Ratchet and Clank Getting A 60fps Patch On PlayStation 5

Insomniac Games has just revealed via their Twitter account that a new update for their 2016 hit Ratchet and Clank will be hitting PlayStation 5  sometime this coming April. The new update will enable the game to run at 60fps on the PlayStation 5 version of the game.

Ratchet & Clank (2016) will be playable in 60 FPS on PS5 after a new update in April! As part of the Play at Home campaign, download the game for free now through 3/31. #RatchetPS4https://t.co/Iw6CMNByFU pic.twitter.com/VEFiW3IMWK
— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) March 29, 2021

Ratchet and Clank is free right now for a limited time

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Ratchet and Clank is a platformer that was first released back in 2016 by Insomniac Games and is a reboot of the long-running series. The game was met with positive reviews and was released alongside an animated film adaptation of the series. Ratchet and Clank is currently available for free until 31 March through Sony’s Play at Home Initiative to encourage people to stay at home more during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more info regarding the Play at Home Initiative, you can check it out here.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the next game in the series, is one of the launch titles for the PlayStation 5 and will release on 11 June. It is not a direct sequel to the reboot but instead a continuation of Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus which was released back in 2013.
Pokdepinion: I loved the Ratchet and Clank reboot. It was a pretty fun game to play that felt a lot like the original game but at the same time different enough than the original game. Looking forward to trying the game out again when I finally get my hands on a PlayStation 5.
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NVIDIA TITAN RTX is official — costs a cool $2499 for the full Turing TU102 chip!

Thought the GeForce GTX 2080 Ti was amazing? Well, it was. The NVIDIA TITAN RTX is now officially the most powerful graphics card you can buy, and it is priced at a whopping $2499 (~RM10 406).

Powering the NVIDIA TITAN RTX is the full Turing TU102 GPU, of which a cut down version was used for the GeForce GTX 2080 Ti. Did you just pay $1200 or more for a cut down GPU? Well yeah. The full Turing TU102 chip offers 4608 CUDA cores running at 1770 MHz, as well as 72 RT Cores and 572 Tensor Cores, and a 384-bit memory interface.

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The GPU is manufactured on the same 12nm FinFET process as the other Turing GPUs, and relies on dual 8-pin PCIe power connector to feed it. It has a 280W TDP, which is the highest of the Turing GPUs at the moment. There is also a whopping 24GB GDDR6 running at 14 000 Gbps. Coupled with the wide memory interface, we are looking at 672 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

The NVIDIA TITAN RTX is of course not designed for gaming, but it is definitely capable of more gaming performance than the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Whether it can deliver a good experience in Battlefield V with all the DirectX Raytracing turned up to the nines remain to be seen, but as it stands, it looks like one amazing graphics card.
Pokdepinion: The gold color really suits a card that only the really rich can afford. As the Chinese put it, 土豪金.
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Battlefield 2042 Development May Be Facing Problems

One of the most highly anticipated games coming up is Battlefield 2042. Unfortunately, the game may be facing some development issues behind the scenes and here’s what we know thus far.
Battlefield 2042 Development Problems

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As many of you may know by now, Battlefield 2042 is supposed to have a Technical Play Test last month but it was since pushed back to this month. This was said to be done to implement cross-play functionality. Given that Hazard Zone is free to play, cross-play would be a fundamental aspect, so why was it not included from the start?
This, combined together with the fact that details surrounding the game is still scarce, seems to symbolize a messy developmental scene at EA. When compared to to the timeline leading up to the launch of its predecessor, Battlefield V, we would have already seen a couple of trailers and had a chance to play the Alpha. With this, we only had about 6 seconds of combat at best.
Assuming there will be no delays, the Battlefield 2042 Technical Play Test will happen in August 2021 but there will be a strict NDA so we won’t be seeing or hearing about the game soon. This would likely point towards September 2021 in order to learn more about the game.
For now, it’s hard to say whether there will be surprises coming our way on the game, regardless of whether it’s good or bad. We will just have to wait and see for now. Battlefield 2042 will be coming to the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC on 22nd October 2021.
Source
Pokdepinion: I am very worried we might get a buggy mess when the game is out. In fact, a sudden announcement of a delay would be good news to me. Well, no use worrying for now and best to wait and see for ourselves.
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RiMS Racing Showcased In New Video Where It’s More Than Just Racing

The folks at NACON and RaceWard Studio has recently unveiled a new video for RiMS Racing, a motorcycling game with a unique concept of combining mechanics and riding.
RiMS Racing video release

The game is said to provide a unique simulation experience where it requires not only your riding skills but also engineering skills. Coming with a mechanics management system, you can optimize every part of your bike down to the smallest component.
There are over 500 official spare parts available and more than 200 official equipment items for the rider, meaning there’s plenty to tweak around to your liking.

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Just like a real rider, you can observe and analyze the behavior of your bike in real-time. You’d want to do this of course to optimize your set-up. From brake disc temperature and tyre pressure to suspension behavior and electronics, the game recreates hazards from real life.
You start in the game by choosing a motorcycle from eight of the most powerful European and Japanese models, where in the video you can it features the MV Agusta F4 RC. In terms of tracks, there 10 recreated official circuits. In case you prefer roads, five routes are available in the landscapes of the United States, Norway, Australia, Spain, and Italy.
RiMS Racing is scheduled for a release on the 19th of August 2021 where it will arrive on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and also on the Nintendo Switch. For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: The trailer doesn’t look bad, I’ll give them that.. Too bad I’m not a huge fan of motorcycles. Though it does look interesting of how much you need to think about when it comes to the parts..
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Best Smartphones April 2020 On Antutu

Antutu has recently reveal their list of the top 10 most powerful Android smartphones as of April 2020 and it shows an obvious trend.
Best smartphone April 2020 Antutu
Best smartphone on Antutu April 2020
It appears that OPPO took both 1st and 2nd place with the OPPO Find X2 Pro and the standard OPPO Find X2. The iQOO Neo3 finishes the top three slots.
Following theme is the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, OPPO Ace 2 and Redmi K30 Pro. Finishing up the last four places is the iQOO 3, realme X50 Pro 5G, vivo NEX 3S 5G and the Black Shark 3 Pro.

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As you can see from the list, every device packs the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset under the hood, as well as beefy RAM and storage configurations.
If you want to catch a glimpse of how the Snapdragon 865 performs in more benchmarks, do check out our OPPO Find X2 Pro review right here.
Source
Pokdepinion: It’s kind of weird not seeing any smartphone from the Samsung Galaxy S20 series on the list.. We’ll probably see some changes soon with more phones set for release.
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Cost Breakdown of Apple Mixed Reality Headset Points At Potentially Exorbitant Price

As the anticipation for Apple’s Mixed Reality headset grows, reports are emerging with estimated costs and breakdowns of its manufacturing components. With previous rumors suggesting a retail price of around US$3,000, recent estimations delve into the manufacturing expenses and profit margins of the highly anticipated device. In this article, we explore these estimates and consider the potential retail price in comparison to Apple’s existing product lineup.
Apple Mixed Reality Headset Cost Breakdown

XR Daily News shared an estimated cost breakdown of the Apple Mixed Reality headset from Minsheng Electronics, revealing a list of parts and assembly expenses. According to their analysis, the headset is estimated to cost approximately US$1,400 (~RM6,365), excluding shipping costs. Another estimate by Wellsenn XR pegs the manufacturing cost at a peculiarly specific US$1,509 (~RM6,861). Additionally, Chinese site Snowball Finance claims a Bill of Materials (BoM) estimation of US$1,300 (~RM5,911), which may or may not include shipping costs.

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Even with the most generous of estimates, the manufacturing cost of US$1,600 is still only slightly more than half of the reported retail price of US$3,000 (~RM13,640). While the profit margins may seem substantial, it is important to consider the comparison with Apple’s other flagship products. For instance, Counterpoint Research estimates that the manufacturing cost of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is around US$474 (~RM2,155), yet it retails starting from US$1,099 or RM5,799 locally. Thus, the profit margins for the Mixed Reality headset align with Apple’s existing product pricing strategies.
With the imminent unveiling of the Apple Mixed Reality headset, estimations of manufacturing costs and potential retail prices provide insights into the device’s pricing strategy. While reports suggest a manufacturing cost ranging from US$1,400 to US$1,600, the expected retail price of around US$3,000 remains consistent. As the launch date approaches, consumers eagerly await more details about the features, capabilities, and ultimate price of the highly anticipated Apple Mixed Reality headset.
Disclaimer: The estimated costs and retail prices mentioned in this article are based on reports and are subject to change. Actual prices may vary upon official release and market factors.
Source
Pokdepinion: These estimates indicate healthy profit margins for Apple, comparable to their flagship smartphone offerings. Given it’s them, I’m sure it will still sell well regardless of the price but let’s wait and see.
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Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – The King Gets Subtle Improvements

Unboxing the Sony WH-1000XM4
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Box

Let’s kick off our Sony WH-1000XM4 review with the unboxing. With every purchase of the wireless noise-cancelling headphones, this is what you’re expected to get:
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Box content
USB-C cable3.5mm headphone cable (1.2m)Two-pronged audio adapter for in-flight useProtective carrying caseUser guide and warrantyThe Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones itself
Appearance
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Headphones
The Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones are essentially identical to its previous iteration, the WH-1000XM3, with some minute differences. The most substantial difference between the two can’t really be seen, but it can definitely be felt when you wear them.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review
Looking at the sides, you have the touch-based controls on the back of the earcups and the Sony logo in rose gold accent. It earcups have a more rubbery finish, which helps to protect against scratches better compared to the more plasticky one from the previous iteration. While it can’t be seen, the earcups themselves are very slightly larger, about 10%, which covers a bigger surface area for added comfort and ventilation.

