Review – ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481F

As far as laptops are concerned, I think ASUS is daring enough to drastically change how a traditional keyboard looks and works. The latest ZenBook Duo UX481F is a testament to that – and I have spent a lot of time with this laptop. Here is our full review of this laptop.
I think we should first mention that the new ZenBook Duo UX481F now has ScreenPad Plus instead of having a screen on the touchpad like last year’s ZenBook Pro UX580G, which we reviewed here.

The ZenBook Duo UX481F is the 14-inch version, whereas the ZenBook Pro Duo UX581G is the 15-inch version. They both have quite a lot of differences, so we sat down with Tech Critter and shared our user experience with the new ZenBooks with ScreenPad Plus.

Unboxing
Opening up the box here, we can see that the packaging design is overall just simple and plain. The 14-inch version comes in this box that is covered with soft-touch material and opened by lifting up the lid.

Inside the box, we get a few things:

ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481F
Power brick
ASUS Active Stylus SA200H
Carrying sleeve

I find the exclusion of replacement pen tips of the Active Stylus to be really weird here because the pen’s tip will surely wear off over time – especially since the ScreenPad Plus has an aggressive matte finish. Perhaps ASUS will sell them as replacements instead?
ASUS also included a sleeve to carry the laptop around with, and it’s nothing new in terms of design and quality. The only thing new here is the pearl white color scheme.
Design, ports
The overall aesthetic of the ZenBook Duo UX481F is really clean. It is only available in the Celestial Blue color – which essentially is dark blue, and retains the iconic ZenBook concentric circle design on the lid itself. The entire laptop is made out of metal, by the way.

While some might say the laptop is thicc, I say the laptop is quite okay in terms of thickness because I understand it in terms of engineering. The ScreenPad Plus requires a certain thickness to be fitted in, and yet the motherboard and cooling systems will still need to be placed underneath the ScreenPad Plus. No qualms here – yet.
The ZenBook Duo UX481F comes with quite a good selection of ports here.

Power jack
HDMI
USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A (10Gb/s)
USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C (10Gb/s)

Power indicator LED
Battery indicator LED
MicroSD card reader
Combo audio jack
USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A (5Gb/s)

I’m personally okay with the list of ports here, though having a Thunderbolt 3 port here would have sweetened the deal here. That microSD card slot is a great touch, by the way. Maybe include a full-sized SD card reader in the future?
Screen(s), trackpad, keyboard
I feel like for the ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481F, these 3 things go hand-in-hand. Once I opened up the lid of this laptop, I realized that the engineers need to make sure that these 3 things are able to fit together, alongside the ScreenPad Plus.
Screen(s)
The ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481F here comes with a 14-inch 1080p screen without touch capability. It’s a really nice screen too, by the way. I immediately noticed the bright, beautiful colors on the main display when I started up Chrome and browsed around my frequently-visited websites. While the specs just say 72% NTSC coverage, I think the color accuracy here is pretty good.

As for the ScreenPad Plus, ASUS also opted in for a touch-sensitive 12.6-inch screen with the resolution of 1920×515. The ScreenPad Plus itself also has a great display with good colors, but ASUS opted for a rough matte finish instead of a finer matte finish on the main display.

As a prosumer, I presume that ASUS did this to further minimize glare and reflections because of how the display is positioned. The matte finish on the ScreenPad Plus also makes it feel more like paper while using the ASUS Active Stylus SA200H to write on it. Though, the matte finish does make smaller texts a little fuzzy.
This screen is useful for a number of things – I’ve tried using it in these scenarios, and they all work great.

Spotify as a touch-screen jukebox on the laptop itself.
Other documents for referencing.
YouTube while working on other things on the main screen.
Drawing on the ScreenPad Plus. It works, but a bit awkward.
Messaging apps (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc).
Using Premiere Pro with the timeline on the ScreenPad Plus.

I can also mix and match between any of the two scenarios by splitting the ScreenPad Plus into two halves – so I can have Spotify on the left side and have other documents on the right side.
Funny enough, I think some apps like Synthesia can utilize the ScreenPad Plus by having the notes displayed on the main screen while the ScreenPad Plus is where I can touch the piano.
The ScreenPad Plus does have its own software here called ScreenXpert. It has a few built-in apps like handwriting, number pad, and also acts as a companion to fling apps and windows between the main display and the ScreenPad Plus.
Trackpad
Cramped to the far right side of the ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481F, the trackpad is obviously tiny. However, that does not hinder the performance of the trackpad. I find it to be quite okay to be used as its glass surface with a very fine matte finish makes my finger glide on it with buttery smoothness. Since it is using Windows Precision Touchpad driver, I can still use all of the Windows gestures – albeit a little difficult due to its size.

I find myself using the trackpad as if I am using an ergonomic right-handed only mouse because of its location and elevation.
The clickers are decent enough though a little squishy for my liking, but perfectly fine since the trackpad and its clickers are positions in such a manner. That squishiness actually makes it easy to be clicked at such awkward angles.
Keyboard
I honestly have the most issues with the keyboard here. Let me explain part by part.
ASUS opted for a netbook keyboard instead of a more standard-sized laptop keyboard. I understand that they’re doing this because of the limited space, too. And ASUS got a few things right here – the arrow keys are not cramped to half-height, and the necessary shortcuts are here.

Each and every key here feels real good to type on. The travel distance, bounce back, and actuation force made the keyboard feel great to type on. But those are the only good things I have to say about the keyboard.
A netbook-styled keyboard means each individual keys are smaller in size, and the layout of the keys have to be further modified. My biggest issue with the keyboard is the location of the right shift key – because I use that key while typing. Now, I keep hitting the arrow up key.

Also, why are there two screenshot buttons? There’s the usual print screen key, and then the F11 key’s function is Windows’ native snipping feature. Why do we need both when Windows 10 has the option to change
Using the ScreenPad Plus on the ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481F
I honestly think that ASUS is really daring to do such a design on a laptop. Last year, we have the ScreenPad. This year, we have the ScreenPad Plus – an additional strip of screen on the keyboard area.
Every video editors’ wet dream.
However, I personally think ASUS could have done better for the ScreenPad Plus. There are a few glaring issues here, and I need to list it out:

The ScreenPad Plus behaves as though the display has been unplugged from the laptop when I close the lid of this laptop.
The brightness resets itself to about 50% each time the laptop is plugged/unplugged from the power source.
The ScreenXpert Launcher button is clickable via mouse. That gets in the way of other clickable elements on the screen. ASUS should have made it touch-only.

Especially for issues number 1 and 2, they shouldn’t happen on a laptop. Each time the ScreenPad Plus turns off, all of the arranged windows are messed up. That’s very frustrating to use!
And then comes the biggest problem that I have with this ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481F – the ergonomics, or lack thereof.
Ergonomics is an issue despite having the steepest ErgoLift hinge ever.
For someone like me who is rather tall, I find the ZenBook Duo UX481F is just way too scrunched up. If I sit ergonomically and use the laptop, then the ScreenPad Plus will suffer from total internal reflection. Setting the ScreenPad Plus to 100% brightness does not help with this issue at all, by the way.
Then, if I want to look at the ScreenPad Plus, I will have to move my body forward and to look down straight onto the ScreenPad Plus itself. While I was typing this review on the ZenBook Duo UX481F itself, I needed to look at the second display here for notes – and I find it really annoying to constantly move my body back and forth and for me to look downwards.
After using it for just an hour, my neck hurts. The ergonomics just aren’t done properly here. Let’s not forget that the keyboard is off-center and cramped. The lack of a wrist rest means my fingers are floating in the air while typing on the keyboard. Currently, my solution is to prop up the laptop even further with a phone box. That makes both the keyboard and wrist rest unusable, but both the main display and ScreenPad Plus is at a very nice angle.
Perhaps make the ScreenPad Plus tiltable.
However, here’s my proposal to how ASUS can fix all of these issues, firstly: make the ScreenPad Plus tiltable upwards. This will fix the body-moving and neck-twisting issues. By tilting the ScreenPad Plus upwards at about 30°, I can sit back and use the laptop ergonomically without hurting my neck.
Secondly, remove the trackpad entirely, then make both screens touch-capable and also include a wireless mouse in the box together with the laptop itself. I think since ASUS is already dwelling in such uncharted territories, might as well remove the trackpad and center the keyboard, and use conventional 14-inch laptop keyboards. I mean, ASUS already showed off their Project Precog at Computex 2018, so I think they already have the intention of removing the trackpad.
Performance, battery life
Let’s first take a look at the specs of the ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481F that we have here:

Intel Core i7-10510U
16GB DDR4-2133 (soldered)
NVIDIA GeForce MX250 with 2GB VRAM
512GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x2)

In terms of performance, I think the ZenBook Duo UX481F handles its tasks pretty well. I can edit 1080p 60fps videos on Premiere Pro on this laptop.
Have a look at these benchmarks here.

However, I do notice that the fans (yes, plural) of the ZenBook Duo UX481F are whiny and we all thought that there was something wrong with the laptop. But that’s because ASUS is using two tiny fans inside the laptop to cool the components. They’re situated around the middle of the laptop, placed side by side.
The temperature on this laptop is kept very well under control as the CPU is at most 85°C and the GPU never reaches 65°C.

The SSD in this laptop is pretty good in performance as well. It is using SK Hynix HFM512GDJTNG-8310A NVMe SSD which runs off of PCIe Gen 3 x2, and the speeds are pretty much as expected. It’s rare to use up all of its speeds, honestly.
Battery life
The battery life on the ZenBook Duo UX481F is just fantastic. I was using this laptop for the whole day – and the battery drops really, really slowly. ASUS included a 70Wh battery here, by the way.
Since this laptop has a secondary display built-in, I configured the ScreenPad Plus to be at 100% brightness and with a YouTube video running for the entire time alongside a reference webpage on the side. On the main display at 50% brightness, I just have this text editor as I am typing out the review for this particular laptop.
With the use case established, this amazing ZenBook Duo UX481F can easily last for about 7-8 hours of usage on battery. And that’s just mindblowing considering the amount of work that could have been done while on the go – if the ergonomic issues do not exist.

As for charging, we left the laptop alone for it to charge and it takes about 2 hours to reach 100%. That’s pretty fast considering that we can get extremely long usage times out of a single charge.
Maintenance and upgradability
The ZenBook Duo UX481F is actually pretty easy to maintain. There is an array of holes at the back for air to get to the two fans inside the laptop, and that is the one part that will clog up over time.

