At PAX East 2020 last week, Gigabyte’s premium gaming brand, Aorus, showcased a new set of next-generation gaming systems, tactical monitors, and new games to test drive the hardware.

PAX East 2020 welcomed more than 100,000 enthusiasts to the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for an annual celebration of games. Since PAX’s inception in 2004, millions of attendees have enjoyed the expo floor halls filled with booths from major game publishers and independent developers, panels from video game industry insiders, game culture-inspired concerts, LAN parties, tabletop gaming, and competitions, among other activities.

Aorus products on display at PAX East included a series of tactical gaming monitors that provide twice the detail and display quality of Full HD, and allows players to enjoy games and movies in original size. 
The new Aorus FI27Q-P features a 27” QHD panel (2560×1440 resolution) in a 16:9 aspect ratio with a 165Hz refresh rate. It supports AMD Radeon FreeSync technology, which puts an end to choppy gameplay and broken frames to create a fluid and artefact-free performance at higher frame-rates. 

Aorus also revealed the KD25F tactical monitor, which is specifically-designed for first-person shooter (FPS) gaming, and its curved CV27F and CV27QP monitors with Native 1500R and 165HZ refresh rate.

Mobile gamers also saw the Aorus 17, the world’s first gaming notebook with Omron’s mechanical keyboard switches, which gives gamers a keypress sensation that is preferred for key-intense FPS and online multiplayer games. The Aorus 17 supports 9th Gen Intel Core i9/i7 Processor H-Series and is the first Microsoft Azure AI notebook.

Several modders also displayed their custom-designed water-cooled builds based on the Z390 Aorus Xtreme Waterforce motherboard and Aorus GeForce RTX 2080 Super.

“Some of the hottest Aorus products that will be on display to satiate the appetite of the most ardent gaming enthusiasts and eSports participants,” said Van Luong, Aorus marketing manager. “The world’s first tactical gaming monitors to give gamers a distinct advantage over opponents as well other AORUS peripherals and components for a full-blown Aorus gaming experience.” 

Fujifilm South Africa has launched the X-T4, the flagship model of the X Series range of mirrorless digital cameras, and the successor to 2018’s X-T3.

The X-T4 is the pinnacle of the X Series, delivering exceptional performance for both stills and video. It sports both a new 26.1MP sensor and processor: the back-illuminated X-Trans CMOS 4 sensor and a high-speed X-Processor 4 image-processing engine.

Importantly, the X-T4 offers a number of key improvements, including in-body image stabilisation (IBIS), a newly designed shutter, improved autofocus (AF) as well as a stronger battery.

IBIS takes care of the shakes

IBIS is a first for the X-T series and could previously only be found on the Fujifilm X-H1. This provides 5-axis 6.5 stop image stabilisation when used with 18 out of 29 XF / XC lenses; a refined layout of the shutter’s shock-absorbing structure; and gyro sensors that have approximately 8x the detection accuracy of the IBIS unit in the X-H1.

The X-T4’s IBIS unit employs magnetic force rather than springs, which boosts functionality while making it 30% smaller and 20% lighter than X-H1’s image stabilisation unit.

To help improve the shooting experiences, there’s also an ultra-fast focal plane shutter unit, newly developed for the X-T4 to be durable and quiet. With its high-torque coreless DC motor, the shutter has the capability to shoot up to the world’s fastest 15fps in burst mode, and has advanced response performance with a shutter release lag of just 0.035 seconds.

The shutter unit also boasts double the durability with 300,000 actuations and is 30% quieter compared to the one found on the X-T3.

Impressive Autofocus improvements and battery life

A fast shutter will not help if autofocus fails, and the X-T4 features a new algorithm and phase-detection processing capability which results in AF performance as fast as 0.02 seconds. Tracking AF performance has also undergone serious enhancement, with the tracking success rate now double compared to the X-T3. To help with portraiture and ease of use, the Face / Eye AF performance has also been dramatically improved.

Powering the X-T4 is the new NP-W235 battery with capacity approximately 1.5 times that of the older NP-W126S battery. It lasts for 500 frames per charge in the Normal mode, 600 frames per charge in the Economy mode and up to 1,700 frames when two additional batteries are used with the optional VG-XT4 battery grip.

New features for videographers

The X-T3 is a top performer when it comes to video, with the X-T4 continuing this legacy, capable of recording Full HD high-speed video at 240P and 4K at 60P. Video output to external storage media via the HDMI port is at 4K/60P 4:2:2 10bit, which records more colour information. For even greater stability and smoothness, the IBIS can be combined with the digital image stabilisation function (DIS) for use in the video mode, for situations such as shooting video while walking.

Video in the same format can be recorded on to two SD cards at the same time as a backup, while the stills and video modes now have separate menus and the video-only Quick Menu (Q Menu) has enhanced the camera’s simplicity while recording video.

There’s also a new ‘Movie optimised control’ function, with which users can switch the Still / Movie mode dial on the top panel to swiftly shift into video recording with stored video settings, and exposure can be adjusted with the command dial as well as the touchscreen panel.

Pricing and availability

The Fujifilm X-T4 will retail in the region of R26,000 for the body, and R31,000 for the kit that includes the Fujinon 18-55mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens. At this stage, an official release date for South Africa is not available yet, although the X-T4 is expected to land in April.