Category Archives: Computers

Acer’s Powerhouse Thin & Light – the Swift X 14 – is Now Available in Malaysia with Prices starting at MYR5,999

Acer’s Swift lineup has carved out a niche for itself thanks to its long legacy of literally being some of the thinnest and lightest laptops available on the market. However, that changed with the introduction of their Swift X laptop. The new generation of Acer Swift laptops was now supercharged as creator powerhouses with top-of-the-line discreet GPUs and cutting-edge displays. The new legacy continues with the Swift X 14 which comes with NVIDIA’s latest RTX 4050 laptop GPU.

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The Swift X 14 was announced earlier this year at Acer’s next@acer event alongside CES 2023. The laptop continues to build on the Swift lineup’s heritage of strong, durable builds and portability. The new Swift X 14 comes in at only 1.55kgs with a 17.8mm thickness but comes packed with up to a 13th Generation Intel Core i7 H series processor and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. The combo unlocks numerous possibilities for creators with support for Ray Tracing and even high-performance 3D rendering. Oh, did we mention…? It’s also a certified NVIDIA Studio device. This allows you access to NVIDIA’s most optimised Studio drivers which are specially tuned for graphical and video work with programs like Blender and the Adobe Creative Suite.

It’s not only got the power, but the Swift X 14 also comes with a redesigned chassis that holds a 29% larger battery, a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 500 and 100% DCI-P3 coverage and a totally redesigned thermal setup. The redesigned thermals improve heat dissipation by 7.16%.

Aside from that, Acer’s Swift X 14 comes with support for up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD memory and a complete array of ports including a HDMI port and numerous USB ports and a microSD Card reader. Also part of the package is a 1080p FHD webcam with Acer PurifiedVoice and PurifiedView technology with AI noise reduction.

Pricing & Availability

The Acer Swift X 14 is currently available in stores and on the Acer e-store. Prices for the laptop start at MYR5,999.

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Official Specifications

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Samsung’s Quick Share App Goes to Other Windows Devices

Integrating your smartphone and PC experience has always been a problem for many years. Apple has successfully done so with their range of devices thanks to the nature of their strictly closed development. You can work on your iPhone and then transfer your FaceTime call to your iPad tablet when you get access to it, and then even to your MacBook or Mac desktop when you get to them, without too much fuss. The closest thing we have on Android and Windows is the Microsoft Phone Link platform, which can be a pain to work with at times.

Alternatively, you have Google’s Nearby Share that works as a file transfer protocol between Android devices and Windows devices. It is far from seamless though. While it is simple enough on your Android devices to work with, your PC have to have the app installed and open for it to receive files from your various Android devices.

Samsung’s Quick Share is sort of the in-between the Phone Link and Nearby Share platforms. It is more like the Nearby Share platform, except that it is made for Samsung devices specifically. Nearby Share is made for the general Android devices that come with multiple connectivity standards and hardware. Samsung’s Quick Share is made for Galaxy devices with specific hardware that comes with all Galaxy devices; meaning communications between two devices can be standardized, made seamless, and be made at greater speeds. That is why you can only find the Samsung Quick Share button on Samsung’s Galaxy devices including the Galaxy Book laptops. Then again, that is not the case anymore.

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Samsung has made the Quick Share app available on the Microsoft Store for other Windows devices.  While Quick Share for mobile devices is still only available on Samsung’s Galaxy devices, you do not have to have Samsung’s Galaxy Book devices to take advantage of it. You can now download it for free from the Microsoft Store.

There are a few more caveats though, other than that you must have a Samsung smartphone to take advantage of it. You must be on a Window 10 operating system at least with 2004 release (build number 19041), which is not entirely difficult since Windows 11 is the standard operating system today (unless you are on a corporate device, and they have not moved on from Windows XP just yet). You also need to have Intel’s Bluetooth driver version 22.50.02 and Wi-Fi driver version 22.50.07 to get the Quick Share app to work on your Windows device. All of these should not be too big of an issue if you have a modern laptop and ensure that you regularly update your Windows device. It only becomes a problem when you have a device that does not support Intel’s Bluetooth and Wi-Fi drivers, then you cannot enjoy the Quick Share function on your Windows device. Still, you can never know until you disassemble your PC, so you can try it for yourself by downloading the app from Microsoft Store.

