A Gamer’s Laptop strides a very fine line between being powerful and affordable. In recent years, the price point for gaming laptops has increased dramatically. In many cases, gamers are spending between MYR5,000 to MYR8,000 for a decently specced gaming laptop. On the other hand, they can spend up to MYR 15,000 just for a gaming desktop. Realising this, Lenovo has introduced a new gaming laptop sub-brand called LOQ, pronounced similar to LOCK.
Lenovo’s LOQ laptops are built to bridge the gap between entry and pro-level gaming setups. They provide a more affordable option while not compromising on the power that gamers need to run their AAA titles. However, these laptops may sidestep some gaming luxuries like per-key RGB.
The new lineup of LOQ gaming laptops making its debut comes with NVIDIA Laptop GPUs ranging from the NVIDIA RTX 3050 to the newly announced RTX 4060. They’re equipped with MUX switches which use NVIDIA’s Advanced Optimus feature to bypass the integrated GPUs during gaming and heavy GPU work. This allows the laptops to achieve higher frame rates as the GPUs interface directly with the display panel. When not gaming, these switches allow the integrated CPU to take over providing longer battery life.
These GPUs are complemented by either a 13th Generation Intel processor or a Zen4 touting AMD Ryzen processor. On the RAM side of things, there’s support for up to 16GB DDR5 RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage. When it comes to display there are 15- and 16-inch variants with IPS displays with support for up to 165Hz refresh rate and 100% sRGB gamut coverage.
Design-wise, the LOQ gaming laptops draw inspiration from Lenovo’s successful Legion lineup. Crucial elements like the hinge, keyboard and mousepad placements are similar to the LOQ’s sister lineup. The keyboard has options for 4-zone RGB backlighting while maintaining Legion’s signature 1.5mm key travel and feel. The chassis has all the flair of a Legion device and even comes in the signature gunmetal black colour.
Pricing & Availability
The new Lenovo LOQ gaming laptops are now available in Malaysia via Lenovo Exclusive Stores and official stores on Lazada and Shopee with prices starting at MYR3,699.
On the 5th of May 2023, the WHO announced that COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a global emergency. According to the release from United Nations, WHO has acknowledged that the COVID-19 is ‘here to stay’. They also acknowledged that the virus is still evolving and killing. Still, the world understands the virus plenty more now and the death toll has dwindled down to a handful these days.
Sure, you still hear cases of infection, but it was not like the beginning of 2020, where the pandemic took the world over and killed plenty. In the past 12 months as well, WHO has observed a downward trend the pandemic and infection rate thanks to the development of the vaccines, their improvements, and the rate at which they are being distributed. The immense pressure put on the medical industry and healthcare workers has now declined nearly to normal levels before the pandemic and so has life outside the hospital. That is why WHO has declared the global emergency that we know as the COVID-19 pandemic has now officially ended.
Considering COVID-19, the entire internet is swarmed with information for COVID-19. The overwhelming flood of information on COVID-19 was a mixed bag too, you get plenty of speculations from ‘experts’, and actual reports from various accredited sources on the virus spread, behaviour, and even development. Public panic is a real threat and issue in times like these and platforms like Meta and even Google had to step in to curb the threat. To do that, they had to establish a misinformation policy that pertains specifically to COVID-19. For Meta especially, they had to block information that does not come from verified accredited sources to ensure that the public information you receive regarding COVID-19 are correct.
Since the global emergency has been retracted, Meta is now considering rolling back and scale down the restrictions regarding information pertaining to COVID-19. As a matter of fact, they technically have rolled back their policy on COVID-19 information. They have convened with the Oversight Board and updated their policy in accordance to the guidelines that has been set by the board.
In light of WHO’s announcement to end the global state of emergency for COVID-19, Meta will be taking a more lenient approach to misinformation against COVID-19. That does not mean that they are completely removing the policy though. There will still be guidelines in place to protect the public from physical harm and risks, which also means that if Meta’s algorithm thinks that your Facebook posting will potentially cause panic, physical, or mental harm, it will still be taken down and blocked. They also say that they are only scaling down on their policy in regions that followed WHO’s guidelines in ending the state of emergency. There are still regions that are still in a state of emergency and Meta will still apply their misinformation policy for users in those regions. For updates on Meta’s latest efforts on their COVID-19 misinformation policies, you can head out to their blog.
