Ritwick Jaiswal, Author at Exhibit Tech

Legion 5 Pro: A No-Nonsense Gaming Laptop With The Best Display

The latest Lenovo Legion 5 pro has to be one of the best gaming laptops with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU and a monstrous Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU. The predecessor laptops that came with the graphics card of the 2000 series were a bit of hard luck for Lenovo since Nvidia introduced its new 3000 series soon after.

This device is quite impressive in terms of its power-packed performance. It can be a suitable replacement for a gaming desktop because a gaming PC with an RTX 3070 requires a 750W of power supply meanwhile, the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro gaming laptop uses a 300W power brick. However, the desktop GPU will always remain powerful.

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro

Design

The overall case design and build quality seem quite impressive to me. You can easily open the lid with a finger effort but don’t worry, the hinge is solid and won’t totter a bit. The device has a large keyboard and a trackpad. The key is plastic and doesn’t take a lot of force to press. It also has a curvature that helps you centre your keystrokes.

The logos on this laptop looks quite classy and subtle. One drawback, however, is that the screen does not fold back to 180 degrees which I think would have been better if the plastic piece wasn’t there for the backstop.

The entire unit feels premium with an aluminium exterior with durable plastic components. Starting on the left, there’s a single USB-C port, along with the headphone/microphone combo jack. On the left is a single USB-A port. Here is something remarkable – Right next to that is a small switch that physically disconnects your webcam when not in use.

Display

Gaming laptops tend to offer fast Full HD displays, and Lenovo excels in this domain. Legion 5 Pro offers fast refresh(165 Hz) and has upped the resolution to 2K in a 16:10 aspect ratio. The display is quite right and seems perfectly calibrated.

We like Apple’s iPad or Macbook’s display because it is bright and colour accurate. Lenovo seems to be catching up with that.

Performance

The Legion 5 Pro comes with a Ryzen 7 5800H, an octa-core processor with a maximum TGP of 140W. The model also bundles 16GB of RAM, clocked at 3200 Mhz. There are two other RAM modules that can be upgraded if desired. For storage, you got two 1TB SSD instead of one 2TB SSD, which is kind of weird, but whatever gets the device rolling!

What I like about Legion 5 Pro is that it utilizes a unique cooling solution. The device consists of large heatsinks, some heat pipes, and a pair of large fans. It offers a perfect balance between the quiet fans and the performance. The gaming loads were hot, as expected, but it was a lot cooler during regular use.

Legion 5 Pro also has a nice set of speakers that amplitudes as high as 80dB, which is good enough for playing games and streaming a show.

Lenovo Legion 5 Pro Specs

Processor

AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 8 x 3.2 – 4.4 GHz, 65 W PL2 / Short Burst, 45 W PL1 / Sustained, Cezanne H (Zen 3)

Graphics adapter

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, 140 W TDP, switchable hybrid GPU mode (UEFI settings / Lenovo Vantage app), Radeon RX Vega 8

Memory

32768 MB, 2x 16 GB DDR4-3200, dual-channel

Display

16.00 inch 16:10, 2560 x 1600 pixel 189 PPI, 100%sRGB with 500nits of brightness

Mainboard

AMD Promontory/Bixby FCH

Storage

1TB SSB

Battery

81Wh

Aiwa ESBT-460 Wireless Neckband and AT-X80FANC TWS Buds Review

Aiwa has constantly been making premium products that very well carry its legacy in the music industry, but it has over the years lost its charm amidst a hyper-competitive market. This brand makes some of us feel quite nostalgic about how Aiwa was once a dominant player in the audio segment. Aiwa recently launched a series of wireless audio gears including the neckband model ESBT-460 and TWS earbuds AT-X80FANC.

We spend some time with both the devices while listening to songs, watching movies, and attending calls and here begins the review. Let us first talk about the neckband ESBT-460.

Aiwa ESBT-460 Wireless Neckband Review

Considering the price tag of Rs 2,999, Aiwa ESBT-460 gives a solid first impression with its premium packaging. The neckband rests inside a cushion and is made with good quality plastic, and feels extremely light. It feels pretty comfortable to wear at longer durations.

