Is TM the Reason Why Malaysian Broadband Prices are High? World Bank Says Yes

Many people are wondering why we pay a high price for broadband internet, especially those stuck with Streamyx. World Bank says TM is to blame for that.
Is TM the Reason Why Malaysian Broadband Prices are High?
Image source: The Edge Markets
We have seen some interesting times recently with internet prices being lowered and much higher speeds being offered to the masses. Of course, the coverage is still somewhat limited so there are still people being stuck with plans like Streamyx, albeit paying the same, if not more than typical fibre internet users.
According to the World Bank Group, Telekom Malaysia (TM) has such a strong market dominance which essentially stifled competition and led to poor coverage and high prices for broadband internet in the country.

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While TM can be credited for playing an integral role in the development of the telecommunications sector in Malaysia, its dominance made it quite difficult for competitors to step in and thus, restraining market development. After all, TM is holding over 90% of the country’s broadband offering, which limits the choices in internet service providers for consumers.
This made it easy for TM to charge high prices, higher than what we see from our neighbours in Southeast Asia. With policies in the country set with TM in the forefront, this made it tough for competition to step in.
Malaysia may be seeing a huge change with the enforcement of the Mandatory Standard Access on Pricing (MSAP) and with TNB now considering to join the broadband race. A large company like TNB stepping in would definitely pose a huge threat.
At the moment, TM is offering their new Unifi Basic 30Mbps and Unifi Pro 100Mbps plans for RM79 and RM129 respectively, with the former having a 60GB monthly quota. For those who do not have access to fibre internet, Streamyx will still be the only option they have at the moment. Hopefully, that will change sooner rather than later.
Source: The Malaysian Insight
Pokdepinion: I am thankful for having fibre internet access. High speed at a relatively affordable price. Can’t say the same for people who only has access to Streamyx.
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OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – Tempering Expectations

OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Unboxing
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – Box

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite comes in a black box with the Nord wording clad in white with a blue background. You can also see the OnePlus logo taking a small amount of space on the top-left corner, so you know where they want you to focus more on. Given it’s your standard smartphone box thickness, I’m sure you know that a charger is inside here.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – Box content
Inside the box, you can find the following items:

Quick start guide
Warranty card
67W SuperVOOC charging brick
USB-C to USB-C cable
Clear TPU case
The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite smartphone itself

Specifications

Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G
2 x Kryo 660 Gold @ 2.2GHz + 6 x Kryo 660 Silver @ 1.7GHz
6nm

GPU
Adreno 619

RAM
8GB LPDDR4X

Connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz and 5GHz)
Bluetooth 5.1, LE
USB Type-C
GPS, Glonass, BDS, QZSS, Galileo
NFC
5G

Storage
256GB UFS 2.2
Up to 1TB expandable storage (MicroSD)

Display
6.72″ FHD+ LCD Display, 680 nits (peak)
Adaptive 120Hz Refresh Rate
240Hz touch sampling rate
Corning Gorilla Glass

Rear Camera
108MP f/1.75 wide angle camera (Samsung HM6), OIS AF, 6P lens
2MP f/2.4 depth camera
2MP f/3.3 macro, fixed focus

Selfie Camera
16MP f/2.0 wide-angle selfie cam

Battery
5000mAh
67W SuperVOOC Fast Charging

OS
OxygenOS 13.1
Android 13

Ingress Protection
No

Dimensions
165.5 x 76 x 8.33 mm, 195g

Colours
Pastel Lime and Chromatic Gray

Performance
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – Antutu v9
Starting off our benchmark suite with Antutu V9, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite performed decently at best. It’s certainly below other midrange devices this year but it’s apt given the price as it’s more of an entry-level to lower midrange device.

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OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – Geekbench 6
A similar pattern can be seen in Geekbench 6, as the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is currently the lowest ranked smartphone in our list of benchmarked devices thus far. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s about expectations and pricing, which seems to be fair so far.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – 3DMark
While the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite also had relatively low scores in 3DMark overall, I’m surprised it still managed to do rather decently in Wild Life Unlimited. I can see how badly it lags during the test, but I genuinely expected a noticeably lower score than what it got here.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – PCMark
Lastly on PCMark’s Work 3.0 benchmark, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite surprises me yet again as it actually managed to break the 10,000 mark, albeit barely at 10,242. It’s been consistently below other recent midrange devices but to be able to reach this score means that it would make for a decent daily driver. If you’re not doing anything heavy and are mostly on social media / messaging, this will work perfectly fine for sure.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – Battery life
If you’re wondering about its battery life, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite did pretty well givcn its price point. It lasted 11 hours and 18 minutes (678 minutes) in PCMark’s Work 3.0 endurance test. Thanks to its healthy 5,000mAh battery capacity, it should easily last through a full day, maybe even two if you’re a light user. As for charging speed, this is what I got with its 67W charger starting at 2% battery level:

15 minutes = 47%
30 minutes = 75%
45 minutes = 95%
49 minutes = 100%

Looking for a pair of earbuds to go along with this? Check out our OnePlus Nord Buds 2 review by clicking right here.
Camera

Generally, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite has a surprisingly capable shooter. However, I can only say this much if it’s the main camera itself. In broad daylight, you get sharp images with accurate colours and a good amount of detail. Low light shots are decent at best since you often get a lot of digital noise but I honestly expected worse. At times, it seems hard to believe you’re getting this type of quality at this price, especially since most of them don’t look overly artificial.
However, I can’t say the same for the other two camera modules; the depth and macro cameras. Colours are rather bland and details are poor to say the least. The quality looks like something from smartphone cameras from over a decade ago, relying on software to get pictures that barely usable if any. Personally, I would stick to only the main camera and not bother with the other two.
The Good
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – Rear
There are a number of good reasons to consider the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite. For starters, it has a pretty design, especially considering that it’s quite an affordable smartphone. It easily looks above its price range, with some upper midrange looking rather dull in comparison. While camera protrusions are typically seen as an annoyance, this one makes it look like it comes with a strong camera setup. Of course, you can always look at the previous section to know where the camera setup is as good as it looks.
Next up, to my surprise, it does have stereo speakers. This came as a surprise to me as a smartphone we reviewed recently, which has double the price of this one, only came with a single speaker. It’s not breathtaking by any means as the sound quality and volume is decent but at this price range, it’s really hard to complain. If I had to find something to compliment, I’d say that the audio is at least balanced. I’d take this over any single speaker setup on a smartphone any day.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – It has a headphone jack
Then, it comes with a headphone jack. This might seem like a small matter but when you consider the fact that smartphones which costs way higher than this don’t typically come with headphone jacks, and it appears that more and more devices are getting rid of it as well. It’s always great to see it in any smartphone, that’s for sure. Furthermore, you still get a microSD card slot, which is always great as you have the option to expand memory if and when you want to.
Another pleasant surprise for me is the fingerprint scanner. It’s integrated with the power button on the side, which saves space compared to having a standalone one. It works fast and consistently, seemingly having no issues even when my fingers are a little damp. If you were to compare the speeds with the flagships of today, it will lose but it’s not by much. Furthermore, it would be unfair to compare as the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite is much more affordable.
Lastly, it’s pretty affordable for what you’re getting. For just RM1,099, you get a 5G-capable smartphone with decent capabilities when you consider the overall package. It’s not going to run Genshin smoothly throughout, even at low resolutions, but if you’re just using it for basic mobile photography, social media and communication, it’s more than enough.
The Bad
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – Rear is a fingerprint magnet
Unsurprisingly, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite does have its fair share of drawbacks. For starters, while the design is attractive, the rear is a fingerprint magnet. You will see it get covered with smudges all over in a short period of time. This is only a real problem if you don’t plan on using a protective case, which we recommend you do so to not only mitigate any potential damages, but to avoid a potential eyesore.
Then, the display is far from the best around. For starters, the colours seem a little off compared to most other smartphones out there. To be precise, it’s on the duller side, making things look rather bland on screen. This is likely due to the nature of LCD screens. Furthermore, it’s also rather dim, to the point where I had trouble seeing what’s on the screen when I was under sunlight.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review – Display
While having 120Hz refresh rate is always good to have, I find the smoothness a little lacking. It doesn’t seem to truly hit 120Hz for the most part as I noticed movements and animations being noticeably smoother in other 120Hz displays. To the least, it does beat your average 60Hz display, but this feels more like 90Hz based on my own experience. If you don’t see much benefit from using it, stick to lower refresh rate settings to preserve battery life.
Lastly, and I feel like this is a very big missed opportunity, is the lack of their signature alert slider. If you’ve used other OnePlus smartphones before, then I’m sure you’ve seen the switch that lets you toggle between mute, vibrate, and sound. The lack of this slider isn’t a dealbreaker by any means as you can easily toggle the settings right from UI itself, but nothing beats the convenience of having a dedicated slider for it.
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Verdict
OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite Review
When you look at the drawbacks, it might seem like the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite isn’t something worth considering. However, keep in mind that it’s a 5G-capable smartphone at just RM1,099, which makes these quirks a lot more tolerable. If you’re not looking to play some graphically-intensive mobile game or do some hardcore multitasking, this will serve you just fine.
At the end of our OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite review, I award this smartphone with our Bronze Pokdeward.

Big thanks to OnePlus Malaysia for sending us this smartphone of the purpose of this review.
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AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO priced from RM5199 with 8-channel DDR4, 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes

Do you consider AMD’s chart-topping AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X still insufficient for your needs? AMD proffers you the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO. While previously available as an OEM-exclusive, you can now get the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO processors alone. It won’t be drop-in upgrade for your current AMD Ryzen Threadripper build though.