TAIPEI, June 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Recently, Taiwan’s well-known karaoke social app 17sing joined forces with six universities in Taiwan (Kun Shan University of Science and Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology of Science, Chinese Culture University, and Tainan University of Technology of Applied Science and Technology, etc.) to hold a campus competition called “Singing for Summer”. The event starts on May 25th and runs until June 29th. During the event, the students were lively, and the students competed to participate, showing their youthful vigor and musical talent. The process of the event attracted much attention. Students from different universities recorded and uploaded their own music through 17sing. After voting, the top-ranked students will receive generous rewards: 20,000 NT$ in cash, exclusive opportunities to sign on the 17sing platform, the opportunity to be in the same stage with celebrities, trophies and certificates, etc.
During the event, 17sing also held promotional activities offline. The exquisite posters and exciting games in the event made the audience shocked and moved. At the same time, this activity also attracted many Internet celebrities who are also students to join, they signed up enthusiastically, showed their singing voice, and send it to their channels. Many students said: “I’m grateful that 17sing can give us such a good opportunity to show ourselves on a bigger stage. This will become an important beginning for our music path. We will work hard to realize our own music dream!”
17sing official stated, “We have been committed to providing better after-school life for the majority of young people, especially college students. This time, we jointly hold campus singing activities with universities to show more musically talented students. This is just the beginning, in the future, we will continue to increase investment in college market, hold more campus activities, discover more outstanding new musicians, and help them achieve dreams.” The leaders of the universities also expressed that they welcome 17sing to hold more such campus activities in the future. This not only enriches the students’ after-school life, but also is beneficial to the comprehensive development of students. In the future, 17sing will continue to increase investment in the college market, hold more online and offline activities on campus, serve the majority of college students, and allow more college students to open up new ways of social interaction and cultural experience in their spare time.
This activity provided opportunities for college students to show themselves, and the dreams of the award-winning students came true. 17sing sponsored the school industry and education funds of 6 universities, which not only enriched the after-school entertainment life of college students, but also played a very good role in promoting the cultural atmosphere on university campus. The event was a complete success. 17sing will continue to support the college market and hold more campus activities.
The “Singing for Summer” activity have also accumulated valuable market experience for 17sing. It has built a interactive bridge with the college students by sponsoring universities and students, which will definitely have a positive impact on the market share in 17sing. This joint campus event with colleges not only allows more college students to experience the unique social interaction way and new experience of after-school entertainment in 17sing, but also enables more college students to settle in and become 17sing loyal users. In the future, 17sing will continuously increase the penetration rate and influence in the college market.
“About 17sing”
17sing is the most popular karaoke social app in Taiwan. High-quality and powerful music library, you can find your favorite beat by style.You can sing with friends and learn singing skills. “AI scoring” can make you become the king of karaoke. Online karaoke room real-time singing , community groups let you make more friends.You can even film your own music video.The most interesting karaoke APP gives you the most trendy karaoke experience. Let’s go and sing on 17sing!
MUNICH, June 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The EES Europe 2023 was held at the Messe München in Munich, Germany from June 14-16, 2023. TOPBAND brought its core products of cells, BMS, EMS and PCS (1C3S), small and medium-sized energy storage systems and new energy vehicles, two and three-wheelers and other related products and solutions to the fair. As one of the focuses at the fair, TOPBAND attracted a large number of visitors to the booth to conduct deep communication about future development of new energy field.
TOPBAND at EES 2023
TOPBAND’s new energy business is mainly in medium and small-scale energy storage and new energy vehicles and its products include batteries, power supplies, controllers and motors. TOPBAND mainly provides customers with components and system solutions with its own core technologies of cells, BMS, PCS and EMS in the field of residential energy storage, industrial and commercial energy storage, portable energy storage and power backup storage. TOPBAND provides customers in the field of new energy vehicles, other special vehicles and two and three-wheelers with intelligent controllers and chargers with its integrated technology system of electronic control, motor, battery, power supply and IoT platform to support green and low-carbon development.