All the controls, such as the power button and volume and media control, are placed on the left side with an LED indicator below to show the pairing and battery status. What surprised me is that concealed under the left collar is the Micro USB charging port and Micro SD card slot, which comes quite unexpected. If you put some MP3 files on a card, this can become an audio player without any need to pair it with the phone. You also get ear tips of different sizes and a pouch to carry your earphones.

The ESBT-460 vibrates when you get an incoming call, and in my experience, the quality of the call was quite impressive, and you can hear both lines clearly. The drawback, however, is that this device lacks the Active Noise Cancellation feature.

The battery life in Aiwa ESBT-460 is pretty decent, but not the best. The device takes up to two hours to recharge fully with a standard micro-USB charger. It also gives 13-14 hours of playback at 70 per cent volume.

Aiwa ESBT-460 packs 8mm quad-speaker driver technology and delivers a clear and loud sound. The bass is good but lacks detail.

Pros

Built-in Audio Player

Good Call Quality

Decent battery Life

Light and Snuggly Fit

Cons

Slow Charging

No ANC

Lacks Detailed Sound Quality

Verdict

The Aiwa ESBT-460 wireless earphones work quite good for the price range that it offers. You can definitely try it out for the nostalgic and once-prominent brand in the audio space.

Aiwa AT-X80FANC TWS Buds Review

Aiwa AT-X80FANC got launched for a price tag of Rs 7,999, which is apparently on a higher side but makes it up with the features it offers. TWS has shaped the modern wireless audio concept globally. Aiwa has given a stem design to its earbuds, and the tips are oval that sit well on your ears. You also get different sets of silicon tips to suit your ears.

The case is small and can easily fit into your pockets without making you feel uncomfortable. It also features a small LED sensor to indicate pairing and charging. At the bottom, there is a USB-C port for charging. Overall, it has a very decent appearance on the outside as well as on the insides.

You get a crisp and balanced sound with a well-defined ANC performance. The back of the earbuds has a touch-enabled zone, from where you can play or pause the music and cut the call. A single tap to play/pause, double-tap to increase/decrease the volume, answer/cut the call, a two-second long touch to skip to the next track, and a four-second long touch on the right bud to activate the ANC feature. In my experience, the touch sensor acts responsively.

It seems like Aiwa has given more preference to bass in this one. AT-X80FANC offers an abundance of bass and has well-tempered highs. The mids and the lows are quite impressive too. The drawback here is that the device is not compatible with wearable apps, so it’s hard to set the bass and treble according to your taste.

The sound on both ends was loud and clear while on calls and listening to music. There was a little latency while playing video games because the device does not support any codec. You can find a little sync problem here and there, but it’s not that noticeable or problematic.

Final Verdict

For a price of Rs 8,000, I wish there were more features in this one, but Aiwa AT-X80FANC TWS buds don’t fail to convince you to buy one.

Facebook Changed Its Name To ‘Meta’. But Why Though?

One of the biggest news of this year has to be Facebook changing its name. Since the company’s launch in 2004, Facebook has changed the way people interact on the Internet and connected people through all walks of life. It also purchased other social media giants such as Instagram and Whatsapp and further invested and broadened its reach in a digital wallet and Virtual Reality Systems.

What is The New Name?

Facebook has changed its corporate name to ‘Meta’ as part of a major rebrand. The name, however, does not apply to its social media platforms like the Facebook app, Instagram, and Whatsapp, but only the parent company. It has also adopted a new logo that looks like infinity.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, announced the new name as he unveiled plans to build a ‘metaverse’. We will talk about the Metaverse part in the latter part of the article.

Imagine telling people you are on Meta. They will be alarmed if you are on some sort of drug. They might even ask you to consider rehabilitation. Here’s the funny part, with all the legal abuses that Facebook has had under its belt, it should actually consider a rehab….there I said it.

Why The New Name?

In a 75-minute online presentation, Mark Zuckerberg urged users to adjust their thinking about the company since he had outgrown its problematic social media network.

The company has had multiple hits on its reputation. The move to change the name comes after multiple allegations over privately and meticulously tracking real-world harms aggravated by its platform, ignored warnings about the risk of their design decisions, and exposed vulnerable communities worldwide to a set of dangerous and harmful content.

The Washington Post also reported that internal documents leak suggested that Facebook hid facts and critical information of the vaccine during the Covid outbreak. The company also sat on research that found Instagram as a leading cause of harming the mental health of teenagers and its inability to remove hate speech from its platform.

