Destiny 2 PC performance guide

It’s finally here. Destiny 2 is now out on PC, so you can stop ducking your friends who played on PS4, and vanishing from your grouptexts every time they start talking spoilers. You have just one more obstacle separating you from living your best life as an immortal space wizard. Can your PC run it?

How well it will run depends on your hardware, but we’re here to help. We ran through dozens of tests to figure out which settings offer the greatest performance gains without sacrificing visuals, and we even tested out a couple non-standard gaming rigs to get an idea of how well Destiny 2 runs when it’s not on a lightning-fast testing PC. So, here it is – our Destiny 2 performance guide.

Our test setup

To get an idea of how Destiny 2 would perform on a variety of different systems, we performed our tests on three very different PCs. Our primary testing platform was a desktop PC with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X 16-core CPU clocked at 3.4GHz, 32GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, and a 4K monitor. We used the same PC to test using a GTX 1060, and an AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics card, and we even threw in two more monitors for the full three-monitor experience.

Destiny 2 is a very well-optimized game.

Additionally, we ran the tests on a couple wildcards — a 2015 Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M graphics card, and a MacBook Pro 15 with an AMD Radeon Pro 455 graphics card. The Mac was, of course, running a fresh Windows 10 installation.

If there’s anything we learned during our testing, it’s this — Destiny 2 is a very well-optimized game. Each of our testing platforms was more than capable of running the game at 1080p on Medium or High settings without hitting any major performance snags. With that said, we did notice a major difference in framerates between the lowest and highest settings.

1080p is easy as pie

Starting with performance at the designated graphical presets, we ran through a series of tests measuring our framerate with OCAT. Those tests consisted of running through the introduction area of Destiny 2 about a million times, and also running a circuit around the Farm, the game’s new social space. It has chickens.

At 1080p, each of our test systems did well, and a few of them did incredibly well. Just look at those GTX 1080 and RX Vega 56 numbers. Both the GTX 1080 and RX Vega 56 could push over 140 frames per second on average, which means picking up a 144hz monitor might not be a bad idea if you have a high-end video card.

Our tests showed the presets make a big difference in framerate. Performance improves significantly once you hit the low settings preset. That’s to be expected, since you’ve effectively pared back all the eye candy, but the game still looks alright.

In this shot of the stoic Commander Zavala, you can clearly see that you lose some details as you step down from the Highest settings. Lighting is the most noticeable downgrade. Turning detail down to low removes some lighting elements, and that means the game offers less contrast overall. Differences in texture detail are also easy to spot, particularly on the rock behind Zavala, and the ground in the distance.

However, even at the Low graphics preset, the game is acceptable. Geometry detail isn’t drastically reduced, and the game’s colorful presentation helps obscure some of the texture issues, distracting you from the fact that the ground looks less like concrete and more like muck.

4K is a challenge that fast rigs can handle

Moving on to 4K performance, it’s here that the GTX 1080 Ti really proves its worth. Without running two graphics cards in SLI, you’re probably not going to hit 144 FPS at 4K, but our testing rig tried its little heart out and managed to keep us above 60 FPS even when we were surrounded by the Red Legion.

The GTX 1060 and the RX 570 fell off sharply, struggling to keep up at a barely playable 22 and 23 FPS, respectively. During our run through the introduction, we routinely hit speedbumps and saw significant slowdown during firefights.

Laptops fare better than you might think

What about our wildcards — less-than-ideal laptops running last year’s hardware? They were a bit of a surprise. Naturally the Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming, with its GTX 965M, outperformed the Boot Camped MacBook Pro 15 with its Radeon Pro 455 graphics card, but these two systems illustrated the importance of fine tuning your graphics settings.

Neither system had the power to run at the Highest graphical preset, not even at 1080p. But, we did find they each had their own niche where they could routinely hit a playable FPS. For both, the Medium preset offered the best balance of visuals and performance. Once we turned off Depth of Field, lowered the shadows on the MacBook Pro, and stepped the resolution down to 1680 x 1050 — a more natural fit for the oddly shaped MacBook display — our average FPS remained in the mid-forties, even during heavy firefights.

Performance can spike up and down during firefights.

We saw similar results from the Dell Inspiron 15. Lowering Depth of Field and Shadows, while keeping everything else on the High preset, kept our FPS in the low 50s — without cutting too deep into visual fidelity.