The boutique areas of TOPBAND were distinctive, showing its technical strength in the field of new energy. Star exhibits such as the residential energy storage, storage inverter, BMS for industrial and commercial energy storage, EV chargers and charging piles, were well received by the visitors.
Residential Energy Storage: TOPBAND’s residential energy storage products include high and low-voltage stack-based, integrated off/on-grid, rack-mounted, wall-mounted and vertical types. RS-R51100 can be installed in 4 ways (wall-mounted, rack-mounted, stack-based and vertical).
RS-R51100A uses the self-developed LFP cells, achieving a service life of over 6,000 cycles with the self-developed BMS. Besides, a single unit is of 51.2V100Ah, with a rated capacity up to 5.12kWh and supports 32PCS parallel connection to extend to 163.84kWh, easily adapting to the high-power demands. Besides, RS-R51100A is compatible with most inverters in power generation for own use, power backup and off-grid scenarios and has obtained many international certifications including IEC62619, UL1973, UN38.3, CE and UKCA.
Storage Inverter: TOPBAND TBE series inverter can meet the needs of grid-connected and off-grid systems at the same time and can realize bidirectional control of electric energy, with highly autonomous energy scheduling.
In addition, it is compatible with a variety of batteries, more charging/ discharging power options, and the off-grid switching time is less than 12ms, and the DC side is equipped with secondary surge protection as standard to provide continuous protection for safer electricity.
BMS for Industrial and Commercial Energy Storage: It is a new generation of energy storage BMS independently developed by TOPBAND. It is mainly composed of BAU, BCU, BMU and related wiring harnesses.
The BMS can perform not only remote monitoring, OTA upgrade, big data analysis, security warning and other features through the T-smart cloud platform, but also charge and discharge management, active and passive balance management, and thermal management. In addition, this BMS can achieve more accurate and intelligent SOX estimation to extend the service life of the batteries.
Charging piles and EV chargers: TOPBAND provides various charging solutions, which are suitable for a variety of charging modes.
TOPBAND’s charging piles and wall-mounted chargers are equipped with excellent safety protection, which can well achieve protection against short circuits, overcurrent, overvoltage, thunder and lightning and electric leakage.
As an innovative leader in the new energy industry, TOPBAND will continue to make progress in product and technological innovation, and work with partners to build a more intelligent and low-carbon world!
MUNICH, June 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — CORNEX New Energy Co., Ltd. (“CORNEX”), a global new energy company committed to the innovation of lithium-ion battery technology, showcased its flagship products, including the Conergy π314Ah large battery cell and CORNEX 215kWh liquid cooling outdoor cabinet, at The Smarter E Europe 2023, the largest platform for the European energy industry, held from June 14 to 16 in Munich, Germany.
Conergy π314Ah large battery Cell: stable performance with longer battery life
The Conergy π 314Ah large battery cell has tackled the technological bottlenecks of long circulation and safety issues, its single-cell energy is up to 1,004Wh with cycle times reaching 12,000 times. Through the optimization of the electrolyte design formula and pole lug structure, it has lowered internal resistance by 15 percent and temperature rise is decreased by 10% percent.
Additionally, the main material of positive and negative electrodes is modified in structure, coupled with special coating treatment and granulation process to ensure the stability of the material structure of the battery in the long-term cycle process, extending the battery cell life.
CORNEX 215kWh liquid cooling outdoor cabinet: an all-in-one solution for multiple application scenarios
CORNEX 215kWh liquid cooling outdoor cabinet is applicable to industrial and commercial scenarios. The flexible, all-in-one product has adopted an integrated plug-and-play design supporting multiple parallel connections.
It’s a greener solution that utilizes large surface cooling technology to control the system temperature within 30 degrees Celsius and ensure a system temperature difference within 2 degrees Celsius to achieve constant temperature control of the cell.
It’s also a safer design with IP55 grade protection, and an intelligent product with functions including full-range monitoring in real-time, safety warning, fault diagnosis, smart operation, and maintenance, while supporting automatic grid switching.
