So the trade ban with HUAWEI has been going on for several months now and nothing seems to be indicating that there would be an overturning of the decision. Every other person outside of the United States of America (U.S.A.) was hoping that the situation will get better and somehow the decision overturned though. Why? HUAWEI devices without Android is like eating Egg Mayo Sandwich without the Eggs. They are still good, just not as good.
It looks like all hopes for HUAWEI to be cleared of that trade ban is further and further away from reality though. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is U.S.A.’s version of MCMC for Malaysia, or if you are not in any of these countries – they are an independent body that regulates and certifies electronic items that involves communications. So your routers, modems, televisions, and even smartphones have to go through their certifications and ‘okay’ before being sold; they have declared HUAWEI and ZTE to be national security threats for the state. Sounds bad? It is bad.
While there were restrictions to HUAWEI telecommunication gears in the United States, there were no full ban to be set yet at the time. Thanks to the declaration from FCC, HUAWEI and ZTE items can no longer be purchased by all government linked companies or using the Universal Service Funds (USF) subsidy. That also means that we are not going to get Google’s Play Store on the HUAWEI devices anytime soon.
According to the chairman of FFC, Ajit Pai the Bureau has found evidence that both HUAWEI and ZTE having “close ties” to the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s military. But it is not just down to the links between the company and the government that becomes an issue. FCC also cited that the Chinese law dictates that these telecommunication giants that operates in China are obligated to share data and cooperate with China’s various intelligence services whenever the need arises.
If what FCC claims to have found is true, it becomes a huge privacy and data security breach potential. HUAWEI and ZTE have repeatedly denied the claims that they are a threat to the United States’ national security. To be fair, they have denied the existence of a certain backdoor that feeds information from all their telecommunication devices and services to the Chinese government. We do not know how much of the law aspect is true. We are not living in China after all.
Still, the biggest impact is still on HUAWEI’s smartphones. We have always enjoyed their smartphones. They have made great smartphones like the HUAWEI P40 Pro we recently reviewed. Sadly, the lack of Google’s Play Store on their devices crippled the devices so much that we find them an absolute nightmare to deal with on a day to day basis at times.
So far HUAWEI and ZTE has not responded to the claims. We remain hopeful to HUAWEI’s response to the claims. That, and also hoping that HUAWEI finds a way to get the Play Store ecosystem on their devices that are still running Android anyway.
Wearables are the rage these days. Well, they have been for the past few years. Of course they would be; they offer unparalleled flexibility and function to something as simple as a wrist watch. Your wrist watch is now your smartphone companion, your fitness tracker, your notification bell, your personal assistant, and your alarm.
The introduction of the new Apple WatchOS just about a week ago also marks a sort of new age for wearables. The same cannot be said, however to the aging platform that is Wear OS. Not that there is nothing new with Wear OS.
The latest Wear OS is technically still in its second generation (2.18 as launched in May 2020). You are already seeing the fourth generation of Wear OS devices in the market currently. The ones that has been pushing for Wear OS plenty is Fossil these days. They do have some pretty good-looking Wear OS devices on offer right now too, for not very much money.
There is another problem, however. The platform that they have been sitting on, the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear System on a Chip (SoC) that Wear OS rides on is also aging. To be fair, nothing much is really wrong with them. At the same time, they do leave a little bit to be desired.
Source: XDA Developers
2020 sees the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform. In this new line-up there are two processors unveiled. The top performing being the Qualcomm Snapdragon War 4100+ platform, and then there is the regular 4100 platform.
The headlines are pretty much expected. It is more powerful than the two year-old Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100. It is a lot more energy efficient too, making energy-efficient mode more colourful and functional. There is a whole slew of improvements in managing other features too, including a promised better GPS support. Oh, apparently there is better camera support too for whatever reason.
Of course, all these things are quite expected. To put them into perspective though, you have to look at numbers. Keep in mind that Wearable tech is still in its infancy and is still growing at an exponential rate.