The Acer Predator Triton 14 – the New Word for Thin-and-Light Powerhouse for Everything 

Powerful gaming laptops are known to be quite large and bulky in nature. There is a good reason for that. Since a laptop is meant to be mobile while packing everything you need in a PC, there is always the concern of space within the hardware to pack enough cooling for the heat producing components inside. Gaming laptops, inevitably, pack more powerful components than regular laptops. That also means that the cooling requirements are a lot more than before requiring larger more powerful fans inside a laptop that adds plenty of heft to it.  

Computing technology has progressed so much today that a gaming laptop today is vastly more powerful, and more purpose built than ever before. With more power comes more heat, which also needs a larger, heftier solution than before. But cooling technology has also improved so much that the cooling solutions today are much more efficient than before.  

All these things culminate in a thin-and-light gaming solution like we have never seen before, basically the Acer Predator Triton 14.  

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The Acer Predator Triton 14 is a new thin-and-light gaming laptop from Acer’s gaming skunkworks division reimagining the ultra-portable thin-and-light laptop for productivity. It is created not just for gamers in mind, it is created for the creative professionals, content creators, and even the accounting professionals who just have a knack for gaming in their down time. It weighs just 1.7kg, which is no lighter than a regular thin-and-light laptop. For a gaming laptop with powerful internal though, it is a big deal. It is also only 18.9mm thick, which is also no thinner than a regular laptop, but it does pack a lot of power underneath with optimal cooling solutions.   

Within the all-metal body construction is a powerful 13th Generation Intel Core i7 that is paired with up to NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4070 GPU for laptops for maximum performance. You can fit the Predator Triton 14 with up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM operating at 6,000 MHz transfer speeds and up to 1TB of PCIe NVMe Gen4 SSD for smooth and fast operations in both gaming and productivity situations.  

The powerful components power Windows 11 through an impressive 14-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS display. The display offers 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut to cater to even the most demanding creators or creative professionals on the road. For when the mood takes you, the display also offers 165Hz for a smooth butter like gaming experience. With Intel’s Killer Wi-Fi 6E AX1675i modem inside the Predator Triton 14, it can go wireless and still play games online as if it was connected via a LAN cable – smooth, stable, and speedy. There is even a Full HD webcam that offers AI-enabled features like Purified View for improved images, automatic framing, advanced background blur, and gaze correction for video calls.  

To keep everything cool and running at its best is Predator’s latest and most advanced cooling system ever. The 5th generation AeroBlade 3D fans are made of metal and to be as thin as possible to maximize airflow (Vortext Airflow), to cool the heat transfer components to keep temperatures manageable. The new Triton 14 is also equiped with Liquid Metal thermal grease for even more efficient cooling for better performance in the long run.  

Price and Availability 

The Acer Predator Triton 14 is now available at Acer’s eStore and official stores on Shopee and Lazada. You can also get your hands on one from select Acer Concept stores throughout the nation. Purchases made before the 16th of July 2023 are entitled to free gifts worth MYR 699 that includes an Acer Nitro VG270E 27-inch gaming monitor and a one-year license for Trend Micro’s Antivirus. More on the Predator Triton 14 can be found on their website.  

WhatsApp Desktop is Expiring – Time to go Native.

WhatsApp, at least in Malaysia, is the most popular messenger app that has ever existed. It is a common bridge between iOS and Android users. Some Nokia devices running proprietary operating systems (OS) can also support WhatsApp messenger these days. When everything becomes more integrated, they introduced WhatsApp web, an official workaround for you to use your WhatsApp messenger on your PC, and without flipping between devices. Then they introduced WhatsApp Desktop app, a sort of workaround if you are too lazy to turn to your browser to type “web.whatsapp.com” into it to use WhatsApp web.

WhatsApp Desktop though was one of the best things to happen to WhatsApp users. It allows users direct access to their WhatsApp messages on their PC or Mac devices without having to go anywhere else. With just a click of a button or icon, your PC or Mac turns into your answering machine powered by you. The app is based on the Electron framework, details of which we will not get into. What you need to know is that the WhatsApp Desktop experience is very close to what you get on WhatsApp web, just without having to type a URL into your browser.

A few months ago, WhatsApp revolutionized again finally with an official native Windows app simply called WhatsApp. It looked nothing like WhatsApp web or WhatsApp Desktop. It looks cleaner and feels smoother, and rather fitting to the designs of Windows. Naturally, we switched to the native app. Not everyone switched to the new app however and remained with WhatsApp Desktop, to the point that WhatsApp is now forcing users to switch their native app.

