Review – Huawei P10: A Worthy Sequel?

There has been much anticipation for what Huawei will bring to the table this year with their P-series of smartphones. Many eyes are on the Huawei P10 – so how does it perform? Let’s find out.
Unboxing
We’ve done an unboxing and first look of the Huawei P10 not too long ago – which you can check it out here. In terms of its unboxing experience, I can say that it’s indeed something refreshing.

Unboxing & First Look – Huawei P10!

Opening up the entire box and digging everything out reveals a rather interesting slew of accessories. An included hard shell case, documentations, a pair of earphones, a Huawei Super Charger with 5V-rated USB-C cable, and a SIM ejector tool.
The Huawei P10 doesn’t vary much in geometry compared to its predecessors. However, the biggest difference comes from its materials and color options.

For some reason, Huawei decided to move the fingerprint sensor to the front this time around. No idea why – but it just doesn’t feel good at all. I mean, ergonomically speaking, it’s somewhat my second choice in the list, but this is purely a sensor, so no shortcut buttons there. There’s no options to set gestures, too.

To add salt to injury, the Huawei P10’s bezels at the top and bottom are obnoxiously huge. There is an option to not use on-screen buttons, and navigation is done by swiping left or right towards the fingerprint sensor. It works – but not really reliable, and very slow.

Huawei could’ve taken the fingerprint sensor and placed it at the back, then include a true front-facing stereo speaker instead. That would definitely win hearts of many.
One thing I do like is the red accented and textured power button. That really gives off a satisfying feel while touched, and an even more satisfying tactile click when pressed.
The red is subtle, but you can definitely see it.
[nextpage title=”Connectivity”]
For those who don’t already know, Huawei is a telecommunication company and I can only expect top-notch connectivity from them.
The Huawei P10 has an upgraded 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi with 2×2 MIMO. Not just that – the Huawei P10 is compatible with a few GPS systems – GLONASS, A-GPS, BDS, and GALILEO – as expected from a high-end device.
The variant I have here has a dedicated nano SIM 1 slot and a combo nano SIM 2/microSD slot.
Huawei included NFC but uses USB 2.0 Type-C instead of adopting the latest and highest end USB 3.1 Type-C like other flagships. This matters for those who want to film 4K UHD and transfer large files constantly. Also, it still doesn’t come with wireless charging.
[nextpage title=”Display”]
When it comes to the screen that’s used for the Huawei P10, I have to say that it’s an okay choice overall. Nothing too spectacular, and definitely playing it safe.

The Huawei P10 has a 1080p 5.1-inch screen – which again is an okay choice. Instead of upgrading the resolution, I guess maintaining ~432 ppi is a justifiable choice. Another interesting engineering choice here is the choice of display panel found on the P10. Instead of using a basic IPS LCD display, they opted for an IPS-NEO LCD. What it essentially means is less color shifting while looking at it at the side.
Nothing too spectacular when it comes to the display, actually – maybe other than the removal of oleophobic coating in favor of a piece of included film screen protector.
[nextpage title=”Camera”]
Of course, the camera. This is the feature that everyone is hyped up about the P10, am I right? Here’s what you need to know about the camera.

Huawei opted for a combination of 20MP and 12MP sensors coupled with f/2.2 Leica lenses (the main selling point of this phone, after all) and has OIS. Better yet, it has two different autofocusing systems too – PDAF and laser AF. Here’s how the camera really performs.
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You can also click here to head on over to the full Flickr album.
Overall I think the quality is alright – but the best thing here is the focusing time. Just a little tap on the screen to tell it where to focus, and boom – it’s focused. Take the pic and you’re done – but you should combine it with the wide aperture mode.

The ability to refocus the images at a later time is really a boon for me – as I always take pictures as quick as possible without bothering about focus much. However, the Huawei P10’s wide aperture mode creates bokeh through software, it did get confused at certain times, as seen by a few pictures above. It’s just not able to simulate hardware blurring at certain shots.

The selfie camera on the Huawei P10 also uses Leica optics – this time with an aperture of f/1.9 and an 8MP sensor. Unfortunately, the P10 has a fixed focus and only the P10 Plus has an autofocusing selfie camera. The images produced are alright – but under a dimly-lit condition, colors seem a little washed out.
[nextpage title=”Software”]
As for EMUI 5, there really isn’t much difference in the UI compared to the previous version. A few minor aesthetics update here and there. Then there are some additions towards the user experience and interactivity too, like on the Huawei P10’s front-facing fingerprint sensor.

EMUI 5 itself isn’t bad. It’s usable and has most of the features and options available. I said most – because I can’t disable the battery indicator LED for some reason – and that LED is bright! What ticks me off here is the Settings menu, where everything got shuffled around and was made difficult to search for. That search bar in the settings menu isn’t really helping either.
However, there are many changes under the hood instead. You know what I’m talking about – the big feature on EMUI 5 that Huawei is called as “Machine Learning Algorithm”, or MLA for short. It’s generally seen as a marketing buzzword these days, but no one really knows how Huawei’s MLA works… and that nicely leads to the next section – the performance.
[nextpage title=”Performance”]
Before we proceed with the performance test, you should really be aware of the Huawei P10’s storage and RAM chip controversy. You can read more about it here. The unit that I have for review here has LPDDR4 RAM and UFS 2.0 storage – which conveniently lands in Category 2.
In many ways, the MLA can cause some confusion. What does it do? What data does it collect? How does it collect data? What does it do with those data? Most importantly, how it MLA affect my everyday usage? These are the questions that all of us have. However, we still need to run the usual suite of tests first.
Starting off with Epic Citadel, it can score a consistent 60FPS right away. No issues at all, and I’m really happy that it did. Flagship smartphone needs to have flagship performance – and the Huawei P10 definitely has it. However, do keep note that this is the Huawei P10 – the one with a 1080p display. For the P10 Plus, it has a 1440p display while still using the exact same chip. Not sure how that’ll perform, but I digress.
Solid 60FPS!
Onward to the next test. Vellamo shows that the Huawei P10 does indeed show some really fantastic hardware built in. That Kirin 960 chipset isn’t joking around. Maybe it’s the MLA? No one really knows actually, and Huawei’s MLA announcement video doesn’t really help either.

As for the temperatures, I’m a tad disappointed. It might be again due to the MLA, or maybe it’s because Huawei chose 16nm process instead of a better 14nm or the best 10nm process.

I did ask for more details on the MLA, and Huawei said that it’ll need 2 weeks before it starts to take effect. 2 weeks is a long time – and considering that the first few days of getting a new phone can leave a life-long impression.
So I used the Huawei P10 for 16 days – and reran Epic Citadel again. Did anything improve? Nope. Still the same 60FPS. But that leads us to the next question… what about the battery life?
[nextpage title=”Battery life improvements?”]
Battery life on the Huawei P10 is actually very disappointing. Maybe MLA is the one that’s messing around – but for what I can find out, the Huawei P10 is underperforming in terms of battery. I mean, compared to other smartphones with a 3,000mAh battery, the P10 can barely make it to 8 hours on our PC Mark battery test!

I mean seriously – there’s a smartphone like the Galaxy A5 (2016) that has a 2,900mAh battery with Exynos 7580 Octa chipset that’s manufactured with a 28nm process, and lasts for nearly 9 hours in our PC Mark battery test! Just what is going on under the hood of the Huawei P10? Is MLA causing any sort of issue here? We’ll definitely find out some time in the future.
What about that charger?

Remember that I showed you the purple USB-C that can handle 5A? That’s because of the brand new Huawei Super Charger. This is an interesting technology as it can output 2.5W higher than what OPPO’s VOOC is offering right now. The Huawei Super Charger is rated to output 4.5V @ 5A, or 5V @ 4.5A.

The charger itself is pretty compact, so that’s a good thing for those who travel a lot. However, one thing you should note is that the USB-C cable for the Huawei Super Charger is special. It’s thicker than other cables to reduce the internal resistance, and that’s because it carries a maximum of 5A across the length. That’s a really high amperage!
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Charging speed is pretty much on par with the OPPO R9s, as the Huawei P10 also takes about an hour and a half to charge from 0% to 100%.
[nextpage title=”Wrapping up the Huawei P10 review”]
The Huawei P10 is a smartphone that’s tiny but brings in a really powerful punch in the two things that matter the most – performance and camera. The only thing that I am concerned of, is the battery life – but luckily, the charging speed is fantastic.
It’s a smartphone that is meant to bring high-end flagship-level hardware into a 5.0-inch-ish size smartphone, and I appreciate that. It’s a standard nowadays that flagship smartphones must be huge to the point that we forget about the enjoyment of using a small phone.
The Huawei P10 is now available nationwide with a price of RM 2,499, and you can get it over at Lazada right here.

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Samsung announces mass-production of 1TB eUFS chip

Samsung just announced that the mass production of the industry’s first 1TB eUFS chips. This also hints on what is to be expected for the upcoming Samsung flagship smartphones that are coming soon.
The all new 1TB eUFS 2.1 chips are made for mobile devices such as smartphones. It has only been 4 years since the introduction of the 128GB eUFS chip and Samsung has now crossed the terabyte threshold for a smartphone’s internal storage. We have seen the Galaxy Note9 crossing the terabyte threshold by having a 512GB internal storage coupled with a 512GB microSD card.

The 1TB eUFS is expected to play a critical role in bringing a more notebook-like user experience to the next generation of mobile devices. What’s more, Samsung is committed to assuring the most reliable supply chain and adequate production quantities to support the timely launches of upcoming flagship smartphones in accelerating growth of the global mobile market.
– Cheol Choi, executive vice president of Memory Sales & Marketing at Samsung Electronics
According to Samsung, the 1TB eUFS chip still has the same size as before, but stacked by 16 layers of Samsung’s advanced 512Gb (that’s gigabit) V-NAND flash memory and coupled with a newly developed proprietary controller.

Since it is using a brand new controller, Samsung also claims that it can achieve even higher speeds than before – up to 1,000MB/s of read speed, the transfer speed can actually be bottlenecked by a 2.5-inch SATA III-based SSD. That means you will definitely need an NVMe SSD to make use of all that speed that the Samsung 1TB eUFS chip.