To clean the fans, all you need to do is take out ten T5 Torx screws that are around the perimeter of the backplate. 6 of the 10 screws are placed underneath the rubber plugs which I don’t see any advantages of them being there other than for aesthetics. After removing all the screws, the backplate can be easily popped off.

Inside the laptop, we can see the two whiny fans and also the entire cooling system that is inside this laptop. It’s great to see ASUS including a total of three(!!!) different heatpipes in this laptop – one medium-sized for the GPU, one wide-sized for the CPU, and the slimmest one for the CPU VRM. All heatpipes are separated from each other and conduct heat to the heatsink where the two whiny fans blow wind through.
ASUS also included a piece of thermal pad for the NVMe SSD.
In terms of upgradability, the only part that can be swapped out are the M.2 SSD, the battery, the fans, and speakers. Everything else is soldered onto the board itself – even the WLAN chip. This is obviously not ideal, but considering the laptop still needs to be relatively thin while a portion of it is occupied by another screen, I can understand why it is made as such.

Wrapping up the ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481F review
I just have to say – I love the entire idea of a strip of screen like the ScreenPad Plus. It’s functional and applicable for a variety of different use case scenarios. It’s great to have companies creating a product like this – it’s different, but not too different.
The whole idea of the ScreenPad Plus is a huge undertaking by ASUS. No one else has made such a thing, and Windows does not have any software developed specifically for this screen. ASUS have to develop a brand new engine to bridge Windows and the ScreenPad Plus functionality together.

However, the ScreenPad Plus in the ZenBook Duo UX481F is obviously a first-gen product. The lack of polish in the final product is glaringly obvious as it is physically painful to use this laptop because of the ergonomics.
I still think that ASUS could have fixed many of the glaring issues by making the ScreenPad Plus tiltable upwards. Maybe remove the trackpad entirely in favor of a bigger keyboard?
I am interested to see what ASUS can do in the next generation of the ZenBook Duo. Ergonomics aside, I am already having a fantastic time as a writer, video editor, and researcher while working on the ZenBook Duo UX481F.

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NVIDIA GTC 2023 is giving out a free RTX 3080 Ti to one lucky winner who joins the event

There’s one chance you can earn yourself a powerful GPU without paying anything and that’s through the upcoming NVIDIA GTC 2023 event.

Slated to run from March 20 to March 23 as we previously reported, NVIDIA Malaysia is going to bless one lucky winner from Malaysia who is aged 18 and above who participates in the event so here’s how you can enter the raffle!

Head over here and key in your organization email to generate an NVIDIA account
Sign up for one of the three following sessions and take a screenshot of yourself listening in

Fireside Chat with Ilya Sutskever and Jensen Huang: AI Today and Vision of
the Future [S52092] (OpenAI)
Using AI to Accelerate Scientific Discovery [S51831] (DeepMind)
Generative AI Demystified [S52089] (NVIDIA)

DM our Facebook page with your screenshot, username, and email registered to NVIDIA GTC.

Remember, this is for Malaysia only and the winner will be announced on March 31. Then, only a 5-day period of redemption until April 5 is available for the lucky person to once again message us on Facebook to get a final confirmation on the details.
So good luck to everyone!

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Pick up a Samsung Galaxy product this month and enjoy complimentary gifts, discounts

With only 11 days to go until Christmas arrives, the holiday month of December is still going strong as Samsung Malaysia announces another special sale campaign dedicated to gifting.

First thing first, the promo list, shall we?

Products
Price (RM)
Exclusive Gifts

Galaxy Z Fold4 512GB

RM7,299

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 and get a free Galaxy Watch4 (40mm) worth RM799
Free 3x protective film replacements
Samsung Care+ 1+1 extended warranty worth RM599

Galaxy Z Fold4 256GB

RM6,799

Galaxy Z Flip4 512GB

RM4,899

Galaxy Z Flip4 256GB

RM4,399

Galaxy Z Flip4 128GB

RM4,099

Galaxy Watch5 Pro Bluetooth (45mm)

RM1,899

Galaxy Buds Live worth RM549

Galaxy Watch5 Bluetooth (44mm)

RM1,199

Extreme Sport Band worth RM119

Galaxy Watch5 Bluetooth (40mm)

RM1,099

Galaxy Buds2 Pro

RM899

Water Resistant Cover worth RM99

One may also get the whole Galaxy ecosystem pack with the Star Wars theme by purchasing the Star Wars Eco Pack bundle at just RM4,999 with the following items:

Galaxy Z Flip4 (8GB + 256GB)
Galaxy Watch4 (40mm)
Galaxy Buds2 Pro
R2-D2 Galaxy Watch Strap
R2-D2 Galaxy Buds Cover
R2-D2 Galaxy Z Flip4 Cover with Ring

Aside from these free gifts, existing owners of the Galaxy Z Flip4 can head over to the Samsung Experience Store at Pavilion KL or The Gardens Mall to receive a transparent phone case for FREE and several stickers to create a unique vertically-folded device.
Those who bought any Samsung Galaxy products in participating stores will also receive a Christmas DIY Kit containing a special bag, card, and stickers to make your gift look more festive and adorable.
More info about the campaign can be acquired here.

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The 2021 HUAWEI MateBook starts its preorder until April 23 and starts from RM3,299

HUAWEI Malaysia has announced the soon to arrive 2021 edition of the HUAWEI MateBook laptop.

Currently opening up for preorders, from the current looks of it the overall design didn’t get a major overhaul though we wished that it improves upon all the little details once we get a chance on reviewing one of these. Hardware-wise, 4 out of 5 of them now packs the latest 11th gen Intel Core mobile CPU chips with up to 16GB of RAM and the usual NVMe SSD. Utilizing the latest Intel processor also means that Intel Wi-Fi 6 is supported in these new machines for a fast and reliable connection.
Here’s a quick look at the preorder price for all of the soon-to-be-available MateBook models.

Product

Price (RM)

Free Gifts

MateBook D 14 (Mystic Silver)

3,499

HUAWEI Backpack Swift, City Travel Gift Package, Microsoft Office 365 Subscription (1-Year)

MateBook D 15 Intel 11th Edition (Mystic Silver)

3,899

HUAWEI Backpack Swift, City Travel Gift Package, Microsoft Office 365 Subscription (1-Year)

MateBook D 15 Intel 10th Edition (Mystic Silver)

3,299

HUAWEI Backpack Swift, City Travel Gift Package, Microsoft Office 365 Subscription (1-Year)

MateBook 14 (Space Grey)

4,899

HUAWEI Backpack Swift, HUAWEI Bluetooth Mouse Swift, City Travel Gift Package, Microsoft Office 365 Subscription (1-Year)

MateBook X Pro (Emerald Green)

6,899

HUAWEI Backpack Swift, HUAWEI Bluetooth Mouse Swift, City Travel Gift Package, Microsoft Office 365 Subscription (1-Year)

HUAWEI Malaysia is currently accepting preorders until April 23 through platforms such as the official website, local concept stores alongside partners like Senheng, Harvey Norman, and Courts. The first 1,500 customers will receive the above-mentioned freebies as an early bird bonus.

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Galaxy S IV unveiled–full details [UPDATED]

The Galaxy S IV has just been unveiled – but what are you getting? Well, we’re here to solve your confusion. If you didn’t catch the video of how it looks, check it out in this post where it was leaked ahead of the launch event.

UPDATE 1: Now with their introduction video!

Before the presentation video ended, I got the time to capture the image of the full specifications sheet, so you can get a much better idea of what you’ll be seeing.
We’ll break it down into parts, so it’s much more easier to get to know each and every part of it.
Specs

UPDATE 2 : It’s confirmed that the Galaxy S IV runs on either 1.6GHz octa-core Exynox processor OR a 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor, depending on region. No updates on what Malaysia’s getting though.
The Galaxy S IV will have a 4G LTE chip that supports global frequencies and standards – no matter which country you’re in, it works! Bluetooth 4.0, Infrared LED for the IR Gesture, MHL 2.0, a generous 2GB of RAM with 16GB of internal memory, expandable with an addition of 64GB microSD cards. There’s also a humidity sensor that Samsung says “to really let you know what’s happening around you”. Also, Samsung guarantees you that with such hardcore specs, a removable 2,600mAh battery will last you throughout the day! Best of all, it runs on the latest version of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean!
The processor used is unknown, but presumable it’s using the Octa Core, which is made up of two quad-cores. Other features like the Youm, bendable AMOLED display, is unknown if it’s present in the phone or not.
A large 5 inch Full HD (1920×1080) Super AMOLED display, that’s 441 ppi (pixels per inch)! Your eyes will be totally immersed in such beauty. It has a built in feature called Adapt Display feature to adjust your contrast, saturation and brightness according to what you’re doing and what environment you are in – making the entire experience a lot less stressful for your eyes.
Camera

The camera itself has amazing features as someone finally solves the biggest problem of all – forever alone camera guy who doesn’t appear in all of the photos.

A 2MP front facing camera and a 13MP rear facing camera, the Dual Camera feature takes advantage of your front and rear facing camera – with a wide variety of frames for the cameraman to appear in the picture alongside with the rear camera image! Problem solved if you (cameraman) always feel left out of any pictures!

Besides pictures and videos taken alone, there’s even a new updated version of ChatOn, Samsung’s own version of a WhatsApp equivalent, supports dual video calls – where the cameraman appears within a frame and your contact sees what you see through the rear facing camera. Again, never be left out!

If you’re a big time camera users like I am, you’ll probably want the Galaxy S IV’s cool camera feature – Eraser. It works exactly like how Scalado Remove does, which was bought by Nokia an now only available for Nokia Lumia devices. How it works is that you take a few pictures and the phone stitches them together, then the user selects which part is to be removed and which part stays – perfect for a landscape in the busy environment!
Design
The design of the phone is pretty much the same as the Galaxy S III, though thinner and lighter, with a different look at the removable back cover, and otherwise it looks exactly the same. The leaked phone with the codename GT-i9502 pretty much showed us all how the design of the Galaxy S IV is.

