Hardware

Sega Saturn in 2022 – ODE, Accessories, and Setup

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/30/2022

Posted in: Blogs, Guides, Hardware, Retro Consoles, Sega, Sega Saturn. Leave a comment

The Sega Saturn has always been a system that felt like unobtanium to me. It’s expensive, fiddly, has a very obscure and small library, most of the good games are Japanese imports, there are very few accessories and they are big and expensive, and on top of all that, the games are insanely priced. Saturn games are some of the highest-priced games of any system. These days there are things like optical disc emulators, RAM cart hacks, and things like the Satiator that allow you to run games through the video CD port. A lot of people are defensive and go to bat for their favorite way to emulator games on native hardware. I get it. There is no correct way to do it with each having strengths and weaknesses. I went with the TerraOnion MODE due to its high build quality and support as well as its multiple storage options.

I will run through an install of TerraOnion MODE, but unlike most install videos or articles I want to talk about snags and problems I ran into that other people might discover. I want this to be a comprehensive resource for beginners to just buy a Saturn second-hand and know what to get and how to set things up correctly. I will also talk about proper video setup, and again like various disc emulators, there are numerous ways to get good quality video out of the Saturn.

“When you have Sega Saturn, nothing else matters”

Do I want a Japanese, European, or US console? For disc-based gaming, this matters as the Saturn is region locked. There are also Saturns with a power supply mounted to the lid (VA0 model) but are not that common. Most disc emulators work on any console since it unlocks the region locking, but thankfully most hacks for the Saturn have every version in mind. Usually, you can rest easy without seeking out a specific model, unlike the Dreamcast.

So, even if your Saturn doesn’t read discs this is a great option for you. There are also other mods like the ReSaturn that replace the power supply completely if yours is failing. It’s a good idea to open up your Saturn and check the capacitors on the PSU for leakage.

There are also new shell mods you can swap your guts into if your Saturn is in bad shape cosmetically. Overall, these are some mods to consider and systems to look out for when shopping for a Saturn.

It Needs to Look Good

The first thing you probably want to invest in after getting a Saturn system is the video output. There are two main things you need to consider. Good S-Video or Component cables and a good upscaler. I went with the Retrotink 2X Pro and HD Retrovision component cables. Yes, these are expensive but worth their weight in gold. I have never seen a retro console look so crisp and nice as this setup. While that’s the high-end of things there are also cheaper ways to hook up your Saturn and that also includes the TV you’re playing on.

Of course, this is mostly if you’re gaming on a newer HD TV. Buying cheap composite or S-video upscalers on eBay isn’t going to get you good results. Even plugging the console into the back of your TV would be better than those awful upscalers. However, there are cheaper routes and that might be to just buy a CRT TV. They are going up in price due to retro collectors, but you can get many locally for free. While the tube itself might be aged it’s the most authentic experience.

With that said, there are other upscalers that do a good job like an OSSC, but these can be a little much for just casual players who want a good picture. Cables are a huge thing as well. Don’t get cheap S-video cables off of eBay. Most S-video cables actually don’t have the Chroma/Luma in the actual S-video part and are empty. Most are fake that just feed in composite. If you have a Retrotink you can find fake cables by plugging into the S-video and it will be in black and white or won’t display correctly under the S-video input. A correctly wired cable won’t do this. There are some better-known brands out there like KMD. I own one for my N64 and it displays S-video correctly. If you can find them, proper S-video cables won’t have a yellow plug.

Optical Disc Emulators – Pros and Woes

These range from carts to full-on boards, and while there are plenty of good choices I’m going to cover the TerraOnion MODE. It’s a very well-made board with both positives and negatives to it, but overall I am very please with it. I’ve had it for two weeks now and figured out some kinks and bugs using various hardware and software that I thought people might run into. A lot of these issues I had to figure out myself as there just isn’t enough info out there.

Installing the MODE is pretty straightforward, but new casual users may be a bit scared to dive into this. If you already did some other mods listed before like the ReSaturn or checked the PSU for leaking caps then you clearly shouldn’t have an issue up until this point. The Saturn is a very single device in the end. Just a disc drive, motherboard, and power supply. Literally only three components in this thing. One thing I do recommend when installing the MODE is StoneAge Gamer’s 3D printed bracket mount. I personally also don’t see the need to use an actual hard drive in this thing and I will get to that later, but they also make an adapter to allow easy access to the drive.

The Optional Power Cable

Now one snag I ran into when installing was for the “optional” power cable. It’s needed for running mechanical drives as the Saturn doesn’t have enough juice to power them, but I recommend installing the cable regardless just to relieve strain off of it. The installation shows pushing the leads into the power supply clip but doesn’t explain how. I watched a few videos and no one has covered this. When you push the power supply down into the motherboard the pins will push a metal “pincher” to the left of the pins. If you press the PSU down slowly you will see this in action. The leads need to get “pinched” by this. I tried sticking them in while the PSU is installed and it just won’t work. You need to fully lift the front side of the PSU and stick the leads into the correct spots. Hold them firmly down and then press the PSU down onto the pins and the “pincher” will firmly hold those wires in place. The other alternative is to just solder the wires directly on the pincher area.

Firmware Updates and Freezing on Boot

Other than that snag the installation went smoothly and I had no issues. Now comes the majority of issues with the software. When I botted up the MODE there wasn’t any explanation on how it actually works. My Saturn booted straight into the CD player mode and I didn’t understand why. Without changing settings you need to put the lid on! I then got into the MODE and it froze up and wouldn’t do anything. After several reboots, the MODE would just read games and freeze. I then updated the firmware and this worked. Remember, the MODE will only auto-detect firmware on SD cards and USB drives. I couldn’t get into the menu to access the update on my 2.5″ laptop drive so that was a major issue. I don’t know what caused the freezing but this fixed it.

Action Replay Flash Carts Not Working

This was one of the biggest headaches I had. The Action Replay 4M carts you can get everywhere are supposed to work with the MODE, but mine didn’t. I didn’t have one with the physical switch, but the auto-switching one. When you plug one of these in their menu takes priority over an ODE because it’s technically just a disc. While this is fine and it works it’s irritating to have to quit the menu of the flash cart to get into the ODE menu. You have to erase the boot menu from the flash cart and make it a standard “dummy” cart. With MODE this is fine as there are manual save backups. You can now easily just fill up your save RAM and then back it all up on the MODE for more games. I will walk you through the process of making an Action Replay an annoying free dummy cart.

The first thing you need to do is download a boot loader called Pseudo Saturn Kai. This is a “game” you can put on an SD Card and launch from the main menu of the MODE. It’s important to download and install the tools cue/iso so you can actually erase the entire menu. This is found in the full version of the download. The lite version for “other” ODEs just erases the firmware, but still boots to PSK every time. We also don’t want to boot into another menu. Remember, you can always restore the flash cart back to the way it was through this utility as well. Just remember what firmware version your flash cart had.

Load up the utilities and go to the save manager and press the R button and go to erase boot menu. This will now turn your cart into a standard RAM cart. Mine works flawlessly for 1MB and 4MB games. I tested nearly every game that uses one and didn’t have any issues.