Memory
Sequential Read Speed
Sequential Write Speed
Random Read Speed
Random Write Speed

Samsung 1TB eUFS 2.1 (Jan. 2019)
1000MB/s
260MB/s
58,000 IOPS
50,000 IOPS

Samsung 512GB eUFS 2.1 Nov. 2017)
860MB/s
255MB/s
42,000 IOPS
40,000 IOPS

Samsung eUFS 2.1 for automotive (Sept. 2017)
850MB/s
150MB/s
45,000 IOPS
32,000 IOPS

Samsung 256GB UFS Card (July 2016)
530MB/s
170MB/s
40,000 IOPS
35,000 IOPS

Samsung 256GB eUFS 2.0 (Feb. 2016)
850MB/s
260MB/s
45,000 IOPS
40,000 IOPS

Samsung 128GB eUFS 2.0 (Jan. 2015)
350MB/s
150MB/s
19,000 IOPS
14,000 IOPS

eMMC 5.1
250MB/s
125MB/s
11,000 IOPS
13,000 IOPS

eMMC 5.0
250MB/s
90MB/s
7,000 IOPS
13,000 IOPS

eMMC 4.5
140MB/s
50MB/s
7,000 IOPS
2,000 IOPS

Not only that the sequential read/write speeds are increased, but the random IOPS too. Samsung claims that the new chip can achieve up to 58,000 IOPS which is definitely great for those who have thousands of images in the gallery, trying to load all the thumbnails. To learn more about sequential read/write and random IOPS, watch the video below.

Samsung plans to expand the production of its fifth-generation 512Gb V-NAND at its Pyeongtaek plant in Korea throughout the first half of 2019 to fully address the anticipated strong demand for the 1TB eUFS from mobile device manufacturers around the world.

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[UPDATE] ASUS ZenFone 3 Max 5.5-inch Now Available in Rose Pink and Sand Gold

Not too long ago, we reviewed the ASUS ZenFone 3 Max 5.2-inch variant. The 5.5-inch variant here is actually very different from that variant – hardware-wise, I mean.

The brand new ZenFone 3 Max 5.5-inch variant takes on the model number of ZC553KL, and there’s two main highlight to this smartphone. It now features a bigger battery, and even more megapixels.

The ZenFone 3 Max 5.5-inch has a 4100mAh battery and still has the power bank feature with the help of an OTG cable, and keeps the same aesthetic as the 5.2-inch variant.
Its camera however, now upgraded to laser autofocus technology, enabling ultra-fast 0.03 seconds focusing and subject tracking. Of course, there’s still phase detection autofocus (PDAF) and continuous autofocus (CAF). Also, more megapixels means a 16MP sensor with f/2.0 lens, coupled with a 3-axis EIS for 6-direction compensation. The front facing camera now features an 8MP sensor too.

Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset with 1.4GHz octa-cores, the ASUS ZenFone 3 Max 5.5-inch doesn’t seem like a slouch either
So that’s the price, you might ask?
RM999 is your magic number – although you can click here find one for RM888 at Lazada.

UPDATE: ZenFone Max (ZC553KL) now available in Rose Pink and Sand Gold!
They’re not only launching the new colours for lolz. Oh no – that’s not ASUS’s way of doing things.

Starting from today till 31st March 2017 – Those who purchase ZenFone 3 Max (ZC553KL) Rose Pink & Sand Gold are entitled to redeem a Special gifts redemption through this website: http://bit.ly/zenfone3maxredemption
By the way, you can read up our full review of the ZenFone 3 Max ZC553KL here.

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Win an ASUS ZenFone 4 Max Every Day With #TakHabisHabisLagi Contest!

ASUS is having this contest for all of us right here, right now. Happening from now until the 12th of November 2017, you can stand a chance to win an ASUS ZenFone 4 Max every day with the #TakHabisHabisLagi contest campaign!
Here are the details:

Contest period: 24th Oct 2017 (Tuesday) – 12th Nov 2017 (Sunday)
Prizes: 20 x ZenFone 4 Max (1 unit every day!)

Alright, so the main question is this – how to participate?

Step 1: Follow ASUS Malaysia Facebook (facebook.com/asusmalaysia) & Instagram (instagram.com/asusmobilemalaysia/)
Step 2: Answer the “Question of the Day” in about 25 words (or less) by leaving a comment/picture on the post or posting it on your Instagram.
Step 3: Do include Hashtag #TakHabisHabisLagi #ZenFone4MaxMY

What are the terms and conditions? Check it out at this link.
Contest Hashtags

#TakHabisHabisLagi
#ZenFone4MaxMY

But why the ZenFone 4 Max (ZC520KL)? Well, let me tell you a few reasons why.
Firstly, the ZenFone 4 Max has a large 4,100mAh battery – that alone is impressive, as this is indeed a 5.2-inch smartphone. It has a dual-camera system at the back too – hybrid dual-camera setup, by the way. One basic lens and another wide-angle lens. You can learn more about dual-camera systems in smartphones here.
So what are you waiting for? Join the contest now and be in the running to win a brand new ASUS ZenFone 4 Max!

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vivo X5 Pro launches today

vivo might be a brand that is unheard of for many people, and no judgment there as vivo is a pretty new brand. And yes, their official style of the brand name is “vivo”, no capital letters, just “vivo”.
Photo from MDroid
The vivo X5 Pro will have the specs as listed below.

5.2-inch Super AMOLED screen with 1080p resolution
Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor with 1.5GHz each
2GB RAM, 16GB storage (expandable with microSD card)
13MP rear-facing, 8MP selfie camera
2450mAh battery
Android 5.0 Lollipop with vivo’s very own Funtouch OS 2.1

Personally, I’ve seen vivo’s camera performance and they’re very good. For a price of RM1,599 with GST included, the vivo X5 Pro is a strong flagship competitor.
Via : MDroid

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HTC Desire 10 & One A9s Announced

“HTC smartphones” isn’t the term that most of us have heard in months, but HTC is changing that. The brand new HTC Desire 10 and One A9s are beautiful smartphones but packed with some questionable hardware. Let’s take a look at both the smartphone separately.

Even the cameras are toned down – as the rear-facing camera is now 13MP f/2.2 with zero mention of what focusing technology it’s using. As for the front camera, it features a 5MP camera with unknown aperture size.
As for the battery though, I think it’s quite a letdown – packing only 2,300mAh but with the same 5V @ 1.5A charger.

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Review – ASUS ROG STRIX IMPACT II Wireless gaming mouse: Near perfect

ASUS makes good budget mouse already. We used a few of them here personally – and we love it – like the GX860 Buzzard from years ago. Then came the ROG STRIX IMPACT II Wireless. It’s technically just a wireless version of an already-good mouse, the ROG STRIX Impact II.
With a compact body and also a unique design, let’s take a look at what this mouse has to offer.

Inside the box, what we get are rather simple – the user manual, the ROG STRIX Impact II Wireless gaming mouse itself, and a USB-C cable.

Now, the mouse itself is rather sleek and it uses a design that we’ve seen on many other mice before. What’s different here is that ROG decided to use smoked semitransparent, frosted plastic for the entire mouse, so we can still see some of its internals.

This smoked plastic cover also creates a rather diffused RGB look which I think looks good. Also, it offers a lot of grip even my fingers and palm are sweating since it uses a matte finish.

Now, the ROG STRIX IMPACT II Wireless has the usual 6-button design, but there’s a catch. We have the usual left, right, scroll wheel clicks, forward and back buttons – and also the DPI button but it’s located at the bottom of the mouse.

This means that the DPI button is pretty much unutilized since it cannot be programmed in the Armoury Crate software. Even if we can program it, it’s located below the mouse – which means it’s inaccessible while gaming.

But when you’re not gaming, the ROG STRIX IMPACT II Wireless can save up to 3 custom profiles on-board and toggle between them by pressing:

DPI + scroll wheel click
DPI + forward side button
DPI + back side button

Now, this mouse can be used as a wireless or wired mouse. The wireless dongle is hidden at the bottom part of the mouse, and it can be taken or placed into its slot easily thanks to the dongle’s design. Very considerate of them.

To use it as a wired mouse, just connect a USB-C cable to it. Yes, it’s using a USB-C port – and at first, it looks like a “proprietary” port but it isn’t. Sure, you can use the included USB-C cable for a more secure fit but we also used some random Ugreen USB-C cable and it fits just nice – just that it has a little bit more wiggle room.

By the way, if you don’t like the left or right clicks on the mouse, you can actually swap it out. There are 4 rubber plugs that cover the screws and can be taken out with ease and swapped with whatever compatible switches that you can find. It’s a plug-and-play switch swap.
And the battery life we used for 40 hours over the span of one week with RGB turned on – and that’s impressive, to say the least.

Finally – the price. At RM299, The ASUS ROG STRIX Impact II Wireless is compact, easy to store, and has a lot of features to make this a mouse that can be brought and used on other PCs since it has onboard profiles and a dedicated slot to store the wireless receiver.
Also, it’s not using a “proprietary” USB-C port which means I can use some other USB-C cable to charge or use it in wired mode as well.
All in all, I only have one complaint – the DPI button location. It should’ve been below the scroll wheel so that it can be easily pressed when while gaming. And also be remapped to do something else while not gaming.

Where to buy? (Affiliate links)

Amazon US
Lazada
Shopee

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The Bot that Makes a Clean Sweep

The hustle and bustle of today’s lifestyle has definitely put a strain on our personal time. Typical house chores often feel like a distraction from things that matter most to us. Such chores, if neglected, make our living environment not only unhealthy but an uncomfortable one.
The solution is the NaviBot-S, Samsung’s latest independent home cleaning system. Small, flat and silent, it crawls through your living space; cleaning and removing dust particles effortlessly. Its Dust Particle Sensor intelligently detects even the slightest amount of dust and persistently cleans until the job is done. The end result is a squeaky clean hygienic environment that’s safe for children to play in.
The Navibot-S achieves this with the advanced Visionary MappingTM Plus System that enables the bot to clean narrow spots quickly and efficiently. When low on power, it ingeniously takes the shortest route back to the docking station, and resumes its last position once fully charged; eliminating downtime and unnecessary travel distance. Consequently, the bot delivers a cleaner home in a shorter timeframe.

