Acer’s Predator gaming laptop line-up in 2020 was one that was filled with products that sort of look like each other. One gaming laptop stood out though. That one gaming laptop that stood out above the rest is the Predator Triton 500 gaming laptop. It was thin, thinner than any Predator gaming laptop you can find. It is not unreasonably thin that temperature becomes a concern too. At the same time it looks completely ordinary.
We love the form factor the Predator Triton 500 presented. But is a product with 10th Generation Intel Core processor and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 20 series GPU. There is a new one, and it packs Intel’s and NVIDIA’s latest. Not just the latest though, the most powerful in the mobile line-up; the Core i9 and the GeForce RTX 3080.
It also comes with a new age design that is even more minimalist than before. It gained a little bit of heft and weight too. But essentially, the philosophy of the product is the same. Make it thin, as thin as possible. But make it powerful also, immensely powerful.
That means that the price is also bumped up to MYR 12,999. Does it still live up to the Triton 500 name? Is the Triton 500 SE even worth that kind of money? We find out.
Get your Predator Triton 500 SE here: https://acer.co/36NWtkm! More information on the Predator Triton 500 SE here: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/MY/content/predator-series/predatortriton500se!
LG is known for many things. They are one of the biggest names in home entertainment, especially televisions. They also make excellent home appliances like washing machines and water purifiers. That should mean they make great audio gear, right? Sure, they make sound bars and speakers. We own their XBOOM PL5s and we love them here at techENT. But they hardly make headphones, until now
Their strong partnership with Meridian, a British audio engineering house, has produced the LG TONE Free. This one we have in our hands is one of LG’s latest True Wireless earbuds. Not to be confused with other LG TONE Free earphones, this is the FP8. It will also set you back MYR 1,099 at full retail price.
Its asking price puts it next to the Sony WF-1000XM4. LG also offers Active Noise Cancelling feature here. But they are betting on another thing that Sony does not have with this headphone. The LG Free Tone FP8 is supposed to be more hygienic than any other True Wireless headphones you can find.
So, is it worth MYR 1,099? Does the “hygiene” feature alone make up the asking price? Should you even get this pair of headphones over others, if you are in the market for one? We find out.
Design
First, the LG TONE Free is not one pair of headphones. The naming scheme applies to a range of earphones from LG. Their website does not help much with clarifying the products either. We are not here to comment on websites though.
There is an entirely different problem with the hardware. It looks identical to whichever Tone Free products you pick, save for the HBS-FN7. They also look like Apple’s AirPods Pro, with a slightly tweaked stem.
LG claims that the unique “ergonomic” Concha-Shaped design is based on a design study of hundreds of ears. It is designed to conform to the shape of your ear and ensure a good and secure fit. We recommend that you try it first before making any conclusions. There is a nipple on the earbuds itself. It points out where to tap when you want to interact with the device.
Thankfully, the charging case looks nothing like an Apple Product. It looks more like a pebble you can find on a river’s bed. It is simplistic, minimal even. We must say, we quite like the look of the case itself.
Both the earbuds and the case are covered in a matte finish that repels fingerprint well. Not so well against scuffs and scratches though, the bottom of our review unit is full of scratches after a month of use. It is also a wireless charging case, which is always nice to have. The interior feels a little more durable though with a nice rough finish with LG’s logo on the cap, and Meridian logo on the base.
Hardware
Just because it looks similar to the Apple AirPods Pro does not mean that they are built the same though. They offer differing drivers and enhancements to make them what they are.
LG TONE Free FP8
Driver Unit
Dynamic 8Φ
Frequency Response
Unspecified
Headphone type
Wireless Earbuds
Battery
68mAh x 2 (earbuds) 380mAh (charging case) Max. 6 hrs (ANC On) / Max. 10 hrs (ANC Off) Up to 15 hrs (w/ charging case/ANC On) Up to 24 hrs (w/ charging case/ANC Off)
Miscellaneous
Bluetooth 5.2 Active Noise Cancelling IPX4 Wireless Charging Google Fast Pair/Swift Pair Digital MEMS Mic Meridian sound/EQ
Features
The good thing about Bluetooth earphones like the LG Tone Free are that they are feature packed. You also have to remember you are paying MYR 1,099 for it. It should come feature packed at that price.
IPX4
Water resistance is quite common with most wireless earphones today. This one comes with IPX4 certification, meaning it can take on sweat or even the rain and cold. You might want to hold off swimming with it though.
We have done some running with the earbuds and it seems to deal with sweat well. Silicone type tips are great too because they are much easier to clean. At the same time, true to what LG claims, the earphones stay in your ears without too much of a fuss even with violent head movements. This also may vary from ear to ear.
Whisper Mode
By default, this function is turned off. You can toggle it on or off from the App which we will talk about later. According to the app’s description and illustration, it is to be used in trains.
We think that Whisper Mode can be used when you require a little bit more privacy and subtlety. The public transport is one of them, yes. You do have to use both earphones for this function to work though. The primary mic for calls is also placed in the right earbud, so you want to bring it closer to the mouth.
It works to a certain extent. It works in a noisy environment, but you do want to make sure that you are keeping your voice a little lower when you put the mic right to you your mouth. Yes, you can use it in a library too; just do not annoy your librarian and other patrons.
LG Tone Free App
We appreciate companion apps for any Bluetooth device connected to your smartphone. Thankfully LG TONE Free FP8 connects with the LG TONE Free App.
Everything on the app is intuitive enough that we do not have to guess how to work the main functions. The only one we got a little lost with is in changing the touchpad function. Then again, there are not that many submenus on the app; so that was rectified quickly as well.
There is a dedicated manual section that guides users on the basic workings of the LG TONE Free FP8. It even teaches you how to get UVnano sanitisation going. This also works with other LG TONE Free products, we assume.
Of course, like many headphone apps, the app also features its own equaliser and presets to work with. We mostly toggle between Natural, 3D Sound, and Immersive modes most. For noise cancelling, you can choose between transparency mode, noise cancelling mode, or turn it off completely. You can also check the battery levels of each bud and the case of the LG Tone Free FP8.
UVnano Sanitisation
The party piece of the LG TONE Free FP8 is its UVnano function. It is technically a UV based sanitisation mechanism built into the case. It radiates UV light on to the ear tip section of both earphones.
LG claims that the UVnano technology kills up to 99.9% of bacteria and germs on the parts of the earbuds that matter. It does not clean your earphones from visible dirt and grime though. We do not have any instruments to test their claim, so we will take LG’s word for it.
LG also says that the silicone ear tips they used are made from hypoallergenic materials to ensure that you are ultimately comfortable wearing the earphones. Paired to the bacteria cleaning technology, it might be okay sharing the earbuds with someone else. At the same time, it ensures you have a healthy ear while having a good time.
Quick Pair & Fast Pair
Like any other Quick Pair and Fast Pair enabled devices, you can simply open the case, take out the earbuds, and your smartphone or Bluetooth enabled PC instantly asks you to pair with the headphones. We set up the LG Tone Free FP8 with our Android smartphone in less than 5 seconds. Even getting things going with LG TONE Free app is quick and with very little nuance.
Performance
The meat of an earphone is always its drivers and sound quality. But for a pair of Bluetooth earphones, it does more than just play music. It must be your handsfree kit. The earbuds must also be able to last an entire plane journey.
Calls
In terms of making calls, the report of using the earbuds from the other end of the line is that it sounds mighty clear. Because the connection notice on the earbuds is just a quick ping, your conversations does not get cut off. Our friends have reported that 2e sound natural, as though we are working with the smartphones built-in hardware.
While you can use either earbud for listening, the main voice mic is placed in the right earbud. That is also why Whisper Mode only works with the right earbud as the mic. This also means that it is still better for you to use the right earbud to make calls and have conversations. Using just the left earbud did not allow us to have very good conversations with the earphones.
Receiving calls is a matter of just tapping either nipple on each earbud. The audio transmitted through the earphone is also mighty clear in typical phone calls. Both earbuds transmit the caller’s voice loud and clear. This makes an excellent pair of earphones for not only regular calls, but for video conferencing as well.
Active Noise Cancelling
One of the main selling points of this pair of earphones is also its Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) feature. In the app, you can set it to high, low, off, or ambient sound mode. Ambient sound mode is separated into conversation mode and listening mode.
In ambient sound mode, you hear everything as though you suddenly have super hearing for some reason in conversation mode. Conversation mode tends to amplify the mid-frequencies, where human voice sits. That means that you tend to hear a lot of things a lot louder too unfortunately, and it can be distracting when you are not having a conversation.
In listening mode things are a bit more natural sounding to the ear though with a subtle but noticeable hiss. We would prefer to use listening mode in most situations. It is especially useful when you are strolling down busy streets.
Then there is noise cancelling. It is not quite as good as its direct competition. While it does pretty much drown out most things around you, there are plenty of noise that still escapes the noise cancelling and makes it in your ear. As I type this review on the laptop, I can hear my keyboards clacking away, mouse clicks still visible, I can even have conversations with others, albeit limited.
The ANC algorithm is acceptable enough though. You start playing a music and it will drown out the noise a bit more. It is not made to just act as an earplug.
Meridian Tuning
LG’s TONE Free sounds excellent for podcasts. We listened to F1 Nation on Spotify and the vocals sounds rich and full. It sounds like a traditional radio experience and we quite like that. The low-end of the voice is clear and apparent with the voices. There is a lack of crispiness in the voice though.
The lack of crispiness is more apparent when you are listening to music. We used Tidal to listen to most of our music because Tidal offers higher bitrate than Spotify. Listening to Lost Without You by Freya Ridings is still enjoyable do not get us wrong. There is some loss of velvetiness in her voice with the earphones though. We kept the earphones set to natural for all our tests.
We played the Final Fantasy VII Medley by Video Game Orchestra, 3 Hour Drive by Alicia Keys, Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra, and Circles by Post Malone to put the earphones through its paces. There is no lack of punch in the low frequencies. There is a good definition of the basses as well, which is impressive enough for earphones this size. The low-frequency notes feel quite full and satisfying enough that you can enjoy EDM, Hip Hop, and Pop titles.
With others, you do find that there is some lack of definition in the mid and treble frequencies. The notes in those regions sound almost muddled, suppressed. We suspect that it is also because LG and Meridian chose a punchier tuning to enhance the bass experience. That is not to say that they sound bad though, they are still quite enjoyable.
To be fair, we are a little spoiled by the Sony WF-1000XM4’s sound quality for its asking price. If you do not have that to compare to, the LG Tone Free FP8 sounds excellent enough. You can enjoy your music and podcasts with not too much of an issue.
Battery Life
LG quoted 6 hours in battery life with ANC on. You can extend it to 10 hours if you turn off Noise Cancelling, but why would you? In our use case, we have not used it for more than three hours at a time. A quick look at the app’s battery indicates that at 70% volume, the LG Tone Free FP8 has used up about 50% of battery life in just a little less than three hours. If our math is correct, you should be able to get close to six hours of battery life with ANC on.
The case is supposed to give the LG Tone Free FP8 another one and a half extra charges. A quick pop into the case and the earphones charge quickly enough that you are not going to be out of action for too long. Because we never ran the battery dry, we never had to wait for more than 30 minutes to get the earbuds to fully charge. We find that we tend to leave the case on our wireless charging pad to keep it charged.
The LG Tone Free FP8 – Good, not Great
The LG Tone Free FP8 is a good pair of earphones to work with. It sounds good all around. While the bass-heavy profile does suppress vocals and trebles a little bit, listening to any kind of music is still a pleasurable experience. Noise cancelling is good enough to filter out plenty of sounds. Podcasts sounds reasonably good as well, so there is that.
For MYR 1,099 though, it goes directly against Sony’s WF-1000XM4. The LG’s Noise Cancelling algorithm cannot be compared to the Sony’s. To be fair, Sony’s noise cancelling technology is ahead of any in the industry currently.
