Huawei Mate 20 Series – What You Need to Know

After months of teasers and leaks, the Huawei Mate 20 series is finally official. Consisting of the Huawei Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, Mate 20 X,
and
the Porsche Design Huawei Mate 20 RS, this is Huawei’s most elaborate series yet.

With four different devices to choose from, is the Mate 20 series worth considering? Looking at the phones’ hardware and feature set, they’re certainly very promising. In fact, they could even be Huawei’s best phones to date.

Let’s start with the most “basic” model, the Mate 20. Like all devices in the new series, the Mate 20 is powered by Huawei’s brand new
Kirin 980 chipset
. Built on a 7nm process, this is the Chinese company’s most power-efficient SoC right now.

The power efficiency of the Kirin 980 is complemented by the Mate 20’s generous 4,000mAh battery. Together with the phone’s 6.53-inch 2244 x 1080 IPS display, the Mate 20 should be able to return very good battery life. This is, after all, a trademark feature of the Mate series.

Speaking of which, the Mate 20 has one of the smallest display notches we’ve seen on a smartphone; yes, we’ve come to the point where we’re comparing notch sizes. Because of the shape of the notch, Huawei is calling the Mate 20’s screen a “Dewdrop” display. On the back, the Mate 20 comes with a Leica Triple Camera system made up of a 12MP f/1.8 primary shooter, a 16MP f/2.2 ultra-wide lens, and an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto shooter. As for the selfie camera, it’s a 24MP f/2.0 snapper.

Rounding out the specifications of the Mate 20 include a rear fingerprint sensor, up to 6GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, and…a Nano Memory card slot. Basically, it’s a new type of expandable storage introduced by Huawei that is identical in shape and size to a nano-SIM card. Naturally, all four devices in the Mate 20 series feature NM card slots.

Right, so that’s the Mate 20. Next, we have the higher-end Mate 20 Pro. Compared to the standard Mate 20, the Pro model sports a smaller and higher resolution 6.39-inch 3120 x 1440 dual curve OLED display. Unlike the Mate 20’s minuscule display notch, the Pro’s notch is much wider to accommodate a more advanced 24MP front camera with 3D Depth Sensing technology.

Aside from that, the Mate 20 Pro also comes with an in-screen fingerprint sensor, a 4,200mAh battery, up to 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of internal storage, and a more sophisticated Leica Triple Camera system. The primary shooter is a 40MP f/1.8 shooter, and it’s complemented with a 20MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera and an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto lens.

There’s no telling yet how good are the new Leica-branded cameras on the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro, but if the Huawei P20 Pro’s camera performance is anything to go by, we’re optimistic the new Mate 20 phones will be excellent shooters; especially the Pro model with its more advanced camera system.

And then we have the third device in the series, the Mate 20 X. Sporting the same camera system as the Mate 20 Pro, the 20 X’s main appeal is its huge 7.2-inch 2244 x 1080 OLED display, 5,000mAh battery, and stylus support. On top of that, there’s also a gamepad for the Mate 20 X – it attaches to the left side of the phone – that adds an analog stick and D-pad.

Needless to say, Huawei is targeting mobile gamers with the Mate 20 X. To further drive this point home, the 20 X also has Huawei’s “Supercool” technology; it’s touted as the “world’s first liquid multi-dimensional cooling system” with a vapour chamber cooling solution and a graphene film for even better heat management.

If the company’s Supercool cooling solution works as intended on the Mate 20 X, it will be a an ideal phone for mobile gamers. On top of that, the 20 X also gets the exact same camera hardware as the Mate 20 Pro – it wouldn’t be as one-dimensional, as, say, the
Asus ROG Phone
, which is almost solely focused on gaming.

Last but definitely not least is the Porsche Design Huawei Mate 20 RS. Other than its dearer asking price (it retails at a whopping €1,695), the Mate 20 RS is really a more luxurious version of the Mate 20 Pro with a slightly different design and leather bits. Yeap, that’s it.

Looking at the whole Mate 20 lineup, the Mate 20 Pro is the most interesting of the bunch. It’s the sleekest-looking device – though we’re not crazy about the design of the square-shaped camera module on the back – its Leica Triple Camera system is promising, the Kirin 980 is a fast chipset, and the phone’s dual curve display is a high resolution, OLED panel.

On top of that, the Mate 20 Pro (and by extension, the Mate 20 RS), is IP68-rated; the standard Mate 20 and Mate 20 X are not resistant to water or dust. And if you’re into wireless charging, you’ll be happy to know that the Mate 20 Pro also support the feature. It can even do
reverse
wireless charging, if you’ve ever wanted to wirelessly charge another device with the phone.

Now then, is the new Huawei Mate 20 series worth it? They certainly are, especially when we take into account how much they cost in our region. In Malaysia, for example, the Mate 20 retails at RM2,799. The prices go up to RM3,199 and RM3,599 for the Mate 20 X and Mate 20 Pro respectively. The Mate 20 RS, on the other hand, has yet to receive any pricing in the country, but expect it to cost a pretty penny.

The new Mate 20 phones are by no means affordable, per se, but they’re without a doubt competitively priced for flagship-tier devices. We can’t say for sure if either one of these phones are worth recommending until we have them in for review, but one thing’s for sure – they’re Huawei’s most exciting phones to date.


How Digi’s Digital Day Will Give It the Competitive Edge

Every year, Digi has two important company-wide events. One of them is Costumer Engagement Day, where over 1,000 “Digizens” – that is, Digi employees – go out in public to engage with the telco’s customers. As its name suggests, Digi’s costumers are the focus here.

And then we have today’s event, Digi’s Digital Day, which focuses instead on its employees. Now at its third instalment, we were invited to Digi’s headquarter to check out just what the telco’s special event has to offer its employees.

Like all Digital Day events before this, the main goal of the event is to nurture its employees. In fact, Digi’s employees task for the whole day is to “focus on learning about new innovations disrupting the market.” Really, that’s all they have to do; you can even consider it to be a “day off” of sorts.

Of course, it’s not exactly a day off per se. Throughout the day, Digi’s headquarter is filled with activities for Digital Day. Some of the highlights include a keynote address by Jordan Schlipf – the Innovation Partner of Rainmaking – as well as a talk by AXA’s CEO of life insurance, Rohit Nambiar, who shared how the insurance company is attempting to disrupt the healthcare insurance industry.

On top of that, Digi employees are also challenged to complete at least 40 hours of learning through online learning platforms like Udacity, Coursera, and Lynda.com by the end of the year. In retrospect, Digital Day is probably the furthest thing from a day off.

What are all of these activities for? Well, in Digi’s words: to equip its employees with new perspectives and competencies to grow with the business. It’s a noble gesture, and the telco believes that by nurturing its employees, it can remain competitive in the market.

Digi also touched on the whole company’s way of work, which revolves around the philosophy of innovation 360-degree. That is, a belief that encourages Digi employees to innovate every day, either by “doing things differently, or doing different things, whether big or small.” They’re also encouraged to be “customer-obsessed,” which places customers at the centre of everything the company and its employees do.

In the grand scheme of things, Digi customers will – in theory – benefit the most from all of these. At the end of the day, the telco’s goal is to stay relevant in the market by better equipping its employees with the proper skills. If Digi’s approach works, it should result in better services to customers – key word here being “should.”

We imagine what telco customers want the most, regardless of which provider they belong to, are better coverage, speed, pricing, and services. If Digi – or any other telco, for that matter – can deliver on these four fronts, it would’ve accomplished what the telco set out to do with Digital Day.

Speaking of speed, there’s no doubt that telco companies, including Digi, will be pushing for 5G in the near future. In our opinion, whichever telco that can implement the technology first (and properly) in Malaysia, will be on the forefront of the industry. Until then, let’s see how Digi will remain competitive in the market.


Smartphone Spec Race: More Camera Modules Are Not Better

Dual camera systems have been around for the longest time, and only recently phone makers started putting even more camera modules into their mainstream devices. It started with Huawei when it released the Huawei P20 Pro with its Leica Triple Camera system, and now, some manufacturers have followed suit; most notably Samsung with the new Galaxy A7.

In fact, the Korean company pushed things even further by introducing the Samsung Galaxy A9 with
four
cameras on the back – in what world will you need that many camera sensors? Well, that’s what we’re here to discuss, and why more is not necessarily better.

First, let’s analyse the P20 Pro’s triple camera system. The primary sensor is a 40MP f/1.8 RGB shooter, and it’s complemented by a 20MP f/1.6 monochrome camera. The monochrome sensor isn’t just there for show: not only does it assist the primary sensor to capture more impressive shots, it’s also used to simulate bokeh effects.

As for the third sensor, it’s an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto shooter, and I’d argue this is the least necessary component in the P20 Pro’s camera system. Yes, the telephoto shooter does grant the ability to do 3x optical zoom – allowing you to get closer to a subject or get tighter framings – but the image output from that sensor pales in comparison to the main 40MP shooter.

Even without the 8MP telephoto sensor, I reckon the P20 Pro’s excellent image quality will still be retained. I’ve used the P20 Pro as my daily driver for a while in the past, and I honestly don’t recall ever using the phone’s optical zoom in any meaningful way. Of course, that’s just my usage habit: I’m sure there are folks who will appreciate the flexibility of the telephoto sensor.

Now, let’s move on to the Galaxy A9, or what Samsung dubs “the world’s first quad camera smartphone.” The A9’s rear cameras are made up of a 24MP f/1.7 shooter, an 8MP f/2.4 ultra-wide camera, a 10MP f/2.4 telephoto sensor, and finally, a 5MP f/2.2 “depth camera,” which is used for bokeh simulation.

Essentially, what you’re getting with the Galaxy A9 is shooting flexibility; sort of how it is with the
LG V40 ThinQ
. You can use the A9’s main 24MP camera for normal photography, the 8MP ultra-wide sensor for wider shots, and the 10MP telephoto shooter for close-up shots.

But the main issue here lies in camera performance: with so many different camera sensors, the Galaxy A9’s image quality
will
 vary widely. The phone’s shooting flexibility has its appeals, but if there’s a large discrepancy in image quality between these different cameras, it will affect the overall user experience.

I haven’t had the Galaxy A9 in my hands yet to see how its cameras perform, but I did manage to spend some time with the Galaxy A7, which has a similar camera setup as the former; it’s only missing the telephoto lens. If the A7’s camera performance is any indication of how the A9’s cameras will perform, it’s not great.

