The HONOR 9X Pro has already been lauched in the Chinese domestic market and was expected to make its international debut at MWC2020; Wait didn’t MWC 2020 get cancelled? Unfortunately, yes it has been officially cancelled due to safety concerns over the ongoing COVID-19 virus outbreak.
Source: GSMArena
In light of these developments, HUAWEI and HONOR are going to be launching their products via a live stream. HONOR’s launching will be on February 24 at 6:30PM CET (11pm IST) with not one but two products. The live stream of their launch can be found on their Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and even on their global website.
HONOR 9X Pro will be launched together with HONOR’s laptop, the MagicBook. Even though the HONOR 9X Pro is not a new phone, it is will be coming the latest HUAWEI Mobile Services (HMS). This phone is also the first phone for HONOR to launch with HMS.
The HUAWEI Mate 30 had a taste of HMS in countries such as Spain, Indonesia and Malaysia but the HONOR 9X Pro will feature a revamped version of the HMS. HUAWEI has been working tirelessly on the HMS ecosystem as it has to replace Google’s apps and services in hopes to keep existing users and hopefully attract new users too.
The phone itself was released in August of 2019. The 9X Pro runs on the Kirin 810 processor which is touted to offer the ultimate gaming experience, backed up powerful performance. Even though the processor launched back in August, it has only just made its debut in HUAWEI’s line up with the launch of the Nova 7i.
Source: HONOR
Other than the phone, let’s not forget that they will also be launching the HONOR MagicBook that will also play its role in the while HMS ecosystem. Even though it will be in the HMS ecosystem, the MagicBook will be the first device by HONOR to run Windows 10.
When the ROG Strix RX 7500-series graphics was launched it was HAWT. It seems like they’re taking that pretty literally; the graphics cards have been reported to heat up, even when not overclocked. Imagine what damage it would have done if it was overclocked, you could likely cook an egg.
ASUS posted a statement a week ago stating that the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) is not getting its optimal thermal performance as more graphical performance is demanded from the GPU. According to ASUS, the GPU’s cooling fans are torqued between 30 to 40 PSI following AMD’s recommended guidelines. This was done as a precaution as the Radeon RX7500-series is the first GPU based on a new 7nm architecture. Thus, ASUS didn’t want to risk completely killing the GPU.
Source: ASUS
To solve the problem, ASUS said they have done extensive R&D testing to find out the best PSI range for the GPU to have the most efficient thermal performance. Form their test ASUS has determined that the optimal pressure for the GPU is almost double from the guidelines ranging from 50 to 60 PSI.
On that account, all ROG Strix Radeon RX-7500 shipped from January onwards will ship defaulted to the new settings for better performance and reliability. If you have bought a ROG Strix Radeon RX5700 series before January of 2020, don’t fret. ASUS has got you covered. Contact your nearest ASUS service centers starting March of 2020 and ASUS would happily perform the upgrade for you.
Even though the upgrade would be free, there is another set back to the the upgrading program. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak, logistics has been affected and necessary shipment of the components would take quite some time. Again do contact your local ASUS service centers for future details.
We wrap up the third week of #February 2020 in this #techENT#techENTDownload#techenttv! Boy, hasn’t it been a little quiet in tech this wee?. No matter though, we still bring you the latest things you need to know for the week starting with #Google banning over 600 apps in their #PlayStore to #Cadillac launching their brand new and first even electric vehicle for the world to see; Malaysia might not get it though. Still, at least we are definitely getting into the #Samsung#GalaxyZFlip!
We’ve started a new #Podcast#techntonic#techntonicpodcast and its available on Spotify, Anchor, Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Breaker, and other podcasting host channels! If we are not yet on your favourite channel yet, let us know in the comments so that we can work our way there!
Give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our YouTube channel if you like our videos! We have plenty more going on our site too at techent.tv! Do visit and check out some of our latest reviews and write ups! Follow us on all social media for the latest from us too;
LG, mainly known for its home appliances in Malaysia, has unveiled three new phones. The three phones will be under the K series line-up consisting of K61, K51S and K41S. All three phones are expected to be available soon later in March 2020.
This is the first time the K series phones came without a thick bezel on the top to house the front-facing camera and earpiece. This time around LG has joined the trend of thin bezels with big screen to body ratio. LG has also opted for the punch-hole design for the selfie camera on all three of its new K series phones.
Source: LG
Other upgrades are to the camera. LG is finally integrating a multi-camera set up into their flagship devices. Specifically, the LG K61 will be coming with a quad camera set-up with a 48-Megapixel main camera with phase-detect auto focus (PDAF). The second camera is an 8-Megapixel ultra-wide lens, followed by a 2-Megapixel macro lens and lastly a 5-Megapixel depth sensor. As for the front facing camera LG packed a 16-Megapixel shooter in the punch hole housing.
