This should come as almost no surprise. It is 2023 and that means that Samsung’s flagship, the Galaxy S22 series is going to be a year old soon. In the world of smartphones, a year-old means that the device is outdated. It is time for an update in the form of the Samsung Galaxy S23. While Apple has not and will not be launching their latest iPhone 14 series flagship smartphone until toward Q3 of 2023, Samsung’s upcoming flagship will compete directly with Apple’s best.
Samsung’s flagship for 2023 has been anticipated since the inception of their Galaxy S22 flagship series. That is also because everyone knows Samsung’s product cycle, like Apple’s. Of course, everyone is expecting a more powerful device than before every year.
Samsung’s latest smartphone is touted to have Qualcomm’s most powerful System on a Chip (SoC) yet. It will come with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. You no longer get Samsung’s very own Exynos option since Samsung has given up on that idea. Still, that does not mean that Samsung might not inject their own flavour on to the high-end SoC. Rumours points to Samsung customizing and overclocking the GPU to make it even more powerful than the regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 you might find elsewhere.
Samsung’s mobile imaging department made some breakthroughs last year. They managed to manufacture a camera sensor that packs 200-Megapixels for smartphones. The sensor is a little larger than the regular mobile camera sensor, but it is still a feat to fit 200 million pixels in a tiny plate. Rumours points to the latest Samsung flagship packing that much pixel in their attached camera, at least for the S23 Ultra variant of the flagship, nearly double what their previous flagships pack.
In terms of design though, you can expect much of the same things from Samsung. You can expect the Samsung Galaxy S23 series to look pretty much like the Galaxy S22 series, just as the Galaxy S21 series. The Galaxy S23 Ultra will most likely share the same look as the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra instead of the S21 Ultra. It might still offer the S Pen attached within the body too.
There are still plenty of unknowns on Samsung’s upcoming 2023 flagships too. All we can do is wait for them to finally take the Galaxy S23 to stage on the 1st of February 2023. For more information on Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event and their latest flagships, you can refer to their website.
The Snapdragon Summit 2022 has unveiled the highly anticipated Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform, promising to revolutionize the flagship smartphone experience.
The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 unveiled at the Snapdragon Summit 2022
Snapdragon’s highlight event of 2022 held in Hawaii from November 15th to 16th centered around the announcement of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The platform will be adopted by global brands including ASUS, HONOR, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO, and Redmi to name a few. Expect to see it in commercial devices as early as the end of 2022.
Key Experience Pillars show AI integration systemwide
The new features highlighted by Key Experience Pillars”; Snapdragon Smart, Sight, Elite Gaming, Connect, Sound and Secure
With the latest iteration of the SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 offers better performance with the new Qualcomm® Hexagon™ Processor that has a 3.2GHz Arm-Cortex X3 prime core. The mobile platform offers a host of new features, described as six “Key Experience Pillars” by Qualcomm. The first and most central pillar is Snapdragon Smart, which utilizes AI integration across the system. This integration allows faster natural language processing, multi-language translation and advanced AI camera features.
Expect camera performance improvements with Snapdragon Sight, which uses AI to better recognize facial features, hairs and even the sky to allow professional grade image tuning. The platform will support new image sensors and features from other brands such as Sony’s quad digital overlap HDR technology and Samsung’s ISOCELL HP3, the first 200-megapixel image sensor. It also has an AV1 codec with support for video playback up to 8K HDR at 60 frames per second.
Elite Gaming Performance
Enhanced gaming visuals with Ray Tracing thanks to Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Snapdragon Elite Gaming will be welcome news to gaming fans as the 8 Gen 2 comes with an improved Adreno GPU. The highlight is the mobile platform will have Ray Tracing to further elevate gaming visuals. This will also be the first platform to support Vulkan 1.3 API on top of improved and more efficient performance.
High Speed Connectivity with Wi-Fi 7, improved 5G and dual Bluetooth
Stay connected with low latency WiFI 7, peak 5G speeds and dual Bluetooth.
