Samsung A series has gotten awesome over the years. The latest and greatest Galaxy A71 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor. The processor is paired with a minimum of 6GB RAM or 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. A new and improved quad system main camera consisting of a 64MP wide, 12MP ultrawide, 5MP macro camera and a 5MP depth sensor. For the selfie camera, it gets a 32 MP wide camera. Packing a relatively large-sized 4,500mAh battery that could last you the entire day.
Priced at MYR 1,799 in Malaysia and USD$429.99 in the US. Is the Samsung Galaxy A71 the daily all rounder? Is this the ultimate daily driver for the average joe?
Looking for more details? You can head on over to our in depth review.
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The #Samsung#GalaxyA71, placed in the #GalaxyA(w-Suh-m) series. Is the new mid tier all rounder that you never expected. Giving you decent power together with a #SuperAMOLED+ display and a high megapixel camera. With Samsung’s new design language, most of Samsung’s devices looks similar but with an attention to detail each phone has its own unique touch to make it stand out. For the #A71 is the 3 slahes on its back and simultaneously refracting light giving you and array of red, green and blue. The Galaxy A71 is now available in Malaysia for MYR1,799
Running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. All that goodies is power by a 4,500 mAh battery that can last you all day long. If you are running low on battery, not to worry as it comes with a 25W fast charging to get you ready and going as quick as it can.
The Samsung Galaxy A(w-Suh-m) series is full of awesome goodies from the front of the Super AMOLED screen all the way to the camera array on the back. The A series has always been about variety; ranging from the Samsung Galaxy A01 all the way up to the Samsung Galaxy A80. We’re taking a look at the Samsung Galaxy A71 – the latest and greatest Galaxy A series phone at the time of writing in Malaysia. Above the Galaxy A71, we are met with Samsung’s next tier consisting of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite and the Galaxy S10 Lite. The Note 10 lite is MYR500 (USD$118) more while right under is the A51 which is MYR500 cheaper than the A71. This beckons the question, how awesome is this phone, really?
Hardware and Performance
Let’s start off with the hardware. Just because it is a mid-tier phone does not mean it does not have the goods. The phone comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 Octa-core processor that handles heavy apps and games like a breeze. This is paired with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM to let you run all the applications you need. Last but not least 128GB of internal storage which seems decent but let’s not forget like most Samsung, it can host a micro SD card to expand its storage. This is bolstered by a pretty respectable camera setup that would suffice for most users.
As the Galaxy A71 is a mid tier phone, I did not have much expectations of the phone. Maybe some freezing and lag after heavy load applications such as games but the use of the Snapdragon 730 really packs a punch for the performance of the phone. It felt as if I was using a phone with a top of the line processor, giving me the ability to jump back and forth between apps without much hiccups.
Call Quality and Connectivity
Phone calls on the A71 works just as well like every other phone on the market. Giving you clear sound quality from its earpiece and speakers while picking up every sound around you from a teeny tiny mic in the phone. These days many youngsters do not call one another anymore unless its an emergency and couples prefer video calls to see each other. With a better selfie camera the receiving end of the video calls of the A71 user gets a much clearer video quality.
However, the antenna on this phone does not pick up signal as good compared to other phones. In an area with expected weak connectivity the phone could barley register any signal leaving you stranded with no connectivity at all. Videos calls would lag as you cannot load what’s coming from the other end and regular phone calls would be half muffled and cut off.
Specifications
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 730
Operating System (OS)
Android 10 One UI 2.0
Display
Super AMOLED+ capacitive touchscreen 16M colours 6.7 inches 87.2% screen to body ratio
The Samsung Galaxy A71 comes with a quad-camera set up that has a 64-megapixel main sensor! This is complemented by three other cameras: a 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor, a 5-megapixel macro lens, and lastly a 5-megapixel depth sensor. This setup raises a few questions particularly since Samsung has already stepped up its camera game by having a 48-megapixel sensor in the S10 Lite. This is contrasted to the 12-megapixel main sensor in the S20. Take those and contrast it to the fact that Samsung has equipped the A71 with the 64-megapixel sensor. Now that is Aw-Suh-m approved. Upfront, the Galaxy A71 comes with a single, 32-megapixel camera up similar to many other Samsung phones.