Source: LG
Configuration for the LG K51S on the other hand is a little different from the K61. the main sensor is a 32-Megapixel with PDAF, followed by a 5-Megapixel ultra-wide, a 2-Megapixel macro lens, and lastly a 2-Megapixel depth sensor. The last smartphone, the LG K41S has the same camera configuration as the LG K51S except for the main PDAF lens. The main PDAF lens on the K41S is a lower 13-Megapixel sensor. For the selfie camera the K51S comes with a 13-Megapixel and the K41S comes with a 8-Megapixel sensor.
Source: LG
None of the phone pricing has been released, but LG says three new K series phones will be available starting in the Americas followed by markets in Europe then Asia in the second quarter of 2020. Malaysia specifically? We might not even see them, but one can dream.
OPPO is reportedly getting into the chip making game. This is not the first time a phone manufacturer creates its own chipsets to be used in their own smartphones. You know these brands too, they are Samsung and Huawei with Exynos and Kirin respectively. They call it the Mariana Plan. Not to be confused with the Mariana Trench, the plan will be led by Qualcomm’s former technical director in collaboration with engineers from Oppo’s sister companies, OnePlus and Realme.
In the past, OPPO mentioned of a big R&D push for an ecosystem of smart devices with an investment of RMB 50 billion which is just slightly over US$ 7 billion. Yes, that is what it takes to get into the game with the likes of Qualcomm and MediaTek.
There is no obvious reasons yet on why OPPO would make their own chipset. At the moment as OPPO has been great partners with Qualcomm and Mediatek. There is no indication as well on OPPO dropping the partners anytime soon. Possibly, OPPO sees a market that its missing out on or just a long term cost effective move to install its own chipsets into their phones. The chipsets could also be sold to other phone manufacturers to integrate them into their phones expanding the variety of chipset and value.
With the on going US trade ban, HUAWEI is unable to integrate Qualcomm’s chipset into their phones. Fortunately HUAWEI has their own chipset to lessen the blow of the ban. Based on this logic, OPPO could be developing this new project as their own safety net.
At this point, OPPO has developed one of the best and best known Android iteration in ColorOS. There is no telling yet on what they can do with their chips. If their Android UI development is any indication, they could develop great chips at a fraction of the price of other manufacturers.
Just nine months after the release of their flagship phone and four different products after that, the Chinese manufacturer known for their value-for-money smartphones, Xiaomi is already launching a new flagship phone for the year 2020. New year; new flagship, am I right? Just like all flagships, the device carries the latest top-of-the-line processor – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865.
Source: Xiaomi
XIaomi’s Mi 10 Series are the first devices in the year 2020 to pack Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 processor with 5G capabilities. Overall clock speed has increased (obviously), but clock speed is so yesterday. 5G on the other hand is the latest buzz. The new Octa-core processor though has a maximum clock speed of 2.84GHz; a 25% increase of performance in both CPU and GPU compared to last year’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. It is also supposed to consume less power; specifically 35% less power than its predecessor.
With great power comes great responsibility picture quality. Xiaomi is stepping up its game with a quad camera system with a 108-Megapixel main camera in both the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro. But that is all the similarities between the cameras of both devices in the series. On the Mi 10, you get a 13-Megapixel Ultra-Wide lens, a 2-Megapixel Macro lens, and another 2-Megapixel depth sensor.
The Mi 10 Pro on the other hand come with a better 8-Megapixel telephoto lens, a 12-Megapixel 50mm portrait lens (technically also a 2x optical zoom telephoto lens), a 20-Megapixel Ultra-Wide lens. Thanks to the insane 108-Megapixel camera and the new super powerful System on a Chip (SoC) both devices are able to capture 8K (7,680 x 4,320 pixels) videos. Using the 8K video you are also able to capture clear 33MP (technically 8K resolution anyway) photos while recording.
Source: Xiaomi
While most of the fancy features are reserved for the main camera. The selfie camera is not neglected. It shoots at a decent 20-Megapixel. Still that is 12-Megapixel less than the Xiaomi Mi Note 10. The camera is nestled in the punch hole at the top left of the display, not the usual tear-drop style taht we are used to like in the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Pro.
Speaking of cameras, you need a display to view the photos that you take with the super powerful cameras. The Xiaomi Mi 10 comes with the usual curved Full HD+ AMOLED curved DotDisplay measuring in at 6.67-inch compared; bigger than the 6.47-inch of the Mi Note 10. While you lose out on ppi counts, the device makes up for it in its 90Hz refresh rate for a super smooth navigation experience. 60Hz feels sluggish when you put it next to the Xiaomi Mi 10 series devices. The AMOLED DotDisplay also boast some of the best colour accuracy in the market with ΔE<1.1.