CORNEX has also developed a fast and efficient after-sales service system that provides full life-cycle support and management to meet the needs of global clients, that includes field service, remote monitoring, safety systems, training, quality improvement, supply chain management, customer service, and financial management.
About CORNEX
As a new energy innovative high-tech enterprise, CORNEX NEW ENERGY CO., LTD. (“CORNEX”) focuses on the R&D, manufacturing, sales and services of energy storage batteries, EV batteries and energy management system, and is committed to providing the world-class solutions, products and services for new energy applications worldwide.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has been dedicated to the cause of making people’s life better in his political career so far.
With a determination to do good things for people, Xi’s political career started in 1982 in north China’sHebei Province when he assumed his post as the deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee of Zhengding County.
During his time in Zhengding, Xi rode a bicycle to inspect every region of the county, and focused on issues closely related to people’s livelihood, such as the unreasonably high amount of grain local farmers had to sell to the government under the regulations of the time.
Xi then wrote a letter to the central government on the issue, and the amount of grain to be purchased by government was readjusted after a thorough investigation.
From his efforts for rural residents in early years to the proposal of the Chinese Dream as the president, bringing tangible benefits to the people has always been Xi’s strongest belief.
One and a half month later, Xi inspected a village 300 kilometers away from Beijing to learn about the living conditions of poor families during the harsh winter.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, Xi has made more than 100 inspection trips to learn about the situation at the grassroots level, and listed many difficulties of the people into the working agenda and reform plans of the central government.
Xi has joined the panel discussions of the National People’s Congress and the National Committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference 56 times in the past 11 years to learn about the people’s opinions from about 400 representatives.
When meeting then Italian Lower House Speaker Roberto Fico in 2019, Xi was asked about his feelings when he was elected president of China.
Xi said it was a huge responsibility and hard work to govern such a big country, and he would put aside his own well-being for the good of the Chinese people.
Starting as a village official and now the president of China, Xi has always given people the top priority in his heart and showed his deep love for the Chinese people with dedicated work.
GUANGZHOU, China, June 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The 133rd China Import and Export Fair (“Canton Fair” or “the Fair”) is making waves as global buyers are showing increasing interest in a wide range of products that help beat the summer heat. Exhibitors from different sectors, including electronic home appliances and household consumption, are showcasing global buyers with exciting new ways to stay cool in the sweltering sun.
The 133rd Canton Fair: A New Coup to Cool Down and Escape from the Heat in this Summer
Bear Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. is proud to present its latest electric fan at the Canton Fair, offering a cutting-edge and energy-efficient way to cool off during the hot summer. With a unique vortex-style fan blade design, coupled with a curtain-like air outlet and wide-sweeping air delivery mode, the product promises to enhance indoor air circulation and provide users with a gentle and refreshing cooling experience. Please visit Bear’s page https://goo.su/JRnIYu for more details on their exhibits.
Guangzhou BKAI Imp & Exp Corp. Ltd. (“the Company”) introduces the Cruise Ship, its innovative outdoor furniture on the Fair. The furniture boasts a unique design and practical features. Cruise Ship’s innovative seating arrangement, enclosed on three sides and complemented by a front sunshade canopy, offers a functional and private outdoor space. The exquisite designs, including a lift-up bar, built-in ice bucket, and hidden storage space, create a cool and fresh atmosphere. For more cool outdoor furniture pieces from BKAI, please visit https://goo.su/kJbY.
Guangdong Xinbao Appliances Holdings Co., Ltd. has unveiled online a dazzling array of ice machines at the Fair, destined to become the go-to choice for consumers worldwide when it comes to cooling down during the sweltering summer months. Featuring a sturdy stainless-steel frame and a large window cover, these ice machines are a perfect blend of form and function, delivering an unparalleled user experience that allows users to create ice to their heart’s content. For more information on these exciting products, simply head over to the Xinbao Canton Fair page at https://goo.su/0FB08.
