CAN AMD’S RDNA 3 CONNECTING AND MICRON’S

GRAPHICS DELIVER? SNAPDRAGON 8 GEN 2 232 LAYERS OF NAND

DECEMBER 2022 THE POWER

W W W . H A R D WA R E Z O N E . C O M . S G TO DECIDE

IS THE NEW
APPLE IPAD PRO
OVERPOWERED
FOR A TABLET?

ASUS ROG
Strix Ge- Vivo
Force RTX X80 Pro
4090 OC Finally
The Cooler Flagship
RTX 4090 Worthy
P58
 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2

THE No really.
It may not look that way from the lack of Christmas-y vibes and

CHRISTMAS design. No baubles, no trees, no lights and no “festive buying guides”,

but this is indeed a very techie Christmas. Let me explain. You see, we

ISSUE have stopped creating dedicated year end or festive issues for HWM
for the very fact that in Singapore, sales periods are literally all-year
round these days. And chances are, if you wanted to buy something,
you would have already staked out the 11.11s, Prime Days, and Black
Fridays to be bothered by Christmas.
So, what makes this a Christmas Issue? Well, for the geek in me,
2022 is rather special in the way that technology companies seem to
D I G I TA L I M A G I N G H W M

be announcing their latest products within the past 2 months. Last

month, we saw the latest microprocessors in the form of Intel’s 13th
GROOMING: FIONNA L AU

Gen Core (Raptor Lake) vs AMD’s Ryzen 7000. Then in the graphics
space, we’ve now got NVIDIA’s RTX 40 (Ada Lovelace) vs AMDs
Radeon RX 7000 (RNDA 3), and in the mobile space, Qualcomm has
ON THE COVER
just unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which doesn’t just push new
Picture 123rf, Apple
MOCK TURTLENECK & CHINOS: SCOTCH & SODA

Art Direction Jason Tan performance tiers for next year’s Android flagships, but also brand
All prices quoted in this tablet are in Singapore
new connectivity technologies such as Wi-Fi 7 and Dual Bluetooth
S T Y L I S T: S H E H

Dollars (SGD), unless otherwise specified.

with 5G enhancements using AI.
These are all incredibly exciting advancements for the core
categories of tech that HWM covers today, and to have all these
announcements happening one after another is like taking a
weekend off, changing into your most comfortable clothes, setting
PHOTOGRAPHER: FRENCHESCAR LIM

Do Not Disturb on your phone, and binge-watching the whole season

of Sandman on Netflix.
And when you’re done, you can’t wait for Season 2. Which is exactly
how I feel now for what 2023 will bring.
SHOES: H&M

Zachary Chan
Editor

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 1

 Contents
DECEMBER 2022

LEARN
QUALCOMM SNAPDRAGON 8
GEN 2: A CLOSER LOOK
AT CONNECTIVITY

FOLLOW US

facebook.com/ twitter.com/ youtube.com/

hardwaremag_sg hardwarezonecom
hardwarezone hardwarezone

HWM CONTEST GENERAL TERMS & CONDITIONS:
1 All contests published in HWM are open to all Singapore residents except employees
of SPH Media Limited, the sponsor, their media agencies and contractors. 2 SPH
Media Limited’s decision on the winner shall be final. Winner will be notified by post,
email or phone. 3 Prizes are given at SPH Media Limited’s and sponsor’s discretion
and subject to stock availability. Prizes offered are not transferable, exchangeable
for cash or any other products and may be substituted with any gift or prize of
similar value. 4 Taxes, shipping charges, insurance costs and other expenses not
specified herein and imposed on the prizes are your sole responsibility. 5 Prizes not
claimed by the winner within 45 days after the announcement made in HWM will be
forfeited. 6 SPH Media Limited shall be entitled to use your name, photograph and all
information submitted by you for future advertising/marketing/promotional activities
without further compensation to you. 7 SPH Media Limited and the sponsor shall not
be liable for (i) late, lost, incomplete, illegible or unintelligible entries; (ii) any loss or
damage suffered by you or any party in accepting, possessing, using or consuming
any of the prizes or entering the contest; or (iii) any printing or typographical
errors in any materials associated with the contest. SPH Media Limited reserves
the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend or cancel the contest at any time. 8 By
sending your entry to the contest/promotion, you agree to be bound by all these
terms and conditions. 9 For mail-in entries, only original coupons will be accepted.

2 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 40
TEST
God of War
Ragnarok
34
TEST
ASUS ROG
Strix GeForce
RTX 4090 OC

46
TEST
Nothing Ear (stick)
22
TEST
Apple iPad
(10th Gen)

TEST
Huawei
MateBook
X Pro

52
TEST
28
Apple iPad
Pro (6th gen)

Nothing Ear (stick)

07 THINK
Apple iPad Pro (6th gen)
Where to next for 3D NAND
Vivo X80 Pro
12 FEATURE
Studying the hype
65 LEARN
Qualcomm Snapdragon
behind Radeon RX 7900
8 Gen 2: A closer look
series: Can it deliver?
at connectivity

12
21 TEST
Apple iPad (10th Gen)
Huawei MateBook X Pro
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce FEATURE
RTX 4090 OC ASUS ROG Strix
God of War Ragnarok GeForce RTX 4090 OC

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 3

4 HWM DECEMBER 2022
 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, LIFESTYLE & ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA GROUP
IGNATIUS LOW ignatius@sph.com.sg

HEAD, LIFESTYLE MEDIA & CONTENT MARKETING

PHIN WONG phinwong@sph.com.sg

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, LIFESTYLE MEDIA

RAYMOND GOH raygoh@sph.com.sg

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR, LIFESTYLE MEDIA

JOANNA LEE-MILLER jolee@sph.com.sg

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR, LIFESTYLE MEDIA

EILEEN CHIA elchia@sph.com.sg

EDITORIAL GROUP MARKETING MEDIA SOLUTIONS DIVISION

(editorial@hardwaremag.com) Team Head (Magazines) Sales Champion
LIN SHAO MEI smlin@sph.com.sg MICHELLE TAN mtancl@sph.com.sg
Editor-In-Chief
VIJAY ANAND vjanand@sph.com.sg
CREATIVE Advertising Solutions
Editor Art Director DEPUTY HEAD
ZACHARY CHAN zachchan@sph.com.sg JASON TAN jasontan@sph.com.sg Christopher Chan

Associate Editor Chief Photographer/Videographer Motoring

KENNY YEO kennyyeo@sph.com.sg VERONICA TAY verontay@sph.com.sg Edward Ng

Senior Tech Writer Senior Photographer/Videographer Banking, Investment,

LIU HONGZUO liuhz@sph.com.sg PHYLLICIA WANG wanglix@sph.com.sg Insurance, Tech & Telcos
WONG KEN LUEN kenwong@sph.com.sg Ellen Lee
Photographer/Videographer
Community Executive and ATHIRAH ANNISSA Property, Malls & Travel
Content Creator athannissaj@sph.com.sg Stella Yeo
KELVIN LEONG lkelvin@sph.com.sg
Photographer/Videographer Consumer Electronics,
Administration & Editorial Support LAWRENCE TEO Department Stores,
Senior Manager lawrenceteo@sph.com.sg MCG & Supermarkets
JULIANA CHONG julianac@sph.com.sg Martin Boey

Senior Executive Digital Development Government,

CYNTHIA LEE hhclee@sph.com.sg Director, Product and Innovation Health & Education
WENDY WONG wwong@sph.com.sg FAITH YOONG faithy@sph.com.sg Yvonne Wong

Chief Executive Officer

TEO LAY LIM ceo_office@sph.com.sg

Chief Marketing Officer Chief Technology Officer

JOANNA HO joannaho@sph.com.sg DAVID PANG  davidpang@sph.com.sg

Chief Financial Officer Chief Transformation Officer

ANDY HUI andyhui@sph.com.sg EUGENE WEE  eugenew@sph.com.sg

Chief Technology Officer Head, Corporate Communications

KAYTHAYA MAW  kaymaw@sph.com.sg SABITRI DEVI  sabitri@sph.com.sg

Head, Corporate Communications

SABITRI DEVI sabitri@sph.com.sg

Head, Human Resources

MAUREEN WEE maureen@sph.com.sg

HWM (HARDWAREMAG ® ) IS PUBLISHED BY SPH MEDIA LIMITED

1000 Toa Payoh North, News Centre, Annexe Block, Level 8 Singapore 318994 Tel: (65) 6319-6319,
Fax: (65) 6319-8113. Ad Sales enquiries Tel: (65) 6319-6326

Distributed by Circulation Department, SPH Media Limited. SPH Media Limited (Registration No. 202120748H)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. The views
and opinions expressed or implied in HardwareMAG are those of the authors or contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher.

