Another budget smartphone will be coming to the Philippines from Huawei soon and it’s Huawei Y7. The smartphone will also be taking advantage of the Huawei AppGallery for its apps. Since this is a budget smartphone, the Huawei Y7 will feature a Qualcomm 450 CPU and also a 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. Interested? Check out the specs of the smartphone below.
Huawei Y7 Specs
Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor
6.26-inch HD+ Huawei DewDrop Display, 19:9 display aspect ratio
4GB RAM
64GB Internal storage expandable via MicroSD
13MP + 2MP rear camera
8MP selfie camera
Fingerprint scanner
LTE, Dual SIM
Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS,WiFi
4000mAh battery
EMUI 8.2 based on Android Oreo
The smartphone packs a little bit dated specifications but I’m pretty sure that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 inside the smartphone along with the 4GB of RAM will do just fine this 2020 as long as you are just running some basic apps on the smartphone.
Aside from the realme C3 launching here in the Philippines, realme India has also unveiled the all-new realme 6 and realme 6 Pro. Both smartphones feature amazing hardware inside and one of the main upgrades on the smartphone is that it now features faster processors, faster charging, and of course, a smoother 90Hz refresh rates on the display of the smartphones.
The realme 6 will be powered by MediaTek G90T processor which is powerful enough for some games and it will come in 4GB/6GB/8GB RAM variants. The smartphone also features a 6.5-inch display with Full HD+ resolution and also a smooth 90Hz refresh rate.
For the camera, the realme 6 features a 64MP main camera with a Samsung GW1 sensor paired with 8MP ultra wide-angle camera, 2MP macro, and a 2MP portrait lens. The smartphone also comes with 64GB or 128GB UFS 2.1 storage and of course, there’s a microSD card slot on this smartphone.
There’s a large 4300mAh battery inside which is a downgrade from the 5000mAh battery from the realme 5 and of course, we still have here the 30W charger.
64GB/128GB Internal storage expandable via MicroSD
64MP main + 8MP ultrawide camera + 2MP macro lens + 2MP portrait lens rear camera
16MP selfie camera
Dual SIM, LTE
WiFi, bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, BD, GLONASS, NaviC
Side-mounted fingerprint scanner
USB-C
4300mAh battery
30W Fast Charging
realme UI based on Android 10
While the realme 6 Pro features a better Snapdragon 720G processor and it comes with 6GB or 8GB RAM. The smartphone also features a bigger 6.6-inch display with 90Hz refresh rate and also a full HD+ resolution.
One of the biggest advantage of the realme 6 Pro is that the smartphone features a dual-selfie camera — a 16MP and 8MP ultra wide-angle selfie cameras. At the back, there’s the 64MP camera, 12MP telephoto lens, 8MP ultra wide-angle and a 2MP macro lens and it also comes with UIS max video stabilization.
There’s the same 4300mAh battery along with 30W fast charging on the smartphone. As expected, both smartphones will feature realme UI based on Android 10 and yes, this one is quite fast.
The newest budget smartphone from realme has just launched today and it’s the realme C3. The smartphone is one of the most interesting smartphones this year because despite placing it in the budget segment, the realme C3 is actually a pretty powerful smartphone for its price. Want to know the full specs and price of the smartphone? Check it out below.
One of the best features of the smartphone is the Helio G70 processor inside. For its price, the Helio G70 is pretty powerful and it can even compete against SoCs in the mid-range segment and yes, I was even able to play some games on the smartphone too at mid to high settings.
The smartphone also features a triple lens rear camera which is comprised of a 12MP main camera + 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor and for selfies, there’s the 5MP selfie camera on the smartphone. Aside from that, we also have here a pretty large 6.5-inch HD+ display along with the 5000mAh battery life.
In case you’re wondering on how good the realme C3 is when it comes to gaming, check out our gaming preview of the realme C3:
Realme C3 Specs
6.5-inch HD+ Display
Mediatek Helio G70 processor
3GB RAM
32GB Internal storage expandable via MicroSD
12MP + 2MP depth + 2MP macro camera
5MP Selfie camera
Dual SIM, LTE
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
5000mAh battery
Fingerprint scanner
Android 10 with Realme UI
Check out our unboxing and hands-on of the smartphone below.
The realme C3 comes in 3GB+32GB variant and is priced at Php5,990. The smartphone will be available this March 5 nationwide and also at Lazada and Shopee.
There’s a special Lazada offer too in where you can get a free realme Buds 2 worth Php690 for the first 1000 buyers and for Shopee, you can get a 10% discount with the voucher code SHPrealmeC3 for every purchase for the first 1000 users only.