My Flash Cart Isn’t Being Recognized

This is common and it probably isn’t the cart itself. When you insert the cart to erase the menu you might notice that the detection of the cart in yellow text flashes or it seems the cart is wiggly. This is usually a dirty RAM slot or one that’s too loose or too tight. There are two screws in the RAM slot and you can try tightening it first to see if that works, but if not you need to loosen it. Sega didn’t solder the RAM slot to the board so 6 to 7 turns with a screwdriver on each screw should help until they’re really loose. Mine had this issue as I would load up games and it would only see the cart sometimes despite the cart working fine. Loosening the screws fixed this and I no longer had to set the cart in softly, head-on and not at an angle, or pull it out a couple of millimeters. It’s not the best fix, but it’s better than sticking paper between the cart and the slot.

ASUS TUF VG279QMY 27” G-SYNC Gaming Monitor

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/31/2022

Posted in: Hardware, PC Reviews. Leave a comment

I’m not the best at reviewing monitors, CPUs, GPUs, or anything that needs lots of graphs, comparisons, statistics, and whatnot. I can give you my honest opinion as someone who’s picky about their displays, however. I purchased a second monitor to go on top of my 34″ ultrawide as I was tired of games not being natively supported for 21:9 ratios. This way I could play games in ultrawide or 16:9 and it wouldn’t matter anymore. I also wanted something that had G-Sync and looked bright, crisp, and had great color.

First off, I have to say that the HDR400 is pretty useless right off the bat. Sadly, Windows 10 doesn’t have a feature for HDR400 (8-bit HDR) to auto-detect it when games are running. You either have to turn HDR on all the time or leave it off, and the pay-off for that inconvenience isn’t worth it. HDR is barely noticeable on this monitor, but I won’t knock it too hard for that as I didn’t get this monitor for HDR anyways.

The fact that this monitor is 280hz at 1080p is pretty amazing. While higher-end games won’t ever get that framerate, graphically simple games like CS: GO, Overwatch, Warcraft, and any game made before 2015 might run that high if you have a GPU capable of it. The monitor has Asus’ own anti-blur tech built-in, and unless your games are over 60FPS it won’t’ do you any good, but I honestly didn’t see a huge difference with it enabled. There are various other OSD settings like better dark levels which is a must. Dark areas resonate and pop more with this setting enabled. There are other various presets as well, but the Racing default out of the box was just fine. This is a well-calibrated monitor out of the box which is always nice. Once you get a calibrated profile off of tftcentral and calibrate it via the recommended settings the monitor seemed less bright and the colors looked really good.

Physically, the monitor is nothing special. The base has a weird red ring that I mistook for lighting up, but it does have a vertical arm that the monitor can slide up and down on. I personally mounted the monitor to my desk and the 100×100 VESA mount was just fine. The buttons are easy to get to, but the monitor has a long wake-up time and when I first plugged it in I thought my monitor was dead. My ultrawide wakes up instantly, but this one takes almost 10 seconds, at least on DisplayPort. I also liked the power brick that was supplied. It has a barrel plug and the brick is round and flat almost like a laptop brick and can be easily tucked away.

When playing games the monitor was bright and sharp and crisp. Even at the low 60FPS end things looked good, and at 280FPS things just fly and I didn’t notice any smearing or ghosting. G-Sync of course is the way to go for best responsiveness and removing all tearing. There are minor issues with IPS panels like edge bleeding and it’s not the brightest monitor, only 400 nits, but it looks fine in bright and dark rooms. Overall, this is a great monitor for the price range and I don’t have many complaints.

Nintendo Switch OLED

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/04/2022

Posted in: Hardware, Nintendo Consoles, Switch. Leave a comment

Release Date: 10/08/2021

MSRP: $349.99

Colors: White/Black

The Unboxing

Well, I finally pulled the trigger and bought a system I thought there was no point to. I was on vacation in Oregon, the local Target finally had some in stock, and I said, “What the hell? It can’t be that bad” The box itself is more vertical and more compact than the original models which I found strange. Smarter packaging techniques I guess. Once I pulled the tablet itself out of the system it looked bigger, but I wasn’t sure. The bezels were nearly non-existent and the bottom and top edges were smooth and round. Overall, the tablet itself felt the same, maybe just a bit heavier.

The white Joycons were beautiful. A brand new color we haven’t seen yet and it makes the Switch look very smart and less like a child’s tablet. Those weren’t any different, but the straps looked different. They have the same white and black straps that the Skyward Sword Joycons had. I guess this is the new standard now. The dock was probably the biggest physical difference. While it’s white and looks beautiful and adds to the smart higher-end electronic look of the OLED the back was different. There’s a quarter circle cut out for cables and the back flap isn’t hinged. It just comes off which is kind of annoying. However, there’s no USB A port back there, but a LAN port now!

Other than these noticeable differences at first glance, the HDMI cable, charger, and grip are all the exact same.

The Differences

When I first powered on the Switch the difference in screen quality was noticeable even with just the Nintendo logo flashing. The colors are brighter, sharper, more vibrant, and somehow the screen just has a smoother feeling to it. Almost like it has a higher refresh rate, but I know it doesn’t have one. It just felt that way. The usual setup process was the same as any Switch, but I did notice the internal memory has been doubled to 64GB which is great for anyone just starting out and doesn’t have a massive library. You won’t need an SD card for a while at least.

The OLED feels heavier in the hand and it is slightly bigger. The screen ate up the large LCD bezels of the original models and then expanded out about 0.1mm so the screen size expanded a whopping 0.8″ and it shows. The bezel-less design is so clean and sleek that I can’t go back to the original model or even to the Lite. Games look amazing in motion on this thing, and then there’s the controversy about the Vibrant mode exclusive to the OLED model. The Vibrant mode pushes the saturation a bit and doesn’t look good on some games, and you can really see it on the home screen, but it works well in games that are full of color or are very dark. Flashes of color pop in dark areas and it just looks so good. I didn’t realize the upgrade would be this noticeable, but it’s stark if you hold any other Switch model up in comparison. The colors, even on the Standard contrast mode, make the other models look dull and less colorful in comparison.

With a huge 7″ screen a sizeable upgrade is nothing to scoff at. The next best thing to hold up that giant screen and the heavier Switch is the kickstand. This is probably the second biggest change as the stand goes along the entire back of the Switch and is basically a metal plate that folds out almost flat. You get steeper and shallower tilting angles this way and it no longer basically stands straight up. This is great if your sitting higher or standing and can lay the Switch flatter. With the metal design it no longer constantly pops off and is leaning on one side of the Switch. The MicroSD slot is also just underneath here and is easy to access. This should have been on the original model, but we won’t go there.

The OLED’s 4310mAh battery is exactly the same as the older model, but it lasts a bit longer thanks to the OLED’s better power management, but it also depends on the game. Brighter and more colorful games will drain the battery faster than darker ones. Nintendo claims a wide range of 4 hours to 9 hours and 5.5 hours playing Breathe of the Wild. On average you will get around 5 hours of life for most 3D Switch games, and more with 2D games. One thing I see anyone failing to mention is the improved top buttons. The power button is now oval instead of round and less inlaid, and the volume rocker is thinner and sticks out a bit more. All these buttons have more of a subtle sharper click and aren’t as mushy a feeling. However, the game card door no longer has a notch for your finger and instead has a small gap for a fingernail and is harder to open. It’s also rectangular instead of a rounded door.

