Category Archives: Mobile

Computers, Health, Mobile, News

COVID-19 Hits Google Hard – Google Next Cloud Goes Completely Online and I/O is Cancelled

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At this point of time, COVID-19 has claimed over 3,000 lives globally. These are known deaths caused by COVID-19 and there may be more than that. To be honest too, this is a very difficult write-up. Not because there is very little information to work with. It is just the fact that COVID-19 news are not getting any better. There is a glimmer of hope though; WHO claims that COVID-19 containment and treatment is very viable.

Source: MS Poweruser

Still, COVID-19, or more commonly known as Coronavirus at this point has claimed more than just lives. It is affecting communities and commerce as well. Of course it would, people run these businesses and communities, people are getting infected and therefore sick; conducting business activities then is difficult.

We saw Apple getting affected earlier on with their China stores temporarily closing. Foxconn, their manufacturing plant had also stopped operating at some point. Mobile World Congress 2020 has been cancelled; Geneva Motorshow is also being torn down as we speak because they cancelled the event at the very last minute. Even Formula 1 is being heavily affected; they lost China GP this year and who knows which other GP is being cancelled due to the global emergency that is COVID-19.

Plenty are hopeful that the disease will be contained and cured by June or July. That is why some events has been postponed to then. Even Computex 2020 seems to be happening still. The situation now is not very encouraging though.

This week alone we see more victims to COVID-19. On top of new confirmed deaths around the world we see Microsoft’s MVP physical event going completely digital. Facebook is also cancelling the F8 summit. Even Adobe is not spared; Adobe is having their Summit announcements completely online too. The hardest of all is Google having to cancel both their big conferences.

Source: Google

Google has cancelled their Cloud Next event earlier on this week. They announced thought that the conference will be a completely online affair. There was also a sort of expectation that some of the things that would be covered on Cloud Next would appear in Google’s I/O which was still reported to be happening. This morning proved our optimism wrong though. Google is cancelling the Google I/O conference; their biggest developer conference of the year has been cancelled.

If we are right, we are seeing Google’s latest Android 11 on the big stage of Google I/O. It looks like we are going to have to see it on an online stage instead; they show must go on, as they say. There is no final confirmation yet on the online streaming of Google I/O yet though. We are expecting them to go online because Google is completely equipped to livestream all their conferences, which they have done before anyway. Of course, it helps that they own YouTube anyway.

Google is not the first to be hit strongly by COVID-19. We highly doubt that Google will be the last one. We are expecting the Olympics committee to make an announcement soon regarding the Summer Olympics 2020 in Japan. For all you know, Japan might be the one that makes the announcement of a border containment. Still, these are just speculations; take it with a pinch of salt. Not Google’s cancellations though, those are confirmed.

Source: Google, Tech Crunch, 9to5 Google

Android, Mobile, News

realme C3 With MediaTek Helio G70 in Malaysia for MYR 499

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realme has made a name for itself when it comes to budget friendly smartphones. While they mostly play at the budget, entry-level smartphone range, it does not mean that their products are in any way bad products though. Their C series has proven to the market that cheap products does not mean cheap quality and cheap experience. They have a proven track record in the segment is what we are trying to say.

Their latest addition to their C family has just landed in Malaysia today. What a follow up though. As expected, it is sold at less than MYR 1,000; way lower. It will set you back MYR 499. Who says you cannot own a smartphone below MYR 500?

Source: realme

 You are not paying for less features too. It is powered by MediaTek’s latest Helio G70 System on a Chip (SoC). While some may perceive MediaTek’s processors to be slower or inferior to the Qualcomm’s that is just not the case. They may not perform as well as the Qualcomm chipsets, but that does not mean that they do not pack a punch.

The MediaTek Helio G70 SoC is effectively an Octa-core processor with two high powered ARM Cortex-A75 cores and six low powered Cortex A-55 cores. It clocks at a maximum of 2.0GHz, which is powerful enough to plenty of today’s flagships, technically. The only thing it might lack at this point is a 5G modem. While that seems like a bad thing, trust me, it is not as bad as you think.