Watching movies is a joy with the highly advanced and fast display. Dual stereo speakers on the Mi 10 series devices helps boost the immersive experience. Unfortunately though the Xiaomi Mi 10 will not ship with a 3.5mm jack. Rather, you get a 3.5mm jack dongle in the box. That kind of sucks.
For you to enjoy hours of mindless video content the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro 4,500 mAh battery and the Xiaomi Mi 10 comes with 4,780 mAh battery. The Mi 10 Pro has 50W fast charging that is able to charge from 0% to 100% in just 65 minutes; Impressive.
Source: Xiaomi
There will be three variants of the Mi 10, an 8GB RAM + 256GB storage, 12GB RAM + 256GB storage and 12GB RAM with 512GB of storage. Prices starting from RMB 3,999 that translates to about RM 2,373.
The Mi 10 Pro also has three variants starting with, 8GB RAM + 256GB storage, 12GB RAM + 256GB storage and lastly 12GB RAM + 512GB storage. Where the Mi 10 Pro starts at RMB 4,999 with roughly translates to about RM 2,966.
The development on the Novel Coronavirus of 2019, now more commonly known as COVID-19, is on every headline for the past month or so. If you have not heard, the Mobile World Congress 2020 (MWC2020) that is supposed to open its doors soon was shut down due to the large health concerns. They are not alone though. The F1 GP to be held in China in about two months time has been cancelled via the request of the local organisers. If you missed our news, Acer’s Predator League 2020 set to happen at the end of this month is also cancelled due to health concerns.
All these are quite expected, to be fair. What is even worse is that plenty of factories in China had to close down or stop operating for the time being thanks to the vicious spread of the virus. One of those affected manufacturing plants are Apple’s contractor, Foxconn. That also means there is currently a global shortage of Apple iPhones. Of course, that is going to hit the market and Apple’s earnings a little bit.
For good measure, for their investors anyway, Apple just predicted that their Q2 revenue will be lower than the expected US$ 63 to 67 billion. If you are thinking that it cannot be that much lower for Apple to make an announcement like this, it looks quite bad from Apple’s side. Their prediction also says that they will not even make the lowest mark of the revenue estimates for Q2 of 2020.
At this time Apple is predicting up to a 36% difference between the expected shipment for Q2 2020 and the actual shipment number. Optimistically they are expecting a 29% difference. Still, that big of a difference in shipments is going to be quite a big hit to their revenue numbers.
Apple did not mention how big of an impact the plunge in shipment will make though. At this time we cannot comment too much into their reduced shipments or even predict how much they will lose in revenue for Q2 2020. To be fair, even our attention is mostly fixed on the development on COVID-19.
Netflix is arguably one of the most popular content streaming platforms out there. So, what happens when the largest content streaming platform when they release a sequel to one of their most popular teen romance dramas? Well, they allow you to stream the original for FREE.
The original romantic comedy, “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”, which aired last year, will be available to stream for free. The free stream is done in conjunction with the launch of its sequel, “To All The Boys, P.S. I Still Love You”. The stream will be made available until 9 March, 2020. You can access the free movie at netflix.com/toalltheboys.
To All the Boys I Loved Before follows Lara Jean (played by Lana Condor) after her sister accidentally sends out love letters she’s written. These find their way to their intended recipients, boys whom she’s loved from afar. The movie chronicles the events that happen as she has to come face to face with them.
The sequel which premiered on Netflix on February 12, 2020 follows Lara as the letters continue to reach their recipients. The complication? Things have started to blossom between her and one of the boys from the first movie.
So, don’t miss out on the original misadventures of Lara Jean as she navigates a very awkward situation. However, you will need to subscribe to Netflix to watch the sequel. Netflix subscriptions start at MYR17 for the mobile only plan in Malaysia.
Official Synopsis
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them…all at once? Lara Jean Song Covey’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control when the love letters for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all– are mysteriously mailed out. From New York Times Bestselling Author, Jenny Han, the film adaption of the popular YA novel stars actress Lana Condor (Alita: Battle Angel, X-Men: Apocalypse) and Noah Centineo (Sierra Burgess Is A Loser, The Fosters).
To All The Boys I’ve Loved P.S. I Still Love You
It’s a new year and Lara Jean (Lana Condor) and Peter (Noah Centineo) are no longer pretending to be a couple. They ARE a couple. And, as Lara Jean navigates a trove of official firsts with Peter — her first real kiss, her first real date, her first Valentine’s Day — she finds herself leaning more on Kitty and Margot (Anna Cathcart and Janel Parrish), Chris (Madeleine Arthur), and an unexpected new confidant, Stormy (Holland Taylor), to help her manage the complex emotions that come with this new chapter of balancing a relationship and figuring out her authentic self. But when John Ambrose (Jordan Fisher), another recipient of one of Lara Jean’s old love letters, enters her life again she must rely on herself more than ever as she’s confronted with her first real dilemma: Can she love two boys at the same time?
