OPPO F11 Pro Review – Great Value for Money Device

Unboxing the OPPO F11 Pro

In the box, you are expected to receive a number of items. Nothing out of the usual, just your standard stuff:

The OPPO F11 Pro smartphone
Clear TPU case
VOOC 3.0 charger
MicroUSB cable
Handsfree kit
SIM Tray Ejector Pin
User Guide and Warranty Info

Appearance

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Chances are that when you’re looking at the phone itself, you’re gonna be wondering where the selfie camera or notch is. Well, what makes the OPPO F11 Pro smartphone special here is that there is no notch, and the selfie camera is hidden by a pop-up mechanism. This means that you will get the entire 6.53-inch of screen with no sacrifices for a selfie camera placement. There is a noticeable amount of bezel on the bottom part however, but you’re still getting the all-screen display on the front. To be precise, you’re looking at a 90.9% screen-to-body ratio here.

On the back of the OPPO F11 Pro, you can see the dual-camera setup, a fingerprint scanner right below that, followed by some OPPO branding. For our OPPO F11 Pro review, we are using the Aurora Green colour option, which essentially seems to be aqua blue with a hint of green. You have a refined plastic back, which gives it a bit of a premium look at the cost of it being a slight fingerprint magnet. I’ve seen worse fingerprint magnets on smartphones before and this actually isn’t too bad. The camera does protrude a bit, which may be scary in the event of a drop. A protective case is definitely needed.

At the top of the device, you only have some microphone holes. On the bottom however, you get a 3.5mm audio jack, another microphone hole, a microUSB port, and a speaker grille.

On the left side, you have the volume rocker sitting in solitude. On the right side, you have the power button as well as the SIM Card / microSD tray. It’s worth noting that all sides have a matte finish as opposed to the glossy finish on the back. This certainly helps in getting a better grip with the phone, making it less slippery.

To my surprise for a smartphone of this price, it looks and feels rather premium. Furthermore, it’s definitely aesthetically pleasing, with the Thunder Black one being more attractive in my opinion. It also has some practical design choices made in order to give the OPPO F11 Pro a better grip, particularly the matte finish on the sides and top. If you’re not a fan of the notch, then you would definitely be pleased with this in terms of looks alone.
Specifications

CPU/Chipset:
Mediatek Helio P70 (4 x Cortex-A73 + 4 x Cortex-A53), 12nm

GPU:
Mali-G72

RAM:
6GB

Display:
6.53″ FHD+ (1080 x 2340) LTPS IPS LCD display, 19:5:9 ratio, 397ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 5

Storage:
64GB

Camera:
Main Camera(s)
48 MP, f/1.8, 1/2.3″, 0.8µm, PDAF
5 MP, f/2.4, 1/5″, 1.12µm, depth sensor
LED flash, HDR, panorama, Full HD @ 30 FPS videos
Front Camera
Motorized pop-up 16 MP, f/2.0, 1/3.1″, 1.0µm
HDR, Full [email protected] fps videos

OS:
Android 9.0 Pie, ColorOS 6.0

Connectivity:
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), Wi-Fi Direct, Hotspot
Bluetooth 4.2, A2DP, LE
microUSB 2.0, USB On-The-Go

Audio:
Mono speakers
3.5mm jack

SIM:
Dual SIM (Nano)

Battery:
4,000 mAh non-removable
20W VOOC 3.0 fast charge

Dimensions:
161.3 x 76.1 x 8.8 mm

Colours:
Aurora Green, Thunder Black

If you’re interested to know what sort of deals you can get with the OPPO F11 Pro, click right here.
Performance
Antutu v7 Benchmark Results
Before we start, I’d like to kindly point out that the OPPO F11 Pro utilizes the MediaTek Helio P70 chipset with the Mali-G72 GPU. On Antutu v7, we can see that it outperforms Snapdragon 660 devices but loses out to the Snapdragon 710 and Kirin 970 chipsets by a fair amount. It’s not a bad score, if you ask me. For a midrange device, it did adequately enough.
Geekbench Benchmark Results
On Geekbench, you can see that it outperforms the older Helio P60 chipset in the OPPO F9. and also the Snapdragon 636 chipsets. It’s interesting that it scored lower than the Kirin 710 in single core, but beats it in multi-core operation. This would make multi-threaded applications easier to run on the device.
3DMark Benchmark Results
As for 3DMark, it’s definitely not the best but it’s far from the worst, that’s for sure. It does decently enough overall which is a good sign that you can have a fairly good gaming experience with the OPPO F11 Pro smartphone.
PCMark Work 2.0 Benchmark Results
Now for PCMark Work 2.0 benchmark, which is a synthetic benchmark for real world use, it actually performed surprisingly well. As you can see, it’s high up there and performs pretty closely to a Snapdragon 845 chipset in the ZenFone 5z and the Mi 8. This shows that you should have little to no trouble using this as your daily driver for non-gaming purposes.
OPPO F11 Pro battery life synthetic benchmark.
The OPPO F11 Pro smartphone has a fairly large 4,000 mAh battery capacity. As such, we were expecting some good numbers but this would also be highly reliant on the efficiency of the Helio P70 chipset. At 10 hours and 22 minutes, that’s a pretty amazing score, and it’s high up there with some of the best performing ones around. As for charging,
As for personal use, I would describe myself as a medium user. I don’t normally game, I make some calls, I frequently text friends on Whatsapp and Telegram, and I am on social media a lot. With my use, I can get about a day and a half to two days of use without any problems.
This would of course be noticeably lesser if you do play games on the smartphone. It’s worth noting that the smartphone gets lukewarm at best when gaming. It never came to a point where it got unbearably hot, which is a good point to take note of for mobile gamers on a budget. Either way, it is shaping up to be a very attractive smartphone.
User Experience

The OPPO F11 Pro is a beautiful device to behold. The LTPS IPS LCD display shows vibrant and sharp colours with well-defined visuals on screen. The display is a bit reflective though, so viewing can be a bit tricky when it’s slightly tilted. While it’s easy to use indoors, it can be a bit troublesome outdoors as the brightness doesn’t seem quite enough during sunny days. It’s okay, but it could be better. If you have the auto-brightness setting on, it will shift the brightness to pretty high when you’re outdoors.
The pop-up camera design allowed you to have more screen without the need of those notches. However, it’s not bezel-less by any means. There is a noticeable ‘chin’ bezel at the bottom. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, and most people won’t notice it anyway. With a 19:5:9 aspect ratio and 90.9% screen-to-body ratio, you essentially have the full 6.53-inch display to enjoy.

As much as I like how smartphones with glossy backs look, it does have its drawbacks. Usually, it’s a fingerprint magnet that is also slippery to hold. With the matte finish on the sides however, it is surprisingly easier to hold. Furthermore, fingerprints aren’t that noticeable on the OPPO F11 Pro compared to other glossy back devices.

In terms of security, you can lock your devices using your standard PIN or password. For ease of usage however, you can opt for the fingerprint scanner or use face recognition. The fingerprint scanner is situated right below the camera, which is a natural position for your index finger on both hands, and it works almost instantaneously.