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Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Headband cushion
Move on to the headband, you have durable aluminum extenders and refined leather which enhances the wearability of the headphones. The headband itself has slimmed down, with the cushioning now feeling more gentle. You can still swivel the ear cups and fold them for easier storage, making it a convenient pair to travel with.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Carrying case
You can use the included protective carrying case to safely store them. The case also stores the AUX cable, USB-C cable, and a two-prong audio adapter for in-flight entertainment.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Buttons
On the left ear cup, you will find a power button, noise cancellation button, and a 3.5mm audio jack for wired connection. On the right ear cup, you will find the USB-C port for charging. You can find a marking above both ear cups that indicate which side of your ears they belong to.
The Sony WH-1000XM4 comes in two colour options; Black and Silver.
Overall, the Sony WH-1000XM4 retains the same minimalist design from previous iterations that doesn’t make it stand out among the crowd, unlike gaming headsets or Beats headphones. This can make it appealing for business-oriented folk without alienating the regular crowd. Essentially, it’s safe design choice that will appeal to a broad audience.
Specifications
Drivers40mm Neodymium Drivers with Aluminum-coated Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) DiaphragmsDome-type (Copper-Clad Aluminum Wire voice coil)Frequency Response4Hz – 40,000Hz20Hz – 20,000Hz (Bluetooth, 44.1kHz Sampling)20Hz – 40,000Hz (LDAC 96kHz Sampling, 990kbps)Headphone TypeClosed, dynamicConnectorWiredUSB-CWirelessBluetooth 5.0 with A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, HSPNFCAudio FormatsSBC, AAC, LDACWireless Range10mNoise-cancellingYes, HD Noise-Canceling Processor QN1BatteryUp to 30 hoursUp to 38 hours without noise-cancellingWeight254gColourBlack and Silver
If you’d like to compare this with the Sony WH-1000XM3, click right here.
User Experience
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Wearing the headphones
The Sony WH-1000XM4 is this year’s iteration of the premium, noise-cancelling headphones. As far as comfort is concerned, it’s not a huge difference but it is noticeable. There’s less pressure on the head, and it feels like it hugs the area around my ears better. Moreover, I used this for a 4-hour call once and I felt less heat and fatigue compared to the previous model. That is a major plus for me.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Twisted
Like previous iterations, the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones can be twisted and folded for easier storage. Sony has also included a protective carrying case, where some of the accessories are placed. If you don’t want to use them, it’s fine. I’ve had no trouble just chucking them in my backpack.
Connecting the Sony WH-1000XM4 to devices is a simple process. You can just opt to pair the device manually via Bluetooth or use NFC for an easier time. When you’ve connected to it at least once, it will automatically connect to that device when you turn on the headphones. It’s virtually the same as the previous iteration. With the new multipoint feature, you can connect to two devices wirelessly at the same time, giving you that added bit of convenience.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Connect to Windows 10 PC
You can connect it to virtually anything with Bluetooth. I’ve personally tested it with my smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G), my computer via the motherboard’s built-in Bluetooth feature, and the Nintendo Switch via the Bluetooth audio adapter. With the exception of the Switch, it supports the microphone on the Sony WH-1000XM4 for voice.
Once again, you do have a wired option as it comes with a 3.5mm auxiliary cable. This means that it can also be used on devices without Bluetooth functionality. For example, it won’t work on the PlayStation 4 via Bluetooth but you can connect to the audio jack on the DualShock 4 controller to use it.
You cannot use this wired via USB-C as it’s only meant for charging. Your only option for wired is via the 3.5mm jack.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Headphones Connect app
The best listening experience is definitely on smartphone as you have more customization options via the Sony Headphones Connect app. You can play around with the equalizer, adjust the noise-cancelling / ambient sound levels, toggle settings like Adaptive Sound Control, and more. It’s easy to use and I doubt anyone would have trouble with the app.
Like its previous iteration, the touch sensor is here and it still works great. On the right ear cup, swipe forward to change to the next song, swipe backwards for the previous song, swipe up and down to adjust volume, and double tap to play / pause or answer a call.
You can even force ambient sound mode temporarily but holding the right ear cup. It may take a bit of getting used to but once you do, it’s one of the most convenient ways to interact. It has worked reliably with the older iterations so it doesn’t really need much refinements, if any, in my opinion.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review
It’s worth noting that you can use it in tandem with Google Assistant. For this however, you will need to use the Noise Cancelling / Ambient Sound button. After setting it up using the Headphones Connect app, simply hold the button to issue a voice command, press once to read notifications, and press twice to cancel the voice command.
As far as sound quality is concerned, it’s one of the best that audio experiences I’ve experienced thus far. Audio has a rather natural sound, with clear and crisp treble, satisfying midrange, and a deep yet defined bass. The bass isn’t overwhelming, but it is definitely punchy. You can listen to any song or watch a movie with it for a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Compared to the 3rd generation, the Sony WH-1000XM4 can produce better detail as it has a wider soundstage.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review
Previously, we had the DSEE HX engine which upscales your audio to higher-resolution sound quality. Now, we have DSEE Extreme, which adds Sony’s Edge-AI artificial intelligence that is said to produce more accurate sound from the same audio. You can further improve the experience but playing around with the equalizer but personally, the Excited preset works best.
The noise-cancelling on the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones is said to be an improvement due to the use of a new algorithm that is said to analyse outside noise in better detail. However, I couldn’t tell the difference in noise-cancelling performance between this and the 3rd generation headphone.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review – Adaptive Sound Control
What I can tell is that the Adaptive Sound Control feature now has the ability to recognize locations you frequently visit and adjust the mode accordingly. It even works faster and more reliably than the environmental adjustment in the previous iteration, which is something I’ve complaint about prior. This makes the already useful feature even more convenient as you don’t have to manually adjust anything, assuming you’re satisfied with how it sounds.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review
Just like the previous iteration, the Sony WH-1000XM4 doesn’t have any form of water or dust resistance rating. In fact, Sony advised users to put it as far away from water as possible. This means that you shouldn’t use this for gym or workouts as it might not hold well against sweat.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review
The call quality using the Sony WH-1000XM4 has improved even further when compared to its predecessor. Friends told me that they can hear my voice clearly most of the time, with the only time it gets muffled is when I have my arms around my head. It’s not standalone microphone clear, but it works great for calls.
The microphone range is still rather wide as I was told that they can hear the mic picking up background sound as well, like my air-conditioner, but they can hear my voice clearer on this iteration of the headphones. The noise-cancelling does make it easier for you to hear the other person however, which is great.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review
As for battery life, the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones is great, but it sees no improvement over its predecessor. I often find myself close to the 30 hour mark with active noise-cancelling activated, and I am certain that I can go even longer with it disabled. Surprisingly, a quick 10-minute charge lets me use this for about 3 to 4 hours, which is a major plus.
Sony WH-1000XM4 Verdict
Sony WH-1000XM4 Review
The Sony WH-1000XM4 is an excellent pair of headphones. It sounds great, it’s versatile, and the noise-cancelling is one of the best around. It is by no means a perfect product. We’ve seen some improvements over its predecessor, including comfort and Adaptive Sound Control, that makes this an even more viable choice.
With that being said however, if you own the 3rd generation headphone, I don’t see a reason why you should upgrade to this one. I would recommend waiting for at least next year’s iteration instead. If you own an even older iteration or a different pair of headphones, you should seriously consider getting this one unless your use case involves any form of water, like sweat for example.
Retailing at RM1,599, it may be pricey but it’s definitely worth the money. At the conclusion of our Sony WH-1000XM4 review, I award this headphone with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.

Big thanks to Sony Malaysia for sending us this pair of headphones for the purposes of this review.
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Apple Introduces New Accessibility Features For People With Various Disabilities

In line with Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) this year, Apple is introducing various new accessibility features to enable person with disabilities to use iPhone or iPad with greater ease. “At Apple, we’ve always believed that the best technology is technology built for everyone,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Today, we’re excited to share incredible new features that build on our long history of making technology accessible, so that everyone has the opportunity to create, communicate, and do what they love.”

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The first feature, intended for cognitively-disabled, is called Assistive Access. This mode will greatly simplify the interface of the phone to reduce the cognitive load of the user – for example, the camera app will simply get reduced down to two buttons: take a photo, and exit the app. This mode is available under Calls, Messages, Camera, Photos and Music app and features high-contrast, large texts and provides tools for the supporters to customize the experience for the user.

Next feature puts focus on person with speaking difficulties, such as those diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), with two new features called Live Speech and Personal Voice. Live Speech provides a text-to-speech mode for users to type what they want to say, and the device will speak the text directly in the FaceTime call to the other end of the call. Users can also save commonly used phrases to quickly respond to conversations.

