We get a lot of emails (not really) asking us; “we only have MYR 599 maximum to buy a smartphone, what do we buy?”. We sometimes will tell them to just bump their budget up a little bit to afford better, mid-range devices – especially if it is going to be their daily driver. Secondary device? Whatever works if it serves your calling and messaging purposes. What if you only have MYR 599 for a daily driver though? Can you still get a decent daily driver for that kind of money? With Xiaomi, it turns out, you can.
Take the Xiaomi Redmi 12 that was just launched for example. It is worth MYR 599, right on your budget. If you plan to get it at its launch (15th of July 2023), it will be MYR 100 below your budget too at MYR 499. It is an entry-level device but comes with everything you need in a daily driver device.
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
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Source: Xiaomi
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Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
Source: Xiaomi
For starters, it packs MediaTek’s Helio G88 system on a chip (SoC) that clocks in at 2.0GHz. While the Helio G88 is not the most powerful processor you can find on an Android device, it is still no slouch when it comes to daily tasking and multitasking, especially with memory extension capabilities. You get up to 8GB of RAM with the device, enough to take on anything you might want to throw at it. With memory expansion, you will get more than 8GB of RAM to play with too for even better multitasking capabilities.
You also get up to 256GB of storage with it to store all kinds of things like your photos and videos. If that is not enough, you get to expand the storage to up to 1TB with a MicroSD card. You want this kind of storage for the kind of camera you get on the device.
You get a 50-Megapixel main shooter out the back of the device. Alongside the main camera is an 8-Megapixel ultra-wide camera and 2-Megapixel macro camera. The camera app on the device also offers seven different filmCamera filters that offer a different kind of photographic experience and creative choices. If you do take plenty of photos in 50-Megapixel, you will fill up the storage quickly.
Source: Xiaomi
If you are taking plenty of photos, you also want a large battery for it. The Redmi 12 comes with 5,000mAh of battery capacity. They say that the large battery can offer 23 days of standby time, 133 hours of music playback, 26 hours of online reading or 16 hours of continuous video playback. Your video is played on a high-resolution Full HD+ DotDisplay with 90Hz refresh rate measuring 6.79-inch. You can watch and read on the display for a long time as well with their low blue-light mode and Reading Mode 3.0 that protects your eyes at the same time.
Of course, it comes with everything you need in a daily driver like water resistance rating at IP 53. At 8.17mm, it is thin enough to be a regular mid-range or look like a flagship device. Unlike most flagship and mid-range smartphones, the Redmi 12 still offers you the convenience of a 3.5mm AUX combo jack. Its USB Type-C port also supports 18W of fast charging.
Price and Availability
The Xiaomi Redmi 12 is available in Midnight Black, Sky Blur, and Polar Silver colour options. As mentioned, prices start at MYR 599 (4GB + 128GB). It will be available 15th of July 2023 from authorised Xiaomi Stores, including official online stores at Shopee and Lazada. As mentioned earlier, if you do get it on the first sale date, you can get your Xiaomi Redmi 12 smartphone for MYR 499. For more information on the Xiaomi Redmi 12, you can head out to their website.
We always thought that the mid-range smartphone segment is the most competitive segment in the entire industry. While that much is true, we tend to forget as well that the entry-level smartphone segment is a rather competitive one too. As smartphones’ prices reach a high never seen before, cheaper devices are becoming more popular as viable choices for not just first-time smartphone buyers. They become an even more appealing prospect over flagship and mid-range devices since they are rather inexpensive to own and even replace.
You have plenty of choices in the entry-level space too. You get the usual Xiaomi, OPPO, realme, VIVO, and even Samsung in the space. In some sense, you are spoilt for choice still in the entry-level segment. There is a new kid on the block to add to your list of choices in the segment – FreeYond.
The FreeYond M5
FreeYond kicks off their Malaysian chapter with two smartphone devices. One of it is the FreeYond M5. The new M5, currently, is their most powerful smartphone device to hit the Malaysian shores.
The Android 12 device comes with a Unisoc T606 system on a chip (SoC). The eight-core integrated processor comes with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage to ensure that Android 12 runs as smooth as it can be even with multiple apps open at the same time. You want the large storage too with a 50-Megapixel main camera out the back supported by an 8-Megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 2-Megapixel macro camera. If that is not enough, you get to expand your storage with a microSD card to up to 1TB.
It does not come with 5G connectivity, unfortunately. If you think about it though, 4G LTE connectivity is more than enough at this point of time. You can still thoroughly enjoy Netflix, YouTube, or even Prime Video via the 6.52-inch IPS display offering 720p HD+ resolution. To keep you enjoying your contents the entire day, you have a large 5,000 mAh battery that charges at 18W via USB Type-C.
The FreeYond F9
You need a secondary device, a cheap smartphone to keep your work separate from your life. You need something that does not hurt your pockets too much, yet something reliable. You need the FreeYond F9.
The budget entry-level device still comes with an octa-core processor that clocks at 1.6GHz. That powerful SoC is paired with up to 3GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. You can even expand your storage with up to 1TB MicroSD card if you want.
The Android 12 Go OS is displayed in all its glory via the 6.52-inch iPS display that offers up to 720p HD+ resolution still. The display is also where you see the results of the 13-Megapixel main camera that works together with a 2-Megapixel camera. Above the display, you can find an 8-Megapixel selfie camera. You can even keep all of these things running for longer than a day with a 5,000mAh battery within the compact body of the FreeYond F9.
Price and Availability
The FreeYond M5 will be available in Malaysia July 2023 onward. The FreeYond F9 on the other hand is now available for purchase via Shopee. The FreeYond M5 starts at MYR 699 while the F9 starts at MYR 499.
When someone tells us the only have MYR 1,000 to spend on a smartphone, we always tell them to go to makers like OPPO, realme, or even POCO to find an entry-level option to fit the budget. Most of the time, you get better than expected hardware and experience as well when spending that kind of money on a smartphone you get from the Chinese brands. The Galaxy A series never really came up in the conversation. Imagine our surprise then to see Samsung reaching out to the entry-level segment with the Galaxy A14.
No, there is no launch event that came with the Galaxy A14; not like its bigger more premium mid-range and high-end brothers. Instead, they quietly launched the new device and announced it when no one was looking. Not to say that there isn’t buyers for this smartphone, there will always be someone looking for a budget smartphone solution.
The Samsung Galaxy A14 is nothing to shout about, really, in terms of hardware. It comes with Samsung’s very own Exynos 850 system on a chip (SoC) platform. It is not the most powerful chipset there is out there, nor is it the most advanced, nor does it pack 5G capabilities. In fact, Samsung has now favoured the Qualcomm platform for their most premium smartphones. It is still a capable processor with eight cores in tow clocked at a maximum 2.0 GHz. Alongside the processor is 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, all pretty basic stuff. You might also want to take note that the Chinese smartphone makers can offer you more RAM in the same price range. But most do not offer expandable memory while this does. You can insert a 1TB microSD into the smartphone to expand from its 128GB storage.
Source: Samsung
In terms of imaging, you still get a decent 50-Megapixel shooter out of the back supported by a 5-Megapixel ultra-wide camera, and 2-megapixel macro camera. Out the front is a powerful 13-Megapixel selfie camera that offers 1.6x more resolution than its predecessor. That camera is housed in a notch above a 6.6-inch Full HD+ resolution display, a standard in smartphones today. To keep the device running all day is a 5,000mAh battery with 15W charging capability within the 9.1mm thick body.
What is unique about this device though is its OneUI 5.1. It does not sound like much, but if you notice, most smartphones at this price will not run the latest and greatest overlay or even Android. They mostly ship with something a generation older or an older iteration of Android. The Samsung Galaxy A14 ships with Samsung’s latest interface and with that, the latest Android. They also promised that the device will stay relevant for at least the next two years (warranty covers two years) and receive security updates up to four years down the road. OneUI 5.1 on the Galaxy A14 also comes with RAM Plus to make your device feel like it packs more than 6GB of RAM.
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
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Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
The Samsung Galaxy A14 is available 15th of March 2023 onward in Malaysia via Samsung’s authorised dealers and Experience Stores across the nation. It comes in three colour choices – Silver, Black, and the unique Dark Red. There are no other storage choices other than the 6GB+128GB combo. The Samsung Galaxy A14 will set you back MYR 799. For more information on Samsung’s latest entry-level smartphone, you can visit their website.
What do you do when you need to buy a smartphone and only a budget of MYR 1,599? It may not seem like an issue to a lot of us, but it is a valid question still. Smartphones are simply too expensive.
To drive that point home even more, a about 10 years ago, MYR 2,000 will get you a brand-new Samsung Galaxy Note2. The Samsung Galaxy Note2 is a very highly rated flagship in its day, one of the most powerful devices you can get. A brand-new iPhone 3GS as well at the time will set you back less than MYR 2,500. Heck, the first Samsung Galaxy S smartphone will only set you back MYR 1,000, and that was expensive.
