Tencent and Other China Game Companies Propose New Age Rating System
Image source: People.cn

The folks over at Tencent are leading the charge on a new publisher-driven age rating system for games in China. This is a response to the ongoing government crackdown on game licenses. The move said to be done by over ten Chinese gaming companies, including NetEase and Perfect World.
As it is, Tencent and NetEase have already started imposing restrictions on their own games as a way to prevent children from the playing game without proper supervision, and from playing games for too long. The new age rating system will have the following tiers:

Ages 6+
Ages 12+
Ages 16+
Ages 18+

It was mentioned that children under the age of six should never play games without supervision. The proposal will be discussed by an expert committee that includes researchers, executives, and press, who will provide feedback and decide whether or not to move forward with implementation of the new age rating system.

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With recent game license approvals starting to move in China again, it has been moving at a rather slow rate. One of the reasons is concern on whether the content is inappropriate for certain ages, especially children. Games being submitted for approval will be inspected more closely as a way of addressing the concerns.
While this may seem to be geared towards China, the effects will certainly be felt across the world. After all, there is now a huge number of games developed in China that has made its way outside of the country. This is especially true in the mobile gaming space.
Source: GamesIndustry
Pokdepinion: Honestly, thought they would use a letter to denote the tier, like how ESRB and CERO does it. Nothing wrong with what has been proposed however as it’s direct and easier to understand for many people.
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Celebrate New Year With Signify WiZ Smart Lighting

The thing about smart lighting in general, is the fact that you can customize the lighting in any way you want. Pure white light? Check. Sunset lighting? That too. RGB? Got that covered too. While smart lighting is still a relatively new concept in Malaysia – here at Pokde.net we will show you how it can make your room smarter and also more colorful.

WiZ’s product range comes in various form factors – from a standard bulb to portable lighting for you to carry on-the-go. They all share a few similar qualities: full RGB spectrum customization, voice assistant support and they all can be controlled through the WiZ app (no sign-in required). We will use WiZ’s LED Portable Light for the following demonstration.

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LED Portable Light: Overview

WiZ’s LED Portable Light is a battery-powered LED lamp that features a dual-zone effect which provides unique color combinations on top of its 16.8 million colors available to the RGB spectrum. It comes with a carrying handle, plus a dedicated touch panel for basic lighting controls – no app or voice assistant required. Should you need more customization, the WiZ app is available to enable full control of the lighting; no sign-in necessary. Specifications as follows:

Power
13.5W max (USB-C charging)

Brightness
400 lumens

Color Temperature
2200 – 6500K + RGB

CRI (Color Rendering Index)
80

Lifetime
25,000 hours

Dimensions
1930 x 1160 x 1160mm

Setting Up

Here’s what you get for the WiZ LED Portable Light: the product itself, user manual, quick setup guide and a power adapter with USB-A to USB-C cable. For the initial setup you can plug in before powering up the lamp, however it’s not necessary to do so as long as there’s battery remaining in the lamp itself.

To power on, first you flick the switch down the bottom, then you tap on the blue dot on the top side of the lamp. All controls on top are capacitive – so just simply tap to perform any function. Out-of-the-box, it comes with a few basic controls without needing the app: the aforementioned power, mode switch (switches between presets), and a brightness slider. You can either tap or drag the middle part to adjust the brightness as needed.

For better experience, WiZ offers the app for extra controls. Download the WiZ app through your platform of choice – then you’ll be greeted with the option to create or join a home. Since we’re setting up from scratch, we select “Create a home”. Give it a name as you like, then proceed. Once that’s done, a dashboard of your newly-created “home” shows up. From here you can add a room – whichever is suitable to your use case. After that, we can start adding devices. Tap “Add a device” to proceed. From here, tap “Light”.
(Click to enlarge image)
Here the app gives you two options to pair devices – the first option is easier, but requires connection to 2.4GHz band (check your network’s name before proceeding – most homes will have 2.4GHz labeled accordingly). Enter the network name (SSID) and its password, then follow the instructions. Once all devices are found, tap “Finish” and your devices are now ready to go.
App Controls
(Click to enlarge image)
Once the lighting is set up, you’re presented with the dashboard – which allows you to control all lights in a single screen, or individually as needed. The top row list all the rooms you currently have with WiZ products in-use; below that is the list of devices placed within the room you specified. Select one of them to reveal quick controls: in this case, it’s the preset lighting, color temperature, lighting zone controls (top or bottom) and overall brightness – then finally a power switch.
Under presets you get to choose from lots of options ranging from basic ambient lighting to decoration-style lighting. Some of them comes with its specific settings so it may take a while for you to try them out and see which you like. The cog menu on the right side of the preset button reveals advanced controls, including fade-in and fade-out effects.
WiZ Lightbulbs: Overview

WiZ also offers lightbulbs in various form factors including downlights, spots, candlelight and classic bulbs. Like the LED Portable Light, all supports RGB, voice controls and app integration. For even more powerful functionalities, WiZ also supports IFTTT and Samsung SmartThings – which enables scenarios to trigger certain functions (i.e. turn off the lights at when no one is present in the room).
Speaking of which, a unique feature from WiZ is the ability to detect motion without the use of a dedicated motion sensor. Dubbed SpaceSence – this feature requires at least two bulbs or lighting products in order to function. The lights can detect motion by sensing the changes in Wi-Fi signal quality as someone walks nearby the device, as the human skin can often deflect the radio waves generated from Wi-Fi signals.
Of course, voice controls are supported through major voice assistants, including Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri. You can integrate these devices with your phone or other smart home products (i.e. smart speakers) to enable voice control across the home. Alternatively, remote control are also available through the app even when you’re going outdoors – as long as the devices are connected to the Wi-Fi.
Want to explore more? You can discover more features on WiZ products on their website here.
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Transcend SSD220S 480GB review – entry level SSD for end consumer

SSDs are now pretty much a necessity in any computer. With prices gradually going down, it is difficult to understand why would you turn away from one. However when we go down the price range, we surely have to make some sacrifices. Unlike the Transcend SSD370S we reviewed before that used MLC NAND flash memory, the Transcend SSD220S is a more affordable SSD that packs TLC NAND flash memory. TLC NAND flash memory are cheaper to manufacture than TLC NAND, but it does have its own disadvantages. It has less endurance than MLC, but should be more than enough for most users anyway. Let’s get started.
Unboxing
The Transcend SSD220S comes in a packaging that is similar to the SSD370S’, white and red color scheme with a few highlight features listed.

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Detailed information is available on the back. Transcend offers a 3-year warranty for the Transcend SSD220S, as they do with most of their products.

Inside the box we have the Transcend SSD220S itself, usual documentation along with some brochures of their product. What’s missing here is a 3.5-inch adapter, most probably to drive costs even further down.

Appearance

Featuring a full metal case, it looks pretty similar to the Transcend SSD370S.

Flip the drive only a sticker with the specifications, as well as several mounting holes.

Have you ever wonder how much it weighs on a scale? It’s very light at only 46 grams, making me want to rip off the metal case to look at the innards but alas I forgot to ask for permission earlier, so we can’t take a closer look at the innards.

Testing methodology
I used the Transcend SSD220S as my OS drive when I was testing the ASUS ROG Rampage V Edition 10,.You know, the most expensive X99 motherboard in the market currently which you can read the review here. Table below is the test machine’s specifications.
Hardware

Processor
Intel Core i7-6900K

 Motherboard
ASUS ROG Rampage Edition 10

Memory
Avexir Blitz 32GB (8x 4GB)

Storage
Transcend SSD220S 480GB

Power Supply
Acbel iPower 90m 600W 80+ Gold (12V @ 48A rail)

Cooler
Cooler Master Nepton 120XL

Software

OS
Windows 10 64bit

 GPU driver
NVIDIA 372.70

Antivirus
Windows Defender

Utilities
CPU-Z, HWmonitor

Software used
CrystalDiskBenchmark

Specification

Performance
The Transcend SSD220S 480GB was benched with CrystalDiskMark. Transcend claims that the drive able to have file transfer speed up to 550MBs read and 450Mbs write. But the result we got was actually a little bit higher, the only explanation on why this happened was controller used on the motherboard.

I also put some games on the SSD and obviously game loading times were very quick. Booting time too was much faster than any conventional HDD.
Conclusion
The difference between TLC and MLC NAND is mainly the endurance. But even with fewer write/erase cycles compared to MLC NAND, I dare say that TLC NAND flash memory should be totally fine for most practical purposes. Priced at around RM500, Transcend SSD220S are among the most affordable SSDs you can find in the market. I award the SSD220S with Silver Pokdeward.

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HONOR Pay Day Sale Returns With More Promotions And Freebies

Pay less on HONOR Pay Day Sale

HONOR Pay Day Sale is back again this year with more savings up to RM817 only on selected HONOR products. Beginning from 24 July to 31 July, you can purchase your favourite HONOR smartphones, wearables and more for a fraction of their original price.

Starting from today, HONOR’s new HONOR MagicBook 14 (8GB RAM+256GB SSD and 16GB RAM+512GB SSD version) will be available for purchase on HONOR’s official website for RM2,999. In addition to that, those who purchased the HONOR MAgicbook 14 will receive an HONOR Bluetooth Mouse, HONOR Backpack and HONOR Watch Magic or HONOR Sport Pro for free. Check out what we think of the HONOR MagicBook 14 in our review right here.

