ASUS ZenFone 5 already available in Malaysia — the notched phone you wanna get is priced at just RM1599!

If you have been eyeing the ASUS ZenFone 5 ZE620KL which was launched at MWC 2018, then you will be pleased to find out that you can already get it here in Malaysia. And it isn’t nearly as ridiculously overpriced as its predecessors, which is refreshing to see. Priced at just RM1599, the ASUS ZenFone 5 is well-equipped against the current crop of mid-rangers in the market.

Listed on Mobile2Go’s online store with 1 Year Warranty by Mobile To Go, it is understood that these aren’t official ASUS Malaysia units. Still, the price is definitely worth considering, with its rather decent specifications:

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Device Name
ASUS ZenFone 5

Device Model
ZE620KL

CPU
Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 Octa-core @ 1.8 GHz, 14nm Kryo 260

GPU
Adreno 509

RAM
4GB

Display
6.2″ FHD+ 18:9 ratio, 100% DCI-P3 gamut coverage, 96% NTSC gamut coverage

Storage
64GB eMCP + MicroSD expansion slot

Camera (Main)
Primary: 12MP f/1.8, Sony IMX363 1.4µm pixel pitch, OIS for stills, EIS for videos, 78° FOV, 6P optics
Secondary: 8MP f/2.2, OV8856, 120° FOV, 5P optics
RGB sensor, LED flash

Camera (Selfie)
8MP f/2.0, OV8856, 84° FOV, 4P optics, RGB sensor

Battery
3300 mAh with AI charging

OS
Android 8.0 Oreo

SIM
Hybrid dual SIM

Would you be getting the ASUS ZenFone 5 now, or would you rather wait a few more weeks until the official units by ASUS Malaysia arrive? Let us know in the comments section!
Our thanks to an anonymous tipster!
Pokdepinion: If ASUS Malaysia can undercut the price, or even just match the price and throw in 6GB of RAM, this is definitely replacing my ASUS ZenFone 4.
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All MSI Z490 motherboards support PCIe 4.0 with new BIOS update!

MSI has just announced that their entire lineup of Intel Z490 motherboards will offer support for PCIe 4.0 with the 11th Gen Rocket Lake processors via a BIOS update. MSI has also listed out the BIOS versions that you will need for your specific MSI Z490 board to get PCIe 4.0 support.
MSI Z490 BIOSes with PCIe 4.0 support

BIOS Version

MSI MEG Z490 GODLIKE
7C70.v17

MSI MEG Z490 ACE
7C71.v17

MSI MEG Z490 Unify
7C70.vA7

MSI MEG Z490I Unify
7C77.v16

MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Carbon WiFi
7C73.v17

MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Edge WiFi
7C79.v16

MSI MPG Z490M Gaming Edge WiFi
7C76.v27

MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Plus
7C75.vA6

MSI MAG Z490 Tomahawk
7C80.v17

MSI Z490-A Pro
7C75.v28

MSI provided proof of the MSI Z490-A Pro supporting PCIe 4.0 by adding in a CrystalDiskInfo screenshot of the Samsung 980 PRO running on the full PCIe 4.0 x4 interface.

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It is interesting to see MSI provide even their entry-level boards like the MSI Z490-A Pro with an update to enable PCIe 4.0 on them, but what’s even more amazing is that MSI actually spent the extra cost to add the hardware necessary to enable PCIe 4.0 on even the low-end MSI Z490-A Pro. You can check out the SRP pricing of the MSI Z490 motherboards here.
Pokdepinion: Nice to have the option of affordable MSI Z490 boards if I want to upgrade to the 11th Gen Intel Core processors!
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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Can Already Be Played on Emulator

The data for the much-awaited game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been leaked online, enabling enthusiasts to successfully run the upcoming game on Nintendo Switch emulation software. The leak has raised concerns about spoilers surfacing online ahead of the game’s official release.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Data Leaked Ahead of Global Launch

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, one of the most anticipated games of the year, is set to release on 12th May 2023 exclusively on the Nintendo Switch. However, the game’s data has already been leaked online, allowing enthusiasts to run the game on Nintendo Switch emulation software.

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While this is undoubtedly exciting news for those eager to get their hands on the game, it also means that spoilers will likely start circulating online, making it tough for fans to avoid them. Nintendo will probably take down any content that contains spoilers.
Currently, Ryujinx is the only emulator capable of running Tears of the Kingdom, but with the ROM now available online, other emulators like Yuzu are likely to add the game to their support list soon. It’s only a matter of time before the emulators run the game smoothly, as happened with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which is now entirely playable via Yuzu or Cemu on PC.

While Nintendo has yet to react officially to the leak, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to stop the spread of the game’s data. Sharing the ROM file for Tears of the Kingdom is illegal, but those familiar with piracy won’t see this as any barrier and the file will likely continue to spread.
It’s worth noting that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be Nintendo’s first self-published title to carry a price tag of $70. The leak of the game’s data may have an impact on its sales, but it’s too soon to tell. Regardless, fans of the series will undoubtedly be eagerly anticipating the game’s official release next week.
Source
Pokdepinion: The sad part is that it will inevitably affect the sales of the game. I just hope there will still be a good number of people who will at least buy the game to support the developers if they like the game enough.
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MasterLiquid ML240L V2 ARGB and ML360L V2 ARGB lands in Malaysia from RM349

Cooler Master has just announced the availability of the latest Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L V2 ARGB and ML360L V2 ARGB AIO liquid CPU coolers in Malaysia. Priced from just RM349, they represent great options for anyone looking to improve the cooling for their CPUs.

The MasterLiquid ML240L and ML360L V2 ARGB shares their pump design with the MasterLiquid ML120L V2 RGB that we reviewed recently, with a new dual-chamber pump to improve cooling performance. The radiator surface area has also been increased by 25% despite the radiator being of the same dimensions, which improves cooling efficiency without compromising on compatibility.

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Cooler Master bundles the new MasterLiquid ML240L V2 ARGB with two SickleFlow 120 ARGB fans, while the MasterLiquid ML360L V2 ARGB gets three. The fans sport a redesigned frame and Air Balance 2.0 fan blades for better performance as well as improved diffusion of the ARGB lighting.

The Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L and ML360L V2 ARGB are available in Malaysia priced at RM349 and RM449, respectively. They are covered by two-year warranties.
Pokdepinion: ARGB lighting seems like the perfect motivator for me to switch to one of these…
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ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Bring Gaming to Another Level

Unboxing the ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – The Phone

The ROG Phone 6 Pro comes in a shiny white hexagonal box like all the previous ROG phones’ Pro and Ultimate variants. The box is quite unique as it has a really cool design in its innards and different compartments housing its contents.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro – Box Content
Inside the box, you can find the following items:

USB-C to USB-C cable
65W charger
ROG Armor case
Sim ejector tool
ROG phone user guide
A matte plastic card
The ROG Phone 6 Pro smartphone

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Aero ActiveCooler 6
In a separate box, it consists of the ROG Aero ActiveCooler 6 which has a complete makeover from its previous model. The cooler has much larger white buttons and a transparent back that lights up when the phone is on.

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ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Cooler’s Box Content
Inside the box, you can find the following items:

ROG Armor case with wider back
Aeroactive cooler user guide
The ROG Aero ActiveCooler 6

ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad
Optionally, you can get the ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad that comes in Moonlight White and is now updated with a new bumper that supports the ROG Phone 6 series. The controller is compatible with the AeroActive Cooler 6 and works via Bluetooth.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Gamepad Box Content
Inside the box, you can find the following items:

USB-A to USB-C cable
Controller casing
Controller grip
ROG Armor case with attachable slots for the controller
ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad user guide
The ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad

Specifications

CPU
3.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform

GPU
Qualcomm Adreno 730

Memory
18GB LPDDR5

Storage
512GB UFS3.1

Display
6.78” 20.4:9 2448×1080 (395ppi) 165 Hz
1 ms AMOLED HDR10+ certified
720 Hz touch sampling rate, 23 ms touch latency
Brightness: 5 nits to 800nits @ APL100 + HBM or 1200nits @ APL1
111.23% DCI-P3, sRGB : 150.89%, Delta E average < 1
Contrast ratio: 1,000,000:1
Front 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
SGS Eye Care 6.5% & SGS Seamless Pro (120 Hz)
AS coating for reducing friction when hand sweating

Camera
50MP SONY IMX766 main sensor
13MP ultra-wide
5MP macro camera

Selfie camera
12MP SONY IMX663 sensor

Connectivity
IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax(6E)
2×2 MIMO
3 Antenna Wi-Fi-Direct support
UL 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.2
Bluetooth Profile: HFP + A2DP + AVRCP + HID + PAN + OPP
Additional Bluetooth audio codec: LDAC + aptX + aptX HD + aptX Adaptive + AAC

Battery
6000mAh
Dual 3,000mAh batteries MMT design
65W (21V 3A) PD3.0 / QC5.0 / Direct Charge adapter

Dimensions
173 x 77 x 10.3 mm

Weight
239g

Colour
Storm White

Performance
We have decided to test the ROG Phone 6 Pro in three modes which are the default state, X Mode, and X Mode together with the AeroActive Cooler 6. We will be comparing the device against other smartphones that run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip.

Antutu v9 shows that the ROG Phone 6 Pro’s default state falls behind its previous model the ROG Phone 5 which was a surprise to me. However, with X mode and with the AeroActive Cooler on, there was a significant improvement.

This is further proven in Geekbench 5, where the ROG Phone 6 Pro falls behind the ROG Phone 5, Xiaomi 12 Pro, Xiaomi 12 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S22 in multi-core performance. However, with X Mode and the cooler, it does help with thermal throttling. In single-core performance, the ROG Phone 6 Pro takes the cake on the top.