Today, spending MYR 3,000 on a smartphone is normal. This is especially true with flagship level devices. A mid-range device today will set you back less than MYR 3,000 but more than MYR 2,000. Anything below that is usually entry-level.
Entry-level devices are not stellar, but you can find some good ones in the segment. While it is not as competitive as the mid-range market, it is still a highly competitive segment. After all, the entry-level device segment could be your first smartphone experience.
Meet the OPPO A96. It sets you back less than MYR 1,500, which should mean that you might not enjoy the smartphone very much. We find that a little untrue though as you read on. But is it worth MYR 1,299? Or should you look elsewhere when you want a budget smartphone?
Design
The best way to describe the OPPO A96’s form is that it is rather ordinary. There is nothing too special or outstanding about the device. It is a regular candy bar smartphone. The most interesting thing about it is probably its unique back styling they call the OPPO Glow design.
The crystalised design on the back of the device looks rather good in camera. It may not strike everyone the same in its physical form though. Some might like it, some might not.
Out the back of the device, the camera array is like a hark to OPPO’s Reno series. Of course, it could just be OPPO’s design language. It is a bump though, which means you might want to use the case that comes in the box or buy a different case that would sit flush with the camera bump.
Despite the matte and rather plastic feel of the back, OPPO says that it is, in fact, glass. That is not necessarily a bad thing though. While it does not feel too premium, it does help with preventing fingerprint stains. The bad side of that is that it is slippery to the touch. If you use a case, it will not matter anyway.
You have a USB Type-C port at the bottom with some ports for the speaker, a small microphone hole, and a bigger 3.5mm combo jack. There is also a small microphone hole on top of the device too.
We like the fact that the power button is also the fingerprint sensor, a design made popular by Sony. The front facing camera sits in a corner instead of the middle of the display like we are used to on most devices. That is about it for the design of the device. Everything that you expect from a modern smartphone is on the device. It does not feel like a budget product, which is a good thing. But it does not feel or look all that premium either.
Hardware
Underneath the glass and aluminium mix of a shell lies a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 System on a Chip (SoC). It is not even a 5G chip, just regular 4G LTE support, which is plenty enough still. There is also 8GB of RAM and 256GB in memory.
Non-Removable Li-Po 5,000mAh Fast Charging 33W Revers Charging
Connectivity
Dual SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP AptX HD Bluetooth 5.0 OTG Support USB Type-C 2.0
Camera (s)
REAR: 50-Megapixel (f/1.8, 27mm wide angle) 2-Megapixel (f/2.4, depth sensor) 1080p video recording (30fps) LED flash FRONT: 16-Megapixel (f/2.0, 26mm wide angle) 1080p video recording (30fps)
Sensors
Accelerometer Proximity Side Mounted Fingerprint Ambient Light Gyroscope Face Unlock Compass
User Interface – Color OS 11
OPPO’s ColorOS is now something unique on its own. In older OPPO devices you get an interface that can be likened to the iOS. The modern ColorOS has some Android flair in an optional app tray you can turn on in the settings page.
You do not get 120Hz out of the display. Instead, you make do with 90Hz, which is still a fast display considering its price. That also gives you a smooth and refined feel of ColorOS. Unless you have very sharp eyes and is observant enough, ColorOS 11 on the device feels as smooth as the flagship devices. zx
The app tray is not turned on by default. We kind of think that while OPPO does want to retain their original look that is free of an app tray, having the app tray is a great thing for ColorOS and it should be made a default option when you first set up the device. The fact that OPPO includes it as an option though, unlike plenty of manufacturers that came out of China, is a welcome though.
+5GB RAM
When you need more RAM in your PC, you add a RAM stick or replace it with something bigger. On your smartphone though, that is hardly possible. Space is a premium in your smartphone, so manufacturers can only fit one large RAM module that is usually attached to the SoC in favour of space. To get more RAM space then, some creativity gets involved
While OPPO is not the only one who does this, it is good to note that you can opt to use it or not. You can expand your RAM by up to 5GB just using the native UFS storage on the device itself. It does help with some multitasking performance, but hardly too noticeable because 8GB is rather plenty these days.
To opt out of it or to switch how much of your storage is being used as RAM is not quite as easy as OPPO wants you to believe though. You must do a little bit of digging within the settings of the device. We only found it by using the search bar on the page. By default, OPPO sets aside 3GB of your storage as a temporary RAM. You can put it down to 2GB and up to 5GB or turn it completely off if you think it is not necessary.
Performance
The SoC is not a high-end one. In this case, you get Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 680, which is not technically entry-level. It is sitting lower than the 700 series though. It also does not have 5G, so we do not get to test out Yes 4G’s “5G” network.
Benchmarks
Call Quality and Connectivity
Despite it not being a 5G device, you technically are not missing out on much. Malaysia’s 5G network is not out in full force yet too, which also means that you are not missing out on the OPPO A96’s regular 4G LTE network. The OPPO A96 also supports VoLTE, which means you are still getting crystal clear calls.
That is what you get with the OPPO A96, crystal clear phone conversations when you have enough signal strength. As with modern smartphones, making a call with the OPPO A96 is rather straightforward with a similar phone app layout as any other modern smartphones.
Still, VoLTE allows you to have clear conversations when there is enough signal strength. We find that anything between two bars to four bars is good enough and stable. Anything below two bars and you might find that calls get a little choppy. Data speeds tend to suffer too with lower signal strength, though this could just be the ISP’s fault.
Gaming
While it is not a flagship, gaming on a smartphone is a perfectly normal thing to do. If you are looking for a relatively budget friendly smartphone to game with, this could be it. You cannot expect a gaming performance that is likened to an OPPO Find X and its likes.
We played Pokémon Unite with the A96 mostly. We are happy to report that the game runs very smoothly on the device. While graphics performance might not match the flagships just to keep the framerates high, we do not mind that at all. We never faced any lags in the game which also meant that you should not have any issues when you are playing a ranked match. You still want to make sure that you have a solid internet connection though.
Game Space
Game Space is nothing new for OPPO devices. Its implementation is not unique either. It acts as a sort of one-click-overclocking tool that only activates when you play games. It also filters all your notifications just so that you do not get distracted in your gaming sessions.
Multitasking and Productivity
Smartphones like this is an indication that you do not really need a flagship to get a smartphone experience. Sure, you get the bleeding edge of whatever that is on offer on a flagship. The mid-range and entry-level devices eventually get it way later, but the most useful technologies do trickle down eventually. Ample RAM for example, makes it into budget friendly smartphones.
We usually have up to 15 tabs open within Google Chrome on the A96. We also tend to leave plenty of our apps working in the background. Apps like Instagram, Facebook, or Telegram are usually running in the background for us most of the time. At no point we felt that the device was sluggish to work with or experience any stutters when we are changing between screens in our daily use.
Battery Life
Most smartphones at this range excels in this area and for good reason. Smartphones at this range usually comes with rather large batteries, larger than ones you can find on flagship devices. Combine that with lower power consumption from the SoC and you get a smartphone that can last days.
On standby, the OPPO can last up to 5 days without a single charge in between. Of course, with some hotspot, gaming, photo taking, calling, and messaging, the battery life does go down by quite a bit.
Our typical use of the OPPO A96 in a day involves plenty of Telegram messaging, some photos, a little bit of gaming, a few minutes of call, and some social media scrolls. In this case we could get the OPPO to last us nearly three days on a single charge. Three days from your smartphone is a lot of battery life, even for modern smartphones. When the battery drains, you only need about two hours for a full charge. We hardly charge the device overnight because we never needed to in our test period.
Display and Audio
You get a nice 1080p Full HD+ display on the A96. It refreshes at 90Hz, which is more than what you can expect for most devices at this price range. Then again, everything that comes out in 2021 and later comes with 90Hz display.
What you do not get with devices at this price is an NTSC accuracy rating like this one does. The OPPO A96’s 6.59-inch IPS panel comes with a 96% NTSC colour gamut coverage. The colours produced on the OPPO A96 is comparable even to modern flagship devices.
While some of the flagship displays do come with 120Hz and higher resolutions at 2K or even 4K sometimes, you never really need them. Most of the time 90Hz is more than enough for most gaming situations. To make your UI look silky smooth, anything beyond 75Hz is enough. In terms of resolution, you most likely will not notice any difference between a 2K display and a 1080P display no thanks to how small the display is.
In this case, the display of the OPPO A96, we believe, is on par with most of the flagships you get today. Sure, it does not support HDR10 like most flagships do, but it is still a brilliant enough display that you can enjoy movies on Netflix and YouTube videos equally.
Cameras
Here is where things do come down to earth a little. Instead of the usual three or four camera array we are used to seeing in modern smartphones. This one noticeable only has 2 out the back of the device. One is the main 50-Megapixel shooter that you are going to be driving most of the time. The other is an oddly oversized 2-Megapixel depth sensor.
