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The Fitbit Sense In-Depth Review – The Shinier Versa

December 3, 2020 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

Fitbit launched the Fitbit Versa series a few years ago. The first Fitbit Versa looked a lot like a now-defunct Pebble watch. There is a good reason to that, but we are not going to get into it.

All I wanted to say there is that I personally really wanted a Pebble smartwatch when they existed. Their smartwatch is unlike whatever smartwatch that was available at the time. They were not running any fancy Operating System (OS) that overcomplicates a smartwatch at the time and either slowed down the watch, or even reduce its battery life by half. They actually look very pretty as well, in my opinion anyway.

When they came up with the Versa 2, Fitbit pushed a few more upgrades to it. It had Fitbit Pay too, which is technically an e-wallet solution by Fitbit themselves. They said that they will be working with local banks and merchants to make the feature available, we have not seen much from that yet. We are still waiting for a wider adoption by merchants. Gyms and fitness centres, in our minds, would be the perfect places to start.

Design wise though, it looked slightly more modern than the first Versa with rounded of corners on the display. It maintained a physical button, we liked that. The display looks a little sharper and better too, for some reason.

Then they introduced the Fitbit Versa 3 and Fitbit Sense in 2020. To be fair, both are very similarly designed. If you do not know Fitbit devices, you might mistake them as the same smartwatch.

The Fitbit Versa 3 and Fitbit Sense are not that dissimilar in terms of function and features too. It is to the point that the website for both devices tell you pretty much the same things. They are a little different though, the two.

Unlike the Versa 2 as well, the two new devices from Fitbit comes with a new generation strap that is not interchangeable with the older wrist straps. So, if you upgraded from a Versa 2, you have to retire the older straps you might have bought as well.

What is the difference between the Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 though? Which is the smartwatch for you? Could you still walk away with a Fitbit Versa 2 at this point and be happy? We tested the MYR 1,498 Fitbit Sense to tell you.

Design

As we mentioned earlier, the Fitbit Sense has a very similar design language to the Fitbit Versa 3, save for the glossy bezel top of the case surrounding the glass that houses a 1.58-inch AMOLED display. The body, according to Fitbit at least, is premium stainless steel. That explains its glossy exterior.

The unit we have is the black colour option with black strap. You can opt for a Soft Gold option with a Lunar White strap. To be honest, the Soft Gold looks better in photos or renders. When we unboxed the Black on Black variant though, we found that we liked the finish more than we thought.

The design language is technically just an evolution of the Versa series from Fitbit, rather than a complete redesign. It is a little more rounded off in the corners of both the body and the display. It is still a square-ish design, not quite rounded. In a sense (no pun intended), the new Fitbit still looks very much like it is part of the Versa line-up.

The added curves though make the device look a little more modern than before. The Sense looks more at home and more subtle than the older devices. Of course, the black finish does help it blend into the wrist a little bit more.

The glossy rings surrounding the display is what differentiates it from the regular Fitbit Sense. The Gloss finish is only interrupted by two small plastic looking bars on both sides of the smartwatch though. We suspect that the plastic inserts are important for the Sense to receive GPS signals properly, or even for a more stable Bluetooth connection.

The biggest noticeable difference when you pick up the device though is the missing physical button. The Fitbit Sense, as well as the Versa 3 is now relying on a haptic button on the left side of the smartwatch. The ‘button’ does not even look like a normal button, it looks like a dimple, or recess on the flush body of the Sense. Not that we are saying it is an odd-looking thing.

In our opinion, the buttonless approach keeps the body look a bit tighter. We think that it looks good to without a physical button on the side. It keeps the body look flush without interruptions in its lines.

You find that the Fitbit Sense also retains a mic hole that you notice on the Versa 2 on the back plate (or at least part of it). But there is an additional recess on the body that houses two additional holes, one larger than the other. The holes look like they house an additional mic and a loudspeaker unit.

The Fitbit Sense’s speaker unit and mics work with Amazon’s Alexa and supposedly Google Assistant. For now, only Amazon Alexa activation is available for the wristwatch. Google Assistant should be available later in the year, according to Fitbit. The speaker and mic units also indicate that the Fitbit Sense is built with a capability to answer phone calls directly on the wrist. As of now though, we could not get the function to work yet. We are told that the feature will be available in a later update.

Then there is the shiny reflective silver plate that covers the bottom with Fitbit’s new type of 4-pin magnetic charger. This also means you cannot use your older Versa or Versa 2 chargers to charge your Fitbit Sense, although they have similar designs. To be fair the Fitbit Versa, Versa Lite, and Versa 2 has more in common with each other than the Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3, in terms of design.

The shiny reflective plate that is also stainless-steel houses the heart rate sensor that scans your heart rate in real time as you wear the device. It also houses a built-in blood oxygen sensor now, something that the older Versa does not have. But the Sense is also supposed to come with an EKG sensor, which explains the shiny metal surface. Sadly, the feature is not yet available in Malaysia, because of that, you cannot access the EKG function of the Fitbit Sense yet.

The strap is a new type of strap that Fitbit calls an infinity band. It is very different from the older quick release strap that you see on the Fitbit Versa 2 and older. They claim that the material should feel better on the skin too, more comfortable. We do have to admit that the new band is slightly softer than before.

The latch mechanism on the older Versa smartwatches are very similar with the quick release straps of regular watches, which opens up possibilities for third-party strap makers to convert their straps into a Fitbit strap. Thing is, the lugs on the Fitbit Versa has a very unique shape to it that might not play nice with general watch straps.

On the Sense, they turned away from the general quick release mechanism and went back to their own quick release design that has worked in their own favour for the longest time. That also reduces the amount of ‘affordable’ or third-party options that you can find on the likes of Shopee or Lazada. Instead, now you have to go back to Fitbit for a different coloured or types of strap for your Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 that properly fits. Spoiler alert, they are not exactly cheap.

The Infinity Band that you get when you buy the Fitbit Sense has an incredibly unique latch mechanism that really secures the watch to your wrist. It only has a small metal latch part that inserts into the pre-made holes in the silicon strap. Once that is latched, you insert the extra ‘tail’ to the other hole on the strap, to keep things nice and tidy. That also means that there is no annoying metal latch that might catch on fabrics or cut into your skin if you strap your Sense too tightly. You still can go for the traditional type of metal buckle strap though; you just have to head to Fitbit’s website (or Official Online Store on Lazada) for different options. Again, you must get it from Fitbit to make sure that the strap actually fits. There is not much in choices yet though in terms of straps for the Fitbit Versa 3 and Sense.

The new lug mechanism is a clever one though. It is much easier to work with than the regular quick release lug. That also means that detaching and changing straps is a 5-second job. All you need to do to take the straps off is just push the tabs slightly and pull the straps away from the Sense. To attach a new strap is even easier than that, just push a new strap in and you are done. The new proprietary lugs also allow the straps to open wider on your wrist, which also means that it should fit bigger wrists better and more comfortably.

Features

Of course, when you buy a smartwatch you want it packed to the brim with different functions and features. Other than packing many watch faces you can choose from, the watch should tell you information like your heart rate, your breathing patterns, where you are, your past, your future, and even what you eat (we are exaggerating on some of these of course). It should be your secondary smartphone that you plonk on your wrist. You should not need to take out your smartphone to see what is on your smartphone.

Notifications

With the Fitbit Sense, you do not really need to take out your smartphone to know what is on your smartphone. Everything that your smartphone gets, your Fitbit Sense can get also. We are talking in terms of notifications, as per the subheading.

We said ‘can’, and not ‘will’. That is because you can choose what notifications the Fitbit Sense takes and which notifications to ignore. You can just set the watch to vibrate and notify you when emails come in, for example. If you wish to ignore Whatsapp for that entire day, you can even turn notification off for Whatsapp.

All these are done through Fitbit’s app. You do not have to dig around to find the notification settings too. You just enter the app, click on your Fitbit device from the app, and the notification settings should be right in that home screen.

Notifications are quite instant too, meaning you will not be missing important calls even if your device is on silent. Notifications are also very dependent on your device though. If you have turned off notification of an app on your smartphone, the notification will most likely not reach your Fitbit Sense as well, by default.

Having notifications on your smartwatch is quite a standard affair these days though. Most smartwatches will also continue to give you vibrate notifications throughout the night if you let it. This is one of those.

Unlike the Fitbit Versa 2 that I personally had, the Fitbit Sense does not automatically turn to sleep mode at your set bedtime. You need to turn the smartwatch on and turn it to sleep mode manually instead. Sleep mode also means that your Always-On Display is turned off to save battery and to allow you to sleep in complete darkness. That, while muting all kinds of notifications, except for the alarms already set on your Fitbit.