Unfortunately, we were not able to run both Sling Shot Unlimited and Sling Shot Extreme Unlimited but as in the Wild Life Unlimited benchmarks, the ROG Phone 6 Pro is the leading phone and has twice the improvement of the ROG Phone 5.

PCMark performance shows that the ROG Phone 6 Pro tops the rest of the phones with this generation’s flagchip chipset, even being able to show higher scores with X Mode and the cooler.

The battery life of the phone at Auto or 60Hz is can sustain for a long period of time. However, on max 165Hz refresh, the phone does fall slightly behind the OPPO Find X5 despite having a larger battery capacity and the same chipset. This shows that battery efficiency is not the ROG Phone 6 Pro’s strongest suit.
The charging speed of the device was pretty fast as it supports wired 65W charging and managed to bring the battery up from 35% to 100% in approximately 35 minutes.
Gaming
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – ROG UI
As the ROG Phone 6 Pro is introduced as a gaming phone, I am going to start off with the main features that come with it. When turning on the phone for the first time, you will be immediately greeted with its aggressive and loud gaming ROG UI. However, this can be customized to your own liking by switching to a much minimalistic stock Zen UI classic. Both UIs are based on the pure version of Android 11 which ASUS has optimized for better performance and smarter functionalities.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Games Library and Featured Games
One feature of the phone that is unique to me is ROG’s own Armoury Crate, their own gaming app. In the Gaming Library, every mobile game that has been installed is instantly listed here and updated, however you can also add any apps manually to it too. By touching the upper left corner, you can switch between grid view or card view where you can have a more immersive look. I prefer the grid mode as I can instantly access all my games on a single screen without having to scroll through the list.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Scenario Profile, ROG Vision, and System Lighting
In the Console tab, like the ROG Phone 5 series, you can switch between different power profiles such as the X Mode, Dynamic, and Ultra durable. However, unlike the previous model, the Advanced mode is not available, therefore you cannot customize the phone’s performance to your own liking.
The option to customize the RGB LEDs is still available in System Lighting settings with an extra new feature: the ROG Vision.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – ROG Vision
The ROG Vision, only available for ROG Phone 6 Pro, allows you to customize anything you want on the PMOLED display on the back of the phone. You will be given a choice of 60 animations and you can also download or create your own via the ROG Vision editor. It took me less than a minute to customize my name and if you’re feeling bold, you can also put a picture of your favourite waifu on the screen too.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Game Genie
Furthermore, the ROG Phone 6 Pro can enhance your gaming experience with their GameGenie dashboard. You can access any functions and settings conveniently and quickly to customize your gaming sessions according to your needs.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – AirTriggers
While on the subject of customizing, another of the phone’s special features is its AirTriggers. Through this feature, you can customize the Ultrasonic buttons, up to 14 specific touch points on the screen simultaneously.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Apex Legends Mobile
Not only that, Gyroscope Aiming is a new addition to the phone, making FPS games such as Apex Legends Mobile, a great experience to play. The AeroActive Cooler 6 provides an extra four physical buttons which you can customize too, in the AirTriggers settings. That is a lot of buttons.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Phone with ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad
The ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad is a great accessory for the ROG Phone 6 Pro as it gives gamers more options to enhance their gaming experience. You can attach one or both controllers directly to the phone and map the keys in the feature available in Game Genie.
Speaking of a great gaming experience, looking for a gaming laptop? Do check out our ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 review by clicking the link here.
Camera
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Camera UI
The ROG Phone 6 Pro features a triple camera setup consisting of a 50MP main camera, a 13MP ultra-wide camera, and a 5MP macro camera along with a 12MP selfie camera. The camera’s UI is pretty standard and you’re given several other options to widen your photo and video-taking choices.

A little issue that I encounter while taking photos using the ROG Phone 6 Pro is the delay when snapping a series of photos. It could be due to the HDR processing as it takes about 2 seconds per shot with HDR mode On or Auto whereas with HDR mode off it takes about 1 second per shot. This caused a lot of photos to turn out blurry.
Despite that, HDR mode does process some really nice photos and they do look really vivid and realistic. The Auto Focus and Auto Exposure helps a lot when taking photos in the main mode or Macro mode as the colours do come out pretty accurate. The selfie camera, on the other hand, is lackluster as the photos came out grainy and colours came out muted.
The Good
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – The Phone
The ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro has a 6.78″ AMOLED display with up to 165Hz dynamic refresh rate, protected with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus as well as AS coating to reduce frictions for my sweaty hands after long sessions of gaming. The coating also prevents the phone from turning into a fingerprint magnet.
The 165Hz refresh rate was very pleasing to the eyes as scrolling through social media and watching videos was fluid and smooth. Not only that, the audios on the speakers are immersive while watching videos and playing games. Having two different charging ports, one on the vertical side of the phone and the other on the horizontal side, was a game-changer for me as the charging cable did not get in my way when I’m holding the phone in landscape mode.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Headphone Jack
Another feature that is worth mentioning is the phone retaining the headphone jack from its previous model. I get to finally use my wired headphones and earphones to have a steady listening experience on the phone.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – Genshin Impact
My gaming experience on the phone has been rather smooth as the ROG Phone 6 Pro can run Genshin Impact on the highest settings with no minor lags and inconvenience. Even though the phone did get warmer after several hours of gaming, the AeroActive Cooler 6 did a great job of cooling down the phone to a comfortable temperature.
Regarding the AeroActive Cooler 6, the cooler now has a brand new design that has a more modern look with larger buttons, customizable lighting, and backward compatibility up to the ROG Phone 5 series. You can boost the fan up to Frosty or Frozen mode which helps cool the phone down really quickly, elongating my gaming hours.
The Bad
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – AeroActive Cooler 6
Despite having the AeroActive Cooler 6, I tend not to travel around with it as it is an added weight to my inventory. Therefore, when I game while outside waiting for food at a restaurant or for the public transport to arrive, the phone tends to get uncomfortably hot to play on as the heat does affect my fingertips. Therefore, the cooler does feel like a necessity instead of an option.
Despite having a new facelift, the AeroActive Cooler 6 new design does have its flaws. After being in my bag a couple of times, the cooler obtain some minor scratches, and dust gets trapped under the transparent cover of the cooler, making it quite difficult to clean. As a user with small hands and short fingers, it was hard for me to game with the extra buttons provided on the cooler as my fingers could not reach them.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – AirTrigger
Furthermore, I felt that I could not utilise much of the AirTrigger features while gaming, as it made things more complicated while playing FPS games. However, it did help me during my Genshin Impact sessions as it allows me to map my skills to them. Some touch points did feel more of a gimmick than having an actual functionality but that might be because I did not have a longer time to test it on more games.
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Verdict
ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro Review – RGB Lights
With a starting price of RM4,999, the ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro features fast charging, immersive audio, and decent cameras. The phone would be a great option for avid mobile gamers if they’re willing to invest in the accessories that come with it such as the AeroActive Cooler 6.
At the end of our ASUS ROG Phone 6 Pro review, I award this phone with a Silver Pokdeaward.

Big thanks to ASUS Malaysia for sending us this smartphone for the purpose of this review.
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[E3 2017] South Park: The Fractured But Whole’s Gameplay Featured; The Fractured What Hole Now?

If you aren’t aware of what is being implied in the name South Park: The Fractured But Whole, you might be too young to read this.
[E3 2017] South Park: The Fractured But Whole’s Gameplay Featured
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Many people were anticipating a sequel to South Park: The Stick of Truth, one of the most surprisingly fun role-playing games to hit store shelves in a long time. We didn’t have much details before but now, we have a taste of what the game will be like.
As you may know, this hilarous RPG is being developed by Ubisoft San Francisco, replacing Obsidian Entertainment, who developed the game’s predecessor: South Park: The Stick of the Truth, one of 2014’s best releases. The game was first announced at Ubisoft’s E3 2015 press conference.

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Interestingly, the orignal title was planned to be called “The Butthole of Time.” However, Matt Stone and Trey Parker (South Park’s creators who are substantially involved with the game series, including serving as the writers on both games) were informed that several retailers wouldn’t feature a product with the word “butthole” on their shelves.
And thus, Stone and Parker did what they do best: improvised brilliantly. The pair came up “The Fractured But Whole,” which not only sneaks in ‘butthole’, but is a brilliant play-on of the division between the game’s characters.
The game was originally planned to launch on December 6th 2016, but then was delayed in September of the same year to Q1 2017. Then, it was delayed once again, this time to 2018 fiscal year (April 2017–March 2018). And then on the aforementioned May, the game was announced for October 17th.
In the game, players once again assume the role of the New Kid and join South Park’s main cast; Stan, Kenny, Kyle and Cartman. The following brief elevator pitch of the game is provided by Ubisoft:
In South Park: The Fractured but Whole, players will delve into the crime-ridden underbelly of South Park with Coon and Friends. This dedicated group of crime fighters was formed by Eric Cartman whose superhero alter-ego, The Coon, is half man, half raccoon. As the New Kid, players will join Mysterion, Toolshed, Human Kite and a host of others to battle the forces of evil while Coon strives to make his team the most beloved superheroes in history.
All of that being said today at Ubisoft’s E3 2017 press conference a new cinematic trailer has been revealed, showing of more new gameplay, and of course more jokes. You can check it out below.
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Additionally, you can check out over 11 minutes of raw gameplay footage that features you and the gang taking a trip to the Peppermint Hippo Strip Club, where you and Captain Diabetes uncover more information about missing cats and the evil looming over South Park. The footage also shows off more of the turn-based team combat system, each character’s unique abilities, and ultimate powers.

Pokdepinion: Probably one of the most anticipated games for me, just because I really enjoyed the storyline for Stick of Truth. Good thing this game will be available in multiple platforms.
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Facebook Wants Your Data But They’ll Pay You For It

Over in the US, it appears that Facebook has launched a new app that tracks users on how they use their mobile devices. In return, they’ll pay you for the information that you give.
Facebook Study app
The app, which is called Study, records usage behavior which includes your installed apps, the amount of time you use them, location, as well as device and network.
Facebook has said that they aim to use this data to learn which apps are user favorites and looks to improve their own products.

