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CES 2019: AMD reveals the Radeon VII built on 7nm process with a stellar pricetag

GadgetByte

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January 10, 2019

CES 2019: AMD reveals the Radeon VII built on 7nm process with a stellar pricetag

After staying in the shadows, at least in the graphics department, AMD is out with a band. With their new Radeon VII GPU built on a world’s first 7nm process and a price tag of just $699. That’s $100 cheaper than a founder’s edition RTX 2080, the same card AMD was comparing the Radeon VII with the whole event.

This is AMD’s high end, high-performance graphics card rivaling the likes of previously unmatched RTX 2080. Both the cards perform similarly, with akin fps numbers, but the Radeon VII is cheaper. The only downside to AMD’s flagship GPU is it does not get real-time ray tracing and DLSS support, two quite huge factors and probably worth the extra $100.

While we do not know everything about the graphics chip just yet, except for what AMD has told us till now. The company claims the Radeon VII has a full terabyte-per-second of memory bandwidth. It’s also 25% faster than the first gen Vega GPUs but the TDP remains almost exactly the same.

AMD did show us a demo of the card running “Devil May Cry 5” at 4k resolutions in ultra settings. The frames per second were above 60 fps, or if we quote AMD “way above 60 fps”. A few other comparisons show it performing 25% better in Fortnite, 35% better in Battlefield V and 27% better in content creation, compared to its own Radeon RX Vega 64.

The Radeon VII will start shipping from February 7 for $699. The company is also giving away free copies of Residental Evil 2, Devil May Cry 5 and the Divisions 2 with every Radeon VII. If you happen to buy a pre-built PC, the games will come pre-installed. AMD says the first to feature this GPU will be the Alienware Area 51 Threadripper.

AMD Radeon VII Specifications:

7nm Process
60 compute units
3840 stream processors running at up to 1.8GHz
16GB of HBM2 memory
1 TB/s memory bandwidth
4,096-bit memory interface
AMD FreeSync 2 HDR technology

For More CES 2019 Coverage Click Here!

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Launched with a 48MP rear camera & SD660 chipset

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January 10, 2019

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Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Launched with a 48MP rear camera & SD660 chipset

It’s January 10, and the Xiaomi event that we told you about has ended. At the event, Xiaomi launched their new entry-level smartphone, the Redmi Note 7. Highlighted by its 48MP rear camera and the SD660, the smartphone really looks compelling at its price.

Starting off with the cameras, it gets a 13MP selfie shooter, while the back features a dual camera setup. The first of which is a 48MP image sensor with an f/1.8 lens aided by a secondary 5MP camera. An LED flash sits right below the rear cameras.

Furthermore, the 48MP (Samsung GM1, 0.8-micron pixels) is capable of pixel-binning for better shots. With this, it throws out images equivalent to 12MP photos with a larger 1.6-micron pixel. The secondary camera helps with depth information.

Apart from the cameras the Redmi Note 7 possess a 6.3-inch FHD+ (19.5:9 aspect ratio) display with a water drop notch. It comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660 chipset, paired with 3/4/6GB of RAM and 32/64GB of storage.

The phone gets a 4000mAh battery which accepts 18W fast charging through a USB-C port. It also gets a headphone jack and an IR blaster. The Redmi Note 7 starts at $150 for the 3/32GB, $180 for the 4/64GB and $200 for the 6/64GB version.

Availability starts from China, with other markets following soon after. This is the first phone in the Redmi series as highlighted by their “Redmi by Xiaomi” tag on the packing and phone itself. This should help the company focus more on e-commerce and cost efficiency, while Xiaomi gets to focus on physical retailers and mid to high-end smartphones.

Also Read: Xiaomi Mobiles Price in Nepal

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Specifications:

Display: 6.3-inch FHD+ panel (19.5:9 aspect ratio) w notch
Rear Camera: 48MP f/1.8 + 5MP depth sensor
Front Camera: 13 MP
CPU: Snapdragon 660 SoC
GPU: Adreno 512
RAM: 3/4/6GB
Storage: 32/64GB
Battery: 4000mAh w 18W charging
Price: $150 (3/32GB), $180 (4/64GB), $200 (6/64GB)

Click Here to watch our coverage of CES 2019

Smartphone Import drop by 50% in Nepal, Grey market flourishing

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GadgetByte

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January 10, 2019

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Smartphone Import drop by 50% in Nepal, Grey market flourishing

After Nepal governments decision to impose an additional 5% excise duty on the import of smartphones, smartphone import have gone down considerably in Nepal. This should not come as a surprise, however. Everyone was unhappy regarding this decision. Before this excise duty, smartphone retailers only had to pay 13% tax on smartphones. And on top, there was 40% of rebate offered to them on those taxes. Which made it about 7.8% net in taxes.