While you do not get 5G, you still get dual 4G LTE connection on the realme C3. Yes, a you get to push in two SIM cards into this device. Then again, dual-SIM standby is quite expected these days. Nothing to shout about then.

Having the MediaTek Helio G70 however, is something that they can shout about a little bit. The realme C3 is currently the only device that packs the MediaTek SoC in Malaysia.

Source: realme

The big power from the MediaTek SoC is matched to three cameras at the back. Yes, it is effectively a triple camera set-up. We did say that it packs quite a lot for MYR 499.

Its main camera is a 12-Megapixel shooter paired to 12-Megapixel telephoto lens with 4x zoom, and a 2-Megapixel macro lens for that extra close, extra detailed photo. At the front is a 5-Megapixel shooter with the expected AI beauty function, HDR, and what not. That front-facing camera is housed in a small notch on top of the 6.5-inch 720p HD+ LCD display.

Small compromise on the display, a Full HD+ display on a small budget smartphone at this price is quite impossible, you know. You still can record at Full HD 1080p on your rear camera though, no problem with that.

Source: realme

No, you do not get in-display fingerprint sensor on this device too. Again, expecting those kinds of things in a smartphone less than MYR 500 is a little unrealistic. Still, it has a fingerprint sensor recess at the back of the device. The back is not really glass but has a nice beaming texture and pattern to it.

What it lacks in those features though, it makes up in battery size. It packs a 5,000mAh battery within its small body. That should be good for a whole day of battery and even more. You can even use this device as your friend’s power banks so they owe you their lives. The Android 10 with realme UI overlay device is charged at a maximum of 10W via a MicroUSB port; a little old school, but hey it works. Also you may reuse all the old MicroUSB cables you might already have.

  • Source: realme
  • Source: realme
  • Source: realme
  • Source: realme
  • Source: realme
  • Source: realme
  • Source: realme

The realme C3 is now available via Shopee for MYR499. If you get the device today itself, you will get a 6-month extended warranty for free. You can get your hands on one to feel and touch from the 7th of March 2020 though if you really want to. If you missed the extended warranty promotion on Shopee, you can also get the same promotion when you get your device in realme stores on the 7th of March 2020. The realme C3 is available in Blazing Red and Frozen Blue colour options.

iOS, Mobile, News, Social Media

New Facebook Messenger for iOS is LightSpeed

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Facebook has internally started this thing they call Project LightSpeed. It is exactly what it sounds like. Its aim is to simply make everything move faster. Faster for the users that is. Then again, the world today revolves plenty on user experience.

While the world in 2019 and 2020 has been putting plenty of emphasis on user security and privacy (Facebook just had a Data Privacy brief with us two weeks ago), it does not mean that user experience in terms of the User Interface (UI) design, speed, and intuitiveness can be ignored. They are supposed to be developed hand-in-hand; they are supposed to move forward together.

Source: Facebook

Facebook understands that completely, and that is why they are introducing a new faster, lighter Facebook Messenger specifically for iOS. Before we go on, we did ask on the reason for the exclusivity. If you go on Google’s Play Store on your Android smartphone now and search for Facebook Messenger, you will notice two types of Facebook Messenger apps on the device. One of them is the normal blue pop-up coloured Facebook Messenger, and the other one is a white-faced pop-up called Facebook Messenger Lite. We can explain the differences in that further in the future (comment if you want that!). For now though, that also means that Android users get to choose between using the full beans and might of the regular Facebook Messenger app or choose to keep their devices running nice and quick with Facebook Messenger Lite app.

Let us get back to Facebook Messenger app for iOS. It will be available as an app update in the App Store, so if you already have the Facebook Messenger app there is no reason you need to download another one. It should be an update anyway, who are we kidding.

In layman terms, Facebook says that the new Messenger is supposed to load up or start up faster. While you may not notice too big of a difference at first, Facebook says that the benefit is plenty more visible over time. Thanks to simplified mechanics of the app, it is also a smaller app than before. That also means it consumes less storage space in your smartphone, which also means you get to take more photos. It is not just simplified mechanics though. Apparently, the engineers in Facebook has also simplified the experience within the app to not only ensure a lighter load on the device, but for its users too.