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They’ve added that they will not collect user content, passwords, or even messages and that the information will not go to a third party.
The social media platform has been recruiting people be running ads which will then prompt potential users to verify their age and also confidential details. Once confirmed, users will then be able to download the Study app and log in.
In a bid to offer some form of security to users of the app, Facebook shows you all the data they collect and how it’ll be used. Additionally, users will need to submit their PayPal account in order for them to make payment to recruits.
Despite that, it is not known of how much exactly users will be getting paid for participating. Users are allowed to leave anytime that they want (the Study app), which all they need to do is uninstall the app as well as notifying Facebook of your intent.
As of now, the Study app is only available for Android users in the US as well as India. It is reported that they improve the app further and make it available to more countries.
Pokdepinion: Getting paid for your details? No thanks…but then again, everything is available on the internet..
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ASUS launches new motherboard with a patent-pending mounting design – ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming/Aura

The latest ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming/Aura is the world’s first 3D-printing-friendly motherboard with a patent-pending mounting design, plus Aura RGB LED lighting to enable the creation of exciting color-matched custom builds with ease.

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Packed with many exclusive features optimized for the best gaming experience and incorporating multiple performance-boosting overclocking technologies. The new motherboard even protects itself and the gamer with Gamer’s Guardian components, multiple smart DIY features and the all-new, reinforced SafeSlot PCIe slot.
Patent-pending mounting of 3D-printed parts, plus Aura RGB LED lighting

With the patent-pending mounting design, and represents the roll-out of the Make It Your Own 3D Printing Project, demonstrated by ASUS on a variety of modified X99 motherboards and concept designs at Computex 2016. It give gives users exclusive freedom to easily mount their custom 3D-printed parts in the Z170 Pro Gaming/ Aura’s M.2 area, or even extend to the audio area, using the standard included M.2 nuts. Now they can download, design and print custom nameplates and then integrate them seamlessly into their Z170 Pro Gaming/Aura builds.

On top of that users can also customize their builds using Aura, the exclusive RGB LED-illumination technology invented by ASUS. Aura makes it easy to light up any Z170 Pro Gaming/Aura build with an endless spectrum of color combinations, as well as enabling loads of fascinating and fun effects — all of which can be synced with an ever-growing portfolio of Aura-capable ASUS hardware.
SupremeFX & Sonic Radar II

Designed for immerse gaming experience with the motherboard, the ASUS Z170 Gaming Pro/Aura comes with built-in SupremeFX audio technology. Engineered with effective shielding to prevent electromagnetic interference, preserving the integrity of audio signals for the premium quality. It also has a 300ohm-headphone amplifier to drive some of the very best headphones available for exceptional, immersive gaming audio and music-listening.

Displays a stealthy overlay that shows what opponents and teammates are up to, Sonic Radar II allows the player to see the direction and origin of key in-game sounds, and practice enemy-pinpointing skill. It also includes exclusive Audio Enhancement technology to clarify every blast.
Intel Ethernet, LANGuard & GameFirst IV

The latest Intel Gigabit Ethernet (I219-V) designed to reduce CPU overhead and deliver high quality connection in-game, it also has ASUS exclusive LANGuard with signal-coupling technology to ensure reliable connections and better throughput. Its electrostatically-guarded and surge-protected components (ESD Guards) for 1.9X-greater tolerance to static electricity and 2.5X-greater protection (up to 15KV) against surges.

More optimization on networking department with ASUS GameFIrst IV, offers lag-free online gaming, and includes Multi-Gate Teaming that enables Z170 Pro Gaming/Aura users to team all their networks for maximum bandwidth and the smoothest-ever gameplay. GameFirst IV also includes all-new Intelligent mode, which automatically compiles a database by parsing new app data to ensure that every game is optimized to maximize performance potential.
RAMCache
Immerse audio experience and lag-free game connection is not enough for the perfect gaming session if the games has slow loading time.

The RAMCache technology effectively caches an entire storage device so that favorite games and apps launch at breakneck speeds, getting to work the moment it’s activated. RAMCache turns milliseconds into microseconds to boost game-load times to stratospheric levels, and minimizes risk of data loss.
ASUS SafeSlot
The exclusive SafeSlot has been engineered by ASUS to provide superior retention and shearing resistance. Manufactured in a single step using a new insert -molding process that integrates the slot with the fortifying metal for an inherently stronger slot, which is then firmly anchored to the motherboard through additional solder points

ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming/Aura comes with 3 years warranty and will be available soon with suggested retail price at RM820.
Product details : ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming/Aura

Pokdepinion: Personally this motherboard looks great aesthetically, and with the 3D-printed parts customization support, it might be the most suitable motherboard for modding, espeically if put into a modding-friendly case like the Cooler Master Mastercase 5.
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AMD Radeon RX 590 will be clocked as high as 1680 MHz out of factory

The upcoming AMD Radeon RX 590 is purportedly going to feature the same Polaris GPU architecture, but with a new 12nm manufacturing process. Interestingly, AMD may somehow manage to squeeze much higher clocks out of the new Radeon RX 590 GPUs than what was possible with the Radeon RX 480/RX 580 GPUs.

RX 590
PowerColor 1,576 MHz, 1,645 MHz
XFX 1,580 MHz, 1,680 MHz
Gpu Score
Fire Strike Extreme 7350 pic.twitter.com/umq3KPxEK9
— APISAK (@TUM_APISAK) November 8, 2018

The new Polaris 30 GPU has been leaked to feature clocks of up to 1680 MHz in custom AIBs’ designs. Did the 12nm manufacturing process give AMD this much extra headroom to clock the GPUs higher? Considering that they will feature the same number of stream processors (2304) as the Radeon RX 580, these higher clocks could potentially mean a nice performance boost.

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Perhaps reusing the same architecture isn’t such a bad move after all for AMD. With these higher clocks, it should handily beat the GeForce GTX 1060, even after the GDDR5X upgrade. Whether it can match the GeForce RTX 2060 will be a story for another time, but this looks very promising. The main issue that comes to mind with these high clocks is power draw, but perhaps that is tamed by the fact that AMD will be using the more efficient 12nm manufacturing process for the new GPUs.
The only thing left to see is whether AMD will price the Radeon RX 590 well. Priced correctly, AMD could strengthen their hold on the mid-range GPU market.
Pokdepinion: I would love to see whether it will offer GeForce GTX 1070-class performance at a similar power draw.
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Intel CEO thinks US might be forced to defend Taiwan against China invasion

It probably goes without saying that Taiwan and China are in quite a predicament. One wants independence while the other is adamant that the region belongs to them. With Taiwan making most of the chips for the world, the world might be quite motivated to defend the little country. In fact, in an interview with CBS News, Intel CEO, Pat Gelsinger, thinks that the US might be “forced” to defend Taiwan to maintain supply of chips.

With the sanctions against Chinese companies like HUAWEI, it has evidently increased tensions in China. The worst case scenario that might happen is China invading Taiwan and controlling TSMC. China has tried — and failed — to kickstart their local semiconductor industry, so taking over Taiwan might be a last resort to ensure that the banned tech giants in China can still make their chips.

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Because if there’s any points that people can’t keep running their countries or running their businesses because of supply of one critical component like semiconductors, boy, that leads them to take very extreme postures on things because they have to.
The most extreme would be China invading Taiwan and in the process gaining control of TSMC. That could force the U.S. to defend Taiwan as we did Kuwait from the Iraqis 30 years ago. Then it was oil. Now it’s chips. — Pat Gelsinger
Taiwan is well aware of its current position as the nigh undisputed leader in the chipmaking business, and has previously used it to their advantage. Aside from trading chips for COVID-19 vaccines, they have also reportedly banned job listings from China to avoid the brain drain to the mainland, which is desperately trying to develop their own chipmaking capabilities.
On top of that, they have also pooh-poohed the EU’s attempt at courting TSMC to produce chips in the region to gain advanced chipmaking technologies, and instead states that the most advanced technologies will be kept in Taiwan.
Source: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd
I do believe that Taiwan is keen on keeping a hold of their advantage, so as to ensure that the US and other developed countries will have no choice but to help the island state in the event of Chinese invasion, unless they are willing to lose TSMC, which is indispensable to the likes of AMD and Apple.
Source
Pokdepinion: It would be interesting to see whether the US would really decide to step in and be the hero, if it really boils down to China invading Taiwan.
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MasterCase Pro 6 now available — discreet design, modular flexibility

The MasterCase 5 family was a great success, with media and enthusiasts alike applauding its FreeForm Modular System which offered substantial internal space despite its humble mid-tower form factor. However its aggressive looks may not suit everyone, and for those who desire a cleaner look, there’s the MasterCase Pro 6.

The MasterCase Pro 6 stands out with its flush panels. The top, front and back panels are seamless, offering a clean, minimalistic design meant to blend in with whatever environment it is in. Even the I/O panel is hidden by a cover to enhance the seamless appeal of the MasterCase Pro 6. The smooth dark metallic grey panels are contrasted by a soft LED glow emanating from the bottom. For those who are worried about poor airflow with the flush design of the MasterCase Pro 6, Cooler Master has thrown in a two-tier magnetic paneling system that creates little vents between the panels and the frame for ventilation.