It’s like Rakesh committed all the crimes in the world, and when his secret was unveiled in front of the world, he announced that he would be called Mahesh from now onwards. Imagine someone confronting Mahesh for his heinous deeds, and he goes like… Nah bro, that was Rakesh.

However, these are the speculations and possibilities on why Facebook made this sudden move of rebranding its company. According to Zuckerberg, it is done because Facebook wants to create a Metaverse and that the company has grown above being just a social networking platform.

What is Metaverse?

Some are considering it as the future of the Internet. But what exactly is a Metaverse?

A few years back, did it ever cross your mind that a thing called Virtual Reality could allow you to experience games and movies in a way that was happening right in front of your eyes? A metaverse is just an enhanced version of this virtual reality.

You could use a headset to enter a virtual world connecting all sorts of digital environments. This virtual world could be used for practically anything- work, play, concerts, movie theatres, or just hanging out. It is like a universe in itself that is quite vacant but ships everyone virtually. You could have a 3D avatar – a representation of yourself – as you use it.

Quite exciting and scary. Isn’t it? Am I seeing a future where everyone has lost a sense of reality and is as good as their Internet connection? I don’t know. This is just an idea of this whole thing and contains no agreed definition of Metaverse.

Companies Changing Names

Interestingly, Philip Morris Co. Inc., makers of cigarette brands like Marlboro and Chesterfield, changed its name to the anodyne Altria Group to avoid press nightmares. The company was accused of rising tobacco-related deaths. Instead of making customers forget about Philip Morris, Altria’s new name just reminded them that the company wanted to avoid being blamed for the adverse health effects caused by its tobacco products.

ValuJet couldn’t shake the bad reputation it got after flight 592 crashed in the Everglades in 1996. All 110 passengers died in the horrific incident. An investigation revealed SabreTech, the airline’s maintenance contractor, was responsible for the accident due to unsafe cargo conditions. ValuJet merged with AirTran in 1997, giving up its name in the process.

In 2015, Google decided that it would change its name to Alphabet. The reasons provided had mainly to do with clarity for investors. Google’s more controversial projects, such as its efforts to expand its reach with accident-prone drones and sensitive health care technology, no longer have Google’s name on them. They’re now owned by Alphabet, an innocent-sounding company you’ve probably never heard of. If you pick up a random stranger on the streets and ask him what Alphabet is, you will likely receive all sorts of naive and dumb answers.

Conclusion

The thing is, Facebook is not the first company that opted for rebranding after it was covered in a blanket of controversies. This has been done for ages, and sometimes it works, and other times it fails to save the image of the associated company. Only time will tell what lies ahead for Facebook, um, I mean Meta.

IQOO Z5 Tale of Hits And Misses!

I have been using the IQOO Z5 for two weeks, and never during this time period have I thought of switching it for some other smartphone. Since I am starting my review with this pitch, you must be aware of what’s coming ahead. But wait, it’s not all black and white with this one. IQZOO Z5 is going to be a roller coaster ride!

The 8GB RAM and 128GB ROM variants of this smartphone cost Rs 23,999, whereas the 12GB and 256GB variants will cost you Rs 26,990. There are also a few deals running on the smartphone that can save you a thousand bucks or two.

When I first looked at the smartphone, I thought it had a glass finish at the back, but to my surprise, the IQOO Z5 has a matte finish with a bit of texture. The smartphone has got a premium feel to it with that gradient design and squarish camera. What I liked about Z5 is that it has an excellent weight distribution since it doesn’t feel too heavy in hand, irrespective of the fact that it weighs about 195 grams.

IQOO Z5 comes in two colors; Mystic Space and Arctic Dawn. On the right-hand side of the smartphone, we have a volume rocker and a power on/off button. It has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that works flawlessly. On the top, we have a headphone jack and a secondary microphone for noise cancellation. At the bottom, we have stereo speakers, which go missing on a lot of premium smartphones.

IQOO Z5 has a 6.67-inch screen and has an IPS LCD instead of an AMOLED display, which instantly snatches away the appeal at some levels. The smartphone has a 120 Hz refresh rate and runs on Android 11, primarily on FunTouch OS version 12. It is powered by the Snapdragon 778G processor. Also, instead of the LPDDR4 RAM, which is most commonly used in smartphones of this range, Z5 uses the expensive and much more power-efficient LPDDR5 RAM, which is why one cannot complain about the performance of this smartphone.

