Month: September 2020

Nvidia is today announcing the introduction of Nvidia Reflex technology. In an attempt to put a quantifiable number on gaming PC input lag, Nvidia and its pals at monitor manufacturers are introducing screen-based technology called Reflex Latency Analyzer that is able to accurately measure system latency for the first time without specialised equipment. It’s also adding per game support for a new Reflex Low-Latency Mode, which aims to lower input lag in select games.

Details remain sparse on the exact specifications for upcoming monitors with the technology, although we know Alienware, Asus, Acer, and MSI intend to introduce the functionality within new 360Hz monitors intended for competitive gaming. Asus’ model is similar to its recently announced 360Hz PG259QN—which is set to arrive later this month for $699—but packs the new technology. Look out for that under the PG259QNR name when it arrives. 

Alienware intends to introduce the functionality within a new 360Hz monitor intended for competitive gaming: the Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor (AW2521H).

Valorant, Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Fortnite are just a few of the games announced that will support Nvidia Reflex Low-Latency Mode, “that reduces latency by up to 50 percent.” This is a separate feature to the Reflex Latency Analyzer, and a part of the Nvidia Reflex technology suite.

Input lag is a common phrase thrown around in the gaming monitor space, but it’s not easily measured without specialist equipment or cameras. To do so, you need to measure the time between a user hitting an input (primary mouse click, for example) and the monitor’s pixels reacting to that input (your character fires a shot). 

It can also be difficult to quantify the root of latency. Latency can stem from many sources: be that your peripherals, internal PC hardware, or monitor. And for as many points in the PC gaming pipeline where latency can be introduced, there are similarly patches where it can be reduced.

Nvidia Reflex appears to be intended to shine a light on where lag is being introduced within a system, and at the very least offer an accurate measure of a system’s latency, if not reduce it.

That means there will be a lot more chat of real-world latency with this coming GPU generation, which may signify that latency is a new battleground between Nvidia and AMD—and one where Nvidia may believe it has the advantage considering today’s disclosure. 

We’ll have to wait until we have our hands on both Nvidia Ampere and AMD RDNA 2 GPUs to put that theory to the test, however.

One would assume the technology will also be limited to the latest monitors and Nvidia 30-series GPUs, however, we’re yet to hear confirmation either way.

On Tuesday, Google announced that the Chrome OS 85 Stable Channel is released, with the typical staggered rollout over the coming days. As usual, Google has highlighted some of the newest features for Chromebooks, but there’s always more in terms of experimental functionality.

I’ll share what you need to know about Chrome OS 85 from the official release and cover thee additional items Google has held under wraps for now.

Wi-Fi password sync between Chromebooks

We knew that WiFi password synchronization between Chromebooks was coming and it’s finally here in Chrome OS 85. This is ideal for people or families that use multiple Chromebooks in the same location, and therefore, likely on the same network. Why? Because Wi-Fi passwords are part of your profile’s keychain, so they move from Chromebook to Chromebook. No word on if this feature will also include Android phones, although it likely will in the future.

Search bar in Chrome OS Settings

This is a long overdue improvement for finding different settings on a Chromebook. Not only does the Search bar find your exact queries but it’s smart enough to suggest related results, as shown above. Usability in the Chrome OS Settings has been adequate but I appreciate this new feature, which I’ve been using on the Chrome OS 86 Dev Channel.

Say hello to the new microphone slider

With so many people and students working or studying at home, video conferencing usage is up. So this new microphone volume slider is a welcome addition to Chrome OS 85. There’s no need to jump into the settings for Hangouts, Meet, Zoom or whatever video chat service you use now; you can just click and slide!

And speaking of video, the Camera app can now pause and resume video while recording, or take a still snapshot during a video. All videos are saved in MP4 format, making it easier for others to view your content, although I don’t see too many people creating sharable video with a Chromebook.

