You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/asus-rog-zephyrus-duo-16-gaming-laptop.2040/

I’ve always avoided having a gaming laptop. Seeing them as a poor option in terms of value for performance with limited upgrade options and an even more limited lifespan, I have for as long as I remember seen them as a weird stepchild of PC gaming. Having said that, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been somewhat intrigued. I love portable gaming, and while gaming laptops generally need to be plugged into a power supply to get the most out of them, it’s a significant improvement on lugging a desktop around for a game night at a friend’s house. Pair this with the unique two screen design of ASUS’ Duo line and you have a disaster in the making for my poor wallet. Though it may lament my poor spending choices, I can say I don’t. This thing is spectacular.

So let’s get the nitty gritty out of the way first in terms of what’s being offered here. What I went out and bought was the lowest spec model of the Duo 16, but don’t let that fool you. It’s a powerhouse either way, and weirdly the only model that’s actually available at the time of writing. It comes kitted out with a Ryzen R7-6800H CPU paired with the laptop flavour of Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti. On top of this you get 16 GB of DDR5 RAM running at 4800 MHz and a fairly decent 2 TB M2 SSD itself capable of 7000 MB/s read and 5200 MB/s sequential write speed. Though the SSD is advertised as two 1 TB SSDs running in RAID 0, I was pleasantly surprised to find a single 2 TB stick with one slot open for you to add your own. I went out of my way to upgrade this laptop about as much as you can, so I’ll go more into that later. To complete the package you have a 16:10 aspect ratio 1080p screen capable of 165 Hz, along with its unique secondary 1920×550 display that runs at a more standard 60 Hz. In the more expensive models you’ll find a Ryzen 9-6980HX CPU and a laptop 3080 Ti, as well as more ram, larger SSD configurations, and a more luxurious 1440p HDR display. The 3070 Ti model I have came in at a relatively eyewatering £2700, with the next model up supposedly retailing for £3700, and the most expensive model hitting a terrifying £4300.

While you’re still taking in the price we can take a look at the design of the laptop, with it being by far the most interesting element on show. This laptop has two screens. It has two screens and that’s awesome. When resting flush with laptop, the secondary screen takes up around half of the space available, meaning some compromises had to be made in terms of the keyboard and trackpad. Where you would usually have a good bit of space to rest your hands when using a laptop, you will find every bit of space available filled here. The keyboard sits right at the bottom of the body, with the trackpad being taller than usual and pushed to the right. It’s far more usable than I was expecting. While it does take some getting used to, I have no issue using this both on a desk and on my lap. The desk is naturally more ideal with you being able to push the laptop back a bit though, giving you an experience closer to what you’re used to with other systems. The trackpad being on the right is probably the more divisive element. If you use the trackpad with your left hand, this laptop is going to be unusable for you unless you’re happy to be tethered to a desk with a mouse constantly plugged in. As somebody who uses the trackpad with my right hand, this positioning really hasn’t been an issue though. You do also have the ability to change the trackpad into a touch numpad, and while this is a neat feature on paper, it just didn’t sit right with me due to the lack of any kind of haptic feedback. It just didn’t feel like I was hitting anything, so I ended up disabling the button to enable this and put it out of mind.

The second screen itself, dubbed the ScreenPad+, is a 14 inch display spanning the length of the laptop and sitting above the keyboard. As you open the laptop shell, the second screen tilts towards you, making it easier to see and, by extension, use. While this screen is what drew me to the laptop in the first place, the 1080×550 resolution had me somewhat concerned. With it being so slender, what exactly can you fit on it? Is it actually useful? To my relief, it’s been fine. For better context on what kind of room you have to play with, it’s just shy of a further 50% of the main display, vertically speaking. If you’re curious how an app would look on it, you can just snap it to a corner of your own 1080p screen and you’ll have a fairly good idea. Though I primarily use it as a means of keeping Outlook and Telegram constantly in my eye line, I’ve had a great time with it when playing games too. It’s so nice to just have the room to have a guide up. When playing Elden Ring I had Smithing Stone locations open to save me going back and forth between different things. It’s entirely non-essential, but it’s nice to have. The best use I’ve come across by far however has been OBS. This was largely the use case I envisioned when buying the laptop in the first place, and I really haven’t been disappointed. For streaming I’d argue a second screen essential, particularly when you’re streaming a game that’s being played on the PC itself. It keeps all your settings and configurations out of the way but still easily accessible, and I adore it. You can see the layout I use below and though it feels a bit unconventional, it really does work great.

The primary display is about what I’ve come to expect from ASUS. It’s just really nice, advertising full sRGB coverage and being pleasantly bright. It’s difficult to find specific information on the 1080p panel because it was never actually advertised by ASUS, with the most premium model supposedly launching with a 4K screen and the cheaper ones sporting a HDR 1440p display. Even the Amazon page for this laptop still shows the 1440p display amidst a mishmash of outdated information. Though I was at first disappointed to see the downgrade, I’m actually quite happy with the end result. At 16 inches a 1080p display still looks wonderfully sharp, and naturally squeezes out better performance from games, letting you get closer to its 165 Hz potential. I just wish the advertising materials were a bit more up front about what you’re getting.

As you might expect from a laptop in this price range, everything under the hood is fantastic. To give you a better idea of what it can do, I’ve popped a few benchmarks below for both the CPU and GPU. For the sake of transparency, the power profile was set to Turbo via the Armoury Crate software for each of these benchmarks, pushing the CPU and GPU to the limit of what it’s capable of in the laptop. With this profile, the fans are pretty much constantly pushing out air quite loudly, so it’s a mode I’d only really use while gaming where you actually need that power.