Lastly, I want to mention the speakers. They have improved quite a bit and are the third-best upgrade for the Switch and add another plus to edge towards a purchase. I didn’t know this going in, but the speakers are larger (or at least more exposed) and are located on the bottom of the system instead of the back. The speaker’s grilles are right where the kickstand opens and go right along to just under the screen. The sound is louder, clearer, and overall more of what I expect from the fantastic sound quality of Nintendo’s 3DS lineup. The 3DS has fantastic handheld speakers and has always been hard to beat. When it comes to your old Switch cases this will fit as it’s only 0.1mm longer than the standard Switch and it fit for me even in a tight case. I also want to mention that the white OLED just seems like an added bonus for the cost and it looks smarter and sleeker than the black model does. It’s not as eye-catching.

Overall, the Switch OLED is a phenomenal upgrade over the standard and can justify the extra $50 price increase. With almost a single inch larger screen, better and louder speakers, a bigger and better-designed kickstand, better top buttons, a LAN port in the dock, and seemingly better battery life thanks to the OLED screen’s better power management, there’s so much going on here that is hard to see on the surface. No, there are no upgrades under the hood, the overall design is the same, but the gorgeous display with the Vibrant setting (on some games) just makes this the best handheld screen on the market and surpasses the 2012 original Vita OLED screen which had the crown for the best handheld screen until now. If you can’t justify the extra cost for another Switch just know that of course, no single thing is worth the cost increase, but everything added together makes this an amazing package.

*Note* The OLED model DOES have 5GHz wifi. During testing, it wasn’t seeing any 5GHz connections for a few days, but it’s working now.

Amazon Kindle Oasis 3 2019 (32GB)

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/30/2022

Posted in: Hardware. Leave a comment

Everyone has probably owned or at least used an iPad at some point in their lives. Everyone now owns a smartphone, so where do e-readers come into the mix? Everyone has heard of a Kindle before at this point. Some might even remember the tablet or e-reader race of the late 2010s by Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders. In the end, Amazon won as they are the Apple to e-readers. But, what makes e-readers so much different than tablets? It’s the e-ink inside that makes them special. With this special display, it makes the readers only usable for a niche audience and totally limits the reader to just text and black and white images. This may sound like old and ancient technology, but when you’re dealing with novels you don’t need OLED or LCD displays as they just drain batteries.

I have pondered getting an e-reader for over a decade now. While the tech itself hasn’t changed too much over that time, the Kindle now has multiple models for various types of readers and budgets. Just a couple of weeks ago I was at the Amazon 4-Star store in our local Bellvue, WA mall with the family and I hadn’t seen a Kindle in person in about a decade. I picked up the Oasis and fell in love with it. While I’m a huge advocate for physical books and grew up getting lost in fantasy and sci-fi novels I just don’t have the room for any more novels. I already own several dozen and they take up a lot of space. I love the feeling of turning a physical page, the smell of a new book, going to Barnes & Noble and reading the backs and first few pages, and exploring for a new book. It’s an adventure that never gets old.

These days I love the compact idea of a kindle. A simple device that’s just for reading. No distractions are possible. I’ve tried reading books on iPads and Android tablets and it’s just not comfortable. They’re too big, too bright, and you can easily get distracted by other apps and notifications. Again, this may sound stupid to some, but the Kindles are just for reading and that’s it. I went straight for broke and picked up the 32GB Champagne Gold Oasis 3, the highest-end and top-end Kindle model you can get now. With ads supported it came out to $279. The ads part is in form of the splash screen which shows an ad for various Kindle things. Not too intrusive as you only see this screen for a few seconds a day and it saves you $20 if that matters to you. You can always turn off ad support in your Amazon account and pay the $20. This also unlocks book covers as splash screens instead which is much nicer.

I also picked up a nice leather hard flip case for the Kindle. These are expensive, mine was $50, but man are they nice! Super high-quality cases. The packaging is very minimal and only comes with a USB micro-B cable (yuck) instead of USB-C which is pretty dumb even for a 2019 device. The device itself is incredibly sleek, lightweight, and the physical buttons on the “bump” are what attracted me. I like anything physical on a device as long as it doesn’t gimp the design itself and these buttons are awesome. The touchscreen swiping works well enough, but you can change how the buttons turn pages by selecting which one goes forward or back. These feel perfect in the hand, especially for those like myself who have large hands. The 7″ display looks bright and crisp and anyone who has never used e-ink before will be surprised that the screen has to “refresh” in a weird way. The entire display flashes white and then fills in black in the areas it needs. When turning pages it won’t do a hard refresh and you can see a faint outline of everything that showed before it, but it’s not distracting. Hard refreshes are used when doing anything else on the screen including shopping on the Kindle Store.

The newer e-readers now have built-in wifi 2.4Ghz and can shop the Kindle Store which is really nice. Book downloads are usually in the kilobytes to a few megabytes at the most and take seconds to download. After you download what you need you can put the Kindle in airplane mode to disable the antennas to save lots of battery life. The Oasis does have the shortest life of the three current readers available, but this is mostly due to the added LEDs on the screen to light the display. The Oasis 3 has 25 LEDs and displays 16 levels of grayscale. This better lighting will use more battery life but it’s still nothing to scoff at. I bought this Kindle almost two weeks ago and I am still on the first charge I’ve already finished a novel and I am four chapters into a new one. The batter is sitting around 40% right now as I type this review. That’s fantastic! I would have had to have charged a regular tablet a dozen times over for the same period of time. I haven’t tested using Bluetooth for audio books, but you will obviously get a much lower battery life using these.

The Oasis 3 has some nice built-in software features for easier reading. You can adjust the font, font size, spacing, margins, and set the display to an automatic schedule to turn on the yellow lights for less eye strain. There’s also a dark mode so the screen is white text on black backgrounds which I much prefer. You can also highlight text, take notes, and look up words online, but these all drain the battery and I find unnecessary, to say the least. The warmth and brightness will mostly affect the battery if you turn everything else off, but the Oasis 3 also has a 300ppi display and that also drains more battery compared to other models. It looks incredibly sharp, just as sharp, or maybe sharper, than an actual novel.

Overall, after reading my first novel I have to say I keep my Kindle with me everywhere I go that I know I will have some downtime. I bring it to bed, the bathroom, to work, and anywhere that I might have to sit in the car for a long period of time. It’s so portable and compact that it fits in your pocket or a bag and you don’t need to bring a charger for it. You could easily bring it on a one or two-week trip and never charge it during that time. I read the thing for about 1-2 hours per day for the last two weeks and it was very enjoyable. While the refresh rate of e-ink displays is almost zero, navigating the Kindle Store isn’t that bad, and having a wishlist ready to go for books helps as well.