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In line with the direction Cooler Master has taken with the MasterCase series, the MasterCase Pro 6 also features the FreeForm Modular System which allow you to install 280mm radiators at the front and top vents, cram full length graphics cards by removing the drive cages, load it up with up to 5 hard drives and 2 SSDs with mutiple mounting positions for SSDs, all while keeping your cables away from sight with the separate PSU compartment. The MasterCase Pro 6 brings Cooler Master ever closer to a fully modular case. Customize your case with Maker Made or FreeForm Accessories available from Cooler Master, to #MakeItYours.
The MasterCase Pro 6 will be available for RM699 with pre-installed red LED fans and lighting.
Pokdepinion: The design of the MasterCase Pro 6 is really cool! I can’t wait to see our local modders’ take on the clean seamless lines that are really great canvases for modding.
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honor 8 official — pricing starts from RM1196 in China!

Yesterday was honor‘s official launching of the honor 8 in China. The dual camera system that was first introduced in Huawei‘s flagship, the Huawei P9, is also found in this vastly more affordable device from the Chinese company’s sub-brand.

It will feature a dual 12 megapixel camera system, based on the Sony IMX286 sensors which are also used in the Huawei P9. However the Leica branding appears to be missing from the honor 8. Based on the first bullet point in the lower left corner of this slide, it seems like the honor 8 will also feature a monochrome + RGB sensor configuration.

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To charge the 3000 mAh battery in the honor 8, you will have to use the USB Type-C port on the bottom edge of the phone. Also on the bottom are the mono loudspeaker and 3.5mm audio jack. The top is a little sparse, only home to the infrared transmitter and a microphone hole. The frame is made of metal, with ceramic inserts for the antennae.

Instead of a metal unibody, this time the Chinese company opted for a 2.5D glass back for the rear. The glass back appears to be multilayered and does look pretty awesome. The front also features a 2.5D glass cover, over a 5.2″ 1080p display. Other specifications of the honor 8 include a Kirin 950 SoC paired with up to 4GB of RAM, up to 64GB of storage. The honor 8 also runs EMUI 4.1 overlay based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow right out of the box.

The honor 8 will be available in China at 10.08 a.m. on the 19th of July in 5 color variants, Pearl White, Sunrise Gold, Midnight Black, Sakura Pink, and Sapphire Blue, but not all hardware versions are available in every color. The 3GB RAM / 32GB version costs 1999 yuan (about RM1196), the 4GB RAM / 32GB variant will cost 2299 yuan (about RM1376) and the highest specced 4GB RAM / 64 GB version will costs 2499 yuan (about RM1495). Obviously pricing will be different when it arrives in Malaysia, but this offers a pretty good idea of the price range that the honor 8 will be in.

Pokdepinion: Sharing much of its specifications with the Huawei P9 aside from a different design, slightly slower SoC and no Leica branding, the honor 8 looks like a steal!
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Huawei Y Max: Pre-order and Get Free Gifts Worth Up To RM334

If you’re one of the many people looking forward to the Huawei Y Max smartphone, then here’s a little something to sweeten the deal for you and get you more excited for it.
From today until 12th December 2018, all pre-orders for the new Huawei Y Max smartphone will come with a Huawei A2 Band, a Huawei AM116 Earphone, and a Huawei Y Max Flip Cover for absolutely free.

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All you have to do is head on over to the Huawei Online Store and pre-order the device. For as long as the pre-order is made latest by 12th December 2018, you will get those extra goodies free of charge.
For those of you who aren’t aware, the Huawei Y Max is a multimedia / entertainment powerhouse with an affordable price. It comes with a 7.12-inch FullView FHD+ display, dual speakers with Dolby Atmos for audio, and comes with a whopping 128 GB internal storage along with 4 GBs of RAM. With 5,000 mAh of battery, the battery life is expected to last for quite some time.
It will be retailing for RM1,299, which is surprisingly affordable for what it is offering. Combined with the pre-order gifts, it’s definitely something worth looking into if you need a new device.
If you want to pre-order the device, click right here to head straight to the website.
Pokdepinion: If I wasn’t already on the Huawei Mate 20 X, this could be what I’ll be looking at. I have a strong preference for smartphones with gigantic screens and this one is budget-friendly for what it’s offering.
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Black Shark 2 Pro Review — the sum of quirky decisions

Gaming phones are the next big thing for smartphones. It used to be big screens, then good cameras and now, gaming performance. Not that I am complaining, because I do my fair share of gaming on my smartphone too. Today we will be taking a look at the Black Shark 2 Pro, a gaming phone designed to go head-to-head against the likes of the ROG Phone and nubia Red Magic series.
What’s in the box?

Let’s start with the unboxing. Unfortunately one of the first areas the Black Shark 2 Pro loses out to the ROG Phone is the exclusivity of the packaging. Unlike the latter, it comes in a rather simple box. Entirely fine to be honest, as we definitely don’t consider awesome packaging to swing us in favor of a particular product.

Born to compete. I guess it really explains the whole brand ideology of Black Shark. We got the Gulf Blue color option which is a lot more aggressive than the other colorways Black Shark offers with the Black Shark 2 Pro.

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We received the Black Shark 2 Pro complete with the right half of the Gamepad 2.0 as well as the case to slot in both the controllers. So let’s check it out.
Appearance

The Black Shark 2 Pro actually has more flair under its fancy glass-metal back. The blue coloration gives way to a greenish hue when light hits it at just the right angle. It’s also worth noting that the glass here is actually bent from the flat sides to meet the raised center line.
Bending glass isn’t actually that easy to pull off, so I am surprised to see it here. And yes, I had my doubts, I thought it was plastic in the beginning, but it’s actually glass. As if that’s not enough, there are also lines embossed onto the glass to add to the whole visual and tactile experience. And then there’s RGB illumination.

Over on the front we see a large 6.39″ OLED display. No notches, and it gets symmetrical cutouts for mesh along the top and bottom edges which have speakers lying behind them. The speakers behind them aren’t identical though, but more on that later.

For those who want even more RGB, there’s more here on the side. The sides here features two strips that is more functional than the one on the back. It serves as a notification light too aside from being a fancy charging meter indicating the battery level as you charge it.
Specifications
CPU:Snapdragon 855 Plus (1 x Kryo 485 Gold @ 2.96 GHz + 3 x Kryo 485 Gold @ 2.42 GHz + 4 x Kryo 485 Silver @ 1.8 GHz), 7nm FinFET GPU: Adreno 640 @ 672 MHz RAM: 8GB LPDDR4x 2133 MHzDisplay: 6.39″ FHD+ (2340 x 1080), AMOLED, 430-nit typical brightness, DC dimming, 108.9% DCI-P3 gamutStorage:128GB UFS 3.0Camera: Main Camera(s)48MP f/1.75 + 12MP f/2.2 2x telephotoNight mode, Pro mode, 48MP mode, Ultra macro, 4K30 video, 720p1920/1080p120 slow mo, AI beauty, auto HDR, AI scene recognitionFront Camera20MP f/2.0AI Beauty, portrait mode, 1080p30 videoOS: Joy UI based on Android 9 Pie  Connectivity:  LTE Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/19/20/28/34/38/39/40/41Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz), 2*2 MIMO, MU-MIMOBluetooth 5.0SIM:Dual SIMBattery: Li-Po 4000 mAh (non-removable)27W QuickCharge 4+Dimensions: 163.61 x 75.01 x 8.77~10.07 mm Weight:205gIngress protection:N/A
Performance

You would expect the fastest chipset in the market right now to outperform every other phone out there. Surprisingly, even after multiple runs, the Black Shark 2 Pro doesn’t really pull ahead of the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro. But then again, at these levels of performance, you really don’t need any more grunt.

The single-core performance of the Snapdragon 855 Plus is still behind the Exynos 9820. Here we see a more apparent difference between the Black Shark 2 Pro and the lesser Snapdragon 855 devices.

GPU performance is another area which the Black Shark 2 Pro pulls clear ahead of the competition. Well, it’s definitely worthy of being called a gaming phone with this much graphics horsepower.

PCMark performance is not exactly the best. But then again, these scores are up there with the best of them so nothing to worry about here.

It seems the 4000 mAh battery is actually insufficient to handle the Snapdragon 855+. We see that the Black Shark 2 Pro underperforming when compared to the likes of the Mi 9T Pro. Considering that the Snapdragon 855+ is an overclocked chip after all, it may be operating above its efficiency curve, thus the poor battery life results we see here.

My experience with its battery backup in my daily use somewhat corroborates my assumption, as I only managed to squeeze out less than 5 hours out of the 4000 mAh battery. The lack of a Dark/Night mode may have worsened things a bit, considering its an AMOLED panel here.
While many gaming phones tout good cooling, the Black Shark 2 Pro comes up a bit short. When playing COD Mobile at 60 fps for extended periods, I noted temperatures of around 46°C on the back, which did indeed make it rather uncomfortable to hold.
User Experience
So as a gaming phone and all, we would of course have to do more than our fair share of gaming to evaluate its proficiency at the task. Also, it’s fun, so why not? Anyway, here’s my experience with the device.
How well does it game?

So, let’s start off with the main advantage of the Black Shark 2 Pro: pressure sensitive display, or what Black Shark calls Master Touch. It’s like Black Shark tried to cram the other gaming phones’ shoulder buttons under the display, to mixed success.
For starters, it’s too easy to accidentally apply more pressure on the screen. For example, when driving in COD Mobile, it was just too easy to apply too much pressure and actuate the trigger instead of turning left or right. At this point you would probably be saying, “But there’s adjustable sensitivity!”
You can even see exactly how much force you need to exert at the specific pressure levels.
Yes, there is. But you would want the sensitivity to be low enough to be able to quickly pull the trigger or bring up the scopes, which means you want it to actuate at just slightly above swiping. Generally, I think triggers on the shoulders are still a lot more intuitive, although Black Shark’s design mean less trouble with fancy third party cases that cover all over the edges of the device. Also, it does offer an advantage over smartphones without the feature, so I would still say its a good addition to the feature set, albeit not one without its flaws.

Now if you get the phone here in Malaysia, you do get a hard case which allows you to slot in the controllers, which are included with the Malaysian sets. Aaaand that’s where more design flaws appear.