Being much less flattened-Galaxy Nexus-ish like the Galaxy S III, its big brother now looks like a rounded slab – but then again the bottom row of buttons remained and my dreams for touch screen buttons are crushed. The body itself is made of special polycarbonate and available in black and white.

Another great Lumia footstep followed by Samsung. No details on what glass it uses but I’m predicting that it’s Corning’s Gorilla Glass 2 again – or maybe something special since it’s glove friendly. Anyhow, look at that thin bezel!
Features?

Surely, Samsung packed a whole list of features into this baby. I noted down a full list, but let’s summarize all of them. The Galaxy S IV has S Translate, a built in translator app that has more than 10 languages preinstalled – works without internet connection and with speech-to-text and text-to-speech engine so you can talk to the locals naturally in your language while your Galaxy S IV translates them back and forth in real time.

Another great feature is the Story Album, where the phone automatically detects that you’re out there travelling, recommends you to take pictures and you can create a full fledge album of that particular trip itself and upload the entire album to Facebook, then get a hardcopy of it. Samsung also introduced the feature called Home Sync, where the mentioned trip album can be synced entirely to your home to let your loved ones see them. It’s a personal cloud storage of 1TB, up to 8 users per home and connectable with NFC.
There’s also the new Samsung Hub where it has every single thing – music, games, books, videos – all in a beautifully crafted magazine-style display.

Announced at MWC 2013, Samsung Knox provides you two totally separated profiles securely running simultaneously within one phone, where Samsung plans to keep your work profile with your personal use profile separated, presumably to take the work pressure out of your life when enjoying.
The new S Drive enables your phone to adapt and adjust itself to the car that it is paired to via Bluetooth, so that the sound is clear enough to hear and to be heard. There’s also a software for your computer called Smart Switch available for download, which helps you switch from any phone to your new Galaxy S IV!
If you knew about Google Nexus Q, you’ll probably have an idea what I’m about to talk about. The new feature that Galaxy S IV has is Group Play – where you can play the same content within a circle (up to 8) of Galaxy S IV – making it a DIY surround speaker. A leader controls the entire circle, but each and every member can contribute! With the Group Play, Samsung says that “you can show pictures and play multiplayer games together”, logical but I have no idea which game will support this feature just yet.

The aforementioned Infrared LED in the specs section enables the Galaxy S IV to detect movements without contact, made possible by the Infrared LED. The feature called Air Gesture lets users simple glide hands above the screen and it automatically scrolls for you yet it works in all 4 directions! The reason for this? Samsung’s presentation said it’s for reasons such as “my fingernails are wet, I don’t want to put the drink down”, and so on.

The next generation of Smart-stuff since Smart Stay came about. Samsung announced the Smart Scroll and new Smart Pause– where it now detects your eyeballs. The new Smart Pause is able to pause your videos if your eyes look away from the screen, and continues when you look back. Smart Scroll as the name suggests, scrolling texts with your eyeballs without you doing anything with your fingers.
There also is a feature called S Health, where it creates a personal health profile for you, detects how many calories you burned by just walking for the day, your heartbeat rate and all things health. Samsung also said that it’s “compatible with other health equipment” to give you a full health report saved right into your phone itself!

Last but not least, Samsung offers a bunch of different types of accessories and colours for the Galaxy S IV, wit their newly designed S View Cover, a flip cover with two cutouts to see important information without flipping the case open while still protecting the screen itself. Not sure if I’ll like it, but the fact that there are so many colours for the flip and protective case makes me think twice about the S View Cover.
Conclusion?
The phone itself is most definitely packed with great features – innovative, useful and it seems practical, not sure how practical it is in practice when users get their hands on it. In whichever case, the design is still the same as the Galaxy S III with minor changes, but internally mesmerizing and packed with features I know I’ll use a lot, like the Eraser for the camera for one. Being able to work with gloves will only boost the sale of this phone – don’t forget that its predecessors are already selling like hotcakes!
Before we end this, let me answer one important question.
Should I upgrade?
My personal answer for now is really depending on what phone you’re currently using. In any case, most probably, I’ll say yes.
Thanks for reading!

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The Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G has been announced for Malaysia and it looks awfully similar to the 11 Lite 5G NE

Xiaomi Malaysia has revealed the new budget model of the Xiaomi 12 smartphone which is the Xiaomi 12 Lite 5G for the local market.

Judging from the position and hardware offerings of this device, it is clear that it focuses on delivering eye candy because of the big AMOLED display with a high refresh rate alongside a high-resolution rear camera setup.
But the mid-tier chip is a bit of hit or miss. It’ll do fine in 2D games but any 3D games will immediately put stress on it so if you’re one that doesn’t game, this could the one for you.

6.55-inch AMOLED Display

1080p Resolution
Middle Punch Hole Notch
120Hz Refresh Rate
HDR10+ Support
Dolby Vision Support

Qualcomm Snapdragon 778 5G Chipset
8GB RAM
Up to 256GB Storage
Triple Rear Cameras

Main: 108MP f/1.9 with PDAF
Ultra-Wide: 8MP f/2.2
Macro: 2MP f/2.4

32MP Selfie Camera
4,300mAh Battery

67W Fast Charge

Black, Lite Green, Lite Pink Colors
RM1,699 (8GB+128GB) / RM1,1899 (8GB+256GB)

Preorder Benefits
With the above price listed for the Xiaomi 12 Lite, for all preorders placed starting today until August 26, an RM100 discount will be applied immediately (for both variants).
You’ll also get some free gifts including the Mi Body Composition Scale 2,  Xiaomi Shoulder Bag, and Xiaomi Sports Water bottle when one chooses the store pickup option from Xiaomi Stores nationwide.
The device is available for preorder on both Lazada and Shopee.

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HyperX Cloud III Gaming Headset announced at Computex 2023

HyperX has finally announced the successor for its award-winning Cloud II gaming headset, the Cloud III.

This new headset promises exceptional comfort and an immersive audio experience for gamers, thanks to its redesigned drivers and DTS Headphone:X technology that delivers accurate 3D sound. Building on the success of its predecessor, the Cloud II, HyperX has made several enhancements to create an impressive gaming headset.
The Cloud III prioritizes ultimate comfort and high-quality sound. HyperX has utilized new materials and improved the fit to ensure maximum comfort during gaming sessions. By re-engineering and fine-tuning the drivers, the headset now delivers superior audio quality. The communication features have also been upgraded, incorporating a 10mm microphone with noise cancellation and a metal mesh pop filter.

In addition to the Cloud III Gaming Headset, HyperX has also introduced the HyperX Cirro Buds Pro True Wireless Earbuds, designed to offer an enhanced listening experience. These earbuds utilize precision noise cancellation technology for clear sound and provide the convenience of Bluetooth connectivity.
With a battery life of up to 35 hours, an ambient sound mode for situational awareness, and water-resistant properties, these earbuds cater to various audio needs. They come with a charging case that can fully recharge them in just 40 minutes and are available in black, blue, and tan colors.
Starting from June 6, the Cloud III Gaming Headset will be available at a price of MYR 399. To learn more about HyperX products, visit their website at www.hyperx.com.

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Spotify is now free for mobile

As an early adopter of Spotify, I wept about how horrible Spotify’s restrictions are when I found out that I can’t use it on my mobile device without the premium account. After the much awaited removal of this restriction, Spotify finally made a change.

Spotify finally removed this restriction, and offered it for free for all mobile users. Not only that, the playlist syncing that we all loved so much is also available for mobile, making music management as integrated as possible. Did I mention that the Radio and Discover feature is made available for the mobile for free too?
Of course, to say that it’s completely free is true, but it’s ad-supported like the free version of their desktop app. Ads will still be played after a certain period of time, but I’m sure that can be outweighed by how great the service is, right?

The features and exclusivity of the premium accounts remain untouched – as it still will be ad-free and has all the magical bells and whistles such as the selective remote control feature.
It still is just bringing the desktop version’s free stuff to mobile, but of course it’s much more portable now.

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Physically strengthen your USB cable with heatshrinks

Since the early days of USB cables on smartphones, there have been many cases of cables fraying near either ends. I have to agree with that completely, and I did come across many frayed cables – particularly since the announcement of Apple’s Lightning cables. Here’s how you can minimize fraying on your USB cables.
There are a few other things that can be used to prevent this already, just like these pieces of plastic that clips onto the USB cable itself to strengthen the weakest point of the cable. That works, but those plastic clips aren’t made equal – because some cables can be clipped snugly and works perfectly, whereas some just wouldn’t clip at all.

Image from Instructables
Then there’s another VERY dangerous method – by winding a pen’s spring to wrap around the cable itself. The main reason why I say this is dangerous is because the spring is made out of metal, obviously, and the cable is wrapped with some type of rubber-based insulator. Unsurprisingly, the metal spring will eat into the insulator if you’re not careful enough, damaging a perfectly fine cable. If the “installation” of the spring was successful, do take note that if the spring is tightly wrapped around the cable, the spring will still eat the plastic and eventually cut through the insulator.
So here’s my solution to this issue – heatshrinks. They aren’t expensive, comes with a lot of random designs and colours, which you can find them here. Unfortunately, there are a lot of different sizes too – and this is the first thing to consider while getting your heatshrink, the diameter of your USB cable.
If you’re using Apple’s Lightning cable, the Lightning port itself is really tiny, so a heatshrink tube with a small diameter.

The one I am using for my Lightning cable here is with a diameter of Φ7.9mm, but as you can see, there is quite some leeway. I presume that if you can find something like a Φ7.5mm or maybe even smaller, it would be a perfect fit. The story is different with Android’s micro USB cables though, as different manufacturers have different sizes on the micro USB’s insulation itself. I used Φ9.5mm for these cables. If it’s too tight, heatshrink tubes can be expanded a tad bit by spreading it open with a scissors.

Once you have the heatshrink tubes and is ready to shrink some tubes, measure how much of heatshrink you need for your cable on both ends, and cut them accordingly. Slip then into the cable, and you’re up to the next step.

