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ASUS announces the Zenfone 4, Max, Max Pro, Selfie, Selfie Pro, and Zenfone 4 Pro

Jam Ancheta
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ASUS announces the Zenfone 4, Max, Max Pro, Selfie, Selfie Pro, and Zenfone 4 Pro

ASUS has just announced six new variants of the Zenfone 4 family and it’s a little bit confusing but it’s really nice to see the Selfie series back on the Zenfone 4 series. The Zenfone 4 series is composed of Zenfone 4 Max, Zenfone 4  Max Pro, Zenfone 4 Selfie, Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro, Zenfone 4, & Zenfone 4 Pro.

The ASUS Zenfone 4 Max and Zenfone 4 Max Pro packs a big battery just like its Zenfone Max predecessors. But this time, both smartphones now pack a dual lens camera. Both smartphone packs a 5.5-inch IPS LCD along with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 or 430 processor paired with 2GB/3GB/4GB of RAM and 16GB/32GB/64GB of expandable storage. The camera of the smartphone is a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 12mm wide angle secondary camera while the front camera is an 8-megapixel. The best part? The ASUS Zenfone 4 Max and Zenfone 4 Max and Max Pro has a 5000mAh battery.

The Zenfone 4 Max Pro is basically the same with the ASUS Zenfone 4 max but this time, it will pack a 16-megapixel rear camera and a 16-megapixel front camera, however, the RAM is limited to 2GB/3GB and the storage is limited to 32GB.

The smartphone that will probably be the most popular in the series is the ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie and Selfie Pro as we are the selfie capital of the world. The ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie packs a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display and it will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. And the best part of this smartphone is its front camera as the ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie packs a dual camera setup consisting of a 20-megapixel main sensor with f/2.0 aperture and an 8-megapixel wide angle camera for group photos. The smartphone will support a fingerprint scanner, Dual Sim and it will have a 3000mAh battery inside. The Zenfone 4 Pro will be available in Deepsea Black, Mint Green, Rose Pink, and Sunlight Gold.

While the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is a much better version of the Zenfone 4 Selfie. The Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro might have an almost the same looks as the Zenfone 4 Selfie but the pro variant has a way better specifications as the ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro packs a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED display, Snapdragon 625 processor, 3GB/4GB of RAM, and 64GB of Storage. The selfie camera of the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro is a 24-megapixel camera and yes, it can take 4K selfie videos. Just like the ASUS Zenfone 4 Selfie, the Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro will pack a 3000mAh Battery.

The ASUS Zenfone 4 will pack a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display along with an aluminum frame with a glass back which also features the concentric circle design. The smartphone will be powered by either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 or 630 processor and the smartphone will either pack a 4GB or 6GB of RAM. The smartphone will also have a 64GB of expandable storage and there will be a dual lens camera at the back consisting of a 12-megapixel rear camera with OIS and a wide angle 8-megapixel rear camera. Unlike the Max and Selfie series, the Zenfone 4 will pack a USB Type-C port and then there’s the 3300mAh battery. The smartphone will be available in Midnight Black, Mint Green, and Moonlight White.

The best smartphone in the series is the ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro. The flagship smartphone will also pack a 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display and it will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 825 processor and 6GB of RAM. The smartphone will also have a dual lens camera with one powered by a 12-megapixel camera with OIS while the other one is a 16-megapixel sensor with a 50mm telephoto lens. The smartphone will be available to have a 2x lossless optical zoom while the front camera of the smartphone is an 8-megapixel camera. The ASUS Zenfone 4 Pro will come in 64GB or 128GB storage and it will have a 3600mAh Battery, fingerprint scanner, and USB Type-C.

All smartphones will run Android 7.0 Nougat ASUS ZenUI 4.0 in where we could see a cleaner look and less bloatwares (Thankfully!).

The Zenfone 4 Series is expected to be launched locally this weekend so stay tuned!

Nokia 8 Now Official, packs Snapdragon 835 processor

Jam Ancheta
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Nokia 8 Now Official, packs Snapdragon 835 processor

The Nokia 8 is finally unveiled and it’s the first real flagship smartphone from the company and it looks like the company is going back to their roots as the Nokia 8 will feature a Zeiss-certified dual camera on the back and the smartphone will actually pack a powerful hardware inside as the Nokia 8 will run Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and 6GB of RAM.

