Samsung Members Can Dine In The Sky – Right In The Heart Of Kuala Lumpur!

Samsung has announce that they are giving a chance to their Samsung Members a chance to win an opportunity for an extravagant Dinner In The Sky experience, right in the middle of Kuala Lumpur.
Dinner In The Sky For Samsung Members
Imagine yourself being suspended at a height of 150ft, all this while enjoying a three course meal accompanied by the person of your choice, and surrounded by a perspective of the cityscape.
How do you ask? Well all you have to do is snap a picture and upload a photo of yourself enjoying a coupon from Samsung Members and you’ll be in the run to win a pair of the special dining experience. Straightforward enough?

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The contest will run from now until the 29th of April 2018, which you can participate by following these simple steps;

Step 1: Select and redeem an ‘On-The-Spot Coupon
Step 2: Take a creative photo of yourself enjoying the coupon
Step 3: Upload the photo onto the Samsung Members contest card
Step 4: Await for the announcement of winners

If you would like to know and learn more on the contest itself, you can click here to go to Samsung’s official website to find out.
Samsung Members is an all-in-one app that allows Galaxy users to fully utilize their device. The app is available to download from Galaxy Apps and also Google Play Store.
Pokdepinion: Well if you’re a Samsung user, you might as well utilize your coupons and try to win these unique chance to dine sky-high in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. That being said, if it was me, I would probably be insecure knowing the fact that i’m above 150ft from the ground. Maybe that’s just me. What do you think? Would you fancy yourself to dine there? As usual, let us know in the comment section down below!
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Here are the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards and their prices in Malaysia

NVIDIA has just announced their GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, and as usual, we won’t get the Founders Edition here. If you are interested to see what you are missing out on, you can check out our review of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition. But it’s okay, as we have plenty of cards to choose from from NVIDIA’s partners, and here we will put them all in one place to help you make a better choice.
We will also be going by brand for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, as each brand is bringing in a number of offerings. In any case, here are the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards in Malaysia and their prices as well as their specifications.
ASUS – from RM2299
ASUS DUAL GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition
ASUS lets you choose from three different models, with them offering ROG Strix, TUF Gaming and DUAL flavors for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. Interestingly enough, ASUS Malaysia will only be bringing in the OC Edition this time around, with prices starting from RM2299, which is a good RM400 lower than the starting price of their GeForce RTX 3070 cards.

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ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition
The higher end actually sees a bigger reduction of RM700 each for the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 Ti versus their GeForce RTX 3070 counterparts. Given that the performance gap is relatively small, those who prefer the aesthetic of the premium cards can probably safely opt for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti versions instead of the pricier cards.
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition
There’s also the additional benefit of the ASUS DUAL and TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards from ASUS only requiring one 8-pin PCIe power connector. Meanwhile the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition still needs two power connectors to squeeze the maximum performance out of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.
ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Series Specs

ASUS DUAL GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition
ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC Edition

GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (GA104)
Samsung 8N

Clocks
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1710MHz (+45MHz over FE)
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1755MHz (+90MHz over FE)
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1860MHz (+195MHz over FE)

Cores
4864 CUDA cores
152 Tensor Cores
38 RT Cores

Memory
8GB GDDR6

Memory speed
14Gbps

Memory bus
256-bit

Display outputs
3 x DisplayPort 1.4a
2 x HDMI 2.1

Power connectors
1 x 8-pin
1 x 8-pin
2 x 8-pin

Dimensions
26.7 x 13.5 x 5.2 cm
30.1 x 14.3 x 5.4 cm
31.85 x 14.01 x 5.78 cm

Warranty
3+1 year warranty

Price
RM2299
RM2499
RM2649

GIGABYTE – from RM1969
          GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti EAGLE
GIGABYTE offers a wide spread of price points, ranging from RM1969 to RM2569. The most affordable one sports reference clocks, and then at the other end of the spectrum, we have the AORUS GeForce RTX 3060 Ti MASTER that sports a 1800MHz boost clock. GIGABYTE saw it fit to lob off a fan from their GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Eagle cards, while still using a massive 4-slot cooler on their AORUS GeForce RTX 3060 Ti MASTER card. I guess the two-fan designs are great if you plan on using it in a more compact build.
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming OC
GIGABYTE also dropped the extension block from their lineup of GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards, that made cable management significantly easier by putting the power connectors at the end of the graphics card. I guess certain cost saving measures had to be taken to offer these cards at more competitive price points. On the plus side, the backplate cutout is much larger now, which will allow for better airflow through it than on their GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 cards.
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Series Specs

GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Eagle
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Eagle OC
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming OC
GIGABYTE AORUS GeForce RTX 3060 Ti MASTER

GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (GA104)
Samsung 8N

Clocks
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1665MHz
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1695MHz (+30MHz over FE)
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1740MHz (+75MHz over FE)
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1800MHz (+135MHz over FE)

Cores
4864 CUDA cores
152 Tensor Cores
38 RT Cores

Memory
8GB GDDR6

Memory speed
14Gbps

Memory bus
256-bit

Display outputs
2 x DisplayPort 1.4a
2 x HDMI 2.1
3 x DisplayPort 1.4a
2 x HDMI 2.1
1 x HDMI 2.0

Power connectors
1 x 8-pin PCIe
1 x 8-pin PCIe
1 x 8-pin
1 x 8-pin + 1 x 6-pin

Dimensions
24.2 x 12.4 x 4.1 cm
24.2 x 12.4 x 4.1 cm
28.2 x 11.7 x 4.1 cm
29 x 13.1 x 6 cm

Warranty
3 year warranty
4 year warranty
4 year warranty

Price
RM1969
RM2179
RM2289
RM2569

[UPDATE 6.00pm 2/12/2020 – added ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards]
ZOTAC – from RM1899

ZOTAC has unveiled their GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards, and it appears that they will only offer two-fan designs for now. Interestingly, ZOTAC are using a new cooler here that’s slightly smaller than the GeForce RTX 3070 Twin Edge cards. I do think that it looks better as the two fans are now the same size, instead of being asymmetrical. Overall, the card is slimmer, shorter and thinner too, which bodes well for those who want to cram this into their next ITX build.
ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Series Specs

ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin Edge
ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin Edge OC

GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (GA104)
Samsung 8N

Clocks
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1665MHz
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1695MHz (+30MHz over FE)

Cores
4864 CUDA cores
152 Tensor Cores
38 RT Cores

Memory
8GB GDDR6

Memory speed
14Gbps

Memory bus
256-bit

Display outputs
3 x DisplayPort 1.4a
1 x HDMI 2.1

Power connectors
1 x 8-pin PCIe
1 x 8-pin PCIe

Dimensions
22.1 x 11.6 x 3.8 cm

Warranty
5 year warranty

Price
RM1899
RM1999

[UPDATE 10.00pm 2/12/2020 – added MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards]
MSI – from RM1880
MSI appears to be the first vendor to offer the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti at the RM1880 MSRP NVIDIA has set for the GPU in Malaysia. The card to hit that RM1880 price point is the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti TWIN FAN OC.
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin Fan OC
It is quite amazing for MSI to be able to hit NVIDIA’s MSRP while offering an OC-ed GPU, although it is quite apparent where MSI made up the savings. The cooler is a pretty basic two-heatpipe, two-fan design with a simple plastic shroud and backplate. Still, I guess it would be perfect for gamers who are more focused on the performance that the card brings than the aesthetics.
          MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO            MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti VENTUS 2X OC
For those who prefer a flashier looking card, MSI also offers the VENTUS 2X OC, VENTUS 3X OC and GAMING X TRIO cards. These cards are a bit more expensive, although I am pretty sure that some would be willing to shell out a bit more for the better coolers.
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti VENTUS 3X OC
It is probably also worth mentioning that MSI is using a slightly 10mm thinner cooler for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti VENTUS 3X OC versus the one they slapped onto the GeForce RTX 3070 VENTUS 3X OC, while also redesigning the backplate for what looks like better support. The MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti VENTUS 2X OC and MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO shares their cooler designs with their GeForce RTX 3070 counterparts.
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Series Specs

MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin Fan OC
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti VENTUS 2X OC
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti VENTUS 3X OC
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GAMING X TRIO OC

GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (GA104)
Samsung 8N

Clocks
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1695MHz (+30MHz over FE)
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1695MHz (+30MHz over FE)
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1695MHz (+30MHz over FE)
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1830MHz (+165MHz over FE)

Cores
4864 CUDA cores
152 Tensor Cores
38 RT Cores

Memory
8GB GDDR6

Memory speed
14Gbps

Memory bus
256-bit

Display outputs
3 x DisplayPort 1.4a
1 x HDMI 2.1

Power connectors
1 x 8-pin PCIe
1 x 8-pin PCIe
1 x 8-pin
2 x 8-pin

Dimensions
23.0 x 11.5 x 4.3 cm
23.2 x 12.4 x 5.2 cm
31.6 x 12.0 x 4.2 cm
32.3 x 14.0 x 5.6 cm

Warranty
3 year warranty

Price
RM1880
RM2099
RM2199
RM2299

[UPDATE 5.00pm 3/12/2020 – added COLORFUL GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards]
Colorful – from RM2099
Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Ti W OC-V
Colorful is first to the line with a white GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, with the Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ultra W OC-V. It’s a pretty beefy card that comes in at around 2.7 slots, and sports a triple fan cooler. Colorful appears to be pushing the limits of the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPU here, with a TGP of 240W, a good 40W over the reference 200W TGP. Boost clocks are set to the reference 1665MHz, but there’s a one-key OC that will bring the boost up to 1770MHz.
          Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Ti OC-V            Colorful GeForce RTX 3060 Ti NB-V
If you fancy a black version, it is also available as the Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ultra OC-V. Colorful is also making the more affordable GeForce RTX 3060 Ti NB-V available, with this card not coming with a one-key OC feature.
Colorful GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Series Specs

Colorful GeForce RTX 3060 Ti NB-V
Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ultra OC-V / Ultra W OC-V

GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (GA104)
Samsung 8N

Clocks
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1665MHz
Base clock: 1410MHz
Boost clock: 1665MHz

