First Look

Rise of the Ronin First Impressions

Forge Your Fate

Published

March 12, 2024

If you’ve been yearning to play a challenging Samurai adventure since Ghost of Tsushima, the Rise of the Ronin is on the horizon to quench your thirst. Releasing exclusively for the PlayStation 5 on March 22, 2024, GadgetMatch had the privilege of playing the early hours or so of the game.

Character creation

The first thing that caught me off-guard was the character creation at the start of the game. Prior to getting this preview opportunity, I’ve only really seen a handful of clips of the game paying little attention to the details. That’s not to say I wasn’t interested. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. But it’s been a hectic last two months that I haven’t had the chance to really dig into it. I digress.

So, character creation. This was… fun. Upon learning that this can be done– and for two characters too–my mind immediately went in two directions: Kenshin Himura and my favorite Japanese person–Momo Hirai of TWICE. I know, it’s quite the variance but those two are the “designs” I went with at first.

Character creation is pretty detailed. You get to choose whether your male or female and the customizations have decent depth to them. Enough for me to recreate some version of actual characters and people many might be familiar with.

You might be able to go crazy with it if you really wanted to but I simply didn’t have the time. Like most games with character creations and customizations, I am very interested in what the larger community player base will come up with.

The first few hours

Team Ninja was very specific with what we were allowed to talk about, but even then, I wasn’t able to reach that point. Because of certain story elements, I decided to redo my characters, shifting from Kenshin Himura to Sana Minatozaki–another member of TWICE. And that is all I will say about the story.

The first section of the game is all about teaching you the combat basics all while setting up the game’s story premise. Combat is challenging. I personally hit an early wall and decided to go from Dusk (normal difficulty) to Dawn (easy) just so I can progress. Skill issue, sure, but I also have a ton of other things on my plate, don’t @ me.

That may not give you a gauge of how difficult the combat is. After all, this will vary depending on your own skills and preferences. I’m not too familiar with Nioh and other Team Ninja games. I will say this is certainly a little tougher than Ghost of Tsushima, at least at first.

Open world

After the gripping opening chapter, you are thrown into the open world. You will again slowly be introduced to the open world mechanics, which, once again reminded of GoT. You’re probably going to hear that same comparison throughout other previews and reviews but it really does give off that vibe.

That changes a little bit when you get into a city. As seen in one the later gameplay trailers revealed for the game, the traversal and weapon arsenal of Rise of the Ronin offer a far wider variety than GoT.

In terms of open world visual cues, GoT does it more subtly. Rise of the Ronin feels more game-like with waypoints showing up as you level up through combat and quests.

Oh and… you can pet cats.

Action RPG

Speaking of leveling up, the game has all the trappings of a good Action RPG. Combat is challenging and will open up even more as you grow in four different skill trees.

The skill trees deepen your combat, traversal, exploration, and crafting skills. And then there are the weapons and weapon styles. In the beginning, you’ll be asked to choose what weapons you’ll have the best affinity with. It’s not too daunting a choice. However, it does impact your combat play a little bit, especially in the early game.

You’ll also encounter shops where you can craft weapons, medicines, and many other stat buffs and debuffs, giving you somewhat of an idea of the type of enemies you’ll encounter as you go along.

Should you be excited?

Yes. Absolutely. Rise of the Ronin will quench your Samurai power fantasy thirst. Even in just the early goings, you’ll be hooked instantly. The combat offers a good challenge, the exploration just right, and the story pretty darn gripping. We can’t wait to tell you more.

Rise of the Ronin is set across war-torn 19th-century Japan in this combat-focused open-world action RPG from Team NINJA, the veteran studio behind Nioh and NINJA GAIDEN. It will be available exclusively on the PlayStation 5 on March 22, 2024.

Here’s a brief excerpt of the story from the game’s online page.

Japan, 1863. After three centuries of the Tokugawa Shogunate’s reign, the Black Ships of the West descend upon the nation’s borders and the country falls into a state of turmoil. Amidst the chaos of war, disease and political unrest, a nameless warrior forges their own path, holding the very fate of Japan in their hands.

Related Topics:Koei TECMO PlayStation PlayStation 5 PS5 Rise of the Ronin Team Ninja

Accessories

Jackery Explorer 300D: Power and portability in one

Uninterrupted workflows for digital nomads, freelance creatives, more

Published

September 18, 2026

Manila Connoisseur

For digital nomads, freelance creatives, and even work-from-home professionals, staying productive on the move means carrying around multiple gadgets, cords, adapters, and power banks to survive the day.

Having to carry such weight, quite literally, is vital for maintaining workflow continuity.

For a more seamless experience and to have just one extra portable device to power all working parts, there’s the Jackery Explorer 300D.