The Black Shark 2 Pro doesn’t come with a headphone jack, and the case is designed for you to slot in the right gamepad blocking the USB-C port entirely. No way to use headphones while gaming. Bluetooth headphones are a possibility but that’s one I would want to avoid as much as I can.

And while the gamepads each have a USB-C port, that’s only for charging. The controllers themselves work over Bluetooth, which should allow them to work independently of the phone, but unfortunately there’s no dock for the two gamepads to dock into without attaching them to the Black Shark 2 Pro. You can maybe attach them to the case and prop the phone up against something, but then your hands are so far apart with nothing in between its quite laughable. Also worth mentioning is frequent removing and attaching the case can scrape the anodized coat off the aluminium body of the Black Shark 2 Pro.

In use the gamepads are pretty decent. The joystick is rather responsive and you can even tune the sensitivity to your taste. There’s one weird quirk though: you can’t click the joystick. The buttons are clicky with the shoulder buttons being quite tactile as well. For reference, all the buttons feel more like the buttons you would find on a gaming mouse, rather than a standard game controller. I would also say Black Shark has done a pretty good job with the key mapping too, with as seamless an experience as I would expect.
With that said, I never got used to using the gamepad. I still preferred using the pressure sensitive under-display triggers on the Black Shark 2 Pro itself for my COD Mobile sessions. Probably because as I used the phone for gaming at the mamak, I didn’t carry the gamepad, and thus was more accustomed to it than the controllers.

Last but not least, the stereo front facing speakers flanking the display are really effective enough that I have pretty much abandoned my Cooler Master MH752 which was part of my gaming setup when I used to play on the POCOPHONE F1. Now, the lack of a headphone jack on the Black Shark 2 Pro may have also been a major deterrent from using headphones, but the speakers really do sound good enough for some casual gaming. The earpiece is noticeably less powerful as compared to the speaker on the bottom, but you probably won’t notice it if you aren’t nitpicking.
As a smartphone…
While the Black Shark 2 Pro is is mainly a gaming smartphone, it does actually have a few tricks up its sleeve for the regular consumers. One of them is the motion estimation motion compensation technology on the Black Shark 2 Pro, or MEMC for short.

Essentially what it does is calculate the difference between two frames in a video and inserts more frames in there to give you a smoother video. Some may complain that it gives that “soap opera” effect, but for some videos it can be quite nice. A similar effect can be applied to games too although I found it to be somewhat of a nuisance when trying to frantically seek out enemies.

Now, the experience of actually carrying it around. The included hard case is pretty nice with it exposing the curves of the Black Shark 2 Pro for a more ergonomic grip. This design however exposes the chamfered edges of the device, which meant you might collect some minor dings here and there rather easily. For those who prefer lighter phones, you can also skip the Black Shark 2 Pro as its a pretty substantial device at 205 grams. I personally don’t mind it and I prefer slightly heavier phones myself.

Moving on, let’s talk a bit about Joy UI. Black Shark developed their own Android skin which isn’t that much of a skin. It’s more like stock Android with some customized bits here and there to accommodate the additional features Black Shark built into the Black Shark 2 Pro.

The issue is that Black Shark hired some very lousy translators, with some descriptions of the features not making any sense at all. Aside from that, it’s pretty much like using stock Android.

Fortunately they did use MIUI’s camera, which meant some nice features like Night mode and the very nifty peaking mode in manual focus are here as well. The camera hardware here is limited to dual cameras unlike Xiaomi’s recent barrage of triple camera setups, so you only get to switch between the primary 48MP camera and a secondary 12MP 2x telephoto camera. For some reason you can’t take portraits with the main camera, instead forcing you to deal with the telephoto lens’ smaller field of view.

Results are pretty much in line with the rest of Xiaomi’s lineup. Interesting Night mode results, excellent detail in good lighting with the primary camera. The zoom camera is slightly weaker, but it still produces good results in well-lit conditions. You can check out the full-sized images here.
Conclusion
You can do much worse for RM2499 if you want a gaming smartphone. The Black Shark 2 Pro may not be the perfect gaming phone for me, but it is still a cut above many other flagship smartphones when it comes to gaming. My main issues with it are the weird design choices as well as the absolutely deplorable translation work which makes the Black Shark 2 Pro seem like a rushed job.

I would probably recommend the Black Shark 2 Pro if you are looking for a smartphone that will give you an additional edge in gaming, but you aren’t willing to part with more than the RM2500 that Black Shark is asking for.

If you ask me what I would hope the Black Shark 3 will tout, this would be my checklist:
3.5mm headphone jack>60 Hz displayShoulder triggersWide-angle camera instead of telephotoBetter translations in the UI
Our thanks to Black Shark Malaysia for sending us the Black Shark 2 Pro for review.
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Angry Gamers Demanding Change for PS Plus May 2020 Free Games with a Petition

Recently, we reported on the official lineup of free games coming for PS Plus May 2020, which you can read about right here. Some people might like it while others do not. In this particular case, a group of angry gamers are so unhappy with the selection, they’ve signed a petition asking the PlayStation team to change the games.
The petition is called “Change PS Plus May 2020” on Change.org and it has garnered about 30,000 backers at the time of this writing. The petition describes the new free games offerings as an April Fool’s joke.

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Change PS Plus May 2020 Petition Description
After the much anticipated leak surrounding Dark souls remastered and Dying light 1,000’s of playstation enthusiasts were pumped and hyped looking forward to the best PS Plus lineup in a long time only to be left dumbfounded and forlorn with what seems like a late April fool’s joke in the form of Farming simulator 19 and some rip-off of sim city.
Please join us and make the change. Do it for the NHS, do it for all those suffering in isolation. Do it for the gamers! Then we will clap for you Jim Ryan @SonyPlaystation. Until then PSPlus subscribers will be forced to continue feeling let down. Left in the dark when they needed “good games” the most. Saddened and bewildered in a Lock-down nightmare growing CORN!
It is clear that the petition is targeting President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jim Ryan. However, the big boss himself has yet to respond to the matter, and there’s a good chance he will not respond to it anyway. For now, we will be reporting more on this if the situation develops so stay tuned.
Source
Pokdepinion: I can understand not liking a particular lineup but to outright demand a change is a bit too much, if you ask me. Sometimes you get good ones, and sometimes you get the ones you just don’t like. Everyone has their own preference with games after all.
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie Release Window Confirmed

While no exact release date has been confirmed, we do have the release window for The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is the next entry in the franchise, at least for the English-speaking audience. According to an NIS America report, it will be launching sometime in Summer 2023.

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The game will have a deluxe edition, which comes with a digital soundtrack and a mini art book. There will also be a limited edition which comes with the Legends of Zemuria hardcover art book, Songs of Reverie OST, Three & Nine: A Trails Tale novel, The End and The Beginning acrylic print, a steelbook case, and a collector’s box.
Pre-orders for both editions of the game will be up on the NISA Europ Store starting 27th October at 12PM BST / 7AM ET / 4AM PT / 7PM Malaysia time (GMT+8). In case you weren’t aware, this game will feature three protagonists; Rean Schwarzer, Lloyd Bannings, and the mysterious C.
In other related news, the English localization of Trails to Azure will be coming in March 2022 while The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is expected sometime next year.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie will be launching sometime in Summer 2023 for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Source
Pokdepinion: I’ve already spoiled myself with the story for this game and I can say for sure that I’m still excited to play it. In fact, I wanna see the scene which uses the “next gen game engine” with my own eyes and see if I can tell the difference between that and the current game engine used.
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vivo V21 Series With 44MP OIS Front Camera Launched From RM1,299

The folks at vivo Malaysia has recently launched the new vivo V21 series with the introduction of the vivo V21 and vivo V21e respectively.
vivo V21 series launched in Malaysia

The new vivo V21 series focuses on low-light selfies where the they both come with a 44MP front camera and which the vivo V21 has OIS to boast. They’ve said that the front camera also comes with advanced autofocus features that are not common in front cameras in today’s smartphone market.

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On the back, they new series has three rear cameras, offering a 64MP main camera, 8MP wide-angle camera, and finally a 2MP macro lens. Both front and back cameras are able to capture in 4K videos and images.
The series comes with AMOLED displays and the V21 packs 90Hz of refresh rate too. In terms of the chipset, the vivo V21 is powered by a Dimensity 800U chip while the V21e comes with a Snapdragon 720G SoC instead. Aside from that, they come with 4000mAh battery which you can charge with their 33W FlashCharge brick.
Both of them are now available for purchase in the country either online and offline. The V21 is priced at RM1,599 while the V21e comes with a RM1,299 price tag.
Until the 4th of May 2021, you can pre-order the new devices which will grant you a 1-year extended warranty, 1-year screen crack protection as well as a RM50 instant rebate and exclusive gift that gives you a total worth of RM699 and RM599 respectively.
In addition to that, those who purchase the V21 series from vivo Malaysia’s official E-store or Flagship stores on Shopee and Lazada will receive a Redbox KTV gift voucher worth RM50.
For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
Pokdepinion: If you’re wondering on how well the device performs, do keep your eyes out for our full review on the vivo V21. It’s coming real soon!
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Xiaomi Lazada Mid-Year Festival gives you up to 44% discounts on their latest wares!

Tomorrow is Lazada’s Mid-Year Festival sales, and Xiaomi will be joining in on the fun as well. Well, I am not sure whether it’s more fun for us or for Xiaomi Malaysia, but hey, there are flash sales and discounts across the Xiaomi’s lineup of products.