Call 6388-3838 for back issues, E-mail: circs@sph.com.sg.

Subscription Hotline: 6388-3838 or subscribe online: www.hardwarezone.com.sg

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 5

 P I C T U R E S M I C R O N T E C H N O L O G Y, I N C . , 1 2 3 R F, D I G I TA L I M A G I N G H W M

Q&A

next for
MORE

Where to

3D NAND
INSIDE
THINK / FREE YOUR MIND

DECEMBER 2022
HWM
7
 T H I N K

By Ken Wong

Where To Next
For 3D NAND?
When launched earlier this year, Micron’s 232L NAND
was hailed by Scott DeBoer, executive vice president of
technology and products at Micron as:

IMAGES:

A watershed moment for storage innovation as first proof MICRON

T ECHNOLOGY,
INC.
of the capability to scale 3D NAND to more than 200 123RF

layers in production. This groundbreaking technology

required extensive innovation, including advanced
process capabilities to create high aspect ratio
structures, novel materials advancements and leading-
edge design enhancements that build on our market-
leading 176-layer NAND technology.

8 HWM DECEMBER 2022

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 9
 T H I N K

also looking at several

innovations to continue
to scale 3D NAND
while meeting cost
and performance to
enable end products.
We’re not commenting

Chandrasekaran on unreleased
products, but there are
Senior Vice President,
Technology Development
a lot of innovations,
at Micron Technology immersive experiences on mobile optimisations, and
devices, consumer electronics efficiencies to drive
Micron’s 232-layer and PCs. We can expect to see it further benefits in 3D
NAND technology in thinner and lighter laptops as NAND. We’re still in the
provided the high- well as the latest mobile devices. early phases of product
performance storage Micron’s 232-layer NAND is deployments featuring
necessary to support now in volume production in the this technology, but
advanced solutions company’s Singapore fab and we see great interest
and real-time shipping to customers through across the spectrum
services required its Crucial SSD consumer product of customer types—
in data centre line. from consumer to
and automotive But where to from here? How enterprise given the
applications, thanks much smaller can we go and can great performance
to benefits like current materials and technology and density/capacity
longer battery life, keep pace with what we want? our 232-layer NAND
better performance To find out this and more, we enables.
in cloud computing, spoke to Naga Chandrasekaran,
and faster training of Senior Vice President, Technology TLC NAND
AI models. Development at Micron seems to have
The compact form Technology, to find out all this, the most benefits
factor of 232-layer and more. compared to SLC,
NAND makes it pSLC, or MLC, but
the smallest high- Where do we go from how much longer can
density NAND 232L NAND? What are the this hold true?
available offering common deployment areas for Yes, TLC NAND
more compact it in Singapore? What areas of really does seem
storage for mobile deployment have surprised to address a sweet
devices for faster, you most? spot in many market
responsive, and Where do we go? We are segments—particularly

10 HWM DECEMBER 2022

enterprise accounts where endurance is a real priority. But we more fully participate in multi-
have also seen a growing interest in QLC technology, and we have vendor hybrid cloud architecture
been well-positioned to address that with a broad and growing deployments
portfolio of products. QLC took some criticism early, but we
and the rest of the industry have really advanced technology, How much further/longer
and you’ll be seeing more from Micron later this year where we can existing materials and
demonstrate a number of uses where QLC offers strong value but technology take us?
at quite competitive performance relative to other technologies. We’re always evaluating
innovations using existing
How many layers, dense, or higher can we go? Are we materials and processes—and
hitting a saturation point soon? there are still advancements to
The limits of NAND stacking are yet to be defined. It surely be made. But yes, we are also
gets more challenging from a design and fabrication process continually researching and testing
perspective, but we’re up for the challenge. Many people have novel materials and new process
forecasted the end of Moore’s law or otherwise predicted the end approaches in the quest to drive
of process innovation. That has always been a bad bet, innovative more benefits—lower power, higher
approaches always seem to lead to new breakthroughs. Storage performance, improved reliability,
is no different. and durability. We’re not ready to
disclose anything at this point.
Are we reaching a point where calling NAND
consumer and enterprise no longer make sense? Should What do you hope to see
considerations revolve around HA rather than reliability? included in the next iteration
Your question is a valid one—as the requirements do look of NAND development and
increasingly alike. And in many segments, a common product manufacture?
set can address both customer types. But there are some We cannot disclose specific
requirements—such as reliability and endurance capabilities innovation vectors or technology
that look to stand as more clear boundaries between consumers specifics, but the areas that we
and enterprises. While consumer uses have indeed gotten more find most compelling to invest our
demanding, with more reads and writes and more data, enterprise innovation and R&D resources
uses also continue to evolve so there will likely always be some are new approaches that deliver
level of differentiation in customer sets. meaningful gains in areas that so
many customers value the most:
When looking at data centres and technologies like reducing power consumption,
hyper-convergence, how do you see the future working out? and increasing density/capacity.
Hyper-converged storage has earned a seat at the table. Lowering costs, enabling higher
The ability to flexibly procure and deploy storage infrastructure performance across more use
has proven valuable to many customer sets—even highly capable models and workloads, and
firms. And we’ve seen the hyper-converged solution leaders offering improved reliability
further adapt to allowing greater interoperability so they can and durability.

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 11

 F E A T U R E
SERIES
7900
RX
RADEON

CAN IT
01

DELIVER?
STUDYING THE HYPE
BEHIND RADEON RX
7900 SERIES
Let's get one thing straight. AMD's latest RDNA
3-powered graphics cards, the Radeon RX 7900
series is not targeted to duel against NVIDIA's
flagship, the GeForce RTX 4090. And rightly so, as the
green camp's top enthusiast graphics card is priced
north of US$1,599, while AMD has decided to battle
where serious gamers are really going to spend their
money - top-tier options just shy of US$1,000.

IMAGES: AMD, 123RF

BY

Vijay Anand

12 HWM DECEMBER 2022

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 13
 F E A T U R E
SERIES
7900
RX
RADEON
01
This is why
the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is
priced at US$999 and comes
with an equally large 24GB
frame buffer. Sure, it's not using
higher-speed GDDR6X memory,
degree. Plus, the
but AMD has chosen to go with Radeon RX 7900
series is a more
existing GDDR6 memory to
conserve power, improve cost-
effectiveness and still get the
most out of it from a throughput and high-refresh
perspective. That would mean
gamers get to toggle higher
resolutions if the rest of their
rig is ready for it, and a boon
for creators with access to that
much frame buffer on a product
that costs 37% less.
14 HWM DECEMBER 2022
That's not all, the US$899
Did we mention
Radeon RX 7900 XT is also
just as much enticing with
more firepower (RDNA 3
that it's not
going to sip vs. RDNA 2), a larger frame
any more board
power than its buffer (20GB vs. 16GB) and
predecessor?
higher memory throughput
Well perhaps
the RX 7900
than its predecessor
XTX, but it's
only by a small
(higher clocks and wider
memory bus).
forward-looking
card designed Did we mention that
with the latest
DisplayPort it's not going to sip any
standard in
mind to support more board power than its
really high-res
predecessor? Well perhaps
output.
the RX 7900 XTX, but it's only
by a small degree. Plus, the
Radeon RX 7900 series is a
more forward-looking card
designed with the latest
DisplayPort standard in
mind to support really high-
res and high-refresh output.
 Performance Smart Access Memory
(SAM) technology
Expectations As can be
expected, the
that allows the CPU
to directly access
the graphics card's
→ Since NVIDIA's suitably priced RTX 40 series Radeon RX 7900 full memory space to
competitor has yet to launch at the time of writing
(the GeForce RTX 4080 16GB), AMD could only
series were reduce latency and
officially share performance figures across their tested on AMD's buffering.
own offerings. As can be expected, the Radeon RX very own top MD claims up to 67%
performance uplift
7900 series were tested on AMD's very own top
platform offering with a Ryzen 9 7900X CPU AM5
platform offering on titles using pure
processor and 32GB of RAM. Having both the CPU with a Ryzen 9 rasterization. While it
and GPU on AMD's ecosystem further amplifies the 7900X CPU AM5 could be true based
performance benefits since it can unleash AMD processor and on a wider set of game
titles tested, it doesn't
SmartShift Max for power shift optimization uplift
between the CPU and GPU where the power and
32GB of RAM. seem that way when
temperature envelope has room to spare and AMD we focus on these four