They do that by shutting down their old WhatsApp Desktop app and encouraging users to switch to the native app instead. The first indication to WhatsApp shutting down their old WhatsApp Desktop app is when WhatsApp notified users of the app about a month ago with a countdown on the app’s main screen. If you try to access the Desktop app now, the main page will only tell you that the app has expired and offers you a link to the new app, at least to its Microsoft Store page.

Since WhatsApp has not introduced a native app for the MacOS currently. That also means that you will still have to rely on your WhatsApp Desktop app if you are on a Mac or work with WhatsApp web for the time being. That does not mean that WhatsApp will not have a native app for Mac though, you can safely expect the native app to also come to Mac devices and the old Desktop app to be retired.

AMD Announces the Ryzen PRO 7040 and PRO 7000 Series – Zen 4 is Open for Business!

When AMD launched their latest Ryzen 7000 series processors for the masses, it was regarded as one of the best things to happen in the personal computing industry. They were AMD’s most powerful processing chips ever and one of the most advanced in the market. It was built with 5nm process technology which allows it to achieve efficiency like no other.

The requirements of a computing solution for corporate use are a little different from the consumers market though. While the regular user prioritizes things like gaming performance, or streaming capabilities, or even rendering speeds, the corporate user cares more about protection and security over everything else, especially in world where cyber-attacks happen more often than we know. That is where the AMD Ryzen PRO edition of processors come in, and they have finally introduced Zen 4 for workspaces in the lates AMD Ryzen PRO 7000 and PRO 7040 series of CPUs.

You know all about the AMD Ryzen 7000 series by now. You can pick from a huge range of chips from AMD Ryzen 7000 series, from the Ryzen 5 all the way to the Ryzen 9 series chips, depending on your budget and power requirements. You get sort of the same thing in the Ryzen PRO series chips, except since they just launched the new chips, you only get to pick from three selections that range from the Ryzen 5 PRO series to the Ryzen 9 PRO series.

Model  Cores / Threads  Boost Frequency9   Base Frequency Total Cache (MB)  TDP (Watts)  GPU Model
AMD Ryzen™ 9 PRO 794512/24Up to 5.4 GHz3.7 GHz76MB65WRadeon Graphics
AMD Ryzen™ 7 PRO 77458/16Up to 5.3 GHz3.8 GHz40MB65WRadeon Graphics
AMD Ryzen™ 5 PRO 76456/12Up to 5.1 GHz3.8 GHz38MB65WRadeon Graphics

The new AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 7945 CPU is the equivalent of the high-performing AMD Ryzen 9 7900, not the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X. Both will also offer up to 65W power consumption and Radeon Graphics to boot which also means you technically can run your PC without a dedicated GPU if you do not need one, especially if all you need is to crunch a huge amount of data and numbers off a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7745 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 are equivalents of the AMD Ryzen 7700 and AMD Ryzen 5 7600 respectively. Of course, all of them come with AMD’s Zen 4 architecture as well for the best computing performance out of your processing chips currently.

Model  Cores / Threads  Boost Frequency[i]Base Frequency Total Cache (MB)  TDP (Watts)  GPU ModelRyzenTM AI Engine
AMD Ryzen™ 9 PRO 7940HS8/16Up to 5.2 GHz4.0 GHz24MB35-54WAMD Radeon™ 780MIncluded
AMD Ryzen™ 7 PRO 7840HS8/16Up to 5.1 GHz3.8 GHz24MB35-54WAMD Radeon™ 780MIncluded
AMD Ryzen™ 5 PRO 7640HS6/12Up to 5.0 GHz4.3 GHz22MB35-54WAMD Radeon™ 760MIncluded
AMD Ryzen™ 7 PRO 7840U8/16Up to 5.1 GHz3.3 GHz24MB15-28WAMD Radeon™ 780MIncluded
AMD Ryzen™ 5 PRO 7640U6/12Up to 4.9 GHz3.5 GHz22MB15-28WAMD Radeon™ 760MIncluded
AMD Ryzen™ 5 PRO 7540U6/12Up to 4.9 GHz3.2 GHz22MB15-28WAMD Radeon™ 740M 

You get a little bit more flexibility when it comes to laptops though. Of course, we think that more budget conscious operations would require a higher degree of control over the budget for their operational devices. For that, you still get to choose within the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO range all the way to the AMD Ryzen 9 PRO range in the series. The top-of-the-line AMD Ryzen 9 PRO 7940HS offers the same performance as the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS alongside AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics.