The Galaxy A7’s primary 24MP sensor takes decent-looking shots, but the 8MP ultra-wide camera isn’t quite as capable: images come out looking darker than shots taken with the main sensor, and the colour temperature is on the warmer side of things too. On top of that, the A7’s Live Focus mode – which uses the 5MP sensor to simulate bokeh effects – has difficulty properly separating the subject from the background.

So why are phone makers equipping so many camera sensors on their devices if it doesn’t bring any meaningful user experience? It boils down to marketing. After all, it sounds good to boast that your phone has three, or even four camera sensors compared to only one. It’s the numbers game: bigger numbers simply sound better, even though they don’t necessary translate to better user experience. That’s the same case with the
amount of RAM on your smartphones
.

Take the recently unveiled Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. Even though both of Google’s latest phones only have a single rear camera, their camera performances are considered to be some of the best – if not
the

best
 – in the market now. The Pixel 3 phones may not have the shooting flexibility of the Galaxy A9 or P20 Pro, but their superior image qualities more than make up for this – in my opinion, of course.

If you’re looking to buy any particular new smartphone, don’t be too caught up on the number of cameras it has – just because a phone has multiple cameras doesn’t necessarily mean it can take amazing images. If Google can deliver excellent camera performance with a single camera sensor on the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, so can other manufacturers.


I’ve Finally Finished Xenogears After 20 Years, And It’s Fantastic

The JRPG genre has been around for a very long time, and there’s one particular title that I’ve been eyeing for many years: Xenogears. Considered to be one of the most iconic JRPGs released on the very first PlayStation console, I finally got around to finishing the game after its initial release in 1998 – that was over 20 years ago.

It may have been two decades since Xenogears was released, but for those who have never played the title, it’s definitely worth picking up – it’s easily one the most memorable JRPGs I’ve ever played.

Okay, confession time: I actually first played Xenogears about 15 years ago on the original PlayStation, but I didn’t manage to finish the game. I’ve always wanted to complete the game ever since, but I just never got around to it. That is, until Sony released
the soundtrack of Xenogears
 on the PlayStation Store to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the game.

The soundtrack’s release really got me wanting to play Xenogears again, so I purchased the game on the PlayStation Store – it’s
only going for RM21
 on the Malaysian store – downloaded it to my PlayStation Vita (probably the best use of the portable console now, unfortunately), and spent over 50 hours completing the game. Needless to say, I enjoyed every single hour playing it.

Even though Xenogears was released over 20 years ago, I’d say the game aged really well. Obviously the graphics aren’t particularly great, but it has a retro feel to it, and it looks good enough to not detract you from the game’s immersion. Soundtrack is also another great element of Xenogears: the various music scores fit in very well with the game’s story, settings, and cutscenes.

And then we have my personal favourite part of Xenogears: combat. The turn-based combat system in the game is split into two parts. Gear combat is relatively straightforward – your damage output and defense are mostly dependent on how upgraded your giant robot is – but character combat is where things get really, really fun.

It’s difficult to understand without reading up guides, but the Deathblow system is very interesting. The game doesn’t really explain the mechanics of the system, but it involves pressing certain button combinations to activate flashy combat moves. You’ll also have to “learn” these Deathblows by
varying your attack inputs. Without going into too much detail, read up
this excellent guide
 to get a feel for the Deathblow system.

Once you know how the Deathblow system works, it’s very satisfying to pull off these amazing (sometimes bordering on ridiculous) combat moves.

But what makes for an excellent JRPG lies in the story it tells, and Xenogears has
a lot
to offer. So much so, in fact, that the game is split into two discs. The first disc is very fleshed out, but the second disc shifts to a more simplistic approach, which relies on narratives to push the story forward.

Personally, I like the shift in storytelling. Not only do I get to skip the sometimes arduous dungeons – some of them are filled with
so many random encounters
 – it’s still progressing the story of Xenogears. In fact, the second disc
had
to be more simplistic
in order to finish the game in time
. Otherwise, the game would’ve ended on the first disc itself, and the whole plot of Xenogears wouldn’t have been resolved at all.

Nonetheless, I’m not gonna talk too much about the main plot of Xenogears; I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you. But trust me when I say it has a very compelling story to tell. There are even some psychological concepts thrown in, giving the game even more depth than what you’d expect to find in a conventional JRPG.

Last but definitely not least is character development, and Xenogears excels in this regard. The main protagonist, Fei, appears to be your typical, amnesiac hero at first glance. But as you progress further into the story and learn about his past, you’ll find that he’s much more than that – it’s very intriguing. Of course, even the other characters in the game have their own appeals; my favourite is Citan’s backstory.

Xenogears has its strengths and weaknesses, but what it does best far outweighs any flaw the game has. It’s an excellent game every JRPG fan has to play, and it’s unfortunate we won’t be seeing any sequel of the game, especially considering the fact that the game was meant to be a six-part series.

That is, unless you take into account the spiritual successors of Xenogears, the Xenosaga and Xenoblade games. While these two game series are not strictly related to Xenogears, all of them are developed by the same person: Tetsuya Takahashi. However, I can’t quite immerse myself with the other two series as much as I am with Xenogears – it’s just not the same.

If you haven’t had the chance to step into the world of Xenogears, I envy you. To be able to enjoy the game for the first time is something I wish I can experience again. It’s truly a JRPG like no other, and if you’re a fan of the genre, please pick up Xenogears – you won’t regret it.


Huawei Mate 20 Pro Hands-On: Riding the Momentum

Huawei’s previous high-profile flagship, the Huawei P20 series, generated quite a bit of buzz for the Chinese company. Not only is Huawei the second largest smartphone maker now – in terms of smartphone shipment – the P20 Pro is also currently regarded as one of the best flagship smartphones.

Now, we have the Huawei Mate 20 Pro; arguably the most interesting device in the Mate 20 series. Sporting a new Leica Triple Camera system, a new chipset,
and
 a slew of new features, the Mate 20 Pro has a lot going for it – but are these enough to make it a compelling smartphone? Let’s find out.

Right off the bat, the Mate 20 Pro feels very refined and premium when held. It has great build quality, it has a nice heft to it – the phone weights about 189g – and it’s narrow enough for comfortable use with one hand. This is despite the fact that it has a large 6.39-inch display.

Turn the phone around, and you’ll see the Mate 20 Pro’s gradient finish in all its glory. The model here is the Twilight colourway, and it looks darker and subtler than the Twilight P20 Pro. This is really in line with the Mate 20 Pro’s more professional appeal – the target audience of the Mate series has always been business users.

Unlike mainstream Huawei phones in the past, the Mate 20 Pro finally makes use of its glass back: it now supports wireless charging. On top of that, it also offers
reverse
 wireless charging. Yes, you can wirelessly charge other devices by simply placing them on top of the phone’s glass back.

There’s no doubt the gradient finish of the Mate 20 Pro’s rear glass panel is unique, but there is one design element I don’t quite like: the square camera module. It takes up too much space, and it doesn’t look attractive at all. Personally, I find the P20 Pro’s vertical camera arrangement much more aesthetically pleasing.

Design aside, the Mate 20 Pro is powered by Huawei’s brand new 7nm Kirin 980 chipset. Not surprisingly, the phone feels very fast and zippy, and switching from one app to another is noticeably quicker than other flagship phones I’ve used this year. It’s too early to tell just how capable the Kirin 980 is, but I’m excited to see how well it can run demanding mobile games.

Power efficiency is also one of the biggest advantages of the 7nm Kirin 980. Thanks to the Mate 20 Pro’s large 4,200mAh battery, you can expect this phone to return very good battery life.

On the software front, the Mate 20 Pro runs on EMUI 9.0 based on Android 9.0 Pie out of the box. For the most part, this new version of EMUI still feels a lot like previous iterations of it. It feels relatively lightweight, there are some bloatware, and though I’m not a big fan of the user interface’s design, it’s…a functional version of Android. You also get Android Pie features like Digital Wellbeing, which allows you to track your smartphone usage.

Next, we have the Mate 20 Pro’s 6.39-inch dual curve, OLED display. Sporting a resolution of 3120 x 1440, this is a sharp display. Thanks to the inherent property of OLED panels, the Mate 20 Pro’s screen has excellent black levels too. On top of that, I also love the minimal bottom bezel of the phone and curved display, though I’m not too fond of the wide display notch.

However, the notch is there for a good reason – well, to an extent. The wider than usual notch houses Huawei’s own 3D Depth Sensing camera for the Mate 20 Pro’s face unlock feature. It can recognise my face pretty quickly, and in theory, the more sophisticated camera module should be more secure than other facial recognition systems that rely exclusively on conventional selfie cameras.

Besides the 3D Depth Sensing camera, the Mate 20 Pro also has another biometric security: an in-screen fingerprint sensor. For the most part, it has little difficulty accurately detecting my fingerprint, though it is noticeably slower than conventional fingerprint sensors.

Finally, we have the Mate 20 Pro’s new Leica Triple Camera system. Now consisting of a 40MP f/1.8 primary shooter, a 20MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, and an 8MP f/2.4 telephoto sensor, I’m quite impressed with the phone’s camera performance.

Without a doubt the primary 40MP sensor can take great-looking shots, and surprisingly enough, even the 20MP ultra-wide shooter is quite decent, though the wide-angle nature of the camera can result in some distortion, showcasing a fisheye-like effect. For the most part, however, the phone handles the distortion pretty well.

But like
most phones with multiple cameras
, the Mate 20 Pro’s image quality differs from one sensor to another. The best one is definitely the 40MP sensor, while the 20MP ultra-wide camera captures images with warmer colour temperature and less details. I didn’t manage to capture any good sample shots with the 8MP telephoto lens, though it’s likely the worst performer compared to the other two sensors.

It’s worth noting that I’ve only tested the Mate 20 Pro’s camera performance in good lighting conditions, and most smartphones can usually capture good images in this scenario. The real challenge lies in low light photography, and only that can highlight any possible weakness in the Leica Triple Camera system.

Based on my brief time with the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, it’s potentially the best Mate phone yet. Riding on the momentum generated by the P20 series, I’m pretty positive the Mate 20 series can repeat the success of the former. Although the Mate 20 Pro isn’t an affordable phone – the 128GB model with 6GB of RAM retails at RM3,599 in Malaysia – that’s how much premium flagship phones go for in this region; it’s an expected price point.