Neither of these systems is meant to be an ideal gaming setup, but they both illustrate that Destiny 2 has impressive optimization going on behind the scenes. While it’s not as demanding as games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided or Assassin’s Creed: Origins, it’s a game that manages to look great without completely destroying lesser gaming rigs — and with some fine tuning, you can get decent performance and good visuals out of unusual or outdated hardware.

So, how do you know which settings to lower without harming your visuals?

Crank it up

With any graphically intensive game like Destiny 2, digging into the video settings manually is your best bet if you want to squeeze a little more life out of an underpowered PC. Before we do anything though, open your Settings menu, and click on the gameplay tab. From here click FPS Display to On. That will turn on the in-game FPS counter, so you can get an idea of how different settings will affect your game’s performance.

The first setting you’ll want to tweak is your resolution. On most displays, especially laptop displays, 1080p is going to look fine, but on larger monitors things will start to look stretched and jagged. In most cases, you’re going to want to stick as close as possible to your monitor’s max resolution, that’s going to give your game the sharpest visuals. So first off, max out your resolution.

While we’re in here, go ahead and set your graphics to the “Highest” setting. Even if you have an old graphics card, turning everything up will let us see what we can turn down.

Now that everything is maxed out, back out of the menu and check your FPS.

What we’re looking for is the sweet spot between 50 to 60 FPS. If your framerate sticks around those figures when you’re just lounging around at the Farm, your game is going to be playable even during heavy firefights, though it might dip near 30 FPS. That’s not ideal for many, but it’s a good place to start. If you’re not at the Farm yet, just hang out in that very first area — the one where everything is on fire. What we’re looking for is somewhere nice and quiet, where you can establish your “resting” framerate.

Now let’s dig into the settings, and see what we can change to get that framerate where it needs to be.

Fine Tuning

During testing we found a few key settings that had a huge impact on our FPS. First of these was Depth of Field. This is the dynamic blur effect you see mostly when you’re talking to NPCs. It looks great, but has a big impact on your performance. Turning it off, we saw a consistent 17 to 20 percent spike in our FPS, the biggest from any single setting.

After Depth of Field, the next most important setting is shadow detail. Turning shadows all the way down, we saw our FPS spike by about 15 percent. This does have a rather noticeable impact on shadow quality, though, so you might not be happy with what you see. The shadows take on less definition and become vague blurs. However, you’ll still see a notable improvement just by turning quality down a notch or two from its highest. It’s worth tweaking.

The other settings, when taken together, can impact your FPS significantly, but the two just mentioned have the biggest individual impact outside of resolution. Speaking of which, if your FPS is still below 40 or hanging around 30, even after turning down shadows and depth of field, it’s time we look at resolution.

We wouldn’t suggest you bring it lower than 1080p. However, if your PC is having trouble running at 1440p or 4K on a monitor with said resolution, bring it down to 1080p and see how that changes your performance. If you’re still having trouble, there are a few other individual settings you should look at.

First up, lower Texture Anisotropy to 2x, or turn it off entirely. This setting smooths out jagged edges, but can be a bit of a resource hog. Same goes for Screen Space Ambient Occlusion. Turning this down to HDAO or Off will boost your FPS a bit. While we’re at it, go ahead and lower Anti-Aliasing from SMAA to FXAA or Off. These features contribute to the overall feel of the game, but won’t hit your visual quality as heavily as lowering Texture Quality will.

That’s where we’re headed next. Downscaling textures to High or Medium from Highest doesn’t make a huge difference. Some fine details are a bit less finely detailed, but Destiny 2 is so visually dense and well-crafted that your environments are still going to be lush and immersive no matter what. Your armor will still be sparkly, and appropriately majestic.

Taking a step down to Low, however, you’ll lose quite a bit of fine detail, and things will get a bit muddy, though the game still looks decent overall. To see what we mean, check out the shoulders in the above screenshots. At the Highest settings, you can see a little of small details in the fabric and weave of the character’s armor, almost all of which are lost in the move down to Low.

You won’t gain much in terms of performance by moving textures from Medium to Low, as we only saw a small 3 to 5 percent spike in FPS, about the same as what we saw moving from Highest to Medium. That means if you move on down to Medium, you strike a good balance between visual fidelity and performance.