Many may find the idea of using face recognition with a pop-up camera rather troublesome but I’m happy to report that it works great. The selfie camera pops up as soon as you press the power button, and it seems to take a second or less to identify your face. Even in the dark, it recognizes pretty well, albeit its more prone to failure this way. My only worry is if constant use of the pop-up selfie camera will cause it to break down sooner rather than later.
In the audio department, the OPPO F11 Pro smartphone has mono speakers, with the grille located next to the microUSB port. I’ve always found that stereo speaker would be the better option and I honestly didn’t expect much from this. To my surprise however, it is surprisingly loud yet audibly clear. Sure, it would be better if the sound was directed towards the user but I’d take downwards speaker over rear speakers any day.
ColorOS 6.0 UI on the OPPO F11 Pro smartphone.
ColorOS 6.0, based on Android 9.0 Pie, is simple to use but not something I personally fancy. It’s simplistic in nature and it’s meant to look clean. By default, it doesn’t have an app drawer and will have all the apps on your Home Screen. You can change it to have an app drawer by going to the Home Screen Mode settings.
What I would have loved is a built-in Dark Mode of sorts, which would be pleasing to my eyes. The most I can do is turn on Night Shield (reduce Blue Light emission) or just the screen colour temperature; Cooler, Default, and Warmer. There’s really nothing to complain really, just a matter of personal taste.
Camera
OPPO F11 Pro Camera UI
The Camera UI in the OPPO F11 Pro is easy to navigate with. You have your standard Video,, Photo, and Portrait options. You can select additional shooting modes by pressing the three lines besides the existing shooting modes. I had trouble looking for the “Pro” mode, where you can freely adjust ISO, shutter speed, and other things.
Turns out, it’s listed as “Expert” mode. By default, HDR is turned on so if you feel like the colours of your photos are washed, that might be why. You can quickly zoom to 2x by simply pressing 1x above the shooting modes, or you can use the usual method of pinching the screen.
You also have the beautification option for both front and rear cameras. It will be set to AI by default, so the camera will automatically adjust for the best results. It may be a bit finicky at first but it will gradually get better as it learns. You can always adjust it yourself manually so no problems there. Switching to selfie mode will immediately activate the pop-up camera mechanism. You can also add filters prior to taking photos. It’s not professional colour grading, nor does it have as many options as Instagram for it, but it’s there if you want to use it.

As for the camera performance, I’m pleasantly surprised by how good the photos turned out. The pictures are well-defined with a good amount of details and pleasing colours. The selfie camera works fine enough but by default on AI, I had the scare of my life as the beautification did a bit too much to my face. The front camera does have trouble getting a clear focus from time to time, so you may need to take multiple selfies for good measure.
My only major complaint with the camera is for low-light photography. It tries to compensate for the lack of light a bit too much, thus resulting in photos being noticeably brighter and washed out than they should. With HDR, it’s not too bad but the colours still take a big hit. However, that’s to be expected with HDR modes on smartphones. If you do plan on shooting in low-light conditions, Expert mode is the way to go as it fares a lot better with some tweaks in the setting.
OPPO F11 Pro Verdict

The OPPO F11 Pro is a surprisingly good smartphone for the price that it’s being offered. It’s not the best smartphone around for sure but it’s a great value-for-money device that can satisfy many people out there. If gaming is your thing, you’d most likely be happier with something like the Pocophone F1.
However, if you just need to run some apps, go through social media, snap some photos, and have good battery life, it’s hard to be disappointed here. It’s worth noting that it doesn’t have an IP rating for dust and water resistance, most likely due to the pop-up selfie camera.
The looks alone already makes the RM1,299 price tag a surprise. If you add RM100, you can even get your hands on the Marvel’s Avengers Limited Edition version of the smartphone… assuming they still have it in stock of course. If you want to check out that version, click right here.
While it does have its quirks, its forgivable given its affordable price. With that, I give the OPPO F11 Pro smartphone our Gold Pokdeward.

Our thanks to OPPO Malaysia for providing us the OPPO F11 Pro smartphone for review.
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Own The Latest HUAWEI P40 Series From RM178/month With Digi PhoneFreedom 365

If you’re interested in getting your hands on the new HUAWEI P40 series, Digi is now offering you exactly that through their phone ownership program,, Digi PhoneFreedom 365.
Digi PhoneFreedom 365 HUAWEI P40 Series

The program is now available online where you can get the HUAWEI P40 from as low as RM178 per month and RM228 per month for the HUAWEI P40 Pro model.
In addition to that, you can get free 2X Data Quota up to 200GB monthly for Digi Postpaid 80+GBoost customers onwards as well as free Digi Shield for Digi Postpaid 160 customers (and above).

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There’s also freebies included worth RM1,300 with purchase, these include:
HUAWEI P40 freebiesHUAWEI P40 Pro freebiesHUAWEI Freebuds 3HUAWEI Freebuds 3HUAWEI Wireless Charging CaseHUAWEI CP39S SuperCharge Wireless Car ChargerHUAWEI Care (1-year extended warranty and 1-month screen protection)HUAWEI Care (1-year extended warranty and 1 month screen protection)Cloud Storage of 50GB (valid for 12 months)Cloud Storage of 50GB (valid for 12 months)HUAWEI Video (Free Premium access for first 3 months)HUAWEI Video (Free Premium access for first 3 months)
The offer is available for all existing, port in, and new Digi Postpaid Customers, where device advance payment is applicable subject to customer’s eligibility. Both cash and debit card option is available.
For more details, you can head to the Digi website right here. If you wish to learn more on the HUAWEI P40 Pro, you can check out our full hands-on review here.
Pokdepinion: So if you’re interested in getting the HUAWEI P40 series, you know where to look now.
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HUAWEI Y6 Prime 2018 Released — Affordable Audio And Entertainment Smartphone!

While not too long ago, HUAWEI released the Y5 Prime 2018. This time around, the company has announced the launching of the new HUAWEI Y6 Prime 2018.
HUAWEI Y6 Prime 2018

Aimed for the youth market, the Y6 Prime offers a 5.7-inch HD+ FullView Display. It is equipped with EMUI 8.0, which is based on Android 8.0 Oreo. One of the highlights of the phone is the audio, where it features support for high volume up to 88dB, which can be considered louder than your average phones.

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Staying on audio, the phone supports group music, which is available after HOTA update, which allows you to connect up to 8 mobile phones and turn them into speakers in a 5.1 surround sound.
With the phone’s Histen technology, it comes with three modes; near, front, and wide, providing you the option of the sound of your choice.
Other specifications include 13MP (rear) and 8MP (front) cameras, a 3000mAh battery, Snapdragon 425, and 2GB RAM that’s paired up with 16GB of internal memory (expendable up to 256GB).
Available now in the market, it comes in two colors, Black and Blue. You can get it at HUAWEI Experience Stores and display zones nationwide at a retail price of RM584. In addition to that, you can also get it for free with Celcom’s Xpax Postpaid Plan. You can read on the details of the plan here.
Pokdepinion: The selling point of the device right now is the audio. I can’t say much since I’ve yet to test it out. Would you buy a phone for audio purposes? Let us know in the comments.
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[E3 2019] Marvel’s Avengers Game Officially Revealed

We’ve had some teasers as well as a surprise reveal even before E3 2019 took place. Now, at the Square Enix E3 2019 press conference, the Marvel’s Avengers game has been officially revealed and it looks pretty darn good.
The game will feature single player as well as co-op gameplay. There will be at least five playable characters including Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Thor. Square Enix also mentioned on stage that this is a game that they want to support for years to come. Over time more content will be added but it will all be free, so you don’t have to pay for DLC or a season pass.
Here’s a description of the plot of Marvel’s Avengers, courtesy of Square Enix:

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Marvel’s Avengers begins at A-Day, where Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow, and Thor are unveiling a hi-tech Avengers Headquarters in San Francisco, including the reveal of their own helicarrier powered by an experimental energy source. The celebration turns deadly when a catastrophic accident results in massive devastation. Blamed for the tragedy, the Avengers disband. Five years later, with all Super Heroes outlawed and the world in peril, the only hope is to reassemble Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Marvel’s Avengers will be coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia on 15th May 2020. PS4 owners will have the chance to play the game early via an upcoming beta, but registrations for that isn’t up yet. We’ll be sure to report on that as soon as it becomes available. For now, check out the awesome trailer at the top of this post.
Pokdepinion: I don’t even need to think twice. I’m definitely getting this one. It looks very promising and a lot better than what I imagined.
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Edifier TWS200 Lolipod True Wireless Earphones Review — it really isn’t all about the bass…

If you fancy the Apple AirPod’s open design but are not willing to pay the top-dollar pricing it commands, this might be right up your alley. The Edifier TWS200, which is also known as the Lolipod, features a similar semi-in-ear design that doesn’t seal you from the outside world, and what’s better is its affordable price tag of just RM169. Intrigued already?
What’s In The Box

The packaging is similar to all of the other Edifier TWS200, which means a grey box with the product image in the center.