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Among other products you can get during HONOR Pay Day Sale are:

HONOR 20 – RM1,099 get free HONOR Scale 2
HONOR 20 Pro – RM1,599 get free HONOR Scale 2
HONOR 9X Pro – RM999 get free HONOR 9X Gift Box
HONOR 9X – RM899 get free HONOR 9X Gift Box
HONOR 8X MAX – Promo Price RM799 (SRP RM829) get free HONOR 8X Gift Box
HONOR Band 5 – Promo Price RM109 (SRP RM129)
HONOR Sport Pro – Promo Price RM249 (SRP RM299)
HONOR Watch Magic – Promo Price RM379 (SRP RM499)
HONOR Magic Earbuds – Promo Price RM399 (SRP RM499)
HONOR MagicWatch 2 46mm (Charcoal Black & Flax Brown) – Promo Price RM649 & RM699 (SRP RM699 & RM749 respectively)
HONOR MagicWatch 2 42mm  (Charcoal Black & Sakura Gold) – Promo Price RM549 & RM749 (SRP RM599 & RM799 respectively)

HONOR will also features a different set of products for their Flash Deals daily at 12PM during HONOR Pay Day Sale. Among the products that will be offered during the Flash Sale period are:

HONOR Watch Magic – SRP RM499
HONOR Magic Earbuds – SRP RM499
HONOR 20 Lite – SRP RM699
HONOR Band5i – SRP RM119
HONOR 20 – SRP RM1099
HONOR MagicBook 14 (8GB RAM+256GB SSD) – SRP RM2,499
HONOR 8X MAX – SRP RM829
HONOR Scale 2 – SRP RM99
HONOR MagicWatch 2 46mm (Charcoal Black) – SRP RM699

For more information on HONOR Pay Day Sale and the full list of products on sale, check out HONOR’s official website right here.
Pokdepinion: Trying to decide whether I should get the HONOR Magic Watch or just go with the HONOR MagicWatch 2. Hmm decisions, decisions..
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Xiaomi was blacklisted by the US due to Lei Jun’s award from the Chinese government

After the US Defense Department blacklisted Xiaomi as a “Communist Chinese military company”, Xiaomi fought back with a lawsuit. According to the US Defense Department’s filing in response to the lawsuit, the reason why the Chinese company was blacklisted was simply due to its founder, Lei Jun, receiving an award from the Chinese government.
The award in question is the “Outstanding Builder of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” award, which Lei Jun received in 2019. The awards were given out by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). According to the Defense Department, MIIT helps manage China’s policy of civil-military fusion, and thus seems to tie receiving the award to Xiaomi being a military-linked company.
Xiaomi’s focus on 5G and AI are also highlighted by the US Defense Department, noting that both technologies are of interest to the Chinese government. However Xiaomi’s developments are generally focused on the consumer side of things, rather than stuff that can be used for military purposes.

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The US Defense Department’s blacklist only prohibits Americans from investing in Xiaomi, with their use of US technologies still unhindered, unlike HUAWEI which sees a total trading ban between any company that has US ties and the Chinese tech giant.

It will be quite interesting to see how Xiaomi will fight it out in US courts. Other recipients of the award include NetEase Inc.’s Ding Lei and Weibo Corp.’s Wang Gaofei.
Source
Pokdepinion: Well with Biden yet to un-ban HUAWEI, I am not sure how will it go down for Xiaomi…
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Did You Recently Buy The HUAWEI nova 3e? Here’s How To Enjoy RM3,000 Worth Of Offers With The AppGallery!

While HUAWEI’s most recent device, the nova 3e was already launched, the phone’s AppGallery can give you RM3,000 worth of offers to be enjoyed. Read on to find out what HUAWEI are offering through the pre-installed app.
HUAWEI AppGallery Offers
To enjoy the deals, you would need to use the HUAWEI AppGallery which is already pre-installed in the HUAWEI nova 3e and you can’t find it on either the AppStore or Google Playstore. So here is the list of the offering by HUAWEI;

Doctor2U – RM30 to RM3,000 off
oBike – RM30 off
Manga – RM12 off
HERMO – RM15 off
Easybook – 5% off on Any Value
AirAsia – Exclusive Monthly Promotion of Ticket
EzCab – RM6 off
GoCar – RM30 off
CyberLink – RM25 off
NovelPlus – Free VIP Member
Daily Manga – Free Coin
Viu – Free Subscribe up to 12 Months

So there you go, the list of offering that you can get from the AppGallery. To redeem them, simply follow the following steps;

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Launch AppGallery on the HUAWEI nova 3e
Select ‘Me’ then choose ‘Gifts’
Click the icon ‘Reward’ for further instruction
Click ‘Claim’ to redeem or install the app

To find out more on the HUAWEI nova 3e smartphone, you can read on about it on our previous posting. If you are planning on getting the device, HUAWEI are also offering RM79 cash back on the nova 3e from now till the 31st of May 2018 at a price of RM1,320. Customers will also gain a complementary HUAWEI Tripod Selfie Stick worth RM68 with every purchase of the device, while stocks last.
Pokdepinion: Those who have purchased the nova 3e should really take advantage of the app and don’t let it go to waste!
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AMD Socket AM5 is planned to live a long, healthy life

AMD is reportedly going to keep the Socket AM5 platform for a long time, similar to what they did with AM4. And AMD kept Socket AM4 around for a really, really long time. Since the debut of the AMD Zen architecture, the socket is still currently in use, with the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D to probably be the last processor to be supported. That’s close to five years of support!
AMD Socket AM5 will be a “long-lived platform”

AMD CEO Lisa Su hinted that we will be seeing quite a few years with the AM5 platform, replying to a question by Paul Alcorn from Tom’s Hardware about how long they will be keeping on the platform in an interview session at CES 2022:

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Well, we’ve been extremely pleased with how AM4 has evolved….we said we would keep that socket for a long time and we have. We continue to believe that it has been good for the community and frankly, it’s been good for us as well. As we bring things along, it was time to do a socket transition for the new I/O in the new technology, but I think strategy-wise, it should be similar. I don’t have an exact number of years but I would say that you should expect that AM5 will be a long-lived platform as AM4 has been. I think we’re expecting AM4 to stay in the marketplace for quite some years and it will be sort of an overlapping type of thing.
The transition from AM4 to AM5 is for a solid reason, as AMD had to make some changes to support the faster DDR5 standard and also PCIe 5.0 — AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0… coincidence? I think not! — We can probably see AMD bringing future standards to the AMD Socket AM5 platform as well, with AMD having given us the ability to move from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 4.0 on the same socket. And of course, my favorite upgrade will definitely be the fact that we are going from a PGA to LGA socket. No more accidentally pulling out the CPU along with the cooler!

Speaking of coolers, the AM5 socket is going to support the same cooler mounting points as AM4, so while you will need a new motherboard, you don’t need to change the cooler just yet. It’s quite interesting indeed that AMD managed to keep the Z-height the same across the two platforms, as otherwise you won’t be able to get proper contact with an AMD AM4 cooler.
Source
Pokdepinion: I think AMD is definitely on the right track. Hopefully we will see plenty of affordable motherboard options as well!
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HUAWEI is committed to spearheading 5G in Malaysia

HUAWEI is one of the strong players in the 5G network industry, and they have also made their inroads in Malaysia by partnering up with our local telcos in bringing 5G to Malaysia. With the 5G rollout expected to begin by the first quarter of 2020, there’s still quite a lot of work to do though.
5G is expected to spark a transformation of sorts in the digital landscape in Malaysia, with Malaysia a leading market in the region especially in the consumer segment. 5G is not only going to enable a better mobile network experience, but it will also improve connectivity in various industries like healthcare and agriculture.

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Of course, for consumers, we would be enjoying the faster download speeds, wider coverage area and lower latency, if we have one of those next-gen 5G smartphones. Higher quality video streaming, ultra low latency gaming and HD CCTV surveillance can be realized with 5G connectivity.
HUAWEI has been conducting R&D on 5G networks since 2009, with over USD 2billion invested on research and development. Now, HUAWEI has over 50 contracts for 5G development with 700 cities in 100 countries including Malaysia.
Pokdepinion: This is nice and all, but I wonder when will we get to enjoy 5G in smartphones that costs less than RM2000?
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Genshin Impact 2.1 Leak Reveals Character Banners and Launch Date

If you’re planning out your character upgrades and party members, then this is something you need to take note of. The latest Genshin Impact 2.1 leak reveals the next character banners, their respective launch dates, and new details on new Inazuma islands.
Genshin Impact 2.1 Leak: Character Banners and Launch Date

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With the beta now underway, it’s natural expect more Genshin Impact 2.1 leaks out in the wild. The latest one comes courtesy of notable leaker Lumie, who has a decent track record of leaks in the past.
According to Lumie, the first banner that popping up will be the Raiden Shogun, Baal, and Kujou Sara on 1st September 2021. After that, Kokomi will be coming on 21st September 2021. As for the other 4-star characters that will popping up alongside them, no details have been revealed yet.

Aside from that, we also learned of new Inazuma islands coming as part of the update, and they are Watasumi Island and Seirai Island. You can check out the leaked maps in the video above here.
Genshin Impact is currently available for free on the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Android, iOS, and PC. A Nintendo Switch port of the game coming in the near future.
Source
Pokdepinion: Given the massive hype on the Raiden Shogun, especially her “domain expansion” ability that looked like it got ripped straight from Jujutsu Kaisen, I foresee a huge spike in activity on 1st September 2021. Not to mention, frustrations from failing to get her, in which case I already have some popcorn ready.
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Neffos X1 and X1 Max smartphones announced, starting from RM913!

TP-Link has just launched the latest Neffos X1 series smartphones, that combine smart technology and stylish design, all while offering unparalleled value to users to stay closer to everything and everyone around them. The Neffos X1 and Neffos X1 Max are both built with premium materials with the same high quality metal unibody exterior.