Connectivity will be improved on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 as described in the Snapdragon Connect Experience pillar. Sporting the new Snapdragon X70 5G Modem-RF System with Qualcomm® 5G AI Processor, expect faster than ever 5G speeds and first-in-market to support 5G+5G/4G Dual-SIM Dual-Active. It also features the Qualcomm® FastConnect™ 7800 connectivity system, for low latency Wi-Fi 7 and dual Bluetooth connectivity.
Soundly secure
Snapdragon has also beefed-up security on its new platform, with Snapdragon Secure. Described as premium level protection, it offers the latest tech available to protect your data and privacy with features such as the Qualcomm® 3D Sonic Sensor a Max fingerprint sensors. Finally, expect better audio performance with Snapdragon Sound. It features spatial audio with dynamic head-tracking for better surround-sound experience and supports 48kHz lossless music. Gamers will benefit from the built-in voice backchannel for clearer in-game voice chat and lowest-ever latency at 48ms.
In short, Snapdragon has brought out all the features of a flagship-level mobile platform with more intricate AI utilization as icing on the cake. For a full list of specifications and features, visit the official Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 webpage.
The new age of mobile computing is pretty much here. Qualcomm kicked it off with their new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 System on a Chip (SoC) for flagship devices. This one will definitely go on powering the greats of the industry like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S devices, next generation OPPO Find X device, the anticipated next-generation OnePlus flagship, and even Xiaomi’s next high-end device.
While flagships are highly popular in terms of branding and hype, they are not the devices that sells most. Google recognized it and scratched their Nexus project a few years ago and started their mid-range Pixel project that was met with welcome arms by users. The new Google Pixel devices are powered by their own Google Tensor processors. This was not the case a few generations ago though. Google’s Pixel project would not have been possible if Qualcomm did not introduce their very intriguing Snapdragon 700 series.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 700 series was introduced to fulfil a rather unique, but popular demand. It was made to fill the gap between their exclusive mid-range Snapdragon 600 series and number crunching high-end flagship Snapdragon 800 series processors for smartphone device. It was made to be sit in a smartphone that performs pretty much like a flagship device with an affordable price tag.
Alongside the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, they introduced their new high-performing Qualcomm Snapdragon 782G platform. The new platform will replace the older Snapdragon 778G+ that currently powers some of the most innovative devices out there like the unique Nothing Phone 1, Honor 60 Pro 5G, and even Motorola’s Edge 30 5G.
Source: SamMobile
The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 782G comes in with a the same eight-core configuration from the Snapdragon 778G+. The SoC is a more powerful one and is clocked faster than before though. It packs Qualcomm’s eight Kryo cores that clocks up to 2.7 GHz compared to the 2.5 GHz that was extracted from the older Kryo 670 platform.
The new platform also brings a whole host of improvements across the board that makes new mid-range class devices even more enticing than some flagship devices. For one, it packs a Qulcomm’s latest Quick Charge 4+ technology that allows your smartphones to charge at up to a theoretical 100W. In theory, it should allow most smartphones to charge well within an hour while maintaining an optimum temperature. There is Qualcomm’s new Quick Charge 5, but that is reserved for flagships at this point. Still, 100W is plenty fast for smartphones.
They have also improved their AI (Artificial Intelligence) engine that adds several features and capabilities in camera functions. At the same time, the improved AI is also supposed to improve video performance by enhancing the mic and speaker switching function to reduce interference and make video chats feel a lot more natural even without headphones. Of course, the AI engine is also supposed to help reduce battery consumption by cleverly understanding how individual users use the device and turn off apps based on those usages.
We mentioned camera, the processor is also supposedly a better image processor than before. It now supports up to 200-Megapixel resolution cameras for photographs. At the same time, the new processor also captures videos at up to 4K at 30 fps, with HDR on top of that. If you are going to capture action photos, it does 30 22-Megapixel photos in a second.
