Popular overseas shopping sites have recorded month-on-month transaction volume growth, such as Taobao (111%), ASOS (60%), Alibaba (41%), Aliexpress (17%)
Local e-commerce sites like EZbuy (65%) and Lazada (11%) are hot favourites among Singaporeans
Food delivery services grew exponentially between February and March, withPizzaHut Deliveryinthe lead at 49%, Domino’s Pizza (43%), and Foodpanda (35%)
The biggest e-commerce spending growth came from the Gaming category, with Nintendo raking in 278% growth from February to March
SINGAPORE, April 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — YouTrip, Singapore’s first multi-currency mobile wallet with over 500,000 downloads, has noted a shift in user spending habits over the past months. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, both foreign and domestic e-commerce spending has shown resilience in the Singapore market. The top 3 foreign currencies transacted in the month of February include USD, GBP and AUD.
Singapore’s First Multi-Currency Mobile Wallet YouTrip Sees 20% Growth in Consumer Spending On Global E-Commerce Platforms
When travel restrictions were heightened in February, YouTrip observed a 20% increase in e- commerce spending via YouTrip’s prepaid Mastercard, in both foreign and domestic categories. This follows the trend reported by a Nielsen study that states online purchases of FMCG have reached 8% in February this year, compared to 6% of total e-commerce spending in 2019.
Have Internet, Will Shop
With circuit breaker measures and travel restrictions in place, YouTrip is seeing a steady flow of foreign transactions take place online instead. The top 5 e-commerce spending categories are Gaming, Fashion, Home Decor, Health and Supplements and Electronics. Popular foreign e- commerce sites have experienced a boom in spending, with the top sites like Taobao seeing a 111% growth rate, with ASOS in second place with a 60% increase, Alibaba in third at 41%, and Aliexpress at 17%.
Caecilia Chu, Co-Founder and CEO of YouTrip, said: “What is equally important to us now is that we are here for our users and supporting them through times of uncertainty. We’ve most recently introduced a new COVID-19 refund policy to help them process any travel-related refunds back into their linked bank accounts, as our commitment towards putting users first remains steadfast.
YouTrip gives users access to competitive wholesale exchange rates where users can exchange over 150 foreign currencies in real-time, with no extra fees. These features mean users can pay in different currencies with a single card, simplifying the way they spend on global sites.
Although YouTrip is primarily a travel card, many users are using YouTrip’s prepaid Mastercard to make purchases within Singapore as well, primarily in the shopping, food and grocery categories. YouTrip saw an increase for local e-commerce sites EZbuy (65%), and Lazada (11%); food delivery from PizzaHut Delivery (49%), Domino’s Pizza (43%), Foodpanda (35%), McDonald’s (19%), and Deliveroo (13%). Online grocery companies have also seen strong growth as the demand for grocery deliveries spike during this period, NTUC online leads at 226%, PrimeNow (13%), EA Mart (8%).
Play At Home While You Stay At Home
Gaming was the category that showed the greatest growth among the categories. As consumers turn to games for entertainment, consoles like the Nintendo Switch has seen global supplyshortages. YouTrip has seen the largest increase for purchases from Nintendo in foreign currency- since the AUD experienced a dip against SGD in mid-March. Nintendo purchases made via AUD increased 278%, with JPY at 76%, and purchases made in SGD at a 57% increase. PlayStation and Steam Games have also seen increases, at 60% and 50% respectively.
The implementation of remote work policies has resulted in users also craving more entertainment and communication. YouTrip saw an increase in transactions for entertainment subscription services with users preferring to go for Amazon Prime (26%), Netflix (14%), and Spotify (15%). The shift to telecommuting has also resulted in a huge increase in demand for paid video conferencing services such as Zoom (212%), and Skype (129%).
“YouTrip was created to help solve the cross border payment dilemma and during this period, we are dedicated to helping our users save on foreign currency transactions online, even if they aren’t physically travelling,” added Caecilia.
About YouTrip
YouTrip is a regional financial technology startup, dedicated to creating the best mobile financial services for travellers across Southeast Asia by simplifying overseas spending and creating a fuss-free travel experience. YouTrip first launched in Singapore in 2018 and subsequently in Thailand in 2019.
SHENZHEN, China, April 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Oranth, a professional supplier of OTT TV Box, and HiSilicon, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications and a top supplier of System-on-Chip (SoC) ICs for set-top boxes and home gateways, TV, Camera, Smart phones, announce today availability of new OTT TV box models based on Hi3798M V110 and Hi3798M V130.
“We are glad to extend our cooperation with HiSilicon, which is reputed in diverse industries. In STB industry, HiSilicon has been well recognized by leading operators globally for stable quality and perfect performance with Hi3798M series,” said Mr. Peter Wang, General Manager of Oranth.“As a leading OEM/ODM supplier of OTT TV box, Oranth is to present new 4K models based on HiSilicon chipsets soon in retail market first. We hope to bring more high-quality products with HiSilicon in future.”
New models would be all capable to support 1080P UI, 4K@60FPS, with perfect balance between performance and cost. In order to fulfill different needing from end user, three models are planned as below:
Model H1: Hi3798M V110, 1G LPDDR4 with 8G eMMC Model H2: Hi3798M V130, 2G LPDDR4 with 8G/16G eMMC Model H3: Hi3798M V130, 4G LPDDR4 with 32G/64G eMMC
About ORANTH
Shenzhen Oranth Technology Co., Ltd (Oranth), established in 2014, is a professional OEM/ODM supplier for OTT TV Box&Mini PC. Founders are highly experienced in the industry. We have been specializing in OEM/ODM of OTT TV box including hardware & software developments, supply chain sourcing, with self established R&D team and factory. Our own registered brand “TANIX” is also commonly recognized in many countries.