The Neffos X1 features a 5″ 720p IPS display, while the Neffos X1 Max sports a more expansive 5.5″ 1080p IPS display. The Neffos X1 Max has slim bezels at 2.75mm, while the smaller Neffos X1 has 2.95mm ones. Both are also incredibly thin, with the Neffos X1 Max being a mere 7.75mm and the Neffos X1 comes in at 7.95mm. Both devices share the MediaTek Helio P10 chipset, paired with up to 3GB of RAM for Neffos X1, while the Neffos X1 Max packs up to 4GB of RAM. Camera wise the two Neffos X devices are also equal, with 13 MP rear cameras with an f/2.0 aperture and 5 MP front cameras. The bigger device packs a 3000 mAh, while the smaller of the two comes with a 2250 mAh. Both feature fingerprint scanners on the back, and run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box.

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The Neffos X1 and X1 Max are priced at 199 euros (~RM913) and 249 euros (~RM1142.41), respectively, and will be available in two colors including cloudy grey and sunrise gold. Expect to see the devices in stores by Q4 2016.

Pokdepinion: The Neffos X1 series seems like a nice series of affordable phones with decent specifications.
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Google Maps To Let You Report Traffic Slowdowns Soon

It seems that Google Maps will soon add an option to report slow traffic on the navigation platform, expanding from the previously introduced crash and speed traps report.
Now traffic slowdowns isn’t something new on Google Maps but beforehand, it was all based on Google own data and not the user’s. With the new update, it will provide a better accuracy when it comes to traffic jams on the road.
When there’s enough reports that a road is congested or slowing down, you’ll be notified and Maps may even give you an option to actually change the route that you are supposed to take. The new update is now rolling out gradually to Google Maps users, so if you haven’t gotten it yet, you’d need to wait further. It is not yet confirmed on whether iOS users will get the update.

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Pokdepinion: I don’t know about you, but I prefer to use Waze instead. Still, a nice feature to add to Google Maps though. Make sure to make reports if there’s slowdowns near you guys, I want to drive smoothly on the road :P

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OPPO 7.7 Shopee Sale Returns With Vouchers Of Up To 77% Off

Shop with OPPO via its official Shopee Store from now until 7 July to be in the running to win a free OPPO A74 as part of Shopee’s 7.7 festival. The runners-up will receive a new set of OPPO Enco Buds as well as a Fast-Charging 10,000mAh power bank.

To be in the running, follow these simple steps below:

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Follow the OPPO Official Shopee Store
Purchase any OPPO product from now till 7 July
Rate OPPO’s Official Shopee Store by 15 July
Upload a screenshot of the purchase onto your Facebook or Instagram (share your post with the OPPO Official Shopee Store via chat to increase your odds of winning)
Stay tuned, as the prize announcement will be made on 19 July via OPPO’s Official Shopee Store feed.

Aside from the lucky draws, there will be more eye-catching promotions in the shape of discounts and free gifts throughout this time. Today, when you shop with OPPO on Shopee, you may get a FREE OPPO Enco X, a 1TB HeyTap Cloud Storage worth RM520, and an RM300 refund when you buy an OPPO Find X3 Pro. Purchase the OPPO Watch 46mm and receive a totally new OPPO Watch 41mm for free if you’re looking for something for yourself and a friend or companion.
What else is happening during OPPO’s 7.7 Shopee Sale?
There are many other promotions happening during the 7.7 Shopee Sale which includes:

Now until 7 July
– Get an OPPO Find X3 Pro with an RM300 discount (limited to the first 50 customers). Free gift includes FREE OPPO Enco X (worth RM699) and FREE 1TB HeyTap Cloud Storage (worth RM520).
– Get the OPPO A Series (limited to the first 2,000 customers) and get free gifts including FREE Fast-Charging 10,000mAh Power Bank (worth RM99) and RM5 Grab Voucher.
– Get the OPPO Reno Series (limited to the first 500 customers) and get free gifts including FREE OPPO Enco Buds (worth RM159) and RM20 Grab Voucher.
– Get the OPPO Watch 46mm (limited to the first 100 customers) and get a FREE OPPO Watch 41mm (worth RM899).
7 July (Voucher released at 12AM)
– Get anything on the OPPO store and get a 77% off voucher (capped at RM20). This is limited to the first 50 customers.

For more information, stay tuned to OPPO Malaysia’s official Facebook page.
Pokdepinion: Wow buy the OPPO Watch and get another one for free. Is this for real?
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NVIDIA GTC Special Broadcast “GeForce Beyond” Expected to Reveal RTX 40 Series

In the upcoming NVIDIA GTC on 20th September 8AM PT (11pm Malaysia Time), founder and CEO Jensen Huang will open the GTC 2022 keynote with a special broadcast, titled GeForce Beyond, with “latest breakthroughs in gaming, creating, and graphics technology”.
It is expected that NVIDIA’s upcoming RTX 40 Series “Lovelace” GPUs will be revealed in this stream.

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The stream will be available on NVIDIA’s Twitch and GeForce YouTube channel.
Source
Pokdepinion: About time RTX 40 series finally shows itself… it’d be interesting to see how it stacks up against RTX 30 and even AMD cards too.
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Redmi Note 8 Series Officially Launch In Malaysia – Here’s What Went Down

Today marks the arrival of the new Redmi Note 8 series, where Xiaomi Malaysia introduced the Redmi Note 8 as well as the Redmi Note 8 Pro.

Starting off with the Redmi Note 8, it packs a Snapdragon 665 chipset and there’s three variants available; 3GB+32GB, 4GB+64GB, 4GB+128GB.
Screen wise, it comes with a 6.3″ Dot Drop display with FHD+ resolution. Under the hood is a 4000mAh battery and it comes with a USB Type-C port that you can utilize up to 18W fast charge.

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There’s also the camera configuration to talk about, where it comes with a quad setup. It offers a 48MP+8MP+2MP+2MP combo at the back. As for selfies, it offers a 13MP front camera.
Should you pre-order from today till the 10th of October 2019, you can get the 4GB+64GB version of the Redmi Note 8 and get a free Mi True Wireless Earbuds Basic, which is worth RM99.

Redmi Note 8 Specifications

Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 665
Display: 6.3″ FHD+ Dot Drop
Storage: 3GB+32GB, 4GB+64GB, 4GB+128GB
Main camera: 48MP wide + 8MP ultra-wide + 2MP macro + 2MP depth
Front camera: 13MP
Battery: 4000mAh (Type-C), support for 18W fast charge
Price: RM599, RM799, and RM899

Next up is the Redmi Note 8 Pro, where it is actually one of the first smartphone in the market to feature MediaTek’s upper mid-range chipset, the Helio G90T. Compared to the Redmi Note 8, the Note 8 Pro comes with two storage configurations; 6GB+64GB and 6GB+128GB.
Another upgrade is that definitely the 64MP main camera that’s found in its quad camera setup. After playing with the device, we can’t argue that it does capture a whole lot more detail, even after zooming to the picture. You’d notice that though the Redmi Note 8 and Note 8 Pro looks similar. One thing that sets them apart is the rear camera placement. For the Redmi Note 8, the camera is fitted at the top left side of the device. Meanwhile the Redmi Note 8 Pro puts it just in the middle.
The Redmi Note 8 Pro is indeed a little bit bigger, with it having a 6.53″ Dot Drop display. Other than that, it has NFC fitted in.

Redmi Note 8 Pro Specifications

Chipset: Helio G90T
Display: 6.53″ Dot Drop
Storage: 6GB+64GB, 6GB+128GB
Main camera: 64MP wide + 8MP ultra wide + 2MP macro + 2MP depth
Front camera: 20MP
Battery: 4500mAh (Type-C), support for up to 18W fast charge
Price: RM1099 and RM1199

Though the price starts from RM1099, Xiaomi has revealed that they are hosting a special early pre-order promo, where you can get the 6GB+64GB version of the Redmi Note 8 Pro at just RM999 on Shopee and Lazada, starting from today till the 11th of October 2019.
Pokdepinion: We’ve got our hands on the Redmi Note 8 Pro, and believe me, the details in the photos captured is stunning!
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Watch Dogs Legion Online Mode Is Available Now To Play

The long-awaited Watch Dogs Legion online mode is finally here. Ubisoft has announced that the online mode is now available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. It is completely free for all owners of Watch Dogs Legion. The company also said that the mode is coming very soon on PC via the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store.
Watch Dogs Legion online mode is up now!
Here are some of the things included in the Watch Dogs Legion online mode:

Free-roam open-world co-op where players can team up with their friends for up to four-players and explore London, encounter city events, complete challenges and participate in side activities.
New co-op missions for two-to-four players using new co-op gameplay mechanics and giving players the opportunity to recruit the perfect team and fight back against London’s threats across the most iconic landmarks of the city.
The first available Player-vs-Player (PvP) mode, Spiderbot Arena, where four players control armed spiderbots and compete in a high-intensity free-for-all deathmatch.

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That’s not all. Two exclusive single-player missions for Season Pass owners are also available today. These include:

Guardian Protocol – DedSec will track down an algorithm that shows that AI can sometimes override human decision. If this algorithm was to be used in weaponized drones… they would have power over life and death.
Not In Our Name – DedSec discovers a secret group using their name in London, working under the orders of a ruthless tabloid owner, who uses information stolen by this group to blackmail his notorious victims and gain power in the city.

Moreover, Leader of the Pack, the first four-player co-op Tactical Op is coming this 23 March and will require teamwork and efficiency will be available. Ubisoft also said that more content will continue being added after launch via free updates, including Invasion PvP mode, all-new co-op missions, free characters and more. You can check out the trailer for Watch Dogs Legion online mode below.