Nokia 8 Specs

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Processor
  • 5.3-inch QHD IPS LCD
  • 4GB/6GB RAM
  • 64GB Internal Storage
  • Dual 13-megapixel rear camera with Carl Zeiss Optics, OIS & Dual-LED Flash
  • 13-megapixel Front Camera
  • LTE
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
  • Fingerprint Scanner
  • Dust and Splash resistant
  • Android 7.1.1
  • 3090MaH Battery

The dual lens camera of the smartphone features a monochrome and color sensors. Both front and rear camera of the smartphone will also feature Zeiss optics.

The Nokia 8 will feature a 6000 series aluminum which feels better than most aluminum body on a smartphone. It will also have a 360-degree spatial surround audio recording along with 4k video recording. The Nokia 8 will be available in Silver, Copper Gold, and Tempered Blue. The smartphone will be available for 600 Euros which is converted to Php36,200~.

OPPO F3 Red Limited Edition Launched in the Philippines

Jam Ancheta
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OPPO F3 Red Limited Edition Launched in the Philippines

OPPO Philippines has just launched the F3 Red Limited Edition in the Philippines along with the opening of their newest concept store at SM Aura. The OPPO F3 Red Limited Edition is similar to the OPPO F3 before but this time, we’ll be seeing an OPPO smartphone in red for the first time. 

In case you didn’t know the hardware inside the OPPO F3 Red Limited Edition, the smartphone packs a 5.5-inch Full HD JDI InCell Display, MediaTek MT6750T Processor, 4GB RAM, 16-megapixel front camera, and a 3200Mah battery. You can actually read my review of the OPPO F3 here.

The OPPO F3 Red Limited Edition will not have any special features inside but the theme and its icons will now feature a red hue which will fit in the smartphone’s color. The box is also bigger but it will still have the same items inside.

The OPPO F3 Red Limited Edition is now available at OPPO Concept Stores nationwide and also at Lazada for only P15,990.

Check out the OPPO F3 Red Limited Edition here: https://goo.gl/r9eXjR

Smart unveils LTE Prime 50 & LTE Prime 100 for Data-Hungry Subscribers

Jam Ancheta
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Smart unveils LTE Prime 50 & LTE Prime 100 for Data-Hungry Subscribers

Are you download a lot files or streaming a lot of content in a single day? Well, here’s a new promo for you guys from Smart. Smart LTE Prime offers more data allocation for your money but for a shorter period. The Smart LTE Prime will be available for P50 and P100.

The Smart LTE Prime 50 will give you 1.5GB data allocation while Smart LTE Prime 100 will give 3GB data allocation. Both promos will only be valid for 1 day.

To register, just text LTE50 or LTE1000 to 9999.

An Inside Look at OPPO’s Shenzhen Factory

Jam Ancheta
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An Inside Look at OPPO’s Shenzhen Factory

Last week, we visited the OPPO Factory plant and HQ to learn the manufacturing process of OPPO smartphones and also to see how rigorous their testings are on their smartphones. The OPPO factory is located in Shenzen, China which is a city located just north of Hong Kong. It’s not our first time in Shenzen, China and actually, a lot of smartphone manufacturers, not just OPPO, are producing smartphones in city.

So what did we see at the factory? Well, we saw how the OPPO R11 are made in the factory which is, by the way, a really cool smartphone and of course, we also saw how the smartphones are tested in order to deliver quality smartphones to the masses.  

One of the labs that we have visited in the factory is the QE Lab. This is where the quality assurance tests are being made. OPPO is getting a few units from each batch of smartphones that were created and they were tested at the QE Lab. There were many tests that were done on OPPO smartphones and I mean A LOT OF TESTS but let me give you some details and highlights on the QA tests that were done.

  • In Micro drop test, the front and back area of the smartphone is dropped from a height of 7 cm 20,000 times respectively. Each handset that was tested is thrown 42,000 times. This test just shows us that OPPO is testing their smartphones even at a short drop
  • The buttons are repeatedly tested in the in the button click test. The power and volume keys are pressed 100,000 times with 1kg of force and a million times for the fingerprint key. The button click test just shows that the smartphone’s buttons can last for years as it will take you 6 years to finish that 100,000 clicks on your smartphone.
  • The phones are also dropped with a minimum height of 1.0m and they will drop the smartphone in different edges and sides and if the drop test was successful, they will conduct a second drop test with a higher 1.5m falling height. While in Tumble Test, the smartphone is randomly rotated 75 times at a machine and it should not have any signs of function failure or cracks.
  • The OPPO smartphones are also subjected to rain test, salt spray test, and sweat test to make sure that the tested smartphones from OPPO can withstand from moisture and liquids. After these tests, OPPO conducts an inspection on the handset if there are corrosions inside or any damage.
  • The OPPO smartphones are also tested in a high-temperature environment up to 85c for 500 hours. This is really ideal and important, especially that high temperature really affects the performance and also its functionalities.