The OPPO A96 shoots at 12-Megapixel mode if you leave the settings alone. If you want the full 50-Megapixel goodness, you must tweak the settings a little bit. There is no way for you to set it permanently to 50-Megapixel, which also means that you must toggle it to 50-Megapixel every time to you turn on the camera.
Photos do look impressive in 50-Megapixel mode. Details are sharp enough for you to zoom in a little, crop your photos to get a better frame of your subjects, so you can technically take photos in slightly wider frame and can get away with it. You do not get the same level of detail at 12-Megapixel mode, but at least your photos still look good with vivid and somewhat accurate colours. There is a little bit of a natural warmth to your shots though.
The 2-Megapixel depth sensor never really comes into play until you are taking photos of a person or when you put it into portrait mode. You can technically use it with small objects and get a natural looking depth effect with it. You are still shooting with your main shooter though, so your portrait can look rather great with plenty of details too if you shoot with the 50-Megapixel mode.
At MYR 1,299, the OPPO A96 is not very expensive. On Paper, it may seem like quite a bargain. It has everything you need in a smartphone, nothing more. It also packs a large battery, a battery that would last for days at a time.
Sure, it does not pack Qualcomm’s most powerful. It packs a good ol’ Snapdragon 680 that does not even come with 5G as standard. At the same time, you only get one good camera to work with.
The MYR 1,299 OPPO A96 is a real treat, a bargain. It works just as you need to, as it is intended to. It does nothing more, but nothing less either, which is a good thing. It is a smooth operator, just as good as any flagship devices can offer you. You do not get any extraordinary features on the device, it just works.
If you are looking for a flagship experience with all the latest features and technologies, this will not be the device for you. It is a device that just works, it has everything you need in a smartphone, the essentials. The whole point of this device is reliability and simplicity. If that is what you are looking for, for your main driver or even your secondary device, this device is really made for you.
The OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro launched alongside a certain OnePlus Watch. There was a third OnePlus smartphone that launched on the side though. This was not part of the global launch for a simple reason. It will only be available mid-April onward in India and China for now. That device is the OnePlus 9R.
We talked about the cheaper variant of the OnePlus 9 series before. It is expected to be the least powerful version of the OnePlus 9 series, but still pack enough power to match most other flagships. We also expected it to be a 5G device, but not pack the state-of-the-art Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G System on a chip (SoC).
It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 for that matter. It is still a very powerful flagship level chip with 5G capability derived from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 7nm chip of last year. You can opt for up to 12GB of RAM too with 256GB of storage in tow. With 4,500mAh in battery size and 65W with Wrap Charge 65T, the device will still impress.
That is not all that you get though from the OnePlus 9R. You get one more camera than the vanilla OnePlus 9. What you have is a 48-Megapixel main shooter (Sony IMX586), a 16-Megapixel ultra-wide lens, a 5-Megapixel Macro sensor, and 2-Megapixel depth sensor. Technically, you are getting the same camera array from the OnePlus 8T. In that case, it looks more like an enhanced OnePlus 9. It even packs the same 120Hz OLED display from the vanilla OnePlus 9 at 6.55-inch Full HD+.
The OnePlus 9R, as previously mentioned, will be available in India and China in mid-April onward. The device will be available with about the same colorways as the OnePlus 9 except that it also gets an exclusive matt black colourway. The OnePlus 9R will be retailing at IN₹ 39,999 or around US$ 550 (MYR 2,276*) for the 8GB + 128GB variant and IN₹ 43,999 or around US$ 600 (MYR 2,503*) for the 12GB + 256GB variant. They are cheaper than the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro. There are no mentions on whether or not the onePlus 9R will make it to markets outside China and India at the time being.
*Approximate value based on conversion rate IN₹ 100.00 = MYR 5.69 on xe.com as of 24/03/2021
What can US$ 149 (MYR 599**) get you today? In Malaysia, MYR 600 is what you can expect to pay if you buy about three PlayStation games. Smartphones? You are talking about an entry-level smartphone; something basic maybe.
If you are spending that amount of money on a smartphone, we can tell you a few things. Firstly, you do not expect it to perform like a Samsung Galaxy S device. We will also tell you that it might be a good secondary device for you, if you already have a smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy S device. Beyond not expecting to have a device with the quality of a Samsung Galaxy S device, we would also say that you do not expect much. Sure, you can work with all the basic functions of a smartphone like Whatsapp messaging, making calls, play simple games, go to the web, play music, watch videos on YouTube and Netflix, but do not expect a stellar experience with it.
All of the above may be true, until now. You see, smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and HUAWEI have been focusing mainly on pushing their branding into their own class. They want their brand to be premium in perception. In that case, a smartphone worth MYR 599 might not be great if you reach out to these brands. This is not the case for POCO though.
Source: POCO
POCO is a brand that was born to beat the bigger name brands at their own game. They are value players in the field and seems to offer you something more than what you are paying for. That is always true for their higher end devices. Thing is, POCO has never made entry-level smartphones before until they launched the M3 just now.
Before you pass off judgment and give the device a pass though, you should know that POCO has brought their value-for-money philosophy and approach to the device they just launched today. The only difference between this and the high-end device is the low pricing starting at US$ 149 (MYR599**). What the device packs sounds like you are paying for more than it is worth.
First off, the processor, as usual. The POCO M3 comes with a brand-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 System on a Chip (SoC) that is supposed to be more powerful than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 platform. Which also means that you are getting something that is more comparable to a mid-range smartphone in power than a lowly entry-level. The 11nm Octa-core chip also packs a Qualcomm Adreno 610 GPU to boot and has a dedicated AI engine built-into the chip. While it does not mean that the device will top out any benchmark charts, the SoC is powerful enough to run Android 10 smoothly and work with most games nicely.
Source: POCO
With the SoC also comes a 4GB RAM. 4GB RAM does not sound like a lot in today’s standards for smartphones. To be fair, it is not that much. 4GB RAM though is enough for a modern Android device and some multitasking. You can still get away with multiple apps open in the background and browse the web with a few tabs on.
While 4GB of RAM might not help that much with speeds, the UFS 2.2 (up to) storage that measures at 128GB (up to) should help you with data read and write speeds. That also means that you can instantly access most of the apps within the device with no speed issues at all. Sure, it may not be as snappy as the flagship devices, but it should still be quick enough that you might not notice the difference.
The triple camera module still features 48-Megapixel in resolution. The main shooter has a 2-Megapixel macro camera and a 2-Megapixel depth sensor for support and more photography options. Of course, there is a front-facing camera that sits pretty in a Dot Drop notch above the display with 8-Megapixel power.
Source: POCO
While there is nothing to shout about in the camera department, the display should be commended. It is a large 6.53-inch Full HD+ display that is only disturbed by the notch for the front-facing camera. You can get it up to 400nits in brightness and it is TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light certified. Best of all though it sits under a Corning Gorilla Glass to protect it from clumsiness and stratches.
All this goodness is powered by a larger-than-ever 6,000mAh battery. A Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra only has a 4,500 mAh battery. The 6,000mAh battery should keep you running for days from a single charge. When the power runs out, quickly get it up and running again with 18W fast charging and the included 22W charger. If you really need to, the 6,000mAh battery can share its charge with other devices, so you are now your friends’ hero too.
Additionally, the POCO M3 comes with Dual Speakers and 3.5mm jack. Your old earphones can get some loving from the device. With Hi-Res Audio certification, your older high-end earphones can get some love. That Also means you can load up Hi-Res audio files into the device too if you want. Maybe you might want to consider getting a 512GB MicroSD card for your Hi-Res audio files though.
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
Source: POCO
The POCO M3 will be available on the 27th November 2020 onward globally and in Malaysia in two storage configurations: 4GB + 64GB and 4GB + 128GB. For now, in Malaysia, the POCO M3 will only be available in Cull Blue, and Power Black colour options. The POCO Yellow variant will be available at a later date (pending announcement). You can get your hands on one exclusively via Xiaomi Official Store on Lazada for MYR 599 (US$ 149*) and MYR 699 (US$169*) respectively. On sales launch date though, customers can get the devices for MYR 499 (US$129***) and MYR 599 (US$149***) respectively while stocks last. In addition to the MYR 100 discount on the device, buyers will also get a Mi In-ear Basic Piston Earphone, while stocks last. For more information on the POCO M3 you can head out to their website.
*Official Global Pricing **Official Malaysia Pricing ***Official Black Friday Sale Pricing
It has been more than a year since the United States of America vs. HUAWEI debacle. That issue has affected the smartphone industry a major way. HUAWEI is not just banned from the United States of America (U.S.A.), but vendors from the country are not allowed to deal with HUAWEI. That also means that HUAWEI loses the majority of their suppliers and clients alike. The lose important partners like Google. That loss of support also means that modern HUAWEI devices for 2020 does not come with Google’s Play Store.