Now for the technical bits. It is actually simpler than you think, not as scary or overly complex. The headline figures are 1.7 million to 360,000. That is the amount of codes that were in the previous iteration of the Facebook Messenger for iOS app, and the amount that it is reduced to with the current iteration. That also means that they managed to shrink the amount of codes contained within the app by 84%. Less codes means less processing needed, and so you get faster load times. It also means reduced complexities and less maintenance needed from Facebook’s side.

Source: Facebook

What happened to the other codes that was not used in the current iteration? Cloud happened. To be specific, SQLite happened. What they did with SQLite, like plenty of modern mobile apps is to simplify processes and start putting plenty of the database on SQL’s database instead of storing every command on the device. That also means that instead of loading everything on your smartphone, whatever interaction you have with the app is happening on SQLite instantly. That also means that everything on the database is stored and worked on in a server farm somewhere. Again, less load on the device.

You are not losing the experience of a feature packed app like the Messenger with the new update though. In fact, you might be getting more. With the changes, you are not completely using a completely redesigned UI. It is just a small improved UI with better response time. The key here is to not make any major UI changes to the new Messenger build. Instead, Facebook still wanted that familiarity with their users. Like previously mentioned though, instead of storing each interaction as a unique interaction within the device, they moved that to a server with SQLite.

There is more to that though. Instead of storing or processing each interaction as unique interactions, they group them together, combine them and make them mere reactions from the database instead of completely recoating the app whenever something changes. That also means that instead of storing multiple different screens as unique screens, you are now only getting elements of screens popping up as you go along your Facebook Messenger app. Yes, you never noticed the transition. But imagine having to keep loading new screens whenever you scroll through the app and layering them over the previous screen.

The new Facebook Messenger app for iOS with LightSpeed is available for free on Apple’s ever-growing Apple App Store platform. For existing Facebook Messenger app for iOS users, the fourth major iteration is available to users as a simple app update via the Apple App Store as well. LightSpeed is also coming to Android’s Facebook apps in time. For more information on Facebook Messenger’s update and Project LightSpeed, you can visit Facebook’s news release and their engineering blog.

Android, Mobile, News

Realme X50 Pro 5G Announced In India!

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Realme has been announced its very first smartphone that will be using Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 in India. It is one of other eleven phones that has been announced by other smartphone manufacturers that will also be running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 processor. 

Let’s get straight to the specifications, shall we? Let’s start with the display. It has a Super AMOLED display which is 6.44 inches wide. The display also has a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels in a 20:9 screen. This calculates a density of 409ppi, which is not top of the charts but it is already more than enough. 

The display is going to have a protection glass of Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It is also going to come have a 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch-sensing, and also HDR10+ to give you a fantastic gaming and streaming experience.

As for the cameras, it will run as a quad-camera setup. Having a 64-Megapixel as a main camera. Followed by a 12-Megapixel telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom, an ultra-wide with angle of 119° from an 8-megapixel camera, and finally a 2-Megapixel monochrome depth sensor. You will be able to record videos in 4K resolution at 30 fps or 1080p at 60 fps. 

The front is where it gets a little interesting, as the phone will be coming with a punch-hole design dual camera. Yes, there were some rumours before and now we are finally confirming it on the actual phone! The front-facing camera will be a 32-megapixel sensor paired with an 8-Megapixel 105° ultra-wide sensor. The front camera is capable of capturing videos at 1080p at either 30 fps or 120 fps.

Other notable features would be the new dual stereo speakers and the discontinuation of the 3.5mm headphone jack. This is also only Realme’s fourth phone with NFC. Like most smartphones these days it uses a USB Type-C connector to charge its 4,200mAh battery. Unfortunately the Realme X50 Pro does not come with wireless charging capabilities, so you are going to have to still depend on a wire to charge the phone. 