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Qualcomm aptX support is among the highlights of the Edifier TWS200, as it is definitely not all that common in a pair of earphones this affordable.

Over on the back we get more specifications and highlighted features…

And as usual as well, the contents are very simple. You get the earphones, a user guide, a microUSB cable and an activated carbon deodorizer. None of that silicon dehumidifier stuff here. Moving on, let’s check out the Edifier TWS200’s specifications…
Specifications

Drivers
13mm dynamic liquid cystal polymer composite (LCP) drivers

Frequency Response
20 Hz – 20,000 Hz

Sensitivity:
96 dB

Impedance:
28 Ω

Headphone Type
True wireless, semi-in-ear

Connection
Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo Plus

Wireless Range
10m

Noise-cancelling
N/A for playback cVc noise reduction for calls

Battery
Earphones Up to 6 hours playback, 1.5 hour full charge Charging Case 3x Full Charge (total 24 hours)

Weight
Earphones 4.5 x 2 Charging Case 31g (without earpieces)

Colour
Glossy Black

User Experience

As you might expect from a product that’s supposed to emulate Apple’s designs, the design here is very simplistic. The glossy black looks very nice here but after a few days in my backpack, it has collected more than its fair share of scratches. I do wish they have went with the matte finish of the Edifier TWS5’s case instead.
Pairing

One area that Edifier didn’t manage to match Apple is the fact that they still had to put in a button. This button is only needed for pairing, so after you pair it with your smartphone, you should be able to ignore it.

Between the earphones lie a tiny LED that serves as a status LED. As you can see. It can glow in white and red, which indicate the following:

Power On: White LED stays on for 1 second
Bluetooth Pair: Red LED flashing
TWS Pair: White LED flashing
Deleted pairing: LEDs flash for 6 seconds

Comfort

Additional controls are available by touching them near the secondary microphone hole. They work via a number of taps, with taps on either the left and right earpieces corresponding to different functions.

Left: Activate Voice Assistant
Right: Answer/End/Play/Pause

When used individually, you can’t activate voice assistant, with double taps allowing you to pick up and end calls as well as play and pause your music. There are no gestures, so you can’t adjust the volume via the earpieces of the Edifier TWS200, unlike some more premium earphones featuring a similar design. As everything is made of glossy plastic, if you are very OCD about smudging up the earpieces, the Edifier TWS200 is definitely not the earphones for you. They do sit quite comfortably in my ears though, and since there’s no silicone tips intruding into your ear canals, I found it possible to wear it for longer than I would usually use my in-ear earphones for.
Sound
One thing to note about the Edifier TWS200 is that it has quite a bit of bass which surprised me considering its semi-in-ear design, although I quickly realized that it may have just a bit too much of it. The bass guitar in Hotel California easily overpowered everything else, while the sizzle from the cymbal was notably absent. It definitely leans to a warm sound signature, with a heavy emphasis on the lower frequencies that overpowers and envelops everything else.

I can hardly recommend it for any sort of music as I found even EDM beats to be a bit overwhelmingly warm, but that might be my own personal preference. Since there’s no sound isolation that an in-ear design might offer, the Edifier TWS200 lets you take in the noise around you, for better or worse. It might cause some to turn up the volume though, so you might want to be aware of that.
Battery life

Battery life is good with me getting the six hours that Edifier claimed the Edifier TWS200 will offer. The battery life of the earpieces are available in the Bluetooth menu of most smartphones, but it might probably be a bit harder to keep tabs on the battery of the case as the single LED isn’t the most helpful for that. I do wish Edifier had the foresight to throw in a USB-C port here, but I guess you get what you pay for…
Conclusion
For RM169, I personally find it quite hard to recommend the Edifier TWS200. I would rather opt for the Edifier TWS1, as that offered a bass-centric sound signature which made EDM songs fun to listen to, but the Edifier TWS200 Lolipod is just overdoing it. Unless you really need a pair of inexpensive semi-in-ear earphones, just get the Edifier TWS1. You can thank me later.
Our thanks to Edifier Malaysia for sending us the Edifier TWS200 Lolipod for review
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Google’s Cloud AutoML simplifies artificial intelligence; makes machine learning easier to implement!

Machine learning is an interesting field, as it offers the opportunity to transfer the burden of labor-intensive tasks to a computer, reducing the costs and man-hours needed. While it may sound great, the actual process of implementation is much more difficult, with the costs involved with hiring engineers to develop your machine learning model. With Cloud AutoML, you can now easily customize your machine learning model with an easy to use GUI.
The first product of Cloud AutoML that Google will be introducing will be the Cloud AutoML Vision. This services allows you to create custom ML models for image recognition. Upload images, train and manage your models, and deploy those trained images directly on Google Cloud. Early tests have shown that Cloud AutoML Vision is more accurate at classifying public datasets than generic ML APIs.

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The Cloud AutoML Vision is built on Google’s image recognition technologies, including transfer learning and neural architecture search technologies. This will allow you to easily create an accurate model even with limited machine learning expertise. The simple GUI also allows you to create a quick model in minutes, or create a full, production ready model in just a day.
Urban Outfitters has implemented Cloud AutoML to automate the product attribution process by recognizing product characteristics like patterns and neckline styles. This allows them to cut out manually creating product attributes, which are necessary for a great recommendation experience. Meanwhile, the Zoological Society of London has implemented Google CloudML to tag the millions of images captured by camera traps in the wild.
AutoML Vision is but the first of an array of Cloud AutoML products in development. If you want to try out AutoML Vision for yourself, you can request access via this form.
Pokdepinion: AI vision is a cool feature to have, and certain smartphones like the HUAWEI Mate 10 already has it. The full potential of AI and ML remains to be explored, so it’s nice to see Google making it easier for business to implement it.
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Troy Baker Will Not Reprise His Role as Rhys in Borderlands 3

 I was at Supanova Melbourne yesterday & I managed to ask Troy Baker if he is returning as Rhys in BL3 which he replied with "I’m sorry to break it to y’all, that isn’t me" — (sorry for vertical video, con had rules bout vid recordings during panels) from borderlands3

If you’re a fan of the Borderlands series, then chances are that you know of the character Rhys. He didn’t appear in the main games but he did appear in Tales from the Borderlands by Telltale Games. The character is voiced by none other than Troy Baker… that is until Borderlands 3 where another voice actor will apparently be taking on the role.
According to Reddit user Josh_J_Anderson who recorded a portion of a Troy Baker Q&A at Supanova Melbourne, the popular voice actor was asked if he will be reprising his role as Rhys in Borderlands 3. Unfortunately, Baker responded with “I really want Gearbox to know that if they’re going to bring back characters from Telltale Borderlands, it should be the people that originated the characters.”
There are a number of possible reasons that this might have happened. For one thing, Troy Baker is very popular so we wouldn’t be surprised if his going rates are pricey. In this sense, perhaps Gearbox Software isn’t looking to pay too much for the voice of Rhys. It could also be a sign that the character will only play a minor role in the game, so they’d rather not spend too much.

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There is also a chance that from the announcement trailer, the voice of Rhys was merely a placeholder and the actual voice recordings have not started yet. This would also mean that Troy Baker may still not be aware if he’s involved in the game in any way. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see in the final product.
Borderlands 3 will be coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via the Epic Games Store on 13th September 2019.
Pokdepinion: This isn’t the first time the voice actor didn’t get to reprise a role as there were some additional recordings for the character Yuri Lowell in Tales of Vesperia that mimicked his voice, but clearly wasn’t him. It’s weird, and I wonder why.
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Apple and BlackBerry, now made in India

I believe it is not a coincidence that both smartphone brands named after fruits are turning to India to manufacture their devices. India’s ranks third in the world by purchasing power parity, and is also ranks second in terms of population. With the high buying power and massive human capital available, it really comes as no surprise.

