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The Xiaomi Redmi Pro is one such product that immediately caught the eye of many budget smartphone hunters. It packs a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED, a dual-camera system for refocusing and creating bokeh effects, a massive 4,050 mAh battery, and a decent MediaTek Helio X20 SoC with 32 GB of storage. All of this can be had for just under $250 from Gearbest. While the hardware can seem great on paper, I’ve seen my fair share of Chinese devices that fail to live up to their specs, or include software packages that aren’t localized or butcher Android itself....

As reported by MacRumors, users on Reddit and YouTube have been posting screenshots of the 2160p/4K resolution option for YouTube videos showing as a feature available only to YouTube Premium subscribers, seemingly adding another benefit alongside the lack of ads to its $12 pm/$120 per year service. We don’t know if this is a test among a limited subset of users in various countries or something Google has now started rolling out—this writer can still access 4K videos on standard YouTube....

As PCMag recounts, Zoom previously claimed to have addressed the issue in a December 27 update that “resolved an issue regarding the microphone light indicator being triggered when not in a meeting.” Even still, some macOS Monterey users insisted the microphone activity indicator - which lights up green when the mic is actively in use and orange when it has been recently used - persisted in the menu bar after a Zoom call was over....

Assassin’s Creed Origins buckles the Core i7-2600K, breaking it down to just 52fps at times before we overclock. Once overclocked we still see dips as low as 62fps and this meant it was around 30% slower than the 8700K, which I should note is GPU limited even with the medium quality preset enabled. The margin for the 1% low result grows with the high quality preset enabled. Now the overclocked 2600K is 33% slower and of course the 8700K is still GPU limited....

Welcome to our 101 in 3D game rendering: a beginner’s guide to how one basic frame of gaming goodness is made. Each year, hundreds of new games are released around the globe – some are designed for mobile phones, some for consoles, some for PCs. The range of formats and genres covered is just as comprehensive, but there is one type that is possibly explored by game developers more than any other kind: 3D....

Naturally, that means Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors share the same socket. In addition to Sandy Bridge CPUs being compatible with 7-series motherboards, 6-series motherboards are compatible with Ivy Bridge chips. In other words, with little more than a BIOS update, folks running on older boards based on chipsets such as the H67, P67 or Z68 should be able to use one of Intel’s latest processors. Given the similarities between generations, 7-series chipsets don’t bring too many changes to the table....

TechSpot Wallpaper Week - 3rd edition This is the third edition of Wallpaper Week on TechSpot which we’ve broken down in five categories. We’re refreshing all content, keeping the best high-resolution wallpapers from previous editions and adding a ton of new content, one category per day Monday thru Friday. The idea is to share astonishing wallpapers gathered from around the web by members of the TechSpot staff. Most of these are good to use with your 4K desktop, laptop display or smartphone....

This couldn’t be much farther from the truth. While the graphics card is the most important component for gaming performance, skimping on parts like the motherboard, storage, PSU, and even the case can lead to an inconsistent and unpleasant experience. In this article we’ll cover 7 types of parts you should avoid when building or buying a budget PC. Dual-core CPUs With current architectures supporting up to 24 or 32 threads, processors that only offer 2 or 4 of those are far behind even mainstream offerings with 8 or 12 threads....

The GTX 780 also performs fine in Overwatch at 1080p with an average of 149fps, placing it roughly on par with the R9 390 (the GTX 780 was just 4% slower). The GTX 780 remains strong at 1440p as it turns in a rather strong minimum frame rate. When looking at the average frame rate it was able to match the RX 470 while it wasn’t much slower than the R9 390....

Then a second wave of these mobile computing solutions came, bringing larger (mostly 10-inch) screens along with traditional spinning hard drives that significantly increased storage capacity, a near exclusive adoption of Intel’s mobile Atom processor and more solid, non-childish looking designs. Today we’ll be looking at what I consider a third generation netbook, the Acer Aspire One 751h. This new model from Acer features a larger, 11.6" HD resolution screen and a full size keyboard - among other improvements....