Last but not least, the brains of the phone. As mentioned above the phone will have a Snapdragon 865 chipset, which also means it is 5G ready. There will be three different variants for RAM and two different internal storage variations. It starts with a minimum of 6GB of RAM paired to a 128GB of storage or an 8GB RAM with also 128GB of storage, and lastly, the maximum RAM and storage you can get is 12GBs of RAM paired to 256GB of storage. 

There are two different colours to choose from that is Moss Green and Rust Red. the prices of the phones starts from Rs 37,999 (MYR 2,204) for the 6GB + 128GB, Rs 39,999 (MYR 2,320) for the 8GB + 128GB and Rs 44,999 (MYR 2,610) for the range-topping 12GB + 256GB. 

Android, Mobile, News

Samsung Galaxy S20 Series Hits the Malaysian Market on 6 March 2020

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The Samsung Galaxy S20 series was officially unveiled in San Francisco on 10 March 2020. At the event, Samsung unveiled 3 new devices spearheaded by the Galaxy S20 Ultra which brings a whole lot of new features including an 108-megapixel camera sensor. The camera is Samsung’s first featuring what the company calls Space Zoom. The new hybrid zoom function allows users to take pictures with up to 100x Zoom.

The new smartphones have been on pre-order since its announcement on March 11, 2020. That said, the smartphones are set to make their official debut in Malaysia on 6 March, 2020 at nationwide roadshows. The official roadshows will kick off the official sales of the Samsung Galaxy S20 series in Malaysia. They will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor, Pahang and Sabah from 6 March, 2020 until 8 March, 2020.

The roadshows will have special freebies for early adopters of the Samsung Galaxy S20 series in limited quantities. Firstly, early purchasers who purchase the smartphones at the Roadshows will be entitled to a wireless charger pad and a 128GB microSD card worth a total of MYR378. In addition, those who line up early will have the option to choose between trading in ANY CAMERA for an instant MYR400 rebate on their purchase of the Galaxy S20, S20+ or the Galaxy S20 Ultra; OR a 50-inch Samsung 4K UHD Smart TV worth MYR2,599. The early bird offers are available in limited numbers for each location. Keep in mind that each purchase is entitled to only one of either offer mentioned before.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 will be available in Cloud Pink, Cloud Blue and Cosmic Gray for MYR3,599. It’s larger sibling, the S20+ will be available in Cloud Blue, Cosmic Black and Cosmic Gray for MYR3,999 while the true flagship, S20 Ultra will be available in Cosmic Black and Cosmic Gray for MYR4,999.

Android, Mobile, News

Xiaomi Mi 10 Series Breaking The Norms Of High End Phones

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Just like everyone else at Barcelona, Xiaomi has been busy with their fair share of troubles. From WMC Barcelona being cancelled, Xiaomi’s continued plan of attending MWC from the February 24 to 27 and to Xiaomi’s delayed launch of some global products. So do keep an eye out for product launches from Xiaomi by the end of the week. 

Even with COVID-19 going around in China, Xiaomi has still managed to sell out their latest flagship the Mi 10 and Mi10 Pro during an online flash sale that lasted only 55 seconds. Yes they sold out their latest Mi 10 Series under a minute, isn’t that insane? All of this is thanks to Xiaomi’s large user base and fan base, globally and locally. 

Source: Xiaomi

But luckily the people of China do not need to wait anymore as the phone has gone on sale officially starting from February 24. Besides getting it Xiaomi directly, the phones are also available on China’s biggest ecommerce sites such as JD.com, Suning and Tmall. 

This success of the Mi 10 Series is a slap in the face for the high end phone markets. Especially when Xiaomi is giving better specifications for a lower price. Giving the people a better value for money. There is also the factor that the Mi 10 Series is the only phone right now that is running on Qualcomm’s top of the line Snapdragon 865 processor and knowing people, everybody wants the latest and greatest 

The Mi 10 Series are the two among a dozen other phones that will be also running on the Snapdragon 865 processor which will be released later this year. So for now the Mi 10 Series is the go to phone to beat all other phones in the market. If you would like a further break down of the Mi 10’s specifications do check out our coverage here. 

Android, Mobile, News

LG V60 ThinQ 5G Debuts With Dual Display!