Rather than violently shaking your wrist to bits with the alarm function, the watch also has something called Smart Alarm. This is a technology unique to Fitbit watches too. The watch learns your sleep patterns and wakes you up at the most appropriate time before the set alarm time. The most appropriate time also means when you are in the ‘light sleep’ stage of your sleep. That is also not to interfere with your sleep patterns, and you wake up easier, and less grumpy

Fitbit App

The Fitbit App has evolved to one of the best smart wear companion apps available today. It has evolved from just being a smart fitness tracker to an integrated smart wear app. You can track your activities on it. Fitbit is also one of the brands to integrate real-time heart rate monitoring in their smartwatches and that translates to the app as well. It is also your sleep tracker, and your daily organiser, sort of.

In that regards, we would like to see some integration between the Fitbit app with the clock app on your smartphone. The current app does not keep track of the alarms you have on your smartphone, which also means that you have to manually set the alarm on the Fitbit Sense yourself. While the Fitbit app allows you to input your own bedtime and your wake-up time, it does not share that information with the smartwatch to automatically set an alarm for you to wake up. It does remind you that it is nearing your bedtime though, via your smartwatch and smartphone.

You can have an integrated calendar though, via the Agenda App by Fitbit. The Agenda app automatically syncs with any calendar app you have on your smartphone. That also means that you can keep track of your events, or meetings, or appointments from your wrist as well. If you set your calendar app to notify you on an event, you can get that same notification on your Fitbit Sense. The Agenda app itself too will notify you of an appointment.

Of course, the Fitbit app is more than just about managing your Fitbit Sense, or just controlling notifications. It is also your sleep tracker, and everything about your fitness fit into one. Technically it is your Today app that is also on your Fitbit Sense.

Of course, the information available to you is very dependent on the hardware on your wrist. The Fitbit Sense is a unique smartwatch in the range of Fitbit smartwatches because it has a skin temperature sensor for when you sleep, and something called an EDA (Electrodermal Activity) scanner. The Fitbit Sense also has an EKG sensor which is not really used or activated in Malaysia yet.

Skin temperature apparently plays quite an important role in your health. Your skin temperature should typically reflect your core internal temperature with minimal variations. Variations in your skin temperature can determine your health status. That is also why it is important to keep the variation pattern of your skin temperature. The measurements are done mostly when you sleep though, with the Fitbit Sense. The issue is, if you want access to the variation data it is behind Fitbit Premium paywall. If you opt not to pay the MYR 43.99 a month fee, you only get a daily average data.

EDA meanwhile is a measurement of your skin perspiration corelating to your heart rate too. This is a measure of stress levels, technically speaking. So yes, the watch tells you if you are stressed our or not. It even helps you ‘relax’ with some basic meditation programs. Mental health is important too, you know.

Before we forget, the Fitbit App only allows you to have one Fitbit Versa or Sense device paired to the app. That means if you have a Versa 2, you might want to think of selling it or giving it away to your loved ones.

Fitbit Premium

If you pay the MYR 43.99 a month for Fitbit premium, you get more than just daily average readings of your skin temperature. You get to find out what it means too. You also get access to a more comprehensive sleep and heart rate data instead of the basic average tracking that you get.

Perhaps the biggest push for you to get a Fitbit premium subscription though is daily exercise recommendations and regimes. Those might prove useful in this work from home situation. But you get a more in-depth analysis of your sleep patterns too, which might be useful the next time you see your doctor. Exclusive to the Fitbit Sense, you get even meditation recommendations and programs on top of exercise regimes and recommendations.

While subscription-based services are a norm these days, there are certain things that we thought should not be behind a paywall. Yes, Apple does charge for more functionalities and services for their Apple Watch, but they do not hold information back. You still get all the data that the Apple Watch could track for you, whether you pay for it or not.

The Fitbit Premium subscription forces Fitbit’s customers to pay for data that users might want or need for their own analysis. Things like heart rate during sleep, or even movement data when you sleep is not something that you should keep behind your pay wall, in our opinions. You could, however, access your heart rate data during your sleep by just heading to your heart rate monitor though. In that case, why not just make the collected data available to your sleep analysis in the first place?

Once you start paying for the subscription though, you get access to more than just data. You can get access to a personal health or fitness advisor. You get access to Fitbit’s tailored health, diet, and fitness programmes via Fitbit Coach. Some of them are genuinely great programs to get active with in this pandemic situation. On that front, we can agree on the subscription. We still do not see the point of paying just for accessing that little bit more data though. You might as well spend your money on something like a Samsung Galaxy Watch for that.

The Non-Button

Before I go on and mislead you, there is still a button on the Fitbit Sense, I am not contradicting myself. The Fitbit Sense has a button still, a regular single button like the older Fitbit Versa. It is not a regular button with spring mechanism though. It is a haptic touch button, like the ones you might be used to with the Fitbit Charge, for example.

The only thing is that I do find that kind of button on a wristwatch quite annoying. With a regular button, while it does spoil the clean lines a little bit, you get a tactile feedback of knowing when the button is pressed. With a touch button, you hardly know.

The only good thing is that the touch button on the Fitbit Sense is a pressure sensitive button. That also means that you have to press the button like you mean it for it to respond. It even works with a glove; just in case you are curious. But that also means that just a small pressure on the button might turn the watch on. It even triggers if you push it against your own wrist.

While that is not perfect, it is the same set of problems you are presented with when there is a traditional button in the way too. While the traditional button is gone to be replace with this pressure sensitive sensor thing, it is still placed at the left side of the device like any Fitbit fitness tracker does. That little dimple too is helpful since it is deep enough that your thumb or finger can feel it when you reach for it. Then again, you cannot go wrong with placing your thumb in the middle of the left section of the Fitbit Sense.

Charge Quickly and Openly

The new charger is not the clamp style charging dock that you are used with traditional Fitbit fitness trackers anymore. That also means that you cannot be re-using your old Fitbit Versa or Versa 2 charger. Even the Versa 3 has moved away from that old clamp style charger, by the way.

The charging dock is a much smaller package now that you can fit in your electronic pouch in an instant. Smaller also means that it is easier to lose, so you might want to keep that in mind. But smaller is also better for travels and convenience.

Because the charger does not clamp either side of the Fitbit smartwatch anymore, the buttons are now exposed. The exposed button helps with setting up the device for the first time. You need the charger to get your device up and running anyway. But with the buttons exposed, you can get the screen to work without moving your watch around without looking like a crazy person too.

Once you set it up, you might still want to look at the watch when it is charging to check if it is fully charged and even check the time of day. The exposed button is a great improvement in that aspect. When you pick it up too, you will still be charging your device, because magnet.

The new charger is a magnetic charger so it will automatically stick to your device to charge when you place the Sense near it, neat. But the magnetic charger also means that the charging pins are put in a completely different layout compared to the older Versa devices (it does not have to, but why not). That also means that you cannot use this charger to charge your older devices. In that case, make sure you find the old charger if you want to pass on the older device to your family or friends. In this pandemic situation also, we encourage you to give the older device a thorough clean before passing it on.

The new charger is also even faster than before. If you managed to get the battery flat on the Fitbit Sense, the charger gets you up and running again in 12 minutes, provided you have the right charger. This is also part of their marketing blurb; “a full day’s charge in 12 minutes”. That is not full charge though.

We do find this claim to be quite true. If you find that your smartwatch battery has dwindled a little bit to near empty, you get it plugged to the charger, get changed, do your quick toilet break, wear your shoe, tie it down, and you are ready to get going again for a whole day technically. A full charge will typically take about an hour or so too, which also means that you might want to include a quick shower and grooming into that routine before heading out and you are ready to take on even more days with the Fitbit Sense. We will talk more about the battery life later though

OLED Display

We usually include this section in performance. The issue here is, on a smartwatch, the display is more of a feature to have than a performance gauge. Most smartwatch displays are not high-resolution, high-speed, ultra-bright displays that you use to perform digital magic with anyway.

The display on the Fitbit Sense though is still a very pretty display that we have expected since the Versa 2. Like the Versa 2 as well it has an OLED display with super black blacks and vivid colours. Fitbit did not officially mention the resolution of the display because it is truly unimportant.

The OLED display is also bright enough under direct sunlight which is brilliant because you still can see it when you are out and about, at least I can. You might want to choose watch faces that has plenty of blacks too though. The reason for that is so that the Fitbit Sense does not blind you when you are trying to see it in the middle of the night, or when you are in a movie theatre. It also ensures that you do not disturb other people in the theatre, or your partner who is most likely fast asleep.

But OLED displays has more things going for it. For example, because it is more power efficient, your battery life is extended compared to normal smartwatches. That, or you can make your package a lot smaller than necessary packing smaller sized batteries. Thanks to that too, Always-on Display is possible, and looks great because the colours are so vivid.