Buyers from all over the world have added a touch of coolness to their home lives and outdoor leisure activities owing to the 133rd Canton Fair’s refreshing products to enjoy the chill. Please register at https://invitation.cantonfair.org.cn/BuyerUser/RegisterUser?MediaType=16 for more details on the high-quality exhibits at the Canton Fair, or send an email to caiyiyi@cantonfair.org.cn.
TAIPEI, June 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — On May 24, 2023, 17Sing officially launched a series of campus activities with the theme of “Singing for Summer”. 17Sing united Kun Shan University of Science and Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology of Science and National Cheng Kung University, Chinese Culture University, and Tainan University of Technology of Applied Science and Technology to hold this event.This activity is introduced through offline publicity and online singer competition, attracting numerous university students to participate in it, inspiring young musicians to voice their dreams.
17Sing has been established for 8 years, They have always adhered to the core concept of “creating dreams for the new voice generation and building a social platform for music”, insisted on exploring and creating various stage opportunities for users, and fully helping young musicians pursue their music dreams. In this “Singing for Summer” event, while holding the singer competition, 17Sing went deep into the school to find good voices. Each group brought customized small fans and popsicles to the university campus,explained the content of the event and discover new stars. During the event, many students participated in the game and signed up for the competition.To fully ensure the fairness of the game, students need to fill in and upload the University ID. After signing up for the competition, students need to choose and sing the song,and then go back to the registration page to select the newly released song,then the registration is completed.
In order to encourage more capable college students to participate, 17Sing prepares generous rewards. The contestants ranked fourth to tenth can get NT$5,000;the third place can get NT$10,000 and the second place can get NT$15,000.The champion can get NT$20,000. In addition, the top 20 contestants in the competition will all have the opportunity to sign an exclusive contract with 17Sing, and the top 10 contestants will also participate in more large-scale activities, and can even make their own songs and music videos.
About 17Sing
17Sing is a music karaoke social platform which is popular with young people in Taiwan. It aims to users to show their musical talents and interact with other music fans. In the past eight years, 17Sing has been constantly innovating, just to provide users with the best karaoke experience. Whether you are a new or an experienced user, you can easily get started and start enjoying the fun of singing immediately. Users can give full play to 17Sing and convey their singing voice to everywhere just by using a mobile phone or a headset,. At the same time,17Sing also provides a variety of music types and tracks for users to choose. Whether you like pop, rock, jazz, or hip-hop, 17Sing can meet all your needs.
SHENZHEN, China, June 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — On June 14th, INFiLED, a leading enterprise in the LED display industry participated in InfoComm2023, North America’s largest exhibition for the ProAV industry, held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
At booth 1624, INFiLED showcased an array of quality products suitable for both indoor and outdoor installations, including fine-pixel-pitch screens and LED panel samples. Moreover, INFiLED’s product specialists provided consulting services to visitors to help them achieve their desired display solutions.
Among the outdoor displays presented by INFiLED was its latest EZ2.6 series for DOOH, featuring energy-saving technology, with a maximum power consumption of only 210W/panel; and a high contrast ratio of 26,700:1, ensuring that bright areas were not overexposed and details in shadows were rendered well when playing content.
An EZ series screen exhibited at the INFiLED booth
Also on exhibit was the Atlas-X series, recently co-developed by INFiLED and PRG. This series supported ±10°concave-convex screen settings, and the connection angle between its cabinets can be quickly changed through cassettes and curving connectors (optional accessories) that can be arranged flexibly; besides, the cabinets were equipped with hidden suspension hooks and vertical locking systems to facilitate screen installation.
In addition to Atlas-X, another incredible LED display for events, the Titan-X series screen, INFiLED’s innovative visual solution for outdoor events also appeared at this exhibition. With up to 70% transparency, it can present stunning visual effects without obstructing the scenery behind the screen; moreover, it featured an extremely stable frame that can withstand winds of 20 m/s.
A Titan-X series screen was shown on the left of the picture and a cart with the Atlas-X series cabinets on the right
As for indoor displays, above booth 1624, a 5m*2m XII series curved screen was installed. It had a pixel pitch of only 2.6mm, a high refresh rate of 3840Hz, and excellent color representation. The series can be used in retail stores, houses of worship, airport terminals, and other indoor spaces, as to provide an enjoyable viewing experience for viewers.