Radeon RX 7900 vs. RX 6900 series

RX 7900 XTX RX 7900 XT RX 6950 XT RX 6900 XT RX 6800 XT

GPU Navi 31 Navi 31 Navi 21 XT Navi 21 XT Navi 21 XT

(RDNA 3) (RDNA 3) (RDNA 2) (RDNA 2) (RDNA 2)

Compute Units 96 84 80 80 72

Game Clock 2,300MHz 2,000MHz 2,100MHz 2,015MHz 2,015MHz

Boost Clock 2,500MHz 2,400MHz 2,310MHz 2,250MHz 2,250MHz

VRAM 24GB 20GB 16GB 16GB 16GB

GDDR6 GDDR6 GDDR6 GDDR6 GDDR6

Memory Bus 384-bit 320-bit 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit

Memory Speed 20Gbps 20Gbps 18Gbps 16Gbps 16Gbps

Memory Bandwidth 960GB/s 800GB/s 576GB/s 512GB/s 512GB/s

Typical Board 355W 300W 335W 300W 300W

Power (TBP)

Price US$999 US$899 US$1,099 US$999 US$649

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 15

 F E A T U R E
SERIES
7900
RX
RADEON
01

leading game title varieties that AMD chose to and enable Fidelity FX
showcase. Based on these titles, the Radeon Super Resolution (FSR)
The Radeon RX
RX 7900 XTX manages over 50% performance 7900 XTX man- - AMD’s NVIDIA DLSS
ages over 50%
uplift over a Radeon RX 6950 XT and is more performance equivalent?
uplift over a
cost-effective than the Radeon RX 7900 XT Radeon RX 6950 At 4K resolution, it's tough
XT and is more
when comparing the cost to churn per frame cost-effective to get high performance
than the Radeon
in the respective games. RX 7900 XT with ray tracing and
when comparing
Meanwhile, the Radeon RX 7900 XT seemed the cost to at maximum graphics
churn per frame
to fare between 25 to 30% better than its in the respective settings. As such, we'll have
games.
flagship predecessor but cost far less than it. to rely on AMD FSR to get
What happens when your turn on ray tracing some decent boost figures

16 HWM DECEMBER 2022

which help propel AMD's proposition
that the Radeon RX 7900 series is
now a great option for those who
Can you tell
wish to game at 4K resolution. which screen
has AMD FSR
In this comparison, AMD claims enabled?
Neither could
the new Radeon RX 7900 XTX can we and we
had to move
perform up to 82% better at ray- the viewpoint
of the
traced games at 4K resolution with screen quite
vehemently
AMD FSR enabled and it does seem to see
which was
to be the case with Dying Light 2 a natively
4K rendered
with High RT settings. Taking an ray-traced
image (which
average across the four featured would result
in a little
games, you get a little over 50% more jerking
due to the
better ray-traced performance with load) versus
one that was
the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and nearly upscaling
using AMD
40% better with the XT variant when FSR tech
at 1440p to
compared with the Radeon RX 6950 generate 4K
ray-traced
XT predecessor. visuals.

To be honest, AMD's launch event support it during the launch of the RX 6900 series)
for Radeon RX 7900 series is the and it's looking great. Now, if only more games
first time we're experiencing AMD adopt FSR 2.0 which offers some terrific imaging
FSR in action (since games didn't yet quality, but this is definitely a work in progress.

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 17

 F E A T U R E

What makes the

SERIES

Radeon RX 7900 series

7900
RX

so much faster than its

RADEON

predecessor?
01

→ Increased Frequencies
The Radeon RX 7900 series are the
first graphics cards to feature AMD's
RDNA 3 GPU architecture that has been → Optimised Cache
engineered for higher frequencies Efficiency of the entire graphics
(designed to achieve 3GHz) while core has also been bolstered
consuming less power than RDNA 2. through upsizing of various
According to AMD's estimate, it has caches (3MB L0 vector caches
improved frequencies by 15%, - 240% larger, 3MB L1 - 300%
but performance per watt has gone up by more, 6MB of L2 - 50% increase)
a staggering 54%. and an updated AMD Infinity
To go about achieving this, RDNA 3 Cache to improve its bandwidth
enhanced the computation capabilities though the capacity has gone
of the graphics core to double its peak down from 128MB on RDNA
operations output per cycle by doubling 2 to 96MB on RX 7900 XTX
the number of F32 units, improved and just 80MB on RX 7900 XT.
pipelining throughout, supporting new AMD attributes this to a more
instruction to double the utilization rate balanced design that's suitable
to the new RDNA 3 architecture.

→ Better Ray Tracing

According to Improving ray tracing
AMD's estimate,
it has improved performance was an important
frequencies
by 15%,but agenda for RDNA 3 (which
performance per
watt has gone would be AMD's second
up by a stagger-
ing 54%. generation of ray tracing as
RDNA 2 was first to introduce
RT) and AMD has stuck to using
(dual-issue SIMD32 or a single Wave 64 accelerators embedded in each
FMA instruction), and added dedicated of its compute units (CU) just
matrix operations capability to boost like in RDNA 2.
machine learning effectiveness. Radeon RX 7900 series easily
boasts many more CU units

18 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 ray (t
(there's no upside
to wasting precious
cycles through inefficient
c
rendering) and added
hardware managed DirectX
ray-tracing (DXR) flags. The result
of all these improvements is that
AMD says it has achieved up to 1.8x
than its predecessors, Radeon RX
7900 series
performance uplift on heavy ray-
and this directly allows the new easily boasts
many more CU
traced workloads.
GPUs to harbour 20% more ray tracing units than its
predecessors,
So all this sounds promising and
units. Secondly, the AMD engineers have been and this directly
allows the new
RDNA 3 could be the real deal we've
very judicious on how to use the rays by executing GPUs to harbour
20% more ray
been expecting from AMD. Stay
them efficiently and studying the process and tracing units. tuned for our in-depth reviews as the
outcome to dump unnecessary instruction to Radeon RX 7900 series is slated for
improve ray tracing logic, incorporate new box retail availability by the time you read
testing rules to exact more efficiency from each this. Exciting times indeed.

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 19

 TEST / WE REVIEW IT

TEST

MORE BEST
INSIDE PERFORMANCE

Apple iPad TEST

(10th Gen) BEST

If you don’t VALUE
need a pencil

ASUS ROG Strix TEST

GeForce RTX EDITOR’S

4090 OC CHOICE
Fast & furious

God of War:
HOW WE
E RA
RATE:
ATE:
E:
Ragnarok
Products
Prod ucts
c are
A Super- rated on n a s calele of
o
sized sequel 1 to
o 10; 1 b
bein
eing so
ein o
aby
bys
y mal,
mal
m al, it
i shou
sho
ho ld d
be a cri
rime
me toto s
sell it,,
and 10 being
ng alm
lmo
lm ost
ost
perfect
ct. Com
ome e now,
now,
nothing
ng is perfect.
ctt
An Editor’s Choice
may also be awar
warded
arded
based on uni
nique
que
meriits.
S A N TA M O N I C A S T U D I O / S O N Y I N T E R A C T I V E E N T E R TA I N M E N T
P I C T U R E

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 21

 T E S T

IMAGES
APPLE,
APPLE IPAD
(10TH GEN)
12 3RF,
KENNY
YEO

A GL ANCE
If you don’t
PROCESSOR
Apple A14 Bionic
need a Pencil
DISPLAY
10.9-inch Liquid This year, Apple has finally decided
Retina (2,360 x
to give its most affordable iPad a
1,640 pixels)
thorough makeover with a fresh design,
STORAGE new accessories, and the A14 Bionic chip.
6 4 GB, 25 6GB Bezels are slimmer, Touch ID sensor has
been integrated into the power button,
CONNECTIVITY
W IF I 6, 5 G, and the chassis now has flat sides. The
BLUE TOO TH 5. 2 display is larger too at 10.9-inches (up
from 10.2). It’s almost indistinguishable
SIZE/WEIGHT
2 4 8.6 X 1 7 9.5 X
from the iPad Air.
7 MM / 4 8 1G However, the front-facing camera has
been moved to the long side of the iPad.
PRICE
This is good news for anyone who uses
F ROM $ 6 7 9
(6 4 GB) their iPad for video calls. The Smart
Connector has been relocated to one of
the edges instead of being at the back.

