AMD Claims Its Ryzen 7045 Series “Dragon Range” CPUs Dominates Intel’s Raptor Lake CPUs

First party benchmarks shows performance leadership and efficiency domination for the upcoming Ryzen 7045 series CPUs.

AMD has revealed some information regarding its upcoming “Dragon Range” Ryzen 7045 series CPUs through its latest Meet The Experts Webinar event, which shows the new Ryzen beating Intel’s flagship mobile CPUs in performance while obliterating Team Blue in the efficiency department. While closely resembling the desktop chips, these CPUs get exclusive power-optimization features which cuts down power usage on various aspects.

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The first exclusive feature is called Voltage Range Tuning, which does sounds a lot like undervolting – in any case, this nets both a reduction in heat and power which means the CPU can boost more aggressively. The second one involves memory subsystems – the Intermediate Memory States allows the I/O die to drop power but retain some levels of activity, and the power savings (AMD says it’s ‘significant’) can be re-allocated to the CPU core itself.

All of these features, according to AMD, equates to a massive 54% increase in power efficiency over Intel’s latest Raptor Lake CPUs (Core i9-13980HX used here). The Ryzen 9 7945HX – a 16-core, 32-thread CPU – scored 33,466 points while using 73 watts, less than Intel Core i9-13980HX at 28,837 points consuming 97 watts. The Ryzen 7045 series has a TDP rating of 55W+, with configurable power limit up to 75 watts for more robust cooling systems. They will come with a new label to differentiate itself among other Ryzen 7000 series APUs, and should hit the store shelves very soon.
Source: Wccftech
Pokdepinion: As a Ryzen 5000 series user, color me impressed with how far they’ve kept the efficiency game ahead.
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Waze Set For Google Assistant Feature

It appears to be that Waze will be offering a feature that’s certainly welcomed by their users, Google Assistant. The feature will definitely bring in a better navigation experience for the app’s users.
The news was announced by the company itself and with the new addition, you’ll be able to do more with the app without even touching your phone. Of course with it, you’ll be able to search for places on the road (while you’re driving as well) as well as adding stops to your destination just by using your voice.
Additionally, you’ll be able to do things that you’d normally do with Google Assistant such as making calls, send messages and not to forget, listen to music. You can even report traffic as well as road conditions by just your voice.

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The Google Assistant feature is set to come on both Android and iOS devices, with the former getting an earlier update. As for its release date, it’s yet to be confirmed for Malaysia, but it is already rolling out today in the United States of America.
Pokdepinion: I’m certain that it will be a delight for Waze users everywhere. Hopefully it’ll come out here sooner rather than later.
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Acer Malaysia Celebrates 30th Anniversary With a Variety of Monitors for Gaming and Productivity

At a launch event in Kuala Lumpur today, Acer Malaysia celebrated their 30th anniversary with a slew of new products. In this post, we’re focusing on their newest monitors for both gaming and productivity that meets a range of needs and budgets for the consumers.
First up, we have the 34-inch Acer CB342CK monitor. It is an ultrawide QHD monitor with the ZeroFrame design. What this means is that it’s suitable for multi-monitor setups given the ultrathin bezels making it seem frameless. It is equipped with the Acer ErgoStand, which allows you to adjust the tilt, swivel, and height for a better viewing experience. Moreover, it comes with a remote control for added convenience.

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Next up, we have the Acer Predator XB273UGS gaming monitor. It is a 27-inch WQHD monitor with a 165Hz refresh rate with a 0.5ms response time at best. It is also VESA Certified DisplayHDR 400, giving you improved realism in colours and lighting for better immersion. Apart from that, it has Flickerless, BlueLightShield, ComfyView, and low-dimming technologies included.

Lastly, we have the Acer Nitro XV gaming monitor lineup which consists of four models. All four models have a refresh rate of 144Hz, 165Hz, or 240Hz, with a display size choice of either 24-inch, 27-inch, or 34-inch. It is also said to have a 0.1ms response time so it’s a viable choice for competitive gaming. Like the Predator XB273UGS, this one also has Flickerless, BlueLightShield, ComfyView, and low-dimming technologies. Moreover, it has the ErgoStand similarly to the Acer CB342CK.

The Acer CB342CK will be retailing for RM1,699 whereas the Acer Predator XB273UGS will be retailing for RM2,199. The Acer Nitro XV gaming monitors will range from RM699 to RM2,199 depending on specifications. All of the monitors are available to purchase from today onwards at all Acer official online stores and selected official resellers nationwide.
Pokdepinion: Given what you’re getting for the price, the Acer Nitro XV gaming monitors are really great choices. It’s legitimately hard to find something similar for the price that they’re offering.
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Twitter Will Be Removing User Accounts In December 2019

According to reports, it seems that Twitter is sending emails to their users who are inactive as to warn them of their decision to remove accounts that are deemed in that category.
How would one be considered “inactive”? Apparently if you haven’t log in for the past six months, then sadly you’re a part of the group.
A spokesperson from Twitter has said “As part of our commitment to serve the public conversation, we’re working to clean up inactive accounts to present more accurate, credible information people can trust across Twitter. Part of this effort is encouraging people to actively log-in and use Twitter when they register an account, as stated in our inactive accounts policy”.

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It appears that the removable will be in phases and not all accounts (inactive) would be removed at the same time.
Here’s the email that’s sent out to those inactive accounts, courtesy of GSMArena:
Hello,
To continue using Twitter, you’ll need to agree to the current Terms, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Use. This not only lets you make the best decisions about the information that you share with us, it also allows you to keep using your Twitter account. But first, you need to log in and follow the on-screen prompts before Dec. 11, 2019, otherwise you account will be removed from Twitter.
Pokdepinion: Personally, I’ve never really been a fan of using Twitter. I wouldn’t be surprised to see myself getting the mail.
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MSI launches a new range of mobile workstation — Powered by Intel Kaby Lake and NVIDIA Quadro

MSI has launches a new line-up of mobile workstations with the latest Intel 7th Generation Core i7 processor and new NVIDIA Quadro graphics. The high end WT73VR, WS63 and WE72/62 are ready to expand the opportunities for mobile designing and 3D-modelling.

The MSI WT73VR is powered by the latest Quadro® P5000 and Intel’s 7th Generation Core™ i7 or Xeon processors. With its high-end configurations, the WT73VR brings astonishing performance when running programs such as Autodesk Stingray and extremely demanding CAD/CAM applications with a VR headset.

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Weighing at just 3.96lbs, and 0.69” thin, the WS63’s light aluminum chassis with a sleek design make the model sturdy, yet easy to carry around. It’s equipped with a 7th Gen. Intel® Core™ i7 processor and is the only mobile workstation in the world equipped with a Quadro® P3000 with 6GB GDDR5 graphics card. The WS63 features a new finger print sensor for biometric security. This exclusive feature to the WS63 ensures data security, providing users with the confidence that their valuable work will be protected and is only accessible by the owner.

Equipped with the latest 7th Gen. Intel® Core™ i7 processor and Nvidia® Quadro® M2200 with 4GB GDDR5, the WE series is perfect for the entry level professional or someone who’s looking for higher performance in their working laptop, making CAD/CAM work easy and efficient. The WE72 comes with a 17.3″ FHD 120Hz/5ms display while the WE62 is equipped with 15.6″ FHD panel, giving users a choice in screen and laptop sizes to suit everyone’s preference. Both models come with MSI’s exclusive Cooler Boost 3 Technology which ensures maximum performance and stability during long working hours. The WE series is made with every user in mind and is sure to please even the most intensive professionals.
Pokdepinion: The new MSI mobile workstation is purely design for CAD/CAM or 3D-modelling workload, using it for gaming is not a very good idea.
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ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – It Gets Some Things Right

Unboxing the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Box

Kicking off our ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X review, we have the unboxing. Inside the box, we found the following items:
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Box content
User guideQuick start guideScreenPad guidePower cable180W power adapterThe ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X laptop itself
Appearance
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Lid
The ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X is quite an interesting looking machine. You get the premium look of the ZenBook lineup but it feels like it’s taken to the next level. It’s an elegant machine, but it feels more solid compared to the other non-gaming ASUS laptops, in my opinion.
Looking at the lid, you can see the brushed metal Star Grey finish with Rose Gold highlights, the latter of which can be seen closer to the hinge. The ASUS logo takes center stage here, and it gives the overall laptop a cleaner, classier look.