The slim 80mm profile allows the NaviBot-S to reach every nook and cranny, covering every inch with its sweeping action. Users can even dictate how often they prefer the NaviBot-S to do the work for them. This whole process is also silent; thanks to the Air Path Technology that keeps noise levels to a maximum of 60dB. And because it works without ever getting in your way, you won’t have to be spend too much time cleaning.

Conventional cleaning robots usually work well on one surface but struggle with others. The NaviBot-S includes a Turbo Mode and Spot Mode that performs great on challenging surfaces like carpets and rugs. Usually requiring manual effort, these surfaces are easily tackled by the NaviBot-S.
Regardless of the size of your office or home, the Samsung NaviBot-S leaves you with more productive time for the important events in your life. It does what it does best – it dusts where other robots and humans have failed.

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ASUS Launches First ROG Concept Store In Malaysia

[alert type=”info” icon-size=”normal”]Credits to PCMag for all the pictures![/alert]
Once, ROG started off as a small group from ASUS themselves to create the best of the best hardware. Eventually, ROG evolved to become its own lineup of gaming laptops, and they even have the title for world’s first liquid-cooled laptop. Now, the official ROG Concept Store is launched in Malaysia too!

The location of this concept store is at G023B, Ground Floor, Low Yat Plaza. To which I think is a really strategic place – just look at how many people that pass by the ground floor in a day. This building stands out from the crowd too as it stands out like a sore thumb on the ground floor.

Step inside and experience some of the latest and greatest ROG products. There’re even customized AKRacing chairs for us all to enjoy, too.
Oh by the way – they updated their over-the-top liquid-cooled laptop. It’s known as the ASUS ROG GX800 now, and it has NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 in SLI, powering up a 18.4-inch LED 4K display. That’s just intense.
So head on over to G023B, Ground Floor, Low Yat Plaza, and experience everything that ASUS ROG has to offer today!

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Spotify rolls out new interface design

I’m sure we’ve all heard of what Spotify is by now. If you’re not clear about what they do however, allow me to explain again. Spotify is an online music-streaming service for free, but offers a premium account subscription for better features.

Spotify is known for its complicated interface and personally, I found it to be very confusing and I was performing unnecessary steps just to do something simple and it looks just like a browser itself. Well, they heard us and now they are rolling out their new design to all users!

Currently, this new black-painted design is gradually rolling out to users of the iPhone app, the desktop application and also the web player. I’m so sorry but Android and iPad users would have to wait until further notice to get the new interface!
Here’s a brief video showing how it looks.

If that’s not enough, here are more screenshots and renders showing how the app looks like!

I’m definitely excited to have a look at how the all new redesigned Spotify app will look on Android. Seriously, with Android’s open-source environment, Spotify can really be the default player with the most beautiful and most integrated music player ever.

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HONOR 20 to launch at London this 21st May

Following the trends that we see for the past few years, it’s always Huawei who promotes their devices with the most advanced technologies with ridiculous prices (look at the P30 Pro price). A few months down the line, HONOR will launch an affordable and reasonably-priced doppelgänger at a fraction of Huawei’s price. Now, HONOR is already teasing the upcoming HONOR 20.
HONOR started teasing by posting up lots of themed math questions. These questions are rather… jarring, to say the least. While Chinese have the superstition against the number “4”, HONOR made sure that they highlighted the number “4” by shining a spotlight on it.

This first question is asking about the launch date with an image of the Tower Bridge at the background. The math question is 444+4x4x4+(4+4)/4+44/4 and the answer is 521. Obviously, this means May 21st. A little over a month from now only.
The second question asks what phone will be launching on May 21st. Once again, math question. This time around it is no longer highlighting the number “4” but instead has a bunch of numbers. HONOR Malaysia is also cheeky enough to include #TripleTheFun in this post.
https://www.facebook.com/HonorMY/photos/a.1491843044385494/2345427255693731/?type=3&xts%5B0%5D=68.ARBG-ZojYjCVN2paPbjv9WM4n4KBS0ROr9sWlPVjUx0-V4YhT4RMFJqemMqXjwIKBVxnCn_1xW9ppNwMczOXow8wJwUTRttgJqeeWYVuoXN2fxiejFvAQRMw0kUHckxAZ_RMXbW54hbD8S8t9fSG3tBNpCdOP1-qYgUxc7f40gNSkpTlE4g_cBp1EXWxnDUsNEwv63SdRUF0JXcUgGjraxWyd_ec6TVdj2mtUq4e-Bq5XgRJ72fOa3pRuU26q3b4d3hJ-m4E0tF7aXW_Vjv-Mkws5TSmKEPkSagsU3h2B3DtL8wxLP1Z0sPIOcmfRar1ZbaR-6-TkiKCSDBjORijgOEjALBW&tn=-R
The answer for this question is 20. Hence the HONOR 20, which is actually due for an upgrade as the HONOR 10 was announced about a year ago.
One logical reason we have on why the number “4” is pretty obvious – the number of cameras. That means the #TripleTheFun means you have 3 dedicated cameras – an ultrawide camera, a main camera, and another telephoto camera. The 4th camera here might be a 3D TOF camera, as seen (and loved) on the HONOR View20.
From what we know now, the HONOR 20 will be launching at London with the tagline #CaptureWonder.
We will continue to update this post when we have more information.

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Review – Edifier MP80 Bluetooth Speaker: Tiny But Loud

We’ve seen many Bluetooth speakers over the years here at Nasi Lemak Tech, and I can’t help but say this – many Bluetooth speakers out there are available in black colored plastic body. That’s fine – but what if I want a little design in my Bluetooth speaker while still sound decently well? Enter the Edifier MP80 – it’s a tiny little circular Bluetooth speaker that’s available in the usual black or in an ocean blue hue.
Thanks to Inter-Asia for sending over an Edifier MP80 for us to review!

Unboxing

I can tell you one thing when it comes to the Edifier MP80’s packaging design. It’s a rather unconventional style, but also a frustrating one to deal with.

It has a circular design with two parts – the transparent plastic lid, and the base itself. The base locks into the plastic lid through two notches at two opposing ends. The frustration comes when I’m trying to unlock both notches together to separate the lid. However, you can separate notch first, then slide it out a little so that it’s unlocked, but hanging within the plastic lid.

After battling with the plastic lid itself, the speaker can finally be released. Here you can find the Edifier MP80 Bluetooth Speaker itself, user manuals, and a short micro USB cable that’s coiled around the base of the packaging.
Compared to the Edifier MP233 that we reviewed here, the packaging is much more frustrating, though still stylish. I really hope that these packaging styles will become Edifier’s MP-series Bluetooth speakers’ signature.

I want to give Edifier an A+ for packaging creativity here, but I can’t help but cringe when I saw how the micro USB cable is coiled and kinked. Seriously, don’t do this if you want your USB cables to function.
Design
When it comes to design, I really like the color that Edifier chose to go with. The Edifier MP80 that we have here is in this purplish blue color, which I personally find it appealing. There’s another greyish black color which looks like it just got out of a mid-50’s black-and-white TV show.

The rubbery enclosure at the side is actually made out of a very soft material that can literally bounce when dropped. With this outer shell, the Edifier MP80’s ports can be closed and sealed, hence it’s also rated at IP54 – splash and dust resistant.

There are also 4 other buttons – power, next/previous, and call button. More on these later.

One interesting design here is that the outer enclosure’s swirly lines are meant to help to move water down to the base when it’s wet. This is to prevent water buildup from the top of the speaker, as you can see from the convexed speaker grill at the top.

However, there’s one major complaint I have when it comes to this convexed speaker grill. If you do drop the speaker, the speaker grill will most probably hit the ground and get scratched. Furthermore, the speaker grill isn’t that strong either. I can press it down with one finger. I do understand that this convexed speaker grill is meant to help with water flow, but I suppose there are better ways to implement something similar.

The base of the speaker won’t have any issues thanks to the rubber enclosure that wraps around the base.

Features
The Edifier MP80 is a slightly more advanced Bluetooth speaker compared to all the other ones on the market today. It can play music – sure, but it can also take up calls.
Other than that, the pairing Edifier MP80 is actually pretty similar to other Bluetooth speakers and it works as expected. All the buttons work as expected, too.

Press and hold power button to turn it on
Press + button for higher volume
Press and hold + button to go next track
Press – button for lower volume
Press and hold – button to go previous track
Press the call button to answer call
Press and hold call button to enter pairing mode

You’ll have to hold the power button for quite a long time to turn it on. I thought it was out of battery when I first laid my hands on it.
The Bluetooth performance of the Edifier MP80 is quite good compared to the Edifier XM6BT that we reviewed last year. Good job Edifier for taking feedback and improving.
Using the Edifier MP80
We did mention that the pairing process on the Edifier MP80 is smooth sailing all the way, and music playback is smooth too. The Edifier MP80 does not come with Qualcomm aptX (learn more about it here) but it still plays back FLAC format music without a hitch – given that the connection is strong enough, of course.
The buttons on the Edifier MP80 is surprisingly easy to press, and tactile enough to feel each press. Well done, Edifier!
The USB port flap is easy to remove, although that might be a bad thing if you’re going somewhere with lots of water action.

