Apple focused on services in their latest special event and this time, Apple has unveiled the Apple Arcade which is a game subscription service for the iOS, Apple TV, and MacOS. And no, this is not a streaming service so you can play these games offline. The games on the Apple arcade are also exclusive to Apple platform.
There will 100+ new and exclusive games on the Apple arcade and the good thing about this one is you can play on your smartphone and continue on your tablet or Mac or on your Apple TV.
Apple has also previewed some of its games included in the Apple Arcade. Most of the games are new including a Zelda-like game and of course, there’s a Sonic game which is a familiar IP. There are other genres too like a platformer and also a shooter game.
Apple has announced that the Apple Arcade service will be available in 150 countries and regions and it will be available this Fall 2019 (September-December). Pricing and details about the service will be announced soon.
Apple News+ has been announced by Apple. Basically, the revamped News app brings a Netflix-like service to their ecosystem and it is built by credible news organizations and publishers but of course, this will come with a paywall service.
Apple News+ will be a subscription service similar to Netflix and Spotify but this time, it will bring news and also magazines and it will aggregate paid content from different sources. The best thing about it? News is more personalized with Apple News+ and it is more curated.
Some of the onboard publishers are The New Yorker, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Esquire, The Atlantic, Men’s Health, and Vogue.
The Apple News+ app will cost you $9.99/month. The Apple News+ app service is now available with the first month for free. It is only available in US and Canada. Australia and UK News+ service will be available this year.
Looks like Smart got another award as PLDT wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) offers the country’s best download speeds, according to the latest report from Germany-based P3 communications GmbH, a leader in mobile network benchmarking.
According to the firm’s crowdsource-based study in where 121 million samples from 104,000 users collected from October to December 2018, said Smart achieved the highest user download speed score among competitors with 98 points, compared to nearest competitor’s 68 points.
This is another good news for PLDT and Smart as the company also got an award for the fastest fixed and mobile networks by Ookla recently along with Opensignal and Tutela. This just proves that the company is really leading the way in the telco industry.
It’s the 10th year of Samsung Galaxy smartphones and Samsung has given us their best in their 10th generation of Samsung Galaxy smartphone and this year, it comes in three variants and we get to review the best of the three today — the Samsung Galaxy S10+.
Best build on an Android smartphone
The Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 have the best build that I’ve seen on an Android smartphone. The smartphone is made of glass and a very solid metal frame. Despite the great materials used, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ doesn’t have the best ergonomics but the curves at the back do help with the grip of the smartphone but I will suggest that you get a case for your smartphone just in case.
One of the things that we love on the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is that the smartphone doesn’t lack a headphone jack. This is one of the few smartphones that still support this and I’m really glad about that as I don’t want to compromise on my smartphone when playing games. So yeah, you have a USB-C port and also a headphone jack. And if you want to charge in other ways, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ also comes with Wireless Charging.
Oh and no, this isn’t any ordinary wireless charging because there’s a feature on the Samsung Galaxy S10+ too called Wireless PowerShare which lets you charge other devices and accessories by just placing it against the Samsung Galaxy S10+. Well, it’s not as fast as you think but you can definitely save some friends or someone who just ran out of battery and if you’re like me, you’ll probably charge your accessories like the Galaxy Buds on the smartphone instead of charging using the USB-C cable.
One of the new things about the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+ is the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. Basically, it’s an in-display fingerprint scanner which is a first in the Samsung Galaxy family. It’s no ordinary on screen fingerprint scanner as this one is the fastest one that I’ve tried on an in-display fingerprint scanner and even with a fast and light touch on the display, it can actually detect and scan your fingerprint immediately.
Another feature that I love on the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is its speaker. It’s surprisingly powerful and clear. In games like PUBG Mobile, I didn’t even bother using my headphones anymore because it was loud and I clearly hear where the footsteps of my enemies. A really big advantage compared to enemies in the game.
Just like the other Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ still have the Bixby button on the side. It might be annoying but you can remap the button if you want to open another app. Unfortunately, you can’t change to Google Assistant.
Best display on a smartphone
The Samsung Galaxy S10+ has the best display in the market. There, I said it. It packs an Infinity-O display and with the Galaxy S10+, you get an oval hole at the upper right of the smartphone due to the dual lens front camera on the front is where one of it is a depth sensor. It’s still a curved display and sometimes, I can accidentally press the sides of the smartphone so I always use my case with me.
Again, it’s the best display that Samsung has to offer and we can get the best colors that we can get on the smartphone and of course, the smartphone is bright AF even at direct sunlight. Everything was great on the smartphone and since we got an AMOLED display here, I prefer using the night mode to have dark menus and dark wallpaper.