Of course, 5G has to be now included as a standard. It only makes sense since the SoC it replaces also packs 5G. The 5G antenna on this piece of kit supports both mmWave and Sub-6GHz frequencies, which means you are not going to have to worry about getting it to work with 5G standards across the globe. At home, the Snapdragon 782G supports up to 2.9 Gbps wireless transmission via 6GHz (WiFi 6/6E) standards.
The new mid-range SoC will find its way into the new generation of mid-range devices you will find in 2023. There is no announcements and confirmations on which devices will get the Snapdragon 782G powering them just yet. We are guessing that manufacturers like Xiaomi, OPPO, and even Samsung will be jumping on the platform and announce a device packing the new hardware in the coming months. More information on Qualcomm’s latest mid-range Snapdragon 782G SoC can be found on their website.
HONOR is adding yet another affordable option to its stable of devices in Malaysia. This time the company is expanding its mid-range offerings with the HONOR X8 5G. The new smartphone comes in both 4G and 5G flavours. Both of which are running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile.
The HONOR X8 4G will be equipped with the Qualcom Snapdragon 680 processor; while the 5G version will be running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480+. The former is fabricated using Qualcomm’s 6nm process while the latter uses Qualcomm’s 8nm process. As we’ve seen in the past, the newer 6nm process has better battery efficiency. That said, both are Octa-core processors with the power efficient big.LITTLE architecture. Both versions are complemented with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The HONOR X8 4G does not support microSD card memory expansion however the HONOR X8 5G does.
The camera setup on both are also slightly different. The 4G version comes with a quad camera setup with a 64-megapixel main camera. This sensor comes with phase detection autofocus (PDAF) and is complemented by a 5-megapixel ultrawide, 2-megapixel macro and a second 2-megapixel depth sensor. The HONOR X8 5G comes with a triple camera setup with a 48-megapixel main sensor complete with PDAF. The setup is complemented by two 2-megapixel sensors for depth and macro. On the front the X8 5G comes with aan 8-megapixel sensor while the 4G comes with a 16-megapixel sensor.
Source: HONOR
The 4G HONOR X8 also comes with a larger 6.7-inch FHD+ display while the 5G version has a 6.5-inch HD+ display. The 5G version comes with a TFT-LCD panel while the 4G version is equipped with a IPS-LCD panel. The latter also has a 90Hz refresh rate. No official note on the refresh rate of the 5G version is available. They also have different sized batteries with the 4G version coming with a smaller 4,000mAh battery while the 5G version has a 5,000mAh one.
Other than that the two versions share mostly the same specifications supporting A-GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO for GPS. Both support Bluetooth LE and A2DP with the 5G version supporting the more current Bluetooth 5.1. Both charge via USB Type-C port with support for 22.5W fast charging. They also feature side-mounted fingerprint sensors.
Pricing & Availability
The HONOR X8 is currently available at MYR899. It’s available in three colours: Titanium Silver, Ocean Blue and Midnight Black.
The HONOR 8X 5G is available in Midnight Black and Ocean Blue at MYR999. Purchases of the 8X 5G are also entitled to a year’s extended warranty.
With the OnePlus 10T 5G officially announced, we’re going hands-on with the Jade Green version of OnePlus’ new flagship. Coming with a top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and 16GB of RAM, it’s shaping up to be one of the most power-packed flagships of the year. Running on Android 12-based OxygenOS 12.1, the OnePlus 10T comes with not only the hardware to perform but also the software. OnePlus is baking in some powerful optimisations to boost performance.
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These days, when you talk flagship, you think about devices that cost at least MYR 3,000 and above. Anything below that price range is usually categorised as mid-range smartphones. They are usually specced as such too, with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 700 series, 6-8GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of storage. Not this one though. It is priced as a mid-range smartphone, but on paper, it is a flagship.
First, the POCO F4 GT packs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the most powerful system on a chip (SoC) you can find in an Android smartphone currently. Sure, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is rumoured to come some time soon. Until then, the Gen 1 is still the most powerful SoC you can find on an Android. The powerful SoC is supported by up to 12GB of speedy LPDDR5 RAM with up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage for snappy operations.