Cores
4864 CUDA cores
152 Tensor Cores
38 RT Cores

Memory
8GB GDDR6

Memory speed
14Gbps

Memory bus
256-bit

Display outputs
3 x DisplayPort 1.4a
1 x HDMI 2.1

Power connectors
1 x 8-pin PCIe
2 x 8-pin PCIe

Dimensions
31.0 x 13.0 x 5.3 cm
31.0 x 13.2 x 5.6 cm

Warranty
3 year warranty

Price
RM1899
RM2099

The prices listed above are each card’s respective MSRP at launch. We will be updating this article as and when we get more information about the other cards that are announced in Malaysia, so stay tuned!
If you want to check out the launch MSRP of the other cards in Malaysia, you can head on to the links below:

Here are the GeForce RTX 3090 cards and their prices in Malaysia
Here are the GeForce RTX 3080 cards and their prices in Malaysia
Here are the GeForce RTX 3070 cards and their prices in Malaysia
Here are the GeForce RTX 3060 cards and their prices in Malaysia

Pokdepinion: The premium GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards are close to the cheaper GeForce RTX 3070 cards in terms of pricing, but at least this time the gap in performance isn’t as huge as the one between GeForce RTX 3070 and GeForce RTX 3080…
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Blizzard May Be Adding Cross-Play For Diablo 3 on Console

Cross-play has been a rather hot topic for the past few months, especially when it’s related to Fortnite and the PlayStation 4. It appears that another major game may see cross-play being implemented, and it will Diablo 3 from the Blizzard camp.
According to a report on Business Insider, a Blizzard rep has told them that cross-play is “a matter of when, not if”. With Diablo 3 coming to the Nintendo Switch this November and the fact that it’s available on a number of platforms today would definitely make it more viable for gamers to jump back in as it affords them the flexibility of playing in whatever platform they’re most comfortable with / currently own.

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However, it’s also worth noting that there was no mention of PC being included in that cross-play feature for Diablo 3, which would suggest that it may be limited to just the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch. It’s also worth noting that there are claims of the developers working with partners at Sony and Microsoft to enable the feature so they can play together with the Nintendo Switch.
With that being said, do take this piece of information with a grain of salt as this is not an official announcement by Blizzard. It will only be considered true when they announce it first hand so for now, let’s just hope for the best from this matter.
Source: Business Insider
Pokdepinion: I would certainly love to play the game again, especially on the Nintendo Switch, so I can just conveniently game with friends without being stuck in front of my computer.
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Qualcomm Settles Dispute With Apple — Both Drop Charges Together

It seems that the Qualcomm and Apple has settled their dispute, where in a San Diego courthouse, both of them released a joint press release revealing the details of their agreements to each other.
According to the press release, it involves a payment from Apple to be made to Qualcomm for an undisclosed fee, and a six-year agreement, which is effective as of April 2019 (with the option of a two-year extension).
Today, our innovations are the foundation for life-changing products, experiences, and industries. As we lead the world to 5G, we envision this next big change in cellular technology spurring a new era of intelligent, connected devices and enabling new opportunities in connected cars, remote delivery of health care services, and the IoT – including smart cities, smart homes, and wearables.
The whole situation rose back when when Apple filed a report against Qualcomm, claiming that they were charging excessive royalties. Following that, the chipmaker company then sued Apple for infringing on other patents due to a power management feature embedded in iOS, which led to the banning of iPhones in several countries.

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The news that they have settled their differences could mean that Apple may be on their way to feature 5G modems in their future iPhones.
Pokdepinion: I guess it’s great news..? I wonder how long will the peace last between them…
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New HUAWEI Mobile OS May Be Called Ark OS Instead

It’s no secret that HUAWEI has been working on their own mobile operating system as an alternative to the Android OS. At the moment, we know of it as Hongmeng OS but as it turns out, we might know a possible name for it when it’s released for real.
On 24th May 2019, the folks over at HUAWEI have trademarked a few names with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Those three names are HUAWEI ARK OS, HUAWEI ARK, ARK, and ARK OS.

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While this is no guarantee that it will indeed be called Ark OS, there is a good chance that might be the case. After all, the company had to speed up the development process due to the recent string of political events which affected them.
The company is currently the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world and is en route to dethroning Samsung next year. These issues will certainly be a setback but to the least, it won’t cause doom for them.
For now, there’s still plenty of things we’d like to know, especially with US President Donald Trump now open to talks with China. Hopefully, something good will come out of it that will be beneficial not just for the company but also the consumers worldwide.
Source: Android Headlines
Pokdepinion: I really hope that is the name they’ve chosen for it because I really love that name. It’s quite catchy, and it does feel like a symbol of a voyage to a new world.
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CES 2020: Sony Unveils New 8K LED, 4K OLED, and 4K LED TV Lineup

CES is known for the big boys busting out their biggest arsenal coming to consumers, and TVs certainly get some special attention. Sony isn’t looking to slow down in that area as they have unveiled their newest TV lineup that will suit a variety of consumers and for next-gen gaming.
To start things off, we have the Sony Master Series A9S 48-inch OLED TV. It is of the more smaller offerings, as OLED TVs generally go for at least 55-inches, but it does come with some good features. This includes the Triluminos display, X1 Ultimate Picture Processor, X-Motion Clarity, Dolby Vision HDR, and a new Ambient Optimization feature which utilizes sensors to adjust picture and sounds settings in order to give the best experience possible.
There’s also some upgrades in the software department as it will be running on Android 9.0 Pie right out of the box, supports Amazon Alexa, and will have support for Apple Homekit and AirPlay 2. The Acoustic Surface Audio technology, which supplies sound using the screen itself, is making a return and this time with Dolby Atmos support.

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The new Sony TV lineup at CES 2020 has a noticeable new design element. It’s called Immersive Edge, which refers to a new “noiseless” stand positioned at the edges of the screen to reduce its visibility. All the TVs have also been confirmed to have support for Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and AirPlay 2.
It’s worth noting that the Sony X950H has the X-Wide Angle technology for its 55 and 65-inch screen variants. Previously, it was only available in the larger sizes, and it’s said to improve colour and brightness for off-angle viewing.
For a more detailed breakdown of each Sony TV unveiled at CES 2020, check it out right below here:
Z8H 8K LED TV

75″ and 85″ display8K resolutionPicture Processor X1 UltimateFull-array LED backlightingFrame-Tweeter: A new feature within Sony’s Sound-From-Picture Reality portfolio, the entire frame of the Z8H is used as a tweeter, which Sony claims will enhance the perception that the sound is coming directly from the on-screen imageNew backlit remoteTwo-position stand for those with smaller TV cabinetsNew Ambient OptimizationTriluminos displayDolby Vision/Atmos supportHands-free capabilitiesApple AirPlay 2, HomeKit, compatible with Amazon Alexa-enabled devices and smart speakersAndroid 9.0 PieCan run on 4K 120 FPS
Master Series A9S 4K OLED TV
48″ displaySmall and central aluminum standMaster Series picture qualityPicture Processor X1 UltimatePixel Contrast BoosterAcoustic Surface AudioX-Motion ClarityNew Ambient OptimizationTriluminos DisplayApple AirPlay 2, HomeKit, compatible with Amazon Alexa-enabled devices and smart speakersAndroid 9.0 Pie
A8H 4K OLED TV

55″ and 65″ displayPicture Processor X1 UltimatePixel Contrast Booster, which enriches colors at high brightnessX-Motion Clarity technology (new to Sony’s OLED TVs)Two subwoofers with Acoustic Surface AudioNew Dolby Atmos supportDolby Vision HDRNew Ambient OptimizationTriluminos displayApple AirPlay 2, HomeKit, support for Amazon Alexa-enabled devices and smart speakersAndroid 9.0 Pie
X90H 4K LED TV

49″, 55″, 65″, 75″, and 85″ displayPicture Processor X1 UltimateFull-array LED backlightingX-Wide Angle technology (except 49″ model)Improved Acoustic Multi-Audio, Sound-from-Picture Reality with bi-amp system, which controls the main speaker and invisible tweeter separately, and X-Balanced Speaker, a new shaped speaker unitNew Ambient OptimizationTriluminos DisplayDolby Vision / Atmos supportHands-free capabilitiesApple AirPlay 2, HomeKit, compatible with Amazon Alexa-enabled devices and smart speakersAndroid 9.0 Pie
X80H 4K LED TV

49″, 55″, 65″, and 75″ display 4K HDR Processor X1X-Balanced Speaker, a new speaker unit that packs clear sound in a slim design (55” and above)Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos compatibleBlade stand and hairline finish bezelApple AirPlay 2, HomeKit, compatible with Amazon Alexa-enabled devices and smart speakersAndroid 9.0 PieCan run on 4K 120 FPS
The prices and availability aren’t available yet. It’s expected to be revealed later in Spring 2020.
Pokdepinion: Personally curious to see how much they will price the Master Series A9S given the size. It might just be the most affordable 4K OLED TV around.
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Acer Swift Series: The Pathway from Education to Professional Life

Unlike smartphones, we tend to use laptops for a far longer time, up to several years even. As such, many students who have graduated will move forward with their professional career with the same laptop that they used for studies, and it doesn’t transition well. If you ever need a laptop that can work will in both education and professional work, look no further than the Acer Swift series.
Performance / Workload

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If you are the kind of person who values performance over anything else as you need your machine to handle all the workload that education and professional life can bring, look no further than the Acer Swift 3X. It’s powered by the Intel Core i7-1165G7 with Intel Iris Xe MAX graphics, both of which work in tandem to provide you all the power you need to do more resource-intensive tasks like video encoding, photo editing, rendering, and other creative-based tasks.
Alternatively, you can also go for the Acer Swift 5 which will use an NVIDIA GeForce MX350 instead. Either way you go, it will have necessary strength for you to get through anything tossed your way, and you can even do some light gaming while you’re at it. All of this while still retaining a form factor that’s easy and convenient to bring around. Speaking of which, that brings us to our next point.
Ultraportable Acer Swift Laptops