Instead of the AMD sTRX4 socket found in the AMD TRX40 boards that supported the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, you will need a different AMD sWRX8 socket and the AMD WRX80 chipset. These boards will allow you to use the 8-channel memory and 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes offered by the entire Ryzen Threadripper PRO series. For contrast, sTRX4 supports quad-channel memory and just 88 PCIe 4.0 lanes.

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Aside from the support for more memory channels and PCIe lanes, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO lineup also boast AMD PRO Security features like AMD Memory Guard and AMD Secure Processor.

AMD will be offering a small range of processors in the lineup, ranging from the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3945WX with 12 cores, all the way up to the 64-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX. All of them tout  the same support for all the goodies, including the 8-channel memory and 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO Specs and Pricing

Cores / Threads
Base / Boost Clocks
L2 + L3 cache
TDP
Price

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3955WX
16C/32T
3.9 / 4.3 GHz
72MB
280W
RM5199

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX
32C/64T
3.5 / 4.2 GHz
144MB
280W
RM12 599

AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3995WX
64C/128T
2.7 / 4.2 GHz
288MB
280W
RM24 999

Pokdepinion: Previously, I couldn’t think of a way to use all 64 cores on the Threadripper 3990X. Now I have no idea how to use up all 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes.
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AMD or Intel? Why not both?; Intel integrates AMD Vega and HBM2 on its mobile CPUs

Intel and AMD work out their differences and combines their expertise in Intel’s 8th Gen Intel Core H-series of high performance mobile processors.
Sleeping with the enemy?
If the Coffee Lake and Kaby Lake Refresh were underwhelming to you, this might be more interesting. Confirming the rumors that were floating around, Intel was indeed working with AMD’s Radeon Technologies Group. The result? The 8th Gen Intel Core H-series of high performance mobile processors.

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The latest Intel Core H-series processors combines Intel’s Coffee Lake-H CPU dies with AMD’s latest Vega GPUs and HBM2 memory for immense performance on a single package. We know Intel’s iGPUs pale in comparison with what AMD has packed into their APUs, so this will definitely give Intel an edge.

The AMD GPU will communicate with the Intel CPU via a new Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB). This configuration allows for smaller motherboards without sacrificing the performance afforded only by dedicated GPU solutions. To enable better efficiency, the CPU and GPU also features a new power sharing framework to ensure that you can get extend your battery life when you are away from a plug.

Intel plans to use these new processors in thinner devices while delivering more performance than previous generations of Intel processors were capable of. Look forward to these processors in Q1 2018 when OEMs roll out their designs packing these CPUs.
Pokdepinion: The solution is novel, but at what price? We know HBM2 is pricey, so expect these CPUs to cost a pretty penny. I wonder what NVIDIA has to say about this though.

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Acer Switch Alpha 12 review — double duties

As a gamer, tablets are usually the last thing I consider buying. However the slew of new convertibles launching recently has gotten me interested. What does it feel to use a tablet? I mean, there must be quite a market for these device, or else no one would care to design and manufacture them. Acer has recently launched their Switch Alpha 12, which they claimed to be the first liquid-cooled 2-in-1 convertible to feature an Intel Core i-series CPU under the hood. Eager to try out the liquid cooling system as well as to investigate the allure of Windows tablets, I requested for a unit to play around with, and I am impressed.

Packaging

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The packaging of the Acer Switch Alpha 12 is pretty simple, a paper sleeve covering a rigid cardboard box.

Sliding the inner box out and opening it allows you to lay eyes on the tablet wrapped in a plastic.Lifting it up reveals more of the package contents, which is quite comprehensive at the least.

You get the Acer Switch Alpha 12 tablet, its keyboard case, an active stylus, the charger and the usual documentation. Worth noting is that in certain regions, the active stylus is sold separately, making for an extra $50 saved as it is included here.

Appearance

The Acer Switch Alpha 12 looks pretty premium. It has a classy brushed metal plate on its back, with a plastic frame around the sides. You would be hard pressed to notice its plastic though.

The front is dominated by the glossy glass panel covering the 12” screen, surrounded by rather thick bezels. The bezels are necessary for holding the device when using it as a tablet, so I am not complaining.

The left side features the power button, volume rocker and also the Windows button. Acer’s choice of a hardware button will see it get much less use, unlike most other tablets that go for a capacitive softkey on the bezels for that.

Over on the right we get the ports. A 3.5mm combo audio jack, a standard USB 3.0 port, a USB 3.1 Type-C port and also the proprietary charging port. Under the kickstand, a microSD card reader lies hidden. While I don’t expect most users to use it for transferring files, I think it may be great for storing media content as there is only 128GB in this review sample.

The kickstand behind the Acer Switch Alpha 12 is essentially the lower half of the frame swinging open to support the tablet. It’s made of metal so it should be pretty durable.

Snapping on the keyboard cover – an enjoyable experience, I assure you – and you get what looks like a pretty decent laptop when open. The keys are full-sized, similar to a usual laptop’s keyboard.

Used as a cover when closed, and it offers a nice faux suede surface. While nice to touch, I forsee it collecting tonnes of lint and dirt. Even as we speak the review sample I have right now has grey spots from when it was once laid on dusty desks.

There isn’t much to talk about the design of the stylus. It looks like a standard pen with a button thrown on it. It looks pretty classy and the keyboard cover has a little tab to stow your pen in. A silo in the Acer Switch Alpha 12 itself would have been preferable, but this is an active stylus and is pretty chunky compared to passive ones like the S Pens that Samsung equips their Galaxy Note series of phablets with.

The power adapter is a pretty common looking rectangular block. We were hoping to see a USB Type-C charger, but nope. It has a 45W output though, which means you will still have to bring a separate charger for the Acer Switch Alpha 12 and your smartphone, irregardless if they share the same connector or not, unless you are okay with it charging very slowly.
Overall, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 looks great, and can definitely contend with the other convertible Windows tablets out there in the market in terms of looks.

Specifications

CPU
Intel Core i3-6100U @ 2.3 GHz

RAM
4GB 1866 MHz LPDDR3 (dual channel)

GPU
Intel HD Graphics 520

Storage
128GB Kingston SATA SSD

Software
Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Acer Care Center
Acer Hover Access
Acer Quick Access

Connectivity
Atheros/Qualcomm QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
Bluetooth 4.0
1 x USB 3.0
1 x USB 3.1 Type-C
microSDXC card reader

Display
12″ 3:2 QHD IPS (2160×1440), 10-point multitouch display

Audio
2 speakers
1 x 3.5mm combo audio port

Power
45W AC adapter, 2-cell battery (non-removable)

Dimensions
292.1 (W) x 201.4 (D) x 15.85 (H) mm

Weight
0.9kg tablet only; 1.25kg with keyboard cover

Performance
As a tablet, performance may not really be the first thing on your mind when choosing one, but it is definitely better to have more performance than to have insufficient grunt for your workloads.

Starting off with the storage, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 features a standard SATA SSD by Kingston, not those cheap eMMC storage you often see in cheaper tablets. That means you get around 555MB/s reading and 205MB/s writing. It’s pretty decent and really makes the Acer Switch Alpha 12 pretty responsive and capable of starting up in a matter of seconds.

Processing power comes from the Intel Core i3-6100U. It is mated to 4GB of 1866 MHz DDR3 memory, quite a surprise find for me, honestly. The Skylake CPU is supposed to have better performance than its predecessors. However I have nothing to compare against other than the higher end quad-core i7 parts, which are miles ahead due to a higher number of cores, faster clock speeds but also consume up to 3x the power.

GPU performance is weak, but still miles better than its predecessors. In fact aside from improved efficiency, the area which Intel has worked the most on is in the GPU department. The Intel HD Graphics 520 is capable of nearly 3x the performance of the HD 4600 found in Haswell parts. That should allow it to be at least sufficient for some light gaming, right?

I did mention I was a gamer, right? And as a gamer, I would definitely have to try out gaming on this sweet device. As expected, DOTA 2 can run on this tablet, but at the lowest graphics settings and definitely not at its lofty native resolution. At 1920×1200 and the lowest graphics possible, the Acer Switch Alpha 12 was capable of an average framerate of above 60 fps, with rare dips below that. I was also pleasantly surprised by the temperatures recorded. The highest it has hit was 63 degrees after 23 minutes of DOTA 2.

I expected the Acer Switch Alpha 12 to heat up crazily and throttle to unusable levels, but I was proven quite wrong when I played DOTA 2 on it. Kicking things up a notch, I opened Intel Burn Test. Even after more than 10 minutes of load, the temperatures only crept up to 64 degrees. Of course, the i3-6100U isn’t a really high performance chip, with a TDP of only 15W. But still, you must remember that the Acer Switch Alpha 12 is fanless. No throttling was observed, and I think that the LiquidLoop technology Acer has implemented in the Acer Switch Alpha 12 is pretty effective at dissipating what little heat the i3-6100U puts out. While there won’t be any dust accumulation affecting heat dissipation due to the fanless design, I do wonder what can be done when the thermal paste deteriorates after some time.
The Acer Switch Alpha 12’s battery kept it powered through me working on Microsoft Word, some light browsing on Firefox and a few episodes of Breaking Bad for around 5 hours and 11 minutes before it hit 15%. Coming from a gaming laptop, battery life figures like this are just phenomenal to me. While there are many tablets and ultrabooks out there that can beat this figure, it is more than enough for my usage, as the longest time I am ever away from a power socket is when I am on a train ride from KL to Ipoh, which takes around 2 and a half hours. If you require more battery life, you may want to carry the power adapter with you, but then the included power adapter isn’t that heavy a burden. According to Windows estimations, the battery will charge right up in 2 hours too, which is decent if you ask me.