Performance

The performance of a smartwatch is determined mostly by the virtues of its functions though. To us, the experience that you are going to have with the smartwatch is more important that how fast it churns numbers. So, what if the watch packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 series (it does not), It is not like I can play games on the watch anyway (there are no games in the Fitbit app market). What is important then is how fast we can work with it, and how much more convenience we get with the watch.

User Interface

The Fitbit Sense comes with Fitbit’s own User Interface (UI) and Operating System (OS). It is an interface unique to Fitbit’s smartwatches and we foresee it in future smartwatches. They did not mention what sort of hardware the Fitbit Sense comes with to run the OS, just that it runs.

We like the layout of the Fitbit OS very much on the Versa and the Versa 2. They make plenty of sense with big icons occupying the display as you scroll through the interface. Looking at notification is as straightforward as pulling the display down as well, very sensible. While scrolling from bottom to up gives you up to date information from weather, to your heart rate and what not. On the left of the watch face screen is your quick settings like sleep mode or Always-on Display mode.

Everything is where they are meant to be and very intuitive after the first minutes of use. The icons are big and easy to read on the tiny display that is the smartwatch. What we find very annoying on most smartwatches is that the icons for apps or functions are very small on the display. That also means that you need a high degree of precision to make the watch work. Fitbit’s OS only allows you to display four app icons on one menu scree, which also means that you most likely will get the right apps to launch the first touch. Even the quick settings menu only has six big buttons on the screen. The only issue then is that you have to do a bit more scrolling that usual. Not a deal breaker still.

The UI can lag a little sometimes. We actually hoped that Fitbit improved their OS a little bit or put something a little more powerful to accommodate the sensors and make the UI feel a little smoother. Instead, the same lag when you input and when changing screen that the Versa 2 had can also be seen here. Even opening apps can be quite slow with the Fitbt Sense. There is just no sense of consistency in that too, one app opens in an instant, and another app takes forever to open and load.

Still, at least the app layout looks consistent most of the time. There are plenty of blacks that is used on the UI, which is also good because it makes the whole top looks like the display. Of course, the information screen is shown in a certain area of the display with quite large bezels (for smartwatches).

Most of Fitbit’s app screens has a center background glow too to add some flair and visual drama to the app. When the app is open, the app is laid out like a list, which also makes plenty of sense. It helps you comb through all the important information quickly and makes everything looks bigger and more accessible. The only issue is that scrolling through can be a bit of a pain sometimes because the display registers your touch as a press rather than scroll from time to time. So, you need to be a bit more precise here.

Navigating through the watch is also easy enough. You click to open an app, you click through again to access a specific information, and you press the single button on the side to get it out to the home screen. To go back to the previous screen, simply swipe from the left to right of the display. The button can also have a programmable long-press function. We set ours to launch Music, but you can easily set it to do other things like launch an app on your Fitbit Sense.

Yes, you can control the music app on your smartphone with the watch as well. With the Spotify app you can control Spotify on any device that is playing music with your Spotify account. But the Music app allows you to control the music that you play through your Bluetooth paired smartphone device regardless of the app you use (Tidal is not on Fitbit’s app store). Of course, to enable this you would have to dig into the settings a little bit and allow Sense Control under Music Control. This is a definite improvement over the previous Versa 2 and Versa music control. We also find the Spotify App to be a little finnicky for our liking, working 80% of the time and not working for the remainder of the time because it cannot detect any devices playing on your device for some reason.

You can easily load up music into the device too though via the app if you have Deezer. We do not have Deezer, which also means that it is quite pointless for us to try connecting our Bluetooth earphones to Fitbit Sense also at this point. Fitbit says that the Sense can connect up to eight Bluetooth devices, including a Bluetooth speaker. Still, if you have Deezer, you might want to do that so that you do not have to bring your smartphone out for a quick run.

There are also plenty of watch faces you can choose from in their app market too. While you cannot find the same faces as the Apple Watch or Samsung’s Galaxy Watch, or even stuff from Android Wear, there are plenty of selections from Fitbit’s app market that you will not be bored with the watch face. Either that, or you will find one that suits you in terms of visuals and information load.

Exercise mode

According to Fitbit’s website, the Fitbit Sense has over 20 exercise modes with SmartTrack. You can set your own exercises and set your own goals based on all the exercises. You can go as basic as a simple running, bikes, circuit training, hiking, HIIT, Golf, and even martial arts. Kickboxing is even put into its own category here. The only thing we have done with the watch is go for a quick run though (I am not very fit).

In some of these exercise modes, like running and bike mode, the Fitbit Sense is connected to GPS to track your location and creates a pathway. Of course, the GPS data is also used to measure the distance you have travelled, and even your pace. You can refer to all these data collected on your Fitbit app too, to make life easier.

Of course, like any other modern Fitbit devices, the Fitbit Sense also automatically jumps into exercise mode when it detects your heart rate spiking above a certain rate for a prolonged period. In that sense, you do not need to go into individual exercise modes all the time just to get your Fitbit to log data. The only issue is, it might not detect the sport that accurately, which also means you might need to go back into the watch to get it into the correct mode.

However, it does not contain all the right exercise modes too. One of the most popular past-times or sport in Malaysia is Badminton, which also happens to be my game of choice. That also means that the only mode I can set the Fitbit Sense to, in this sense, is either Tennis, or just let it go to regular sport mode, like I have done on the Fitbit Versa 2.

In those modes it accurately tracks your heart rate and puts it in a nice chart for you to look at after your exercise. It even tells you when your heart rate is at a fat burning stage and what not. Thankfully, in regular sport mode, not much information is hidden behind Fitbit’s Paywall.

Most of the exercise modes can also be tweaked a little bit before you set off on your exercises. You can set them to collect all sorts of data like lap times, number of steps, average speeds, calories burnt, target heart rate, target time, and what not. All the exercise mode can have largely the same data sets too. Of course, not all the data that is being collected are useful to the exercise you are doing at that time. For example, lap times and lap count data are a little pointless in Tennis.

Battery Life

We touched a little bit on the new fast-charging dock. We touched a little bit also on how fast it charges. In all our tests, the Fitbit Sense charges in about an hour if you plug it to the right power source. Of course, Fitbit does not include their own power brick for the charger. They only give the dock with an open USB Type-A end.

This practice is not new for Fitbit though. They have never (in our knowledge) included a power brick to charge your device with. While it is quite unthinkable, it is not such a crazy idea. When you have decided to buy a Fitbit device today, you would already be using a smartphone that comes with a power brick with a USB Type-A port to charge your smartphones. If not, you would also have an extra OEM power brick lying somewhere. If you do not even have that you can plug your charging dock into a PC’s USB port, and it will still charge the Fitbit Sense with a slightly lower charge speed, but it will still charge.

While observing its charge speed (yes, we actually put a stopwatch while watching the charge on the Fitbit Sense go up), we found that the Fitbit Sense will charge fully in about an hour no matter the charge state of the battery. The Fitbit Sense will charge very quickly when there is little to no charge in the Fitbit Sense (with a dedicated charger). The charging speed slows down after a while though, we suspect to extend the battery shelf life. But we also notice that fast charging the device accumulates a heap of heat on the Fitbit Sense, which might not be too comfortable on your wrist right after the charge.

That also means that charges will take about an hour or so before the display lights up to tell you that it is fully charged. Once charged, the Fitbit Sense is quoted to last about 6 full days (a full day for their claim is 24 hours). Keep in mind that the quoted battery life does not consider Always-on Display, which we are using. In our use case we get about four to five days in battery life. It also depends if the watch is constantly on your wrist all-day. A typical use case in my personal experience is wearing the watch only when I am going to bed, heading out, or going for an exercise (at home or out).

Of course, you could save battery by turning off Always-on Display. Your choice of watch face could also dramatically affect its battery life. More blacks, for example, on your watch face uses less resources on the display and therefore consumes less battery life.

While we never got six days out of the Fitbit Sense, it does not mean that the battery life is less than average. The last time we got battery life longer than the Fitbit Sense was from a Garmin smartwatch without a touch sensitive LCD as its main interaction interface. To be fair, those Garmin devices are in their own class as adventure and fitness focused smartwatches.

That said though, even 4 days in battery life is already at least twice or three times more than what you can get from an Apple Watch and most Android Wear devices these days. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 could hold itself up to about 3 days at a maximum with all its function on. In that sense, for something that you rely on inside and outside your house, 4 days in battery life is nothing short of amazing and something anyone can appreciate. Of course, Fitbit devices have always been known to have an exceptionally long battery life from a package no bigger than your automatic watch at home.

We also appreciate how small and compact the charging dock is. We mentioned this earlier, we know, but bear with us a little bit here. The charger can be easily packed into my electronics pouch for a quick trip to a foreign land; Singapore let us say. The charger could be easily left at home though if I am only abroad for two nights since the battery holds a charge for about four days for me. Packing the charger for a ‘just-in-case’ situation though is easy enough and does not add bulk and weight to our bags. We like this even better than the older clamp style charging dock that does not sit properly anywhere.

