesses in pursuit of a more agile and interconnected workforce demand seamless connectivity in their work environments. The new series come standard with Wireless LAN support, providing users with the flexibility to print and scan wirelessly from their smart devices.
Delivering superb image quality with production expertise
The new Canon iR-ADV C7500i and C5500i series adopt the innovative V2 colour technology as with the other third generation colour series. Users can expect vivid and vibrant image quality as the standard printer colour gamut is expanded, and the colour reproduction of dark areas is enhanced to attain incredible depth and richness.
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For medium enterprises, Canon’s iR-ADV C5500i series proves helpful as it utilizes Canon’s V2 color profile for vibrant and vivid images along with 1200-dpi print resolution. Meanwhile the iR-ADV C7500i series MFDs can produce up to 2400-dpi print resolution with R-VCSEL red laser technology.
Availability
The imageRUNNER ADVANCE C7580i / C7570i and C5560i / C5550i / C5540i / C5535i will be available at authorised Canon distributors and dealers from November 2016 onwards
Pokdepinion: We tried the printers and impress with the printing speed. Also the Canon Business Print app is very useful and convenient, you should try it too.
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JEDEC LPDDR5 and LPDDR5X standards published

JEDEC has just published the JESD209-5B standard that covers updates for the existing LPDDR5 standard, as well as the new LPDDR5X standard. Smartphones have already used LPDDR5 memory for quite some time by now, so this updates the standard.

As we have previously seen, LPDDR5 goes up to 6400Mbps, while LPDDR5X extends the standard to scale all the way up to 8533Mbps. Aside from extending the range, JEDEC also highlights the key updates including signal integrity improvements with TX/RX equalization and reliability improvements via the new Adaptive Refresh Management feature.

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On top of those improvements, the new standard also specifies ECC and new Data-Copy and Write-X instructions. LPDDR5 will also come with efficiency improvements, which is what made it perfect for the latest high performance smartphones. Another recent device that will be using LPDDR5 is the Steam Deck.

Samsung and Micron have already commited to the LPDDR5X standard, and Intel is apparently going to support LPDDR5 with Alder Lake, so we should be seeing even more efficient laptops soon.
Source
Pokdepinion: I wonder which phone will come with LPDDR5X first.
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SUPoX introduces B250A-BTC D+ for native 8-GPU mining! No risers needed!

Miners need all the cards they can get. In fact they are probably the reason why we can’t get any graphics cards at reasonable prices anymore. But hey, if you are a miner yourself, you will definitely be going to want to maximize the profitability of your venture. That’s what the SUPoX B250A-BTC D+ aims to do with support for 8 graphics cards without the need for risers.
Riser cards are necessary for conventional motherboards, as there just isn’t enough space to slot in the huge number of cards necessary to make mining worthwhile. They also unfortunately have a tendency to burnout easily, leading to downtime that affects profitability. Without having to rely on risers, you save on the costs of risers (around $10 per riser card) and lowers the overall power consumption.
It will work with AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce cards, even in a mix-and-match combination to let you have the freedom to pick whichever card offers the most hashrate for your money.

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While you may have noticed that it is awfully long, it will fit into the standard one-layer square mining chassis. The SUPoX B250A-BTC D+ also works with server power supplies to offer more options for scalable mining.
The SUPoX B250A-BTC D+ is priced at $169.99 (~RM662).
Pokdepinion: The main issue would probably be getting the GPUs to fill up all those slots now.
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MSI MEG Z490 Unify Review — flagship performance sans the bling

The MSI MEG Unify series offers a whole slew of high-end features, without the RGB that you will oftentimes find on the premium boards. We previously checked out the MSI MEG Z490I Unify, which was a pretty amazing ITX board, despite a few quirks here and there owing to its size. Now, we are going to check out the full-sized ATX MSI MEG Z490 Unify, which is probably going to be more popular among enthusiasts.
Unboxing

The packaging reflects MSI’s all-black theme with the motherboard itself. Of course there are some Intel branding up in the left corner. There’s also a Lightning Gen4 Ready, Support The Future” printed there as well, despite the fact that 10th Gen Intel Core processors do not support PCIe 4.0. Oh well, in case you want to use this board with the upcoming PCIe 4.0-supporting CPUs, you can get straight to it.

