What choices do you have when you can only spend up to MYR 1,500 for a smartphone? Can you even get something decent for that kind of money? It turns out, you can with vivo’s latest MYR 1,299 V27e smartphone.
The vivo V27e’s price range places it squarely in the entry-level smartphone segment. What you get though, is a little more than entry-level.
For starters, you get a 64-Megapixel shooter out the back of the device. That main shooter also packs something vivo calls the Hybrid Image Stabilisation feature. That is buzzword for a combination of Optical Image Stabilisation and Electronic Image Stabilisation, a sort of mix for both physical and software defined stabilization to achieve better stability when taking photos and even videos. They call the 64-Megapixel sensor an ‘Ultra-Sensing’ sensor as well. vivo claims that the sensor offers more light exposure and that allows the sensor to capture 600% more light for even better detailing and photo quality than ever before, especially in low-light conditions. That main camera is paired with a 2-Megapixel macro camera and a 2-Megapixel depth sensor.
The 64-Megapixel shooter is also paired with something they call an Aura Light. It works together with portrait mode to create something they call the Aura Light Portrait. The LED flash out the back is shaped like a tiny right light. The arrangement also means that the light is diffused and softer on the skin allowing for ‘studio-level’ lighting effects for better and natural looking portraits.
Out the front is a 32-Megapixel camera sitting at the top section of the display. The vivo V27e can take advantage of the 32-Megapixel front-facing shooter with an array of different templates and shoot modes too.
Speaking of the front-facing camera, the display that it sits out of is impressive too. It is a 6.62-inch Full HD+ display. It is also an AMOLED display that offers colour contrasts and vividness like no other display can in its class. At the same time, you get 120Hz refresh rate out of the display, quite unheard of for smartphones in its price range.
Keeping Android 13 based Funtouch 13 running smoothly on the 120Hz AMOLED display is a MediaTek Helio G99 system on a chip (SoC). The processor is built upon the 6nm process technology for better efficiency and better power delivery. It is not a 5G chip unfortunately, meaning you do not get 5G connectivity out of the vivo V27e. The SoC gets up to 12GB of RAM to work with paired with up to 256GB of storage. To keep everything going for an entire day is a built-in 4,600mAh lithium battery that is capable of 66W charging speeds.
Price and Availability
The vivo V27e is now available in Malaysia via all vivo concept stores and authorised dealers across the nation. You can also get your hands on one from vivo’s own e-store, or vivo’s official stores on Shopee, Lazada, and even Tik Tok. You can choose between the pretty Lavender Purple, or the regular Glory Black. As mentioned, the vivo V27e will set you back MYR 1,299. If you get yours 4th March onward to the end of the month, you get a free smart tag, Bluetooth speaker, an extended warranty package, and also a 1-year screen protection plan for your vivo V27e. More on the smartphone can be found on their website.
Google is bringing a few new features to Android and Chromebooks. Most of the new features will be making their way to Android devices starting today. These new features mainly bring more “Material You” to Android and its personalization features. However, there are a few updates in the list that improve productivity and accessibility.
Google Keep Gets A Widget & Wear OS Complication
For those looking to be more productive on their Android devices, Google Keep has got your back. The note-keeping and to-do list app is being improved with a widget that allows you to pin single notes to your home screen. The new widget is fully actionable; allowing you to check things off your checklist or even update notes. It will display reminders, background colours and images in the Keep notes and also syncs seamlessly with Google Keep and your smartwatch.
Speaking of smartwatches, if you have a Wear OS by Google smartwatch – this includes the new Samsung Galaxy Watch5 series – you’ll be able to use Google Keep on the go. Google is also introducing two new shortcuts for Wear OS that allows you to create notes and to-do lists from your Wear OS watch face.
In addition to this, Google is enabling direct editing and annotating of PDFs with a stylus or by touch in the Google Drive app. You’ll be able to use different strokes, the highlighter or even hide, undo, delete or save a new copy of the annotated document too.
Less Noise on Google Meet, More Seamless Integration with Chromebooks
Google Meet is getting noise cancellation during calls on more Android devices. This means you’ll be able to drown out the noise when you have to take a meeting on the go.