The cool thing about the Infinity-O display is that you can use wallpapers that can hide or even match the punch hole display which is really cool. Nonetheless, the punch hole on the display doesn’t really block too much of my notifications and even in games. Actually, I don’t even notice the punch hole in the display that much.
Good battery life
One of the things that Samsung has considered in their smartphone business is having a great battery life on their smartphones and the Samsung Galaxy S10+ didn’t fail to impress us thanks to its 4100mAh battery inside it. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ managed to get a score of 9 hours and 53 minutes in PC Mark which is better than we expected on a flagship smartphone from Samsung.
OneUI is better than ever
Whatever you say about the One UI of Samsung, personally, I love it. Well, it’s different from the previous generation but everything on the UI is clean, smooth, and it’s lag free despite storing a lot of media files on the smartphone. Another big thing that I love about it is the support for the night mode in where the smartphone will sport a darker theme which is easy on the eyes especially at night.
But of course, there are many things to love on the One UI aside night mode. The settings are easier to use and navigating on the smartphone is really eye candy and of course, there are minor features that you’ll love including multi-window and also a pop-up view which lets you move it anywhere and also adjust its transparency.
And since you’re buying a Galaxy device, expect that the Samsung Ecosystem better than others as Samsung has a more established line of accessories such as the Galaxy Earbuds and the Galaxy Watch Active. Those are just some of the things that I love on the Samsung Galaxy S10+’s One UI and once you use the smartphone, you’ll definitely feel it that it’s fast and user-friendly.
Most powerful Samsung Galaxy ever
The Samsung Galaxy S10+ packs an Exynos 9820 for the Philippine variant and yes, it didn’t disappoint as I can get decent scores at the benchmarks and since we have the 128GB variant, we have an 8GB storage, unlike the 1TB variant that comes with a ceramic build and also a 12GB of RAM.
The performance? It’s really great. I can’t say that it’s the most powerful as I haven’t tried Snapdragon 855 but I’m pretty sure that the Samsung Galaxy S10+ can run everything that you in the smartphone. When it comes to benchmarks, I got these scores.
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Compared to all the smartphones that we’ve reviewed before, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ got the big advantage compared to Snapdragon 845, Kirin 980, and even the Exynos 9810 chipset which is used by the Samsung Galaxy Note9. The Exynos 9820’s biggest advantage compared to the two smartphones is that the Samsung Galaxy S10+ has a higher score in terms of GPU.
And yes, speaking of gaming, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ managed to get a high FPS on the following games however, I noticed that the FPS stability wasn’t that great which means that developers still haven’t adapted to the chipset yet.
talion
PUBG Mobile
NBA 2k19
Fortnite
AxE
Despite that, we still got amazing and playable FPS at different games including Talion which is one of the most demanding games on a smartphone today. Also, AxE was able to run smoothly at 30fps despite the heavy graphics and Fortnite was able to run at 60fps smoothly which means that the games and applications still haven’t adapted to the powerful Exynos 9820 chipset.
One of the things that Samsung has upgraded in their Galaxy S10+ is the triple lens camera. Yep, we got triple lens camera on the smartphone now and we’re really happy with what we’re getting on the smartphone. This time, Samsung has opted for an ultra wide-angle lens similar to how they implemented the camera setup on the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018). And of course, there’s the third lens which is a telephoto lens so you can do better zooming on the smartphone.
Zooming on the Samsung Galaxy S10+ was really great
We went around California and damn, I can already tell you that the shots that we took using the smartphone were pretty good and even when I used the ultra wide-angle lens of the smartphone, I’m still amazed at the shots that I took. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ might not have the handheld night shots but the dual-aperture of the smartphone makes the smartphone works well in the day or night. Check out the shots using the rear camera of the smartphone.
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Base on the shots that you can see above, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ got the highest score in DxOmark and it definitely proved that the smartphone deserves that spot. And oh, recording a video on the smartphone was also superb. Why? Because the smartphone got really good stabilization and the 4K@60 is really damn nice. Here are some shots using the front camera of the smartphone.
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Another thing to love about the camera of the smartphone is its selfie camera. Yep, the dual lens front camera of the smartphone is really great. The details and the colors were actually on point on the Samsung Galaxy S10+ and yes, the portrait mode on the front facing camera has definitely improved.
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The AR emoji on the smartphone is different from the previous generation too as this one looks a lot better than the previous one and it even supports a full body mini motion that mimics what you do and also a mask that covers your face when you’re taking a selfie
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S10+ is the best Android smartphone that you can get in the market right now. It has powerful performance, a really solid and premium design, a long battery life, the best display on a smartphone, a top-notch camera, and most importantly, a headphone jack.