Ke n ny Ye o

22 HWM DECEMBER 2022

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 23
 T E S T
Also, the iPad comes
in brighter colours.
Apart from Silver,
there’s now Pink, Blue,
and Yellow. The unit
I’m testing is Yellow
and it’s certainly very
striking. It’s more
mustard yellow than
banana.
The display is quite
similar to the one
in the iPad Air. They
are the same size,
support the same
2,360 x 1,640 pixels
resolution, and neither
supports ProMotion
technology. However,
the iPad’s display isn’t
fully laminated, doesn’t
have anti-reflective
coating, and only
supports the sRGB
colour space (not P3).
24 HWM DECEMBER 2022
Even then, this is a
mostly good-looking
display. It looks crisp
and sharp, and the
colours look rich and
natural. Reflections are
only bothersome if you
view the display from
odd angles.
Another big update
(at least for me)
are proper stereo
speakers on both
sides of the screen
when in landscape
mode. This is a huge
deal because earlier
iPads had stereo
speakers but they
were both on one side
next to the Lightning
port, so when you were
watching videos in
landscape, sound only
comes from one side.
 The new iPad also ditches the
The Magic Lightning port for a USB-C port. Even
Keyboard
Folio
though it only supports USB and
consists of not Thunderbolt, it can still drive a
a keyboard
and a single external display at up to 4K
protective
back resolution and at 30Hz. While the
panel. It
adds quite
move to USB-C is much welcomed,
a bit of it also causes some problems.
heft to the
iPad. Mainly, it’s because this iPad is only
compatible with the first-generation
Apple Pencil, which requires a
Lightning port not only to charge but
also to pair.
Apple’s solution is to sell a dongle
that it calls the “USB-C to Apple
Pencil Adapter.” But you need more
than this little dongle to charge
because it’s a female USB-C port
and a female Lightning port. This
means you still need a USB-C cable
to connect this dongle to the iPad
before you can pair and charge
your Apple Pencil. Why hasn’t
Apple simply made it a male USB-C
to female Lightning port cable is

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 25

 T E S T
beyond me.
There’s also a new
Magic Keyboard
Folio, which has two
components that
attach to the iPad. You
have the keyboard
which attaches to the
Smart Connector and
then there’s a separate
protective panel that
also doubles up as an
adjustable stand.
Like any of Apple’s
“Magic” accessories,
T E S T E D & R AT E D
8.5
/10
SINGAPORE
26 HWM DECEMBER 2022
the Magic Keyboard Folio
is pricey. It is $379. To give
that figure some context,
Logitech’s Combo Touch
keyboard case for this new
iPad is $229.
The new iPad is powered
by the A14 Bionic chip.. It’s
a two-year-old chip now
and yet, its performance
remains impressive. It
continues to hold its own
even against Samsung’s
new Galaxy Z Fold4 5G
which is powered by
Qualcomm’s newest
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. You need
a separate
Compared to last year’s
USB-C cable
to connect
iPad, this year’s model this dongle
lasted nearly an hour to the iPad
before you
shorter. In the real world, can pair and
charge your
the new iPad’s battery life Apple Pencil.
is more reasonable. Most
users should get around
six to seven hours of non-
stop use easily.
This brings me to the
matter of price and
value. This new iPad
is considerably more
expensive than the model
it replaces. Prices now
start at $679 for the Wi-
Fi-only model with 64GB
of storage and top out at
$1,139 for the model with
cellular connectivity and
 C O N C L U S I O N

A BETTER OPTION THAN THE IPAD

AIR FOR MOST USERS, AS LONG AS
YOU DON’T NEED THE APPLE PENCIL.

a maximum of 256GB of more for the same

storage.
Some might be tempted
to step up to the iPad Air,
which costs about $200
amount of storage. I
think it’s only worth it
if you are going to use
the Apple Pencil often
and absolutely need
the extra performance.
Otherwise, I think this
new iPad replaces the
iPad Air as the best
iPad for most people
– as long as they don’t
intend to use the Apple
Pencil often.

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 27

 T E S T

28 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 IMAGES
HUAWEI,
HUAWEI
MATEBOOK
KENNY YEO,
123RF

X PRO

A GLANCE Huawei’s
CPU
Intel Core i7-
1260P

GPU
Best
Intel Iris Xe
Huawei’s flagship ultraportable notebook
is the MateBook X Pro and it has recently been
RAM given a thorough makeover.
16GB
A key update is its larger 14.2-inch display.
DISPLAY
Huawei is sticking with a 3:2 aspect ratio which
14 . 2-INCH, 3K , I find preferable for work. It has a resolution of
IP S, TOUCH- 3120 x 2080 pixels, meets VESA’s DisplayHDR
SCREEN
400 standards, and supports the P3 colour
space. Maximum brightness is claimed to be
PRICE 500 nits, and it has an above-average refresh
$ 2,7 98 rate of 90Hz. This isn’t an OLED display, but I
think most users will have no complaints.

Ke n ny Ye o

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 29

 T E S T

The chassis is made of magnesium alloy and it has a

special coat to give it a textured finish that feels like some
kind of soft-touch material. I’ve never felt a notebook that
feels quite like this before. It almost feels like it’s in some
sort of a notebook sleeve and yet it isn’t. And because it’s
magnesium, the MateBook X Pro weighs just 1.26kg. The
bezels are thin and Huawei claims a 92.5% screen-to-body
ratio. Consequently, the notebook is roughly the same size
as most 13-inch notebooks. At 15.5mm thin, the MateBook X
Pro is a very portable notebook.
The other big change comes in the form of Intel’s new
Alder Lake 12th Gen Core processor. You’ll get a fairly
powerful Core i7-1260P processor paired with 16GB of
LPDDR5 memory and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD.
As for ports, you have four USB-C ports. The two on

There are
four USB-C
ports and
a 3.5mm
combo jack,
but no other
ports, and
no memory
card reader.

30 HWM DECEMBER 2022

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 31
 T E S T
the left support
Thunderbolt 4 while
the two on the
opposite side are USB
3.2 Gen 2. You can use
any of the USB-C ports
for charging.
The keyboard and
trackpad are both
good. The keyboard
feels positive, the
size is good, and the
layout is sensible.
That said, I would have
preferred a smidge
more resistance to the
keys and an inverted
“T” layout for the arrow
buttons.
The web camera,
which used to be
hidden in a button,
32 HWM DECEMBER 2022
has been repositioned above Yoga 9i, which is
the display. Though it’s only a powered by the
720p unit, at least you have more same Core i7-1260P
flattering camera angles now. processor. It has
Huawei says the MateBook X Pro significantly more
has a six-speaker sound system compute performance
and it does get remarkably loud. than notebooks
Sound quality, however, is only powered by older 11th
slightly above average. Gen core processors
You’ll be happy to know like the Microsoft
that the new MateBook X Pro Surface Pro 8 and Vaio
supports Huawei’s Super Device SX14.
feature which lets you do pretty One thing worth
cool things like use apps from pointing out is that
your Huawei phone on the the MateBook X Pro
notebook, or use a MatePad With Super is surprisingly quiet
Device, you
tablet as a secondary display. If can use a compared to other
compatible
this sounds somewhat familiar, MatePad as notebooks in its class.
a secondary
it’s because Apple has similar display
It also doesn’t feel
features too. for your quite as warm.
MateBook X
Overall, performance was Pro. Although the
decent and on par with Lenovo’s MateBook X Pro only
has a 60Wh capacity
battery, it managed
to last nearly 8
hours long in our
intensive battery test.
 is nearly a whole the $1,298 MateBook
C O N C L U S I O N grand less at $1,899, D16.
and it has the benefit Perhaps Huawei
THE MOST PREMIUM of a gorgeous OLED could have introduced