The Fitbit Sense – Sensible All-Rounder

The Fitbit Sense is not just a small improvement over the older Versa line-up though. It is not a Versa+, not really. It may look and feel similar, but I think that it sits in a slightly different category. It technically is a more premium Fitbit Versa 3 in a sense, I admit. But the whole form factor and functionality is a big improvement over the Versa 2. The newer ergonomics slightly more rounded and softer shape of the Fitbit Sense makes it look more modern, more ‘stealth’. It looks like it belongs on the wrist as a fashion item now. It is stylish.

Then there is the same great UI that we are very easily used to from the Versa series. The OLED display makes everything looks sharper than before and better. We may not agree too much with their shift to a proprietary strap lugs, but it is much easier to work with compared the Versa 2. In that sense, it is a big sensible upgrade.

All these things are packaged in a body that holds a speaker and mic that can theoretically work with phone calls, and even Google Assistant. It already works with Amazon’s Alexa, so the other two should work nicely too. Inside the body is also a potentially game changing feature that is disabled only because of regulation irregularities in the country. Once it is available though, it would be an especially important feature.

You also get more than 2 days of battery life with it, which also means you need not worry about its charge or whether or not it will faithfully serve you through the day without dying. You do not need to carry its charger everywhere you go to0, you do not even need to take it off at work. Even if you need to carry its charger, it is so small and light that you can throw it in your gear bag quickly without adding bulk.

We admit though that we are not in total agreement of the paywall that Fitbit puts up for certain extra information from their trackers. You are already paying a premium for these items. The Fitbit Sense will set you back MYR 1,498, more expensive than any other Fitbit that you can buy today. The most expensive Fitbit in the range of Fitbit fitness trackers only comes with 6 months of Fitbit Premium trial, not even one year. We think that this is a little ridiculous given the timing of its launch too.

The Fitbit Sense is an MYR 350 premium over the Fitbit Versa 3, though. In a lot of sense, they are the same sort of smartwatches with one or two differences in material choice and sensors packed in. They offer the same battery life too, with also over 20 exercise modes. The display is technically similar, alongside the very familiar UI from Fitbit. That also means you can get the same watch faces.

At this point, because the Fitbit Sense is a little crippled by certain restrictions, the Fitbit Versa 3 would seem like a better buy since it is cheaper. We agree with that too. You get a less flashy matte finish case too, which contributes to the ‘stealth’ look better. You do not get unnecessary functions with the Versa 3 too, so that is that. With those out of the way, it should be quite a straightforward choice for you at this point.

Android, Mobile, News

Motorola Unveils The Moto E7

November 26, 2020 Leeden Tang Leave a comment

Motorola’s return to form came in it’s hit Moto G smartphone back in 2013; arguably one of the first smartphones to take the mid-range segment seriously. The company then released their Moto E series which saw similar success for the entry-level. This year, Motorola, now a subsidiary of Lenovo, is releasing its seventh generation of the Moto E series. Motorola touts the Moto E7 as a smartphone that delivers outstanding camera and display features with impressive battery life and performance for a great overall mobile experience.

The Moto E7 comes with a large 48MP camera sensor that brings premium mobile photography to a lower price for the Moto E users. The sensor uses Quad Pixel technology to produce better quality 12MP shots. Besides that, it also supports a range of features including the Night Vision, Portrait Mode and Panorama Mode. The Moto E7 is also built with a dedicated macro zoom camera which allows users to get 2.5x closer to the focus compared to a standard lens for incredible close-up shots of smaller objects. This will come in handy when taking shots of small, fine objects like flowers, insects or even tiny mechanical details. In terms of video taking, the main camera supports both HD and Full-HD recording at 30 fps.

The Moto E7 comes with a 6.5-inch Max Vision display with Full HD+ resolution which makes it more interesting and fun when it is used for gaming, movies and video chats. The display features a 20:9 aspect ratio which provides a more cinematic experience for its users. Other than that, the Moto E7 is packed with a long-lasting 4000 mAh battery, where users will no longer need to be afraid of the battery dying while gaming or during long days. Motorola has claimed that it is capable of working up to 36 hours and the Moto E7 supports 10W fast charging.

Under the hood, the Moto E7 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G25 processor and it runs on Android 10. It comes with 2GB RAM and 32GB onboard storage and supports up to 512GB of additional storage via microSD cards. Other than that, it is also built with a fingerprint reader which is located at the back on the phone, allowing its users to unlock the phone with just a single tap on the fingerprint reader. A dedicated Google Assistant button is also located at the left side of the phone where it helps its users to find answers and get things done by just using the voice command.

Pricing & Availability

The Moto E7 comes in three colours: Aqua Blue, Mineral Gray and the Satin Coral. It is now available in selected European countries with prices starting from €119.99(MYR584.26).

Motorola’s Moto E7 will also be rolling out in the coming weeks to Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

Android, Mobile, News

POCO Launches the M3 – Paying for More than You Expectry Level Smartphone

November 24, 2020 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

What can US$ 149 (MYR 599**) get you today? In Malaysia, MYR 600 is what you can expect to pay if you buy about three PlayStation games. Smartphones? You are talking about an entry-level smartphone; something basic maybe.

If you are spending that amount of money on a smartphone, we can tell you a few things. Firstly, you do not expect it to perform like a Samsung Galaxy S device. We will also tell you that it might be a good secondary device for you, if you already have a smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy S device. Beyond not expecting to have a device with the quality of a Samsung Galaxy S device, we would also say that you do not expect much. Sure, you can work with all the basic functions of a smartphone like Whatsapp messaging, making calls, play simple games, go to the web, play music, watch videos on YouTube and Netflix, but do not expect a stellar experience with it.

All of the above may be true, until now. You see, smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and HUAWEI have been focusing mainly on pushing their branding into their own class. They want their brand to be premium in perception. In that case, a smartphone worth MYR 599 might not be great if you reach out to these brands. This is not the case for POCO though.

POCO is a brand that was born to beat the bigger name brands at their own game. They are value players in the field and seems to offer you something more than what you are paying for. That is always true for their higher end devices. Thing is, POCO has never made entry-level smartphones before until they launched the M3 just now.

Before you pass off judgment and give the device a pass though, you should know that POCO has brought their value-for-money philosophy and approach to the device they just launched today. The only difference between this and the high-end device is the low pricing starting at US$ 149 (MYR599**). What the device packs sounds like you are paying for more than it is worth.

First off, the processor, as usual. The POCO M3 comes with a brand-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 System on a Chip (SoC) that is supposed to be more powerful than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 platform. Which also means that you are getting something that is more comparable to a mid-range smartphone in power than a lowly entry-level. The 11nm Octa-core chip also packs a Qualcomm Adreno 610 GPU to boot and has a dedicated AI engine built-into the chip. While it does not mean that the device will top out any benchmark charts, the SoC is powerful enough to run Android 10 smoothly and work with most games nicely.

With the SoC also comes a 4GB RAM. 4GB RAM does not sound like a lot in today’s standards for smartphones. To be fair, it is not that much. 4GB RAM though is enough for a modern Android device and some multitasking. You can still get away with multiple apps open in the background and browse the web with a few tabs on.

While 4GB of RAM might not help that much with speeds, the UFS 2.2 (up to) storage that measures at 128GB (up to) should help you with data read and write speeds. That also means that you can instantly access most of the apps within the device with no speed issues at all. Sure, it may not be as snappy as the flagship devices, but it should still be quick enough that you might not notice the difference.

The triple camera module still features 48-Megapixel in resolution. The main shooter has a 2-Megapixel macro camera and a 2-Megapixel depth sensor for support and more photography options. Of course, there is a front-facing camera that sits pretty in a Dot Drop notch above the display with 8-Megapixel power.

While there is nothing to shout about in the camera department, the display should be commended. It is a large 6.53-inch Full HD+ display that is only disturbed by the notch for the front-facing camera. You can get it up to 400nits in brightness and it is TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light certified. Best of all though it sits under a Corning Gorilla Glass to protect it from clumsiness and stratches.

All this goodness is powered by a larger-than-ever 6,000mAh battery. A Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra only has a 4,500 mAh battery. The 6,000mAh battery should keep you running for days from a single charge. When the power runs out, quickly get it up and running again with 18W fast charging and the included 22W charger. If you really need to, the 6,000mAh battery can share its charge with other devices, so you are now your friends’ hero too.

Additionally, the POCO M3 comes with Dual Speakers and 3.5mm jack. Your old earphones can get some loving from the device. With Hi-Res Audio certification, your older high-end earphones can get some love. That Also means you can load up Hi-Res audio files into the device too if you want. Maybe you might want to consider getting a 512GB MicroSD card for your Hi-Res audio files though.

