Redmi will have a new smartphone in the lineup soon and the Philippines is one of the first to have it and it’s the Redmi Go. The smartphone is expected to be the first Android Go smartphone from the company and we expect that the smartphone will have a basic-level specifications.
Our friends from Revu.com.ph also managed to get a copy of the specifications of the smartphone and it suggests that the smartrphone will run Snapdragon 425 chipset, 8GB storage, 1GB RAM, and Android Oreo Go Edition.
Redmi Go Specs
5-inch HD LCD Display, 1280×720
Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, Adreno 308 GPU
1GB RAM
8GB Internal storage expandable via MicroSD up to 128GB
One of the newest smartphones that Huawei Philippines has launched before the end of 2018 is the Huawei Y9 2019. It’s a decent smartphone and it will not cost you that much on your wallet. And despite being in the Y-series, the Huawei Y9 2019 is a smartphone that you should really take a look at.
Design and hardware
The Huawei Y9 2019 might belong in the Y family but the design and feel of the smartphone don’t feel like it has been compromised. The back is made up of plastic surprisingly but it does feel like glass and it’s very premium to hold. Despite the large footprint of the smartphone, the Huawei Y9 2019 does feel comfortable to hold thanks to the curve sides of the smartphone similar to the Huawei Nova 3.
The Huawei Y9 2019 is noticeable big but that isn’t a bad thing as I can hold the smartphone pretty well. The Huawei Y 2019 doesn’t lack in ports as we got a micro USB port in here along with the headphone jack beside it. The smartphone also has a speaker grill just beside and actually, it’s just fine for its price range.
The smartphone is really a decent one when it comes to design as the smartphone only features a minimal notch with a tiny bezel. The smartphone’s volume rocker and the power button are placed on one side and despite the size, the Huawei Y9 2019 does feel ergonomic to me.
At the back of the smartphone is the fingerprint scanner and it was pretty fast but in case you want a faster and easier way to unlock the smartphone, there’s face unlock too which is as fast as most Huawei smartphones that we’ve reviewed before.
Overall, the build quality of the smartphone is surprising to me for a Huawei smartphone at this price range.
Battery life
The Huawei Y9 2019 sports a 4000mAh battery and it’s actually pretty big if you ask me. In our usage of the smartphone, we were not surprised that the smartphone lasted really long in PC Mark as we got a score of 10 hours 55 minutes. In our average usage, we’ve managed to reach a day and a half which lasted really long.
Display
Another thing to love on the Huawei Y9 2019 is the display of the smartphone. There’s the 6.5-inch display with a 19.5:9 display aspect ratio and a Full HD+ resolution. Actually, I was expecting that the Huawei Y9 2019 will sport an HD+ display instead of FHD+ since we’re dealing with a smartphone with a more affordable price than the Huawei Nova 3i.
Of course, the notch at the top is expected and it wasn’t really that wide. The size of the notch is almost the same with the Huawei Nova 3i and the Huawei Nova 3 which isn’t that bad. But of course, we wouldn’t say that it’s the best as other smartphone manufacturers are already selling smartphones with a tinier notch.
When it comes to display quality, the Huawei Y9 2019 is pretty decent. Again, it isn’t the best one in its price range but the color accuracy of the display is pretty nice and I can use it well even at direct sunlight.
Performance
The Huawei Y9 2019 comes with a Kirin 710 processor inside along with the 4GB of RAM. Actually, I was not expecting that the smartphone will have the same specifications of the Huawei Nova 3i as Huawei might compete for the Y9 2019 with their own smartphone.
Like what we’ve experienced before in our review of the Huawei Nova 3i, the Huawei Y9 2019 is a decent smartphone when it comes to performance. It might not be as powerful as other chipsets in the market, but the Kirin 710 is really reliable when it comes to thermals and efficiency. Adding to that is the GPU turbo which is why we really saw an increase in performance in games like PUBG Mobile.