ULTRAPORTABLE FROM HUAWEI, display. One could

argue that the
a more affordable
version with 512GB of
BUT NOT AMONG THE COMPETITION. MateBook X Pro costs storage, or done more
about as much as the to distinguish the
Stretching it to 10 hours shouldn’t be a problem Lenovo Yoga 9i, but MateBook X Pro as a
if you turn the display’s brightness down to more the Lenovo is more flagship product.
reasonable levels. The only other notebooks that versatile thanks to its
lasted longer were the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Carbon convertible design.
T E S T E D & R AT E D
and the Microsoft Surface Pro 8. And if you are buying
The problem with the Huawei MateBook X Pro
is that, at $2,798, it’s priced too high. It’s actually
a very well-rounded notebook with good build
into the Huawei
ecosystem with the
Super Device feature,
7.5 /10

quality, decent display, is slim and light, plus both there are less pricey
performance and battery life are good. alternatives like the SINGAPORE
However, the ASUS ZenBook 14 OLED UX3402 $1,798 MateBook 14 or

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 33

 T E S T

IMAGES
ASUS,
ASUS ROG
STRIX GEFORCE
HOOTS THE
OWL AND
A A R O N Y I P,
123RF RT X 4090 OC

A GLANCE Fast &

GPU
NVIDIA GeForce
RTX 4090

MEMORY
furious
24GB GDDR6X The ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090
OC makes a beastly card even beefier. With
BOOST CLOCKS
2,6 10 MHz
the GeForce RTX 4090 already topping
(Boost), performance benchmarks and setting a new
2,6 4 0 (OC) standard for what 4K gaming numbers should
really look like, the question of which custom
PORTS
3 X DISPL AY- card to buy will largely come down to looks
P OR T 1. 4 A , 2 X and each card’s unique cooling solution.
HDMI 2.1 A The ASUS card is massive, making the already
gargantuan Founders Edition model look
DIMENSIONS
3 5 7.6 X 14 9. 3 svelte in comparison. It measures a good
X 7 0.1 MM 357mm long, which means that clearance
could possibly become an issue in some
PRICE
$ 3, 4 29
cases. Even the popular NZXT H510 Elite will
find the card a tight fit — plus, there will be
zero room for any front-mounted radiator.

Hoots the Owl

and Aaron Yip

34 HWM DECEMBER 2022

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 35
 T E S T

36 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 may be something
Physical to take note of if
Dual BIOS
switch lets
you’re planning the
you toggle orientation of your
between
performance case fans.
and quieter
modes of A GPU bracket
operation.
provides extra
stability to the
critical connection
between the die and
heat spreader. This
is paired with the
This is also a 3.5-slot card, or basically four slots diecast shroud, frame,
in practice. However, the IO bracket only takes up and backplate for
two slots. If you’re worried about the card sagging improved rigidity.
and damaging your PCIe slot in the long run, In terms of
an included graphics card holder should help aesthetics, the latest
provide some additional support. generation of ROG
It owes its expansive girth to the ridiculously Strix cards looks
chunky heatsink. The heatsink fins sit 90 degrees considerably changed
relative to the length of the card, which means from the GeForce RTX
that hot air is exhausted out the top of the card 3000 series. It features
instead of being vented toward the back. This rounded corners, red

3D MARK
60000
50406 50866
50000

40000 37897 37391

36176 36402

30000
24320 24226
19626 19446
20000

10000

0
time spy time spy extreme firestrike ultra firestrike extreme firestrike
(dx12) (dx12) (dx11) (dx11) (dx11)

asus rog strix geforce rtx 4090 oc nvidia geforce rtx 4090 fe

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 37

 T E S T
and purple detailing,
and a striking cap at
the end of the card
that is illuminated by
RGB lighting. However,
save for a backlit
Republic of Gamers
text line on the side,
the rest of the card is
notably devoid of any
other ostentatious
lighting.
38 HWM DECEMBER 2022
A dual BIOS switch
on the card’s edge
allows you to quickly
switch between
performance and
quiet speed profiles
without having to
12+4 phase
system enter the software. A
comprising
70A power new power sensing
stages on
the card.
indicator also lets you
With two know if something
power
stages is up with your PSU.
per phase
fueling the Featuring a high-
GPU, that’s
a total count
speed circuit that
of 24+4. monitors input power
from your PSU, it will
Three 104mm axial-tech let you know if there
fans help pull cool air over the are voltage regulation
heatsink. These are slightly issues or cable
larger than the previous connection problems.
generation design and are rated The GeForce RTX
for 23% more airflow, according 4090 uses NVIDIA’s
to ASUS. The middle fan also new 16-pin power
rotates clockwise, while the connector. ASUS is
outer ones rotate anti-clockwise, recommending a
which is supposed to help whopping 1000W PSU
reduce air turbulence and fan to go with it, so you
noise. might have to swap
out more than one component in your system if want to waste time
you’re planning for this card. splitting hairs over,
Display outputs include two HDMI 2.1 and even for 4K gaming.
three DisplayPort 1.4 connectors, but you can Cooling performance
only output to four displays at any one time. It is is what really matters
almost mind-boggling that NVIDIA hasn’t included when it comes to a
support for DisplayPort 2.0, considering that the comparison between
standard was finalised way back in 2019. these two cards. With
While the ASUS card has a slightly more its upgraded cooler
aggressive boost clock speed of 2,640MHz in that simply dwarfs
OC mode, compared to the Founders Edition’s everything else, the
2,610MHz, the slight bump doesn’t really net ASUS card was able
that big of a performance jump in synthetic to shave nearly 8°C off
benchmarks like 3DMark, and in real-world the Founders Edition
games, the ASUS card also inched ahead by a few card’s peak operating
frames in most titles, but it’s not something you’d temperature - 65.9°C
vs 72°C.
At S$3,429, the
C O N C L U S I O N
ASUS ROG Strix
GeForce RTX 4090
OC demands that you
EXCELLENT COOLING AND RELATIVELY QUIET FOR AN RTX dig deep into your
4090. BE PREPARED TO SELL A KIDNEY AND MAKE ROOM. bank to afford one.
Nevertheless, it has
everything you could
possibly want from a
4 K / W R AY -T R A C I N G ( M A X S E T T I N G S )
custom card, such as
140 a factory overclock,
124 122 a very capable and
120
101 99 quiet cooler, and an
100
attractive design.
80 77.05 76.49
60
T E S T E D & R AT E D

8.5
40

20
/10
0
shadow of the tomb raider metro: exodus GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

asus rog strix geforce rtx 4090 oc nvidia geforce rtx 4090 fe
SINGAPORE

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 39

 T E S T

GOD OF WAR: IMAGES:

SANTA MONICA STUDIO /

R AGNAROK
SONY INTERACTIVE
ENTERTAINMENT

It’s 3am and I am sitting in front of the TV, absolutely frustrated

about having to solve yet another puzzle. On screen, my Kratos hurls his
Leviathan Axe at the intended target to no avail, as the game’s finicky
interface refuses to trigger the next step of this brain teaser. And yet, I
am so eager to find out what happens next that I refuse to give up. This
essentially sums up my entire experience with God of War: Ragnarok.