Apple will be setting up their manufacturing plant in Bengaluru, or better known as Bangalore, and is reported to have reached an agreement with the Karnataka government. Wistron Corporation is Apple’s manufacturing partner in India. Apple is expected to begin production in April, targeting the domestic market in India.

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Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook has identified India to be an important emerging market, especially with it taking up 66% of the high end smartphone market in October 2016 with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The younger median age of consumers in India as compared to China is also an attractive point for smartphone manufacturers, as younger generations are more willing to spend top dollar for flagship devices.

BlackBerry also considers India a very important market, and has partnered with Optiemus Infracom to design, manufacture and distribute BlackBerry devices in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. BlackBerry has previously partnered with TCL to manufacture and distribute BlackBerry smartphones worldwide, with the exception of the few countries listed above. This new deal with Optiemus might see India having BlackBerry devices tailored specifically for the Indian market.
India is definitely one of the largest markets for smartphones, and a strong presence the market there is very important. Also worth noting is that with the rise of China’s homegrown smartphone brands, other smartphones are finding it increasingly difficult to penetrate into the Chinese market, which makes penetrating the Indian market all the more vital.
Pokdepinion: One of our writers considers India the second China, and I believe it might be true. With such a huge amount of human resources there, India definitely has the potential to match China in terms of manufacturing capacity. However, this bit of news might not even affect us, as both brands seem to focus on the domestic market with their manufacturing in India.
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This RTX laptop is cheaper than a RTX graphics card!

Yes, it actually is. The MSI GL63 8SE we previously did an in-depth review for is actually cheaper than some GeForce RTX graphics cards. Here’s the video highlighting the main points of the MSI GL63 8SE, just in case you prefer watching a video over reading our review.

MSI GL63 8SE Specifications

CPU
Intel Core i7-8750H @ 2.2 GHz (up to 4.1 GHz Turbo Boost)

RAM
8GB (1 x 8GB SODIMM) 2667 MHz DDR4 (1 slot vacant)

GPU
Intel UHD 630
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6

Storage
256GB Kingston M.2 PCIe 3.0 x2 NVMe SSD
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 2.5″ HDD

Software
Microsoft Windows 10 Home
MSI Dragon Center
MSI Battery Calibration
MSI App Player
Killer Control Center
NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready Driver 419.17 WHQL

Connectivity
Intel Wireless-AC 9560 WiFi 802.11ac Wave2 (Up to 1733 Mbps)
Bluetooth 5.0
Killer Gigabit LAN
2 x USB 3.0
1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 (Type-A)
1 x Type-C USB 3.1 Gen2
SD card reader

Display
15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) TN panel, wide-view
1 x HDMI 2.0 ([email protected])
1 x Mini-DisplayPort

Audio
2 x 3W speakers
1 x 3.5mm microphone in
1 x 3.5mm headphone out

Power
180W power adapter
51 WHr 6-cell Li-Ion battery

Dimensions
383 x 260 x 29.5 mm

Weight
2.3 kg

Price
i5 8300H variant: RM5399
i7 8750H variant: RM6299

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Xiaomi Malaysia Offers Plenty Of Deals This 7.7

Xiaomi Malaysia has announced their upcoming mid-year 7.7 sales campaign with deals of up to 30% off and more when you purchase their products.
Xiaomi Malaysia 7.7 mid-year sale

During their 7.7 mid-year sale, you can get deals up to 30% off and exclusive free gifts on selected Xiaomi smartphones, ecosystem products and POCO smartphones. 7.7 deals will be offered for one day only on 7th of July, with selected shopping window time, followed by an After Party promotion price on a selected range of Mi Robot Vacuum-Mops from July 8 to 16.

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Aside from that, the Shop With Mi campaign continues with special deals such as RM2,000,000 worth of Touch ‘n Go reload pins and exclusive free gifts for every purchase of selected Xiaomi smartphones.
Deals can be found on both official Xiaomi stores on Shopee and Lazada where you can get the latest Mi 11 Lite, Redmi Note 10S, as well as their ecosystem products such as the Mi Robot Vacuum-Mop P and more.
For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: There’s A LOT on offer during the sale. Be sure to check them all out and maybe you’ll find something that will attract you.
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Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition Malaysia Release Date Confirmed

The folks over at Bandai Namco Entertainment Asia has officially announced the release date for Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition in Malaysia. The game will be coming to the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC on 11th January 2019. The Xbox One version will only be available in digital form.
There will also be a Premium Edition of the game which will come with box containing a copy of the game, 4 CD soundtrack, artbook, collectible cards set, pin badge set, Chibi Chara stickers set and a Repede Metalcase. This limited- dition collectible version of the game will be available on Day-1 at selected retail stores across Southeast Asia.

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If you’re wondering how Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition differs from its previous iterations, check it out right below here:

Upscaled screen resolution, characters, events, and costumes never released outside of Japan!
Introducing two new playable party members. Flynn Scifo, the main character’s rival, and best friend, and Patty Fleur, a young pirate searching for her lost memories.
Uses a specialised version of the TALES OF series’ Linear Motion Battle System for combat.
Players control a single party member in real-time combat while the other three party members are controlled by a customized set of A.I. commands.
Players can swap between the four characters at any time during battles and can perform physical attacks, magic artes or even powerful Mystic Artes.

Once again, Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition will be coming to the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC on 11th January 2019. The Xbox One version will only be available in digital form.
Pokdepinion: This is one of two J-RPGs that I am excited to play this month, with the other being Kingdom Hearts 3. Yuri just feels so great as a protagonist, and definitely can’t compare with the likes of Jude and Sorey from Xillia and Zestiria respectively.
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[TGS 2018] New Resident Evil 2 Remake Trailer Shows Off Ada Wong

Capcom has unveiled a brand new trailer at TGS 2018 for the Resident Evil 2 remake, and we get some very clear visuals of the beautiful Ada Wong.
New Resident Evil 2 Remake Trailer at TGS 2018 Shows Off Ada Wong

The folks over at Capcom has published a brand new trailer at TGS 2018 on the upcoming Resident Evil 2 remake, which allows us to get some very clear visuals of Ada Wong’s new look.
The trailer focuses on the game’s narative, officially revealing Ada Wong’s new design, alongside Annette Birkin and Chief Officer Brian Irons. If you have played the original game on the PlayStation, then you know that you’re going to be in for one hell of a ride.

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Apparently, Ada Wong’s apperane is based off a concept art for Resident Evil 1.5 from a long time ago, and she does certainly give out that spy aura in this one. Be sure to check out the new TGS 2018 trailer for the game at the top of this post.
Resident Evil 2 will be coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on 25th January 25th 2019. Depending on your region, the game is already available for pre-order, both the standard and deluxe editions.
Pokdepinion: I always had a thing for Ada Wong growing up. It sure feels like I’m reliving some childhood memories…in HD.
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Xiaomi Claims #2 Spot In Global Smartphone Market

Canalys, a global market research firm has launched their Q2 global smartphone market report where it reports that Xiaomi has taken second place globally with a 17% share and a 83% YoY growth.
Xiaomi is world’s number 2 in smartphone market

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In the process of taking the number 2 spot, the company has surpassed Apple. Canalys has said that Xiaomi is now transforming their business model from challenger to incumbent, with initiatives such as channel partner consolidation and more careful management in the open market.
The research firm also states that Xiaomi’s new goal would be to displace Samsung to become the world’s largest vendor.
Back in Q4 2020, the global shipments of Xiaomi reached 43.4 million units with 31.5% YoY growth, surpassing Apple for the first time and returning to third place. In Q1 2021, Apple rose to 2nd spot with 15% of global smartphone market share, followed closely by Xiaomi with its 14% of market share.
Xiaomi’s global expansion as well as the transformation in new retail channels have been an important driving force in helping the company become the second largest smartphone manufacturer according to Canalys where they are reaching over 300% YoY growth in Latin America market, over 150% in Africa and over 50% growth in Western Europe.
For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: Credit is given to where it’s due. The question is, can they keep up and finally topple Samsung? This will be interesting to see.
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Live Images Of ROG Phone 2 Surfaces — You’ll Be Able To Set The Refresh Rate From 120Hz

After the news that the ROG Phone 2 might be packed with the recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ SoC, it seems that live images of the upcoming device has been revealed.

