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Nvidia’s new RTX SUPER cards – Same price, more performance

GadgetByte

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July 3, 2019

Nvidia’s new RTX SUPER cards – Same price, more performance

CreditAMD’s latest strategies are giving tough competition to both NVidia and Intel, lately, with their new Navi and Zen 2 architecture. Intel responded (but failed). And now, it looks like Nvidia’s turn to strike back. That they did, in the most non-Nvidia way, by launching three new value for money graphics cards. I personally think these cards should have been the original RTX series, but better late than never right?

AMD’s next-gen GPUs are set to launch soon, July 7 to be precise. And does that have something to do with the new trio of “SUPER” graphics chips from Nvidia? Maybe. Either way, let’s look at the all-new RTX 2060 SUPER, RTX 2070 SUPER, and the RTX 2080 SUPER. Are these cards actually “super”, or are they just another false attempt to steal the spotlight?

NVIDIA RTX 2080 SUPER

The new RTX 2080 SUPER is priced at $699 and is a direct replacement to their current RTX 2080. The notable improvements include increased memory speed, clock speeds tensor cores, RT Cores, and texture units. Even the Cuda Cores has increased alongside the streaming multiprocessors. Check out the graph below for numbers:

FEATURES	RTX 2080	RTX 2080 SUPER
CUDA Cores	2,944	3,072
Base Clock (MHz)	1,515	1,650
Boost Clock (MHz)	1,710	1,815
Tensor Cores	368	384
RT Cores	46	48
Texture Units	184	192
Memory Bandwidth	14 Gbps	15.6 Gbps
Total Bandwidth	448GB/s	496.1 GB/s
Memory Bus Width	256-bit	256-bit
GPU Architecture	Turing TU104	Turing TU104
Render Outputs	64	64
Memory Config	8GB	8GB
TDP	215W	250W
Price	$699	$699

Given the spec bump, the end result or the war performance numbers has gone up from 10 TFLOPs to 11.1 TFLOPs. That’s about an 11% boost in performance, both from the Founder’s edition cards of course. Reflecting on all this, the TDP has gone up from 215W to 250W. Nvidia even claims the new SUPER 2080 is “faster than the Titan XP”. While the numbers might not reflect it, the architecture improvement could deliver similar results.

The RTX 2080 SUPER will go on sale starting July 23.

Nvidia RTX 2070 SUPER

The RTX 2070 SUPER replaces the original RTX 2070, again for the same cost. You can clearly see the changes or more so the bump in specs. The end performance improvement comes in at 24% in some cases and about 16% on average against the normal RTX 2070. Nvidia even went as far as putting it against (actually ahead) of their GTX 1080Ti, now that’s impressive (if it pans out).

FEATURES	RTX 2070	RTX 2070 SUPER
CUDA Cores	2304	2560
Base Clock (MHz)	1410	1605
Boost Clock (MHz)	1620	1770
Tensor Cores	228	320
RT Cores	36	40
Texture Units	144	160
Memory Bandwidth	14Gbps	14Gbps
Total Bandwidth	448GB/s	448GB/s
Memory Bus Width	256-bits	256-bits
GPU Architecture	Turing (TU106)	Turing (TU104)
Render Outputs	64	64
Memory Config	8GB	8GB
TDP	215W	215W
Price	$499	$499

The added 16%-24% performance gain comes in at the exact same TDP. Its performance will also be very comparable to the RTX 2080 and you can clearly see the base and boost clock gains here, so that really doesn’t surprise me much. The RTX 2070 SUPER will be available starting July 9 for $499, which is what the original RTX 2070 currently costs.

Nvidia RTX 2060 Super

So, the RTX 2060 Super is the only card to receive a price bump alongside the regular spec bump. And that’s a bit hard to swallow given its performance bump from 6.5 TFLOPs to 7.2 TFLOPs at FP32. But Nvidia claims a 15% boost in performance, so basically (almost) up on par with the RTX 2070.

FEATURES	RTX 2060	RTX 2060 SUPER
CUDA Cores	1920	2176
Base Clock (MHz)	1365	1470
Boost Clock (MHz)	1680	1650
Tensor Cores	240	272
RT Cores	30	34
Texture Units	120	136
Memory Bandwidth	14Gbps	14Gbps
Total Bandwidth	336GB/s	448GB/s
Memory Bus Width	192-bits	256-bits
GPU Architecture	Turing (TU106)	Turing (TU106)
Render Outputs	48	64
Memory Config	6GB	8GB
TDP	160W	175W
Price	$349	$399

Here the TDP has increased by about 15W to a max of 175W. Given the specs bump and performance are not bad for a $399 GPU.

Conclusion

Basically, the SUPER moniker is similar to that of the “Ti”. But they made sure none of the SUPER cards outperform their higher tier model. The RTX 2070 Super is super-close to the RTX 2080, but not quite there, and it’s the same for all three of the cards. But in short, all cards received a 10-15% increase in performance. With that out the way, let’s tackle the question of what these new GPUs mean.

The older GPUs will be no more and will be replaced completely by the new SUPER family. And there are a few reasons for this. The current RTX series was getting a bit stale, although exciting at launch, they quickly lost their charm. A significant price drop would have helped, but that isn’t exactly a headliner nor as exciting as a new product launch.