Whip out your hairdryer. I don’t’ recommend using any sort of torch, as it will burn and melt the heatshrink tubes, rather than making the heatshrink tubes shrink. Take your time with this, as once the heatshrink tubes are shrunken into size, it’s very difficult to reposition them. My tip for you is to do one end of the cable at a time, have the cable end facing downwards with the hairdryer also blowing hot air downwards. That will make sure the heatshrink tubes as close to the end as possible.
Yeah, the heatshrink I used for this was a little too big.
After that, you have your very own USB cable! Done!
I took some extra cable sleeves that I have sleeved up the cable as well – but it didn’t fit snugly due to how mesh cable sleeves are constructed. It fits in, but it has too much free space within the sleeve itself because of the diameter mismatch. A smaller diameter sleeve can’t be used, because of the USB cable’s tip size. Bummer.

They look nice, and that’s pretty much that other than some extra protector with the cable sleeves. Better save the effort and focus only on the heatshrinks.

Anyway if all these are too much headache for you or if your cable has already been damaged to begin with, check out iCable Asia’s i10 Power Series of USB cables for both Apple Lightning port and micro USB port. They’re highly durable cables, made with top-notch materials and available in multiple colours too.

Check out iCable Asia’s high quality cables and stuff here!
A tad expensive, but they come with lifetime warranty though. Who doesn’t want a lifetime warranty for their cables – especially a single Lightning cable costs RM89 for both half meter and one meter (which makes absolutely no sense), and RM139 for 2 meters?!

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Spotify handpicks playlists to study with

Have you ever heard of the Mozart Effect? It’s more like an unconfirmed conclusion that scientists have came to that says listening to Mozart can actually boost the brain’s performance. The myth got caught by the wind and became viral, having multiple spinoff versions such as early childhood exposure to classical music has a beneficial effect on mental development. All of these are of course, have a certain degree of truth – but not to the extent of having an entirely different level of IQ.

Spotify here said two things which caught my interest :
· Students who listen to classical music while they study do better in Maths exams
· Spotify reveals that listening to the right genre of music whilst studying boosts concentration
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy specialist Dr. Emma Gray claims that the right music can enhance and stimulate learning of a certain topic you’re studying. Dr. Gray also claims that by listening to a certain tune with a specific range of beats per minute, either the left or the right side of the brain will be more stimulated. The left brain, which is responsible for factual information and problem solving, is stimulated by music with 50-80 beats per minute. Similarly, the right brain, which is responsible for creative thoughts is stimulated with music of different beats per minute.
Spotify of course compiled playlists for us to listen to whilst studying for our upcoming exams. Nicole M. Charara (more information about her here), Marriage and Family Therapist in the United States and a Clinical Psychologist in Singapore claims that classical music is a safe alternative, which is also backed by research, if you don’t like other genres of music.
Maths study playlist – Classical

Science, Humanities and Languages study playlist – 50-80BPM

English, Drama, Art study playlist – Rock and Pop

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ASUS announces new MeMO Pad 7

ASUS is on a roll here! First they announced some of the most jawdropping products like the ZenFone series, FonePad 8, and then the recently-available PadFone S.

I can predict that ASUS is moving towards a new direction with their mobile market, and I love it. ASUS loves it too, but we users love it even more. We’re paying a lot less for something amazing, and yet it works just like those which are priced at a premium rate.

Take the new ASUS MeMO Pad 7 ME572CL for example. This 7-inch tablet has a full HD IPS display, powered by Intel’s 64-bit Atom Z3560 processor and it even has 4G LTE, all topped off by the diabetically sweet Android 4.4 KitKat.

The new MeMO Pad 7 comes with 4 colours – purple, gold, and black. With ZenUI complimenting Android 4.4 KitKat, you get all the useful software provided by ASUS themselves and also their very own ASUS WebStorage with 5GB for free, forever.
The ASUS MeMO Pad 7 ME572CL is now available at all local IT stores and also at ASUS authorized resellers for only at a recommended retail price of RM999.
This price really puts the new MeMO Pad 7 into the category of “magic”.

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The vivo V21 smartphone and vivo TWS ANC is cheaper now; Find out why

To celebrate the grand re-opening of its Concept Stores in Malaysia, vivo Malaysia is offering a limited time promotion starting from 9 April, 2022.
By visiting the Concept Stores in the following locations, you can get vivo V21 smartphone and vivo TWS ANC at a discounted price of RM999 and RM99 respectively.

vivo Pavillion KL
vivo Pavillion Bukit Jalil
vivo Setia City Mall
vivo Gurney Plaze, Penang
Direct D Gateway, Seremban
vivo Aeon Bukit Indah
vivo The Spring

Be quick though because the offer is only limited to the first 10 customers! #cepatsikit

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[UPDATED] Get The Honor’s White Day Gift Package For Your Partner

Honor is offering a pretty great gift White Day Gift Package for everyone to purchase! You can actually get quite a lot of goodies through this single bundle alone, but they’re in very limited amounts.
But I think the first question everyone has, is what the hell is White Day?

It’s a simple “holiday”, actually. It’s heavily compared to Valentine’s Day, since White Day is actually held on the 14th of March – a month after Valentine’s Day. As the guys gave the girls gifts and chocolates for Valentine’s Day, then White Day is exactly the same but the roles are reversed. Girls are the ones who will give guys the gifts this time.
A pretty interesting holiday, to be honest. It breaks the society’s norm – and promotes equality, in a way.

And that’s where Honor’s White Day Gift Package comes in.The White Day Gift Package, worth up to over RM2,000, will consist of the aforementioned Honor 8 Pearl White, Honor Band Z1, Shiroi Koibito chocolate, and white roses soap. The bundle will be priced at a total of RM1,834.
The promotion will run from March 7th to March 14th 2017 at selected Huawei and Honor’s stores shown below, as well as on VMall Malaysia.

UPDATE: There was a small error in the table before this, and Honor Malaysia has sent us a new one. Below here is the new updated table.

Dealer
Region
Mall/Address

TF Mobile Enterprise
Kuala Lumpur

UG-K015 & K016, UG Floor, Plaza Lowyat

Satu Gadget Dot Com Sdn Bhd
Lot G5, 6&7, Ground Floor, Menara PGRM

Prosense Telecommunication Sdn Bhd
Selangor

Lot GOL-02, Tesco, Puchong

Access Mobile Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd
Lot F1, 40B, Jalan PJS 11/15, Sunway Pyramid

GX Alliance Sdn Bhd
GK 06, G Floor, IOI Mall (Puchong)

DirectD
64, Jalan SS 15/4b, SS15

DirectD Gadget Mega Store
11 Jalan 51A/219, Petaling Jaya

BK Communication Sdn Bhd
Digital Mall, No. 1,Jalan 14/20, Seksyen 14, Petaling Jaya

IP Link Solution Sdn Bhd
Masai, Johor
Lot No PS53, Giant Hypermarket Plentong

G Connection Point Sdn Bhd
Batu Pahat, Johor

Lot G15, G Floor, Batu Pahat Mall

MLAB Communication Sdn Bhd
No. 12, Jalan Kundang 1, Taman Bukit Pasir

Foto Charlie Sdn Bhd
KG1, Menara MDBPB 101

Speak Phone Sdn Bhd
Melaka
S46, 2nd Floor, No. 2 Jalan Lagenda, Taman 1

Speak Phone Sdn Bhd
G79, Mahkota Parade Shopping Centre

Space Ace Elite Sdn Bhd
Penang

Lot S-25 & 30, 2nd Floor, Sunway Carnival Mall

First Com Enterprise
3A-1-17, Kompleks Bukit Jambul, Handphone Street

Sincerelee Telecommunication
Lot PM/C 17, Prangin Mall, Georgetown

Nakano Northern Trading
Kedah
Lot G10, Kompleks MBAS, Jalan Kolam Air, Alor Setar

Hitz Communication (M) Sdn Bhd
Perak
No. 8, Jalan Chong Ah Peng Tanjung Malim

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Here’s how you can monitor the CPU, GPU, FPS, and thermals of your Samsung phone or tablet

In our recent gaming showcase videos when using Samsung devices, we have a little widget on the screen showing the performance. It’s a feature that many people do not know about – so we’re here to share the information with you. It’s highly customizable and personally, I think Samsung could’ve done better in telling users that there is such a tool that we can download and monitor the performance.
But then again – our job here is to show you how to download and enable this little widget, so you too can monitor your Samsung smartphone or tablet’s FPS in games.

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Huawei Nova 5T to appear at KL Fashion Week 2019

Huawei Nova 5T? That’s a smartphone that we’ve never heard before – and we’re getting first dibs on this new phone too. Following the tradition of Huawei being the main sponsor of KL Fashion Week, the Nova 5T will make its first global appearance at KLFW 2019.

I’m honestly surprised that we Malaysians will be the first one to get a glimpse on the upcoming Nova 5T from Huawei. And hey – that’s a great thing considering the Nova series is one of the best-sellers in the mid-range lineup of smartphones.

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ASUS ZenFone AR – World’s First Daydream + Tango Smartphone; RM3,799

Alright, before you start saying that the price of this smartphone is insanely high (which I understand), I urge you to read through these few points about the ASUS ZenFone AR before making any conclusive judgment.

The ASUS ZenFone AR comes with a 1-year one-to-one exchange warranty policy. Even has a “pick-up and return” service hotline.
World’s first Google Tango (AR) + Google Daydream (VR) in a single smartphone.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 + 8GB RAM + 128GB storage

Now, let’s talk about the specs first. The all new ASUS ZenFone AR is a 5.7-inch device with a 1440p Super AMOLED display. This is important for the sharpest, clearest, and most vivid display for AR and VR. Then comes the unique AR cameras.

Yes – cameras. There are a total of 3 cameras in the ASUS ZenFone AR, which is aptly named the ASUS TriCam system. It has a main 23MP PixelMaster 3.- camera, a motion-tracking camera, and another depth-sensing camera by using lasers. This meets Google’s specifications for Tango. The main camera is powered by a Sony IMX318 sensor and has an aperture of f/2.0, 4-axis OIS, 3x zoom. Even comes with ASUS’s TriTech autofocusing technology too.
As for selfies, the ASUS ZenFone AR has an 8MP front-facing camera with 85 degree wide-angle lens.

So what’s powering all of these hardware? ASUS opted for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 clocked at 2.4GHz, Adreno 530 graphics (this is important as AR and VR literally strains it to its core), a supermassive 8GB amount of RAM, 128GB of storage (which ASUS promised it’s UFS 2.0), and all of these are juiced up by a 3,300mAh battery that supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.
Other than that, the ASUS ZenFone AR also emphasizes on audio, as it has Hi-Res Audio certification, NXP smart amplifier, and also DTS virtual surround. For those who like to stream content via WiFi, the ASUS ZenFone AR also comes with dual-band AC 2×2 MIMO WiFi to ensure speed and stability.