It started with the HUAWEI Mate 30 series introduced last year, the HUAWEI AppGallery. That app aggregator is supposed to replace the missing Google Play Store on HUAWEI devices, a sort of filling for a hole left by Google. AppGallery was not perfect though, far from it. It is still only the third biggest app ecosystem in the world at this point. While that may not seem to be entirely a bad thing, you have to remember that there were two major superpowers in the app ecosystem, and they are leading in the region of billions of apps available to users. The HUAWEI AppGallery, in contrast, has not even hit 100,000, in app population.
This also means that all HUAWEI devices are a little crippled when it comes out of the box. Surprisingly though, Malaysia holds itself as HUAWEI’s biggest market outside of China. Proof? The HUAWEI Mate 30 series’ first batch to Malaysia sold out within the first day.
Those are flagships with very compelling hardware to go though, the Mate 30 devices. They embody the best of HUAWEI and the latest of their innovations in almost every aspect. What about the more budget options? What about a HUAWEI Y6P, for example?
The HUAWEI Y6P is an MYR 559 package that seems basic enough to be a secondary smartphone. It is even wallet friendly enough that it could be your kids’ first smartphone. But is this a better buy than, let us say, a Xiaomi Redmi 9 for example? Is it a good buy at all, since you still do not get Google Play Store on the device? We delve in and find out.
Design
By now, if you are a regular, you should know that we like to start by looking at the entirety of the device and see if it is anywhere near attractive enough to make it into our pockets or not. In reality, smartphones look pretty much the same most of the times now. The HUAWEI Y6P is two slabs of thin and ultra-strong glass panels stuck together with nothing more than glue on what seems to be its aluminium chassis.
At least it looks modern with bezels so thin, you could get a papercut (not really, but you get the point). The lip bezel at the bottom of the device seems to be a little thicker to suggest that the display is perhaps not as high-end as you want it to be. It is a budget package that costs well under MYR 1,000 after all.
You pull your gaze further up the display and everything looks sublime until you reach the top of the device. You spot an old school notch that houses a front-facing camera. While the front-facing camera notch is not something from a decade ago, it still feels a little old compared to modern smartphones of today; a little old-fashioned.
Not that it is a bad thing though. The little notch is a still an elegant and valid solution to the near bezel-less displays of today. Still, we are never huge fans of notched displays or punch-hole displays.
You move to the back, and you see pretty much what you can expect from a modern smartphone. You see a multi-camera set up surrounded by the usual glass or plastic material. In the case of the HUAWEI Y6P, you see a triple-camera set-up surrounded by glass.
There is another old-fashioned feature on the device too, at the back. There is a proper, physical dip for a fingerprint sensor. These days you get plenty of devices with their fingerprint sensor under their displays. In our opinion, the old physical fingerprint sensors are still the best to work with. They are still more accurate and faster compared to the modern under-display fingerprint readers.
Thing is, while this looks like a device that is a whole lot older than modern flagships, the design cues on the device is common in a non-flagship that sets you back less than MYR 1,000. The traditional fingerprint sensor out the back of the device, the notched display, and the fat bottom lip of the bezel are not that old as well. In fact, we saw these designs two years ago at most. Most of these design decisions were also made to counter one or two problems with trending designs at the time if you think about it.
Underneath the glass at the back is a unique design that looks like a wave under the lights. Again, this is the sort of design you can expect from smartphones from last year and two years ago maybe. That does not mean that it does not look good though.
The unit we have is a Phantom Purple variant, and we quite like the patterns from the glass back of the device. We think that some flagships should come with these kinds of backing instead of entry-level or mid-range devices. Still, we suspect that this kind of look might not age well.
Overall, there is nothing really that stands out for the device. It looks plain and simple enough to pass as a smartphone. It looks perfectly fitting as a secondary smartphone, a spare smartphone, or your kids’ first smartphone. The price fits too.
Hardware
Unlike its more premium siblings, the HUAWEI Y6P has to make do with a MediaTek MT6762R System on a Chip (SoC). It is still an octa-core processor though, which means it should still be a capable machine. Multi-core also means that this should be able to run most mobile made apps and processes smoothly and quickly enough. Of course, again, it will not be perfect. It only packs 4GB in RAM and its display is not even a Full HD+ panel.
Dual SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP Bluetooth 5.0 LE OTG Support MicroUSB
Camera (s)
REAR: 13-Megapixel (f/1.8, wide angle) 5-Megapixel (f/2.2, ultra-wide angle) 2-Megapixel (f/2.4, depth sensor) HDR Full HD 1080p video recording (30fps) FRONT: 8-Megapixel (f/2.0) Full HD video recording (30fps)
Sensors
Accelerometer Proximity Fingerprint Ambient Light Gyroscope Face Unlock Compass
User Interface
Nope, it does not run HUAWEI’s proprietary operating system (OS). It is still the very familiar EMUI 10.1 that is based on Android 10. There is no word yet on EMUI 11 that should be based on Android 11. Still, Android 10 is still a very capable OS by Google.
Again, sadly there is no Google Play Store available here. You cannot even install Google Play Services and Framework for that matter. Which also means that while it is an Android device, it is devoid of plenty of apps and functions that makes an Android device an Android device.
HUAWEI AppGallery – an Improvement, But Not Google Play Store Replacement
We have to give it to HUAWEI and the team that is responsible in responding to the whole issue with not having Google Play Store. They have been doing a good job maintaining a straight face in the whole crisis and developed the HUAWEI AppGallery anyway. Like EMUI, the app marketplace has gone from strength to strength and has become a unique app marketplace on its own.
Of course, they like to point out that the AppGallery is now the third largest app marketplace there is in the world. Take it with a pinch of salt though. They are currently not up against huge players in the market. There are only two other large names in the field of distributing mobile apps to the world. Those two names are, of course, Google and Apple.
Still, that claim to third should not be discounted too much though. The AppGallery is growing consistently. We do not think that it will ever reach the heights and the sizes that are the Google Play store and Apple App Store in the next five years. We even hope that a change in the U.S.A. political conditions might allow Googe’s Play Store to find its way back to HUAWEI’s devices.
That is not to say that AppGallery is not a pleasant space to be though. There are apps that you are used to that will not be there, and there are apps that you will not normally use recommended to you. There is also something they call QuickApps within the app.
You can have WhatsApp on your smartphone and even Facebook on the HUAWEI Y6P via the AppGallery. They are not exactly on the app though. They are still the official download links on the official app, so you are quite safe. On the AppGallery as well, you can find iflix as well, if you want, or Viu, if you prefer that. You can download and get Netflix to work, but not via AppGallery, so you are using the app at your own risk as well.
Most importantly though you still can find shopping apps like Shopee and Lazada on the AppGallery, and almost all the banking apps in Malaysia. This is important because that also means that there is some localisation going on here.
EMUI 10.1 – The HUAWEI Ecosystem, on the Front Page
It is not all bad though. EMUI 10.1 is still and Android based OS. You see the marks of Android on it too like widgets and folders. It is the familiar EMUI that you know from before too (if you are familiar with EMUI). It does not feature an app menu tray, and it never will.
Like any modern Android, EMUI 10.1 feels smooth, snappy, and easy. You can get it to work with gestures from the beginning if you want to. That also means that there are no visible buttons to work with. Instead you swipe from the left or right to go ‘back’, swipe up to quickly go back to ‘home’, and hold after you swipe up for ‘recent apps’.
What that does is make your home screen looks much cleaner and a lot more expansive. But a device with no clear buttons might be confusing to some people, trust me plenty of friends gets confused on how an Android works these days. We do think that gesture control is still the way to go though.
The EMUI 10.1 on this device is a little different from the EMUI 10.1 of a flagship device though. Of course, that is to accommodate for the hardware present on the device. At the same time too, of course you are not going to get the full EMUI experience with this one, it is a sub MYR 1,000 device.
Some of things missing from EMUI on this device is things like HUAWEI Share and Multi-Screen Collaboration. Oh yes, it does not get Meetime as well, sadly. Or even air gesture controls like the HUAWEI P40 series.
So, what you are getting here is not really the full EMUI 10.1 that you get on flagship devices. Instead, it is the simplified version, the basic version that does just what you need a regular smartphone needs to do. It texts, it calls, and it plays videos, and that is just about it.
But it is not just because HUAWEI wants to encourage you to spend more money on your smartphones for all these features though. It is because they want you to buy this device as your secondary device, or just simplify it enough that it can truly be your first smartphone experience. That is why EMUI is simplified, for a simple device.
It does not have NFC, so why do you need HUAWEI Share? You might not need to use it on your PC or tablet, since it is a secondary device, so multi-collaboration is not needed. Air gesture would be clever and useful, but the hardware requirements will make it a lot more expensive that it is, so no. Camera? As an added bonus, the software will not be the bottleneck of the device, which also means you still get a smooth Android experience without spending an arm and a leg for it.
In that sense, the HUAWEI Y6P has done EMUI right. Our experience with the HUAWEI Y6P has been a smooth one. There are some noticeable lags here and there and plenty of apps open slower than what you can expect from flagship device. That is quite expected though, coming from a budget device. In that case, if you rely on your device for work that much and need to load a custom app quickly, maybe you want to consider using that app on your daily carry instead. We are quite confident that it will still run okay without any issues if you give it time though.