40 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 A
G LA N C E
DEVELOPER
Santa
Monica Studio

PUBLISHER
Sony
Interactive
Entertainment

GENRE
Action,
Adventure

PLATFORM
PS4, PS5

PLAYERS
S ingle

Captain Grover
and Aaron Yip

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 41

 T E S T

This newest game takes gamers back are part of the main
to where the previous God of War title storyline, players also
(released in 2018) left off, and continues the get a pretty generous
story of our main protagonist Kratos and his area in most realms
now-teenaged son Atreus, as they continue that they can freely
their resistance against Odin and try to explore for resources orr
prevent Ragnarok. take on side-quests.
The story takes you through many My only gripe is
different realms, all of which boast that despite being
breathtaking environments to explore and absolutely beautiful,
battle in. The semi-open world nature of the in-game environs
this game also means that besides getting can feel a little too
access to places and dungeons that sterile and lifeless. I

42 HWM DECEMBER 2022


was hoping that some of
the free-exploration areas,
such as the dwarf realm
of Svartalfheim, could
be a little more lively and
immersive.
While I do enjoy solving
puzzles in the game’s
dungeons, they can come
across as a little repetitive
after a while. I also felt
that some dungeons
contained too many
puzzles, which broke the flow of the story and
combat. At times, the game requires players
to perform a special move, but instructions or
hints can be cryptic at best.
It would be great if the game makers could
add a “skip puzzle” function, which is now
found in many other adventure games. I would
love to replay God of War: Ragnarok sometime,
but I am not looking forward to going through
the puzzles again.
Thankfully, the game’s awesome battle
system and outstanding story more than make
up for it. Fans of the series will be glad to know
that besides the protagonist Kratos, his son
Atreus is among the other playable characters.
The game’s combat system is robust, letting
players craft and customise their characters’
weapons, armour, and accessories, using
resources salvaged from the different
DECEMBER 2022 HWM 43
 T E S T

dungeons and open exploration

areas. New moves and more
powerful ones can also be
purchased with experience from
a robust skills tree.
Gamers can look forward
to plenty of exciting, epic
battles throughout the game,
sometimes when one is least Not just
expecting it to happen. People all action,
God of War:
who want to take their in-game Ragnarok
continues
combat skills to a higher level the father-
son story of
will be happy to know that Kratos and
C O N C L U S I O N
spending time learning all the Atreus.

different skills does pay off in

battle. But those who are less
focused on the fighting can also
be reassured that mastering a
few select skills can take you
FANTASTIC STORYTELLING, GREAT
COMBAT, AND IS ONE OF THE BEST-
LOOKING PS5 GAMES AROUND.

44 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 development
T E S T E D & R AT E D
of both Kratos
9.0 / 10
and Atreus is
touching, both
heartbreaking
SINGAPORE and a joy to
watch. Other
through the key characters,
game without too such as Vanir
many problems goddess Freya,
as well. decapitated
And this brings talking head
us, finally, to Mimir, and the
God of War: dwarf brothers
Ragnarok’s story, Sindri and Brok,
also my favourite all add to the
part of this game. epic saga that
The single-shot is God of War:
cinematography, Ragnarok’s
beautifully gripping tale.
choreographed For those
cutscenes, and who are new to
outstanding God of War, this
voice acting game is a great
really makes this adventure title
game worth your that promises
time to play. about 40 hours
In God of War: of solid, comfort
Ragnarok, Kratos monster-slaying
goes through action, all packed
the parental into an amazing
rite of passage tale about Norse
that is dealing gods, family,
with his teenage friendship, and
son, Atreus. the undying love
The character of a father.

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 45

 T E S T

IMAGES
NOTHING,
NOTHING E AR
(STICK)
LIU HONGZUO,
12 3RF,
DIGITAL
IMAGING HWZ

Nothing
sticks out
An important difference between the
first Nothing Ear (1) and the new Nothing
Ear (stick) lies in their bud types. Ear (1)
has in-ear silicone tips that go inside your
ear canal, while the Ear (stick) uses Apple
AirPods-styled, hard-shell open buds that
sit right at your concha. The comfort of
wearing open buds depends on the person,
but we’ve a simple take on this: if the regular
Apple AirPods were comfortable enough for
you, you wouldn’t find many problems when
wearing Nothing Ear (stick). When worn
well, they’re just as secure as the Apple
AirPods (3rd generation), and these 4.4g
buds certainly don’t weigh down your ears
after long periods of wear.

Liu Hongzuo

46 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 A G LA N C E
DRIVER
12.6mm dynamic

FEATURE
Clear Voice,
Bass Lock

BATTERY
Up to 29 hours
(w ith case)

CONNECTIVITY
BLUE TOO TH 5. 2

WEIGHT
4 . 4 G (PER BUD)

PRICE
$ 169

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 47

 T E S T

Nothing did not neglect the case design either.

Instead of the conventional flip-to-open charging
cases offered by most TWS earbuds on the
market, the Ear (stick) employs a lipstick-shaped,
turn-to-open charging case. The case mechanism
feels quite sleek and there’s a tactile confirmation
“bump” when you have the case fully opened or
closed.
The Ear (stick) does not come with active
noise cancellation though, and the open-bud
design also makes it not great at noise isolation
either. What it does have is a proprietary Clear
Voice Technology for calls that combines
three microphones in each earbud with an
Environmental Noise Cancellation algorithm.
Based on all the calls we’ve taken, Nothing Ear
(stick)’s wind cancellation was highly effective. Our
callers reported no wind distortion, even when we
had conversations in front of a standing fan.
Voice quality, however, was average. Despite
having three microphones per bud (pick-up,
feedforward, and feedback), it had occasional

The case has

one red end
to quickly
lapses, even though our
identify the recipients could hear most of
charging
port. what we said with the Ear (stick).
The Nothing Ear (stick)
excels in one area we weren’t
expecting: connectivity, and
the consistency of it. Featuring
Bluetooth 5.2, it was capable of
smooth playback even slightly
beyond the usual 10m range
(and no line of sight too). We
could leave our phone in the
bedroom, go to a separate
bathroom, and return without
missing a beat.

48 HWM DECEMBER 2022

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 49
 T E S T

The most
interesting
things about
the Ear
Other quality-of-life hold and resume them without (stick) is the
features include Ear reaching for your source device. case design.

Detection, Google The press controls’ simplicity

Fast Pair support, helped make the feature feel drivers delivered
and IP54 water-and- fluid, responsive, and fairly reasonable audio
dust resistance. intuitive to understand. quality, with a sound
Unfortunately, the Ear (stick)’s signature that biased
Ear (sticks) don’t 12.6mm dynamic towards bass and
offer multi-point vocals. Such a sound
connection. profile works great for
Potential owners of pop and rock music.
Ear (stick) should know w However, it is n’t the
that it comes with a most balanced sound.
dedicated Nothing X The emphasis on the
app. Unfortunately, bass and vocals saw a
the app was not yet loss of punch in other
available during our areas, especially the
testing period. We treble. Consequently,
could pause and play these earbuds
songs very easily lack zing in certain
via the stem’s press instruments, and can,
controls. By gently at times, appear to
squeezing the stem sound not quite as
on either side, you clear as one might like
can put your tracks on n them to be.

50 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 A unique feature The earbuds are
of Ear (stick)’s audio significantly louder C O N C L U S I O N
profile is Bass Lock than most other
Technology. In-built closed types – likely GREAT CONNECTIVITY, BUT
software detects bass
loss, and automatically
to compensate for
the lack of sound
AVERAGE EVERYWHERE ELSE.
amps up its lower sealing. The downside
frequencies to retain is that there is audio instead. There’s no AptX or LDAC support.
a punchy sound leakage (according to The Ear (stick) lasted five days of real-world use
signature. bystanders) – they can on one single charge (case and buds) – while
hear the vocals and in commute, in the gym, and while working.
drums. Technically, it’s supposed to have 28 hours of
T E S T E D & R AT E D
Our playback was music uptime combined and that seems entirely

7.5 /10
mostly via an iOS
device as its source,
which uses AAC codec
believable.
At $169, the Nothing Ear (stick) feels pricey
next to its fuller-featured sibling, Ear (1). We’d
for audio. If you’re prefer full Active Noise Cancellation over specific
SINGAPORE
using Android, these cancellation use cases since the former gives us
earbuds use SBC the choice of toggling it on or off.