Where the LG sounds a little supressed, the Sony sounds excellent. LG’s offering does offer a punchy low frequency, but its direct competitor does it better too. On paper, the Sony also offers a better battery life.
There is one thing that the LG offers that even the likes of Sony does not. They offer built-in UV sanitisation technology with UVnano. It keeps your earphones free from bacteria no matter how you use it at least. It still does not eliminate the need to clean your earphones from time to time though.
Does the UVnano technology justify its full retail price of MYR 1,099? We believe it might. That said, this is not a pair of earphones for us. But it does not mean that the LG is completely horrible mismatch to the market. We think it is made for those who has sensitive skin or ears, those who tend to get irritation in their ear when they start using in-ear monitor type earphones. It is made for those that needs to obsessively clean their earphones every time they use it. It is made for them to enjoy tracks while knowing that they will not have any hygiene issues after. For them, this works, and works well.
When the Sony WF-1000XM3 (WF-1000X Mk. III) first came to light, we were very excited about it. Oddly enough, the truly wireless earbuds from Sony did not have a Mk. II revision. It skipped a generation, which also means that the Mk. III is effectively a second-generation earphone of its type. There is a good reason for that though.
Sony’s argument to the naming scheme is simple. It packs the same technology as the WH-1000XM3 flagship Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) over-ear headphones. It is also leaps and bounds better than the first iteration they came up with. For that reason alone, the second-generation WF-1000XM3 is named the way it is.
With the fourth generation WH-1000X headphone (WH-1000XM4), they also delivered the Sony WF-1000XM4. It shares no visual similarities with the older Mk. III save for the colours. It is also quite a bit more expensive than the older earphone.s It is now MYR 1,099 over the MYR 899 for the Mk. III.
Is it worth the extra ask though? Is it a better headphone than the Mk. III that you should now chuck them away for these new ones? Does it even live up to our expectations? We dive in and try to answer these questions.
Design
As we mentioned earlier, the new WF-1000XM4 looks nothing like its predecessor. It is more compact, more “regular”. It is still quite bulky though, just less so than the WF-1000XM3.
The new earbuds feel more natural and easier to work with compared to the predecessor. It is much easier to place the earbuds correctly now than ever. The touchpad is now a lot bigger and easier to work with than before. The only thing we think missing is gesture control.
Even the case is much more compact now. They still feature the same sort of design language that you get from the case of the WF-1000XM3. The cap is a lot more rounded than before. The bottom is now flat so you can stand it correctly. The bottom is also where the wireless charging receiver is.
Hardware
The new earphones come with a slew of minor improvements that completely changes the experience of a true wireless ANC headphone. The drivers remain at the same size at 6mm, but was redesigned for better response in all frequencies. They have also managed to pack a few more mics and pick ups despite the smaller size.
Bluetooth 5.2 Active Noise Cancelling IPX4 Wireless Charging DSEE Extreme
Features
There is a lot to unpack here. It is by far Sony’s most feature packed true wireless earbuds. Then again, you are paying MYR 1,099 for it.
IPX4
The WF-1000XM4 is officially rated at IPX4. That does not mean you can take it swimming though. Officially, IPX4 means that the hardware itself is splash protected in all direction. That also means that it will work rain or shine. We can also now take it for a jog or the gym without worrying. We recommend that you turn on ‘ambient noise’ when you are out and about for your own safety.
Hybrid Tips
For the Sony WF-1000XM4, Sony developed hybrid ear tips. It is a mix of foam and silicon that combines the best of both worlds. The foam is the part seals the ear, while the silicone keeps the structure and secure the tips to the body.
The result is an extremely comfortable fitting earphones that really seals off the world from you when you put your earphones on. You can wear it for hours on end without any sort of discomfort coming from the usual silicone ear tips. We cannot comment too much on its durability yet though, we need to use it for longer.
The noise isolation from the foam is significant enough that it blocks out most noise. Combined with the noise cancelling algorithm, the world is tuned out. Because foam is more compliant to ear shapes too, the experience should be consistent with most ears. Everyone’s ears are different though so you might get slightly different experiences.
All-New V1 Processor
Instead of the older generation QN1 processor, as per the WH-1000XM3 and WH-1000XM4, the new true wireless earbuds feature a new V1 audio processor. A quick breakdown by EE Times shows that while the current V1 chip is slightly larger than the older processor, it integrates more features within the chip itself allowing Sony to wrap everything else into a smaller and tighter package. Of course, the V1 packs more processing power. That processing power allows Sony to fit more purpose-built hardware with cleverer algorithm for an even better noise cancelling experience than before.
Simultaneous Bluetooth Connection
Sony’s previous true wireless ANC earphones had some reported issues of desynchronised audio across both earphones. Sony have solved that with simultaneous Bluetooth connection on the WH-1000XM4. That also means that both earbuds will get data simultaneously. That also means a more stable, more synchronised listening experience across both ears. For the earphones to work though, you have to use the right earbud first. The left earbud will not work on its own. Sony, it is 2022, everyone else allows us to use individual buds either side.
Pair Quickly, and Correctly
Google’s Fast Pair and Windows Swift Pair are lifesavers for modern Bluetooth earphones. It is really just a matter of opening the case and choose “pair” when Windows or your Android smartphone prompts you to pair with your ear buds. We almost forgot that it’s predecessor came with NFC because this just works. It took us less than 5 seconds to get the WF-1000XM4 going.
Sony Headphones App
The Sony Headphones App really enhances our experience with the WF-1000XM4. If you come from Sony’s modern headphones line-up, you will be quite familiar with the app. There are certain carry over functions as well.
Ear Analysis for Better Experience
You can easily get the app to recognise your ear shape by taking a few photos as per the app’s instructions and tailor your listening experience. The difference can be so marginal that you hardly notice. To some though, it makes the world of difference in their listening experience. In some ways, the app can also help the earphones tailor the noise cancelling experience specifically for you. This is on top of the clever noise cancelling based on the feedback from its microphones from inside your ears. The app now also allows you to check if the tips you picked are suitable for you by performing ‘leak’ tests to see if your ears are properly sealed.
Speak-to-Chat – Your Earphones can Stay on Forever
One feature that trickled over also from the WH-1000XM4 is speak-to-chat function. If you find it quite annoying you can turn it off. It cuts the music so that you can have a conversation. It also only triggers when you start talking though, so your friends will still need to get your attention first.
Ambient mode is better and more natural than before. It is still a little artificial though. Little noises still sound bigger than they actually are.
By default, the music will only cut back 15 seconds after you end your conversation. You can turn that to 5, or 30 seconds. If not, you can also set it to trigger only when you interact with either earbud. It takes up to one second for the earphones cut the music and go into transparency mode, you might want to be patient.
Location Preset
Location detection is one very handy feature we love to use. You can have ambient mode when you are out and about just so that you are aware of what is happening around you. Once you get home, or to the office, your headphones will still continue playing the music and noise cancelling is turned up to the desired levels accordingly. You can even turn equaliser to different presets in different locations. Even the speak-to-chwt function can be customised accordingly.
360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos with Bravia XR
Yes, you can connect your earphones with your TVs too via Bluetooth. If your Sony TV packs Sony’s Bravia XR processor, you can take advantage of Sony’s clever 360 Reality Audio and the details in Dolby Atmos. Unfortunately, we do not have a TV with Bravia XR engine, so we could not test this function.
Performance
The features do not make the headphones though. You want it to sound good. You want to immerse yourself in music. With an ANC headphone, you want to be isolated at that.
Immerse Yourself Anywhere, Anytime, and in Peace
Noise cancelling on this pair of headphones is much cleaner than before. While it does not cancel everything, you can say that 90% of the noise around you gets cancelled with a good seal, and suddenly you are transported far away from your pesky colleagues, or noisy patrons in your favourite café. At 60-75% volume, the music drowns out your environment.
There is only one way to describe the audio experience; it is remarkable. Low-end frequencies excel with the WF-1000XM4. With some clever engineering, there is a bigger diaphragm over its predecessor. That also means that the low-end frequencies are punchier than before, more so than most earphones with similarly sized drivers. There is no sacrifice in detail though.
The mid-tones and high frequencies are excellent and properly detailed as well. Somehow, the WF-1000XM4 offers better vocals than before. You can hear that with songs like Lost Without You by Freya Ridings. The Final Fantasy Medley by the Video Game Orchestra also highlights the balance of the WF-1000M4. We use Tidal which offers music streaming at FLAC qualities.
DSEE Extreme and Hi-Res LDAC
We have to credit the excellent listening experience to Sony’s clever DSEE Extreme and LDAC algorithm. It is Sony’s clever audio upscaling algorithm that brings your music listening experience closer to what you might get on a CD or lossless files. You can turn it off if you want, but we suggest keeping it on.
Calls
The Sony WF-1000XM4 features more function specific microphones to pick up voice. It features bone conduction mic and also something called a beamforming mic. Bone conduction mic only picks up vibrations that comes from your skull while beamforming mic is great at picking up vocals. The result should be crystal clear and stellar voice quality in calls.
The feedback from the person on the other end of the line seems satisfactory. Our voices are picked up nicely and clearly. It is not as clear as using the smartphone’s built-in mic apparently, but still acceptable. The call sounds clear and clean in your ears too.
The better mic experience also benefits the speak-to-chat and smart assistant features of the WF-1000XM4. Because the earphones picks up your voice much better, speak-to-chat functionality is accurate in most cases and will not cut out when you are halfway talking to your peers. Voice commands are also picked more accurately than before.
360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos
360 Reality Audio offers you a sort of a 3D audio experience in the music. Artists can work with a whole surround sound experience to create a sort of immersive experience. For example, the earphones can visualise an all-encompassing drum experience, an acoustic guitar on the front left side, a piano on the front right side, your vocalist right in front of you, and a bass guitar right behind you.
Dolby Atmos on the other hand is a little different. While Dolby Atmos is used in most surround sound solutions for your visual entertainment, it is more about the details. On Tidal, Dolby Atmos allows you to head the little intricacies of the instruments. You can think of it like sitting in a studio listening to the actual recording being done before it gets mastered for the general listening experience.
On Tidal we used David Bowie’s Space Oddity and Alicia Keys’ 3 Hour Drive to test out the 360 Reality Audio. for Dolby Atmos, Tidal offers Sweet Child of Mine by Guns and Roses, Blinding Lights by The Weeknd, and I’ll Never Love Again by Lady Gaga. All of them offers different experience of 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos too.
Battery Life
Sony says that the WF-1000XM4 can last up to eight hours with continuous music playback and five and a half hours with continuous call time. Most of our calls end in less than three hours. One particular call that lasted about two hours did brought the charge down to about 50%. So, we can only take Sony’s word for its battery life.
We have never had the chance to use the earbuds for more than three hours in music playback too in our test period. The battery only went down to just about 60% in that time frame though. The estimation, based on the power consumption at that time, is more than seven hours of continuous use with Noise Cancelling in our case.
The case is also supposed to provide two extra charges, bringing up the total music playback battery life to a quoted 24 hours. We have never drained the battery on the case as well, but then again, we leave it on the wireless charger in the office or at home after every use of the earbuds. The case charges the earphones rather quickly too. In our use case, we never had to wait for more than 20 minutes for the earbuds to fully charge and get going again. You can charge it via the USB Type-C port too.
The Sony WF-1000XM4 Conclusion
We probably have said something similar with the WF-1000XM3, but this is sort of the gold standard now in ANC true wireless earphones. We think that the sound quality from the WF-1000XM4 has comparable sound quality even compared to the Sennheiser True Wireless Momentum II and the Klipsch T5 II.
At MYR 1,099 it is the same price as the AirPods Pro, and it sounds better. You could pick it up for less on other online platforms though. It is also cheaper than the Sennheiser and earbuds, both of which are considered some of the best sounding true wireless headphones out there.
