Month: November 2020

Windows 10 now has a strange specification named “Experience.” Standard desktop versions of Windows 10 say you have the “Windows Feature Experience Pack” installed. What does that mean? Microsoft is being secretive as always, but here’s what we know.

Another Windows 10 Mystery

If you head to Settings > System > About and scroll down to “Windows specifications,” you’ll see a line named “Experience.” It likely says you have the “Windows Feature Experience Pack” installed.

This section also tells you what edition of Windows 10 you have installed, which update version you have installed, when it was installed, and your OS build number.

We know what all those mean—but what is a “Windows Feature Experience Pack?”

Unfortunately, Microsoft won’t explain it! Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley asked Microsoft about it and got a “no comment” from Microsoft. We think we can explain a lot of this anyway.

Some Windows 10 Features Are Part of the Pack

As Foley points out, the Windows Feature Experience Pack is listed as one of many “Features on Demand” in Windows 10. For example, Microsoft Paint is now a “feature on demand.”

This particular feature comes preinstalled with Windows. Microsoft says it “Includes features critical to Windows functionality” and says you should “not remove this package.”

The same documentation says the Windows Feature Experience Pack was first introduced in Windows 10 version 2004—that’s the May 2020 Update.

According to Foley, the pack currently includes features like a snipping tool for taking screenshots and a text input panel. Rather than being part of the base version of Windows 10 itself, these features are part of this “pack” that is preinstalled. Microsoft may move more features from Windows 10 itself to this “features on demand” pack.

Most of these “features on demand” are listed under Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Optional features, but the installed “Experience Pack” doesn’t appear here.

Tracking Down Clues in the Windows Store

So, why does this Feature Experience Pack even exist? Why not just leave these features in Windows 10 proper?

Well, Microsoft won’t say, but we definitely have some ideas. Take a look at this: The Microsoft Store has a listing for a “Windows Feature Experience Pack” and a separate “Windows 10X Feature Experience Pack.” This suggests two things.

Faster Updates for Windows Components?

As of the October 2020 Update, there’s no indication this feature experience pack is being updated through the Store yet. However, it could be!

If Microsoft were updating the feature experience pack through the Store, the company could update the software inside the pack more often than once every six months.

Anything moved from Windows to the pack—perhaps a built-in application like File Explorer or a component like the Windows taskbar or Start menu—could be updated much more quickly.

A Single OS For All Microsoft’s Devices?

Microsoft is working hard on Windows 10X, which was going to be designed for dual-screen devices, but now looks like it will initially just be a more “modern” version of Windows that confines traditional desktop applications to containers.

These different versions of Windows could have the same underlying operating system and differ only in their “Feature Experience Pack.”

In other words, this could help advance Microsoft’s Windows Core OS goals: Having a single Windows core operating system that powers all devices, with different experiences installed on top of them. Imagine if a future Xbox could run Windows 10 with the “Xbox Feature Experience Pack,” or a future Windows Phone could run Windows 10 with the “Windows Phone Experience Pack.”

Hints About a Future, But No Use in the Present

As of Windows 10’s October 2020 Update at the end of 2020, you should ignore the “Experience” line in the Settings screen and forget about the “Windows Feature Experience” for now. It doesn’t really mean anything.

Its presence is an artifact of Microsoft’s development process: The company is always experimenting internally, and signs of that experimentation are appearing in the released versions of Windows 10. This information may be important for Microsoft engineers who are experimenting and troubleshooting, but it doesn’t mean anything to Windows users outside Microsoft.

When we reviewed the new Surface Go 2 tablet from Microsoft, we found it to be “an excellent affordable Windows 10 tablet that features a premium design found in the company’s more expensive devices”. 

However, if you want something even more affordable, you should check out the Pipo W11, which retails for about half the price of Microsoft’s diminutive tablet.

Pipo is not a household name, but we’ve known about the company since 2014 when it unveiled the Pipo W2 tablet. The W11 follows in the footsteps of its 6-year old predecessor, which back then ran on a little-known OS called Windows 8.1.

The W11 also comes with a keyboard cover and stylus, all for the princely sum of $274.99 (about £208, AU$377). Use the code BGpipo2 at checkout to get this price. For comparison, the equivalent Surface Go 2 configuration with pen and keyboard cover retails for $695.97 – more than twice the price.

The W11 wins out when it comes to performance, with its Celeron N4100 CPU trouncing the Surface Go 2’s Pentium 4425Y, according to CPUBenchmark. It’s also superior when it comes to storage (Pipo’s candidate has 64GB eMMC plus a dedicated 180GB SSD) and connectivity (the W11 has three more ports than its rival).