To be honest, I don’t think the battery life will last long on this smartphone. Furthermore, what’s up with the front-facing home button fingerprint sensor? That needs to be moved to the back, though I understand that the back of the ASUS ZenFone AR is pretty much crowded with sensors and cameras.
The ASUS ZenFone AR will be available soon – presumably 12th July – at authorized retailers and on Lazada, priced at RM3,799. You’ll also get the Google Cardboard, Screen Protector, Silicon Case for free!

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Grab Now Accepts Citi Credit Card Points

Are you a holder of Citi credit card? Then rejoice – because you can now use those hard-earned points to redeem a ride with Grab! Citi allows us to actually make use of those points now – and I’m glad.

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Motorola Signs ‘Project Ara’

As most of you tech enthusiast may know, the idea of a modular phone has surface for quite a while since PhoneBloks pitched in. The idea is to have your phone designed in a modular manner so every function can be replaced or upgraded to create a future proof and cost-saving phone. Their goal is to ultimately reduce electronic waste caused by phones that are thrown away just because a single function is outdated or broken. With this modular idea, you could just upgrade the outdated components or by simply changing broken components such as the screen or camera. It even allows you to customize the phone fully by for example, removing the camera and put a larger battery in. Users also get to choose those individual blocks from different manufacturers.

Just recently Motorola has jumped into this idea and has initiated Project Ara to further develop the idea and produce modular smartphones.
“create a continuous high-speed 3D printing production platform and fulfillment system”
– 3D Systems
The deal was told to last for a couple of years with 3D Systems. Soon, we will see the very first modular smartphone created by Motorola hitting the commercial market. I am just hoping that this project will not be a failure such as the ambitious Ubuntu Phone. At first I was quite skeptical, but then it’s good to keep an open mind 🙂
Via : 3D Systems

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Transcend Unveils 2nd Gen. DrivePro Body 10B

Body cameras are surprisingly useful when it comes to the law enforcement officers like the police. It is already used in tandem with car dashboard cameras to mitigate unlawful misuse of power. And today, Transcend is announcing the second generation of the DrivePro Body 10B body camera, which uses a Sony camera sensor and infrared LEDs to capture images with clear resolution and high sensitivity in low-light conditions. The new DrivePro Body 10B also features a handy snapshot button to take quick photos during recording, a 360° rotating clip and Velcro holder, as well as a rugged chassis with water and shock resistance.
Sony Sensor
The DrivePro Body 10B can capture in 1080p at 30fps with the new Sony camera sensor, and has a wide 130° angle lens with f/2.8 aperture. It also comes with infrared LEDs to provide a clea image in low-light situations, which automatically turn on in low-light situations to capture detailed grayscale images – even in complete darkness.

Easy Evidence Collection

Featuring a built-in 1,530mAh Li-Polymer battery, the DrivePro Body 10B can record up to five hours of 1080p video on a single charge. The inclusion of a handy snapshot button enables on-the-spot image capture while recording, which serves as irrefutable evidence in the event of an incident.
Water and Shock Resistance

To ensure excellent protection against the elements, the DrivePro Body 10B is rated IPX4 to withstand splashes or dashes of water at any angle. The rugged, heavy-duty chassis also meets the rigorous MIL-STD-810G 516.6-Transit Drop Test to provide enhanced shock resistance for optimum operation during outdoor recording.
DrivePro Body Toolbox
The DrivePro Body Toolbox is exclusively designed for Transcend’s DrivePro Body series of body camera, allowing users to manage recorded videos and snapshots on Windows PCs. Featuring a user-friendly interface, users can adjust settings for both the Toolbox and the DrivePro Body camera, format the internal storage, and upgrade the body camera’s firmware via the Toolbox.
Multifunctional Accessories

To accommodate multi-use scenarios, Transcend provides bundled accessories in the form of a 360° rotating clip and Velcro holder for users to attach and secure the DrivePro Body 10B on their uniforms or gear with ease. Optional accessories include a magnetic mount and a MOLLE mount.
Warranty
The DrivePro Body 10B is backed by Transcend’s Two-year Limited Warranty and comes with a high-quality 32GB microSDHC card that offers consistent durability and endurance.

Specifications of DrivePro Body 10B

Model
TS32GDPB10B

Sensor
Sony high-sensitivity image sensor

Lens
f/2.8, 130° wide angle

Infrared
Yes, 4 LEDs

Video Formats
MPEG-4, H.264 (Full HD 1080p, 30 fps)

Storage
32GB microSDHC card

Interface
Micro-USB

Features
Quick snapshot button, IPX4 water resistant, U.S. military (MIL-STD-810G 516.6) drop test standards

Accessories
360° rotating clip, Velcro holder

Battery
1,530mAh, up to 5 hours

Operating Temperature
-20° to 60°C

Dimensions
88.4 x 52.2 x 19.6 mm

Weight
88g (body only)

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Honor 8 Pro Launched; Partners With Mobile Legends

The Honor 8 is launched a little less than a year ago – and it remained my favorite smartphone for a long time, until it got updated to Nougat and all hell broke loose. Now comes the all-new refreshed iteration, the Honor 8 Pro. What’s so different, actually?
Well, for starters, the Honor 8 Pro is now has a humongous 5.7-inch with 2560×1440 resolution with an LTPS IPS LCD panel. The chipset has also been updated to what Huawei is currently offering in the P10 and Mate 9 series – the Kirin 960. Sporting a Cortex-A57 quad-core processor clocked at 2.4GHz and another Cortex-A53 quad-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz, the Honor 8 Pro is definitely aimed at power savings. To top it all off, the Honor 8 Pro is equipped with a 4,000mAh battery – which is definitely not the largest we’ve seen for a smartphone of this size. Hint: the ASUS ZenFone 3 Zoom takes the award for best battery life.

As for the camera, it’s not much different from the previous Honor 8, actually. Still the dual 12MP camera wth aperture of f/2.2. The selfie camera did get a slight improvement as it now has a f/2.0 lens instead. This time however, the did up the storage to 64GB, and has an option to opt for 4GB RAM or 6GB RAM variants.
In terms of aesthetics, there isn’t much difference from the original version, to be honest.
Then comes the most interesting part – the Honor 8 Pro has an exclusive partnership for the 2017 Mobile Legends South East Asia Cup in Malaysia, and the Honor 8 Pro will be the official gaming phone for the tournament. It’s very ironic, as Mobile Legends was sued on the same day the Honor 8 Pro was launched. ?

Anyway, the Honor 8 Pro is available now at a retail price of RM1,999. A rather hefty price, to be honest.

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Xiaomi Mi 8 Lite Coming Soon; Passed SIRIM

The Xiaomi Mi 8 series has been… confusing, to say the least. There are many different variants within the Mi 8 family of smartphones itself. In today’s news, we were scouring around SIRIM and we saw a new entry – and that’s for the M1808D2TG – codename for Mi 8 Lite, also known as the Mi 8 Youth Edition, that just passed the SIRIM certification.
The Mi 8 Lite comes with a 6.26-inch IPS LCD display with a 2280×1080 pixel resolution. Of course, it has a notch at the top too.

In terms of its hardware, the Mi 8 Lite comes with a Snapdragon 660 chipset, Adreno 512 GPU, up to 128GB of storage and up to 6GB of RAM. The battery, however, is only 3,350mAh. For the power-hungry Snapdragon 660, it’s not really that sufficient.
As for the cameras, the Mi 8 Lite comes with a 12MP f/1.9 + 5MP depth sensor, and also a 20MP f/2.2 selfie camera.

On paper, the Mi 8 Lite seems to be a little plain and it is awfully similar to the Xiaomi Mi A2 that we reviewed here. However, the Mi 8 Lite is using MIUI instead of Android One – and has a slightly larger battery. Though, in terms of performance, they both should be the same. The Mi 8 Lite also has a 3.5mm audio jack.
The one thing that we’re interested to know is the difference in camera and also the price. As of now, we do not know the availability or price of the Mi 8 Lite yet – but we’re expecting it to be around RM999 since the Mi A2 – with similar specs – was originally at that price. The Mi A2 has dropped to RM899 now, by the way.
We’re currently waiting for the official announcement of the Mi 8 Lite. We’ll update this page when we have more information. Stay tuned to our Facebook Page for other updates as well.

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Lenovo Legion to launch gaming smartphone with Snapdragon 865 & 5G support

While everyone is giving their best to churn out next-generation 5G compatible smartphones across all price points, Lenovo is going all out for their next product. It would be hard considering the 5G module and the idea of futureproofing is to spend big bucks now rather than a small fortune every now and then.
And with the theme of the competition being refresh rate for this year, it could come in at a disadvantage if it doesn’t come packing a 120Hz display which is generally good for everyday use aside from gaming. Software support would be a great deal as well, given that Lenovo has ventured into VR with their Windows Mixed Reality headset and VR content picking up pace in recent years, it would be interesting to see how the chipset performs against the older Snapdragon 835 used by Oculus Quest.

Worse comes to worst, it could just be a standard flagship device with all the “gamer” and “RGB” nonsense slapped together with the launcher. I really do wish that it doesn’t come to this end though.

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COMPARISON – OPPO R9s vs. Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)

These two smartphones have some intense rivalry. They were both announced on the same day, and they’re both within RM101 difference. However, their similarities start to end there. These two smartphones bring very different experience to the table. That’s why we’ve doing this comparison – the epic OPPO R9s vs. Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)!
We’ve reviewed both the OPPO R9s and the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) too.

At the end of the day, the choice is yours. Both of these are great smartphones – but their differences will affect your user experience. And we’re here to tell you what are their differences.