Typically with laptops, it’s a toss up between portability and performance as you can’t have both. That’s not necessarily the case with the Acer Swift series of laptops. If you value portability over anything else, the Acer Swift 7 is their lightest laptop yet at just 890g and 9.95mm thin. It’s so light and takes up so little space in your bag, you could easily forget that it’s there with you.
With that being said, even the heaviest laptop in the series isn’t actually heavy as the Acer Swift 3X weighs a mere 1.4kg while packing all the aforementioned power from our previous point. We have come to a point where you don’t need to sacrifice one for the other anymore, but it’s also dependent on your preferences in a laptop.
Crystal Eye Webcam

With there being an emphasis on going digital, online classes and conference calls have further grown in importance compared to a standard class and real-life meetings. However, not everyone is equipped with the necessary tools to make it truly work without any unnecessary stress. The Acer Swift series of laptops come with the Crystal Eye Webcam to help with that.
For those of you who aren’t aware, the Crystal Eye Webcam is a powerful software that can let you make full use of your webcam. You can use it to take pictures, record videos, make presentations, and more. It even has a motion sensing feature that can help you take photos and even focus on moving objects properly. If you need something to take your video conferencing or e-learning experience to the next level, this will be just the tool you need.
All-Day Battery Life

When you have a rather active lifestyle, battery life is especially important as you might not be able to afford the time to be glued to a wall outlet. The newer models of the Acer Swift series of laptops powered by the new 11th Core Intel Core CPU have very extensive battery life that can easily last you a whole day out. This is in part due to it being built on the Intel Evo platform.
The Intel Evo platform requires laptops to adhere to a certain standard based on a variety of factors that will fit in with today’s fast-paced lifestyle. One of those key factors is to have 9 or more hours of battery life on Full HD displays. Another factor to that is that it will need to be able to provide at least 4 hours of battery life in just a 30-minute charging period as well. This way, you know for sure that these laptops can last long while you’re away from a charger.
Wi-Fi 6

The Intel Evo platform isn’t just focused on battery life as wireless connectivity is also a huge focus point. As such, the newer Acer Swift series of laptops come with Intel Wi-Fi 6 (GIG+) built in. It’s better than today’s mainstream standard, Wi-Fi 5, as you can theoretically enjoy up to 3 times faster internet along with improved wireless consistency.
This makes it even more ideal for live streaming and video conferencing as those take up extra bandwidth. Moreover, you are futureproofed on that end when the Wi-Fi 6 standard slowly becomes the norm, so you have less needs to upgrade just to enjoy better internet connectivity somewhere down the road.
Microsoft Office Pre-Installed

Lastly, the holy grail of productivity suites regardless of whether you’re in the office at work or still studying, Microsoft Office. From Word documents to those pesky Excel spreadsheets, there’s no denying that it’s the gold standard for work force and education. As such, you’d be happy to know that Microsoft Office is pre-installed in every Acer Swift laptop, so you can immediately get going as soon as you get your hands on them. No unnecessary downtime or having to set it up, it’s already there for you to use.
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Samsung Galaxy Note 9 launched — Malaysian pricing and pre-order goodies CONFIRMED!

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has just been launched, alongside a few other smart devices that appeared at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2018, New York earlier. The new phablet — do we still use that word? — is really heavy on features, and might just be lighter on your wallet than anticipated.

The new Galaxy Note 9 will come with a more feature-rich S Pen, one which can double as the Ultimate Remote Control. You can use it for various purposes such as pausing or playing a video, snapping a photo or even switching through slides. Battery life is claimed to be up to 30 minutes with just a minute’s charge, and it can deliver all the functions of the previous S Pen even when the battery is dead.

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Samsung also basically just made the DeX Docking Station obsolete. The Galaxy Note 9’s DeX desktop mode doesn’t require you to invest in additional proprietary hardware. All you need is just a USB Type-C to HDMI adapter, and you are set. That might greatly boost adoption.

The battery on the Galaxy Note 9 is 4000 mAh, the biggest ever in the history of Notes. Samsung promises all-day battery life with an unspecified 10nm chipset. Considering that the Galaxy devices are usually available in both Exynos and Snapdragon variants depending on your region, we will definitely have to see if the variant here in Malaysia will deliver as promised. The Galaxy Note 9 is also optimized for extended gaming sessions with a water-carbon cooling system. Sounds really fancy, but we will have to give it a go to see if it works.

Now, the price. Contrary to previous rumors, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 isn’t really that expensive. It starts from just RM3699 for the 128GB variant, but quickly balloons to RM4599 for the 512GB version. Malaysians will get a choice of the Galaxy Note 9 in copper, blue and black.

Pre-orders start today, until 19th August, with exclusive free gifts for both variants. Interested?
Pokdepinion: The pre-order for the Galaxy Note 9 128GB seems like a steal, especially when it comes with the free Gear Sport…
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HONOR Offering More Deals This 12.12 Super Sales

HONOR is back again with more deals for the holiday season. For those who’ve been eyeing for their devices, well this might be the time to get them.
HONOR 12.12 Super Sales

On 10th of December, they’ll be hosting their Slash It sales where you can enjoy up to 15% of discount on HONOR devices that include the HONOR 10 which you can get it at just RM1,104.

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For the following day, you’ll get a chance to grab the HONOR 5X at a price of RM350 that’s been reduced by 62% off. Do note that both slots will have a limited time for purchase.
Being called HONOR 12.12 Super Sales, of course there would be a special promotion on the 12th of December as well and it runs to the 14th. You can expect deals during this period of time where with every purchase made, you will get to bring home many prizes and vouchers worth up to RM80. These deals include:

Smartphones
Promo Price
Free Gifts

HONOR 10
RM1,299

RM80 voucher
HONOR Travel Kit

HONOR V10
RM1,399

RM80 voucher
HONOR Gift Box

HONOR Play
RM1,099

RM80 Voucher
HONOR Play Cover
Protective Film

HONOR Play (Player Edition)
RM1,099

HONOR Play Cover
Protective Film
PUBG T-shirt

HONOR 8X
RM949

RM80 voucher
AM61

Other than that, there will be other activities such as the Spin & Win where you can win Touch N’ Go vouchers and Hihonor voucher up to 10% off, Mix & Match game where you can win an additional Hihonor vouchers worth RM20, and finally a social media contest.
The brand will organize a 12.12 Drop contest where you will have to share and like a post to reduce the price of Honor Play Player Edition (Black) where each share and like will reduce the price by RM0.30 and RM0.10. Once the contest ends, one lucky winner will stand a chance in purchasing the device at the reduced price.
For more details on the promo, you can check out Hihonor here.
Pokdepinion: Well they are ending the year with a big promo guys. Do check them out if you’ve been wanting an HONOR device for quite some time.
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Next Gen Kingdom Hearts Game Teased for PS5 and Xbox Series X

Recently, Dengeki published a new interview piece with the Director of Kingdom Hearts series, Tetsuya Nomura. While the focus was mostly on Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory, this also included a small teaser of a next gen Kingdom Hearts game for the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Next Gen Kingdom Hearts Game Teased

We have a special message from series director Tetsuya Nomura to celebrate the launch of #KingdomHearts Melody of Memory! pic.twitter.com/iDaZmGaeSZ
— KINGDOM HEARTS (@KINGDOMHEARTS) November 13, 2020

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One of the most notable questions asked during the interview was what kind of next gen Kingdom Hearts game is being developed for the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Tetsuya Nomura answered the question with a “hypothetically speaking”, stating it will need to be very surprising in order to compete with other next gen games.
Multiple renowned games have already been announced by famous developers. Supposing we’re making a KH game for next-gen, we’ll be announcing it after all those other big announcements. So I think we’d need to make that game very surprising, to not loose face in front of these other games. Needless to say, we never announced we’re making a KH game for PS5 or Xbox Series X, so this is just all suppositions (laughs).
Tetsuya Nomura
It’s hard to say what Tetsuya Nomura could have meant by surprising. Whether that’s a brand new feature that takes advantage of the newer console hardware, graphics, or a radical change to the game’s formula, it’s certainly one that will leave fans wondering for a long time.
This should not be taken as a confirmation that a new Kingdom Hearts game is confirmed for the PS5 and Xbox Series X as Square Enix has yet to make a formal announcement. Until that happen, nothing is considered official.
Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory is the newest game in the series, and it’s now available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Source
Pokdepinion: I hope it doesn’t take too long for the next entry in the series to launch. The gap between 2 and 3 was way too long.
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Cooler Master MH703 Gaming Earbuds review — high quality gaming audio? Check!

Introduction

We have just received Cooler Master’s latest earbuds, the Cooler Master MH703 for our testing. Cooler Master claims that it’s perfect for Nintendo Switch, but since I don’t own a Switch, I will be testing it with my smartphones. So let’s see what does the Cooler Master MH703 offer.
Unboxing

The signature grey-purple colors of Cooler Master is featured here. Great for people to immediately recognize the product on shelves.

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Cooler Master even spent on magnets for the lid, allowing you unfurl it to reveal the Cooler Master MH703 in all its glory. The image on the left does seem to hint that Cooler Master is also low-key targeting the lifestyle crowd here.

In the box is pretty much everything you need from a pair of gaming earphones. It even comes with a 3.5mm TRRS to separate microphone and stereo jacks, which is what you will need if you are using the Cooler Master MH703 with your PC. The included pouch features a stiff shell to protect it when you are carrying it around. Nice touch, very like.
Appearance

There’s a pretty cool blend of materials here. Glossy plastic on the back end, brushed aluminum and rubber stress reliefs which are connected to braided cords.

Here’s a better look at the gunmetal brushed metal finishing. It’s quite obvious from the design that the Cooler Master MH703 is designed to be worn with the cables straight down.

On the cord leading to the right earpiece, there is an in-line microphone which also doubles as a rudimentary control with just a single clicker.

The L-shaped connector is sure to have its fans, especially among mobile gamers where a straight connector would get in the way of their hands holding the device. Unless, of course, you own a ROG Phone where the 3.5mm jack can be repositioned to the side with the AeroActive cooler.