But now, with the added 5% excise duty, and the rebate taken away, retailers pay a total of over 18% tax on smartphone import. Which has reduced the import of smartphones – at least legally. But the increase in grey market imports shows that many retailers might have resorted to importing these goods illegally. And this is more evident by the increase of new smartphone retailers in recent times.

Also Read: Why are smartphones overpriced in Nepal?

According to data from Birgunj Customs office, the import of phones has gone down by 50%. While the number of phone imports last fiscal year was 2,49,280 in a period of 6 months, this year the number rested at 1,10,700 in the same amount of time. According to customs officials, the number has decreased due to the additional excise duties and revoking of the rebate.

Sources also claim that since there is less strict checking at open border areas, many phones make it inside Nepal illegally. And when many smartphone shops shut down during a raid by the officials, it only confirmed the suspicions.

Meanwhile, the Mobile Phones Importers Association (MPIA) has issued a letter that they will be carrying out necessary steps to discourage grey importers and illegal means. They claim that even if grey imports are beneficial to some, and while some consumers may get phones for cheap, it hurts the nation’s economy overall. Also, there is no surety of warranties, maintenance and such. All, of this, is true for the most part as well.

They announced they would warn all grey importers. And there would be legal actions to those who do not comply and will not receive any support from the Importers Association. This would mean that any retailer with grey market supplies would not get any kind of warranty facilities, phone imports or will not be made part of any schemes.

Will this help the current trend of smartphone import and high pricing in Nepal? Only time will tell, but for now, we have yet to see the policies implemented in action.

CES 2019: HiSense U30 revealed with 48 MP camera and Snapdragon 675 chipset

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January 10, 2019

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CES 2019: HiSense U30 revealed with 48 MP camera and Snapdragon 675 chipset

We may not know HiSense for their smartphones all that well. But besides televisions, the Chinese company also makes quite good smartphones. And this time, at CES 2019, it has revealed quite an interesting phone. Dubbed the HiSense U30, this phone packs quite the interesting specs.

First, it packs Samsung’s ISOCELL Bright GM1 48 MP sensor as the primary camera sensor at the back! What’s interesting about it is not only its large 48 MP sensor, but the ISOCELL technology is known for enhancing sharpness and detail in photos. So, the large resolution and ISOCELL technology is an interesting combo! The camera is also supported by 5 MP depth sensor as well.

hisense u30 price specs — Source: Gizmochina

As for the selfie camera, this phone, too, jumped on the display-hole train. It features a 20 MP shooter on the punch-hole. As for other aspects, it has a large 6.3″ Full HD+ display with very thin bezels. But surprisingly, as is the trend, this phone still has a rear-mounted traditional fingerprint sensor.

Under the hood, the phone is powered by the new Snapdragon 675 SoC. And this makes it the very first phone to do so. The Snapdragon 675 is a gaming-based octa-core chipset with considerable improvements over the Snapdragon 670. Besides that, the phone will have two RAM configurations – 6 GB and 8 GB, which seems to be the standard these days. But the storage is fixed at 128 GB. Also, there is no expandable option.

With a huge 4500 mAh battery and supporting Quick Charge 4.0+, this is turning out to be a very good phone in the paper. And combined with all the specs it has, we might be looking at an upper-class mid-range phone. The only questionable thing is that everything is packed in a “cow-hide” leather-ish type of design at the back. But this might be one more thing to make it look more interesting, maybe.

This phone will be officially launched in March and will be available in China, Russia and some parts of Europe. Pricing is under the veil for now.

For More CES 2019 Coverage Click Here!

CES 2019: Alienware Area 51m is the world’s most powerful laptop

GadgetByte

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January 9, 2019

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CES 2019: Alienware Area 51m is the world’s most powerful laptop

The Alienware Area 51m is arguably the world’s most powerful laptop on the market right now. It’s also built on the company’s first “Legend” design language, but the best part is its upgradability.

Starting off with a Core i9-9900k desktop CPU, which is user upgradable. The laptop accepts full-sized desktop CPU, which makes upgrading hassle free. The only catch here is that CPU you want to upgrade with needs to be compatible with a Z390 motherboard.