The benchmark scores that we got on the Huawei Y9 2019 is pretty fair. The scores are pretty good in its price range and it can definitely compete with other smartphones.
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As seen in the benchmark, the Huawei Y9 2019 fared well in the gaming segment too. But in some games, you might want to lower the settings to get more enjoyable frame rates.
The Huawei Y9 2019 might have a lot of similarities with the Huawei Nova 3i but when it comes to camera quality, the Huawei Nova 3i has a superior performance. The Huawei Y9 2019 features a 13MP+2MP at the back and a 16MP+2MP at the front and yes, the smartphone supports AI so it can produce better shots and better colors as the smartphone can recognize the objects that you are shooting.
Despite having an inferior camera compared to the Huawei Nova 3i, I was surprised that the smartphone packs a night mode and it might not be as good as other Huawei smartphones in the higher range but it surprisingly works in our tests. Actually, it’s a surprising feature that other smartphones in this price range don’t have.
When it comes to camera quality, I can’t say that it was great but shooting at decent light conditions was fine to me at some times but it wasn’t great, however, shooting at you’ll notice that it was greater than I expected especially with the night mode. And oh, the AI really works on the Huawei Y9 2019. Check out the shots that we took using the smartphone below.
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Verdict
The Huawei Y9 2019 is undoubtedly a great smartphone for its price range. You have solid and decent build quality, the display is really fine and the performance of the smartphone is pretty well. The camera of the smartphone also supports AI but don’t expect too much from it but I’m quite satisfied with its performance.
The Huawei Y9 2019 is now available for Php12,990 and yes, it does have a really good price.
We got another set of live pictures of the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy S10+ but this time, it’s clearer and it confirms a lot of new features about the smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ is now confirmed that the smartphones will pack a hole-punch camera or Infinity-O display with the Samsung Galaxy S10+ packing a dual-lens front camera.
Another confirmed features of the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ is the triple lens camera of the smartphones which is the first in the Galaxy S flagship line. Thankfully, Samsung is still using a USB-C port along with the headphone jack below.
It seems that the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ loses the fingeprint scanner so we may see an in-display fingerprint scanner on these smartphones too. The Samsung Galaxy S10 series is expected to be unveiled this February at San Francisco, California.
PUBG Lite is the version of the game that is made for PC with lower specifications and also for those people who want to play the game but they want it free. There’s no need for emulators here as the game is made exclusively for the PC and now, the game has started its open beta in Thailand. Actually, you can now download PUBG Lite for PC at the link below.
Realme Philippines is expanding to 1000 stores nationwide and to celebrate this milestone from the comapny, they’re having a cool promo for the consumers this coming weekend, January 26-27.
If you’re buying the Realme C1 this January 26-27, you’ll be able to get freebies like the headphones, earphones, bluetooth headphones, power banks, backpack, and a ringholder depending on the store where you’re buying.
These are the freebies that you can get from each dealers:
Wow mobile center — Free ring holder or monopad
Yanas gadgets — Free tripod
Y Telecom — Free earphone
Aerophone — free earphone
DG Phone cards — Free headphone
Fonestyle — Free bluetooth headset
Fun mobile — Free magnetic grip holder, selfie stick, & LAS 6000mAh powerbank
Galleon Enterprises — Free bag
Infinity — Free monopod
Presnet — Free monopod
The Realme C1 is now available for Php5,990.
Realme C1 Specs
6.2-inch HD+ display, 88.8% screen-to-body ratio
Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 Processor
2GB RAM
16GB Internal storage expandable via MicroSD up to 256GB
The Samsung Galaxy S10 is definitely one of the most exciting device this year and there were a lot of leaks already showing the smartphone. And now, there’s another leak showing the front panel of the smartphone with a small cutout camera at the top right of the smartphone.