Global real estate solutions provider promotes longtime finance VP to Chief Financial Officer and brings in experienced software industry leader as SVP and Managing Director for Asia Pacific
SOLON, Ohio, April 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ —MRI Software, a global leader in real estate software solutions, announces that it has strengthened its leadership team, promoting Roman Telerman to Chief Financial Officer from Vice President of Finance and appointing experienced software executive David Bowie as its Senior Vice President andManaging Director, Asia Pacific. Telerman provides invaluable organizational and financial leadership experience as the company continues its strong growth trajectory through organic development and acquisition, while Bowie brings more than 25 years’ experience in the APAC software space where MRI is expanding rapidly and now has an extensive client base.
David Bowie
“Roman has played an instrumental role at MRI through a period of significant growth and transformation,” said Patrick Ghilani, MRI Software’s Chief Executive Officer. “During his tenure, the company has grown topline revenue more than 6x and total employees tenfold to nearly 1,700 globally. Roman played an instrumental role in securing all of MRI’s acquisitions to date and has been the backbone around which the Finance team is currently structured. I am thrilled to congratulate him on becoming MRI Software’s Chief Financial Officer.”
With MRI since 2010, Telerman has seen the company expand its global presence from 35 countries to more than 170. Responsible for managing global financial strategy, operations and forecasting, he will continue to support MRI’s growth, scalability and financial health. He says: “I’m excited to further contribute to MRI’s growth strategy and execution as CFO. It has been a great journey so far and promises to offer new opportunities as we continue to grow into new real estate subsectors and extend our global reach.”
Based in Sydney, Bowie joins MRI from AI and analytics industry leader SAS, where he was Vice President and Managing Director for its Australia and New Zealand division, after holding leadership roles at IBM and Dimension Data. Bowie says: “I am eager to take up this new role to help steer further growth and support MRI’s expanding client base in APAC, where we have significant opportunity to bring continued innovations to the PropTech sector in the region.”
Ghilani says: “David brings critical experience in leading product innovation and ensuring top-caliber client support in APAC. He will be a huge asset to the executive team and is a proven industry leader who has spearheaded significant growth and transformation.”
Last year MRI acquired Rockend, the market-leading provider of residential property and strata management solutions in the ANZ PropTech sector, significantly expanding its offering in the region and bringing the largest residential footprint in Australia into the MRI fold. The company now has close to 6,000 clients and over 200 employees in the APAC region.
Telerman replaces Bruce Duner, MRI’s outgoing CFO, who joined in early 2019 and saw the company through a number of key acquisitions, as well as helping bring Harvest Partners onboard as an investor. Ghilani notes: “The contributions Bruce made to MRI will have a lasting impact on our future success, and we greatly appreciate his dedication and leadership. We wish him great success as he moves onto his next endeavor.”
About MRI Software MRI Software is a leading provider of innovative real estate software applications and hosted solutions. MRI’s comprehensive and flexible technology platform coupled with an open and connected ecosystem meets the unique needs of real estate businesses – from property-level management and accounting to investment modelling and analytics for the global commercial and residential markets. A pioneer of the real estate software industry, MRI develops lasting client relationships based on nearly five decades of expertise and insight. Through leading solutions and a rich partner ecosystem, MRI gives organizations the freedom to transform the way communities live, work and play while elevating their business and gaining a competitive edge. For more information, please visit mrisoftware.com.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
(UK) Platform Communications for MRI Hugh Filman (+44 7905 044850) or Zoe Mumba (+44 7725 832393) mri@platformcomms.com
NEW YORK, April 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Huitao Technology Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: HHT) (the “Company”, “we” or “HHT”), a company which is in the process of disposing its legacy ready-mix concrete materials business and transitioning into an innovative education service provider, announced today that its jointly developed online education platform with Color China has entered the final testing phase and is expected to launch in early May 2020.
Pursuant to the Cooperation Agreement signed on March 30, 2020, Huitao Technology and Color China will collaborate in producing and streaming celebrity-taught online lessons and celebrity generated content videos on this platform. The platform will also create a live-streaming and audio community and serve as an e-commerce channel for commercialized celebrity IP products.
Registered in Hong Kong, Color China is considered to be a significant live-entertainment organizer in Asia, hosting more than 100 live concerts every year and is home to massive media assets in music production, songwriting, musical instruments and performing arts. Color China aims to recruit an All-Star Crew to be coaches on the Color Star program, including top-notch professional vocalists, producers, musicians and more.
The rapid spread of COVID-19, and the subsequent stay-at-home orders that have been issued by large number of governments around the world to contain the pandemic, have helped fundamentally underscore the prominence and benefits of online education. Online programs will continue to play a large role in the education industry even after the coronavirus outbreak is contained.
Mr. Yang (Sean) Liu, Chief Executive Officer of HHT commented, “We are very excited to cooperate with Color China to bring forward a pioneering learning experience and curriculum to our students. This platform will provide students direct access to well-known celebrities and music artists.”
About Huitao Technology Co., Ltd.
Huitao Technology is a holding company which is currently undergoing a shift to a dedicated education services provider, offering both online and offline innovative education services. Its business operations are conducted through its wholly-owned subsidiaries CACM Group NY, Inc. (“CACM”), Sunway Kids International Education Group Ltd. (“Sunway Kids”), Xin Ao Construction Materials, Inc., Beijing Ao Hang Construction Materials Technology Co., Ltd., Brave Millennium Limited, Chengdu Hengshanghui Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. and its variable interest entities, Beijing Xin Ao Concrete Group and Chengdu Hengshanghui Education Consulting Co., Ltd. Sunway Kids engages in the early childhood education service business, providing a well-structured system to day cares and preschools in China, including AI and robotic technologies, intellectual campus administration software as a service (SaaS) system and personalized education planning. Through Baytao LLC, a newly formed joint venture, the Company also anticipates providing tutoring programs in New York which includes online learning via a platform being built by CACM. For more information, please visit http://www.china-acm.com.