The new 4100 platform is clocked 85% faster than the 3100 platform. Its memory clock is also that much faster while GPU performance is claimed to be more than twice faster than before. No, you might not want to use it for gaming still in a display no bigger than your webcam.
But that allows developers and Google more room for fancy animations, better looking interfaces, and generally plenty more functions to be loaded on top of Wear OS. Heck, it could even mean that you get different variants of Wear OS that fits form and function distinctly.
Source: XDA Developers
Apparently also the new 12nm Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform offers 25% more battery life compared to the outgoing 3100 platform. While that is still nothing to shout about, it is an improvement. Now you can have a Wear OS device that lasts to bedtime, rather than one that has to be charged when you get home after work. Or not, depending on what the watchmaker feels like fitting into their hardware.
There is a new 4G modem too in case you want the device to be an eSIM device. That also means you might be able to leave your smartphone behind during a jog in favour of a more secure, lighter package you wear on your wrist. Of course, new improved antenna also means better GPS coverage and tracking.
Currently nothing in Fossil’s line-up will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 platform. The first Wear OS device with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 platform will be the Mobvoi TicWatch line up. We can expect to see Fossil to follow suit later in the year. The Wear OS platform now might be worth a look.
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.
Having an unlimited amount of something is great. Bottomless drinks in restaurants, for example, are great for us. It means we will never go thirsty for the period you sit in that restaurant. It also means value-for-money. Everyone likes to get value-for-money things. They are like a bargain for whatever.
Celcom has always been at the forefront of that for some time. Then again, they have been quite aggressive in their product offerings. Celcom’s most recent prepaid plan was a real value-for-money product. You get for what you need, technically, for not too exorbitant amount of money.
Now they come with Celcom Xpax Truly Unlimited prepaid plan. Technically it is a monthly plan still that you pay for with your prepaid credits. They also renew automatically if you have enough credits within your SIM card. You do not need that much though. You only need MYR 12 every week. That is as low as it gets for the current prepaid unlimited plan almost anywhere.
Source: Celcom
For MYR 12 a week, you get 3MBps access to the internet and other services endlessly. For MYR 35 a month, you get a whole month of unlimited internet access at the same speed cap. The weekly plan gives you 1GB of hotspot data too for free. The monthly plan gives you 3GB of hotspot data to play with. On top of that you can of course add hotspot data plans for MYR 1 (1GB valid for one day) and MYR 3 (5GB valid for 3 days).
Should you ever need more 3MBps though you still can opt for Celcom’s Xpax Ultra Hour Passes. It gives you uncapped data speeds at a limited time. Still, for at least one hour, you have access to unlimited internet use. You can download all the Netflix shows you want for your commute the next day or later starting with MYR 1 (1 hour) and all the way to MYR 8 (24 hours).
Capped data speeds not your thing? Need, full speed internet all the time? They have those too, with daily passes from MYR 2 (capped at 2GB) all the way to monthly passes at MYR 30 (capped at 5GB). These plans also come with unlimited YouTube streams from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m.
Celcom’s Xpax Truly Unlimited plan is available today onward of course. You can find out more on the Truly Unlimited Plan on their website.
The HUAWEI MatePad Pro was announced globally in Barcelona back in February. The new MatePad Pro was touted as a revolutionary new productivity device empowered by 5G thanks to the HiSilicon Kirin 990 processor inside. Yesterday, the new productivity centered tablet got its debut in Malaysia!
The new MatePad Pro will be available starting 3 April, 2020 for pre-order until 10 April, 2020. It will be available in Midnight Grey and Pearl White. However, Malaysia will only be getting the WiFi version of the MatePad Pro which will come with 256GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM. The device will cost MYR2,399 and will be shipped starting 11 April, 2020.
Pre-orders of the MatePad Pro will come with about MYR1,000 worth of freebies. This includes the Smart Magnetic Keyboard (worth MYR499), the HUAWEI M-Pencil (worth MYR299), 3 months free access to WPS Office, 50GB of HUAWEI Cloud Storage and 3 months premium access to HUAWEI video.