Three monitors are better than one

Sitting down in front of three monitors to play Destiny 2 feels like settling into a cockpit. To your left and right, your peripheral vision is just completely overtaken by the game. The world melts away behind otherworldly vistas, dark tunnels filled with ancient horrors, and ruins overgrown by centuries of disuse. If you have the horsepower and hardware, this is the way to play Destiny 2.

Unfortunately, running three displays at once does take a toll on your performance, and you’re going to need some powerful hardware to keep everything running smoothly. During our tests, the GTX 1080 Ti managed an average of 68 FPS at 1080p on the Highest settings preset. That’s a little less than half what we got out of the same card running on a single monitor. We saw a similar result from the RX Vega 56, which went from an average of 133 FPS with a single monitor to 58 FPS when running three monitors.

Provided you have three monitors laying around, getting them set up is painless, but you need to make sure your graphics card has three DisplayPorts, or three HDMI ports — and not all of them do.

To get started, you’ll be able to follow our dual-monitor guide here — it’s the same process but with an extra display. Once you’re all plugged in, there are a couple extra steps you’ll need to take depending on your graphics card. If you have an Nvidia card, right click on your desktop and open the Nvidia Control panel. From there, click on Configure Surround, then Configure.

Here, you’ll want to choose 1×3 topology, and make sure the displays are lined up according to how they’re arranged on your desk. Each display should have a number showing up on it, to let you know which one it is.

Also make sure your resolution is set to 5760 x 1080, which is 1080p times three. Once you’re all done there, click apply. Your displays might flicker a bit, but it should be all set up.

If you’re running an AMD Radeon graphics card, the steps are similar, but a bit different. Luckily, AMD has a helpful guide that will walk you through the process. Once you’re all set up, fire up Destiny 2. You’re not done yet.

Even when you bump down the settings, environments are always lush and immersive in Destiny 2.

Now, once you’re in game, open your settings menu, and take note of the Field of View option. This is the setting we’ll be tweaking next. The maximum Field of View setting is 105, which means your camera is going to zoom way out, and your peripheral vision will be significantly distorted.

This slider is all about personal preference though, so slide it all the way up, close the menu and walk around, and see how you everything looks on each monitor. Keep in mind your left and right side monitors are mostly there for immersion, and to give you a sense of peripheral vision when you’re prowling through the depths of abandoned alien cityscapes.

Next, start decreasing the slider in increments of 10 until you get to a setting that feels comfortable — and that’s it. You’re ready to go, Guardian.

Can your computer run Destiny? Probably!

With a monster PC and three monitors, Destiny 2 becomes a uniquely immersive experience that you really can’t replicate on the PlayStation 4 Pro, or Xbox One versions of the game.

That begs the question — is Destiny 2 on PC worth it if you don’t have a mini supercomputer under your desk? Absolutely! This is a very well-engineered game and, as our testing shows, it runs well on mid and low-end systems without too much fuss.

If your PC or laptop sits above the minimum system requirements, chances are you’re going to get a playable experience out of Destiny 2. Even if you have a mid-range Nvidia GeForce GTX 900-series graphics card, or an AMD Radeon RX 400-series graphics card, you’ll be able to get away with running at the medium or high preset at 1080p, and maybe even a little above. So, get out there, Guardian. The Traveler needs you.

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Who needs batteries? This toothbrush runs on a modified watch mechanism

Why it matters to you

If you find yourself in a situation where you’ve got no access to power, this battery-free powered toothbrush could be the perfect solution.

Next to our smartphones, electric toothbrushes are among the best gadgets in our lives, guaranteeing a hygienist-approved tooth clean at the start and end of each day. The one time we hate our electric toothbrushes? When we forget to charge the battery, and they whir to a sad halt mid-brush. That is a problem that a new Kickstarter campaign promises to bring an end to — courtesy of a “hybrid toothbrush” which promises the power and performance of an electric toothbrush, without any need for batteries or electricity.

Claiming to be the first brush of its kind, the Be. toothbrush operates on a principle not entirely unlike a watch movement mechanism, reappropriated to deliver a higher torque in a shorter time span. Using a series of power springs, dampers, gear boxes, and other components, its makers boast that it can give you an electric toothbrush-level clean in exchange for you giving it a few brief twists before you use it — much like winding a watch.

