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Intel Teams Up with AMD to Make New Core H-Series Processors for Notebooks

By
Anson
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Intel-AMD New Core H-Series Processors
Photo from Intel

Big News! Intel announced its latest partnership with AMD to manufacture more powerful processors on 6 November. The two major chip makers are aiming to target their competitor, Nvidia, at the notebooks and small form-factor PC markets. The new Intel-AMD processors will be called the Core H-series, being a part of the 8th generation Core series product line.


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Intel:

New Intel Core Processor Combines High-Performance CPU with Custom Discrete Graphics from AMD to Enable Sleeker, Thinner Devices


The new processor will be implementing Intel’s new design and packaging technologies, enabling the over 50% reduction in silicon size. It will be consist of an Intel-made CPU and a internal AMD Radeon GPU, which is essentially combining each other’s advantages in their respective area. The chip is designed to run high-demand/intensive PC games, while maintaining or even slimming down the physical size of the machine (laptop).

The H-series processors will pair the semi-custom AMD GPU with second generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2) in a single package. New power sharing framework is also added to increase power efficiency and temperature control.

According to AMD, the new H-series processors are not directly competing with its recently launched Ryzen Mobile APUs. The Ryzen APUs are tailored for ultra-thin notebooks, that can have decent graphics/gaming performance without sacrificing the physical dimensions of the devices. They are powerful, but yet be able to handle more intensive games. And the Intel-AMD processors are aimed specifically for serious gaming performance in a slimmer package, but not ultra-thin.

We should see huge performance improvement in both ultra-thin and dedicated gaming notebooks. More competitions means more innovation incentives.

Intel teased that there will be more information in the first quarter of 2018. Check out Intel’s announcement at its website.



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Twitter Finally Raises The Tweets’ Character Limit to 280

By
Anson
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Twitter Tweets Character Limit to 280


Back in September 2017, Twitter tested the new 280-character limit tweets with a small group of people. You can find a workaround to use that feature, but it is not officially released, kind of in a “beta” stage. Now, Twitter is rolling out this update to the public globally, doubling the existing 140-character limit.



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Twitter:

Our goal was to make this possible while ensuring we keep the speed and brevity that makes Twitter, Twitter.


The new character limit for tweets will be available in almost every language, except for three Asian languages: Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Because more meanings and ideas can be packed into a single character for those three specific languages.

According to Twitter’s blog post, about 9% of tweets in English hit the original 140-character limit in the past. However, with the new higher character limit, only 1% will hit the full 280 characters. Twitter believes this can help users to tweet their expression more easily, without the need of constantly editing or composing within the limit.

For people worrying about a more cluttered timeline when browsing, Twitter said only about 5% of the tweets were longer than 140 characters and 2% over 190 characters, during the previous testing period. The reading experience should not have a big difference, as tweets with image or poll already take up more space than 280-character tweets.

The limit indicator is also tweaked. Instead of showing the remaining character count, it is a circle ring which fills up when you type more characters.

You should be able to tweet with the new character limit right now.


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Apple Teaches Users to Maximize The Lifespan of iPhone X’s OLED Display

By
Anson
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Apple iPhone X OLED Display
Screen Capture from Apple

It is no big secret that OLED is one of the most advanced display technologies currently, outperforming the existing IPS LCD display panels in both contrast and color vibrancy. Large smartphone manufacturers start equipping their flagship model phone with OLED or AMOLED screens. Apple now also put a 5.8-inch OLED panel on its latest high-end smartphone, the $999 USD iPhone X. However, screen burn-in and image retention are the main issues affecting all OLED screen for quite a long time. And Apple explained the details of iPhone’s display in a recently published document.



Screen Burn-in

When you are constantly displaying a fixed image (especially in high contrast) on a screen, part of the display will have a noticeable color shift that cannot be recovered by any means. For OLED, it is caused by the individual LEDs’ degradation, that it no longer outputs the correct colors and brightness. Screen burn-in can also affect other display types, but OLED is relatively more susceptible.

