Gaming

(Update: It's the Huntsman Mini) Razer is set to launch its first keyboard without any NumPad or arrow keys on July 14 at 8 AM PST. Gamers who may have been turned off by Razer's catalog of full-size keyboards may finally get what they're looking for.

The ROG Strix Scar 17 from Asus not only has a fast 300 Hz display, but also especially powerful components. All the hardware is packed into a boldly designed case with many lighting elements.

Although the official price and pre-order information for the PS5 Blu-ray console and PS5 Digital Edition console has yet to be revealed, PlayStation fans can still be prepared for the inevitable pre-order frenzy when Sony finally gives the green light. We have compiled a list of retailers from many countries around the world to aid in the quest for landing a successful PS5 pre-order.

If 15.6-inch is too small and 17.3-inch is too big, then this 16.1-inch option might be up your alley. HP is testing the waters with its reasonably-priced Pavilion Gaming 16 to gauge demand before investing further in the 16-inch screen size.

Microsoft’s all-new Flight Simulator is landing on PCs on August 18 following a lengthy public alpha and beta testing period. The game encompasses the entire planet with over 37,000 airports, 1.5 billion buildings and 2 trillion trees, mountains roads, rivers and other physical details captured in the expansive title.

PS5 watchers have been comparing the device’s weight with other consoles, with Sony’s next-gen hardware being the heavyweight contender. Close-up photos of some of the accessories have been revealing subtle design touches and gamers can get the PlayStation 5 in almost any color they want thanks to skins and wraps.

The poster of Far Cry 6 contains fine print that the game will run at 4K UHD only on the Xbox One X and Xbox Series X consoles naturally causing some consternation among PlayStation 5 (PS5) fans. However, there's no need to worry as this wording only pertains specifically to how Xbox advertises 4K and has no bearing whatsoever on how the game would perform on the PS5.

NVIDIA’s top-end Turing card, the US$1400 GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, couldn’t even run Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs Legion at 1080p/60 FPS with ray-tracing effects turned on. This leads to speculation that users might need Ampere or Big Navi cards to properly experience ray-tracing in next-generation titles.

Rumors are coming in that NVIDIA may discontinue production of high-end Turing GPUs from the RTX 2070 all the way to the RTX 2080 Ti including the RTX 2070 Super and the RTX 2080 Super in the wake of the expected launch of Ampere in September. This delisting process coupled with low output from TSMC and increasing demand from cryptocurrency miners is expected to result in a shortage of Turing GPUs leading to inflated prices.

Lenovo's mid-range gaming laptop brings all modern computer games smoothly onto the matte 120 Hz display (Full HD, IPS). At a price of about 800 Euros (~$903), it doesn't make that big of a dent in your wallet and can boast a good price-performance ratio. Good: The laptop has room for two NVMe SSDs.

A fan-made PS5 promo clip has been racking up the compliments thanks to a starry cast of characters appearing to have a good time on the next-gen console. Another debunked fake render has highlighted just how much fans want a black variant. An ex-Xbox One owner manages to place a "pre-order" for a PS5 Digital Edition console.

A new tip about when Sony might reveal the PS5 price, pre-order, and release date information has been posted. This time, the same source that recently announced a potential date of Monday July 13 for the announcement of these key PlayStation 5 details has now also offered up specific times for gamers to make a note of.
The source has now corrected his mistake with the times.

The Legion displays all games smoothly on its matte 15.6-inch display (120 Hz FHD, IPS). The integrated GPU is activated as a standard but can be deactivated with the click of a button. The battery life is very good as well.

Ubisoft has all but confirmed the launch of the next game in the Far Cry series, as well as some particularly important aspects of the title: its new location and main villain. The studio has indicated there may be more details at its imminent Forward event, which takes place tomorrow (July 12, 2020).