In a market flooded with so many flagship smartphones, the Mate 20 Pro stands out with its Leica-branded cameras, unique design, and large battery capacity. It has a lot of potential, and I can’t wait to put it through its paces in a full review.


Shopee 11.11 Big Sale Starts Today; Offers Discount on 2018 iPhones

Singles’ Day is increasingly becoming one of the most celebrated shopping events in our region, and for this year’s 11.11 sale, Shopee is set to make it its biggest 11.11 sale event yet. Taking place from 25 October to 11 November, the e-commerce platform promises tons of promotions leading up to Singles’ Day.

One of the most notable discounts that’s happening right now is for the new iPhone XS, XS Max, and iPhone XR. To kick off its 11.11 event, Shopee is offering all three models of the new iPhones with 5% discount. The 64GB iPhone XR, for example, is going for only RM3,419.05 right now; this particular variant usually retails at RM3,599.

If you’re curious to check out the full list of prices – and availability – of the new iPhones, you can do so
here
. Do note that the promotion is only valid while stocks last, and the iPhones will only be shipping next Monday on 29 October.

Besides the new iPhones, Shopee is offering a number of other promotions too. Certain brands like Vivo, Universal Traveller, Tefal, L’Oréal, and Maybelline, will be absorbing SST on more than 1,000 products during the sale period. Basically, expect products from these brands to cost less on Shopee until 11 November.

Shopee’s 11.11 Big Sale also sees the return of the platform’s themed days. Featuring three weeks of daily campaigns with deals across different product categories, Shopee promises up to 90% discount on products from Huawei, Samsung, Casio, Levi’s, and more.

Of course, which product that goes on promotion is dependent on what day it is. Take 7 November, which is Shopee’s Electronics Day. Needless to say, there should be plenty of discounts on electronic products on that day. If you’re looking to get a new smartphone or electronic, mark this date on your calendar.

Bargain hunters, on the other hand, should take note of 31 October and 8 November: Shopee will be offering a number of “Shocking Sales” on both days. According to the e-commerce platform, there will be 11 rounds of Shocking Sales – on both days – featuring items from as low as RM1.10.

The Shopee Shake game is also slightly revamped for the 11.11 Big Sale. Previously, the in-app game only offered coins – which can be used to offset up to 25% off your purchases – but now, it is offering both coins
and
prizes worth up to RM1.1 million. The prizes range from a Dyson Fan, Samsung tablets, and get this: gold bars.

That being said, there are only a few time slots available to play the Shopee Shake game. Three time slots are available daily: 11AM, 1PM, and 11PM. These time slots are available throughout the campaign period, but on 2 November and 11 November, there will be as many as 11 time slots from 12AM to 11PM.

Of course, you’d have to download Shopee’s app on the
Google Play Store
 or
Apple App Store
 in order to play the Shopee Shake game.

If you’re in tune with social media, check up on Shopee’s Facebook page: it will be running daily contests there. The contests will offer prizes worth up to RM50,000, which include products from Apple, Nintendo, Lego, and Dyson.

More information on Shopee 11/11 Big Sale can be found
here
. Again, the Shopee app is available for download from the
Google Play Store
 and
Apple App Store
, and the 5% discount on the 2018 iPhones is
happening right now
.


Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 – What You Need to Know

Xiaomi’s last big flagship launch of the year happened yesterday, and the company’s first phone with a sliding mechanism is finally here: the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3. Much like every Mix device that was introduced prior to this one, there’s barely any bezel at the top of the display, but the highlight this time around is the phone’s new sliding cameras.

Unlike other phones with a slide-out camera system, the Mi Mix 3 takes a slightly different approach: the front and back portions of the phone are two separate pieces. The front part is just the display, while the back piece houses everything from the phone’s motherboard, chipset, and camera systems.

Not only is there no motor involved in the sliding mechanism, it incorporates what Xiaomi dubs a “magnetic slider design.” Once you’ve started pushing the display down, the “magnetic mechanism immediately kicks in and finishes the opening in a snap with just the right amount of force,” as Xiaomi puts it. On top of that, the company also mentioned that the slider can be activated over 300,000 times without issue, though this was done in lab tests.

So what makes up the Mi Mix 3’s camera system? On the back is a dual camera configuration made up of a primary 12MP f/1.8 shooter and a 12MP f/2.4 telephoto lens, which can shoot 960fps slow-motion videos and 4K video recording. What’s even more impressive is the Mi Mix 3’s DxOMark score – with a total score of 103, its camera performance is on par with the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and HTC U12+.

At least, that’s what DxOMark’s rating and benchmark show. We’ll reserve judgment until we actually have the Mi Mix 3 in for review.

As for the front-facing cameras, the primary sensor is a 24MP shooter and a secondary 2MP sensor for capturing depth information. The selfie cameras are also paired with a front-facing flash and AI enhancements for more flattering selfie shots.

Beyond the camera system, other hardware of the Mi Mix 3 are what you’d expect from a flagship device. It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, it has a large and vibrant 6.39-inch 1080p AMOLED display – with a 93.4% screen-to-body ratio – and a 3,200mAh battery with support for 10W Qi wireless charging; the wireless charger is bundled with the phone.

Rounding out the Mi Mix 3’s list of hardware is up to 256GB of fast UFS 2.1 storage, and get this: up to
10GB of RAM
. We’d argue this is
way too much RAM for regular consumers
, but hey, 10GB of RAM sounds impressive on paper. Aside from that, there’s also a 5G variant of the Mi Mix 3, but that’s only slated to be released sometime in Q1 2019.

Much like its predecessor, the Mi Mix 3 retains the ceramic back, and the rear fingeprint sensor is still here too. Unfortunately, there’s no expandable storage, the 3.5mm headphone jack is nowhere to be found, and the phone doesn’t have any noteworthy IP rating either. In this day and age, not sporting water and dust resistance…somewhat makes the Mi Mix 3 less desirable.

But, at the very least, the Mi Mix 3 is priced competitively. The base model with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM retails at 3,299 Chinese yuan, while the 8GB models with 128GB and 256GB of storage go for 3,599 and 3,999 yuan respectively. The highest-end “Palace Museum Edition” with 256GB of storage and 10GB of RAM, on the other hand, carries a 4,999 yuan price tag.

Value for money has always been a hallmark of Xiaomi devices, and this – among its other features – makes the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 a compelling flagship. The magnetic slider design is a unique feature, and if its camera performance is as good as DxOMark claims it to be, the Mi Mix 3 is potentially Xiaomi’s most impressive device yet.


Slide-Out Cameras May Be the Future

An all-screen smartphone has always been the dream for many, many years; it’s something you see in drawings of concept smartphones. In a quest to maximise screen real estate, plenty of phone makers resort to notched displays. Some, on the other hand, simply minimise the bezels as much as they can, like Samsung with the Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9 series.

But more recently, Chinese manufacturers like Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi have come up with a rather interesting solution to the notch problem: slide-out cameras. By hiding the front-facing camera with a sliding mechanism, the top bezel of the display can finally be shrunk, bringing us closer to the all-screen dream.

Chances are, more phone makers will implement a similar solution in the future – that’s right, slider phones are making a comeback. But not all of them are made equal, so let’s take a look at the different sliding mechanisms available on smartphones today.

So far, there are three modern smartphones that have slide-out cameras: the Oppo Find X, Vivo Nex, and
Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
. While all of them have the same feature, their mechanisms are not the same. The Find X and Nex, for example, use a small motor to move the camera module up and down. As for the Mi Mix 3, it relies on manual activation and magnets.

Chances are, the Mi Mix 3’s implementation will be the most reliable of the bunch. After all, it doesn’t rely on any motor to move the camera, reducing the risk of the mechanism failing. On top of that, Xiaomi also claims that the “magnetic slider design” can be activated over 300,000 times without any issue, but Oppo also said the same thing about the Find X motorised camera system.

Personally, I find the Mi Mix 3’s slider mechanism the most appealing. Not only is it less prone to failing (in my opinion), it’s also much more satisfying to activate than the Find X and Nex’s motorised slider.

Besides these three phones, there’s another upcoming phone that will sport a slide-out camera too: the Honor Magic 2. Based on leaked footage and images of the phone, it seems like the Magic 2 will feature a similar sliding mechanism as the one found on the Mi Mix 3. The video teaser above shows the unannounced phone’s sliding mechanism very well.

Nonetheless, we’ll learn more about the Honor Magic 2 once the Chinese company officially unveils the new device on 31 October. it’ll be interesting to see how its slider system will differ from other phones with a similar feature.

That’s not the only upcoming phone that will sport a slide-out camera either; Lenovo will be releasing its own device with this feature on 1 November. Believed to be the Lenovo Z5 Pro, the phone will also sport a manual slider design. Aside from that, it’s likely that the Z5 Pro will come with an in-screen fingerprint sensor too, if the leaked video below is to be believed.

It’s interesting how the Honor Magic 2 and Lenovo Z5 Pro launch dates are so close to the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, which was made official just days ago. It’s even more curious when we consider the fact that these three phones will likely sport the same slider design. Moving forward, we won’t be surprised if other phone makers follow suit and introduce their own take of a slider phone in the future.

Looking at these two phones that will be introduced this week alone, slide-out cameras will very likely be the next big thing after notched displays. It’s a step closer to an all-screen smartphone, and although the reliability of these sliding mechanisms in the long run will be questioned, only time will tell how robust they are.

Now all that’s left is for phone makers to figure out how to completely eliminate the bottom screen bezel – almost all smartphones still have a “chin” of sorts under the display, with the notable exception of the
iPhone XS and XS Max
. Hopefully, we’ll see such smartphones next year in 2019.


Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 Hands-On: Third Time’s the Charm

Xiaomi’s Mi Mix series has always been about pushing the envelope of what’s possible in a smartphone. The first Mi Mix was a beautiful device with its ceramic build and almost bezel-less design, but it was a huge device, and it had a rather large chin. The Mi Mix 2 and Mi Mix 2S, on the other hand, were just more practical versions of the original Mix.

Now at its third iteration, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 is arguably the most exciting device of the series yet. Heck, I’d even say it is Xiaomi’s most impressive phone to date. I spent a brief time with the Mi Mix 3 in a media session held in Malaysia, and I’m very impressed with it – especially its sliding mechanism.

