Samsung Galaxy A52 5G and the Samsung Galaxy A72 are some of the hottest midrange smartphones out there in the market today due to their features and also the specifications that we can expect on the smartphone.
For the Samsung Galaxy A72, we’re getting here a Snapdragon 720G Octa-Core chipset inside and there’s the 64MP quad-camera setup and also a large 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Full HD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate while the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G comes with a smaller 6.5-inch Super AMOLED Full HD+ display but it has a way better 120Hz refresh rate and the processor is a Snapdragon 750G chipset.
Those numbers might sound great but those are not just the features that you should check out from these smartphones as they have a lot more to offer. Check out the hidden features that we can expect on the Samsung Galaxy A52 5G and the Galaxy A72 below:
Xiaomi Philippines has been aggressive quite recently as the company has just posted a 318% annual growth which is the highest among the top 3 smartphone vendors in the Philippines according to the latest report from Canalys. Xiaomi has achieved a 15% share with a 318% growth rate which is one of the biggest that we’ve seen for a mobile brand.
According to Canalys, realme stayed at the #1 spot with a 26% unit share and has posted a 51% annual growth while vivo stayed the same at the #2 with 19% unit share and with a -4% annual growth. Samsung has also stayed at #4 and OPPO went down to #5. While Xiaomi went from #5 to #3 with a 318% annual growth.
Another double-digit sale is coming and if you’re looking for a Tecno smartphone then you might want to check out their deals this 8.8 at Shopee and Lazada!
The TECNO Mobile Spark 6 Go will be on sale on 8.8 for as low as Php4,499 on Shopee. You can get this smartphone at an 18% discount from the original price of Php5,490. While the Camon 16 will be available for 20% off from its price of Php7,990 to Php6,299.
While on Lazada, you can get Tecno smartphones including the Spark 6 Go for only Php4,949 during the Shop Local Sale and also the Spark 6 Air for Php4,256 from August 8 to 12. On August 8 during the 8.8 Brand Mega Offer on Lazada, Both smartphones will be at an even lower price. You can get the Spark 6 Air and the SPark 6 Go for just Php4,213 and Php4,899 respectively.
You can check out their Shopee page and Lazada page for more information.
ASUS has recently brought back the Zenfone smartphones to the Philippine shores but unlike before, these Zenfones packs the latest and powerful chips from Snapdragon, the Snapdragon 888, and today, we’re gonna review one of the two Zenfones to arrive in the country, the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip.
ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Design and hardware
The ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip still carries the same design of the predecessor. The form factor and the design is pretty much the same. For the materials used on the smartphone, well, it’s very premium. I like the glass feel at the back of the smartphone and also the premium metal sides of the smartphone.
It is tough and premium but the body of the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip is noticeable thick compared to most smartphones this 2021. So having a case on the smartphone means that the smartphone will be even thicker but I highly suggest that you use the case on this one as the back is mostly made up of glass.
For the ports, the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip comes with a USB-C port that supports 30W charging on the smartphone which is a little bit slow considering that most smartphones are above that and the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip comes with a 5000mAh battery inside.
As for the buttons on the smartphone, the power button is placed on the right and above it is the volume rocker but as for the fingerprint scanner, the smartphone comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner and I don’t really recommend using facial recognition on this smartphone you might wear out the flip camera of the smartphone.
Speaking of the flip camera, I noticed that it was fast and smooth when flipping. Of course, it comes with a protruding camera module at the back but the flip was solid on this one. There are some safety features on the smartphone as it automatically flips back in case you’re using the camera and you suddenly drop your smartphone to protect it from more damages.
ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Display
The display of the smartphone is pretty big like before. We got here a 6.67-inch 20:9 Samsung AMOLED display with Delta-E<1. It also comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 for its protection and it does come with 110% DCI-P3 colors. For the display aspect ratio, we got here a 92% screen-to-body ratio thanks to its flip camera so there’s no notch or punch-hole camera over here.
Now the colors and the screen size might sound excellent for users but the smartphone still comes with a 90Hz display instead of a 120Hz display which can be found on most flagship smartphones these days. The smartphone’s display is still great nonetheless and it’s very visible outside and it’s perfect for watching videos as it has no notch or punch-hole cameras
ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Battery
Again, the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip comes with a 5000mAh battery and it might take some time before you can fully charge the smartphone with its 30W battery. Despite having a large 5000mAh battery inside, I only got a score of 8 hours and 11 minutes on the PC Mark Work 3.0 Battery Life test.