Of the results above, it’s the GPU scores on Geekbench that stand out to me. Looking at the Vulkan score, the average on Geekbench is 82032, which is significantly lower than the average on show. At first I assumed this was a result of the Turbo power profile, but switching it down to the normal Performance profile put out very similar results. For context, the average desktop 3070 Ti scores 104828 on this test. As much as I would love to believe this laptop GPU can outperform its desktop counterpart, I would assume something is going askew in the testing and take it with a pinch of salt. I’ve included two in-game benchmarks for a bit of a better picture in a more tangible scenario.

Regardless of the benchmarks, the system has shown its capabilities by handling pretty much everything I’ve thrown at it. With the base configuration the only problem child I came across was Elden Ring, where the game would perform the stutters it’s gained a bit of a reputation for on PC a little too frequently for my liking, even on low settings. Between Elden Ring and a few Chrome tabs, I did notice the RAM usage was a bit too close to the available 16 GB than I’d have liked, so decided to go out of my way to upgrade it. The original plan was to put in two 16 GB sticks for 32 GB total, but I ended up buying a 32 GB stick by mistake, and a combination of laziness to send it back and overexcitement to have some savings to burn drove me to just buy a second 32 GB stick instead. What this means is that I have elevated this laptop to the absolute limits of its upgradability, also fitting it with a second 2 TB M2 SSD and a 1 TB Micro SD card. Since throwing more RAM into the system, Elden Ring has run near-flawless, even on maximum settings. Having a bit of breathing room also helps with having streaming apps like OBS open at the same time as your more memory hungry titles, though 32 GB is almost certainly the sweet spot. Nobody’s going to argue that 64 GB of RAM is overkill at this point in time, least of all me.

The upgrade process is really quite simple for those interested in a laptop like this. The bottom of the laptop comes off after removing a number of torx screws with incredibly easy access to both the RAM and M2 slots once off. If you happen to pick up this model, you should have a spare M2 slot sat right there waiting for you, so you may as well put it to use.

I really and genuinely adore this laptop, and it might just be my current favourite piece of technology. Like a lot of more modern gaming laptops it actually feels portable, and is unique and innovative for its secondary display. Even so it’s a hard sell, if only for the premium put on that second screen. From a quick Google I can see laptops with similar performance thresholds sitting around £1000 cheaper, some even coming with more luxurious 1440p primary displays. I love ASUS for making something that seems to fit my own niche needs so wonderfully, but if you’re only interested in bang for buck, this isn’t going to be for you. For those of you set on the dual screen lifestyle though, the 3070 Ti model to me puts forward the best value with a good bit of space to upgrade if wanted. It’s your only option at the moment regardless.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/xiaomi-redmi-note-11-pro-5g.2031/

In my wardrobe lies a graveyard of phones that I’ve used throughout my life. From my sliding Samsung phone to an original OnePlus running Ubuntu Mobile to a cheap Vodafone device I had to get me through my early uni days. In recent years I’ve upgraded to powerful gaming phones in the form of RedMagic’s 5S and more recently 6S Pro, before moving to the obscure and brilliant Surface Duo. I’ve been enamoured with the weird and interesting, the clunky but power, but it’s been a number of years since I’ve had a phone that just works as a phone. A phone for somebody not wanting to run the entirety of their Wii library from out of their pocket with a nice screen, a nice camera, and a nice battery. After some time using it, I think Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G is that phone, even if I struggle to say its name in one breath.

Before going any further, let’s get the spec sheet out of the way:

• Screen: 6.67” 120hz AMOLED HDR10 compatible, 1080x2400p
• CPU: MediaTek Dimensity 920 5G (6 nm) – Octa-core (2×2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 & 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55)
• GPU: Mali-G68 MC4
• RAM: 6GB, 8GB
• Storage: 128GB, 256GB
• Rear Cameras: 108 MP wide, 8 MP 118˚ ultrawide, 2 MP macro lens
• Front Camera: 16 MP wide
• Android Version: MIUI 13, Android 11
• Sensors: Fingerprint scanner, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity sensor, Compass, IR Blaster
• Battery: 4500mAh
• Charger: up to 120W Fast 
• Color: Graphite Gray, Polar White, Atlantic Blue
• Price: $369.99 (128GB/6GB), $399.99(128GB/8GB), $449.99 (256GB, 8GB)

On paper, you may notice something familiar. Quite a bit of something familiar, with a good chunk of that sheet being identical to the phone Tom recently reviewed, the Note 11 Pro+’s predecessor, the Note 11 Pro. If you’ve already checked out that review, you might be wondering exactly what’s changed in what seems to be a rather iterative update. There are only two major differences: the CPU and the charging capabilities. In place of the Snapdragon 695G we have the more powerful but equally midrange Dimensity 920. On top of that, this phone comes with a battery capable of 120W charging, with the trade off of it being 4500mAh battery, down from 5000mAh. You can also get this phone with 256GB internal storage, up from a maximum of 128GB in the basic Pro model.

We’ll cover the CPU and its performance later, but the battery is perhaps the most interesting change, with 120W charging being a first for the Redmi Note line. I am unfortunately unable to test these capabilities due to being sent a model with a US plug, but I have found the battery to be ample to last me comfortably for two days of regular use. The smaller overall capacity comes down to the Note 11 Pro+ using two smaller batteries 2250mAh batteries capable of charging at 60W apiece, likely in an attempt to limit the heat coming from this intense charge, with the lesser capacity required to fit them in the same shell as its predecessor. Without the kit to open this for myself, I can’t show you what this looks like though. When I have needed to charge it, my Surface Duo’s 18W charger has done a fine job, getting it up to capacity within a few hours. It’s a distance from the advertised potential of 120W charging though, apparently capable of a full charge in just 15 minutes. If I can track down a 120W charger, I’ll update this review with how it is, but at the time of writing the closest I have is a 65W charger from my 2019 Razer Blade laptop. Maybe the UK just isn’t ready for such swift charging?