That’s all that Google is officially highlighting for Chrome OS 85 in it’s news release, so let’s hit the other goodies from the Chrome Enterprise release notes and other sources:

The “Displays” page in Settings has been updated to allow independent configuration of the resolution and the refresh rate for external monitors. This setting will be split automatically and users do not need to take any action.

When entering text using the handwriting keyboard, you can now use familiar gestures to edit your handwriting. Drawing a strikethrough will delete text, and a caret will give you space to insert text.

Users can now manage their ongoing print jobs and view what has been completed.

As previously mentioned, Chrome tabs open up to 10 percent faster and can be grouped.

I have to dig through the code commits (and there are a lot of them!) in lieu of additional release notes, so as I find other items or experimental flags, I will update this post accordingly.

There’s a fresh Windows 10 warning out this week and ignoring it could leave your PC facing the nightmare of the dreaded blue screen of death. The new alert has been issued by the team at Lenovo who say that, after installing the August 2020 cumulative update for Windows 10 Version 2004, some ThinkPad laptops are being hit by this irritating bug.

In a post on its support page Lenovo states that “after installing the August 2020 cumulative update for Windows 10 Version 2004, users may notice one or more of the following symptoms: Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) when booting • Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) when starting Lenovo Vantage • Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) when running Windows Defender Scan • Can’t login by Face with Windows Hello • Errors in Device Manager related to Intel Management Engine • Errors in Device Manager related to IR Camera.

If you own a ThinkPad and have found yourself staring at a blue screen rather than your usual desktop and files then it seems there is a workaround.

Lenovo says that anyone hit by this problem should disable the Enhanced Windows Biometric Security setting in BIOS Setup via the Security and Virtualization menus.

The other way to avoid this nightmare is to wait until a fix has been issued by Microsoft before even attempting to download the August 2020 cumulative update.

According to Windows Latest, it’s not just ThinkPad users who have been affected by this new glitch with non-Lenovo users complaining on Reddit and Microsoft forums. Speaking on Reddit, on Windows 10 fan said, “I went from a perfectly fine, basically brand new computer, to more busted than the old PC I replaced, basically overnight.”

Whilst another user added, “I am absolutely not having a good time with 2004. Is there any easy way to roll back to an earlier version outside of that 10 day window beyond trying to search around for a specifically updated version of windows?”

This latest bout of issues comes as Microsoft may have finally realised that its updates are causing too many problems for users, in fact it’s emerged that the US firm could be switching from two big updates each year to just one.

According to a blog post by Windows Latest, the Redmond-based firm is looking to shake-up their Windows 10 update schedule following the release of the fall patch this year. It had been thought that following this release another big Windows 10 update would be arriving in the first half of 2021.

But this release has been delayed due to Windows 10X, a new edition of Windows 10 designed for dual-screen devices, also getting help up. This new version of Windows 10 is now due to release around April or May time next year, while the launch of Windows 10’s April or May 2021 update has been delayed.

And sources have told Windows Latest that Microsoft may opt to switch to a single, annual release schedule for their tentpole Windows 10 updates from next year.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is here – as the follow-up to Samsung’s first ever foldable phone, the original Galaxy Fold, it brings some tweaks and improvements to the established formula with some extra features thrown in.

We first heard about the Galaxy Z Fold 2 at the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 launch event, where it was teased by the company, but we didn’t get all the information until a separate event a few weeks later.

So what’s new in this improved Galaxy Fold phone? The form factor is largely the same, but beyond the expected iterative updates, there are some other new features that prospective Fold buyers might be interested in.

We’ll take you through both phones, putting them head-to-head, to show you what’s new.

Price

The original Samsung Galaxy Fold cost $1,980 / £1,900 / AU$2,900 when it launched, and in the first year of its life that price didn’t drop by very much.

The Galaxy Z Fold 2 costs roughly the same at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,999, so depending on your region it might cost a touch more or less than the Galaxy Fold’s launch price, but only a bit.