This pair of earphones can offer you a completely tailored experience that is made only for your ears. That also means that each WF-1000XM4 out there could be marginally or completely different, depending on preferences as well of course. While that experience is only accessible through the Sony Headphones App, the app is available for both Android and iOS users.
Your entire audio experience is on a different level with the best-in-class noise cancelling algorithm. It blocks out enough that you feel like you are far away from distractions. With music, you are completely isolated and cut out from the world where you are. You are enjoying pure music.
Is it worth MYR 1,099? Based on its performance, we think the price tag is acceptable. MYR 1,099 for a personalised audio experience is actually highly accessible and reasonable, custom earphones will cost you at least twice that.
Is it better than the WF-1000XM3? Yes, it is. If you can get a good price for the Mk. IV, we think you should upgrade from the predecessor too. The WF-1000XM4 does not just live up to our expectations, it exceeds them. If Sony WF-1000XM4 is already this good; can Sony make anything much better than this?
Flexible displays have a complicated history. It has also come a long way since its conception many years ago. Samsung was the first smartphone manufacturer in the world to finally realise the foldable smartphone dream with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Fold back in 2018. If you have read our review of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2, you would know that we are quite fond of it.
They have released the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3. Admittedly, we are a little late on its review. But it is still one of Samsung’s most powerful flagships to date, and you can get one with an S Pen. Effectively, it is a spiritual successor to the Galaxy Note series that is confirmed to be long gone.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 is cheaper than before at MYR 6,699. There are a few reasons for that, but it is a good thing overall. Is it now worth its asking price though? Should you consider moving to a foldable device now that Samsung has forgone its Galaxy Note series? Is it even a good device? We find out.
Design
Unlike a lot of the other flagships that seems to get larger with new iterations, the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3’s dimensions did not change from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2. They are identical in , width and even thickness. If you put them together side by side, ignoring the camera module, you would have a hard time telling the two devices apart.
The materials used are the exact same materials as before in all the same places. Even the hinge mechanism is the same one used in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2. There is a small difference between the hinge in the third iteration though. It is now sealed and insulated to ensure that it can comply to IPX8 water resistance. Water resistance, in some ways, is a large improvement over the older Galaxy Z Fold2 in today’s modern standards. That, and they say that the aluminium ‘backbone’ (as they call it) is now 10% stronger than before. We did not get to test that though.
There are also some differences at the back of the device. The camera module looks a lot more modest than before. It now features three separate glass elements instead of a single glass box. It somehow makes the entire back of the device looks much cleaner, although the three cameras are the same three cameras you find on the old Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2. That is about it in terms of the difference in appearance though.
Hardware
Oddly, it is not powered by Samsung’s own Exynos powerhouse. In fact you cannot find a Samsung foldable with Exynos chip in it. Instead, it is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 System on a Chip (SoC).
FRONT Internal: 4-Megapixel (f/1.8, under-display ) 4K video recording (30fps)
FRONT External: 10-Megapixel (f/2.2, 26mm wide angle) 4K video recording (30fps)
Sensors
Accelerometer Proximity Side Mounted Fingerprint Ambient Light Gyroscope Face Unlock Compass
User Interface – One UI Full Flex
Of course, a Samsung device is never complete without Samsung’s very recognizable User Interface on top of Android. At the time of testing, we only had One UI on top of Android 11. Still, One UI is a league of its own in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3. You do not want to be using a custom launcher with the Samsung foldable flagship.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3’s One UI does not feel like a blown up One UI for odd displays. It feels better than the older interface. Oddly, not that much has changed since the last round.
You still can have two different home screens for both your front display and inside display. This time round, you can both displays to display the same home screen too, if you really want, without messing about too much. Notifications are not blown up to occupy the entire space like before. It actually feels nicer and cleaner somehow. On top of that, you get more unique app experiences now on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3.
Settings Menu
Instead of the old settings menu that is clearly made for smartphones, the interface opens to a more tablet like experience with the main display. Of course, you get the regular smartphone interface type of settings menu on the outer display. Once you open the device, the interface immediately changes though, which is a real nice touch.
Spotify
The Spotify experience on the main display of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 opens to a more tablet like experience too. To be fair, it should not be to hard for app developers to include smartphone-to-tablet-to-smartphone switching modes. Most apps have their own dedicated tablet interfaces these days and it would make sense for them to include the interface for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3.
YouTube
Of course, this was the first app with a proper interface that is more suited to the larger display of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold. It was first seen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2, but it is a little smoother now on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3. At the same time, you can tilt the display to use half the screen to watch your videos and view the comments of description on the other. We think that it is a feature useful when you do livestreams, especially when you need to watch the comments box.
Gmail
You guessed it, when the Z Fold3 is open, Gmail opens to a more tablet like experience too with the email inbox list on the left and the contents on the right. We think that this is a much more intuitive experience for the larger tablet like display on the Galaxy Z Fold3.
Plenty to Work On
One UI is not perfect though. While Instagram now fills up the entire display, you might find that the app does not work as intended when you switch from the front display to the main display. You cannot interact with stories unless you close the app and open it again with the main display. Shopee and Lazada also do not resize between displays . While they are just irksome at best, it does detract from the whole foldable experience.
The Fold, Now with S Pen
This is an addition we appreciate though coming from the Samsung Galaxy Note line-up. One thing we were left wanting with the previous Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 was also the S Pen capabilities. The only issue is that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3’s S Pen is a different one to the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra’s.
Working with the S Pen is nice though. We missed the Galaxy Note series dearly and the Galaxy Z Fold3 sort of compensates the Galaxy Note’s discontinuation. We were worried that the S Pen would not be able to keep up at the dip of the display, where there are no digitizers, but it works perfectly, even when we drew a line down the crease. The whole S Pen experience is more natural than ever. It really is like writing in a notebook this time.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 packs a very potent Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 System on a Chip (SoC). Even compared to the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S22, Galaxy Z Fold3 is still one powerful device. But its performance does not just come from the powerful SoC, it is the entire package that makes the Galaxy Z Fold3 what it is.
Benchmark
Call Quality and Connectivity
Like the older Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2, the Galaxy Z Fold3 packs only one earpiece and that is on its secondary (outer) display. That also means that you can only use it with the device folded. When it is unfolded, you can only make calls with the loudspeaker, which is not an entirely bad idea sometimes.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 in loudspeaker mode somehow feels a little louder than before. We are pretty sure it is the same hardware as the Galaxy Z Fold2 in terms of its audio. The increased volume also means that you can use it in a small discussion room with just a few people on the table as a teleconferencing device.
Of course, thanks to One UI, you can use your Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 as a video conferencing tool without the need to buy a stand or prop your device up against something else. You can set the device to open in any angle (nothing beyond 180o, though) and its front-facing camera can be angled to you for a better video calling experience.
If the device on the other end of the line also supposed VoLTE and is calling with full signal strength, your calls are crystal clear and crisp. Of course, these days you are making calls when you are on the move (we strongly discourage using the device without hands-free when you are driving). In that case, you might come across areas with poor signals. If you have a single bar on the network though, you should be able to have conversations over the phone, albeit with some distortions.
Gaming
Like the older Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2, we tested the device with PUBG Mobile, and Mobile Legends Bang Bang. We also tested it with Pokémon Unite, a MOBA title. Of course, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 performed very well in these games. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, in 2021 at least, is the most powerful smartphone processor you can find on any Android device. It only makes sense that you can play these games at its highest requirements with no issues at all.
The only issue you might be facing is heat management on the device. There is only so much surface area on the back of the foldable device to dissipate heat too, so you are going to feel it a little bit in your fingers. It is not scalding hot though; you should be able to still handle it with little discomfort.
Multitasking and Productivity
The large display allows us to experience two apps at once without having to crimp on the window sizes. You can have three windows open at once, plus five floating windows in the back. In theory, you can have all eight apps open at the same time.
In practice though, the best way to use the device is by having three windows. We would like to be able to use up to four apps at the same time, there is enough screen real estate to work with. Sure, you can have a floating window open, but it is just not the same.
Still, three is better than two. At that as well, The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 never felt too sluggish to work with even when there are eight apps running at the same time (three windows, five floating windows). You can easily change from one app to the other effortlessly too, which is a huge plus point in multitasking.
Samsung’s latest One UI also inherits its not-so-intuitive multi-window mechanics. The easiest way to open all the apps is to first open the three apps separately, and to go into recent apps to fiddle with the little “multi-window” option on the apps you want to run. Once in this mode, you can just toggle the apps around to increase its size or rearrange the entire thing.
Like its predecessors, the new One UI also comes with a quick launch menu which allows you to dock up to two apps at once to be able to launch both the apps in multi-window mode immediately. We highly recommend using that feature in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 to optimise your experience.
Battery Life
In our typical use case, we work with apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Gmail, and even the phone app plenty. We would also scroll feeds on Instagram, Facebook, and even Twitter from time to time with it. Of course, our camera is also used to take various photos and videos we could use for our review. We do play games on the device occasionally.
In our typical use case, we never had too much of a problem with its battery life for an entire day. In our test period, we took the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 away from the charger at about 9am. The device would hit about 15% of battery at about 10 p.m. on average.
While the battery is smaller than before, it charges just about the same with the older device. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 charges to full in about two hours via USB Type-C cable. It also comes with wireless charging like its predecessor. Charging it wirelessly allows it to charge at 15W speeds. I will take longer than two hours to charge the device from empty to full in that case.
Displays & Audio
While the displays on the new and older device looks the same, they are slightly different. The outer display is a slightly smaller display before at 6.2-inch from the 6.23-inch of the Z Fold2. Nothing much has changed on the inside though, except for a difference in brightness and a revolutionary under-display camera.
Secondary Display
It is now a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display compared to the older Super AMOLED. It crams a little more resolution that before too at 832 by 2,268 pixels. You hardly notice the added pixels in such a crammed display. You will notice the difference in panel quality though.
The colours from a Dynamic AMOLED 2X tend to look more natural, less saturated than Super AMOLED. At 25:9 aspect ratio, the narrow display is not really made for immersive media consumption. The better colour contrasts of the display does make it a little more enjoyable when you are watching Netflix or even YouTube on the smaller display.
Main Display
Of course, you want to use the larger display for the best viewing experience. It is also the same great flexible display you find on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2, except it has gotten a little bit more brightness and the S Pen capability.
While the near square display works very well for productivity, it is a little crippled in consuming media. When you watch Netflix, you get two very large black bars on the top and bottom of the display. It does not take anything away from its experience though.
The display shines in gaming though. Mobile games tend to take advantage of different display form factors and optimizes itself to match the display size and form factor. Most of the games we tested fills the display. The result is an immersive gaming experience with plenty of details on display. The control buttons do not interfere with the peripheral visions on the display, which is a bonus in games like PUBG Mobile and even other MOBA games.
The same flex and bending marks from before can still be seen and is as noticeable as before. The crease is quite unavoidable in today’s folding devices. It is a little distracting especially when you view the display from an angle, but you might grow used to it after a while.
Under Display Cam – Not Just a Hole
If you look closely, the top part of the right side of the display looks a little odd. There are pixels that sit there, but you can see through it to find the small front-facing camera. While the pixel count in that small, rounded area is not as dense as the other parts of the display, it does help with your viewing experience. Netflix can now take full advantage of the display’s height and other media looks less janky.
Cameras
The under-display is not a brilliant camera. Photos taken with this 4-megapixel camera feels a little dated. Colours are a little off and details are not great. It is the camera that most will use for video conferences though, where high-resolution is not necessary.
There is another 10-Megapixel front-facing camera. This one is the same one as you can find from the device before. While it is not the most detailed photo you get from this camera, it is not a bad image you get. Colours and saturation seem to be more on-point.