With this being the high-end model I can only recommend this to people who want physical buttons or a much sharper and brighter display as it’s well worth the extra price. You can even knock the price down to $250 by just getting the 8GB ad-supported model. I also recommend the excellent high-quality cases despite the high price point. This is for hardcore readers only as well. Don’t expect to read comics and graphic novels with this device. You’re just going to get straight-up text reading out of this, but remember the display is built for this by design and regular tablets are not. You can read this thing for hours on end and not get any eye strain. It’s a wonderful device for all ages and I can’t recommend it enough despite the price being too high for some. Think about this though. After about 20 novels purchases you’ve paid for the Kindle itself and saved that much room in your house.

Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/13/2021

Posted in: Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo Consoles, Retro Consoles. Leave a comment

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo

Release Date: 11/12/2021

Rating: Everyone

MSRP: $49.99

The Game & Watch series is Nintendo’s first foray into video games and handhelds like the GameBoy Micro, and even the DS drew inspiration from it. It’s also not going to attract the attention of anyone under 25 who isn’t just curious or truly into retro gaming. The original Mario Bros. release was underwhelming as it didn’t have much value for your money. They could have easily added the entire NES Mario library at no extra cost but chose not to. It seems Nintendo listened this time as the entire Zelda NES library is included here in a nice package with extras.

The unboxing experience is quite nice here for such a small proprietary device. The handheld comes out in a display box (more on that later), some of the usual safety pamphlet stuff Nintendo does, and a code to redeem 300 platinum coins on Nintendo.com (which are used to redeem things that actually matter like physical items). The device itself is inside a foam sleeve and that’s your lot. The charger is hidden away inside a “compartment” of the display box and this is a tiny three-inch USB-C cable, but any cable will work. This one just so happens to be Nintendo branded so collectors might want to hold on to it and not lose it. When you power on the device you will be greeted with a splash screen of Link himself and plopped right into the “main” screen which is the clock. If you press the Pause/Set button you can enter the system’s settings that allow you to change the sound and brightness and turn off sleep mode (if plugged in).

Once you have your time set you can go into the game selection screen and can choose between the original Zelda, The Adventure of Link, and Link’s Awakening. You can also play the Game & Watch series Vermin which stars Link himself. You can then use the Timer app as well. So, these sound great on their own right? Well, this entire device is chock-full of Easter eggs and features that you will probably miss or never know about without playing around or reading about them. First, the Timer and Clock screens both have playable games built into them. The Clock features several screens and Link will take 12 hours to complete the “game” or you can control him yourself. There are hidden Easter eggs here such as fairies appearing when the clock says 2:22, and other things happening when all digits are the same number. The game’s lighting will affect the time of day as well which is really neat. There are also several language versions for each game and you can experience their regional differences. This is more of a historical curiosity thing for most, but it’s nice these were all included.

The Timer app has three backgrounds you can cycle through and a time attack mode. Every game has cheats built-in that will give you full hearts if you hold A for five seconds while starting a new game. The Clock screen can switch from the 8-bit ticking sound (which is really freaking annoying by the way) to the game’s music and sound effects. There is also an auto-save feature that resumes right where you left off. You can easily switch between all three games and never lose your spot. There’s also a manual-save mode by holding A+B+Select+Start. Vermin has an extra hard C mode if you press A for five seconds, and the Clock screen will also cycle through 11 different backgrounds before going into sleep mode.

If that isn’t enough to keep you busy for a while (seriously this would be a great stocking stuffer as it’s great value for your money) you get a nice little cardboard display that has a fold-out stand in the back which is made from the tray the device sits in. This isn’t going to hold up over time so I suggest you get a third-party stand or something that someone else made for the long-term. Collectors will probably not want to use this either. And, as a nice little bonus, the rear tri-force logo lights up when it’s on.

So, that’s your lot. Three fantastic and iconic Zelda titles and the Game & Watch title to tie it all in with fun interactive apps. The device itself is what you would expect from Nintendo. It’s lightweight but has sturdy plastic and the screen is gorgeous with sharp colors and a vivid picture. The speaker is great too and spits out 8-bit tunes clearly and doesn’t sound tinny or anything like that. While these games are emulated ROMs they don’t have any issues and work just fine. The D-pad feels amazing and while the two face buttons are a bit rubbery, they’re fine for this device. It just looks gorgeous and is a fantastic piece to display as well. Overall, this is how these need to be done in the future and is well worth the $50.

Pimoroni 10″ Picade Bar Top Arcade Cabinet

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/04/2021

Posted in: Hardware, Retro Consoles. Leave a comment

I have a fascination with arcade hardware, but it’s just too big and expensive to own a real one. While I have covered the Arcade 1Up Mortal Kombat cabinet, it just seems that you really need to put a personal touch on something and build it yourself, or heavily mod an already made one to make it feel proper. The Pimoroni Picade was the next best thing as I already had a Raspberry Pi 4 laying around from a Retropie project I tried and gave up on. This was a long journey of fiddling, learning, and searching for answers as the software side was way more complicated and troublesome than the hardware build. I’ll cover the hardware part in this review, but I have something coming up that will cover a full guide on settings up a Retropie for Dummies. Not just for the Picade, but in general as there isn’t one online that exists.

The Unboxing

I have to say that the unboxing experience here was a real treat. The box itself looks nice and is in full-color print and has tons of information on it. This looks like something you would see on a store shelf. It has enough information on the outside and tells you quite a bit about what you’re going to get into. When you pull the lid off the documentation is all on top including an envelope bursting with dozens of stickers, an info sheet on Pico-8, and a redeemable code. This isn’t really my thing, but it’s a program that allows you to share and create 8-bit style games. You also get a full-size poster! The cabinet itself is sectioned into four boxes and well organized too. The instructions are actually online and are actually well done. I was worried as they were mostly just text with a few low-res photos and no video. A video does exist on YouTube, but there are no close-ups and it only gives you a rough idea of where things go. I honestly found the descriptions perfectly fine. They were very detailed and described mostly everything very well. I was a little confused at first with the bags of screws, but the instructions even tell you to grab “the big bag of screws” or “use the plastic screws and nuts” which really helped. Once you unpack each box and separate them you get an idea of what you have and it seems overwhelming at first. There are easily three dozen or more parts here. Once I got to building the cabinet I was able to learn the ins and outs of the cabinet and I felt if anything went wrong I knew all the shortcuts of how to get to each part the easiest.

You will need a Philips screwdriver, a power adapter for your Pi preferably the Canakit one (which I have), or an official Pi adapter. I also recommend a pair of needle-nose pliers and a flathead screwdriver (small one) as the crimps for the buttons can sometimes need adjusting.

The Build

Building the cabinet was actually quite fun and fairly straightforward. It took me around 2 hours to build the entire thing. I do personally recommend buying real Sanwa buttons as the ones that come with the Picade are garbage. After about an hour of using them, they start binding up badly and squeak. The joystick is perfectly fine and feels like a higher quality Sanwa clone, but these buttons are just unacceptable. Two buttons would stick and stay down after a couple of presses, so the playing games was pretty much a no-go until my Sanwa buttons came in. I spent that week messing with the Retropie software and tweaking. Standard 30mm Sanwa buttons fit right in perfectly with no issues and they feel a million times better. I decided to leave the standard side buttons since you don’t use them very often, but these also started binding up, sticking, and squeaking about two weeks in, so I will have to replace those as well. With the Picade already costing $250 and adding $40 for buttons that are really racking up the price point.

