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SteelSeries CES: APEX M800 QS1 Mechanical Switch and Sentry Eye Tracker
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SteelSeries CES: APEX M800 QS1 Mechanical Switch and Sentry Eye Tracker

SteelSeries is best known for their keyboards, with MSI using SteelSeries designed keyboards in their gaming laptops for quite a few years now. They have a variety of other peripherals as well, including mice, surfaces, headsets, and various gaming controllers. Focusing on just keyboards for a moment, they have two product lines, the G-LINE features mechanical Cherry MX switches while the APEX line is for users that prefer membrane switches. (Yes, apparently such people do exist.) Here’s where things get interesting.

At CES, SteelSeries was showing off a new mechanical switch that they worked with Kailh to design. They’re calling this the Linear QS1 switch, and it’s completely different from existing mechanical switches as far as I can tell. It features 3mm travel with a 1.5mm actuation point, 45cN force, and it’s rated for 60 million actuations. That’s nothing particularly new for mechanical switches, but what sets the QS1 apart from other switches is the feel. Basically, SteelSeries set out to create a new switch that would feel more like a membrane switch, but it would keep the longevity and durability properties of a mechanical switch. That switch is the Linear QS1, and it will be showing up in the new APEX M800 keyboard.

The switch also features full RGB LED lighting and the M800 will have per-key programmable lighting and effects available via software. Unlike some other companies (e.g. Monoprice and Rosewill), SteelSeries already has a lot of experience with creating software for controlling keyboard backlighting, macros, etc. so this is a natural fit for them. The M800 has macro support as well as anti-ghosting with 256-key rollover. (Why 256 when there are only 110 or so keys? Probably because they used eight bits for monitoring the rollover state as there was no benefit to only using seven bits.)

As far as the performance of the QS1 switch, SteelSeries says it’s “built for speed” and will target gamers. I’m probably not skilled enough at any games these days to notice the difference, but typing on the keyboard felt good. Keyboards are inherently highly subjective, so it’s impossible to declare one type of switch as being universally superior, which means the QS1 is really just one more option – albeit a SteelSeries exclusive. Pricing is currently targeting $199 MSRP, with availability sometime in the coming months.

The other product SteelSeries was demonstrating is their Sentry Eye Tracker that mounts to the bottom of your display. With their software the Sentry allows is the creation of an overlay in game streaming that shows where the user is looking on the screen. They had some recorded videos showing some top professional gamers using Sentry, and it was interesting to see exactly where on the screen they were looking during a match. SteelSeries also mentioned that the Sentry tracks statistics for supported games – e.g. how much time the user spent looking at the mini-map in DOTA2 or StarCraft II – and that some of the pro-gamers have used that to improve how they play, working to train themselves to not waste time looking at their cool-down bar but instead getting a better sense for how long it takes for an ability to recharge.

Anyway, it’s not something I would use, but when watching a game stream it does actually create a more interesting feed (assuming it’s used properly). The Sentry Eye Tracker is available already with an MSRP of $199, so it doesn’t come cheap, but it could be used in other ways as well – e.g. controlling the mouse cursor with your eyes (which is really where the technology came from in the first place).

SteelSeries CES: APEX M800 QS1 Mechanical Switch and Sentry Eye Tracker
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SteelSeries CES: APEX M800 QS1 Mechanical Switch and Sentry Eye Tracker

SteelSeries is best known for their keyboards, with MSI using SteelSeries designed keyboards in their gaming laptops for quite a few years now. They have a variety of other peripherals as well, including mice, surfaces, headsets, and various gaming controllers. Focusing on just keyboards for a moment, they have two product lines, the G-LINE features mechanical Cherry MX switches while the APEX line is for users that prefer membrane switches. (Yes, apparently such people do exist.) Here’s where things get interesting.

At CES, SteelSeries was showing off a new mechanical switch that they worked with Kailh to design. They’re calling this the Linear QS1 switch, and it’s completely different from existing mechanical switches as far as I can tell. It features 3mm travel with a 1.5mm actuation point, 45cN force, and it’s rated for 60 million actuations. That’s nothing particularly new for mechanical switches, but what sets the QS1 apart from other switches is the feel. Basically, SteelSeries set out to create a new switch that would feel more like a membrane switch, but it would keep the longevity and durability properties of a mechanical switch. That switch is the Linear QS1, and it will be showing up in the new APEX M800 keyboard.

The switch also features full RGB LED lighting and the M800 will have per-key programmable lighting and effects available via software. Unlike some other companies (e.g. Monoprice and Rosewill), SteelSeries already has a lot of experience with creating software for controlling keyboard backlighting, macros, etc. so this is a natural fit for them. The M800 has macro support as well as anti-ghosting with 256-key rollover. (Why 256 when there are only 110 or so keys? Probably because they used eight bits for monitoring the rollover state as there was no benefit to only using seven bits.)