Ultra Wide
Wide
Zoom
Wide
Full Zoom
However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves when it comes to the pixels in the camera. The camera looks like it captures pictures really well at the first glance but after deeper inspection. The only reason the pictures looks good is due to its colour contrast where it makes the colours pop. If you zoom into the pictures the textures seem like it is blended and mixed together. The camera also pics up a lot of noise giving the pictures a very grainy look. This is quite disappointing as there are phone with smaller megapixel sensor which can perform better.
It also has a Live Focus mode where it focuses on the object and blurs out the background. It works well as long as the object in focus is large enough for the software to figure out between the object and background. The objects also have to be 1 to 1.5 meters away from the phone. You can also adjust the intensity of the background blur to give it a more realistic effect. Another cool effect is the super slow-motion option. This is cool, but it is very hard to use as the video clip that is recorded is not fully slow motion but only a few seconds between the clips.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy A71 comes with a Super AMOLED+ display. As with all Super AMOLED+ displays, the picture quality is crisp and sharp. However, my biggest gripe with the display is that the display is way too bright and using it in dark environments can be straining to the eyes even on the lowest brightness settings – and if you’re like me, you tend to be blinded when you’re on the phone in bed or turning it on first thing in the morning.
The screen is 6.7 inches with an 87.2% screen-to-body ratio and 393 pixels per inch. The bezels do not seem to be as thin or sensitive as my hands did not manage to accidentally touch or trigger it while still maintaining the look of having really thin bezels. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. This allowed the phone to hold up pretty well in my pocket which is usually cramped with my keys, keeping me worry free of accidentally scratching the screen. It does come with a thin plastic protector that has been taking all the beating from the keys.
The irregular 20:9 aspect ratio on the Galaxy A71 makes watching videos is a weird mix. Most videos on YouTube are still at the aspect ratio of 16:9, thus users will get big black bars on the top and bottom the videos. Whereas most movies on the other hand would fit perfectly in the display as most cinematic aspect ratio is at 21:9, giving users a really immersive cinematic experience.
Gaming
Gaming experience was smooth and I did not have many hiccups. Together with A71’s large screen estate, the controls do not get in the way which gives you a slight advantage. Software side, it automatically places games into full screen, or it blacks out the notification bar. I’m a little annoyed that I cannot choose if I want the game to take up the entire screen or have the notification bar blacked out as it is automatically decided by the system itself. That said, I, personally, prefer the notification bar blacked out as the camera punch hole doesn’t interrupt the display providing a more immersive experience.
If you are gaming with the phone’s speakers it should not be a problem as it is loud and clear. But during gaming, your hand placement might accidentally block the speaker with your index finger and muffle out the sound. So keep that in mind or use headphones with the 3.5mm jack for the best gaming experience. Yeap, that’s right! The phone comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Praise the jack lords! Headphone users rejoice! You can now have the most useful accessory back when you’re gaming! However, the wires can get in the way of holding your phone, it is still in an acceptable position as it does not strain your fingers to game.
Security and Privacy
To keep your phone safe and secure and have the convenience of unlocking the phone easily, there are two biometric ways to unlock the phone. There is face recognition and fingerprint. The face recognition works really well, it unlocks within seconds after waking the phone.
But for the under-display fingerprint sensor, It is not as good as a physical mounted fingerprint sensor. The under display fingerprint sensor does not detect the fingerprints as fast. I found myself having to make multiple tries before it can finally be unlocked which makes you more dependent on facial recognition.
Battery
Waking up in the morning with only 20% battery life would cause one to panic but with the 25W fast charging of the A71, it can charge the phone to full capacity slightly over an hour. The phone packs a pretty big battery with 4,500mAh that is ready to last you the entire day. However, being a mid-tier phone, it does not come with wireless charging capabilities and it charges with USB Type-C 2.0.
It actually surprised me how well the battery sustained throughout the day as I would scroll through social media aimlessly and launch games just to collect daily rewards. Even with all those activities by the end of the day I would still have around 25% to 30% of battery life, where I would just leave it throughout the night and when I wake up, it still has enough battery life to do other activities before really needing to charge it.
Software
The Galaxy A71 runs on Android 10 using Samsung’s OneUI 2.0. With the skin, it has various features that the bare android does not have. Even though OneUI 2.0 is heavily skinned, it brings along with it various conveniences such as our all time favourite dark theme, a more intuitive user interface in the camera app, Knox and even device care. There are also various tiny little details that you can configure on the phone to make it suit to your liking.
