WhatsApp introduced their dark mode to their smartphone apps late last year. If you have switched your app to dark mode, good for you. If you have not, you should take a look and maybe never look back. As the saying goes; “once you go black, you’ll never go back”. Before you say anything, we are not implying any racist jokes, it is a sensitive time, we are merely referring to the endless ‘dark mode’ tweaks that have been making its way to smartphones. Going dark is the trend these days anyway.
There is a benefit of going for dark mode in your smartphone apps, other than looking cool and sleek. You get better battery life because black colour consumes less power on your smartphones’ displays. This is especially true for LED based displays. There is a small issue with the Android version of the app though – it is not exactly black. Instead, you get a shade of navy and grey.
Dark mode also helps when you just woke up and look at your smartphone first. It does not blind you or strain your eyes. There is a reason why Blue Light filters make your whites look a little more yellow. White colour strains your eyes quite badly especially indoors and in darker situations. It somehow signals your brains that it is still daylight too when you have white backgrounds on your smartphones, and you read at night.
Somehow, dark mode allows you to have a better time reading on your backlit displays too. You are able to read for longer periods without getting a headache. Again, this may have plenty to do with Blue Lights and better contrasts.
Back to WhatsApp. Ever since WhatsApp introduced dark mode in their smartphone app, the demand for dark mode stuff grew to other apps including Facebook. It even grew so much that people are asking for dark mode PC apps now too. Not only do they look more modern, they look cleaner somehow.
Yesterday is the day that Facebook finally gives what people want, a dark mode on WhatsApp Web and Desktop app. Let me start by saying it looks more like Telegram’s dark mode on your smartphone than anything. Telegram does not even have a dark mode on their web and desktop app. Given, there are more greens on WhatsApp.
It does look more modern and cleaner though. The fonts turn white and the backgrounds are different shades of grey, not exactly black. It somehow transforms the WhatsApp experience. Suddenly WhatsApp does not look like WhatsApp that we knew anymore.
Still, we are digging the new look and will keep this look. Plus, it is still less straining to the eyes. For you to change your WhatsApp Web or Desktop app to dark mode, you just need to get to settings and click on the “theme” option to turn on the inner darkness. Now, on to Facebook’s dark mode on their app.
Xiaomi Malaysia has taken the covers off two new entry level devices: the Redmi 9A and Redmi 9C. The two new devices join the Redmi 9 announced earlier this month. They expand the Redmi line up with even more affordable, entry level devices which come in at a sub MYR500 price point.
Both entry level Xiaomi Redmi devices come with 6.53-inch HD+ Dot Drop displays with 400 nit brightness and certification from TUV Rheinland for Low Blue Light. The 9A and 9C are both powered by a 5,000mAh battery with support for 10W charging. Both come with a 3.5mm headphone jack. However, that’s where the similarities end.
Xiaomi’s Redmi 9C is the more supped up of the two new devices coming with a triple camera setup and a slightly more powerful MediaTek Helio G35 octacore processor. The camera setup consists of a 13-megapixel main camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. These specifications are supported by 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard memory expandable with up to 512GB of additional memory via a microSD card. The 9C also a fingerprint sensor for quick unlocking.
The Redmi 9A comes with a less powerful, octacore MediaTek Helio G25. It comes with a single camera setup with a 13-megapixel sensor. It supports AI face unlock and will be coming with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. Similar to the 9C, it supports up to 512GB of additional storage space via the use of a microSD card.
Pricing & Availability
The Redmi 9A will be available starting on July 7, 2020 as part of the annual 7.7 sale on both LAZADA and Shopee for a special first sale price of MYR319. After which it will be available in stores starting on 14 July, 2020 for MYR359. The 9A will be available in Granite Gray, Peacock Green and Sky Blue
The Redmi 9C will be available for MYR429 in Midnight Gray, Sunrise Orange and Twilight Blue starting the end of July 2020.
Official Specifications
Smartphone
Redmi 9A
Redmi 9C
Display
6.53” HD+ Dot Drop display 400 nit (typ) brightness Color contrast ratio: 1500:1 (typ) TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light certification Reading mode
6.53” HD+ Dot Drop display 400 nit (typ) brightness Color contrast ratio: 1500:1 (typ) TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light certification Reading mode
Rear camera
13MP main camera
13MP main camera, 2MP macro camera, 2MP depth sensor
Front camera
5MP front camera
5MP front camera
Dimension
164.9*77.07*9.0mm
164.9*77.07*9.0mm
Processor
MediaTek Helio G25 12nm process technology Octa-core CPU, up to 2.0 GHz
MediaTek Helio G35 12nm process technology Octa-core CPU, up to 2.3 GHz
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.