Size and shape
It’s quite obvious, isn’t it? The size of these two smartphones is vastly different. Firstly, the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) is a 5.7-inch display, whereas the OPPO R9s has a 5.5-inch screen.
Obviously, screen size choice comes as a personal preference. But one thing is for sure – larger screens can result in a lower pixel density. Most of you might dismiss that extra 0.2-inch diagonal here is negligible, and I agree – but the fact holds true.
Other than the obvious screen size, the OPPO R9s is slimmer too. If both phones are completely naked, the OPPO R9s measures at only 6.6mm thin, whereas the Galaxy A7 (2017) measures at 7.9mm.
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) vs. OPPO R9s without a case
Since OPPO did include a TPU case for the R9s, I thought “hey, why not make use of it?“, and found out that it increased the thickness to about the Galaxy A7 (2017)’s thickness. Keep in mind, that this is with a case vs. without a case.
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) vs. OPPO R9s with a case
I have to give the first point here to the OPPO R9s here, just because its thickness is actually comfortable to use after putting the case on.
Camera
Being one of the most important aspects of a smartphone these days, these two smartphones sport a 16MP sensor each. Samsung used their own in-house sensor with the ID of SLSI_S5K3P8SX, whereas OPPO opted for Sony’s IMX398 – a customized sensor that is exclusive for OPPO only.

Both of them has quite a large aperture too – as the OPPO R9s has a f/1.7 aperture versus the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)’s smaller f/1.9 aperture. They can take some great photos overall throughout, but they obviously have their own set of differences. Take a look at the images below.
OPPO R9s outdoor shot.
Galaxy A7 (2017) outdoor shot.
While taking outdoor shots, I can feel that the OPPO R9s does focus a lot faster than the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017). However, OPPO R9s just couldn’t get the white balance right as it appears with a blue tint. Through my test, I also found out that the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) has a wide angle lens too – wider than the OPPO R9s. by quite a lot. Here’s another example showing the difference in wide angle.
OPPO R9s indoor shot.
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) indoor shot.
However, wider angle lens doesn’t mean clearer image. If the image is taken at the same distance and viewed at full crop (meaning at 100% zoom), the OPPO R9s obviously shows more details compared to the Galaxy A7 (2017).
Also, the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)’s slow live viewfinder and laggy shutter speed does plague its overall user experience. Pictures often turns out blurry compared to the OPPO R9s.
As for the selfie camera, this is where Samsung opted for the exact same camera sensor and the exact same f/1.9 aperture as well. OPPO R9s however, opted for what the OPPO F1s (we’ve reviewed it here) is already using.
For someone who doesn’t take selfies at all, I can only comment that the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)’s slow live viewfinder and laggy shutter speed does plague its selfie camera too. It might be fixable with a simple software update, but we’ll have to wait for Samsung to take action on that.
In this case, they both have their own pros and cons – but I’ll the OPPO R9s gets a slight edge in terms of pros vs. cons.
Fingerprint sensor
Let’s neglect the specifications in this aspect of comparison. Taking a look at firstly, the size of the fingerprint sensor on both phones. This is important, because the fingerprint sensor shape and size will ultimately dictate the amount of area it can work with your fingertip. It’s obvious that if a fingerprint that has a more effective contact area with your fingertip will yield a better fingerprint reading.

The Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) uses a thinner and longer fingerprint sensor compared to the OPPO R9s. Throughout my tests, I did find out that the OPPO R9s’s fingerprint sensor is generally more accurate and faster than what the Galaxy A7 (2017) has to offer.
You can take a look at my fingerprint test for both the OPPO R9s and Galaxy A7 (2017) unboxing videos.
Of course, this can be due to the fact that their software is different – and that might be true. Different firmwares have different levels of security too. Furthermore, It will require some level of raw performance to decode and authenticate the fingerprint before proceeding to unlock the phone.
OPPO R9s obviously wins in terms of the fingerprint unlocking accuracy and speed. However, the fingerprint sensor pretty much serves as a compliment for a single purpose on this phone, but it does the job very well.
Another point for the OPPO R9s!
Performance
Both of these devices have hardware that is typically categorized as “mid-range”, but with current technology, they’re definitely great performers. Both of these devices uses 14nm FinFET transistors too (more details here). In this OPPO R9s vs. Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) comparison, they’re actually both within the highly-praised category already – just because they’re using 14nm FinFET transistors.
In my opinion, these two devices are actually in between the mid-range to high-end category, too.
The OPPO R9s sports a more commonly-found Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset with a Cortex-A53 octa-core processor at 2.0GHz. Samsung’s Galax A7 (2017) however, uses their own in-house chipset, the Exynos 7880 Octa with a Cortex-A53 octa-core processor at 1.9GHz.
From our tests, I found out that the OPPO R9s does perform better than the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) all across the board. Epic Citadel, Vellamo, and PC Mark tell a very consistent story here too. The R9s just wrecks the Galaxy A7 (2017) across all benchmarks.
A 4FPS difference in average.
Vellamo scores are more towards the daily use case scenarios, and the scores here still continues to tell that the OPPO R9s does indeed have more raw performance.

Though the significance of the performance difference is debatable, the numbers do not lie. I’ll have to give another point to the OPPO R9s.
With such performance, there must be a price to pay. And that leads us gracefully into the next section – the battery life.
Battery
As mentioned before, both of them uses 14nm FinFET transistors. That should help in terms of battery efficiency by a long run. However, nothing beats a battery longevity like having a massive battery capacity.
Samsung included a very generous 3,600mAh for the Galaxy A7 (2017), but there’s only a 3,010mAh on the OPPO R9s. Through PC Mark’s battery run test, it did show a significant difference in both their longevity.
Very impressive battery life from the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)!
That extra 590mAh is no joke – as it did propel the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) to have 3 hours more battery in PC Mark’s battery life test. That’s an insane difference if you ask me.
The obvious winner here is the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) for sure!
… but that’s not all!
The comparisons made here are purely based on the scores and image quality. While Samsung and OPPO’s own variant of the Android OS is up to the user’s preferences, I have to mention that Samsung does offer a lot more other features in their ecosystem, such as Samsung Pay. There’s even the Always On Display feature on the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) too.

For a true dual-SIM device, the Galaxy A7 (2017) is the smartphone to buy since it offers dedicated slots for both SIM cards and a microSD card slot. OPPO R9s only has a single dedicated SIM card slot and another SIM/microSD combo slot.
Considering the entirety of both smartphones, it’s really difficult to say which one is the winner here. I feel that the OPPO R9s is catered more towards the lifestyle users who want a smartphone that is unique, whereas the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) is made for those who are productive on-the-go.
Ultimately, the choice is yours. Both of these are great smartphones – but their differences will affect your user experience.
Where to buy?
Lazada is the place to go!
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) @ RM 1,899 – Available in both Black Sky and Gold Sand, two more colors coming later.
OPPO R9s @ RM 1,798 – Available in Gold and Rose Gold, with the limited edition Valentine Red color available now.

That wraps up our OPPO R9s vs. Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) comparison!
Which smartphone do you personally choose? Would you go for the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) or the OPPO R9s? They both have their own pros and cons – but at the end of the day, only one device will end up in your hands.
Let us know which device you chose or will choose. Post it down in the comments below – we would love to hear your opinion!

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Realme shows picture taken with 64MP camera sensor from Samsung

If you think the days of mobile photography is at its peak, then think again. We all know that Samsung has already released a 64MP camera sensor for smartphones, and today we get to see it in action. The teaser image is actually from Realme, the rather-new smartphone brand.
Samsung’s sensor is called the ISOCELL Bright GW1, which is the aforementioned 64MP camera sensor. The 64MP image measures in at a resolution of 9216×6912 pixels, and the image itself is 16MB in size. That’s ridiculous. For the likes of all 48MP cameras that we have today, each picture measures in at about 10MP. Being in the age where pressing the shutter button multiple times is actually a good thing, we can fill up the internal storage pretty quickly.

Of course, there is the 4-in-1 pixel binning technology as well. That means you can capture a single 16MP picture that is brighter.

Realme first announced a sample of the 64MP camera, which comes from the ISOCELL Bright GW1 released by Samsung not long ago, but the mobile phone has not yet released. Another competitor is Redmi.This photo is 16MB with a resolution of 9216×6912! pic.twitter.com/eNNgTJ606z
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) June 24, 2019

The teased Realme smartphone here will also feature a quadruple camera setup, as hinted by with the watermark at the bottom left corner. Possibly, it will have the typical main, telephoto, and ultrawide cameras alongside with a depth sensor. I do hope that the 4th camera is a TOF camera like what we’ve seen on the HONOR View20 (review).

Since an image is already being teased (and it looks breathtaking, by the way) we do expect the phone to be announced sometime soon. We do not have any details regarding this upcoming Realme phone.
Realme already makes fantastically valued smartphones like the Realme C2 (review), Realme 3 (review), and also the Realme 3 Pro (review).

Since the Samsung ISOCELL Bright GW1 64MP camera sensor is already available in the market, we expect upcoming smartphone refreshed to use them. We’re looking at the likes of OPPO, Xiaomi & Redmi, and also perhaps Samsung’s own A90. Maybe the Note10?

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Huawei Nova 5T arrives at RM1,599; equipped with Kirin 980

So here’s a brand new Nova smartphone from Huawei. With it comes a few notable specs that raised our eyebrows. For the specs that it offers, it seems too good to be true – but it’s real. The Nova 5T is equipped with the company’s highest-end specs for just RM1,599.
Okay, so what’s the big deal with the Nova 5T, you might ask. That’s a perfectly valid question – and I think we should start off with the specs of this smartphone first.

6.26-inch IPS LCD display with 1080p resolution
HiSilicon Kirin 980 chipset
8GB RAM
128GB storage (no microSD card slot)
Triple rear-facing cameras

Main: 48MP f/1.8
Ultrawide: 16MP f/2.2
Macro: 2MP f/2.4
Depth sensor

32MP f/2.0 selfie camera
3,750mAh battery
Android 9.0 Pie with EMUI 10

By looking at the specs itself… do you realize something particularly familiar? It’s having the exact same size with near-identical specs with the HONOR 20 that was launched not too long ago, yet undercutting the HONOR 20 while providing more RAM. Wow.

Even the camera configuration is the same. For the rear, you get a total of triple usable cameras with a depth sensor (which honestly, is redundant) and you also get a 32MP selfie camera from that cutout located the top left side of the IPS LCD screen.
And yes, it’s an IPS LCD screen. There is no under-display fingerprint scanner (which I like) and the Nova 5T has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner that doubles as the power button. Once again, just like the HONOR 20.