The Black Shark 3 and 3 Pro have been unveiled by Xiaomi and yes, they’re still a pretty powerful but of course, they have some cool gaming-centric features on the smartphone including a 90Hz display and also the pop-up shoulder buttons which are really helpful when playing FPS games on the smartphone.
There are two smartphones in the Black Shark 3 series — the 3 and the 3 Pro but first, let’s talk about the Black Shark 3
Black Shark 3
The Black Shark 3 features a smaller 6.67-inch FHD+ display without the pop-up trigger. This one also features a 4720mAh battery with up to 12GB RAM and256GB of internal storage. The smartphone also features a 3.5mm headphone jack so yeah, you can play all day with your earphones.
Inside, we still have the Snapdragon 865 processor and of course, an LPDDR4X RAM. The smartphone also comes with 64MP main camera and 13MP ultra wide-angle and also a 5MP depth sensor with a 20MP selfie camera.
As expected, the display will still have a 90Hz refresh rate with 270Hz touch response and of course, there will be a liquid cooling system inside this smartphone.
The smartphone comes in three colors — Lightning Black, Armor Gray, and Star Silver.
64MP main camera + 13MP ultra wide-angle + 5MP depth sensor
20MP front-facing camera
LTE, 5G
In-display fingerprint scanner
65W Charging, 18W magnetic charging
Liquid Cooler
capacitive shoulder buttons
4720mAh battery
Android 10
Black Shark 3 Pro
It’s the best of the two smartphones and it comes with a larger display at 7.1-inch and also a Quad HD+ resolution on the AMOLED display of the smartphone and of course, we still have here the 90Hz refresh rate with 270Hz touch response.
The battery of the smartphone is also pretty big at 5000mAh and oh, we now have a pop-up physical button on the smartphone that can help you in FPS games. If you’re worried about the large battery, the smartphone comes with 65W fast charging that can fully charge the smartphone in just 38 minutes and in case you’re playing, there’s a magnetic charger that you can stick at the back so you can play on the smartphone and also charge it.
Once again, PLDT and Smart is the fastest fixed and mobile networks in the country according to Ookla, the company behind Speedtest and the leader in fixed broadband and mobile network testing applications.
The results are based on Ookla’s test taken with Speedtest that covers the second half of 2019. Smart has managed to get a Speed Score 18.13 with an average of download speeds of 20.42 Mbps and average upload speeds of 9.87 Mbps. While PLDT has achieved a score of 25.03 with top download speeds of 62.87 Mbps and top upload speeds of 80.07 Mbps.
These scores are an improvement from PLDT and Smart’s results from 1H 2019 with Smart scoring 17.07 and PLDT scoring 20.44.
Smart has posted leads in the key cities Makati, Manila, and Quezon City while PLDT is leading in Quezon City, Cebu City, and Cagayan De Oro.
Here’s a piece of good news for Xiaomi fans as the next affordable series of Redmi will be coming soon. Yep, the Redmi Note9 series will go official this March 12 according to the Twitter account of Redmi in India.
Brace yourselves for the biggest #Redmi product launch of 2020! 🤩#ProCamerasMaxPerformance is going to be nothing like you have ever seen before! A new #RedmiNote is coming on 12th March! 😎
The teaser photo of the Redmi 9 Note series suggests that the smartphone will have a four-camera array with a square cutout which is similar to the Huawei Mate 20. The smartphone might also pack a USB-C port along with a headphone jack too.
The details are still scarce but we will know about the smartphone in the next week’s event.
Fujifilm has launched a brand new cmera in the Philippines and it’s a camera made for those who want to be content creators and it’s the Fujifilm X-T200. This camera provides EVF, 4K UHD video, and also a touchscreen vari-angle LCD so you can create your vlogs with the right framing.
Aside from that, the Fujifilm X-T200 weighs at 370g which is a lot lighter than the predecessor and inside, we got here a high-speed APS-C 24.2 MP CMOS sensor and it also packs an improvement in the AF performance.
The camera also offers “HDR Video” and it can record at 4K30p videos and Full HD 120p videos. There’s “electronic stabilization mode” too which enhances the stabilization when recording videos. There’s PDAF too so autofocus has drastically improve on this camera.
There’s a 3.5-inch display too with 16:9 display aspect ratio and it’s a touchscreen display that you can open and close between 0 to 180 degrees and rotate between -90 to +180. With the touchscreen display, you can adjust the brightness, blurring, film effects and many more.
The face/eye detection AF has also improve too so you can focus on individuals and also groups quickly using the camera. This is actually great if you love taking selfie photos or group photos.
The Fujifilm X-T200 comes in silver, dark silver, and champagne and it also comes as a kit with XC15-45mm f3.5-5.6 OIS PZ lens. If you are interested, it will be available this March 2020 for Php45,990.