Personal Voice meanwhile takes the person’s voice, who is at risk of losing the ability to speak, to recreate the voice in text-to-speech forms once set up through a 15-minute process of recording randomized text prompts. This utilizes the on-device machine learning so the processing is done locally, reducing privacy concerns.

For blind or low-vision users, the Detection Mode (Point and Speak) enables AR-based text detection on buttons in home appliances, such as the control panel in microwaves. The phone will read aloud the text of whichever button being pointed by the finger – and this feature is built right into the magnifier app.
There’s also additional accessibility features, including:

Deaf or hard-of-hearing users can pair Made for iPhone hearing devices directly to Mac and customize them for their hearing comfort.

Voice Control adds phonetic suggestions for text editing so users who type with their voice can choose the right word out of several that might sound alike, like “do,” “due,” and “dew.” Additionally, with Voice Control Guide, users can learn tips and tricks about using voice commands as an alternative to touch and typing across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Users with physical and motor disabilities who use Switch Control can turn any switch into a virtual game controller to play their favorite games on iPhone and iPad.

For users with low vision, Text Size is now easier to adjust across Mac apps such as Finder, Messages, Mail, Calendar, and Notes.

Users who are sensitive to rapid animations can automatically pause images with moving elements, such as GIFs, in Messages and Safari.

For VoiceOver users, Siri voices sound natural and expressive even at high rates of speech feedback; users can also customize the rate at which Siri speaks to them, with options ranging from 0.8x to 2x.

Pokdepinion: That’s plenty of new features to take in. I can see most of them proving to be very useful for person with disabilities.
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Huawei Mate 8 review — serious business

When Huawei unveiled the Huawei Mate 8 to members of the media and dealers back in March, they strongly stressed on its purpose as a productivity-driven smartphone, and even invited several successful entrepreneurs to share their experience using the device to improve their workflow. One thing that really impressed us was the lofty claims regarding the battery life. Needless to say, we definitely had to get one of these battery life monsters into our labs to try it out for ourselves. And now that we have it, let’s get down to it.

Unboxing

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The packaging hasn’t changed much from that of the Huawei Mate S, It looks pretty similar but Huawei skipped using a sleeve this time and used a simpler top cover. The Huawei Mate 8 and Huawei logos are printed on with a reflective silver finishing for a really premium look.

Lifting the lid, the Huawei Mate 8 is lying in a tray which sports the words “Huawei Design”. I see I have the Space Gray variant today, which I do strongly prefer over the gold variants.

There is a sticker on the back of the Huawei Mate 8, which is essentially all you need to read if you have ever used a smartphone in recent years.

Taking out the plastic tray, we see cool little boxes labelled with silver printed icons. I only took out the charger from its box, and left the others in there. It’s neat, but I think some packaging material could have been saved if they skipped the individual boxes and just designed a tray with separate compartments for everything. Not only will it be more environmentally friendly, it will also be more convenient to the end user. Still, this way of packaging the included accessories is great, as I get to unbox everything one by one, just for the fun of it.

And here we have everything in the box. The included charger is a Huawei Fast Charger and is capable of supplying up to 18W, a far cry from the standard 10W chargers. I was surprised to find a thin frosted plastic case to protect the metal body of the Huawei Mate 8. Kudos to Huawei for including it in the box with the Mate 8 so the end user can protect their precious new smartphone from Day One.

Appearance

Design wise, the Huawei Mate 8 isn’t that different from the Huawei Mate S. The front is dominated by the HUUUUUUGEEEEEE 6″ screen, which features stunningly small bezels at the sides. The Gorilla Glass 4 here actually has chamfered edges instead of the usual 2.5D curvature. While a small detail, it does lend the Huawei Mate 8 an edgier look and sets it apart from the other flagships. The call speaker lies at the top, flanked by a tiny hidden notification light and the front facing camera. The Huawei Mate 8 loses the front facing flash, so selfie aficionados may find the Huawei Mate 8 a little less appealing compared to its predecessor.

The top and bottom bezels on the Huawei Mate 8 here feature a classy concentric circles texture. It looks amazing and catches light in a very interesting way.

On the back the camera lens protrudes from the smooth sandblasted aluminium surface, while the fingerprint sensor is directly under it. The back is just so slightly curved for a better grip and looks very clean with only the Huawei logo and some regulatory certification. The round camera and fingerprint sensor sets it apart from the previous generation. The contrast of circular elements compared to the rest of the device which is considerably angular is quite refreshing. The back actually has two little plastic strips at the top and bottom for connectivity purposes, but they blend in well enough with the metal to be nearly unnoticeable.

Taking a look at the right of the Huawei Mate 8, we see chamfered edges and a brushed metal texture. The power button and volume rocker are here, and are easily distinguished by touch. Over on the left there is a single card tray slot and the long clear strip of brushed metal and nice shiny chamfering.

Over on the bottom, the signature two grilles flanking the microUSB port is here. As usual, there is only one speaker and the other grille hides the microphone. Call me a nitpicker, but it would look even better with a USB Type-C port.

The top is home to only the 3.5mm jack and microphone.
The Huawei Mate 8 is one great looking premium phablet. I usually refrain from using that P-word but 6″ is really encroaching on tablet territory. However its slim bezels, chamfered edges and slightly curved back may belie its size when held.

Specifications

CPU:
HUAWEI Kirin 950 64-bit (4 x A72 @ 2.3 GHz + 4 x A53 @ 1.8 GHz) + i5 co-processor

RAM
3GB LPDDR4

Display:
6.0″, FHD (1080p) IPS NEO display

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

Camera:
16MP f/2.0 Sony Exmor RS IMX298 sensor with PDAF, OIS
8MP f/2.0 front camera

OS:
Android 6.0 with Emotion UI 4.0

SIM:
nanoSIM (dual SIM support, one slot doubles as microSD slot)

Battery:
4000 mAh (non-removable)

Performance
While the HiSilicon Kirin 935 was slightly underpowered for a 2015 flagship like the Huawei Mate S, the Huawei Mate 8 packs an all new Huawei Kirin 950 which features 4 A72 cores running at 2.3 GHz and 4 A53 cores at 1.8 GHz. The CPU is manufactured on the 16nm FinFET node, which promises greater power efficiency than previous generations. The CPUs are mated to 3GB LPDDR4 in the case of the lower specced version, which we have here now. A new Mali-T880 MP4 is responsible for graphics processing, and is a huge upgrade from the Mali-T628 MP4 in the Kirin 935. Besides the usual components, there is also a new i5 co-processor to handle other low intensity tasks with a low power consumption. Overall, it should be quite an improvement over the previous Kirin 935 and finally bring Huawei on par with its rivals in terms of raw performance.

3DMark is a GPU benchmark, meant to judge the gaming performance of the tested devices. Previously, all Huawei devices with the Kirin 930/935 literally sucked in the GPU department, but the Huawei Mate 8 and the Kirin 950 in it ends that trend. The Huawei Mate 8 performs better than its predecessors, but still loses out to the even more powerful Adreno 430 GPU in the Nexus 6P. With that said, you shouldn’t have any trouble even in the latest games thanks to the less taxing 1080p resolution of the Huawei Mate 8.

Antutu tests the overall system performance, and here the Huawei Mate 8 is the highest scoring smartphone to ever grace our labs with its existence. While the GPU may be weaker than the Adreno 430, the faster CPU cores definitely makes up for the difference here.

As Geekbench is a CPU benchmark, it is easy to see why the Huawei Mate 8 scores so well here. The quad A72 and quad A53 clusters beat the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810’s quad A57 and quad A53 CPUs, hands down.
We were talking about the insane claims about the battery life and also the efficiency of the new 16nm FinFET manufacturing process, but how does it perform in the hands of the average smartphone user? Well, in my usage, the Huawei Mate 8 definitely lives up to its claim and offers truly stellar battery life.

With WiFi connected all the time, I managed to get more than a day of battery life from the Huawei Mate 8. I wasn’t even trying to save battery and I had location, auto synchronization on all the time. To be exact, I got more than 32 hours away from the plug, with 6 hours 12 minutes of on screen time. I frequently use Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram and the occasionally browse with Chrome, with the random shot here and there. To me, 6 hours of on screen time without sacrificing performance is just amazing.

Okay, I hear you say using WiFi all the time isn’t a good enough test, and I should try using it with a data connection on 24/7? Well, you get what you asked for. 31 hours away from the plug, with 5 hours 30 minutes of on screen time. That’s from 100% to 15%.

Whittling it down to 5%, I was now 32 hours away from the plug and have clocked 6 hours 19 minutes of on screen time. Not bad at all.
Charging up the 4000 mAh battery after running it down is quick enough, and I recorded 1 hour 50 min for the battery to charge from 9% to 94% with the included fast charger.
Performance wise, the Kirin 950 is leaps and bounds away from the Kirin 935 and is currently one of the fast SoCs out there. However it is still marred by a weaker GPU that doesn’t fare that well even when compared to the past generation Adreno 430 in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810. Battery life of the Huawei Mate 8 is just excellent and is definitely one of the strongest I have seen, yet.