The rubbery outer shell does protect the Edifier MP80 from drops, but as mentioned before, the convexed speaker grill at the top can get damaged easily. Though, the included lanyard is meant for you to strap the Edifier MP80 on your backpack or even your pants while you’re out and about.
Sound quality of the Edifier MP80
Once I powered up the Edifier MP80, I tuned in to my all-time favorite – Adventure Time by Rogue. The first thing I realize is the lack of bass from the Edifier MP80. The mids and highs however, were decent.
Then I moved on to some orchestral music. American Patrol by the BBC Big Band sounded okay overall, but when the higher-pitched trumpet comes, it pierced through my eardrums.
Vocal-centric songs like Dream Sweet In Sea Major by Miracle Musical sounded great, since it doesn’t focus much on bass and definitely not that much high pitch segments in the song.
I was a little disappointed since I had Bluetooth speakers which are tinier than the MP80 and still performed exceptionally well when it comes to overall sound quality. The ear-piercing high-pitch that the Edifier MP80 is a little overly annoying to listen to. With the lack of special software to tune the equalizer (understandable since we all want affordable Bluetooth speakers anyway), you’ll have to find an alternative on how to change the frequency response.
The only way I know how on Android is by using Poweramp, which costs USD $3.99, and the interface isn’t exactly easy to use either.
Battery life?
It’s no surprise that batteries are getting better by the day. Smartphones are the spearheading the way to better batteries, and these technologies trickle down to other battery-powered gadgets over time. This Edifier MP80 might be one of them – as the battery life is exceptionally good.
According to whatever information I can find online (which is really scarce for the MP80), it has a 2,200mAh battery – which is larger than an iPhone 7’s battery! You will never run out of battery within the day – that’s for sure.
Charging takes quite a while, though.
Wrapping up the Edifier MP80 review
To be honest, the Edifier MP80 is more of a lifestyle product, in my opinion. With the bassless sound quality it produces, it seems like the Edifier MP80 is aimed towards those who want a Bluetooth speaker to listen to some music on the go, while still looking stylish.

Since it’s splash- and dust-proof, I can definitely see myself hanging the MP80 off a zipper on my bag while walking around the city and commuting. I don’t even have to worry about the rain. Once I reach my destination, I’ll just plop the MP80 on the table and turn it on and listen to some tunes. Perhaps to answer calls too.
With that said, the Edifier MP80 is priced at only RM139.90 – which is a steal compared to Bluetooth speakers from other brands. Seriously, the build quality of the MP80 exceeded my expectations.

Pros

Splash-proof!
Very nice silicon enclosure
Tiny
Long battery life

Cons

Underwhelming bass
The speaker grill bulge is weird

Where to buy?
Lazada link here – RM139.90!
Update from Edifier – the MP80 will be available in Popular Bookstores and also on Edifier’s own online store.

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Get the Huawei Band 4e (Active) this 19th Feb for only RM69; usually at RM119

The recently-announced Huawei Band 4e Active is now at a lower price but only for this special promotional day that is 19th February 2021. At just RM119, you can even get it at a lower price of RM69 only during its launch day.
The Huawei Band 4e (Active) – yes that is its official name – is set to be available on selected online platforms this Friday, 19th February 2021, at RM119.

For, for that day only, you may be one of them who get the Huawei Band 4e (Active) at only RM69, but the mechanism seems to be a little weird. You’ll only get to be one of the lucky individuals to receive RM50 off when you purchase the product via the Huawei Store and Lazada.
The Huawei Band 4e (Active) is available in two colors – black and red.
Huawei boasts that this Band 4e (Active) has these 6 features:

Multi-method Wearing For Ultimate Stats Tracking
Professional Running Guidance
Cycling Guidance Monitoring
Creative Basketball Mode
Long Battery Life
5ATM Water-Resistance

All of them seem to be rather standard features on a fitness band nowadays – but the basketball mode seems new.
As a quick note, this seems to be the new HONOR Band Sport. As you know, Huawei sold the entire HONOR brand to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co., Ltd. so it’s only natural that HONOR products are now sold back under the Huawei name and brand.
HONOR Band 5 Sport
The HONOR Band Sport is the only fitness band that has an accessory to clip onto your shoe – and the Huawei Band 4e (Active) is now its successor.

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Review – ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ: 4K HDR 144Hz Monitor With G-Sync For RM11k

During the ASUS monitor showcase not too long ago, we saw one monitor in particular that is ASUS’s current best with top-of-the-line hardware built into a single monitor. That monitor is the ROG Swift PG27UQ – a 4K resolution monitor with 144Hz refresh rate with G-Sync, supports HDR and priced at RM10,999.
So what is the deal with this super high-priced monitor? Is it worth the price? Let’s find out in this review of the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ.

Unboxing
Firstly, let’s take a look at the box itself. Being charged a premium, the contents better be fantastic. Looking inside, we can find the a slew of things – starting from the power brick, a color calibration testing report for this particular monitor with its serial number, a few guides, and a pouch for the accessories. It’s worth noting that the power brick for this monstrous monitor is actually the same as some of their ROG laptops.

Looking at the certificate itself, ASUS included all of their testing method and equipment used.

On the cable side of things, the ROG Swift PG27UQ comes with a USB 3.0 uplink cable, a HDMI cable, and also a super-premium DisplayPort cable that supports up to 8K in resolution. Obviously, that’s a story for another time.

Specification

Display

Panel Size
Wide Screen 27.0″(68.47cm) 16:9

Color Saturation
97% (DCI-P3), 99% (Adobe RGB)

Panel Type
In-Plane Switching

True Resolution
3840×2160

Display Viewing Area (HxV)
596.16 x 335.34 mm

Display Surface
Non-glare

Pixel Pitch
0.155 mm

Brightness
600 cd/㎡ (Typical)/1000 cd/㎡ (Peak)

Contrast Ratio (Max)
1000 :1 (Typical)/50000 :1 (HDR)

Viewing Angle (CR≧10)
178°(H)/178°(V)

Response Time
4ms GtG

Display colors
1.07b (10 bit with dithering)

Flicker Free
Yes

HDR Support
Yes

Dynamically Local Dimming
Yes, 384 zones

Refresh Rate (Max)
144Hz (overclocking)

Power Consumption
180W (HDR on)

Video Feature

Trace Free Technology
Yes

Color Accuracy
△E≦ 3

GamePlus (modes)
Yes (Crosshair/Timer/FPS Counter/Display Alignment)

Low Blue Light
Yes

HDCP Support
Yes

Game Visual
6 Modes(Scenery/Racing/Cinema/RTS/RPG/FPS/sRGB Modes)

G-Sync
Yes

Mechanical Design

Tilt
+20°~-5°

Swivel
+35°~-35°

Pivot
0°~+90°

Height Adjustment
0~120 mm

VESA Support
100x100mm

Lighting
Aura Sync & ROG Light Signal

I/O Ports

Signal Input
HDMI(v2.0), DisplayPort 1.4

Earphone Jack
3.5mm

USB upstream
USB 3.0 Type-B x1

USB downstream
USB 3.0 Type-A x2

Note

True resolution:

DP: 3840 x2160 @ 144Hz (overclocking)
DP: 3840×2160 @120Hz (native)
HDMI : 3840x 2160 (up to 60Hz)

Brightness: 600 cd/m² (typical/HDR on)

Ports
The  ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ comes with two video inputs behind the monitor itself – HDMI and also DisplayPort. For a monitor like this, we do not advise in using HDMI at all as HDMI itself is the bottleneck and can only run at 4K 60FPS maximum for this particular monitor. While running on DisplayPort however, the ROG Swift PG27UQ can run at a native 4K resolution at 120Hz. To run on 144Hz, you’ll need to overclock the monitor. More on this later.
There is also a USB uplink port and two more USB-A ports alongside with a 3.5mm audio jack. Essentially, the ROG Swift PG27UQ becomes a USB 3.0 hub and also a 3.5mm audio passthrough if HDMI audio output is used.

Here we can also see an interesting port – the “service use only” port. According to ASUS, you can update the firmware of the monitor and presumably get some enhacements and improvements. However, you’ll have to bring the monitor back to ASUS’s service center to do the firmware upgrade as it uses a proprietary cable.

Of course, there’s also a power jack. It uses an external power brick and this monitor actually consumes quite a lot of power – which ties in to how the monitor is designed aesthetically.
Design

While looking at the back, we can see that the monitor has a chromed diagonal line going through the entire monitor. This separator actually creates a gap and lets air to pass through. This monitor consumes lots of power, and having these gaps is to prevent overheating.

On the monitor arm itself we can see the ROG Light Signal and a little wheel beneath it. You can actually adjust the ROG Light Signal’s angle to have it shine higher or lower – or turn it off completely via the OSD.

At the right left side of the monitor, there’s a big ROG logo in what seems to be silver – but it’s actually an RGB-illuminated logo that can be synchronized with Aura Sync.

At the bottom right corner of the ROG Swift PG27UQ, we can see ASUS using their signature joystick OSD controller and also a few more buttons.

There’s also a little ambient light sensor at the top to detect if the environment is too bright or dark, then adjusts the brightness accordingly. It’s actually how smartphones’ automatic brightness works.

In terms of ergonomics, the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ has height adjustment, swivel, tilt, and pivoting. VESA mount options is available as well for those who prefers to use a flexible monitor arm, which requires the removal of the stand to reveal the 100x100mm VESA mounting point.

Features
Aside from the top-of-the-line specs of the display, the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ does come with the usual set of ROG monitor features. Let’s take a look at the OSD menu.

Looking at the full menu, we first see the option for overclocking. It turns on 144Hz refresh rate but cuts down on the color space. When it comes to gaming, that reduction in color space isn’t going to affect much – but it does affect tasks that require precision in color reproduction.
This is not ASUS’s problem, but actually DisplayPort 1.4’s hardware limitation in bandwidth.

Then we have a total of 5 levels of blue-light filter. You can either use the one included in the monitor’s firmware or just use Windows 10’s built-in “night mode”.

One big highlight here with the ROG Swift PG27UQ is the quantum dot display with a total of 384 different backlight zones. It is super bright compared to conventional IPS LCD monitors, but it has something called the halo effect.
You can mitigate the halo effect by going into the OSD menu and tinker with the “dark boost” option. You can select and it can actually reduce the halo effect by quite a lot. Here is an exaggerated comparison of the halo effect from the IPS glow.
          Dark Boost turned off            Dark Boost turned to the highest level
Using the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ

I absolutely love the color of the ROG Swift PG27UQ. The display is really bright and yes – I can even do photo or video editing on this monitor since the colors are accurate. HDR content is definitely a piece of cake for the ROG Swift PG27UQ, something that gamers, enthusiasts and the professionals will appreciate.
Hitting 93FPS here.
It’s a monitor that’s way ahead of its time – and with that said, even two GTX 1080 Ti reference cards in SLI can’t even reach 120Hz for most games. While playing Overwatch with the highest possible settings, it ranges around 96FPS to about 110FPS most of the time. Which is actually good – you don’t need to overclock the monitor and reduce the color space.
Imagine if the game does not support SLI – then the game wouldn’t even run consistently at 30FPS.
Wrapping up the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ review
Honestly speaking, this monitor is way ahead of its time. DisplayPort 1.4 is a hardware limiting factor here and we do not know if ASUS can actually upgrade the ROG Swift PG27UQ to the next iteration of DisplayPort via the service port with a firmware upgrade.
That aside, for a single graphics card to run 4K resolution at 144Hz alone, it’s going to be tough. Currently, even the GTX 1080 Ti couldn’t run 4K at 60FPS consistently for AAA games. It’s really a waste for not being able to fully utilize such a powerful monitor to the full extent.
This particular monitor is on a league of its own. It can’t be compared with any other monitors in the market other than the Acer Predator X27. With that said, the price of RM10,999 is very steep – and I can’t even run at 120 FPS for most of the games even with a system that uses an Intel Core i7-6900K and two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti in SLI.
Perhaps we shall wait until the next generation of graphic cards from NVIDIA and AMD before making this purchase?