Sure, there are plenty of things that you might not be able to do with the HUAWEI Y6P over more expensive HUAWEI devices. Again, this is a budget device that is designed for a completely different market in mind. Expecting this to perform like a flagship device is quite unrealistic to begin with. The only drawback is that you do not have Google Play Store with it. But there are workarounds for that as well, if you are willing to take some risks and go through a little bit of hassle. Of course, you cannot be using any Google apps, since most Google apps need Google Framework installed, and this device does not have Google Framework installed within the system.
Performance
Of course, as we mentioned within the UI segment, you cannot expect magic to come out of the HUAWEI Y6P. It packs a MediaTek MT6762R SoC, which is not the most sophisticated or the most powerful SoC available for Android devices currently. While it is not the most powerful, it is good value and keeps the prices of the devices it powers cheap. It still has eight cores within the construction with four high-power cores and four low-power cores, the normal Big Little architecture that we see plenty of in today’s smartphone market.
It only packs 4GB in RAM as well, with 64GB in memory, to keep the device as budget friendly as possible. The amount of memory that the device has access to is also a good indication of how much processes it might be able to run at the same time. 4GB, while plenty for a mobile device, may not be adequate for high-load applications. Though, whether 4GB of RAM is enough really depends on how you work with your device.
We are not able to run any regular benchmarks for the HUAWEI Y6P because the regular apps we use for benchmarking a device does not exist on AppGallery. Downloading the apps via a third-party app aggregator works, but there is no guarantee that it works the same or is the most updated version. In that case we skip the benchmarks and continue the experience of the device.
Call Quality and Connectivity
We used the HUAWEI Y6P as our main driver. We stuck to Maxis because we are Maxis customers anyway. The device supports dual SIM capabilities, but we did not have a secondary SIM card to put into the device. It could also take a MicroSD card on the three-card slot tray, we stuck a 32GB MicroSD card in the device.
A three-card slot tray also means that you can have two SIM cards and a MicroSD card together in the device without compromise. We always thought that a flagship device should also include this kind of SIM tray, but none of the major flagships has gone this route yet. In that sense, we thought that his arrangement is the best there is.
The HUAWEI Y6P does not yet support 5G though. So, if you are trying to purchase a secondary smartphone or even a main driver that supports 5G; bad news, turn around, save up a little bit more. But 5G is not the point of this HUAWEI Y6P. 5G is not even commercially available in Malaysia just yet.
Making a call on the HUAWEI Y6P is as straightforward as making a call with any other smartphones. The layout of the buttons has never changed, the icon even looks somewhat the same with everything else in the market. That also means that it should come as a second nature to you at this point.
Of course, as a secondary device, you might want to use it for work mostly. That also means that you need to be making a lot of calls or even receive them. You are going to use this for your prime work conversation device. You will need good data signal too, to ensure you get all the messages in immediately and quickly reply.
In those departments, the HUAWEI Y6P excels as expected from a modern smartphone. Conversations are crisp and clear when you hear it from the earpiece. Unless the other person is on speakerphone, calls should not sound muddled or muted. But all those also depends on their environments.
On the other end, calls are reported to be mostly clear when there is a strong enough signal (at least one bar). Of course, with poor signal, you might get some dropped calls. In most cases in Kuala Lumpur though, you are going to be alright. The only times where signals are dropped is when you enter some basement parking areas, elevators, or known ‘black’ spots. Other than those, signals are usually more than 2 bars at a time. Of course, the other thing that you have to give credit to in modern smartphones are their dual mic configurations for noise cancellation.
If you are going to have a meeting with the device, the speakers might be loud enough that the crowd in a tiny meeting room can hear it. But not necessarily everyone in the room could have a proper conversation with the person on the other end of the line. You might want to be closer to the mics on the HUAWEI Y6P for that or get a wireless Speaker with Mic combination for conference calls.
Gaming
The HUAWEI AppGallery does not actually contain a lot of games that we play. Games like PUBG: Mobile, or Call of Duty Mobile is not available on the AppGallery, so you would have to download it via a third-party app aggregator. There is a problem with that though, you do not have Google Play Games on the device, which also means that if your progress is tied to your Google account, you have start from scratch.
If not though, you can technically get some of these games to work on the device and get your progress back with whatever you registered your accounts with. That may work for PUBG: Mobile or AOV since you can choose to use your Facebook account to save your progress with. Games like Brawl Stars, or Sky Force: Reloaded can work, but you will not have your previous progress.
When we do get them to work though, graphics are not impressive. All these things are quite expected from a device with 720p display though. PUBG also optimizes itself on difference devices, and that is why it reduced its graphical detail to ensure you get the best experience on the HUAWEI Y6P.
The thing is the device is not really made for these things. It is not made as a gaming device, not even a budget gaming device for that matter. It is made to be a value-for-money all-rounder. In that mindset, games are not on the priority list for the device.
Battery Life
This is probably the device’s best feature, considering everything else on the device is nothing to shout about. The HUAWEI Y6P packs a 5,000mAh battery. That is a larger battery size than any of the modern flagships currently. No doubt we will start seeing 5,000mAh battery packs in flagships in a few years’ time.
Still, there are no flagship at this point that packs a 5,000mAh juice pack within the device. Without a SIM card, the device could be on standby for nearly a month from a single charge. With a SIM card, you could leave it for about three days and still have enough battery to make a phone call and reply messages. You might even be able to look through your emails for a while before the battery dies. If you leave the device purely on standby with your SIM card plugged in and kept it in a WiFi environment, we believe it could even last for a whole week.
In normal use case, where we reply a few WhatsApp messages, Telegram messages, make or receive one or two phone calls, have one Whatsapp video call with a friend later in the day, and more Facebook and Instagram scrolls than anything, the device could last you about two days. The ultra-long battery life though is not only thanks to the low-powered processor that consumes little power for processes. Thanks to a lower resolution display at 720p as well, the battery life can be preserved even longer.
Display
As mentioned earlier, this only packs an HD+ 720p display, not even Full HD. That also means that when you put it against its competitors, the display of the other devices will look better and sharper. You cannot even compare them in terms of colour accuracy and aesthetics.
On its own though, you might not notice a difference between your HUAWEI Y6P and other devices at its price. Sure, there is only 1,600 by 720 pixels on board, but the 720p still looks decent. Colours are at least still sharp enough that you can enjoy YouTube (via the browser) videos on it. You can of course, enjoy Netlfix videos on the display but you cannot expect contrasts to be that great.
Of course, it is not an OLED display. While colours are sharp, they can look a little dull and washed out. Blacks are not truly black either, because this is not an OLED display. Again, nothing impressive in this department.
There is a good side to all this though. We did say the lower resolution helps in battery consumption, and that is true. Thanks to the lower power consumption in total, the device could last a little longer than its competition from a single charge. Of course, again, you might not be able to enjoy or appreciate details as much. Then again, this is not exactly an entertainment powerhouse is it?
Camera
The HUAWEI Y6P packs a 13-Megapixel main shooter supported by one 5-Megapixel ultra-wide shooter and one 2-Megapixel depth sensor. On the front is an 8-Megapixel shooter that sits pretty in the notch of the 6.3-inch display. Considering what most 12-Megapixel shooters can do today, 13-Megapixel as its main camera does not sound like a bad thing.
The thing is, the HUAWEI Y6P does not pack the same processor as its more premium siblings. The HUAWEI Y6P is also sort of a testament to the importance of processors for image processing and image quality. What you see from the 13-Megapixel sensor from the HUAWEI Y6P might shock your initial expectations to what photos should look like.
We tested it out first in a slightly darker conditions to be fair. In that sense lighting is at a premium and photos with most devices might not look good anyway. What we did not expect is how grainy and washed out the photos turn out. This is with HUAWEI’s clever AI turned on.
When there is enough lighting on your photos, they look fine. Not stellar, not breathtaking, simply fine. There is nothing to really shout about with the photos. They are not the most detailed photos or sharpest photos you can get from a smartphone. They are still useable though, and enough for Social Media use. We let the photos tell their own story though.
We are not particularly good with selfies. That is one reason why we did not upload a selfie photo for the review. The other reason is that the selfie camera is not particularly great as well. Photos look extremely washed out and cheap. They look like they are taken with a cheap polaroid with wrong the wrong colour contrast settings. Images from the 8-Megapixel sensor look soft on the edges.
Gallery
The HUAWEI Y6P – A Flawed Contender
The subheading might lead you to believe that the HUAWEI Y6P is a bad device. Let us get that out of the way first. We are not saying that it is a bad device. The HUAWEI Y6P does everything right, technically. We may not like its camera too much, but we do not expect this to replace our daily carry or even a DSLR anytime soon. It works just as it is intended.
There is nearly nothing wrong with the UI too, it is smooth and consistent. We never had anything against the UI because it is genuinely responsive. We only found that the lack of Google Play Store a little crippling.