The GPU, on the other hand, is a bit tricky. It comes with an RTX 2080 pre-installed but Dell has used their own proprietary Dell Graphics Form Factor which might or might not get supported later on. Either way, you can always plug in an external GPU amplifier, which Alienware has optimized quite well.

Seems like Alienware is fully aware of its shortcoming. According to an interview with Verge, the Co-Founder stated: “If customers don’t show demand for it, it’ll be a novelty and then it’ll fade away”.

With all of the super powerful internals, cooling might be an issue. For the same Alienware has introduced the “cutting-edge thermal and cooling technology”. The company claims this is new technology will increase performance by 50% and with 32% less volume consumption as compared to past solutions.

There are no 4k display options, the only one you get is a 17-inch 144hz FHD display with G-Sync support. It does look really nice with very minimal bezels and the quality of the display itself is pretty great. It also gets Tobii Eye Tracing technology, if you are into those.

The Alienware Area 51m starts at $2,549 and will be available from January 29.

Alienware Area 51m
Display	17-inch 144Hz G-Sync (1,920 x 1080)
CPU	Up to Intel Core i9-9900K
GPU	Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
RAM	Up to 64GB DDR4
Storage	2x 1TB M.2 SSD, 1x 2.5-inch 1TB SSD
Keyboard	Alienware TactX
Ports	USB-A 3.0, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, RJ45, Graphics Amplifier, Thunderbolt 3, Headphone jack
Battery	90Wh
Dimensions	410 x 402 x 27.6-31.2 mm, 4.4Kgs

For More CES 2019 Coverage Click Here!

CAN Info-Tech 2019 starting January 29th in Kathmandu

GadgetByte

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January 9, 2019

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CAN Info-Tech 2019 starting January 29th in Kathmandu

The 25th edition of annual CAN Info-Tech 2019 is to go live starting 29th of January (Magh 15th) this year in Kathmandu. This time, the event will be named as Subisu CAN Into-Tech 2019 in association with e-Sewa, and as usual, it will take place at Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu. The 6-day event will run from 29th January to 3rd February.

We all know CAN Info-Tech to be a platform for companies to sell and advertise products rather than exhibit new technologies and ideas. However, this time around, the exhibition will include technology used in Education, Agriculture, Health and Tourism as well. Of course, alongside this, we will be able to see new software, security systems, and such as well. In addition, the exhibition will also include a Nepal-made Robot for daily life this time. That should be a bit more interesting.

To make the event more interesting, there are various schemes for the visitors too. Visitors might be able to win various gift-hampers and vouchers every three hours through a lucky draw. Furthermore, 1 lucky winner will get a bumper gift hamper every day. And what’s more? Visitors can take their old electronics to get attractive discounts or gift hampers in various exhibits.

The 6-day event will have 175 stalls that comprise Hardware and Maintenance, Power Solutions, Mobile Accessories, ISPs, ICT & Training Institutes, Software solutions, Payment solutions, etc. And as usual, ticket pricing is Rs.100 for regular visitors and Rs.50 for students. And on Jan 31, which is “Business Day”, the ticket is Rs.100 for every visitor alike.

However, this time around, to promote online payment, there is a facility for purchasing your tickets online via e-Sewa. And those who do so will get a 10% discount on their tickets as well.

CES 2019: The Dell G7 and G5 are two properly upgraded gaming laptops

GadgetByte

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January 9, 2019

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CES 2019: The Dell G7 and G5 are two properly upgraded gaming laptops

Last year Dell streamlined its Inspiron gaming lineup with the new G-Series tagline. It wasn’t a huge upgrade apart from the inclusion of 8th Gen Intel processors. Most of the design language, thermal solutions, including the display and keyboard remained exactly the same. Seems like Dell wanted to clear out the naming hassle before they gave their gaming series a proper upgrade including a 4-zone customizable RGB keyboard.

In comes the new Dell G5 and the Dell G7, a proper upgrade to the whole Inspiron Gaming series since the very beginning (Inspiron 7559). That’s saying a lot but it’s true. The Dell G7 sported the best GPU in the Inspiron lineup up till now. That was the GTX 1060 Max-Q, which has now been upgraded to an RTX 2080. Certainly, we do not know how the RTX 2080 performs, but even a poor guess shows it should be at least twice as fast if not more.

