Tag Archives: E3 2021

Tech & Tonic S02 Episode 16 – E3 2021… Was a Little Underwhelming

Tech & Tonic So2 Ep 16   E3 2021... Was a Little Underwhelming

E3 2021 happened last week and that was the biggest thing that happened in the week. We love gaming, of course we are going to talk about it. While we were excited about the event, it went a little underwhelming and a little under the radar for some reason.

E3 is back in the 2021 after the 2020 hiatus thanks to the COVID-19 global pandemic. In 2021 though the largest gaming conference in the world has gone completely digital and the announcements from various brands were made over live streams on YouTube. Sadly though, while it was more accessible, it was also a little on the underwhelming side. 

Sure, there were a few notable game launches and announcements made in the conference itself. Halo: Infinite was Xbox’s big highlight, Razer launched a new gaming laptop that is also their first AMD powered rig alongside a 27-inch gaming display, Nintendo teased Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild 2 a little bit more, and the upcoming Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was quite notable. But other than those, everything else seems a little underwhelming.

Razer took this chance and stole some E3 limelight with their E3 launch too. They are not launching any games though. They launched their latest gaming laptop, the Razer Blade 14 with AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series CPU for the first time ever. They also launched a nice looking 27-inch gaming display with QHD resolution and 165Hz in refresh rate in the same show.

We would like to see more from E3 0221 though. We wanted to see Nintendo showing us some gameplay from Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild, for example. We wanted to see more exciting AAA games teased from E3, something that makes us go “wow, that looks goo” like Battlefield 2042, for example. We did not get a lot of those moments.

To put it plainly, we expected more from E3. We wanted more in E3 2021, because 2020 and 2021 are the years where hunger for new games becomes bigger and a little more insatiable. So, what else do we expect from E3? Listen in, find out. 

[E3 2021] Razer Announces the First THX Certified Monitor – The Razer Raptor 27

Monitors are becoming increasingly more in demand lately with more and more people working from their homes. Back in 2019, Razer announced their first monitor with the Raptor 27. This year, the company is refreshing the monitor with higher specifications and better refresh rates.

Razer Raptor 001

The new Razer Raptor 27 comes with a wide angle IPS display. As its name suggests, the display is an impressive 27-inches. It comes with a QHD resolution of 2560×1440 pixels and supports both AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-SYNC technology. The Raptor is equipped with a higher 165Hz refresh rate compared to the 144Hz of the 2019 version. The panel covers 95% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut promising pretty impressive colour accuracy and is also HDR400 capable.

More impressively, the Razer Raptor is the first monitor in the world to come with THX certification. The certification guarantees that the Raptor 27’s display is able to represent and recreate visuals as the creators envisioned it. To get this certification, the Raptor 27 was put through 4000 individual tests to ensure colour accuracy, panel performance, sharpness and upscaling. According to the certification, the Raptor 27 meets the standards. This certification is one of the first in the industry.

Razer Raptor 002

Design wise, the monitor retains the iconic, near bezel-less design of the 2019 iteration. It comes with a matte-black finish with a forged aluminium base. The back of the Raptor is emblazoned with high-end textured fabric. It also comes with built0in cable management channels which run along the back of the monitor. It comes with Razer’s Chroma RGB lighting allowing users to customise their experience with their Synapse 3 software.

Razer also announced their Raptor VESA adapter which allows users to use standard VESA mounts to mount their monitors on multimonitor stands and even their wall with ease.

Pricing & Availability

The Razer Raptor 27 will be available starting early Q3 2021 for USD$799.99 (MYR3,293.61) or €999.99 (MYR4,992.68). It will be available from select retailers and Razer.com.

The Razer VESA Mount Adapter will be available at the same time for USD $99.99 (MYR411.64) or €99.99 (MYR499.22) and will be available exclusively on Razer.com.

[E3 2021] The Xbox Mini Fridge is Here – The Meme Comes Alive!

When the current generation of Xbox Series X was leaked in the press years ago, there was a lot of comments on how the boxy design looks. That is naturally always the case with any design renders that comes out of any manufacturers and companies though. Before a product is out in the market or announced, a render leak of what the product would most likely look like might be ‘leaked’ to the press or the public to sometimes create a public hype. It could almost be like a litmus test of whether or not there is genuine interest in the product.

Sometimes it backfires though, and design renders get ridiculed or gets turned into a meme. In the case of the Xbox Series X, the public quickly points out that it looks like a refrigerator of some kind and that quickly turned into a meme. No doubt, there was a lot of excitement about this product coming out of Microsoft. Thanks to the public reaction at the time, it could give the designers of this gaming console a few things to think about.

Welcome to E3 2021 though, where new games get teased and launched. It is also the place where the unexpected can be expected to happen. This year, the unexpected happened on Microsoft’s stage in their ‘one more thing’ segment at the end of their show. They made it.

Microsoft introduced the world to the “world’s most powerful mini fridge” set to hit the stores in the coming months. They call it the Xbox Mini Fridge, which is thoroughly fitting of a name for this little box that holds canned drinks or other things you put in a mini fridge. They also say that it uses Xbox’s clever velocity cooling architecture to keep your drinks cool in the fridge, hence “world’s most powerful mini fridge”. How did this mini fridge meme become a reality though?

Xbox Mini Fridge - World Premiere
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Twitter Marketing ran a #BestOfTweets championship in April for users to vote on which brands ran the best twitter account. It came down to Skittles and Xbox. Xbox was trailing behind when they announced in their twitter account that they would make the Xbox Mini Fridge a reality if they won the campaign. They did, by 1 percent of votes.

Xbox fulfilled that promise in E3 2021 and the product is actually something that you can purchase later in the year, not just a concept. Except, Microsoft did not say that it will be for sale. They pointed out that it will be available in the holiday season (presumably in the United States), but not its price or where it is going to be available. It could be a free gift if you already own an Xbox, or a bundle if you buy the new Xbox in that season.

Whatever it is, it shows that tech giants like Microsoft are listening to the public and are moving with the public. While it is a little bit more marketing gimmick and move, it also shows that Microsoft has some sense of humour after all. You should be reminded also that Microsoft made a fully sized refrigerator in the shape of the Xbox Series X just for Snoop Dogg last year just because they can.