I also found that the standard artwork was fairly boring and will use the template to create my own. Despite those minor issues, the Plexi is sturdy and solid, and the wood panels are powder coated nicely and feel really solid. My only build quality issue is that the marquee is a little loose and could use some slightly smaller cutouts to hold the Plexi panels in place. The rubber feet hold up nicely and keep the Picade from sliding around, and I love that everything is easily accessible. You can access the buttons by taking off the two mounting screws for the control panel and the back is held on with a single tab and a rubber band. The screen OSD controls have their own cut-out and mount and the SD card is accessible via a slot at the bottom. This is not just sturdy and fun to build, but also easily serviceable for further customization without the need to dismantle the entire thing.

The Initial Play Test

First, I highly recommend using a wireless keyboard with the Picade as you don’t want wires hanging out. I’ve used this keyboard for over a year and it has a great layout, buttons, and the battery lasts forever. Rii Mini Wireless Keyboard

There really aren’t any instructions on how to use Retropie or customize it. There are some software steps you must take to get the screen and Pi Hat working for the control panel, but I ran into an issue right away. While the fix to get the HDMI settings to stick correctly worked, and setting up Wifi, the update for the Pi Hat didn’t work and I had to hunt down a fix for nearly an hour as without this the controls just won’t work. The link that you are given to put into the command line is correct, but the firmware for your Pi might be outdated. I had to do the following commands to get the link to register and work.

apt-get update

apt-get upgrade

Then I typed in the instructions to install the Picade drivers and it worked. They should really add these instructions to the official documentation as some people may never figure this out and get incredibly frustrated.

I do want to mention that the LCD screen is gorgeous. It’s a true 4:3 aspect ratio with a 1024×768 resolution which is perfect for a Pi to render at. I didn’t really need to mess with the OSD settings as they seemed perfect out of the box. The giant 10″ display with the small bezel just looks so good and it runs at 60hz!

After this, there are instructions on how to get Retropie going by “burning” an image to your SD card. I highly recommend 64GB or higher. Once you pop in your SD card and start up Retropie… there are no further instructions. You just spent $250 and 2-3 hours of your time only to set up the controls and that’s it. There’s no guide on what to do after this and you must spend hours researching and fiddling and figuring out what to do. Arcade games are the main reason people will buy this and this has been one of the most complicated, delicate, and fiddly things I have ever done project-wise. I will post a full guide on setting up Retropie with pretty much every issue you could possibly run into and how to easily customize it without needing to Google every single thing like I had to do. It took me a total of three weeks to fully customize and set up my Picade the way I want.

Alienware AW510K Low Profile Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 08/11/2021

Posted in: Hardware, PC Reviews. Leave a comment

Alienware isn’t really known for amazing gaming peripherals, in fact, due to their own ecosystem, some people put them dead last, but they aren’t low quality or anything. They are just aimed toward Alienware owners because their design and aesthetic matches the current generation of PCs and laptops that are out. This is only the second Alienware keyboard I’ve ever used as the last one was released almost a decade ago. I have to say, this keyboard definitely caters to this generation of computers, and especially my Area-51m R2 in white. I have the matching mouse and headset, so why not try the keyboard right?

Well, I’ve always been against using full-size keyboards with laptops as what’s the point? There’s a keyboard built into the thing! However, with the emergence in popularity with 60% mini keyboards, I decided to try this first at a lower cost, and while I don’t mind it, a full-size keyboard does not pair well with a laptop, especially with a chunky braided cable. Even wrapped up and held with a cable tie the thing was always in the way and the cable was so stiff I couldn’t really get it to sit where I wanted it constantly pushed the keyboard back and hit my mousepad and what not. While this isn’t an issue on a desktop I’m not going to knock points for this as it’s obviously a full-size keyboard meant for desktop PCs.

When it comes to looks Alienware nailed their current design blueprint. It matches my laptop perfectly and looks minimalistic. This isn’t a flashy keyboard with lots of macros and gimmicky spinning things and whoopdy-doo-dads. There’s a volume wheel and that’s pretty much it outside of standard FN media keys. The low profile is nice and thanks to this the keys are raised up away from the base plate. I did notice some deck flex in this thing, probably due to the low profile design, but it wasn’t noticeable while typing. The keys themselves are Cherry MX Reds so there is some clicky noise when typing. There are multiple RGB lighting zones, but for those who don’t want to install the Alienware Command Center for RGB control the keyboard has built-in lighting effects to cycle through which look nice. I didn’t have to install any drivers on my Area-51m R2 and Command Center just recognized it. There was no firmware update needed either.

Typing on the keyboard feels nice. The response of the Cherry Reds is great, but I did hear a little pinging when typing, but it was only with particularly hard presses. There is a USB 3.0 passthrough on the keyboard, but it requires a separate cable to be plugged in, so what’s the point of the passthrough then? I guess it could bring a USB slot closer to you as an advantage, but if you don’t need a USB slot closer to you right at your keyboard then don’t bother plugging it in. Overall, the keyboard is mostly recommended for current Alienware owners who want to keep their aesthetics matching, but for anyone else I wouldn’t really bother as there’s not too remarkable about this keyboard that the competition hasn’t already done or done better. But, if you want a minimalistic RGB keyboard with nothing fancy going on then this is a great choice as most gaming keyboards can be pretty gimmicky and flashy.

Razer Kishi for iPhone

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 07/28/2021

Posted in: Android, Hardware, iOS, Mobile Reviews. Leave a comment

When it comes to “vise” type controller for phones there’s been an increasing demand for quality now that mobile games are pretty much console quality. We still get nice simple games, but sometimes we want our console experience to be super portable. It used to be that Apple took quite a while to catch on to official controller support. It wasn’t until iOS 13 that Bluetooth controllers for officially supported. They have been available on Android for nearly a decade, but the cheap Chinese devices never quite held up. So there are two animals you can tame. The traditional controller with a phone clip or the vise style controllers. I personally prefer the vise as it feels more like the Switch or a traditional handheld console. I always felt the controller and clip were super heavy and view angles got weird.

Within the last couple of years, major gaming companies are making official controllers for phones. With games like Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG, and GRID: Autosport, there’s a reason why. These games play phenomenally better with controllers. The Kishi isn’t perfect, but it does a great job giving us quality where we need it. The vise actually folds into itself which is something I can’t say for cheap Chinese devices which I have used. They have this weird sliding mechanism that’s spring-loaded and just felt too rigid and universal. This controller is hand-tailored for iPhones and using my iPhone 12 Pro Max was a dream with this controller.

The first issue I ran into is that unfolding the device is a pain. There are two pull tabs that are oriented awkwardly and don’t have a nice snap or click when they unlatch. You have to pull the simultaneously and just let the controller kind of fall apart and some wiggling is required. The controller is basically two halves of a controller that is connected with a soft rubber band that is anchored with plastic pieces at the end that have a peg that allows for stretching. There’s a rectangle backpiece in the middle that has support begs that rests on the back of the phone. It feels tight and I never felt like the device didn’t stretch enough or too far. There are spacers for smaller iPhones so the band still gets tight. You insert your phone into the lightning port side and slide the other half on and it just pulls tight and it works. The right side is solid, but the left side has a bit of giving and wiggle, but this is because there’s no port to keep it in place, but I never noticed this while gaming ever.