Xiaomi will be joining in on this year’s sales with three products offered during the 12am to 2am flash sales. The products offered during the flash sales are as follows:

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Mi MIX 2S: RM999 (SRP: RM1799)
Redmi Note 7 + LazadaCare Plus: RM799
Mi Band 3: RM99 (SRP: RM129)

For those who do not want to stay up to grab the flash sale deals, Xiaomi will also be offering the following throughout the day:

Mi 9T + LazadaCare Plus: RM1199
Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner: RM999 (SRP: RM1199)
Mi 9 (free 20W Mi Wireless Fast Charger worth RM149): 6GB + 64GB RM1699, 6GB + 128GB RM1999
Mi Dash Cam: RM199 (SRP: RM249)
10 000 mAh Mi Power Bank 2S: RM49 (SRP: RM79)
Mi Action Camera 4K: RM399 (SRP: RM509)

This will be a good opportunity for you to expand the Xiaomi ecosystem in your house with the Mid-Year Festival.
Pokdepinion: I hope #BossTerbeli the Mi Robot Vacuum Cleaner… Office is kinda messy.
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It appears that we might see a notable shift in the future as all Samsung Galaxy smartphones might not come with a charger inside the box. Here’s what we know thus far.
Samsung Might Omit Charger for Non-Flagship Smartphones

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As many of you may know by now, Samsung has not been including a charger inside the boxes of their flagship devices, including the most recent Galaxy S22 series. Soon, they might be doing the same for their other range of smartphones.
According to a report on SamMobile, retailers in Europe have confirmed that the entry-level smartphones from the Korean giant, such as some of the Galaxy A series, will be coming without a charger. Things might be the same for the mid-tier Galaxy M series devices as well.
With that being said however, Samsung has not confirmed this. It might be the case only for selected markets so it’s hard to make assumptions. We might be able to learn more when we get more details on the Galaxy M23 and Galaxy M33. It would certainly be good to boost profit margins since the ones for the entry level devices are typically minimal at best.
Previously, Apple started the first move to not include chargers in with the iPhones, and Samsung followed suit after. Others brands still include a charger inside, some even with super fast charging capabilities.
Source
Pokdepinion: This is pretty much what I expected when they started doing this for the flagships. I also foresee the same thing happening with their tablets somewhere down the road but we’ll see what they have planned for the future.
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The Power Packed Alienware Aurora R11 Now Available in Malaysia Starting From RM6,499

Earlier in May 2020, we reported about Dell bringing the Alienware Aurora R11 gaming desktop to Malaysia, alongside the Alienware M15 R3 and M17 R3 gaming laptops. Now, the power packed gaming desktop has finally arrived in Malaysia.
Alienware Aurora R11 Gaming Desktop Has Arrived in Malaysia

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The design of the Alienware Aurora R11 gaming desktop is reminiscent of the R9 with its Legend design philosophy. Gamers can pick a more budget-oriented build or go full force with dual graphics cards, Intel Core i9 CPU, 64GB RAM, and dual SSD storage solutions. The motherboard itself uses the Intel Z490 chipset, which allows you to take advantage of a number of performance-enhancing features.
In Malaysia, your options are a bit different. While you can go up to an Intel Core i9-10900F the highest graphics card option is a single NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Regardless, it will still be a powerful machine that should meet the needs of gamers today. While you can’t get a liquid-cooled graphics card, it can be done with the CPU for an additional RM100. All variants will come with a 1000W power supply installed on a swing arm for tool-less access, so you should have more than enough power if you wish to upgrade it some more on your own.
As for memory, you can get up to 32GB HyperX Fury DDR4-2933 XMP RAM, 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD, and 2TB 7200RPM HDD. If you ever need more RAM, you can actually add more yourself as it supports up to 64GB.
The Alienware Aurora R11 gaming desktop is now available in Malaysia with prices starting from RM6,499. If you’re interested, you can check out the desktop and the different configurations by clicking right here.
We previously reviewed the Alienware Aurora R9. You can read about it by clicking right here.
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Pokdepinion: I do like its predecessor, but I do wish this was smaller. It still looks like a pretty solid performer either way.
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WhatsApp Introduces Call Links Feature Beginning This Week

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced this morning that WhatsApp is rolling out Call Links feature this week to make it easier to join calls in a single tap.

Users can select the ‘Call Links’ option under Calls tab to create a link for audio or video call and share it to family and friends. To enable this feature, users are required to install the latest versions of the app.

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The company is also currently testing video calls for up to 32 users, more information will be shared in due course.
Pokdepinion: This does sound like a Zoom feature that they’re implementing.
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Win Prizes Of Up To RM472,000 With Samsung’s Gemilang Confirm Amazing Campaign!

Celebrate Malaysia Day with Samsung Malaysia’s Gemilang Confirm Amazing campaign!

Samsung Malaysia is celebrating Malaysia Day in a big way with their Gemilang Confirm Amazing campaign. Hoping to commemorate our country’s auspicious day with something meaningful and rewarding, Samsung Malaysia will be giving a chance to walk away with something truly special.

With Samsung’s Gemilang Confirm Amazing campaign, everyone has a chance to bring home prizes worth up to RM472,000 in total as well as other prizes. To enter the Gemilang Confirm Amazing campaign, participants must purchase an eligible Samsung Galaxy device. Not only do participants get to be in the running to win prizes during the campaign, but there will also be rewards given by Samsung depending on the product purchased. Here are some of the prizes Samsung Malaysia is giving away during the Gemilang Confirm Amazing campaign:

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Grand Prize: 16 units of Samsung 65 inch TU8500 4K UHD Smart TV (2020)
2nd Prize: 100 units of Samsung Convection Microwave Oven with HOT BLAST, 32L
Consolation Prize: 800 units of Samsung Canister Bagless with Twin Chamber System, 360W

To enter the campaign. all consumers have to do is follow these simple steps:

Purchase any eligible models.
Strike a creative pose and take a selfie.
Register your details on Redemption Management System (RMS):
– Customer Name, Contact Number, E-mail Address, Mailing Address.
– Date of Purchase, Invoice Number, Invoice Picture, Device IMEI No.
– Selfie photo with a creative pose (“Creative Photo”)
Stand a chance to win a prize.

Check out the full list of eligible Samsung devices to purchase to enter the contest as well as the rewards given down below:

Product
RRP
Promotion Rewards

Galaxy Note20
RM3,599
Free 1 unit of Samsung UV Sterilizer and Samsung Wireless Charger Convertible worth RM508

Galaxy Note20 5G
RM4,299
Free 1 unit of Samsung UV Sterilizer and Samsung Wireless Charger Convertible worth RM508

Galaxy Note20 Ultra
RM5,199
Free 1 unit of Samsung UV Sterilizer and Samsung Wireless Charger Convertible worth RM508

Galaxy A51 (8GB RAM)
RM1,399
Instant rebate of RM100 OFF – now only at RM1,299

Galaxy A71
RM1,799
Instant rebate of RM100 OFF – now only at RM1,699

Galaxy A31
RM1,099
Instant rebate of RM100 OFF – now only at RM999

Galaxy A21s
RM939
Instant rebate of RM40 OFF – now only at RM899

Galaxy A11
RM599
Instant rebate of RM70 OFF – now only at RM529

Galaxy A01
RM499
Instant rebate of RM100 OFF – now only at RM399

Galaxy Tab S7+
RM4,599
Free 1 unit of Microsoft Office 365 Single user license (1 year) worth RM269
Free 1 unit of Samsung 128GB MicroSD worth RM139

Galaxy Tab S7
RM3,299

Galaxy Tab S6 Lite
RM1,699
Free 1 unit of Samsung 128GB MicroSD worth RM139

Galaxy Tab S5e
RM1,999
Free 1 unit of Samsung 128GB MicroSD worth RM139

Galaxy Watch3 (45mm) Bluetooth
RM1,799
Free 1 unit of Samsung Wireless Charger worth RM239

Galaxy Watch3 (41mm) Bluetooth
RM1,699
Free 1 unit of Samsung Wireless Charger worth RM239

Galaxy Watch (42mm) Bluetooth
RM1,199
Instant rebate of RM400 OFF recommended retail price

The Gemilang Confirm Amazing campaign will run from 14 September to 18 October 2020. For more information regarding this campaign, do head over Samsung’s official website here.
Pokdepinion: This seems like a cool and fun campaign from Samsung. Good luck to everyone joining!
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Xiaomi Pad 5 Review — the entertainer

Xiaomi has not made a tablet in a long time, so I must say that I was quite excited to see if the Xiaomi Pad 5 was actually good. Now one other thing to note about me is that I generally dislike Android tablets, as they often turn out to just be oversized smartphones. Android app developers just aren’t developing their stuff for the less popular form factor, and that’s somewhat of a bummer. But hey, maybe Xiaomi has a few tricks up their sleeve to make me fall in love with the Xiaomi Pad 5. So, let’s see what’s there to love, and if there are things that needs to be improved.
Unboxing

The packaging of the Xiaomi Pad 5 is very clean and simple. The highlight of the Xiaomi Pad 5 appears to be the fact that the Xiaomi Pad 5 features Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. There’s nothing else on the front, which is pretty clean. Over on the back we have a sticker that indicates the RAM and storage configuration of the tablet inside.

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You still get a 22.5W charger with the Xiaomi Pad 5, along with the USB-C cable. Not much else is in the box, but I do wish that Xiaomi threw in a basic TPU case just to help with grip. More on that later.
Appearance

The first thing you will notice with the Xiaomi Pad 5 is the flat aluminum frame. It might be inspired by a certain other tablet in the market today, but you know what they say about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. While the Xiaomi Pad 5 doesn’t feature cellular connectivity and probably doesn’t need this many antenna lines, the Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro 5G does, and I do believe that they are sharing the same frame here.

The Xiaomi Pad 5 stands out from its price segment with quad-speakers, and there’s even a tiny Dolby Vision•Atmos engraving on the frame to really nail home the capabilities within. More on that later. You can see one of the microphones here as well. The power button is also here on the top, or the side, depending on how you are holding the Xiaomi Pad 5. The other end hosts two more speakers, yet another microphone and more antenna lines. The antenna lines are not symmetrical on both ends, presumably to avoid having a weak spot in the frame.