On the other hand, the Surface Go 2 has a smaller screen with a higher resolution, which produces sharper pictures, plus a bigger battery capacity, higher resolution cameras, and faster Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. 

Businesses looking for a cheap business tablet are also likely to side with Microsoft’s device because of the return policy, the free technical support and in-store assistance.

Bear in mind

If this product is shipped from mainland China, it will take a month to arrive in the UK or US (and potentially more). You may be levied an additional tax, either directly or through the courier.

If you’ve managed to get hold of a cheaper product with an equivalent specification, in stock and brand new, let us know and we’ll tip our hat to you.

IN 2021 Huawei will be introducing a massive change – dropping Android for their in-house HarmonyOS software. But the P40 Pro and P30 Pro makers aren’t the only tech giant that looks set to shun a Google-made operating system.

Rumours are circulating that OnePlus could be about to drop a Google-made operating system on an upcoming device. But Nord fans who are worried about seeing a massive Android shake-up like their Huawei counterparts are getting needn’t be concerned. According to the rumour mill, OnePlus won’t be switching things around on their Android devices – it will be on their upcoming OnePlus Watch.

As reported on in a post by 9to5Google, OnePlus surprisingly won’t be using Google’s Wear OS platform on their upcoming OnePlus Watch.

Wear OS is the typical go-to choice for smartwatch makers who don’t have the resources to make their own operating system for their wearables.

Exceptions to this is the Samsung’s Tizen OS which runs on Samsung Galaxy Watch devices, while Huawei are designing HarmomyOS to be used on a wide range of devices – including watches and smartphones.

So the latest rumours come as a big surprise, with it unclear what platform the Shenzhen-based tech giant will be using on their OnePlus Watch.

The rumour comes courtesy of reliable OnePlus insider Max Jambor who on Twitter posted: “OnePlus Watch does not run Googles WearOS”.

It remains to be seen what operating system the OnePlus Watch could run – are OnePlus looking to build their own bespoke platform, or could the Nord makers even pivot to Huawei’s HarmonyOS?

The latter would be a big boost for Huawei and a major blow to Google, but we’ll have to sit tight and wait for official confirmation one way or the other.

Rumours of a OnePlus Watch have been circulating for some time now, and recently it had looked like the highly talked about wearable could at last launch in 2020.

It had been thought the OnePlus Watch would launch in October 2020, but it later was claimed that the device had been put on hold.

This rumour came once again for Jambor, who in a post on Voice said “the OnePlus Watch announcement has been postponed without any new date”.

The insider wrote: “In 2016 first rumors about a OnePlus Smartwach surfaced. At the beginning of this month, OnePlus itself gave a hint at the OnePlus 8T Launch Event that a smartwatch could be launched in the near future that might bear the name OnePlus Watch.

“A few weeks ago, I announced that the OnePlus Watch would be presented in October, but according to latest information from multiple sources, there are some changes regarding the launch.

“According to my information, the OnePlus Watch announcement has been postponed without any new date. Now I don’t know the reasons for this step, but my guess is that there are some complications with the production or software development.”

In other OnePlus news, November will see the launch of two new OnePlus handsets – including the cheapest phone the firm has ever released.

OnePlus is expanding its OnePlus Nord line-up with the upcoming release of two new devices in this range, known as OnePlus N10 5G and N100.

Both of these new Nord phones sit below the inaugural Nord device in terms of specs and price.

The OnePlus N10 5G starts at £50 less than the original Nord, setting you back £329, and is powered by a Snapdragon 690, and boasts 6GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage.

While the N100 is priced at just £179 – making it the cheapest handset that OnePlus has ever launched.

As to be expected, to help get to that price tag the N100 is down on specs when compared to the original Nord and the upcoming N10 5G.

Both devices will be running Android 10 straight out of the box, and their release dates are fast approaching.

The OnePlus N100 is first up, launching in the UK on Tuesday November 10 with the N10 5G arriving later on in November.

A Redditor has received one of MSI’s looming GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim as a replacement for the Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming, which the U.K. retailer didn’t have in stock. The lucky owner shared some photographs and interesting information on the unreleased graphics card.

If you don’t take into account the exclusive Lightning series, the Gaming X series has always delivered the fastest gaming graphics cards from MSI. However, the latest evidence lends credence to the rumors that MSI might have reshuffled its products. The introduction of the Suprim series would logically relegate Gaming X series, suggesting that the new offerings should be the highest-end models with steeper price tags.

The GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim measures 13.1 inches (332mm) long and judging by the provided photograph, the graphics card probably features a 2.9-slot cooler. We should accept the fact that the bulky designs are here to stay since high-end graphics cards, such as the GeForce RTX 3090 (Ampere) are carrying a 350W TDP (thermal design power).

In terms of cooling, the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim relies heavily on a triple-fan cooler. The graphics card should be using MSI’s Tri Frozr 2 cooling system, although the shroud’s design looks a bit different from the one that MSI uses on the GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming and Gaming X Trio models. Three proprietary Torx 4.0 cooling fans are on duty to provide the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim with adequate active cooling. According to the Redditor, the included metallic backplate features a nice logo of the MSI dragon with RGB backlighting.

Specification-wise, the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim will arrive with the same 10,496 CUDA cores, 328 Tensor cores and 82 RT cores as the Founders Edition. Unless MSI overclocks the memory, the 24GB of GDDR6X should still be operating at 19.5 Gbps across a 384-bit memory interface, amounting to a theoretical maximum memory bandwidth up to 936.2 GBps. The clock speeds will be the biggest difference maker. 

The Redditor indicated that the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim comes with a 1,965 MHz boost clock out of the box. For comparison, the Founders Edition has a 1,695 MHz boost clock, while MSI’s own GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio rocks a 1,785 MHz boost clock. Therefore, the Suprim boasts 15.9% and 10% higher boost clock speeds than the Founders Edition and Gaming X Trio, respectively.

The typical display output configuration on the GeForce RTX 3090 includes three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and one HDMI 2.1 port. The Redditor didn’t reveal the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim’s layout so it’s uncertain if MSI made any changes in that department. However, the three 8-pin PCIe power connectors are visible. The Redditor stated that the power limit on the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim is 450W.

The GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim comes with dual-BIOS support, a feature that isn’t present on MSI’s GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming and Gaming X Trio models. The photograph reveals a Silent mode, which likely prioritizes accoustics over performance, and a Gaming mode that does the vice-versa.

For the sake of confidentiality, the Redditor didn’t reveal the name of the U.K. retailer. However, he confirmed that he didn’t pay extra for the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim, suggesting that it shares a similar price tag with the Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming. When in stock, the OC Edition sells for $1,799.99 so the regular variant and MSI’s Suprim model should sell for below that price. Given that the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim is evidently in stock at an U.K. retailer, it shouldn’t take long until MSI makes an official announcement.

Director of technical marketing at AMD, Robert Hallock, is promising new and improved undervolting capabilities are on the way for Ryzen 5000 chips, to be bundled into a future AGESA firmware update.

Currently AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processors do not offer undervolting in any capacity, and that means you’ll have to stick to only positive voltage tweaks today. AMD does offer the ability to run your processor within the constraints of a lower TDP, such as taking a 105W TDP part down to 65W TDP, but beyond that you’re a bit stuck at the stock configuration.

At least for the time being. AMD’s Robert Hallock has listed a couple of PSAs over on his Twitter account, including one that details a new ‘hype’ undervolting functionality. 

AMD has not offered an exact time-frame on when the AGESA update containing the new functionality will arrive, but when it does we can expect “better frequency, voltage, and performance tweaking.”

Which AGESA update you’re running on, and which you should download, can get a little confusing. You can read more over on AMD’s community website, but essentially it’s down to manufacturers to implement the code. You’ll often see which AGESA, or “AMD Generic Encapsulated System Architecture”, has been implemented on a per BIOS basis on the manufacturer’s downloads page.

New functionality expected to arrive with AGESA versions beyond existing AGESA 1.1.0.0 includes:

Returning support for negative core voltage offsets (“undervolting”) with all-new AMD functionality for better frequency, voltage, and performance tweaking

Additional AMD optimization for performance and stability at ~2000MHz fabric clock

Additional functionality tuning for benchmarking under extreme OC conditions (e.g. LN2)

The flck optimizations will help ensure you’re able to run your AMD Ryzen 5000 processor at a 1:1 ratio with 4,000MHz DDR4 RAM. Currently that functionality is limited to those lucky enough to own the better performing samples of Zen 3, as our Alan discovered when his chip turned out to not be up to the task.

If you can’t wait to mess with your chip’s internals, however, there’s always overclocking. While we didn’t have much luck with the Ryzen 9 5900X, a chip that’s seemingly at its very limits out of the box, we’ve had much greater success overclocking the cheaper Ryzen 5 5600X. Alan managed to push this 65W chip (which is likely the key to its success) to 4.7GHz at 1.3v or 4.6GHz at 1.2v. And with a bit of fine tuning there’s probably more to be gained, too.