“There are 1,440 minutes in a day, and the average person uses four of the minutes a day to brush their teeth,” Patrick Triato, CEO of manufacturer Goodwell Company, told Digital Trends. “That means that for 99.73 percent of every day, your toothbrush is just sitting there, and if it’s an electric toothbrush it’s either trickle charging or slowly draining a disposable battery. We believe that some things just don’t need batteries, especially things that go unused for 99.73 percent of the time. The Be. brush is pioneering a whole new category of toothbrush that does not use batteries, cables, chargers or electricity, yet gives you the diamond clean of a powered toothbrush. Why is this exciting? From situations like disaster relief to military use to your weekend backpack trip, having a brush that doesn’t need the grid to give you a better clean is something we believe is going to change the landscape.”

Provided it works as well as its creator suggests, this could be a “must-have” product. If you want to get hold of a Be. toothbrush of your own, you can pre-order one on Kickstarter, where prices start at $49, complete with replacement heads, travel case, and more. Shipping is set to take place in December 2018.

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Having seconds thoughts? Here’s how to recall an email in Outlook

We all know how it feels to click “Send” on an email, only to realize you’ve included an embarrassing mistake in it. Or even worse, you accidentally hit “Reply All” and sent your embarrassing mistake to the entire office. Before you start cringing at the thought of what you’ve done, we have some good news for you! A lot of email clients give people the ability to recall emails after they’ve been sent.

In this guide, we’ll teach you exactly how to recall an email in Outlook, Microsoft’s popular email client. So if you use Outlook to manage your email, check out the step-by-step process below for an easy way to pull those emails back from the brink.

Steps to recall Outlook emails

Step 1: Open your Sent Items folder, and look for the email you want to recall — it should be at the top of the list. Double-click to fully open it.

Step 2: Check the top of the window and make sure that you are in the Message tab. Then look for the dropdown menu that says Actions. It should be next to the Rules and Move email options in your taskbar.

Step 3: Click Actions followed by Recall This Message.

Note: You need an Exchange account for this option to be available. Also note that certain administrators may block this option, depending on your organization.

Step 4: You should now see the recall window that allows you to choose between simply deleting the unread copies of the message, or replacing the copy with a new message that contains proper information. You also get an option to receive a report on whether the recall succeeds or fails, on a recipient-by-recipient basis. Make the appropriate selections based on your situation, and then select “OK”.

If you deleted the message, congratulations — you just saved that embarrassing email from being read. If you want to replace it, continue to Step 5.

Step 5: If you create a replacement message, Outlook will take you to a new compose message screen. Just select “Send” whenever you are ready to start the recall process.

Note: If you send a recall message, it doesn’t exactly make your old email disappear. We’ll talk a little more about this is the section below, but in order to have the original message disappear, the recipient may have to open the recall message first. This is why it may be a good idea to put “URGENT” or something similar in the title of your recall message to make sure it gets opened before the other email.

Why email recall doesn’t always work

Starting the recall process doesn’t mean that it will work out the way you intended. With today’s internet speeds (unless you live in a dead zone) that mistaken email is probably already waiting in someone’s inbox, which creates a number of issues. Here are the factors that can nullify your recall — or at least make it more complicated.

• Opening messages: Basically, if a recipient opens your email, you can’t recall it. The recipient can still get the recall message and note that you really wanted to delete the first email, but it will stay in their Outlook system anyway. When that email is opened, all bets are off. That’s one reason why it’s important to act quickly.

• Redirects to other folders: If your first message activated a filter and was rerouted to a folder that isn’t the inbox, then your recall will fail. Bottom line, the recall option can only affect emails that stay around in the inbox. If the first message is waiting elsewhere, it won’t go away.

• Public folders: Public folders can make things complicated because if anyone reads your first email, the recall will fail. It doesn’t matter which recipient or login account tags the email as read, it’s still too late.

• Additional email apps: The recall function is designed to work with Outlook. If you are sending to someone who uses Gmail, for example, you can’t expect the recall option to work.

• Mobile apps: If you are using Exchange ActiveSync settings for Outlook on mobile devices, then the recall option may not work either. This seems like an oversight to us, and one that Microsoft may eventually address, but for now trying to recall on mobile devices is filled with uncertainty. Recalling is primarily a desktop solution.