Image Persistence/Retention

This problem is essentially the same as screen burn-in, but it is only temporary and will disappear after a period of time.

Apple:

The Super Retina display in iPhone X was engineered by Apple to meet our incredibly high standards. We believe this is the best OLED display that has ever shipped in a smartphone…

The iPhone X’s “Super Retina display” offers a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio with High Dynamic Range (HDR) support, while providing high resolution and wide color gamut (DCI-P3). According to Apple, the precisely calibrated display has the best color accuracy in the industry.

However, Apple also acknowledged the fact that every OLED panel may have special display issues. When viewing the screen off-angle, slight shifting of color and hue is normal. Screen burn-in and image persistence are expected after extended use, causing the slight visual changes. Apple said they have engineered the display to reduce the negative effects.

Apple listed out a few ways to extend the lifespan of the iPhone X’s OLED display.

  • Updating to the latest version of iOS, whenever possible. Newer software may implement new measures to minimize screen burn-in and image persistence of the OLED panels, such as pixel shifting.
  • Turning on Auto-Brightness in the settings. Higher brightness increases the degradation for the LEDs.
  • Turning on Auto Lock in settings. This reduces the overall screen on time for the display, when you are not using it.
  • Do not display static images at maximum brightness for a long duration.

You can check out more details about the iPhone X’s OLED display on Apple’s website.

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How to Speed Up Your Android Devices Without Installing Anything

By
Anson
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Speed up Android OS animation

Unlike Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, Google’s Android OS is well-known for flexibility and its ability to customize freely. You can root your phone and load a custom ROM, like Resurrection Remix and LineageOS. It is especially helpful for an older device, which the manufacturer no longer offers any updates and patches. But in fact, there is a hidden feature/small trick in your device’s settings, that can speed up your phone without installing any software or rooting.



Developer OptionsSpeed up Android OS animation

In order to use the feature, you will first need to enable the “Developer options” for your Android device. Open settings and scroll all the way down to the bottom, or until you see “About phone“. Click into it and find your operating system build number. Simply click on “Build number” for five to ten times. A pop up message should appear and state that you are now a developer, which the development settings is enabled.

If you go back to the main settings menu, a “Developer options” submenu will show up.

Speed up Android OS animation

When you enter the “Developer options”, you will see tons of unusual options, such as GPU rendering and Android debugging. Please do NOT change any of those settings, unless you know what it does.

What we are going to change this time is at the “Drawing” section, the three animation scales. Window animation scale, Transition animation scale and Animator duration scale adjust all animation duration across the system, like opening pop-up windows/menu and switching between different screens or apps.

The default animation scale is set to 1x. The larger the scale number, the longer it takes the animation to complete. Therefore, if you want to speed up your phone’s animation, please choose the 0.5x for the scale number. All the animation will now take only half the amount of time than default to finish, immediately makes your new/old Android device feel a lot faster and responsive.

Comparison

Speed up Android OS animation
Animation scale 1x (Left), 2x (Right)

You will clearly see the animation at the right take a longer time to complete. The phone looks slower in comparison.

Speed up Android OS animation
Animation scale 1x (Left), 0.5x (Right)

The right with a 0.5x animation scale opens the app switcher faster.

You will definite notice the difference in real life after changing the animation scale. This little trick should be available on almost any relatively modern Android devices (smartphones and tablets). It does not require to root the phone, and is extremely easy to do.

Of course, it will not make your device run/load apps faster, but it is worth trying out to speed up the user experience in just a few clicks.

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Unboxing and Review of Noctua chromax.black.swap Fans (NF-F12, NF-S12A, NF-A14, NF-A15)

By
Anson
-

Noctua Chromax.black.swap Fans

Without any doubt, Noctua’s fans always perform remarkably and reliably. But their trademark “beige and brown” colors on almost every products make matching your PC builds’ color schemes nearly impossible, especially inside a beautiful tempered glass case. That is the reason why Noctua expanded their Chromax product line. We already checked out the Chromax cables. Now, it is time for the new Chromax.black.swap edition fans.