Aside from that, the MatePad Pro comes with a 10.1-inch IPS LCD display. It has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 and an aspect ratio of 16:10. It has a 13-megapixel camera on the back and an 8-megapixel camera on the front. All of this is powered by 7,250 mAh battery which supports wireless fast charging at 27W and reverse wireless charging at 7.5W. It can also be fast charged at 40W when plugged in.
We’ve got more videos being released first on our YouTube channel. So, head on down there to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our YouTube Channel if you like our videos!
Follow us on all social media for the latest from us too
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.
Our lives today are driven by data. We consume data for our daily lives, and we give out data to gain access to more data. Our data consumption rate and requirement increase everyday too and that is why every other telco in the world wants to move toward 5G speeds and latency.
The amount of data being consumed today has led some local telco in Malaysia to come up with unlimited data plans at capped speeds. This started with UMobile and their prepaid plans. Other started picking up the unlimited data packages to offer to their consumers or potential consumers at capped data speeds. Celcom has been offering differing unlimited data plans to suit different users at different times.
Source: Maxis
The only major telco in Malaysia that has not adopted the unlimited data plan for its prepaid users is Maxis. Until now that is. Maxis Hotlink Prepaid users can finally enjoy unlimited data at reasonable prices.
The largest private telco in Malaysia is offering unlimited data for Hotlink users at speeds capped to 3 Mbps. Of course, you can push the cap a little higher to 6 Mbps should you want to pay a little more.
While 3 Mbps or 6 Mbps may not sound like much, it is fast enough to stream Netflix at 1080p should you get a good signal. YouTube’s buffer screen would be at a minimal to non-existent too at 3 Mbps. If you do think that you need more speed than the capped 3 Mbps or 6 Mbps though you have the option to pay for uncapped speed quotas that will last up to 7 days with your current plans.
Source: Maxis
There are some small caveats to the Hotlink Prepaid Unlimited plans though. We do suggest that you go through their FAQ page to ensure that this is the plan for you and to find out a little bit more about the plan.
Within the FAQ you will find that the “Unlimited” plan is not truly unlimited. You get up to 6MBps of data speeds to work with. That has been dusted, cleared, and covered earlier. Beyond that though, this 6MBps or 3MBps will only be until you used up 50GB in that month. That is if you go for the monthly plan. If you go for a weekly plan, they limit you to 15GB of data usage and 5GB for daily passes. This is accordance to Fair Usage Policy (FUP), according to Maxis.
After you hit the FUP ceiling, you will be knocked back down to Maxis’ free basic internet plan at 512kbps, which is still enough for basic internet browsing in our experience. This plan is only limited to smartphones by the way. If you want to tether or use your smartphone as a hotspot device, you would have to purchase additional data plans.
If you are wondering if you can stream Netflix at Full HD with the limited data speeds, we assure you that you can watch movies at up to Full HD resolution with the 6MBps plan. Technically, Netflix only requires about 5MBps for an HD and Full HD stream. If you want to go for Ultra HD streams, you need about 25MBps of data speeds, but you will not get Ultra HD streams on most smartphone devices anyway.
Source: Maxis
Still, if you want high speed data for your videos on smartphones, Hotlink also has the new Prepaid Video data plan with up to 10GB of data just for YouTube, Viu, iflix, Astro Go, and Tonton. Still, going on the Unlimited Plan (monthly plan) we mentioned earlier gives you a free premium access to Viu for 30 days with Maxis TV, all you have to do is have and active plan and go on the Maxis app to claim the access.
Maxis Hotlink’s Unlimited plan is readily available now for all Hotlink users. Of course, terms and conditions apply. We do suggest you read through the FAQ page to find out what you are getting yourselves into as well. Then again, we suggest that you should read as much as possible about a product before buying it.