It does not seem to have an impact on the phone’s performance. The phone still runs smoothly and launches applications without any issue. With a third party skin the battery usually performs worse but Samsung has optimised OneUI 2.0 so well the battery performance barely takes a hit.
Design
Last but not least, the design of the phone. Almost all of Samsung’s phones look alike this time around with Samsung’s new design language; Now with its now-signature bulky rectangular camera casing that is sticking out of the top right of its back. This has to be the single annoyance of any Samsung device but it has an easy fix that is to put on a case on the phone. Even the polyurethane (PU) case that comes in the box makes the camera bump more seamless and flush with the casing which makes it easier to fit into your pockets without it getting snagged onto anything.
The A71 carries the same basic frame and back casing but it has its own unique flair and design to keep it different from the rest of the Samsung series. There is a slash and two strokes across the phone as its design pattern. The back does refract light to give you the effect of light breaking down, allowing you to see all of the shades of red, green, and blue hues on the back.
The phone is on the larger side but it still fits into your hands comfortably and, if you’re like me, one handed usage shouldn’t be a problem; although, people with smaller hands may have a slight issue. One design decision that I have a gripe with is the placement of the 3.5mm headphone jack. While I’m grateful for its inclusion, the headphone jack is placed on the bottom of the phone where the charging port is also located. You can’t use the earphones while keeping the phone upright. This also applies to using the phone while charging particularly if you’re in a video call. You’ll have to tip in on its head for things to work.
Affordability
Now comes the price, the phone is priced at RM1,799 which I believe is a very reasonable price for a mid range phone but a shocking price for what it is packing. With all three of its Aw-Suh-m-ness, from its Super AMOLED+ screen that gives you clear and vibrant colours, a 64MP main camera that captures every detail to the inch, and battery life that will last you throughout the day leaving you worry free of battery anxiety. All these specs would have easily placed the A71 in a tier above with a hefty price tag. Plus a bonus with Samsung’s OneUI 2.0 software that enables customisation that makes that phone truly personal. All these goodies for only RM1,799?! Not only is it worth every penny, but it’s an absolute steal, especially when it’s a Samsung!
Final Thoughts
Personally, I think it’s a phone that you should definitely get. For its specification and its price tag this is perfect for someone who is constantly on the phone who needs battery power that can survive the endless scrolling or gaming throughout the day. This is a perfect daily driver for you if you . As mentioned above, the Galaxy A71’s specifications and performance definitely matches its price tag, and dare I say it would still be worth even if it was higher. But, if you are someone who prioritizes the camera and picture quality, then the Note10 Lite and S10 Lite would be a better choice for you. It may come with a lower megapixel sensor but the picture processing is so much better with less noise, better colour and texture right off the bat.
The Samsung Galaxy A71 is the highest spec’d phone Samsung has to offer in its Galaxy A Series. Marketed as the phone that does it all with its awesome Super AMOLED Plus screen, quad camera, and long battery life.
The Galaxy A71 is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 Octa-core processor giving you all the power you need to game and do heavy tasks on the phone. Paired with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.
Wait, did I mention that the quad-camera set up on Galaxy A71 comes with a 64-megapixels wide sensor, 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor, 5-megapixel macro sensor, and a 5-megapixel depth sensor. For the selfie camera, it has a 32-megapixel wide sensor. It’s battery is a non-removable, 4,500mAh Li-Po battery.
Best part? It comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack! It’s available in in three colours of Prism Crush Silver, Prism Crush Black, and Prism Crush Blue. The prices of the Galaxy A71 start at MYR 1,799.
The midrange smartphone is looking to make it’s way to the U.S. in the near future with a 5G variant. The A71 will be joining a slew of devices under the Galaxy A series which will be making its way to U.S. for the first time since it’s launch. The Galaxy A51, A01, A50, A20 and A10e have already made their way to the U.S. and are available on contract or unlocked.
Samsung has released the Galaxy S10 Lite equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor. The processor is paired with a minimum of 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage and up to 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. A new and improved triple main camera consisting of a 48MP wide, 12MP ultrawide, and 5MP macro camera. For the selfie camera, it gets a 32 MP wide camera. Packing a relatively large-sized 4,500 mAh battery that could last you the entire day.