Source: POCO
Source: POCO
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Source: POCO
Source: POCO

The POCO M3 will be available on the 27^th November 2020 onward globally and in Malaysia in two storage configurations: 4GB + 64GB and 4GB + 128GB. For now, in Malaysia, the POCO M3 will only be available in Cull Blue, and Power Black colour options. The POCO Yellow variant will be available at a later date (pending announcement). You can get your hands on one exclusively via Xiaomi Official Store on Lazada for MYR 599 (US$ 149*) and MYR 699 (US$169*) respectively. On sales launch date though, customers can get the devices for MYR 499 (US$129***) and MYR 599 (US$149***) respectively while stocks last. In addition to the MYR 100 discount on the device, buyers will also get a Mi In-ear Basic Piston Earphone, while stocks last. For more information on the POCO M3 you can head out to their website.

*Official Global Pricing
**Official Malaysia Pricing
***Official Black Friday Sale Pricing

Android, Mobile, News

HUAWEI Freebuds Pro, Watch GT 2 Pro & MatePad T 10s is now Available in Malaysia

November 19, 2020 Leeden Tang Leave a comment

Huawei is rolling out new products aimed to enhance the quality of your lifestyle with the new Huawei Freebuds Pro, Watch GT 2 Pro and MatePad T. They are currently retailing nationwide, with Huawei is giving out amazing deals for Malaysian fans.

The Huawei FreeBuds Pro has turned some heads due to its stunning design and the world’s first intelligent Dynamic Noise cancellation with hybrid active noise-cancellation to avoid in-ear noise environments. To ensure an immersive audio experience, it identifies the nature of the environmental noise and automatically switches to the appropriate noise-cancellation mode.

The new Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is designed with a premium titanium body enhanced by a sapphire glass surface. It is created for users to experience a perfect blend of aesthetics and performance in a smartwatch. It also features fitness-based sensors enabling heart rate, speed and slope measurements while giving alerts if you have exceedingly high values of those data to keep you safe. What is astonishing about this smartwatch is that it provides up to 2 weeks of usage on a single charge.

Last but not least is the Huawei MatePad T10s. The tablet is powered by the Kirin 710a octa-core processor and runs Huawei’s EMUI 10.1. The MatePad T10s packs a 10.1 inch FHD display with vivid colors thanks to the HUAWEI ClariVu™ technology. The display has Eye Comfort certification for its low blue light emission. The display is coupled with cinematic surround sound tuned by Harman Kardon, perfect tablet for your next Netflix binge.

Pricing & Availability

The Huawei FreeBuds Pro is priced at RM699 and comes with a free cover and mini Bluetooth speaker.

The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is priced at RM1,199 and comes witha free dark green strap.

It is RM999 for the Huawei MatePad T 10s and it comes with a free flip cover, 15GB Huawei Cloud Storage, Huawei Video and Huawei Books.

You can grab these incredible products via the Huawei Store online, Lazada or Shopee.

Android, Business, Mobile, News

Sony’s Xperia 1 II & Xperia 5 II are Available in Malaysia

November 19, 2020 Leeden Tang Leave a comment

Sony’s Xperia line up is one of the longest lasting line up of smartphones. It continues to be Sony’s go to brand with their newly launched flagships the Xperia 1 II and the Xperia 5 II. The Xperia 1 II will be available starting in November and the Xperia 5 II a little later after that, with prices starting at MYR4099. Let’s take a peek at bells and whistles of models to retail in Malaysia.

Both of these new Xperia models share some key specs. Chiefly, they are both powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. They both have a triple 12MP camera setup with ZEISS optics for quality images. They also have good life battery with 4,000mAh battery supported by USB-PD and charging via USB-C. They also retain the 3.5 headphone jack for your audio needs.

The key difference between these devices is their size. The Xperia 1 II is slightly bigger with a 6.5 inch screen compared to the Xperia 5 II and its 6.1 inch screen. The Xperia 1 II also has a better OLED display with higher resolution of 1644 x 3840 and and a higher pixel density, while the Xperia 1 II has a lower 1080 x 2520 resolution.

Both models have IP65/IP68 certification for water and dust resistance. They also come with stereo speakers and support PS4 Remote Play. Only the Xperia 1 II comes along with wireless charging as is expected of the flagship variant. However, the Xperia 5 II with its lower price tag and similar core features will give it a run for its money.

The Xperia 1 II is listed for retail at MYR4,999 while the Xperia 5 II is listed at MYR4,099 in the official Sony Online Store. With this announcement, the original Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 are now retailing for MYR3,099 and MYR2,799 respectively.

Android, Mobile, News

5G Gets More Affordable with the Samsung Galaxy A42 5G

November 19, 2020 Jimmy Chua Leave a comment

The latest generation of mobile network, 5G, is slowly making its way to the masses around the world. With that in mind, more major players in the mobile device market pumping out their own compatible devices. After introducing their 5G capable flagships, Samsung has announced another 5G device- the Galaxy A42 which is priced lower at $450 internationally and only MYR1,599 in Malaysia. It is equipped with all the innovation consumers have come to expect with the Galaxy A series, including a Quad Camera, Infinity-U Display and a long lasting battery.

The Galaxy A42 5G comes with the Snapdragon 750G which brings support for 5G on both mmWave and Sub6 bands according to Qualcomm. However, actual connectivity support has not been revealed by Samsung. The new smartphone comes with a 6.6-inch HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-U Display; which should provide ample viewing space for an immersive media experience. It also has a large 5,000mAh battery with support for Fast Charge which should keep you going for at least one full day. The sleek design of the phone is also ergonomic, with rounded edges to make it more comfortable to grip.

Here comes the catchy features of the Galaxy A42 5G, a powerful multi role Quad Camera that captures images and records videos with enhanced clarity. This consists of 48MP main camera supported by a an 8MP Ultra Wide Camera, a 5MP Macro Camera and a 5MP Depth Camera to capture more detail. Plus, the front-facing camera is a 20MP Selfie Camera, a great addition for selfie enthusiasts. Other Galaxy A42 5G specs include 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, expandable up to 1TB.

Pricing & Availability

The Samsung Galaxy A42 will be available in Prism Dot Black, Prism Dot White and Prism Dot Grey. It is available in Europe for €369 starting from 7 November and is already available in Malaysia via Samsung’s online store for MYR1,599.

Official Specifications

Galaxy A42 5G Product Specifications¹

Display²	6.6-inch HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-U Display
Rear Camera	Quad Camera Main: 48MP, F1.8 Ultra Wide: 8MP, F2.2 Depth: 5MP, F2.4 Macro: 5MP, F2.4
Front Camera	20MP, F2.2
Body	75.9 x 164.4 x 8.6mm 193g^3,7
AP	Octa-Core (Dual 2.2GHz + Hexa 1.8GHz)
Memory⁴	4/6/8GB RAM 128GB Internal Storage MicroSD slot (up to 1TB)
Battery⁵	5,000mAh (typical) 15W Adaptive Fast Charging
Biometric Authentication	On-Screen Fingerprint
Colors⁶	Prism Dot Black Prism Dot White Prism Dot Gray

¹All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this table including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice.
²Screen measured diagonally as a full rectangle without accounting for the rounded corners. Actual viewable area is less due to the rounded corners and the camera cut out.
³Device weight may vary by region and market.
⁴Available RAM may vary by country and region.
⁵ Typical value tested under third-party laboratory condition. Typical value is the estimated average value considering the deviation in battery capacity among the battery samples tested under IEC 61960 standard. Rated (minimum) capacity is 4,680mAh. Actual battery life may vary depending on network environment, usage patterns and other factors. All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this table including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice.
⁶ Availability may vary by country.
⁷The disclaimer for weight specifications has been revised on October 22, 2020 to provide more accurate information.

Mobile, News

Samsung Unleashes New Exynos 1080 SoC

November 17, 2020 Leeden Tang Leave a comment

Samsung’s next-generation midrange SoC (system on a chip) is the newly introduced Exynos 1080. The new chipset offers the latest Cortex-A78 CPU cores paired with the latest Mali-G78 graphics core. It’s the first SoC in which Samsung is adopting a new 1+3+4 CPU configuration with one core clocked at 2.8GHz and 3 others at 2.6GHz. This is supplemented by 4 more Cortex-A55 cores which are clocked at 2.0GHz.

The chipset is built on a 5nm process, which has until now only been used by Apple in their A14 processor. The new 5nm, octa-core Exynos 1080 touts better performance with the new architecture and also boasts significant power efficiency boosts. According to Samsung, the single-core performance has been boosted by 50% while the multi-core performance is boosted by 100%.