Meanwhile on the longer side we have the volume buttons and two microphones flanking a plastic cutout, presumably to facilitate the charging of the Xiaomi Smart Pen. Over on the bottom, we have a trio of pogo pads for a keyboard dock. Interesting that Xiaomi decided to use pogo pins for a keyboard dock instead of relying on Bluetooth, but we don’t have one to test so we don’t know if it will be any better than a wireless-based design.

Now with the cutout for the Smart Pen charging and pogo pin being dead center in the frame, I did test whether it would snap in two if I bent it hard. There was some flex, but it didn’t snap in two, so I guess you would probably have to be trying much, much harder if you want to break it.

Over on the back, we have a clean matte plastic panel with the Pearl White option here. There’s a hint of iridescence, reminding me of the Mi Note 10. While glass would probably have afforded a more premium feel, you have to remember that a tablet is much larger and if Xiaomi went with glass for the Xiaomi Pad 5, we would be looking at a much heftier tablet than what we have now. I quite like the camera hump borrowed from the Redmi K40/POCO F3 series, which does set it apart from other tablets in the market that usually have much less elaborate camera humps.
Xiaomi Pad 5 Specifications

CPU
Snapdragon 860, 7nm
1 x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A76) @ 2.96GHz + 3 x Kryo 670 (Cortex-A76) @ 2.42GHz + 4 x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A55) @ 1.8GHz

GPU
Adreno 640

Memory
6GB LPDDR4X

Storage
128GB UFS 3.1

Display
11″ WQHD+ (2560 x 1600) 16:10 120Hz LCD display
500 nits brightness, 1 billion colors, DCI-P3 gamut support, Dolby Vision, Xiaomi Smart Pen support

Audio
Quad speaker, Dolby Atmos
Hi-Res Audio, Hi-Res Audio Wireless

Camera
13MP f/2.2
AI Camera, Auto HDR, Night Mode, 4K30 video recording

Selfie camera
8MP f/2.05 selfie camera
AI Camera, Auto HDR, 1080p30 video recording

Connectivity
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 5.2
USB-C (USB 2.0)
Pogo pins for keyboard case

Software
MIUI 12.5 for Pad based on Android 11

Battery
8720mAh
22.5W fast charging, 22.5W charger in the box

Dimensions
254.69 x 166.25 x 6.85 mm

Weight
511g

Ingress protection
N/A

Performance

Let’s get right into the benchmarks. Antutu places the Xiaomi Pad 5 slightly below the POCO X3 GT we reviewed previously, with performance being what you would expect from a Snapdragon 860 under the hood.

CPU performance is pretty decent as well, although the Cortex-A76-based cores are starting to show their age. The multi-core performance is still very good though, even beating out the Galaxy Tab S7+ which packed more modern cores. I believe this is due to the Samsung tablet having a more conservative thermal/performance profile than what Xiaomi went with for the Xiaomi Pad 5.

Interestingly, 3DMark places the Xiaomi Pad 5 significantly ahead of the POCO X3 Pro. It comes much closer to the POCO X3 GT with its Dimensity 1100, although it still is slightly slower. It gets a win in the Ice Storm Unlimited benchmark, but every device in this chart outperforms the POCO X3 GT in that benchmark, so that’s not exactly saying much.

It seems that productivity is the Xiaomi Pad 5’s strong suit, with it outperforming even the Snapdragon 865-toting POCO F2 Pro. But then again, being good in productivity is probably something you would expect out of a tablet, right?

Battery life is excellent, with the Xiaomi Pad 5 delivering nearly 12 hours when the 120Hz display is enabled, and nearly 14 hours if you are willing to settle for 60Hz. Now I didn’t test it with my usual daily use, since I don’t actually have a tablet that I daily drive, so there’s no point of reference as to what represents my daily use when it comes to tablets. In any case, recharging is also a pretty quick affair, with the battery going from 15% to 43% in 30 minutes.
User Experience
What I Like
Really Great Display and Audio

As with any tablet, the main highlight would definitely be its display. The Xiaomi Pad 5 is no different. Xiaomi kept just a bit of bezels around the 11″ panel, just enough for you to keep a hold on the tablet. You get a sharp 2560 x 1600 (WQHD+) resolution that translates to 275 PPI, higher than even what the significantly pricier iPad Pro can offer. There’s also a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes the display really great to use for general web browsing, or a more natural writing experience.

Xiaomi claims that this display supports the DCI-P3 gamut and can display 1 billion colors with a max brightness of 500 nits. While I didn’t test that out empirically, the experience of watching movies on this display is really enjoyable. Not only is the display great, the audio output is also excellent. While it may not have the harman/kardon touch that Xiaomi’s more premium devices get, I would dare say that these do put up a good fight.
          sRGB: 99.8% coverage, 142.2% volume            DCI-P3: 97.3% coverage, 100.8% volume            Adobe RGB: 85.1% coverage, 98% volume
Putting the Xiaomi Pad 5’s display under our Spyder5 colorimeter, I found that the numbers corroborates my experience. This stunning display is not only capable of 100% DCI-P3, but also nearly 100% Adobe RGB. The display puts out 411.89 nits according to our measurements, which is slightly more than the 400 nits typical max brightness that Xiaomi claims in their specifications. This is definitely one amazing panel here and it’s cool to see one at this price point.
The only thing that I hope can be improved to further enhance the viewing experience here is a kickstand. Obviously Xiaomi has a keyboard case for the Xiaomi Pad 5 that can prop up the display, or you can get one from a third-party case maker, but what I am talking about is a Microsoft Surface-esque kickstand that’s build into the body. That would have been pretty awesome.
Solid gaming performance

I am not a strong proponent of gaming on a tablet, but you can do that if you are comfortable. I believe the experience is probably best in games like Genshin Impact, versus fast-paced shooters like COD Mobile, but the Snapdragon 860 definitely has the chops to tackle gaming with ease. You can easily play Genshin Impact at 60FPS, although you will have to either drop some of the settings, or bear with some frame drops here and there. But it is definitely quite unwieldy, trying to game on such a huge display. Maybe a controller would improve things?
What Can be Improved
Inconsistent Software

Now, I am not going to blame the entire user experience on Xiaomi. Android on tablets will always be more limited than what you can get on competing platforms, but Xiaomi also missed on a several key features that I do believe is quite important. One of them is PC Mode. Now it seems that you can install it by simply downloading an APK off a third-party app store, but I think it would have been a lot better if Xiaomi decided to bake it into the Xiaomi Pad 5 right off the bat. More on that later.
Right now, what you get is essentially a larger smartphone. The only additional feature is a popup display option that lets you sort of have a “windowed mode”, but it only allows you to use one app like that. The bulk of your multi-tasking will rely on the split-screen feature, and you can only split the screen between two apps. Not exactly great use of the display.

Something that I can entirely blame on Xiaomi is the inconsistencies even within the MIUI ecosystem. For example, the drop down Quick Settings menu that’s accessible by pulling down from the upper right of the display. Not only do I feel that it just taking up this tiny corner while blurring out the entire screen is a total waste of the screen real estate, Xiaomi also peculiarly decided to remove the shortcut to the main Settings page.
I mean I can understand that the designers were keen on keeping the drop down menu small, putting all the toggles near your finger that pulled down the Quick Settings menu, but why did they remove the Settings shortcut? It is extremely jarring especially since I use a POCO F2 Pro as my daily driver, so I am very accustomed to the general layout of MIUI. But then I have to deal with this.

On that note about convenience, pulling down from upper right brings down the notifications. Now, this is full screen. Why? I have absolutely no idea. Probably Xiaomi wants you to read the notifications more easily? In any case, I wish Xiaomi at least provided the option to have the entire screen occupied by the quick settings, or maybe remove the blurring effect over the entire screen. There’s no point to have the Quick Settings menu take up less of your screen if you are just going to blur everything else on the screen to oblivion anyway.
          What Facebook looks like            What Spotify looks like
Other issues that I faced that may or may not be Xiaomi’s fault include apps like Facebook not seeming to detect that this is a tablet, and defaulting to the smartphone view even when opened in the landscape orientation. I do believe that this an issue with Facebook rather than Xiaomi, since Spotify is able to give us the appropriate tablet UI. So yeah, the Xiaomi Pad 5, and most probably most Android tablets, are not exactly great even if your idea of productivity is essentially lurking on Facebook. Which is actually part of my job.
Poor Ergonomics

One thing that I realized as I was using the Xiaomi Pad 5 is that the Xiaomi Pad 5’s frame look great but do not really feel great when you are holding on to it for extended periods. It’s thinner than most smartphones out there, and the flat sides definitely do not help when you want to hold on to the Xiaomi Pad 5. The narrow bezels leaves little for you to grip on to when moving around with the tablet in your hands. I feel like this is one of those devices that you will definitely have to slap a case on to use comfortably, unless you are just that confident that your grip won’t slip.
Bonus #1: PC Mode

Using the Xiaomi Pad 5 in PC Mode actually feels pretty good. Instead of having to deal with an oversized UI, now the apps are just sized as they would be on a smartphone, except that you have more display real estate, letting you open more of them. There are certain apps that work with PC Mode quite well like Chrome and Notes, giving you the option to use them in a tiny window or expanding it to fullscreen view, but not all apps offer that level of support. Interestingly, even their own Mi Browser doesn’t support this functionality, so there’s definitely more work to be done before it is ready for prime time.