Coming in three different beautiful colours of Prism White, Prism Black, and Prism Blue. It is Priced at MYR 2,699 in Malaysia and USD$649 in the US. Will the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite live up to its other S10 Series? Is this Samsung’s answer to go against Chinese’s smartphone flagships?
It was only a few months ago in September that Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 8 Pro. Now the all-new replacement has already been announced. New year, new phone am I right? So how much did it improved in just ten months?
Xiaomi has announced its latest Redmi note 9 pro series consisting of two smartphones: the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Redmi Note 9 Pro Max. The phone has officially been announced in India. The Note 9 Pro and Pro Max is expected to be released on March 17 and March 25 respectively.
For starters, it has dropped the Helio G90T processor from MediaTek and now has adopted the new Snapdragon 720G from Qualcomm. The new Snapdragon 720G unfortunately does not support 5G connectivity, that said, 5G is a premium feature at this point. However, that doesn’t mean that Xiaomi is falling behind, in fact, there are already six phones at the market from Xiaomi and two more on the way that support 5G connectivity.
In the memory department, there will be two variants for the Note 9 Pro and three variants for the Note 9 Pro Max. For the Redmi Note 9 Pro, it starts with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage, and caps out with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The Redmi Note 9 Pro Max, on the other hand, has three variants with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and 8GB with 128GB of internal storage. If that isn’t enough, users are able to add up to 1TB of additional memory through the microSD card slot.
Next up, the camera. The Note 9 Pro and Note 9 Pro Max are equipped with a quad-camera system. The Redmi Note 9 Pro comes with a 48-megapixel main camera a slight bump down compared to the 64-megapixel camera that was on the Note 8 Pro. This is paired with an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, a 5-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The Note 9 Pro Max, comes with a similar set up to the Note 8 Pro with a 64-megapixel main camera, 8-megapixel ultra-wide, a better 5-megapixel instead of the 2 megapixels used on the Note 8 Pro and the same 2-megapixel depth sensor.
The selfie camera of the Note 9 Pro is a 16-megapixel camera while the Note 9 Pro Max gets a huge jump to a 32 megapixel instead.
With the cameras out of the way, we move on to the display. The Note 9 Pro and Note 9 Pro Max come with the same size display at 6.67 inches with a screen-to-body ratio of 84.5%. It has a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection and a pixel density of 395 ppi. One disappointment, though, is that the display is still uses LCD technology.
Other goodies the phone includes such as a 3.5mm jack, an infrared sensor, and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. Apparently, the side-mounted fingerprint sensor is now a new trend. Both phones come with a 5020 mAh battery with an 18W fast charging on the Note 9 Pro while the Note 9 Pro Max comes with an impressive 33W fast charging. There are three colour option of the phone, Aurora Blue, Glacier White, and Interstellar Black.
Pricing and Availability
The Redmi Note 9 Pro will be available starting on March 17, 2020. As mentioned it will have 2 variants: 4GB RAM with 64GB of internal storage and 6GB RAM with 128GB internal storage. The former will retail for INR12,999 (MYR753.13) while the latter will retail at INR15,999 (MYR926.94).
The Redmi Note 9 Pro will be available starting March 25, 2020. It will have 3 variants. The 6GB RAM and 64GB storage variant will be retailing for INR14,999 (MYR869.37); the 6GB RAM and 128GB storage version will be retailing for INR16,999 (MYR985.13); while the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage version will retrail for INR18,999 (MYR1101.04).
Samsung has always been a big player in the smartphone market. In fact, they’ve risen to be one of the top players when the world moved into the smartphone era. With the launch of the new S20 line up, the S10 series celebrates one year in the market. However, in a move very unlike Samsung, the company has announced a new addition to their S10 series; a scaled-down version of its flagship S10 – the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite.
I wonder how the new naming scheme will turn out cause it’s getting a little confusing. You’d think that with the launch of the S20 Series, we would see a successor to the S10e Series instead.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite comes with the same design frame as the S10 series but with a chunkier camera on the top left corner instead of the cameras going across horizontally. The back of the body is made of plastic but it comes with a really nice colour similar to the other S10s.
