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!
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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.
Update (26 February 2020): Samsung Malaysia has officially extended their pre-orders until 1 March, 2020. Other than the extension there is no change to the terms and conditions of the pre-order.
Samsung just unpacked their first flagship series of the next decade, the Galaxy S20 Series. Hot off their big announcement, Samsung Malaysia is announcing the pre-orders for the new flagship series. It looks like Malaysia will be getting the Galaxy S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra 5G.
The new Galaxy S20 will be priced at MYR3,599 while the S20+ will be retailing at MYR3,999. The 5G capable S20 Ultra, on the other hand, will be retailing for MYR4,999. Pre-orders will be kicking off in 10 hours time; at 5:00PM GMT+8/MST. Pre-orders of the Galaxy S20+ and the S20 Ultra will be entitled to a pair of Galaxy Buds+ worth MYR599. It looks like the S20 series will be available in Malaysia starting on March 4, 2020.
Malaysians can pre-order their smartphones from the Samsung eStore, Samsung Experience Stores, the Official Samsung stores on Lazada and Shopee, telcos and participating retail partners. To make the pre-orders, customers will need to make a MYR500 deposit via iPay88 for outlets or through checkout at the respective marketplace. Remember to keep your receipt. Users can then opt to self collect or have the phone delivered to them once it is available. The latter option requires users to make full payment for the device.
Wondering why we keep highlighting Malaysians? Well, to successfully collect your pre-orders, you will need to produce identification card when you collect your device. Only Malaysians 18 years (as of February 12, 2020) or older are eligible to make the pre-order. Each individual is entitled to pre-order only one unit of the S20, S20+ OR the S20 Ultra. Users are able to collect their pre-orders from March 4, 2020 to April 4, 2020.
Keep in mind the deposit is nonrefundable. It seems like there are a total of 13,000 units available for pre-order.
There were two very big things that was launched in the Samsung Unpacked 2020 that just happened a few hours ago. Both of them very interesting devices to grace the market as well. The Samsung Galaxy S20 flagship has just refreshed the Samsung Galaxy S line-up. The Samsung Z Flip is certainly a new direction for Samsung and the smartphone industry.
There is another smaller star that was launched in the Unpacked event just now too. It is also literally smaller in size. The Samsung Galaxy Buds+ (Plus) they call it. The name is not new though, there is just an additional ‘+’ (plus) there. So this is kind of a revolution of an existing product more than anything else.
Source: Samsung
Previous rumours mentions that the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ will come with Active Noise Cancelling. In the reveal though, this is not the case. There are some new things packed within the earphones though.
Within the same package is a bigger battery that should allow it to last a few more hours per charge. That gives it a total of 11 hours of use. With a single extra charge from the case, you get up to 22 hours of listening time, about 4 hours more than the old Samsung Galaxy Buds. We suspect that the Buds+ might work with the old case as well. They look similar.
There are more drivers within the earphones as well. There is two dedicated drivers now; one for treble or mid to high frequencies, one for bass or low frequencies. This should address some of the low frequency weakness we find on the old Samsung Galaxy Buds.
There are 2 more mics to find on the Galaxy Buds+ too. One of them is placed inside your ear to ensure better sounding calls from your end at least. We suspect that the mic inside is more to capture the sound vibrations from your jaw to reproduce clearer sounding voices for calls.
Samsung has also worked with Spotify to make the Galaxy Buds more app friendly. A long press on the right side of the Samsung Galaxy Buds while on Spotify will give you recommended playlist based on Spotify’s profile of you. Quite brilliant for discovering new songs without looking at the app itself.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds should be available in two colours as usual. The one we saw was the white colour variant. There is a black variant with that too. If you saw our previous article on the Samsung Z Flip already, you should also know that there is a Thom Browne edition to the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ too. We suspect that the Thom Browne edition only comes bundled with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip Thom Browne edition. The Galaxy Buds+ will retail for US$ 149 (MYR 616*) when it is available. You can find more information on their website.
* Approximate conversion based on US$ 1 = MYR 4,13 on 12/02/2020
UPDATE: Samsung Galaxy Buds+ will be available in Malaysia for MYR 599. You can expect the earphones in stores on the 4th of March 2020 onward, same as the Samsung Galaxy S20 series. You can also get it as a bundle when you purchase the Samsung Galaxy S20+ and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra through the pre-order program. Of course, pre-order units are quite limited too.