In a glance, the image shown look similar to the original ROG Phone, where it comes with stereo speakers. At the top right corner of the device is the phone’s selfie camera, albeit it is not confirmed of what resolution it offers.

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In another image, it confirms of the news that the ROG Phone 2 will come with a 120Hz refresh rate display. What’s interesting is that you’ll be able to set it from the mentioned 120Hz to 90Hz, and finally 60Hz, depending on your liking.
The ROG Phone 2 is set to be launched in China on 23rd of July 2019 and thanks to the Country Head of ASUS Malaysia’s confirmation that the phone will be coming to Malaysia, we should learn more about it soon. Until then, stay tuned to Pokde.net for more news on the ROG Phone 2.
Pokdepinion: Now the biggest question, how does the back look like? *drools*
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Vivo V5 review — race for the best selfie camera

Just a few years back, smartphones manufacturers were rushing towards higher and higher rear camera resolutions. It seems like all they saw was “the more the merrier.” Explaining your camera features based on sensor size and pixel size to sensor size was difficult to consumers, and also everyone wanted thinner devices, which resulted in smartphones with increasing pixel count but stagnating sensor sizes. However in recent years, it seems like everyone is finally understanding that the number of pixels isn’t what the be-all and end-all in image quality, and we are now going back to lower resolution cameras with better performance, gained in a number of ways. But well, we aren’t gonna talk about rear cameras today, as today’s device features a whopping 20MP front camera, with a soft LED flash, no less. We are talking about none other than the vivo V5, so without further ado, let’s take a closer look at this device.
Unboxing

The vivo V5 comes in a pretty standard packaging, with the product image on the front, as well as the 20MP front camera highlighted. For some reason, vivo also thought that the inclusion of 4G LTE support is worthy of mention on the front of the box over on the top right corner of the box.

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The first thing you see is the phone when you open up the packaging, with the rest of the contents under it. Everything is kept in its own separate compartment. vivo also included a pair of earphones with the vivo V5, a rather rare inclusion of late. An included case ensures that your vivo V5 will be protected from day one, while the 10W charger is not impressive, but still a lot better than the 5W chargers some entry-level devices come bundled with.
Appearance

The vivo V5 is a pretty generic looking device, with a front home button which doubles as the fingerprint sensor. The top and lower bezels are rather large, and the positioning of the front camera and loudspeaker offset towards the top of the bezel doesn’t help to hide it. Two hidden navigation buttons flank the home button, and are backlit this time around, unlike in the vivo V3Max.

The back of the vivo V5 is aluminium, with plastic for both the top and bottom ends. The engraved vivo logo and antenna lines break the monotony of the rose gold here. The camera is located at the top left edge of the device, with no fancy laser autofocus module or RGB sensor accompanying it, and is only flanked by a lonely single LED flash.

Moving over to the right edge of the vivo V5, there are the power button and volume rocker. Both these buttons feature a similar smooth finishing. The SIM tray cum microSD tray is over on the left edge of the vivo V5.

The top edge of the vivo V5 is entirely devoid of any ports, or even the secondary microphone hole. Thus we have a very densely populated lower edge, home to the mono loudspeaker, microUSB connector, microphone hole and also the 3.5mm jack, which thankfully has not been sent out to pasture, yet.
It looks pretty good, but bears an uncanny resemblance to the OPPO F1s, yet another device with a strong focus on the front camera. Considering that both company shares their roots, it is not a surprise at all but one could wish for a little more variety in terms of design.
Specifications

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

GPU
ARM Mali-T860 MP2 @ 520MHz

RAM
4GB LPDDR3

Display:
5.5″, HD (720p) IPS display

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

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

OS:
Funtouch OS 2.6 (based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow)

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

SIM:
microSIM (dual SIM support)

Battery:
3000 mAh (non-removable)

Performance
The vivo V5 is not going to blaze through the benchmarks, with a MediaTek MT6750 which is a decidedly mid-range SoC. Battery life should be decent since the cores are clocked rather low despite the old 28nm HPM process MediaTek harnessed to build this SoC. With 4GB of RAM, multitasking should not be a problem, as long as the CPU can handle it. That’s enough talk, now let’s look at the numbers.

Antutu rates the overall performance of the device, and the vivo V5 scores pretty poorly here. In fact, it is slower than the ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser which didn’t even score that well in this benchmark. Comparing it against another device with the MT6750, the OPPO F1s, the vivo V5 inches it out slightly.

Here it scores slightly lower than the OPPO F1s, but not by much. For some reason, the multi-core performance of the vivo V5 is higher than the ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser’s, despite the latter featuring 8 cores running at 1.4 GHz, while the vivo V5’s cores are configured in a big.LITTLE configuration.

Here we see a rather weak showing, but still better than the OPPO F1s’ performance in the graphics benchmark. As expected, the ASUS Zenfone 3 Laser with the Adreno 505 did better than the vivo V5, but the latter still holds the upper hand in the Slingshot Extreme (ES 3.1) benchmark.

The vivo V5 loses to the OPPO F1s here, scoring a mere 2958 in the Work 2.0 benchmark. PCMark tests the overall performance of the device in work-oriented tasks like photo editing and working with spreadsheets. Perhaps this device isn’t meant for work at all?

Battery life of the vivo V5 is quite abysmal actually, as I managed to only squeeze 3 hours out of the battery before it dropped to 15%. This was over around 14 hours of time away from the plug, which I consider quite poor. I only used it for Whatsapp, a few runs in Fun Run 2, a lot of Facebook and Messenger, light browsing with Chrome and some Instagram, all of which I do not consider to be really high power consumption apps.
User Experience
The vivo V5 features the usual microSIM and microSD tray which allows you to slot in a nanoSIM in place of the microSD if you want to have dual SIM functionality. Not my favorite configuration, but for some reason it is preferred by most brands over the true dual SIM support that the Honor 5X and OPPO F1s sport.

Holding the device, it feels quite heavy, which makes it feel pretty solid. The metal is finished a little too smoothly though, making it quite slippery to hold. If you are worried about it slipping out of your hands, there is always the included soft case for you.

The vivo V5 front mounted fingerprint sensor is solid state, meaning that it is not an actual button like on most other devices. It is also quite a fast one, unlocking the device nearly instantly after I placed my finger on it. The navigation keys are also backlit, quite a nice find after reviewing several devices that literally left me in the dark. The back button on the right is just wrong to me as most Android devices have it on the left. as per stock Android’s arrangement. Also, the vivo V5 comes with a menu key instead of the multitasking key. Menu keys are depreciated in most updated Android apps, which makes this inclusion quite puzzling.

vivo’s proprietary FuntouchOS is very different from stock Android, as I have mentioned in my review of the vivo V3Max previously. It looks more like iOS than Android. Quick settings are accessed with a swipe up from the bottom of the page, and the app switcher is found above the quick settings. This explains the missing multitasking key, but can get confusing if you are a first time vivo user. For the vivo V5, they have updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but judging based on the responses given to vivo users asking about Android 6.0 availability for the vivo V3Max, the future of software updates for the vivo V5 seems rather bleak too. Still, vivo has been known to push out incremental updates despite not giving the big Android updates. Overall, the experience is quite smooth thanks to the loads of animations that take their own sweet time transitioning between apps but there are still quite a few moments of hesitation here and there when opening and switching between apps. The loads of animations also seem to really put a toll on the GPU which resulted in the weak battery life I got.