The Huawei Nova 5T comes with a brand new glass-designed back in a total of 3 different flavors – Midsummer Purple, Crush Blue, and just plain Black.
For those who are looking to buy the Huawei Nova 5T, you can start pre-ordering from 29th August 2019 at Huawei Online Official Store and dedicated pre-order website here. All pre-orders made between 29th August and 5 September will get gifts worth up to RM325 –  a pair of HUAWEI mini speakers and Huawei SuperCharge in-car charger. For purchases made after the pre-orders, you can get the Huawei SuperCharge in-car charger, while stocks last.
As another bonus, purchases made from 29th August to 31st September will get 1-year extended warranty. All of these, for the price of RM1,599.

Though honestly, speaking, the Huawei Nova 5T is the HONOR 20 with a different name and a differently-designed back. If you want to find out how the Huawei Nova 5T actually feels and performs, might as well read our review of the HONOR 20 here, since it is pretty much the same thing.
Review – HONOR 20: New perspective into the macro world

Also, since the Nova 5T is priced exactly the same as the Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro, might as well take a look at that as well?
The Nova 5T will also be shown off at these locations on these dates:

Sunway Pyramid, Petaling Jaya: Aug 3 – Sept 2, 2019
Paradigm Mall, Johor Bahru: Aug 29 – Sept 2, 2019
Imago, Kota Kinabalu: Aug 29 – Sept 1, 2019
The Spring, Kuching: Aug 29 – Sept 1, 2019
KB Mall, Kota Bharu: Aug 29 – Aug 31, 2019
Sunway Carnival Mall, Perai: Sept 3 – Sept 5, 2019

By the way, the Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite also arrived in Malaysia with the price of RM1,299. This 10.1-inch tablet comes with an FHD display with 16:10 aspect ratio, and quad-speakers tuned by Harman Kardon.

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Review – Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB AIO Cooler

First of all, let me start off by saying what a mouthful of a name that Cooler Master has opted for! The Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB AIO cooler is their latest addition to the roster of AIO coolers that Cooler Master has in their lineup. This new AIO cooler sports RGB fans and RGB pump – hence the “RGB” moniker in the name.
Let’s take a look at the new MasterLiquid ML240L RGB that’s decked out with lights all over.

Unboxing
The entire MasterLiquid ML240L RGB box is actually reminiscent of the other Cooler Master’s Master-whatever packaging design, like the COSMOS C700P, MasterWatt 750 and also the MasterKeys S PBT that we reviewed recently.

At the back, there is some information about the dimensions of the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB so you can more or less get an idea if it’ll fit into your case or not.

Opening up the box reveals a large cradle that occupies all of the space, and made out of paperboard. It houses everything in this 2-dimensional array.

Taking out everything you can find two of their MasterFan MF120R RGB fans, a warranty card, user manual, the AIO itself, and also a slew of hardware. This slew of hardware includes an RGB controller, cable to power up the aforementioned RGB controller, an RGB splitter, and mounting hardware.

The mounting kit is very complete, in my opinion. The MasterLiquid ML240L RGB has mounting hardware for AMD’s AM4 platform too.
Design
Aesthetically, the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB is pretty basic other than the inclusion of an RGB CPU block.

There is a little branding on the radiator itself – but it’s rather minimal, in my opinion. In most cases (pun intended), you won’t even see it.

The MasterFan MF120R RGB is actually reminiscent of Cooler Master’s JetFlo fan’s chassis, but with SickleFlow’s blade design. All I can say is that the RGB illumination is really intense on the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB.

The tubing of the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB is actually sleeved in black by default. It looks sleek out of the box.

Installation
First off, if you’re wondering what you’re getting in the box, there’s a page on the user manual that tells you everything.

In terms of installation, I tried the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB with a Ryzen 7 1700. Since the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB supports AM4 platform out of the box, I don’t have to get an extra mounting kit – which is a boon.
A slew of mounting hardware!
Installation for AM4 requires a few screws to be screwed on to the CPU block, which is pretty straightforward. One thing I do like is that Cooler Master utilizes the backplate and mounting mechanism that came with AM4 motherboards.
Once the mechanism is latched onto the AM4’s mounting plate, it can be screwed to tighten the CPU block onto the CPU itself. Remember to apply thermal paste beforehand, though.
Speaking of thermal paste, Cooler Master gave a small tube of thermal paste instead of pre-applying it to the CPU block. This is good, as the thermal paste wouldn’t get dried up or accidentally smeared during installation. Let’s face it – AIOs aren’t that easy to install with the tube dangling around with the CPU block and the radiator.
Once both the CPU block and radiators are mounted, the MasterFan MF120R can be mounted by fingers using Cooler Master’s brilliantly designed screws. Though, I wish Cooler Master would include another 8 of these screws for push-pull configuration – but they didn’t.
RGB, oh RGB. Why art thou having so many cables?
After all the radiator and CPU block has been installed, the major issue is cable management. You have two cables coming out of each fan and also from the CPU block. Unlike Thermaltake’s approach of having a proprietary connector, Cooler Master opted for the commonly found 4-pin RGB header. Coupling everything with the included 1-to-3 way RGB splitter, things are pretty difficult to cable manage.

Furthermore, if your rig does not have an RGB header, then you’ll need to hook up the RGB controller too – which means more cable to manage.
          The RGB controller itself            Unfortunately, it uses Molex power.
Performance
Alright, enough about the RGB magic. Once the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB is installed and hooked up properly and cable managed, let’s see how it performs. Here’s my testing rig.

Test hardware configuration

CPU Cooler

Noctua NH-D15
Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB with MasterFan MF120R RGB

CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 @ 3.8GHz

GPU
Palit GeForce GTX 1080 GameRock

Motherboard
ASRock Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4

Memory
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 16GB

Primary Hard Drive
Plextor M8SeGN

Power Supply
Cooler Master MasterWatt 750

Chassis
Sharkoon BW9000-W

Fans
Noctua NF-F12

The goal here is simple – test the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB against the best of the best air cooler in the market. How well does it fare out? Here are the results.

Cooler
Idle (℃)
Load (℃)

Noctua NH-D15
28.3
72.3

Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB
26.8
82.3

Not too well, I’d say. With the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB’s pump running at full speed, it’s fairly loud actually. The MasterLiquid ML240L RGB definitely isn’t enough to tame the Ryzen 7 1700 overclocked to 3.8GHz. At 82.3℃, my system is at borderline critical temperature when I render videos.
Swapping out the MasterFans MF120R RGB for some classic Noctua NF-F12 didn’t help either, as the pump isn’t strong enough.
In terms of maintenance, it does seem like the Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB has a fill port if your coolant gets dried up. Accessing the fill port will void your warranty, though.

Wrapping up the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB review
I have to say though, the price and the aesthetic appeal of the Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB is much more superior than the Noctua NH-D15 that we reviewed here. Let’s be honest, RGB is the definition of the year 2017, and it’s not going to stop anytime soon.
Furthermore, compatibility is much simpler for the MasterLiquid ML240L RGB, too. Nearly all modern cases have a 240mm radiator mount at the front, while most of them have 240mm radiator mounts at the top – just be mindful of the clearance, though.

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Review – OnePlus 10T: An objective review

The best way to describe the company’s latest flagship smartphone – the OnePlus 10T – as controversial, would be appropriate. I’ve seen people from two different extremes of the spectrum being very vocal about it. One end says that the new OnePlus 10T went back to its roots by focusing on pure performance by being a speed demon, and another end says that this phone has lost all of its identity.
For me though, I don’t have any headcanon about OnePlus. I’ve only recently reviewed the OnePlus Nord 2T and the only OnePlus phone that I’ve used before that was the OnePlus One from years ago.

So, in today’s review, I’ll try my best to objectively look at the OnePlus 10T. Let’s begin.

Design
Let’s start off by the design of this phone. Our particular unit of the OnePlus 10T comes in the Jade Green color – which is similar to the OnePlus Nord 2T that we have.

It is also available in the Moonstone Black color – but OnePlus Malaysia doesn’t seem to acknowledge its existence in the website. Maybe it’s because the Moonstone Black isn’t going to be available here – I don’t know since, at the time of this recording, the OnePlus 10T isn’t officially available in the Malaysian market yet.

Either way, the Jade Green color, while it is around my personal favorite hue – is covered by a super glossy and slippery glass. I truly wished that it is made out of a matte finish.
OnePlus did send us the media box or reviewer’s box – I don’t know what I should call this – and inside, we have two cases.

The first case is the OnePlus 10T Bumper Case which isn’t a bumper case at all – but it does imitate the original OnePlus One’s sandstone finish with that extremely rough texture.

The second case is the OnePlus 10T Glacier Mat which is surely a funky design and the reason why it’s called the Glacier Mat is because of that red colored material. According to OnePlus, it “evaporates to remove heat when the phone becomes hot, and automatically rehydrating from the air when the phone cools down.” Even if this case is made to be a utility, it’s unfortunate that the beautiful Jade Green color will be completely covered by the case.
The only thing exposed is the iconic camera cutout.
Cameras
Speaking of the cameras, we do have triple cameras on the OnePlus 10T but this is where I was disappointed. For some reason, this phone has a 2MP fixed focus macro camera. I mean, for a phone that’s supposed to be “premium”, at least give us an autofocusing macro camera lens.

To have a look at all the pictures taken with the OnePlus 10T, take a look at our video at the top of this review.
Performance
Now, the performance is obviously the main key highlight. Powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset and 16GB of RAM for our particular unit here, 256GB of storage – this phone seems to be a speed demon, at least on paper, right?

That’s kinda true. When we tried out the gaming performance of the OnePlus 10T, I realized that even using the “pro gamer” mode, the performance of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is pretty lackluster when compared to the ROG Phone 6 that is also using the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. I don’t know why this happens, but if I am to take a wild guess – it could be due to the power profile of the firmware not allowing the chipset to flex its muscles.

We say this is because the surface temperature reported by our thermal camera is extremely low. There is still a lot of headroom to further push its performance to a higher level.
We do think that this can be optimized easily through a software update.

Also, given that this is a 120Hz screen, we expect some games with unlocked frame rate like Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers to be able to run at 120fps too – but unfortunately, it can’t. The phone seems to have a weird whitelist as COD Mobile is able to run at 90fps with its Ultra mode.
We reached out to OnePlus to ask about this – but I guess OnePlus has their own whitelist of games that can run more than 60fps? Here are the games that OnePlus said that can run beyond 60fps:

PUBG Mobile (update on mid-September)
League of Legends
Brawl Stars

Screen
Let’s talk about the screen then. This is a simple one as it is using a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2412×1080 and 120Hz refresh rate. The screen does look nice and our colorimeter says so too.