I was not surprised though as my smartphone’s usage cannot last a single workday for me and I’ve been looking for a charger before the day ends.
ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Software and performance
What I like about the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip is that the software and the UI of the smartphone are fast and very responsive and one of the reasons why is because the UI of the smartphone is clean and almost untouched. There are no heavy customizations on this one.
There are only a few bloatware that comes with this smartphone and as for the responsiveness, well, it’s excellent and it’s fast. The 90hz refresh rate does add some smoothness to the smartphone.
As for the performance, we got here the best of Qualcomm inside as the smartphone runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor inside along with 8GB of RAM, and for the storage, we got here a 256GB of internal storage on the smartphone.
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The smartphone might be powerful and it might have the same processor of the ASUS ROG Phone 5 but the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip is too hot to handle. I mean, literally. We’ve noticed that after playing a few minutes of Genshin Impact on the smartphone, it gets really hot to the point that the smartphone is uncomfortably hot to use.
Nonetheless, the smartphone was able to run any games that we’ve installed on it and the benchmarks on the smartphone are what we’ve expected.
ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Camera
The camera is the main highlight of the smartphone and ASUS did a tremendous job on this one. Yes, it’s a flip camera so you might probably be worried about its mechanism on the smartphone. But in my usage, it was sturdy and it comes with some safety features like what I’ve mentioned earlier.
You can even control the flip mechanism manually if you want to take an angled shot on the smartphone which is pretty cool. The flip mechanism was fast and it was good. AS for the cameras, we got here a 64MP main camera along with a 12MP ultrawide camera and also an 8MP telephoto lens.
The smartphone is capable of zooming up to 12x on this one and it’s also capable of recording videos at up to 8K and when it comes to the quality of the shots that we took, well, they’re great as expected.
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The details that we’re getting on the smartphone’s camera along with the accurate colors make the smartphone one of my favorite ones when it comes to camera and since the triple-lens camera of the smartphone is also your selfie camera, our selfies on the smartphone were excellent too.
ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip Review: Verdict
The ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip didn’t change much from the previous generation when it comes to the design. The processing power inside makes it really interesting as the Snapdragon 888 processor is very powerful and yes, the design and construction of the smartphone are premium and sturdy despite the flip mechanism. The camera of the smartphone is excellent as expected as the quality of our shots on the smartphone was great. The display is big and excellent too but it’s still at 90hz.
However, the smartphone might have a powerful processor inside but the temperatures of the smartphone were too high especially when playing games which makes it a not so attractive choice for gamers. The battery of the smartphone was disappointing too and it only uses up to 30W charging instead of 65W that we’ve seen before on the ASUS ROG Phone 5.
Despite the flaws, the ASUS Zenfone 8 Flip is still attractive due to its price of Php39,995.
The Huawei Nova 8 and the Nova 8i are both arriving in the Philippines this August with both smartphones sporting a quad-camera setup including a 64MP primary camera and also some cool features including a 66W Huawei SuperCharge which is one of the fastest in the industry.
The Huawei Nova 8 and the Nova 8i both feature a Nebular Camera System Design in where we got an elliptical shape that houses the camera and also the flashlight which is unique to HUawei nova smartphones.
It will also have features including seamless connection to Huawei laptops for a cross-device experience. For the apps, you can rely on the Huawei AppGallery or you can use the “Petal Search” so you can download apps for your smartphone.
Huawei Nova 8 Specs
6.57-inch Full HD+ Curved OLED display, 90Hz refresh rate
Kirin 820E processor
8GB RAM
128GB internal storage
64MP main + 8MP Ultra-wide-angle camera + 2MP depth + 2MP macro camera
32MP selfie camera
LTE
In-display fingerprint scanner
3800mAh battery
66W Huawei SuperCharge
EMUI 11 based on Android 10
Huawei Nova 8i Specs
6.67-inch Full HD+ Curved OLED display, 90Hz refresh rate
Kirin 820E processor
8GB RAM
128GB internal storage
64MP main + 8MP Ultra-wide-angle camera + 2MP depth + 2MP macro camera
32MP selfie camera
LTE
In-display fingerprint scanner
4300mAh battery
66W Huawei SuperCharge
EMUI 11 based on Android 10
The Huawei Nova 8 and the Nova 8i are expected to arrive this August in the Philippines
realme 8 5GThe realme 8 series is here and it’s one of the smartphones that we’re looking forward to after its announcement because it brings an affordable price and also 5G which is still new today in the country. But is it good? Well, we’re gonna discuss that in our review today
realme 8 5G Review: Design and hardware
Unlike the realme 8 Pro that we’ve reviewed before, the realme 8 5G sports a glossy back but the design language is still in line with the realme 8 smartphones. It’s clean, sleek, and the look of the smartphone is premium.
