The Intel 10th Generation Core platforms have been out for a while now. Plenty of manufacturers have already taken advantage toward updating their line-up with the newer processors. Of course, newer is better and faster. One of the notebook PCs that we wanted to see updated though, was HUAWEI’s MateBook line-up. Until now, that is.
HUAWEI MateBook X Pro
The HUAWEI MateBook X Pro was one of the best value-for-money notebook PCs you can find in the market at its launch. The MateBook X Pro is exactly what it sounds like. It is a modern top class thin and light PC to haul all your work in one place. While thin, it was no slouch too.
Source: HUAWEI
The new 2020 version is a continuation of all those qualities from 2018. It gets the new Intel 10th Generation Core platform in the from of a Core i7-10510U processor (up to). Not top-of-the-line, but still a vastly powerful CPU for a body no thicker than 2 cm. That is thinner than most keyboard you can find the market even. You have up to an NVIDIA GeForce MX250 GPU if you have the urge to take it gaming. No, you may not run today’s AAA titles that well, but it is designed to be a workhorse, not a gaming PC this HUAWEI MateBook X Pro.
Still, up to 16GB of RAM does not hurt especially if you need to have multiple windows and browsers open at the same time. The MX250 would help you too if you ever need to quickly edit a video. Where it shines though is when you want to just wind down and watch a movie on HUAWEI’s beautiful 3K resolution display. It is also touch optimised just in case you are wondering. It even has four speakers for you to enjoy more than just music.
Of course, being a HUAWEI notebook PC, you still get the benefit of using HUAWEI Share. just tap and share a photo between your HUAWEI smartphone and your PC. We especially love this function when used with a HUAWEI smartphone.
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The HUAWEI MateBook PC will be available in Malaysia 16th May 2020 onward. It is available in Space Grey and Emerald Green colour options when it is available. The new HUAWEI MateBook X Pro will start from MYR 7,999. If you are looking for something more budget friendly, you might want to look at something else. If you go for this though, you are entitled to a free HUAWEI Sound X Bluetooth speaker, a HUAWEI Bluetooth Mouse, a backpack, and HUAWEI’s Band 4 fitness tracker. For more information on the HUAWEI MateBook X Pro, you can visit their website.
HUAWEI MateBook 13
By far one of our favourite Notebook PCs from HUAWEI, the MateBook 13 was an embodiment of what would be a perfect working laptop for us. It is small, light, powerful, and durable. Sure, it had an odd shape thanks to the odd display ratio. But its 13-inch display was beautiful at 2K resolution.
Source: HUAWEI
They kept that 2K resolution on the 13-incher though. There is a new 10th Generation Core processor now. You still get up to 16GB of RAM to work with too, so it is still no slouch. You still get a discrete GPU in the NVIDIA GeForce MX250 for not just your entertainment. It is good enough to work with for light video editing.
One of our favourite things on the MateBook 13 was its very thoughtful fingerprint sensor embedded with the power button. It is not the first time we see this design anywhere, but we appreciate that subtlety and functional form. The other thing was that it was light. The new one, is a mere 1.3kg. It is not as light as some of the thin and light that we see out in the market, but the GPU is worth some cooling, trust me. Plus, it is an all-aluminium body. Of course, HUAWEI Share is that other thing we liked about it.
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The MateBook 13 will be available at the same time as the HUAWEI MateBook X Pro. It is only available in one colour option though. It is only available in Space Grey, which is actually not a bad colour to go with. You can get your hands on one for MYR 4,999. You get all the same free gift as the HUAWEI MateBook X Pro offer excluding the HUAWEI Sound X Bluetooth speaker. For more information on the HUAWEI MateBook 13, you can check out their website, or webstore.
MateBook D 14 & 15
Meant to be the more budget choice and targeted toward the student segment, the MateBook D 14 and 15 are the ones to go for if you are just looking to get work done on the go without much fuss. They are not the smallest or lightest things you can carry around, but they get the job done.
Source: HUAWEI
They are still no slouch too though. You get up to an AMD Ryzen 7 3700U CPU on the 15-incher and up to an AMD Ryzen 5 3500U for the 14-incher. Both get Full HD displays still. Both also gets Radeon Vega GPUs to work with and game with. The 14-inch MateBook D 14 gets Radeon Vega 8 while the MateBook D 15 gets the Radeon RX Vega 10.
You still get up to 16GB of RAM for both devices though. You also get a 512GB SSD to work with, so these MateBook D notebooks are not what you would call slow as well. You also get a fingerprint sensor embedded to the power button, so it is not less premium than the more expensive MateBook 13 or MateBook X Pro. Of course, the HUAWEI MateBook D 14 and D 15 gets HUAWEI Share out-out-of-the box. If you already own a HUAWEI device, that is a bonus that you will want to have.
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The HUAWEI MateBook D 14 and D 15 will be available at the same time with the HUAWEI MateBook X Pro and HUAWEI MateBook 13. It is only available in Mystic Silver. At least you do not get a headache of choosing what colour suits your lifestyle. It will set you back MYR 2,899. You are entitled, while stocks last, for the same free gifts as the HUAWEI MateBook 13 offer. For more information, you can check out their website, or webstore.
In the technology world, high-performance means a lot of money. There are times though in the industry where someone comes in and says that the high-price, high-performance moniker is rubbish. In the smartphone industry, there is always that one brand that does that. In today’s world, that is realme.
To prove a point, they just launched their flagship class realme 6 Pro. Not this is not their flagship. They have the X series for that. This is their mid-range tier smartphone technically.
This is not the only realme 6 device on sale today too. They launched the realme 6 smartphone not too long ago with a maximum price tag of MYR 1,199 as of last week. Today is a different story though. They are upping the realme 6 game.
Source: realme
The realme 6 pro, as the title would have furnished you, cost a little more than the top-of-the-range realme 6 at MYR 1,399. There is quite a little bit more that you are paying for too in the realme 6.
For one, you are paying for a more proven, more standard, high performing Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G. This is not a shade toward the MediaTek processors. The Qualcomm processors are just a little more optimised for Android, to be fair. That is also why they tend to cost more, it is the gold standard in the smartphone world.
You are also paying for a very slight bump on the display front. It is larger at 6.6-inch. You still get Full HD+ resolution and 90Hz refresh rate. The realme 6 had 6.5-inch of display. They are also bot IPS panels.
Source: realme
In terms of memory and storage, the realme 6 and realme 6 Pro are tied at 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage ( up to). Both can be upgraded via MicroSD slot that is also a hybrid SIM tray. The MYR 200 does not really go here. Not to the battery too, at 4,300 mAh with 30W flash charging capability.
Nope, not the main camera either. You still get the same 64-Megpixel main shooter supported by a 12-Megapixel telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom, an 8-Megapixel ultra-wide shooter, and a 2-Megapixel 4cm macro sensor. Both will give you 20x hybrid zoom too, if you are wondering.
What you are paying for when it comes to the camera though is the extra camera up front. There is a new 8-Megapixel shooter that is there for wide-angle self-portraits beside the high-resolution 16-Megapixel main front facing camera.
Source: realme
To sum it up, you are paying MYR 200 extra for one extra lens, a slightly bigger display, and a new processor. Is it worth it? Yes, it is. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G may not be a flagship type System on a Chip (SoC). It is nearly as powerful though. In terms of daily experience, it is indistinguishable from a flagship class. The slight bump in display size also means that you will not lose any real display real-estate even with another camera in the punch hole camera. Oh yes, you get another camera to go with your smartphone, that is another thing.
Source: realme
The realme 6 Pro is available on Lazada 12th May 2020 onward for MYR 1,399. For a limited time you are entitled to get the realme 6 Pro with a free realme case that is worth MYR 149. The realme 6 Pro will go to the shops form the 16th May 2020 onward. If you do get your device early, you are entitled for a free extended warranty plan on top of a realme smartphone case for your new realme 6 Pro. The new realme mid-range contender comes in two colour options: Lightning Blue, and Lighting Red. Yes, the lightning is the pattern that is stuck behind the device from the glass effect. Yes, it is intended. More information on the realme 6 Pro on their website.
We all know OPPO as the brand that makes really good entry-level and mid-range Android smartphones. While their early days are filled with devices that are outrightly outrageous in design and concept, they started making headlines when they started moving into the iPhone-esque design language later.
To be fair though, we do really like the OPPO Smartphones that came out a little longer than two years ago. I had the privilege of owning an OPPO R9s Plus and loved the device. A poor man’s iPhone, if you might; it has all the things that the fruit brand has at the time, with nearly the same interface (it is still and Android device by the way). The ColorOS at the time was very much driven by what the iOS looks and feels like.
While that is very pretentious of them, we do not think that the similarities are a bad thing. It is lighter than most Android overlays, simple to operate, and smooth. This is not a review of the older OPPO devices though. This is a review of a brand new OPPO flagship. This is a review of the OPPO Find X 2.
The OPPO Find X2 is two years in waiting since its first iteration in the OPPO Find X. It is a successor to what can be described as OPPO’s most premium device of its time. That design language that OPPO took on also spawned other beautiful looking devices like the OPPO Reno range. It inspired other smartphone manufacturers to go on the charge toward a borderless, notch-less displays with pop-up drawer mechanism for the front- facing cameras.
It was also very expensive, the OPPO Find X. In Malaysia, it sold for MYR 3,699 – unheard of from an OPPO device. While spending more than MYR 3,000 on an OPPO, at that time, is quite absurd, the OPPO Find X was no doubt OPPO’s breakthrough device. It brought OPPO into the premium smartphone market game and the discerning European market.
The new OPPO Find X2 though is a little more expensive than what it replaced. It is now MYR 3,999. This is just a standard OPPO Find X2, mind you. The Find X2 Pro variant is MYR 400 more than this regular Plain Jane edition, beyond the MYR 4,000 range. Ridiculous? We think so too, for an OPPO of all things. Is it worth it though? Should you spend MYR 3,999 on an OPPO smartphone? We dive in and find out.