In addition to the power savings from the architecture itself, Samsung has also introduced a power-saving solution it calls “Amigo Power”. The new solution will help monitor and optimize battery consumption. Samsung is touting that the solution will make the Exynos 1080 10% more power-efficient than its predecessor. Samsung has also spent some time optimising the NPU and DSP which boast a machine-learning interference power of 5.7TOPs indicating that any AI programs running on the SoC should be able to crunch more data at any given time. This should indicate better, quicker image post-processing and optimizations in both user experience and response speed.

Power consumption isn’t the only area Samsung is focusing on. The Exynos 1080 SoC can support a single 200MP camera or dual 32MP + 32MP sensors. On the video end of things, the processor is able to support shooting up to 4K resolution at 60fps.

Connectivity-wise, the Exynos 1080 is going to be able to support 5G on both the sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrum which indicates that the SoC could be making it to the U.S. given that, until now, the U.S. is the only country with official rollout of 5G on the Sub-6 wavelength. Aside from 5G, the SoC supports Cat.18 4G LTE connectivity. The Exynos 1080 will also support Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. In addition to this, the SoC will support up to 144Hz refresh rate, LPDDR5 RAM and has UFS 3.1 compatibility.

The Exynos 1080 will be available in the market in Q1 of 2021. That said, it looks like it will be making its way to consumers in a new Vivo device first. It has been confirmed that the SoC will see its debut in the Vivo X60 series come 2021. Vivo will also be using last year’s Exynos 980 in their upcoming X30 series smartphones.

Android, Mobile, News

HONOR 10X Lite Unveiled With 5,000mAh Battery & Kirin 710A

November 12, 2020 Jimmy Chua Leave a comment

HONOR has released its newest model, the HONOR 10X Lite. The company’s latest offering for budget users brings together performance and features in a complete package that won’t break the bank. It carries the same promises for performance and long-life battery as its predecessors.

The HONOR 10X comes with a 6.67-inch display with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080×2400 pixels. It also has a 90.3% screen to body ratio for a more immersive display experience. The smartphone runs atop the HiSilicon Kirin 710A octa-core processor. This is support with 4GB RAM and 128GB of internal memory which is expandable with up to an additional 512GB with a microSD card.

Software-wise, the HONOR 10X Lite runs on Android 10 with EMUI 10.1. This also means that the smartphone will come with HUAWEI’s HMS platform which does not support Google Mobile Services. It also comes with an improved Multi-Window Mode and a new eBook mode.

In the camera department, the HONOR 10X Lite houses a quad-camera setup. This includes a 48-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel wide-angle sensor, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro sensor. The front camera is an 8-megapixel sensor housed within the punch-hole on the display.

The phone is powered by a 5000mAh battery that supports 22.5W SuperCharge. HONOR touts that the smartphone will be able to last up to 38 hours on 4G LTE connectivity with a single charge. SuperCharge will allow users to get fully charged in only 95 minutes.

Pricing & Availability

The HONOR 10X Lite will be available in three colours: Midnight Black, Emerald Green, and Icelandic Frost. It is already available in Russia and other markets in Europe for €229.90 (MYR1118.93/USD$270.63). No news yet on when the phone will be making its way to Malaysia.

HONOR teamed up Wattpad to launch the Emerging Writers Program

Together with their new phone, HONOR also announced the Emerging Writers Program; an initiative to spur creativity among amateur and professional writers. In line with the brand’s vision of spurring self-expression and appealing to the younger generation, the Emerging Writers program looks to find up and coming writers and highlight the many features of HONOR’s latest smartphone in creating new experiences on screen and off. HONOR and Wattpad are planning to invite write across the globe to share their short stories about their dream and hope after this pandemic lock-down.

Android, Mobile, News

OPPO A73 Officially in Malaysia; Goes on Sale on 11.11

November 7, 2020 Jimmy Chua Leave a comment

OPPO has officially launched its newest model OPPO A73 which will make its official debut exclusively on Shopee Malaysia. The sensually sleek design of the model is the latest entry into OPPO’s affordable A series which brings the company’s selfie and camera technologies to a more affordable price point.

The OPPO A73 has been designed with sleek curves to help with the ergonomics and grip of the phone. Coming in at only 152g and 7.5mm, the phone is one of the thinnest and lightest yet from OPPO’s A series. OPPO has also decided to add a touch of variety with a matte, leather-like finish for a more unique, premium finish. What’s more, the finish makes it fingerprint and scratch-resistant.

The guts of the OPPO A73 is an octa-core Snapdragon 662 processor capable of speeds of up to 2.5 GHz with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory. The phone will be launching with OPPO’s ColorOS 7.2 which runs on top of Android 10. It’s powered by a 4,105mAh battery with support for 30W VOOC Flash Charge promising a full charge in only 55 minutes. OPPO has also introduced safety features which include five independent thermistors to prevent the overheating while charging.

The OPPO A73 sports a 6.44-inch Full HD AMOLED display with a resolution of 2,4000×1080 pixels. The larger screen size provides users with a more immersive experience when it comes to consuming media and even gaming. It also comes with an under screen fingerprint sensor for quick unlock in addition to the face unlock features which come baked in to ColorOS.

A.I. Beauty Enabled Cameras

The main camera on the OPPO A73 is a quad camera setup OPPO calls a 16MP Ultra Wide-Angle quad-cam system. It consists of a 16MP main camera, a 119 degree 8MP wide-angle camera, a 2MP monochrome camera, and a 2MP retro camera. There are some optimized features which include filters and software enhancements to preserve skin tone. The cameras also come with OPPO’s now ubiquitous A.I. technology which it is calling A.I. Dazzle Color. This helps with advanced scene recognition and enhance captured pictures. For video recording, OPPO A73 come with a steady video feature to help stabilise your video recording for better quality with electronic image stabilization.

The front comes with a 16MP A.I. Beauty Beauty Camera to let you have the perfect selfie. Also, an ultra-sensitive f/2.0 aperture that offers you higher sensitivity and more clarity during low light conditions.

Pricing & Availability

The OPPO A73 will be available in three colours, Dynamic Orange, Navy Blue, and Classic Silver; priced at RM899 on the OPPO Official Online Store on Shopee and OPPO Official Website.

It will be available for pre-order from 3 to 10 November 2020. OPPO is offering free gift for the first 300 customers who purchase the OPPO A73. They will be entitled to a Weloop Neo Smartband worth RM389 and an OPPO Enco W11 that worth RM159. After this, the phone will be available for sale starting on 11 November, 2020 and will be available on the upcoming 11.11 sales.

Android, Editorial, Mobile, Reviews

HUAWEI Y6P In-Depth Review – Another Missed Opportunity

November 6, 2020 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

It has been more than a year since the United States of America vs. HUAWEI debacle. That issue has affected the smartphone industry a major way. HUAWEI is not just banned from the United States of America (U.S.A.), but vendors from the country are not allowed to deal with HUAWEI. That also means that HUAWEI loses the majority of their suppliers and clients alike. The lose important partners like Google. That loss of support also means that modern HUAWEI devices for 2020 does not come with Google’s Play Store.

It started with the HUAWEI Mate 30 series introduced last year, the HUAWEI AppGallery. That app aggregator is supposed to replace the missing Google Play Store on HUAWEI devices, a sort of filling for a hole left by Google. AppGallery was not perfect though, far from it. It is still only the third biggest app ecosystem in the world at this point. While that may not seem to be entirely a bad thing, you have to remember that there were two major superpowers in the app ecosystem, and they are leading in the region of billions of apps available to users. The HUAWEI AppGallery, in contrast, has not even hit 100,000, in app population.

This also means that all HUAWEI devices are a little crippled when it comes out of the box. Surprisingly though, Malaysia holds itself as HUAWEI’s biggest market outside of China. Proof? The HUAWEI Mate 30 series’ first batch to Malaysia sold out within the first day.

Those are flagships with very compelling hardware to go though, the Mate 30 devices. They embody the best of HUAWEI and the latest of their innovations in almost every aspect. What about the more budget options? What about a HUAWEI Y6P, for example?

The HUAWEI Y6P is an MYR 559 package that seems basic enough to be a secondary smartphone. It is even wallet friendly enough that it could be your kids’ first smartphone. But is this a better buy than, let us say, a Xiaomi Redmi 9 for example? Is it a good buy at all, since you still do not get Google Play Store on the device? We delve in and find out.

Design

By now, if you are a regular, you should know that we like to start by looking at the entirety of the device and see if it is anywhere near attractive enough to make it into our pockets or not. In reality, smartphones look pretty much the same most of the times now. The HUAWEI Y6P is two slabs of thin and ultra-strong glass panels stuck together with nothing more than glue on what seems to be its aluminium chassis.

At least it looks modern with bezels so thin, you could get a papercut (not really, but you get the point). The lip bezel at the bottom of the device seems to be a little thicker to suggest that the display is perhaps not as high-end as you want it to be. It is a budget package that costs well under MYR 1,000 after all.