Those who will pre-order this camera until March 15, they’ll get a free monopod when they purchase at Fujifilm authorized dealers nationwide.
The Huawei Mate 30 and the Mate 30 Pro are both amazing smartphones as both smartphones have introduced the powerful Kirin 990 processor along with the more powerful Leica cameras inside that has the top scores at DxOMark and they have an amazing hardware features inside and in case you didn’t know, the smartphone series is also taking advantage of their own Huawei Mobile Services instead of Google Mobile Services.
So if you’re curious about HMS or what it can offer, here some reasons why I think Huawei Mobile Services is pretty exciting for everyone.
1. It’s growing really fast
One of the main reasons why the Huawei AppGallery is growing really fast is because Huawei has been actively supporting the developers to flock to the AppGallery and develop apps based on the Huawei Mobile Services Core.
A few months ago, we’ve attended the Huawei Developer’s day conference in Singapore and we were amazed at the API and what Huawei Mobile Services can offer. It’s both beneficial for the developers and also the consumers. Oh and for developers? they’re only getting 15% cut from every purchase unlike Google at 30%
2. The basic games and apps are here
If you remember Blackberry OS and Nokia’s own Android OS a few years ago, one of the problems they encountered is the lack of apps but unlike those manufacturers, Huawei has managed to bring the most basic applications to HMS. So what are those applications? Well, we have here PayMaya, BDO, Grab, Lazada, Shopee, and many more.
When it comes to games, you can now download Asphalt 9 and even Epic games so you can install Fortnite on your smartphone and yes, it’s still growing.
3. It’s part of the large Huawei ecosystem
2020 is the start of the 5G era and Huawei has been beefing up its ecosystem by introducing the 1+8+N strategy. Basically, the 1 refers to your smartphones while the 8 refers to your PC, wearables, headphones and many more while N refers to the smart homes, IoT products, smart products and many more.
With the smartphone as an important part of this strategy, it’s really essential for Huawei to start building their apps and core with the smartphone and the AppGallery is the forefront for future apps for Huawei devices.
4. You can still access the web version of apps
In case your apps aren’t available on the AppGallery, it’s pretty easy to install it on the device as you only need to go to their website and you can instantly add a shortcut to your homescreen. With this, you’ll now be able to install applications and games that aren’t available on the AppGallery.
In my case, I use APK Pure and also APK Monk for my Huawei Mate 30 Pro. No Google Play? No problem!
5. It’s currently the third biggest app store
Recently, Huawei has announced that the AppGallery is the world’s #3 app store which means that the AppGallery is now behind Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. In just a few months, Huawei has definitely made a mark in the industry with the rapid rise of apps on the AppGallery.
So if you’re buying the Huawei Mate 30 series or the Huawei Y7P, you don’t have to worry that much since you’ll still be able to install a lot of apps on the smartphone.
The realme 5i is one of the latest smartphone from the company and it aims to be the newest budget smartphone to beat in the country. It still has most of the features of the realme 5 but it toned down on some hardware and some design on the smartphone. The smartphone is really attractive at its price due to the specs that we’re getting for its affordable price and if that interest you, check out our review of the realme 5i below.
realme 5i review: Hardware and design
One of the biggest changes of the realme 5i from realme 5 is the back cover of the smartphone. We now have a plastic textured back which reminds me of the realme C2. But don’t worry because this one is not slippery however, it looks cheaper than the realme 5. Also, we now have a forest green color at the back that looks really fine and pleasing to the eye.
Surprisingly, the realme 5 is 0.3mm thicker compared to the realme 5i but you wouldn’t feel the difference between the two and in the case of the realme 5i, the thickness is just fine for me and it is still ergonomic for me despite its slightly thick build.
The realme 5i is still using a microUSB port but there’s no VOOC fast charging on this one so it takes a lot of time before you can fully charge the smartphone. As expected, we still have here a 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button and the volume rocker are still placed at the same spot on the smartphone.
The speaker quality of the realme 5i is just the same with realme 5 and it will do just fine for an entry-level smartphone. There’s a fingerprint scanner at the back of the smartphone and for some people, they might find it a little bit hard to reach especially if they have small hands.
realme 5i review: Display
The realme 5 is known for having a large display which is really attractive for those people who are into watching media files on their smartphones and of course, for playing games and with the realme 5i, they didn’t fail to impress us with their 6.5-inch display on the smartphone.
Yes, it’s an LCD display and we got here a 1600×720 resolution on the display of the smartphone with 269 ppi, but we’re still pretty happy with the display on the smartphone. It’s vivid and it’s still visible under direct sunlight. However, it is still not as sharp as most smartphones but c’mon, I can give it a pass since this one is still a budget smartphone.