Dell Inspiron G7

The new Inspiron G7 comes in two different sizes, one with a 15-inch (7590) panel and the other is 17-inches (7790). For those who were excited about the OLED panel, it’s only coming to the 15-inch variant with UHD resolutions at 60Hz. The FHD panel, on the other hand, comes in both 60Hz and 144Hz for both the 15-inch and 17-inch models. Here is a table I made explaining this in a better way.

Dell G7 Display
OLED	IPS
15-inch panel		17-inch panel
60Hz refresh rate		144Hz refresh rate
UHD resolutions (3840×2160 pixels)		FHD resolutions (1920×1080 pixels)

Moving on to internal specs, the Dell G7 is now available in three different CPU choices. The first is an 8th Gen Quad-Core i5-8300HQ, the six-core i7-8750H or the overclockable i9-8950HK. That’s quite the selection for all the potential customers out there. If we talk GPUs, it’s an even larger selection. GPU choices include the GTX 1050Ti, RTX 2060, RTX 2070 Max-Q or the RTX 2080 Max-Q. Seems like Dell is going all out with the customizations.

The GPU and CPU can be paired with either 8 or 16GB of RAM with you can expand later on. As for storage, you get dual storage options with a maximum of 1TB NVMe SSD and 2TB HDD. If you thought these were the only customization options, well you are wrong. Dell is actually letting you choose between a 4-cell 60Whr battery or a larger 6-cell 90Wh battery on both the models. Sadly, with all these customization options, Dell is only offering one color option, Abyss Grey.

Connectivity includes Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band Gigabit Killer Ethernet, and Dual-band Wi-Fi on all models. Ports include HDMI 2.0, 3x USB 3.1, microSD card reader, wedge lock and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Thunderbolt 3 (USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C) is also available, but only on RTX enabled versions. Pricing for the base models begins at $1,099 for the Dell G7 15 while the G7 17 starts at $1,380.

Dell G5

The Dell G5 offers relatively fewer options to choose from, the first being it’s 15-inch display. The same can be configured at FHD@60Hz, FHD@144Hz or UHD@60Hz. The CPU options also follow the same, with either a Core i5-8300HQ or the Core i7-8750H. However, no compromises have been made in the GPU department. The choices still include the GTX 1050Ti, RTX 2060, RTX 2070 Max-Q and the fastest of all the RTX 2080 Max-Q.

The Dell G5’s RAM, storage, connectivity, and ports selections also remain identical to the newer G7. The one aspect the G5 outshines it’s elder brother is the option to choose from two colors instead of one. The regular G5 will come in a Deep Space Black Shade color, while the G5 SE, which probably stands for “Special Edition” is also available in Alpine White. Pricing starts at $999 for the base model.

All variants of the laptop will go on sale starting January 29th, 2019.

For More CES 2019 Coverage Click Here!

CES 2019: Sony’s first 8K TV is very huge!

Pratima Adhikari

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January 9, 2019

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CES 2019: Sony’s first 8K TV is very huge!

This year at CES, if there is something common in all the TVs being launched is, huge and 8K. Yes, we saw TVs from Samsung and LG recently and popular TV manufacturer Sony has also boarded the same train! And if this year’s offering is something like the prototype we saw last year, it should be a masterpiece! So, this time at CES 2019, the company has put forward the Z9G, Sony’s first 8K TV that seems really really huge!

The first thing that takes away the show is definitely the resolution. 8K is a lot of it and so much in a small size would be wasted. So, the company has brought to the table a very huge one that is sized at 85 and 98 inches. Apart from these, Sony also has hinted that this year’s models are updated with the latest image processors and X- Reality PRO technology to be optimized especially for 8K content. This ensures that all the content looks as good as possible, regardless of their native resolution.

Also Read: Samsung 8K TV at CES 2019

These products have been launched under Sony’s Master series and also feature Netflix Calibrated Mode and IMAX Enhanced.

But last year, Sony had introduced the OLED Acoustic Surface Audio technology that made the screen act as the speaker too. Unfortunately, that technology is not supported by LCD panels, so the Z9G has four front-facing speakers, two at the front and two along the bottom. Sony claims that these speakers have the same effect as MicroLED speakers.

CES 2019: Dell says it’s new XPS 13 is the perfect laptop

GadgetByte

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January 9, 2019

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CES 2019: Dell says it’s new XPS 13 is the perfect laptop

Dell has had quite a presence in this year’s CES 2019. It’s safe to say they have successfully impressed everyone with their new Alienware and Inspiron gaming lineup. What could make it better? The new Dell XPS 13 2019 with an all-new frost anodized exterior color option.