We know it seems like there are a lot of pitfalls to this handy little feature. The solution to these potential snafus? If your recalls just aren’t working, we’ve got two ideas for you to improve the scenario:

Solution 1: Write an apology. Other than making sure to double-check your emails before you send them, this is the simplest solution to the problem. If you mistakenly sent an email to the wrong person/people and it wasn’t too egregious, it’s often better to save your time and tack on a quick “oops” apology note. In most cases, this works for most people and you can stop worrying about it.

Solution 2: Delay your emails. If you have a case of email butterfingers or are always busy replying and forwarding more sensitive types of information, you may want to consider delaying your emails. You can do this for all emails by going to “File,” selecting “Manage Rules and Alerts,” and choosing “New Rule.” Start from a “Blank Rule,” and skip conditions so that all emails are covered. Then in Step 1, select “Defer delivery by a number of minutes.” If you delay it by a couple of minutes, you can recall messages far more effectively when mistakes are made.

If this whole process has soured you on the Outlook email client, you could always use a disposable address. If you’d rather keep things local though, these are the best alternative email programs.

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It rains sunscreen on this ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet

Anyone who can conjure up a way to collect resources from Kepler-13Ab in the far future could become a sunscreen magnate. On the heavenly body, one of the hottest Jupiter-sized exoplanets the mission has ever discovered, titanium oxide falls from the skies. The planet is so close to its host star that, like our moon, one side permanently faces Kepler-13A while the other is permanently in darkness. This titanium oxide “snowfall” takes place on the dark side, because winds tend to carry it to colder areas.

On the dark side, the mineral that’s closely related to the active ingredient in physical sunscreens condenses into crystalline flakes and forms clouds. Those clouds don’t stay clouds for long, though: since Kepler-13Ab’s gravity is six times more intense than Jupiter’s, it’s strong enough to pull the mineral out of the upper atmosphere.

The team led by Thomas Beatty from Pennsylvania State University chose to study Kepler-13Ab, since its 5,000-degree-Fahrenheit daytime temps make it easier to observe than colder hot Jupiters. They used Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 to get a closer look at Kepler-13Ab’s atmosphere in near-infrared and found that it’s colder in the planet’s regions with higher altitudes. That’s pretty unusual, as it’s typically hotter in the higher regions of hot Jupiters. Titanium oxide lurks in their atmospheres in gaseous form, you see, absorbing light and radiating it as heat.

The colder temps provided the team the clue they needed to confirm that it rains sunscreen in extremely hot massive planets with incredibly strong surface gravity. Now, the scientists believe that this kind of precipitation actually occurs in most hot Jupiters — most just don’t have gravity that can compare to Kepler-13Ab’s, so their “sunscreen snow” doesn’t fall far enough and quickly turns back into gas.

[Image credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)]

Source: NASA

Twitter offered Russian media outlet 15 percent of its election ads

Twitter may have just given the boot to ads from Russia-backed media outlets, but it wasn’t quite so discerning in 2016. BuzzFeed News has obtained email showing that Twitter offered Russia Today up to 15 percent of its US election ad volume in June of last year. This wouldn’t have been nearly as large as Fox’s ad buy (32 percent) or CNN’s (56 percent), but there’s a real chance you would have noticed… had it gone through. While it’s not clear whether the reach or the $3 million price tag influenced the decision, RT turned the offer down.

Twitter didn’t challenge the legitimacy of the email, but said it doesn’t have any comment on private chats with “any advertiser, even a former advertiser.”

It’s important to note that word of the Democratic National Committee hack had only recently surfaced at the time Twitter was making its offer. And it wasn’t alone in unintentionally aiding a Russian propaganda effort. Just this week, word emerged that Facebook gave advertisers electoral demographics that made it easier for Russia to exploit social divisions. The Twitter scoop ultimately illustrates how internet giants weren’t fully aware of what could happen by courting key Russian advertisers.

Source: BuzzFeed News

Catch up on Telltale’s ‘The Walking Dead’ in a $50 console bundle

Telltale Games’ much-lauded graphic adventure series The Walking Dead is coming to a close next year with its final season dropping sometime in Q2 2018. But to help console players catch up, the studio is releasing a $50 bundle on December 5th for PS4 and Xbox One that collects all the content released thus far.