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ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Open up the lid
Open up the lid and you’ll see the 17-inch four-sided NanoEdge display, a white-backlit chiclet keyboard complete with Numpad, the ScreenPad, a fingerprint scanner, and some product stickers. The ScreenPad combines the usual trackpad with an interactive touchscreen display for better productivity. You can also see the rose gold highlights for the power button as well as the line that separates the ScreenPad and the keyboard.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Ports
On the left side, you have the proprietary charging port, an HDMI port, two USB Type-A ports, a combo audio jack, and an SD card reader. As for the right side, you have two USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-A port, an RJ45 LAN port, and the Kensington Lock. There’s nothing on the rear except for the air vents and a view of the hinge. It’s also worth noting that the laptop is rather thick, which can be clearly seen here.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Bottom
Moving over to the bottom, you have a good view of air vents, speaker grilles, product stickers, and a different view of the rear air vents. There are about 11 screws present here, in case you need to disassemble it for whatever reason. There is a four-sided plastic border here as opposed to the usual rubber stands which gives the laptop a bit of height for better airflow.
Overall, the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X is a clean, classy-looking machine. Given its thick nature and its use of the NVIDIA Quadro T1000 GPU, I feel that it’s more appropriate to label it as a mobile workstation. It’s not cumbersome to bring around, but it’s definitely far from the most convenient for productivity.
If you want something more portable, check out our review of the ASUS VivoBook S15 by clicking right here.
Specifications
CPUIntel Core i7-9750H @ 2.6GHz (up to 4.5GHz Boost), 6C/12T, 45W TDP, 14nmRAM32GB DDR4-2666 Dual-channelGPUIntel UHD Graphics 630NVIDIA Quadro T1000 4GB GDDR5Storage512GB Intel 760p NVMe SSD1TB Seagate Barracuda Pro HDDSoftwareMicrosoft Windows 10 ProMicrosoft Office 365ProArt Creator HubIntel Graphics Command CenterThunderbolt Control CenterQuadro ExperienceMyASUSMcAfee Personal SecurityConnectivityDual-band 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 802.11axBluetooth 5.02 x Thunderbolt 3 USB-C with Display Port 1.4 (up to 40Gbps)3 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A (up to 10Gbps)1 x HDMI 2.01 x SD 4.0 / UHS-II card reader (312MB/s)1 x Audio combo jack1 x RJ45 LAN jack1 x Kensington lock1x DC-inDisplay17” LED-backlit WUXGA (1920 x 1200, 16:10) NanoEdge Anti-glare display, 300 nits, IPS-level (In-Plane Switching), 1000:1 contrast ratio3.8mm-thin bezel with 92% screen-to-body ratio97% DCI-P3 color gamut, 8-bit colorDelta-E < 1.5 color accuracy, PANTONE® ValidatedAudioSound by Harman KardonSmart amplifierArray microphone with Cortana and Alexa voice-recognition supportLong-travel voice coils for improved low-frequency responsePower180W power adapter95WHr 6-cell Li-Po batteryDimensions382 x 265 x 28.2 mmWeight2.5kg
Performance
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – CrystalDiskMark
Starting things off with CrystalDiskMark, the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X has two storage devices; a 512GB Intel 760p SSD and a 1TB Seagate Barracude Pro HDD. The former has excellent speeds as you’d might be able to expect while the latter does decently for an HDD. For as long as you keep your installs and other speed-focused files on the SSD, it will generally work pretty fast.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Cinebench R15
In Cinebench R15, the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X does well enough. We can see that the 10th Gen Intel Core i7 is noticeably better than the 9th Gen powering this mobile workstation. It still works good, just that it would’ve been great if it had the refresh.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Cinebench R20
As for Cinebench R20 on the other hand, a similar pattern can be seen, with the 10th Gen Intel Core CPU holding a steady lead in performance. But once again, it doesn’t mean that this one is bad, just that comparisons can make it seem worse than it actually is.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Unigine SuperPosition
Moving on to Unigine SuperPosition in the 4K Optimized benchmark, the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X does decently enough. This test favours GPU power, and the Quadro T1000 specializes professional applications. This is why consumer-grade graphics like even the GTX 1650 and 1660 Ti can perform noticeably better.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – 3DMark Time Spy
A similar pattern can be observed in 3DMark Time Spy, as a GTX 1650 and RTX 2060-powered machines outperformed it. This doesn’t mean that the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X isn’t worth the money however, it’s just that the Quadro T1000 has a different use case.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – PCMark
In PCMark, the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X performs well enough overall. I wouldn’t look too much into the digital content creation score here as depending on the software you use, you would be able to get a noticeably smoother, better experience with the Quadro T1000 GPU. It’s a matter of whether it’s capable of leveraging on the GPU’s prowess.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Gaming
While it’s not meant for gaming, we still wanted to see how well the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X could perform. At the game’s highest settings in Full HD resolution, the performance is pretty decent. I’m honestly surprised it managed to get rather high frame rates in CSGO and DotA 2. CPU running temperature was rather high, peaking at 96°C but the GPU ran pretty cool overall.
Measured whitepoint5.57Not OKMeasured display profile whitepoint0.44 Average ΔE*000.26OKMaximum ΔE*001.64OK
As it is a mobile workstation for professional, we had to test the display. At 100% brightness, the measurement results are pretty good right out of the box. To get the best possible scores, it’s recommended to get a score less than 1 for the average ΔE00. As for the maximum ΔE00, it’s best to score less than 3.
DCI-P3sRGBAdobe RGB
As for the colour gamut, the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X managed to cover 99.8% sRGB, 83.6% for Adobe RGB, and 97.2% DCI-P3 after calibration. For Gamut volume on the other hand, it covers 140.1% sRGB, 96.5% Adobe RGB and 99.2% DCI-P3. This makes it ideal for colour-accurate work.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Screen uniformity test
We ran the display uniformity test to see if each part of the display are equally lit up, with the centre square used as a guide and compared to the others. The number of squares with recommended and nominal tolerance seems to be equal, with the former for the higher, left side and the latter for the lower, right side.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Battery life
As for battery life, PCMark’s Modern Office endurance test showed something interesting. The battery life of the ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X seems to sit right in between gaming laptops and typical ultraportable productivity laptops with 4 hours and 27 minutes (267 minutes). It’s decent enough, sure, but it’s best to have your charger with you if you plan on doing work for long hours.
User Experience
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Display
The ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X is powered by the Intel Core i7-9750H and NVIDIA Quadro T1000. It is no simple productivity laptop as it is a mobile workstation designed for professionals. This is why we have a healthy 32GB DDR4 RAM capacity along with 512GB NVMe SSD and 1TB HDD for storage.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Not completely flat
It uses a 17-inch Full HD+ NanoEdge display with 60Hz refresh rate. The viewing angles and colours are great. If you do a lot of creative work that require colour accuracy, this will easily fit the bill. It’s worth noting that you can open up the lid up to about 180° but due to the nature of the hinge, it’s not completely flat. I wished it had touchscreen support for better productivity potential.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Ports
The ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X has a good array of ports. You get three USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, an HDMI port, a combo audio jack, an RJ45 LAN port, and a full-sized SD card reader. Honestly, I have no complaints with this, and the only thing I feel anyone might have an issue with is the use of a combo audio jack for those who prefer separate headphone / mic jacks.
As you can see here, this laptop is surprisingly thick. I honestly expected it to be as slim and portable as the ZenBooks / VivoBooks. It’s not superbly heavy or anything, and I do understand why it’s this thick given the parts inside this mobile workstation.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – Keyboard
Moving on to the keyboard, it’s a bit of a surprise. It doesn’t have the typical 1.4mm travel keyboard. Instead, it’s a deeper 2.0mm travel keyboard with decent tactility, making it rather enjoyable to use. Technically speaking, the deeper travel may result in slightly slower button presses but it is definitely more comfortable to use. As it’s not meant for gaming, that very small difference in timing will not be a concern for anyone.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – ScreenPad
Instead of the usual touchpad, you get the ASUS ScreenPad, which combines a secondary display with a touchpad. You can use it as a secondary Windows display or as a companion display for specific apps. The choice of apps are rather limited, which includes the likes of the Office suite and Spotify, but it can see improvements in future updates. It can come in handy at times but just be mindful that it will take a hit on the battery life.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – MyASUS
On the software side of things, you have MyASUS, which lets you check driver updates, change fan settings, pick your preferred charging mode, system diagnosis, and more. You can even adjust your display settings such as colour mode and blue light intensity here via ASUS Splendid.
The Wi-Fi SmartConnect feature here will automatically connect to router with the best signal in the area when enabled. It’s a very useful software suite that you should take the time to familiarize with.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review – ProArt Creator Hub
You also have the ProArt Creator Hub, where you can check the status of the machine, run colour calibration, and more. While most people could get by without using it, I’m sure professionals will find this a convenient software to have.
As for the speakers themselves, it’s pretty decent. You get clean and clear sound with a little touch of bass. However, it’s a little too soft for my liking, even at max volume. It’s still pretty nice to have but if you want a more wholesome experience, best to plug in your favourite pair of headphones.
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Verdict
ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X Review
The ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X is a pretty solid laptop, but it’s not one that is meant to appeal to most people. After all, it’s a mobile workstation, so it’s designed with professionals in mind. If your workflow will benefit from using NVIDIA Quadro graphics, it can be a rather attractive choice. You get solid build quality, abundance of memory, they keyboard is comfortable to use, ScreenPad can be pretty useful, and a great display.
However, it’s a little too thick for my liking, the battery life is decent at best, the speaker is too soft, limited apps for ScreenPad, the resolution is only Full HD+, and the CPU temperature can get rather high. With a prices starting from RM8,199, it ultimately boils down to whether your workflow requires this type of hardware.
At the end of our ASUS ProArt StudioBook Pro X review, I award this with our Bronze Pokdeward.

A big thanks to ASUS Malaysia for sending us this laptop for the purposes of this review.
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HUAWEI Topples Apple To Become World’s 2nd Largest Smartphone Brand

According to IDC report, HUAWEI is now ranked second in the global smartphone, knocking off Apple along the way.
HUAWEI Knocks Apple Off 2nd Spot
It is reported by IDC that HUAWEI shipped more than 54 million smartphones in Q2 this year, taking 15.8% of the total market share and get a 40.9% Year-over-Year Change increase. Aiding their climb up the charts seems to be their P20/P20 Pro series smartphones.

