ASUS has just launched their newest long-lasting smartphone in the country, the ASUS Zenfone Max Plus. This smartphone is the latest smartphone in the Zenfone Max family which is known to have a long battery life. But the unique thing about this smartphone aside from the long battery life is that it features an 18:9 display aspect ratio which started as a trend last year.
The smartphone packs a 4,130mAh battery which can last up to a day of use and an FHD+ Display which crisp and clear. The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus is also powered by a MediaTek MT6750T processor inside along with 32GB of Internal storage and 4GB of RAM.
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus is now available for Php11,995.
Predator League is set to begin today in where 8 teams from 8 different countries will compete for the grand prize and the Predator Shield, the trophy of this competition. The total prize pool of the Predator League 2018 is a whooping USD$150,000.
Team captains of each team holding the Predator League 2018 Shield Trophy
Elimination rounds were held in each country and Quid Pro Quo won in our country. 8 finalists were chosen for the APAC Predator League Final Tournament and they were sent here in Indonesia to compete. The teams that qualified for the APAC Predator League Final Tournament are Boom.ID from Indonesia, Quid Pro Quo from the Philippines, Geek Fam from Malaysia, Team Signify from India, We Say No! from Sri Lanka, Alpha Red from Thailand, Ten Twenty from Singapore, & Azure eSports from Hong Kong,
Round 1 Bracket for the Predator League 2018
The winners of this tournament will be able to bring home USD$150,000 total prize pool:
APAC Grand Final 1st Place: 50,000 USD + 5 units of Predator Helios 300
APAC Grand Final 2nd Place: 25,000 USD
APAC Grand Final 3rd Place: 15,000 USD
This tournament has a pretty big prize and I really hope that Quid Pro Quo can make it to the finals.
Quid Pro Quo is already here in Jakarta, Indonesia for the first-ever Predator League, the first eSpotrs competition hosted by Acer in where they’ll compete for the total prize pool of USD$150,000 and for the Predator Shield, the competition’s main trophy.
Each county held an elimination round and Quid Pro Quo was the victorious one in the Philippine finals. The Quid Pro Quo was established in September 2017 and it consists of Shanks, Shanti, S-God, Kevs, and Tino.
The team is still new but they’ve already won several LAN tournaments in our country and with their victory at the Philippine Predator League Qualifier, they surely made a name for themselves.
We’re really excited for the team and we’re wishing that Quid Pro Quo wins this competition.
Last year, ASUS has surprised us with their newest notebook made for gaming – the ASUS ROG Zephyrus. The gaming notebook is powerful yet thin. It’s the company’s first foray into the Max-Q design which enables manufacturers to create a powerful notebook and yet, brings a thin profile. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus is the world’s thinnest notebook with Nvidia GTX 1080 inside. Interested? Check out our review of the notebook below.
Design & Construction
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus has a very thin profile. Actually, it’s the thinnest notebook in the Republic of Gamers right now and yet, it is one of the most powerful thanks to its Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and also a powerful GPU inside which is a Nvidia GTX 1080 Max-Q design.
The design follows the DNA of the ROG products and despite its thin profile, most of the ports that you need on the ASUS ROG Zephyrus is here. However, due to its hardware, the notebook needs to compromise some things including the SD Card reader. Yes, you need to buy a card reader for the ASUS ROG Zephyrus if you’re a videographer, photographer or if you are into the usage of SD cards.
But the rest is basically good. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus got all the ports that you need except for the SD card reader. Since this one has a powerful hardware inside, one of the things that we should be looking at this one is its design. Yes, the notebook is thin so what did ASUS do to have a good thermal flow on the notebook is to have a hinge whenever you open the notebook. Yes, it’s clever however, these moving parts like this aren’t my thing. We can easily break this if you’re careless.
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus is the first one in the ROG notebooks to sport a new half-sliced design which made the notebook cleaner than most ASUS ROG Notebooks. The body of the notebook is mostly metal and the orange chamfered edges of the notebook add beauty to the gaming notebook.
Most of the internal hardware of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus is placed at the upper part of the notebook which is why the keyboard and the touchpad of the notebook were placed below the notebook. Yes, it’s an odd design for a laptop and it’s quite hard to type on a laptop that loses its wrist rest but don’t worry, there’s an included rubber wrist rest on the box.