Being on the go means you’ll need your earbuds or headphones to take the call, thankfully, if you’re using a Chromebook, Google is bringing Fast Pair to Chromebooks. This will simplify connecting your Bluetooth audio devices to the Chromebook essentially making it a single click. What’s more, if you’ve paired the device on your Android smartphone before, it will seamlessly connect to your Chromebook as well.
Express Yourself
Android is getting more ways to express yourself as well. New emoji combinations will be able on Emoji Kitchen. You’ll be able to combine two or more emojis to better express yourself in chats with Gboard. In addition to this, you’ll also be able to customise Google Wallet’s pay animations. Google will be bringing things like playful penguins to Google Wallet.
Finally, Google Chrome will allow you to increase the size of the content you’re viewing in the browser with a simple slider. The slider will allow you to change things like the text, images, videos and interactive controls by up to 300% while preserving the page layout. You’ll even be able to save your preferences so you don’t have to keep resetting them every time. The feature is currently in Chrome Beta before it officially rolls out in March.
A month after the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G release, Samsung has silently released the 4G version of the same smartphone in Malaysia. The Galaxy A14 replaces the A13 released last year as the entry-level to Samsung’s extensive Galaxy A series.
The A15 4G has a MediaTek Helio G80 processor instead of the Samsung Exynos 1330 that comes with the A15 5G. This is supported by up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory. In addition to this, the smartphone continues to support memory expansion through microSD cards. Dual SIM is also supported on the A14.
The smartphone comes with a 6.6-inch HD+ LCD display with a 60Hz refresh rate. It comes with a triple camera setup with a 50-megapixel main camera setup complemented by a 5-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. On the front is a 13-megapixel selfie camera. It has a 3.5mm audio jack with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor.
Connectivity-wise, the smartphone supports 4G LTE, dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.2, near-field communication (NFC), and GPS. The 5,000mAh battery charges via USB-C and supports 10W charging.
Pricing & Availability
Samsung hasn’t listed an official price for the Galaxy A14 4G just yet but it has listed the device in its Malaysian online store.
The Samsung Galaxy A14 will be available in Black, Silver and Dark Red.
HMD Global has announced a slew of new Nokia smartphones. The most unique of which is the Nokia G22 which is the first smartphone that is launched together with IFixIt. Weird partner for a smartphone right? Well, it begins to make sense when you consider that the Nokia G22 is also the first smartphone from HMD Global to be completely self repairable. The new smartphone is launching with a self-repair kit which will be available via IFixIt in Australia, the United Kingdom and other European Union countries.
The Nokia G22 is another notch in HMD’s line up of affordable, durable and well-supported Android smartphones. It also holds true to the company’s commitment to sustainability with a plastic back made from 100% recycled materials. The new smartphone comes with a 6.52-inch, HD+ display with 90Hz refresh rate and 500 nits brightness. It comes with a quad core Unisoc T606 with 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB of internal memory. It also supports up to an additional 2TB of memory via microSD.
On the camera front, the G22 will be coming with a triple camera setup with a 50-megapixel main sensor. This sensor has an f/1.8 aperture, a 5P lens and is autofocus enabled. A 2-megapixel depth and 2-megapixel macro sensor complete the triple camera setup. On the front is an 8-megapixel fixed focus CMOS sensor with an f/2.0 aperture and 1.12µm pixel size.
It comes with the usual connectivity features including Bluetooth, Near Field Communication, GPS, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and USB-C connectivity. It’s powered by 5,050mAh battery with HMD’s signature promise of up to 3 day battery life. It supports 20W fast charging.
The smartphone will launch with Android 12 and has been guaranteed 2 years of OS upgrades from HMD global.
Pricing & Availability
The Nokia G22 will be available in two colours: Lagoon Blue and Meteor Grey. It will be available in two variants: 4GB+64GB and 4GB+128GB. The smartphone will be priced from EUR179 (MYR852.44).
At home QickFix Kits will be available on iFixit.com with prices starting from EUR5 (MYR23.82). HMD Global lists the prices for a replacement battery at EUR24.95 (MYR118.83), and the replacement charging port at EUR19.95 (MYR95.02).