Let’s start with the most unique feature of the Mi Mix 3: its “magnetic slider design.” Unlike the Oppo Find X and Vivo Nex’s use of a tiny motor to power their
slide-out cameras
, the Mi Mix 3’s sliding mechanism requires the user to manually push down on the display to reveal the front-facing cameras. Yes, there are two of them: a 24MP primary shooter, and a secondary 2MP depth sensor.

Personally, I find the Mi Mix 3’s slider design much more appealing than Oppo or Vivo’s implementation. It is
very
 satisfying to activate – many other members of the media is of the same opinion here – and the whole mechanism feels robust. I also love the fact that the slider’s action is customisable: users can choose to launch the selfie camera when the slider is activated, or even change it to answer a phone call. Very neat.

Speaking of customisation, there is an extra button on the left side of the Mi Mix 3. For the Chinese market, the button is used to summon Xiaomi’s own digital assistant, Xiao AI. The best part is, you can change what the button does, whether it’s to launch the camera, take a screenshot, or summon Google Assistant.

Xiaomi may have taken inspiration here from Samsung with the company’s dedicated Bixby button, but at least Xiaomi is giving consumers the freedom to change what the button does.

Okay, let’s move on to something else, like the Mi Mix 3’s sleek design. Its ceramic back feels premium, the aluminium frame is nice to the touch, and I really dig the phone’s minimal bezels, lending to an almost all-screen design. It would’ve been great if Xiaomi can further reduce the “chin” of the Mi Mix 3 at the bottom of the display, but hey, it’s a much smaller bezel than the one found on its predecessor – or the
Pocophone F1
.

Display is also another strong suit of the Mi Mix 3. Sporting a 6.39-inch 2340 x 1080 AMOLED display, it’s a vibrant, bright display. On top of that, because it is an AMOLED panel, the Mi Mix 3’s display has very good black levels – that’s the inherent property of AMOLED.

Now then, what about performance? Very good, naturally. Powered by Qualcomm’s best chipset to date, the Snapdragon 845, the Mi Mix 3 feels very fast and zippy. This, paired with up to 10GB of RAM – that’s right,
10GB of RAM
 – and 256GB of fast UFS 2.1 storage, this phone will not disappoint in the performance department.

Last but certainly not least is the Mi Mix 3’s camera performance, and in my brief time with the phone’s primary 12MP f/1.8 + 12MP f/2.4 telephoto lens dual camera system, it’s…well, promising. The camera interface doesn’t feel sluggish, there’s no noticeable shutter delay, and the image output looks great at a glance. Then again, I only managed to try out the Mi Mix 3’s camera in broad daylight – things may change dramatically in low light conditions.

That being said, DxOMark did give the Mi Mix 3’s camera performance an overall score of 103, edging out the Huawei P20 and Samsung Galaxy S9+. But until I can spend more time photographing with the Mi Mix 3’s, I’ll reserve my judgment.

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 is the sleekest, most refined device in the Mix series yet. As I’ve said before, I really think this is Xiaomi’s most impressive smartphone to date, and I absolutely cannot wait to take it out for a spin – okay, perhaps the fun factor of the sliding mechanism plays a role here too.

As for availability, the Mi Mix 3 will not be introduced in Malaysia anytime soon; Xiaomi mentioned that it is only planning to release the device in the country by the end of the year or early 2019. Until then, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S is the latest Mix device in Malaysia – its retail price has also been revised to RM1,799.


Apple MacBook Air (2018) – What You Need to Know

After eight long years, Apple is finally giving the MacBook Air a proper refresh. It’s now sleeker, lighter than ever, and more importantly, the Cupertino company is equipping the new laptop with a Retina display. It may have taken Apple this long to properly update the MacBook Air, but hey, it’s finally here.

That being said, the new MacBook Air is also not as affordable as its predecessor anymore; not that MacBook laptops in general are considered to be affordable. Nonetheless, we’re here to break down what’s new – and what’s hot – with the 2018 MacBook Air.

The most obvious (and arguably the most important) update to the new MacBook Air is definitely the 13.3-inch Retina display. Now with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 – and much tinier bezels – the MacBook Air’s screen is just as sharp as the one found on the higher-end MacBook Pro. That being said, the Pro’s display is said to be brighter by 200 nits. On top of that, the Air’s screen isn’t True Tone either.

Although it hasn’t seen a proper refresh in years, the previous generation MacBook Air was still considered to be a pretty light and thin laptop. Well, surprise surprise, Apple managed to slim down the new Air even further, and it’s lighter too. Tipping the scales at 1.25kg – 100g lighter than its predecessor – it also measures only 15.6mm at its thickest point. In comparison, the previous model had a 17mm thick chassis.

But with a thinner chassis, Apple is also revamping the MacBook Air’s selection of ports. Gone are the full-size USB-A ports, and in their places are a pair of USB-C ports. The great news is, both of them support Thunderbolt 3. The bad news? You’ll have to rely on dongles if you want to transfer data from a good ol’ USB-A flash drive. Of course, the incredibly convenient MagSafe port is also no longer here – the new Air charges via USB-C.

Like every new MacBook laptops today, the revamped MacBook Air comes with Apple’s butterfly switch keyboard. Now at its third generation, the typing experience on the extremely flat keyboard should be identical to other MacBook laptops released in recent times. Basically, expect very little key travel, but based on my previous experience using the 15-inch MacBook Pro (the 2018 model), I like the tactile feedback and larger than usual key size of the keyboard.

Oh, it’s also worth noting that the new Air comes with Touch ID now too.

And then we have the brand new trackpad of the MacBook Air, which is larger than ever. Not only that, it’s also a Force Touch trackpad. Because of the static nature of the trackpad, you’ll get a good clicking sensation through haptic feedback no matter which part of the trackpad you’re clicking on.

Rounding out the specifications of the new MacBook Air include an eight generation Intel Core i5 1.6GHz dual-core processor – with Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz – Intel UHD Graphics 617, 8GB or 16GB of RAM, and SSD storage that maxes out at 1.5TB. Not an incredible list of hardware, but definitely more than adequate for a productivity-focused laptop.

Now, let’s get to the good bit: how much does the new MacBook Air cost? In Malaysia, the base model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage goes for
a whopping RM5,249
. If you want a 256GB SSD instead, that will set you back RM6,099.

Without a doubt the new MacBook Air is not an affordable laptop, and only time will tell if consumers are willing to fork out that much money to get it. Yes, it’s a drastic upgrade over its predecessor, but that comes at a price – a very steep one.


Acer Launches XB273K & XV273K in Malaysia – 4K 144Hz Gaming Monitors

Acer just introduced two new gaming monitors for the Malaysian market: the Predator XB273K, and the Nitro XV273K. Not only are these 27-inch, 4K gaming monitors, they also come with Nvidia’s G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync technologies respectively. That’s pretty neat.

But are either one of these gaming monitors any good? Well, let’s find out by taking a look at their feature set and retail prices.

For starters, there are not that many 4K gaming monitors in the market with a fast 144Hz refresh rate like these two products here. Yes, both the Predator XB273K and Nitro XV273K’s refresh rates can be overclocked to 144Hz, and that’s really fast for gaming monitors as pixel-dense as these two.

However, do note that you’ll need a very powerful machine to really take advantage of the 144Hz display. There are only a handful of graphics cards that can push that many frames at 4K resolution.

Naturally, the Predator XB273K and Nitro XV273K monitors also sport variable refresh rate courtesy of Nvidia and AMD. The former supports Nvidia’s G-Sync technology, while the Nitro monitor features AMD FreeSync. Depending on the kind of GPU you have, you’ll want one monitor over the other. Basically, Nvidia GPUs can take advantage of G-Sync, and vice versa.

Oh, another feature worth highlighting is the fact that both the Predator and Nitro monitors meet the standards for DisplayHDR 400. It’s the lowest certification granted by VESA for a display to be considered HDR-capable – in short, these monitors won’t look as impressive as another monitor with DisplayHDR 600 or 1000 certification – but hey, they can still properly display HDR content.

Last but not least is retail price, and it’s no surprise that the Nitro XV273K is the more affordable gaming monitor of the two. In Malaysia, this FreeSync monitor retails at RM2,999 – a pretty attractive price tag for a 4K monitor with 144Hz refresh rate.

As for the Predator XB273K with G-Sync technology, it goes for RM4,599. Although most of its specifications are similar to the more affordable XV273K, the XB273K costs more simply because of its G-Sync capability – gaming monitors with the feature generally cost more.

The Acer Predator XB273K will only be available in Malaysia sometime in December later this year. The Acer Nitro XV273K, on the other hand, can be purchased in the middle of this month.

Besides launching the two new gaming monitors, Acer also announced its collaboration with Malaysian streetwear brand Pestle & Mortar. Two T-shirts are shown at the launch event: one of them has an Acer Swift laptop as its motive, while the other one is themed after the Predator series.

Given the streetwear status of Pestle & Mortar apparels, these two products do not come cheap. The Acer Swift shirt retails at RM99, while the one with the Predator motive goes for RM109. If you’re keen to get either one of these two shirts, you can do so on
Acer’s own online store
 – they are only available for purchase there.

It may seem odd for a tech company like Acer to work together with a streetwear brand, but this kind of collaboration does happen from time to time. On a different note, if you’re looking to get a new laptop or desktop, check out Acer’s
Gear Up This Season
 promotion
. The company is throwing in a number of freebies with the purchase of selected products, including the Pestle & Mortar T-shirts above.


HTC Vive & Vive Pro Finally Land in Malaysia – Should You Still Care?

After years of waiting, HTC finally launched its two VR headsets – the HTC Vive and HTC Vive Pro – in Malaysia. But retailing from RM2,999, these are very costly VR headsets, especially in comparison to other products of its kind.

That being said, there are good reasons to get the Vive or Vive Pro, depending on what kind of VR experience you want to get. Their prices may be steep, but they’re certainly worth it for folks who like the VR headsets’ feature set and hardware.

Let’s start with the standard Vive headset. Although it was launched way back in 2016, it’s still plenty capable. It has a 3.6-inch dual AMOLED display with a combined resolution of 2160 x 1200, 90Hz refresh rate, an HDMI input, and a USB 2.0 port.