In Prism White, it gives out a very colorful gradient of colours when light refracts off it; mimicking the characteristics of the mother of pearl. Also available in the market are two more colours to choose from which are Prism Black and Prism Blue. That said, the black and blue do not seem to have the same refractive patterns in their design.
The size is about the same as a Galaxy Note 10+ which is a little too big for my liking. This is primarily because it is difficult to reach across the screen with just one hand. Holding it with two hands is just nice as both thumbs can easily reach all essential usage areas.
The phone seems to lack stereo speakers; it has one really loudspeaker at the bottom of the phone. This compromise isn’t too bad, as the speaker is able to get the job done just fine. It is loud and clear but lacks the immersive experience that stereo speakers provide.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite also lacks a 3.5 mm headphone jack. It is too much of a disappointment at this point. Rather, it is very unexpected as the rest of the S10 Series still had the headphone jack. The same goes for the newly launched Galaxy M31 and Galaxy A71.
Hardware
Specifications
Just like the other S10 Series, the S10 Lite runs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 processor which is last year’s top of the line processor. Even though it is not using the latest processor, it is not an issue as it still performs relatively well.
The Snapdragon 855 is paired with with 8GB of RAM, which is plentiful. This is complemented by 128GB of internal storage. Of course, just like most of Samsung’s phones it boasts its expandable storage via micro SD card. You can add up to 1TB of additional memory. There are also two other variations holding a smaller 6GB RAM and the same 128GB storage and another with 8GB RAM with a bigger 512GB storage. However, these variants are not officially available in Malaysia.
Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
Operating System (OS)
Android 10 One UI 2
Display
Super AMOLED+ capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours 6.7 inches 87.8% screen to body ratio
One UI is a whole new world yet it retains that familiarity that makes a Samsung device a Samsung device. The interface is easy to use. In fact, you can get used to it within a few hours of using the phone. With the launch of One UI 2, Samsung has really up its optimization for user convenience and improving the user experience.
One of the many conveniences that come with the S10 Lite’s software is its pop up when you kick Bluetooth on. This came in pretty handy when I got into my car.
I personally like to use the personal assistant that pops up as a ball that you can move around. Some find it annoying as it takes up space and disrupts your viewing experience. However, for me it was really convenient. It’s convenience is increased that to the customisations that it allows. The controls range from locking your screen, taking screenshots, volume control, Bixby and even an emergency SOS button.
The Gallery app has a suggestion feature that will suggest optimisations or layouts for pictures that you have taken using the phone. These suggestions include a picture collage or even GIFs by combining pictures that were taken in succession.
Samsung’s optimisations for user convenience don’t just end with home screen and gallery app, it extends even to the camera interface of the device. By default, there are already presets camera modes such as photo, video, panorama, time lapse etc. in the camera mode tray. You get the idea. But, when you open the menu for more camera options, you can actually drag and drop the camera mode that you use most frequently into the camera mode tray.
Performance
The performance of the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite is commendable. There was little to no lags, it was mostly smooth running. Even with two different apps running at the same time in a split-screen view or pop up view, the smartphone still worked smoothly without much issue.
Benchmarks
Call quality and connectivity
Calls were loud and clear. In fact, it could be a little too loud when the volume is maxed. This is impressive considering the size of the earpiece. However, this could be a boon to older people who are hard of hearing.
When it comes to using the loud speaker during calls, however, it’s another story. The sound quality wasn’t really good. The speaker wasn’t loud enough and the mic could not catch my voice. This was partially due to the distance from the phone. In my particular case, I was driving with music in the background. However, you’d think that it would at least be able to be audible enough.
Gaming
Gaming performance is excellent, when playing games such as PUBG. The gaming experience is immersive and smooth. The large screen lends itself to a much more immersive visual experience; It gives you a good view of your game with enough space to allow the on screen controls to not get in the way of game play. This was particularly pronounced with games such as first-person shooters and racing games.
That said, the audio experience of the S10 Lite wasn’t as alluring. The sole speaker on the phone tends to be blocked by your palm when gaming in landscape mode. This was particularly annoying as it would rip you out of your game. In my opinion, users will need to invest in a pair of Bluetooth earphones for the best gaming experience on the Galaxy S10 Lite.
The Galaxy S10 Lite doesn’t really heat up easily. However, after heavy gaming, the device did get noticeably warm. In fact, I could feel the heat and it was getting my hands sweaty, but, then again, I sweat easily anyway.