Honor took the stage at MWC 2023, to unveil their new flagship series – the Honor Magic5 series which adopts a new “human-centric” approach to its technology. The new approach brings a slew of new features that place their users first and help improve their lives more meaningfully.
The new Honor Magic5 series brings together specifications and features that strike a unique balance with a price that doesn’t break the bank. The new series consists of two devices (for now): the Honor Magic5 and the Honor Magic5 Pro. It goes without saying that the Magic5 Pro leads the duo as Honor’s true flagship with the best in specifications.
Both the Honor Magic5 and Magic5 Pro come with Honor’s new Super Dynamic Display. The display is an LTPO panel which has been enhanced with software to produce images that are more vivid with deeper contrasts. Honor boasts that this technology produces images that are 500% more vivid. It still has a 120Hz refresh rate with a peak HDR brightness of 1800nits. The display is also a Quad-Curved Floating Screen. What this means – essentially – is that the glass of the screen has been curved on all four sides giving it a feel that it’s floating. The Pro comes with a 6.81-inch display while the vanilla Magic5 comes with a 6.73-inch version of the same.
The Honor5 series comes with a triple-sensor setup for its main camera. On the Pro, the sensors are a 50-megapixel wide camera with an f/1.6 aperture and 1/1.12-inch sensor size, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera with an f/2.0 aperture, and a 50-megapixel periscope Telephoto sensor with an f/3.0 aperture and 3.5x optical zoom. This setup combined with Honor’s Falcon AI imaging technology enables 100x zoom on the Pro. The regular Magic5, on the other hand, comes with a 54-megapixel sensor with an f/1.9 aperture and 1/1,49 inch sensor size complemented by a 32-megapixel telephoto camera. While comparable, the regular Magic5 will only be able to achieve 50x zoom. On the front, is a 12-megapixel selfie camera.
On the inside, the Magic5 series comes with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with up to 12GB and up to 512GB of internal storage. Honor is packing the phone with faster LPDDR5X RAM and UFS4.0 storage modules for added performance gains. It’s also coming with an IP68 rating and is powered by a 5,100mAH battery on both variants. Wireless charging is also coming back with the Magic5 series with both supporting 50W wireless Honor Supercharge while, if you plug it in, it can charge using Honor’s SuperCharge at 60W.
Pricing & Availability
The new Honor Magic series will be available in Glacier Blue, Meadow Green, Coral Purple, Orange, and Black. The regular Magic5 comes in at EUR899 (MYR4,254.39) while the Magic5 Pro will be priced from EUR1199 (MYR7,567.038).
Leica is back in the international smartphone arena thanks to its new partnership with Xiaomi. With its initial offering, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra only officially being rolled out in Mainland China, the Xiaomi 13 marks the brand’s return to the ecosystem. The new Xiaomi 13 series crowning feature is the Leica Vario-Summicron 1:19-2.2/14-75 ASPH camera system which comes on the 13 Pro.
The Xiaomi 13 series comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB internal memory. Of course, the Xiaomi 13 series comes with two entries in Malaysia (for now): the Xiaomi 13 and the Xiaomi 13 Pro. The two entries come with a few differences that distinguish the smartphones from each other. The most significant of which the Leica Vario-Summicron 1:19-2.2/14-75 ASPH camera system.
The Pro comes with a triple camera array for the main camera complete with Leica lenses. The setup consists of the 1-inch, 50.3-megapixel Sony IMX989 with an f/1.8 aperture and 23mm focal length. It equipped with dual pixel phase detection autofocus (PDAF), Laser Autofocus and optical image stabilization (OIS). This is complemented with a 50-megapixel telephoto lens with 3.2x optical zoom and PDAF. Completing the triple sensor setup is a 50-megapixel utlra-wide sensor with autofocus. On the front, the smartphone comes with a 32-megapixel selfie camera.
The vanilla 13 comes with a triple sensor setup with a main 50-megapixel main sensor with PDAF and OIS complemented with a 10-megapixel telephoto sensor and a 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor. On the front is the same 32-megapixel sensor.
Leica isn’t just lending its lenses to Xiaomi for the Xiaomi 13 series, they’re helping with the software. The 13 and 13 Pro both come with the master lens system, a software features which provides better, more granular control to the focal length and depth of field for better portrait photos. In addition to this, the software comes with two distinct photographic styles: Leica Authentic Look and Leica Vibrant Look. These paired with Xiaomi’s own Imaging Engine culminate in Xiaomi’s strongest computational photography flagship.