The biggest international conference about mobile technology has fallen to the Coronavirus outbreak. Mobile World Congress (MWC) is the largest congress held yearly in Barcelona. It brings together some of the biggest tech companies in the world for an intense week of announcements and unveilings.
However, this year, amidst the panic surrounding COVID-19, the conference has been officially cancelled. In an official announcement from GSMA, the conference’s organisers, has announced that the current health climate has made it impossible for the conference to continue. It comes as a big blow to the industry as the event usually sees the likes of Nokia, HMD, Intel, LG and more make announcements for their new flagships.
With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event.
John Hoff man, Cheif Executive Officer, GSMA
However, the cancellation of the event doesn’t come as a surprise. In the days and weeks prior to the announcement, some of the biggest names taking part in MWC 2020 announced that they would be pulling out of the conference over health and safety concerns surrounding the COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus nCov-2019) outbreak. Ericsson, Intel, Sony, OPPO, Vivo, LG, NTTdocomo and more released statements in the days leading up to GSMA’s announcement.
While the cancellation is unfortunate, we have it on good authority that many of the announcements that were slated for MWC2020 will be made at a later date. So, do expect a trickle of announcements from companies that were slated for MWC in the coming weeks.
Using your mobile phone these days means that you are constantly connected. Services like Whatsapp, Telegram, e-mail, and all the known social media apps require you to use data even in the background, even when your device is turned off. In that case, there is always the problem of choosing between two types of plans that fit you the best.
You might need huge amount of data. There could be a number of reasons; you rely solely on your smartphone for data and internet, your work requires you to travel around plenty and therefore you rely plenty on your data plan for internet. You are most likely going for data plans that will give you unlimited data but at a capped speed.
Then there are those that need the speed. You might already have a fixed internet plan that you use at home. You want high speed data in occasions. To that, you have to trade off on quota. This is what Celcom calls the Lightning Internet Speed, you get full 4G LTE+ speeds all the time but you can only have them to a limited amount.
With a single MEGA plan, you can simply choose what you want for what you need. For as little as MYR 80 every month you are going to get up to 30GB of high speed data. With that also you get unlimited phone calls to any network. Pretty good?
For an additional MYR 18/month you can choose between an additional 10GB of data or unlimited M pass. That is unlimited data at capped speeds (5Mbps). If you need high-speed internet (Unlimited L up to 15Mbps), you can opt to spend a little bit more at an additional MYR 69/month. (Hotspot limited to 5GB and 10GB respectively every month)
For Lightning Mobile Internet Speed you start from MYR 80/month at 30GB cap, as per mentioned earlier. For an additional MYR 18 you can get MEGA M for an additional 10GB in your plan. For an additional MYR 68/month you get an additional 30GB of data. If you are that hungry for data, pay an extra MYR 108/month for MEGA XL plan and get up to 100GB of data every month (additional 70GB).
For the MEGA M, MEGA L, MEGA XL plans, there is a few additional features that you might like as well. If you have unused data in that month, you can trade-in your data for cashbacks. For now (two months promotion period), you get MYR 5 for 10GB of data you trade in credited to your Boost e-wallet. Nothing more, nothing less though.
Source: Celcom
When you travel to one of the listed 12 countries, you get to use your own data plan as well, or whatever that is left in it within your plan, instead of getting an additional data plan just for roaming. You have to pay MYR 38/day though to use your data. If you are on the MYR 188/month (MYR 80 + MYR 108 MEGA XL) plan though, its free. Data is precious? Pay a little extra for Celcom’s Ultra Hour Passes. You can even add on Celcom’s Unlimited Social Media plan.
The best part about the Celcom MEGA plan is its flexibility. As long as you are not getting a device with your MEGA plan, you can pick and choose the plans every month. You can choose between the five plans and change every month depending on your needs. You get to add up to 3 sub lines or Family lines if you want. For each additional line you pay MYR 40 for 15GB of data each line. For an additional MYR 5/month you can share your MEGA M, MEGA L, MEGA XL data pool with your family members.
Of course, like any other postpaid plan you can choose to buy devices from Celcom with the plan as well. If you pick up Celcom’s MEGA XL plan at MYR 188/month you can choose to get a smartphone for free from Celcom’s pool of premium devices. Users who are on Celcom First plan can opt into the MEGA Plan via Celcom’s BlueCube centers or a simple phone call. Subscribers of MEGA plans can change their monthly plans simply via logging into Celcom’s Android or iOS Celcom Life app and a few clicks. More info can be found on their website.