Battery Life
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus packs in a 50Whr battery and yes, it doesn’t have a good battery life especially if you’re always away from your charger. The notebook can be depleted in just two hours of not gaming but c’mon, that’s expected on a notebook with this hardware.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard of the notebook isn’t mechanical but it does just fine even for gaming. It has a ROG Aura RGB illumination in where you can control the color of the illumination of the keyboard. But again, the placement of the keyboard will take some time before you get used to it. Using the notebook and placing it in your lap is a little bit weird as you don’t have a wrist rest and it may take some time to get used to it.
There’s no physical numpad on the notebook too. Instead, ASUS has placed the touchpad on the side and with a push of a button, the touchpad transforms into a numpad. It’s a clever and wise design however sometimes, I still miss having a physical numpad.
Display
The display of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus is one of the highlights of this product. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus sports a 15.6-inch G-Sync Display with 120Hz Refresh rate. This is the perfect display for gamers whether you’re into MOBA games like DOTA 2 or FPS games like PUBG. The display is responsive and god damn, it’s buttery smooth.
The colors were good and it’s a fine display for gaming. I wouldn’t complain about its Full HD resolution as this one has a 120Hz display. Oh and the display? Overall, it’s good and I have no problems with it.
Performance
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus features Max-Q Design and yes, the performance of the Nvidia GTX 1080 Max-Q isn’t as powerful as the one on desktops and also some gaming notebooks with Nvidia GTX 1080 inside. That’s understandable as Nvidia needs to compromise their performance in order to bring a thin gaming notebook like this one. But c’mon man, you’re getting a thin gaming notebook and yet you still have a powerful GPU inside.
As expected, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus heats up despite having the Max-Q design. That’s understandable considering that we’re having a Nvidia GTX 1080 inside and also a powerful Intel Core i7-7700HQ inside. We got temps up to 90c on the CPU when we’re on heavy load and the GPU can get up to 83c. While those numbers aren’t really that good, we’re still quite happy with its performance.
We played different games on the ASUS ROG Zephyrus and we’re quite happy and we’re really satisfied with the FPS that we got on the notebook.
All of the games are set in 1080p at ultra settings
We tested PUBG on the ASUS ROG Zephyrus when it was still in beta so you can expect better frame rates now. In Project Cars and Fallout 4, I barely experience frame drops and I was really happy with the FPS that I got in both games.
Verdict
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus GX501 has definitely changed the gaming notebook industry. The Taiwanese company has introduced that it is possible to create a thin notebook and yet deliver a powerful hardware inside.
This thin and light gaming notebook might not break your back but it will definitely break your bank. The Nvidia GTX 1080 Max-Q variant will cost you Php179,995.
So who is this laptop for? Well, if you’re the type of person who’s always away and you always bring your notebook with you and you want a powerful gaming laptop then the ASUS ROG Zephyrus is perfect for you.
Eating at McDonald’s just got more fun as the fast-food chain and PayMaya has collaborated to bring a more convenient way to pay for your happy meal because McDonald’s starts to roll out over-the-counter Mastercard and Visa card transactions.
There will be 40 McDonald’s restaurants nationwide that have already begun accepting card payments for all types of Mastercard and Visa Credit, Debit, and prepaid cards including PayMaya Visa Cards and Smart Mastercard.
McCafe BGC Arts Center and McCafe Tagaytay Calamba stores will soon be accepting PayMaya QR payments with more stores accepting QR-based payments in the coming months.
This is really an exciting development for the cashless payments and for PayMaya. I would love to see more McDonald’s stores that’ll accept cashless transactions in the coming months.
The ASUS Zenfone Max Series is known as the smartphone series to have a long battery life and recently, ASUS has launched the new Zenfone Max that’ll arrive in town and it’s the ASUS Zenfone Max Plus (M1). I know, the naming of the smartphone is a little bit confusing but what about the smartphone? What do I think about it? Check it out in our review below.
Design and Hardware
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus (M1) is very much the same with the ASUS Zenfone 4 Max except that the smartphone is taller and more ergonomic because of its display aspect ratio. The smartphone also doesn’t have physical buttons and instead opted for on-screen buttons. It does have a 5.7-inch display but the smartphone doesn’t feel like it’s big because of the ergonomic design.
The smartphone isn’t really that thick despite having a large battery and thanks to its curved back, the smartphone feels comfortable to hold. The smartphone has a really nice metal feel however, I still suggest to use the included jelly came out of the box as the smartphone is a little bit slippery to the hand.