Then there are the new Navi GPUs. Nvidia has always had a stellar budget offering, and the RTX 2060 SUPER retains the position again. What about the new 2080Ti SUPER? Maybe they are keeping it locked up until AMD’s launch. Waiting for the competition to show their hand first. If AMD comes up with a card that’s as good or better as the RTX 2080Ti, I guess, we will see a Super version of that, too.

Vivo iQOO Neo – A Strange phone with a strange name

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July 3, 2019

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Vivo iQOO Neo – A Strange phone with a strange name

Vivo’s IQOO gaming phone seemed strange already. Even its tagline “Monster Inside” sounded intimidating, and with its software acceleration modes, it was plenty fast, too. A few months later, Vivo has birthed a sibling to that one – the Vivo IQOO Neo. This one is more affordable than the other one.

Vivo IQOO Overview

This is also a gaming smartphone, just more affordable, so, it’s slightly toned-down than the IQOO. It packs a Snapdragon 845 chipset, which is last years’, but that’s still a powerful chipset. Kinda like the Pocophone F1, but with added software mods to make it a gaming phone. And to do that, it has a 6 GB / 8 GB RAM inside with 64 GB / 128 GB storage, too.

Of course, that’s not enough to make it a gaming specialty. It features a dedicated cooling system inside – two multilayer graphite slates with a vapor chamber and an aluminum piece in between. With this kind of cooling, the company claims it will stay at 3-degree Celsius lower temperatures than the current SD 845 smartphones.

In addition, following the current gaming trend in China, the Vivo IQOO Neo has plenty of gaming features. It comes with AI Turbo, Center Turbo, Net Turbo, Cooling Turbo, and other features under the Multi-Turbo heading. Furthermore, the display even packs something called the Touch Acceleration for digitizer, so that there will be zero lags while using in-game controls/joysticks.

As for the other aspects, it has a 6.38″ OLED panel with Full HD+ resolution, and it comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner. It sports a triple camera setup, comprising of 12 MP primary lens, 8 MP wide-angle lens, and a 2 MP depth sensor. Also, the selfie camera is a 12 MP sensor as well. In addition to that, the phone has a large 4500 mAh battery with 22.5-Watt Fast Charging. Software-wise, it runs on FunTouch OS 9 based on Android Pie.

Vivo IQOO Specifications:

Display: 6.38-inch Super AMOLED
Resolution: Full-HD+ (2340 × 1080 pixels); 19.5:9 aspect ratio @404PPI pixel density
Chipset: Snapdragon 845; 10nm Mobile Platform
CPU: Octa-core (4×2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4×1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver)
GPU: Adreno 630
RAM: 6GB/8GB
Storage: 64/128GB; No SD card slot for memory expansion
Software & UI: Android 9.0 (Pie) with FunTouch OS 9
Rear Camera: Triple Camera setup – (12MP primary camera, f/1.8 aperture, PDAF) + (8MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle) + (2MP depth sensor), LED flash
Front Camera: 12MP, f/2.0
Sensors: Fingerprint (under display), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Battery: 4500mAh battery with 22.5-watt fast charging

Price and Availability

Right now, the phone is only launched in China. Pricing starts from CNY 1798 (~$260) for the 6/64 GB variant and goes up to CNY 2298(~335) for the 8 GB variant. It is available in two colors: Black and Purple.

With such a strange name, do you think a phone such as this can go against the likes of Xiaomi Black Shark 2, or the Razer Phone 2? However, even if this is only available in China, you might be able to order it online via Vivo’s own online store and major Chinese retailers.

Vivo’s S-series coming soon to compete in the mid-range segment

GadgetByte

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July 3, 2019

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Vivo’s S-series coming soon to compete in the mid-range segment

Vivo, currently, has two very popular smartphone lineups, their Y-series, which comprise of budget phones, and their V-series, which are premium mid-rangers. Of course, they have the X-series and the Nex too, but they’re not for all market segments. It’s only their Y-series and V-series that are globally available. And due to this, Vivo doesn’t really play in the mid-range segment. However, that’s about to change with Vivo S-series.

Vivo’s coming out with an S-series smartphone lineup. Well, they do have an S-series, but that’s only limited to China. And even so, that’s their rebrands of the Vivo V15 and V15 Pro as the S1 and S1 Pro. So, it’s clear that the company will come up with new phones in this lineup for international markets. But the phones are still under wraps, and even the names are not disclosed yet.

Only very few details have surfaced regarding the S-series. For the first iteration of the devices, there are rumors that the first Vivo S phone will be arriving in two models. One of these models will have 6 GB RAM while the other will have 8 GB RAM. Both of them will feature a 128 GB storage, though. These models will be mainly focusing on the design and style aspects besides just specifications, and will also feature triple camera setups.

This strategy comes from Vivo to compete with mid-range phones from brands like Xiaomi’s Note-series, Realme, and Samsung’s Galaxy A-series. Also, the price of the S-series will be between INR. 20000 – 25000 in India. These will be offline-exclusive in the country.

For their online-exclusive market, Vivo’s also launching their Z-series in India. But the Z-series is not a new lineup. We already have the Z1 Pro which is available in India. Also, there are phones like Vivo Z5x in the Z-series. But since it’s an online exclusive brand, it might not make its way to Nepal.