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Samsung Galaxy Fold arrives to Malaysian on 3rd May

When I saw the email with the words “Galaxy Fold”, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had to reread that email a few times. Fortunately, it was a short email but still, I couldn’t contain my excitement. It’s the Galaxy Fold. And it’s coming to Malaysia soon.
3rd May is the day, at 9.30am. This is the day and time whereby we will finally get to lay our hands on the Galaxy Fold – the world’s first foldable phone to the market. Also, glass cannot be folded – hence they are using some plastic screen to protect the AMOLED panel.

We have talked about the Galaxy Fold torture test video that showed no crease, but reviews of the Galaxy Fold are already out. Engadget has specifically highlighted that the crease is indeed there, and it is prominent. We will wait until we get our hands on the Galaxy Fold before making any comment or judgment.
As for the specs of the Galaxy Fold, you can refer to this handy infographic that Samsung has provided.

Honestly, I cannot contain my excitement as the Galaxy Fold is a truly interesting device and the pioneer of a new form factor for tomorrow’s smartphone.

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New MIUI 12 update focuses on animations, multitasking, permissions, and privacy

The grand unveiling of the upcoming MIUI 12 just happened. 2020 will be the 10th anniversary of the version of Android that is well-known throughout the world. Within MIUI 12, there are a few different things that the company is shifting its focus toward.
From what I understand, there are 4 pillars of focus for this new MIUI 12.

Animations
I think it was since MIUI 5 where the developers really double down on the animations found in MIUI. There are a lot of animations, dynamic icons, and smooth transitions that flow from app to app.

Now, Xiaomi has made a new mi Light Cone Animation Framework which transforms vectors from one shape to another smoothy. It is also combined with a built-in physics engine in MIUI to make the transformation more… lifelike.
The rendering engine now also has real-time gaussian blur so that the apps can have a new transparency effect.

Another main highlight is the new Super Wallpapers. I think that some of us have already seen how Super Wallpapers work. The lock screen is an unassuming picture of Mars but will zoom into a part of Mars when the screen is unlocked. From what I’ve seen, it seems like we can even choose which part of Mars to focus on.

We also have our lovely Earth to choose from, by the way.

Multitasking & casting
Xiaomi also paid attention to how casting works. We can now cast all sorts of apps into another display through Miracast, and it can also hide all notifications and calls from appearing on the secondary display. This is a tiny detail that I absolutely love.

And now, apps can also work in a floating menu, much like how Samsung has it in One UI.
Universal dark mode
I think this is very important for some of us users. The new universal dark mode extends to apps which aren’t yet supported by dark mode too. For example – Facebook. The team showed this screenshot on stage and I’m happy that the developers of MIUI took heed of this.

Enhanced privacy protection
One major concern nowadays is – of course – privacy. Xiaomi developed MIUI 12 to have yet another step to only have apps use a selected number of permissions only while running. Else, those apps do not have the permissions.

Coming to you this June!
At the end of June, MIUI 12 will have its first round of 5 devices getting the new update first. Other phones will come in round 2, but we’re unsure when that will be. Either way, the update extends to devices as old as the Mi Note 3, which was announced nearly 3 years ago.

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The new AOpen PV12 portable projector is one small box around the size of your palm

Acer’s sub brand AOpen has released a brand new mini projector called the PV12 that realizes the dream of having an external display anywhere you go without actually carrying one.

As small as it can be, it is not an issue to pack enough juice into it as it can last up to 5 hours per full charge and in urgent cases, double up as a portable power bank in case your other devices is not charged accidentally. Featuring a collapsible stand design to lift the entire unit up to 90-degree, the wireless connectivity allows it to cast images anywhere you like without any cables while the auto protrait, horizontal/vertical keystone adjustment, 4-corner correction are all found within this little smart device for an easy setup experience.
For its actual performing specs, it is equipped with high quality LEDs that shines up to 700 lumens of brightness with durability of up to 30,000 hours long lifespan despite the entire thing is just that small thanks to the use of high quality materials and parts.
Pricing and Limited Units Promotion
The Aopen PV12 will put on sale during the Acer x Shopee Super Brand Day at the price of RM1,099. As a special bonus, limited units will be made available at RM909 under the Shocking Sales category but if you did buy one that is priced normally, you’ll get a free Gateway Pro Wireless Headset instead. Therefore, it is actually a win-win situation, depending on which side you’re on.

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Review – HONOR 50: Return of Google after 2 years, but should you buy it?

HONOR is back with GMS! And this is the HONOR 50 – the company’s first smartphone to debut with the return of Google. HONOR is able to get Google back because HONOR is supposedly independent of Huawei now. Supposedly.
So, how is the HONOR 50? Is it actually any good? Let’s find out.

Design
I think we should just start by talking about the design of the HONOR 50. It’s technically the Huawei P50’s design. We have a glossy back panel that catches fingerprints like a magnet, and it also has the same weird dual-camera bump design.

This HONOR 50 is also very uncomfortable to hold because it uses the same design as what we’ve seen on the Huawei Mate 40 that we reviewed a year ago. That super waterfall screen just makes the frame too sharp to hold and bites into my palms whenever I try to hold the phone.

Plus, pressing the volume and power buttons can be extremely dangerous and the phone can just drop anytime.

Supremely curved screen
So, back to the screen now. The overall quality of the 6.57-inch OLED screen is fine. It can run at 120Hz and honestly, it just looks fine. However, one thing that I do want to point out is the selfie camera cutout.

You see this? It’s humongous. It immediately reminds me of the Redmi 10 that we reviewed recently as it also has that humongous selfie camera cutout.

And the pre-installed screen protector is also misaligned.

Performance
That aside, let’s move on to the performance. The HONOR 50 is equipped with the Snapdragon 778G chipset. Yes, it’s a very powerful chipset and I played games like Genshin Impact at the highest graphical settings at 60fps and still manage to get an enjoyable experience. There were definitely some frame drops but I’ll say it’s pretty just very good overall.

And I think it is here that we should mention that the HONOR 50 is still using a mono speaker… in the year 2021…
Software – Magic UI
But what about the software side of things? It’s running “Magic UI” which debuted a few years ago. It’s technically just a renamed version of Huawei’s EMUI. And oh boi, after so many years, everything is just how I remembered it.

All the issues are still here, too. Let me show you again as a reminder of what I complained about a few years ago – the camera UI.
You see, the camera UI is just not user-friendly. Over the years, we have a lot more camera modes and features other than just the standard photo and video. We now have portrait mode, night mode, pro photography, and pro video on some phones.

Since not everyone is going to use all of these features, we have brands like Samsung, OPPO, and even Xiaomi letting us rearrange the camera modes or place those extra modes into the “more” segment. This HONOR 50? Screw you. Everything is fixed in place.
And another thing I want to point out is the photo mode with its zoom slider. Phones from other brands that I’ve used place the zoom slider right above the shutter button and retain in that position in both portrait or landscape mode. This is user-friendly since everything is around that proximity and we can take pictures using one hand, yet caters to both left-handed and right-handed users.

The HONOR 50, in their infinite wisdom, decides to put it at the bottom of the frame. It’s unreachable by one hand. I just find it to be so frustrating since HONOR didn’t make any improvements to the UI when compared to 2 years ago.
Cameras
Okay, enough about the camera UI – what about the cameras themselves. There are a total of 4 different cameras here – but technically only 2 of them are usable to take pictures.

Does the camera actually take good pictures, though? To have a look at all the pictures we took with the HONOR 50, watch our video at the top of this review.
And for the video side of things… the lack of OIS means that videos coming out of the HONOR 50 is pretty… unwatchable. Everything in the video warps in and out and it’s just very nauseus to watch.
I also posted a video recorded fo the HONOR 50 on my personal Facebook, and I think you can read the comments yourself.

Battery life & charger
With a decently sized 4,300mAh battery, it can last for about 10.5 hours in our battery life test – no doubt about that. I’d say it can last for one full day’s use without much of an issue if there’s no gaming involved.

And for the charging times – the HONOR 50 uses a proprietary 66W charger and it takes about 40 minutes to charge from 15% to 100%. And since this is a proprietary fast-charging standard, our 100W Ugreen GaN charger will not fast-charge this phone.

Price
There are two tiers of the HONOR 50.

6GB RAM + 128GB storage @ RM1,699
8GB RAM + 256GB storage @ RM1,999

For the base model of RM1,699, I’ll say it’s expensive. At the same price, you can get a better deal with the Xiaomi 11T (review here) that has a more powerful MediaTek Dimensity 1200, and at least Xiaomi promised 3 full OS updates, 4 years of security patches.
Xiaomi 11T
The one advantage that the HONOR 50 has is that Magic UI doesn’t have any ads in the system whereby Xiaomi 11T’s MIUI is riddled with ads.
But if you want to get the higher-end 8GB RAM + 256GB storage version, then it’ll cost you RM1,999. That’s a hefty price and I’ll suggest you just get the Samsung Galaxy A52s instead.
Samsung Galaxy A52s
With the Galaxy A52s, you’ll have a better user experience with One UI plus Samsung’s monthly updates with 3 generations of Android updates with 4 years of security updates, IP67, a camera with proper OIS, a microSD card slot for those who want to expand beyond that 256GB of internal storage, stereo speakers, and a headphone jack!
Yeah the Samsung Galaxy A52s comes with a headphone jack and a microSD card slot.
With that said, I really want to see HONOR do better next time in both the product itself and also in terms of pricing.