User Experience
While the 6″ screen may be bigger than every other flagship smartphones on the market right now, the slim bezels on the Huawei Mate 8 does make it a lot more manageable. It is just slightly wider than the Nexus 6P and actually shorter than the Nexus 6P due to the much smaller bezels at the top and bottom, where the Nexus 6P has the stereo speakers. It does feel pretty secure in hand with a nice weight to it and the chamfered edges which help it sit in your hand better. Still, single handed operation of the Huawei Mate 8 may prove difficult for people with small hands. For my large hands, I can comfortably use the swiping gestures on SwiftKey keyboard to type if I had my other hand occupied, but touching the far corner proved impossible.

Unlike the Honor 5X that I recently reviewed, the Huawei Mate 8 doesn’t allow you to use the dual SIM functionality together with a microSD card. Having to choose whether I can use two SIM cards or one SIM card and more memory is not supposed to be in the equation when I get a dual SIM smartphone. While this configuration isn’t ideal, most smartphones touting dual SIM support sport a similar arrangement.

The fingerprint sensor is on the back, typical for Huawei smartphones. The fingerprint sensor here is top-notch, unlocking the device faster than the Nexus 6P’s. I tried using the fingerprint sensor with slightly sweaty fingers and it still successfully recognized my fingerprint and brought me to my homescreen in a heartbeat as well, testament to the quality of the fingerprint sensor. The fingerprint sensor here is also used to enable an array of gestures similar to the ones found in the Huawei Mate S.

Emotion UI 4.0 based on Android 6.0 is here in the Huawei Mate 8, and it doesn’t look too different compared with the previous versions of EMUI. You have the two page notification shade, iOS-like task switcher and no app drawer. Huawei has also finally received the memo to use material design and now the notification bar changes color according to the app open. The entire experience was truly fluid, without a single bit of lag and stutter even when switching between apps.

The dual window feature introduced with the Mate S has also been improved upon, now supporting a select few third party apps like Facebook and Instagram. Overall EMUI 4.0 is quite a nice upgrade from the previous versions.

Interestingly, the Huawei Mate 8 also features a pedometer built into the device itself, so you do not need to get a fitness band just to record the number of steps you have taken. It can even estimate the number of floors you have climbed with its altimeter as well as the calories you have burnt with your physical activity. I am a rather sedentary person, and this feature doesn’t really interest me. But then it doesn’t seem to affect battery life, so no complaints here.

The camera on the Huawei P8 and Mate S were good with some cool new features like light trail mode, and when I got the Huawei Mate 8 I was expecting to be similarly impressed. This time, a 16MP Sony Exmor RS IMX298 sensor is put to use. This sensor has a conventional RGB matrix color filter array instead of the more uncommon RGBW matrix in the Huawei P8 and Mate S.

The UI of the camera has not changed, but then why fix what isn’t broken. The simple camera interface offers a large shutter button for easy quick shots. If you desire to make more of the camera, there is also a manual mode, which I find to be rather helpful in the case of the Huawei Mate 8.

The Huawei Mate 8 delivers quite great images as long as it keeps it from going above ISO 800, but when the times get dark, the image quality left me longing for the larger pixels of the Nexus 6P.

As you can see, most of the images are noisy with little resolved detail, and even gets a blue cast in low light conditions as in the case of the shot of the wooden ceiling. You can choose a lower ISO and shoot with a slower shutter speed for images with less noise, where the optical image stabilization was very helpful in getting shake-free images. For full-sized images, go here. However in my opinion, smartphone cameras are meant to be point and shoot, not point, adjust and shoot, and the Huawei Mate 8 disappoints in this department.

Audio wise, the Huawei Mate 8 has a few new tricks up its sleeves. It is now capable of selecting the microphone to receive information from, which is very helpful when using the loudspeaker. You can pick whether you want the Huawei Mate 8 to pick up audio from all around it, or just from the microphone at the bottom, which should be closer to you. In practice, it worked quite well as the person on other side didn’t complain about noisiness when I used the function.

If you are more interested in the listening experience, do not set your expectations too high. The single speaker doesn’t impress with its output quality, but is loud enough for most practical purposes. It is a little softer than some of its competitors though, and it does suffer from distortion at the maximum volume. Plugging in earphones and the Huawei Mate 8 offers great audio quality. It sounded quite balanced and detailed. I enjoyed listening to my Spotify playlist as well as my FLAC files a lot, and the Huawei Mate 8 can power my Xiaomi Mi Pro In-ear headphones to uncomfortable levels.

The 6.0″ IPS NEO LCD display features a rather pedestrian 1080p resolution, but I absolutely did not notice the difference when compared to its peers which are pushing 1440p resolutions already. But then, the 367 ppi is even higher than needed to qualify as a Retina display. When the Huawei Mate 8 is used under direct sunlight, it automatically adjusts the saturation of certain colors to maintain visibility. IPS NEO technology improves contrast levels with the wide viewing angles that all standard IPS displays have. The large display is perfect for any form of media consumption, and with the minimal bezels, didn’t really impact usability.

Conclusion
The Huawei Mate 8 costs RM2099, which makes it rather reasonably priced for a flagship device. The Huawei Mate 8 represents a significant step for Huawei in the right direction, with a faster in-house SoC and updated software features. The battery life is also class-leading, thanks to the efficient Kirin 950 SoC and also the 1080p display which needs less graphical horsepower to feed. The fast and accurate fingerprint sensor shows how well Huawei knows the technology. Given that it is targeted at professionals, the weaker GPU and lower display resolution may not be as important as long battery life. I wish the camera was better, but then maybe that is what the upcoming Huawei P9 is here to fix.

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In Case You Missed It, Update 3.2 For Vainglory Is Now Live!

New hero and new skins!

Super Evil Megacorp, the developers for Vainglory have recently released a new update for the popular mobile game. Update 3.2 adds a new hero, new skins, a rework of Petal’s Ultimate ability, some balance changes to certain heroes and items as well as various bug fixes and performance updates.
New Hero: Malene
The latest update introduces a new hero called Malene to the Halcyon Fold, a ranged spellcaster who shifts between light and shadow in quick succession to dominate opponents using her Ultimate ability, Enchanted Transformation. By using Enchanted Transformation, she can inflict massive crystal damage to enemy heroes. With Malene, the hero roster in Vainglory has been increased to 39 heroes. You can unlock her either with ICE or Glory.

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Here’s a list of Malene’s Hero Abilities:

Masked Ball:  Malene’s ultimate is available at level 1 and allows her to switch between Light Form and Shadow Form. Additionally, Malene’s basic attacks deal crystal damage. For a short duration after switching forms, Malene’s next basic attack is empowered.
Light Ribbons (Light Form): Sends ribbons of light in a chosen direction, damaging and immobilizing the first enemy hit.
Shadow Tendrils (Shadow Form):  Unleashes three shadow tendrils in a chosen direction, dealing crystal damage to all enemies along their path. Each tendril deals its own instance of damage; deals less damage to minions.
Royal Amnesty (Light Form): Malene imbues herself with light, granting herself a barrier and movement speed for boost.
Wicked Escapade (Shadow Form): Becomes invulnerable and untargetable for for a short time, slowing enemies she passes through and leaving behind a pit of shadow. Enemies inside the pit are dealt damage when Malene reappears.
Enchanted Transformation: Malene switches between Light Form and Shadow Form, swapping abilities and gaining an empowerment on her next basic attack. The empowerment gained is dependent on the form she switches into with Shadow Empowerment allows her to deal more damage whereas Light Empowerment allows her to slow targets.

Here’s a list of her talents:

Spiky-Spiky: Wicked Escapade (Shadow B) will also deal damage where Malene appears.
Shadow Terror: Shadow Tendrils (Shadow A) will also fear enemies.
Royal Favours: Royal Amnesty (Light B) will also apply to nearby allies and deal damage around shielded targets upon expiration.

New Skins
Update 3.2 also brings about new skins for the heroes Petal, Krul and Churnwalker which you can view below.
Legendary Petal “Tea Party” skin
Epic “Samurai” Krul skin
Rare “Clownwalker” Churnwalker skin
Petal’s Ultimate ability rework
Petal’s Ultimate ability gets a slight rework in this latest update. You can now either choose to heal an ally using Spontaneous Combustion or choose to deal damage to the enemy. You can also do both if you can execute the ability well enough to do so.
For a more comprehensive read of the updates and patch notes introduced in Vainglory with Update 3.2 you can do so right here.
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USB 4 Version 2.0 Brings 80Gbps Even to Older Cables

USB-IF recently unveiled USB 4 Version 2.0, bringing up to 80Gbps of data transfer, which is about double of the previously announced USB 4. Interestingly however, this will also apparently apply to older USB-C cables.
The USB 4 Version 2.0 standard will be backwards compatible with older USB 4 cables, and they will also benefit from the extra bandwidth. According to the announcement, the new standard is “based on a new physical layer architecture, using existing 40Gbps USB Type-C passive cables and newly-defined 80Gbps USB Type-C active cables”.

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In other words, you can actually purchase a 40Gbps USB-C cable and when the 80Gbps standard finally arrives, you will be able to enjoy that new speed. As for how this is possible, they didn’t go into the detail about it yet. Apart from that, it will allow USB 3.2 to reach 20Gbps and it also brings better DisplayPort and PCIe support as well.
For now, the full specifications for USB 4 Version 2.0 will be published ahead of November, and this update is catered more towards developers. It will likely still take some time before the average user can benefit from this so we will report more on it as soon as information becomes available.
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Pokdepinion: It’s a pretty substantial upgrade but personally for me, I can’t really see the full benefits just yet apart from the obvious speed / time benefit.
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[CES2019] Razer Enters The Monitor Market With The New Razer Raptor

Razer has revealed of their new 27-inch gaming monitor, the Razer Raptor, which will be unveiled at this year’s CES 2019 as an early-design model. It will be making its way to the market later of this year.