Design
The OPPO Find X at launch was a looker of a device. It was like nothing we have seen before with a swagger of a display that has not notches or disturbances along its smooth, straight bezel. The back is nicely curved in for better ergonomics. The glass that curved though reflected lights differently from every angle. It was available in two unique colours and they were gorgeous. The Lamborghini edition was also stunning. Of course, the special collaboration edition was also staggeringly expensive.
The OPPO Find X2 has none of that drama. The bezel lines are still undisturbed. There is a gaping hole in the display instead. That is also to say that there are no hidden mechanisms to surprise you with a front camera. Less moving parts, less worry; they say. But that also means that it is now an IP68 rated device. You can bring it to the swimming pool, and it will be okay. You can soak it under the rain, and it would not matter.
Its display is bigger, but the device feels no bigger, or heftier than the OPPO Find X. All this though, is not saying that the device is an ugly one. It is not an ugly device. In most consensus, it is a pretty looking device. It curves in all the right places to make it feel less unwieldly that it actually is. They even offered it in the right colours. Its Ocean Blue is stunning to look at. The Black, well, it is black except in more durable ceramic finish.
It does not give a sense that it is a special device though. At the back is a camera module that houses three cameras like nearly any other flagship you find in the shops today. There is nothing that makes this device stand out from the rest of the smartphone market like the original OPPO Find X. It looks plain, it looks regular. Still, good looking, but nothing special or out of the ordinary, a little bit safe.
Unlike some manufacturers that puts the volume and power button on the same side, OPPO still goes for the one button per side layout. There are no recesses on the device to indicate a fingerprint sensor. You can access that fingerprint sensor under the display though. No problem. That also means that they can have clean, smooth surfaces around the device, save for the camera bump.
Like any other manufacturer, OPPO can make the Find X2 even thinner. They did not though, and instead fit more things under the hood for better cooling and what not. Sadly, that did not include a 3.5mm jack. Although, this has been quite expected. At least there is the Stereo speakers on the device which is actually quite powerful. More on that later though.
Hardware
What greets you out of the box is a wrapped smartphone. Of course, it is. If you bought your new smartphone and open it to find an unwrapped smartphone, you should contact your vendor and get it replaced. Anyway, under the plastic wrapping is a 6.7-inch display that is one of the most wonderful displays I have ever come across.
More on that later, though. A powerful display requires great hardware to put it through its paces and take full advantage of it. So, this comes with the most powerful one in Qualcomm’s stables at this time – a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. That ultra-powerful System on a Chip (SoC) is packing some power with 12GB of RAM in tow.
Accelerometer Proximity Fingerprint (in-display) Ambient Light Gyroscope Face Unlock Compass
Miscellaneous
Stereo Speakers Dolby Atmos sound
User Interface – The ColorOS 7.1
The new ColorOS 7.1 is based on Google’s latest Android 10. In our opinions as well, it is the best ColorOS to date. Of course, it should be, since it is the latest. That is not what we are talking about though.
ColorOS has gone through some very drastic transformations over the years. It started out and sort of grew as an alternative to other Chinese Operating System (OS) overlays. It was still an Android, correct. But it had its fair share of quirks. Most of the time, its known for its mimicry of Apple’s user interface.
Even its colours schemes matched the fruity brand from Cupertino most of the time. Its layout is super similar until you get into the settings panel where it is all Android. There were some differences between this device and an Apple device though. You still can use widgets for example.
Now, on ColorOS 7.1, you can choose to have an app drawer. Instead of endlessly scrolling to the sides, now you can endlessly scroll the interface vertically. Technically this started from ColorOS 6.
There are some additional settings you can pull up from a small notch on the left though. That notch is quite finnicky; I occasionally open it when I do not mean to, and when I mean to, it is difficult to open. With a little bit of practice though, you can figure it out.
That little side panel gives you access to your favourite apps though, kind of like Samsung’s quick launch panel. Except, from that panel you can also quickly get a screenshot or record your display. Very useful sometimes when you are trying to explain something to your parents or friends on your smartphone, especially during this whole quarantine period.
Everything else within ColorOS 7.1 resembles a near vanilla Android 10. Save for the fact that you have to dig into the settings to have your app drawer. Despite that, the similarities to a stock Android interface is a good thing.
Being as vanilla as possible also means that OPPO’s ColorOS is light on Android, very light. That also means that it is fast and smooth and reliable. We’ve only noticeable encountered two lags when using the device. Once when we were trying to switch out from PUBG Mobile to Telegram, and another time trying to exit Netflix to reply WhatsApp. Just those two times though. We tried replicating the lags and stutters but cannot seem to do it after.
Still, you do not have to exit your apps to reply WhatsApp though. You can open WhatsApp as a separate floating window when you are watching your movies on Netflix, or entertaining yourself on YouTube, or even while resting in PUBG. When a message comes in on WhatsApp on the OPPO Find X2, you can choose to reply in floating at the notification pop-up. That is something nice.
That is not a feature that is exclusive to OPPO’s ColorOS though. Still, having that on ColorOS 7.1 is a big welcome. You technically do not have to stop what you are doing just to reply a message.
120Hz, 240Hz Experience.
The big part that contributes to how smooth and snappy the device feels in your hands is the display itself. We will dive into the colours and other technical aspects of the display later. But we are talking now about that experience of a hot knife slicing through butter. The 120Hz, while some may call a gimmick, really works wonders on the operations.
Scrolling never felt messy with the display, everything looks so smooth you can catch details on the icons. Because of the 240Hz response rate too, everything feels even more instant and snappy. Everything you touch is registered as is. The display follows your fingers, never a delay like you see on other devices sometimes. If you have a pen, you are going to see every dotted line forming as your stylus tip touches the display. It really feels good.
Launching apps never felt slow with the combination of a powerful SoC, fast responding display, and large RAM. When I picked up the device and first scrolled through the app drawer, I fell in love a little bit with ColorOS suddenly. Keep in mind, while I have high praises of ColorOS in the past, it is never my favourite interface.
Smart Assistant and OPPO App Market
Everyone is preparing for an eventuality of losing Google’s ecosystem support. It cannot be helped with the situation that HUAWEI is facing. That is also why OPPO developed their own Smart Assistant that is kind of based on Google’s Assistant. They also developed their own App Market which houses apps mostly from the Google Play Store anyway.
We feel that the Smart Assistant page is a little bit of a waste though. You access it by scrolling to the left of your home screen. We would appreciate things like news and what not, like Google’s implementation of their own assistant page.
Performance
From the User Interface experience itself, we have to say that this is a performer. It packs the latest, most powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC, performance is an expectation from that name alone. It also packs 12GB of RAM, which means multitasking on this thing should be a breeze.
Benchmarks
The benchmark scores are pretty much expected from a high-end SoC like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. Thing is, we are cannot look into benchmark scores too much. Big numbers may not equal to big performance in some cases. We still ran the benchmarks though and here they are.
Call Quality and Connectivity
Making calls is as easy as any other smartphones you have on you right now. The phone calling interface has not changed for the past 10 years so that should be the easy part. The less easy part is sometimes the phone call itself.
We never had an issue with OPPO devices when we tested all their mid-range or entry-level devices before this. Keep in mind they are all clad in aluminium, which was said to cause a lot of problems for Apple’s iPhones in the early days when they started using the material.
In terms of call experiences then, the OPPO deserves no complains. As expected, the dual mics that are used in the device filters out noise nicely and the caller at the other end of the line never complained that I was drowned out by noise. Volume levels are good too. Probably the earpiece could be a little softer than what I am used to, even when volume is turned all the way up, but I can still pick up voices and words in the conversation just fine.
If you are planning to use this in a conference call, you can. The speakers are actually very loud in those calls. You can fill a medium sized conference room with the volume from the OPPO Find X2. Although the mics might not be able to pick up your voice if you are standing more than 1.5m away from it. Not properly anyway. Loud speakers also means that you miss your calls less.
5G Ready
If you are thinking of purchasing the OPPO Find X2, whichever you choose are 5G compatible. While we do not have 5G just yet, preparations never hurt anyone. In the case that 5G is readily available, all you need to do is get the SIM card and plans from your service provider.
Unlike the other chines brand that has been touting 5G connectivity forever though, there is no switch for 5G here. That also means that if you get a 5G SIM card and push it in, 5G will be on by default. That could also be a worry in the future in terms of data usage patterns and even battery life concerns. So far, we cannot comment much because we have nothing to test it against yet.
O Roaming
If you are a travel bug (I know, we cannot travel at this time, at least we are discouraged to), you may appreciate this feature. It is a feature OPPO introduced last year for their smartphones. It is basically a roaming plan and you can do all your purchases from your smartphone itself. You do not need to head to a kiosk and get a local number and then just dispose it after use.
It is technically a more ecologically conscious way of getting a roaming data plan. That way also you do not need to manage another SIM card. Pulling out the SIM tray can be a pain sometimes.
Thing is, as far as we can see, the plans are still more expensive than getting a local number in some areas. The rates are also all calculated in US$. That also means that your credit card might charge you more than you bargained for.
We cannot deny its potential usefulness though. Having O Roaming or using it can be convenient for you. It is an on-demand service as well anyway, so as long as you need it, you can have a subscription and cancel anytime you do not need it.
Gaming
During the period of quarantine, we play a lot of games. Not that many mobile games though, sadly. However, we still do have some games on the OPPO Find X2. We installed PUBG Mobile, quite a staple to test devices with Battle Royale games like that these days. We loved Brawl Stars too, so of course that gets installed and played. I am also a fan of the Sky Force Reloaded personally.
The thing with modern smartphones with modern, ultra-powerful processing chips is that smooth gaming comes as a pre-requisite suddenly. There is a reason why gaming smartphones has not picked up that much since we first see the BlackShark device and even the ROG Phone. They are all technically the same things with some extra features that may or may not change the way you used your smartphone. All that, while looking tacky and loud.
With the OPPO Find X2’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 then, this device is expected to shred the games and let you play at 120 fps with no issues. Of course, the OPPO flagship does not disappoint. It manages to do all that while looking elegant and subtle. Lesson, you do not need a gaming smartphone.
Talks of gaming smartphones aside though, Brawl Stars is nice and smooth to play with. While you may not be able to tell if you are not paying attention, the game looks like it is somehow running smoother. Thanks to 240Hz response rate too, everything suddenly becomes a little more instant.