Safe Harbor / Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements made herein are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “expect”, “estimate”, “plan”, “outlook”, and “project” and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. Such forward-looking statements include timing of the proposed transaction; the business plans, objectives, expectations and intentions of the parties once the transaction is complete, and HHT’s estimated and future results of operations, business strategies, competitive position, industry environment and potential growth opportunities. These forward-looking statements reflect the current analysis of existing information and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. As a result, caution must be exercised in relying on forward-looking statements. Due to known and unknown risks, our actual results may differ materially from our expectations or projections. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.
The HUAWEI Mate 30 series shipped HUAWEI Mobile Services (HMS) ecosystem. It is still Android based, but it has grown since we first started seeing its full enforcement on the late 2019 flagship. It is now the third largest app marketplace in the world, the HUAWEI AppGallery. Local developers are totally behind the ecosystem too apparently. The ecosystem, as they say, will only continue to grow.
That same ecosystem is carried to the successor of what we thought was the best photography smartphone you could buy in 2019. We were recommending the device left and right, even when the HUAWEI Mate 30 was introduced. That was also because it retained the whole Google ecosystem that the Mate 30 lacked.
Would the HUAWEI P40 Pro be something that we recommend though, now that it does not pack Google’s trusty ecosystem? Or, would it be crippled by the less populated HMS? How will it stack against the other flagships? Let us find out.
Design
This year’s HUAWEI P40 and P40 Pro has some visually distinguishable differences. One of them is the display, which we are starting with. The Standard P40 comes with a smaller, flatter, plainer display. The Pro variant comes with a larger, more curvy display.
The curvier display, as they call an overflow display, is supposed to be curving in 4 directions this time instead of the two on the HUAWEI Mate 30 series. The overflow is not as much as the Mate 30 series though. And the top and bottom’s overflow is more like a glass overflow than a display overflow.
In that sense, personally at least, we are a little disappointed because we expected the display to be stretched a little bit on the top and bottom side of the device. Still, the display does not have a notch now. Rather, it is a punch hole that houses two cameras and some sensors in between the two cameras. While that is a bigger hole than before or any other punch-hole display, its placement is not that much more distracting.
Still, it is not a bad looking device. It is not as impressive looking as they made it look in the commercials though. If you ask me, I will say that the HUAWEI P40 Pro really looks like nearly any other modern smartphone that has launched today or in the past year.
If you like, you might be able to put it beside a HUAWEI P30 Pro from las year and you might be forgiven to think that they are the same devices. The HUAWEI P30 Pro is slightly bigger. That is also to say that there is nothing really wrong with the HUAWEI P40 Pro’s design language. Of course, there are some telling differences from last year. The camera’s arrangement is a little different, much bigger housing on the HUAWEI P40 Pro.
While it has a smaller screen compared to some of the more recent flagships sporting the ultra-powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, we appreciate it. It is plenty easier to handle in one hand. It is more comfortable to hold in one hand as well for that matter. Plus, it takes less of a stretch if you only have one hand to work with.
The only thing we might have to lodge a complaint against is probably the oversized and over protruding camera module. While it is the trend of many smartphones now, also because of the larger sensor sizes you get on smartphones these days; it can be pretty annoying and haphazard if you use your smartphone without a case. We recommend the use of a case in this matter, but there are going to be people who will not want to. The bump, in that case, is a bummer.
Hardware
The most important bit of the smartphone though, despite their good looks is what comes inside the smartphone itself. The HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with HUAWEI’s top of the line HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G ready SoC. That also makes the HUAWEI P40 Pro a 5G device incidentally.
Non-Removable Li-Po 4,200 mAh Fast Charging 40W Fast Wireless Charging 27W Fast Reverse Wireless Charging 27W
Connectivity
Nano SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP Bluetooth 5.1 LE OTG Support USB 3.1 Type-C NFC Infrared
Camera (s)
REAR: Quad Leica Co-Engineered Lens: 50-Megapixel (f/1.9,2.44µm 1/1.28″ 23mm wide angle) 12-Megapixel (f/3.4, 125mm 5x optical telephoto) 40-Megapixel (f/1.8, 18mm ultra-wide angle) TOF 3D depth sensor OIS Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) HDR LED Flash 4K Video recording (60fps) FRONT: 32-Megapixel (f/2.2, 26mm (wide), ½.8″, 0.8µm) IR TOF 3D depth sensor 4K video recording (30fps)
Sensors
Accelerometer Proximity Fingerprint (in-display) Ambient Light Gyroscope Face Unlock (Infrared) Compass Colour Temperature
User Interface
As mentioned earlier, the first thing you have to know before getting this device is that it does not come with the GMS ecosystem. It only comes with HUAWEI’s proprietary HMS. That does not mean that the HUAWEI smartphone is not an Android smartphone though. The EMUI 10 that this packs is still based on Google’s Android 10 Operating system. This is an important note.
While there will be ways for you to port GMS with Google’s framework and what not into HUAWEI’s latest flagship, we are not going to do that as of yet and review the device as it is, without Google Play Services. Why? While it is possible to port Google’s framework into the device, it might take some technical know-how and a little bit of time to research. So, we are going to just work with HMS for now.
In some sense also, we have all the apps that we have used before on the HUAWEI P40 Pro at this time. Even Telegram and WhatsApp can be installed. Provided, we were using Phone Clone to clone one of the other devices I use. There were only one or two apps that cannot be installed. At this time then, I have HUAWEI P40 Pro that is ready to rock and roll as the HUAWEI Mate 20X that this cloned from.
EMUI 10.1
If you have used HUAWEI devices before, or almost any other China based manufacturer’s smartphones before, you will be quite familiar with navigating the device. Unlike OPPO who has decided to include the choice of using app drawers in their latest Android 10 based ColorOS 6, HUAWEI has kept to that minimal design with no app drawers. You do not get a choice with the EMUI overlay either.