The rear cameras are also the exact same ones you can find on the Galaxy Z Fold3. While you get the same triple 12-Megapixel camera set up, the processing chip is a lot more advanced than before. The results from the 12-Megapixel shooters are quite impressive.
They are not what you would call ‘DSLR’ quality, but they are more than acceptable for social media use. The colours look natural and vivid while details look great for 12-Megapixel photos. At the same time, you can still record videos at 4K.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 – The Z Fold2, just Better Everywhere
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 is not meant to be a huge leap from the older Samsung Galazy Z Fold2. It is meant to be just a touch better than the 2nd generation foldable; more refined, if you must. But that does not mean that Samsung was complacent with the Galaxy Z Fold3.
The flagship foldable is now an IPX certified device, which means it can handle the weather. That also meant that the Galaxy Z Fold3 has some added durability built into the stuff. While the mechanism was a concern in the old device, the new one is made to be a little sturdier and just works better. The added durability on that also means that the S Pen feature can now be integrated and it works better than we thought it would.
They updated the secondary display, which may not be too noticeable to most people. But we do appreciate that small upgrade to bring the secondary display to the level of the main display. You get the same colours and same saturation levels. In some ways, it just makes the experience switching from the secondary to main display just a little more seamless.
The main display has not changed all that much, but the addition of a thin layer of LED on top of the internal camera does make it feel a touch more immersive than before. It makes the display looks complete too, even if you can still tell that there is a hole underneath the display. Yes, that means the camera underneath have to be a little worse than before, but that is an okay trade-off in this case.
The camera modules have not changed, but thanks to the new processor and better imaging algorithm, the camera experience is just a touch better. Below that is slightly smaller battery, but the difference between battery life from the old device is virtually non-existent. System wise, apps just work a little better and some apps have ‘tablet’ modes on the device now, which just makes more sense.
At MYR 6,699, it is way cheaper than the older device. Samsung is going all-in with the foldable device market, and it shows with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3. The lower pricing just means that they want you to be on board too.
The third generation foldable from Samsung is marginally better in almost every way. But they are marginal improvements in the areas that matter. All of them total up to a better Galaxy Z Fold experience.
So, to answer the questions we set out to answer. Yes, it is now sort of worth MYR 6,699. Yes, you can consider this as your replacement to the Samsung Galaxy Note series, if you do not mind the step-down in camera technology. Yes, the Galaxy Z Fold3 is a good device. If you are coming from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 though, you might want to hold it off for a while and wait for the next iteration of the Galaxy Z Fold before considering an upgrade.
HUAWEI, in the past, was making some of the best smartphones in the world alongside the likes of Samsung. While the idea of comparing a HUAWEI device today to a Samsung device seems a little on the funny side, you cannot deny that HUAWEI still makes some very interesting, very compelling smartphones that, on paper at least, could be one of the best smartphones in the world. The only undoing for HUAWEI is Western politics.
Funnily enough though, the political issues did not hinder HUAWEI’s PC development. They introduced notebook after notebook, and most of them comes with Intel processors, and Microsoft Windows operating system. Weird? Yes. Do we care? Not one bit. In fact, we are happy about that. HUAWEI genuinely makes great notebooks at relatively reasonable prices compared to more established players in the field.
Now there is this new thing. They introduced the HUAWEI MateBook 14S, a sort of thin-and-light notebook based on Intel’s 11th Generation processors. Amid the latest 12th Generation Intel though, is it still relevant? Is it worth the MYR 4,999 asking price? Should you even consider getting one if you do not have a HUAWEI device? We find out.
Design
It comes in two distinct colours, and the unit they passed to us is Green in colour. We have to say that we quite like the light shade of green that HUAWEI shipped this with. It stands out while remaining conspicuous and understated, if that makes sense.
The shell of the HUAWEI MateBook is clean. It only features the enlarged ‘HUAWEI’ wording on the cover. You find no sign of HUAWEI’s usual petal logo anywhere on the notebook. We assume that that the exclusion is to make the HUAWEI MateBook 14S cleaner and more professional.
The entire MateBook 14S is made from aluminium. The extensive use of metal means two things. It is very solid, but also quite hefty. It weighs 1.43kg, which is not exactly heavy, but it is still heavier than most thin-and-light notebooks out there. We appreciate the solid build and premium feel of metal, though.
Hardware
Our test unit is not the most expensive variant available in the market. It packs an Intel Core i5-11300H made for efficiency and long battery life. It also packs less RAM than the more premium Core i7 variant at 8GB. Everything else is the same, so it is not like you are shorthanded with the lesser model.
Specification
HUAWEI MateBook 14S (2021)
As Tested
Processor (clock)
Intel Core i5-11300H
GPU
Intel Iris Xe Integrated Graphics
Display(s)
14.2-inch LTPS (2520 x 1680 2.5K 3:2) 60Hz 400nits 100% sRGB 1500:1 contrast ratio 10-point multi-touch sensitive Narrow Bezel
Memory
512GB NVMe PCIe SSD 8GB LPDDR4X RAM
Networking and Connections (I/O)
2 x USB 3.1 Type-C (Charging, Data, DisplayPort) 1 x USB 3.2 Type-A 1 x 3.5mm AUX 1 x HDMI 2.0 WiFi 6 (802.11ax) Bluetooth 5.1
Operating System
Windows 10 Home (64-bit) upgradeable to Windows 11
Battery
60Wh
Miscellaneous
1.43kg HUAWEI Share Fingerprint Power Button Windows Hello Facial Recognition Quad Speakers Quad Microphone All-metal body
Features
MYR 4,999 is still a lot of money to ask for a thin-and-light though. That is entry-level gaming laptop money. Then again, you should not compare it to gaming purpose devices.
Form With Function
Usually, a thin-and-light requires sacrifice in terms of port practicality. Because most thin-and-light comes with USB Type-C Ports exclusively, you need to obtain an extra dongle so that it’ll take your USB drives, your external hard drives and whatever peripherals you want to work with.
For the HUAWEI MateBook 14S though, you can leave your dongle at home if you want. HUAWEI managed to fit one full USB 3.0 Type-A port on the right side. On the left side are two USB Type-C ports, both can be used for charging, or data, or display. There is also a full-sized HDMI port at the same side. On top of that, a 3.5mm audio jack will always come in handy.
3:2 Aspect Ratio Goodness
Most notebooks today are moving to the 16:10 aspect ratio. That is because with a taller display you can see more, and that bodes well for productivity. A 3:2 aspect ratio is not that different from the 16:10 option but with more height than usual. We admit that it is a little weird at first, a near square display is strange.
The taller display allows us to fit more information on the display, which also means putting two windows beside one another does not make the display feel cramped. Reading articles off websites also requires a lot less scrolling than before, so web browsing feels a lot less cumbersome.
That is not to say that 3:2 aspect ratio should be the standard in mobile computing though. It works with web browsing, article reading, and even essay writing. It makes less sense for most gaming conditions and movies.
While certain games might benefit the taller aspect ratio, most tend to look a little odd. When you watch movies, you get large amounts of dead space at the top and bottom of the display. It makes the movies look small and takes a little bit away from the immersion.
The Correct Place for a Webcam
We want to say that early MateBooks were odd. Not because they looked like nothing you can find in the market. It was because the MateBooks featured super thin bezels that would not fit a webcam. They chose to relocate the webcam to be tucked within the keyboard itself with a pop-up mechanism which met hilarious results.
Thankfully, at the age where webcam is a big part of our lives, no thanks to the pandemic, HUAWEI’s MateBook 14S has it in the right place. It does mean that HUAWEI have to compromise with bezel thickness a little bit. From the looks of it though, it does not look like HUAWEI had to sacrifice all that much too.
Use Your Finger, or Your Face
Of course, most modern thin-and-light notebooks come with biometric security in the form of a basic fingerprint sensor. This one does too, but it has another thing up its sleeve, or rather, in its bezel. The webcam also comes with a slew of sensors that works with Windows Hello to scan your face.
That also means that you can walk away from the notebook, and it will lock itself to ensure that whatever you are working on is safe. When you come back, it sees your face and unlocks. In the case that it does not unlock, the fingerprint sensor is quick enough also that it unlocks the moment you touch the fingerprint sensor that doubles as the power button. Just do not mistakenly press it down to power down the notebook and you will be fine.
HUAWEI Share
This has been one of the biggest selling features for HUAWEI’s devices, or at least HUAWEI notebooks if you have a HUAWEI device. Of course, most of the current features of the program can only work with HUAWEI’s latest OS on its mobile devices. Unfortunately, we did not have a HUAWEI device that is running on Harmony OS 2 at the time of review, so we could not test the feature.
Unlike the previous HUAWEI Share functionality too, there is no NFC tag to be found on the notebook, which also means that transferring data through HUAWEI share has to be done manually instead of just touching both devices together like before. While it just feels like you are going back to the conventional data sharing method, transfer speeds over HUAWEI Share are faster than Bluetooth.
Performance
The HUAWEI MateBook 14S is not a gaming notebook. The unit we are reviewing does not even come with Intel’s Core i7 processor. It also only features 8GB of RAM. It also lacks a dedicated GPU to work with.
Multitasking & Productivity
Where the HUAWEI MateBook 14S shines is when you take it out for a day of work. 8GB is ample enough for you to entertain multiple tabs on Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox browsers; both have been our browsers of choice these days. Google Chrome can be a RAM hog, but five tabs on the browser still did not hurt the HUAWEI MateBook 14S.
While you might want to spend a little more for the Intel Core i7 variant, the Intel Core i5 variant never felt sluggish in most cases. If you only need it to complete mundane tasks like filling up Word documents, create Powerpoint slides, or even work with Excel sheets, you will have enough push from the Core i5 to complete all of them with ease.
When it comes to content creation though, you might want to adjust your expectations a little bit. You can technically edit 4K videos thanks to improved optimisation of Intel’s 11th Generation CPUs. It may not be entirely smooth, but it is useable with Adobe Premiere Pro. Rendering videos will take some time still. But that is just about the most it can handle though.
Typing an Essay
The keyboard on the MateBook 14S is not the best you can find out there. It is not the worst thing to come on a laptop though. It works, and well enough at that to ensure that you do not throw it against a wall whenever you need to reply to an email with a long essay, or when you need to type out long documents with it.
The key travel is shallow, which makes it a little odd to type with. Strangely, typing on the keyboard does not wear us out as much as we thought it would though. We could attribute that to the mushiness of the keyboard. The combination of the short travel and mushiness makes the keyboard feels odd to work with. It is not quite unpleasant, just odd.
At the same time though, the keyboard is very much silent. You can bring it to the library, type out an essay and get out without anyone noticing that you have been working on it. You can even sneak in an email reply or two in the meeting room.
Gaming
You can still game on the HUAWEI MateBook 14S. You do have to adjust your expectations, though. You can still play games like Two Point Hospital, Cities: Skylines, or even Counter Strike: Global Offensive on the MateBook 14S. If you really want, you can even play Dota 2 at the screen’s 2.5K resolution. You might want to set your graphics to medium or even low if you want to take full advantage of the 2.5K display.
Battery Life
In our typical use, we usually have a few apps open on the notebook. Our browsers have about 10 tabs open at any given time. We kept our screen brightness to the maximum in most use cases. Our speakers are usually turned down to about 20% or less on the HUAWEI MateBook 14S, it can get quite loud. That said, we usually will play music via Tidal, which also means we have Tidal installed and opened. We also will have a couple of Microsoft Word instances open.
In that use case, we get about 8 hours of use from a full battery before we need to think about plugging the device to our charger. The Charger provided is a little bit of an overkill at 90W, but that means you can use it to charge other devices and other laptops that charges via USB Type-C also, which is always welcome since you just need to carry one charger for all your devices now.
Display & Audio
As mentioned, the HUAWEI MateBook 14S packs an odd 3:2 display. True to its name, it has a 14-inch display too; 14.2-inch specifically. The 14.2-inch display covers up to 90% of the body. This points to a massive display experience from a small notebook.