The Walking Dead: A Telltale Series Collection will include the game’s first three seasons, plus the 400 Days anthology and the Michonne miniseries. The visuals will be getting a facelift, too, sprucing up graphics for a series that started back in April 2012. The collection will be available for physical release and digital download.

Here’s a first look at the enhanced visuals in #TheWalkingDead Collection for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Prepare for the end on December 5! pic.twitter.com/C1opZykqzZ

— Telltale Games (@telltalegames) November 1, 2017

Via: Polygon, Gamasutra

Source: Telltale Games

Google will no longer offer its flight price data to other sites

Google is getting serious about its role as a travel service. Come April 10, 2018 the search giant will shut down access to its QPX Express API that’s used by the likes of Kayak and Orbitz for airfare data, as spotted by Hacker News. This could seriously affect those sites’ customers. Travel listings are one thing, but if you’ve stored a ton of reward points with one and it isn’t able to fetch flight times and prices for your a trip next summer, that could cause some headaches.

As The Verge and TechCrunch note, there are data alternatives for travel websites including Fareportal and Skypicker. TechCrunch reports that Google is also closing down ITA’s flight-search app as of next month. Mountain View recently launched its Trips app as a way to gather all your travel data from Gmail and present it in a mobile-friendly way, so yeah, you could say this isn’t a passing interest for the company. Why? Well, mining travel data will give it another avenue for pushing ads your way.

At the same time, it’ll push people toward using Google’s own flight searches and tracking; it’s a move that’s good for Google and basically no one else. Five years ago, Google bought ITA Software, the company behind an airfare search system known as QPX, which is used by Bing Travel and CheapTickets, and airlines including American and United. At the time the Department of Justice approved the acquisition under the condition that Google would keep the API public for five years. That five years is now over.

Via: Hacker News, TechCrunch

Source: Google

iPhone X Predicted to ‘Absorb’ Up to $30B in Holiday Spending at Expense of Other Retailers

High demand for the iPhone X will drive an upgrade “supercycle” this holiday season that could see shoppers spending the bulk of their holiday cash at Apple Stores, according to a note from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty (via Business Insider).

Given the high price of the iPhone X, which starts at $999, the iPhone X could “absorb” $30 billion of discretionary spending during the holidays, impacting other retailers. Huberty believes customers will be drawn to all of the new features in the iPhone X, and will reduce spending in other categories in order to afford the device.

“Apparel is a wallet share donor to other categories, with cell phones/technology and services being two of them. We see this upgrade supercycle coupled with the very high $999 iPhone X average selling price as a significant headwind to Specialty Retailers and Department stores in the fourth quarter.”

After spending upwards of a thousand dollars on a phone, Huberty believes customers will be left thinking things like “‘I just bought a $1,000 phone last month, I don’t really need another pair of jeans.’”

Combined, Huberty believes iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus could take approximately $52.6 billion of spending away from other categories this holiday season. Given the limited supply of the iPhone X, other retailers could be impacted by sales of the device well into 2018 as Apple works to reach supply/demand balance.

Apple has not provided insight into iPhone X sales thus far, but the company has said demand for the new device, which sold out in just a few minutes after pre-orders went live, is “off the charts.”

Related Roundup: iPhone XBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Apple Voices Support for Lawsuit Challenging Trump’s Decision to End DACA

Apple this afternoon joined several other tech companies to support a lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Xavier Bercerra aiming to block the withdrawal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which United States President Donald Trump said would be phased out over the course of the next six months.

Apple employs more than 250 DACA holders or “Dreamers” across 28 states, Apple VP of People Deidre O’Brien said in the company’s filing, shared by Axios.

These talented and entrepreneurial people fill important and varied roles across the company, including in operations, research and development, administration, sales and marketing, and retail. Apple and its customers have benefitted greatly from their intelligence, ambition, creativity, resilience, and hard work. These employees are important contributors to Apple’s unique culture. That unique culture enables employees throughout Apple to do the best work of their lives and excel at creating the most innovative products and providing the very best customer service.