IQOO Z5 uses liquid cooling technology, further reducing the chances of overheating while playing heavy games. I was switching between Call of Duty and Injustice, both highly graphical, constantly between hours, and did not face any performance or overheating issues.

Z5 is backed up with a 5000 mAh battery, and with the Snapdragon 778 chipset, the device becomes quite power-efficient. You also get a 44W fast charger along with a smartphone that can charge the device fully in about an hour.

Now coming to the most crucial part, the camera functionality, that more or less makes the smartphone lead either from the front or from the back in this hyper-competitive market. The smartphone packs a triple camera setup, with the latest 64MP Samsung GW3 Sensor, 8MP wide-angle, and a 2MP Macro Camera. In the normal lighting conditions, I clicked some pretty good pictures.

The primary and the ultra-wide cameras captured colors and skin tones quite well, if not perfectly. On the front, there’s a 16MP punch-hole camera that captures selfies well under normal lighting conditions. Interestingly, the Z5 smartphone offers a camera feature where you can operate both front and rear cameras simultaneously. There are also various modes in which you can click photographs or record videos. In artificial lighting, the device captured some pretty good pictures with natural skin tones.

Honestly, it’s not the best out there but works quite well for the price. If you are all about ‘Made in India’ stuff, you can grab the deal with no regrets.

Does Vivo X70 Pro Really Redefine Photography?

First things first! As soon as you open the premium-looking box, you are reminded of what this smartphone represents. “Photography. Redefined.” is the first thing you see when you open the box, and it instantly reminds you that Vivo X70 Pro is all about neat and premium photography.

Along with the smartphone, a TPU or a transparent case, a 44W charger, a C-type cable and good quality Vivo earphones are offered inside the box.

Vivo X70 Pro has curved glass and a glass-metal sandwich design with a beautiful colour that adds more grace to the smartphone. The multicolour design turns slightly greenish and bluish as light falls on it. It is slightly slim and weighs around 190gms.

Now let’s talk about what each side of the smartphone consists of. At the bottom, there’s a speaker grille, a Type C port, a microphone and a sim card tray. The left-hand side is immaculate. The top has a noise-cancelling microphone and an IR blaster. For those who are unaware of what an IR blaster is, it uses electronic bursts of electromagnetic radiations to communicate with everyday devices in your home, like TVs and DVRs. On the right, there’s a volume rocker and a power button.

Vivo X70 Pro has a 6.5-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen with a 120Hz fast refresh rate. Now, what I noticed between Vivo X70 Pro Plus and its younger sibling X70 Pro is that Pro Plus has an LTPO screen, which means that it is an adaptive fast refresh rate screen; from 1Hz to 120Hz will adapt according to your usage. X70 Pro, on the other hand, has the LTPS screen, which does not adapt but has a fast refresh rate.

I have also noticed that a lot of junkware apps like Amazon, Josh, Phonepe, ShareChat, Spotify, and a few others come pre-installed on the smartphone. You can remove or uninstall these apps if they are of no use to you.

The Vivo X70 Pro runs on a customized MediaTek Dimensity 1200 processor. It has a base variant of 8GB+128GB and 12GB+126GB internal. The smartphone has a 4500 mAh battery and comes with fast charging.

Here comes the most exciting part! The Camera. As soon as you flip the phone to the back, you know there is something very interesting, very spectacular about its camera. There is a ZEISS T* logo on the lens, which gives the smartphone a premium feel. Sony cameras often have the T* logo humbly displayed on their lens.

Due to these T* coating, while clicking a portrait, the colours look richer and better. Because of the layer, the ghosting and flares that occur during low-light photos get eliminated.

Not only does the phone allow you to take incredible night images, but there is also a Super Night Video Mode which allows you to take night videos. Isn’t that awesome?

There is a quad-camera setup and neither of those seems like a gimmick, making each one equally useful. All four cameras have optical image stabilization which is pretty rare even in premium and high-end smartphones.

Vivo X70 Pro has 50MP Sony IMX766 wide camera, 12MP ultra-wide camera, 12MP telephoto, and 8MP Periscope camera. On the front, there’s a 32MP selfie sensor.