That goes for PUBG Mobile and Sky Force Reloaded as well though. On PUBG Mobile, gun shots are supposed to be slightly faster since the display responds faster. At the end of the day, the difference is in milliseconds and is hardly noticeable really. Still, the games look good with great vibrant colours. Brawl Stars looks fun and amazing with its pastel colour choices.
Even Sky Force, a messy game at times run smoothly, smoother than we thought it could run, and looks good. The colours of your plane are vivid, the projectile clearer, and suddenly the plane is more responsive to your touch. Not bad at all. Thing is though, these are very subtle differences that you might be able to overlook on other displays.
All this is thanks to OPPO’s very advanced, very pretty OLED display. We will talk about what makes gaming on the 120Hz panel such a pleasure with O1 Vision Engine in the later part of the review. This also makes us think that display panels now will make the difference between a regular smartphone and a gaming one.
Fingers and Faces
The OPPO Find X2 can easily unlock via your face. Well, as expected from a modern smartphone, facial recognition is quite standard now. 3D facial recognition is also more accurate and secure than ever now. It is also very much like OPPO’s first implementation of facial recognition on their OPPO Find X with 3D sensors and infrared floodlights. As with any other technologies, it is supposedly more accurate now too.
What is impressive to us was that the device was still able to recognise my face in low-light conditions. That, and it was able to unlock at about the same time as when it recognises my face in bright conditions. That is to say that the device does its facial recognition almost the instant you turn on the device. Then again, it recognises my face whichever way I oriented the device to my face anyway. That also means that fingerprint sensor and PIN numbers that I have set on the device are quite underutilised.
The fingerprint sensor is under the display though, which also means that there are no recess or creases to fit a regular fingerprint sensor. Under display fingerprint sensors have come a long way too, there is no reason to doubt its capability and accuracy at this point. They are faster than ever too. If all else fails, you have your PIN numbers to fall back on.
Battery Life
When we first saw how much this flagship is packing, we had major concerns on its 4,200mAh battery. It is not small for a battery, but it is certainly not that big. The Samsung Galaxy S20+ Ultra has a 4,500mAh battery with 5G and 120Hz display in tow. It is expected that 5G usage might drain batteries faster than ever too.
We decided to push the OPPO Find X2 through its paces a little bit with letting the display run on full 120Hz and QHD+ resolution. We let OPPO’s battery optimisation algorithm run on its own though, since it is turned on by default. We used the device as normally as we possibly can too. We ran WhatsApp on it, Telegram, some phone calls, some Netflix, quite a little bit of YouTube, and some camera action in a single day.
The result is a battery life that could last us longer than a day of full use. We had more than 18 hours in battery life on our first day with the OPPO Find X2. We never had any battery anxiety with the device on the first days. Mind you, this was the period before the state-sanction quarantine started; means we were still out and about.
On the worst day, we had to charge the device after 10 hours of use. That was thanks to a few PUBG sessions on long commute and train rides. Even leaving Netflix on for a 30-40 minute journey home from work still gives me a few extra hours with the device away from a charging outlet. I only had to charge the device when I get to bed on a typical day. While that could be anywhere from 11.00 p.m. to 2.00 a.m., having the confidence of leaving it for a charge overnight and get it going a full day is kind of refreshing. It is like experiencing new freedom.
Mind you, we have not even begun with VOOC FlashCharge. They said that it could be charged from zip to full within 40 minutes. We believe that, because our charged within 30 minutes most of the time, and the best part is that there is not much heat in the first place. So, it is safe to handle your device anytime it is charging.
That is not to say that it is flawless though. We would very much appreciate wireless charging. We use wireless chargers in the office now and with the Find X2, it is pretty much useless. While it has a long battery life, we could extend our daily use with wireless charging. We still think that they could fit a bigger battery in the device, the Find X2 Pro makes do with a 4,260mAh by the way; not that much bigger from this regular Find X2.
Display
The office actually agrees that this is probably the most impressive display of 2020. Mind you, we also pitted this against another flagship that launched at the same time, the Samsung Galaxy S20 series. We still think that this display is on another level.
It should be, you can project at QHD+ while pushing 120Hz, it has HDR10 certification, it has a 100% DCI-P3 certification, it is a 10-bit display with 1 billion colours, it is OLED and it is large at 6.7-inch. It is the same display across the series as well if you do not know yet. It is everything that a flagship display should be.
It is not an AMOLED display, simple OLED. But it is more than just another OLED display. It refreshes at 120Hz, and it pushed 10 billion colours into your face, not the usual 16.7 million. It is, in my eyes, the best display you can have on an Android device at this time.
They call the display their O1 Ultra Vision display. With that, comes an engine within the display that accelerates your visuals to match the refresh rate of the display at 120fps. That works for YouTube, Netflix, and even Prime video. That means you get extra smooth footages with very little chop and motion blurring. We were surprised with the result, to be very honest.
When a visual engine accelerates a 30fps video to 60fps, you usually can tell. You can tell by the occasional colour bleeding, or motion blurring of a specific object. On the OPPO’s display, you can hardly tell. We suspect that we can hardly tell also because the display is not large enough for us to scrutinise on a microscopic level.
Colours are very real on the device. You get highly vivid and saturated colours. While that is a mark of OLED displays, this is something else. With 10-bit format, colour gradients blend so well that you see them as a single progression with no separation. With 1 billion colours, colour contrasts are even better than before.
Those features create a whole avenue to watching videos and enjoying Netflix and other video streaming platforms on the OPPO. Yes, we are saying we enjoy using this device as our go to device to stream videos.
You have not even begun to consider the stereo speakers that this thing packs. They are Dolby Atmos certified too, which means you get top notch movie audio out of this. Find a title that could match the certification, you get really good personal immersion. Quite sad that you cannot put your old 3.5mm jacked headphone into the device though. Well, Bluetooth audio it is.
Cameras
They say that the OPPO Find X2 Pro, before the launch of HUAWEI’s P40 series, tops the charts on DX0Mark. That also means that the OPPO Find X2 Pro, at one point, was the best a smartphone camera can get. What about the Find X2?
Technically, you can get the same sort of results. They both run on the same primary hardware and software. The regular Find X2 that you see here packs a 48-Megapixel main shooter supported by two other less powerful lenses. The ultra-wide shooter is a 16-Megapixel sensor while the telephoto lens is a 12-Megapixel shooter capable only of 2x optical zoom. You get up to 5x hybrid zoom with that too.
Does that mean that it is a worse camera than the OPPO Find X2 Pro though? In terms of numbers, it is collectively a worse camera. In practice though, the differences are less than you think. If you are comparing the main camera, nothing separates the two. Both have the same 48-Megapixel cameras and both should get the same results. The resulting photo from the 48-Megapixel camera is crisp, detailed images with very natural colours. The AI know how from OPPO does help in plenty of the scene recognition and settings on the camera. Even in low light, colours are saturated and pretty. My only complain is probably the oversaturation of certain colours like the reds. Still photos look stunning enough on the display of the OPPO at least.
There is a small flaring issue when the OPPO Find X2’s camera is exposed to a naked light source, but most smartphone cameras will have that issue anyway. Under the right conditions, you can get a creative shot. If you like to do night photography though, you might want to consider pointing your device toward a softer light source than what we see in the sample photo. Still, night photography with the 48-Megapixel camera is great thanks to OPPO’s clever night mode enhancement.
With the other two lenses, there are nothing much to shout about really. They are not great, but they are not bad either. They produce pretty standard results in their own class. You will not get a super clear 10x zoom shots from the OPPO Find X2. At 5x though, photos are still clearly usable. The final results of the long shots from the 5x hybrid zoom function is really not bad at all. You still get plenty of details with it, like shooting from a conventional lens.
The ultra-wide angle lens is not the best, but it is still good to work with. You may not get 48-Megapixel in detail from the 16-Megapixel ultra-wide lens, but it is not going to blow any minds. It is still detailed enough to use and appreciate though. Colour profile across the cameras are pretty much the same, which also means that you are still getting very natural looking ultra-wide shots and zoomed in shots.
Gallery
The OPPO Find X2 – The OPPO Flagship to Have
The OPPO Find X2 we have here will set you back MYR 3,999. It is the cheaper of the two flagship devices from OPPO too. The Find X2 Pro will set you back MYR 4,599, MYR 600 more than the OPPO Find X2.
While being the more affordable of the two, you are not getting that much less than the Find X2 Pro. The OPPO Find X2 still packs the same power unit, the same display, the same sort of design language. The only difference is the battery size (60mAh smaller on the Find X2), storage size, (256GB vs 512GB), and the camera sensors you get (48MP + 12MP +16MP vs 48MP + 13MP + 48MP). In a sense, it is not that big of a difference that you can find though. You are essentially getting identical performance numbers and experiencing the same OS and device.
MYR 3,999 though is a lot of money to ask for. The OPPO Find X that was launched last year was just slightly cheaper at MYR 3,699. Still, that was two years ago. For about the same money as the OPPO Find X2 as well, you can get your hands on a Samsung Galaxy S20 and a HUAWEI P40 Pro. Get this though, the OPPO Find X2 is probably a better deal with the 120Hz QHD+ display alone.
As a device, we feel that the OPPO Find X2 is one of the most accomplished and complete devices out there. It is an impressive device, and we can say that we really like the device. It is still difficult to get over the fact that you are spending more than MYR 3,500 on an OPPO device. You are spending a premium amount of money on a smartphone brand that has built itself on value mid-range offerings.
We can overlook that part though, just because we have experienced the device. If you are looking in the price range, we do urge you to take a look and experience this OPPO Find X2 itself. It might change your mind about what OPPO devices can do. In short, this is a device that we do not mind using as a daily driver.
The HUAWEI Mate 30 series shipped HUAWEI Mobile Services (HMS) ecosystem. It is still Android based, but it has grown since we first started seeing its full enforcement on the late 2019 flagship. It is now the third largest app marketplace in the world, the HUAWEI AppGallery. Local developers are totally behind the ecosystem too apparently. The ecosystem, as they say, will only continue to grow.