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Topping the charts is Samsung, with them having 22.9% of the market share. The company that is making waves to the top is Xiaomi at 4th place, which they have by far the most percentage of increase in Year-over-Year Change at 48.8%.

Top 5 Worldwide Smartphone Market

Samsung
HUAWEI
Apple
Xiaomi
OPPO

Pokdepinion: It’s not surprising that HUAWEI are doing good at the moment, with them introducing a lot of new devices and also new features such as the GPU Turbo. Goes to show, if you don’t bring in something new to the market (while also being priced appropriately), you are likely to fall on the list.
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Pre-Registration Now Open For Garena’s Mobile MOBA – Introducing Arena Of Valor

Garena announced recently that mobile gamers in the country are now able to pre-register for their first mobile MOBA game, Arena of Valor.
Arena of Valor
First introduced in Taiwan, the mobile MOBA game takes on the standard 5v5 Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. It has since been released to several SEA regions such as Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, while managing to hit top spot on both the App Store and Play Store along the way.
Arena of Valor Trailer

Upon release, you are able to choose from 14 permanent heroes for free. With completion of the game’s tutorial, 2 more heroes will be unlocked. The Road of Glory quest will see players unlock another 8 champions. The remaining 4 heroes can be obtained by just playing with your friends.

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In Taiwan, the new MOBA game is competed at various levels from grassroot tournaments of international corporations, to professional gaming tournaments by Garena and global events between North America, Europe, Korea, and Middle East with a RM30 million prize pool.
As a games publisher, Garena has spearheaded various top-tier titles across Southeast Asia to great effect. As we welcome the latest addition to our growing list, we aim for AOV to be positioned as the best mobile experience for gamers in Malaysia Goh Jian Hao, Product Manager for Mobile Game Operations
To celebrate with the imminent launch, Malaysia’s telco companies, Digi Telecommunications, Maxis Berhad and Hotlink have plans to provide free gaming data for gamers to play AOV in Malaysia.
AOV will be hosting their first major gaming event at Comic Fiesta, Malaysia’s largest comics, games, and animation convention this December 2017 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Hall.
To pre-register for Arena of Valor, you can do so by clicking on the link right here.
Pokdepinion: I’ve seen the game before from Garena’s game client. Would be interesting to see how it fares to Mobile Legends.
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[Update 1] HTC U12+ Leaked – No Notches To Be Seen Anywhere!

Reportedly to be launched next week, now it appears that there has been some leaks towards the design of the new HTC U12+. Here are some of the details of the new device.
HTC U12+
HTC U12+ render leak
With the HTC U12+, it marks the company’s comeback into the flagship smartphone market. The device will be running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 as well as packing 6GB of RAM (expandable up to 2TB through microSD). For the camera department, both front and rear sides of the phone will sport dual cameras.
Measuring at 6-inch with a 18:9 ratio display, the HTC U12+ seems to break away from the trend of putting a notch on the device (which we are grateful). Sticking to the display, the device will feature a button free front facade and use what HTC calls a ‘liquid surface‘.

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It may be bad news for headphone or earphone users though as the phone won’t be be coming with a 3.5mm jack for your audio devices. Well, you can cope through it by getting Bluetooth headphones instead.
The phone will come with Android 8.0 out of the box and will be powered by a 3500mAh non removable battery found under the hood.
While release date isn’t confirmed just yet, we expect it to come out very soon. Until it does, stay tuned for more information on the device.
Source: wccftech
[Update 1] HTC U12+ Coming To Malaysia End Of June (25th May 2018)

HTC has confirmed that the U12+ will be coming to our shores here  in Malaysia. The phone features Edge Sense 2, a new touch feedback experience that allows users to navigate the device, hold to lock the screen orientation or squeeze the sides for taking photos and zooming in on maps.
In addition to that, it will feature HTC BoomSound, USonic and Qualcomm aptX HD audio, which delivers sounds louder than ever. The phone will be available in Translucent Blue and will be available from end of June onwards in Malaysia.
Pokdepinion: I’m most interested on what price what the company will  be putting in for the U12+. I have got to say, that red looks sleek and for a current (well, not current but upcoming) smartphone to feature a notch-less display is a big win for me! Here’s to hope that the phone does make it down right here in Malaysia. What do you think? Let us know in the comments as usual folks!
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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti to offer more than 2X performance of GeForce RTX 2080 Ti?

Take this with a pinch of salt, but if this turns out to be true, you might be seeing a massive leap in terms of performance with the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. Or just any GPU in the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30-series, really. A now-deleted leak by @chiakokhua, who has reliably predicted certain details about AMD’s Zen and EPYC, has shared that the NVIDIA Ampere lineup might pack some serious firepower.
Now once again I must remind you all to take it with a pinch of salt, but for the sake of comparison, a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti packs 4352 CUDA cores, 544 Tensor cores and 68 RT cores. The clocks are also relatively low on the Turing GPU, with NVIDIA’s specifications calling for a 1545 MHz boost clock. Of course, NVIDIA’s partners sell cards that regularly boost way over that, but let’s just assume that the numbers in the slide above are all NVIDIA’s specifications.

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The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti will offer close to double the number of CUDA and Tensor cores, while nearly quadrupling its RT cores. That should hugely alleviate the performance drop that you get when enabling DirectX Raytracing (DXR) in games, in addition to overcoming the Tensor core bottleneck observed on NVIDIA Turing cards at higher framerates. Then there’s the faster 16 Gbps GDDR6 VRAM and 1750 MHz boost clocks, which should allow the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti to handily trounce the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.
In fact every one of the GeForce RTX 30-series cards in this leak packs more RT cores than the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, which should reveal interesting results. Hopefully that will shrink the performance delta between DXR on and DXR off. The leak also hints at the launch dates of the GPUs, with the first cards to launch being the GeForce RTX 3070 and GeForce RTX 3080 set to arrive in Q3 2020, followed by the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti in Q4 2020 and lastly the GeForce RTX 3060 in Q1 2021.

I believe that NVIDIA knows more about RDNA 2 than we do, and thus has preemptively decided to design overkill GPUs to counter whatever AMD can put on the table. NVIDIA’s partners are reportedly clearing their inventory of GeForce RTX 20-series to make way for the NVIDIA Ampere cards, and NVIDIA is hosting GTC 2020 on 14th May, where they are expected to reveal more about NVIDIA Ampere.
Pokdepinion: Well perhaps I can finally afford a Turing card now?
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ASUS Z170-WS motherboard announced with support for quad SLI configurations

ASUS has announced the Z170-WS, a new ATX workstation motherboard packed with multiple exclusive technoliges to maximize performance, stability, ease-of-use and upgradability, to enable professionals to unleash the fullest potential of the latest 6th-generation Intel Core processors.

Based on the Intel Z170 Express chipset, the Z170-WS is unique with support for four GPUs in NVIDIA SLI or AMD CrossFireX configurations, to enable the ultimate graphics performance possible. Overclocking CPUs can be done the old manual way, or with a single click, thanks to the 5-Way Optimization feature available on most recent ASUS motherboards. The one-click technology ensures that everything from CPU performance to even the networking and audio settings are optimized for the app currently in use.

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A workstation board has to be reliable as it is powerful. The ASUS Z170-WS features Japanese-made 12K solid capacitors which are extremely resilient, capable of running at 105°C for up to 12 000 hours, exceeding the requirements of most hardcore users. If put under normal loads, the ASUS 12K capacitors have a life expectancy of 1.2 million hours, or well over a century of real-world use. Another ASUS-exclusive feature, ProCool power connectors offer an exceptional close and secure connection with the motherboard, allowing for higher power efficiency, lower impedance and cooler operating temperatures. This further enhances the longevity of the ASUS Z170-WS.

Professional users often require fast storage for a smooth and responsive workflow. And lots of it too. The ASUS Z170-WS has 6x SATA 6GB/s ports, 2 M.2 slots supporting both SATA and PCIe x4 SSDs, and one U.2 connector. 10Gbits USB 3.1 performance comes in the both USB Type-A and USB Type-C forms, allowing you to be ready for the fast external storage, when they arrive. The ASUS-exclusive USB 3.1 Boost technology further accelerates USB 3.1 performance even further, for an added edge.
ASUS Q-Code Logger allows users to quickly check the system status at any time, even when the system is switched off. You simply have to plug in a flash drive into the adjacent USB port, and press the dedicated Q-Code Logger button and all the ASUS Q-Code event logs are copied onto the drive.
The ASUS Z170-WS is available now, priced at RM1899. It is covered by a 3 year limited warranty.

Pokdepinion: The dual M.2 PCIe slots are very interesting as it opens up the doors to RAID setups of PCIe NVMe SSDs, which will give really insane storage speeds. The durability are a bonus, but not really necessary, considering that this motherboard will most probably not see a CPU newer than the upcoming Kaby Lake CPUs anyway.
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MAE By Maybank2u App Launched To Better Manage Your Finance

The folks at Maybank has today launched their new MAE By Maybank2U app to offer an enhanced experience and new take on their banking app.
MAE by Maybank2u app

Ranging from mobile banking to QR payments, the MAE by Maybank2u app is aimed to help customers to have better management of their finances. The app has an Expenses feature which gives you an overall view of what exactly you’ve spent on across Maybank accounts, cards, as well as QR transactions. If you’ve spent with physical cash, you can even add that it to the list to update your expenses.
Another feature of the app is Tabung, where it helps you to save consistently and regularly to achieve…well what you’ve been saving up for. You can even make it a group savings with the Group option, where it allows you to save jointly with friends and family towards a goal such as an annual vacation.