The controller feels solid in the hands and like a handheld system. Of course, ergonomics are only half the battle and the other half is how the buttons feel. The alternate analog placement (Xbox style) feels amazing. These are some damn fine analog sticks and I felt they weren’t too loose or tight. They click nice and are just full-size analog sticks that feel similar to an Xbox One controller. The D-Pad is weird, but at least it rolls and rocks and isn’t separated like the Switch or PS4. You can easily use this with fighting games is my point. The face buttons are similar to the Switch but feel a tad stiff. They aren’t loud and clicky like Moga controllers are, but you eventually get used to it. I noticed that after a week they loosened up a tad. The Kishi has triggers similar to the Xbox and two shoulder buttons. The shoulder buttons are stiff as well and the analog triggers are a little loose for my taste, but you get used to them and they aren’t a deal-breaker.

There are three other buttons: one for recording and taking screenshots, a home button, and a menu button. They are located below each analog stick and are out of the way. Other than that my next favorite feature is the passthrough charging but it’s oriented at the bottom and out of the way of your hands. This allows for longer tethered gaming sessions. You can use a power bank in your pocket or sit near an outlet, it’s great. When you’re done the controller easily snaps back together, but only after you figure out how. You have to orient the tabs inside just right or it won’t go together. It took me too much time trying to figure this out, but essentially the small gray tabs on the inside need to touch and you know it’s oriented correctly. Then the back plastic piece just snaps on to keep the halves together. It’s a rather compact thing when it’s all said and done and easily fits into small pockets.

With that said there’s not much left to say. There is an app that upgrades the firmware, but mine didn’t need it. Other than that if the game supports controllers is will recognize this device. I have yet to play a game that supports controllers that won’t see the Kishi. The only issue was Real Racing 3, but there’s been a long-time glitch that requires you to put the game in airplane mode to use controllers, so that’s not the Kishi’s fault. For the price point, you’re paying for quality and this is well worth $100. I know console controllers are $40 cheaper, but this thing is a bit more complicated to make and has more moving parts. I think it’s well worth the money and turns your iPhone into a portable handheld gaming device.

Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max – A Review from a Decade Long Android User

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 07/24/2021

Posted in: Editor's Choice, Hardware, iOS, Mobile Reviews. Leave a comment

Well, this is an awkward position I thought I would never be in. A lifelong Android user switching to an iPhone. Both sides would ask why and I have many reasons for the switch. For one, Samsung hasn’t impressed me outside of their ungodly priced fold phones since the Note 5 was released. Every phone since has been almost the same with just newer parts inside. While technically, Apple is guilty of this as well, I feel their ecosystem evolves and changes and improves within itself while it almost seems every phone manufacturer is held back by Android itself.

I switched over mostly for the games as Apple always gets the better games whether they are console ports or not. Apple Arcade is a huge step up over Google Play Pass any day. I also haven’t done a phone review in a few years because what’s the point? Every Android phone is basically the same these days minus any gimmicks. I feel I’m well qualified to do this review as a contrast and comparison as I have had nothing but Android phones for the last decade. My first phone was a Motorola Droid back in 2010 and that review is on this site now. The last iOS device I had that wasn’t an iPad was an iPod Touch 4 which is also on this site. So, this is my first ever iPhone and it has been a very interesting transition.

The Unboxing and Setup

Well, I was shocked that I walked out of a T-Mobile store in Portland while I was on vacation with a brand new sealed iPhone 12 Pro Max, and it was blue by the way. A gorgeous color for the phone. My wife also made the switch about 3 weeks ago, but she’s gone back and forth between the two companies since the iPhone 4S came out. As I opened the box and did the usual SIM swap and started the phone up I felt I was in for a rough transition. I had so many paid games and apps on Android, how was I ever going to switch over? Sure, I had some paid games on iOS from my iPad I had a couple of years ago, but a phone?

Well, the unboxing was pretty underwhelming even for an Apple device and I checked my first box for things I don’t like about the iPhone and Apple in general: No charging adapter is included. The second checkmark was a lightning cable to USB-C. You can’t use just regular USB-C cables, but only these cables. Apple’s stupid proprietary crap strikes again and I hate it. I had to order a set of cables and chargers on Amazon as my Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra cable won’t work and it didn’t even recognize charging on the adapter.

With that out of the way, I tried doing the Android to iPhone transfer app and it’s complete garbage of course. The iPhone said it would take over an hour to transfer 8GB of mostly just photos over and that’s unacceptable with a good wifi connection and fast speeds. There is also no way to stop the process as you must shut the phone down and reboot. I then ran across the app just freezing and locking up and even after I selected just texts and smaller files to transfer it never transferred anything in the end. Wonderful. The rest of the setup was easy enough, but I found another thing I hate about Apple. Their security is good but too strict on the user. I realized I had a passcode on my iPad and I was trying to figure it out and just couldn’t after sign in. I wanted to reset the password and I was told it could take days or weeks as my request has to be manually processed to make sure it’s me. Excuse me what? I just spent over $1,000 on your device and you can’t let me reset my password like everyone else automatically? Even worse, if I didn’t remember my iPad passcode I was boned for good as Apple can’t reset these. Why? Thankfully I remembered my iPad pin lock passcode and I had the Apple account password saved in Google Passwords so I was safe there, but I just really hate their security on the user’s end. It’s just too blasé.

After the initial setup, I took a good look at the phone itself. It’s sleek, sexy, and well-designed like always. The iPhones started to look ugly around the 5th generation era up until it was redesigned again with the iPhone X. I’m glad the aluminum back is back as well as the sides. I hate the glass backs as it makes the phone more fragile. Samsung loves this for some reason and I’ve always hated it. The phone feels like an iPhone again. Round edges and no curves around the sides. It’s sleek and uniform and I really do like it. The blue color is subtle yet fits the design well, but these big-ass camera bumps will always be ugly.

Hello iOS, My Old Friend

Once I was plunked onto the home screen I sighed. It’s the same! Nothing has changed in 13 years. While that’s true on the surface I know iOS has evolved a lot in other ways since the 4th generation. While even then I could make folders Apple thought to finally give us something similar to the Android app drawer with the App Library that is accessed by swiping all the way left. It auto-organizes into categories and you can search, which is nice but very limited. Apple also finally allowed widgets which have always been a big selling point for Android phones. They work well, but since this is a newer implementation not a lot of apps support it. It’s nice to finally have my email, weather, news, and calendar all on one screen rather than switching through apps or that horrible swipe-down window thing they did a while back.

However, there are still no themes, alternate third-party home screens, or anything like that you can get on Android. I can’t truly make the phone look unique without jailbreaking it. Not even colors! I can only change the wallpaper and that is it. I understand Apple has their own thing going and it’s their OS and their own phones, but let us do what we want! At least create an official theme store on the App Store. I could change the always-on image, theme, and many other things on my Note20 and that will greatly be missed, probably the biggest thing that will be missed. While some people feel it’s a hassle and is too much, it’s a staple of the Android ecosystem.