User Experience
Actually the first niggle I have starts when I want to start the Acer Switch Alpha 12. The fact that you have to press on the power button longer than usual to start it is a little annoying. However with the Acer Switch Alpha 12, I think you aren’t meant to shut it down that frequently. Close the keyboard cover and the tablet automatically enters a sleep mode, with it ready to go as soon as you tap the power button.
Used as tablet, it is a bit too heavy to use over long periods of time. Grip is okay, but the 1.25kg weight makes me tire a little. However if you are going to use it for a long period of time, why not just flip out the kickstand to support it on a flat surface?

Actually, you don’t even need a flat surface, as I have used it on my lap comfortably for extended periods of time in waiting rooms and also on my train rides.  In my opinion, this is a true laptop, ladies and gentlemen. And for the guys, you need not worry about decreased sperm counts as the little heat the Acer Switch Alpha 12 produces is not dissipated anywhere near your precious family jewels at all. Speaking about heat, during the Intel Burn Test session, the back panel did heat up a bit. It would have been uncomfortable to hold it then, but are you really going to be running intensive workloads with a tablet? Guessed so. Surfing, word processing and watching movies on the Acer Switch Alpha 12 is handled with ease, without any uncomfortable rise in temperatures. And since this uses a fanless cooling system, you won’t get any noise at all.

The keyboard cover that is bundled with the Acer Switch Alpha 12 is a joy to use. Snapping it on is really easy. Just bring the connector edge of the keyboard near the lower edge of the Acer Switch Alpha 12, and it immediately snaps into place. It has never missed. In fact the magnetic force is strong enough to keep the tablet from falling if you are just holding on the keyboard.

The size of the keys are pretty standard, similar to those found on full-sized notebooks. Key travel is also decent, and it requires just the right amount of actuation force to make it comfortable to type on. In fact, this review is almost entirely typed out on the keyboard.

The keyboard cover even has a nice ergonomic tilt, thanks to a magnetic strip along the top edge of the keyboard. It snaps to the lower edge of the tablet, giving you a nice comfortable tilt. There is some flex if you tap the keys really hard, but I think it is quite negligible. If I were to really look hard for something to complain about, it would be the lack of backlighting. Even then, there is a backlit keyboard cover available from Acer if you need one. There is also a decent touchpad here, but I would rather use the touchscreen. When used as a cover, it has a slight magnetic pull at the top for a more secure closure, but not too strong that you have to struggle to open it. The sweetest part of the deal? It comes along with the tablet, so you need not fork out an extra sum of cash to get it.

Now that we are going through the accessories, let’s talk about the included stylus. The active stylus only features a single button. Acer pre-installed the Hover Access overlay that pops up when you double tap the button on the stylus. It offers shortcuts to stylus-enabled software like Fresh Paint, One Note, Snipping Tool, Windows Journal and even Sticky Notes. And while it needs an AAAA battery to work, it doesn’t really feel any heavier than a premium pen. It detects up to 256 levels of pressure, which means it may not be as precise as the latest Samsung S Pens which can register up to 2048 levels of pressure, but it will do.

I have tried drawing and writing with this pen, and it works great. I was also quite surprised that the Windows 10’s built-in handwriting recognition understood my handwriting perfectly! Haters please stay away from the comments section as I am not a particularly artistic person. I am sure someone with better talents could better make use of the stylus.

Connectivity options are limited, as you have only one USB 3.0, one USB 3.1 Type-C and the 3.5mm combo jack to use. Currently you are almost limited to just the USB 3.0, as USB Type-C peripherals and portable storage drives are yet to become mainstream. If you intend to use a mouse with the Acer Switch Alpha 12, it would be recommended to get a Bluetooth one, or you will have to get a Type-C adapter/hub to use anything else.

I did mention I played DOTA 2 on the Acer Switch Alpha 12 right? Well of course I wasn’t going to play with the touchscreen/touchpad and the keyboard cover. I connected all my “gaming” peripherals and got down to work. The laptop cooler I am using also doubles as a USB hub, so I got both the mouse and keyboard connected to the lone USB 3.0 port. I lost the game though it wasn’t the tablet’s fault. :( Pardon my messy desk.
The display is an IPS panel, with a pretty high resolution of 2160×1440. Sharpness is top notch, but as usual for any display resolution above 1080p, you are bound to run into some scaling issues with incompatible apps.

IPS displays are known for their wide viewing angles. The one here is no different. Colors are vivid, but not to an AMOLED-level of punchiness. Brightness is sufficient for most usage environments, with adaptive brightness to automatically adjust to your surrounding’s light levels. If you frequently work outside, you may find the glossy display to be an annoyance, but it does improve contrast levels when it isn’t reflecting light at you.

Sound is pumped out of two tiny slits which I nearly missed on my first pass around the Acer Switch Alpha 12. The speakers are loud enough for most practical purposes, but bass definition is definitely lacking, as expected from tiny speakers like these. As the tablet is completely silent, the speakers do not have any background fan noise to compete with. Acer included their TrueHarmony audio enhancement software, but all I find is a switch to toggle it on or off hidden in the Realtek Audio Manager, with no other settings available.
My experience of using the Acer Switch Alpha 12 both as a tablet and a laptop was enjoyable. This device is truly capable of duties as a tablet and also as a laptop.

Conclusion
The Acer Switch Alpha 12 comes strongly recommended by me.If you are looking for a tablet/notebook to work on-the-go, I think you should seriously consider this one right here. Performance of the i3-6100U in the unit I tested is sufficient for most work-related tasks, but if you need more grunt, Acer does offer a variant with an i7-6500U inside its svelte body. To me, Acer did a good job with the Acer Switch Alpha 12, and actually priced it quite well. For the specifications and accessories bundled with it, I think RM2499 is a good deal. Also worth noting is that Malaysia is one of the few countries where the stylus is bundled along in the package instead of being sold separately.
Are there things that we wished the Acer Switch Alpha 12 has? Sure. It can have more USB ports, irregardless if they are Type-A or Type-C, and a lighter chassis. But then, nothing is perfect, and this is really pretty close. For being this close to a perfect tablet and a notebook all at once, while also not breaking the bank, I would award the Acer Switch Alpha 12 a Silver Pokdeward. But let me tell you, it was so close to a Gold Pokdeward I won’t be surprised if the next model from Acer will score it.

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NVIDIA Unveils New GeForce GTX 1050 Variant – Has Upgraded Core Specifications

It would seem that NVIDIA has quietly introduced a brand new variant of the GeForce GTX 1050 card. How does this fare against the base model as well as the 1050Ti? Here’s everything that you need to know.
NVIDIA Unveils New GeForce GTX 1050 Variant

In a somewhat surprising move, NVIDIA has introduced a new variant in the GTX 1050 family of graphics cards. This new variant is based on the same Pascal GP107 GPU that the original version utilized, but has upgraded core specs, a cutdown memory interface, and increased VRAM.

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The new GTX 1050 has upgraded specifications on practically everything the base model offered. It has been mentioned that the reason why NVIDIA produced this is because the 2GB model has some serious memory limitations for today’s computing needs. With 3GBs of memory, you can do more a bit more work and games will have slightly better performance without having the memory buffer getting all choked up.

In terms of specifications, the new GTX 1050 utilizes the same SKU as the 1050 Ti, and it features 768 CUDA cores, 1392 MHz base clock and 1518 MHz boost clock. In this sense, it is faster than the 1050 Ti, but keep in mind, it has 1GB less in memory. The memory speed is clocked at 7 Gbps just like the others but has a 96-bit bus interface with a memory bandwidth of 84 GB/s instead. It is still expected to be featuring 75W TDP.
While no official pricing has been announced at the time of this writing, it is expected to be priced between the 1050 and 1050 Ti. This may sound weird since the core specifications are better than the 1050 Ti but the memory limitation will definitely put the Ti variant ahead of the card.
We will be reporting on the official price as well as availability of the card as soon as information becomes available so stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Source: wccftech
Pokdepinion: Well, I am currently using the Ti variant for now so I think I’m fine with what I have as it is but if you’re looking to build a budget rig or don’t plan on splurging on GPU, this could be something to consider.
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New Leak Reveals Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition Design and Specs

The Samsung Galaxy S20 series was officially released earlier this year and now, we’re about to see the launch of the Galaxy Note 20 series. However, it looks like the Korean giant isn’t done yet as they might be looking to launch a more affordable version of their flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition, according to recent leaks.
Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition Design and Specs Leaked
Picture credits: Evan Blass
According to notable leakster Evan Blass on his Patreon page, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition looks essentially the same as the base model Galaxy S20, with the same wallpaper and centered punch hole camera cutout for the selfie camera. However, the display is not curved and appears to be flat, with bezels a little on the thicker side.