However, the S-series will also make its way to Nepal very soon, after the Indian launch. And judging by the Indian prices, their prices will probably be along Rs.30000 – 40000, which is the typical mid-range price in Nepal. So, I guess, we’ll have more options in the mid-range smartphone segment in Nepal in the near future. Is that a good thing or bad? Do let us know.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 will launch at Unpacked event on August 7

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July 2, 2019

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10 will launch at Unpacked event on August 7

Samsung’s flagships encompass their S-series and Note devices. Since the company has already released its Galaxy S10 devices this year, now it’s time for the Note series to make its way to the smartphone world. And Samsung recently announced the date, time, and venue on which it will launch its Galaxy Note 10 devices.

The South Korean company made it clear that the Note 10 devices will launch on August 7 this year. And this second Unpacked event of the year will be happening in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center. It’s the same venue, which Samsung chose to unveil the last year’s Galaxy Note 9. The launch event is said to take place at 4 PM EDT on New York (1 pm PDT, 9 pm BST, 6 am AEST in Australia).

The announcement for the launch event basically came through an image. The image shows a Stylus (or S-pen) with a circular camera right beneath it. You could say that this bears resemblance to an exclamation mark. So, is Samsung inferring that the device will bring jaw-dropping surprises? We don’t know that yet, but a new Note 10 device should be exciting enough. And since it’s Samsung, who knows?

What to expect on Samsung Galaxy Note 10 unpacked event?

There’s a trend of launching multiple flagship devices in a single unveiling event. OnePlus bringing 7 and 7 Pro and Samsung’s S10, S10 Plus, S10e, and S10 5G in the single event is an example. And since Samsung has already tried this maverick approach, we can be sure that the company will do the same. After all, there are multiple variants of the Note 10 devices too, at least, according to rumors. According to speculations, there will be two Note 10 devices. One the normal size variant, which is said to come with a 6.25-inch display and another with an extra-large 6.75-inch screen. The bigger one is said to bear Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ moniker. Also, these speculations suggest both of these devices will come in normal and 5G variants. And that makes a total of four Note 10 devices.

Breaking down the launch event teaser, we can expect something significant on the Stylus and the front camera. And there are two things we can presume: one, that the front camera is on the stylus, which has been in the talks for some time now. And another would be a punched-hole cutout for the selfie snapper, which, this time, could be aligned in the center. Either of these is possible but Samsung could probably go the second route.

Since there is just a single camera shown in the image, Samsung will probably ditch the secondary shooter on the front, which was present on the Galaxy S10 Plus.

Apart from that, there are also rumors circling that Samsung will ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack on these models. Since Samsung has done that on its midrange devices like the Galaxy A80 and M40, that may not come much of a surprise.

Furthermore, Samsung can also use the stage to announce its indefinitely delayed Galaxy Fold device. Samsung co-CEO DJ Koh said that they had pushed the product to the market before it was ready. So they are probably making the amendments to relaunch the device in full circle in this Unpacked event.

MSI GL63 9RDS Review: A Powerful Laptop with a Bottleneck!

MSI
Reviews

GadgetByte

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July 1, 2019

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MSI GL63 9RDS Review: A Powerful Laptop with a Bottleneck!

When you think MSI, you mostly imagine high-end specs and the most powerful of gaming laptops. But, MSI also makes gaming laptops with modest specs targeted towards budget buyers. It’s their GL-series that comprise of such machines. And the latest addition to the GL-series is the MSI GL63 9RDS. Yes, that is a mouthful, but this laptop is not widely available. It is limited to some regions, only. However, this is available in Nepal, for a price of Rs.145,000, which is probably equal to some $900 to $1000. And is it worth this price? Find out in this MSI GL63 9RDS review.

MSI GL63 9RDS Specifications:

Processor: Hexa-core Intel 9th Gen i7-9750H, 2.6 GHz-4.5 GHz
Display: 15.6″ Full HD (1920 x 1080), 60Hz, TN LCD panel
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 4 GB VRAM, GDDR5
RAM: 8 GB DDR4 @ 2666 MHz (Max 32 GB), Dual-slot
Storage: 1TB HDD + 128 GB PCIe Gen-3 NVMe SSD
Ports: 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C, 3 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A, SDcard slot, 1x HDMI, 1x RJ-45 Ethernet, 1x MiniDisplay display port, Audio-in, Audio-out
Connectivity: Gigabit LAN + Killer Wireless-AC AC 9462 + Bluetooth 5
Keyboard: Full-Size SteelSeries Red-Backlit Keyboard
Webcam: High Definition 720p Camera
Speakers: Dynaudio 2 x 3W Speakers, Nahimic 3
Nahimic 3, Hi-Res Audio
Battery: 6 Cell battery 41 Watt-hour
OS: Windows 10 Home
Price: Rs 145,000 (Rs. 135,000 on offer)

Buy HERE

Performance

I can’t exactly call it a strictly budget gaming laptop, but you can’t really get a lot of budget gaming laptops in this price. And for this price for a MSI laptop, there are bound to be some compromises. You’re not wrong, really. It actually features the latest 9th-gen i7-9750H processor, which is fantastic! To pack such a processor for the price is simply great. But the compromise lies in the graphics department. Because, what you get is the modest GTX 1050 Ti in it.