Moving on, the highlight of the vivo V5, the front camera, is decidedly more impressive than any smartphone I have ever used, going for a 20MP sensor behind f/2.0 lens. Heck, it even sports a higher resolution than most of the rear cameras on smartphones! Moving on to the rear camera, the vivo V5 shares what seems like the same camera as the vivo V3Max, a 13MP sensor with PDAF and a f/2.2 lens.

The UI of the camera is pretty basic, with a few modes and filters available. As a selfie-centric device, there are quite few adjustments to the beautification mode available. As expected, the beautification mode can get pretty aggressive if you want it to. To the point that my pockmarked face can be as smooth as a K-pop artiste’s. No joke.

The rear camera’s low light performance is definitely wanting, with some serious noise exhibited in the dark sky area in the shot I took out of my balcony. In bright day light as well as indoors, the camera performs well, as expected, but some noise control can be seen in the finer details when zooming into the photos taken indoors. Still, the images are more than adequate for social media use, which should be the main use of the vivo V5’s camera. The front camera definitely enhances my face beyond recognition, which may be a boon for selfies-fanatics. I really admire vivo’s work here though, as the smoothing is limited to the face area only, with the hair regions still kept very sharp with so much information from the 20MP sensor. Tapping the shutter in rapid succession, there is not much wait between each shots to speak of, which may please those who need a lot of selfies to finally scrutinize all of them and pick a single one to upload.

Well to scrutinize your selfies, you will need to use the screen, and while the colors of the 5.5″ IPS panel vivo put into the V5 are pretty vivid, great for checking out photos and watching videos, but the 720p resolution makes text-heavy applications look quite bad. I admit we have been spoilt by sharper 1080p displays, and I am not even talking about 1440p panels yet, but 720p in 2016 is just a disgrace.

The mono loudspeaker on the bottom is loud, but that is pretty much all it is good for. It sounds tinny, and bass definition is definitely lacking. Still, that is quite a common issue for most loudspeakers. It doesn’t distort even at maximum volume, which is definitely worthy of mention. Plugging in a pair of headphones allow you to make use of the dedicated AK4376 DAC for HiFi audio. The curiously named BBE mode with the equally curious naming of the multiple options available is also found in the music player, allowing you to tune the sound signature as you see fit.
Conclusion
The vivo V5 is an okay mid-range device but the RM1299 price tag makes me double check my non-existent selfie habit. If you compulsively take selfies everywhere you go, even in the dark, and demand the best front camera you can get, then yes, the vivo V5 is perfect for you. But if you don’t, there may be other devices in this price point that will satisfy you. The first that comes to mind is the vivo V3Max which packs a much more potent Snapdragon 652 under its hood, with a pretty similar design. In fact it is cheaper than the vivo V5 now with an updated SRP of RM1199. If you are not going to scrutinize your selfies, a device with a better processor is going to be a much better pick, as all recent devices actually have front cameras that are more than enough for the random selfie.
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Petya ransomware cracked — solution available for free

In case you were stuck in a cave somewhere for some time, ransomware is a kind of malware that rewrites your hard drive’s master boot record (MBR), rendering your precious computer unable to boot, unless you submit to the requests of the creator of the ransomware you are infected with, that is. If you were wondering, why not just pull the drive out and plug it into another PC which can boot and access the files before wiping the whole drive? Well here’s why. Ransomware programs encrypt the master file table (MFT), which means that the operating system will not know where to look for the files that are in the drive. If the OS can’t see it, you can’t access it.
Well of course if a hacker can create such an ingenious method to ask for ransom from unsuspecting users, then of course another hacker will be able to crack it. And that is what happened here. Experts on BleepingComputer.com have managed to overcome the encryption of the Petya ransomware, but it requires extracting certain strings of information from the afflicted drive, which to be honest I have no idea how to.
Luckily yet another master by the name of Fabian Wosar wrote a tool to extract that information with just a click. You will have to plug your drive into another PC with bootable Windows and run the tool. The tool will automatically identify which drive is infected, and allow you to extract the information you need to decrypt your drive, which you will need to paste into the textboxes on the decryption site.

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Photo obtained from BleepingComputer.com
And you are done.
SOURCE: PCWorld

Pokdepinion: Ah, knowledge knows no bounds. It depends on whether it is used for good or bad though. Here we see both ends of the spectrum. Kudos to leostone and Fabian Wosar for this!
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Google Chrome Will Soon Alert You Of Slow Websites

I think we all have experienced it before; browsing the web, opening up a website just to find it to be…slow. Don’t you just hate it when that happens? Well it seems that Google will be doing something to alert Chrome users soon.
Apparently Google is working on a “speed badging” feature for their internet browser. With it, Chrome users will see the badge when they visit website, which will let them know whether they load fast or the opposite. You can check an example of how exactly it works below.

As you can see, they’ve showed two examples. If the website is slow, you’ll notice the loading bar to be blue in color and a big icon in the middle that writes “usually loads slow”.

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Unfortunately the Chromium blog post that details the badge doesn’t offer much insight on how a website gets established of being ‘too slow’ or otherwise.
It seems that according to the post, it is suggested that websites will be judged based on their historical load latencies. Websites will still allowed to change their badge over time when it they find improvements in speed.
Pokdepinion: Neat feature. I guess that visitors will be able to know whether their internet is the cause of the slow load or it is simply the website that they visit themselves.
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Get the HyperX Cloud Stinger Core for 50% Off – In Collaboration with SEA Major Malaysia 2018

Looking for a new gaming headset? In collaboration with the SEA Major Malaysia, you can get the HyperX Clound Stinger for 50% off, and here’s how.
Get the HyperX Cloud Stinger Core for 50% Off

Today, HyperX was announced as the official headset sponsor for SEA Major Malaysia 2018 which will be happening at Battle Arena in Jaya Shopping Centre. On the same day as the tournament, there will be a launch for the console-focused Cloud Stinger Core gaming headset at their booth, along with a variety of activities and promotions.

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For those of you who aren’t aware, the Cloud Stinger Core is designed for budget-minded console gamers looking for quality gaming headsets. It features an adjustable steel slider and soft ear cushions for comfort, along with a swiveling mic. The headset comes with directional 40mm drivers and a closed-cup design for a more immersive audio experience.
The Cloud Stinger Core is designed with the PlayStation 4 in mind, and is also compatible with Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, providing hours of comfortable gaming for pro gamers and enthusiasts alike. This brand new gaming headset will be exclusively available onsite with limited quantities.
From July 14th to July 15th 2018, HyperX will be having discounts for a range of their gaming products and peripherals, along with gaming challenges centered on Street Fighter V, AOV and Free Fire. The winner will walk away with a brand new Cloud Stinger Core gaming headset.
For more details of the event and the happenings, refer to them right below here:
Date: July 14th – July 15th, 2018
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Location: Jaya Shopping Centre (Battle Arena Hall)
Daily limited deal: Flash deal 50% off with limited quantities each day
Cloud Stinger Core promotion: Buy Cloud Stinger Core and get HyperX drawstring backpack
Daily raffles: Get a raffle ticket by every RM 100 purchase at HyperX booth

1st Prize: HyperX Revolver S (1 unit /day)
2nd Prize: HyperX Cloud Silver (1 unit /day)
3rd Prize: HyperX Cloud Stinger Core (1 units /day)

Street Fighter V competition: Have 2 rounds of 30 minutes tournament. The winner at 30 minute mark will get Cloud Stinger Core.

July 14th: 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
July 15th: 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. & 8:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Facebook lottery: Complete the following steps and have chance to win HyperX headsets, lanyards and T-shirts.