The overall user experience has been a joy. Xiaomi’s MIUI Android skin is something I’ve really come to enjoy, taking a number of design principles from Apple’s iOS. It’s clean and it attempts to make Android more accessible and simpler to use. It succeeds, but mimicking Apple it also makes the phone a bit more difficult to use for the power users among us. Using the standard Settings app, I wasn’t able to disable certain system apps I didn’t want to use. On top of this, the downloads app wouldn’t let me download any large files over around 2GB over a mobile network. It’s entirely possible there are settings to get around these limitations, but despite my searching I certainly couldn’t find them. A couple of Xiaomi’s installed apps also come with adverts as standard. Even if you can disable these with a simple and admittedly easy to find option, they go a long way in cheapening the experience. It also feels somewhat exploitative of the folks who might not have thought to look for a way to disable them. I know my mum would struggle with that, even if it’s simple for me. And I feel people like my mum would be exactly the target demographic for this device. All things considered I am fond of MIUI though. There are a lot of small bits and pieces I could call out, but as a whole it’s a really responsive flavour of Android that has no major quirks. Coming from the RedMagic and Surface Duo, this is appreciated. I love them both but they are filled with their own quirks and trade-offs for the experience they offer.

Looking to performance you shouldn’t be expecting flagship numbers. Though it looks and feels great, this is still a midrange device, and it’s in the benchmarking it really shows. Looking at the numbers from Geekbench 5, we get a single-core score of 735 and a multi-core score of 2223. Though this is a marked improvement over its non-plus predecessor, coming in at 683 and 2014 respectively, it’s not a game-changing improvement. You’ll get on fine with the Pro+ if you’re wanting to do day to day activities and some non-taxing gaming like Disgaea 1 Complete+ or the mobile Danganronpa ports, just don’t go expecting perfect performance from apps like Dolphin or AetherSX2.

The camera, though identical to the phone Tom covered, does deserve a shoutout for just how nice it is on a non-flagship device. I’ve included a few snaps below. It’s incredibly responsive and capable of some really nice quality images, even if I’m not the best photographer.

A few areas of note worth a quick mention are the NFC and 5G capabilities. Coming from the original Surface Duo, it’s been great to have Google Pay as an option again. Having recently stayed at a hotel in an area with 5G, I also had a great opportunity to put the Pro+ through its paces as a hotspot, and I was pleasantly surprised with the phone’s temperature. Despite being hooked up to my laptop and downloading more than 700GB of Steam games over a few hours, the phone never got hot. It was warm sure, but it handled the fairly constant strain surprisingly well.

As a generalist device for people not likely to venture into the more demanding areas of Android potential, the Pro+ excels. You’re not going to be blown away by its performance, but between its vibrant screen, fantastic camera, and clean Android skin, it’s a great pick for anybody wanting a smartphone that’s just a smartphone. It’ll definitely be my daily driver for the foreseeable future.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/rog-strix-scope-rx-tkl-wireless-deluxe-keyboard.2027/

It’s been a while since I’ve had a new keyboard to look at in front of me. Ever the enthusiast, I jumped at the chance to see what ASUS had coming up in a fresh new tenkeyless variety. Here we have the ROG STRIX Scope RX TKL Wireless Deluxe, and boy is it a nice one. It does have an obscenely long name however, so I’ll just be calling it the Scope from here, not to be confused with its non-wireless version that we as a site have not covered.

Now this isn’t my first ASUS keyboard, and there are a lot of parallels to be drawn between this and the ROG Claymore II I covered last year. You have the same fundamental RX red and blue switches on offer, with both Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz connectivity available on top of a standard USB C cable. You also have support for Armoury Crate, the ASUS gaming driver suite, and all its benefits and pitfalls. There’s also a few changes in terms of key configuration, some of which I like, others I’m a little more on the fence with.

At a glance, we have a fairly versatile keyboard that’s targeting FPS gaming in particular, with the lack of reliance on a numpad and the bindings you could throw onto it for something like an MMO. The idea here is that the space otherwise occupied by the numpad can now be where your hand sits, leading to some slightly more comfortable gaming sessions. Despite the numerous keyboards lying beside my desk, this is actually the first traditional tenkeyless design I’ve looked at, and I’m a little split on what’s offered. I am quite fond of the lower profile in terms of desk space, which is a positive of the design as a whole. I do feel like the folks at ASUS could have done better with the space available though, with the upper-right of the keyboard being occupied by a large ROG logo. It’s aesthetically pleasing and lights up in gamer colours, but there’s space there for three additional keys that would be much more functional.

For any long-time user of a computer keyboard, the glaring oddity on the Scope is its left control key. It’s huge, and I really don’t know why. I can understand it’s used a lot in games, and especially in first-person shooters as a means of crouching or sprinting, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard somebody complain about it being too small. It’s possible I’m just not in the right spheres to hear such whispers but for day to day usage, I found myself hitting it instead of the Windows key more often than not. It’s an odd problem to have, but I suppose if you find yourself catching the Windows key too much when gaming, this might be a boon for you.

