General Gaming Article

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• Microsoft Critical of Samsung Galaxy S4's Price Compared to Nokia's Lumia 521
• Nvidia Refreshes Mobile Graphics with GeForce GTX 700M Family
• Newegg Daily Deals: AZIO Levetron Mech5 Mechanical Keyboard, Sapphire Radeon HD 6970, and More!
• Pixel Overload: Asus Announces 31.5-inch 4K Ultra HD (3,840 x 2,160) Monitor

Microsoft Critical of Samsung Galaxy S4's Price Compared to Nokia's Lumia 521 Posted: 31 May 2013 10:18 AM PDT Is the Galaxy S4 worth the pricing premium? Thinking about picking up Samsung's Galaxy S4 smartphone? Before you do, Microsoft wants you to consider the price. Off contract, a Galaxy S4 will set you back "a cool $750," compared to Nokia's Lumia 521, a Windows Phone 8 device that costs $150 off-contract. Oh yes, Microsoft went there, and then shot a YouTube video showing all the things you could purchase at a Microsoft Store with the money you saved. To be fair, Microsoft wasn't disparaging of the Galaxy S4's hardware. Ben Rudolph, the Microsoft Evangelist who penned the post, pointed out that the Galaxy S4 has a decent camera and display, and thousands of apps to choose from. It's just that the off-contract price is high. "The new Nokia Lumia 521 also has a good camera, a good display, thousands of apps, and the ability to keep you connected to the weather, sports, news, and all of the people you care about (and because it's a Windows Phone, it does so arguably better than Android). And you can get it for $150 off-contract," Rudolph stated. It's an interesting comparison on a number of levels, the first of which is that the two handsets he compares aren't really in the same league. The Galaxy S4 is Samsung's flagship Android device, whereas Nokia's Lumia 521 is more of an entry-level smartphone, as Rudolph himself attests in a separate blog post. And then there's the idea of buying a phone off-contract rather than inking a 2-year service agreement and getting a discount on the hardware. Regardless of all that, Rudolph figured out that the price difference between the two devices is enough to purchase a 16GB Kingston microSD card, 3-month Xbox Music pass, Nokia Purity earbuds by Monster, and Asus VivoBook X202E touchscreen laptop, and you'd still have $4 to spare. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Nvidia Refreshes Mobile Graphics with GeForce GTX 700M Family Posted: 31 May 2013 09:19 AM PDT For gaming on the go. Mobile gamers drooling over the launch of fast desktop parts like the GeForce GTX 780 and GTX 770 need not worry that they won't have anything new to play with in the notebook arena. Following the launch of the aforementioned desktop parts, team green this week introduced its GeForce GTX 700M series of laptop GPUs. There are four new mobile parts in all, each one based on Nvidia's Kepler architecture. Lording over the bunch is the GeForce GTX 780M, which Nvidia claims is the world's fastest notebook GPU. Under that sits the GTX 770M providing up to a 55 percent boost in performance compared to the GTX 670M. Second to last is the GTX 765M, a mobile part that you'll find in the recently announced 14-inch Razer Blade laptop that's thinner than a standing dime. And finally there's the GTX 760M, a mobile GPU Nvidia says is up to 30 percent faster than the GTX 660M it replaces. "Virtually all of the new gaming notebooks are built around GeForce GTX 700M GPUs," said Rene Haas, vice president and general manager of computing products at Nvidia. "The GPU is the heart of any gaming PC, and all the top gaming OEMs unanimously chose the GeForce GTX 700M series this refresh cycle. GeForce GTX means gaming, more now than ever before." Nvidia's GeForce GTX 700M Series includes the company's Optimus technology for longer battery life, as well as support for the GeForce Experience software and GPU Boost 2.0. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: AZIO Levetron Mech5 Mechanical Keyboard, Sapphire Radeon HD 6970, and More! Posted: 31 May 2013 08:55 AM PDT Top Deal: Mechanical key switches. Dedicated macro keys. Modular design. Heck, there's even macro D-Pad on today's top deal, which is for a AZIO Levetron Mech5 KB577U Gaming Mechanical Keyboard w/ Cherry Black MX Switches for $70 with free shipping (normally $110 - use coupon code: [EMCXRTX59]). Cherry MX Black Switches are a favorite among gamers for their smooth click action, which works well in scenarios like first person shooters where double- and rapid-clicking are commonplace. Other Deals: Sapphire Radeon HD 6970 2GB Video Card for $200 with free shipping (normally $230) Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory (with Red/Green Light) for $30 with free shipping (normally $50 - use coupon code: [EMCXRTX35]) Cooler Master Extreme 2 525W Power Supply for $40 with free shipping (normally $55 - use coupon code: [EMCXRTX38]; additional $15 mail-in rebate) ASRock Z77 Pro4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI ATX Intel Motherboard for $95 with free shipping (normally $110 - use coupon code: [EMCXRTX242])

Pixel Overload: Asus Announces 31.5-inch 4K Ultra HD (3,840 x 2,160) Monitor Posted: 31 May 2013 08:35 AM PDT Finally, another large screen monitor for PCs! There are only a handful of 30-inch PC monitors to choose from, compared to, say, 24-inch panels, of which you could spend an entire weekend just researching all the different options. For that reason, we can't help but get a little excited when a display maker announces a new large screen monitor, only Asus didn't stop at 30 inches. The new PQ321 Asus unveiled is actually 31.5 inches, slightly larger than the competition. That additional real estate is put to use displaying a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution, otherwise known as 4K Ultra HD. That's four times the resolution of a Full HD 1080p display, though the pixels per inch count (140ppi) isn't anything to get overly excited about, not when mobile devices are boasting so-called Retina-class displays (to borrow a term from Apple). In any event, the PQ321 supports 10-bit RGB "deep color" and features a wide 176-degree viewing angle on both vertical and horizontal planes. It uses Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) rather than traditional amorphous silicon for the active layer of its LCD panel because it supports smaller transistors, thus making it possible to cram all those pixels into a 31.5-inch panel, Asus says. Other features include an 8ms gray-to-gray response time, Picture-by-Picture support, built-in 2W stereo speakers, and dual HDMI inputs. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

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