Of course, with all these photography features, the two smartphones come with powerful displays with up to 120Hz refresh rate.
Pricing & Availability
The Xiaomi 13 Series will be available in Malaysia starting on March 8th 2023.
The Xiaomi 13 will be available in three colours – Black, White and Flora Green. Only one variant will be available in Malaysia 12GB RAM with 256GB of internal storage. Prices start at MYR3,499.
The Xiaomi 13 Pro will be available in two colours: Ceramic Black and Ceramic White. Two variants of the 13 Pro will be avaiable 12RAM with 256GB of internal storage and a special, limited edition 12GB RAM with 512GB internal storage. The former will be priced from MYR4,699 while the limited edition will be on sale for MYR 4,999.
The Xiaomi 13 series will be available for pre-order starting on February 27, 2023 until March 7, 2023. Packages and pricing are as follows:
The Honor X9a 5G is a mid-range offering with a more than mid-range display.
Any new smartphone owner has had nightmares of their shiny new screens cracking on day one from the slightest of drops. Well, Honor has gone to great lengths to allay those fears with their new midrange entry, the Honor X9A 5G. You probably have already seen ads for the toughest 120Hz display on the market and videos of people smashing the display into various surfaces or nuts. But is that all it has to offer? We spent 30 days putting the device through its paces and the results may surprise you.
Display
Let’s start off with the main selling point of the device; its nigh-indestructible display. The idea Honor had here was clear; bring a flagship grade display to a more accessible and affordable device. And I believe they have achieved that. The Honor X9a 5G sports a 6.67-inch OLED curved display with a 120Hz screen refresh rate. The refresh rate makes the visuals snappy, be it the MagicUI 6.1 interface, a video on YouTube and especially when gaming. It has good brightness too with a rating of 800 nits. Walking under the hot afternoon sun, I was still able to see what’s on the screen, though admittedly I had to turn up the brightness to near maximum. Videos were crisp and colours were vibrant whether from YouTube or Netflix. I found it both comfortable and enjoyable watching videos at long length on this device.
Is an incredibly tough 120Hz display all it has to offer? Or is there more to reveal?
Protecting this display is Honor’s own answer to Corning’s Gorilla Glass and Huawei’s Kunlun glass. Though it remains nameless, Honor’s protecting glass does a fantastic job of securing the display. After more than a month of using the phone without any kind of protection, I have not seen a single scratch on this display, even from the keys in my pocket. There are probably hundreds of videos online of people dropping or hitting the phone with a variety of items and I could not resist doing so myself. From walnuts to groundnuts to M&M’s, nothing seems to damage this screen. I did accidentally drop the device face down on a tiled floor from waist height and no visible damage either. Without venturing into more dangerous stress tests, I did feel that the display glass is definitely sturdier than expected of a mid-range device.
Design
The signature design feature of the Honor X9a 5G is the raised circular rear camera housing, dubbed the star ring matrix design by Honor. Personally, I was not a fan of this particular design and the height is apparent enough to make it wobble very slightly on the table if used without a case. However, those are the only two complaints I have design wise and there is a lot to like.
The polarizing design of the star ring matrix rear camera housing.
The build quality of the phone is great. The tough display on the front is only punctuated by the small camera hole cutout, which does not distract you from what’s on the display. The back of the phone had a textured material that feels great to hold. The material feels premium and the Titanium Silver colour was pleasing to the eye, which is one of the main reasons why I did not use a case. It is also very lightweight, which coupled with the textured back, feels good to hold for a long time.
Volume rocker and lock button wrapped with metal trimming on the edges.
Despite being a curved display device that I used without a case, I did not experience any accidental touches along the edges. This is probably thanks to the AI Anti Mistouch feature. Lining the edges of the phone is metal trimming painted with a metallic sky blue colour that was also very appealing. On the right-hand side is the volume rocker and lock button. The buttons feels great to the touch, is tactile and does not wobble in place.
Overall, the device feels very premium with a robust build quality and apart from the star ring matrix design, has nice aesthetics.