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The differences between these chips are more than just the numbers they offer and their outlook. They offer something called the PRO security layer. If you do not know yet, it is layer of protection that is baked into all Ryzen PRO processors for not just reliable performance, but also for cyber protection. It is not really a virus protection program either; it works with Microsoft’s Secured-Core PC protection algorithm to protect its equipped device from operating system level cyberattacks. Of course, combined with Windows Hello, the Ryzen PRO series processors can form what is known to be the most secure computing platform on an end device your business can get. It is not just software protection either with AMD’s clever Shadow Stack that also helps physically prevent control-flow attacks on a hardware level. There is even a AMD Secure Processor dedicated security chip on board that encrypts your data automatically. On a device management standpoint, AMD’s latest Ryzen PRO 7000 series desktop and PRO 7040 series laptop processors offer support for Microsoft Endpoint Manager services so that your IT department can easily manage your corporate devices remotely.

There is a downside here if you wish to get the AMD Ryzen PRO 7000 series desktop CPUs for your business. You will not be able to buy the chips off the shelves from vendors and retailers. Off-the-shelves, you can only get the AMD Ryzen PRO 7000 series desktop chips in pre-built systems from AMD’s manufacturing partners like HP or Lenovo currently. The AMD Ryzen PRO 7040 series for mobile computing will see life in HP and Lenovo’s upcoming commercial products. If you do wish to get your hands on a desktop series processor for your business, we suggest that you contact your local AMD support for more information.

 

The New Acer Aspire Vero 14 Now Comes in Blue for Just MYR 2,599

To be fair, the title is a little misleading. It is true that the Vero variant of the Acer Aspire laptop now comes in a different colour scheme that we think looks much better than just plain grey with some yellow spots here and there. We sort of undersold it as just another Aspire Vero though. It is Acer’s latest Aspire Vero that also comes with modern hardware.

Inside the new Aspire Vero 14 is Intel’s latest 13th generation Core i7 (up to) processor that you can rely on to bring you to the new age of computing. Alongside the powerful CPU is also up to 16GB of RAM for you to work with a lot of Google Chrome tabs at the same time, and up to 512GB of SSD storage for quick access to all your apps and folders and offering almost instant boot times for your Windows 11.

You get a 14-inch Full HD IPS display on the Aspire Vero 14 of 2023, which is nothing much to shout about, but still, something you can appreciate. It is not the fastest or the most colour accurate display, but it does look good still for work or even entertainment purposes.

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This being a Vero product, you can bet that its chassis is partly made of plastic. In fact, this Aspire Vero contains more plastic than before. The chassis now includes about 40% PCR (Post-Consumer Recycled) plastics whereas the older model only includes 30%. They claim that this reduces their CO2 emissions by up to 30% too in their production. They also claim there are no rigidity or structural penalties even when they introduced extra plastic materials to the chassis.

The new Aspire Vero also features something called OceanGlass™ for their trackpad. It is not really glass though, as the name suggests. Rather, it is a blend of different types of Ocean Bound Plastics (OBP) to mimic a smooth flat surface that we are used to on the trackpad. While The chassis offers a different colour to before, Acer claims that the chassis is paint free, and that the blue colour of the Aspire Vero 14 is the organic colour of the plastic blends.

To get even more out the Aspire Vero 14, Acer designed the chassis to use a standardised set of screws for serviceability and reparability purposes. It ensures that users can easily access the internals to not just upgrade the hardware, but also to repair and replace malfunctioning ones as much as possible so that the Aspire Vero 14 can last even longer. They even use packaging made of 100% recycled paper and up to 90% recycled cardboard. The packaging is also designed with extra purpose in mind as an ergonomic laptop stand.

To minimise electronic waste even further, Acer programs something they call the VeroSense. It is an integrated suite of management apps that helps user take control over the Aspire Vero’s power consumption and dissipation. The suite of apps optmises the Aspire Vero’s battery power consumption to ensure a long-lasting battery life and, in effect, extends its shelf life.

Price and Availability

The Acer Aspire Vero 14 laptop is now available from Acer’s authorized resellers, Acer eStore, and their official stores on Shopee and Lazada. The Aspire Vero 14 also comes with Microsoft Office 2021 Home and Student edition pre-installed. It will set you back MYR 2,599 but if you do purchase your Aspire Vero 14 before the 30th of September 2023, you can trade in your old devices for up to MYR 500 in cash rebate. The accepted devices include tablets, laptops, desktops, and AIOs even if they are not working. More on the Acer Aspire Vero 14 can be found on their website.