The ASUS ROG Phone 3 recently passed through the Taiwanese NCC certification process. Thanks to its NCC listing, we now know that ASUS’ upcoming gaming phone will feature a 6000 mAh battery, Qualcomm’s premium Snapdragon 865 Plus and a hefty 512GB of storage.

AMD describes its latest Radeon Software Adrenalin version (20.7.1) as one of its most extensive stability-focused update in 2020 thus far. The new download also introduces the AMD Bug Report Tool (the latest method to report bugs directly to the OEM) and adds support to the recently-released title Disintegration.

If you're looking for as much CPU power as possible in the price range below 1,500 Euros (~$1,696), the MSI Bravo 17 is exactly the right choice. The 17-inch gaming laptop is powered by the lightning-fast octa-core Ryzen 7 4800H.

Lenovo's first gaming phone has been implicated in a Geekbench leak before. Now, this has happened again - although this time, the purported device in question has double the RAM compared to before. Its specs point to the Snapdragon 865, although it is now thought to have the Plus variant of this SoC.

Zhaoxin plans to release a 28 nm discrete GPU with 75 W TDP by 2021. Judging by the specs, this may be a mid-range solution that could perform in line with the GTX 970 cards launched back in 2014.

Lenovo's 15.6-inch laptop is equipped with an Ice Lake Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM (dual channel mode) and a GeForce-MX350 GPU. Despite this powerful hardware, the IdeaPad's battery life is very satisfactory.

Death Stranding lands on PC on July 14, with the game headed to the Epic Games Store and Steam. To mark the arrival of the game, NVIDIA is giving away copies with RTX 20 series GPU purchases. The promotion runs until July 29 and is eligible for desktops, graphics cards and laptop RTX 20 series purchases.

Sony has revealed the PS5 games box art with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales being the first title to be shown off. Box art designs for both Horizon Forbidden West and GTA 5 have also been shared. A supposed real-life image of the DualSense controller has appeared online…and it looks huge!

Creative Technology has announced its latest headset, the Creative SXFI Gamer. Featuring replaceable ear cups, RGB lighting and USB Type-C connectivity, the SXFI Gamer retails for US$129.99 and £114.99 in the UK. The headset also includes the company's new CommanderMic and is compatible with Gen2 of its Super X-Fi technology.

Dell launched a new XPS desktop today. The desktop can be configured with high-end specs like a 10th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU and either an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super or AMD Radeon RX 5700XT. The desktop is also designed to be upgraded by the end-user.

Dell has introduced new 27-inch and 32-inch monitors in its S-series lineup tailored primarily towards multimedia consumption and not-so-demanding gamers. The 27-inch lineup is comprised of 2K and 4K IPS monitors with support for AMD FreeSync while the 32-inch variant is a curved 4K VA panel.

With the entry-level and lower-mid-range RTX 3000 GPUs already in production, we could expect a complete Ampere lineup by late 2020. This way, Nvidia can better counter AMD's RDNA2 GPUs that threaten to take over the gaming GPU market in Q3 this year.

Ultimate Chicken Horse, Neo Cab, and Endless World are now playable while existing games like Apex Legends will be compatible with Nvidia Highlights.

NVIDIA may be on the verge of releasing its new Ampere architecture. However, the latest Steam hardware survey reveals that many gamers have yet to move to the company's Turing architecture. Instead, Pascal generation cards remain dominant, as does a preference for gaming at 1080p.

GPD's goal-based Indiegogo campaign for its 8-inch Win Max console-control-enabled mini notebook has ended in triumph, raking in about US$2.8 million from over 3,000 backers. However, the device is still available on this platform for the next few days at a price closer to its eventual retail cost. It's not all good news for the OEM, though: some early adopters claim that its speedy 65W charger has failed on them.

A PlayStation-related patent has been doing the rounds on social media with many suspecting it could point to full PS5 backwards compatibility (BC) with the PS1, PS2, PS3, and PS4. Although the mystery around the patent has likely been solved, there are still some who question why Mark Cerny’s PlayStation 5 BC graphic looks incomplete.