Camera
The camera experience for the Honor X9A 5G did not receive as much emphasis as the display nor its build quality. It sports a triple sensor set up of a 64MP main shooter, 5MP ultrawide and 2MP macro camera. The main shooter does a decent job of snapping photos in daylight and good lighting conditions. Images were sharp and colours leaned towards a more subdued, natural palette. However, performance takes a dip in low light conditions, with images appearing a little grainy and colours appear a little washed out. To compensate for this, there is a Night mode that seemingly is able to address both these issues. The only catch is that there is a long 3 to 4 second timer before image capture and you need to have steady hands in this time for a clear image. That being said, the Night mode images do have good clarity, colors and no obvious noise.
Point and shoot in daylightPoint and shoot in daylight with skyPortrait shot indoorsPoint and shoot indoorsNight modeUltrawide shot in daylight
While the main shooter performs well enough for daily use, the other shooting modes did miss the mark. The 2MP macro shooter suffered from a lack of sharpness due to the low resolution and had some fuzziness to it even in daylight. The 5MP ultrawide shooter also suffered from the low resolution and had rather obvious graininess that got worse with low lighting conditions. The saving grace is the Portrait mode, which showed good performance in both daylight and lighted indoor situations. There was good level of detail captured and bokeh was well done. Performance was similarly good when using the 16MP selfie camera, with Portrait shots appearing clear and well detailed. There is also a beauty filter to help iron out facial imperfections which helped make the photos social media ready.
Macro shot outdoors daylightMacro shot indoor 1Macro shot indoor 2Portrait mode selfie cameraPortrait mode main camera
The camera experience for the Honor X9A 5G is rather average; a serviceable main shooter with no true standout features and lackluster alternative shooting modes.
Performance
Key Specifications
The Honor X9A 5G is powered by a Snapdragon 695 SoC, which is not the latest in chipsets but it does pack a punch. For its price point, it comes with a rather healthy memory capacity of 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The battery is also a plus point with 5100mAh capacity and 40W wired charging with the included charger. The hardware on board is good value for money and I found the performance takes full advantage of them.
User Interface
Out of the box, it runs MagicUI 6.1 that is based on Android 12. Long-time Honor users will be very familiar with the design and aesthetics of MagicUI but for first time users, the user interface appears rather dated.
With large blocky icons with designs reminiscent of iOS and Android from the mid 2010’s, the dated design feels out of place in such a premium display in 2023. There is a dedicated Themes app preinstalled on the device that can help alleviate this to some degree. But functionally, the user interface works fine, with no obvious flaws. There is also both the Google Play Store and Honor App market preinstalled for all your app needs.
Productivity and multitasking
Multitasking was a breeze on this device as I was able to run Google Chrome, the Gallery app in Multi Window mode and Netflix in mini player mode without a hitch. I did not experience any significant lag or stutters and no overheating after about an hour with this set up. Granted that is not a realistic scenario but it shows that there is a lot of headroom for productivity in this device. For the 30-day review period, I very frequently used messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger while simultaneously using Chrome or YouTube and did not experience any significant lag or stuttering. Productivity is helped by the large RAM capacity of 8GB and additional 5GB virtual RAM for handling multiple running apps. The 256GB of storage is also handy to help store large amounts of photos and files on the go.
Call Quality and Connectivity
Connectivity was good on all fronts including a stable Bluetooth audio connection.
I used the device primarily over 4G LTE networks and did not experience any major disruptions to the connection, be it in Kuala Lumpur city or the smaller towns of Johor. Call quality was clear, had sufficient volume and no issues hearing the person on the other end. Similarly, the call recipients had no complaints on call quality when receiving calls from this device. While capable of 5G connectivity, testing was restricted by the limited connectivity of 5G in Malaysia. Support for WiFi is up to WiFi 5 mainly due to the older chipset but I did not experience any connection dropouts for the review period. Streaming on YouTube and Netflix was seamless and online gaming connections were good too. I tested out the Bluetooth by pairing with my Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds. In both cases, I did not experience any unexpected disconnects while the pairing was quick and trouble-free. I found that the transferring of files to the Galaxy Watch 4 was smooth and there were no audio cutouts for the Sony earbuds during long sessions of music. Even pairing with my Honda car’s Bluetooth Audio went smoothly with no issues. All-in-all connectivity was stable on all fronts.