Aside from the QE Lab in where we saw the tests are made for the smartphone, we also saw the SMT Center. The OPPO Factory in Shenzen has 13 lines in the assembling that can produce 300 smartphones in an hour and according to them, the company can make 39,000 OPPO R11 smartphones in just a single day. In case you didn’t know, the OPPO R11 is the latest smartphone with a sexy profile and dual lens camera from the company, however, it is not available in the Philippines.

In the SMT Center, There are 38 motherboard production lines and 25 small plate production lines that can produce 7.5 million motherboards and 25 million sub-boards, however, remember that some parts are sourced from different suppliers. But again, they make their own motherboards and PCBs which paves the way for a better optimization for their smartphones since they are the ones who are creating it.

The motherboards are printed using machines and they are checked for errors and damages using computers so I’m pretty confident to say that their quality is top notch. Actually, the equipment used in SMT is best-in-class and there are a lot of inspection processes that are being done to make sure that they can bring a top-notch hardware.

I also asked them regarding their standards and yes, OPPO sets high standards in the industry and actually, OPPO has exceeded the national standards of China which mean that OPPO has proved that they can make smartphones that are really better than most in the mobile industry.

Uber is back after filing Motion of Reconsideration

Jam Ancheta
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0
Uber is back after filing Motion of Reconsideration

Uber Philippines has just defied the order of LTFRB and they just resumed their services in Metro Manila and Cebu. According to Uber, they’ve filed a motion for reconsideration with the LTFRB due to the overwhelming response of riders and drivers.

LTFRB has imposed a suspension on the ride-sharing service for one month and many netizens enraged with this move.

According to Atty. Aileen Lizada of LTFRB, they’ll continue the suspension order despite the motion for reconsideration and they asked both the MMDA and HPG to apprehend Uber Drivers who are still using the service.

 

Source: LTFRB Citizen Officer

ASUS ROG Centurion Review

Jam Ancheta
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ASUS ROG Centurion Review

Before the end of 2016, I was able to play with one of the coolest gaming headsets that ASUS has ever made and it’s the ASUS ROG Centurion. It’s their current best gaming headset and if you want to know our experience and how the ASUS ROG Centurion performed, check out the review below.

The Build and Design

The first thing that I really notice on this one is the sharp and Mayan design which is unique to ASUS products. Since we’re looking at a true 7.1 gaming headset here, the ASUS ROG Centurion is quite big and it’s probably bigger than your head.

It features a black frame with a matte texture and again, we have that sharp design along with that glowing ASUS ROG logo on the earcups, which is, by the way, looks really badass. Yes, it’s big but that’s what you can expect on the ROG Centurion since this is ASUS’ best gaming headset out there. The good thing about it is that the ASUS ROG Centurion’s big earcups mean that the external sounds won’t go in and it’s very comfortable to wear.  However, since the ROG Centurion is big, it is already expected that the headphones are a little bit heavy and of course, bulky. So yeah, it’s not really that portable.

The ASUS ROG Centurion also comes with a hexagonal amp which has the same design language of the ROG products. And of course, you need this one and it utilizes an HDMI port to plug in the amp which is weird because most products use a headphone jack or better yet, a USB port. This amp, of course, drives the 7.1 experience and also the controls of the headphones.

You can easily switch on or off the mic on the physical buttons, activating the amps, switching 7.1 and stereo, or if you want to activate the speakers. There’s also a dial which can be used as a control for everything in it.

It’s a beast

When it comes to sound quality, the ASUS ROG Centurion 7.1 is a beast. It has a superb quality when it comes to audio and actually when you close your eyes and wear these headphones with an out of this world ambient sounds, you could actually feel that you’re out of this world already. The headphone is just great whether you plan on using it for gaming, watching movies, or just listening to your high-quality collection of music.

Since we have an amp on the ASUS ROG Centurion, we can adjust the deliver the audio experience that we all wanted. If you know how to tweak the amp, it is essential to adjust it to clearly hear the voice chats on discord, high-quality music on your music player, and the footsteps on Overwatch, CS:GO, and Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. It might be small for some but these are just some of the things that you need to consider in buying a gear when you always want to win. However, adjusting the amp needs a lot of time and patience especially if you’re not used to it.

Using the retractable microphone of the ASUS ROG Centurion was just fine. It’s a little bit sensitive and however, it isn’t the best one I’ve tested in the market. While  the microphone of the ASUS ROG Centurion was just fine in terms of quality, again, it is still isn’t the best one despite being the best offering of ASUS.