For more information on Watch Dogs Legion online mode and the base game itself, do check out their official website right here and join the conversation by using #watchdogslegion. You can also check out our review of Watch Dogs Legion right here.
Pokdepinion: This honestly looks pretty fun. I have yet to play Watch Dogs Legion yet even though it’s been sitting in my library all this while.
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BIOSTAR RACING B150 GTN announced — their coolest ITX board yet

BIOSTAR’s latest product under their RACING series of motherboards, the BIOSTAR B150 GTN mITX motherboards pack a strong punch in its small form factor, perfect for gamers who are looking at small builds with big performance.

The BIOSTAR RACING B150 GTN supports the latest 6th-gen Intel Skylake CPUs, allowing for strong gaming performance. It also offer support for next-generation storage via high speed PCIe U.2 as well as PCIe M.2 standards.

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The signature feature of BIOSTAR’s RACING series is their exclusive VIVID LED DJ and 5050 LED FUN which makes it the world’s first mITX board to feature full RGB LED controls for both onboard lighting and external lights as well.

Full-speed x16 PCIe 3.0 x16 slot supports the latest graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA, maximising the performance available from them. Aside from great graphics performance, the BIOSTAR RACING B150 GTN feature BIOSTAR’s flagship Hi-Fi audio technology to offer the most immersive listening experience in games and multimedia.
The MSRP is 99.99 USD, with no news of availability in Malaysia yet.

Pokdepinion: The board seems like a good match for compact yet colorful builds thanks to the VIVID LED DJ feature.
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The MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE is one huge motherboard

I guess this is why we have yet to see the MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE. While MSI has unveiled pretty much the entire lineup, the MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE is evidently missing. However Wccftech managed to get their hands on some PCB shots of the motherboard, and it is definitely a massive motherboard.
MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE: a true E-ATX motherboard?

While ASUS, GIGABYTE and even MSI themselves have E-ATX Intel Z690 offerings, this one will test your case’s claims of “E-ATX support” with its humongous dimensions. It almost looks like a square, thanks to its 305 x 310 mm dimensions, significantly larger than the MSI MEG Z690 ACE’s 305 x 277 mm, a size that’s shared with many other E-ATX-class motherboards. It is still about 20mm short of the full E-ATX standard though…

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It seems that a lot of that space is left empty, especially in the area beside the DIMM slots. It might be for the better though, as moving components away from the DIMM slots should provide for less interference, and potentially better DDR5 overclocking support.

Power delivery is set to be handled by a 22-phase VRM design, although I am not sure how it will be split up. The MSI MEG Z690 ACE already offers a 19+1+2-phase VRM configuration, so this might not be all that different. What’s different will be the input and output filtering, which will exclusively feature more premium SMD capacitors, instead of the through-hole ones found on most motherboards.
Speaking of power delivery, it seems that MSI will be moving the two 8-pin EPS power connectors closer to the right side of the motherboard than usual. This might get in the way with some cases not featuring cutouts in the area, although any case that can accommodate the MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE will probably have the appropriate cutouts for this. The 24-pin connector looks like a 90°-angled one, which bodes well for easier cable management.
You also get what looks like six on-board M.2 slots, which is one more than what you get on most motherboards. Rumors are also hinting at the MSI MEG Z690 GODLIKE being bundled with the M.2 Xpander-Z Gen5 card that will add support for yet another M.2 PCIe SSD. Pretty interesting stuff if you are a storage hoarder.

Over on the back, you get an autograph of a Designer and Gamer. Not sure who’s that. Overall, this board looks like an absolute beast, and we aren’t just talking about its physical dimensions.
Source
Pokdepinion: Size usually doesn’t matter, but then again, who doesn’t like it bigger 😉
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Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Delayed to 2020 for Obvious Reasons

Taking a little more time to make Sonic just right.#novfxartistswereharmedinthemakingofthismovie pic.twitter.com/gxhu9lhU76
— Jeff Fowler (@fowltown) May 24, 2019

When the trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog movie first released, the masses were outraged by the character design. From body proportions to face, there were plenty of criticisms that led many to think that the movie was going to be a waste of time.
The movie was initially slated for a November 2019 release but since the announcement of a redesign for Sonic, many started to wonder if the release date would be affected. Well, that certainly appears to be the case as movie director Jeff Fowler has gone on Twitter to announce a delay.

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Now, it appears that the Sonic the Hedgehog movie will be delayed to a 2020 release. To be precise, it will be released on 14th February 2020. Not really sure if that would make for a good Valentine’s Day movie but whatever works for y’all. Fowler stated alongside the delay announcement that the team is, “Taking a little more time to make Sonic just right.”
It’s a good thing they chose to redesign the character given the amount of hate it has received. Had they just continued, we’re pretty sure the Sonic the Hedgehog movie would’ve instantly bombed in theaters. Even Jim Carrey wouldn’t be able to save that mess.
Now, we’ll just wait and see as to how this redesigned Sonic would look like.
Pokdepinion: A part of me feels like the initial Sonic design for the movie was intentionally done so kinda like a guerilla marketing tactic. They get people riled up about it which automatically garners interest, then informs the public that they will be re-working the design. When the final design is out, people would be more enticed to watch it.
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MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – The Bee’s Knees of Gaming Laptops

Unboxing the MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Box

Unlike the previous generation version that we reviewed, the review unit for this one should be the same as the final retail version. Inside the box, you will be able to find the following items:
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Box content

User guide
Warranty card
MSI Reward Program leaflet
MSI RGB gaming mouse
230W Power brick
Power cable
Backpack
The MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 gaming laptop itself

Appearance
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Lid
For starters, the MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 looks identical to the predecessor that we reviewed before. It has a silver aluminum finished along with an embossed MSI logo rather than a “flat” one that most brands usually opt for. There’s also a particular shape around the hinges which gives it a nice touch while also giving it a more solid appearance.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Open up the lid
Open up the lid and you’ll get a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS-level display with 300Hz refresh rate, a Steelseries per-key RGB chiclet keyboard, trackpad, a sticker highlighting some of its key features, and its signature RGB lighting bar on the bottom. The power button joined together with the keyboard itself, situated above the Home key. The bezels are relatively thin on the sides, but noticeable for the top and bottom. The top bezel is where the webcam can be found, and you have the MSI logo for the bottom one.

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MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Ports
On the left side, you have a Kensington Lock, an air vent, a USB-A port, a USB-C port, and a combo audio jack. As for the right side, an SD card reader sandwiched between two USB-A ports and another air vent. You might be wondering why there seems to be a shortage of ports, but that’s because the remainder of them are on the rear. Moving over to the rear, you have a Mini DisplayPort, another USB-C port, an RJ45 LAN port, an HDMI port, and the proprietary charging port. These ports are sandwiched between the two rear air vents.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Bottom
Flipping it over to the bottom, you have three rubberized stands consisting of a long one on the bottom and two short ones taking up each top corner. There are also a total of 11 screws here, with one hidden under the Factory Seal sticker, if you want to open this laptop up for maintenance or upgrades. The air vent here has a honeycomb-esque design which is most likely done for both aesthetics and to maximize airflow as it takes up a good chunk of the space here.
Overall, the MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 is certainly one hell of a looker, especially within gaming laptop standards. They’ve made a number of design choices to make it stand out from the crowd, most notably the lid and its signature RGB lighting bar. It’s interesting to think that if you omit the lighting bar, the laptop looks more akin to their MSI Prestige’s design language but with steroids. If you’re the kind of person who likes something flashy, you can’t go wrong with this.
Specifications

CPU:
Intel Core i7-10870H @ 2.2GHz (up to 5 GHz Boost), 8C/16T, 45W TDP, 14nm

RAM:
32GB (2 x 16GB) 3200MHz DDR4

GPU:
GeForce NVIDIA RTX 3080 GDDR6 16GB

Storage:
2TB NVMe Pcie Gen3x4 SSD (Samsung PM981)

Software:
Microsoft Windows 10 Home MSI Dragon Center MSI True Color MSI App Player Nahimic Thunderbolt Control Center Steelseries Engine

Connectivity:
Wireless Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650i, 2×2 (Wi-Fi 6E) Bluetooth 5.2Wired 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type C 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A 1 x SD (CX/HC) card port 1 x RJ45 LAN

Display:
15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS-level, 300Hz 1 x HDMI 2.0 ([email protected])1 x Mini-DisplayPort