An XII Series screen above INFiLED’s booth
At the booth, there was also a curved screen with a resolution of 2880*1152 consisting of the XII series and the EZ series. Its flat-to-arc transition was smooth, and the display parameters of the two series used in it could be adjusted to the same. This screen was designed to show visitors unexpected great display solutions achieved by combining different INFiLED products.
A curved screen consisting of the XII series and the EZ series was shown on the left side of the picture, and a DB series screen was on the right
In terms of indoor fine-pixel-pitch products, INFiLED exhibited an impressive DB1.5 Pro series screen. It was a great choice for virtual production studios and beyond. With 16-bit grayscale and HDR technology, it can accurately present content details of extremely bright and dark scenes, realizing natural and realistic image output.
The indoor screens on display also included a WT0.9 series screen. The product adopted COB encapsulation technology, which ensured its LED panels have good heat dissipation and minimum light decay; besides, it had excellent surface protection as well, to prevent its LED beads from being damaged during transportation or installation.
A WT series screen set up at the INFiLED booth
Aside from the above-mentioned exhibits, other quality products exhibited by INFiLED comprised WP series screens applicable for meeting rooms, as well as single panels including AR 3.9, HR1.56, DB2.6.
About INFiLED
INFiLED is an international high-tech enterprise specializing in the R&D and manufacturing of large-scale LED displays. INFiLED’s products were exported to 87 countries and applied in various fields including DOOH, live events, sports, retail, corporate, and so forth. Focusing on independent innovation and continuous improvement, INFiLED is striving to be the best in the LED screen industry to enlighten the world with a visual feast.
What can you buy with MYR 4,000? You can get yourself a very nice steak dinner for at least four people in a very expensive restaurant. You can buy an entry-level gaming laptop with older generation hardware. You can even buy a decent laptop that you can use for work and play for that money. Even if you buy a 4K TV, you might still have some spare cash to afford yourself a decent soundbar. Or you can buy a Sony ZV-1 II, Sony’s latest compact camera, and have MYR 1 to spare for your parking.
So Familiar
If you have had your hands on a Sony ZV-1, the original one, you would be surprised (or maybe not) at how similar this ‘second-generation- ZV-1 is to the first one. It is sort of the same body that both use with no changes in the layout or material. That also means that if you come from the ZV-1, you will be quickly familiar with the ZV-1 II.
We like plenty of things on the ZV-1. We like the swiveling hinged monitor that we can just swing out to quickly turn the camera on. We like that folding in the display also turns the camera off. We like that it is compact yet shoots decent 4K footage, and we like that it features a standard zoom 24-70mm lens. Most of these features stayed on for the ZV-1 Mk. II.
The ZV-1 II still has a brilliant swiveling display that will be the only source of monitoring you get on the camera itself. There is no viewfinder to look at here, which is pretty much expected in this form factor. Then there is the 4K 24p capabilities that continued from the older ZV-1. The lens offers the same zoom mechanism and look, except that it is an 18-50mm lens now instead of a 24-70mm with a maximum aperture of F4.0.
They have added a few things too. They added ‘background blurring’ effect toggle for your portraits. They also added more creative looks for the ZV-1 II. The highlight addition though, at least we think, is the Cinematic Vlog mode that completely changes how you shoot your videos.
The sensor you get on the ZV-1 II is pretty much the same one you can find from the first-generation ZV-1. You get a 1-inch 21-Megapxiel Exmor RS sensor that is also capable of taking videos at 4K 24p resolutions. You can technically also record Full HD videos at up to 60p with the camera. That also means there is no slow-motion video recording for the ZV-1 II. To be fair, that is not what the ZV-1 is for anyway.
If you come from the older ZV-1, there should be no surprises about the photo and video quality here. The 21-Megapixel photos are clear and well detailed, even at the edges. While the sensor is not very big, you technically can get great looking portraits with some deep ‘bokeh’ effect by turning on the camera’s ‘background blur’ mode. Even if you do not use the ‘background blur’ mode though, portrait still looks mighty good with limited depth. Still, for landscape photos, the image is mostly clear and sharp when you go closer to the edges of the image. If you are shooting at 18mm, you can expect some distortion at the edges of your image since you are technically getting an ultra-wide angle.