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Want to speed up in reaching your savings goal? Maybank has also introduced a feature called Boosters, where it turns micro-spending moments into saving for your account. The three Boosters are:
Spare Change – rounds up expenses and transfers the balance into TabungScan & Save – credit savings earned from promotions used during QR transactionsGuilty Pleasure – allows you to set a daily spending limit in any category of your choice and an amount to be credited into your Tabung if the limit is exceeded
They’ve also created a feature called the Makan Mana wheel, where you can probably guess, helps recommend you options of where exactly to eat as well as showing you some of the promotions that you can enjoy.

Aside from that, Maybank has also introduced the new MAE Visa Debit Card, which compliments the MAE wallet. It comes with benefits such as competitive foreign exchange rates and exclusive perks to enjoy locally and abroad. You can apply for the debit card through the MAE app and it will deliver directly to your doorstep. When travelling is safe again, the amount that you have in your MAE wallet will auto convert to the country that you’re in, just so you know how much you are able to spend.
The MAE by Maybank2u app is available to download from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store for free and it is usable for both Maybank customers and non-Maybank users.
Pokdepinion: Sometimes it’s just hard to save up for something that you really want.. Well that Tabung feature really sounds handy, especially when you can save up with your friends!
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Acer updates Nitro series — new Nitro 5 and Nitro 50 gaming systems

Acer’s didn’t forget the people who need a more affordable option than offered by the Predator series. The Acer Nitro series of gaming desktop and laptops allow gamers who have a tighter budget to have fun too while not being forced into a diet consisiting solely of Maggi for months on end.
Acer Nitro 5

The Acer Nitro 5 is actually the only model from Acer so far that comes with the latest Intel Core i7+ processors, which means that they come with Optane memory. Optane accelerates storage operations, allowing for a more responsive computing experience. It can be gotten with a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti inside, and features Acer CoolBoost technology and NitroSense to keep things cool as you fire up games. Priced from RM2999 for the basic i5 8300H + GTX 1050 variant and ranging all the way to RM3999 for the i7+ 8750H variant, the Acer Nitro 5 represents excellent value for gamers.

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Acer Nitro 50

For RM4239, this is also another affordable desktop system. It can be configured with a desktop i7 processor and GeForce GTX 1050 for entry-level gaming performance. The case may not look like much, but it actually comes with an optional Qi Wireless Charging Pad.
Pokdepinion: I think the laptop is pretty interesting… The desktop seems prettty meh, don’t you think?
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unifi Unveils New Limited Edition Jersey In Support Of Malaysia’s SEA Games 2019 Journey

The SEA Games 2019 is coming real soon and it seems that unifi has released a new limited edition jersey for Malaysians to show their support to our athletes.

This is the 4th version of the Team Malaysia jersey, in conjunction with the upcoming 30th SEA Games in the Philippines an 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The jersey was launched by Acting Executive Vice President of unifi, Moharmustaqeem Mohammad, National football team Head Coach, Datuk Ong Kim Swee, as well as the General Manager of Paragon Vest, Vincent Lai.

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If you are interested in getting the The Team Malaysia Limited Edition Jersey, you can pre-order it online right now to get it at a special price of RM59.90 from today onwards. Eventually the jersey will be available at outlets in the country at RM69.90, starting the 10th of November 2019.
Want to watch the SEA Games 2019 live in front of your eyes (and for free, of course)? Well their unifi Tanah Pusaka contest is still ongoing. Check the link here for more details.
Pokdepinion: Be sure to pre-order the jersey, if you want to get it a cheaper price tag ;)
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ASUS ZenFone Max M2 is coming to Malaysia too!

In a teaser just published by ASUS’ official Facebook page, it appears that we will be getting the ASUS ZenFone Max M2 here in Malaysia too. It was previously launched in Indonesia along with the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M2, so its arrival here should satisfy those who are looking for a more affordable smartphone.

How much more affordable? It starts from Rp.2 299 000 for the 3GB + 32GB variant in Indonesia, which translates to around RM658. The higher end 4GB + 64GB version was launched for Rp.2 699 000 (~RM773). Of course we can’t directly convert, but we can expect local pricing to be somewhat similar. Our local pricing for the ZenFone Max Pro M2 was actually slightly cheaper than Indonesia, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.

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Specifications for the ASUS ZenFone Max M2 includes a Snapdragon 632 chipset running at up to 1.8 GHz, which is actually somewhat of a downgrade from the Snapdragon 636 in the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1. It will sport a notched 6.3″ HD+ IPS display, which will be powered by a sizeable 4000 mAh battery.

The camera chops of the ASUS ZenFone Max M2 will be courtesy of a 13MP f/1.8 + 2MP rear camera setup, and a 8MP f/2.0 selfie camera. The front facing camera is assisted by a softlight LED flash for better selfies in dim conditions. Design wise, the back looks eerily similar to the ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1.
As a member of the ASUS ZenFone Max family, it runs Stock Android Oreo. What do you think of the ASUS ZenFone Max M2?
Pokdepinion: I think it would actually be better to pick up an ASUS ZenFone Max Pro M1, unless you need a better camera.
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iOS 14 Detects Instagram Potentially Spying on Users Via Camera

Casually browsing Instagram when suddenly the new iOS 14 camera/microphone indicator comes on. Then control panel ratted out the app behind it. This is going to change things. #iOS14 pic.twitter.com/EnTIRsqq3R
— KevDoy (@KevDoy) July 17, 2020

While many users have faced issues with iOS 14, we can’t deny how useful it has been to detect if certain apps are secretly spying on you. Previously, LinkedIn, Reddit, and TikTok were caught secretly copying clipboard content and now, Instagram could be in deep trouble.
iOS 14 Detects Instagram Potentially Spying on Users

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A number of social media users with iOS 14 beta installed reported that the green indicator, which shows that the camera is activated, would light up when they used Instagram despite not taking photos or videos. A similar issue occurred with Facebook last year, which has since been fixed.
An Instagram spokesperson told The Verge that the issue stems from a bug in the app and that they are looking to solve it.
We only access your camera when you tell us to, for example, when you swipe from Feed to Camera. We found and are fixing a bug in iOS 14 Beta that mistakenly indicates that some people are using the camera when they aren’t. We do not access your camera in those instances, and no content is recorded.
Essentially, the spokesperson is saying that the indicator is mistakenly popping up when the user swipes from the in-app camera either to the feed or to Create Mode. While iOS 14 is still in beta and the privacy features aren’t available to the masses, it has already managed to shed light on potential privacy intrusions by a number of big companies.
According to researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk, over 50 iOS apps are caught accessing user clipboard content. There might actually be a lot more out there that has yet to be discovered. Now we know of one new major name that you should be wary about.
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Pokdepinion: I know they say they aren’t and won’t spy, but I have trouble believing given who owns the platform. #TrustIssues
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Razer Fintech To Sponsor Free Masks In Malaysia

You might recall our recent post that Razer is joining the fight against COVID-19. Well now they’ve announced that in collaboration with Berjaya Group, Razer Fintech will be making free masks across Malaysia.
Razer Fintech sponsors free masks to Malaysians
They’ve said that the free masks will be made available for free to all Malaysian adults and residents as part of their #RazerForLife initiative. The masks will be made available through selected 7-Eleven Malaysia stores from the 1st of July 2020 and will subsequently be rolled out across all stores in Peninsular Malaysia.
A total of 5 free surgical masks will be given. How exactly does it work? Well you need to be aged 18 years and above as well as be a verified user of Razer Pay. Users will be given one free mask every month starting from July till November 2020 with a 30-day validity period.

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You simply need to very your Razer Pay accounts by scanning your MyKad with a valid Malaysia mobile number account. Upon successful verification, a QR code will be given. The verified user can proceed to redeem their free mask at any 7-Eleven branch by scanning their QR code at the counter.
In addition to that, Razer hopes to rally everyone to support local businesses by encouraging more purchases. From 1st July till 31st of December 2020, those who conduct at least one transaction of RM10 or more by using your Razer Pay ewallet at local merchants in a single day can redeem one surgical mask from 7-Eleven stores through in-app redemption coupons.
This is limited to one free mask a day but there’s no limit to the number of days you can get the masks.
Pokdepinion: I think it’s a decent deal. You buy your items and get a free mask to go with it.
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Sony IMX607 38MP Leaked — Reported To Feature In HUAWEI P30 Pro

It seems that Sony might soon introduce their new IMX607 sensor which is said to be packed in the upcoming HUAWEI P30 Pro.

The new sensor was found leaked at Weibo just recently. According to the leak, the Sony IMX607 is a 38MP CMOS sensor that is aimed for low light photography performance.

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Its 1/1.8-inch sensor uses a Dual Bayer instead of Quad Bayer and it adds a White HDR Coding. Other than that, it is reported to come with a high signal-to-noise ratio, quad pixel PDAF, enhanced noise reduction as well as three native ISOs (50/500/5000).
It will be some time we’ll see it though as HUAWEI usually launches their P series in March, regularly in the first quarter of the year. As it is, there’s not much details on the phone, but we should expect for it to pack the same Kirin 980 chipset that’s already available in their current flagship, the Mate 20 series.
Pokdepinion: Aiming at low-light photography eh? I don’t mind the idea at all. Hopefully it would further improve the already established HUAWEI camera performance that’s already available.
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Apex Legends Teases Buff To Revenant

If you play Apex Legends, you’d see that Revenant isn’t one of the most popular characters in the game. Well that could change soon as Respawn Entertainment has discussed the game’s newest season of a possible buff.
Apex Legends teases Revenant buff?