The other odd key would be the one sitting atop F12, dubbed the “stealth key”. It has a picture of a hooded individual and everything. Though I think the branding of what is ultimately a show desktop key is rather goofy, it is a somewhat neat idea in terms of swift privacy. There are certainly worse features that could sit atop the function keys. The function keys themselves are quite interesting here too. Something I haven’t come across on my own keyboard adventures, F1 through F4 function as normal, with only F5 through F12 being set to their media functions as default. On paper this is really neat, with having easy F2 access being particularly great as somebody who spends plenty of time renaming files, and F4 for closing apps quickly. I do wish they left F5 as standard as well though, with it being one of the more useful function keys. You can of course still use it by holding the Fn key, or even change this but it feels one step away from being as good as it could have been. I will add in here that it’s possible to remap the behaviour using Armoury Crate, so assuming you don’t mind going through the software, this can be tweaked to your liking.

Looking at the switches, I still only have good things to say about the proprietary RX switches on offer. I’ve previously had the chance to use both the red and blue variants, with the reds being what I have here with me today. Though the memory of the blues has somewhat faded outside of that I really liked them, I can confidently say these are some of the smoothest linear switches I’ve used to date. Of my personal collection, they’re only really etched out by the Wooting two HE’s incredibly interesting Lekker switch. It does of course all come down to preference, but I’ve consistently enjoyed what ASUS put out in this department. As a bit of an addendum, RX switches also come with a unique stalk design, rooting the keycaps to the switch at four points, resulting in an incredibly stable keycap that really does feel great. 

The lighting for the Scope is another standard affair for an ASUS keyboard. The colours are really quite vivid and crisp, but at the end of the day they’re fairly standard across the board when looking at these big-name brands. When connected to Armoury Crate you can customise these to your liking with your usual assortment of effects. Whether you want a rainbow crossing your keyboard or a laser being sent out for every key you hit, your expectations will more than likely be met.

Based on previous experiences it should go without saying that the wireless experience is a joy. I’m really fond of the fact you can store the wireless dongle within the keyboard to avoid the classic conundrum of losing the blasted thing. The switch on the back of the keyboard works well and makes it clear as to whether you want to use the keyboard wired, via Bluetooth, or via the included dongle. In each mode I can’t say I felt any noticeable lag, but as always, this should be taken with a pinch of salt as I’m not the most perceptive to it. If it is a genuine concern, using the keyboard wired for your serious gaming sessions really is no hassle at all. One aspect I was confused about in particular when looking at the keyboard was what I thought to be a useless ROG logo in the top-right, where a few keys could quite comfortably sit. After a bit of confusion, I did find you could enable this as a battery indicator using Armoury Crate, though there really isn’t much in the way of signposting to say so. I still do prefer the clear and visually quite appealing barred battery of the Claymore II, but this does do the job once setup. 

I really do like this keyboard, but whether I can or can’t recommend it largely falls on its pricing, and right now, I don’t actually know how much it’ll cost. The wired variant of this retails for £140, with it currently discounted to £90 at a number of retailers at the time of writing. If ASUS could price this close to its wired RRP I do think it’s a good buy, but much more would put it too close to the Claymore II for me to be able to recommend this over that, especially given the additional versatility of the Claymore II. The ROG STRIX Scope RX TKL Wireless Deluxe keyboard has an outrageously long name, but its unique switches and tweaks make it a joy to use. If you find yourself wanting to save space on your desk over a full layout keyboard and see this one around at a good price, it’s one to consider.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/asus-rog-strix-xg16ahp-portable-monitor.1999/

I’ve had some good fun covering some of ASUS’ recent hardware releases. Having previously looked at their ZenScreen and enjoying the additional versatility a portable monitor could provide, I kept an eye out for the perfect match. The monitor that would surpass what I had previously tried and slot perfectly into my on the go setup. This is that monitor.

It’s no secret that I’m not the most technically-minded reviewer with this kind of things, and as ever I hold my hands up to that. As usual though, I will try my best with the hand I have been dealt to show you what I like so much about this thing. At a glance you have a 1920 by 1080 panel that’s capable of 144 Hz and supports variable refresh rates. At 15.6 inches diagonally, it strikes a great balance of portability and screen space, and comes packed with a whopper 7800 mAh battery to boot, enabling you to use it on the go with no wall plug to tether you down. Looking at the ports available, you have a USB C for charging, a USB C for display input, as well as a more traditional micro HDMI port. Everything on offer is a significant step up from the ZenScreen I looked at last year from ASUS.

With the ZenScreen coming in at around £220 at the time of writing, and the Strix being almost double that, you would expect a certain difference in feature sets. The flashiest upgrade is in the monitor refresh rate, letting you push your mobile setup to its absolute limits. At first I did think 144 Hz was somewhat overkill in a product where you might want to prioritise play time over pushing the most frames, but it didn’t take long for me to appreciate it. To my surprise, my GPD Win 3 was capable of playing games like Monster Hunter Rise above 100 FPS, which gave me a really enjoyable time when I went to visit my friend for the game’s launch. With VRR enabled, the gameplay felt smooth despite not actually hitting that 144 Hz cap. You can naturally play at lower refresh rates if you want to get a longer play session out of your charge though. 

Much like the ZenScreen, I found myself incredibly impressed with the colours on offer in the display. With every ASUS display I’ve tried to date, it’s a constant I’m glad to see upheld in the Strix. A bit of a surprise to me, all of the specific gaming features found in the larger VG28U were available here too. This means I had a great array of colour settings to play with, as well as a few game enhancing and fun features like a zoomed-in sniper spot in the middle of the screen. It’s fun to pretend I could definitely make an insane pistol shot from across the map in Hitman. Maybe one day I’ll do it without the training wheels. 