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 51

 T E S T

APPLE 12.9 IMAGES

APPLE,

-INCH IPAD PRO

KENNY YEO,
123RF

(6TH GEN)

Powerful
but
perplexing
Ke n ny Ye o

The iPad Pro My main criticism

(6th gen) is Apple’s about the design
shiniest, fanciest, is the position of
most powerful tablet. the front-facing
Physically, the latest TrueDepth camera.
iPad Pro is identical to It’s still above the
its predecessor. This display in portrait
means accessories orientation, in what
for older iPad Pros many would consider
such as the Magic to be “the wrong
Keyboard, sleeves, place.” If Apple could
and covers will all move it for the 10th
work with this new gen iPad, surely they
version. can do the same for

52 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 A G LA N C E
PROCESSOR
Apple M2

DISPLAY
LIQUID RETINA
XDR (2,732 X
2,048 PIXELS)

STORAGE
128GB to 2 TB

CONNECTIVITY
W iF i 6E , 5 G,
Bluetooth 5. 3

SIZE/WEIGHT
280.6 X 2 14 .9 X
6. 4 MM / 68 5 G

PRICE
From $ 1,699
(128GB)

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 53

 T E S T

54 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 mostly the same
display so I won’t
bore you with the
details. Yes, it’s still a
brilliant display with
amazing contrast
and colours, and
particularly deep
blacks that rival OLED
The front-
facing displays.
camera
is still in
One notable update
the wrong is support for the new
place.
Wi-Fi 6E standard,
which allows it to tap
the iPad Pro? into the relatively
The iPad Pro still comes in two uncongested 6GHz
sizes – 11 and 12.9 inches. Similar to band for faster
last year’s model, only the larger wireless speeds. Of
version gets the gorgeous Liquid course, you need a
Retina XDR mini-LED display. It’s compatible Wi-Fi 6E

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 55

 T E S T

router to take full advantage of this. you start moving the and to be able to fit it into a tablet
The other highlight of the new active window. that’s a mere 6.4mm thick is
iPad Pro is the new Apple Pencil I’ve been trying it incredible.
Hover feature. When you bring out for the past two Unsurprisingly, the new 6th
your Apple Pencil close to the iPad or so weeks and I’m generation iPad Pro posted decent
Pro, the screen will show a preview slowly beginning to gains over last year’s iPad Pro. On
of your input before you make it. make sense of it. Geekbench 5, single-core scores
And it isn’t just a preview of where But I still prefer the were up by around 9% while multi-
your input will land, it actually old system of Split core scores went up nearly 20%.
shows you the results of the input View and Slide Over. JetStream 2 score was up over
you make. For instance, if you are I find them more
painting with watercolours and you predictable.
want to mix colours, the preview If there was
will show you the resulting colour anything that the iPad
of the mix. Pro didn’t need was
I must also point out that this more performance
feature is exclusive to the new but Apple has gone
M2-equipped iPad Pros because, ahead and equipped
according to Apple, the M2 has a it with the newest
special co-processor that makes M2 chip.
this feature possible. This chip made its
Apple is also introducing a debut in the all-new
new multi-tasking feature called MacBook Air and
Stage Manager in iPadOS 16 that also the updated
would enable users to run apps 13-inch MacBook Pro.
concurrently more easily. You can We already know by
open up to four app windows on the now that it’s a beast,
screen at once, and these can then
be organised into workspaces.
If you want to work with or view
multiple apps in a single view, you
have to manually drag them into
the same workspace.
You also don’t have full freedom
to resize and reposition windows.
Stage Manager lets you resize
them only within a predetermined
set of dimensions. Furthermore, it
automatically repositions apps in
the background for you as soon as

56 HWM DECEMBER 2022

22%. And finally, long as last year’s model
3DMark scores were in our battery test. This
better by a whopping demonstrates the efficiency
38%. This new iPad of the M2 chip.
Pro is unquestionably Prices start at $1,699
the most powerful and can go up to as high
tablet on the market as $3,579 if you want the
right now. cellular connectivity and the
This new model maximum 2TB storage. At
lasted just as these prices, you could very

easily get yourself

Stage
a new M2 MacBook
Manager Air instead, which
is
definitely is just as powerful
a little
confusing and arguably more
at first
and will
versatile because it
need doesn’t have iPadOS
some
getting limitations, and can
used to.
run all the “pro” apps
like Final Cut Pro.
For most people,
then, the new iPad
Pro is overkill. The 5th
generation 2022 iPad
Air, which starts at
$879, is a much more
sensible purchase for
anyone who wants
a premium iPad
experience.

T E S T E D & R AT E D

C O N C L U S I O N
8.5 /10

IF YOU MUST HAVE THE MOST POWERFUL

TABLET IN THE MARKET, THEN THIS IS IT. SINGAPORE

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 57

 T E S T

VIVO IMAGES
VIVO,

X80 PRO
LIU HONGZUO,
123RF

A G LA N C E

Finally
PROCESSOR
Qualcomm
Snapdragon 8+
Gen 1, Vivo V1+

flagship
Fans of the Vivo X series in Singapore would be
DISPLAY
6.78-inch
AMOLED / 3,200
x 1,440 pixels
(~517 ppi) /
120Hz
familiar with how the Chinese phone brand positioned
its variants – there’s a regular, Pro, and Pro+ version CAMERAS
up until the X70 series. 5 0MP main,
f/ 1.5 7, ZE IS S
The Vivo X80 Pro is now a true flagship phone , OIS / 4 8MP
with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, putting it ultra-w ide,
on the same playing field against the other SD8G1 f/2. 2 / 12MP
por trait, f/ 1.8 5
alternatives like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and / 8MP periscope
Oppo Find X5 Pro, to name a few. telephoto,
The X80 Pro’s display is specced at WQHD+ (3,200 x f/3. 4, 5x optical
/ 3 2MP front,
1,440 pixels) resolution with large 6.78-inch AMOLED f/2. 4 5
panel. That’s an overwhelming ~517 PPI pixel density.
Content looks great with its excellent display. We’d STORAGE
12GB R A M,
even say it’s one of the X80 Pro’s highlights. 25 6GB ROM
Default audio playback, however, is nothing to write
BATTERY
home about. It has a mediocre sound profile and
4,7 00m A h, 80W
clarity with noticeable bloat in its bass handling. F lashCharge,
5 0W W ireless
F lashCharge

WEIGHT
2 19g

PRICE
From $ 1,699

Liu Hongzuo

58 HWM DECEMBER 2022

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 59
 T E S T

60 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 Like most flagship-class like missing volume
phones, X80 Pro has quality-of-life indicators in TikTok
features like Always-On Display, and other app quirks.
Eye Protection, Dark Mode, and Our gripes with the
personalised animations. We liked X80 Pro largely lie
its blazingly fast face and under- with its design choice.
display fingerprint unlock, which felt The phone is slim and
secure and accurate (at least, we provides a good grip
couldn’t bamboozle either sensor even without a casing,
when we wanted to). but the shimmery
Funtouch OS 12 itself (the Android rear is smooth and
12 reskin for Vivo devices) cuts prone to sliding out
across all Vivo’s smartphones, of your hands. An
so its circular app icons and entire quarter of the
juvenile theme should be a familiar rear makes up its
experience even for stock Android rectangular camera
users. It’s also relatively light on housing. That’s visually
bloatware, which helps the X80 Pro’s pleasant, but it’s a pain
overall premium positioning too. when you’re trying
It would’ve been excellent if not to avoid fingerprint
for its inconsistent font and font smudges or scuffing it
sizes and oddly childish default up by accident.
theme. It also has minor UI issues, Fortunately, the

Huge
camera
bump just
means it’ll
need more
frequent
cleaning
to keep it
clear of
smudges.