Response times are one area where the X27 differs compared to the PG27UQ. Each company has the ability to tweak their overdrive controls despite using the same panel, and in the case of the Acer and Asus models, Acer’s overdrive controls are little lacking. Our standard test procedure involves finding the best overdrive setting that delivers less than a 5% overshoot, and then using that setting for response time testing....

The Alienware AW2721D is a new high-end 27-inch 1440p monitor, giving us our first look at the combination of a 240Hz refresh rate and IPS technology at this resolution. Alienware are touting “true 1ms GTG response time” - we’ll see about that - but we do know the monitor uses a latest-generation LG IPS panel so we’re expecting performance that’s similar to other LG IPS products. Another important point on the spec sheet is G-Sync Ultimate support, although it’s the new watered down G-Sync Ultimate, not the high standard the program once commanded....

With that said, the browser is still pretty good. It’s tabbed interface is easy to use, and the thumbnail-based bookmarks are also simple enough to deal with. I noted no real page rendering issues in my tests, though I did have trouble getting Flash based YouTube videos to go full screen and occasionally saw problems with double-tap based zooming. On top of that, the browser scrolls and pans a bit too quickly, as I mentioned previously....

The FBI worked with the US Postal Inspection Service to build their case. One has to wonder how the scheme could have gone on for 15 months before authorities took action, but perhaps they wanted to let it play out long enough to ensure they had the right person. Of all the things to steal, why go after merchandise that is in heavy demand and likely under increased scrutiny from inventory managers?...

Grubhub operates in more than 4,000 cities across the country and has hundreds of thousands of restaurants to choose from. Prime Day proper starts on July 12 and runs for two days. According to research firm Coresight, more than 80 percent of consumers in the US have access to a Prime account. Image credit: Creative Vix

When testing Dirt 3, the A10-5800K matched the i3-3220, Phenom II X4 980 and Core i5-750 at 75fps. In The Witcher 2, the A10-5800K was 1fps faster than the A8-3850 while being 3fps slower than the Core i3-3220 and Phenom II X4 980. Despite looking strong in Bad Company 2, the A10-5800K was only able to match the performance of the A8-3850 with an average of 88fps. Civilization V is a CPU-dependent game, so we saw quite a large variation in the results....

The A10-7800 is just a fraction faster than the A8-7600 at 1680x1050, delivering one extra frame. There is only 100MHz standing between the maximum turbo frequency of the A10-7800 and A8-7600, so when the CPU becomes the bottleneck in games it is likely they will produce similar results just as we have seen in Watch Dogs. The A10-7800 is able to pull away from the A8-7600 in Thief, providing 26% more performance at 1920x1200....

In terms of features, we think Asrock’s A75 Extreme6 is the best offering with its superior SATA support, expansion slot design, inclusion of Firewire and an easily accessible CMOS reset switch along with onboard power/reset buttons. Although Asus added DisplayPort along with an extra audio jack, this isn’t enough to dethrone the A75 Extreme6. Likewise, the Gigabyte A75-UD4H has a better audio solution, but it’s only a marginal improvement over Asrock and Asus boards....

All the A75 boards provided stronger USB 3.0 performance than the NEC PD720200 controller featured on the Asus Crosshair IV Extreme. Only the Gigabyte A75-UD4H’s Etron EJ168A showed any kind of weakness with poorer write performance. What’s most interesting about this chart is Asrock’s XFast USB software, which boosted the A75 Extreme6’s read performance by over 45%.

For a limited time, AMD will give away free Steam keys for the upcoming Uncharted: Legacy of Thieve’s Collection with nine Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. The former PlayStation exclusive launches on Steam and the Epic Games Store on October 19 for $49.99. Almost every Zen 3 CPU is part of the promotion, from the Ryzen 5 4500 to the Ryzen 9 5950X. Customers should note that the deal doesn’t include the Ryzen 5 5600G or Ryzen 7 5700G....