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Previously, SamMobile reported that there will is a Galaxy S20 variant in the works with the model number SM-G780 for the global market and SM-G781 for the US market. It’s said to be available with and without 5G, at least 128GB internal storage, Android 10 with One UI 2.5 out of the box, 120Hz refresh rate display, and IP68 water resistance. It’s also said to be powered by the Snapdragon 865 SoC but this is most likely exclusive to the US market.
Other than that, it’s expected to have a triple camera setup consisting of a 12MP wide angle camera, 12MP ultrawide angle camera, and 8M telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom. As for the selfie camera, it’s expected to be a 32MP shooter. The display is expected to be between 6.5 to 6.7 inches and the battery capacity is expected to 4,500mAh.
Previously, the Fan Edition moniker was used for the repackaged Galaxy Note 7 under the name Samsung Galaxy Note FE. They managed to fix the major issue with that smartphone and re-released it but clearly the Samsung Galaxy S20 Fan Edition, if real, will be released for different reasons. If it means getting a flagship-level smartphone at a more affordable price, it will definitely attract a wide number of users.
Source
Pokdepinion: If the price is enticing enough when (or if) it gets released, it would definitely result in a huge sales boost for the company. I’m personally curious about this smartphone.
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OPPO Reveals Dilireba as OPPO F5 Ambassador – Yoga Lin, Eric Chou as Selfie Icons

Another phone, another celebrity

OPPO is known for their ability to rope in the cream of the crop of the celebrity world when it comes to their brand ambassadors. With previous celebrity brand ambassadors  which include Korean heartthrob Lee Min-ho, local singers and actresses such as Min Chen, Ayda Jebat, Neelofa as well as Nora Danish, a testament to that ability. Looks like OPPO has done it again this time by bringing in not one but three celebrity powerhouses as the faces of their newest upcoming device that are sure to bring smiles and excitement for all O-fans.
I mean the more the better right?
Dilireba
After much teasing last week, OPPO has finally revealed the identities of the mystery celebrity brand ambassador and Selfie Icons for their upcoming selfie-centric device, the OPPO F5. The brand ambassador for the OPPO F5 is non other than China’s most popular actress today, Dilireba.

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According to OPPO,
Dilireba is absolutely a perfect match with the all-new OPPO F5. OPPO camera phone is all about being young at heart and pursuing perfection which is totally reflected in Dilireba’s personality and attitude.
OPPO also revealed their two Selfie Icons to be famous Taiwanese singers Yoga Lin and Eric Chou. Joining OPPO’s powerful celebrity team of OPPO F5 brand ambassadors of Dilireba, Yoga Lin and Eric Chou are returning local celebrities such as Fattah Amin, Neelofa, Ayda Jebat and Min Chen.

Yoga Lin
Eric Chou
Fattah Amin
The new OPPO F5 is rumoured to have a 6″ display, powered by Snapdragon 660 chipset and runs on Android 7.0 Nougat. It is said to have 64GB of internal memory, paired with a 6GB RAM. The phone is speculated to have a 20MP front camera, with a dual 12MP rear camera setup. Under the hood is a non-removable 4000mAh battery. The OPPO F5 will be available in their two usual colours, Gold and Rose Gold.
Ayda Jebat
Neelofa
Min Chen
The OPPO F5 will officially launch on our shores this coming 2 November so stay tuned for more update from us!
Pokdepinion: OPPO really knows how to pull their O-fans in with all these celebrity brand ambassadors. I’m truly impressed.
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HUAWEI P30 design leaked — not much change from the P20?

The HUAWEI P-series is due for a refresh, and as usual, leaks are already appearing online. After the HUAWEI P30 Pro’s design was leaked by a case maker jumping the gun, these renders found on OnLeaks reveals much of the design of the HUAWEI P30, which actually looks pretty similar to the HUAWEI P20 series of devices.
The leaked images reveal a smaller waterdrop notch, similar to what the HUAWEI Mate 20 sports. We expect the screen here to be smaller than the HUAWEI Mate 20’s though.

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Without a fingerprint scanner on the back or the front, the HUAWEI P30 might just feature an under-display fingerprint scanner like the HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro.
The back will sport a Leica triple camera setup, probably shared with the HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro too. It will feature a gradient color finish as well, which HUAWEI popularized with the Twilight option on the HUAWEI P20 Pro.

HUAWEI will most probably be packing the HUAWEI P30 with the Kirin 980, as well as up to 6GB RAM. It will probably be launched sometime in March, marking a full year after the launch of the P20 Pro.
What do you expect to see in the HUAWEI P30?
Pokdepinion: I am personally a fan of the HUAWEI Mate series, but the HUAWEI P-series has never failed to impress me with their camera chops.
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ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 Ti White Edition announced in limited quantities

While the Republic of Gamers is synonymous with the black-red color scheme, it seems like the latest graphics card plans on bucking the trend with an all-white ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 Ti White Edition.

While ASUS has not revealed the exact number of cards available, there are reportedly going to be 1000 units of this card. In addition to a beautiful white finish on almost every part except for the aluminium cooler and PCB, the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 Ti White Edition is clocked higher thanks to a selective binning process. Well, that’s probably why it’s so limited.

The GPU touts boost clocks of 1770 MHz instead of the “standard” ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 Ti OC Edition‘s 1665 MHz. The memory also gets a bump up to 14 800 MHz. The sum of the higher clocks should yield a small bump in performance, but with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti being so powerful, it might not even be necessary.

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ROG Strix RTX 2080 Ti White Edition Specs
TU102 @ up to 1770 MHz, 12nm FinFET4352 CUDA cores11GB GDDR6 @ 14800 MHz, 352-bit interface

Well, if you want one, you should be able to get one for €1600 (~RM7351), which is quite a lot of money to pay for a graphics card. But hey, if you are in Malaysia, you are lucky. This card is not going to make its way here, at least not officially.
Pokdepinion: I must admit, that looks awesome. Now hopefully the next-gen cards will come with a white option as standard.
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Blizzard Not Planning to Make Warcraft IV Anytime Soon

Most of us have very fond memories of Blizzard games. From the likes of Diablo to the most recent games like Overwatch. Many of us grew up playing Warcraft, a very popular RTS series which also spawned the massively popular DotA game initially as a custom map. Many were expecting a proper sequel, Warcraft IV, to be announced but that didn’t happen.
In an interview with Gamespot, Senior Producer Pete Stilwell mentioned that Blizzard has no plans, at least not anytime soon, to make Warcraft IV. While they wouldn’t necessarily rule anything out of the equation, Blizzard is currently putting focus on supporting World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth as well as the upcoming remaster, Warcraft III: Reforged.

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I mean, I wouldn’t rule anything out, but we don’t have any plans around [Warcraft IV] at this point. Getting [Warcraft III: Reforged] right, I think, is our priority first and foremost.
Given the recent announcement of Warcraft III: Reforged, it may be too early to start focusing on Warcraft IV, both in terms of development and marketing. Not only that, it seems like Blizzard is very comfortable with the series having an MMORPG focus in World of Warcraft.
While we may not be getting Warcraft IV anytime soon, at least we can look forward to a remaster of arguably the best entry in the series, Warcraft III, coming sometime next year.
Source: Gamespot
Pokdepinion: I remember not liking the RTS genre while I was a kid because it looked boring. I also remembered how Warcraft III changed that for me. I’m definitely looking forward to the remastered game so I can take a trip down memory lane.
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Roblox Gets Featured In Razer’s Latest Collaboration Gaming Products

Three of the Razer’s gaming products gets the special branding treatment, with exclusive in-game items coming along with them.

Razer’s latest collaboration is courtesy of the popular title Roblox, with three exclusive designs including the Orochi V2 mouse, BlackWidow V3 keyboard and Barracuda X headset. These products come with exclusive virtual items in-game and is unique to each of the three models.

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The Razer Orochi V2 in its Roblox flavor are mechanically identical to its standard counterparts, though it features the Roblox-inspired designs and comes with the “Razer Cyberpack” virtual item for use in-game through Avatar Editor. The Blackwidow V3 for this collaboration uses the Green (clicky) switches with white ABS keycaps, and gamers are eligible to get a pair of Razer Cyber Wings with this model. Meanwhile, Razer’s Barracuda X headset with its special colorways will give players exclusive access to the Razer Cyber Helmet virtual item for use in-game.

The local pricing for these ROBLOX Edition products are as follows:
Razer Orochi V2: RM449
Razer BlackWidow V3: RM859
Razer Barracuda X: RM689
The sale will go live on 28th April 8AM PDT (11PM MYT) on Razer.com, and users can redeem the rewards on the game website here.
Pokdepinion: Branding aside, the designs looks pretty good actually.
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Nokia Announce Prices Post To SST – Maintains Majority Of Them

HMD Global has announced that prices of their devices will remain unchanged for majority of their Nokia smartphones post to SST.
Post SST Nokia Prices
Previously, brands such as Xiaomi has announced updates towards their smartphone prices due to the recent implementation of SST. This time around, Nokia has released their latest price list which sees most of their devices stay in the same price tag, while a few see changes.

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Here’s the list of Nokia smartphones available officially here in Malaysia as well as their new prices:

Nokia 8 – RM1,875 (unchanged)
Nokia 7 Plus – RM1,600 (unchanged)
Nokia 6.1 – RM1,169 (RM1,100 before SST)
Nokia 6 – RM850 (unchanged)
Nokia 5 – RM660 (unchanged)
Nokia 3.1 – RM655 (unchanged)
Nokia 3 – RM470 (unchanged)
Nokia 2.1 – RM435 (RM415 before SST)
Nokia 2 – RM375 (unchanged)
Nokia 1 – RM285 (unchanged)
Nokia 8110 – RM299 (RM285 before SST)

The new prices takes affect starting from today in all authorized Nokia retailers in Malaysia.
Pokdepinion: Great to see that not a lot of devices were changed in terms of their prices. Hats off to HMD/Nokia for absorbing some of the taxes for their customers.
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Celcom Sees Growth In Q1 2021 Report

Celcom has today unveiled their growth momentum into the first quarter of FY21 with positive performance across core revenue segments, coming with 317,000 QoQ increase in their subscriber base.
Celcom sees growth in Q1 2021

The telco company revealed that in the 1st quarter of FY2021, they’ve recorded an improved operational profitability together with growing revenue as well as a strong market momentum where they’ve added more than 1 million subscribers over the last 12 months.

