Month: September 2020

I’m knee deep in reviewing NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards, and now the RTX 3090 to have a day one review, but the world hasn’t stopped.

We now have some new rumored specs on the AMD’s next-gen Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card, where Rogame tweets it will be powered by the Navi 21 GPU and have 16GB of GDDR6 memory. The 16GB of GDDR6 memory is coming from Samsung, and will reportedly be on a 256-bit memory bus.

Not only that, but there is also the Navi 22 GPU that should power a slightly slower card that should materialize into the Radeon RX 6800 XT, or possibly the Radeon RX 6700 XT. This card will reportedly have 12GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit memory bus.

There are others that think AMD will use 16GB of faster HBM2 memory on its Radeon RX 6900 XT, and then GDDR6 on the replacements for the Radeon RX 5700 XT, RX 5600 XT, and RX 5500 XT. This also makes sense, as it would make the new Big Navi / Radeon RX 6900 XT more like a “TITAN” series graphics card — a competitor for the GeForce RTX 3090 with its ultra-insane 24GB of ultra-fast GDDR6X memory.

NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 3090 drops on September 24.

Samsung had unveiled its Odyssey series of gaming monitors earlier this year at CES 2020. The lineup consisted of the Odyssey G7 and the Odyssey G9, featuring curved QLED VA displays, a 240Hz refresh rate, HDR, 1ms GTG response time, and G-Sync. The company has announced today that it has launched a special edition version of the Odyssey G7, which is inspired by T1’s star League of Legends player Faker.

The South Korean firm has designed the Odyssey G7 T1 Faker Edition gaming monitor in collaboration with SK Telecom’s esports organization T1. The special-edition monitor comes with Faker’s signature colors: red and dark silver. The monitor also comes with Faker’s signature on the lower corner bezel and the stand. Faker is a legendary League of Legends player, and his original name is Lee Sang-Hyeok.

The 27-inch version of the Odyssey G7 T1 Faker Edition is priced at KRW 870,000 (around $747) and the 32-inch version costs KRW 1 million (around $859) in South Korea. The monitor also features a partnership logo of Samsung and T1. Both companies partnered four months ago, and the partnership is expected to boost Samsung’s image in the gaming monitor segment.

The Odyssey G7 gaming monitor from Samsung comes in 27-inch and 32-inch versions, and both use 1000R curved screens with VA QLED panels, QHD resolution, a 240Hz refresh rate, 1ms GTG response time, and DisplayHDR 600. The monitor features compatibility with both AMD FreeSync 2 and Nvidia G-Sync. It also features ‘Core’ lighting and cable managment. It was first launched in Samsung’s home market four months ago.

The new HP EliteBook 840 could be the perfect business-class laptop for the pandemic, with better performance and efficiency. It can even withstand being sanitized with normal household wipes.

As some of you may know, I’ve long been a fan of HP’s EliteBook series, but I haven’t actually reviewed one since last year: That was the EliteBook x360 1040 G5, a convertible laptop that is among the very best I’ve ever reviewed, with a nearly-flawless typing experience that I still use as my baseline for other reviews.

Flash forward to 2020 and the new EliteBook 840 is a familiar and similar PC, from build quality and features perspectives. But it’s also slightly different in that it is a traditional laptop and not a convertible. And while those who are familiar with HP’s model number schemes may already realize this, the EliteBook 840 (like the 1040) sports a 14-inch display, which I prefer. But HP also sells a 13-inch version of this laptop, called the EliteBook 830, for those who prefer a bit more portability over screen size.

The other notable high-level point is that HP wisely outfits its business-class offerings with a smart combination of new and legacy ports, which I still prefer. In this case, it means that the EliteBook 840 arrives with one Thunderbolt 3/USB-C port, one USB-C port, two full-sized USB-A ports, one HDMI video-out port, and a nano-SIM card slot for cellular connectivity.

Compared to its predecessor, the 7th-generation EliteBook 840 shaves off both inches and ounces, with a 9 percent smaller footprint overall and 20 to 39 percent thinner display bezels, depending on which edge you’re looking at. It’s the first EliteBook 840 to weigh under 3 pounds—2.96 pounds to exact—and HP now anodizes the CNC aluminum body to provide twice the abrasion protection of any of its competition (according to HP).

That latter improvement also provides an interesting COVID-era benefit: The EliteBook 840 body and keyboard keys have been sanitizer hardened so that they can withstand 1,000 disinfection cycles with normal household wipes. This protection is also useful for normal fade and stain protection against such common enemies as alcohol, crayons, ink, and lipstick, too, HP says.

From a design perspective, the EliteBook 840 is, as noted, familiar, and I happen to really like the non-assuming, all-business looks of this product line. But there’s one minor change that makes a big difference: The front edges of the device—on the display lid and the keyboard deck—are now angled inward. This has two neat side-effects: It’s easier to open the lid, and the deck edge no longer feels sharp on your wrists; it’s much more comfortable. On the flip side, those edges are now sharper when the lid is closed: You may want to carry it from the other side.

The keyboard appears to be very similar to that of the EliteBook x360 1040, with the same smallish and quiet rubber-domed keys and island design.

But here, too, there’s a difference and it’s kind of an anachronistic one: In addition to the glass precision touchpad, which is also on the small side, the EliteBook 840 provides a nubbin mouse pointer, similar to that on ThinkPads, between the G, H, and B keys, and two hardware buttons. Interesting.

Speaking of the keyboard, it has my preferred layout, with the Home, PgUp, PgDn, and End keys in a column on the far right.

And instead of the HP Collaboration keys, which I never used, it features a single programmable key, which can be customized launch up to four different app or commands (when used with modifier keys like Ctrl), and a power button/key to the left of the Delete key where it belongs. Perfect.