To get the app drawer, you need to install a completely different overlay, which is not available through AppGallery just yet. You can sideload them still though. Just be careful where you get your apps from.
To be fair, nothing much has changed with the User Interface (UI) of EMUI 10 as well. You still can get down to using folders to work with your apps and what not. There is, of course, the dark mode that you can switch on very easily in the settings to make everything look a little more stunning. We personally like dark mode also because it consumes less battery power while being less straining to your eyes.
Not everything works though. We tried launching Instagram to no avail. It opens the first screen to log in and just shuts off the whole app with no warning. I did not even have time to get the keyboard out to type. There are probably several other apps that might not work properly. We have not tried.
Netflix also did not get transferred on to the new device though. We suspect that the exclusion is due to the fact that Netflix comes as a pre-installed app now on most Android devices. That is a small setback. We did not bother trying to install it though. As we mentioned earlier, we are trying to review the device as it is.
Phone Clone
This app, while made for HUAWEI devices, is available on any other Android devices too. While if you install it on other devices, the app is only designed to extract information from that device to a HUAWEI device. That also means you can move from other Android devices into the HUAWEI ecosystem quite comfortably and not lose any of your essential apps.
The HUAWEI P40 Pro is still an Android device anyway, which also means any Android app that you have used can be loaded on the HUAWEI P40 Pro. Albeit, without proper and actual support from Google or its developers. Of course, there are some Google Apps that would be missing too, Apps like YouTube was not transferred, for example.
Still, I managed to get the Phone Clone app to run and transferred the whole of my HUAWEI Mate 20X, save for the photos, to the HUAWEI P40 Pro within 20minutes. That easily solves one of the biggest worries we had with the HMS ecosystem for now. The only concern now is; how do we update our apps.
AppGallery
Whenever you come to a smartphone that has no part in the Google or Apple ecosystem, you are inevitably compare the device and its app ecosystem to the two largest and most popular platforms on earth. We will try to make as little comparison as possible, but that does not mean that we can completely omit either app ecosystems. This is an Android device after all.
We have started our own editorial on the HUAWEI Mobile Services and AppGallery pairing of an ecosystem. We also believed that HUAWEI’s app ecosystem, the AppGallery, given time will also grow to a sizeable ecosystem. You may not get as large ecosystem as Google’s at the foreseeable future. The HUAWEI AppGallery though, is one of the fastest growing ecosystems that we have seen so far. While the matter of the U.S. vs HUAWEI dispute was a big driving force toward that growth, you cannot take away the credits that was due to HUAWEI.
The AppGallery is the third largest app platform in the current known world. Considering Samsung’s own Galaxy app store could not even lift a finger against Google’s still impressive Play Store, that is already quite a feat. In Malaysia at least, you still have access to the apps that mostly matter. While you cannot get Facebook and WhatsApp officially on the AppGallery. HUAWEI’s AppGallery will take you to a secure site to get their apk and get the app working on your smartphone.
There is something they also call QuickApps. It is a section of the AppGallery where you get access to apps, but you are not technically installing anything on your smartphone if you choose so. I say if you choose so because they will ask you about having a shortcut on your home page. You still technically do not have the app installed on the device. You access the app through AppGallery’s backend systems and use the app as it is. You just have to make sure you are connected to the internet via your 4G LTE connection or WiFi.
There are even several popular e-wallet apps in the AppGallery now for Malaysia, which is great news. If not, you still can get apk files and upload them into your HUAWEI P40 Pro and make it work. It is still an Android device after all.
HUAWEI Share
We currently do not really have a lot of HUAWEI devices to test with. The closest thing we could use to get this feature to work properly is the HUAWEI MatePad Pro, which is released in Malaysia the same time this device does.
HUAWEI Share, when it was introduced, was one of those features that we gave lot of praises to. Like Apple’s Airdrop, it is basically a drag and drop feature between your smartphone and PC or whatever devices you have with you. The only sad thing is that it only works on HUAWEI’s devices for now.
The HUAWEI Share that we see on the newer HUAWEI P40 Pro is a large improvement over the HUAWEI P30’s that we saw before though. It is still a HUAWEI-only feature. Which means if you want it to work with your PC, you need to get a HUAWEI notebook PC to get it to work. Or get a HUAWEI MatePad Pro for that reason.
It still has that one touch file hopping system that we were getting used to on the HUAWEI P30 Pro and MateBook combination. Additionally, the new HUAWEI Share allows you to completely control your smartphone from your PC or MatePad Pro tablet. You can truly just drag and drop your files from smartphone to PC or tablet, and vice versa. Very much like what you might have seen the Samsung tablets and smartphones does with their very own Samsung Flow.
That added convenience is a big bonus to us, since we do not need to connect the smartphones via cables to your PC or tablet; provided it is a HUAWEI device. Given, on a wireless connection, there may be some stutters and delays. While annoying, they are not enough to drive you away from using the device though.
90Hz Smoothness
Yes, yes, yes, there are already flagships in the market with 120Hz displays. Look how much that is though. The OPPO Find X2, for example, starts at MYR 3,999. This one, currently at least, tops out at MYR 3,899. It is not that much less expensive, I admit. But You get quite a lot with HUAWEI as well.
You still get 90Hz at a little more than Full HD on the HUAWEI P40 Pro. HUAWEI says that the 120Hz display will be a little bit of battery drainer, which is true. That is why they opted for 90Hz for the sake of battery life. That is good news for you who needs your devices to stay on for longer periods.
Look at it this way too, your eyes can hardly tell the difference between 90Hz and 120Hz technically. While you can claim that 120Hz is smoother, you cannot really tell at a normal visual inspection. The 90Hz then is still ultra-smooth and snappy.
In our opinions the 90Hz is one of the biggest changes in terms of the UI experience. While the layout and design of the UI is still the same, the 90Hz experience makes it seem plenty smoother and faster than before. No, unlike some of the devices in the market, the HUAWEI P40 Pro does not include ultra-fast touch response. That does not matter that much in normal daily use though.