That same ecosystem is carried to the successor of what we thought was the best photography smartphone you could buy in 2019. We were recommending the device left and right, even when the HUAWEI Mate 30 was introduced. That was also because it retained the whole Google ecosystem that the Mate 30 lacked.
Would the HUAWEI P40 Pro be something that we recommend though, now that it does not pack Google’s trusty ecosystem? Or, would it be crippled by the less populated HMS? How will it stack against the other flagships? Let us find out.
Design
This year’s HUAWEI P40 and P40 Pro has some visually distinguishable differences. One of them is the display, which we are starting with. The Standard P40 comes with a smaller, flatter, plainer display. The Pro variant comes with a larger, more curvy display.
The curvier display, as they call an overflow display, is supposed to be curving in 4 directions this time instead of the two on the HUAWEI Mate 30 series. The overflow is not as much as the Mate 30 series though. And the top and bottom’s overflow is more like a glass overflow than a display overflow.
In that sense, personally at least, we are a little disappointed because we expected the display to be stretched a little bit on the top and bottom side of the device. Still, the display does not have a notch now. Rather, it is a punch hole that houses two cameras and some sensors in between the two cameras. While that is a bigger hole than before or any other punch-hole display, its placement is not that much more distracting.
Still, it is not a bad looking device. It is not as impressive looking as they made it look in the commercials though. If you ask me, I will say that the HUAWEI P40 Pro really looks like nearly any other modern smartphone that has launched today or in the past year.
If you like, you might be able to put it beside a HUAWEI P30 Pro from las year and you might be forgiven to think that they are the same devices. The HUAWEI P30 Pro is slightly bigger. That is also to say that there is nothing really wrong with the HUAWEI P40 Pro’s design language. Of course, there are some telling differences from last year. The camera’s arrangement is a little different, much bigger housing on the HUAWEI P40 Pro.
While it has a smaller screen compared to some of the more recent flagships sporting the ultra-powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, we appreciate it. It is plenty easier to handle in one hand. It is more comfortable to hold in one hand as well for that matter. Plus, it takes less of a stretch if you only have one hand to work with.
The only thing we might have to lodge a complaint against is probably the oversized and over protruding camera module. While it is the trend of many smartphones now, also because of the larger sensor sizes you get on smartphones these days; it can be pretty annoying and haphazard if you use your smartphone without a case. We recommend the use of a case in this matter, but there are going to be people who will not want to. The bump, in that case, is a bummer.
Hardware
The most important bit of the smartphone though, despite their good looks is what comes inside the smartphone itself. The HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with HUAWEI’s top of the line HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G ready SoC. That also makes the HUAWEI P40 Pro a 5G device incidentally.
Non-Removable Li-Po 4,200 mAh Fast Charging 40W Fast Wireless Charging 27W Fast Reverse Wireless Charging 27W
Connectivity
Nano SIM Wi-Fi WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS A2DP Bluetooth 5.1 LE OTG Support USB 3.1 Type-C NFC Infrared
Camera (s)
REAR: Quad Leica Co-Engineered Lens: 50-Megapixel (f/1.9,2.44µm 1/1.28″ 23mm wide angle) 12-Megapixel (f/3.4, 125mm 5x optical telephoto) 40-Megapixel (f/1.8, 18mm ultra-wide angle) TOF 3D depth sensor OIS Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) HDR LED Flash 4K Video recording (60fps) FRONT: 32-Megapixel (f/2.2, 26mm (wide), ½.8″, 0.8µm) IR TOF 3D depth sensor 4K video recording (30fps)
Sensors
Accelerometer Proximity Fingerprint (in-display) Ambient Light Gyroscope Face Unlock (Infrared) Compass Colour Temperature
User Interface
As mentioned earlier, the first thing you have to know before getting this device is that it does not come with the GMS ecosystem. It only comes with HUAWEI’s proprietary HMS. That does not mean that the HUAWEI smartphone is not an Android smartphone though. The EMUI 10 that this packs is still based on Google’s Android 10 Operating system. This is an important note.
While there will be ways for you to port GMS with Google’s framework and what not into HUAWEI’s latest flagship, we are not going to do that as of yet and review the device as it is, without Google Play Services. Why? While it is possible to port Google’s framework into the device, it might take some technical know-how and a little bit of time to research. So, we are going to just work with HMS for now.
In some sense also, we have all the apps that we have used before on the HUAWEI P40 Pro at this time. Even Telegram and WhatsApp can be installed. Provided, we were using Phone Clone to clone one of the other devices I use. There were only one or two apps that cannot be installed. At this time then, I have HUAWEI P40 Pro that is ready to rock and roll as the HUAWEI Mate 20X that this cloned from.
EMUI 10.1
If you have used HUAWEI devices before, or almost any other China based manufacturer’s smartphones before, you will be quite familiar with navigating the device. Unlike OPPO who has decided to include the choice of using app drawers in their latest Android 10 based ColorOS 6, HUAWEI has kept to that minimal design with no app drawers. You do not get a choice with the EMUI overlay either.
To get the app drawer, you need to install a completely different overlay, which is not available through AppGallery just yet. You can sideload them still though. Just be careful where you get your apps from.
To be fair, nothing much has changed with the User Interface (UI) of EMUI 10 as well. You still can get down to using folders to work with your apps and what not. There is, of course, the dark mode that you can switch on very easily in the settings to make everything look a little more stunning. We personally like dark mode also because it consumes less battery power while being less straining to your eyes.
Not everything works though. We tried launching Instagram to no avail. It opens the first screen to log in and just shuts off the whole app with no warning. I did not even have time to get the keyboard out to type. There are probably several other apps that might not work properly. We have not tried.
Netflix also did not get transferred on to the new device though. We suspect that the exclusion is due to the fact that Netflix comes as a pre-installed app now on most Android devices. That is a small setback. We did not bother trying to install it though. As we mentioned earlier, we are trying to review the device as it is.
Phone Clone
This app, while made for HUAWEI devices, is available on any other Android devices too. While if you install it on other devices, the app is only designed to extract information from that device to a HUAWEI device. That also means you can move from other Android devices into the HUAWEI ecosystem quite comfortably and not lose any of your essential apps.
The HUAWEI P40 Pro is still an Android device anyway, which also means any Android app that you have used can be loaded on the HUAWEI P40 Pro. Albeit, without proper and actual support from Google or its developers. Of course, there are some Google Apps that would be missing too, Apps like YouTube was not transferred, for example.
Still, I managed to get the Phone Clone app to run and transferred the whole of my HUAWEI Mate 20X, save for the photos, to the HUAWEI P40 Pro within 20minutes. That easily solves one of the biggest worries we had with the HMS ecosystem for now. The only concern now is; how do we update our apps.
AppGallery
Whenever you come to a smartphone that has no part in the Google or Apple ecosystem, you are inevitably compare the device and its app ecosystem to the two largest and most popular platforms on earth. We will try to make as little comparison as possible, but that does not mean that we can completely omit either app ecosystems. This is an Android device after all.
We have started our own editorial on the HUAWEI Mobile Services and AppGallery pairing of an ecosystem. We also believed that HUAWEI’s app ecosystem, the AppGallery, given time will also grow to a sizeable ecosystem. You may not get as large ecosystem as Google’s at the foreseeable future. The HUAWEI AppGallery though, is one of the fastest growing ecosystems that we have seen so far. While the matter of the U.S. vs HUAWEI dispute was a big driving force toward that growth, you cannot take away the credits that was due to HUAWEI.
The AppGallery is the third largest app platform in the current known world. Considering Samsung’s own Galaxy app store could not even lift a finger against Google’s still impressive Play Store, that is already quite a feat. In Malaysia at least, you still have access to the apps that mostly matter. While you cannot get Facebook and WhatsApp officially on the AppGallery. HUAWEI’s AppGallery will take you to a secure site to get their apk and get the app working on your smartphone.
There is something they also call QuickApps. It is a section of the AppGallery where you get access to apps, but you are not technically installing anything on your smartphone if you choose so. I say if you choose so because they will ask you about having a shortcut on your home page. You still technically do not have the app installed on the device. You access the app through AppGallery’s backend systems and use the app as it is. You just have to make sure you are connected to the internet via your 4G LTE connection or WiFi.
There are even several popular e-wallet apps in the AppGallery now for Malaysia, which is great news. If not, you still can get apk files and upload them into your HUAWEI P40 Pro and make it work. It is still an Android device after all.
HUAWEI Share
We currently do not really have a lot of HUAWEI devices to test with. The closest thing we could use to get this feature to work properly is the HUAWEI MatePad Pro, which is released in Malaysia the same time this device does.
HUAWEI Share, when it was introduced, was one of those features that we gave lot of praises to. Like Apple’s Airdrop, it is basically a drag and drop feature between your smartphone and PC or whatever devices you have with you. The only sad thing is that it only works on HUAWEI’s devices for now.
The HUAWEI Share that we see on the newer HUAWEI P40 Pro is a large improvement over the HUAWEI P30’s that we saw before though. It is still a HUAWEI-only feature. Which means if you want it to work with your PC, you need to get a HUAWEI notebook PC to get it to work. Or get a HUAWEI MatePad Pro for that reason.
It still has that one touch file hopping system that we were getting used to on the HUAWEI P30 Pro and MateBook combination. Additionally, the new HUAWEI Share allows you to completely control your smartphone from your PC or MatePad Pro tablet. You can truly just drag and drop your files from smartphone to PC or tablet, and vice versa. Very much like what you might have seen the Samsung tablets and smartphones does with their very own Samsung Flow.
That added convenience is a big bonus to us, since we do not need to connect the smartphones via cables to your PC or tablet; provided it is a HUAWEI device. Given, on a wireless connection, there may be some stutters and delays. While annoying, they are not enough to drive you away from using the device though.
90Hz Smoothness
Yes, yes, yes, there are already flagships in the market with 120Hz displays. Look how much that is though. The OPPO Find X2, for example, starts at MYR 3,999. This one, currently at least, tops out at MYR 3,899. It is not that much less expensive, I admit. But You get quite a lot with HUAWEI as well.