In the Q&A post on Reddit, lead game designer Daniel Z. Klein informs readers on the state of Revenant. When questioned on whether we will see any buff for the character, he has said some changes were in the works but they likely wouldn’t be substantial enough.
He adds that “Revenant’s still weak and not particularly popular. We have a set of changes we’re trying out internally at the moment and they fun and fine, but they’ll probably not move the needle on power a lot. That may be fine! So long as people playing as him/against him have fun,, numbers are fake anyway. And while I can’t give you any details on the buffs we’re trying out, I can tell you he’ll certainly climb to the top”.

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That last part hints that we could see a change to Revenant’s passive skill and players of the character have been calling for the developers to give him the ability to climb higher and some have even asked for infinite climbing.
Aside from that, there’s not much revealed including when we can see a change to the character. Apex Legends is now in Season 9 and is available to play on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch.
For more on the latest tech and gaming news, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
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Pokdepinion: I personally think that Revenant has quite the skill in silencing enemies but aside from that.. I don’t think he’s powered enough in Apex Legends. Let’s just hope Respawn introduces something that’s powerful but balanced enough for players playing against him.
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4GB VRAM GPUs Are A Thing Of The Past Says AMD

With the requirement for today’s AAA titles become more demanding, it’s fair to say that graphics cards with less than 4GB of VRAM is having a tougher time coping with the performance needed. That’s not to say that they aren’t any good, but AMD says that with that amount of VRAM, it’s simply not enough to survive in today’s age.
4GB VRAM GPUs not enough in today’s world

The news was revealed in a recent blogpost of theirs where they compared 4GB and 8GB models of their Radeon 5500 XT graphics card. According to the test, the extra VRAM managed to give roughly 20% of extra performance in terms of gaming.
With the test done, here’s what they had to say about the matter:

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AMD is leading the industry at providing gamers with high VRAM graphics solutions across the entire product offering. Competitive products at a similar entry-level price-point are offering up to a maximum of 4GB of VRAM, which is evidently not enough for today’s games. Go Beyond 4GB of Video Memory to Crank Up your settings. Play on RadeonTM RX Series GPUs with 6GB or 8GB of VRAM and enjoy gaming at Max settings
While it is true with more VRAM, you’ll be able to squeeze out more performance for your games. Yet, at the end of the day, it all depends if you can afford newer and more powerful graphics card.
We’ve recently reviewed the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 5500 XT and RX 5600. Do check the article out for more details.
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Pokdepinion: Meanwhile I’m still stuck here using an RX 470 that has 4GB of VRAM…
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New Spyro Reignited Trilogy Trailer Sparking Up Its Impending Release

One of the most highly anticipated remasters coming up is Spyro Reignited Trilogy, where we get to play the original three games featuring the iconic purple dragon in high definition. Now, we have a brand new trailer that is hyping up the game’s impending release.
In the brand new trailer, we see a few contrasting scenes from all three remastered games. It certainly gives the audience a little trip down memory lane for an added dose of nostalgia and also what the player can expect to see from the remaster, which looks amazing.
The game was initially set to release on 21st September 2018. Unfortunately, a delay was announced sometime ago which means that players had to wait just a little bit longer to play the game. As I pointed out before however, I’d rather wait for a good game than get my hands on a buggy game.

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Spyro Reignited Trilogy will be coming to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 13th November 2018. Hopefully, we won’t be seeing any additional delays coming up for the game.
Pokdepinion: I can’t wait to relive my childhood memories and play through the entire game. I especially want to see what it’s like to have that Super Breath ability in high definition.
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Fan Smashes His PS4 As Protest To Sony’s Zelda ‘Clone’ Game

Recently at ChinaJoy, a gaming expo that’s seen as China’s alternative to E3, a fan obliterated his PlayStation 4 in what appears to be a protest to Sony’s “clone” of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

When Mihoyo unveiled Genshin Impact for PS4, many noted the game was inspired by BOTW.
Some fans of BOTW are upset that Sony is promoting this game because of the similarities + they think it’s shameless of Sony.
This man smashed his PS4 at ChinaJoy in protest. pic.twitter.com/jwJqwREgaz
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 3, 2019

The game, which is called Genshin Impact, looks uncannily like the mentioned Zelda title. Genshin Impact was announced just recently at this year’s E3 2019, where many have noticed the game’s resemblance to the other.
Here’s the gameplay trailer for Genshin Impact.

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Back to the disgruntled man, it seems that he isn’t the only one who has negative opinions on the game as many were left insulted and posted comments on Sony’s game post on Weibo.
So what’s say you? Is the game a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Let us know in the comments.
Genshin Impact will be available on PC, PS4, as well as on mobile in 2020.
Pokdepinion: I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t even dare to think of smashing my PS4 Pro on to the ground, even if I was that angry. Oh well, you need to do something drastic to get attention, right?
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#NewPOCO for India is just… old POCOPHONE F1 Armored Edition for us…?

In an underwhelming turn of events, POCO India has just announced the availability of the new POCO F1 Armored Edition with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. POCO India has been teasing a #NewPOCO and we were probably getting a bit ahead of ourselves with the assumptions.

Ho ho ho! #Santa is here with the BIG #Christmas reveal.
POCO fans! Presenting the #NewPOCO
POCO F1
6GB + 128GB (Armoured Edition)
will be available on @Flipkart and https://t.co/DREiXVqBDe pic.twitter.com/nVatmGFmtt
— POCO India (@IndiaPOCO) December 25, 2018

Fans in local POCOPHONE user communities were assuming that there will be a POCOPHONE F1 Lite with a lesser chipset, or even one with a larger screen and the same innards. It seems like it wasn’t to be though, as India finally gets the Armored Edition that we have.

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Priced at 23 999 rupees (~RM1427), it comes with the same Kevlar back, but features less RAM and storage than the original POCO F1 Armored Edition they have in their market. Well, that was disappointing.
Pokdepinion: Oh dear, I was really getting in on the hype of a larger POCOPHONE though. A large 6.9″ screen with a Snapdragon 845. Sounds like a dream! And thus it remains a dream…
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From time to time, PC gamers can some interesting games for free. For today, we have Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for free as part of Sega’s 60th anniversary celebration, and it’s easy to claim it too.
Get Sonic the Hedgehog 2 For Free Right Here

Happy 60th to us!🎉
We’re celebrating with a big sale on Steam! Get up to 95% off iconic SEGA titles like Sonic Mania, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Persona 4 Golden, Two Point Hospital and many more!
Plus… get a FREE copy of Sonic The Hedgehog 2!
GO SEGA!👉https://t.co/8gnQuU81XH pic.twitter.com/95oookhyIc
— SEGA (@SEGA) October 9, 2020

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The folks over at Sega have announced a special sale on Steam as part of their 60th anniversary celebration. A bunch of Sega games are being offered with up to 95% discount, such as Sonic Adventure DX, Persona 4 Golden, Bayonetta, and a whole lot more. The best part here is that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is being offered for free.
If you want to claim the game, all you have to do is head to the Steam page for it and claim Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for yourself. For an easier time, you can head directly to the page by clicking right here. Depending on the page you see, it may say free to play, but in actuality, you do get to keep the game in your Steam library.

In related news, Sega is expected to announced a brand new Virtua Fighter game as part of their “Virtua Fighter X Esports Project”. Previously, it was announced that the popular fighting game series will be making a return as part of the company’s 60th anniversary celebration.
Be sure to claim Sonic the Hedgehog 2 before it’s too late.
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Pokdepinion: Already claimed the game. Definitely a good way to pass the time and it barely takes up space in my PC.
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Apple AR Headset to Make its Debut at WWDC 2023: What to Expect

After numerous delays, Apple’s AR Headset is finally on the horizon, with reports suggesting that the company will announce the groundbreaking device at the upcoming WWDC 2023 event. Set to revolutionize the world of augmented reality, the AR Headset is expected to boast innovative features and redefine user experiences. Let’s delve into the latest insights and discover what Apple has in store.
Apple AR Headset: Unveiling the Future of Augmented Reality at WWDC 2023

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Apple AR Headset will resemble ski goggles and will be accompanied by an external battery pack connected via a wire. Notably, the battery pack can be detached for convenient charging. This aligns with previous reports from reliable sources like Bloomberg and Ming-Chi Kuo, further solidifying the credibility of these design attributes.

