PUBG: New State Pre-Registrations Go Live in India for Android, iOS Users

PUBG: New State was announced in February for global users, but pre-registrations were not made available in India back them. Krafton has said that it wanted to focus on re-launching PUBG Mobile India — Battleground Mobile India — in the market back then. However, PUBG: New State pre-registrations have now gone live in India for both Android and iOS users.

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Which Gaming Mouse Under Rs. 4,000 Should You Buy For FPS Games?

Choosing a gaming mouse under Rs. 4,000 can be a bit difficult because of the ample number of choices you have. I was able to check out three options in this price range, and I tested them against each other. Here’s what I think

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Windows 11 can be downloaded to your PC starting October 5, minimum system requirements & features revealed

After weeks of speculation and leaks from multiple sources, users can now officially download Windows 11 on their PC starting from October 5, 2021. Following this date, eligible Windows 10 PCs will start receiving the free Windows 11 upgrade. Furthermore, PCs and laptops with pre-installed Windows 11 will also become available for purchase from October 5. 

Windows 11 is the next big update from Microsoft for its popular Windows Operating System. Microsoft officially revealed Windows 11 some months ago and the operating system has been available for beta testers since then.

Windows 11 System Requirements, Launch Date And Features Revealed

To download and run Windows 11 on your PC or laptop it must fulfil specific system requirements, as per Microsoft. The device must include a 1GHz Dual-Core processor or better, 4GB RAM, 64GB Storage, UEFI, Secure boot capabilities and Trusted Platform Module 2.0, a Direct X 12 compatible GPU, and a 9-inch 720p display or better.

The new Windows 11 features include a brand new design, revamped Office 365, and widgets. Windows 11 also has performance-enhancing features like DirectX 12 Ultimate, Direct Storage, and Auto HDR. Windows 11 also features a brand new Microsoft Store which will open the gates for more independent developers and creators to help bring their apps to the platform. Additionally, Windows 11 also includes improved accessibility features along with a ton of optimization.

With this official announcement, laptop manufacturers are gearing up to upgrade their devices as well. However, not every device will get the Windows 11 update on the launch day. Furthermore, each OEM has given its customers the facility to check whether their device is eligible for Windows 11 upgrade or not. You can also check your device's eligibility by visiting the official Microsoft Windows 11 page and following the given instructions.

Also Read: Windows 11 tips and tricks: 11 cool features you should know about

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Xiaomi 12 to reportedly feature triple 50MP cameras with a 5x periscope lens

Xiaomi 12 is expected to be Xiaomi's next flagship. The phone is already reported to be in production right now, with a launch expected next year. Since the phone will be Xiaomi's flagship, it is expected to feature the best in technology that Xiaomi has to offer, including hardware in the camera department. 

Xiaomi 12 rumoured camera specifications and features

Ahead of the launch, a new leak has revealed key details about the phone's cameras, including the fact that the phone will come with a three-lens set-up with a primary 50-megapixel sensor. The information comes courtesy of Digital Chat Station who claims alongside the 50-megapixel main lens, there will also be a 50-megapixel ultra-wide lens and a 50-megapixel telephoto lens. This will be a 5x periscope lens for shooting zoomed-in shots. Previously, we've heard rumours about Samsung’s upcoming 200-megapixel sensor. However, that's possibly going o be used for the Xiaomi 12 Ultra. 

The phone will be an upgrade over the current generation Xiaomi flagship, the Mi 11 Ultra. The Mi 11 Ultra features a 6.81-inch QHD+ (3200x1440 pixels) resolution AMOLED 3D curved display. The display supports upto a 120Hz refresh rate and has a punch-hole notch cutout for the selfie camera. It is capable of producing upto 1 Billion colours and is HDR10+ certified along with Dolby Vision support. The display on the Mi 11 Ultra also offers upto 1700 nits of peak brightness levels. Moreover, the screen is topped with a layer of Gorilla Glass Victus for added protection against regular wear and tear.

On the back, there is a secondary 1.1-inch mini AMOLED display with a 294x126 pixels resolution that is housed on the camera island. This smaller screen is touch-enabled, supports an always-on display and can show notifications or can be used to take selfies from the rear camera.

The Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor that is built on a 5nm manufacturing process with an octa-core CPU that has a prime core running at upto 2.84GHz, three performance cores running at upto 2.42GHz and four power-efficient cores clocked at upto 1.80GHz. This is paired with Adreno 660 GPU that is responsible for handling the graphics duties on the phone along with 12GB RAM and upto 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. 

Also Read: Xiaomi Mi Band 6 first impressions: More features at a higher price

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Dizo GoPods Review: Essentially just rebranded Realme Buds Air 2s

The Dizo GoPods is a solid, value for money TWS under 5K. It is feature-rich, has a decent build and comfortable fit, and has good ANC implementation for the price. However, they are simply rebranded Realme Buds Air 2s. We're not fans of rebranded products because we see no sense in confusing the consumer by providing two exact same offerings with different names or price points.