You still get 90Hz at a little more than Full HD on the HUAWEI P40 Pro. HUAWEI says that the 120Hz display will be a little bit of battery drainer, which is true. That is why they opted for 90Hz for the sake of battery life. That is good news for you who needs your devices to stay on for longer periods.
Look at it this way too, your eyes can hardly tell the difference between 90Hz and 120Hz technically. While you can claim that 120Hz is smoother, you cannot really tell at a normal visual inspection. The 90Hz then is still ultra-smooth and snappy.
In our opinions the 90Hz is one of the biggest changes in terms of the UI experience. While the layout and design of the UI is still the same, the 90Hz experience makes it seem plenty smoother and faster than before. No, unlike some of the devices in the market, the HUAWEI P40 Pro does not include ultra-fast touch response. That does not matter that much in normal daily use though.
Performance
Of course, with a HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G SoC, the HUAWEI P40 Pro really performs like a champion. It is ultra-smooth and opening apps do not take too long. Compared to other iterations of Android based systems too, it seems to be very stable. What I mean is that I have not encountered any lags or slow down anywhere on the device. On other Android devices that I have reviewed so far, there is always one or two lags and slow downs from time to time. They are far and few in between, but it does happen.
Benchmarks
Usually, we are not too bothered with Benchmarks because we care more about how the devices feel in your hands than what numbers can tell you. Still, benchmarks do communicate certain things like how much processes it can handle at a given time, how much its GPU can render at a single point. It is sort of a stress test.
In this case though, HMS does not provide any other common benchmark than Antutu. Antutu is also now excluded from the Google Play Store. In that case, we have to start sideloading the apps.
There is one thing to mention though, the dual core AI on this chip is larger than any other SoC in the market. In that sense, this will perform better than any other chip in terms of AI benchmarks.
Call Quality and Connectivity
Since the HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with all the bells and whistles of a modern smartphones, the expectation is that the phone calls work as perfectly as it can. In that case, it does. We only had the chance to test this in our home though. We used a Maxis SIM card and then a YES 4G SIM card. Both, on other devices work perfectly fine with full bars of signal.
The same can be said on the HUAWEI P40 Pro too. That also means that there is nothing really to shout about. 4G LTE connectivity at home is mostly stable on the device. If there are interruptions, it is mostly the provider’s problem.
Still, the HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with an antenna so advanced we cannot even exploit its full potential yet. It has a 5G antenna built in thanks to the HUAWEI Kirin 990. We do not have a 5G SIM card at home, we cannot buy it yet in Malaysia. It is nice to know that we are futureproofed with this device though.
5G Switch
Using 5G’s faster and more advanced capacity of course takes up some power. There is a reason why Samsung fitted their 5G capable device with a larger battery. There is also a reason why there is only one device in their line-up that supports 5G connectivity. The HUAWEI P40 series though, all of them comes with 5G capability.
That may be bad news to the battery, since we are still on 4G connectivity. That also means that if you leave the 5G antenna on, you are just wasting precious battery life for nothing. That is why HUAWEI allows you to turn the 5G antenna on and off within the quick settings menu. If you have a 5G SIM card and you need the speed, you can turn it on. When you do not need the 5G capacity, 4G speeds are usually fast enough, and you can turn the antenna off. While ingenious, it is a feature we can really appreciate going into the future.
Gaming
While we are gamers, it is important for us to say that we do not play that many mobile games. To us, games on mobile are mostly very casual and simple. At this point we play mostly Brawl Stars. Brawl Stars is not available on AppGallery, do keep that in mind. We were able to play because of Phone Clone.
In that, we believe that most games are playable by any Android device these days. The only difference is the graphic’s quality. In that, PUBG Mobile is probably the best way to tell how powerful your device is. Unfortunately, AppGallery does not have PUBG Mobile within its galleries.
We did, however have PUBG installed – thanks to Phone Clone. Once we logged into our PUBG account, we are gold. We can set our graphics settings to Ultra and HDR without issue.
In both games, the only way to describe the experience was smooth gaming. The graphics on both games are very smooth. Colours pop on Brawl Stars. It is a colourful game to begin with. On PUBG, the colours are great too, making spotting enemies slightly easier through the small-ish display.
The placement of the camera holes, while quite big, is never really an issue. At least for me, the camera hole is under my thumbs anyway while playing these games without a separate controller.
Still, it is disappointing to find that there are no stereo speakers on the HUAWEI P40 Pro. We kind of expect flagships to come with stereo speakers now. Not to say that the single speakers are bad though, it is still good and crisp. Stereo audio would help with PUBG at least to place your enemies slightly more accurately. You cannot use your old 3.5mm jack earphones either here. It is a USB Type-C port only. That also means you either can use your included earphones or buy a new one.
Security
The HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with the standard fingerprint sensors, PIN, or facial recognition screen locks. The fingerprint sensor is under the display of course, like most flagships now. You can have all of the security measures in place though. Of course, PIN is always required to set your facial recognition or fingerprint.
The facial recognition is fast, like lightning fast. You just bring it in front of your face, and as long as it is your face that is registered, it unlocks without a fuss or wait. There are several sensors within the front facing module that supposedly makes facial recognition more accurate and available in low-light conditions. In low-light conditions, it does work as expected. In no-light condition, do not even try; Just use your fingers.
Battery Life
HUAWEI has been the champion in a smartphone’s battery life when it comes to flagships. Take the HUAWEI P30 that we reviewed last year for example. On standby, we had the device lasting us two days before needing a charge. A full day of regular use is not an issue on a single charge.
With our devices being a core part of our lives including our work, being away from a charge point is more productivity for us. That is true for the HUAWEI P30, and that remains true for the HUAWEI P40 Pro.
At home, I rarely touch my smartphones other than using them for social media, reply some WhatsApp and Telegram chats. I seldom game on my smartphone too. Currently I have my PC and Console set-up at home. So why would I play mobile games all that much?
We managed to get Telegram, Facebook, WhatsApp, PUBG Mobile, and Brawl Stars working on the HUAWEI P40 Pro. Those are the apps we use most on the HUAWEI P40 Pro on a regular day. We are also on WiFi on a 24-hour basis now since we are all at home due to the COVID-19 situation. In that, we get more than a day’s worth of battery life and a little bit more for the next day.
Due to the conditions, you have to take our experience with the battery with a pinch of salt though. Battery life can be affected by plenty of things at home. Distance to your WiFi source is also a factor, amazingly. The closer you are to your source, the less power the antenna consumes. Temperatures at home can also affect it. Too cold or too warm and your device consumes more power than it should.
Display
To be exact, the “overflow” display on the HUAWEI P40 Pro is a 6.59-inch that pushes 1,200 x 2,640 pixels unit. It is an OLED display which are pretty much known for its great contrast and vivid colours. No, it is not a Full HD display, it is more than that.
It is not a QHD display as well, not quite. It is somewhere in between Full HD and QHD. It has HDR10 certification and is refreshing at 90Hz, as mentioned earlier.
While you get quite a weird combination in its resolution, there is no denying that anything you put on the display looks sharp. At a glance, you might not be able to tell the difference between a Full HD display of the same size, but you might appreciate the extra pixels in gaming or watching 4K resolution movies on the device. The HDR10 certification does not hurt too.
No, you are not going to be able to get the full 4K resolution when you are watching the movie, but that also means that your Netflix movies or even downloaded movies can take advantage of the higher resolution. That also means you get better colour gradients and contrasts. Oh yes, Netflix is not on AppGallery. We had to sideload Amazon Prime Video too, even YouTube.
HUAWEI has their own HUAWEI Video App though; it works a little bit like Netflix but only on HMS devices exclusively at this point. There are plenty of contents in there too, all of them not found Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. They are mostly Chinese or Cantonese language shows though. It is also a subscription-based service. Although we do not know the pricing structure just yet. It is a new service after all. If you pre-ordered your HUAWEI P40 Pro, you get the service for free for the next three months so you can binge watch all your Chinese and Hong Kong drama series at more than Full HD resolution.
Cameras
Probably the most significant overhaul in the HUAWEI P40 Pro is the camera itself. It is still the familiar, in-house developed RYYB sensor. Supposedly, RYYB sensors are more light sensitive. In a sense they can absorb more light than the usual RGGB sensors. Colours are also supposed to be more neutral with RYYB sensors.
We are not going into the technicalities of the sensors, because that is a whole other topic for another day. The HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with a 50-Megapixel main sensor that is supported by three other lenses and a colour temperature sensor. That is one less lens than the highly anticipated HUAWEI P40 Pro+.
Still, the results show how powerful the RYYB sensor is on the HUAWEI P30 Pro. It really can see in the dark much better than other competing smartphones. With the HUAWEI P40 Pro, it has an even bigger sensor than before. That also means that it should theoretically ‘see’ better.
There are more function additions here too. You have an upgraded Timelapse mode, and you also have dual view camera mode to monitor your shots in the main camera and zoom lenses. Its AI is more powerful than ever too, recognising more scenes than before. What is amazing though is that the AI is clever enough to remove reflections and even other people that you do not want in the photo. No more photobombing, and no more sticking your smartphone to the glass to get a photo of what is on the other side of the glass.
The results speak for themselves. The HUAWEI P40 Pro is on the top of the ranking board of DX0Mark. While that may just be numbers and may not mean anything; pick up the HUAWEI P40 Pro and see the difference yourselves.
The HUAWEI P40 Pro’s camera is nothing short of amazing. While you are going to end up using photos taken by the camera in Social Media most of the time, the photos can be more than that. Of course, if you push your photos into JPG format, you not only save space, but you compress the image quality too.
For that size though, details are quite amazing still. Everything is quite sharp, and crisp. Of course, the moment you zoom all the way in at 50x, you get an image that is barely useable. You still can make out some details though, weirdly and amazingly. Use them in their normal functions though, images are quite amazing with very accurate colours, they were not kidding.
Of course, you need to see it to believe it. The gallery below are photos taken via the HUAWEI P40’s various cameras. Because of the MCO, we did not have much to begin with, so do bear with our household items, and food.
