Gaming

Sony has launched its latest 4K projectors aimed at the home cinema market. The two new SXRD units are rated for native 4K resolutions and have the same X1 processor found in many high-end BRAVIA TVs. The higher-end model has an ARC-F lens for image quality that goes right to the edge of the window it throws.

The iQOO 7 was the cheapest phone to launch with the top-end Snapdragon 888 SoC on its Chinese-market launch. Now, the OEM has announced that it will venture into its first international market soon. It will be joined by a "new" vanilla variant with a different processor in India later in April 2021.

Popular YouTube tech channel ZONEofTECH has produced great-looking renders of how the Nintendo Switch 2 (Pro) could end up looking. Utilizing the numerous rumors that have already appeared in regard to the widely expected Switch sequel, the content creators came up with a device that is instantly recognizable as a Switch but with Pro modifications.

The Legion C7 can run all current titles smoothly at 1080p. It comes with the Core i7-10875H, RTX 2070 Max-Q, 32 GB of dual-channel RAM, 1 TB NVMe SSD, and a Thunderbolt 3 port. What is so special about it is that it never becomes too hot or too loud.

HP's latest gaming laptop is a significant improvement over the older Omen 15 model. For just over $1000 USD, this is a well-rounded deal save for the measly 8 GB of system RAM that's thankfully user upgradeable.

An eagle-eyed Facebook user has photographed what appears to be a mother lode of MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Ventus 3X OC graphics cards. An entire pallet of said hardware is en route to the U.S., where it is expected to hit shelves after its tentative launch sometime in mid-May.

Not only does Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 have a reputation for being extremely fast, but also for being very hot. Asus has already demonstrated that it can cool its smartphones excellently in the past, but the new chip poses a challenge even for the gaming king.

A rumored Ubisoft roadmap has appeared on social media apparently revealing some game release dates, schedules, and IP details. It seems both Far Cry 6 and Skull & Bones could be arriving sooner than expected, while Avatar joins a new Assassin’s Creed game in 2022. The most believable aspect is that Splinter Cell is still being swept under the carpet.

Redmi has affirmed that it will launch its first "gaming phone" in 2021 - perhaps even this month, should the latest rumors prove true. As if to give this idea more weight, a device with its alleged model number is now approved for sale by the Chinese regulator 3C. Its new certificate also suggests it might launch with the same charging tech as the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra flagship.

A new blog post from Sony has spilt the beans about what Days Gone has in store for us on PC. It will support ultrawide monitors, third-party controllers, unlocked framerates, and more. It retails for US$49.99 and is up for pre-order on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Sony has released a new update for the PlayStation 5, its ninth-generation games console. The latest update is a big one and contains numerous fixes and improvements. Some of these include the ability to game at 1080p and 120 Hz, extended HDMI-CEC support and the option of disabling HDR, among others.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 will certainly pack a punch, what with its choice of Tiger Lake-H45 processors and NVIDIA Ampere GPUs. Amazon China has now shown what the upcoming 16:10 laptop looks like from multiple angles and has confirmed almost every specification about the flagship model.

NVIDIA's CFO Colette Kress has spoken out about the ongoing graphics card shortage again. Apparently, demand is expected to outstrip supply for 'most of the year', which is another way of saying that there will be no GPUs at MSRP until next year.

The brand-new G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Elite DDR4 memory kits come with a multi-faceted crystalline design across the heat spreader and feature CL16 to CL22 timings, stock frequencies between 3600 MHz and 5333 MHz, and come in capacities between 16 GB and 64 GB. Shipments should begin next month.

The new JiangXing X15 budget gaming laptop from Colorful comes with i5-10300H and i7-10870H processor options, which can be coupled with 8 or 16 GB of RAM (upgradable to 32 GB) and 512 GB SSD storage, plus an Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti dGPU. Even though these are sub-$1,000 models, Colorful still included high-quality 15.6-inch 1080p IPS displays with 144 Hz refresh rate and 100% sRGB coverage.