Dizo, the first brand under the Realme techlife ecosystem, is still in its infancy stages. The company launched two affordable audio products this year to boot and have now come out with two more products in the audio category – the Dizo GoPods Neo and the Dizo GoPods. In this article, we will be reviewing the latter, an Active Noise Cancelling earphone in the sub 3K price bracket. The earphones upon first look are undeniably similar to another product we've reviewed in the past – the Realme Buds Air 2. Upon further investigation, it is clear that the Dizo GoPods is, in fact, a rebranded Realme Buds Air 2. The earbuds are feature-rich and look great on paper, at least, but do we need a rebranded Buds Air 2 on the market? Let’s find out.

Dizo GoPods: Build and comfort

The Dizo GoPods look almost identical to the Realme Buds Air 2 barring for the colour. The GoPods are available in two colour variants – Smoky Grey and Creme White. We got the latter for review and were pretty pleased with the aesthetics. The charging case has a cobble-shaped design that is flat enough to easily slip into pockets without bulging too much. The case is glossy so it can attract fingerprints, but they are not quite as prominent on the White case. 

On the front, you have the Dizo branding and an LED battery indicator. The bottom houses the USB-C charging port and the right side has a pairing button. The case can be flicked open one-handed with ease. However, the hinge is not reinforced by metal, which is slightly worrisome for long term usage. 

The buds sport a dual-tone finish – glossy white stems and matte black buds. Overall, the design language is pretty aesthetically pleasing. The back of the stems has touch-sensitive surfaces to control both music playback and calls. The touch controls are reasonably responsive and worked well 90 per cent of the time, with some misreadings happening occasionally. 

As for comfort and fit, Dizo provides a total of three pairs of silicone ear tips for users to choose from (S, M and L).  The earbuds have an assuring, snug fit and are secure even during physical activities such as walking, jogging, and others. They are pretty comfortable, but if you wear them for a few hours on the stretch you could feel slight discomfort over time. Overall, these buds look stylish, have a snug and comfortable fit and are suitable to be worn even when exercising.   

Dizo GoPods: Features

Since the Dizo GoPods are rebranded Realme Buds Air 2s, they have the exact same features as them, which automatically makes it an attractive, value for money offering. You get premium features such as Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency Mode on these earbuds that are priced very competitively. ANC has been democratised by brands such as Realme, Oppo, and a few others, and Dizo is doing the same by offering it up at an affordable price point for the masses.

Now, let’s delve into some other features. You can connect the Dizo GoPods to a pretty decent accompanying app called Realme Link. The app's UI is clean, easy to use, and has a fair number of customisation options. You can toggle between noise cancellation modes, activate features such as game mode, in-ear detection, and volume enhancer, and you can even customise controls. In-ear detection works well on the buds. During our testing, the feature worked about 80 per cent of the time. 

As for the touch controls, you can tweak the controls within the app. You can customise the double-tap, triple tap and touch and hold actions on both ears. There's no way to add volume controls though, which is very disappointing. Users can also use the app to choose between three EQ presets, check battery levels, and update the firmware of the buds. 

Other features of the Dizo GoPods including IPX5 water resistance, USB Type-C charging, and mono earbud use where you can use either bud independently of each other. Overall, the Dizo GoPods are extremely feature-rich for the price.

Dizo GoPods: Performance

Uncompensated frequency response graphs of Dizo GoPods (Light Blue) vs Realme Buds Air 2 (Purple). They're nearly identical.

The Dizo GoPods sport the exact 10mm driver with DLC coating as found on the Realme Buds Air 2. They even come equipped with the R2 chip and Bluetooth 5.2 as found on the Buds Air 2. No surprises there. So, you get identical performance on the Dizo GoPods as the Realme Buds Air 2. The earbuds have a consumer-friendly V-shaped sound signature with a slightly boosted bass response and boosted highs in the 2kHz-3kHz range of the frequency graph. In this graph, you can see that the Realme Buds Air 2 and the Dizo GoPods have produced a nearly identical frequency response graph. We use a measurement mic from iSEMcon paired with an adapter from SLS audio made to test IEMs. For our audio interface device, we use the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. All of this is hooked up to a PC running the SMAART-Di v2 software that generates frequency graphs for headphones. 

Uncompensated frequency response graph of Dizo GoPods (Light Blue) vs Flat response (Light Purple)

Objective testing using our equipment as well as real-world testing showed that the Dizo GoPods have a punchy and lively bass response that many will enjoy, although the bass does lack some detail and finesse. The slightly overexaggerated low-bass response occasionally bleeds into the mids. For example, in Billie Eilish's bad guy, the bass beats sound boomy and hamper the clarity of the vocals. On its own, the mid-range is well-produced though with instruments and vocals in this range sounding pretty clear, for the most part. The highs are decent as well, although the drop off from 4kHz to 8kHz robs some details in cymbals and hi-hats in rock music, making tracks sound dull at times. The soundstage is decent, however, imaging could be slightly better. But for the price, the Dizo GoPods come with an enjoyable and lively sound signature. They sound especially good with genres such as EDM, rap, hip-hop, pop and Bollywood. The buds also get incredibly loud even without Volume Enhancer, and we used them at about 50-60 per cent volume at all times.