There’s an integrated cord management system on the back of the gaming monitor where they’ve used green colored cables for managing inputs without disturbing the design.

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Being at 27-inches, the Razer Raptor offers a 2560×1440 QHD resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, as well as a 1ms (with Motion Blur) and 7ms (typical) response rate.
The monitor comes with AMD Radeon FreeSync, which is quite surprising as their other products often to be linked with NVIDIA’s G-sync. HDR is available and brightness is up to 420 Nits. It offers a Color Gamut of 95% DCI-P3. Talking about colors, of course the monitor will come with Razer Chroma packed with it. As you can see, there are Chroma-compatible LED light strips found at the bottom of the stand.
As for connectivity, it offers 1 HDMI port, 1 DisplayPort, 1 USB Type-C port that’s for power delivery, as well as 2 USB-A 3.1 ports. Scheduled to be released later in the year, the Razer Raptor gaming monitor is set for a price tag of US$699.99 (roughly RM2877).
Pokdepinion: That price.. but the Razer Raptor sure does looks one of a kind.
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Western Digital Expands Enterprise Hard Drive – Offers For Big Data Environments

Western Digital are expending their portfolio of enterprise with a new mid-range series of 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB air-based hard drives, namely the Ultrastar 7K6 as well as Ultrastar 7K8.
Western Digital Mid-range Enterprise Expansion
Ultrastar 7K6 and 7K8
With the new expansion, the new products enable corporate data centers to have data set sizes smaller than found in hyperscale environments, allowing the ability to harness data across a broad scope of Big Data applications such as analytics and distributed file systems.
The company features 10TB, 12TB, and 14TB drives that features their HelioSeal helium-sealing technology perfect for hyperscale and cloud environments and to deliver the lowest possible TCO.

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Loads of applications have small data sets or benefit from optimal performance from implementation of a cluster of lower capacity, air-based drives.
Most conventional data center systems still rely on moderate capacity points for RAID-based block-and-file systems. According to the company’s Vice President, today’s mid-range applications are now moving from smaller configurations to even bigger capacities and understandably of why.
For this, comes the new Ultrastar 7K6 and 7K8. With the 7K6, its supports 4TB and 6TB capacity points, which utilizes a 4-disk, enterprise class, air-based design. It provides up to 12% faster performance than the previous generation, the Ultrastar 7K6000, and is designed for traditional storage as well as server applications plus distributed and scalable computing.
On the other hand, the Ultrastar 7K8 8TB solution will be released later in this quarter. The 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB capcity will be ready for volume ramp during the second calendar quarter of 2018. For improved write performance, they’ve implemented their media cache and flash-based non-volatile cache (NVC).
Pokdepinion: As technology goes further and further, it’s not a surprise that enterprises would get and need of storage upgrades such as this as requirements go bigger and bigger day by day.
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Kirby Star Allies Review – Looks Childish But It’s Surprisingly Fun

For our first Nintendo Switch game review, we take on the lovable Kirby in Kirby Star Allies. Is this game worth your money or should buy something else?
Kirby Star Allies Review

The Nintendo Switch may not have a lot of games in its library but given that it’s the latest videogame console to be released, that is pretty normal. Given that it’s Nintendo, some of these games may look like it’s intended only for the younger audience but you’d be surprised how much fun it is. We’re going to dive into one such game and it’s called Kirby Star Allies for the Nintendo Switch.

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What is Kirby Star Allies About?

Kirby Star Allies starts off on a planet far away from Kirby’s home planet called Jambastion. In that planet, a dark crystal heart explodes due to an imperfection in a mysterious ritual, sending its numerous fragments, Jamba Hearts, hurtling deep into space. Many characters, including series veterans King Dedede and Meta Knight, are possessed while investigating the hearts that landed on Popstar.
A Jamba Heart hits Kirby, but it did not manage to corrupt it. Instead, it grants Kirby the ability to befriend any enemy simply by throwing hearts. With not much choice left, Kirby sets out on a brand new adventure to not only fix the root of the Jamba Heart problem, but to also liberate his friends and former enemies from the corruption of the Jamba Hearts. Little did Kirby know, the “thing” that corrupts people is a sentient being capable of planetary destruction.
A Platformer with a Versatile Multiplayer Focus

At its core, Kirby Star Allies is a platformer game just like previous entries to the series in older Nintendo consoles. If you’re not familiar with it, you can consider the gameplay somewhat similar to Mario with a major exception to how you deal with enemies. Kirby can absorb enemies in order to steal their abilities, which grants it a unique attack move. For example, if Kirby absorbs a Blade Knight, it will gain the ability to wield a sword and attack enemies with it.
This is classic Kirby as it is an ability that it had from the very first entry of the series. What’s new this time is the ability to turn enemies into allies by throwing a heart at them using the ‘X’ button. If the heart hits, it will instantly become an A.I.-controller ally that help you in your adventure. What makes this ability more interesting is that you can have friends join in anytime when you have an ally on-board. With a limit of up to 3 allies, you can turn it into a 4-player multiplayer adventure.

What makes this mechanic great is the fact that it gives Kirby Star Allies some versatility as to how gamers would like to play through the game. Most of us don’t get to play with friends that often so you can still play alone and whenever your friends are around to play with, they can just freely hop into the game so you don’t have to necessarily play it with friends just because you started it with them.

The downside to this is that the one playing Kirby will get to dictate what ally characters will be available to play as. Moreover, certain stages will have specific obstacles that will require specific abilities and if it cannot be solved by Kirby absorbing said ability, there is no choice but to swap an ally character with what is needed at the time. While you can always regain the lost character, it can be a bit troublesome if another player is adamant about sticking to a particular character.
It’s Fun for All Ages

Kirby Star Allies is a rather straightforward game. You travel through a number of world maps in a semi-linear fashion just like in older Mario games, collect star coins which can grant extra lives after a reaching certain amount, find puzzle pieces to complete special artwork, and get through the obstacles that have been set up in each stage.

As mentioned before, the obstacles are usually focused on a particular character ability and isn’t entirely difficult but can require a little bit of outside-the-box thinking. The game isn’t cruel so most of the time, the ally characters and abilities that are required for an obstacle is usually nearby, so you don’t have to waste time backtracking to find what you need. All you have to do that point is to put the pieces together in order to overcome the obstacle.
There are optional portions available in plenty of the stages, usually accompanied by some form of puzzle, which can yield players with extra star coins, puzzle pieces, and other hidden collectibles. It’s not mandatory but it can make the game feel even more enjoyable when you find it. Keep in mind that some of these can be very well hidden but players familiar with the adventure / platformer genre shouldn’t have much problem discovering them.

What’s surprisingly fun in Kirby Star Allies is the boss battles, which usually happens in bonus and important stages. There will be an enemy with a visible health bar that you will need to take down together with your allies and at that moment, the game starts to feel a lot more like Nintendo’s all-star brawl game, Super Smash Bros.
Boss battles really help the multiplayer feature of the game shine as you will need to work together and combine all your abilities in order to take the boss down. The difficulty varies greatly for different bosses, as most of them can be taken down easily by pummelling on them endlessly, but there will be some that are capable of complete annihilation. For the mini-boss battles, Kirby can either steal their abilities or make them join as an ally so don’t be too quick to send them flying away.
Kirby Star Allies Verdict

When I first got Kirby Star Allies for my Nintendo Switch, I was shallow to think that no adult could enjoy playing this game. It has the most adorable looking mascot and the design clearly caters to the younger audience but you’d be surprised how entertaining it can be for everyone. Even if it’s something you might not enjoy alone, playing it with other people will make the game much more entertaining.
It is a good game if you need something to pass the time if you take your Nintendo Switch outdoors, it is a great game if you’re going to play with friends, but is the perfect game for families to play together. It’s family-friendly content and a game that parents can use to bond with their children. With that in mind, I award Kirby Star Allies for the Nintendo Switch with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.

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PUBG Mobile to return to India as PUBG Mobile India

PUBG Mobile is a pretty controversial game in India. Aside from their ties with Tencent which is allegedly sharing Indian user data with the Chinese government, the game has caused more than its fair share of real-world crime. But given the sheer size of the Indian market, it seems that PUBG Corporation will be bringing PUBG Mobile back to the region, albeit with several changes to placate their Indian audience.
The version of PUBG Mobile will be specific to the Indian region, dubbed PUBG Mobile India. To allay the Indian government’s worries of stolen user data, PUBG Corporation will be partnering with Microsoft to store Indian user data on Azure Cloud, ensuring that their data remains within Indian borders instead of being saved in a foreign server.
PUBG Corporation will also be investing $100 million in India to cultivate the local gaming, esports, entertainment and IT industries. They are expected to set up an Indian subsidiary as well to add more jobs in the region. Aside from that, there will also be differences to the game itself.