HONOR should not be an unfamiliar name to smartphone users today. They made some of the best valued devices and they have been doing so for some years now. Most of their devices have been built around that philosophy anyway.
That is mostly since they have a vastly different target market in the industry. They mostly target the younger demographics. Their target demographics generally put more emphasis on delivered value than perceived value and branding.
Today is all about that as well with the HONOR 9A. In a way, the HONOR 9A is a little bit like an answer to Xiaomi’s Redmi devices and realme’s range of offerings. It may also be an answer to their bigger sister brand’s HUAWEI Nova and Y series really.
It does not pack the famous Kirin platform. Instead it is packing a MediaTek Helio P22 System on a Chip (SoC) to make it as affordable as possible. It is part of the reason that the HONOR could let you have one for just MYR 549. It does not come with one of those gimmicky, expensive AMOLED displays with no edges or notches as well.
It comes with a plain ol’ 6.3-inch dew-drop display with a small notch in its forehead and a lip that might look like a large tape compared to the svelte lines of flagship devices. That is okay though, it is still a Full HD display. They have done something to the speakers too to make it louder, a lot louder and better.
Of course, you cannot have everything with a lower price point. So at that price point you are looking at only up to 3GB of RAM and 64GB in storage. Still, it is not like you are being limited to just using your internal storage though. You can fit up to 512GB in MicroSD form.
You are not being compromised in terms of camera though. You still get a triple camera set up out the back with 13-Megapixel main shooter backed with a 5-Megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 2-Megapixel depth sensor. That is not all you are getting back in value though.
The biggest thing that you are getting within this device is a large battery. At 5,000 mAh, it is large enough to be your power bank for other smartphones. That is also why you can use it to reverse charge other devices. 5,000 mAh is still quite a big deal these days.
The HONOR 9A runs on Android 10 OS still, which means you are still getting a good Android experience from HONOR’s MagicUI 3.1. There is a small caveat of not having Google Apps on it or even Google Play Store. You do get AppGallery on it though, a good alternative if you do not mind some of the missing apps.
Source: HONOR
The HONOR 9A will be available in stores starting 6th July 2020. It will be up for pre-order online on the 26th June 2020 onward to 5th June 2020 though. If you do pre-order your HONOR 9A, you get up to MYR 218 worth of free gifts including an HONOR backpack and 15GB of HUAWEI Cloud subscription. As stated, price for the HONOR 9A is MYR 549. For more information on HONOR 9A you can visit their website.
IoT was the keyword of last year. That does not mean that IoT is an outdated concept though. It is still a big thing as we are going into the 5G era. But IoT is also not a new concept even coming into 2019. Our smartwatches are considered IoT devices. These smartwatches have existed for several years now.
Of course, ever since we saw the first smartwatch, everyone wants to be a part of that smart wearable market. The accessories market, after all, is one of the most profitable. realme, being on of the major players in the smartphone market is one of those companies that has delved into the IoT product market. In fact, they have been one of the fastest growing manufacturers in the segment.
Their growth rate is nothing curious though. The brand has been offering very compelling products at extremely attractive and accessible prices. Think about it, would you buy a TWS earbuds for MYR 599 or MYR 199 when they do the same things? The only real difference is probably in the branding. Okay, to be fair, there are some differences here and there in different aspects. But hey, the better accessibility also means that you can sell more of it since it is less painful to your pockets.
With the kind of success they enjoy, they are going to expand on other wearable and smart living products. It is quite inevitable too; everyone is getting into the wearable game that was conquered by the likes of Samsung. So, in addition to their previously launched realme Buds TWS earbuds, they launched even more products today.
realme Buds Air Neo
Source: realme
Source: realme
Source: realme
Firstly, they launched a new and improved TWS earbuds. They call it the realme Buds Air Neo. No, it does not come with noise cancelling technology. But it is an all-around better product with a slightly larger drivers at 13mm. They come with 17 hours of battery life too in total too. Also, it is a Bluetooth 5.0 device. Now also, you can wear it to the gym with zero worries since it is an IPX4 device. You might be able to wear it in the showers too. Just make sure it does not go into the drain.