The stiff pouch has plenty of room inside, and it will fit the Cooler Master MH703 and everything it came with. It’s pretty basic, but that purple sure is eye catching!
Specifications

Earphones
Drivers:
10mm dynamic driver

Frequency response:
 20Hz – 20 kHz

Sensitivity:
100 ± 3dB

Impedance:
16 Ω

Input:
3.5mm 4-pole jack
Separate 3-pole 3.5mm jacks for microphone and audio (with adapter)

Construction:
Brushed aluminum earpieces
Silicone eartips

Weight:
14.5g

Cable:
1.3m braided cables

Microphone
Direction:
Omni-directional

Frequency response:
100 Hz – 10 kHz

Sensitivty:
-42 ± 4 dB

SNR:
58 dB

Impedance is pretty low, making it suitable for smartphones and other low-powered portable devices. The large-ish 10mm drivers are nice to see, and while driver size doesn’t directly correlate to audio quality, they usually mean that these earphones can deliver a stronger bass punch.
User Experience
The earphones are pretty easy to wear, as all you have to do is stick them into your ears. You don’t even have to go through the gymnastics that certain earphone manufacturers recommend, simply because they sound just fine without needing to be thrusted deep into your ear canals. The silicone tips are pretty supple, and is comfortable even when I wore them for nearly 2 hours straight.
While they were comfy, they weren’t exactly great at noise isolation. I could comfortably hold a conversation with my friend without having to yell at each other during quiet phases. Of course once anything starts playing on the Cooler Master MH703 it will drown out the outside noise.

The sound signature on the Cooler Master MH703 isn’t going to impress any audiophile. In fact I didn’t really enjoy listening to music on it. There is a lot of bass. Too much for my tastes, but if you are listening to tracks with a lot of thumping beats, you might actually prefer listening to them the Cooler Master MH703. The bass is quite overwhelming, and while it’s not muddy-sounding or anything, it’s not comfortable to listen to music with this much bass. But given that it’s primarily designed for gaming, let’s talk about its performance in games.
For starters, the all-important stereo separation is excellent on the Cooler Master MH703. It does not exactly have a wide soundstage, but I could easily hear my enemies’ footsteps in PUBG Mobile, contributing to an easy 11 kills in a single game. #ProudOfThat. The enhanced bass also lends itself to making gunshots sound better, which is probably one of the main things you will be hearing when gaming.

https://pokde.net/assets/uploads/2019/03/Cooler-Master-MH703-mic-test.wav
The in-line omni-directional microphone does pretty well picking up my voice, and while it did pick up some background noise like my colleague mashing away on his keyboard, it doesn’t actually get too distracting. Noisier environments will probably annoy your teammates so tread with caution.
Conclusion
For RM139, the Cooler Master MH703 is a good pair of gaming earphones. There aren’t really any major shortcomings to it, as the boosted bass while not great for music, was perfect for gaming. We can’t really count it against the Cooler Master MH703, since it is after all, a pair of gaming earbuds. Cooler Master explicitly mentioned an emphasis on high-quality gaming audio, and in my opinion, they definitely delivered on that. Kudos for Cooler Master for being honest, as we have just seen way too many gaming peripheral manufacturers boast of audiophile-grade sound and just fall flat. The Cooler Master MH703 is great for gaming, just as claimed.
Our thanks to Cooler Master Malaysia for providing us with the Cooler Master MH703 Gaming Earbuds for review.
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ROG will be using liquid metal for all their 10th Gen Intel Core laptops

We all know that liquid metal offers much better thermal conductivity than thermal paste, but the application is definitely a lot more complicated. Even for one-off applications for my personal rigs, I am quite reluctant to apply liquid metal. But ASUS ROG has found a way to automate the process to apply liquid metal and roll it out across their 2020 lineup of Intel laptops featuring the 10th Gen Intel Core processors.
ROG R&D engineers selected Thermal Grizzly’s Conductonaut for its optimal properties and designed the machine to apply it. The machine consists of a mechanical arm that wets its silicon brush in liquid metal before proceeding to “paint” the CPU die. It does exactly 17 passes, a number which was found by the engineering team to be the ideal number for optimal coverage.

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To minimize the accumulation on the edges of the processor, the brush makes contact at different points on the surface with each subsequent stroke. The die is also set into a stainless steel shim to prevent excess compound from spreading to the surrounding areas. After the initial brushing of liquid metal, a second machine injects more compound at two points on the die to ensure that there’s sufficient liquid metal for proper contact between the cooling plate and the CPU die. And to prevent any mishaps with the liquid metal seeping out and shorting out nearby components, ROG engineers designed a special barrier fitted between the heatsink. The process of applying liquid metal and the barrier are patented, recognizing the innovation that ROG is continually bringing to the gaming laptop industry.

The first “laptop” that featured liquid metal in ROG’s lineup is the ROG Mothership, and it proved really effective. ROG engineers has observed a 10-20°C reduction in temperatures depending on the CPU with the use of liquid metal. This should allow the latest 10th Gen Intel Core processors to deliver better performance via Intel Thermal Velocity Boost, as the technology relies on having thermal headroom to boost higher and maintain the clocks until it hits certain thermal thresholds.
Pokdepinion: Gotta hand it to ROG for paying so much attention just to get extra performance out of their laptops.
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Tomb Raider Reloaded is Coming to Android and iOS This February 2023

We have a new mobile game to look forward as Tomb Raider Reloaded is coming, and it features a familiar face reprising her role as Lara Croft.
Tomb Raider Reloaded

Tomb Raider Reloaded, the long-awaited roguelike mobile title, finally has a confirmed release date of 14th February 2023 for iOS and Android. It will also be available on Netflix Games, where it is included in all memberships without in-app purchases. The game will feature the return of Keeley Hawes as Lara Croft, who last played the character in 2018’s Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris.

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Originally announced in 2020 with a 2021 release window, Tomb Raider Reloaded was delayed indefinitely due to the pandemic after a less than successful soft launch in Asia. After years of silence, Crystal Dynamics and Emerald City Games have announced that it will finally launch on 14th February 2023. Players can pre-register now to receive a golden version of Lara Croft’s dual pistols at launch.
Tomb Raider Reloaded is a roguelike adventure game with a rotating schedule of events and weekly challenges. It features iconic locations from past games such as the Lost Valley, City of Vilcabamba, and St. Francis’ Folly, as well as familiar faces like Werner Von Croy, Anaya Imanu, and Winston. Most excitingly, Keeley Hawes returns as the female protagonist Lara Croft, who she previously voiced in Tomb Raider: Underworld, Tomb Raider: Legend, Guardian of Light, and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris.

In the game, players assume the role of Lara Croft as they embark on cliff-climbing and swan-driving adventures to collect the ancient Scion artifact while evading new and familiar enemies. They navigate ever-changing rooms by solving puzzles and overcoming dangerous traps. Lara can use various items found along the way, such as runes that increase her stats, run-specific boosts, XP modifiers, and manuals to unlock and upgrade outfits. Players can stack perks to enhance Lara’s abilities and craft weapons as they progress through each level.
The trailer and screenshots suggest that Tomb Raider Reloaded blends puzzle elements with a top-down shooter style, making it a perfect fit for modern rogue-like games. After being delayed for some time, Tomb Raider Reloaded will finally launch on14th February 2023 for Android, iOS, and Netflix Games.

Source
Pokdepinion: Personally, it’s a bit of an odd feeling as I don’t have any expectations for it, but I’m also curious enough to see what the game will offer. I’m definitely gonna try it out once it’s out.
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Samsung Galaxy Note 5 “SPengate”

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 has a very sleek design, with a metal frame and glass panels for both the front and rear, a stark departure from their infamous penchant for plastics. The S Pen ejection mechanism also has been improved, instead of having to dig it out with your fingernail, you just have to click it for it to self eject.
Apparently with that system, Samsung also introduced a flaw in the S Pen’s slot — you can put the stylus in backwards. While I am sure many will scoff at the idea of putting the S Pen in the wrong way, I am sure those with children will be more wary about letting their children play with their Galaxy Note 5 now.

So the S Pen slips in backwards just as easily as it does the right way. If you could get it out, you would have damaged the S Pen removal detection system, which means the phone won’t know whether the stylus is in or not. Or you could have it stuck inside. Samsung will most probably fix this flaw with a minor redesign, but for now, we hope our readers do not attempt to put their Galaxy Note 5’s stylus in backwards.

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SOURCE: Android Police

Pokdepinion: The Galaxy Note 5 is coming to Malaysia this September 3rd, and I believe it is also going to be quite a popular device. Will you be getting one? Or will this flaw affect your purchase decision?
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MSI AMD BIOS Updates Now Available — Improved Support For Ryzen XT CPUs!

The folks at MSI Malaysia has recently announced that the new and optimized Bios updates for the Ryzen 9 3900XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT and Ryzen 5 3600XT processors has been released. Of course, this update is especially for 300, 400, and 500-series motherboards.
MSI AMD BIOS update
Both Combo P1 V1 1.0.0.6 BIOS and Combo PI V2 1.0.0.2 BIOS has been released and will be made available for download in the coming days.
Here’s the key highlights from the updates:

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Support discrete graphics card identification, allowing you to successfully enter OS with AM4 CPU (without integrated graphics) and without graphics card installedSolve compatibility issues for graphics card and USB sound cardOptimized A-XMP memory functionsOptimized Bios function – MemoryOptimized FCH BCLK -related functions
You can download and install the latest BIOS through M-Flash or Bios Flashback to update your system.
For more details about the updates, you can head to the link right here.
Pokdepinion: If you’re a user of own of the series, make sure to get your BIOS updated!
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PC Gamers Reportedly Starting to Prefer AMD CPU Over Intel

It’s no surprise that AMD has been gaining favour with plenty of PC gamers across the globe. However, it’s hard to truly know the extent of it. Now, we have a more solid idea as to how much momentum the red camp is gaining.
It has been reported in a Jon Peddie Research, in association with Antikythera Intelligence and Research along with Wccftech, that 41% of candidates prefer AMD CPU over Intel. The respondents are from visitors of the website, who were asked about graphics cards, motherboards, CPU, and virtual reality.