Let’s talk about ringtones as well. What’s with this Garage Band nonsense? I either have to buy ringtones on the iTunes Store or import them with a third-party app. Zedge is the go-to app for ringtones on Android and it still sucks on iOS. It’s such a hassle I just wound up buying some ringtones and I’m upset you can’t change ringtones for each app like you can on Android, only system apps. Unless the developer created special ringtones for you to pick you to have to hear the same sound as everyone else. Get with the program in terms of customization already Apple, it’s not that hard.

As I dove into the settings I felt simply lost. Even five days later I’m still trying to find things and noticing stuff that needs to be adjusted. Part of this is Apple’s incredible security as I am now able to choose whether apps can track me, use GPS, and I have complete control and am told what each app wants to do. That’s amazing! Android is still lacking in this matter and it’s still too much of an afterthought over there, but Apple has nailed it and they keep all of these app developers in check with it. I feel the system settings need a serious overhaul as these haven’t ever changed, not even once. They keep the same categories and just add more stuff inside. While most of it seems security-related at least there’s a lot of options and you do have control over what every app does. Screen Time was a recent thing a few years back and even this is something not available on Android phones. Everything is well categorized, but there’s just so much here it can feel overwhelming.

Apple took out the fingerprint scanner and now relies on Face ID and I have to say it just works really well. Compared to Samsung it’s a joke how bad Samsung’s facial recognition is. Even their in-screen fingerprint scanner is finicky and doesn’t always unlock when you want it too. Face ID just works fast and I haven’t had any issues with it in any lighting condition. However, I do hate that I have to still swipe my phone after unlocking it. This is a dumb thing that needs to change already.

There’s an App for That

While Android phones still sell ten to one over iPhones everyone caters to Apple. Anything and everything is on the App Store and it all runs and feels better on iOS over Android. While most apps work fine on Android you still get compatibility issues across devices. The upside to the App Store is it’s all made for one device essentially and most apps just feel better. I ran apps on this phone that have been on Android for years and I noticed features that didn’t exist on Android or they just ran better or looked better. You also don’t get as much garbage on the App Store and it’s at least filtered out better. The App Store is just better looking and sleeker than the Google Play Store. You get front-page feeds, articles, and lists that make it feel like a store. While Google Play is sleeker and better designed it’s still essentially a mess of apps all over the place. Apple does a good job siphoning apps into your interests and keeps the good stuff away from the garbage. Not to mention Apple Arcade is a much better value than Google Play Pass. There are so many console ports that are top-notch quality because it’s just one phone you have to develop for. Android gaming is so hit or miss because if you run a lower-end phone you’re not going to be able to play much, and Apple gets all the timed exclusives. While there are quality games on Android, and pretty much every mainstream game, there are so many on iOS and they just run and feel better.

A lot of the time with games on Android I would be locked out of higher graphics settings because my phone is too new and it takes months for the developers to fix it. Another issue would be higher quality assets won’t download because the phone is too new as well. I also would have crashes, or the game just simply wouldn’t be available for my phone for some strange reason despite being the most popular and newest device on the market. Android users gets locked out of a lot of stuff if a developer doesn’t enable the app to be compatible with certain devices.

That’s the joy of iOS – everything just works. There are always crashing issues on Android with something or something on the phone that is somehow broken, in beta, or needs to be fixed and is ignored. Google leaves everything up to the phone manufacturers to add or fix anything they didn’t do in the latest Android build. That also leads to phone updates. With iOS, you get them the day Apple makes them available. I can’t tell you how sick and tired I was of waiting months or sometimes a year after Google released the latest Android build. There is so much waiting and even then there are things always wrong with the latest build with Android. I used to have to reformat my phones after each major Android update. Then there’s the blockade of the mobile provider as Samsung might have the build ready but it might take 3 months for T-Mobile or Verizon to approve the OTA update. While it’s gotten better over time, I still have to wait months for the next update and Samsung only supports their phones for 2 years and then they stop updating. With iOS, you get support until that architecture just can’t be supported anymore.

So with that said if you have the latest iPhone, you know every game will have the best graphics settings and run the best. It’s that simple. With Android, there are low-end devices, mid-tier, and high-end all with different results. Android phones also use off-the-shelf parts and literally up until the last 2-3 years Android OS has finally stopped getting laggy and constantly freezing over time. iOS is snappy and always feels fast and rarely ever freezes or crashes. A lot of times apps would just freeze and crash or completely stop working on my Note20 Ultra. It was rare, but it shouldn’t happen at all. Sometimes a new phone would cause my emails to not come through, I’d have mobile data connectivity problems, wifi calling wouldn’t work properly, or something along those lines every single time. With iOS, you have a worry-free experience all around.

Please Die iTunes

My #1 complaint about the iPhone still stands to this day and it hasn’t gotten easier. You still can’t transfer files and photos over with any type of ease unless it was already on an iOS device. I spent an entire afternoon trying to figure out how to transfer photos over from my old phone. I know there’s the iTunes method, but you have to keep everything in a single folder and there’s no sub-folder option. I’d essentially have to reorganize everything. I can’t drag and drop, and third-party transfer software is still limited. It’s all complete nonsense and it shouldn’t be this hard for just photos. I wound up just storing them all in the cloud in the end because unless you transfer everything to iCloud you’re pretty much screwed if you want it on your phone. With Android, you can copy anything over to the phone or SD card with easy like any removable storage. I thought by now at least regular media would be easy to transfer over. iTunes still sucks, it hasn’t changed one iota in the last decade, and it’s still limiting.

To Stay or Not to Stay

With less than a week with my iPhone, I have to say I’m really impressed. Very little needed transferring as any of my old accounts on apps still support Google even on iOS. I will say that Apple Maps is awful and I still prefer Google Maps and the same goes for Chrome. While it’s not as feature-rich on iOS as Android it’s still miles better than Safari. There are some built-in apps that are great like iMovie, Clips, the AR measuring app, and Pages. Apple has always been the best at productivity software and there’s nothing like this on Android at all. Google itself has barebones offerings like Google Docs and Notes, and every other manufacture is laughable in comparison. These built-in apps are top-quality and incredibly useful.

The thing is iOS feels polished and stable while Android still feels like an ever-evolving OS because it is. It started out very rough and because of the open-endedness and hundreds of different phones, it took much longer for Google to get where it is than Apple. Even 10 years later Google still isn’t where Apple is in terms of controlling and keeping a lock-down on their ecosystem. I have to learn every new Android phone because each manufacturer has its own version of the OS and this can get tiresome after so long. Each major Android update seems to offer and do less and less while Apple still has major features implemented into each major update. While I love the customization and overall openness of Android I am not such a die-hard fan that I refuse to see its issues. Android has a long way to go still before it becomes as well established and polished as iOS. On the games front, iOS feels like its own platform like Nintendo. Android has always felt like a third-rate generic video game system platform and that has never changed. Sure, you can run emulators easier which is a huge selling point for mobile gamers, but iOS is just a better-polished platform. It feels like the phone version of Nintendo. Complete control, top-notch quality, and they don’t play games with developers. It’s Apple’s way or the highway and sometimes that’s for the best.