The ASUS ROG Centurion also comes with an app called ROG 7.1 app that lets you control the settings and also create profiles which are perfect if you’re playing different games and you want to experience different sound quality. The application is very easy to use and understand which is why you won’t have any problems playing with it.

Verdict

The ASUS ROG Centurion 7.1 is the best headphone that ASUS can offer right now. Yes, it has a Hi-Fi grade headphone amplifier and a very powerful audio control but it comes with a price. Yes, it’s not cheap however, if you really want to experience the best headphone in the market right now whether you’re planning on using the headphones for gaming, movies, music, or content creation then better get this one now. It’s currently the best offering of ASUS ROG.

    

Get discounts on Cherry Mobile smartphones in Rainy Day Treats Promo

Jam Ancheta
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Get discounts on Cherry Mobile smartphones in Rainy Day Treats Promo

Cherry Mobile is having a promo right now just in time for the rainy season and they’re giving discounts to different smartphones which make these already cheap smartphones even more affordable. The Cherry Mobile smartphones that are included in the promo are the FB100, Flare A1, Flare 5, and the Flare S5.

The Cherry Mobile FB100 is now down to P2,499 from P2,999 and it will come with a free powerbank, bubble USB Cable, and a CM Ring Stand. The Cherry Mobile Flare A1 is now down to P2,599 from P2,999 and it will also come with a free powerbank, bubble USB Cable, and a CM Ring Stand.

The Flare 5 is now priced at P4,999 down from P5,499 in this promo and it will come with a free powerbank, bubble USB cable, CM Ring Stand, and waterproof pouch while the Flare S5 is priced at P5,699 and it will come with a free Pyxis 1000mAh Powerbank, Bubble USB Cable, CM Ring Stand, and a waterproof pouch.

The Rainy Day Treats promo of Cherry Mobile will last until August 31, 2017.

Ragnarok Mobile English Version will Arrive this Year

Jam Ancheta
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Ragnarok Mobile English Version will Arrive this Year

It’s a good year for Ragnarok Online fans as the very popular Ragnarok Mobile which is only available in Chinese will be available in different countries outside China according to 2p.com. Gravity has recently signed a contract to bring the popular mobile game to the Global market with Ragnarok Online Mobile Developer Shanghai Network Technology Co., Ltd. and its publisher, Xindong Network. 

Ragnarok Mobile will be available first in Taiwan and Hong Kong followed by South Korea and then our region, Southeast Asia. There were not many details that were announced but it’s really nice to see that Ragnarok Online Mobile is finally getting an English version as this one is very popular in the country despite the lack of English language in the game.

Ragnarok Mobile is the closest game to the one on the desktop as this one features different maps and features from the original Ragnarok Online. I’m pretty sure that once this game is out, it will definitely affect the Ragnarok Online for PC which is published by Electronics Extreme.

Source: 2up.com

OnePlus 5 Review

Jam Ancheta
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OnePlus 5 Review

OnePlus is a known brand for creating a smartphone that has a flagship or premium hardware but still manage to have a lower price compared to its competitors with almost the same specifications. Recently, their newest flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 5 has been made available in the Philippines. Well, It’s a really decent smartphone as this one packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and up to 8GB of RAM. Not only that, the smartphone is also the first from the brand that comes with a dual lens camera. Interested? Check out our review of the smartphone below.

A simple but sexy design

The OnePlus 5’s design is simple for a flagship but the smartphone does have a premium feel and materials. On the front, there’s no curved display just a 5.5-inch Full HD display and at the back, you could see and feel the metal back that feels really premium and ergonomic to hold. The curves of the phone feel just right and it’s very handy to my hand and oh yes, the smartphone is really thin and sexy.

Below the 5.5-inch Full HD display on the front is the home button and also the two capacitive buttons. The home button of the smartphone also serves as the fingerprint scanner that can’t be pressed down like the iPhone 7 while there are the two capacitive buttons beside it that also serves as the back and recent task button. However, it annoys me that these capacitive buttons appear only as two dots which is really confusing if you’re switching smartphones. Nonetheless, it isn’t a dealbreaker because you could actually switch those button assignments.

One weird thing with the OnePlus 5 is the inclusion of the volume slider which is placed on the upper left of the smartphone. This volume slider lets you choose between silent, do not disturb, and ring. Very convenient for some people but I still prefer to use the volume rocker which is placed below it. The power button of the smartphone is also placed on the right which is really accessible but you can just use the fingerprint scanner to easily wake up the device.

Below the smartphone is where you can find the USB Type-C, speaker grill, and of course, the 3.5 mm audio jack. Yep, thankfully they listened to consumers and they didn’t ditch the audio jack in exchange of courage. The speaker does fare well in my use and I’m actually satisfied with it.