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The survey was conducted in October 2019 and has 4,477 candidates with a total of 143,264 responses. You can read the whole report which occupied 55 pages here. Intel still has the majority but it’s interesting to see a big shift towards AMD since the introduction of the Zen architecture.
In another survey which was conducted in November, 60% of participants favoured AMD CPU over Intel in Europe. Not only was there more people preferring the red team over the blue team, it is a 50% increase for AMD compared to the past two years.
Not all surveys point in favour of the red team however. According to the Steam Hardware Survey, only 16% of candidates preferred AMD CPU while Intel holds 84%. There is a clear lack of progress here but things might change sooner or later as we are expected to see the Ryzen 4000 series CPU launching in the second half of 2020.
Source: TechAcrobat
Pokdepinion: Not really surprised that PC gamers prefer AMD. They have been going at it very aggressively and I expect it to be at their favour for a while more
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WhatsApp Disappearing Messages Now Available for Everyone With Extra Options

After a long period of testing, the WhatsApp Disappearing Messages features is finally available for everyone with some extra features. Here’s What you need to know.
WhatsApp Disappearing Messages Now Available
As we’ve previously reported, WhatsApp has been working on the Disappearing Messages feature and now, it’s available to everyone worldwide. In case you didn’t know what it is, you can set the message to delete itself after a certain period of time.

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Interestingly, there are two new duration options available for people to use; 24 hours and 90 days. If you want to make use of it, all you have to do is go to Settings > Account > Privacy > Default message timer and then select your preferred duration.
Any new messages that you send will then be automatically deleted after the selected time has elapsed. Your old messages will not be affected so if you want to remove that, it will be a different matter altogether. You can set the feature for each individual chat, with each user allowed to set it on their own, but any changes made to the setting will be notified. In groups on the other hand, it will be up to the admins on whether participants are allowed to use the feature or not.
Just be mindful that those Disappearing Messages can still be screenshotted, so it might not mean much depending on who you’re chatting with in the app. Moreover, Disappearing Messages that are forwarded to chats that have the feature disabled will not go away. Something to keep in mind if you plan on using the feature.
Source
Pokdepinion: Took them a long time to implement this. I still find it surprising that Telegram has this for ages but it took WhatsApp several years to launch it. Better late than never I suppose.
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New Weapon Coming to Fortnite – Watch The Explosive Trailer

A rather interesting piece of equipment is about to make its debut in Epic Games’ Fortnite. Check out its explosive debut in the popular battle royale game right inside.
New Weapon Coming to Fortnite: The Guided Missile Launcher

Everything you need to start your rocket riding taxi service 🚕🚀! pic.twitter.com/ZVlsfNdfha
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) March 28, 2018

It seems that Epic Games won’t stop giving us new Fortnite content anytime soon (which makes sense considering it’s been breaking records). The folks over at Epic Games has revealed a new weapon that will be coming to the game in the very near future, and it’s the Guided Missile Launcher.

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As expected, the Guided Missile Launcher seems to lock onto an enemy, and when fired will shoot the missile to make a B line straight for the enemy it locked on to. A new trailer was released which shows a cinematic of the new weapon in action. You can check out the trailer at the end of the article.
At the time of this writing, it is unknown when the Guided Missile Launcher will be making its way to the game, its rarity, or how it can be found. One thing’s for sure, it’s going to change the landscape of the game quite a bit when in use. If it’s really rare, it shouldn’t be too bad.
In other Fortnite news, a few days ago it was revealed that the majority of Epic Games’ staff was dedicated to the incredibly popular third-person shooter. If you know how many exactly and more, click here to find out.
Fortnite is currently in early access (believe it or not) and has been since last year. Its scheduled to launch later this year, and is available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC, iOS, and Android devices.
Pokdepinion: I’m gonna have so much fun with the Guided Missile Launcher. I bet a lot of Fortnite highlight videos on the internet will have that in focus for a while when it’s released.
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MSI Alpha 15 Review — ticking all the right boxes

AMD launched the Radeon RX 5500 series GPUs back in October, but while we have yet to receive the custom Radeon RX 5500 cards from any of the OEMs, the MSI Alpha 15 has already made its way to our office. This is the first Radeon RX 5500M laptop in the market, and with that, gains the honors of being the first 7nm technology gaming laptop. The partnership between AMD and MSI to birth this all-AMD laptop is apparently worthy of a whole new series, the MSI Alpha series, as well as a new logo. So, is it really that interesting? Let’s find out.
Unboxing

The packaging of the MSI Alpha 15 really isn’t that special. It arrived at our office in a regular brown box with “MSI” emblazoned on it, and in it is a laptop bag vacuum sealed for freshness and the black box here which contains the laptop and its accessories.

In the black box is the MSI Alpha 15 which also comes in black, a charger which also comes in black, as well as some documentation that comes in its own sealed package along with two screws to upgrade your storage with a SATA SSD/HDD later on.

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Appearance

If you were expecting a dragon logo to be on the lid of the MSI Alpha 15, well, you will be rather disappointed. The MSI Alpha 15, as mentioned above, is a part of the new MSI Alpha series, which sports the new logo. The design is still pretty familiar for a MSI laptop though with racing car-esque lines. It’s also worth noting that this is the only aluminium you will find on the MSI Alpha 15, with the rest of the build being made of plastic.

More than half of the bottom panel is just mesh. MSI did break up the mesh with a few support beams running across the mesh to make sure that it doesn’t collapse as soon as you lay a finger on it. You can also see the large-ish speaker ports near the front side of the laptop. I am not even kidding when I am telling you that under it lies the Giant Speaker. MSI literally calls it that.

Flipping open the MSI Alpha 15, it looks like any other of MSI’s mid-range gaming laptops. Of course, relatively slim bezels around the screen keep things looking relatively modern, but MSI still managed to cram in a webcam above the display, unlike its competition.

Separating the MSI Alpha 15 from the rest of MSI’s lineup is its gunmetal grey palm rests. I have yet to see a gunmetal grey laptop from MSI, although they do offer silver laptops in the Prestige series. There’s also a numpad here, just in case you need to do some data entry besides all the gaming this laptop is intended to do.

While it may not look all that unique now, watch this. MSI has played around with per-key RGB for longer than I can remember, and they also threw that in here. Unfortunately the phoenix emblem on the lid of the MSI Alpha 15 doesn’t light up, but that’s fine. The color is striking enough as it is. In addition to the full RGB lighting on the keyboard, there’s also lighting for the USB ports, for whatever reason.
Specifications
CPUAMD Ryzen 7 3750H @ 2.3 GHz (up to 4.0 GHz Boost), 4C/8T, 35W TDP, 12nm FinFETRAM16GB (2 x 8GB SODIMM) 2666 MHz DDR4 @ 2400 MHzGPUAMD Radeon RX Vega 10 GraphicsAMD Radeon RX 5500M 4GB GDDR6Storage512GB Samsung PM981 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD1 x SATA slot vacantSoftwareMicrosoft Windows 10 HomeAMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.30.01.48 MSI Dragon CenterSteelSeries Engine 3NahimicKiller Control CenterMSI App PlayerConnectivityRealtek RTL8822CE (WiFi 802.11ac)Bluetooth 5.01 x RJ45 LAN (Killer Ethernet E2600)3 x USB 3.01 x USB-C (USB 3.0, 5 Gbps)Display15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) 144 Hz VA, AUO B156HAN08.0, AMD Radeon FreeSync1 x HDMI 2.0 ([email protected])1 x mini-DisplayPortAudio2 x 2W speakers1 x 3.5mm headphone-out (analog/SPDIF)1 x mic-inPower180W power adapter51 WHr 6-cell Li-Ion batteryDimensions357.7 x 248 x 27.5 mmWeight2.3 kg
For a quick comparison with Intel’s offerings, the AMD Ryzen 7 3750H performs pretty similarly to the Core i5 8300H which actually offers pretty similar clock speeds. So it won’t compare directly against the six-core Core i7 parts from Intel, but its a good start for AMD.
Performance

Storage performance is just top-notch with Samsung’s top-of-the-line client NVMe SSD. You get excellent read and write speeds, and plenty of space with MSI giving you 512GB straight out of the box.

In our synthetic benchmarks we used 3DMark Time Spy, Cinebench and also Superposition. Performance is really good, and we do see the Radeon RX 5500M trounce the GeForce GTX 1650 without breaking a sweat. The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is a bit harder to beat though, at least in the benchmarks.

While in the synthetic benchmarks the MSI Alpha 15 comes up short of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, we actually see it deliver better frame rates than the ASUS TUF Gaming FX505D with a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti we previously reviewed. The Radeon RX 5500M is no beast, but when it comes to esports titles, it really has no issues at all.
For cooling, MSI is using the Cooler Boost 5 system which consists of seven heatpipes, three exahust vents and dual fans. Now this configuration proved pretty effective as I never saw the CPU hit above 80°C, and the GPU generally stayed around 65°C. We also see the CPU and GPU run at around 3.7 GHz and 1.6 GHz, respectively, which means that they are really boosting all the way to the max without running into their thermal limits. Good stuff from MSI.
In terms of battery life, I clocked 30 minutes of YouTube on just 14% charge, which is a good showing, but not exactly the best. You might want to carry a charger with you if you are planning on doing some work away from home, but it should suffice for around 3 hours of productivity before you need to plug it in.
User Experience
At over 2 kg, I wouldn’t consider the MSI Alpha 15 an exceptionally portable laptop. It’s also rather thick at 27.5mm, which further impacts its suitability as a machine to be carried everywhere you go. It’s inline with most other gaming laptops in this price range though, so I wouldn’t fuss about this.

Now while many gaming laptops in this price range struggle to even offer a high refresh rate monitor, MSI managed to cram in a 144 Hz FreeSync panel here, which will give you a much better gaming experience even when the frame rates are inconsistent.
sRGB gamut: 88.8% coverageDCI-P3 gamut: 68.6% coverageAdobe RGB gamut: 64.7%
In our tests, I found the AUO B156HAN08.0 panel to be more than sufficient for a gaming-oriented machine. Before calibration, I got a very respectable 88.8% sRGB gamut coverage, but after calibrating we do see the gamut coverage improve to an even better 96.6% sRGB, 69.6% Adobe RGB and 72.5% DCI-P3 coverage. I would consider this a pretty good display, even if you are planning on doing some graphics editing on the MSI Alpha 15 in between your gaming sessions.
Sound on the other hand, is just par for the course. They go very loud, but there isn’t much bass to note, despite the rather oversized speaker chambers that MSI threw in to the MSI Alpha 15.
Moving on, the keyboard and trackpad are decent performers. The keyboard offers short travel and a rather light actuation force, which was pleasant to type on although it could definitely do with a bit more tactility. For mousing around, the trackpad was good enough, and the separate clicker buttons is exactly as I like it. They are on the loud side though so you might want to avoid spamming them rapidly in a quiet library.