Where to buy? (Affiliate links)

Lazada
Shopee

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Alphabet now “owns” Google;

In the latest groundbreaking news, Google is now owned by a company called Alphabet. Now, Google isn’t being bought out by Alphabet, but instead have the founders of Google creating Alphabet for one main purpose.
Reorganizing Google. They did this with a rather playful website.

We all know one thing – Google has a shit tonne of subsidiary companies and many more projects unrelated to search engines or ads. Investors showed that this is favourable, and Google’s shares jumped up 6.2%!

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Review – Phidisk PhantomKnight SATA III SSD

Phidisk is a relatively new brand that focuses solely on storage technology – and they originated from the humble island of Penang, Malaysia. There are multiple series within the Phidisk family, and the PhantomKnight is considered their entry-level range.
Thanks to Phidisk for providing us a review unit of the PhantomKnight. The one we have here is at 120GB.

Unboxing
Phidisk kept things pretty simple with the PhantomKnight in terms of packaging. At the front, we can see that it comes with a contrasting dark color with orange font and accents all around. It is also highlighted that the Phidisk PhantomKnight comes with a 3-year warranty.

At the back, there aren’t much to talk about except for the simple list of specs – which we will go through later.

Opening up the the box we have the PhantomKnight SSD itself sitting on a recessed cardboard piece. This acts as a shock absorber to prevent damages during shipment – and it is in a very bright orange color too.
Design
For every series of the Phidisk SSD, there is a character to represent that particular series. The Phidisk PhantomKnight series has a medieval knight in armor that is apparently having a joust.

The character design pad-printed on the SSD itself. With bright colors on the SSD and tempered glass side panels on PC cases, the PhantomKnight can be shown to the world in its full glory.
Specs
Phidisk keeps things simple here. There are only a few information that most of us are concerned about:

Form factor: 2.5-inch
Host interface: SATA III
Read speed: up to 540MB/s
Write speed: up to 450MB/s

I do wish that Phidisk would provide the specific read/write speeds of each capacity of the PhantomKnight SSD. As capacities increase, the read/write speeds changes as well. As we have confirmed with Phidisk, the PhantomKnight SSD has a built-in DRAM cache although they did not specifically highlight it on the packaging.
Benchmarks
CrystalDiskMark

From here we can see that the performance was affected when the capacity is filled to 85%. Both the random read and write speeds are affected here.
AS SSD

Looking at AS SSD we can see why the random read/write speeds slowed down when the SSD is filled up to 85% – that is because the access time has increased. Still, this access time is much faster than any hard disk in the market.
ATTO

As ATTO uses compressible files, we see no significant difference between 0% capacity used and 85% capacity used.
Real use case scenario
Usually when we copy a bunch of files – mixed with compressible and incompressible file types with various file sizes. This test is closer to how we use our computers from day to day as we deal with files with various sizes. The same set of tests is done first with a freshly formatted SSD, followed by filling it up to 85% of its total capacity.
          Copying to the Phidisk PhantomKnight.            Copying from the Phidisk PhantomKnight.
With a mixed set of files, we can see that the speed of the PhantomKnight stabilizes 339MB/s read and 446MB/s write. The performance is about the same in both different scenario, as we’ve mentioned earlier.
Unlike most of the entry-level SSD that doesn’t come with a built-in DRAM cache, the PhantomKnight has a built-in DRAM cache.

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Nexus 6 : What we know

This is how the Motorola “Shamu”, allegedly next Nexus will look like, and possibly dons the name of Nexus X.

Rumours have confirmed that the next Nexus will bear the Moto X’s design, with scaling to a huge 5.92-inch display. Speaking of the display, it’s going to have a 2K display – meaning it will sport a generous 2560×1440 resolution display, though we do not know the panel used just yet – whether it is going to be an LCD IPS, OLED, or anything along those line.

9to5Google has pointed out  that the Nexus will use the 2.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor with Adreno 420 graphics, as shown on a benchmark on GFXBench. The benchmark also showed that it will have a humongous 3GB RAM and supposedly 32GB of internal memory. The benchmark however shows a 5.2-inch screen instead, but it seems like rumours are swaying in favour of 5.9-inch display, and even I myself is guilty of such favouritism.
Selfie fans should note that the front-facing camera is only rated at 2MP, but the rear-facing camera will be a near-13MP. I really do hope Google nails down the camera this time – camera on the Nexus 4 was disappointing, and showed improvements on the Nexus 5, though still lots of room for improvement.
Android Police noted that the next Nexus will feature optical image stabilization (OIS), a large 3,200mAh battery (FINALLY!!!!!!), and also obviously Android L with a little touchup from what we have last seen. Interestingly, this Nexus device will even have Motorola’s tubo charger feature for faster charging, and also dual front-facing stereo speakers. I just hope that it’s not as misleading as the new Moto X 2014, as they do have two grills at the front, but only one of it produces sound.

With alleged renders of the next Nexus device, someone created a real-size mockup of said device. It doesn’t look too huge or too small, but the word “5.9-inch” had already shocked many people.

Android Police also got an exclusive look at – again, the alleged next Nexus device out in the wilderness of daily commute. 5.9-inch device is pretty much legit here actually.

What we do expect is the device to be launched at somewhere around the end of October. When will be phone be in Malaysia? That is a question I want answered as quick as possible, because I am actually seeking a new phone for myself. Being an avid Nexus fan for years, I can only get excited over this “Shamu”.
I guess I’ll just camp at DirectD for a few days for it to be on sale when it’s here.

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realme 10 aims for the 2023 best bang for the buck at just RM999 in Malaysia

realme Malaysia has officially announced its new smartphone, the realme 10, which aims to be a part of everyone’s life through its aggressive pricing and large storage capacity.

The name of the game is “real” simple here – best value for each dollar you shell out, the slider for ‘Fancy’ is down but the numeric figures are as high as they can be. Its highlight comes from its 8GB+256GB configuration which is by far the cheapest one and adding the selected choice of MediaTek Helio G99 SoC, it is one offer that not a lot of people can resist.
Without dragging on too much, a quick spec sheet check will do it justice.

6.4-inch AMOLED Display

1080p Resolution
Top Left Punch Hole Notch
90Hz Refresh Rate

MediaTek Helio G99 Chipset
8GB RAM (With RAM Expansion up to 8GB)
256GB Storage
Dual Rear Camera

Main: 50MP f/1.8
Depth Sensor

16MP Selfie Camera
5,000mAh Battery

33W Fast Charge

Clash White, Rush Black Colors

Price and Availability
Priced at just RM999, the realme 10 has a bit of a wonky schedule when it comes to the actual sales or preorder period so just check out the table below.

Platform

Type

Free Gift

Official Shopee and Lazada

First Sale (February 16)

1-Year Screen Crack Warranty

Offline Brand Stores and Authorized Dealers

First Sale (February 17 – 19)

1-Year Screen Crack Warranty, realme Band 2

Offline Brand Stores and Authorized Dealers

Preorder (February 16)

1-Year Screen Crack Warranty, realme Band 2

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CES2018: Samsung Unveils NW700 Sound+ Wall-Mountable Soundbar

It’s interesting to see that Samsung is unveiling the successor of the award-winning MS650 Sound+ soundbar, the NW700 Sound+, at CES2018. Soundbars are getting more and more mainstream by the day, as sound quality of soundbars are indeed getting better, while being more affordable than ever. Also, they come with lots of features these days, too.
The brand new NW700 Sound+ is made to be slim and sleek – optimized for wall mounting underneath Samsung’s super-thin TVs, obviously. Only 53.5mm wide, it works well with a wall mount and still have great audio quality.

The NW700 Sound+ comes with three channels and slim sound technology to deliver dynamic and targeted sound for an immersive listening experience.
While the Edifier CineSound B1 that we reviewed here is indeed lacking in bass (forgive the CineSound B1 as it’s a budget soundbar anyway), the NW700 Sound+ comes with a built-in subwoofer. How well does it sound? We do not know, but we’re very interested.
The technology found in the NW700 Sound+ and its previous iterations has been routinely praised for helping the soundbars achieve powerful bass, cohesive soundstage and impressive clarity. The distortion-cancelling technology has also been recognized for effectively syncing the drivers in the soundbar to produce a clear and powerful sound. The technology works by predicting distortion at the end of the speaker movement and making the necessary adjustments before the distortion actually takes place. This results in smooth, distortion-free bass tones.

The NW700 Sound+ also supports three sound modes including Standard Mode, Surround Mode, which is used to expand surround sound performance, and Smart Mode, which automatically adjusts volume and surround sound effects.
As one of Samsung’s newest lifestyle products, the NW700 Sound+ soundbar is well-suited to be seamlessly integrated into most of home’s décor and home theater system.

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Realme joins Lazada 9.9 sale; Realme 3 Pro for RM699 & Realme C2 for RM329

Wow. Realme is joining Lazada the massive Lazada 9.9 sales with massive deals. Remember to set alarms to remind yourself because these deals are just way too good. You can already use the Lazada Chup Dulu to book your item first. But on 9th September itself, that is when the best deals come up.
The catch for the Realme 3 Pro for RM699 is this – you need to pay RM69.90 first (as deposit, non-refundable) to Chup Dulu, and then remember to check out on 9th September by paying the remaining RM629.10. That totals up to RM699 for the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage version of the Realme 3 Pro. And that’s fantastic!

But on Lazada 9.9 itself, the Realme 3 Pro (4GB RAM + 64GB storage) will be at RM749 instead.
Here’s our review of the Realme 3 Pro.
Review – Realme 3 Pro: Undefeatable value

As for those who want a simpler smartphone, then you can have a look at the Realme C2. Starting at RM339, you can get the Realme C2 and you can get a complimentary microSD card together too!
Here’s our review of the Realme C2.

Review – Realme C2: New entry-level king

But then again, on the exclusive Crazy Mega Brand Offer, from 12am till 2am, the Realme C2 (2GB RAM + 16GB storage) will be available at RM329!
Want to learn more about the deals that Realme has for this 9th September? Click here to visit Realme Malaysia’s official Lazada store!