The fingerprint scanner of the smartphone is placed at the back of the ASUS Zenfone Max Plus but if you don’t want to have the hassle of reaching the fingerprint scanner at the back of your smartphone, you can opt for the face unlock however, it’s not as fast as I expected and it can’t recognize my face most of the time. So yeah, I still recommend using the fingerprint scanner however, I believe that ASUS can fix this one over their future software updates soon.
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus still using a Micro USB port and then there’s the 3.5mm audio jack at the top of the smartphone. While the volume rocker and the power button of the smartphone are placed on the same side of the smartphone.
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus also comes with 4G+ so you can have faster LTE speeds and yes, our telcos support it and in my experience with Smart LTE, it was fast and it was pretty good. I was also satisfied with its signal and call receptions.
Most smartphones today are already on a Dual sim, however, most of them sacrifice one of the Sim card trays for the Micro SD card slot. Well, with the ASUS Zenfone Max Plus, you get two sim card trays and then there’s the MicroSD card slot.
Display
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus features a 5.7-inch display with an 18:9 Display aspect ratio, and with a resolution of FHD+ or 2160×1080. The display of the smartphone is probably its biggest feature aside from the battery as it brings beauty to the smartphone. There are the rounded edges and a Full View Display with thin bezels.
One of the advantages of having this display is that the smartphone has become more comfortable to the hand compared to other smartphones with 16:9 display aspect ratio. Regarding the quality of the display, it’s actually brighter than I expected and sharper than most smartphones in its price range as this one packs an FHD+ display. Overall, the display of the smartphone is actually pretty great.
Software and Performance
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus, as expected, is running on Android 7.1 Nougat with ZenUI 4.5. Its ZenUI is fast, smooth, and better than the previous one. The applications and the elements are almost the same however, I noticed that there were improvements in its performance and it’s smoother than the one on the Zenfone 4 series.
But of course, the smartphone is still filled with bloatware including Selfie Master and Beauty Master which lets you add beautification on different applications and also during live streaming. Pretty cool application if you love doing live streams and also sending stories.
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus also packs PowerMaster app that lets you control the battery settings of the smartphone and also adjust the settings that you want to the smartphone so you can prolong the battery life. And of course, if you’re using the ASUS Zenfone Max Plus as a secondary smartphone, you can actually use this smartphone as a power bank by just using the included USB OTG on the box.power
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus runs on a MediaTek MT6750T chipset along with 4GB of RAM. However, I still prefer having the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor that can be found on the ASUS Zenfone 4 Max that we’ve reviewed earlier.
When it comes to gaming, I notice that the smartphone gets uncomfortably hot while playing games especially when the mobile data is on. The smartphone can play most games including NBA 2k18 and Rules of Survival, it is recommended that you set the games at low settings to have an enjoyable framerate. Actually, I was surprised that the ASUS Zenfone Max Plus was able to run NBA 2k18 on Medium settings, however, I noticed that there frame drops while playing it at higher settings.
Camera
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus features a 16-megapixel rear camera along with 8-megapixel wide-angle camera. Well, I didn’t expect too much from the smartphone’s camera but it was better than the ASUS Zenfone 4 Max in any environments.
I’ve tested the smartphone’s 16-megapixel rear camera and I got better colors and sharper photos, however, you would easily notice that the 8-megapixel wide-angle camera of the smartphone produces inferior photos than the primary rear camera. The wide-angle camera is only ideal when you’re using it for taking group photos or landscapes but the quality? It isn’t really good.
At low light, I’ve noticed that the smartphone performs a little bit better compared to the ASUS Zenfone 4 Max, however, it’s still not as good as I expected. The lowlight shots are soft and I wasn’t really satisfied with it.
Check out the shots that I took using the ASUS Zenfone Max Plus below:
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Battery Life
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus features a 4130mAh Battery. It’s smaller than the Zenfone 4 Max but 30mAh more than than the previous Zenfone 4 Max. Here’s the thing, the ASUS Zenfone Max Plus has a different display compared to the ASUS Zenfone 4 Max. The Zenfone Max Plus has a larger display with a higher resolution which means that the smartphone will be consuming more power and then there’s the smaller battery which means that my expectations of the Zenfone Max Plus is a little bit lower compared to the Zenfone 4 Max.