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Over on the back we actually have some pretty technical bullet points, including the number of PCB layers that MSI used. But then again, MSI definitely targets the hardcore enthusiasts with this board, so that information might have been enough to entice them to get the MSI MEG Z490 Unify. With that said, six layers isn’t particularly groundbreaking, so I am not exactly sure why they decided to mention it.

In the box, you get a full array of cables as well as a nice blacked out case badge that matches the board. There’s also an unnecessary amount of documentation and of course, the worst offender of them all, a driver CD. Just why?
Appearance

An all black aesthetic really drives home the no-frills concept of the MSI MEG Unify lineup. MSI did a pretty awesome job by mixing up different surface finishes. You have glossy, brushed metal and matte finishes all coming together to form a pretty impressive looking motherboard, devoid of the unnecessary plastic bits you will often find on boards that pack more RGB.

The I/O shroud is a part of the VRM heatsink, but they are not formed from the same block of aluminium. The top heatsink block is slightly smaller, but it does have a heatpipe to transfer heat over to the much larger heatsink over on the left.

As you would expect from an Intel Z490 motherboard, there is a very basic PCH heatsink. MSI also refrained from emblazoning all their M.2 heatspreaders with the “M.2 Shield Frozr” branding that’s available on MSI’s pricier MEG Z490 boards. Sleek and simple appears to be theme here, and I am glad that MSI decided to provide a heatspreader for all three M.2 slots.

For rear I/O, there’s a pretty standard array of USB ports, with the USB-C one supporting all the way up to USB 3.2 Gen2x2 for up to 20Gbps of throughput. The MEG Z490I Unify gets Thunderbolt for its USB-C port, which is probably more interesting than what we have here. There’s also PS/2 port here too, just in case you feel nostalgic. MSI made quite a few holes here for airflow too, as while the MSI MEG Z490 Unify sports a rather overkill VRM system, there’s still a fan in there to help things out.

You can see that the rear of the board here is much cleaner than it was on the MEG Z490I Unify, and the area around the socket is kept clear. The RAM slots here are the regular through-hole kind, unlike the MEG Z490I Unify which came with surface mounted ones.
Specifications
MSI MEG Z490 Unify

CPU support
Intel LGA 1200
10th Gen Intel Core desktop processors (Comet Lake-S)
Pentium Gold & Celeron processors

Power
1 x 24-pin ATX
2 x 8-pin EATX 12V
Intersil ISL69269 PWM controller (8+1 phase)
8 x ISL6617A doublers
16 x ISL99390B (90A) powerstage for CPU
1 x ISL99390B (90A) powerstage for iGPU

Chipset
Intel Z490

Memory
2 x DDR4 DIMM, max. 64GB un-buffered memory
Up to 5000 MHz

Multi-GPU Support
Yes, 2-way NVIDIA SLI / 3-way AMD CrossFire

Expansion slots
PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 electrically, CPU)
PCIe 3.0 x1 (PCH)
PCIe 3.0 x16 (x8 electrically, CPU)
PCIe 3.0 x1 (PCH)
PCIe 3.0 x16 (x4 electrically, PCH)

Storage
6 x SATA 6 Gb/s, supports RAID 0,1,5,10
1 x M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA (disables SATA_2 when M.2 SATA SSD is used)
1 x M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA (disables SATA_5 & SATA_6 when used)
1 x M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 (shared lanes with last PCIe slot)

Network
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201
Realtek RTL8125B 2.5G LAN

USB
Rear I/O:
1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C (20Gbps)
3 x USB 3.1 (10Gbps)
2 x USB 3.0 (5Gbps)
2 x USB 2.0
On-board headers:
1 x USB Type-C (10 Gbps)
1 x USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) (2 ports each)
2 x USB 2.0 (2 ports each)

Audio
Realtek ALC1220 CODEC + ESS SABRE 9018Q2C DAC
5 x audio jacks (rear)
1 x Optical S/PDIF out
1 x front panel audio connector

Display output
N/A

Other onboard connectors
1 x CPU fan header
1 x Pump fan header
6 x Chassis fan headers
2 x ARGB headers
2 x RGB headers
1 x CORSAIR LED connector
1 x chassis intrusion connector