Launched just last month, this grab-and-go offering from Jackery is designed for the modern lifestyle.

It moves away from Jackery’s traditional aesthetic with a sleek, speaker-like form factor. It weighs just 2.5 kilograms and is 64% smaller than standard 300W units in the market.

This ultra-compact size was made possible by a smart engineering choice of swapping bulky traditional AC wall outlets for highly efficient DC-only and USB-C ports — which also helps eliminate idle power loss.

With a 288Wh capacity, the Jackery Explorer 300D holds enough juice for up to nine power banks.

It can keep a Type-C fast-charging laptop for up to three to four full cycles, a Wi-Fi router alive for hours, and recharge cameras or drone batteries up to five times for a lengthy production day.

For smaller gadgets like smartphones and portable fans, the power station can juice them up for up to 22 times.

It can even charge five devices simultaneously with a total of three USB-C ports, a USB-A port, and a DC 12V car charger port.

All these ensure users are never disconnected, wherever they may set up their mobile office.

Another brilliant touch is the two-in-one shoulder strap that easily unclips to double as a heavy-duty 140W USB-C charging cable.

The everyday carry is available via Lazada and Shopee, and at the official Jackery kiosk in SM Fairview, as well as other partner stores.

Features

Match Pulse: Passport-sized foldables

What each one gets right

Published

September 14, 2026

Rodneil Quiteles

There’s a passport-sized revolution upon us, and we’re here for it.

After the HUAWEI Pura X Max and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8, September 2026 showed us two more joining the fray: the Xiaomi 18 Fold and the much-awaited and plenty-rumored iPhone Duo.

While all four share a similar form factor, they don’t exactly all share the same approach to it. And while we’ve yet to spend significant time with most of them, we’re gonna go ahead and jump the gun and list what we think each one did right.

Think of this as more of a collective first impression or Match Pulse.

Samsung gets the weight right

Samsung being a foldie veteran shows up here.

When I first held the Galaxy Z Fold8, I was pleasantly surprised by how light it was. At 201g, it’s the lightest of these four by a pretty significant margin. The Xiaomi 18 Fold comes in at 219g, the HUAWEI Pura X Max at 229g, and the iPhone Duo at 254g.

That’s thoughtful design, and definitely a result of Samsung having at it for years.

This is one of those things that doesn’t necessarily jump out on a spec sheet. But it matters when you actually have the phone in your hand. A passport-sized foldable is supposed to give you more screen without feeling like you’re carrying around a tiny tablet.

Samsung seems to understand that balance particularly well.

Xiaomi gets the cameras right

We’re not gonna talk about camera performance here. Just the cameras present and how they’re laid out.

In that regard, the Xiaomi 18 Fold is a runaway winner for me.

It has a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide, and a 50-megapixel 3.5x periscope telephoto. All three are part of Xiaomi’s Leica camera system.

That telephoto alone makes the setup feel much more complete than what some of the other passport-sized foldables are offering.

Then there’s the physical layout. Xiaomi puts the three cameras in a horizontal arrangement across the upper portion of the rear panel. It looks clean, but more importantly, it should help keep the phone from rocking around as much when you put it down on a flat surface.

That’s the kind of small design decision I appreciate.

You’re not just getting a foldable with cameras slapped onto the back. You’re getting a flagship-style camera system that also happens to fold.

Android gets the big screen right

This is where Android still has Apple beat.

The whole point of opening a passport-sized foldable is getting more screen. Android has spent years figuring out what to actually do with all that extra real estate.

On Samsung, you can run apps side by side, resize windows, use pop-up windows, save app pairs, and take advantage of Samsung’s broader Multi Window and DeX features. Huawei has also built out its own split-screen and floating-window tools.

Apple is finally entering that conversation with the iPhone Duo. Its iOS 27 implementation allows two apps to run side by side (you just can’t resize them like you can on Android), two windows of the same app, quick app swapping, and saved app pairs.

That’s actually a pretty big deal. But Android has been doing this for years.

The passport-sized foldable isn’t just a bigger screen. It should let you do more things at once. Android understands that part of the assignment.

Apple gets the transition right

@gadgetmatchiPhone Duo maxxing 😮‍💨♬ original sound – GadgetMatch

This might be Apple’s biggest contribution to the passport-sized foldable.

The iPhone Duo doesn’t simply take iOS and stretch it across a bigger display. Apple has reworked the experience around the fact that the phone can physically change shape.

Both displays share the same aspect ratio, which means content can move between the outer and inner screens without feeling like you’re jumping between two completely different phones. iOS 27 also moves controls to the side when the Duo is open, adjusts app layouts for the wider canvas, and introduces Split View for the first time on iPhone.