Cryptocurrency is one of the hottest things that happened in 2017 up to 2018 but the hype definitely died when the value of cryptocurrency crashed and surprisingly, Samsung Galaxy S10 will have the Samsung Blockchain KeyStore in where the smartphone can store or create a new wallet for supported cryptocurrencies. The leak shows that it supports ETH or Ethereum and I expect that the smartphone’s Blockchain KeyStore will also support BTC too.
The ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2 is one of the best smartphones from the company as it features a budget pricing that starts at Php12,995 for the 4GB/64GB variant. The smartphone features a powerful Snapdragon 660 processor inside along with the 5000mAh battery which makes the smartphone perfect for longer gaming usage.
ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2 Specs
6.3-inch Full HD+ all-screen IPS Display with Gorilla Glass 6
Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 Octa-Core chipset
6GB RAM
64GB Internal Storage expandable via MicroSD
12MP+5MP Rear Camera with AI
13MP Front camera
Dual SIM, LTE
Fingerprint Scanner
Face Unlock
5000mAh Battery
Stock Android 8.1 Oreo with coming upgrade to Android 9.0
And now, the ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2 is now available in a new color — Cosmic Titanium which is basically silver for those who have no idea. There’s no change in hardware specifications or the price of the smartphone so yeah, the ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2 is still affordable but the Cosmic Titanium is only available in 6GB/64GB variant for Php14,995.
Previously, only a few can afford a smartwatch, smart band or a fitness tracker due to its price but fast forward today, these devices now pack a lot of new features and importantly, they are more affordable. And today, we’ll check out the latest smart band from a Filipino company, the Cherry Mobile Flare Active.
Just like the Flare series of their smartphones, the Cherry Mobile Flare Active is jampacked with features but it sports a really affordable price. It isn’t their first foray into the smart band or smartwatch segment as they’ve done it before however, it wasn’t good as this one.
First of all, the Cherry Mobile Flare Active sports a rubber band. While it is comfortable to use and the band is pretty much fine with me, I believe that you can’t easily find a replacement for this one. However, the lower band can be removed which will reveal the USB of the device that will let you charge the Cherry Mobile Flare Active.
Here’s the interesting part of the Cherry Mobile Flare Active – the display. I was actually surprised when I found out that the Cherry Mobile Flare Active sports a colored display and below it is a small capacitive button that is mainly and the only navigation button for the device. While the display is small, the size of it is already enough to show you the details and the data that you need on the smart band.
Navigating on this one is a little bit of pain for me as there’s no touchscreen and the only way to navigate through the watch is either holding the button for ok or just a tap to the button for next panel. The smartwatch shows you different functions that were being tracked including steps, distance, calories, heart rate, stopwatch, text messages, find your phone, and sleep, tracker.
You can also customize the Cherry Mobile Flare Active with its two dials that are available and surprisingly, both watch faces highlights your heart rate which is pretty cool and it also shows other information such as the date, steps, and battery.
This might be the best smartwatch that Cherry Mobile has ever released, I still find the lack of notifications disappointing. You can activate the notifications for the text messages, Facebook, Twitter, and other messaging applications but other applications aren’t able to get notifications for the Flare Active.
The Cherry Mobile Flare Active is connected to your smartphone through the Wearfit app which is available on the Google Play Store for a while now and in our usage, the app was just fine and it didn’t crash most of the time.
The Wearfit app will show you the readings of your steps, sleep, heart rate, and fatigue. I actually didn’t expect that the Cherry Mobile Flare Active’s tracking on all of these readings are active as we compare it to our MiBand 3 and also with Fitbit. The app can also connect to your Google Fit so you can consolidate all of your fitness apps and readings to Google Fit.
One thing that I didn’t like about the app and the device itself is whenever I turn off or restart my device, I still have to manually connect the app to the Cherry Mobile Flare Active.
But the best thing about the Cherry Mobile Flare Active is its battery. Yep, the Cherry Mobile Flare Active smartwatch was able to last up to a week of usage and charging of the device just takes an hour or less which is pretty awesome.