With this being a gaming-centric monitor, my biggest point of relief was the 3ms response time from the IPS panel. On paper the difference between 5ms in the ZenScreen and 3ms here doesn’t seem all that noteworthy, but it’s night and day in terms of usability. You do get used to 5ms if all you’re wanting is a monitor for watching videos and a bit of additional productivity, which is exactly the audience the ZenScreen is targeting. For any more than that though you’ll likely be left wanting. The Strix on the other hand slotted right into my setup. When I’m at home, it sits on my oh so cluttered desk, and when I head out to play games with friends, it comes with me in my bag. It’s effortless. It doesn’t feel like a portable monitor. It feels like a monitor that I can just put in my bag, and while that might sound like meaningless semantics, to me it’s a testament to its quality in surpassing the flaws of what I’ve seen in portable monitors. It even comes with an adjustable tripod you can mount it to, on top of the built-in kickstand. With me never really coming to terms with the folio case of the ZenScreen, both of these options proved to be great. The kickstand being diagonally oriented across the back of the display, it’s able to accommodate both the traditional landscape and ever-useful portrait layouts. Even at home it’s become my favourite option for playing Groove Coaster on the Switch with how easy it is to just pick up and turn on its side. 

The built in speakers go a long way in completing the gaming on the go package. While you’re naturally not going to find the same volume or depth of sound as a standalone speaker, I’ve found them more than adequate for what I need. Those wanting something better do have access to a 3.5mm jack on the side of the monitor though, so you’re free to use something a bit beefier if your setup demands it.  

This monitor was originally offered to me on loan like the ZenScreen was, but on seeing its specs, I just went out to buy one before the lovely PR folks had a chance to send it my way. A little over a month later I can say I have absolutely no regrets in this choice. While it is an expensive piece of kit, it does a lot to justify its premium price point. This is the creme de la creme of portable monitors, and an asset to any on the go setups, which might be more significant with the Steam Deck right around the corner. If you have the budget, I can’t recommend it enough.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/intel-i5-12600k-cpu.1987/

Intel is a name that needs no introduction. For many years the de facto choice for your PC’s CPU, they’ve since found themselves fiercely competing with AMD in both power and affordability. Hoping to be back on top once more, the 12th generation is here in three forms: the i9 12900, the i7 12700, and the i5 12600 we have on hand for review today. Each CPU comes in both a K and KF model, including and not including integrated graphics respectively, giving you a small saving if you’re going to be using a graphics card either way.

You can find an overview of the specs below:

So to jump to the point, what exactly makes the 12th generation of Intel CPU any different to the 11th? They have a higher performance ceiling, that much can be assumed. The real point of interest here is in the hybrid architecture, taking a page out of Arm’s book with its big-little design. Instead of having each core operate at the same level, the CPUs on offer here have two types: performance and efficiency. Performance cores are the heavy lifters, while efficiency cores are designed to operate, as the name suggests, as efficiently as possible. Where in mobile computing this is particularly useful in battery preservation, only bringing out the performance cores when necessary, there are other aspects that also benefit the battery-less desktop design. Frankly, not every app you run on your PC is going to need its full power. The efficiency cores can be used to handle tasks that are perhaps non-time critical, or that simply don’t need everything being thrown at it. I’ve simplified this a fair bit, but if you are interested in the architecture, there’s a ton of information on big-little floating around.

It isn’t without its flaws, though the biggest kinks have been worked out since the chips launched late last year. Due to the hybrid design, certain DRM detected the efficiency cores as a separate system, causing crashes at startup or randomly during gameplay. Bravely Default 2, Mortal Kombat 11, and Far Cry Primal were among a list of more than 50 titles known to have issues. Though this has since been resolved through patches to games and Windows updates, it does shine an interesting light on the issues that come with this kind of change, at least for early adopters. With some luck, this is the last we’ll hear of it.

Looking to the actual performance of the 12600 you’re unlikely to be disappointed. I only have two CPUs at my disposal at the moment, the 12600 itself and a more budget Ryzen 5 3600 in my main desktop setup. It’s worth noting the 3600 is more than a year old now and it’s not an even comparison. Our local mag staffer Tom also pitched in with the benchmarks, contributing his scores from a more comparable Ryzen 7 5800X. If you want to look up more CPU benchmarks to get a better idea of where this lands, check out a site like cpubenchmark.net.

The benchmarking tool I had handy was Cinebench R23, a free utility designed to push a CPU to its limits. I had originally installed this when isolating an issue on my personal PC build that caused it to crash, this ultimately leading to me upgrading my cooling solution when I found out the stock fan was causing my CPU to peak at 110 degrees Celsius. As well as this, you can find the scores from Geekbench 5 in the table below.

Beyond raw performance, the 12600K does a good job in future proofing itself in its compatibility for both DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, whilst still retaining compatibility with DDR4 RAM for those not looking to completely overhaul their setup at the moment. This is particularly important with the high costs of DDR5 at the moment though you’ll be needing to buy a new motherboard for the LGA1700 socket either way, and at the time of writing at least, they don’t come cheap. With the CPU also not including a stock fan, you’ll also need to go out of your way to get something that supports this new socket, though it should be noted companies like Noctua already have kits available to fit their existing range.