Vivo X70 Pro has excellent gimbal stabilization, and that is what makes this smartphone stand out. I tested the gimbal mode on this phone, and I loved it to the core. There were very few jerks in the camera even though I was running, and in the walking mode, the camera gave a cinematic experience.

If you are pretty specific about the camera, this is one smartphone you should have on your checkout list. If you can get your hands onto Vivo X70 Pro in a store or somewhere, check the specifications out yourself, and you would definitely feel the premium quality that the smartphone offers.

Is Oppo Reno 6 Pro Diwali Edition a Fiery Deal?

It’s Diwali season or one could safely say that the festival of gold is here. This is the time when smartphone companies offer huge discounts on their devices as a festive treat. Oppo, this year decided to step above normalcy and launch something which they call a ‘Diwali Edition’ of their Reno 6 Pro 5G variant.

First we will talk about the specifications that Reno 6 Pro comes packed with and in the latter part we will learn about the upgrades that Oppo has made in the Diwali edition, if any.

Oppo Reno 6 Pro Specifications

Like any other premium smartphone, Reno 6 Pro is also a camera-centric phone that weighs around 177gms. It feels pretty sleek in hand and is neither too heavy nor too light. The back of the smartphone is built of matte glass and is resistant to fingerprints. Reno 6 Pro has a curved AMOLED screen and offers a Gorilla Glass 5. It has an in-built fingerprint scanner which honestly works quite well.

The general performance of the smartphone is quite impressive since it uses the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 processor, the maximum refresh rate being 90Hz. Reno 6 Pro comes packed with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB Storage, which leaves no space for lags and glitches. Although I believe 12GB of RAM is quite superfluous, and it hardly comes to use in daily activities, unless, of course, you play a lot of heavy games on your device. Nevertheless, the flagship performance is quite a catch on this one.

As a Call of Duty fan, I installed this heavy game on this device along with a few others and ran it on max graphics and frame rate to see how the game performs. Unsurprisingly, all the games ran smoothly without any lags, all thanks to the 12 GB RAM.

The battery life of the Oppo Reno 6 Pro is quite good but nothing exceptional of any sort. The device has a 4500 mAh battery and runs for a whole good day, involving a lot of video watching and exploring social media. It comes with a 65W SuperVOOC charger that charges the phone entirely in about 35 to 40 minutes.

Cameras are a big part of Oppo smartphones. Reno 6 Pro has a 64 Megapixel, 8MP, 2MP, and 2MP rear camera setup. The front camera is 32 Megapixels. As an upgrade, Oppo has added the Bokeh Flare Portrait filter, blurring the background even in the video mode. You can set the percentage of Bokeh you want for your video. There is also an AI Color Portrait mode which keeps the focused object in color and the background black & white. These are pretty cool features to work with.

The smartphone costs about 40,000, and you can get it for 39,400 on some websites.

Upgrades on Reno 6 Pro Diwali Edition

The first noticeable change that we see in the Diwali edition is that it offers a majestic gold color on the back. It seems like there’s a lot of glittery particles on the surface, but when touched, it has a smooth matte surface and feels quite premium.

The phone is packed with the same 12 GB and 256 GB storage and comes with the same Dimensity 1200 Processor. The screen size of 6.5 inch and refresh rate is also similar to the Pro version. The camera is similar to what we have seen on the regular Reno 6 Pro version, and we witness no upgrade. The ultra-wide-angle could have been enhanced with a 16MP camera instead of 8MP to give the smartphone a premium feel.

What’s different in the Reno 6 Pro Diwali Edition is that the icons and the UI are customized for a Diwali theme and can be changed depending on the occasion.

Oppo Reno 6 Pro Diwali Edition has been priced at Rs 41,990, which is Rs 1,990 more than the regular edition.

Budget Motorola Smartphone Moto E40 Set To Launch In India

Moto E40, the latest Motorola smartphone, and newest addition to the Moto E-Series is all set to launch in India on October 12. The company has shared a teaser on social media to offer clear hints about the launch of Moto E40 in the country. Motorola has released the teaser of the smartphone with the tagline “The Perfect Entertainer.”

The budget smartphone phone is being released on Flipkart, confirming its availability on the e-commerce site. The Moto E40 specifications and design have also been teased.

Motorola E40 Specifications

The dual-sim Moto E40 is said to feature a 6.5-inch HD+ IPS LCD display with 1,600×720 pixels resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. Moto E40 will sport a rear fingerprint sensor and the display has a hole-punch design to house the selfie camera.