Performance
Of course, with a HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G SoC, the HUAWEI P40 Pro really performs like a champion. It is ultra-smooth and opening apps do not take too long. Compared to other iterations of Android based systems too, it seems to be very stable. What I mean is that I have not encountered any lags or slow down anywhere on the device. On other Android devices that I have reviewed so far, there is always one or two lags and slow downs from time to time. They are far and few in between, but it does happen.
Benchmarks
Usually, we are not too bothered with Benchmarks because we care more about how the devices feel in your hands than what numbers can tell you. Still, benchmarks do communicate certain things like how much processes it can handle at a given time, how much its GPU can render at a single point. It is sort of a stress test.
In this case though, HMS does not provide any other common benchmark than Antutu. Antutu is also now excluded from the Google Play Store. In that case, we have to start sideloading the apps.
There is one thing to mention though, the dual core AI on this chip is larger than any other SoC in the market. In that sense, this will perform better than any other chip in terms of AI benchmarks.
Call Quality and Connectivity
Since the HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with all the bells and whistles of a modern smartphones, the expectation is that the phone calls work as perfectly as it can. In that case, it does. We only had the chance to test this in our home though. We used a Maxis SIM card and then a YES 4G SIM card. Both, on other devices work perfectly fine with full bars of signal.
The same can be said on the HUAWEI P40 Pro too. That also means that there is nothing really to shout about. 4G LTE connectivity at home is mostly stable on the device. If there are interruptions, it is mostly the provider’s problem.
Still, the HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with an antenna so advanced we cannot even exploit its full potential yet. It has a 5G antenna built in thanks to the HUAWEI Kirin 990. We do not have a 5G SIM card at home, we cannot buy it yet in Malaysia. It is nice to know that we are futureproofed with this device though.
5G Switch
Using 5G’s faster and more advanced capacity of course takes up some power. There is a reason why Samsung fitted their 5G capable device with a larger battery. There is also a reason why there is only one device in their line-up that supports 5G connectivity. The HUAWEI P40 series though, all of them comes with 5G capability.
That may be bad news to the battery, since we are still on 4G connectivity. That also means that if you leave the 5G antenna on, you are just wasting precious battery life for nothing. That is why HUAWEI allows you to turn the 5G antenna on and off within the quick settings menu. If you have a 5G SIM card and you need the speed, you can turn it on. When you do not need the 5G capacity, 4G speeds are usually fast enough, and you can turn the antenna off. While ingenious, it is a feature we can really appreciate going into the future.
Gaming
While we are gamers, it is important for us to say that we do not play that many mobile games. To us, games on mobile are mostly very casual and simple. At this point we play mostly Brawl Stars. Brawl Stars is not available on AppGallery, do keep that in mind. We were able to play because of Phone Clone.
In that, we believe that most games are playable by any Android device these days. The only difference is the graphic’s quality. In that, PUBG Mobile is probably the best way to tell how powerful your device is. Unfortunately, AppGallery does not have PUBG Mobile within its galleries.
We did, however have PUBG installed – thanks to Phone Clone. Once we logged into our PUBG account, we are gold. We can set our graphics settings to Ultra and HDR without issue.
In both games, the only way to describe the experience was smooth gaming. The graphics on both games are very smooth. Colours pop on Brawl Stars. It is a colourful game to begin with. On PUBG, the colours are great too, making spotting enemies slightly easier through the small-ish display.
The placement of the camera holes, while quite big, is never really an issue. At least for me, the camera hole is under my thumbs anyway while playing these games without a separate controller.
Still, it is disappointing to find that there are no stereo speakers on the HUAWEI P40 Pro. We kind of expect flagships to come with stereo speakers now. Not to say that the single speakers are bad though, it is still good and crisp. Stereo audio would help with PUBG at least to place your enemies slightly more accurately. You cannot use your old 3.5mm jack earphones either here. It is a USB Type-C port only. That also means you either can use your included earphones or buy a new one.
Security
The HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with the standard fingerprint sensors, PIN, or facial recognition screen locks. The fingerprint sensor is under the display of course, like most flagships now. You can have all of the security measures in place though. Of course, PIN is always required to set your facial recognition or fingerprint.
The facial recognition is fast, like lightning fast. You just bring it in front of your face, and as long as it is your face that is registered, it unlocks without a fuss or wait. There are several sensors within the front facing module that supposedly makes facial recognition more accurate and available in low-light conditions. In low-light conditions, it does work as expected. In no-light condition, do not even try; Just use your fingers.
Battery Life
HUAWEI has been the champion in a smartphone’s battery life when it comes to flagships. Take the HUAWEI P30 that we reviewed last year for example. On standby, we had the device lasting us two days before needing a charge. A full day of regular use is not an issue on a single charge.
With our devices being a core part of our lives including our work, being away from a charge point is more productivity for us. That is true for the HUAWEI P30, and that remains true for the HUAWEI P40 Pro.
At home, I rarely touch my smartphones other than using them for social media, reply some WhatsApp and Telegram chats. I seldom game on my smartphone too. Currently I have my PC and Console set-up at home. So why would I play mobile games all that much?
We managed to get Telegram, Facebook, WhatsApp, PUBG Mobile, and Brawl Stars working on the HUAWEI P40 Pro. Those are the apps we use most on the HUAWEI P40 Pro on a regular day. We are also on WiFi on a 24-hour basis now since we are all at home due to the COVID-19 situation. In that, we get more than a day’s worth of battery life and a little bit more for the next day.
Due to the conditions, you have to take our experience with the battery with a pinch of salt though. Battery life can be affected by plenty of things at home. Distance to your WiFi source is also a factor, amazingly. The closer you are to your source, the less power the antenna consumes. Temperatures at home can also affect it. Too cold or too warm and your device consumes more power than it should.