Unboxing

These new edition fans are in fact based on previously introduced NF-F12, NF-S12A, NF-A14 and NF-A15 fans.

Noctua Chromax.black.swap Fans

Similar to other Chromax products, the hard cardboard box is painted mainly in white, with little brown and black accent. You can see both the Noctua logo and the Chromax branding on the front. A little picture of the fan accompanied with the model name is located at the top left corner.

Noctua Chromax.black.swap Fans

On the back of the box, the fan’s basic specifications are clearly written, as well as a QR code to the respective product webpage.

Noctua Chromax.black.swap Fans

You will see your Chromax.black.swap fan sitting in the center of a black plastic tray, once you open the box. Next to the fan are the six anti-vibration rubber pads in different colors (white, yellow, blue, green, red and black).

Noctua Chromax.black.swap Fans

Taking out and flipping the plastic tray, there are an accessories box and the connected black extension cable.

Noctua Chromax.black.swap Fans

Apart from those six anti-vibration pads at the front, you will find the remaining eighteen pads in the accessories box, three for each color (total of 24 pads). For the NF-A15 fan, you will get eight anti-vibration pads for each color, a total of 48 pads in the whole package. Every Chromax.black.swap fan includes a 30 cm extension cable and four standard fan screws in the box.

Noctua Chromax.black.swap Fans

Review

Noctua Chromax.black.swap Fans

According to Noctua’s own comparison table, the Chromax.black.swap edition fans are basically identical to the standard “beige and brown” version fans in every aspect. They both feature the same SSO2 bearing and the fiber-glass reinforced PBT frame, as well as the designs and technologies, such as the stepped inlet design and inner surface microstructures. We should see very similar, if not exact cooling performance for both fans.

*Leave comments below this article, if you want us to do performance reviews for the Chromax fans.*

The only difference is the included accessories. There is no low-noise and ultra-low noise adapters for the chromax fan. Instead of the brown anti-vibration mounts and fixed 20 cm cable, you get swappable colored pads and 30 cm extension cable.

Noctua Chromax.black.swap Fans

You can put your desired colored anti-vibration pads on the 4 corners of the fan and on both sides. You will need a total of eight pads for each fans. The pads work as well as the usual brown pads, absorbing most of the vibration noise coming from the cooler and the fan. If you also own the Chromax extension cables (NA-SEC1), you can replace the included black cable with different colored extension cables.

It is extremely simple to install or swap the anti-vibration pads. There are two rubber pins to hold each pad to the fan. In my experience, it is both faster and easier to install the pads by firmly pushing the pins into their respective holes first. After you feel a click that the pins are secured, you can wrap/unfold the pads’ edges around the fan.

Conclusion

Unboxing Treatment Recommendation

In short, Noctua Chromax.black.swap fans are the standard fans painted in black with the inclusion of the colored anti-vibration pads. This means the Chromax fans are capable of providing the legendary cooling performance from the standard edition fans. The black fan frame combined with the anti-vibration pads in six colors give users a subtle but customizable computer component to match their overall PC builds’ color schemes. You no longer need to sacrifice either your PC’s performance, or its aesthetic with the new Chromax fans.

Of course, you can purchase the anti-vibration mounts (NA-SAVP1) separately, but you will have to stay with the beige fan frames or get the more expensive IndustrialPPC fan models. The Chromax.black.swap edition fans strike a perfect balance between price and color customization, by costing only a few dollars (USD) more than the standard edition. They are provided with the usual 6 years warranty from Noctua.

You can purchase the fans from your local/online resellers or the links below from Amazon US.

Thanks Noctua for providing us the Chromax fans for review. (Review Sample)

Feel free to leave comments below, if you have any opinion about this website. Share the website around if you enjoy reading it. Subscribe to our Newsletter or follow our Google+, Facebook and Twitter.