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Aside from that, they’ve recorded a YoY profit combined with revenue growth of RM84 million (+5.4%), EBITDA improved YoY with RM142 million (+27.6%).
In terms of customer base, prepaid subscribers has increased 893,000 (+17.7%) subscriber growth, primarily coming from Celcom Xpax Truly Unlimited Plan. As for postpaid customers, they’ve increased by 120,000 users (4.1% YoY).
As you might have read before, previously we’ve reported that Celcom is working on upgrading their network infrastructure in the country. Read more on that right here. The company has recently partnered up with Allo in expanding their home connectivity services.
For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: In the pandemic, people are more than ever reliant towards telco companies. It’s good to see that Celcom is doing well so far.
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13th Gen Intel Core Raptor Lake will use new LGA1800 socket? Not really…

Rumors are pointing towards the upcoming 13th Gen Intel Core Raptor Lake using a new LGA1800 socket, which is pretty interesting. While Intel is known for changing their sockets quite often as compared to AMD, this is too quick. The 12th Gen Intel Core series was just released with the LGA1700 socket, so Intel can’t be changing the socket so soon, right?
13th Gen Intel Core Raptor Lake should work with LGA1700 motherboards

LGA 1700/1800 sockets are the same pic.twitter.com/k6UyD562Qy
— Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) November 17, 2021

According to tweets by Hassan Mutjaba, it seems that Intel actually made the LGA1700 socket with 1800 pins, but the Alder Lake processors only has 1700 pads. I don’t know why Intel decided to equip the 12th Gen Intel Core processors with fewer pins, and why did they even decide to name it the LGA1700 when it has 1800 pins, but as it stands, the 13th Gen Intel Core generation should still work with the existing Intel Z690 motherboards as well as the other upcoming Intel 600-series boards.
One extra advantage of support for the existing motherboards is that you can probably pair the upcoming 13th Gen Intel Core processor with a DDR4 motherboard to continue extracting more value out of your DDR4 kit. Aside from that, Intel is slated to bring greater power efficiency with Raptor Lake, more E-cores and obviously improved performance.

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The 13th Gen Intel Core processors is rumored to arrive in Q3 2022, so make sure to stay tuned for more information about them as we get closer to their launch.
Source
Pokdepinion: I believe that if Intel really decided to change the socket after a single generation, those who upgraded to Intel Z690 and DDR5 will be quite peeved.
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LG Malaysia Introduces Its Latest OLED TV Lineup, Including evo G3, evo C3 & A3

LG Electronics Malaysia today has unveiled the updated OLED TV lineup spanning across three models, namely the LG OLED evo G3, LG OLED evo C3 and the LG OLED A3. “LG has dedicated extensive research and development efforts to ensure that the new series provides an unparalleled experience for consumers’ home entertainment needs. As an innovative brand that’s been recognised at the CES Innovation Award for 11 years in a row, we assure that the new line-up will deliver ever-greater value,” said Justin Choi, managing director of LG.
The new lineup mainly features the new processor, with the G3 and C3 getting the new α9 Gen6 AI processor and the entry-level A3 getting the α7 Gen6 chip responsible for color reproduction and upscaling. The G3 gets a new Brightness Booster Max tech that gets 70% brighter with the new light control architecture and algorithms; meanwhile, webOS now comes with a redesigned “Quick Cards” based UI that provide easier access to frequently-used features.

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All models also get Dolby Vison and Dolby Atmos support, and integration with LG’s own soundbars provides multi-channel surround courtesy of DTS:X. The AI Sound Pro tech is the biggest upgrade, giving the new models capabilities to provide up to 9.1.2 channel audio, AI Clear Sound, Auto Balance Control and WOW Synergy that combines both audio sources for improved listening experience. Select models also feature NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync Premium support, with 0.1ms response time and HDMI 2.1 (VRR) inputs.
The pricing for the new models are as follows:

Model
Display Size
MSRP (RM)

LG OLED evo G3
77″
RM 32,999

65″
RM 17,999

LG OLED evo C3
83″
RM 35,999

77″
RM 29,999

65″
RM 14,999

55″
RM 10,999

LG OLED A3
65″
RM 11,999

55″
RM 8,999

Additionally, LG also introduced new LG OLED Posé Objet Collection (RM 12,999) that blends into furniture-like designs; as well as the flexible LG OLED Flex (RM 13,199) that provides the best of both worlds: flat and curved displays into one.
Pokdepinion: You’ll have to see these for yourself, it’s a thing of beauty really.
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Honkai Star Rail Codes List for Free In-Game Rewards

Looking for more Stellar Jades and other in-game items? We have the full list of Honkai Star Rail codes that are still active right here.
Honkai Star Rail Codes List

With many of you gamers out there having a blast in Hoyoverse’s new game, we decided to compile a full list of active Honkai Star Rail codes right here. This way, you don’t have to waste time looking for them and can focus more in the game. Without further ado, here are the codes:

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Active Codes

STARRAILGIFT = 50 Stellar Jades and 10,000 Credits
7B6B7GBZTVTB = 100 Stellar Jades and 50,000 Credits
MSPT7HAZTCTX = 100 Stellar Jades and 5 Traveler’s Guide
5TPBPGAGBDAK = 100 Stellar Jades and 5 Refined Aether

Inactive Codes

GOODGAME1024 = 5 Traveler’s Guide, 3 Condensed Aether, and 10,000 Credits
BSN2EWMHA4RP = 50 Stellar Jades and 10,000 Credits
ZTPTNMTX8LUF = 100 Stellar Jades and 50,000 Credits
8A6T6LBFQ4D3 = 100 Stellar Jades and 5 Traveler’s Guide
DB7A64BW8LC7 = 100 Stellar Jades and 5 Refined Aether
CS75WMP976AK = 100 Stellar Jades
SURPRISE1024 = 30 Stellar Jade, 3 Adventure Logs, 2 Dust of Alacrity, 5,000 Credits
HSRVER10JYTGHC = 40 Stellar Jade and 10,000 Credits
HSRGRANDOPEN1 = 100 Stellar Jade and 50,000 Credits
HSRGRANDOPEN2 = 100 Stellar Jades and 5 Traveler’s Guide
HSRGRANDOPEN3 = 100 Stellar Jades and 4 Refined Aether
2T7BP4JVEBT7 = 3 Adventure Logs, 2 Condensed Aether, 3 Cosmic Fried Rice, 5,000 Credits
HSRVER10XEDLFE = 50 Stellar Jades, 2 Traveler’s Guide, 5 Bottled Soda, 10,000 Credits

How to Redeem Honkai Star Rail Codes

For PC and mobile gamers, you can easily redeem the code via the official gift redemption page or via the Redeem Code option within Settings > Account in the game. All you have to do is make sure you picked the right server and key in the correct details. If you picked the wrong server by accident, you will not be able to transfer it over to your actual one.
For PS5 and PS4 players, it’s more straightforward as you only have one option. You can redeem the code directly via Settings > Account. If you’re a new player, you will have to pass a few story missions before you’re able to redeem, and a little more before you can access the rewards after redeeming it.

Honkai Star Rail is now available for free on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Android, and iOS.

If you’re one of the millions of people who pre-registered for the game, you should be eligible for some extra rewards by default, as we’ve written here. Be sure to check your in-game inbox for it. For more useful gaming tips, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
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Acer Brings New Veriton Commercial PC — 8th Gen Intel Core i7+ With Intel Optane

Acer Malaysia just launched their brand new Acer Veriton business-grade desktop which is powered by up to 8th Gen Intel Core i7+ processors that support Intel Optane.
Acer New Veriton Series
Acer Veriton X600G
Acer introduced their brand new Veriton series, namely the Veriton S, Veriton X and also the Veriton M. The company aims to offer a smooth, responsive, and a fast computing experience with these three series.
The new series come with faster connection, thanks to the 2×2 802.11ac and stable Gigabit LAN, so rest assured of of fast connection to the internet.

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With M.2 PCIe SSD, expect the desktops to boot-up faster than you could say boot up.  Coming with up to 4 DIMMs that support up to 64GB memory, The Acer Veriton X6660G and also the M6660G offer businesses with top-of-line performance.
They support Intel vPro technology that allows remote PC management and security tasks at hardware level, even when an OS is down or the PC’s powers is off.
Acer Veriton M6660G
These performance oriented desktops support up to three independent displays, allowing you to maximize productivity, through D-sub, HDMI and Display Port with the need for additional graphics card. Despite that, you can opt to add on an NVIDIA or AMD graphics card and the Acer Veriton S series and X series can support up to five independent display.
Acer Veriton S, Veriton X and Veriton M series is priced from RM1,999 onwards (depending on variant) and will be available for purchase in early-August at Acer official online stores and all Acer authorized resellers nationwide.
Pokdepinion: Looks like a decent addition for the commercial market from Acer here. So if you are on the lookout for a brand new desktop for your easy and fast computing, have a look at these new Veriton series.
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Samsung Set To Give Back To Community – Love & Care Is All We Need

Samsung Malaysia Electronics is back with their Love & Care program this year. The campaign which started back in 2015, aims to enrich underprivileged communities across South East Asia by bettering their life quality, in particular with education access and their environment.
Samsung Love & Care
The people at Kampung Ulu Tual, Pahang were chosen as it was adopted by Samsung under its corporate citizenship banner since 2015. Before the initiative took place in 2015, the locals at Kampung Ulu Tual had no proper access to electricity since it was in a secluded location. Samsung will be visiting the village for a third time in a row this year to continue development to help the locals.
Besides food and household supplies, Samsung looked beyond that with their decision on installing solar panels for the villagers to improve their electricity supply and gave Samsung refrigerators at their Pusat Didikan Komuniti (PDK).