Audio:
Duo Wave Dynaudio speakers 1 x 3.5mm combo audio jack Array microphone

Power:
230W power adapter 99.9Whr 4-cell Li-Polymer battery

Dimensions:
358 x 267 x 23.4 mm

Weight:
2.38kg

Performance
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – CrystalDiskMark
Before we jump ahead with the test, it’s worth noting that we’ve set the MSI GE66 Raider on Extreme Performance for our benchmarks.
Starting off with CrystalDiskMark, you can see that the 2TB NVMe PCIe SSD has some really fast read and write speeds. This means that boot up times and loading speeds will be pretty quick no matter how you look at it. Furthermore, the increase in capacity to 2TB means you have plenty of space to store everything you need, which is great. In case you’re wondering, it’s the 2TB Samsung PM981 SSD.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Cinebench R15
In Cinebench R15, the Intel Core i7-10870H powering the MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 performed well enough. It’s interesting to see that the multi-core score is better than the 10875H but other than that, it seems to perform as we expected it to.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Cinebench R20
A similar pattern can be seen in Cinebench R20, which gives you a better idea as to how well the CPU perform. It’s not the best, but definitely more than adequate for most people out there.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Unigine SuperPosition
Moving on to Unigine Superposition’s 4K Optimized test, it’s one of the highest scores in our list of benchmarked laptops with a score of 9,663. It may not have broken the 10,000 milestone, but it’s still impressive nonetheless.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – 3DMark Time Spy
Likewise in 3DMark’s Time Spy benchmark, the MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 showed a strong performance. The Intel Core i7-10870H and RTX 3080 combo is shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – 3DMark Port Royal
In 3DMark’s Port Royal benchmark which tests out the ray tracing capabilities, it once again shows a promising score. Despite this, I don’t see many people using ray tracing for games that have the option as more often than note, gamers would focus on maximizing frame rates or go for higher resolution.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – PCMark
Moving on to PCMark, the MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 is shown to be a great laptop in all areas. If you require versatility in a laptop, this would definitely have the necessary firepower for it.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Gaming
You can’t test out a gaming laptop without the gaming benchmark and based on the data we’ve collected, the RTX 3080 GPU certainly showed that it’s a step above the RTX 20-series. All of the games shown above are tested on Full HD resolution at the highest settings possible, and achieving frame rates these high on average is certainly a noteworthy feat. I do believe the performance can be higher if the power brick is capable of higher wattage.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Battery life test
Battery life is never a gaming laptop’s strongest suite. Despite the large 99.9Whr battery capacity, it lasted 4 hours and 1 minute (241 minutes) on PCMark’s Modern Office endurance test. As for the gaming benchmark, it lasted an hour and 14 minutes (74 minutes), but this is understandable given how resource-intensive it is. From my own personal use of word processing, web browsing, office work, and light YouTube videos at 50% brightness, I get almost 5 hours of use, which is decent enough for a gaming laptop.
If you want to compare it to the previous GE66 Raider we reviewed, click right here.
User Experience
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review
The MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 is certainly a force to be reckoned with. It’s powered by the Intel Core i7-10870H CPU and the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. On the memory side of things, you have a dual-channel 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 RAM and 2TB NVMe PCIe G3x4 SSD. It’s optimized well and, as seen from our benchmarks, the performance is certainly admirable.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Display
It uses a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS-level display with 300Hz refresh rate. Personally, the viewing angle is good as it’s still clear when seeing from a 45° angle and with minor reflections at close to a 90° angle. The colours are certainly adequate for gaming and movies, but it’s not one to be used for colour-accurate work. While the bezels are noticeable for the top and bottom ones, it’s not something to complain about in my opinion as you’re more than likely to forget that it’s there.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Keyboard and touchpad
As for the keyboard, it feels a little mushy but it’s comfortable enough for gaming and general use. One thing I don’t personally like is that you can feel heat in the center area and above it, but if you enable maximum fan speed, it’s not something you would have to worry much about. Instead, it’s just the fan noise that you may have an issue with, as it can get rather loud. The trackpad itself works fine but there’s nothing to shout out about as I would recommend using a proper mouse with this.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Ports
Moving on the ports, you have two USB-C ports, three USB-A ports, both a Mini DisplayPort and HDMI port, SD card reader, a combo audio jack, and an RJ45 LAN port. In all honesty, I couldn’t ask for more from this as the amount of ports is more than adequate and the placement doesn’t feel cramped as they’re located on the sides and rear of the laptop.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – MSI Dragon Center
It wouldn’t be an MSI gaming laptop without their own specialized software, starting off with MSI Dragon Center. It’s a simple, intuitive piece of software that lets you do some simple overclocking, monitor your PC status, customizations, and more. I’m very certain that most people would not have issues using this. If you’re looking to customize the RGB lighting for the keyboard, you will have to make use of the Steelseries Engine software instead, which is also pretty easy to use.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – MSI App Player
The one thing I like about MSI laptops is that it comes with the MSI App Player pre-installed. It’s an Android emulator that lets you run Android apps directly on the laptop itself. If you’re crazy about certain mobile games but don’t want to drain your smartphone battery, or need access to certain communication tools, just use this and you’re good to go. While not everyone will need it, it’s still very useful to have nonetheless.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – KILLER Control Center
As for networking, the laptop comes with the Killer Control Center software. The laptop has support for Wi-Fi 6E connectivity and through the software, you can see which network offers the most optimum experience. Unfortunately, I do not have the means or internet connection to fully test out Wi-Fi 6E’s full capabilities but from what I have at the moment, wireless internet works consistently great.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review – Nahimic
In the audio department, the MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 is somewhat lacking. Granted, the built-in speakers can get rather loud but the audio quality is rather flat. Personally, I would stick to using headphones / earphones for a better, more immersive audio experience. You do have the Nahimic audio software to optimize your listening experience, and it works for both speakers and headphones, but it works far better for the latter.
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Verdict
MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 Review
The MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 can be considered a complete package when it comes to gaming laptops. You get great performance, solid build quality, attractive design, more than adequate ports, humongous 99.9Whr battery capacity, 300Hz refresh rate, ample memory, and a useful software suite. The only downside here is that the keyboard is a little mushy, speakers are subpar, it’s pricey, and it’s a little on the heavier side. If you can stomach its asking price of RM14,999, I’m sure you’ll be satisfied with this.
It’s worth noting that it does have a promo price which brings it down to RM13,999.
At the end of our MSI GE66 Raider 10UH-062 review, I award this gaming laptop with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.

Big thanks to MSI Malaysia for providing this gaming laptop for the purpose of this review.

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Apple iPhone 13 Review – The Gold Standard of Smartphones

Unboxing the Apple iPhone 13
Apple iPhone 13 Review – Box

Let’s kick off our Apple iPhone 13 review with the unboxing. Unlike the Pro variant, this one comes with a white box, which is more of what you’d expect from Apple. Inside the box, you can find the following items:
Apple iPhone 13 Review – Box content

USB-C to Lightning cable
User guide
SIM ejector pin
Apple sticker
The iPhone 13 itself

Our unit also came with an official silicone case by Apple with MagSafe support. This is a separate purchase, in case you were wondering. Also, no charger is included in the box.
Appearance
Apple iPhone 13 Review – Display
At first glance, the iPhone 13 doesn’t seem to look any different from its predecessor but as you look closer, some things begin to look more obvious. For starters, their signature notch has decreased in side, giving you more screen real estate while still maintaining their look. There are slight bezels all around but its relatively thin. In case you’re wondering, it uses a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with no 120Hz ProMotion.

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Apple iPhone 13 Review – Sides
Looking at the left side, you can see a silent mode switcher, volume rockers, and SIM tray that is positioned further away from the former two. As for the right side, the power button resides in solitude. There’s nothing to be found at the top but on the bottom, you can find the Lightning port sandwiched between the speaker grilles. You can also see here that iPhone 13 has gotten a bit thicker compared to before, likely to house a bigger battery.
Apple iPhone 13 Review – Rear
Moving over to the back, you have the signature Apple logo taking centerstage, the dual-camera setup on the top-left corner, and a glass frame which is held on by the stainless steel frame of the iPhone 13. As you might be able to tell by now, we have the Pink colour variant but if this isn’t up to your liking, you also have the choice of getting in Starlight, Midnight, Blue, and Red.
Overall, the Apple iPhone 13 isn’t a huge difference in terms of design but the subtle changes are certainly a welcome one. We do hope to see the notch become even smaller, or just go away in future iterations, but it’s good enough for now. It’s simple, elegant, and feels great on the hands so it’s hard to complain.
Specifications

CPU
Apple A15 Bionic
2 x Avalanche (Performance cores)
4 x Blizzard (Efficient cores)
5nm TSMC

GPU
5-core GPU

Memory
6GB RAM

Storage
1TB storage

Display
6.1″ 2532 x 1170 Super Retina XDR, True-tone, scratch-resistant ceramic glass with oleophobic coating
HDR10, Dolby Vision, 1200 nits max brightness

Audio
Spatial audio playback, stereo speakers

Camera
12MP f/1.6 main camera, 1.7µm pixels, sensor-shift OIS, dual-pixel PDAF
12MP f/2.4 ultra-wide, 13mm, 120°
Stills: Night mode portrait, Portrait mode, Portrait Lighting, True Tone flash, Panorama, Night mode, Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 4, Photographic Styles
Video: Up to 4K60 HDR video with Dolby Vision, 1080p30 Cinematic mode, 1080p240 slow-mo

Selfie camera
12MP f/2.2 selfie camera
Stills: Portrait mode, Portrait Lighting, Animoji & Memoji, Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 4, Photographic styles
Video: Up to 4K60 HDR video with Dolby Vision, 1080p120 slow-mo, Retina Flash

Connectivity
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.0
NFC
Ultra Wideband chip
5G Band n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n25, n28, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n66, n77, n78, n79
LTE Band 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 30, 32,  34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 48, 66
Apple Lightning

Software
iOS 15.1.1

Battery
3240mAh
20W fast charging
15W MagSafe wireless charging, 7.5W Qi wireless charging

Dimensions
146.7 x 71.5 x 7.7 mm

Weight
174g

Ingress protection
IP68 (6m deep for 30 minutes)