Gaming
I found the device very pleasant to use for long periods of watching videos on YouTube and Netflix. But I also found it very pleasant to use for gaming as well. I primarily tested on Mobile Legends oh High settings and PUBG Mobile with HD graphics and High frame rate. I found both games ran smoothly and surprisingly, even after about 2 consecutive hours of gaming, I did not feel overheating. Granted, I used the device predominantly without a case which helps ventilation slightly, and I was not pushing the games to their maximum settings. For a mid-range device the performance was really good.
Gaming performance was great with the Honor X9a 5G.
When pushing the graphics to the maximum settings (Ultra for Mobile Legends and Ultra HD for PUBG Mobile), the performance was still surprisingly good, with only slight choppiness observed for PUBG Mobile with some overheating past the 1-hour mark. The fantastic display adds to the gaming immersion; everything was snappy due to the 120Hz refresh rate and colours were vibrant. One minor complaint for the gaming immersion would be the mono speakers on board instead of stereo speakers. This of course was not a dealbreaker as the use of earbuds quickly solved this problem.
The gaming performance of the Honor X9a 5G is a definite happy surprise. The GPU performance, ergonomics of the design and decent thermals helps make gaming a pleasant experience.
Battery life
Battery life is another strong point, with the device being powered by a large 5100 mAh battery. Throughout the review period, I found myself charging the device once every two days with regular use. Most of the screen on time was spent using YouTube or Netflix, Google Chrome, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger. It was only with heavy use of gaming and photography that I found myself needing to charge the phone on a daily basis. Charging is a breeze too with the included 40W charger juicing up from 20% to 100% in about 90 minutes.
The Verdict: A solid all-rounder headlined by a flagship display
The Honor X9a 5G is a solid, well-rounded mid-range device.
After an in-depth hands-on experience, the Honor X9a 5G was a pleasant surprise in how it performed. Its strengths lie in its flagship-quality display, premium build quality and excellent battery life. For weaknesses, there is no particular department that is truly a deal breaker. Even the camera which has a weak macro and ultrawide performance, does a more than serviceable job in the main shooter and selfie cameras. Conversely, apart from the display, there is no other truly standout feature of the device when compared to the other devices in its price range. Retailing for RM1499, the Honor X9a 5G is up against the likes of Samsung’s A53 5G, which we reviewed not too long ago, and the recently released Poco X5 series. While these other devices have their own clear strengths and weaknesses, the Honor X9a 5G is good across the board, making it an all-rounder device. If you want a mid-range device that is value for money, can do the essentials and has a robust build quality, then this is the device for you.
You can get the Honor X9a 5G, available now from the HiHonor website, retailing for RM1499. Honor is also bundling a free pair of noise-cancelling Honor CHOICE Earbuds X3 and 180 Days of Screen Crack Protection if you purchase now.
And here is the obligatory video of nut crushing with the Honor X9a 5G.
OnePlus is turning heads once again with its new flagship OnePlus 11. The OnePlus 11 seems to mark a turning point for the company – one that leads them back to their roots; creating smartphones that show the competition what listening to their user base and optimising features that are requested by them.
The OnePlus 11 comes with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 which brings performance improvements over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. It’s also adopting a new fabrication process which increases power efficiency. The OnePlus 11 runs cooler than its predecessor with an improved heat dissipation system. The processor is supported by up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. Like most Android devices nowadays, the smartphone doesn’t support microSD expansion.
On the display front, the OnePlus 11 is equipped with a Fluid AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The 6.7-inch QHD+ screen comes complete with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. The 11 runs on OxygenOS 13 which brings the latest features of Android 14 with OnePlus’ unique spin on it.
OnePlus’ partnership with Hasselblad continues with the OnePlus 11. The smartphone comes with triple sensor setup for the main camera. This setup consists of a 50-megapixel, f/1.8, 24mm (wide) sensor complemented by a 32-megapixel, f/2.0, 48mm (telephoto) sensor and a 48-megapixel, f/2.2 (ultrawide) sesor with a 115˚ field of view. The camera comes with Hasselblad colour calibration and special portrait profiles that have been optimised by Hasselblad. On the front is a 16-megapixel, f/2.5, 25mm (wide) sensor.