Now while the trackpad works fine, if you connect a mouse, you might find the MSI Alpha 15’s design rather problematic. On the right are two USB 3.0 ports, the SD card reader and the power input. The power connector here may get into the way if you use your mouse with your right hand like most of the people in the world, so I am really not sure why didn’t MSI think this through. The USB ports here are also all the way at the front end, which means if you try to use anything other than USB sticks or dongles you will have whatever you connected getting in the way of your mouse.

Aside from that, you get a nice array here over the left flank. Unfortunately there are no USB 3.1 10 Gbps ports anywhere to be found on this laptop, but I must commend MSI on a good job here with three USB 3.0 ports instead of cheaping out by throwing in a few USB 2.0 ports in there. Also note the gold-plated 3.5mm ports, a rarity in this price segment.

In a more thoughtful touch, MSI threw in lighting for the USB ports just to help you plug in your USB connectors properly in the dark. You only get red instead of RGB lighting here. You can, for some odd reason, set it to a flashing mode, a breathing mode or just constantly on.

Now to set the lighting effects, you will need to check out the software. MSI Gaming Center has gotten a revamp here, with a much more simple user interface. A lot of features are also missing, instead highlighting its optimization for gamers and creators with customizable profiles for each content creation app and game title. The RGB lighting configuration is also not integrated into the MSI Gaming Center, instead existing as a separate SteelSeries Engine application. And Nahimic exists separately too. Not the best arrangement, but it works.
Conclusion
There is little to complain with the MSI Alpha 15. It costs just RM4799, which I would say is really quite affordable for a laptop offering the hardware and performance that the MSI Alpha 15 does.

You get a Ryzen 7 3750H, the latest 7nm Radeon RX 5500M, a good 512GB PCIe SSD and 16GB RAM, straight out of the box. You can even upgrade it with cheap SATA SSDs to bump up the storage in case 512GB isn’t enough for you. The chassis which all of that comes in may be a point of contention, as the liberal use of plastic and bulky form factor does lessen the appeal. I must mention that while its mainly made of plastic, it is one of the most solid laptops I have played with recently. For an affordable mid-range gaming laptop, I believe the MSI Alpha 15 ticks all the right boxes as it is.

Our thanks to MSI Malaysia for sending us the MSI Alpha 15 for review.
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mxmtoon, Life Is Strange 2 Voice Actress Releases Life Is Strange: True Colors-Inspired EP

Today, mxmtoon releases her True Colors EP to coincide with the release of Life Is Strange: True Colors, one of the most successful selling games in PC history. The highly anticipated next entry of the franchise, created by Deck Nine Games and distributed by SQUARE ENIX, has created quite a stir in the gaming world. The game’s key character, Alex Chen, will have a singing voice, while mxmtoon will provide the game’s musical backdrop.

mxmtoon releases True Colors EP

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mxmtoon, a.k.a. Maia, combines two of her greatest passions: music and gaming, in this video. The artist felt an instant connection to Chen, a lesbian, 21-year-old Asian American singer who is clever and sensitive but frequently battles to navigate her own emotions, as a longstanding fan of the popular narrative adventure franchise with over 20 Million unique players over its lifespan.

The character’s similarity, which Maia describes as “eerily similar,” made the creative process go smoothly. “It was really fun,” she recalls. “I had a lot of liberty with what I wanted to write about.” The Life is Strange: True Colors EP includes a mxmtoon original, the emotional “in the darkness,” as well as two inspired renditions of Radiohead’s “Creep” and Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun.”
You can check out the ‘in the darkness’ music video below.

More details can be found on the Life is Strange website. The True Colors EP may be streamed or purchased here. Life is Strange: True Colors is available now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series S and X, Nintendo Switch and on PC.
Pokdepinion: The song sounds pretty good. Looking forward to listening to her other songs.
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The Vivo NEX offers 91.24% screen to body ratio, yet has no notch and still comes with a headphone jack!

Whoever who told you that the notch is a necessary design compromise can go eat their words now. The Vivo NEX, is what Vivo decided to call the Vivo APEX that you can buy. If the name APEX sounds familiar, that’s because it was probably one of the biggest highlights at MWC 2018, offering a FullView display sans notch. The Vivo NEX is what happens when they bring the APEX concept to the market.

Vivo’s solution to the notch is simple: a pop-up 8MP f/2.0 front camera. What about the earpiece, you ask? Well, the entire 6.59″ screen is now a speaker with Vivo’s Screen SoundCasting Technology. The fingerprint sensor is also hidden under the display. The outgoing iteration doesn’t seem to be capable of reading two fingerprints at once though, unlike the Vivo APEX they demoed. Vivo seems to be the only brand that makes smartphones with under-display fingerprint sensors, aside from HUAWEI with their uber-premium Mate RS. And what’s even better is that in their quest for the 91.24% screen-to-body ratio, they didn’t even have to remove the headphone jack! Now how cool is that?!

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Over on the back is a dual-camera setup featuring a 12MP + 5MP sensors. The 12MP sensor is of the Dual Pixel variety, most probably from Sony. It is behind a f/1.8 aperture. As usual for any flagship device in recent times, the Vivo NEX will come with bokeh enhancements along with various AI modes like AI HDR, AI Scene Recognition and AI Filters to help you take better shots.
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Capping it off is the pretty glass backs. Available in a 3D-effect Diamond Black color option or a glossy Ruby Red, these devices look pretty damn good. Not sure if you dig the bumpy back of the Diamond Black, but we surely do.
Vivo NEX Specifications

CPU/Chipset:
Snapdragon 710 (2 x Kryo 360 @ 2.2 GHz + 6 x Kryo 360 @ 1.7 GHz)

GPU:
Adreno 616

RAM:
6GB

Display:
6.59″ 19.3:9 FHD+ (2316 x 1080), SuperAMOLED display, 91.24% screen-to-body ratio

Storage:
128GB

Camera:
Main Camera(s)
12MP f/1.8 Dual Pixel + 5MP f/2.4
AI HDR, AR Emoji, Portrait Bokeh, Beauty mode, DCI-P3 color gamut
Front Camera
8MP f/2.0, Beauty mode

OS:
Funtouch OS based on Android 8.1 Oreo

Connectivity:
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz) (?)
Bluetooth 5.0 (?)
FDD-LTE (Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17)

SIM:
Dual nanoSIM

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

Weight:
199 g

Currently it is available in China, with the Snapdragon 710, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for 3898 yuan (~RM2420.18) in the Diamond Black color option. There is no stock for the Ruby Red version, yet. The Snapdragon 845 variants start from 4498 yuan (~RM2792.71), equipped with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. Going further up the ladder, you can get the Vivo NEX with 256GB of storage for 4998 yuan (~RM3103.15), but this top-tier variant can only be gotten in the shimmery Diamond Black. Both Snapdragon 845 variants are currently unavailable.

Malaysian availability it yet to be known. But considering the recent availability of the Vivo X21, we would say that there is chance we may see it made available officially here.
Pokdepinion: Well this is definitely a game changer if Vivo can bring it to more markets. To those brands that said to make more space for other components, they had to give up the headphone jack and add a notch, well, here’s to their demise.
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MSI CEO, Sheng-Chang Chiang Has Sadly Passed Away

According to reports in Taiwan, President and CEO of Micro-Star International Co., Ltd (MSI), Sheng-Chang Chiang also known as Charles Chiang has sadly passed away. 56 year old Mr Chiang is said to have died from a head injuries sustained after a fall from a building. The exact nature of his death is still unknown as of this time and is under full investigation from the police.

Sheng-Chang Chiang took over as CEO and President of MSI back in January 2019 and has been with the Taiwanese tech giant since 2001. He is most notably responsible for MSI’s turnaround in the desktop PC market, particularly with its line of motherboards and graphics cards, which had been somewhat floundering prior to Mr Chiang taking over.

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We at Pokde.net offer our sincerest condolences to Mr Chiang’s family, friends and everyone at MSI over this greatly unfortunate and tragic event. He will be sorely missed.
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Alienware and Team Liquid Brings the Good in Gaming For A Better Community

Esports has seen a huge growth with over 18.6 billion hours of content watched in 2020 and the industry expected to surpass USD $1 billion in revenue. As it grows, so will job opportunities and this doesn’t just mean players and trainers as it also counts the content creators, data analysts, social media managers, designers, and more. To help people capitalize on this and bolster the growth of Esports even further, Alienware is teaming up with Team Liquid to bring the Good in Gaming initiative.
Alienware, Team Liquid, and the Good in Gaming Initiative

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Alienware, in partnership with Team Liquid, is launching the Good in Gaming initiative. This initiative will focus on community, education, empowerment, and competition with the goal of inclusivity so everyone can feel respected and included in the gaming community. They will be offering scholarships, mentorships, and internships so people can get access to the necessary resources and connections to grow, whether it’s to be part of the action or work on the happenings behind the scenes.
This isn’t the first time Alienware and Team Liquid have banded together as previously, we saw the opening of two world-class Alienware training facilities in Utrecht, Netherlands and Los Angeles, California, USA. The idea here is to make Esports and gaming more inclusive, with everyone feeling welcomed and more respected in the gaming community. To do this, they need to create change with a positive, lasting impact. This goes in line with Dell’s strategy to make a positive social impact with their Progress Made Real plan.
In the coming months, Alienware will be announcing new programmes, online resources for aspiring Esports professionals, and tournaments that will be open to everyone. It’s their way of making a positive change in the Esports industry while also opening the door for new players, creators, accountants, lawyers, and other professionals.
Alienware has more to share on the Good in Gaming initiative in an official livestream that will be taking place on 2nd June 2021 at 3AM GMT+8, which will also involve celebrity guests, games, and more.
Source
Pokdepinion: Would definitely like to play a role in this if at all possible. Not everything about Esports has to be about competition, but a lot of people seem too focused on the competitive side.
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Netflix Launches Downloads For You — Automatically Downloads Recommended Show Plus Movies

It was three years ago that Netflix introduced Smart Downloads which allows you to download shows before you go out and enjoy them on-the-go. Now it appears that they’ve launched Downloads For You, a new feature that helps you discover your next new favourite series or movies, whether you are connected or not.
Netflix Downloads For You launched

Netflix’s Downloads For You is a new feature that automatically downloads recommended shows or movies to your mobile device based on your tastes, ranging from comedies to horror as they seek to have something new always waiting for you.