Security and Privacy
Samsung’s S10 Lite comes with Knox. If you’ve been using Samsung phones, you should already be familiar with this feature. In fact, any Android user using Android 8.0 (Oreo) devices or later, you’ve had a taste of Samsung’s Knox. In Samsung devices, Knox has two roles; it stores your biometric and Samsung Pay data and it also allows you to safely store away your work in a separate, secured profile. For the S10 Lite, the most basic application for Knox is the many options it has for biometrics to unlock the device.
The fingerprint sensor on the S10 Lite is now under the display. It uses an optical sensor which scans an image of your fingerprint to unlock the phone. The fingerprint sensor works fine but it is not perfect. It took a few tries to read my fingerprint. This flaw was especially pronounced when my palms were sweaty or when there was water on the screen.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite is also able to use face unlock. It seems to work a lot better than the fingerprint sensor. The initial setup requires you to scan your face with and without your spectacles. Holy moly is it a lot faster! The S10 Lite was even able to recognise my face before I could even lift it to the front of my face.
Battery life
The battery on the Galaxy S10 Lite was pretty good. I still had some charge to spare after about 9 hours of use. The phone was able to last from 100% to 20% in about 9 hours with my usage. However, with just that 20% of juice, I could easily last an additional 6 hours with moderate usage. Fast charging on the S10 Lite is a lifesaver; the phone could be charged from 5% to about 20% in just 10 minutes.
The S10 Lite has a larger battery capacity of 4,500 mAh which lasted me about two days during my review. However, the phone itself lacks wireless charging capabilities. The lack of which is a little disappointing as some other brands are able to include the feature while keeping their prices even lower.
Display
The Super AMOLED+ screen of the S10 Lite is pretty crisp and clear. In fact, it has one of the best blacks on the market when it comes to devices in the price range. During my review, I was amazed by how the room went pitch black during the loading screen of LEGO Star Wars in the dark. I also like how Samsung tweaked the One UI to have the punch hole disappear into a black bar when apps kick into full screen. This was especially appreciated while gaming. It doesn’t work on all games though, the punch hole was still visible when I was playing PUBG.
The phone also has really thin bezels. It’s a good thing considering you’re getting more screen real estate. The S10 Lite has a screen to body ration of about 87.8% which essentially means you see more screen on the front of the device. However, the thin bezels can get annoying at times. Since I was not using a case, I was constantly touching the edge of the screen which interrupted my scrolling, video watching, and gaming. It happened way too often that it became really annoying.
Adaptive brightness adjust the brightness great even in sudden changes and retains the same comfort brightness even in different lighting settings. The most noticeable moment you can experience the change is the change from indoors to outdoors and vice versa. It takes a second to adjust itself but it gets it right every time.
Camera(s)
Finally the time has come for the cameras. The Galaxy S10 Lite has really stepped up its game in the camera specifications of the S10 line-up. Instead of the 12-megapixel main camera that has been on the S10+ and Note 10+ but a higher resolution 48-megapixel camera. Surprisingly, the new Galaxy S20 and S20+ still retained the lower resolution 12-megapixel as the main camera. However, they do come with a 64 megapixel telephoto lens which should perform better when taking zoomed pictures. So, technically the S10 Lite will take better pictures up close.
The S10 Lite also comes with a triple camera system. The main camera such as mentioned above is a wide angle lens followed by a 12-megapixel ultrawide and lastly a 5-megapixel macro lens. The S10 Lite can record 4K UHD resolution at either 60 frames per second or 30 frames per second. The phone also can record 1080p at 30, 60 or 240 frames per second.
The selfie camera is also a higher resolution sensor compared to the other devices in the S10 series. Instead of the 10-megapixel sensor, the S10 Lite comes with a 32-megapixel sensor. The only drawback it has compared to the other S10 Series is that the S10 Lite only can record at 1080p at 30 frames per second while the other S10+ and Note10+ can record on 4K UHD at 30 frames per second.