Acer Launches New TravelMate Laptops and Veriton Desktops – More Plastics, yet More Sustainable, More Durable 

Building laptops made for businesses is a rather straightforward process. The recipe is simple – build it like a tank for durability, ensure that it’ll last an entire business day on a single charge, ensure that the hardware is protected against any possible cyber-attacks and mishaps, make it powerful enough for all kinds of workload, and make it easy to work with for the IT department. All these things are plenty easy to achieve with modern technology.  

That is not to say that laptops and desktops that are made for business use cases are boring. Take the TravelMate and Veriton line-up that Acer just launched in Malaysia today, for example. Instead of using the usual all-metal material that is rather popular these days and is proven to offer durability like no other, they chose to make them differently.  

Acer TravelMate Series 

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The Acer TravelMate series for 2023 is made up of the TravelMate P2, P4, and P6. Of course, with the TravelMate series laptops, you get a selection of display options between 14-inch and 16-inch (TravelMate P2, P4), or a 14-inch 2.8K OLED (P6). You also get to choose a convertible (TravelMate P4 Spin), for extra flexibility. All of them come with a 16:10 aspect ratio displays for added productivity and visibility on your display. If you really need, you can even spec your TravelMate business laptop with a discrete GPU in the form of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2050.  

They are all powered by Intel’s latest 13th Generation Intel Core with vPro technology for that extra layer of protection for your data. You get up to 1TB of storage and 16GB of DDR5 RAM. Of course, these can be easily upgraded by your IT department when required. All of them also comes with Windows 11 Pro as standard. Obviously, they need to offer stable, reliable connection everywhere you choose to work from and thanks to WiFi 6, networking will not be an issue. The Travelmate P4 and P6 also comes with Windows Hello biometric security measures to both protect your work and data from prying eyes. 

Everything mentioned above is rather expected though, especially for laptops made for businesses. What is less expected is the build material you get with the Acer TravelMate series. While the TravelMate series’ various chassis are made mostly from metal materials, Acer has also managed to make entire laptops with up to 30% of PCR plastic materials into the build. The trackpad found on the laptops are made of 100% OceanGlass material, or ocean bound plastic (OBP) materials.  

To keep the devices running as long as possible in between service intervals, Acer has innovated on the cooling system a little bit. The TravelMate series offers something called the Acer Dust Defender. It is a clever fan system that ensures that the laptop can deliver as much performance as possible, as long as possible without any thermal throttling issues. The clever system automatically spins the fans in a counter-clockwise manner to disperse any accumulated dust to an outlet port every 6 hours to keep the fan build-up to a minimum even in extended use cases.  

Acer Veriton Series 

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When you need something more beefy, more permanent, and even more compact for your workspace, you need the Veriton series desktops and All-in-One (AIO) PCs. The Veriton S and Veriton X series are compact performers in their class for all kinds of work and industrial environments. The Veriton Z sereis and Vero Mini are also perfect for any sort of office space requiring a more integrated solution. For more the professionals that needs more processing power, the Veriton K8 series.  

For the compact performers, you get to spec your Veriton PC with up to a 13th Generation Intel Core i5-3400 CPU with the vPro platform for added security. You also get up to 512GB in SSD storage and up to 8GB in DDR4 RAM for your compact Veriton desktops and AIO. Of course, all of them comes with Windows 11 Pro as standard.  

For the Veriton K8 series, you get to work with up to an Intel Xeon E-2226G processor and pair that to up to an NVIDIA Quadro P620 2GB GPU to boot. You also get up to 256GB of SSD storage with slots for expansion and up to 8GB of DDR4 RAM also with expansion slots. All of the Veriton devices comes with a 3-year on-site warranty.  

Price and Availability 

The Acer TravelMate P2 series of laptops starts at MYR 3,249, while the TravelMate P4 and P6 series starts at MYR 4,559 and MYR 6,799 respectively. The Veriton S series starts out at MYR 3,309, while the Veriton X series will set you back at least MYR 2,749. The Vero Mini and Vertion Z series AIO starts at MYR 3,499 and MYR 4,699 respectively. For the beefy Veriton K8 series, you want to set aside at least MYR 4,599. All of the Acer products that has been launched are now available from Acer’s authorised dealers across the nation, the Acer eStore, and Acer’s official stores on Shopee and Lazada. 