You pull your gaze further up the display and everything looks sublime until you reach the top of the device. You spot an old school notch that houses a front-facing camera. While the front-facing camera notch is not something from a decade ago, it still feels a little old compared to modern smartphones of today; a little old-fashioned.

Not that it is a bad thing though. The little notch is a still an elegant and valid solution to the near bezel-less displays of today. Still, we are never huge fans of notched displays or punch-hole displays.

You move to the back, and you see pretty much what you can expect from a modern smartphone. You see a multi-camera set up surrounded by the usual glass or plastic material. In the case of the HUAWEI Y6P, you see a triple-camera set-up surrounded by glass.

There is another old-fashioned feature on the device too, at the back. There is a proper, physical dip for a fingerprint sensor. These days you get plenty of devices with their fingerprint sensor under their displays. In our opinion, the old physical fingerprint sensors are still the best to work with. They are still more accurate and faster compared to the modern under-display fingerprint readers.

Thing is, while this looks like a device that is a whole lot older than modern flagships, the design cues on the device is common in a non-flagship that sets you back less than MYR 1,000. The traditional fingerprint sensor out the back of the device, the notched display, and the fat bottom lip of the bezel are not that old as well. In fact, we saw these designs two years ago at most. Most of these design decisions were also made to counter one or two problems with trending designs at the time if you think about it.

Underneath the glass at the back is a unique design that looks like a wave under the lights. Again, this is the sort of design you can expect from smartphones from last year and two years ago maybe. That does not mean that it does not look good though.

The unit we have is a Phantom Purple variant, and we quite like the patterns from the glass back of the device. We think that some flagships should come with these kinds of backing instead of entry-level or mid-range devices. Still, we suspect that this kind of look might not age well.

Overall, there is nothing really that stands out for the device. It looks plain and simple enough to pass as a smartphone. It looks perfectly fitting as a secondary smartphone, a spare smartphone, or your kids’ first smartphone. The price fits too.

Hardware

Unlike its more premium siblings, the HUAWEI Y6P has to make do with a MediaTek MT6762R System on a Chip (SoC). It is still an octa-core processor though, which means it should still be a capable machine. Multi-core also means that this should be able to run most mobile made apps and processes smoothly and quickly enough. Of course, again, it will not be perfect. It only packs 4GB in RAM and its display is not even a Full HD+ panel.

Specifications

Processor	Mediatek MT6763R Helio P22 Octa-core 12nm 4x Cortex A53@ 1.5GHz 4x Cortex A53 @ 2.0GHz
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)	PowerVR GE8320
RAM	4GB
Memory (as tested)	64GB MicroSDXC slot
Display	IPS LCD 6.3-inch 1,600 x 720 pixels ~278ppi
Operating System	ColorOS 7.1 based on Android 10
Battery	Non-Removable Li-Po 5,000mAh Fast Charging 10W
Connectivity	Dual SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP Bluetooth 5.0 LE OTG Support MicroUSB
Camera (s)	REAR: 13-Megapixel (f/1.8, wide angle) 5-Megapixel (f/2.2, ultra-wide angle) 2-Megapixel (f/2.4, depth sensor) HDR Full HD 1080p video recording (30fps) FRONT: 8-Megapixel (f/2.0) Full HD video recording (30fps)
Sensors	Accelerometer Proximity Fingerprint Ambient Light Gyroscope Face Unlock Compass

User Interface

Nope, it does not run HUAWEI’s proprietary operating system (OS). It is still the very familiar EMUI 10.1 that is based on Android 10. There is no word yet on EMUI 11 that should be based on Android 11. Still, Android 10 is still a very capable OS by Google.

Again, sadly there is no Google Play Store available here. You cannot even install Google Play Services and Framework for that matter. Which also means that while it is an Android device, it is devoid of plenty of apps and functions that makes an Android device an Android device.

HUAWEI AppGallery – an Improvement, But Not Google Play Store Replacement

We have to give it to HUAWEI and the team that is responsible in responding to the whole issue with not having Google Play Store. They have been doing a good job maintaining a straight face in the whole crisis and developed the HUAWEI AppGallery anyway. Like EMUI, the app marketplace has gone from strength to strength and has become a unique app marketplace on its own.

Of course, they like to point out that the AppGallery is now the third largest app marketplace there is in the world. Take it with a pinch of salt though. They are currently not up against huge players in the market. There are only two other large names in the field of distributing mobile apps to the world. Those two names are, of course, Google and Apple.

Still, that claim to third should not be discounted too much though. The AppGallery is growing consistently. We do not think that it will ever reach the heights and the sizes that are the Google Play store and Apple App Store in the next five years. We even hope that a change in the U.S.A. political conditions might allow Googe’s Play Store to find its way back to HUAWEI’s devices.

That is not to say that AppGallery is not a pleasant space to be though. There are apps that you are used to that will not be there, and there are apps that you will not normally use recommended to you. There is also something they call QuickApps within the app.

You can have WhatsApp on your smartphone and even Facebook on the HUAWEI Y6P via the AppGallery. They are not exactly on the app though. They are still the official download links on the official app, so you are quite safe. On the AppGallery as well, you can find iflix as well, if you want, or Viu, if you prefer that. You can download and get Netflix to work, but not via AppGallery, so you are using the app at your own risk as well.

Most importantly though you still can find shopping apps like Shopee and Lazada on the AppGallery, and almost all the banking apps in Malaysia. This is important because that also means that there is some localisation going on here.

EMUI 10.1 – The HUAWEI Ecosystem, on the Front Page

It is not all bad though. EMUI 10.1 is still and Android based OS. You see the marks of Android on it too like widgets and folders. It is the familiar EMUI that you know from before too (if you are familiar with EMUI). It does not feature an app menu tray, and it never will.

Like any modern Android, EMUI 10.1 feels smooth, snappy, and easy. You can get it to work with gestures from the beginning if you want to. That also means that there are no visible buttons to work with. Instead you swipe from the left or right to go ‘back’, swipe up to quickly go back to ‘home’, and hold after you swipe up for ‘recent apps’.

What that does is make your home screen looks much cleaner and a lot more expansive. But a device with no clear buttons might be confusing to some people, trust me plenty of friends gets confused on how an Android works these days. We do think that gesture control is still the way to go though.

The EMUI 10.1 on this device is a little different from the EMUI 10.1 of a flagship device though. Of course, that is to accommodate for the hardware present on the device. At the same time too, of course you are not going to get the full EMUI experience with this one, it is a sub MYR 1,000 device.

Some of things missing from EMUI on this device is things like HUAWEI Share and Multi-Screen Collaboration. Oh yes, it does not get Meetime as well, sadly. Or even air gesture controls like the HUAWEI P40 series.

So, what you are getting here is not really the full EMUI 10.1 that you get on flagship devices. Instead, it is the simplified version, the basic version that does just what you need a regular smartphone needs to do. It texts, it calls, and it plays videos, and that is just about it.

But it is not just because HUAWEI wants to encourage you to spend more money on your smartphones for all these features though. It is because they want you to buy this device as your secondary device, or just simplify it enough that it can truly be your first smartphone experience. That is why EMUI is simplified, for a simple device.

It does not have NFC, so why do you need HUAWEI Share? You might not need to use it on your PC or tablet, since it is a secondary device, so multi-collaboration is not needed. Air gesture would be clever and useful, but the hardware requirements will make it a lot more expensive that it is, so no. Camera? As an added bonus, the software will not be the bottleneck of the device, which also means you still get a smooth Android experience without spending an arm and a leg for it.

In that sense, the HUAWEI Y6P has done EMUI right. Our experience with the HUAWEI Y6P has been a smooth one. There are some noticeable lags here and there and plenty of apps open slower than what you can expect from flagship device. That is quite expected though, coming from a budget device. In that case, if you rely on your device for work that much and need to load a custom app quickly, maybe you want to consider using that app on your daily carry instead. We are quite confident that it will still run okay without any issues if you give it time though.

Sure, there are plenty of things that you might not be able to do with the HUAWEI Y6P over more expensive HUAWEI devices. Again, this is a budget device that is designed for a completely different market in mind. Expecting this to perform like a flagship device is quite unrealistic to begin with. The only drawback is that you do not have Google Play Store with it. But there are workarounds for that as well, if you are willing to take some risks and go through a little bit of hassle. Of course, you cannot be using any Google apps, since most Google apps need Google Framework installed, and this device does not have Google Framework installed within the system.

Performance

Of course, as we mentioned within the UI segment, you cannot expect magic to come out of the HUAWEI Y6P. It packs a MediaTek MT6762R SoC, which is not the most sophisticated or the most powerful SoC available for Android devices currently. While it is not the most powerful, it is good value and keeps the prices of the devices it powers cheap. It still has eight cores within the construction with four high-power cores and four low-power cores, the normal Big Little architecture that we see plenty of in today’s smartphone market.