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The volunteers of the initiative also lend a help in repairing the huts in the village, giving them better protection from the rain and the scorching heat. They also gave out Smart TV and Galaxy Tabs, filled with educational contents so that they can utilize them to learn. Of course, the volunteers were on hand to teach the locals on how to use the tabs. They even helped out on giving English lessons, as they aim to prepare the kids on their educational journey.
Samsung are set to visit the village once more under the Love & Care program, which was previously called Samsung Nanum Village Initiative, with the aim to bring more improvements to the village’s growing community.
Pokdepinion: It’s always nice to see when companies like Samsung do their fair share of giving back to the community. Plus, to see that they are visiting the same village for three years in a row, I can see that they are really commited in helping out the village, not just simply handing out donations and just move on.  Props to them.

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Samsung Galaxy A82 to arrive with 5G and a flipping camera

It seems that Samsung is going to have another go with the interesting flipping camera mechanism of the Samsung Galaxy A80. While there wasn’t a Galaxy A81, Samsung is expected to unveil the Samsung Galaxy A82 later this year with 5G in tow. There aren’t much details about the device just yet, but according to GalaxyClub, it will arrive with 5G, a flipping camera mechanism and it will be coming this year.
Samsung Galaxy A82 5G coming with a flipping camera

If the rumors are true, it will be the second Samsung smartphone to feature a truly bezel-less design. However it is quite interesting that Samsung will be revisiting this design, considering that some of the competition are already releasing devices with under-display cameras. Even Samsung is reportedly working on a similar technology, although it hasn’t released any devices with it implemented just yet. Perhaps Samsung is reserving it for their next-gen flagships?

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Personally, I do think that a mid-range device in the Galaxy A-series is the best place to experiment with fun ideas like this. However it might also be that it might be too costly to fit into the mid-range price bracket that the Galaxy A82 is targeting. But then again, the Samsung Galaxy A80 was really quite pricey when it was introduced here in Malaysia.

The fact that you can get the Samsung Galaxy S10e for roughly the same price also meant that the Galaxy A80 was pretty irrelevant even at launch. Hopefully the Samsung Galaxy A82 won’t be nearly as costly as the Samsung Galaxy A80, as that device came and went without much attention, due to its middling specifications at a really high price point.
The main draw was its flipping camera, but given how most of Samsung’s lineup already sport really tiny cutouts or notches for their impressive selfie cameras, I guess most people didn’t really care to gain that extra bit of selfie quality or screen area. Especially when it meant having to give up not only a flagship-tier chipset in addition to proper ingress protection, both of which are available in the Galaxy S10e.

With that said, the popup cameras offered by Chinese brands are quite popular among those who enjoy an all-screen experience, so maybe Samsung can capitalize on that as well, if they can match the bang for buck that the likes of Xiaomi can bring to the table. Apparently, there was a vocal community in favor of the popup camera in the Redmi K20 series, which was the reason we saw it returning in the Redmi K30 Pro.
Well, we will have to wait and see how will Samsung slot the Galaxy A82 into their 2021 Galaxy A series lineup when it finally arrives.
Source
Pokdepinion: I am quite interested to see how will Samsung refine the flipping mechanism this year!
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Singapore’s Team Impunity Wins Vainglory’s Jakarta Summer Season Championship 2017

Team Impunity, the comeback kings

Team Impunity from Singapore has just been crowned champions of the Vainglory Jakarta Summer Season Championship 2017 after overcoming local rivals Team Infamous. Team Impunity’s victory in Jakarta means that the five man team from Singapore will be joining Indonesia’s Vainglory representative, Team Elite8 who themselves are champions of the Spring Championships, for the Vainglory World Championship. The two Vainglory teams will be representing South East Asia in the competition held in Singapore.

After overcoming fierce challenges from regional in the four-team tournament, Amos aka Quatervois, Team Impunity’s team leader, had this to say of his team’s victory,

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We are thrilled that Singapore is hosting the
Vainglory World Finals, and that gave us extra motivation to win here today to clinch that final
representative spot for Southeast Asia. This will give us the platform to show the world how far
we’ve come as a nation in esports, and we look forward to making our fans proud.
Team Impunity’s win over team Infamous was nothing without its fair share of intensity and behind the scenes drama as one of Team Infamous’ members is an old boy who used to be their team mate. Justin Bersamin or better known as Team Infamous’ Spaghetti made good use of his inside knowledge of his former team’s game tactics, firing them to a good 2-0 lead over his former team mates. Left reeling from the unexpected trouncing, Team Impunity held on and persevered, waiting for the most opportune moment to strike back.

That opportunity came in Game Three, in which Impunity battled hard to win a win them their first point of the match. That was the game that turned the tide for Team Impunity. Riding high from their previous win, Team Impunity went on to trounce Team Infamous in the next few games, ultimately winning the whole match 3-2, thus completing an exciting comeback.
Team Impunity will be hoping to bring home the ultimate prize at the Vainglory World Championship being held in Singapore later this year. Last year, Rox Armada (formerly Phoenix Armada) of Korea took the crown as the regional champions battled it out in Hollywood, California, for a total prize pool of USD 120,000.
We’ll keep you updated on the details of this year’s Vainglory World Championship as they have yet to be announced.
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Computex 2023 Officially Kicks Off, Making Its Return Since Pandemic

The 2023 COMPUTEX and InnoVEX have kicked off at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, marking the return of the biggest ICT tradeshow in Asia after a 3-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The event was attended by distinguished guests including President Tsai Ing-wen and industry leaders – as Taiwan aims to leverage this year’s tradeshow to enhance its global presence and foster stronger international collaborations in areas such as foundry, PCB, and satellite positioning.
With a focus on high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, next-gen connectivity, hyperreality, innovations, startups, and sustainability, COMPUTEX 2023 welcomes over 1,000 exhibitors from 26 countries and regions. The event showcases the powerful energy of the global technology ecosystem, with industry players like Acer, ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, and more unveiling their latest solutions. The exhibition also facilitates matchmaking activities to strengthen connections between Taiwanese industry players and international buyers.

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InnoVEX 2023, held in conjunction with COMPUTEX, gathers 400 startup teams and technology elites from 22 countries. The exhibition serves as a platform to showcase technological creativity and promote local innovation while fostering international links. National pavilions from countries such as Belgium, France, Italy, and Japan, along with participation from startup teams across various fields, contribute to the diverse range of exhibits.
COMPUTEX 2023 and InnoVEX 2023, held in Halls 1 and 2 of the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center respectively, highlight the hottest technological trends, industrial applications, and the latest solutions in the ICT industry. The exhibitions bring together global industry leaders, startups, and technology enthusiasts to explore the future of computing, connectivity, and innovation.
Pokdepinion: Let’s see what’s in store from the event this time, could get some good stuffs.
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Xiaomi Mi 11 Series Might Be Coming In January 2021 – A lot sooner than expected

Looks like January next year is going to be chock-full of new phone releases. Samsung might be launching the new Samsung Galaxy S21 series in January 2021 and now it looks like Xiaomi will follow suit as they are looking to launch their own Xiaomi Mi 11 flagship devices in the same month too.

Xiaomi Mi 11 series launching in January?
According to Digital Chat Station on Twitter, a tipster who has a proven track record of tweeting out reliable information says that Xiaomi will be launching the Xiaomi Mi 11 series in January. Exactly when in January is currently up in the air.

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https://twitter.com/StationChat/status/1333233665275473923?s=20
If the tweet is to be believed, then Xiaomi will be the latest smartphone manufacturer rumoured to be bringing forward the launch date of their flagship smartphone series. This follows Samsung’s previously mentioned supposed early launch of their own flagship series.
No mention of specifications of the Xiaomi Mi 11 series but expect some flagship features such as the Snapdragon 875 chipset, high refresh rate displays and top-of-the-line camera systems, among other things.
Pokdepinion: I’m looking forward to seeing what Xiaomi can bring to the table with the Xiaomi Mi 11 series. Especially considering that they have serious aspirations of joining the “big boy’s table” when it comes to smartphones.
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[Computex 2018] Lian Li brings out RGBae cables — the Lian Li Strimer RGB cables are LIT! Literally!

If you thought cable management was difficult, wait till you have to manage the colors on your cables. Think you are up for the challenge? Well Lian Li has just debuted the Lian Li Strimer which gives you the chance to boast about your PSU cables, which are more often than not hidden away from sight as much as possible.

The Lian Li Strimer combines a lighting module with an integrated PSU extension cable, allowing it to be compatible with every PSU and every motherboard out there. A patented mounting mechanism allows the Lian Li Strimer to fit securely and easily with your existing cables.

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The Lian Li Strimer features addressable RGB which means full control via your motherboard’s addressable RGB connection. It can also be controlled via the built-in controls, with 10 options to pick from. The Lian Li Strimer actually snagged the D&I Awards at Computex 2018, recognizing the true genius it took to create such lit cables.
Pokdepinion: So it begins… With the 24-pin power connector. Bring on the age of RGB cables!
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HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 Review – Wow these are comfortable to wear

We’re taking a look at HUAWEI’s latest addition to the true wireless earbuds line this time around. The HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 comes with an attractive design and hybrid ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) capabilities among others but is it actually good? Read to find out.
Unboxing

The HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 comes in a small and simple, all-white box with nothing but the brand, name and picture of the buds on the front. Turning it over, you can see a summary of the features the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 comes packed with.

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Opening the box you will find:

The HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 earbuds and charging case
USB Type-C charging cable
User manual and warranty certificate

Appearance

The first thing that struck me when I first laid eyes on the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 is how petite and elegant the case looks. It’s a round-shaped case that’s reminiscent of a makeup compact with a frosted silver look to it which explains why HUAWEI named this colour variant Silver Frost.