realme Buds Q
Source: realme
Source: realme
Source: realme
They also launched another TWS earbuds. They launched the realme Buds Q that is supposed to have even more battery life at up to 20 hours of music playback time. Instead of the Apple Earpods-esque design, this is a more conventional design that we are used to. It has the usual silicon eartips that fit into your ears and seal the sounds in for a passive noise cancelling. Even with a smaller 10mm drivers, you should not lose too much performance on the earbuds. Still, because of the smaller drivers, it is light too at 3.9g each side
It comes with its own set of touch sensitive controls for a seamless design. The charging and storage case is also different with a pebble like design for a better looking fit and feel in the hands. It feels more natural. Of course, that is to be expected when they engaged Hermés’ designer josé Lévy.
realme watch
Source: realme
Then there is the realme watch. The realme watch is realme’s answer to the Fitbit Versa, HUAWEI Watch GT, Samsung Galaxy Watch, and even the Apple Watch. At first glances, it looks more like the Fitbit Versa and Apple Watch combined. The rotating crown and button combination of the Apple Watch is nowehere to be found. In their place is a Fitbit Versa-eque button but in the wrong place.
Greeting you from your wrist is a 1.4-inch touch sensitive display that is quite a staple for plenty of smartwatches these days. Like any respectable smartwatches too the realme watch has all the right sensors including a full-time heart rate sensor. It is also made to be water resistant with IP68 so you can wear it to the gym, or even in the showers with no fuss.
The realme watch does not look like it is running on Google Wear though. Instead realme builds their own version of a wearable operating system that fits the squared face better. Of course, it comes with multiple watchfaces that you can swap to anytime you like. The watch that has 14 sports modes will connect with your smartphones via the realme proprietary Link Smart App for all the health data and additional settings to be controlled on your smartphone.
realme Band
Source: realme
Source: realme
Source: realme
If you are not looking for something as complex as a smartwatch though, you have the realme Band. While it looks like just any other smart fitness tracker band thing that you can get from the likes of Samsung and even Fitibit, it is a little bit more special. You do not need any USB docks or wires to charge the device. No, it is not wireless charging in a sense, it is still docked charging, just that you do not need anything other than the watch itself to charge. Simply remove the bottom part of the strap and plug it into your PC or power bank or wall charger via USB port to start charging it.
You get 0.95-inch of colours from the watchface with a full-time heart rate sensor. You also get to track your daily activities with the built-in 9 modes. It is also IP68 rated so you still can take it from the gym to the showers with zero concerns over your device dying on you.
Power Banks
Of course, everyone is in extended power game now. Realme has their own attractive looking, striking coloured realme Power Bank line-up too. They introduced their new Power Bank 2 with multiple charging ports that supports up to 18W power output with USB Type-C two-way charging. This is a 10,000 mAh power pack, which also means it can charge most of your smartphones twice over
They also launched another variant of their Power Bank – the realme 30W Dart Charge Power Bank. As its name suggest, this power pack charges devices at up to 30W to drain its 10,000mAh capacity in no time. Yes, it charges multiple devices at one go too.
Price and Availability
The realme Buds Air Neo will be available in three colours – Pop White, Punk Green, and Rock Red. It will be available on the 22nd of June onward exclusively on Shopee at this time for MYR 199. If you do go on Shoppe to buy the TWS earbuds on the 22nd and 23rd of June, on the realme exclusive flash sales on Shopee though, you can get your Buds Air Neo at MYR 79.
The pretty looking realme Buds Q will be available in either Yellow, Pure white, or Black colour options. You are looking at July if you want your hands on one. There are no prices announced yet for this one, so stay tune to realme’s website or Facebook page.
realme’s watch will be available in Black, but you can interchange your strap to different colours. That will also be available with realme watch on the 12th June onward for MYR 299. If you get it on realme’s exclusive flash sales on Shopee though, you can get your hands on one for MYR 249 only.
The realme Band will also only be available later from 22nd June onward. It will be available in three colours variants – Yellow, Black and Green. On 22nd and 23rd realme exclusive flash sales on Shopee, you can get your hands on the realme Band at MYR 79 instead of its full retail price of MYR 129.
The Power Banks that realme introduced today will be available in two colour options – Yellow and Black. The Power Bank 2 with 18W charging will be available on the 12th June 2020 onward. On that day’s exclusive flash sales on Shopeee, you can get the Power Bank 2 for MYR 99 instead of MYR 129. The Dart Charge Power Bank will only be available somewhere in July with no announced price tag just yet. For more information on all their launched products, you can head over to their website.
Samsung’s A series comes with the proposition of bringing some of the best features to the company’s mid-range. Initially relaunched with the Galaxy A3, A5 and A7, the series brought along features such as water resistance which were once thought to be exclusive to flagship devices. Recently, Samsung retired it’s J series and folded the phones into it’s A series as well. The company has announced another model in its ever expanding A series: the Samsung Galaxy A31. The smartphone joins the Galaxy A71, A51, A21s, A11 and A01 in Malaysia.