The ZV-1 II can also shoot photos at up to 24fps, meaning you can technically use this to shoot action photos. You can take it down to your local track on a track day and take great looking photos with this camera thanks to the fast and rather accurate autofocus. We did not get to do that though unfortunately. You technically can take photos when your friends are playing football or any other sports technically thanks to the clever eye-AF. Again, we did not get to do that in our test period.
For 4K video recording, the camera uses the entire 1-inch sensor to shoot, which also means that you are not getting any odd crops on your frame when you switch between photo and video mode. In video mode though, the camera defaults to 16:9 aspect ratio, which means that you lose a little bit of image from the top and bottom of the photo frame. The Cinematic Vlog mode cuts the image even more to make the traditional film 2.35:1 aspect ratio for that cinematic look. We also noticed that the image stabilization is a little more aggressive in cinematic vlog mode allowing for a much more stable looking contents without going through vigorous stabilization algorithms from your editors.
You can technically shoot in Sony’s colour gamut Log with the ZV-1 II. You can go up to S-Log3 in both 4K and Full HD modes. There is no S-Cinetone log here though, which is a shame since we thought it would be nice to pair with the cinematic vlog function. Of course, since the ZV-1 II is made for quick and fuss free vlog production and social media contents, it would not make sense for its intended user to use any of the colour gamut logs. Still, having the option to use the logs in all kinds of shoot mode would be nice for more advanced users.
You can even use the ZV-1 as your webcam if your PC does not already have one. Unfortunately, the camera only allows for up to 720p when you stream the camera directly to the PC via USB Type-C. Still, the 720p image still looks better than most 720p and even Full HD 1080p webcam you can find in the market today. If you are looking for a plug-and-play webcam that looks good, this one could be for you.
Oddly Poor Battery Life
There is a compromise with all the weight saving and focus on making the ZV-1 II the most compact camera of its type yet capable of even more than its predecessor. The compromise comes in the form of a small battery capacity. To be fair, the small battery also contributes to the lightweight construction of the camera.
It is a rather small 1,240mAh NP-BX1 removeable battery that the ZV-1 II packs: the same one as the first-generation ZV-1. It is rated for up to 290 stills and up to 75 minutes of continuous video recording. We took it out to do both stills and videos in the same venue for our test. In our test, we barely got the camera through an hour and a half (1 hour 30 minutes) before the ZV-1 II started warning us of low battery. Since it is replaceable, you technically can buy more to prolong your photo shoot or video shoot with the ZV-1 II. Each battery pack will set you back MYR 202 though. Thankfully you can charge the battery and camera via the camera’s USB Type-C port, meaning you can just plug it to your powerbank, and you are ready to shoot even more photos and videos.
Should You Then? Maybe Not.
We like the ZV-1 II. It is a tiny camera that is rather well packaged and well-rounded enough for a quick photo walk around town. Even if you are not on a dedicated photo walk, it is a compact enough camera for you to carry around and pull out when you see a photo opportunity. It is made for the spontaneous content creator that does not need or want to carry a bunch of gear or a large DSLR around for convenience and subtlety. It also works as a decent webcam to replace your rather poor one on the laptop for an all-around better video conferencing or streaming experience.
We are finding it difficult to recommend this camera to anyone who wants a compact camera that does everything though. For starters, it will set you back MYR 3,999. For that kind of money, you can get your hands on an older ZV-1 and still have extra to buy a proper Sony mic that can be mounted on the camera. Secondly, the ZV-1 will still be on sale, and there is nothing wrong with that camera in the first place. Thirdly, if simplicity is what you are after, what is wrong with the ZV-1F? The ZV-1F has a fixed lens and does everything the ZV-1 does too. If you already have the ZV-1 or the ZV-1F, apart from a few added features and the different lens length, you are not getting much of an upgrade on the ZV-1 II too.