Overclocking features
EZ Debug LED
Debug Code LED
Flash BIOS Button
BIOS reset switch

Included accessories
User’s manual
WiFi Antenna
Rainbow RGB LED Extension Cable
Corsiar RGB LED Extension Cable
1 to 2 RGB LED Extension Y Cable
Quick installation guide
Driver DVD
4 x SATA 6Gb/s cable
SATA Cable labels
3 x M.2 Screw
Case badge
Product registration card

Form factor
ATX (12″ x 9.6″)

System

CPU
Intel Core i9-10900K, 10C/20T @ up to 5.3 GHz, 14nm

RAM
2 x 8GB TEAMGROUP T-Force Xtreem ARGB DDR4-3600

Motherboard
MSI MEG Z490 Unify (BIOS ver. 7C71vA2)

GPU
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER Advanced Edition 8GB GDDR6

Storage
120GB Kingston A400 SSD
960GB Kingston UV500 SSD
1TB Seagate FireCuda SSHD

CPU Cooling
Cooler Master ML240R

Case
Vector Benchcase

PSU
Cooler Master V1200 Platinum

Monitor
BenQ EL2870U

Taking a Closer Look
VRMs

While the top-down view of the VRM heatsinks do not exactly reveal much surface area, taking a look from the side shows that MSI did cut quite deep grooves into them to provide better heat dissipation. There’s also a tiny gap between the heatsink itself and the PCH cover, which presumably allows air to enter to feed the fan.

MSI used the Intersil ISL69269 controller which can handle up to 12 power phases. To handle the 16-phase VRM, we are seeing MSI configure the controller to output 8 phases to the ISL6617A doublers over on the rear of the board for a total of 16 CPU phases.

All sixteen phases are handled by 90A Intersil ISL99390 power stages. That provides an insane amount of power handling capability on the MSI MEG Z490 Unify, which should allow you to take any LGA1200 processor to the absolute limits before the power delivery system becomes a limitation.

The heatsink are already built with plenty of mass to wick heat away from the VRMs, but MSI decided it was necessary to throw in a fan to further improve VRM thermals. I do believe MSI could have gone with a fin stack instead to really improve the VRM thermals instead of the aluminium blocks, considering that the MSI MEG Z490 Unify is an enthusiast-oriented board after all.
Audio

Thanks to the larger footprint, MSI managed to cram more hardware into the audio department. On top of the Realtek ALC1220 codec, you also get a ESS SABRE 9018Q2C DAC to further improve the output. As you would expect, the audio portion is isolated from the rest of the MSI MEG Z490 Unify to ensure that you get as clean a output as possible.
Storage

Between the PCIe slots, you get three M.2 slots that come with their own heatsinks. If you prefer more conventional storage options, you can also fully populate the six SATA 3 ports here, although by doing that, you won’t be able to use M.2 SATA SSDs in the first two M.2 slots. I guess that’s fine though since M.2 SATA SSDs aren’t all that popular anyway. If you prefer external storage, there’s a USB 3.1 (10Gbps) Type-C header as well as a nice right-angled USB 3.0 header.
Network

You get the Realtek RTL8125B for 2.5GbE connectivity. There’s also the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 which is a CNVio 2 solution to bring WiFi 6 to Intel-based systems. I am quite glad that MSI decided to go with a single LAN port for the MSI MEG Z490 Unify, unlike many of its peers that somehow think two LAN ports are necessary when most people don’t even use LAN when WiFi 6 is so much more convenient.
User Experience
Build

MSI did a pretty good job by keeping most of the headers where they should be on the MSI MEG Z490 Unify, which is definitely easier when you are dealing with a ATX board. What I hoped MSI could have done better was maybe print the legends for the annoyingly fiddly case headers in a more visible location. As it stands, it is currently located between the last PCIe and M.2 slot, which as you might notice, isn’t exactly visible. There’s also a Thunderbolt 3 header, although you will need an adapter card to use it.