That’s a high price for a smartphone, about twice as much as you’d normally pay for a premium handset, and more than Samsung’s other foldable, the Galaxy Z Flip, which costs $1,380 / £1,300 / AU$1,999.

Design and display

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 has a similar form factor to the original Galaxy Fold, but that doesn’t make the two phones identical.

Without even opening either Galaxy Fold phone, there’s one noticeable difference on the outsides – the original Fold had a small 4.6-inch screen on the outside that took up some space on the front, but the Z Fold 2 has a bigger 6.23-inch display that takes up the whole of the front.

The camera array on the back of the newer phone has been redesigned in keeping with the Note 20, and the hinge has seen a huge overhaul too – hopefully this one won’t break easily.

Opening the phones, the newer one is slightly bigger with a 7.6-inch screen over 7.3 inches on its predecessor. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 has also got a 120Hz refresh rate, compared to just 60Hz on the original.

The screens on both phones use Dynamic AMOLED tech. The resolutions are 1536 x 2152 pixels for the original Galaxy Fold and 1768 x 2208 pixels for the Z Fold 2 – thanks to the differing display sizes this means the pixel-per-inch counts are almost identical.

Both phones have side-mounted fingerprint sensors for unlocking them.

Camera and battery

On paper, it seems the original Samsung Galaxy Fold has a better camera array than its successor, but we’ll have to take both out for tests to see if that’s definitely the case.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold has three rear cameras, consisting of a 12MP main, 16MP ultra-wide, and 12MP telephoto 2x zoom snapper, but there’s also a 10MP and 8MP snapper on the front of the device when unfolded, for selfies, and a sixth camera on the front when it’s folded, with a 10MP resolution. 

In comparison, the Galaxy Z fold 2 has the same rear cameras, but with a 12MP resolution on the ultra-wide. There’s only one selfie camera on the front (when unfolded) which has a 10MP resolution, and there’s a similar 10MP snapper on the front when you fold the phone.

Megapixel counts don’t tell the whole story of photography potential, and nor do camera numbers, so we’ll have to test both phones before declaring one better than the other.

In terms of battery sizes, the Samsung Galaxy Fold has a 4,380mAh power back and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 has a slightly bigger one at 4,500mAh, but thanks to the screen size increase we wouldn’t expect the phone to last much longer.

The original Samsung Galaxy Fold has 15W wired and wireless charging, and while the Galaxy Z Fold 2 bumps its wired powering up to 25W, wireless charging is actually slower at 11W. Both support reverse wireless charging too, letting you use the device to power up others.

Specs and features

The newer foldable phone has a better chipset, as while the original Galaxy Fold has a Snapdragon 855 processor, Samsung stuck the improved Snapdragon 865 Plus in the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Both phones have 12GB of RAM though.

Strangely, the newer Galaxy Fold model has less internal storage – while the original comes in only a 512GB model, the newer one only comes in 256GB.

While the main selling point of both phones is the foldable display, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 borrows a few tricks from the Galaxy Z Flip which help it make the most of the form factor. The main one of these is Flex Mode, so you can use special functions when the handset is only partly unfolded. An example of this is so you can use the phone as its own camera stand, for if you want to take a selfie without holding the device.

Both phones run One UI, Samsung’s fork of Android. The Fold 2 comes with Android 10, the original comes with Android 9 out of the box but it can be upgraded to 10 easily.

Takeaway

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 fixes many of the issues people had with the original – except for the price, which is still astronomically high.

The front screen is bigger, the chipset is improved, and the 120Hz refresh rate screen will impress many. 

There are some areas where the phone is less of a step up, but seeing as the original Samsung Galaxy Fold hasn’t lost its value much, if you’re in the market for a foldable phone, you’d be better off going for the newer device.

If Samsung soon decides to give a big price cut to the original Galaxy Fold, and turn it into a ‘budget’ foldable, maybe our takeaway will change, but for now there are few reasons not to consider the newer Galaxy Z Fold 2.