It is a very beautiful 2.5K (2,520 x 1,680) high-resolution display. It is a higher resolution display than regular notebooks of its class making it really stand out. It covers 100% of the sRGB colour gamut, which should mean that you get highly accurate and vibrant colours on the display. 400nits also means that it should be bright enough to work with in any indoor situation.
Its 1500:1 contrast ratio comes to play when you are watching movies with the HUAWEI MateBook 14S too. Movies look amazing on the 14-incher with vibrant and rich colours. The only issue with it is the two big black bars at the top and bottom of the video itself.
Did we mention that it is also a touch sensitive display? While we do not think that Windows 10 is very much optimised for touch experience, we think Windows 11 will change that once you get it to update. But still, having a touch display when you scroll through the web makes a lot of sense. Even going through long word documents is a much better experience with touch sensitive display.
Then there is the audio, which is not actually half bad. It does not have a subwoofer installed to it, so you cannot expect it to produce the best audio experience from a notebook. But for a notebook its size, the audio experience is respectable enough that you can enjoy good music from the HUAWEI MateBook 145S. The high-frequencies and mid-frequencies are detailed enough that vocals tend to stand out a little bit more in most music. It tends to be quite loud too, which is surprising coming from speakers its size. Then again, there are 4 speakers on this thing.
The HUAWEI MateBook 14S – Green Lit
The HUAWEI MateBook 14S is pretty in its Spruce Green guise. While there is not much in terms of design cues, its green colour helps it stand out. It is also one of the only thin-and-light notebooks you can find in the market that comes with a full-sized USB port and a full-sized HDMI port.
At MYR 4,999, it is more expensive than a lot of thin-and-light notebooks out there. Most of them does not come with a display quite like the one you can find on the HUAWEI MateBook 14S. It is not just a touch display, it is a 2.5K display that is stretched out to 3:2 aspect ratio, which is unique. On top of that you get facial recognition, also a premium feature you do not normally get in a regular thin-and-light notebook. It is a feature you mostly find on enterprise class device, or at much higher price point.
If you are a HUAWEI device owner that works with Harmony OS 2, this should be a no brainer to boost your productivity even more. With a HUAWEI MatePad 12.6, you are effectively carrying an extra storage, notepad, drawing pad, and display in your bag. HUAWEI Share is also wireless, which also means you do not need to tangle your bag with cables.
So, is this HUAWEI MateBook 14S worth MYR 4,999? We would say so, in some ways. We are not saying that it is not expensive, because it is. But at the same time this is one of the most practical thin-and-light notebook out there with a unique and beautiful display. It packs features that most thin-and-light notebooks in its price range does not too. Of course, if you have a HUAWEI Harmony OS 2 device, the HUAWEI MateBook 14S makes more sense than any other notebook in its class.
We’ve got our hands on one very interesting monitor. We think it is some sort of an answer to the question; “I want one of those Samsung Ultra-Wide gaming monitors, but I do not have that kind of money. What do I do?” You get this one, the AOPEN 43XV1C P ultra-wide 32:9 aspect ratio gaming display.
It will set you back MYR 2,999 at full retail price. For that kind of money though, you are getting not one, but two Full HD monitors that is put together side by side. You also get 120Hz in refresh rate, meaning you get silky smooth gaming experience, with the right hardware. It even responds fast at 1ms response time. If you are into video editing, the IPS panel covers up to 93% of DCI-P3 colour gamut.
With all of that, it may sound like the AOPEN 43XV1C P is a good buy. It may sound like it is a sensible purchase if you want a wider than the regular ultra-wide experience. It makes a lot more sense than getting two Full HD gaming displays, that is for sure. It does not curve though, and it is an AOPEN, a sort of budget friendly badge. So, is it worth the premium asking price? If you are looking for an ultra-wide gaming experience, is this the display you should be looking for? Is it even a good display to work with? We find all those out and more in our video review of the AOPEN 43XV1C P.
Sony’s Xperia 1 is a milestone for the Japanese electronics giant. It is not the most powerful smartphone in the market when it was launched, though it was one of the more powerful flagships. It also marks Sony’s departure from their old Xperia ways and their embracing of the new era of ultra-high-end smartphones.
The first Xperia 1 is also the first Sony Xperia device that was made in collaboration with Sony’s Alpha imaging division. That also means that the camera is now a lot more optimized than before. It now means that Sony has a reliable hardware paired to reliably impressive imaging hardware.
The Sony Xperia 1 marks a new era of Sony smartphones, an era where Sony stopped thinking about sales numbers and focus on a niche. That was three years ago though. In that case, you might be due for an upgrade. What about the new Sony Xperia 1 III (mk. lll)?
In its third iteration, is the Xperia 1 III worth the upgrade from the first generation Xperia 1? Is it worth the MYR 5,799 asking price? Can it still hold its own when Sony is launching another major flagship soon?
Design
The Sony Xperia 1 III follows a design language that should be familiar to its fans. Not much has changed in terms of design language of the Sony Xperia smartphones. They have followed the same design language for years. You might not be able to tell apart one Sony Xperia 1 III to the first generation Xperia 1.
That said though, we are fans of the timeless design language. The device is full of flat surfaces with sharper angles compared to plenty of the regular flagships we are used to in 2021. It looks fresh, modern, and iconic in its skin. The only changes Sony has made between the differing versions of Sony’s Xperia devices are on certain materials used on the device itself.
On the Sony Xperia 1 III, Sony opted for what feels like aluminium for its backplate. While it feels like it is a single unit with the frames, it is not. We suspect that it is so that the Sony Xperia 1 III will be easier to disassemble and repaired. It also still features wireless charging, despite the aluminium. We like that Sony brought back the fingerprint sensor integrated power button.
The first thing that greets you when you take it out from the box is an elongated candy bar that boasts a 6.5-inch display that stretches to 21:9 in aspect ratio. The display may sound like it is a little smaller than most modern flagships. But because it is at 21:9 aspect ratio, the candy bar is longer than the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. It is much narrower though.
Still, the Xperia 1 III still features the signature camera button which doubles as a dual action shutter button that makes it work exactly like a compact camera. Additionally, there is also a Google Assistant button on the device this time. The Sony Xperia 1 III also features a 3.5mm combo jack, something of a feature today. As with any of the Xperia devices as well, you do not need a SIM tray removal tool for the Xperia 1 III.
There is a slight camera bump at the back of the device, which is quite expected on a modern smartphone. The bump is smaller than most modern flagship devices, though.
Sony did not bother with the whole edge-to-edge moniker with their expansive display. There is a small forehead and a tight chin on the device for earpiece and a front firing speaker, which is very traditional.
Hardware
The Sony Xperia 1 III is not Sony’s most premium device you can find in Sony’s smartphone line-up. Except for its cameras, the Sony Xperia 1 III is still one of the most powerful devices in the Xperia line-up.
OLED 6.5-inch 3,840 x 1,644 pixels ~643ppi 120Hz (up to)
Operating System
Android 11
Battery
Non-Removable Li-Po 4,500mAh Fast Charging 30W
Connectivity
Dual SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP Bluetooth 5.2 LE OTG Support USB Type-C 3.1
Camera (s)
REAR: 12-Megapixel 24mm (f/1.7) 12-Megapixel 70mm (f/2.3, telephoto) 12-Megapixel 16mm (f/2.2, ultrawide) 0.3-Megapixel TOF depth sensor 4K video recording (120fps) LED flash FRONT: 8-Megapixel (f/2.0, 24mm) 1080p Full HD video recording (30fps)
Sensors
Accelerometer Proximity Fingerprint Sensor Ambient Light Gyroscope Face Unlock Compass
User Interface – Android 11 with Sony’s Xperia Touch
You can expect nearly stock Android 11 experience on the Sony Xperia 1 III as well. When we say ‘Xperia Touch’, we mean some of Sony’s own apps on the device itself.
On the end of apps, there are a few of Sony’s own app installed in the device. They are not so much bloatware though. You do have to note that there are two different camera apps on the device though. There is the regular Sony camera app that you can easily launch with a long press of the shutter button. There is also a separate video camera app (Cinema Pro) on the device. We will talk about these two apps later.
Most of the User Interface has been kept untouched from Google’s intended look. Even the notification screens are pretty much stock. That also means that you get a device that remains smooth and snappy for longer. At the same time, because the interface does not put extra unnecessary stress on memory and processors, you get apps working properly and smoothly.
Performance
The Sony Xperia 1 III is a powerhouse containing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 paired with 12GB of RAM. That also means that you can expect a lot of good things from the device.
Call Quality and Connectivity
Of course, making phone calls on a smartphone is the most regular thing you would do with it. It is, after all, the most basic function of a phone.
In that sense, making a phone call on the Xperia 1 III is pretty much like any other smartphone you can find today. You just need to pull up the Phone app and dial in your numbers, or type your friend’s name, or scroll through the contact list to make a call.
Connectivity for phone calls are quite excellent when you have enough signal strength to make the call. It also supports VoLTE, which is nothing to shout about for smartphones these days. But that also means you get crystal clear calls from the Sony Xperia 1 III. If you have a friend with networks that leverage VoLTE technology, you are going to have a good long chat with your friend on the phone without realizing that your friend is not even physically with you.
You hardly drop calls too unless you lose network signal on your device. You hardly lose network connectivity on the Sony Xperia 1 III. Of course, if you are going through an area known for weak signals, you are going to get some dropped calls.
Gaming
The display really shines when you game though. The 4K display is amazing to look at in games like Pokémon Unite. The problem is the real estate you get on the display.
The unique aspect ratio of the Sony Xperia 1 III’s display means that there is not a lot of space between the top and bottom of the display when you play games like PUBG Mobile or Mobile Legends Bang Bang. That means that your space for your navigation is limited. When you place your fingers on the display, you pretty much cover most of it.
That does not mean that you cannot enjoy the games though. They all look good on the 4K with plenty of details and with highly vivid colours. You do want to watch out for heat, though.
Multitasking and Productivity
With 12GB of RAM, there is no excuse to not perform. While the display is not optimized for multi-window experiences, you can load up tabs on your browser. That is what we did.
On the Sony Xperia 1 III, we have anywhere between 10-20 tabs open on Google Chrome. We often actively switch between 5 tabs most of the time. In that use case, the Sony Xperia 1 III copes very nicely.
We have also tried loading and actively switching between 4 different apps at the same time to stretch the device’s legs. One of the apps includes Google Chrome and multiple tabs on it. Even that did not trouble the Sony Xperia 1 III at all.
Battery Life
One of the biggest benefits to stock interfaces is battery life. Custom interfaces tend to be less efficient than stock ones. Interestingly, you rarely have a battery management system on stock interfaces like the Sony Xperia 1 III.
You do want to keep in mind that there are apps that will drain the device’s battery, like the two camera apps. That said, even with extensive use of the camera apps, you can get a good working day of battery life. On typical days, you are working with a good day of battery life plus a few more hours in the next day, on a single charge.
Charging the device is fast enough. Like most flagships, you get to charge the device from empty to full in less than two hours. Unlike some flagships in the market as well, the Sony Xperia 1 III still ships with a wall charger.
Display
One of the big highlights of any Xperia 1 device is its one-of-a-kind display. The 6.5-inch 21:9 aspect ratio display packs 4K resolution. It is also a more powerful display compared to some 4K TVs you can find today.
This AMOLED display is the most advanced display you can find on a smartphone. You get 120Hz refresh rate on this 4K display. The Sony Xperia 1 series is also the only series of smartphones in the world that gets 4K resolution displays as standard. The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra comes with a QHD+ display.
As if the 4K resolution is not impressive enough, the 6.5-inch panel also boasts HDR colours with 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage. You even get 240Hz touch sampling rate for an almost instant response on your display. To reduce flicker in upscaling contents, the display boasts 240Hz in motion blur reduction.