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Despite production challenges, Apple is expected to announce their AR Headset at WWDC 2023. While mass production is slated to commence later this year, a leaker on Twitter suggests that the actual production won’t start until September due to manufacturing delays. Nonetheless, Apple’s commitment to unveiling the AR Headset at WWDC shows its determination to introduce this groundbreaking technology to the world.
The Apple AR Headset is touted to surpass its competitors, offering unparalleled functionality and catering to a wide range of categories. The device is expected to focus on communication, entertainment, and gaming, aiming to provide immersive experiences and seamless integration with Apple’s ecosystem. Additionally, rumors suggest that the Apple AR Headset will support a version of Apple’s Final Cut Pro editing software, opening up possibilities for creative professionals.
Apple’s Vision: Alongside the AR Headset, Apple is also anticipated to unveil the larger 15.5-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip at WWDC 2023. However, the highlight of the event will be the introduction of iOS 17, watchOS 10, and various software updates. It’s important to remember that Apple retains the final say on product release dates, so some caution is advised, considering the potential for further delays.
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Pokdepinion: As anticipation builds for Apple’s AR Headset, enthusiasts eagerly await its official unveiling at WWDC 2023. With its innovative design, enhanced features, and potential for transformative experiences, the AR Headset promises to reshape the world of augmented reality. Stay tuned for more updates from Apple and share your thoughts in the comments section.
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OPPO Find X3 Pro Globally Launched At €1,149

Today we witnessed the launch of the brand new flagship OPPO Find X3 series, where it features a 10bit screen that comes with adaptive refresh rate.
OPPO Find X3 Pro launch

The OPPO Find X3 Pro comes with two 50MP cameras, a 3MP Microlens camera, and a 13MP telephoto shooter at the back. Two of the lens feature Sony IMX766 sensors and the device comes with OIS, EIS, and All Pixel Omni-directional PDAF. As for the front, it sports a 32MP sensor for your selfies.

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Checkout our previous review of the OPPO Find X2 Pro.
For the display, it features a 6.7-inch LTPO AMOLED display that comes with QHD+ resolution, offering refresh rates of up to 120Hz.
Other specifications include a Snapdragon 888 that offers 5G connectivity support, Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6E, as well as Dolby Atmos-certified stereo speakers. Coming with a 4500mAh battery, you can charge it via its 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 fast charger as well as their first ever wireless charger, the AirVOOC that supports 30W.

It seems that the device comes in a single memory variant, packing 12GB LPPDR5 RAM that’s mated with 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. Running on ColorOS 11.2, they’ve priced the OPPO Find X3 Pro at the price of €1,149, which is roughly RM5,645 when converted.
For more of the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: That is indeed a big price tag we’re talking about. We’ll know if it’s worth it or not once we’ve tested one for ourselves. Hopefully we’ll get the chance.
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Get 20GB free data with Yoodo

Yoodo is now running a promotion, aptly named “I Love Free Data“, from now until 31st December 2019, giving away 20GB free data to anyone subscribing to a plan with 10GB of data or more.
You will immediately see the extra data reflected even before purchasing your new quota. Unfortunately the free data does not scale to the bigger packages you can buy, with everything from 10GB and above scoring the free 20GB. That essentially means the best value you can get is by buying the 10GB package and get triple the data you paid for.

If you are an existing user, you will need to change your plan to the new plans with the free 20GB data. For new subscribers, all you need to do is pick one of the eligible plans and activate your SIM.

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You will be getting free 20GB with each renewal, so heavy users would really be having the time of their lives downloading. Have you guys downloaded COD Mobile yet?
Pokdepinion: Yoodo definitely got it right. I love free data!
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Sony Announces More Affordable Price for PlayStation VR – Cheapest VR setup just got cheaper

PlayStation VR coming in cheap

Are you a Virtual Reality fan? Have you always wanted to own your very own PlayStation VR setup but could never get yourself to buy because the price was way too out of your league? Well here’s some good news PlayStation fans! Sony Interactive Entertainment Hong Kong Limited Singapore Branch has just announced a brand new price for the PS VR which could make the chances of you owning Sony’s Virtual Reality headset.
The new, cheaper pricing is for the PlayStation VR bundle which comes together with the PlayStation camera and will retail at RM1,749. Considering the original price of the PS VR bundle was RM2,099 when it first came out here in Malaysia back in 2016, I’d say that the new pricing should make it an even more attractive buy for gamers and PlayStation fans who were on the fence before. The new pricing will come into effect from September 1st onward at all major stores and authorised Sony dealers.

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First announced back in 2014 as a Virtual Reality project developed by Sony and dubbed Project Morpheus (cool af name in my opinion, shame they didn’t stick with it), the PlayStation VR headset we know and love today was officially released in the United States, Europe and Malaysia in October 2016 and was a hit with PlayStation fans. As of June 2017, the PlayStation VR has sold a cool 1 million units worldwide and is available in 140 countries.
The new price announcement from Sony Interactive Entertainment Hong Kong Limited Singapore Branch couldn’t come at a better time as it was revealed at the Gamestop Expo in Las Vegas recently, that Sony is focusing their efforts to introducing a lot more AAA titles for the PS VR this coming holiday period.
Another thing to note, the PlayStation VR bundle with the revised price tag will be the core product from now on. Which means that the headset will not be sold separately in stores from now on.
Pokdepinion: Despite the VR scene becoming a lot quieter nowadays after the massive hype a couple of years ago, I think this price cut by Sony and the plans to introduce more core titles for the device could be the shot in the arm the PS VR needs to get people interested again.
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HONOR Officially Launches New HONOR View20 In China

HONOR has launched their latest flagship smartphone in the market, albeit in China, the brand new HONOR View20, which comes with the world’s first HD 48MP rear 3D TOF camera as well as a front 25MP selfie shooter that’s integrated into the display.

With the new HONOR View20, it is also the first smartphone to use nanolithography technology that develops an invisible nano texture on its body. With it, it creates an a vivid and dynamic V-shape color gradient with a gleaming effect.

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Aside from that, the company has revealed that they’ve partnered up with Italian fashion brand MOSCHINO and launch the special HONOR View20 MOSCHINO joint design edition.
The flagship device is also the first ever device to come with Sony’s IMX586 that’s stacked wtih CMOS sensor, which features 48MP on a 1/2-inch sensor to deliver excellent image quality. Of course, you can utilize its AI capabilities to make your pictures stand out even more.
Other than that, it comes with the company’s latest Kirin 980 chipset and it features 3D camera functionality at the back. It is a range imaging camera system that calculates distance based upon the time-of-flight of a light signal.
The HONOR View20 will be globally launched in Paris on the 22nd of January 2019. We will find out more details on the device nearing that date, so until then, watch this space.
Pokdepinion: Man, the HONOR View20 looks awesome. Hopefully it will make its way here in Malaysia soon. I wonder how much they will price it if it does indeed come here too but the phone looks promising!
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TikTok is one step closer to being banned in the US

The US House of Representatives have just voted overwhelmingly in favor of banning TikTok. Representatives have reportedly voted 336-71 in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act which include an amendment to ban the popular app on government-issued devices.
While the US government will probably not ban the app for the general public, this is a pretty precarious situation for TikTok right now. After India banned the app and reportedly causing TikTok to lose billions in revenue, US may just follow up with a nationwide ban on the app after the bill is passed to restrict the use of the app in the US.
Despite TikTok insisting that they do not share data from the app with the Chinese government, the US government are understandably wary of China-based companies. With that said, it isn’t actually available in China, although a similar app called Douyin is operated by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.

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The ban isn’t guaranteed yet, as there are still a number of steps before Trump can sign off on it and make it official. The app has been deemed a serious national security threat, and seeing Trump’s aggressiveness on the whole HUAWEI debacle in the past, there’s a high possibility that TikTok will get banned in the US soon.
Source
Pokdepinion: With it out of the way, will another app come in to fill the void for influencers to flaunt their dancing skills?
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Infinix NOTE4 Pro review; slowly does it

Introduction
The device I will be talking about here is rather interesting to me. I am no fan of styli. I have never used a smartphone with a stylus, skipping the resistive touchscreen technology until the Nokia X6 was launched with a capacitive touch display. But skip forward a few years, the Samsung Galaxy Note was launched, and people seemed to like having the ability to write naturally on a screen. It was successful, but the series also became increasingly expensive as newer generations came out. The Samsung Galaxy Note8 is Samsung’s priciest smartphone yet, at RM3999. The Infinix NOTE4 Pro comes out just at the right time, with the tagline “The Better Note”. Bold claim there, but lets give it a chance, shall we?
Unboxing

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The packaging of the Infinix NOTE4 Pro isn’t all that interesting, but it is large. It features a questionable choice of font for the PRO wording, but otherwise it looks okay. The inner box slides out of the sleeve, and you will find the Infinix NOTE4 Pro fitted snugly into a plastic tray. So snugly that it is actually quite difficult to extract it. That tray is glued to the box, so where are the accessories?

If you guessed that they will be beneath the smartphone’s tray, you are wrong. You will have  to flip the package over, and they are on the bottom, covered by a white flap. Infinix scored a few points for being rather creative here.

We received the XPen & Smart Cover along with the Infinix NOTE4 Pro too. Wondering why they are separately packaged? Well, the Infinix NOTE4 Pro and the Xpen + Smart Cover set are actually sold separately, with Infinix expecting you to shell out an extra RM200 for the latter.

And here’s the whole package. You get the device, some standard documentation, a really chunky 25W charger, microUSB cable, earphones and the XPen and Smart Cover.
Appearance

A standard rectangular slab, the Infinix NOTE4 Pro isn’t going to impress anyone with its looks. The bezels are also pretty massive for a device launched in 2017 too. It does have a few premium touches here and there, like the 2.5D curved glass and nicely chamfered edges, but that’s about it.

The back looks pretty premium, with a nice smooth black finish, beveled edges and well hidden antenna lines. The Infinix and NOTE branding are also done stylishly. The camera sticks out a fair bit, so you will want to use this phone with a case. The camera has a dual LED flash to keep it company on what is otherwise a vast expanse of sandblasted aluminium.