They say that it is made for mobile gaming. To ensure that the SoC stays cool for extended gaming sessions then, they have something they call LiquidCool Technology 3.0. The technology large dual vapor chambers to ensure that heat from the SoC can be quickly and efficiently transferred and dissipated elsewhere on the device.
Source: POCO
Out the front is an expansive and immersive 6.67-inch AMOLED display with 10-bit colours. With up to 120Hz, your interface should feel smoother than running a hot knife through butter. At up to 480Hz of touch sampling rate, every touch should feel more instant and more responsive than ever before. Of course, with DisplayMate’s A+ rating, this display should be great with movies too.
Out the back is a 64-Megapixel main shooter which should be enough in most cases. Of course, most of the time, you are really taking 12-Megapixel photos unless you tell your camera that you want to shoot in 64-Megapixel mode. The powerful camera is supported by an 8-Megapixel ultra-wide shooter and a 2-Megapixel macro camera. Out the front is a 20-Megapixel selfie shooter for when you need to stream or when you just want to capture a clear selfie.
To keep everything running nicely an entire day and more is a 4,700mAh battery inside the device. It is also the first battery in POCO’s device range to offer 120W HyperCharge charging speed. The device can be fully charged in just 27 minutes. Charging your device at 120W at all times can destroy the battery pretty quickly though, so POCO’s AdaptiveCharge feature cleverly keeps your battery from overcharging to prolong its shelf life.
Alongside the POCO F4 GT, POCO also launched their new Buds Pro Genshin Impact Edition with a rather special design throwing homage to the ever so popular mobile game. They also launched the POCO Watch, their first ever smartwatch cum fitness tracker. It does not run on the Wear OS.
The POCO F4 GT is available in three colour options from 28th of April 2022 onward. You can choose between Stealth Black, Knight Silver, and Cyber Yellow colour options. You can also choose between an 8GB + 128GB variant and a 12GB + 256GB variant for MYR 2,299 and MYR 2,499 respectively. If you purchase your device on the 28th of April 2022 on either Shopee or Lazada, you can get your device for MYR 1,999 and MYR 2,199 respectively. The POCO Buds Pro Genshin Impact Edition and POCO Watch will be available for MYR 299 and MYR 249 respectively on the same date. More information on the new POCO devices can be found on their website.
The entry-level smartphone market, in Malaysia at least, is a rather crowded space. The offerings can also be compared directly to mid-range smartphones, which just complicates things when you are looking for a new smartphone at under MYR 2,500 range. There is still a distinction though. In the mid-range segment, you want the best bang-for-buck you can get in terms of high-level performance, and innovations. In the entry-level segment, you want the best bang-for-buck and reliability; something that just works.
While there are plenty of players in the entry-level segment at below MYR 1,500, we can safely say not many can do better than OPPO and their A-series smartphones. Do not get it confused with Samsung’s A-series though, Samsung’s offerings are in the premium mid-range segment. When you take up OPPO’s A-series smartphones, you start to wonder what the extra money do for you in the mid-range segment.
Take this latest OPPO A96 for example. On paper at least, it is comparable to any mid-range devices you can pit it up against. It might as well be a mid-range device on paper.
Big Memory
It packs 8GB of RAM and 256GB in storage. With OPPO’s clever memory technology, the 8GB RAM can be expanded to up to 13GB temporarily for when you need the extra horsepower. This should mean much better multitasking experience comparable to even flagships of today. The only limiting factor should be its System on a Chip (SoC) that is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 platform. It does not pack 5G too, unlike most mid-range devices today.
Flagship Level Display
The SoC is the only thing that puts it squarely in the entry-level segment though. The main display is still a Full HD+ display with 90Hz refresh rate with up to 96% NTSC or 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage. At 6.59-inch, it is not what you want to call a small display too.