For those curious, you can find the full build used in the review below:

• Motherboard: ROG Strix Z690-E Gaming WiFi
• GPU: TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 Ti
• RAM: Polaris RGB 32 GB (2×16 GB) @ 4800 MHz

All in all, the 12600 stands out as the current primo pick for any budding new gaming PC build, but whether it’s worth upgrading for might be a more difficult question. It’s a money sink no matter which way you look at it, but the performance on offer paired with the DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support make it a fine choice if you know you’ll be putting money down either way.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/retroflag-gpi-case-2.1991/

In this modern age you can emulate your entire retro library on everything from your phone to your fridge. Despite its significant accessibility, many retro fans are left longing for the perfect way to play. Some want an all in one console to leave hooked up to their TV. Others want something they can pull out of their bag and play for ten minutes at a time. And there are those who just want a blast of nostalgia. Aiming to please all three of these crowds Retroflag is back to iterate on its popular GPi Case, now compatible with the more powerful Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4.

For those completely out of the loop, Raspberry Pi systems have long-been an affordable and effective means of retro emulation. With popular Linux distributions such as RetroPie and Lakka making the playing of these titles seamless and really quite stylish once setup, it’s easy to see why so many turn to them to fill this niche role. So where does Retroflag fit into this equation? In order to make Raspberry Pi gaming portable, they’re back with an almost-all-in-one solution wrapped in the image of Nintendo’s own first handheld. At a glance, it’s magnificent.

Though a bit smaller than the original Game Boy, coming in at a size closer to the Game Boy Pocket, I think Retroflag have absolutely nailed the look and feel of this classic console. The plastic, the buttons, the D-Pad, even the rubber start and select buttons. They’re all here and they feel so brilliantly close to the real deal, even matching up the volume slider, contrast slider, headphone jack, and physical power switch to their proper locations. The screen is, as you might expect, a notable improvement on the original Game Boy, coming in at 3 inches from corner to corner. As well as this, you have two bonus buttons hidden in plain sight at the front of the device for turbo and home functionality, as well as an X and Y button for additional retro compatibility. Hidden quite out of plain sight however are the L and R buttons, built into the case itself and being the only real questionable standout. They’re just a bit awkward. I understand wanting to keep the integrity of the original Game Boy form factor to an extent, but I still think I’d have preferred something closer to Anbernic’s RG351V, where there’s a ridge on the back for your fingers to rest on. If you’re playing games that only make light use of the shoulder buttons though, they do fine. You need to get into the habit of pressing on the front of the case as you press them in to maintain a grip on the device, but if you’re just, for example, changing boxes in a Pokemon game, you’ll get by.

Installation of the board into the case is as simple as popping off the top of the case and slotting it into where the cartridge would sit. It’s quick and easy, with access to this area not requiring a screwdriver. Having said that, with just five Phillips head screws holding the back of the case together, it’s incredibly easy to remove if you’d prefer to have more space to work with. Though I had no issues removing the board and putting it back in, it should be noted there really isn’t much room where the board actually fits into the device, meaning your options for heat dissipation are really quite limited. This unit being sent to me by Shaun after he finished his first impressions post, it had a small heat sync installed already. I haven’t run into any heat-related issues in the time I’ve been using it myself at least. You will need to take care when inserting and removing the Micro SD card, with the case opting for a bit of an awkward latch in oppose to a more common spring-based eject system. It’s awkward but you do get used to it after so many removals.

The screen is really quite nice. At 3 inches with a 4:3 aspect ratio, you’re set for some sharp gaming on a good chunk of common retro consoles. Outside of this though, I found the borders on the 3:2 GBA games and 10:9 GB games to be perfectly fine when playing. You can of course have these games stretch to the full size of the screen when playing, but this is a particularly hairy point of contention among retro fanatics. You have nice control of screen brightness via a physical slider where the contrast slider once sat, which is analogue in nature. At least I think that’s the correct terminology. If you scroll it all the way down, you’ll hit a limit and you can’t scroll it anymore. I like it a lot. 

When comparing this to the original GPi Case, the most significant upgrade will naturally be in the performance. Where the original case could only house a Pi Zero, and later a Pi Zero 2, this model comes sporting support for the latest and greatest in ultra portable Raspberry Pi boards: the Compute Module 4. This is ultimately a Raspberry Pi 4 stripped down to the essentials, and boy does it show.

All your usual retro giants run as expected. As a Nintendo junkie myself, I’ve enjoyed NES, SNES, and all the Game Boys in this compact bundle of nostalgia. Looking past that though, it is capable of more, even if the controls available aren’t exactly tailored to it. What this handheld lacks is an analogue stick, and while the lack of stick contributes to the original Game Boy aesthetic, it puts a lot of the additional power on offer to waste. Sure you can remap controls in RetroArch to have your D Pad act as an analogue stick; this does work fine for the most part. Especially with N64 games where they’re largely designed to use one of the stick or D-Pad, but it isn’t ideal. It’s worth mentioning here that I also never managed to get this to work. Though I tried to play Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 on the system, and they seemed to run well, I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong in the settings. In all likelihood this is me not finding one specific thing that should or shouldn’t be enabled, but it does take away from the larger ease of use.

Though you can’t comfortably play these games on the go, the GPi Case 2 does put this power to use in other ways thanks to a dock that comes with the deluxe edition. It’s not exactly as seamless as the Switch’s hybrid capabilities, but it’s an interesting offering on a device like this. First and foremost, there’s no quick switch between handheld and docked play. To dock the system, you need to turn it off, and turn it back on in the dock. The same is true when going from docked to handheld. I do like the idea of the dock, but the lack of ability to fluidly switch from playing on the go to on the big screen is a bit of a disappointment. Having said that, it does enable you to utilise the fullest potential of the CM4 that the limited controls of the case would struggle to accommodate. It’s less of a hybrid system, and more of two standalone devices in how I view it. It does beg the question though: would you just be better off with two standalone devices?