Along with Apple, many other tech companies filed briefs in support of the legal challenge to prevent the end of DACA, including Microsoft, Google, IBM, Twitter, Salesforce, Dropbox, eBay, HP, LinkedIn, Reddit, PayPal, and more.

Following Trump’s decision to phase out DACA, Cook sent an email to Apple employees pledging the company’s support. Cook promised Apple would work with members of Congress to advocate for a legislative solution that will continue to protect the children of immigrants, and he said Apple is working with impacted Apple employees to provide support, including access to immigration experts.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Discuss this article in our forums

Razer Phone hands-on: a phone for gamers, and everyone

What happens when a gaming computer company buys a smartphone company? They make a gaming phone, right? Not quite! Razer bought Nextbit earlier this year, and today the company has released its first smartphone. It’s not a gaming phone, but it is a phone made for gamers. We went hands-on with the Razer Phone and here’s what it was like.

What’s the difference between a gaming phone and a phone made for gamers? According to Razer, it’s designed for anyone who wants a pure Android experience with the latest hardware, but it’s also got several tweaks that make it the best smartphone for hardcore gamers.

At an exclusive briefing in San Francisco, we spent a little time with the Razer Phone. The video above is brought to you by Joshua Vergara while I, Nirave Gondhia, have put my initial impressions together below.

We’ll kick things off with the design, where the Razer Phone takes cues from the Nextbit Robin, but adds its own flair. The Robin’s signature circular motif is present in the buttons on the side, and the front of the phone is reminiscent of the Robin as well. To add their own flair, Razer opted for a black finish on the rear, as well as green icons, giving the phone a look in keeping with other Razer products. There’s also an exclusive launch colorway comprising a black finish with a green Razer logo, that’s available for a limited time only.

The rest of the design is rather straightforward. The phone’s 16:9 display is flanked by dual front-facing stereo speakers, each with their own dedicated amplifier. These speakers use the same grille design found in Razer laptops and are designed to provide consistency and coherency between the company’s product ranges.

Like Razer’s laptops, the Razer Phone uses the best technology to offer high performance. The Razer Phone specs include a 5.7-inch QHD IPS Sharp IGZO display which is the same type of IPS LED found in the company’s laptop range.

The display is where the magic of the Razer Phone starts to happen. It incorporates two key pieces of technology from Razer’s computer range. The first is the key reason behind using the IGZO display: the Razer Phone is the first smartphone to offer a variable refresh rate of up to 120 Hz.

> 120Hz adaptive displays: are they the future or just a gimmick?

The second is Ultra Motion, which is the mobile version of NVIDIA’s Gsync feature for desktop computers. This allows the GPU to synchronize with the refresh rate and instruct the display when to render a new frame. This should make the phone great for gaming and it also means the Razer Phone offers the silkiest scrolling we’ve seen on an Android phone.

The phone also comes with a handy counter on the screen to display the current refresh rate. Its position is a little weird, but it can be disabled if needed (it might have been better in the status bar). During our brief time with it, we saw the refresh rate range from 10 Hz on the home screen all the way to 121 Hz while gaming and the result was always a fantastic experience.

120 Hz is a new feature for smartphone displays, and as a result, not all games will support the higher refresh rate. Game developers have the option to cap the refresh rate to support all displays, and for these games, the Razer Phone will only run them at their max refresh rate. The company is working with select developers to optimize popular games such as Shadowgun, Arena of Valor and Final Fantasy XV Mobile Edition to use the full 120 Hz refresh rate available on the display.

A great display experience is often let down by a sub-par audio experience, but the Razer Phone takes a different approach. The phone comes equipped with Dolby Atmos for Mobile and I think the speakers are incredible. At higher volumes, there is no distortion and the overall audio experience is simply fantastic. Granted this is just a first impression, but I left wanting this on all smartphones.

Like other 2017 flagships, the Razer Phone doesn’t come with a headphone jack, but a USB-C audio adapter that includes a THX-certified 24-bit DAC is included in the box. For those who would rather not use an adapter, Razer isn’t including headphones in the box, but will offer standalone Hammerhead USB-C headphones with a 24-bit DAC that are available for purchase separately at a cost of $79.99.