As far as the performance of the QS1 switch, SteelSeries says it’s “built for speed” and will target gamers. I’m probably not skilled enough at any games these days to notice the difference, but typing on the keyboard felt good. Keyboards are inherently highly subjective, so it’s impossible to declare one type of switch as being universally superior, which means the QS1 is really just one more option – albeit a SteelSeries exclusive. Pricing is currently targeting $199 MSRP, with availability sometime in the coming months.

The other product SteelSeries was demonstrating is their Sentry Eye Tracker that mounts to the bottom of your display. With their software the Sentry allows is the creation of an overlay in game streaming that shows where the user is looking on the screen. They had some recorded videos showing some top professional gamers using Sentry, and it was interesting to see exactly where on the screen they were looking during a match. SteelSeries also mentioned that the Sentry tracks statistics for supported games – e.g. how much time the user spent looking at the mini-map in DOTA2 or StarCraft II – and that some of the pro-gamers have used that to improve how they play, working to train themselves to not waste time looking at their cool-down bar but instead getting a better sense for how long it takes for an ability to recharge.

Anyway, it’s not something I would use, but when watching a game stream it does actually create a more interesting feed (assuming it’s used properly). The Sentry Eye Tracker is available already with an MSRP of $199, so it doesn’t come cheap, but it could be used in other ways as well – e.g. controlling the mouse cursor with your eyes (which is really where the technology came from in the first place).

Microsoft Launches Two Additional Low Cost Lumia Smartphones
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Microsoft Launches Two Additional Low Cost Lumia Smartphones

The Lumia brand has a couple of new additions to compliment the already dizzying array of devices launched in the last year. Those waiting for a new flagship to replace the Lumia 930 will have to wait a bit longer though, as this time it is yet another two low cost devices. The feature set of which device has what is getting fairly complicated, and Microsoft does not seem to have a steady progression of features from lower numbered phones to the higher ones anymore, so we will go through these two new devices and see where they fit in the Lumia stack.

Lumia 435

The first device is the 4” Lumia 435. This is the first Lumia device with a dual-core processor since the Snapdragon S4 powered devices in 2012/2013. In this case, it is the Snapdragon 200 with dual Cortex A7 processors at 1.2 GHz. The goal of this new device seems to be to hit an even lower price point than the 5xx series of phones, so the even lower powered SoC is not a surprise. Graphics are likely the same as the 5xx series with Adreno 302 to drive the 800×480 display. The 435 does come with 1 GB of memory now, so it appears that at least for Lumia phones, 512 MB options will no longer be released which is a good thing. Storage is 8 GB of NAND, plus microSD expansion up to an additional 128 GB. The camera is especially poor on this phone though, with just a 2 MP fixed focus 1/5 inch sensor with f/2.7 aperture. It does come with a front facing camera, although it is a mere 0.3 MP VGA sensor. Although the battery is small at 1560 mAh, it does have 3.8 V chemistry and a claimed battery life of 9.4 hours of Wi-Fi browsing. The 435 comes in green, orange, white, or black with a MSRP of 69 euros. Availability will be in February in “select” countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, India, the Middle East, and Africa.

  Nokia Lumia 435
SoC MSM8210 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex A7 Snapdragon 200
RAM/NAND 1 GB LPDDR2, 8 GB NAND + microSD
Display 4.0” 800×480 LCD
Network GSM/WCDMA up to 42.2 Mbps
Dimensions 118.1 x 64.7 x 11.7 (mm)
Weight 134.1 grams
Camera 2MP rear camera, fixed focus, 1/5″ CMOS size, F/2.7 No Flash, VGA FFC
Battery 1560 mAh 3.8 V (5.928 Whr)
OS Windows Phone 8.1 with Denim Firmware
Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio
Location Technologies Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS
SIM Size MicroSIM (Dual SIM Optional)

 

Lumia 532

The next variant is the Lumia 532, which also has a 4” display and the same resolution at 800×480. This is a spec bump over the original 530, with the same quad-core Snapdragon 200 (4xCortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz) but with 1 GB of memory and 8 GB of NAND with microSD expansion up to 128 GB. The original 530 came with just 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of NAND, both of which are fairly inadequate. The 532 comes with a 5.0 MP fixed focus 1/4 inch camera with f/2.4 aperture. The front facing camera is the same 0.3 MP unit as the 435 with VGA resolution video. The interesting thing on the 532 though is the inclusion of the Glance screen, which is easily my favorite feature on Lumia phones, and has been mostly absent from this year’s lineup with just the Lumia 830 sporting glance for any of the phones released in the last year. This makes it an easy win over the Lumia 530. Colors are once again, orange, green, white, and black, and prices start at 79 euros MSRP and similar availability to the 435.