Photo Gallery
The HUAWEI P40 – A Very Difficult Choice
No doubt, the HUAWEI P40 Pro is a very powerful device. The HUAWEI Kirin 990 5G SoC is, in our humble opinions, what plenty of flagship class SoC should be. It has the right idea and all the right power numbers at the right places. That also translates into the HUAWEI P40 Pro as a product.
It has a better camera than most smartphones you can find on the shelves today. Statistically, you are getting the best sort of smartphone camera money can buy. In that case, we can see ourselves using the HUAWEI P40 Pro as our main photoshoot and video driver in some cases. It really does work well in our work environment.
While it only packs 90Hz out of the box, it is still a potent smartphone in total. You still can enjoy Netflix movies – if you can get Netflix installed, and Prime Video for that matter with its brilliant display. If you can get YouTube installed, you can even enjoy that at 90Hz, and it looks good. The only bummer here is the single speaker situated where your palm would land on when you view your device horizontally.
I personally have some things to protest about as well when it comes to its MYR 3,899 price tag. For starters, it is not what you would call ‘cheap’. It is a very premium price tag for a premium smartphone. For that though, you are not getting the beautifully sculpted overflow display that you see on the HUAWEI Mate 30 series. You are getting physical buttons, which is nice; no doubt, but we expected the HUAWEI P40 Pro to move away from buttons like the HUAWEI Mate is already doing, at the price point. Topping up MYR 100 also gives you an OPPO Find X2, which is a formidable device too with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865, 5G capability, a larger, pixel dense 120Hz display.
The biggest push-away though is the lack of Google Mobile Services. Moving away from something that we have been used to for the past 10 years of smartphones is a big ask. While you can transfer most of your Android apps on your older Android device to the HUAWEI P40 Pro, we found that some apps do not actually work. Instagram for example. We also do not have Netflix or YouTube on the device, which can be a little bit of a pain. Still, you can get them installed from third party sources.
To be fair, this is not HUAWEI’s fault. We are also still very thankful that HUAWEI still keeps their devices faithfully on Android. The AppGallery too will grow even bigger than what it is today. No doubt, plenty of the popular Android apps will be ported to AppGallery somehow. As we speak too, HUAWEI is suggesting that Google puts forth their Google Play Store and Mobile Services as a downloadable app on their AppGallery to solve the app issue. We really hope that happens somehow.
We really liked the HUAWEI P40 Pro for what its worth. While MYR 3,899 is a big ask, for a smartphone that some might regard as a glorified paperweight, we feel that there is much more to this device than just its lack of Google Mobile Services though. We can see the appeal, that is what we are saying. What we cannot see for the HUAWEI P40 Pro though is recommending our friends to buy it without giving other Android alternatives. Even you know that there are really good smartphones at the same price point out there.
Last week, we saw the HUAWEI P40 series being globally launched. The HUAWEI P40 and the P40 Pro is supposed to come to the market first. The HUAWEI P40 Pro Plus is probably the one you want to go for, but that is going to set you back a lot of money and you have to wait until mid-year 2020. It is also the one that comes with five cameras instead of the measly three of the HUAWEI P40 and the four of the HUAWEI P40 Pro.
Source: HUAWEI
In that case, you might have expected the HUAWEI P40 series to arrive in Malaysia a little later, in waiting for the HUAWEI P40 Pro+. That is not the case though. Malaysia is quite a lucky market. Well, if I am quoting them right, Malaysia is one of their key markets in South East Asia. Flattering, no?
That also means that we are one of the first markets also to get HUAWEI’s latest and greatest. That happens today with the HUAWEI P40 series, starting with the HUAWEI P40 and the HUAWEI P40 Pro flagship devices. The HUAWEI P40 Pro+, as was announced in the global launch, will be available at a later date.
Source: HUAWEI
Still, the HUAWEI P40 and the HUAWEI P40 Pro are still the flagship device that you have been waiting for since the HUAWEI P30. We found the HUAWEI P30 to be quite brilliant, if we are being honest and we do not expect the HUAWEI P40 devices to be anything less than that. Still we have covered all the necessary spec talk in the global launch, so we are going to spare you the lecture.
Briefly though, the flagship series is powered by none other than HUAWEI’s own HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G capable System on a Chip (SoC) with dedicated dual Neural Processing Units (NPU) for maximum delivery. All of them will come with 8GB of RAM. That is smaller than some of the outgoing flagships now. Then again, who needs more than 8GB? Both flagships will come with a main 50-Megapixel camera.
Source: HUAWEI
The only few things that differentiate one from the other is the design cue, their screen sizes, the number of cameras packed at the back, and their price tags. The HUAWEI P40 comes with a regular 6.1-inch display with Full HD display while the Pro comes with a bigger 6.58-inch overflow display with 90Hz and 2,640 by 1,200 pixels for resolution. The HUAWEI P40 comes with three cameras at the back while the HUAWEI P40 Pro comes with four cameras at the back.
The HUAWEI P40 and P40 Pro will be available for pre-order from the 3rd April 2020 (10.08 a.m.) onward via HUAWEI’s online sales portal, various retail partners, or HUAWEI’s Lazada Flagship store and your devices will come to you on the 11th of April onward. You have to keep in mind that while the HUAWEI P40 and P40 Pro are EMUI 10 devices based on Android 10, they do not come with Google’s Play Store. The HUAWEI P40 flagship series will come in four colours for now – Black, Blush Gold, Deep Sea Blue, and Silver Frost. I must say that I really like the Silver Frost.
Alongside the HUAWEI P40 series, the HUAWEI MatePad Pro has also arrived in Malaysia. The HUAWEI MatePad variant that is coming to Malaysia though is the WiFi edition one, not the 5G ready one. It is available in two colours – Midnight Grey and Pearl White. It will also be available for pre-order at the same time the HUAWEI P40 series is available for pre-order on the 3rd April 2020 for MYR 2,399. If you do, you get a keyboard case, the M-Pen, and 3-month free subscription for HUAWEI Video worth MRY 1,000.
There is also the HUAWEI Watch GT 2e that is designed for the active lifestyle. The HUAWEI Watch GT 2e can last you two weeks on a single charge and will come in two colours – Mint Green and Graphite Black. It will also be available for pre-order at the same time for MYR 599. If you do, you get a free strap that is worth MYR 68.
How much? The HUAWEI P40 will set you back MYR 2,799 and the HUAWEI P40 Pro will set you back MYR 3,899. If you pre-order your device you get to enjoy free gifts worth up to MRY 1,300. You get a free HUAWEI FreeBuds 3, 50GB of cloud storage, 1-year extended warranty, 1-month of screen protection, 3-months free subscription to HUAWEI Video, wireless charging case for the P40, and a wireless car charger if you get the HUAWEI P40 Pro. For more information on the HUAWEI P40 series, you can head to their website.
The HUAWEI P30 is a year old now, just about. The P series in HUAWEI’s stables has been the Photography smartphone. It was a smartphone that always took smartphone photography to the next level.
The P9 was the first smartphone that launched with two lenses.
The P20 series launched with a revolutionary three-lens camera arrangement. Then
came the P30 series last year that launched with one more lens in the back of
the device. It was also the device that started the maximum zoom distance race.
Of course, we have the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra that zooms up to 100x. Yes,
this was the race started by the HUAWEI P30 series. HUAWEI, in the modern era
of smartphones are definitely the trend-setters for smartphone cameras.
Source: HUAWEI
That is partly why this is an interesting year for HUAWEI
and for us. The question in everybody’s mind was, how is HUAWEI going to innovate
and revolutionise the smartphone camera again. How are they moving the goal
post, the gold standard of smartphone photography? All that is answered with
the HUAWEI P40 series.
As with any other modern HUAWEI devices, the HUAWEI P40 series
packs their very own HISilicon Kirin 990 5G ready System on a Chip (SoC). That processor
is supported by an 8GB of RAM to help things trundle along nicely and you get
to pick up to 512GB in storage. If that is not enough, you can expand it via a
NanoMemory 2 card. Here is the issue though, you can hardly find a NanoMemory
card in Malaysia.
That may be forgivable though. I hardly can think of anyone
needing an extra memory card in their smartphones these days. Even 128GB is also
plenty if you think about it. The main attraction for today though is the camera.
HUAWEI P40 Pro+
Source: HUAWEI
We start with the daddy of the lot, the big hulking thing
that is the HUAWEI P40 Pro+. Technically, it is not that much of a big thing. Its
display measures in a 6.58-inch. It punches a resolution of 1,640 by 1,200.
That is actually just a little more than Full HD. It also comes with something they
call a Quad-Curve Overflow display. That means that at its four sides, the display
curves into the frame. Visually, that gives you an illusion of a bezel-less
display. It might as well be though, because the bezels are so thin, you might not
even see it.
It also refreshes at 90Hz, not 120Hz like other premium
flagships we see out there. HUAWEI says that this is more battery efficient though,
which rings some truth. That should allow the 4,200mAh built-in battery to last
longer than your average workday.
Its IP68 body is a wrap of glass in front and ceramic at the
back. Ceramic is a unique material because it is a highly durable material. At
the same time, it has glass like qualities that makes it shine. Fortunately,
the P40 Pro+ only comes in that type of body. Unfortunately, the P40 Pro+ is
the only one in the series to get ceramic finish.
That ceramic back is house to a five-camera set up you might
find familiar looking in arrangement. They are very different from their
competitor though. The camera module are co-developed with Leica, as usual.
The main camera, the biggest sensor HUAWEI ever developed is
a 50-Megapixel main shooter with HUAWEI’s very famous RYYB sensor. They say
that it is bigger than its competition and its predecessors. As HUAWEI has
proven too, their RYYB sensor is supposed to be able to absorb more natural light,
allowing for better detailed shots and better details in low-light photography.
In another sense, it allows the camera to ‘see’ better.