The same 12-liter chassis from previous Corsair One mini ITX models can now be equipped with up to an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or Intel Core i9-11900K, plus a desktop-grade RTX 3080 GPU. The systems also include 32 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, 1 TB NVMe + 2 TB HDD storage combo and quad video outputs. The Intel models come with a Thunderbolt 3 port.

Gigabyte has released a trio of AORUS gaming monitors, the AORUS FI32U, AORUS FV43U and the AORUS FO48U. All are 4K monitors with HDMI 2.1 ports, but only the flagship 48-inch model has an OLED panel. The three monitors should deliver excellent colour accuracy though, and can output at up to 144 Hz in most cases.

AMD has released its Ryzen 5000G and Ryzen 5000GE-series of desktop processors with integrated graphics. There are currently three SKUs in each series, with the Ryzen 7 5700G being the top-end model. AMD claims the new OEM-only Cezanne Zen 3 desktop APUs have “the world’s fastest graphics in a desktop processor” with the presence of up to a Radeon Vega 8 iGPU.

Acer is now offering select configurations of its refreshed Nitro 5 lineup in India. The Nitro 5 will be available in both Intel and AMD flavors. The Intel SKUs feature a Core i5-11300H with GTX 1650 graphics while the AMD variants are powered by a Ryzen 5 5600H with a choice of either the RTX 3060 or the GTX 1650. Unfortunately, the higher spec options in the global variants are not yet available for the Indian market.

The newest installment in the Pokemon Snap franchise, titled New Pokemon Snap, is set to hit the Nintendo Switch on April 30. The game is essentially a carbon copy of the 1999 original; players travel through a preset path and snap photos of Pokemon that pop up. The title is available for preorder now.

Alternatively, users can spend $50 more for the GeForce GTX 1650 Ti version for roughly 10 percent faster graphics performance. The IdeaPad 3 is one of the least expensive gaming laptops you can get with a 120 Hz display.

Square Enix launched a public beta of Final Fantasy XIV (14) for the PlayStation 5 today. The public beta is open to all and free of charge. The PlayStation 5 version of the popular MMORPG will include new features like support for 4K/60 fps gameplay, 3D audio, and more.

The PS5 is all set to receive its newest software update, which contains a mix of major and minor QoL updates. One can now move PS5 games to an external hard drive, fine-tune their game library, pre-download game updates, and more. However, users still cannot expand the console's internal storage via the included NVMe SSD slot.

The highly regarded RPG Persona 5 Royal is allegedly coming to Xbox, Xbox Game Pass, and PC soon. The game, which was released in 2019 as an enhanced version of 2016’s Persona 5, is currently a PlayStation exclusive. The purportedly leaked Persona 5 Royal information has been met by a reasonable amount of skepticism.

A CD Projekt Red executive has confirmed that the company plans on supporting Cyberpunk 2077 for quite some time, as it wants the game to 'sell for years'. We're probably looking at a mix of free and paid DLC expansions, timely QoL improvements and patches to top up the game with fresh content.

MediaTek and Nvidia have announced a new partnership that will see the former’s Arm-based CPUs married with the latter’s GPUs. It will see Nvidia’s RTX graphics joined with Arm-based PCs and laptops, including Chromebooks, for the first time, substantially increasing their graphics performance.

Philips has introduced the 275M8RZ, a new gaming monitor from its Momentum series. The Momentum 275M8RZ has a peak 165 Hz refresh rate, DisplayHDR 400 certification and a native 1440p resolution.

Sony is cooking up a big push into mobile gaming with a new mobile gaming strategy taking shape. The company’s plans have been revealed in a job posting for a new Head of Mobile, PlayStation Studios ad to be located in either San Mateo or Los Angeles, California.

The Xiaomi brand Redmi has indicated it will launch its first-ever Android phone for gaming in 2021. According to the leaker Digital Chat Station, it might be here sooner rather than later. The device is also now slated to launch in India as well as China, and to start at a markedly low ~US$300.

