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Review: ResMed OneSleepTest kit

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Price: ₹ 2,500; resmed.co.in

The quality of your sleep is quite an important factor when it comes to managing lifestyle diseases. Most of us suffer from various stages and types of sleep apnea. However, monitoring and analysing your sleep and respiratory pattern is a complex process that requires visiting a hospital. ResMed, a digital health and medical devices specialist, has now introduced a home sleep testing kit that helps you to analyse your sleep pattern and generate a comprehensive report, making it easier for your specialist to efficiently treat your condition.

The ResMed OneSleepTest (OST) kit includes a disposable NightOwl sensor, 10 finger wraps to attach the sensor to your finger, and a quick start guide. The tiny sensor unit is similar to the one on smartwatches, but once activated, it can be used only for three nights. The sensor records all the parameters that your smartwatch records, such as heart rate, SpO2, and total sleep time using Photoplethysmography (PPG) based technology. However, the service includes a detailed report that you receive over your registered email, with graphs showing SpO2 levels, Pulse Rate, Activity and PPG. The test is performed over three consecutive nights and the final report includes Apnea-Hypopnea Index, which shows events like Oxygen Desaturation that occurred during the monitoring period. To register the device and perform the tests, you need to use the NightOwl Companion app, which provides step-by-step instructions. Once the three nights of monitoring are over, you will get the report in 3 to 5 days on your registered email ID.

The ResMed OST kit is certainly a great tool to assess your sleeping pattern if you are suffering from sleep-related disorders. However, the test can only be performed for three nights, and there is no way you can repeat it a second time. With no chance of predicting the ideal sleep conditions during your test phase, we feel three nights is quite short a sample to assess one’s sleep and respiratory conditions. For example, if your sleep is disturbed for a day or two due to weather, mosquitoes, unusually loud neighbourhood parties, stress, or other factors, it could generate a suboptimal report, as we observed from the deviations in our test case report.

<strong>Rating</strong>

WE’RE IMPRESSED Detailed reports, simple process, value for money

WE’D IMPROVE Longer monitoring period, repeatability of tests to correct chances of errors

THE LAST WORD An uncomplicated way to measure and assess sleep apnea

Review: God of War Ragnarök

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An epic journey across the Nine Realms fueled with action, emotions and heartbreaks 
From Rs. 3,999; PS4, PS5

God of War Ragnarok

The 2018 God of War set the benchmark high, which meant any game following up has to match the greatness of the critically acclaimed game, if not surpass it. And after playing through the main story of the God of War Ragnarök for about 30 hours, we can say that the sequel lives up to the hype.

If the previous game centred around Kratos coming to terms as a single parent, God of Ragnarök centres around their evolved relationship of father and son and forging new bonds or amending old ones. 

God of War Ragnarok

Its a story that was already in motion when Kratos killed Baldur and Atreus learned his identity as Loki in a prophecy. But since these incidents happened in the previous game, Santa Monica Studio offers a brief refresher found in the game’s main menu. Thoughtful, but the recap felt short and hurried, which may be difficult for the new players to grasp due to the different characters and storyline. We would recommend playing the previous game first or watching the videos online. Anyway, here we are, in Ragnarök, where Kratos and Atreus embark on a journey traversing through the Nine Realms with the hope to change the outcome of the prophesied war. 

God of War Ragnarok

But as they say, it’s the journey that counts and it’s true here. The different realms are beautifully designed and feature breathtaking vistas along with extreme attention to detail showing the uniqueness of each realm you visit.

When it comes to the narrative, there’s a nice ebb and flow to the story that feels well-paced giving users the rush and calm as we progress through the campaign. The story is predictable, but we were genuinely surprised by the few twists and turns. Sprinkled around the main campaign are side quests, which are abundant and can result in unlocking some cool gear and abilities. Enhancing the story further is a top-notch performance by all the actors involved. Mimir’s conversations (voiced by Alastair Duncan) keep us entertained throughout whereas the deep grunts by Kratos (voiced by Christopher Judge) show his interest in the conversation. However, it was Richard Schiff’s voice and acting that made Odin’s evil intentions seem noble and believable.   

God of War Ragnarok

Combat is where the God of War Ragnarök shines through. The hack-and-slash attacks originating from Kratos’ Leviathan Axe and the Blades of Chaos are so satisfying that is elevated with runic attacks and adequate defence to take the enemy down. Of course, there’s no specific playstyle to defeat the enemy and the game encourages you to try different move combinations, be observant or just experiment with different gear. Atreus is no longer just a sidekick. Well, he still is but his combat is more in sync when fighting alongside Kratos. Atreus’ expanded role in the game means there are instances where you’ll play as Atreus and frankly, some of them were more enjoyable than fighting as Kratos. 

God of War Ragnarok

The God of War Ragnarök is available on both the PS4 and PS5 where players can choose to prioritise performance or quality. Playing on the PS5 has its advantages like faster loading via SSD, improved visuals, DualSense integration and 3D audio support but we went with the performance mode on the PS4 Pro and it fared fluidly without discernable compromises. 

God of War Ragnarok

Overall, God of War Ragnarök tells an epic story that fuses gameplay, character performances and the overall atmosphere so well. It’s a must-play for a GoW fan and for someone who is dipping their toe in the franchise for the first time.    