Powerful Camera
In terms of camera, the front-facing camera lodged in a punch hole on the display packs 16-Megapixel, rather powerful for an entry-level device. Out the back is a high-resolution 50-Megapixel shooter that works together with a 2-Megapixel depth sensor to produce beautiful portraits with those essential ‘bokeh’. Sure, it does not come with additional lenses to get telephoto or ultra-wide photos, but a high-resolution camera is the one that is being used often.
Premium Glass Backing
The OPPO A96’s back plate is also a glass panel, not plastic like most entry-level devices at its price range. It has a unique texture and design that OPPO calls the Glow Design made with diamond-cut glass panel placed in a vacuum to bring out the crystal patterns you see on the Pearl Pink colour option. The unique texture produced by the process is also resistant to fingerprint stains, which is a bonus to keep your device looking fresh and pretty.
Beefy Battery
To top all of that is an all-day battery sandwiched by two glass panels. It is 5,000 mAh battery that should last you at least an entire day with heavy usage. Use it sparingly and you might get two or even three days of charge with it. When it runs out, 33W charging speeds should bring it to a full charge within an hour for you to get going the entire day again. The device is also clever enough protect its own battery shelf-life by limiting its charge speeds when you charge it overnight to keep the battery optimised for you.
Price and Availability
As mentioned, the OPPO A96 will be available in two colour options – Starry Black and Pearl Pink. The device will be available for pre-order today onward all the way to the 22nd of April 2022. It will set you back MYR 1,299 and you can get your hands on one from OPPO’s authorised retailers and official showrooms when it is available. More on the OPPO A96 on their website.
HONOR is expanding its offerings once again. The company has been coming out with all the punches this year. This time, after flexing its flagship prowess with the HONOR 50 and the HONOR Magic V, HONOR is looking to the more affordable offerings they were once renown for. They are introducing three new entries into their X series with a little bit of a rename.
HONOR X9 & X9 5G Leads the new X Trio
The new HONOR X series is spearheaded by the Snapdragon 695 touting HONOR X9 5G. It comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. When it comes to the display it comes with a 6.81-inch FullView Display with a 120Hz refresh rate and an FHD+ resolution. The X9 5G comes with a triple camera setup with a 48-megapixel main sensor complemented by a 2-megapixel macro and 2-megapixel depth sensor. Upfront, there is a 16-megapixel sensor for selfies.
In the case of the HONOR X9, it’s important to mention the 5G moniker as the HONOR X9 also comes without 5G connectivity. The regular X9 comes with the Snapdragon 680 instead. That said, it comes with a more robust quad camera setup. The main sensor is a 64-megapixel main sensor complemented by an 8-megapixel wide sensor, 2-megapixel sensing macro sensor and 2-megapixel sensing depth sensor. The display on the X9 also has a lower refresh rate of 90Hz. Other than these, the HONOR X9 and X9 5G share the same design and specs including a 4,800mAh battery with 66W fast charging with HONOR SuperCharge and USB Type C.
The design of the HONOR X9 series hearkens back to the HUAWEI P40 with the circular accent emblazoned at the back. It also contains the multiple camera sensors and flash that the smartphone comes with. The face of the phone is covered with the HONOR FullView Display with a punch hole for the selfie camera.
HONOR X8 – Putting the Middle in Mid-range
The HONOR X series will also contain the HONOR X8 which touts the same Snapdragon 680 that powers the X9. In all ways, it’s the hybrid of the X9 and X9 5G. It comes with a slightly smaller 6.7-inch FullView display with a 90Hz refresh rate and FHD+ resolution. Aside from this, it also comes with a smaller 4,000mAh battery with support for 22.5W HONOR SuperCharge via USB-C connection.
All of these specs aside, the HONOR X8 comes with the nearly same camera setup as the HONOR X9. However, it comes with a smaller 5-megapixel wide sensor. That said, it also has a different design language which is more angular than the fluid X9. It also departs from the circular accent in favour of a square module containing all its sensors.