The higher-end – and considerably more expensive – Vive Pro, on the other hand, comes with several notable upgrades. It has a sharper – though a tad smaller – 3.5-inch dual AMOLED screen with a combined resolution of 2880 x 1600, the same 90Hz refresh rate, a DisplayPort 1.2 input, a USB-C port, as well as support for high-resolution audio.

On top of that, the Vive Pro also has a redesigned head strap, which is more comfortable and supportive than the Vive’s standard strap. In fact, it’s pretty similar in design to the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap, which costs
RM599 in Malaysia
.

These specifications are pretty respectable, but the Vive and Vive Pro’s most impressive feature is their ability to do room-scale tracking. However, this setup requires the use of base stations. Thankfully, the Vive Consumer Edition bundle in Malaysia includes the headset itself, two SteamVR base stations, and a pair of Vive Controllers.

In retrospect, the RM2,999 price tag for the bundle doesn’t sound
too
bad – it lets you immediately set up the Vive for room-scale tracking. Compared to “traditional” VR setups, where you’re either sitting down or standing up, room-scale tracking makes
a lot
of difference in your VR experience. The ability to “roam around” in VR games (depending on which title you’re playing) really helps with immersiveness.

But that RM2,999 bundle is only for the standard Vive headset. If you want the higher-end Vive Pro instead, that will set you back a whopping RM6,099 in Malaysia. For that kind of money, the Vive Pro Starter Kit includes the headset itself, two SteamVR base stations – the 1.0 version, unfortunately – and two Vive Controllers, just like the Vive Consumer Edition bundle.

It’s a high entry point, that’s for sure, but that’s the price you’ll have to pay for a room-scale VR experience. There
is
the Oculus Rift, of course, but even that isn’t particularly affordable or available widely; especially in our region.

Nonetheless, there is another reason why you’d want to get the Vive or Vive Pro: access to HTC’s Viveport app store. It’s one of the biggest digital stores for VR content, and if you’re keen, you can even sign up for Viveport’s
subscription service
. Every month, you can select five different paid titles to access for free. HTC said that there are over 500 titles in the digital store now.

However, note that the Viveport app store is also available to Oculus Rift owners, but not all titles are compatible with the VR headset. Needless to say, this isn’t much of an issue with the Vive and Vive Pro.

The HTC Vive and Vive Pro are expensive VR headsets, but if you want the best possible VR experience, they are arguably the best offerings in the market now. There are more budget-friendly offerings like the PlayStation VR system, but it doesn’t offer the same level of polish or immersion as HTC’s VR headsets.

Whether or not you should go for the Vive or Vive Pro, however, is an entirely different question. The Pro model will definitely offer better experience with its better hardware and features, but whether or not these are worth paying double the price of the standard Vive headset is up to each individual consumer to decide.


What Is LiFi, and Is It Better Than WiFi?

WiFi is as ubiquitous as the internet, but chances are, not many people are familiar with LiFi – Light Fidelity. On the surface, LiFi is very similar to WiFi: both technologies connect users to the internet. However, LiFi is much more than that, and it may even be better than WiFi in some cases.

We were recently invited by Signify – formerly known as Philips Lighting – to check out its LiFi implementation, where the company discussed about the advantages (and disadvantages) of the technology. Without further ado, let’s get to it.

As its name suggests, LiFi connects users to the internet through light waves, in contrast to WiFi’s use of radio waves. This makes LiFi ideal for environments where the use of WiFi (or radio waves, in general) is not ideal. In that sense, LiFi is an alternative solution to WiFi.

On top of that, as LiFi relies on light waves to transmit data, it is not affected by network congestion either. This, in turn, makes for a more stable internet connection.

So how does LiFi work in the real world? Let’s take Signify’s implementation as an example. First, you’ll need to plug in an ethernet cable to Signify’s LiFi-enabled light fixture. Once you’ve done that, all you need to do is to connect a dedicated LiFi USB access dongle to your laptop or PC.

And…that’s basically it. You’re now connected to the internet via LiFi. The light fixture will transmit data down to the LiFi dongle – this is done through modulation, where the light will “flicker” at a frequency that’s invisible to the human eye – while the dongle itself will use infrared to upload data back to the light fixture.

This sounds like something out of a futuristic concept, but it really does work as seamlessly as that. However, it is not perfect: there are a couple of disadvantages to Signify’s LiFi technology.

The most evident downside to LiFi technology – in its current state, at least – is the fact that you need a line of sight between the light fixture and LiFi dongle; nothing can come in between these two items. Say someone walks up to your desk and casts a shadow on the LiFi dongle – you’ll immediately be disconnected from the internet.

Bandwidth is also another issue. According to Signify, its current LiFi technology can only support speeds up to 30Mbps. Upload speed, on the other hand, is limited to 8Mbps. Now, “regular” users who only use the internet for web browsing and video streaming will be alright with this kind of speed, but professional users will need much more.

However, it’s worth noting that LiFi has the potential to be much,
much
faster than this – emphasis on the potential. In lab tests, scientists managed to reach speeds up to 224Gbps with LiFi. That’s
ridiculously
 fast.

Despite these disadvantages, LiFi does afford users one very vital benefit: privacy. Because you need a direct line of sight to the light fixture to get connected, there’s no way for anyone else to get access to the network without actually being in the physical space. In environments where network security is of utmost importance, LiFi will be much preferred over WiFi.

At the end of the day, LiFi isn’t here to replace WiFi – not for the time being anyway. Rather, it serves as an alternative in environments where WiFi isn’t the most ideal solution, and that’s where Signify’s LiFi technology comes in. In fact, it’s already working with a number of companies in various industries like banking and automotive to implement its LiFi system.

Currently, Signify’s LiFi solution is not available to the general public, and it will be a while before the technology is mature enough to be widely adopted. Not only is LiFi a relatively new technology, there’s also no regulation yet, unlike WiFi.

But Signify’s LiFi solution does give us a glimpse of what’s possible in the near future, and it shows that it’s very possible to implement LiFi in today’s environment. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s definitely a good start.


Armaggeddon Falcon III Mouse & MKA-11R Keyboard Quick Review: Affordable RGB Gears

Shopping for a new mouse or keyboard can be a daunting task. Not only are there a ton of choices from various manufacturers, it can be hard to justify paying through the roof for certain products. Well, if you happen to be looking for affordable gears for your new PC, consider Armaggeddon’s Falcon III gaming mouse and MKA-11R mechanical gaming keyboard.

Not only are these peripherals budget-friendly, they also come with RGB lighting – a feature normally reserved for gears well above the asking prices of these two products. Nonetheless, let’s see if the Falcon III and MKA-11R are worth the money.

What It Is

Let’s start with the Falcon III gaming mouse. It features an Avago 3325 laser sensor, “double injection” rubber sides, Japanese Omron switches, and of course, RGB lighting, which is pretty bright. On top of that, the mouse’s cable is also braided, giving it extra durability.

The MKA-11R mechanical gaming keyboard, on the other hand, comes with Outemu Blue switches – with a quoted lifespan of over 50 million clicks – high quality “KevlarTech” keycaps, and much like the Falcon III, RGB lighting.

What’s particularly unique about the MKA-11R is the fact that its Outemu switches are user-replaceable. Using the provided metal caliper, the switches can be pulled out rather easily. If you need to replace any of the keyboard’s switches, three extra switches are bundled with the keyboard.

The Good Stuff

Considering the affordable price tag of the Falcon III mouse, I’m pleasantly surprised with its performance. I had absolutely no issue gaming with the mouse, it can track my movements accurately, and it has a comfortable design. I especially love the rubber sides of the Falcon III – it feels great, and it improves grip.

As for the MKA-11R keyboard, it’s what you’d expect from a mechanical keyboard. The clicky and tactile nature of the Outemu Blue switches make for a satisfying typing experience, though this really depends on your preference. Aside from that, the various lighting effects are fun to play with too.

Personally, I dig the minimalist design of the MKA-11R. It doesn’t have an over-the-top aesthetic, and the small frame reduces the dimensions of the keyboard as much as possible.

The Bad Stuff

No peripherals are perfect, and the Falcon III has a couple of downsides. Despite its ambidextrous shape, the two thumb buttons are only on the left side of the mouse – left-handed folks won’t be able to take advantage of them. The Falcon III’s mouse wheel could’ve been better too. It works as intended, of course, but it doesn’t feel…particularly solid.

That being said, I do like the mouse’s Omron switches. They’re satisfying to click, and they don’t feel cheap either.

What about the MKA-11R keyboard? Loud. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I first typed on it. This is likely the inherent nature of Outemu Blue switches; they’re definitely louder than, say, Cherry MX Blue switches.

Another thing I don’t particularly like about the MKA-11R is its build quality. As far as I can tell, it’s made completely out of plastic, and typing on it feels…well, hollow. But to be fair, a solid typing experience is usually a characteristic of more costly mechanical keyboards, which the MKA-11R isn’t.

Is It Worth It?

If you’re in the market for a mouse and keyboard that offer value for money with RGB lighting, then yes, the Armaggeddon Falcon III mouse and MKA-11R keyboard are worth the money. In Malaysia, the Falcon III
retails at only RM99
, while the MKA-11R
goes for RM149
.

For that kind of money, not many mouse and keyboard can offer these two peripherals’ feature set and RGB lighting. The Falcon III and MKA-11R are not as refined or premium as peripherals from more established brands, but hey – they’re affordable.


Realme 2 Pro Hands-On: The New Disruptor

In the mid-range segment of smartphones, value for money is one of the most important things consumer look out for. For a device to succeed in this crowded segment, it will have to offer competent hardware at a competitive price point.

And that’s exactly what the Realme 2 Pro offers. It’s priced aggressively, it has great hardware for the money, and it’s a pretty sleek-looking device. Realme was only officially established earlier this year, but this sub-brand of Oppo may very well be onto something big here with the Realme 2 Pro.

Let’s cut to the chase and get to the most exciting part of the Realme 2 Pro first: price. For the Malaysian market, the base model with 64GB of storage and 4GB RAM retails at RM849. Another 64GB variant with more RAM at 6GB, on the other hand, goes for RM949.