The earbuds themselves feature an inspired design that is surprisingly comfortable to wear. Another thing of note in regards to the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 is how strikingly shiny they are. You can’t help but not look away. Definitely adds an air of exclusivity about them when compared to other wireless earbuds (in my book, at least).
HUAWEI Freebuds 4 Specifications

Drivers
14.3mm

Frequency Response
N/A

Impedance
N/A

Chip
N/A
Supports AAC, SBC

Microphone Sensitivity
N/A

Headphone Type
True wireless, Golf Tee-style earbuds

Connection
Bluetooth 5.2
USB Type-C

Wireless Range
10m

Noise-cancelling
Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling

Battery
Earphones
30mAh, Up to 4 hours
Charging Case
410mAh, Up to 22 hours

Colour
Ceramic White and Frost Silver

Ingress Protection
IPX4

User Experience
Pairing

To pair the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 to your device is pretty simple, just press and hold the button at the side of the case for around 2 seconds with the case open until the indicator on the case starts flashing. Next, is just a matter of pairing the earbuds to your device from your device’s Bluetooth settings and voila, you’re done. Future connections will only require you to open the case and the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 will automatically connect to your device. The earbuds can be paired together or individually.
Sound

The sound quality of the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 is pretty impressive. They deliver a nice and rich listening experience without any instances of overbearing bass like some earbuds tend to have. I do wish that the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 could go louder especially when it comes to listening to rock music but that is just a minor nitpick on my part.
The ANC is pretty decent however, due to the design of the earbuds, it doesn’t really shut out the outside noises too well. The noise-cancelling does manage to block out some of the smaller outside noise like clickety-clack of a keyboard or the hum of a stand fan but for the most part, you will be able to hear sounds coming from someone watching TV albeit at a slightly lower volume. I understand that some people enjoy something like this as it helps them stay aware of their surroundings especially when using them for a jog or a walk outdoors.
The call quality of the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 is also pretty good. So far, I have received no complaints of distortions or unclear reception when I used the TWS earbuds for voice calls or video calls. Surprisingly, gaming on the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 is pretty decent. I played COD Mobile with the earbuds connected and the latency is nowhere near egregious. There are some noticeable latencies here and there between button press and action in-game but generally, I had a pleasant experience.
Comfort

I am not a fan of this type of earbuds design. I prefer in-ear earbuds as they fit better in my ears and they are more comfortable so I was quite sceptical with the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 when I first got them. To my surprise, not only did these earbuds fit my ears rather well, they are probably one of the more comfortable earbuds I’ve had the pleasure of using in a long time. Sure they don’t create a completely tight seal when listening to music but at least they stay in my ears when I move around during workouts.

The touch sensors on the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 are some of the best I’ve ever used on any TWS earbuds. They pretty much run along the stems of the earbuds which not only makes it easier for me to use but also easier for me to remember the various touch functions particularly volume up and down as you only need to run your finger up and down on the stem. The earbuds also feature in-ear detection whereby it will instantly pause whatever you’re listening to when you take one bud out of your ear.
Below are the default touch controls for the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4:
For music:

Tap twice on either side to play or pause music.
Swipe up or down to increase or decrease the volume.

For calls

Tap twice on either side of the earbuds to accept or end a call.
Press and hold the touch sensor on either side to decline a call.

To toggle ANC on and off:

Press and hold the touch sensor until you hear the prompt.

For a fuller experience with the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4, just connect them to HUAWEI’s AI Life app and you’ll have access to a lot more customisation options. You can toggle noise cancelling on or off from the app and even customise the touch controls of each earbud.
Battery life

Battery life of the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 is not really the best at 4 hours per charge but at least the earbuds do last as advertised. I mainly use the earbuds listening to Spotify while I am at work or during workouts and so far they satisfy my needs battery-wise. The charging time of the earbuds is also pretty impressive as they managed to charge fully in just around half an hour. The HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 charges by USB Type-C. You can also charge the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 wirelessly which is pretty convenient if you ask me.
HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 Verdict

Not going to lie, at first I was a little sceptical but in the end I am pretty impressed with the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4. They look very sleek and stylish and they are really comfortable to wear. The sound quality is also impressive with ANC that doesn’t perform half bad. I also really like the touch controls and how you can pretty much customise and fine-tune them to your liking via the HUAWEI AI Life app. Also, the fact that these earbuds come with an IPX5 IP rating is also pretty great.

The only major gripe I have with the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 is that its retail price is a bit on the high side at RM599. I sincerely believe that if HUAWEI had priced this at, say, maybe RM150 less than this would be the TWS earbuds of the year for me. I enjoyed the heck out of these.
The HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 is available now on the HUAWEI Online Store as well as HUAWEI’s official stores on Shopee and Lazada. You can also get the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 at a special price of RM549 during HUAWEI’s Wearable and Audio Day this 25th September on Lazada. There’s also a special bundle available where you can purchase the earbuds together with the HUAWEI GT 2 smartwatch for a special price.
And with that, I award the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 a solid silver Pokdeaward!

Thank you HUAWEI Malaysia for providing us with the HUAWEI FreeBuds 4 for this review.
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PlayStation 5 Might Become More Expensive Thanks to Trump Administration

Many gamers across the globe are looking forward to the PlayStation 5, which is expected to arrive late next year. However, it looks like there might be some bad news for us gamers looking to adopt the gaming machine, thanks to none other than Donald Trump himself.
Sony Financial Chief Hiroki Totoki has warned that the proposed tariffs on Chinese products by the Trump Administration could force PlayStation consoles to be more expensive. While Sony is still considering their options, one of them is said to be passing the costs over to consumers.

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There isn’t a firm decision yet due to the fact that it’s still uncertain on whether the new tariffs will apply or not. This is highly dependent on negotiations between the Trump Administration and China. The US raised tariffs on USD $200 billion in Chinese goods back in May 25%. A further tariff expansion would cover another USD $300 billion in products, including PlayStation systems.
This is particularly tough for Sony as they tend to sell their video game consoles at either a loss or a very slim profit margin. They recoup the money through the sale of games and services such as PS Plus. This also means that Sony may not be able to absorb tariff costs, and moving products to another country is a costly endeavour on its own.
While the expectation is that the PlayStation 5 will inevitably be more expensive if the proposed tariffs become a reality, the sales of PS4 will also be affected. This can be dangerous for the company, especially since there’s still some time away until we can see the launch of their new machine.

Source: WSJ
Pokdepinion: So basically, despite this supposedly only affecting the United States, it will inevitably affect the whole world. Understandably so given that it’s a global company after all.
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NVIDIA adds GeForce GTX 1660 to Turing-based GTX lineup — up to 15% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

The much-rumored GeForce GTX 1660 is finally official. This GPU enters as an even more affordable Turing-based offering than even the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. It comes with all the benefits of the Turing architecture, sans the RT and Tensor cores featured in the GeForce RTX cards.

Thanks to these new advances brought by the new Turing shaders, NVIDIA claims the GeForce GTX 1660 performs 15% faster than a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and up to 30% faster than a GeForce GTX 1060 3GB on average. All while sporting less CUDA cores and a similar 120W TDP.

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NVIDIA also went on to share that the GeForce GTX 1660 is on average 68% faster than a GeForce GTX 970 and more than twice as fast as a GeForce GTX 960.
The following are the specifications of the GeForce GTX 1660:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Specifications

TU116 @ up to 1785 MHz, 12nm FinFET
1408 CUDA cores
6GB GDDR5 @ 8 Gbps, 192-bit memory interface
120W TDP
1x 8-pin PCIe power connector
From $219 (~RM896)

As you can see the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 is a cut-down GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. It also drops GDDR6 in favor of more affordable GDDR5 memory, and comes with the same 120W TDP. It would be interesting to see if the GeForce GTX 1660 can be overclocked to nip at the heels of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti.

There will be no Founders Edition for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, and all GeForce GTX 1660 cards will be offered by NVIDIA’s AIB partners.
Pokdepinion: Perhaps a great upgrade for anyone coming from an older GPU…
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Expecting PS5 To Be Fully Backwards Compatible? You Might Be Disappointed

It’s safe to say that we simply can’t wait for the PS5 to come out to the market. While we know how the next-gen console looks like, Sony has been rather quiet when it comes to the machine’s backwards compatibility abilities. Well it seems that Ubisoft has shed some light to the matter.
PS5 backwards compatibility

Now we all know that the PS5 can support PS4 games as several companies such as Ubisoft has promised free upgrades for titles such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion but according to game developer’s support page, it seems that the original PS, PS2, and PS3 games are not supported.
Ubisoft has written on their page that “Backwards compatibility will be available for supported PlayStation 4 titles, but will not be possible for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, or PlayStation games”.

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The news might disappoint some considering that Sony’s competitor,Microsoft and their Xbox Series X has been confirmed to be able to support with Xbox One, Xbox 360 as well as the original Xbox games.
PlayStation 5 is scheduled for a launch holiday of this year and if you would like to learn more on the console, do head to the link right here.
Source
Pokdepinion: To be honest, I don’t really mind the limited compatibility… but I’m pretty sure there’s some that won’t be too happy.
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Razer Blade Laptops Officially Coming to Malaysia

Today marks an interesting day in Malaysia as the folks over at Razer have finally decided to bring their Razer Blade gaming laptops over to the country, along with their systems product line. We have the Razer Blade 15, Razer Blade Pro 17, Razer Core X Chroma, and the Razer Tomahawk.
Razer Blade 15

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Designed as an all-rounded gaming laptop for both work and play, the Razer Blade 15 is powered by the 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10875H CPU and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q GPU. You also get a 15.6-inch Full HD display with 300Hz refresh rate. As for memory, you can expect up to 16GB DDR4 2933MHz RAM and 512GB NVMe SSD.
There is also an option for a 4K OLED display model, which covers 100% DCI-P3 colour space, and is available in both touch and non-touch versions. Just keep in mind that the refresh rate won’t be as high as the Full HD variants. It’s worth noting that the base model will use the Advanced Heat Pipe cooling system whereas the advanced model will feature the Vapor Chamber cooling system.