Display
To be exact, the “overflow” display on the HUAWEI P40 Pro is a 6.59-inch that pushes 1,200 x 2,640 pixels unit. It is an OLED display which are pretty much known for its great contrast and vivid colours. No, it is not a Full HD display, it is more than that.
It is not a QHD display as well, not quite. It is somewhere in between Full HD and QHD. It has HDR10 certification and is refreshing at 90Hz, as mentioned earlier.
While you get quite a weird combination in its resolution, there is no denying that anything you put on the display looks sharp. At a glance, you might not be able to tell the difference between a Full HD display of the same size, but you might appreciate the extra pixels in gaming or watching 4K resolution movies on the device. The HDR10 certification does not hurt too.
No, you are not going to be able to get the full 4K resolution when you are watching the movie, but that also means that your Netflix movies or even downloaded movies can take advantage of the higher resolution. That also means you get better colour gradients and contrasts. Oh yes, Netflix is not on AppGallery. We had to sideload Amazon Prime Video too, even YouTube.
HUAWEI has their own HUAWEI Video App though; it works a little bit like Netflix but only on HMS devices exclusively at this point. There are plenty of contents in there too, all of them not found Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. They are mostly Chinese or Cantonese language shows though. It is also a subscription-based service. Although we do not know the pricing structure just yet. It is a new service after all. If you pre-ordered your HUAWEI P40 Pro, you get the service for free for the next three months so you can binge watch all your Chinese and Hong Kong drama series at more than Full HD resolution.
Cameras
Probably the most significant overhaul in the HUAWEI P40 Pro is the camera itself. It is still the familiar, in-house developed RYYB sensor. Supposedly, RYYB sensors are more light sensitive. In a sense they can absorb more light than the usual RGGB sensors. Colours are also supposed to be more neutral with RYYB sensors.
We are not going into the technicalities of the sensors, because that is a whole other topic for another day. The HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with a 50-Megapixel main sensor that is supported by three other lenses and a colour temperature sensor. That is one less lens than the highly anticipated HUAWEI P40 Pro+.
Still, the results show how powerful the RYYB sensor is on the HUAWEI P30 Pro. It really can see in the dark much better than other competing smartphones. With the HUAWEI P40 Pro, it has an even bigger sensor than before. That also means that it should theoretically ‘see’ better.
There are more function additions here too. You have an upgraded Timelapse mode, and you also have dual view camera mode to monitor your shots in the main camera and zoom lenses. Its AI is more powerful than ever too, recognising more scenes than before. What is amazing though is that the AI is clever enough to remove reflections and even other people that you do not want in the photo. No more photobombing, and no more sticking your smartphone to the glass to get a photo of what is on the other side of the glass.
The results speak for themselves. The HUAWEI P40 Pro is on the top of the ranking board of DX0Mark. While that may just be numbers and may not mean anything; pick up the HUAWEI P40 Pro and see the difference yourselves.
The HUAWEI P40 Pro’s camera is nothing short of amazing. While you are going to end up using photos taken by the camera in Social Media most of the time, the photos can be more than that. Of course, if you push your photos into JPG format, you not only save space, but you compress the image quality too.
For that size though, details are quite amazing still. Everything is quite sharp, and crisp. Of course, the moment you zoom all the way in at 50x, you get an image that is barely useable. You still can make out some details though, weirdly and amazingly. Use them in their normal functions though, images are quite amazing with very accurate colours, they were not kidding.
Of course, you need to see it to believe it. The gallery below are photos taken via the HUAWEI P40’s various cameras. Because of the MCO, we did not have much to begin with, so do bear with our household items, and food.
Photo Gallery
The HUAWEI P40 – A Very Difficult Choice
No doubt, the HUAWEI P40 Pro is a very powerful device. The HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G SoC is, in our humble opinions, what plenty of flagship class SoC should be. It has the right idea and all the right power numbers at the right places. That also translates into the HUAWEI P40 Pro as a product.
It has a better camera than most smartphones you can find on the shelves today. Statistically, you are getting the best sort of smartphone camera money can buy. In that case, we can see ourselves using the HUAWEI P40 Pro as our main photoshoot and video driver in some cases. It really does work well in our work environment.
While it only packs 90Hz out of the box, it is still a potent smartphone in total. You still can enjoy Netflix movies – if you can get Netflix installed, and Prime Video for that matter with its brilliant display. If you can get YouTube installed, you can even enjoy that at 90Hz, and it looks good. The only bummer here is the single speaker situated where your palm would land on when you view your device horizontally.
I personally have some things to protest about as well when it comes to its MYR 3,899 price tag. For starters, it is not what you would call ‘cheap’. It is a very premium price tag for a premium smartphone. For that though, you are not getting the beautifully sculpted overflow display that you see on the HUAWEI Mate 30 series. You are getting physical buttons, which is nice; no doubt, but we expected the HUAWEI P40 Pro to move away from buttons like the HUAWEI Mate is already doing, at the price point. Topping up MYR 100 also gives you an OPPO Find X2, which is a formidable device too with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865, 5G capability, a larger, pixel dense 120Hz display.
The biggest push-away though is the lack of Google Mobile Services. Moving away from something that we have been used to for the past 10 years of smartphones is a big ask. While you can transfer most of your Android apps on your older Android device to the HUAWEI P40 Pro, we found that some apps do not actually work. Instagram for example. We also do not have Netflix or YouTube on the device, which can be a little bit of a pain. Still, you can get them installed from third party sources.
To be fair, this is not HUAWEI’s fault. We are also still very thankful that HUAWEI still keeps their devices faithfully on Android. The AppGallery too will grow even bigger than what it is today. No doubt, plenty of the popular Android apps will be ported to AppGallery somehow. As we speak too, HUAWEI is suggesting that Google puts forth their Google Play Store and Mobile Services as a downloadable app on their AppGallery to solve the app issue. We really hope that happens somehow.