Weirdly enough, MSI left out the reinforced memory slots that’s available in their more premium options. While reinforced memory slots doesn’t really provide any real benefit because of the way that RAM sticks aren’t heavy, I do find it weird that MSI didn’t include them on the MSI MEG Z490 Unify.
BIOS
          EZ Mode            Advanced Mode          Overclocking              DRAM Timing            Hardware Monitor            Board Explorer            Board Explorer
The BIOS of the MSI MEG Z490 Unify is very feature packed, with every conceivable option and setting available for your tweaking. The Hardware Monitor page is probably one of the best I have seen from any motherboard vendor, with MSI packing in the capability to not only customize your own fan profile, but also select the source of the temperature, which is a pretty important feature that a lot of motherboard vendors seemingly seem to have forgotten about. Kudos to MSI here.
A significantly less interesting feature is Board Explorer, which lets you see what you have plugged into the ports, slots and headers on the MSI MEG Z490 Unify… I mean, I need only look at my PC to know what’s connected. Might come in handy for troubleshooting, but barely so.
And while the MSI MEG Z490 Unify shares the MSI MEG Z490I Unify’s cumbersome M-Flash mode, the MSI MEG Z490 Unify supports USB BIOS Flash, so you don’t need to do it via the BIOS, and can just plug in a USB drive to the rear I/O and update the BIOS.
Overclocking

Thanks to the extra space available on this motherboard, you also get a POST CODE readout to help you better identify the issues preventing you from booting up. On board power and reset buttons are also always nice for test bench users, which I do believe is MSI’s target audience with this board.

On top of that there’s also the EZ Debug LEDs, although those kinda suck because they are all the same color, and are a touch too close together. There are voltage read points if you want to really get down to it and not rely on software for your voltage readings.

If you finally mess up completely, there’s the Clear CMOS button on the rear I/O to make your nightmare go away. But MSI did build in plenty of fail safes that make overclocking on this board quite a breeze, even when you are too adventurous, so the button is really going to be just a last ditch effort to get your system up and running.

The VRM fans by default don’t actually turn on that much. They are set to turn on automatically in the Balanced profile at around 65.5°C on the VRMs, and they are usually not even active. With our Intel Core i9-10900K running at 5.1GHz and guzzling down around 260W, the VRMs peaking at 68.5°C even as the fan was not even turning on for most of the test. For fun, I also decided to put the fan to the maximum setting of 12000RPM, and the VRM temperature plateaued at 62°C. If you are a stickler for noise, you can just turn off the fan in the BIOS if you want and it should be perfectly fine unless you are running extended sessions of Prime95 or something.
Software
          MSI Dragon Center – Monitoring            MSI Dragon Center – True Color              MSI Dragon Center – Game Mode            MSI Dragon Center – Mystic Light            MSI Dragon Center – Update            Nahimic & Realtek Audio Console
MSI Dragon Center is a pretty nifty software, with a pretty neat layout that puts everything where you would naturally think they would be. The very in-depth monitoring feature is great, as it eliminates the need for third-party monitoring software for most people, except for those who want to create logs. Overall, I do commend MSI’s software offering here, and to have Mystic Light on a board that’s literally devoid of RGB lighting is just pleasantly ironic to me.

If you decide that you do not want to touch the software, there’s also a physical switch that allows you to turn off all the RGB lighting on the board. Quite an interesting decision for MSI to make, considering how much bling their other enthusiast boards have.
Conclusion

MSI interestingly offers both the MSI MEG Z490I Unify and MSI MEG Z490 Unify here, with very few differences that mainly boil down to their difference in size. With that said, the MSI MEG Z490 Unify here is actually slightly more expensive at RM1399 due to the extra features on offer. But considering everything, and the fact that it actually shares its VRM setup with the MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE and Z490 ACE, which are both significantly pricier motherboards, the MSI MEG Z490 Unify is a steal, if you don’t mind losing out on RGB and a few other unnecessary features.
Personally, I think the MSI MEG Z490 Unify is a great Z490 board for enthusiasts, and the fact that it still comes with ARGB and RGB headers means that you still can incorporate it into a blindingly bright build, with the board remaining dark and mysterious behind all the unicorn puke lighting. Yes, that’s absolutely possible on the MSI MEG Z490 Unify, if you dig that. If not, it is a great board for overclocking or even daily use with a complete array of connectivity options like 2.5GbE, WiFi 6 and even USB 3.2 Gen 2×2.