Device Model & Variant
Lazada 9.9 (RM)
Original Selling Price (RM)

Realme 3 (3+32GB)
RM 499 + Speaker
RM599

Realme 3 Pro (4+64GB)
RM699 + gift box (pre-sale)
RM749 (on 9.9 buy w/o pre-sale)
RM899

Realme 3 Pro (6+128GB)
RM998 + gift box
RM999

Realme C2 (2+16GB)
RM329 + microSD card (12am-2am)
RM339 + microSD card
RM429

Realme C2 (2+32GB)
RM398 +  microSD card
RM399

Realme C2 (3+32GB)
RM448 + microSD card
RM499

Realme 3 case
RM19
RM29

Realme x mmmstu6io t-shirt
RM69
RM99

Realme tech bag
RM149
RM199

Realme buds
RM39
RM39

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realme Book, the brand’s 1st laptop arrives in Malaysia starting next week

realme Malaysia has officially launched its very first laptop, the realme Book together with its availability period.

realme fans will be delighted that the brand is still applying the same idealogy when designing the laptop which is of great quality at an affordable price. The very first correct choice they have made is the selection of Intel’s 11th Gen Intel Core mobile CPU (Either an i3 or i5) that is both powerful and efficient. They also did not skimp on the display as well because the i5 model is using a 14-inch 2K resolution that provides great visual effects alongside modern I/O which is Thunderbolt 4 and WiFi 6 – another practical reason to use the latest Intel offering.
For the memory chips, both the i3 and i5 variant holds 8GB of RAM with storage options that scale up to 512GB PCIe SSD. As for the battery, although it is rated only at 54Whr, the 65W fast charge feature will let u juice up as much as 50% in just 30 minutes in addition to the relatively low levels of power consumption thanks to the 11th Gen Intel Core CPU.
The chassis is also made to be as light as possible and is CNC machined to absolute dimension and finished off with sandblasting and anodizing process that results in a smooth and reflective surface. 2 colors are available which are Blue and Grey.
Availability and Pricing
The realme Book will reach Malaysia shore and launches officially on August 27 exclusively on Shopee with the i3 model (8GB+256GB) priced at RM2,999 and the i5 variant (8GB+512GB) at RM3,499. To reward early birds rightly and thoroughly, a sharp RM500 instant rebate will be given to the Book i3, essentially dropping it down to RM2,499.
Additionally, another Book i5 SKU with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage is revealed at RM3,999 but that will be another story for another day as realme is still finalizing the info for that particular machine.

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ASUS 200 Series Motherboards Support Windows 7 & Windows 8.1

I thought Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are dead. Not because of Windows 10, but because Microsoft stopped supporting them. However, after the recent announcement on the new slew of ASUS 200 Series motherboards (full details here), they’ve come back again and announced another marvelous news to us.
It has been confirmed that their ASUS 200 Series motherboards will have special drivers for both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 – but there’s a caveat, as not all of them are supported.

Here’s the full table of all supported motherboards.

Intel Z200
Win7/Win8.1 driver

SCD
Web page

MAXIMUS IX FORMULA
v
v

MAXIMUS IX CODE
v
v

MAXIMUS IX HERO
v
v

TUF Z270 MARK 1
v
v

STRIX Z270E GAMING
v
v

STRIX Z270F GAMING
v
v

PRIME Z270-A
v
v

PRIME Z270-AR
v
v

STRIX Z270G GAMING
v
v

TUF Z270 MARK 2
v
v

STRIX Z270H GAMING
v
v

PRIME Z270-K
N/A
v

PRIME Z270-P
N/A
v

PRIME Z270M-PLUS
N/A
v

PRIME Z270M-PLUS/BR
N/A
v

Intel H200
Win7/Win8.1 driver

SCD
Web page

STRIX H270F GAMING
v
v

PRIME H270-PLUS
N/A
v

PRIME H270-PRO
N/A
v

PRIME H270M-PLUS
v
v

Intel B200
Win7/Win8.1 driver

SCD
Web page

STRIX B250F GAMING
v
v

PRIME B250-PRO
N/A
v

PRIME B250M-PLUS
N/A
v

PRIME B250M-C
N/A
v

PRIME B250M-A
N/A
v

PRIME B250M-K
N/A
v

EX-B250M-V3
N/A
v

EX-B250M-V5
N/A
v

EX-B250-V7
N/A
v

PIO-B250I
N/A
v

PRIME B250M-PLUS/BR
N/A
v

Intel Q200
Win7/Win8.1 driver

SCD
Web page

PRIME Q270M-C
N/A
v

As Windows 10 does have it own fair share of insane telemetry and spying issues, I completely understand why some users want to use Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
If you do have your own reasons why you want to use Windows 7 or 8.1 leave it down in the comments section below. I’d love to know what your reason is!

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Embrace Mobility Trends with Logitech

Mobile market is all the rage and rave these days when it comes to consumer electronics and also its accessories. We can already see that there’s a dense market in both of them, but then that doesn’t stop innovation from blooming. In fact – it nurtures it.

As explained, Logitech is a design company in some aspects too, and yet to fulfil the customers’ needs, Logitech is trying their best to ensure maximum customer satisfaction.
Logitech brings up some of the high quality accessories and also some appliances which ensures portability, style and a low price, that is from their portable or Bluetooth speakers to their iPad cases.

The event actually is a recap of the recently launched products in Malaysia and bring in the hands-on experience all at once on the table. We of course got our hands on them quite thoroughly.
First off we got to play with the Z600 Bluetooth speakers, which is a 2.0 multimedia speaker setup and has a touch control for the volume. It’s unusual to see that it has a flat ribbon cable instead of the usual round ones for this speaker.

Of course this speaker isn’t exactly portable, but it can connect up to a few devices, plays music loud enough yet can be controlled far enough in the house. This will obviously satisfy me with the wireless music playing capability, but the lacking subwoofer sort of hinders my preference.
Next up there’s the amazing Ultrathin Keyboard Folio for the iPad Mini. It obviously has a keyboard – with great tactile feedback – and also acts as a protective case. Logitech did not stop there as they even added a strong magnet to let it stay up while holding the iPad Mini at a corner.

For one handed movements and quick movements, this Ultrathin Keyboard Folio definitely is a great accessory as it lets the device stay upright at that position.

While the design matters, materials matter too as they play the major role of being the skin and offering grip to the user’s palm. Logitech varied its material used from teflon to a felt-like material. As the textures on the material does show off quite a lot in terms of aesthetics, some elegant design uses the felt-like material to promote its smoothness and sleekness whereas some rugged design uses the sandy texture effect to promote its rigidity.
As some of us who can’t live with music yet wants some noise around and doesn’t have a large space to offer, Logitech also offers a small, portable speaker for you to play your music with. Of course, it fits in your handbag or your cargo pants

By having not a wide array of products but a few innovative ones is enough for the market and also eases up the production cost while eliminating the hassle of customers trying to pick the right product. We all seek mobility and protective cases as bare essentials but we never said no to anything extra. That’s where the market of mobile trends come in and continues to innovate continuously.

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OnePlus fans gathered at Coffee Bean SS15

NEVER SETTLE – that’s OnePlus with their philosophy. I’m amazed by the OnePlus One, and I still am. They’re even going to have services centers in Malaysia since they are after all coming to Malaysia officially.

They shook the world with their first ever flagship killer, and had direct competition with ASUS with their PadFone S, Huawei with their Honor 6, Xiaomi with their Mi 4, and many more. Will OnePlus ever settle with the aggressive battle for low-priced high-end devices?
Only time will tell, yet I’m super excited that OnePlus is coming officially to Malaysia.

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Snapdragon BatteryGuru ensures longer battery life

Qualcomm, the creators of the Snapdragon processors, released an app that claims to “boost your smartphone’s battery life”. I have already installed this for about 3~4 days and a review is not out yet since it has to “study” how you use your device first.
Let’s take a look at the app menus and its features for a moment.

After the splash screen, it then shows a list of apps that requires syncing, and provides you several simple options, such as making Blogger only sync when it wants or only when it wants, but by default it follows the app’s nature.
The apps that it is able to control are not locked to Google apps alone, but any apps which requests syncing, this app is able to control.

Over time it will learn how I use my phone, being that my WiFi status and also my location. Like what I used to do with Locale, it changes the device’s WiFi status in the locations that it has learned.
This automated feature definitely saves a lot of battery since it prevents exactly what the greatest battery parasite will do – aimlessly search for WiFi while you don’t even want to go online.

There also is a full list of configurations that you can tweak yourself, such as to enable or disable the WiFi and syncing management, or just disable it altogether.

Now that I have installed this app for a few days, it has learned how I use my device, the notification now tells me to “enjoy the extra battery life”.

Keep in mind that this app is still under beta, so don’t expect it to work without glitches, bugs or hiccups. A review will be out in a day or two.
If you’d like to try this on your own, get it with the link below now!

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Long-term review: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 – I’m not going back to flat phones

The night of September 20th was the time that I unboxed the Galaxy Z Fold3, unboxed it, and transferred my stuff over from the Galaxy S21 Ultra. From that day onwards, I never wanted to return to a flat phone again.
Through these 2 months, I went through a lot of adaptation, discovery, some issues, and also growing pains with the Galaxy Z Fold3. So, allow me to share my experience with you.

Okay, so I gotta say outright – we have reviewed both the previous generations in the Fold series, but I’ll still say that the Galaxy Z Fold3 is the first that I’ll consider “mature enough” to daily drive. The IP-rating was unexpected, and the S Pen compatibility sealed the deal for me. Plus, the price is even lower than its predecessors – and that just sweetens the deal for me.

So, I got my hands on the Phantom Green color of the Galaxy Z Fold3, and I immediately realized that the greenness of this Phantom Green isn’t exactly “green” green, per se. Not Kirby’s Green Greens, by the way.
As mentioned earlier, I am migrating from the Galaxy S21 Ultra to the Galaxy Z Fold3. I used Samsung’s Smart Switch to carry all my settings and files over – and just as a quick note, I have been using Smart Switch for a very long time. I started since the S9, then to the S10+, then to the Note20, then the S21 Ultra, and now the Galaxy Z Fold3. I literally have photos in my phone now that were taken using the Galaxy S9 and transferred over to this Galaxy Z Fold3.