As for the Active Noise Cancellation performance, the buds provide an impressive experience for this price range. The ANC performance on these buds obviously won’t rival premium TWS earbuds, however, it does pretty well in some scenarios. Constant, low-frequency sounds such as an AC’s drone, airplane’s rumble, and similar sounds are cancelled very well. If you spend 5K, the Oppo Enco W51 offer slightly better ANC performance, but at this price point, the earphones perform as expected, or even slightly better. Transparency Mode is also available and it performs sufficiently well. 

Now, moving on to the microphone on the Dizo GoPods, the performance is mediocre, at best. The voice relayed on calls via the in-built microphone sounds slightly garbled and there's some echo too. As for wireless connectivity, the earphones come with Bluetooth v5.2 and we faced no issues with connection whatsoever. There were no drops or lags in the audio and the wireless range is pretty good as well. There is slight latency when watching videos or playing games, but you can turn on Game Mode to make that significantly better via the Realme Link app. The company claims latency as low as 88ms when this mode is active. 

Dizo GoPods: Battery Life

The Dizo GoPods' battery life is rated at 25 hours with both buds and charging case with ANC turned off. The earbuds themselves have a battery life of 5 hours with ANC off on a single charge, as per the company. In our tests, the buds lasted about 3.5 hours with ANC turned on and at around 60 per cent volume. Your mileage will vary depending on if you keep ANC on and the volume levels. The charging case provided the buds with 4-5 additional charges, which is pretty decent for the price.

The buds also support Fast Charging where just 10 minutes of charging will provide users about 2 hours of playtime with ANC off. The battery life is pretty good overall and it beats out the OnePlus Buds Z and the Oppo Enco W51 in terms of total playback time.

Dizo GoPods: Verdict

The Dizo GoPods is a solid, value for money TWS under 5K. It not only provides Active Noise Cancellation on a budget, but also great app support, decent battery life, and a large feature set. However, it is essentially a rebranded Realme Buds Air 2 with every specification being identical to the tee. The Realme Buds Air 2 were launched at Rs 3,299 but can now be purchased at Rs 2,999. The Dizo GoPods are priced at Rs 3,299, the same price as the Realme Buds Air 2 when they were launched. We're not fans of rebranded products because we see no sense in confusing the consumer by providing 2 exact same offerings with different names or price points. Additionally, the Realme Buds Air 2 sell for Rs 2,999 on the Realme website now, so just grab them instead of the Dizo GoPods, since they are the same product. We really hope we get to see some originality from Dizo in the future, even if they are under Realme's techlife ecosystem. 

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China restricts online gaming for under-18 to 3 hours per week to limit addiction

China has restricted young gamers from playing video games, including online games to three hours per week, a move that it thinks will reduce gaming addiction. As per a report by Statista, the worldwide PC gaming market is a 37 billion US dollar industry while the mobile gaming market alone generated over 77 billion USD in 2020. So it's not wrong to say that interest in gaming is at an all-time high after being associated with a lot of negativity and stigma in the past few years. However, the latest rules by the Chinese government come as a setback to gamers as well as the gaming industry.

The new gaming rules

The new rule limits minors to play games only for one hour from 8 PM to 9 PM on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. This is even more stringent than the previous rules established in 2019 that allowed minors to play games for 1.5 hours on weekdays and three hours on weekends and public holidays.

In addition, those under the age of 18 were also required to use their real names and National Identification Number while logging in to play any game so that they could be identified and regulated based on the existing rules.

All game titles in China will also be connected to an “anti-addiction” system that is being set up by the NPPA (National Press and Publication Administration), as per a Reuters report. Furthermore, the government will also increase its scrutiny to ensure that the new rules are being enforced by gaming companies.

Gaming in China

As per the state media, over 62.5% of minors (under-18) play online games in China while 13.2% play mobile games for over two hours on weekdays. 

"Teenagers are the future of our motherland. Protecting the physical and mental health of minors is related to the people's vital interests, and relates to the cultivation of the younger generation in the era of national rejuvenation,” an unnamed NPPA spokesperson told Xinhua state news agency.

In 2020 alone, the gaming revenues from China rose by more than 20% to around 43 billion USD where Tencent and NetEase remain the largest online gaming companies. Seeing so much interest in online gaming, the Beijing government even announced in 2019 that it plans to become the global capital of online games by 2035. 

Fast forward to the Two Sessions, the government annual parliamentary hearings held earlier in March, President Xi Jinping listed game addiction as a cause for the deteriorating psychological health of young teens in China. This suggested that the government is getting ready to take some action and could try to regulate gaming.

While gaming studios like Tencent have already enforced some limits on players of some popular games like Honour of Kings, it seems to have done little to calm the nerves of the state. It remains to be seen how this new rule affects the larger gaming community in China and whether this latest crackdown will reverse years of growth for the worldwide gaming industry.

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Deathloop, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, More: September Games on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

September promises to be a great month in gaming as it is set to the release of much-awaited titles such as Deathloop, Lost in Random, Diablo II: Resurrected, NBA 2K22 and more. Here are some of the most exciting games set to release on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

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