Our thanks to MSI for sending us the MSI MEG Z490 Unify for review.

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U Mobile wins big in latest Opensignal Mobile Network Experience report

The latest Opensignal Mobile Network Experience report is quite interesting. While previously Maxis had a rather decisive lead over most of the other telcoes here in Malaysia, that is apparently no longer the case. Instead, U Mobile bagged the most awards this time around, which is a pleasant surprise considering it is one of the newest major telcoes here in Malaysia.
U Mobile bags three out of seven awards!

Opensignal measures the experience in seven different categories: video experience, games experience, voice app experience, download speed experience, upload speed experience, 4G availability and 4G coverage experience. U Mobile manages to win three out of the seven categories. Digi improved quite significantly from the last report in September, bagging two awards, when it did not get a single award in the previous report. Maxis only gets one this time around, but Opensignal attributes it to the other telcoes catching up, and not because Maxis is sliding down.

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Now let’s get into the individual categories. U Mobile is neck-to-neck against Maxis in the game experience category, with a score of 57.4 vs 57.3. Both telcoes actually improved from their results in the previous report, with U Mobile moving up from the worst performer in this category in the last report, to being the leader now. But even with that, Opensignal still notes that all Malaysian telcoes are still in the “Poor” category when it comes to mobile gaming experience.

For upload speeds, U Mobile has a much more significant lead over the competition. With speeds averaging 7Mbps, U Mobile continues to deliver great upload speeds for its users by improving 5.5% from the last report. In second place with speeds of 5.6Mbps on average, Digi shows a marked improvement with 18.1% faster upload speeds than what it managed in the previous report. On the other hand, Celcom users are looking at 23.6% slower upload speeds, for some reason.

U Mobile becomes the sole winner in the voice app experience category this time around, with an improvement of 2.4 points since the last report. Unifi, which was the joint winner of this category in the last report also charted an improvement of 0.8 points, but it evidently isn’t enough to keep up with U Mobile’s results.

Digi wins when it comes to download speeds, delivering on average 13.3Mbps, a marked improvement of 26.1% since the last report. Meanwhile Maxis, which won in the last report, saw its average download speeds decline by 17.5%. Celcom users are looking at the slowest download speeds of all, at just 7.7Mbps on average.

Celcom still wins in the 4G availability category though, sharing its win with Unifi. Digi is the worst performer here, with users only being able to stay connected to 4G 83.6% of the time. U Mobile charts the biggest improvement here, with an increase of 5.4%.

Last but not least, in the video experience category, Digi overtakes Maxis with a 6.5% improvement from the last report. Overall, all telcoes in Malaysia have improved in this aspect, with the biggest step forward taken by Unifi which showed an improvement of 31%, followed by U Mobile at 18.4%. All five telcoes are now rated “Good” by Opensignal.
You can also check out the regional results and more details over in Opensignal’s full Mobile Network Experience here.
Pokdepinion: Great to know that U Mobile is still improving significantly! Combined with their affordable plans, I am pretty sure many people would love to opt for U Mobile given their impressive performance in this report!
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Sony PlayStation Mobile Gamepad Reportedly in the Works

Picture credits: Knowtechie

It looks like Sony is looking to strengthen their grip in the mobile gaming space as it seems that a PlayStation mobile gamepad is currently in the works. Here’s what you need to know.
Sony PlayStation Mobile Gamepad in the Works
Picture credits: Knowtechie
Initially reported by VideoGamesChronicle, Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan division recently filed a patent, which includes an image for a mobile game controller. It looks similar to the DualShock 4, but with a smartphone placed in the middle instead.
This particular mobile game controller has handles on both sides with a tray in the middle, which is where a smartphone would be placed. It also has the iconic PlayStation button layout, D-pad, and analog sticks. The drawing of the patent doesn’t include a “shaft portion that can be tilted by the user, and detect the tilting direction and tilting amount of the shaft.”