And that is a kind of a bottleneck on its part because while the laptop is capable of running processor intensive apps like Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Lightroom, and such, without many hiccups, gaming takes a hit. The GTX 1050 Ti might have been a middle of the line graphic card back in 2018, but right now, it’s outdated, and even though you will be able to play most games on it, you’ll have to do so in the modest settings.

Games like Battlefield V was playable in Medium settings and gave me about 40 – 50 frames per second on average. While the game is playable, that’s all we can expect from the 1050 Ti, As for Apex Legends, it was playable in Medium settings in the same frame rates of 40-50. So, you have to stick to games like CS:GO to get frame rates over 100 in High Settings.

And here, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck because while gaming, the GPU is running at max, while the CPU is barely at around 20%. So, this gaming laptop actually does other things better than gaming, which is odd, but given the choice of GPU, it is to be expected.

Thermals

But the choice of GPU also means very less pressure on the CPU. And that means less heating up. Because even during long hours of gaming, the MSI GL63 9RDS didn’t really heat up that much. It could have been the fairly low usage of CPU compared to the GPU, but safe to say, you’ll rarely get heating problems. I never had to turn on the Cooler Boost on during my usage. However, even without the heating, long hours can stress out the GPU, and you might face some throttling.

So, this laptop is more of a heavy workhorse than a gaming rig. You could do video editing and content creating, but that is again, limited by the choice of the display panel.

Display

What the MSI GL63 9RDS packs is a 15.6″ Full HD display, with a TN LCD panel. And that makes for not-so-good viewing angles, and average color distribution and accuracy. So, the screen is another bottleneck for content creation.

However, the screen is more than enough for gaming, or regular media consumption. Besides the viewing angles, other aspects of the display are fairly good. The brightness is there, and it can make your movies and pictures look good. Also, the screen has considerable bezels around the sides, but that’s okay because so does every other gaming laptop around this price category.

Design

As for the design, the MSI GL63 9RDS follows your typical budget gaming laptop design, which is very similar to the MSI GL63 8SE. It is big, kinda bulky and the build is plastic. With that build, the weight is at 2.2 kg, which feels like the standard weight for a gaming laptop of this caliber and build. The top lid has a smooth matte finish, but this one attracts fewer fingerprints, and even then, the finger smudges are not clearly visible.

Rest of the design footprint is still the old classic MSI. You have two air vents at the back and both sides of the body. The lid has two red strips, which do not glow, and the MSI Dragon shield which glows when turned on – nothing new. And even inside, the design remains unchanged. You get the standard keyboard layout with extra keys on top for the cooler boost fans and the Dragon center.

MSI GL63 9RDS Design

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Even with a plastic build, there is very less flex on the keyboard deck and surrounding areas, but the lid does flex quite a bit. Maybe it is prone to some durability issues, especially on the lid. And another thing is, you can’t open the laptop single-handedly, which is important very some. So, this is something that gives a gaming vibe but doesn’t scream gaming like others. And there’s nothing fantastic about it either. This just seems like an old MSI laptop with a new processor.

Ports and Speakers

But MSI’s gaming laptops come with a great selection of ports. You get plenty of them – three USB As, a USB-C (without Thunderbolt 3), a MiniDisplay port, an Ethernet port, an HDMI, an audio-in and audio-out, and an SD Card slot.

MSI GL63 9RDS Ports

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Another good thing about this laptop is the loudspeakers. MSI’s Giant Speakers make their presence here as well, and the giant speakers are plenty loud. Even with the fans running on full throttle, you can hear your music videos or game sounds. But these loudspeakers are prone to some distortion in very high volumes.

Keyboard and Trackpad

Moving on to the keyboard, the MSI GL63 9RDS packs a SteelSeries keyboard, so, you know what to expect. But MSI’s budget gaming laptops don’t get the full RGB individual key backlighting treatment. You only get Red backlighting, 4 levels of it, actually, and there are no programming individual keyboards, either.

But, still, SteelSeries keyboard is still one of the good ones out there. The keys are soft but provide good tactile feedback. There’s a right amount of mushiness to it and ample key travel. Overall, typing experience and gaming are good enough, though not as good as on higher-end MSI gaming laptops.

However, you can’t say the same for the trackpad. Not the worst trackpad I’ve ever used, but this is a serious compromise on MSI’s part. Tracking is okay, but sometimes, can take a lot of effort. Scrolling with it is a pain in the neck, and gestures are a hit or miss. Sometimes they work, and sometimes, it takes some more coercion. So, do yourselves a favor, and use an external mouse.

Memory and Storage

In terms of memory, there’s 8 GB of RAM, but only in a single channel. 8 GB is enough for the most part, given the kind of gaming you’ll be able to do on it, but if you want to upgrade, you do have a second slot, though. So, if you put another 8 GB stick in there, that dual channel memory might improve the performance even further.

As for the storage, you get a 128 GB NVMe PCIe Gen 3 SSD, and a 1 TB hard drive. The SSD is pretty fast as well, giving close to 1500 MBPS of read speeds, and about 400 MBPS of write. It’s not the fastest, but more than enough. Of course, the 128 GB might not be enough, so, you have to stick to having only Windows and the most important of software in there. For the rest of it, you get 1 TB Hard Drive, so, there are no problems regarding the storage here.