Thing is, it is not a true 4K UHD display that you work with. Instead of 2,160 pixels in depth, it only features 1,644 pixels. You still get 3,840 on the side.
Still, that does not mean that the display is not impressive. It is a fantastic display to consume contents with. If you are planning to use it as an external monitor for your cameras, it works great too with Sony cameras.
Cameras
The other highlight of the new Sony Xperia 1 III is its camera. You get a humble 12-Megapixel sensor for its main shooter. Both its flanking cameras are also 12-Megapixel units. There is an 8-Megapixel shooter out the front, which is rather understated for a flagship.
Despite the ‘low’ Megapixel count, it is a fantastic camera. You get some Alpha touches, of course. It is also the most reliable camera app and unit you get from a Sony device so far.
The photos you get from the device are amazing to look at in terms of detail and colour. Of course, you may not get ultra-crisp details if you put it beside a Samsung Galaxy S21’s photo at 108-Megapixel, for example. But you do get fine enough details for stunning social media posts.
The selfie camera may not be the best you can find on a smartphone. We think that the selfie camera is more for video calls or facial recognition. Still, if you are in the mood for a selfie, it works.
The Camera App vs Cinema Pro
There are two separate camera apps on the Sony Xperia 1 III as mentioned. Both works differently too, for different functions. The camera app is more of a general app that you can use for both regular photos and videos. The other app is more specific for videos though.
There is one Sony’s specific Alpha camera mode. You get more granular controls over your photos in that mode. If you are a Sony user, the interface is also very reminiscent and very familiar to Sony’s cameras. You also get to set your camera in modes that is closer to a regular camera over a smartphone.
You can put your camera in Auto, which is what we do most of the time, ‘M’ for Manual or ‘Pro’ mode, ‘A’ for Aperture priority, and ‘P’ for Programmable Auto. You get different outcomes and controls in different modesband your Sony Xperia 1 III turns into a point and shoot.
The Cinema Pro app is something you are really going to enjoy if you are planning to use your smartphone as the main content capturing device. It does all the usual thing for a smartphone video mode. You can set the resolution and how many frames it takes. But the Cinema Pro app does way more than that.
It allows you to have even more control over your videos over the regular camera app. You can play around with focus pulling on the Cinema Pro app, both manually and guided auto. You can even control things like ISO and Aperture if you are really getting as much manual control over your video as possible. You can even change the colour profile if you really need to.
Gallery
The Sony Xperia 1 III – The Best of Sony
The new Sony Xperia 1 III is even more expensive than the Sony Xperia 1 II that it replaced. For that money though you are the most powerful Sony Xperia 1 device to date.
The new Sony Xperia 1 III is also more expensive than most flagship smartphones you can find in the market today. The thing is, the Sony Xperia 1 III is marketed toward a very specific target market. They are selling the device to the content creator market, a market that knows what they want in a smartphone.
Of course, you can argue that these guys should maybe go for the Xperia Pro-I instead. The price difference between the two devices makes the Xperia 1 III the more sensible smartphone choice though. Other than the larger and more powerful camera, the Xperia 1 III and Xperia Pro-I shares the same hardware too.
MYR 5,799 is still a lot of money for a smartphone. A Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G at this point will set you back MYR 5,299 at retail price (12GB + 256GB). In that sense, there is not that much in terms of reasons to get the Sony Xperia 1 III. But there is a very good reason why you want one. This is a device created specifically with one target audience in mind. Its sole purpose is to do a job for a specific target group; very well at that.
If you are already working with Sony’s vast array of tools, the Sony Xperia 1 III is really an extension. It even shines as a standalone, if you like it to be. The camera is still a Sony Alpha developed tool made for the Xperia, which also means that you are getting a Sony camera that is better than ever. You can even get eye autofocus function working with it. For those alone, you should get the Sony Xperia 1 III.
Xiaomi’s quest to be the king of the Internet of Things (IoT) is no secret. The company has more than one subsidiary working on its IoT products. To date, we’ve seen IoT products branded as Mi, Soocas and even Dreame. ROIDMI is yet another brand that works on IoT particularly cordless vacuums. Its laser focus on the niche seems to have worked in its favour as their line-up of cordless vacuums seems to be one of the more popular options on platforms like Shopee and Lazada.
That said, Robot Vacuums are no revolution when it comes to cleaning. They’ve been available on the market for quite a while now, but they’ve always had their quirks when it comes to cleaning. ROIDMI’s EVE Plus is looking to address many of these quirks with some interesting approaches and smart implementation of AI technology. These small innovations have made for one of the easier, hands-off cleaning experiences for robot vacuums we’ve experienced.
The ROIDMI Experience
The ROIDMI experience isn’t just a manual plug-and-forget experience; it comes with a host of “prep work” and setup that you’ll have to undertake at the beginning which lends to a more automated experience later on. Of course, it is in no way a deal-breaker when it comes to the overall experience.
Being an IoT device, the robot vacuum requires some setup. However, the process is pretty straightforward, simple and very app-centric. The EVE Plus Robot Vacuum itself doesn’t come with many interactive components. Most of the interactions and settings are done through the app. This actually makes setup a breeze. However, the ecosystem itself can be a little quirky as it isn’t as integrated as you would think.
When you initially unbox and set up your EVE Plus Robot Vacuum, you’ll need to make sure that you remove the plastic and Styrofoam pieces that have been placed to prevent damage to moving parts during shipping. If you look at the manual, it says that the vacuum can be integrated into the Mi Home app or the ROIDMI app. However, this particular model of the robot vacuum isn’t listed in the Mi Home app, instead, you will need to use the ROIDMI app to set it up.
Set up was very simple and quick. All you had to do is plug in the base, place the EVE Plus in the cradle and power on. Once you do, you just have to tap the add product option in the app which is denoted by a “+” on the top right. When you do this, it will automatically look for the local WiFi being broadcast by the vacuum and proceed to program the Wi-Fi settings for the vacuum. To be frank, that’s all the setup that is required. After this, everything else is automated and done by the vacuum itself during its first cleaning.
App Design & Usability
The ROIDMI app is a simple, well-designed app. Unlike a lot of other IoT apps, it cuts to the chase and immediately allows you to set up and manage your products after you sign in. The simplicity and straightforward design are some of the best features of the app. The no-frills in your face design lets you get things done without fumbling and digging for functions.
After your initial set-up of registering and logging in, you’ll be greeted by a screen with a list of your appliances. Each appliance can be set up and monitored through the app. The main screen shows you pertinent information such as the battery level, active time, and area that the vacuum has cleaned previously.
Clicking further into the app brings up more detailed information. In the case of the EVE Plus Robot Vacuum, you’ll be able to see a map of the space it’s in and the cleaning path it took on the previous cleaning session. It also gives you quick access to its cleaning modes and map customisations. It also gives you quick access to the recharge and clean options. You can also customise how much water it will dispense when mopping and even the suction power of the vacuum.
Designed for Real Living Spaces
While the app is the core of their user experience, the ROIDMI EVE Plus Robot Vacuum itself comes packed with hardware and design that makes using it a more seamless experience.
Let’s start off with the overall design of the vacuum. The ROIDMI EVE Plus Robot Vacuum is designed to be able to manoeuvre through real living spaces. While it shares a similar design to many of the robot vacuums available, it is short enough to fit under most spaces in a room. The circle design of it gives it more manoeuvrability that allows the vacuum to get out of tight situations with minimal intervention.
ROIDMI has also struck a balance in the size of the vacuum and the size of the internal tank. It is large enough that the vacuum doesn’t need to make multiple trips back to the docking station to be emptied even in larger rooms but small enough that the robot vacuum is still able to fit in most nooks and crannies of a space. It also doesn’t come with many parts which click into space. All the components of the robot vacuum are securely in place either with screws or by a secure locking mechanism.
The vacuums movement is dependent on two rather large plastic wheels. They function similar to the hoverboards we’ve seen in the market. This decision actually allows the robot vacuum to find its way through tough spaces. It also allows it to move over ledges objects about 2cm in height. So, if you have a table with a stand design that runs on the ground or running cables across a room, it’ll be able to move over them. However, for cables, if they aren’t fastened to the ground securely, you might have electrical items connected to these cables falling over.
The ROIDMI EVE Plus has a small, elevated component on the top where the LIDAR sensor is. This allows it a 360° field of view allowing it to map and detect quicker and more accurately. In fact, it managed to map the room it was in even during setup. The sensor also allows the robot vacuum to gauge the height of furniture, so it doesn’t get stuck under them. This is complemented by sensors on the side and bumpers on the front to help with movement and manoeuvring. There are only 3 physical buttons on the EVE PLUS – the power button, the home button and a button that acts as a quick clean command.
The base station or dock is also designed minimally. It’s a relatively small unit with a single touch screen for status monitoring and a space for the EVE Plus to come home to. The main, 3-litre dust bag is accessible through the top. It also has a HEPA filter to prevent odours from escaping. This also means that you won’t be emptying the bag too often. ROIDMI does highlight that they’ve designed the base in a more compact fashion. This apparently allows them to minimise noise while dust is being emptied.
Dealing with the Dust in a Smart Way with Some Quirks
To be really frank, I’ve never really understood the allure of robot vacuums even after reviewing earlier models ages ago. In fact, they always seemed like more hassle than they are worth. However, the Xiaomi ROIDMI EVE Plus robot vacuum did a good job of convincing me otherwise.
The AI that comes programmed into the EVE Plus makes it one of the simplest, most seamless robot vacuum experiences I’ve had to date. It can intelligently detect the height of furniture and even detect slopes or ledges. It was able to avoid getting stuck most of the time thanks to this. However, even if it got stuck you simply had to put it immediately beside the area it got stuck in and it would avoid it.
The way the EVE Plus cleans is also different from other robot vacuums. It intelligently partitions large areas into smaller rooms. It wasn’t immediately apparent when I was observing the vacuum itself but when I glanced at the app, the map was sectioned into multiple smaller areas. Using this mapping and guidance, it would optimise its route to efficiently clean the area. It’s also the only robot vacuum I’ve seen that has a unique Y cleaning pattern that allows it to clean more effectively. If you’re like me, you’ll also turn on the 2X clean feature which makes the EVE Plus do a second run when cleaning. Its ability to mop with spaces with water is also a welcomed feature. However, this feature is limited to 250m2 space as the water tank on the robot vacuum is limited.
However, the ROIDMI EVE Plus is not without its quirks. During our review period, the vacuum actually lost mapping data spontaneously. This isn’t a major issue as it is able to rebuild the data pretty quickly. The robot vacuum is also a little quirky when it comes to dealing with carpets and rugs. It’s able to handle thicker carpets but tends to wrestle with rags.
It also communicates through the app which is an added advantage – if your phone doesn’t put the app to sleep. The app never requests to allow it to run in the background either so when you launch your ROIDMI app, it tends to spam you with notifications. It also does cry for help with a voice when it’s stuck.
Of Raised Slopes & Tassels – ROIDMI Eve Plus Kryptonite
If the ROIDMI EVE Plus was Supergirl, tassels and slopes are its kryptonite. The robot vacuum seems to enjoy wrestling (and losing) with tassels. Rugs or carpets with tassels are things you may want to remove when using the EVEL Plus. In fact, I had to cut tassels off a floor mat cause the EVE Plus had a bout with them and couldn’t break free. The other thing that the EVE Plus seems to have trouble with is raised slopes and platforms. This is particularly apparent if you use a stand fan in your room. If the stand fan is designed with a base that is slightly sloped, the EVE Plus will try to run over the slope and eventually get stuck.
This was irritating at first. However, you can easily prevent this by creating no-fly zones on the map through the ROIDMI app.