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If you are interested in the feature, there’s two steps that you need to follow:

Go to the Downloads tab on your smartphone and toggle on Downloads For You
Choose the amount of content you want downloaded to your device (1GB, 3GB, or 5GB) and click Turn On. The more space you allow, the more recommendations they will download for you

The feature is now available on Android devices globally and the company has said that they are testing it soon for iOS devices. For more of the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: Sometimes, you just don’t what to watch anymore on Netflix, there’s too much shows (at least for me). I guess if I was on a long trip but don’t like to waste data (and decide what to watch), this is kind of a neat feature to have.
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PS Plus August 2018 FREE GAMES Lineup – They’ve Definitely Upped Their Game

The official free games lineup for PS Plus this August 2018 has finally been announced, and we have quite a good selection of games this time around.
PS Plus August 2018 FREE GAMES Lineup

PlayStation Plus’ collection of free monthly games has always been one of the service’s best perks, and with summer in full swing, you’ll be able to head back to an open-world game set in the midst of history, and escape the clutches of serial killers with friends.
Sony has announced the lineup of games coming to PlayStation Plus owners for August 2018, with the highlights of this month including Mafia III and Dead by Daylight being available free to subscribers. The full list of games for PS Plus in August can be found below.

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Do take note that this is only applicable for PS Plus members in the US and EU regions. For the Asia region’s lineup, click right here.
Full Lineup for PS Plus August 2018

Mafia III, PS4
Dead by Daylight, PS4
Bound by Flame, PS3
Serious Sam 3: BFE, PS3
Draw Slasher, PS Vita
Space Hulk, PS Vita

Alongside those announced titles, Sony also detailed that a bonus PlayStation VR title will be included for subscribers in the form of the horror VR game Here They Lie, which will be available for PS Plus subscribers to download from 7th August 2018 through 2nd October 2018.
The trivia game Knowledge is Power is also being made available for PS Plus owners to add to their libraries from 7th August through 6th November 2018, which is part of Sony’s PlayLink line of titles that provides more accessible party-style games to a wider audience.
The next wave of new PlayStation Plus titles will be available starting this August 2018. For a closer look at the games in store, you can check out the video from Sony at the top of this post.
Source: Official Blog Post
Pokdepinion: Mafia III and Dead by Daylight makes August 2018’s lineup of free games that much more attractive. If you don’t own either of these games, it’s worth subscribing this month just for that.
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AMD Reclaims World’s Fastest Mobile CPU In Multicore Tests On Ryzen 9 7945HX

The battle of 16 cores versus 24 cores has given Team Red a winner.
Image: Notebookcheck
Notebookcheck has got themselves one of the first units of ASUS Zephyrus Duo 16 for them to test – and with it contains the most powerful Ryzen mobile chip to date, the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX 16-core processor. The review so far dips into CPU performance (with more to come), and it answers the hotly-contested debate of which vendor’s CPU gets the performance crown this time around.

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Based on the results posted by the website, the flagship AMD chip is within striking distance from Intel’s best offering, the Core i9-13980HX (courtesy of MSI’s flagship Titan GT77 HX laptop) in terms of single-core performance; while multicore has seen the Ryzen chip winning the competition outright with a 4-5% lead over Intel. Keep in mind though, both systems feature slightly different RAM configuration – the AMD uses DDR5-4800 whereas Intel runs on a faster DDR5-5600 modules.
The advantage is even more obvious if power consumption is accounted for: on the test, the Ryzen maxed out at 120W from the measurements whereas Intel’s Core i9 is measured consuming up to 150 watts. Should the TDP be equal, that gives the AMD chip a huge 22% lead over Intel despite the latter having 8 more cores (though they’re E-cores). The comparison to its predecessor, Ryzen 9 6900HX, simply couldn’t be any more advantageous:
Note: the original image contains typing errors – blue bar denotes previous generation Zephyrus Duo 16 running on Ryzen 9 6900HX. Image: Notebookcheck
Gaming-wise, the winner still goes to Intel with the MSI laptop netting 7% lead over the AMD-powered Zephyrus. There can be many factors in play here, especially RAM – laptops comes with many varied configurations so it’s often difficult to compare in the most apples-to-apples way. Both systems are powered by the same 175W RTX 4090, for reference. In any case, you can read the full data in detail here.
Image: Notebookcheck
Source: Videocardz | Notebookcheck
Pokdepinion: Shouldn’t come as surprising to me since the tests on desktop counterparts do show that AMD is still the more efficient part and by a substantial margin at that.
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AMD Ryzen 4000 desktop APU lineup has been leaked by Biostar

In a now amended listing of the CPUs supported by their upcoming AMD B550 motherboards, Biostar may have inadvertently revealed the upcoming AMD Ryzen 4000 series of APUs. The AMD Ryzen 4000 APUs have already enjoyed great success in the mobile segment, but the Zen 2-based APUs have yet to arrive in the desktop segment. The wait probably isn’t much longer though.
At this point it is probably worth reminding everyone that AMD is just ludicrously bad at naming their chips, so the Ryzen 4000 desktop APUs here today aren’t the Zen 3-based “Vermeer” Ryzen 4000 processors, that will succeed the current crop of Zen 2-based AMD Ryzen 3000 series processors.
There’s probably little reason for gamers to pick an APU over the Zen 2-based processors that AMD is already selling right now, but for those who don’t want to shell out the extra money for an additional GPU, these might make a lot of sense. Well, if you are interested in the AMD Ryzen 4000 desktop APUs, make your pick from the list below, which combines information from prior leaks as well:

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AMD Ryzen 4000 desktop APUs Specs

Base Clock / Boost Clock (GHz)
Cores/Threads
GPU CUs
GPU Clocks (MHz)
TDP

AMD Ryzen 7 4700G
3.6 / 4.45
8C / 16T
8
2100
65W

AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4700G
3.6 / 4.45
8C / 16T
9
2100
65W

AMD Ryzen 7 4700GE
3.1 / 4.35
8C / 16T
8
2000
35W

AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4400G
3.7 / 4.3
6C / 12T
7
1900
65W

AMD Ryzen 5 4400GE
3.3 / 4.25
6C / 12T
7
1900
35W

AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 4200G
3.8 / 4.1
4C / 8T
6
1700
65W

AMD Ryzen 3 4200GE
3.5 / 4.1
4C / 8T
6
1700
35W

Two rather important SKUs are missing from Biostar’s list but present in Igor’s Lab’s earlier leak; they are the Ryzen 5 4400G and Ryzen 3 4200G, which should be what consumers can buy, in contrast to the AMD Ryzen PRO variants which are OEM-exclusive for enterprise systems.

While the desktop variants of the Renoir APUs offer higher clocks for both the CPU and GPUs, it seems that they will be sharing the PCIe 3.0 connectivity with their mobile counterparts. No PCIe 4.0 will be available on the AMD Ryzen 4000 desktop APUs, but to be entirely honest there probably is little reason for a more budget-oriented product like these APUs to offer support for PCIe 4.0.
What would be really interesting to see is how the AMD Ryzen 7 4700G stacks up against the Ryzen 7 3700X. For starters, it boasts a slightly higher boost clock. Cache is expected to be quite significantly less on the Ryzen 4000 desktop APU parts, but how much would it affect common use case scenarios like gaming remains to be seen. Well, the rumors also hint at a launch in June 2020, which is when the AMD B550 boards will launch as well.
Source: TechRadar
Pokdepinion: An 8-core APU sounds perfect for those who need more CPU power but aren’t planning on any gaming on their systems.
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[CES 2022] 12th Gen Intel Core laptop processor lineup now split into H-series, P-series and U-series

Well, 2021 was a rather confusing year. We had way too many desktop releases from Intel, with both the 11th and 12th Gen Intel Core series being announced in the span of six months, and we also have two 11th Gen Intel Core H series. We had the usual big mobile processors, as well as the middle-of-the-road Tiger Lake H35 series, which were upscaled versions of the mobile processors. Well, this time we are probably going to be a little less confused, with there being the H-series, P-series and U-series to more clearly denote their target markets.
12th Gen Intel Core H series laptop processors — broader scaling from 35W to 65W

So one of the main differences with the Tiger Lake H35 family was that the Tiger Lake H35 series was an upscaled version of the quad-core ultra-mobile Tiger Lake processors. So while the Tiger Lake H35 made its way to gaming machines like the TUF Dash F15, it only has four cores, which is a far cry from the eight cores that the true H series can offer. Well, we will be putting that behind us with the 12th Gen Intel Core H series processors.

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The 12th Gen Intel Core H series laptop processors can be scaled from 35W to 65W, depending on the laptop vendor’s performance target. The base TDP is still at a nominal 45W, but you will essentially get into the same situation as you would face right now when shopping for a laptop with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series graphics. You will have to dive deeper into the spec sheet, or hey, read the reviews on Pokde.net, to know the CPU TDP and GPU TGP limits implemented by the OEM.
How much faster?

So with that out of the way, what about the performance? Well, Intel is claiming that the Intel Core i9-12900HK is up to 28% faster in gaming versus the Core i9-11980HK, which was already an insanely fast mobile processor for gaming. In content creation, the Core i9-12900HK is up to 44% faster in the Adobe suite. Overall, the 12th Gen Intel Core processors will represent a pretty huge upgrade from the 11th Gen Intel Core processors, as well as the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX.

Along with that, the 12th Gen Intel Core processors will come with support for the Intel Killer WiFi 6E adapters, Thunderbolt 4 and Intel Deep Link which will provide for better power sharing between CPU and GPU, as well as accelerating AI capabilities by using the combined AI chops of the CPU and GPU.
Fewer PCIe 4.0 lanes?