The overall UI is quite nice overall. There’s the taskbar for quick switching between apps, the quick settings popup actually makes sense now, and you can also send shortcuts to either the taskbar or desktop, which is nice as the Start menu doesn’t feel intuitive in the slightest bit. You can also bring up the calendar in a quick popup in the side, and it looks just like it should on a PC. A little bit more polish and I would say that this would make a strong selling point. Alas we won’t be counting it as one yet, as it isn’t actually a part of the package when you buy it.
Bonus #2: Xiaomi Smart Pen

On that note, we have another thing that’s not a part of the package. The Xiaomi Smart Pen that’s compatible with the Xiaomi Pad 5 is going to be a separate purchase, which is a bummer. But since we received it along with the Xiaomi Pad 5 for testing, let’s give it a whirl. The packaging is pretty simple, with the Smart Pen protected by a plastic sleeve and some basic documentation. You also get a replacement pen nib, which bodes well for longevity.

The construction of the Xiaomi Smart Pen is pretty simple. The body of it is made of plastic making it rather lightweight. Most of it is tubular with the exception of a flat side to help it attach to the side of the Xiaomi Pad 5 for charging. You get two buttons which are non-configurable: the first one is a shortcut the Notes app so you can quickly jot down what’s on your mind, and the second lets you quickly take screenshots. The way it works is that you have to hold down the button as you tap the Xiaomi Pad 5’s screen.

It might just be me, but I actually prefer having my thumb resting against the flat side of the Xiaomi Smart Pen, which means that I have to rotate my grip to use the buttons. Not exactly intuitive to me. Luckily the writing experience is pretty good, with the 120Hz refresh rate of the Xiaomi Pad 5 helping the overall experience.

Personally, I found that the slightly grippy nature of the soft nib on the Smart Pen quite odd, since I prefer smoother pens when putting ink on paper, but my better half and colleague both enjoyed it over harder nibs, so I guess it boils down to preference. The pressure sensitivity was worked great, although extremely light strokes can be missed, which might be a bummer for those who write really lightly. Since I usually press down rather hard when I am writing, I didn’t see this being an issue for me.

One thing that I noticed as an issue is the palm rejection. There is palm rejection, but it doesn’t work 100% of the time. I had random strokes recorded where my palm was at, despite me writing on a different side of the screen. I am not sure if I am supposed to hover my arm over the screen, which I think is not exactly ergonomic, but I do hope Xiaomi improves on this area. Overall, this is quite a good stylus, especially when you consider that this is Xiaomi’s first attempt at a stylus.
Conclusion

Should you get the Xiaomi Pad 5? If you are looking for a tablet for media consumption, then yes, this is definitely a great option for you. The display is great, the audio is amazing, and it is definitely a great tablet to watch movies on. If you plan on getting it for gaming, there’s also plenty of performance here, although I don’t find it comfortable gaming on such a huge device, unless you are willing to connect a controller to it.
But if you want a tablet for productivity as some sort of a laptop replacement, the Xiaomi Pad 5 doesn’t exactly cut it. You can get the PC Mode to work, but I can’t exactly recommend it as one of the features of the Xiaomi Pad 5, since you have to get it from a third-party source, rather than it being a part of the Xiaomi Pad 5. It is worth mentioning that PC Mode was released to the Mi MIX Fold as an update, so we might see it arrive on the Xiaomi Pad 5 in a similar way, but it would be irresponsible for me to recommend you getting the Xiaomi Pad 5 for a feature that may or may not be made available officially.

For RM1399, the Xiaomi Pad 5 is rather competitively priced. It is slightly more affordable than the fruity tablet that many would be inclined to go for, while offering double the storage, a much better display as well as audio. Obviously, the software experience will probably be heavily in the fruity tablet’s favor, so it really boils down to what you want to do on your tablet. Movies and videos when on the go? Maybe a touch of gaming on the side? The Xiaomi Pad 5 is perfect for that. Work? Well, not so much. At least until PC Mode is well polished.

Our thanks to Xiaomi Malaysia for providing the Xiaomi Pad 5 for review.
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Sony ZV-E10 Orders Suspended Due to Global Chip Supply Shortage

More bad news, this time especially for vloggers, as the Sony ZV-E10 orders have been suspended due to the global chip supply shortage. Here’s what went down.
Sony ZV-E10 Orders Suspended

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As many of you may know by now, the Sony ZV-E10 was launched in August 2021. However, it wasn’t exactly easy to get your hands on and as of now, orders for the mirrorless camera have been suspended due to the global chip supply shortage.
According to their official post, the Sony ZV-E10 will no longer be sold on their store or any of their authorized distributors for now. The reason for this is because of a delay in getting the necessary parts to manufacture the camera.
This isn’t the only Sony device that was affected by the global chip supply shortage as they have also stopped sales of the Sony A7 II, A6400, and A1600 cameras. Outside of that, the Sony ECM-B1M shotgun microphone, PXW-Z190 camcorder and HDR-CX680 were also affected.
With that being said, they’re not the only company to be affected by the shortage as plenty of other companies across industries are also facing stock issues. There are measures being put in to combat the issue but we likely won’t see a huge recovery in the near future. For now, we will report more on this as soon as information becomes available so stay tuned.
Source
Pokdepinion: I felt like this was the ideal starter camera for vloggers who want a little more room for expansion compared to the RX100 series. I wonder if by the time they could get stock, a successor would have come around.
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List of G-SYNC Compatible displays grow by 41% with 7 new monitors added

If you have been holding out on getting a new NVIDIA G-SYNC monitor, well you are in luck. NVIDIA will be adding seven new FreeSync monitors to the lists of validated G-SYNC Compatible displays. These new monitors pass NVIDIA’s minimum requirements which includes testing for flickering and blanking in these monitors.
The list of new monitors are:

Acer KG271
Acer XF240H
Acer XF270H
AOPEN 270HC1R
ASUS VG248QG
Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD
LG 27GK750F

These new additions to the list of G-SYNC Compatible of monitors will enjoy automatic activation of adaptive refresh rate with any NVIDIA graphics card from the GeForce GTX 10-series onwards. You can practically enable G-SYNC Compatible on any FreeSync monitor now, but you might not be enjoying an experience which NVIDIA deems acceptable.

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NVIDIA has been actively testing popular FreeSync monitors in the recent months since the addition of G-SYNC Compatible to their set of features. The upcoming NVIDIA Game Ready driver will come with G-SYNC Compatible support for these monitors.
Pokdepinion: I love using NVIDIA GPUs and FreeSync monitors at the same time! Best of both worlds!
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AMD A10-7870K launched, goes after the Core i3

Just recently AMD launched the A10-7870K, a new APU from AMD that costs around RM520. AMD also claims that it’s a value-for-money choice for playing online PC games such as DOTA2 and CS:GO which are quite popular in Malaysia.
The refreshed chip called “Godavari” uses the same architecture as the “Kaveri” chip, but this time around it is packed with new features and refreshed specifications. The A10-7870K has a slightly faster CPU clock speed which is increased from 3.7GHz in its predecessor the A10-7850K, to 3.9GHz and the GPU base frequency also gets a similar boost, going from 720MHz to 866MHz.

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So what else is new about the chip other than speed bump? The chip supports AMD’s latest technologies such as Virtual Screen Resolution (VSR) which may be helpful to those still using non-1080p monitors, as well as FreeSync on compatible displays. The support for newer APIs is much more interesting to me. Vulkan, AMD Mantle and most importantly for me, DirectX 12 which will be available on the upcoming Windows 10 that might increase the performance of these chips in the future, are all supported by the A10-7870K.

Okay that’s enough as the introduction, now let us talk in more detail about the performance. AMD claims the A10-7870K beats the Intel Core i3 4370 coupled with a Nvidia GT 740 card as we can see in the image below. Sound promising?

For anyone keeping tabs on the progress and advancements of AMD’s APUs, they must know that APU performs better when paired with fast RAM and in the picture above we don’t know exactly what configuration AMD used for the test. That lead me to be curious about the performance and how it will fit in Malaysia market. Later I will show a comparisons of system builds based on the Intel Core i3 and the AMD A10-7870K itself.
Courtesty image of tomshardware.com
Referring to the image, 49fps on DOTA2? I’m not sure whether that is the average or minimum fps. Furthermore, what RAM frequency was used in the test system? Not to be forgotten, is the chip overclocked or is it running stock clocks? Lastly, how about the temperatures? If the CPU speed was untouched and paired with 1600MHz RAM in the test system, that will be a commendable result since we know how we can boost the fps by overclocking the CPU clock and GPU base frequency. These question will be answered later when the reviews get released on the internet.
Okay, now let we make a comparison between the new AMD Godavari against the Intel Core i3 in terms of complete system build price.

It’s easy to see that the AMD A10-7870K system will be cheaper compared to the Intel Core i3 system, but is it really worth the money? I believe so. And why? Take a good look and compare the hardware used. The AMD system is not only equipped with faster RAM, but it is able to fit an ASUS A88X-PLUS motherboard into the budget, which is better overall, featuring extra 2 RAM slots and more PCIe lanes compared to the ASUS H81M-K. With faster RAM speeds and a little overclocking on CPU and GPU speeds (you definitely require an aftermarket cooler for this), I believe the AMD A10-7870K will outperform the Intel Core i3 4370 system.
But wait, I m not done. We know that the AMD A10-7870K is cheaper than Intel Core i3 4370 system by RM179, but let’s not forget about the temperature of the AMD A10-7870K which might increase if we OC it, compared to the Intel system in which the Core i3 will be fine with the stock cooler alone. With the hot and humid climate in Malaysia, running the AMD system with a stock cooler especially after overclocking is not a brilliant idea. So in the end, the total cost of this system will be the same at RM1790 if we add a better cooling system, such as the Cryorig H7 which costs exactly RM179.

Pokdepinion : The price of the Godavari chip is surprisingly cheap, with the features it offer, I believe the system performance will get better in Windows 10. If you are looking for a new DOTA2 PC on a limited budget, the AMD A10-7870K can be considered as the best choice out there. Now let’s hope that the price of the chip in Malaysia will fit well into most gamers’ budget.
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