Not Just About Removing Dust – It Zaps Bacteria with Activated Oxygen
Earlier we mentioned the HEPA filter that helps prevent odours from escaping. This is actually part of a larger disinfection system that is integrated into the base station of the EVE Plus. When the dust is emptied from the robot vacuum to the main 3-litre bag, it is bombarded by activated or ionised oxygen. A little bit of a science refresher here – activate or ionised oxygen is a charged molecule that readily destabilizes cellular structures and intracellular structures. Using this understanding, ROIDMI has created a solution that is able to kill 99.99% of bacteria or so they claim.
This technology is also responsible for the odourless storage of dust in the base station. The ionised oxygen can also help neutralise bad odours. This working together with the HEPA filter that is integrated into the docking station minimises harmful particles and allergens from escaping.
A Simplified, Smart Robot Vacuum that is able to handle small to medium spaces with a user experience that changed the mind of a non-believer
It’s very rare for a piece of technology to make me reconsider my initial experiences and change my mind. However, the ROIDMI EVE Plus robot vacuum did just that. It provided a seamless, simplified experience which convinced me that there is a time and space for smart cleaning devices. In my case, with a busy day to day life and older parents at home, the robot vacuum provided us with a means to maintain our most used spaces keeping them clean and dust-free without sacrificing time and conserving time.
The features of the EVE Plus are what made the difference. Its simple app and set-it-and-forget-it experience allowed me to get things done without the need to worry about the robot vacuum when it’s running a cleaning cycle. If the vacuum had poorer manoeuvrability or got stuck in spaces regularly, this review would have been very different. However, the fact that it was able to handle a busy space without much hassle, was a welcomed surprise.
The smartphone market’s mid-range segment has been growing rapidly. Within the past year, we’ve seen more than 50 devices in the segment from big names alone. However, with many choosing to iterate rapidly with minimal updates, we’re looking at a segment that is quickly becoming overly saturated with choice but not much substance.
OPPO is one of the biggest contributors to the mid-range. However, it’s been hit and miss when it comes to their devices. In fact, just a few months ago, we reviewed the A74. Now, we’re looking at another mid-range offering from OPPO – the A95. Is OPPO hitting the correct notes when it comes to the OPPO A95? Is it their must-have mid-range hero? We’re looking to answer those questions in our in-depth review.
Design
The design on the OPPO A95 is – for lack of any other term – uninspired. The design is similar, if not the same, as all the mid-range smartphones we’ve seen from OPPO this year. To be honest, OPPO isn’t the only one guilty of being uninventive and drab in their midrange lineup. It wouldn’t be so far-fetched to say that if the OPPO A95 was released a little bit earlier in the year, it would have made a little more of an impression when it comes to design.
Aside from the overarching lack of inspiration, the OPPO A95 does come with a design that does look nice. It’s also available in a striking “Glowing Rainbow Silver”. The iridescent colour is one that pops and changes colour depending on the lighting and angle you look at the phone. You can see the difference in our hands-on video. It’s also one of the only highlights when it comes to the design of the phone.
Barring that, the phone comes with a camera hump that we’ve come to expect from nearly every smartphone this year. The large, black rectangular hump is the only design accent on the back of the phone; without it, the smartphone has a plain, uninteresting back. The metal frame also outlines the phone’s silhouette.
However, we applaud OPPO for sticking to a more ergonomic design. The back of the OPPO A95 tapers into its metallic bezel making it easier to use in one hand. The slight taper makes all the difference when it comes to holding the phone and even wrestling it from a tight pocket. But that’s about it when it comes to the design of the midranger.
Hardware
OPPO is trying to supercharge the A95 when it comes to hardware. They seem to be focusing on raw power. The total package may seem very basic and uninteresting, however, with OPPO’s RAM expansion, it can take on some of the better specc’d mid-range smartphones out there. Of course, as always, the main focus when it comes to hardware for OPPO is the smartphone’s camera. It’s no surprise that OPPO has kitted the A95 with high-resolution sensors.
The OPPO A95 comes with ColorOS 11.1 – one of the latest and greatest from OPPO. It’s not running on Android 12. However, with OPPO’s recent commitment to Android updates, we won’t be surprised if it gets the update in the coming weeks.
That said, the interface brings what OPPO has become known for – customizability and self-expression. While the Android 12 does take self-expression and customisability to a whole new level, OPPO’s ColorOS has a level of customizability that made OPPO devices different from the get-go. OPPO has cultivated a community of developers and users that have thrived with its customizability ecosystem. There are few other companies that allow the level of customizability or the variety that comes with ColorOS.
Like OPPO flagships, the OPPO A95 comes with a highly customizable interface – everything from icons to fonts can be customised natively. The theming ecosystem gives a plethora of options. If you can find one that is just right for you, you can even mix and match to get the style you really want.
Navigation on the A95 is also seamless. Users can choose between gesture navigation or the traditional three buttons. This allows you to choose the style you’re most comfortable with. The same goes for choosing between having an app drawer or just having multiple home screens. OPPO has also baked in options for scaling icons and font size that we don’t see in many other manufactures. Each OPPO device can have a totally different experience thanks to this.
Overall, the tweaks that come with ColorOS atop Android allow you to have the experience you want when it comes to your smartphone. OPPO’s features have been thoughtfully updated to ensure it doesn’t take away from the overall experience. In fact, it’s one of the most fluid interfaces we’ve had the chance of reviewing to date.
Performance
As mentioned in the hardware section, the OPPO A95 comes with a sharp focus on getting the most out of the hardware it has. While it’s not the greatest and latest from chip manufacturers, OPPO’s optimisations have allowed the smartphone to contend with some of the best performers out there. However, the smartphone isn’t without its flaws – particularly when it comes to a few software hiccups which can be addressed with an update. Hardware performance is – of course – limited to the hardware design but OPPO is inching towards eking every drop of performance from the hardware it has with its software.
Multitasking & Productivity
Multitasking has become a must for any “smart” device out there. We expect to be able to use more than 1 app and get more things done in a shorter amount of time. That said, the OPPO A95 tries to be a multitasking king but is let down by software issues and even limitations in RAM.
During our review period, we were able to use apps like Google Keep, Gmail, Spark Email and Microsoft Office 365 in tandem with each other. Getting simple tasks like word processing, emails and even excel sheets done on the A95 was snappy and seamless.
However, the phone seemed to struggle with more complex apps like video and photo editors. While it didn’t come to a halt, the phone did slow down – using these apps in split-screen was a task in itself as it would bog the A95 down. Then again, we don’t usually do this when we’re editing. This could have been due to the limitations on the RAM, but we expected a little bit more from the RAM expansion that OPPO has been touting. Some native apps also had issues with multitasking.
Aside from the performance issues – which we are certain OPPO can address in an update – the OPPO A95 is packed with features that allow it to multitask with ease. OPPO has simplified a lot of the multitasking in ColorOS. You can drag notifications to get a PIP window for you to respond to messages or urgent emails. A simple swipe and hold up brings up the multitasking view or swipe and hold back to jump to the previous app. The latter needs to be activated in the settings manually.
Call Quality & Connectivity
The OPPO A95 doesn’t’ come with 5G connectivity. But to be honest, you won’t be needing or using 5G anytime soon – in the Malaysian context at least. While it would have added an additional layer of futureproofing, it’s not a game-changer or deal-breaker.
The smartphone does very well when it comes to connectivity. Speeds on 4G LTE were pretty fast. In fact, we were getting anywhere between 2 to 4 Mbps download speeds. The A95 even outclasses some of the older flagships like the Galaxy Note10+ when it came to 4G reception. In certain areas where the former had 3 bars of connectivity, the A95 has 4 to 5 bars. This was a welcomed surprise as we’ve rarely seen network performance like this from mid-range smartphones.
When it comes to call quality, the smartphone didn’t have much to make up for either. Most of the time, people on the other side of the call could hear me loud and clear. However, when it came to slightly more noisy areas, the microphone struggled with noise suppression and even voice pick up. It could have been a little irritating if the call was urgent. Aside from that, the audio on the earpiece was consistent and clear. It could be a little tinny but nothing jarring. People on the other end could hear us well – when pick up wasn’t an issue.
Gaming
Gaming on the A95 was pretty enjoyable. It’s also one of the things that baffled me when it came to performance. The A95 was better able to handle heavy games like Genshin Impact and Shadow Fight than it could with multitasking. We’ll just have to chalk this up to OPPO’s gaming optimisations in Game mode.
That said, the smartphone was able to handle pretty long bouts of gaming. I was easily gaming on games like Genshin Impact and Shadow Fight for an hour. While the games weren’t setting on maximum settings, the graphics were good enough not to take away from the gaming experience. Of course, the audio was pretty solid too for a mid-range smartphone. Visuals were relatively crisp with not too many bouts of lag and screen tearing during gameplay. The only times when there was slight screen tearing or lag was in more graphically intense situations. The phone was also notably warmer during these instances and during prolonged sessions.
Battery Life
If there’s one thing we can rely on when it comes to OPPO, it’s battery life. Their track record of squeezing every ounce of battery life from their devices has been commendable so far. It’s no different when it comes to the A95. The smartphone was able to last about 7 hours on a single charge when used intensively and more than 10 hours when used normally. In fact, I went about a day (~20 hours) on a single charge when it was used only for texting and calls with light Sudoku in between.
Display
The OPPO A95 comes with an AMOLED display and it’s all the better for it. The display is vibrant and has pretty good colour accuracy depending on the mode that you set it on. For most of our review period, we had the display calibration set on Vivid.
In vivid mode, reds and yellows were more brilliant. The colour reproduction seemed a little more pleasant and realistic on this mode. On Gentle mode, the colours were less saturated and felt a little washed out. That said, it was a little more realistic as well. In either mode, the display had deep blacks which we’ve come to expect on an OLED panel.
That said, the display was pretty good when it came to watching videos. The colour of the videos was vibrant and the screen size was immersive. Watching an episode of Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) on the go was enjoyable. The only nitpick that we have with experience is the speakers would tear when there were explosions. However, this was easily remedied with a pair of Bluetooth earphones.
Cameras
Being an OPPO smartphone, it comes as no surprise that the main focus of the smartphone is its camera. The OPPO A95 comes with a 48-megapixel main sensor complemented with a 2-megapixel macro and 2-megapixel depth sensor. The combination of the three sensors allows the smartphone to have enough flexibility when it comes to shooting modes.
Unlike the A74 we reviewed previously, the OPPO A95 cameras perform better. The resulting photos seem to be better in both resolution and detail. The main sensor produced pretty commendable photos when in a well-lit situation. The resulting photos had detail and remained relatively clear even when zoomed in. However, in low light situations, the camera struggled to perform. Night mode helped with getting more detail but there is only so much that can be done when it comes to software. The front camera was more of the same. The camera performed relatively well for its class. Selfies in bright situations were impeccable. However, low light selfies struggled with details and were grainy.
That said, the A95 comes with some of OPPO’s better AI camera features including their Portrait mode. The smartphone has nearly the full complement of AI features that we see in OPPO flagships and that’s the main boon of the smartphone. With the AI features, we were able to get some pretty decent photos, some were even Instagram worthy without the need to edit.
Nevertheless, OPPO does need to improve the implementation of its hallmarks when it comes to its mid-range and entry-level smartphones. There seems to be a gap between the photos flagships like the Find X3 Pro are able to produce versus the photos from phones the A95. With the focus of competitors turning to the mid-range the company will need to push harder to differentiate its offerings further and their camera technology has always been a step ahead of the game.
OPPO’s Best Offering for Mid-range with a Room for Improvement
OPPO’s entry-level and mid-range smartphones continue to be hit or miss with the OPPO A95 and that’s a problem in our books. The company has been able to differentiate itself with camera technology and approaches that were fresh and exciting in the past. However, while that may be the case for its flagships, their midrange is still starved for that X-factor that makes it a must buy.