Performance
As this is the first iPhone that we’re reviewing, our benchmarks will not be as extensive as most of the ones we rely on cannot be compared with Android smartphones directly. However, we will be including all of the iPhones in benchmarks geared towards the device with future Apple reviews.
Apple iPhone 13 Review – Geekbench 5
In Geekbench 5, the Apple A15 Bionic chip powering the iPhone 13 proved to be a powerful chip. It pretty much shot the device all the way to the top for both single core and multi-core performance. In case you didn’t know how Apple’s own chips perform, this will give you a solid idea.
User Experience
Apple iPhone 13 Review – Display
The Apple iPhone 13 uses a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display with a resolution of 2532 x 1170, which makes it a little higher than Full HD. It’s certainly bright with great colour reproduction and excellent contrast, making it easy yet pleasing to the eyes. It also works great under direct sunlight. The notch has decreased in size but it’s still very apparent, which makes it feel a little outdated still.
The size is standard for modern smartphones today, but if you want a different size, you can opt for the Mini for smaller, and Max for bigger. It’s worth noting that it doesn’t have the ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate, which is only available in the Pro variants of the iPhone 13 series, so you only get 60Hz here. It’s not a dealbreaker given how good the display quality actually is so it depends on your needs for a smartphone display.
Apple iPhone 13 Review – Rear
In case you were wondering, the iPhone 13 doesn’t have Gorilla Glass protection. However, it does have Ceramic Shield for the display, made in partnership with Corning, the same company behind Gorilla Glass. It’s made by embedding ceramic nanocrystals into the glass through a high-temperature crystallization process, thus strengthening the glass against bumps and scratches.
As usual with iPhones, the iPhone 13 has a glass back, which means it’s glossy. To my surprise, it doesn’t get fingerprint smudges as easily as I thought, with the exception of the Apple logo. As you can see, we got the Pink colour variant, which I personally feel is the best looking one. The camera bumps are certainly noticeable, so I would recommend using this with a protective case despite how good it looks naked.
You can get the Apple iPhone 13 in Pink, Red, Midnight, Starlight, and Blue.
Apple iPhone 13 Review – iOS 15
Out of the box, the iPhone 13 was running on iOS 15, currently on version 15.3 to be precise. It’s pretty user-friendly, with most of your apps available on the Home Screen but if you’d rather have an app drawer, simply go to the right-most screen and all your apps will be there. On the left-most screen, you will have a bunch of widgets so you can quickly check on the weather, calendar, traffic info, and more. You can add more widgets here as well to improve its purpose.
Swiping down from the top-left and top-center, you can see a full list of your notifications while swiping down from the top-right brings you to the Control Centre, where you can quickly toggle connectivity options, adjust brightness, sound, change music, and more. It takes a bit of time to get used to it, especially if you’re coming from Android, but it will just take days to grow accustomed to it.
If any of these aren’t to your liking, you can still customize it further via Settings, especially Accessibility. iOS has come a long way from the old days, where it was frequently criticized to be lacking in customizability. You have plenty of options, including a variety of widgets, to personalize the experience while it still retains their signature look and user friendliness.
Apple iPhone 13 Review – Mute switch
One thing I have an issue with this, is that it lacks the option to enable vibration for alarms specifically while disabling vibrations for everything else. What I mean here is that if you have it in Silent Mode with vibrations disabled, the alarm will only have sound at best. Likewise if you have vibrations enabled, it will vibrate with every notification, which is annoying. Hopefully this can be fixed via software update.
Apple iPhone 13 Review – The notch
The iPhone 13 doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner. Instead, you have Face ID if you want to unlock it without keying in your PIN. It works surprisingly fast and consistently, as I had no issues unlocking it even in a dark room. The only downside to this is due to the pandemic, it’s harder to unlock it while outdoors as we need wear our masks on. I hope Apple has a solution in mind for this given that we’re likely wearing masks in public for a long time.
Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 13 doesn’t have expandable storage. For our review unit, we have the 512GB variant, which is certainly more than enough. However, we have come very far from the old 8GB iPhones and the lowest you can get with this variant is 128GB. In all honesty, that is plenty enough already but if that isn’t enough, you can either opt for a higher storage variant or upgrade your iCloud storage.
Apple iPhone 13 Review – Dual-cameras
From my own personal use, the iPhone 13 never really heated up on me. It runs pretty cool for the most part, with it only getting lukewarm at worst while charging wirelessly or when playing intensive games like Genshin Impact for long periods of time. I would have no worries about overheating issues unless you’re playing inside an oven.
Speaking of which, one of the best things with iPhones is MagSafe charging. It’s basically wireless charging but with strong magnets that will stick to the device. This way, you don’t have to fiddle around to find the ideal spot for wireless charging to start. As for battery life itself, I generally go by with 2 days per full charge on light use, and a full day for medium to heavy use.
Camera
Apple iPhone 13 Review – Camera UI
The camera UI on the Apple iPhone 13 is simple and straightforward. You can easily change options like Aspect Ratio, Exposure, and more, and you have access to a variety of shooting modes. This includes Time Lapse, Slo-Mo, Cinematic, Video, Photo, Portrait, and Panorama. It’s designed to be simple, so if you want Manual options like changing ISO, you will need to use a different app.

As for the results, I’m honestly surprised by how good it is. I know that iPhone cameras have been great over the years but given how much emphasis they placed on the Pro variants, I expected the base model to be lacking, and I’m glad I was wrong. Colours are punchy with a wide dynamic range, consistent autofocus, high level of details being captured, and pictures still look great in low-light.
This goes for both the wide and ultra-wide cameras as both are capable of giving good performance. Most of the time in the Android camp, only the main camera is excellent while the others aren’t exactly up to par. The zoom range will go from 0.5x to 5x but keep in mind that it’s digital zoom and not optical. If you want better zoom performance, you will need to at least go for the iPhone 13 Pro.

Selfies are also of pleasing quality, with a wide dynamic range, rather accurate / natural skin tone, wide depth of field for easier wefies, and pretty good details being captured. It does get a bit grainy in low-light but for the most part, it’s definitely capable of giving great performance.
Apple iPhone 13 Verdict
Apple iPhone 13 Review
If you thought that the base model iPhone 13 will be severely lacking behind the Pro variants, it’s not. This is the gold standard of what a smartphone should be not just in 2021 when it was launched, but also in 2022, especially with retail prices starting from RM3,899. The deciding on factor whether you should get this or the other iPhone variants is what you want / need in a smartphone.
For a more versatile camera setup and high refresh rate, go for the Pro variants. You want a bigger display? Go for the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Want something even more compact? Go for the iPhone 13 Mini. Otherwise, the base model will serve you excellently. At the end of our Apple iPhone 13 review, I award this smartphone with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.

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MyDigi App Celebrates 3 Million Users With Smartphone Giveaways And Rewards!

Just recently Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, or simply known as Digi, reached a new milestone when their MyDigi app reached 3 million active users a month since it was first released back in 2016. To celebrate the occasion, they are giving away two limited edition OPPO Find X Lamborghini Edition smartphones to the top two spenders in the MyDigi app from 1st March to 30th April 2019.

To be eligible for it, you’d need to spend a minimum of RM3 on rewards or the bestseller offer, the RM3 for 3GB/1day pass. The app is a one-stop platform for Digi customers to manage their Digi account as well as enjoy Digi exclusive rewards and deals.

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Users of the app will receive tailored deals in Box of Surprises and MyDigi Rewards under the Deals tab for an experience that best suit their purchases and selections, offered by more than 400 brands and merchant partners across 7000 locations nationwide.
Pokdepinion: Well that’s a pretty high value smartphone that they are offering… Too bad that I’m not using Digi though. Well if you are a user of the telco, it’s worth trying your luck? :P
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The Cooler Master MasterCase H100 is a MasterCase H500 shot with a shrink-ray

Cooler Master has officially launched the MasterCase H100 here in Malaysia. The compact case was introduced earlier this year, and definitely gained attention for its size and design. It shares the aggressive look of the Cooler Master H500, but distilled down into a mini-ITX form factor.

The first thing you will see with the MasterCase H100 is the Fine Mesh in front of the case. Behind it lies a massive 200mm RGB fan, which takes up most of the front fascia of the case. On the inside, you can fit a regular ATX power supply, up to 210mm long graphics cards and four SSDs. Basically giving you a tiny yet capable system.

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The MasterCase H100 lets you enjoy the compact builds that ITX boards enable, while not having to purchase specific hardware like SFX power supplies.

Since it’s so compact, Cooler Master also includes a built-in handle on top of the case, making it easy for you to carry the MasterCase H100 and go to the next LAN party. Or you know, just to let your mom sweep under your case?
You can get the MasterCase H100 for just RM249.
Pokdepinion: Not a bad case, but the CPU cooler support is a bit limited…
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ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 Review — beautiful screen, great performance

ASUS has always made some awesomely designed laptops, and the ASUS ZenBook Flip S is the latest iteration of their convertible series. The ASUS ZenBook Flip S packs the latest 11th Gen Intel Core processor and is also Intel Evo-certified, which means that it delivers an experience that is expected of a next-gen laptop. On top of all that stuff from Intel, the ASUS ZenBook Flip does bring a lot more on the table too, so lets check them out.
Unboxing

ASUS upped the ante further with the packaging for the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371. Here, the contents of the package are split into two parts, the laptop itself and the charger.

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Under the laptop lies an envelope that should presumably contain some of your usual documentation, but as ours is an early review sample, we don’t get those in the package. There’s also a very compact 65W USB-C power adapter, as well as a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle. Yup, this is yet another laptop from ASUS without the headphone jack.
According to the specifications, it should come with an additional sleeve, stylus and also a USB-A to RJ45 ethernet adapter, all of which didn’t come with review sample.
Appearance

The lid of the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 comes in a stunning Jade Black finish, that is reminiscent of ASUS’ premium laptops that come in dark blue finishes. The ASUS logo contrasts very well in Red Copper, giving off an air of opulence that ASUS reserves for their most premium of laptops, which the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 is apparently a part of.

The bottom of the laptop is decidedly more boring, although ASUS seems to have baked in more cooling vents here than they did on the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425E. The design combines a few angular lines with smoothly curved edges.

The ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 sports a glass cover over its display, which gives it a more premium look, although it does result in some glare. The ErgoLift does raise the bottom up a slight bit, which is quite interesting considering the hinge folds around in 360°. The laptop looks really sleek, with an extremely thin profile.

The Red Copper trim is also visible above the keyboard. There’s a narrow chamfered edge featuring the contrasting color around the lower half, and a sliver of it on the side of the lid, making for a really attractive looking laptop from every angle.
ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 Specifications

CPU
Intel Core i7-1165G7 @ 2.8 GHz (up to 4.7GHz Boost), 4C/8T, 25W TDP, 10nm SuperFin

RAM
16GB LPDDR4X-4266, dual-channel (on-board)

GPU
Intel Iris Xe Graphics (96EU @ up to 1.3GHz)

Storage
1TB WDC PC SN730 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD

Software
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Intel Graphics Command Center
MyASUS
McAfee Personal Security

Connectivity
Intel WiFi 6 AX201 (2×2 WiFi 6 up to 2.4Gbps)
Bluetooth 5.0
2 x USB-C (Thunderbolt 4, USB-PD charging)
1 x USB 3.0
1 x microSD card reader

Display
13.3″ 4K (2160p) OLED Samsung SDC4147 panel, 400-nit, 100% DCI-P3, 80% screen-to-body ratio
HDMI 1.4 (up to [email protected] Hz)

Audio
Stereo speakers, certified by Harman-Kardon
USB-C DAC included
Array microphone

Power
65W power adapter, USB-PD support
67WHr, 4-cell, Li-Po battery

Dimensions
305 x 211 x 13.9 mm

Weight
1.2kg

Performance

First up, the storage. ASUS did use a significantly more premium SSD for the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 rather than their usual Intel SSD 660p. The WD WDC PC SN730 is much faster here, although you probably won’t be able to really experience a major difference in normal use anyway.

For some peculiar reason, the Intel Core i7-1165G7 in the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 actually underperforms when compared against the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425E which we tested earlier. In fact it runs even slower than the much more affordable VivoBook 15 K513.

A serious peculiarity happens in 3DMark, where the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 comes up really short behind the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425E. It is still about 50% faster than the 10th Gen ASUS ZenBook though.

Superposition sees the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 come right up under the ASUS VivoBook 15 K513 which packs a GeForce MX350. Apparently there’s still areas where the MX350 will still shine over the integrated Iris Xe Graphics. This is also the one benchmark where we see the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 outperform the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425E.

PCMark performance is as you would expect. It is a great laptop for essential computing and productivity, but digital content creation won’t be its strong point. PCMark’s Digital Content Creation section does prefer more cores and a beefier GPU, so these results are expected. But of course, this is already much better than last-gen’s results.

Battery life is another area that the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 doesn’t exactly shine, because of the high resolution 4K OLED display. That doesn’t really bode well for battery life, even though it has the same-sized battery as the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425E. Still, 8 hours of battery life is nothing to scoff at.

The multi-core section is pretty abysmal looking on the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371. It does come with a higher power limit at first than the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425E, allowing it to boost higher, but it quickly tapers down to around 13W by the end of the run. As a result, the average clocks are just under 2.5GHz, although thermals do look slightly better here due to the rather aggressive throttling, maxing out at 92°C.

In the single-core run we see a more interesting scenario. The power limit is kept at under 12W, while over on the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425E we saw it run at up to 18.5W. As such, the highest clocks we see here are just 4.03GHz, with appreciably lower thermals of under 85°C. Average clocks are just below 3.7GHz, versus the 4.28GHz average we see on the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425E.
This might be due to the Intel Evo certification, as Intel dictates that an Intel Evo-certified laptop has to deliver a similar experience on battery as it can when connected to the wall. So the lower power limit may be intentional for a more consistent experience, even if it hurts the overall performance. Also the cooler thermals do allow it to feel better in use.
User Experience

As mentioned earlier, ASUS built the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 with a 360° hinge. This allows you to use it as a regular laptop, a tablet, or use it to present information to the person opposite you in the tent mode seen above. It is touch sensitive too on top of allowing you to use a stylus with it. The smooth glass surface does add some glare, but considering the quality of the screen under it, you really don’t want to apply a matte layer to take away from the sharpness or vibrance of the sweet 4K Samsung OLED panel underneath.

Adobe RGB: 118.3%

DCI-P3: 121.7%

sRGB: 171.8%

ASUS equipped the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 with one of the best displays we have seen, delivering 100% sRGB, 98.1% Adobe RGB and 95.8% DCI-P3 gamut coverage. Gamut volume is just absolutely amazing, with up to 171.8% sRGB. If only it wasn’t as reflective, this would definitely be one of my favorite displays in a laptop.

Above that sweet display there’s also an infrared facial recognition system, which offers a convenient, secure login option. If you still prefer fingerprint scanners, well unfortunately the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 doesn’t offer one.

The keyboard here appears to be directly lifted from the ASUS ZenBook 14 series, albeit with less bezels around the edges, as this is a slightly smaller laptop, after all. The trackpad is still huge, complete with the NumberPad functionality. I guess having a ScreenPad would have been cool on a laptop of this caliber, but apparently ASUS decided that it wouldn’t have been a good fit for the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371.
The travel distance here is pretty perfect already, although for some reason there’s just a wee bit more mushiness than I like. Flipping the keyboard behind the display disables the keyboard, but it doesn’t have that fancy locking mechanism that physically blocks keypresses that is available in some convertible laptops.

Now, let’s move on to the I/O. The right side only offers up a USB 3.0 port and the rather weirdly positioned power button. This is pretty standard for convertible laptops, but the button here is really narrow and fiddly, which doesn’t make for a very satisfying experience when turning on the laptop. I wish ASUS had made the button larger and more solid to press.

On the other side you get a full-sized HDMI port and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. This laptop appears to be designed in the same vein as the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX425 laptops, with a full-sized HDMI and USB-A port, but unfortunately it also loses the microSD card slot, in addition to the headphone jack that’s already absent from the latest ZenBook 14 laptops.
Thankfully, the audio experience is actually surprisingly good out of the speakers built into the laptop. The harman/kardon speakers deliver good sound here, and I did enjoy listening to some music on it, as it is even cable of pumping out a bit of bass. Quite amazing for such a lightweight laptop.
Conclusion

This is a very premium offering from ASUS, and the pricing does reflect it as well. For RM6799, you get a beautiful 4K OLED display in a 2-in-1 convertible form factor, I do think that it is quite a fair price to pay. Unfortunately it does seem that you will have to give up a bit of performance, as the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 apparently doesn’t allow the 11th Gen Intel Core to deliver its fullest potential.
Still, it is quite powerful as it is, so I guess it is acceptable. Its portability is also a strong plus in its favor, as it weighs just 1.2kg, glass screen cover and all. I do wish the keyboard was a bit more tactile, but overall, I would say that the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 is definitely a strong contender for one of the best convertible laptops out there.
[UPDATE 12/3/21: the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 is priced at RM6799 in Malaysia]

Our thanks to ASUS Malaysia for sending us the ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX371 for review.
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Forza Motorsport Reboot May Launch In October, Says Insider

The rebooted title may finally hit Xbox Series consoles and PCs alike after 3 years since the initial announcement.

Forza Motorsport has always been the staple of Microsoft’s racing portfolio, however the roles has somewhat shifted as the seventh release was released all the way back in 2017 (nearly 6 years ago!) and the mantle has been taken by Forza Horizon instead – which has since produced two more titles in this period. FM7 in particular wasn’t well received in particular due to prevalence of loot-box systems, which was all the rage in many titles at the time.

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The studio behind Forza Motorsport series, Turn 10 Studios, decided to go back to the drawing board and remake the next title from the ground up. Hence, there’s no number 8 in the title, as they set the title as a series reboot to start things over with brand new features and physics engine (which is a bigger leap than what FM7 jumped from FM4, according to the developers).

The game was originally set for spring 2023 launch – but we’re soon entering summer season so that’s not happening. That timeframe has since “shifted” to just year 2023, but insider MrMattyPlays has cleared up the information regarding specific launch dates. “I’ve heard that Forza Motorsport (is) coming out in October,” he said in the Defining Duke podcast. Should the game launch at that time, it’d mark a massive 6-year gap since the previous Motorsport title was launched.
If the information turned out to be true, we should hear about the game from Microsoft themselves very soon – including Xbox Game Showcase set on 11 June. The launch date should be revealed by then, along with few extra details prior to the game’s launch.
Source: Wccftech
Pokdepinion: I’d like to see if the new Motorsport title might convince me to try circuit racing, as I’m more of a Horizon player myself.
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OPPO F5 Comes With A.I Beauty Recognition – Taking Selfies To Another Level!

The soon to come smartphone device from OPPO, the OPPO F5, is set to feature A.I Beauty Recognition. The technology is designed to give users personalized beautification for subjects on a selfie image.
OPPO F5 A.I Beauty Recognition

The phone features 20MP on the front camera, paired with f/2.0 aperture and the new A.I Beauty Recognition, which offers customized beautification to take your selfie photography to the next level.
A.I Beauty Recognition allows users to take their real beauty which records more than 200 facial recognition spots of a face, giving precise attention to detail. It is able to distinguish and adjust accordingly to one’s age, skin tone, skin type, and gender. Also, it will slightly enhance user’s face lighting when in low light conditions to give more ‘natural’ selfies.