Affordability
Last but not least, the price of the phone makes it the most affordable device in the S10 line up. The retail price of MYR 2,699 is almost half of what the other devices in the S10 series used to be. However, the smartphone retains most of the performance that the S10 series is known for. Well, you do miss out on some goodies such as the headphone jack, stereo speakers, AKG tuned audio, wireless charging, and a more dated USB 2.0 (Type-C) instead of 3.1 Type-C connector. But for what you are paying, I personally think it is really comparable to flagship phones made by some Chinese manufacturers.
The phone is mostly targeted to young adults who just made it into the working world. Realistically, it is not achievable for someone who is getting an average pay of MYR 2,800 to make a hefty purchase for just a phone which takes up almost their entire paycheck. Even if you do an installment for a year, it is still MYR 225 a month. The monthly seems small but after deducting expenses including the phone monthly installment, you are going to be left with nothing.
It goes without saying that there are more affordable options out there. For that, the S10 lite is scoring a little lower on the affordability scale.
An Entry Level Flagship that Doesn’t Bring Enough Value to Stand Out
Is this the ultimate “entry-level” flagship smartphone? Yes and No.
Yes; if you are trying to get into the Samsung flagship family. It has all the performance that you need. Gaming smoothly without any issues and a battery that lasts an entire day. A better camera with better software optimizations to give you breathtaking picture quality. It even comes in a similar size to the other Galaxy S Series and a newer aesthetics to the new Galaxy S20 Series line up.
No; if you are considering other manufacturer phones as well. If you are not picky about the brand, paranoid on used phones and do not want to spend a fortune on a new flagship. At a slightly lower priced than the S10 Lite, you can get a used S10+ or Note10+ and get all the luxury goodies such as the wireless charger, stereo speakers and etc that are absent on the S10 Lite. I would call it a Luxury goodie as you do not actually need it, but it is really nice and convenient to have it.
At the end of the day, the most important question is, “Would I get it?”. Frankly, I would not. I find that the phone is too expensive for what it has to offer. Other phone manufacturers are able to provide extremely similar specifications for a lower price. As for the premium features that I will be missing out on, well I can live without it and it is not a huge deal that it would inconvenience my life.
Would I recommend it? Maybe. You should definitely consider it as it still does give great performance with some of Samsung’s optimisations. If you have the dough to get yourself a new phone, then why not? New phones do give you an oddly satisfying box opening experience and giving you peace of mind that the phone has not tampered with.
Realme has been announced its very first smartphone that will be using Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 in India. It is one of other eleven phones that has been announced by other smartphone manufacturers that will also be running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 processor.
Let’s get straight to the specifications, shall we? Let’s start with the display. It has a Super AMOLED display which is 6.44 inches wide. The display also has a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels in a 20:9 screen. This calculates a density of 409ppi, which is not top of the charts but it is already more than enough.
The display is going to have a protection glass of Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It is also going to come have a 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch-sensing, and also HDR10+ to give you a fantastic gaming and streaming experience.
As for the cameras, it will run as a quad-camera setup. Having a 64-Megapixel as a main camera. Followed by a 12-Megapixel telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom, an ultra-wide with angle of 119° from an 8-megapixel camera, and finally a 2-Megapixel monochrome depth sensor. You will be able to record videos in 4K resolution at 30 fps or 1080p at 60 fps.
The front is where it gets a little interesting, as the phone will be coming with a punch-hole design dual camera. Yes, there were some rumours before and now we are finally confirming it on the actual phone! The front-facing camera will be a 32-megapixel sensor paired with an 8-Megapixel 105° ultra-wide sensor. The front camera is capable of capturing videos at 1080p at either 30 fps or 120 fps.
Other notable features would be the new dual stereo speakers and the discontinuation of the 3.5mm headphone jack. This is also only Realme’s fourth phone with NFC. Like most smartphones these days it uses a USB Type-C connector to charge its 4,200mAh battery. Unfortunately the Realme X50 Pro does not come with wireless charging capabilities, so you are going to have to still depend on a wire to charge the phone.
Last but not least, the brains of the phone. As mentioned above the phone will have a Snapdragon 865 chipset, which also means it is 5G ready. There will be three different variants for RAM and two different internal storage variations. It starts with a minimum of 6GB of RAM paired to a 128GB of storage or an 8GB RAM with also 128GB of storage, and lastly, the maximum RAM and storage you can get is 12GBs of RAM paired to 256GB of storage.