We really liked the HUAWEI P40 Pro for what its worth. While MYR 3,899 is a big ask, for a smartphone that some might regard as a glorified paperweight, we feel that there is much more to this device than just its lack of Google Mobile Services though. We can see the appeal, that is what we are saying. What we cannot see for the HUAWEI P40 Pro though is recommending our friends to buy it without giving other Android alternatives. Even you know that there are really good smartphones at the same price point out there.
BEIJING, April 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — With the development of 5G, IoT, AI, cloud and other cutting-edge technologies, digital transformation is accelerating the evolution of society’s methods of operation. In fact, IDC predicted that by 2022, the digital economy will account for 60% of the world’s total economy. With the global impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the necessity for digital and intelligent transformation as a way of life has become even more of a significant priority for H3C.
NAVIGATE 2020
H3C, the leader in digital solutions, is holding the online NAVIGATE 2020 themed “Smart-Volution” from April 20th through 25th. H3C will be officially launching its new AI in All intelligence strategy and unveiling H3C’s Digital Brain Project 2020. In addition, it will also launch a number of innovative products and technologies related to intelligent digital platforms as well as leverage integrated solutions to help industries better cope and achieve a higher level of intelligent transformation.
Gary Huang, President of the International Business Department and Senior Vice President of H3C at NAVIGATE 2020
This proposal of a new intelligence strategy demonstrates H3C’s new insight and thinking on global intelligent revolution. “With the vigorous development of the global digital economy, the demand for digital transformation in various countries is continuing to grow,” Gary Huang, President of the International Business Department and Senior Vice President of H3C, pointed out. “We believe that the global digital industry has vast development potential, and this requires the participation of more enterprises capable of innovating digital and intelligent technologies. We will give full play to our own advantages, grasp market opportunities, provide the best digital transformation value for our customers at home and abroad, and become an important driver for global intelligent transformation.”
In 2019, H3C made inroads into overseas markets with an independent brand after its own name, helping countries speed up their digital transformations. Currently, it has developed business in seven overseas markets (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Japan), and penetrated core industries with high access conditions and requirements, including finance, carriers and government.
Consequently, H3C will accelerate the expansion of its overseas markets. “International markets will become major growth points for H3C’s future business. In the next three to five years, H3C will continue to optimize the layout of its global channel system, actively enhance its participation in international markets and facilitate the digital transformation of more overseas customers from top-level design to technology implementation through its industry-leading end-to-end integrated solutions,” Gary Huang said.
Based on the varying conditions of overseas markets, H3C will take its intelligence strategy as guidance and use its Digital Brain Project to concretely promote and embed its innovative achievements and technological practices into local core industries. It will create complete digital solutions with its partners, and support the digital construction of various countries through its strong capacity to integrate AI, big data and cloud computing, growing together with the global industry ecosystem.
About H3C
H3C is an industry leader in the provision of Digital Solutions and is committed to becoming the most trusted partner of our clients in their quest for business innovation and digital transformation. H3C offers a full portfolio of Digital Infrastructure products, spanning across compute, storage, networking, security and related domains, and provides a comprehensive one-stop digital platform that includes cloud computing, big data, interconnectivity, information security, new safety, Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G solutions, as well as end-to-end technical services.
GUELPH, Ontario, April 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Canadian Solar Inc. (the “Company”, or “Canadian Solar”) (NASDAQ: CSIQ), announced today that Canadian Solar Infrastructure Fund, Inc. (“CSIF”) (TSE: 9284), listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (“TSE”), will be included in a new Infrastructure Funds Index to be launched by TSE on April 27, 2020. Canadian Solar Projects K.K. is the sole sponsor and Canadian Solar Asset Management is the asset manager of CSIF.
The Infrastructure Funds Index is an Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) related finance product offered by the TSE. According to the TSE announcement, CSIF is expected to be a major component of the new TSE Infrastructure Funds Index, along with other sponsored funds from Marubeni and Itochu in Japan.
Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar, commented, “We are very happy to learn that Canadian Solar Infrastructure Fund (CSIF) will be included in the new Infrastructure Funds Index by the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). This event trails 50 years of Earth Day celebrations and reflects the growing importance of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives globally. We are proud to be part of ESG focused investment ecosystem. We want to Make the Difference in Japan as we continue our solar development worldwide.”
Canadian Solar opened its first office in Tokyo in 2009 and has since expanded its operations to 9 offices in 5 prefectures. The Company has successfully delivered over 5.5 GW of premium quality modules to its residential, commercial and utility-scale customers, including its own utility-scale projects.
Canadian Solar started developing its own solar power plants in Japan in 2012, and has since developed, built and connected 297 MWp of solar projects, with an additional 63 MWp currently in construction and 218 MWp under development. Globally, Canadian Solar has built a strong track record developing and connecting over 5.6 GWp in solar PV plants.
In 2017, Canadian Solar launched the initial public offering of CSIF and listed its stock units on the TSE. CSIF was the first global IPO of a Japanese infrastructure fund. With approximately JPY 49 billion of assets under management as of the end of December 2019, CSIF is a leading infrastructure fund player on the TSE and ranks among the largest listed funds on the TSE Infrastructure Funds Index in terms of market capitalization and assets under management. The Japan Credit Rating Agency, Ltd. has assigned CSIF with a credit rating of A- with stable outlook in 2019, and the highest green rating (“Green1”) grade in 2017. Canadian Solar has a 14.7% partial ownership in CSIF and intends to play a key role in its growth strategy.
About Canadian Solar Inc.
Canadian Solar was founded in 2001 in Canada and is one of the world’s largest solar power companies. It is a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules and provider of solar energy solutions and has a geographically diversified pipeline of utility-scale solar power projects in various stages of development. Over the past 19 years, Canadian Solar has successfully delivered over 40 GW of premium-quality, solar photovoltaic modules to customers in over 150 countries. Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies in the solar industry, having been publicly listed on NASDAQ since 2006. For additional information about the Company, follow Canadian Solar on LinkedIn or visit www.canadiansolar.com.
Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These statements are made under the “Safe Harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by such terms as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “estimates,” the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include general business and economic conditions and the state of the solar industry; governmental support for the deployment of solar power; future available supplies of high-purity silicon; demand for end-use products by consumers and inventory levels of such products in the supply chain; changes in demand from significant customers; changes in demand from major markets such as Japan, the U.S., India and China; changes in customer order patterns; changes in product mix; capacity utilization; level of competition; pricing pressure and declines in average selling prices; delays in new product introduction; delays in utility-scale project approval process; delays in utility-scale project construction; delays in the completion of project sales; continued success in technological innovations and delivery of products with the features customers demand; shortage in supply of materials or capacity requirements; availability of financing; exchange rate fluctuations; litigation and other risks as described in the Company’s SEC filings, including its annual report on Form 20-F filed on April 25, 2019. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance, or achievements. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All information provided in this press release is as of today’s date, unless otherwise stated, and Canadian Solar undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.
SHANGHAI, April 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — UNISOC, a world leading provider of mobile communications chipsets and IoT chipsets, today announced its T610 platform is powering Hisense’s color E-Ink reading mobile phone, the Hisense phone A5 Pro CC. The phone uses e-ink for its secondary back display and LCD for the main one. The e-ink is capable of displaying 4,096 colors, with a paper-like display quality to protect readers’ eyes for long-time reading, and lasts for days on a single charge.
UNISOC T610 is Powering Hisense’s Color E-Ink “Reading Mobile Phone”
The e-ink displays lack blue-ray emission and offer much comfortable reading for an extended period. Its display will be capable of providing natural light imaging during daytime. During the night, the device will utilise the diffuse reflection technology through warm light sources mounted on the front side of the device display. Compared with other electronic devices, A5 Pro CC is totally blue-light-free for daytime reading and reduces the content of blue light by 95% for reading at night. It protects eyes greatly by decreasing the harm caused by the blue light to eyes.
The display will be great for reading, has excellent outdoor visibility, and it also doesn’t consume much battery. It only needs power when the image on the display changes.
Hisense has unveiled three A5 Pro versions, an A5 Pro classic with a black and white e-Paper display and two A5 Pro CC with a colored E-ink display using 4GB RAM+64GB ROM and 6GB RAM+128GB ROM storage. All three are powered by UNISOC T610 chipset which combines two 1.8 GHz Arm Cortex-A75 and six 1.8 GHz Arm Cortex-A55 processors with a Mali G52 MP2 GPU. The LTE mobile platform features fully upgraded image processing and AI capabilities and provides an unparalleled smartphone experience for users.
About UNISOC
UNISOC is a leading fabless semiconductor company committed to R&D of core chipsets in mobile communications and AIoT. Its products cover mobile chipset platforms supporting 2G/3G/4G/5G communication standards and various chipset solutions in the field of IoT, RFFE, wireless connection, TV etc. With estimated 4,500 staff, 15 R&D centers and 7 customer support centers around the world, UNISOC has become the top 3 mobile chipsets supplier in terms of global market share, the leading 5G company in World and one of the largest chipset providers for IoT and connectivity devices in China. For more information, please visit http://www.unisoc.com/
SHANGHAI, April 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — 51job, Inc. (Nasdaq:JOBS) (“51job” or the “Company”), a leading provider of integrated human resource services in China, announced today that its annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2019 has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The annual report on Form 20-F can be accessed through 51job’s investor relations website at http://ir.51job.com.
The Company will provide a hard copy of its annual report on Form 20-F, which includes its audited consolidated financial statements, free of charge to its shareholders and ADS holders upon request. Requests should be directed to the Investor Relations Department at Building 3, No. 1387 Zhang Dong Road, Shanghai 201203, People’s Republic of China.
About 51job
Founded in 1998, 51job is a leading provider of integrated human resource services in China. With a comprehensive suite of HR solutions, 51job meets the needs of enterprises and job seekers through the entire talent management cycle, from initial recruitment to employee retention and career development. The Company’s main online recruitment platforms (http://www.51job.com, http://www.yingjiesheng.com, http://www.51jingying.com, http://www.lagou.com, and http://www.51mdd.com), as well as mobile applications, connect millions of people with employment opportunities every day. 51job also provides a number of other value-added HR services, including business process outsourcing, training, professional assessment, campus recruitment, executive search and compensation analysis. 51job has a call center in Wuhan and a nationwide network of sales and service locations spanning more than 30 cities across China.
Contact:
Linda Chien Investor Relations 51job, Inc. +86-21-6879-6250 ir@51job.com
The OnePlus 8 series was unveiled last week internationally. This week, the new line up makes it Malaysian debut! Yep! It’s barely been a week since the international launch and Malaysia is getting the new smartphone on pre-order.
In a post in the official OnePlus Malaysia Facebook, the company teased the pre-orders for the new Snapdragon 865 touting 5G smartphones. Both the OnePlus 8 and its larger Pro brother will be 5G enabled and also come with enough RAM and internal storage to make sure you’re on top of whatever you’re doing. The OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro will go on pre-order starting 12AM on the 24 April, 2020.
The OnePlus 8 will be retailing for MYR2,899 for the version with 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal memory; the version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal memory will be MYR3,299.
The OnePlus 8 Pro will be priced at MYR3,699 for the version with 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal memory and MYR4,099 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB internal memory.
Pre-orders will be coming with 2 years official warranty from OnePlus Malaysia, 1 year screen crack protection and a limited pop up gift pack. It looks like the gift pack will be coming with a phone case and also the OnePlus Bullet headphones.
You can pre-order your OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro from the official stores on Lazada and Shopee as well as other official retailers.
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