Take a photo of yourself with any HyperX headset at the HyperX booth.
Like the official Facebook page of HyperX @HyperXAPAC.
Post it on your Facebook with #FVXSEAM2018 and tag @HyperXAPAC

Pokdepinion: We’ll see you guys there.
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MapleStory 2 Joins the Battle Royale Bandwagon – Here’s How to Access the Game

It would seem that MapleStory 2 will also be taking part in the battle royale frenzy as it includes a new Mushking Royale mode.
MapleStory 2 Joins the Battle Royale Bandwagon

MapleStory 2 is getting a battle royale mode called the “Mushking Royale” mode. A closed beta is currently available on Nexon’s website for the upcoming new modes, which you can check out here if you’re interested in signing up. The closed beta for MapleStory 2 is planned to run from 18th July 2018 through 1st August 2018, though Mushking Royale will be specifically playable 20th July 2018 through 22nd July 2018.

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There are a couple of ways for you to get yourself into that closed beta, including:

Monster Invasion Retweet Events: Social media events hosted on the official @PlayMaple2 Twitter channel where players will be able to win beta keys;
Tria’s Tournament: A website event is running from July 2 to July 12 with special in-game rewards for participants who vote for their favorite class and share their results. Select participants from this tournament will receive access to Closed Beta 2;
Razer Partnership: Razer, a world leader in connected devices and software for gamers, will provide fans with beta code giveaways.

Additionally, the beta will be testing out some new features, updates, and other goodies for Maplers. Those who play the battle royale will get a cosmetic reward upon the mode’s official launch.
The Mushking Royale mode will have up to 50 players battle against each other until only one winner survives. Unique features of this mode include wall climbing, jumping through obstacles, hiding in bushes, and raising a characters strength by defeating monsters. Then, when you’re feeling confident, you can start your goal to beat your fellow Maplers in a totally friendly and adorable competition of skill, cunning, and strength.
MapleStory 2 is currently available on PC, and sign-ups for the closed beta are available on Nexon’s website. It is a free-to-play MMORPG and now battle royale title because everyone else is doing it.
Source: Nexon
Pokdepinion: Honestly, didn’t even know MapleStory 2 was a thing and now that it’s doing battle royale, I’m actually feeling kinda weird about it.
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iCable i10 Power Series microUSB Cable

Cables are something that we easily overlook when thinking about smartphone accessories. Probably because every smartphone is bundled with one, people often do not realize the importance of getting good cables to charge their phones with.
Apple raised some awareness among consumers about the need for quality cables with their proprietary MFi chips built into the cables, as cables that doesn’t have Apple’s chip of approval will not work after software updates on their devices. While I feel that the MFi chips are actually just a fancy means to earn money from third party cable manufacturers, it did make consumers realize that cheap cables just don’t cut it.
For Android users, we are not forced to abide by a monopoly, but cheap cables generally don’t last as long as the quality ones, or just can’t deliver power to the device properly, resulting in slow charging. Cheap cables just can’t transmit the amps from your charger to your device as efficiently. Hence, realizing the importance of using quality cables, I have the iCable i10 Power Series microUSB cable here with me, to test the difference that a RM120 cable makes over the common RM10-20 cables you find everywhere.

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Unboxing
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As you can see the packaging is quite simple, with a large cutout for you to see what color you are getting and some important information.

Appearance

The i10 Power Series microUSB cable is only available with black nylon sleeving and with metal gunmetal gray connectors. The black sleeving is neat and tight, smooth all the way down the cable. The stress reliefs where the cord meets the connectors are thick and sturdy looking, which should ensure that fraying is a remote possibility.

User Experience
I think for this I have to start to talk about the experience from the moment I contacted iCable Asia’s FB page to inquire about these cables as my original ASUS ones are damaged.

The guys handling the page are very friendly and answered every question I had regarding the cables and the warranty. They even offered to help me with purchasing the cable in case I wasn’t up to speed with online shopping. I politely turned down their assistance and  went ahead to order my cables on the website iCable Asia, and the cables arrived in just a few days. Anyway, let’s start going through the cable.

The cables are 2 meters long, and quite stiff. The length can make it unwieldy if you connect it to your PC to transfer files, and the stiffness does it no favors there either. I always say that too long is better than too short though. Data transfer speeds are as fast as it gets, it won’t make files transfer any faster than your phone can accept them.

Charging my Padfone S with the i10 Power microUSB cable is just perfect. As I have my plugs at the bottom end of my bed in my apartment room, I have gotten used to sleeping upside down just so I can scroll Facebook while charging my device with the stock cable before falling asleep. Now with the iCable I can sleep anyhow I want and still use the phone while its charging. While we did learn back in Physics 101 that resistance is directly proportional to the length of a wire, so I did check whether that extra length came at the cost of higher resistance. I am happy to report that the charging speed is equivalent to the original cable back when it was still new and not torn at the tip, around 1010 mA according to the app Ampere.
Now that I confirmed that when new it works perfectly, we will see whether it stands the test of time. I will check the charging rate from time to time and report back after 6 months. Since iCable Asia is confident enough to offer a lifetime warranty for these cables, I expect these cables to be really durable.

Conclusion
These cables look and feel tough enough to withstand the usual abuse that one deals unknowingly everyday, especially if they use the cables with their powerbanks on the go. I would definitely recommend it, given the lifetime warranty and superb build quality. This will really be the last microUSB cable you ever need as iCable promises to replace the cables free of charge if it ever fails during the lifetime warranty period. The length can be a little too long at times but everyone’s preferred cable length may be different, and the iCable i10 Power Series microUSB cables are a good compromise as too long is definitely better than too short.

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Spotify and Netflix had access to your Facebook messages

In a pretty interesting report by The New York Times, it appears that Facebook gave partners way more access than previously disclosed. Companies like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft had access to some really private information on your Facebook. Spotify and Netflix? Well they actually slid into your PMs.

Facebook has reportedly allowed Spotify and Netflix the ability to read your private Facebook messages. Netflix has responded to The Verge regarding the matter:

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“…enabled members to recommend TV shows and movies to their Facebook friends via Messenger or Netflix…. At no time did we access people’s private messages on Facebook, or ask for the ability to do so.”
Spotify’s use of the access into Messenger should be for a pretty similar purpose. However both Spotify and Netflix reportedly had the ability to read, write and delete your messages, which constitutes a grave breach of privacy. Netflix has already stopped allowing users to recommend shows way back in 2018, but Spotify continues to offer the ability to recommend songs via Messenger.
The full report by The New York Times goes on to name a number of other companies which had access to various information users have on Facebook. With Facebook being such a huge part of our lives, it probably is time to reevaluate our habits of putting everything online.
Pokdepinion: I wonder if Spotify/Netflix employees read those budak wicet‘s PMs and laugh among themselves.
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R2-D2 Tamagotchi Officially Coming Later This Year

If you’re on the hunt for retro-esque gadgets, here’s something for you. Disney and Bandai have collaborated for a brand new R2-D2 Tamagotchi, and it’s coming later this year.
R2-D2 Tamagotchi

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Disney and Bandai have announced the new R2-D2 Tamagotchi, where you can take care of your own digital version of the popular astromech droid from the Star Wars franchise.
The R2-D2 Tamagotchi has an egg-shaped design featuring notable elements from the droid and comes with two color options; white and translucent blue. It sports a monochrome LCD display with a 24 x 30 resolution and 3 physical buttons below it. It will function pretty much the same as the other Tamagotchi devices but it will also come with Star Wars-themed activities for added entertainment value. This includes about 19 different skills and 9 different games.
Given that R2-D2 is not a living creature, you will not have to feed it. Instead, you will have to instead charge its battery and cleaning it up when necessary. Basically, they have implemented some changes to make it more fitting for the iconic character.
The R2-D2 Tamagotchi will be officially launching on 11th November 2021 with pre-orders opening up on 3rd August 2021 at 12PM ET. It’s only confirmed for the US at the moment with no word yet on being available in other regions but we will report more on this as soon as information becomes available so stay tuned.
Source
Pokdepinion: I have my money ready for this. I can’t stress out how much I love Tamagotchis and I need to collect as many of them as I can.
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It looks like Facebook will be working together with Google to build new undersea cables to connect Southeast Asia to US. What exactly is going on and which countries are involved? Let’s find out.
Facebook and Google Are Building New Undersea Cables to Link Southeast Asia and US

Facebook has formally announced that they are planning to build two new undersea cables that will connect North America, Singapore, and Indonesia. To ensure the success of the project, they will be teaming up with Google and regional telcos, and it’s expected to exponentially increase internet connection capacity in the aforementioned regions.