I miss not being able to charge apps to my phone bill, customization is still very limited, and overall the majority of the OS hasn’t changed at all while Android feels like night and day compared to 10 years ago. But is that a good thing? Apple hit its stride and was happy with it while Android 2.0 felt like some beta OS that you sign up for funsies. If I don’t complain about Google themselves I can point my finger to phone manufacturers. Samsung’s software has gotten much better over the years, but there are still problems. OnePlus is less bloated than Samsung, but their phones are always all over the place. LG relies on gimmicks and Google themselves can’t even make a solid stable phone with their own OS. Google’s phones always feel like Kickstarters. This type of varied quality control is literally the bane of Android’s existence and what’s stopping it from completely taking over iOS for good despite having a majority of the market. I feel if Google made a bold decision and kept Android for themselves they could seriously compete and fine tune Android just for their own phones, but instead their using off the shelf parts like everyone else with lesser results. The fact that Samsung is the flagship for Android is strange indeed.

So, the question remains. Will I stay with iPhone? It’s too early to tell, but so far unless Samsung or Google do something truly impressive with Android I don’t have a real reason to go back. When you think about it all though we are really at a plateau in terms of raw power from smartphones and features they can have. In the end, most people won’t notice a speed difference between the two systems, and I don’t see the point even benchmarking my iPhone here. It plays games well and most at 60FPS. We’re getting to a point where video game consoles are at. They’re all the same with different OS and controllers. The lines are blurring as barriers are being broken down every year.

Quality of Life Differences

This is the what both OS come down to. What quality of life things I noticed over the week of having the iPhone. For starters, I can’t say it enough – organization on the iPhone is bare bones. Why cant’ we at least alphabetize the apps in folders? On Android you can even rename the apps and change the icons! On the plus side controllers work better with iOS and Apple really pushes and advertises games that have controller support. I used a Razer Kishi with my iPhone and every game that supports controllers had zero lag with it. I do like how the contacts can have more details within them such as how each person is related to you and you can even create an emergency medical ID that gets sent to emergency responders if it’s supported in your area. I like the swipe down shortcut drawer as this is usually only a feature on Samsung devices, but it’s customizable here with large buttons and works well. Dark Mode also works much better on iOS than Android. Every app just works with it while it has to be implemented into each app on Android. I got so tired of half my apps not supporting dark mode or glitching.

I also prefer how Apple Pay works over Google Pay. Double clicking the power button brings up the wallet and most shopping apps support it within. I never used Google Pay because it was such a hassle and it fought with Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay was a permanent weird swipe up tab at the bottom of the phone and most of the time I’d accidentally bring it up. You also have to manually keep NFC on which sucks battery life and there’s no shortcut for Google Pay and it doesn’t work within apps.

With that said, hate it or love it, and despite some limitations, what’s here limited or not just simply works. You can’t say that with Android even 10 years of being a user. Something’s always broken on Android no matter what phone manufacturer you go with, and while I’ve used everything from OnePlus, Samsung, LG, and Motorola, I have to say it’s nice to not have to worry about that anymore.

Corsair 680X RGB ATX Case

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/14/2021

Posted in: Editor's Choice, Hardware, PC Reviews. Leave a comment

PC cases are something you don’t change very often. Usually once in awhile when you buy a new motherboard and CPU, but in my case(!) I wanted to just upgrade. My previous case was purchased due to what was available at my local Fry’s Electronics at the time and I wasn’t impressed with the Thermaltake View 31 much. It didn’t have a PSU shroud so all the ugly cables were just visible and all the rear cable management was displayed behind glass…which was odd. It also had flimsy thumb screws and the panels were a pain to put back on. My front USB ports were going out and it didn’t support USB 3.1 Thunderbolt. I was just tired of looking at the thing despite the space it had.

So, while switching to all Corsair RGB components, I decided to switch to a Corsair case. The only “smart” thing about the case is that it includes three LL120 fans and a Commander Pro which was not in the description anywhere! I had no idea it included this and it was a huge surprise. Corsair RGB fans are a pain to cable manage. Each fan has a PWM cable and an RGB cable. You then have to connect it to a Lighting Node Pro which controls the fans. Then you have to connect the LED hub to the Node Pro. The lighting hub then connects to the internal USB and the Node Pro connects to the internal SATA power. It’s a huge pain, but the fan hub eliminates needing that LED hub.

The case itself was easy to build in. The case comes with pre-installed stand-offs and the motherboard went in with no issue. The side glass panel is magnetically held closed and then a single screw allows you to lift it off its hinge. The back panel is a solid sheet of aluminum with a filter for the PSU. The top glass is raised on rubber stand-offs and you can insert an optional filter if you have a 240mm radiator you are installing on top. The rear has a slide out filter panel and so does the front. I love how the PSU is side mounted in the back and I had plenty of room for all the cables and there were plenty of tie offs and rubber slots in the back. The case also has a 3.5″ and 2.5″ drive cage. I chose to remove the 3.5″ cage and the 2.5″ cage has four toolless slots that can be snapped apart. I then just screwed this back in to free up some room.

The case has an option to side mount your GPU, but it’s pretty close to the glass and these mounts are typically not recommended for high-end cards that get hot. My RTX 2080 barely fit in here as the GPU clearance is only 330mm and my card was 327mm, but MSI cards are usually on the larger side. The pointy end of the GPU shroud is mere millimeters away from a fan so it was a tight fit. You could do a SLI setup in here, but it would be super tight. The case comes with four thermal sensor cables which I chose not to use, at least not for now. It also came with four PWM fan cable extensions. The usual front panel cables were present, but I never plug in the front audio as most of these cables aren’t shielded properly and you get interference and I just never use it. What is nice is that the front USB is 3.0 only, but there are only two which is limiting, but most PCs have plenty of USB parts on the rear. I only use it for my mouse dongle and a USB stick or phone.

When it comes to aesthetics the case is gorgeous. The soft aluminum accompanied by glass and that top raised panel is beautiful. It’s not the best when it comes to fan noise or even temps, probably mid-tier, but it’s good enough for most gamers. I wouldn’t recommend a SLI 3090 setup in here, but with a single card and a liquid cooled CPU you’re going to be able to drop your fan fairly low. At idle my RTX 2080 stays at a cool 32c and at heavy load it hovers around the mid to high 50’s which is better than my previous case. It might be due to my bottom intake fans blowing that cool air on to the GPU at a closer proximity. My AIO cooled Intel i7-8700 idles around 38c and at full load the cores never go past the mid to high 60’s. That could be cooler if I had a 240mm rad instead of a 120mm, but it will do.

Overall, the Corsair 680X is pricey, but worth the money. A lot of that cost is the three LL120 fans which normally costs $130 alone and the Commander Pro which is another $80. It’s a premium case for those who love Corsair’s suite of RGB components, but if you aren’t an RGB person than this case isn’t for you and you should get a non glass case.