It only packs 4GB in RAM as well, with 64GB in memory, to keep the device as budget friendly as possible. The amount of memory that the device has access to is also a good indication of how much processes it might be able to run at the same time. 4GB, while plenty for a mobile device, may not be adequate for high-load applications. Though, whether 4GB of RAM is enough really depends on how you work with your device.

We are not able to run any regular benchmarks for the HUAWEI Y6P because the regular apps we use for benchmarking a device does not exist on AppGallery. Downloading the apps via a third-party app aggregator works, but there is no guarantee that it works the same or is the most updated version. In that case we skip the benchmarks and continue the experience of the device.

Call Quality and Connectivity

We used the HUAWEI Y6P as our main driver. We stuck to Maxis because we are Maxis customers anyway. The device supports dual SIM capabilities, but we did not have a secondary SIM card to put into the device. It could also take a MicroSD card on the three-card slot tray, we stuck a 32GB MicroSD card in the device.

A three-card slot tray also means that you can have two SIM cards and a MicroSD card together in the device without compromise. We always thought that a flagship device should also include this kind of SIM tray, but none of the major flagships has gone this route yet. In that sense, we thought that his arrangement is the best there is.

The HUAWEI Y6P does not yet support 5G though. So, if you are trying to purchase a secondary smartphone or even a main driver that supports 5G; bad news, turn around, save up a little bit more. But 5G is not the point of this HUAWEI Y6P. 5G is not even commercially available in Malaysia just yet.

Making a call on the HUAWEI Y6P is as straightforward as making a call with any other smartphones. The layout of the buttons has never changed, the icon even looks somewhat the same with everything else in the market. That also means that it should come as a second nature to you at this point.

Of course, as a secondary device, you might want to use it for work mostly. That also means that you need to be making a lot of calls or even receive them. You are going to use this for your prime work conversation device. You will need good data signal too, to ensure you get all the messages in immediately and quickly reply.

In those departments, the HUAWEI Y6P excels as expected from a modern smartphone. Conversations are crisp and clear when you hear it from the earpiece. Unless the other person is on speakerphone, calls should not sound muddled or muted. But all those also depends on their environments.

On the other end, calls are reported to be mostly clear when there is a strong enough signal (at least one bar). Of course, with poor signal, you might get some dropped calls. In most cases in Kuala Lumpur though, you are going to be alright. The only times where signals are dropped is when you enter some basement parking areas, elevators, or known ‘black’ spots. Other than those, signals are usually more than 2 bars at a time. Of course, the other thing that you have to give credit to in modern smartphones are their dual mic configurations for noise cancellation.

If you are going to have a meeting with the device, the speakers might be loud enough that the crowd in a tiny meeting room can hear it. But not necessarily everyone in the room could have a proper conversation with the person on the other end of the line. You might want to be closer to the mics on the HUAWEI Y6P for that or get a wireless Speaker with Mic combination for conference calls.

Gaming

The HUAWEI AppGallery does not actually contain a lot of games that we play. Games like PUBG: Mobile, or Call of Duty Mobile is not available on the AppGallery, so you would have to download it via a third-party app aggregator. There is a problem with that though, you do not have Google Play Games on the device, which also means that if your progress is tied to your Google account, you have start from scratch.

If not though, you can technically get some of these games to work on the device and get your progress back with whatever you registered your accounts with. That may work for PUBG: Mobile or AOV since you can choose to use your Facebook account to save your progress with. Games like Brawl Stars, or Sky Force: Reloaded can work, but you will not have your previous progress.

When we do get them to work though, graphics are not impressive. All these things are quite expected from a device with 720p display though. PUBG also optimizes itself on difference devices, and that is why it reduced its graphical detail to ensure you get the best experience on the HUAWEI Y6P.

The thing is the device is not really made for these things. It is not made as a gaming device, not even a budget gaming device for that matter. It is made to be a value-for-money all-rounder. In that mindset, games are not on the priority list for the device.

Battery Life

This is probably the device’s best feature, considering everything else on the device is nothing to shout about. The HUAWEI Y6P packs a 5,000mAh battery. That is a larger battery size than any of the modern flagships currently. No doubt we will start seeing 5,000mAh battery packs in flagships in a few years’ time.

Still, there are no flagship at this point that packs a 5,000mAh juice pack within the device. Without a SIM card, the device could be on standby for nearly a month from a single charge. With a SIM card, you could leave it for about three days and still have enough battery to make a phone call and reply messages. You might even be able to look through your emails for a while before the battery dies. If you leave the device purely on standby with your SIM card plugged in and kept it in a WiFi environment, we believe it could even last for a whole week.

In normal use case, where we reply a few WhatsApp messages, Telegram messages, make or receive one or two phone calls, have one Whatsapp video call with a friend later in the day, and more Facebook and Instagram scrolls than anything, the device could last you about two days. The ultra-long battery life though is not only thanks to the low-powered processor that consumes little power for processes. Thanks to a lower resolution display at 720p as well, the battery life can be preserved even longer.

Display

As mentioned earlier, this only packs an HD+ 720p display, not even Full HD. That also means that when you put it against its competitors, the display of the other devices will look better and sharper. You cannot even compare them in terms of colour accuracy and aesthetics.

On its own though, you might not notice a difference between your HUAWEI Y6P and other devices at its price. Sure, there is only 1,600 by 720 pixels on board, but the 720p still looks decent. Colours are at least still sharp enough that you can enjoy YouTube (via the browser) videos on it. You can of course, enjoy Netlfix videos on the display but you cannot expect contrasts to be that great.

Of course, it is not an OLED display. While colours are sharp, they can look a little dull and washed out. Blacks are not truly black either, because this is not an OLED display. Again, nothing impressive in this department.

There is a good side to all this though. We did say the lower resolution helps in battery consumption, and that is true. Thanks to the lower power consumption in total, the device could last a little longer than its competition from a single charge. Of course, again, you might not be able to enjoy or appreciate details as much. Then again, this is not exactly an entertainment powerhouse is it?

Camera

The HUAWEI Y6P packs a 13-Megapixel main shooter supported by one 5-Megapixel ultra-wide shooter and one 2-Megapixel depth sensor. On the front is an 8-Megapixel shooter that sits pretty in the notch of the 6.3-inch display. Considering what most 12-Megapixel shooters can do today, 13-Megapixel as its main camera does not sound like a bad thing.

The thing is, the HUAWEI Y6P does not pack the same processor as its more premium siblings. The HUAWEI Y6P is also sort of a testament to the importance of processors for image processing and image quality. What you see from the 13-Megapixel sensor from the HUAWEI Y6P might shock your initial expectations to what photos should look like.

We tested it out first in a slightly darker conditions to be fair. In that sense lighting is at a premium and photos with most devices might not look good anyway. What we did not expect is how grainy and washed out the photos turn out. This is with HUAWEI’s clever AI turned on.

When there is enough lighting on your photos, they look fine. Not stellar, not breathtaking, simply fine. There is nothing to really shout about with the photos. They are not the most detailed photos or sharpest photos you can get from a smartphone. They are still useable though, and enough for Social Media use. We let the photos tell their own story though.

We are not particularly good with selfies. That is one reason why we did not upload a selfie photo for the review. The other reason is that the selfie camera is not particularly great as well. Photos look extremely washed out and cheap. They look like they are taken with a cheap polaroid with wrong the wrong colour contrast settings. Images from the 8-Megapixel sensor look soft on the edges.

Gallery

The HUAWEI Y6P – A Flawed Contender

The subheading might lead you to believe that the HUAWEI Y6P is a bad device. Let us get that out of the way first. We are not saying that it is a bad device. The HUAWEI Y6P does everything right, technically. We may not like its camera too much, but we do not expect this to replace our daily carry or even a DSLR anytime soon. It works just as it is intended.

There is nearly nothing wrong with the UI too, it is smooth and consistent. We never had anything against the UI because it is genuinely responsive. We only found that the lack of Google Play Store a little crippling.

Then there is the price. At MYR 559 (official price from HUAWEI’s Online Store), it is not expensive. If you put other devices of its class side by side though, it actually seems like a reasonable smartphone to work with. The Xiaomi Redmi 9, for example will set you back MYR 599 (equivalent spec). The OPPO A53 too is about MYR 699. Even Realme’s best offering that closely matches this device is MYR 150 more expensive. The closes thing to it is an HONOR 9CA that is MYR 549. You get 1GB less in RAM size though with the HONOR device.

We think that the HUAWEI Y6P should not be your first Android smartphone, just because it is so crippled by the lack of proper Google Play Store support. But we do think that as a second device the HUAWEI Y6P shines. Then again, you might still want Google Play Store support. In that case, the Xiaomi Redmi 9 seems like a good option.

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