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LG has announced its latest flagship, the V60 ThinQ 5G. Just like any other flagship phones these days, it will come 5G ready with the Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 processor. So, what else does this flagship has to offer? 

Let us start with what stands out the most, which personally is the huge 6.8-inch FullVision P-OLED display with a Full HD+ screen resolution of 2460 x 1080 pixels with a 20.5:9 aspect ratio. Wait,  hold up. For a phone with that large of a screen, it has a considerably small pixel count, doesn’t it?

Let’s take the Samsung Galaxy Note10+ for example. It also has a 6.8-inch display but it has a higher resolution of 1440 x 3040 pixels. The Galaxy Note 10+ has a pixel per inch (ppi) density of 498 ppi while the V60 ThinQ only has 395 ppi. This is not exactly great news for a flagship phone.

Source: LG

While it does not have a good ppi count, the LG V60 ThinQ has a little trick up its sleeve. Just like last year’s LG V50 ThinQ and the LG G8X, the V60 also has the same feature where it can come with a dual screen. Just like the latest buzz with the foldable phone, this is technically a foldable phone. Just that it does not have a foldable screen. 

Other than that, the V60 ThinQ will be coming with a triple camera set up consisting of a 64-megapixel main sensor, a 13-megapixel module that has a 117° super-wide-angle lens and a 3D time-of-flight sensor. The main camera supports 8K recording and 4K recording at 60 frames per second with HDR10+. The front of the phone will be getting a single 10-megapixel camera encapsulated in a dewdrop notch design. 

Next, we have the audio side of things. A good part of not following recent trends is that the V60 ThinQ will be coming with a 3.5mm jack! There is also a good part of following a trend is that it will be coming with stereo speakers. Now that is giving people the option of choosing between the best of both worlds. 

Source: LG

The V60 ThinQ comes with 8GB of RAM, a 128GB of storage with an expandable storage via a microSD card. To power this phone and its dual screens, the phone comes with a massive 5,000 mAh battery that promises 590 hours standby time with one charge. The phone can be charged using a Qi wireless charger or by a Type-C USB. 

Other goodies include, a MIL-STD-810G certification and also a IP68 rating which means that the smartphone is dust and water-resistant up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. There will be two colour options that are Classy Blue and Classy White. 

Android, Mobile, News

OPPO Find X2 Specifications Leaked Before Launch!

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After the whole hoo-ha at MWC, OPPO too had delayed their launching of the OPPO Find X2 to a later date. But it did not take them long to set a new date for their launch. The OPPO Find X2 will be launched on March 6 possibly alongside with the OPPO watch. 

But wait! The specifications have been leaked, you say? The OPPO Find X2 has been spotted for sale on SouthEast Asian eCommerce site, Shoppe. The listing of the OPPO Find X2 is listed by OPPO’s official Vietnam Store with a price at 40 million Vietnamese Dong which translates to MYR 7,310 and USD 1,724 which is quite steep, considering. But we will have to wait and see the pricing once it is revealed. 

Other details immediately found on the listing is that it will come with 8GB of RAM paired to 256GB of storage. There will also be two different colour options that are in Vietnamese which we did not understand but with the power of Google Translate, we manage to get something out of it. The two colours are Ocean Blue and Blue Night Sea which we assume is green with a blue hue colour and the second colour would be black with a blue hue to it. 

Source: Brian Shen

Scrolling further down we will find a screen size of 6.5 inches with reports of a possible 120Hz refresh rate with 240Hz sampling rate. Which will be exciting especially for intense games such as PUBG and Mobile Legends. But that’s not all, the Find X2 will feature a 3K display according to a tweet from Brian Shen who is OPPO’s VP and President of Global Marketing. This means that the display would likely have a 3,000 x 2,000 pixel resolution. 

Source: Arun Maini

To capture the moments, the Oppo Find X2 comes with a triple rear camera set up consisting of a 48-Megapixel main camera, an 8-Megapixel and a 13-Megapixel sensor. The rear cameras are said to be using a periscope lens that is able to have a digital zoom of up to 60x. The front of the phone, on the other hand, has a 32-Megapixel camera. There are rumours that the phone would be coming with a 44-Megapixel punch-hole dual front camera instead though. 