But the most exciting variant of the Realme 2 Pro is the 128GB model with 8GB of RAM, which retails at RM1,099. Not only is this the only mid-range phone in the Malaysian market to offer this much RAM, it’s unheard of in this price point. Of course, you
probably don’t need that much RAM
 anyway, but it’s certainly nice to have.

So how are these retail prices competitive? For a couple of good reasons. For one, the Realme 2 Pro is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset. It’s considered to be one of the chipmaker’s best mid-range SoCs to date (it’s a step below the Snapdragon 710), and it’s fast enough to provide a pleasant user experience.

Besides that, the Realme 2 Pro also comes with a 6.3-inch 2340 x 1080 IPS display, and it’s
surprisingly
 bright and vibrant. Considering its affordable price tag, the panel quality really exceed my expectations. It’s a
really
 nice display to look at. Colours pop, texts and images look sharp, and viewing angles are great.

Design is also another strong point of the Realme 2 Pro. I love how minimal the bottom bezel is, and while I’m not thrilled about the notch (Realme calls it a “Dewdrop” notch), it’s not as intrusive as wider notches found on other devices.

On the back, the Realme 2 Pro features a glossy polycarbonate back with a “15-layer laminated technology.” To be honest, I initially thought the back panel was made of glass, especially with the way it shimmers. It’s unmistakably plastic, but it’s nice to the touch.

Speaking of which, the matte frame of the Realme 2 Pro is also made out of polycarbonate, but it feels reassuring and solid. I really appreciate the extra thickness of the frame too; measuring 8.5mm thick, I can get a good grip on the phone easily. Despite the thicker than usual chassis, however, the Realme 2 Pro only comes with a 3,500mAh battery – pretty average capacity.

I really dig the Realme 2 Pro’s overall design, but I was a little underwhelmed when I saw that it still uses a microUSB port instead of a USB-C connector. But on the bright side, it has a 3.5mm headphone jack – an increasingly rare port in today’s smartphones.

Running on ColorOS 5.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, the Realme 2 Pro’s software experience…is relatively good. Given the choice, I’d much rather use a phone that runs on stock Android, but ColorOS isn’t bad by any means. While there are some bloatware here and there (the app drawer is nowhere to be found either), the software experience still feels lightweight and fast.

Last but certainly not least is the Realme 2 Pro’s camera performance. Featuring a 16MP f/1.7 + 2MP f/2.4 dual camera system on the back, it can capture pretty good-looking shots. There’s minimal shutter delay, detail preservation is decent, and the final images look flattering. That being said, I’ve only taken shots in broad daylight – I haven’t had the chance to try out the camera’s low light performance yet.

I’ll definitely put the Realme 2 Pro’s camera through its paces once I’ve spent more time with the phone in a full review. Of course, I’ll test out the phone’s 16MP f/2.0 front-facing shooter too.

The Realme 2 Pro is an interesting mid-ranger, and its competitive price tag makes it that much more compelling. In the past, it’s usually Xiaomi devices that disrupt the market with their low price tags, but Realme takes that up a notch with this phone right here – it’s the new disruptor.

Then again, until I’ve used the Realme 2 Pro for a longer period of time, I can’t say with confidence if it’s the best mid-range phone you can buy right now. It is, however, a very, very promising smartphone with great value for money.


Pocophone F1 Review: The King of Affordable Flagships

It’s been a couple of months since the Pocophone F1 was introduced in our region, and it seems to be pretty well-received. In a price-sensitive market like ours, the phone’s success really comes as no surprise – it’s the most affordable smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, after all.

But is this fact alone enough to make the Pocophone F1 a compelling smartphone? Is this sub-brand of Xiaomi worth the hype? Considering its affordable price tag, the F1 does have a couple of drawbacks, but it’s definitely one of the best – if not
the best
 – value for money flagship you can get right now.

Specifications

Display
6.18-inch FHD+ IPS LCD (2246 x 1080)
Chipset
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 2.8GHz octa-core
GPU
Adreno 630
RAM
6GB
Storage
64/128GB, expandable
Camera (rear)
12MP f/1.9 + 5MP f/2.0, PDAF
Camera (front)
20MP f/2.0
Battery
4,000mAh
Dimensions
155.5 x 75.3 x 8.8 mm
Weight
180g
OS
MIUI 10 based on Android 8.1 Oreo
Connectivity
LTE
Bluetooth 5.0
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
USB Type-C

The Pocophone F1’s main attraction is definitely the fast Snapdragon 845 chipset; the same SoC powering a plethora of flagship devices twice – or even thrice – the F1’s asking price. Not only is it the most affordable Snapdragon 845 device, the phone’s other hardware are very good too, including the generous 4,000mAh battery.

Our review unit is the 64GB variant with 6GB of RAM, but for those who want more storage, there’s the 128GB model. If that’s still not enough, the Pocophone F1 has a microSD card slot too, not to mention a 3.5mm headphone jack. As far as hardware is concerned, the F1 does a lot of things right.

Design

Despite its all-plastic construction, the Pocophone F1 feels solid. It doesn’t creak when pressure is applied, it has a nice heft to it – it weighs 180g – and the phone’s matte finish feels nice to the touch. While it doesn’t feel quite as premium or solid as other flagship smartphones, we have to keep in mind that the F1 is much more affordable. Premium material does make a phone a lot more attractive, but it
may not matter as much as you’d think
.

On the front of the Pocophone F1 is a 6.18-inch 1080p IPS display, and yes, it has a pretty sizeable notch. So much so, in fact, that there’s no room for notification icons. If I want to check if I’ve received any notification, I’d have to pull down on the notification shade; it can get quite annoying.

Besides the notched display, I’m not a fan of the F1’s bottom bezel either. While it’s still relatively small, it’s not as minimal as the bezel of, say, the OnePlus 6.

But as a whole, I’m quite fond of the Pocophone F1’s design. The rear fingerprint sensor’s placement, for one, is easy to reach with my index finger. The slightly tapered back panel also makes it a comfortable device to hold for long periods of time.

Pocophone’s no-nonsense design approach with the F1 is clever. It’s a functional design, and the fact that it’s made from inexpensive material further drives down the manufacturing cost of the phone. This, in turn, makes it possible for the device to be as affordable as it is – it’s a really smart approach.

User Experience

My unit of the Pocophone F1 is running on a beta version of MIUI 10, and for the most part, it feels lightweight and fast. However, I did face a couple of software issues. On more than one occasion, I had several apps, including Facebook and Google Maps, freeze up on me. However, this seems to happen at random – I couldn’t replicate it often enough for it to be a huge issue.

Aside from that, some of my notifications weren’t showing up in the notification shade either. One moment it was there, and the next thing I know, it was gone. On top of that, MIUI only allows you to dismiss notifications with a right swipe – swiping left reveals the snooze option instead.

Nonetheless, do keep in mind that I’m running a beta version of MIUI 10 on the Pocophone F1. There’s a very good chance the final version of the software won’t suffer from these small, niggling issues. And as a whole, MIUI 10 does run just fine on this phone. Bloatware are not aplenty, there’s an app drawer, and most importantly, the software doesn’t feel like it’s slowing the phone down.

Next, we have the Pocophone F1’s 6.18-inch 1080p IPS display, which is pleasant to look at. Colours are vibrant, viewing angles are great, and the 1080p resolution is just fine for a display this size. If I were to nitpick, I’d say the colour temperature of the display is a little bit too cool. Thankfully, you can adjust the screen’s colour temperature to your liking in the settings page.

Naturally, performance is without a doubt great on the Pocophone F1. Gaming on it is a joy, I can multitask without any issue, and switching between different apps is fast and zippy. This isn’t unexpected, of course: the Snapdragon 845 is Qualcomm’s best chipset to date.

Speaking of fast, I’m pleasantly surprised at how quickly the Pocophone F1’s face unlock feature works. It can identify my face quickly even in complete darkness – thanks to the front-facing infrared sensor – and if you’re not a big fan of this feature, you can still rely on the equally quick rear fingerprint sensor.

And then we have one of the best aspects of the Pocophone F1: battery life. Featuring a 4,000mAh battery, I managed to get well over seven hours of screen on time with this phone. On certain days, I even managed to stretch it to
eight hours
 – that’s ridiculously long.

Throughout the review period, I had no trouble at all getting to the end of a typical work day with the F1, and I’m a pretty heavy smartphone user. I do a lot of mobile gaming, web browsing, and instant messaging. I reckon it’s very possible for lighter users to get up to two days of usage with this phone.

Charging rate of the Pocophone F1, on the other hand, isn’t quite as impressive. Within 30 minutes of charging, the phone only charged up to 35%. I tested this by draining the phone completely before connecting it to the provided charger without powering up the device.

As a whole, the Pocophone F1 is a pleasant phone to use. The only thing I’m not particularly fond of is just MIUI. Beyond the shortcomings in the software experience, I thoroughly enjoyed using the phone as my daily driver.

Camera

If there’s one thing affordable smartphones have in common, it’s mediocre camera performance. Thankfully, this isn’t the case with the Pocophone F1. Well, not entirely anyway.

Equipped with a 12MP f/1.9 + 5MP f/2.0 dual camera system, the Pocophone F1 rear cameras performed admirably regardless of lighting conditions. The camera is great in daytime, as expected, and though its low light performance could still use some work, it’s pretty darn good for a phone at this price point.

More often than not, most affordable smartphones’ camera interface gets sluggish in low light conditions, but not the Pocophone F1. Not only is the shutter delay kept to a minimum, the shooting experience is still fun in challenging lighting situations. That’s not something I can’t say for some smartphones that cost much more than the F1.

However, it’s wishful thinking to say that the Pocophone F1 has flagship-tier camera performance; that’s simply not the case. But at the same time, it can take better-looking shots than the majority of mid-range smartphones,
especially
those in this price range. The F1 does not have an amazing camera system, but it’s definitely a really good one.

Competition

In Malaysia, the 64GB variant of the Pocophone F1 retails at RM1,299, while the 128GB model goes for RM1,599 – very competitive price tags. Not many phones can offer the kind of hardware the F1 has in this price point, but there are some that come close.

Xiaomi Mi 8

Yeap, one of the Pocophone F1’s closest rivals is from its own family. The Xiaomi Mi 8 offers the same Snapdragon 845 chipset as the F1, a more impressive 6.21-inch 1080p AMOLED display, a superior 12MP + 12MP dual camera system, relatively similar software experience, as well as a more premium design. How much does the phone cost? RM1,599 for the 64GB model with 6GB of RAM, which is only RM300 more than the 64GB Pocophone F1.