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
Source: HUAWEI
There is a 40-Megapixel ultra-wide angle lens sitting on one
side of the main shooter. They call it a Cine Lens. Then there are two
telephoto lenses you will find on the HUAWEI P40 Pro+. There is a 3x telephoto
lens punching 8-Megapixels, and a 10x telephoto lens at the same pixel count. Both
sensors are RYYB sensors too, mind you. Together with the 50-Megapixel lens, the
HUAWEI P40 Pro+ can zoom up to 100x. Sounds familiar? Yes, somebody has done it
before. So far though, this alongside the Korean contender, are the only devices
to have a zoom factor of 100x. The fifth camera is a 3D ToF camera, to capture
and process 3D environments. There is also an additional colour temperature sensor
though. This is for better colour interpretation and reproduction on your photos.
This also means your photos should look stunning.
Before we forget though, the overflow display has a punch
hole in the top left corner of the OLED display. That houses a 31-Megapixel
camera, a depth sensor, and an Infra-Red sensor combination as its front
camera. That sounds like a recipe for a camera for a mid-range smartphone. The combination
should make a great selfie portrait though.
HUAWEI P40 Pro
Source: HUAWEI
Then there is a littler HUAWEI P40 Pro. When we say smaller,
we have already mentioned that the HUAWEI P40 Pro+ and the HUAWEI P40 Pro share
the same 6.58-inch DCI-P3 certified HDR display with more than Full HD+ resolution.
So in that sense you are getting a device with the same size. You even get the
same 32-Megapixel camera combination out the front.
You also get the same battery size for good measure. Nearly
everything about the device is quite the same as its more premium HUAWEI P40
Pro+ brother. Everything except for its storage option at 256GB, price tag, and
the back.
The back is not ceramic, nothing that premium. It is a glass
back and it comes in five interesting colour options. We especially like the matte
finish variant.
The back also houses an impressive camera set up though. Not
five cameras this time. It is a four-camera set up at the back in what seems to
be identical camera module housing. While it is not a five-camera set-up, it is
still a powerful arrangement with a 5x telephoto lens at the back though.
You still have the same RYYB 50-Megapixel sensor lodged in
the middle of the arrangement. That is also still flanked by a 40-Megapixel
lens. At the other side though is a 12-Megapixel RYYB telephoto camera at 5x
optical zoom. You get a 3D ToF camera to top it all off and a colour temperature
sensor.
HUAWEI P40
Source: HUAWEI
The littlest one in the family. It is not that little as
well. Its display measures in at 6.1-inch and punches Full HD+ resolution. Thing
is, the display can be considered small compared to its competitors too. Even
the OPPO Find X2 has a 6.7-inch display. The punch hole on the display also
houses the same 32-Megapixel camera combination as its more powerful siblings.
The back is also a glass finished glass, like the HUAWEI P40
Pro. Like the HUAWEI P40 Pro too, you can choose between 5 colour finishes. Unlike
the HUAWEI P40 Pro and the P40 Pro+ though, you only get 3,800mAh battery within
the more petite body. Unlike the HUAWEI P40 Pro also, this only sports 128GB in
memory. Still plenty, in our opinion. Unlike the HUAWEI P40 Pro series too,
this does not have the luxury of seeing the Quad-Curve display. It is completely
flat. Which may not actually be a bad thing.
Like its bigger brothers though it still retains its
50-Megapixel camera in the middle. Except, you only get two other cameras flanking
the main sensor. On one side is a 16-Megapixel ultra-wide angle lens. The other
is an 8-Megapixel 3x telephoto camera. While you get less, you still get the colour
temperature sensor though, which also means your photos still comes out as
stunning as it can be. Maybe just as stunning as the more premium variants.
The Vision Photography
All the devices in the range have plenty of things in common
though. They all share the same 8GB RAM size. They share nearly the same design
language and camera module housing. They also share the same software. All of
them are running on HUAWEI’s Android 10 based user interface (UI) that is the
EMUI 10.
The EMUI 10 in the HUAWEI P40 Pro has a few tricks up its
sleeve over the current generation of EMUI 10 though. While it still allows the
HUAWEI P40 series to shoot at 4K 60fps, the software takes advantage of the
3-mic set up of the Huawei P40 Pro and implements what the industry calls zoom
audio. That also means that it amplifies the volume of the object you shoot as
you zoom into the subject.
Source: HUAWEI
There is a new autofocus system on the HUAWEI P40 series too.
While the world is still stuck on Dual Phase Detection autofocus, HUAWEI uses
Octa Phase Detection autofocus on the HUAWEI P40. That also means you get near
instant and accurate autofocusing from the HUAWEI P40. You can now also take 4K
timelapse videos with your zoom lenses on the HUAWEI P40. So instead of
shooting a scenery, you can choose a subject to focus on and shoot.
The HUAWEI camera app also comes with a more powerful AI.
This is also thanks to HUAWEI’s HiSilicon Kirin 990 5G SoC with a large dual Neural
Processing Unit (NPU). The NPU on that processor is the most powerful independent
NPU we have ever seen in a smartphone SoC.
Source: HUAWEI
The camera app has something called Golden Snap. This feature
is pretty useful for not just regular photographers. It is a killer feature for
any photographers. First, there is the ‘best-shot’ recommendation intelligence.
This should not be all that new. The other two functions they teased though are
quite mind-boggling. The first is the AI Remove Passerby; which does exactly that.
It lets you discard any unwanted people in your photo and let the camera just
focus on you and your surroundings. While that sounds like something only
Photoshop can do before this, you are entering a new era of smartphone photography
with this one. The second is AI remove reflection, which is also exactly that.
No, it will not remove you completely if you deliberately take a photo of yourself
in front of a mirror. What it does is remove the reflected images you get when
you take a photo through a glass panel. Again, something that you though only
Photoshop could do. Not anymore.
The Power of EMUI
While this has nothing to do with its software, we have to
say it for the HUAWEI P40 series. The device packs the fastest wireless charging
capability in the current market. It comes with 40W fast charging capabilities.
It does not just stop there though, like the HUAWEI P30 Pro, you can share your
extra power with other wireless charging devices too. Keep in mind that this is
only for the HUAWEI P40 Pro and P40 Pro+ though.
Still, all the HUAWEI P40 devices have something called Celia;
HUAWEI’s very new, very personal, very clever assistant. It is basically HUAWEI’s
version of Google Assistant. Except, HUAWEI can no longer access Google’s framework
and services anymore. Which also means that this is an HMS device with AppGallery.
It is still Android based though, so you still can sideload Android compatible
apps.
Source: HUAWEI
Still they have something new in the AppGallery called MeeTime.
Sounds like FaceTIme? It is better than that. At first glance it looks like a
very regular video chat app. Thing is, it is like Google Hangouts on steroids.
You can use third-party cameras, connect it to the app, and let the app project
from the camera. You can share your screen across the video chat, you can even project
your video call on your TV or other WiFi compatible displays if you like. It is
the perfect video conferencing tool if you ask me.
Someone close to us mentioned before this that HUAWEI’s HMS
lack a cloud photo gallery. With the new HUAWEI P40 arrangement, it seems like
they are going to fix that in a big way. HUAWEI calls it their Cross
Distributed File System. Essentially, it is a file sharing tool between
devices. The thing is, you can activate it, and you can search your photos
across any of your own devices, even if it is not your smartphone or cloud
storage yet. If you are under the same WiFi umbrella, even better. Of course,
there is the great HUAWEI Share function that we all quite love.
HUAWEI’s Professional Studio Light by HUAWEI Camera Kit x Profoto
Alongside the photography kings, HUAWEI collaborated with Profoto
to create something that we saw; and we really want it. It is sort of a multipurpose
portable photography and video artificial light source. Well, it is technically
a very fancy lamp that comes with its own set of filters. You can control it directly
from your HUAWEI smartphone to your liking or to add a light source to make your
photos look better. No idea how much its priced, or when its arriving into the
market. We are excited though.
Price and Availability
The HUAWEI P40 and HUAWEI P40 Pro will be available in selected
global markets, including Europe from the 7th of April 2020 onward. Both
the devices will be available in the same five finishes; ice white, Deep Sea
Blue, and Black regular finishes, and Frost Silver and Blush Gold matte glass
finishes. The HUAWEI P40 Pro+ will be available way later in June 2020 in two
exclusive ceramic finishes; black and white.
Source: HUAWEI
The HUAWEI P40 series starts from EU€ 799 (MYR 3,768) with the
standard HUAWEI P40 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB in storage. The HUAWEI P40 Pro is
stuck in the middle priced at EU€ 999 (MYR 4,712). The series tops off with
the HUAWEI P40 Pro+ at EU€ 1,399 (MYR 6,598). Expensive? Yes, they are.
Remember that this is not representative of the prices of the Malaysian units when
they get here. There is no official word yet on when the device is coming into
Malaysia. If you need any more information on the HUAWEI P40 series you can
find it on HUAWEI’s
website.
No, not the OPPO Find X2 Pro. This is the regular OPPO Find X2. This is the new OPPO flagship device.
The OPPO Find X2 series is a flagship two years in waiting. It
was a successor to OPPO’s most powerful and most expensive device at its
launch. Which also means that it needs to be as powerful and just as expensive.
It packs s Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC which, incidentally
makes it the most powerful smartphone OPPO ever made. It is also sold at MYR
3,999 onward and goes all the way to MYR 4,599 (OPPO Find X2 Pro). It is the
most expensive, or most premium OPPO smartphone ever launched. Those two boxes
are ticked then.
However, it does not deliver the same ‘wow’ factor as the
original OPPO Find X. Instead of having a crazy motorised pop-up mechanism that
everyone grew to love in the Find X, the OPPO Find X2 is now just a plain candy
bar smartphone that resembles a HUAWEI P30, I dare say. Still, it does not mean
that it is not a handsome device, it is still pretty with the Ocean finish.
There is one thing that blew our minds though. It is the O1 Ultra
Vision display that caught our attention. It is a QHD+ display, plenty for a 6.70inch
display. It is also refreshing at a rate of 120Hz with 240Hz sampling rate. What
does that mean? It means ultra-smooth and snappy experience of a smartphone. Get
this as well, it refreshes at 120Hz while pushing QHD+ in resolution. It is not
scaled down in anyway.
In fact, the O1 Vision engine scales regular 30fps videos up
to 120fps just to take advantage of the display. That makes everything looks
better on screen. We did not notice any image distortions or flickers as well
while watching things like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Video Prime. While the
differences are subtle, the experience difference is quite drastic; especially
if you can put another flagship side by side and compare.