Then there is the price. At MYR 559 (official price from HUAWEI’s Online Store), it is not expensive. If you put other devices of its class side by side though, it actually seems like a reasonable smartphone to work with. The Xiaomi Redmi 9, for example will set you back MYR 599 (equivalent spec). The OPPO A53 too is about MYR 699. Even Realme’s best offering that closely matches this device is MYR 150 more expensive. The closes thing to it is an HONOR 9CA that is MYR 549. You get 1GB less in RAM size though with the HONOR device.
We think that the HUAWEI Y6P should not be your first Android smartphone, just because it is so crippled by the lack of proper Google Play Store support. But we do think that as a second device the HUAWEI Y6P shines. Then again, you might still want Google Play Store support. In that case, the Xiaomi Redmi 9 seems like a good option.
By now you are probably quite familiar with the name ‘VivoBook’. That is mostly thanks to the fact that we have been reviewing the namesake or each iteration of the same notebook for quite sometime now. We hope that you have not grown bored of the same notebook though, because we have not. Also, because there is a new one in the block.
It seems like just yesterday that we were reviewing a new ASUS VivoBook S notebook PC. It seems like yesterday too that we gave quite high praises to ASUS’ value offering of a notebook PC. That said, we have always liked the ASUS VivoBook series. They are relatively inexpensive offering of notebook PCs that are always outperforming our expectations. They are also always very well built, for the kind of material they employ on the VivoBook.
Because of the wholesome package that is the ASUS VivoBook, it has become one of our most recommended notebook PCs so far. While it is a serious contender for ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, the designers have never taken a too serious approach to the notebook too. That is also why the ASUS VivoBook notebooks have always been lookers.
The new one? Well, for one I think it is no different from the old recipe of making an attractive looking PC with great internals. They approached the VivoBook with the same ‘one-size-fits-all’ philosophy as before. Somehow, they have managed to make it even better in certain aspects. How? Let us delve deeper.
Design
Like before, the ASUS VivoBook is built with a mix of plastic and aluminium. We suspect that the outer shells are mostly aluminium and the keyboard tray is also aluminium. The only part that is not made from the lightweight metal is the bezel surrounding the Full HD display.
Unlike the previous ASUS VivoBook S too, the new 2020 variant seems to be a bit more scratch resistant. This is mostly due to the aluminium construction and what we think is an anodized surface instead of a paint coating. Anodizing has been a common practice in getting colours on metallic surfaces, and they last a whole lot longer.
Anodizing also has another benefit, you can get really interesting colours on the surfaces. Which is what ASUS has gone for with the 2020 variant of the ASUS VivoBook S. The one we have here is green in colour. Specifically, Gaia Green. It is a stunning colour, in our humble opinions.
Personally, I have always liked green, Emerald Green or British Racing Green especially. Those are great colours, and I have always dreamt of a Bentley Continental GT in Emerald Green shade or a 1961 Jaguar E-Type in British Racing Green. We are getting a little side-tracked.
The point is, it is a very pretty Green that we are getting on the ASUS VivoBook S15. Finally, someone bothers to go with another green coloured notebook. This makes Red shades look over-rated and overly loud. There isn’t a big difference in the branding layout otherwise.
Open the ASUS VivoBook S15 up and you will be greeted with a very familiar full keyboard layout with backlighting. Oh, let us not forget the accented enter key with a lime outline and wording. We may not completely understand why that is included in the design, but it does help distinguish the keyboard itself from its competitors. The numpad is largely similar on the side with a nice layout too.
The trackpad is a little larger compared to what we could remember, but that is not a bad thing. Unlike the more popular wide pad designs, the new one looks more traditional and with additional height. That allows your two palms to rest on the palm rests on either side of the trackpad properly without accidentally touching the trackpad for extra inputs or accidental clicks.
There is no more fingerprint sensor on the ASUS VivoBook S15 anymore though. We are testing the Intel Core i5 variant of the ASUS VivoBook S15. Usually you would find the fingerprint sensor on the top right corner of the trackpad. Not this time though. Although you still get the same on/off button nestled at the top right corner of the whole keyboard layout.
There is a shiny chromed out chamfers on the side of the keyboard tray. That somehow adds to the premium look when its new. The shiny chromed ring surrounding the keyboard is what made us think that the whole top is aluminium. Thing is though, they will smudge a little from the oils from your skin. While that may not be too big of a deal if you keep it clean with constant care, it will not be the case for most people. Still, we feel that that is a nice touch. At least you know when you need to give your laptop a quick wipe down.
Hardware
As we have mentioned, this ‘go-anywhere-do-anything’ machine is made mostly of aluminium. Which is always a nice touch, in our opinion. It also helps with the overall feel and rigidity of the device, which is always nice.
There is more that just an aluminium body with nothing to show for it inside though. While it is not very heavy, it is still quite a powerful package. As we have mentioned, this is powered by an Intel Core i5, the one we have. We also have NVIDIA’s GeForce MX250 to work with, which is no slouch if you are not after outright gaming performance.
Specifications
ASUS VivoBook S15 S533
As Tested
Processor (clock)
10th Generation Intel Core i5-10210U (1.6GHz ~ up to 4.2GHz)
GPU
NVIDIA GeForce MX250
Display(s)
15.6-inch LED -backlit IPS Full HD (1920 x 1080) NTSC: 45% NanoEdge
1 x USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A 2x USB 2.0 1 x Standard HDMI 1.4 1 x Audio combo jack 1x MicroSD card reader Intel Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ (802.11ax) Bluetooth 5.0
Battery
50Wh 3-cell Li-Polymer Fast Charging (60% in 49 minutes)
Operating System
Windows 10 Home
Miscellaneous
Audio certified by Harman Kardon Certification 1.8kg
Features
Do not think for a second that ‘one-size-fits-all’ means that there is nothing that makes this thing special though. There is still a few things that makes this the perfect notebook PC that can do everything you need.
Back to Basics
So instead of the whole ErgoLift technology that ASUS was raving about a year ago, this has a regular hinge that tilts the display as normally as you would expect a normal notebook PC. You still get a similarly styled hinge, it is just that the VivoBook does not stand on the hinge. That also ensures that your keyboard remains at the same height on any surface, at any given time. You are not going to move your display and have your keyboard shift a few mm away from out or what not.
Not to say that the ErgoLift hinge was a bad thing. It really did improve typing positions when you set it on a proper surface to work with. On normal café tables, working on an ErgoLift hinged notebook is a little bit more comfortable than usual. Because your whole set up moves as the display moves though, it is a little inconsistent for my liking.
On the new 2020 line-up of the ASUS VivoBook S, ASUS is saying or listening to the consumers who say; “what was ever wrong with the normal typing position of notebook PCs”? After all, ASUS was one of the only players pushing that that kind of hinge design.
The loss of the supporting body part that extends from the display does create a little bit of an added opportunity in terms of rigidity too. If you turn the laptop around to its bottom, there is an extra rubber nub in the middle of the back part of the notebook PC. While it may not do much, it does add some body rigidity on the ASUS Vivobook S15, especially in the middle of keyboard which is usually where the older ASUS VivoBook S flexes. There is no visible or perceived crease here even when you put a little bigger pressure on the top part of the keyboard. That is really nice.
There is also another plus point with the regular flat-footed approach to the base of the notebook PC. It is much more comfortable using it on your lap. That is exactly the position of this notebook PC as I am typing this review.
The VivoBook S15 (2020) is missing a fingerprint sensor though, which is quite an unpleasant surprise. It was one of the better fingerprint sensors in a position that we thought made a lot of sense. While some may think that having a fingerprint sensor on the trackpad could be a little distracting, we like where it is positioned. It is one of the more intuitive designs and placements we found in the market. We want the fingerprint sensor back – ASUS, take note.
Clickety Clackety
Notebook PCs have improved on their keyboards tremendously over the past few years. The ASUS VivoBook series over the years, in our opinions, has some of the best keyboard feels among ASUS’ other offerings. We feel that they could use a little more travel and softer feedback, but honestly, they are some of the best keyboards we find on an ASUS notebook.
The ASUS VivoBook S15 technically still has the sort of same keyboard as the slightly older VivoBook S of 2019. It feels somewhat similar as well. There seems to be a little more travel this time around, but that could just be me. We still think that it could use with a little more feedback with the keys though, and more travel. But still, travel would be sacrificed in making notebook PCs lighter and thinner.
Still, that comment of ASUS VivoBook series offering the best keyboard experience from ASUS still stands true with the ASUS VivoBook S15. We suspect also that is mostly due to the fact that this product is targeted mostly to students who types long essays. We feel that this could still be perfect for businesspeople too who needs something reliable and affordable to work with.
There is a small complaint on the keyboard though. The backlight still leaks from the sides of the of island keys. That is a very small tolerable issue though. What is slightly a bit more annoying is that the white backlight makes the keys harder to read in bright conditions. Under the light of the display for example, you cannot read the keys. It still helps when you are typing in darker conditions though. This is basically nit-picking already though as that only happens at certain angles.