There are two different colours to choose from that is Moss Green and Rust Red. the prices of the phones starts from Rs 37,999 (MYR 2,204) for the 6GB + 128GB, Rs 39,999 (MYR 2,320) for the 8GB + 128GB and Rs 44,999 (MYR 2,610) for the range-topping 12GB + 256GB.
Just like everyone else at Barcelona, Xiaomi has been busy with their fair share of troubles. From WMC Barcelona being cancelled, Xiaomi’s continued plan of attending MWC from the February 24 to 27 and to Xiaomi’s delayed launch of some global products. So do keep an eye out for product launches from Xiaomi by the end of the week.
Even with COVID-19 going around in China, Xiaomi has still managed to sell out their latest flagship the Mi 10 and Mi10 Pro during an online flash sale that lasted only 55 seconds. Yes they sold out their latest Mi 10 Series under a minute, isn’t that insane? All of this is thanks to Xiaomi’s large user base and fan base, globally and locally.
Source: Xiaomi
But luckily the people of China do not need to wait anymore as the phone has gone on sale officially starting from February 24. Besides getting it Xiaomi directly, the phones are also available on China’s biggest ecommerce sites such as JD.com,Suning and Tmall.
This success of the Mi 10 Series is a slap in the face for the high end phone markets. Especially when Xiaomi is giving better specifications for a lower price. Giving the people a better value for money. There is also the factor that the Mi 10 Series is the only phone right now that is running on Qualcomm’s top of the line Snapdragon 865 processor and knowing people, everybody wants the latest and greatest
The Mi 10 Series are the two among a dozen other phones that will be also running on the Snapdragon 865 processor which will be released later this year. So for now the Mi 10 Series is the go to phone to beat all other phones in the market. If you would like a further break down of the Mi 10’s specifications do check out our coverage here.
Lenovo has always been about giving customers the best value. Giving customers a wide variety of options to choose from to fulfill their needs. This time around, Lenovo has given the ThinkPad Laptops new upgrades to give you better productivity.
The updated ThinkPad features a new modern standby mode where the laptops operates like a smartphone. In standby mode, the system goes into low power and remains connected at all times to keep the laptop in sync with whatever that is going on in the background. This makes it really convenient if you have to work away from your laptop and coming back to it at a later time.
Source: Lenovo
To further complement the innovation of productivity, users can quickly resume where they left off by using a Wake on Voice command. Instead of using precious time to physically wake up the laptop. You can now just use your voice to wake up the laptop while you work on something else. There is also now a unified communications function keys to enable users to instantaneously answer or decline calls.
The next upgrade is WiFi 6 connectivity. Even though WiFi 6 is not readily available yet, but this is a good future proofing measure done by Lenovo to keep in times of what’s to come in the near future. WiFi 6 not only gives better connectivity speed but also has better security. Do keep in mind that this is a two-way hardware upgrade, so you will need to have a WiFi router that also supports WiFi 6 connectivity to optimise its performance.
There will also be a more premium UHD, OLED, and Dolby Vision options to deliver the best visuals. Not to miss out, the audio department gets Dolby Audio Speakers treatment on the ThinkPad T and X series. The ThinkPad L series will only feature an enhanced audio experience from Dolby Audio.
Source: Lenovo
Lenovo has not forgotten about security upgrades as well, so you can enjoy all the conveniences without having to worry about any security breaches. With Lenovo’s own security solution, ThinkShield. The laptop would come with an optional PrivacyGuard ePrivacy display and PrivacyAlert on models that have an IR camera. This PrivacyGuard ePrivacy display with PrivacyAlert helps protect users from prying eyes of over the shoulder glances. So that anything on your screen is for your eyes only.
All these goodies can be found with a new processor from both the blue and the red team. In the blue team, we have the latest 10th Generation Intel Core vPro processor and in the red team, we will find the AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 Mobile processor. All of these options will be available in the ThinkPad T Series and the smaller more portable X Series. Specifically the T14, T14s, T15, X13, and X13 Yoga.
The L Series did not get the same display upgrades as the T and X Series. The L Series has gotten a redesign instead. It is now thinner and lighter across the board! It also comes with Windows 10 Pro and a conveniently placed fingerprint sensor for security and convenience.
The new upgrades will be available from Q2 2020 with an expected pricing from USD 647 all the way to USD 1,099. If you would like more details, do refer to the list below.