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The first undersea cable that will be completed in 2023 is called Echo. According to Vice President of Network Investments in Facebook, Kevin Salvadori, they will be building this together with Google and Indonesian telco XL Axiata. In case that name rings a bell, that’s because it’s a subsidiary of Malaysia’s own Axiata Group, the company behind Celcom.
As for the second undersea cable, it’s known as Bifrost and it’s estimated to complete by the year 2024. It will be built together with Telkom Indonesia subsidiary Telin, and Keppel from Singapore. However, Alcatel Submarine Networks will be in charge of the installation.
Both of these undersea cables that cross through the Java Sea is expected to increase transpacific capacity by 70%. It marks the first time that both Facebook and Google will be working together to build an undersea cable.
Source
Pokdepinion: Would be interesting if this means there’s a possibility of being able to connect with people in the US with lower ping, especially in games. Now, if only they would extend this to Malaysia.
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Malaysian Visa Cardholders Can Now Use Apple Pay

Visa confirmed today that they are collaborating with Ambank, Maybank, and Standard Chartered Bank to provide Apple Pay to its cardholders in Malaysia.
Apple Pay is a secure, contactless, and simple method to pay that eliminates the need for customers to hand over their payment card, push physical buttons, or exchange currency and it leverages the power of the iPhone to secure every transaction.

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To make a contactless payment, Visa cardholders from partner banks may just hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near a payment terminal. Every transaction is safe since it is verified using Face ID, Touch ID, or the device passcode, as well as a one-time unique dynamic security code.
The mobile payment service is accepted in merchant locations worldwide that allow contactless payments, such as restaurants, transit, supermarkets, convenience stores, retail shopping, and many more.
Aside from face-to-face transactions, cardholders may use the payment service on iPhone, iPad, and Mac to make faster and more convenient purchases in applications or online without having to register accounts or key in shipping and billing information repeatedly.
Apple Pay simplifies payments for online shopping, transit, trip booking, tickets, food & dining, and other services and now also be used to pay for applications on the Apple Watch.
The payment service is built on security and privacy where customers’ credit card numbers are not saved on the device or on Apple servers when using it. Instead, a Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted, and securely kept in the Secure Element, an industry-standard, certified chip designed to securely keep payment information on the device.
For more information about Apple Pay, feel free to visit the link here.
Pokdepinion: Good news to all Apple device users! This is another method for fast and easy cashless payment that can benefit a lot of Malaysians.
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How to Upload iOS Live Photos on Twitter as GIFs

Give the gift of GIFs. You can now upload your iOS Live Photos as GIFs anywhere you upload photos on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/D8TIfsBwyd— Twitter (@Twitter) December 11, 2019

It’s no surprise that Twitter is adding more features as time goes by. After all, being stale is what will kill a social media platform, which is what we’ve seen before with the likes of Friendster and Myspace. The latest update lets you upload iOS Live Photos as GIFs.
What’s great about this is that iOS users will not have to convert to any other format by themselves in order to get it to work. If you’re not sure how to do it, here’s a step-by-step guide:
Open Twitter.Select and upload the Live Photo of your choice.The app will recognize the Live Photo and give you a GIF button.Tap on the GIF button and it will turn your Live Photo into a GIF.Voila.
On a different note, Twitter will now preserve the quality of all JPEG image files on the platform. It will only compress the preview shown in your feed, but nothing more. This means you can share even better quality photos on the platform moving forward.

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Source: Knowtechie
Pokdepinion: We’re gonna see a lot more GIFs on Twitter than ever before, I’m pretty sure of it.
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Here’s The Internet Speed You’d Need For Google Stadia

With Google just recently introduced their new gaming stream service Stadia, many questioned on how much speed would you need to get the best out of the platform. Well it turns out that Google Stadia’s very own Phil Harrison has revealed the details.
Google Stadia allows you to stream games on on your Chrome browser, Chromecast, as well as Pixel smartphones. Seeing how it is a streaming service, you’d probably need a good internet connection to get the best out of Stadia.
Harrison has revealed that in order to play a game that’s 1080p and offers 60 frames per second, it is recommended that you have around 25mbps. They’ve added that is the recommended speed that you could have but Stadia will still run on lower speeds. The platform is capable of streaming games in 4K at 60fps and in order to achieve that, it’s recommended that you have at least 30mbps. Gamers will find themselves on lower resolution if they have slower network speed and Stadia will only offer up to the appropriate resolution for the bandwidth that they have.

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Google Stadia doesn’t require you to purchase a console and what not. If you are planning on playing at a TV, you’d need a Chromecast dongle that enables you to stream. Stadia will be launch soon, where Google will reveal more information on the service as well as the price in summer of this year.
Pokdepinion: I’m still not sure of the whole concept to be honest. What games will they provide and what plans (subscription) have they prepared for users. As it is, I’m staying put with my PC and PS4 at the moment, unless something attractive from them comes up.
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Back 4 Blood Closed Alpha Starts Today

When Back 4 Blood was first announced, many gamers were excited to learn more about the spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead. Then, it went quiet for a long time…until now. The game will be starting their closed alpha phase today.
Back 4 Blood Closed Alpha Starts Today

It’s simple: Eradicate the Ridden and reclaim our world. Get briefed on what to expect this Thursday from the #Back4Blood closed Alpha! https://t.co/jw3VlIv2XT pic.twitter.com/pPrXZATMLk
— Back4Blood (@back4blood) December 15, 2020

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As revealed on their official Twitter account, Back 4 Blood is moving to their closed alpha phase starting today. For those who have signed up, there is a chance you might receive an invitation to try out an early build of the game.
Registrations for the closed alpha is only available via the game official website. However, it’s only available in selected countries so best to check whether your country is included or not before signing up.
Aside from the trailer seen at The Game Awards 2020, development on this game has been relatively quiet. This made gamers wonder if it ever got cancelled, especially since developer Turtle Rock Studios recently canceled a project called “Invaders”. With the closed alpha now open, its a good way for people to feel reassured that the game is still on track for release.
For now, Back 4 Blood will be running their closed alpha phase from now until 21st December 2020.It’s expected to launch on 22nd June 2021 for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC.
Source
Pokdepinion: I hope this game will be just as fun as its spiritual predecessors. Gotta find friends to play this now.
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ASUS x Noctua Reportedly To Continue Collaboration with RTX 40 Series GPUs

The resulting product may appear as soon as January, in CES 2023.
ASUS x Noctua RTX 3080. Source: ASUS
The editor of Chiphell forum “nApoleon” has posted a thread which claims the card will be shown in CES next month. The graphics model in question however wasn’t specified.
“(ASUS) x Noctua 40X0 will show up in CES (2023)” / “Everything comes at you fast…” – Source: Chiphell
For reference, the first result of this collaboration has produced two models – RTX 3080 and RTX 3070. Instead of bespoke fans that every GPU uses, both models uses standard Noctua NF-A12x25 fans for cooling which, in theory, is directly replaceable. They received critical acclaim for their extremely good cooling and noise performance.

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Noctua has since developed a black version named NF-A12X25 PWM chromax.black.swap so it’s unclear whether the upcoming GPU may stick to their known brown-and-pastel colorway or go with the more reserved black-color look instead.
NF-A12X25 PWM chromax.black.swap – Source: Noctua
Source: Chiphell (thread) | Videocardz
Pokdepinion: I’m going with black if that’s an option.
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