Shengchang Chiang - also often known as Charles Chiang - has been reported dead. He had taken over as the chief executive officer (CEO) of MSI in January 2019, having served as the company's head of its desktop division prior to that. Chiang reportedly fell to his untimely demise at the OEM's Taipei headquarters.

In what looks to be a pro-consumer move, purported Microsoft guidelines prevent publishers from selling “next-gen upgrades” as paid DLC. This means that Xbox Series X owners might not have to double-dip on cross-gen titles to get enhanced visuals and features.

Qualcomm has now unveiled its newest flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 865 Plus. The Snapdragon 865 Plus offers 10% better graphical performance and a higher peak CPU performance versus the Snapdragon 865, as well as significantly better Wi-Fi hardware, and will debut on the Asus ROG Phone 3.

NVIDIA and its partners are continuing to release TU106 and TU116 versions of the GeForce GTX 1650. At least three new partners have now released new GTX GeForce 1650 models. All include the Turing NVENC encoder, which promises to encode videos up to 15% more efficiently while minimising artefacts.

A report on Weibo has revealed the Lenovo Legion smartphone racking up a huge score on AnTuTu in part thanks to its still apparently non-existent Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus processor. The score of 648,871 points puts the Lenovo Legion way beyond any of the average scores of devices in the Snapdragon 865-dominated AnTuTu flagship performance chart.

Sega has unveiled another retro console. Called the Astro City Mini, the mini arcade machine comes with 36 games pre-installed, including Altered Beast and Virtua Fighter among others.

Vizio has announced new additions to its collection of soundbars, which are available either now or later in 2020. They are headlined by the Elevate 5.1.4, which stood out in its category at CES 2020 due to its Adaptive Height Speakers. These rotating parts activate to deploy content with the high-end audio tech it supports.

The 3 Pro is Black Shark's Snapdragon 865-powered 2020 flagship that boasts a 7.1-inch OLED 1440p display. The Xiaomi gaming brand has declared international pre-orders for this device open as of today (July 7, 2020). Its price is set at just under US$900 on its new platform.

8BitDo has presented a new controller for Microsoft's upcoming Project xCloud gaming platform. The controller is based on the popular SN30 Pro and features fully customisable buttons. 8BitDo has announced a Mobile Gaming Clip for Xbox controllers too, which will come bundled with the controller and will be available to purchase separately.

Be glad, PlayStation 4 owners; a new jailbreak is on the way. Developer @theflow0 has now announced the existence of a kernel exploit on PS4 running firmware 7.02 or older. The kernel exploit currently has to be chained with a firmware 6.72 WebKit exploit.

Despite the ongoing pandemic and slow death of malls, Razer will chug through the thick and thin with its retail locations in direct contrast to Microsoft.

A Dutch retailer has posted astounding pre-order prices for PS5 games that will shock those planning on a next-gen console purchase. Titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Godfall, and Horizon Forbidden West have all been priced at €74.99 (US$85). The price of the PlayStation 5 hardware is expected to be around US$499/£449/€499 for the Blu-ray model.

ASUS has confirmed that it will be launching the ROG Phone 3 this month, the successor to last year's ROG Phone 2. The device, which is thought to include a 6,000 mAh battery, has already been seen in a leaked hands-on video and at the TENAA. The ROG Phone 3 should have a high-refresh-rate AMOLED panel and perhaps even a Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset.

It has been rumored that Huawei will be releasing its own Display ranges of monitors set at three different price points, and a 32-inch model is expected to be part of the lineup. It’s likely Huawei Display monitors will target the space that will be occupied by Redmi Display and Xiaomi Mi Display external monitors.

A Reddit user has offered up an interesting insight into what Sony’s plans could be in regard to the PS5 price. It’s arguably one of the most crucial factors for the manufacturer to decide on, as Microsoft has more leverage in this key area. A Nielsen survey suggested random pricing that could give an idea of how the PlayStation 5 might be priced.