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 61

 T E S T
premium heft from its 219g body and
first-rate build quality make up for
these design choices and handling
missteps. Another likeable design
trait is the thoughtful minimisation of
black rims when you face the panel
squarely. It feels nearly invisible,
yet present enough to help frame
your content nicely for extra viewing
comfort. Build quality also gets the
basics right, like having IP68.
The X80 Pro has four rear
cameras, two of which provide 2x
and 5x optical zoom respectively,
and the 12MP Portrait Camera gets
built-in gimbal stabilisation (instead
of its ultra-wide like before). X80 Pro
62 HWM DECEMBER 2022
also offers 60x digital zoom, and its
ultra-wide also comes with macro
shooting.
X80 Pro also gets some additions
to one-up its competition. Beyond its
50MP “Ultra-Sensing” main camera
is an additional, dedicated Vivo V1+
imaging chip that uses AI to process
graphic and image workloads, like
photography/videography/video
gaming.
On its own, the X80 Pro grants
impressive imaging capabilities,
and most users would not have
any major issues with its resulting
photos and videos. It offers semi-
true-to-life colour reproduction and
has decent handling
over noise and detail.
The extra optical zoom
lenses also help to
ensure sharp images
even when shooting
from a distance.
Its high zoom mode
(60x digital) is not
really practical, but
you still have plenty of
photography modes
like ultra-wide, its
2x and 5x zoom, the
macro option, and the
standard main camera
to fulfil 99% of your
imaging and recording needs.
T E S T E D & R AT E D
Vivo X80 Pro comes loaded

8.0
Very good
with 4,700mAh battery, macro
capabilities
increasing from X60 Pro’s on a tiny /10
ixora flower.
4,200mAh and X70 Pro’s
4,500mAh. It didn’t last as long
as the X70 Pro, but clocking SINGAPORE
in at 920 minutes (15 hours 20
minutes) is still really good.
Unlike most flagship hefty price tag easier
alternatives these days, the to swallow.
Vivo X80 Pro still comes with an Both its hardware
80W Vivo FlashCharge charging and user experience
adapter in the box. It makes the are actually in line
with its asking price.
It’s very much a
C O N C L U S I O N
premium flagship
product with perks
A RESPONSIVE ANDROID FLAGSHIP like a great display,
WITH LITTLE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT impressive battery
ITS SCREEN, PHOTOGRAPHY CHOPS, uptime (plus juicing
up extremely fast) and
AND BATTERY LIFE. wonderful imaging
capabilities.

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 63

 L E A R N B E S M A R T E R

BY

LIU HONGZUO

Qualcomm
Snapdragon 8
Gen 2: A closer look
at connectivity
I M A G E S

QUA LCOMM, L IU HONG Z UO. 12 3RF, DIGI TA L IM AGING H W M

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 65

 L E A R N B E S M A R T E R

Mobile processors like

Qualcomm’s are layered
with many components,
each with duties of their own
to deliver a crucial aspect
of mobile phone use. The
upcoming Snapdragon 8
Gen 2 uses the Snapdragon
X70 5G Modem-RF system
for mobile networks like
5G compatibility, while the
Qualcomm FastConnect
7800 on the chip handles
its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
capabilities.
Qualcomm touted several
connectivity features that
are new to smartphones in

5G
general. You’ve probably
wondered about how
artificial intelligence even Qualcomm
touted several
helps with 5G connections, connectivity
features that
or its Wi-Fi 7 “with High Band
Simultaneous Multi-Link”, or
are new to
smartphones
in general.
BUT WITH AI?
what “Dual Bluetooth” really You’ve probably Qualcomm said that AI-assisted 5G connections
wondered about
is. You’d also be wondering how artificial
work in five specific ways. The processor (and in
how they match the claims intelligence turn, the phone it sits on) has AI-based channel-
even helps with
of 10Gbps 5G speeds and 5G connections, state feedback and optimisation, which is more
5.8Gbps Wi-Fi 7 speeds. Here or its Wi-Fi 7
dynamic than traditional ways of acquiring
“with High Band
we look at what a tiny little Simultaneous
downlink transmissions. It also uses AI for
Multi-Link”,
phone processor can really or what “Dual mmWave beam management, which means it’s
do, and why these things Bluetooth”
really is. AI that decides how 5G mmWave beamforming
don’t come cheap.
should happen to grant the most robust

66 HWM DECEMBER 2022

 PgDn
for interference (like how a person would hold
their phone, and other network-affecting
environmental factors). Finally, there’s AI-based
location enhancement, which helps to improve
mobile data accuracy even in dense, populated
cities.
The long and short of it is 5G is fast in ideal
Qualcomm conditions, but the additional helping hand from
said that
AI-assisted AI adds to network consistency, coverage, and
5G connec-
tions work in achieving that holy grail of “ideal condition” in
five specific
ways. The
your average phone user. Qualcomm claims
processor 20% faster 5G sub-6 speeds by including AI
(and in turn,
the phone it capabilities in 5G networking.
sits on) has
AI-based You’d also noticed that Qualcomm said SD8G2
chan-
nel-state
now offers Dual-Active Dual-5G SIM support,
feedback but it’s more than just having a phone that can
and opti-
misation, accept two 5G SIM cards in two different slots.
which is
more dy- The “dual-active” component is what lets users
namic than
traditional
use two streams of 5G connections at the same
ways of time.
acquiring
downlink Also, the SD8G2 has 5G New Radio Dual
transmis-
sions. Connectivity (5G NR-DC), which means it can
aggregate 5G connectivity on both sub-6GHz
and mmWave and combine it to give a higher
throughput than either 5G types working alone.

connectivity and coverage

outcome for your phone.
There’s also AI-based network
selection, where AI decides for
the user which base station is
the best to connect to when
you and your phone are out in
the wild (a constant problem
especially if you’re hanging
out in spaces with challenging
network conditions, like an
underground train). Also used is
AI-based antenna tuning, which
dynamically compensates

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 67

 L E A R N B E S M A R T E R

band allocation needs,

so not all countries have
6GHz open for Wi-Fi 7).
The Wi-Fi Alliance
has said Wi-Fi 7 could
deliver speeds of 40Gbps
when the technology
matures. Wi-Fi 6, on the
other hand, has a max
theoretical 9.6Gbps.
Right now, Wi-Fi 7 is so
new that there’s only one
consumer Wi-Fi 7 router
in the market.
Qualcomm’s inclusion
of Wi-Fi 7 support on its
mobile platform also
comes with a feature
called High-Band
Simultaneous Multi-Link
(HBS). It’s Qualcomm’s
network aggregation
technique where the
modem concurrently
uses different Wi-Fi 7
bands (2.4GHz, 5GHz, and

HIGH
BAND SIMULTANEOUS
MULTI-LINK WI-FI 7
Wi-Fi 7 doesn’t need much introduction,
so we’ll keep this simple. Old-school
folks might know it as Wi-Fi 802.11be,
and it uses the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz
frequency bands for transmission (the
6GHz band depends on the country’s

68 HWM DECEMBER 2022

if applicable 6GHz).
The technique follows the same
principles as carrier aggregation for
mobile data, and the end result is similar
too: you get higher overall speeds.
Another perk is Qualcomm Smart
Transmit 3.0, where previous versions of
this technology only applied to mobile
data networks. The current iteration
also optimises Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
connections, on top of cellular data.

said their implementation allows

for Bluetooth beamforming
An interest-
ing feature techniques, which improves the
is the touted
“up to 50%” concentration and reliability of
lower power
consump-
Bluetooth signals and double the
tion despite current peak Bluetooth range
doubling
Bluetooth (typically 10m).

DUAL
antennas.
That’s An interesting feature is the
because a
more robust
touted “up to 50%” lower power
Bluetooth consumption despite doubling
connection
means Bluetooth antennas. That’s
less effort
because a more robust Bluetooth
BLUETOOTH
and power
drained to
reacquire a
connection means less effort and
Traditional Bluetooth configurations use strong con- power drained to reacquire a strong
nection.
one single stream to send and receive connection.
data between a Bluetooth device and its Also, the SD8G2 is one of the
paired host. first chipsets in the world to
With Dual Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, the support Bluetooth LE Audio, and
host device (in this case, an SD8G2 Android the Auracast Broadcast Audio
phone) can be paired with one Bluetooth standard. The latter is an even
device, and still have an antenna free to better (and long overdue) version
seek out other Bluetooth devices. of “multi-point” connection where
What Dual Bluetooth also offers is End
one hosting source can broadcast
the ability to extend the range of your audio to multiple supported
connected Bluetooth devices. Qualcomm Bluetooth devices.

DECEMBER 2022 HWM 69

T H E P O W E R T O D E C I D E