The OPPO A95 is by no means a bad smartphone. In fact, we wouldn’t hesitate to say it’s one of the best mid-range smartphones out there but it suffers from being lost in the crowd. While it comes with top-notch performance, it also suffers from a lack of identity and drowns into the crowd. Unlike some of its competitors which have brought flagship features to a more affordable price range, the OPPO A95 iterates on a formula we’ve seen before. It has all the makings of a genuinely great mid-range offering which is held back by the lack of software features that make it an immediate go-to.
The smartphone is a step in the right direction when it comes to performance. Being able to handle multitasking and even some heavy gaming without choking is impressive. However, we know OPPO is more capable when it comes to cameras. They’ve proven it time and time again with their flagships and while we would like to say this is the one, OPPO needs to look at how they can bolster their mid-range and entry offerings with the same.
A laptop has become one of the pieces of technology that we can’t do without. Most of the time, we’re stuck between choosing something that is chunky and powerful or sleek and light. However, in recent years, we’ve been seeing laptops become slimmer and more portable across the board. What we expect from laptops has also changed over the years; we expect to get more done with them without sacrificing much.
One of the largest shifts in recent years has been the focus on better colour reproduction and laptops that are geared for creative work. That’s precisely what the Vivobook Pro 15 OLED is looking to address. It’s a laptop that is packed with creator centric internals. However, we’re still a little sceptical if it truly can keep the promise of being a power laptop built for the “prosumer” at its price point. In fact, that’s the main question we want to answer in our in-depth review of the ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 OLED.
Design
The Vivobook Pro 15 OLED is, as they put it – “same, same but different”. When it comes to the design, ASUS hasn’t decided to revolutionise the lineup with the design. Instead, they have chosen to focus on keeping the Vivobook’s design utilitarian but still sleek and sophisticated. They did this by prioritising the build quality and strength.
While the laptop is built primarily of plastic, ASUS has found a way to reinforce it to make it feel sturdy and well built. There is hardly any flex when opening the laptop and the display doesn’t sway when typing. The hinge of the Pro 15 OLED is firm and has just enough given that it isn’t a chore to open the laptop.
The overall design of the laptop is simplistic and minimal. Its simplistic design isn’t a bad thing – in fact, it’s one of the better designs out there. The top lid is emblazoned with a raised emblem in the middle left. This is possibly the only issue with the overall design. It is not only prone to getting scuffed and scratched but also tends to scratch and scuff things that it’s packed with.
Aside from that, Asus also made the choice to shave a little bit of the sides near the hinges making them less angled. This also gives the laptop less of a rectangular shape. Instead, it’s a trapezoid – but only very slightly. However, these design accents also lend to the uniqueness of the laptop. Overall, Asus made design choices that lent themselves to making the Vivobook feel more premium, sturdy and well-built.
Hardware
The Vivobook Pro 15 OLED isn’t like other Vivobooks; It’s packed to the brim with hardware that gives even ASUS’s Zenbook series a run for its money. In all honesty, there’s enough power here to give some ROG gaming laptops. ASUS had made the Pro 15 OLED a powerhouse – fit for creators looking for an affordable option for a portable workhorse.
Specifications
ASUS VIVOBOOK PRO 15 OLED | M3500QC
As tested
Processor (clock)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX (3.30 GHz) 8 core with Turbo Boost (up to 4.60 GHz) 16 MB cache
GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4GB GDDR6 VRAM
Display
15.6 Full HD (1920 x 1080) 16:10 aspect ratio 60Hz refresh rate 400 nits brightness 600 nits peak brightness 100% DCI-P3 NanoEdge display 84% Screen to Body ratio
1 USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-C 1 USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A 2 USB 2.0 Type-A 1 HDMI 1.4 1 MicroSD card reader 1 Audio Combo Jack
Battery
63Wh 3-cell lithium-polymer battery “All Day” battery life
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64-bit
Miscellaneous
HD camera Backlit Keyboard Stereo Speakers (Harman/Kardon Certified) Microphone Integrated Fingerprint Scanner
Features
While it may seem like the Vivobook pro skimps on features, it really doesn’t. It takes a similar approach to features as it does design. Every feature including the design of the keyboard is thought out and utilitarian in its implementation. In fact, simplicity and utilitarianism seem to be the theme of the Vivobook Pro 15 OLED. Everything is in its place for a reason.
Built for Working On-the-Go
The Vivobook Pro 15 OLED comes with all the bells and whistles you’d expect from any laptop. However – somehow – they seem to make more sense. Its focus on being utilitarian seems to create a form of tunnel vision which makes the features more apparent.
The power button comes with an integrated fingerprint scanner. While it’s not anything revolutionary, the inclusion of it allows you to sign in with Windows Hello seamlessly by simply touching the power button. Its response time is pretty fast. In fact, most of the time during our review, it would scan and power on at the same time – booting immediately into Windows 11. The quick response time makes working on the go easy as you don’t have to type in your password at all.
It also comes with an HD webcam. Yes, your run-of-the-mill webcam – but it has a privacy shield integrated. The addition of the privacy shield is a welcomed one. The fact that it’s not a software mediated one is a big plus point. The physical shutter simply blocks the camera making sure that it is unable to record. That said, with the addition of the shutter, the lack of physical muting felt like an oversight. But it didn’t take away from the experience and security that is provided.
The slim and light profile of the Vivobook Pro 15 OLED is another “feature” that makes it perfect for working on the go. ASUS has managed to fit functionality and connectivity into a relatively slim body which is perfect for working on the go. This is, of course, complemented by the AI noise-cancelling technology we saw with the Zenbook 14. The technology allows you to make video calls from cafes without much hassle even in loud environments. It will automatically detect the speaker’s voice and suppress background noise.
Full Keyboard, Numpad and Large Touchpad
Of course, being a creator and productivity-focused laptop, it comes as no surprise that the Vivobook Pro 15 OLED comes with a full keyboard with Numpad. While it may seem like a trivial feature, the full keyboard brings added convenience when it comes to dealing with excel sheets and even when it comes to creating apps and keyboard shortcuts. The keys are also pretty comfortable to type on. The individual keys are tactile and give enough feedback and travel; while they aren’t at the level of a mechanical keyboard, long writing sessions – like writing this review – are not an issue.
In addition to the full keyboard and Numpad, the laptop also comes with a large touchpad. Navigating with the touchpad is a little more intuitive with the larger space. It also helps Windows 11’s gestures feel more natural and less cumbersome to use. It also allows some flexibility with the way you work within your apps as it has more than enough space to move about.
Extended Connectivity
The VivoBook Pro 15 OLED comes with all the connectivity ports you need to work on the go. It comes with 2 USB 2.0 Type-A ports and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port. These ports allow for high-speed transfer of files to hard disks and even for you to plug in accessories like a wired mouse to help you work. If you work with microSD cards a lot, the dedicated slot will allow you access to your files without needing a dongle. It also has a dedicated 3.5mm jack for both mic and headphones. The USB-C slot provides even more extendibility with high-speed data transfers and also support USB-C dongles which can provide RJ45 and additional HDMI outputs. The only output lacking is a physical RJ45 port which is easily remedied with a USB hub.
When it comes to WiFi connectivity the VivoBook Pro 15 OLED comes with support for the WiFi 6 (AX) – the latest standard available commercially. This allows for faster, more stable WiFi connections and even higher data transfer speeds – if the network you’re on supports it. That said, even if the network doesn’t support WiFi 6, the laptop does have backward compatibility with WiFi 5. Bluetooth 5.0 is also an option on the Vivobook. Naturally, this means that you’ll be able to use everything from audio accessories to keyboards and mouses which support the protocol.
Multitasking became easier with Link to MyASUS
One of the things I didn’t expect to fall in love with is the MyASUS app. The app isn’t something new – in fact, many other manufacturers have similar applications – but ASUS has made the app something you will use more often and it makes a meaningful impact on workflow. Link to MyASUS allows you to use your tablet or smartphone as an additional extended screen. I found myself doing this on multiple occasions when I was working on the go. Using the extended display function allows you to multitask a little better. Being a writer and video content creator, I regularly had my script and/or references on my extended display to allow me full use of the 15.6-inch display.
In addition to this, the app also allows you to make calls using the laptop. While we didn’t see ourselves using this very often, it made sense to use it when we needed to make an important call or had to answer an incoming call. The added convenience is definitely a boon.
Performance
You can’t lie when it comes to the performance you’ll be getting from the VivoBook Pro 15 OLED. It’s one of the best at the price point. In fact, we’d be comfortable saying that it excels ahead of a lot of its competition thanks to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900-HX processor it runs on. The octa-core processor allows the laptop to breeze through heavier workloads without a hitch. It’s also more power-efficient thanks to the Zen 3 microarchitecture and integrated Radeon graphics. With boost clocks of up to 4.6GHz, the laptop is able to do a lot more work without breaking a sweat.
Paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX3050, the combination is like a 1-2 punch when it comes to productivity. It’s able to handle heavy graphics loads with ease. During our review period, we were able to process 4K video with ease on Adobe Premiere Pro. Even with multiple sources and overlays, the laptop had little difficulty handling the workload.
The VivoBook Pro 15 OLED is also NVIDIA RTX Studio certified. This means that it meets NVIDIA’s requirements when it comes to being optimized for content creation. In fact, the first thing you will realise is that the drivers on the laptop default to the NVIDIA Studio drivers which provide even more reliable performance and stability.
However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t game on the laptop. You can ABSOLUTELY game with the laptop. It’s able to keep up with some of the more graphically demanding games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider and also Horizon Zero Dawn. This is not surprising given the combination of its processor and GPU. The RTX3050’s ray tracing capabilities also enhance the visual experience for gaming. We would go so far as to say, the combination blows some of the gaming laptops with the same specs out of the water – especially given the price point.
Display
ASUS is going all-in when it comes to adopting OLED in its laptops and the Vivobook Pro 15 OLED isn’t getting left behind. The laptop comes with a 15.6-inch OLED panel. The display covers 84% of the surface it’s on thanks to the slim bezels that surround it. It’s got a 16:9 aspect ratio and an FHD resolution. While it may not be a 2K or 4K display, it is more than enough when it comes to the laptop. In fact, it is one of those concessions I didn’t mind making with the VivoBook Pro 15 OLED to get better battery life.
However, the OLED panel shines when it comes to colour accuracy and reproduction – two of the most important aspects of any display when it comes to content creation and editing. The display covers 1000% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and is Pantone validated for accuracy. This is one of those features you must experience to enjoy. The deep blacks and vibrant colours are a great boon to have when it comes to dealing with colour accuracy. It also makes gaming on the laptop a more immersive experience. You’re instantly drawn into the action and graphics of the scenery with the display. Even watching movies or series on the laptop is the more enjoyable cause of it. The brightness and contrast also make working on the display easier.
However, if there was just one complaint – it would be that the screen can get a little TOO bright. Throughout our review period, the brightness was set at about 30% to prevent blasting our irises to kingdom come with brightness.
A Laptop that focuses on functionality with a minimalist aesthetic built for Creators that need to work on-the-go
The ASUS VivoBook Pro 15 OLED is one of the most well thought out laptops we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing in a while. Its features are thoughtfully geared for budding content creators looking for a portable workhorse with a colour accurate display. It gives creator’s a complete package with features that allow us to work more efficiently on the go. Everything from colour accuracy to battery life and a large mousepad makes working on the ASUS VivoBook Pro 15 OLED the perfect balance between performance, portability and affordability. It’s a laptop that will cater to the needs of a creator at any level but even more so when it comes to those just starting out.
It’s no surprise, if you’ve read this far, that we’re awarding the VivoBook Pro 15 OLED the techENT Editor’s Choice. ASUS has taken the time imbuing the laptop with a feature set that allows it to shine as a creator’s machine in every respect – from performance to the colour accurate display. This is bolstered by a price point that blows a lot of its competition out of the water.