The OnePlus 11 is powered by a 5,000mAh battery. It has compatibility with WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 which will be rolled out through an OTA update. It is also equipped with Bluetooth 5.3, Near Field Communication (NFC) and has support for Qualcomm’s aptX HD audio codec.
Pricing & Availability
The OnePlus 11 will be available in Malaysia in two colours Eternal Green and Titan Black. For now, the Eternal Green will be exculsive to the 16GB + 256GB version which will retail for MYR3.599. The Titan Black version will be retailing for MYR3,299 with the 8GB + 128GB configuration.
Pre-orders kicked off on 16 February 2023 at 10am and will continue until 24 February 2023. During the pre-order period, purchases of the OnePlus 11 will be entitled to a free OnePlus Buds Pro 2, a free OnePlus 11 5G Bumper case in Sandstone, Free 1 year extended warranty, free 1 year screen protection, a Jackson Wang Postcard and a chance to participate in a lucky draw.
The smartphone will be available starting on 25th February. From 25th February 2023 until the 3rd of March, purchases of the OnePlus 11 5G will come with a freeOnePlus 11 5G Bumper case in Sandstone, Free 1 year extended warranty, free 1 year screen protection, a Jackson Wang Postcard and a chance to participate in a lucky draw. Together with this, early adopters will be able to get the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 at an MYR200 purchase with purchase (PWP) discount.
MediaTek should be a familiar name to those who know their Android smartphones. To those who are wondering what a MediaTek is, they are the other chip maker that powers Android smartphones. They are technically Qualcomm’s main competitor at this point in the bid for smartphone processing chip supremacy.
So why have you not heard about them? To be fair, MediaTek has been rather modest in the industry. While they have made efforts to make high-end flagship level chips with their Dimensity 9000 series chipsets last year, their priority has mostly been on more affordable mid-range and entry-level Android smartphones. That is also what they are known for – budget friendliness.
They have just launched a new, even more budget friendly chipset for mid-range smartphones, the Dimensity 7000 series. The first in the series is the Dimensity 7200. Yes, like all Dimensity chips, this comes with 5G connectivity.
The brand-new Dimensity 7200 is based on TSMC’s rather advanced and new age 4nm process. It is the same second-generation process you may find in the architecture of MediaTek’s high-end Dimensity 9200 chip. In that sense, it is made with superior efficiency and heat management in mind.
It is an octa-core processor still packing a lot of punch. The system on a chip (SoC) is built with two high-performance ARM Cortex-A715 cores that clock in at up to 2.8GHz. Keeping power draw to a minimum while keeping the smartphone it is powering trundling through less power-hungry function are six ARM Cortex-A510 cores supporting the high-performance cores. There is also a built-in AI Processing Unit (APU) dedicated to running AI based processes and functions. Graphics is handled by an ARM Mali G610 GPU.
The Dimensity 7200 is also built with budget gamers in mind. MediaTek packs in their HyperEngine 5.0 technology that works the built-in APU and delivers AI-based Variable Rate Shading (VRS). The technology offers a longer battery life with smart resource management between the CPU and GPU to optimize performance and power consumption.
Source: MediaTek
There is also a built-in image processor, MediaTek’s Imagiq 765 and a 14-bit HDR-ISP. The image processor on the new chip can now support cameras with up to 200-Megapixel in resolution, perfectly in-line with Samsung’s latest ISOCELL sensor. The processor also allows equipped smartphones 4K HDR video recording capabilities or capture Full HD videos from two different cameras simultaneously. For low light capturing, the processor packs a motion compensator to reduce noise. Of course, real-time beautification is part of the list of things the processor can do for modern smartphone cameras.
As metioned, 5G is standard in Dimensity chips including this one. Specifically, the Dimensity 7200 packs a 3GPP Release-16 standard Sub-6GHz 5G modem. It supports triband Wi-Fi 6E connectivity and Bluetooth 5.3 as well. To save energy as well, MediaTek includes their won 5G UltraSave 2.0 technology to reduce power consumption. The chip even supports dual SIM 5G functions.