For a better look at the specifications, check it out right below here:
Razer Blade 15 Specs

CPU
Intel Core i7-10875H (8C / 16T @ up to 5.1 GHz), 16M Cache, 45W TDP, 14nm

RAM
16GB 2933 MHz DDR4

GPU
Up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q 8GB GDDR6

Storage
1TB NVMe SSD

Display
15.6″ FHD (1920 X 1080) 300Hz IPS display with 100% sRGB
15.6″ 4K UHD (3840 X 2160) OLED display with 100% DCI-P3, touchscreen optional
1 x HDMI

Keyboard
Per-key RGB powered by Razer Chroma

Connectivity
Wireless:
802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax Wi-Fi (Dual Band 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
Intel Wireless-AX201
Bluetooth 5.0
I/O:
2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A
1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C
1 x Thunderbolt 3
1 x Kensington Lock

Audio
2 x Speakers with Dolby Atmos support
1 x Combo Audio Jack
Array Microphones

Power
80 Wh, 4-cell Battery (integrated)

Dimensions
355 x 235 x 17.8 mm (W x D x H)

Weight
2.14 kg

The Razer Blade 15 will be retailing from RM8,999. It will be available in early November 2020 on the Razer official store on Lazada and Shopee, as well as Thundermatch, Gamers Hideout, Brightstar, Notebook Plaza, All IT Hypermarket, TopMacro Network, and other retail partners.
Razer Blade Pro 17

Next up, we have the more powerful gaming laptop by the green camp, the Razer Blade Pro 17. Designed to push the limits of gaming laptops, it’s powered by the 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10875H CPU and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q Studio Edition.
As for memory, you will get up to 16GB DDR4 RAM and up to 1TB NVMe SSD. As the name implies, it will be using a 17.3-inch display with either Full HD 300Hz or 4K 120Hz, touchscreen support for the 4K model, 100% sRGB and 6mm bezels. You’re expected to have the power needed for both gaming and professional work in this machine.

For a better look at the specifications, check it out right below here:
Razer Blade Pro 17 Specs

CPU
Intel Core i7-10875H (8C / 16T @ up to 5.1 GHz), 16M Cache, 45W TDP, 14nm

RAM
16GB 2933 MHz DDR4

GPU
Up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q 8GB GDDR6

Storage
512GB NVMe SSD

Display
17.3″ FHD (1920 X 1080) 300Hz IPS display with 100% sRGB
1 x HDMI

Keyboard
Per-key RGB powered by Razer Chroma

Connectivity
Wireless:
802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax Wi-Fi (Dual Band 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
Intel Wireless-AX201
Bluetooth 5.0
I/O:
3 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A
1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C
1 x Thunderbolt 3
1 x RJ45 LAN
1 x Kensington Lock

Audio
2 x Speakers with Dolby Atmos support
1 x Combo Audio Jack
Array Microphones

Power
70.5 Wh, 4-cell Battery (integrated)

Dimensions
395 x 260 x 19.9 mm (W x D x H)

Weight
2.75 kg

The Razer Blade Pro 17 will be retailing from RM12,499. It will be available in early November 2020 on the Razer official store on Lazada and Shopee, as well as Thundermatch, Gamers Hideout, Brightstar, Notebook Plaza, All IT Hypermarket, TopMacro Network, and other retail partners.
Razer Core X Chroma

Apart from the two gaming laptops, the Razer Core x Chroma external graphics enclosure will also being making its way to Malaysia. It will connect to laptops and MacBooks via Thunderbolt 3 to give you desktop-grade graphics.
It features a 700W power supply, USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet port, and Razer Chroma RGB. Graphics card installation is said to be easy as you don’t require any tools. It’s a simple drawer-style slide and lock mechanism to open it up, with the graphics card being secured by a single thumbscrew.
The Razer Core X Chroma will be retailing for RM1,999. It will be available in early November 2020 on the Razer official store on Lazada and Shopee, as well as Thundermatch, Gamers Hideout, Brightstar, Notebook Plaza, All IT Hypermarket, TopMacro Network, and other retail partners.
Razer Tomahawk

Lastly, we have the Razer Tomahawk, a gaming PC chassis that was recently announced at RazerCon 2020. It will be available in two different sizes; mid-tower ATX and small form factor Mini-ITX.
It features full tempered glass side panels with one side showing off the internals and the other housing their cable management solution. You can open the panels via the detachable rear hinge for quick and easy access. The chassis itself features a matte black metal frame and an all-black front panel with an illuminated triple-headed snake logo. The bottom will have the Razer Chroma RGB lighting, which can be customized via Razer Synapse 3.
The Razer Tomahawk will be retailing for RM1,099. It will be available in early November 2020 on the Razer official store on Lazada and Shopee, as well as Thundermatch, Gamers Hideout, Brightstar, Notebook Plaza, All IT Hypermarket, TopMacro Network, and other retail partners.
If you’ve been looking for a new gaming keyboard, check out our review of the Razer BlackWidow V3 TKL by clicking right here.
Pokdepinion: Can’t wait to get my hands on those laptops. Would definitely like to see how it fares against the competition.
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Steam Bug Is Making Players Lose Their Games

If you’ve been on Steam for some time now, you’d probably know that every once and then, they will perform a scheduled maintenance. Well the recent work has made gamers to lose some of their games from their Steam library.
Steam bug removes players games

We're currently looking into an issue on Steam preventing players to access their game or DLC. For some players logging out of Steam and restarting appears to help. We will update when we have more information. Thank you for your patience!— Dead by Daylight (@DeadByBHVR) August 5, 2020

Even Dead by Deadlight’s official Twitter account has noted the issue. The issue doesn’t affect each game on their library however as it seems that players have reported issues with the mentioned Dead By Daylight, Fallout: New Vegas, yet some have reported that all Bethesda games in their library seems to be affected.
If you’re facing the issue, it’s been said that logging out from your Steam account and restarting appears to be a solution. Besides that, there has been several players that has said that in order to fix the issue, you will need to delete your Download Cache (found in settings) and make a quick restart on the platform.

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Steam has issued a notice that they’ve fixed the issue however. If you still do see the error, it’s best to restart Steam itself to see the changes.
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Pokdepinion: Man, I would freak out if I found out that my games went missing.
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[Computex 2018] Kingston Demos New Storage Solutions — Industry’s Fastest NVMe SSD!

Kingston has showcased  their latest storage solution at Computex 2018, featuring the capabilities of the fastest NVMe SSD, embedded and encrypted solutions, mobile lifestyle products, including the brand new Canvas series for SD and also microSD cards.
Kingston Demos New Storage Solutions

Ranging from enterprise SSDs, encrypted USBs, consumer mobile products to embedded solutions, the company offers reliability as well as performance.

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With Kingston’s DCP1000 PCIe NVMe SSD, it offers four times the data rate of HD, providing the end-to-end data acceleration needed for modern media workflows.
In addition to that, both Kingston and IronKey encrypted USB drives are designed to protect data and maintain mobile workforce. Where else the Kingston UV500 SSD comes with 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption and supports TCG Opal 2.0. It is also available in three form factors; 2.5″, M.2 2280, mSATA.
The Canvas series SD and microSD cards comes in three different variations: Select, Go, and React to suit your needs.
If you are using an Apple device, there’s also the DataTraveler Bolt Duo, which is designed specifically to free up space on both iPhone and iPad with limited memory. You just need to plug it in and download the app, and then back up to their camera roll.
With Nucleum USB 3.1 Type-C, users can connect up to 7 devices at once and keep your creativity running. It can power up Macbooks while also connect a USB flash drive and charge an iPhone. Its size ensures that it is a perfect travel companion.
Pokdepinion: Seems like Kingston has made options for everyone. That’s nice of them.
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MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti VENTUS 3X OC

Given that we spent a good chunk of this year at home, many people were looking forward to the holiday season to shop and make their homes more bearable. New toys like the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and new graphics cards from both AMD and NVIDIA were highly sought items that quickly sold out. It’s no surprise that scalpers geared up to make an easy profit, but how much profit did they manage to earn?
Scalpers Profit Massively With the PS5, Xbox Series X, and New Graphics Cards

According to Oracle engineer Michael Driscoll via TechSpot, scalpers have profited about USD $39 million / RM158 million from the sales of PS5, Xbox Series X, and new graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA.The data was scraped from eBay’s sold listings in the US, in which Michael wrote the script for to automate the process.

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In case you’re wondering how each individual product performed for scalpers, the PS5 saw about USD $14.7 million / RM59.6 million in profits, the PS5 Digital Edition with USD $4.3 million / RM17.4 million in profits, Xbox Series X with USD $8.6 million / RM34.9 million in profits and Xbox Series S with USD $1.5 million in profits.
As you can see here, this is why there are plenty of scalpers around the world. It’s that easy to make a huge profit, although it is a practice that I disagree with as I find it unethical. Regardless, it’s natural for products with high demand but low supply to easily cost a fortune.
If you want to check out the data and graphs yourself, click right here.
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Pokdepinion: It’s an easy way to make money, but it’s definitely unethical in my books.
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