This screen covers virtually 100% of both sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts, but the maximum Delta E number is relatively high at 2.77.

The maximum brightness of the screen is also not that good since it can only go up to 500 nits. Definitely not bright enough to be used under direct sunlight on a sunny day.

One quick complaint – the under display fingerprint scanner is waaaaaaay too low, and it is not ergonomic to use.

Battery life
The battery life is something that I think is fairly decent. It has a 4,800mAh battery and is tested at 100 nits of brightness using the PCMark battery life test, it lasts for about 16 hours or so. It’s supremely good but we can’t get the exact number because the app decided to crash itself at the end of the test. 😭

Charging speed
As for the charging speed, this is where things get funky. By reading the tiny texts printed on the charger, this charger is actually capable of outputting 160W but the OnePlus 10T only takes in 150W maximum.

Also, we Malaysians are able to take advantage of the full 150W since our electrical plugs fall under the latter category of 220-240V at 50-60Hz. Other regions that uses 100-120V 50-60Hz will only get 125W maximum.
We charged the OnePlus 10T from about 12% to 100% in less than 20 minutes – which is the fastest we’ve seen in terms of smartphone fast charging.

Software
In terms of the software, it’s pretty much identical to the OnePlus Nord 2T that we reviewed earlier. The software is pretty much identical to OPPO’s ColorOS but with the addition of the OnePlus Shelf. Whether you like this feature or not, that’s up to your personal preference. For me, I think the Shelf could be useful in certain scenarios but I think it needs third-party app widget support.

Also, the OxygenOS 12.1 here is extremely clean as there is no bloatware.

However, those two are the only differentiation points when compared to its OPPO cousins. The iconic and supremely useful alert slider on OnePlus phones had been removed, and I think that is why this OnePlus 10T feels… very generic in the sea of smartphones. There’s just nothing particularly outstanding about it.

OnePlus did mention that the notification slider could come back in future OnePlus phones.
Some other things to mention
There are a few more things to mention about the OnePlus 10T too. This phone is technically IP54-rated but only in certain regions – don’t ask me why because I have no idea as well
The OnePlus 10T still uses a USB 2.0 port at the bottom of the phone which is sad since OnePlus boasts so much about its speed.

And since it is using USB 2.0, we do not have HDMI output over USB-C.
Should you buy the OnePlus 10T?
I think the OnePlus 10T is a rather good phone. There are two counterarguments – the first one is the useless 2MP macro camera, and another one is the missing iconic OnePlus alert slider feature. But if you don’t use that slider, then yeah, this is a fine phone.

As for the price – we have that information at the time of publishing this article. It’s at RM3,199 which I think is rather high.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)

Amazon US
Lazada
Shopee

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Dell Technologies deploys gigantic on-site solar panels in Malaysia

Dell Technologies has taken a big step in green energy production by announcing the completion of its largest on-site solar panels in Malaysia.

Located at Dell Technologies Asia Pacific Customer Centre (APCC2) in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, the entire photovoltaic system is valued at RM2.25 million and recognized by the Green Offices of Penang Green Council. The effort is also the company’s first attempt and success in the SEA region capable of generating 700 kWp through the installed 1,590 panels. Calculating it by annual numbers and you’ll get a near 1,000 MWh of renewable electricity produced.

Designed to take charge of its own 24-hour facilities, the panels are responsible for more than 25% of the power consumed during production which Dell Technologies have aimed to reduce the facility’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 650 metric tonnes. Being part of the Progress Made Real initiative, the company is targeting a 70% renewable energy source in 2030 and 100% by 2040 with 0% greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. While that’s still a long way to go, huge success is nevertheless built by every little step made during the journey.
Kudos to Dell Technologies to address power concerns especially in this day and age.

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VAIO S11 & S13 Launched in Malaysia

VAIO offers more options for business professionals who value performance, portability and style with the launch of VAIO S11 and S13 in Malaysia.
VAIO S-Series – S11 & S13

First saw in Computex 2018, the design is something we really like about the notebooks. The kickstand display not just improve the typing ergonomics, it also allows more air movement under the laptop to improve the thermal performance.

Besides, both S11 and S13 keyboards are silent and anti-spill. Well, it is not that you can bring the laptop for a swim, but for accidental spills during your late midnight work.
Combining sleek design and notebook optimised TruePerformance technology, the notebooks allow the latest 8th generation Intel core processors to have 11% to 13% more performance. This is done through the enhancement of the thermal dissipation where the CPU can perform for a longer period of time.
Pricing & Availability
The new VAIO notebooks will be available for purchase starting 18 August 2018 at Plaza Lowyat and Digital Mall. They will also be available on Lazada Online Store. New sales channel to come soon.
Colour options are:
VAIO S11

Black
Silver
Brown
Pink
White

VAIO S13

Black
Silver

The S11 will be priced between RM 6,499 to RM 6,699 while the S13 will retail at RM 6,199 to RM 8,399. The price is rather on the higher side, but Nexstgo is looking towards offering the best Made in Japan laptops without compromising the performance and design.

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Review – Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7610 (i7-11800H; RTX 3050 Ti; 16GB RAM)

This is our review of the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus laptop. It’s still using an 11th Gen Intel processor since the 12th Gen ones are… I think on the horizon, but they’re nowhere to be seen as of now. However, we’ll flip the script for this review as we’ll share our final verdict in the introduction.
I think this is a fantastic laptop that Dell made. There are a few minor quirks here and there, but I think it’s acceptable overall. So, let’s begin with our review.

Let’s start off by talking about the screen of this laptop. As the name suggests, this laptop uses a massive 16-inch screen. However, the specs of this display are unconventional. On Dell’s website, it says this laptop is using a “3K” resolution, but actually, it’s 3072×1920. This also means that it’s 16:10 – which I personally prefer. The maximum refresh rate remains at 60Hz though, but I’m okay with that.

Since the screen is such a big highlight of this laptop, we took out the colorimeter and we found out that it has a maximum brightness of around 300 nits and the sRGB color gamut coverage is nearly at 100% with very low Delta E numbers too. That’s fantastic.

With such a big screen, obviously other parts of the laptop need to be big as well. That is why we get a full-sized keyboard and I think it’s a pretty decent keyboard overall. The travel distance isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but it’s an alright keyboard.

As for the touchpad though, I’m generally fine with it but the palm rejection is an issue for me. It’s not good. First, I had problems with the palm rejection as the cursor was disco dancing, then I had issues with the clicking as there’s a huge deadzone area. I have to move my finger quite a lot before getting out of the deadzone – which just makes the overall trackpad experience feel unrefined.

What about performance? This laptop comes with an Intel Core i7-11800H chip with an RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU, alongside 16GB RAM and 512GB of NVMe SSD.

On paper, this laptop sounds it’s rather powerful – and for the most part, it is. I used it to edit videos on Premiere Pro and the performance was pretty good overall.

Though when it comes to games, things get a little dicey. You see, I tried only 2 games but I found out that the weird “3K resolution” caused some games to behave strangely. Control was one of them as the resolution of the game was not an option in the list.

So I played that game at the lowest preset and… it ran fine for a while but the VRAM is almost completely in use. So, expect lag spikes in Control. I turned on DLSS and there doesn’t seem to be any changes in terms of the performance as the VRAM usage is about the same. My suggestion is to lower the resolution of the game.
DLSS doesn’t help much since the GPU is already choked.
Halo Infinite however, ran about 40-45fps, I think that’s a playable frame rate. And I should also highlight that these games are ran using the “Ultra Performance” mode. This setting is very deeply hidden inside the Dell software and I also suggest you leave it on Ultra Performance all the time so that you can get more performance, and the fan noise is also less distracting since it’s constantly at high RPM.

If we use it in the “Optimized” mode, then the fan keeps ramping up and down – which I think is much more distracting than just leaving it on high RPM all the time.

In any case, all of the hardware are enclosed in this beautiful laptop design. It has chamfered edges all around and the craftsmanship is great – even the exhaust grills are circular in shape! The battery coming out of this laptop isn’t particularly the best, though. I got about 4-5 hours at most and that is most probably due to the high-resolution screen.

Lastly, after closing up everything, we have to talk about the ports. This laptop comes with a generous amount of ports – and it can be charged via that Thunderbolt 4 port on the left side too. Though, I’m not a fan of the position of those ports on the right side since it obstructs mouse movement.

Should you buy the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7610?
And that’s all about the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus. It’s a fairly good laptop overall – but the price of RM6,199 (the config we have is at RM6,399) is at a premium compared to other similar laptops. However, like any other Dell product, some can argue that the warranty service that Dell offers is worth the price – and I agree.

Where to buy? (Affiliate links)

Amazon US
Lazada
Shopee
Dell Malaysia

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Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo partnered to bring new wireless file transfer protocol

Out of nowhere, we got a new notification saying that the three giant Chinese smartphone manufacturers – Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo, have partnered together and unveiled a brand new file transfer protocol.
With the launch of the “Peer-to-Peer Transmission Alliance”, this new wireless file transfer protocol is created to do as the name suggested. What’s surprising is that this new alliance has brought upon us customers a file transfer protocol that works between different smartphone brands.

According to Xiaomi’s blog post, this technology is integrated into the system itself – so there is no need for any 3rd party apps to transfer files wirelessly. The new wireless file transfer protocol works for a multitude of different types of files – as it should be.k.a. WiFi-5)
As of now, this new P2P Alliance only consists of Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo. The alliance welcomes other brands to join in and expand the ecosystem as well. Perhaps we’ll see more brands jumping into this unifying protocol so that we consumers don’t have to send our files via Telegram or WhatsApp – or emailing ourselves. Just integrate the option to use NFC instead of Bluetooth for the pairing process, then it’ll be great.
This feature will be gradually rolled out on new Vivo products in different markets from February 2020, whereby any Xiaomi smartphones (except Redmi 6 Pro, Redmi 6, Redmi 6A, Redmi 7A, Redmi 7, Redmi S2, Redmi 8, Redmi 8A, Redmi Note 8, Redmi Note 8T) running MIUI 11 already has this feature – it is called Mi Share.

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