On the right, we can see the fingerprint scanner of the smartphone which also serves as the home button of the smartphone while on the other side, we can see the volume rocker of the smartphone.
As for the ergonomics, the realme 8 5G comes with a curved back which is really ergonomic to the hands and despite having a 5000mAh battery and 5G inside, the smartphone still comes with a sleek profile. Because of its glossy back, the smartphone can attract a lot of fingerprints and also smudges but again, the smartphone does have a pretty premium look at the back that looks like glass from afar.
Below the smartphone is where you can find the USB-C port that only supports 18W charging and also a 3.5mm headphone jack for external audio. Unfortunately, it will take some time before you can fully charge the smartphone, unlike its other realme 8 brothers that come with a faster Dart charge.
Realme 8 5G Review: Display
The realme 8 5G comes with a large 6.5-inch display with Full HD+ resolution. The smartphone uses a full HD+ resolution thankfully and we got here a 90Hz refresh rate which will give us a smoother motion than most smartphones but when playing games on the smartphone, you wouldn’t see it get past 60fps.
As for the quality of the display, I can use the smartphone. even when playing games outside but don’t expect that the smartphone will have the same caliber as an AMOLED smartphone but hey, at least we’re getting here a Full HD resolution and also a 90Hz refresh rate, and the IPS display isn’t that bad.
Realme 8 5G Review: Battery life
When it comes to the battery life, I was actually not expecting that much when it comes to the battery as the smartphone comes with a new chipset with 5G inside but surprisingly, it did well than I expected. The smartphone packs a 5000mAh battery inside and it did manage to get a score of 13 hours and 35 minutes in PC Mark Work 2.0 Battery life.
In our normal usage, the smartphone was able to last a day despite getting a 5G signal once in a while on the smartphone.
realme 8 5G Review: Software and performance
The realme 8 5G runs on Android 11 and it comes with realmeUI 2.0. It’s clean and the colors of the UI are easy to the eyes and again, the 90Hz of the smartphone does help in the smooth transitions on the smartphone especially when you’re browsing apps on the app drawer. But if you want, you can switch to 60Hz for a smoother refresh rate on the smartphone.
As for the processor, they opted for the MediaTek Dimensity 700 5G chipset inside which is one of the most affordable 5G chipsets out there in the market and then there’s the 8GB of RAM. When it comes to benchmarks, the smartphone was able to get a score of 366k in Antutu. Check out the benchmarks of the smartphone below:
We also tried the smartphone for playing games like Genshin Impact and the smartphone might be able to run the game but expect some frame drops whenever you’re on heavy scenes on the game. When it comes to PUBG Mobile, we were able to play the game at balanced settings with ultra framerate and it was quite good at that.
As for 5G on the smartphone, initially, I was getting up to 20-40mbps on 5G but after a while, I can get up to 200mbps on speeds on the smartphone which is pretty good for a 5G smartphone.
realme 8 5G Review: Camera
For the camera of the smartphone, it comes with a 48MP main camera along with 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensor. The camera of the smartphone might not be as impressive as the other realme 8 smartphones and this one doesn’t have an ultrawide lens at the back too. Check out the shots that we took using the smartphone.
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As expected, the shots that we took don’t have the sharpest or the best quality but it can get the job done if you just want to take photos or use the camera for normal usage. If you want the best camera experience, you better go for the realme 8 Pro.
realme 8 5G Review: Verdict
The realme 8 5G is one of the most affordable 5G smartphones out there which is the main selling point of the smartphone. Aside from that, the smartphone does pack a premium design and also a processor that will do the job but it doesn’t really excel in the camera department.
Nonetheless, if you’re looking for an affordable 5G smartphone then you might want to take a look at this smartphone.
Another interesting tablet from Huawei has arrived in the Philippines and this time it’s the Huawei MatePad 11 that is running on HarmonyOS 2 and also the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor inside.
Other cool feature that you can expect from the Huawei MatePad 11 is the Huawei Share in where you can have a seamless connection to your Huawei notebook so you can use the Huawei MatePad 11 as your secondary monitor.