We find the highlighted ‘enter’ key a little odd as well. We do not really know why it is in a different colour accent compared to all keys. While it helps us find the enter button, it is still rather odd. It could just be a design decision to help you find the enter key in the dark, to differentiate it from the ‘shift’ key maybe.
Harman and Kardon’s Magic Touch
Yes, the previous ASUS VivoBook S was also fitted with audio by Harman Kardon. Yes, the new one is also fitted with audio by Harman Kardon. Is there a difference? Not really. Both sounds great still.
The sound profile, on speakers at least, is similar to the older VivoBook S. With Harman Kardon, audio sounds crisp and clear. Not to forget, it can get quite loud. There is still a lack of bass or low frequency strength from the speakers. Still, that is quite understandable when they have not fitted a subwoofer into the svelte body of the ASUS VivoBook S15. You would need proper headphones for that needed thump from your music.
Still, even if you do not have any good pair of headphones to work with, the audio is plenty usable and enjoyable. That is the case for both movies and music, which is pleasant. Of course, you would want more low frequencies for action movies with plenty of explosions. In terms of music though, if you are not too big into Hip-Hop, you should do more than fine actually. The high frequencies and mid frequencies are great and clear.
Again though, there are still notebook PCs that packs better audio than the ASUS VivoBook S15 (2020). At the same time though audio for notebook PCs have evolved quite a bit and progressed further than anyone would have thought these days. You can hardly fault modern notebook PCs when it comes to audio quality these days – save for weaker low frequencies.
While Harman Kardon is nothing new for the ASUS VivoBook S15, we do think that having that backup from a large audio brand like Harman Kardon is still an exciting feature to have. It means that ASUS can handle what they do best while allowing one of the best in the business to do what they do best.
Plus the Magic of ICESound by ICE Power
Added to the prowess of Harman Kardon’s know how in making great sounding speakers, or tuning them to sound good. But a good speaker is nothing without good software to articulate and equalise sound. Here is where ICE shines.
ICE Power is known to make some professional grade amplifiers and audio equipment. They are one of the world’s best when it comes to studio monitoring and production grade audio solutions. No, that does not mean that ASUS worked with them to fit an amplifier that is made by them within the VivoBook S15. Not quite, those are still a third party developed part and then Harman Kardon would add their clever know how to make the speakers capable.
What ICE Power makes here is quite unique. It is a software based tuning kit that adjusts the frequencies of the media played through the speakers. Yes, in other words, they made a custom equaliser software for ASUS here.
Unlike plenty of other notebook PCs, the equaliser that is given by ICE Power, more known as ICESound that is built into ASUS’ existing Audio Wizard(cheeky) is a lot more comprehensive. You can tune the audio output to however you might like your music to be. You can have different settings for different software too. They are all saved under presets so you can just quickly get a different tuning and EQ in different conditions within a click.
There are preset settings, of course, for those who are not familiar with tuning software or equalisers adjustments. They simply label them as ‘Music’ and ‘Movies’. Both give you different experiences in both instances too.
Even in those settings, you can customise them further if you want your music to sound a certain way, like how professionals work with live audio, you can too with ICE Power, or at least at the default settings, they do the magic work and you just turn it on to work with. I suggest just going with their default setting though.
While to many, this may not sound like a huge difference with no treatments or equalisers; to any trained ear, you can notice differences straight away. Even with Spotify, the sound profile changes dramatically. Vocals sound clearer with that trailing afternote that you always hear when someone talks to you or in live concerts. The instruments sound a little more alive than they really are somehow. All these in just a simple arrangement of different frequencies. It is pleasantly surprising.
Of course, there is still the problem of not enough low-frequency strength from smaller speakers fitted on the ASUS VivoBook S15. Still, for a notebook PC to have audio like this is plenty amazing. If you are a little picky with audio, this could be the notebook that you might want to have.
There is some caveat though. While it does transform your audio experience a little bit, the speakers at times might seem that it hardly copes with the changes in frequencies, especially the higher ones. There are minimal tears in audio if you pay attention. Still, they can be quite negligible in most cases. To be fair, it could be Spotify too.
Performance
Of course, there are some limitations to what the ASUS VivoBook S15 can do. After all, the test device we have here only packs Intel’s Core i5. While it is the 10th Generation processor, it is not the most powerful in its range too. It is made to be power efficient and durable. It is made to be a workhorse instead of a powerful all conquering device with short bursts of power. This is made to last all day and more. This VivoBook S15 is made to stay away from the wall plugs as long as possible.
Still Quite Powerful
That is not to say that the ASUS VivoBook S15 is a weakling though. With the 10th iteration of Intel’s powerpack, it is more powerful than ever. It scrubs through Full HD 1080p videos on Adobe Premier Pro with ease. It renders the video quite fast too. Well, of course, this coming from a modern PC and at 1080p, you can expect as much. The NVIDIA GeForce MX250 does help things trundle along in video editing purposes too, especially when you need to do any extra stabilisation of your footage.
While your gaming rig can render Full HD videos much faster, this is not too far off. We were able to render 2minute Full HD videos in a few minutes. Provided the video does not feature plenty of complex animations, or too many added footages, or generally that much in complexity. It is just a simple cut, join and render from two different Full HD videos.
Where this should shine though is in simple Adobe Illustrator works and even Adobe Photoshop. Thing is, you might be left a little bit wanting from the display a little bit though. You are not getting the most colour accurate display available to you. Still, it is an IPS display; which means you still get best in class viewing angle and colours still look good.
We also appreciate the fact that this comes out-of-the-box with 8GB RAM. We have always said that 8GB should be the minimum RAM size that any notebooks come in. ASUS listened and fitted 8GB into this thing. Of course, you can upgrade it or add another RAM stick on your own if you want to.
Of course, with 512GB of SSD, you are not going to think too much about wanting for more speed out of your storage. 512GB is also plenty to work with when you are just going to work with documents, some light video or image editing, and even looking through endless emails. Trust me, it is enough. If not, you still can add a 2.5-inch HDD if you want to.
Gaming
Obviously the first part of any performance gauge on almost any notebook PC. Well, that is barring the creator grade stuffs. So, gaming.
Before we go on though, we are not going to install or test AAA titles on this notebook PC. Let’s face it, no one will buy this type of PC to run AAA titles in even close to high settings. You might be able to run older AAA titles still though.
We are not very good DOTA 2 players, but we are pretty sure this still can run that. Then again DOTA 2 runs on nearly any machine on the market these days. So DOTA may not be a good marker anymore.
We ran Two Point Hospital and Motorsport Manager on this thing. We relied on Two Point Hospital more than Motorsport Manager to work with though. Motorsport Manager is buggy at best, and does not require super high performance from GPU as well.
In that light, we are delighted to report that this runs Two Point Hospital healthily. As in, we have not complaints on it. We did not fiddle with the settings, for obvious reasons. We are pretty sure we could push the VivoBook S15 to higher settings on Two Point Hospital, but it might make the frames a little choppy, so we did not bother.
No, you will not get anything higher than 60 fps. This display only refreshes at 60hz. Nope, not a competitive esports contender here. Just a regular PC.
Going the Distance – Battery Life
The older VivoBooks have allowed us to work remotely quite efficiently in the past. There is no specific battery life quote from ASUS really for the new ASUS VivoBook S15. The 50Wh battery built into the ASUS VivoBook S15 (2020) though allowed us to stay on the move and work for at least 4 hours. This is considering that we left it at default power mode. You could improve that a little bit by changing your power consumption model like any other Windows notebook.
We got about 6 hours in battery life with no more than 10 tabs open on both Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge, plenty of typing on Microsoft Word (we typed this review entirely on the ASUS VivoBook S15), constantly having audio at various levels of volume with Audio Wizard on full time. Oh yes, we were downloading some things from Steam too. Screen brightness were kept to half though.
Still, we managed to get this review written on the ASUS VivoBook S15 in two full charges. Which is not ideal if we are away from ports for 8 hours or more in a single period. We are not though, so it still works. We are also thinking in terms of the buyers of this notebook PC. It should be more than adequate to work with between charge points if you are a student especially. Unless, of course, your class goes on for more than 5 hours at a time.
Display
We are not going to lie; the display is not the best. This is not some notebook PC that you might want to use to edit photos or images with super accurate colours. Might I suggest you get a secondary monitor that might cost as much?
No, this is not made for super accurate colour reproduction. This is also not made for gaming, so you do not get anything close to 120Hz. It stops at 60Hz, which is quite terrible in today’s gaming standards.
Does it matter though? This is not a PC that is made to be a creator’s tool. It is made to be a reliable workhorse for the likes of students, or some working adults that is looking at a budget. This is made for Word processing, Excel sheet crunching, and PowerPoint creation. This is made to browse through endless research papers and a mindless amount of web pages.