Battery

Batteries are not the strong suit of gaming laptops, and it’s the same with this MSI GL63 9RDS, too. You get a small 41 Watt-hour battery which will last you like 2.5 hours on normal usage, but maybe close to an hour for gaming. So, you’ll have to carry your charger around if you’re taking it places.

Conclusion & Verdict

The MSI GL63 9RDS, to me, looks like a strange combination of parts. It is targeted as a gaming laptop, and they certainly did include the processor for it. But they compromised major on the graphics card, which actually bottlenecks even the CPU in terms of gaming.

And if the aspects like the display were better, you could turn it into a content creator’s laptop, too. However, the screen is not good enough for that. So, what this laptop essentially is, is a workhorse on the most part for those who need to do some heavy lifting like MATLAB or a lot of programming, or 3D modeling and stuff, with some occasional gaming in there.

Honestly, for a price of Rs.145,000 in Nepal, I applaud the choice of CPU, but I would’ve been happier with an 8^th gen processor with a better graphics card, at least an RTX 2060, or maybe a GTX 1070, even. So, this is not your mainstream gaming laptop, but a quite powerful one.

MSI GL63 9RDS Pros & Cons

Pros:

Powerful processor
Good keyboard
Great Thermals
Good price to performance ratio

Cons:

Outdated graphics card
Less-than-average display
Trackpad

Oppo Reno 10x Zoom now available for purchase in Nepal

GadgetByte

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July 1, 2019

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Oppo Reno 10x Zoom now available for purchase in Nepal

With the tagline ‘For the young and lively’, Oppo had unveiled the Reno-series a while back. The series is completely new and ‘creative’, and offers quite a lot of features to its users in an attractive body. We had talked about the series making its way to Nepal over a week ago, and finally, Oppo has officially launched the Oppo Reno 10x Zoom here in Nepal for a flagship price.

Oppo Reno 10x Zoom Overview

The Oppo Reno 10x Zoom is a flagship device that boasts a lot about its camera setup. The device has a 13-megapixel periscope camera lens that offers 6x optical zoom and 10x hybrid zoom. If you thought the 50x zoom on the Huawei P30 Pro was amazing, hold your horses as this device can go up to 60x zoom. This obviously is software-enabled. The periscope lens lies in the vertical rear camera setup. There is a 48-megapixel primary camera with f/1.7 and OIS, and an 8-megapixel ultrawide snapper completing the setup. The main camera is capable of shooting 4K videos. On the top lies a 16-megapixel motorized pop-up selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture.

The Oppo Reno 10x Zoom is a tall phone that sports a 6.6-inch Full HD+. There are no notches at all and even the front camera pops up with a motor in a shark fin shape, which could be eye candy for some. It has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. The device is powered by the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor coupled with 8 GB RAM and Adreno 640 GPU. The device runs on Android v9.0 Pie with ColorOS 6 on top and features 256 GB of internal memory. The storage is expandable with a microSD card which uses the SIM 2 port.

The Reno 10x Zoom has a 4,065 mAh battery chargeable through the 20W VOOC charging. It comes with an under-display fingerprint scanner.

Oppo Reno 10x Zoom Vs OnePlus 7 Pro – Specs Comparison

	Oppo Reno 10x Zoom	OnePlus 7 Pro
Display	6.6-inch Full HD+ AMOLED, Gorilla Glass 6, 19.5:9 Aspect Ratio	6.67-inch Quad HD+ Fluid AMOLED, Corning Gorilla Glass 6, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, HDR 10+
CPU	Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855	Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
GPU	Adreno 640	Adreno 640
OS	Android v9.0 Pie with ColorOS 6 on top	Android v9.0 Pie with Oxygen OS on top
RAM	6 GB / 8 GB	6 GB / 8 GB / 12 GB
Storage	128 GB / 256 GB	128 GB / 256 GB
Rear Camera	Triple – 48 MP Primary with f/1.7 aperture, OIS + 13 MP Periscope with 6x Optical Zoom, f/3.0 aperture, 10x Hybrid Zoom + 8 MP Ultra-wide with f/2.2 aperture	Triple – 48 MP Primary with f/1.6 aperture, OIS, EIS + 8 MP Telephoto lens with 2.2x Optical Zoom, f/2.4 aperture, OIS + 16 MP ultra-wide with f/2.2 aperture
Front Camera	16 MP Motorized pop-up with f/2.0 aperture	16 MP Motorized pop-up with f/2.0 aperture
Battery	4,065 mAh battery with 20W VOOC fast charge	4,000 mAh battery with 30W Warp fast charge
Sensors	Fingerprint (under-display), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass	Fingerprint (under-display), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Price	Rs.89,990 (8+256GB)	Rs. 89,990 (6+128GB) Rs. 99,990 (8+256GB) Rs. 109,990 (12GB+256GB)

Oppo Reno 10x Zoom Price in Nepal and Availability

Oppo Reno 10X Zoom has been launched in Nepal for the price of Rs. 89,990. It comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. It is now available from select mobile stores all across Nepal.

Model Name	Price in Nepal	Availability
Oppo Reno 10X Zoom 8/128GB)	Rs 89,990	Yes; from Retail shops all over Nepal

At the price of Rs.89,990, the Reno 10X Zoom goes head to head with the OnePlus 7 Pro. Which one would you choose? Let us know in the comments.