The Cherry Mobile Flare Active is a smartwatch and a fitness tracker for the people who are on the budget. The readings of it were accurate and really good. So if you want to track your daily activities and you don’t want to spend a lot of cash on this, you can get the Cherry Mobile Flare Active now.
Meizu wants to take us to the future of smartphones by unveiling the Meizu Zero. The Zero is their latest smartphone to sport a buttonless design and also with no charging ports. So the question is, how the hell can we charge this smartphone. Well, it comes with a wireless charger.
For data transferring, the Meizu Zero can only be connected using Wi-Fi and mobile networks and when it comes to charging, it comes with 18W wireless charging which is the fastest in the market today.
Unfortunately, the Meizu Zero doesn’t come with a sim card and it will use an eSIM similar to the new Apple iPhones. The smartphone will be powered by Snapdragon 845 processor and it will come with 20MP selfie camera, 12MP+20MP dual rear camera, 5.99-inch Super AMOLEd display with in-display fingerprint scanner.
However, there’s no word regarding other specifications and also the pricing of the smartphone.
If you want the best gaming experience on your PCs right now, you would go for the GeForce RTX GPUs and if you’re looking for a gaming laptop right now that packs an RTX GPU then you better check out the refreshed ASUS ROG GL504 and GL704.
ASUS Philippines has just announced in their Facebook page the arrival of the ASUS ROG Strix gaming notebooks with RTX GPU inside. The looks of the laptops still sports the same looks and it will still come in SCAR and HERO edition but this time, there’s the NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU inside these notebooks which offers a brand new way to experience gaming.
Just like before, the ROG Strix SCAR still sports a design that is made for FPS games with the aesthetics fitting for the battlefield. The laptop has a highlighted WASD keys which is essential in most FPS games and inside this laptop is a powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 with 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM or a more powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 with 8GB GDDR6 VRAM with Intel Core i7-8750H processor, 16GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM, 256GB NVMe PCIe SSD + 1TB SSHD for the storage.
And then there’s the ROG Strix HERO that is ideal for MOBA gamers as it highlights a design with contrasting textures and cyber-text patterns. We still have the same specifications except that it will only be available in RTX2060 GDDR6 VRAM.
Here are the prices and specifications of the ASUS ROG Strix GL504 HERO and SCAR edition in the Philippines:
ASUS ROG Strix HERO
GL504GV-ES016T Intel Core i7-8750H Processor
15-inch Full HD 144Hz 3ms Display
16GB RAM
256GB SSD+1TB SSHD Storage
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GDDR6 Price: Php119,995 Bundle: ASUS ROG Bag + ROG Impact Mouse + ROG Eye Sculpture
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR
GL504GV-ES015T Intel Core i7-8750H Processor
15-inch Full HD 144Hz 3ms Display
16GB RAM
256GB SSD+1TB SSHD Storage
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 Price: Php119,995 Bundle: ASUS ROG Bag + ROG Impact Mouse + ROG Eye Sculpture
GL504GV-ES013T Intel Core i7-8750H Processor
15-inch Full HD 144Hz 3ms Display
16GB RAM
256GB SSD+1TB SSHD Storage
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB GDDR6 Price: Php144,995 Bundle: ASUS ROG Bag + ROG Impact Mouse + ROG Eye Sculpture
GL704GV-EV002T Intel Core i7-8750H Processor
17-inch Full HD 144Hz 3ms Display
16GB RAM
256GB SSD+1TB SSHD Storage
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 Price: Php124,995 Bundle: ASUS ROG Bag + ROG Impact Mouse + ROG Eye Sculpture
GL704GV-EV006T Intel Core i7-8750H Processor
17-inch Full HD 144Hz 3ms Display
16GB RAM
256GB SSD+1TB SSHD Storage
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 8GB GDDR6 Price: Php149,995 Bundle: ASUS ROG Bag + ROG Impact Mouse + ROG Eye Sculpture
The ASUS ROG STRIX GL504 HERO and SCAR with RTX inside will be available this January 29.