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With that being said, this is still just a patent and nothing more, so it’s not a guarantee that a final product would see the light of day. If it ends up being real, it will be a huge move towards growing their presence in the mobile gaming space.
It’s worth noting that Sony CEO Jim Ryan did mention previously that they are exploring the mobile gaming space, which would potentially indicate their franchises like God of War and Gran Turismo coming as mobile games some time in the future. Having the controller to go along with it would be a great way to boost their presence. For now, we will report more on this as soon as information becomes available so stay tuned.
Source
Pokdepinion: Whatever they choose to come up with, I hope it ends up being convenient and relatively affordable. Otherwise, it might be better to just get a DualShock 4 controller and a smartphone clip instead.
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POCO F3 Review — Attractive Hardware For A Value Price

We take a look at POCO’s latest smartphone in this POCO F3 Review, a smartphone powered by the Snapdragon 870 chipset featuring an AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, and a 48MP triple camera setup at the back. Before we start the review, we’d like to mention that we only received the phone by itself so we’ll have to skip on several parts that would normally be in the review such as unboxing and charging speed.
Appearance
POCO F3 Review – Front
On the front, it sports a 6.67-inch AMOLED display. As you can see, there’s a small DotDisplay camera in the middle of it. There are small bezels around but it’s nothing excessive.
POCO F3 Review – Bottom
At the bottom is where you’ll find the SIM tray, USB-C port, microphone, and the speaker grille.

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POCO F3 Review – Right
Switching to the right hand side is where you’ll find the usual volume rockers and power button, which also acts as a fingerprint sensor. The opposite side is completely naked however.
POCO F3 Review – Top
Over on the top, you can find the secondary speaker of the device and IR blaster. Both top and bottom edges are straight and provides a nice finish to it.
POCO F3 Review – Back
Swapping over to the back, you can see that we’ve got our hands on the Night Black variant of the POCO F3. It comes with a glossy finish that easily shows reflection. The POCO branding can be located on the bottom left and on the top right is where the triple camera setup is found.
POCO F3 Specifications

CPU
Snapdragon 870 Octa-core (1 x 3.2GHz Kryo 585 & 3 x 2.42GHz Kryo 585 & 4 x 1.80GHz Kryo 585) 7nm

GPU
Adreno 650

Memory
6GB/8GB LPDDR5

Storage
128GB/256GB UFS 3.1

Display
6.67-inch (2400×1080) FHD+ AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+

Camera
48MP f/1.8 main camera, PDAF
8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide
5MP f/2.4 macro, AF
LED, Night Mode, HDR, AI, Panorama
4K/30fps, 1080/960fps

Selfie camera
20MP f/2.5
1080/30fps video recording, Portrait mode, AI camera

Connectivity
5G Band n1/n3/n5/n7/n8/n20/n28/n38/n41/n77/n78
LTE Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/20/28/38/40/41/66
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.1
USB Type-C