Huawei Trade Ban Lifted: Can continue business with US companies

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June 30, 2019

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Huawei Trade Ban Lifted: Can continue business with US companies

The recent Huawei ban has certainly created chaos in the tech industry. It also generated a feeling of insecurity among the Huawei and Honor smartphone users. But the ban didn’t last long. The US president, Donald Trump, finally lifted up the ban and opened the doors for US companies to sell their products to the Chinese tech firm.

A few weeks earlier, the US government had enlisted the Chinese tech company and 70 of its associates in the “Entity list”. Back then, the Chinese tech firm was referred to as a “threat to national security”. The government also prohibited US companies to sell any of their products to Huawei. But in the sidelines of G20 summit, Trump seems to have got little softer on the matter and abruptly lifted up the ban.

But there are many, who believe this as a part of the trade deal with China. A report from the Wall Street Journal also suggests that Chinese President Xi Jinping insisted that lifting the Huawei trade ban would be an integral component in any trade agreement with the US.

There was also the news about the US companies like Intel and Xilinx lobbying the US government to lift the ban imposed on Huawei. There are reports that the US chipmakers like Intel, Qualcomm, and Micron having earned a total of $11 billion with the business with Huawei. And that may have to some extent made the president go easy on Huawei.

The US president uplifted the trade barrier for the Chinese company and gave the following statement to put a light on the matter.

“One of the things I will allow, however, is, a lot of people are surprised we send and we sell to Huawei a tremendous amount of product that goes into the various things that they make.

“And I said that that’s okay, that we will keep selling that product. These are American companies… that make product and that’s very complex, by the way, and highly scientific.

“And in some cases, we’re the ones that do it, we’re the only ones that do it. What we’ve done in Silicon Valley is incredible, actually and nobody has been able to compete with it, and I’ve agreed and pretty easily, I’ve agreed to allow them to continue to sell that product.

“So American companies will continue and they were having a problem, the companies were not exactly happy that they couldn’t sell because they had nothing to do with whatever it was potentially happening with respect to Huawei, so I did do that.”

This means that Huawei could now purchase products from US companies. Any previous lockouts from Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Google will also be abruptly resolved. But the US government has not yet removed Huawei from its “Entity list” yet. So, we are not quite sure if the US government can revert back its decision and impose a ban again.

Shatterproof glass: A solution for foldable phones?

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GadgetByte

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June 30, 2019

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Shatterproof glass: A solution for foldable phones?

Modern day smartphones are absolutely feature-rich. Not to mention their displays. Smartphone displays, too are turning into something else…until they shatter, sometimes. And since they’re packing stuff like AMOLED, and in-display fingerprint scanners, replacing them can be expensive…which is frustrating, too. But, a group of scientists seems to have found a solution to this. According to reports, researchers from McGill University have developed a new kind of shatterproof glass.

What is it?

The inspiration behind this the flexible properties of seashells, according to the scientists. “If you crack open an oyster, you will see the inside shimmering in a rainbow of colors. The smooth substance inside, called the ‘Mother of Pearl’, was the inspiration behind the shatterproof glass”, they explained.

It can bend like plastic. However, it will be capable to withstand shocks and external stresses. With these kinds of properties, the glass is also applicable in creating safer windows and strong windshields on automobiles. But after the recent Samsung Galaxy Fold debacle, researchers also think smartphones can make use of this technology on smartphones, especially, the new foldable ones.

How does it get its strength?

The Mother of Pearl inside the seashells is made up of brittle Calcium Carbonate. But the Calcium Carbonate is arranged in tiny hexagonal platelets joined by flexible biopolymers. So, they are tough and strong. When the material goes through some impact, the platelets slide over each other as the polymers stretch. So instead of shattering, the energy during the impact dissipates. In case of extreme forces, the platelets can completely deform and rip apart but cracks don’t spread like that on a typical glass panel. It also claims to be three times stronger than Tempered Glass and up to 24 times than your regular glass.

The material also features some notable properties of glass, like, being highly transparent and scratch resistant. But unlike the glasses, it has high resistant to impacts as well. So, we can expect it to replace the conventional glass.

This kind of glass is also cheap to produce, according to Francois Barthelat, a mechanical engineer at McGill University. So that it can even be used on the mainstream smartphone and upcoming foldable phones. If this turns out good, it can even supersede the popular Gorilla glasses.

North Korea’s own smartphone: Typically North Korean

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GadgetByte

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June 30, 2019

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North Korea’s own smartphone: Typically North Korean

North Korea is a country that needs no introduction…or a lot of it, depending on how you see it. It’s a highly secluded country and believes in self-reliance. And that’s probably all the info available about the country ruled by dictatorship. And in a bid to remain more secluded (or protect its privacy, in their words), their home-brand Pyongyang launched a new smartphone in the country. Dubbed Pyongyang 2425, it’s typically North Korean – runs only government-approved apps, and restricts all the rest.

Pyongyang 2425 Overview

The Pyongyang 2425 is the successor of the Pyongyang 2423. No, the names are very strange, and we don’t know if we can compare it to anything. But, it claims to bring a substantial upgrade over its predecessor. This new smartphone features a powerful octa-core processor onboard. And the company officials say the new CPU boosts the processing speeds by 150%! Also, the touchscreen experience is better. Of course, this is all the company’s word itself, and we don’t really know. We’ll just have to take their word for it.