RATING 5/5
WE’RE IMPRESSED Story, visuals, optimised performance
WE’D IMPROVE N/A
THE LAST WORD God of War Ragnarök is a fitting sequel and our GoTY for 2022 

TP-Link Donates Equipment to Tata Hospital

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TP-Link India under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative has donated critical care equipment to the department of Surgical Oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai as an aid to provide medical facilities to the patients for treatments. TP-Link strives to serve the society and reach out to those who are in need of medical care, TP-Link believes in serving the society on time-to-time basis for the betterment and upliftment of the society as a whole.
Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai is focused on providing advance treatment to cancer patients. Every year huge number of patients register for the treatment where they strive hard to provide the same level of treatment to all patients. “We are very grateful to TP-Link India Pvt. Ltd. for their magnanimous support with critical equipment’s for patient treatment and care at Tata Memorial Hospital,” said Dr. CS Parmesh, Director, Tata Memorial Hospital.
“Giving is not about just making a Donation. It is about making a difference. TP-Link strongly believes in giving back to the society that gives so much to us,” said Sanjay Sehgal, Sr. VP SMB & TELCO.
TP-Link, for 11 consecutive years, has been ranked as the No. 1 global provider of wireless networking devices supplying distribution to more than 170 countries and serving billions of people worldwide, the company said.

Review: Oppo F21s Pro

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Price: ₹22,999

The wait for 5G services is finally over after a long period of anticipation. Phone companies including Oppo have been testing the waters with 5G phones for a long time. Oppo’s latest comes in both 4G and 5G variants. However, we received the Oppo F21s Pro in 4G version.

The Oppo F21s Pro has a plain, clean, no-nonsense design, just like the previous F-series devices with a matte-finished back and side band. The camera platform is metal, which offers some protection to the lens. The chrome finish on the camera bump and a red dot of one of the sensors somewhat breaks the monotony in design. The front camera has a punch hole design. Both the surfaces are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 panels. The phone is offered in Dawnlight Gold and Starlight Black colourways. The F21s Pro is a lightweight device. The display appeared bright and sharp in our experience. Fingerprint and facial recognition worked flawlessly, and the interface was quite smooth to navigate.

The phone uses the 6nm Snapdragon 680 octa-core CPU along with Adreno 610 GPU. It offers 8GB LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB onboard UFS2.2 storage. The F21s Pro uses ColorOS 12.1 based on Android 12. The phone houses a 6.43-inch FHD+ (2400 x 1080) AMOLED display that provides up to 90 Hz refresh rate and a peak touch sampling rate of 180Hz. A 95 percent DCI-P3 gamut coverage ensures that the monitor displays a wide range of colours. The Oppo F21s Pro is a mid-level phone, and it is not expected to offer the best in performance. However, the device proved powerful enough for everyday tasks including action games with medium graphics. You may experience some lag in heavy games, but that is expected from a device of this specs.

The smartphone uses a triple camera system at the rear. The main camera is a 64-megapixel unit with f/1.7 aperture. The other two are 2-megapixel modules for Macro and Monochrome. There is no telephoto or wide-angle camera. The front camera uses a 32-megapixel sensor. The camera allows up to Full HD (1080p) videos at 30 fps. The main camera helps you capture beautiful images in good lighting conditions especially outdoors, but the lack of optical zoom or wide-angle lens limits its utility. Low-light images are noisy. The most interesting camera feature is the Microlens mode, which allows you to observe and capture microscopic details in a subject and provides some interesting perspectives. It lets you zoom into dust particles and moulds for up to 30x magnification. It is challenging to keep the subject in focus with the extremely shallow depth-of-field, but the ‘orbit light’ around the depth lens switches on and keeps the subject perfectly illuminated for a shake-free image.

The Oppo F21s Pro is powered by a 4,500 mAh battery and supports 33W Supervooc fast charging. The device supports dual SIM and includes a dedicated MicroSD memory card slot in the card tray. Coming to multimedia, the device offers good visuals combined with powerful audio. However, we have been quite unhappy with the lack of stereo speakers in the previous Oppo devices, and this device doesn’t change it. The phone houses a 3.5mm audio jack.

Rating

WE’RE IMPRESSED Decent design, good camera, microlens, price

WE’D IMPROVE 5G support, stereo speakers

THE LAST WORD The Oppo F21s Pro offers some credible performance and imaging capability for the price, but the lack of 5G support spoils its chance in the market. We would have liked to review the 5G variant of the F21s if we had a choice, but since we did not get a chance to experience it, we cannot comment on its performance.

Kingston Announces Fury Renegade Line-up

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Kingston Fury, the gaming division of Kingston Technology, has announced the release of Fury Renegade DDR5 and Fury Renegade DDR5 RGB memory. The Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 family is engineered to maximise the performance of your system.

Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 family pushes the performance of next-gen DDR5 platforms to the extreme with ultra-fast memory up to 6400MT/s1 and quick CL32 timings. With premium components hand-tuned by engineers, rigorously tested for compatibility across the industry’s leading motherboards, backed by 100% factory testing at speed, and Intel XMP 3.0 certified, customers can enjoy the ultimate overclocking experience.

Whether it’s the sleek newly designed black and silver aluminium heat spreader or the addition of the dynamic LED light bar, the Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 family complements the look of the latest PC builds. Utilise Kingston Fury CTRL to choose from 16 smooth, customisable RGB lighting effects to game in style, kept in perfect lock-step with the patented Kingston Fury Infrared Sync Technology.

Perfect for creating content, multi-tasking, or pushing the limits for the latest bleeding-edge game title, Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5 and Kingston FURY Renegade DDR5 RGB are aimed at gamers, enthusiasts, content creators and extreme overclockers.

The Fury Renegade DDR5 and Fury Renegade DDR5 RGB are available in 16GB single modules and 32GB kits of 2, with speeds up to 6400MT/s and low latencies of CL32 and are backed by a limited lifetime warranty.