Battery
Li-Po 4520mAh (non removable)
33W fast charging

Dimensions
163.7 x 76.4 x 7.8mm

Weight
196g

Ingress protection
No

Performance
Before we begin with the benchmarks, there are some of the benchmarks that we usually run on our reviews that aren’t working properly for the device (Geekbench 5 and 3DMark). Should they become available, we will update them accordingly for the POCO F3.
POCO F3 Review – Antutu V8
The POCO F3 is not the first Snapdragon 870 smartphone that we’ve tested, where previously we’ve reviewed the vivo X60 Pro so we have a rough idea on the performance that it brings. Surprisingly, the device’s score here on Antutu is quite far from the latter.
POCO F3 Review – PCMark Work 2.0
Over at PCMark Work 2.0, we can see that it doesn’t rank too well on the list, where it falls short behind its own predecessor, the POCO F2 Pro.
POCO F3 Review – PCMark Battery
As for the battery benchmark, it’s a different case as it sits high on the list, only being beaten by the POCO F2 Pro. The battery lasted longer than the vivo X60 Pro which uses the same chip but it’s worth mentioning that the POCO F3 has a slightly bigger battery capacity.
When it comes to real-life usage, the smartphone performed as good as it showed over at the benchmark. With my typical usage, it would last me up to one and a half day before I’d need to juice it back up again, which is decent.
User Experience
POCO F3 Review – User Experience
Holding the POCO F3 in my hands, it doesn’t give you a feeling of a RM1,400 device, it feels premium. It’s light on the hands and feels solid. Though I hate punch holes at the center of the display, I can forgive the F3 here as the camera cut out is actually quite small and not disruptive.
If I had to complain, I didn’t like the glass back of the device as it’s a fingerprint magnet. You’d definitely would want to put on a case to prevent those. Watching videos is enjoyable thanks to the AMOLED panel that comes with 120Hz refresh rate plus the dual speakers on hand. Other than that, it’s a shame that the phone doesn’t come with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
We decided to test the phone on Genshin Impact and after 10 minutes on the game, we can definitely feel the warmth as it is a very taxing game for smartphones. One weird thing that we’ve noticed is that after we quit the game, the moving background wallpaper suddenly became sluggish so POCO might want to do something about that.
POCO F3 Review – UI
The skin for the device is similar to the POCO X3 Pro that we’ve recently reviewed and there’s nothing much to be added about it. In terms of user experience, it was pretty smooth and I had no issues whatsoever. I usually find the POCO launcher to be heavy for devices that has 4GB RAM but you should be fine with the POCO F3 coming with at least 6GB RAM.
POCO F3 Review – Camera UI
The camera UI offers a similar experience where I have nothing to complain about. It’s direct and if you’re not satisfied with the layout, you can customize it to your liking, which is a nice thing to have.
POCO F3 Review – Camera
Based on on the spec sheet itself, it seems like POCO has downgraded the cameras on hand as it only comes with a 48MP main camera, 8MP ultra-wide lens, and a 5MP macro shooter. We all know that pixel count isn’t everything when it comes to quality so let’s see the results.

While using the phone to capture several shots, it’s not bad, but then again, it’s nothing too impressive to talk about. In good lighting, it does a reasonable job as you’d expect. We can see there some color shifting going on when you switch between the lenses.
Overall, it offers a fair dynamic range in broad daylight. When it comes to night time however, it’s a mixed feeling for me as shots were often a hit or miss kind of thing. Sometimes, images get too soft and the Night Mode doesn’t do much.
Check out the full sized images by clicking the link right here.
Conclusion
POCO F3 Review – Verdict
At the end of the day, the POCO F3 seems and feel like a solid device, especially if you’re upgrading from older smartphones. For the price, it’s a decent offering considering that you will get a high-end chipset, AMOLED display with 144Hz, 33W fast charging to name a few.
It is far from being a perfect device however but starting from the price of RM1,399, it is an ideal smartphone for those who want the performance without the need to splurge much of your money. For that, I award the POCO F3 with our Silver Pokdeward.

Our thanks to POCO Malaysia for providing the POCO F3 that was used in this review.
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[E3 2019] Halo Infinite Confirmed for Holiday 2020 Release

It’s no secret that Microsoft had Halo Infinite brewing for their game system. However, there was a lot about the game that was left a mystery. At the Microsoft E3 2019 press conference, we learned quite a bit about the highly anticipated game.
The trailer opens up with a man trapped in a spaceship with little power, watching an old hologram message of his family. He finds the iconic Master Chief floating in space and rescues him. There’s an incredibly cool sequence that occurs while Master Chief boots up his system, which is reminiscent of the first Halo.
We find out that everything has been lost while he slept and the trailer closes out with him ready to defend the ship from what we can assume are Prometheans. There’s also a moment at the very end featuring Cortana, the Chief’s AI and longtime partner.

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Halo Infinite was first announced during E3 2018 with details trickling down since then, such as 343’s Frank O’Connor discussing the multiplayer on Twitter, Chris Lee (Studio Head FPS at 343 Industries) clarifying how microtransactions will work, and a new piece of concept art.
343 Industries’ Bonnie Ross had previously spoken about the Slipspace engine that was built from the ground up for Halo Infinite. It was then decided that before work on Halo Infinite would begin, the Slipspace engine would be created to benefit not only developers but to expand the scope and future of Halo as a whole.
Halo Infinite will be a launch title for Xbox Project Scarlett, and is expected to release sometime during Holiday 2020.
Pokdepinion: Now this is something I expected and I have high hopes for. I’m very excited to see what’s up, and I’m also expecting some great visuals in the game.
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