LOQ’d & Loaded! Lenovo’s New Entry Level Gaming Laptop is Available in Malaysia

A Gamer’s Laptop strides a very fine line between being powerful and affordable. In recent years, the price point for gaming laptops has increased dramatically. In many cases, gamers are spending between MYR5,000 to MYR8,000 for a decently specced gaming laptop. On the other hand, they can spend up to MYR 15,000 just for a gaming desktop. Realising this, Lenovo has introduced a new gaming laptop sub-brand called LOQ, pronounced similar to LOCK.

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Lenovo’s LOQ laptops are built to bridge the gap between entry and pro-level gaming setups. They provide a more affordable option while not compromising on the power that gamers need to run their AAA titles. However, these laptops may sidestep some gaming luxuries like per-key RGB.

The new lineup of LOQ gaming laptops making its debut comes with NVIDIA Laptop GPUs ranging from the NVIDIA RTX 3050 to the newly announced RTX 4060. They’re equipped with MUX switches which use NVIDIA’s Advanced Optimus feature to bypass the integrated GPUs during gaming and heavy GPU work. This allows the laptops to achieve higher frame rates as the GPUs interface directly with the display panel. When not gaming, these switches allow the integrated CPU to take over providing longer battery life.

These GPUs are complemented by either a 13th Generation Intel processor or a Zen4 touting AMD Ryzen processor. On the RAM side of things, there’s support for up to 16GB DDR5 RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage. When it comes to display there are 15- and 16-inch variants with IPS displays with support for up to 165Hz refresh rate and 100% sRGB gamut coverage.

Design-wise, the LOQ gaming laptops draw inspiration from Lenovo’s successful Legion lineup. Crucial elements like the hinge, keyboard and mousepad placements are similar to the LOQ’s sister lineup. The keyboard has options for 4-zone RGB backlighting while maintaining Legion’s signature 1.5mm key travel and feel. The chassis has all the flair of a Legion device and even comes in the signature gunmetal black colour.

Pricing & Availability

The new Lenovo LOQ gaming laptops are now available in Malaysia via Lenovo Exclusive Stores and official stores on Lazada and Shopee with prices starting at MYR3,699.

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The device is also available on Lenovo Malaysia Official Online Store for RM438.00 monthly on an installment plan with HSBC credit cards.

Samsung’s Odyssey OLED G9 is Finally Available Soon, Starting with South Korea and the United States

Samsung launched their new Odyssey OLED G9 in CES 2023, which happened way back in January 2023. Alongside the Odyssey OLED G9, CES 2023 also saw Samsung showcasing their Dual UHD Odyssey Neo G9 ultra-wide gaming monitor, two UHD Smart Monitors, and a colour calibrated Viewfinity monitor. Of course, we thought that Samsung’s OLED version of their most acclaimed gaming monitor, the Odyssey G9, should be the most interesting thing they launched in CES 2023, even more so than their UHD version of the same monitor.

Six months of quietness on, Samsung finally officially launched the Odyssey OLED G9 for the global market. Well, when we say global; as per the title, Samsung launched the new 49-inch behemoth in South Korea. It will also be available in the United States market soon after it is available in South Korea.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 offers the ultimate gaming experience with an ultra-wide dual QHD resolution on its 49-inch screen real estate. Instead of a regular IPS display with subpar colour quality, the Odyssey OLED G9 offers the excellent colour saturation that is a signature of Samsung’s proprietary QD-OLED panel. It still offers 1800R curvature that is sure to wrap around you and offer the ultimate immersive gaming experience like no other. You get HDMI 2.1, Micro HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4 port options for the most modern GPUs to fully take advantage of the fast 240Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, DisplayHDR True Black 400, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and NVIDIA G-SYNC capabilities.

Like other Samsung Odyssey G9 displays, the OLED version also offers RGB lighting at the back that can be synced with your actual display for added immersion and matched ambient lighting. Like any modern Samsung monitor as well, the Odyssey OLED G9 runs on Tizen. That means that you can technically use the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 without a PC connected to it. You can also connect the monitor to Bluetooth or WiFi speakers if you need to. Since it is running on Tizen, you can also connect it to your home WiFi and watch Netflix independently. If not, you can just mirror your Samsung smartphone to the display to take advantage of it.