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PUBG Mobile India will see its characters come fully clothed from the get go, instead of players starting off with their characters being in their underwear before unlocking or purchasing cosmetics to dress up their avatars. On top of that, to prevent pathological addiction to the game, PUBG Mobile India will have restricted game time to “promote healthy gameplay habits for younger players.”
Whether all of these changes will be enough to ensure that PUBG Mobile India will not cause the same kind of issues as the regular PUBG Mobile remains to be seen. But in any case, it is a good step forward.
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Pokdepinion: I haven’t touched PUBG Mobile since COD Mobile came around… I wonder if it is still worth revisiting?
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New Interactive Korean Drama Game Launches on Kickstarter

Monster Guide Inc., a Korean game studio has recently published their K-Drama interactive game “I Fall in Love Too Easily” on Kickstarter. The game will be available on PC Steam and Sony Playstation. Pre-orders for the game are available through Kickstarter at 25% discount off the original price and multiple rewards will be offered based on the bundles shown.

A Korean Tale: Late-night Drinking, Different Phone, and A Secret Kiss
The game is a Korean drama rom-com Full Motion Video (FMV) that transforms the tried and tested clichés of K-Dramas into a novel game. Players follow the main character, Yeonwoo as she attempts to put together what happened the night before when she and her closest male friends went out for drinks at a pocha, a Korean bar. The next morning, she awakens with a severe headache, a phone that does not belong to her, and smeared lipstick. It’s up to the player to figure out which of her friends she kissed and to resolve the final questions of friendship or love.

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Players will be guided through animated minigames that will aid Yeonwoo to acquire clues in between chapters of the story. This offers an additional dimension of engagement that combines two media of live-action and animation. Players will also feel immersed in Yeonwoo’s life by going through her daily activities and exploring her room.

A sneak peek of “I Fall in Love Too Easily” is live on their Kickstarter page that runs until the end of May. The game is scheduled to be released in November 2022.
If you want to learn more about the game, feel free to visit or support them on their Kickstarter page at the link here.
Pokdepinion: The game looks really interesting and promising. I can finally make choices that I can’t while watching really painful K-drama scenes.
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ASRock B650E PG Riptide WiFi Review – Bare Bones Experience

ASRock is seen by many as the more budget-oriented motherboard brand, and this time around we got a AMD B650E motherboard: specifically, the ASRock B650E PG Riptide WiFi. (PG stands for Phantom Gaming, in case you missed it.) It may look a bit unassuming on first sight, but let’s see if there’s any punches hidden under the skin.
Unboxing
Box front
Box rear
First off, it looks somewhat different than it’s predecessor (B550 PG Riptide) in terms of the packaging. The AMD-mandated chipset label is now a whole lot larger, taking the lower left corner – the E in B650E denotes full PCIe 5.0 support for both GPU (x16) slot and a single M.2 (x4) slot. On the back, it’s your standard feature introductory stuff, but “lightning gaming ports”?
Foam packaging – it can definitely handle a few bumps.
Opening the rather unassuming box and you get what is probably the most overkill motherboard packaging ever: there’s a full size foam surrounding the entire motherboard, zip-tied, fully secured in the box. Not even flagship motherboards from other manufacturers get this kind of packaging treatment, and good luck trying to damage it. If you do, somehow – you probably tried really hard to do so.

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Box contents (left side compartment, placed outside)
Box contents (right side compartment)
Below the motherboard from the box you get a bunch of stuffs, including: ASRock badge, user’s manual, Socket AM5 installation manual, and what looks like a postcard of sorts given the need to put a mail stamp on it. More down below (from top to bottom, left to right): Velcro tapes for cable management, M.2 screws, keycap, GPU support bracket, SATA cables and Wi-Fi antennas. Gone are the driver CD and I/O bracket, compared to the previous iteration.
Apperance
Motherboard front
Motherboard rear
Chipset RGB – it gets *really* bright.
The most obvious difference between this to its predecessor is the size of the VRM – the previous generation B550 Riptide simply omits the top VRM heatsinks leaving MOSFETs completely exposed, while the side VRMs are very small in size leaving I/O partly exposed (and requires manual I/O bracket installation as a result). The new VRM heatsink are significantly larger and covers all MOSFETs on both sides.
The rear sides pretty much looks plain in sight, no chips is soldered on this side leaving only a bunch of solder joints visible, plus some resistors near the VRM. The metal plate on the right supports the integrated I/O shield – which have some degree of flex on the bracket itself. Meanwhile, you get a single RGB lighting sitting on the chipset heatsink, and it has quite a few LEDs below it producing very bright colors.
Rear side I/O layout
The rear I/O are packed pretty tightly together, so just be aware if your USB gets too fat and may obstruct nearby ports. The ports are not the most varied, starting from the top you get a BIOS flashback button, a single HDMI 2.1 port that connects to onboard GPU, Wi-Fi 6E antennas, a very tidy array of USB ports, 2.5GbE LAN and audio ports that lack rear or sub/center connections. As far as ports go, this one is more on the basic side.
Specifications
ASRock B650E PG Riptide WiFi

CPU Support
Socket AM5 (AMD Ryzen 7000 Series)

Form Factor
ATX (12 x 9.6 in / 305 x 244mm)

Chipset
AMD B650E

Power & VRM
1x EPS 8-pin + 1x EPS 4-pin
14+2 stage (Vcore+SoC), Intersil ISL99360 (60A per powerstage)
Renesas RAA229620 PWM controller

Memory
4-slot Max. 128GB DDR5-5200 unbuffered
Overclocking support up to DDR5-6600+
Intel XMP & AMD EXPO support

PCIe Expansion Slots
1x PCIe 5.0 x16 (CPU)
1x PCIe 3.0 x16 (CPU)
1x PCIe 4.0 x1 (Chipset)

Storage
4x SATA 6Gb/s
3x M.2 slots:
CPU – PCIe 5.0 x4
Chipset – PCIe 4.0 x4
Chipset – PCIe 3.0 x2 or SATA

Networking
AMD RZ608 Wi-Fi 6E (MediaTek MT7921K) (M.2 2230, Key E)
Intel Killer Ethernet E3100G 2.5GbE LAN

USB
Rear:
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (USB-C)
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (USB-A)
2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (USB-A)
6x USB 2.0
Front (headers):
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 header (USB-C)
1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header (splitting to 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1)
2x USB 2.0 headers (splitting to 3x USB 2.0)

Other I/O
1x HDMI 2.1 (onboard GPU)
1x Wi-Fi antenna connector module
1x BIOS Flashback button

Audio
Realtek ALC897 codec (7.1 channel)
Line-in / Front speaker / Mic-in ports

Peripheral Headers
1x SPI TPM Header
1x Power LED and Speaker Header
1x RGB LED Header (36W max)
3x Addressable LED Headers (15W max)
1x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin) (12W max)
1x CPU/Water Pump Fan Connector (4-pin) (24W max)
4x Chassis/Water Pump Fan Connectors (4-pin) (24W max)
1x 24 pin ATX Power Connector
1x 8 pin 12V Power Connector
1x 4 pin 12V Power Connector
1x Thunderbolt AIC Connector (5-pin) (for ASRock Thunderbolt 4 add-in card)

Accessories
1x User Manual
2x SATA Data Cables
2x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz Antennas
2x Screws for M.2 Sockets
1x Graphics Card Holder

Test System

CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

Cooling
ASUS ROG Ryujin II 360 AIO
Cooler Master MasterGel Maker

Motherboard
ASRock B650E PG Riptide WiFi (BIOS ver. 1.03)

GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition

Memory
Kingston FURY BEAST DDR5-6000 CL36 (2x16GB)

Storage
Samsung SSD 980 PRO 256GB (Boot)
Kingston NV1 1TB

Power Supply
Cooler Master MWE Gold 1250 V2 Full Modular 1250W

Case
VECTOR Bench Case (Open-air chassis)