The ecosystem and the software of Samsung is something that you should take a look at too as this one is user-friendly and the accessories for the Samsung Galaxy S10 series are just wide like the Galaxy Watch Active and also the Samsung Galaxy Buds.
The smartphone ticks all the boxes that you need on a smartphone? So what is that the thing that I think that needs to be improved on the smartphone? Well, just the camera. Just add night mode then that’s it.
Black Shark 2 has recently been unveiled by the Chinese company and it aims to change the way we look at gaming smartphones again as this one is not only powerful but it also packs a lot of new features that including a better liquid cooling system and also console mode in where you can plug in the smartphone to any TV and use the console pad with the Black Shark stand.
Aside from that, the Black Shark 2 phone will also pack a low latency screen touch which means that the smartphone is even more responsive compared to other devices and then there’s the HDR gaming view that brings better colors to games along with the AMOLED display. However, there’s no mentioned of more than 60Hz display on this one which is kinda essential on FPS games these days
Those are just some of the features of the Black Shark 2 but it’s really interesting with what the Black Shark 2 has in store for us.
Black Shark 2 Specs
6.39-inch AMOLED Full HD+ Display
2.84GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
8GB/128GB + 12GB/256GB Memory
12MP f1.75+12MP 52.2 dual rear lens camera
20MP f2.0 front camera
Dual SIM, LTE
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
Headphone jack
Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 27W
USB-C
4000mAh Battery
Android 9.0 Pie
The Black Shark 22 smartphone starts at CNY 3199 (Php25,094) and goes up to CNY 4199 (Php32,939) depending on the variant
Looks like we’re gonna see a brand new Mi Store again in the Philippines and this time, it’s located at Robinsons Place Manila. This is a sign that the company is really serious in expanding their local presence in the country but unfortunately, this branch is still located in Metro Manila.
You can find the Mi Store Robinsons Place Manila at the 3rd floor of the mall just beside the Samsung Store. Unfortunately, we still don’t know when the store will open but do expect all the products including their smartphones and smart devices to be available there.
For those who are playing Mobile Legends are probably familiar with Mobile Legends Professional League Philippines (MPL-Philippines) and yes, they’re starting the third season this March.
And since we’re getting a MediaTek Helio P60 Octa-Core Processor and also a 4230mAh battery on this smartphone, it is already sure that the Realme 3 can run games like Mobile Legends really well and also without interruptions as you can get a large battery.
The community tournament is open to everyone and all you need to do is to join the Realme Philippines Community. They can register now with the qualifiers beginning this April 8 and the finals on May 2019. The grand winner of the community tournament will will Php25,000 and also a Realme 3 smartphone.
While the winners of the MPL Season 3 will win a USD 25,000 with the grand finals happening on May 2019 with the venue and date still to be announce.
Looks like Huawei has accidentally leaked out their next flagship smartphone, the Huawei P30 series and yes, their Singaporean website has accidentally revealed some of the information about the smartphone that is expected to be unveiled at the March 26th event at Paris.
Some of the features confirmed for the P30 Pro is the 40MP sensor, 10x hybrid zoom which is more than the 5x zoom of the Huawei P20 Pro and then there’s the quad-camera setup. It will also pack a better low-light capability and of course, a wide-angle camera similar to the Huawei Mate 20 series.
The Huawei P30 series is expected to be unveiled this March 26 In Paris, France.
Are you planning on buying a Cherry Mobile smartphone today? If that’s a yes then you better check out the Cherry Mobile Official Store at Shopee Mall because you can get a 10% voucher code today for all customers with a maximum Php200 redemption.
You can use the code MARCHMALLDAY and you can get up to PHP200 off on their products. Some of the popular products being sold are Cherry Mobile Flare S7 Deluxe which is meant for the affordable market and then there’s the Flare S7 Plus that got our praise due to its affordable price.
Are you graduating this March? If so, then you might want to check out these smartphones from Cherry Mobile especially if you haven’t used a smartphone before. And today, smartphones now comes at a very affordable price like these new smartphones from Cherry Mobile which are perfect as a gift for yourselves this Graduation season.
Cherry Mobile Omega Lite 3s
If you want to have your brand new smartphone that is running on the latest Android Oreo Go OS then you might wanna check out the Cherry Mobile Omega Lite 3s in where you can also get an 8MP rear camera and also a 2MP front camera. The Cherry Mobile Omega Lite 3s is available for Php2,599.
Cherry Mobile Flare J3s
The smartphone is a sleek device and it comes with that comes with Android Go OS. The smartphone comes with 5.3-inch Trueview display with 18:9 display aspect ratio and then there’s the 8MP camera and the 5MP front camera with an SRP of Php2,999.