HONOR X7 – Bringing even more affordability
Rounding up the HONOR X series is the HONOR X7. The HONOR X7 comes with the same Snapdragon 680 as its siblings with the same amount of internal storage but a lower 4GB of RAM. It comes with a larger 6.74-inch HONOR FullView Display with an HD+ resolution and 90Hz refresh rate. On the camera front, it comes with the same setup as the X8 albeit having a smaller 8-megapixel selfie camera. It comes with a larger 5,000mAh battery with support for 22.5W HONOR SuperCharge via USB-C.
The HONOR X7 comes with the familiar design we’ve seen in the HONOR 50 before. However, it comes with a waterdrop display design where the selfie camera is. It’s also not curved like the HONOR 50.
Pricing and Availability
HONOR’s X series will be available starting on 7th April 2022. All members of the HONOR X Series will be launching with EMUI 4 powered by Android 11.
The HONOR X9, X9 5G and X8 will be available in Titanium Silver, Ocean Blue and Midnight Black. It will be available for MYR1,299, MYR1,099 and MYR899 respectively.
The HONOR X7 will be available for MYR699 in Titanium Silver and Ocean Blue.
The idea of Microsoft’s Windows running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform is not a new concept. In fact, it has been something that Qualcomm and Microsoft have been working on for years. Some products even rolled out of the factories that marries the power of Qualcomm’s potent system on a chip (SoC) with Microsoft’s best-selling interface. One of the products is Malaysian made, we reviewed it and quite liked it.
Unfortunately, the idea of running a full-fledged Windows operating system (OS) on a Qualcomm chip is not as simple as shoehorning a Qualcomm chip on any random Windows laptop chassis, nor is it as simple as installing Windows on a Qualcomm device. The problem is with the conflict in architecture in both the software and chip. Qualcomm’s mobile first approach ensures that it adapts to Android’s Linux based architecture and optimises its operations based on a regular smartphone interaction pattern. Windows, on the other hand, is optimises itself on different work processes and priorities that Intel and AMD’s chips are designed for. They are just different kind of processes and priorities, fundamentally.
There is a new workaround though. Welcome to Windows 11, an open door to whole new possibilities. The platform is designed to be more mobile than ever. It is designed with a touch experience in mind, a sort of tablet experience. While it is still based on Windows 10, it is a lot more tablet friendly than before. It just feels like something you can put on a slim tablet with no cooling fans powered by an SoC. With Apple’s move to push their M1 SoCs, it also only makes sense that Microsoft makes that option available.
Source: Lenovo
Enter the ThinkPad X13s, the first of many, we hope. This is not Lenovo’s first Qualcomm based device. It is also not Lenovo’s first Windows 11 device. It is their first though, that marries the two together.
You will not find any intake or exhaust ports on the 13.3-inch ThinkPad X13s. It is a little odd for a PC not to have ventilation ports. That is also the beauty of relying on Qualcomm’s latest generation Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 compute platform. The SoC is even powerful enough and optimised enough to run Windows 11 Pro. Keeping Windows 11 running on the WUXGA 16:10 aspect ratio display is up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage.
Thanks to the integrated modem on the SoC, the ThinkPad X13s is even ready with a 5G capable SIM tray. Together with WiFi 6E, the ThinkPad X13s can be connected to the web anywhere, anytime. It is always connected, always on.
Of course, the other benefit of using SoCs in devices is the way it sips battery juice. Lenovo quotes up to 28 hours in battery life with continuous usage. If you keep it on standby, it is ready to get going for days.
Source: Lenovo
For security, the device comes with a 5-megapixel webcam with Infrared camera (optional) for Windows Hello facial recognition. You can make it work like your smartphone. Yes, you can use the webcam for video calls as well, quite obviously.
Because the requirements of housing an SoC like the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 Compute platform is so minimal, Lenovo could squeeze everything down on the ThinkPad X13s. It is thinner, and lighter than most professional grade laptops thanks to the SoC. But that is not just the contributing factor to the ThinkPad X13s’ thinness and lightness. Before we forget, Lenovo’s ThinkPads must be built like tanks too.