It’s difficult to say. With Linux-based handhelds only getting more competitive and even older PCs that you may just have lying around being able to match this kind of performance when hooked up to a display, there’s certainly a case to be made for going down that kind of route. Devices like the GPi Case 2 are what I would call an extravagance. Make no mistake, it does achieve what it sets out to comfortably, but it’s overspecced for the things it does best. The real allure of this device to me is in its portability and faithful recreation of the Game Boy’s original design but in this faithfulness, or more precisely its lack of analogue stick, it finds itself unable to live up to its fullest potential.

I still do recommend it though. If you’re wanting a plenty powerful device that looks and feels like a slightly more compact Game Boy this is an absolute dream. Just make sure you can source a CM4 board beforehand, since it’s not included in the kit.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/danganronpa-decadence.1971/

As a site we’ve talked about the Danganronpa series a lot. Favourably reviewing the first two games on Vita, as well as, surprising to some, Ultra Despair Girls, and giving the whole series a recommendation, it’s clear there’s a lot to love. My relationship with the series has been a rocky one. Originally playing a fan translation of the first game on the PSP, I fell in love with the cast of Super Duper High School students and the murder game genre. Having bought the second game on Vita when it released, I tweeted my excitement, only to have a random person online ruin the plot and every killer. It sucked. I shelved the game and decided I would wait for it to come to the Switch, hopeful I’d have forgotten enough for it to feel fresh. Nine years later I’m back, and I’m loving it.

For those who somewhat out of the loop with Danganronpa as a series, allow me to provide a brief rundown. You have a prestigious private high school called Hope’s Peak that only takes in people who are the best at what they do. In my delightful fan translation these people were referred to as Super Duper High School students, though this was shortened in the official translation to just Ultimate students. You might have an ultimate baseballer, an ultimate idol, or an ultimate clairvoyant, to just name a few from the first game. Those who graduate from Hope’s Peak are said to be set for life, but naturally you aren’t here for another run of the mill high school visual novel. Through varying events in each title, your cast of ultimate students are trapped in a foreign environment. The only way to escape? To kill a classmate and get away with it.

Each title follows a similar structure. You have your cast of hopeful Ultimates starting out in their daily life. These are peaceful times used to advance the plot, and usually have you going from place to place in a goal-oriented and generally linear manner. Sprinkled in the daily life segment is free time, where you’re able to meet up with the characters and bond with them, building relationships and giving gifts. Though you can skip free time if you’re particularly engrossed in what the main story has to offer, it’s invaluable to those wanting to get the most out of the game. With at least two characters dying per chapter, that is somebody being murdered and you assumedly catching the murderer, you’re on a timer to get to know everybody. If you find yourself attached to one character in particular, you want to be utilising free time from the start to make sure you at least get a moment or two with them before they potentially find themselves cloaked in the florescent pink paint of death. The conclusion to each daily life section sees a character die, throwing you into the chaos of deadly life.

Deadly life is where the meat of the game lies for me, bringing about a period of investigation to piece together what happened, and ultimately, find the killer. Much like daily life, the investigative part of deadly life is fairly linear in nature. You’ll get to an area and tap on all the available places to collect information, then move to the next place. Repeat until you’ve seen all there is to see and you move onto the finale of the chapter: the class trial. These are fantastic, and it’s here you’ll be tested on how much you paid attention during the investigation. Characters start by discussing the events of the murder. These conversations moving in real time, you need to pay attention and spot discrepancies. Where something sounds off, you have the ability to launch a piece of evidence from your investigation, a truth bullet, to counter it. This ends the current discussion and moves the trial forwards. The basic structure of the class trial sees you go through a number of discussions, transitioning into a fairly wide range of minigames to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. It makes for a really fun means of storytelling, with you generally not aware of the culprit from the outset. The series as a whole does an incredibly good job of presenting pieces in a way that feels satisfying to put together, even when playing on the easiest difficulty settings. By the end of the trial you point out your killer, they face their deadly punishment, and more of the map becomes available to you as a result of your victory. This additional map space keeps both daily life and the investigatory part of deadly life fresh, and allows the games to follow maintain a satisfying loop even as the cast starts to thin out.

Each of the games find much of their success in their writing. Coming back to it again after so long I’ve been completely enthralled in it. It takes a special kind of series to make death and despair so contrarily comical and absurd, while not necessarily dimming down the severity of the situation. The story on offer is easy enough to follow for the most part, but keeps you on your toes with twists and turns you often realise you can piece together retrospectively. As a trilogy, they tell a fantastic tale that I hope will now reach more people thanks to the popularity of the Switch. But we have more than just a trilogy here.

Danganronpa S is the obvious outlier of this collection. It certainly isn’t your average Danganronpa game, but I can appreciate it as a bit of a bonus title. Characters from all three games featured in this collection, as well as those from Ultra Despair Girls, all gather together for a summer camp in a virtual reality world. The gameplay on offer is that of a board game in oppose to the usual murder mystery adventure you may have come to love, though it’s not entirely new, being largely an expansion of the minigame from Danganronpa V3. There’s some good bits here, but not really enough for me to recommend anybody pick this up by itself.