Realme 5i review: Battery life
The realme 5i still features a large 5000mAh battery inside and thankfully, we’re still getting a long battery life on the smartphone and in our PC Mark Battery test on the realme 5i, we got a really long battery score of 17 hours and 38 minutes. In real life usage, the smartphone can last up to two days of average use and a single day of battery life at heavy usage.
Realme 5i review: Software and performance
The smartphone still uses a the colorOS 6.0.1 and it is still based on Android 9 Pie. We’re not sure yet if this one will come with realme UI anytime soon but honestly, the current UI that we have is already fine as it is already fast and it’s very user-friendly. Just like the other realme smartphones, the realme 5i comes with some apps like the theme store, webnovel, oroaming, and many more but it doesn’t take too much of the storage of the smartphone and again, it’s still fast and fine to use.
Inside the smartphone is the powerful Snapdragon 665 AIE processor along with 3GB RAM. For the storage, there’s the 64GB internal storage that is expandable via microSD. Yes, it’s a processor used by smartphones from different price range but realme managed to put this processor on their budget smartphone, the realme 5i. As expected, the smartphone can run most games similar to the realme 5 that we’ve reviewed before. In our benchmarks, the realme 5i actually did pretty well.
In gaming, the realme 5i can run games like PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile without problems. But of course, setting it at the mid-high settings is recommended to get the best possible experience for these games. In PUBG Mobile, the high framerate is only available on the smooth graphics of the smartphone. Check out the Gamebench scores that we got on the smartphone:
The best feature about the realme 5 series is the quad-camera setup of the smartphone and just like the realme 5, we still got here a quad-camera lens. We got here a 12MP main camera, an 8MP wide-angle camera, 2MP portrait camera, 2MP macro camera which is the same with the realme 5 but this time, we got here an 8MP selfie camera which is a downgrade from the 13MP of the realme 5.
In our usage, the rear camera can still capture pretty shots and it’s as good as the realme 5. We can still capture pretty good shots on the smartphone as we got here some fine colors and of course some details but sometimes, I notice that the shots get a little bit warmer even at decent lighting conditions.
realme 5i camera sample 22
realme 5i camera sample 18
realme 5i camera sample 17
realme 5i camera sample 10
realme 5i camera sample 6
realme 5i camera sample 4
realme 5i camera sample 1
realme 5i camera sample 16
realme 5i camera sample 15
realme 5i camera sample 13
At lowlight, we still got here pretty good night shots, especially with its night mode. It’s not as good as the realme 5 Pro but this one can do its job well for a budget smartphone. When it comes to selfies, the downgrade didn’t affect the quality of selfie camera that much but I notice that the realme 5 can perform a little bit better than the realme 5i.
Realme 5i review: Verdict
The realme 5i might be a budget smartphone but don’t get fooled with that as the realme 5i features a powerful processor, camera, and long battery life. The smartphone is also Php1,000 cheaper than the realme 5 and that’s a big thing already. The features that you can get here are almost the same from the realme 5 and the downgrade in the selfie camera and also the back cover isn’t a big thing for me actually. If you’re into a budget smartphone then you might want to take a look at this smartphone, the realme 5i.
The realme 5i is now available for Php6,990 for the 3GB+64GB variant.
Realme 5i Specs
6.5-inch HD+ IPS Dewdrop display, 20:9 display ratio
Qualcomm Snapdragon 655 Octa-Core Processor
3GB RAM
64GB internal storage expandable via MicroSD
12MP f/1.8 camera + 8MP Ultra-wide angle lens + 2MP macro camera + 2MP depth sensor
Looks like we’ll be seeing more Samsung Galaxy A smartphones as a render of the Samsung Galaxy 41 has leaked online and unlike the Samsung Galaxy A51 and Galaxy A71 which was released earlier this year, the Samsung Galaxy A41 will feature an Infinity-U display.
The smartphone will feature a flat display between 6.0-6.1-inches and at the back, we’re seeing here a rectangular camera that we’ve seen before on the Samsung Galaxy A51 and the Galaxy A71 but this time, we’ll only have triple-lens camera at the back of the smartphone and there’s no fingerprint scanner too which may suggest that the smartphone uses an on-screen fingerprint scanner.
The camera of the smartphone is noticeable featuring a 48MP camera we will still have the same pattern design at the back of the smartphone. Aside from that, the Samsung Galaxy A41 will also feature a USB-C port along with a headphone jack.
The smartphone is rumoured to run on Helio P65 chipset along with 4GB of RAM. It will also come with One UI 2.0 that is based on Android 10. The smartphone is also expected to come with 64GB and 128GB storage.
Aside from that, the Samsung Galaxy A41 is also expected to feature a 3500mAh battery which 15W fast charging support.