Support this website simply by shopping in Amazon. It will give us small kickbacks, if you use the above affiliate links to make any purchases, which will help us grow.

Unboxing and Review of Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

By
Anson
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Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)
On 16 October, Noctua expanded their new Chromax product line, adding a Y-cable (NA-SYC1) and an extension cable (NA-SEC1) in six different colors. To be honest, Noctua is not famous in attracting customers by their products’ aesthetic, especially the “beige and brown” colors. However, these two Chromax cable accessories would provide better customization for PC builders to match their color schemes. Let’s take a deeper look at them.



Unboxing

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

As usual, the packaging of Noctua’s products is excellent. Both the Chromax Y-cables and extension cables have the same elegant design for the box, except for the product details.

At the front of the hard cardboard box, you can find the CHROMAX branding in the center, as well as the Noctua logo on the top right. The cables’ model names and colors are clearly printed on the top left. Flipping the box, you are greeted with an image of the cables and a QR code to the product’ s web page.

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

You can see the respective cables’ descriptions again at the side of the box.

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

Opening the box, there is a piece of black soft foam placed on the bottom to protect the cables. You will get three Y-cables (NA-SYC1) in each box. And four extension cables (NA-SEC1) in each box.

Review

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

Both of the Chromax cables are available in six different colors. They are Black, White, Red, Yellow, Green and Blue. For the Y-cable, its length is at 115 mm including the connectors. The extension cable on the other hand is 30 cm long.

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

Each fan cable is sleeved with some kind of colored nylon mesh, which feels smooth to the hands. The sleeving is in very high quality, that all wires are covered by the nylon mesh or by the black heat shrinks. The colors are extremely vibrant and sharp, and look good even in dimly lit PC case environments.

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

The Y-cable splits one fan header on the motherboards/fan controllers into two fan connectors. It is compatible with both 3-pin and 4-pin computer fans, but you can only control fan speed via PWM with a 4-pin connection.

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

The extension cable is helpful for PC builders to plug their computer fans to the motherboards in larger PC cases. It also supports 3-pin and 4 pin fans without any problems.

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

The Y-cables and extension cables can both be daisy-chained in different configurations, if you need. For example, you can combine two 30 cm extension cables into one 60 cm one to reach extremely far distances. Or you can connect two extra Y-cables to an existing Y-cable, to simultaneously power and control up to four computer fans.

Please note that most motherboards’ fan headers support up to 9.6/12 watt of power (check your motherboards’ manuals for accurate information). You must ensure that you are not drawing power exceeding the limited value, if you are plugging in multiple fans.

Conclusion

Noctua Chromax Y-Cables (NA-SYC1) and Extension Cables (NA-SEC1)

Noctua Chromax Y-cables (NA-SYC1) and extension cables (NA-SEC1) are great additions to the existing lineup. Due to current trend about having RGB/more colors in every PC builds, the Chromax cables allow users more customization in matching each component’s colors.

For most of the parts, the cables perform exceptionally well, providing beautiful and high quality colored sleeving. Offering the capability of daisy-chaining multiple cables extend the flexibility of the Chromax cables. However, I think the black heat shrinks on the Y-cables (NA-SYC1) are a tiny bit too long, in my opinion. The colored sleeving shown is too short. It is harder to notice for the extension cables (NA-SEC1) because its overall cable length is much longer. Though, this is just a very minor issue.

*According to Noctua, shorter heat shrinks may make the cables loose, reducing the durability of the cables.*

Comparing with other comparable fan cables in the market, both Chromax cables are priced reasonably. Other brands’ cables are either not sleeved, or only available in one color. The Chromax cables provide similar functionality, while offering up to six different color options and have an unbelievable 6-year warranty by Noctua.

You can buy the cables from your local/online resellers or use the links below to purchase them from Amazon US.