  Nokia Lumia 532
SoC MSM8212 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex A7 Snapdragon 200
RAM/NAND 1 GB LPDDR2, 8 GB NAND + microSD
Display 4.0” 800×480 LCD with Glance Screen
Network GSM/WCDMA up to 42.2 Mbps
Dimensions 118.9 x 65.5 x 11.6 (mm)
Weight 136.3 grams
Camera 5MP rear camera, fixed focus, 1/4″ CMOS size, F/2.4 No Flash, VGA FFC
Battery 1560 mAh 3.8 V (5.928 Whr)
OS Windows Phone 8.1 with Denim Firmware
Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio
Location Technologies Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS, A-GLONASS
SIM Size MicroSIM (Dual SIM Optional)

While neither of these phones are especially exciting, Microsoft has clearly seen some traction at the low end of the market and they continue to create devices for each market price and segment they are competing in.

The biggest problem though is that they now have a huge number of devices offered, and unfortunately, a very strange feature list. It seems almost random at this point which phone will have which features, and there is no progression through the product range where lower models are a subset of features of their higher priced brethren. Take for example the Lumia 930, which is the current flagship, but has no Glance screen support, but the Lumia 830 and 532 do have Glance support. The Lumia 730/735 have a higher resolution front facing camera, as does the Lumia 535, but the Lumia 830 has a standard front facing camera. The Lumia 630 is missing things like 1 GB of RAM and an ambient light sensor that less expensive models do have.

While I appreciate that Microsoft is creating models for each market they are going after, they seem to be losing some sort of coherency to their naming standards and feature lists. To avoid customer confusion, this is something that is fairly important.

The Lumia brand is new to Microsoft, so we are not sure which of these models were in the Nokia pipeline and have been altered, so it may take a year or so to sort out the basic feature sets. But for now, it is getting a bit confusing.

For those waiting for a higher end Lumia to finally come out of Microsoft, perhaps we may have to wait for Mobile World Congress to get any ideas about that. Stay tuned!

Source: Windows Blog

Microsoft Launches Two Additional Low Cost Lumia Smartphones
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Microsoft Launches Two Additional Low Cost Lumia Smartphones

The Lumia brand has a couple of new additions to compliment the already dizzying array of devices launched in the last year. Those waiting for a new flagship to replace the Lumia 930 will have to wait a bit longer though, as this time it is yet another two low cost devices. The feature set of which device has what is getting fairly complicated, and Microsoft does not seem to have a steady progression of features from lower numbered phones to the higher ones anymore, so we will go through these two new devices and see where they fit in the Lumia stack.

Lumia 435

The first device is the 4” Lumia 435. This is the first Lumia device with a dual-core processor since the Snapdragon S4 powered devices in 2012/2013. In this case, it is the Snapdragon 200 with dual Cortex A7 processors at 1.2 GHz. The goal of this new device seems to be to hit an even lower price point than the 5xx series of phones, so the even lower powered SoC is not a surprise. Graphics are likely the same as the 5xx series with Adreno 302 to drive the 800×480 display. The 435 does come with 1 GB of memory now, so it appears that at least for Lumia phones, 512 MB options will no longer be released which is a good thing. Storage is 8 GB of NAND, plus microSD expansion up to an additional 128 GB. The camera is especially poor on this phone though, with just a 2 MP fixed focus 1/5 inch sensor with f/2.7 aperture. It does come with a front facing camera, although it is a mere 0.3 MP VGA sensor. Although the battery is small at 1560 mAh, it does have 3.8 V chemistry and a claimed battery life of 9.4 hours of Wi-Fi browsing. The 435 comes in green, orange, white, or black with a MSRP of 69 euros. Availability will be in February in “select” countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, India, the Middle East, and Africa.

  Nokia Lumia 435
SoC MSM8210 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex A7 Snapdragon 200
RAM/NAND 1 GB LPDDR2, 8 GB NAND + microSD
Display 4.0” 800×480 LCD
Network GSM/WCDMA up to 42.2 Mbps
Dimensions 118.1 x 64.7 x 11.7 (mm)
Weight 134.1 grams
Camera 2MP rear camera, fixed focus, 1/5″ CMOS size, F/2.7 No Flash, VGA FFC
Battery 1560 mAh 3.8 V (5.928 Whr)
OS Windows Phone 8.1 with Denim Firmware
Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio
Location Technologies Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS
SIM Size MicroSIM (Dual SIM Optional)

 