The tablet also supports keyboard and also the Huawei M-Pencil for better interaction and of course, you can do multi-window applications on the tablet and lastly, the display of the notebook comes with 120Hz refresh rate.
The Huawei MatePad 11 is priced at Php26,999 and if you pre-order this August 6 until August 26, 2021 then you can get freebies worth Php14,888 that includes the Huawei MatePad M-Pencil 2nd gen, Huawei Smart Magnetic Keyboard, and the Huawei MatePad 11 sleeve.
For those who are going back to school and looking for a brand new smartphone then you might want to take a look at brand new vivo smartphones because they’re having massive discounts this Shopee 8.8 sale. From August 8 to 9, shoppers will be able to enjoy discounts up to Php4,000 on select phone models including the vivo V20, vivo Y12s, and the vivo Y20s G 4+128GB.
The vivo V20 that has an SRP of Php19,999 will be available at Shopee 8.8 sale at a reduced price of Php16,999 plus a Php1000 off with a voucher. This is a massive discount of Php4,000 on a mid-range smartphone that is made for selfies. The smartphone features a 44MP Eye Auto Focus camera, a 64MP rear camera, and also a Snapdragon 720G processor inside.
The vivo Y12s comes with an original price of Php6,499 but you’ll be able to get it for Php5,999 with a Php300 off voucher so basically, you can get a total savings of Php800. The smartphone also comes with 13MP rear camera along with 2MP bokeh camera. It also comes with a Helio P35 chip along with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.
The vivo Y20s G 4+128GB will also be on a discount. The smartphone is originally priced at Php8,999 but it will be available for Php7,999 plus a Php300 off voucher so you can get a total of Php1,300 savings. The smartphone comes with 6.51-inch HD+ LCD, a Helio G80 processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB ROM, and a 5000mAh battery.
Other smartphones that are available on a discount are the vivo Y31, Y20i 2021, Y1s, and the vivo V21 5G. You can check out the discounts below:
Model
Original Price (PHP)
Shopee 8.8 Price (PHP)
Y12s
6499
5999
V20
19999
16999
Y20s G (4+128)
8999
7999
Y31
12999
11999
Y20i 2021
7499
7299
Y1s
5499
4899
V21 5G
23999
21999
To maximize the discounts this Shopee 8.8 sale, you can check out the vouchers over the 2-day sale. You can also avail vivo’s Php500 off midnight voucher on August 8 from 12 AM to 2 AM but it will be limited to the first 500 buyers with a minimum purchase of Php4,000. Here are the vouchers that you can get:
P50 OFF voucher (no min spend)
P100 OFF voucher (min spend 4000)
P300 OFF voucher (min spend 5000)
P500 OFF voucher (min spend 9000)
P1000 OFF voucher (for V20 only)
You can check out vivo Philippines’ official page on Shopee here: https://bit.ly/vivoxShopee88
realme Philippines has announced that their value smartphone — the realme C11 2021, will be getting a price drop which makes it even more affordable for the Filipino people.
The realme C11 2021 comes with a large 5000mAh battery with ultra saving mode and it also comes with a large 6.5-inch large display. For the camera, the realme C11 2021 comes with 8MP main camera and it will come with a 32GB of internal storage inside.
The smartphone also comes with 2GB+32GB memory inside and the smartphone was initially available for Php4,990 but you can now get it for Php4,590 which if Php400 off from the SRP of the smartphone. You can get it at Lazada, Shopee, and in more than 500 realme stores and over 4000 partner dealers nationwide.
Want to experience the country’s fastest 5G network? Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) might be the answer!
According to latest report by Ookla — an independent internet analytics firm, Smart has recorded the fastest 5G network in the Philippines for the first half of 2021.
Over 237,000 user-initiated tests were done with Speedtest, revealing that Smart has a Speed Score of 204.81 and median download and upload speeds of 220.66Mbps and 20.61Mbps respectively.
In addition, the telco giant remained dominant as the country’s fastest mobile network for the fourth year in a row.
Smart also received the Fastest Mobile Network Award as it recorded a Speed Score of 44.70. This is impressive compared to last year’s 24.99 Speed Score.
Meanwhile, PLDT and Smart explained that these measurements are just among the tools they use to deliver a world-class mobile network experience in the country.
Xiaomi has achieved a 15% share with a 318% growth rate which is one of the biggest that we’ve seen for a mobile brand.
realme 8 5G Review: Design and hardware