There’s also the rather clever StandBy implementation. Put the Duo down in a tent orientation and it can turn into a little smart display, even without being plugged in.

Apple Pencil support is coming later this year, too, and it works on both displays.

This is very Apple.

The hardware is new, but the software is doing a lot of the work to make the new thing feel familiar.

Samsung gets the overall shape right

This one is completely subjective.

Personally, I prefer the square-ish, sharp-edge look of the Galaxy Z Fold8. I’ve seen plenty of people praising the D-like shape of the Duo — was that deliberate or just a happy coincidence? — and the more rounded look of the Pura X Max and Xiaomi 18 Fold.

But looks-wise, the Galaxy Z Fold8 just stands out to me.

There’s something about the balance and more symmetrical look of the Fold8 that seems more user-friendly compared to the no-love-for-lefties approach of the Duo, especially software-wise.

That’s obviously a personal preference. But that’s kind of the point.

We’re now at a stage where these devices aren’t all trying to look like the same thing.

The passport-sized foldable is becoming a design language of its own.

Android gets customization right

@rodneil Galaxy Z Fold8 – 3 different wallpapers: Folded, Landscape unfolded, Portrait unfolded #GalaxyZFold8 ♬ Kitty (MOMO) – MISAMO

Much has been said about the unfolding animation of the iPhone Duo. That’s cool for sure.

But if you’re after making a passport foldie truly feel like yours, Android is still the playground.

With Samsung specifically, Good Lock is your customization best friend.

You can tweak the interface, the lock screen, gestures, multitasking behavior, and plenty of little things that make a Galaxy feel less like the phone Samsung shipped and more like the phone you set up.

It’s not necessarily the sexiest feature to put on a spec sheet.

But after you’ve lived with a foldable for a while, those little things add up.

Samsung dropped the ball on the stylus

This is a weird one.

Samsung had S Pen support on the Galaxy Z Fold3, Fold4, Fold5, and Fold6. Then it dropped support with the Fold7. The Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra doesn’t support the S Pen either.

That’s a pretty significant omission for a device that unfolds into something approaching tablet territory.

The S Pen had plenty of fans. And you can absolutely argue that a stylus makes even more sense on a foldable because you suddenly have a much larger canvas for writing, drawing, editing, and annotating.

Apple, meanwhile, has promised Apple Pencil support for the iPhone Duo later this year.

Now, they’ve broken (or at least delayed) some promises before, so this is still a wait and see.

But it’s funny seeing Apple move toward a feature Samsung had already established on its Fold line.

The battery race is getting interesting

Graphics by Vincenz Lee | GadgetMatch

We still can’t fully compare this usage-wise. We haven’t spent enough time with all four devices to make any meaningful real-world battery call.

So we’re just gonna give you the numbers on paper.

The Xiaomi 18 Fold is the battery monster here with a 6,000mAh cell, alongside 67W wired and 50W wireless charging. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 has a 4,800mAh battery with 45W wired charging.

Apple doesn’t publish the iPhone Duo’s battery capacity in the same way, so we’ll leave the mAh comparison there rather than pretending the numbers are directly comparable.

This is one area where Xiaomi’s approach is particularly interesting.It has managed to put a 6,000mAh battery into a device that weighs 219g. That’s a pretty compelling combination on paper.

And then there’s performance

Same refrain as the battery here.

We’re not going to pretend that chipset names alone tell us which phone is going to be faster in actual use. Especially with four different platforms, operating systems, thermal designs, and software stacks involved.

But the hardware underneath is certainly no joke.

The Galaxy Z Fold8 runs on Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. The Xiaomi 18 Fold introduces Xiaomi’s own XRING O3 processor. And the iPhone Duo gets Apple’s A20 Pro, the same chip family used in the iPhone 18 Pro models.

The interesting part isn’t really which one wins the benchmark race. It’s that none of these companies seem to be treating the passport-sized foldable as a compromise device.

They’re putting flagship-class silicon, serious cameras, big batteries, and increasingly sophisticated software into this format.

And that’s probably the biggest thing to get right.

The passport foldable is becoming a thing

Exciting times are unfolding for the passport-sized foldable.

What’s interesting isn’t that these four phones are similar. It’s that they’re different.

Samsung has spent years figuring out how to make a big foldable thinner and lighter. Xiaomi is going all-in on cameras and battery. Huawei has its own interpretation of the compact, wide form factor. And Apple has arrived with a completely new take on how iOS should behave when the screen itself changes shape.

Between the Galaxy Z Fold8 being a big hit and the buzz generated by the iPhone Duo, it’s not far-fetched to think other brands will throw their own take at the form factor pretty soon.

And we’re totally here for it.