That being said, the F1 does outperform the Mi 8 in several key areas. The F1’s 4,000mAh battery, for one, will return better battery life than the Mi 8’s smaller 3,400mAh cell. On top of that, the Mi 8 lacks expandable storage and a 3.5mm headphone jack too – both of these are available on the F1.

Honor Play

Another interesting alternative to the Pocophone F1 is the Honor Play. Even though the Play comes with a slightly slower Huawei Kirin 970 chipset, it has a larger 6.3-inch 1080p IPS display, a sturdier all-metal chassis, and 64GB of expandable storage, much like the F1. Aside from that, Honor’s offering is slightly more affordable as well, retailing at only RM1,249.

But for only RM50 more, the Pocophone F1 offers a higher level of performance, more RAM at 6GB (instead of only 4GB), a bigger 4,000mAh cell than the Honor Play’s 3,750mAh battery, and better camera performance. The F1’s polycarbonate body may not be as enticing as the Play’s all-metal chassis, but you’re getting a superior device in almost every way.

Conclusion

The Pocophone F1 offers flagship performance at an affordable price point, and this alone makes it an extremely compelling smartphone. Couple that with excellent battery life; decent camera performance;
and
 desirable features like expandable storage; you have yourself a very complete, very well-rounded flagship device.

Should you get the Pocophone F1 over any other flagship smartphone? Well, not exactly. While it offers fantastic value for money, its software experience, build quality, and camera performance still pale in comparison to “proper” flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Huawei P20 Pro. But those high-end devices are not directly competing with the Pocophone F1. Rather, the F1 is competing with devices in its price range, which is mostly made up of mid-range smartphones.

I am really impressed with the Pocophone F1’s value proposition, and if Pocophone can deliver such a compelling device on its first attempt, I absolutely cannot wait to see what the company has in store for its next smartphone.


Should You Build Your Own PC?

Building a brand new PC from scratch can be daunting, but it’s not an impossible task. In fact, it’s not all that difficult once you get the hang of it; some folks may even find the experience quite entertaining.

Even if you’re completely new to PC hardware, it’s definitely worth giving the idea of building your own desktop a consideration. Here are a few reasons why you’d want to do just that, and trust us: it’s very rewarding.

Customisation

As you’ll be picking your own parts for your PC, you can customise it to your heart’s content. Want a portable machine? Get a smaller case. Want more storage drives? Just buy more drives as and when you need them. The possibilities are practically endless.

The most important part is, you’re not stuck with whatever hardware configuration PC manufacturers have chosen for their desktop machines. And that’s not the only downside of pre-built PCs, which brings us to our next point.

Upgradability

Usually, pre-built PCs parts cannot be upgraded to your liking. Building your own PC, on the other hand, affords you the opportunity to upgrade – or buy – individual parts whenever you want. Say you’ve got the funds to build most of your machine, but you don’t have quite enough for that shiny new Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU. That’s fine: just build your machine first, and get the GPU at a later time.

While you won’t be able to do some serious gaming until you have the GPU, you can still do some light gaming by relying on the processor’s integrated GPU. That’s the beauty of a custom-built PC.

That being said, things have changed to an extent: some PC makers are making it much easier for customers to upgrade their PCs on their own. However, there is one thing PC manufacturers can’t (usually) offer in comparison to building your own machine: value for money.

Price

This is perhaps the best reason to build your own desktop machine. As you’ll be buying different parts of your PC individually, you can look around to get the best deals. This is especially true if you get your PC parts from online retailers on Lazada, Shopee, and other e-commerce sites. The moment you see a good deal on any particular hardware, grab it.

Of course, if you opt to do this, it will be a time-consuming process. But say you want to get your components at the same time; certain retailers offer discounts if you buy all of your PC parts from them. This comes down to your  bargaining skills, but more often than not, most retailers have bundle deals – especially bigger hardware retailers.

Better Warranty

This is a bit of a mixed bag. While it’s much easier to send in a pre-built PC for warranty purposes (depending on the manufacturer you got it from), individual hardware parts usually come with longer warranties. Pre-built PCs normally come with a year’s warranty, but PC hardware may be under warranty for as long  as two to five years.

It
can
be a hassle to claim for warranty with individual PC parts, but hey, at least you still have your system if you need to send some parts in for warranty claim. Pre-built PCs don’t have that luxury.

It’s Fun!

Last but certainly not least is the fun factor of building your own PC. Now, this is a subjective thing, but I can say from personal experience that it’s a rewarding experience. From researching which PC part to get, to the actual building process. Once you got your brand new PC up and running, it’s a really satisfying feeling.

The hardest hurdle to cross to start building your own PC is the research process. It’s not as easy as looking for, say, a new laptop, but finding out what each part of your PC does can be really fun.

Without a doubt it won’t be an easy process, and with that in mind, keep an eye out for a PC build guide from us – it will especially appeal to gamers who are looking to get an AMD-oriented, value for money gaming rig.


How to Build a PC – Step-By-Step Video Guide

So you’ve got your PC parts, and you’re ready to start building your own PC – where do you start? Well, we’re here to help with just that. In this article, we’ll show you how to put your PC parts together to get a complete system.

You need five main components to build a functional PC: motherboard, processor, RAM, storage drive, and PSU. Of course, these are the bare minimum. To really complete your PC, you’ll also need a graphics card for better gaming performance, and a case to house (and protect) all of your components. With that said, let’s start building your PC!

Outside the Case

In our PC build guide video above, we’re setting up the motherboard outside of the case first to make sure that it will actually boot up. There are a couple of reasons why we’re doing this: it’s much easier to install the parts and troubleshoot any possible issue without the cramped enclosure of a case, and if any of the PC components are faulty, you won’t have to go through the trouble of disassembling the system to send it in for warranty.

To check if your system will boot up, you’ll need to install the processor, RAM, and PSU to the motherboard – we’ll start with the processor.

Processor

In order to install the processor, look for a small triangle on the chip itself. Once you’ve figured out where it is, lift up the bar beside the CPU socket on the motherboard, and line up the processor’s arrow with the arrow on the motherboard.

Now, place the processor onto the socket
gently
 – we cannot stress this enough. It should just fall into place without force, and when you got the processor aligned with the socket, bring down the bar. Install the stock fan next (it has thermal paste pre-applied), and you’re done with the processor’s installation.

RAM

Next is the RAM. If you bought a kit with two RAM sticks, make sure they are inserted in alternating slots; that’s how they can work in dual-channel mode. Aside from that, make sure that your RAM is facing the right direction – the middle notch in the RAM should go into the slot easily. Open the tab at either sides of the slot, insert the RAM, and push it in until you hear a distinct click.

PSU

Okay, we only need to connect the PSU to the motherboard now to check if the system boots up. Connect the 24-pin power connector to the motherboard, and use an eight-pin connector to provide power to the CPU. Do that, and you’re ready to power up your system.

Graphics Card (Dependent)

This is an extra step for those who are installing a Ryzen CPU like the one in our system. The thing is, unlike Intel processors, Ryzen CPUs (besides the G series) do not come with any integrated GPU. In order for the PC to display, well, anything, you’ll need a graphics card.

Installing a graphics card is easy. Find for the PCIe slot, open the tab, and push in your graphics card to the slot. Depending on what kind of GPU you have, you may need to provide power to it from the PSU. For example, certain variants of the Radeon RX 560 don’t have PSU connectors; they only need to draw power from the motherboard. But if your GPU does need power from the PSU like our RX 580 graphics card, find the appropriate cable that comes with your PSU, and plug it to the GPU.

Once you’ve done that, connect your system to a monitor, and see if it boots up. If it does, great, these parts are working properly. You’re now ready to install the motherboard to your case.

Oh, don’t forget to take out the GPU if you have it installed like we do – it’s much easier to place the motherboard into the case without the GPU attached to it.

Inside the Case

Now, we need to put all of these parts into a case. Of course, you don’t
have
to put your PC components into a case, but it
will
protect your precious hardware from the elements. Not only can it protect these sensitive components from dust, a case also discourages anyone from touching them – especially if you have kids around. Better airflow is also another reason why you’d want to get a case.

Nonetheless, let’s get to it.

PSU

Before we put in the motherboard, install the PSU to your case first, and exactly how you do this will depend on the case you get. Generally, you’d want to make sure that the PSU’s fan is facing down; this will allow it to draw cool air from the bottom of the case. Aside from that, make sure the switch and power cable connector is directly accessible outside of the case.

Secure your PSU to your case with the provided screws (these should come with the case), and you’re done with this part.

Installing the Motherboard

These steps will vary depending on the case you get. For ours, the standoff screws where the motherboard will be placed on are already installed. Line up the screw holes with the motherboard’s, and secure it to the case with the provided screws. Again, these should come with your PC case.

If your motherboard comes with a separate IO shield, install that first to your case before placing your motherboard. Our particular motherboard has the IO shield built-in, so we can skip this step. Like what we did outside of the case earlier in the build, you now need to provide power to the motherboard and CPU by connecting the appropriate cables from the PSU to the dedicated pins.

Last but certainly not least is connecting the cables from the case to the motherboard, and these may include power cables from the case’s built-in fans. Look for the appropriate labels on the motherboard (refer to the manual otherwise) and insert these connectors accordingly.

Storage Drives

Now, get either your HDD or SSD, and insert it to your case. From there, you need to connect two cables to it: a SATA power cable from the PSU (to provide power), and a SATA data cable, which is then connected to the motherboard.

Our build uses a standard HDD along with an M.2 SSD. The latter, as its name suggests, is installed into an M.2 slot on the motherboard. And that’s it – power is drawn from the motherboard itself.

Graphics Card (Again)

Finally, all we need to do now is install the graphics card…for the second time, in our case. First, line up the graphics card with the PCIe slot, and check how many expansion slots you’ll have to take out from the case in order to install the GPU. Remove as many as necessary (usually two slots), plug in your GPU to the PCIe slot, screw it to the case, and provide power to the GPU with the appropriate power cable from the PSU – if necessary.

And that’s it! Right now, you’ll have a bunch of wires running through your PC. Tidy them up as much as you want, and you are done building your PC.