In that sense, the display is great enough for web browsing and reading. It is adequate to work with; you do not need 120Hz or even Pantone validation to process videos or get through an Excel sheet. You only need to protect your eyes. Windows and ASUS has you covered with blue light filter built-in of course.
The ASUS VivoBook S15 S533 (2020) – The Best VivoBook
That should go without saying. Every new device should be the best of its series. But the ASUS VivoBook S15 (2020) managed to do even more than that though. We admit, it lost some great stuff. It lost the highly acclaimed ErgoLift design (somehow, I am personally glad though). Then there is the fact that you do not get the fingerprint sensor with Windows Hello anymore, a mild annoyance. There is also no significant improvements in battery life too.
The ASUS VivoBook S15 (2020) is a mild progression from the older 2019 variant, rather than a revolution. It does everything a little better. Sure, we do not get some things that we have come to expect from the ASUS VivoBook line-up. But a notebook PC at this segment is not made great by those things.
You still get the same sort of great looking design that can stand out anywhere or blend in anywhere. That is up to your colour choices, by the way. It remained at the same great price too at MYR 3,199. That while having slightly better rigidity, which in turn improves durability and overall typing experience (thank you, little nub). The product still feels great but is made better with the slightly more powerful new generation Intel Core i5 processor (the only one we are getting in Malaysia, by the way). Audio by Harman Kardon is still much of the same thing, but the discovery of Audio Wizard by ICE Power made exclusively for ASUS PCs made it slightly better; just the right amount to change the experience.
Everything points to very slight increments in the experience of the ASUS VivoBook S15. All the increments are made at the same price too. Yes, that means that you must give up some good stuff too. But remember, that is not the point. The point of the ASUS VivoBook S15 is to be a great all-rounder. In that, it does well. We would describe it as the perfect all-rounder. It’s 15.6-inch display is large enough, but also light at 1.8kg. It has all the power you need too, and still lasts longer your meetings or classes. Of course, the Harman Kardon and ICE Power combination is a winner in the audio aspect. Music is enjoyable on this, really.
It is like that friend that you hang out with all the time, the one that goes to the ‘mamak’ with you to discuss world issues, and to the bar with you to watch Liverpool winning the 2019/2020 season; the all-around swell and reliable friend. This is that friend. Oh, as a bonus, this ‘friend’ might look better than that friend; whatever you may think, the Gaia Green is gorgeous. Definitely the one I would spend my MYR 3,199 on.
HONOR should not be an unfamiliar name to smartphone users today. They made some of the best valued devices and they have been doing so for some years now. Most of their devices have been built around that philosophy anyway.
That is mostly since they have a vastly different target market in the industry. They mostly target the younger demographics. Their target demographics generally put more emphasis on delivered value than perceived value and branding.
Today is all about that as well with the HONOR 9A. In a way, the HONOR 9A is a little bit like an answer to Xiaomi’s Redmi devices and realme’s range of offerings. It may also be an answer to their bigger sister brand’s HUAWEI Nova and Y series really.
It does not pack the famous Kirin platform. Instead it is packing a MediaTek Helio P22 System on a Chip (SoC) to make it as affordable as possible. It is part of the reason that the HONOR could let you have one for just MYR 549. It does not come with one of those gimmicky, expensive AMOLED displays with no edges or notches as well.
It comes with a plain ol’ 6.3-inch dew-drop display with a small notch in its forehead and a lip that might look like a large tape compared to the svelte lines of flagship devices. That is okay though, it is still a Full HD display. They have done something to the speakers too to make it louder, a lot louder and better.
Of course, you cannot have everything with a lower price point. So at that price point you are looking at only up to 3GB of RAM and 64GB in storage. Still, it is not like you are being limited to just using your internal storage though. You can fit up to 512GB in MicroSD form.
You are not being compromised in terms of camera though. You still get a triple camera set up out the back with 13-Megapixel main shooter backed with a 5-Megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 2-Megapixel depth sensor. That is not all you are getting back in value though.
The biggest thing that you are getting within this device is a large battery. At 5,000 mAh, it is large enough to be your power bank for other smartphones. That is also why you can use it to reverse charge other devices. 5,000 mAh is still quite a big deal these days.
The HONOR 9A runs on Android 10 OS still, which means you are still getting a good Android experience from HONOR’s MagicUI 3.1. There is a small caveat of not having Google Apps on it or even Google Play Store. You do get AppGallery on it though, a good alternative if you do not mind some of the missing apps.
Source: HONOR
The HONOR 9A will be available in stores starting 6th July 2020. It will be up for pre-order online on the 26th June 2020 onward to 5th June 2020 though. If you do pre-order your HONOR 9A, you get up to MYR 218 worth of free gifts including an HONOR backpack and 15GB of HUAWEI Cloud subscription. As stated, price for the HONOR 9A is MYR 549. For more information on HONOR 9A you can visit their website.
If you are in the market for a new smartphone for the first time, you are going to get a little bit of a shock when you see the prices of mobile devices today. You are seeing devices hitting the MYR 7,000 ceiling these days and with spec sheet more complicated than the blueprints of a Death Star.
Of course, you pay for features and quality as well. You pay for being at the cutting edge, the state-of-the-art. That has become the definition of a mobile device in your pocket these days though. They are nearly buttonless slates that are very high-tech and awfully expensive, and at the same time strangely fragile. Yes, it is a strange world we live in.
When you first invest in a smartphone too, you might not want to spend more than MYR 1,000 on your smartphone. After all, feature phones did not exceed that kind of money even when they were brand new. There are a few options for you. One of them is the HUAWEI Y6P that is now available in Malaysia for MYR 559. That already ticks the ‘under MYR 1,000’ box.
Source: HUAWEI
Another thing that older feature devices have is a super long battery life. A single charge can take days to deplete while only taking an hour to charge. Premium smartphones these days can barely last a full 24 hours day before needing a plug in. The Y6P is not like that though. It comes with one of the largest battery capacities in the conventional smartphone market today. It comes with a 5,000mAh battery. No, you cannot swap it out, but it is still a large battery. That, combined with HUAWEI’s brilliant knowhow is battery life preservation means that you should easily last a day or two without ever needing a tether to your walls. ‘Long-lasting battery’, check.
Source: HUAWEI
Of course, the move to smartphones have some major benefits. One of them is that you get properly nice photos from their high-resolution camera. Premium smartphones come with the latest and greatest of camera technology to produce the best possible photos and videos. Thing is, smartphone camera technology now progresses in diminishing returns. Certain mid-range and even entry-level smartphones have cameras that rival the premium smartphones in terms of Megapixel count, camera software and algorithm, and resulting photo and video quality.
The HUAWEI Y6P comes with dual cameras at the back. One is a 13-Megapixel camera that captures high-resolution, crisp photos that you can use to share with your family or family members. The other is an ultra-wide angle camera that can capture even more than the 13-Megapixel shooter. You can capture beautiful landscapes in expanded detail and tell the world of social media that you also can be a photographer.
It even comes with an 8-Megapixel front facing camera for you to shoot selfies or profile photos with. Obviously for your friends to identify you. If not, you can use the front-facing camera to take photos of yourself in your travels, just to show off a little bit maybe. ‘Cameras’, check.
Source: HUAWEI
Of course, one of the biggest appeals in switching to a smartphone is the number of apps that you can access on a single small slate that fits in your palms and pockets. All this comes from the HUAWEI AppGallery for the HUAWEI Y6P. The AppGallery is currently the third largest app marketplace in the world. While there are some missing apps compared to Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store, the HUAWEI AppGallery ecosystem is growing every day. The essential eWallet apps are already available on the AppGallery. Even some banking apps are already available. ‘Apps’, check.
With a high-resolution camera and access to endless number of apps, you are going to need a large storage to ensure that you have access to everything you need and put into the device in its lifetime. You get 64GB in storage with the HUAEI Y6P, which is ample space to work with for both your photos and apps. You even get a whole year of access to 15 extra GB of HUAWEI’s Cloud storage to offload some of your photos and files over when you need to. Or, insert a MicroSD card into the expansion slot to get up to 512GB of extra storage. Need multiple apps running at the same time? 4GB of RAM should be able to deal with that. Oh, and the MediaTek processor running within the device is more than capable enough to run multiple apps at the same time.
Source: HUAWEI
Now you are also wondering what else you can do with the 6.3-inch display. You can watch movies with it by either loading your downloaded movies into the native storage of the device. You can also look through HUAWEI’s Video app to see what you might want to watch. Of course, that is a subscription-based service like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. You can also watch Viu contents through that 6.3-inch display though, for free no less. All you need to do to start watching endless Asian shows is claim the free membership of Viu through Member center on the HUAWEI Y6P. ‘Entertainment’, check.
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
The HUAWEI Y6P is now available via HUAWEI’s online store and retail partners across the nation for MYR 559. You can get your’s in three colour choices: Emerald Green, Phantom Purple and Midnight Black. The free Premium Access to Viu promotion is currently exclusive to the HUAWEI Y6P. For more information on the HUAWEI Y6P, you can visit their website.