To keep build quality high but super lightweight and thin is a challenge. There is also the demand of making things more sustainable. Lenovo achieved those on the ThinkPad X13s using 90% recycled magnesium for its chassis. Inside, 97% of the plastics on the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) cover and battery tray is made from PCC (Precipitate Calcium Carbonate) plastics. PCC plastics, in our research, is a type of plastic made using more sustainable materials. Calcium Carbonate is an artificial powder type filler used in plastic manufacturing to replace crude oil as a material to manufacture plastic parts. It is cheaper, and a lot more sustainable.
To ensure that the device gets to you in one piece are carton boxes and bumpers that are also recyclable. Even the production method is designed to keep energy consumption as low as possible. They used low-temperature solder methods that reduces carbon emissions by up to 35% over regular solders.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X13s will be available in select markets on the 22nd of May 2022 onward. Like most ThinkPad devices, there are no other colour option safe for black. It will set you back EU€ 1,399 onward (MYR 6,508*), which is still quite premium in our eyes. There are no mentions on the local (Malaysia) availability and official pricing for the laptop for now. For more information on the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s, you can visit their website.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of EU€ 1 = MYR 4.65 as of 03/03/2022 on xe.com
Mobile World Congress (MWC) is back for 2022 season, and we are glad. It is a sign that things are becoming normal again. But most of all, we are excited to see what all its participants have in store for us.
While HUAWEI and Samsung participated and jumped the gun in launching their new laptop and tablet devices, it is MWC. Mobile is in its name; we want something more smartphones. We got that with POCO and their new C4 Pro 5G.
The POCO X4 Pro is an entry-level device, but you get plenty of flagship features on it at a fraction of the cost.
Source: POCO
You are met with an expansive 6.67-inch AMOLED DotDisplay screen that has a small punch hole at the middle of the top of the panel for a selfie camera. The 6.67-inch display is a nice 120Hz refresh rate display for a nice and smooth user experience (UX). It also features 360Hz touch sampling rate for a near instant and snappy feel of the MIUI 13 interface. The Full HD+ AMOLED display is a first for a POCO X series device.
Standing out at the back of the device is a 108-Megapixel sensor for super high-resolution and detailed photos. There is also an 8-Megapixel ultra-wide camera, a 2-Megapixel macro camera supporting the main camera and adding more variety to your gallery, or Instagram spread. Out front, in the punch hole is a16-Megapixel camera for clear and clean selfies.
Keeping everything going as they should, is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 System on a Chip (SoC). The 6nm SoC is 5G capable; hence, the 5G moniker, and is one of Qualcomm’s latest chips to roll off the line. It comes with two ARM Cortex-A78 high-performance cores that clocks out at 2.2Ghz and supported by six other efficiency cores.
The powerful SoC is supported by 8GB of RAM, which is ample these days. If you need more, the device can take 3GB out of its 256GB built-in storage as temporary makeshift RAM on top of the 8GB RAM. It works great if you tend to open 100 apps (over-exaggeration) and leaves all of them open.
To ensure that it will keep you connected and going all day is a 5,000mAh battery that is supposed to offer 15 hours of video playback. When it starts running low and you can find a wall port, it charges at up to 67W speeds and can be fully charged from an empty battery in just 41 minutes.
Price and Availability
The POCO X4 Pro was just launched in MWC 2022 very recently. It can be yours very soon though. The X4 Pro will arrive in Malaysian shores by the 3rd of March 2022 onward exclusively on Shopee. It comes in two variants, a 6GB + 128GB variant and an 8GB + 256GB variant. They are priced at MYR 1,199 and MYR 1,499 respectively. If you get them on their launch date – you are eligible for an Early Bird discount that brings the prices down to MYR 1,099 and MYR 1,249 respectively. More information on the POCO X4 Pro can be found on their website.