Even though the non-X processors come with a 61.5% lower TDP, 700 MHz lower base clock and 100 MHz lower boost clocks, the performance loss is barely noticeable with the UserBenchmark suite versus the 5900X models. The Ryzen 9 5900 is an OEM-only model and is now available in select pre-built gaming rigs like the Alienware Aurora.

The OnePlus 9R was originally presented as a "gaming" alternative variant of the OEM's latest flagship Android smartphone series that was exclusive to India. However, the company has now announced that it is to be available in China as well. The Snapdragon 870-powered device will debut in its new market in mid-April 2021.

Creative has announced the new Sound Blaster GC7, its latest DAC. The company has tailored its premium DAC for gamers and streamers, but it has also included its Super X-Fi headphone holography.

Even if Intel manages to deliver on these impressive leaked specs, does it really matter when the cards are scheduled to release a year after Nvidia's Ampere launch? Still seems like a good start, considering Intel has not tried its hand at a gaming discrete GPU in decades. However, Intel needs to make sure we are not seeing yet another paper launch.

Renowned YouTuber and smartphone breaker JerryRigEverything put the newly-launched Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 through the paces. The smartphone was quick to break in his bend test, much like the Asus ROG Phone 5. The area around the antenna lines seems to be the weak point, and gamers would do well to avoid applying pressure to that area.

Various models of the upcoming Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 laptop have been popping up on a number of retailer sites around the world. The Zephyrus M16, which is a 16-inch laptop with a 16:10 display, will be fitted with Intel’s Tiger Lake 11th Gen CPUs and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30 series dGPUs. Prices currently reach as high as €2,699 (US$3,209).

The quality-of-life update turns the integrated controller into commonly used mouse and keyboard buttons. They're not easily customizable, however, which is a bummer.

The exterior of the Alienware m15 R4 remains unchanged compared to the predecessors, but it reveals new strengths on the inside. While performance is beyond reproach, old weaknesses are also present.

Nintendo has released firmware version 12.0.0 to the Switch and Switch Lite, which fixes a save data backup feature present on firmware version 11.0.1. However, version 12.0.0 also adds a new setting that may hint at a future Switch console's capabilities.

Eve Devices announced its Spectrum as the world's first monitor with a QHD/240Hz option back in January 2021. Unfortunately, the OEM has also just stated that this SKU will not ship until July 9, 2021. Furthermore, the 4K/144Hz model that was to start shipping in April of this year has also been pushed back again.

Lenovo's second gaming smartphone, the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2, is finally official. Some of its key specs include a 6.9-inch 144Hz AMOLED screen, up to 18GB of RAM, a pop-up selfie camera and a massive 5,500mAh battery. Prices start at EUR 799 for the base variant, which will be up for grabs in May.

The latest high-end video cards from NVIDIA are priced really high and the prices of custom designs make the US$2,999.99 tag on a GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition that has just been sold on eBay look like a bargain. For example, a German seller is down to the last ASUS GeForce RTX 3090 ROG STRIX, after selling 11 for over US$3,900 each.

Patch 1.2 for Cyberpunk 2077 is slowly being dissected, but it seems to improve the game less on last-generation consoles than people had anticipated. In fact, most of the improvements are only noticeable on the PlayStation 4 Pro, and that continues to have its problems with playing the game properly.

An unboxed copy of the game Super Mario Bros for the legacy Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console has reportedly sold at auction for US$660,000. This is the largest final asking price for a video game yet. The item in question was a 1986 release in rare condition and packaging.

The HP OMEN 15z is coming to Europe following its US release, according to a new report. The 15.6-inch laptop combines AMD Ryzen 5000 APUs and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs with a 144 Hz display, which should deliver significantly better performance than current models.

The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 includes AMD Ryzen 5000 APUs, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs and CherryMX mechanical keyboard switches. You can configure the 15.6-inch gaming laptop with up to a 1440p and 240 Hz display, 32 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and 6 TB of PCIe storage. Thankfully, Alienware has gone with the 115 W variants of the RTX 3060 and RTX 3070.