Lumia 532

The next variant is the Lumia 532, which also has a 4” display and the same resolution at 800×480. This is a spec bump over the original 530, with the same quad-core Snapdragon 200 (4xCortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz) but with 1 GB of memory and 8 GB of NAND with microSD expansion up to 128 GB. The original 530 came with just 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of NAND, both of which are fairly inadequate. The 532 comes with a 5.0 MP fixed focus 1/4 inch camera with f/2.4 aperture. The front facing camera is the same 0.3 MP unit as the 435 with VGA resolution video. The interesting thing on the 532 though is the inclusion of the Glance screen, which is easily my favorite feature on Lumia phones, and has been mostly absent from this year’s lineup with just the Lumia 830 sporting glance for any of the phones released in the last year. This makes it an easy win over the Lumia 530. Colors are once again, orange, green, white, and black, and prices start at 79 euros MSRP and similar availability to the 435.

  Nokia Lumia 532
SoC MSM8212 1.2 GHz quad-core Cortex A7 Snapdragon 200
RAM/NAND 1 GB LPDDR2, 8 GB NAND + microSD
Display 4.0” 800×480 LCD with Glance Screen
Network GSM/WCDMA up to 42.2 Mbps
Dimensions 118.9 x 65.5 x 11.6 (mm)
Weight 136.3 grams
Camera 5MP rear camera, fixed focus, 1/4″ CMOS size, F/2.4 No Flash, VGA FFC
Battery 1560 mAh 3.8 V (5.928 Whr)
OS Windows Phone 8.1 with Denim Firmware
Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio
Location Technologies Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS, A-GLONASS
SIM Size MicroSIM (Dual SIM Optional)

While neither of these phones are especially exciting, Microsoft has clearly seen some traction at the low end of the market and they continue to create devices for each market price and segment they are competing in.

The biggest problem though is that they now have a huge number of devices offered, and unfortunately, a very strange feature list. It seems almost random at this point which phone will have which features, and there is no progression through the product range where lower models are a subset of features of their higher priced brethren. Take for example the Lumia 930, which is the current flagship, but has no Glance screen support, but the Lumia 830 and 532 do have Glance support. The Lumia 730/735 have a higher resolution front facing camera, as does the Lumia 535, but the Lumia 830 has a standard front facing camera. The Lumia 630 is missing things like 1 GB of RAM and an ambient light sensor that less expensive models do have.

While I appreciate that Microsoft is creating models for each market they are going after, they seem to be losing some sort of coherency to their naming standards and feature lists. To avoid customer confusion, this is something that is fairly important.

The Lumia brand is new to Microsoft, so we are not sure which of these models were in the Nokia pipeline and have been altered, so it may take a year or so to sort out the basic feature sets. But for now, it is getting a bit confusing.

For those waiting for a higher end Lumia to finally come out of Microsoft, perhaps we may have to wait for Mobile World Congress to get any ideas about that. Stay tuned!

Source: Windows Blog

Monoprice at CES: 30-inch IPS with "Guaranteed" 120Hz and a Mechanical RGB Keyboard
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Monoprice at CES: 30-inch IPS with “Guaranteed” 120Hz and a Mechanical RGB Keyboard

Over the past year or two one of the hot subjects with displays among enthusiasts has been overclocking them to drive the panel at higher refresh rates. We’ve seen this mostly from the Korean 27″ QHD imports, and the amount you could overclock the panel was often quite variable. Monoprice has begun offering displays as well, which gives you better support options than importing something from overseas, and now they’re taking it a step further with a 30″ IPS display that they’re saying they’ll guarantee will run at 120Hz 2560×1600.

Now, just refreshing at 120Hz doesn’t solve all the issues you might encounter – e.g. image persistence between frames – but given these IPS panels are supposed to have a 6ms response time (which is more marketing than fact) driving them at up to 167Hz is possible. Even if there’s a bit of smearing between frames, I still think having a 120Hz display is a much better experience than the 60Hz we’ve had to accept for years now. It will also be interesting to see how well the display actually works with a variety of GPUs – I suspect some GPUs might struggle to send a clear signal but we’ll see. There’s no specific release date yet, but Monoprice says the display should be out in the next couple of months.

Monoprice had plenty of other items on display, but most of those (speakers, power banks, cables, etc.) aren’t something we cover much at AnandTech. However, they did have a mechanical keyboard with the new Kailh RGB switches, with programmable per-key backlighting. Or at least, that’s the end goal – I’m not sure the software support for programming the backlighting is there yet. Anyway, the effects that you can make with these per-key RGB LED keyboards are really cool initially, but I don’t know how practical they’ll be for everyday use. I suspect most users will just settle for a uniform color, but enthusiasts will enjoy the customization options. I saw several other keyboards with Kailh RGB LED switches at CES, most with software that’s nearly ready for release, so it will be interesting to see how pricing and features pan out.