The top is home to a 3.5mm jack, while you will find the microUSB port, mono loudspeaker and primary microphone on the bottom edge.

On the right you get your usual volume rocker and power button as well as the microSD slot, but over on the left is where it is much more interesting.

Here you find the SIM tray and 3 copper contacts that will connect to the case and charge up the XPen. Yep, the XPen is an active stylus that needs to be charged, and the only way to do that is with the Smart Cover.

Speaking of the Smart Cover, it is going to be an integral part of your experience, if you want the Infinix NOTE4 Pro to function like a “Note” device, that is. Without it, you will have to store the XPen separately. Luckily it looks pretty good. It is also pretty smart with a few nifty tricks up its sleeve.

It has a fabric back that continues over to the front. It doesn’t add too much to thickness, but it definitely makes the Infinix NOTE4 Pro much wider due to the space needed for the XPen’s slot. Hopefully Infinix can house the XPen in the smartphone’s body when the NOTE5 Pro rolls out.
Specifications

CPU/Chipset:
MediaTek MTK6753 (4 x ARM Cortex A53 @ 1.5 GHz, 4 x ARM Cortex A53 @ 1.3 GHz)

GPU:
Mali-T720MP3 @ 450 MHz

RAM:
3GB

Display:
5.7″, FHD (1080p) IPS display by Sharp, MiraVision

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

Camera:
Main Camera(s)
13MP f/2.0, dual LED flash
Front Camera
8MP f/2.0, front facing flash, Beautify Mode, WideSelfie

OS:
Chameleon XOS based on Android 7.0 Nougat

Connectivity:
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz)
Bluetooth 4.2

SIM:
Dual microSIM

Battery:
Li-ion 4500 mAh

Weight:
200 g

You do get full dual SIM functionality with Infinix NOTE4 Pro, but they are of the ancient microSIM standard instead of the newer nanoSIM which is really common nowadays. Chameleon XOS is Infinix’s custom UI slapped onto Android 7.0 Nougat, which is yet another bit of outdated stuff in the Infinix NOTE4 Pro. A small surprise that you might notice is support for 5 GHz, something which is notably lacking from a lot of its peers in this price range. No AC WiFi though. The 5.7″ FHD also amps up the attractiveness of the Infinix NOTE4 Pro, which is otherwise an entry-level device.
Performance
Featuring a MediaTek MTK6753 under the hood, the Infinix NOTE4 Pro is set to be an entry-level device in terms of performance. While it does have a clock speed advantage against the more popular MediaTek MTK6750, the older GPU might be a bottleneck when it comes to gaming performance. We will run it through our benchmark suite here.

The Mediatek MT6753 allows the Infinix NOTE4 Pro to score just a bit higher than the ASUS ZenFone Max Plus M1 that packed the MT6750T. The combination of faster CPU cores allow it to eke out a small 2000-point advantage over the ASUS device. It does come in behind the vivo V5 and all the Snapdragon 430-packing devices though. It doesn’t do that well competing among its peers in the entry level.

The clockspeed advantage is not so visible here, with a small lead over the MT6750 devices but once again coming in behind the Snapdragon 430 devices like the ZenFone 3 Laser. CPU performance won’t be its forte but at least it should offer a tad more grunt than the MT6750 chipsets in other entry-level devices.

Graphics performance is really poor, so don’t expect to use the Infinix NOTE4 Pro for gaming. Maybe Neko Atsume would be fine but not much more than that.

PCMark’s Work performance benchmark is quite hard to predict, as we have seen flagship chipsets fall behind mid-range ones in this benchmark. Nonetheless, the Infinix NOTE4 Pro slots in pretty far at the bottom, indicating poor overall system performance especially when it comes to productivity-related workloads.

Battery life is pretty much inline with what we would expect of a battery of this size coupled with a 5.7″ 1080p display. Sure, it isn’t the most efficient device out there, but it doesn’t rank too badly and delivers a good battery life.

In my usage, I managed to squeeze out more than 5 hours of SOT over nearly 14 hours before the tank hit 15%. This was with data used throughout the period of  testing, so I am pretty impressed. Infinix was definitely right by throwing a massive 4500 mAh battery to make the Infinix NOTE4 Pro last longer than average despite an inefficient processor and a high resolution display. What about that massive 25W charger? Well, it gave the Infinix NOTE4 Pro a whopping 51% charge in 30 minutes, which is really impressive considering the huge battery here. This is a nice surprise, especially looking at the poor scores posted in most of the benchmarks.
User Experience

Sporting chunky bezels and a large-ish 5.7″ screen size, the Infinix NOTE4 Pro is not an easy device to use with one hand. It is a heavy device and has a reassuring heft to it, so it has that in its favor. Throw on the case and things get even worse, as it adds quite a bit of width to the entire device. With that said, the display is really the best part of the Infinix NOTE4 Pro, being a full HD IPS panel that is pretty rare in this price segment nowadays. Simply with its resolution, it comes up ahead of many of its rivals below the RM1000 mark. The colors are good too, as is the maximum brightness. No complaints here.

Now you would have noticed the front facing fingerprint sensor. It is quick, but you will have to give it a press before it will wake the device and unlock. If you are using the Smart Cover, you will just have to rest your thumb on it as it will have woken up. The navigation keys are just mere dots, but you can’t reconfigure them, nor do they light up. Making matters worse, they are arranged wrongly, as in the Back button is on the right side. The active area is also smaller than usual, causing me to do quite a few taps before finally getting it right when using the Infinix NOTE4 Pro in the dark.

Chameleon XOS is understandably Chinese looking, but a swipe up reveals the hidden app drawer, a feature few Chinese OEMs have. There are lots of themes to play around with, and you can even tap on the Shuffle shortcut to give your device a randomly selected wallpaper. There is a huge load of bloatware, as all the apps starting with X in their name are Infinix’s own creations, and I have not used a single one. The overall experience is held back by some serious sluggishness in everything that I do. And I am not even using it for much aside from checking my social networks, instant messaging and browsing the web with Chrome!

The software is pretty well built for Smart Cover integration. It comes with a nice peek into notifications and the sliders which open up music controls or turn on the flashlight with a swipe from the edge to the center.
Camera

Checking out the camera setup, you get a single 13MP f/2.0 camera on the back, and an 8MP sensor up front. The rear is supported by a dual LED flash, while the selfie camera has to make do with a single one.

The UI of the camera is simple, with a big shutter button to fire off shots quickly. If you want to access more of the features like HDR or manual mode, you will have to swipe on the viewfinder. Overall the camera UI shares the overall sluggishness encountered elsewhere on the device. The manual mode, while stylish, takes quite a bit of patience and limits the maximum shutter speed to just 1/100 for some peculiar reason.

Image quality in good lighting is acceptable, but in low light, the software fails to properly handle the noise due to the elevated ISO. As you can see, the noise in the sky is rather apparent, giving it a really grainy look. This is possible to overcome via updates, so I look forward to Infinix delivering an update…or not. On the bright side, there is a huge watermark in case you want to let the world know you are using the Infinix NOTE4 Pro. Feel free to check out the full-sized camera samples on Flickr here.
The (X)Pen is mightier than the sword?

The Infinix NOTE4 Pro’s XPen is the Infinix NOTE4 Pro’s highlight feature. The main reason it features the NOTE moniker. It is an active stylus, which means it needs to be charged, unlike Samsung’s passive S Pen. The Infinix NOTE4 Pro will have a small notification icon letting you know if the pen is disconnected to prevent loss.

I was actually pleased by its performance, as it detects pressure well and offers a smooth writing experience. There is a good selection of features that works with the XPen, with memo and notepad being the most useful of them all. While it is an active stylus, the battery life is sufficient for about half an hour of continuous writing. I would say that it definitely offers an alternative to the Galaxy Note series which is increasingly pricey nowadays. Only in terms of the stylus functionality, though. Also, do note that the my XPen actually broke, with the rear end snapping off when I was trying to pull it out of the Smart Cover. While the smartphone itself feels well built, the pen seems to be on the other end of the spectrum.
Conclusion
Is the Infinix NOTE4 Pro worth getting? For RM999 inclusive of the SmartCover and XPen, get this only if you want a stylus to be able to quickly jot down stuff. The XPen is really well done. The XCharge technology with up to 25W of power is also a surprise find in this price range. If you have no use for a stylus, skip this device as it really needs quite a bit of polish to be a good smartphone. The weak performance is also a major letdown for a device that claims to be “The Better Note”. TL;DR? We do not recommend the Infinix NOTE4 Pro unless you really want to use a stylus.