With the desktop 12th Gen Intel Core Alder Lake processors, Intel made a huge step forward, with PCIe 5.0 support and DDR5 support. It seems that the mobile parts will not get the PCIe 5.0 support, instead supporting just PCIe 4.0. And it seems that Intel has taken a step backwards, with there only being a total of 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes, versus the 20 that the 11th Gen Intel Core H-series offered. Making things worse is that Intel is taking away two PCIe 4.0 x4 links for storage, leaving just a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface for graphics.
While I don’t think that PCIe 4.0 x8 is enough to bottleneck even flagship desktop graphics today, it will inevitably lead some to think that they might get some extra performance out of their graphics, if only they had a full PCIe 4.0 x16 link between their CPU and graphics. Oh well. On the other hand, the 12th Gen Intel Core H-series processors will also support the full slew of memory standards, with DDR4, LPDDR4, LPDDR5 and also DDR5 support so I guess OEMs will have better flexibility when it comes to configuring the memory for their offerings.
One very interesting thing is that the entire 12th Gen Intel Core mobile processor stack will offer mostly similar capabilities. No longer will there be a disparity between the U-series and H-series processors when it comes to RAM support and connectivity options, which is really good news, especially for U-series designs.
12th Gen Intel Core P-series and U-series processors

Now let’s get into the 12th Gen Intel Core P-series and U-series. After Intel dropped the U-series suffix from their lineup starting with the 10th Gen Intel Core Ice Lake processors, it seems that it is back. Intel went with a naming that better illustrated the Iris Plus and Iris Xe graphics for Ice Lake and Tiger Lake mobile processors, but we are back again to a slightly more simplified series naming.
Now, interestingly enough, the gap between the 12th Gen Intel Core H-series and P-series is actually surprisingly small. While the 12th Gen Intel Core P-series come with a lower TDP, they are still available with up to 14-core configurations. The difference in terms of graphics capabilities is also negligible this time around, as Intel slapped 96EU iGPUs into the 12th Gen Intel Core H-series as well, unlike with the 11th Gen Intel Core mobile processors.
There isn’t much else to discuss about the 12th Gen Intel Core P-series and U-series, as you get most of the same features that we talked about in the 12th Gen Intel Core H-series section of this article, but you should expect to see them in much more portable laptops. The 12th Gen Intel Core P-series will tout a TDP of 28W, while the Intel Core U-series will be available with both 15W and 9W TDP options.
3rd Edition Intel Evo

Next up, 3rd Edition Intel Evo. Intel Evo was introduced with the 11th Gen Intel Core processors, as an evolution of Intel Athena. For the 3rd Edition, Intel is still promising the same responsiveness, battery life, instant wake and fast charging that you expect from a modern laptop, but adding on “intelligent collaboration” as one of the criteria. What’s that?
Well, essentially all laptops that meet the 3rd Edition Intel Evo specs will have to be able to deliver a great experience in video conferencing apps, like what almost everyone is using. This requires the laptops to offer fast WiFi connectivity via Intel WiFi 6E and Intel Connectivity Performance Suite technologies, background noise suppression, FHD or better cameras and more. Some of these features are optional though, so you might still see Intel Evo laptops that do not meet every spec, just like the current crop where some OEMs offer higher resolution displays, which negates Intel Evo’s battery life requirement.

This year, we will also see the 12th Gen Intel Core H series joining Intel Evo. These will only be the 35W to 45W options, and will feature Intel Arc graphics with the aforementioned Intel Deep Link tech. Intel will also require OEMs to equip these laptops with creator-oriented displays, which means that Intel Evo-certified 12th Gen Intel Core H series laptop will most probably be marketed with premium wide color gamut displays, rather than high refresh rate gaming panels.
Along with that, there’s also a new Intel Evo Foldable spec, that will allow OEMs to certify the user experience of their mobile PCs with foldable displays. Obviously foldable displays are quite new to the industry so it might help those who are shopping for one to just look out for an Intel Evo-certified foldable display, just to be on the safer side of things.
12th Gen Intel Core Laptop Processor Specs

Cores / Threads
P-core / E-core Base Clock (GHz)
P-core/ E-core Max Turbo (GHz)
Cache
Graphics
Base Power
Max Turbo Power
Intel vPro

12th Gen Intel Core H-series

Intel Core i9-12900HK
14C (6P + 8E) / 20T
2.5 / 1.8
5.0 / 3.8
24MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 1.45GHz
45W
115W
Essentials

Intel Core i9-12900H
14C (6P + 8E) / 20T
2.5 / 1.8
5.0 / 3.8
24MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 1.45GHz
45W
115W
Enterprise

Intel Core i7-12800H
14C (6P + 8E) / 20T
2.4 / 1.8
4.8 / 3.7
24MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 1.4GHz
45W
115W
Enterprise

Intel Core i7-12700H
14C (6P + 8E) / 20T
2.3 / 1.7
4.7 / 3.5
24MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 1.4GHz
45W
115W
Essentials

Intel Core i7-12650H
10C (6P + 4E) / 16T
2.3 / 1.7
4.7 / 3.5
24MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 64EU @ 1.4GHz
45W
115W
N/A

Intel Core i5-12600H
12C (4P + 8E) / 16T
2.7 / 2.0
4.5 / 3.3
18MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 80EU @ 1.4GHz
45W
95W
Enterprise

Intel Core i5-12500H
12C (4P + 8E) / 16T
2.5 / 1.8
4.5 / 3.3
18MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 80EU @ 1.3GHz
45W
95W
Essentials

Intel Core i5-12450H
8C (4P + 4E) / 12T
2.0 / 1.5
4.4 / 3.3
12MB
Intel UHD Graphics, 48EU @ 1.2GHz
45W
95W
N/A

12th Gen Intel Core P-series

Intel Core i7-1280P
14C (6P + 8E) / 20T
1.8 / 1.3
4.8 / 3.6
24MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 1.45GHz
28W
64W
Enterprise

Intel Core i7-1270P
12C (4P + 8E) / 16T
2.2 / 1.6
4.8 / 3.5
18MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 1.4GHz
28W
64W
Enterprise

Intel Core i7-1260P
12C (4P + 8E) / 16T
2.1 / 1.5
4.7 / 3.4
18MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 1.4GHz
28W
64W
Essentials

Intel Core i5-1250P
12C (4P + 8E) / 16T
1.7 / 1.2
4.4 / 3.3
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 80EU @ 1.4GHz
28W
64W
Enterprise

Intel Core i5-1240P
12C (4P + 8E) / 16T
1.7 / 1.2
4.4 / 3.3
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 80EU @ 1.3GHz
28W
64W
Essentials

Intel Core i3-1220P
10C (2P + 8E) / 12T
1.5 / 1.1
4.4 / 3.3
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 64EU @ 1.1GHz
28W
64W
N/A

12th Gen Intel Core U-series (15W)

Intel Core i7-1265U
10C (2P + 8E) / 12T
1.8 / 1.3
4.8 / 3.6
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 1.25GHz
15W
55W
Enterprise

Intel Core i7-1255U
10C (2P + 8E) / 12T
1.7 / 1.2
4.7 / 3.5
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 1.25GHz
15W
55W
Essentials

Intel Core i5-1245U
10C (2P + 8E) / 12T
1.6 / 1.2
4.4 / 3.3
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 80EU @ 1.2GHz
15W
55W
Enterprise

Intel Core i5-1235U
10C (2P + 8E) / 12T
1.3 / 0.9
4.4 / 3.3
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 80EU @ 1.2GHz
15W
55W
Essentials

Intel Core i3-1215U
6C (2P + 4E) / 8T
1.2 / 0.9
4.4 / 3.3
10MB
Intel UHD Graphics, 64EU @ 1.1GHz
15W
55W
N/A

Intel Pentium 8505
5C (1P + 4E) / 6T
1.2 / 0.9
4.4 / 3.3
8MB
Intel UHD Graphics, 48EU @ 1.1GHz
15W
55W
N/A

Intel Celeron 7305
5C (1P + 4E) / 6T
1.1 / 0.9
N/A
8MB
Intel UHD Graphics, 48EU @ 1.1GHz
15W
55W
N/A

12th Gen Intel Core U-series (9W)

Intel Core i7-1260U
10C (2P + 8E) / 12T
1.1 / 0.8
4.7 / 3.5
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 0.95GHz
9W
29W
Enterprise

Intel Core i7-1250U
10C (2P + 8E) / 12T
1.1 / 0.8
4.7 / 3.5
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 96EU @ 0.95GHz
9W
29W
Essentials

Intel Core i5-1240U
10C (2P + 8E) / 12T
1.1 / 0.8
4.4 / 3.3
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 80EU @ 0.90GHz
9W
29W
Enterprise

Intel Core i5-1230U
10C (2P + 8E) / 12T
1.0 / 0.7
4.4 / 3.3
12MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 80EU @ 0.85GHz
9W
29W
Essentials

Intel Core i3-1210U
6C (2P + 4E) / 8T
1.0 / 0.7
4.4 / 3.3
10MB
Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 64EU @ 0.95GHz
9W
29W
N/A

Intel Pentium 8500
5C (1P + 4E) / 6T
1.0 / 0.7
4.4 / 3.3
8MB
Intel UHD Graphics, 48EU @ 0.8GHz
9W
29W
N/A

Intel Celeron 7300
5C (1P + 4E) / 6T
1.0 / 0.7
N/A
8MB
Intel UHD Graphics, 48EU @ 0.8GHz
9W
29W
N/A

And in case you were wondering what’s the difference between Intel vPro Essentials and Intel vPro Enterprise:

Laptops based on the 12th Gen Intel Core mobile processors will be coming starting next month, with the 12th Gen Intel Core H-series machines to debut in February 2022, while the other 12th Gen Intel Core U-series and P-series ultraportables will arrive within the quarter.
Pokdepinion: It’s definitely interesting to see Intel use the hybrid architecture across their mobile product stack, all the way down to the Intel Celeron offerings, when the desktop parts lose E-cores starting with the Core i5 options.
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