It also supports Windows Hello-based authentication via facial recognition and a fingerprint reader, which I find to be the optimal configuration. And there are two top-firing stereo speakers plus 2 front-facing microphones and one rear-facing microphone. The HD webcam is wide-angle and comes with a privacy shutter.

The EliteBook 840 is powered by 10th-generation Intel Core U-series processors (i5 or i7), 8 or 16 GB of RAM, and 256 GB or more of NVMe Gen3 x4 SSD storage. There are two 1080p display panel options, one at 250 nits of brightness and one at 400 nits.

Prices start at $1350 for a model with a Core i5, 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB of storage, and the 250 nit display. The review unit has a Core i7-10810U processor, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage, plus the upgraded 1080p display and the cellular data, and costs $2200.

Last month an early retail listing confirmed the presence of Mobvoi’s upcoming TicWatch Pro 3. Now, another retail listing for the TicWatch Pro 3 has confirmed nearly all of the specs and features of the upcoming Wear OS smartwatch. Here’s what we know.

A listing on Malaysian retail Shopee (since removed, pictured below) gives us perhaps our best look at the TicWatch Pro 3 with several images of the watch and its features. Of course, it mentions the new Snapdragon 4100 chipset, claiming an 85% boost in CPU performance and 150% boost in GPU performance. We can also clearly see that the dual-display layer that gives TicWatch Pro its better battery life will return on this model.

The listing has stripped many of the the specs that were mentioned regarding TicWatch Pro 3, but a tipster captured and sent us some of those details. With that, we can confirm this watch will have 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, a larger 595mAh battery that’s estimated to last up to 72 hours. The watch has also dropped some weight at just under 42g. NFC is also on-board.

Also included in this listing is a handful of new health features Mobvoi is adding to its “TicHealth” suite. That includes “TicOxygen,” an app which can track your SpO2/blood oxygen level, “TicZen” which uses HRV data to monitor your stress, and “TicHearing” which can monitor noise levels. TicPulse, TicSleep, TicExercise, and TicBreathe all return as well.

TicWatch Pro 3 is expected to launch next week on September 24th as a deleted tweet mentioned. Of course, stay tuned for the official details when they’re available.

WalkingCat has revealed that Microsoft plans to release a new version of the Surface Hub. Microsoft released 55-inch and 84-inch versions of the Surface Hub five years ago, but it opted to only bring a 50-inch edition of the Surface Hub 2S to market last year. However, it did announce an 85-inch model last April, which may be the version that we are looking at here.

According to the two images, the device has an 85.6-inch Pixelsense display that operates at 4K. The display also has a 16:9 aspect ratio and is coated anti-glare glass. It is only a 60 Hz panel though, unlike the 120 Hz ones that Microsoft offered with the original Surface Hub. Additionally, the screen has 32 mm thick bezels, which appear to be uniform.

The device itself measures 1130 x 1960 x 85 mm and weighs 85 kg. Moreover, Microsoft has included VESA 600 x 600 mounting screens, which can be seen below. The device also has USB Type-A and Type-C ports, along with Source, Volume and Power buttons. 

It is unclear if Microsoft will ever bring this version of the Surface Hub to market. The company postponed the Surface Hub 2X earlier this year, although Windows Central claimed that it would eventually ship with another variant of Windows Core OS, codenamed Santorini. Mary Jo Foley stated in February that Microsoft still planned to release the 85-inch version of the Surface Hub 2S in 2020, so there may still be hope for the project yet. As for a price, we expect Microsoft to launch the device for at least the cost of the 84-inch Surface Hub, which started at US$22,700. 

Chatter on the web is getting bigger that ZEN3 based desktop processors, might see a name change, not Ryzen 4000 but Ryzen 5000. This rumor has been ongoing for days now, and there’s more and more merit to that story.

A new tweet from Patrick Schur, software engineer, and a bit of a AMD Ryzen series news leaker, revealed that the Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 7 5800X processors will feature 12 and 8 cores respectively. He also suggests that the upcoming Zen3-based series will change its nomenclature to 5000. This information has been rumored for a few weeks since if AMD does not change its nomenclature, the names of Vermeer (desktop) would line up with Cezanne (mobile). Therefore, the 4000 series will remain exclusive to the Renoir (mobile) and Renoir AM4 (desktop) series.

On the other hand, what did attract awareness, was that Patrick revealed that the Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 7 5800X processors will get 12 and 8 cores respectively. This would keep the same number of cores as the current Ryzen 3000 series lineup. AMD announced that it will introduce the Zen 3-based processors on October 8 . In addition, the manufacturer has not yet confirmed the official name of the series.

Last month, I pointed out that a new Global Media Controls feature was in the works for Chrome OS 86. I didn’t say it at the time, but my hope was that this would remove the annoying (at least to me) media playback controls in the Notifications stack on my Chromebook. It looks like I may get my wish with Chrome OS 87.

Work has begun with a target version of 87 on media controls right in the system tray, as spotted by Chrome Story. Code only started appearing earlier this week, so much of what’s planned could be changed, but here’s a video demo of the current progress:

You can see that already the Chromium developers have replicated the media control functionality currently available today on Chromebooks; the difference is that the new controls are in the System Tray.

I won’t lie: That’s where I think they belong. Having a persistent view of media playback every single time I view notifications drives me nuts, personally.

This still has me wondering about that media icon to the left of the system tray space seen in early versions of Chrome OS 86.

Will that be a shortcut to open the tray?

Nah, that doesn’t make sense. Clicking either that icon or the tray area would open the Quick Settings in that case, basically replicating the same user action.

My bet is still on that icon being a shortcut to Kaleidoscope, the still-in-progress feature that will aggregate movies and television shows from online sources for browser playback. We’ll have to wait and see.