The Razer Phone is powered by a flagship specs list that includes a Snapdragon 835 processor, Adreno 540 GPU, 64 GB of expandable storage (with adoptive storage for the microSD card) and 8 GB of RAM. The Razer Phone makes all 8 GB usable by the user, unlike other devices, which tend to reserve a percentage of RAM for system processes. The processor can also be overclocked above the out-of-the-box speed, for those who want to really push this phone to its limits.

The whole package is powered by a monster 4,000 mAh battery, coupled with software optimization, which promises to keep you powered for days. The optimizations include clocking down the frame rate on the home screen depending on your usage. While we weren’t able to test the battery life, the capacity is certainly on the higher side of flagship devices and we’d expect this to last for much longer than others, especially when gaming.

There’s also an internal heat pipe that helps to keep the thermal temperature lower when gaming and Razer claims this phone has the best thermals at high performance of any Snapdragon 835-powered smartphone. It’s a bold claim and while we haven’t been able to test it, it’s definitely one we’ll be addressing in our full review. The phone comes with a large 24-watt charger, it the first smartphone to support Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0+.

Like most modern flagships, the Razer Phone comes with dual 12 MP rear cameras; one wide and one telephoto. The wide-angle lens comes with f/1.75 aperture while the telephoto lens offers f/2.6 aperture. Both lenses come with Phase Detection Autofocus and there’s also a dual-tone LED flash. We weren’t really able to test the camera but we’ll bring you a full look in our upcoming review.

On the software front, the Razer Phone runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with a planned upgrade to Oreo set to land in spring 2018. Considering the past history of updates from Nextbit, it’s not surprising that the Razer Phone isn’t running the latest Android OS, but we’re hoping the update won’t be too far behind.

That said, the phone runs as close to stock Android as possible with a few customizations to make the most of the unique hardware. These include the ability to set a frame rate cap of 60, 90 or 120 Hz as well as change the display resolution to 720p, 1080p or the full QHD. There’s also a Game Booster app that lets you customize the frame rate, resolution and processor clock speed on a per-app basis so you can fully tweak the experience for each of your favorite apps without making global changes that affect the overall experience.

The biggest software change is a partnership with popular launcher Nova. The Razer Phone comes with the premium version of Nova Launcher preloaded free of charge, and Razer has tweaked the experience for its phone. This version of Nova Launcher comes with Google Assistant and the Google Now home page built in.

Razer also plans to launch a new theme store that brings more customization than traditional themes. Once launched, the new themes will allow designers to customize the dialer, icons, quick settings, wallpaper, ringtones, notification settings, calculator, clock, icon packs and all the default preloaded non-Google apps. The theme store can also apply themes to Nova launcher.

I’m not much of a gamer, but the Razer Phone has definitely caught my attention. From my limited experience, I’ve seen how mobile gaming can often stutter and provide a somewhat jarring experience.The Razer Phone seems to make this a thing of the past. Indeed, gaming with the Razer Phone reminds me of the smooth experience offered by my console of choice (the Xbox One S).

The variable refresh rate ensures a super smooth experience and this is a feature I’d love to see on every Android smartphone.

Razer says this is a phone made for gamers— not a gaming phone— and it shows. The company also says this could be the ultimate phone for landscape use, which often involves media, and given the spec list and overall experience, I’d have to agree. The display is sharp. The audio is incredible. That 4,000 mAh battery with USB-C Power Delivery will likely go a long way to ensuring you’ve always got a charge. More than anything, the variable refresh rate ensures a super smooth experience with no dropped frames. This is a feature I’d love to see on every Android smartphone.

Of course, an hour with a smartphone isn’t enough to truly understand its unique quirks but this brief time with the Razer Phone has left me wanting more— a lot more, in fact. In a year when a lot of smartphones have become homogenous, the Razer Phone stands out for sticking to its guns and absolutely nailing the areas that Razer set out to conquer. The result is arguably one of the best newcomers to the Android smartphone space in a long time.

In a year when a lot of smartphones have become homogenous, the Razer Phone stands out for sticking to its guns. The result is arguably one of the best newcomers to the Android smartphone space in a long time!

Stay tuned for a full review of the Razer Phone in the coming weeks but in the meantime, what did you think of the Razer Phone? Do you plan to buy one? Is a variable refresh rate, excellent audio, flagship internals and large battery enough to convince you to buy this phone? Are you a Razer laptop user? If so, would you buy this phone for gaming? Let us know your views in the comments below!