As for the aesthetics, the phone features a 6.2-inch screen with Full-HD+ (1080 x 2246 pixels) resolution. However, the type of display panel is not revealed. But, the display also comes with an iPhone-like wide notch on top. And the notch houses an IR scanner along with the selfie camera and other sensors. This means that there is 3D Facial mapping, enabling it to use Face Unlock even in the dark. However, there is also a fingerprint scanner at the back.

Company officials say, “Face recognition through infrared technology means you don’t need fingerprints or a password and can easily get past the lock screen even in dark environments”. And I was like… “Yeah…that’s the whole point of an IR Scanner!”

In terms of software, the Pyongyang 2425 runs on Android 8.1 Oreo. Yes, it’s old for us, but we don’t know what goes on in there. But experts say that North Korea might have ordered production with the mutual understanding that they’d replace the software later on. So, there should be a customized UI or an entirely new OS when it starts shipping. And we wouldn’t expect any less from the North Korean government.

The battery on the device is a 3050 mAh battery, with wireless charging support. But as far as the cameras are concerned, its hardware information is still under cover. But to no one’s surprise, the company claims high-res camera sensors.

The phone has Wi-Fi connectivity features, too. Yes, we take that for granted, but its a different story there. It is designed not to connect to foreign Wi-Fi networks! But it does have this “Wi-Fi SIM” card, which allows its users to use Wi-Fi services available within the nation. A user reported using it to view and save science and technology related materials from any location”. And according to him, it was like a “Mirae (future) public free wireless data network”. And this is something that was promoted only last year in the country’s National Exhibition of IT Successes.

Of course, there have to be some typically North Korean characteristics. And owing to security concerns, the phones don’t even allow their users to open pre-installed photos and ringtones. Also, it will only run government approved apps. Images that surfaced show dictionaries and other learning programs in multiple languages. Anti-theft security apps like Gold Bell 1.0, Kwangmyong Encyclopedia, an Office Management Apps and a Weather App 2.0 were also visible on the image.

This device comes in a bigger than normal smartphone package but packs the same components. It packs a clear silicone case, headphones, a USB Charger, a wireless charging dock, and a USB Type-C to 3.5 mm headphone adapter. Which means, that the phone does sport a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

If we look at the whole thing, it looks like a premium phone, especially, due to its packaging. However, the price is also in the dark. And although the phone is North Korean, there are rumors about it being made in China! The irony…

Honor 20 Lite Review: The Attractive Mid-ranger

GadgetByte

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June 29, 2019

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Honor 20 Lite Review: The Attractive Mid-ranger

When Honor announced the Honor 20 series smartphones in London, the Honor 20 and 20 Pro had been the talk of the town for days. Their punch-hole display, flagship-grade processor, and quad-rear cameras were enough to impress many. The cheaper Honor 20 Lite, however, didn’t receive much attention then. So, was it an underdog ignored by many or is it not worth the hype? Let’s find that out in this Honor 20 Lite review!

Honor 20 Lite Specifications:

Display: 6.21-inches LTPS IPS LCD, Full HD+, 19.5:9 aspect ratio
Chipset: HiSilicon Kirin 710
CPU: Octa-core (4×2.2 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4×1.7 GHz Cortex-A53)
GPU: Mali-G51 MP4
OS: Android 9.0 Pie with EMUI 9 on top
RAM: 4 GB
Storage: 128 GB, expandable
Rear camera: Triple – 24 MP, f/1.8 (primary) + 8 MP, f/2.2 (ultra-wide) + 2 MP, f/2.4 (depth)
Front Camera: 32 MP, f/2.0
Battery: 3,400 mAh non-removable Li-Po battery
Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), Accelerometer, Proximity, and Compass
Price: Rs.32,500

Design

Like with the previous Honor smartphones, the 20 lite features a gradient color back. The one I have right now is a phantom red color which looks pleasing. One thing you need to know is the back is made of plastic, and not glass which is the reason it feels light on hands.

Other than that, I am pretty happy with its form factor. It rightly fits on my hand and has an even weight distribution. Even the buttons are tactile and placed at a reachable position. So, I have nothing much to complain on the design front.

Display

Talking about the display, this phone retains a 6.21-inch IPS panel, which comes with narrow bezels with a U-shaped tiny notch on the top. Even the chin is thin here. Thinner than most of its competitors out there, I would add. While placing it alongside the Galaxy A50, you can easily notice the difference.

However, gone is the notification LED, which is close to extinction on smartphones these days.

Continuing with the display, the screen here comes with Full-HD resolution on board. So, while viewing the contents, the screen looks sharp as expected. The colors also look quite pleasant here. It’s not quite on the level of the OLED panels but still looks noteworthy among the mid-rangers. And side by side with the A50, I prefer the display on the A50.

Camera

Now let’s head on to the cameras. Like with every other midrange phone out there, this too has three cameras at the back. There’s a 24MP primary lens, which comes alongside an 8MP ultra-wide-angle shooter and a 2MP depth sensor. And all of these cameras are said to be AI-powered.

Talking about the photos from the 24MP camera, I am fairly satisfied with the shots it captures. The images pack quite a lot of details so they look sufficiently sharp. But sometimes, the images are overexposed. I also noticed the phone over-processing the images, due to which, the colors were unnatural at times.