In South Korea, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 is now available for pre-order at KRW 2.7 million (MYR 9,710**). It is reported that the ultimate Samsung monitor will be available in the United States not too long after South Korea gets it. Speculations suggests that the monitor will be sold at about US$ 2,500 (MYR 11,546*) in the United States. You can expect to see the ultimate gaming monitor from Samsung coming to Malaysia in the coming months.

*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.62 as of 12/06/2023 on xe.com

**Approximately based on exchange rate of KRW 1000 = MYR 3.60 as of 12/06/2023 on xe.com

[WWDC 2023] The New Apple MacBook Air Now Comes in a 15-inch Variant 

For the longest time, we did not think that Apple’s MacBook Air line-up needed to be bigger. To be fair the Apple MacBook Air was made to be the most portable Mac there is that offers the Mac experience anywhere and at any time. It is designed to be as thin and as light as a MacBook can be. So, in that case, it only makes sense for the MacBook Air’s display to be no larger than 14-inch to ensure that it fits most bags. If you want a bigger MacBook, get the normal sized MacBook that offers more than 13-inch in display real estate, or get the MacBook Pro. But what if you want a bigger screen and still have a thin-and-light package to work with? Apple has an answer for you, finally.  

Welcome to the new format in the MacBook Air line-up, a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina MacBook Air. It is still a MacBook Air, a thin-and-light Apple laptop that is meant to be as portable as a MacBook can be. The only added heft comes from the larger display. A larger display also means that the MacBook Air can be a proper entertainment powerhouse now when it comes to movies and even games to a certain extent. You can even use it as your main editing tool if you want to use it for content creation. 

The 15-inch MacBook Air now makes plenty of sense thanks the Apple’s silicon innovation in their latest M2 integrated processor. Thanks to the power requirements of the M2 processor too, the MacBook Air is now the thinnest 15-inch laptop in the world.  

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Other than a more powerful M2 chip, it does not seem like the 15-inch MacBook Air has sacrificed anything else just for the squashed down bodywork. Apple claims that the MacBook Air still can offer immersive Spatial Audio. There is a Full HD 1080p FaceTime HD camera that you can use for FaceTime calls and other video conferencing tool complete with Center Stage technology. All of these and you still get up to 18 hours in battery life.  

For Spatial Audio, Apple has fitted the 15-inch MacBook Air with six speakers. The speaker system on the MacBook Air offers Dolby Atmos support allowing you to properly enjoy any movies on Netflix, Prime Video, and even Apple TV+ with immersive Dolby audio. But the speakers are not just for movies and music. It also made to ensure that you get a clear communication with your teammates or friends over FaceTime and other video conferencing tools. Of course, you need mics for that too, and the MacBook Air comes with three-mic array with beamforming technology to clear capture your voice for both voice and video calls. 

The 15.3-inch Liquid Retina Display offers more than just resolution too. WIth up to 500 nits in brightness and support for up to 1-billion colours, it is one of the most accurate and vivid displays you can find on a 15-inch laptop. They claim that the 15-inch disply on the MacBook Air offers twice the resolution and 25 percent brighter than comparable PC laptops in its class.  

Of course, one of the biggest highlights of the MacBook Air is the M2 processor living inside the ultra-thin 15-inch notebook. The Apple M2 chip you get here comes with eight CPU cores (four performance cores and four efficiency cores) and 10 GPU cores. Within the chip construction is also a dedicated 16-core Neural Engine. You get to spec the MacBook Air with up to 24GB of unified memory too for better multitasking than ever. The result of all that is an ultra-thin 15-inch laptop that you can rely on to edit videos like a professional without being tethered to a power source for an entire day. 

Then there is Ventura, the latest macOS there is. There is a new Continuity Camera feature that allows you to start your FaceTime calls from any of your Apple device and pass it on to your other Apple devices without even going through an entire procedure for it. Thanks to Continuity Camera also, you get Center Stage, Desk View and Studio Light features on all your supported Apple devices. There is Stage Manager that helps you automatically organise your apps and windows to ensure that you can focus on the right things at any given time. Freeform app allows you to express and organise you’re at your own freedom and liking. Apple also teased their upcoming macOS, the Sonoma, with even more features promised for macOS devices.  

Price and Availability 

THe 15-inch MacBook Air is now available in select regions from Apple Stores or their web sore. Malaysia is definitely getting the MacBook Air, but there are no specific dates that has been quoted from Apple. It will set youback MYR 6,199 onward when it is available. For more information on Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air, you can head to their website.