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Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Not A Huge Upgrade, But It’s Great

Unboxing the iPad 10th Gen
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Box

Let’s kick off our Apple iPad 10th Gen review with the unboxing. It’s essentially the same as the standard iPhone boxes, with a picture of the iPad taking up the majority of the top, and it’s a bigger white box to accommodate the size. Inside, you will find the following items:
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Box content

USB-C to USB-C cable
20W charger
User guide
SIM ejector pin
Apple sticker
The iPad 10th Gen itself

We also got ourselves an official Apple Magic Keyboard Folio since we needed a protective case and a keyboard will come in handy. We also have the Apple Pencil 2nd Gen but more on that later.
Specifications

CPU
Apple A14 Bionic
2 x Firestorm @ up to 3GHz (Performance cores)
4 x Icestorm @ up to 1.8GHz (Efficient cores)
5nm TSMC

GPU
5-core GPU

Memory
4GB RAM

Storage
256GB

Display
10.9″ 2360 x 1640 Liquid Retina IPS LCD display
Scratch-resistant glass and oleophobic coating, 500 nits typical brightness

Audio
Stereo speakers

Camera
12MP f/1.8 wide angle, PDAF
Video: Up to 4K60p, 1080p240 slow-mo

Selfie camera
12MP f/2.4 122˚ ultrawide angle with HDR
Video: Up to 1080p60, gyro EIS

Connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, dual-band Wi-Fi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
USB-C 2.0

Software
iPadOS 16.1

Battery
28.6Whr Li-Ion
20W charger
USB PD 2.0

Dimensions
248.6 x 179.5 x 7 mm

Weight
477 to 481g

Performance
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Geekbench 5
Starting off our benchmarks with Geekbench 5, the iPad 10th Gen is using the older Apple A14 Bionic chip but it still manages to unleash flagship-level performance, being the fourth highest scoring device in our list, practically surpassing all Android devices in it.

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Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Antutu v9
In Antutu v9, the iPad 10th Gen managed a score of 738,076, putting it below the iPhone 13 and 14 series we’ve reviewed before but that shouldn’t be a surprise since it’s using an older chip. Regardless, it’s still plenty of firepower, that’s for sure.
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – 3DMark Wild Life
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – 3DMark Wild Life
Lastly in 3DMark, it came close to achieving 60FPS, reaching 52FPS, at its resolution in Wild Life Unlimited. This is great given its hardware. For those of you who are wondering, it managed to get a stability rate of 80.6% in the stress test, which means the performance can sustain pretty well over a long period of time for the most part. In Wild Life Extreme, the FPS is very low, at 14.1FPS, but that’s expected given how intensive the test is.
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Battery life
As for battery life, the Apple iPad 10th Gen has a solid showing both in terms of runtime and standby. With a screen-on time of 4 hours and 2 minutes (mostly playing mobile games), it went from 100% to 9% over the course of 53 hours since it was charged last. If it had adaptive refresh rate, I foresee lasting even longer but as it is, it certainly is impressive.
Camera

Typically with tablets, I would skip out on talking about the camera since no one really uses it (except maybe kids). I just had to point out because of how surprised I am by it. The rear camera isn’t what I would call flagship-class by any means, maybe if it’s a flagship from 5-6 years ago, but it’s still capable of capturing images relatively well with decent dynamic range, detail, and colours. It’s biggest weakness is how grainy photos can be, which is forgivable since it’s a tablet.

The biggest point of upgrade here is the front camera, which has moved towards the center, giving a more ideal position when used for video calls. Furthermore, the quality is actually pretty good for video calls, with the screen smartly brightening up to act as lighting for improved video quality. I still wouldn’t use it for photos, but it’s more than enough for those working away from the office, for online learning, or just to have fun with friends in calls.
The Good
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review
There are a lot of good things to talk about with the iPad 10th Gen. For starters, the redesigned look is certainly sleeker and cleaner thanks to its slimmer body and more-rounded edges, making it look more akin to an iPad Pro. While the bezels aren’t ultrathin by any means, it did get thinner, which is always a plus.
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Display
Speaking of bezels, it’s worth pointing out that the screen itself is bigger, at 10.9-inches compared to the previous gen’s 10.2-inches. It’s also capable of showing nice colours with relatively vivid details despite not using their top-of-the-line display like the Pro model. You can make out small details like water droplets, bits of grass and more on HD videos with ease. I do have some complaints about it but that will be saved for a later section.
For those of you who want internet access wherever you go, you would typically go for the cellular model. I’m happy to say that this iPad comes with 5G support, so you can go beyond 4G LTE. Sure, many of us have yet to move to this new standard but that just means that you are futureproofed on this end and not miss out on significantly higher speeds somewhere down the road.
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Apple Magic Keyboard Folio
While the A14 Bionic chip isn’t nearly as fast as the Apple M1 or M2 chip, the performance is great for this type of device. This is thanks to iPadOS 16, with the most of the apps being optimized well. You can run multiple apps at once split across the screen, move from one mobile game to another, and it runs pretty well. You can also take different elements, like pictures, from one window and put it to another window, further encouraging multitasking. You can customize different split-screen modes and configure your toolbar layout for a more seamless experience.
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Typing speed
Paired together with the optional Magic Keyboard Folio and you get to experience the convenience of a tablet with multitasking capabilities close to a laptop. The keyboard has a very short 1mm travel distance with decent tactility, snaps to the iPad with ease while the stand ensures that it doesn’t suddenly slip off on the surface its placed on. It’s still rather stable when using it on my lap. I get about 96WPM on MonkeyType, which is only about 10% slower than on my desktop mechanical keyboard.
If you just want to watch videos or play games, you can easily remove the keyboard and still have the stand as the rear case and the keyboard are attached separately in a magnetic fashion. Don’t get me wrong, if you want to multitask hard, a laptop / MacBook is still the way to go but if you only run a few apps / windows at once, the iPad might be the better choice. Just take the time to learn all the function keys, where the F1 to F12 keys are usually at, and you will have a much better time with it.
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Volume rockers
One interesting thing about this iPad is the volume rocker. The functions of the two buttons can interchange depending on your viewing orientation. In other words, if you were to watch a video and then decide to turn it upside down for whatever reason, volume up and volume down functions will be switched. This is a great touch by Apple as it encourages versatility in its usage and minimizes confusion as to which button is for what.
Lastly, the use of USB-C is always a great move. Given that more and more devices are using this standard, it means that users don’t have to swap out their cables / chargers just to cater to the iPad. This can easily fit into your ecosystem of devices without issues. The fact that they still included a charger with this is also a plus. Hopefully, we’ll get to see the iPhone make the transition soon as well.
The Bad
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review
As much as there are good things about the iPad 10th Gen, there are also a number of drawbacks to consider. For starters, while I’m generally pleased with the screen, it is rather reflective and the brightness is on the lower side. At just 500 nits peak brightness, you might have issues using it under bright sunlight. Furthermore, the lack of adaptive refresh rate / ProMotion display, means you don’t get that buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate and miss out on further battery savings.
While the lack of a headphone jack is becoming the norm nowadays, I was hoping this iPad would at least retain its inclusion. If you want to use external speakers or have a private listening experience, you will either need to use an adapter, a USB-C headset, or a wireless one.
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Magnetic attachment
For our unit, we did opt to get an Apple Pencil to see what all the hype is about but unfortunately, we did have a number of issues with it. For starters, when used in tandem with the Magic Keyboard Folio, you don’t really have a place to put it as the magnetic attachment has been taken up. Placing it anywhere but there will result in it falling off rather easily. As such, you will need to buy a separate sling that attaches to the case unless you don’t mind carrying it in your pocket.
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Apple Pencil
Then, we have the fact that the Apple Pencil still uses Lightning, so it doesn’t pair well with this iPad given the USB-C port. You will need to use an adapter to pair it to the iPad, use it, and subsequently charge it. You can also charge it with an iPhone if you’re using one but that’s not exactly the most convenient way of going about things. This makes me think there will be a new USB-C Apple Pencil coming next year.
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Split window, drawing and browser
And then lastly for the Apple Pencil, there is a noticeable delay when writing anything on the iPad 10th Gen. It works fine but that delay can make it feel awkward and unintuitive, and I’m personally unsure what they could do to remedy this. Perhaps a software update or an upgrade for the Pencil itself but as of now, I can’t quite recommend it with this specific iPad.
While I did praise its multitasking capabilities, especially when used with the keyboard, the lack of Stage Manager here is a bit of a missed opportunity. This means you don’t have the ability to adjust display scaling to see more screens at smaller sizes and seeing your recently used apps on the left side. It’s different from the standard taskbar on the bottom and while I wouldn’t call it a dealbreaker, it’s at least worth pointing out. Perhaps a future update will change that.
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review – Langrisser SEA
For a lot of products, the lowest storage option available is usually a satisfactory amount for most people but in the case of the iPad 10th Gen, that isn’t the case. Starting out at 64GB, it’s definitely quick to fill up so you’d definitely need a iCloud+ subscription, but even that isn’t exactly ideal. While going for Wi-Fi only is a viable option, you should definitely go for the 256GB one unless you’re a really light user.
Lastly, while this model does bring a lot to the table, it unsurprisingly means you have to pay more for it. The 9th Gen starts and maxes out at RM1,599 and RM2,999 whereas the 10th Gen starts at RM2,099 and RM3,599. That is a noticeable amount more to fork out for it across its entire range.
iPad 10th Gen Verdict
Apple iPad 10th Gen Review
The Apple iPad 10th Gen has a lot to offer, including features found on the Pro models, and it does so relatively well. It’s even better when used together with the Apple Magic Keyboard Folio. Whether it’s worth it for you or not is dependent on whether its use case is relevant to you or not as the 9th Gen might be able to do it just as well but at its current state, I wouldn’t recommend artists to buy this with the Apple Pencil to do their work.
At the end of our iPad 10th Gen review, I award this smartphone with our Silver Pokdeward.

For the next year or so, I will be using this iPad instead of my usual work laptop to see how viable it is compared to a conventional laptop. You might hear from me again about this somewhere down the road. In the meantime, check out our review of the iPhone 14 Pro by clicking right here.
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