Thanks Noctua for providing us the Chromax cables for review. (Review Sample)

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Adding A Must-Have Badge for Our Product Reviews

By
Anson
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Unboxing Treatment Must-Have Badge

We are starting to implement our standardized product review testing system in our website. We originally had only two review badges (Acceptable and Recommendation) for you to distinguish how the product has performed in our testing. Now, we decided to add a new Must-Have badge to the system.

There are three testing aspects, Unboxing Experience/Package Content, Performance and Value.

Based on the scores, badges will be given to the products.

  • Score ≥ (higher than or equal to) 90% will be given a Must-Have Badge.
  • Score from 70% to 90% will have the Recommendation Badge.
  • Score from 50% to 70% will still have an Acceptable Badge.

The details of the testing standard can be found here. Future product reviews will be using the new standard, while old reviews will be updated soon.



Feel free to leave comments below, if you have any opinion about this website. Share the website around if you enjoy reading it. Subscribe to our Newsletter or follow our Google+, Facebook and Twitter.

Support this website simply by shopping in Amazon. It will give us small kickbacks, if you use the above affiliate links to make any purchases, which will help us grow.

AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors Are Officially Coming, with Vega Graphics

By
Anson
-
AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors
Screen Capture from AMD


2017 has been a pretty great year for AMD’s new Ryzen processers. AMD is able to catch up to what Intel is currently offering in the CPU market, with the Ryzen 3/5/7 and the Ryzen Threadripper processors. There were multiple benchmark leaks about AMD’s new Ryzen-based mobile APU last month. Now, AMD finally introduced the APU with 2 models, the Ryzen 7 2700U and Ryzen 5 2500U.



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AMD claims that the new APUs are the highest performance processors ever for ultra-thin notebooks. The APUs are combining both the same micro-architectures of Ryzen CPUs (Zen) and the Vega Graphics into a tiny mobile processor.

AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors


There will be two models of Ryzen mobile APUs for now. Both of them have a 4-core, 8-thread CPU inside, but is clocked slightly differently. The Ryzen 7 2700U’s CPU is clocked at 2.2 GHz and can boost up to 3.8 GHz. It also has 2 more Vega compute units on the graphics side. The lower end Ryzen 5 2500U has a base clock of 2.0 GHz and a boost clock of 3.6 GHz. It has a total of 8 Vega compute units, instead of 10.

According to AMD, the APUs have 58% lower power consumption than the 7th generation APUs, at about 15W. This is on par with Intel’s latest 8th generation mobile CPU (Core i5-8350U and i7-8650U), but the main difference is the APU has a much powerful Vega GPU inside than Intel’s internal graphics. Notebook manufacturer will need to add an extra GPU in order to match the performance, which would increase the total power consumption to more than 40W, harming the battery life.

AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors


AMD had done a 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark and compared with its Intel counterparts. This benchmark is to test out the GPU performance of the processors. Both the Ryzen 7 2700U and Ryzen 5 2500U APUs scored over 2000 points, while all Intel’s CPUs got around 1000 points.

The Ryzen 5 2500U’s score is 118% better than the Core i5-7200U, 134% better than the Core i7-8550U, and 120% better than the Core i7-7200U. The Ryzen 7 2700U has a even higher score, about 23.7% higher than its sibiling (Ryzen 5 2500U). The Vega graphics inside the new Ryzen mobile APUs seem to be very promising, averaging at least two times greater GPU performance than Intel’s internal graphics.

AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors


A Cinebench R15 benchmark is also shown on AMD’s launch video for the Ryzen 5 2500U APU. It is to test how the CPU performs in rendering high-quality photo. The Core i5-7200U scored 330 cb, while the Ryzen 5 2500U scored 524 cb, about 58.7% higher.

However, AMD did not show the performance number of the Ryzen 7 2700U APU.

AMD Ryzen mobile processors will be on shelf within the next few weeks in ultra-thin notebooks, from OEM companies like HP, Acer and Lenovo. More designs will be available in next year’s CES.



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