The Galaxy A31 comes with a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080×2400 pixels. It comes out of the box with Android 10 with Samsung’s One UI 2.0 and has dual SIM support. It is compatible with dual band WiFi (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) with support for the 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac standards. It also
The new entry level smartphone comes with an undisclosed octa-core processor with two cores clocked at 2.0GHz and six cores clocked at 1.7GHz. This should give the device pretty good battery life while being able to keep up with some pretty intense workloads. The smaller cores allow the device to perform menial tasks with ease while sipping on battery while the larger ones will kick in when more demanding tasks are undertaken such as gaming or even processing pictures with editing apps.
The processor is supported by 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory. The Galaxy A31 comes with support for up to an additional 512GB of memory through the microSD card slot. It comes with Bluetooth 5.0 as well and Near Field Communication (NFC) as well as GPS support.
The battery on the Galaxy A31 is a large 5,000mAh. Samsung has rated the battery for 20 hours on WiFi and LTE with up to 33 minutes active talk time. Topping up your battery shouldn’t be a problem with the A31’s 15W fast charging.
Pricing & Availability
Samsung’s Galaxy A31 will be going on sale from 6 June 2020 in Malaysia at a recommended retail price of MYR1,099 (USD$257.91). It will be available in Prism Crush Black, Prism Crush White and Prism Crush Blue.
If you are in the market for a new smartphone for the first time, you are going to get a little bit of a shock when you see the prices of mobile devices today. You are seeing devices hitting the MYR 7,000 ceiling these days and with spec sheet more complicated than the blueprints of a Death Star.
Of course, you pay for features and quality as well. You pay for being at the cutting edge, the state-of-the-art. That has become the definition of a mobile device in your pocket these days though. They are nearly buttonless slates that are very high-tech and awfully expensive, and at the same time strangely fragile. Yes, it is a strange world we live in.
When you first invest in a smartphone too, you might not want to spend more than MYR 1,000 on your smartphone. After all, feature phones did not exceed that kind of money even when they were brand new. There are a few options for you. One of them is the HUAWEI Y6P that is now available in Malaysia for MYR 559. That already ticks the ‘under MYR 1,000’ box.
Source: HUAWEI
Another thing that older feature devices have is a super long battery life. A single charge can take days to deplete while only taking an hour to charge. Premium smartphones these days can barely last a full 24 hours day before needing a plug in. The Y6P is not like that though. It comes with one of the largest battery capacities in the conventional smartphone market today. It comes with a 5,000mAh battery. No, you cannot swap it out, but it is still a large battery. That, combined with HUAWEI’s brilliant knowhow is battery life preservation means that you should easily last a day or two without ever needing a tether to your walls. ‘Long-lasting battery’, check.
Source: HUAWEI
Of course, the move to smartphones have some major benefits. One of them is that you get properly nice photos from their high-resolution camera. Premium smartphones come with the latest and greatest of camera technology to produce the best possible photos and videos. Thing is, smartphone camera technology now progresses in diminishing returns. Certain mid-range and even entry-level smartphones have cameras that rival the premium smartphones in terms of Megapixel count, camera software and algorithm, and resulting photo and video quality.
The HUAWEI Y6P comes with dual cameras at the back. One is a 13-Megapixel camera that captures high-resolution, crisp photos that you can use to share with your family or family members. The other is an ultra-wide angle camera that can capture even more than the 13-Megapixel shooter. You can capture beautiful landscapes in expanded detail and tell the world of social media that you also can be a photographer.
It even comes with an 8-Megapixel front facing camera for you to shoot selfies or profile photos with. Obviously for your friends to identify you. If not, you can use the front-facing camera to take photos of yourself in your travels, just to show off a little bit maybe. ‘Cameras’, check.
Source: HUAWEI
Of course, one of the biggest appeals in switching to a smartphone is the number of apps that you can access on a single small slate that fits in your palms and pockets. All this comes from the HUAWEI AppGallery for the HUAWEI Y6P. The AppGallery is currently the third largest app marketplace in the world. While there are some missing apps compared to Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store, the HUAWEI AppGallery ecosystem is growing every day. The essential eWallet apps are already available on the AppGallery. Even some banking apps are already available. ‘Apps’, check.