For those who have experienced all the series had to offer beforehand, you can think of this as one of those cross-over episodes from your favourite childhood TV shows. This is the Danganronpa equivalent to when all the Red Rangers teamed up in Power Rangers, only with a beach setting and more swim suits. It’s not a terrible concept, and the lack of murderous games means you have ample time for every character to interact in ways they’ve never had a chance to before. This is the highlight of the game. There’s a huge amount of interactions that simply weren’t possible, and as a series fan they’re great to see. Having said that, it’s a tough one to recommend playing.

The board game isn’t fun. There isn’t really a better way to put it. You roll a dice, land on spaces, make your character’s stats go up, and then fight some bosses. Each play through lasts 50 turns, and when that time is up, the game somewhat unceremoniously ends. When you want to come back and play another round, there’s just not enough that’s different to make it interesting. You end up in a cycle of mashing A until you get a chance to see a few characters have an interesting conversation. I really wanted to like this. As one of few to defend Disgaea 5’s Chara World board game, I have been known to find fun in an otherwise mindless and monotonous board. Even compared to that it just feels lacking. Perhaps the worst part of all is that you can’t even play as your favourite character from the series, with the game implementing real-money gacha mechanics for reasons far beyond my comprehension. If you bought this game outside of the Decadence collection, you’re looking at £17.99. This isn’t a budget title. This isn’t free to play. I just don’t get it. You are drip fed coins to spend on the gacha machines as you play, but the rate at which you get them for completing associated achievements is dire.

If you pick up the collection and have Danganronpa S as a bonus, it’s just about serviceable. You can skip the drivel and enjoy the conversations fine. It is in no way worth £17.99 however. If you pay anything more than a few pounds for this I’d be surprised if you felt anything short of scammed.

Can I recommend Danganronpa Decadence? Of course I can. All three games on the Switch is something I’ve been wanting for years, and the game we got is exactly that. With the option to buy each title individually as well, those new to the series can jump in at a relatively low cost without necessarily having to commit to the whole thing. Looking past the missed opportunity that is Danganronpa S, this collection is undoubtedly one to pick up.

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/vissles-lp85-75-keyboard.1959/

Prior to this review Vissles were a relative unknown to me. With a few keyboards already in in their catalogue, as well as a portable monitor and wireless charging pad, they’re putting out a diverse range of accessories mainly aimed at Mac users. With the latest iteration of iPad Mini having released not too long ago, I was quite excited to try something aimed at Apple products, with the LP85 coming just at the right time.

On the surface the LP85 is an incredibly slim and very portable keyboard; it’s actually marketed as the thinnest optical-mechanical keyboard, but it’s not something I really know how to validate. It wouldn’t surprise me though, clocking in at a little over a centimetre. Despite its thinness the keyboard is surprisingly sturdy. The aluminium body feels premium and despite my absolute best efforts to bend it, kept the keyboard perfectly in shape. The overall aesthetic also makes it feel right at home with official Apple peripherals, rocking a simplistic design and fitted with a USB C port. It is worth noting that while I have the Mac model on hand, there is also a Windows variant available. On both models you’ll be able to swap the functionality of a few keys to better fit your operating system of choice, but there’s unfortunately no way of switching up the key caps on the model you buy. If you are considering one, bear this in mind.

Ever eager to try out new switch types, the optical switches on offer here had me excited. A new typing experience on an ultra portable wireless keyboard? Sign me up! In short, they’re quite nice. With this kind of form factor, I wasn’t expecting a satisfying click from the key presses, but here we are. The closest comparison I can make are to low profile blue switches but even then it’s not quite right. You have the travel time of a laptop keyboard with the feeling of popping some really good bubble wrap at the end of each press.

The 75% layout is the best blend of portability and usability for me, giving you all the keys you need in a compact format. What you basically have is a 60% layout with an additional row of keys on the top for your functions, and a column on the right for your additional navigation keys in Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down. The additional room taken up by these keys feels inconsequential, and I feel they’re far too useful to the majority of people for anything smaller than a 75% layout to be functional in the long term. That’s just my opinion though, with some favouring the super-stripped back nature of smaller keyboards.

What stands out above all else with the LP85 is its back lighting. Of the keyboards I’ve owned and reviewed, none have held a candle to how vivid and clear the lighting is. A lot of keyboards look nice. I recently got a Wooting Two HE and love its somewhat dull underglow, but Vissles’ offering is different. I’m fairly sure it can be attributed to the simple design of the keyboard; if the key caps are closer to the light, it shines through more clearly. It’s probably that simple, even if I struggle to capture it in images. There’s no bleeding of light from the sides of the keys either, resulting in a very clean face to match its larger aesthetic. If I had to find fault here, it’d be in the wider keys. Unfortunately they only have one light to service these larger areas, making the caps lock, delete, return, and shift keys look worse than their single character companions. I feel this could have been resolved if the area the light shines through were just designed to be a bit smaller, but it’s not exactly a dealbreaker. You have plenty of lighting options to choose from using function keys, with your selection saved on-device without the need for driver software. This is something I largely appreciate, but it should be noted you’re naturally missing the benefits of additional software in the lack of key remapping or advanced functionality. In a keyboard like this these aren’t features I expect however. I also really love that it has the ability to save connections to up to three devices, something I previously praised Keychron’s wireless keyboards for. Using button combinations on the keyboard you’re able to switch between saved pairings without any real hassle. It’s great.

All in all Vissles puts forward an incredibly compelling package in the LP85. You have a well-built and premium-feeling keyboard that does everything it needs to and does it well. With its combination of optical mechanical switches, vivid lighting, and simple multi-device pairing, it ticks every box for me as a keyboard to keep in my bag. Currently selling for $99 in the last few days of its Kickstarter (usually $139), I think it more than justifies its price and recommend it wholeheartedly.