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Over in the Philippines, it’s been up for pre-orders. The phone will come in two RAM and storage variants. One features 4GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage while the other will have 6GB RAM and 64GB. It runs on Android 7.1 Nougat and powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT6763T processor. Battery wise, it is backed up with a 3200mAh battery. There are 3 color variants available; Gold, Black, and Red.
OPPO has told that they are a few more surprises up in store for us soon. Which means we have to wait for the official launch come this 2nd November 2017 and we will be going to the official launching event of the OPPO F5. So stay tuned here for more updates on the device!
Pokdepinion: Before of the news that the OPPO F5 will have A.I Beauty Recognition, i thought it was just another selfie phone. With that news in mind, I wonder on what they are set to introduce and feature to the consumers with this brand new addition to the device. Here’s hoping for an innovation.

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AMD “Storm Peak” Threadripper 7000 Support Added in CPU-Z

The Ryzen Threadripper 3000 series, the latest Threadripper for HEDTs (high-end desktop) instead of workstation systems, will finally see its true successor.

Since Intel launched their latest Sapphire Rapids-based Xeon W series CPUs dedicated for HEDT systems, AMD has been busy working behind closed doors to give Team Blue a proper response. The Zen 4-based HEDT CPUs may feature beyond 64 cores (concurrent generation EPYC ‘Genoa’ max out at 96 cores), and supports PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 as well.

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CPU-Z 2.05 update (March 01st, 2023):

Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids platform.
Preliminary support for AMD Storm Peak platform.
Zhaoxin KX-6000G/4 CPU.

One of the pain points of Threadripper platforms is the CPU socket. Despite AMD’s relatively stable cadence of socket updates in their desktop Ryzen platforms, the HEDT has seen many changes to the socket (sometimes inoperable between workstation and HEDT variants of the same generation, such as sTRX4 and sWRX8). So it is no surprise that we’ll see yet another new socket for the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 models, although this time around there’s a lot more justification in that socket change, due to increased pin counts.
Rumors so far has pointed out that AMD may segment the high-core-count CPUs into two sections: HEDT and Workstations. The former will see some features cut down, including limited to quad-channel DDR5, but will gain overclocking support; whereas the workstation models will get 8-channel DDR5 and up to 128 lanes of PCIe 5.0 at disposal. Expect these models to launch in September this year, and announcements should come earlier on.
Source: Videocardz
Pokdepinion: Ryzen’s efficiency may continue to dominate Intel here, Team Blue hasn’t got the best of times in this segment for years now.
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How Well Can Your PC Run Final Fantasy XV? Use This to Find Out

If you were wondering how well your PC can run Final Fantasy XV, then wonder no more. Square Enix has released the benchmark tool for the game and depending on the score, you’ll know what settings you can play the game in.
How Well Can Your PC Run Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition?

The folks over at Square Enix has made the benchmark for Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition available for download.
The program can be downloaded here. It’s about 3.7GBs. Once you have installed it, all you have to do is to select your graphics options, and start the benchmark. Those familiar with Final Fantasy XIV will feel right at home, as it’s pretty much the same procedure, with a very similar program.

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Once the benchmark has done its job, it’ll return a score, which basically tells you how capable your PC is to run the game:

12000 or higher
Extremely High
The game will run exceedingly well. A high frame rate is possible and even richer graphical settings can be used.

9000 to 11999
Very High
You can expect the game to run very comfortably. A high frame rate is possible and even higher quality graphical settings can be used.

6000 to 8999
High
You can expect the game to run comfortably. It should run smoothly, even at higher graphics settings.

4500 to 5999
Fairly High

A standard level of performance can be expected. Adjustments to the graphics settings are recommended if possible.

3000 to 4499
Standard

A standard level of performance can be expected.

2500 to 2999
Slightly Low
It is possible to play the game, but you may experience a burden on processing when performing some actions. Adjustments to the graphics settings are recommended.

2000 to 2499
Low
It is possible to play the game, but all actions will feel sluggish overall. There is a chance that the performance may improve with adjustments to the graphics settings or display resolution.

0 to 1999
Insufficient
The system does not meet the minimum requirements to run the game.

On top of the benchmark, pre-purchases are now available on Steam, Origin, and the Windows Store. Each store has a specific pre-purchase bonus, which you can see below alongside the virtual box art and some lovely key art. Steam players will get the FFXV Fashion Collectionfor Noctis, Origin customers will receive the FFXV Regalia Sticker Pack, and Windows Store users will get the FFXV Battle Upgrade Pack.
Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition will be available on March 6th 2018.

Pokdepinion: Well, it’s almost time for PC gamers to finally enjoy what the console people have been enjoying…or suffering through depending on how you feel about the game.
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vivo x Lazada 10.10 Tenaga Deal Sees Discounts Up To RM1,200 On vivo Products

In conjunction with the vivo x Lazada 10.10 Tenaga Deal, which will take place from the 10th to the 12th of October 2021, vivo Malaysia is giving discounts of up to RM1,200, as well as limited-time bargains and free gifts worth up to RM899.
vivo x Lazada 10.10 Tenaga Deal

Customers who purchase any vivo X70 variant from vivo’s official store on LazMall on 10 October will receive complimentary gifts such as an X70 Pro premium gift box (Bluetooth soundbar and 1-Month subscription VIU TV Membership Card), phone case, screen protector, and complimentary 1-Year extended warranty and 1-Year screen crack protection, worth up to RM899, while stocks last.

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Customers can also take advantage of an add-on offer, which provides a 25% discount on the latest vivo TWS 2 series earphones when they purchase a vivo X70 series device. Customers can get a 90% storewide discount, capped at RM10, with a minimum buy of RM100, and up to an RM50 discount with a minimum spend of RM499. Terms and conditions apply.

Customers who spend a minimum of RM100 during the vivo Crazy Brand Mega Offer on the 10th and 12th of October 2021 from 12am to 2am will receive a rebate of up to 90%, capped at RM20, and a 15% storewide discount when paying with Lazada Wallet. Users can also take advantage of amazing vouchers and free prizes during the vivo x Lazada 10.10 Tenaga Deal livestream event on 10th October 2021, 8pm, at the vivo official’s store on LazMall.
Customers can enjoy RM10 discount for every RM100 spent at vivo’s official store on LazMall from 10th to 12th October.

Buyers to collect Lazada Bonus from 6th to 12th October.
Search for Lazada Bonus items on vivo official store and add them to the cart.
Checkout the selected items from 10th to 12th October, apply the collected vouchers.

That isn’t everything. Customers who use their HSBC credit or debit card to make their payment will receive an RM30 discount with a minimum spend of RM600.
Please visit vivo Malaysia’s Official Facebook Page or vivo’s official flagship store on Lazada for more information about vivo Malaysia or the vivo x Lazada 10.10 Tenaga Deal.
Pokdepinion: It’s that time again. Gonna hide underground to stop myself from spending.
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With Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass growing in popularity, some wondered if Sony has plans for a counter-attack with a PlayStation-equivalent for it. It looks like there is a good chance that might just happen sometime in the future.
PlayStation-equivalent Xbox Game Pass May Be Coming

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A recent interview with Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan by Russian news agency TASS shed some light on the possibility of a PlayStation-equivalent Xbox Game Pass. While it was rather cryptic in nature, it does indicate that the PlayStation team has something to share with regards to that, just not at the moment.
There is actually news to come, but just not today. We have PlayStation Now which is our subscription service, and that is available in a number of markets.
Jim Ryan
It’s hard to make complete sense of what has been said, but there is one interesting thing that is worth pointing out. Previously, Jim Ryan said that it “doesn’t make any sense” to have a PlayStation-equivalent Xbox Game Pass. This indicates that there has been a change of heart, perhaps by seeing how well the competitor has been doing with their subscription service.
One of Microsoft’s key selling points for their gaming platforms is the Xbox Game Pass. It can be seen as a Netflix for gaming, with subscribers getting access to a library of games on their Xbox console, Windows 10 PC, and Android smartphones via xCloud. Taking into account special offers in the Ultimate subscription and a special price of USD $1 for new subscribers, it’s a very enticing deal for those looking to save some money while gaming.
While Sony Interactive Entertainment does have the PlayStation Now subscription service, that is limited to selection regions and older game libraries. Perhaps they might consider revamping it to be even more attractive than ever before. For now, there are no confirmed details just yet so stay tuned for that.
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Pokdepinion: Well, competition is great and the ultimate winner is always the consumers. If Sony is doing something similar, I hope it will be competitive enough.
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honor Malaysia Announce honoraya Promotion – A Smartphone For Only RM10?

honor Malaysia has announce their latest promotion, honoraya, where you can get latest honor smartphones such as the honor 9 lite, honor 7X and also the honor View 10 at lowered prices.
honoraya Promotion
As you can see from the picture, the promo will be starting from the 24th of May 2018 until the 1st of June 2018, where fans of honor will be able to get their hands on selected honor devices at a discounted price.
Deals include the honor 9 Lite which is at a promo price of RM659, where it was previously at RM749. Next is the honor 7X at a discounted price of RM849, originally priced at RM899. Last but not least is the View 10. It is priced at RM1,799, a RM100 cheaper than its original price.

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It’s worth noting that the honoraya promotion will run from 24th of May to 28th of May on honor’s official store on the Shopee platform. While the original 24th May to 1st June 2018 is for honor’s Vmall platform.
Besides the discount, there will also be flash sales happening on from 30 May to 1 June 2018 on honor’s Vmall. During this flash sale, you can purchase selected honor models at a rather shocking price of RM10.
To check out the honoraya campaign, you can head to Vmall or Shopee platform during the promotional period.
Pokdepinion: If you are curious on what the RM10 device is, well your guess is good as mine. I have absolutely no clue on what it is. What do you think it is?
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