With a high-resolution camera and access to endless number of apps, you are going to need a large storage to ensure that you have access to everything you need and put into the device in its lifetime. You get 64GB in storage with the HUAEI Y6P, which is ample space to work with for both your photos and apps. You even get a whole year of access to 15 extra GB of HUAWEI’s Cloud storage to offload some of your photos and files over when you need to. Or, insert a MicroSD card into the expansion slot to get up to 512GB of extra storage. Need multiple apps running at the same time? 4GB of RAM should be able to deal with that. Oh, and the MediaTek processor running within the device is more than capable enough to run multiple apps at the same time.
Source: HUAWEI
Now you are also wondering what else you can do with the 6.3-inch display. You can watch movies with it by either loading your downloaded movies into the native storage of the device. You can also look through HUAWEI’s Video app to see what you might want to watch. Of course, that is a subscription-based service like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. You can also watch Viu contents through that 6.3-inch display though, for free no less. All you need to do to start watching endless Asian shows is claim the free membership of Viu through Member center on the HUAWEI Y6P. ‘Entertainment’, check.
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
The HUAWEI Y6P is now available via HUAWEI’s online store and retail partners across the nation for MYR 559. You can get your’s in three colour choices: Emerald Green, Phantom Purple and Midnight Black. The free Premium Access to Viu promotion is currently exclusive to the HUAWEI Y6P. For more information on the HUAWEI Y6P, you can visit their website.
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.
Xiaomi announced their new update to their in-house user interface: MIUI. The new iteration of MIUI, officially named MIUI 12, brings a few long requested features and tweaks some that were already available. However, not all the new features bode for a better universal experience with MIUI 12.
Animations, Animations, Animations
The bulk of the changes in MIUI 12 are purely aesthetic. Xiaomi has spent time trying to make MIUI look more “natural”. They’ve made changes to the way MIUI will handle animations in MIUI 12. These aren’t just superficial changes such as shortening animation times, they’ve spent time redesigning the way MIUI’s kernel handles these animations. This simply means that the core of MIUI handles animation differently than any other Android based device. Xiaomi has also increased the amount of animations by making UI elements such as icons, pop ups and indicators move in tandem with the movement of the phone. They have also made the animations and transitions more seamless and fluid. In the demo they showed, the settings icon was able to seamlessly transition into the settings menu.
That isn’t all, MIUI 12 doesn’t simply enlarge the icons, Xiaomi has opted to make icons arc as they transition to apps. They claim that this revision allows the overall user experience to be more natural and fluid. MIUI also brings optimisations in the way it handles rounded curves in the UI. Xiaomi has made it so that instead of having dead spaces in the rounded corners of the UI, MIUI 12 will seamless conform to the available space. This also means that you get every interactive pixel within your screen.
Animation and superficial enhancements aside, MIUI 12 is really bringing some meaningful new features; One of them is Private casting. This new feature allows you to cast larger screens while hiding elements of the UI. Primarily, users will be able to keep notifications, pop up windows and more on their mobile screen. These elements will not be shown on the casted when private casting is turned on. In fact, Xiaomi says, you’ll be able to cast and play a game at the same time without the game being casted to the larger display.
MIUI 12 also brings an enhanced Floating Window feature primarily with new gesture interactions. Users will be able to pull up floating windows to reply notifications by simply swiping down. When used with MIUI’s messaging app, this will bring up a floating window for extended interaction. Floating windows can also be left above others by simply dragging the window to the corner to pin it. A simple swipe will dismiss the window. A further swipe down will enlarge the window to make it the main one.
The app drawer finally makes it to MIUI in MIUI 12. The new app drawer can be toggled on in the settings and is able to automatically categorize your apps. MIUI 12 will also have universal dark mode. While many apps already have this built in, MIUI 12 will natively adapt apps which don’t have the function.
Most impressively, Xiaomi spent a little bit of time developing features to enhance the privacy controls on their devices. The main change is the inclusion of more granular permissions control. Users will be able to select the “when using app” and “notify” options that Android users are already accustomed to. In addition, MIUI 12 will indicate if apps are accessing sensitive information in the background with an icon on the top left corner of the UI. Users are able to see the offending app and even limit its access and uninstall it if they choose to. This enhance feature will be available for storage, camera, location, microphone, call history and contacts. You will also be able to remove sensitive EXIF data from photos before sharing them.
Availability
MIUI 12 beta will start next week. However, official rollout will begin at the End of June starting with the Mi 9, Mi 9T, Mi 9T Pro, Redmi K20 and the Redmi K20 Pro. Other devices including the Redmi Note 9 series, POCOPHONE F1, Mi 10 and Mi MIX 3 will receive the update after the initial rollout.