There are two things to focus on in our build: the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor, and the PowerColor Radeon RX 580 graphics card. We will be reviewing this CPU and GPU combo in the next couple of weeks, and it’s the very reason why we’re building this system.

Anyway, we’re not quite done yet with our PC build guide. In the next video, we’ll cover the software side of things, where we will install Windows 10 on our brand new PC. Once we’ve done that, we’ll have our PC up and running. Until then, stay tuned to
Nextrift’s YouTube channel
!


Smartphone Buyer’s Guide: Battery Size Is Not Everything

One of the most important features of any device is battery life, and it’s a pain point for most folks. Chances are, you’ve brought your power bank out with your phone before because you’re running out of battery. This is especially true if your device is a few years old.

With that in mind, most consumers looking to get a new phone will want a device with a large battery capacity. However, a large battery does not equal to long battery life, and vice versa. There are a number of other factors to consider, including display, chipset, and most importantly, software optimisation.

Let’s talk about software first, which I’d argue affects battery life the most – after battery capacity, of course. The best example here is iOS versus Android. The thing is, iPhones typically have
tiny
 batteries in comparison to their Android counterparts. Take the new iPhone XS Max: it only has a 3,174mAh battery. That’s much smaller than the battery capacity of most Android flagships, which can
go up to 4,200mAh
.

That being said, iPhones still have very good battery life; it’s actually quite amazing how long they can last despite having such “small” battery capacities. Imagine if Apple had put in even larger batteries into their iPhones – it may even outlast most Android devices.

So how is this possible? Software optimisation. In comparison to the fragmented nature of the Android platform, the closed ecosystem of iOS makes it much easier for Apple to optimise its mobile operating system. When it comes to software optimisation, there’s no denying the fact that iOS is superior to Android.

The next most crucial factor that affects battery life is a device’s chipset. Depending on the core configuration and size of the processor, it can impact battery life quite a bit. There are typically two types of cores in a chipset: lower-clocked, power-efficient cores, and high performance cores with faster clock speeds. How a particular chip switches between these two kinds of cores will determine how much power it draws.

Size of the chipset is equally important too. Currently, there are mostly 10nm processors in the market, which include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 and Samsung’s Exynos 9810 SoC. More recently, however, smaller 7nm chipsets are being introduced – the Huawei Kirin 980 and Apple’s A12 Bionic processors are built on 7nm processes.

It’s a simple rule of thumb: the smaller the chip is, the more power-efficient it is. Moving forward, expect the latest processors powering the next generation of phones to be smaller in size. 7nm – or even 8nm – chipsets may make headlines next year.

Last but not least is display, one of the most power-hungry hardware. Obviously, larger screens will draw more power, and the same goes for higher resolution panels. Both the battery and GPU of a phone will need to power more pixels as the resolution increases.

Panel technology also affects how much power is drawn. Generally, OLED panels are more power-efficient, as each pixel is individually lit as and when it is necessary. Contrast this with LCD screens, which need some form of backlighting for illumination. This, in turn, draws more power than necessary.

On top of that, OLED displays are especially power-efficient when displaying blacks – the pixels are completely switched off in this case. This also means OLED panels have high contrast ratio, a desirable trait for any high quality display.

Battery size does give us an indication of how long a device can last on a single charge, but don’t take it as a final metric; battery life is not determined by battery capacity alone. Whenever you’re  shopping for your next smartphone, keep this in mind.

Of course, if battery life is your main concern, it’s good to narrow down your choices to devices with larger battery capacities. Smartphones with batteries larger than 3,500mAh are generally alright, such as the
Pocophone F1
 and
Huawei Mate 20 Pro
.


The Leather-Bound HP Spectre Folio Convertible Lands in Malaysia for RM7,999

Update, 13 June 2019:
 Surprise surprise, the HP Spectre Folio has just been launched in Malaysia. It retails at RM7,999 for the Intel Core i5-8200Y variant, while the higher-end Core i7-8500Y model goes for RM8,299. The Spectre Folio is exclusively available from Harvey Norman in Cognac Brown.

The original article follows.

We often associate high-end, premium gadgets with
equally premium material
 like metal, glass, and to some extent, even leather. Well, the latter is exactly what HP had in mind with the HP Spectre Folio. Wrapped in genuine leather, the Folio has the appearance of a leather-bound notebook when it’s closed.

But once you’ve opened it, you’ll see the Folio’s very unique-looking design. However, beyond its unique appearance, is there anything else to like about the Folio? Let’s find out.

Design is the main highlight of the Spectre Folio, so let’s talk about it first. According to HP, the Folio’s leather exterior is integrated with the convertible itself. It’s not just a simple casing that you can take off, for better or worse.

That being said, HP did mention that the leather is designed for disassembly, suggesting that it may be possible to replace it in the future. After all, it
is
 leather; it’s bound to wear down eventually, and it’ll be bad design if it’s not replaceable at all.

Nonetheless, the Folio’s leather exterior do feel exquisite and premium. It adds a touch of luxury not many laptops in the market can offer.

Unlike most convertible machines in the market now, the Folio’s 2-in-1 design is quite different. It opens up like a normal laptop, but you can actually unhinge the bottom part of the display and place it right above the trackpad. From there, you can even completely flatten the Folio to use it as a tablet, though do note that this is a pretty heavy machine – it tips the scales at 1.5kg.

It’s quite a clever design, but I do wish the Folio’s display can be moved further back. The hinge only allows the display to be pushed back far enough for a comfortable viewing angle when you’re using it on a desk, but say you’re trying to type a quick email on your lap. The limited angle may prove to be cumbersome.

Powering the Spectre Folio is Intel’s eight generation Core i5-8200Y or Core-i7-8500Y. That’s right, the Folio is running on Intel’s low-power, Y series processors. While they’re not quite as powerful as the chipmaker’s U series chips, it allows the Folio to use a fanless design. Some sacrifices has to be made to give the convertible its unique leather chassis.

Processing power aside, the Folio also comes with a 13.3-inch 1920 x 1080 IPS touch display protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 (with stylus support), up to 16GB of RAM, and NVMe SSD storage with capacities ranging from 256GB to a whopping 2TB. On top of that, HP will introduce a higher-end model with a 4K display in the near future too.

Speaking of display, the Folio has a pretty good display. It’s pleasant to look at, colours are punchy, viewing angles are great, and it can get quite bright as well. My only gripe with the display is the amount of bezels surrounding it. In a landscape where more and more laptops have very slim bezels, the Folio’s thick bezels don’t look particularly attractive.

Arguably the most important hardware on a laptop are the keyboard and trackpad, and both of these are quite decent on the Spectre Folio. The keyboard doesn’t have particularly great amount of travel, but the tactile keys make for a decent typing experience. The leather palm rest is comfortable to rest on too.

As for the Folio’s glass trackpad, my fingers can glide effortlessly on its smooth surface, and it’s largely accurate too. Even though the trackpad isn’t particularly big, it’s large enough to not feel cramped. Trackpad gestures also work great on this convertible.

The HP Spectre Folio is a unique convertible. Its leather chassis gives it a premium look and feel, and it has a clever – though imperfect – 2-in-1 design. That being said, this is a very costly machine. In the US, it retails from a whopping $1,299. You also have to live with USB-C ports only; the Folio has three of them.

HP is taking a unique approach with the Folio, and it’ll be interesting to see how this approach will benefit the brand in the near future. If you’re keen to get it, don’t hold your breath: HP has no plan to bring in the Folio to the Malaysian market for the time being.


Netflix Is Testing New Mobile-Only Plan; Should You Get It?

Earlier this week, rumour of Netflix testing a new, more affordable plan focusing only on mobile devices started making its round on the internet. Lo and behold, the extremely popular streaming service did just that. Well, for certain markets, anyway.

One such market is Malaysia, and we’re going to discuss if it’s worth subscribing to, especially if the plan is available to you.

Before we get to it, do note that current Netflix subscribers cannot sign up for the plan – it’s simply not available to them. Rather, only new subscribers has access to the new mobile-only subscription tier. It’s probably because of this reason that this plan is only a test at this point in time.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, should you sign up for the new plan? Only if you plan to stream Netflix exclusively on your mobile device. As its name suggests, you can only access Netflix either on a smartphone or tablet. You can’t use the service on a laptop, and obviously, you can’t do so on a TV either. Then again, the question still remains whether or not you can cast to a TV from your mobile device with this plan.

But what makes the new mobile-only subscription such an attractive plan is its price. In Malaysia, it’s priced at only RM17. In comparison, the next most affordable plan costs RM33, which is still limited to only one screen at a time. You do, however, have the freedom to stream on a laptop or TV, but you’ll be paying almost double the price for it. Besides that, both of these plans are also limited to only SD quality – you don’t get HD or Ultra HD (obviously) streaming.

Without a doubt the mobile-only subscription plan offers great value for money, but this is only if you plan on using Netflix as a single individual. If you have others who also want to sign up to the streaming service – especially family members – this new plan is not the best choice.

Of course, we’re talking about account sharing. Although this isn’t in line with Netflix’s terms of use, the CEO of the company, Reed Hastings, encourages this practice. However, Hastings did mention that this should be limited to family members. Personally, we agree: sharing your password with a random stranger isn’t advisable.

So with that in mind, which is the most ideal subscription tier for sharing with other people? The premium plan. For the Malaysian market, it costs RM51, and this tier offers simultaneous streaming on four screens, as well as HD and Ultra HD quality.

Since this plan offers four screens, you can share this plan with up to four different individuals. If you were to split the cost evenly, each of them will only have to fork out RM12.75 – that’s more affordable than the new RM17 mobile-only plan. It gets even better if you happen to be using an iOS device in Malaysia: the premium plan costs RM49.90 instead of RM51. It’s only a slight difference, but hey, it’s still more affordable.

However, you can do this if you
have
 four different people to share with, which is not always possible. But let’s say you’re sharing the premium account with two people – that’s still only RM25.50 each. Considering the fact that you can get Ultra HD streaming and the ability to stream on a laptop or a TV with this plan, the slight extra is pretty darn worth it.

Nonetheless, Netflix’s new mobile-only plan is certainly a very good deal for those who don’t plan to share their account with anyone. It doesn’t necessarily offer the best value for money (assuming you have people to share your account with), but hey, we imagine it will appeal to some folks. After all, account sharing isn’t something everyone is comfortable with, even with family members.