The smartphone will be powered by the 1.8GHz Unisoc T700 octa-core processor paired with 4GB RAM. There is an inbuilt storage of 64GB and the phone also comes with a dedicated Google Assistant key. It will pack a 5,000mAh battery that is claimed to last for up to 76 hours of music streaming, 14 hours of video playback, and 10 hours of Web browsing.

Moto E40 will run on Android 11.

According to the eMag listing, there will be a triple rear camera setup on the Moto E40 that includes a 48-megapixel main camera, dedicated depth camera, and dedicated macro vision camera. The sensor comes with Quad Pixel technology that offers 4x better low light sensitivity for sharper and more vibrant photos. The phone also has a rear fingerprint sensor with Face Unlock and will feature an IP52 water-repellent design.

The smartphone has a 3.5mm USB Type-C port. Flipkart also confirms that the Moto E40 will launch in Pink Clay and Carbon Gray colour options. Moto E40 is expected to retail around INR 13,500/$180.

What Is The Netflix’s Latest ‘Play Something’ And Fast Laughs’ Feature?

Netflix has an extensive video library and it sometimes leaves the user perplexed about what to watch. We always end up browsing for much longer than we actually watch. To solve this issue, Netflix has rolled out new features on its Android app to make the video streaming experience more comfortable and help decide users what to watch.

Netflix has announced an update for its Android app that will bring the Play Something and Fast Laughs feature. The former would assist customers who are having trouble deciding which movie or TV series to watch. The other feature called Fast Laugh works similarly to TikTok and in Netflix, it plays a random reel of humorous clips and displays the clip in a full-screen vertical format.

The ‘Fast Laughs’ feature is new to Android, but it has been accessible on iOS since March of this year; whereas the ‘Play Something’ feature, is exclusively available for Android users, while iOS users will have to wait for it.

Play Something Feature

Play Something feature will be accessible via a new button on the home screen and will function similarly to shuffle play. The shuffle button will be located directly above the menu bar in the bottom right corner of the screen. The user can click the shuffle play button to receive recommendations for what to watch.

As soon as the user presses the ‘‘Play Something’’ button, Netflix presents them with a series or film depending on what they’ve previously watched. By clicking the button once more, you can get a brand new series or film, an unfinished movie or series you might want to return, or a series or film you’re already watching.

Through this feature, Netflix will handle your watching list and recommend you all the new films and series.

Fast Laughs Feature

‘Fast Laughs’ will function similar to TikTok in the Netflix app. It will play a random reel of humorous clips and display that clip in a full-screen vertical format. Along with Home, Coming Soon, and Downloads, Netflix has introduced a new option called ‘Fast Laughs’ to the menu bar.

Users will be able to share and react to the clips shown in ‘Fast Laughs’, as well as play the entire movie or series immediately from the widget and add it to their watch list.

With Facebook Services Coming To A Complete Halt On Monday, We Witnessed Chaos

In this age, where we are driven by and on social media entirely, it’s hard to imagine what our lives would be if they got shut even for an hour.

Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram are now starting to come back online after a widespread outage that lasted more than six hours on Monday, disrupting communications for more than 3 billion users.

Not being able to post a new photo can be annoying, but it is not catastrophic. But for Whatsapp users, losing the encrypted messaging service is a life-halting change.

WhatsApp being down means calls and messages to friends and family can go unanswered, customer service requests unaddressed, and vital organizing information unattended.

Facebook said in a tweet,

“To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we’re sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us.”

What Was The Reason For This Outage?

Through a blog post on Monday night, Facebook said that the six-hour outage that took it offline along with Instagram, Messenger, Whatsapp, and OculusVR was the result of a configuration change to its routers — not of a hack or attempt to get at user data.

These explanations, however, do not give many details on the issue. Facebook says that “this disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centers communicate, bringing our services to a halt.”

CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted an apology Monday evening, saying the platforms were coming back online. “Sorry for the disruption today — I know how much you rely on our services to stay connected with the people you care about.”

Outages are nothing new in the world of social media, and servers often experience slowdowns. Facebook’s outage was a bit unusual since it affected all the company’s products, including its central site and, most importantly, Whatsapp, the encrypted messaging service used widely around the world.