To power up all these fancy features of the phone, the battery comes with a 4,065 mAh capacity. 4,065 mAh isn’t exactly large these days but it should still be a decent amount for you to last throughout the day. All this power will be powering the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor that will be 5G ready. Of course, it will be using Type-C connector. It does not seem to have a 3.5mm headphone jack, bummer. We are taking all these things with a pinch of salt though. We can only confirm the final specs of the OPPO Find X2 when it launches on the 6th March, 2020.

Android, Mobile, News

Sony Xperia L4 Joins Entry Segment

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The entry segment is a tricky one with companies having to balance performance and a tight budget. Sony did that last year with their Xperia L3. This year, they are introducing a new device, the Sony Xperia L4 into the foray.

The new Sony Xperia L4 seems to have a lot in common with its predecessor. The only difference is the new triple camera array on the back of the smartphone. That right, you read that right. The new triple camera array is the ONLY significant difference in the new phone. Other than that, the phone looks, feels and has the same internals as the L3.

The Xperia L4 comes with the same Mediatek Helios P22 processor we saw in the L3. It has an increased 64GB of internal storage but still comes with 3GB of RAM. It’s also keeping the plastic build of the L3 with updates to support the Xperia L4’s new triple camera. It comes with a larger 6.2-inch HD+ IPS LCD display with a resolution of 720×1680 pixels. It also adopts the new 21:9 standard that Sony is pushing for their smartphones.

The smartphone runs on Android 9 (Pie) and has support for all the run of the mill connectivity options such as Bluetooth 5.0, WiFi a/b/g/b/n and GPS. It’s powered by a 3,580mAh battery which supports fast charging through its USB-C port.

Now on to the biggest difference. The Sony Xperia L4 is the first phone in Sony’s entry segment to have a triple camera array. The main sensor of the L4 is a 1/3.0-inch, 13-megapixel sensor with a 26mm focal length and F2.0 aperture. This is supported by a 1/5.0-inch 5-megapixel sensor with a 17mm focal length and F2.2 aperture; and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. On the front, there’s an 8-megapixel sensor with a 27mm focal length and F2.0 aperture.

There is no word on the pricing just yet. However, it will be available in select markets starting Spring 2020.

Android, Mobile, News

Sony Xperia 10 II Builds on New Mid-range DNA

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The original Sony Xperia 10 launched along side the original Xperia 1 last year at MWC. It was Sony’s latest attempt at creating a mid-range device which would allow new users to jump on board their ecosystem. It’s also the first mid-range smartphone which launched under their new One Sony approach which marries all of Sony’s strengths in one ecosystem. This year, the company is refreshing the Xperia 10 with the Xperia 10 II (pronounced Xperia 10 mark II).

The Xperia 10 II will be equipped with a 21:9 Triluminous display. The OLED panel in the display comes with technology that is found in Sony’s BRAVIA TVs. According to Sony, the 10 II will allow users to enjoy their content with deeper blacks and more vibrant colours thanks to this. The Full HD+ resolution should make the experience of consuming your content on the 10 II one of the most immersive there is on the market.

The Xperia 10 II comes with a triple camera setup. The main camera sensor is a 1/2.8-inch, 12-megapixel Exmor RS sensor with a 26mm focal length, F2.0 aperture and 77° field of view; This is supported by two 1/4-inch, 8-megapixel sensors; one has an F2.4 aperture with 52mm focal length while the other has an F2.2 aperture with 16mm focal length. The former has a 45° field of view while the latter has 120°. On the front, is a similar 8-megapixel sensor with F2.0 aperture and 84° field of view.

The processing power of the smartphone is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 supported by 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. Of course, this is expandable by up to 1TB through the microSD card slot. All of this is a powered by 3,600mAh battery capable of fast charging.

The Xperia 10 II will be available in Spring 2020. It will be available in Mint, Black, White and Blue. No pricing details have been revealed by Sony at this time.