In my usage of the Zenfone Max Plus, I was able to heavily use the smartphone a whole day without charging. If you love playing games, I doubt that the smartphone would last the next day unlike the Zenfone 4 Max. I didn’t look for my power back from day to night however, It isn’t as long as its other Zenfone Max brothers but again, I’ve already expected it since this smartphone has a more consuming display and smaller battery capacity. However, if you’re just into light gaming and light smartphone usage, I’m pretty sure that the smartphone would last for 2 days.
Here’s the PC Mark battery score that I got with 50% brightness.
While the PC Mark benchmark that we got only got that numbers, we’re still impressed with its real-life usage.
Verdict
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus doesn’t last as long as the Zenfone 4 Max that I’ve love in our previous review. Yes, the ASUS Zenfone Max Plus does feature a better Full View Display with a better FHD+ resolution however, it does fall short when it comes to Face recognition, a feature that is a first on an ASUS smartphone, and also a shorter battery life than the other Zenfone Max smartphones.
So who is this smartphone for? Well, if you’re looking for a long lasting smartphone with a future-ready Full HD+ Display with 18:9 display aspect ratio then you can look for this one.
The ASUS Zenfone Max Plus is now available for Php11,990.
OPPO Philippines is starting the year right as they’ve announced a price drop for the OPPO F5 Youth. The smartphone is now down to P12,990 which makes it one of the most affordable smartphones in the market with full screen display. The OPPO F5 Youth features a 6-inch Full Screen display and A.I. beauty technology. Compared to the OPPO F5, this variant has a lower RAM and a different camera.
The OPPO F5 Youth still packs the same design of the OPPO F5, a MediaTek MT6763T processor, 6GB RAM, 13-megapixel rear camera, and a 16-megapixel front camera with A.I. Beauty technology for selfies.
You can now get the OPPO F5 Youth for Php12,990 while the OPPO F5 and OPPO F5 6GB Red are available for Php15,990 and Php21,990 respectively.
One of the Christmas gifts that we got from Cherry Mobile is the Cherry Mobile Flare Premium S6. This smartphone is a limited edition as there were only 500 smartphones that were produced that were given to celebrities, friends, employees, media, and bloggers. Luckily, we got one of those 500 units and it has our name on it! The Cherry Mobile Flare S6 Premium is the most powerful Cherry Mobile smartphone that we’ve ever tested as this one packs a MediaTek Deca-Core processor inside. Also, the smartphone packs a dual-lens camera that lets you do bokeh shots.
So what do I think about the smartphone? Check it out on our hands-on and unboxing below.
Cherry Mobile Flare S6 Premium Specs
5.5-inch Full HD IPS Display
MediaTek Helio X27 Deca-Core Processor
4GB RAM
64GB Internal Storage
13-megapixel Dual-Lens Camera
13-megapixel front camera
Dual SIM
LTE
Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, A-GPS
Fingerprint Scanner
USB Type-C
3680mAh Battery
MediaTek Pump Charge 2.0
Android 7.1 Nougat
Unfortunately, there were no announcements if the smartphone will be available in the market.
Samsung has just confirmed that their next flagship smartphone will be launched at MWC next month. Yes, Samsung will go head to head with most Android smartphone manufacturers who’ll be unveiling their smartphones too next month.
According to speculations, the Samsung Galaxy S9 is expected to follow the route of the iPhone as the Galaxy S9 will feature only a single camera and also a smaller 4GB of RAM while the bigger Galaxy S9+ is expected to feature a dual camera and also 6GB of camera.
Well, the only thing that we’ve confirmed is that the smartphone will launch this February so for now, let’s just wait for some solid leaks and official announcements from Samsung.
Vivo has just unveiled their coolest tech at CES in Las Vegas and it’s the world’s first ready-to-produce in-display fingerprint scanning smartphone. Yes, the fingerprint scanner is placed on the display and it’s hiding in plain sight.
This is a game changer in the mobile experience as you can unlock a smartphone on the display itself. This technology is supported by Vivo’s global partner Synaptics.
So how does this work? A graphical UI will show up on the Vivo Smartphone display in where the fingerprint can be recognized and it will work even when the screen is off.
The In-Display Technology in Vivo just shows us the future of security in our smartphones. It’s really interesting to see this tech and hopefully, we could get a smartphone soon with this technology from Vivo.