One thing that you gotta hate with the OnePlus 5 is the lack of expandable storage but c’mon man. The OnePlus 5 comes in 64GB or 128GB which is pretty spacious enough. I mean, why would you need more than 128GB of storage for a smartphone.

At the back, you can see the dual lens camera along with the LED Flash. I know, the back of the smartphone is very similar to the on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in where some people might find it boring and uninspiring. But for me? It’s just fine. The OnePlus 5 just proves that their smartphone is a great iPhone 7 Plus alternative.

 

A fine Full HD display

Some people might argue that the OnePlus 5 only packs a 1080p display in a world where flagships now pack a QHD or more display. Well, with the OnePlus 5, it might only be 1080p but the AMOLED display is pretty damn fine. The display is vibrant and the colors are just right. It’s 16:9 unlike the LG G6 and Galaxy S8 but the display of the OnePlus 5 packs only a small bezel which is gorgeous and still fine to hold. The OnePlus 5 is probably one of the best if not the best 5.5-inch Full HD AMOLED display that I’ve seen

A powerful hardware inside

The best thing about the OnePlus 5 is the hardware inside it. It’s the most powerful smartphone that you can find out there. Inside the smartphone is Qualcomm’s best Snapdragon 835 processor and then there’s the 8GB of RAM. If you opted for the more affordable OnePlus 5, you’ll get the 64GB storage with 6GB of RAM.

Yes, the OnePlus 5 is accused of cheating in the benchmarks but who the hell cares. This is the most powerful smartphone that you can get right now. I’ve been playing different games on this smartphone and I’ve set it to the highest settings and I didn’t see any of these games slowed down or lagged. I’ve played NBA 2k17, GTA:SA, Lineage II, GTA:LCS, Mobile Legends and yes, no problems at all. This smartphone is just damn fast and amazing. Oh, and if you’re curious about the benchmarks, the smartphone managed to get a score of 178,719 on Antutu. Jesus.

 

A smooth and flawless software

One of the strengths of having a OnePlus smartphone is its software. They’re using their own OxygenOS which is based on Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The experience of the smartphone is near stock and the smartphone just loads fast and without problems. The UI is snappy and I barely experience any slowdowns with it.

And yes, there are no bloatware on this smartphone. The OnePlus 5 is just smooth and snappy AF.

 

It’s long-lasting

The OnePlus 5 packs a 3300mAh of battery despite its thin and sexy profile. The smartphone’s battery life is actually pretty good and I’m pretty sure that the smartphone can last a day with average to heavy use. In my use, I was using the smartphone at 9 AM and the battery conks out at around 10 PM. Not bad if you ask me. And in case you want to charge your smartphone quickly, the OnePlus 5 comes with Dash Charge which lets you charge up to 60% from 0 in just 30 minutes.

 

The Dual-Lens camera

The OnePlus 5 is the first smartphone from the company that packs a dual lens camera. The dual lens camera of the smartphone works similarly to the iPhone 7 Plus but this time, it only has 1.6x of optical zoom. But still, that’s not bad! The main sensor of the smartphone is a 16-megapixel with f/1.7 aperture while the secondary sensor is the 20-megapixel telephoto lens with only f/2.6 aperture.

Again, the camera of the smartphone works similarly to the iPhone 7 Plus and the camera software of the smartphone is just fine and very user-friendly. The smartphone can take decent sharp photos and the color reproduction of the OnePlus 5 is pretty good, however, in portrait mode, I notice that the quality of the photos isn’t as good as the on normal photo mode.

Yes, the portrait mode can take shots with good bokeh and the blurring was on point however I noticed that the portrait mode isn’t as sharp on normal mode but nonetheless, the quality of the portrait mode shot is still acceptable. Check out the shots that I took using the smartphone:

 Verdict

The OnePlus 5 is a great smartphone. Yes, there are a lot of things to praise about the OnePlus 5 but compared to other flagship smartphones there are still some features that the OnePlus 5 lacks like the lack of water-resistance and also a curve or a near bezel-less display. But despite that, the smartphone still looks and feels great. The hardware is top notch, the battery life is long, software is great, and the camera isn’t the best one in the industry but it still performed well.

Well, If you’re looking for a cheaper flagship smartphone and you don’t care about the gimmicks like the curved display and water-resistance then the OnePlus 5 is the right flagship smartphone for you. The OnePlus 5 is now available at Widget City and it comes in 6/64GB and 8/128GB variants.

Get the OnePlus 5 here: http://www.widgetcity.com.ph/one-plus-5

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