The new XPS 13 comes with an HD webcam just above that 13-inch panel with support for up to 4k resolutions. That webcam is 2.25mm in size, which allows the laptop to still maintain it’s Infinity Edge display. It weighs just 1.3kgs and packs a 52Whr battery which Dell claims should last 21 hours (under certain usage patterns).

The laptop comes with Gore Insulation Technology which provides a better thermal conductivity as opposed to air in a thin, flexible format. It basically keeps the XPS 13 cooler than it’s predecessors. As for ports, it gets two ThunderBolt 3 ports, one display port, an SD-card reader, a USB Type-C and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

“We’re driving innovation and delivering devices and experiences to make work and play more fluid and enjoyable”
– Dell

The processor department doesn’t exactly see an upgrade either. We are yet to see Intel launch it’s 9th gen mobile processors. For now, the 8th Gen processors are paired with 4GB to 16GB of 2133MHz RAM and 128GB to 2TB of fast storage. A few improvements include Dolby Vision support for HDR videos, optional fingerprint reader, and an adjusted hinge for easier one hand usage.

Dell XPS 13 2019 Price, Specs and Availability

So, do you think Dell has “finally perfected the product”? We certainly think so. The new Dell XPS 13 will be available from February with prices starting at $899.99. Majority of it should ship through Dell.com but seems like Microsoft store will also be selling it in limited quantities.

For More CES 2019 Coverage Click Here!

CES 2019: Razer launches new Raptor monitor, updates Razer Blade 15

GadgetByte

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January 9, 2019

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CES 2019: Razer launches new Raptor monitor, updates Razer Blade 15

With all the gaming laptop launches in CES, did you really expect Razer to not join the party? The then gaming peripheral manufacturer debuted its first laptop, the Razer Edge gaming tablet computer back in CES 2013. The highlight announcement was the Razer Raptor, a new gaming monitor, alongside an incremental upgrade over it’s existing Razer Blade 15. Spoiler Alert!! it gets the new RTX enhancements.

Razer Raptor Gaming Monitor

Razer just took the wraps off an all-new eSports oriented gaming monitor, the Razer Raptor. It’s a 27-inch IPS panel with a 4mn response rate. Whatever the specs may show, it’s cable management system is definitely the highlight here. The monitor shows five cables running across it’s back in the most perfect way, at least the renders appear that way.

The 4mn response rate can be reduced to a perfect 1ms with motion blur reduction. The Raptor is, however not a 4k monitor but sports a humble 2560×1440 resolution (WQHD) display. It can reach a maximum refresh rate of up to 144Hz and supports up to 95% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Maximum brightness reaches up to 420-nits which is probably more than enough for indoor usage. The Raptor also supports HDR contents.

Sadly, if you just bought the new Turing graphics processors, this monitor only supports AMD’s free sync technology. You could look at Nvidia’s new Adaptive sync technology for a fix. Which you might give there is really no other monitor quite like this one. I mean it has a seriously thin 2.3mm bezels on all three side, except for the relatively thick bezels at the bottom.

It gets the Chroma-enabled base so you can sync all your Razer peripherals like mouse, keyboard headset or mousepad’s lighting with your monitor. The cable management you see in the picture above shows green lines running across it’s back. If you were wondering what they are, it’s the HDMI, Display Port, a USB port and finally the power port.

An actual over the top feature is the panel’s 90-degrees upwards tilt so you don’t need to turn your monitor while hooking up a cable. The base is just a big piece of aluminum providing the panel a firm stance. The Razer Raptor is priced at $699 and will be in 2019 but an exact date hasn’t been revealed yet.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced

Razer announced a refresh to last year’s Blade 15 with an RTX GPU overhaul. The rejuvenation includes new display technologies, one of which featured an experimental OLED panel. A backup display showed off an FHD@240Hz panel. Sadly other components remain the same, which means it gets a Core i7-8750H, 16GB RAM and 512GB of SSD. Pricing for the new Razer Blade 15 Advanced starts at $2,299 for the base model while sales will begin January 29th.

For More CES 2019 Coverage Click Here!

AMD Radeon VII Specifications:

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Specifications:

Alienware Area 51m

Dell Inspiron G7

Dell G7 Display

Dell G5

Dell XPS 13 2019 Price, Specs and Availability

Razer Raptor Gaming Monitor

Razer Blade 15 Advanced