Operating System
Windows 11 Pro 22H2

A Closer Look
VRMs
14+2+1 powerstage (Vcore+SoC+Misc) for the Socket AM5.
VRM components
For a B650(E) motherboard, this VRM setup means business. Giving it a whopping 14 phases of VRM for the CPU, with 60A each makes it light work to handle even the most power-hungry Ryzen CPUs you can throw at it – which by itself is still fairly power efficient, mind you. The same VRM layout has been found on company’s high-end X760E motherboards, so seeing a flagship-grade VRM setup passed down to a relatively mid-range motherboard is good to see. All that are contained to a big chunk of heatsink means you have no problems with VRM thermals at all.
Audio
Realtek ALC897 codec with 4 capacitors.
The audio is managed by Realtek ALC897 combined with 4 capacitors – a fairly low-end combination of components when you compare to other motherboards in the same class. Still, unless you delve into high-end audio gear (especially planar magnetic ones) that demands a high-end DAC or high SNR ratings for it, you’ll be fine with the mainstream audio gear with no issues.
Storage & Expansion
Expansion layout
This being the “E” board means AMD has specified both the GPU slot and the primary M.2 slot must support PCIe 5.0 speeds – shown in the diagram above. You have three M.2 slots to choose from, each of them rated for different PCIe standards. However, the third slot will most likely hold back your SSD performance since it’s rated at slower speeds than what the first generation of mainstream PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs can do (though ASRock says this slot also supports SATA mode if you have one of those). There’s no jiggling around with what slot to disable to get certain speeds – what you see here is what you get, no BIOS settings involved.
I/O
I/O components
The most unique part of the ASRock motherboard compared to other brands, in terms of connectivity, is the Wi-Fi chipset. Most manufacturers opt to slot the card right on the rear I/O, with the card slotted in vertically whereas ASRock has chose to place the card (and its slot) down on the bottom half of the motherboard lying flat – more akin to laptop M.2 Wi-Fi modules. The chip itself is a MediaTek MT7921K rebranded as AMD RZ608 Wi-Fi 6E, which only supports 80MHz unlike the higher end RZ616 that does full-fat 160MHz connections.
The B650E despite having the E in it doesn’t use dual Promontory 21 chips like X670E does. While B650E does offer good amount of I/O options, it looks like ASRock doesn’t make full use of its bandwidth, particularly in the USB. There’s a dedicated Thunderbolt 4 header for the company’s own add-in card; the 2.5GbE LAN meanwhile is handled by Killer, unlike most other manufacturers which have mainly opted to use Intel’s own chips instead.
Other Features
Status LEDs
Chipset RGB LEDs
It’s all LEDs: on the top right edge you get the usual status LEDs; and down bottom of the chipset you have six RGB LEDs that shine through the Phantom Gaming logo which gets very bright to your eyes. I suppose this can easily go through tinted panels in certain PC cases, but you can always adjust the brightness after-the-fact. However, you don’t find creature comforts such as quick release slots or latches commonly seen in higher end or more expensive motherboards.
Thermals
Cinebench R23 10-minute run – on stock settings.
The robust 14+2 VRM has made running 200W+ on a Ryzen 9 7950X look easy. As seen in the HWiNFO data here, 10 minutes worth of stress test has only managed to heat the VRM up to 62°C, which is very manageable. You can comfortably push the CPU beyond this TDP if you want to, and you’ll likely be dealing with AIO not keeping up first before VRM presents itself as an issue.
BIOS & Software
BIOS – setting up EXPO
RGB controls can be done in BIOS.
The BIOS settings menu are fairly straightforward, though this doesn’t have a “basic mode” that only shows the basic system status like other OEMs do. If you already know how to navigate through BIOS, this is not an issue. One neat feature of this BIOS is a chart of RAM timings when you access the XMP or EXPO settings – so you get to know what exactly would the RAM perform based on the chart shown. On the other hand you can change the RGB settings directly from the BIOS – no software required.

For software that resides in Windows, you have the ASRock Phantom Gaming Tuning app that does what it says on the tin: tuning. Upon launching you’re greeted with this very simple option of changing the motherboard’s power behavior. If you fancy some overclocking, there’s OC Tweaker on the top row which gets you instant access to various overclocking settings, like Ryzen Master does.

There’s quite a lot of apps when you check their website (half of them, the other half are just drivers) – but fortunately none of them pops itself up without explicitly downloading it first (Razer is among the offenders here). One exception – the Auto Driver Installer will ask you to download new drivers but that’s only needed on setup. You won’t need everything to get going, but something like POLYCHROME RGB could be useful if you have multiple supported device to sync your RGB with. Also keep in mind to download using the ‘Global’ links, we’re not entirely sure why China gets their own versions though.
Conclusion
To describe the ASRock B650E PG Riptide WiFi, it’s like a purpose built race car. You can drive pretty fast on the track, but it’s bare bones nature meant driving on a normal road can prove difficult or sometimes unpleasant. This is what happens with this motherboard here – while the VRM is really good at providing the juice to even the most powerful Ryzen CPU, the lack of creature comforts, such as GPU quick release and M.2 latches, makes this a bit hard to live with.
The lack of GPU quick release will present a bigger issue when this motherboard eventually gets installed inside a case. GPUs get increasingly huge these days, which leaves very little room to push the slot latch – so you definitely need something like a ruler or a stick if you ever consider to re-install a GPU. Same goes to M.2 slots, the tiny screws kept slipping out of the standoffs as I tried to secure the SSD into the slot, something that I could’ve done within 10 seconds if there’s a latch built-in (and this is done on a motherboard lying flat, not inside a case).

Another odd choice is third M.2 slot having just PCIe 3.0 x2 signaling – not the best trade-off given that PCIe 5.0 could’ve easily been passed down as a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot. So it’s fairly like you’ll see a performance drop if you decide to install SSDs here, but it’s unlikely to affect general I/O performance unless you’re really pushing it. Design-wise, the larger VRM over its predecessor has given it a much better look overall, with the built-in I/O shield. Wi-Fi module is easily accessible too, should you need to reseat or change the module entirely.
Still, if you don’t mind the lack of creature comforts and just needs something that’s fast and performant, this ASRock B650E PG Riptide WiFi will do just that. It costs $239.99 (~RM1,073), which is on the cheaper side of the B650 spectrum even if you consider the extra cost involved for local pricing. It’s pretty bare bones – but like a racing car, it’ll get the job done, fast.

Our thanks to ASRock for providing the B650E PG Riptide WiFi for the purpose of this review.
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First iPhone X broken in Malaysia; there goes RM1799?

The iPhone X was just made available yesterday in Malaysia, and today we found the first Malaysian to break his iPhone X. A moment of silence with our brother from another mother, Muhammad Farhan.

His device was apparently dropped from pocket height, with the screen being totally destroyed from the fall. He has shown us his receipt and sadly he did not subscribe to the Machines Protection Plan. He saved RM899, only to lose more than that the very next day.

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Broken phones are common, especially as everyone and their mothers want to use glass panels on both front and back of the devices. But when it is advertised with “the most durable glass ever” we expect a little more durability. It should at least take more abuse before shattering.
Machines will charge him a whopping RM1799 for the repairs, but we aren’t sure if there will be third party vendors who can do it for less. In any case, slap on a case for your iPhone X, will ya?
Pokdepinion: I can’t imagine how much it hurts for him. Our hearts go out to him.
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New Acer Spin 3 and Travelmate P614 Launched As Part of Acer Malaysia 30th Anniversary

New Acer Spin 3 and TravelMate P614 Launched As Part of Acer Malaysia 30th Anniversary

As mentioned previously, Acer Malaysia had quite a bit of new products to show for their 30th anniversary celebration. In this one, we’re going to be talking about two new workhorse laptops for productivity; the Acer Spin 3 and Acer TravelMate P614.
Acer Spin 3

First seen at CES 2020, the new Acer Spin 3 is now thinner (16.9mm), weighs a mere 1.5kg, and is powered by the 10th Gen Intel Core CPU. It also has a speedy PCIe NVMe SSD RAM with up to 512GB of storage. Given the convertible nature of the series, it still retains the 360° hinge for added versatility. It utilizes a 14-inch Full HD touchscreen display with 7.82mm thin bezels, effectively giving it a 78% screen-to-body ratio.

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Interestingly, drawing and pen interactions have become more precise and realistic when used with the Acer Active Stylus, powered by the Wacom Active Electrostatic (AES) technology. It’s capable of replicating ink and paper with 4,096 pressure levels. The stylus itself has fast charging, with 15 seconds of charge resulting in up to 90 minutes of use.
The 10th Gen Intel Core i5 variant of the Acer Spin 3 with 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD, Acer Active Stylus, and 8GB RAM will be retailing for RM3,199. The Intel Core i3 variant with 4GB RAM will be retailing for RM2,699.
Acer TravelMate P614

Designed as part of Intel’s Project Athena and geared towards professionals, the Acer TravelMate P614 has the responsiveness of today’s smartphones in a laptop. With instant wake, fast charging, and up to 20 hours of battery life, it allows you to be more productive even if you’re going to be out for the whole day.
The Acer TravelMate P614 is powered by the 10th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU and NVIDIA GeForce MX250 GPU. For storage, it uses 8GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB PCIe G3x4 NVMe SSD. The display is can be laid flat for a better sharing / collaborating experience thanks to its 180° hinge. On the network side, it uses the Intel Wi-Fi 6 (GIG+) which is said to be faster than standard AC 2×2 by threefold, up to 1700Mbps with 75% lower latency. It has a Thunderbolt 3 port for ultra fast data transfers and to hook up to external displays. All of this packed in a magnesium-aluminium alloy body with a total weight of just 1.1kg and a thickness of 16.6mm.
For security, users can login to the Acer TravelMate P614 using Windows Hello with the fingerprint reader on the power button or through the IR webcam with biometric facial recognition. There’s also a camera shutter in case you’re worried someone might be spying on you. Moreover, the integrated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 chip gives hardware-based protection for passwords and encryption keys. The Acer ProShield beefs up the security even further with its suite of security and management tools while the Acer Office Management lets IT professionals deploy security policies and monitor assets from a single interface.
The Intel Core i7 variant of the Acer TravelMate P614 will be retailing for RM6,299 whereas the Intel Core i5 variant will be going for RM4,899.
Pokdepinion: I’m personally interested in the new TravelMate laptop. The battery life is amazing and the light body makes it ideal for my type of work when I’m going out and about. Hoping to try that myself sooner or later.
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Meet The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 — The World’s First Foldable PC

While foldable devices seems to be a trend in the smartphone category, it seems like the PC industry has started to take notice with Lenovo introducing the world’s first foldable PC, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 family.