For the best flagship-class media experience, Dimensity 7200 will suppot up to 6,400 Mbps meory frequencies and storage speeds at up to UFS 3.1 standards. It also supports displays with HDR10+, CUVA HDR, and Dolby HDR thanks to MiraVision Display. Unfortunately, it does not support displays with more than Full HD+ resolution. It does support up to 144Hz in refresh rate though, which is always nice for gamers. Within the chip is also an SDR-to-HDR upscaler for enhanced viewing, Of course, the Bluetooth module supposed Bluetooth LE and Dual-Link True Wireless Audio for wireless audio support.
MediaTek did not launch the Dimensity 7200 with a smartphone device, which also means you will not see any current smartphones sporting the SoC in action. They say that the first devices packing the new chipset will be coming within Q1 of 2023. As mentioned, the SoC is meant to find its way to mid-range smartphones. You can expect manufacturers like OPPO, realme, and even Xiaomi to be the first to launch smartphones packing MediaTek’s latest Dimensity 7200. More information on the new SoC can be found on their website.
Picking a smartphone in the modern era is tough. You want to settle on a budget. In most cases, a limited budget for your smartphone means that most flagship smartphones are out of reach. In that case, you will have to settle for mid-range smartphones.
Settling on a mid-range smartphone is not necessarily a bad thing though. It is, currently, the most competitive and crowded segments in the smartphone industry. That means you are really spoilt for choice. You are not getting subpar products either, mid-range smartphones today are full of features and can take on some flagships.
The POCO X5 Pro 5G
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Take the new POCO X5 Pro 5G mid-range smartphone for example. You get an AMOLED display this time. The 6.67-inch panel offers up to 120Hz in refresh rate, Dolby Vision certification, 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut, and 10-bit colour depth. It is not a QHD+ display, but a Full HD+ display is really all you need on a smartphone. At up to 900 nits as well, you will not be wanting for more brightness even under direct sunlight. Of course, the display is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5.
Underneath the expansive display is a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G system on a chip (SoC). The octa-core processor is coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage to ensure that the POCO X5 Pro 5G can handle anything you can throw at it. If you ever need more RAM, Dynamic RAM expansion 3.0 can borrow some of the storage space to serve as a slightly slower RAM.
Out the back of the POCO X5 Pro 5G is a very powerful 108-Megapixel main camera. On the side is an 8-Megapixel ultra-wide shooter and a 2-Megapixel macro camera. There is also another camera out the front, a 16-Megapixel shooter.
To keep the MIUI 14 (Based on Android 13) running all day and more is a 5,000 mAh batter within the metal body. The battery is capable of 67W quick charge too, so you do not have to keep it plugged in for too long, important when you are always in a rush. Yes, you get a charger with this device.
The POCO X5 5G
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
At the more budget friendly end of the scale is the regular POCO X5 5G smartphone. It is still no slouch though.
Within the body is a Snapdragon 695 mid-range octa-core SoC. You also can get your POCO X5 5G with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. If that is not enough, you can also expand it with up to 1TB MicroSD card.
The internals allows MIUI 13 to run smoothly on the 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with up to 120Hz in refresh rate and an even brighter 1200 nits. You also get up to 4,500,000:1 contrast ratio for a respectable image reproduction that is even on par with some flagships. All of these is protected by Coring’s Gorilla Glass 3.
Out the back is a 48-Megapixel shooter that is still capable of taking breath taking photos. It is also supported by an 8-Megapixel ultra-wide sensor alongside a 2-Megapixel macro camera. The front-facing camera is downgraded a little too at 13-Megapixel over the 16-Megapixel of the Pro variant.
Within the svelte body is also a large 5,000mAh battery that should give you a few days of battery life. If you need, it still does quick charging, not as quick as the Pro variant though. Still 33W of charging speeds can also give you a full charge within two hours.
Price and Availability
The POCO X5 Pro 5G Will be available in three colours – Black, Blue, and Yellow. The POCO X5 5G will also be in available in three distinct colours – Green, Blue, and Black. The Pro variant will set you back MYR 1,299 onward while the vanilla POCO X5 will start from MYR 1,099. You can now get your hands on either one via Lazada and Shopee. More information can be found on their website.