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Switching to the wide angle, you can extend the field of view up to 120-degrees. The images, as you can see here, look decent. But it lacks the details. And While comparing it with the Galaxy A50, I noticed a larger field of view and better details in the shots from A50. But what I really liked about the Honor 20 Lite was that the colors in the images didn’t shift while switching into wide-angle mode from normal mode, which happens extensively on the A50.

Normal Vs Wide-angle Mode

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The third 2MP lens gathers the depth information while taking portrait images. And portrait images look okay at best. There is edge-detection issue on most of the portrait images and the blurring does not look natural. Maybe Honor will fix that in its software update. But until that happens, you have to live with this.

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Night Mode feature is also getting popular these days. And to address that, Honor has also included a Night Mode feature on this device. With this mode, the camera decreases the shutter speed to 4 to 6 seconds and captures a long exposure shot. And while capturing the low light images using this feature, the subject brightens up quite a bit and there seem to have a little more detail in it. So, to me, it has come in quite handy while taking snaps in the low-lit scenarios.

Normal Vs Night Mode

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Apart from that, you get tons of features like Slo-mo, Timelapse, and AR if you do some digging in.

Talking about the selfies, the 32MP doesn’t disappoint. It captures amazing selfies with great facial details. But the phone tends to overdo with the skin, which looks quite unnatural at times. But most of the times they look fairly good. Although the portrait images are due to software processing, they do look good enough. But if you care about edge-detection, it’s still not perfect in that respect but usable most of the times. The portrait mode is also playful here as you can get various portrait lighting effects.

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For high res images, click here.

Performance

Now on to the performance, you get the Kirin 710 Chipset which we have seen on so many Huawei and Honor phones in the last 6 months or so. The Kirin 710 is a decent processor, comparable with the Snapdragon 660, but over the course of 6 months, midrange SoCs from Qualcomm are getting better. You get Snapdragon 675 on Redmi Note 7 Pro and Realme 3 Pro at more or less similar pricing.

I am not bashing Honor and the Kirin 710 chipset but I guess it’s reasonable to demand an upgrade while going from its predecessor Honor 10 Lite.

The Kirin 710 is not a bad processor, it’s actually a decent performer and can handle most people’s day-to-day tasks pretty easily. Multitasking is also fairly good with 4GB of RAM onboard.

But it’s the gaming part that Kirin 710 lags behind the competition. On my test, Heavy games did not run quite smoothly on the highest of the settings. PUBG is playable at medium settings by default, which wasn’t smooth the way I expected. So, if you are into gaming, you should opt for the Snapdragon 675 powered phones. There’s Pocophone F1 with Snapdragon 845 which is still available, you can get that too.

Talking about the storage, you get a base variant of 128GB, which should suffice the needs of many. And this is where Honor 20 Lite stands out against the rest. Because, every phone at this price, will have 64GB storage. Plus, there is an SD card slot as well if you wish to expand it even further.

Software

The phone runs on Android 9 Pie with the custom skin EMUI 9.0.1 on the top. And with Huawei’s UI, you do get a ton of bloatware and a number of redundant apps. Nonetheless, you can uninstall the majority of them.

But apart from that, the UI is pretty much likable. It’s well-optimized and navigating through the UI is also pretty smooth. On top of that, most of the settings are customizable. So, you can easily tune it into your liking.

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But what’s concerning here is the software update. Huawei has been enlisted in the US government’s entity list. And Honor being the sub-brand of Huawei, we don’t have any option but to wait and see what happens next.

Battery

Now let’s talk about the battery. The phone comes with a 3400mAh battery, which sounds quite underwhelming. However, EMUI optimization is great, so I got around 6 hours of on-screen time. Also, the screen on time is based on my heavy usage that includes two hours of social media, two hours of watching videos and an hour of gaming.

The phone comes with 10-watt charger out of the box, which uses Micro USB port to charge up the phone. While using the stock charger, it took exactly 1 hour and 56 minutes to get the device fully charged. I even tried to charge the device with an 18-watt charger. But there wasn’t still an improvement in the charging pace. So, there is that!

Extras:

Like all the Huawei and Honor phones, the fingerprint sensor on this device is fast and accurate. It accurately detected my fingerprints 9 out of 10 times, except for times when you have wet or greasy hands. Face unlock is fast too and is done via the front camera. About the Wi-Fi though, it does not have Wi-Fi ac, so you won’t be able to connect to a 5GHz network, which if I remember correctly, was missing on Huawei’s Nova 3i as well. Other things like audio quality is fairly loud and call quality is good too.

Conclusion

The Honor 20 Lite is a fairly good performer for the price being asked. There is nothing that bugs me about the phone, everything is okay, except for the fact that the performance could have been a little better. And even inclusion of a faster-charging feature and a type-C port would have given this device a little edge over the others.

Also, you do have plenty of options to go for, like the Galaxy A50 or the Pocophone F1 or the Galaxy M40. And since the Redmi Note 7 Pro is also launching in Nepal really soon, you have even more options. So, in the end, I will leave the choice up to you guys.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Good design
Ample 128GB storage
Has dedicated Night Mode

Cons:

Micro USB Port in 2019
No Fast charging
No upgrade on performance from its predecessor