While the company hasn’t given details on the specifications of the hardware inside, the laptop comes with an OLED 2K display, which they’ve made in collaboration with LG Display that can fold in half and reduce its width by 50%.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 foldable PC
Straight out of the box, the ThinkPad X1 foldable PC/laptop is powered by Intel, and of course, runs on Windows. Lenovo has reveal that they will give more details on the machine and its availability in 2020, a year from now.

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Pokdepinion: I can’t say that I wasn’t unimpressed by it but then again…it’s a foldable device. If you’ve read my previous articles on the matter, I don’t really see the need for it (definitely not the price).
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NVIDIA announces new GeForce GTX 16-series laptops — up to 50% faster than last-gen GTX 1060 gaming notebooks

While earlier leaks have already pointed to GeForce GTX 16-series laptops, they are finally made official. NVIDIA has worked with all their major partners to bring the more affordable lineup of Turing-based GPUs to the market, so you can expect new laptops featuring the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and GeForce GTX 1650 GPUs coming from your preferred brand very soon.
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti for Laptops

The new GeForce GTX 16-series laptops are designed to replace Maxwell-powered laptops, with the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti up to 4x better performance than older GeForce GTX 960M designs. Compared against a laptop with the more recent GeForce GTX 1060, NVIDIA promises up to 50% better performance with GeForce GTX 1660 Ti.

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The Acer Nitro 5 will be refreshed with the latest GeForce GTX 1660 Ti.
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (Mobile) Specifications

TU116 @ up to 1590 MHz, 12nm FinFET
1536 CUDA cores
6GB GDDR6 @ 12 Gbps, 192-bit memory interface
60-80W TDP
Designs starting from $999 (~RM4123)

GeForce GTX 1650 for Laptops

Meanwhile the lower end GeForce GTX 1650 laptops will offer up to 2.5x performance versus a laptop equipped with a GeForce GTX 950M, and 70% better performance than a GeForce GTX 1050 laptop. Those are pretty impressive numbers considering how prevalent GeForce GTX 1050 laptops are in the market. Interestingly, the mobile variant of the GeForce GTX 1650 will have more CUDA cores (1024 CUDA cores) than the desktop version (896 CUDA cores), somewhat similar to what NVIDIA did with the GeForce GTX 1070 back then.
An thin-and-light design with the GeForce GTX 1650.
GeForce GTX 1650 (Mobile) Specifications

TU117 @ up to 1560 MHz, 12nm FinFET
1024 CUDA cores
4GB GDDR6 @ 8 Gbps, 128-bit memory interface
35-50W TDP
Designs starting from $799 (~RM3300)

There will also be new GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q and GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPUs with tighter power limits for thinner gaming laptops. NVIDIA also didn’t forget to mention that NVIDIA Optimus will also be featured on the new GeForce GTX 16-series laptops to deliver better battery life when you don’t need the performance of the NVIDIA GPU.

As NVIDIA is targeting the esports gaming market, they will also be offering the GeForce Fortnite Bundle with every purchase of the new GeForce GTX 16-series laptops and graphics cards from now until 22nd May.
The new Acer Nitro 5 and Acer Nitro 7 will feature the GeForce GTX 16-series GPUs.
Overall, performance gains from the mobile variants of the new GeForce GTX 16-series GPUs are pretty similar to their desktop counterparts. NVIDIA claims a total of 80 designs at launch, with prices starting from $799 (~RM3300) for the new GeForce GTX 16-series laptops.
Would you be picking one up soon?
Pokdepinion: Definitely looking forward to a light GeForce GTX 1650 laptop!
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Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age – English Release Confirmed for PC and PS4

We were expecting the English version of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age to come out sooner or later but not much details were available at first. Now, Square Enix has shared quite a bit about it.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age English Release Confirmed

While we have known about the English release of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age for a whil, Square Enix has not shared that much information about it until now. Today, we learned that the game is coming west on PC and PlayStation 4 with some brand new features, including an English voiceover, on September 4th 2018.
While the vast base game already includes over 100 hours of content, Square Enix is bringing quite a bit to Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age in its English release. As I mentioned before, this game will include an English voiceover, but is also poised to include reworked menus, movement, and camera controls to make things feel smoother. Players will also have access to a special Camera Mode to check out the game’s gorgeous environments in greater detail.

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In addition, players will also have access to Dash function that wasn’t in the Japanese version of the game. As for new content, the English release of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age will include the Draconian Quest, which is a hard mode for veteran players to test their skills in.
Unfortunately, there is currently no word on the Nintendo 3DS of Nintendo Switch versions of the game. That being said, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is already available for pre-order on the PlayStation Store for selected regions, and those who pre-order there will gain instant access to a PS4 menu theme and in-game DLC once the game launches.
Above here, you can check out 2 new videos for the game. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age will launch on PC and PlayStation 4 on September 4th 2018.
Pokdepinion: Yes, it’s actually getting a PC release. Not that I have anything against the PlayStation 4, I just find gaming on PC more convenient.
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Xiaomi Teams Up With Kittie Yiyi — Get Your Limited Edition Phone Case With Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE!

Xiaomi Malaysia has recently announced of their collaboration with local fashion designer, Kittie Yiyi, in conjunction with the launch of the new Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE.
Xiaomi X Kittie Yiyi

Starting from today, you can get a free limited edition lanyard phone case designed by Kittie Yiyi when you purchase the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE. The offer applies for both 8GB+128GB and 8GB+256GB variants, while stocks last. As you can see from the image above, you can get the former at RM1,399 and RM1,599 for the latter option.

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Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE Specifications

CPU
Snapdragon 778G, 6nm FinFET
1 x Kryo 670 (Cortex-A78) @ 2.4GHz + 3 x Kryo 670 (Cortex-A78) @ 2.2GHz + 4 x Kryo-670 (Cortex-A55) @ 1.9GHz

GPU
Adreno 642L

Memory
6GB LPDDR4X

Storage
128GB UFS 2.2, expandable via microSD

Display
6.55″ FHD+ (2400x 1080) AMOLED display, 90Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch response
Delta E < 1 TrueColor display, HDR10+, 800 nits peak brightness, 10-bit color, DCI-P3 gamut support, 360° ambient light sensor, Corning Gorilla Glass 5

Audio
Dual speakers

Camera
64MP f/1.79 main camera, Samsung GW3 1/1.97″ sensor, 0.7µm pixels
8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide angle, 119° FoV
5MP f/2.4 telemacro camera, CDAF (3cm~7cm)
AI Camera, Auto HDR, AI SkyScaping, Pro Mode, AI Cinema, Vlog Mode,, Movie Effects
Up to 1080p120 slow-mo, Up to 4K30 video

Selfie camera
20MP f/2.24 selfie camera
1080p60 video recording, Portrait mode, Night mode, Cinematic filters

Connectivity
Hybrid Dual SIM
5G Band n41/77/78/79, n1, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n25, n28, n38, n40
LTE Band 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 7/ 8/ 18/ 19/ 20/ 26/ 28
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
NFC
Dual-band GPS

Software
MIUI 12.5 based on Android 11

Battery
4250mAh
33W fast charging, 33W charger in the box

Dimensions
160.53 x 75.73 x 6.81 mm

Weight
158g

Ingress protection
IP53

You can find the offer only available at authorized Xiaomi stores in Malaysia. Sporting a 6.55-inch AMOLED DotDisplay, the device is powered by a Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset. It comes with a 64MP triple camera at the back and has a 4250mAh battery under the hood that you can charge with its 33W fast charger.
Interested to know more on the smartphone? Do check out our full thoughts right here. For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: Out of the four, I fancy the black and white variants. Again, be sure to see what we have to say about the device in our in-depth review and find out if it’s the one for you.
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[E3 2018] Trials Rising Announced – Taking Place in Every Parts of the World

At the Ubisoft E3 2018 press conference today in Los Angeles, Ubisoft revealed the latest entry to the rage-inducing Trials series, Trials Rising.
E3 2018: Trials Rising Announced by Ubisoft

At the Ubisoft E3 2018 press conference today in Los Angeles, a new entry to the popular, rage-inducing Trials game has been announced. It is called Trials Rising. Red Lynx will once again take the reigns and provide another bone-breaking experience to everyone who loves games, motocross, or both. I suppose a masochist who finds joy in difficult games will also count.
Trials Rising received an introduction by Antti Ilvessuo, who rode a motorcycle onto the stage and crashed into the podium after stepping off of the bike. After showing an emphasis on crashing and wrecking being an important element to the popular Trials series, a gameplay trailer then popped up onto the screen.

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Trials Rising will take place in locations throughout the entire world, as said by Antti on stage as crew members cleaned up the shattered podium awkwardly. Then announced was a beta program for those who would like to try the game early. Also mentioned was a website for everyone to register at, which is Trialsgame.com. You can head straight to the page by typing that out in your address bar or by clicking right here. This beta will take place sometime later this year.
Trials Rising will be coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and the Nintendo Switch on 19th February 2019. Be sure to check out the trailer for the game at the top of this post.
For more developments and news at E3 2018, be sure to stay tuned to Pokde.net 🙂
Pokdepinion: Well, I can sense an influx of rage gamer clips on YouTube and Facebook in the near future, and this is definitely one of the reasons why.
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