We had a little bit of concerns with the battery because of
the high refresh rate and resolution. The combination of that still allows the 4,200
mAh battery to last a complete workday with more to give though. If not, we can
break out the SuperVOOC charger and charge it within 38 minutes. We have not
tried that, we should.
The OPPO Find X2 is now available in across Malaysia for MYR
3,999. It is available in two colour options – Aurora and Black. Both colour
options feature different build materials, we suggest getting the black just
because of its ceramic finish. Of course, more information on their website.
In this week’s Tech & Tonic Podcast, we have Jason Goh of @Smashpop! Jason Goh is one of the more prolific figures in the digital content creation industry. He has a vast experience in the field and is one of the guys behind Tricycle TV, a social media channel that focuses on reviewing tech in Bahasa Melayu. He is also very active in Social Media with @Smashpop across all platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. He is also on TikTok, but not very active; as he says. All good things must be shared, and that is why Jason also conducts workshops for you to better your Social Media presence and skills.
Last week saw one of the most anticipated smartphones (to us anyway) launch globally and in Malaysia. It is the OPPO Find X2 series, a flagship that is two years in waiting now. We had our hands on the OPPO Find X2 as well as Jason with the OPPO Find X2 Pro. We spoke at length about the device; what we like, what we do not like, and what we found interesting. Still, at MYR 3,999 (starting from), it is not what you would call ‘affordable’. Are the features enough to justify its price tag though?
On the subject of smartphones, we revisit the topic of smartphone cameras vs proper cameras. Fitting topic, since we have another very experienced content creator that focuses plenty of visuals. The OPPO Find X2 series also triggers the topic with its claim on topping the DX0Mark charts (OPPO Find X2 Pro). Of course, we would want to know what his opinion is on this subject. We did an editorial on this subject too.
OPPO’s Find X was something else from OPPO. It was something
quite extraordinary to come out from OPPO’s stables. It was OPPO’s game changer
also their first device to hit the premium market segment. It sold for MYR
3,699 when it was launched; more expensive than any OPPO devices that came before
it.
It was not like any other OPPO devices that came before as
well. Instead of a familiar Apple-esque design they employed with their best-selling
models, the OPPO Find X was a device they could proudly call their own. It was
a device they could really identify as an OPPO device. It was also OPPO’s first
European ready device.
In all fairness it was also the first smartphone in the
world that was truly bezel-less. While whatever premium devices came with ‘bezel-less’
devices, you still get the notch to house the camera. OPPO’s implementation
made sure that your bezel-less experience is truly bezel-less. How? Quite ingenious,
a motorised pop-up mechanism that slides a whole part of the device to reveal a
front facing camera.
It did not sell for MYR 3,699 merely for that feature though.
It was a world beater with a high-end System on a Chip (SoC). It had other
flagship class specs as well, large RAM and storage. It had a larger than life
battery too at the time. Even its camera array is flagship class. Was it worth
MYR 3,699? It surely looked like it.
Source: OPPO
Now, there is the brand new OPPO Find X2; the evolution of
the iconic flagship from 2018. Instead of just a single device though, the Find
X2 is a series of devices. They are all 5G ready too. The 5G capabilities are
thanks to the most powerful processor available to them in the world today. They
are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865.
The OPPO Find X2
There is not that much difference between the two devices that was launched by OPPO today. Even the price (in Euro anyway). The difference in price is only about EU€ 200 (*MYR 946); which is not that much.
Source: OPPO
There are still some differences to justify the higher price point
of the OPPO Find X2 Pro though. Starting with the storage, the OPPO Find X2 tops
out at 256GB. Mind you, that is not expandable; kind of a bummer, but 256GB is
plenty anyway.
One of the cameras, the ultra-wide lens; you only get 12-Megapixel
out of it. While that is not bad, it will not be the most powerful sensor you
can find on the OPPO Find X2. Then there is the battery which tops out at
4,200mAh for the OPPO Find X2. It still charges as fast as the Find X2 Pro
though.
This is where the differences end though.
OPPO Find X2 Pro
We start with the storage at 512GB of storage, double of the OPPO
Find X2. The OPPO Find X2 Pro also packs a very slightly bigger battery at
4,260mAh. This is no where near as big as we think it would be. Still, it
charges very quickly at 65W (SuperVOOC). It fully charges the device from an
empty battery to full within 38 minutes.
Source: OPPO
The biggest difference between the device is within the camera
array. The OPPO Find X2 Pro packs a 48-Megapixel ultra-wide sensor instead of
12-megapixel. It is supported by the same 13-Megapixel telephoto lens and 48-Megapixel
main shooter as the OPPO Find X2. The difference? 48-Megapixels obviously
captures more details in its ultra-wide shots and its macro shots from at least
3cm away from subject. This camera array is the one that puts OPPO at the top
steps of DX0Mark.
The Find X2 Series Powerhouse
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 paired to 12GB of RAM is not just
keeping the OPPO Find X2’s 5G kicking though. It is also a powerhouse to keep
the Android 10 based ColorOS 7.1 running as smoothly as possible. You can see
that smooth and snappy performance from the large 6.7-inch display that pushed
QHD+ resolution at 120Hz. If you are into gaming, you will benefit from the
240Hz sampling rate; or mor commonly known as touch response these days.
It does not stop there for its display though. The display is in a
class of its own with a 100% DCI-P3 certification. This is also the first OPPO
device to pack a 10-bit display. That also means that you get one billion
colours on the display. The O1 Ultra Vision Vision Engine on the Ultra
Vision display is also the world’s first
engine in the world of its kind on a mobile device. The engine is a hardware
based upscale mechanism that scales 30fps videos to up to 120fps videos with
minimal motion blurring and tearing. With HDR10+, the OPPO Find X2 series’
display is easily the most advanced and most accurate out there in the market.
Immersive too with Dolby ATMOS certified dual stereo speakers.
Source: OPPO
While we have spoken about the camera’s hardware capabilities, there is more to the camera than meets the eye. The 10x hybrid zoom is nothing new technically. What is new though is OPPO’s All Pixel Omni-Directional PDAF that is supposed to increase the Auto-Focus speeds with even better accuracy than regular PDAF systems. The camera also shoots at 12-bit, meaning you get even more details in your shots. Out the front is a 32-Megapixel shooter housed in a small punch-hole on the display.
You get to shoot even better in low-light conditions too
with their new Ultra-night mode 3.0 across all lenses. Your main camera though
gets Ultra Dark Mode treatment to help the camera see even better in near blackness.
While regular Optical Image Stabiliser functions would be enough for photos, videos require a little bit more than that. That is why OPPO has the Ultra Steady Mode 2.0 that combines OIS and EIS on the OPPO Find X2 series. Plus, the Live HDR mode helps you visual your videos without having to take a picture or video first. It samples HDR on top of your display once you fire up the camera. For videos also the OPPO Find X2 devices are equipped with three mics for even better and more advanced noise cancelling functions. Once you shoot, you can edit all of the footage in SoLoop app included within the device.
Source: OPPO
Source: OPPO
Source: OPPO
Source: OPPO
Source: OPPO
Source: OPPO
Source: OPPO
The OPPO Find X2 Pro will be available in Black (ceramic material) and Vegan Leather for EU€ 1199 (*MYR 5,671). The OPPO Find X2 will be available Black (ceramic) and Ocean (glass) for EU€ 999 (*MYR4,725). As expected there is a Lamborghini edition for the OPPo Find X2 series too. Both devices is expected to be available globally in May 2020. Malaysia’s launch is just in a few days away next week though. We should get more information regarding the OPPO Find X2 series’ availability and prices in the coming week. Meanwhile, stay tuned!
*Based on current exchange rate of EU€ 1 = MYR 4.73 as of 6/3/2020
Realme has been announced its very first smartphone that will be using Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 865 in India. It is one of other eleven phones that has been announced by other smartphone manufacturers that will also be running Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 processor.
Let’s get straight to the specifications, shall we? Let’s start with the display. It has a Super AMOLED display which is 6.44 inches wide. The display also has a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels in a 20:9 screen. This calculates a density of 409ppi, which is not top of the charts but it is already more than enough.
The display is going to have a protection glass of Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It is also going to come have a 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch-sensing, and also HDR10+ to give you a fantastic gaming and streaming experience.
As for the cameras, it will run as a quad-camera setup. Having a 64-Megapixel as a main camera. Followed by a 12-Megapixel telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom, an ultra-wide with angle of 119° from an 8-megapixel camera, and finally a 2-Megapixel monochrome depth sensor. You will be able to record videos in 4K resolution at 30 fps or 1080p at 60 fps.
The front is where it gets a little interesting, as the phone will be coming with a punch-hole design dual camera. Yes, there were some rumours before and now we are finally confirming it on the actual phone! The front-facing camera will be a 32-megapixel sensor paired with an 8-Megapixel 105° ultra-wide sensor. The front camera is capable of capturing videos at 1080p at either 30 fps or 120 fps.
Other notable features would be the new dual stereo speakers and the discontinuation of the 3.5mm headphone jack. This is also only Realme’s fourth phone with NFC. Like most smartphones these days it uses a USB Type-C connector to charge its 4,200mAh battery. Unfortunately the Realme X50 Pro does not come with wireless charging capabilities, so you are going to have to still depend on a wire to charge the phone.
Last but not least, the brains of the phone. As mentioned above the phone will have a Snapdragon 865 chipset, which also means it is 5G ready. There will be three different variants for RAM and two different internal storage variations. It starts with a minimum of 6GB of RAM paired to a 128GB of storage or an 8GB RAM with also 128GB of storage, and lastly, the maximum RAM and storage you can get is 12GBs of RAM paired to 256GB of storage.
There are two different colours to choose from that is Moss Green and Rust Red. the prices of the phones starts from Rs 37,999 (MYR 2,204) for the 6GB + 128GB, Rs 39,999 (MYR 2,320) for the 8GB + 128GB and Rs 44,999 (MYR 2,610) for the range-topping 12GB + 256GB.