Anyway, I knew that Smart Switch is not going to be a seamless transition because the device form factor is completely different when compared to a traditional smartphone. I had to head into the settings and re-explore all the features that are exclusive to the Galaxy Z Fold3.

I took a few weeks’ time to go in and out of the settings menu to do some finetuning before I am finally happy with the settings. One feature that I think many people will need take some time and explore is the Labs menu under Advanced Features. Most of these experimental features are only applicable to the Galaxy Z Fold3 when unfolded – like the custom app aspect ratio, the app split view and Flex Mode.

Personally, I only use these experimental settings on apps that do not work with Fold-specific features. For example, do you know that you can open two apps side by side? I wanted to do this with both Lazada and Shopee so that I can compare the prices when I want to do some shopping.

However, it turns out that Shopee doesn’t support this feature. So, we gotta head into the Labs menu and enable “multi window for all apps” feature. Then, it’ll work – kind of. The UI is still buggy and everything is misplaced, but I can compare prices between Lazada and Shopee – which is what I wanted to do in the first place.

By the way, one new feature with One UI 3.1 is the screen layout. Out of the box, it’s using the “multi view” screen layout which actually means “tablet layout”. I know this because Gboard changes into the tablet layout.

So, I gotta live with two different Gboard layouts – first one is the tablet layout when the Galaxy Z Fold3 is unfolded, and another phone layout when I am using the cover display. There is no way to configure this in a per-application level, by the way.

Speaking of the cover display, I actually find myself utilizing this cover display a lot. Yes, I do think that the cover display is quite lanky since everything is squished horizontally but has a lot of space vertically. Screenshots appear weirdly and many apps got their texts weirdly wrapped around, too.
But, it’s functional. Quick tasks can be done with just the cover display just as efficiently as other conventional flat phones. And when I want to get some serious work done, I can just unfold and get a much larger display to use.

Now, I do have a confession to make – I’m not much of a tablet guy and I personally tried to use a tablet before, but I just don’t find myself picking up a tablet to use – because transitioning my work from a phone to a tablet is quite a hassle. And yet, the Galaxy Z Fold3 solved that issue of mine by just unfolding into a larger display.
Seriously, I never picked up any other Android or Apple tablets to use since I got my hands on this Galaxy Z Fold3.

But, because of the duality of this machine that can morph between a phone or a tablet, that 4,400mAh battery is affected. So let me just describe it to you. When I was using the Galaxy S21 Ultra, I usually end the day with about 45% of battery – which is above 2250mAh battery left.
Translating that 2250mAh over to the Galaxy Z Fold3, I should have about 50% battery left – but that’s not the case.

I presume that is because I switch between both the cover display and the inner display when I use the device. You see, the cover display has 832 x 2268 pixels – that’s about 1.89 million pixels and the inner display has a whopping resolution of 1768 x 2208 – about 3.9 million pixels. The inner display has more than twice the number of pixels of the cover display – and that is definitely going to heavily impact the battery life of the Galaxy Z Fold3.
Nearly doubling the total number of pixel count when unfolded is definitely going to impact the battery life.
And throughout my usage, I can confirm that is indeed the case. There was one day that I was using the cover display much more often compared to the inner display and I got about 40% left at the end of the way.
However, for many of the days, I use more of the inner display more – and I only have about 20% left at the end of the way. Do you see the big discrepancy here?

While on that subject, let’s talk about using this inner display to watch shows and play games. I absolutely love this big display. And that under-display camera? I think it’s a genius of an idea to use it with the inner display of the Galaxy Z Fold3. It doesn’t abruptly create a black hole on the screen and the human brain can just fill in the gaps and make it as though the image is whole.
Of course, this comes with a sacrifice too – that under-display camera’s picture quality is heavily affected. However, I don’t see a problem with that since I only use this inner display’s camera to attend calls on Zoom, Google Meet, and Webex.
The greatest thing is, Zoom and Google Meet works natively with the Galaxy Z Fold3’s Flex Mode. So, I just attend briefings and events with the phone propped up. That means I can save space on my desk by chucking the phone stand away.

And I think the battery life is mostly affected by the Snapdragon 888 chipset. I do not like this chipset at all. I don’t play games on my phone, yet this chipset heats up way too much even when I’m just scrolling through Facebook or literally listening to a playlist on Spotify that I have already downloaded.
I have also used the Galaxy S21 Ultra with the Exynos 2100 chipset. and throughout my experience, I do prefer the Exynos 2100 a lot more.

For the cameras, I knew that I’m literally downgrading the cameras when I switch over from the Galaxy S21 Ultra to the Galaxy Z Fold3. And that’s a tradeoff I am willing to make. However, I realized that there are a lot more enhancements to the camera’s user experience that comes with the Galaxy Z Fold3.
For example, Flex mode. It kinda acts like a camera’s flip-out screen and it can also swap its position between the upper and lower half of the screen – so that provides even more flexibility.

Then, since the Galaxy Z Fold3 can literally become its own tripod, I find myself taking more pictures with the Pro photography mode. I can turn the ISO to its minimum of 50, adjust the shutter speed accordingly, and then hit the shutter button and get the best picture that I can possibly hope for. A little movement is fine too, since it does have proper OIS.
Granted, that is only for the main camera. Both the ultrawide and 2x telephoto cameras can still take amazing pictures, but they’re nowhere near as good as the Galaxy S21 Ultra – but I’m okay with that.

One thing I do like a lot though, is the ability to literally unfold into a tablet and getting a much larger viewfinder to take the picture.
I gotta mention a few more personal quirks that I have with the Galaxy Z Fold3, though. The inner display is quite clunky to be used with a traditional 3-button navigational bar and I don’t want to sacrifice the Galaxy Z Fold3’s massive, beautiful screen – so I tried using gesture navigation. And I immediately hated using gestures. It’s slow and had a lot of accidental triggers – especially from the sides.

Currently, I’m still in the process of testing out the gesture navigation that swipes from below. I’m not sure if I am able to live with this, so we’ll see. Nah, screw that. I went back to 3 button navigation system. Navigating around the phone without any problems is so much better than having to worry about accidental swipes.

I did want to use Bixby Routines to force the cover display to use the traditional 3-button navigational keys and change to the swipe gestures when using the inner display, but that option is not available. By the way, Bixby Routines became one of my favorite features in Samsung’s One UI recently.

I set it to do a few tasks for me – like rotating the screen to landscape orientation when the Galaxy Z Fold3 is fully unfolded and the YouTube app is launched, and also automatically play music from my Spotify playlist when it connects to the car’s Bluetooth system.
The S Pen situation
And of course – we need to talk about the cases available for the Galaxy Z Fold3 – particularly if we want to use the S Pen. I won’t go into detail about the S Pen Fold Edition in this video because we have a review specifically for this pen alone – so watch it at the top right corner there.

What I want to focus here is how we carry the S Pen around with the Galaxy Z Fold3. We reviewed like a total of 3 cases for the Z Fold3 that has an S Pen slot.

I eventually went back to the official Samsung case because of reasons – watch those other two videos to know the full story – and I am still finding a case that fits my usage. By the way, any cases with a magnet will cause the S Pen to not work.
Currently, I am still looking for a case that doesn’t have any adhesive, provides hinge protection AND a proper S Pen slot. The Araree Nukin 360 P actually fits those requirements like a glove – but I don’t like that clear, transparent plastic material. So, I ordered yet another case that has a very similar design to the Araree Nukin 360 P and we’ll have a quick unboxing and review when I get my hands on it.
Spoiler alert: that case sucks like a black hole.
And I need a phone case for the Galaxy Z Fold3 because:

This is an expensive phone and any slight damage to it will definitely break my heart even if it doesn’t break the phone – I hope.
Having a case improves the grip of this device especially when unfolding.
A case provides a place to hold the S Pen.

As a side note, I have seen a lot of people asking if the inner display is actually durable or not. Well, so far I have no issues with it and I definitely didn’t baby this phone. I literally hold my phone like this and press it against my palm nearly everyday – and everything still works just fine. I do realize that I have to wipe the dust away from the inner display – and my usual gesture is by wiping it towards the bottom left corner. That’s why you can see there’s a clump of dust gathered there.

I have also seen some people peeling off the inner display’s included screen protector for a much better feel. Some even install a third-party screen protector for the inner display! I applaud your courage to do that but I’ll stick to the stock screen protector for now.
Conclusion
And that’s it – that’s my 2-month long user experience with the Galaxy Z Fold3 that I have to share with you. So far, I’m really liking this phone butthere are definitely parts of it that can be better – like the battery life. As for app support, that truly depends on the app developers themselves.
These 2 months have been fun and eye-opening for a non-believer of foldable devices at first, eventually grew to see the potential and finally realized its feasibility.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)

Amazon US
Lazada
Shopee

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KENXINDA invades Malaysia

It’s no surprise that the Chinese manufacturers are taking over the world, but not with such aggression! Since their launch last week, they’ve been travelling all over the peninsula, having roadshows and promoting their brand!

Here they are a week later after their launch and with their powerful philosophy, it’s amazing to see that they strive to provide the best quality of products, while maintaining below the RM500 price point. Yes, that means all of their products are before RM500. That’s actually quite insane if you ask me!
Here we have a total of 13 different products – and they’re all definitely waaaaaay below RM500!

Feature phone

K68 (RM79)
K39 (RM99)
207 (RM119)

Smartphone

K528 (RM169)
K2 (RM199)
K3 (RM299)
X2 (RM399)
A6 (RM459, also the most expensive one here)

Tablet

F1 (RM299)

Smartwatch

S-Watch (RM199!!!)

Power bank

5,000 mAh (RM60)
10,400 mAh (RM99)
15,000 mAh (RM139)

With all these prices, it’s definitely something to take note – it’s going to break the societal rules of prices, again.
To learn more, pay a visit to KENXINDA’s sites now!
KENXINDA MALAYSIA official Website: www.kenxinda.com.my
KENXINDA MALAYSIA official Facebook: www.facebook.com/Kenxinda.Malaysia

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